During the siege of Veii winter dwellings erected for the
soldiers. This being a novelty, affords the tribunes of the
people
a pretext for exciting discontent. The cavalry for the first
time
serve on horses of their own. Furius Camillus, dictator, takes
Veii
after a siege of ten years. In the character of military
tribune,
whilst laying siege to Falisci, he sends back the children of
the
enemy, who were betrayed into his hands. Furius Camillus, on a
day
being appointed for his trial, goes into exile. The Senonian
Gauls
lay siege to Clusium. Roman ambassadors, sent to mediate peace
between the Clusians and Gauls, are found to take part with
the
former; in consequence of which the Gauls march directly
against
Rome, and after defeating the Romans at Allia take possession
of
the city with the exception of the Capitol. They scaled the
Capitol
by night, but are discovered by the cackling of geese, and
repulsed, chiefly by the exertions of Marcus Manlius. The
Romans,
compelled by famine, agree to ransom themselves. Whilst the
gold is
being weighed to them, Camillus, who had been appointed
dictator,
arrives with an army, expels the Gauls, and destroys their
army. He
successfully opposes the design of removing to Veii.
1. Peace being established in every other quarter, the Romans and
Veientians were still in arms with such rancour and animosity, that it
was evident that ruin awaited the vanquished party. The elections in
the two states were conducted in very different methods. The Romans
augmented the number of military tribunes with consular power. Eight, a
number greater than on any previous occasion, were appointed, Manius
Æmilius Mamercinus a second time, Lucius Valerius Potitus a third time,
Appius Claudius Crassus, Marcus Quintilius Varus, Lucius Julius Iulus,
Marcus Postumius, Marcus Furius Camillus, Marcus Postumius Albinus. The
Veientians, on the contrary, through disgust at the annual intriguing
which was sometimes the cause of dissensions, elected a king. That step
gave offence to the feelings of the states of Etruria, not more from
their hatred of kingly government than of the king himself. He had
before this become obnoxious to the nation by reason of his wealth and
arrogance, because he had violently broken off the performance of some
annual games, the omission of which was deemed an impiety: when through
resentment of a repulse, because another had been preferred to him as a
priest by the suffrages of the twelve states, he suddenly carried off,
in the middle of the performance, the performers, of whom a great part
were his own slaves. The nation, therefore, devoted beyond all others
to religious performances, because they excelled in the method of
conducting them, passed a decree that aid should be refused to the
Veientians, as long as they should be subject to a king. All allusion
to this decree was suppressed at Veii through fear of the king, who
would have considered the person by whom any such matter might be
mentioned as a leader of sedition, not as the author of an idle rumour.
Although matters were announced to the Romans as being quiet in
Etruria, yet because it was stated that this matter was being agitated
in all their meetings, they so managed their fortifications, that there
should be security on both sides; some were directed towards the city
and the sallies of the townsmen; by means of others a front looking
towards Etruria was opposed to such auxiliaries as might happen to come
from thence.
2. When the Roman generals conceived greater hopes from a blockade
than from an assault, winter huts also, a thing quite new to the Roman
soldier, began to be built; and their determination was to continue the
war by wintering there. After an account of this was brought to Rome to
the tribunes of the people, who for a long time past had found no
pretext for exciting disturbances, they run forward into the assembly,
stir up the minds of the commons, saying that “this was the motive for
which pay had been established for the soldiers, nor had it escaped
their knowledge, that such a present from the enemies was tainted with
poison. That the liberty of the commons had been sold; that their youth
removed for ever, and exiled from the city and the republic, did not
now even yield to the winter and to the season of the year, and visit
their homes and private affairs. What could they suppose was the cause
for continuing the service without intermission? That undoubtedly they
should find none other than [the fear] lest any thing might be done in
furtherance of their interests by the attendance of those youths in
whom the entire strength of the commons lay. Besides that they were
harassed and worked much more severely than the Veientians. For the
latter spent the winter beneath their own roofs, defending their city
by strong walls and its natural situation, whilst the Roman soldier, in
the midst of toil and hardship, continued beneath the covering of
skins, overwhelmed with snow and frost, not laying aside his arms even
during the period of winter, which is a respite from all wars by land
and sea. Neither kings, nor those consuls, tyrannical as they were
before the institution of the tribunitian office, nor the stern
authority of the dictator, nor the overbearing decemvirs, ever imposed
such slavery as that they should perform unremitting military service,
which degree of regal power the military tribunes now exercised over
the Roman commons. What would these men have done as consuls or
dictators, who have exhibited the picture of the proconsular office so
implacable and menacing? but that all this happened justly. Among eight
military tribunes there was no room even for one plebeian. Formerly the
patricians filled up three places with the utmost difficulty; now they
went in file eight deep to take possession of the various offices; and
not even in such a crowd is any plebeian intermixed; who, if he did no
other good, might remind his colleagues, that it was freemen and fellow
citizens, and not slaves, that constituted the army, who ought to be
brought back during winter at least to their homes and roofs; and to
come and see at some part of the year their parents, children, and
wives, and to exercise the rights of freedom, and to take part in
electing magistrates.” While they exclaimed in these and such terms,
they found in Appius Claudius an opponent not unequal to them, who had
been left behind by his colleagues to check the turbulence of the
tribunes; a man trained even from his youth in contests with the
plebeians; who several year's before, as has been mentioned,
recommended the dissolution of the tribunitian power by means of the
protests of their colleagues.
3. He, not only endowed with good natural powers, but well trained
also by experience, on that particular occasion, delivered the
following address: “If, Romans, there was ever reason to doubt, whether
the tribunes of the people have ever promoted sedition for your sake or
their own, I am certain that in the course of this year that doubt must
have ceased to exist; and while I rejoice that an end has at length
come of a mistake of such long continuance, I in the next place
congratulate you, and on your account the republic, that this delusion
has been removed during a course of prosperous events. Is there any
person who can feel a doubt that the tribunes of the commons were never
so highly displeased and provoked by any wrongs done to you, if ever
such did happen, as by the munificence of the patricians to the
commons, when pay was established for those serving in the army. What
else do you suppose that they either then dreaded, or now wish to
disturb, except the union between the orders, which they think
contributes most to the dissolution of the tribunitian power? Thus, by
Jove, like workers in iniquity, they are seeking for work, who also
wish that there should be always some diseased part in the republic,
that there may be something for the cure of which they may be employed
by you. For, [tribunes,] whether do you defend or attack the commons?
whether are you the enemies of those in the service, or do you plead
their cause? Unless perhaps you say, whatever the patricians do,
displeases us; whether it is for the commons, or against the commons;
and just as masters forbid their slaves to have any dealing with those
belonging to others, and deem it right that they should equally refrain
from having any commerce with them, either for kindness or unkindness;
ye, in like manner, interdict us the patricians from all intercourse
with the people, lest by our courteousness and munificence we may
challenge their regard, and they become tractable and obedient to our
direction. And if there were in you any thing of the feeling, I say not
of fellow-citizens, but of human beings, how much more ought you to
favour, and, as far as in you lay, to promote rather the kindly
demeanour of the patricians and the tractability of the commons! And if
such concord were once permanent, who would not venture to engage, that
this empire would in a short time become the highest among the
neighbouring states?
4. “I shall hereafter explain to you how not only expedient, but
even necessary has been this plan of my colleagues, according to which
they would not draw off the army from Veii until the business has been
completed. For the present I am disposed to speak concerning the
condition of the soldiers. Which observations of mine I think would
appear reasonable not only before you, but even, if they were delivered
in the camp, in the opinion of the soldiers themselves; on which
subject if nothing could suggest itself to my own mind to say, I
certainly should be satisfied with that which is suggested by the
arguments of my adversaries. They lately said, that pay should not be
given to the soldiers because it had never been given. How then can
they now feel displeased, that additional labour should be imposed in
due proportion on those to whom some addition of profit has been added?
In no case is there either labour without emolument, nor emolument in
general without the expense of labour. Toil and pleasure, in their
natures most unlike, are yet linked together by a sort of natural
connexion. Formerly the soldier thought it a hardship that he gave his
labour to the commonwealth at his own expense; at the same time he was
glad for a part of the year to till his own ground; to acquire that
means whence he might support himself and family at home and in war.
Now he feels a pleasure that the republic is a source of advantage to
him, and gladly receives his pay. Let him therefore bear with patience
that he is a little longer absent from home and his family affairs, to
which no heavy expense is now attached. Whether if the commonwealth
should call him to a settlement of accounts, would it not justly say,
You have pay by the year, perform labour by the year? do you think it
just to receive a whole year's pay for six months' service? Romans,
with reluctance do I dwell on this topic; for so ought those persons
proceed who employ mercenary troops. But we wish to treat as with
fellow-citizens, and we think it only just that you treat with us as
with the country. Either the war should not have been undertaken, or it
ought to be conducted suitably to the dignity of the Roman people, and
brought to a close as soon as possible. But it will be brought to a
conclusion if we press on the besieged; if we do not retire until we
have consummated our hopes by the capture of Veii. In truth, if there
were no other motive, the very discredit of the thing should impose on
us perseverance. In former times a city was kept besieged for ten
years, on account of one woman, by all Greece. At what a distance from
their homes! how many lands, how many seas distant! We grumble at
enduring a siege of a year's duration within twenty miles of us, almost
within sight of our own city; because, I suppose, the cause of the war
is trifling, nor is there resentment sufficiently just to stimulate us
to persevere. Seven times they have rebelled: in peace they never acted
faithfully. They have laid waste our lands a thousand times: the
Fidenatians they forced to revolt from us: they have put to death our
colonists there: contrary to the law of nations, they have been the
instigators of the impious murder of our ambassadors: they wished to
excite all Etruria against us, and are at this day busily employed at
it; and they scarcely refrained from violating our ambassadors when
demanding restitution. With such people ought war to be conducted in a
remiss and dilatory manner?
5. “If such just resentment have no influence with us, will not, I
entreat you, the following considerations influence you? Their city has
been enclosed with immense works, by which the enemy is confined within
their walls. They have not tilled their land, and what was previously
tilled has been laid waste in the war. If we withdraw our army, who is
there who can doubt that they will invade our territory not only from a
desire of revenge, but from the necessity also imposed on them of
plundering from the property of others, since they have lost their own?
By such measures then we do not put off the war, but admit it within
our own frontiers. What shall I say of that which properly interests
the soldiers, for whose interests those worthy tribunes of the commons,
all on a sudden, are now so anxious to provide, after they have
endeavoured to wrest their pay from them? How does it stand? They have
formed a rampart and a trench, both works of great labour, through so
great an extent of ground; they have erected forts, at first only a
few, afterwards very many, when the army became increased; they have
raised defenders not only towards the city, but towards Etruria also,
against any succours which may come from thence. What need I mention
towers, vineæ, and testudines, and the other apparatus used in
attacking towns? When so much labour has been expended, and they have
now at length reached the end of the work, do you think that all these
preparations should be abandoned that, next summer, the same course of
toil may have to be undergone again in forming them anew? How much less
trouble to support the works already done, and to press on and
persevere, and to get rid of our task! For certainly the matter is of
short duration, if it be conducted with a uniform course of exertions;
nor do we by these intermissions and interruptions expedite the
attainment of our hopes. I am now speaking of labour and of loss of
time. What? do these such frequent meetings in Etruria on the subject
of sending aid to Veii suffer us to disregard the danger which we
encounter by procrastinating the war? As matters stand now, they are
incensed, they dislike them, they refuse to send any; as far as they
are concerned, we are at liberty to take Veii. Who can promise that
their temper will be the same hereafter, if the war is suspended? when,
if you suffer any relaxation, more respectable and more frequent
embassies will go; when that which now displeases the Etrurians, the
establishment of a king at Veii, may, after an interval, be done away
with, either by the joint determination of the state that they may
recover the good will of the Etrurians, or by a voluntary act of the
king, who may be unwilling that his reign should stand in the way of
the welfare of his countrymen. See how many circumstances, and how
detrimental, follow that line of conduct: the loss of works formed with
so great labour; the threatening devastation of our frontiers; an
Etruscan excited instead of a Veientian war. These, tribunes, are your
measures, pretty much the same, in truth, as if a person should render
a disease tedious, and perhaps incurable, for the sake of present meat
or drink, in a patient who, by resolutely suffering himself to be
treated, might soon recover his health.
6. “If, by Jove, it were of no consequence with respect to the
present war, yet it certainly would be of the utmost importance to
military discipline, that our soldiers should be accustomed not only to
enjoy the victory obtained by them; but even though matters should
proceed more slowly than was anticipated, to brook the tediousness and
await the issue of their hopes, however tardy; and if the war be not
finished in the summer, to wait for the winter, and not, like summer
birds, in the very commencement of autumn look out for shelter and a
retreat. I pray you, the eagerness and pleasure of hunting hurries men
into snow and frost, over mountains and woods; shall we not employ that
patience on the exigencies of war, which even sport and pleasure are
wont to call forth? Are we to suppose that the bodies of our soldiers
are so effeminate, their minds so feeble, that they cannot hold out for
one winter in a camp, and be absent from home? that, like persons who
wage a naval war, by taking advantage of the weather, and observing the
season of the year, they are able to endure neither heat nor cold? They
would certainly blush, should any one lay these things to their charge;
and would maintain that both their minds and their bodies were
possessed of manly endurance, and that they were able to conduct war
equally well in winter and in summer; and that they had not consigned
to the tribunes the patronage of indolence and sloth, and that they
remembered that their ancestors had created this very power, neither in
the shade nor beneath their roofs. Such sentiments are worthy of the
valour of your soldiers, such sentiments are worthy of the Roman name,
not to consider merely Veii, nor this war which is now pressing us, but
to seek a reputation for hereafter for other wars and for other states.
Do you consider the difference of opinion likely to result from this
matter as trivial? Whether, pray, are the neighbouring states to
suppose that the Roman people is such, that if any one shall sustain
their first assault, and that of very short continuance, they have
nothing afterwards to fear? or whether such should be the terror of our
name, that neither the tediousness of a distant siege, nor the
inclemency of winter, can dislodge the Roman army from a city once
invested, and that they know no other termination of war than victory,
and that they carry on wars not more by briskness than by perseverance;
which is necessary no doubt in every kind of war, but more especially
in besieging cities; most of which, impregnable both by their works and
by natural situation, time itself overpowers and reduces by famine and
thirst; as it will reduce Veii, unless the tribunes of the commons
shall afford aid to the enemy, and the Veientians find in Rome
reinforcements which they seek in vain in Etruria. Is there any thing
which can happen so much in accordance with the wishes of the
Veientians, as that first the Roman city, then the camp, as it were by
contagion, should be filled with sedition? But, by Jove, among the
enemy so forbearing a state of mind prevails, that not a single change
has taken place among them, either through disgust at the length of the
siege nor even of the kingly form of government; nor has the refusal of
aid by the Etrurians aroused their tempers. For whoever will be the
abettor of sedition, will be instantly put to death; nor will it be
permitted to any one to utter those sentiments which amongst you are
expressed with impunity. He is sure to receive the bastinade, who
forsakes his colours or quits his post. Persons advising not one or two
soldiers, but whole armies to relinquish their colours or to forsake
their camp, are openly listened to in your public assemblies.
Accordingly whatever a tribune of the people says, although it tends to
the ruin of the country or the dissolution of the commonwealth, you are
accustomed to listen to with partiality; and captivated with the charms
of that authority, you suffer all sorts of crimes to lie concealed
beneath it. The only thing that remains is, that what they vociferate
here, the same projects do they realize in the camp and among the
soldiers, and seduce the armies, and not suffer them to obey their
officers; since that and that only is liberty in Rome, to show no
deference to the senate, nor to magistrates, nor laws, nor the usages
of ancestors, nor the institutions of our fathers, nor military
discipline.”
7. Even already Appius was a match for the tribunes of the people in
the popular assemblies; when suddenly a misfortune sustained before
Veii, from a quarter whence no one could expect it, both gave Appius
the superiority in the dispute, produced also a greater harmony between
the different orders, and greater ardour to carry on the siege of Veii
with more pertinacity. For when the trenches were now advanced to the
very city, and the machines were almost about to be applied to the
walls, whilst the works are carried on with greater assiduity by day,
than they are guarded by night, a gate was thrown open on a sudden, and
a vast multitude, armed chiefly with torches, cast fire about on all
sides; and after the lapse of an hour the flames destroyed both the
rampart and the machines, the work of so long a time, and great numbers
of men, bearing assistance in vain, were destroyed by the sword and by
fire. When the account of this circumstance was brought to Rome, it
inspired sadness into all ranks; into the senate anxiety and
apprehension, lest the sedition could no longer be withstood either in
the city or in the camp, and lest the tribunes of the commons should
insult over the commonwealth, as if vanquished by them; when on a
sudden, those who possessed an equestrian fortune, but to whom horses
had not been assigned by the public, having previously held a meeting
together, went to the senate; and having obtained permission to speak,
promise that they will serve on their own horses. And when thanks were
returned to them by the senate in the most complimentary terms, and the
report of this proceeding spread through the forum and the city, there
suddenly ensues a concourse of the commons to the senate-house. They
say that “they are now of the pedestrian order, and they preferred
their services to the commonwealth, though not compelled to serve,
whether they wished to march them to Veii, or to any other place. If
they were led to Veii, they affirm, that they would not return from
thence, until the city of the enemy was taken.” Then indeed they with
difficulty set bounds to the joy which now poured in upon them; for
they were not ordered, as in the case of the horsemen, to be publicly
eulogized, the order for so doing being consigned to the magistrates,
nor were they summoned into the senate-house to receive an answer; nor
did the senate confine themselves within the threshold of their house,
but every one of them individually with their voice and hands testified
from the elevated ground the public joy to the multitude standing in
the assembly; they declared that by that unanimity the Roman city would
be happy, and invincible and eternal; praised the horsemen, praised the
commons; extolled the day itself by their praises; they acknowledged
that the courtesy and kindness of the senate was outdone. Tears flowed
in abundance through joy both from the patricians and commons; until
the senators being called back into the house, a decree of the senate
was passed, “that the military tribunes, summoning an assembly, should
return thanks to the infantry and cavalry; and should state that the
senate would be mindful of their affectionate attachment to their
country. But that it was their wish that their pay should go on for
those who had, out of their turn, undertaken voluntary service.” To the
horsemen also a certain stipend was assigned. Then for the first time
the cavalry began to serve on their own horses. This army of volunteers
being led to Veii, not only restored the works which had been lost, but
also erected new ones. Supplies were conveyed from the city with
greater care than before; lest any thing should be wanting for the
accommodation of an army who deserved so well.
8. The following year had military tribunes with consular authority,
Caius Servilius Ahala a third time, Quintus Servilius, Lucius
Virginius, Quintus Sulpicius, Aulus Manlius a second time, Manius
Sergius a second time. During their tribuneship, whilst the solicitude
of all was directed to the Veientian war, the garrison at Anxur was
neglected in consequence of the absence of the soldiers on leave, and
from the indiscriminate admission of Volscian traders was overpowered,
the guards at the gates being suddenly betrayed. Less of the soldiers
perished, because they were all trafficking through the country and
city like suttlers. Nor were matters conducted more successfully at
Veii, which was then the chief object of all public solicitude. For
both the Roman commanders had more quarrels among themselves, than
spirit against the enemy; and the severity of the war was exaggerated
by the sudden arrival of the Capenatians and the Faliscians. These two
states of Etruria, because they were contiguous in situation, judging
that in case Veii was conquered, they should be next to the attacks of
the Romans in war; the Faliscians also, incensed from a cause affecting
themselves, because they had already on a former occasion mixed
themselves up in a Fidenatian war, being bound together by an oath by
reciprocal embassies, marched unexpectedly with their armies to Veii.
It so happened, they attacked the camp in that quarter where Manius
Sergius, military tribune, commanded, and occasioned great alarm;
because the Romans imagined that all Etruria was aroused and were
advancing in a great mass. The same opinion aroused the Veientians in
the city. Thus the Roman camp was attacked on both sides; and crowding
together, whilst they wheeled round their battalions from one post to
another, they were unable either to confine the Veientians within their
fortifications, or repel the assault from their own works, and to
defend themselves from the enemy on the outside. The only hope was, if
succour could be brought from the greater camp, that the different
legions should fight, some against the Capenatians and Faliscians,
others against the sallies of the townsmen. But Virginius had the
command of that camp, who, from personal grounds, was hateful to and
incensed against Sergius. This man, when word was brought that most of
the forts were attacked, the fortifications scaled, and that the enemy
were pouring in on both sides, kept his men under arms, saying that if
there was need of assistance, his colleague would send to him. His
arrogance was equalled by the obstinacy of the other; who, that he
might not appear to have sought any aid from an adversary, preferred
being defeated by an enemy to conquering through a fellow-citizen. His
men were for a long time cut down between both: at length, abandoning
their works, a very small number made their way to the principal camp;
the greater number, with Sergius himself, made their way to Rome.
Where, when he threw the entire blame on his colleague, it was resolved
that Virginius should be sent for from the camp, and that
lieutenant-generals should take the command in the mean time. The
affair was then discussed in the senate, and the dispute was carried on
between the colleagues with (mutual) recriminations. But few took up
the interests of the republic, (the greater number) favoured the one or
the other, according as private regard or interest prejudiced each.
9. The principal senators were of opinion, that whether so
ignominious a defeat had been sustained through the misconduct or the
misfortune of the commanders, “the regular time of the elections should
not be waited for, but that new military tribunes should be created
immediately, who should enter into office on the calends of October.”
Whilst they were proceeding to intimate their assent to this opinion,
the other military tribunes offered no opposition. But Sergius and
Virginius, on whose account it was evident that the senate were
dissatisfied with the magistrates of that year, at first deprecated the
ignominy, then protested against the decree of the senate; they
declared that they would not retire from office before the ides of
December, the usual day for persons entering on magisterial duties.
Upon this the tribunes of the plebeians, whilst in the general harmony
and in the prosperous state of public affairs they had unwillingly kept
silence, suddenly becoming confident, began to threaten the military
tribunes, that unless they conformed to the order of the senate, they
would order them to be thrown into prison. Then Caius Servilius Ahala,
a military tribune, observed, “With respect to you, tribunes of the
commons, and your threats, I would with pleasure put it to the test,
how there is not more of authority in the latter than of spirit in
yourselves. But it is impious to strive against the authority of the
senate. Wherefore do you cease to seek amid our quarrels for an
opportunity of doing mischief; and my colleagues will either do that
which the senate thinks fit, or if they shall persist with too much
pertinacity, I will immediately nominate a dictator, who will oblige
them to retire from office.” When this speech was approved with general
consent, and the patricians rejoiced, that without the terrors of the
tribunitian office, another and a superior power had been discovered to
coerce the magistrates, overcome by the universal consent, they held
the elections of military tribunes, who were to commence their office
on the calends of October, and before that day they retired from
office.
10. During the military tribuneship of Lucius Valerius Potitus for
the fourth time, Marcus Furius Camillus for the second time, Manius
Æmilius Mamercinus a third time, Cneius Cornelius Cossus a second time,
Kæso Fabius Ambustus, Lucius Julius Iulus, much business was transacted
at home and abroad. For there was both a complex war at the same time,
at Veii, at Capena, at Falerii, and among the Volscians, that Anxur
might be recovered from the enemy; and at the same time there was some
difficulty experienced both in consequence of the levy, and of the
contribution of the tax: there was also a contention about the
appointment of plebeian tribunes; and the two trials of those, who a
little before had been invested with consular authority, excited no
trifling commotion. First of all the tribunes of the soldiers took care
that the levy should be held; and not only the juniors were enlisted,
but the seniors also were compelled to give in their names, to serve as
a garrison to the city. But in proportion as the number of the soldiers
was augmented, so much the greater sum of money was required for pay;
and this was collected by a tax, those who remained at home
contributing against their will, because those who guarded the city had
to perform military service also, and to serve the commonwealth. The
tribunes of the commons, by their seditious harangues, caused these
things, grievous in themselves, to seem more exasperating, by their
asserting, “that pay was established for the soldiers with this view,
that they might wear out one half of the commons by military service,
the other half by the tax. That a single war was being waged now for
the third year, on purpose that they may have a longer time to wage it.
That armies had been raised at one levy for four different wars, and
that boys even and old men were dragged from home. That neither summer
nor winter now made any difference, so that there may never be any
respite for the unfortunate commons, who were now even at last made to
pay a tax; so that after they brought home their bodies wasted by
hardship, wounds, and eventually by age, and found their properties at
home neglected by the absence of the proprietors, had to pay a tax out
of their impaired fortunes, and to refund to the state in a manifold
proportion the military pay which had been as it were received on
interest.” Between the levy and the tax, and their minds being taken up
by more important concerns, the number of plebeian tribunes could not
be filled up at the elections. A struggle was afterwards made that
patricians should be elected into the vacant places. When this could
not be carried, still, for the purpose of weakening the Trebonian law,
it was managed that Caius Lacerius and Marcus Acutius should be
admitted as tribunes of the commons, no doubt through the influence of
the patricians.
11. Chance so directed it, that this year Cneius Trebonius was
tribune of the commons, and he considered that he undertook the
patronage of the Trebonian law as a debt due to his name and family. He
crying out aloud, “that a point which some patricians had aimed at,
though baffled in their first attempt, had yet been carried by the
military tribunes; that the Trebonian law had been subverted, and
tribunes of the commons had been elected not by the suffrages of the
people but by the mandate of the patricians; and that the thing was now
come to this, that either patricians or dependants of patricians were
to be had for tribunes of the commons; that the devoting laws were
taken away, the tribunitian power wrested from them; he alleged that
this was effected by some artifice of the patricians, by the villany
and treachery of his colleagues.” While not only the patricians, but
the tribunes of the commons also became objects of public resentment;
as well those who were elected, as those who had elected them; then
three of the college, Publius Curiatius, Marcus Metilius, and Marcus
Minucius, alarmed for their interests, make an attack on Sergius and
Virginius, military tribunes of the former year; they turn away the
resentment of the commons, and public odium from themselves on them, by
appointing a day of trial for them. They observe that “those persons by
whom the levy, the tribute, the long service, and the distant seat of
the war was felt as a grievance, those who lamented the calamity
sustained at Veii; such as had their houses in mourning through the
loss of children, brothers, relatives, and kinsmen, had now through
their means the right and power of avenging the public and private
sorrow on the two guilty causes. For that the sources of all their
sufferings were centred in Sergius and Virginius: nor did the
prosecutor advance that charge more satisfactorily than the accused
acknowledged it; who, both guilty, threw the blame from one to the
other, Virginius charging Sergius with running away, Sergius charging
Virginius with treachery. The folly of whose conduct was so incredible,
that it is much more probable that the affair had been contrived by
concert, and by the common artifice of the patricians. That by them
also an opportunity was formerly given to the Veientians to burn the
works for the sake of protracting the war; and that now the army was
betrayed, and the Roman camp delivered up to the Faliscians. That every
thing was done that the young men should grow old before Veii, and that
the tribunes should not be able to consult the people either regarding
the lands or the other interests of the commons, and to give weight to
their measures by a numerous attendance [of citizens], and to make head
against the conspiracy of the patricians. That a previous judgment had
been already passed on the accused both by the senate and the Roman
people and by their own colleagues. For that by a decree of the senate
they had been removed from the administration of affairs, and when they
refused to resign their office they had been forced into it by their
colleagues; and that the Roman people had elected tribunes, who were to
enter on their office not on the ides of December, the usual day, but
instantly on the calends of October, because the republic could no
longer subsist, these persons remaining in office. And yet these
individuals, overwhelmed and already condemned by so many decisions
against them, presented themselves for trial before the people; and
thought that they were done with the matter, and had suffered
sufficient punishment, because they were reduced to the state of
private citizens two months sooner [than ordinary]: and did not
consider that the power of doing mischief any longer was then taken
from them, that punishment was not inflicted; for that the official
power of their colleagues also had been taken from them who certainly
had committed no fault. That the Roman citizens should resume those
sentiments which they had when the recent disaster was sustained, when
they beheld the army flying in consternation, covered with wounds, and
in dismay pouring into the gates, accusing not fortune nor any of the
gods, but these their commanders. They were certain, that there was not
a man present in the assembly who did not execrate and detest the
persons, families, and fortunes of Lucius Virginius and Manius Sergius.
That it was by no means consistent that now, when it was lawful and
their duty, they should not exert their power against persons, on whom
they had severally imprecated the vengeance of the gods. That the gods
themselves never laid hands on the guilty; it was enough if they armed
the injured with the means of taking revenge.”
12. Urged on by these discourses the commons condemn the accused [in
a fine] of ten thousand asses in weight, Sergius in vain
throwing the blame on fortune and the common chance of war, Virginius
entreating that he might not be more unfortunate at home than he had
been in the field. The resentment of the people being turned against
them, obliterated the remembrance of the assumption of the tribunes and
of the fraud committed against the Trebonian law. The victorious
tribunes, in order that the people might reap an immediate benefit from
the trial, publish a form of an agrarian law, and prevent the tax from
being contributed, since there was need of pay for so great a number of
troops, and the enterprises of the service were conducted with success
in such a manner, that in none of the wars did they reach the
consummation of their hope. At Veii the camp which had been lost was
recovered and strengthened with forts and a garrison. Here M. Æmilius
and Kæso Fabius, military tribunes, commanded. None of the enemy were
found outside the walls by Marcus Furius in the Falisean territory, and
Cneius Cornelius in the Capenatian district: spoil was driven off, and
the country laid waste by burning of the houses and the fruits of the
earth: the towns were neither assaulted nor besieged. But among the
Volscians, their territory being depopulated, Anxur, which was situate
on an eminence, was assaulted, but to no purpose; and when force was
ineffectual, they commenced to surround it with a rampart and a trench.
The province of the Volscians had fallen [to the lot of] Valerius
Potitus. In this state of military affairs an intestine disturbance
broke out with greater violence than the wars were proceeded with. And
when it was rendered impossible by the tribunes to have the tax paid,
and the payment [of the army] was not remitted to the generals, and the
soldiers became importunate for their pay, the camp also was well nigh
being involved in the contagion of the sedition in the city. Amid this
resentment of the commons against the patricians, though the tribunes
asserted that now was the time for establishing liberty, and
transferring the sovereign dignity from the Sergii and Virginii to
plebeians, men of fortitude and energy, still they proceeded no further
than the election of one of the commons, Publius Licinius Calvus,
military tribune with consular power for the purpose of establishing
their right by precedent: the others elected were patricians, Publius
Mænius, Lucius Titinius, Publius Mælius, Lucius Furius Medullinus,
Lucius Publius Volscus. The commons themselves were surprised at having
gained so important a point, and not merely he who had been elected,
being a person who had filled no post of honour before, being only a
senator of long standing, and now weighed down with years. Nor does it
sufficiently appear, why he was elected first and in preference to any
one else to taste the sweets of the new dignity. Some think that he was
raised to so high a dignity through the influence of his brother,
Cneius Cornelius, who had been military tribune on the preceding year,
and had given triple pay to the cavalry. Others [say] that he had
himself delivered a seasonable address equally acceptable to the
patricians and commons, concerning the harmony of the several orders
[of the state]. The tribunes of the commons, exulting in this victory
at the election, relaxed in their opposition regarding the tax, a
matter which very much impeded the progress of public business. It was
paid in with submission, and sent to the army.
13. In the country of the Volscians Anxur was soon retaken, the
guarding of the city having been neglected during a festival day. This
year was remarkable for a cold and snowy winter, so that the roads were
impassable, and the Tiber not navigable. The price of provisions
underwent no change, in consequence of the abundance previously laid
in. And because Publius Licinius, as he obtained his office without any
rioting, to the greater joy of the commons than annoyance of the
patricians, so also did he administer it; a rapturous desire of
electing plebeians at the next election took possession of them. Of the
patricians Marcus Veturius alone obtained a place: almost all the
centuries appointed the other plebeian candidates as military tribunes
with consular authority. Marcus Pomponius, Caius Duilius, Volero
Publilius, Cneius Genucius, Lucius Atilius. The severe winter, whether
from the ill temperature of the air [arising] from the abrupt
transition to the contrary state, or from whatsoever other cause, was
followed by an unhealthy summer, destructive to all species of animals;
and when neither the cause nor termination of this intractable
pestilence could be discovered, the Sibylline books were consulted
according to a decree of the senate. The duumvirs for the direction of
religious matters, the lectisternium being then for the first time
introduced into the city of Rome, for eight days implored the favour of
Apollo and Latona, Diana and Hercules, Mercury and Neptune, three
couches being laid out with the greatest magnificence that was then
possible. The same solemn rite was observed also by private
individuals. The doors lying open throughout the entire city, and the
use of every thing lying out in common, they say that all passengers,
both those known and those unknown indiscriminately, were invited to
lodgings, and that conversation was adopted between persons at variance
with complaisance and kindness, and that they refrained from disputes
and quarrels; their chains were also taken off those who were in
confinement during those days; that afterward a scruple was felt in
imprisoning those to whom the gods had brought such aid. In the mean
while the alarm was multiplied at Veii, three wars being concentred in
the one place. For as the Capenatians and Faliscians had suddenly come
with succour [to the Veientians], they had to fight against three
armies on different sides in the same manner as formerly, through the
whole extent of their works. The recollection of the sentence passed on
Sergius and Virginius aided them above every thing else. Accordingly
some forces being led around in a short time from the principal camp,
where some delay had been made on the former occasion, attack the
Capenatians on their rear, whilst they were engaged in front against
the Roman rampart. The fight commencing in this quarter struck terror
into the Faliscians also, and a sally from the camp opportunely made
put them to flight, thrown into disorder as they now were. The victors,
having then pursued them in their retreat, made great slaughter amongst
them. And soon after those who had been devastating the territory of
Capena, having met them as it were by chance, entirely cut off the
survivors of the fight as they were straggling through the country: and
many of the Veientians in their retreat to the city were slain before
the gates; whilst, through fear lest the Romans should force in along
with them, they excluded the hindmost of their men by closing the
gates.
14. These were the transactions of that year. And now the election
of military tribunes approached; about which the patricians felt more
intense solicitude than about the war, inasmuch as they saw that the
supreme authority was not only shared with the commons, but almost lost
to themselves. Wherefore the most distinguished individuals being, by
concert, prepared to stand candidates, whom they thought [the people]
would feel ashamed to pass by, they themselves, nevertheless, as if
they were all candidates, trying every expedient, strove to gain over
not only men, but the gods also, raising religious scruples about the
elections held the two preceding years; that, in the former of those
years, a winter set in intolerably severe, and like to a prodigy from
the gods; on the next year [they had] not prodigies, but events, a
pestilence inflicted on both city and country through the manifest
resentment of the gods: whom, as was discovered in the books of the
fates, it was necessary to appease, for the purpose of warding off that
plague. That it seemed to the gods an affront that honours should be
prostituted, and the distinctions of birth confounded, in an election
which was held under proper auspices. The people, overawed as well by
the dignity of the candidates as by a sense of religion, elected all
the military tribunes with consular power from among the patricians,
the greater part being men who had been most highly distinguished by
honour; Lucius Valerius Potitus a fifth time, Marcus Valerius Maximus,
Marcus Furius Camillus a third time, Lucius Furius Medullinus a third
time, Quintus Servilius Fidenas a second time, Quintus Sulpicius
Camerinus a second time. During this tribunate, nothing very memorable
was performed at Veii. All their force was employed in depopulating the
country. Two consummate commanders, Potitus from Falerii, Camillus from
Capena, carried off great booty, nothing being left undestroyed which
could be injured by sword or by fire.
15. In the mean time many prodigies were announced; the greater part
of which were little credited or even slighted, because individuals
were the reporters of them, and also because, the Etrurians being now
at war with them, they had no aruspices through whom they might attend
to them. The attention of all was turned to a particular one: the lake
in the Alban grove swelled to an unusual height without any rain, or
any other cause which could account for the matter independently of a
miracle. Commissioners were sent to the Delphic oracle to inquire what
the gods portended by this prodigy; but an interpreter of the fates was
presented to them nearer home in a certain aged Veientian, who, amid
the scoffs thrown out by the Roman and Etrurian soldiers from the
out-posts and guards, declared, after the manner of one delivering a
prophecy, that until the water should be discharged from the Alban
lake, the Romans should never become masters of Veii. This was
disregarded at first as having been thrown out at random, afterwards it
began to be canvassed in conversation; until one of the Roman soldiers
on guard asked one of the townsmen who was nearest him (a
conversational intercourse having now taken place in consequence of the
long continuance of the war) who he was, who threw out those dark
expressions concerning the Alban lake? After he heard that he was an
aruspex, being a man whose mind was not without a tincture of religion,
pretending that he wished to consult him on the expiation of a private
portent, if he could aid him, he enticed the prophet to a conference.
And when, being unarmed, they had proceeded a considerable distance
from their respective parties without any apprehension, the Roman youth
having the advantage in strength, took up the feeble old man in the
sight of all, and amid the ineffectual bustle made by the Etrurians,
carried him away to his own party. When he was conducted before the
general, and sent from thence to Rome to the senate, to those who asked
him what that was which he had stated concerning the Alban lake, he
replied, “that undoubtedly the gods were angry with the Veientian
people on that day, on which they had inspired him with the resolve to
disclose the ruin of his country as destined by the fates. Wherefore
what he then declared urged by divine inspiration, he neither could
recall so that it may be unsaid; and perhaps by concealing what the
immortal gods wished to be published, no less guilt was contracted than
by openly declaring what ought to be concealed. Thus therefore it was
recorded in the books of the fates, thus in the Etrurian doctrine, that
whensoever the Alban water should rise to a great height, then, if the
Romans should discharge it in a proper manner, victory was granted them
over the Veientians: before that occurred, that the gods would not
desert the walls of Veii.” He then detailed what would be the
legitimate method of draining. But the senate deeming his authority as
but of little weight, and not to be entirely depended on in so
important a matter, determined to wait for the deputies and the
responses of the Pythian oracle.
16. Before the commissioners returned from Delphos, or an expiation
of the Alban prodigy was discovered, the new military tribunes with
consular power entered on their office, Lucius Julius Iulus, Lucius
Furius Medullinus for the fourth time, Lucius Sergius Fidenas, Aulus
Postumius Regillensis, Publius Cornelius Maluginensis, and Aulus
Manlius. This year a new enemy, the Tarquinians, started up. Because
they saw the Romans engaged in many wars together, that of the
Volscians at Anxur, where the garrison was besieged, that of the Æquans
at Lavici, who were attacking the Roman colony there, moreover in the
Veientian, Faliscan, and Capenatian war, and that matters were not more
tranquil within the walls, by reason of the dissensions between the
patricians and commons; considering that amid these [troubles] there
was an opportunity for an attack, they send their light-armed cohorts
to commit depredations on the Roman territory. For [they concluded]
either that the Romans would suffer that injury to pass off unavenged,
that they might not encumber themselves with an additional war, or that
they would resent it with a scanty army, and one by no means strong.
The Romans [felt] greater indignation, than alarm, at the inroads of
the Tarquinians. On this account the matter was neither taken up with
great preparation, nor was it delayed for any length of time. Aulus
Postumius and Lucius Julius, having raised a body of men, not by a
regular levy, (for they were prevented by the tribunes of the commons,)
but [a body consisting] mostly of volunteers, whom they had aroused by
exhortations, having proceeded by cross marches through the territory
of Cære, fell unexpectedly on the Tarquinians, as they were returning
from their depredations and laden with booty; they slew great numbers,
stripped them all of their baggage, and, having recovered the spoils of
their own lands, they return to Rome. Two days were allowed to the
owners to reclaim their effects. On the third day, that portion not
owned (for most of it belonged to the enemies themselves) was sold by
public auction; and what was produced from thence, was distributed
among the soldiers. The other wars, and more especially the Veientian,
were of doubtful issue. And now the Romans, despairing of human aid,
began to look to the fates and the gods, when the deputies returned
from Delphos, bringing with them an answer of the oracle, corresponding
with the response of the captive prophet: “Roman, beware lest the Alban
water be confined in the lake, beware of suffering it to flow into the
sea in its own stream. Thou shalt let it out and form a passage for it
through the fields, and by dispersing it in channels thou shalt consume
it. Then press boldly on the walls of the enemy, mindful that the
victory is granted to you by these fates which are now revealed over
that city which thou art besieging for so many years. The war being
ended, do thou, as victorious, bring ample offerings to my temples, and
having renewed the religious institutions of your country, the care of
which has been given up, perform them in the usual manner.”
17. Upon this the captive prophet began to be held in high esteem,
and Cornelius and Postumius, the military tribunes, began to employ him
for the expiation of the Alban prodigy, and to appease the gods in due
form. And it was at length discovered wherein the gods found fault with
the neglect of the ceremonies and the omission of the customary rites;
that it was undoubtedly nothing else, than that the magistrates, having
been appointed under some defect [in their election], had not directed
the Latin festival and the solemnities on the Alban mount with due
regularity. The only mode of expiation in the case was, that the
military tribunes should resign their office, the auspices be taken
anew, and an interregnum be adopted. All these things were performed
according to a decree of the senate. There were three interreges in
succession, Lucius Valerius, Quintus Servilius Fidenas, Marcus Furius
Camillus. In the mean time disturbances never ceased to exist, the
tribunes of the commons impeding the elections until it was previously
stipulated, that the greater number of the military tribunes should be
elected out of the commons. Whilst these things are going on,
assemblies of Etruria were held at the temple of Voltumna, and the
Capenatians and Faliscians demanding that all the states of Etruria
should by common consent and resolve aid in raising the siege of Veii,
the answer given was: “that on a former occasion they had refused that
to the Veientians, because they had no right to demand aid from those
from whom they had not solicited advice on so important a matter. That
for the present their own condition instead of themselves[160] denied
it to them, more especially in that part of Etruria. That a strange
nation, the Gauls, were become new neighbours, with whom they neither
had a sufficiently secure peace, nor a certainty of war: to the blood,
however, and the name and the present dangers of their kinsmen this
[mark of respect] was paid, that if any of their youth were disposed to
go to that war, they would not prevent them.” Hence there was a report
at Rome, that a great number of enemies had arrived, and in consequence
the intestine dissensions began to subside, as is usual, through alarm
for the general safety.
[Footnote 160: So I have rendered pro se—or it may be
rendered, “considering their circumstances,” scil. the external
circumstances in which they were placed.]
18. Without opposition on the part of the patricians, the
prerogative tribe elect Publius Licinius Calvus military tribune
without his suing for it, a man of tried moderation in his former
tribunate, but now of extreme old age; and it was observed that all
were re-elected in regular succession out of the college of the same
year, Lucius Titinius, Publius Mænius, Publius Mælius, Cneius Genucius,
Lucius Atilius: before these were proclaimed, the tribes being summoned
in the ordinary course, Publius Licinius Calvus, by permission of the
interrex, spoke as follows: “Romans, I perceive that from the
recollection of our administration you are seeking an omen of concord,
a thing most important at the present time, for the ensuing year. If
you re-elect the same colleagues, improved also by experience, in me
you no longer behold the same person, but the shadow and name of
Publius Licinius now left. The powers of my body are decayed, my senses
of sight and hearing are grown dull, my memory falters, the vigour of
my mind is blunted. Behold here a youth,” says he, holding his son,
“the representation and image of him whom ye formerly made a military
tribune, the first from among the commons. This youth, formed under my
own discipline, I present and dedicate to the commonwealth as a
substitute for myself. And I beseech you, Romans, that the honour
readily offered by yourselves to me, you would grant to his suit, and
to my prayers added in his behalf.” The favour was granted to the
request of the father, and his son, Publius Licinius, was declared
military tribune with consular power along with those whom I have
mentioned above. Titinius and Genucius, military tribunes, proceeded
against the Faliscians and Capenatians, and whilst they conduct the war
with more courage than conduct, they fall into an ambush. Genucius,
atoning for his temerity by an honourable death, fell among the
foremost in front of the standards. Titinius, having collected his men
from the great confusion [into which they were thrown] on a rising
ground, restored their order of battle; nor did he, however, venture to
engage the enemy on even ground. More of disgrace than of loss was
sustained; which was well nigh proving a great calamity; so much alarm
was excited not only at Rome, whither an exaggerated account of it had
reached, but in the camp also at Veii. There the soldiers were with
difficulty restrained from flight, as a report had spread through the
camp that, the generals and army having been cut to pieces, the
victorious Capenatians and Faliscians and all the youth of Etruria were
not far off. At Rome they gave credit to accounts still more alarming
than these, that the camp at Veii was now attacked, that a part of the
enemy was now advancing to the city prepared for an attack: they
crowded to the walls, and supplications of the matrons, which the
public panic had called forth from their houses, were offered up in the
temples; and the gods were petitioned by prayers, that they would repel
destruction from the houses and temples of the city and from the walls
of Rome, and that they would avert that terror to Veii, if the sacred
rites had been duly renewed, if the prodigies had been expiated.
19. The games and the Latin festival had now been performed anew;
now the water from the Alban lake had been discharged upon the fields,
and the fates were demanding [the ruin of] Veii. Accordingly a general
destined for the destruction of that city and the preservation of his
country, Marcus Furius Camillus, being nominated dictator, appointed
Publius Cornelius Scipio his master of the horse. The change of the
general suddenly produced a change in every thing. Their hopes seemed
different, the spirits of the people were different, the fortune also
of the city seemed changed. First of all, he punished according to
military discipline those who had fled from Veii in that panic, and
took measures that the enemy should not be the most formidable object
to the soldier. Then a levy being proclaimed for a certain day, he
himself in the mean while makes an excursion to Veii to strengthen the
spirits of the soldiers: thence he returns to Rome to enlist the new
army, not a single man declining the service. Youth from foreign states
also, Latins and Hernicians, came, promising their service for the war:
after the dictator returned them thanks in the senate, all preparations
being now completed for the war, he vowed, according to a decree of the
senate, that he would, on the capture of Veii, celebrate the great
games, and that he would repair and dedicate the temple of Mother
Matuta, which had been formerly consecrated by King Servius Tullius.
Having set out from the city with his army amid the high
expectation[161] rather than mere hopes of persons, he first
encountered the Faliscians and Capenatians in the district of Nepote.
Every thing there being managed with consummate prudence and skill, was
attended, as is usual, with success. He not only routed the enemy in
battle, but he stripped them also of their camp, and obtained a great
quantity of spoil, the principal part of which was handed over to the
quæstor; not much was given to the soldiers. From thence the army was
marched to Veii, and additional forts close to each other were erected;
and by a proclamation being issued, that no one should fight without
orders, the soldiers were taken off from those skirmishes, which
frequently took place at random between the wall and rampart, [so as to
apply] to the work. Of all the works, far the greatest and more
laborious was a mine which they commenced to carry into the enemies'
citadel. And that the work might not be interrupted, and that the
continued labour under ground might not exhaust the same individuals,
he divided the number of pioneers into six companies; six hours were
allotted for the work in rotation; nor by night or day did they give
up, until they made a passage into the citadel.
[Footnote 161: Expectatione, &c. With confident expectations
on the part of his countrymen, rather than simple hope.]
20. When the dictator now saw that the victory was in his hands,
that a most opulent city was on the point of being taken, and that
there would be more spoil than had been obtained in all previous wars
taken together, that he might not incur either the resentment of the
soldiers from a parsimonious partition of the plunder, or displeasure
among the patricians from a prodigal lavishing of it, he sent a letter
to the senate, “that by the kindness of the immortal gods, his own
measures, and the perseverance of the soldiers, Veii would be soon in
the power of the Roman people.” What did they think should be done with
respect to the spoil? Two opinions divided the senate; the one that of
the elder Publius Licinius, who on being first asked by his son, as
they say, proposed it as his opinion, that a proclamation should be
openly sent forth to the people, that whoever wished to share in the
plunder, should proceed to the camp before Veii; the other that of
Appius Claudius,[162] who, censuring such profusion as unprecedented,
extravagant, partial, and one that was unadvisable, if they should once
judge it criminal, that money taken from the enemy should be
[deposited] in the treasury when exhausted by wars, advised their pay
to be paid to the soldiers out of that money, so that the commons might
thereby have to pay less tax. For that “the families of all would feel
their share of such a bounty in equal proportion; that the hands of the
idlers in the city, ever greedy for plunder, would not then carry off
the prizes due to brave warriors, as it generally so happens that
according as each individual is wont to seek the principal part of the
toil and danger, so is he the least active as a plunderer.” Licinius,
on the other hand, argued that the money in that case would ever prove
the source of jealousy and animosity, and that it would afford grounds
for charges before the commons, and thence for seditions and new laws.
“That it was more advisable therefore that the feelings of the commons
should be conciliated by that bounty; that succour should be afforded
them, exhausted and drained by a tax of so many years, and that they
should feel the fruits arising from a war, in which they had in a
manner grown old. What each took from the enemy with his own hand and
brought home with him would be more gratifying and delightful, than if
he were to receive a much larger share at the will of another.” That
the dictator himself wished to shun the odium and recriminations
arising from the matter; for that reason he transferred it to the
senate. The senate, too, ought to hand the matter thus referred to them
over to the commons, and suffer every man to have what the fortune of
war gave to him. This proposition appeared to be the safer, as it would
make the senate popular. A proclamation was therefore issued, that
those who chose should proceed to the camp to the dictator for the
plunder of Veii.
[Footnote 162: According to Niebuhr, (vol. ii. p. 233,) this fear
put into the mouth of Claudius, is attributable to ignorance or
forgetfulness on the part of Livy, of the early usage in the dividing
of spoils, which had ceased to be observed in the time of Augustus.
According to former Roman usage, half of the conquering army was
employed, under the sanction of a solemn oath, to subtract nothing, in
collecting the spoil, which was then partly divided by lot, partly
sold, and the proceeds, if promised to the soldiers, disbursed to them
man by man, if otherwise, it was brought into the treasury. Both
schemes mentioned here by Livy, it will be observed, contemplated
compensation to the people for the war-tax which they had so long paid;
but that of Licinius was more favourable, especially to the poor, as
the ordinary citizens would receive equal shares, and the compensation
would be direct and immediate.—Gunne.]
21. The vast multitude who went filled the camp. Then the dictator,
going forth after taking the auspices, having issued orders that the
soldiers should take arms, says, “Under thy guidance, O Pythian Apollo,
and inspired by thy divinity, I proceed to destroy the city of Veii,
and I vow to thee the tenth part of the spoil.[163] Thee also, queen
Juno, who inhabitest Veii, I beseech, that thou wilt accompany us, when
victors, into our city, soon to be thine, where a temple worthy of thy
majesty shall receive thee.”[164] Having offered up these prayers,
there being more than a sufficient number of men, he assaults the city
on every quarter, in order that the perception of the danger
threatening them from the mine might be diminished. The Veientians,
ignorant that they had already been doomed by their own prophets,
already by foreign oracles, that the gods had been already invited to a
share in their plunder, that some, called out by vows from their city,
were looking towards the temple of the enemy and new habitations, and
that they were spending that the last day [of their existence], fearing
nothing less than that, their walls being undermined, the citadel was
now filled with enemies, briskly run to the walls in arms, wondering
what could be the reason that, when no one had stirred from the Roman
posts for so many days, then, as if struck with sudden fury, they
should run heedlessly to the walls. A fabulous narrative is introduced
here, that, when the king of the Veientians was offering sacrifice, the
voice of the aruspex, declaring that the victory was given to him who
should cut up the entrails of that victim, having been heard in the
mine, incited the Roman soldiers to burst open the mine, carry off the
entrails, and bring them to the dictator. But in matters of such remote
antiquity, I should deem it sufficient, if matters bearing a
resemblance to truth be admitted as true. Such stories as this, more
suited to display on the stage, which delights in the marvellous, than
to historic authenticity, it is not worth while either to affirm or
refute. The mine, at this time full of chosen men, suddenly discharged
the armed troops in the temple of Juno which was in the citadel of
Veii.[165] Some of them attack the rear of the enemy on the walls; some
tore open the bars of the gates; some set fire to the houses, while
stones and tiles were thrown down from the roofs by the women and
slaves. Clamour, consisting of the various voices of the assailants and
the terrified, mixed with the crying of women and children, fills every
place. The soldiers being in an instant beaten off from the walls, and
the gates being thrown open, some entering in bodies, others scaling
the deserted walls, the city become filled with enemies, fighting takes
place in every quarter. Then, much slaughter being now made, the ardour
of the fight abates; and the dictator commands the heralds to proclaim
that the unarmed should be spared. This put an end to bloodshed. Then
laying down their arms, they commenced to surrender; and, by permission
of the dictator, the soldiers disperse in quest of plunder. And when
this was collected before his eyes, greater in quantity and in the
value of the effects than he had hoped or expected, the dictator,
raising his hands to heaven, is said to have prayed, “that, if his
success and that of the Roman people seemed excessive to any of the
gods and men, it might be permitted to the Roman people to appease that
jealousy with as little detriment as possible to himself and the Roman
people.”[166] It is recorded that, when turning about during this
prayer, he stumbled and fell; and to persons judging of the matter by
subsequent events, that seemed to refer as an omen to Camillus' own
condemnation, and the disaster of the city of Rome being akin, which
happened a few years after. And that day was consumed in slaughtering
the enemy and in the plunder of this most opulent city.
[Footnote 163: “This vow frequently occurs in Grecian history, like
that made of the Persian booty, but this is the only instance in the
history of Rome.”—Niebuhr, vol. ii. 239.]
[Footnote 164: Evocatos. When the Romans besieged a town, and
thought themselves sure of taking it, they used solemnly to call out of
it the gods in whose protection the place was supposed to be.]
[Footnote 165: The idea of the Romans working a mine, even through
the soil of Veii, so as to be sure of reaching not only the town and
the citadel, and even the temple, is considered by Niebuhr as extremely
ridiculous. He deems the circumstance a clear proof of the fiction that
attaches to the entire story of the capture of Veii. The whole seems to
be an imitation of the siege of Troy.—Gunne.]
[Footnote 166: The passage in the original, in the generality of
editions, is read as follows: ut eam invidium lenire, quàm minimo
suo privato incommodo publicoque, populo Romano liceret: i. e. that
both himself and the Roman people may get over the evil consequences of
the jealousy of the gods with as little detriment as possible to
either: populi Romani seems preferable here: i. e. “that it
might be allowed to lighten that jealousy, by the least possible injury
to his own private interest, and to the public interests of the Roman
people.” There were certainly two persons concerned in the invidia
and incommodum here, Camillus himself, and the Roman people; to
whom respectively the damnatio, and elades captæ urbis,
afterwards mentioned, obviously refer. Some editions read, invidiam
lenire suo privato incommodo, quàm minimo publico populi Romani liceret. This is the reading adopted by Crevier; i. e. “to appease the jealousy
by his own private loss, rather than the least public loss.” This is
more in accordance with the account given of Camillus by Plutarch, and
contains a sentiment certainly more worthy both of Livy and of
Camillus. Sentiments ascribed by Plutarch to Camillus, will have suo
privato incommodo, quam minimo publico P. R., giving him the patriotic
wish to render light the odium by his own private loss, rather than
the least public loss; or, by his own private loss, but if not, by
as small a public loss as possible. Pop-li R-i, better
than o, o, as liceret would, in the latter case,
apply only to one of the parties; in the former both are understood.]
22. On the following day the dictator sold the inhabitants of free
condition by auction: that was the only money applied to public use,
not without resentment on the part of the people: and for the spoil
they brought home with them, they felt no obligation either to their
commander, who, in his search for abettors of his own parsimony, had
referred to the senate a matter within his own jurisdiction, or to the
senate, but to the Licinian family, of which the son had laid the
matter before the senate, and the father had been the proposer of so
popular a resolution. When all human wealth had been carried away from
Veii, they then began to remove the offerings to their gods and the
gods themselves, but more after the manner of worshippers than of
plunderers. For youths selected from the entire army, to whom the
charge of conveying queen Juno to Rome was assigned, after having
thoroughly washed their bodies and arrayed themselves in white
garments, entered her temple with profound adoration, applying their
hands at first with religious awe, because, according to the Etrurian
usage, no one but a priest of a certain family had been accustomed to
touch that statue. Then when some one, moved either by divine
inspiration, or in youthful jocularity, said, “Juno, art thou willing
to go to Rome,” the rest joined in shouting that the goddess had nodded
assent. To the story an addition was afterwards made, that her voice
was heard, declaring that “she was willing.” Certain it is, we are
informed that, having been raised from her place by machines of
trifling power, she was light and easily removed, like as if she
[willingly] followed; and that she was conveyed safe to the Aventine,
her eternal seat, whither the vows of the dictator had invited her;
where the same Camillus who had vowed it, afterwards dedicated a temple
to her. Such was the fall of Veii, the wealthiest city of the Etrurian
nation, which even in its final overthrow demonstrated its greatness;
for having been besieged for ten summers and winters without
intermission, after it had inflicted considerably greater losses than
it had sustained, eventually, fate now at length urging [its
destruction], it was carried after all by the contrivances of art, not
by force.
23. When news was brought to Rome that Veii was taken, although both
the prodigies had been expiated, and the answers of the prophets and
the Pythian responses were well known, and though they had selected as
their commander Marcus Furius, the greatest general of the day, which
was doing as much to promote success as could be done by human
prudence; yet because the war had been carried on there for so many
years with various success, and many losses had been sustained, their
joy was unbounded, as if for an event not expected; and before the
senate could pass any decree, all the temples were crowded with Roman
matrons returning thanks to the gods. The senate decrees supplications
for the space of four days, a number of days greater than [was
prescribed] in any former war. The dictator's arrival also, all ranks
pouring out to meet him, was better attended than that of any general
before, and his triumph considerably surpassed all the ordinary style
of honouring such a day. The most conspicuous of all was himself,
riding through the city in a chariot drawn by white horses; and that
appeared unbecoming, not to say a citizen, but even a human being. The
people considered it an outrage on religion that the dictator's
equipage should emulate that of Jupiter and Apollo; and for that single
reason his triumph was rather splendid than pleasing. He then
contracted for a temple for queen Juno on Mount Aventine, and
consecrated that of Mother Matuta: and, after having performed these
services to the gods and to mankind, he laid down his dictatorship.
They then began to consider regarding the offering to Apollo; and when
Camillus stated that he had vowed the tenth part of the spoil to him,
and the pontiff declared that the people ought to discharge their own
obligation, a plan was not readily struck out of ordering the people to
refund the spoil, so that the due proportion might be set aside out of
it for sacred purposes. At length they had recourse to this which
seemed the easiest course, that, whoever wished to acquit himself and
his family of the religious obligation, after he had made his own
estimate of his portion of the plunder, should pay into the treasury
the value of the tenth part, so that out of it a golden offering worthy
of the grandeur of the temple and the divinity of the god might be
made, suitable to the dignity of the Roman people. This contribution
also tended to alienate the affections of the commons from Camillus.
During these transactions ambassadors came from the Volscians and
Æquans to sue for peace; and peace was obtained, rather that the state
wearied by so tedious a war might obtain repose, than that the
petitioners were deserving of it.
24. After the capture of Veii, the following year had six military
tribunes with consular power, the two Publii Cornelii, Cossus and
Scipio, Marcus Valerius Maximus a second time, Kæso Fabius Ambustus a
third time, Lucius Furius Medullinus a fifth time, Quintus Servilius a
third time. To the Cornelii the Faliscian war, to Valerius and
Servilius the Capenatian war, fell by lot. By them no cities were
attempted by storm or by siege, but the country was laid waste, and the
plunder of the effects on the lands was driven off; not a single fruit
tree, not a vegetable was left on the land. These losses reduced the
people of Capena; peace was granted to them on their suing for it. The
war among the Faliscians still continued. At Rome in the mean time
sedition became multiplied; and for the purpose of assuaging this they
resolved that a colony should be sent off to the Volscian country, for
which three thousand Roman citizens should be enrolled; and the
triumvirs appointed for the purpose, distributed three acres and
seven-twelfths to each man. This donation began to be scorned, because
they thought that it was offered as a solace for the disappointment of
higher hopes. For why were the commons to be sent into exile to the
Volscians, when the magnificent city of Veii was still in view, and the
Veientian territory, more fertile and extensive than the Roman
territor? The city also they extolled as preferable to the city of
Rome, both in situation, in the grandeur of its enclosures, and
buildings, both public and private. Nay, even that scheme was proposed,
which after the taking of Rome by the Gauls was still more strongly
urged, of removing to Veii. But they destined Veii to be inhabited by
half the commons and half the senate; and that two cities of one common
republic might be inhabited by the Roman people.[167] When the nobles
strove against these measures so strenuously, as to declare “that they
would sooner die in the sight of the Roman people, than that any of
these things should be put to the vote; for that now in one city there
were so many dissensions; what would there be in two? Would any one
prefer a vanquished to a victorious city; and suffer Veii now after
being captured to enjoy greater prosperity than it had before its
capture? Lastly, that they may be forsaken in their country by their
fellow-citizens; that no power should ever oblige them to forsake their
country and fellow-citizens, and follow Titus Licinius (for he was the
tribune of the commons who proposed the measure) as a founder to Veii,
abandoning the divine Romulus, the son of a god, the parent and founder
of the city of Rome.” When these proceedings were going on with
shameful contentions, (for the patricians had drawn over, one half of
the tribunes of the commons to their sentiments,) nothing else obliged
the commons to refrain from violence, but that whenever a clamour was
set up for the purpose of commencing a riot, the principal members of
the senate, presenting themselves among the foremost to the crowd,
ordered that they themselves should be attacked, struck, and put to
death. Whilst they abstained from violating their age, dignity, and
honourable station, their respect for them checked their rage even with
respect to similar attempts on others.
[Footnote 167: “A proposal so absurd would have justified the most
vehement opposition of the senate. But it is much more probable, that
the scope of the proposition was, that on this occasion the whole of
the conquered land should be divided, but amongst the whole nation, so
that the patricians also and their clients should receive a share as
absolute property.”—Neibuhr, vol. ii. p. 248.]
25. Camillus, at every opportunity and in all places, stated
publicly, “that this was not at all surprising; that the state was gone
mad; which, though bound by a vow, yet felt greater concern in all
other matters than in acquitting itself of its religious obligations.
He would say nothing of the contribution of an alms more strictly
speaking than of a tenth; since each man bound himself in his private
capacity by it, the public was set free. However, that his conscience
would not permit him to pass this over in silence, that out of that
spoil only which consisted of movable effects, a tenth was set apart;
that no mention was made of the city and captured land, which were also
included in the vow.” As the discussion of this point seemed difficult
to the senate, it was referred to the pontiffs; Camillus being invited
[to the council], the college decided, that whatever had belonged to
the Veientians before the uttering of the vow, and had come into the
power of the Roman people after the vow was made, of that a tenth part
was sacred to Apollo. Thus the city and land were brought into the
estimate. The money was issued from the treasury, and the consular
tribunes of the soldiers were commissioned to purchase gold with it.
And when there was not a sufficient quantity of this [metal], the
matrons having held meetings to deliberate on the subject, and by a
general resolution having promised the military tribunes their gold and
all their ornaments, brought them into the treasury. This circumstance
was peculiarly grateful to the senate, and they say that in return for
this generosity the honour was conferred on the matrons, that they
might use covered chariots [when going] to public worship and the
games, and open chaises on festival and common days. A certain weight
of gold being received from each and valued, in order that the price
might be paid for it, it was resolved that a golden bowl should be made
of it, which was to be carried to Delphos as an offering to Apollo. As
soon as they disengaged their minds from the religious obligation, the
tribunes of the commons renew their seditious practices; the populace
are excited against all the nobles, but above all against Camillus:
that “he by confiscating and consecrating the plunder of Veii had
reduced it to nothing.” The absent [nobles] they abuse in violent
terms: they evince a respect for them in their presence, when they
voluntarily presented themselves to their fury. As soon as they
perceived that the business would be protracted beyond that year, they
re-elect as tribunes of the commons for the following year the same
abettors of the law; and the patricians strove to accomplish the same
thing with respect to those who were opponents of the law. Thus the
same persons in a great measure were re-elected tribunes of the
commons.
26. At the election of military tribunes the patricians succeeded by
their utmost exertions in having Marcus Furius Camillus elected. They
pretended that he was wanted as a commander on account of the wars; but
he was intended as an opponent to the tribunes in their profusion. The
military tribunes with consular authority elected with Camillus were,
Lucius Furius Medullinus a sixth time, Caius Æmilius, Lucius Valerius
Publicola, Spurius Postumius, Publius Cornelius a second time. At the
commencement of the year the tribunes of the commons took not a step
until Marcus Furius Camillus should set out to the Faliscians, as that
war had been assigned to him. Then by delaying the project cooled; and
Camillus, whom they chiefly dreaded as an antagonist, acquired an
increase of glory among the Faliscians. For when the enemy at first
confined themselves within the walls, considering it the safest plan,
by laying waste their lands and burning their houses, he compelled them
to come forth from the city; but their fears prevented them from
proceeding to any considerable length. At about a mile from the town
they pitch their camp; trusting that it was sufficiently secure from no
other cause, than the difficulty of the approaches, the roads around
being rough and craggy, in some parts narrow, in others steep. But
Camillus having followed the direction of a prisoner belonging to the
country as his guide, decamping at an advanced hour of the night, at
break of day shows himself on ground considerably higher [than theirs].
The Romans worked at the fortifications in three divisions: the rest of
the army stood prepared for battle. There he routs and puts to flight
the enemy when they attempted to interrupt his works; and such terror
was struck into the Faliscians in consequence, that, in their
precipitate flight passing by their own camp which lay in their way,
they made for the city. Many were slain and wounded, before that in
their panic they could make their way through the gates. Their camp was
taken; the spoil was given up to the quæstors, to the great
dissatisfaction of the soldiers; but overcome by the strictness of his
authority, they both hated and admired the same firmness of conduct.
Then a regular siege of the city took place, and the lines of
circumvallation were carried on, and sometimes occasional attacks were
made by the townsmen on the Roman posts, and slight skirmishes took
place: and the time was spent, no hope [of success] inclining to either
side, whilst corn and other provisions were possessed in much greater
abundance by the besieged than the besiegers from [the store] which had
been previously laid in. And their toil appeared likely to prove just
as tedious as it had at Veii, had not fortune presented to the Roman
general at once both an opportunity for displaying his virtuous
firmness of mind already tested in warlike affairs, and a speedy
victory.
27. It was the custom among the Faliscians to employ the same person
as preceptor and private tutor for their children; and, as continues
the usage to this day in Greece, several youths were intrusted to the
care of one man. The person who appeared to excel in knowledge,
instructed, as it is natural to suppose, the children of the leading
men. As he had established it as a custom during peace to carry the
boys out beyond the city for the sake of play and of exercise; that
custom not having been discontinued during the existence of the war;
then drawing them away from the gate, sometimes in shorter, sometimes
in longer excursions, advancing farther than usual, when an opportunity
offered, by varying their play and conversation, he led them on between
the enemy's guards, and thence to the Roman camp into his tent to
Camillus. There to the atrocious act he added a still more atrocious
speech: that “he had delivered Falerii into the hands of the Romans,
when he put into their power those children, whose parents are there at
the head of affairs.” When Camillus heard this, he says, “Wicked as
thou art, thou hast come with thy villanous offering neither to a
people nor a commander like thyself. Between us and the Faliscians
there exists not that form of society which is established by human
compact; but between both there does exist, and ever will exist, that
which nature has implanted. There are laws of war as well of peace; and
we have learned to wage them justly not less than bravely. We carry
arms not against that age which is spared even when towns are taken,
but against men who are themselves armed, and who, not having been
injured or provoked by us, attacked the Roman camp at Veii. Those thou
hast surpassed, as far as lay in you, by an unprecedented act of
villany: I shall conquer them, as I did Veii, by Roman arts, by
bravery, labour, and by arms.” Then having stripped him naked, and tied
his hands behind his back, he delivered him up to the boys to be
brought back to Falerii; and supplied them with rods to scourge the
traitor and drive him into the city. At which spectacle, a crowd of
people being assembled, afterwards the senate being convened by the
magistrates on the extraordinary circumstance, so great a change was
produced in their sentiments, that the entire state earnestly demanded
peace at the hands of those, who lately, outrageous by hatred and
anger, almost preferred the fate of the Veientians to the peace of the
Capenatians. The Roman faith, the justice of the commander, are cried
up in the forum and in the senate-house; and by universal consent
ambassadors set out to the camp to Camillus, and thence by permission
of Camillus to Rome to the senate, in order to deliver up Falerii. When
introduced before the senate, they are represented as having spoken
thus: “Conscript fathers, overcome by you and your commander by a
victory at which neither god nor man can feel displeasure, we surrender
ourselves to you, considering that we shall live more happily under
your rule than under our own law, than which nothing can be more
glorious for a conqueror. In the result of this war, two salutary
examples have been exhibited to mankind. You preferred faith in war to
present victory: we, challenged by your good faith, have voluntarily
given up to you the victory. We are under your sovereignty. Send men to
receive our arms, our hostages, our city with its gates thrown open.
You shall never have to repent of our fidelity, nor we of your
dominion.” Thanks were returned to Camillus both by the enemy and by
his own countrymen. Money was required of the Faliscians to pay off the
soldiers for that year, that the Roman people might be relieved from
the tribute. Peace being granted, the army was led back to Rome.
28. When Camillus returned home, signalized by much more solid glory
than when white horses had drawn him through the city, having
vanquished the enemy by justice and good faith, the senate did not
conceal their sense of respect for him, but immediately set about
acquitting him of his vow; and Lucius Valerius, Lucius Sergius, Aulus
Manlius, being sent in a ship of war as ambassadors to carry the golden
bowl to Delphos as an offering to Apollo, were intercepted by the
pirates of the Liparenses not far from the Sicilian Strait, and carried
to Liparæ. It was the custom of the state to make a division of all
booty which was acquired, as it were, by public piracy. On that year it
so happened that one Timasitheus filled the office of chief magistrate,
a man more like the Romans than his own countrymen. Who, himself
reverencing the name of ambassadors, and the offering, and the god to
whom it was sent, and the cause of the offering, impressed the
multitude also, who almost on all occasions resemble their ruler, with
[a sense] of religious justice; and after having brought the
ambassadors to a public entertainment, escorted them with the
protection of some ships to Delphos, and from thence brought them back
in safety to Rome. By a decree of the senate a league of hospitality
was formed with him, and presents were conferred on him by the state.
During the same year the war with the Æquans was conducted with varying
success; so that it was a matter of doubt both among the troops
themselves and at Rome, whether they had been victorious or were
vanquished. The Roman commanders were Caius Æmilius and Spurius
Postumius, two of the military tribunes. At first they acted in
conjunction; then, after the enemy were routed in the field, it was
agreed that Æmilius should take possession of Verrugo with a certain
force, and that Postumius should devastate the country. There, as the
latter proceeded rather negligently, and with his troops irregularly
drawn up, he was attacked by the Æquans, and an alarm being occasioned,
he was driven to the nearest hill; and the panic spread from thence to
Verrugo to the other detachment of the army. When Postumius, having
withdrawn his men to a place of safety, summoned an assembly and
upbraided them with their fright and flight; with having been beaten by
a most cowardly and dastardly enemy; the entire army shout aloud that
they deserved to hear all this, and admitted the disgrace they had
incurred; but [they promised] that they would make amends, and that the
enemy's joy should not be of long duration. Demanding that he would
instantly lead them from thence to the camp of the enemy, (this lay in
the plain within their view,) they submitted to any punishment, if they
did not take it before night. Having praised them, he orders them to
take refreshment, and to be in readiness at the fourth watch. And the
enemy, in order to prevent the flight of the Romans from the hill
through the road which led to Verrugo, were posted to meet them; and
the battle commenced before daylight, (but the moon was up all the
night,) and was not more confused than a battle fought by day. But the
shout having reached Verrugo, when they thought that the Roman camp was
attacked, occasioned such a panic, that in spite of the entreaties of
Æmilius and his efforts to stop them, they fled to Tusculum in great
disorder. From thence a report was carried to Rome that “Postumius and
his army were cut to pieces.” When the dawn of day had removed all
apprehension of an ambuscade in case of a hasty pursuit, after riding
through the ranks, by demanding [the performance of] their promises he
infused such ardour into them, that the Æquans could no longer
withstand their impetuosity. Then the slaughter of them in their
flight, such as takes place when matters are conducted more under the
influence of anger than of courage, was continued even to the total
destruction of the enemy, and the melancholy news from Tusculum, the
state having been alarmed without cause, was followed by a letter from
Postumius decked with laurel, (announcing) that “the victory belonged
to the Roman people; that the army of the Æquans was destroyed.”
29. As the proceedings of the plebeian tribunes had not yet attained
a termination, both the commons exerted themselves to continue their
office for the promoters of the law, and the patricians to re-elect the
opponents of the law; but the commons were more successful in the
election of their own magistrates. Which annoyance the patricians
avenged by passing a decree of the senate that consuls should be
elected, magistrates detested by the commons. After an interval of
fifteen years, Lucius Lucretius Flavus and Servius Sulpicius Camerinus
were appointed consuls. In the beginning of this year, whilst the
tribunes of the commons united their efforts to pass the law, because
none of their college were likely to oppose them, and the consuls
resisted them with no less energy, the Æquans storm Vitellia, a Roman
colony in their territory. The chief part of the colonists made their
way in safety to Rome, because the town, having been taken by treachery
in the night, afforded an unimpeded mode of escape by the remote side
of the city. That province fell to the lot of Lucius Lucretius the
consul. He having set out with his army, vanquished the enemy in the
field; and returned victorious to Rome to a much more serious contest.
A day of trial had been appointed for Aulus Virginius and Quintus
Pomponius, plebeian tribunes of the two preceding years, in whose
defence by the combined power of the patricians, the honour of the
senate was involved. For no one laid against them any other
impeachment, either of their mode of life or of their conduct in
office, save that, to gratify the patricians, they had protested
against the tribunitian law. The resentment of the commons, however,
prevailed over the influence of the senate; and by a most pernicious
precedent these men, though innocent, were condemned [to pay a fine of]
ten thousand asses in weight. At this the patricians were very
much incensed. Camillus openly charged the commons with gross violation
of duty, “who, now turning their venom against their own body, did not
feel that by their iniquitous sentence on the tribune they abolished
the right of protesting; that abolishing this right of protesting, they
had upset the tribunitian authority. For they were mistaken in
expecting that the patricians would tolerate the unbridled
licentiousness of that office. If tribunitian violence could not be
repelled by tribunitian aid, that the patricians would find out some
other weapon.” The consuls he also blamed, because they had in silence
suffered those tribunes who had followed the authority of the senate to
be deceived by [their reliance] on the public faith. By openly
expressing these sentiments, he every day still further exasperated the
angry feelings of the people.
30. But he ceased not to urge the senate to oppose the law; “that
when the day for proposing the law had arrived they should go down to
the forum with no other feeling than as men who remembered that they
had to contend for their altars and homes, and the temples of the gods,
and the soil in which they had been born. For that as far as he himself
individually was concerned, if during this contest [to be sustained] by
his country it were allowable for him to think of his own glory, it
would even reflect honour on himself, that a city captured by him
should be densely inhabited, that he would daily enjoy the monument of
his glory, and that he would have before his eyes a city borne by him
in his triumph, that all would tread in the footsteps of his renown.
But that he deemed it an impiety that a city deserted and forsaken by
the immortal gods should be inhabited; that the Roman people should
reside in a captive soil, and that a vanquished should be taken in
exchange for a victorious country.” Stimulated by these exhortations of
their leader, the patricians, both young and old, entered the forum in
a body, when the law was about to be proposed: and dispersing
themselves through the tribes, each earnestly appealing to the members
of their own tribe, began to entreat them with tears “not to desert
that country for which they themselves and their fathers had fought
most valiantly and successfully,” pointing to the Capitol, the temple
of Vesta, and the other temples of the gods around; “not to drive the
Roman people, exiles and outcasts, from their native soil and household
gods into the city of the enemy; and not to bring matters to such a
state, that it was better that Veii were not taken, lest Rome should be
deserted.” Because they proceeded not by violence, but by entreaties,
and in the midst of these entreaties frequent mention was [made] of the
gods, the greatest part [of the people] were influenced by religious
scruples: and more tribes by one rejected the law than voted for it.
And so gratifying was this victory to the patricians, that on the
following day, on a motion made by the consuls, a decree of the senate
was passed, that seven acres a man of Veientian territory should be
distributed to the commons; and not only to the fathers of families,
but so that all persons in their house in a state of freedom should be
considered, and that they might be willing to rear up their children
with that prospect.
31. The commons being won over by such a boon, no opposition was
made to holding the elections for consuls. Lucius Valerius Potitus, and
Marcus Manlius, who afterwards obtained the surname of Capitolinus,
were elected consuls. These consuls celebrated the great games which
Marcus Furius, when dictator, had vowed in the Veientian war. In the
same year the temple of imperial Juno, vowed by the same dictator and
during the same war, is dedicated; and they state that the dedication
was attended with great zeal by the matrons. A war scarcely worth
mentioning was waged with the Æquans at Algidum, the enemies taking to
flight almost before they commenced the fight. To Valerius, because he
was more persevering in slaughtering them in their flight, a triumph
was granted; it was decreed that Manlius should enter the city with an
ovation. The same year a new war broke out with the Volsinians; whither
an army could not be led, on account of a famine and pestilence in the
Roman territories, which arose from drought and excessive heat; on
account of which the Volsinians forming a junction with the Salpinians,
being elated with pride, made an unprovoked incursion into the Roman
territories. War was then proclaimed against the two states. Caius
Julius died during his censorship; Marcus Cornelius was substituted in
his room; a proceeding which was afterwards considered as offensive to
religion; because during that lustrum Rome was taken. Nor since that
time has a censor ever been substituted in the room of one deceased.
And the consuls being seized by the distemper, it was determined that
the auspices should be taken anew during an interregnum.
32. Therefore when in pursuance of a decree of the senate the
consuls resigned their office, Marcus Furius Camillus is created
interrex, who appointed Publius Cornelius Scipio interrex, and he
afterwards Lucius Valerius Potitus. By him were appointed six military
tribunes with consular power; so that, though any one of them should be
incommoded by bad health, the state might have a sufficient number of
magistrates. On the calends of July, the following entered on their
office, Lucius Lucretius, Servius Sulpicius, Marcus Æmilius, Lucius
Furius Medullinus a seventh time, Agrippa Furius, Caius Æmilius a
second time. Of these, Lucius Lucretius and Caius Æmilius got the
Volsinians as their province; the Salpinians fell to the lot of Agrippa
Furius and Servius Sulpicius. The first engagement was with the
Volsinians. The war, important from the number of the enemy, was
without difficulty brought to a close. At the first onset, their army
was put to flight. Eight thousand soldiers, hemmed in by the cavalry,
laid down their arms and surrendered. The account received of that war
had the effect of preventing the Salpinians from hazarding an
engagement; the troops secured themselves within their towns. The
Romans drove spoil in every direction, both from the Salpinian and
Volsinian territory, there being no one to repel that aggression; until
a truce for twenty years was granted to the Volsinians, exhausted by
the war, on this condition, that they should make restitution to the
Roman people, and furnish the pay of the army for that year. During the
same year, Marcus Cædicius, a plebeian, announced to the tribunes that
in the New Street, where the chapel now stands, above the temple of
Vesta, he had heard in the silence of the night a voice louder than
that of a human being, which ordered the magistrates to be told, that
the Gauls were approaching. This, as is usual, was disregarded, on
account of the humble station of the author, and also because the
nation was a remote one, and therefore the less known. And not only
were the warnings of the gods disregarded, fate now impending; but
further, the only human aid which was left them, Marcus Furius, they
drove away from the city; who, on a day [of trial] being appointed for
him by Lucius Appuleius, a tribune of the people, in reference to the
Veientian spoil, he having also lost his son, a young man, about the
same time, when he summoned to his house the members of his tribe and
his dependents, (they constituted a considerable portion of the
commons,) and having sounded their sentiments, he received for answer,
“that they would contribute whatever fine he should be condemned to
pay; that to acquit him they were unable,”[168] retired into exile;
after praying to the immortal gods, “that if that outrage was done to
him without his deserving it, they would at the earliest opportunity
give cause to his ungrateful country to regret his absence.” In his
absence he was fined fifteen thousand asses in weight.
[Footnote 168: Niebuhr and Arnold understand these words to signify,
that these persons had already made up their minds not to acquit him,
or assist him by voting in favour of him—in fact, that they could not
conscientiously do so. It may, however, signify simply, that the people
were so incensed against him, that there existed not a rational
prospect of acquittal for him.]
33. That citizen being driven away, who being present, Rome could
not be captured, if any thing is certain regarding human affairs; the
destined ruin now approaching the city, ambassadors came from the
Clusinians, soliciting aid against the Gauls. A report is current that
that nation, allured by the delightfulness of the crops, and more
especially of the wine, an enjoyment then new to them, crossed the
Alps, and took possession of the lands formerly cultivated by the
Etrurians; and that Aruns, a native of Clusium, introduced wine into
Gaul for the purpose of enticing the nation, through resentment for his
wife's having been debauched by Lucumo, whose guardian he himself had
been, a very influential young man, and on whom vengeance could not be
taken, unless foreign aid were resorted to; that this person served as
a guide to them when crossing the Alps, and advised them to lay siege
to Clusium. I would not indeed deny that the Gauls were brought to
Clusium by Aruns or any other native of Clusium; but that those persons
who laid siege to Clusium were not they who first crossed the Alps, is
sufficiently certain. For two hundred years before they laid siege to
Clusium and captured the city of Rome, the Gauls passed over into
Italy. Nor were these the first of the Etrurians with whom the Gauls
fought, but long before that they frequently fought with those who
dwelt between the Apennines and the Alps. Before the Roman empire the
sway of the Tuscans was much extended by land and by sea; how very
powerful they were in the upper and lower seas, by which Italy is
encompassed like an island, the names [of these seas] is a proof; the
one of which the Italian nations have called the Tuscan sea, the
general appellation of the people; the other the Hadriatic, from
Hadria, a colony of Tuscans. The Greeks call these same seas the
Tyrrhenian and Hadriatic. This people inhabited the country extending
to both seas in twelve cities, colonies equal in number to the mother
cities having been sent, first on this side the Apennines towards the
lower sea, afterwards to the other side of the Apennines; who obtained
possession of all the district beyond the Po, even as far as the Alps,
except the corner of the Venetians, who dwell round the extreme point
of the [Hadriatic] sea. The Alpine nations also have this origin, more
especially the Rhætians; whom their very situation has rendered savage,
so as to retain nothing of their original, except the accent of their
language, and not even that without corruption.
34. Concerning the passage of the Gauls into Italy we have heard as
follows. In the reign of Tarquinius Priscus at Rome, the supreme
government of the Celts, who compose the third part of Gaul, was in the
hands of the Biturigians: they gave a king to the Celtic nation. This
was Ambigatus, one very much distinguished by his merit, and both his
great prosperity in his own concerns and in those of the public; for
under his administration Gaul was so fruitful and so well peopled, that
so very great a population appeared scarcely capable of being
restrained by any government. He being now advanced in years, and
anxious to relieve his kingdom of so oppressive a crowd, declares his
intention to send his sister's sons, Bellovesus and Sigovesus, two
enterprising youths, into whatever settlements the gods should grant
them by augury: that they should take out with them as great a number
of men as they pleased, so that no nation might be able to obstruct
them in their progress. Then to Sigovesus the Hercynian forest was
assigned by the oracle: to Bellovesus the gods marked out a much more
cheering route into Italy. He carried out with him from the
Biturigians, the Arvernians, the Senonians, the Æduans, the Ambarrians,
the Carnutians, and the Aulercians, all that was superfluous in their
population. Having set out with an immense force of horse and foot, he
arrived in the country of the Tricastinians. Next the Alps were opposed
[to their progress], and I am not surprised that they should seem
impassable, as they had never been climbed over through any path as
yet, as far at least as tradition can extend, unless we are disposed to
believe the stories regarding Hercules. When the height of the
mountains kept the Gauls there penned up as it were, and they were
looking around [to discover] by what path they might pass into another
world between the summits, which joined the sky, a religious scruple
detained them, it having been announced to them that strangers in
search of lands were attacked by the nation of the Salyans. These were
the Massilians, who had come by sea from Phocæa. The Gauls considering
this an omen of their own fortune, assisted them in fortifying the
ground which they had taken possession of on their first landing,
covered with spacious woods. They themselves crossed the Alps through
the Taurinian and pathless forests; and having defeated the Etrurians
not far from the Ticinus, on hearing that the land in which they had
posted themselves was called Insubria, the same name as the Insubres, a
canton of the Ædui: embracing the omen of the place, they built a city
there, and called it Mediolanum.
35. Some time after another body, consisting of Cenomanians, having
followed the tracks of the former under the conduct of Elitovius,
crossed the Alps through the same forest, with the aid of Bellovesus,
and settle themselves where the cities of Brixia and Verona now stand
(the Libuans then possessed these places). After these came the
Salluvians, who fix themselves near the ancient canton of the Ligurians
called Lævi, inhabiting the banks of the Ticinus. Next the Boians and
Lingonians, having made their way over through the Penine pass, all the
tract between the Po and the Alps being occupied, crossed the Po on
rafts, and drove out of the country not only the Etrurians, but the
Umbrians also: they confined themselves however within the Apennines.
Then the Senonians, the latest of these emigrants, took possession of
the track [extending] from the Utens to the Æsis. I find that it was
this nation that came to Clusium, and thence to Rome; whether alone, or
aided by all the nations of the Cisalpine Gauls, is not duly
ascertained. The Clusians, terrified at their strange enemy, on
beholding their great numbers, the forms of the men such as they had
never seen, and the kind of arms [they carried], and on hearing that
the troops of the Etrurians had been frequently defeated by them on
both sides of the Po, sent ambassadors to Rome to solicit aid from the
senate, though they had no claim on the Roman people, in respect either
of alliance or friendship, except that they had not defended their
relations the Veientians against the Roman people. No aid was obtained:
three ambassadors were sent, sons of Marcus Fabius Ambustus, to treat
with the Gauls in the name of the senate and Roman people; that they
should not attack the allies and friends of the Roman people from whom
they had received no wrong. That they should be supported by the Romans
even by force of arms, if circumstances obliged them; but it seemed
better that war itself should be kept aloof, if possible; and that the
Gauls, a nation strangers to them, should be known by peace, rather
than by arms.
36. The embassy was a mild one, had it not been consigned to
ambassadors too hot in temper, and who resembled Gauls more than
Romans. To whom, after they delivered their commission in the assembly
of the Gauls, the following answer is returned: Though the name of the
Romans was new to their ears, yet they believed them to be brave men,
whose aid was implored by the Clusians in their perilous conjuncture.
And since they chose to defend their allies against them by negociation
rather than by arms, that they on their part would not reject the
pacific terms which they propose, if the Clusians would give up to the
Gauls in want of land, a portion of their territories which they
possessed to a greater extent than they could cultivate; otherwise
peace could not be obtained: that they wished to receive an answer in
presence of the Romans; and if the land were refused them, that they
would decide the matter with the sword in presence of the same Romans;
that they might have an opportunity of carrying home an account how
much the Gauls excelled all other mortals in bravery. On the Romans
asking what right they had to demand land from the possessors, or to
threaten war [in case of refusal], and what business the Gauls had in
Etruria, and on their fiercely replying, that they carried their right
in their swords, that all things were the property of the brave, with
minds inflamed on both sides they severally have recourse to arms, and
the battle is commenced. Here, fate now pressing hard on the Roman
city, the ambassadors, contrary to the law of nations, take up arms;
nor could this be done in secret, as three of the noblest and bravest
of the Roman youth fought in the van of the Etrurians; so conspicuous
was the valour of the foreigners. Moreover Quintus Fabius, riding out
beyond the line, slew a general of the Gauls who was furiously charging
the very standards of the Etrurians, having run him through the side
with his spear: and the Gauls recognised him when stripping him of his
spoils; and a signal was given throughout the entire line that he was a
Roman ambassador. Giving up therefore their resentment against the
Clusians, they sound a retreat, threatening the Romans. Some gave it as
their opinion that they should proceed forthwith to Rome. The seniors
prevailed, that ambassadors should be sent to complain of the injuries
done them, and to demand that the Fabii should be given up to them in
satisfaction for having violated the law of nations. When the
ambassadors had stated matters, according to the instructions given to
them, the conduct of the Fabii was neither approved by the senate, and
the barbarians seemed to them to demand what was just: but in the case
of men of such station party favour prevented them from decreeing that
which they felt to be right. Wherefore lest the blame of any
misfortune, which might happen to be received in a war with the Gauls,
should lie with them, they refer the consideration of the demands of
the Gauls to the people, where influence and wealth were so
predominant, that those persons, whose punishment was under
consideration, were elected military tribunes with consular power for
the ensuing year. At which proceeding the Gauls being enraged, as was
very natural, openly menacing war, return to their own party. With the
three Fabii the military tribunes elected were Quintus Sulpicius
Longus, Quintus Servilius a fourth time, Servius Cornelius
Maluginensis.
37. Though danger of such magnitude was impending (so completely
does Fortune blind the minds of men when she wishes not her threatening
stroke to be foiled) a state, which against the Fidenatian and
Veientian enemies, and other neighbouring states, had recourse to aid
even from the most extreme quarters, and had appointed a dictator on
many trying occasions, that same state now, when an enemy, never before
seen or heard of, from the ocean and remotest regions of the earth, was
advancing in arms against them, looked not for any extraordinary
command or aid. Tribunes, by whose temerity the war had been brought on
them, were appointed to the chief direction of affairs, and even making
less of the war than fame had represented it, held the levy with no
greater diligence than used to be exercised for ordinary wars. In the
mean while the Gauls, on hearing that honour was even conferred on the
violators of human law, and that their embassy was slighted, inflamed
with resentment, over which that nation has no control, immediately
snatched up their standards, and enter on their march with the utmost
expedition. When the cities, alarmed at the tumult occasioned by them
as they passed precipitately along, began to run to arms, and the
peasants took to flight, they indicated by a loud shout that they were
proceeding to Rome, taking up an immense space of ground, wherever they
passed, with their horses and men, their troops spreading widely in
every direction. But fame and the messengers of the Clusians, and then
of the other states one after another, preceding them, the rapid
advance of the enemy brought the greatest consternation to Rome; for,
with their tumultuary troops hastily led on, they met them within the
distance of the eleventh mile-stone, where the river Allia, descending
from the Crustuminian mountains in a very deep channel, joins the river
Tiber not far below the road. Already all places in front and on each
side were crowded with the enemy, and this nation, which has a natural
turn for causeless confusion, by their harsh music and discordant
clamours, filled all places with a horrible din.
38. There the military tribunes, without having previously selected
a place for their camp, without having previously raised a rampart to
which they might have a retreat, unmindful of their duty to the gods,
to say nothing of that to man, without taking auspices or offering
sacrifices, draw up their line, which was extended towards the flanks,
lest they should be surrounded by the great numbers of the enemy. Still
their front could not be made equal to that of the enemy, though by
thinning their line they rendered their centre weak and scarcely
connected. There was on the right a small eminence, which it was
determined to fill with bodies of reserve; and that circumstance, as it
was the first cause of their dismay and flight, so it proved their only
means of safety in their flight. For Brennus, the chieftain of the
Gauls, being chiefly apprehensive of some design[169] being intended in
the small number of the enemy, thinking that the high ground had been
seized for this purpose, that, when the Gauls had been engaged in front
with the line of the legions, the reserve was to make an attack on
their rear and flank, directed his troops against the reserve; certain,
that if he had dislodged them from their ground, the victory would be
easy in the plain for a force which had so much the advantage in point
of numbers: thus not only fortune, but judgment also stood on the side
of the barbarians. In the opposite army there appeared nothing like
Romans, either in the commanders, or in the soldiers. Terror and dismay
had taken possession of their minds, and such a forgetfulness of every
thing, that a far greater number of them fled to Veii, a city of their
enemy, though the Tiber stood in their way, than by the direct road to
Rome, to their wives and children. Their situation defended the reserve
for some time; throughout the remainder of the line as soon as the
shout was heard, by those who stood nearest on their flank, and by
those at a distance on their rear, almost before they could look at the
enemy as yet untried, not only without attempting to fight, but without
even returning the shout, fresh and unhurt they took to flight. Nor was
there any slaughter of them in the act of fighting; but their rear was
cut to pieces, whilst they obstructed their flight by their struggling
one with another. Great slaughter was made on the bank of the Tiber,
whither the entire left wing, having thrown down their arms, directed
their flight; and many who did not know how to swim, or were exhausted,
being weighed down by their coats of mail and other defensive armour,
were swallowed up in the current. The greatest part however escaped
safe to Veii; whence not only no reinforcement, but not even an account
of their defeat, was forwarded to Rome. Those on the right wing which
had been posted at a distance from the river, and rather near the foot
of the mountain, all made for Rome, and, without even shutting the
gates, fled into the citadel.
[Footnote 169: In my translation of this passage I have differed
from Baker, who thus renders: “thinking, that as his enemies were few
in number, their skill was what he had chiefly to guard against.”
Dureau De Lamalle thus translates: “supposant de la ruse aux ennemis, a
raison de leur petit nombre.” This is obviously the correct version.]
39. The miraculous attainment of so sudden a victory held even the
Gauls in a state of stupefaction. And at first they stood motionless
with panic, as if not knowing what had happened; then they apprehended
a stratagem; at length they began to collect the spoils of the slain,
and to pile up the arms in heaps, as is their custom. Then, at length,
when no appearance of any thing hostile was any where observed, having
proceeded on their journey, they reach the city of Rome not long before
sun-set: where when some horsemen, who had advanced before, brought
back word that the gates were not shut, that no guard was posted before
the gates, no armed troops on the walls, another cause of amazement
similar to the former made them halt; and dreading the night and
ignorance of the situation of the city, they posted themselves between
Rome and the Anio, after sending scouts about the walls and the several
gates to ascertain what plans the enemy would adopt in their desperate
circumstances. With respect to the Romans, as the greater part had gone
to Veii from the field of battle, and no one supposed that any survived
except those who had fled back to Rome, being all lamented as lost,
both those living and those dead, they caused the entire city to be
filled with wailings. The alarm for the public interest stifled private
sorrow, as soon as it was announced that the enemy were at hand.
Presently the barbarians patrolling around the walls in troops, they
heard their yells and the dissonant clangour of their arms. All the
interval up to the next day kept their minds in such a state of
suspense, that an assault seemed every moment about to be made on the
city: on their first approach, when they arrived at the city, [it was
expected;] for if this were not their design, that they would have
remained at the Allia; then towards sunset, because there was not much
of the day remaining, they imagined that they would attack them before
night; then that the design was deferred until night, in order to
strike the greater terror. At length the approach of light struck them
with dismay; and the calamity itself followed closely upon their
continued apprehension of it, when the troops entered the gates in
hostile array. During that night, however, and the following day, the
state by no means bore any resemblance to that which which had fled in
so dastardly a manner at the Allia. For as there was not a hope that
the city could be defended, so small a number of troops now remaining,
it was determined that the youth fit for military service, and the
abler part of the senate with their wives and children, should retire
into the citadel and Capitol; and having collected stores of arms and
corn, and thence from a fortified post, that they should defend the
deities, and the inhabitants, and the Roman name: that the flamen
[Quirinalis] and the vestal priestesses should carry away far from
slaughter and conflagration the objects appertaining to the religion of
the state: and that their worship should not be intermitted, until
there remained no one who should continue it. If the citadel and
Capitol, the mansion of the gods, if the senate, the source of public
counsel, if the youth of military age, should survive the impending
ruin of the city, the loss would be light of the aged, the crowd left
behind in the city, and who were sure to perish[170] under any
circumstances. And in order that the plebeian portion of the multitude
might bear the thing with greater resignation, the aged men, who had
enjoyed triumphs and consulships, openly declared that they would die
along with them, and that they would not burden the scanty stores of
the armed men with those bodies, with which they were now unable to
bear arms, or to defend their country. Such was the consolation
addressed to each other by the aged now destined to death.
[Footnote 170: The aged were doomed to perish under any
circumstances, (utique,) from scarcity of provisions, whether
they retired into the Capitol with the military youth, or were left
behind in the city.]
40. Their exhortations were then turned to the band of young men,
whom they escorted to the Capitol and citadel, commending to their
valour and youth whatever might be the remaining fortune of a city,
which for three hundred and sixty years had been victorious in all its
wars. When those who carried with them all their hope and resources,
parted with the others, who had determined not to survive the ruin of
their captured city; both the circumstance itself and the appearance
[it exhibited] was really distressing, and also the weeping of the
women, and their undecided running together, following now these, now
those, and asking their husbands and children what was to become of
them, [all together] left nothing that could be added to human misery.
A great many of them, however, escorted their friends into the citadel,
no one either preventing or inviting them; because the measure which
was advantageous to the besieged, that of reducing the number of
useless persons, was but little in accordance with humanity. The rest
of the crowd, chiefly plebeians, whom so small a hill could not
contain, nor could they be supported amid such a scarcity of corn,
pouring out of the city as if in one continued train, repaired to the
Janiculum. From thence some were dispersed through the country, some
made for the neighbouring cities, without any leader or concert,
following each his own hopes, his own plans, those of the public being
given up as lost. In the mean time the Flamen Quirinalis and the vestal
virgins, laying aside all concern for their own affairs, consulting
which of the sacred deposits should be carried with them, which should
be left behind, for they had not strength to carry them all, or what
place would best preserve them in safe custody, consider it best to put
them into casks and to bury them in the chapel adjoining to the
residence of the Flamen Quirinalis, where now it is profane to spit
out. The rest they carry away with them, after dividing the burden
among themselves, by the road which leads by the Sublician bridge to
the Janiculum. When Lucius Albinius, a Roman plebeian, who was
conveying his wife and children in a waggon, beheld them on that ascent
among the rest of the crowd which was leaving the city as unfit to
carry arms; even then the distinction of things divine and human being
preserved, considering it an outrage on religion, that the public
priests and sacred utensils of the Roman people should go on foot and
be carried, that he and his family should be seen in a carriage, he
commanded his wife and children to alight, placed the virgins and
sacred utensils in the vehicle, and carried them on to Cære, whither
the priests had intended to go.
41. Meanwhile at Rome all arrangements being now made, as far as was
possible in such an emergency, for the defence of the citadel, the
crowd of aged persons having returned to their houses, awaited the
enemy's coming with minds firmly prepared for death. Such of them as
had borne curule offices, in order that they may die in the insignia of
their former station, honours, and merit, arraying themselves in the
most magnificent garments worn by those drawing the chariots of the
gods in procession, or by persons riding in triumph, seated themselves
in their ivory chairs, in the middle of their halls. Some say that they
devoted themselves for their country and the citizens of Rome, Marcus
Fabius, the chief pontiff, dictating the form of words. The Gauls, both
because by the intervention of the night they had abated all angry
feelings arising from the irritation of battle, and because they had on
no occasion fought a well-disputed fight, and were then not taking the
city by storm or violence, entering the city the next day, free from
resentment or heat of passion, through the Colline gate which lay open,
advance into the forum, casting their eyes around on the temples of the
gods, and on the citadel, which alone exhibited any appearance of war.
From thence, after leaving a small guard, lest any attack should be
made on them whilst scattered, from the citadel or Capitol, they
dispersed in quest of plunder; the streets being entirely desolate,
rush some of them in a body into the houses that were nearest; some
repair to those which were most distant, considering these to be
untouched and abounding with spoil. Afterwards being terrified by the
very solitude, lest any stratagem of the enemy should surprise them
whilst being dispersed, they returned in bodies into the forum and the
parts adjoining to the forum, where the houses of the commons being
shut, and the halls of the leading men lying open, almost greater
backwardness was felt to attack the open than the shut houses; so
completely did they behold with a sort of veneration men sitting in the
porches of the palaces, who besides their ornaments and apparel more
august than human, bore a striking resemblance to gods, in the majesty
which their looks and the gravity of their countenance displayed.
Whilst they stood gazing on these as on statues, it is said that Marcus
Papirius, one of them, roused the anger of a Gaul by striking him on
the head with his ivory, while he was stroking his beard, which was
then universally worn long; and that the commencement of the bloodshed
began with him, that the rest were slain in their seats. After the
slaughter of the nobles, no person whatever was spared; the houses were
plundered, and when emptied were set on fire.
42. But whether it was that all were not possessed with a desire of
destroying the city, or it had been so determined by the leading men of
the Gauls, both that some fires should be presented to their view, [to
see] if the besieged could be forced into a surrender through affection
for their dwellings, and that all the houses should not be burned down,
so that whatever portion should remain of the city, they might hold as
a pledge to work upon the minds of the enemy; the fire by no means
spread either indiscriminately or extensively on the first day, as is
usual in a captured city. The Romans beholding from the citadel the
city filled with the enemy, and their running to and fro through all
the streets, some new calamity presenting itself in every different
quarter, were neither able to preserve their presence of mind, nor even
to have perfect command of their ears and eyes. To whatever direction
the shouts of the enemy, the cries of women and children, the crackling
of the flames, and the crash of falling houses, had called their
attention, thither, terrified at every incident, they turned their
thoughts, faces, and eyes, as if placed by fortune to be spectators of
their falling country, and as if left as protectors of no other of
their effects, except their own persons: so much more to be
commiserated than any others who were ever besieged, because, shut out
from their country, they were besieged, beholding all their effects in
the power of the enemy. Nor was the night, which succeeded so
shockingly spent a day, more tranquil; daylight then followed a
restless night; nor was there any time which failed to produce the
sight of some new disaster. Loaded and overwhelmed by so many evils,
they did not at all abate their determination, [resolved,] though they
should see every thing in flames and levelled to the dust, to defend by
their bravery the hill which they occupied, small and ill provided as
it was, being left [as a refuge] for liberty. And now, as the same
events recurred every day, as if habituated to misfortunes, they
abstracted their thoughts from all feeling of their circumstances,
regarding their arms only, and the swords in their right hands, as the
sole remnants of their hopes.
43. The Gauls also, after having for several days waged an
ineffectual war against the buildings of the city, when they saw that
among the fires and ruins of the captured city nothing now remained
except armed enemies, neither terrified by so many disasters, nor
likely to turn their thoughts to a surrender, unless force were
employed, determine to have recourse to extremities, and to make an
attack on the citadel. A signal being given at break of day, their
entire multitude is marshalled in the forum; thence, after raising the
shout and forming a testudo, they advance to the attack. Against whom
the Romans, acting neither rashly nor precipitately, having
strengthened the guards at every approach, and opposing the main
strength of their men in that quarter where they saw the battalions
advancing, suffer the enemy to ascend, judging that the higher they
ascended, the more easily would they be driven back down the steep.
About the middle of the ascent they met them: and making a charge
thence from the higher ground, which of itself bore them against the
enemy, they routed the Gauls with slaughter and destruction, so that
never after, either in parties or with their whole force, did they try
that kind of fighting. Laying aside all hope of succeeding by force of
arms, they prepare for a blockade; of which having had no idea up to
that time, they had, whilst burning the city, destroyed whatever corn
had been therein, and during those very days all the provisions had
been carried off from the land to Veii. Accordingly, dividing their
army, they resolved that one part should plunder through the
neighbouring states, that the other part should carry on the siege of
the citadel, so that the ravagers of the country might supply the
besiegers with corn.
44. The Gauls, who marched from the city, were led by fortune
herself, to make trial of Roman valour, to Ardea, where Camillus was in
exile: who, more distressed by the fortune of the public than his own,
whilst he now pined away arraigning gods and men, fired with
indignation, and wondering where were now those men who with him had
taken Veii and Falerii, who had conducted other wars rather by their
own valour than by the favour of fortune, hears on a sudden that the
army of the Gauls was approaching, and that the people of Ardea in
consternation were met in council on the subject. And as if moved by
divine inspiration, after he advanced into the midst of the assembly,
having hitherto been accustomed to absent himself from such meetings,
he says, “People of Ardea, my friends of old, of late my
fellow-citizens also, since your kindness so ordered it, and my good
fortune achieved it, let no one of you suppose that I have come forward
here forgetful of my condition; but the [present] case and the common
danger obliges every one to contribute to the common good whatever
service he can in our present alarming situation. And when shall I
repay you for your so very important services to me, if I now be
remiss? or where will you derive benefit from me, if not in war? By
this accomplishment I maintained my rank in my native country: and,
unconquered in war, I was banished during peace by my ungrateful
fellow-citizens. To you, men of Ardea, a favourable opportunity has
been presented of making a return for all the former favours conferred
by the Roman people, such as you yourselves remember, (for which
reason, as being mindful of them, you are not to be upbraided with
them,) and of obtaining great military renown for this your city over
the common enemy. The nation, which now approaches in disorderly march,
is one to which nature has given great spirits and bodies rather huge
than firm. Let the disaster of Rome serve as a proof. They captured the
city when lying open to them; a small handful of men from the citadel
and Capitol withstand them. Already tired out by the slow process of a
siege, they retire and spread themselves through the country. Gorged
with food and wine hastily swallowed, when night comes on they stretch
themselves indiscriminately, like brutes, near streams of water,
without entrenchment, without guards or advanced posts; more incautious
even now than usual in consequence of success. If you then are disposed
to defend your own walls, and not to suffer all these places to become
Gaul, take up arms in a full body at the first watch: follow me to
slaughter, not to battle. If I do not deliver them up to you fettered
by sleep, to be butchered like cattle, I decline not the same issue of
my affairs at Ardea as I had at Rome.”
45. Both friends and enemies were satisfied that there existed no
where at that time a man of equal military talent. The assembly being
dismissed, they refresh themselves, carefully watching the moment the
signal should be given; which being given, during the silence of the
beginning of the night they attended Camillus at the gates. Having gone
forth to no great distance from the city, they found the camp of the
Gauls, as had been foretold, unprotected and neglected on every side,
and attack it with a shout. No fight any where, but slaughter every
where; their bodies, naked and relaxed with sleep, are cut to pieces.
Those most remote, however, being roused from their beds, not knowing
what the tumult was, or whence it came, were directed to flight, and
some of them, without perceiving it, into the midst of the enemy. A
great number flying into the territory of Antium, an attack being made
on them in their straggling march by the townspeople, were surrounded
and cut off. A like carnage was made of the Tuscans in the Veientian
territory; who were so far from compassionating the city which had now
been its neighbour for nearly four hundred years, overpowered as it now
was by a strange and unheard-of enemy, that at that very time they made
incursions on the Roman territory; and laden with plunder, had it in
contemplation to lay siege to Veii, the bulwark and last hope of the
Roman race. The Roman soldiers had seen them straggling over the
country, and collected in a body, driving the spoil before them, and
they perceived their camp pitched at no great distance from Veii. Upon
this, first self-commiseration, then indignation, and after that
resentment, took possession of their minds: “Were their calamities to
be a subject of mockery to the Etrurians, from whom they had turned off
the Gallic war on themselves?” Scarce could they curb their passions,
so as to refrain from attacking them at the moment; and being
restrained by Quintus Cædicius, the centurion, whom they had appointed
their commander, they deferred the matter until night. A leader equal
to Camillus was all that was wanted; in other respects matters were
conducted in the same order and with the same fortunate result. And
further, under the guidance of some prisoners, who had survived the
nightly slaughter, they set out to Salinæ against another body of
Tuscans, they suddenly made on the following night still greater havoc,
and returned to Veii exulting in their double victory.
46. Meanwhile, at Rome, the siege, in general, was slow, and there
was quiet on both sides, the Gauls being intent only on this, that none
of the enemy should escape from between their posts; when, on a sudden,
a Roman youth drew on himself the admiration both of his countrymen and
the enemy. There was a sacrifice solemnized at stated times by the
Fabian family on the Quirinal hill. To perform this Caius Fabius Dorso
having descended from the Capitol, in the Gabine cincture, carrying in
his hands the sacred utensils, passed out through the midst of the
enemy's post, without being at all moved by the calls or threats of any
of them, and reached the Quirinal hill; and after duly performing there
the solemn rites, coming back by the same way with the same firm
countenance and gait, confident that the gods were propitious, whose
worship he had not even neglected when prohibited by the fear of death,
he returned to the Capitol to his friends, the Gauls being either
astounded at such an extraordinary manifestation of boldness, or moved
even by religious considerations, of which the nation is by no means
regardless. In the mean time, not only the courage, but the strength of
those at Veii increased daily, not only those Romans repairing thither
from the country who had strayed away after the unsuccessful battle, or
the disaster of the city being taken, but volunteers also flowing in
from Latium, to come in for share of the spoil. It now seemed high time
that their country should be recovered and rescued from the hands of
the enemy. But a head was wanting to this strong body. The very spot
put them in mind of Camillus, and a considerable part consisted of
soldiers who had fought successfully under his guidance and auspices:
and Cædicius declared that he would not give occasion that any one,
whether god or man, should terminate his command rather than that,
mindful of his own rank, he would himself call (for the appointment of)
a general. With universal consent it was resolved that Camillus should
be sent for from Ardea, but not until the senate at Rome were first
consulted: so far did a sense of propriety regulate every proceeding,
and so carefully did they observe the distinctions of things in their
almost desperate circumstances. They had to pass at great risk through
the enemy's guards. For this purpose a spirited youth, Pontius
Cominius, offered his services, and supporting himself on cork was
carried down the Tiber to the city. From thence, where the distance
from the bank was shortest, he makes his way into the Capitol over a
portion of the rock that was craggy, and therefore neglected by the
enemy's guard: and being conducted to the magistrates, he delivers the
instructions received from the army. Then having received a decree of
the senate, both that Camillus should be recalled from exile at the
comitia curiata, and be forthwith appointed dictator by order of the
people, and that the soldiers should have the general whom they wished,
he passed out the same way and proceeded with his despatches to Veii;
and deputies being sent to Camillus to Ardea, conducted him to Veii: or
else the law was passed by the curiæ, and he was nominated dictator in
his absence; for I am more inclined to believe that he did not set out
from Ardea until he found that the law was passed; because he could
neither change his residence without an order of the people, nor hold
the privilege of the auspices in the army until he was nominated
dictator.
47. Whilst these things were going on at Veii, in the mean while the
citadel and Capitol of Rome were in great danger. For the Gauls either
having perceived the track of a human foot where the messenger from
Veii had passed, or having of themselves remarked the easy ascent by
the rock at the temple of Carmentis, on a moonlight night, after they
had at first sent forward an unarmed person, to make trial of the way,
delivering their arms, whenever any difficulty occurred, alternately
supported and supporting each other, and drawing each other up,
according as the ground required, they reached the summit in such
silence, that they not only escaped the notice of the sentinels, but of
the dogs also, an animal extremely wakeful with respect to noises by
night. The notice of the geese they did not escape, which, as being
sacred to Juno, were spared though they were in the greatest scarcity
of food. Which circumstance was the cause of their preservation. For
Marcus Manlius, who three years before had been consul, a man
distinguished in war, being aroused from sleep by their cackling and
the clapping of their wings, snatched up his arms, and at the same time
calling the others to do the same, proceeds to the spot; and whilst the
others are thrown into confusion, he struck with the boss of his shield
and tumbles down a Gaul, who had already got footing on the summit; and
when the fall of this man as he tumbled threw down those who were next
him, he slew others, who in their consternation had thrown away their
arms, and caught hold of the rocks to which they clung. And now the
others also having assembled beat down the enemy by javelins and
stones, and the entire band, having lost their footing, were hurled
down the precipice in promiscuous ruin. The alarm then subsiding, the
remainder of the night was given up to repose, (as far as could be done
considering the disturbed state of their minds,) when the danger, even
though past, still kept them in a state of anxiety. Day having
appeared, the soldiers were summoned by sound of trumpet to attend the
tribunes in assembly, when recompence was to be made both to merit and
to demerit; Manlius was first of all commended for his bravery and
presented with gifts, not only by the military tribunes, but with the
consent of the soldiers, for they all carried to his house, which was
in the citadel, a contribution of half a pound of corn and half a pint
of wine: a matter trifling in the relation, but the [prevailing]
scarcity had rendered it a strong proof of esteem, when each man,
depriving himself of his own food, contributed in honour of one man a
portion subtracted from his body and from his necessary requirements.
Then the guards of that place where the enemy had climbed up
unobserved, were summoned; and when Quintus Sulpicius declared openly
that he would punish all according to the usage of military discipline,
being deterred by the consentient shout of the soldiers who threw the
blame on one sentinel, he spared the rest. The man, who was manifestly
guilty of the crime, he threw down from the rock, with the approbation
of all. From this time forth the guards on both sides became more
vigilant; on the part of the Gauls, because a rumour spread that
messengers passed between Veii and Rome, and on that of the Romans,
from the recollection of the danger which occurred during the night.
48. But beyond all the evils of siege and war, famine distressed
both armies; pestilence, moreover, [oppressed] the Gauls, both as being
encamped in a place lying between hills, as well as heated by the
burning of the houses, and full of exhalations, and sending up not only
ashes but embers also, whenever the wind rose to any degree; and as the
nation, accustomed to moisture and cold, is most intolerant of these
annoyances, and, suffering severely from the heat and suffocation, they
were dying, the diseases spreading as among cattle, now becoming weary
of burying separately, they heaped up the bodies promiscuously and
burned them; and rendered the place remarkable by the name of Gallic
piles. A truce was now made with the Romans, and conferences were held
with the permission of the commanders; in which when the Gauls
frequently alluded to the famine, and referred to the urgency of that
as a further motive for their surrendering, for the purpose of removing
that opinion, bread is said to have been thrown in many places from the
Capitol, into the advanced posts of the enemy. But the famine could
neither be dissembled nor endured any longer. Accordingly, whilst the
dictator is engaged in person in holding a levy, in ordering his master
of the horse, Lucius Valerius, to bring up the troops from Veii, in
making preparations and arrangements, so that he may attack the enemy
on equal terms, in the mean time the army of the Capitol, wearied out
with keeping guard and with watches, having surmounted all human
sufferings, whilst nature would not suffer famine alone to be overcome,
looking forward from day to day, to see whether any succour would come
from the dictator, at length not only food but hope also failing, and
their arms weighing down their debilitated bodies, whilst the guards
were being relieved, insisted that there should be either a surrender,
or that they should be bought off, on whatever terms were possible, the
Gauls intimating in rather plain terms, that they could be induced for
no very great compensation to relinquish the siege. Then the senate was
held and instructions were given to the military tribunes to
capitulate. Upon this the matter was settled between Quintus Sulpicius,
a military tribune, and Brennus, the chieftain of the Gauls, and one
thousand pounds' weight of gold was agreed on as the ransom of a
people, who were soon after to be the rulers of the world. To a
transaction very humiliating in itself, insult was added. False weights
were brought by the Gauls, and on the tribune objecting, his sword was
thrown in in addition to the weight by the insolent Gaul, and an
expression was heard intolerable to the Romans, “Woe to the
vanquished!”
49. But both gods and men interfered to prevent the Romans from
living on the condition of being ransomed; for by some chance, before
the execrable price was completed, all the gold being not yet weighed
in consequence of the altercation, the dictator comes up, and orders
the gold to be removed, and the Gauls to clear away. When they, holding
out against him, affirmed that they had concluded a bargain, he denied
that the agreement was a valid one, which had been entered into with a
magistrate of inferior authority without his orders, after he had been
nominated dictator; and he gives notice to the Gauls to get ready for
battle. He orders his men to throw their baggage in a heap, and to get
ready their arms, and to recover their country with steel, not with
gold, having before their eyes the temples of the gods, and their wives
and children, and the soil of their country disfigured by the
calamities of war, and all those objects which they were solemnly bound
to defend, to recover, and to revenge. He then draws up his army, as
the nature of the place admitted, on the site of the half-demolished
city, and which was uneven by nature, and he secured all those
advantages for his own men, which could be prepared or selected by
military skill. The Gauls, thrown into confusion by the unexpected
event, take up arms, and with rage, rather than good judgment, rushed
upon the Romans. Fortune had now changed; now the aid of the gods and
human prudence assisted the Roman cause. At the first encounter,
therefore, the Gauls were routed with no greater difficulty than they
had found in gaining the victory at Allia. They were afterwards beaten
under the conduct and auspices of the same Camillus, in a more regular
engagement, at the eighth stone on the Gabine road, whither they had
betaken themselves after their defeat. There the slaughter was
universal: their camp was taken, and not even one person was left to
carry news of the defeat. The dictator, after having recovered his
country from the enemy, returns into the city in triumph; and among the
rough military jests which they throw out [on such occasions] he is
styled, with praises by no means undeserved, Romulus, and parent of his
country, and a second founder of the city. His country, thus preserved
by arms, he unquestionably saved a second time in peace, when he
hindered the people from removing to Veii, both the tribunes pressing
the matter with greater earnestness after the burning of the city, and
the commons of themselves being more inclined to that measure; and that
was the cause of his not resigning his dictatorship after the triumph,
the senate entreating him not to leave the commonwealth in so unsettled
a state.
50. First of all, he proposed matters appertaining to the immortal
gods; for he was a most scrupulous observer of religious duties; and he
procures a decree of the senate, “that all the temples, as the enemy
had possessed them, should be restored, their bounds traced, and
expiations made for them, and that the form of expiation should be
sought in the books by the decemvirs; that a league of hospitality
should be entered into by public authority with the people of Cære,
because they had afforded a reception to the sacred utensils of the
Roman people and to their priests; and because, by the kindness of that
people, the worship of the immortal gods had not been intermitted; that
Capitoline games should be exhibited, for that Jupiter, supremely good
and great, had protected his own mansion and the citadel of the Roman
people when in danger; and that Marcus Furius, the dictator, should
establish a college for that purpose, out of those who should inhabit
the Capitol and citadel.” Mention was also introduced of expiating the
voice heard by night, which had been heard announcing the calamity
before the Gallic war, and neglected, and a temple was ordered in the
New Street to Aius Locutius. The gold, which had been rescued from the
Gauls, and that also which during the alarm had been collected from the
other temples into the recess of Jupiter's temple, the recollection
being confused as to the temples to which it should be carried back,
was all judged to be sacred, and ordered to be placed under the throne
of Jupiter. Already the religious scruples of the state had appeared in
this, that when gold was wanting for public uses, to make up for the
Gauls the amount of the ransom agreed upon, they had accepted that
which was contributed by the matrons, so that they might not touch the
sacred gold. Thanks were returned to the matrons, and to this was added
the honour of their having funeral orations pronounced on them after
death, in the same manner as the men. Those things being finished which
appertained to the gods, and such measures as could be transacted
through the senate, then, at length, as the tribunes were teasing the
commons by their unceasing harangues, to leave the ruins, to remove to
Veii, a city ready prepared for them, being escorted by the entire
senate, he ascends the tribunal, and spoke as follows:
51. “Romans, so disagreeable to me are contentions with the tribunes
of the people, that in my most melancholy exile, whilst I resided at
Ardea, I had no other consolation than that I was removed from these
contests; and for this same reason I would never have returned, even
though you recalled me by a decree of the senate, and by order of the
people. Nor has it been any change in my own sentiments, but in your
fortune, that has persuaded me to return now. For the question was that
my country should remain in its own established seat, not that I should
reside in my country. And on the present occasion I would gladly remain
quiet and silent, were not the present struggle also appertaining to my
country's interests, to be wanting to which, as long as life lasts,
were base in others, in Camillus impious. For why have we recovered it?
Why have we rescued it when besieged out of the hands of the enemy, if
we ourselves desert it when recovered? And when, the Gauls being
victorious, the entire city captured, both the gods and the natives of
Rome still retained and inhabited the Capitol and citadel, shall even
the citadel and the Capitol be deserted, now when the Romans are
victorious and the city has been recovered? And shall our prosperous
fortune cause more desolation to this city than our adverse caused?
Truly if we had no religious institutions established together with the
city, and regularly transmitted down to us, still the divine power has
so manifestly interested itself in behalf of the Roman state on the
present trying occasion, that I should think that all neglect of the
divine worship was removed from the minds of men. For consider the
events of these latter years one after the other, whether prosperous or
adverse; you will find that all things succeeded favourably with us
whilst we followed the gods, and unfavourably when we neglected them.
Now, first of all the Veientian war—of how many years' duration, with
what immense labour waged!—was not brought to a termination, until the
water was discharged from the Alban lake by the admonition of the gods.
What, in the name of heaven, regarding this recent calamity of our
city? did it arise, until the voice sent from heaven concerning the
approach of the Gauls was treated with slight? until the law of nations
was violated by our ambassadors, and until such violation was passed
over by us with the same indifference towards the gods, when it should
have been punished by us? Accordingly vanquished, made captives and
ransomed, we have suffered such punishments at the hands of gods and
men, as that we are now a warning to the whole world. Afterwards our
misfortunes reminded us of our religious duties. We fled for refuge to
the gods, to the seat of Jupiter supremely good and great; amid the
ruin of all our effects our sacred utensils we partly concealed in the
earth; part of them we carried away to the neighbouring cities and
removed from the eyes of the enemy. Though deserted by gods and men,
still we intermitted not the worship of the gods. Accordingly they have
restored to us our country, and victory, our ancient renown in war
which had been lost, and on our enemies, who, blinded by avarice, have
violated the faith of a treaty with respect to the weight of gold, they
have turned dismay, and flight, and slaughter.
52. “When you behold such striking instances of the effects of
honouring or neglecting the deity, do you perceive what an act of
impiety we are about to perpetrate, scarcely emerging from the wreck of
our former misconduct and calamity? We possess a city founded under
auspices and auguries; not a spot is there in it that is not full of
religious rites and of the gods: the days for the anniversary
sacrifices are not more definitely stated, than are the places in which
they are to be performed. All these gods, both public and private, do
ye, Romans, pretend to forsake. What similarity does your conduct bear
[to that] which lately during the siege was beheld with no less
admiration by the enemy than by yourselves in that excellent Caius
Fabius, when he descended from the citadel amid the Gallic weapons, and
performed on the Quirinal hill the solemn rites of the Fabian family?
Is it your wish that the family religious rites should not be
intermitted even during war, but that the public rites and the Roman
gods should be deserted even in time of peace, and that the pontiffs
and flamens should be more negligent of public religious ceremonies,
than a private individual in the anniversary rite of a particular
family? Perhaps some one may say, that we will either perform these
duties at Veii, or that we will send our priests hither from thence in
order to perform them; neither of which can be done, without infringing
on the established forms. For not to enumerate all the sacred rites
severally and all the gods, whether in the banquet of Jupiter can the
lectisternium be performed in any other place, save in the Capitol?
What shall I say of the eternal fire of Vesta, and of the statue,
which, as the pledge of empire, is kept under the safeguard of her
temple? What, O Mars Gradivus, and you, father Quirinus, of your
Ancilia? Is it right that these sacred things, coeval with the city,
some of them more ancient than the origin of the city, should be
abandoned to profanation? And, observe the difference existing between
us and our ancestors. They handed down to us certain sacred rites to be
performed by us on the Alban and on the Lavinian mounts. Was it in
conformity with religion that these sacred rites were transferred to us
to Rome from the cities of our enemies? shall we transfer them hence to
Veii, an enemy's city, without impiety? Come, recollect how often
sacred rites are performed anew, because some ceremony of our country
had been omitted through negligence or accident. On a late occasion,
what circumstance, after the prodigy of the Alban lake, proved a remedy
to the state distressed by the Veientian war, but the repetition of the
sacred rites and the renewal of the auspices? But further, as if duly
mindful of ancient religious usages, we have both transferred foreign
deities to Rome, and have established new ones. Very recently, imperial
Juno was transferred from Veii, and had her dedication performed on a
day how distinguished for the extraordinary zeal of the matrons, and
with what a full attendance! We have directed a temple to be erected to
Aius Locutius, in consequence of the heavenly voice heard in the New
Street. To our other solemnities we have added the Capitoline games,
and, by direction of the senate, we have founded a new college for that
purpose. Which of these things need we have done, if we were to leave
the Roman city together with the Gauls? if it was not voluntarily we
remained in the Capitol for so many months of siege; if we were
retained by the enemy through motives of fear? We are speaking of the
sacred rites and of the temples; what, pray, of the priests? Does it
not occur to you, what a degree of profaneness would be committed in
respect of them. The Vestals, forsooth, have but that one settlement,
from which nothing ever disturbed them, except the capture of the city.
It is an act of impiety for the flamen Dialis to remain for a single
night without the city. Do ye mean to make them Veientian instead of
Roman priests? And shall the virgins forsake thee, O Vesta? And shall
the flamen by living abroad draw on himself and on his country such a
weight of guilt every night? What of the other things, all of which we
transact under auspices within the Pomærium, to what oblivion, to what
neglect do we consign them? The assemblies of the Curias, which
comprise military affairs; the assemblies of the Centuries, at which
you elect consuls and military tribunes, when can they be held under
auspices, unless where they are wont [to be held]? Shall we transfer
them to Veii? or whether for the purpose of holding their elections
shall the people assemble at so great inconvenience into a city
deserted by gods and men?
53. “But the case itself forces us to leave a city desolated by fire
and ruin, and remove to Veii, where all things are entire, and not to
distress the needy commons by building here. But that this is only held
out as a pretext, rather than that it is the real motive, I think is
evident to you, though I should say nothing on the subject; for you
remember that before the arrival of the Gauls, when the buildings, both
public and private, were still unhurt, and the city still stood in
safety, this same question was agitated, that we should remove to Veii.
Observe then, tribunes, what a difference there is between my way of
thinking and yours. Ye think that though it may not have been advisable
to do it then, still that now it ought certainly to be done; I, on the
contrary, (and be not surprised until you shall have heard the state of
the case,) admitting it were advisable to remove when the entire city
was safe, would not vote for relinquishing these ruins now. For then
victory would be the cause of our removing into a captured city, one
that would be glorious to ourselves and our posterity; whilst now this
same removal would be wretched and disgraceful to us, and glorious to
the Gauls. For we shall appear not to have left our country as
conquerors, but to have lost it from having been vanquished; the flight
at Allia, the capture of the city, the blockading of the Capitol, [will
seem] to have imposed this necessity on us of forsaking our household
gods, of having recourse to exile and flight from that place which we
were unable to defend. And have the Gauls been able to demolish Rome,
which the Romans shall be deemed to have been unable to restore? What
remains, but that if they should now come with new forces, (for it is
evident that their number is scarcely credible,) and should they feel
disposed to dwell in this city, captured by them, and deserted by you,
would you suffer them? What, if not the Gauls, but your old enemies,
the Æquans and Volscians, should form the design of removing to Rome;
would you be willing that they should become Romans, you Veientians?
Would ye prefer that this should be a desert in your possession, or a
city of the enemy? For my part I can see nothing more impious. Is it
because ye are averse to building, ye are prepared to incur this guilt,
this disgrace? Even though no better, no more ample structure could be
erected throughout the entire city than that cottage of our founder, is
it not better to dwell in cottages, like shepherds and rustics, amid
your sacred places and your household gods, than to go publicly into
exile? Our forefathers, strangers and shepherds, when there was nothing
in these places but woods and marshes, erected a new city in a very
short time; do we, with a Capitol and citadel safe, and the temples of
the gods still standing, feel it irksome to build up what has been
burnt? and what we individually would have done, if our private
residence had been burned down, shall we as a body refuse to do in the
case of a public conflagration?
54. “What, if by some evil design of accident a fire should break
out at Veii, and the flames spread by the wind, as may happen, should
consume a considerable portion of the city; are we then to seek Fidenæ,
or Gabii, or any other city to remove to? Has our native soil so slight
a hold on us, or this earth which we call mother; or does our love of
country lie merely in the surface and in the timber of the houses? For
my part, I will acknowledge to you, whilst I was absent, though I am
less disposed to remember this as the effect of your injustice than of
my own misfortune, as often as my country came into my mind, all these
circumstances occurred to me, the hills, the plains, the Tiber, the
face of the country familiar to my eyes, and this sky, beneath which I
had been born and educated; may these now induce you, by their
endearing hold on you, to remain in your present settlement, rather
than they should cause you to pine away through regret, after having
left them. Not without good reason did gods and men select this place
for founding a city: these most healthful hills; a commodious river, by
means of which the produce of the soil may be conveyed from the inland
countries, by which maritime supplies may be obtained; close enough to
the sea for all purposes of convenience, and not exposed by too much
proximity to the dangers of foreign fleets; a situation in the centre
of the regions of Italy, singularly adapted by nature for the increase
of a city. The very size of so new a city is a proof. Romans, the
present year is the three hundred and sixty-fifth year of the city; for
so long a time are you waging war amid nations of such long standing;
yet not to mention single cities, neither the Volscians combined with
the Æquans, so many and such strong towns, nor all Etruria, so potent
by land and sea, occupying the breadth of Italy between the two seas,
can cope with you in war. And as the case is so, where, in the name of
goodness, is the wisdom in you who have tried [this situation] to make
trial now of some other, when, though your own valour may be removed
elsewhere, the fortune of this place certainly cannot be transferred?
Here is the Capitol, where, a human head being found, it was foretold
that in that place would be the head of the world, and the chief seat
of empire. Here, when the Capitol was to be freed by the rites of
augury, Juventas and Terminus, to the very great joy of our fathers,
suffered not themselves to be moved. Here is the fire of Vesta, here
the Ancilia sent down from heaven, here are all the gods propitious to
you if you stay.”
55. Camillus is said to have moved them as well by other parts of
his speech, but chiefly by that which related to religious matters. But
an expression seasonably uttered determined the matter whilst still
undecided; for when a meeting of the senate, a little after this, was
being held in the Curia Hostilia regarding these questions, and some
troops returning from relieving guard passed through the forum in their
march, a centurion in the comitium cried out, “Standard-bearer, fix
your standard! it is best for us to remain here.” Which expression
being heard, both the senate came out from the senate-house, and all
cried out that “they embraced the omen,” and the commons, who were
collected around, joined their approbation. The law [under discussion]
being rejected, the building of the city commenced in several parts at
once. Tiles were supplied at the public expense. The privilege of
hewing stone and felling timber wherever each person wished was
granted, security being taken that they would finish the buildings on
that year. Their haste took away all attention to the regulating the
course of the streets, whilst, setting aside all distinction of
property, they build on any part that was vacant. That is the reason
why the ancient sewers, at first conducted through the public streets,
now in many places pass under private houses, and why the form of the
city appears more like one taken up by individuals, than regularly
portioned out [by commissioners].