Disturbances about the agrarian laws. The Capitol surprised
by
exiles and slaves. Quintius Cincinnatus called from the
cultivation
of his farm in the country, made dictator, and appointed to
conduct
the war against the Æquans. He conquers the enemy, and makes
them
pass under the yoke. The number of the tribunes increased to
ten.
Decemvirs, appointed for the purpose of digesting and
publishing a
body of laws. These having promulgated a code of laws
contained in
ten tables, obtain a continuation of their authority for
another
year, during which they add two more to the former ten tables.
Refusing to resign their office, they retain it a third year.
Their
conduct at first equitable and just; afterwards arbitrary and
tyrannical. The commons, in consequence of the base attempt of
Appius Claudius, one of them, to debauch the daughter of
Virginius,
seize on the Aventine mount, and oblige them to resign. Appius
and
Oppius, two of the most obnoxious, are thrown into prison,
where
they put an end to their own lives; the rest are driven into
exile.
War with the Sabines, Volscians, and Æquans.—Unfair decision
of
the Roman people, who being chosen arbitrators between the
people
of Ardea and Aricia concerning some disputed lands, adjudge
them to
themselves.
1. After the taking of Antium, Titus Æmilius and Quintus Fabius are
elected consuls. This was the Fabius Quintus who alone had survived the
family cut off at Cremera. Already, in his former consulate, Æmilius
had been an adviser of giving land to the people. Accordingly in his
second consulate also both the abettors of the agrarian law had raised
themselves to the hope of carrying the measure, and the tribunes,
supposing that a matter frequently attempted in opposition to both
consuls might be obtained with the assistance at least of one consul,
take it up, and the consul remained stedfast in his sentiments. The
possessors and a considerable part of the patricians complaining that a
person at the head of the state was recommending himself by his
tribunitial proceedings, and that he was making himself popular by
giving away other persons' property, had transferred the odium of the
entire affair from the tribunes to the consul. A violent contest was at
hand, had not Fabius set the matter straight, by an expedient
disagreeable to neither party, “that under the conduct and auspices of
Titus Quintius, there was a considerable tract of land taken the
preceding year from the Volscians; that a colony might be sent to
Antium, a neighbouring, convenient, and maritime city; that the commons
might come in for lands without any complaints of the present
occupiers, that the state might remain in quiet.” This proposition was
accepted. He appoints as triumvirs for distributing the land, Titus
Quintius, Aulus Virginius, and Publius Furius: those who wished to
obtain land were ordered to give in their names. The gratification of
their aim begat disgust, as usually happens; so few gave in their names
that Volscian colonists were added to fill up the number: the rest of
the people preferred clamouring for land in Rome, rather than receive
it elsewhere. The Æquans sued for peace from Quintus Fabius, (he was
sent thither with an army,) and they themselves broke it by a sudden
incursion into the Latin territory.
2. In the following year Quintus Servilius, (for he was consul with
Spurius Posthumius,) being sent against the Æquans, fixed his camp in
the Latin territory: inaction necessarily kept the army within the
camp, involved as they were in a distemper. The war was protracted to
the third year, Quintus Fabius and Titus Quintius being consuls. To
Fabius, because he, as conqueror, had granted[105] peace to the Æquans,
that province was assigned by an extraordinary commission: who, setting
out with certain hope that the fame of his name would reduce the Æquans
to submission, sent ambassadors to the council of the nation, and
ordered them to say “that Quintus Fabius, the consul, stated that he
had brought peace to Rome from the Æquans, that from Rome he now
brought war to the Æquans, that same right hand being armed, which he
had formerly given to them in amity; that the gods were now witnesses,
and would presently be avengers of those by whose perfidy and perjury
that was brought to pass. That he, however, be matters as they might,
would even now prefer that the Æquans should repent of their own accord
than be subject to the vengeance of an enemy. If they repent, that
there would be a safe retreat in that clemency already experienced; but
if they still delighted in perjury, they would wage war with the angry
gods rather than with enemies.” This statement had so little effect on
any of them, that the ambassadors were near being ill-treated, and an
army was sent to Algidum against the Romans. When these tidings were
brought to Rome, the indignity of the affair, rather than the danger,
called out the other consul from the city; thus two consular armies
advanced against the enemy in order of battle, so that they might at
once engage. But as it so happened that much of the day did not now
remain, a person from the advanced guard of the enemy cries out, “This
is making a display of war, Romans, not waging it; you draw up your
army in line of battle, when night is at hand; we require a greater
length of day-light for the contest which is to come on. To-morrow by
sun-rise return to the field: you shall have an opportunity of
fighting, never fear.” The soldiers, stung by these threats, are
marched back into the camp till the following day; thinking that the
approaching night was tedious, which would cause delay to the contest.
Then indeed they refresh their bodies with food and sleep: on the
following day, when it was light, the Roman army took their post
considerably sooner. At length the Æquans also came forward. The battle
was obstinate on both sides, because both the Romans fought under the
influence of resentment and hatred; and a consciousness of danger
brought on by misconduct, and despair of obtaining future confidence
afterwards, obliged the Æquans to exert and have recourse to the most
desperate efforts. The Æquans however did not withstand the Roman
troops, and when on being beaten they had betaken themselves to their
own territories, the outrageous multitude, with dispositions not at all
more disposed to peace, began to chide their leaders: “that their
interest was committed to the hazard of a pitched battle, in which mode
of fighting the Romans were superior. That the Æquans were better
fitted for depredations and incursions, and that several parties acting
in different directions conducted wars more successfully than the
unwieldy mass of one single army.”
[Footnote 105: Dederat. The oratio obliqua would
require dederit here, but such instances of the indicative being
used for the subjunctive are by no means infrequent.]
3. Having left therefore a guard on the camp, they marched out and
attacked the Roman frontiers with such fury, as to carry terror even to
the city: the unexpected nature of the thing also caused more alarm,
because nothing could be less apprehended, than that an enemy,
vanquished and almost besieged in their camp, should entertain a
thought of depredation: and the peasants, in a panic pouring in at the
gates, cried out, that it was not mere plundering, nor small parties of
depredators, but, exaggerating every thing through groundless fear,
that whole armies and legions of the enemy were advancing, and that
they were pushing forward to the city determined for an assault. Those
who were nearest (the gates) carried to others the accounts heard from
these, uncertain as they were, and therefore the more groundless; and
the hurry and confused clamour of those calling to arms bore no distant
resemblance to the panic of a city taken by storm. It so happened that
the consul Quintius had returned to Rome from Algidum; this was some
relief for their terror; and the tumult being calmed, and after chiding
them for being in dread of a vanquished enemy, he posted a guard on the
gates. Then having convened the senate, when he set out to defend the
frontiers, a suspension[106] of civil business having been proclaimed
by a decree of the senate, leaving Quintus Servilius behind as prefect
of the city, he found no enemy in the country. Matters were conducted
with distinguished success by the other consul; who having attacked the
enemy, wherever he knew that they were to come, laden with booty, and
proceeding therefore with their army the more encumbered, made their
depredation prove fatal to them. Few of the enemy escaped from the
ambuscade; all the booty was recovered; thus the return of the consul
Quintius to the city put a termination to the justitium, which lasted
only four days. A census was then held, and the lustrum was closed by
Quintius: the number of citizens rated are said to have been one
hundred and twenty-four thousand two hundred and fourteen, besides
orphans of both sexes. Nothing memorable occurred afterwards among the
Æquans; they betook themselves into their towns, suffering their
possessions to be consumed by fire and to be devastated. The consul,
after he had repeatedly carried depredation through the entire country
of the enemy, returned to Rome with great glory and booty.
[Footnote 106: Justitium—a jure sistendo.]
4. Then Aulus Posthumius Albus and Spurius Furius Fusus were
consuls. Furii some writers have written Fusii; this I mention, lest
any one may imagine that the change, which is only in the names, may be
in the persons themselves. There was no doubt but that one of the
consuls would commence hostilities against the Æquans. The Æquans
accordingly sought aid from the Volscians of Ecetra; which being
granted readily, (so keenly did these states vie in inveterate hatred
against the Romans,) preparations for war were made with the utmost
vigour. The Hernicians came to the knowledge of it, and warned the
Romans that the Ecetrans had revolted to the Æquans; the colony of
Antium also was suspected, because when the town was taken, a great
number of the inhabitants had fled thence for refuge to the Æquans: and
these proved the bravest soldiers during the war with the Æquans.
Afterwards the Æquans being driven into the towns, this rabble
withdrawing privately, when they returned to Antium, seduced from the
Romans the colonists who were already disposed to treachery of their
own accord. The matter not being yet ripe, when it was announced to the
senate that a defection was intended, the consuls were charged to
inquire into the business by summoning to Rome the leading men of the
colony. When those persons attended without reluctance, being conducted
to the senate by the consuls, they so answered to the questions put to
them, that they were dismissed more suspected than they had come. Upon
this war was considered as inevitable. Spurius Fusius, one of the
consuls to whom that province had fallen, having marched against the
Æquans, found the enemy committing depredations in the country of the
Hernicians; and being ignorant of their numbers, because they had never
been seen all together, he rashly hazarded an engagement with an army
not a match for their forces. Being beaten from his ground at the first
onset, he betook himself to his camp: nor was that an end of the
danger: for both on the next night and the following day, his camp was
beset and assaulted with such vigour, that not even a messenger could
be sent from thence to Rome. The Hernicians brought an account both
that a defeat had taken place, and that the army was besieged: and they
struck such terror into the senate, that a charge was given to the
other consul Posthumius, that he should “take care that the
commonwealth sustained no injury,”[107] which form of a decree has ever
been deemed to be one of extreme exigency. It seemed most advisable
that the consul himself should remain at Rome to enlist all who were
able to bear arms: that Titus Quintius should be sent as
pro-consul[108] to the relief of the camp with the army of the allies:
to complete that army the Latins and Hernicians, and the colony of
Antium, were ordered to supply Quintius with subitary soldiers (so they
then called auxiliaries raised for sudden emergencies).
[Footnote 107: According to Stroth, this is the first instance we
have of a decree of the senate arming the consul with almost
dictatorial power.]
[Footnote 108: Pro-consul:—the first mention of a pro-consul
in Livy.]
5. During those days many movements and many attempts were made on
either side, because the enemy, having the advantage in numbers,
attempted to weaken the Roman strength by dividing it into many parts,
as not being likely to suffice for all points of attack. At the same
time the camp was besieged, at the same time a part of the army was
sent to devastate the Roman territory, and to attempt the city itself,
if fortune should favour. Lucius Valerius was left to guard the city:
the consul Postumius was sent to repel the attacks on the frontiers.
There was no abatement in any part either in vigilance or activity;
watches in the city, out-posts before the gates, and guards stationed
along the walls: and a justitium was observed for several days (a thing
which was necessary in such general confusion). In the mean time the
consul Furius, after he had at first passively endured the siege in his
camp, burst forth from the Decuman gate on the enemy when off their
guard; and though he might have pursued them, he stopped through fear,
lest an attack should be made on the camp from the other side. The
lieutenant-general Furius (he was the consul's brother) was carried
away too far by his ardour; nor did he, from his eagerness to pursue,
observe his own party returning, nor the attack of the enemy on his
rear: thus being shut out, after repeatedly making many unavailing
efforts to force his way to the camp, he fell, fighting bravely. And
the consul, turning about to renew the fight, on hearing the account
that his brother was surrounded, rushing into the thick of the fight
rather rashly than with sufficient caution, received a wound, and was
with difficulty rescued by those around him. This both damped the
courage of his own men, and rendered the enemy more daring; who, being
encouraged by the death of the lieutenant-general, and by the consul's
wound, could not afterwards be withstood by any force, so as to prevent
the Romans from being driven within their camp and again submitting to
a siege, as being a match for them neither in hopes nor in strength;
and every thing would have been endangered, had not T. Quintius come to
their relief with foreign troops from the Latin and Hernician army. He
attacked the Æquans on their rear whilst intent on the Roman camp, and
insultingly displaying the head of the lieutenant-general, and, a sally
being made at the same time from the camp on a signal given at a
distance by him, he surrounded a great number of the enemy. Of the
Æquans on the Roman territory the slaughter was less, their dispersion
was more complete. On these as they straggled in different directions,
and were driving plunder before them, Postumius made an attack in
several places, where he had posted convenient detachments; these
straying about and pursuing their flight in great disorder, fell in
with the victorious Quintius as he was returning with the wounded
consul. Then did the consular army by their distinguished bravery take
ample vengeance for the consul's wound, and for the death of the
lieutenant-general and the cohorts; heavy losses were both inflicted
and received on both sides during those days. In a matter of such
antiquity it is difficult to state with certainty the exact number of
those who fought or fell: Antias Valerius, however, ventures to sum
them up; that in the Hernician territory there fell five thousand three
hundred Romans; that of the predatory parties of the Æquans, who
strayed through the Roman frontiers for the purpose of plundering, two
thousand four hundred were slain by the consul Postumius; that the rest
of the body that were driving booty before them, and which fell in with
Quintius, by no means got off with so light a loss: that of these four
thousand, and by way of stating the number exactly, two hundred and
thirty, were slain. After this they returned to Rome; the order for the
justitium was discharged. The sky seemed to be all on fire; and other
prodigies either actually presented themselves to their sight, or
exhibited imaginary appearances to their affrighted minds. To avert
these terrors, a solemn festival of three days was proclaimed, during
which, all the temples were filled with a crowd of men and women,
earnestly imploring the protection of the gods. After this the Latin
and Hernician cohorts were sent back to their respective homes, thanks
having been returned to them for their spirited military services. The
thousand soldiers from Antium were dismissed almost with disgrace,
because they had come after the battle with assistance then too late.
6. The elections were then held: Lucius Æbutius and Publius
Servilius being elected consuls, enter on their office on the calends
of August, which was then considered as the commencement of the
year.[109] This was a distressing time, and it so happened that the
season was pestilential to the city and country, and not more to men
than to cattle; and they increased the malignity of the distemper, by
admitting[110] the cattle and the peasants into the city through dread
of devastation. This collection of animals of every kind mixed
together, distressed both the citizens by the unusual stench, and the
peasants crowded together into their close apartments, with heat, want
of sleep, and their attendance on each other, and contact itself
propagated the disease. Whilst with difficulty sustaining these
calamities, ambassadors from the Hernicians suddenly bring word that
the Æquans and Volscians, having united their forces, had pitched their
camp in their territory, that from thence they were depopulating their
frontiers with an immense army. Besides that the thinness of the senate
was a proof to the allies that the state was prostrated by the
pestilence, they further received this melancholy answer: “That the
Hernicians, with the Latins, must now defend their possessions by their
own exertions. That the Roman city, through the sudden anger of the
gods, was now depopulated by disease. If any respite from that calamity
should come, that they would afford aid to their allies, as they had
done the year before, and always on other occasions.” The allies
departed, carrying home, instead of the melancholy news (they had
brought), news still more melancholy, as being persons who were now
obliged to sustain by their own means a war, which they had sustained
with difficulty when backed by the power of Rome. The enemy did not
confine themselves any longer to the Hernician territory. They proceed
thence with determined hostility into the Roman territories, which were
already devastated without the injuries of war. Where, when there was
no one to meet them, not even an unarmed person, and they passed
through every place destitute not only of troops, but even of the
cultivation of the husbandman, they reached as far as the third stone
on the Gabinian road. Æbutius, the Roman consul, was dead; his
colleague, Servilius, was dragging out life with slender hope of
recovery; most of the leading men, the chief part of the patricians,
all of the military age, were lying sick, so that strength was wanting
not only for the expeditions, which, amid such an alarm the conjuncture
required, but scarcely had they sufficient even for quietly mounting
guard. The senators whose age and health permitted them, discharged
personally the duty of sentinels. The going around[111] and attending
to these was assigned to the ædiles of the people; on them devolved the
chief administration of affairs and the majesty of the consular
authority.
[Footnote 109: Of the year,—i.e. the consular year, not the civil
one, which commenced in January.]
[Footnote 110: A similar measure was adopted at Athens. See Thucyd.
ii. 52.]
[Footnote 111: Circuitio. Stroth observes, that this is what
we understand by 'the Round.']
7. The commonwealth thus desolate, without a head, without strength,
the guardian gods and good fortune of the city saved, which inspired
the Volscians and Æquans with the disposition of banditti rather than
of enemies; for so far was any hope not only of taking but even of
approaching the walls of Rome[112] from taking possession of their
minds, and so thoroughly did the sight of the houses in the distance,
and the adjacent hills, divert their thoughts, (from such an attempt,)
that, a murmur having arisen in every direction throughout the entire
camp, “why they should waste time in indolence without booty in a wild
and desert land, amid the putrid decay of cattle and of human beings,
when they might repair to places uninjured by infection, the Tusculan
territory abounding in wealth?” they suddenly tore up their standards,
and by journeys across the country, they passed through the Lavican
territory to the Tusculan hills; and to that quarter was the whole
violence and storm of the war directed. In the mean time the Hernicians
and Latins, influenced not only by compassion but by shame, if they
neither gave opposition to the common enemy, when making for the city
of Rome with a hostile army, nor afforded any aid to their allies when
besieged, march to Rome with their forces united. Where, when they did
not find the enemy, following their tracks as indicated by rumour, they
meet them as they are coming down from the Tusculan territory into the
Alban valley: there a battle was fought under circumstances by no means
equal; and their fidelity proved by no means favourable to the allies
for the present. The mortality at Rome by disease was not less than
that of the allies by the sword (of the enemy); the only surviving
consul dies; other eminent characters also died, Marcus Valerius, Titus
Virginius Rutilus, the augurs; Servius Sulpicius, principal curio; and
through persons of inferior note the virulence of the disease spread
extensively: and the senate, destitute of human aid, directed the
people's attention to the gods and to prayers; they were ordered to go
to supplicate with their wives and children, and earnestly to implore
the protection of heaven. Besides that their own sufferings obliged
each to do so, when called on by public authority, they fill all the
shrines; the prostrate matrons in every quarter sweeping the temples
with their hair, beg for a remission of the divine displeasure, and a
termination to the pestilence.
[Footnote 112: According to Dionysius, the Volsci attacked Rome on
this occasion.]
8. From this time, whether it was from the favour of the gods being
obtained, or that the more unhealthy season of the year was now passed,
the bodies of the people having shaken off disease, gradually began to
be more healthy, and their attention being now directed to public
concerns, when several interregna had expired, Publius Valerius
Publicola, on the third day after he had entered on his office of
interrex, causes Lucretius Tricipitinus, and Titus Veturius Geminus,
(or Velusius,) to be elected consuls. They enter on their consulship on
the third day of the Ides of August, the state being now sufficiently
strong, not only to repel a hostile attack, but even to act itself on
the offensive. Therefore when the Hernicians brought an account that
the enemy had made an incursion into their frontiers, assistance was
readily promised; two consular armies were enlisted. Veturius was sent
against the Volscians to carry on an offensive war. Tricipitinus being
appointed to protect the territory of the allies from devastation,
proceeds no further than into the country of the Hernicians. Veturius
routs and puts to flight the enemy in the first engagement. A party of
plunderers which had marched over the Prænestine mountains, and from
thence descended into the plains, escaped the notice of Lucretius,
whilst he lay encamped amongst the Hernicians. These laid waste all the
country around Præneste and Gabii: from the Gabinian territory they
turn their course towards the heights of Tusculum; great alarm was
excited in the city of Rome also, more from the suddenness of the
affair, than that there was not sufficient strength to repel violence.
Quintus Fabius had the command in the city;[113] he, by arming the
young men and posting guards, rendered things secure and tranquil. The
enemy therefore carrying off plunder from the adjacent places, not
venturing to approach the city, when they were returning by a
circuitous route, their caution being now more relaxed, in proportion
as they removed to a greater distance from the enemy's city, fall in
with the consul Lucretius, who had already explored their motions,
drawn up in battle-array and determined on an engagement. Accordingly
having attacked them with predetermined resolution whilst struck with
sudden panic, though considerably fewer in numbers, they rout and put
to flight their numerous army, and having driven them into the deep
valleys, when an egress from thence was not easy, they surround them.
There the Volscian nation was almost entirely cut off. In some
histories I find that thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy fell
in the field and in the pursuit, that one thousand two hundred and
fifty were taken alive, that twenty-seven military standards were
carried off; where, though there may have been some exaggeration in the
number, there certainly was great slaughter. The victorious consul
having obtained immense booty returned to the same standing camp. Then
the consuls join their camps. The Volscians and Æquans also unite their
shattered strength. This was the third battle on that year; the same
good fortune gave them victory; the enemy being beaten, their camp was
also taken.
[Footnote 113: As præfectus urbis.]
9. Thus affairs at Rome returned to their former state; and
successes abroad immediately excited commotions in the city. Caius
Terentillus Arsa[114] was tribune of the people in that year: he,
considering that an opportunity was afforded for tribunitian intrigues
during the absence of the consuls, after railing against the arrogance
of the patricians for several days before the people, inveighed chiefly
against the consular authority, as being exorbitant and intolerable in
a free state: “for that, in name only, it was less invidious, in
reality almost more oppressive than that of kings. For that two masters
had been adopted instead of one, with unbounded, unlimited power; who,
themselves unrestrained and unbridled, directed all the terrors of the
law, and all kinds of severity against the commons.” Now, in order that
this licentious power might not continue perpetual, he would propose a
law, that five persons be appointed to draw up laws regarding the
consular power. That the consul should use that right which the people
may give him over them; that they should not hold their own caprice and
licentiousness as law. This law being published, when the patricians
became afraid, lest, in the absence of the consuls, they should be
subjected to the yoke, the senate is convened by Quintus Fabius,
præfect of the city, who inveighed so vehemently against the bill and
the author of it, that nothing was omitted of threats and intimidation,
even though both the consuls in all their exasperation surrounded the
tribune, “that he had lain in wait, and, watching his opportunity, he
made an attack on the commonwealth. If the gods in their anger had
given them any tribune like him on the preceding year, during the
pestilence and war, he could not have been withstood. Both the consuls
being dead, and the exhausted state lying enfeebled in universal
confusion, that he would have proposed laws to abolish the consular
government altogether from the state; that he would have headed the
Volscians and Æquans to attack the city. What? if the consuls adopted
any tyrannical or cruel proceedings against any of the citizens, was it
not competent to him to appoint a day of trial for him; to arraign him
before those very judges against any one of whom severity may have been
exercised? That it was not the consular authority but the tribunitian
power that he was rendering hateful and insupportable: which having
been peaceable and reconciled to the patricians, was now about to be
brought back anew to its former mischievous habits. Nor would he
entreat him not to go on as he commenced. Of you, the other tribunes,
says Fabius, we request, that you will first of all consider that that
power was provided for the aid of individuals, not for the ruin of the
community: that you were created tribunes of the commons, not enemies
of the patricians. To us it is distressing, to you a source of odium,
that the republic, now bereft of its chief magistrates, should be
attacked; you will diminish not your rights, but the odium against you.
Confer with your colleague, that he may postpone this business till the
arrival of the consuls; even the Æquans and the Volscians, when our
consuls were carried off by pestilence last year, did not press on us
with a cruel and tyrannical war.” The tribunes confer with Terentillus,
and the bill being to all appearance deferred, but in reality
abandoned, the consuls were immediately sent for.
[Footnote 114: Niebuhr n. 24, 634, would have us read Terentilius, the Roman family names always, he says, ending in ius. He also
thinks that for Arsa, we should read Harsa.]
10. Lucretius returned with immense spoil, and much greater glory;
and this glory he increased on his arrival, by exposing all the booty
in the Campus Martius, so that each person might, during three days,
recognise his own and carry it away; the remainder was sold, for which
no owners appeared. A triumph was by universal consent due to the
consul: but the matter was deferred, the tribune still pressing his
law; this to the consul seemed of greater importance. The business was
discussed for several days, both in the senate and before the people:
at length the tribune yielded to the majesty of the consul, and
desisted; then the due honour was rendered to the general and his army.
He triumphed over the Volscians and Æquans: his troops followed him in
his triumph. The other consul was allowed to enter the city in ovation
without his soldiers. On the following year the Terentillian law having
been taken up by the entire college, assailed the new consuls; the
consuls were Publius Volumnius and Servius Sulpicius. On that year the
sky seemed to be on fire; a violent earthquake also occurred; it was
now believed that an ox spoke, which circumstance had not obtained
credit on the year before; among other prodigies it rained flesh
also;[115] which shower a great number of birds is reported to have
carried off by flying so as to intercept it; that which did fall, is
said to have lain scattered about for several days, so that its smell
evinced no change. The books[116] were consulted by the duumviri for
sacred rites: dangers of attacks being made on the highest parts of the
city, and of bloodshed thence resulting, were predicted as about to
come from an assemblage of strangers; among other things, an admonition
was given that all intestine disturbances should be abandoned. The
tribunes alleged that that was done to obstruct the law, and a
desperate contest was at hand. Lo! (that the same circle of events may
revolve every year) the Hernicians bring word that the Volscians and
the Æquans, though their strength was much impaired, were recruiting
their armies: that their chief dependence was Antium; that the
inhabitants of Antium openly held councils at Ecetra: that that was the
source—there the strength—for the war. As soon as this announcement
was made in the senate, a levy was ordered: the consuls were commanded
to divide the management of the war between them; that the Volscians
should be the province of the one, the Æquans that of the other. The
tribunes cried out to their faces in the forum, “That the Volscian war
was all a concerted farce: that the Hernicians were instructed to act
their parts; that the liberty of the Roman people was now no longer
crushed by manly efforts, but that it was baffled by cunning; because
all probability was now gone that the Volscians, who were almost
exterminated, and the Æquans, would of themselves commence hostilities,
new enemies were sought for: that a loyal colony, and one in their very
vicinity, was being rendered infamous: that war was proclaimed against
the unoffending people of Antium, and in reality waged with the commons
of Rome, which after loading them with arms they were determined to
drive out of the city with precipitous haste, wreaking their vengeance
on the tribunes, by the exile and expulsion of their fellow-citizens.
That by these means, and let them not think that there was any other
object contemplated, the law was defeated; unless, whilst the matter
was still in abeyance, whilst they were still at home and in the garb
of citizens, they would take precaution that they may not be driven out
of possession of the city, and be subjected to the yoke. If they only
had spirit, that support would not be wanting; that all the tribunes
were unanimous; that there was no apprehension from abroad, no danger.
That the gods had taken care, on the preceding year, that their liberty
could now be defended with safety.” Thus far the tribunes.
[Footnote 115: Niebuhr, ii. n. 631, asks whether it was worms.
[Greek: Sarkôn thrausmata]. Dion. x. 2.]
[Footnote 116: The Sibylline books.]
11. But, on the other side, the consuls, having placed their chairs
within view of them, were proceeding with the levy; thither the
tribunes hasten, and draw the assembly along with them; a few were
cited, by way of making an experiment, and instantly violence
commenced. Whomsoever the lictor laid hold of by order of the consul,
him the tribune ordered to be discharged; nor did his own proper
jurisdiction set a limit to each, but whatever you set your mind upon,
was to be attained by the hope of strength and by force. Just as the
tribunes had behaved in impeding the levy, in the same manner did the
consuls conduct themselves in obstructing the law which was brought on
every assembly day. The commencement of the riot was, when the tribunes
ordered the people to proceed to the vote, because the patricians
refused to withdraw. The elder citizens scarcely attended the contest,
inasmuch as it was one likely not to be directed by prudence, but
abandoned to temerity and daring. The consuls also generally kept out
of the way, lest in the general confusion they should expose their
dignity to any insult. There was a young man, Cæso Quintius, a daring
youth, as well by the nobility of his descent, as by his personal size
and strength; to those endowments granted by the gods he himself had
added many military honours, and eloquence in the forum; so that no
person in the state was considered more efficient either in speaking or
in acting. When this person took his place in the centre of a body of
the patricians, conspicuous above the rest, carrying as it were in his
eloquence and bodily strength dictatorships and consulships combined,
he alone withstood the storms of the tribunes and the populace. Under
his guidance the tribunes were frequently driven from the forum, the
commons routed and dispersed; such as came in his way, went off after
being ill-treated and stripped; so that it became sufficiently evident,
that, if he were allowed to proceed in this way, the law would be
defeated. Then the other tribunes being now almost thrown into despair,
Aulus Virginius, one of the college, institutes a criminal prosecution
on a capital charge against Cæso. By this proceeding he rather
irritated than intimidated his violent temper: so much the more
vigorously did he oppose the law, annoyed the commons, and persecuted
the tribunes, as it were by a regular war. The prosecutor suffered the
accused to rush on headlong, and to heighten the charges against him by
the flame and material of the popular odium thus incurred: in the mean
time he proceeded with the law, not so much in the hope of carrying it
through, as to provoke the temerity of Cæso. There many inconsiderate
expressions and actions passing among the young men, are charged on the
temper of Cæso, through the prejudice raised against him; still the law
was resisted. And Aulus Virginius frequently remarks to the people,
“Are you even now sensible that you cannot have Cæso, as a
fellow-citizen, with the law which you desire? Though why do I say law?
he is an opponent of your liberty; he surpasses all the Tarquins in
arrogance. Wait till he is made consul or dictator, whom, though but a
private citizen, you now see exercising kingly sway over you by his
strength and audacity.” Many assented, complaining that they had been
beaten by him: and strongly urged on the tribune to go through with the
prosecution.
12. The day of trial now approached, and it was evident that persons
in general considered that their liberty depended on the condemnation
of Cæso: then, at length being forced to it, he addressed the commons
individually, though with a strong feeling of indignation; his
relatives followed him, the principal members of the state. Titus
Quintius Capitolinus, who had been thrice consul, after he recounted
many splendid achievements of his own, and of his family, stated, that
neither in the Quintian family, nor in the Roman state, had there
appeared such promising genius of such early valour. “That he had first
been his soldier, that he had often in his sight fought against the
enemy.” Spurius Furius declared, that “he having been sent to him by
Quintius Capitolinus, had come to his aid when in the midst of danger;
that there was no individual by whose exertions he considered the
common weal more effectually re-established.” Lucius Lucretius, the
consul of the preceding year, in the full splendour of recent glory,
shared his own services with Cæso; he recounted his battles, detailed
his distinguished exploits, both on expeditions and in the field; he
advised and recommended that they would prefer this extraordinary young
man, endowed with all the advantages of nature and of rank, and (one
who would prove) of the utmost importance to the interest of that state
into which he should come, to be their fellow-citizen, rather than the
citizen of a foreign state. “That with respect to that which may be
offensive in him, heat and vehemence, time would diminish daily; that
the prudence, which may be wanting in him, was increasing daily; that
as his faults were declining and his virtues ripening to maturity, they
should allow so distinguished a man to become old in their state.”
Among these his father, Lucius Quintius, who bore the surname of
Cincinnatus, without dwelling on his merits, lest he should heighten
public hatred, but soliciting pardon for his errors and his youth,
implored of them to forgive his son for his sake, who had not given
offence to any one by either word or deed. But some, through respect or
fear, turned away from listening to his entreaties; others complaining
that themselves and their friends had been ill-treated, by the
harshness of their answer declared their sentence beforehand.
13. Independently of the general odium, one charge bore heavily on
the accused; that Marcus Volscius Fictor, who some years before had
been tribune of the people, had come forward as a witness: “that not
long after the pestilence had been in the city, he had fallen in with a
party of young men rioting in the Suburra; that a scuffle arose there;
and that his elder brother, not yet perfectly recovered from his
illness, had fallen down almost dead, being struck with the fist by
Cæso; that he was carried home between the hands of some persons, and
that he considered that he died from that blow; and that it had not
been permitted to him by the consuls of former years to follow up the
matter.” In consequence of Volscius vociferating these charges, the
people became so excited, that Cæso was near being killed through the
violence of the people. Virginius orders him to be seized and carried
to prison. The patricians oppose force to force. Titus Quintius
exclaims, “that a person for whom a day of trial for a capital offence
has been appointed, and whose trial was now at hand, ought not to be
outraged before trial and without sentence being passed.” The tribune
says, “that he would not inflict punishment[117] on him before
condemnation, that he would however keep him in prison until the day of
trial; that the Roman people may have an opportunity of inflicting
punishment on one who had killed a man.” The tribunes being appealed
to, secure their prerogative by adopting a middle course;[118] they
forbid his being thrown into confinement, and declare it to be their
wish that the accused should appear on his trial, and that a sum of
money should be promised to the people, in case he should not appear.
How large a sum of money ought to be promised, came under discussion:
that is referred to the senate. The accused was detained in the public
assembly, until the patricians should be consulted: it was determined
that he should give bail:[119] each bail they bound to the amount of
three thousand asses; how many should be given, was left to the
tribunes; they limited the number to ten; for ten sureties the
prosecutor discharged the accused. He was the first who gave public
sureties. Being discharged from the forum, he went the following night
into exile among the Etrurians. When on the day of trial it was pleaded
that he had quitted his home in order to go into exile, Virginius
notwithstanding holding the comitia, his colleagues when appealed to
dismissed the assembly: the fine was rigorously exacted[120] from the
father; so that after selling all his effects, he lived for a
considerable time in a solitary cottage on the other side of the Tiber,
as if in exile. This trial and the proposing of the law gave full
employment to the state: there was quiet from foreign arms.
[Footnote 117: Niebuhr denies that the tribunes had the power before
the establishment of the decemviri to commit patricians to prison. See
however Dion. vii. 17.]
[Footnote 118: In the original the words are, Medio decreto jus
auxilii sui expediunt. The tribunes were afraid lest, if they
allowed Cæso to go entirely at large, the commons might become
irritated; whilst if they refused to listen to the application of a
patrician when he craved their assistance, they feared lest they should
lose an excellent opportunity of establishing their influence and
increasing their power. By adopting a line of conduct then which
conceded something both to the commons and to Cæso, they as it were
extricate (expediunt) their power from this double danger.]
[Footnote 119: Vadis publicos. According to Gronovius,
publico, scil. plebi. Niebuhr prefers this reading.]
[Footnote 120: Rigorously exacted. See Niebuhr ii. p. 289,
who expresses a different opinion on the matter.]
14. When the tribunes, flushed as it were with victory, imagined
that the law was in a manner passed, the patricians being now dismayed
by the banishment of Cæso, and when, with respect to the seniors of the
patricians, they had relinquished all share in the administration of
the commonwealth; the juniors, more especially those who were the
intimate friends of Cæso, redoubled their resentful feelings against
the commons, and suffered not their spirits to droop; but the greatest
improvement was made in this particular, that they tempered their
animosity by a certain degree of moderation. When for the first time
after Cæso's banishment the law began to be brought forward, arrayed
and well prepared with a numerous body of clients, they attacked the
tribunes, on their affording a pretext for it by attempting to remove
them, in such a manner, that no one individual carried home from thence
any prominent share either of glory or ill-will; the people complained
that for one Cæso a thousand had started up. During the intermediate
days, when the tribunes made no stir regarding the law, nothing could
be more mild or peaceable than those same persons; they saluted the
plebeians courteously, entered into conversation, and invited them
home; they attended the forum, and suffered the tribunes themselves to
hold their meetings without interruption: they never were uncivil to
any one either in public or in private, unless when the business
respecting the law began to be agitated. On other occasions the young
men were popular. And not only did the tribunes transact all their
other affairs without disturbance, but they were even re-elected for
the following year, without one offensive expression, much less any
violence being employed. By soothing and managing the commons they
gradually rendered them tractable. By these methods the law was evaded
for the entire year.
15. The consuls Caius Claudius, the son of Appius, and Publius
Valerius Publicola, found the state in a more tranquil condition. The
new year had brought with it nothing new; the thoughts about carrying
the law, or submitting to it, engrossed all the members of the state.
The more the younger members of the senate endeavoured to insinuate
themselves into favour with the commons, the more strenuously did the
tribunes strive to thwart them, so that they rendered them suspicious
in the eyes of the commons by alleging: “that a conspiracy was formed;
that Cæso was in Rome; that plans were concerted for assassinating the
tribunes, and butchering the commons. That the commission assigned by
the elder members of the patricians was, that the young men should
abolish the tribunitian power from the state, and the form of
government should be the same as it had been before the sacred mount
had been taken possession of.” Both a war from the Volsci and Æqui,
which was now a stated thing, and one that was a regular occurrence for
almost every year, was apprehended, and another evil nearer home
started up unexpectedly. The exiles and slaves to the number of four
thousand and five hundred men took possession of the Capitol and
citadel during the night, under the command of Appius Herdonius, a
Sabine. Immediately a massacre took place in the citadel of those who
had evinced an unwillingness to enter into the conspiracy and to take
up arms. Some, during the alarm, run down to the forum, driven
precipitately through the panic; the cries, “to arms,” and “the enemy
are in the city,” were heard alternately. The consuls were both afraid
to arm the commons, and to suffer them to remain unarmed; uncertain
what sudden calamity had assailed the city, whether external or
intestine, whether from the hatred of the commons or the treachery of
the slaves: they were for quieting the tumults, by such endeavours they
sometimes exasperated them; for the populace, panic-stricken and
terrified, could not be directed by authority. They give out arms,
however, not indiscriminately; only so that, the enemy being still
uncertain,[121] there might be a protection sufficient to be relied on
for all emergencies. The remainder of the night they passed in posting
guards through proper places through the entire city, anxious and
uncertain, as to who the persons might be, and how great the number of
the enemy was. Day-light then disclosed the war and the leader of the
war. Appius Herdonius summoned the slaves to liberty from the Capitol:
“that he had espoused the cause of every most unfortunate individual,
in order to bring back to their country those driven out by oppression,
and to remove the grievous yoke from the slaves. That he had rather
that were done under the authority of the Roman people. If there be no
hope in that quarter, that he would rouse the Volscians and Æqui, and
would try all extremities.”
[Footnote 121: Incerto hoste, it being as yet uncertain who
the enemy was.]
16. The matter began to disclose itself more clearly to the
patricians and the consuls; besides those things, however, which were
openly declared, they dreaded lest this might be a scheme of the
Veientes or Sabines; and, as there were so many of the enemy in the
city, lest the Sabine and Etrurian troops might come on according to a
concerted plan; and then lest their eternal enemies, the Volscians and
Æqui, should come, not to ravage their territories, as before, but to
their very city, already in part taken. Many and various were their
fears; among others, the most prominent was their dread of the slaves,
lest each might harbour an enemy in his own house, one whom it was
neither sufficiently safe to trust, nor to deny[122] confidence to him
lest, by not trusting him, he might become more incensed. And (the
evil) seemed scarcely capable of being resisted by perfect harmony
(between the different orders of the state); only no one apprehended
the tribunes or commons, other evils predominating and constantly
starting up; that appeared an evil of a mild nature, and one always
arising during the cessation of other evils, and it then appeared to be
lulled to rest by external terror. Yet that was almost the only one
that most aggravated their distressing circumstances: for such madness
took possession of the tribunes, that they contended that not war, but
the empty appearance of war had taken possession of the Capitol, to
avert the people's minds from attending to the law; that these friends
and clients of the patricians would depart in greater silence than they
came, if they once perceived that, by the law being passed, they had
raised these tumults in vain. They then held a meeting for passing the
law, having called away the people from their arms. In the mean time,
the consuls convene the senate, another dread presenting itself on the
part of the tribunes, greater than that which the nightly foe had
occasioned.
[Footnote 122: Fidem abrogare,—non habere fidem, non
credere. Non credendo here seems superfluous.]
17. When it was announced that their arms were being laid aside, and
that the men were quitting their posts, Publius Valerius, his colleague
still detaining the senate, hastens from the senate-house; he comes
thence into the meeting to the tribunes: “What is all this,” says he,
“tribunes? Are you determined to overthrow the commonwealth under the
guidance and auspices of Appius Herdonius? Has he been so successful in
corrupting you, who, by his authority, has not influenced your slaves?
When the enemies are over our heads, is it your pleasure that arms
should be given up, and laws be proposed?” Then directing his discourse
to the populace: “If, Romans, no concern for your city, for yourselves,
moves you, at least revere the gods of your country, now made captive
by the enemy. Jupiter, the best and greatest, Queen Juno, and Minerva,
the other gods and goddesses, are besieged; the camp of slaves now
holds the tutelary gods of the state. Does this seem to you the form of
a state in its senses? Such a crowd of enemies is not only within the
walls, but in the citadel, commanding the forum and senate-house: in
the mean while meetings are being held in the forum; the senate is in
the senate-house, just as when perfect tranquillity prevails; the
senator gives his opinion, the other Romans give their votes. Would it
not behove all the patricians and commons, consuls, tribunes, citizens,
and all classes of persons, to bring aid with arms in their hands, to
run into the Capitol, to liberate and restore to peace that most august
residence of Jupiter, the best and greatest? O Father Romulus! do thou
infuse into thy progeny that determination of thine, by which you once
recovered from these same Sabines the citadel, when obtained by gold.
Order them to pursue this same path, which thou, as leader, and thy
army, pursued. Lo! I, as consul, shall be the first to follow thee and
thy footsteps, as far as a mortal can follow a god.” The close of his
speech was: “That he would take up arms, that he invited every citizen
of Rome to arms; if any one should oppose, that he, [123]forgetful of
the consular authority, the tribunitian power, and the devoting laws,
would consider him as an enemy, whoever he may, wheresoever he may, in
the Capitol, or in the forum. That the tribunes might order arms to be
taken up against Publius Valerius the consul, since they forbid it
against Appius Herdonius; that he would venture to act in that manner
in the case of the tribunes, in which the founder of his family had
ventured to act in the case of kings.” It now became apparent that
extreme violence was about to take place, and that a disturbance among
the Romans would be exhibited as a sight to the enemy; the law,
however, could neither be prepared, nor could the consul proceed to the
Capitol: night quashed the contest that had commenced; the tribunes
yielded to the night, dreading the arms of the consuls. The fomenters
of the disturbances being removed from thence, the patricians went
about among the commons, and introducing themselves into their circles
of conversation, they introduced observations suited to the occasion:
they advised them “to beware into what hazard they were bringing the
commonwealth; that the contest was not between the patricians and
commons, but that patricians and commons together, the fortress of the
city, the temples of the gods, the guardian gods of the state and of
private families, were being delivered up to the enemy.” Whilst these
affairs are going on in the forum for the purpose of appeasing the
disturbances, the consuls in the mean time had armed the several gates
and the walls, lest the Sabines or the Veientian enemy should make any
move.
[Footnote 123: Forgetful of the consular, &c.—i.e. forgetful
of the limits of the consular authority; acting in the same manner as
if its power were unbounded, and admitted no appeal.]
18. On the same night, messengers come to Tusculum announcing that
the citadel was taken, and the Capitol seized, and the other state of
disturbance in the city. Lucius Mamilius was at that time dictator at
Tusculum; he, having immediately convoked the senate and introduced the
messengers, earnestly advises: “That they should not wait until
ambassadors came from Rome, suing for assistance; that the very danger
and risk, and the social gods, and the faith of treaties, demanded it;
that the gods would never afford them an equal opportunity of obliging
so powerful a state and so near a neighbour.” It is determined that
assistance should be sent: the young men are enrolled; arms are given
to them. Coming to Rome at break of day, they at a distance exhibited
the appearance of enemies. The Æqui or Volscians appeared to be coming.
Then when the groundless alarm was removed, they are admitted into the
city, and descend in a body into the forum. There Publius Valerius,
having left his colleague to guard the gates, was now drawing up in
order of battle. The great influence of the man had produced an effect,
when he affirmed that, “the Capitol being recovered, and the city
restored to peace, if they would allow themselves to be convinced what
lurking fraud was concealed under the law proposed by the tribunes,
that he would offer no obstruction to the meeting of the people,
mindful of his ancestors, mindful of his surname, and that the province
of protecting the people had been handed down to him as hereditary by
his ancestors.” Following him as their leader, notwithstanding the
tribunes cried out against it, they direct their march up the
Capitoline hill. The Tusculan troops also joined them. Allies and
citizens vied with each other which of them should appropriate to
themselves the honour of recovering the citadel. Each leader encourages
his own men. Then the enemy became terrified, and placed no dependence
on any but the place. The Romans and allies advance on them whilst in
this state of alarm. They had now broken into the porch of the temple,
when Publius Valerius is slain animating the fight at the head of his
men. Publius Volumnius, a man of consular rank, saw him falling. Having
directed his men to cover the body, he rushes forward to the place and
office of consul. Through their ardour and impetuosity the perception
of so heavy a blow did not reach the soldiers; they conquered before
they perceived that they conquered without a leader. Many of the exiles
defiled the temple with their blood; many were taken alive; Herdonius
was slain. Thus the Capitol was recovered. With respect to the
prisoners,[124] punishment was inflicted on each according to his
station, whether he was a freeman or a slave. The commons are stated to
have thrown farthings into the consul's house, that he might be buried
with greater solemnity.
[Footnote 124: Niebuhr thinks that Cæso was among the number. See
cap. 25, where we read “Cæsonem neque Quintiæ familiæ, neque reipublicæ
restitui posse.” Comp. Niebuhr ii. n. 673, Wachsmuth, p. 347.]
19. Peace being established, the tribunes then pressed on the
patricians to fulfil the promise of Publius Valerius; they pressed on
Claudius, to free the shade of his colleague from breach of faith, and
to allow the business of the law to proceed. The consul asserted that
he would suffer the discussion on the law to go on, till he had a
colleague appointed in the room of the deceased. These disputes held on
until the elections for substituting a consul. In the month of
December,[125] by the most zealous exertions of the patricians, Lucius
Quintius Cincinnatus, Cæso's father, is elected consul to enter on his
office without delay. The commons were dismayed at their being about to
have as consul a man incensed against them, powerful by the support of
the patricians, by his own merit, and by three sons, not one of whom
yielded to Cæso in greatness of spirit; “whilst they were superior to
him by their exercising prudence and moderation, when the occasion
required.” When he entered on his office, in his frequent harangues
from the tribunal, he was not more vehement in restraining the commons
than in reproving the senate, “by the listlessness of which body the
tribunes of the commons, now become perpetual, by means of their
tongues and prosecutions exercised regal authority, not as in a
republic of the Roman people, but as if in an ill-regulated family.
That with his son Cæso, fortitude, constancy, all the splendid
qualifications of youth in war or in peace, had been driven and exiled
from the city of Rome: that talkative and turbulent men, sowers of
discord, twice and even thrice re-elected tribunes, lived in the most
destructive practices with regal tyranny. Did that Aulus Virginius,”
says he, “deserve less punishment than Appius Herdonius, because he was
not in the Capitol? considerably more, by Jove, (in the mind of any
one) who would judge the matter fairly. Herdonius, if nothing else, by
avowing himself an enemy, in a manner gave you notice to take up arms:
this man, by denying the existence of war, took arms out of your hands,
and exposed you defenceless to your slaves and exiles. And did you,
(without any offence to Caius Claudius and to Publius Valerius, now no
more let me say it,) did you advance against the Capitoline hill before
you expelled those enemies from the forum. It is shameful before gods
and men. When the enemy were in the citadel, in the very Capitol, when
the leader of the exiles and slaves, after profaning every thing, took
up his residence in the shrine of Jupiter, the best and greatest, arms
were taken up in Tusculum sooner than in Rome. It was a matter of doubt
whether Lucius Mamilius, the Tusculan leader, or Publius Valerius and
Caius Claudius, the consuls, recovered the Roman citadel, and we, who
formerly did not suffer the Latins to touch arms, even in their own
defence, when they had the enemy in their very frontiers, should have
been taken and destroyed now, had not the Latins taken up arms of their
own accord. Tribunes, is this bringing aid to the commons, to expose
them in a defenceless state to be butchered by the enemy. Now, if any
one, even the humblest individual of your commons, (which portion you
have as it were broken off from the rest of the state, and made it your
country and peculiar commonwealth,) if any one of these persons were to
bring word that his house was beset by an armed band of slaves, you
would think that assistance should be afforded to him. Was Jupiter, the
best and greatest, when surrounded by the arms of exiles and of slaves,
deserving of no human aid? And do these persons require that they be
considered sacred and inviolable,[126] with whom the gods themselves
are neither sacred nor inviolable? But, steeped as ye are in crimes
against both gods and men, do ye say that you will pass your law this
year? Verily then the day on which I was created consul was a
disastrous day for the commonwealth, much more so even than that on
which Publius Valerius the consul fell, if ye should carry it. Now,
first of all,” says he, “Romans, it is the intention of myself and of
my colleague to march the legions against the Volsci and the Æqui. I
know not by what fatality we find the gods more propitious when we are
at war than in peace. How great the danger from those states would have
been, had they known that the Capitol was besieged by exiles, it is
better to conjecture from the past, than to feel from actual
experience.”
[Footnote 125: The consuls under ordinary circumstances used to
commence their office at this time on the Calends of August.]
[Footnote 126: Neque sacri neque sancti. Whatever is
consecrated by religion is said to be sacrum; whilst sanctum
is said of that which the law states to be inviolable.]
20. The consul's harangue had a great effect on the commons; the
patricians, recovering their spirits, considered the state as
re-established. The other consul, more eager as a seconder than as the
first mover (of a measure), readily suffering his colleague to take the
first lead in a matter of so much importance, claimed to himself his
share of the consular duty in executing the plan. Then the tribunes,
mocking these declarations as empty, went on inquiring “by what means
the consuls would lead out the army, as no one would allow them to hold
a levy?” “But,” says Quintius, “we have no occasion for a levy; since
at the time Publius Valerius gave arms to the commons to recover the
Capitol, they all took an oath to him, that they would assemble on an
order from the consul, and would not depart without an order. We
therefore publish our order that all of you, who have sworn, attend
to-morrow under arms at the lake Regillus.” The tribunes then began to
cavil, and wished to absolve the people from their obligation; that
Quintius was a private person at the time at which they were bound by
the oath. But that disregard of the gods which prevails in the present
age had not yet arrived; nor did every one, by his own interpretation,
accommodate oaths and laws to his own purposes, but rather adapted his
conduct to them. Wherefore the tribunes, as there was no hope of
obstructing the matter, attempted to delay the departure (of the army)
the more earnestly on this account, because a report had gone out “both
that the augurs had been ordered to attend at the lake Regillus, and to
consecrate a place, where business might be transacted with the people
with the benefit of auspices; that whatever had been passed at Rome by
tribunitian violence, might be repealed there in an assembly. That all
would agree to that which the consuls wished; for that there was no
appeal at a distance greater than that of a mile from the city: and
that the tribunes, if they should come there, would, among the rest of
the crowd, be subjected to the consular authority.” These matters
alarmed them; but the greatest terror which acted on their minds was,
that Quintius frequently said, “that he would not hold an election of
consuls. That the state was affected with such a disease, as could not
be stopped by the ordinary remedies. That the commonwealth required a
dictator, so that whoever should stir a step to disturb the peace of
the state, might feel that the dictatorship was without appeal.”
21. The senate was assembled in the Capitol. Thither the tribunes
come with the commons in great consternation: the populace, with loud
clamours, implore the protection now of the consuls, now of the
patricians: nor could they make the consul recede from his
determination, until the tribunes promised that they would be under the
direction of the patricians. Then on the consul's laying before them
the demands of the tribunes and commons, decrees of the senate are
passed, “That neither the tribunes should propose the law during that
year, and that the consuls should not lead the army from the city—that
for the time to come, the senate decided that it was to the injury of
the commonwealth, that the same magistrates should be continued, and
the same tribunes be re-appointed.” The consuls conformed to the
authority of the senate, the tribunes were re-appointed notwithstanding
the remonstrances of the consuls. The patricians also, that they might
not yield to the commons in any particular, re-elected Lucius Quintius
consul. No proceeding of the consul was urged with more warmth during
the entire year. “Can I be surprised,” says he, “if your authority is
of little weight, conscript fathers? yourselves are disparaging it.
Forsooth, because the commons have violated a decree of the senate, by
re-appointing their magistrates, you yourselves also wish it to be
violated, lest ye should yield to the populace in rashness; as if to
possess greater power in the state consisted in having more of
inconstancy and irregularity; for it is certainly more inconstant and
greater folly, to do away with one's own decrees and resolutions, than
those of others. Imitate, conscript fathers, the inconsiderate
multitude; and ye, who should be an example to others, transgress by
the example of others, rather than others should act correctly by
yours, provided I imitate not the tribunes, nor suffer myself to be
re-elected consul, contrary to a decree of the senate. But I advise
you, Caius Claudius, that both you on your part restrain the Roman
people from this licentiousness, and that you be persuaded of this on
my part, that I shall so take it, as not to consider that my honour has
been obstructed by you, but that the glory of declining the honour has
been augmented, and the odium, which would hang over me from its being
continued, has been lessened.” Upon this they issue this order jointly:
“That no one should attempt to make Lucius Quintius consul: if any one
should do so, that they would not allow that vote.”
22. The consuls elected were Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, a third time,
and Lucius Cornelius Maluginensis. The census was performed that year;
it was a matter of religious scruple that the lustrum should be closed,
on account of the Capitol having been taken and the consul slain. In
the consulate of Quintus Fabius and Lucius Cornelius, disturbances
broke out immediately at the commencement of the year. The tribunes
were urging on the commons. The Latins and Hernici brought word that a
formidable war was in preparation on the part of the Volscians and
Æqui; that the troops of the Volscians were now at Antium. Great
apprehension was also entertained, that the colony itself would revolt:
and with difficulty were the tribunes prevailed on to allow the war to
take precedence. The consuls then divided the provinces between them.
It was assigned to Fabius to march the legions to Antium; to Cornelius,
to protect the city; lest any part of the enemy, as was the practice of
the Æqui, should come to commit depredations. The Hernici and Latins
were ordered to supply soldiers in conformity to the treaty; and in the
army two parts consisted of allies, one part of natives. When the
allies came to the day already appointed, the consul pitches his camp
outside the Capuan gate. Then, after the army was purified, he set out
for Antium, and encamped not far from the town, and standing camp of
the enemy. Where, when the Volscians, not venturing to risk an
engagement, were preparing to protect themselves quietly within their
ramparts, on the following day Fabius drew up not one mixed army of
allies and citizens, but three separate bodies of the three states
around the enemy's works. He himself was in the centre with the Roman
legions. He ordered them to watch for the signal from thence, so that
the allies might both commence the action together, and retire
together, if he should sound a retreat. He placed their cavalry in the
rear of each division. Having thus assailed the camp in three different
points, he surrounds it; and when he pressed on from every side, he
dislodges from the rampart the Volscians, not able to sustain his
attack. Having then crossed the fortifications, he expels from the camp
the crowd who were dismayed and inclining towards one direction. Upon
this the cavalry, who could not easily pass over the rampart, having
stood by up to that period mere spectators of the fight, having come up
with them whilst flying in disorder on the open plain, enjoys a share
of the victory, by cutting down the affrighted troops. The slaughter of
them as they fled was great, both in the camp and outside the lines;
but the booty was still greater, because the enemy were scarcely able
to carry off their arms with them; and their entire army would have
been destroyed, had not the woods covered them in their flight.
23. Whilst these transactions are taking place at Antium, the Æqui,
in the mean while, sending forward the main strength of their youth,
surprise the citadel of Tusculum by night, and with the rest of their
army they sit down at no great distance from the walls of Tusculum, so
as to divide the forces of the enemy. This account being quickly
brought to Rome, and from Rome to Antium, affect the Romans not less
than if it was told them that the Capitol was taken; so recent were
both the services of the Tusculans, and the very similitude of the
danger seemed to require a return of the aid that had been afforded.
Fabius, giving up every other object, removes the booty hastily from
the camp to Antium. Having a small garrison there, he hurries on his
army by forced marches to Tusculum. The soldiers were allowed to carry
nothing but their arms, and whatever dressed provision was at hand. The
consul Cornelius sends provisions from Rome. The war was carried on at
Tusculum for several months. With one part of his army the consul
assailed the camp of the Æqui; a part he had given to the Tusculans to
recover their citadel. They never could have made their way to it by
force. Famine at length withdrew the enemy from it. And when they came
to this at last, they were all sent under the yoke by the Tusculans,
unarmed and naked. These, when betaking themselves home by an
ignominious flight, were overtaken by the Roman consul on Algidum and
cut off to a man. After this victory, having marched back[127] his army
to Columen, (that is the name of the place,) he pitches his camp. The
other consul also, as soon as the Roman walls ceased to be in danger,
the enemy being defeated, set out from Rome. Thus the consuls, having
entered the territories of the enemies on two different sides,
strenuously vie with each other in depopulating the Volscians on the
one hand, the Æqui on the other. I find in some writers that the people
of Antium revolted[128] the same year. That Lucius Cornelius, the
consul, conducted that war and took the town, I would not venture to
affirm for certain, because no mention is made of the matter among the
older writers.
[Footnote 127: Exercitu relicto is the ordinary reading.
Crevier observes that reducto is the more correct.]
[Footnote 128: This account does not seem to be correct. See Niebuhr
ii. p. 254.]
24. This war being concluded, a tribunitian war at home alarms the
senate. They exclaim, “that the detaining the army abroad was done for
a fraudulent motive: that such frustration was for the purpose of doing
away with the law; that they, however, would go through with the matter
undertaken by them.” Publius Lucretius, however, the præfect of the
city, so far prevailed that the proceedings of the tribunes were
postponed till the arrival of the consuls. A new cause of disturbance
also arose. Aulus Cornelius and Quintus Servilius, quæstors, appoint a
day of trial for Marcus Volscius, because he had come forward as a
manifestly false witness against Cæso. For it appeared by many proofs,
that the brother of Volscius, from the time he first became ill, not
only never appeared in public, but that he had not even arisen from his
sick bed, and that he died of an illness of several months' standing;
and that at the time to which the witness had referred the commission
of the crime, Cæso had not been seen at Rome: those who served in the
army with him, positively stating that at that time he had constantly
attended at his post with them without any leave of absence. Many
persons proposed on their own private responsibility to Volscius to
have a judicial decision on the matter.[129] As he would not venture to
go to trial, all these matters coinciding rendered the condemnation of
Volscius no less certain than that of Cæso had been on the testimony of
Volscius. The tribunes occasioned a delay, who said that they would not
suffer the quæstors to hold the assembly[130] concerning the accused,
unless it was first held concerning the law. Thus both matters were
spun out till the arrival of the consuls. When they entered the city in
triumph with their victorious army, because silence was (observed) with
regard to the law, many thought that the tribunes were struck with
dismay. But they, (for it was now the close of the year,) desirous of
obtaining a fourth tribuneship, had turned away their efforts from the
law to canvassing for the elections; and when the consuls strove with
no less strenuousness than if the law in question were proposed for the
purpose of lessening their own dignity, the victory in the contest was
on the side of the tribunes. On the same year peace was granted to the
Æqui on their suing for it. The census, a matter commenced on the
preceding year, is completed. The number of citizens rated were one
hundred and seventeen thousand three hundred and nineteen. The consuls
obtained great glory this year both at home and in war, because they
both re-established peace abroad and at home; though the state was not
in a state of absolute concord, yet it was less disturbed than at other
times.
[Footnote 129: Ni ita esset, a legal form of expression,
amounting in this place to “if Volscius attempted to deny it.”
Privatim. Besides the quæstors who by virtue of their office were
to prosecute Volscius, many persons on their own account, and on their
private responsibility, cited him into court, and challenged him to
discuss the case before a judge. A prosecutor was said ferre judicem
res, when he proposed to the accused person some one out of the
judices selecti, before whom the case might be tried; if the
accused person consented to the person named by prosecutor, then the
judge was said convenisse, to have been agreed on. Sometimes the
accused was allowed to select his own judge, judicem dicere.
When both the prosecutor and the accused agreed as to the judge, they
presented a joint petition to the prætor that he would appoint (ut
daret) that person to try the cause; at the same time they both
bound themselves to pay a certain sum, the one if he did not establish
his charge, ni ita esset; the other if he did not prove his
innocence.]
[Footnote 130: Comitia, i. e. curiata, which exercised
authority in the cases of persons accused of inflicting injuries on the
patricians.]
25. Lucius Minucius and Caius Nautius being next elected consuls,
took up the two causes which lay over since the preceding year. The
consuls obstructed the law, the tribunes the trial of Volscius in the
same manner: but in the new quæstors there was greater power, and
greater influence. With Marcus Valerius, son of Valerius and grandson
of Volesus, Titus Quintius Capitolinus, who had been thrice consul, was
appointed quæstor. Since Cæso could neither be restored to the Quintian
family, nor could he, though a most promising young man, be restored to
the state, he justly, and as in duty bound, prosecuted the false
witness who had deprived an innocent person of the power of pleading
his cause. When Virginius in particular and the (other) tribunes were
promoting the passing of the law, the space of two months was allowed
to the consuls to examine into the law: so that, when they had
satisfied the people, as to what secret designs were concealed under
it, they should then allow them to give their votes. The granting this
respite established tranquillity in the city. The Æqui however did not
allow them long rest; who, in violation of the treaty which had been
made with the Romans the year before, confer the chief command on
Gracchus Clælius. He was then the leading man amongst the Æqui. Under
the command of Gracchus they carry hostile depredations into the
district of Lavici, from thence into that of Tusculum, and laden with
booty they pitch their camp at Algidum. To that camp Quintus Fabius,
Publius Volumnius, Aulus Posthumius, come to complain of the wrongs
committed, and to demand restitution in accordance with the treaty. The
general of the Æqui commands them “to deliver to the oak whatever
instructions they brought from the Roman senate; that he in the mean
time should attend to other matters.” A large oak tree hung over the
prætorium, the shade of which constituted a pleasant seat. Then one of
the ambassadors, when departing, says, “Let both this consecrated oak
and all the gods hear the treaty violated by you, and favour both our
complaints now, and our arms presently, when we shall simultaneously
avenge the rights of gods and men as violated by you.” As soon as the
ambassadors returned to Rome, the senate ordered one of the consuls to
lead his army against Gracchus at Algidum, to the other they assigned
as his province the laying waste of the country of the Æqui. The
tribunes, according to their practice, attempted to obstruct the levy;
and probably would have eventually prevented it, but a new cause of
alarm was suddenly added.
26. A large body of Sabines, committing dreadful devastation,
approached very close to the walls of the city. The fields were laid
waste, the city was struck with terror. Then the commons cheerfully
took up arms; two large armies were raised, the tribunes remonstrating
to no purpose. Nautius led the one against the Sabines; and having
pitched his camp at Eretum, by small detachments, generally by nightly
incursions, he effected such desolation in the Sabine land, that, when
compared to it, the Roman territories seemed intact by an enemy.
Minucius had neither the same success nor the same energy of mind in
conducting his business; for after he had pitched his camp at no great
distance from the enemy, without having experienced any considerable
loss, he kept himself through fear within the camp. When the enemy
perceived this, their boldness increased, as sometimes happens, from
others' fears; and having attacked his camp by night, when open force
did not succeed well, they on the following day drew lines of
circumvallation around it. Before these could close up all the passes,
by a vallum being thrown up on all sides, five horsemen being
despatched between the enemies' posts, brought the account to Rome,
that the consul and his army were besieged. Nothing could have happened
so unexpected, nor so unlooked-for. Accordingly the panic and the alarm
was as great as if the enemy besieged the city, not the camp. They send
for the consul Nautius; in whom when there seemed to be but
insufficient protection, and they were determined that a dictator
should be appointed to retrieve their embarrassed affairs, Lucius
Quintius Cincinnatus is appointed by universal consent. It is worth
those persons' while to listen, who despise all things human in
comparison with riches, and who suppose “that there is no room for
exalted honour, nor for virtue, unless where riches abound in great
profusion.” Lucius Quintius, the sole hope of the Roman people,
cultivated a farm of four acres, at the other side of the Tiber, which
are called the Quintian meadows, opposite to the very place where the
dock-yard now is. There, whether leaning on a stake in a ditch which he
was digging, or in the employment of ploughing, engaged at least on
some rural work, as is certain, after mutual salutations had passed,
being requested by the ambassadors to put on his gown, and listen to
the commands of the senate, (with wishes) that it might be happy both
to him and to the commonwealth, being astonished, and asking frequently
“whether all was safe,” he bids his wife Racilia immediately to bring
his toga from his hut. As soon as he put this on and came forward,
after first wiping off the dust and sweat, the ambassadors,
congratulating him, unite in saluting him as dictator: they call him
into the city; explain to him what terror now exists in the army. A
vessel was prepared for Quintius by order of government, and his three
sons having come out to meet him, receive him on his landing at the
other side; then his other relatives and friends; then the greater part
of the patricians. Accompanied by this numerous attendance, and the
lictors going before him, he was conducted to his residence. There was
a numerous concourse of the commons also; but they by no means looked
on Quintius with equal pleasure, considering both the extent of his
authority as too great, and the man vested with such authority rather
arbitrary. And during that night indeed nothing was done in the city
besides posting guards.
27. On the next day the dictator, after he had come into the forum
before day-light, names a master of the horse, Lucius Tarquitius, a man
of patrician family, but one who, though he had served his campaigns
among the foot by reason of his scanty means, was yet considered by
many degrees the first in military skill among the Roman youth. With
his master of the horse he came into the assembly, proclaims a
suspension of civil business, orders the shops to be closed throughout
the city, and forbids any one to attend to any private affairs. Then he
commands that all, whoever were of the military age, should attend
under arms, in the Campus Martius, before sun-set, with dressed
provisions for five days and twelve palisades, and he commanded that
whose age was too far advanced for military service, should dress their
victuals for the soldiers in their vicinity, whilst the latter were
preparing arms, and procuring the palisade. Accordingly, the young men
run in different directions to procure the palisades; they took them
wherever they were nearest to them; no one was prevented, and they all
attended punctually according to the dictator's order. Then the troops
being formed, not more fitted for the march than for an engagement,
should the occasion require it, the dictator himself marches at the
head of the legions, the master of the horse at the head of his
cavalry. In both bodies there were such exhortations as the juncture
itself required; that “they should quicken their pace; that there was
need of expedition, that they might reach the enemy by night; that the
consul and the Romans were besieged; that they had been shut up now
three days: that it was uncertain what each day or night might bring
with it; that the issue of the most important affairs often depended on
a moment of time.” They, to please their leaders, exclaimed among
themselves, “Standard-bearer, hasten on; follow, soldier.” At midnight
they reach Algidum: and, as soon as they perceived that they were near
the enemy, they halted.
28. There the dictator, having rode about, and having observed, as
far as could be ascertained by night, what the situation of the camp
was, and what its form, commanded the tribunes of the soldiers to order
the baggage to be thrown into one place, and that the soldiers with
their arms and palisades should return to their ranks. What he
commanded was executed. Then, with the regularity which they had
observed on the march, he draws the entire army in a long column around
the enemies' camp, and directs that, when the signal was given, they
should all raise a shout; and that on the shout being raised, each man
should throw up a trench before his post, and fix his palisade. The
orders being issued, the signal followed: the soldiers perform what
they were commanded; the shout resounds around the enemy: it then
passes beyond the camp of the enemy, and reaches the consul's camp: it
occasions panic in one place, great joy in another. The Romans,
observing to each other with exultation, “that this was the shout of
their countrymen, and that aid was at hand,” from their watch-guards
and out-posts intimidate the enemy on their part. The consul says, that
there must be no delay: “that by that shout not only their arrival was
intimated, but that proceedings were already commenced by their
friends; and that it would be a wonder if the enemies' camp were not
attacked on the outside.” He therefore orders his men to take up arms
and follow him. The battle was commenced by the legions during the
night: they give notice to the dictator by a shout, that on that side
also the action was commenced. The Æquans were now preparing to prevent
the works from being brought around them,[131] when, the battle being
commenced by the enemy from within, turning their attention from those
employed on the fortifications to those who were fighting on the
inside, lest a sally should be made through the centre of their camp,
they left the night to remain without interruption for the finishing of
the work; and they continued the fight with the consul till daylight.
At the break of day they were now encompassed by the dictator's works,
and were scarcely able to maintain the fight against one army. Then
their lines were attacked by Quintius's army, who immediately after
completing their work returned to their arms. Here a new fight pressed
on them: the former one had suffered no relaxation. Then the twofold
peril pressing hard on them, turning from fighting to entreaties, they
implored the dictator on the one hand, the consul on the other, not to
make the victory consist in their general slaughter, that they would
suffer them to depart without arms. When they were bid by the consul to
go to the dictator, he, incensed against them, added ignominy (to
defeat). He orders Gracchus Cloelius, their general, and other leaders
to be brought to him in chains, and that they should evacuate the town
of Corbio; “that he wanted not the blood of the Æquans: that they were
allowed to depart; but that the confession may be at length extorted,
that their nation was defeated and subdued, that they should pass under
the yoke.” The yoke is formed with three spears, two fixed in the
ground, and one tied across between the upper ends of them. Under this
yoke the dictator sent the Æquans.
[Footnote 131: Ad prohibenda circumdari opera. Stroth
observes that it should be more properly ad prohibenda circumdanda
opera, i. e. ad prohibendum, ne opera circumdarentur.]
29. The enemy's camp being taken, which was full of every thing,
(for he had sent them away naked,) he distributed all the booty among
his own soldiers only: chiding the consul's army and the consul
himself, he says, “Soldiers, ye shall do without any portion of the
spoil taken from that enemy to which you were well nigh becoming a
spoil: and you, Lucius Minutius, until you begin to assume the spirit
of a consul, shall command these legions as lieutenant-general.”
Minutius accordingly resigns his office of consul, and remains with the
army, as he had been commanded. But so meekly obedient were the minds
of men at that time to authority combined with superior merit, that
this army, mindful of the kindness (conferred) rather than of the slur
(cast on them), both voted a golden crown of a pound weight to the
dictator, and saluted him as their patron when setting out. The senate
at Rome, being convened by Quintus Fabius, præfect of the city, ordered
Quintius to enter the city in triumph, in the order of march in which
he was coming. The leaders of the enemy were led before his car: the
military standards were carried before him: his army followed laden
with spoil. Tables with provisions are said to have been laid out
before the houses of all, and (the soldiers) partaking of the
entertainment, followed the car with the triumphal hymn and the usual
jests, after the manner of revellers. On that day the freedom of the
state was granted to Lucius Mamilius of Tusculum, with universal
approbation. The dictator would have laid down his office, had not the
assembly for the trial of Marcus Volscius, the false witness, detained
him; the fear of the dictator prevented the tribunes from obstructing
it. Volscius was condemned and went into exile to Lanuvium. Quintius
laid down his dictatorship on the sixteenth day, having received it for
six months. During those days the consul Nautius engages the Sabines at
Eretum with distinguished success. Besides the devastation of their
lands, this additional blow also befell the Sabines. Fabius Quintus was
sent to Algidum as successor to Minucius. Towards the end of the year
the tribunes began to agitate the question of the law; but because two
armies were abroad, the patricians carried the point, that no business
should be proposed to the people. The commons succeeded in electing the
same tribunes for the fifth time. They report that wolves seen in the
Capitol were driven away by dogs; that on account of that prodigy the
Capitol was purified. Such were the transactions in that year.
30. Quintus Minucius and Caius Horatius Pulvillus follow as the next
consuls. At the commencement of this year, when there was peace abroad,
the same tribunes and the same law occasioned disturbances at home; and
parties would have proceeded further, (so highly were their passions
inflamed,) had not, as if for the very purpose, news been brought, that
by an attack of the Æquans the garrison at Corbio had been cut off. The
consuls convene the senate; they are ordered to raise a hasty levy and
to proceed to Algidum. Then the contest about the law being given up, a
new dispute arose regarding the levy. And the consular authority[132]
was about to be overpowered by tribunitian influence, when an
additional cause of alarm comes on them: that the Sabine army had made
a descent into the Roman lands to commit depredations; that from thence
they were advancing to the city. This fear influenced the tribunes to
allow the levy to proceed, not without a stipulation, however, that
since they had been foiled for five years, and as that was but little
protection to the commons, ten tribunes of the people should
henceforward be elected. Necessity wrung this from the patricians; this
exception only they made, that they should not hereafter re-elect the
same tribunes. The election for the tribunes was held immediately, lest
that measure also, like others, might prove a delusion after the war.
On the thirty-sixth year after the first tribunes, ten were elected,
two from each class; and provision was made that they should be elected
in this manner for the future. The levy being then held, Minucius
marched out against the Sabines, and found no enemy. Horatius, after
the Æquans, having put the garrison at Corbio to the sword, had taken
Ortona also, fights a battle at Algidum; he slays a great number;
drives the enemy not only from Algidum, but from Corbio and Ortona
also. Corbio he razed to the ground for their having betrayed the
garrison.
[Footnote 132: Consulare, imperium tribunicio auxilio.—The
consuls possessed imperium. The tribunes could not be said to
possess it. Their province was confined to auxilii latio, sc.
adversus consules.]
31. Marcus Valerius and Spurius Virginius are next elected consuls.
Quiet prevailed at home and abroad. They laboured under a scarcity of
provisions on account of the excessive rains. A law was proposed
regarding the making Mount Aventine public property. The same tribunes
of the people being re-elected on the following year, Titus Romilius
and Caius Veturius being consuls, strongly recommended the law[133] in
all their harangues, “That they were ashamed of their number increased
to no purpose, if that question should lie for their two years in the
same manner as it had lain for the whole preceding five.” Whilst they
were most busily employed in these matters, an alarming account comes
from Tusculum, that the Æquans were in the Tusculan territory. The
recent services of that state made them ashamed of delaying relief.
Both the consuls were sent with an army, and find the enemy in their
usual post in Algidum. A battle was fought there; upwards of seven
thousand of the enemy were slain; the rest were routed; immense booty
was obtained. This the consuls sold on account of the low state of the
treasury; the proceeding was the cause of dissatisfaction to the army,
and it also afforded to the tribunes materials for bringing a charge
against the consuls before the commons. Accordingly, as soon as they
went out of office, in the consulship of Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus
Aterius, a day was appointed for Romilius by Caius Claudius Cicero,
tribune of the people; for Veturius, by Lucius Alienus, plebeian ædile.
They were both condemned, to the great mortification of the patricians;
Romilius to pay ten thousand asses; Veturius, fifteen thousand.
Nor did this misfortune of their predecessors render the new consuls
more remiss. They said that they too might be condemned, and that the
commons and tribunes could not carry the law. Then having thrown up the
law, which, in its repeated publication, had now grown old, the
tribunes adopted a milder mode of proceeding with the patricians. “That
they should at length put an end to their disputes. If plebeian laws
displeased them, at least they should suffer legislators (chosen) in
common, both from the commons and from the patricians, who would
propose measures advantageous to both parties, and such as might tend
to the equalization of liberty.” This proposal the patricians did not
reject. They said that “no one should propose laws, except some of the
patricians.” When they agreed with respect to the laws, and differed
only with respect to the proposer; ambassadors were sent to Athens,
Spurius Posthumius Albus, Aulus Manlius, Publius Sulpicius Camerinus;
and they were ordered to copy out the celebrated laws of Solon, and to
become acquainted with the institutions, customs, and laws of the other
states of Greece.
[Footnote 133: It is extraordinary that Livy makes no mention here
of Siccius Dentatus, and his strenuous exertions in endeavouring to
carry the agrarian law, as well as of his angry contentions with the
consuls. For his character, see Dion. x. 31, 32.]
32. The year was undisturbed by foreign wars; the following one was
still more quiet, Publius Curiatius and Sextus Quintilius being
consuls, the tribunes observing uninterrupted silence, which was
occasioned in the first place by their waiting for the ambassadors who
had gone to Athens, and for the foreign laws; in the next place, two
heavy calamities arose at the same time, famine and pestilence, (which
proved) destructive to man, and equally so to cattle. The lands were
left desolate; the city exhausted by a constant succession of deaths.
Many and illustrious families were in mourning. The Flamen Quirinalis,
Servilius Cornelius, died; as also the augur, Caius Horatius Pulvillus;
into whose place the augurs elected Caius Veturius, the more eagerly,
because he had been condemned by the commons. The consul Quintilius
died, and four tribunes of the people. The year was rendered a
melancholy one by these manifold disasters; but from an enemy there was
perfect quiet. Then Caius Menenius and Publius Sestius Capitolinus were
elected consuls. Nor was there in that year any external war:
disturbances arose at home. The ambassadors had now returned with the
Athenian laws; the tribunes pressed the more urgently, that a
commencement should at length be made of compiling the laws. It was
resolved that decemvirs should be elected without appeal, and that
there should be no other magistrate during that year. There was, for a
considerable time, a dispute whether plebeians should be admitted among
them: at length the point was given up to the patricians, provided that
the Icilian law regarding the Aventine and the other devoting laws were
not repealed.
33. In the three hundred and first year after Rome was built, the
form of the government was a second time changed, the supreme power
being transferred from consuls to decemvirs, as it had passed before
from kings to consuls. The change was less remarkable, because not of
long duration; for the joyous commencement of that government became
too licentious. So much the sooner did the matter fall, and (the usage)
was recurred to, that the name and authority of consuls was committed
to two persons. The decemvirs appointed were, Appius Claudius, Titus
Genucius, Publius Sestius, Lucius Veturius, Caius Julius, Aulus
Manlius, Servius Sulpicius, Publius Curiatius, Titus Romilius, Spurius
Postumius. On Claudius and Genucius, because they had been elected
consuls for that year, the honour was conferred in compensation for the
honour (of the consulate); and on Sestius, one of the consuls of the
former year, because he had proposed that matter to the senate against
the will of his colleague. Next to these were considered the three
ambassadors who had gone to Athens; at the same time that the honour
might serve as a recompence for so distant an embassy; at the same time
they considered that persons acquainted with the foreign laws would be
of use in digesting the new code of regulations. Other persons made up
the number. They say that persons advanced in years were appointed by
the last suffrages, in order that they might oppose with less warmth
the opinions of others. The direction of the entire government was
rested in Appius through the favour of the commons, and he had assumed
a demeanour so new, that from a severe and harsh reviler of the people,
he became suddenly a protector of the commons, and a candidate for
popular favour. They administered justice to the people one every tenth
day. On that day the twelve fasces attended the præfect of justice; one
beadle attended each of his nine colleagues, and in the singular
harmony among themselves, which unanimity might sometimes prove
prejudicial to private persons, the strictest equity was shown to
others. It will suffice to adduce a proof of their moderation by
instancing one matter. Though they had been appointed without (the
privilege of) appeal, yet a dead body having been found buried in the
house of Publius Sestius, a man of patrician rank, and this having been
brought forward in an assembly, in a matter equally clear and
atrocious, Caius Julius, a decemvir, appointed a day of trial for
Sestius, and appeared before the people as prosecutor (in a matter) of
which he was legally a judge; and relinquished his right, so that he
might add what had been taken from the power of the office to the
liberty of the people.
34. Whilst the highest and lowest alike experienced from them this
prompt administration of justice, impartial, as if from an oracle, then
their attention was devoted to the framing of laws; and the ten tables
being proposed amid the intense expectation of all, they summoned the
people to an assembly: and “what may prove favourable, advantageous,
and happy to the commonwealth themselves, and to their children,
ordered them to go and read the laws that were exhibited.” “That they
had equalized the rights of all, both the highest and the lowest, as
far as could be devised by the abilities of ten men; that the
understanding and counsels of a greater number might prove more
successful; that they should turn in their minds each particular within
themselves, canvass it in conversation; and bring together under public
discussion whatever might seem an excess or deficiency under each
particular. That the Roman people should have such laws, as the general
consent might appear not so much to have ratified when proposed, as to
have proposed from themselves.” When they appeared sufficiently
corrected according to public opinion (as expressed) regarding each
chapter of the laws as it was published, the laws of the ten tables
were passed at the assembly voting by centuries; which, even at the
present time, amid this immense heap of laws crowded one upon the
other, still remain the source of all public and private jurisprudence.
A rumour was then spread that two tables were wanting; on the addition
of which a body, as it were, of the whole Roman law might be completed.
The expectation of this, as the day of election approached, created a
desire to appoint decemvirs again. The commons now, besides that they
detested the name of consuls as much as that of kings, required not
even the tribunitian aid, as the decemvirs in turn submitted to appeal.
35. But when the assembly for electing decemvirs was proclaimed for
the third market-day, so strong a flame of ambition blazed forth, that
the first men of the state began to canvass individuals, (through fear,
I suppose, lest the possession of such high authority might become
accessible to persons not sufficiently worthy, if the post were left
unoccupied by themselves,) suppliantly soliciting for an honour, which
had been opposed by them with all their might, from that commons with
whom they had so often contended. Their dignity now lowered to the risk
of a contest, at such an age, and after passing through such honours,
stimulated the exertions of Appius Claudius. You would not know whether
to reckon him among the decemvirs or the candidates; he resembled more
closely one canvassing for the office than one invested with it; he
aspersed the nobility, extolled every most insignificant and humble
candidate; surrounded by the Duilii and Icilii who had been tribunes,
he bustled about the forum, through their means he recommended himself
to the commons; until his colleagues even, who till then had been
extremely devoted to him, turned their eyes on him, wondering what he
meant. It was evident to them, that there was no sincerity in it; “that
certainly such affability amid such pride would not be for nothing.
That this excessive lowering of himself, and putting himself on a level
with private citizens, was not so much the conduct to be expected from
one hastening to go out of office, as of one seeking the means of
continuing that office.” Not daring openly to oppose his wishes, they
set about baffling his ardour by humouring it. They by common consent
confer on him, as being the youngest, the office of presiding at the
elections. This was an artifice, that he might not appoint himself;
which no one ever did, except the tribunes of the people, and that too
with the very worst precedent. He, however, declaring that with the
favour of fortune he would preside at the elections, seized on the
(intended) obstacle[134] as a happy occasion; and having by a coalition
foiled the two Quintii, Capitolinus and Cincinnatus, and his own uncle,
Caius Claudius, a man most stedfast in the interest of the nobility,
and other citizens of the same eminence, he appoints as decemvirs men
by no means equal in rank of life: himself in the first instance, which
proceeding honourable men disapproved so much the more, as no one had
imagined that he would have the daring to act so. With him were elected
Marcus Cornelius-Maluginensis, Marcus Sergius, Lucius Minutius, Quintus
Fabius Vibulanus, Quintus Poetelius, Titus Antonius Merenda, Cæso
Duilius, Spurius Oppius Cornicen, Manius Rabuleius.[135]
[Footnote 134: Impedimentum. The fact of his presiding at the
meeting should have been a bar to his being elected a decemvir.]
[Footnote 135: Niebuhr will have it that five of these were of
plebeian rank.]
36. This was the end of Appius's assumption of a character not his
own. Henceforward he began to live according to his own natural
disposition, and to mould to his own temper his new colleagues before
they should enter on their office. They held daily meetings remote from
witnesses: then, furnished with their schemes of tyranny,[136] which
they digested apart from others, no longer dissembling their arrogance,
difficult of access, morose to all who addressed them, they carried out
the matter to the ides of May. The ides of May were at that time the
usual period for commencing office. At the commencement then of their
magistracy, they rendered the first day of their office remarkable by
making an exhibition of great terror. For when the preceding decemvirs
had observed the rule, that only one should have the fasces, and that
this emblem of royalty should pass through all in rotation, to each in
his turn, they all suddenly came forth with the twelve fasces. One
hundred and twenty lictors filled the forum, and carried before them
the axes tied up with the fasces: and they explained that it was of no
consequence that the axe should be taken away, as they had been
appointed without the privilege of appeal.[137] There was the
appearance of ten kings, and terrors were multiplied not only in the
humblest individuals, but even in the principal men among the
patricians, who thought that a pretext and commencement of bloodshed
were sought for; so that if any one should utter a word favourable to
liberty, either in the senate or in a meeting of the people, the rods
and axes would be instantly brought forward, even to intimidate the
rest. For besides that there was no protection in the people, the right
of appeal being done away with, they had also by mutual consent
prohibited interference with each other:[138] whereas the preceding
decemvirs had allowed the points of law decided by themselves to be
amended by appeal to a colleague, and had referred to the people some
points which might seem to come within their own jurisdiction. For a
considerable time the terror seemed equalized among all ranks;
gradually it began to turn entirely on the commons. They spared the
patricians; arbitrary and cruel treatment was shown to the humbler
classes: they were wholly respective of the person, not of the cause:
as being persons with whom interest usurped the force of justice. Their
decisions they concerted at home, and pronounced in the forum. If any
person appealed to a colleague, he left the one to whom he had appealed
in such a manner as to regret that he had not abided by the sentence of
the former. An opinion also had gone abroad without an authority, that
they had conspired in their tyranny not only for the present time, but
that a clandestine league had been struck among them (accompanied) with
an oath, that they would not hold the comitia, and that by perpetuating
the decemvirate they would retain the power now in their possession.
[Footnote 136: Impotentibus, sc. immoderatis—rari aditus, the genitive singular.—Stroth.]
[Footnote 137: Nec attinuisse demi securim, quum sine
provocatione creati essent, interpretabantur. Valerius Publicola
had introduced the custom of not having the axes tied up with the
fasces when carried before the consuls in the city. But the decemvirs
said that this was, because an appeal from the consuls to the people
was allowed. Whence, since their jurisdiction allowed of no appeal,
they interpreted, i. e. by interpreting the meaning or intention
of this custom, they concluded that they were not bound by it, and that
there was no reason why they should remove the axes from the fasces.—
Crev.]
[Footnote 138: Provocatione—intercessionem. The
provocatio was to the people, whilst the intercessio
referred to the decemvirs against a colleague.]
37. The plebeians then began to watch narrowly the countenances of
the patricians, and (hoped) to catch the breeze of liberty from that
quarter, by apprehending slavery from which, they had brought the
republic into its present condition. The leading members of the senate
detested the decemvirs, detested the commons; they neither approved of
what was going on, and they considered that what befell the latter was
not without their deserving it. They were unwilling to assist men who,
by rushing too eagerly towards liberty, had fallen into slavery: they
even heaped injuries on them, that, from their disgust at the present
state of things, two consuls and the former mode of government may at
length become desirable. The greater part of the year was now passed,
and two tables of laws had been added to the ten tables of the former
year; and if these laws also were once passed in an assembly of the
centuries, there now remained no reason why the republic should require
that form of government. They were anxiously waiting to see how soon
the assembly would be proclaimed for the election of consuls. The
commons were only devising by what means they should re-establish the
tribunitian power, that bulwark of their liberty, a thing now so long
discontinued. When in the mean time no mention was made of the
elections, and the decemvirs, who had at first exhibited themselves to
the people, surrounded by men of tribunitian rank, because that was
deemed popular, now guarded themselves by collecting young patricians;
troops of these beset the tribunals. These seized and drove about the
commons, and the effects of the commons; when success attended the more
powerful individual, as far as obtaining any thing he might covet.[139]
And now they spared not even their backs. Some were beaten with rods;
others had to submit to the axe; and lest such cruelty might go for
nothing, a grant of his effects followed the punishment of the owner.
Corrupted by such bribes, the young nobility not only made no
opposition to oppression, but openly avowed their preference of their
own gratification to the general liberty.
[Footnote 139: Quum fortuna, qua quicquid cupitum foret,
potentioris esset. Stroth considers this passage to be corrupt: he
proposes to read cum fortuna, so that portentioris esset
may refer to quicquid cupitum foret, i. e. with such favourable
success, that every thing which the more powerful person might covet,
became his.]
38. The ides of May came. No new election of magistrates having
taken place, private persons came forth as decemvirs, without any
abatement either in their determination to enforce their
authority,[140] or any diminution in the emblems employed to make a
parade of their station. This indeed seemed to be regal tyranny.
Liberty is now deplored as lost for ever; nor does any champion stand
forth, or appear likely to do so. And not only they themselves sunk
into despondence, but they began to be looked down upon by the
neighbouring states; and they felt indignant that dominion should exist
where liberty was lost. The Sabines with a numerous body of men made an
incursion on the Roman territory; and having committed extensive
devastations, after they had driven with impunity booty of men and
cattle, they recalled their troops which had been dispersed in
different directions to Eretum, and pitch their camp there, grounding
their hopes on the dissensions at Rome; (and trusting) that they would
prove an obstruction to the levy. Not only the couriers, but the flight
of the country people through the city, occasioned alarm. The decemvirs
consult what should be done. Whilst they were thus left destitute
between the hatred of the patricians and people, fortune added,
moreover, another cause of alarm. The Æquans on the opposite side pitch
their camp at Algidum; and ambassadors from Tusculum, imploring relief,
bring accounts that the Tusculan land was ravaged by detachments from
thence. The panic occasioned hereby urged the decemvirs to consult the
senate, two wars at the same time surrounding the city. They order the
patricians to be summoned into the senate-house, well aware what a
storm of resentment was ready to break upon them; that all would heap
on them the causes of the land laid waste, and of the dangers which
threatened them; and that that would occasion an attempt to abolish
their office, if they did not unite in resisting, and by enforcing
their authority with severity on a few of an intractable spirit repress
the efforts of others. When the voice was heard in the forum of the
crier summoning the senators into the senate-house before the
decemvirs; as a matter altogether new, because they had long since laid
aside the custom of consulting the senate, it attracted the attention
of the people, who expressed their surprise: “What could have happened,
that after so long an interval they should revive a practice now
discontinued. That they had reason to return thanks to the enemy and to
war, that any thing was done that used to be done when their state was
free.” They looked around for a senator through all parts of the forum,
and seldom recognised one any where: they then directed their attention
to the senate-house, and to the solitude around the decemvirs: whilst
both they themselves referred the non-assembling of the patricians to
their own universally detested government, and the commons (would have
it, that the cause of the non-assembling was) because, being but
private citizens, they (the decemvirs) had no right to convene the
senate;[141] “that a head was now formed of those who would demand back
their liberty, if the commons would but accompany the senate, and as
the patricians, when summoned, did not attend the senate, so the
commons also should refuse to enlist.” Such were the remarks of the
commons. There was scarcely any of the patricians in the forum, and but
very few in the city. In disgust with the state of affairs, they had
retired into the country, and were attending to their own affairs,
renouncing all public concerns, considering that they themselves were
aloof from ill-treatment in proportion as they should remove themselves
from the meeting and converse of their imperious masters. When those
who had been summoned did not assemble, apparitors were despatched to
their houses, both to levy the penalties,[142] and to ascertain whether
they declined attendance through design? They bring back word that the
senate was in the country. This was more pleasing to the decemvirs,
than if they brought word that they were present and refused obedience
to their commands. They command them all to be sent for, and proclaim a
meeting of the senate for the following day; which congregated together
in much greater numbers than they themselves had expected. By which
proceeding the commons considered that their liberty was betrayed by
the patricians, because the senate had obeyed those persons, as if they
had a right to compel them, who had already gone out of office; and
were but private individuals, were it not for the violence employed by
them.[143]
[Footnote 140: Inhibendum, sc. adhibendum—the term
inhibeo occurs frequently in this sense, as below, imperioque
inhibendo. The adjective imminutis also refers evidently to
honoris insignibus.—Stroth.]
[Footnote 141: The words are, quum et ipsi invisum consensu
imperium, et plebs, quid privatis jus non esset vocandi senatum, non
convenire patres interpretarentur, i. e. while, on the one hand,
the decemvirs themselves accounted for the staying away of the senators
from the meeting, by the fact of their (the decemvirs') government
being disliked by them; whilst, on the other hand, the commons
accounted for the non-appearance of the senators by the fact, that
being now mere private citizens, their time of office being passed,
they (the decemvirs) had no right whatever to convene the senate.—
Stroth.]
[Footnote 142: The senators were obliged to attend the meeting of
the senate when convened by the magistrate; otherwise a fine was
imposed, to insure the payment of which pledges were exacted, which
were sold in case of non-payment. See Cicero de Orat. iii. 1. Philip.
i. 5.]
[Footnote 143: In the original the words are: quod iis qui jam
magistratu abissent, privatisque, si vis abesset, &c., i. e. who
differed in no other respect from mere private citizens, except that
they had recourse to violence, which it was competent for the
magistrate only to do.]
39. But they showed more obedience in coming into the senate than
servility in the sentiments expressed by them, as we have learned. It
is recorded that, after Appius's stating the subject of the meeting,
and before the opinions were demanded in order, Lucius Valerius Potitus
excited a commotion, by demanding permission to express his sentiments
concerning the state, and when the decemvirs were prohibiting him with
threats, declaring that he would present himself before the people. (We
have also heard) that Marcus Horatius Barbatus entered the lists with
no less boldness, calling them “ten Tarquins,” and reminding them,
“that under the leadership of the Valerii and Horatii[144] the kings
had been expelled. Nor was it of the mere name that men were then
tired, it being that by which it was usual to style Jupiter, and by
which Romulus, the founder of the city, and his successors were also
styled; a name too which has been retained even in the ceremonies of
religion, as a solemn one; that it was the tyranny and arrogance of a
king they then detested, which if they were not to be tolerated in one
who was both a king himself and the son of a king, who was to tolerate
it in so many private citizens? that they should beware lest, by
preventing persons from speaking their sentiments freely in the senate,
they might oblige them to raise their voice outside the senate-house.
Nor could he see how it was less allowable for him, a private citizen,
to summon the people to an assembly, than for them to convene the
senate. They might try, whenever they pleased, how much more determined
a sense of wrong will be found to be in vindicating one's own liberty,
than ambition in (vindicating) usurped domination. That they proposed
the question concerning the Sabine war, as if the Roman people had any
more important war on hand, than that against those who, having been
elected for the purpose of framing laws, had left no law in the state;
who had abolished elections, annual magistrates, the regular change of
rulers, which was the only means of equalizing liberty; who, though
private citizens, still possess the fasces and regal dominion. That on
the expulsion of the kings, patrician magistrates were appointed, and
subsequently, after the secession of the people, plebeian magistrates.
To which party, he asked, did they belong? To the popular party? What
had they ever done with the concurrence of the people? were they
nobles? who for now nearly an entire year have not held a meeting of
the senate; and then hold one in such a manner, that they actually
prevent numbers from expressing their sentiments regarding the
commonwealth; that they should not place too much hope in the fears of
others; that the grievances which they are suffering now appear to men
more oppressive than any they may have to apprehend.”
[Footnote 144: Livy's own account of the matter does not justify
this claim of the Horatii to having been at the head of the revolution
which banished the kings. But Dionysius of Halicarnassus informs us
that it was Marcus Horatius who made the army revolt against Tarquinius
Superbus, and that the same in his second consulate rendered unavailing
all the efforts of Porsenna to restore the Tarquins.]
40. Whilst Horatius was exclaiming in this manner, “and the
decemvirs could not discover any limit either to their anger or
forbearance, nor could they see to what the thing would come, Caius
Claudius, who was uncle to Appius the decemvir, delivered an address
more like entreaties than reproach, beseeching him by the shade of his
own brother and of his father, that he would hold in recollection the
civil society in which he had been born rather than the confederacy
nefariously entered into with his colleagues; that he besought this
much more on Appius's own account, than for the sake of the
commonwealth. For that the commonwealth would assert its rights in
spite of them, if it could not obtain them with their consent. But that
from great contests great animosities arise; the result of the latter
he dreads.” Though the decemvirs forbad them to speak on any other
subject than that which they had submitted to them, they felt too much
respect for Claudius to interrupt him. He therefore concluded his
address by moving that it was their wish that no decree of the senate
should be passed. And all understood the matter thus, that they were
judged by Claudius to be private citizens; and many of the men of
consular standing expressed their assent. Another measure proposed,
more harsh in appearance, possessed much less efficacy; one which
ordered the patricians to assemble to elect an interrex; for by passing
any resolution they judged, that those persons who convened the senate
were magistrates of some kind or other, whilst the person who
recommended that no decree of the senate should be passed, had thereby
declared them private citizens. When the cause of the decemvirs was now
sinking, Lucius Cornelius Maluginensis, brother of Marcus Cornelius the
decemvir, having been purposely reserved from among the consular men to
close the debate, by affecting an anxiety about the war, defended his
brother and his colleagues thus: saying, “he wondered by what fatality
it had occurred, that those who had been candidates for the
decemvirate, should attack the decemvirs, either as secondaries,[145]
or as principals: or when no one disputed for so many months whilst the
state was disengaged, whether legal magistrates had the management of
affairs, why do they now sow discord, when the enemies are nearly at
the gate; unless that in a state of confusion they think that what they
are aiming at will be less seen through.” But that it was not just that
any one should prejudice so important a cause, whilst our minds are
occupied with a more momentous concern. It was his opinion, that the
point which Valerius and Horatius urged, viz. that the decemvirs had
gone out of office before the ides of May, should be discussed in the
senate, when the wars which are now impending are over, and the
commonwealth has been restored to tranquillity: and that Appius
Claudius should now prepare to take notice that an account is to be
rendered by him of the comitia which he himself held for electing
decemvirs, whether they were elected for one year, or until the laws
which were wanting were ratified. It was his opinion that all other
matters should be laid aside for the present, except the war; and if
they thought that the reports regarding it were propagated without
foundation, and that not only the couriers, but the ambassadors of the
Tusculans also had stated what was false, he thought that scouts should
be despatched to bring back more certain information; but if credit
were given both to the couriers and the ambassadors, that the levy
should be held at the very earliest opportunity; that the decemvirs
should lead the armies, whither it may seem proper to each; and that no
other matter should take precedence.
[Footnote 145: The original here is rather obscure. Aut socii,
aut hi maxime. Crevier prefers to read aut soli aut hi maxime. Stroth explains socii, se socios præbendo.]
41. The junior patricians succeeded in having this opinion carried.
Valerius and Horatius rising again with greater vehemence demanded
aloud, “that it should be allowed them to express their sentiments
concerning the republic; that they would address the people, if by a
faction they were not allowed to do so in the senate. For that private
individuals, either in the senate or in a general assembly, could not
prevent them; nor would they yield to their imaginary fasces.” Appius
then considering that the crisis was now nigh at hand, when their
authority would be overpowered, unless their violence were resisted
with equal boldness: “It will be better,” says he, “not to utter a word
on any subject, except that which we are now considering: and to
Valerius, when he refused to be silent for a private individual, he
commands a lictor to proceed.” When Valerius, on the threshold of the
senate-house, now craved the protection of the citizens, Lucius
Cornelius, embracing Appius, put an end to the dispute, not consulting
the interest of him whose interest he affected to consult; and
permission to speak his sentiments being obtained for Valerius through
Cornelius, when this liberty did not extend beyond words, the decemvirs
obtained their object. The consulars also and senior members, from the
hatred of tribunitian power still rankling in their bosoms, the desire
of which they considered was much more keenly felt by the commons than
that of the consular power, almost had rather that the decemvirs
themselves should voluntarily resign their office at some future
period, than that the people should rise once more into consequence
through their unpopularity. If the matter, conducted with gentleness,
should again return to the consuls without popular turbulence, that the
commons might be induced to forget their tribunes, either by the
intervention of wars or by the moderation of the consuls in exercising
their authority. A levy is proclaimed amid the silence of the
patricians; the young men answer to their names, as the government was
without appeal. The legions being enrolled, the decemvirs set about
arranging among themselves who should set out to the war, who command
the armies. The leading men among the decemvirs were, Quintus Fabius
and Appius Claudius. There appeared a more serious war at home than
abroad. They considered the violence of Appius as better suited to
suppress commotions in the city; that Fabius possessed a disposition
rather inconstant in good pursuits than strenuous in bad ones. For this
man, formerly distinguished at home and abroad, his office of decemvir
and his colleagues had so changed, that he chose rather to be like to
Appius than like himself. To him the war against the Sabines was
committed, his colleagues, Manius Rabuleius and Quintus Pætelius, being
sent with him. Marcus Cornelius was sent to Algidum with Lucius
Menucius and Titus Antonius, and Cæso Duilius and Marcus Sergius: they
determine on Spurius Oppius as an assistant to Appius Claudius to
protect the city, their authority being equal to that of all the
decemvirs.
42. The republic was managed with no better success in war than at
home. In this the only fault in the generals was, that they had
rendered themselves objects of hatred to their fellow citizens: in
other respects the whole fault lay with the soldiers; who, lest any
enterprise should succeed under the conduct and auspices of the
decemvirs, suffered themselves to be beaten, to their own disgrace, and
that of them (the generals). Their armies were routed by the Sabines at
Eretum, and in Algidum by the Æquans. Having fled from Eretum during
the silence of the night, they fortified their camp nearer to the city,
on an elevated situation between Fidenæ and Crustumeria; no where
encountering the enemy, who pursued them, on equal ground, they
protected themselves by the nature of the place and a rampart, not by
valour or arms. Greater disgrace and greater loss were sustained in
Algidum, their camp also was lost; and the soldiers, stripped of all
their utensils, betook themselves to Tusculum, determined to procure
the means of subsistence from the good faith and compassion of their
hosts; which, however, did not disappoint them. Such alarming accounts
were brought to Rome, that the patricians, having laid aside their
hatred of the decemvirs, passed an order that watches should be held in
the city; commanded that all who were able by reason of their age to
carry arms, should mount guard on the walls, and form out-posts before
the gates; they also voted arms to be sent to Tusculum, besides a
reinforcement; that the decemvirs also should come down from the
citadel of Tusculum and keep their troops encamped; that the other camp
should be removed from Fidenæ into the Sabine territory; and that the
enemy might be deterred, by thus attacking them first, from
entertaining any intentions of attacking the city.
43. To the calamities received from the enemy, the decemvirs add two
flagitious deeds, one abroad, and the other in the city. In the Sabine
district, Lucius Siccius, who, during the unpopularity of the
decemvirs, introduced, in secret conversation with the common soldiers,
mention of electing tribunes and of a secession, was sent forwards to
select a place for a camp: instructions were given to the soldiers whom
they had sent to accompany him in that expedition, to attack him in a
convenient place and slay him. They did not kill him with impunity; for
several of the assassins fell around him resisting them, whilst,
possessing great personal strength and with a courage equal to that
strength, he was defending himself against them, now surrounded as he
was. The rest bring an account into the camp that Siccius, when
fighting bravely, had fallen into an ambush, and that some soldiers
were lost with him. At first the narrators were believed; afterwards a
cohort, which went by permission of the decemvirs to bury those who had
fallen, when they observed that none of the bodies there were stripped,
that Siccius lay in the middle with his arms, all the bodies being
turned towards him, whilst there was neither any body of the enemy, nor
even any traces of them as going away; they brought back his body,
saying, that he had certainly been slain by his own men. The camp was
now filled with indignation, and it was being determined that Siccius
should be forthwith brought to Rome, had not the decemvirs hastened to
perform a military funeral for him at the public expense. He was buried
amid the great grief of the soldiery, and with the worst possible
reputation of the decemvirs among the common people.
44. Another atrocious deed follows in the city, originating in lust,
attended with results not less tragical than that deed which drove the
Tarquins from the city and the throne through the injured chastity and
violent death of Lucretia: so that the decemvirs not only had the same
end as the kings had, but the same cause also of losing their power.
Appius Claudius was seized with a criminal passion for violating the
person of a young woman of plebeian condition. Lucius Virginius, the
girl's father, held an honourable rank among the centurions at Algidum,
a man of exemplary good conduct both at home and in the service. His
wife had been educated in a similar manner, as also were their
children. He had betrothed his daughter to Lucius Icilius, who had been
a tribune, a man of spirit and of approved zeal in the interest of the
people. This young woman, in the bloom of youth, distinguished for
beauty, Appius, burning with desire, attempted to seduce by bribes and
promises; and when he perceived that all the avenues (to the possession
of her) were barred by modesty, he turned his thoughts to cruel and
tyrannical violence. He instructed a dependent of his, Marcus Claudius,
to claim the girl as his slave, and not to yield to those who might
demand her interim retention of liberty; considering that, because the
girl's father was absent, there was an opportunity for committing the
injury. The tool of the decemvir's lust laid hands on the girl as she
was coming into the forum (for there in the sheds the literary schools
were held); calling her “the daughter of his slave and a slave
herself,” he commanded her to follow him; that he would force her away
if she demurred. The girl being stupified with terror, a crowd collects
at the cries of the girl's nurse, who besought the protection of the
citizens. The popular names of her father, Virginius, and of her
spouse, Icilius, are in the mouths of every one. Their regard for them
gains over their acquaintances, whilst the heinousness of the
proceeding gains over the crowd. She was now safe from violence, when
the claimant says, “that there was no occasion for raising a mob; that
he was proceeding by law, not by force.” He cites the girl into court.
Those who stood by her advising her to follow him, they now reached the
tribunal of Appius. The claimant rehearses the farce well known to the
judge, as being the author of the plot, “that a girl born in his house,
and clandestinely transferred from thence to the house of Virginius,
had been fathered on the latter.” That he stated a thing ascertained by
certain evidence, and would prove it to the satisfaction even of
Virginius himself, whom the principal portion of that loss would
concern. That it was but just that in the interim the girl should
accompany her master. The advocates for Virginia, after they had urged
that Virginius was absent on business of the state, that he would be
here in two days if word were sent to him, that it was unfair that in
his absence he should run any risk regarding his children, demand that
he adjourn the whole matter till the arrival of the father; that he
should allow the claim for her interim liberty according to the law
passed by himself, and not allow a maiden of ripe age to encounter the
risk of her reputation before that of her liberty.
45. Appius prefaced his decree by observing that the very law, which
Virginius's friends were putting forward as the ground of their demand,
clearly showed how much he favoured liberty. But that liberty would
find secure protection in it on this condition, that it varied[146]
neither with respect to cases or persons.[147] For with respect to
those individuals who were claimed as free, that point of law was good,
because[148] any person may proceed by law (and act for them); with
respect to her who is in the hands of her father, that there was no
other person (than her father) to whom her master need relinquish his
right of possession. That it was his determination, therefore, that her
father should be sent for: in the mean time, that the claimant should
suffer no loss of his right, but that he should carry off the girl with
him, and promise that she should be produced on the arrival of him who
was called her father. When many rather murmured against the injustice
of this decision than any one individual ventured to protest against
it, the girl's uncle, Publius Numitorius, and her betrothed spouse,
Icilius, just come in; and way being made through the crowd, the
multitude thinking that Appius might be most effectually resisted by
the intervention of Icilius, the lictor declares that “he had decided
the matter,” and removes Icilius, when he attempted to raise his voice.
Injustice so atrocious would have fired even a cool temper. “By the
sword, Appius,” says he, “I must be removed hence, that you may carry
off in silence that which you wish to be concealed. This young woman I
am about to marry, determined to have a lawful and chaste wife.
Wherefore call together all the lictors even of your colleagues; order
the rods and axes to be had in readiness; the betrothed wife of Icilius
shall not remain without her father's house. Though you have taken from
us the aid of our tribunes, and the power of appeal to the commons of
Rome, the two bulwarks for maintaining our liberty, absolute dominion
has not therefore been given to you over our wives and children. Vent
your fury on our backs and necks; let chastity at least be secure. If
violence be offered to her, I shall implore the protection of the
citizens here present in behalf of my spouse; Virginius will implore
that of the soldiers in behalf of his only daughter; we shall all
implore the protection of gods and men, nor shall you carry that
sentence into effect without our blood. I demand of you, Appius,
consider again and again to what lengths you are proceeding. Let
Virginius, when he comes, consider what conduct he should pursue with
respect to his daughter. Let him only be assured of this, that if he
yield to the claims of this man, he will have to seek out another match
for his daughter. As for my part, in vindicating the liberty of my
spouse, life shall leave me sooner than my honour.”
[Footnote 146: Appius here contrasts two classes of persons, one
consisting of individuals, who are in their own power; the other, of
those who are not sui juris, but are under the control either of
a parent, or some other person. If the question arise concerning a
person who is sui juris, whether he is to be consigned to
slavery, or to be restored to liberty, then “id juris esse,” sc.
that he remain free till the decision is made, because any person, as being homo sui juris, and consequently he himself, “may
proceed by law;” but he says, that this does not hold good with respect
to a person who is not sui juris, but is in the hands of others;
such a person, he says, cannot be pronounced free, but must be subject
to the power, either of the parent or master, so that no injury be done
to either. Wherefore, since the girl is not sui juris, she must
be in the power, either of Virginius, who says he is her father, or of
Claudius, who says he is her master. But since Virginius is not
present, that she can be in the power of no one but Claudius, until
Virginius arrive.
I cannot resist the temptation of giving in full Mr. Gunn's note on
the passage, as found in his very neat edition of our author.
“Appius for his own purposes, in interpreting his own law,
introduces a distinction betwixt those who were sui juris,
entirely free, and those who were subject to the patria potestas. The law, according to him, can apply only to the former, because in
them only is there a true claim for liberty, and in them only could a
judge give an interim decision secundum libertatem. To give such
a decision in favour of Virginia, would be a variatio personarum
; it would be introducing as entitled to the benefit of the law a class
of persons, who were, even according to their own statements, not
entitled to vindiciæ secundum libertatem. Besides, and most
important of all, the law could act in the former, as any citizen was
entitled to plead the cause of one presumptively free. But in this case
no one could plead, but either the father as master on the one hand, or
the alleged master on the other: as the father was not present,
consequently no one had any legal claim to urge the law.”]
[Footnote 147: Si nec causis nec personis variet. Sc. lex
variet. Some understand libertas as the nominative to variet.]
[Footnote 148: Because any person. “As the law permits any
strangers to interpose in vindicating an individual's liberty, they
have an undoubted right so to do. But the question is not whether this
maiden is free: that she cannot be in any case; for she belongs either
to her father or her master. Now as her father is not present to take
charge of her, no one here but her master can have any title to her.”
Appius argues that he could not pronounce in favour of her temporary
liberty, without prejudice to her father's right and power over her: as
there was no one present, who claimed a legal right to the possession
of her but M. Claudius, the judge had no alternative but to award her
during the interim to his safe keeping.—Stocker.]
46. The multitude was now excited, and a contest seemed likely to
ensue. The lictors had taken their stand around Icilius; nor did they,
however, proceed beyond threats, when Appius said, “that it was not
Virginia that was defended by Icilius, but that, being a restless man,
and even now breathing the spirit of the tribuneship, he was seeking an
occasion for a disturbance. That he would not afford him material on
that day; but in order that he may now know that the concession has
been made not to his petulance, but to the absent Virginius, to the
name of father and to liberty, that he would not decide the cause on
that day, nor interpose a decree: that he would request of Marcus
Claudius to forego somewhat of his right, and suffer the girl to be
bailed till the next day. But unless the father attended on the
following day, he gave notice to Icilius and to men like Icilius, that
neither the founder would be wanting to his own law, nor firmness to
the decemvir; nor would he assemble the lictors of his colleagues to
put down the promoters of sedition; that he would be content with his
own lictors.” When the time of this act of injustice was deferred, and
the friends of the maiden had retired, it was first of all determined,
that the brother of Icilius and the son of Numitorius, both active
young men, should proceed thence straightforward to the gate, and that
Virginius should be brought from the camp with all possible haste. That
the safety of the girl depended on his being present next day at the
proper time, as her protector from injury. They proceed according to
directions and with all speed carry the account to her father. When the
claimant of the maiden was pressing Icilius to become defendant, and
give sureties,[149] and Icilius said that that was the very thing he
was doing, designedly spinning out the time, until the messengers sent
to the camp might gain time for their journey, the multitude raised
their hands on all sides, and every one showed himself ready to go
surety for Icilius. And he with tears in his eyes says, It is very kind
of you; on to-morrow I will avail myself of your assistance; at present
I have sufficient sureties. Thus Virginia is bailed on the security of
her relations. Appius having delayed a short time, that he might not
appear to have sat on account of the present case, when no one applied,
all other concerns being given up by reason of their solicitude about
the one, betook himself home, and writes to his colleagues to the camp,
“not to grant leave of absence to Virginius, and even to keep him in
confinement.” This wicked scheme was late, as it deserved to be; for
Virginius, having already obtained his leave, had set out at the first
watch, while the letter regarding his detention was delivered on the
following morning to no purpose.
[Footnote 149: Sureties—sponsores. The preliminary bail.]
47. But in the city, when the citizens were standing in the forum
erect with expectation, Virginius, clad in mourning, by break of day
conducts his daughter, also attired in weeds, attended by some matrons,
into the forum, with a considerable body of advocates. He then began to
go round and to solicit individuals; and not only to entreat their aid
as a boon to his prayers, but demanded it as due to him: “that he stood
daily in the field of battle in defence of their children and wives,
nor was there any other man, to whom a greater number of brave and
intrepid deeds in war can be ascribed than to him. What availed it, if,
whilst the city was still secure, their children would be exposed to
suffer the severest hardships which would have to be dreaded if it was
taken?” Delivering these observations like one haranguing in an
assembly, he solicited them individually. Similar arguments were used
by Icilius: the female attendants produced more effect by their silent
tears than any language. With a mind utterly insensible to all this,
(such, a paroxysm of madness, rather than of love, had perverted his
mind,) Appius ascended the tribunal; and when the claimant began to
complain briefly, that justice had not been administered to him on the
preceding day through a desire to please the people, before either he
could go through with his claim, or an opportunity of reply was
afforded to Virginius, Appius interrupts him. The preamble with which
he prefaced the sentence, ancient authors may have handed down perhaps
with truth; because I no where find any one that was likely (to have
been used) on so scandalous a business, it seems, that the naked fact
should be stated as being a point which is agreed on, viz. that he
passed a sentence[150] consigning her to slavery. At first all were
astounded with amazement at so heinous a proceeding; then silence
prevailed for some time. Then when Marcus Claudius proceeded to seize
the maiden, the matrons standing around her, and was received with
piteous lamentation of the women, Virginius, menacingly extending his
hands towards Appius, says, To Icilius, and not to you, Appius, have I
betrothed my daughter, and for matrimony, not prostitution, have I
brought her up. Do you wish men to gratify their lust promiscuously,
like cattle and wild beasts? Whether these persons will endure such
things, I know not; I hope that those will not who have arms in their
hands. When the claimant of the girl was repulsed by the crowd of women
and advocates who were standing around her, silence was commanded by
the crier.
[Footnote 150: He passed a sentence, &c. In the original it
is, “decresse vindicias secundum servitutem.” This decision relates to
the definitive bail. Appius the day before had made up his mind to this
decision. He had calculated, however, on the non-appearance of the
father; yet did not now choose to be foiled by his unexpected
presence.—Stocker.]
48. The decemvir, engrossed in mind by his lustful propensities,
states that not only from the abusive language of Icilius yesterday,
and the violence of Virginius, of which he had the entire Roman people
as witnesses, but from authentic information also he ascertained, that
cabals were held in the city during the whole night to stir up a
sedition. Accordingly that he, being aware of that danger, had come
down with armed soldiers; not that he would molest any peaceable
person, but in order to punish suitably to the majesty of the
government persons disturbing the tranquillity of the state. It will,
therefore, be better to remain quiet. Go, lictor, says he, remove the
crowd; and make way for the master to lay hold of his slave. When,
bursting with passion, he had thundered out these words, the multitude
themselves voluntarily separated, and the girl stood deserted a prey to
injustice. Then Virginius, when he saw no aid any where, says, I beg
you, Appius, first pardon a father's grief, if I have said any thing
too harsh against you: in the next place, suffer me to question the
nurse before the maiden, what all this matter is? that if I have been
falsely called her father, I may depart hence with a more resigned
mind. Permission being granted, he draws the girl and the nurse aside
to the sheds near the temple of Cloacina, which now go by the name of
the new sheds: and there snatching up a knife from a butcher, “In this
one way, the only one in my power, do I secure to you your liberty.” He
then transfixes the girl's breast, and looking back towards the
tribunal, he says, “With this blood I devote thee, Appius, and thy
head.” Appius, aroused by the cry raised at so dreadful a deed, orders
Virginius to be seized. He, armed with the knife, cleared the way
whithersoever he went, until, protected by the crowd of persons
attending him, he reached the gate. Icilius and Numitorius take up the
lifeless body and exhibit it to the people: they deplore the villany of
Appius, the fatal beauty of the maiden, and the dire necessity of the
father. The matrons who followed exclaim, “Was this the condition of
rearing children? were these the rewards of chastity?” and other things
which female grief on such occasions suggests, when their complaints
are so much the more affecting, in proportion as (their grief) is more
intense from the natural tenderness of their minds. The voice of the
men, and more especially of Icilius, entirely turned on the tribunitian
power, on the right of appeal to the people which had been taken from
them, and on the indignities thrown upon the state.
49. The multitude was excited partly by the atrocious nature of the
deed, partly by the hope of recovering their liberty through a
favourable opportunity. Appius now orders Icilius to be summoned before
him, now on refusing to come to be seized; at length, when an
opportunity of approaching him was not afforded to the beadles, he
himself proceeding through the crowd with a body of young patricians,
orders him to be taken into confinement. Now not only the multitude,
but Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius, the leaders of the multitude,
stood around Icilius: who, having repulsed the lictor, stated, that “if
he meant to proceed by law, they would protect Icilius from one who was
but a private citizen; if he desired to employ force, that they would
be no bad match for him even then.” Hence arises a furious scuffle. The
decemvir's lictor attacks Valerius and Horatius: the fasces are broken
by the people. Appius ascends the tribunal; Horatius and Valerius
follow him. To them the assembly pays attention, they drown with
clamour the voice of the decemvir. Now Valerius authoritatively ordered
the lictors to depart from one who was but a private citizen: when
Appius, whose spirits were now broken, being alarmed for his life,
betook himself into a house in the vicinity of the forum, unknown to
his enemies, with his head covered up. Spurius Oppius, in order to
assist his colleague, rushes into the forum from the opposite side; he
sees their authority overpowered by force. Distracted then by various
counsels between which he wavered, by assenting to several advisers
from every side, he eventually ordered the senate to be convened.
Because the proceedings of the decemvirs seemed to be displeasing to
the greater portion of the patricians, this step quieted the people
with the hope that the government would be abolished through the
senate. The senate gave their opinion that neither the commons should
be exasperated, and much more that care should be taken that the
arrival of Virginius should not occasion any commotion in the army.
50. Accordingly some of the junior patricians, being sent to the
camp which was at that time on Mount Vecilius, announce to the
decemvirs “that by every means in their power they should keep the
soldiers from mutinying.” Where Virginius occasioned greater commotion
than he had left behind him in the city. For besides that he was seen
coming with a body of near four hundred men, who, fired at the heinous
enormity of the occurrence, had accompanied him from the city; the
unsheathed weapon and himself besmeared with blood, attracted to him
the entire camp; and the gowns[151] seen in the different parts of the
camp, had caused the number of people from the city to appear much
greater than it really was. When they asked him what was the matter, in
consequence of his weeping he uttered not a word. At length, as soon as
the crowd of those running together became still, and silence took
place, he related every thing in order as it occurred. Then extending
his hands towards heaven, addressing his fellow soldiers, he begged of
them, “not to impute to him that which was the crime of Appius, not to
abhor him as the murderer of his children.” To him the life of his
daughter was dearer than his own, if she had been allowed to live in
freedom and chastity. When he beheld her dragged to prostitution as if
a slave, thinking it better that his child should be lost by death than
by dishonour, through compassion for her he fell into an appearance of
cruelty. Nor would he have survived his daughter, had he not placed
hope of avenging her death in the aid of his fellow soldiers. For that
they too had daughters, sisters, and wives; nor was the lust of Appius
Claudius extinguished with his daughter; but in proportion as it
escaped with impunity, so much the more unbridled would it be. That in
the calamities of others a warning was given to them to guard against a
similar injury. That for his own part, his wife had been taken from him
by fate; his daughter, because she no longer could live in chastity,
died an unfortunate but honourable death; that there was no longer in
his house an opportunity for Appius's lust; that from any other
violence of his he would defend his person with the same spirit with
which he vindicated that of his daughter. That others should take care
of themselves and of their children. To Virginius, uttering these words
in a loud voice, the multitude responded with a shout, “that they would
not be backward, with respect either to his wrongs or their own
liberty. And the gown-men mixing with the crowd of soldiers, both by
narrating with sorrow those same circumstances, and by showing how much
more shocking they must have appeared when seen than when merely heard,
and also by telling them that matters were now desperate at Rome; those
also who followed (the persons that accompanied Virginius from Rome)
and alleged that Appius, having with difficulty escaped with life, had
gone into exile;[152] all these individuals so far influenced them that
there was a general cry to arms, they snatched up their standards, and
set out for Rome.” The decemvirs, being alarmed at the same time both
by what they now saw, as well as by those things which they had heard
had taken place at Rome, ran about to different parts of the camp to
quell the commotion. Whilst they proceeded with mildness no answer was
returned to them. If any of them attempted to exert authority over
them, the answer given was, that “they were men and had arms.” They go
in a body to the city and post themselves on the Aventine; encouraging
the commons, according as each person met them, to reassume their
liberty, and elect tribunes of the people; no other violent expression
was heard. Spurius Oppius holds a meeting of the senate; it is resolved
that no harsh proceedings should be adopted, as occasion for the
sedition had been given by themselves. Three men of consular rank,
Spurius Tarpeius, Caius Julius, Publius Sulpicius, are sent as
ambassadors, to inquire, in the name of the senate, by whose orders
they had deserted the camp? or what they intended in posting themselves
on the Aventine in arms, and in turning away their arms from the enemy
and taking their own country? They were at no loss for an answer; they
wanted some one to give the answer, there being as yet no certain
leader, and individuals not being forward enough to expose themselves
to the invidious office. The multitude only called out with one voice,
that they should send Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius to them: that
to them they would give their answer.
[Footnote 151: The dress of the citizens.]
[Footnote 152: Two classes of persons are here intended: 1. Those
who accompanied Virginius into the camp. 2. Others who followed them
subsequently.]
51. The ambassadors being dismissed, Virginius reminds the soldiers
“that a little time before they had been embarrassed in a matter of no
very great difficulty, because the multitude was without a head; and
that the answer given, though not inexpedient, was the result rather of
an accidental concurrence than of a concerted plan. His opinion was,
that ten persons be elected, who should preside in the management of
their affairs, and, in the style of military dignity, that they should
be called tribunes of the soldiers.” When that honour was offered to
himself in the first instance, he replied, “Reserve for an occasion
more favourable to you and to me those your kind opinions of me. My
daughter being unavenged, neither allows any honour to be satisfactory
to me, nor in the disturbed state of things is it useful that those
should be at your head who are most obnoxious to party malice. If there
will be any use of me, such use will be derived not in a less degree
from me in a private station.” They then elect military tribunes ten in
number. Nor was the army among the Sabines inactive. There also, at the
instance of Icilius and Numitorius, a secession from the decemvirs took
place, the commotion of men's minds on recollecting the murder of
Siccius being not less than that, which the recent account of the
barbarous attempt made on the maiden to gratify lust had enkindled.
When Icilius heard that tribunes of the soldiers were elected on Mount
Aventine, lest the election-assembly in the city might follow the
precedent of the military assembly, by electing the same persons
tribunes of the commons, being well versed in popular intrigues and
having an eye to that office, he also takes care, before they proceeded
to the city, that the same number be elected by his own party with an
equal power. They entered the city through the Colline gate in military
array, and proceeded in a body to the Aventine through the middle of
the city. There, joined to the other army, they commissioned the twenty
tribunes of the soldiers to select two out of their number, who should
hold the command in chief. They choose Marcus Oppius and Sextus
Manilius. The patricians, alarmed for the general safety, though there
was a meeting every day, waste the time in wrangling more frequently
than in deliberation. The murder of Siccius, the lust of Appius, and
the disgraces incurred in war were urged as charges against the
decemvirs. It was resolved that Valerius and Horatius should proceed to
the Aventine. They refused to go on any other conditions, than that the
decemvirs should lay down the badges of that office, which had expired
the year before. The decemvirs, complaining that they were now being
degraded, stated that they would not resign their office, until those
laws were passed on account of which they had been appointed.
52. The people being informed through Marcus Duilius, who had been
tribune of the people, that by reason of their continual contentions no
business was transacted, passes from the Aventine to the Sacred mount;
Duilius affirming that serious concern for business would not enter the
minds of the patricians, until they saw the city deserted. That the
Sacred mount would remind them of the people's firmness; that they
would then know, that matters could not be restored to concord without
the restoration of (the tribunitian) power. Having set out along the
Nomentan way, which was then called the Ficulnean, they pitched their
camp on the Sacred mount, imitating the moderation of their fathers by
committing no violence. The commons followed the army, no one whose age
would permit him declining to go. Their wives and children attended
their steps, piteously asking to whom would they leave them, in a city
in which neither chastity nor liberty were respected? When the unusual
solitude rendered every place in Rome void; when there was in the forum
no one but a few old men; when, the patricians being convened into the
senate, the forum appeared deserted; more now besides Horatius and
Valerius began to exclaim, “What will ye now wait for, conscript
fathers? If the decemvirs do not put an end to their obstinacy, will ye
suffer all things to go to wreck and ruin? What power is that,
decemvirs, which ye embrace and hold so firmly? do you mean to
administer justice to walls and mere houses? Are you not ashamed that
an almost greater number of your lictors is to be seen in the forum
than of the other citizens? What are ye to do, in case the enemy should
approach the city? What, if the commons should come presently in arms,
if we seem not to be moved by their secession? do you mean to conclude
your power by the fall of the city? But (the case is this,) either we
must not have the commons, or they must have their tribunes. We would
sooner dispense with our patrician magistrates, than they with their
plebeian. That power, when new and untried, they wrested from our
fathers; much less will they, now that they have tested the sweets of
it, endure its loss: more especially since we make not a moderate use
of our power, so that they may not stand in need of (tribunitian) aid.”
When these arguments were thrown out from every quarter, the decemvirs,
overpowered by the united opinions of all, declare that, since such
seems to be the feeling, they would submit to the authority of the
patricians. All they ask is, that they may be protected from popular
rage; they give a warning, that they should not through shedding their
blood habituate the people to inflict punishment on the patricians.
53. Then Valerius and Horatius, having been sent to bring back the
people on such terms as might seem fit, and to adjust all differences,
are directed to make provision also for the decemvirs from the
resentment and violence of the multitude. They set forward and are
received into the camp with great joy by the people, as being their
liberators beyond all doubt, both at the commencement of the
disturbance and at the termination of the matter. In consideration of
these things, thanks were returned to them on their arrival. Icilius
speaks in the name of the people. When the terms came to be considered,
the ambassadors inquiring what were the demands of the people, the same
individual, having already concerted the plan before the arrival of the
ambassadors, stated demands of such a nature, that it became evident,
that more hope was placed in the justice of their case than in arms.
For they demanded back the tribunitian office and the right of appeal,
which, before the appointment of decemvirs, had been the props of the
people, and that it should not be visited with injury to any one, to
have instigated the soldiers or the commons to seek back their liberty
by a secession. Concerning the punishment only of the decemvirs was
their demand immoderate; for they thought it but just that they should
be delivered up to them; and they threatened that they would burn them
alive. In answer the ambassadors say, the demands which have been the
result of deliberation are so reasonable, that they should be
voluntarily offered to you; for you seek them as safeguards to your
liberty, not as means of licentious power to assail others. Your
resentment we must rather pardon than indulge; seeing that from your
hatred of cruelty ye rush into cruelty, and almost before you are free
yourselves, you wish already to lord it over your enemies. Shall our
state never enjoy rest from punishments, either of the patricians on
the Roman commons, or of the commons on the patricians? you have
occasion for a shield rather than for a sword. He is sufficiently and
abundantly humble, who lives in a state on an equal footing, neither
inflicting nor suffering injury. Moreover, “should you feel disposed to
render yourselves formidable, when, having recovered your magistrates
and laws, decisions on our lives and fortunes shall be in your hands;
then you shall determine according to the merits of each case; now it
is sufficient that your liberty be restored.”
54. All permitting them to act just as they think proper, the
ambassadors assure them that they would speedily return, having
completed every matter. When they went and laid before the patricians
the message of the commons, the other decemvirs, since, contrary to
their own expectation, no mention was made of their punishment, raised
no objection. Appius, being of a truculent disposition and a particular
object of detestation, measuring the rancour of others towards him by
his own towards them, says, “I am aware of the fate which hangs over
me. I see that the contest against us is deferred, until our arms are
delivered up to our adversaries. Blood must be offered up to popular
rage. Not even do I demur to resign my decemvirate.” A decree of the
senate is then passed, “that the decemvirs should without delay resign
their office; that Quintus Furius, chief pontiff, should hold an
election of plebeian tribunes, and that the secession of the soldiers
and commons should not be visited on any one.” These decrees being
finished, the senate being dismissed, the decemvirs come forth into the
assembly, and resign their office, to the great joy of all. News of
this is carried to the commons. All the people remaining in the city
escort the ambassadors. This crowd was met by another joyous body from
the camp; they congratulate each other on the restoration of peace and
concord to the state. The deputies address the assembly: “Be it
advantageous, fortunate, and happy for you and the republic, return
into your country to your household gods, your wives and children; but
carry into the city the same modesty which you observed here, where,
amid the consumption of so many matters necessary for so large a number
of persons, no man's field has been injured. Go to the Aventine, whence
ye set out. In that auspicious place, where ye took the first step
towards liberty, ye shall elect tribunes of the people. The chief
pontiff will be at hand to hold the elections.” Great was their assent
and joy, as evinced in their approbation of every measure. They then
hastily raise their standards, and having set out for Rome, vie in
exultation with all they met. There, the chief pontiff holding the
meeting for the elections, they elected as their tribunes of the
people, first of all A. Virginius, then Lucius Icilius, and Publius
Numitorius the uncle of Virginia, the advisers of the secession. Then
Caius Sicinius, the offspring of him who is recorded to have been
elected first tribune of the commons on the Sacred mount; and Marcus
Duilius, who had passed through a distinguished tribuneship before the
creation of the decemvirs, and was never wanting to the commons in
their contests with the decemvirs. Marcus Titinius, Marcus Pomponius,
Caius Apronius, Publius Villius, and Caius Oppius, were elected more
from hope (entertained of them) than from any services (performed).
When he entered on his tribuneship, Lucius Icilius proposed to the
commons, and the commons ordered, that the secession from the decemvirs
which had taken place should not prove detrimental to any individual.
Immediately after Duilius carried a proposition for electing consuls,
with right of appeal. All these things were transacted in an assembly
of the commons in the Flaminian meadows, which they now call the
Flaminian circus.
55. Then through an interrex Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius
were elected consuls, who immediately entered on their office; whose
consulship was popular without any actual injury to the patricians,
though not without their displeasure; for whatever provision was made
for securing the liberty of the commons, that they considered to be a
diminution made in their own power. First of all, when it was as it
were a point in controversy, whether patricians were bound by
regulations enacted in an assembly of the commons, they proposed a law
in the assembly of the centuries, that whatever the commons ordered
collectively, should bind the entire people; by which law a most
keen-edged weapon was given to motions introduced by tribunes. Then
another law made by a consul concerning the right of appeal, a singular
security to liberty, and subverted by the decemviral power, they not
only restore, but guard it also for the time to come, by enacting a new
law, “that no one should appoint any magistrate without a right of
appeal; if any person should so elect, it would be lawful and right
that he be put to death; and that such killing should not be deemed a
capital offence.” And when they had sufficiently secured the commons by
the right of appeal on the one hand, by tribunitian aid on the other,
they renewed for the tribunes themselves (the privilege) that they
should be held sacred and inviolable, the memory of which matter had
now been almost lost, reviving certain ceremonies which had been long
disused; and they rendered them inviolable both by the religious
institution, as well as by a law, enacting, that “whoever should offer
injury to tribunes of the people, ædiles, judges, decemvirs, his person
should be devoted to Jupiter, and his property be sold at the temple of
Ceres, Liber and Libera.” Commentators deny that any person is by this
law sacrosanct; but that he who may do an injury to any of them, is
deemed to be devoted; therefore that an ædile may be arrested and
carried to prison by superior magistrates, which, though it be not
expressly warranted by law, for an injury is done to a person to whom
it is not lawful to do an injury according to this law, yet it is a
proof that an ædile is not considered as sacred; that the tribunes were
sacred and inviolable by an ancient oath of the commons, when first
they created that office. There have been persons who supposed that by
this same Horatian law provision was made for the consuls also and the
prætors, because they were elected under the same auspices as the
consuls; for that a consul was called a judge. Which interpretation is
refuted, because at this time it was not yet the custom for the consul
to be styled judge, but the prætor. These were the laws proposed by the
consuls. It was also regulated by the same consuls, that decrees of the
senate should be deposited with the ædiles of the commons in the temple
of Ceres; which before that used to be suppressed and altered at the
pleasure of the consuls. Marcus Duilius then, tribune of the commons,
proposed to the people, and the people ordered, that “whoever left the
people without tribunes, and whoever caused a magistrate to be elected
without the right of appeal, should be punished with stripes and
beheaded.” All these matters, though against the feelings of the
patricians, passed off without opposition from them, because no
severity was aimed at any particular individual.
56. Then both the tribunitian power and the liberty of the commons
being firmly established, the tribunes now deeming it both safe and
seasonable to attack individuals, single out Virginius as the first
prosecutor and Appius as defendant. When Virginius appointed a day for
Appius, and Appius came down to the forum, accompanied by some young
patricians, the memory of his most profligate exercise of power was
instantly revived in the minds of all, as soon as they beheld himself
and his satellites. Then Virginius says, “Long speeches have been
invented for matters of a doubtful nature. Accordingly I shall neither
waste time in dwelling on the guilt of this man before you, from whose
cruelty ye have rescued yourselves by force of arms, nor shall I suffer
him to add impudence to his other enormous crimes in defending himself.
Wherefore, Appius Claudius, I remit to you the accumulated impious and
nefarious deeds you have had the effrontery to commit for the last two
years; with respect to one charge only, unless you will appoint a
judge, (and prove) that you have not, contrary to the laws, sentenced a
free person to be a slave, I order that you be taken into custody.”
Neither in the aid of the tribunes, nor in the judgment of the people,
could Appius place any hope: still he both appealed to the tribunes,
and, when no one regarded him, being seized by the bailiff, he
exclaims, “I appeal.” The hearing of this one expression, that
safeguard of liberty, uttered from that mouth by which a free citizen
was so recently consigned to slavery, occasioned general silence. And,
whilst they observe to each other, that “at length there are gods, and
that they do not disregard human affairs; and that punishments await
tyranny and cruelty, which, though late, are still by no means light;
that he now appealed, who had abolished all right of appeal; and that
he implored the protection of the people, who had trampled down all the
rights of the people; and that he was dragged off to prison, destitute
of the rights of liberty, who had doomed a free person to slavery.”
Amid the murmurs of the assembly, the voice of Appius was heard
imploring the protection of the Roman people. He enumerated the
services of his ancestors to the state, at home and abroad; his own
unfortunate zeal towards the Roman commons; that he had resigned the
consulship, to the great displeasure of the patricians, for the purpose
of equalizing the laws; (he then mentioned) his laws; which, though
they still remained in force, the framer of them was dragged to a
prison. But the peculiar advantages and disadvantages of his case he
would then make trial of, when an opportunity would be afforded him of
stating his defence. At present, he, a Roman citizen, demanded, by the
common right of citizenship, that he be allowed to speak on the day
appointed, and to appeal to the judgment of the Roman people. That he
did not dread popular rage so much as not to place any hope in the
equity and compassion of his fellow citizens. But if he were led to
prison without being heard, that he once more appealed to the tribunes
of the people, and warned them not to imitate those whom they hated.
But if the tribunes acknowledge themselves bound in the same
confederacy for abolishing the right of appeal, which they charged the
decemvirs with having formed, then he appealed to the people: he
implored the benefit of the laws passed that very year, both by the
consuls and tribunes, regarding the right of appeal. For who would
appeal, if this were not allowed a person as yet uncondemned, whose
case has not been heard? what plebeian and humble individual would find
protection in the laws, if Appius Claudius could not? that he would
afford a proof, whether tyranny or liberty was established by the new
laws; and whether the right of appeal and of challenge against the
injustice of magistrates was only held out in empty words, or
effectually granted.
57. Virginius, on the other hand, affirmed that Appius Claudius was
the only person not entitled to a participation in the laws, nor in
civil or human society. That men should look to the tribunal, the
fortress of all villanies; where that perpetual decemvir, venting his
fury on the properties, backs, and blood of the citizens, threatening
all with his rods and axes, a despiser of gods and men, attended with
executioners, not lictors, changing his mind from rapine and murder to
lust, before the eyes of the Roman people, tore a free-born maiden, as
if a prisoner of war, from the embraces of her father, and gave her as
a present to a dependant, the pander to his secret pleasures. Where by
a cruel decree, and by a most villainous decision, he armed the right
hand of the father against the daughter: where he ordered the spouse
and uncle, on their raising the lifeless body of the girl, to be taken
off to a prison; moved more at the interruption to his sensual
gratification than at her untimely death. That the prison was built for
him also, which he used to call the domicile of the Roman commons.
Wherefore, though he may appeal again and oftener, he would as
frequently refer him to a judge, on the charge of having sentenced a
free person to slavery; if he would not go before a judge, that he
ordered him to be taken to prison as one condemned. He was thrown into
prison, and though without the disapprobation of any individual, yet
not without considerable emotions of the public mind, when, in
consequence of the punishment of so distinguished a man, their own
liberty began to appear to the commons themselves as excessive. The
tribune deferred the day of trial. Whilst these matters are going on,
ambassadors from the Hernicians and Latins came to Rome to present
their congratulations on the harmony subsisting between the patricians
and commons; and as an offering on that account to Jupiter, the best
and greatest, they brought into the Capitol a golden crown, of small
weight, as riches at that time did not abound, and the duties of
religion were performed rather with piety than magnificence. From the
same source it was ascertained that the Æquans and Volscians were
preparing for war with the utmost energy. The consuls were therefore
ordered to divide the provinces between them. The Sabines fell to the
lot of Horatius, the Æquans and Volscians to that of Valerius. On their
proclaiming a levy for these wars, through the good wishes of the
commons, not only the younger men, but of those who had served out
their time, a considerable portion as volunteers, attended to give in
their names: and hence the army was stronger not only by the number,
but also by the kind of soldiers, veterans being mixed with them.
Before they marched out of the city, they engraved on brass, and fixed
up in public view, the decemviral laws, which have received the name of
“the twelve tables.” There are some who state that the ædiles
discharged that office by order of the tribunes.
58. Caius Claudius, who, detesting the crimes of the decemvirs and,
above all, incensed at the arrogant conduct of his brother's son, had
retired to Regillum, the country of his forefathers, having returned,
though now advanced in years, to deprecate the dangers impending over
that man, whose vices he had shunned, now clad in a mourning garment,
with the members of his family and his clients, went about the forum,
and solicited the interest of the citizens individually, “That they
would not cast such a stain on the Claudian family, as to consider them
deserving of imprisonment and chains; that a man whose image would be
most highly honoured with posterity, the framer of their laws and the
founder of Roman jurisprudence, lay in chains amongst nightly thieves
and robbers. (He begged) that they would turn away their minds from
resentment for a while to examination and reflection; and rather pardon
one at the intercession of so many members of the Claudian family, than
through a hatred of one spurn the entreaties of many; that he himself
also paid this tribute to the family and the name; nor had he been
reconciled to him, whose unfortunate situation he wished to relieve;
that by fortitude liberty had been recovered; by clemency the harmony
of the several orders might be established.” Some there were whom he
influenced more by his warm attachment to his family than for the sake
of him for whom he interceded. But Virginius begged that “they would
rather pity him and his daughter; and that they would listen to the
entreaties, not of the Claudian family, which had assumed a sort of
sovereignty over the commons, but those of the near friends of Virginia
and of the three tribunes; who having been created for the aid of the
commons, were now themselves imploring the protection and aid of the
commons.” These tears appeared more just. Accordingly, all hope being
cut off, Appius put a period to his life, before the day arrived
appointed for his trial. Soon after, Spurius Oppius, the next object of
public indignation, as having been in the city when the unjust decision
was given by his colleague, was arraigned by Publius Numitorius.
However, an act of injustice committed by Oppius brought more odium on
him, than the not preventing one (in the case of Appius). A witness was
brought forward, who, after reckoning up twenty campaigns, after having
been particularly honoured eight different times, and wearing these
honours in the sight of the Roman people, tore open his garment and
exhibited his back torn with stripes, asking no other conditions but
“that, if the accused could name any one guilty act of his, he might,
though a private individual, once more repeat his severity on him.”
Oppius was also thrown into prison, where he put a period to his life
before the day of trial. The tribunes confiscated the property of
Appius and Oppius. Their colleagues left their homes to go into exile;
their property was confiscated. Marcus Claudius, the claimant of
Virginia, being condemned on the day of his trial, was discharged and
went away into exile to Tibur, Virginius himself remitting the penalty
as far as it affected his life; and the shade of Virginia, more
fortunate after death than when living, after having roamed through so
many families in quest of vengeance, at length rested in peace, no
guilty person being left unpunished.
59. Great alarm seized the patricians, and the countenances of the
tribunes were now the same as those of the decemvirs had been, when
Marcus Duilius, tribune of the people, having put a salutary check to
their immoderate power, says, “There has been both enough of liberty on
our own part, and of vengeance on our enemies; wherefore for this year
I will neither suffer a day of trial to be appointed for any one, nor
any person to be thrown into prison. For it is neither pleasing to me
that old crimes now forgotten should be again brought forward, seeing
that the recent ones have been atoned for by the punishment of the
decemvirs; and the unremitting care of both the consuls in defending
your liberties, is ample security that nothing will be committed which
will call for tribunitian interference.” This moderation of the tribune
first relieved the patricians from their fears, and at the same time
increased their ill-will towards the consuls; for they had been so
devoted to the commons, that even a plebeian magistrate took an earlier
interest in the safety and liberty of the patricians, than one of
patrician rank; and their enemies would have been surfeited with
inflicting punishments on them, before the consuls, to all appearance,
would have resisted their licentious career. And there were many who
said that a want of firmness was shown, inasmuch as the fathers had
given their approbation to the laws proposed; nor was there a doubt,
but that in this troubled state of public affairs they had yielded to
the times.
60. The business in the city being settled, and the rights of the
commons being firmly established, the consuls departed to their
respective provinces. Valerius prudently deferred all warlike
operations against the armies of the Æquans and the Volscians, which
had now formed a junction at Algidum. But if he had immediately
committed the result to fortune, I know not but that, such were the
feelings both of the Romans and of their enemies since the unfavourable
auspices of the decemvirs, the contest would have stood them in a heavy
loss. Having pitched his camp at the distance of a mile from the enemy,
he kept his men quiet. The enemy filled the space lying between the two
camps with their army in order of battle, and not a single Roman made
them any answer when they challenged them to battle. At length, wearied
from standing and from waiting in vain for a contest, the Æquans and
Volscians, considering that the victory was in a manner conceded to
them, go off, some to the Hernicians, some to the Latins, to commit
depredations. There was left in the camp rather a garrison for its
defence than sufficient force for a contest. When the consul perceived
this, he retorted the terror previously occasioned to his men, and
drawing up his troops in order of battle, he now in his turn provokes
the enemy to fight. When they, from a feeling of the absence of their
forces, declined battle, the courage of the Romans immediately
increased, and they considered as vanquished those who stood
panic-stricken within their rampart. After having stood for the entire
day prepared for the contest, they retired at night. And the Romans,
now full of hope, set about refreshing themselves. The enemy, in by no
means equal spirits, being now in trepidation, despatch messengers in
every direction to call back the plundering parties. Those in the
nearest places return thence; those who were farther off were not
found. When the day dawned, the Romans leave the camp, determining on
assaulting the rampart unless an opportunity of fighting were afforded;
and when the day was now far advanced, and no movement was made by the
enemy, the consul orders them to advance; and the troops being put in
motion, the Æquans and the Volscians became indignant, that victorious
armies were to be defended by a rampart rather than by valour and arms.
Wherefore they also earnestly demanded the signal for battle from their
generals, and received it. And now half of them had got out of the
gates, and the others in succession were observing order, marching down
each to his own post, when the Roman consul, before the enemy's line
could be drawn up, supported by their entire strength, advanced on
them; and having attacked them before they were all as yet led forth,
and when those who were so had not their ranks sufficiently arranged,
he falls on the unsteady crowd of them, running in trepidation from one
place to another, and throwing around their eyes on themselves and on
their friends, a shout and violent onset adding to the already confused
state of their minds. The enemy at first gave way; then, when they had
rallied their spirits, and their generals on every side reprovingly
asked them, whether they were about to yield to their vanquished foes,
the battle was restored.
61. On the other side, the consul desired the Romans to remember
that “on that day, for the first time, they fought as free men in
defence of Rome, now a free city. That it was for themselves they were
to conquer, and not that they should be the prize of the decemvirs,
after conquering. That it was not under the command of Appius that the
action was being conducted, but under their consul Valerius, descended
from the liberators of the Roman people, himself too a liberator. That
they should show that in former battles it had been the fault of the
generals, and not of the soldiers, that they did not conquer. That it
was shameful to have had more courage against their own countrymen than
against their enemies, and to have dreaded slavery more at home than
abroad. That Virginia was the only person whose chastity was in danger
in time of peace: that Appius was the only citizen of dangerous lust.
But if the fortune of war should turn against them, all their children
would be in danger from so many thousands of enemies. That he would
not, on account of the omen, mention things which may neither Jupiter
nor their father Mars suffer to befall a city built under such
auspices.” He reminded them of the Aventine and the Sacred mount; and
“that they should bring back dominion unimpaired to that spot, where
their liberty had been established but a few months before: and that
they should show that the Roman soldiers retained the same abilities
after the expulsion of the decemvirs, which they had possessed before
they were appointed; and that the valour of the Roman people was not
deteriorated after the laws were equalized.” After he uttered these
words among the battalions of the infantry, he flies from them to the
cavalry. “Come, young men, surpass in valour the infantry, as you
already surpass them in honour and in rank. The infantry at the first
onset have made the enemy give way: now that they have given way, do
you give reins to your horses and drive them from the field. They will
not stand your charge: even now they rather hesitate than resist.” They
spur on their horses, and drive in amongst the enemy who were already
thrown into confusion by the attack of the infantry; and having broken
through the ranks, and pushed on to the rear of their line, a part
wheeling round in the open space, turn most of them away from the camp
to which they were now flying from all sides, and by riding on before
they deter them from that direction. The line of infantry, and the
consul himself, and the main body of the army make for the camp, and
having taken it with considerable slaughter, they get possession of a
great quantity of booty. The fame of this battle was carried not only
to the city, but to the other army also among the Sabines. In the city
it was celebrated only with public rejoicing; in the camp it fired the
courage of the soldiers to emulate such glory. Horatius, by training
them in excursions, and making trial of them in slight skirmishes, had
accustomed them to trust in themselves rather than to remember the
ignominy incurred under the command of the decemvirs, and these little
encounters had now gone so far as to insure to them the consummation of
all their hopes. The Sabines, elated at their success on the preceding
year, ceased not to provoke and urge them (to fight,) constantly asking
them why they wasted time, sallying forth in small numbers and
returning like marauders, and why they parcelled out the grand effort
of a single war on a number of insignificant skirmishes? why did they
not engage them in the field, and consign the result to fortune to be
determined at once?
62. Besides that they had already of themselves recovered a
sufficient degree of courage, the Romans were fired with exasperation
“that the other army would soon return victorious to the city; that the
enemy were now wantonly insulting them by contumelies; when would they
be a match for the enemy, if they were not so then?” When the consul
ascertained that the soldiers gave expression to these sentiments in
the camp, having summoned an assembly: “How matters have gone on in
Algidum,” says he, “I suppose that you, soldiers, have already heard.
As became the army of a free people to behave, so have they behaved:
through the judicious conduct of my colleague and the valour of the
soldiers, the victory has been gained. For my part, the plan and
determination which I am to maintain, you yourselves shall suggest. The
war may be both prolonged with advantage, and be brought to a speedy
conclusion. If it is to be prolonged, I shall take care by the same
discipline with which I have commenced, that your hopes and your valour
may increase every day. If you have now sufficient courage, and it is
your wish that the matter be decided, come on, raise here that shout
such as you will raise in the field of battle, the index at once of
your inclination and your valour.” When the shout was raised with great
alacrity, he assures them “that with the good favour of heaven, he
would comply with their wishes and lead them next day to the field.”
The remainder of the day is spent in preparing their arms. On the
following day, as soon as the Sabines saw the Roman army being drawn up
in order of battle, they too, as being long since eager for the
encounter, come forward. The battle was such a one as may be expected
between two armies confident in themselves, the one animated by the
glory of former and uninterrupted glory, the other lately so by an
unusual instance of success. The Sabines aided their strength by
stratagem also; for having formed a line equal (to that of the enemy,)
they kept two thousand men in reserve, to make an attack on the left
wing of the Romans in the heat of the battle. When these, by an attack
in flank, were overpowering that wing, now almost surrounded, about six
hundred of the cavalry of two legions leap down from their horses, and
rush forward in front of their men, now giving way; and they at the
same time both oppose the progress of the enemy, and incite the courage
of the infantry, first sharing the danger equally with them, and then
by arousing in them a sense of shame. It was a matter of shame that the
cavalry should fight in their own proper character and in that of
others; and that the infantry should not be equal to the cavalry even
when dismounted.
63. They press forward therefore to the fight, which had been
suspended on their part, and endeavour to regain the ground which they
had lost, and in a moment not only is the battle restored, but one of
the wings of the Sabines gives way. The cavalry, covered between the
ranks of the foot, return to their horses; they then gallop across to
the other division to announce their success to their party; at the
same time also they make a charge on the enemy, now disheartened by the
discomfiture of their stronger wing. The valour of none shone more
conspicuous in that battle. The consul provided for all emergencies; he
applauded the brave, rebuked wherever the battle seemed to slacken.
When reproved, they displayed immediately the energy of brave men; and
a sense of shame stimulated them as much as praises excited the others.
The shout being raised anew, and making a united effort, they drive the
enemy back; nor could the Roman power be any longer resisted. The
Sabines, driven in every direction through the country, leave behind
them their camp as plunder for the enemy. There the Roman recovers the
effects not of the allies, as at Algidum, but his own property, which
had been lost by the devastations of their lands. For this double
victory, obtained in two battles, in two different places, the senate
through jealousy decreed merely supplications in the name of the
consuls for one day only. The people went, however, on the second day
also in great numbers of their own accord to offer thanksgiving; and
this unauthorized and popular supplication was even more zealously
attended. The consuls by concert came to the city within the same two
days, and called out the senate to the Campus Martius. Where, when they
were relating the services performed by themselves, the chiefs of the
patricians complained that the senate was convened among the soldiers
designedly for the purpose of intimidation. The consuls therefore, lest
there might be any foundation for such a charge, called away the senate
to the Flaminian meadows, where the temple of Apollo now is (even then
they called it Apollinaris). Where, when a triumph was refused by a
large majority of the patricians, Lucius Icilius, tribune of the
commons, proposed to the people regarding the triumph of the consuls,
many persons coming forward to argue against the measure, but in
particular Caius Claudius, exclaiming, “That it was over the senate,
not over the enemy, the consuls wished to triumph; and that it was
intended as a return for a private service to a tribune, and not as an
honour due to valour. That never before was the matter of a triumph
managed through the people; but that the consideration concerning the
honour and the disposal of it, always lay with the senate; that not
even the kings had infringed on the majesty of this highest order. That
the tribunes should not thus occupy every department with their own
authority, so as to allow the existence of no public council; that the
state would be free, and the laws equalized by these means only, if
each rank would retain its own rights, its own dignity.” Though much
had been said by the other senior patricians also to the same purpose,
all the tribes approved that proposition. Then for the first time a
triumph was celebrated by order of the people, without the authority of
the senate.
64. This victory of the tribunes and people was well nigh
terminating in an extravagance of a by no means salutary tendency, a
conspiracy being formed among the tribunes to have the same tribunes
re-elected, and in order that their ambition might be the less
conspicuous, to continue their office to the consuls. They pleaded, as
a cause, the combination of the patricians by which the privileges of
the commons were attempted to be undermined by the affronts thrown upon
the consuls. What would be the consequence, before the laws are yet
firmly established, if consuls should through their factions attack the
new tribunes. For that Horatii and Valerii would not always be consuls,
who would postpone their own interest to the liberty of the people. By
some concurrence of circumstances, useful at the time, it fell by lot
to Marcus Duilius above any one else to preside at the elections, a man
of prudence, and who perceived the storm of public odium that was
hanging over them from the continuance of their office. And when he
stated that he would take no notice of the former tribunes, and his
colleagues strenuously insisted that he should allow the tribes to be
at liberty to vote, or should give up the office of presiding at the
elections to his colleagues, who would hold the election according to
law rather than according to the pleasure of the patricians; a
contention being now excited, when Duilius had sent for the consuls to
his seat and asked them what they contemplated doing with respect to
the consular elections, and they answered that they would appoint new
consuls, having found popular supporters of a measure by no means
popular, he proceeded with them into the assembly. Where, when the
consuls, being brought forward before the people, and asked, whether if
the Roman people, mindful of their liberty recovered at home through
them, mindful also of their military services, should again elect them
consuls, what they would do, made no change in their sentiments; he
held the election, after eulogizing the consuls, because they
persevered to the last in being unlike the decemvirs; and five tribunes
of the people being elected, when, through the zealous exertions of the
nine tribunes who openly pushed their canvass, the other candidates
could not make up the required number of tribes, he dismissed the
assembly; nor did he hold one after for the purpose of an election. He
said that he had fulfilled the law, which without any where specifying
the number of tribunes, only enacted that tribunes should be left; and
recommended that colleagues be chosen by those who had been elected.
And he recited the terms of the law, in which (it is said,) “If I shall
propose ten tribunes of the commons, if you elect this day less than
ten tribunes of the people, then that those whom they may have chosen
as colleagues for themselves be legitimate tribunes of the people, by
the same law as those whom you have this day elected tribunes of the
people.” When Duilius persevered to the last, stating that the republic
could not have fifteen tribunes of the people, after baffling the
ambition of his colleagues, he resigned his office, being equally
approved by the patricians and people.
65. The new tribunes of the people in electing their colleagues
evinced a disposition to gratify the wishes of the patricians; they
even elected two who were patricians, and even consulars, Spurius
Tarpeius and Aulus Aterius. The consuls then elected, Largius
Herminius, Titus Virginius Cælimontanus not very much inclined to the
cause either of the patricians or commons, had perfect tranquillity
both at home and abroad. Lucius Trebonius, tribune of the commons,
incensed against the patricians, because, as he said, he was imposed on
by them in the affair of choosing colleagues, and betrayed by his
colleagues, carried a proposal, “that whoever took the votes of the
commons in electing tribunes of the people, he should go on taking the
votes, until he elected ten tribunes of the people;” and he spent his
tribuneship in worrying the patricians, whence the cognomen of Asper
was given him. Next Marcus Geganius Macerinus, and Caius Julius, being
elected consuls, quieted some combinations of the tribunes against the
youth of the nobility, without any harsh proceeding against that power,
and still preserving the dignity of the patricians; by proclaiming a
levy for the war against the Volscians and Æquans, they kept the people
from riots by keeping matters in abeyance; affirming, that every thing
was quiet abroad, there being harmony in the city, and that through
civil discord the enemies assumed new courage. Their anxiety for peace
was also the cause of concord at home. But each of the orders ever took
advantage of moderation in the other. Acts of injustice began to be
committed by the younger patricians on the commons when perfectly
quiet. When the tribunes would assist the weaker party, at first it was
of little use; then not even themselves escaped being ill-treated;
particularly in the latter months, when injustice was committed through
the combinations among the more powerful, and the vigour of every
magistracy becomes considerably more lax in the latter part of the
year; and now the commons placed hopes in the tribuneship, only on the
condition that they had tribunes like Icilius; that for the last two
years they had had only mere names. On the other hand, the elder
members of the patrician order, though they considered their young men
to be too overbearing, yet would rather, if bounds were to be exceeded,
that a redundancy of spirit should exist in their own order than in
their adversaries. So difficult a thing is moderation in maintaining
liberty, whilst by pretending to desire equalization, every person
raises himself in such a manner as to depress another; and men, by
their very precautions against fear, cause themselves to become objects
of dread; and we saddle on others injustice thrown off from ourselves,
as if it were actually necessary either to commit injustice or to
submit to it.
66. Titus Quintius Capitolinus, for the fourth time, and Agrippa
Furius being then elected consuls, found neither disturbance at home
nor war abroad; both, however, were impending. The discord of the
citizens could now no longer be checked, both tribunes and commons
being exasperated against the patricians, when a day of trial being
appointed for any of the nobility always embroiled the assemblies with
new contests. On the first noise of which the Æquans and Volscians, as
if they had received a signal, took up arms; at the same time because
their leaders, desirous of plunder, had persuaded them that the levy
proclaimed two years previously could not be proceeded with, the
commons now refusing obedience; that on that account no armies were
sent against them; that military discipline was subverted by
licentiousness; and that Rome was no longer considered as their common
country; that whatever resentment and animosity they may have
entertained against foreigners, was now turned against each other; that
now an occasion offered for destroying those wolves blinded by
intestine rage. Having united their forces, they first laid waste the
Latin territory: when no resistance was found there, then indeed, to
the great exultation of the advisers of the war, they approached the
very walls of Rome, carrying their depredations into the district
around the Esquiline gate, pointing out to the city the devastation of
the land by way of insult. Whence when they marched back to Corbio
unmolested, and driving the prey before them, Quintius the consul
summoned the people to an assembly.
67. There I find that he spoke to this purport: “Though I am
conscious to myself of no fault, Romans, yet with the greatest shame I
have come forward to your assembly. That you should know this; that
this should be handed down on record to posterity, that the Æquans and
Volscians, a short time since scarcely a match for the Hernicians, have
with impunity come with arms in their hands to the walls of Rome, in
the fourth consulate of Titus Quintius. Had I known that this ignominy
was reserved for this particular year, (though we are now long living
in such a manner, such is the state of affairs, that my mind could
augur nothing good,) I would have avoided this honour either by exile
or by death, if there were no other means of escaping it. Then if men
of courage had those arms, which were at our gates, could Rome be taken
in my consulate? I have had sufficient honours, enough and more than
enough of life: I should have died in my third consulate. Whom did
these most dastardly enemies despise? us, consuls, or you, citizens? If
the fault is in us, take away the command from us as unworthy persons;
and if that is insufficient, further inflict punishment on us. If in
you, may there be none of gods or men who will punish your offences; do
you only repent of them. It is not your cowardice they have despised,
nor their own valour they have confided in; for having been so often
routed and put to flight, stripped of their camp, amerced in their
land, sent under the yoke, they know both themselves and you. The
discord among the several orders is the bane of this city; the contests
of the patricians and commons have raised their spirits; whilst we have
neither bounds in the pursuit of power, nor you in that of liberty,
whilst you are tired of patrician, these of plebeian magistrates. In
the name of heaven, what would ye have? You coveted tribunes of the
commons; we conceded them for the sake of concord. Ye longed for
decemvirs; we suffered them to be created. Ye became weary of
decemvirs; we compelled them to resign the office. Your resentment
against these same persons when they became private citizens still
continuing, we suffered men of the highest families and rank to die or
go into exile. Ye wished again to create tribunes of the commons; ye
created them. Though we saw that it was unjust to the patricians to
create consuls in your own interest, we have even seen a patrician
magistracy conceded as an offering to the people. The aid of tribunes,
right of appeal to the people, the acts of the commons made binding on
the patricians under the pretext of equalizing the laws, the subversion
of our privileges, we have borne and still bear. What termination is
there to be to our dissensions? when shall it be allowed us to have a
united city? when to have one common country? When defeated we submit
with more resignation than you when victorious. Is it enough for you,
that you are objects of terror to us? The Aventine is taken against us;
against us the Sacred mount is seized. When the Esquiliæ is almost
taken by the enemy, and when the Volscian foe is scaling your rampart,
there is no one to dislodge him: against us ye are men, against us ye
take up arms.
68. “Come, when ye have blockaded the senate-house here, and have
made the forum the seat of war, and filled the prison with the leading
men of the state, march forth through the Esquiline gate, with that
same determined spirit; or if ye do not even venture thus far, behold
from your walls the lands laid waste with fire and sword, booty driven
off, the houses set on fire in every direction and smoking. But (I may
be told) it is the public weal that is in a worse condition through
these results: the land is burned, the city is besieged, all the glory
of the war is centred in the enemy. What in the name of heaven? in what
state is your own private interest? just now his own private losses
were announced to each of you from the lands. What, pray, is there at
home, whence you may recruit them? Will the tribunes restore and
compensate you for what ye have lost? Of sound and words they will heap
on you as much as ye please, and of charges against the leading men,
and laws one upon another, and of public meetings. But from these
meetings never has one of you returned home more increased in substance
or in fortune. Has any one ever brought back to his wife and children
aught save hatred, quarrels, grudges public and private? from which
(and their effects) you have been ever protected, not by your own
valour and integrity, but by the aid of others. But, when you served
under the guidance of us consuls, not under your tribunes, and the
enemy trembled at your shout in the field of battle, not the Roman
patricians in the assembly, booty being obtained, land taken from the
enemy, with a plentiful stock of wealth and glory, both public and
private, you used to return home to your household gods in triumph: now
you allow the enemy to go off laden with your property. Continue
immovably tied to your assemblies, live in the forum; the necessity of
taking the field, which ye avoid, still follows you. Was it too hard on
you to march against the Æquans and the Volscians? The war is at your
gates: if it is not repelled from thence, it will soon be within your
walls, and will scale the citadel and Capitol, and follow you into your
very houses. Two years ago the senate ordered a levy to be held, and
the army to march to Algidum; yet we sit down listless at home,
quarrelling with each other like women; delighting in present peace,
and not seeing that after that short-lived intermission complicated
wars are sure to return. That there are other topics more pleasing than
these, I well know; but even though my own mind did not prompt me to
it, necessity obliges me to speak that which is true instead of that
which is pleasing. I would indeed be anxious to please you, Romans; but
I am much more anxious that ye should be preserved, whatever sentiments
ye shall entertain towards me. It has been so ordained by nature, that
he who addresses a multitude for his own private interest, is more
pleasing than the man whose mind has nothing in view but the public
interest. Unless perhaps you suppose that those public sycophants,
those flatterers of the commons, who neither suffer you to take up arms
nor to live in peace, incite and work you up for your own interests.
When excited, you are to them sources either of honour or of profit:
and because, during concord between the several orders, they see that
themselves are of no importance on any side, they wish to be leaders of
a bad cause rather than of no cause whatever, of tumults, and of
sedition. Of which state of things, if a tedium can at length enter
your minds, and if ye are willing to resume the modes of acting
practised by your forefathers, and formerly by yourselves, I submit to
any punishment, if I do not rout and put to flight, and strip of their
camp, those ravagers of our lands, and transfer from our gates and
walls to their cities this terror of war, by which you are now thrown
into consternation.”
69. Scarcely ever was the speech of a popular tribune more
acceptable to the commons, than was this of a most strict consul on
that occasion. The young men also, who during such alarming emergencies
had been accustomed to employ the refusal to enlist as the sharpest
weapon against the patricians, began to direct their thoughts to war
and arms: and the flight of the rustics, and those who had been robbed
on the lands and wounded, announcing matters more revolting even than
what was exhibited to view, filled the whole city with a spirit of
vengeance. When the senate assembled, these all turning to Quintius,
looked on him as the only champion of Roman majesty; and the leading
senators declared “his harangue to be worthy of the consular authority,
worthy of so many consulships formerly borne by him, worthy of his
whole life, which was full of honours frequently enjoyed, more
frequently deserved. That other consuls had either flattered the
commons by betraying the dignity of the patricians, or by harshly
maintaining the rights of their order, had rendered the multitude more
difficult to subdue: that Titus Quintius had delivered a speech mindful
of the dignity of the patricians, of the concord of the different
orders, and above all, of the times. They entreated him and his
colleague to take up the interest of the commonwealth; they entreated
the tribunes, that by acting in concert with the consuls they would
join in repelling the war from the city and the walls, and that they
would induce the commons to be obedient to the senate in so perilous a
conjuncture: that, their lands being devastated, and their city in a
manner besieged, their common country appealed to them as tribunes, and
implored their aid.” By universal consent the levy is decreed and held.
When the consuls gave public notice “that there was no time for
examining into excuses, that all the young men should attend on the
following morning at the first dawn in the Campus Martius; that when
the war was over, they should afford time for inquiring into the
excuses of those who had not given in their names; that the man should
be held as a deserter, with whose excuse they might not be satisfied;"
the entire youth attended on the following day. The cohorts chose each
their centurions: two senators were placed at the head of each cohort.
We have heard that all these measures were perfected with such
expedition, that the standards, having been brought forth from the
treasury on that very day by the quæstors and conveyed to the Campus,
began to move from thence at the fourth hour; and the newly raised army
halted at the tenth stone, followed by a few cohorts of veteran
soldiers as volunteers. The following day brought the enemy within
view, and camp was joined to camp near Corbio. On the third day, when
resentment urged on the Romans, a consciousness of guilt for having so
often rebelled, and despair (of pardon) urged them on the other side,
there was no delay made in coming to an engagement.
70. In the Roman army, though the two consuls were invested with
equal authority, the supreme command was by the concession of Agrippa
resigned to his colleague, a thing which is most salutary in the
management of matters of great importance; and he who was preferred
politely responded to the ready condescension of him who lowered
himself, by communicating to him all his measures and sharing with him
his honours, and by equalizing himself to him no longer his equal. On
the field of battle Quintius commanded the right, Agrippa the left
wing; the command of the central line is intrusted to Spurius Postumius
Albus, as lieutenant-general. Servius Sulpicius, the other
lieutenant-general, they place over the cavalry. The infantry on the
right wing fought with distinguished valour, with stout resistance from
the Volscians. Servius Sulpicius broke with his cavalry through the
centre of the enemy's line; whence though he might have returned in the
same way to his own party, before the enemy could have restored their
broken ranks, it seemed more advisable to attack the enemy's rear, and
by attacking the rear he would in a moment have dispersed the enemy by
the twofold attack, had not the cavalry of the Volscians and Æquans
intercepted him and kept him engaged by a mode of fighting similar to
his own. Then indeed Sulpicius asserted that “there was no time for
delaying,” crying out that “they were surrounded and cut off from their
own friends, unless they united all their efforts and despatched the
engagement with the cavalry. Nor was it enough to rout the enemy
without disabling them; that they should slay horses and men, lest any
might return to the fight or renew the battle; that they could not
resist them, before whom a compact body of infantry had given way.” His
orders were addressed to by no means deaf ears; by one charge they
routed the entire cavalry, dismounted great numbers, and killed with
their javelins both the men and the horses. This put a termination to
the battle with the cavalry. Then attacking the enemy's line, they send
an account to the consuls of what they had done, where the enemy's line
was now giving way. The news both gave new spirits to the Romans who
were now conquering, and dismayed the Æquans as they were beginning to
give way. They first began to be beaten in the centre, where the charge
of the cavalry had broken their ranks. Then the left wing began to lose
ground before the consul Quintius; there was most difficulty on the
right. Then Agrippa, buoyed up by youth and vigour, on seeing matters
going more favourably in every part of the battle than in his own
quarter, took some of the standards from the standard-bearers and
carried them on himself, some even he began to throw into the thick of
the enemy. The soldiers, urged on by the fear of this disgrace,
attacked the enemy; thus the victory was equalized in every quarter.
News then came from Quintius that he, being now victorious, was about
to attack the enemy's camp; that he was unwilling to break into it
before he learned that they were beaten in the left wing also. If he
had routed the enemy, that he should now join him, that all the army
together might take possession of the booty. Agrippa being victorious
came with mutual congratulations to his victorious colleague and to the
enemy's camp. There being but few to defend it, and these being routed
in a moment, they break into the fortifications without a struggle; and
they march back the army after it obtained a large share of spoil,
having recovered also their own effects, which had been lost by the
devastation of the lands. I have not ascertained that either they
themselves demanded a triumph, nor that such was conferred on them by
the senate; nor is any cause assigned for the honour being either
overlooked or not hoped for. As far as I can conjecture at so great a
distance of time, when a triumph had been refused to the consuls
Horatius and Valerius, who, in addition to the Æquans and Volscians,
had gained the glory of finishing the Sabine war, the consuls were
ashamed to demand a triumph for one half of the services done by them;
lest if they even should obtain it, regard of persons rather than of
merit might appear to have been entertained.
71. A disgraceful decision of the people regarding the boundaries of
their allies disgraced the honourable victory obtained over their
enemies. The states of Aricia and of Ardea, having frequently contended
in arms concerning a disputed piece of land, and being wearied out by
many mutual losses, appointed the Roman people as arbitrators. When
they came to support their claims, an assembly of the people being
granted them by the magistrates, a debate ensued conducted with great
warmth. And the witnesses being now produced, when the tribes were to
be called, and the people were to give their votes, Publius Scaptius, a
plebeian advanced in years, rises up and says; “Consuls, if it is
permitted me to speak on the public interest, I will not suffer the
people to be led into a mistake in this matter.” When the consuls said
that he, as unworthy of attention, was not to be heard and, on his
exclaiming “that the public interest was being betrayed,” ordered him
to be put aside, he appeals to the tribunes. The tribunes, as they are
always directed by the multitude, rather than they direct them,
indulged the people, who were anxious to hear him, in granting Scaptius
leave to say what he pleased. He then commences: “That he was in his
eighty-third year, and that he had served in that district which was
now in dispute, not even then a young man as he was serving his
twentieth campaign, when operations were going on at Corioli. He
therefore adduced a fact forgotten by length of time, but one deeply
fixed in his own memory: the district now in dispute had belonged to
the territory of Corioli, and after the taking of Corioli, it became by
right of war the public property of the Roman people. That he was
surprised how the states of Ardea and Aricia should hope to intercept
from the Roman people, whom from being the right owners they made
arbitrators, a district the right to which they never claimed whilst
the state of Corioli subsisted. That he for his part had but a short
time to live; he could not however bring himself, old as he now was, to
decline claiming by his voice, the only means he now had, a district
which, as a soldier, he had contributed to acquire, as far as an
individual could. That he strenuously advised the people not to damn
their own interest by an improper feeling of delicacy.”
72. The consuls, when they perceived that Scaptius was listened to
not only in silence, but even with approbation, appealing to gods and
men, that an enormous and disgraceful act was being committed, send for
the principal senators: with these they went around to the tribunes;
entreated, “that, as judges, they would not be guilty of a most heinous
crime, with a still worse precedent, by converting the dispute to their
own interest, more especially when, even though it may be lawful for a
judge to protect his own emolument, so much would by no means be
acquired by keeping the land, as would be lost by alienating the
affections of their allies by injustice; for that the losses of
character and of reputation were greater than could be estimated. Were
the ambassadors to carry home this answer; was this to go out to the
world; were their allies to hear this; were their enemies to hear
it—with what sorrow the one—with what joy the other party? Could they
suppose, that the neighbouring states would impute this proceeding to
Scaptius, an old babbler at assemblies? that Scaptius would be rendered
distinguished by this statue: that the Roman people would assume the
character of a usurper and intercepter of the claims of others. For
what judge in a private cause ever acted in this way, so as to adjudge
to himself the property in dispute? That even Scaptius himself would
not act so, though he has now outlived all sense of shame.” Thus the
consuls, thus the senators exclaimed; but covetousness, and Scaptius,
the adviser of that covetousness, had more influence. The tribes, when
convened, decided that the district was the public property of the
Roman people. Nor is it denied that it might have been so, if they had
gone to other judges; now the disgrace of the decision is certainly not
at all diminished by the fairness of the title: nor did it appear more
disgraceful or more hideous to the people of Aricia and of Ardea, than
it did to the Roman senate. The remainder of the year continued free
from either city or foreign commotions.