|
6.1
The history of the Romans from the foundation of the City to its capture,
first under kings, then under consuls, dictators, decemvirs, and consular
tribunes, the record of foreign wars and domestic dissensions, has been
set forth in the five preceding books. The subject matter is enveloped
in obscurity; partly from its great antiquity, like remote objects which
are hardly discernible through the vastness of the distance; partly owing
to the fact that written records, which form the only trustworthy memorials
of events, were in those times few and scanty, and even what did exist
in the pontifical commentaries and public and private archives nearly all
perished in the conflagration of the City. Starting from the second beginnings
of the City, which, like a plant cut down to its roots, sprang up in greater
beauty and fruitfulness, the details of its history both civil and military
will now be exhibited in their proper order, with greater clearness and
certainty. At first the State was supported by the same prop by which it
had been raised from the ground, M. Furius, its chief, and he was not allowed
to resign office until a year had elapsed. It was decided that the consular
tribunes, during whose rule the capture of the City had taken place, should
not hold the elections for the ensuing year; matters reverted to an interregnum.
The citizens were taken up with the pressing and laborious task of rebuilding
their City, and it was during this interval that Q. Fabius, immediately
on laying down his office, was indicted by Cn. Marcius, a tribune of the
plebs, on the ground that after being sent as an envoy to the Gauls to
speak on behalf of the Clusians, he had, contrary to the law of nations,
fought against them. He was saved from the threatened proceedings by death;
a death so opportune that many people believed it to be a voluntary one.
The interregnum began with P. Cornelius Scipio as the first interrex; he
was followed by M. Furius Camillus, under whom the election of military
tribunes was conducted. Those elected were L. Valerius Publicola, for the
second time, L. Verginius, P. Cornelius, A. Manlius, L. Aemilius, and L.
Postumius.
They entered upon their office immediately, and their very first case
was to submit to the senate measures affecting religion. Orders were made
that in the first place search should be made for the treaties and laws-these
latter including those of the Twelve Tables and some belonging to the time
of the kings-as far as they were still extant. Some were made accessible
to the public, but those which dealt with divine worship were kept secret
by the pontiffs, mainly in order that the people might remain dependent
on them for religious guidance. Then they entered upon a discussion of
the "days of prohibition." The 18th of July was marked by a double disaster,
for on that day the Fabii were annihilated at the Cremera, and in after
years the battle at the Alia which involved the ruin of the City was lost
on the same day. From the latter disaster the day was called "the day of
the Alia," and was observed by a religious abstinence from all public and
private business. The consular tribune Sulpicius had not offered acceptable
sacrifices on July 16 (the day after the Ides), and without having secured
the good will of the gods the Roman army was exposed to the enemy two days
later. Some think that it was for this reason that on the day after the
Ides in each month all religious functions were ordered to be suspended,
and hence it became the custom to observe the second and the middle days
of the month in the same way.
6.2
They were not, however, long left undisturbed whilst thus considering the
best means of restoring the commonwealth after its grievous fall. On the
one side, the Volscians, their ancient foes, had taken up arms in the determination
to wipe out the name of Rome; on the other side, traders were bringing
in reports of an assembly at the fane of Voltumna, where the leading men
from all the Etruscan cantons were forming a hostile league. Still further
alarm was created by the defection of the Latins and Hernicans. After the
battle of Lake Regillus these nations had never wavered for 100 years in
their loyal friendship with Rome. As so many dangers were threatening on
all sides and it became evident the name of Rome was not only held in hatred
by her foes, but regarded with contempt by her allies, the senate decided
that the State should be defended under the auspices of the man by whom
it had been recovered, and that M. Furius Camillus should be nominated
Dictator. He nominated as his Master of the Horse, C. Servilius Ahala,
and after closing the law courts and suspending all business he proceeded
to enrol all the men of military age. Those of the "seniors" who still
possessed some vigour were placed in separate centuries after they had
taken the military oath. When he had completed the enrolment and equipment
of the army he formed it into three divisions. One he stationed in the
Veientine territory fronting Etruria. The second was ordered to form an
entrenched camp to cover the City; A. Manlius, as military tribune, was
in command of this division, whilst L. Aemilius in a similar capacity directed
the movement against the Etruscans. The third division he led in person
against the Volscians and advanced to attack their encampment at a place
called Ad Mecium, not far from Lanuvium. They had gone to war in a feeling
of contempt for their enemy as they believed that almost all the Roman
fighting men had been annihilated by the Gauls, but when they heard that
Camillus was in command they were filled with such alarm that they raised
a rampart round them and barricaded the rampart with trees piled up round
it to prevent the enemy from penetrating their lines at any point. As soon
as he became aware of this Camillus ordered fire to be thrown on the barricade.
The wind happened to be blowing strongly towards the enemy, and so it not
only opened up a way through the fire, but by driving the flames into the
camp it produced such consternation amongst the defenders, with the steam
and smoke and crackling of the green wood as it burnt, that the Roman soldiers
found less difficulty in surmounting the rampart and forcing the camp than
in crossing the burnt barricade. The enemy were routed and cut to pieces.
After the capture of the camp the Dictator gave the booty to the soldiers;
an act all the more welcome to them as they did not expect it from a general
by no means given to generosity. In the pursuit he ravaged the length and
breadth of the Volscian territory, and at last after seventy years of war
forced them to surrender. From his conquest of the Volscians he marched
across to the Aequi who were also preparing for war, surprised their army
at Bolae, and in the first assault captured not only their camp but their
city.
6.3
While these successes were occurring in the field of operations where Camillus
was the life and soul of the Roman cause, in another direction a terrible
danger was threatening. Nearly the whole of Etruria was in arms and was
besieging Sutrium, a city in alliance with Rome. Their envoys approached
the senate with a request for help in their desperate condition, and the
senate passed a decree that the Dictator should render assistance to the
Sutrines as soon as he possibly could. Their hopes were deferred, and as
the circumstances of the besieged were such as to admit of no longer delay-their
scanty numbers being worn out with toil, want of sleep, and fighting, which
always fell upon the same persons-they made a conditional surrender of
their city. As the mournful procession set forth, leaving their hearths
and homes, without arms and with only one garment apiece, Camillus and
his army happened just at that moment to appear on the scene. The grief-stricken
crowd flung themselves at his feet; the appeals of their leaders, wrung
from them by dire necessity, were drowned by the weeping of the women and
children who were being dragged along as companions in exile. Camillus
bade the Sutrines spare their laments, it was to the Etruscans that he
was bringing grief and tears. He then gave orders for the baggage to be
deposited, and the Sutrines to remain where they were, and leaving a small
detachment on guard ordered his men to follow him with only their arms.
With his disencumbered army he marched to Sutrium, and found, as he expected,
everything in disorder, as usual after a success, the gates open and unguarded,
and the victorious enemy dispersed through the streets carrying plunder
away from the houses. Sutrium was captured accordingly twice in the same
day; the lately victorious Etruscans were everywhere massacred by their
new enemies; no time was allowed them either to concentrate their strength
or seize their weapons. As they tried each to make their way to the gates
on the chance of escaping to the open country they found them closed; this
was the first thing the Dictator ordered to be done. Then some got possession
of their arms, others who happened to be armed when the tumult surprised
them called their comrades together to make a stand. The despair of the
enemy would have led to a fierce struggle had not criers been despatched
throughout the city to order all to lay down their arms and those without
arms to be spared; none were to be injured unless found in arms. Those
who had determined in their extremity to fight to the end, now that hopes
of life were offered them threw away their arms in all directions, and,
since Fortune had made this the safer course, gave themselves as unarmed
men to the enemy. Owing to their great number, they were distributed in
various places for safe keeping. Before nightfall the town was given back
to the Sutrines uninjured and untouched by all the ruin of war, since it
had not been taken by storm but surrendered on conditions.
6.4
Camillus returned in triumphal procession to the City, after having been
victorious in three simultaneous wars. By far the greatest number of the
prisoners who were led before his chariot belonged to the Etruscans. They
were publicly sold, and so much was realised that after the matrons had
been repaid for their gold, three golden bowls were made from what was
left. These were inscribed with the name of Camillus, and it is generally
believed that previous to the fire in the Capitol they were deposited in
the chapel of Jupiter before the feet of Juno. During the year, those of
the inhabitants of Veii, Capenae, and Fidenae who had gone over to the
Romans whilst these wars were going on, were admitted into full citizenship
and received an allotment of land. The senate passed a resolution recalling
those who had repaired to Veii and taken possession of the empty houses
there to avoid the labour of rebuilding. At first they protested and took
no notice of the order; then a day was fixed, and those who had not returned
by that date were threatened with outlawry. This step made each man fear
for himself, and from being united in defiance they now showed individual
obedience. Rome was growing in population, and buildings were rising up
in every part of it. The State gave financial assistance; the aediles urged
on the work as though it were a State undertaking; the individual citizens
were in a hurry to complete their task through need of accommodation. Within
the year the new City was built.
At the close of the year elections of consular tribunes were held. Those
elected were T. Quinctius Cincinnatus, Q. Servilius Fidenas (for the fifth
time), L. Julius Julus, L. Aquilius Corvus, L. Lucretius Tricipitinus,
and Ser. Sulpicius Rufus. One army was led against the Aequi-not to war,
for they acknowledged that they were conquered, but-to ravage their territories
so that no strength might be left them for future aggression. The other
advanced into the district of Tarquinii. There, Cortuosa and Contenebra,
towns belonging to the Etruscans, were taken by assault. At Cortuosa there
was no fighting, the garrison were surprised and the place was carried
at the very first assault. Contenebra stood a siege for a few days, but
the incessant toil without any remission day or night proved too much for
them. The Roman army was formed into six divisions, each of which took
its part in the fighting in turn every six hours. The small number of the
defenders necessitated the same men continually coming into action against
a fresh enemy; at last they gave up, and an opening was afforded the Romans
for entering the city. The tribunes decided that the booty should be sold
on behalf of the State, but they were slower in announcing their decision
than in forming it; whilst they were hesitating, the soldiery had already
appropriated it, and it could not be taken from them without creating bitter
resentment. The growth of the City was not confined to private buildings.
A substructure of squared stones was built beneath the Capitol during this
year, which, even amidst the present magnificence of the City, is a conspicuous
object.
6.5
Whilst the citizens were taken up with their building, the tribunes of
the plebs tried to make the meetings of the Assembly more attractive by
bringing forward agrarian proposals. They held out the prospect of acquiring
the Pomptine territory, which, now that the Volscians had been reduced
by Camillus, had become the indisputable possession of Rome. This territory,
they alleged, was in much greater danger from the nobles than it had been
from the Volscians, for the latter only made raids into it as long as they
had strength and weapons, but the nobles were putting themselves in possession
of the public domain, and unless it was allotted before they appropriated
everything there would be no room for plebeians there. They did not produce
much impression on the plebeians, who were busy with their building and
only attended the Assembly in small numbers, and as their expenses had
exhausted their means, they felt no interest in land which they were unable
to develop owing to want of capital. In a community devoted to religious
observances, the recent disaster had filled the leading men with superstitious
fears; in order, therefore, that the auspices might be taken afresh they
fell back upon an interregnum. There were three interreges in succession-M.
Manlius Capitolinus, Ser. Sulpicius Camerinus, and L. Valerius Potitus.
The last of these conducted the election of consular tribunes. Those elected
were: L. Papirius, C. Cornelius, C. Sergius, L. Aemilius (for the second
time), L. Menenius, and L. Valerius Publicola (for the third time). They
immediately entered office. In this year the temple of Mars, which had
been vowed in the Gaulish war, was dedicated by T. Quinctius, one of the
two custodians of the Sibylline Books. The new citizens were formed into
four additional tribes-the Stellatine, the Tromentine, the Sabatine, and
the Arnian. These brought up the number of the tribes to twenty-five.
6.6
The question of the Pomptine territory was again raised by L. Sicinius,
a tribune of the plebs, and the people attended the Assembly in greater
numbers and showed a more eager desire for land than they had done. In
the senate the subject of the Latin and Hernican wars was mentioned, but
owing to the concern felt about a more serious war, it was adjourned. Etruria
was in arms. They again fell back on Camillus. He was made consular tribune,
and five colleagues were assigned to him: Ser. Cornelius Maluginensis,
Q. Servilius Fidenas (for the sixth time), L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, L.
Horatius Pulvillus, and P. Valerius. At the beginning of the year public
anxiety was diverted from the Etruscan war by the arrival in the City of
a body of fugitives from the Pomptine territory, who reported that the
Antiates were in arms, and that the Latin cantons had sent their fighting
men to assist them. The latter explained in their defence that it was not
in consequence of a formal act of their government; all they had done was
to decline prohibiting any one from serving where he chose as a volunteer.
It was no longer the fashion to think lightly of any wars. The senate thanked
heaven that Camillus was in office, for certainly had he been a private
citizen he must have been nominated Dictator. His colleagues admitted that
when any alarm arose of threatened war the supreme direction of everything
must be in one man's hands, and they had made up their minds to subordinate
their powers to Camillus, feeling assured that to enhance his authority
in no way derogated from their own. This action of the consular tribunes
met with the hearty approval of the senate, and Camillus, in modest confusion,
returned thanks to them. He went on to say that a tremendous burden had
been laid upon him by the people of Rome in making him practically Dictator
for the fourth time; a heavy responsibility had been put upon him by the
senate, who had passed such a flattering judgment upon him; heaviest of
all by his colleagues in the honour they had done him. If it were possible
for him to show still greater activity and vigilance, he would strive so
to surpass himself that he might make the lofty estimation, which his fellow-citizens
had with such striking unanimity formed of him, a lasting one. As far as
war with the Antiates was concerned, the outlook was threatening rather
than dangerous; at the same time he advised them, whilst fearing nothing,
to treat nothing with indifference. Rome was beset by the ill-will and
hatred of its neighbours, and the interests of the State therefore required
several generals and several armies.
He proceeded: "You, P. Valerius, I wish to associate with myself in
counsel and command, and you will lead the legions in concert with me against
the Antiates. You, Q. Servilius, will keep a second army ready for instant
service encamped by the City, prepared for any movement, such as recently
took place, on the part of Etruria or on the side of the Latins and Hernicans
who are causing us this fresh trouble. I am quite certain that you will
conduct the campaign in a manner worthy of your father, your grandfather,
yourself, and your six tribuneships. A third army must be raised by L.
Quinctius from the seniors, and those excused from service on grounds of
health, to garrison the defences of the City. L. Horatius is to provide
armour, weapons, corn, and everything else required in a time of war. You,
Ser. Cornelius, are appointed by us your colleagues as president of this
Council of State, and guardian of everything pertaining to religion, of
the Assembly, the laws, and all matters touching the City." All gladly
promised to devote themselves to the various duties assigned them; Valerius,
associated in the chief command, added that he should look upon M. Furius
as Dictator and regard himself as his Master of the Horse, and the estimation
in which they held their sole commander should be the measure of the hopes
they entertained as to the issue of the war. The senators, in high delight,
exclaimed that they at all events were full of hope with regard to war
and peace and all that concerned the republic; there would never be any
need for a Dictator when they had such men in office, with such perfect
harmony of feeling, prepared equally to obey or command, conferring glory
on their country instead of appropriating their country's glory to themselves.
6.7
After proclaiming a suspension of all public business and completing the
enrolment of troops, Furius and Valerius proceeded to Satricum. Here the
Antiates had massed not only Volscian troops drawn from a new generation
but also an immense body of Latins and Hernicans, nations whose strength
had been growing through long years of peace. This coalition of new enemies
with old ones daunted the spirits of the Roman soldiers. Camillus was already
drawing up his men for battle when the centurions brought reports to him
of the discouragement of his troops, the want of alacrity in arming themselves,
and the hesitation and unwillingness with which they were marching out
of camp. Men were even heard saying that "they were going to fight one
against a hundred, and that such a multitude could hardly be withstood
even if unarmed, much less now that they were in arms." He at once sprang
on his horse, faced the line and, riding along the front, addressed his
men: "What is this gloom, soldiers, this extraordinary hesitation? Are
you strangers to the enemy, or to me, or to yourselves? As for the enemy-what
is he but the means through which you always prove your courage and win
renown? And as for you-not to mention the capture of Falerii and Veii and
the slaughter of the Gaulish legions inside your captured City-have you
not, under my leadership, enjoyed a triple triumph for a threefold victory
over these very Volscians, as well as over the Aequi and over Etruria?
Or is it that you do not recognise me as your general because I have given
the battle signal not as Dictator but as a consular tribune? I feel no
craving for the highest authority over you, nor ought you to see in me
anything beyond what I am in myself; the Dictatorship has never increased
my spirits and energy, nor did my exile diminish them. We are all of us,
then, the same that we have ever been, and since we are bringing just the
same qualities into this war that we have displayed in all former wars,
let us look forward to the same result. As soon as you meet your foe, every
one will do what he has been trained and accustomed to do; you will conquer,
they will fly."
6.8
Then, after sounding the charge, he sprang from his horse and, catching
hold of the nearest standard-bearer, he hurried with him against the enemy,
exclaiming at the same time: "On, soldier, with the standard!" When they
saw Camillus, weakened as he was by age, charging in person against the
enemy, they all raised the battle-cry and rushed forward, shouting in all
directions, "Follow the General!" It is stated that by Camillus' orders
the standard was flung into the enemy's lines in order to incite the men
of the front rank to recover it. It was in this quarter that the Antiates
were first repulsed, and the panic spread through the front ranks as far
as the reserves. This was due not only to the efforts of the troops, stimulated
as they were by the presence of Camillus, but also to the terror which
his actual appearance inspired in the Volscians, to whom he was a special
object of dread. Thus, wherever he advanced he carried certain victory
with him. This was especially evident in the Roman left, which was on the
point of giving way, when, after flinging himself on his horse and armed
with an infantry shield, he rode up to it and by simply showing himself
and pointing to the rest of the line who were winning the day, restored
the battle. The action was now decided, but owing to the crowding together
of the enemy their flight was impeded and the victorious soldiers grew
weary of the prolonged slaughter of such an enormous number of fugitives.
A sudden storm of rain and wind put an end to what had become a decisive
victory more than a battle. The signal was given to retire, and the night
that followed brought the war to a close without any further exertions
on the part of the Romans, for the Latins and Hernicans left the Volscians
to their fate and started for home, after obtaining a result correspondent
to their evil counsels. When the Volscians found themselves deserted by
the men whom they had relied upon when they renewed hostilities, they abandoned
their camp and shut themselves up in Satricum. At first Camillus invested
them with the usual siege works; but when he found that no sorties were
made to impede his operations, he considered that the enemy did not possess
sufficient courage to justify him in waiting for a victory of which there
was only a distant prospect. After encouraging his soldiers by telling
them not to wear themselves by protracted toil, as though they were attacking
another Veii, for victory was already within their grasp, he planted scaling
ladders all round the walls and took the place by storm. The Volscians
flung away their arms and surrendered.
6.9
The general, however, had a more important object in view-Antium, the capital
of the Volscians and the starting point of the last war. Owing to its strength,
the capture of that city could only be effected by a considerable quantity
of siege apparatus, artillery, and war machines. Camillus therefore left
his colleague in command and went to Rome to urge upon the senate the necessity
of destroying Antium. In the middle of his speech-I think it was the will
of heaven that Antium should remain some time longer-envoys arrived from
Nepete and Sutrium begging for help against the Etruscans and pointing
out that the chance of rendering assistance would soon be lost. Fortune
diverted Camillus' energies from Antium to that quarter, for those places,
fronting Etruria, served as gates and barriers on that side, and the Etruscans
were anxious to secure them whenever they were meditating hostilities,
whilst the Romans were equally anxious to recover and hold them. The senate
accordingly decided to arrange with Camillus that he should let Antium
go and undertake the war with Etruria. They assigned to him the legions
in the City which Quinctius was commanding, and though he would have preferred
the army which was acting against the Volsci, of which he had had experience
and which was accustomed to his command, he raised no objection; all he
asked for was that Valerius should share the command with him. Quinctius
and Horatius were sent against the Volscian in succession to Valerius.
When they reached Sutrium, Furius and Valerius found a part of the city
in the hands of the Etruscans; in the rest of the place the inhabitants
were with difficulty keeping the enemy at bay behind barricades which they
had erected in the streets. The approach of succours from Rome and the
name of Camillus, famous amongst allies and enemies alike, relieved the
situation for the moment and allowed time to render assistance. Camillus
accordingly formed his army into two divisions and ordered his colleague
to take one round to the side which the enemy were holding and commence
an attack on the walls. This was done not so much in the hope that the
attack would succeed as that the enemy's attention might be distracted
so as to afford a respite to the wearied defenders and an opportunity for
him to effect an entrance into the town without fighting. The Etruscans,
finding themselves attacked on both sides, the walls being assaulted from
without and the townsmen fighting within, flung themselves in one panic-stricken
mass through the only gate which happened to be clear of the enemy. A great
slaughter of the fugitives took place both in the city and in the fields
outside. Furius' men accounted for many inside the walls, whilst Valerius'
troops were more lightly equipped for pursuit, and they did not put an
end to the carnage till nightfall prevented their seeing any longer. After
the recapture of Sutrium and its restoration to our allies, the army marched
to Nepete, which had surrendered to the Etruscans and of which they were
in complete possession.
6.10
It looked as if the capture of that city would give more trouble, not only
because the whole of it was in the hands of the enemy, but also because
the surrender had been effected through the treachery of some of the townsfolk.
Camillus, however, determined to send a message to their leaders requesting
them to withdraw from the Etruscans and give a practical proof of that
loyalty to allies which they had implored the Romans to observe towards
them. Their reply was that they were powerless; the Etruscans were holding
the walls and guarding the gates. At first it was sought to intimidate
the townsmen by harrying their territory. As, however, they persisted in
adhering more faithfully to the terms of surrender than to their alliance
with Rome, fascines of brushwood were collected from the surrounding country
to fill up the fosse, the army advanced to the attack, the scaling ladders
were placed against the walls, and at the very first attempt the town was
captured. Proclamation was then made that the Nepesines were to lay down
their arms, and all who did so were ordered to be spared. The Etruscans,
whether armed or not, were killed, and the Nepesines who had been the agents
of the surrender were beheaded; the population who had no share in it received
their property back, and the town was left with a garrison. After thus
recovering two cities in alliance with Rome from the enemy, the consular
tribunes led their victorious army, covered with glory, home. During this
year satisfaction was demanded from the Latins and Hernici; they were asked
why they had not for these last few years furnished a contingent in accordance
with the treaty. A full representative assembly of each nation was held
to discuss the terms of the reply. This was to the effect that it was through
no fault or public act of the State that some of their men had fought in
the Volscian ranks; these had paid the penalty of their folly, not a single
one had returned. The reason why they had supplied no troops was their
incessant fear of the Volscians; this thorn in their side they had not,
even after such a long succession of wars, been able to get rid of. The
senate regarded this reply as affording a justifiable ground for war, but
the present time was deemed inopportune.
6.11
The consular tribunes who succeeded were A. Manlius, P. Cornelius, T. and
L. Quinctius Capitolinus, L. Papirius Cursor (for the second time), and
C. Sergius (for the second time). In this year a serious war broke out,
and a still more serious disturbance at home. The war was begun by the
Volscians, aided by the revolted Latins and Hernici. The domestic trouble
arose in a quarter where it was least to be apprehended, from a man of
patrician birth and brilliant reputation-M. Manlius Capitolinus. Full of
pride and presumption, he looked down upon the foremost men with scorn;
one in particular he regarded with envious eyes, a man conspicuous for
his distinctions and his merits-M. Furius Camillus. He bitterly resented
this man's unique position amongst the magistrates and in the affections
of the army, and declared that he was now such a superior person that he
treated those who had been appointed under the same auspices as himself,
not as his colleagues, but as his servants, and yet if any one would form
a just judgment he would see that M. Furius could not possibly have rescued
his country. When it was beleaguered by the enemy had not he, Manlius,
saved the Capitol and the Citadel? Camillus attacked the Gauls while they
were off their guard, their minds pre-occupied with obtaining the gold
and securing peace; he, on the other hand, had driven them off when they
were armed for battle and actually capturing the Citadel. Camillus' glory
was shared by every man who conquered with him, whereas no mortal man could
obviously claim any part in his victory.
With his head full of these notions and being unfortunately a man of
headstrong and passionate nature, he found that his influence was not so
powerful with the patricians as he thought it ought to be, so he went over
to the plebs-the first patrician to do so-and adopted the political methods
of their magistrates. He abused the senate and courted the populace and,
impelled by the breeze of popular favour more than by conviction or judgment,
preferred notoriety to respectability. Not content with the agrarian laws
which had hitherto always served the tribunes of the plebs as the material
for their agitation, he began to undermine the whole system of credit,
for he saw that the laws of debt caused more irritation than the others;
they not only threatened poverty and disgrace, but they terrified the freeman
with the prospect of fetters and imprisonment. And, as a matter of fact,
a vast amount of debt had been contracted owing to the expense of building,
an expense most ruinous even to the rich. It became, therefore, a question
of arming the government with stronger powers, and the Volscian war, serious
in itself but made much more so by the defection of the Latins and Hernici,
was put forward as the ostensible reason. It was, however, the revolutionary
designs of Manlius that mainly decided the senate to nominate a Dictator.
A. Cornelius Cossus was nominated, and he named T. Quinctius Capitolinus
as his Master of the Horse.
6.12
Although the Dictator recognised that a more difficult contest lay before
him at home than abroad, he enrolled his troops and proceeded to the Pomptine
territory, which, he heard, had been invaded by the Volscians. Either he
considered it necessary to take prompt military measures or he hoped to
strengthen his hands as Dictator by a victory and a triumph. I have no
doubt that my readers will be tired of such a long record of incessant
wars with the Volscians, but they will also be struck with the same difficulty
which I have myself felt whilst examining the authorities who lived nearer
to the period, namely, from what source did the Volscians obtain sufficient
soldiers after so many defeats? Since this point has been passed over by
the ancient writers, what can I do more than express an opinion such as
any one may form from his own inferences? Probably, in the interval between
one war and another, they trained each fresh generation against the renewal
of hostilities, as is now done in the enlistment of Roman troops, or their
armies were not always drawn from the same districts, though it was always
the same nation that carried on the war, or there must have been an innumerable
free population in those districts which are barely now kept from desolation
by the scanty tillage of Roman slaves, with hardly so much as a miserably
small recruiting ground for soldiers left. At all events, the authorities
are unanimous in asserting that the Volscians had an immense army in spite
of their having been so lately crippled by the successes of Camillus. Their
numbers were increased by the Latins and Hernici, as well as by a body
of Circeians, and even by a contingent from Velitrae, where there was a
Roman colony.
On the day he arrived the Dictator formed his camp. On the morrow, after
taking the auspices and supplicating the favour of the gods by sacrifice
and prayer, he advanced in high spirits to the soldiers who were already
in the early dawn arming themselves according to orders against the moment
when the signal for battle should be given. "Ours, soldiers," he exclaimed,
"is the victory, if the gods and their interpreters see at all into the
future. Let us then, as becomes men filled with sure hopes, who are going
to engage an enemy who is no match for us, lay our javelins at our feet
and arm ourselves only with our swords. I would not even have any running
forward from the line; stand firm and receive the enemy's charge without
stirring a foot. When they have hurled their ineffective missiles and their
disordered ranks fling themselves upon you, then let your swords flash
and let every man remember that it is the gods who are helping the Romans,
it is the gods who have sent you into battle with favourable omens. You,
T. Quinctius, keep your cavalry in hand and wait till the fight has begun,
but when you see the lines locked together, foot to foot, then strike with
the terror of your cavalry those who are already overtaken with other terrors.
Charge and scatter their ranks while they are in the thick of the fight."
Cavalry and infantry alike fought in accordance with their instructions.
The commander did not disappoint his soldiers, nor did Fortune disappoint
the commander.
6.13
The vast host of the enemy, relying solely on their numbers and measuring
the strength of each army merely by their eyes, went recklessly into the
battle and as recklessly abandoned it. Courageous enough in the battle
shout, in discharging their weapons, in making the first charge, they were
unable to stand the foot to foot fighting and the looks of their opponents,
glowing with the ardour of battle. Their front was driven in and the demoralisation
extended to the supports; the charge of the cavalry produced fresh panic;
the ranks were broken in many places, the whole army was in commotion and
resembled a retreating wave. When each of them saw that as those in front
fell he would be the next to be cut down, they turned and fled. The Romans
pressed hard upon them, and as long as the enemy defended themselves whilst
retreating, it was the infantry to whom the task of pursuit fell. When
they were seen to be throwing away their arms in all directions and dispersing
over the fields, the signal was given for the squadrons of cavalry to be
launched against them, and these were instructed not to lose time by cutting
down individual fugitives and to give the main body a chance of escaping.
It would be enough to check them by hurling missiles and galloping across
their front, and generally terrifying them until the infantry could come
up and regularly dispatch the enemy. The flight and pursuit did not end
till nightfall. The Volscian camp was taken and plundered on the same day,
and all the booty, with the exception of the prisoners, was bestowed on
the soldiers. The majority of the captives belonged to the Hernici and
Latins, not men of the plebeian class, who might have been regarded as
only mercenaries, they were found to include some of the principal men
of their fighting force, a clear proof that those States had formally assisted
the enemy. Some were also recognised as belonging to Circeii and to the
colony at Velitrae. They were all sent to Rome and examined by the leaders
of the senate; they gave them the same replies which they had made to the
Dictator, and disclosed without any attempt at evasion the defection of
their respective nations.
6.14
The Dictator kept his army permanently encamped, fully expecting that the
senate would declare war against those peoples. A much greater trouble
at home, however, necessitated his recall. The sedition which, owing to
its ringleader's work, was exceptionally alarming, was gaining strength
from day to day. For to any one who looked at his motives, not only the
speeches, but still more the conduct of M. Manlius, though ostensibly in
the interest of the people, would have appeared revolutionary and dangerous.
When he saw a centurion, a distinguished soldier, led away as an adjudged
debtor, he ran into the middle of the Forum with his crowd of supporters
and laid his hand on him. After declaiming against the tyranny of patricians
and the brutality of usurers and the wretched condition of the plebs he
said: " It was then in vain that I with this right hand saved the Capitol
and Citadel if I have to see a fellow-citizen and a comrade in arms carried
off to chains and slavery just as though he had been captured by the victorious
Gauls." Then, before all the people, he paid the sum due to the creditors,
and after thus freeing the man by "copper and scales," sent him home. The
released debtor appealed to gods and men to reward Manlius, his deliverer
and the beneficial protector of the Roman plebs. A noisy crowd immediately
surrounded him, and he increased the excitement by displaying the scars
left by wounds he had received in the wars against Veii and the Gauls and
in recent campaigns. "Whilst," he cried, "I was serving in the field and
whilst I was trying to restore my desolated home, I paid in interest an
amount equal to many times the principal, but as the fresh interest always
exceeded my capital, I was buried beneath the load of debt. It is owing
to M. Manlius that I can now look upon the light of day, the Forum, the
faces of my fellow-citizens; from him I have received all the kindness
which a parent can show to a child; to him I devote all that remains of
my bodily powers, my blood, my life. In that one man is centered everything
that binds me to my home, my country, and my country's gods."
The plebs, wrought upon by this language, had now completely espoused
this one man's cause, when another circumstance occurred, still more calculated
to create universal confusion. Manlius brought under the auctioneer's hammer
an estate in the Veientine territory which comprised the principal part
of his patrimony-"In order," he said, "that as long as any of my property
remains, I may prevent any of you Quirites from being delivered up to your
creditors as judgment debtors." This roused them to such a pitch that it
was quite clear that they would follow the champion of their liberties
through anything, right or wrong. To add to the mischief, he delivered
speeches in his own house, as though he were haranguing the Assembly, full
of calumnious abuse of the senate. Indifferent to the truth or falsehood
of what he said, he declared, among other things, that the stores of gold
collected for the Gauls were being hidden away by the patricians; they
were no longer content with appropriating the public lands unless they
could also embezzle the public funds; if that affair were brought to light,
the debts of the plebs could be wiped off. With this hope held out to them
they thought it a most shameful proceeding that whilst the gold got together
to ransom the City from the Gauls had been raised by general taxation,
this very gold when recovered from the enemy had become the plunder of
a few. They insisted therefore, on finding out where this vast stolen booty
was concealed, and as Manlius kept putting them off and announcing that
he would choose his own time for the disclosure, the universal interest
became absorbed in this question to the exclusion of everything else. There
would clearly be no limit to their gratitude if his information proved
correct, or to their displeasure if it turned out to be false.
6.15
Whilst matters were in this state of suspense the Dictator had been summoned
from the army and arrived in the City. After satisfying himself as to the
state of public feeling he called a meeting of the senate for the following
day and ordered them to remain in constant attendance upon him. He then
ordered his chair of office to be placed on the tribunal in the Comitium
and, surrounded by the senators as a bodyguard, sent his officer to M.
Manlius. On receiving the Dictator's summons Manlius gave his party a signal
that a conflict was imminent and appeared before the tribunal with an immense
crowd round him. On the one side the senate, on the other side the plebs,
each with their eyes fixed on their respective leaders, stood facing one
another as though drawn up for battle. After silence was obtained, the
Dictator said: "I wish the senate and myself could come to an understanding
with the plebs on all other matters as easily as, I am convinced, we shall
about you and the subject on which I am about to examine you. I see that
you have led your fellow-citizens to expect that all debts can be paid
without any loss to the creditors out of the treasure recovered from the
Gauls, which you say the leading patricians are secreting. I am so far
from wishing to hinder this project that, on the contrary, I challenge
you, M. Manlius, to take off from their hidden hordes those who, like sitting
hens, are brooding over treasures which belong to the State. If you fail
to do this, either because you yourself have your part in the spoils or
because your charge is unfounded, I shall order you to be thrown into prison
and will not suffer the people to be excited by the false hopes which you
have raised.
Manlius said in reply that he had not been mistaken in his suspicions;
it was not against the Volscians who were treated as enemies whenever it
was in the interest of the patricians so to treat them, nor against the
Latins and Hernici whom they were driving to arms by false charges, that
a Dictator had been appointed, but against him and the Roman plebs. They
had dropped their pretended war and were now attacking him; the Dictator
was openly declaring himself the protector of the usurers against the plebeians;
the gratitude and affection which the people were showing towards himself
were being made the ground for charges against him which would ruin him.
He proceeded: "The crowd which I have round me is an offence in your eyes,
A. Cornelius, and in yours, senators. Then why do you not each of you withdraw
it from me by acts of kindness, by offering security, by releasing your
fellow-citizens from the stocks, by preventing them from being adjudged
to their creditors, by supporting others in their necessity out of the
superabundance of your own wealth? But why should I urge you to spend your
own money? Be content with a moderate capital, deduct from the principal
what has already been paid in interest, then the crowd round me will be
no more noticeable than that round any one else. But do I alone show this
anxiety for my fellow-citizens? I can only answer that question as I should
answer another-Why did I alone save the Capitol and the Citadel? Then I
did what I could to save the body of citizens as a whole, now I am doing
what I can to help individuals. As to the gold of the Gauls, your question
throws difficulties round a thing which is simple enough in itself. For
why do you ask me about a matter which is within your own knowledge? Why
do you order what is in your purse to be shaken out from it rather than
surrender it voluntarily, unless there is some dishonesty at bottom? The
more you order your conjuring tricks to be detected, the more, I fear,
will you hoodwink those who are watching you. It is not I who ought to
be compelled to discover your plunder for you, it is you who ought to be
compelled to publicly produce it."
The Dictator ordered him to drop all subterfuge, and insisted upon his
either adducing trustworthy evidence or admitting that he had been guilty
of concocting false accusations against the senate and exposing them to
odium on a baseless charge of theft. He refused, and said he would not
speak at the bidding of his enemies, whereupon the Dictator ordered him
to be taken to prison. When apprehended by the officer he exclaimed: "Jupiter
Optimus Maximus, Queen Juno, Minerva, all ye gods and goddesses who dwell
in the Capitol, do ye suffer your soldier and defender to be thus persecuted
by his enemies? Shall this right hand with which I drove the Gauls from
your shrines be manacled and fettered?" None could endure to see or hear
the indignity offered him, but the State, in its absolute submission to
lawful authority, had imposed upon itself limits which could not be passed;
neither the tribunes of the plebs nor the plebeians themselves ventured
to cast an angry look or breathe a syllable against the action of the Dictator.
It seems pretty certain that after Manlius was thrown into prison, a great
number of plebeians went into mourning; many let their hair grow, and the
vestibule of the prison was beset by a depressed and sorrowful crowd. The
Dictator celebrated his triumph over the Volscians, but his triumph increased
his unpopularity; men complained that the victory was won at home, not
in the field, over a citizen, not over an enemy. One thing alone was lacking
in the pageant of tyranny, Manlius was not led in procession before the
victor's chariot. Matters were rapidly drifting towards sedition, and the
senate took the initiative in endeavouring to calm the prevailing unrest.
Before any demand had been put forward they ordered that 2000 Roman citizens
should be settled as colonists at Satricum, and each receive two and a
half jugera of land. This was regarded as too small a grant, distributed
amongst too small a number; it was looked upon, in fact, as a bribe for
the betrayal of Manlius, and the proposed remedy only inflamed the disease.
By this time the crowd of Manlian sympathisers had become conspicuous for
their dirty garments and dejected looks. It was not till the Dictator laid
down his office after his triumph and so removed the terror which he inspired
that the tongues and spirits of men were once more free.
6.17
Men were heard openly reproaching the populace for always encouraging their
defenders till they led them to the brink of the precipice and deserting
them when the moment of danger actually came. It was in this way, they
said, that Sp. Cassius, while seeking to get the plebs on to the land,
and Sp. Maelius, whilst staving off famine at his own cost from the mouths
of his fellow-citizens, had both been crushed; it was in this way that
M. Manlius was betrayed to his foes, whilst rescuing a part of the community
who were overwhelmed and submerged by usurious extortion and bringing them
back to light and liberty. The plebs fattened up their own defenders for
slaughter. Was it not to be permitted that a man of consular rank should
refuse to answer at the beck and call of a Dictator ? Assuming that he
had previously been speaking falsely, and had therefore no reply ready
at the time, was there ever a slave who had been thrown into prison as
a punishment for lying? Had they forgotten that night which was all but
a final and eternal night for Rome? Could they not recall the sight of
the troop of Gauls climbing up over the Tarpeian rock, or that of Manlius
himself as they had actually seen him, covered with blood and sweat, after
rescuing, one might almost say, Jupiter himself from the hands of the enemy.
Had they discharged their obligation to the saviour of their country by
giving him half a pound of corn each? Was the man whom they almost regarded
as a god, whom they at all events placed on a level with Jupiter of the
Capitol by giving him the epithet of Capitolinus-was that man to be allowed
to drag out his life in chains and darkness at the mercy of the executioner?
Had the help of one man sufficed to save all, and was there amongst them
all no help to be found for that one man? By this time the crowd refused
to leave the spot even at night, and were threatening to break open the
prison when the senate conceded what they were going to extort by violence,
and passed a resolution that Manlius should be released. This did not put
an end to the seditious agitation, it simply provided it with a leader.
During this time the Latins and Hernici, together with the colonists from
Circeii and Velitrae, sent to Rome to clear themselves from the charge
of being concerned in the Volscian war and to ask for the surrender of
their countrymen who had been made prisoners, that they might proceed against
them under their own laws. An unfavourable reply was given to the Latins
and Hernici, a still more unfavourable one to the colonists, because they
had entertained the impious project of attacking their mother country.
Not only was the surrender of the prisoners refused, but they received
a stern warning from the senate, which was withheld from the Latins and
Hernici, to make their way speedily from the City out of the sight of the
Roman people; otherwise they would be no longer protected by the rights
of ambassadors, rights which were established for foreigners, not for citizens.
6.18
At the close of the year, amidst the growing agitation headed by Manlius,
the elections were held. The new consular tribunes were: Ser. Cornelius
Maluginensis and P. Valerius Potitus (each for the second time), M. Furius
Camillus (for the fifth time), Ser. Sulpicius Rufus (for the second time),
C. Papirius Crassus and T. Quinctius Cincinnatus (for the second time).
The year opened in peace, which was most opportune for both patricians
and plebeians-for the plebs, because as they were not called away to serve
in the ranks, they hoped to secure relief from the burden of debt, especially
now that they had such a strong leader; for the patricians, as no external
alarms would distract their minds from dealing with their domestic troubles.
As each side was more prepared for the struggle it could not long be delayed.
Manlius, too, was inviting the plebeians to his house and discussing night
and day revolutionary plans with their leaders in a much more aggressive
and resentful spirit than formerly. His resentment was kindled by the recent
humiliation inflicted on a spirit unaccustomed to disgrace; his aggressiveness
was encouraged by his belief that the Dictator had not ventured to treat
him as Quinctius Cincinnatus had treated Sp. Maelius, for not only had
the Dictator avoided the odium created by his imprisonment through resignation,
but even the senate had not been able to face it.
Emboldened and embittered by these considerations, he roused the passions
of the plebs, who were already incensed enough, to a higher pitch by his
harangues. "How long, pray," he asked, " are you going to remain in ignorance
of your strength, an ignorance which nature forbids even to beasts? Do
at least reckon up your numbers and those of your opponents. Even if you
were going to attack them on equal terms, man for man, I believe that you
would fight more desperately for freedom than they for power. But you are
much more numerous, for all you who have been in attendance on your patrons
as clients will now confront them as adversaries. You have only to make
a show of war and you will have peace. Let them see you are prepared to
use force, they will abate their claims. You must dare something as a body
or you will have to suffer everything as individuals. How long will you
look to me? I certainly shall not fail you, see to it that Fortune does
not fail me. I, your avenger, when your enemies thought fit was suddenly
reduced to nothing, and you watched the man carried off to prison who had
warded off imprisonment from so many of you. What have I to hope for, if
my enemies dare to do more to me? Am I to look for the fate of Cassius
and Maelius? It is all very well to cry in horror, ' The gods will prevent
that,' but they will never come down from heaven on my account. You must
prevent it; they must give you the courage to do so, as they gave me courage
to defend you as a soldier from the barbarian enemy and as a civilian from
your tyrannical fellow-citizens. Is the spirit of this great nation so
small that you will always remain contented with the aid which your tribunes
now afford you against your enemies, and never know any subject of dispute
with the patricians, except as to how far you allow them to lord it over
you ? This is not your natural instinct, you are the slaves of habit. For
why is it that you display such spirit towards foreign nations as to think
it fair and just that you should rule over them? Because with them you
have been wont to contend for dominion, while against these domestic enemies
it has been a contest for liberty, which you have mostly attempted rather
than maintained. Still, whatever leaders you have had, whatever qualities
you yourselves have shown, you have so far, either by your strength or
your good fortune, achieved every object, however great, on which you have
set your hearts. Now it is time to attempt greater things. If you will
only put your own good fortune to the test, if you will only put me to
the test, who have already been tested fortunately, I hope, for you, you
will have less trouble in setting up some one to lord it over the patricians
than you have had in setting up men to resist their lording it over you.
Dictatorships and consulships must be levelled to the ground in order that
the Roman plebs may lift up its head. Take your places, then, in the Forum;
prevent any judgment for debt from being pronounced. I profess myself the
Patron of the plebs, a title with which my care and fidelity have invested
me; if you prefer to designate your leader by any other title of honour
or command, you will find in him a more powerful instrument for attaining
the objects you desire." It is said that this was the first step in his
attempt to secure kingly power, but there is no clear tradition as to his
fellow-conspirators or the extent to which his plans were developed
6.19
On the other side, however, the senate were discussing this secession of
the plebs to a private house, which happened to be situated on the Capitol,
and the great danger with which liberty was menaced. A great many exclaimed
that what was wanted was a Servilius Ahala, who would not simply irritate
an enemy to the State by ordering him to be sent to prison, but would put
an end to the intestine war by the sacrifice of a single citizen. They
finally took refuge in a resolution which was milder in its terms but possessed
equal force, viz., that "the magistrates should see to it that the republic
received no hurt from the mischievous designs of M. Manlius." Thereupon
the consular tribunes and the tribunes of the plebs-for these latter recognised
that the end of liberty would also be the end of their power, and had,
therefore, placed themselves under the authority of the senate-all consulted
together as to what were the necessary steps to take. As no one could suggest
anything but the employment of force and its inevitable bloodshed, while
this would obviously lead to a frightful struggle, M. Menenius and Q. Publilius,
tribunes of the plebs, spoke as follows: "Why are we making that which
ought to be a contest between the State and one pestilent citizen into
a conflict between patricians and plebeians? Why do we attack the plebs
through him when it is so much safer to attack him through the plebs, so
that he may sink into ruin under the weight of his own strength? It is
our intention to fix a day for his trial. Nothing is less desired by the
people than kingly power. As soon as that body of plebeians become aware
that the quarrel is not with them, and find that from being his supporters
they have become his judges; as soon as they see a patrician on his trial,
and learn that the charge before them is one of aiming at monarchy, they
will not show favour to any man more than to their own liberty."
6.20
Amidst universal approval they fixed a day for the trial of Manlius. There
was at first much perturbation amongst the plebs, especially when they
saw him going about in mourning garb without a single patrician, or any
of his relatives or connections and, strangest of all, neither of his brothers,
Aulus and Titus Manlius, being similarly attired. For up to that day such
a thing had never been known, that at such a crisis in a man's fate even
those nearest to him did not put on mourning. They remembered that when
Appius Claudius was thrown into prison, his personal enemy, Caius Claudius,
and the whole house of the Claudii, wore mourning. They regarded it as
a conspiracy to crush a popular hero, because he was the first man to go
over from the patricians to the plebs. What evidence strictly bearing out
the charge of treason was adduced by the prosecution at the actual trial,
beyond the gatherings at his house, his seditious utterances, and his false
statement about the gold, I do not find stated by any authority. But I
have no doubt that it was anything but slight, for the hesitation shown
by the people in finding him guilty was not due to the merits of the case,
but to the locality where the trial took place. This is a thing to be noted
in order that men may see how great and glorious deeds are not only deprived
of all merit, but made positively hateful by a loathesome hankering after
kingly power.
He is said to have produced nearly four hundred people to whom he had
advanced money without interest, whom he had prevented from being sold
up and having their persons adjudged to their creditors. It is stated that
besides this he not only enumerated his military distinctions, but brought
them forward for inspection; the spoils of as many as thirty enemies whom
he had slain, gifts from commanders-in-chief to the number of forty, amongst
them two mural crowns and eight civil ones. In addition to these, he produced
citizens whom he had rescued from the enemy, and named C. Servilius, Master
of the Horse, who was not present, as one of them. After he had recalled
his warlike achievements in a great speech corresponding to the loftiness
of his theme, his language rising to the level of his exploits, he bared
his breast, ennobled by the scars of battle, and looking towards the Capitol
repeatedly invoked Jupiter and the other deities to come to the aid of
his shattered fortunes. He prayed that they would, in this crisis of his
fate, inspire the Roman people with the same feeling with which they inspired
him when he was protecting the Citadel and the Capitol and so saving Rome.
Then turning to his judges, he implored them one and all to judge his cause
with their eyes fixed on the Capitol, looking towards the immortal gods.
As it was in the Campus Martius that the people were to vote in their
centuries, and the defendant, stretching forth his hands towards the Capitol,
had turned from men to the gods in his prayers, it became evident to the
tribunes that unless they could release men's spell-bound eyes from the
visible reminder of his glorious deed, their minds, wholly possessed with
the sense of the service he had done them, would find no place for charges
against him, however true. So the proceedings were adjourned to another
day, and the people were summoned to an Assembly in the Peteline Grove
outside the Flumentan Gate, from which the Capitol was not visible. Here
the charge was established, and with hearts steeled against his appeals,
they passed a dreadful sentence, abhorrent even to the judges. Some authorities
assert that he was sentenced by the duumvirs, who were appointed to try
cases of treason. The tribunes hurled him from the Tarpeian rock, and the
place which was the monument of his exceptional glory became also the scene
of his final punishment. After his death two stigmas were affixed to his
memory. One by the State. His house stood where now the temple and mint
of Juno Moneta stand, a measure was consequently brought before the people
that no patrician should occupy a dwelling within the Citadel or on the
Capitoline. The other by the members of his house, who made a decree forbidding
any one henceforth to assume the names of Marcus Manlius. Such was the
end of a man who, had he not been born in a free State, would have attained
distinction. When danger was no longer to be feared from him the people,
remembering only his virtues, soon began to regret his loss. A pestilence
which followed shortly after and inflicted great mortality, for which no
cause could be assigned, was thought by a great many people to be due to
the execution of Manlius. They imagined that the Capitol had been polluted
by the blood of its deliverer, and that the gods had been displeased at
a punishment having been inflicted almost before their eyes on the man
by whom their temples had been wrested from an enemy's hands.
6.21
The pestilence was followed by scarcity, and the widespread rumour of these
two troubles was followed the next year by a number of wars. The consular
tribunes were: L. Valerius (for the fourth time), A. Manlius, Ser. Sulpicius,
L. Lucretius, and L. Aemilius (all for the third time), and M. Trebonius.
In addition to the Volscians, who seemed destined by some fate to keep
the Roman soldiery in perpetual training; in addition to the colonies of
Circeii and Velitrae, who had long been meditating revolt; in addition
to Latium, which was an object of suspicion, a new enemy suddenly appeared
at Lanuvium, which had hitherto been a most loyal city. The senate thought
this was due to a feeling of contempt because the revolt of their countrymen
at Velitrae had remained so long unpunished. They accordingly passed a
decree that the people should be asked as soon as possible to consent to
a declaration of war against them. To make the plebs more ready to enter
on this campaign, five commissioners were appointed to distribute the Pomptine
territory and three to settle a colony at Nepete. Then the proposal was
submitted to the people, and in spite of the protests of the tribunes the
tribes unanimously declared for war. Preparations for war continued throughout
the year, but, owing to the pestilence, the army was not led out. This
delay allowed the colonists time for propitiating the senate, and there
was a considerable party amongst them in favour of sending a deputation
to Rome to ask for pardon. But, as usual, the interest of the State was
bound up with the interests of individuals, and the authors of the revolt,
fearing that they alone would be held responsible and surrendered, in consequence,
to appease the resentment of the Romans, turned the colonists from all
thoughts of peace. Nor did they confine themselves to persuading their
senate to veto the proposed embassy; they stirred up a large number of
the plebs to make a predatory incursion on Roman territory. This fresh
outrage destroyed all hopes of peace. This year, for the first time, there
arose a rumour of a revolt at Praeneste, but when the people of Tusculum,
Gabinii, and Labici, whose territories had been invaded, laid a formal
complaint, the senate took it so calmly that it was evident they did believe
the charge because they did not wish it to be true.
6.22
Sp. and L. Papirius, the new consular tribunes, marched with the legions
to Velitrae. Their four colleagues, Ser. Cornelius Maluginensis, Q. Servilius,
C. Sulpicius, and L. Aemilius were left to defend the City and to meet
any fresh movement in Etruria, for danger was suspected everywhere on that
side. At Velitrae, where the auxiliaries from Praeneste were almost more
numerous than the colonists themselves, an engagement took place in which
the Romans soon won the day, for as the city was so near, the enemy took
to flight early in the battle and made for the city as their one refuge.
The tribunes abstained from storming the place, for they were doubtful
of success and did not think it right to reduce the colony to ruin. The
dispatches to the senate announcing the victory were more severe on the
Praenestines than on the Veliternians. Accordingly, by a decree of the
senate confirmed by the people, war was declared against Praeneste. The
Praenestines joined forces with the Volscians and in the following year
took by storm the Roman colony of Satricum, after an obstinate defence,
and made a brutal use of their victory. This incident exasperated the Romans.
They elected M. Furius Camillus as consular tribune for the sixth time,
and gave him four colleagues, A. and L. Postumius Regillensis, L. Furius,
L. Lucretius, and M. Fabius Ambustus. By a special decree of the senate
the war with the Volscians was entrusted to M. Furius Camillus; the tribune
chosen by lot as his coadjutor was L. Furius, not so much, as it turned
out, in the interest of the State, as in the interest of his colleague,
for whom he served as the means of gaining fresh renown. He gained it on
public grounds by restoring the fortunes of the State which had been brought
low by the other's rashness, and on private grounds, because he was more
anxious to win the other's gratitude after retrieving his error than to
win glory for himself. Camillus was now advanced in age, and after being
elected was prepared to make the usual affidavit declining office on the
grounds of health, but the people refused to allow him. His vigorous breast
was still animated by an energy unweakened by age, his senses were unimpaired,
and his interest in political affairs was lost in the prospect of war.
Four legions were enrolled, each consisting of 4000 men. The army was ordered
to muster the next day at the Esquiline Gate and at once marched for Satricum.
Here the captors of the colony awaited him, their decided superiority of
numbers inspiring them with complete confidence. When they found that the
Romans were approaching they advanced at once to battle, anxious to bring
matters to a decisive issue as soon as possible. They imagined that this
would prevent the inferiority in numbers of their opponents from being
in any way aided by the skill of their commander, which they looked upon
as the sole ground of confidence for the Romans.
6.23
The same eagerness for battle was felt by the Roman army and by Camillus'
colleague. Nothing stood in the way of their hazarding an immediate engagement
except the prudence and authority of one man, who was seeking an opportunity,
by protracting the war, for aiding the strength of his force by strategy.
This made the enemy more insistent; they not only deployed their lines
in front of their camp, but even marched forward in the middle of the plain
and showed their supercilious confidence in their numbers by advancing
their standards close to the Roman entrenchments. This made the Romans
indignant, still more so L. Furius. Young and naturally high-tempered,
he was now infected with the hopefulness of the rank and file whose spirits
were rising with very little to justify their confidence. He increased
their excitement by belittling the authority of his colleague on the score
of his age, the only possible reason he had for doing so; he declared that
wars were the province of the younger men, for courage grows and decays
in correspondence with the bodily powers. "Camillus," he said, "once a
most active warrior, had now become a laggard; he, whose habit it had been,
immediately on arriving at camps or cities, to take them at the first assault,
was now wasting time and stagnating inside his lines. What accession to
his own strength or diminution of the enemy's strength was he hoping for?
What favourable chance, what opportune moment, what ground on which to
employ his strategy? The old man's plans had lost all fire and life. Camillus
had had his share of life as well as glory. What was gained by letting
the strength of a State which ought to be immortal share in the senile
decay of one mortal frame?"
By speeches of this kind he had brought over the whole camp to his view
and in many quarters they were demanding to be led to immediate battle.
Addressing Camillus, he said: "M. Furius, we cannot resist the impetuosity
of the soldiers, and the enemy to whom we have given fresh courage by our
hesitation are now showing intolerable contempt for us. You are one against
all; yield to the universal desire and allow yourself to be overcome in
argument that you may the sooner overcome in battle." In his reply, Camillus
said that in all the wars he had waged down to that day, as sole commander,
neither he nor the Roman people had had any reason to complain of either
his generalship or his good fortune. Now he was aware that he had as a
colleague one who was his equal in authority and rank, his superior in
physical strength and activity. As for the army, he had been accustomed
to direct and not to be directed, but as for his colleague, he could not
hamper his authority. Let him do with the help of heaven whatever he considered
best for the State. He begged that owing to his years he might be excused
from being in the front line; whatever duties an old man could discharge
in battle, in these he would not show himself lacking. He prayed to the
immortal gods that no mischance might make them feel that his plan after
all was the best. His salutory advice was not listened to by men, nor was
his patriotic prayer heard by the gods. His colleague who had determined
on battle drew up the front line, Camillus formed a powerful reserve and
posted a strong force in front of the camp. He himself took his station
on some rising ground and anxiously awaited the result of tactics so different
from his own.
6.24
No sooner had their arms clashed together at the first onset than the enemy
began to retire, not through fear but for tactical reasons. Behind them
the ground rose gently up to their camp, and owing to their preponderance
in numbers they had been able to leave several cohorts armed and drawn
up for action in their camp. After the battle had begun these were to make
a sortie as soon as the enemy were near their entrenchments. In pursuing
the retiring enemy the Romans had been drawn on to the rising ground and
were in some disorder. Seizing their opportunity the enemy made their charge
from the camp. It was the victors' turn now to be alarmed, and this new
danger and the uphill fighting made the Roman line give ground. Whilst
the Volscians who had charged from the camp pressed home their attack,
the others who had made the pretended flight renewed the contest. At last
the Romans no longer retired in order; forgetting their recent battle-ardour
and their old renown they began to flee in all directions, and in wild
disorder were making for their camp. Camillus, after being assisted to
mount by those around, hastily brought up the reserves and blocked their
flight. "Is this, soldiers," he cried, "the battle which you were clamouring
for? Who is the man, who is the god that you can throw the blame upon?
Then you were foolhardy; now you are cowards. You have been following another
captain, now follow Camillus and conquer, as you are accustomed to do,
under my leadership. Why are you looking at the rampart and the camp? Not
a man of you shall enter there unless you are victorious." A feeling of
shame at first arrested their disorderly flight, then, when they saw the
standards brought round and the line turning to face the enemy, and their
leader, illustrious through a hundred triumphs and now venerable through
age, showing himself amongst the foremost ranks, where the risk and toil
were greatest, mutual reproaches mingled with words of encouragement were
heard through the whole field till finally they burst into a ringing cheer.
The other tribune did not show himself wanting to the occasion. Whilst
his colleague was rallying the infantry he was sent to the cavalry. He
did not venture to censure them-his share in their fault left him too little
authority for that-but dropping all tone of command he implored them one
and all to clear him from the guilt of that day's misfortunes. "In spite,"
he said, "of the refusal and opposition of my colleague I preferred to
associate myself with the rashness of all rather than with the prudence
of one. Whatever your fortunes may be, Camillus sees his own glory reflected
in them; I, unless the day is won, shall have the utter wretchedness of
sharing the fortunes of all but bearing the infamy alone." As the infantry
were wavering it seemed best for the cavalry, after dismounting and leaving
their horses to be held, to attack the enemy on foot. Conspicuous for their
arms and dashing courage they went wherever they saw the infantry force
pressed. Officers and men emulated each other in fighting with a determination
and courage which never slackened. The effect of such strenuous bravery
was shown in the result; the Volscians who a short time before had given
ground in simulated fear were now scattered in real panic. A large number
were killed in the actual battle and the subsequent flight, others in the
camp, which was carried in the same charge; there were more prisoners,
however, than slain.
6.25
On examining the prisoners, it was discovered that some were from Tusculum;
these were brought separately before the tribunes and on being questioned
admitted that their State authorised their taking up arms. Alarmed at the
prospect of a war so close to the City, Camillus said that he would at
once conduct the prisoners to Rome so that the senate might not remain
in ignorance of the fact that the Tusculans had abandoned the alliance
with Rome. His colleague might, if he thought good, remain in command of
the army in camp. One day's experience had taught him not to prefer his
own counsels to wiser ones, but even so, neither he nor any one in the
army supposed that Camillus would calmly pass over that blunder of his
by which the republic had been exposed to headlong disaster. Both in the
army and at Rome it was universally remarked that in the chequered fortune
which had attended the Volscian campaign, the blame for the unsuccessful
battle and flight would be visited on L. Furius, the glory of the successful
one would rest with M. Furius Camillus. After the examination of the prisoners
the senate resolved upon war with Tusculum, and entrusted the conduct of
it to Camillus. He requested that he might have one coadjutor, and on receiving
permission to choose whom he would, he selected, to every one's surprise,
L. Furius. By this act of generosity he removed the stigma attaching to
his colleague and won great glory for himself.
But there was no war with the Tusculans. Unable to resist the attack
of Rome by force of arms they turned it aside by a firm and lasting peace.
When the Romans entered their territory, there was no flight of the inhabitants
from the places near their line of march, the cultivation of the fields
was not interrupted, the gates of the city stood open, and the townsmen
in civic attire came in crowds to meet the commanders, whilst provisions
for the camp were brought ungrudgingly from town and country. Camillus
fixed his camp in front of the gates and decided to ascertain for himself
whether the peaceful aspect which things wore in the country prevailed
within the walls as well. Inside the city he found the doors of the houses
standing open and all kinds of things exposed for sale in the stalls; the
workmen all busy at their respective tasks and the schools humming with
the voices of the children learning to read; the streets filled with crowds,
including women and children going in all directions about their business
and wearing an expression free not only from fear but even from surprise.
He looked everywhere in vain for some signs of war; there was not the slightest
trace of anything having been removed or brought forward just for the moment;
all things looked so calm and peaceful that it seemed hardly possible that
the bruit of war could have reached them.
6.26
Disarmed by the submissive demeanour of the enemy he gave orders for the
senate to be summoned. He then addressed them in the following terms: "Men
of Tusculum, you are the only people who have discovered the true weapons,
the true strength, with which to protect yourselves from the wrath of Rome.
Go to the senate at Rome; they will decide aright whether your past offence
deserves punishment most or your present submission, pardon. I will not
anticipate the grace and favour which the State may show you; you shall
receive from me the permission to plead for forgiveness; the senate will
vouchsafe to your supplication the answer which shall seem good to them."
After the arrival of the Tusculan senators in Rome, when the mournful countenances
of those who a few weeks before had been staunch allies were seen in the
vestibule of the Senate-house, the Roman senate were touched with pity
and at once ordered them to be called in as guest-friends rather than as
enemies. The Dictator of Tusculum was the spokesman. "Senators," he said,
"we against whom you have declared and commenced hostilities, went out
to meet your generals and your legions armed and equipped just as you see
us now standing in the vestibule of your House. This civilian dress has
always been the dress of our order and of our plebs and ever will be, unless
at any time we receive from you arms for your defence. We are grateful
to your generals and to your armies because they trusted their eyes rather
than their ears, and did not make enemies where none existed. We ask of
you the peace which we have ourselves observed, and pray you to turn the
tide of war where a state of war exists; if we are to learn by painful
experience the power which your arms can exert against us, we will learn
it without using arms ourselves. This is our determination-may the gods
make it as fortunate as it is dutiful! As for the accusations which induced
you to declare war, although it is unnecessary to refute in words what
has been disproved by facts, still, even supposing them to be true, we
believe that it would have been safe to admit them, since we should have
given such evident proofs of repentance. Let us acknowledge that we have
wronged you, if only you are worthy to receive such satisfaction." This
was practically what the Tusculans said. They obtained peace at the time
and not long after full citizenship. The legions were marched back from
Tusculum.
6.27
After thus distinguishing himself by his skill and courage in the Volscian
war and bringing the expedition against Tusculum to such a happy termination,
and on both occasions treating his colleague with singular consideration
and forbearance, Camillus went out of office. The consular tribunes for
the next year were: Lucius Valerius (for the fifth time) and Publius (for
the third time), C. Sergius (also for the third time), L. Menenius (for
the second time), P. Papirius, and Ser. Cornelius Maluginensis. This year
it was found necessary to appoint censors, mainly owing to the vague rumours
which were afloat about the burden of debt. The plebeian tribunes, in order
to stir up ill-feeling exaggerated the amount, while it was underestimated
by those whose interest it was to represent the difficulty as due to the
unwillingness rather than the inability of the debtor to pay. The censors
appointed were C. Sulpicius Camerinius and Sp. Postumius Regillensis. They
commenced a fresh assessment, but the work was interrupted by the death
of Postumius, because it was doubtful whether the co-optation of a colleague,
in the case of the censors, was permissible. Sulpicius accordingly resigned,
and fresh magistrates were appointed, but owing to some flaw in their election
did not act. Religious fears deterred them from proceeding to a third election;
it seemed as though the gods would not allow a censorship for that year.
The tribunes declared that such mockery was intolerable. "The senate,"
according to them, "dreaded the publication of the assessment lists, which
supplied information as to every man's property, because they did not wish
the amount of the debtor to be brought to light, for it would show how
one half of the community was being ruined by the other half, while the
debt-burdened plebs were all the time being exposed to one enemy after
another. Excuses for war were being sought indiscriminately in every direction;
the legions were marched from Antium to Satricum, from Satricum to Velitrae,
from there to Tusculum. And now the Latins, the Hernici, and the Praenestines
were being threatened with hostilities in order that the patricians might
wreak their vengeance on their fellow-citizens more even than upon the
enemy. They were wearing out the plebs by keeping them under arms and not
allowing them any breathing time in the City or any leisure for thoughts
of liberty, or any possibility for taking their place in the Assembly,
where they might listen to the voice of a tribune urging the reduction
of interest and the redress of other grievances. Why, if the plebs had
spirit enough to recall to mind the liberties which their fathers won,
they would never suffer a Roman citizen to be made over to his creditors,
nor would they permit an army to be raised until an account was taken of
the existing debt and some method of reducing it discovered, so that each
man might know what he actually owed, and what was left for himself-whether
his person was free or whether that, too, was due to the stocks." The premium
thus put upon sedition made it at once more active. Many cases were occurring
of men being made over to their creditors, and in view of a war with Praeneste,
the senate had resolved that fresh legions should be enrolled, but both
these proceedings were arrested by the intervention of the tribunes, supported
by the whole body of the plebs. The tribunes refused to allow the judgment
debtors to be carried off; the men whose names were called for enrolment
refused to answer. The senate was less concerned to insist upon the rights
of creditors than to carry out the enlistment, for information had been
received that the enemy had advanced from Praeneste and were encamped in
the district of Gabii. This intelligence, however, instead of deterring
the plebeian tribunes from opposition, only made them more determined,
and nothing availed to quiet the agitation in the City but the approach
of war to its very walls.
6.28
A report had reached Praeneste that no army had been raised in Rome and
no commander-in-chief selected, and that the patricians and plebeians had
turned against one another. Seizing the opportunity, their generals had
led their army by rapid marches through fields which they had utterly laid
waste and appeared before the Colline Gate. There was wide-spread alarm
in the City. A general cry arose, "To arms!" and men hurried to the walls
and gates. At last, abandoning sedition for war, they nominated T. Quinctius
Cincinnatus as Dictator. He named A. Sempronius Atratinus as his Master
of the Horse. No sooner did they hear of this-so great was the terror which
a Dictatorship inspired-than the enemy retired from the walls, and the
men liable for active service assembled without any hesitation at the Dictator's
orders. Whilst the army was being mobilised in Rome, the camp of the enemy
had been fixed not far from the Alia. From this point they spread devastation
far and wide, and congratulated themselves that they had chosen a position
of fatal import for the City of Rome; they expected that there would be
the same panic and flight as in the Gaulish war. For, they argued, if the
Romans regarded with horror even the day which took its name from that
spot and was under a curse, how much more would they dread the Alia itself,
the memorial of that great disaster. They would most assuredly have the
appalling sight of the Gauls before their eyes and the sound of their voices
in their ears. Indulging in these idle dreams, they placed all their hopes
in the fortune of the place. The Romans, on the other hand, knew perfectly
well that wherever he was, the Latin enemy was the same as the one who
had been conquered at Lake Regillus and kept in peaceable subjection for
a hundred years. The fact that the place was associated with the memories
of their great defeat would sooner stimulate them to wipe out the recollection
of that disgrace than make them feel that any place on earth could be of
ill omen for their success. Even if the Gauls themselves were to appear
there, they would fight just as they fought when they recovered their City,
just as they fought the next day at Gabii, when they did not leave a single
enemy who had entered Rome to carry the news of their defeat and the Roman
victory to their countrymen.
6.29
In these different moods, each side reached the banks of the Alia. When
the enemy came into view in battle formation ready for action, the Dictator
turned to A. Sempronius: "Do you see," he said, "how they have taken their
station on the Alia, relying on the fortune of the place? May heaven have
given them nothing more certain to trust to, or stronger to help them!
You, however, placing your confidence in arms and valour, will charge their
center at full gallop, while I with the legions will attack them whilst
in disorder. Ye deities who watch over treaties, assist us, and exact the
penalties due from those who have sinned against you and deceived us by
appealing to your divinity!" Neither the cavalry charge nor the infantry
attack was sustained by the Praenestines. At the first onset and battle
shout their ranks were broken, and when no portion of the line any longer
kept its formation they turned and fled in confusion. In their panic they
were carried past their camp, and did not stop their headlong flight until
they were within sight of Praeneste. There the fugitives rallied and seized
a position which they hastily fortified; they were afraid of retiring within
the walls of their city lest their territory should be wasted with fire
and, after everything had been devastated, the city should be invested.
The Romans, however, after spoiling the camp at the Alia, came up; this
position, therefore, was also abandoned. They shut themselves in Praeneste,
feeling hardly safe even behind its walls. There were eight towns under
the jurisdiction of Praeneste. These were successively attacked and reduced
without much fighting. Then the army advanced against Velitrae, which was
successfully stormed. Finally, they arrived at Praeneste, the origin and
center of the war. It was captured, not by assault, but after surrender.
After being thus victorious in battle and capturing two camps and nine
towns belonging to the enemy and receiving the surrender of Praeneste,
Titus Quinctius returned to Rome. In his triumphal procession he carried
up to the Capitol the image of Jupiter Imperator, which had been brought
from Praeneste. It was set up in a recess between the shrines of Jupiter
and Minerva, and a tablet was affixed to the pedestal recording the Dictator's
successes. The inscription ran something like this: "Jupiter and all the
gods have granted this boon to Titus Quinctius the Dictator, that he should
capture nine towns." On the twentieth day after his appointment he laid
down the Dictatorship.
6.30
When the election of consular tribunes took place, an equal number were
elected from each order. The patricians were: P. and C. Manlius, together
with L. Julius; the plebeians were: C. Sextilius, M. Albinius, and L. Anstitius.
As the two Manlii took precedence of the plebeians by birth and were more
popular than Julius, they had the Volscians assigned to them by special
resolution, without casting lots or any understanding with the other consular
tribunes; a step which they themselves and the senate who made the arrangement
had cause to regret. They sent out some cohorts to forage without previously
reconnoitring. On receiving a false message that these were cut off, they
started off in great haste to their support, without detaining the messenger,
who was a hostile Latin and had passed himself off as a Roman soldier.
Consequently, they fell straight into an ambuscade. It was only the sheer
courage of the men that enabled them to make a stand on unfavourable ground
and offer a desperate resistance. At the same time, their camp, which lay
on the plain in another direction, was attacked. In both incidents the
generals had imperilled everything by their rashness and ignorance; if
by the good fortune of Rome anything was saved it was due to the steadiness
and courage of the soldiers who had no one to direct operations. On the
report of these occurrences reaching Rome, it was at first decided that
a Dictator should be nominated, but on subsequent information being received
that all was quiet amongst the Volscians, who evidently did not know how
to make use of their victory, the armies were recalled from that quarter.
On the side of the Volscians peace prevailed; the only trouble that marked
the close of the year was the renewal of hostilities by the Praenestines,
who had stirred up the Latin cantons. The colonists of Setia complained
of the fewness of their number, so a fresh body of colonists was sent to
join them. The misfortunes of the war were compensated by the quiet which
prevailed at home owing to the influence and authority which the consular
tribunes from the plebeians possessed with their party.
6.31
The new consular tribunes were: Sp. Furius, Q. Servilius (for the second
time), L. Menenius (for the third time), P. Cloelius, M. Horatius, and
L. Geganius. No sooner had their year begun than the flames of a violent
disturbance broke out, for which the distress caused by the debts supplied
both cause and motive. Sp. Servilius Priscus and Q. Cloelius Siculus were
appointed censors to go into the matter, but they were prevented from doing
so by the outbreak of war. The Volscian legions invaded the Roman territory
and were committing ravages in all directions. The first intimation came
through panic-stricken messengers followed by a general flight from the
country districts. So far was the alarm thus created from repressing the
domestic dissensions that the tribunes showed all the greater determination
to obstruct the enrolment of troops. They succeeded at last in imposing
two conditions on the patricians: that none should pay the war-tax until
the war was over, and that no suits for debt should be brought into court.
After the plebs had obtained this relief there was no longer any delay
in the enrolment. When the fresh troops had been raised they were formed
into two armies, both of which were marched into the Volscian territory.
Sp. Furius and M. Horatius turned to the right in the direction of Antium
and the coast; Q. Servilius and L. Geganius proceeded to the left towards
Ecetra and the mountain district. In neither direction did the enemy meet
them. So they commenced to ravage the country in a very different method
from that which the Volscians had practiced. These, emboldened by the dissensions
but afraid of the courage of their enemy, had made hasty depredations like
freebooters dreading a surprise, but the Romans acting as a regular army
wreaked their just anger in ravages which were all the more destructive
because they were continuous. The Volscians, fearing lest an army might
come from Rome, confined their ravages to the extreme frontier; the Romans,
on the other hand, lingered in the enemy's country to provoke him to battle.
After burning all the scattered houses and several of the villages and
leaving not a single fruit tree or any hope of harvest for the year, and
carrying off as booty all the men and cattle that remained outside the
walled towns, the two armies returned to Rome.
6.32
A short breathing space had been allowed to the debtors, but as soon as
hostilities ceased and quiet was restored large numbers of them were again
being adjudged to their creditors, and so completely had all hopes of lightening
the old load of debt vanished that new debts were being contracted to meet
a tax imposed for the construction of a stone wall for which the censors
had made a contract. The plebs were compelled to submit to this burden
because there was no enrolment which their tribunes could obstruct. They
were even forced by the influence of the nobility to elect only patricians
as consular tribunes; their names were: L. Aemilius, P. Valerius (for the
fourth time), C. Veturius, Ser. Sulpicius, L. and C. Quinctius Cincinnatus.
The patricians were also strong enough to effect the enrolment of three
armies to act against the Latins and Volscians, who had united their forces
and were encamped at Satricum. All those who were liable for active service
were made to take the military oath; none ventured to obstruct. One of
these armies was to protect the City; another was to be in readiness to
be despatched wherever any sudden hostile movement might be attempted;
the third, and by far the strongest, was led by P. Valerius and L. Aemilius
to Satricum. Here they found the enemy drawn up for battle on favourable
ground and immediately engaged him. The action, though so far not decisive,
was going in favour of the Romans when it was stopped by violent storms
of wind and rain. The next day it was resumed and was kept up for some
time on the part of the enemy with a courage and success equal to that
of the Romans, mainly by the Latin legions who through their long alliance
were familiar with Roman tactics. A cavalry charge disordered their ranks,
and before they could recover, the infantry made a fresh attack and the
further they pressed forward the more decided the retreat of the enemy
became, and once the battle turned, the Roman attack became irresistible.
The rout of the enemy was complete, and as they did not make for their
camp but tried to reach Satricum, which was two miles distant, they were
mostly cut down by the cavalry. The camp was taken and plundered. The following
night they evacuated Satricum, and in a march which was much more like
a flight made their way to Antium, and though the Romans followed almost
on their heels, the state of panic they were in enabled them to outstrip
their pursuers. The enemy entered the city before the Romans could delay
or harass their rear. Some days were spent in harrying the country as the
Romans were not sufficiently provided with military engines for attacking
the walls, nor were the enemy disposed to run the risk of a battle.
6.33
A quarrel now arose between the Antiates and the Latins. The Antiates,
crushed by their misfortunes and exhausted by a state of war which had
lasted all their lives, were contemplating peace; the newly revolted Latins,
who had enjoyed a long peace and whose spirits were yet unbroken, were
all the more determined to keep up hostilities. When each side had convinced
the other that it was perfectly free to act as it thought best, there was
an end of the quarrel. The Latins took their departure and so cleared themselves
from all association with a peace which they considered dishonourable;
the Antiates, when once the inconvenient critics of their salutary counsels
were out of the way, surrendered their city and territory to the Romans.
The exasperation and rage of the Latins at finding themselves unable to
injure the Romans in war or to induce the Volscians to keep up hostilities
rose to such a pitch that they set fire to Satricum, which had been their
first shelter after their defeat. They flung firebrands on sacred and profane
buildings alike, and not a single roof of that city escaped except the
temple of Mother Matuta. It is stated that it was not any religious scruple
or fear of the gods that restrained them, but an awful Voice which sounded
from the temple threatening them with terrible punishment if they did not
keep their accursed firebrands far from the shrine. Whilst in this state
of frenzy, they next attacked Tusculum, in revenge for its having deserted
the national council of the Latins and not only becoming an ally of Rome
but even accepting her citizenship. The attack was unexpected and they
burst in through the open gates. The town was taken at the first alarm
with the exception of the citadel. Thither the townsmen fled for refuge
with their wives and children, after sending messengers to Rome to inform
the senate of their plight. With the promptitude which the honour of the
Roman people demanded an army was marched to Tusculum under the command
of the consular tribunes, L. Quinctius and Ser. Sulpicius. They found the
gates of Tusculum closed and the Latins, with the feelings of men who are
at once besieging and being besieged, were in one direction defending the
walls and in the other attacking the citadel, inspiring terror and feeling
it at the same time. The arrival of the Romans produced a change in the
temper of both sides; it turned the gloomy forebodings of the Tusculans
into the utmost cheerfulness, whilst the confidence which the Latins had
felt in a speedy capture of the citadel, as they were already in possession
of the town, sank into a faint and feeble hope of even their own safety.
The Tusculans in the citadel gave a cheer, it was answered by a much louder
one from the Roman army. The Latins were hard pressed on both sides; they
could not withstand the attack of the Tusculans charging from the higher
ground, nor could they repel the Romans who were mounting the walls and
forcing the gates. The walls were first taken by escalade, then the bars
of the gates were burst. The double attack in front and rear left the Latins
no strength to fight and no room for escape; between the two they were
killed to a man.
6.34
The greater the tranquillity which prevailed everywhere abroad after these
successful operations so much the greater became the violence of the patricians
and the miseries of the plebeians, since the ability to pay their debts
was frustrated by the very fact that payment had become necessary. They
had no means left on which to draw, and after judgment had been given against
them they satisfied their creditors by surrendering their good name and
their personal liberty; punishment took the place of payment. To such a
state of depression had not only the humbler classes but even the leading
men amongst the plebeians been reduced, that there was no energetic or
enterprising individual amongst them who had the spirit to take up or become
a candidate even for the plebeian magistracies, still less to win a place
amongst the patricians as consular tribune, an honour which they had previously
done their utmost to secure. It seemed as though the patricians had for
all time won back from the plebs the sole enjoyment of a dignity which
for the last few years had been shared with them. As a check to any undue
exaltation on the part of the patricians, an incident occurred which was
slight in itself, but, as is often the case, led to important results.
M. Fabius Ambustus, a patrician, possessed great influence amongst the
men of his own order and also with the plebeians, because they felt that
he did not in any way look down on them. His two daughters were married,
the elder one to Ser. Sulpicius, the younger to C. Licinius Stolo, a distinguished
man, but a plebeian. The fact that Fabius did not regard this alliance
as beneath him had made him very popular with the masses. The two sisters
happened to be one day at Ser. Sulpicius' house, passing the time in conversation,
when on his return from the Forum the tribune's apparitor gave the customary
knocks on the door with his rod. The younger Fabia was startled at what
was to her an unfamiliar custom, and her sister laughed at her and expressed
surprise that she was ignorant of it. That laugh, however, left its sting
in the mind of a woman easily excited by trifles. I think, too, that the
crowd of attendants coming to ask for orders awoke in her that spirit of
jealousy which makes every one anxious to be surpassed as little as possible
by one's neighbours. It made her regard her sister's marriage as a fortunate
one and her own as a mistake. Her father happened to see her whilst she
was still upset by this mortifying incident and asked her if she was well.
She tried to conceal the real reason, as showing but little affection for
her sister and not much respect for her own husband. He kindly but firmly
insisted upon finding out, and she confessed the real cause of her distress;
she was united to one who was her inferior in birth, married into a house
where neither honour nor political influence could enter. Ambustus consoled
his daughter and bade her keep up her spirits; she would very soon see
in her own house the same honours which she saw at her sister's. From that
time he began to concert plans with his son-in-law; they took into their
counsels L. Sextius, a pushing young man who regarded nothing as beyond
his ambition except patrician blood.
6.35
A favourable opportunity for making innovations presented itself in the
terrible pressure of debt, a burden from which the plebs did not hope for
any alleviation until they had raised men of their own order to the highest
authority in the State. This, they thought, was the aim which they must
devote their utmost efforts to reach, and they believed that they had already,
by dint of effort, secured a foothold from which, if they pushed forward,
they could secure the highest positions, and so become the equals of the
patricians in dignity as they now were in courage. For the time being,
C. Licinius and L. Sextius decided to become tribunes of the plebs; once
in this office they could clear for themselves the way to all the other
distinctions. All the measures which they brought forward after they were
elected were directed against the power and influence of the patricians
and calculated to promote the interests of the plebs. One dealt with the
debts, and provided that the amount paid in interest should be deducted
from the principal and the balance repaid in three equal yearly instalments.
The second restricted the occupation of land and prohibited any one from
holding more than five hundred jugera. The third provided that there should
be no more consular tribunes elected, and that one consul should be elected
from each order. They were all questions of immense importance, which could
not be settled without a tremendous struggle.
The prospect of a fight over those things which excite the keenest desires
of men-land, money, honours-produced consternation among the patricians.
After excited discussions in the senate and in private houses, they found
no better remedy than the one they had adopted in previous contests, namely,
the tribunitian veto. So they won over some of the tribunes to interpose
their veto against these proposals. When they saw the tribes summoned by
Licinius and Sextius to give their votes, these men, surrounded by a bodyguard
of patricians, refused to allow either the reading of the bills or any
other procedure which the plebs usually adopted when they came to vote.
For many weeks the Assembly was regularly summoned without any business
being done, and the bills were looked upon as dead. "Very good," said Sextius,
"since it is your pleasure that the veto shall possess so much power, we
will use this same weapon for the protection of the plebs. Come then, patricians,
give notice of an Assembly for the election of consular tribunes, I will
take care that the word which our colleagues are now uttering in concert
to your great delight, the word 'I FORBID,' shall not give you much pleasure."
These were not idle threats. No elections were held beyond those of the
tribunes and aediles of the plebs. Licinius and Sextius, when re-elected,
would not allow any curule magistrates to be appointed, and as the plebs
constantly re-elected them, and as they constantly stopped the election
of consular tribunes, this dearth of magistrates lasted in the City for
five years.
6.36
Fortunately, with one exception, there was a respite from foreign war.
The colonists of Velitrae, becoming wanton in a time of peace and in the
absence of any Roman army, made various incursions into Roman territory
and began an attack on Tusculum. The citizens, allies of old, and now citizens,
implored help, and their situation moved not only the senate, but the plebs
as well, with a sense of shame. The tribunes of the plebs gave way and
the elections were conducted by an interrex. The consular tribunes elected
were: L. Furius, A. Manlius, Ser. Sulpicius, Ser. Cornelius, P. and C.
Valerius. They did not find the plebeians nearly so amenable in the enlistment
as they had been in the elections; it was only after a very great struggle
that an army was raised. They not only dislodged the enemy from before
Tusculum, but forced him to take refuge behind his walls. The siege of
Velitrae was carried on with far greater vigour than that of Tusculum had
been. Those commanders who had commenced the investment did not, however,
effect its capture. The new consular tribunes were: Q. Servilius, C. Veturius,
A. and M. Cornelius, Q. Quinctius, and M. Fabius. Even under these tribunes
nothing worth mention took place at Velitrae. At home affairs were becoming
more critical. Sextius and Licinius, the original proposers of the laws,
who had been re-elected tribunes of the plebs for the eighth time, were
now supported by Fabius Ambustus, Licinius Stolo's father-in-law. He came
forward as the decided advocate of the measures which he had initiated,
and whereas there had at first been eight members of the college of tribunes
who had vetoed the proposals, there were now only five. These five, as
usually happens with men who desert their party, were embarrassed and dismayed,
and defended their opposition by borrowed arguments privately suggested
to them by the patricians. They urged that as a large number of plebeians
were in the army at Velitrae the Assembly ought to be adjourned till the
return of the soldiers, to allow of the entire body of the plebs voting
on matters affecting their interests. Sextius and Licinius, experts after
so many years' practice in the art of handling the plebs, in conjunction
with some of their colleagues and the consular tribune, Fabius Ambustus,
brought forward the leaders of the patrician party and worried them with
questions on each of the measures they were referring to the people. "Have
you," they asked, "the audacity to demand that whilst two jugera are allotted
to each plebeian, you yourselves should each occupy more than five hundred
jugera, so that while a single patrician can occupy the land of nearly
three hundred citizens, the holding of a plebeian is hardly extensive enough
for the roof he needs to shelter him, or the place where he is to be buried?
Is it your pleasure that the plebeians, crushed by debt, should surrender
their persons to fetters and punishments sooner than that they should discharge
their debts by repaying the principal? That they should be led off in crowds
from the Forum as the property of their creditors? That the houses of the
nobility should be filled with prisoners, and wherever a patrician lives
there should be a private dungeon?"
6.37
They were denouncing these indignities in the ears of men, apprehensive
for their own safety, who listened to them with stronger indignation than
the men who were speaking felt. They went on to assert that after all there
would be no limit to the seizure of land by the patricians or the murder
of the plebs by the deadly usury until the plebs elected one of the consuls
from their own ranks as a guardian of their liberties. The tribunes of
the plebs were now objects of contempt since their power was shattering
itself by their own veto. There could be no fair or just administration
as long as the executive power was in the hands of the other party, while
they had only the right of protesting by their veto; nor would the plebs
ever have an equal share in the government till the executive authority
was thrown open to them; nor would it be enough, as some people might suppose,
to allow plebeians to be voted for at the election of consuls. Unless it
was made obligatory for one consul at least to be chosen from the plebs,
no plebeian would ever become consul. Had they forgotten that after they
had decided that consular tribunes should be elected in preference to consuls
in order that the highest office might be open to plebeians, not a single
plebeian was elected consular tribune for four-and-forty years? What did
they suppose? Did they imagine that the men who had been accustomed to
fill all the eight places when consular tribunes were elected would of
their own free will consent to share two places with the plebs, or that
they would allow the path to the consulship to be opened when they had
so long blocked the one to the consular tribuneship? The people would have
to secure by law what they could not gain by favour, and one of the two
consulships would have to be placed beyond dispute as open to the plebs
alone, for if it were open to a contest it would always be the prey of
the stronger party. The old, oft-repeated taunt could no longer be made
now that there were no men amongst the plebs suitable for curule magistracies.
Was the government carried on with less spirit and energy after the consulship
of P. Licinius Calvus, who was the first plebeian to be elected to that
post, than during the years when only patricians held the office? Nay,
on the contrary, there had been some cases of patricians being impeached
after their year of office, but none of plebeians. The quaestors also,
like the consular tribunes, had a few years previously begun to be elected
from the plebs; in no single instance had the Roman people had any cause
to regret those appointments. The one thing that was left for the plebs
to strive for was the consulship. That was the pillar, the stronghold of
their liberties. If they arrived at that, the Roman people would realise
that monarchy had been completely banished from the City, and that their
freedom was securely established, for in that day everything in which the
patricians were pre-eminent would come to the plebs-power, dignity, military
glory, the stamp of nobility; great things for themselves to enjoy, but
greater still as legacies to their children. When they saw that speeches
of this kind were listened to with approval, they brought forward a fresh
proposal, viz. that instead of the duumviri (the two keepers of the Sacred
Books) a College of Ten should be formed, half of them plebeians and half
patricians. The meeting of the Assembly, which was to pass these measures,
was adjourned till the return of the army which was besieging Velitrae.
6.38
The year passed away before the legions were brought back. Thus the new
measures were hung up and left for the new consular tribunes to deal with.
They were T. Quinctius, Ser. Cornelius, Ser. Sulpicius, Sp. Servilius,
L. Papirius, and L. Veturius. The plebs re-elected their tribunes, at all
events the same two who had brought forward the new measures. At the very
beginning of the year the final stage in the struggle was reached. When
the tribes were summoned and the proposers refused to be thwarted by the
veto of their colleagues, the patricians, now thoroughly alarmed, took
refuge in their last line of defence-supreme power, and a supreme citizen
to wield it. They resolved upon the nomination of a Dictator, and M. Furius
Camillus was nominated; he chose L. Aemilius as his Master of the Horse.
Against such formidable preparations on the part of their opponents, the
proposers on their side prepared to defend the cause of the plebs with
the weapons of courage and resolution. They gave notice of a meeting of
the Assembly and summoned the tribes to vote. Full of anger and menace,
the Dictator, surrounded by a compact body of patricians, took his seat,
and the proceedings commenced as usual with a struggle between those who
were bringing in the bills and those who were interposing their veto against
them. The latter were in the stronger position legally, but they were overborne
by the popularity of the measures and the men who were proposing them.
The first tribes were already voting "Aye," when Camillus said, "Since,
Quirites, it is not the authority of your tribunes but their defiance of
authority that you are ruled by now, and their right of veto, which was
once secured by the secession of the plebs, is now being rendered nugatory
by the same violent conduct by which you obtained it, I, as Dictator, acting
in your own interests quite as much as in that of the State, shall support
the right of veto and protect by my authority the safeguard which you are
destroying. If, therefore, C. Licinius and L. Sextius give way before the
opposition of their colleagues, I will not intrude the powers of a patrician
magistrate into the councils of the plebs; if, however, in spite of that
opposition they are bent on imposing their measures on the State, as though
it had been subjugated in war, I will not allow the tribunitian power to
work its own destruction."
The tribunes of the plebs treated this pronouncement with contempt,
and persisted in their course with unshaken resolution. Thereupon Camillus,
excessively angry, sent lictors to disperse the plebeians and threatened,
if they went on, to bind the fighting men by their military oath and march
them out of the City. The plebs were greatly alarmed, but their leaders
were exasperated rather than intimidated by his opposition. But while the
contest was still undecided he resigned office, either owing to some irregularity
in his nomination, as certain writers maintain, or because the tribunes
proposed a resolution, which the plebs adopted, to the effect that if Camillus
took any action as Dictator a fine of 500,000 ases should be imposed upon
him. That his resignation was due to some defect in the auspices rather
than to the effect of such an unprecedented proposal I am led to believe
by the following considerations: the well-known character of the man himself;
the fact that P. Manlius immediately succeeded him as Dictator-for what
influence could he have exerted in a contest in which Camillus had been
worsted? the further fact that Camillus was again Dictator the following
year, for surely he would have been ashamed to reassume an authority which
had been successfully defied the year before. Besides, at the time when,
according to the tradition, the resolution imposing a fine on him was passed,
either he had as Dictator the power to negative a measure which he saw
was meant to circumscribe his authority, or else he was powerless to resist
even those other measures on account of which this one was carried. But
amidst all the conflicts in which tribunes and consuls have been engaged,
the Dictator's powers have always been above controversy.
6.39
Between Camillus' resignation of office and Manlius' entrance on his Dictatorship,
the tribunes held a council of the plebs as though an interregnum had occurred.
Here it was evident which of the proposed measures were preferred by the
plebs and which their tribunes were most eager about. The measures dealing
with usury and the allotment of State land were being adopted, that providing
that one consul should always be a plebeian was rejected; both the former
would probably have been carried into law if the tribunes had not said
that they were putting them en bloc. P. Manlius, on his nomination as Dictator,
strengthened the cause of the plebs by appointing a plebeian, C. Licinius,
who had been a consular tribune, as his Master of the Horse. I gather that
the patricians were much annoyed; the Dictator generally defended his action
on the ground of relationship; he pointed out also that the authority of
a Master of the Horse was no greater than that of a consular tribune. When
notice was given for the election of tribunes of the plebs, Licinius and
Sextius declared their unwillingness to be re-elected, but they put it
in a way which made the plebeians all the more eager to secure the end
which they secretly had in view. For nine years, they said, they had been
standing in battle array, as it were, against the patricians, at the greatest
risk to themselves and with no advantage to the people. The measures they
had brought forward and the whole power of the tribunes had, like themselves,
become enfeebled by age. Their proposed legislation had been frustrated
first by the veto of their colleagues, then by the withdrawal of their
fighting men to the district of Velitrae, and last of all the Dictator
had launched his thunders at them. At the present time there was no obstacle
either from their colleagues or from war or from the Dictator, for he had
given them an earnest of the future election of plebeian consuls by appointing
a plebeian as Master of the Horse. It was the plebs who stood in the way
of their tribunes and their own interests. If they chose they could have
a City and a Forum free from creditors, and fields rescued from their unlawful
occupiers. When were they ever going to show sufficient gratitude for these
boons, if while accepting these beneficial measures they cut off from those
who proposed them all hope of attaining the highest honours? It was not
consistent with the self-respect of the Roman people for them to demand
to be relieved of the burden of usury and placed on the land which is now
wrongfully held by the magnates, and then to leave the tribunes, through
whom they won these reforms, without honourable distinction in their old
age or any hope of attaining it. They must first make up their minds as
to what they really wanted and then declare their will by their votes at
the election. If they wanted the proposed measures carried as a whole,
there was some reason for their re-electing the same tribunes, because
they would carry their own measures through; if, however, they only wished
that to be passed which each man happened to want for himself, there was
no need for them to incur odium by prolonging their term of office; they
would not have the tribuneship themselves, nor would the people obtain
the proposed reforms.
6.40
This determined language from the tribunes filled the patricians with speechless
indignation and amazement. It is stated that Appius Claudius, a grandson
of the old decemvir, moved by feelings of anger and hatred more than by
any hope of turning them from their purpose, came forward and spoke to
the following effect: "It would be nothing new or surprising to me, Quirites,
to hear once more the reproach that has always been levelled against our
family by revolutionary tribunes, namely, that from the very beginning
we have never regarded anything in the State as more important than the
honour and dignity of the patricians, and that we have always been inimical
to the interests of the plebs. The former of these charges I do not deny.
I acknowledge that from the day when we were admitted into the State and
into the senate we have laboured most assiduously in order that the greatness
of those houses amongst which it was your will that we should be numbered
might be said in all truth to have been enhanced rather than impaired.
In reply to the second charge, I would go so far as to assert, on my own
behalf and on that of my ancestors, that neither as individuals nor in
our capacity as magistrates have we ever done anything knowingly which
was against the interests of the plebs, unless any one should suppose that
what is done on behalf of the State as a whole is necessarily injurious
to the plebs as though they were living in another city; nor can any act
or word of ours be truthfully brought up as opposed to your real welfare,
though some may have been opposed to your wishes. Even if I did not belong
to the Claudian house and had no patrician blood in my veins, but more
simply one of the Quirites, knowing only that I was sprung from free-born
parents and was living in a free State-even then, could I keep silence
when I see that this L. Sextius, this C. Licinius, tribunes for life-good
heavens!-have reached such a pitch of impudence during the nine years of
their reign that they are refusing to allow you to vote as you please in
the elections and in the enacting of laws?
"'On one condition,' they say, 'you shall reappoint us tribunes for
the tenth time.' What is this but saying, 'What others seek we so thoroughly
despise that we will not accept it without a heavy premium'? But what premium
have we to pay that we may always have you as tribunes of the plebs? 'That
you adopt all our measures en bloc, whether you agree with them or not,
whether they are useful or the reverse.' Now I ask you-you Tarquinian tribunes
of the plebs-to listen to me. Suppose that I, as a citizen, call out from
the middle of the Assembly, 'Allow us, with your kind permission, to choose
out of these proposed measures what we think beneficial for us and reject
the others.' 'No,' he says, 'you will not be allowed to do so. You would
pass the measure about usury and the one about the distribution of land,
for these concern you all; but you would not allow the City of Rome to
witness the portentous sight of L. Sextius and C. Licinius as consuls,
a prospect you regard with detestation and loathing. Either accept all,
or I propose none.' Just as if a man were to place poison together with
food before some one famished with hunger and bid him either abstain from
what would support his life or mix with it what would bring death. If this
were a free State, would not hundreds of voices have exclaimed, 'Begone,
with your tribuneships and proposals!' What? If you do not bring in reforms
which it is to the people's advantage to adopt, is there no one else who
will? If any patrician, if even a Claudius-whom they detest still more-were
to say, 'Either accept all, or I propose none,' which of you, Quirites,
would tolerate it? Will you never have more regard for measures than for
men? Will you always listen with approving ears to everything which your
magistrate says and with hostile ears to whatever is said by any of us?
"His language is utterly unbecoming a citizen of a free republic. Well,
and what sort of a proposal is it, in heaven's name, that they are indignant
with you for having rejected? One, Quirites, which quite matches his language.
'I am proposing,' he says, 'that you shall not be allowed to appoint whom
you please as consuls.' What else does his proposal mean? He is laying
down the law that one consul at least shall be elected from the plebs,
and is depriving you of the power of electing two patricians. If there
were to-day a war with Etruria such as when Porsena encamped on the Janiculum,
or such as that in recent times with the Gauls, when everything round us
except the Capitol and the Citadel were in the enemy's hands, and, in the
press of such a war, L. Sextius were standing for the consulship with M.
Furius Camillus and some other patrician, could you tolerate Sextius being
quite certain of election and Camillus in danger of defeat? Is this what
you call an equal distribution of honours, when it is lawful for two plebeians
to be made consuls, but not for two patricians; when one must necessarily
be taken from the plebs, while it is open to reject every patrician? What
is this comradeship, this equality of yours? Do you count it little to
come into a share of what you have had no share in hitherto, unless whilst
you are seeking to obtain the half you can carry off the whole? He says,
'I am afraid if it is left open for two patricians to be elected, you will
never elect a plebeian.' What is this but saying, 'Because you would not
of your own will elect unworthy persons, I will impose upon you the necessity
of electing them against your will'? What follows? That if only one plebeian
is standing with two patricians he has not to thank the people for his
election; he may say he was appointed by the law not by their vote.
6.41
"Their aim is not to sue for honours but to extort them from you, and they
will get the greatest favours from you without showing the gratitude due
even for the smallest. They prefer seeking posts of honour by trusting
to accident rather than by personal merit. There is many a man, too proud
to submit his merits and claims to inspection and examination, who would
think it quite fair that he alone among his competitors should be quite
certain of attaining a post of honour, who would withdraw himself from
your judgment and transfer your free votes into compulsory and servile
ones. Not to mention Licinius and Sextius, whose years of uninterrupted
power you number up as though they were kings in the Capitol, who is there
in the State to-day in such humble circumstances as not to find the path
to the consulship made easier by the opportunities offered in that measure
for him than it is for us and our children? Even when you sometimes wish
to elect us you will not have the power; those people you will be compelled
to elect, even if you do not wish to do so. Enough has been said about
the indignity of the thing. Questions of dignity, however, only concern
men; what shall I say about the duties of religion and the auspices, the
contempt and profanation of which specially concern the gods? Who is there
who knows not that it was under auspices that this City was founded, that
only after auspices have been taken is anything done in war or peace, at
home or in the field? Who have the right to take the auspices in accordance
with the usage of our fathers? The patricians, surely, for not a single
plebeian magistrate is elected under auspices. So exclusively do the auspices
belong to us that not only do the people when electing patrician magistrates
elect them only when the auspices are favourable, but even we, when, independently
of the people, we are choosing an interrex, only do so after the auspices
have been taken: we as private citizens have the auspices which your order
does not possess even as magistrates. What else is the man doing who by
the creation of plebeian consuls takes away the auspices from the patricians
who alone can possess them-what else, I ask, is he doing but depriving
the State of the auspices? Now, men are at liberty to mock at our religious
fears. 'What does it matter if the sacred chickens do not feed, if they
hesitate to come out of their coop, if a bird has shrieked ominously?'
These are small matters, but it was by not despising these small matters
that our ancestors have achieved the supreme greatness of this State. Now,
as though there were no need of securing peace with the gods, we are polluting
all ceremonial acts. Are pontiffs, augurs, kings for sacrifice to be appointed
indiscriminately? Are we to place the mitre of the Flamen of Jupiter upon
any one's head provided only he be a man? Are we to hand over the sacred
shields, the shrines, the gods, and the care of their worship to men to
whom it would be impious to entrust them? Are laws no longer to be passed,
or magistrates elected in accordance with the auspices? Are the senate
no longer to authorise the Assembly of centuries, or the Assembly of curies?
Are Sextius and Licinius to reign in this City of Rome as though they were
a second Romulus, a second Tatius, because they give away other people's
money and other people's lands? So great a charm is felt in preying upon
other people's fortunes, that it has not occurred to them that by expelling
the occupiers from their lands under the one law vast solitudes will be
created, whilst by the action of the other all credit will be destroyed
and with it all human society abolished. For every reason I consider that
these proposals ought to be rejected, and may heaven guide you to a right
decision!"
6.42
The speech of Appius only availed to effect the postponement of the voting.
Sextius and Licinius were re-elected for the tenth time. They carried a
law providing that of the ten keepers of the Sibylline Books, five should
be chosen from the patricians and five from the plebeians. This was regarded
as a further step towards opening the path to the consulship. The plebs,
satisfied with their victory, made the concession to the patricians that
for the present all mention of consuls should be dropped. Consular tribunes
were accordingly elected. Their names were A. and M. Cornelius (each for
the second time), M. Geganius, P. Manlius, L. Veturius, and P. Valerius
(for the sixth time). With the exception of the siege of Velitrae, in which
the result was delayed rather than doubtful, Rome was quiet so far as foreign
affairs went. Suddenly the City was startled by rumours of the hostile
advance of the Gauls. M. Furius Camillus was nominated Dictator for the
fifth time. He named as his Master of the Horse T. Quinctius Poenus. Claudius
is our authority for the statement that a battle was fought at the Anio
with the Gauls this year, and that it was then that the famous fight took
place on the bridge in which T. Manlius killed a Gaul who had challenged
him and then despoiled him of his golden collar in the sight of both armies.
I am more inclined, with the majority of authors, to believe that these
occurrences took place ten years later. There was, however, a pitched battle
fought this year by the Dictator, M. F. Camillus, against the Gauls in
the Alban territory. Although, bearing in mind their former defeat, the
Romans felt a great dread of the Gauls, their victory was neither doubtful
nor difficult. Many thousands of the barbarians were slain in the battle,
many more in the capture of their camp. Many others, making chiefly in
the direction of Apulia, escaped, some by distant flight, and others who
had become widely scattered and in their panic had lost their way.
By the joint consent of the senate and plebs a triumph was decreed to
the Dictator. He had hardly disposed of that war before a more alarming
commotion awaited him at home. After tremendous conflicts, the Dictator
and the senate were worsted; consequently the proposals of the tribunes
were carried, and in spite of the opposition of the nobility the elections
were held for consuls. L. Sextius was the first consul to be elected out
of the plebs. Even that was not the end of the conflict. The patricians
refused to confirm the appointment, and matters were approaching a secession
of the plebs and other threatening signs of appalling civic struggles.
The Dictator, however, quieted the disturbances by arranging a compromise;
the nobility made a concession in the matter of a plebeian consul, the
plebs gave way to the nobility on the appointment of a praetor to administer
justice in the City who was to be a patrician. Thus after their long estrangement
the two orders of the State were at length brought into harmony. The senate
decided that this event deserved to be commemorated-and if ever the immortal
gods merited men's gratitude, they merited it then-by the celebration of
the Great Games, and a fourth day was added to the three hitherto devoted
to them. The plebeian aediles refused to superintend them, whereupon the
younger patricians were unanimous in declaring that they would gladly allow
themselves to be appointed aediles for the honour of the immortal gods.
They were universally thanked, and the senate made a decree that the Dictator
should ask the people to elect two aediles from amongst the patricians,
and that the senate should confirm all the elections of that year.
|
Return
to the Table of Contents
Return
to List of Authors and Books