The History of Rome By Titus Livius
Translated By D. Spillman
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BOOK VII
Two magistrates were added, the prætorship and curule ædileship. A pestilence rages in the city, which carries off the celebrated Furius Camillus. Scenic representations first introduced. Curtius leaps on horseback completely armed into a gulf in the forum. Titus Manlius, having slain a Gaul in single combat, who challenged any of the Roman soldiers, takes from him a golden chain, and hence gets the name of Torquatus. Two new tribes are added, called the Pomptine and Publilian. Licinius Stolo is condemned on a law which he himself had carried, for possessing more than five hundred acres of land. Marcus Valerius, surnamed Corvinus, from having with the aid of a crow killed a Gaul, who challenged him, is on the following year elected consul, though but twenty-three years old. A treaty of friendship made with the Carthaginians. The Campanians, overpowered by the Samnites, surrender themselves to the Roman people, who declare war against the Samnites. P. Decius Mus saves the Roman army, when brought into very great danger by the consul A. Cornelius. Conspiracy and revolt of the Roman soldiers in the garrison of Capua. They are brought to a sense of duty, and restored to their country, by Marcus Valerius Corvus, dictator. Successful operations against the Hernicians, Gauls, Tiburtians, Privernians, Tarquinians, Samnites, and Volscians.
This year will be remarkable for the consulship of a man of mean birth, remarkable for two new magistracies, the prætorship and curule ædileship. These honours the patricians claimed to themselves, in consideration of one consulship having been conceded to the plebeians. The commons gave the consulship to Lucius Sextius, by whose law it had been obtained. The patricians by their popular influence obtained the prætorship for Spurius Furius Camillus, the son of Marcus, the ædileship for Cneius Quinctius Capitolinus and Publius Cornelius Scipio, men of their own rank. To Lucius Sextius, the patrician colleague assigned was Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus. In the beginning of the year mention was made both of the Gauls, who, after having strayed about through Apulia, it was now rumoured were forming into a body; and also[Pg 448] concerning a revolt of the Hernicians. When all business was purposely deferred, so that nothing should be transacted through means of the plebeian consul, silence was observed on all matters, and a state of inaction like to a justitium; except that, the tribunes not suffering it to pass unnoticed that the nobility had arrogated to themselves three patrician magistracies as a compensation for one plebeian consul, sitting in curule chairs, clad in the prætexta like consuls; the prætor, too, administering justice, and as if colleague to the consuls, and elected under the same auspices, the senate were in consequence made ashamed to order the curule ædiles to be elected from among the patricians. It was at first agreed, that they should be elected from the commons every second year: afterwards the matter was left open. Then, in the consulate of Lucius Genucius and Quintus Servilius, affairs being tranquil both at home and abroad, that they might at no period be exempt from fear and danger, a great pestilence arose. They say that a prætor, a curule ædile, and three plebeian tribunes died of it, and that several other deaths took place in proportion among the populace; and that pestilence was made memorable chiefly by the death of Marcus Furius, which, though occurring at an advanced age, was still much lamented. For he was a truly extraordinary man under every change of fortune; the first man in the state in peace and war, before he went into exile; still more illustrious in exile, whether by the regret felt for him by the state, which, when in captivity, implored his aid when absent; or by the success with which, when restored to his country, he restored that country along with himself. For five and twenty years afterwards (for so many years afterwards did he live) he uniformly preserved his claims to such great glory, and was deemed deserving of their considering him, next after Romulus, a second founder of the city of Rome.
The pestilence continued both for this and the following year, Caius Sulpicius Peticus and Caius Licinius Stolo being consuls. During that year nothing worth recording took place, except that for the purpose of imploring the favour of the gods, there was a Lectisternium, the third time since the building of the city. And when the violence of the disease was alleviated neither by human measures nor by divine interference, their minds being broken down by superstition,[Pg 449] among other means of appeasing the wrath of heaven, scenic plays also are said to have been instituted, a new thing to a warlike people (for hitherto there had been only the shows of the circus). But the matter was trivial, (as all beginnings generally are,) and even that itself from a foreign source. Without any poetry, or gesticulating in imitation of such poetry, actors were sent for from Etruria, dancing to the measures of a musician, and exhibited, according to the Tuscan fashion, movements by no means ungraceful. The young men afterwards began to imitate these, throwing out at the same time among each other jocular expressions in uncouth verses; nor were their gestures irrelevant to their language. Wherefore the matter was received with approbation, and by frequent use was much improved. To the native performers the name of histriones was given, because hister, in the Tuscan vocabulary, was the name of an actor, who did not, as formerly, throw out alternately artless and unpolished verses like the Fescennine at random, but represented medleys complete with metre, the music being regularly adjusted for the musician, and with appropriate gesticulation. Livius, who several years after, giving up medleys, was the first who ventured to digest a story with a regular plot, (the same being, forsooth, as all were at that time, the actor of his own pieces,) after having broken his voice from having been too repeatedly called on, and after having sought permission, is said to have placed a boy before the musician to chaunt, and to have performed the gesticulations with considerably freer movement, because the employment of his voice was no impediment to him. Thence commenced the practice of chaunting to the actors according to their manual gesticulations, and the dialogues only were left to their voice. When by this arrangement the business of the scenic performances was called away from laughter and intemperate mirth, and the amusement became gradually converted into an art, the young men, leaving to regular actors the performance of plays, began themselves, according to the ancient usage, to throw out ludicrous jests comprised in verses, which from that time were called exodia, and were collected chiefly from the Atellan farces. Which kind of amusement, received from the Osci, the young kept to themselves, nor did they suffer it to be debased by regular players. Hence it remains an established usage that the actors of the Atellan farces are neither degraded[Pg 450] from their tribe, and may serve in the army, as if having no connexion with the profession of the stage. Among the trifling beginnings of other matters, it seemed to me that the first origin of plays also should be noticed; that it might appear how from a moderate commencement it has reached its present extravagance, scarcely to be supported by opulent kingdoms.
However, the first introduction of plays, intended as a religious expiation, neither relieved their minds from religious awe, nor their bodies from disease. Nay more, when the circus being inundated by the overflowing of the Tiber happened to interrupt the middle of the performance, that indeed, as if the gods were now turned from them, and despised their efforts to soothe their wrath, excited great terror. Accordingly, Cneius Genucius and Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus being a second time consuls, when the searching for expiations harassed their minds, more than the diseases did their bodies, it is said to have been collected from the memory of the more aged, that a pestilence had formerly been relieved, on the nail being driven by a dictator. Induced by this superstitious circumstance, the senate ordered a dictator to be appointed for the purpose of driving the nail. Lucius Manlius Imperiosus being appointed, named Lucius Pinarius master of the horse. There is an ancient law written in antique letters and words, that whoever is supreme officer should drive a nail on the ides of September. It was driven into the right side of the temple of Jupiter supremely good and great, on that part where the temple of Minerva is. They say that the nail was a mark of the number of years elapsed, because letters were rare in those times, and that the law was referred to the temple of Minerva, because number is the invention of that goddess. Cincius, a careful writer on such monuments, asserts that there were seen at Volsinii also nails fixed in the temple of Nortia, a Tuscan goddess, as indices of the number of years. Marcus Horatius, being consul, according to law dedicated the temple of Jupiter the best and greatest the year after the expulsion of kings; the solemnity of fixing the nail was afterwards transferred from the consuls to the dictators, because theirs was a superior office. The custom being afterwards dropped, it seemed a matter of sufficient importance in itself, on account of which a dictator should be appointed. For which reason Lucius Manlius being appoint[Pg 451]ed, just as if he had been appointed for the purpose of managing the business of the state in general, and not to acquit it of a religious obligation, being ambitious to manage the Hernician war, harassed the youth by a severe levy, and at length, all the plebeian tribunes having risen up against him, whether overcome by force or shame, he resigned the dictatorship.
Notwithstanding this, in the commencement of the ensuing year, Quintus Servilius Ahala, Lucius Genucius being consuls, a day of trial is appointed for Manlius, by Marcus Pomponius, tribune of the commons. His severity in the levies, carried not only to the fining of the citizens, but even to the laceration of their bodies, those who had not answered to their names being some beaten with rods, others thrown into prison, was hateful; and more hateful than all was his violent temper, and the surname of Imperiosus, offensive to a free state, adopted by him from an ostentation of severity, which he exercised not more against strangers than his nearest friends, and even those of his own blood. And among other things, the tribune alleged as a charge against him that "he had banished his son, a youth convicted of no improper conduct, from the city, home, household gods, forum, light, from the society of his equals, and consigned him in a manner to a prison or workhouse; where a youth of dictatorian rank, born of a very high family, should learn by his daily suffering that he was descended of a truly imperious father. And for what offence? because he was not eloquent, nor ready in discourse. Which defect of nature, whether ought it to be treated with leniency if there were a particle of humanity in him, or ought it to be punished, and rendered more remarkable by harsh treatment? The dumb beasts even, if any of their offspring happen to be badly formed, are not the less careful in nourishing and cherishing them. But Lucius Manlius aggravated the misfortune of his son by severity, and further clogged the slowness of his intellects; and if there were in him even the least spark of natural ability he extinguished it by a rustic life and a clownish education, and keeping him among cattle."
By these charges the minds of all were exasperated against him more than that of the young man himself: nay, on the contrary, being grieved that he was even the cause of[Pg 452] public odium and accusations to his father, that all the gods and men might know that he would rather afford aid to his father than to his enemies, he forms the design, characteristic of a rude and rustic mind no doubt, and though of a precedent not conformable to the rules of civil life, yet commendable for its filial piety. Having furnished himself with a knife, without the knowledge of any one he proceeds early in the morning into the city, and from the gate straightway to the house of Marcus Pomponius the tribune: he tells the porter, that he wanted to see his master immediately, and bid him to announce that he was Titus Manlius, son of Lucius. Being introduced immediately, (for he had hopes that the youth, incensed against his father, brought either some new charge, or some advice to accomplish the project,) after mutual greeting, he says that there were some matters which he wished to transact with him in private. Then, all persons being ordered to withdraw to a distance, he draws his dagger; and standing over the couch with his dagger ready to strike, he threatens that he would immediately stab him, unless he would swear in the words which he would dictate, that "he never would hold a meeting of the commons for the purpose of prosecuting his father." The tribune alarmed, (for he saw the steel glittering before his eyes, himself alone and unarmed; the other a young man, and very powerful, and what was no less terrifying, savagely ferocious in his bodily strength,) swears in the terms in which he was obliged; and afterwards acknowledged that forced by this proceeding he gave up his undertaking. Nor though the commons would have preferred that an opportunity was afforded them of passing sentence on so cruel and tyrannical a culprit, they were not much displeased that the son had dared to act so in behalf of his father; and that was the more commendable in this, that such great severity on the part of the father had not weaned his mind from his filial affection. Wherefore the pleading of his cause was not only dispensed with for the father, but the matter even became a source of honour to the young man; and when it had been determined on that year for the first time that tribunes of the soldiers for the legions should be appointed by suffrage, (for before that the commanders themselves used to appoint them, as they now do those whom they call Rufuli,) he obtained the second place among six, without[Pg 453] any merit of a civil or military nature to conciliate public favour; as he had spent his youth in the country and at a distance from all intercourse with the world.
On the same year the middle of the forum is said to have fallen in to an immense depth, forming a sort of vast cave, either by reason of an earthquake, or some other violent cause; nor could that gulf be filled up by throwing earth into it, every one exerting himself to the utmost, until by the admonition of the gods an inquiry began to be instituted, as to what constituted the chief strength of the Roman people? for the soothsayers declare that must be devoted to that place, if they desired the Roman state to be perpetual. Then they tell us that Marcus Curtius, a youth distinguished in war, reproved them for hesitating, whether there was any greater Roman good than arms and valour. Silence being made, looking to the temples of the immortal gods, which command a view of the forum, and towards the Capitol, and extending his hands at one time towards heaven, at another towards the infernal gods, through the gaping aperture of the earth, he devoted himself: then, mounted on a horse accoutred in the most gorgeous style possible, he plunged in full armour into the opening, and offerings and the fruits of the earth were thrown in over him by the multitude of men and women, and the lake was called Curtian not from Curtius Mettus, the ancient soldier of Titus Tatius, but from this circumstance. If any way would lead one's inquiry to the truth, industry would not be wanting: now, when length of time precludes all certainty of evidence, we must stand by the rumour of tradition; and the name of the lake must be accounted for from this more recent story. After due attention being paid to so great a prodigy, the senate, during the same year, being consulted regarding the Hernicians, (after having sent heralds to demand restitution in vain,) voted, that a motion be submitted on the earliest day to the people on the subject of declaring war against the Hernicians, and the people, in full assembly, ordered it. That province fell by lot to the consul Lucius Genucius. The state was in anxious suspense, because he was the first plebeian consul that was about to conduct a war under his own auspices, being sure to judge of the good or bad policy of establishing a community of honours, according as the matter should turn out. Chance so arranged it[Pg 454] that Genucius, marching against the enemy with a considerable force, fell into an ambush; the legions being routed by reason of a sudden panic, the consul was slain after being surrounded by persons who knew not whom they had slain. When this news was brought to Rome, the patricians, by no means so grieved for the public disaster, as elated at the unsuccessful guidance of the plebeian consul, every where exclaim, "They might now go, and elect consuls from the commons, they might transfer the auspices where it was impious to do so. The patricians might by a vote of the people be driven from their own exclusive honour: whether had this inauspicious law availed also against the immortal gods? They had vindicated their authority, their auspices; which as soon as ever they were defiled by one by whom it was contrary to human and divine law that they should have been, the destruction of the army with its leader was a warning, that elections should hereafter be conducted in utter violation of the rights of birth." The senate-house and the forum resound with expressions such as these. Appius Claudius, because he had dissuaded the law, and now with greater authority blamed the issue of a measure which had been found fault with by himself, the consul Servilius appoints dictator by the general wish of the patricians, and a levy and cessation of business are procaimed.
Before the dictator and the new legions could arrive among the Hernicians, matters were conducted with great success under the direction of Caius Sulpicius the lieutenant-general, making use of a favourable opportunity. On the Hernicians, who after the death of the consul came up contemptuously to the Roman camp with the certainty of taking it, a sally was made by the exhortations of the consul, the minds of the soldiers also being full of rage and indignation. The Hernicians were much disappointed in their hopes of approaching the rampart; in such complete confusion did they retire from thence. Then on the arrival of the dictator the new army is joined to the old, the forces are doubled; and the dictator in a public assembly, by bestowing praises on the lieutenant-general and the soldiers by whose valour the camp had been defended, at the same time raises the spirits of those who heard their own deserved praises, and at the same time stimulates the others to rival such valour. With no less vigour[Pg 455] are the military preparations made on the part of the enemy, who, mindful of the honour previously acquired, and not ignorant that the enemy had increased their strength, augment their forces also. The entire Hernician race, all of military age, are called out. Eight cohorts, each consisting of four hundred men, the chosen strength of their people, are levied. This, the select flower of their youth, they filled with hope and courage by their having decreed that they should receive double pay. They were exempt also from military work, that, being reserved for the single labour of fighting, they might feel that they should make exertions more than are made by ordinary men. They are placed in an extraordinary position in the field, that their valour might be the more conspicuous. A plain two miles in breadth separated the Roman camp from the Hernicians; in the middle of this, the spaces being about equal on both sides, they came to an engagement. At first the fight was kept up with doubtful hope; the Roman cavalry having repeatedly essayed to no purpose to break the enemy's line by their charge. When their fighting as cavalry was less marked by success than by great efforts, the cavalry, having first consulted the dictator, and then obtained his permission, leaving their horses behind, rush forward in front of the line, with a loud shout, and recommence the battle after a new style; nor could they be resisted, had not the extraordinary cohorts, possessing equal vigour both of body and spirit, thrown themselves in their way.
Then the contest is carried on between the leading men of the two states. Whatever the common fortune of war carried off from either side, the loss was many times greater than can be estimated by the numbers: the rest, an armed populace, as if they had delegated the fight to the leading men, rest the issue of their own success on the bravery of others. Many fall on both sides; more are wounded. At length the horsemen, chiding each other, asking, "what now remained," if neither when mounted they had made an impression on the enemy, nor as infantry did they achieve any thing of moment; what third mode of fighting did they wait for? Why had they so fiercely rushed forward before the line, and fought in a post not belonging to them? Aroused by these mutual chidings, they raise the shout anew, and press forward; and[Pg 456] first they made the enemy shrink, then made them give way, and at length fairly made them turn their backs. Nor is it easy to say what circumstance obtained the advantage against strength so well matched; except that the constant fortune of both people might have raised or depressed their spirits. The Romans pursued the Hernicians in their flight to their camp; they refrained from attacking the camp, because it was late. The fact of not having finished the sacrifices with success detained the dictator, so that he could not give the signal before noon, and hence the contest was protracted till night. Next day the camp of the Hernicians was deserted, and some wounded men were found left behind, and the main body of the fugitives was routed by the Signians, as their standards were seen passing by their walls but thinly attended, and dispersed over the country in precipitate flight. Nor was the victory an unbloody one to the Romans; a fourth part of the soldiers perished; and, where there was no less of loss, several Roman horsemen fell.
On the following year, when the consuls Caius Sulpicius and Caius Licinius Calvus led an army against the Hernicians, and finding no enemy in the country took their city Ferentinum by storm, as they were returning thence, the Tiburtians shut their gates against them. Though many complaints had been made on both sides before this, this was the determining cause why war was declared against the Tiburtian people, restitution having been demanded through heralds. It is sufficiently ascertained that Titus Quinctius Pennus was dictator that year, and that Servius Cornelius Maluginensis was his master of the horse. Macer Licinius writes, that he was named by the consul for the purpose of holding the elections, because his colleague hastening to have the elections over before undertaking the war, that he might continue the consulship, he thought it right to thwart his ambitious designs. This being designed as a compliment to his own family, renders the authority of Licinius of the less weight. As I find no mention of that circumstance in the more ancient annals, my mind inclines me to consider that the dictator was appointed on account of the Gallic war. On that year, certainly, the Gauls pitched their camp at the third stone on the Salarian road, at the further side of the bridge of the Anio. The dictator, after he had proclaimed a cessation of civil business on[Pg 457] account of the Gallic tumult, bound all the younger citizens by the military oath; and having set forth from the city with a great army, pitched his camp on the hither bank of the Anio. The bridge lay between both armies, neither side attempting to break it down, lest it should be an indication of fear. There were frequent skirmishes for the possession of the bridge; nor could it be clearly determined who were masters of it, the superiority being so indecisive. A Gaul of very large stature advanced on the bridge, then unoccupied, and says with as loud a voice as he could exert, "Let the bravest man that Rome now possesses come forward here to battle, that the event of an engagement between us both may show which nation is superior in war."
There was for a long time silence among the young Roman nobility, as they were both ashamed to decline the contest, and unwilling to claim the principal post of danger. Then Titus Manlius, son of Lucius, the same who had freed his father from the vexatious persecution of the tribune, proceeds from his station to the dictator: "Without your commands, general, I would never fight out of the ordinary course, not though I should see certain victory before me. If you permit me, I wish to show that brute, who insolently makes such a parade before the enemy's line, that I am sprung from that family which dislodged a body of Gauls from the Tarpeian rock." Then the dictator says, "Titus Manlius, may you prosper for your valour and dutiful affection to your father and your country. Go on, and make good the invincibility of the Roman name with the aid of the gods." His companions then arm the youth; he takes a footman's shield, girds himself with a Spanish sword, fit for a close fight. When armed and equipped, they lead him out against the Gaul, who exhibited stolid exultation, and (for the ancients thought that also worthy of mention) thrust out his tongue in derision. They then retire to their station; and the two being armed, are left in the middle space, more after the manner of a spectacle, than according to the law of combat, by no means well matched, according to those who judged by sight and appearance. The one had a body enormous in size, glittering in a vest of various colours, and in armour painted and inlaid with gold; the other had a middle stature, as is seen among soldiers, and a mien unostentatious, in arms fit[Pg 458] for ready use rather than adapted for show. He had no song, no capering, nor idle flourishing of arms, but his breast, teeming with courage and silent rage, had reserved all its ferocity for the decision of the contest. When they took their stand between the two armies, the minds of so many individuals around them suspended between hope and fear, the Gaul, like a huge mass threatening to fall on that which was beneath it, stretching forward his shield with his left hand, discharged an ineffectual cut of his sword with a great noise on the armour of his foe as he advanced towards him. The Roman, raising the point of his sword, after he had pushed aside the lower part of the enemy's shield with his own, and closing on him so as to be exempt from the danger of a wound, insinuated himself with his entire body between the body and arms of the foe, with one and immediately with another thrust pierced his belly and groin, and stretched his enemy now prostrate over a vast extent of ground. Without offering the body of the prostrate foe any other indignity, he despoiled it of one chain; which, though smeared with blood, he threw around his neck. Dismay with astonishment now held the Gauls motionless. The Romans, elated with joy, advancing from their post to meet their champion, with congratulations and praises conduct him to the dictator. Among them uttering some uncouth jests in military fashion somewhat resembling verses, the name of Torquatus was heard: this name, being kept up, became afterwards an honour to the descendants even of the family. The dictator added a present of a golden crown, and before a public assembly extolled that action with the highest praises.
And, indeed, of so great moment was the contest with respect to the issue of the war in general, that on the night following the army of the Gauls, having abandoned their camp in confusion, passed over into the territory of Tibur, and from thence soon after into Campania, having concluded an alliance for the purpose of war, and being abundantly supplied with provision by the Tiburtians. That was the reason why, on the next year, Caius Pætelius Balbus, consul, though the province of the Hernicians had fallen to the lot of his colleague, Marcus Fabius Ambustus, led an army, by order of the people, against the Tiburtians. To whose assistance when the Gauls came back from Campania, dreadful devastations were com[Pg 459]mitted in the Lavican, Tusculan, and Alban territories. And though the state was satisfied with a consul as leader against the Tiburtian enemy, the alarm created by the Gauls rendered it necessary that a dictator should be appointed. Quintus Servilius Ahala having been appointed, named Titus Quinctius master of the horse; and with the sanction of the senate, vowed the great games, should that war turn out successfully. The dictator then, having ordered the consular army to remain to confine the Tiburtians to their own war, bound all the younger citizens by the military oath, none declining the service. A battle was fought not far from the Colline gate with the strength of the entire city, in the sight of their parents, wives, and children: which being great incitements to courage, even when these relatives are absent, being now placed before their eyes, fired the soldiers at once with feelings of shame and compassion. Great havoc being made on both sides, the Gallic army is at length worsted. In their flight they make for Tibur, as being the main stay of the war; and being intercepted whilst straggling by the consul Pætelius not far from Tibur, and the Tiburtians having come out to bring them aid, they are with the latter driven within the gates. Matters were managed with distinguished success both by the dictator and the consul. And the other consul, Fabius, at first in slight skirmishes, and at length in one single battle, defeated the Hernicians, when they attacked him with all their forces. The dictator, after passing the highest encomiums on the consuls in the senate and before the people, and yielding up the honour of his own exploits to them, resigned his dictatorship. Pætelius enjoyed a double triumph, over the Gauls and the Tiburtians. Fabius was satisfied with entering the city in ovation. The Tiburtians derided the triumph of Pætelius; "for where," they said, "had he encountered them in the field? that a few of their people having gone outside the gates to witness the flight and confusion of the Gauls, on seeing an attack made on themselves, and that those who came in the way were slaughtered without distinction, had retired within the city. Did that seem to the Romans worthy of a triumph? They should not consider it an extraordinary and wondrous feat to raise a tumult at the enemy's gates, as they should soon see greater confusion before their own walls."
Accordingly in the year following, Marcus Popilius[Pg 460] Lænas and Cneius Manlius being consuls, during the first silence of the night having set out from Tibur with an army prepared for action, they came to the city of Rome. The suddenness of the thing, and the panic occurring at night, occasioned some terror among them on being suddenly aroused from sleep; further, the ignorance of many as to who the enemy were or whence they had come. However they quickly ran to arms, and guards were posted at the gates, and the walls were secured with troops; and when daylight showed but an inconsiderable force before the walls, and that the enemy were none other than the Tiburtines, the consuls, having gone forth from the two gates, attack on either side the army of these now advancing up to the walls; and it became obvious that they had come relying rather on the opportunity than on their valour, for they hardly sustained the first charge of the Romans. Nay more, it was evident that their coming proved an advantage to the Romans, and that a disturbance just arising between the patricians and commons was checked by the dread of a war so near them. In the next war there was another irruption of the enemy, more terrible to the country than to the city. The Tarquinians overran the Roman frontiers, committing depredations on that side more especially where they are contiguous to Etruria; and restitution being demanded in vain, the new consuls, Cneius Fabius and Caius Plautius, proclaimed war on them by order of the people; and that province fell to the lot of Fabius, the Hernicians to Plautius. A rumour of a Gallic war also was gaining ground. But amid their many terrors, they had some consolation from a peace granted to the Latins at their own request, as also from a considerable reinforcement of soldiers received from them in conformity with an old treaty, which, they had for several years ceased to observe. When the Roman cause was supported by this aid, the tidings that the Gauls had come to Præneste and were encamped near to Pedum, were less heeded. It was determined that Caius Sulpicius should be appointed dictator. Caius Plautius the consul, being sent for for the purpose, nominated him; Marcus Valerius was assigned as master of the horse to the dictator. These having selected the best of the soldiers out of the two consular armies, led them against the Gauls. This war was more tedious than was satisfactory to either party. When at[Pg 461] first the Gauls only were desirous of fighting, afterwards the Roman soldiers considerably surpassed the ferocity of the Gauls in their ardour for arms and battle; it by no means met the approbation of the dictator when no urgent necessity existed to run any hazard against an enemy, whose strength time and inconvenient situation would daily impair, in total inactivity, without provisions previously laid up or any fortified situation; besides, being persons of such minds and bodies, that all their force lay in brisk exertion, whilst the same flagged by short delay. On these considerations the dictator protracted the war, and denounced a severe penalty against any one who should fight against the enemy without orders. The soldiers, being much dissatisfied with this, first censured the dictator, in their conversation, when on guard and on the watches; sometimes they found fault with the patricians in general, for not having commanded the war to be conducted by the consuls. "That an excellent general, an extraordinary commander, had been selected, who thinks that whilst he does nothing victory will fly down from heaven into his lap." Afterwards they gave expression to these same sentiments openly during the day, and to others still more outrageous; that "they would either fight without the general's orders, or would proceed in a body to Rome." The centurions, too, began to mix with the soldiers; and they murmured not only in their own quarters, but now their observations began to be confounded together at head-quarters and at the general's tent, and the crowd increased to the magnitude of an assembly, and they now shouted from all quarters that "they should go forthwith to the dictator; that Sextus Tullius should speak in behalf of the army, so as became his courage."
Tullius was now for the seventh time first centurion of a legion, nor was there in the army, at least among those who served in the infantry, a man more distinguished by his conduct. He, at the head of a body of the soldiers, proceeds to the tribunal, and to Sulpicius, not more surprised at the crowd than at Tullius, the leader of the crowd, a soldier most obedient to command, he says: "Dictator, the whole army, conceiving that they have been condemned by you of cowardice, and kept without their arms by way of disgrace, has entreated me to plead their cause before you. In truth, if having deserted our post any where, if turning our backs to the enemy,[Pg 462] if the disgraceful loss of our standards could be laid to our charge, I would still think it but just that we should obtain this from you, that you would suffer us to redeem our fault by our bravery, and to blot out the memory of our disgrace by newly acquired glory. Even the legions defeated at the Allia, when they afterwards set out from Veii, recovered by their valour the same country which they had lost through a panic. We, by the bounty of the gods, your good fortune, and that of the Roman people, have both our cause and our glory uninjured. Though of glory I would scarcely venture to say any thing; since both the enemy scoff at us with every kind of insult, as women hiding ourselves behind a rampart; and you, our general, what we grieve at still more, judge your army to be without spirit, without arms, without hands; and before you had made trial of us, you have so despaired of us, as to consider yourself to be the leader of a set of maimed and disabled men. For what else shall we believe to be the reason why you, a veteran general, most valiant in war, sit down with hands folded, as they say. But however it may be, it is fitter that you should seem to doubt of our courage than we of yours. If however this plan of proceeding be not your own, but a public one, if some concerted scheme of the patricians, and not the Gallic war, keeps us exiled from the city, from our homes, I beg that you consider what I may say here, as addressed not by soldiers to their general, but to the patricians by the commons, who tell you that as ye have your separate plans, so will they have theirs. Who in the name of goodness can be angry that we (consider ourselves) your soldiers, not your slaves? as men who have been sent to war, not into exile? as men who, if any one give the signal, and lead them out into the field, will fight as becomes men and Romans? as men who, if there be no need of arms, would spend their idle time in Rome rather than in a camp? Consider these observations as addressed to the patricians. As your soldiers, we entreat you, general, to afford us an opportunity of fighting. We both desire to conquer, and also to conquer with you for our leader; to confer on you the distinguished laurel, with you to enter the city in triumph; following your car with congratulations and rejoicings, to approach the temple of Jupiter supremely great and good." The entreaties of the multitude followed the speech of Tullius; and from every[Pg 463] side they cried out, that he would give the signal, that he would order them to take arms.
The dictator, though he saw that a good result was brought about by a precedent not to be approved of, yet took on himself to do what the soldiers wished, and inquires of Tullius privately, what the nature of this transaction was, or on what precedent it was done? Tullius earnestly entreated the dictator "not to believe him forgetful of military discipline, of himself, nor of the respect due to his general; that he had not declined to put himself at the head of the excited multitude, who generally were like to their instigators, lest any other person might step forward, such an excited multitude were wont to elect. That for his own part he would do nothing without the orders of his general; that he also however must carefully see, that he keep the army in obedience. That minds so excited could not be put off: that they would choose for themselves time and place, if they were not granted by the general." While they are conversing in this way, it so happened, that as a Gaul was driving away some cattle feeding on the outside of the rampart two Roman soldiers took them from him. Stones were thrown at them by the Gauls, then a shout was raised at the next Roman post, and several ran forward on both sides. And now matters were not far from a regular engagement, had not the contest been quickly stopped by the centurions. By this event the testimony of Tullius was certainly confirmed with the dictator; and the matter not admitting of further delay, a proclamation is issued that they were to fight on the day following. The dictator however, as one who went into the field relying more on the courage of his men than on their numerical strength, began to look about and consider how he might by some artifice strike terror into the enemy. With a sagacious mind he devises a new project, which many generals both of our own and of foreign countries have since adopted, some indeed in our own times. He orders the panniers to be taken from the mules, and two side-cloths only being left, he mounts the muleteers on them, equipped with arms partly belonging to the prisoners, and some to the sick. About a thousand of these being equipped, he mixes with them one hundred horsemen, and orders them to go up during the night into the mountains over the camp and to conceal[Pg 464] themselves in the woods, and not to stir from thence, till they should receive a signal from him. As soon as day dawned, he himself began to extend his line along the bottom of the mountain, for the express purpose that the enemy should face the mountains. The measures for infusing groundless terror being now completed, which terror indeed proved almost more serviceable than real strength, the leaders of the Gauls first believed that the Romans would not come down to the plain: then when they saw them begin on a sudden to descend, they also, on their part eager for the fight, rush forward to the encounter; and the battle commenced before the signal could be given by the leaders.
The Gauls attacked the right wing with greater fierceness, nor could they have been withstood, had not the dictator happened to be on the spot, rebuking Sextus Tullius by name, and asking him, "Was it in this way he had engaged that the soldiers would fight? Where now were the shouts of those demanding their arms? where the threats that they would commence the fight without the orders of their general? Behold the general himself calling them with a loud voice to battle, and advancing in arms before the front of the line. Would any of those now follow him, who were just now to have led the way; fierce in the camp, but cowards in the field?" What they heard was all true; wherefore shame applied such strong incentives, that they rushed upon the weapons of the enemy, their attention being turned away from the thought of danger. This onset, which was almost frantic at first, threw the enemy into disorder; then the cavalry charging them whilst thus disordered, made them turn their backs. The dictator himself, when he saw their line wavering in one direction, carries round some troops to the left wing, where he saw a crowd of the enemy collected, and gave to those who were on the mountain the signal which had been agreed on. When a new shout arose from that quarter also, and they seemed to make their way in an oblique direction, down the mountain to the camp of the Gauls; then through fear lest they should be cut off from it, the fight was given up, and they were carried towards the camp with precipitate speed. Where when Marcus Valerius, master of the horse, who, after having routed their left wing, was riding towards the enemies' entrenchment, met them, they turn their flight to the mountains and woods: and[Pg 465] the greater part of them were there intercepted by the fallacious show of horsemen, and the muleteers, and of those whom panic had carried into the woods, a dreadful slaughter took place after the battle was ended. Nor did any one since Camillus obtain a more complete triumph over the Gauls than Caius Sulpicius. A considerable weight of gold taken from the Gallic spoils, which he enclosed in hewn stone, he consecrated in the Capitol. The same year the consuls also were engaged in fighting with various success. For the Hernicians were vanquished and subdued by Cneius Plautius. His colleague Fabius fought against the Tarquinians without caution or prudence; nor was the loss sustained in the field so much [a subject of regret] as that the Tarquinians put to death three hundred and seven Roman soldiers, their prisoners, by which barbarous mode of punishment the disgrace of the Roman people was rendered considerably more remarkable. To this disaster moreover was added, the laying waste of the Roman territory, which the Privernatians, and afterwards the people of Velitræ, committed by a sudden incursion. The same year two tribes, the Pomptine and Publilian, were added. The votive games, which Marcus Furius in his dictatorship had vowed, were performed; and a proposition was then for the first time made to the people regarding bribery at elections by Caius Pætilius, tribune of the commons, with the approbation of the senate; and by that bill they thought that the ambition of new men in particular, who had been accustomed to go around the markets and places of meeting, was checked.
Not equally pleasing to the patricians on the following year was a law passed in the consulship of Caius Marcius and Cneius Manlius, by Marcus Duilius and Lucius Mænius, tribunes of the commons, regarding the interest of money at twelve per cent., and the people received and passed it with much more eagerness. In addition to the new wars determined on the preceding year, a new enemy arose in the Faliscians, in consequence of a double charge; both that their youth had taken up arms in conjunction with the Tarquinians, and because they had refused to restore to the demand of the Roman heralds those who had fled to Falerii, after the unsuccessful battle. That province fell to the lot of Cneius Manlius, Marcius led the army into the Privernatian territory, which, from the long continuance of peace, was in a flourishing[Pg 466] condition; and he enriched the soldiers with abundance of spoil. To the great quantity of effects he added an act of munificence; for, by setting aside nothing for public use, he favoured the soldier in his endeavours to accumulate private property. When the Privernatians had taken their post in a well-fortified camp under their own walls, having summoned the soldiers to an assembly, he says to them, "I now give to you the camp and city of the enemy for plunder, if you promise me that you will exert yourselves bravely in the field, and that you are not better prepared for plunder than for fighting." With loud shouts they call for the signal, and elated and buoyed up with certain confidence, they proceed to the battle. Then, in front of the line, Sextus Tullius, whom we have already mentioned, exclaims, "Behold, general," says he, "how your army are performing their promises to you;" and laying aside his javelin, he attacks the enemy sword in hand. The whole van follow Tullius, and at the first onset put the enemy to flight; then pursuing them, when routed, to the town, when they were just applying the scaling ladders to the walls, they received the city on a surrender. A triumph was had over the Privernatians. Nothing worth mentioning was achieved by the other consul, except that he, by an unusual precedent, holding an assembly of the tribes in the camp at Sutrium, he passed a law regarding the twentieth part of the value of those set free by manumission. As by this law no small revenue was added to the treasury, now low, the senate gave it their sanction. But the tribunes of the commons, influenced not so much by the law as by the precedent, passed a law, making it a capital offence for any one in future to summon an assembly of the people at a distance from the city; for if that were allowed, there was nothing, no matter how destructive to the people, that might not he done by soldiers, who had sworn allegiance to their consul. The same year Caius Licinius Stolo was condemned in a fine of ten thousand asses, on his own law, by Marcus Popillius Lænas, because he possessed in conjunction with his son a thousand acres of land, and because he had attempted to evade the law by emancipating his son.
The next two consuls, Marcus Fabius Ambustus a second time, and Marcus Popillius Lænas a second time, had two wars on their hands. The one with the Tiburtians was easy,[Pg 467] which Licinius managed, who drove the enemy into their city, and laid waste their lands. The Faliscians and Tarquinians routed the other consul in the commencement of the fight. From these parties the utmost terror was raised, in consequence of their priests, who, by carrying before them lighted torches and the figures of serpents, and advancing with the gait of furies, disconcerted the Roman soldiers by their extraordinary appearance; and then indeed they ran back to their entrenchments, in all the hurry of trepidation, as if frenzied or thunderstruck; and then when the consul, and lieutenant-generals, and tribunes began to ridicule and chide them for being frightened like children at mere sights, shame suddenly changed their minds; and they rushed, as if blindfold, on those very objects from which they had fled. Having, therefore, dissipated the idle contrivance of the enemy, having attacked those who were in arms, they drove their whole line before them, and having got possession of the camp also on that day, and obtained great booty, they returned victorious, uttering military jests, both on the stratagem of the enemy as also on their own panic. Then the whole Etruscan nation is aroused, and under the conduct of the Tarquinians and Faliscians, they come to Salinæ. To meet this alarm, Caius Marcius Rutilus, being appointed dictator, the first plebeian who was so, named Caius Plautius, also a plebeian, master of the horse. This was deemed an indignity by the patricians, that the dictatorship also was now become common, and with all their exertions they prevented any thing from either being decreed or prepared for the dictator, for the prosecution of that war. With the more promptitude, on that account, did the people order things, as proposed by the dictator. Having set out from the city, along both sides of the Tiber, and transporting his army on rafts whithersoever his intelligence of the enemy led him, he surprised many of them straggling about in scattered parties, laying waste the lands. Moreover, he suddenly attacked their camp and took it; and eight thousand of the enemy being made prisoners, all the rest being either slain or driven out of the Roman territory, he triumphed by order of the people, without the sanction of the senate. Because they neither wished that the consular elections should be held by a plebeian dictator or consul, and the other consul, Fabius, was detained by the war, matters came to an interregnum. There[Pg 468] were then interreges in succession, Quintus Servilius Ahala, Marcus Fabius, Cneius Manlius, Caius Fabius, Caius Sulpicius, Lucius Æmilius, Quintus Servilius, Marcus Fabius Ambustas. In the second interregnum a dispute arose, because two patrician consuls were elected: and the tribunes protesting, Fabius the interrex said, that "it was a law in the twelve tables, that whatever the people ordered last should be law and in force; that the suffrages of the people were their orders." When the tribunes by their protest had been able to effect nothing else than to put off the elections, two patricians were chosen consuls, Caius Sulpicius Peticus a third time, Marcus Valerius Publicola; and on the same day they entered into office.
On the four hundredth year after the building of the city of Rome, and the thirty-fifth after its recovery from the Gauls, the consulship being taken away from the commons after eleven years, consuls, both patricians, entered into office after the interregnum, Caius Sulpicius Peticus a third time, and Marcus Valerius Publicola. During this year Empulum was taken from the Tiburtians with a struggle not worth mentioning; whether the war was waged there under the auspices of the two consuls, as some have stated; or whether the lands of the Tarquinians were laid waste by the consul Sulpicius about the same time that Valerius led the troops against the Tiburtians. The consuls had a more arduous contest at home with the commons and tribunes. As two patricians had received the consulship, they considered that not only their resolution, but their honour also, was involved in their consigning it to two patricians. For if the consulship were made a plebeian magistracy, they must either yield it up entirely, or possess it entire, which possession they had received from their fathers unimpaired. The commons on the other hand loudly remonstrate; "Why did they live; why were they reckoned in the number of citizens; if they collectively cannot maintain that which was acquired by the firmness of two men, Lucius Sextius and Caius Licinius? That either kings, or decemvirs, or, if there be any denomination of power more offensive, would be submitted to rather than see both the consuls patricians, or rather than not obey and rule in turn; but the one half, located in perpetual power, thinks the commons born for no other purpose than to be subservient." The tribunes are not[Pg 469] remiss in encouraging the disturbances; but amid the excited state of all scarcely any are distinguished as leaders. When they had several times gone down to the Campus Martius to no purpose, and when many days of meeting had been spent in seditious movements; at length the resentment of the commons, overcome by the perseverance of the consuls, broke out to such a degree, that the commons followed in sorrow the tribunes, exclaiming, that there was an end of liberty; that not only the Campus should be relinquished, but the city also as being held captive and oppressed by the tyranny of the patricians. The consuls, deserted by a part of the people, finish the election nevertheless with the small number [who attended]. Both the consuls elected were patricians, Marcus Fabius Ambustus a third time, Titus Quinctius. In some annals I find Marcus Popilius mentioned as consul instead of Titus Quinctius.
Two wars were conducted with success on that year: and they forced the Tiburtians by force of arms to a surrender. The city of Sassula was taken from them; and the other towns would have shared the same fate, had not the entire nation laid down their arms, and put themselves under the protection of the consul. A triumph was obtained by him over the Tiburtians: in other respects the victory was a mild one. Rigorous severity was practised against the Tarquinians. A great many being slaughtered in the field, out of a great number of prisoners three hundred and fifty-eight were selected, all of the highest rank, to be sent to Rome; the rest of the multitude were put to the sword. Nor were the people more merciful towards those who had been sent to Rome. They were all beaten with rods and beheaded in the middle of the forum. That was the punishment retaliated on the enemy for their butchering the Romans in the forum of Tarquinii. The successes in war induced the Samnites to seek their friendship. A courteous answer was returned to their ambassadors by the senate: they were received into an alliance by a treaty. The Roman commons had not the same success at home as in war. For though the burden of interest money had been relieved by fixing the rate at one to the hundred, the poor were overwhelmed by the principal alone, and submitted to confinement. On this account, the commons took little heed either of the two consuls being patricians, or the management of the elections, by reason of their private[Pg 470] distresses. Both consulships therefore remained with the patricians. The consuls appointed were Caius Sulpicius Pæticus a fourth time, Marcus Valerius Publicola a second time. Whilst the state was occupied with the Etrurian war, [entered into] because a report prevailed that the people of Cære had joined the Tarquinians through compassion for them from their relationship, ambassadors from the Latins drew their attention to the Volscians, bringing tidings that an army enlisted and fully armed was now on the point of attacking their frontiers; from thence that they were to enter the Roman territory in order to commit depredations. The senate therefore determined that neither affair should be neglected; they ordered that troops should be raised for both purposes, and that the consuls should cast lots for the provinces. The greater share of their anxiety afterwards inclined to the Etrurian war; after it was ascertained, from a letter of the consul Sulpicius, to whom the province of Tarquinii had fallen, that the land around the Roman Salinæ had been depopulated, and that part of the plunder had been carried away into the country of the people of Cære, and that the young men of that people were certainly among the depredators. The senate therefore, having recalled the consul Valerius, who was opposed to the Volscians, and who had his camp on the frontiers of Tusculum, ordered him to nominate a dictator. He nominated Titus Manlius, son of Lucius. He, after he had appointed Aulus Cornelius Cossus his master of the horse, content with the consular army, declared war against the Cæritians by order of the people, with the sanction of the senate.
Then for the first time were the Cæritians seized with a real dread of war, as if there was greater power in the words of the enemy to indicate war than in their own acts, who had provoked the Romans by devastation; and they perceived how ill suited the contest was to their strength. They repented of their depredations, and cursed the Tarquinians as the instigators of the revolt. Nor did any one think of preparing arms and hostilities; but each strenuously urged the necessity of sending ambassadors to sue for pardon for their error. When their ambassadors applied to the senate, being referred by the senate to the people, they implored the gods, whose sacred utensils they had received in the Gallic war and[Pg 471] treated with all due ceremony, that the same compassion for them might influence the Romans now in a flourishing condition, which had formerly influenced themselves when the state of the Roman people was distressed; and turning to the temple of Vesta, they invoked the bonds of hospitality subsisting [between themselves] and the flamens and vestals entered into by them with holy and religious zeal: "Would any one believe that persons, who possessed such merits, had suddenly become enemies without cause? or if they had committed any act in a hostile manner, that they had, through design rather than under the influence of error from frenzy, so acted, as to cancel their former acts of kindness by recent injuries, more especially when conferred on persons so grateful, and that they would choose to themselves as enemies the Roman people, now in the most flourishing state and most successful in war, whose friendship they had cultivated when they were distressed? That they should not call it design, which should rather be called force and necessity. That the Tarquinians, passing through their territory with a hostile army, after they had asked for nothing but a passage, forced with them some of their peasants, to accompany them in that depredation, which was charged on them as a crime. That they were prepared to deliver them up, if it pleased them that they should be delivered up; or that they should be subjected to punishment, if [they desired] that they should be punished. That Cære, the sanctuary of the Roman people, the harbourer of its priests, the receptacle of the sacred utensils of Rome, they should suffer to escape, in regard to the ties of hospitality contracted with the vestals, and in regard to the religious devotion paid to their gods, intact and unstained with the charge of hostilities committed." The people were influenced not so much by [the merits of] the present case, as by their former deserts, so as to be unmindful rather of the injury than of the kindness. Peace was therefore granted to the people of Cære, and it was resolved that the making of a truce for one hundred years should be referred to a decree of the senate. Against the Faliscians, implicated in the same charge, the force of the war was turned; but the enemy was no where found. Though their territories were visited in all directions with devastation, they refrained from besieging the towns; and the legions being brought back to[Pg 472] Rome, the remainder of the year was spent in repairing the walls and the towers, and the temple of Apollo was dedicated.
At the close of the year a dispute between the patricians and commons suspended the consular elections, the tribunes refusing to allow the elections to be held, unless they were held conformably to the Licinian law; the dictator being determined to do away with the consulate altogether from the state, rather than to make it common to the patricians and the commons. Accordingly when, the elections being repeatedly adjourned, the dictator resigned his office, matters came to an interregnum. Upon this, when the interreges found the commons incensed against the fathers, the contest was carried on by various disturbances to the eleventh interrex. The tribunes held out as their plea, the protection of the Licinian law. The people had the painful sense of the increasing weight of interest nearer to their hearts; and their private troubles became predominant amid the public contests. Through the wearisome effects of which the patricians ordered Lucius Cornelius Scipio, the interrex, for peace' sake to observe the Licinian law in the election of consuls. To Publius Valerius Publicola, Caius Marcius Rutilus, a plebeian, was assigned as a colleague. Once their minds were disposed to concord, the new consuls, setting about to relieve the affair of the interest money also, which seemed to prevent perfect unanimity, made the payment of the debts a matter of public concern, five commissioners having been appointed, whom from their management of the money they called bankers. By their justice and diligence they deserved to have their names signalized by the records of every history. They were Caius Duilius, Publius Decius Mus, Marcus Papirius, Quintus Publilius, and Titus Æmilius; who underwent a task most difficult to be managed, and dissatisfactory in general to both parties, certainly always so to one, both with moderation in other respects, as well as at the public expense, rather than with any loss [to the creditors]. For the tardy debts and those which were more troublesome, rather by the inertness of the debtors than by want of means, either the treasury paid off, tables with money being placed in the forum, in such a manner that the public was first secured; or a valuation, at equitable prices, of their property freed them; so that not only without injury, but even without com[Pg 473]plaints on either side, an immense amount of debt was cleared off. After this a groundless alarm of an Etrurian war, as there was a report that the twelve states had conspired, rendered it necessary that a dictator should be appointed. Caius Julius was nominated in the camp, (for the decree of the senate was sent thither to the consuls,) to whom Lucius Æmilius was attached as master of the horse. But all things were quiet abroad.
An attempt made at home by the dictator, to have the election of two patrician consuls, brought the government to an interregnum. The two interreges, Caius Sulpicius and Marcus Fabius, succeeded in that which the dictator had in vain attempted, scil. in having both the consuls elected from the patricians, the people being rather more appeased in consequence of the service done them in lightening their debts. The persons elected were, Caius Sulpicius Peticus himself, who first resigned the office of interrex, and Titus Quinctius Pennus. Some attach the name of Kæso, others that of Caius to Quinctius. They both set out to the war, Quinctius to the Faliscian, Sulpicius to the Tarquinian; and the enemy no where meeting them in the field, they waged war more against the lands than the men, by burning and laying waste every thing, by the debilitating effects of which, as of a slow consumption, the pertinacity of both states was so broken, that they solicited a truce, first from the consuls, then through their permission from the senate. They obtained a truce for forty years. Thus the concern regarding the two wars which were hanging over them being laid aside, whilst there was some repose from arms, it was determined that a census should be instituted, because the payment of the debt had changed the owners of much property. But when the assembly was proclaimed for the appointment of censors, Caius Marcius Rutilus, who had been the first plebeian dictator, having declared himself a candidate for the censorship, disturbed the harmony of the different orders. This step he seemed to have taken at an unseasonable time; because both the consuls then happened to be patricians, who declared that they would take no account of him. But he both succeeded in his undertaking by his own perseverance, and the tribunes aided him by recovering a right lost in the election of the consuls; and both the worth of the man brought him to the[Pg 474] level of the highest honour, and also the commons were anxious that the censorship also should be brought within their participation through the medium of the same person who had opened a way to the dictatorship. Nor was any dissent [from this feeling] evinced at the election, so that Marcius was elected censor along with Cneius Manlius. This year also had Marcus Fabius as dictator, not by reason of any terror of war, but in order that the Licinian law should not be observed at the consular elections. Quintus Servilius was attached to the dictator as master of the horse. Nor yet did the dictatorship render that combination of the senators more effectual at the consular elections, than it had proved at that of the censors.
Marcus Popillius Lænas was chosen consul on the part of the commons, Lucius Cornelius Scipio on that of the patricians. Fortune even rendered the plebeian consul more distinguished; for when news was brought that a vast army of the Gauls had pitched their camp in the Latin territory, Scipio being attacked with a serious fit of illness, the Gallic war was intrusted out of course to Popillius. He having raised an army with great energy, after he had ordered the younger citizens to assemble in arms outside the Capuan gate, and the quæstors to carry the standards from the treasury to the same place, having completed four legions, he gave the surplus of the men to the prætor Publius Valerius Publicola, recommending to the senate to raise another army, which might be a reserve to the state against the sudden contingencies of war. He himself, after sufficiently preparing and arranging every thing, proceeds towards the enemy; and in order to ascertain their strength before he should hazard a decisive action, he commenced drawing an intrenchment on a hill, the nearest he could select to the camp of the Gauls. They being a fierce race and of an eager turn for fighting, when, on descrying the standards of the Romans at a distance, they drew out their forces, as expecting to commence the battle forthwith, when they perceived that neither the opposite army descended into the plain, and that the Romans were protected both by the height of the ground and also by the entrenchments, supposing that they were dismayed with fear, and also more exposed to attack, because they were intent on the work, they advance with a furious shout. On the side of[Pg 475] the Romans neither the works were interrupted, (it was the triarii who were employed at them,) but the battle was commenced by the hastati and the principes, who stood in front of the workmen armed and prepared for the fight. Besides their own valour, the higher ground aided them, so that all the spears and javelins did not fall ineffectual, as when thrown on the same level, (as is generally the case,) but being steadied by their own weight they took effect; and the Gauls weighed down by the weapons, with which they had their bodies transfixed, or their shields rendered too cumbrous by those sticking in them. When they advanced almost up the steep at a run, becoming irresolute, they at first halted; then when the very delay shook the courage of the one party, and raised that of the enemy, being then pushed backwards they fell one upon the other, and produced a carnage among themselves more shocking than the carnage [caused by the enemy]. For more were crushed by the precipitate rout, than there were slain by the sword.
Nor as yet was the victory decided in favour of the Romans; another difficulty still was remaining for them after they had descended into the plain; for the great numbers of the Gauls being such as to prevent all feeling of such a disaster, raised up fresh troops against the victorious enemy, as if a new army rose up once more. And the Romans stood still, suppressing their ardour; both because the struggle had to be undergone a second time by them wearied as they were, and the consul, having his left arm well nigh transfixed with a javelin, whilst he exposed himself incautiously in the van, had retired for a short time from the field. And now, by the delay, the victory was on the point of being relinquished, when the consul, having had his wound tied up, riding back to the van, cries out, "Soldiers, why do you stand? You have not to do with a Latin or Sabine enemy, whom, when you have vanquished by your arms, from an enemy you may make an ally; against brutes we have drawn our swords. Their blood must be drawn or ours given to them. You have repulsed them from your camp, you have driven them headlong down the valley, you stand on the prostrated bodies of your foes. Fill the plains with the same carnage as you have filled the mountains; do not wait till they fly, you standing still; your standards must be advanced, you[Pg 476] must proceed against the enemy." Roused again by these exhortations, they drive back from their ground the foremost companies of the Gauls, and by forming wedges, they break through the centre of their body. By these means, the enemy being disunited, as being now without regular command, or subordination of officers, they turn their violence against their own; and being dispersed through the plains, and carried beyond their own camp in their precipitate flight, they make for the citadel of Alba, which met their eyes as the most elevated among hills of equal altitude. The consul, not pursuing them beyond the camp, because the wound weakened him, and he was unwilling to expose his wearied army to hills occupied by the enemy, bestowed the entire plunder of the camp on the soldiers, and led back his army, victorious and enriched with the Gallic spoils, to Rome. The consul's wound occasioned a delay of the triumph, and the same cause made the senate wish for a dictator, that there might be some one who, the consuls being both sick, should hold the elections. Lucius Furius Camillus being nominated dictator, Publius Cornelius Scipio being attached as master of the horse, restored to the patricians their former possession of the consulship. He himself being, for that service, elected consul, had Appius Claudius Crassus named as his colleague.
Before the new consuls entered on their office, a triumph was celebrated by Popillius over the Gauls amid the great applause of the commons; and they, in a low voice, frequently asked one another, whether any one was dissatisfied with a plebeian consul. At the same time they found fault with the dictator, who had obtained the consulship as a bribe for having infringed the Licinian law, more dishonourable for the private ambition [evinced] thereby than for the injury inflicted on the public, so that, when dictator, he might have himself appointed consul. The year was remarkable for many and various commotions. The Gauls [descending] from the Alban mountains, because they were unable to endure the severity of the winter, straggling through the plains and the parts adjoining the sea, committed devastations. The sea was infested by fleets of the Greeks; and the borders of the Antian shore, and the mouth of the Tiber; so that the maritime plunderers, encountering those on land, fought on one occasion an obstinate fight, and separated, the Gauls to their camp, the Greeks back to their[Pg 477] ships, doubting whether they should consider themselves as vanquished or victors. Among these the greatest alarm arose at the circumstance, that assemblies of the Latin states were held at the grove of Ferentina; and an unequivocal answer was given to the Romans on their ordering soldiers from them, "that they should cease to issue their orders to those of whose assistance they stood in need: that the Latins would take up arms in defence of their own liberty, rather than for the dominion of others." The senate becoming uneasy at the defection of their allies, whilst two foreign wars existed at the same time, when they perceived that those whom fidelity had not restrained, should be restrained by fear, ordered the consuls to exert to the utmost the energies of their authority in holding a levy. For that they should depend on an army of their countrymen, since their allies were deserting them. Ten legions are said to have been levied, consisting each of four thousand two hundred infantry and three hundred horse. Such a newly-raised army, if any foreign force should assail, the present power of the Roman people, which is scarcely confined within the whole world, could not easily raise now, if concentrated upon one point: so true it is, we have improved in those particulars only about which we are solicitous, riches and luxury. Among the other distressing events of this year, Appius Claudius, one of the consuls, dies in the midst of the preparations for the war; and the whole direction of affairs devolved on Camillus; over whom, the only consul, it did not appear seemly that a dictator should be appointed, either in consideration of his high character, which should not be made subordinate to the dictatorship, or on account of the auspicious omen of his surname with respect to a Gallic war. The consul, then, having stationed two legions to protect the city, and divided the remaining eight with the prætor Lucius Pinarius, mindful of his father's valour, selects the Gallic war for himself without any appeal to lots: the prætor he commanded to protect the sea-coast, and to drive the Greeks from the shore. And after he had marched down into the Pomptine territory, because he neither wished to engage on the level ground, no circumstance rendering it necessary, and he considered that the enemy were sufficiently subdued, by preventing from plunder persons whom necessity obliged to live on what was so obtained, he selected a suitable place for a fixed encampment.[Pg 478]
Where when they were spending the time in quiet in their quarters, a Gaul, remarkable for his size and the appearance of his arms, came forward; and striking his shield with his spear, after he had procured silence, through an interpreter he challenged any one of the Romans to contend with him with the sword. There was a tribune of the soldiers, a young man, Marcus Valerius, who considering himself not less worthy of that distinction than Titus Manlius, having first ascertained the consul's pleasure, advanced fully armed into the middle space. The human contest was rendered less remarkable by reason of the interposition of the divine power. For just as the Roman was commencing the encounter, a crow settled suddenly on his helmet, facing the enemy, which, as an augury sent from heaven, the tribune at first received with pleasure. Then he prayed that whatever god or goddess had sent him the auspicious bird, would willingly and kindly aid him. Wondrous to relate, the bird not only kept the place it had once taken, but as often as the encounter was renewed, raising itself on its wings, it attacked the face and eyes of the foe with its beak and talons, until Valerius slays him, terrified at the sight of such a prodigy, and confounded both in his vision and understanding. The crow soaring out of sight makes towards the east. Hitherto the advanced guards on both sides remained quiet. When the tribune began to strip the body of the slain enemy, neither the Gauls any longer confined themselves to their post, and the Romans began to run to their successful champion with still greater speed. There a scuffle taking place around the body of the prostrate Gaul, a desperate fight is stirred up. And now the contest is carried on not by the companies of the nearest posts, but by the legions pouring out from both sides. The soldiers exulting in the victory of the tribune, and also at such favour and attention from the gods, are commanded by Camillus to advance against the enemy: and he, pointing to the tribune distinguished by the spoils, "Soldiers," said he, "imitate this man; and around their fallen leader strew heaps of Gauls." Gods and men assisted at that fight; and the struggle was carried on against the Gauls with a fury by no means equivocal in its result, so thoroughly were both armies impressed with the respective success of the two soldiers, between whom the single combat had taken place.[Pg 479] Among the first party, whose encounter had called out the others, there was a desperate encounter: the rest of the soldiery, before they came within throw of a weapon, turned their backs. At first they were dispersed through the Volscians and the Falernian territory; thence they made for Apulia and the upper sea. The consul, calling an assembly, after heaping praises on the tribune, bestows on him ten oxen and a golden crown. He himself, being commanded by the senate to take charge of the maritime war, joined his camp to that of the prætor. There because matters seemed to be delayed by the dastardly conduct of the Greeks, who did not venture into the field, with the approbation of the senate, he nominated Titus Manlius Torquatus dictator. The dictator, after appointing Aulus Cornelius Cossus his master of the horse, held the consular elections, and with the greatest applause of the people he returned Marcus Valerius Corvus (for that was his surname from thenceforth) as consul, though absent, the rival of his own glory, then three and twenty years of age. As colleague to Corvus, Marcus Popillius Lænas, a plebeian, was assigned to be consul for the fourth time. Nothing memorable occurred between Camillus and the Greeks; neither the one were warriors by land, nor the Romans by sea. At length, when they were repelled from the shore, among other things necessary for use, water also failing, they abandoned Italy. To what state or what nation that fleet belonged, there is nothing certain. I would be most inclined to think that they belonged to the tyrants of Sicily; for the farther Greece, being at that time wearied by intestine war, was now in dread of the power of the Macedonians.
The armies being disbanded, whilst there was both peace abroad, and tranquillity at home by reason of the concord of the different orders, lest matters might be too happy, a pestilence having attacked the state, compelled the senate to order the decemvirs to inspect the Sibylline books, and by their suggestion a lectisternium took place. The same year a colony was led to Satricum by the Antians, and the city, which the Latins had demolished, was rebuilt. And a treaty was concluded at Rome with the Carthaginian ambassadors, they having come to request friendship and an alliance. The same tranquillity continued at home and abroad, during the consulate of Titus Manlius Torquatus and Caius Plautius.[Pg 480] Only the interest of money from twelve was reduced to six per cent; and the payment of the debts was adjusted into equal portions of three years, on condition that the fourth payment should be made at the present time. And then also, though a portion of the commons were distressed, still public credit engrossed the attention of the senate in preference to the difficulties of private individuals. Their circumstances were relieved most effectually, because a cessation was introduced of the taxes and levy. On the third year after Satricum was rebuilt by the Volscians, Marcus Valerius Corvus having been elected consul for the second time with Caius Poetelius, when news had been brought from Latium, that ambassadors from Antium were going round the states of the Latins to excite a war, being ordered to attack the Volscians, before greater numbers of the enemy should be assembled, proceeds to Satricum with his army ready for action. And when the Antians and other Volscians met him, their forces being previously prepared, in case any movement should be made on the part of Rome, no delay of engaging took place between the two parties incensed with long pent-up hate. The Volscians, a nation more spirited to renew hostilities than to carry on war, being defeated in the fight, make for the walls of Satricum in a precipitate flight; and their reliance in their walls not being sufficiently strong, when the city, encompassed by a continuous line of troops, was now on the point of being taken by scalade, they surrendered to the number of four thousand soldiers, besides the unarmed multitude. The town was demolished and burnt; only they kept the fire from the temple of Mother Matuta. The entire plunder was given up to the soldiers. The four thousand who had surrendered were considered exclusive of the spoil; these the consul when triumphing drove before his chariot in chains; afterwards by selling them he brought a great sum of money into the treasury. There are some who state that this body of captives consisted of slaves; and this is more probable than that persons who had surrendered were exposed to sale.
Marcus Fabius Dorso and Servius Sulpicius Camerinus succeeded these consuls. After this the Auruncan war commenced in consequence of a sudden attempt at depredation: and through fear lest this act of one state might be the concerted scheme of the whole Latin nation, Lucius Furius being created[Pg 481] dictator, as if against all Latium already in arms, nominated Cneius Manlius Capitolinus his master of the horse. And when, a suspension of public business being proclaimed, (a measure usually adopted during great alarms,) the levy was held without exemptions, the legions were led against the Auruncans with all possible expedition. The spirit of freebooters rather than of enemies was found there. They were vanquished therefore in the first encounter. However the dictator, both because they had commenced hostilities without provocation, and presented themselves to the contest without reluctance, considering that the aid of the gods should also be engaged, vowed a temple to Juno Moneta in the heat of the battle, and when he returned victorious to Rome, obliged by his vow, he resigned his dictatorship. The senate ordered duumvirs to be appointed to have the temple built suitably to the grandeur of the Roman people; the site destined for it was in the citadel, where the ground was on which the house of Marcus Manlius Capitolinus had stood. The consuls, having employed the dictator's army for the Volscian war, took Sora from the enemy, having attacked them by surprise. The temple of Moneta is dedicated the year after it had been vowed, Caius Marcius Rutilus being consul for the third time, and Titus Manlius Torquatus for the second time. A prodigy immediately followed the dedication, similar to the ancient one of the Alban mount. For it both rained stones, and during the day night seemed to be spread [over the sky]; and on the books being inspected, the state being filled with religious scruples, it was resolved by the senate that a dictator should be nominated for the purpose of regulating the ceremonies. Publius Valerius Publicola was nominated; Quintus Fabius Ambustus was assigned to him as master of the horse. It was determined that not only the tribes, but the neighbouring states also should offer supplications: and a certain order was appointed for them on what day each should offer supplication. Severe sentences of the people are said to have been passed on that year against usurers, for whom a day of trial had been appointed by the ædiles. Matters came to an interregnum, there being no particular reason on record. After the interregnum, both the consuls were elected from the patricians, Marcus Valerius Corvus a third time, and Aulus Cornelius Cossus, so that it would seem that such was the end aimed at.[Pg 482]
Henceforward shall be recorded wars of greater importance, both by the strength of the belligerent powers, by the distance of the countries, or the length of time during which they were carried on. For in that year arms were taken up against the Samnites, a nation powerful both in wealth and in arms. Pyrrhus followed as an enemy the war of the Samnites carried on with various success, the Carthaginians followed Pyrrhus. How great a mass of events! How often have extreme dangers been encountered, that the empire might be raised to its present magnitude, which is now scarcely sustained! But the cause of the war between the Samnites and Romans, as they had been joined in alliance and friendship, came from without; it originated not among themselves. After the Samnites had unjustly taken up arms, because they had the advantage in strength, against the Sidicinians, the weaker party being obliged to have recourse to the aid of the more powerful, unite themselves to the Campanians. As the Campanians brought to the relief of their allies rather a name than strength, enervated as they were by luxury, they were beaten in the Sidicinian territory by men who were inured to the use of arms, and then brought on themselves the entire burthen of the war. For the Samnites, taking no further notice of the Sidicinians, having attacked the Campanians as being the chief of the neighbouring states, from whom the victory might be equally easy, and a greater share of spoil and glory, after they had secured Tifata, a ridge of hills hanging over Capua, with a strong garrison, they march down from thence with their army formed in a square into the plain which lies between Capua and Tifata. There a second battle was fought; and the Campanians, after an unsuccessful fight, being driven within their walls, when the flower of their youth being cut down, no hope was nigh at hand, they were obliged to sue for aid from the Romans.
Their ambassadors, being introduced into the senate, spoke as near as possible to this purport: "Conscript fathers, the Campanian state has sent us to you, to solicit from you friendship for ever, and present aid, which if we had solicited whilst our affairs were prosperous, as it would have commenced more readily, so would it have been bound by a weaker tie. For then, as we should have recollected that we entered into friendship on equal terms, we might be equally friendly as[Pg 483] now, but less submissive and compliant with your wishes. Now, won over by your compassion for us, and defended by your aid in our critical circumstances, it is incumbent on us that we show our sense also of the kindness received; lest we should seem ungrateful, and undeserving of aid from either god or man. Nor, indeed, do I think that because the Samnites first became your allies and friends, such a circumstance is sufficient to prevent our being admitted into friendship; but merely shows that they excel us in priority and in the degree of honour; for no provision has been made in your treaty with the Samnites that you should not form any new treaties. It has ever been with you a sufficient title to your friendship, that he who sought it desired to be a friend of yours. We, Campanians, though our present state forbids us to speak in high terms, not yielding to any state save you in the extent of our city, or in the fertility of our land, come into friendship with you, no inconsiderable accession in my opinion to your flourishing condition. We shall be in the rear of the Æquans and Volscians, the eternal enemies of this city, whenever they may stir; and whatever ye shall be the first to perform in defence of our safety, the same shall we ever do in defence of your empire and glory. Those nations which lie between us and you being reduced, which both your bravery and good fortune makes it certain will soon be the case, you will then have an uninterrupted empire extending even to us. It is distressing and painful, what our condition obliges us to confess. Conscript fathers, matters are come to this, that we Campanians must be the property either of friends or enemies. If you defend us, yours; if you desert us, we shall be the property of the Samnites. Consider, then, whether you would rather that Capua and all Campania should be added to your power or to that of the Samnites. Romans, it is surely but just, that your compassion and your aid should lie open to all men; to those, however, chiefly, who, whilst they afford it beyond their means to others imploring aid, have themselves been involved in this distress. Although we fought nominally for the Sidicinians, in reality for ourselves, when we saw a neighbouring state assailed by the nefarious plunder of the Samnites; and after the Sidicinians had been consumed, we saw that the conflagration would pass over to ourselves. For the Samnites do[Pg 484] not come to attack us, because they resent an injury received, but because they are glad that a pretext has been presented to them. If this were the gratification of their resentment, and not an occasion for satiating their ambition, was it not sufficient that they cut down our legions once in the Sidicinian territory, a second time in Campania itself? What sort of resentment must that be, which the blood shed in two pitched battles cannot satiate? To this add the laying waste of our lands; the spoil of men and cattle driven away, the burning and ruin of our country-houses, every thing destroyed by fire and sword. Could not resentment be satisfied with this? But ambition must be satiated. That hurries them on to besiege Capua. They either wish to destroy that most beautiful city, or to possess it themselves. But, Romans, do you take possession of it in your kindness, rather than suffer them to hold it by injustice. I am not addressing a people who decline just wars; but still, if you make but a show of your aid, I do not think that you will have occasion for war. The contempt of the Samnites has just reached to us; it soars not higher. Accordingly, Romans, we may be protected even by the shadow of your aid: whatever after this we shall possess, whatever we ourselves shall be, determined to consider all that as yours. For you the Campanian field shall be ploughed; for you the city of Capua shall be made populous; you shall be to us in the light of founders, parents, ay, even immortal gods. There shall be no colony of your own which shall surpass us in attachment and loyalty to you. Grant to the Campanians, conscript fathers, your nod, and your irresistible favour, and bid us hope that Capua will be safe. With what crowds of persons of all classes attending us do you suppose that we set out from thence—how, think you, did we leave every place full of vows and tears? In what a state of expectation do you suppose that the senate are, the Campanian nation, our wives and our children? I am certain that the entire multitude are standing at the gates, looking forward to the road that leads from hence, anxious as to what answer you may order us, conscript fathers, to bring back to them, in their solicitude and suspense of mind. One kind of answer may bring them safety, victory, light, and liberty—what the other may, I feel horror to think. Determine there[Pg 485]fore about us, as about persons who will be your future friends and allies, or as persons who are to have no existence any where."
The ambassadors then withdrawing, after the senate had been consulted, though to a great many, their city the greatest and wealthiest in Italy, their land the most fertile, and situated near the sea, seemed likely to prove a granary to the Roman people for all varieties of provision; still the faith of their engagements was more regarded than such great advantages, and the consul, by the direction of the senate, answered as follows: "Campanians, the senate considers you deserving of aid. But it is meet that friendship be so established with you, that no prior friendship and alliance be violated. The Samnites are united in a treaty with us. Therefore we refuse you arms against the Samnites, which would be a violation of duty to the gods first, and then to men. We will, as divine and human law requires, send ambassadors to our allies and friends to entreat that no violence be committed against you?" To this the chief of the embassy replied, (for such were the instructions they had brought from home,) "Since you are not willing to defend by just force our possessions against violence and injustice, at least you will defend your own. Wherefore, conscript fathers, we surrender the Campanian people, and the city of Capua, their lands, the temples of the gods, all things divine and human, into your jurisdiction and that of the Roman people; whatever we shall suffer henceforth, being determined to suffer as men who have surrendered to you." On these words, all extending their hands towards the consuls, bathed in tears they fell prostrate in the porch of the senate-house. The fathers, affected at the vicissitude of human greatness, seeing that a nation abounding in wealth, noted for luxury and pride, from which a little time since their neighbours had solicited assistance, was now so broken in spirit, as to give up themselves and all they possessed into the power of others; moreover, their honour also seemed to be involved in not betraying those who had surrendered, nor did they consider that the people of the Samnites would act fairly, if they should attack a territory and a city which had become the property of the Roman people by a surrender. It was resolved therefore, that ambassadors should be sent forthwith to the Samnites; instructions were given "that they[Pg 486] should lay before the Samnites the entreaties of the Campanians, the answer of the senate duly mindful of the friendship of the Samnites, and finally the surrender that had been concluded. That they requested, in consideration of the friendship and alliance subsisting between them, that they would spare their subjects; and that they would not carry hostilities into that territory which had become the property of the Roman people. If by gentle measures they did not succeed, that they should denounce to the Samnites in the name of the senate and Roman people, to withhold their arms from the city of Capua and the Campanian territory." When the ambassadors urged these matters in the assembly of the Samnites, so fierce an answer was returned, that they not only said that they would prosecute that war, but their magistrates, having gone out of the senate-house, in the very presence of the ambassadors, summoned the prefects of the cohorts; and with a distinct voice commanded them, to proceed forthwith into the Campanian territory, in order to plunder it.
The result of this embassy being reported at Rome, the care of all other concerns being laid aside, the senate, having despatched heralds to demand satisfaction, and, because this was not complied with, war being proclaimed in the usual way, they decreed that the matter should be submitted to the people at the very earliest opportunity; and both the consuls having set out from the city by order of the people with two armies, Valerius into Campania, Cornelius into Samnium, the former pitches his camp at Mount Gaurus, the latter at Saticula. The legions of the Samnites met with Valerius first; for they thought that the whole weight of the war would incline to that side. At the same time resentment stimulated them against the Campanians, that they should be so ready at one time to lend aid, at another to call in aid against them. But as soon as they beheld the Roman camp, they fiercely demanded the signal each from his leader; they maintained that the Roman would bring aid to the Campanian with the same fate with which the Campanian had done to the Sidicinian. Valerius, having delayed for a few days in slight skirmishes for the purpose of making trial of the enemy, displayed the signal for battle, exhorting his men in few words "not to let the new war or the new enemy terrify them. In proportion as they should carry their arms to a greater[Pg 487] distance from the city, the more and more unwarlike should the nation prove to be against whom they should proceed. That they should not estimate the valour of the Samnites by the defeats of the Sidicinians and Campanians. Let the combatants be of what kind they may be, that it was necessary that one side should be vanquished. That as for the Campanians indeed, they were undoubtedly vanquished more by circumstances flowing from excessive luxury and by their own want of energy than by the bravery of the enemy. What were the two successful wars of the Samnites, during so many ages, against so many glorious exploits of the Roman people, who counted almost more triumphs than years since the building of their city? who held subdued by their arms all the states around them, the Sabines, Etruria, the Latins, Hernicians, Æquans, Volscians, Auruncans? who eventually drove by flight into the sea, and into their ships, the Gauls, after slaughtering them in so many engagements? That soldiers ought both to enter the field relying on their national military renown, and on their own valour, and also to consider under whose command and auspices the battle is to be fought; whether he be one which is to be listened to as a pompous exhorter, bold merely in words, unacquainted with military labours, or one who knows how to wield arms himself also, to advance before the standards, and to show himself in the midst of the danger. My acts, not my words merely, I wish you to follow; and to seek from me not military orders only, but example also. It was not by intrigues merely, nor by cabals usual among the nobles, but by this right hand, I procured for myself three consulships, and the highest eulogies. There was a time when this could be said; [no wonder,] for you were a patrician, and sprung from the liberators of your country; and that family of yours had the consulship the same year that the city had consuls. Now the consulship lies open in common to us patricians and to you plebeians; nor is it, as formerly, the prize of birth, but of valour. Look forward, therefore, soldiers, to even the highest honour. Though you, as men, have, with the approbation of the gods, given me this new surname of Corvus, the ancient surname of our family, Publicolæ, has not been erased from my memory. I ever do and ever have cultivated the good will of the Roman commons abroad and at home, as a private man and in public[Pg 488] offices, high and low, as tribune equally as when consul, with the same undeviating line of conduct through all my successive consulships. Now, with respect to that which is at hand, with the aid of the gods, join with me in seeking a new and complete triumph over the Samnites."
Never was a general on a more familiar footing with his soldiers, by his performing all the duties among the lowest of the soldiers without reluctance. Moreover in the military sports, wherein equals vie with their equals in contests of swiftness and strength, affable and condescending, he conquered and was conquered with the same countenance; nor did he spurn any competitor who should offer; in his acts kind according to the occasion; in his conversation no less mindful of the ease of others than of his own dignity; and, a thing than which nothing is more agreeable to the people, he administered his offices by the same line of conduct by which he had gained them. The whole army therefore, cheering the exhortation of their leader with the utmost alacrity, march forth from the camp. The battle commenced with equal hopes and equal strength on both sides, as much as any battle ever did, with confidence in themselves, and without contempt of their enemies. Their recent exploits and their double victory a few days before, increased the spirits of the Samnites on the other side; the glories of four hundred years and victory coeval with the building of their city [had the same effect] on the Romans; to both sides, however, the circumstance of the enemy being a new one gave additional anxiety. The battle was a proof what spirits they possessed; for they maintained the conflict in such a manner, that, for a considerable time, the armies inclined to neither side. Then the consul, thinking that some confusion should be caused among them, since they could not be overpowered by force, endeavours to disorder their foremost battalions by a charge of cavalry. And when he saw them wheel their troops within a narrow compass in fruitless disorder, and that they could not open a passage to the enemy, riding back to the van of the legions, after leaping from his horse, he says, "Soldiers, this is the task for us infantry; come on, as ye shall see me making way with my sword, in whatever direction I shall advance into the enemy's line, so let each man, with all his might, beat down those who oppose him. All those places, where their erected spears now[Pg 489] glitter, you shall see cleared by widely-extended slaughter." He had uttered these words, when the cavalry by order of the consul turn to the wings, and open a passage for the legions to the centre of the line. First of all, the consul attacks the enemy, and slays him whom he happened to engage. Those on the right and left, fired at this sight, commence a dreadful fight, each with the foe opposite him. The Samnites obstinately stand their ground, though they receive more wounds than they inflict. The battle had now lasted for a considerable time, great slaughter occurred around the standards of the Samnites; in no part was there a flight, so firmly had they made up their minds to be vanquished by death alone. Wherefore the Romans, when they perceived their strength to relax by fatigue, and but a small part of the day still remained, fired with fury, rush upon the enemy. Then for the first time it appeared that they were giving ground, and that the matter was inclining to a flight; then the Samnites were taken, some slain; nor would many have survived, had not night terminated the victory rather than the battle. Both the Romans confessed, that they had never fought with a more determined enemy; and the Samnites, on being asked what cause first drove them to fly after being so determined, said, that it was the eyes of the Romans which seemed to them to flash fire, and their distracted looks, and furious aspect; that more of terror arose from thence, than from any thing else. Which terror they confessed not only in the issue of the battle, but in their departure by night. Next day the Romans take possession of the deserted camp of the enemy, whither all the Campanians flocked to congratulate them.
But this joy was well nigh alloyed by a great loss sustained in Samnium. For the consul Cornelius, having set out from Saticula, incautiously led his army into a mountainous tract, passable through a deep defile, and beset on all sides by the enemy; nor did he perceive the enemy stationed over his head, until a retreat could no longer be made with safety. Whilst the Samnites delayed only till he should bring down his entire army into the valley; Publius Decius, a tribune of the soldiers, espies in the tract a hill higher than the rest, hanging over the enemies' camp, rather steep to be ascended by an encumbered army, not difficult for such as were lightly armed. He says therefore to the consul, greatly alarmed in mind, "Aulus Cor[Pg 490]nelius, do you perceive that elevated point above the enemy? That is the bulwark of our hope and safety, if we briskly gain possession of it, which the Samnites in their blindness have given up. Only give me the first rank and spearmen of one legion; when with these I shall have gained the summit, do you proceed hence free from all apprehension, and save yourself and the army. For the enemy, lying beneath us and [exposed thereby] to all our weapons, will not be able to stir without destruction to themselves. After that either the good fortune of the Roman people or our own bravery will extricate us." Being commanded by the consul, he received the body of men [required] and proceeds by secret paths through the mountain, nor was he observed by the enemy until he approached the place which he was making for. Then, whilst all were struck with astonishment, after he had attracted the eyes of all to himself, he both afforded the consul time to draw off his army to more advantageous ground, and he himself was posted on the top of the hill. The Samnites, whilst they march their forces now in this direction, now in that, having lost the opportunity of effecting either object, can neither pursue the consul, unless through the same defile in which they had him a little before exposed to their weapons, nor march up the rising ground over themselves, which had been seized on by Decius. But both their resentment stimulated them more against the latter, who had taken from them the favourable opportunity of achieving their object, and also the proximity of the place, and the paucity of the enemy; and one time they would fain surround the hill on all sides with armed men, so as to cut off Decius from the consul; at another time they wished to open a passage, so that they may fall on them when they had descended into the defile. Before they had determined on what they should do, night came on them. Decius at first entertained a hope, that he would have to engage them from the higher ground, as they ascended against the steep; then surprise took possession of him, that they neither commenced the fight, nor if they were deterred from that by the unevenness of the ground, that they did not surround him with works and a circumvallation. Then summoning the centurions to him, he said, "What ignorance of war and indolence is that? or how did such men obtain a victory over the Sidicinians and Campanians? You see that their[Pg 491] battalions move to and fro, that sometimes they are collected to one spot, at other times they are drawn out. As for work, no one attempts it, when we might by this time have been surrounded with a rampart. Then indeed should we be like to them, if we delay longer here than is expedient. Come on, accompany me; that whilst some day light remains, we may ascertain in what places they put their guards, in what direction an escape may lie open from hence." All these points he carefully observed, clad in a soldier's vest, the centurions whom he took with him being also in the attire of common soldiers, lest the enemy might notice the general going the round.
Then having placed watch-guards, he commands the ticket to be issued to all the rest, that when the signal had been given by the trumpet of the second watch, they should assemble to him in silence fully armed. Whither when they had assembled in silence according to the orders issued, "Soldiers," says he, "this silence is to be observed in listening to me, waving the military mode of expressing assent. When I shall have thoroughly explained my sentiments to you, then such of you as shall approve the same, will pass over; we will follow that line of conduct which shall meet the judgment of the majority. Now hear what I meditate in mind. The enemy have surrounded you, not brought hither in flight, nor left behind through cowardice. By valour you seized this ground; by valour you must make your way from it. By coming hither you have saved a valuable army of the Roman people; by forcing your way hence, save yourselves. You have proved yourselves worthy, though few in number, of affording aid to multitudes, whilst you yourselves stand in need of aid from no one. You have to do with that enemy, who on yesterday, through their supineness, availed themselves not of the fortunate opportunity of destroying our whole army, who did not see this hill so advantageously situate hanging over their heads, until it was seized on by us; who with so many thousand men did not prevent us so few from the ascent, and did not surround us with a rampart when in possession of the ground, though so much of the day still remained. That enemy which with their eyes open and awake you so baffled, it is incumbent on you now to beguile, buried, as they are, in sleep; nay, it is absolutely necessary. For our affairs are in that situation,[Pg 492] that I am rather to point out to you your necessity than to propose advice. For whether you are to remain or to depart hence, can no longer be matter of deliberation, since, with the exception of your arms, and courage mindful of those arms, fortune has left you nothing, and we must die of famine and thirst, if we are more afraid of the sword than becomes men and Romans. Therefore our only safety is to sally forth from this and to depart. That we must do either by day or by night. But lo! another point which admits of less doubt; for if daylight be waited for, what hope is there, that the enemy, who have now encompassed the hill on every side, as you perceive, with their bodies exposed at disadvantage, will not hem us in with a continued rampart and ditch? If night then be favourable for a sally, as it is, this is undoubtedly the most suitable hour of night. You assembled here on the signal of the second watch, a time which buries mortals in the profoundest sleep. You will pass through their bodies lulled to sleep, either in silence unnoticed by them, or ready to strike terror into them, should they perceive you, by a sudden shout. Only follow me, whom you have followed. The same fortune which conducted us hither, will I follow. Those of you to whom these measures seem salutary, come on, pass over to the right."
They all passed over, and followed Decius as he proceeded through the intervals which lay between the guards. They had now passed the middle of the camp, when a soldier, striding over the bodies of the watchmen as they lay asleep, occasioned a noise by striking one of their shields. When the watchman, being aroused by this, stirred the next one to him, and those who were awake stirred up others, not knowing whether they were friends or foes, whether it was the garrison that sallied forth or the consul had taken their camp; Decius, having ordered the soldiers to raise a shout, as they were no longer unobserved, disheartens them by panic whilst still heavy from sleep, by which being perplexed, they were neither able to take arms briskly, nor make resistance, nor to pursue them. During the trepidation and confusion of the Samnites, the Roman guard, slaying such of the guards as came in their way, reached the consul's camp. A considerable portion of night still remained, and things now appeared to be in safety; when Decius says, "Roman soldiers, be honoured for your[Pg 493] bravery. Your journey and return ages shall extol. But to behold such bravery light and day are necessary; nor do you deserve that silence and night should cover you, whilst you return to the camp with such distinguished glory. Here let us wait in quiet for the daylight." His words they obeyed. And as soon as it was day, a messenger being despatched to the camp to the consul, they were aroused from sleep with great joy; and the signal being given by ticket, that those persons returned safe who had exposed their persons to evident danger for the preservation of all, rushing out each most anxiously to meet them, they applaud them, congratulate them, they call them singly and collectively their preservers, they give praises and thanks to the gods, they raise Decius to heaven. This was a sort of camp triumph for Decius, who proceeded through the middle of the camp, with his guard fully armed, the eyes of all being fixed on him, and all giving him equal honour with the consul. When they came to the general's tent, the consul summons them by sound of trumpet to an assembly; and commencing with the well-earned praises of Decius, he adjourned the assembly on the interposition of Decius himself, who advising the postponement of every thing else, whilst the occasion was still present, persuaded the consul to attack the enemy, whilst still in consternation from the panic of the night, and dispersing in separate detachments around the hill, [adding] that he believed that some who had been sent out in pursuit of him were straggling through the forest. The legions were ordered to take arms; and having departed from the camp, as the forest was now better known by means of scouts, they are led onwards to the enemy through a more open tract. Having unexpectedly attacked the enemy when off their guard, since the soldiers of the Samnites straggling in every direction, most of them unarmed, were not able either to rally, nor to take arms, nor to betake themselves within the rampart, they first drive them in a panic into the camp: then they take the camp itself, having dislodged the guards. The shout spread around the hill; and puts each to flight from their respective posts. Thus a great part yielded to an enemy they had not seen. Those whom the panic had driven within the rampart (they amounted to thirty thousand) were all slain; the camp was plundered.
Matters being thus conducted, the consul, having sum[Pg 494]moned an assembly, pronounces a panegyric on Decius, not only that which had been commenced on a previous occasion, but as now completed by his recent deserts; and besides other military gifts, he presents him with a golden crown and one hundred oxen, and with one white one of distinguished beauty, richly decorated with gilded horns. The soldiers who had been in the guard with him, were presented with a double allowance of corn for ever; for the present, with an ox and two vests each. Immediately after the consuls' donation, the legions place on the head of Decius a crown of grass, indicative of their deliverance from a blockade, expressing their approbation of the present with a shout. Decorated with these emblems, he sacrificed the beautiful ox to Mars; the hundred oxen he bestowed on the soldiers, who had been with him in the expedition. On the same soldiers the legions conferred, each a pound of corn and a pint of wine; and all these things were performed with great alacrity, with a military shout, a token of the approbation of all. The third battle was fought near Suessula, in which the army of the Samnites, having been routed by Marcus Valerius, having summoned from home the flower of their youth, determined on trying their strength by a final contest. From Suessula messengers came in great haste to Capua, and from thence horsemen in full speed to the consul Valerius, to implore aid. The troops were immediately put in motion; and the baggage in the camp being left with a strong guard, the army moves on with rapidity; and they select at no great distance from the enemy a very narrow spot (as, with the exception of their horses, they were unaccompanied by a crowd of cattle and servants). The army of the Samnites, as if there was to be no delay in coming to an engagement, draw up in order of battle; then, when no one came to meet them, they advance to the enemy's camp in readiness for action. There when they saw the soldiers on the rampart, and persons sent out to reconnoitre in every direction, brought back word into how narrow a compass the camp had been contracted, inferring thence the scanty number of the enemy. The whole army began to exclaim, that the trenches ought to be filled up, the rampart to be torn down, and that they should force their way into the camp; and by that temerity the war would have been soon over, had not the generals restrained the impetuosity of the soldiers. However,[Pg 495] as their own numbers bore heavily on their supplies, and in consequence, first of their sitting down so long at Suessula, and then by the delay of the contest, they were not far from a want of provisions, it was determined, whilst the enemy remained shut up as if through fear, that the soldiers should be led through the country to forage; [supposing] in the mean time, that all supplies would fail the Romans also, who having marched in haste, had brought with him only as much corn as could be carried on his shoulders amid his arms. The consul, after he had observed the enemy scattered through the country, that the posts were left but insufficiently attended, having in a few words encouraged his men, leads them on to besiege the camp. After he had taken this on the first shout and contest, more of the enemy being slain in their tents than at the gates and rampart, he ordered the captive standards to be collected into one place, and having left behind two legions as a guard and protection, after giving them strict order that they should abstain from the booty, until he himself should return; having set out with his troops in regular order, the cavalry who had been sent on driving the dispersed Samnites as it were by hunting toils, he committed great slaughter among them. For in their terror they could neither determine by what signal they should collect themselves into a body, whether they should make for the camp, or continue their flight to a greater distance. And so great was their terror, and so precipitate their flight, that to the number of forty thousand shields, though by no means were so many slain, and one hundred and seventy standards, with those which had been taken in the camp, were brought to the consul. Then they returned to the enemy's camp; and there all the plunder was given up to the soldiers.
The result of this contest obliged the Faliscians, who were on terms of a truce, to petition for a treaty of alliance from the senate; and diverted the Latins, who had their armies already prepared, from the Roman to a Pelignian war. Nor did the fame of such success confine itself within the limits of Italy; but the Carthaginians also sent ambassadors to Rome to congratulate them, with an offering of a golden crown, to be placed in Jupiter's shrine in the Capitol. Its weight was twenty-five pounds. Both consuls triumphed over the Samnites, whilst Decius followed distinguished with[Pg 496] praises and presents, when amid the rough jesting of the soldiers the name of the tribune was no less celebrated than that of the consuls. The embassies of the Campanians and Suessulans were then heard; and to their entreaties it was granted that a garrison should be sent thither, in order that the incursions of the Samnites might be repelled. Capua, even then by no means favourable to military discipline, alienated from the memory of their country the affections of the soldiers, which were debauched by the supply of pleasures of all kinds; and schemes were being formed in winter-quarters for taking away Capua from the Campanians by the same kind of wickedness as that by which they had taken it from its original possessors: "and not undeservedly would they turn their own example against themselves. For why should the Campanians, who were neither able to defend themselves nor their possessions, occupy the most fertile land of Italy, and a city worthy of that land, rather than the victorious army, who had driven the Samnites from thence by their sweat and blood? Was it reasonable that men who had surrendered to them should have the full enjoyment of that fertile and delightful country; that they, wearied by military toil, had to struggle in an insalubrious and arid soil around their city, or within the city to suffer the oppressive and exhausting weight of interest-money daily increasing?" These schemes agitated in secret cabals, and as yet communicated only to a few, were encountered by the new consul Caius Marcius Rutilus, to whom the province of Campania had fallen by lot, Quintus Servilius, his colleague, being left behind in the city. Accordingly when he was in possession of all these circumstances just as they had occurred, having ascertained them through the tribunes, matured by years and experience, (for he was consul now for the fourth time, and had been dictator and censor,) thinking it the wisest proceeding to frustrate the violence of the soldiers, by prolonging their hope of executing their project whenever they might wish, he spreads the rumour, that the troops were to winter in the same towns on the year after also. For they had been cantoned throughout the cities of Campania, and their plots had spread from Capua to the entire army. This abatement being given to the eagerness of their projects, the mutiny was set at rest for the present.
The consul, having led out his army to the summer[Pg 497] campaign, determined, whilst he had the Samnites quiet, to purge the army by sending away the turbulent men; by telling some that their regular time had been served; that others were weighed down by years and debilitated in bodily vigour. Some were sent away on furloughs, at first individuals, then some cohorts also, on the plea that they had wintered far from their home and domestic affairs. When different individuals were sent to different places under pretence of the business of the service, a considerable number were put out of the way; which multitude the other consul detained in Rome under different pretences. And first indeed, not suspecting the artifice, they returned to their homes by no means with reluctance. After they saw that neither those first sent returned to their standards, and that scarcely any others, except those who had wintered in Campania, and chiefly the fomenters of the mutiny, were sent away; at first wonder, and then certain fear entered their minds, that their schemes had been divulged; "that now they would have to suffer trials, discoveries, the secret punishments of individuals, and the tyrannical and cruel despotism of the consuls and the senate. Those who were in the camp, discuss these things in secret conferences, seeing that the sinews of the conspiracy had been got rid of by the artifice of the consul." One cohort, when they were at no great distance from Anxur, posted itself at Lautulæ, in a narrow woody pass between the sea and the mountains, to intercept those whom the consul was dismissing under various pretences (as has been already mentioned). Their body was now becoming strong in numbers; nor was any thing wanting to complete the form of a regular army, except a leader. Without order, therefore, they come into the Alban territory committing depredations, and under the hill of Alba Longa, they encompass their camp with a rampart. The work here being completed, during the remainder of the day they discuss their different opinions regarding the choice of a commander, not having sufficient confidence in any of those present. Whom could they invite out from Rome? What individuals of the patricians or of the commons was there, who would either knowingly expose himself to such imminent danger, or to whom could the cause of the army, set mad by ill-treatment, be safely committed? On the following day, when the same subject of deliberation detained[Pg 498] them, some of the straggling marauders ascertained and brought an account, that Titus Quinctius cultivated a farm in the Tusculan territory, forgetful of the city and its honours. This was a man of patrician family, whose military career, which was passed with great glory, having been relinquished in consequence of one of his feet being lamed by a wound, he determined on spending his life in the country far from ambition and the forum. His name once heard, they immediately recognised the man; and with wishes for success, ordered him to be sent for. There was, however, but little hope that he would do any thing voluntarily; they resolved on employing force and intimidation. Accordingly those who had been sent for the purpose, having entered the house in the silence of the night, and surprising Quinctius overcome in sleep, threatening that there was no alternative, either authority and honour, or death, in case he resisted, unless he followed, they force him to the camp. Immediately on his arrival he was styled general, and whilst he was startled at the strange nature of the sudden occurrence, they convey to him the ensigns of honour, and bid him lead them to the city. Then having torn up their standard, more under the influence of their own impetuosity than by the command of their general, they arrive in hostile array at the eighth stone on the road, which is now the Appian; and would have proceeded immediately to the city, had they not heard that an army was coming to meet them, and that Marcus Valerius Corvus was nominated dictator against them, and Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus master of the horse.
As soon as they came in sight and recognised the arms and standards, instantly the recollection of their country softened the resentment of all. Not yet were they so hardy as to shed the blood of their countrymen, nor had they known any but foreign wars, and secession from their own was deemed the extreme of rage. Accordingly now the generals, now the soldiers sought a meeting for a negotiation. Quinctius, who was satiated with arms [taken up] even in defence of his country, much more so against it; Corvus, who entertained a warm affection for all his countrymen, chiefly the soldiers, and above others, for his own army, advanced to a conference. To him, being immediately recognised, silence was granted with no less respect by his adversaries, than by[Pg 499] his own party: he says, "Soldiers, at my departure from the city, I prayed to the immortal gods, your public deities as well as mine, and earnestly implored their goodness so, that they would grant me the glory of establishing concord among you, not victory over you. There have been and there will be sufficient opportunities, whence military fame may be obtained: on this occasion peace should be the object of our wishes. What I earnestly called for from the immortal gods when offering up my prayers, you have it in your power to grant to me, if you will remember, that you have your camp not in Samnium, nor among the Volscians, but on Roman ground; that those hills which you behold are those of your country, that this is the army of your countrymen; that I am your own consul, under whose guidance and auspices ye last year twice defeated the legions of the Samnites, twice took their camp by storm. Soldiers, I am Marcus Valerius Corvus, whose nobility ye have felt by acts of kindness towards you, not by ill-treatment; the proposer of no tyrannical law against you, of no harsh decree of the senate; in every post of command more strict on myself than on you. And if birth, if personal merit, if high dignity, if public honours could suggest arrogance to any one, from such ancestors have I been descended, such a specimen had I given of myself, at such an age did I attain the consulship, that when but twenty-three years old I might have been a proud consul, even to the patricians, not to the commons only. What act or saying of mine, when consul, have ye heard of more severe than when only tribune? With the same tenor did I administer two successive consulships; with the same shall this uncontrollable office, the dictatorship, be administered. So that I shall be found not more indulgent to these my own soldiers and the soldiers of my country, than to you, I shudder to call you so, its enemies. Ye shall therefore draw the sword against me, before I draw it against you. On that side the signal shall be sounded, on that the shout and onset shall begin, if a battle must take place. Determine in your minds, on that which neither your fathers nor grandfathers could; neither those who seceded to the Sacred Mount, nor yet those who afterwards posted themselves on the Aventine. Wait till your mothers and wives come out to meet you from the city with dishevelled hair, as they did formerly to Coriolanus. At that[Pg 500] time the legions of the Volscians, because they had a Roman for their leader, ceased from hostilities; will not ye, a Roman army, desist from an unnatural war? Titus Quinctius, under whatever circumstances you stand on that side, whether voluntarily or reluctantly, if there must be fighting, do you then retire to the rear. With more honour even will you fly, and turn your back to your countryman, than fight against your country. Now you will stand with propriety and honour among the foremost to promote peace; and may you be a salutary agent in this conference. Require and offer that which is just; though we should admit even unjust terms, rather than engage in an impious combat with each other." Titus Quinctius, turning to his party with his eyes full of tears, said, "In me too, soldiers, if there is any use of me, ye have a better leader for peace than for war. For that speech just now delivered, not a Volscian, nor a Samnite expressed, but a Roman: your own consul, your own general, soldiers: whose auspices having already experienced for you, do not wish to experience them against you. The senate had other generals also, who would engage you with more animosity; they have selected the one who would be most indulgent to you, his own soldiers, in whom as your general you would have most confidence. Even those who can conquer, desire peace: what ought we to desire? Why do we not, renouncing resentment and hope, those fallacious advisers, resign ourselves and all our interests to his tried honour?"
All approving with a shout, Titus Quinctius, advancing before the standards, declared that "the soldiers would be obedient to the dictator; he entreated that he would espouse the cause of his unfortunate countrymen, and having espoused it, he would maintain it with the same fidelity with which he had wont to administer public affairs. That for himself individually he made no terms: that he would found his hope in nothing else but in his innocence. That provision should be made for the soldiers, as provision had been made by the senate, once for the commons, a second time for the legions, so that the secession should not be visited with punishment." The dictator, having lauded Quinctius, and having bid the others to hope for the best, returned back to the city with all speed, and, with the approbation of the senate, proposed to the people in the Peteline grove, that the secession should not be[Pg 501] visited with chastisement on any of the soldiers. He also entreated, with their permission, that no one should either in jest or earnest upbraid any one with that proceeding. A military devoting law was also passed, that the name of any soldier once enrolled, should not be erased unless with his own consent; and to the law [a clause] was added that no one, after he had been a tribune of the soldiers, should afterwards be a centurion. That demand was made by the conspirators on account of Publius Salonius; who in alternate years was both tribune of the soldiers and first centurion, which they now call primi pili. The soldiers were incensed against him, because he had always been opposed to their recent measures, and had fled from Lantulæ, that he might have no share in them. Accordingly when this alone was not obtained from the senate through their regard for Salonius, then Salonius, conjuring the conscript fathers, that they would not value his promotion more highly than the concord of the state, prevailed in having that also carried. Equally ineffectual was the demand, that some deductions should be made from the pay of the cavalry, (they then received triple,) because they had opposed the conspiracy.
Besides these, I find in some writers that Lucius Genucius, tribune of the commons, proposed to the people, that no one should be allowed to practise usury; likewise provision was made by other enactments, that no one should fill the same office within ten years; nor hold two offices on the same year; and that it should be allowed that both the consuls should be plebeians. If all these concessions were made to the people, it is evident that the revolt possessed no little strength. In other annals it is recorded, that Valerius was not appointed dictator, but that the entire business was managed by the consuls; and also that that band of conspirators were driven to arms not before they came to Rome, but at Rome; and that it was not on the country-house of Titus Quinctius, but on the residence of Caius Manlius the assault was made by night, and that he was seized by the conspirators to become their leader: that having proceeded thence to the fourth mile-stone, they posted themselves in a well-defended place; and that it was not with the leaders mention of a reconciliation originated; but that suddenly, when the armies marched out to battle fully armed, a mutual saluta[Pg 502]tion took place; that mixing together the soldiers began to join hands, and to embrace each other with tears; and that the consuls, on seeing the minds of the soldiers averse from fighting, made a proposition to the senate concerning the re-establishment of concord. So that among ancient writers nothing is agreed on, except that there was a mutiny, and that it was composed. Both the report of this disturbance, and the heavy war entered into with the Samnites, alienated some states from the Roman alliance: and besides the treaty of the Latins, which now for a long time was not to be depended on, the Privernians also by a sudden incursion laid waste Norba and Setia, Roman colonies in their neighbourhood.