History of Rome, books 1-10

At daybreak the Romans, fresh from their undisturbed sleep, were led into action, and at the first charge broke the Volscians, worn out as they were with standing and want of sleep.

It was, however, a retreat rather than a rout, for in their rear there were hills to which all behind the front ranks safely retired. When they reached the rising ground, the consul halted his army. The soldiers were with difficulty restrained, they clamoured to be allowed to follow up the beaten foe.

The cavalry were much more insistent, they crowded round the general and loudly declared that they would go on in advance of the infantry. While the consul, sure of the courage of his men, but not reassured as to the nature of the ground, was still hesitating, they shouted that they would go on, and followed up their shouts by making an advance. Fixing their spears in the ground that they might be more lightly equipped for the ascent, they went up at a run.

The Volscians hurled their javelins at the first onset, and then flung the stones lying at their feet upon the enemy as they came up. Many were hit, and through the disorder thus created they were forced back from the higher ground.In this way the Roman left wing was nearly overwhelmed, but through the reproaches which the consul cast upon his retreating men for their rashness as well as their cowardice, he made their fear give way to the sense of shame.

At first they stood and offered a firm resistance, then when by holding their ground they had recovered their energies they ventured upon an advance. With a renewed shout the whole line went forward, and pressing on in a second charge they surmounted the difficulties of the ascent,

and were just on the point of reaching the summit when the enemy turned and fled. With a wild rush, pursuers and fugitives almost in one mass dashed into the camp,

which was taken. Those of the Volscians who succeeded in escaping made for Antium; thither the Roman army was led. After a few days' investment the place was surrendered, not owing to any unusual efforts on the part of the besiegers, but simply because after the unsuccessful battle and the loss of their camp the enemy had lost heart.

For the year following the capture of Antium, Titus Aemilius and Quinctius Fabius were made consuls. This was the Fabius who was the sole survivor of the extinction of his house at the Cremera.1

Aemilius had already in his former consulship advocated the grant of land to the plebeians. As he was now consul for the second time, the agrarian party entertained hopes that the Law would be carried out; the tribunes took the matter up in the firm expectation that after so many attempts they would gain their cause, now that one consul, at all events, was supporting them; the consul's views on the question remained unchanged.

Those in occupation of the land-the majority of the patricians complained that the head of the State was adopting the methods of the tribunes and making himself popular by giving away other people's property, and in this way they shifted all the odium from the tribunes on to the consul.

There was every prospect of a serious contest, had not Fabius smoothed matters by a suggestion acceptable to both sides, namely, that as there was a considerable quantity of land which had been taken from the Volscians the previous year, under

the auspicious general-ship of T. Quinctius, a colony might be settled at Antium, which, as a seaport town, and at no great distance from Rome, was a suitable city for the purpose.

This would allow the plebeians to enter on public land without any injustice to those in occupa-tion, and so harmony would be restored to the State. This suggestion was adopted. He appointed as the three commis-sioners for the distribution of the land, T. Quinctius, A. Verginius, and P. Furius.

Those who wished to receive a grant were ordered to give in their names. As usual, abundance produced disgust,2 and so few gave in their names that the number was made up by the addition of Volscians as colonists.

The rest of the people preferred to ask for land at Rome rather than accept it elsewhere. The Aequi sought for peace from Q. Fabius, who had marched against them, but they broke it by a sudden incursion into Latin territory.

In the following year, Q. Servilius —for he was consul with Sp. Postumius —was sent against the Aequi, and fixed his entrenched camp on Latin territory. His army was attacked by an epidemic and compelled to remain inactive.

The war was protracted into the third year, when Quinctius Fabius and T. Quinctius were the consuls. As Fabius after his victory had granted peace to the Aequi, they were by special edict assigned to him as his sphere of operation.

He set out in the firm belief that the renown of his name would dispose them to peace; accordingly he sent envoys to their national council who were instructed to carry a message from Q. Fabius the consul to the effect that as he had brought peace from the Aequi to Rome, so now he was bringing war from Rome to the Aequi, with the same right hand, now armed, which he had formerly given to them as a pledge of peace.

The gods were now the witnesses and would soon be the avengers of those through whose perfidy and perjury this had come about.

In any case, however, he would rather that the Aequi should repent of their own accord than suffer at the hands of an enemy; if they did repent they could safely throw themselves on the clemency they had already experienced, but if they

found pleasure in perjuring themselves, they would be warring more against the angered gods than against earthly foes.

These words, however, had so little effect that the envoys barely escaped maltreatment, and an army was despatched to Mount Algidus against the Romans. On this being reported at Rome, feelings of indignation rather than apprehension of danger hurried the other consul out of the City.

So two armies under the command of both consuls advanced against the enemy in battle formation, to bring about an immediate engagement. But, as it happened, not much daylight remained, and a soldier called out from the enemies outposts: “This, Romans, is making a display of war, not waging it.

You form your line when night is at hand; we need more daylight for the coming battle. When tomorrow's sun is rising, get into line again. There will be an ample opportunity of fighting, do not fear!”

Smarting under these taunts the soldiers were marched back into camp, to wait for the next day. They thought the coming night a long one, as it delayed the contest; after returning to camp they refreshed themselves with food and sleep. When the next day dawned the Roman line was formed some time before that of the enemy. At length the Aequi advanced.

The fighting was fierce on both sides; the Romans fought in an angry and bitter temper; the Aequi, conscious of the danger in which their misdoing had involved them, and hopeless of ever being trusted in the future, were compelled to make a desperate and final effort.

They did not, however, hold their ground against the Roman army, but were defeated and forced to retire within their frontiers. The spirit of the rank and file of the army was unbroken and not a whit more inclined to peace.

They censured their generals because they staked all on one pitched battle, a mode of fighting in which the Romans excelled, whereas the Aequi, they said, were better at destructive forays and raids; numerous bands acting in all directions would be more successful than if massed in one great army.

Accordingly, leaving a detachment to guard the camp, they sallied forth, and made such devastating forays in the Roman territory that the terror they caused extended even to the City.

The alarm was all the greater because such proceedings were quite unexpected. For nothing was less to be feared than that an enemy who had been defeated and almost surrounded in his camp should think of

predatory incursions, whilst the panic-stricken country people, pouring in at the gates and exaggerating everything in their wild alarm, exclaimed that they were not mere raids or small bodies of plunderers, entire armies of the enemy were near, preparing to swoop down on the City in force.

Those who were nearest carried what they heard to others, and the vague rumours became still more exaggerated and false. The running and clamour of men shouting “To arms!” created nearly as great a panic as though the City was actually taken.

Fortunately the consul Quinctius had returned to Rome from Algidus. This relieved their fears, and after allaying the excitement and rebuking them for being afraid of a defeated enemy, he stationed troops to guard the gates.

The senate was then convened, and on their authority he proclaimed a suspension of all business; after which he set out to protect the frontier, leaving Q. Servilius as prefect of the City.

He did not, however, find the enemy. The other consul achieved a brilliant success. He ascertained by what routes the parties of the enemy would come, attacked each while laden with plunder and therefore hampered in their movements, and made their plundering expeditions fatal to them.

Few of the enemy escaped; all the plunder was recovered. The consul's return put an end to the suspension of business, which lasted four days.

Then the census was made and the “lustrum” closed by Quinctius. The numbers of the census are stated to have been one hundred and four thousand seven hundred and fourteen, exclusive of widows

and orphans. Nothing further of any importance occurred amongst the Aequi. They withdrew into their towns and looked on passively at the rifling and burning of their homesteads. After repeatedly marching through the length and breadth of the enemies' territory and carrying destruction everywhere, the consul returned to Rome with immense glory and immense spoil.

The next consuls were A. Postumius Albus and Sp. Furius Fusus. Some writers call the Furii, Fusii. I mention this in case any one should suppose that the different names denote different people.

It was pretty certain that one of the consuls would continue the war with the Aequi. They sent, accordingly, to the Volscians of Ecetra for assistance. Such was the rivalry between them as to which should show the most inveterate enmity to Rome, that the assistance was readily granted, and preparations for war were carried on with the utmost energy.

The Hernici became aware of what was going on and warned the Romans that Ecetra had revolted to the Aequi. The colonists of Antium were also suspected, because on the capture of that town a large number of the inhabitants had taken refuge with the Aequi, and they were the most efficient soldiers throughout the war.

When the Aequi were driven into their walled towns, this body was broken up and returned to Antium.

There they found the colonists already disaffected, and they succeeded in completely alienating them from Rome. Before matters were ripe, information was laid before the senate that a revolt was in preparation, and the consuls were instructed to summon the chiefs of the colony to Rome and question them as to what was going on.

They came without any hesitation, but after being introduced by the consuls to the senate, they gave such unsatisfactory replies that heavier suspicion attached to them on their departure than on their arrival.

War was certain. Sp. Furius, the consul to whom the conduct of the war had been assigned, marched against the Aequi and found them committing depredations in the territory of the Hernici. Ignorant of their strength, because they were nowhere all in view at once, he rashly joined battle with inferior forces.

At the first onset he was defeated, and retired into his camp, but he was not out of danger there. For that night and the next day the camp was surrounded and attacked with such vigour that not even a messenger could be despatched to Rome.

The news of the unsuccessful action and the investment of the consul and his army was brought by the Hernici, and created such an alarm in the senate that they passed a decree in a form which has never been used except under extreme emergencies. They charged Postumius to “see that the commonwealth suffered no hurt.”

It was thought best that the consul himself should remain in Rome to enrol all who could bear arms, whilst T. Quinctius was sent as his representative to relieve the camp with an army furnished by the

allies. This force was to be made up of the Latins and the Hernici, whilst the colony at Antium was to supply “subitary” troops —a designation then applied to hastily raised auxiliary troops.

Numerous maneuvers and skirmishes took place during these days, because the enemy with his superior numbers was able to attack the Romans from many points and so wear out their strength, as they were not able to meet them everywhere.

Whilst one part of their army attacked the camp, another was sent to devastate the Roman territory, and, if a favourable opportunity arose, to make an attempt on the City itself.

L. Valerius was left to guard the City, the consul Postumius was sent to repel the raids on the frontier.

No precaution was omitted, no exertion spared; detachments were posted in the City, bodies of troops before the gates, veterans manned the walls, and as a necessary measure in a time of such disturbance, a cessation of public business was ordered for some days.

In the camp, meanwhile, the consul Furius, after remaining inactive during the first days of the siege, made a sortie from the “decuman” gate and surprised the enemy, and though he could have pursued him, he refrained from doing so, fearing lest the camp might be attacked from the other

side. Furius, a staff officer and brother of the consul, was carried too far in the charge, and did not notice, in the excitement of the pursuit, that his own men were returning and that the enemy were coming upon him from behind. Finding himself cut off, after many fruitless attempts to cut his way back to camp, he fell fighting

desperately. The consul, hearing that his brother was surrounded, returned to the fight, and whilst he plunged into the thick of the fray was wounded, and with difficulty rescued by those round him. This incident damped the courage of his own men and raised that of the enemy, who were so inspirited by the death of a staff officer and the wound of the consul that the Romans, who had been driven back to their camp and again besieged, were no longer a match for them either in spirits or fighting

strength. Their utmost efforts failed to keep the enemy in check, and they would have been in extreme danger had not T. Quinctius come to their assistance with foreign troops, an army composed of Latin and Hernican

contingents. As the Aequi were directing their whole attention to the Roman camp and exultingly displaying the staff officer's head he attacked them in rear, whilst at a signal given by him a sortie was made simultaneously from the camp and a large body of the enemy were

surrounded. Amongst the Aequi who were in the Roman territory there was less loss in killed and wounded, but they were more effectually scattered in flight. Whilst they were dispersed over the country with their plunder, Postumius attacked them at various points where he had posted

detachments. Their army was thus broken up into scattered bodies of fugitives, and in their flight they fell in with Quinctius, returning from his victory, with the wounded consul. The consul's army fought a brilliant action and avenged the wounds of the consuls and the slaughter of the staff officer and his

cohorts. During those days great losses were inflicted and sustained by both

sides. In a matter of such antiquity it is difficult to make any trustworthy statement as to the exact number of those who fought or those who fell. Valerius of Antium, however, ventures to give definite totals. He puts the Romans who fell in Hernican territory at 5800, and the Antiates who were killed by A. Postumius whilst raiding the Roman territory at 2400. The rest who fell in with Quinctius whilst carrying off their plunder got off with nothing like so small a loss; he gives as the exact number of their killed, 4230.

On the return to Rome, the order for the cessation of all public business was revoked. The sky seemed to be all on fire, and other portents were either actually seen, or people in their fright imagined that they saw them. To avert these alarming omens, public intercessions were ordered for three days, during which all the temples were filled with crowds of men and women imploring the protection of the

gods. After this the Latin and Hernican cohorts received the thanks of the senate for their services and were dismissed to their homes. The thousand soldiers from Antium who had come after the battle, too late to help, were sent back almost with ignominy.

Then the elections were held and L. Aebutius and P. Servilius were chosen as consuls; they entered upon office on August I, which was then the commencement of the consular year.

The season was a trying one, and that year happened to be a pestilential one both for the City, and the rural districts, for the flocks and herds quite as much as for human beings.

The violence of the epidemic was aggravated by the crowding into the City of the country people and their cattle through fear of raids. This promiscuous collection of animals of all kinds became offensive to the citizens, through the unaccustomed smell, and the country people, crowded as they were into confined dwellings, were distressed by the oppressive heat which made it impossible to sleep.

Their being brought into contact with each other in ordinary intercourse helped to spread the disease. Whilst they were hardly able to bear up under the pressure of this calamity, envoys from the Hernici announced that the Aequi and Volscians had united their forces, had entrenched their camp within their territory, and were ravaging their frontier with an immense army.

The allies of Rome not only saw in the thinly-attended senate an indication of the widespread suffering caused by the epidemic, but they had also to carry back the melancholy reply that the Hernici must, in conjunction with the Latins, undertake their own defence.

Through a sudden visitation of the angry gods, the City of Rome was being ravaged by pestilence; but if any respite from the evil should come, then she would send succour to her allies as she had done the year before and on all previous occasions.

The allies departed, carrying home in answer to the gloomy tidings they had brought a still more gloomy response, for they had in their own strength to sustain a war which they had hardly been equal to when supported by the power of Rome. The enemy no longer confined himself to the country of the Hernici, he went on to destroy the fields of Rome, which were already lying waste without having suffered the ravages of war.

He met no one, not even an unarmed peasant, and after overrunning the country, abandoned as it was by its defenders and even devoid of all cultivation, he reached the third milestone from Rome on the Gabian road. Aebutius, the consul, was dead, his colleague Servilius was still breathing, with little hope of recovery, most of the leading men were down, the majority of the senators, nearly all the men of military age, so that not only was their strength unequal to an expeditionary force such as the position of affairs required, but it hardly allowed of their mounting guard for home defence.

The duty of sentinel was discharged in person by those of the senators whose age and health allowed them to do so; the Aediles of the plebs were responsible for their inspection. On these magistrates had devolved the consular authority and the supreme control of affairs.

The helpless commonwealth, deprived of its head and all its strength, was saved by its guardian deities and the fortune of the City, who made the Volscians and Aequi think more of plunder than of their enemy.

For they had no hope of even approaching the walls of Rome, still less of effecting its capture. The distant view of its houses and its hills, so far from alluring them repelled them.

Everywhere throughout their camp angry remonstrances arose: “Why were they idly wasting their time in a waste and deserted land amid plague stricken beasts and men while they could find places free from infection in the territory of Tusculum with its abundant wealth?” They hastily plucked up their standards, and by cross-marches through the fields of Labici they reached the hills of Tusculum. All the violence and storm of war was now turned in this direction. Meantime the Hernici and Latins joined their forces and proceeded to Rome.

They were actuated by a feeling not only of pity but also of the disgrace they would incur if they had offered no opposition to their common foe while he was advancing to attack Rome, or had brought no succour to those who were their allies.

Not finding the enemy there, they followed up their traces from the information supplied them, and met them as they were descending from the hills of Tusculum into the valley of Alba. Here a very one-sided action was fought, and their fidelity to their allies met with little success for the time.

The mortality in Rome through the epidemic was not less than that of the allies through the sword. The surviving consul died; amongst other illustrious victims were M. Valerius and T. Verginius Rutilus, the augurs, and Ser. Sulpicius, the “Curio Maximus.”

Amongst the common people the violence of the epidemic made great ravage. The senate, deprived of all human aid, bade the people betake themselves to prayers; they with their wives and children were ordered to go as suppliants and entreat the gods to be

gracious. Summoned by public authority to do what each man's misery was constraining him to do, they crowded all the temples. Prostrate matrons, sweeping with their dishevelled hair the temple floors, were everywhere imploring pardon from offended heaven, and entreating that an end might be put to the pestilence.