History of Rome, books 1-10

The responsibility for the delay rested more with the senate than with the consular tribunes; they heard that the garrison were offering a most determined resistance, and they did not reflect that there are limits to human strength which no amount of courage can transcend.

The gallant soldiers were not unavenged either in their lives or their deaths. The following year the consular tribunes were P. Cornelius Cossus, Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus, Numerius Fabius Ambustus, and L. Valerius Potitus.

Owing to the action of the senate of Veii, a war with that city was threatened.

The envoys whom Rome had sent to demand satisfaction received the insolent reply that unless they speedily departed from the city and crossed the frontiers the Veientines would give them what Lars Tolumnius had given.

The senate were indignant and passed a decree that the consular tribunes should bring before the people at the earliest possible day a proposal to declare war against Veii. No sooner was the subject brought forward than the men who were liable for service protested.

They complained that the war with the Volscians had not been brought to a close, the garrisons of two forts had been annihilated, and the forts, though recaptured, were held with difficulty,

there was not a single year in which there was not fighting, and now, as if they had not enough work on hand, they were preparing for a fresh war with a most powerful neighbour who would rouse the whole of Etruria.

This disaffection amongst the plebs was fanned by their tribunes,

who were continually giving out that the most serious war was the one going on between the senate and the plebs, who were purposely harassed by war and exposed to be butchered by the enemy and kept as it were in banishment far from their homes lest the quiet of city life might awaken memories of their liberties and lead them to discuss schemes for distributing the State lands amongst colonists and securing a free exercise of their franchise.

They got hold of the veterans, counted up each man's campaigns and wounds and scars, and asked what blood was still left in him which could be shed for the State.

By raising these topics in public speeches and private conversations they produced amongst the plebeians a feeling of opposition to the projected war. The subject was therefore dropped for the time, as it was evident that in the then state of opinion it would, if brought forward, be rejected.

Meantime the consular tribunes decided to lead the army into the territory of the Volscians; Cnaeus Cornelius was left in charge of the City.

The three tribunes ascertained that there was no camp of the Volscians anywhere, and that they would not risk a battle, so they divided into three separate forces to ravage the country.

Valerius made Antium his objective; Cornelius, Ecetrae. Wherever they marched they destroyed the homesteads and crops far and wide to divide the forces of the Volscians. Fabius marched to Anxur, which was the chief objective, without losing time in devastating the country.

This city is now called Terracina; it was built on the side of a hill and sloped down to the marshes. Fabius made a show of attacking the city on that side.

Four cohorts were despatched with C. Servilius Ahala by a circuitous route to seize the hill which overhung the town on the other side. After doing so they made an attack amidst loud shouts and uproar from their higher position upon that part of the town where there was no defence.

Those who were holding the lower part of the city against Fabius were stupefied with astonishment at the noise, and this gave him time to plant his scaling ladders. The Romans were soon in all parts of the city, and for some time a ruthless slaughter went on of fugitives and fighters, armed and unarmed alike.

As there was no hope of quarter, the defeated enemy were compelled to keep up the fight, till suddenly an order was issued that none but those taken with arms should be injured. On this the whole of the population threw down their arms; prisoners to the number of 2500 were taken.

Fabius would not allow his men to touch

the other spoils of war until the arrival of his colleagues, for those armies too had taken their part in the capture of Anxur, since they had prevented the Volscians from coming to its relief.

On their arrival the three armies sacked the town, which, owing to its long-continued prosperity, contained much wealth.

This generosity on the part of the generals was the first step towards the reconciliation of the plebs and the senate. This was followed by a boon which the senate, at a most opportune moment, conferred on the plebeians. Before the question was mooted either by the plebs or their tribunes, the senate decreed that the soldiery should receive pay from the public treasury. Previously, each man had served at his own expense.

Nothing, it is recorded, was ever welcomed by the plebs with such delight; they crowded round the Senate-house, grasped the hands of the senators as they came out, acknowledged that they were rightly called “Fathers,” and declared that after what they had done no one would ever spare his person or his blood, as long as any strength remained, for so generous a country.

They saw with pleasure that their private property at all events would rest undisturbed at such times as they were impressed and actively employed in the public service, and the fact of the boon being spontaneously offered, without any demand on the part of their tribunes, increased their happiness and gratitude immensely.

The only people who did not share the general feeling of joy and goodwill were the tribunes of the plebs. They asserted that the arrangement would not turn out such a pleasant thing for the senate or such a benefit to the whole community as they supposed. The policy was more attractive at first sight than it would prove in actual practice.

From what source, they asked, could the money be raised; except by imposing a tax on the people? They were generous at other people's expense. Besides, those who had served their time would not, even if the rest approved, permit others to serve on more favourable terms than they themselves had done and after having had to provide for their own expenses, now provide for those of others. These arguments influenced some of the plebeians.

At last, after the tax had been imposed, the tribunes actually gave notice that they would protect any one who refused to contribute to the war tax.

The senators were determined to uphold a measure so happily inaugurated, they were themselves the first to contribute, and as coined money was not yet introduced, they carried the copper by weight in wagons to the treasury, thereby drawing public attention to the fact of their contributing.

After the senators had contributed most conscientiously the full amount at which they were assessed, the leading plebeians, personal friends of the nobles, began, as had been agreed, to pay in their share.

When the crowd saw these men applauded by the senate and looked up to by the men of military age as patriotic citizens, they hastily rejected the proffered protection of the tribunes and vied with one another in their

eagerness to contribute. The proposal authorising the declaration of war against Veii was carried, and the new consular tribunes marched thither an army composed to a large extent of men who volunteered for service.

These tribunes were T. Quinctius Capitolinus, Q. Quinctius Cincinnatus, C. Julius Julus —for the second time —Aulus Manlius, L. Furius Medullinus —for the third time —and Manius Aemilius Mamercus.

It was by them that Veii was first invested. Immediately after the siege had commenced, a largely-attended meeting of the national council of the Etruscans was held at the fane of Voltumna, but no decision was arrived at as to whether the Veientines should be defended by the armed strength of

the whole nation. The following year the siege was prosecuted with less vigour owing to some of the tribunes and a portion of the army being called off to the Volscian war.

The consular tribunes for the year were C. Valerius Potitus —for the third time —Manius Sergius Fidenas, P. Cornelius Maluginensis, Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus, Kaeso Fabius Ambustus, and Spurius Nautius Rutilus —for the second time.

A pitched battle was fought with the Volscians between Ferentinum and Ecetrae, which resulted in favour of the Romans.

Then the tribunes commenced the siege of Artena, a Volscian town. In attempting a sortie the enemy were driven back into the town, giving thereby an opportunity to the Romans of forcing an entrance, and with the exception of the citadel the whole place was captured.

A body of the enemy retired into the citadel, which was protected by the nature of its position; below the citadel many were killed or taken prisoners. The citadel was then invested, but it could not be taken by assault as the defenders were quite sufficient for the extent of the fortifications, nor was there any hope of its surrendering, as all the corn from the public magazines had been conveyed there before the city was taken.

The Romans would have retired in disgust had not a slave betrayed the place to them.

The soldiers, guided by him up some steep ground, effected its capture, and after they had massacred those on guard, the rest, panic-struck, surrendered. After the town and citadel had been demolished, the legions were withdrawn from Volscian territory and the whole strength of Rome was directed against Veii.

The traitor was rewarded not only with his freedom, but also with the property of two households, and was called Servius Romanus. Some suppose that Artena belonged to the Veientines, not the Volscians.

The mistake arises from the fact that there was a city of the same name between Caere and Veii, but it was destroyed in the time of the kings of Rome, and it belonged to Caere, not Veii. The other town of the same name whose destruction I have mentioned was in the Volscian territory.

Whilst peace prevailed elsewhere, Rome and Veii were confronting each other in arms, animated by such fury and hatred that utter ruin clearly awaited the vanquished. Each elected their magistrates, but on totally different

principles. The Romans increased the number of their consular tribunes to eight —a larger number than had ever been elected before. They were Manius Aemilius Mamercus —for the second time —L. Valerius Potitus —for the third time —Appius Claudius Crassus, M. Quinctilius Varus, L. Julius Julus, M. Postumius, M. Furius Camillus, and M. Postumius Albinus. The Veientines, on the other hand, tired of the annual canvassing for office, elected a

king. This gave great offence to the Etruscan cantons, owing to their hatred of monarchy and their personal aversion to the one who was

elected. He was already obnoxious to the nation through his pride of wealth and overbearing temper, for he had put a violent stop to the festival of the Games, the interruption of which is an act of

impiety. His candidature for the priesthood had been unsuccessful, another being preferred by the vote of the twelve cantons, and in revenge he suddenly withdrew the performers, most of whom were his own slaves, in the middle of the

Games. The Etruscans as a nation were distinguished above all others by their devotion to religious observances, because they excelled in the knowledge and conduct of them, and they decided, in consequence, that no assistance should be given to the Veientines as long as they were under a

king. The report of this decision was suppressed at Veii through fear of the king; he treated those who mentioned anything of the kind, not as authors of an idle tale, but as ringleaders of

sedition. Although the Romans had received intelligence that there was no movement on the part of the Etruscans, still, as it

was reported that the matter was being discussed in all their councils, they so constructed their lines as to present a double face, the one fronting Veii to prevent sorties from the city, the other looking towards Etruria to intercept any succour from that side.

As the Roman generals placed more reliance on a blockade than on an assault, they began to build huts for winter quarters, a novelty to the Roman soldier. Their plan was to keep up the war through the winter. The tribunes of the plebs had for a long time been unable to find any pretext for creating a revolt.

When, however, news of this was brought to Rome, they dashed off to the Assembly and produced great excitement by declaring that this was the reason why it had been settled to pay the troops. They, the tribunes, had not been blind to the fact that this gift from their adversaries would prove to be tainted with poison.

The liberties of the plebs had been bartered away, their able-bodied men had been permanently sent away, banished from the City and the State, without any regard to winter or indeed to any season of the year, or to the possibility of their visiting their homes or looking after their property. What did they think was the reason for this continuous campaigning?

They would most assuredly find it to be nothing else but the fear that if a large body of these men, who formed the whole strength of the plebs, were present, it would be possible to discuss reforms in favour of the plebeians. Besides, they were suffering much more hardship and oppression than the Veientines, for these passed the winter under their own roofs in a city protected by its magnificent walls and the natural strength of its position, whilst the Romans, amidst labour and toil, buried in frost and snow, were roughing it patiently under their skin-covered tents, and could not lay aside their arms even in the season of winter, when there is a respite from all wars, whether by land or sea.

This form of slavery, making military service perpetual, was never imposed either by the kings, or by the consuls who were so domineering before the institution of the tribuneship, or during the stern rule of the Dictator, or by the unscrupulous decemvirs —it was the consular tribunes who were exercising this regal despotism over the Roman plebs.

What would these men have done had they been consuls or Dictators, seeing that they have made their proconsular authority, which is only a shadow of the other, so outrageously cruel? But the commons had got what they had deserved.

Amongst all the eight consular tribunes not a single plebeian had found a place. Hitherto, with their utmost efforts, the patricians had usually filled only three places at a time; now a team of eight were bent on maintaining their power. Even in such a crowd not a single plebeian could get a footing, to warn his colleagues, if he could do nothing else, that those who were serving as soldiers were free men, their own fellow-citizens, and not slaves, and that they ought to be brought back, at all events in the winter, to their houses and their homes, and during some part of the year visit their parents and wives and children, and exercise their rights as free citizens in electing the magistrates. Whilst indulging in declamations of this sort, they found an opponent who was quite a match for them in Appius Claudius.

He had from early manhood taken his part in the contests with the plebs, and as stated above, had some years previously recommended the senate to break down the power of the tribunes by securing the intervention of their colleagues. He was not only a man of ready and versatile mind, but by this time an experienced debater.

He delivered the following speech on this occasion: — “If, Quirites, there has ever been any doubt as to whether it was in your interest or their own that the tribunes have always been the advocates of sedition, I feel quite certain that this year all doubt has ceased to exist. Whilst I rejoice that an end has at last been put to a long-standing delusion, I congratulate you, and on your behalf the whole State, that its removal has been effected just at the time when your circumstances are most prosperous.

Is there any one who doubts that whatever wrongs you may have at any time suffered, they never annoyed and provoked the tribunes so much as the generous treatment of the plebs by the senate, in establishing the system of pay for the soldiers?

What else do you suppose it was that they were afraid of at that time, and would today gladly upset, except the harmony of the two orders, which they look upon as most of all calculated to destroy their power? They are, really, like so many quack doctors looking for work, always anxious to find some diseased spot in the republic that there may be something which you can call them in to cure.” Then, turning to the tribunes, “Are you defending or attacking the plebs? Are you trying to injure the men on service or are you pleading their cause?

Or perhaps this is what you are saying, “Whatever the senate does, whether in the interest of the plebs or against them, we object to.”

Just as masters forbid strangers to hold any communication with their slaves, and think it right that they should abstain from showing them either kindness or unkindness, so you interdict the patricians from all dealings with the plebs, lest we should appeal to their feelings by our graciousness and generosity and secure their loyalty and obedience. How much more dutiful it would have been in you, if you had had a spark —I will not say of patriotism, but —of common humanity, to have viewed with favour, and as far as in you lay, to have fostered the kindly feelings of the patricians and the grateful goodwill of the plebeians!

And if this harmony should prove to be lasting, who would not be bold enough to guarantee that this empire will in a short time be the greatest among the neighbouring States?”

“I shall subsequently show not only the expediency but even the necessity of the policy which my colleagues have adopted of refusing to withdraw the army from Veii until their object was effected.

For the present I prefer to speak of the actual conditions under which it is serving, and if I were speaking not before you only but in the camp as well, I think that what I say would appear just and fair in the judgment of the soldiers themselves. Even if no arguments presented themselves to my mind, I should find those of my opponents quite sufficient for my purpose.

They were saying lately that pay ought not to be given to the soldiers because it never had been given. How then can they now profess indignation at those who have gained additional benefits being required to undergo additional exertion in proportion? Nowhere do we find labour without its reward, nor, as a rule, reward without some expenditure of labour.

Toil and pleasure, utterly dissimilar by nature, have been brought by nature into a kind of partnership with each other.

Formerly, the soldier felt it a grievance that he gave his services to the State at his own cost, he had the satisfaction, however, of cultivating his land for a part of the year, and acquiring the means of supporting himself and his family whether he were at home or on service.

Now he has the pleasure of knowing that the State is a source of income to him, and he is glad to receive his pay. Let him therefore take it patiently that he is a little longer absent from his home and his property, on which no heavy expense now falls.

If the State were to call him to an exact reckoning, would it not be justified in saying, “You receive a year's pay, put in a year's work. Do you think it fair to receive a whole twelve-month's pay for six months' service?”

It is with reluctance, Quirites, that I dwell on this topic, for it is those who employ mercenaries who ought to deal thus with them, but we want to deal with you as with fellow-citizens, and we think it only fair that you should deal with us as with your fatherland.” “Either the war ought not to have been undertaken, or

it ought to be conducted as befits the dignity of Rome and brought to a close as soon as possible.

It will certainly be brought to a close if we press on the siege, but not if we retire before we have fulfilled our hopes by the capture of Veii. Why, good heavens! if there were no other reason, the very discredit of the thing ought to inspire us with perseverance.

A city was once besieged by the whole of Greece for ten years, for the sake of one woman, and at what a distance from home, how many lands and seas lay between!

Are we growing tired of keeping up a siege for one year, not twenty miles off, almost within sight of the City? I suppose you think the reason for the war is a trivial one, and we do not feel enough just resentment to urge us to persevere.

Seven times have they recommenced war against us; they have never loyally kept to the terms of peace; they have ravaged our fields a thousand times; they forced the Fidenates to revolt;

they slew the colonists whom we settled there; they instigated the impious murder of our ambassadors in violation of the law of nations; they wanted to raise the whole of Etruria against us, and they are trying to do so today; when we sent ambassadors to demand satisfaction, they very nearly outraged them.”

“Are these the men with whom war ought to be carried on in a half-hearted and dilatory fashion? If such just reasons for resentment have no force with us, do not the following considerations, I pray you, possess any weight?

The city is hemmed in by immense siege-works which confine the enemy within his walls. He has not tilled his land, and what was tilled before has been devastated by war.

If we bring our army back again, has anybody the slightest doubt that they will invade our territory not only from a thirst for revenge, but also through the sheer necessity they are under of plundering other people's property since they have lost their own?

If we adopt your policy we do not postpone the war, we simply carry it within our own frontiers.” “Well, now, what about the soldiers in whom these worthy tribunes have suddenly become interested after vainly endeavouring to rob them of their pay; what about them?