Ab Urbe Condita, books 5-7 - 6

Perseus Latin · Perseus Latin · 1 sections

1
Book VI. THE history of the Romans from the founding of the City of Rome to the capture of the same —at first under kings and afterwards under consuls and dictators, decemvirs and consular tribunes —their foreign wars and their domestic dissensions, I have set forth in five books, dealing with matters which are obscure not only by reason of their great antiquity —like far-off objects which can hardly be descried —but also because in those days there was but slightly and scanty use of writing, the sole trustworthy guardian of the memory of past events, and because even such records as existed in the commentaries of the pontiffs and in other public and private documents, nearly all perished in the conflagration of the City. From this point onwards a clearer and more definite account shall be given of the City's civil and military history, when, beginning for a second time, it sprang up, as it were from the old roots, with a more luxuriant and fruitful growth. Now it stood at first by leaning on the same support by which it had raised itself up, that is on Marcus Furius, its foremost citizen; neither would men suffer him to resign the dictatorship till the completion of the year. That elections for the ensuing year should be held by the tribunes, in whose magistracy the City had been captured, was considered inadvisable, and the state reverted to an interregnum. While the citizens were engrossed in unremitting toil and labour to restore the City, Quintus Fabius had no sooner quitted his magistracy than he was indicted by Gnaeus Marcius, a tribune of the plebs, on the ground of his having fought in violation of the law of nations against the Gauls, to whom he had been sent as an envoy —a trial which he escaped by a death so opportune that the majority believed it voluntary. The interregnum began: Publius Cornelius Scipio was interrex; and after him Marcus Furius Camillus, who effected the election, as tribunes of the soldiers with consular authority, of Lucius Valerius Publicola (for the second time) Lucius Verginius, Publius Cornelius, Aulus Manlius, Lucius Aemilius, and Lucius Postumius. Having, immediately after the interregnum, entered upon their term, they consulted the senate before everything else on questions of religious observance. Among the first decrees they passed was one for searching out the treaties and laws — to wit, the twelve tables and certain laws of the kings, —so far as they could be discovered. Some of these were made accessible even to the common people, but such as dealt with sacred rites were kept private by the pontiffs, chiefly that they might hold the minds of the populace in subjection through religious fear. Then they proceeded to deliberate about days of evil omen. The 18th of July was notorious for a double misfortune, since it was on that day that the Fabii were massacred at the Cremera and that subsequently the rout at the Allia occurred, which resulted in the destruction of the City. From the latter disaster they named it the Day of the Allia, and forbade any public or private business to be done that day. Some think, because Sulpicius had, on the day after the Ides of July, made an unacceptable sacrifice, and, without having gained the divine approval, had two days later exposed the Roman army to the enemy, that therefore religious rites were omitted also on the days after the several Ides; and that afterwards it became traditional that the morrow after Kalends and Nones should likewise be avoided, from the same scruple. But the Romans were not left long to the peaceful consideration of plans for raising their state after its grievous fall. On the one hand the Volsci, their ancient foes, had armed for the purpose of extinguishing the Roman name: on the other, merchants brought word from Etruria that the leading men of all her nations had met at the shrine of Voltumna and conspired to make war. A fresh alarm, too, was occasioned by the revolt of the Latins and the Hernici, who since the battle fought at Lake Regillus had continued for close upon a hundred years, with unquestioned loyalty, in the friendship of the Roman People. And so, when such dangers threatened them on every side, and it was clear to all that the name of Rome was not only held in hatred by her enemies, but even in contempt by her allies, it was resolved that the republic should be defended under the same auspices under which it had been redeemed and that Marcus Furius Camillus should be named dictator. Being appointed dictator he designated Gaius Servilius Ahala master of the horse, and after proclaiming a cessation of legal business, held a levy of the juniors, yet without excluding such of the older men as still possessed any vigour, to whom also he administered the oath and mustered them into centuries. Having enrolled the army and equipped it, he divided it into three parts. One division he stationed in the Veientine district to confront Etruria; a second he ordered to encamp before the City. These divisions were put under the command of military tribunes, Aulus Manlius for the home troops, Lucius Aemilius for those which were being dispatched against the Etruscans. The third division he led himself against the Volsci, and not far from Lanuvium — ad Mecium the place is called —advanced to attack their camp. The enemy had gone to war from a feeling of contempt for the Romans, believing that their fighting strength had been nearly wiped out by the Gauls, but merely on hearing that Camillus was their general, they were so terrified that they protected themselves with a rampart and the rampart with a barricade of logs, that the Romans might nowhere be able to penetrate to their defences. On perceiving this, Camillus ordered his men to throw fire on the barrier. It so happened that there was a high wind blowing towards the enemy, which not only caused the blaze to open a path, but what with the flames making towards the camp, and the heat and smoke and the crackling of the green wood, so alarmed the enemy, that the Roman soldiers experienced less difficulty in scaling the fortifications of the Volscian camp than they had met with in crossing the burnt barricade. Having routed and slain his enemies and taken their camp by assault, the dictator gave the booty to his soldiers, an act which, coming unexpectedly from a commander who was by no means open-handed, was all the more acceptable to the men. Then after pursuing the fugitives and laying waste all the Volscian countryside, he forced the Volsci to surrender at last, after seventy years of war. The victor, leaving the Volsci, crossed over to the Aequi, who were themselves making preparations for war; their army he surprised at Bolae, and carried not only their camp but their city, too, at the first assault. While affairs were thus prosperous in that region where Camillus commanded for Rome, in another direction a great danger threatened. Well-nigh the whole of Etruria was in arms and was laying siege to Sutrium, an ally of the Roman People. Envoys of the Sutrines had appeared before the senate to beg for assistance in their distress, and had obtained a decree that the dictator should march to the aid of their people at the earliest opportunity. But the plight of the besieged would not admit of their waiting till this hope was realized; and the population of the little town, exhausted with the labour, guard-mounting, and wounds, which fell always to the lot of the same men, had come to terms, and having surrendered their city to the enemy, were leaving their homes in a sad procession, unarmed and with but a single garment each, when, as it chanced, Camillus appeared on the scene with a Roman army. The disconsolate rabble cast themselves at his feet, while their leading men addressed him with words drawn from them by the direst necessity and accompanied by the wailing of the women and children, who were being dragged along as the companions of their exile. He bade the Sutrines spare their lamentations; the Etruscans were those to whom he was bringing grief and tears. He then gave orders that the packs should be set down; that the Sutrines should stop there, with a small guard which he left them; and that his soldiers should take their weapons and follow him. So, with his army in light marching order, he set out for Sutrium, where he was not surprised to find everything at loose ends, as a consequence —common enough —of their success; there was no outpost before the walls; the gates were open; and the victors had dispersed and were fetching the booty out of the houses of their enemies. For the second time, therefore, on the same day, Sutrium was captured. The victorious Etruscans were everywhere slaughtered by the new enemy, and had no time given them to assemble and unite their forces or to arm. As they tried, every man for himself, to reach the gates, if by chance they might somehow escape out into the fields, they found them shut, for so the general had ordered in the beginning. After that some caught up their swords; others, whom the sudden attack had found already armed, tried to call their fellows together for a battle, and this would have been hotly fought, because of the enemy's despair, had not heralds been dispatched through the town who made proclamation that arms should be laid down and the unarmed receive quarter, and that none should suffer any violence except those that carried weapons. Then even such as had in their extremity resolved to fight to the death, now that hope of life was held out to them, began everywhere to throw down their swords, and to go unarmed —for fortune had made this the safer way —to meet their enemies. The great throng was divided among companies of guards; and before night the town was restored to the Sutrines, unharmed and without scathe of war, because it had not been carried by assault, but had been surrendered upon terms. Camillus returned to the City and triumphed for his victories in three simultaneous wars. By far the greatest number of the captives led before his chariot were Etruscans; they were sold under the spear, and fetched so large a sum that after the matrons had been repaid for their gold, the surplus sufficed to make three golden bowls, which were inscribed, as is well known, with the name of Camillus, and kept, until the burning of the Capitol, in the chapel of Jupiter, at Juno's feet. This year were received into the state such of the Veientes, Capenates, and Faliscans as had come over to the Romans in the course of these wars, and lands were allotted to these new citizens. There were also recalled from Veii to the City, by senatorial decree, those who being too indolent to build in Rome had taken possession of empty houses in Veii and had gone there to live. They had indeed murmured at first, and had flouted the order; but the designation of a day and the threat of a capital penalty for failure to return to Rome reduced them from a defiant group to obedient individuals, as each became alarmed for himself. Rome was now growing in numbers, and in every part at once new buildings were springing up; the state contributed towards the costs, and the aediles forwarded the work as though it had been public business, while the citizens themselves, incited by their desire to be using it, hurried their building to a conclusion; and within the year there was a new City standing. At the close of the year an election of military tribunes with consular powers was held. Those chosen were Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus, Quintus Servilius Fidenas (for the fifth time), Lucius Julius Iulus, Lucius Aquilius Corvus, Lucius Lucretius Tricipitinus, and Servius Sulpicius Rufus. These men led one army against the Aequi, not to war —for they confessed themselves vanquished —but from hatred, in order to waste, their territories and leave them with no strength to make new trouble; with another they invaded the district of Tarquinii, where they captured by assault the Etruscan towns Cortuosa and Contenebra. At Cortuosa there was no struggle: in a surprise attack they carried the place at the first shout and onset, and then sacked and burned it. Contenebra held out for a few days, but the continuous fighting, without respite either day or night, overcame them. The Roman army had been divided into six corps, of which each in its turn went into battle for six hours; while the townsmen were so few that the same men were exposed to an attack that was constantly renewed, until at last they gave way and afforded the Romans an opening to enter the City. The tribunes decided that the booty should go to the state, but were less prompt in issuing orders than in planning; and, while they procrastinated, it was already in the hands of the soldiers and could not be taken away without offending them. That same year, that the City might not grow in private buildings only, the Capitol was provided with a substructure of hewn stone, a work which even amidst the present splendours of the City is deserving of remark. And now, while the citizens were taken up with building, the tribunes of the plebs were trying to attract crowds to their meetings by proposals for agrarian laws. They held out hopes of the Pomptine district, of which the Romans had then for the first time —since the defeat inflicted on the Volsci by Camillus —acquired undisputed control. The tribunes brought the charge that this district was worse plagued by the nobility than it had been by the Volsci; for the latter, as long as they were strong enough and had arms, had done no more than make incursions into it; but the nobles were taking violent possession of the public domain, and unless it should be parcelled out before they seized it all, there would be no room there for the commons. They made no great impression on the plebs, who were seldom in the Forum, because they were so intent on building, and, exhausted with the expense thereby incurred, had no thought of land, which they lacked the means of stocking. The citizens were much given to religious fears, and at that time, owing to the recent calamity, even the leaders were a prey to superstition; so, in order that new auspices might be had, the state went into an interregnum. The office of interrex was successively held by Marcus Manlius Capitolinus, Servius Sulpicius Camerinus, and Lucius Valerius Potitus. Finally, the last-named held an election of military tribunes and announced that the choice had fallen on Lucius Papirius, Gaius Cornelius, Gaius Sergius, Lucius Aemilius (for the second time), Lucius Menenius and Lucius Valerius Publicola (for the third time). These men took office at the conclusion of the interregnum. In that year the temple of Mars vowed in the Gallic war was dedicated by Titus Quinctius, duumvir for sacrifices. Four additional tribes were formed out of the new citizens, the Stellatina, Tromentina, Sabatina, and Arniensis; these filled up the number of tribes to twenty-five. The question of the Pomptine territory was brought up by Lucius Sicinius, a tribune of the plebs, in popular meetings which were now more numerously attended, and by men more easily induced to covet land, than had been the case before. The senate talked also of war with the Latins and the Hernici, but dread of a greater war —Etruria being up in arms —caused them to defer it. The government passed to Camillus, as tribune of the soldiers with consular authority. He was given five colleagues: Servius Cornelius Maluginensis, Quintus Servilius Fidenas (for a sixth term), Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, Lucius Horatius Pulvillus, and Publius Valerius. Early in the year the general concern was diverted from the Etruscan war, when a band of fugitives from the Pomptine district suddenly appeared in Rome with tidings that the Antiates were in arms. The Latin communities, so they reported, had sent their soldiers to help in the war, but asserted that their government was not involved, since they had merely, as they said, not forbidden their young men to serve, as volunteers, where they liked. The Romans had ceased by this time to make light of any wars. And so the senate gave thanks to the gods that Camillus was in office, for in sooth they would have been obliged to make him dictator, if he had been a private citizen; and his colleagues declared that the general control, when any warlike danger threatened, belonged to one man alone, and that they were resolved to subordinate their own authority to Camillus; nor did they believe that there was any derogation of their own dignity in such concessions as they might make to his. The senate commended the tribunes, and Camillus himself, deeply moved, expressed his thanks. A heavy responsibility he said, was placed upon him by the Roman People, who had now elected him for the fourth time; no small one by the senate, in so judging of him; but the greatest of all proceeded from the deference accorded him by such distinguished colleagues. Accordingly, if it were possible to add to his exertions and his vigilance, he should vie with himself in an effort to make the very high opinion which his fellow citizens so unanimously entertained of him an abiding one. As for the war with the men of Antium, there was more bluster in that quarter than real danger; nevertheless, as he would have them fear nothing, so he would counsel them to despise nothing. The City of Rome was ringed about by the envy and ill-will of her neighbours; consequently there needed several generals and armies to administer the interests of the state. It is my wish, said he, that you, Publius Valerius, should share my authority and deliberations, and join me in leading the legions against the enemy at Antium; that you, Quintus Servilius, should organize and equip a second army, and maintain your camp near Rome, on the alert, in case any move should be made in the meantime from Etruria, as happened recently, or from this new source of anxiety, the Latins and Hernici; certain I am that you will discharge the commission in a manner worthy of your father, your grandfather, and yourself, and of your six tribuneships. Let a third army be enrolled by Lucius Quinctius, out of those who are invalided or over age, to defend the City and the walls. Let Lucius Horatius provide arms, missiles, corn, and what else the exigencies of the war demand. You, Servius Cornelius, we, your colleagues, appoint to be president of this state council, guardian of religious rites, of the elections, the laws, and all the affairs of the City. All promised loyally to do their best in their respective departments of their office; and Valerius, who had been selected to share in the command, added that he should regard Marcus Furius as a dictator and himself as his master of the horse; in proportion therefore to men's confidence in their unique commander should be their hopes of the outcome of the war. Whereat the senators in their enthusiasm shouted that they hoped right well of the war, and of the peace, and of the common weal in general; adding that the state would never need a dictator if it might have such men in office, united in such loving concord, equally ready to command and obey, and rather contributing to the common stock of glory than drawing upon it for their own behoof. After proclaiming a suspension of legal business and holding a levy, Furius and Valerius set out for Satricum, where the Antiates had collected not only the fighting men of the Volsci, recruited from a new generation, but also a large force of Latins and Hernici, nations which, having been long at peace, were extremely strong. The consequence of this addition of new enemies to their old ones was to trouble the spirit of the Roman soldiers. But when the centurions reported to Camillus, as he was already drawing up his line, that the men were demoralized; that they had been loath to arm and had hesitated and delayed in leaving the camp, nay, that some had even been heard to say that they would be one against a hundred in the battle, and that so great a host could hardly be withstood even though unarmed, much less when provided with weapons —being told of this, I say, Camillus vaulted upon his horse, and riding along the ranks in front of the standards, faced his troops and thus addressed them: "Soldiers, what means this gloom and this unwonted reluctance? Are you strangers to the enemy, or to me, or to yourselves? The enemy —what else are they but inexhaustible material for you to fashion into glorious deeds of valour? As for yourselves, when acting as my soldiers, though I say nothing of your capturing Falerii and Veii and routing the Gallic legions in your captured City, you celebrated, only the other day, a three-fold triumph for a triple victory over these very Volsci and Aequi and over Etruria. Or is it that I, having given you the signal not as dictator but as tribune of the soldiers, am not recognized as your commander? And yet neither do I desire supreme authority over you, nor ought you to regard in me anything but myself; for the dictatorship could never give me resolution, nor could even exile deprive me of it. We are all, therefore, exactly as we were, and since we bring the same qualities in all respects to this campaign that we brought to earlier ones, let us look forward to the same result. As soon as you have joined battle, every man will do what he has learned and has become accustomed to: you will conquer, they will run away. He then sounded the charge, and leaping from his horse, caught hold of the nearest standard bearer and hurried him towards the enemy, calling out: Forward soldiers! But when they saw Camillus, who for bodily feats was now grown old and infirm, advancing in person against the foe, they all gave a cheer and rushed forward together, and every man took up the cry of Follow the General! It is even said that Camillus bade the standard-bearer hurl his ensign into the press of enemies, and urging the front ranks to recover it, then for the first time discomfited the Antiates. The panic did not stop with the first line, but spread even to the troops in support. It was not only the dash of the Roman soldiers, inspired by their leader's presence, which overcame them; for nothing so daunted the spirits of the Volsci as the sight of Camillus himself, when they happened to encounter him —so surely, wherever he went, did he carry victory with him. This was especially apparent on the left. That wing had already nearly given way, when Camillus suddenly threw himself upon a horse, and, armed with an infantry-shield, rode up and by his presence retrieved the battle, calling out that the rest of the army was conquering. The fortune of the day had now turned, but the enemy's numbers were an obstacle even to their flight, and a great multitude remained for the weary soldiers to dispatch with long-drawn massacre, when suddenly great gusts of wind brought on a downpour of rain, which broke off what was rather a certain victory than a battle. Thereupon the recall was sounded, and the night that followed finished the campaign for the Romans, while they slept. For the Latins and Hernici abandoned the Volsci and marched off to their homes, their evil counsels rewarded with as evil an outcome; and the Volsci, perceiving themselves to be deserted by those on whom they had relied in their rebellion, forsook their camp and shut themselves up within the walls of Satricum. Camillus at first set about confining them with a palisade and mound, intending to lay siege to them; but finding the enemy made no sorties to interrupt the work, he concluded they had not sufficient resolution to make him wait so long for victory. He therefore encouraged his troops not to wear themselves out with protracted toil, as though they were besieging Veii, when victory was within their grasp; and with great alacrity on the part of the soldiers, he approached the walls from every side and captured the town with scaling ladders. The Volsci threw away their weapons and surrendered. But the general's thoughts were turning to a matter of greater moment, namely Antium, which, as being the Volscian capital, he held responsible for the last war. But because, without extensive equipment of artillery and engines, it was impossible to take so strong a town, he left his colleague in command of the army and proceeded to Rome, that he might urge the senate to undertake the destruction of Antium. While he was speaking —I suppose it was Heaven's will that the Antian state should continue somewhat longer —envoys from Nepete and Sutrium appeared, who asked for help against the Etruscans, saying that the opportunity of lending aid would soon be past. To this quarter Fortune diverted the energies of Camillus, away from Antium. For since these places were on the frontier of Etruria, and were the barriers, so to speak, and gateways of that region, the Etruscans were concerned to seize them, as often as they had any new design in hand, and the Romans to recover or defend them. The senate therefore resolved to request of Camillus that he should relinquish Antium and undertake the Etruscan war, and voted him the city levies which had been under the command of Quinctius. Although Camillus would have preferred the army, disciplined and used to his authority, which lay in the Volscian country, he made no objection, only stipulating that Valerius should be associated with him in the command. Quinctius and Horatius were dispatched to succeed Valerius against the Volsci. Leaving the City and marching to Sutrium, Furius and Valerius found that a part of the town was already captured by the Etruscans, and that in the other part the townspeople had barricaded the streets and were defending themselves with great difficulty from the onslaughts of their enemies. The arrival of succour from Rome, and particularly the great reputation which Camillus enjoyed with both friends and foes, checked for the moment the disastrous course of events and afforded time to render assistance. Accordingly, Camillus divided the army, and directed his colleague to make a circuit with his forces and to attack the walls on the side which was held by the enemy. His hope was not so much that the city would be taken by escalade, as that the enemy might be diverted to that quarter —easing thereby the strain upon the townsmen, who were already worn out with fighting —and that he might himself have an opportunity of entering the place without encountering resistance. But on this plan being put into effect simultaneously at both points, the Etruscans, finding themselves threatened on either side and seeing that the walls were being violently assailed and that the enemy was inside the city, threw themselves out by the only gate which chanced to be unguarded, in one panic-stricken throng. Great was the carnage they suffered as they fled, both in the city and in the fields. Furius's men slew more within the walls; the soldiers of Valerius were more lightly equipped for pursuit, and kept up the massacre until night made it impossible to see. Having retaken Sutrium and restored it to our allies, the army marched to Nepete, which had surrendered to the Etruscans, who were now in complete possession. It appeared likely that this town would be more troublesome to recover, not only because it was wholly in the hands of the enemy, but also because a faction of the Nepesini had betrayed their state and arranged the capitulation. It was nevertheless decided to send word to their leaders, that they should sever themselves from the Etruscans and extend to the Romans the same trusty aid which they had requested at their hands. When the reply came back that they were powerless, that the Etruscans held the walls and guarded the gates, the Romans first laid waste their fields, in an effort to frighten the townsfolk; then, when the sanctity of their surrender proved to be more binding on them than that of their alliance, they gathered osiers from the fields and made fascines, and the army being led against the walls filled up the moat, erected scaling ladders, and carried the town at the first shout and charge. The Nepesini were then commanded to lay down their weapons and the order was given to spare such as were unarmed. The Etruscans were put to death, whether armed or not. Of the Nepesini, too, those who were responsible for the surrender were executed; the innocent populace were given back their possessions, and the town was left with a garrison. After thus regaining from the enemy two cities of the allies, the victorious army under its tribunes marched gloriously back to Rome. The same year demands for reparation were made upon the Latins and the Hernici, and they were asked why, during recent years, they had furnished no soldiers, as they had agreed to do. Both nations replied in plenary assemblies that no blame or evil purpose attached to the state because a few of their young men had served with the Volsci. These men had, for that matter, paid the penalty for their distorted judgment, and not one of them had come back; as to their having furnished no soldiers, this had been due to their constant fear of the Volsci —a pest that clung so fast to them that with all that long succession of wars they had been unable to shake it off. On learning of this answer, the senators were of opinion that they lacked not so much the ground for war as a favourable opportunity. In the following year, when the consular tribunes were Aulus Manlius, Publius Cornelius, Titus and Lucius Quinctius Capitolinus, Lucius Papirius Cursor (for the second time) and Gaius Sergius (for the second time), a serious foreign war broke out, and an even more serious domestic schism. The war was set on foot by the Volsci, in conjunction with a revolt on the part of the Latins and Hernici; the schism originated where such a thing was least to be apprehended, with a man of patrician family and high renown, Marcus Manlius Capitolinus. This man, scorning, in his overweening pride, the other nobles, but envying the one who excelled them all in honours and good qualities, namely Marcus Furius, could ill endure that Camillus should at last have attained to such solitary eminence, both amongst the magistrates and in the armies, as to have those who had been chosen under the same auspices not for colleagues but for servants; whereas —if one considered the situation fairly —it would have been impossible for Marcus Furius to redeem his native City from the leaguer of her enemies, unless Manlius himself had before that saved the Capitol and Citadel. Camillus had assailed the Gauls while they were receiving the gold and while their resolution was relaxed by thoughts of peace; but he himself had driven them back, as they came on, sword in hand, in the act of taking the Citadel. Of the glory of Camillus a goodly portion belonged to all the soldiers who had conquered with him: in his own victory it was acknowledged that no mortal soever had a share. Puffed up with these opinions, and being besides, through a defect of nature, impetuous and passionate, when he perceived that his abilities did not bring him that leadership amongst the nobles which he thought they merited, he was the first of all the patricians to turn demagogue and to cast in his lot with the plebeian magistrates. He abused the nobles, he courted the favour of the plebs; and swept along by the breath of popularity and not by good counsel chose rather to be reputed great than virtuous. Moreover, not content with agrarian proposals, which had ever served the tribunes to stir up sedition, he began an attack on credit; for he held that debt was a sharper goad, since it not only threatened poverty and shame, but terrified the freeman with the thought of shackles and imprisonment. And in fact there had been a vast piling up of debts, by reason of a thing that is ruinous even to the rich, to wit, building. And so the Volscian war, grave in itself and made still graver by the defection of the Latins and Hernici, was alleged as a reason for seeking a greater authority; but the revolutionary schemes of Manlius were the more compelling cause of the senate's naming a dictator. They appointed Aulus Cornelius Cossus, who appointed as his master of the horse Titus Quinctius Capitolinus. The dictator perceived that a greater struggle was impending at home than abroad. But either the war demanded haste, or he believed that by a victory and triumph he could add power to the dictatorship itself. So he mustered his forces and proceeded to the Pomptine territory, which he had heard was invaded by a Volscian army. I doubt not that those who are surfeited with reading in all these books about endless wars waged with the Volsci will ask, as with great astonishment I did myself, on examining the historians who were nearer in point of time to those events, where the so oft defeated Volsci and Aequi got their supply of soldiers. But since the ancients have passed over this question in silence, what can I adduce other than an opinion such as everyone can by conjecture arrive at for himself? It is probable either that in the intervals between wars successive generations sprang up —as happens nowadays in the levies of the Romans —which they used for their frequent renewals of war; or that it was not always the same tribes from which they enrolled their armies —though it was always the same nation which made war; or else that there was an innumerable multitude of freemen in those regions which in our day scarce afford a scanty seed-plot for soldiers, and are only saved from becoming a waste desert by gangs of Roman slaves. In any case, all the authorities would agree that the army of the Volsci was an enormous one, although their state had recently suffered a heavy blow from the generalship and auspices of Camillus. There were, besides, additional forces of Latins and Hernici, as well as a certain number from Circeii, and even Roman colonists from Velitrae. On the morning after he had made his camp, the dictator took the auspices, and coming forth from his tent offered up a victim and besought the favour of Heaven. He then with great cheerfulness presented himself before the soldiers, who were already arming by the first rays of light, as they had been warned to do when the signal for battle should be displayed. Ours is the victory, soldiers, he exclaimed, if the gods and the soothsayers who interpret them can at all see what is coming. And so, as befits men who with sure confidence are about to fight with those who are no match for them, let us lay our javelins at our feet and arm our right hands with swords only. I would have none run out from the line, but all stand firmly planted and receive the onset of our enemies. When they have discharged their missiles without effect, and come thronging upon you where you stand, then let your blades flash out, and let every man of you bethink him that the gods are the Roman's helpers, that the gods have with fair omens sent him into battle. Do you, Titus Quinctius, hold back your cavalry and watch for the first beginning of the mellay; when you see that the lines are already close-locked, foot to foot, then loose the terrors of your horse against them, while they are taken up with another fear; charge them as they fight, and break their ranks. so horse and foot fought exactly as they had been ordered; the general failed not his legions, nor fortune the general. The hostile multitude, relying on numbers only and measuring both armies with their eyes, recklessly began the fight and as recklessly gave it up; their boldness went no further than the battle-cry, the discharge of missiles, and the first fury of the onset; the play of swords, when foot met foot, and the glance of the foeman that darted out the fire of his spirit, they could not abide. Their front was first driven in and communicated its disorder to the supports; the horsemen, too, inspired a terror of their own; next the ranks were broken at many points, and all was in commotion, and the line resembled a surging wave. Then, as soon as each began to see that with the fall of those in front his own turn to be killed would soon be coming, they turned and fled. The Romans pressed on after them, and as long as they retained their arms and withdrew in masses, it was the infantry's task to pursue them; but when the enemy were seen to be throwing away their weapons on every hand and their army to be dispersed in flight over the fields; then the cavalry squadrons were let loose, with orders not to stop to kill single fugitives and afford meanwhile an opportunity to the main body of escaping; it was sufficient if by darting missiles at them to alarm them, and by riding across their path, they should hold the column in check, till the infantry could overtake the enemy and utterly destroy them. Flight and pursuit continued until nightfall. The Volscian camp was also captured the same day and sacked, and all the booty except the persons of freemen was turned over to the soldiers. The chief part of the prisoners consisted of Latins and Hernici, not all of whom were plebeians, such as might be supposed to have served as mercenaries, but certain youths of high rank were discovered, a clear proof that their states had publicly countenanced the Volscian enemy. Some, again, were recognized as being from Circeii and from the colony at Velitrae. They were all sent to Rome, and being questioned by the chief senators, gave the same answers they had given the dictator, and in no uncertain terms laid bare the defection of their respective peoples. The dictator maintained his army in camp, not doubting in the least that the senate would declare war on those nations; when a greater disturbance broke out at home and obliged them to summon him to the City, where the sedition was increasing from day to day, and occasioned more than the usual alarm by reason of the man who was behind it. For now not only the speeches of Marcus Manlius, but his actions as well, while ostensibly democratic, were really revolutionary, considering the purpose which inspired them. A centurion renowned for military prowess had been condemned for debt. As he was being led away, Manlius caught sight of him, and hastening to his side through the midst of the Forum with his band of retainers, he laid hold of him, and exclaiming at the arrogance of the patricians, the heartlessness of the money-lenders, the sufferings of the plebs, and the merits and misfortunes of this man, Then in very truth, he cried, was it all in vain that with this right hand I saved the Capitol and the Citadel, if I am to see my fellow citizen and fellow soldier carried off a captive —as though the Gauls had conquered us —to servitude and chains! He then paid the money to the creditor in full sight of the people, and with the ceremony of the scales and bronze redeemed the debtor and set him free, to invoke the blessing of gods and men on Marcus Manlius, his liberator, the father of the Roman plebs. The man was at once received into the midst of a tumultuous throng, and added to the tumult by displaying the scars he had received in the Veientine, the Gallic, and other successive wars. While he had himself been fighting, he said, and rebuilding his ruined home, he had been overwhelmed with usury, though he had paid already many times the amount of the capital debt, for the interest always swallowed up the principal; that he beheld the light of day, the Forum, the faces of his fellow citizens, he owed to the generosity of Marcus Manlius, at whose hands he had experienced all the loving-kindness of parents; to him he solemnly devoted his remaining strength and life and blood; what ties soever bound him to native land and the gods of his state and family, bound him to one man alone. Excited by these words, the commons were already at the beck of a single man, when Manlius did another thing even better calculated to promote a general embroilment. For he gave a farm in the Veientine district, which formed the main part of his fortune, to an auctioneer to sell, — that I may not suffer one of your number, Quirites, said he, to be condemned, made over, and carried off to slavery, so long as anything of my estate remains. At this their ardour was so kindled that it was clear that in every measure, right or wrong, they would follow the champion of their liberty. Besides this he delivered in his house harangues that were full of accusation against the patricians; amongst other things, he declared, with reckless indifference to truth or falsehood, that the patricians were concealing treasures of Gallic gold, and were no longer content with possessing the state lands, unless they could also divert to their own use the money of the state —money which, if it were employed for the common weal, would suffice to clear the plebs of debt. On this hope being held out to them, the commons felt that they were indeed ill-used. When, they said, it had been necessary to raise gold for the redemption of their City from the Gauls, it had been collected by taxation; but this same gold, after being captured from the enemy, had become the spoil of a few. They therefore persistently demanded to be told where all that stolen money was hid; and when he put them off with the promise that he would tell them at the proper time, they dropped their other concerns and became one and all so absorbed in this, that it was evident he would reap no little gratitude if his report proved true, and no small offence if it turned out to be false. Such was the critical state of affairs when the dictator was sent for from the army and came to Rome. Next day he held a meeting of the senate, and having satisfied himself of the people's support, he commanded the senators not to leave him, and coming forth with a great company of them into the Comitium, he there set up his curule chair and dispatched an officer for Marcus Manlius. Being thus summoned by order of the dictator, Manlius signalled to his friends that the struggle was at hand, and advanced with a great train of followers to the tribunal. On this side were ranged the senators, on that the plebs, looking, every man of them, to his respective leader, as though they had formed up for battle. Then, having obtained silence, the dictator began: I would, said he, that I arid the senators of Rome might agree with the plebs in all things else as readily as I am confident we shall do regarding you, Manlius, and the demand I am about to make of you. I perceive that you have caused the citizens to hope that the money which has been lent may be repaid, without injury to credit, out of Gallic treasure which prominent patricians are concealing. This proposal I am so far from hindering, that on the contrary I exhort you, Marcus Manlius, to free the Roman plebs from usury, and dislodge from their secret hoards those men who are brooding jealously over the public treasure; which if you do not, whether that you may share the spoil yourself, or because your story is a lie, I shall order you into custody, nor suffer you any longer to excite the multitude with delusive hopes. To this Manlius replied that he had not failed to perceive that the appointment of a dictator was aimed, not at the Volsci, who were enemies whenever it suited the convenience of the patricians, nor at the Latins and Hernici, whom they were driving by false accusations to take up arms, but at himself and the Roman plebs. And now they had dropped their pretended war and were attacking him; now the dictator was coming out as the champion of the money-lenders against the plebs; and they were seeking now to derive from the people's friendliness to him some charge that might lead to his destruction. Does it offend you, he asked, Aulus Cornelius, and you, Conscript Fathers, that a crowd attends me? Why do you not take it from me by doing, each of you, acts of kindness, by saving debtors, by rescuing your fellow citizens from prison, by preventing the enslavement of those who have been condemned and assigned, by employing your superfluity of wealth to sustain the necessities of others? But why should I ask of you that you spend of your own money? Receive what is outstanding of the original debts, after deducting from the principal what has been paid in interest, and my retinue will soon attract no more notice than any man's. But why, you will ask, am I the only man to be concerned for my fellow citizens? I can no more answer you than if you were to ask why I was the only man to save the Capitol and Citadel. As then —to the best of my ability —I helped the people at large, so now will I help single persons. And touching the Gallic treasure —the thing itself is simple, but your questioning makes it difficult. For why do you ask about a thing you know? Why do you bid us shake out what is in your purses, and not rather lay it down yourselves —unless there is some cheat involved? The more you bid us expose your sleight-of-hand, the more I fear you may have robbed us even of our eyes, while we were watching you. And so it is not I that must be forced to tell of your plunder, but you that must be compelled to give it up. But the dictator bade him cease to quibble, and insisted that he should either make his indictment good or confess to the crime of having accused the senate falsely and exposed it to the unmerited odium of a charge of theft; and when Manlius refused to speak at the pleasure of his enemies, he commanded him to be imprisoned. On being arrested by the attendant, Manlius cried out, Jupiter Optimus Maximus, and Queen Juno and Minerva, and all ye other gods and goddesses that dwell in the Capitol and in the Citadel, is it thus ye suffer your soldier and protector to be tormented by his adversaries? Shall this right arm wherewith I routed the Gauls from your shrines be now chained and fettered? There was none that could endure to behold or hear this shame; but there were certain rules of conduct which the citizens, deeply submissive to regular authority, had made inviolable; nor did either the tribunes of the plebs or the plebs themselves dare to lift their eyes or open their mouths against the power of the dictator. But after Manlius was cast into gaol, it is certain that a great part of the people put on mourning, and that many men permitted their hair and beards to grow, and that a mournful throng hung about the entrance to the prison. The dictator triumphed over the Volsci, but gained more ill-will thereby than glory; for men murmured that he had earned it, not in the field, but at home, not over an enemy, but over a citizen; one thing only had been lacking to his arrogance, in that Marcus Manlius had not been led before his car. By this time the feeling was grown well-nigh seditious; and to appease it the senate —though none demanded it —became all at once a voluntary giver, and commanded two thousand Roman citizens to be led out to plant a colony at Satricum. Two iugera and a half of land were allotted them; but since they chose to regard it as too little, and only given to a few, and as being the price of Manlius's condemnation, the remedy but aggravated the sedition. And now the Manlian party were more conspicuous than before, both for their sordid dress and for the sorrowful countenances of defendants; men's fears had been removed by the abdication of the dictator, following his triumph, and their tongues and spirits had been set free. Accordingly one began to hear the opinion openly expressed that the people were to blame, because they always by their favours raised their champions to a dizzy eminence, and then at the critical juncture left them in the lurch: it had been so with Spurius Cassius and with Spurius Maelius, of whom the former was destroyed while summoning the people to the land, and the latter while endeavouring at his own expense to stave off starvation from his fellow citizens; it was so with Marcus Manlius, who, finding a part of the citizens overwhelmed and sunk in debt, was dragging them out into light and liberty, when they betrayed him to his adversaries; the plebs fattened their own defenders for the shambles. Was this the penalty a consular must undergo, if he answered not when the dictator nodded to him? Let them assume that he had lied before, and for that reason was then unable to reply: what slave had ever been cast into prison for a lie? Did they not recall that night which had almost been the last eternal night of the Roman name? Could they not see the line of Gauls scaling the Tarpeian Rock? Could they not see Marcus Manlius himself, as they had seen him, covered with sweat and blood, when he had rescued as it were Jupiter himself from the hands of our enemies? Had their half-pound measures of meal requited the saviour of their country? Would they suffer one whom they had well-nigh made a god, and in surname, at any rate, the equal of Jupiter Capitolinus, to be confined in prison, and to draw his breath in darkness, at the mercy of the executioner? When one man had been quite able to help them all, was there no help in so many men for one? By this time the crowd would not even leave the place at night and were threatening that they would force the gaol, when suddenly, just as they were about to rescue Manlius, the senate voted to release him —an act which, instead of ending the sedition, supplied it with a leader. At about this time came Latins and Hernici, with colonists from Circeii and from Velitrae, to clear themselves of the charge of joining in the Volscian war and to ask for the release of the captives, that they might punish them in accordance with their own laws. They were harshly answered —especially the colonists, because, though Roman citizens, they had formed the impious design of attacking their native country. And so they were not only denied the captives, but received a rebuke which the allies were spared; being commanded in the name of the senate to make haste and depart the City, out of the presence and sight of the Roman People, lest they should find no protection in the rights of envoys, which were meant for foreigners, not for citizens. The sedition of Manlius was breaking out afresh, towards the end of the year, when an election was held which resulted in the choice of the following consular tribunes: Servius Cornelius Maluginensis (for the second time), Publius Valerius Potitus (for the second), Marcus Furius Camillus (for the fifth), Servius Sulpicius Rufus (for the second), Gaius Papirius Crassus, and (for the second time) Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus. The peace which was enjoyed in the early part of this year was equally advantageous to the patricians and to the plebs; to the plebs because, not being called to service by the levy, they had hopes that they might be able under their powerful leader to storm the stronghold of usury; to the patricians, because they desired not to be diverted by any foreign peril from healing the sores of the state. Accordingly both sides had taken the field with much more spirit, and the hour of conflict was now at hand. Manlius indeed was inviting the plebeians to his house, and night and day discussing with their leaders plans for accomplishing the revolution, for he was much bolder and more resentful than before. His wrath had been kindled by his recent humiliations, for his pride was a stranger to insult; and his courage had waxed, as he considered that the dictator had not dared to serve him as Quinctius Cincinnatus had served Spurius Maelius, and that his imprisonment had aroused such hatred as not only the dictator had resigned his office to escape, but even the senate had been unable to endure. At once elated and exasperated by these thoughts, he began to work upon the already excited emotions of the plebs. How long, pray, he asked them, will you remain ignorant of your own strength, which nature has willed that even brutes shall know? At least count up your numbers and the number of your adversaries. For as many as you were that gathered as clients about a single patron, so many shall you now be against a single enemy. If you were going to meet them man for man, I should still believe that you would fight more fiercely for your liberty than they for domination. Make but a show of war, and you shall have peace. Let them see you ready to resist, and they will give you your rights of their own accord. We must all unite in some bold stroke, or else, divided, submit to every evil. How long will you keep looking round for me? It is true I shall not fail a single one of you; but you must see to it that fortune fail not me. I myself, your champion, was suddenly brought to naught, when it pleased your enemies; and you all beheld that man dragged off to prison who had protected each of yourselves from imprisonment. What can I expect, if my enemies grow bolder? Must I look forward to dying like Cassius and Maelius? You do well to express abhorrence. The gods will forbid such a thing; but they will never come down from heaven on my account; they must give you the inspiration to forbid it, as they gave me, in war and in peace, the inspiration to defend you from the barbarity of your foes and the arrogance of your fellow citizens. Is there so little spirit in this great people that you are always satisfied with the help your tribunes lend you against your adversaries, and never quarrel with the senators, save as to the length you will suffer them to go in ruling you? And this is no native trait in you, but you are slaves by use. Why, pray, are you so high and mighty with foreigners as to deem yourselves meet to be their lords? It is because you have been used to vie with them for sovereignty; but against these men, though you make attempts at gaining your liberty, you are not used to defend it. Nevertheless, with such leaders as you have had, and such courage as you yourselves could muster, you have thus far obtained, by violence or good fortune, whatever you have sought. The time has come to attempt even greater things. Do but make trial of your own good fortune and of me, whom, as I think, you have already happily proved; you will find it less trouble to impose a ruler on the patricians, than you encountered in imposing tribunes on them to resist their rule. Dictatorships and consulships must be levelled with the ground, that the Roman plebs may be enabled to lift its head. Stand by me, then; prevent all court-proceedings regarding moneys; I avow myself the patron of the commons —a title with which my zeal and loyalty have invested me: if you choose to give your leader a more striking title of authority or honour, you will find him the more able to make good your wishes. It was thus, they say, that the agitation for kingly power was begun; but there is no very clear tradition with whom or to what length his plans were matured. On the other side the senate were discussing the secret gathering of the plebs in a private house —a house, too, that, as it happened, was situated in the Citadel —and the grave danger that threatened liberty. The majority exclaimed that a Servilius Ahala was needed, one who would not exasperate a public enemy by ordering his imprisonment, but would sacrifice a single citizen to end a domestic war. However, they had recourse to a proposal which sounded milder, though its force was identical, namely, that the magistrates should see to it that the republic took no harm by the ruinous devices of Marcus Manlius. Thereupon the consular tribunes and the tribunes of the plebs —for they too, perceiving that their own authority would come to an end with the general liberty, had made their submission to the Fathers —all these men, I say, thereupon took counsel together, what was needful to be done. They could none of them see any way but violence and bloodshed, which would clearly involve a mighty struggle, when Marcus Menenius and Quintus Publilius, tribunes of the plebs, addressed them as follows: Why do we make a conflict between patricians and plebeians out of what ought to be the quarrel of the state with a single pestilent citizen? Why in attacking him do we attack the plebs as well, when it is safer to attack him by the help of this same plebs, that his very strength may bring about his ruin? We propose to summon him to trial. Nothing is less popular than kingly power. As soon as the populace, perceiving that our quarrel is not with them, are changed from supporters into judges, and see that the prosecutors are plebeians, the defendant a patrician, and the accusation that of seeking to set up a kingdom, they will not favour any man at the expense of their own liberty. This argument won universal approbation, and Manlius was indicted. The first effect of this was to rouse great feeling in the commons, especially when they saw the defendant meanly clad and not attended by a single senator, or even by his kinsmen or connexions, or indeed by his own brothers, Aulus and Titus Manlius. That a man's nearest friends should not join him in assuming mourning in an hour so fraught with danger to him, was something that had never until that day occurred. They remembered that on the imprisonment of Appius Claudius, his enemy Gaius Claudius and all the Claudian family had gone into mourning; and they concluded that there must be a general conspiracy to put down the people's friend because he had been the first to forsake the patricians for the plebs. The day of the trial came, but I do not find it stated in any authority what facts were alleged by his accusers that bore directly on the charge of plotting to establish a kingdom, except gatherings of the populace and seditious expressions and his largesses and false charge; and yet I doubt not they were of moment, since the reluctance of the plebs to condemn him was not owing to his cause but to the place. One thing appears worthy of remark, that men may know what great and glorious achievements a vile lust for regal power rendered not merely thankless but actually hateful. It is said that he brought forward nearly four hundred men to whom he had lent money without interest, thus saving their goods from being sold and their persons from enslavement; that besides this the military distinctions which he not only enumerated but produced for all to see, comprised the spoils of thirty enemies whom he had slain, and some forty decorations from his generals, amongst which were conspicuous two mural and eight civic crowns; that he told, besides, of citizens saved from the enemy, and among these named Gaius Servilius, the master of the horse, who was not present. And after rehearsing his services in war, in a speech as magnificent as the height of his achievements and equalling his deeds with its words, he is said to have bared his breast, marked with the scars of battle, and gazing steadily at the Capitol to have called on Jupiter and the other gods to help him, that they might inspire the Roman People in his hour of danger with the same spirit they had given him when he- defended the Capitoline Hill; and to have implored the Romans one and all to fix their eyes on the Capitol and Citadel, and turn to the immortal gods while they judged him. In the Campus Martius, when the people were being called by centuries, and the defendant, stretching forth his hands to the Capitol, had turned from men to make his prayers to the gods, the tribunes clearly saw that unless they could also emancipate men's eyes from the associations of so glorious a deed, no accusation, however true, could ever find lodgment in their grateful hearts. And so they adjourned the day of trial and appointed a council of the people to meet in the Peteline Wood outside the Flumentane Gate, whence no prospect of the Capitol was afforded. There they made good their charge; men steeled their hearts and pronounced a dolorous judgment, abhorrent to the very ones who rendered it. Some authorities assert that he was condemned by duumvirs appointed to deal with a charge of treason. The tribunes flung him from the Tarpeian Rock, and the same spot served to commemorate extraordinary fame and the extremity of punishment, as experienced by the self-same man. To his death were added marks of ignominy: one of a public nature, because the people were asked to vote that, since his house had stood where the temple and mint of Moneta now are, no patrician might dwell in the Citadel or the Capitol; the other proceeding from his family, in that the Manlian clan made a decree forbidding anyone thenceforth to bear the name of Marcus Manlius. Such was the end of a man who, had he not been born in a free state, would have left a memorable name. In a short time the people, remembering —now that he was no longer a source of danger —only his good qualities, regretted him. Moreover a pestilence soon ensued, and caused a heavy mortality for which there were no obvious causes, and this many people ascribed to the execution of Manlius: the Capitol, they said, had been polluted by the blood of its saviour, and the gods had not been pleased that the man who had rescued their temples from the hands of the enemy, should be punished almost under their very eyes. The pestilence was succeeded by a scarcity of corn, and in the following year, when the rumour of these two misfortunes had got abroad, by various wars. The consular tribunes were Lucius Valerius (for the fourth time), Aulus Manlius (for the third), Servius Sulpicius (for the third), Lucius Lucretius, Lucius Aemilius (for the third time) and Marcus Trebonius. Besides the Volsci, who had been provided, as it were by a kind of fatality, to furnish perpetual occupation for the Roman arms, and the colonies of Circeii and Velitrae, which had long been scheming a rebellion, and the Latins, whose loyalty was suspected, a new enemy suddenly rose up at Lanuvium, a city which until then had been very faithful. Believing that they were now actuated by contempt, on finding the revolt of the Veliterni, who were Roman citizens, to go so long unpunished, the senate decreed that a proposal should be laid before the people, at the earliest possible moment, for declaring war on them; and, to make the plebs readier for this campaign, they appointed five commissioners to divide up the Pomptine land, and three to conduct a colony to Nepete. They then asked the people for a declaration of war, and notwithstanding the opposition of the plebeian tribunes, all the tribes voted for war. Preparations for the campaign were made that year, but owing to the pestilence the army did not take the field. This delay would have given the colonists time to sue the senate for pardon — and in fact a majority of them were in favour of sending an embassy to Rome to make submission — but danger to the commonwealth was bound up, as often happens, with that of individuals, and the ring-leaders of the revolt were so afraid of the Romans —lest they alone might be charged with the crime and offered up as a sacrifice to Roman indignation —that they turned the colonies away from peaceful counsels. Moreover, not content with merely opposing the embassy in their senate, they egged on a great part of the commons to go out and pillage the Roman lands; and this new outrage destroyed all hope of peace. The Praenestines, too, were that year, for the first time, reported as disloyal; evidence against them was given by the Tusculans, the Gabini, and the Labicani, whose borders they had invaded; but the senate returned so mild an answer that it was evident that they refused to believe in the charges because they wished them not to be true. The next year Spurius and Lucius Papirius, the new consular tribunes, led the levies to Velitrae, while their four colleagues, Servius Cornelius Maluginensis (in his third term), Quintus Servilius, Gaius Sulpicius, and Lucius Aemilius (in his fourth term), remained behind to protect the City and to guard against any fresh commotion which might be reported from Etruria —a quarter from which everything was suspected. Near Velitrae the Romans defeated an army in which auxiliaries from Praeneste almost outnumbered the colonists themselves; but the city was so close at hand that, as it occasioned their early retreat, so it afforded them their only refuge. The tribunes abstained from attacking the place; they were not certain of succeeding, nor did they think it right to aim at the extermination of the colony. In the letter which they sent to the senate in Rome, announcing the victory, they were more severe upon the enemies from Praeneste than upon those of Velitrae. And so, by resolution of the senate and popular enactment, war was proclaimed against the people of Praeneste; who, uniting in the following year with the Volsci, attacked the Roman colony of Satricum, and having carried it, despite the obstinate resistance of the colonists, abused their victory by cruel treatment of the captives. This incensed the Romans, and they elected Marcus Furius Camillus tribune of the soldiers, for the sixth time. To be his colleagues they gave him Aulus and Lucius Postumius Regillensis and Lucius Furius, together with Lucius Lucretius and Marcus Fabius Ambustus. The Volscian war was entrusted, out of the regular course, to Marcus Furius. Of the other tribunes, Lucius Furius was assigned him by lot for his assistant, not so much (it should seem) for the good of the commonwealth, as that he might be the source of all honour to his colleague; who gained it in his public capacity because he made good what the other's rashness had lost, and as a man because he used the error of Lucius to earn his gratitude rather than glory for himself. Camillus was now extremely old. At the election he was prepared to excuse himself by taking the customary oath on the score of health, had not the unanimous wishes of the people prevented him. But a lusty spirit flourished in his sturdy breast, and his senses were as keen as ever; and though he no longer much concerned himself with politics, wars excited him. He enrolled four legions, each of four thousand men, appointed the army to assemble on the following day at the Esquiline Gate, and marched on Satricum. There the conquerors of the colony were waiting for him, undismayed, for they confided in their numbers, in which they possessed a considerable superiority. On perceiving the approach of the Romans they formed up at once. It was their purpose to engage immediately in a decisive battle; for so the numerical weakness of their enemies would derive no help from the skill of their unique commander, which constituted —so they assumed —their sole reliance. There was the same ardour in the Roman army, and in one of its generals. The hazard of an immediate battle was only postponed by the wisdom and the authority of one man, who sought an opportunity to supplement his resources with strategy, by prolonging the campaign. This made the enemy the more urgent, and, no longer content with deploying their line before the camp, they advanced into the middle of the field, and, marching up almost to the rampart of the Romans, displayed the proud confidence which their strength gave them. The Roman soldiers were mortified at this, and even more mortified was one of their two tribunes, Lucius Furius. His youth and native disposition made him head strong, and the utterly baseless enthusiasm of the rank and file filled him with assurance. The soldiers were already in a state of excitement, but he further instigated them by disparaging his colleague in the only possible way, on the score of age. Wars, he insisted, were the province of youth; the growth and decay of the spirit kept pace with those of the body; the most energetic of soldiers was become a procrastinator, and he who had been wont to storm a camp or a city on the first approach, was sitting still and wasting time behind intrenchments. What accession to his own strength did he look for, or what diminution of the enemy's? What opportunity, what favourable moment, what ground for an ambush was he making ready? The old man's strategy was cold and torpid. But why, though Camillus had had enough both of life and of glory, should they permit the state, which ought to be immortal, to sink into decrepitude in company with the mortal body of one man? When he had won over the entire army by these speeches, and the men were everywhere demanding battle, he said to his colleague: Marcus Furius, we can no longer resist the enthusiasm of the soldiers; and the enemy, whose courage we have augmented by our delay, is insulting us with an arrogance no longer to be endured. Give way, for you are alone against us all, and suffer yourself to be overcome in counsel, that you may overcome the sooner in war. To this Camillus replied that in the wars which up to that day had been conducted under his sole auspices neither the Roman People nor himself had repented of his strategy or fortune; he was aware that he had now a colleague of equal commission and authority, and of more vigorous years; and so, although —as regarded the army —he was accustomed not to be governed but to govern, yet he had no power to thwart the authority of his associate. Let him proceed, with Heaven's blessing, to do what he thought best for the commonwealth: for his own grey hairs he begged this favour, that he might not be assigned to the front; of such duties as belonged in war to an old man he would not be negligent. One thing he entreated of the immortal gods: that no mischance might occur, to make his own appear to have been the wiser plan. But neither did men heed these salutary words, nor the immortal gods his loyal prayers. The man responsible for the engagement marshalled the battle-line. Camillus provided adequate supports, and stationed a strong out-guard before the camp; he then took up his post on an eminence, and watched intently for the issue of another's strategy. At the very instant of the first clash of arms the enemy gave ground, not out of fear, but guile. Behind them the ground sloped gently up from the battle-line to their camp; and having plenty of men they had left a few strong cohorts armed and drawn up within the camp, which were to sally forth when the fighting had got under way, and the Romans had approached the rampart. The Romans pursued the retreating enemy without order, and were drawn into an unfavourable position, where this attack could be made upon them with advantage. Thus the victors were threatened in their turn, and, what with the new foe and the declivity, the Roman line gave way. They were closely pressed by the fresh Volsci who had made the sortie, and those, too, who had pretended flight renewed the battle. And now the Roman soldiers were no longer retiring in order, but regardless of their late impetuosity and their ancient fame, had turned their backs and were everywhere in full flight towards the camp; when Camillus was lifted into the saddle by his attendants, and rapidly throwing his reserves into the fight, Soldiers, he cried, is this the battle you demanded? What man, what god is there, whom you could accuse? Yours was the rashness then, now the infamy is yours. You have followed another leader: follow now Camillus, and, as your habit is when I am leading, conquer. Why do you look on the rampart and the camp? Not one of you shall find entrance there, save as a victor. A sense of shame at first checked their headlong flight; then, as they saw the standards face about and the line form up against the enemy, while their general, distinguished for his many triumphs and rendered venerable by his age, exposed himself at the front amidst the ensigns, where the fighting and the danger were the greatest, they began each and every one to cry out against themselves and their fellows, and their mutual encouragements ran through the entire army in a ringing cheer. Nor was the other tribune behindhand, but being sent by his colleague —who was re-forming the line of foot —to rally the horse, he did not chide them —for his share in their fault would have made this of little use —but turning wholly from commands to entreaties, he besought them one and all to save him from the guilt of that day's mishap, for which he was responsible. Notwithstanding, he said, the refusal and the opposition of my colleague, I gave my adhesion to the general recklessness in preference to the prudence of one man. Camillus sees glory for himself, whichever way your fortune turns; but I, if the battle is not restored, shall experience the utter misery of sharing with everybody the disaster, while enduring the infamy alone. It seemed best, as the battle-line was wavering, to dismiss the horses and attack the enemy on foot. Conspicuous for their arms and their courage, they advanced where they saw the foot-soldiers hardest pressed. Neither generals nor soldiers relaxed their utmost efforts, and the help afforded by their brave exertions was felt in the result. The Volsci fled in a genuine panic over the ground where they had lately pretended fear. Great numbers of them were slain both in the battle itself and in the flight which followed; the others were cut down in the camp, which was captured in the same charge; but more were made prisoners than were slain. In taking account of the prisoners, they recognized some as being Tusculans. These were separated from the rest and brought before the tribunes, to whom they confessed, on being questioned, that they had served at the bidding of the state. The danger of so near a war disturbed Camillus, who declared that he would straight-way carry the prisoners to Rome, that the Fathers might not be kept in ignorance how the Tusculans had broken the alliance. In the meantime he proposed that his colleague should, if agreeable, take charge of the camp and the army. A single day had taught Lucius Furius not to prefer his own to wiser counsels, yet neither he nor anyone in the army supposed that Camillus would condone his fault, which had plunged the commonwealth into such desperate peril; and everybody, not in the army only, but also in Rome, agreed in saying, that in the ups and downs of the Volscian war, the responsibility for the defeat and flight lay with Lucius Furius, and all the credit for the victory with Camillus. But when the prisoners had been introduced into the senate, and the Fathers, having decided that they must make war on Tusculum, had designated Camillus to conduct it, he requested that he might have a single lieutenant to assist him, and being permitted to select any one of his colleagues whom he might desire, contrary to everybody's expectation he selected Lucius Furius —an instance of magnanimity which, while it lightened the disgrace of his colleague, also brought great honour to himself. But no war was, in fact, waged with the Tusculans: by their steadfast adherence to peace they saved themselves from violation by the Romans, as they could not have done by resorting to arms. When the Romans entered their territory, they did not withdraw from the places near the line of march, nor break off their labour in the fields; the gates of their city stood wide open; the citizens, wearing the toga, came out in great numbers to meet the generals; and provisions for the army were obligingly brought into the camp from the city and the farms. Camillus set up his camp before the gates, and desirous of knowing whether the same aspect of peace prevailed within the walls that was displayed in the country, entered the city and beheld the house-doors open, the shops with their shutters off and all their wares exposed, the craftsmen all busy at their respective trades, the schools buzzing with the voices of the scholars, crowds in the streets, and women and children going about amongst the rest, this way and that, as their several occasions called them —with never anywhere an indication of surprise, much less of fear. He looked everywhere for any visible evidence that a war had been on foot; but there was no sign that anything had been either removed or brought out for the moment; everything looked so undisturbed and peaceful that it seemed scarce credible that so much as a rumour of war should have come there. Overcome therefore by the enemy's submissiveness, he commanded their senate to be called. Men of Tusculum, he said, until now you alone have discovered the right weapons and the right resources with which to defend your possessions from the resentment of the Romans. Go to Rome, to the senate; the Fathers will determine whether you have deserved more punishment hitherto or pardon now. I will not forestall them by accepting your gratitude for a favour that must be granted by the state; from me you shall have an opportunity to solicit mercy; the answer to your suit must be such as the senate sees fit to make. When the Tusculans arrived in Rome, and the senators of a people who before had been faithful allies appeared in the vestibule of the Curia, covered with dejection, the Fathers were straightway moved, and in a spirit that had already more in it of hospitality than hostility bade them be at once admitted. The Tusculan dictator thus addressed them: Though you declared war on us and invaded our country, Conscript Fathers, we went forth to meet your generals and your legions armed and accoutred exactly as you now behold us standing in the entrance of your senate-house. Such has ever been our garb and the garb of our people —ay, and ever shall be —save at such times as we have been armed by you and for your defence. We give thanks to your commanders and your armies, since they have believed their eyes more than their ears, and where they encountered no hostility, themselves have showed none. The peace we have used towards you, we ask of you in return; direct your war, we beseech you, to that quarter where war, if anywhere, exists; if we must try, by suffering, what your arms can achieve against ourselves, we will try unarmed. Such is our resolution; Heaven send it be not less fortunate than loyal. As to the charges which stirred you to declare a war, though it skills not to disprove with words what facts have already confuted, still, even were they true, we think we might safely plead guilty to them, since our repentance is so evident. Let men wrong you, so long as you continue worthy to receive such amends. To this purport was the speech of the Tusculans. They were granted peace for the present, and not long after were even admitted to be citizens. The legions were withdrawn from Tusculum. Renowned for his strategy and courage in the Volscian war and his success in the expedition against Tusculum, and for his singular gentleness and generosity on both occasions towards his colleague, Camillus laid down his office, after announcing the election of military tribunes for the ensuing year. The successful candidates were Lucius and Publius Valerius (Lucius for the fifth and Publius for the third time), Gaius Sergius (for the third time), Lucius Menenius (for the second time), Publius Papirius, and Servius Cornelius Maluginensis. There was need also this year of censors, chiefly on account of the uncertain reports which were going about in regard to debt. The tribunes of the plebs even exaggerated the extent of this grievance, whereas it was understated by those who were interested in having it appear that loans were more in danger from the bad faith than the bad fortune of the debtors. The censors chosen were Gaius Sulpicius Camerinus and Spurius Postumius Regillensis, and they had already set about their task, when it was interrupted by the death of Postumius; for there were religious scruples against replacing the colleague of a censor. So then, Sulpicius resigned, and other censors were elected, but, owing to a defect in the election, did not serve. The senate could not bring itself to proceed to a third election, being persuaded that the gods would permit no censorship that year. But this irresolution the tribunes characterized as an intolerable mockery of the plebs. The senate, they said, was seeking to avoid the evidence of witnesses and public records regarding the property of every man, because they were unwilling it should be seen how great was the volume of debt, which would show that half of the state had been ruined by the other half, while the debt-ridden plebs were in the meantime being exposed to one enemy after another; wars were now sought indiscriminately, far and wide; from Antium the legions had been marched to Satricum, from Satricum to Velitrae, from there to Tusculum; now it was the Latins, the Hernici and the Praenestini who were threatened with attack, more out of hatred of Rome's citizens than of her enemies. The object was to wear the plebeians out with service and give them no time to take breath in the City, or leisure to bethink them of liberty or to stand in the assembly, where they might sometimes hear the voice of a tribune urging the reduction of interest and the removal of their other grievances. But if the plebs had the spirit to recall their fathers' liberty, they would allow no Roman citizen to be bound to a creditor, nor any levy to be held, until the amount of indebtedness had been examined and a plan for lessening it put into operation, that every man might know what was his own and what another's, and whether his person was still free, or whether even that was owing to the gaol. The reward held out to sedition soon brought sedition to a head. For many were being bound over, and the senate had voted to enlist new levies on the rumour of hostilities at Praeneste. Both these proceedings began at the same time to be interfered with by the exercise of the tribunician protection and the common action of the plebs; for the tribunes would not allow those who had been bound over to be led away, nor would the young men give in their names. The patricians were for the moment less concerned with enforcing the law of debt than with the levy —not unnaturally, since the enemy were reported as having already set out from Praeneste and encamped in the territory of Gabii —but on the tribunes of the plebs this intelligence had acted more as an incentive to the struggle they had undertaken than as a deterrent, and the only thing that was able to allay the quarrel in the City was the approach of the enemy to its very walls. For when the Praenestini were informed that no army had been enrolled in Rome, that there was no one definitely in command, that patricians and plebeians had turned against each other, their leaders concluded that their opportunity had come, and quickly putting their troops in motion, they devastated the fields along their line of march and advanced against the Colline Gate. Great was the consternation in the City. The call to arms was given, and men hurried to the walls and gates. They had turned at last from domestic strife to war, and proceeded to make Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus dictator, who named Aulus Sempronius Atratinus master of the horse. No sooner was this known —so great was the terror the dictatorship inspired —than the enemy at once withdrew from before the walls, and the Romans of military age assembled without offering objection, in accordance with the edict. While the army was being enrolled at Rome, the enemy had gone into camp not far from the Allia. From this centre they pillaged in all directions, and boasted to one another that they had occupied a position that was fraught with fate for the City of Rome; there would be another rout there like the one in the Gallic war; for if the Romans feared a day infected with evil omen and marked it with the name of that place, how much more than the Day of the Allia would they dread the Allia itself, that memorial of their great defeat? They were sure to behold there apparitions of ruthless Gauls, and to have the sound of their voices in their ears. Indulging these idle speculations on idle themes, they had rested their hopes on the fortune of the place. The Romans on the other hand were well assured that wherever their Latin enemy was, he was one whom they had conquered at Lake Regillus and had held in peaceable subjection for a hundred years; a place notorious for the memory of disaster would rather inspire them to wipe out the recollection of the disgrace than cause them to fear that any ground was inauspicious for their victory; nay, if the Gauls themselves should confront them on that spot, they would fight as they had fought at Rome in recovering their City and on the following day at Gabii, when they left no enemy who had entered the walls of Rome, to bear home tidings either of weal or woe. Such were the feelings on either side when the Romans arrived at the Allia. As they came within sight of the enemy, drawn up and eager for the fray, the dictator addressed Sempronius. Do you see, he said, how they have made their stand at the Allia, putting their trust in the fortune of the place? We shall find the immortal gods have given them no surer grounds for confidence nor any more substantial help. But do you confide in arms and valour, and charge their centre at the gallop; I, with the legions, will attack them when they are in disorder and confusion. Be with us, gods of the treaty, and exact the penalties due to you for the injury you have suffered and to us for the deception put upon us in your holy name! The men of Praeneste could cope with neither horse nor foot. Their ranks were broken at the first shout and charge; then, as their line yielded at every point, they turned and fled, and in their confusion were carried even beyond their own camp; neither did they check their headlong flight until they had come within sight of Praeneste. There the scattered remnants of the rout took up a position which lent itself to hasty fortification, lest, if they sought refuge within the walls, they might immediately find the torch put to their crops, and, after losing everything, be subjected to a siege. But no sooner had the victorious Romans appeared, fresh from plundering the camp on the Allia, than they abandoned these defences also, and, regarding even walls as little enough protection, immured themselves in the town of Praeneste. There were eight other towns which were under the sway of the Praenestini. Against these the Romans directed their campaign, and having taken them, with no great exertion, one after the other, marched to Velitrae and stormed that place also. Coming then to Praeneste, the fountain-head of the war, they got possession of it not by force but through capitulation. Titus Quinctius had gained one pitched battle, captured two camps, taken nine towns by assault, and received the surrender of Praeneste. He returned to Rome bringing with him from Praeneste the image of Jupiter Imperator. This he bore in triumph to the Capitol, where he dedicated it, between the shrine of Jupiter and that of Minerva. Below it he placed a tablet, in commemoration of his deeds, with an inscription to the following effect: Jupiter and all the gods granted Titus Quinctius the dictator that he should take nine towns. On the twentieth day after his appointment he resigned the dictatorship. In the ensuing election of military tribunes with consular powers, patricians and plebeians came off alike. Of the patricians Publius and Gaius Manlius were successful, along with Lucius Julius; the plebs returned Gaius Sextilius, Marcus Albinius, and Lucius Antistius. The Manlii were superior in birth to their plebeian colleagues, and in popularity to Julius. To them, therefore, by special enactment, without reference to the lot or to mutual agreement, was given the command against the Volsci —an honour which they rued in the upshot, as did also the senators who had conferred it. Without reconnoitring they sent some troops to forage, and believing them to be cut of, for they had received a false report that such was the case, they hastened to their assistance, without so much as securing the author of the story —a Latin enemy who had deceived them in the guise of a Roman soldier, —and plunged into an ambuscade. While they were making a stand there on unfavourable ground, by the sheer courage of the men, who were selling their lives dearly, the Roman camp which lay in the plain was attacked by the enemy on the opposite side. In both places victory was thrown away by the rashness and ignorance of the generals. Whatever was left of the good fortune of the Roman People was saved by the pluck of the soldiers, which continued steadfast even when it lacked guidance. On the announcement of these events at Rome, it was at first resolved to appoint a dictator; but later, when word came that things were quiet in the Volscian country, and it appeared that the enemy knew not how to use his victory and opportunity, even the armies and commanders which were there were withdrawn, and thereafter there was no trouble as far as the Volsci were concerned; the only disturbance —towards the close of the year —was a mutiny of the Praenestini, who had stirred the peoples of Latium to revolt. That same year new colonists were enrolled for Setia, whose inhabitants themselves were complaining of their lack of men. For the ill success of the war there was consolation in the tranquillity at home, which was due to the influence of the plebeian military tribunes and the honour in which their order held them. The following year started off in a blaze of party strife. The military tribunes with consular powers were Spurius Furius, Quintus Servilius (for the second time), Lucius Menenius (for the third), Publius Cloelius, Marcus Horatius, and Lucius Geganius. Now the subject and reason of the strife was debt. But when Spurius Servilius Priscus and Quintus Cloelius Siculus had been made censors in order that they might investigate the situation, they were prevented from doing so by a war; for first frightened messengers, and then the country-folk fleeing from the fields, brought word that the Volscian legions had crossed the border, and were everywhere devastating Roman territory. Yet with all this alarm, the danger from abroad was so far from restraining dissensions at home, that on the contrary the tribunes but acted with the greater violence, in exerting their powers to block the levy; until the senate submitted to their terms, and agreed that till the war was finished no one should pay a war-tax or give judgment in a case of debt. The plebs, on obtaining this relief, ceased to obstruct the levy. When the new legions had been enrolled, it was resolved to divide them and form two armies to invade the country of the Volsci. Spurius Furius and Marcus Horatius marched to the right, towards Antium and the coast; Quintus Servilius and Lucius Geganius to the left, in the direction of Ecetra and the mountains. In neither region did they find the enemy. They accordingly laid waste the country, not in the desultory fashion of the Volsci, who like bandits, trusting in the discord of their foes but fearing their courage, had made a hasty foray in fear and trembling, —but with a regular army, justly provoked, and the more destructive in that they took more time. In fact, the Volsci had confined their pillaging to the borders, because of their fear lest an army might come out from Rome while they were at it; the Romans, on the contrary, were partly actuated, in remaining on hostile ground, by the desire of luring the enemy into a battle. So they burned all the farm-houses everywhere, and even certain villages, and leaving not a single fruit-tree nor the standing corn with its hope of harvest, they carried off as booty all the men and beasts outside the towns, and led both armies back to Rome. The debtors had been given a little time for breathing, but no sooner did hostilities cease than the courts began once more to be alive with prosecutions, and not only was there no prospect of obtaining relief from the old debts, but further debts were incurred through the levying of a tax to build a wall of hewn stone, which the censors had contracted for. To this burden the plebs were forced to submit, in the absence of any levy which their tribunes could obstruct. The nobles even possessed sufficient influence to oblige the plebs to elect all patricians to the millitary tribunate; these were Lucius Aemilius, Publius Valerius (for the fourth time), Gaius Veturius Servius Sulpicius, Lucius and Gaius Quinctius Cincinnatus. The same influence enabled them to carry through their plans against the Latins and the Volsci, who had united their forces and were encamped near Satricum. No one objected when the men of military age were all compelled to take the oath, and three armies were enrolled: one was intended to defend the City; another was for use in sudden expeditions, if a revolt should break out anywhere; a third —much the strongest —marched to Satricum, under Publius Valerius and Lucius Aemilius. There they found the enemy drawn up in a strong position, and at once attacked them; and though victory was not yet assured, yet the battle was in a hopeful state, when great gusts of wind brought on a heavy downpour of rain and interrupted it. Next day the combat was renewed, and for some little time the enemy —particularly the Latin legions, schooled in Roman discipline by their long alliance —resisted with equal courage and success. But the cavalry were sent against them and threw their ranks into confusion, and before they could recover, the infantry were upon them; in proportion as the Roman line advanced, was the enemy forced out of his position; and when once the tide of battle turned, there was no stopping the onrush of the Romans. The routed enemy made for Satricum, two miles away, instead of their camp, and suffered great slaughter, especially at the hands of the cavalry. Their camp was taken and sacked. The night after the battle they fled rather than marched towards Antium; and though the Roman army followed hard after, fear proved swifter than wrath. So the enemy got within the walls before the Romans could harass or delay their rear. A few days were then consumed in ravaging the land, since the Romans had not enough equipment to attack the walls, nor the enemy to risk a battle. A quarrel now broke out between the Antiates and the Latins. The men of Antium, overwhelmed by their misfortunes and worn out by a war which had lasted from their birth to their old age were minded to capitulate: the Latins had but just revolted after a long peace; their spirits were still fresh; and they meant to continue boldly with the war. The dispute came to an end as soon as each party saw that the other could not prevent it in any way from carrying out its policy. The Latins departed, and freed themselves from all share in what they considered a degrading peace; the Antiates, being rid of inconvenient witnesses to their salutary measures, surrendered their city and lands to the Romans. The frenzied wrath of the Latins sought relief —since they could neither do the Romans any injury in war nor retain the Volsci under arms —in burning Satricum, the town which had been their first place of refuge after their defeat. They applied the torch without discrimination both to sacred and to secular buildings, and not one escaped destruction, except the temple of Mater Matuta; from this they were kept away, according to the story, neither by their own scruples, nor by their reverence for the gods, but by an awe-inspiring voice that issued from the temple and threatened dire retribution if they did not remove those impious fires to a distance from the sacred walls. Crazed and infuriated, a sudden impulse carried them to Tusculum. They were angry that the Tusculans had deserted the common council of the Latins and had yielded themselves to be not only allies but citizens of Rome. The gates were open, for their attack was unexpected, and the first shout had not died away when the town was taken, all except the citadel. To this the townsfolk fled for safety, with their wives and children, and sent off messengers to Rome to let the senate know of their predicament. With a promptness worthy of the honour of the Roman People, an army marched to Tusculum, commanded by the military tribunes Lucius Quinctius and Servius Sulpicius. They found the gates of Tusculum closed and the Latins at once besiegers and besieged; on the one hand they were defending the walls of the town, on the other assailing the fortress, and they experienced themselves the same terror they inspired. The arrival of the Romans produced a change in the spirits of both sides: the Tusculans were roused from the depths of despair to the greatest cheerfulness; the Latins, who had felt almost certain that since the town was theirs they would soon possess the citadel, were reduced almost to despair of their own lives. The Tusculans in the citadel gave a cheer and were answered by one much louder from the Roman army. On both sides the Latins were hard pressed: they could neither resist the charges of the townsmen, as they rushed down from above, nor drive back the Romans, who were coming up under the walls and forcing the bars of the gates. The walls were first scaled and captured; then the fastenings of the gates were burst. The Latins were caught between two enemies, who assailed them hotly in front and rear; they had no strength to fight and no room to escape, and were slain where they stood, to the very last man. Having recovered Tusculum from its enemies, the army returned to Rome. But in proportion as the successful wars of that year had everywhere secured tranquillity abroad, in the City the violence of the patricians and the sufferings of the plebs were increasing from one day to another, since the very fact that payment was compulsory made it more difficult to pay. And so, now that a man could make no compensation with his property, his reputation and his person were made over and assigned to his creditor by way of satisfaction, and punishment had come to take the place of payment. So abject indeed was the surrender not only of the lowest of the plebs but even of their leaders, that, far from contending with patricians for the military tribuneship —a privilege for which they had striven with such energy —there was not a man of them of sufficient force and enterprise to seek or to administer the plebeian magistracies. The patricians seemed therefore to have regained possession in perpetuity of an office which the plebeians had merely assumed for some few years. That this state of affairs might not inspire excessive joy in the patricians, a trivial cause —as often happens —set on foot a mighty change. Marcus Fabius Ambustus was very influential, not only amongst his fellows, but with the plebs as well, for the members of that class felt that he was far from looking down upon it. This man had married his two daughters, the elder to Servius Sulpicius, the younger to Gaius Licinius Stolo, a man of mark, albeit a plebeian; and the very fact that he had not rejected such an alliance had won regard for Fabius with the common people. It fell out that the sisters Fabia were together in the house of Servius Sulpicius, then a consular tribune, and were whiling away the time in talk, as women will, when a lictor of Sulpicius, who was returning from the Forum, rapped on the door, in the usual manner, with his rod. At this the younger Fabia, being unused to the custom, went white, which made the elder laugh with surprise at her sister's ignorance. But that laugh rankled in the other's mind, for a woman's feelings are influenced by trifles. I suppose, too, that the crowd of people who attended the tribune and took a ceremonious leave of him made her look upon her sister's marriage as a fortunate one and regret her own, in that ill-judging spirit which makes us all so very loath to be outdone by our nearest friends. She was still suffering from the smart of wounded pride, when her father, happening to see her, asked if anything was wrong. She would fain have concealed the reason of her grief, which was too little consistent with sisterly affection and did no great honour to her husband; but he brought her by tender inquiries to confess that she was unhappy in being mated to one beneath her, having married into a house where neither dignities nor influence could enter. Ambustus then comforted his daughter and bade her be of good cheer: she would see ere long in her own home the same state she beheld at her sister's. From that moment he began to make plans with his son-in-law, taking into their counsels also Lucius Sextius, a strenuous youth, whose aspirations were thwarted only by his lack of patrician blood. An opportunity for innovation was presented by the enormous load of debt, which the plebs could have no hope of lightening but by placing their representatives in the highest offices. They therefore argued that they must gird themselves to think of this: with toil and effort the plebeians had already advanced so far that it was in their power, if they continued to exert themselves, to reach the highest ground, and to equal the patricians in honours as well as in worth. For the present it was resolved that Gaius Licinius and Lucius Sextius should be elected tribunes of the plebs, a magistracy in which they might open for themselves a way to the other distinctions. Once elected, they proposed only such measures as abated the influence of the patricians, while forwarding the interests of the plebs. One of these had to do with debt, providing that what had been paid as interest should be deducted from the original sum, and the remainder discharged in three annual instalments of equal size. A second set a limit on lands, prohibiting anyone from holding more than five hundred iugera. A third did away with the election of military tribunes, and prescribed that of the consuls one, at any rate, should be chosen from the plebs. These were all matters of great moment, and it would not be possible to carry them without a tremendous struggle. Now when all the things that men immoderately covet, lands, money, and promotion, were jeopardized at once, the patricians became thoroughly alarmed; and failing, after frightened conference in public and private gatherings, to devise any other remedy than that veto which they had already tried before in many struggles, provided themselves with friends amongst the colleagues of the tribunes, to oppose their measures. These men, seeing Licinius and Sextius summon the tribes to vote, came up in the midst of a body-guard of patricians, and refused to permit the bills to be recited or anything else to be done that was usual in passing a resolution of the plebs. And now the assembly had been summoned repeatedly without avail, and the rogations were as though they had been voted down, when Sextius cried out, So be it! Since it is your pleasure that the intercession should be so powerful, we will use that very weapon for the protection of the plebs. Come now, senators, and proclaim an assembly for the choice of military tribunes; I warrant you shall have no joy of that word veto, which you now hear with such satisfaction from the chorus of our colleagues. His threats were no idle ones: except for the aediles and tribunes of the plebs, there was not an election held. Licinius and Sextius were chosen again, and suffered no curule magistrates to be elected; and this dearth of magistrates continued in the City for five years, while the plebs continued to re-elect the two men tribunes, and they to prevent the election of military tribunes. There was fortunately a respite from other wars, but the colonists of Velitrae, growing insolent in time of peace, because they knew that the Romans had no army, not only made several incursions into Roman territory, but went so far as to lay siege to Tusculum. This circumstance affected not only the senators but even the plebeians; that the Tusculans, who had long been their friends and were now their fellow citizens, should be imploring aid filled them with shame. The tribunes of the plebs relaxing their opposition, elections were held by an interrex, which resulted in the choice of the following military tribunes: Lucius Furius, Aulus Manlius, Servius Sulpicius, Servius Cornelius, and Publius and Gaius Valerius. They found the plebs much less submissive to the levy than they had been to the election; but by strenuous efforts they enrolled an army, and, marching out, not only drove the enemy away from Tusculum, but even shut him up within his own walls, and Velitrae was besieged with far more vigour than Tusculum had been. Yet those who had begun the siege were not able to conclude it before the election of new military tribunes. The candidates chosen were Quintus Servilius, Gaius Veturius, Aulus and Marcus Cornelius, Quintus Quinctius, and Marcus Fabius. Even these tribunes accomplished nothing memorable at Velitrae. At home the situation was more dangerous. For besides Sextius and Licinius, who had proposed the laws and were now for the eighth time re-elected tribunes of the plebs, the military tribune Fabius, Stolo's father-in-law, was openly advocating the adoption of the measures he had himself suggested. And whereas there had been at first eight members of the college of plebeian tribunes who opposed the bills, there were now but five; and these, puzzled and confounded, as is apt to be the case with men who forsake their party, were no more than mouthpieces, repeating in justification of their vetoes only what they had been privately schooled to say, to wit, that a majority of the plebeians were absent at Velitrae with the army; and that the assemblies ought to be put off until the return of the soldiers, so that the entire body of the plebs might vote on matters that concerned them. Sextius and Licinius, with some of their colleagues and one of the military tribunes, Fabius, being experts now —after so many years of practice —in the art of playing on the passions of the commons, would bring the leading senators forward and ply them with questions about each of the measures they were laying before the people: Had they the hardihood to demand that, when land was being assigned to the plebs in parcels of two iugera, they themselves should be authorized to hold more than five hundred iugera? Did they desire that single patricians should possess the allotments of almost three hundred citizens; and that the plebeian should have a farm scarce large enough to contain a shelter for his necessities or a place of burial? Or was it their wish that the plebs, undone with usury, should give up their bodies to imprisonment and torture, instead of paying the principal sums they owed? Did they mean every day to drag off gangs of condemned debtors from the Forum? to fill with prisoners the houses of the nobles? to make of every patrician's dwelling a private gaol? The shame and pity of these conditions awoke more indignation in their hearers, who feared for their own safety, than the speakers had themselves felt in denouncing them. And yet the patricians —as they proceeded to assert —would never check their greed for land, nor cease murdering the plebs with usury, until the commons should elect one of the two consuls from their own number, to guard their liberties. Contempt, they argued, was now become the portion of the plebeian tribunes, for they used the veto to break down their own power. There could be no question of equal rights, where the other side commanded and they themselves could do nothing but protest. Until they shared in the authority, the plebs would never have an equal footing in the state. And let no one think that it would be sufficient if plebeians were accepted as candidates at the consular elections: unless it were required that at least one consul must be chosen from the commons, none ever would be. Had they already forgotten, that although the election of tribunes of the soldiers rather than consuls had been resolved upon, expressly in order that the highest honour might be open even to plebeians, yet for four and forty years no commoner had been chosen to that office? How could they suppose, that with two places only now available, the patricians would of their own volition bestow the office on the plebs, when they had habitually claimed eight places in electing military tribunes? Would those men allow the consulship to be approached, who had blocked so long the road to the tribuneship? The law must make good for them what they could not gain by favour at the elections; one of the two consulships must be set apart for the undisputed use of the plebs, for if left in dispute it would always fall a prize to the more powerful. Neither could it any longer be maintained —as the nobles had been wont to assert — that among the plebeians were none who were suitable for curule magistracies. Had the public administration been a jot more indifferent or slipshod since the tribuneship of Publius Licinius Calvus, who was the first man elected from the plebs, than it had been during those years in which none but patricians had been military tribunes? Nay, on the contrary, several patricians had been impeached after holding the tribuneship, but not one plebeian. Quaestors, too, like military tribunes, had begun a few years before to be elected from the commons, nor had the Roman People regretted it in a single case. The consulship remained for the commons to achieve; this was the citadel of liberty, this its pillar. If they attained to this, then would the Roman People hold that the kings had been really driven from the City, and their freedom firmly based; for the commons would thenceforward be partakers in all that made the patricians now surpass them, —authority and honour, martial renown, birth and nobility, —great things for themselves to enjoy, but even greater to bequeath to their children. Perceiving that speeches of this sort were well received, they introduced a new measure, providing that in place of two men vested with superintendence of the sacred rites, a board of ten should be elected, with a proviso that half the number should be of the plebs, and half patricians; the voting on all these bills they deferred until the return of the army which was besieging Velitrae. A year rolled round before the legions could be brought back from Velitrae; consequently the question of the laws remained in abeyance and was put off until the coming in of the new military tribunes; for as to the tribunes of the plebs, the commons chose the same men over again —the two, at any rate, who had brought in the bills. The military tribunes chosen were Titus Quinctius, Servius Cornelius, Servius Sulpicius, Spurius Servilius, Lucius Papirius, and Lucius Veturius. At the very outset of the year came a final struggle over the laws; and when the tribes were summoned to vote, and the proposers of the measures would not yield to the vetoes of their colleagues, the frightened patricians were put to their two last shifts —the greatest office, and the greatest of the citizens. They voted to name a dictator, and appointed Marcus Furius Camillus, who chose Lucius Aemilius for his master of the horse. To meet these formidable preparations of their adversaries, the proposers of the laws on their side armed the commons with tremendous enthusiasm for the cause, and proclaiming a council of the plebs, called up the tribes to vote. Attended by a body of patricians, and breathing wrath and menaces, the dictator took his seat, and the affair began with the usual skirmish between the tribunes of the plebs, some of whom urged the passing of the law while others interposed their vetoes. But powerful as the veto was on the legal side, it was being overcome by the popularity of the bills themselves and their proposers, and the tribes which had been summoned first were voting Ay, when Camillus addressed the people. Quirites, he said, since you are now swayed not by the authority of the tribunes but by their lawlessness, and are bringing to naught the right of protest —obtained through the secession of the plebs —with the same violence with which you won it; for your own sake no less than for the sake of tile whole republic, I shall, as dictator, sustain the veto, and safeguard with my absolute authority your defence which you are overthrowing. If then Gaius Licinius and Lucius Sextius yield to the protest of their colleagues, I will in no way intrude a patrician magistracy upon a council of the plebs; but if, in defiance of the protest, they try to impose their terms, as though upon a conquered state, I will not permit the tribunician power to work its own undoing. This warning the tribunes treated with contempt, and were proceeding with unabated energy to carry out their plans, when Camillus, in high dudgeon, sent his lictors to turn the commons out; and threatened, that if they continued in their course, he would administer the oath to all of military age, and forthwith lead the army out of the City. The plebs were greatly dismayed; but the courage of their leaders was rather kindled than damped by his vehemence. Yet before the matter had been decided either way, Camillus resigned his office, whether because there had been a flaw in his election —as certain writers have held —or because the tribunes proposed to the plebs and the plebs decreed, that if Marcus Furius should take any action in the capacity of dictator, he should be fined five hundred thousand asses. But that the auspices, and not a law without a precedent, were responsible for his withdrawal, the very nature of the man inclines me to believe; also the fact that Publius Manlius was at once made dictator in his place —for what good would his appointment do, in a struggle in which Marcus Furius had been beaten? Besides, Marcus Furius himself was dictator again in the following year, and he would surely have been ashamed to resume an authority which had broken down in his own hands the year before. Moreover at the time when the proposal to fine him is said to have been made, either he had the power to resist this order —which deprived him, as he could see, of all authority, —or else he lacked the power to obstruct even those measures in defence of which this order had been proposed. Finally, whatever conflicts have occurred between tribunes and consuls, down to the times we can ourselves remember, the dictatorship has always towered above them. In the interval between the abdication of the earlier dictator and the entrance upon his office of the new one, Manlius, the tribunes —as though there were an interregnum —held a council of the plebs, and it became evident which of the measures proposed were more acceptable to the plebeians, and which to their introducers. For the tribes were on the point of passing the bills relating to interest and land, and of rejecting the one about the plebeian consul, and both policies would have been finally disposed of, if the tribunes had not said that they were putting all these questions to the plebs collectively. Then Publius Manlius, becoming dictator, gave the affair a turn in favour of the plebs by naming Gaius Licinius, who had been military tribune and was a commoner, his master of the horse. I find that the patricians took offence at this, but that the dictator was wont to excuse himself to them by alleging his close relationship to Licinius, and asserting that a master of the horse possessed no greater authority than a consular tribune. Licinius and Sextius, when an assembly had been proclaimed for the election of plebeian tribunes, so bore themselves that while professing an unwillingness to be re-elected, they furnished the plebs with the strongest incentives to give them what they pretended not to covet. They said it was now nine years that they had stood embattled, as it were, against the optimates, with the greatest danger to themselves and no advantage to the public. The measures they had proposed and the whole power of the tribunate had, like themselves, grown old and useless. First the intercession of their colleagues had been employed to attack their laws; then the young men had been banished to the seat of war at Velitrae; finally they had themselves been menaced with the thunderbolt of the dictatorship. At present they were thwarted neither by their colleagues, nor by war, nor even by the dictator, for he had actually given them a presage of plebeian consuls by appointing a plebeian master of the horse: no, it was the plebs themselves who stood in the way of their own advancement. A City and a Forum rid of creditors, and lands delivered from unlawful occupation, were things they might enjoy at once, if they would. When, pray, did they expect to weigh these blessings and be duly grateful, if at the very moment of entertaining measures for their own advantage they cut off all hope of office from the men who introduced them? It was not like the reasonableness of the Roman People to ask to be relieved themselves of usury and settled on lands which the nobles had unjustly held, while leaving the men to whom they owed these advantages to grow old as tribunicians —not only without honours, but even without the hope of them. So let them first make up their minds what it was they wished; and then declare their wishes at the election of the tribunes. If they desired to enact together the measures which the tribunes had brought forward, there was some reason for re-electing them; for they would carry through what they had advocated; but if every man cared only for the adoption of such clauses as concerned him personally, there was no use in an invidious prolongation of their term; they would do without the tribuneship, and the people would do without the proposed reforms. On hearing the tribunes make this stubborn speech, though the other senators were dazed and dumbfounded by such outrageous arguments, they say that Appius Claudius Crassus, the decemvir's grandson, moved more by hate and resentment than by hope, came forward to oppose them, and spoke to the following purpose: "It would be no strange or surprising thing to me, Quirites, if on this occasion I, too, should be taunted with the one reproach that rebellious tribunes have ever directed at our family, to wit, that the Claudian gens from its very origin has regarded no feature of our public life as more important than the majesty of the senate and has always opposed the interests of the plebs. The former of these charges I neither deny nor seek to refute —namely, that we have striven with all our might, from the day we were first called to be citizens and senators, that, so far as in us lay, the dignity of those families with which you proposed to rank us might truthfully be said to have rather gained than lost; as to the other charge, I would venture to maintain, Quirites, speaking for myself and for my forefathers, that unless one should assume that what is done for the good of the whole nation is opposed to the welfare of the plebs, —as though they inhabited another city, —we have never wittingly done anything, whether as private citizens or magistrates, disadvantageous to the plebs; and that no word or act of ours can be truthfully alleged as being against your interests, though some there may have been which ran counter to your wishes. But were I not a Claudius, nor sprung from a patrician line, but were merely any one of the Quirites, assuming only that I knew my parents had both been born to freedom and that I lived in a free state, could I pass this by in silence? Are Lucius Sextius yonder and Gaius Licinius, our perpetual tribunes — save the mark! —grown so presumptuous in the nine years of their reign, as to threaten that they will leave you free to exercise your right of suffrage neither in elections nor in enacting laws? "' On a certain condition,' says one of them, ' you shall elect us tribunes for the tenth time '; as though he were to say,' What others sue for we are so surfeited withal that we will not accept it without a great reward.' But what in short is that reward by the grant of which we may always have you for tribunes of the plebs? ' That you adopt,' says he, 'all our rogations in a lump, whether you like them or detest them, —be they good or bad.' I beseech you, Tarquin tribunes of the plebs, imagine me a simple citizen calling out from the midst of the assembly, ' By your good leave, suffer us to choose from these proposals those we regard as wholesome for us, and to reject the rest.' 'No,' he answers, 'you shall not have leave to enact the measures that concern you all, touching interest and lands, unless you will put up with the monstrous sight in Rome of Lucius Sextius and Gaius Licinius here as consuls —an idea you loathe and abominate; —accept everything, or I offer nothing.' As though a man were starving, and one should serve poison to him with his food, and command him either to abstain from what would give him life, or mix the deadly with the life-giving. Well then! If this state were free, would not the people have cried out to you in full assembly, 'Begone, with your tribuneships and your rogations!' Come! If you will not propose what is profitable to the people to accept, shall there be none to do it? Suppose that some patrician, or —what those fellows would make out to be still more hateful —some Claudius, should say, ' Either take all or I will propose nothing,' which of you, Quirites, would endure it? Will you never choose rather to look at facts than at advocates, but always lend ready ears to the utterances of that noble magistrate, and refuse to hear what is said by any of us? " His language, you will admit, is far from appropriate in a free state; well, what of his rogation, which they resent your refusal to accept? Quirites, it is all of a piece with his words. ' I propose,' he says, 'that it shall not be permitted you to choose such consuls as you will.' For can aught else be his meaning, when he commands that in any case one consul be chosen from the plebs, and deprives you of the power to name two patricians? If wars should arise in these days, like the Etruscan war, when Porsinna held Janiculum, or like the Gallic war a little while ago, when all this City —except the Capitol and the Citadel —was in the hands of your enemies; and if Lucius Sextius were standing for the consulship, along with Marcus Furius here, and any other patrician whomsoever; could you endure that Lucius Sextius should be certain of election, while Camillus had to risk defeat? Is it thus they would equalize the opportunities of office? Would they authorize the election of two plebeian consuls, and forbid the choice of two patricians? Must we perforce take one plebeian, while for both places we may pass the patricians by? What sort of fellowship, of partnership, is this? Are you not satisfied to get a part of that in which you had no part before, unless in reaching for the part you can seize the whole? 'I fear' he replies, 'lest if it be permitted to choose two patricians, you may choose no one from the plebs.' His meaning is: 'Since of your own accord you will never choose unworthy men, I will make it obligatory on you to elect those whom you do not wish.' What follows? Why, a man would not owe the people so much as thanks, if he were the sole plebeian candidate along with two patricians: he would say that he had been elected not by your suffrages, but by the statute. "They would force us, not invite us, to grant them office; and thus they mean to win the very highest honours without incurring even such obligations as would be imposed by the least important. They would make their canvass not on worth but on opportunity. There is many a man who resents being investigated and appraised, who thinks it right that he alone should be certain of success, while his competitors are struggling for office; who would withdraw himself from your judgment; who would have you vote for him from compulsion, not from choice —not as freemen, but as slaves. I say nothing of Licinius and Sextius, whose years of continuous power you reckon like those of the kings on the Capitol: who is there in the state to-day so lowly that the opportunities afforded by that law would not make access to the consulship easier for him than for us and for our children? To elect us will sometimes be beyond your power, even though you wish it; but those persons you would be compelled to elect, even against your inclinations. Of the indignity of the thing I have said enough. But dignity after all is concerned with men: what of religious observances and auspices —for the immortal gods are involved in insult and disrespect to these? That this City was founded under auspices; that all measures, warlike and peaceful, at home and in the field, are carried out with auspices, who does not know? Who then control the auspices, by the tradition of our fathers? The patricians, to be sure; for no plebeian magistrate is elected under auspices; the auspices belong so exclusively to us, that not only are the patrician magistrates whom the people elect no otherwise elected than with auspices, but we ourselves even —without the people's suffrage —take auspices and nominate an interrex; and have, as private citizens, the right of taking them, which you plebeians have not even in your magistracies. He therefore deprives the state outright of auspices, who by electing plebeian consuls deprives the patricians of them —for they alone can take them. They may jeer now, if they like, at religious scruples. 'After all,' they will say, 'what difference does it make if the sacred chickens will not feed; if they are slow to come out from the coop; if a bird utters an ill-omened cry? ' These are trivial things; but because they did not scorn these trivial things, your fathers were able to build this great republic; and now we, as though we had no further use for Heaven's favour, are polluting all the ceremonies. Let pontiffs then, augurs, and kings of the sacrifices, be chosen from the vulgar herd; let us set the mitre of the Flamen Dialis on anybody's head, so he but be a man; let us make over the sacred shields, the inner shrine, the gods and the service of the gods, to those whom we may not without sin intrust with them; let laws be proposed and magistrates elected without the approval of the auspices; neither to centuriate nor curiate comitia let the fathers give their sanction; let Sextius and Licinius bear sway in Rome, like Romulus and Tatius —because they give away the moneys and the lands of others. Is it so sweet to plunder others of their fortunes? Does it not occur to them that one of their laws will make vast deserts in the country-side, by driving the landlords out from their demesnes, while the other will wipe out credit, and with it all human intercourse? Upon every account I urge you to reject these bills; and may Heaven prosper what you do! The speech of Appius availed no further than to put off the passing of the measures. Returned for the tenth time to office, the tribunes Sextius and Licinius obtained the enactment of a law requiring that half the board of ten who had charge of sacred rites should be plebeians. Having elected five patricians and five plebeians, the people felt that they had set a precedent for the consulship. Satisfied with their victory, the plebs gave way to the patricians, and relinquishing for the moment discussion about the consuls, permitted the election of military tribunes. Those chosen were Aulus and Marcus Cornelius (for their second terms), Marcus Geganius, Publius Manlius, Lucius Veturius, and (for the sixth time) Publius Valerius. Rome's foreign relations were now peaceful everywhere except for the siege of Velitrae —the result of which, though delayed, was scarce in doubt —when a sudden rumour of a Gallic war drove the state to appoint Marcus Furius to his fifth dictatorship. He nominated Titus Quinctius Poenus to be master of the horse. Claudius relates that the battle with the Gauls took place that year near the river Anio; and that this was the occasion of the famous duel on the bridge in which Titus Manlius slew a Gaul who had challenged him to combat, and despoiled him of his chain, while the two armies looked on. But I am more inclined to believe, with the majority of our authorities, that this exploit took place no less than ten years later, and that in the year of which I am now writing, the dictator, Marcus Furius, fought a battle against the Gauls on Alban soil. Notwithstanding the great terror occasioned by the invasion of the Gauls and the recollection of their old defeat, the Romans gained a victory that was neither difficult nor uncertain. Many thousands of barbarians fell in battle, and many after the camp was taken. The others roamed about, making mostly towards Apulia, and owed their escape from the Romans to their distant flight and the dispersion which resulted from their panic and their straggling. The dictator was awarded a triumph with the consent of both senate and plebs. Hardly had Camillus brought the war to an end, when he was confronted with a fiercer opposition in the City. After desperate struggles the senate and the dictator were beaten, and the measures advocated by the tribunes were adopted. An election of consuls was held, against the wishes of the nobles, and resulted in the choice of Lucius Sextius, the first of the plebeians to attain that honour. Even this did not end their disputes. The patricians declared that they would not ratify the election, and the affair had almost led to a secession of the plebs and threatened other terrible embroilments, when the dictator finally proposed a compromise which allayed the discord; the nobles gave way to the plebs in regard to the plebeian consul, and the plebs conceded to the nobles that they might elect from the patricians one praetor to administer justice in the City. Thus after their long quarrel the orders were reconciled at last. The senate decided that this was a fitting occasion to honour the immortal gods —who deserved it then, if ever at any time —by celebrating the Great Games, and voted that one day should be added to the customary three; this burden the aediles of the plebs refused to shoulder, whereupon the young patricians called out that they would willingly do it for the sake of honouring the gods. The entire people united in thanks to them, and the senate decreed that the dictator should hold a popular election of two aediles to be chosen from the patricians, and that the Fathers should ratify all the elections of that year.

Perseus Latin. CTS URN phi0914.phi0016.perseus-eng1. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source.