Ab Urbe Condita, books 8-10 - 9

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Book IX IN the following year came the Caudine Peace, the notorious sequel of a disaster to the Roman arms. Titus Veturius Calvinus and Spurius Postumius were consuls. The Samnites had that year for their general Gaius Pontius, whose father Herennius far excelled them all in wisdom, while the son was their foremost warrior and captain. when the envoys who had been dispatched to make restitution returned without having achieved a peace, Pontius said: you must not think that this embassy has been of no avail: whatever divine resentment we incurred by breaking the treaty has been appeased. well do I know that whatever gods desired that we might be compelled to restore the spoils which had been demanded again of us in accordance with the treaty did not desire that our expiation of the treaty should be so scornfully rejected by the Romans. for what more could have been done to mollify the gods and to placate men than we have done? The goods of the enemy which we had taken as booty, and regarded as our own by the laws of war, we restored to them; the authors of the war, whom we could not surrender living, we surrendered dead; their possessions —that no guilt might remain with us from touching them —we carried to Rome. what more do I owe to you, Romans, or to the treaty, or to the gods, its witnesses? whom can I proffer as umpire betwixt your anger and my punishment? i refuse no nation, no private citizen. but if, in dealing with the mighty, the weak are left no human rights, yet will I seek protection of the gods, who visit retribution on intolerable pride, and will beseech them that they tum their anger against those who are not content with the restitution of their own possessions, nor the heaping up in addition of other men's; whose rage is not sated with the death of the guilty, nor with the surrender of their lifeless bodies, nor with the master's goods going with that surrender —unless we yield them our blood to drink and our flesh to rend. Samnites , that war is just which is necessary, and righteous are their arms to whom, save only in arms, no hope is left. since , therefore, it is of the utmost moment in the affairs of men whether what they undertake be pleasing in the sight of Heaven or whether it be offensive, be well assured that you waged your former war rather against gods than men, but that you will wage this war now threatening with the gods themselves for your leaders. having pronounced these words, as prophetic as they were encouraging, he led his army out and encamped with all possible secrecy in the vicinity of Caudium. thence he dispatched in the direction of Calatia, where he heard that the Roman consuls were already in camp, ten soldiers in the guise of shepherds, with orders to graze their flocks —dispersed one here another there —at no great distance from the Romans. on encountering pillagers, they were all to tell one story; namely, that the Samnite levies were in Apulia, where they were laying siege with all their forces to Luceria, and were on the point of taking it by assault. this rumour, which had designedly been given out before, had already come to the ears of the Romans, but the prisoners strengthened their belief in it, especially since they all gave the same account. The Romans did not hesitate about helping the Lucerini, their good and faithful allies, and preventing Apulia at the same time from a general defection in the face of instant peril: the only subject of deliberation was by what route they should march. there were two roads to Luceria. one skirted the Adriatic, and though open and unobstructed, was long almost in proportion to its safety. The other led through the Caudine Forks, and was shorter, but this is the nature of the place: two deep defiles, narrow and wooded, are connected by an unbroken range of mountains on either hand; shut in between them lies a rather extensive plain, grassy and well —watered, with the road running through the middle of it; but before you come to it, you must enter the first defile, and afterwards either retrace the steps by which you made your way into the place, or else —should you go forward —pass out by another ravine, which is even narrower and more difficult. into this plain the Romans debouched from the rocky gorge of one of the two passes; and advancing forthwith to the other pass, found it blocked with a barrier of felled trees and huge boulders. The enemy's stratagem now stood revealed, and indeed a body of troops was descried at the head of the defile. The Romans thereupon hastened back to regain the road by which they had come, but found that this was likewise closed with its own barricade and armed men. at this they came to a halt, without any command, and a stupor came over the minds of all, and a strange kind of numbness over their bodies; and looking at one another —for every man supposed his neighbour more capable of thinking and planning than himself —they stood for a long time motionless and silent. afterwards , when they saw the tents of the consuls going up and some of the men getting out entrenching tools, although they perceived that in their desperate plight, deprived of every hope, it would be ridiculous for them to entrench themselves, nevertheless, that they might not add a fault to their misfortunes, they fell to digging —each for himself with no encouragement or command from anyone —and fortified a camp close to the water; meanwhile not only did their enemies insolently scoff at them, but they jested themselves, with pathetic candour, at the futility of their works and the pains they took. The dejected consuls did not even call a council, for the situation admitted neither of discussion nor of help, but the lieutenants and tribunes assembled of their own accord, and the soldiers, turning to the headquarters tent, called on their generals for help, which the immortal gods could scarce have given them. night came, and found them not so much consulting as lamenting, while each murmured as his nature prompted him. let us force the barriers of the road, said one, let us scale the mountains, penetrate the forests, go wherever we can carry arms, if only we may come at the enemy, whom we have now been conquering for close upon thirty years ; any field will be smooth and level to a Roman who fights against a treacherous Samnite! Another would ask: where or by what way can we go? do we think to remove the mountains from their seat? so long as these ridges tower over you, how shall you come at the enemy? armed and unarmed, the brave and the cowardly, we are all alike captured and beaten men. The foe will not even draw his sword on us, that we may die with honour; he will end the war by sitting still. with such —like exchange of talk the night wore on, neither was there any thought of food or sleep. even the Samnites were at a loss what course to follow in such happy circumstances; and accordingly they agreed unanimously to dispatch a letter to Herennius Pontius, the father of their general, asking his advice. this man, bowed down with years, had already withdrawn not only from military but even from civic duties; yet, despite his bodily infirmity, his mind and judgment retained their vigour. when he learned that the Roman armies had been hemmed in between two defiles at the Caudine Forks, and was asked by his son's messenger for his opinion, he advised that they should all be dismissed unscathed, at the earliest possible moment. this policy having been rejected, and the messenger returning a second time to seek his counsel, he recommended that all, to the last man, be slain. having received these answers, as inconsistent as the riddling responses of an oracle, the younger Pontius was among the first to conclude that his father's mind had now given way along with his failing body, but yielded to the general desire and sent for him to advise with them in person. The old man made no objection; he was brought to the camp in a waggon —so the story runs —and being invited to join the council of war, spoke to such purpose as merely, without changing his opinion, to add thereto his reasons: If, he said, they adopted his first proposal —which he held to be the best —they would establish lasting peace and friendship with a very powerful people by conferring an enormous benefit upon them; by adopting the other plan they would postpone the war for many generations, in which time the Roman State, having lost two armies, would not easily regain its strength; there was no third plan. when his son and the other leading men pressed him to say what would happen if they took a middle course, and while letting them go unhurt imposed terms upon them by the rights of war, as upon the vanquished, that , he answered, is in sooth a policy that neither wins men friends nor rids them of their enemies. spare , if you will, those whom you have stung to anger with humiliation; the Roman race is one that knows not how to be still under defeat. whatever shame you brand them with in their present necessity, the wound will ever rankle in their bosoms, nor will it suffer them to rest until they have exacted many times as heavy a penalty of you. neither proposal was accepted, and Herennius was carried home from the camp. in the other camp the Romans, finding themselves now, after many fruitless efforts to break out, in want of everything, were reduced to the necessity of sending envoys; who were first to treat for an equal peace, and, if peace could not be had, to provoke the enemy to fight. to them Pontius made answer, that the war was already fought and won; and since they knew not how to admit their plight, even when beaten and made prisoners, he intended to send them unarmed and with a single garment each under the yoke; in all else the peace should be one of equal terms to the vanquished and the victors; for if the Romans would evacuate the Samnite territory and withdraw their colonies, Romans and Samnites should thenceforward live by their own laws in an equal alliance. on these terms he was ready to conclude a treaty with the consuls; if they were any of them unacceptable, he forbade the envoys to return to him. when the upshot of this embassy was made known to the Romans, they all straightway fell to groaning, and so overcome were they with sorrow that it seemed as though they could not possibly take it more to heart if they should be told that they must all die in that place. finally , after a long silence —for the consuls were incapable of uttering a word, either for a treaty so disgraceful or against a treaty so necessary — Lucius Lentulus, at that time first of the lieutenants both for his valour and his dignities, spoke as follows: consuls , I have often heard my father say that on the Capitol he was the only man who would not have the senate ransom the City from the Gauls with gold, since their enemies, who were most indolent besiegers, had not shut them in with trench and rampart, and they were able to make a sortie, if not without great danger, yet without certain destruction. but if, in like manner as they had it in their power to run down from the Capitol, sword in hand, against their enemy, even as the besieged have often sallied out against the besiegers, so we were able, whether on favourable ground or no, only to come to grips with our antagonist, I should not lack my father's spirit in advising you. i do indeed confess that it is glorious to die for one's country, and I am ready to devote myself for the Roman People and the legions, or to throw myself into the midst of the enemy; but it is here I see my country, here all the legions Rome possesses, and unless they would rush on death to please themselves, what have they to save by dying? 'The roof —trees of the City,' someone may say, 'and its walls, and the multitude by whom it is inhabited.' nay , not so! for all these are betrayed, not saved, if this army is wiped out! for who shall preserve them? The unwarlike, unarmed rabble? ay , even as it preserved them from the onset of the Gauls! or will they pray perhaps that an army may be sent from Veii, and a Camillus to command it? here are all our hopes and our resources, which if we save we save our country; whereas if we give these up to die, we abandon our country and betray it. ' But surrender is shameful and humiliating.' true , but our country is so dear that we would save it by enduring shame, as we would, if need were, by our death. let us submit then to that indignity, however great, and obey necessity, to which even gods are not superior. go , consuls, at the cost of arms redeem the City which your sires paid gold to redeem. The consuls then went to confer with Pontius. The victor proposed a treaty, but they declared that a treaty could not be made without the authorization of the people, nor without fetials and the rest of the customary ceremonial. consequently the Caudine Peace was not entered into by means of a treaty, as people in general believe and as Claudius actually states, but by a guarantee. for what need would there have been for guarantors or for hostages in a treaty, where the agreement is concluded with a prayer that the nation responsible for any departure from the recited terms may be smitten by Jupiter even as the swine is smitten by the fetials? The guarantors were the consuls, the lieutenants, the quaestors, and the tribunes of the soldiers, and the names of all who gave the guarantee are extant, whereas, if the agreement had been entered into as in making a treaty, none would be preserved except those of the two fetials; and because of the inevitable postponement of the treaty, hostages were also required to the number of six hundred knights, whose lives were to be forfeit if the Romans should fail to keep the terms. a time was then set for the delivery of the hostages and the dismissal of the army without their arms. fresh lamentations broke out in the camp when the consuls returned; and the men could hardly keep from laying violent hands on those through whose rashness they had been led into that place, and through whose cowardice they were now to depart more shamefully than they had come. they bethought them how they had been unprovided either with guides or with patrols, but had been driven blindly, like wild beasts, into a trap. they looked at one another; they gazed on the arms that they must presently surrender, on the right hands that would be helpless and the bodies that would be at the mercy of the foe. they pictured to their mind's eye the hostile yoke, the victor's taunts, and fleering countenance; and how they must pass unarmed between the ranks of their armed enemies, and then wend their wretched way, a pitiful band, through the cities of their allies; and finally the return to their own city and their parents, whither they themselves and their ancestors had often returned in triumph. they alone had been defeated without a wound, without a weapon, without a battle; to them it had not been granted to draw the sword, nor to join in combat with the enemy; on them in vain had arms, in vain had strength, in vain had bravery been bestowed. as they uttered these complaints, the fateful hour of their humiliation came, an hour destined to transcend all anticipations in the bitterness of its reality. to begin with, they were ordered to pass outside the rampart, clad in their tunics and unarmed, and the hostages were at once handed over and led off into custody. next , the lictors were commanded to forsake the consuls, who then were stripped of their generals' cloaks, —a thing which inspired such compassion in those very men who a little while before had cursed them and had declared that they deserved to be given up and put to torture, that every man, forgetting his own evil case, averted his eyes from that degradation of so majestic an office, as from a spectacle of horror. first the consuls, little better than half —naked, were sent under the yoke, then their subordinates were humbled, each in the order of his rank; and then, one after another, the several legions. The enemy under arms stood on either side, reviling them and mocking them; many they actually threatened with the sword, and some, whose resentment of the outrage showing too plainly in their faces gave their conquerors offence, they wounded or slew outright. thus they were sent under the yoke, and, what was almost harder to bear, while their enemies looked on. on emerging from the pass, although they seemed like men raised from the dead, who beheld for the first time the light of day, yet the very light itself, which allowed them to see that dismal throng, was gloomier than any death. and so, although it was in their power to have made Capua before nightfall, yet, questioning the loyalty of their allies, and withheld also by shame, they threw themselves upon the ground along the roadside, not far from the city, with nothing to supply their wants. when tidings of this were brought to Capua, a feeling of pity, natural to allies, overcame the ingrained arrogance of the Campanians. ungrudgingly , without an instant's hesitation, they dispatched the insignia of their office to the consuls, together with arms, horses, clothing, and provisions, for the men; and as they drew near Capua, the whole senate and people going forth to meet them used towards them all the rites of hospitality and every public and private courtesy. yet the kindness of their allies and their friendly looks and words were so far from drawing the Romans into talk that they could not even be got to raise their eyes or look their friends and comforters in the face; so constrained were they by a kind of humiliation —over and above their grief —to avoid the speech and assemblages of men. on the following day, when the young nobles sent from Capua to attend them to the borders of Campania had returned, and were called into the senatehouse and questioned by the elders, they reported that they had seemed to be much more sorrowful and dejected than before: their column had marched on in silence and almost as though dumb; the old Roman spirit was quite dashed; they had lost their courage with their arms; being saluted, they returned not the salutation; they responded to no questions; not a man of them had been able to open his mouth for shame, as if they still bore on their necks the yoke under which they had been sent; the Samnites had won not only a famous but a lasting victory, for they had conquered, not Rome —as the Gauls had done before —but a thing which demanded far greater prowess —the Roman valour and independence. such were the opinions that were spoken and listened to, and the Roman name had well —nigh been given up for lost in the council of Rome's faithful allies, when Aulus Calavius, son of Ovius, a man of famous birth and achievements and at that time venerable also for his age, asserted that the case was very different: that obstinate silence, those eyes fixed on the ground and ears deaf to every consolation, that shame at looking on the light, were signs, he argued, of bosoms bursting with passionate resentment; either he knew nothing of the Roman character, or that silence was destined ere long to draw from the Samnites cries and groans of anguish, and the Caudine Peace to become a far more bitter memory to Samnites than to Romans; for each people would have its own native spirit wherever they might encounter, but the Samnites would not everywhere have a Caudine Pass. by this time Rome, too, had heard of her shameful calamity. The first news was that the army was entrapped; then came a gloomier report, more by reason of the disgraceful peace than because of the peril. on the rumour of a blockade they had begun to hold a levy; but they afterwards gave over their measures for relief, when they learned that there had been so infamous a capitulation, and immediately, without official sanction of any sort, betook themselves with one mind to every form of mourning. The booths round about the Forum were shut up, and ere proclamation could be made, all business was suspended; tunics with the broad stripe of purple were discarded, as were golden rings. The citizens were almost more dejected than the army; and not only were they enraged against their generals and those who had favoured and guaranteed the peace, but they even visited their hate upon the innocent soldiers and proposed to exclude them from the City and from their homes. but this flurry of resentment was dispelled by the arrival of the army, which even angry men could not but pity. for they came not like men returning in safety to their homes, after all hope of them had been abandoned; but entering the City late in the day, with the bearing and looks of prisoners, they slipped away every man to his own house, and on the next and the succeeding days not one of them would look into the Forum or the streets. The consuls shut themselves up in their houses and would transact no public business, except that they were forced by a senatorial decree to name a dictator to preside at the election. they designated Quintus Fabius Ambustus, with Publius Aelius Paetus to be master of the horse. a flaw in their appointment occasioned the substitution in their room of Marcus Aemilius Papus, as dictator, and Lucius Valerius Flaccus, as master of the horse. however , even they did not hold an election; and because the people were dissatisfied with all the magistrates of that year, the state reverted to an interregnum. The interreges were Quintus Fabius Maximus and Marcus Valerius Corvus. The latter announced the election to the consulship of Quintus Publilius Philo (for the third time) and Lucius Papirius Cursor (for the second) with the unmistakable approval of the citizens, for there were at that time no leaders more distinguished. on the day of their election —for so the Fathers had ordained —they entered upon the duties of their magistracy, and having disposed of the routine resolutions, raised the question of the Caudine Peace. Publilius had the fasces, and called on Spurius Postumius to speak. having risen to his feet, he said, with the same expression on his countenance as when he had been sent under the yoke, i am not ignorant, consuls, that I have been called on first and bidden to speak because of my disgrace, and not to honour me; not as a senator, but as one charged with the guilt not only of an unlucky war but of a shameful peace. however , you have not raised the question of our wrongdoing or our punishment; I will therefore attempt no defence —though it should be no difficult cause to plead before judges not unacquainted with the fortunes of men and their necessities —but will briefly formulate a motion concerning the subject you have asked us to consider. my motion will bear witness whether it was myself or your legions that I spared, when I bound myself by a base, or, perhaps, a necessary pledge, —by which, however, the Roman People is not held, since it was given without the people's authorization; nor by its terms is aught but our own persons due to the Samnites. let us be given up, I propose, by the fetials, stripped and bound; let us release the people from their religious obligation, if in any such we have involved them, that no obstacle, divine or human, may block the way to a just and righteous renewal of the war. meantime I move that the consuls enroll an army and arm it and lead it forth, yet without crossing the borders of the enemy, until all the ceremonies incident to our surrender shall have been completed. do you, immortal gods, I beseech and pray you, if you were not pleased that the consuls Spurius Postumius and Titus Veturius should wage a successful war with the Samnites, yet deem it enough to have seen us sent beneath the yoke, to have seen us bound by an infamous agreement, to behold. us, naked and in bonds, delivered to the enemy, receiving on our own heads all the resentment of our foes; and vouchsafe to the new consuls and the Roman legions so to wage war with the Samnites, as, until our consulship, all Rome's wars were waged. when he had finished speaking, such a thrill of astonishment, and at the same time of pity for the man, ran through the senate, that at first men could hardly believe it was the same Spurius Postumius who had been the author of a peace so shameful; and presently they were all compassion, to think that such a man should suffer what would be no ordinary punishment at the hands of enemies enraged by the rupture of the peace. as they were all crossing over to support his motion, with nothing but praises for his heroism, Lucius Livius and Quintus Maelius, tribunes of the plebs, endeavoured for a moment to interpose their veto. The people, they said, could not be freed from their obligation by surrendering them, unless every advantage which the Samnites had possessed at Caudium were restored to them; moreover, they had merited no punishment for having preserved by their pledge of peace the army of the Roman People; nor, finally, seeing that they were sacrosanct, could they be surrendered to the enemy or violated. then said Postumius: " meanwhile , surrender us, who are unconsecrate, as you may do without offence to Heaven; afterwards you shall surrender also those sacrosanct ones, when once they have retired from their magistracy; but, if you should listen to me, before surrendering them you would have them scourged here in the Comitium, that they might receive in advance this extra punishment, by way of interest. for when they deny that the people can be freed of their obligation by surrendering us, who is so unacquainted with the fetial law as not to be aware that they say this, more that they may not be surrendered than because the case is so? and yet, Conscript Fathers, I do not dispute the fact that guarantees as well as treaties are sacred in the eyes of those who cherish honour among men on an equal footing with obligations due to the gods; but I deny that without the people's authorization any sanction can be given which shall be binding on the people. what ! If the Samnites with that same arrogance with which they extorted this capitulation from us had compelled us to pronounce the solemn form of words of those who surrender cities, would you tribunes assert that the Roman People had been surrendered, and that this City, with its temples, its holy places, its bounds and waters, was become the property of the Samnites? but enough of surrender; we are talking of a guarantee. how , pray, if we had guaranteed that the Roman People should forsake this City? that they should burn it? that it should cease to have magistrates, a senate, laws? that it should be subject to the rule of kings? ' The gods forbid!' you say. and yet the unworthiness of the conditions cannot lessen the force of a guarantee; if there is anything for which the people can be bound, it can be bound for everything. nor does it matter, either, as some are perhaps inclined to think, whether consul or dictator or praetor have given the guarantee. and this the very Samnites themselves deemed to be true, for not content with the guarantee of consuls, they obliged the lieutenants, the quaestors, and the tribunes of the soldiers to add theirs. and let no man now demand of me why I gave this guarantee, seeing that a consul has no right so to do and that I could not pledge them a peace which was not mine to grant, nor in your behalf, who had given me no mandate. there was nothing done at Caudium, Conscript Fathers, by man's wisdom: the immortal gods deprived of understanding both your commanders and the enemy's. We, on our part, took no sufficient precautions in the war: while, as for them, they threw away their ill —got victory by their ill —guided conduct, for they hardly trusted the very ground that had given them their conquest, in their haste to deprive of arms, on any terms, men born to the use of arms. why , had they had their wits about them, would it have been hard, while summoning old men from home for consultation, to dispatch envoys to Rome? to treat with senate and with people for a peace and covenant? it was only three days' journey to those who travel light; meantime hostilities would have been suspended, until their envoys should return from Rome with either certain victory or a peace. then , and then only, would there have been a guarantee in which our pledge was backed by the mandate of the people. but neither would you have voted one, nor should we have given it; nor was it Heaven's will that the affair should have any other ending, but that they should be beguiled with a dream too joyful for their comprehension, and that our army should be extricated by the same fortune which had entrapped it; that their idle victory should evaporate in a yet idler peace, and a guarantee be proffered that should bind none but the guarantor. for what negotiation, Conscript Fathers, has there been with you or with the Roman People? who can appeal to you, who can say that he has been deceived by you? can the enemy, can a fellow —citizen? you have pledged nothing to the enemy, you have given no authority to make a pledge to any fellow —citizen. you have therefore naught to do with us, to whom you gave no mandate, or with the Samnites, with whom you have had no dealings. The Samnites have in us guarantors who are responsible and quite competent, so far as concerns what belongs to ourselves and what we are able to deliver, namely, our persons and our lives; against these let them storm, against these direct their swords, against these make sharp their anger. as for the tribunes, you must determine whether their surrender can take place at once or had better be deferred; meantime, Titus Veturius, let us, and you others, offer these caitiff heads of ours in satisfaction of our pledge, and by our suffering liberate the Roman arms. both the cause itself and the speaker greatly stirred the Conscript Fathers and the others present, including even the tribunes of the plebs, who declared that they would obey the senate, and having forthwith resigned their office were delivered over to the fetials to be led with the rest to Caudium. when the senate had acted on this motion, it somehow seemed as though day had dawned upon the State. Postumius was on all men's lips; they extolled him to the skies, and compared his conduct to the devotion of Publius Decius, the consul, and to other glorious deeds. The state, they said, had emerged —thanks to his wisdom and his services —from a slavish peace; he was freely giving himself up to the tortures of a resentful foe, that he might make expiation for the Roman People. men thought of nothing but war and arms. would ever the hour come, they asked, when they might encounter the Samnites, sword in hand? in a city ablaze with wrath and hate, the levy was almost wholly made up with volunteers. The same soldiers were enrolled into new legions, and the army marched on Caudium. before them went the fetials, who, when they had come to the gate, bade the guarantors of peace be stripped and their hands be bound behind their backs. as the officer, awed by the dignity of Postumius, would have left him loosely bound, nay , draw the thong tight, he exclaimed, that the surrender may be duly carried out. then , on arriving at the assembly of the Samnites and the tribune of Pontius, Aulus Cornelius Arvina the fetial spoke as follows: " whereas these men, unbidden by the Roman People of the Quirites, have guaranteed that a treaty should be ratified, and by so doing have committed an injury; to the end that the Roman People may be absolved of heinous guilt, I deliver up these men to you. as the fetial spoke these words, Postumius thrust his knee into the other's thigh, with all the force he could summon up, and proclaimed in a loud voice that he was a Samnite citizen, who had maltreated the envoy in violation of the law of nations, whereby the Romans would make war with the better right. then said Pontius, "I will not receive this surrender, nor will the Samnites hold it valid. and you, Spurius Postumius, if you believe in the existence of the gods, why not either reject the whole negotiation or abide by your agreement? The Samnite People is entitled to all whom it had in its power, or to peace in place of them. but why do I appeal to you, who yield yourself a prisoner as honourably as you can? i appeal to the Roman People; if they repent them of the pledge that was given at the Caudine Forks, let them replace their legions in the defile where they were surrounded. let no one deceive anybody; let as though it had not happened; let them resume the arms they laid down in accordance with the compact; let them go back to their camp; whatever they had on the day before the conference, let them have again; then let them vote for war and warlike measures, then let them reject the guarantee and the peace! let us fight it out in those circumstances, and in those positions, which were ours before peace was mentioned; let the Roman People not blame the pledge given by the consuls, nor let us blame the honour of the Roman People. will you never, when you have been beaten, lack excuses for not holding to your covenants? you gave hostages to Porsinna —and withdrew them by a trick. you ransomed your City from the Gauls with gold —and cut them down as they were receiving the gold. you pledged us peace, on condition that we gave you back your captured legions —and you nullify the peace. and always you contrive to give the fraud some colour of legality. does the Roman People not approve the preservation of its legions by a disgraceful peace? let it keep its peace, and give back the captured legions to the victor; that would be conduct worthy of its promise, its covenants, its fetial ceremonies. that you, on your side, should have what you aimed at in your compact, the safety of these many citizens, but that I should not have the peace I stipulated for, when I released them, —is this the judgment which you, Aulus Cornelius, and you, fetials, render to the nations? as for me, I will none of these whom you pretend to be surrendering, nor do I deem them to be surrendered, neither do I stand in the way of their returning, despite the wrath of all the gods, whose divinity they have made a mock, to the City which is committed by their guarantee. aye , go to war, since Spurius Postumius has just now jostled the envoy with his knee! so shall the gods believe that Postumius is a Samnite —not a Roman —citizen, and that a Roman envoy has been maltreated by a Samnite, and that you, in consequence of this, have justly made war on us! does it not shame you to bring forth into the light of day these mockeries of religion, and, old men and consulars as you are, to devise such quibbles to evade your promise as were scarce worthy of children? go , lictor, strike their fetters from the Romans; let no man hinder them from departing when they list. and the guarantors, released it may be from the nation's pledge, but at all events from their own, returned from Caudium, inviolate, to the Roman camp. The Samnites now perceived that instead of their domineering peace they were confronted with the renewal of a most bitter war, and not only imagined but almost saw all the consequences which afterwards proceeded from it. too late and all in vain did they praise the alternative policies suggested by the aged Pontius, between which they had fallen, and exchanged a victory already in their possession for an uncertain peace; they had let slip the opportunity both of doing good and of doing harm, and were going to fight with men whom they might permanently have removed from their path, as enemies, or have made their permanent friends. and though there had so far been no battle since the Caudine Peace to give an advantage to either side, yet such a change of feeling had come about that Postumius enjoyed more fame among the Romans for his surrender than did Pontius among the Samnites for his bloodless victory; and while the Romans regarded their being able to make war as certain victory, the Samnites felt that the Romans had at one and the same moment renewed the war and won it. meanwhile the Satricans revolted to the Samnites, and the colony of Fregellae, in a surprise attack by the Samnites —accompanied, it would seem, by people from Satricum —was seized during the night. mutual fear then caused both sides to remain quiet until the morning, when the light ushered in a battle which for a long time was equally sustained —for the townsfolk were fighting for their hearths and altars and a throng of those unfit for arms gave them assistance from the housetops, —still, the people of Fregellae held their own, until presently a ruse decided the victory; for they permitted a herald to be heard, who promised safety to any who laid down his arms. The hope of this relaxed the tension of their courage and on every side they began throwing their arms away. The more determined portion of them retained their weapons and burst out by the opposite gate, and their boldness stood them in better stead than did their too credulous timidity the others; for these the Samnites compassed about with fire, and, despite their appeals to Heaven and to the promise of their captors, burnt them alive. The consuls having divided the provinces between them, Papirius took his way into Apulia towards Luceria, where the Roman knights given up at Caudium for hostages were being guarded, while Publilius stopped behind in Samnium to oppose the Caudine legions. this plan distracted the minds of the Samnites, since they neither dared move towards Luceria, lest they should bring the enemy down upon their rear, nor remain where they were, for fear that Luceria would meanwhile be lost. The best course seemed to be to entrust their cause to Fortune and fight it out with Publilius. they accordingly formed up in line of battle. Publilius the consul was ready to engage them, but thinking it best to encourage his soldiers first, he bade summon them to an assembly. but though they came running to the praetorium with vast alacrity, yet the outcry of those who demanded battle was so loud that the general's exhortation could not be heard; still, every man's own heart, remembering the late humiliation, was there to exhort him. so they went forward into battle, urging on their standard —bearers; and, that there might be no delay in coming to grips while they were discharging their javelins and drawing their swords, they threw away their javelins, as if a signal had been given them, and, sword in hand, pushed forward at the double against the enemy. no tactical skill was there employed in ranging centuries or reserves: the wrath of the soldiers swept everything along in its mad rush. and so not only were the Samnites routed, but not daring to interrupt their flight even at their camp, they dispersed and struck out for Apulia; yet they afterwards rallied again and came to Luceria in one body. The same fury that took the Romans through their enemy's battle —line, carried them also into his camp. there was more bloodshed and carnage there than in the battle, and the greater part of the booty was destroyed in anger. The other army, under the consul Papirius, marching along the coast as far as Arpi, had found all peaceably disposed, more because of the wrongs done by the Samnites and the hatred they had engendered than owing to any favour shown by the Roman People. for the Samnites, who in those days dwelt in villages among the mountains, used to ravage the regions of the plain and coast, despising their cultivators, who were of a softer character, and one that —as often happens —resembled their country, while they themselves were rude highlanders. if this district had been faithful to the Samnites, it would either have been impossible for a Roman army to have got as far as Arpi, or the utterly barren nature of the intervening country would have destroyed them, cut off as they would have been from their supplies. even as it was, when they had proceeded to the vicinity of Luceria, besiegers and besieged suffered alike from scarcity of food: everything was carried up from Arpi for the Romans, but so precarious were their supplies, that while the foot —soldiers were busy with outpost —duty, guard —mounting, and entrenching, the cavalry brought up corn for them from Arpi in leather pouches, and, now and then, encountering the enemy, were forced to throw off the corn from their horses and fight; the besieged, until the arrival of the other consul with his victorious army, had got in their provisions —and auxiliary forces too —from the mountains of the Samnites. The coming of Publilius tightened up the lines; for, turning the siege over to his colleague, he was free to range the country —side, where he made things difficult for the supply —trains of the enemy. The Samnites, therefore, who were encamped about Luceria, in despair of being able to endure the scarcity, if the siege continued, were obliged to gather up their forces from every quarter and give battle to Papirius. at this juncture, while both sides were making ready for the struggle, came ambassadors from Tarentum, admonishing both Samnites and Romans to desist from war. whichever party should oppose the cessation of hostilities, against that they proposed to fight in behalf of the other. after listening to these envoys, Papirius, as though moved by what they said, replied that he would consult his colleague. having sent for Publilius, he employed every moment of the interval in making his preparations, and when he had conferred with him about a matter which admitted of no doubt, displayed the battle —signal. The consuls were busy with matters pertaining to gods and to men, as they are wont to to be on the eve of an engagement, when the envoys from Tarentum approached them to receive their answer; to whom Papirius replied, Tarentines , the keeper of the chickens reports that the signs are favourable; the sacrifice too has been exceedingly auspicious; as you see, the gods are with us at our going into action. he then commanded to advance the standards, and marshalled his troops, with exclamations on the folly of a nation which, powerless to manage its own affairs, because of domestic strife and discord, presumed to lay down the limits of peace and war for others. The Samnites, on their side, having dismissed from their minds every anxiety regarding the war, either because they sincerely wished for peace, or because it was expedient for them to pretend that they wished it, in order to gain the support of the Tarentines, when they beheld the Romans suddenly arrayed for battle, cried out that they would abide by the will of the Tarentines and would neither take the field nor advance beyond the rampart; they had been deceived, but they chose rather to endure whatever Fortune might have in store for them than be thought to have spurned the peaceful advice of the Tarentines. The consuls declared that they embraced the omen, praying that the enemy might be so minded as not even to defend his rampart. they themselves, dividing their troops between them, marched up to the earthworks of the Samnites, and attacked them at once from every side. some began to fill the trenches, others to pull up the palings and fling them into the trenches; besides their native courage they were goaded on by anger at the disgrace that rankled in their hearts. forcing their way into the camp, while every man repeated that here were no Forks, no Caudium, no trackless passes, where guile had arrogantly triumphed over error, but Roman manhood, which neither rampart nor trenches could keep out, they cut down without distinction those who resisted and those who fled, the armed and the unarmed, slaves and freemen, adults and children, men and beasts; nor would anything living have survived, had not the consuls bade sound the recall and expelled the bloodthirsty soldiers from the enemy's camp with commands and threats. The men were incensed at the interruption of their sweet revenge, and accordingly the consuls at once addressed them and explained that they had neither yielded nor meant to yield to any of the soldiers in hatred of the enemy; on the contrary, they would have led the way, as in war, so in the exaction of endless vengeance, had their indignation not been checked by thoughts of the six hundred knights who were being held as hostages in Luceria; but they feared that the enemy, if they despaired of quarter, might be driven blindly to put their prisoners to death, choosing to slay before they were slain themselves. These arguments the men applauded, and rejoiced that their wrath had been restrained; they confessed that it was better that they should suffer anything than betray the lives of so many distinguished young Romans. The assembly was dismissed, and a council of war was held to determine whether they should press the siege with all their forces, or should employ one army and its general to test the dispositions of the Apulians around them —a people whose sympathies were still in doubt. The consul Publilius set out on a march through Apulia and in a single expedition either subjugated, or by granting terms, received into alliance, a goodly number of states. Papirius , too, who had remained behind at Luceria to conduct the siege, soon found the outcome answerable to his hopes; for all the roads by which supplies were wont to be brought in from Samnium were blocked, and the Samnite garrison were reduced by hunger to send a deputation to the Roman consul with an offer to release the horsemen who were the cause of the war, on condition that he would raise the siege. Papirius replied that they ought to have gone to Pontius, the son of Herennius, at whose instance they had sent the Romans under the yoke, to find out what the vanquished deserved to suffer; however, since they preferred that their enemies should decide on a just penalty for them, rather than propose one for themselves, he bade them take word to Luceria that they should leave their arms, packs, sumpter animals, and all the noncombatants, within the walls; the soldiers he intended to send under the yoke, clad only in their tunics, inflicting on them no new disgrace, but requiting that which had first been put upon the Romans. they made no objection, and seven thousand men were sent under the yoke. huge spoils were captured in Luceria, and all the standards and arms which had been lost at Caudium were retaken, and, to cap the climax of their joy, the horsemen were recovered whom the Samnites had assigned, as pledges of peace, to be guarded at Luceria. there is scarce any other Roman victory more glorious for its sudden reversal of fortune, especially if it is true, as I find in certain annals, that Pontius the son of Herennius, the Samnite general —in —chief, was sent with the rest under the yoke, to expiate the humiliation of the consuls. be that as it may, I am not greatly surprised that there should be some doubt as to the general of the enemy who was surrendered and disgraced; the amazing thing is the uncertainty whether it was Lucius Cornelius, as dictator —with Lucius Papirius Cursor, as master of the horse —who won these victories at Caudium and subsequently at Luceria, and, because of the signal vengeance that he exacted for Rome's shame, enjoyed a triumph which I should be inclined to rate as the best —deserved of all down to that time, next after that of Furius Camillus; or whether that honour belongs to the consuls —and particularly to Papirius. this doubt is attended with another —whether at the ensuing election Papirius Cursor was retained in office in recognition of his victory at Luceria, being returned for a third time to the consulship, together with Quintus Aulius Cerretanus —then chosen for the second time —or whether it was Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, and the mistake was a matter of the surname. it is agreed that from this point onwards the war was brought to a conclusion by the consuls. Aulius finished in one successful battle the campaign against the Ferentani, and having exacted hostages, received the surrender of the city itself, in which their defeated army had taken refuge. with no less good fortune the other consul overcame the Satricans, who —though Roman citizens —had revolted, after the Caudine misfortune, to the Samnites, of whom they had admitted a garrison into their city. for when the Roman army had drawn near the walls of Satricum, the townspeople sent ambassadors to sue humbly for peace; but the consul returned them a harsh answer: that unless they put to death the Samnite garrison or delivered it up, they must come back to him no more —a saying which struck more terror into their hearts than the threatened assault. and so the envoys persisted in demanding of the consul how he supposed that they, being few and weak, could force so strong and well —armed a garrison. but he bade them seek advice from those same men at whose instigation they had received the garrison into their city; and after they had with no small difficulty persuaded him to suffer them to consult their senate in the matter and report to him its decision, they went back to their people. two factions kept the senate divided: one of these had for leaders the men who had inspired the revolt from Rome, the other was composed of loyal citizens; both, however, were equally anxious to accommodate the consul, so that they might be granted peace. one party, seeing that the Samnite garrison was intending to escape on the following night —for they had made no preparations for enduring a siege —deemed it sufficient to let the consul know at what hour and by what gate the enemy meant to leave, and what road he planned to take. The others, who had opposed going over to the Samnites, that same night also opened a gate to the consul, and without letting the Samnites know, admitted his soldiers into the city. in consequence of this double betrayal, the Samnite garrison was surprised and overpowered by an ambush laid in the woods about their road, while a shout went up in the city, which was filled with enemies. thus , in one crowded hour, the Samnites were slain and the Satricans captured, and all things brought under the power of the consul; who conducted an investigation, and, having ascertained who were responsible for the defection, had the guilty parties scourged and beheaded; after which he imposed a strong garrison upon the Satricans and deprived them of their arms. Papirius Cursor then departed for Rome to celebrate his triumph, as those writers state who name him as the commander who recovered Luceria and sent the Samnites under the yoke. no question, he was a man deserving of all praise as a soldier, excelling, as he did, not only in the vigour of his spirit, but in physical strength. he possessed remarkable fleetness of foot, which was even the source of his surname. it is said that he vanquished all his mates at running, whether owing to the strength of his legs or to much exercise; that he had also the greatest capacity for food and wine; and that no general was harder on his men, whether horse or foot, for his own constitution could never be overcome by toil. it is related how his cavalrymen ventured once to ask him if in view of their good conduct he would not excuse them from some portion of their duties; to whom he answered, that you may not say that I have excused you nothing, I freely excuse you from the duty of rubbing your backs when you dismount. and the man possessed a power of command which was equally effective with citizens and allies. a Praenestine praetor had, through timidity, been somewhat slow in bringing his men up from the supports to the fighting line. Papirius strolled over to the praetor's tent and having bidden them call him out, commanded a lictor to prepare his axe. hearing this the praetor stood aghast, but Papirius said to the lictor, come , cut out this root; it is a nuisance to those who walk. he then fined the man and let him go, half —dead with the fear of capital punishment. there can be no doubt that in his generation, than which none was ever more fruitful of great qualities, there was no single man who did more to uphold the Roman State. indeed people regard him as one who might have been a match in generalship for Alexander the Great, if the latter, after subjugating Asia, had turned his arms against Europe. nothing can be thought to have been more remote from my intention, since I first set about this task, than to depart unduly from the order of events, and to aim, by the introduction of ornamental digressions, at providing as it were agreeable bypaths for the reader, and mental relaxation for myself. nevertheless the mention of so great a prince and captain evokes certain thoughts which I have often silently pondered in my mind, and disposes me to enquire how the Roman State would have fared in a war with Alexander. it appears that in war the factors of chief importance are the numbers and valour of the soldiers, the abilities of the commanders, and Fortune, which, powerful in all the affairs of men, is especially so in war. These factors, whether viewed separately or conjointly, afford a ready assurance, that, even as against other princes and nations, so also against this one the might of Rome would have proved invincible. first of all —to begin by comparing commanders —I do not deny that Alexander was a remarkable general; still, his fame was enhanced by the fact that he was a sole commander, and the further fact that he died young, in the flood —tide of success, when as yet he had experienced no other lot. not to speak of other distinguished kings and generals, illustrious proofs of human vicissitude, what else was it but length of days that exposed Cyrus, whom the Greeks exalt so high in their panegyrics, to the fickleness of Fortune? and the same thing was lately seen in the case of Pompey the Great. need I repeat the names of the Roman generals, not all nor of every age, but those very ones with whom, as consuls or as dictators, Alexander would have had to fight —Marcus Valerius Corvus, Gaius Marcius Rutulus, Gaius Sulpicius, Titus Manlius Torquatus, Quintus Publilius Philo, Lucius Papirius Cursor, Quintus Fabius Maximus, the two Decii, Lucius Volumnius, Manius Curius? after these come some extraordinary men, if he had turned his attention to war with Carthage first and later with Rome, and had crossed into Italy when somewhat old. any one of these was as highly endowed with courage and talents as was Alexander; and military training, handed down from the very beginning of the City, had taken on the character of a profession, built up on comprehensive principles. so the kings had warred; so after them the expellers of the kings, the Junii and the Valerii, and so in succession the Fabii, Quinctii, Cornelii, and Furius Camillus, whom in his old age those had seen, as youths, who would have had to fight with Alexander. but in the performance of a soldier's work in battle —for which Alexander was no less distinguished —Manlius Torquatus or Valerius Corvus would, forsooth, have yielded to him, had they met him in a hand —to —hand encounter, famous though they were as soldiers before ever they won renown as captains! The Decii, of course, would have yielded to him, who hurled their devoted bodies upon the foe! Papirius Cursor would have yielded, with that wondrous strength of body and of spirit! The counsels of a single youth would no doubt have got the better of that senate —not to speak of individual members —which was called an assembly of kings by him who before all others had a true conception of the Roman Senate! and I suppose there was the danger that Alexander would display more skill than any of these whom I have named, in selecting a place for a camp, in organizing his service of supply, in guarding against ambuscades, in choosing a time for battle, in marshalling his troops, in providing strong reserves! he would have said it was no Darius whom he had to deal with, trailing women and eunuchs after him, and weighed down with the gold and purple trappings of his station. him he found a booty rather than an enemy, and conquered without bloodshed, merely by daring to despise vain shows. far different from India, through which he progressed at the head of a rout of drunken revellers, would Italy have appeared to him, as he gazed on the passes of Apulia and the Lucanian mountains, and the still fresh traces of that family disaster wherein his uncle, King Alexander of Epirus, had lost his life. and we are speaking of an Alexander not yet overwhelmed with prosperity, which none has ever been less able to bear. for viewing him in the light of his new fortune and of the new character —if I may use the expression —which he had assumed as conqueror, he would evidently have come to Italy more like Darius than like Alexander, at the head of an army that had forgotten Macedonia and was already adopting the degenerate customs of the Persians. i am loath, in writing of so great a prince, to remind the reader of the ostentatious alteration in his dress, and of his desire that men should prostrate themselves in adulation, a thing which even conquered Macedonians would have found oppressive, much more then those who had been victorious; of his cruel punishments and the murder of his friends as they drank and feasted; of the boastful lie about his origin. what if his love of wine had every day grown stronger? and his truculent and fiery anger? i mention only things which historians regard as certain. can we deem such vices to be no detraction from a general's good qualities? but there was forsooth the danger —as the silliest of the Greeks, who exalt the reputation even of the Parthians against the Romans, are fond of alleging —that the Roman People would have been unable to withstand the majesty of Alexander's name, though I think that they had not so much as heard of him; and that out of all the Roman nobles not one would have dared to lift up his voice against him, although in Athens, a city crushed by the arms of Macedonia, at the very moment when men had before their eyes the reeking ruins of the neighbouring Thebes, they dared inveigh against him freely, as witness the records of their speeches. however imposing the greatness of the man may appear to us, still this greatness will be that of one man only, and the fruits of little more than ten years of success. those who magnify it for this reason, that the Roman People, albeit never in any war, have yet suffered defeat in a number of battles, whereas Alexander's fortune was never aught but prosperous in any battle, fail to perceive that they are comparing the achievements of a man —and a young man too —with those of a people that was now in its four hundredth year of warfare. should it occasion us surprise if, seeing that upon the one side are counted more generations than are years upon the other, fortune should have varied more in that long time than in a life of thirteen years? why not compare a man's fortune with a man's, and a general's with a general's? How many Roman generals could I name who never suffered a reverse in battle! in our annals and lists of magistrates you may run through pages of consuls and dictators of whom it never on any day repented the Roman People, whether of their generalship or fortune. and what makes them more wonderful than Alexander or any king is this: some were dictators of ten or twenty days, and none held the consulship above a year; their levies were obstructed by the tribunes of the plebs; they were late in going to war, and were called back early to conduct elections; in the midst of their undertakings the year rolled round; now the rashness, now the frowardness of a colleague occasioned them losses or difficulties; they succeeded to affairs which others had mismanaged, they received an army of raw recruits, or one badly disciplined. now consider kings: not only are they free from all impediments, but they are lords of time and circumstance, and in their counsels carry all things with them, instead of following in their train. so then, an undefeated Alexander would have warred against undefeated generals, and would have brought the same pledges of Fortune to the crisis. nay , he would have run a greater risk than they, inasmuch as the Macedonians would have had but a single Alexander, not only exposed to many dangers, but incurring them voluntarily, while there would have been many Romans a match for Alexander, whether for glory or for the greatness of their deeds, of whom each several one would have lived and died as his own fate commanded, without endangering the State. it remains to compare the forces on both sides, whether for numbers, or types of soldiers, or size of their contingents of auxiliaries. The quinquennial enumerations of that period put the population at 250,000. And so at the time when all the Latin allies were in revolt it was the custom to enroll ten legions, by a levy which was virtually limited to the City. in those years frequently four and five armies at a time would take the field, in Etruria, in Umbria (where they also fought the Gauls), in Samnium, and in Lucania. later on Alexander would have found all Latium, with the Sabines, the Volsci and the Aequi, all Campania, and a portion of Umbria and Etruria, the Picentes and the Marsi and Paeligni, the Vestini and the Apulians, together with the whole coast of the Lower Sea, held by the Greeks, from Thurii as far as Naples and Cumae, and thence all the way to Antium and Ostia —all these, I say, he would have found either powerful friends of the Romans or their defeated enemies. he himself would have crossed the sea with veteran Macedonians to the number of not more than thirty thousand foot and four thousand horse —mostly Thessalians —for this was his main strength. if to these he had added Persians and Indians and other nations, he would have found them a greater burden to have dragged about than a help. add to this, that the Romans would have had recruits ready to call upon, but Alexander, as happened afterwards to Hannibal, would have found his army wear away, while he warred in a foreign land. his men would have been armed with targets and spears: the Romans with an oblong shield, affording more protection to the body, and the Roman javelin, which strikes, on being thrown, with a much harder impact than the lance. both armies were formed of heavy troops, keeping to their ranks; but their phalanx was immobile and consisted of soldiers of a single type; the Roman line was opener and comprised more separate units; it was easy to divide, wherever necessary, and easy to unite. moreover , what soldier can match the Roman in entrenching? who is better at enduring toil? Alexander would, if beaten in a single battle, have been beaten in the war; but what battle could have overthrown the Romans, whom Caudium could not overthrow, nor Cannae? nay , many a time —however prosperous the outset of his enterprise might have been —would he have wished for Indians and Persians and unwarlike Asiatics, and would have owned that he had before made war upon women, as Alexander, King of Epirus, is reported to have said, when mortally wounded, contrasting the type of war waged by this very youth in Asia, with that which had fallen to his own share. indeed when I remember that we contended against the Carthaginians on the seas for four —andtwenty years, I think that the whole life of Alexander would hardly have sufficed for this single war; and perchance, inasmuch as the Punic State had been by ancient treaties leagued with the Roman, and the two cities most powerful in men and arms might well have made common cause against the foe whom both dreaded, he had been crushed beneath the simultaneous attacks of Rome and Carthage. The Romans have been at war with the Macedonians —not, to be sure, when Alexander led them or their prosperity was unimpaired, but against Antiochus, Philippus, and Perses —and not only without ever suffering defeat, but even without incurring any danger. proud word I would not speak, but never —and may civil wars be silent! — never have we been beaten by infantry, never in open battle, never on even, or at all events on favourable ground: cavalry and arrows, impassable defiles, regions that afford no road to convoys, may well occasion fear in heavy —armed troops. a thousand battle —arrays more formidable than those of Alexander and the Macedonians have the Romans beaten off —and shall do —if only our present love of domestic peace endure and our concern to maintain concord. Marcus Polius Flaccina and Lucius Plautius Venox were the next consuls. in that year came ambassadors from many Samnite states to seek a renewal of the treaty. prostrating themselves before the senate, they aroused the pity of that order, but on being referred to the people found their prayers by no means so efficacious. accordingly they were refused the treaty, but after some days spent in importuning individual citizens, they succeeded in obtaining a two years' truce. in Apulia, likewise, the Teanenses and Canusini, exhausted by the devastation of their lands, gave hostages to Lucius Plautius the consul and made submission. in the same year praefects began to be elected and sent out to Capua, after Lucius Furius, the praetor, had given them laws —both steps being taken at the instance of the Capuans themselves, as a remedy for the distress occasioned by internal discord. at Rome two tribes were added, the Ufentina and the Falerna. when affairs had once taken a tum in Apulia, the Apulian Teates also came to the new consuls, Gaius Junius Bubulcus and Quintus Aemilius Barbula, to sue for a treaty, engaging to insure the Roman People peace throughout Apulia. by this bold pledge they prevailed so far as to obtain a treaty —not, however, on equal terms, but such as made them subject to the Romans. after Apulia had been thoroughly subdued —for Forentum, a strong town, had also fallen into the hands of Junius —the campaign was extended to the Lucanians, from whom, on the sudden arrival of Aemilius the consul, Nerulum was taken by assault. and once it had been noised abroad amongst the allies how the affairs of Capua were firmly established by Roman discipline, the Antiates, too, complained that they were living without fixed statutes and without magistrates, and the senate designated the colony's own patrons to draw up laws for it. not Roman arms alone but also Roman law began to exert a widespread influence. The consuls Gaius Junius Bubulcus and Quintus Aemilius Barbula gave over their legions, at the conclusion of the year, not to Spurius Nautius and Marcus Popilius, the consuls at whose election they had presided, but to a dictator —Lucius Aemilius. The latter, with Lucius Fulvius, his master of the horse, laid siege to Saticula, and by so doing afforded the Samnites a pretext for renewing the war. The Romans were thus threatened in two quarters: on the one side the Samnites, with a large army which they had mustered to relieve their besieged allies, were encamped at no great distance from the Roman camp; on the other side the Saticulani suddenly threw their gates wide open and charged pell —mell against the outposts of the Romans. both hostile armies —each relying rather on the other's help than on any strength of its own —then pressed home their attack, in what soon developed into a general engagement. but the dictator, despite the twofold struggle, was protected on both fronts, since he had chosen a position that was difficult to tum, and made his maniples face opposite ways. however , he attacked the sallying party with the greater fury, and, encountering no very sharp resistance, drove them back into the town. he then directed his entire line against the Samnites. there was more resistance here, but though the victory was slow in coming yet it was neither dubious nor partial. The Samnites fled in disorder to their camp, and in the night, putting out their fires, they silently stole away, and relinquishing all hope of saving Saticula, themselves laid siege to Plistica, an ally of Rome, that they might pay the enemy out in their own coin. when the year had come round, the conduct of the war passed without a break into the hands of the dictator Quintus Fabius. The new consuls, as their predecessors had done, remained in Rome; Fabius took new forces to replace the old, and proceeded to Saticula, to receive the army from Aemilius. for the Samnites had not continued before Plistica, but, summoning fresh troops from home and confiding in their numbers, had pitched their camp on the same spot as before, and were trying to provoke the Romans into giving battle, in the endeavour to divert them from the siege. this but intensified the dictator's concentration on the enemy's walls, for he deemed the war to consist solely in the attack upon the city, and treated the Samnites with much indifference, save only that he posted out —guards to prevent their making any inroad upon his camp. but this only made the Samnites the more audacious, and riding again and again up to the rampart, they gave no respite to the Romans. and now the enemy were almost in the gateway of the camp, when Quintus Aulius Cerretanus, the master of the horse, without consulting the dictator, sallied out with all his squadrons in a furious charge and drove them off. at this juncture —though in a type of battle by no means marked by obstinacy — Fortune so used her powers as to bring extraordinary losses on both sides, and on the commanders themselves distinguished deaths. The Samnite general first, indignant at being routed and put to flight from a position he had so boldly occupied, prevailed with his troopers by entreaties and encouragement to renew the conflict; against whom, conspicuous amongst his followers as he urged them into battle, the Roman master of the horse rode such a tilt with levelled lance as at one lunge unhorsed and killed him. yet the rank and file were not more dismayed by their leader's death —though it often happens so —than they were angered; and as Aulius rode recklessly on through the enemy's squadrons, all those about him darted their javelins at him. but the glory of avenging the Samnite general was given by Heaven in largest measure to his brother, who, wild with grief and rage, dragged down the victorious Roman from his seat and slew him. indeed the Samnites almost got possession of the body, which had fallen in the midst of their troops. but the Romans at once dismounted, and the Samnites were forced to do the same; and hurriedly forming up their lines, they began a battle on foot around the bodies of their generals, in which the Romans had easily the better. so they rescued the body of Aulius, which they bore back victoriously to their camp, with mingled feelings of sorrow and satisfaction. The Samnites, having lost their commander, and having tried what they could do in a cavalry engagement, gave up Saticula, which they felt was holding out in vain, and returned to the siege of Plistica. within a few days' time Saticula had surrendered to the Romans and the Samnites had carried Plistica by assault. The seat of war was now shifted, and the legions were transferred from Samnium and Apulia to Sora, which had gone over to the Samnites, after putting to death the Roman colonists. The Roman army, by a series of forced marches, undertaken to avenge their slaughtered fellow —citizens and regain the colony, came first upon the ground. but the scouts who had scattered out along the roads reported one after the other that the Samnite legions were following and were already close at hand. whereupon the Romans marched to meet the enemy, and an indecisive battle was fought near Lautulae. it was not the losses nor the rout of either army that put a stop to the engagement, but darkness, which left them uncertain if they had lost or won. i find in some authorities that the Romans were defeated in this battle, and that it was here that the master of the horse, Quintus Aulius, lost his life. to fill out the term of Aulius they appointed Gaius Fabius, who marched from Rome with a fresh army. sending messengers on ahead to the dictator, he consulted him as to where he should halt, and when, and from what quarter, attack the enemy. on being accurately informed regarding every detail of the dictator's plans, he halted where his army could lie concealed. for some days after the battle the dictator had kept his soldiers within their works, more like one besieged than a besieger. then , suddenly, he displayed the battle —signal, and thinking it more efficacious for quickening the courage of brave men to leave none of them any hope but in himself, he concealed from his troops the arrival of the master of the horse and his new army, and, as though their only salvation lay in cutting their way through, soldiers , he said, we are trapped and have no way of escape save such as victory shall open to us. our standing camp is sufficiently protected by its rampart, but for lack of provisions is untenable; for every place round about us from which supplies could be brought up has revolted, and even if men wished to help us, the character of the country is against it. i will therefore not beguile you by leaving the camp standing here for you to make a refuge, if you fail of victory, as on the former occasion. entrenchments should be secured by arms, not arms by entrenchments. let those have a camp, and retire to it, who have time to prolong the war: as for us, let us shut out all regard for everything but victory. forward against the enemy! when the column is outside the rampart, let those who have been ordered to do so fire the camp! your losses, men, shall be made good with the spoils of all the revolted peoples round about! inflamed by the dictator's speech, which pointed to the direst necessity, the soldiers advanced upon the foe; and the mere sight of their blazing camp as they glanced back, though only the nearest tents were set afire — for so the dictator had commanded —was no small whet to their resentment. and so, charging like madmen, they threw the enemy's ranks into confusion at the first assault; and in the nick of time the master of the horse, who had seen far away the burning camp —which was the signal they had agreed upon —assaulted the enemy from behind. being thus hemmed in, the Samnites fled, as each best might, in different directions; a vast throng huddled up together, in their terror, and blocking each other's way in the confusion, were cut down where they stood. The enemy's camp was seized and plundered, and the soldiers, laden with the spoils, were led back by the dictator to the Roman camp, rejoicing not so greatly in their victory as because, contrary to their expectation, they found all safe there, except for a trifling part that had been damaged by the flames. The Romans then returned to Sora; and new consuls, Marcus Poetelius and Gaius Sulpicius, took over the army from Fabius the dictator, dismissing a great part of the veteran troops and bringing in new cohorts to replace them. but the city lay in a troublesome position, where the Romans could devise no very certain way of getting at it, and it seemed that victory would either be long in coming, or fraught with fearful risks; when a Soran deserter stole out of the town, and picking his way to the Roman sentinels, bade them bring him immediately to the consuls. arrived in their presence, he offered to betray the city. on being questioned how he could accomplish it, he satisfied his interrogators that his plan was not unfeasible, and induced them to withdraw the Roman camp —which was almost in contact with the city walls —to a distance of six miles from the town; for so, he said, the sentinels would be less vigilant in guarding the place, whether by night or day. he himself on the following night, having directed certain cohorts to seek cover in the woods below the town, took with him ten picked men, whom he conducted over steep and almost impassable ground up to the citadel. here he had brought together a quantity of missiles out of all proportion to the number of men, besides which there were stones —both those which happened to be lying there, as is usual in rough country, and those which the townsmen had piled up on purpose, for the better protection of the place. on this height he posted the Romans, and, indicating to them a steep and narrow path which led up from the town to the citadel, lie said, from an ascent like this three men would be enough to keep back a multitude, however numerous: you are not only ten, but Romans, and of Romans the very bravest. you will have the advantage of position and of night, which makes everything loom greater in the eyes of frightened men, because of the obscurity. as for me, I will presently strike terror into every heart: do you hold the citadel and watch. he then ran down, making all the noise he could, as he cried to arms! and help , help, my countrymen! The citadel has been taken by the enemy! defend us! These words he shouted as he knocked at the doors of the great, the same to all he met, the same to those who rushed out terrified into the streets. The panic begun by one man was spread by numbers through all the city. quaking with fear, the magistrates dispatched scouts to investigate, and on hearing that armed men, in exaggerated numbers, held the citadel, relinquished all hope of regaining it. The city was thronged with fugitives, and men who were hardly yet awake and most of them unarmed, began battering down the gates. through one of them rushed in the band of Romans, who had started up on hearing the outcry, and now running through the streets, cut down the frightened townsfolk. Sora was already taken, when the consuls arrived at early dawn, and received the surrender of such as Fortune had spared in the rout and slaughter of the night. of these, two hundred and twenty —five, who were designated on all hands as the authors of the revolt and the hideous massacre of the colonists, they sent to Rome in chains; the rest they left unharmed in Sora, only setting a garrison over them. all those who were taken to Rome were scourged and beheaded in the Forum, to the great joy of the commons, whom it most nearly concerned that the people who were sent out here and there to colonies should in every case be protected. The consuls on leaving Sora conducted a campaign against the lands and cities of the Ausones. for everything had been disturbed by the coming of the Samnites, when the battle was fought at Lautulae, and conspiracies had been formed all about Campania. even Capua itself did not escape accusation; nay, the investigation actually led to Rome and to some of the prominent men there. but the Ausones were brought into subjection by the betrayal of their cities, as had happened in the case of Sora. from Ausona, from Minturnae, and from Vescia, twelve young nobles, having conspired to betray their cities, came to the consuls, and explained to them that their countrymen, after long looking forward to the coming of the Samnites, had no sooner heard of the battle at Lautulae than they had concluded the Romans vanquished and had aided the Samnites with men and arms; that since the expulsion of the Samnites from that region, they had been living in an uncertain kind of peace, not closing their gates upon the Romans, lest to do so should invite attack, but determined none the less to close them in case an army should approach; and that in that wavering state of mind they could be surprised and overcome. by their advice the camp was moved up nearer and soldiers were simultaneously sent round to the three towns. some of these, in armour, were to lie in ambush in places near the walls, while others, wearing the toga and concealing swords under their dress, were to enter the cities, a little before day, by the open gates. These latter fell upon the watchmen, at the same time making a signal to their fellows in armour to rush in from their ambuscade. thus the gates were captured, and three towns were taken in one hour and by one device. but because the leaders were not present when the attack was made, there was no limit to the slaughter, and the Ausonian nation was wiped out —though it was not quite clear that it was guilty of defection —exactly as if it had contended in an internecine war. in the same year Luceria, betraying its Roman garrison to the enemy, passed into the possession of the Samnites; but the traitors did not long go unpunished for their deed. not far away there was a Roman army, which captured the city —situated as it was in a plain —at the first attack. The Lucerini and Samnites were shown no quarter, and resentment ran so high that even in Rome, when the senate was debating the dispatch of colonists to Luceria, there were many who voted to destroy the town. besides men's hate, which was very bitter against those whom they had twice subdued, there was also the remoteness of the place, which made them shrink from condemning fellow —citizens to an exile so far from home and surrounded by such hostile tribes. however , the proposal to send colonists prevailed, and twenty —five hundred were sent. in that year also of general disloyalty to the Romans, there were secret conspiracies of the nobles, even at Capua. on their being reported to the senate, the danger was by no means minimized, but tribunals of enquiry were voted and it was determined to appoint a dictator to conduct the investigations. Gaius Maenius was nominated, and named Marcus Folius master of the horse. Great was the terror inspired by that magistracy; and so, whether from fear or a guilty conscience, the Calavii, Ovius and Novius, who had headed the conspiracy, before informations could be lodged against them with the dictator, avoided trial by a death which was undoubtedly self —inflicted. after that, the field of enquiry at Capua having been exhausted, the proceedings were transferred to Rome, on the theory that the senate had ordered an investigation, not of specified individuals in Capua, but, in general, of all who had anywhere combined or conspired against the State; and that cabals for obtaining magistracies had been made against the common weal. The enquiry began to take a wider range, in respect both of charges and of persons, and the dictator was nothing loath that there should be no limit to the jurisdiction of his court. certain nobles were accordingly impeached, and on appealing to the tribunes found none to help them by stopping the informations. The nobles then declared —not those alone at whom the charge was levelled, but all of them conjointly —that this accusation did not lie against the nobility, to whom, unless fraudulently obstructed, the road to office lay wide open, but rather against upstart politicians; that in fact the dictator and the master of the horse themselves were fitter to be tried on such a charge than to act as judges, and they would find this to be so the moment they resigned their places. then indeed Maenius, more mindful now of his reputation than of his authority, came forward and addressed the assembly. you are all of you, he said, Quirites , aware of my past life, and this very office which has been conferred upon me is witness to my innocence; for it was necessary to select as dictator for the administration of judicial investigations, not the most distinguished soldier —as has often been done at other times, when some crisis in the state required it —but the man who had lived a life most aloof from these cabals. but since certain noblemen —for what cause it is better that you should form your own opinion than that I as magistrate should affirm anything not fully ascertained —have in the first place striven with might and main to defeat these very investigations; and then, finding themselves not strong enough to escape pleading their cause in court, have sought refuge, patricians though they are, in the safeguards of their adversaries —the appeal, I mean, and the help of the tribunes; — and since at last, repulsed in that quarter, they have fallen upon us —so much safer does any course appear to them than to try to vindicate their innocence and have not blushed, though private citizens, to demand the impeachment of a dictator; —in order that all gods and men may know that they are attempting even impossibilities to avoid accounting for their lives, whereas I am ready to face their charge and to offer myself to my enemies to be tried, I hereby resign the dictator's authority. you , consuls, I beseech, if the task shall be devolved upon you by the senate, that you begin your investigations with me and with Marcus Folius here, that it may be seen that we are safe from these accusations by reason of our innocence, not by reason of the awe inspired by our office. he then resigned as dictator, and so at once did Folius as master of the horse. they were the first to go to trial before the consuls —for to these the senate had given the matter in charge — and, against the testimony of the nobles, were gloriously acquitted. Publilius Philo, too, after all his famous achievements at home and in war, and after having repeatedly held the highest offices, had incurred the hate of the nobility, and was brought to trial and acquitted. but the inquisition, as often happens, had the vigour to deal with illustrious defendants no longer than while its novelty lasted; after that it began to descend to the baser sort, until it was finally put down by the cabals and factions which it had been instituted to oppose. The rumour of these events, and still more the hope of a Campanian insurrection, which had been the aim of the conspirators, recalled the Samnites from Apulia, on which their attention had been fixed, to Caudium; in the hope that, being there so near, they might, if any disturbance should afford the opportunity, seize Capua from the Romans; and to Caudium came the consuls, with a powerful force. both armies at first held back, each on its own side of the pass, for either would have been at a disadvantage in advancing against the other. then the Samnites made a short detour over open ground, and brought their army down to the plain, where the hostile forces were, for the first time, encamped in sight of one another. some skirmishing followed, in which both sides made trial more often of their cavalry than their foot. The Romans were not dissatisfied either with the outcome of these brushes or with the delays by which the campaign was protracted. to the Samnite leaders, on the contrary, it appeared that their forces were daily diminishing with petty losses, and were wasting away with the prolongation of the war. they accordingly made ready for a general engagement, dividing their cavalry between the wings, with orders to pay more attention to the camp, to prevent any attack upon it, than to the battle; for the infantry would sufficiently safeguard the line. of the consuls, Sulpicius took up his post on the right wing, Poetelius on the left. The formation on the right was spread out over a considerable distance, and on that wing the Samnites, too, were drawn up in ranks of little depth, either meaning to tum the Romans' flank, or to keep their own from being turned. The troops on the left, besides being drawn up in closer order, had received an accession to their strength from a plan conceived on the spur of the moment by Poetelius. for those subsidiary cohorts which were wont to be kept fresh in reserve, to meet the chance needs of a long engagement, he sent immediately into the fighting line; and by using all his strength at once, he forced the enemy back at the first assault. as the Samnite infantry wavered, their cavalry moved up to support them. but while they came obliquely onward, in the interval between the armies, the Roman cavalry charged them at the gallop, confounding the ranks and the formations of horse and foot, until they had routed the entire army at that point. on that wing Sulpicius was present, as well as Poetelius, to animate the soldiers, for when the shouting arose upon the left, he had ridden over there, leaving his own men, who were not yet come to grips with the enemy. but perceiving his colleague's victory to be safe, he left him and rode off with twelve hundred men to his own wing. there he found affairs in a different posture; the Romans had been driven out of their position, and the victorious enemy were charging their disordered ranks. but all was quickly changed by the arrival of the consul. for the sight of their general revived the spirits of the soldiers, and the brave men who followed him were a greater succour than their numbers indicated; and the tidings of their comrades' victory, which they soon saw for themselves, restored the battle. presently the Romans had begun to conquer all along the line, while the Samnites, giving up the struggle, were massacred or made prisoners, except those who fled to Maleventum, the city which is now called Beneventum. tradition avers that some thirty thousand Samnites were slain or captured. The consuls, who had won a brilliant victory, at once marched away to lay siege to Bovianum, where they remained in winter quarters, until the new consuls, Lucius Papirius Cursor (for the fifth time) and Gaius Junius Bubulcus (for the second) appointed Gaius Poetelius dictator, who, with Marcus Folius as master of horse, took over the command. Poetelius , hearing that the citadel of Fregellae was captured by the Samnites, raised the siege of Bovianum and proceeded to Fregellae. having got possession of the place without a struggle —for the Samnites fled from it in the night —he installed a strong garrison there, and leaving Fregellae, marched back into Campania, for the purpose, chiefly, of winning back Nola by force of arms. within its walls, as the dictator drew near, the whole Samnite population and the Nolani of the country —side had taken refuge. after examining the position of the city, the dictator, in order to open up approaches to the walls, caused all the buildings round them —and the tract was densely inhabited —to be burnt. not very long after this Nola was captured, whether by Poetelius the dictator or the consul Gaius Junius —for the story is told both ways. those who ascribe the honour of capturing Nola to the consul, add that Atina and Calatia were won by the same man, but that Poetelius was made dictator on the outbreak of a pestilence, that lie might drive the nail. colonies were planted in that same year at Suessa and Pontiae. Suessa had belonged to the Aurunci; Volscians had inhabited Pontiae, an island which lay within sight of their own coast. The senate also passed a resolution that a colony be sent out to Interamna Sucasina, but it was left for the next consuls, Marcus Valerius and Publius Decius, to appoint the three commissioners and send out four thousand settlers. The war with the Samnites was practically ended, but the Roman senators had not yet ceased to be concerned about it, when the rumour of an Etruscan war sprang up. in those days there was no other race —setting apart the risings of the Gauls —whose arms were more dreaded, not only because their territory lay so near, but also because of their numbers. accordingly , while the other consul was in Samnium, dispatching the last remnants of the war, Publius Decius, who was very sick and had stopped behind in Rome, in pursuance of a senatorial resolution named Gaius Sulpicius Longus dictator, who appointed Gaius Junius Bubulcus to be his master of the horse. Sulpicius , as the gravity of the circumstances required, administered the oath to all those of military age, and made ready arms and whatever else the situation called for, with the utmost assiduity. yet he was not so carried away with these great preparations as to plan for an offensive war, clearly intending to remain inactive, unless the Etruscans should first take the field. but the Etruscans followed the same policy, preparing for war but preventing it from breaking out. neither side went beyond their own frontiers. noteworthy , too, in that year was the censorship of Appius Claudius and Gaius Plautius; but the name of Appius was of happier memory with succeeding generations, because he built a road, and conveyed a stream of water into the City. These undertakings he carried out by himself, since his colleague had resigned, overcome with shame at the disgraceful and invidious manner in which Appius revised the list of senators; and Appius, exhibiting the obstinacy which had marked his family from the earliest days, exercised the censorship alone. it was Appius, too, by whose warranty the Potitian clan, with whom the priesthood of Hercules at the Ara Maxima was hereditary, taught the ritual of that sacrifice to public slaves, in order to devolve the service upon them. tradition relates that after this a strange thing happened, and one that might well give men pause ere they disturb the established order of religious ceremonies. for whereas at that time there were twelve families of the Potitii, and grown men to the number of thirty, within the year they had perished, every man, and the stock had become extinct; and not only did the name of the Potitii die out, but even the censor, by the unforgetting ire of the gods, was a few years later stricken blind. and so the consuls of the following year, Gaius Junius Bubulcus (for the third time) and Quintus Aemilius Barbula (for the second), complained to the people, at the outset of their administration, that the senatorial order had been depraved by the improper choice of members, in which better men had been passed over than some that had been appointed. they then gave notice that they should ignore that list, which had been drawn up with no distinction of right and wrong, in a spirit of favouritism and caprice; and proceeded to call the roll of the senate in the order which had been in use before Appius Claudius and Gaius Plautius were censors. in that year, also, two commands —both military —began to be conferred by the people; for it was enacted, first, that sixteen tribunes of the soldiers should be chosen by popular vote for the four legions, whereas previously these places had been for the most part in the gift of dictators and consuls, very few being left to popular suffrage ; secondly, that the people should likewise elect two naval commissioners to have charge of equipping and refitting the fleet. The former of these measures was proposed by the tribunes of the plebs Lucius Atilius and Gaius Marcius; the latter by Marcus Decius, another tribune of the plebs. i should omit, as an incident hardly worth narrating, a little thing that happened in that same year, but that it seemed to concern religion. The flute —players, angry at having been forbidden by the last censors to hold their feast, according to old custom, in the temple of Jupiter, went off to Tibur in a body, so that there was no one in the City to pipe at sacrifices. troubled by the religious aspect of the case, the senate dispatched representatives to the Tiburtines, requesting them to use their best endeavours to restore these men to Rome. The Tiburtines courteously undertook to do so; and sending for the pipers to their senate —house, urged them to return. when they found it impossible to persuade them, they employed a ruse, not ill —adapted to the nature of the men. on a holiday various citizens invited parties of the pipers to their houses, on the pretext of celebrating the feast with music. there they plied them with wine, which people of that profession are generally greedy of, until they got them stupefied. in this condition they threw them, fast asleep, into waggons and carried them away to Rome; nor did the pipers perceive what had taken place until daylight found them —still suffering from the debauch —in the waggons, which had been left standing in the Forum. The people then flocked about them and prevailed with them to remain. they were permitted on three days in every year to roam the City in festal robes, making music and enjoying the licence that is now customary, and to such as should play at sacrifices was given again the privilege of banqueting in the temple. These incidents occurred while men were preoccupied with two mighty wars. The consuls divided the commands between them: to Junius the lot assigned the Samnites, to Aemilius the new war with Etruria. in Samnium the Roman garrison at Cluviae, which had defended itself successfully against assault, was starved into submission. The Samnites, having scourged their prisoners in brutal fashion, put them to death, although they had surrendered. incensed by this act of cruelty, Junius felt that nothing should take precedence over an attack on Cluviae. he carried the place by storm on the day he arrived before it, and slew all the grown —up males. from there he led his victorious army to Bovianum. this was the capital of the Pentrian Samnites, a very wealthy city and very rich in arms and men. against this town the soldiers were not so exasperated, but the hope of plunder spurred them on to capture it. and so there was less severity shown to the enemy, but there was almost more booty carried out than was ever collected from all the rest of Samnium, and the whole of it was generously made over to the soldiers. when the conquering arms of the Romans might now no longer be withstood by any embattled host or camp or city, the leaders of the Samnites all eagerly directed their attention to the seeking out a place for an ambush, on the chance that the army might somehow be permitted to disperse for plundering, and so be surprised and surrounded. certain rustic deserters and prisoners, some falling into the consul's hands by accident and some on purpose, by giving all the same account —and a true one, too —of enormous flocks that had been brought together in an inaccessible mountain meadow, persuaded him to lead thither his legions in light marching order to seize the booty. there a great army of the enemy had secretly beset the ways, and seeing that the Romans had entered the pass, rose up suddenly with much din and shouting and fell upon them unawares. at first the unexpectedness of the attack occasioned some trepidation, while the soldiers were putting on their armour and piling their packs in the midst. afterwards , when everyone had got rid of his encumbrance and had armed himself, they began to assemble from every side about their standards. in the course of a long training in the army they had become familiar with their places, and formed a line of their own accord, without anyone's direction. The consul, riding up to the place where the fighting was most critical, leaped down from his horse, and called on Jupiter and Mars and the other gods to witness that he had come there seeking no glory for himself, but only booty for his soldiers: his sole fault, he said, was a too great desire to enrich his men; from this disgrace nothing could save him but their courage. only let them all unite in singleness of purpose to assail an enemy conquered in battle, stripped of his camp, deprived of his cities, and pinning his last hopes to the treachery of an ambuscade, were his trust was in his position, not in arms. but what position was there now, he demanded, too strong for Roman valour to overwhelm? he reminded them of Fregellae's citadel and Sora's, and all the places where they had triumphed over disadvantage of ground. roused by these words, the soldiers disregarded every obstacle and advanced against the battle —line which their enemies had formed above them. there was a little hard fighting there, while the column was mounting the slope; but as soon as the foremost companies had reached the plateau at the top, and the soldiers perceived that their line was now established on level ground, the panic was straightway turned upon the waylayers, who fled, dispersing and throwing down their arms, in search of those very lurking —places where a little while before they had concealed themselves. but the ground which they had sought out for the difficulties it presented to an enemy caught the Samnites themselves in a trap of their own devising. and so, very few were able to get off; about twenty thousand men were slain; and the victorious Romans struck out this way and that to collect the booty of cattle which the enemy had thrown in their way. while these events were taking place in Samnium, all the peoples of Etruria, except the Arretini, had already armed, and beginning with the siege of Sutrium, a city in alliance with the Romans, and forming as it were the key to Etruria, had set on foot a tremendous war. thither the other consul, Aemilius, came with an army, to relieve the blockade of the allies. as the Romans came up, the Sutrini obligingly brought provisions to their camp, which was formed before the city. The Etruscans spent the first day in deliberating whether to accelerate the war or to draw it out. on the following day, their generals having decided on the swifter plan in preference to the safer, the signal for battle was displayed at sunrise and their men in fighting array marched out upon the field. when this was reported to the consul, he at once commanded the word to be passed round that the men should breakfast, and having recruited their strength with food, should then arm. The order was obeyed; and the consul, seeing them equipped and ready, bade advance the standards beyond the rampart, and drew up his troops a little way off from the enemy. for some time both sides stood fast, observing one another closely, each waiting for the other to give a cheer and begin to fight, and the sun had begun his downward course in the heavens ere a missile was hurled on either side. then the Etruscans, that they might not withdraw without accomplishing their purpose, set up a shout, and with sound of trumpets advanced their ensigns. The Romans were equally prompt to begin the battle. The two armies rushed together with great fury, the enemy having a superiority in numbers, the Romans in bravery. Victory hung in the balance and many perished on both sides, including all the bravest, and the event was not decided until the Roman second line came up with undiminished vigour to relieve their exhausted comrades in the first; and the Etruscans, whose fighting line was supported by no fresh reserves, all fell in front of their standards and around them. there would never in any battle have been more bloodshed or less running away, but when the Etruscans were resolved to die, the darkness shielded them, so that the victors gave over fighting before the vanquished. The sun had set when the recall was sounded, and in the night both armies retired to their camps. thereafter there was nothing done that year at Sutrium worth recording. The enemy had lost their whole first line in a single engagement, and had only their reserves remaining, who barely sufficed to garrison their camp; whilst the Romans had so many wounded that more died of their hurts after the battle than had fallen on the field. Quintus Fabius, consul in the following year, took over the campaign at Sutrium. for colleague he was given Gaius Marcius Rutulus. Fabius brought up replacements from Rome, and a new army came from Etruria to reinforce the enemy. for a great many years now there had been no contests between the patrician magistrates and the tribunes, when a dispute —arose through that family which was fated, as it seemed, to wrangle with the tribunes and with the plebs. Appius Claudius the censor, on the expiration of the eighteen months which had been fixed by the Aemilian law as the limit of the censorship, although his colleague Gaius Plautius had abdicated, could himself by no compulsion be prevailed upon to do likewise. it was Publius Sempronius, a tribune of the people, who commenced an action to confine the censorship to its legal limits —an action no less just than popular, and as welcome to every aristocrat as to the common people. having repeatedly read out the Aemilian law, and praised its author, Mamercus Aemilius the dictator, for confining the censorship —which had until then been tenable for five years and was proving despotic by reason of the long continuance of its authority —within the space of a year and a half, he said, come , tell us, Appius Claudius, what you would have done had you been censor at the time when Gaius Furius and Marcus Geganius were censors. Appius replied that the tribune's question had no particular bearing upon his own case; for even though the Aemilian law had bound those censors in whose term of office it had been passed, because the people had enacted the law after their election to the censorship and their latest enactment was always the effective law, yet neither himself nor any one of those who had been chosen censors subsequently to the passage of that law could have been bound by it. while Appius raised these quibbles, but found no one to support him, behold , Quirites, said Sempronius, "the descendant of that Appius, who having been elected decemvir for one year, himself declared his own election for a second year, and in the third, although a private citizen, with neither his own nor another's warrant of election, retained the fasces and authority, and relinquished not his hold on the magistracy until he was overwhelmed by his ill —gotten, ill —administered, and ill —continued powers. it was this same family, Quirites, under compulsion of whose violence and abuse you banished yourselves from your native City and occupied the Sacred Mount ; the same against which you provided yourselves with the help of tribunes ; the same, because of which two armies of you encamped upon the Aventine ; the same that has ever attacked the laws restricting usury and throwing open the public lands. this same family broke off marriages between patricians and plebeians ; this same family blocked the path of the plebeians to curule offices. it is a name that is far more hostile to your liberty than that of the Tarquinii. so , Appius Claudius! though it is now a hundred years since Mamercus Aemilius was dictator, and in that time we have had all these censors, high —born and valiant men, has never one of them inspected the Twelve Tables? has none of them known that the law was that which the people had last enacted? nay , all of them knew it; and they obeyed the Aemilian law in preference to that ancient ordinance which governed the first elections of censors, precisely because it was the latest which the people had enacted, and because in a conflict of two laws the old is ever superseded by the new. " or will this be your contention, Appius, that the people is not bound by the Aemilian law? or that the people is bound, but that you alone are exempt? The Aemilian law bound those violent censors Gaius Furius and Marcus Geganius, who showed what mischief that magistracy could accomplish in the state, when, in their rage at the abridgment of their powers, they reduced Mamercus Aemilius, the foremost man of his time in war and peace, to the lowest class of citizens; it bound all the censors who succeeded them, for the period of a hundred years; it binds Gaius Plautius, your colleague, who was given the office under the same auspices and with the same rights as yourself. or did the people not make Plautius censor as one who had been elected with the fullest rights? are you the sole exception in whose case this holds, as a unique and peculiar privilege? whom , pray, could men elect as king for sacrifice? he will seize on the title of sovereignty, and assert that he has been chosen as one elected with fullest rights to be king at Rome. who , think you, will be content with six months as dictator; who with five days as interrex? whom would you be so rash as to make dictator for the purpose of driving the nail or celebrating games? how dull and lumpish must those men seem to Appius, who after accomplishing great feats resigned the post of dictator within twenty days, or laid down the reins of office because of a flaw in their election! why should I cite antiquity? recently , within these ten years, Gaius Maenius the dictator, for conducting an inquisition with more severity than was safe for certain great men, was accused by his ill —wishers of being tainted with that very felony which he was searching out, and abdicated the dictatorship, that he might face the charge as a private citizen. far be it from me to require such self —denial of you! fall not away from the most imperious and proud of families; quit not your magistracy one day, one hour, sooner than you must; only see that you overstep not the appointed limit. is it enough to add a day, or a month, to his censorship? three years,' quoth he, and six months beyond the time permitted by the Aemilian law will I administer the censorship, and administer it alone.' surely this begins to look like monarchy! " or will you substitute a colleague for the other, though even in a dead man's place such substitution is forbidden by religion? you are not satisfied forsooth with having in your scrupulous exercise of a censor's powers diverted the service of our most ancient cult, the only one inaugurated by the god himself in whose honour it is observed, from the priesthood of the most exalted nobles to the ministry of slaves; it was not enough that a family more ancient than the beginnings of this City, and sanctified by the entertainment of the immortal gods, should through you and your censorship be within a year uprooted and destroyed; no, you must needs involve the entire state in such heinous guilt as even to name is an omen that fills my mind with dread. The city was captured in that lustrum when, on the death of his colleague Gaius Julius, Lucius Papirius Cursor, to avoid having to vacate his office, caused Marcus Cornelius Maluginensis to be substituted in the room of the dead man. and how much more moderate, Appius, was his ambition than yours! The censorship of Lucius Papirius was neither a sole one nor one prolonged beyond the legally established term; yet he found none to follow his example; all succeeding censors have abdicated on the death of a colleague. but you neither the expiration of your time restrains nor the fact that your colleague has resigned, nor the law, nor a sense of decency: you reckon worth in terms of pride, of recklessness, of contempt for gods and men. for my own part, Appius Claudius, when I think of the dignity of that office you have held and the reverence attaching to it, I could wish that I might spare you not only personal violence but even an ungentle word; but your stubbornness and pride have compelled me to say what I have so far said, and unless you obey the Aemilian law, I shall order you to prison; nor, seeing that our forefathers have ordained that in the election of censors, if either fall short of the legal vote, the election shall be put off and the other not be declared elected, will I now suffer you, who cannot be elected as sole censor, to administer the censorship alone. having uttered these and similar remonstrances, he ordered the censor to be arrested and carried off to prison. six tribunes approved the action of their colleague: three protected Appius on his appeal, and, greatly to the indignation of all classes, he continued as sole censor. during the progress of this affair in Rome, the Etruscans were already laying siege to Sutrium; and the consul Fabius, leading his army along the foot of the mountains to relieve the allies, and, if in any way practicable, to attack the works of the besiegers, encountered the enemy drawn up in line of battle. The plain spreading out below him revealed to the consul their exceeding strength; and in order to make up for his own deficiency in numbers by the advantage of position, he altered slightly his line of march, so as to mount the hills —which were rough and covered with stones —and there turned and faced the enemy. The Etruscans, forgetting everything but their numbers, in which alone they trusted, entered the combat with such haste and eagerness that they cast away their missiles in order to come the sooner to close quarters, and drawing their swords rushed at the enemy. The Romans, on the contrary, fell to pelting them, now with javelins and now with stones, of which latter the ground itself provided a good supply; and even such of the Etruscans as were not wounded were confused by the blows that rattled down on their helms and shields. it was no easy matter to get close enough for fighting hand to hand, and they had no javelins for long —range work. there they stood, exposed to missiles, with no adequate cover of any sort, and as some of them gave ground and the line began to waver and be unsteady, the Roman first and second lines, giving a fresh cheer, charged them, sword in hand. their onset was too much for the Etruscans, who faced about and fled headlong towards their camp. but the Roman cavalry, riding obliquely across the plain, presented themselves in front of the fugitives, who then abandoned the attempt to reach their camp and sought the mountains; from which they made their way in a body, unarmed and suffering from their wounds, to the Ciminian Forest. The Romans, having slain many thousand Etruscans and captured eight —and —thirty standards, took possession also of the enemy's camp, with a very large booty. they then began to consider the feasibility of a pursuit. in those days the Ciminian Forest was more impassable and appalling than were lately the wooded defiles of Germany, and no one —not even a trader —had up to that time visited it. to enter it was a thing that hardly anyone but the general himself was bold enough to do: with all the rest the recollection of the Caudine Forks was still too vivid. then one of those present, the consul's brother Marcus Fabius, —some say that it was Caeso Fabius, others Gaius Claudius, a son of the same mother as the consul —offered to explore and return in a short time with definite information about everything. he had been educated at Caere in the house of family friends, and from this circumstance was learned in Etruscan writings and knew the Etruscan language well. i have authority for believing that in that age Roman boys were regularly wont to be schooled in Etruscan literature, as nowadays they are trained in Greek; but it seems more probable that this man possessed some exceptional qualification to induce him to venture amongst enemies in so daring a disguise. it is said that his only companion was a slave, brought up with him, and hence acquainted, like his master, with the language. they set out, after acquiring no more than a summary knowledge of the nature of the region they must enter and the names of the chief men in those tribes, to save them from being detected in conversation by boggling at any well —known fact. they went dressed as shepherds and armed with rustic weapons, namely billhooks and a brace of javelins apiece. but neither their familiarity with the tongue nor the fashion of their dress and weapons was so great a protection to them as the fact that it was repugnant to belief that any stranger would enter the Ciminian defiles. they are said to have penetrated as far as Camerinum in Umbria, where the Roman, having ventured to tell who they were, was introduced into the senate, and treated with them in the consul's name for friendship and an alliance. having then been hospitably entertained, lie was bidden to carry word back to the Romans that thirty days' provisions for their army would be waiting for them, if they came into that region, and that the young men of the Umbrian Camertes would be armed and ready to obey their orders. on their success being made known to the consul, he sent the baggage ahead, in the first watch, and directed the legions to follow the baggage. he himself stopped behind with the cavalry, and at dawn of the following day made a demonstration against the enemy's outposts, which had been stationed at the entrance to the pass. having kept the enemy in play for a sufficient time, he retired within his camp, and emerging from it by the opposite gate overtook the column before night. next day, with the first rays of light, he was on the crest of the Ciminian mountain and, looking thence over the rich ploughlands of Etruria, sent his soldiers to plunder. The Romans had already brought away out enormous booty when certain improvised bands of Etruscan peasants, called together in hot haste by the chief men of that country, encountered them, but with so little discipline that in seeking to regain the spoils they had nearly been made a spoil themselves. having slain or driven off these men and wasted the country far and wide, the Romans returned to their camp, victorious and enriched with all manner of supplies. there , as it happened, they found five legates, with two tribunes of the plebs, who had come to order Fabius in the name of the senate not to cross the Ciminian Forest. rejoicing that they had come too late to be able to hinder the campaign, they returned to Rome with tidings of victory. this expedition of the consul's, instead of putting an end to the war, only gave it a wider range. for the district lying about the base of Mount Ciminius had felt the devastation, and had aroused not only Etruria to resentment but the neighbouring parts of Umbria also. so an army came to Sutrium that was larger than any they had raised before; and not only did they move forward their camp, out of the woods, but even, in their eagerness for combat, came down into the plain at the earliest opportunity in battle formation. at first, after forming up, they stood still in their positions, having left their enemies room to draw up opposite. then , finding the Romans in no haste to engage them, they advanced up to the rampart. when they saw that even the outguards had retired within the works, they began shouting to their generals, to have their rations for the day sent out to them from the camp; they would wait under arms, they said, and either that night, or at daybreak at the latest, attack the enemy's stockade. The Roman army was every whit as restless, but was restrained by the general's authority. it was about the tenth hour of the day when the consul bade the soldiers sup, and commanded them to be armed and ready at whatever hour of the day or night he might give the signal. in a brief address he magnified the Samnite wars and belittled the Etruscans: there was no comparison, he said, between the two enemies, or between their numbers; moreover, he had an additional weapon in concealment; they should know about it when the time came; until then it must remain a secret. by these obscure hints he sought to engender a belief that the enemy were being betrayed, in order to revive the spirits of his men, which were damped by the numbers of their enemies; and the fact that the Etruscans had thrown up no breastworks where they lay lent colour to the insinuation. refreshed with food, the soldiers gave themselves up to sleep, and at about the fourth watch were awakened without noise and put on their armour. mattocks were issued to the soldiers' servants, that they might level the rampart and fill up the trenches. The line was drawn up inside the fortifications, and selected cohorts were posted at the exits. then , on the signal being given a little before dawn, which on summer nights is the time of deepest sleep, the rampart was thrown down, and the Romans, rushing out in battle —formation, fell upon their enemies, who were lying all about the field. some were slain without even stirring in their sleep, some were but half awake, the greatest number were reaching in terror for their weapons. only a few were given time to arm themselves; and even these, with no definite standard to follow and no leader, the Romans routed and chased from the field. some made for the camp and others for the mountains, as they fled this way and that. The forests afforded the surer refuge; for the camp, being situated in the plain, was captured the same day. orders were issued that all gold and silver be brought to the consul; the rest of the booty went to the soldiers. on that day the enemy lost sixty thousand slain or captured. some historians relate that this famous battle was fought on the other side of the Ciminian Forest, near Perusia, and that Rome was in a panic lest the army should be surrounded and cut off in that dangerous defile by the Tuscans and Umbrians rising up on every hand. but , wherever it was fought, the Romans were the victors. and so from Perusia and Cortona and Arretium, which at that time might be the chief cities of the nations of Etruria, ambassadors came to Rome to sue for peace and an alliance. they obtained a truce for thirty years. while these things were going on in Etruria, the other consul, Gaius Marcius Rutulus, captured Allifae from the Samnites by assault. many forts and villages besides were either wiped out in the course of hostilities or came intact into the hands of the Romans. at about this time a Roman fleet, commanded by Publius Cornelius, whom the senate had placed in charge of the coast, sailed for Campania and put into Pompeii. from there the sailors and rowers set out to pillage the territory of Nuceria. having quickly ravaged the nearest fields, from which they might have returned in safety to their ships, they were lured on, as often happens, by the love of booty, and going too far abroad aroused the enemy. while they roamed through the fields, nobody interfered with them, though they might have been utterly annihilated; but as they came trooping back, without a thought of danger, the country —folk overtook them not far from the ships, stripped them of their plunder, and even slew a part of them; those who escaped the massacre were driven, a disordered rabble, to their ships. Great as had been the fears excited in Rome when Quintus Fabius marched through the Ciminian Forest, the rejoicings that took place in Samnium amongst the enemy were no less on their hearing a report that the Roman army was intercepted and besieged. they recalled the Caudine Forks as showing what the disaster would be like; with the same temerity, they said, a race that was ever reaching out for what lay beyond had been led into pathless forests and there hemmed in, more by the difficulties of the ground than by the arms of their enemy. soon their joy began to be mixed with a kind of envy, that Fortune should have transferred the glory of the Roman war from Samnites to Etruscans. so they hastened to bring all their strength to bear upon crushing Gaius Marcius, the consul; and resolved, if Marcius should avoid an encounter, to march forthwith into Etruria, through the countries of the Marsi and the Sabines. The consul met them, and the battle was fiercely contested on both sides, but without a decision being reached. yet , doubtful though it was which side had suffered most, the report gained ground that the Romans had been worsted: they had lost certain members of the equestrian order, certain military tribunes, and one lieutenant, and —most conspicuous of their misfortunes —the consul himself was wounded. These reverses as usual were further exaggerated in the telling, and the senate in great dismay determined on the appointment of a dictator. nobody could doubt that Papirius Cursor, who was regarded as the foremost soldier of his time, would be designated. but the senators were not certain that a messenger could be got through in safety to Samnium, where all was hostile, nor that the consul Marcius was alive. The other consul, Fabius, had a private grudge against Papirius; and lest this enmity might hinder the general welfare, the senate decided to send a deputation of former consuls, in the hope that their personal influence, when added to the wishes of the government, might induce him to forget those quarrels for the good of the country. The ambassadors went to Fabius and delivered the resolution of the senate, with a discourse that suited their instructions. The consul, his eyes fixed on the ground, retired without a word, leaving the ambassadors uncertain what he proposed to do. then in the silence of the night, as the custom is, he appointed Lucius Papirius dictator. when the envoys thanked him for nobly conquering his feelings, he continued obstinately silent, and dismissed them without making any reply or alluding to what he had done, so that it was clearly seen what agony his great heart was suppressing. Papirius named Gaius Junius Bubulcus master of the horse. when he began to lay before the curiate assembly a law confirming his authority, the proceedings were cut short by an evil omen, the first vote to be counted being that of the ward called Faucia, notorious for two calamities, the capture of the City and the Caudine Peace, which had both been incurred in years when this same curia had the right of the first return. Licinius Macer makes this ward unlucky also for a third disaster —that of the Cremera. next day the dictator sought the auspices afresh and carried the law through. then , setting out with the legions which had recently been recruited on account of the fear occasioned by the army's march through the Ciminian Forest, he came to the vicinity of Longula, and taking over from Marcius the consul his veteran troops, marched out and offered battle, which the enemy on their part seemed willing to accept. but while the two armies stood armed and ready for the conflict, which neither cared to begin, night overtook them. for some time after that they remained quietly in the camps they had established near one another, neither lacking confidence in themselves nor yet making light of their adversaries. meanwhile the Etruscans, employing a lex sacrata, had raised an army in which each man had chosen his comrade, and joined battle, with greater forces, and at the same time with greater valour, than ever before. The field was contested with such rivalry of rage that neither side discharged a missile. The battle began with swords, and, furious at the outset, waxed hotter as the struggle continued, for the victory was long undecided. it seemed as though the Romans were contending, not with the so oft defeated Etruscans, but with some new race. no sign of flight was visible in any quarter. as the front —rankers fell, the second line moved up to replace the first, that the standards might not want defenders. after that the last reserves were called upon; and to such extremity of distress and danger did the Romans come that their cavalry dismounted, and made their way over arms and over bodies to the front ranks of the infantry. like a fresh line springing up amongst the exhausted combatants, they wrought havoc in the companies of the Etruscans. then the rest of the soldiers, following up their charge, despite of weariness, at last broke through the enemy's ranks. at this their stubbornness began to be overcome, and certain companies to face about; and when these had once turned tail, the rest likewise took to flight. that day for the first time broke the might of the Etruscans, which had long flourished in prosperity. their strength was cut off in the battle, and their camp was taken and plundered in the same attack. The war in Samnium, immediately afterwards, was attended with equal danger and an equally glorious conclusion. The enemy, besides their other warlike preparations, had made their battle —line to glitter with new and splendid arms. there were two corps: the shields of the one were inlaid with gold, of the other with silver. The shape of the shield was this: the upper part, where it protected the breast and shoulders, was rather broad, with a level top; below it was somewhat tapering, to make it easier to handle. they wore a sponge to protect the breast, and the left leg was covered with a greave. their helmets were crested, to make their stature appear greater. The tunics of the gilded warriors were parti —coloured; those of the silvern ones were linen of a dazzling white. The latter had silver sheaths and silver baldrics: the former gilded sheaths and golden baldrics, and their horses had gold —embroidered saddle —cloths. The right wing was assigned to these: the others took up their post on the left. The Romans had already learned of these splendid accoutrements, and their generals had taught them that a soldier should be rough to look on, not adorned with gold and silver but putting his trust in iron and in courage: indeed those other things were more truly spoil than arms, shining bright before a battle, but losing their beauty in the midst of blood and wounds; manhood they said, was the adornment of a soldier; all those other things went with the victory, and a rich enemy was the prize of the victor, however poor. whilst his men were animated by these words, Cursor led them into battle. he took up his own post on the right, and committed the left to the master of the horse. from the moment of encountering, there was a mighty struggle with the enemy, and a struggle no less sharp between the dictator and the master of the horse, to decide which wing was to inaugurate the victory. it so happened that Junius was the first to make an impression on the Samnites. with the Roman left he faced the enemy's right, where they had consecrated themselves, as their custom was, and for that reason were resplendent in white coats and equally white armour. declaring that he offered up these men in sacrifice to Orcus ,Junius charged, threw their ranks into disorder, and clearly made their line recoil. when the dictator saw this, he cried, shall the victory begin upon the left? shall the right, the dictator's division, follow the attack of others? shall it not carry off the honours of the victory? this fired the soldiers with new energy; nor did the cavalry display less valour than the foot, or the lieutenants less enthusiasm than the generals. Marcus Valerius on the right and Publius Decius on the left, both men of consular rank, rode out to the cavalry, which was posted on the wings, and, exhorting them to join with themselves in seizing a share of glory, charged obliquely against the enemy's flanks. thus a new and appalling danger enveloped their line on either side, and when the Roman legions, observing the terror of the Samnites, pressed forward with redoubled shouts, the enemy began to flee. The fields were soon heaped with slain and with glittering armour. at first the frightened Samnites found a refuge in their camp, but presently even that had to be abandoned, and ere nightfall it had been taken, sacked, and set on fire. The dictator, as decreed by the senate, celebrated a triumph, in which by far the finest show was afforded by the captured armour. so magnificent was its appearance that the shields inlaid with gold were divided up amongst the owners of the moneychangers' booths, to be used in decking out the Forum. from this is said to have come the custom of the aediles adorning the Forum whenever the tensae, or covered chariots of the gods, were conducted through it. so the Romans made use of the splendid armour of their enemies to do honour to the gods; while the Campanians, in consequence of their pride and in hatred of the Samnites, equipped after this fashion the gladiators who furnished them entertainment at their feasts, and bestowed on them the name of Samnites. in the same year the consul Fabius fought a battle with the remnants of the Etruscan forces near Perusia —which, together with other cities, had broken the truce —and gained an easy and decisive victory. he would have taken the town itself —for after the battle he marched up to the walls —had not ambassadors come out and surrendered the place. having placed a garrison in Perusia and having sent on before him to the senate in Rome the Etruscan deputations which had come to him seeking friendship, the consul was borne in triumph into the City, after gaining a success more brilliant even than the dictator's; indeed the glory of conquering the Samnites was largely diverted upon the lieutenants, Publius Decius and Marcus Valerius, of whom, at the next election, the people with great enthusiasm made the one consul and the other praetor. in recognition of his remarkable conquest of Etruria, Fabius was continued in the consulship, and was given Decius for his colleague. Valerius was for the fourth time chosen praetor. The consuls cast lots for the commands, Etruria falling to Decius and Samnium to Fabius. The latter marched against Nuceria Alfaterna, and rejecting that city's overtures of peace because its people had declined it when it was offered them, laid siege to the place and forced it to surrender. a battle was fought with the Samnites, in which the enemy were defeated without much difficulty, nor would the engagement have been remembered but for the fact that it was the first time that the Marsi had made war against the Romans. The Paeligni imitated the defection of the Marsi, and met with the same fate. Decius , the other consul, was also successful in war. when he had frightened the Tarquinienses into furnishing corn for the army and seeking a truce for forty years, he captured by storm a number of strongholds belonging to the people of Volsinii. some of these he dismantled, lest they should serve as a refuge for the enemy, and by devastating far and wide he made himself so feared that all who bore the Etruscan name begged the consul to grant them a treaty. this privilege they were denied, but a truce for a year was granted them. they were required to furnish the Roman army with a year's pay and two tunics for each soldier; such was the price they paid for a truce. The tranquillity which now obtained in Etruria was disturbed by a sudden revolt of the Umbrians, a people which had escaped all the distress of war, except that an army had passed through their territory. calling up all their fighting men, and inducing great part of the Etruscans to rebel, they mustered so large an army, that they boasted, with much glorifying of themselves and fleering at the Romans, that they would leave Decius behind them in Etruria and march off to the assault of Rome. when this purpose of theirs was reported to the consul Decius, he hastened by forced marches from Etruria towards the City, and encamped in the fields belonging to Pupinia, eagerly waiting for word of their approach. at Rome no one made light of an Umbrian invasion. their very threats had excited fear in those who had learnt from the Gallic disaster how unsafe was the City they inhabited. accordingly envoys were dispatched to carry word to Fabius the consul, that if there were any slackening in the Samnite war he should with all speed lead his army into Umbria. The consul obeyed the order, and advanced by long marches to Mevania, where the forces of the Umbrians at that time lay. The sudden arrival of the consul, whom they had believed to have his hands full with another war in Samnium, a long way from Umbria, so dismayed the Umbrians that some were for falling back on their fortified cities, and others for giving up the war; but one canton —which they themselves call Materina —not only kept the rest to their arms, but brought them to an immediate engagement. Fabius was entrenching his camp when they attacked him. as soon as he saw them rushing madly upon his ramparts, he recalled the soldiers from their work and drew them up, as time and the nature of the ground permitted, and encouraging them with a true relation of the honours they had won, some in Etruria and some in Samnium, bade them end this trivial sequel to the Etruscan war, and revenge upon the foe his impious threat that he would assault the City of Rome. These words were received by the soldiers with such alacrity that the speech of the general was interrupted by a spontaneous cheer. then , before the command could be given, they hurled themselves —to the blare of horns and trumpets —with the wildest abandon against the enemy. they fought not as though their opponents had been men and armed; but —marvellous to relate -began with tearing the standards out of the bearers' hands, and then fell to dragging the bearers themselves before the consul and to bringing armed men over from the other line to their own; wherever they met with resistance, they did their work more with shields than with swords, swinging them from the shoulder and knocking down their enemies with the bosses. The slain were outnumbered by the prisoners, and all along the battle line one cry was heard: that they should lay down their arms. and so, while the battle was still going on, the surrender was made, by the men who had first advocated war. on the next and on succeeding days the other peoples of Umbria also capitulated: the men of Ocriculum were received into friendship under a stipulation. Fabius , having won a war assigned by lot to another man, led his army back to his own province. just as in the preceding year the people had rewarded his successful campaign by re —electing him to the consulship, so now the senate continued him in command for the year to follow. The new consuls were Appius Claudius and Lucius Volumnius, the former of whom had strongly opposed the resolution. i find in certain annals that Appius sought the consulship when censor, and that Lucius Furius, a tribune of the plebs, refused to let him stand until he should have resigned the censorship. The election over, his colleague was decreed the command in the new war —with the Sallentini —and Appius remained in Rome, to strengthen his power by civil arts, since the means of acquiring repute in war remained with others. Volumnius had no cause to regret his assignment. he engaged in many successful battles and took several hostile towns by assault. generous in his distribution of the spoil, he enhanced the effect of a liberality which was pleasing in itself by his friendly bearing —traits which had made his soldiers eager for toil and danger. The proconsul Quintus Fabius fought near the city Allifae a pitched battle with the army of the Samnites. The result was anything but doubtful, for the enemy were routed and driven into their camp; and they could not have held the camp had there not been very little daylight left. even so they were invested before dark, and guards were posted in the night to prevent anyone's escaping. next day, before it was well light, they began to surrender. The Samnites among them bargained to be dismissed in their tunics; all these were sent under the yoke. The allies of the Samnites were protected by no guarantee, and were sold into slavery, to the number of seven thousand. those who gave themselves out for Hernic citizens were detained apart in custody, and Fabius sent them all to the senate in Rome. there an enquiry was held as to whether they had been conscripted or had fought voluntarily for the Samnites against the Romans; after which they were parcelled out amongst the Latins to be guarded, and a resolution was passed directing the new consuls, Publius Cornelius Arvina and Quintus Marcius Tremulus —for these men had been elected —to refer the matter to the senate for fresh action. this the Hernici resented. The people of Anagnia assembled a council of all the states in the circus which they call the Maritime Circus, and all of the Hernic name, excepting the inhabitants of Aletrium, Ferentinum and Verulae, declared war on the Roman People. in Samnium, too, the departure of Fabius was the cause of fresh disturbances. Calatia and Sora with their Roman garrisons were taken by assault, and the captured soldiers were treated with shameful rigour. accordingly Publius Cornelius was dispatched in that direction with an army. The new enemies —for by this time war had been declared on the men of Anagnia and the other Hernici —were allotted to Marcius. at the outset of the campaign the enemy were so successful in seizing all the strategic points between the camps of the consuls, that not even a nimble courier could get through, and for some days the consuls were kept in uncertainty regarding everything and could only speculate about one another's state. fears for their safety even extended to Rome, where all of military age were given the oath and two full armies were enlisted, to meet any sudden emergencies. but the war with the Hernici by no means answered to the present panic or to the nation's old renown. they ventured nothing to speak of at any point, and having lost three camps in the space of a few days they bargained for a thirty days' truce, to enable them to send envoys to the senate in Rome, and delivered up two months' pay and corn, and a tunic for every soldier. The senate sent them back to Marcius, having passed a resolution empowering him to deal with the Hernici as he saw fit. he received, their submission on terms of unconditional surrender. in Samnium the other consul was also stronger than the enemy, but was more embarrassed by the character of the ground. The enemy had blockaded all the roads and seized the practicable passes, to prevent supplies being brought up anywhere. but though the consul offered battle daily, he could not entice them to fight. it was quite apparent that the Samnites would not accept an immediate engagement, nor the Romans endure any prolongation of the war. The arrival of Marcius, who, having subdued the Hernici, made haste to come to the assistance of his colleague, deprived the enemy of any power to delay the struggle. for since they had not considered themselves equal to a battle with even one army, and believed that, once they had suffered two consular armies to unite, there would be no hope for them, they made an attack on Marcius as he was approaching in loose marching older. hastily throwing down their packs in the midst, the Romans formed up as well as time permitted. The shouting was the first thing that was noticed in the camp of Cornelius. then , far off, a cloud of dust was descried, and caused a commotion in the camp. The consul ordered his men to arm, and leading them quickly out into line attacked the enemy in the flank, when their hands were full with another struggle, crying out that it would be a burning shame if they let the other army win both victories, and failed to claim for themselves the glory of their own campaign. bursting through at the point where he had charged, he advanced through the enemy's line, and capturing their camp, which was empty of defenders, set fire to it. when the soldiers of Marcius saw the blaze, and the enemy, looking over their shoulders, saw it too, the flight of the Samnites soon became general; but at every point death blocked the way, and there was no escaping anywhere. thirty thousand of the enemy had already fallen, and the consuls had sounded the recall and were proceeding to assemble their forces in one body, amid the mutual congratulations and rejoicings of the men, when suddenly some new cohorts of the Samnites, which had been levied as reliefs, were made out in the distance, and occasioned a renewal of the slaughter. The victors rushed upon them, without orders from the consuls or receiving any signal, exclaiming that the Samnites must begin their soldiering with a bitter lesson. The consuls indulged the ardour of the legions, being well aware that the enemy's recruits, in the midst of routed veterans, would scarce be equal to so much as an attempt at fighting. they were not mistaken. all the forces of the Samnites, old and new, broke and fled to the nearest mountains, up which the Romans too advanced in pursuit of them. The conquered could find no refuge anywhere that afforded safety, but were driven pell —mell from the ridges where they had made a stand. and now with one voice they all begged for peace. they were required to furnish corn for three months, with a year's pay and a tunic for each Roman soldier, and envoys were then dispatched to the senate to sue for terms. Cornelius was left in Samnium. Marcius returned to the City, which he entered in a triumph over the Hernici. An equestrian statue in the Forum was decreed him and was erected in front of the temple of Castor. to the three Hernic peoples of Aletrium, Verulae, and Ferentinum their own laws were restored, because they preferred them to Roman citizenship, and they were given the right to intermarry with each other —a privilege which for some time they were the only Hernici to enjoy. The people of Anagnia and such others as had borne arms against the Romans were admitted to citizenship without the right of voting. they were prohibited from holding councils and from intermarrying, and were allowed no magistrates save those who had charge of religious rites. in the same year the censor Gaius Junius Bubulcus let the contract for the temple of Safety, which he had vowed, while consul, during the Samnite war. he and his colleague, Marcus Valerius Maximus, built roads through the countryside at the public costs. in this year also the treaty with the Carthaginians was renewed for the third time, and their ambassadors, who had come for the purpose of arranging it, were treated with courtesy and given presents. The same year had a dictator in the person of Publius Cornelius Scipio, the master of the horse being Publius Decius Mus. These men held a consular election —for to this end they had been appointed, since neither consul had been able to leave the seat of war. The consuls chosen were Lucius Postumius and Tiberius Minucius. Piso makes these men follow Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius, omitting the two years in which we have placed the consulship of Claudius and Volumnius and that of Cornelius and Marcius. whether in the redaction of his annals he forgot them, or omitted two sets of consuls purposely, as not authentic, is uncertain. in that year also the Samnites made forays upon the Campus Stellatis in Campania. both consuls were accordingly dispatched into Samnium in different directions, Postumius marching on Tifernum, and Minucius on Bovianum. The fighting began at Tifernum, where Postumius commanded. some relate that the Samnites were decisively beaten and that twenty thousand prisoners were taken; others that the armies quitted the field on even terms, and that Postumius, feigning fear, in the night withdrew his forces secretly to the mountains, where the enemy followed him and themselves entrenched a camp, at a distance of two miles from his. The consul, that it might appear to have been his object to gain a position at once secure and abounding in supplies, — and such indeed it was —having fortified his camp and equipped it with all manner of useful things, left in it a strong garrison, and in the third watch led his legions in light marching order by the most direct route to his colleague, who likewise lay in camp, facing another army. there , at the instigation of Postumius, Minucius gave battle to the enemy; and when the doubtful struggle had been prolonged until late in the afternoon, Postumius with his fresh legions fell unexpectedly upon the now jaded forces of their opponents. The Samnites, debarred by their weariness and wounds even from flight, were utterly annihilated, and the Romans, having taken twenty —one standards, set out for the camp of Postumius. there the two victorious armies assailed the enemy, already dismayed by the tidings of the other battle, and overwhelmingly routed them, capturing six —and —twenty standards, the commander of the Samnites —Statius Gellius —and many other prisoners, besides both camps. on the following day they began the siege of the city of Bovianum, and on its capture, which quickly ensued, the consuls crowned their glorious achievements with a triumph. some writers state that Minucius the consul was severely wounded and expired after being carried back to his camp. they add that Marcus Fulvius was made consul suffect in his place, and that it was he who, being sent out to the army of Minucius, captured Bovianum. in that year Sora, Arpinum, and Cesennia were won back from the Samnites. The great statue of Hercules was set up and dedicated on the Capitol. in the consulship of Publius Sulpicius Saverrio and Publius Sempronius Sophus, the Samnites, whether seeking to end or only to postpone hostilities, sent envoys to Rome to treat for peace. to their humble supplications the answer was returned, that if the Samnites had not frequently sought peace while preparing for war, a treaty could have been arranged by mutual discussion: as it was, since words had hitherto proved of no effect, the Romans must needs take their stand on facts. Publius Sempronius, the consul, would shortly be in Samnium with an army; he was one whom they would be unable to deceive as to whether their hearts inclined to peace or war; after a thorough investigation he would report his findings to the senate; and on his leaving Samnium their envoys might attend him. The Roman army marched all over Samnium; the people were peaceable and furnished the army liberally with supplies; accordingly their ancient treaty was in that year restored again to the Samnites. The arms of Rome were then directed against the Aequi, who had been her enemies of old, but for many years past had remained quiet, under colour of a peace which they observed but treacherously. The reason for making war on them was as follows: before the overthrow of the Hernici they had repeatedly joined with them in sending assistance to the Samnites, and after the subjugation of the Hernici, almost the entire nation had gone over to the enemy, without attempting to disguise their policy; and when fetials had applied to them for reparation, after the adoption of the Samnite treaty at Rome, they had persistently asserted that the Romans were attempting under threats of war to intimidate them into becoming Roman citizens; and how little that was a thing to be desired had been shown, they said, by the Hernici, since those who had been permitted to do so had chosen their own laws in preference to Roman citizenship, while those who had not been given an option were to have citizenship thrust upon them as a punishment. because of such expressions, publicly uttered in their assemblies, the Roman People decreed that war should be made upon the Aequi. both consuls set out for the new seat of operations, and took up a position four miles from the enemy's camp. The army of the Aequi, who for many years had made no war on their own account, like a hastily levied militia, under no definite commanders and subject to no supreme authority, were in a state of panic. some were for offering battle, others for defending the camp. The consideration that affected most of them was the devastation which their farms would suffer and the subsequent destruction of their cities, which they had left inadequately garrisoned. and so when a proposal was heard —amongst many others —which disregarded the common welfare and made every one think of his own interest, to wit, that in the first watch they should leave the camp, and going their several ways, carry off all their possessions from the fields and defend their cities by means of their walls, they all with loud acclaim adopted it. The enemy were scattered over the countryside when at break of day the Romans came out and formed in order of battle, and encountering nobody, advanced at a quick pace towards the Aequian camp. but not perceiving any outposts before the gates or anybody on the rampart, and missing the usual noises of a camp, they were troubled by the unaccustomed silence, and apprehending an ambush, halted. later , when they had scaled the rampart and found everything deserted, they attempted to follow the enemy by his tracks; but the tracks, which led in all directions —as they would when an army had dispersed —at first bewildered them. afterwards they found out through their scouts what the enemy designed to do; and attacking his cities in succession, one after another, they captured thirty —one of them within fifty days, in every instance by assault. of these the greater number were dismantled and burnt, and the Aequian name was almost blotted out. a triumph was celebrated over the Aequi; and warned by the example of their downfall, the Marrucini, Marsi, Paeligni, and Frentani sent ambassadors to Rome to sue for peace and friendship. These nations, at their request, were granted a treaty of alliance. in the same year a government clerk, Gnaeus Flavius, the son of Gnaeus, was curule aedile. born in humble circumstances —his father being a freedman —he was, for the rest, a man of shrewdness and eloquence. i find in certain annals that being in attendance upon the aediles, and perceiving that the tribes were supporting him for aedile, but that his name was thrown out because he was acting as a recorder, he put away his tablet and took an oath that he would keep no record. Licinius Macer alleges that he had ceased some time before to act as secretary, having been already a tribune, and on two occasions a triumvir, once on the commission which had charge of the night —watch, and again on one appointed to found a colony. at all events there is no difference of opinion about the stubbornness of his contention with the nobles, who despised his lowly birth. he published the formulae of the civil law, which had been filed away in the secret archives of the pontiffs, and posted up the calendar on white notice —boards about the Forum, that men might know when they could bring an action. he dedicated a temple of Concord in the precinct of Vulcan, greatly to the resentment of the nobles; and Cornelius Barbatus, the chief pontiff, was forced by the unanimous wishes of the people to dictate the form of words to him, though he asserted that by custom of the elders none but a consul or commanding general might dedicate a temple. so , in accordance with a senatorial resolution, a measure was enacted by the people providing that no one should dedicate a temple or an altar without the authorization of the senate or a majority of the tribunes of the plebs. —I will relate an incident, of no importance in itself, which may serve to show how the plebs asserted their liberties against the arrogance of the nobles. Flavius had come to make a call upon a colleague who was sick, and the young nobles who were sitting by his bed with one consent omitted to rise on his entering; whereupon he ordered his curule chair to be fetched in, and from his official seat gazed at his adversaries, who were choking with resentment. now Flavius had been elected aedile by the faction of the market —place, which had become powerful in consequence of the censorship of Appius Claudius. Claudius had been the first to debase the senate by the appointment of the sons of freedmen, and afterwards, when no one allowed the validity of his selection, and he had failed to gain the influence in the senate —house which had been his object, he had distributed the humble denizens of the City amongst all the tribes, and had thus corrupted the Forum and the Campus Martius. and so great was the indignation over the election of Flavius that many of the nobles laid aside their golden rings and medals. from that time the citizens were divided into two parties; the men of integrity, who favoured and cherished right principles, tended one way, the rabble of the marketplace another; until Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius became censors, and Fabius, partly for the sake of harmony, partly that the elections might not be in the hands of the basest of the people, culled out all the market —place mob and cast them into four tribes, to which he gave the name of Urban. The arrangement, they say, was so gratefully received, that by this regulation of the orders he purchased the surname of the Great, which not all his victories had been able to procure him. it was Fabius too, so it is said, who instituted the parade of the knights on the fifteenth of July.

Perseus Latin. CTS URN phi0914.phi0019.perseus-eng1. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source.