Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities

§ 7.6.4 When they arrived near Cumae, he brought his ships to shore, and assembling his army, inveighed vehemently against the chief men of the city and bestowed many praises upon the soldiers who had distinguished themselves in the battle; and having given money to every one of them man by man and placed at the joint disposal of all of them the presents he had received from the Aricians, he asked that they should remember these favours when they returned home, and if he should be threatened with any danger from the oligarchy, that every one of them should assist him to the utmost of his power.

§ 7.6.5 Then, when all acknowledged themselves to be under great obligations to him, not only for their unexpected preservation which they owed to him, but also for their not returning home with empty hands, and promised to sacrifice their own lives sooner than to abandon him to their enemies, he commended them and dismissed the assembly. After this he called into his tent those among them who were the most unprincipled and the most daring in action, and by means of largesses, fair words, and hopes which seduce all men, he bribed them in readiness to assist him in overthrowing the established government.

§ 7.7.1 After he had secured these men as his assistants and participants with him in the struggle, and had acquainted each one with the part he was to play, and furthermore had set at liberty without ransom all the prisoners he was bringing along, in order to gain their goodwill also, he sailed with his ships decked out into the harbours of Cumae. When the soldiers disembarked, they were met by their fathers and mothers and all the rest of their kinsmen, their children and their wedded wives, who embraced them with tears and kisses and called each of them by the most endearing terms.

§ 7.7.2 And all the other citizens, receiving the general with joy and applause, conducted him to his house. But the chief men of the city, particularly those who had given him the command and concerted the other measures for his destruction, were vexed at these manifestations and felt sinister apprehensions regarding the future.

§ 7.7.3 Aristodemus allowed a few days to pass, during which he performed his vows to the gods and waited for the merchantmen that were late in arriving, and then, when the proper time came, he said he desired to give the senate an account of the circumstances of the battle and to show them the spoils taken in the war. Then, the authorities having assembled in great numbers, he came forward and made a speech, in which he related everything that had happened in the battle; and while he was speaking, the accomplices in the plot with whom he had arranged matters rushed into the senate-house in a body with swords under their garments and killed all the members of the aristocracy.

§ 7.7.4 Thereupon there ensued a flight of those who were in the forum and a rush of some to their houses and of others away from the city, except of such as were privy to the conspiracy; the latter in mean time captured the citadel, the dockyards, and the strong places of the city. The following night he released from the prisons all who were under sentence of death, of whom there were many, arming them together with his friends, among whom were the Tyrrhenian prisoners, he formed out of these a bodyguard for himself.

§ 7.7.5 When it was day, he assembled the people and after inveighing at length against the citizens who had been put to death by his orders, he said that those men, having often sought his life, had been justly punished by him, but that, as for the rest of the citizens, he had come to give them liberty, equal rights of speech, and many other advantages.

§ 7.8.1 When he had said this and thereby filled all the common people with wonderful hopes, he established two institutions which are the worst of all human institutions and the prologues to every tyranny — a redistribution of the land and an abolition of debts. He promised that he would take upon himself the care of both these matters if he were appointed general with absolute power till the public tranquillity should be secured and they had established a democratic constitution.

§ 7.8.2 When the common people and the unprincipled rabble gladly accepted the proposal to pillage the goods of other men, Aristodemus conferred upon himself the supreme command, and proposed another measure by which he deceived them and deprived them all of their liberty. For pretending to suspect that the rich would raise disturbances and insurrections against the common people on account of the redistribution of the land and the abolition of debts, he said the only means he could think of to prevent a civil war and the slaughter of citizens and to guard against these miseries before they happened, was for all of them to bring the arms out of their houses and to consecrate them to the gods, in order that they might make use of them against foreign enemies who should attack them, whenever the necessity should arise, and not against one another, and that in the mean time they would be suitably placed in the keeping of the gods.

§ 7.8.3 When they agreed to this also, he disarmed all the Cumaeans that very day, and during the following days he searched their houses, where he put to death many worthy citizens, alleging that they had not produced all their arms for the gods. After this he strengthened his tyranny by three sorts of guards. The first consisted of the filthiest and the most unprincipled of the citizens, by whose aid he had overthrown the aristocracy; the second, of the most impious knaves, whom he himself had freed for having killed their masters; and the third, a mercenary force, consisting of the most average barbarians, who amounted to no fewer than two thousand and were far better soldiers than any of the rest.

§ 7.8.4 He destroyed the statues of those he had put to death in all places both sacred and profane and set up his own in their stead; and seizing their houses and lands and the rest of their fortunes, he reserved for himself the gold and silver and everything else that was worthy of a tyrant, and divided the remainder among those who had aided him in gaining his power. But the most numerous and the largest gifts he made to the slaves who had killed their masters. Thereupon these insisted also on marrying the wives and daughters of their late masters.

§ 7.9.1 At first he paid no attention to the male children of those who had been put to death, but afterwards, either at the direction of some oracle or influenced also by the reflection he any naturally make, that in them no small danger was being secretly reared up against him, he resolved to destroy them all in one day.

§ 7.9.2 But at the earnest entreaties of all the men with whom the children's mothers were living and the children themselves were being brought up, since he wished to grant them this favour also, he saved them from death, contrary to his intention. Taking precautions, however, against them, lest they should combine together and conspire against his tyranny, he ordered them all to depart from the city and to live in the country dispersed here and there, receiving instruction in no profession or branch of learning becoming to the children of freemen, but tending flocks and performing the other labours of the husbandmen; and he threatened with death anyone of them who should be found in the city.

§ 7.9.3 These children, accordingly, forsaking the houses of their fathers, were brought up in the country like slaves, serving the murderers of their fathers. And to the end that no noble or manly spirit might spring up in any of the rest of the citizens, he resolved to make effeminate by means of their upbringing all the youths who were being reared in the city, and with that view he suppressed the gymnasiums and the practice of arms and changed the manner of life previously followed by the children.

§ 7.9.4 For he ordered the boys to wear their hair long like the girls, to adorn it with flowers, to keep it curled and to bind up the tresses with hair-nets, to wear embroidered robes that reached down to their feet, and, over these, thin and soft mantles, and to pass their lives in the shade. And when they went to the schools kept by dancing-masters, flute-players and others who, like these, pay court to the Muses, their governesses attended them, taking along parasols and fans; and these women bathed them, carrying into the baths combs, alabaster pots filled with perfumes, and looking-glasses.

§ 7.9.5 By such training he continued to enervate the youth till they had completed their twentieth year, and from that time permitted them to be considered as men. Having by these and many other methods abused and insulted the Cumaeans without refraining from any kind of lust or cruelty, when he thought himself secure in the possession of the tyranny, being now grown old, he was punished to the satisfaction of both gods and men and extirpated with all his family.

§ 7.10.1 Those who rose against him and freed their country from his tyranny were the sons of the citizens he had murdered, all of whom he had at first resolved to put to death in one day, but being prevailed upon by the entreaties of his bodyguards, to whom he had given their mothers, had refrained, as I said,

§ 7.10.2 and ordered them to live in the country. A few years later, as he was making a progress through the villages, he saw a large number of these youths, who made a brave appearance; and fearing they might conspire together and rise against him, he purposed to forestall them by putting them all to death before any one should be aware of his intention. Assembling his friends, accordingly, he considered with them how the youths might most easily and speedily be put to death in secret.

§ 7.10.3 The youths, being apprised of this, either by the information of some person who was acquainted with his purpose, or suspecting it themselves by reasoning from probabilities, fled to the mountains, taking with them the iron implements they used in husbandry. They were speedily joined by the Cumaean exiles who resided in Capua, most distinguished of whom and possessing the largest number of friends among the Campanians were the sons of Hippomedon, who had been commander of the horse in the war against the Tyrrhenians. These were not only well armed themselves, but also brought with them arms for the youths as well as a goodly band of Campanian mercenaries and of their own friends which they had raised.4 When they had all united, they made descents after the manner of brigands and plundered the lands of their enemies, lured the slaves away from their masters, released the men confined in prisons and armed them, and whatever they could not carry or drive off they either burnt or killed. 5 While the tyrant was at a loss to know in what manner he ought to make war upon them, because they neither made their attempts openly nor stayed long in the same places, but timed their raids either from the fall of night to the break of day or from daybreak to nightfall, and after he had often sent out the soldiers to the relief of the country in vain, one of the fugitives, sent by the rest in the guise of a deserter, came to him, his body torn with whips, and after suing for impunity, promised the tyrant to conduct any troops he should think fit to send with him to the place where the fugitives proposed to encamp the following night.

§ 7.10.6 The tyrant, being induced to trust this man, who asked nothing and offered his own person as a hostage, sent his most trusted commanders at the head of a large number of horse and the band of mercenaries with orders to bring to him in chains all the fugitives if they could, otherwise as many of them as possible. The pretended deserter then led the army during the whole night through untrodden paths and lonely woods, where they suffered greatly, till they came to the regions that were most remote from the city.

§ 7.11.1 In the meantime the rebels and fugitives, who lay in ambush on the mountain which lies near Lake Avernus and not far from Cumae, when they learned from the signals made by their scouts that the tyrant's army had marched out of the city, sent thither about sixty of the most resolute of their number, clad in goatskins and carrying faggots of brushwood.

§ 7.11.2 These men contrived to steal into the city by various gates about the time for lighting the lamps, being taken for labourers and thus escaping detection. Once inside the walls, they drew out the swords they had concealed in the faggots and all met in one place. And proceeding thence in a body to the gate that led to Lake Avernus, they killed the guards while they were asleep, and, all their own force, having by this time arrived near the walls, they opened the gates and received them into the city. All this they did without being discovered.

§ 7.11.3 For that night there happened to be a public festival; hence the whole population of the city was occupied in drinking and other pleasures. This afforded the fugitives an opportunity of marching through all the streets that led to the tyrant's palace without meeting any opposition; and even at the palace doors they did not find any considerable number of guards on the alert, but here also some were already asleep and others drunk, and these they killed without any difficulty. Then, rushing into the palace in a body, they found all the rest no longer masters of either their bodies or their wits because of wine, and they cut their throats as if they were so many sheep. And having seized Aristodemus himself with his children and the rest of his relations, they tore their bodies with whips and tortures until late in the night, and after inflicting on them almost every kind of punishment they put them to death.

§ 7.11.4 Having wiped out the whole family of the tyrant, so as to leave neither children, wives, nor anyone related to them, and having spent the whole night in hunting down all the abetters of the tyranny, as soon as it was day, they proceeded to the forum. Then, calling the people together, they laid down their arms and restored the traditional government.

§ 7.12.1 It was before this Aristodemus, then, when he had already reigned as tyrant of Cumae close to fourteen years, that the Roman exiles with Tarquinius presented themselves, asking him to decide their cause against the country. The Roman ambassadors opposed this for some time, alleging that they had not come to enter into a contest of this sort and had no authority to plead the cause for the commonwealth since the senate had entrusted no such power to them.

§ 7.12.2 But when they availed naught with their plea and they saw the tyrant inclined to the other side because of the earnestness and entreaties of the exiles, they desired time to prepare a defence. And having deposited a sum of money as a pledge for their appearance, in the interval while the suit was pending and they were no longer guarded, they fled; whereupon the tyrant seized their servants, their pack-animals, and the money they had brought with them to purchase corn.

§ 7.12.3 It was the fate of these embassies, then, after being treated in the manner I have related, to return without having accomplished anything. But the ambassadors who had been sent to the cities in Tyrrhenia bought there a quantity of millet and spelt and brought it down to Rome in river-boats. This supply sustained the Romans for a short time, but its exhaustion brought them to the same straits as before. There was no sort of food to which men have ever been reduced through necessity that they did not venture to try; and it happened that not a few of them, by reason both of the scarcity and of the strangeness of the unaccustomed food, were either weakened in body or were neglected because of their poverty and entirely helpless.

§ 7.12.4 When the Volscians, who had been recently conquered in war, became aware of this, they undertook by means of embassies sent out secretly to incite one another to war against the Romans, in the belief that if anyone should attack them while they were distressed both by war and famine, they would be unable to resist. But some benevolence of the gods, who were always careful not to permit the Romans to become subject to their enemies, manifested its power upon this occasion also in a most conspicuous manner. For so great a pestilence suddenly descended upon the cities of the Volscians as is not recorded to have occurred anywhere else in either the Greek or the barbarian world, destroying the people without distinction of age, condition, or sex, it mattered not whether their bodies were strong or weak.

§ 7.12.5 The extreme nature of the calamity was shown in the case of an important city of the Volscians named Velitrae, till then a large and populous place, of which the plague left but one person out of every ten, attacking and carrying off all the rest. At last those who survived the calamity sent ambassadors to the Romans to inform them of their desolation and to deliver up their city to them. They had even before that time received a colony from Rome, for which reason they now desired colonists to be sent to them a second time.

§ 7.13.1 When the Romans learned of this, they felt compassion for their misfortunes and thought they ought to retain no resentment against their enemies when under so severe an affliction, since they had sufficiently atoned to the gods for what they had been intending to do. As to the city of Velitrae, they thought proper to accept it and to send a large colony thither, in consideration of the many advantages that would result to them from that measure.

§ 7.13.2 For the place itself, if occupied by an adequate garrison, seemed capable of proving a serious check and hindrance to the designs of any who might be disposed to begin a rebellion or create any disturbance, and it was expected that the scarcity of provisions under which the city then laboured would be far less serious if a considerable part of the citizens removed elsewhere. But, above all other considerations, the sedition which was now flaring up again, before the former one was as yet satisfactorily appeased, induced them to vote to send out the colony.

§ 7.13.3 For once more the plebeians were becoming inflamed, as before, and growing exasperated against the patricians, were uttering many harsh words against them, some accusing them of neglect and indolence in not having long foreseen the scarcity of corn that was to occur, and taken the necessary precautions to avert the calamity, and others declaring that the scarcity had been brought about by their contrivance, because of their resentment and a desire to injure the plebeians when they remembered their secession.

§ 7.13.4 For these reasons the colony was sent out promptly, three persons being appointed by the senate to be the leaders of it. The plebeians were pleased at first that lands were to be allotted to colonists, since they would thus be freed from the famine and inhabit a fertile country; but afterwards, when they bethought themselves of the pestilence which had raged violently in the city that was to receive them and had not only destroyed the inhabitants, but gave room to fear that it would treat the new settlers in the same manner, their feelings were gradually reversed. Consequently those who offered themselves to join the colony were not many, but far fewer than the senate had decreed; and these, moreover, were already blaming themselves for having been ill advised and were endeavouring to avoid going out.

§ 7.13.5 However, this element was included and likewise the others who had not willingly joined the colony, the senate having ordered that all the Romans should draw lots for completing the colony, and having fixed severe and inexorable penalties for those upon whom the lot fell, if they did not go. This colony, then, was sent to Velitrae after being recruited by a specious compulsion; and not many days after another colony was sent to Norba, which is no mean city of the Latins.

§ 7.14.1 But nothing turned out according to the calculations of the patricians, insofar at least as their hope of appeasing the sedition was concerned; on the contrary, the people who were left at home were now more exasperated than before and clamoured violently against the senators in their groups and clubs. They met in small numbers at first, but afterwards, as the dearth became more severe, they assembled in a body, and rushing all together into the Forum, cried out for the tribunes.

§ 7.14.2 And these having assembled the people, Spurius Sicinius, who was then at the head of their college, came forward and not only inveighed at length against the senate himself, inflaming the hatred of the people against them as much as he could, but also demanded that the others should express their sentiments publicly, especially Sicinius and Brutus, who were then aediles, calling upon each of them by name; they had been the authors of the first secession of the people as well, and having introduced the tribunician power, had been the first to be invested with it.

§ 7.14.3 These, having long before prepared the most malicious speeches, came forward and enlarged upon those points that were welcome to the multitude, alleging that the dearth of corn had been occasioned by the contrivance and treachery of the rich, against whose will the people had acquired the liberty by the secession.

§ 7.14.4 And they declared that the rich did not in the least bear an equal share of this calamity with the poor, since they had not only provisions secretly hoarded up, but also money to purchase imported foodstuffs, and thus could treat the calamity with fine scorn, whereas the plebeians had neither resource. As regarded the colony which they had sent out to a pestilential region, they declared it was a banishment to a manifest and much worse destruction; and exaggerating the evils with all their powers of speech, they asked to be informed what end there was to be of their miseries. They reminded them of the abusive treatment they had formerly received from the rich, and recounted many other things of this nature with great freedom.

§ 7.14.5 Finally, Brutus closed his speech with some such threats as this, that, if they would follow his advice, he would soon compel those who had kindled this mischief to extinguish it. After which the assembly was dismissed.

§ 7.15.1 The next day the consuls assembled the senate, being terrified at this revolutionary behaviour and believing that the demagogy of Brutus would end in some great mischief. And many proposals of every sort were made to that body both by the consuls themselves and also by the older senators. Some were of the opinion that they ought to court the populace by all possible expressions of kindness and by promises of deeds, and make their leaders more moderate by bringing the public business into the open and inviting them to join in their deliberations concerning the common advantage.

§ 7.15.2 But others advised not to show any sign of weakness toward a headstrong and ignorant multitude and toward the bold and insufferable madness of creatures who courted the mob, but to declare in their own defence that the patricians were in of way to blame for what had happened and to promise that they would take all possible care to remedy the evil, and at the same time to reprimand those who were stirring up the people and warn them that if they did not desist from rekindling the sedition they would be punished as they deserved.

§ 7.15.3 The chief proponent of this view was Appius, and it was this opinion that prevailed, after such violent strife among the senators that even the people, hearing their clamour at a great distance, rushed in alarm to the senate-house and the whole city was on tip-toe with expectation.

§ 7.15.4 After this the consuls, going into the Forum, called the people together when not much of the day now remained; and coming forward, they attempted to inform them of the decision they had reached in the senate. But the tribunes opposed them, and thereupon neither the consuls nor the tribunes spoke in their turns nor observed any decorum in their debate; for they cried out together and endeavoured to prevent one another from speaking, so that it was not easy for those who were present to understand what they meant.

§ 7.16.1 The consuls thought it reasonable that, as they had the superior power, they should have the command of everything in the city, while the tribunes insisted that the assembly of the people was their particular sphere, as the senate was that of the consuls, and that whatever the people had the authority to judge and determine was subject to their power alone. The populace supported the tribunes, shouting their approval and being prepared, if necessary, to account any who attempted to hinder them, while the patricians rallied to the support of the consuls.

§ 7.16.2 And a violent contest ensued, each side insisting not yielding to the other, as if their defeat on this single occasion would mean the giving up of their claims for all time to come. It was now near sunset and the rest of the population were running out of their houses to the Forum; and if night had descended upon their strife, they would have proceeded to blows and the throwing of stones.

§ 7.16.3 To prevent this, Brutus came forward and asked the consuls to give him leave to speak, promising to appease the tumult; and they, looking upon this as a yielding to them, since, even though the tribunes were present, this leader of the people had not asked the favour of those magistrates, gave him leave. Then, when silence reigned, Brutus, instead of making a speech, merely put questions of the following nature to the consuls:

§ 7.16.4 “Do you remember,” he said, “that when we put an end to the sedition by an accommodation this right was granted to us — that when the tribunes should assemble the people to consider any matter whatever the patricians should not be present at the assembly or create any disturbance there?” “We remember,” answered Geganius. Then Brutus added: “What is the matter with you, then, that you oppose us and do not allow the tribunes to say what they please?” To this Geganius replied: “Because it was not the tribunes who assembled the people, but we, the consuls. If, now, the assembly had been called by them, we should not have presumed either to hinder them at all or to interfere; but since we ourselves assembled them, we do not hinder the tribunes from speaking, but we feel that it is not right that we should be hindered by them.”

§ 7.16.5 Then Brutus said: “We have won, plebeians, and our adversaries have yielded everything to us we desired. For the present, therefore, dap and cease your strife; tomorrow, I promise you, I will show you how great is the strength you possess. And do you, tribunes, yield the Forum to them for the present; for in the end you will not yield it. When you learn how great a power your magistracy is possessed of (for you will have that knowledge soon; I myself undertake to make it clear to you), you will render their arrogance more moderate. But if you find I am imposing upon you, do to me whatever you will.”

§ 7.17.1 None having opposed this, both parties left the assembly, but with very different impressions. The poor thought that Brutus had hit upon something extraordinary and that he had not made such an important promise rashly, while the patricians despised the levity of the man and thought the boldness of his promises would go no farther than words; for they imagined that no other power had been granted by the senate to the tribunes than that of relieving such plebeians as were unjustly treated. However, not all the senators, and least of all the older men, made so light of the matter, but they were upon their guard lest the madness of this man might occasion some irreparable mischief.

§ 7.17.2 The following night Brutus, having communicated his plan to the tribunes and having prepared a goodly number of the plebeians to support him, went down with them to the Forum; and possessing themselves before sunrise of the sanctuary of Vulcan, where the assemblies of the people were usually held, they called an assembly. When the Forum was filled (for a greater throng had assembled upon this occasion than ever before), Sicinius the tribune came forward and made a long speech against the patricians, reminding the plebeians of all they had suffered at their hands; then he told them about the day before, how he had been hindered by them from speaking and deprived of the power of his magistracy.

§ 7.17.3 “What other power, indeed,” he asked, “shall we have after this, if we are not allowed even that of speaking? How shall we be able to relieve any of you when unjustly treated by them, if we are deprived of the authority of assembling you? For words, I presume, are the beginning of all action; and it is obvious that those who are not allowed to say what they think will not be allowed to do, either, what they please. Either take back, therefore, the power you have garden us,” he said, “unless you intend to establish it securely, or by a law duly enacted prevent all opposition to us for the future.”

§ 7.17.4 When he had thus spoken and the people had cried out to him with a great shout to introduce the law, Sicinius, who had it already drawn up, read it to them and permitted the people to vote upon it immediately. For the business seemed to admit of no postponement or delay, lest some further obstacle should be interposed by the consuls.

§ 7.17.5 The law was as follows: “When a tribune is delivering his opinion to the people, let no one say anything in opposition or interrupt him. If anyone shall act contrary to this, let him, if required, give sureties to the tribunes for the payment of the fine they shall impose upon him. If he refuses to give any surety, let him be punished with death and his goods be confiscated. And let the trials of those who protest against these fines take place before the people.”

§ 7.17.6 After the tribunes had caused this law to be passed, they dismissed the assembly; and the people departed full of joy and very grateful to Brutus, whom they looked upon as the author of the law.

§ 7.18.1 After this the tribunes had many controversies with the consuls over various matters, and not only did the people refuse to recognize as valid the decrees of the senate, but the senate also did not find acceptable anything that the people determined; and both of them continued to be arrayed in hostile camp s and to be suspicious of one another. However, their hatred did not lead to any irreparable mischief, as often happens in like disorders.

§ 7.18.2 For, on the one hand, the poor did not attack the houses of the rich, where they suspected they should find stores of provisions laid up, nor attempt to raid the public markets, but consented to buy small quantities for a high price, and when they lacked money, they sustained life by using roots and grass for food. Nor, on the other hand, did the rich, in the confidence of their own strength and that afforded by their clients, who were very numerous, offer violence to the weaker citizens and aim at making themselves masters of the city by driving out some of the poor and putting others to death, but, like those fathers who conduct themselves most prudently toward their sons, they continued to display toward their errors the kind of displeasure that is benevolent and solicitous.

§ 7.18.3 While Rome was in this situation, the neighbouring cities invited any of the Romans who so desired to live among them, luring them by the offer of citizenship and the hopes of other kind treatment, some from the best of motives, because of good will and compassion for their misfortune, but the greater part through envy of their former prosperity. And very great numbers did remove with their whole families to live elsewhere, some of whom returned when the affairs of the city were composed, while others remained where they were.

§ 7.19.1 The consuls, observing these things, thought fit, with the approval of the senate, to levy an army and to march with the forces out of the city (they had found a plausible excuse for their plan in the frequent incursions and depredations of their enemies by which the country was being laid waste); and they also considered the other advantages that would result from this action, namely, that by sending an army into the field those, on the one hand, who were left, becoming fewer in number, would enjoy a greater plenty of provisions, while those under arms, by supplying themselves from the enemy's stores, would live in greater abundance, and the sedition would be in abeyance as long as the expedition lasted. But, above all, it seemed that if the patricians and plebeians served together, their sharing equally in both good and ill fortune amid the dangers of the war would effectually confirm their reconciliation.

§ 7.19.2 But the plebeians were not inclined to obey them, nor willingly, as before, to offer themselves to enlist in the service; and the consuls did not think it wise to enforce the law against those who were unwilling to serve. But some patrician volunteers together with their clients were enlisted, and when they marched out of the city they were joined by a small number of plebeians.

§ 7.19.3 The army was commanded by Gaius Marcius, who had taken the city of Corioli and distinguished himself above all others in the battle against the Antiates; and the greater part of the plebeians who now took up arms were encouraged to do so upon seeing him take the field, some of them out of affection for him, and others in the hope of a successful campaign; for he was already famous and the enemy had come to have great fear of him.

§ 7.19.4 This army, having advanced as far as the city of Antium without any trouble, captured a great deal of corn that they found in the fields, and many slaves and cattle; and after a short time it returned better supplied than before with all the necessaries of life, so that those who had remained at home were greatly dejected and blamed their demagogues, through whom they felt they had been deprived of the same good fortune.

§ 7.19.5 Thus Geganius and Minucius, the consuls of this year, though involved in great and various storms and often in danger of wrecking the state, caused it no harm, but brought it safely through its perils by dealing with events rather with prudence than with good fortune.

§ 8.1.1 BOOK 8 The consuls who were chosen after these were Gaius Julius Iulus and Publius Pinarius Rufus, who entered upon their magistracy in the seventy-third Olympiad (the one in which Astylus of Croton won the foot-race), when Anchises was archon at Athens. These magistrates, who were not in the least warlike men and for that reason chiefly had obtained the consulship from the people, were involved against their will in many great dangers, a war having broken out as a result of their rule which came near destroying the commonwealth from its foundations.

§ 8.1.2 For Marcius Coriolanus, the man who had been accused of aiming at tyranny and condemned to perpetual banishment, resented his misfortune and at the same time desired to avenge himself upon this enemies; and considering in what manner and with the aid of what forces he might accomplish this, he found that the only army which was then a match for the Romans was that of the Volscians, if these would agree together and make war upon them under an able general.

§ 8.1.3 He reasoned, therefore, that if he could prevail on the Volscians to receive him and to entrust to him the command of the war, his purpose could easily be accomplished. On the other hand, he was disturbed by the consciousness that he had often brought calamities upon them in battle and had forced many cities to forsake their alliance with them. However, he did not desist from the attempt because of the greatness of the danger, but resolved to encounter these very perils and suffer whatever might be the consequence.

§ 8.1.4 Having waited, therefore, for a night — and a dark one — he went to Antium, the most important city of the Volscians, at the hour when the inhabitants were at supper; and going to the house of an influential man named Tullus Attius, who by reason of his birth, his wealth and his military exploits had a high opinion of himself and generally led the whole nation, he became his suppliant by sitting down at his hearth.

§ 8.1.5 Then, having related to him the dire straits which had forced him to take refuge with his enemies, he begged of him to entertain sentiments of moderation and humanity toward a suppliant and no longer to regard as an enemy one who was in his power, nor to exhibit his strength against the unfortunate and the humbled, bearing in mind that the fortunes of men are subject to change.

§ 8.1.6 “And this,” he said, “you may learn most clearly from my own case. For though I was once looked upon as the most powerful of all men in the greatest city, I am now cast aside, forsaken, exiled and abased, and destined to suffer any treatment you, who are my enemy, shall think fit to inflict upon me. But I promise you that I will perform as great services for the Volscians, if I become their friend, as I occasioned calamities to them when I was their enemy. However, if you have any other purpose concerning me, let loose your resentment at once and grant me the speediest death by sacrificing the suppliant with your own hand and at your own hearth.”

§ 8.2.1 While he was yet speaking these words Tullus gave him his hand and, raising him for the hearth, bade him be assured that he should not be treated in any manner unworthy of his valour, and said he felt himself under great obligations to him for coming to him, declaring that he looked upon even this as no small honour. He promised him also that he would make all the Volscians his friends, beginning with those of his own city; and not one of his promises did he fail to make good.

§ 8.2.2 Soon afterwards Marcius and Tullus conferred together in private and came to a decision to begin war against the Romans. Tullus proposed to put himself immediately at the head of all the Volscians and march on Rome while the Romans were still at odds and had generals averse to war. But Marcius insisted that they ought first to establish a righteous and just ground for war; for he pointed out that the gods take a hand in all actions, and especially in those relating to war, in so far as these are of greater consequence than any others and their outcome is generally uncertain. It happened that there was at that time an armistice and a truce existing between the Romans and the Volscians and also a treaty for two years which they had made a short time before:

§ 8.2.3 “If, therefore, you make war upon them inconsiderately and hastily,” he said, “you will be to blame for the breaking of the treaty, and Heaven will not be propitious to you; whereas, if you wait till they do this, you will seem to be defending yourselves and coming to the aid of a broken treaty. How this may be brought about and how they may be induced to violate the treaty first, while we shall seem to be waging a righteous and just war against them, I have discovered after long consideration. It is necessary that the Romans should be deceived by us, in order that they may be the first to commit unlawful acts.

§ 8.2.4 The nature of this deceit, which I have hitherto kept secret while awaiting the proper occasion for its employment, but am now forced, because of your eagerness for action, to disclose sooner than I wished, is as follows. The Romans are intending to perform sacrifices and exhibit very magnificent games at vast expense, at which great numbers of strangers will be present as spectators.

§ 8.2.5 Wait for this occasion, and then not only go thither yourself, but engage as many of the Volscians as you can to go also and see the games. And when you are in Rome, bid one of your closest friends go to the consuls and inform them privately that the Volscians are intending to attack the city by night and that it is for this purpose that they have come to Rome in so great numbers. For you may be assured that if they hear this they will expel you Volscians from the city without further hesitation and furnish you with a ground for just resentment.”

§ 8.3.1 When Tullus heard this, he was highly pleased, and letting that opportunity for his expedition pass, employed himself in preparing for the war. When the time for the beginning of the festival had come, Julius and Pinarius having already succeeded to the consulship, the flower of the Volscian youth came from every city, as Tullus requested, to see the games; and the greater part of them were obliged to quarter themselves in sacred and public places, as they could not find lodgings in private houses and with friends. And when they walked in the streets, they went about in small groups and companies, so that there was already talk about them in the city and strange suspicions.

§ 8.3.2 In the mean time the informer suborned by Tullus, pursuant to the advice of Marcius, went to the consuls, and pretending that he was going to reveal a secret matter to his enemies against his own friends, bound the consuls by oaths, not only to insure his own safety, but also to insure that none of the Volscians should learn who had given the information concerning the alleged plot.

§ 8.3.3 The consuls believed his story and immediately convened the senate, summoning the members individually; and the informer, being brought before them and receiving their assurances, gave to them also the same account. The senators even long before this had looked upon it as a circumstance full of suspicion that such numbers of young men should come to see the games from a single nation which was hostile to them, and now that information too was given, the duplicity of which they did not perceive, their opinion was turned into certainty. It was their unanimous decision, therefore, to send the men out of the city before sunset and to order proclamation to be made that all who did not obey should be put to death; and they decreed that the consuls should see to it that their departure took place without insult and in safety.

§ 8.4.1 After the senate had passed this vote some went through the streets making proclamation that the Volscians should depart from the city immediately and that they should all go out by a single gate, the one called the Capuan gate, while others together with the consuls escorted them on their departure. And then particularly, when they went out of the city at the same time and by the same gate, it was seen how numerous they were and how fit all were for service. First of them to depart was Tullus, who went out in haste, and taking his stand in a suitable place not far from the city, picked up those who lagged behind.

§ 8.4.2 And when they were all gathered together, he called an assembly and inveighed at length against the Roman people, declaring that it was an outrageous and intolerable insult that the Volscians had received at their hands in being the only strangers to be expelled from the city. He asked that each man should report this treatment in his own city and take measures to put a stop to the insolence of the Romans by punishing them for their lawless behaviour. After he had spoken thus and sharpened the resentment of the Volscians, who were already exasperated at the usage they had met with, he dismissed the assembly.

§ 8.4.3 When they returned to their several cities and each related to his fellow citizens the insult they had received, exaggerating what had occurred, every city was angered and unable to restrain its resentment; and sending ambassadors to one another, they demanded that all the Volscians should meet together in a single assembly in order to adopt a common plan concerning war.

§ 8.4.4 All this was done chiefly at the instigation of Tullus. And the authorities from every city together with a great multitude of other people assembled at Ecetra; for this city seemed the most conveniently situated with respect to the others for a general assembly. After many speeches had been made by the men in power in each city, the votes of all present were taken; and the view which carried was to begin war, since the Romans had first transgressed in the matter of the treaty.

§ 8.5.1 When the authorities had proposed to the assembly to consider in what manner they ought to carry on the war against them, Tullus came forward and advised them to summon Marcius and inquire of him how the power of the Romans might be overthrown, since he knew better than any man both the weakness and the strength of the commonwealth. This met with their approval, and at once they all cried out to summon the man. Then Marcius, having found the opportunity he desired, rose up with downcast looks and with tears in his eyes and after a brief pause spoke as follows:

§ 8.5.2 “If I thought you all entertained the same opinion of my misfortune, I should not think it necessary to make any defence of it; but when I consider that, as is to be expected among many men of different characters, there are some to whom will occur the notion, neither true nor deserved by me, that the people would not have banished me from my country without a real and just cause, I think it necessary above all things first to clear myself publicly before you all in the matter of my banishment. 3 But have patience with me, I adjure you by the gods, even those of you who are beside acquainted with the facts, while I relate what I have suffered from my enemies and show that I have not deserved this misfortune which has befallen me; and do not be anxious to hear what you must do before you have inquired what sort of man I am who am now going to express my opinion. The account I shall give of these matters will be brief, even though I begin from far back. 4 ”The original constitution of the Romans was a mixture of monarchy and aristocracy. Afterwards Tarquinius, their last king, thought fit to make his government a tyranny; for which reason the leading men of the aristocracy, combining against him, expelled him from the state, and taking upon themselves the administration of public affairs, formed such a system of government as all men acknowledge to be the best and wisest. Not long ago, however, but only two or three years since, the poorest and idlest of the citizens, having bad men as their leaders, not only committed many other outrages, but at last endeavoured to overthrow the aristocracy. 5 At this all the leaders of the senate were grieved and thought they ought to consider how the insolence of these disturbers of the government could be stopped; but more active in this regard than the other aristocrats, were, of the older senators, Appius, a man deserving of praise on many accounts, and, of the younger men, I myself. And the speeches which on every occasion we made before the senate were frank, not by way of making war upon the populace, but from a suspicion we had of government by the worst elements; nor again from a wish to enslave any of the Romans, but from a desire that the liberty of all might be preserved and the management of public affairs be entrusted to the best men.

§ 8.6.1 “This being observed by those most unprincipled leaders of the populace, they resolved to remove first out of their way the two of us who most openly opposed them — not, however, by attacking us both at once, lest the attempt should appear invidious and odious, but beginning with me who was the younger and the easier to be dealt with. In the first place, then, they endeavoured to destroy me without a trial; and after that they demanded that I be delivered up by the senate in order to be put to death. But having failed of both purposes, they summoned me to a trial in which they themselves were to be my judges, and charged me with aiming at tyranny.

§ 8.6.2 They had not learned even this much — that no tyrant makes war upon the populace by allying himself with the best men, but, on the contrary, destroys the best element in the state with the aid of the populace. And they did not give me the tribunal that was traditional, by summoning the centuriate assembly, but rather a tribunal which all admit to be most unprincipled — one set up in my case and mine alone — in which the working class and vagabonds and those who plot against the possessions of others were sure to prevail over good and just men and such as desire the safety of the commonwealth.

§ 8.6.3 This profit, then, and no more did I gain from my innocence, that, though tried by the mob, of which the greater part were haters of the virtuous and for that reason hostile to me, I was condemned by two votes only, even though the tribunes threatened to resign their power if I were acquitted, alleging that they expected to suffer the worst at my hands, and though they displayed all eagerness and zeal against me during the trial.

§ 8.6.4 After meeting with such treatment at the hands of my fellow citizens I felt that the rest of my life would not be worth living unless I took revenge upon them; and for this reason, when I was at liberty to live free from vexations either in any of the Latin cities I pleased, because of our ties of kinship, or in the colonies lately planted by our fathers, I was unwilling to do so, but took refuge with you, though I knew you had suffered ever so many wrongs at the hands of the Romans and had conceived the greatest resentment against them, in order that in conjunction with you I might take revenge upon them to the utmost of my power, both by words what words were wanted, and by deeds, where deeds were wanted. And I feel very grateful to you for receiving me, and still more for the honour you show me, without either resenting or taking into account the injuries which you received from me, your erstwhile enemy, during the wars.

§ 8.7.1 ”Come now, what kind of man should I be if, deprived as I am of the glory and honours I ought to be receiving from my fellow citizens to whom I have rendered great services, and, in addition to this, driven away from my country, my family, my friends, from the gods and sepulchres of my ancestors and from every enjoyment, and if, finding all these things among you against whom I made war for their sake, I should not become harsh toward those whom have found enemies instead of fellow citizens, and helpful to those whom I have found friends instead of enemies? For my part, I could not count as a real man anyone who feels neither anger against those who make war upon him nor affection for those who seek his preservation. And I regard as my fatherland, not that state which has renounced me, but the one of which I, an alien, have become a citizen; and as a friendly land, not the one in which I have been wronged, but that in which I find safety.

§ 8.7.2 And if Heaven lends a hand and your assistance is as eager as I have reason to expect, I have hopes that there will be a great and sudden change. For you must know that the Romans, having already had experience of many enemies, have feared none more than you, and that there is nothing they continue to seek more earnestly than the means of weakening your nation.

§ 8.7.3 And for this reason they hold a number of your cities which they have either taken by war or deluded with the hope of their friendship, in order that you may not all unite and engage in a common war against them. If, therefore, you will strive unceasingly to counteract their designs and will all be of one mind about war, as you are now, you will easily put an end to their power.

§ 8.8.1 “As to the manner in which you will wage the contest and how you will handle the situation, since you ask me to express my opinion — whether this be a tribute to my experience or to my goodwill or to both — I shall give it without concealing anything. In the first place, therefore, I advise you to consider how you may provide yourselves with a righteous and just pretext for the war. And what pretext for war will be not only righteous and just but also profitable to you at the same time, you shall now learn from me.

§ 8.8.2 The land which originally belonged to the Romans is of small extent and barren, but the acquired land which they possess as a result of robbing their neighbours is large and fertile; and if each of the injured nations should demand the return of the land that is theirs, nothing would be so insignificant, so weak, and so helpless as the city of Rome. In doing this I think you ought to take the lead.

§ 8.8.3 Send ambassadors to them, therefore, to demand back your cities which they are holding, to ask that they evacuate all the forts they have erected in your country, and to persuade them to restore everything else belonging to you which they have appropriated by force. But do not begin war till you have received their answer. For if you follow this advice, you will obtain one of two things you desire: you will either recover all that belongs to you without danger and expense or will have found an honourable and a just pretext for war. For not to covet the possessions others, but to demand back what is one's own and, failing to obtain this, to declare war, will be acknowledged by all men to be an honourable proceeding.

§ 8.8.4 Well then, what do you think the Romans will do if you choose this course? Do you think they will restore the places to you? And if they do, what is to hinder them from relinquishing everything that belongs to others? For the Aequians, the Albans, the Tyrrhenians, and many others will come each to get back their own land. Or do you think they will retain these places and refuse all your just demands? That is my opinion. Protesting, therefore, that they wronged you first, you will of necessity have recourse to arms, and you will have for your allies all who, having been deprived of their possessions, despair of recovering them by any other means than by war.

§ 8.8.5 This is a most favourable and a unique opportunity which Fortune has provided for the wronged nations, an opportunity for which they could not even have hoped, of attacking the Romans while they are divided and suspicious of one another and while they have generals who are inexperienced in war. These, then, Rome the considerations which it was fitting to suggest in words and urge upon friends, and I have offered them in all goodwill and sincerity. But when it comes to the actual deeds, what it will be necessary to foresee and contrive upon each occasion, leave the consideration of those matters to the commanders of the forces.

§ 8.8.6 For my zeal also shall not be wanting in whatever post you may place me, and I shall endeavour to do my duty with no less bravery than any common soldier or captain or general. Pray take me and use me wherever I may be of service to you, and be assured that if, when I fought against you, I was able to do you great mischief, I shall also be able, when I fight on your side, to be of great service to you.”

§ 8.9.1 Thus Marcius spoke. And the Volscians not only made it clear while he was yet speaking that they were pleased with his words, but, after he had done, they all with a great shout signified that they found his advice most excellent; and permitting no one else to speak, they adopted his proposal. After the decree had been drawn up they at once chose the most important men out of every city and sent them to Rome as ambassadors. As for Marcius, they voted that he should be a member of the senate in every city and have the privilege of standing for the magistracies everywhere, and should share in all the other honours that were most highly prized among them.

§ 8.9.2 Then, without waiting for the Romans' answer, they all set to work and employed themselves in warlike preparations; and all of them who had hitherto been dejected because of their defeats in the previous battles now took courage, feeling confident that they would overthrow the power of the Romans.

§ 8.9.3 In the mean time the ambassadors they had sent to Rome, upon being introduced into the senate, said that the Volscians were very desirous that their complaints against the Romans should be settled and that for the future they should be friends and allies without fraud or deceit. And they declared that it would be a sure pledge of friendship if they received back the lands and the cities which had been taken from them by the Romans; otherwise there would be neither peace nor secure friendship between them, since the injured party is always by nature an enemy to the aggressor. And they asked the Romans not to reduce them to the necessity of making war because of their failure to obtain justice.

§ 8.10.1 When the ambassadors had thus spoken, the senators ordered them to withdraw, after which they consulted by themselves. Then, when they had determined upon the answer they ought to make, they called them back into the senate and gave this decision: “We are not unaware, Volscians, that it is not friendship you want, but that you wish to find a specious pretext for war. For you well know that you will never obtain what you have come to demand of us, since you desire things that are unjust and impossible.

§ 8.10.2 If, indeed, having made a present to us of these places, you now, having changed your minds, demand them back, you are suffering a wrong if you do not recover them; but if, having been deprived of them by war and no longer having any claim to them, you demand them back, you are doing wrong in coveting the possessions of others. As for us, we regard as in the highest degree our possessions those that we gain through victory in war. We are not the first who have established this law, nor do we regard it as more a human than a divine institution. Knowing, too, that all nations, both Greeks and barbarians, make use of this law, we will never show any sign of weakness to you or relinquish any of our conquests hereafter.