CHAPTER VII. THE INVASION OF THE GAULS AND ITS SEQUEL

We come now to a period in which Roman courage and fortitude were put to

a severe test--when one of the unknown peoples of the north, henceforth

to be familiar as Gauls, invaded Italy, and came, at last, to the walls

of Rome itself. They were hardy warriors, as full of courage seemingly as

the Romans themselves, and accustomed to carry all before them.

The exact details of their conflict with the Romans have been so mingled

with tradition that no one, nowadays, pretends to know just what they

really were. A full story of their alleged doings is given by Livy,[c]

and may well be reproduced here as showing what has passed for history

during all these centuries, and what is, perhaps, as near to history as

we can hope to attain in this matter. If for no other reason we must

turn to this account because it contains incidents that have become

proverbial. It is here, for example, that one finds the tale of the

cackling geese which awakened Marcus Manlius, and through him saved the

city from the Gauls, who were surreptitiously scaling the heights. Here,

again, is the story that the Romans, forced finally to capitulate through

famine and pestilence, made complaint of unfair weights used by the

Gauls, and that Brennus, the conquering leader, threw his sword into the

scale, crying insolently, “Woe to the conquered!” The dramatic climax,

with true theatrical precision, makes the once exiled Camillus, now

dictator of the Romans, appear just at this moment to offer the insolent

Brennus the sword instead of gold, and in the final outcome to conquer

him and his hosts, destroying them to the last man.

This is the completion of the story which Livy and his successors have

made famous for all time. It matters little now as to just how much of

this is true, and how much fable; and even if it did matter, the facts

can never be known. We must be content, despite all the bickerings of

specialists as to this or that feature of the transaction, to believe

that the Gauls actually did invade Italy at this period; that they

actually did conquer and ravish Rome, destroying most of its precious

records, and that finally, for some reason unknown to us, the conquerors

retired, leaving the Romans to rebuild their city and to take up anew the

interrupted course of their progress.

The lasting importance of the invasion was, perhaps, due more to the

destruction of the Roman records, thus shutting us out from the true

history of early Roman times, than to any other direct evils which the

Gauls inflicted upon their enemies.[a]

THE GAULS

[Sidenote: [391-390 B.C.]]

The course of Roman history, hitherto disturbed only by petty border

wars, now suffers a great convulsion. Over her neighbours on the east

and north the republic was in the ascendant; on the west the frail

oligarchies of Etruria had sunk before Camillus and his hardy soldiers;

when, by an untoward union of events, Rome saw her best general banished,

and heard of the barbarian host which was wasting the fair land of Italy.

The Gauls burst upon Latium and the adjoining lands with the suddenness

of a thunderstorm. It swept over the face of Italy, crushing and

destroying. The Etruscans were weakened by it; and if Rome herself was

laid prostrate, the Latins also suffered greatly, the Volscians trembled,

and the Æquians were irrecoverably weakened.

The Gauls were a tribe of that large race of mankind who are known under

the name of Celts, and who at the time in question peopled nearly the

whole of western Europe, from the heart of Germany to the ocean. The

northern and central parts of the continents were already in the hands

of various nations, called by the common name of Germans or Teutons, to

whom belonged the Goths, Saxons, Danes, Normans, Lombards, Franks, and

Alamanni, while the Celts possessed France, a great part of Germany, most

of Spain and Portugal, together with the British Isles. Of these Celts

there were two great divisions, commonly called Gael and Cymri, differing

in habits and language. The ancient inhabitants of France were Gael,

those of Britain and Belgica were Cymri; and the Druidical religion,

though sometimes adopted by the Gael, was properly and originally Cymric.

Gael are still found in Ireland and in the Highlands of Scotland; Cymri

in Wales and Low Brittany; and they have left traces of their name in

Cumberland.

Before the time we are now speaking of, there had been a great movement

in the Celtic nations. Two great swarms went out from Gaul. Of these, one

crossed the Alps into Italy; the other, moving eastward, in the course of

time penetrated into Greece, and then passed into Asia Minor, where they

were known under the name of Galatians.

It is supposed that the Gael who dwelt in the eastern parts of Gaul,

being oppressed by Cymric tribes of the west and north, went forth to

seek new homes in distant lands, as in later times the Gothic and German

nations were driven in the contrary direction by the Huns and other

Asiatic hordes, who were thronging into Europe from the east. At all

events, it is certain that large bodies of Celts passed over the Alps

before and after this time, and having once tasted the wines and eaten

the fruits of Italy, were in no hurry to return from that fair land into

their own less hospitable regions. The course taken by these adventurers

was probably over divers passes of the Alps, from the Mount Cenis and

the Little St. Bernard to the Simplon. Pouring from these outlets,

they overran the rich plains of northern Italy, and so occupied the

territory which lies between the Alps, the Apennines, and the Adriatic,

that the Romans called this territory Gallia Cisalpina, or Hither Gaul.

The northern Etruscans gave way before these fierce barbarians, and

their name is heard of no more in those parts. Then the Gauls crossed

the Apennines into southern Etruria, and while they were ravaging that

country they first came in contact with the sons of Rome.

The common date for this event is 390 B.C. How long before this time the

Gallic hordes had been pouring into Italy we know not. But whenever it

was that they first passed over the Alps, it is certain that now they

first crossed the Apennines.

The tribe which took this course were of the Senones, as all authors

say, and therefore we may suppose they were Gaelic; but it has been

thought they were mixed with Cymri, since the name of their king or chief

was Brennus, and _brenhin_ is Cymric for “a king.” They are described

as large-limbed, with fair skins, yellow hair, and blue eyes, in all

respects contrasted with the natives of southern Italy. Their courage was

high, but their tempers fickle. They were more fitted for action than

endurance; able to conquer, but not steady enough to maintain and secure

their conquests.

Brennus and his barbarians (it was said or sung) passed into Etruria at

the invitation of Aruns, a citizen of Clusium (Chiusi), whose daughter

had been dishonoured by a young Lucumo or noble of the same place. To

avenge his private wrongs this Etruscan called in the Gauls, as Count

Julian in the Spanish romance called in the Moors to avenge the seduction

of his daughter by Roderic the Goth. The Gauls, nothing loath, crossed

the mountains, and laid siege to Clusium; on which the Etruscans of the

city, terrified and helpless, despairing of effectual succour from their

own countrymen, sent to seek aid from the city of the Tiber, which had

conquered so many old Etruscan cities. Common danger makes friends of

foes; and the senate determined to support the Etruscans against the

barbarians. However, all they did was to send three ambassadors, sons of

Fabius Ambustus, the pontifex maximus, to warn the Gauls not to meddle

further with the men of Clusium, for Clusium was the ally of Rome. The

barbarians took slight notice of the message, and continued the war.

Now it chanced that there was a battle fought while the three Fabii

were still at Clusium; and they, forgetting their peaceful character of

envoys, took part with the Clusians against the Gauls, and one of them

was seen stripping the arms off a Gallic champion whom he had slain. The

barbarians, in high wrath, demanded to be led straight against the city

whose sons were so faithless; but their chiefs restrained them, and sent

an embassy to Rome demanding that the envoys should be given up. Then

the senate, not caring to decide so weighty a matter, referred it to the

people; and so far was the people from listening to the demands of the

Gaul, that at the comitia next ensuing, these very envoys were all three

elected military tribunes. On hearing of this gross and open insult,

Brennus broke up his camp at Clusium, and marched southward for Rome.

The river Clanis, upon which stood Clusium, led them down to the Tiber

beneath Volsinii. Having crossed that river, and pouring down its left

bank, they found themselves confronted by the Romans on the banks of the

Allia, a little stream that rises in the Sabine hills and empties itself

into the Tiber at a point nearly opposite the Cremera. Their left rested

on the Tiber, the Allia was in their front, and their right occupied some

hilly ground. Brennus attempted not to attack in front, but threw himself

with an overpowering force upon the right flank of the enemy; and the

Romans, finding their position turned, were seized with panic fear and

fled. The greater part plunged into the Tiber in the hope of escaping

across the river to Veii, and many made their escape good; but many were

drowned, and many pierced by Gallic javelins. A small number reached

Rome.[b]

LIVY’S ACCOUNT OF THE GAULS IN ROME

[Sidenote: [390 B.C.]]

The miraculous attainment of so sudden a victory held even the Gauls in a

state of stupefaction. And at first they stood motionless with panic, as

if not knowing what had happened; then they apprehended a stratagem; at

length they began to collect the spoils of the slain, and to pile up the

arms in heaps, as is their custom. Then, at length, when no appearance

of anything hostile was anywhere observed, having proceeded on their

journey, they reach the city of Rome not long before sunset: where, when

some horsemen, who had advanced before, brought back word that the gates

were not shut, that no guard was posted before the gates, no armed troops

on the walls, another cause of amazement similar to the former made them

halt; and dreading the night and ignorance of the situation of the city,

they posted themselves between Rome and the Anio, after sending scouts

about the walls and the several gates to ascertain what plans the enemy

would adopt in their desperate circumstances.

[Illustration: BATTLE BETWEEN ROMANS AND GAULS AT THE RIVER ALLIA]

With respect to the Romans, as the greater part had gone to Veii from

the field of battle, and no one supposed that any survived except those

who had fled back to Rome--being all lamented as lost, both those living

and those dead--they caused the entire city to be filled with wailings.

The alarm for the public interest stifled private sorrow, as soon as

it was announced that the enemy were at hand. Presently the barbarians

patrolling around the walls in troops, they heard their yells and the

dissonant clangour of their arms. All the interval up to the next day

kept their minds in such a state of suspense that an assault seemed

every moment about to be made on the city: on their first approach, when

they arrived at the city (it was expected); for if this were not their

design, that they would have remained at the Allia; then towards sunset,

because there was not much of the day remaining, they imagined that they

would attack them before night; then that the design was deferred until

night, in order to strike the greater terror. At length the approach of

light struck them with dismay; and the calamity itself followed closely

upon their continued apprehension of it, when the troops entered the

gates in hostile array. During that night, however, and the following

day, the state by no means bore any resemblance to that which had fled

in so dastardly a manner at the Allia. For as there was not a hope that

the city could be defended, so small a number of troops now remaining,

it was determined that the youth fit for military service, and the abler

part of the senate with their wives and children, should retire into

the citadel and Capitol, having collected stores of arms and corn; and

thence from a fortified post, that they should defend the deities, and

the inhabitants, and the Roman name: that the flamen (Quirinalis) and the

vestal priestesses should carry away far from slaughter and conflagration

the objects appertaining to the religion of the state; and that their

worship should not be intermitted, until there remained no one who could

continue it. If the citadel and Capitol, the mansion of the gods, if

the senate, the source of public counsel, if the youth of military age,

should survive the impending ruin of the city, the loss of the aged, the

crowd left behind in the city, and who were sure to perish[33] under any

circumstances would be light. And in order that the plebeian portion of

the multitude might bear the thing with greater resignation, the aged

men, who had enjoyed triumphs and consulships, openly declared that they

would die along with them, and that they would not burden the scanty

stores of the armed men with those bodies, with which they were now

unable to bear arms, or to defend their country. Such was the consolation

addressed to each other by the aged now destined to death.

Their exhortations were then turned to the band of young men, whom they

escorted to the Capitol and citadel, commending to their valour and youth

whatever might be the remaining fortune of a city which for 360 years

had been victorious in all its wars. When those who carried with them

all their hope and resources parted with the others, who had determined

not to survive the ruin of their captured city, both the circumstance

itself and the appearance (it exhibited) was really distressing, and also

the weeping of the women and their undecided running together, following

now these, now those, and asking their husbands and children what was to

become of them, (all together) left nothing that could be added to human

misery. A great many of them, however, escorted their friends into the

citadel, no one either preventing or inviting them; because the measure

which was advantageous to the besieged, that of reducing the number of

useless persons, was but little in accordance with humanity.

The rest of the crowd, chiefly plebeians, whom so small a hill could

not contain, nor could they be supported amid such scarcity of corn,

pouring out of the city as if in one continued train, repaired to the

Janiculum. From thence some were dispersed through the country, some made

for the neighbouring cities, without any leader or concert, following

each his own hopes, his own plans, those of the public being given up

as lost. In the meantime the flamen Quirinalis and the vestal virgins,

laying aside all concern for their own affairs, consulting which of the

sacred deposits should be carried with them, which should be left behind,

for they had not strength to carry them all, or what place would best

preserve them in safe custody, considered it best to put them into casks

and to bury them in the chapel adjoining to the residence of the flamen

Quirinalis, where then it was profane to spit out. The rest they carried

away with them, after dividing the burden among themselves, by the road

which led by the Sublician bridge to the Janiculum.

Meanwhile at Rome, all arrangements being now made, as far as was

possible in such an emergency, for the defence of the citadel, the crowd

of aged persons having returned to their houses, awaited the enemy’s

coming with minds firmly prepared for death. Such of them as had borne

curule offices, in order that they might die in the insignia of their

former station, honours, and merit, arraying themselves in the most

magnificent garments worn by those drawing the chariots of the gods in

procession, or by persons riding in triumph, seated themselves in their

ivory chairs, in the middle of their halls. Some say that they devoted

themselves for their country and the citizens of Rome, Marcus Fabius, the

chief pontiff, dictating the form of words.

The Gauls, both because by the intervention of the night they had abated

all angry feelings arising from the irritation of battle, and because

they had on no occasion fought a well-disputed fight, and were then

not taking the city by storm or violence, entering the city the next

day, free from resentment or heat of passion, through the Colline Gate

which lay open, advance into the Forum, casting their eyes around on the

temples of gods, and on the citadel, which alone exhibited any appearance

of war. From thence, after leaving a small guard, lest any attack should

be made on them whilst scattered, from the citadel or Capitol, they

dispersed in quest of plunder; the streets being entirely desolate, some

of them rushed in a body into the houses that were nearest; some repair

to those which were most distant, considering these to be untouched and

abounding with spoil.

Afterwards being terrified by the very solitude, lest any stratagem of

the enemy should surprise them whilst being dispersed, they returned in

bodies into the Forum and the parts adjoining to the Forum, where the

houses of the commons being shut, and the halls of the leading men lying

open, almost greater backwardness was felt to attack the open than the

shut houses; so completely did they behold with a sort of veneration men

sitting in the porches of the palaces, who besides their ornaments and

apparel more august than human, bore a striking resemblance to gods,

in the majesty which their looks and the gravity of their countenance

displayed. Whilst they stood gazing on these as on statues, it is

said that Marcus Papirius, one of them, roused the anger of a Gaul by

striking him on the head with the ivory, while he was stroking his beard,

which was then universally worn long; and that the commencement of the

bloodshed began with him, that the rest were slain in their seats. After

the slaughter of the nobles, no person whatever was spared; the houses

were plundered, and when emptied were set on fire.

But whether it was that all were not possessed with a desire of

destroying the city, or it had been so determined by the leading men of

the Gauls, both that some fires should be presented to their view (to

see) if the besieged could be forced into a surrender through affection

for their dwellings, and that all the houses should not be burned down,

so that whatever portion should remain of the city, they might hold as a

pledge to work upon the minds of the enemy; the fire by no means spread

either indiscriminately or extensively on the first day, as is usual in a

captured city.

The Romans beholding from the citadel the city filled with the enemy,

and their running to and fro through all the streets, some new calamity

presenting itself in every different quarter, were neither able to

preserve their presence of mind, nor even to have perfect command of

their ears and eyes. To whatever direction the shouts of the enemy,

the cries of women and children, the crackling of the flames, and the

crash of falling houses, had called their attention, thither, terrified

at every incident, they turned their thoughts, faces, and eyes, as if

placed by fortune to be spectators of their falling country, and as

if left as protectors of no other of their effects, except their own

persons: so much more to be commiserated than any others who were ever

besieged, because, shut out from their country, they were besieged,

beholding all their effects in the power of the enemy. Nor was the night,

which succeeded so shockingly spent a day, more tranquil; daylight then

followed a restless night; nor was there any time which failed to produce

the sight of some new disaster. Loaded and overwhelmed by so many evils,

they did not at all abate their determination (resolved) though they

should see everything in flames and levelled to the dust, to defend by

their bravery the hill which they occupied, small and ill-provided as it

was, being left (as a refuge) for liberty. And now, as the same events

recurred every day, as if habituated to misfortunes, they abstracted

their thoughts from all feeling of their circumstances, regarding their

arms only, and the swords in their right hands, as the sole remnants of

their hopes.

The Gauls also, after having for several days waged an ineffectual

war against the buildings of the city, when they saw that among the

fires and ruins of the captured city nothing now remained except armed

enemies, neither terrified by so many disasters nor likely to turn their

thoughts to a surrender, unless force were employed, determined to have

recourse to extremities, and to make an attack on the citadel. A signal

being given at break of day, their entire multitude was marshalled in

the Forum; thence, after raising the shout and forming a testudo, they

advanced to the attack. Against whom the Romans, acting neither rashly

nor precipitately, having strengthened the guards at every approach, and

opposing the main strength of their men in that quarter where they saw

the battalions advancing, suffered the enemy to ascend, judging that the

higher they ascended, the more easily would they be driven back down

the steep. About the middle of the ascent they met them; and making a

charge thence from the higher ground, which of itself bore them against

the enemy, they routed the Gauls with slaughter and destruction, so that

never after, either in parties or with their whole force, did they try

that kind of fighting.

Laying aside all hope of succeeding by force of arms, they prepare for a

blockade; of which having had no idea up to that time, they had, whilst

burning the city, destroyed whatever corn had been therein, and during

those very days all the provisions had been carried off from the land

to Veii. Accordingly, dividing their army, they resolved that one part

should plunder through the neighbouring states, that the other part

should carry on the siege of the citadel, so that the ravagers of the

country might supply the besiegers with corn.

The Gauls, who marched from the city, were led by fortune herself, to

make trial of Roman valour, to Ardea, where Camillus was in exile: who,

more distressed by the fortune of the public than his own, whilst he now

pined away arraigning gods and men, fired with indignation, and wondering

where were now those men who with him had taken Veii and Falerii, who had

conducted other wars rather by their own valour than by the favour of

fortune, heard on a sudden that the army of the Gauls was approaching,

and that the people of Ardea in consternation were met in council on the

subject.

Both friends and enemies were satisfied that there existed nowhere at

that time a man of equal military talent. The assembly being dismissed,

they refreshed themselves, carefully watching for the moment the signal

should be given; which being given, during the silence of the beginning

of the night they attended Camillus at the gates. Having gone forth to no

great distance from the city, they found the camp of the Gauls, as had

been foretold, unprotected and neglected on every side, and attacked it

with a shout. No fight anywhere, but slaughter everywhere; their bodies,

naked and relaxed with sleep, were cut to pieces. Those most remote,

however, being roused from their beds, not knowing what the tumult was,

or whence it came, were directed to flight, and some of them, without

perceiving it, into the midst of the enemy. A great number flying into

the territory of Antium, an attack being made on them in their straggling

march by the townspeople, were surrounded and cut off.

A like carnage was made of the Tuscans in the Veientian territory;

who were so far from compassionating the city which had now been its

neighbour for nearly four hundred years, overpowered as it now was by a

strange and unheard-of enemy, that at that very time they made incursions

on the Roman territory; and laden with plunder, had it in contemplation

to lay siege to Veii, the bulwark and last hope of the Roman race.

The Roman soldiers had seen them straggling over the country, and

collected in a body, driving the spoil before them, and they perceived

their camp pitched at no great distance from Veii. Upon this, first

self-commiseration, then indignation, and after that resentment, took

possession of their minds: “Were their calamities to be a subject of

mockery to the Etrurians, from whom they had turned off the Gallic war on

themselves?” Scarce could they curb their passions, so as to refrain from

attacking them at the moment; and being restrained by Quintus Cædicius,

the centurion, whom they had appointed their commander, they deferred the

matter until night. A leader equal to Camillus was all that was wanted;

in other respects matters were conducted in the same order and with the

same fortunate result. And further, under the guidance of some prisoners,

who had survived the nightly slaughter, they set out to Salinæ against

another body of Tuscans; they suddenly made on the following night still

greater havoc, and returned to Veii exulting in their double victory.

Meanwhile, at Rome, the siege, in general, was slow, and there was quiet

on both sides, the Gauls being intent only on this, that none of the

enemy should escape from between their posts; when, on a sudden, a Roman

youth drew on himself the admiration both of his countrymen and the

enemy. There was a sacrifice solemnised at stated times by the Fabian

family on the Quirinal Hill. To perform this Caius Fabius Dorso having

descended from the Capitol, in the Gabine cincture, carrying in his hands

the sacred utensils, passed out through the midst of the enemy’s post,

without being at all moved by the calls or threats of any of them, and

reached the Quirinal Hill; and after duly performing there the solemn

rites, coming back by the same way with the same firm countenance and

gait, confident that the gods were propitious, whose worship he had not

even neglected when prohibited by the fear of death, he returned to

the Capitol to his friends, the Gauls being either astounded at such

an extraordinary manifestation of boldness, or moved even by religious

considerations, of which the nation is by no means regardless.

In the meantime, not only the courage, but the strength of those at Veii

increased daily, not only those Romans repairing thither from the country

who had strayed away after the unsuccessful battle, or the disaster of

the city being taken, but volunteers also flowing in from Latium, to come

in for share of the spoil. It now seemed high time that their country

should be recovered and rescued from the hands of the enemy. But a

head was wanting to this strong body. The very spot put them in mind of

Camillus, and a considerable part consisted of soldiers who had fought

successfully under his guidance and auspices, and Cædicius declared that

he would not give occasion that any one, whether god or man, should

terminate his command rather than that, mindful of his own rank, he would

himself call (for the appointment of) a general. With universal consent

it was resolved that Camillus should be sent for from Ardea, but not

until the senate at Rome were first consulted; so far did a sense of

propriety regulate every proceeding, and so carefully did they observe

the distinctions of things in their almost desperate circumstances. They

had to pass at great risk through the enemy’s guards. For this purpose a

spirited youth, Pontius Cominius, offered his services, and supporting

himself on cork was carried down the Tiber to the city. From thence,

where the distance from the bank was shortest, he makes his way into

the Capitol over a portion of the rock that was craggy, and therefore

neglected by the enemy’s guard: and being conducted to the magistrates,

he delivers the instructions received from the army. Then having received

a decree of the senate, both that Camillus should be recalled from exile

at the comitia curiata, and be forthwith appointed dictator by order

of the people, and that the soldiers should have the general whom they

wished, he passed out the same way and proceeded with his despatches

to Veii; and deputies being sent to Camillus to Ardea, conducted him

to Veii: or else the law was passed by the curiæ, and he was nominated

dictator in his absence; for I am more inclined to believe that he did

not set out from Ardea until he found that the law was passed; because he

could neither change his residence without an order of the people, nor

hold the privilege of the auspices in the army until he was nominated

dictator.

Whilst these things were going on at Veii, in the meanwhile the citadel

and Capitol of Rome were in great danger. For the Gauls either having

perceived the track of a human foot where the messenger from Veii had

passed, or having of themselves remarked the easy ascent by the rock at

the temple of Carmentis, on a moonlight night, after they had at first

sent forward an unarmed person, to make trial of the way, delivering

their arms, whenever any difficulty occurred, alternately supported and

supporting each other, and drawing each other up, according as the ground

required, they reached the summit in such silence that they not only

escaped the notice of the sentinels, but of the dogs also, an animal

extremely wakeful with respect to noises by night.

[Illustration: A ROMAN SOLDIER]

The notice of the geese they did not escape, which, as being sacred to

Juno, were spared though they were in the greatest scarcity of food.

Which circumstance was the cause of their preservation. For Marcus

Manlius, who three years before had been consul, a man distinguished

in war, being aroused from sleep by their cackling and the clapping of

their wings, snatched up his arms, and at the same time calling the

others to do the same, proceeded to the spot; and whilst the others were

thrown into confusion, he struck with the boss of his shield and tumbled

down a Gaul, who had already got footing on the summit; and when the

fall of this man as he tumbled threw down those who were next him, he

slew others, who in their consternation had thrown away their arms, and

caught hold of the rocks to which they clung. And now the others also

having assembled, beat down the enemy by javelins and stones, and the

entire band, having lost their footing, were hurled down the precipice in

promiscuous ruin. The alarm then subsiding, the remainder of the night

was given up to repose (as far as could be done considering the disturbed

state of their minds), when the danger, even though past, still kept them

in a state of anxiety.

Day having appeared, the soldiers were summoned by sound of trumpet to

attend the tribunes in assembly, when recompense was to be made both to

merit and to demerit; Manlius was first of all commended for his bravery

and presented with gifts, not only by the military tribunes, but with the

consent of the soldiers, for they all carried to his house, which was in

the citadel, a contribution of half a pound of corn and half a pint of

wine: a matter trifling in the relation, but the prevailing scarcity had

rendered it a strong proof of esteem, when each man, depriving himself

of his own food, contributed in honour of one man a portion subtracted

from his body and from his necessary requirements. Then the guards of

that place where the enemy had climbed up unobserved, were summoned; and

when Quintus Sulpicius declared openly that he would punish all according

to the usage of military discipline, being deterred by the consentient

shout of the soldiers who threw the blame on one sentinel, he spared the

rest. The man, who was manifestly guilty of the crime, he threw down from

the rock, with the approbation of all. From this time forth the guards

on both sides became more vigilant; on the part of the Gauls, because a

rumour spread that messengers passed between Veii and Rome, and on that

of the Romans, from the recollection of the danger which occurred during

the night.

But beyond all the evils of siege and war, famine distressed both armies;

pestilence, moreover, oppressed the Gauls, both as being encamped in

a place lying between hills, as well as heated by the burning of the

houses, and full of exhalations, and sending up not only ashes but

embers also, whenever the wind rose to any degree; and as the nation,

accustomed to moisture and cold, is most intolerant of these annoyances,

and, suffering severely from the heat and suffocation, they were dying,

the diseases spreading as among cattle, now becoming weary of burying

separately, they heaped up the bodies promiscuously and burned them; and

rendered the place remarkable by the name of Gallic piles.

A truce was now made with the Romans, and conferences were held with the

permission of the commanders; in which when the Gauls frequently alluded

to the famine, and referred to the urgency of that as a further motive

for their surrendering, for the purpose of removing that opinion, bread

is said to have been thrown in many places from the Capitol, into the

advanced posts of the enemy. But the famine could neither be dissembled

nor endured any longer. Accordingly, whilst the dictator is engaged in

person in holding a levy, in ordering his master of the horse, Lucius

Valerius, to bring up the troops from Veii, in making preparations and

arrangements, so that he may attack the enemy on equal terms, in the

meantime the army of the Capitol, wearied out with keeping guard and with

watches, having surmounted all human sufferings, whilst nature would not

suffer famine alone to be overcome, looking forward from day to day,

to see whether any succour would come from the dictator, at length not

only food but hope also failing, and their arms weighing down their

debilitated bodies, whilst the guards were being relieved, insisted that

there should be either a surrender, or that they should be bought off, on

whatever terms were possible, the Gauls intimating in rather plain terms,

that they could be induced for no very great compensation to relinquish

the siege. Then the senate was held and instructions were given to the

military tribunes to capitulate.

Upon this the matter was settled between Quintus Sulpicius, a military

tribune, and Brennus, the chieftain of the Gauls, and one thousand pounds

weight of gold was agreed on as the ransom of a people, who were soon

after to be the rulers of the world. To a transaction very humiliating in

itself, insult was added. False weights were brought by the Gauls, and on

the tribune objecting, his sword was thrown in in addition to the weight

by the insolent Gaul, and an expression was heard intolerable to the

Romans, “Woe to the vanquished!”

[Illustration: THE ROMANS’ TREATY WITH THE GAULS

(After Mirys)]

But both gods and men interfered to prevent the Romans from living on the

condition of being ransomed; for by some chance, before the execrable

price was completed, all the gold being not yet weighed in consequence

of the altercation, the dictator comes up, and orders the gold to be

removed, and the Gauls to clear away. When they, holding out against

him, affirmed that they had concluded a bargain, he denied that the

agreement was a valid one, which had been entered into with a magistrate

of inferior authority without his orders, after he had been nominated

dictator; and he gives notice to the Gauls to get ready for battle. He

orders his men to throw their baggage in a heap, and to get ready their

arms, and to recover their country with steel, not with gold, having

before their eyes the temples of the gods, and their wives and children,

and the soil of their country disfigured by the calamities of war, and

all those objects which they were solemnly bound to defend, to recover,

and to revenge. He then draws up his army, as the nature of the place

admitted, on the site of the half-demolished city, and which was uneven

by nature, and he secured all those advantages for his own men, which

could be prepared or selected by military skill.

The Gauls, thrown into confusion by the unexpected event, take up arms,

and with rage, rather than good judgment, rushed upon the Romans. Fortune

had now changed; now the aid of the gods and human prudence assisted the

Roman cause. At the first encounter, therefore, the Gauls were routed

with no greater difficulty than they had found in gaining the victory

at Allia. They were afterwards beaten under the conduct and auspices of

the same Camillus, in a more regular engagement, at the eighth stone on

the Gabine road, whither they had betaken themselves after their defeat.

There the slaughter was universal: their camp was taken, and not even one

person was left to carry news of the defeat.

The dictator, after having recovered his country from the enemy, returns

into the city in triumph; and among the rough military jests which they

throw out on such occasions he is styled, with praises by no means

undeserved, Romulus, and parent of his country, and a second founder of

the city. His country, thus preserved by arms, he unquestionably saved

a second time in peace, when he hindered the people from removing to

Veii, both the tribunes pressing the matter with greater earnestness

after the burning of the city, and the commons of themselves being more

inclined to that measure; and that was the cause of his not resigning his

dictatorship after the triumph, the senate entreating him not to leave

the commonwealth in so unsettled a state.[c]

OTHER ACCOUNTS OF THE DEPARTURE OF THE GAULS

[Sidenote: [390-349 B.C.]]

Such was the conclusion of the legend. But, unfortunately for Roman

pride, here also, as in the tale of Porsenna, traces of true history

are preserved which show how little the Roman annalists regarded truth.

Polybius tells us, as if he knew no other story, that the departure of

the Gauls was caused by the intelligence that the Venetians, an Illyrian

tribe, had invaded their settlements in northern Italy, and that they

actually received the gold and marched off unmolested to their homes.

It is added by a later historian, that Drusus, the elder brother of the

emperor Tiberius, recovered this very gold from the Gauls of his own day.

The Gauls left the city in ruins, in whatever way they were compelled to

retire, whether by the sword of Camillus, or by the softer persuasion

of gold. Two later inroads of the Gauls are distinguished by two famous

legends: the last, or nearly the last, which occur in the pages of Roman

history.

In the Manlian house there was a family which bore the name of Torquatus.

This name was said to have been won by T. Manlius, who fought with a

gigantic Gallic champion on the bridge over the Anio in 361 B.C., and

slew him. From the neck of the slain enemy he took the massy chain

(_torques_) which the Gallic chiefs were in the habit of wearing. He put

it round his own neck, and returning in triumph to his friends, was ever

after known by the name of T. Manlius Torquatus. Of him we shall hear

more.

Again, when L. Camillus, a nephew of the great Camillus, was pursuing the

Gauls through the Volscian plains in 349 B.C., a champion challenged

any one of the Roman youth to single combat. The challenge was readily

accepted by M. Valerius, who, by the side of the huge Gaul, looked like

a mere stripling. At the beginning of the combat (wonderful to tell) a

crow lighted upon his helmet; and as they fought, the bird confounded the

Gaul by flying in his face and striking him with his beak, and flapping

its wings before his eyes; so that he fell an easy conquest to the young

Roman. Hence M. Valerius was ever after known by the name of Corvus, and

his descendants after him. Him also we shall hear of hereafter; for he

lived to be a great general, and more than once delivered his country

from great danger.[b]

Thus runs the legend of the first great event in Roman history--an event

so important that the echo reached even to Greece. “The capture of Rome

by the Gauls,” says George Cornewall Lewis,[f] “is the first event in

Roman history which, so far as we know, attracted the notice of the

contemporary Greeks. Plutarch says that Heraclides of Pontus spoke of a

report from the far West, which described an Hellenic city called Rome,

situated somewhere near the great sea, as having been taken by an army

from the distant land of the Hyperboræans.”

Ihne[g] is very incredulous of most of the legends, even suggesting that

the legend of the geese had an ætiological origin and was merely invented

to explain a religious ceremony in which a dog was impaled and a goose

decorated with gold, instead of being actually the origin of that annual

ceremony. Lewis, however, finds the older story amply substantiated.[34]

Among the chief sceptics are Mommsen,[h] Schwegler,[i] and Pais[j] the

most radical of all. Niebuhr’s[e] story of the whole event is worth

quoting, beginning with his comments on the story that Aruns of Clusium

brought in the Gauls.[a]

NIEBUHR ON THE CONDUCT OF THE ROMANS

Though history rejects the incident as demonstrably false, it is well

suited to the legend; and every legend which was current among the

people long before the rise of literature among them, is itself a living

memorial of ancient times,--even though its contents may not be so,--and

deserves a place in a history of Rome written with a due love for the

subject.

The determination to sacrifice the old men certainly cannot be called

inconceivable in a people of antiquity. This however is inconceivable,

that they should have been so far influenced by the example of the

patricians, as to await their doom like devoted victims. Could they be

sure that a wished-for death would speedily release them? that wanton

cruelty would not protract it by torture? that they should not be driven

along as slaves, without regard to their strength, at the mere caprice of

the barbarians? They might have defended the walls and the gates, might

have maintained a resistance with all sorts of missiles in the interior

of the city, might have made many of their enemies share their fate; had

the quarters that held out been set fire to, the victor would have been

deprived of his spoil. But in fact Livy is the only writer who speaks

of this torpid resignation. Others related that, while all the rest of

the people quitted their homes, eighty priests and aged patricians of

the highest rank sat down in the Forum on their curule thrones in festal

robes awaiting death. That such a resolution should have been freely

taken by men of the same class, who deemed it intolerable to outlive

the republic and the worship of the gods, is by no means improbable;

least of all if, after resolving to face death, they solemnly devoted

themselves by the hands of the chief pontiff for the republic and for the

destruction of her foes. On the other hand it is utterly inconceivable

that the chief part of the women and children should not have retired

from the city, where every kind of insult and outrage inevitably awaited

them, when it was yet possible for them to be saved by flight. It is

said that a great number pressed forward at the last moment and gained

admittance into the Capitol and the citadel; as if, had this been

feasible, they would not all have forced their way in; as if that small

place could have held more than the men requisite to defend it, with

provisions for them. Finally, the story that the Romans in their despair

did not close the gates of the city, and that nothing but the fear of

some stratagem withheld the conquerors from marching in, sounds very

incredible. On this point, however, we do not want any internal reasons;

since the authentic account in Diodorus states that the Gauls, on finding

the walls entirely deserted, burst open the gates.

It would be extremely unjust to impute what has here been said about

Livy’s narrative to a design of detracting from his merits. Such

criticisms cannot impair his imperishable fame. As soon as we cease

to call for what it was Livy’s least care to supply, nothing remains

to disturb the pleasure which his description must yield to every

unprejudiced mind. If there be one so distempered as to forego that

pleasure, because his account has been proved to be historically

untenable, we may pity, but we must not indulge its perverseness.

A writer who adopts a dry and neglected report in preference to a

well-known and masterly narrative, must justify himself, and show that

it is not from the love of paradox, that he has discarded the more

beautiful story. [Niebuhr reminds his readers of his previously expressed

admiration for Livy with renewed assurances of his entire sincerity. He

then concludes thus eloquently]: And in his own peculiar excellencies,

in that richness and that warmth of colouring which many centuries after

were the characteristics of the Venetian painters born under the same

sky, Livy never shone more brilliantly than in this very description; a

more vivid one is not to be found in any Latin or Greek historian.[e]

SEQUEL OF THE GALLIC WAR

[Sidenote: [390-384 B.C.]]

We can imagine better than describe the blank dismay with which the

Romans, on the departure of the Gauls, must have looked upon their

ancient homes. Not only was the country ravaged, as had often happened

in days of yore, but the city itself, except the Capitol, was a heap

of ruins. It is not strange that once again the plebeians should

have thought of quitting Rome forever. Not long before they had

wished to migrate to Veii; now, they had actually been living there

for many months. Rome no longer existed; patriotism, they said, no

longer required them to stand by their ancient home; why should not

all depart--patricians with their clients and freedmen, as well as

plebeians--and make a new Rome at Veii? In vain Camillus opposed these

arguments with all the influence which his late services had given him.

Standing in the Forum, under shadow of the Capitol, with the citadel

defended by Manlius over their heads, in the sight of their country’s

gods, now brought back from Cære, the plebeians were ready to agree

to a general migration of the whole people, when (so runs the story)

a sudden omen changed their hearts. A certain centurion was leading

a party of soldiers through the city, and, halting them in the Forum

while the question was in hot debate, he used these memorable words:

“Standard-bearer, pitch the standard here; here it will be best for us to

stay!”

It was therefore resolved to rebuild the city, and the senate did all

in their power to hasten on the work. They took care to retrace, as far

as might be, the ancient sites of the temples; but it was impossible

to prescribe any rules for marking out the streets and fixing the

habitations of the citizens. All they did was to supply tiling for the

houses at the public expense. So men built their houses where they could,

where the ground was most clear of rubbish, or where old materials were

most easy to be got. Hence, when these houses came to be joined together

by others, so as to form streets, these streets were narrow and crooked,

and, what was still worse, were often built across the lines of the

ancient sewers, so that there was now no good and effectual drainage. The

irregularity continued till Rome was again rebuilt after the great fire

in the time of the emperor Nero.

Great were the evils that were caused by this hurry. The healthiness of

the city must have been impaired, order and decency must have suffered,

but there was one particular evil at the moment which threatened very

great mischief. The mass of the people, having little or nothing of their

own, or having lost all in the late destruction, were obliged to borrow

money in order to complete their dwellings: and as tillage had for the

last season been nearly suspended, the want and misery that prevailed

were great. Now again, as after the wars against the Tarquins, many of

the poorer sort were reduced to bondage in the houses of the wealthy.

Then it was that M. Manlius, the defender of the Capitol, stood forth as

the patron of the poor. He saw a debtor being taken to prison, whom he

recognised as a brave centurion that had formerly served with him in the

wars. He instantly paid the man’s debt, and set him free. Then, selling

the best part of his landed property, he declared that, while he could

prevent it, he would never see a fellow-citizen imprisoned for debt. His

popularity rose high, and with the poorer sort the name of M. Manlius

was more in esteem than that of the great Camillus. Nor did he content

himself with relieving want; he also stepped forward as an accuser of

the patricians and senators: they had divided among themselves, he said,

part of the gold which had been raised to pay the Gauls. On the other

hand, the patricians asserted that Manlius was endeavouring to make

himself tyrant of Rome, and that this was the real purpose of all his

generosity. The senate ordered a dictator to be named, and A. Cornelius

Cossus was chosen. He summoned Manlius before him, and required him to

prove the charge which he had maliciously brought against the ruling

body. He failed to do so and was cast into prison, but claimed to be

regularly tried before the whole people assembled in their centuries;

and his claim was allowed. On the appointed day he appeared in the

Campus Martius, surrounded by a crowd of debtors, every one of whom he

had redeemed from bondage. Then he exhibited spoils taken from thirty

enemies slain by himself in single combat; eight civic crowns, bestowed

each of them for the life of a citizen saved in battle, with many other

badges given him in token of bravery. He laid bare his breast and showed

it all scarred with wounds, and then, turning to the Capitol, he called

those gods to aid whom he had saved from the sacrilegious hands of the

barbarians. The appeal was felt, and if the centuries had then given

their votes, he would certainly have been acquitted of high treason. So

his enemies contrived to break up that assembly; and shortly after he

was put on his trial in another place, the Peteline grove, whence (it is

said) the Capitol could not be seen. Here he was at once found guilty,

and condemned to be thrown down the Tarpeian rock. A bill was then

brought in and passed, enacting that his house on the Capitol should be

destroyed, and that no one of his gens should hereafter bear the forename

of Marcus.[35]

[Sidenote: [384-376 B.C.]]

But something was done to relieve the poor. The lands which had been

taken from the Veientines on the right bank of the Tiber were now

incorporated into the Roman territory and divided into four tribes, so

that all free men settled in these districts became burgesses of Rome,

and had votes in the comitia both of the centuries and tribes. This

politic measure, however, served no less to conciliate the affections

of their new Etrurian subjects than to benefit their own poor citizens.

Moreover an attempt was made to plant a number of poor citizens in the

Pontine district. Yet these measures were insufficient to heal the breach

which still subsisted between the patricians and plebeians. Nothing could

be effectual to this end but the admission of the plebeians to the chief

magistracy; and a struggle now commenced for that purpose.

[Illustration: A ROMAN ARTISAN]

It has been said that all difference between the patrician and plebeian

orders was rapidly disappearing, or rather that the patrician families

were gradually becoming fewer, while many plebeian families were rising

to wealth and power. Already we have seen the plebeians obtain a footing

in the senate; they were allowed to fill the offices of quæstor and

ædile, and, as military tribunes, could command the armies of the state;

but to the highest curule offices, as the censorship and consulship,

they were not admissible, the reason given being, that for these offices

the auguries must be taken and no religious rites could be performed

save by persons of pure patrician blood. This now began to be felt to

be a mockery. Men saw with their own eyes and judged with their own

understanding that patricians and plebeians were men of like natures,

were called on alike to share burdens and danger in the service of the

state, and therefore ought to share alike the honours and dignities which

she conferred. So Canuleius argued many years before, so the plebeians

thought now; and two resolute tribunes arose, who at length carried the

celebrated laws by which plebeians were admitted to the highest honours.

These were C. Licinius Stolo and L. Sextius, his kinsman.

There is a well-known story of the manner in which they were first roused

to the undertaking. It runs thus: M. Fabius Ambustus, a patrician, had

two daughters, the elder married to Ser. Sulpicius, a patrician, the

younger to C. Licinius, a plebeian. It happened that Sulpicius was

consular tribune in the same year that Licinius was tribune of the

plebs; and as the younger Fabia was on a visit to her sister, Sulpicius,

returning home from the Forum with his lictors, alarmed the plebeian’s

wife by the noise he made in entering the house. The elder sister laughed

at this ignorance; and the younger Fabia, stung to the quick, besought

her husband to place her on a level with her proud sister. But the story

must be an invention--because Licinius’ wife could not have been ignorant

of the dignities of the office; and because there was nothing to prevent

Licinius himself from being consular tribune, and thus equal to his

brother-in-law.[36]

THE LICINIAN ROGATIONS

[Sidenote: [376 B.C.]]

However this might be, Licinius and Sextius, being tribunes of the plebs

together in the year 376 B.C., promulgated the three bills which have

ever since borne the name of the Licinian Rogations. These were:

I. That of all debts on which interest had been paid, the sum of the

interest paid should be deducted from the principal, and the remainder

paid off in three successive years.

II. That no citizen should hold more than five hundred jugera (nearly 320

acres) of the public land, nor should feed on the public pastures more

than one hundred head of larger cattle and five hundred of smaller, under

penalty of a heavy fine.

III. That henceforth consuls, not consular tribunes, should always be

elected, and that one of the two consuls must be a plebeian.

Of these laws, the first is of a kind not very uncommon in rude states

of society. If persons lend and borrow money they enter into a legal

contract, and the state is bound to maintain this contract. Cases will

occur when the borrower is unable to pay his debts, and that from no

fault or neglect of his own; and the laws provide for cases of insolvency

in which the insolvent is not guilty of fraud. But if the state were

to cancel all legal debts, persons would be very slow to lend money at

all, and thus credit and commerce would be destroyed. At Rome, after the

Gallic War, as at Athens in the time of Solon (when a similar ordinance

was passed), all things were in such confusion that it might be necessary

to resort to arbitrary measures; and we may well believe that Licinius,

himself a wealthy man, would not have interfered but for necessity. But

the precedent was bad; and in later times one of the worst means used by

demagogues was a promise of _novæ tabulæ_, or an abolition of all debts.

The second law was a general agrarian law. Former agrarian laws had

merely divided certain portions of public land among the needy citizens;

but this laid down a general rule, by which the holding (_possessio_)

of all such lands was to be limited. The purpose of Licinius was good.

He wished to maintain that hardy race of yeomen who were the best

soldiers in the state-militia; whereas if all these lands were absorbed

by the rich, they would be cultivated by hired labourers or slaves. The

subsequent history will show how unfortunate it was for Rome that this

law was not more fully executed.

[Sidenote: [376-368 B.C.]]

At first the patricians were equally opposed to all these laws; they were

the chief creditors, and therefore would lose by the first law; they held

the bulk of the public lands on easy terms, and therefore would lose by

the second; they alone could be consuls, and therefore they could not

brook the third. We need not therefore wonder at a violent resistance;

nor is it wonderful that they should enlist many rich plebeians on their

side, for these persons would suffer as much as themselves from the first

two laws. Accordingly we find that some tribunes were found to put a

veto on the bills. But Licinius and Sextius would not be thus thwarted,

and themselves turned the powerful engine of the veto against their

opponents. When the time of the elections arrived they interdicted all

proceedings in the comitia of the centuries; consequently no consuls,

consular tribunes, censors, or quæstors could be elected. The tribunes

and ædiles, who were chosen at the comitia of tribes, were the only

officers of state for the ensuing year.

This state of things (as the Roman annalists say) lasted for five

years,[37] Licinius and Sextius being re-elected to the tribunate every

year. But in the fifth year, when the people of Tusculum, old allies

of Rome, applied for aid against the Latins, the tribunes permitted

consular tribunes to be elected to lead the army, and among them was M.

Fabius Ambustus, the father-in-law and friend of Licinius. The latter,

far from relaxing his claims, now proposed a fourth bill, providing

that, instead of two keepers of the Sibylline books (_duumviri_), both

patricians, there should be ten (_decemviri_), to be chosen alike from

both orders--so scornfully did he treat the pretensions of the patricians

to be sole ministers of religion.

The latter felt that the ground was slipping from under them, and that

the popular cause was daily gaining strength. In vain did the senate

order a dictator to be named for the purpose of settling the matter in

their favour. The great Camillus assumed the office for the fourth time,

but resigned; and P. Manlius Capitolinus, who was named presently after,

effected nothing.

Once more, as when the patricians were in opposition to the tribunes,

Terentilius and Canuleius, so now did the more moderate party propose

a compromise. The law respecting the keepers of the Sibylline books

was allowed to pass, and it was suggested that the two former of the

Licinian rogations, the two social laws, might be conceded, if the

plebeians would not press the political law, and claim admission to the

highest curule rank. But this the tribunes refused. They could not, they

said, effectually remedy the social evils of their poor brethren unless

they had access to the highest political power; and they declared they

would not allow the first two bills to become law unless the third was

passed together with them. “If the people will not eat,” said Licinius,

“neither shall they drink.” In vain the patricians endeavoured to turn

this declaration against them; in vain they represented the tribunes

as ambitious men who cared not really for the wants of the poor in

comparison of their own honour and dignity; in vain the mass of the

plebeians avowed themselves ready to accept the compromise. The tribunes

set their faces like iron against the threats of the higher sort and the

supplications of the lower. For another five years the grim conflict

lasted, till at length their resolution prevailed, and in the year 367

B.C. all the three Licinian rogations became law.

This great triumph was achieved with little tumult (so far as we hear)

and no bloodshed. Who can refuse his admiration to a people which

could carry through their most violent changes with such calmness and

moderation?

But the patricians, worsted as they were, had not yet shot away all

their arrows. At the first election after these laws were passed, L.

Sextius was chosen the first plebeian consul. Now the consuls, though

elected at the comitia of the centuries, were invested with the imperium

or sovereign power by a law of the curies. This law the patricians, who

alone composed the curies, refused to grant; and to support this refusal

the senate had ordered Camillus, who was now some eighty years old, to

be named dictator for the fifth time. The old soldier, always ready to

fight at an advantage, perceived that nothing now was practicable but an

honourable capitulation. The tribunes advised the people to submit to the

dictator, but declared that they would indict him at the close of his

office; and he, taking a calm view of the state of things, resolved to

act as mediator.

EQUALISATION OF THE TWO ORDERS

[Sidenote: [368-367 B.C.]]

The matter was finally adjusted by a further compromise. The plebeian

consul was invested with the imperium; but the judicial power was now

taken from the consuls and put into the hands of a supreme patrician

judge, called the Prætor of the City (_Prætor Urbanus_), and Sp.

Camillus, son of the dictator, was the first prætor. A hundred men

(_centumviri_) were named, to whom he might delegate all difficult cases

not of a criminal nature. At the same time also another magistracy, the

curule ædileship, was created, to be filled by patricians and plebeians

in alternate years. These curule ædiles shared the duties of the plebeian

ædiles, and besides this, had to superintend the great games, for which

they were allowed a certain sum from the treasury. At the same time a

fourth day was added to these games in honour of the plebeians.

Thus the patricians lost one of the consulships, but retained part of

the consular functions under other titles. And when Camillus had thus

effected peace between the orders, he vowed a temple to Concord; but

before he could dedicate it, the old hero died. The temple, however, was

built according to his design; its site, now one of the best known among

those of ancient Rome, can still be traced with great certainty at the

northwestern angle of the Forum, immediately under the Capitoline. The

building was restored with great magnificence by the emperor Tiberius;

and it deserved to be so, for it commemorated one of the greatest events

of Roman history,--the final union of the two orders, from which point

we must date that splendid period on which we now enter. By this event

was a single city enabled to conquer, first of all Italy, and then all

the civilised countries of the known world, that is, all the peoples

bordering on the Mediterranean Sea.

Various causes were for some time interposed to prevent the due execution

of the Licinian laws. Indeed the first two of these measures, which

aimed at social improvements, may be said to have failed. Social abuses

are always difficult to correct. The evils are, in these cases, of slow

growth; their roots strike deep; they can only be abated by altering

the habits and feelings of the people, which cannot be effected in the

existing generation; they will not give way at once to the will of a

law-giver, however good his judgment, however pure his motives, however

just his objects. But the common difficulty of removing social evils was

increased in Rome at this time by circumstances.

[Sidenote: [367-343 B.C.]]

For two years a pestilence raged in the city, which swept away great

numbers of citizens and paralysed the industry of all. The most

illustrious of its victims was Camillus, who died even more gloriously

than he had lived, while discharging the office of peacemaker. About the

same time the region of the city was shaken by earthquakes; the Tiber

overflowed its bed and flooded the Great Circus, so that the games then

going on were broken off. Not long after a vast gulf opened in the Forum,

as if to say that the meeting-place of the Roman people was to be used no

more. The seers said that the gods forbade this gulf to close till that

which Rome held most valuable were thrown into it. Then, when men were

asking what this might be, a noble youth, named M. Curtius, said aloud

that Rome’s true riches were brave men, that nothing else so worthy could

be devoted to the gods. Thus saying, he put on his armour, and mounting

his horse, leaped into the gulf; and straightway, says the legend, the

earth closed and became solid as before; and the place was called the

Lacus Curtius forever after.

To these direct visitations of God, the pestilence and the earthquake,

was added a still more terrible scourge in the continued inroads of the

Gauls. It has been noticed above that in the years 361 and 350 B.C.

hordes of these barbarians again burst into Latium and again ravaged the

Roman territory.

These combined causes increased the distress of the poor, and we read

without surprise that in the year 357 B.C., ten years after the passing

of the Licinian laws, a bill was brought forward by Duilius and Mænius,

tribunes of the plebs, to restore the rate of interest fixed by the

Twelve Tables, which in the late troubles had fallen into neglect; and

five years later (in 352) the consuls brought forward a measure to

assist the operation of the Licinian law of debt. They appointed five

commissioners (_quinqueviri_), with power to make estimates of all debts

and of the property of the debtors. This done, the commissioners advanced

money to discharge the debt, as far as it was covered by the property of

the debtor. The measure was wise and useful, but could only be partial in

its effects. It could not help those debtors who had no property, or not

enough property to pay their debts withal. Hence we find that in another

five years (347 B.C.) the rate of interest was reduced to 5 per cent.;

and some years afterwards it was tried to abolish interest altogether.

But, laws to limit interest proved then, as they have proved ever since,

ineffectual to restrain the practices of grasping and dishonest usurers.

There were, then, great difficulties in the way of a law for relieving

debtors. These were increased, as has been seen, by circumstances, and we

must now add the selfishness and dishonesty of the rich patricians and

plebeians, who held the bulk of the public land in their own hands, and

contrived to evade the Licinian law in the following way. If a man held

more than five hundred jugera, he emancipated his son and made over a

portion of the land nominally to him, or, if he had no son, to some other

trusty person. With sorrow we hear of these practices, and with still

greater sorrow we learn that in the year 354 B.C. C. Licinius himself was

indicted by the curule ædile, M. Popilius Lænas, for fraudulently making

over five hundred jugera to his son, while he held another five hundred

in his own name. Thus this remedy for pauperism was set aside and

neglected, till the Gracchi arose, and vainly endeavoured, after more

than two centuries of abuse, to correct that which at first might have

been prevented.

The law for equalising political power was more effective. For eleven

years after the Licinian law one consul was always a plebeian. Then the

patricians made one last struggle to recover their exclusive privilege;

and in the year 355 B.C. we have a Sulpicius and a Valerius as consuls,

both of them patricians; and in the course of the next dozen years we

find the law violated in like manner no less than seven times. After

that it is regularly observed, one consul being patrician and the other

plebeian, till at length in the year 172 B.C., when the patrician

families had greatly decreased, both consulships were opened to the

plebeians, and from that time forth the offices were held by men of

either order without distinction.

These violations of the law above mentioned were effected by the power

by which the senate ordered the patrician consul to name a dictator. At

least in the space twenty-five years after the Licinian laws we have no

fewer than fifteen dictators. Now several of these were appointed for

sudden emergencies of war, such as the Gallic invasions of 361 and 350.

But often we find dictators when there is no mention of foreign war. In

the year 360 we find that both the consuls enjoyed a triumph, and not

the dictator. These and other reasons have led to the belief that these

dictators were appointed to hold the consular comitia, and brought the

overbearing weight of their political power to secure the election of two

patrician consuls.

[Illustration: ETRUSCAN WOMAN OF QUALITY]

But if this were the plan of the patricians, it availed not. After the

year 343 B.C. the law was regularly observed, by which one consul was

necessarily a plebeian. The plebeians also forced their way to other

offices. C. Marcius Rutilus, the most distinguished plebeian of his time,

who was four times elected consul, was named dictator in the year 356

B.C., no doubt, by the plebeian consul Popilius Lænas; and five years

later (351) we find the same Marcius elected to the censorship.

Practically, therefore, the political reform of Licinius and Sextius

had been effectual so far as the admission of plebeians to the highest

offices of state was concerned. It must be remarked, however, that these

privileges, though no longer engrossed by patricians, seem to have been

open only to a few wealthy plebeian families. C. Marcius Rutilus, as

we have just remarked, held the consulship four times in sixteen years

(357-342). M. Popilius Lænas and C. Pœtelius Libo enjoyed a similar

monopoly of honours.

As the exclusive privileges of the patricians thus gradually and quietly

gave way, instead of being maintained (as in modern France) till swept

away by the violent tide of revolution, so did the power of the senate

rise. It was by the wisdom or policy of this famous assembly that the

city of Rome became mistress of Italy and of the world. Hitherto the

contest has been internal, of citizen against citizen, in order to gain

an equality of rights. Henceforth, for two hundred years, we shall have

to relate contests with foreign peoples, and to give an account of the

conquest of Italy, for which the Roman senate and people, now at length

politically united, were prepared.

EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

[Sidenote: [390-342 B.C.]]

Abroad, after the burning of the city, Rome had once more to struggle for

very existence. Before the city was so far restored as to be habitable,

it was announced that the Æquians and Volscians were in arms. The

Æquians seem to have shared in the general disaster caused by the Gallic

inroad; henceforth at least the part they play is insignificant. But the

Volscians boldly advanced to Lanuvium, and once more encamped at the foot

of the Alban hills. The city was in great alarm; and Camillus was named

dictator for the exigency. He defeated them with great loss, and pursued

them into their own territory. He then marched rapidly to Bola, to which

place the Æquians had advanced and gained another victory.

But in the moment of triumph news came that Etruria was in arms. The

Etruscans hoped by a brave effort to recover the territory which the

Romans had for the second time appropriated. A force was sent against

them; but so completely was it routed on the nones of July, that this

day was noted in the Calendar as the Poplifugia. Siege was then laid

to Sutrium by the victors, and it fell. But the prompt dictator, on

the first alarm, marched his troops straight from Bola to the point of

danger; and on the very day on which Sutrium had yielded to the foe, it

was again taken by the Roman general. Thus Camillus again appears as the

saviour of Rome. He enjoyed a threefold triumph over the Volscians, the

Æquians, and the Etrurians.

It was two years after, that the Etruscan territory, now effectually

conquered, was formed into four tribes. By the addition of these new

tribes, the first that had been added since this very territory had

been wrested from Rome by Porsenna, the whole number was raised to

twenty-five. The late assault of the Etruscans, perhaps, suggested

the wisdom of making the free inhabitants of this district citizens

of Rome. Men who had lately been subject to the oppressive government

of a civic oligarchy, being now mingled with Roman plebeians who had

received allotments in the district, and seeing the comparative freedom

of all Roman burgesses, were sure to fight for Rome rather than join in

an insurrection against her. Here was the beginning of that sagacious

policy, which for a time led political enfranchisement hand in hand with

conquest. Thirty years later (358 B.C.) the senate pursued the same

course with respect to the Pontine district and other lowlands which

had been recovered from the grasp of the Volscians. A settlement of

poor plebeians, which was attempted in 387 B.C., failed; the emigrants

were cut off by the Volscian hills-men. But the territory being now

formed into two tribes, so as to make the whole number twenty-seven, the

inhabitants had an interest in repressing predatory inroads.

[Sidenote: [387-354 B.C.]]

Soon after followed the struggle for the Licinian laws; and during this

period the annals are altogether silent on the subject of wars.

But before the promulgation of the Licinian laws, there were threatenings

of greater danger than was to be feared either from Etruscans or

Volscians. The Latins and Hernicans, who since the time of Sp. Cassius

had fought by the side of Rome in all her border wars, no longer appeared

in this position. The inroad of the Gauls had broken up the league.

Rome had been reduced to ashes, and was left in miserable weakness.

Many of the thirty Latin towns, the names of which occur in the league

of Cassius, were so utterly destroyed, that the antiquary in vain seeks

for their site in the desolation of the Campagna. But the two important

cities of Tibur and Præneste (Tivoli and Palestrina), perched on

steep-scarped rocks, defying the rude arts of the invader, had gained

strength by the ruin of their neighbours, and appear as independent

communities, standing apart from the rest of Latium and from Rome. It was

believed that the Prænestines encouraged the Volscians in their inroads,

and in 382 B.C. war was declared against them. Some of the Latin cities

joined Præneste; others sought protection against her from Rome. In this

war even the Tusculans deserted Rome. But after a struggle of five years,

the dictator, T. Quinctius, took nine insurgent cities, and blockaded

Præneste itself, which capitulated on terms of which we are not informed.

Soon after Tusculum also was recovered; and for the present all fear of

the Latins subsided.

But a few years after the temple of Concord had been erected by old

Camillus, fresh alarms arose. The Hernicans gave signs of disquietude.

War was declared against them in 362 B.C. Next year came the second

inroad of the Gauls, and it was observed with consternation, that this

terrible foe occupied the valley of the Anio, and was not molested

either by the Latins of Tibur or by the Hernicans. In the year 360 B.C.

the _Fasti_ record a triumph of the consul Fabius over this last-named

people, and another of his colleague Pœtelius over the men of Tibur and

the Gauls--an ominous conjunction.

But this new inroad of the barbarians, which threatened Rome with a

second ruin, really proved a blessing; for the remaining Latin cities,

which in the late conflicts had stood aloof, terrified by the presence

of the Gauls, and seeing safety only in union, now renewed their league

with Rome, and the Hernicans soon after followed their example. The glory

of concluding this second league belongs to C. Plautius, the plebeian

consul of the year 358 B.C. The Gauls now quitted Latium; and Privernum

and Tibur, the only Latin cities which rejected the alliance, were both

compelled to yield (357, 354 B.C.).

While these dangers were successfully averted on the northeastern

frontier, war had been declared against Rome by the powerful Etruscan

city of Tarquinii, which lies beyond the Ciminian hills. This was in

the very year in which the new league was formed with the Latins and

Hernicans. But for this, it is hard to imagine that Rome, exhausted as

she was, could have resisted the united assaults of Gauls, Volscians,

Latins, Hernicans, and Etruscans. As it was, she found it hard to repel

the Tarquinians. This people made a sudden descent from the hills,

defeated the consul C. Fabius, and sacrificed 307 Roman prisoners to

their gods (358 B.C.). Two years later they were joined by the Faliscans.

Bearing torches in their hands, and having their hair wreathed into

snake-like tresses, they attacked the Romans with savage cries, and drove

them before them. They overran the four new tribes, and threatened Rome

itself. Then M. Popilius Lænas, the plebeian consul, being ordered by the

senate to name a dictator, named another plebeian, C. Marcius Rutilus,

the first of his order who was advanced to this high office; and his

conduct justified the appointment. The enemy was defeated. The senate

refused a triumph to the plebeian, but the people in their tribes voted

that he should enjoy the well-earned honour.

[Sidenote: [356-351 B.C.]]

For a moment the people of Cære, the old allies of the Roman people, who

had given shelter to their sacred things, their women, and children, in

the panic of the Gallic invasion, joined the war; but almost immediately

after sued for peace. The Romans, however, remembered this defection.

The Tarquinians were again defeated in a great battle. Three hundred

and fifty-eight prisoners were scourged and beheaded in the Forum to

retaliate for former barbarity. In the year 351 B.C. a peace of forty

years was concluded, after a struggle of eight years’ duration.

It was in the very next year after the conclusion of this war that the

third inroad of the Gauls took place, of which we have above spoken,

when M. Valerius gained his name of Corvus. Thus remarkably was Rome

carried through the dangers of intestine strife and surrounding wars.

When she was at strife within, her enemies were quiet. Before each new

assault commenced, a former foe had retired from the field, and Rome rose

stronger from every fall. She had now recovered all the Latin coast land

from the Tibur to Circeii; and her increasing importance is shown by a

renewed treaty with the great commercial city of Carthage. But a more

formidable enemy was now to be encountered than had as yet challenged

Rome to conflict, and a larger area opened to her ambition. In the course

of a very few years after the last event of which we have spoken the

First Samnite War began.[b]

The destruction of Rome by the Gauls is the dividing point between

historical and ante-historical Rome, as Ihne[g] justly notes; for the

conflagration wiped out not only the records but most of the monuments

as well. He complains, however, that it is long after the conflagration

before the chronicles become really trustworthy. He doubts equally the

story of how Valerius won the name of Corvus and the achievements of L.

Furius Camillus. He says in conclusion:

“The result of our investigations is that the whole of the six wars with

the Gauls, as Livy[c] relates them, are not much more than stop-gaps,

marking points of time at which the annals of the old time have been

filled up with edifying and patriotic matter. We can, therefore, infer

that a considerable part of the other wars is equally apocryphal, and we

may perhaps have the satisfaction of thinking that there were no wars to

relate and that the Romans had now and then a little breathing-place.” So

extreme an erasure of tradition with all its details will not, however,

win the approval of many students of these times.[a]

FOOTNOTES

[33] The aged were doomed to perish under any circumstances (_utique_),

from scarcity of provisions, whether they retired into the Capitol with

the military youth, or were left behind in the city.

[34] [As a forewarning here of the comparatively recent Gallic

re-invasions of Italy, one may quote what J. J. Ampère[d] says in his

_L’histoire romaine à Rome_: “To terminate cheerfully the story of the

geese of Manlius, I will recall a caricature representing a French

soldier plucking a goose on the Capitoline Hill; beneath were the words,

‘Vengeance of a Gaul.’”]

[35] It may be observed that each _gens et familia_ clung to the same

forenames. Thus Publius, Lucius, Cneius, were favourite forenames of the

Cornelii; Caius of the Julii; Appius of the Claudii; and so on.

[36] [And yet, though constitutionally eligible, Licinius could hardly

have won the consular tribuneship, for the patricians had practically

monopolised the office, as the _fasti_ prove.]

[37] [The annalists were probably wrong in supposing that Rome was

without magistrates for this period. Doubtless their error is due to

chronological confusion.]

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