secret meetings and conspiracies would be renewed; wherefore though the
levy had been held by the dictator, yet supposing that, as they had
sworn obedience to the consuls, the soldiers were bound by their oath,
under the pretext of hostilities being renewed by the Æqui, they ordered
the legions to be led out of the city; by which proceeding the sedition
was hastened. And it is said that at first it was in contemplation to
put the consuls to death, that they might be discharged from their oath:
but that being afterwards informed that no religious obligation could be
dissolved by a criminal act, they, by the advice of one Sicinius,
retired, without the orders of the consuls, to the sacred mount, beyond
the river Anio, three miles from the city: this account is more general
than that which Piso has given, that the secession was made to the
Aventine. There without any leader, their camp being fortified with a
rampart and trench, remaining quiet, taking nothing but what was
necessary for sustenance, they kept themselves for several days, neither
being attacked, nor attacking others. Great was the panic in the city,
and through mutual fear all was suspense. The people left in the city
dreaded the violence of the senators; the senators dreaded the people
remaining in the city, uncertain whether they should prefer them to stay
or to depart; but how long would the multitude which had seceded, remain
quiet? what were to be the consequences then, if, in the mean time, any
foreign war should break out? they certainly considered no hope left,
save in the concord of the citizens; this should be restored to the
state by fair or by unfair means. It was resolved therefore that there
should be sent as ambassador to the people, Menenius Agrippa, an
eloquent man, and one who was a favourite with the people, because he
derived his origin from them. He being admitted into the camp, is said
to have related to them merely the following story in that antiquated
and uncouth style; "At a time when all the parts in the human body did
not, as now, agree together, but the several members had each its own
scheme, its own language, the other parts, indignant that every thing
was procured for the belly by their care, labour, and service; that the
belly, remaining quiet in the centre, did nothing but enjoy the
pleasures afforded it. They conspired accordingly, that the hands should
not convey food to the mouth, nor the mouth receive it when presented,
nor the teeth chew it: whilst they wished under the influence of this
feeling to subdue the belly by famine, the members themselves and the
entire body were reduced to the last degree of emaciation. Thence it
became apparent that the service of the belly was by no means a slothful
one; that it did not so much receive nourishment as supply it, sending
to all parts of the body this blood by which we live and possess
vigour, distributed equally to the veins when perfected by the digestion
of the food." By comparing in this way how similar the intestine
sedition of the body was to the resentment of the people against the
senators, he made an impression on the minds of the multitude.
33. Then a commencement was made to treat of a reconciliation, and among
the conditions it was allowed, "that the commons should have their own
magistrates, with inviolable privileges, who should have the power of
bringing assistance against the consuls, and that it should not be
lawful for any of the patricians to hold that office." Thus two tribunes
of the commons were created, Caius Licinius and L. Albinus. These
created three colleagues for themselves. It is clear that among these
was Sicinius, the adviser of the sedition; with respect to two, who they
were is not so clear. There are some who say, that only two tribunes
were elected on the sacred mount, and that there the devoting law was
passed. During the secession of the commons, Sp. Cassius and Postumus
Cominius entered on the consulship. During their consulate, the treaty
with the Latin states was concluded. To ratify this, one of the consuls
remained at Rome; the other being sent to the Volscian war, routs and
puts to flight the Volscians of Antium, and continuing his pursuit of
them, now that they were driven into the town of Longula, he takes
possession of the town. Next he took Polusca, also belonging to the
Volscians; then he attacked Corioli with all his force. There was then
in the camp, among the young noblemen, C. Marcius, a youth distinguished
both for intelligence and courage, who afterwards attained the cognomen
of Coriolanus. When, as the Roman army was besieging Corioli, and was
wholly intent on the townspeople, whom they kept shut up, without any
apprehension of war threatening from without, the Volscian legion,
setting out from Antium, suddenly attacked them, and, at the same time
the enemy sallied forth from the town, Marcius happened to be on guard.
He with a chosen body of men not only repelled the attack of those who
had sallied out, but boldly rushed in through the open gate, and having
cut down all in the part of the city nearest him, and having hastily
seized some fire, threw it in the houses adjoining to the wall. Upon
this the shouts of the townsmen mingling with the wailings of the women
and children, occasioned by the first fright,[88] as is usual, both
increased the courage of the Romans, and dispirited the Volscians,
seeing the city captured to the relief of which they had come. Thus the
Volsci of Antium were defeated, the town of Corioli was taken. And so
much did Marcius by his valour eclipse the reputation of the consul,
that had not the treaty concluded with the Latins by Sp. Cassius alone,
because his colleague was absent, served as a memorial of it, it would
have been forgotten that Postumus Cominius had conducted the war with
the Volscians. The same year dies Agrippa Menenius, a man during all his
life equally a favourite with the senators and commons, still more
endeared to the commons after the secession. To this man, the mediator
and umpire in restoring concord among his countrymen, the ambassador of
the senators to the commons, the person who brought back the commons to
the city, were wanting the expenses of his funeral. The people buried
him by the contribution of a sextans from each person.
[Footnote 88: I have here adopted the reading of Stacker and others,
scil. _ad terrorem, ut solet, primum ortus_.]
34. T. Geganius and P. Minutius were next elected consuls. In this year,
when every thing was quiet from war abroad, and the dissensions were
healed at home, another much more serious evil fell upon the state;
first a scarcity of provisions, in consequence of the lands lying
untilled during the secession of the commons; then a famine such as
befals those who are besieged. And it would have ended in the
destruction of the slaves at least, and indeed some of the commons also,
had not the consuls adopted precautionary measures, by sending persons
in every direction to buy up corn, not only into Etruria on the coast to
the right of Ostia, and through the Volscians along the coast on the
left as far as Cumas, but into Sicily also, in quest of it. So far had
the hatred of their neighbours obliged them to stand in need of aid from
distant countries. When corn had been bought up at Cumæ, the ships were
detained in lieu of the property of the Tarquinii by the tyrant
Aristodemus, who was their heir. Among the Volsci and in the Pomptine
territory it could not even be purchased. The corn dealers themselves
incurred danger from the violence of the inhabitants. Corn came from
Etruria by the Tiber: by means of this the people were supported. Amid
this distressing scarcity they would have been harassed by a very
inconvenient war, had not a dreadful pestilence attacked the Volsci when
about to commence hostilities. The minds of the enemy being alarmed by
this calamity, so that they were influenced by some terror, even after
it had abated, the Romans both augmented the number of their colonists
at Velitræ, and despatched a new colony to the mountains of Norba, to
serve as a barrier in the Pomptine district. Then in the consulship of
M. Minucius, and A. Sempronius, a great quantity of corn was imported
from Sicily, and it was debated in the senate at what rate it should be
given to the commons. Many were of opinion, that the time was come for
putting down the commons, and for recovering those rights which had been
wrested from the senators by secession and violence. In particular,
Marcius Coriolanus, an enemy to tribunitian power, says, "If they desire
the former rate of provisions, let them restore to the senators their
former rights. Why do I, after being sent under the yoke, after being,
as it were, ransomed from robbers, behold plebeian magistrates, and
Sicinius invested with power? Shall I submit to these indignities longer
than is necessary? Shall I, who would not have endured King Tarquin,
tolerate Sicinius. Let him now secede, let him call away the commons.
The road lies open to the sacred mount and to other hills. Let them
carry off the corn from our lands, as they did three years since. Let
them have the benefit of that scarcity which in their frenzy they have
occasioned. I will venture to say, that, brought to their senses by
these sufferings, they will themselves become tillers of the lands,
rather than, taking up arms and seceding, they would prevent them from
being tilled." It is not so easy to say whether it should have been
done, as I think that it might have been practicable for the senators,
on the condition of lowering the price of provisions, to have rid
themselves of both the tribunitian power, and all the restraints imposed
on them against their will.[89]
[Footnote 89: i. e. I think it might have been done; whether it would
have been right to do so, it is not so easy to decide. Livy means to say
that it was possible enough for the senators, by lowering the price of
corn, to get rid of the tribunes, &c. Such a judgment is easily formed;
it is not, however, he says, so easy to determine, whether it would have
been expedient to follow the advice of Coriolanus.]
35. This proposal both appeared to the senate too harsh, and from
exasperation well nigh drove the people to arms: "that they were now
assailed with famine, as if enemies, that they were defrauded of food
and sustenance, that the foreign corn, the only support which fortune
unexpectedly furnished to them, was being snatched from their mouth,
unless the tribunes were given up in chains to C. Marcius, unless he
glut his rage on the backs of the commons of Rome. That in him a new
executioner had started up, who ordered them to die or be slaves." An
assault would have been made on him as he left the senate-house, had not
the tribunes very opportunely appointed him a day for trial; by this
their rage was suppressed, every one saw himself become the judge, the
arbiter of the life and death of his foe. At first Marcius heard the
threats of the tribunes with contempt.--"That the right to afford aid,
not to inflict punishment, had been granted to that office; that they
were tribunes of the commons and not of the senators." But the commons
had risen with such violent determination, that the senators were
obliged to extricate themselves from danger by the punishment of
one.[90] They resisted however, in spite of popular odium, and employed,
each individual his own powers, and all those of the entire order. And
first, the trial was made whether they could upset the affair, by
posting their clients (in several places), by deterring individuals from
attending meetings and cabals. Then they all proceeded in a body (you
would suppose that all the senators were on their trial) earnestly
entreating the commons, that if they would not acquit as innocent, they
would at least pardon as guilty, one citizen, one senator. As he did not
attend on the day appointed, they persevered in their resentment. Being
condemned in his absence, he went into exile to the Volsci, threatening
his country, and even then breathing all the resentment of an enemy. The
Volsci received him kindly on his arrival, and treated him still more
kindly every day in proportion as his resentful feelings towards his
countrymen became more striking, and one time frequent complaints,
another time threats were heard. He lodged with Attius Tullus. He was
then the chief man of the Volscian people, and always a determined
enemy of the Romans. Thus, when old animosity stimulated the one, recent
resentment the other, they concert schemes for (bringing about) a war
with Rome. They did not at once believe that their people could be
persuaded to take up arms, so often unsuccessfully tried. That by the
many frequent wars, and lastly, by the loss of their youth in the
pestilence, their spirits were now broken; that they must have recourse
to art, in a case where animosity had become blunted from length of
time, that their feelings might become exasperated by some fresh cause
of resentment.
[Footnote 90: i. e. the senate found themselves reduced to the necessity
of delivering one up to the vengeance of the people, in order to save
themselves from the further consequences of plebeian rage.]
36. It happened that preparations were being made at Rome for a
repetition of the [91]great games; the cause of repeating them was this:
on the morning of the games, the show not yet being commenced, a master
of a family, after flogging his slave loaded with a neck-yoke, had
driven him through the middle of the circus; after this the games were
commenced, as if that circumstance bore no relation to religion. Not
long after it. Atinius, a plebeian, had a dream. Jupiter seemed to him
to say; "that the person who danced previous to the games had displeased
him; unless these games were renewed on a splendid scale, that the city
would be in danger; that he should go and announce these things to the
consuls." Though his mind was not altogether free from superstitious
feelings, his respectful awe of the dignity of the magistrates overcame
his religious fear, lest he might pass into the mouths of people as a
laughing-stock. This delay cost him dear; for he lost his son within a
few days; and lest the cause of this sudden calamity should be doubtful,
that same phantom, presenting itself to him sorrowful in mind, seemed to
ask him, whether he had received a sufficient requital for his contempt
of the deity; that a still heavier one awaited him, unless he went
immediately and delivered the message to the consuls. The matter was now
still more pressing. Hesitating, however, and delaying he was at length
overtaken by a severe stroke of disease, a sudden paralysis. Then indeed
the anger of the gods aroused him. Wearied out therefore by his past
sufferings and by those threatening him, having convened a meeting of
his friends, after he had detailed to them all he had seen and heard,
and Jupiter's having so often presented himself to him in his sleep,
the threats and anger of heaven realized[92] in his own calamities, by
the unhesitating assent of all who were present he is conveyed in a
litter into the forum to the consuls; from thence being conveyed into
the senate-house, after he had stated those same particulars to the
senators, to the great surprise of all, behold another miracle: he who
had been conveyed into the senate-house deprived of the use of all his
limbs, is recorded to have returned home on his own feet after he
discharged his duty.
[Footnote 91: The same as the Circenses.]
[Footnote 92: _Realized_--_repræsentatas_--quasi præsentes factas,
oculis subjectas--presented as it were to the sight.--_Rasch_.]
37. The senate decreed that the games should be celebrated on as grand a
scale as possible. To these games a great number of Volscians came by
the advice of Attius Tullus. Before the games were commenced, Tullus, as
had been concerted at home with Marcius, comes to the consuls. He tells
them that there were matters on which he wished to treat with them in
private concerning the commonwealth. All witnesses being removed, he
says, "With reluctance I say that of my countrymen which is rather
disparaging.[93] I do not however come to allege against them any thing
as having been committed by them, but to guard against their committing
any thing. The minds of our people are far more fickle than I could
wish. We have felt that by many disasters; seeing that we are still
preserved, not through our own deserts, but through your forbearance.
There is now here a great multitude of Volscians. The games are going
on; the city will be intent on the exhibition. I remember what has been
committed in this city on a similar occasion by the youth of the
Sabines. My mind shudders lest any thing should be committed
inconsiderately and rashly. I considered, that these matters should be
mentioned before-hand to you, consuls. With regard to myself, it is my
determination to depart hence home immediately, lest, if present, I may
be affected by the contagion of any word or deed." Having said this, he
departed. When the consuls laid before the senate the matter, doubtful
with respect to proof, though from credible authority, the authority
more than the thing itself, as usually happens, urged them to adopt even
needless precautions; and a decree of the senate being passed, that the
Volscians should quit the city, criers are sent in different directions
to order them all to depart before night. A great panic struck them at
first as they ran about to their lodgings to carry away their effects.
Afterwards, when setting out, indignation arose in their breasts: "that
they, as if polluted with crime and contaminated, were driven away from
the games, on festival days, from the converse in a manner of men and
gods."
[Footnote 93: _Sequius sit_--otherwise than as it should be.]
38. As they went along in an almost continuous body, Tullus having
preceded them to the fountain of Ferentina, accosting the chiefs among
them according as each arrived, by asking questions and expressing
indignation, he led both themselves, who greedily listened to language
congenial[94] to their angry feelings, and through them the rest of the
multitude, into a plain adjoining to the road. There having commenced an
address after the manner of a public harangue, he says, "Though you were
to forget the former ill treatment of the Roman people and the
calamities of the nation of the Volsci, and all other such matters, with
what feelings do you bear this outrage offered you to-day, whereon they
have commenced their games by insulting us? Have you not felt that a
triumph has been had over you this day? that you, when departing, were a
spectacle to all, citizens, foreigners, so many neighbouring states?
that your wives, your children were exhibited before the eyes of men?
What do you suppose to have been the sentiments of those who heard the
voice of the crier? what of those who saw you departing? what of those
who met this ignominious cavalcade? what, except that we are identified
with some enormous guilt by which we should profane the games, and
render an expiation necessary; that for this reason we are driven away
from the residences of these pious people, from their converse and
meeting? what, does it not strike you that we still live because we
hastened our departure? if this is a departure and not a flight. And do
you not consider this to be the city of enemies, where if you had
delayed a single day, you must have all died? War has been declared
against you; to the heavy injury of those who declared it, if you are
men." Thus, being both already charged with resentment, and incited (by
this harangue) they went severally to their homes, and by instigating
each his own state, they succeeded in making the entire Volscian nation
revolt.
[Footnote 94: _Audientes secunda iræ verba_--attentively listening to
words which fanned (or chimed in with) their anger.--_St_.]
39. The generals selected for that war by the unanimous choice of all
the states were Attius Tullus and Caius Marcius; in the latter of whom
their chief hope was reposed. And this hope he by no means disappointed:
so that it clearly appeared that the Roman commonwealth was more
powerful by reason of its generals than its army. Having marched to
Circeii, he expelled from thence the Roman colonists, and delivered that
city in a state of freedom to the Volscians. From thence passing across
the country through by-roads into the Latin way, he deprived the Romans
of their recently acquired towns, Satricum, Longula, Polusca, Corioli.
He next retook Lavinium: he then took in succession Corbio, Vitellia,
Trebia, Lavici, and Pedum: Lastly he marches from Pedum to the city,[95]
and having pitched his camp at the Cluilian trenches five miles from the
city, he from thence ravages the Roman territory, guards being sent
among the devastators to preserve the lands of the patricians intact;
whether as being incensed chiefly against the plebeians, or in order
that dissension might arise between the senators and the people. And
this certainly would have arisen, so powerfully did the tribunes, by
inveighing against the leading men of the state, incite the plebeians,
already sufficiently violent of themselves; but their apprehensions of
the foe, the strongest bond of concord, united their minds, distrustful
and rancorous though they were. The only matter not agreed on was this,
that the senate and consuls rested their hopes on nothing else than on
arms; the plebeians preferred any thing to war. Sp. Nautius and Sex.
Furius were now consuls. Whilst they were reviewing the legions, posting
guards along the walls and other places where they had determined that
there should be posts and watches, a vast multitude of persons
demanding peace terrified them first by their seditious clamour; then
compelled them to convene the senate, to consider the question of
sending ambassadors to C. Marcius. The senate entertained the question,
when it became evident that the spirits of the plebeians were giving
way, and ambassadors being sent to Marcius concerning peace, brought
back a harsh answer: "If their lands were restored to the Volscians,
that they might then consider the question of peace; if they were
disposed to enjoy the plunder of war at their ease, that he, mindful
both of the injurious treatment of his countrymen, as well as of the
kindness of strangers, would do his utmost to make it appear that his
spirit was irritated by exile, not crushed." When the same persons are
sent back a second time, they are not admitted into the camp. It is
recorded that the priests also, arrayed in their insignia, went as
suppliants to the enemy's camp; and that they did not influence his mind
more than the ambassadors.
[Footnote 95: Scil. Rome. Dionysius narrates the expedition of
Coriolanus in a different order from that given by Livy, and says that
he approached the city twice. Niebuhr, ii. p. 94, n. 535, thinks that
the words "passing across the country into the Latin way" (in Latinam
viam transversis itineribus transgressus) have been transposed from
their proper place, and that they should come in after "he then took,"
&c. (tunc deinceps).]
40. Then the matrons assemble in a body around Veturia, the mother of
Coriolanus, and his wife, Volumnia: whether that was the result of
public counsel, or of the women's fear, I cannot ascertain. They
certainly carried their point that Veturia, a lady advanced in years,
and Volumnia, leading her two sons by Marcius, should go into the camp
of the enemy, and that women should defend by entreaties and tears a
city which men were unable to defend by arms. When they reached the
camp, and it was announced to Coriolanus, that a great body of women
were approaching, he, who had been moved neither by the majesty of the
state in its ambassadors, nor by the sanctity of religion so strikingly
addressed to his eyes and understanding in its priests, was much more
obdurate against the women's tears. Then one of his acquaintances, who
recognised Veturia, distinguished from all the others by her sadness,
standing between her daughter-in-law and grand-children, says, "Unless
my eyes deceive me, your mother, children, and wife, are approaching."
When Coriolanus, almost like one bewildered, rushing in consternation
from his seat, offered to embrace his mother as she met him, the lady,
turning from entreaties to angry rebuke, says, "Before I receive your
embrace, let me know whether I have come to an enemy or to a son;
whether I am in your camp a captive or a mother? Has length of life and
a hapless old age reserved me for this--to behold you an exile, then an
enemy? Could you lay waste this land, which gave you birth and nurtured
you? Though you had come with an incensed and vengeful mind, did not
your resentment subside when you entered its frontiers? When Rome came
within view, did it not occur to you, within these walls my house and
guardian gods are, my mother, wife, and children? So then, had I not
been a mother, Rome would not be besieged: had I not a son, I might have
died free in a free country. But I can now suffer nothing that is not
more discreditable to you than distressing to me; nor however wretched I
may be, shall I be so long. Look to these, whom, if you persist, either
an untimely death or lengthened slavery awaits." Then his wife and
children embraced him: and the lamentation proceeding from the entire
crowd of women, and their bemoaning themselves and their country, at
length overcame the man; then, after embracing his family, he sends them
away; he moved his camp farther back from the city. Then, after he had
drawn off his troops from the Roman territory, they say that he lost his
life, overwhelmed by the odium of the proceeding: different writers say
by different modes of death: I find in Fabius, far the most ancient
writer, that he lived even to old age; he states positively, that
advanced in years he made use of this phrase, "That exile bore much
heavier on the old man." The men of Rome were not remiss in awarding
their praises to the women, so truly did they live without detracting
from the merit of others; a temple was built also and dedicated to
female Fortune, to serve as a monument. The Volscians afterwards
returned in conjunction with the Æqui into the Roman territory: but the
Æqui would no longer have Attius Tullus as their leader; hence from
dispute, whether the Volscians or the Æqui should give a general to the
allied army, a sedition, and afterwards a furious battle arose. There
the good fortune of the Roman people destroyed the two armies of the
enemy, by a contest no less bloody than obstinate. T. Sicinius and C.
Aquillius were made consuls. The Volsci fell as a province to Sicinius;
the Hernici (for they too were in arms) to Aquillius. That year the
Hernici were defeated; they came off with respect to the Volscians on
equal terms.
41. Sp. Cassius and Proculus Virginius were next made consuls; a treaty
was struck with the Hernici; two-thirds of their land were taken from
them: of this the consul Cassius was about to distribute one half among
the Latins, the other half among the commons. To this donation he was
adding a considerable portion of land, which, though public property, he
alleged was possessed by private individuals. This proceeding alarmed
several of the senators, the actual possessors, at the danger of their
property; the senators felt, moreover, a solicitude on public grounds,
that the consul by his donation was establishing an influence dangerous
to liberty. Then, for the first time, the Agrarian law was proposed,
which even down to our own recollection was never agitated without the
greatest commotions in the state. The other consul resisted the
donation, the senators seconding him, nor were all the commons opposed
to him; they had at first begun to despise a gift which was extended
from citizens to allies: in the next place they frequently heard the
consul Virginius in the assemblies as it were prophesying--"that the
gift of his colleague was pestilential--that those lands were sure to
bring slavery to those who should receive them; that the way was paving
to a throne." For why was it that the allies were included, and the
Latin nation? What was the object of a third of the land that had been
taken being given back to the Hernici so lately our enemies, except that
instead of Coriolanus being their leader they may have Cassius? The
dissuader and opposer of the agrarian law now began to be popular. Both
consuls then vied with each other in humouring the commons. Virginius
said that he would suffer the lands to be assigned, provided they were
assigned to no one but to a Roman citizen. Cassius, because in the
agrarian donation he sought popularity among the allies, and was
therefore lowered in the estimation of his countrymen, in order that by
another donation he might conciliate their affections, ordered that the
money received for the Sicilian corn should be refunded to the people.
That indeed the people rejected as nothing else than a present bribe for
regal authority: so strongly were his gifts spurned in the minds of men,
as if they possessed every thing in abundance, in consequence of their
inveterate suspicions of his aiming at sovereign power. As soon as he
went out of office, it is certain that he was condemned and put to
death. There are some who represent his father as the person who
inflicted the punishment: that he, having tried him at home, scourged
him and put him to death, and consecrated his son's private property to
Ceres; that out of this a statue was set up and inscribed, "given from
the Cassian family." In some authors I find it stated, and that is more
probable, that a day of trial was assigned him for high treason, by the
questors, Kæso Fabius and Lucius Valerius; and that he was condemned by
the decision of the people; that his house was demolished by a public
decree: this is the area before the temple of Tellus. But whether that
trial was private or public, he was condemned in the consulship of Ser.
Cornelius and Q. Fabius.
42. The resentment of the people against Cassius was not of long
duration. The allurements of the agrarian law, now that its proposer was
gone, were of themselves gaining ground in their minds; and this feeling
was further heightened by the parsimonious conduct of the senators, who,
the Volsci and Æqui having been defeated that year, defrauded the
soldiers of the booty; whatever was taken from the enemy, the consul
Fabius sold, and lodged the proceeds in the treasury. The Fabian name
was odious to the commons on account of the last consul: the senate
however succeeded in having Kæso Fabius elected consul with L. Æmilius.
The commons, still further incensed at this, stirred up foreign war by
exciting disturbance at home; civil dissensions were then interrupted by
war. The senators and commons uniting, under the conduct of Æmilius,
conquered in battle the Volsci and Æqui who renewed hostilities. The
retreat, however, destroyed more of the enemy than the battle; so
perseveringly did the horse pursue them when routed. During the same
year, on the ides of July, the temple of Castor was dedicated: it had
been vowed during the Latin war in the dictatorship of Posthumius: his
son, who was elected duumvir for that special purpose, dedicated it. In
that year also the minds of the people were excited by the charms of the
agrarian law. The tribunes of the people were for enhancing the popular
power (vested in them) by promoting the popular law. The senators,
considering that there was enough and more than enough of frenzy in the
multitude without any additional incitement, viewed with horror
largesses and all inducements to temerity: the senators found in the
consuls most energetic abettors in making resistance. That portion of
the commonwealth therefore prevailed; and not for the present only, but
for the forthcoming year they succeeded in bringing in M. Fabius, Kæso's
brother, as consul, and one still more detested by the commons for his
persecution of Sp. Cassius, L. Valerius. In that year also there was a
contest with the tribunes. The law proved to be a vain project, and the
abettors of the law mere boasters, by their holding out a gift that was
not realized. The Fabian name was from thence held in high repute, after
three successive consulates, and all as it were uniformly exercised in
contending with the tribunes; accordingly, the honour remained for a
considerable time in that family, as being right well placed. A
Veientian war was then commenced; the Volscians, too, renewed
hostilities; but for foreign wars their strength was almost more than
sufficient, and they abused it by contending among themselves. To the
distracted state of the public mind were added prodigies from heaven,
exhibiting almost daily threats in the city and in the country, and the
soothsayers, consulted by the state and by private individuals, one
while by means of entrails, another by birds, declared that there was no
other cause for the divine anger, but that the ceremonies of religion
were not duly attended to. These terrors, however, terminated in this,
that Oppia, a vestal virgin, being found guilty of a breach of chastity,
was made to suffer punishment.
43. Quintus Fabius and C. Julius were then made consuls. During this
year the dissension at home was not abated, and the war abroad was more
desperate. Arms were taken up by the Æquans; the Veientes also entered
the territory of the Romans committing devastations; the solicitude
about which wars increasing, Kæso Fabius and Sp. Fusius are created
consuls. The Æqui were laying siege to Ortona, a Latin city. The
Veientes, now satiated with plunder, threatened that they would besiege
Rome itself. Which terrors, when they ought to assuage, increased still
further the bad feelings of the commons: and the custom of declining the
military service was now returning, not of their own accord; but Sp.
Licinius, a tribune of the people, thinking that the time was come for
forcing the agrarian law on the patricians by extreme necessity, had
taken on him the task of obstructing the military preparations. But all
the odium of the tribunitian power was turned on the author; nor did the
consuls rise up against him more zealously than his own colleagues; and
by their assistance the consuls hold the levy. An army is raised for the
two wars at the same time; one is given to Fabius to be led against the
Æqui, the other to Furius against the Veientians. And with respect to
the Veientians, nothing was done worthy of mention. Fabius had much more
trouble with his countrymen than with the enemy: that one man himself,
as consul, sustained the commonwealth, which the army was betraying, far
as in them lay, through their hatred of the consul. For when the consul,
in addition to his other military talents, which he exhibited amply in
his preparations for and conduct of war, had so drawn up his line that
he routed the enemy's army solely by a charge of his cavalry, the
infantry refused to pursue them when routed: and though the exhortation
of their general, whom they hated, could not move them, neither could
even their own infamy, and the present public disgrace and subsequent
danger, if the enemy should recover courage, oblige them to quicken
their pace, or even to stand in order of battle, if nothing else.
Without orders they face about, and with a sorrowful air (you would
suppose them beaten) they return to the camp, execrating at one time
their general, at another time the services rendered by the cavalry. Nor
were any remedies sought by the general for this so pestilent an
example; so true is it that the most distinguished talents are more
likely to be deficient in the tact of managing their countrymen than in
that of conquering an enemy. The consul returned to Rome, not having so
much increased his military glory as irritated and exasperated the
hatred of his soldiers towards him. The patricians, however, succeeded
in having the consulship remain in the Fabian family. They elect M.
Fabius consul: Cn. Manlius is assigned as a colleague to Fabius.
44. This year also had a tribune as a proposer of the agrarian law. It
was Titus Pontificius: he pursuing the same course, as if it had
succeeded with Sp. Licinius, obstructed the levy for a little time. The
patricians being once more perplexed, Appius Claudius asserts "that the
tribunitian power was put down last year: for the present by the very
act, for the future by the precedent established, and since it was found
that it could be rendered ineffective by its own strength; for that
there never would be wanting a tribune who would both be willing to
obtain a victory for himself over his colleague, and the favour of the
better party by advancing the public weal. That both a plurality of
tribunes, if there were need of such plurality, would be ready to assist
the consuls; and that even one would be sufficient against all. Only let
the consuls and leading members of the senate take care to gain over, if
not all, at least some of the tribunes, to the commonwealth and the
senate." The senators, convinced by the counsels of Appius, both
collectively addressed the tribunes with kindness and civility, and the
men of consular rank, according as each possessed personal influence
over them individually, partly by conciliation, partly by authority,
prevailed so far as to make them consent that the powers of the
tribunitian office should be beneficial to the state; and by the aid of
four tribunes against one obstructor of the public good, the consuls
complete the levy. They then set out to the Veientian war, to which
auxiliaries had flocked from all parts of Etruria, collected not so much
for the sake of the Veientians, as because they had formed a hope that
the Roman state might be destroyed by internal discord. And in the
councils of all the states of Etruria the leading men openly stated,
"that the Roman power was eternal, unless they were distracted by
disturbances among themselves. That this was the only poison, this the
bane discovered for powerful states, to render great empires mortal.
That this evil, a long time retarded, partly by the wise measures of the
patricians, partly by the forbearance of the commons, had now proceeded
to extremities. That two states were now formed out of one: that each
party had its own magistrates, its own laws. That though at first they
were accustomed to be turbulent during the levies, still that these same
individuals had ever been obedient to their commanders during war; that
military discipline being still retained, no matter what might be the
state of the city, it had been possible to withstand the evil; that now
the custom of not obeying their superior followed the Roman soldier even
to the camp. That in the last war in the very field, in the very heat of
battle, by consent of the army the victory was voluntarily surrendered
to the vanquished Æqui: that the standards were deserted, the general
abandoned on the field, and that the army had returned to the camp
without orders. That without doubt, if perseverance were used, Rome
might be conquered by her own soldiery. That nothing else was necessary
than to declare and make a show of war: that the fates and the gods
would of themselves manage the rest." These hopes had armed the
Etrurians, who in many vicissitudes had been vanquished and victors.
45. The Roman consuls also dreaded nothing else, than their own
strength, and their own arms. The recollection of the destructive
precedent set in the last war, deterred them from bringing matters to
such a pass as that they should have to fear two armies at the same
time. Accordingly they kept within their camp, avoiding this double
danger: "that delay and time itself would soften down resentment, and
bring a right way of thinking to their minds." The Veientian enemy and
the Etrurians proceeded with so much the greater precipitation; they
provoked them to battle, first riding up to the camp and challenging
them; at length, when they produced no effect by reviling as well the
consuls themselves as the army, they stated, "that the pretence of
internal dissension was assumed as a cloak for this cowardice; and that
the consuls distrusted as much the courage as the obedience of their
soldiers. That silence and inaction among men in arms were a novel form
of sedition." Besides this they threw out reproaches, both true as well
as false, on the upstart quality of their race and origin. Whilst they
vociferated these reproaches beneath the very rampart and gates, the
consuls bore them without impatience: but at one time indignation, at
another time shame, distracted the breasts of the ignorant multitude,
and diverted their attention from intestine evils; they were unwilling
that the enemy should come off unpunished; they were unwilling that
success should accrue to the patricians or the consuls; foreign and
domestic hatred struggled for mastery in their breasts; at length the
former prevail, so haughtily and insolently did the enemy revile them;
they crowd in a body to the general's tent; they demand battle, they
require that the signal be given. The consuls confer together as if to
deliberate; they continue the conference for a long time; they were
desirous of fighting, but that desire must be checked and concealed,
that by opposition and delay they might increase the ardour of the
soldiery once roused. An answer is returned, "that the matter in
question was premature, that it was not yet time for fighting: that they
should keep within their camp." They then issue a proclamation, "that
they should abstain from fighting; that if any one fought without
orders, they should punish him as an enemy." When they were thus
dismissed, their eagerness for fighting increases in proportion as they
think that the consuls were less disposed for it; the enemies moreover
come up much more insolently, as soon as it was known that the consuls
had determined not to fight. For they supposed "that they might insult
them with impunity; that their arms were not intrusted to the soldiery.
That the matter would explode in a violent mutiny; that a termination
had come to the Roman empire." Relying on these hopes, they run up to
the gates, heap reproaches on them, with difficulty refrain from
assaulting the camp. Now indeed the Romans could no longer endure these
insults; they crowd from every quarter of the camp to the consuls: they
no longer, as formerly, make their demand with reserve, through the
mediation of the centurions of the first rank; but all proceed
indiscriminately with loud clamours. The affair was now ripe; still they
put it off. Fabius then, his colleague giving way in consequence of his
dread of mutiny being now augmented by the uproar, after he had
commanded silence by sound of trumpet, says, "that these men are able to
conquer, Cneius Manlius, I know; that they are willing they themselves
have prevented me from knowing. It is therefore resolved and determined
not to give the signal, unless they swear that they will return
victorious from this battle. The soldier has once deceived the Roman
consul in the field, the gods he never will deceive." There was a
centurion, Marcus Flavoleius, one of the foremost in demanding battle;
he says, "M. Fabius, I will return victorious from the field." If he
deceived, he invokes the anger of father Jove, Mars Gradivus, and of the
other gods. After him the entire army severally take the same oath. The
signal is given to them when sworn; they take up arms, go into battle,
full of rage and of hope. They bid the Etrurians now to cast their
reproaches; they severally require that the enemy, once so ready with
the tongue, should now stand before them armed as they were. On that day
the bravery of all, both commons and patricians, was extraordinary: the
Fabian name, the Fabian race shone forth most conspicuous: they are
determined to recover in that battle the affections of the commons,
which during many civil contests had been alienated from them. The line
of battle is formed; nor do the Veientian foe and the Etrurian legions
decline the contest.
46. An almost certain hope was entertained that they would no more fight
with them than they had done with the Æqui; that even some more serious
attempt was not to be despaired of, considering the irritated state of
their feelings, and the very critical occasion. The affair turned out
altogether differently; for never before in any other war did the Roman
soldiers enter the field with more determined minds (so much had the
enemy exasperated them by taunts on the one hand, and the consuls by
delay on the other). The Etrurians had scarcely time to form their
ranks, when the javelins having been thrown away at random, in the first
hurry, rather than discharged with aim, the battle had now come to close
fighting, even to swords, where the fury of war is most desperate. Among
the foremost the Fabian family was distinguished for the sight it
afforded and the example it presented to their fellow citizens; one of
these, Q. Fabius, (he had been consul two years before,) as he was
advancing at the head of his men against a dense body of Veientians, and
whilst engaged amid numerous parties of the enemy, and therefore not
prepared for it, was transfixed with a sword through the breast by a
Tuscan who presumed on his bodily strength and skill in arms: on the
weapon being extracted, Fabius fell forward on the wound. Both armies
felt the fall of this one man, and the Roman began in consequence to
give way, when the consul Marcus Fabius leaped over the body as it lay,
and holding up his buckler, said, "Is this what you swore, soldiers,
that you would return to the camp in flight? are you thus more afraid of
your most dastardly enemies, than of Jupiter and Mars, by whom you have
sworn? But I who have not sworn will either return victorious, or will
fall fighting here beside thee, Q. Fabius." Then Kæso Fabius, the consul
of the preceding year, says to the consul, "Brother, is it by these
words you think you will prevail on them to fight? the gods by whom they
have sworn will prevail on them. Let us also, as men of noble birth, as
is worthy of the Fabian name, enkindle the courage of the soldiers by
fighting rather than by exhorting." Thus the two Fabii rush forward to
the front with presented spears, and brought on with them the whole
line.
47. The battle being restored on one side, Cn. Manlius, the consul, with
no less ardour, encouraged the fight on the other wing. Where an almost
similar result took place; for as the soldiers undauntedly followed Q.
Fabius on the one wing, so did they follow Manlius on this, as he was
driving the enemy now nearly routed, and when he, having received a
severe wound, retired from the battle, they fell back, supposing that he
was slain, and would have given way, had not the other consul, galloping
at full speed to that quarter with some troops of horse, supported their
drooping energies, crying out that his colleague was still alive, that
he himself was now come victorious, having routed the other wing.
Manlius also shows himself to restore the battle. The well-known voices
of the two consuls rekindle the courage of the soldiers; at the same
time too the enemy's line was now weakened, whilst, relying on their
superior numbers, they draw off their reserve and send them to storm the
camp. This being assaulted without much resistance, whilst they lose
time in attending to plunder rather than to fighting, the Roman
triarii,[96] who had not been able to sustain the first shock, having
sent an account to the consuls of the present position of affairs,
return in a compact body to the Prætorium, and of themselves renew the
battle. The consul Manlius also having returned to the camp, and posted
soldiers at all the gates, had blocked up every passage against the
enemy. This desperate situation aroused the fury rather than the bravery
of the Etrurians; for when rushing on wherever hope held out the
prospect of escape, they had frequently advanced with fruitless efforts;
one body of young men makes an attack on the consul himself, conspicuous
from his arms. The first weapons were intercepted by those who stood
around him; afterwards their force could not be sustained. The consul
falls, having received a mortal wound, and all around him are dispersed.
The courage of the Etrurians rises. Terror drives the Romans in dismay
through the entire camp; and matters would have come to extremities, had
not the lieutenant-generals, hastily seizing the body of the consul,
opened a passage for the enemy at one gate. Through this they rush out;
and going away in the utmost disorder, they fall in with the other
consul who had been victorious; there again they are slain and routed in
every direction. A glorious victory was obtained, saddened however by
two so illustrious deaths. The consul, therefore, on the senate voting
him a triumph, replied, that "if the army could triumph without their
general, he would readily accede to it in consideration of their
distinguished behaviour in that war: that for his own part, his family
being plunged in grief in consequence of the death of his brother Q.
Fabius, and the commonwealth being in some degree bereaved by the loss
of one of her consuls, he would not accept the laurel blasted by public
and private grief." The triumph thus resigned was more distinguished
than any triumph actually enjoyed; so true it is, that glory refused in
due season sometimes returns with accumulated lustre. He next celebrates
the two funerals of his colleague and brother, one after the other, he
himself acting as panegyrist in the case of both, when by ascribing to
them his own deserts, he himself obtained the greatest share of them.
And not unmindful of that which he had conceived at the commencement of
his consulate, namely, the regaining the affection of the people, he
distributes the wounded soldiers among the patricians to be cured. Most
of them were given to the Fabii: nor were they treated with greater
attention in any other place. From this time the Fabii began to be
popular, and that not by any practices except such as were beneficial to
the state.
[Footnote 96: The triarii were veteran soldiers of approved valour: they
formed the third line, whence their name.]
48. Accordingly Kæso Fabius, having been elected consul with T.
Virginius not more with the zealous wishes of the senators than of the
commons, attended neither to wars, nor levies, nor any other object,
until the hope of concord being now in some measure commenced, the
feelings of the commons might be consolidated with those of the senators
as soon as possible. Wherefore at the commencement of the year he
proposed: "that before any tribune should stand forth as an abettor of
the agrarian law, the patricians themselves should be beforehand with
them in performing their duty; that they should distribute among the
commons the land taken from the enemy in as equal a proportion as
possible; that it was but just that those should obtain it, by whose
blood and sweat it was obtained." The patricians rejected the proposal
with scorn; some even complained that the once brilliant talents of Kæso
were now becoming wanton, and were waning through excess of glory. There
were afterwards no factions in the city. The Latins were harassed by the
incursions of the Æqui. Kæso being sent thither with an army, passes
into the very territory of the Æqui to depopulate it. The Æqui retired
into the towns, and kept themselves within the walls: on that account no
battle worth mentioning was fought. But a blow was received from the
Veientian foe through the temerity of the other consul; and the army
would have been all cut off, had not Kæso Fabius come to their
assistance in time. From that time there was neither peace nor war with
the Veientians; their proceedings had now come very near to the form of
that of brigands. They retired from the Roman troops into the city; when
they perceived that the troops were drawn off, they made incursions into
the country, alternately evading war by quiet, quiet by war. Thus the
matter could neither be dropped altogether, nor brought to a conclusion;
and other wars were impending either at the moment, as from the Æqui and
Volsci, who remained inactive no longer than until the recent smart of
their late disaster should pass away; or it was evident that the
Sabines, ever hostile, and all Etruria would put themselves in motion:
but the Veientians, a constant rather than a formidable enemy, kept
their minds in constant uneasiness by their insults more frequently than
by any danger apprehended from them; a matter which could at no time be
neglected, and which suffered them not to direct their attention to any
other object. Then the Fabian family addressed the senate; the consul
speaks in the name of the family: "Conscript fathers, the Veientian war
requires, as you know, a constant rather than a strong force. Do you
attend to other wars: assign the Fabii as enemies to the Veientians. We
pledge ourselves that the majesty of the Roman name shall be safe in
that quarter. That war, as the property of our family, it is our
determination to conduct at our own private expense. Let the republic be
spared the expense of soldiers and money there." The warmest thanks were
returned to them. The consul, leaving the senate-house, accompanied by
the Fabii in a body, who had been standing in the porch of the
senate-house, returned home. Being ordered to attend on the following
day in arms at the consul's gate, they retire to their homes.
49. The rumour spreads through the entire city; they extol the Fabii to
the skies by their encomiums. "That a single family had taken on them
the burden of the state: that the Veientian war had now become a private
concern, a private quarrel. If there were two families of the same
strength in the city, let them demand, the one the Volsci for itself,
the other the Æqui; that all the neighbouring states might be subdued,
the Roman people all the time enjoying profound peace." The day
following, the Fabii take up arms; they assemble where they had been
ordered. The consul coming forth in his paludamentum,[97] beholds his
entire family in the porch drawn up in order of march; being received
into the centre, he orders the standards to be carried forward. Never
did an army march through the city, either smaller in number, or more
distinguished in fame and in the admiration of all men. Three hundred
and six soldiers, all patricians, all of the one stock, not one of whom
the senate would reject as a leader in its palmiest days, proceeded on
their march, menacing destruction to the Veientian state by the prowess
of a single family. A crowd followed, partly belonging to their kinsmen
and friends, who contemplated in mind no moderation either as to their
hopes or anxiety, but every thing on the highest scale; partly
consisting of individuals not connected with their family, aroused by
solicitude for the public weal, all enraptured with esteem and
admiration. They bid them "proceed in the brave resolve, proceed with
happy omens, bring back results proportioned to their undertaking:
thence to expect consulships and triumphs, all rewards, all honours from
them." As they passed the Capitol and the citadel, and the other sacred
edifices, they offer up prayers to all the gods that presented
themselves to their sight, or to their mind: that "they would send
forward that band with prosperity and success, and soon send them back
safe into their country to their parents." In vain were these prayers
sent up. Having set out on their luckless road by the right-hand postern
of the Carmental gate, they arrive at the river Cremera: this appeared
a favourable situation for fortifying a post. L. Æmilius and C.
Servilius were then created consuls. And as long as there was nothing
else to occupy them but mutual devastations, the Fabii were not only
sufficiently able to protect their garrison, but through the entire
tract, as far as the Etrurian joins the Roman territory, they protected
all their own districts and ravaged those of the enemy, spreading their
forces along both frontiers. There was afterwards an intermission,
though not of long duration, to these depredations: whilst both the
Veientians, having sent for an army from Etruria, assault the post at
the Cremera, and the Roman troops, led thither by L. Æmilius the consul,
come to a close engagement in the field with the Etrurians; although the
Veientians had scarcely time to draw up their line: for during the first
alarm, whilst the ranks are posting themselves behind their respective
banners and they are stationing their reserves, a brigade of Roman
cavalry charging them suddenly in flank, took away all opportunity not
only of commencing the fight, but even of standing their ground. Thus
being driven back to the Red Rocks, (there they pitched their camp,)
they suppliantly sue for peace; for the obtaining of which they were
sorry, from the natural inconsistency of their minds, before the Roman
garrison was drawn off from the Cremera.
[Footnote 97: Before a consul set out on any expedition, he offered
sacrifices and prayers in the Capitol; and then, laying aside his
consular gown, marched out of the city, dressed in a military robe of
state, called Paludamentum.]
50. Again the Veientian state had to contend with the Fabii without any
additional military armament [on either side]; and there were not merely
incursions into each other's territories, or sudden attacks on those
making the incursions, but they fought repeatedly in the open field, and
in pitched battles: and one family of the Roman people oftentimes gained
the victory over an entire Etrurian state, one of the most powerful at
that time. This at first appeared mortifying and humiliating to the
Veientians: then (they formed) a design, suggested by the circumstance,
of surprising their daring enemy by an ambuscade; they were even glad
that the confidence of the Fabii was increasing by their great success.
Wherefore cattle were frequently driven in the way of the plundering
parties, as if they had come there by mere accident, and tracts of land
were abandoned by the flight of the peasants; and troops of armed men
sent to prevent the devastations retreated more frequently from
pretended than from real fear. And now the Fabii had such a contempt for
the enemy, as to believe that their invincible arms could not be
withstood either in any place or on any occasion: this presumption
carried them so far, that at the sight of some cattle at a distance from
Cremera, with an extensive plain lying between, they ran down to it
(although few troops of the enemy were observed); and when incautious
and in disorderly haste they had passed the ambuscade placed on either
side of the very road; and when dispersed in different directions they
began to carry off the cattle straying about, as is usual when they are
frightened, the Veientians rise up suddenly from their ambuscade, and
the enemy were in front and on every side. At first the shout that was
raised terrified them; then weapons assailed them from every side; and,
the Etrurians closing, they also were compelled, hemmed in as they now
were by a compact body of soldiers, to contract their own circle within
a narrower compass; which circumstance rendered striking both their own
paucity of numbers, and the superior numbers of the enemy, the ranks
being crowded in a narrow space. Then the plan of fighting, which they
had directed equally against every part, being now relinquished, they
all incline their forces towards one point; in that direction straining
every effort both with their bodies and arms, they forced a passage by
forming a wedge. The way led to a hill of moderate acclivity; here they
first halted: presently, as soon as the higher ground afforded them time
to gain breath, and to recover from so great a panic, they repulsed them
as they advanced up; and the small band by the advantage of the ground
was gaining the victory, had not a party of the Veientians, sent round
the ridge of the hill, made their way to the summit; thus again the
enemy obtained the higher ground; all the Fabii were killed to a man,
and the fort was taken: it is agreed on all hands that the three hundred
and six were cut off; that one[98] only, who nearly attained the age of
puberty, was left as a stock for the Fabian race; and that he was
destined to prove the greatest support in the dangerous emergencies of
the Roman people both at home and in war.
[Footnote 98: This statement is rejected by Niebuhr entirely.]
51. At the time when this disaster was received, C. Horatius and T.
Menenius were consuls. Menenius was immediately sent against the
Etrurians, elated with victory. Then too an unsuccessful battle was
fought, and the enemy took possession of the Janiculum: and the city
would have been besieged, scarcity of provisions bearing hard upon them
in addition to the war, (for the Etrurians had passed the Tiber,) had
not the consul Horatius been recalled from the Volsci; and so closely
did that war approach the very walls, that the first battle was fought
near the temple of Hope with doubtful success, and a second time at the
Colline gate. There, although the Romans had the advantage in a slight
degree only, yet that contest rendered the soldiers better for future
battles by restoring to them their former courage. Aulus Virginius and
Sp. Servilius are created consuls. After the defeat sustained in the
last battle, the Veientians declined an engagement. Ravages were
committed, and they made incursions in every direction on the Roman
territory from the Janiculum as if from a fortress; no where were the
cattle or the husbandmen safe. They were afterwards entrapped by the
same stratagem as that by which they had entrapped the Fabii: having
pursued some cattle that had been driven on designedly for the purpose
of decoying them, they fell into an ambuscade; in proportion as they
were more numerous, the slaughter was greater. The violent resentment
resulting from this disaster was the cause and commencement of one still
greater: for having crossed the Tiber by night, they attempted to
assault the camp of the consul Servilius; being repulsed from thence
with great slaughter, they with difficulty made good their retreat into
the Janiculum. The consul himself also crosses the Tiber, fortifies his
camp at the foot of the Janiculum: at break of day on the following
morning, both from being somewhat elated by the success of the battle of
the day before, more however because the scarcity of corn forced him
into measures which, though dangerous, (he adopted) because they were
more expeditious, he rashly marched his army up the steep of the
Janiculum to the camp of the enemy, and being repulsed from thence with
more disgrace than he had repulsed them on the preceding day, he was
saved, both himself and his army, by the intervention of his colleague.
The Etrurians (hemmed in) between the two armies, when they presented
their rear to the one and the other by turns, were entirely cut off.
Thus the Veientian war was crushed by a fortunate act of temerity.
52. Together with the peace, provisions returned to the city in greater
abundance, both by reason of corn having been brought in from Campania,
and, as soon as the fear felt by each of future famine left them, that
corn being brought forward which had been hoarded up. Then their minds
once more became licentious from their present abundance and ease, and
their former subjects of complaint, now that there were none abroad,
they sought for at home; the tribunes began to excite the commons by
their poison, the agrarian law: they roused them against the senators
who opposed it, and not only against them as a body, but also against
particular individuals. Q. Considius and T. Genucius, the proposers of
the agrarian law, appoint a day of trial for T. Menenius: the loss of
the fort of Cremera, whilst the consul had his standing camp at no great
distance from thence, was the charge against him. They crushed him,
though both the senators had exerted themselves in his behalf with no
less earnestness than in behalf of Coriolanus, and the popularity of his
father Agrippa was not yet forgotten. The tribunes, however, went no
further than a fine: though they had arraigned him for a capital
offence, they imposed on him, when found guilty, a fine of two thousand
_asses_. This proved fatal. They say that he could not submit to the
disgrace, and to the anguish of mind (occasioned by it): that, in
consequence, he was taken off by disease. Another senator, Sp.
Servilius, being soon after arraigned, as soon as he went out of office,
a day of trial having been appointed for him by the tribunes, L.
Cædicius and T. Statius, at the very commencement of the year, in the
consulship of C. Nautius and P. Valerius, did not, like Menenius, meet
the attacks of the tribunes with supplications from himself and the
patricians, but with firm reliance on his own integrity, and his
personal influence. The battle with the Etrurians at the Janiculum was
the charge against him also: but being a man of an intrepid spirit, as
he had formerly acted in the case of public peril, so now in that which
was personal to himself, he dispelled the danger by boldly facing it, by
confuting not only the tribunes but the commons also, by a bold speech,
and upbraiding them with the condemnation and death of T. Menenius, by
the good offices of whose father the commons were formerly
re-established, and were now in possession of those laws and those
magistrates, by means of which they then exercised their insolence; his
colleague Virginius also, who was brought forward as a witness, aided
him by assigning to him a share of his own deserts; the condemnation of
Menenius however was of greater service to him (so much had they changed
their minds).
53. The contests at home were now concluded. A Veientian war broke out,
with whom the Sabines had united their forces. The consul P. Valerius,
after auxiliaries were sent for from the Latins and Hernicians, being
despatched to Veii with an army, immediately attacks the Sabine camp,
which had been pitched before the walls of their allies: and occasioned
such great consternation, that while, dispersed in different directions,
they sally forth to repel the assault of the enemy, the gate which the
Romans first attacked was taken; then within the rampart there was
rather a carnage than a battle. From the camp the alarm spreads into the
city; the Veientians run to arms in as great a panic as if Veii had been
taken: some come up to the support of the Sabines, others fall upon the
Romans, who had directed all their force against the camp. For a little
while they were disconcerted and thrown into confusion; then they too
forming two fronts make a stand: and the cavalry, being commanded by the
consul to charge, routs the Etrurians and puts them to flight; and in
the same hour two armies and two of the most influential and powerful of
the neighbouring states were vanquished. Whilst these transactions are
going on at Veii, the Volsci and Æqui had pitched their camp in the
Latin territory, and laid waste their frontiers. The Latins, by their
own exertions, being joined by the Hernicians, without either a Roman
general or Roman auxiliaries, stripped them of their camp. Besides
recovering their own effects, they obtained immense booty. The consul C.
Nautius, however, was sent against the Volsci from Rome. The custom, I
suppose, was not pleasing for allies to carry on wars with their own
forces and under their own direction without a Roman general and troops.
There was no kind of injury or indignity that was not practised against
the Volsci; nor could they be prevailed on however to come to an
engagement in the field.
54. Lucius Furius and Caius Manlius were the next consuls. The
Veientians fell to Manlius as his province. War however did not take
place: a truce for forty years was granted them at their request, corn
and pay for the soldiers being demanded of them. Disturbance at home
immediately succeeds to peace abroad: the commons were goaded by the
tribunes with the excitement of the agrarian law. The consuls, nothing
intimidated by the condemnation of Menenius, nor by the danger of
Servilius, resist with their utmost might; Cn. Genucius, a tribune of
the people, arraigned the consuls on their going out of office. Lucius
Æmilius and Opiter Virginius enter on the consulate. Instead of
Virginius I find Vopiscus Julius consul in some annals. In this year
(whatever consuls it had) Furius and Manlius, being summoned to trial
before the people, go about in suppliant garb not more to the commons
than to the younger patricians; they advise, they caution them "to keep
themselves from honours and the administration of public affairs, and
that they would consider the consular fasces, the prætexta and curule
chair, as nothing else than the decorations of a funeral; that when
covered with these fine insignia, as with fillets, they were doomed to
death. But if the charms of the consulate were so great, they should
rest satisfied that the consulate was held in captivity and crushed by
the tribunitian power; that every thing was to be done at the nod and
command of the tribune by the consul, as if he were a tribune's beadle.
If he stir, if he have reference to the patricians, if he should think
for a moment that there existed any other party in the state but the
commons, let him place before his eyes the banishment of Caius Marcius,
the condemnation and death of Menenius." Fired by these discourses, the
patricians from that time held their consultations not in public, but in
private, and withdrawn from the knowledge of the many; where when this
one point was agreed on, that the accused must be rescued whether by
just or unjust means, every proposition that was most desperate was most
approved; nor was an actor wanted for any deed however daring.
Accordingly on the day of trial, when the people stood in the forum in
anxious expectation, they at first began to feel surprised that the
tribune did not come down; then when the delay was now becoming more
suspicious, they considered that he was deterred by the nobles, and they
complained that the public cause was abandoned and betrayed. At length
those who had been waiting before the gate of the tribune's residence,
bring word that he was found dead in his house. As soon as rumour spread
this through the whole assembly, just as an army disperses on the fall
of its general, so did they separate in different directions. The
principal panic seized the tribunes, now warned by their colleague's
death what little aid the devoting laws afforded them. Nor did the
patricians bear their joy with sufficient moderation; and so far was any
of them from feeling compunction at the guilty act, that even those who
were innocent wished to be considered to have perpetrated it, and it was
openly declared that the tribunitian power should be subdued by
chastisement.
55. Immediately after this victory of a most ruinous precedent a levy is
proclaimed; and the tribunes being now overawed, the consuls accomplish
the matter without any opposition. Then indeed the commons became
enraged more on account of the silence of the tribunes than the command
of the consuls: and they said "there was an end of their liberty; that
they were come back again to the old condition of things; that the
tribunitian power had died along with Genucius and was buried with him;
that other means must be devised and practised, by which to resist the
patricians; and that the only method for that was that the people should
defend themselves, since they now had no other aid. That four-and-twenty
lictors waited on the consuls; and that these very individuals were from
among the commons; that nothing could be more despicable, nor weaker, if
there were only persons who could despise them; that each person
magnified those things and made them objects of terror to himself." When
they had excited each other by these discourses, a lictor was despatched
by the consuls to Volero Publilius, a man belonging to the commons,
because he stated, that having been a centurion he ought not to be made
a common soldier. Volero appeals to the tribunes. When one came to his
assistance, the consuls order the man to be stripped and the rods to be
got ready. "I appeal to the people," says Volero, "since tribunes had
rather see a Roman citizen scourged before their eyes, than themselves
be butchered by you in their bed." The more vehemently he cried out, the
more violently did the lictor tear off his clothes and strip him. Then
Volero, being both himself of great bodily strength, and being aided by
his partisans, having repulsed the lictor, when the shouts of those
indignant in his behalf became very intense, betook himself into the
thickest part of the crowd, crying out, "I appeal, and implore the
protection of the commons; assist me, fellow citizens; assist me, fellow
soldiers; there is no use in waiting for the tribunes, who themselves
stand in need of your aid." The men, being much excited, prepare as it
were for battle; and it became manifest that there was urgent danger,
that nothing would be held sacred by any one, that there would no longer
exist any public or private right. When the consuls faced this so
violent storm, they soon experienced that majesty without strength had
but little security; the lictors being maltreated, the fasces broken,
they are driven from the forum into the senate-house, uncertain how far
Volero would push his victory. After that, the disturbance subsiding,
when they had ordered the senate to be convened, they complain of the
outrages committed on themselves, of the violence of the people, the
daring of Volero. Many violent measures having been proposed, the elder
members prevailed, who recommended that the unthinking rashness of the
commons should not be met by the passionate resentment of the
patricians.
56. The commons having espoused the interest of Volero, with great
warmth choose him, at the next election, tribune of the people for that
year, which had Lucius Pinarius and Publius Furius for consuls; and,
contrary to the opinion of all men, who thought that he would let loose
his tribuneship in harassing the consuls of the preceding year,
postponing private resentment to the public interest, without assailing
the consuls even by a single word, he proposed a law to the people that
plebeian magistrates should be elected at the comitia by tribes. A
matter of no trifling moment was now being brought forward, under an
aspect at first sight by no means alarming; but one which in reality
deprived the patricians of all power to elect whatever tribunes they
pleased by the suffrages of their clients. The patricians used all their
energies in resisting this proposition, which was most pleasing to the
commons; and though none of the college could be induced by the
influence either of the consuls or of the chief members of the senate to
enter a protest against it, the only means of resistance which now
existed; yet the matter, important as it was by its own weight, is spun
out by contention till the following year. The commons re-elect Volero
as tribune. The senators, considering that the question would be carried
to the very extreme of a struggle, elect to the consulate Appius
Claudius, the son of Appius, who was both hated by and hated the
commons, ever since the contests between them and his father. Titus
Quintius is assigned to him as his colleague. In the very commencement
of the year no other question took precedence of that regarding the law.
But though Volero was the inventor of it, his colleague, Lætorius, was
both a more recent abettor of it, as well as a more energetic one.
Whilst Volero confined himself to the subject of the law, avoiding all
abuse of the consuls, he commenced with accusing Appius and his family,
as having ever been most overbearing and cruel towards the Roman
commons, contending that he had been elected by the senators, not as
consul, but as executioner, to harass and torture the people; his rude
tongue, he being a military man, was not sufficient to express the
freedom of his sentiments. Language therefore failing him, he says,
"Romans, since I do not speak with as much readiness as I make good what
I have spoken, attend here to-morrow. I will either die here before your
eyes, or will carry the law." On the following day the tribunes take
possession of the temple; the consuls and the nobility take their places
in the assembly to obstruct the law. Lætorius orders all persons to be
removed, except those going to vote; the young nobles kept their places,
paying no regard to the officer; then Lætorius orders some of them to be
seized. The consul Appius insisted "that the tribune had no jurisdiction
over any one except a plebeian; for that he was not a magistrate of the
people in general, but only of the commons; for that even he himself
could not, according to the usage of their ancestors, by virtue of his
authority remove any person; because the words run thus, _if ye think
proper, depart, Romans_." He was able to disconcert Lætorius by arguing
fluently and contemptuously concerning the right. The tribune therefore,
burning with rage, sends his beadle to the consul; the consul sends his
lictor to the tribune, exclaiming that he was a private individual,
without power and without magistracy; and the tribune would have been
roughly treated, had not both the entire assembly risen up with great
warmth in behalf of the tribune against the consul, and a rush of
persons belonging to the multitude, which was now much excited, taken
place from the entire city into the forum. Appius, however, withstood
so great a storm with obstinacy, and the contest would have ended in a
battle, not without blood, had not Quintius, the other consul, after
giving it in charge to the men of consular dignity to remove his
colleague from the forum by force, if they could not do it otherwise,
himself assuaged the enraged people by entreaties, and implored the
tribunes to dismiss the assembly. "That they should give their passion
time to cool; that delay would not deprive them of their power, but
would add prudence to strength; and that the senators would be under the
control of the people, and the consul under that of the senators."
57. With difficulty the people were pacified by Quintius: with much more
difficulty was the other consul by the patricians. The assembly of the
people being at length dismissed, the consuls convene the senate; where,
though fear and resentment by turns had produced a diversity of
opinions, the more they were recalled, after the lapse of time, from
violence to reflection, the more averse did they become to a continuance
of the dispute, so that they returned thanks to Quintius, because by his
exertions the disturbance had been quieted. Appius is requested "to
consent that the consular dignity should be merely so great as it could
be in a peaceably conducted state; that as long as the tribune and
consuls were drawing all power, each to his own side, no strength was
left between; that the object aimed at was in whose hands the
commonwealth should be, distracted and torn as it was, rather than that
it should be safe." Appius, on the contrary, called gods and men to
witness that "the commonwealth was betrayed and abandoned through
cowardice; that it was not the consul that was wanting to the senate,
but the senate to the consul; that more oppressive laws were now being
submitted to than were sanctioned on the sacred mount." Overcome however
by the unanimous feeling of the senators, he desisted: the law is
carried without opposition.
58. Then for the first time the tribunes were elected in the comitia by
tribes. Piso said that three were added to the number, whereas there had
been only two before. He names the tribunes also, Caius Sicinius, Lucius
Numitorius, Marcus Duilius, Spurius Icilius, Lucius Mecilius. During the
disturbance at Rome, a war with the Volscians and Æquans broke out; they
had laid waste the lands, so that if any secession of the people should
take place, they might find a refuge with them. The differences being
afterwards settled, they removed their camp backwards. Appius Claudius
was sent against the Volscians; the Æquans fell to Quintius as his
province. The severity of Appius was the same in war as at home, being
more unrestrained because he was free from tribunitian control. He hated
the commons with more than his father's hatred: he had been defeated by
them: when he was set up as the only consul to oppose the tribunitian
influence, a law was passed, which former consuls obstructed with less
effort, amid hopes of the senators by no means so great (as those formed
of him). His resentment and indignation at this, excited his imperious
temper to harass the army by the rigour of his command; nor could it
(the army) however be subdued by any means; such a spirit of opposition
had they imbibed. They executed every measure slowly, indolently,
negligently, and with stubbornness: neither shame nor fear restrained
them. If he wished the army to move on with expedition, they designedly
went more slowly: if he came up to them to encourage them in their work,
they all relaxed the energy which they before exerted of their own
accord: when he was present they cast down their eyes, they silently
cursed him as he passed by; so that his mind, invulnerable to plebeian
hatred, was sometimes moved. All kind of harsh treatment being tried in
vain, he no longer held any intercourse with the soldiers; he said the
army was corrupted by the centurions; he sometimes gibingly called them
tribunes of the people and Voleros.
59. None of these circumstances were unknown to the Volscians, and they
pressed on with so much the more vigour, hoping that the Roman army
would entertain the same spirit of opposition against Appius, which they
had formerly entertained against the consul Fabius. But they were much
more violent against Appius than against Fabius. For they were not only
unwilling to conquer, like Fabius' army, but they wished to be
conquered. When led out to the field, they made for their camp in an
ignominious flight, nor did they stand their ground until they saw the
Volscians advancing to their fortifications, and making dreadful havoc
on the rear of their army. Then the obligation to fight was wrung from
them, in order that the victorious enemy should be dislodged from their
lines; yet it was sufficiently plain that the Roman soldiers were only
unwilling that their camp should be taken; some of them gloried in their
own defeat and disgrace. When the determined spirit of Appius, undaunted
by these things, wished to exercise severity still further, and he
summoned a meeting, the lieutenant-generals and tribunes flock around
him, advising him "that he would not determine on venturing a trial of
an authority, the entire strength of which lay in the acquiescence of
those who were to obey. That the soldiers generally refused to come to
the assembly, and that their clamours were heard in every direction
demanding that the camp should be removed from the Volscian territory.
That the victorious enemy were but a little time ago almost at the very
gates and rampart; and that not merely a suspicion, but a manifest
indication of a grievous disaster presented itself to their eyes."
Yielding at length, (since they would gain nothing save a delay of
punishment,) having prorogued the assembly, after he had given orders
that their march should be proclaimed for the following day, he, at the
first dawn, gave the signal for departure by sound of trumpet. When the
army, having just got clear of the camp, were forming themselves, the
Volscians, as being aroused by the same signal, fall upon those in the
rear; from whom the alarm spreading to the van, confounded both the
battalions and ranks with such consternation, that neither the generals'
orders could be distinctly heard, nor the lines be drawn up, no one
thinking of any thing but flight. In such confusion did they make their
way through heaps of dead bodies and of arms, that the enemy ceased to
pursue sooner than the Romans to fly. The soldiers being at length
collected from their scattered rout, the consul, after he had in vain
followed his men for the purpose of rallying them, pitched his camp in a
peaceful part of the country; and an assembly being convened, after
inveighing not without good reason against the army, as traitors to
military discipline, deserters of their posts, frequently asking them,
one by one, where were their standards, where their arms; he first beat
with rods and then beheaded those soldiers who had thrown down their
arms, the standard-bearers who had lost their standards, and moreover
the centurions, and those with the double allowance, who had left their
ranks. With respect to the rest of the multitude, every tenth man was
drawn by lot for punishment.
60. In a contrary manner to this, the consul and soldiers in the country
of the Æquans vied with each other in courtesy and acts of kindness:
both Quintius was naturally milder in disposition, and the ill-fated
severity of his colleague caused him to indulge more in his own good
temper. This, such great cordiality between the general and his army,
the Æquans did not venture to meet; they suffered the enemy to go
through their lands committing devastations in every direction. Nor were
depredations committed more extensively in that quarter in any preceding
war. Praises were also added, in which the minds of soldiers find no
less pleasure than in rewards. The army returned more reconciled both to
their general, and also on account of the general to the patricians;
stating that a parent was assigned to them, a master to the other army
by the senate. The year now passed, with varied success in war, and
furious dissensions at home and abroad, was rendered memorable chiefly
by the elections by tribes; the matter was more important from the
victory in the contest entered into, than from any real advantage; for
there was more of dignity abstracted from the elections themselves by
the exclusion of the patricians, than there was influence either added
to the commons or taken from the patricians.
61. A more turbulent year[99] next followed, Lucius Valerius, Tiberius
Æmilius being consuls, both by reason of the struggles between the
different orders concerning the agrarian law, as well as on account of
the trial of Appius Claudius; for whom, as a most active opposer of the
law, and as one who supported the cause of the possessors of the public
land, as if a third consul, Marcus Duilius and Caius Sicinius appointed
a day of trial.[100] Never before was an accused person so hateful to
the commons brought to trial before the people; overwhelmed with their
resentment on his own account,[101] and also on account of his father.
The patricians too seldom made equal exertions in behalf of any one:
"that the champion of the senate, and the assertor of their dignity,
opposed to all the storms of the tribunes and commons, was exposed to
the resentment of the commons, merely for having exceeded bounds in the
contest." Appius Claudius himself was the only one of the patricians who
made light both of the tribunes and commons and his own trial. Neither
the threats of the commons, nor the entreaties of the senate, could ever
persuade him not only to change his garb, or address persons as a
suppliant, but not even so far as to soften or relax any thing from the
usual asperity of his style, when his cause was to be pleaded before the
people. The expression of his countenance was the same; the same
stubbornness in his looks, the same spirit of pride in his language; so
that a great part of the commons felt no less awe of Appius when
arraigned, than they had felt of him when consul. He pleaded his cause
once, and with the same spirit of an accuser which he had been
accustomed to adopt on all occasions: and he so far astounded both the
tribunes and the commons by his intrepidity, that, of their own accord,
they postponed the day of trial; then they allowed the matter to be
protracted. Nor was the time now very distant; before, however, the
appointed day came, he dies of some disease; and when the tribunes of
the people endeavoured to impede his funeral panegyric,[102] the commons
would not allow that the last day of so great a man should be defrauded
of the usual honours; and they listened to the panegyric of him when
dead with as patient ears, as they had listened to the charges brought
against him when living, and attended his funeral in vast numbers.
[Footnote 99: Niebuhr, ii. p. 231, thinks that it was in this year the
Icilian law was passed, according to which, any person interrupting the
proceedings of the tribunes, rendered himself liable to capital
punishment.--_Twiss._]
[Footnote 100: Several charges were brought against Appius, according to
Dion. ix. 54, who also states that he did not die of any disease, but
that he laid violent hands on himself.--_Ruperti._]
[Footnote 101: The original has _plenus suarum_--_irarum_,--that is, the
anger not of Appius against the commons, but of the commons against
him.]
[Footnote 102: Conf. Nieb. ii. n. 754. It may be well to mention that
Niebuhr considered that this account regarding the death of Appius was
all fictitious. The Greek writers, scil. Dion. ix. 54, Zonar. vii. 17,
state that he laid violent hands on himself.]
62. In the same year the consul Valerius, having marched an army against
the Æquans, when he could not entice the enemy to an engagement, set
about assaulting their camp. A violent storm sent down from heaven with
thunder and hail prevented him. Then, on a signal for a retreat being
given, their surprise was excited by the return of such fair weather,
that they felt a scruple a second time to attack a camp which was
defended as it were by some divine power; all the rage of war was turned
on the devastation of the land. The other consul, Æmilius, conducted the
war against the Sabines. There also, because the enemy confined
themselves within their walls, the lands were laid waste. Then, by the
burning not only of the country-houses, but of the villages also, which
were thickly inhabited, the Sabines being aroused, after they met the
depredators, on retreating from an engagement left undecided, on the
following day removed their camp into a safer situation. This seemed a
sufficient reason to the consul why he should leave the enemy as
conquered, departing thence the war being still unfinished.
63. During these wars, whilst dissensions still continued at home, Titus
Numicius Priscus, Aulus Virginius, were elected consuls. The commons
appeared determined no longer to brook a delay of the agrarian law, and
extreme violence was on the eve of being resorted to, when it was
ascertained from the burning of the country-houses and the flight of the
peasants that the Volscians were at hand: this circumstance checked the
sedition that was now ripe and almost breaking out. The consuls, having
been instantly forced to the war by the senate,[103] after leading forth
the youth from the city, rendered the rest of the commons more quiet.
And the enemy indeed, having done nothing else except alarming the
Romans by groundless fear, depart with great precipitation. Numicius
marched to Antium against the Volscians, Virginius against the Æquans.
Here a signal overthrow being well nigh received from an ambuscade, the
bravery of the soldiers restored (the Roman) superiority, which had been
endangered through the carelessness of the consul. The general conducted
affairs better against the Volscians. The enemy were routed in the first
engagement, and forced to fly into the city of Antium, a very wealthy
place considering those times; the consul, not venturing to attack it,
took from the people of Antium another town, Ceno, which was by no means
so wealthy. Whilst the Æquans and Volscians engage the attention of the
Roman armies, the Sabines advanced in their devastations even to the
gates of the city: then they themselves, a few days after, received from
the two armies heavier losses than they had occasioned, the two consuls
having entered their territories under exasperated feelings.
[Footnote 103: In the original we read _coacti extemplo ab senatu_.
Niebuhr considers this reading to be corrupt, and is satisfied that the
correct reading is _coacto extemplo senatu_. See ii. n. 555.]
64. Towards the close of the year there was some peace, but, as
frequently at other times, disturbed by contests between the patricians
and commons. The exasperated commons refused to attend the consular
elections: Titus Quintius, Quintus Servilius, were elected consuls by
the patricians and their dependents: the consuls have a year similar to
the preceding, the commencement embroiled, and afterwards tranquil by
external war. The Sabines marching across the plains of Crustuminum with
great rapidity, after carrying fire and sword along the banks of the
Anio, being repulsed when they had come up nearly to the Colline gate
and the walls, drove off however great booty of men and cattle: the
consul Servilius, having pursued them with a determined army, was unable
to come up with the main body itself on the campaign country; he carried
his devastation however so extensively, that he left nothing unmolested
by war, and returned after obtaining plunder much exceeding that carried
off by the enemy. The public interest was supported extremely well
against the Volscians also by the exertions as well of the general as of
the soldiers. First they fought a pitched battle, on equal ground, with
great slaughter and much bloodshed on both sides: and the Romans,
because the fewness of their numbers was more likely to make the loss
felt, would have given way, had not the consul, by a well-timed fiction,
re-animated the army, crying out that the enemy were flying on the other
wing; making a charge, they, by supposing that they were victorious,
became so. The consul, fearing lest by pressing too far he might renew
the contest, gave the signal for a retreat. A few days intervened; rest
being taken on both sides as if by a tacit suspension of arms; during
these days a vast number of persons from all the states of the Volscians
and Æquans came to the camp, certain that the Romans would depart during
the night, if they should perceive them. Accordingly about the third
watch they come to attack the camp. Quintius having allayed the
confusion which the sudden panic had occasioned, after ordering the
soldiers to remain quiet in their tents, leads out a cohort of the
Hernicians for an advance guard: the trumpeters and horneteers he mounts
on horseback, and commands them to sound their trumpets before the
rampart, and to keep the enemy in suspense till daylight: during the
rest of the night every thing was so quiet in the camp, that the Romans
had even the advantage of sleep. The sight of the armed infantry, whom
they both considered to be more numerous than they were, and to be
Romans, the bustle and neighing of the horses, which became restless,
both from the strange riders placed on them, and moreover from the sound
of the trumpets frightening them, kept the Volscians intently awaiting
an attack of the enemy.
65. When day dawned, the Romans, invigorated and refreshed with sleep,
on being marched out to battle, at the first onset overpowered the
Volscians, wearied from standing and want of rest; though the enemy
rather retired than were routed, because in the rear there were hills to
which there was a secure retreat, the ranks behind the first line being
unbroken. The consul, when they came to the uneven ground, halts his
army; the soldiers were kept back with difficulty; they cried out and
demanded to be allowed to pursue the enemy now discomfited. The cavalry,
crowding around the general, proceed more violently: they cry out that
they would proceed before the first line. Whilst the consul hesitates,
relying on the valour of his men, yet having little confidence in the
place, they all cry out that they would proceed; and execution followed
the shout. Fixing their spears in the ground, in order that they may be
lighter to ascend the steeps, they run upwards. The Volscians, having
discharged their missile weapons at the first onset, fling the stones
lying at their feet on them as they advanced upwards, and having thrown
them into confusion by incessant blows, they drove them from the higher
ground: thus the left wing of the Romans was nearly overborne, had not
the consul dispelled their fear by exciting a sense of shame as they
were just retreating, chiding at the same time their temerity and their
cowardice. At first they stood their ground with determined firmness;
then, according as their strength carried them against those in
possession of the ground, they venture to advance themselves; and by
renewing the shout they encourage the whole body to move on; then again
making a new effort, they force their way up and surmount the
disadvantage of the ground. They were on the point of gaining the summit
of the eminence, when the enemy turned their backs, and the pursued and
pursuers with precipitate speed rushed into the camp almost in a body.
In this consternation the camp is taken; such of the Volscians as were
able to make their escape, take the road to Antium. The Roman army also
was led to Antium; after being invested for a few days it surrenders
without any additional force of the besiegers,[104] but because their
spirits had sunk ever since the unsuccessful battle and the loss of
their camp.
[Footnote 104: _Additional force of the_, &c. Crovier understands this
to signify that the Romans did not employ a greater force for besieging
Antium, than they had employed the preceding year, and which at that
time seemed insufficient for the purpose. Others understand the words to
signify that they surrendered without waiting for the Romans to make any
additional efforts to take the town.]