_Disturbances about the agrarian laws. The Capitol surprised by
exiles and slaves. Quintius Cincinnatus called from the cultivation
of his farm in the country, made dictator, and appointed to conduct
the war against the Æquans. He conquers the enemy, and makes them
pass under the yoke. The number of the tribunes increased to ten.
Decemvirs, appointed for the purpose of digesting and publishing a
body of laws. These having promulgated a code of laws contained in
ten tables, obtain a continuation of their authority for another
year, during which they add two more to the former ten tables.
Refusing to resign their office, they retain it a third year. Their
conduct at first equitable and just; afterwards arbitrary and
tyrannical. The commons, in consequence of the base attempt of
Appius Claudius, one of them, to debauch the daughter of Virginius,
seize on the Aventine mount, and oblige them to resign. Appius and
Oppius, two of the most obnoxious, are thrown into prison, where
they put an end to their own lives; the rest are driven into exile.
War with the Sabines, Volscians, and Æquans.--Unfair decision of
the Roman people, who being chosen arbitrators between the people
of Ardea and Aricia concerning some disputed lands, adjudge them to
themselves._
1. After the taking of Antium, Titus Æmilius and Quintus Fabius are
elected consuls. This was the Fabius Quintus who alone had survived the
family cut off at Cremera. Already, in his former consulate, Æmilius had
been an adviser of giving land to the people. Accordingly in his second
consulate also both the abettors of the agrarian law had raised
themselves to the hope of carrying the measure, and the tribunes,
supposing that a matter frequently attempted in opposition to both
consuls might be obtained with the assistance at least of one consul,
take it up, and the consul remained stedfast in his sentiments. The
possessors and a considerable part of the patricians complaining that a
person at the head of the state was recommending himself by his
tribunitial proceedings, and that he was making himself popular by
giving away other persons' property, had transferred the odium of the
entire affair from the tribunes to the consul. A violent contest was at
hand, had not Fabius set the matter straight, by an expedient
disagreeable to neither party, "that under the conduct and auspices of
Titus Quintius, there was a considerable tract of land taken the
preceding year from the Volscians; that a colony might be sent to
Antium, a neighbouring, convenient, and maritime city; that the commons
might come in for lands without any complaints of the present occupiers,
that the state might remain in quiet." This proposition was accepted. He
appoints as triumvirs for distributing the land, Titus Quintius, Aulus
Virginius, and Publius Furius: those who wished to obtain land were
ordered to give in their names. The gratification of their aim begat
disgust, as usually happens; so few gave in their names that Volscian
colonists were added to fill up the number: the rest of the people
preferred clamouring for land in Rome, rather than receive it elsewhere.
The Æquans sued for peace from Quintus Fabius, (he was sent thither with
an army,) and they themselves broke it by a sudden incursion into the
Latin territory.
2. In the following year Quintus Servilius, (for he was consul with
Spurius Posthumius,) being sent against the Æquans, fixed his camp in
the Latin territory: inaction necessarily kept the army within the camp,
involved as they were in a distemper. The war was protracted to the
third year, Quintus Fabius and Titus Quintius being consuls. To Fabius,
because he, as conqueror, had granted[105] peace to the Æquans, that
province was assigned by an extraordinary commission: who, setting out
with certain hope that the fame of his name would reduce the Æquans to
submission, sent ambassadors to the council of the nation, and ordered
them to say "that Quintus Fabius, the consul, stated that he had brought
peace to Rome from the Æquans, that from Rome he now brought war to the
Æquans, that same right hand being armed, which he had formerly given to
them in amity; that the gods were now witnesses, and would presently be
avengers of those by whose perfidy and perjury that was brought to pass.
That he, however, be matters as they might, would even now prefer that
the Æquans should repent of their own accord than be subject to the
vengeance of an enemy. If they repent, that there would be a safe
retreat in that clemency already experienced; but if they still
delighted in perjury, they would wage war with the angry gods rather
than with enemies." This statement had so little effect on any of them,
that the ambassadors were near being ill-treated, and an army was sent
to Algidum against the Romans. When these tidings were brought to Rome,
the indignity of the affair, rather than the danger, called out the
other consul from the city; thus two consular armies advanced against
the enemy in order of battle, so that they might at once engage. But as
it so happened that much of the day did not now remain, a person from
the advanced guard of the enemy cries out, "This is making a display of
war, Romans, not waging it; you draw up your army in line of battle,
when night is at hand; we require a greater length of day-light for the
contest which is to come on. To-morrow by sun-rise return to the field:
you shall have an opportunity of fighting, never fear." The soldiers,
stung by these threats, are marched back into the camp till the
following day; thinking that the approaching night was tedious, which
would cause delay to the contest. Then indeed they refresh their bodies
with food and sleep: on the following day, when it was light, the Roman
army took their post considerably sooner. At length the Æquans also came
forward. The battle was obstinate on both sides, because both the Romans
fought under the influence of resentment and hatred; and a consciousness
of danger brought on by misconduct, and despair of obtaining future
confidence afterwards, obliged the Æquans to exert and have recourse to
the most desperate efforts. The Æquans however did not withstand the
Roman troops, and when on being beaten they had betaken themselves to
their own territories, the outrageous multitude, with dispositions not
at all more disposed to peace, began to chide their leaders: "that their
interest was committed to the hazard of a pitched battle, in which mode
of fighting the Romans were superior. That the Æquans were better fitted
for depredations and incursions, and that several parties acting in
different directions conducted wars more successfully than the unwieldy
mass of one single army."
[Footnote 105: _Dederat_. The _oratio obliqua_ would require _dederit_
here, but such instances of the indicative being used for the
subjunctive are by no means infrequent.]
3. Having left therefore a guard on the camp, they marched out and
attacked the Roman frontiers with such fury, as to carry terror even to
the city: the unexpected nature of the thing also caused more alarm,
because nothing could be less apprehended, than that an enemy,
vanquished and almost besieged in their camp, should entertain a thought
of depredation: and the peasants, in a panic pouring in at the gates,
cried out, that it was not mere plundering, nor small parties of
depredators, but, exaggerating every thing through groundless fear, that
whole armies and legions of the enemy were advancing, and that they were
pushing forward to the city determined for an assault. Those who were
nearest (the gates) carried to others the accounts heard from these,
uncertain as they were, and therefore the more groundless; and the hurry
and confused clamour of those calling to arms bore no distant
resemblance to the panic of a city taken by storm. It so happened that
the consul Quintius had returned to Rome from Algidum; this was some
relief for their terror; and the tumult being calmed, and after chiding
them for being in dread of a vanquished enemy, he posted a guard on the
gates. Then having convened the senate, when he set out to defend the
frontiers, a suspension[106] of civil business having been proclaimed by
a decree of the senate, leaving Quintus Servilius behind as prefect of
the city, he found no enemy in the country. Matters were conducted with
distinguished success by the other consul; who having attacked the
enemy, wherever he knew that they were to come, laden with booty, and
proceeding therefore with their army the more encumbered, made their
depredation prove fatal to them. Few of the enemy escaped from the
ambuscade; all the booty was recovered; thus the return of the consul
Quintius to the city put a termination to the justitium, which lasted
only four days. A census was then held, and the lustrum was closed by
Quintius: the number of citizens rated are said to have been one hundred
and twenty-four thousand two hundred and fourteen, besides orphans of
both sexes. Nothing memorable occurred afterwards among the Æquans; they
betook themselves into their towns, suffering their possessions to be
consumed by fire and to be devastated. The consul, after he had
repeatedly carried depredation through the entire country of the enemy,
returned to Rome with great glory and booty.
[Footnote 106: _Justitium_--a jure sistendo.]
4. Then Aulus Posthumius Albus and Spurius Furius Fusus were consuls.
Furii some writers have written Fusii; this I mention, lest any one may
imagine that the change, which is only in the names, may be in the
persons themselves. There was no doubt but that one of the consuls would
commence hostilities against the Æquans. The Æquans accordingly sought
aid from the Volscians of Ecetra; which being granted readily, (so
keenly did these states vie in inveterate hatred against the Romans,)
preparations for war were made with the utmost vigour. The Hernicians
came to the knowledge of it, and warned the Romans that the Ecetrans had
revolted to the Æquans; the colony of Antium also was suspected, because
when the town was taken, a great number of the inhabitants had fled
thence for refuge to the Æquans: and these proved the bravest soldiers
during the war with the Æquans. Afterwards the Æquans being driven into
the towns, this rabble withdrawing privately, when they returned to
Antium, seduced from the Romans the colonists who were already disposed
to treachery of their own accord. The matter not being yet ripe, when it
was announced to the senate that a defection was intended, the consuls
were charged to inquire into the business by summoning to Rome the
leading men of the colony. When those persons attended without
reluctance, being conducted to the senate by the consuls, they so
answered to the questions put to them, that they were dismissed more
suspected than they had come. Upon this war was considered as
inevitable. Spurius Fusius, one of the consuls to whom that province had
fallen, having marched against the Æquans, found the enemy committing
depredations in the country of the Hernicians; and being ignorant of
their numbers, because they had never been seen all together, he rashly
hazarded an engagement with an army not a match for their forces. Being
beaten from his ground at the first onset, he betook himself to his
camp: nor was that an end of the danger: for both on the next night and
the following day, his camp was beset and assaulted with such vigour,
that not even a messenger could be sent from thence to Rome. The
Hernicians brought an account both that a defeat had taken place, and
that the army was besieged: and they struck such terror into the senate,
that a charge was given to the other consul Posthumius, that he should
"take care that the commonwealth sustained no injury,"[107] which form
of a decree has ever been deemed to be one of extreme exigency. It
seemed most advisable that the consul himself should remain at Rome to
enlist all who were able to bear arms: that Titus Quintius should be
sent as pro-consul[108] to the relief of the camp with the army of the
allies: to complete that army the Latins and Hernicians, and the colony
of Antium, were ordered to supply Quintius with subitary soldiers (so
they then called auxiliaries raised for sudden emergencies).
[Footnote 107: According to Stroth, this is the first instance we have
of a decree of the senate arming the consul with almost dictatorial
power.]
[Footnote 108: _Pro-consul_:--the first mention of a pro-consul in
Livy.]
5. During those days many movements and many attempts were made on
either side, because the enemy, having the advantage in numbers,
attempted to weaken the Roman strength by dividing it into many parts,
as not being likely to suffice for all points of attack. At the same
time the camp was besieged, at the same time a part of the army was sent
to devastate the Roman territory, and to attempt the city itself, if
fortune should favour. Lucius Valerius was left to guard the city: the
consul Postumius was sent to repel the attacks on the frontiers. There
was no abatement in any part either in vigilance or activity; watches in
the city, out-posts before the gates, and guards stationed along the
walls: and a justitium was observed for several days (a thing which was
necessary in such general confusion). In the mean time the consul
Furius, after he had at first passively endured the siege in his camp,
burst forth from the Decuman gate on the enemy when off their guard; and
though he might have pursued them, he stopped through fear, lest an
attack should be made on the camp from the other side. The
lieutenant-general Furius (he was the consul's brother) was carried away
too far by his ardour; nor did he, from his eagerness to pursue, observe
his own party returning, nor the attack of the enemy on his rear: thus
being shut out, after repeatedly making many unavailing efforts to force
his way to the camp, he fell, fighting bravely. And the consul, turning
about to renew the fight, on hearing the account that his brother was
surrounded, rushing into the thick of the fight rather rashly than with
sufficient caution, received a wound, and was with difficulty rescued by
those around him. This both damped the courage of his own men, and
rendered the enemy more daring; who, being encouraged by the death of
the lieutenant-general, and by the consul's wound, could not afterwards
be withstood by any force, so as to prevent the Romans from being driven
within their camp and again submitting to a siege, as being a match for
them neither in hopes nor in strength; and every thing would have been
endangered, had not T. Quintius come to their relief with foreign troops
from the Latin and Hernician army. He attacked the Æquans on their rear
whilst intent on the Roman camp, and insultingly displaying the head of
the lieutenant-general, and, a sally being made at the same time from
the camp on a signal given at a distance by him, he surrounded a great
number of the enemy. Of the Æquans on the Roman territory the slaughter
was less, their dispersion was more complete. On these as they straggled
in different directions, and were driving plunder before them, Postumius
made an attack in several places, where he had posted convenient
detachments; these straying about and pursuing their flight in great
disorder, fell in with the victorious Quintius as he was returning with
the wounded consul. Then did the consular army by their distinguished
bravery take ample vengeance for the consul's wound, and for the death
of the lieutenant-general and the cohorts; heavy losses were both
inflicted and received on both sides during those days. In a matter of
such antiquity it is difficult to state with certainty the exact number
of those who fought or fell: Antias Valerius, however, ventures to sum
them up; that in the Hernician territory there fell five thousand three
hundred Romans; that of the predatory parties of the Æquans, who strayed
through the Roman frontiers for the purpose of plundering, two thousand
four hundred were slain by the consul Postumius; that the rest of the
body that were driving booty before them, and which fell in with
Quintius, by no means got off with so light a loss: that of these four
thousand, and by way of stating the number exactly, two hundred and
thirty, were slain. After this they returned to Rome; the order for the
justitium was discharged. The sky seemed to be all on fire; and other
prodigies either actually presented themselves to their sight, or
exhibited imaginary appearances to their affrighted minds. To avert
these terrors, a solemn festival of three days was proclaimed, during
which, all the temples were filled with a crowd of men and women,
earnestly imploring the protection of the gods. After this the Latin and
Hernician cohorts were sent back to their respective homes, thanks
having been returned to them for their spirited military services. The
thousand soldiers from Antium were dismissed almost with disgrace,
because they had come after the battle with assistance then too late.
6. The elections were then held: Lucius Æbutius and Publius Servilius
being elected consuls, enter on their office on the calends of August,
which was then considered as the commencement of the year.[109] This was
a distressing time, and it so happened that the season was pestilential
to the city and country, and not more to men than to cattle; and they
increased the malignity of the distemper, by admitting[110] the cattle
and the peasants into the city through dread of devastation. This
collection of animals of every kind mixed together, distressed both the
citizens by the unusual stench, and the peasants crowded together into
their close apartments, with heat, want of sleep, and their attendance
on each other, and contact itself propagated the disease. Whilst with
difficulty sustaining these calamities, ambassadors from the Hernicians
suddenly bring word that the Æquans and Volscians, having united their
forces, had pitched their camp in their territory, that from thence they
were depopulating their frontiers with an immense army. Besides that the
thinness of the senate was a proof to the allies that the state was
prostrated by the pestilence, they further received this melancholy
answer: "That the Hernicians, with the Latins, must now defend their
possessions by their own exertions. That the Roman city, through the
sudden anger of the gods, was now depopulated by disease. If any respite
from that calamity should come, that they would afford aid to their
allies, as they had done the year before, and always on other
occasions." The allies departed, carrying home, instead of the
melancholy news (they had brought), news still more melancholy, as being
persons who were now obliged to sustain by their own means a war, which
they had sustained with difficulty when backed by the power of Rome. The
enemy did not confine themselves any longer to the Hernician territory.
They proceed thence with determined hostility into the Roman
territories, which were already devastated without the injuries of war.
Where, when there was no one to meet them, not even an unarmed person,
and they passed through every place destitute not only of troops, but
even of the cultivation of the husbandman, they reached as far as the
third stone on the Gabinian road. Æbutius, the Roman consul, was dead;
his colleague, Servilius, was dragging out life with slender hope of
recovery; most of the leading men, the chief part of the patricians, all
of the military age, were lying sick, so that strength was wanting not
only for the expeditions, which, amid such an alarm the conjuncture
required, but scarcely had they sufficient even for quietly mounting
guard. The senators whose age and health permitted them, discharged
personally the duty of sentinels. The going around[111] and attending to
these was assigned to the ædiles of the people; on them devolved the
chief administration of affairs and the majesty of the consular
authority.
[Footnote 109: Of the year,--i.e. the consular year, not the civil one,
which commenced in January.]
[Footnote 110: A similar measure was adopted at Athens. See Thucyd. ii.
52.]
[Footnote 111: _Circuitio_. Stroth observes, that this is what we
understand by 'the Round.']
7. The commonwealth thus desolate, without a head, without strength, the
guardian gods and good fortune of the city saved, which inspired the
Volscians and Æquans with the disposition of banditti rather than of
enemies; for so far was any hope not only of taking but even of
approaching the walls of Rome[112] from taking possession of their
minds, and so thoroughly did the sight of the houses in the distance,
and the adjacent hills, divert their thoughts, (from such an attempt,)
that, a murmur having arisen in every direction throughout the entire
camp, "why they should waste time in indolence without booty in a wild
and desert land, amid the putrid decay of cattle and of human beings,
when they might repair to places uninjured by infection, the Tusculan
territory abounding in wealth?" they suddenly tore up their standards,
and by journeys across the country, they passed through the Lavican
territory to the Tusculan hills; and to that quarter was the whole
violence and storm of the war directed. In the mean time the Hernicians
and Latins, influenced not only by compassion but by shame, if they
neither gave opposition to the common enemy, when making for the city
of Rome with a hostile army, nor afforded any aid to their allies when
besieged, march to Rome with their forces united. Where, when they did
not find the enemy, following their tracks as indicated by rumour, they
meet them as they are coming down from the Tusculan territory into the
Alban valley: there a battle was fought under circumstances by no means
equal; and their fidelity proved by no means favourable to the allies
for the present. The mortality at Rome by disease was not less than that
of the allies by the sword (of the enemy); the only surviving consul
dies; other eminent characters also died, Marcus Valerius, Titus
Virginius Rutilus, the augurs; Servius Sulpicius, principal curio; and
through persons of inferior note the virulence of the disease spread
extensively: and the senate, destitute of human aid, directed the
people's attention to the gods and to prayers; they were ordered to go
to supplicate with their wives and children, and earnestly to implore
the protection of heaven. Besides that their own sufferings obliged each
to do so, when called on by public authority, they fill all the shrines;
the prostrate matrons in every quarter sweeping the temples with their
hair, beg for a remission of the divine displeasure, and a termination
to the pestilence.
[Footnote 112: According to Dionysius, the Volsci attacked Rome on this
occasion.]
8. From this time, whether it was from the favour of the gods being
obtained, or that the more unhealthy season of the year was now passed,
the bodies of the people having shaken off disease, gradually began to
be more healthy, and their attention being now directed to public
concerns, when several interregna had expired, Publius Valerius
Publicola, on the third day after he had entered on his office of
interrex, causes Lucretius Tricipitinus, and Titus Veturius Geminus, (or
Velusius,) to be elected consuls. They enter on their consulship on the
third day of the Ides of August, the state being now sufficiently
strong, not only to repel a hostile attack, but even to act itself on
the offensive. Therefore when the Hernicians brought an account that the
enemy had made an incursion into their frontiers, assistance was readily
promised; two consular armies were enlisted. Veturius was sent against
the Volscians to carry on an offensive war. Tricipitinus being appointed
to protect the territory of the allies from devastation, proceeds no
further than into the country of the Hernicians. Veturius routs and puts
to flight the enemy in the first engagement. A party of plunderers
which had marched over the Prænestine mountains, and from thence
descended into the plains, escaped the notice of Lucretius, whilst he
lay encamped amongst the Hernicians. These laid waste all the country
around Præneste and Gabii: from the Gabinian territory they turn their
course towards the heights of Tusculum; great alarm was excited in the
city of Rome also, more from the suddenness of the affair, than that
there was not sufficient strength to repel violence. Quintus Fabius had
the command in the city;[113] he, by arming the young men and posting
guards, rendered things secure and tranquil. The enemy therefore
carrying off plunder from the adjacent places, not venturing to approach
the city, when they were returning by a circuitous route, their caution
being now more relaxed, in proportion as they removed to a greater
distance from the enemy's city, fall in with the consul Lucretius, who
had already explored their motions, drawn up in battle-array and
determined on an engagement. Accordingly having attacked them with
predetermined resolution whilst struck with sudden panic, though
considerably fewer in numbers, they rout and put to flight their
numerous army, and having driven them into the deep valleys, when an
egress from thence was not easy, they surround them. There the Volscian
nation was almost entirely cut off. In some histories I find that
thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy fell in the field and in the
pursuit, that one thousand two hundred and fifty were taken alive, that
twenty-seven military standards were carried off; where, though there
may have been some exaggeration in the number, there certainly was great
slaughter. The victorious consul having obtained immense booty returned
to the same standing camp. Then the consuls join their camps. The
Volscians and Æquans also unite their shattered strength. This was the
third battle on that year; the same good fortune gave them victory; the
enemy being beaten, their camp was also taken.
[Footnote 113: As _præfectus urbis_.]
9. Thus affairs at Rome returned to their former state; and successes
abroad immediately excited commotions in the city. Caius Terentillus
Arsa[114] was tribune of the people in that year: he, considering that
an opportunity was afforded for tribunitian intrigues during the absence
of the consuls, after railing against the arrogance of the patricians
for several days before the people, inveighed chiefly against the
consular authority, as being exorbitant and intolerable in a free state:
"for that, in name only, it was less invidious, in reality almost more
oppressive than that of kings. For that two masters had been adopted
instead of one, with unbounded, unlimited power; who, themselves
unrestrained and unbridled, directed all the terrors of the law, and all
kinds of severity against the commons." Now, in order that this
licentious power might not continue perpetual, he would propose a law,
that five persons be appointed to draw up laws regarding the consular
power. That the consul should use that right which the people may give
him over them; that they should not hold their own caprice and
licentiousness as law. This law being published, when the patricians
became afraid, lest, in the absence of the consuls, they should be
subjected to the yoke, the senate is convened by Quintus Fabius, præfect
of the city, who inveighed so vehemently against the bill and the author
of it, that nothing was omitted of threats and intimidation, even though
both the consuls in all their exasperation surrounded the tribune, "that
he had lain in wait, and, watching his opportunity, he made an attack on
the commonwealth. If the gods in their anger had given them any tribune
like him on the preceding year, during the pestilence and war, he could
not have been withstood. Both the consuls being dead, and the exhausted
state lying enfeebled in universal confusion, that he would have
proposed laws to abolish the consular government altogether from the
state; that he would have headed the Volscians and Æquans to attack the
city. What? if the consuls adopted any tyrannical or cruel proceedings
against any of the citizens, was it not competent to him to appoint a
day of trial for him; to arraign him before those very judges against
any one of whom severity may have been exercised? That it was not the
consular authority but the tribunitian power that he was rendering
hateful and insupportable: which having been peaceable and reconciled to
the patricians, was now about to be brought back anew to its former
mischievous habits. Nor would he entreat him not to go on as he
commenced. Of you, the other tribunes, says Fabius, we request, that
you will first of all consider that that power was provided for the aid
of individuals, not for the ruin of the community: that you were created
tribunes of the commons, not enemies of the patricians. To us it is
distressing, to you a source of odium, that the republic, now bereft of
its chief magistrates, should be attacked; you will diminish not your
rights, but the odium against you. Confer with your colleague, that he
may postpone this business till the arrival of the consuls; even the
Æquans and the Volscians, when our consuls were carried off by
pestilence last year, did not press on us with a cruel and tyrannical
war." The tribunes confer with Terentillus, and the bill being to all
appearance deferred, but in reality abandoned, the consuls were
immediately sent for.
[Footnote 114: Niebuhr n. 24, 634, would have us read _Terentilius_, the
Roman family names always, he says, ending in _ius_. He also thinks that
for _Arsa_, we should read _Harsa_.]
10. Lucretius returned with immense spoil, and much greater glory; and
this glory he increased on his arrival, by exposing all the booty in the
Campus Martius, so that each person might, during three days, recognise
his own and carry it away; the remainder was sold, for which no owners
appeared. A triumph was by universal consent due to the consul: but the
matter was deferred, the tribune still pressing his law; this to the
consul seemed of greater importance. The business was discussed for
several days, both in the senate and before the people: at length the
tribune yielded to the majesty of the consul, and desisted; then the due
honour was rendered to the general and his army. He triumphed over the
Volscians and Æquans: his troops followed him in his triumph. The other
consul was allowed to enter the city in ovation without his soldiers. On
the following year the Terentillian law having been taken up by the
entire college, assailed the new consuls; the consuls were Publius
Volumnius and Servius Sulpicius. On that year the sky seemed to be on
fire; a violent earthquake also occurred; it was now believed that an ox
spoke, which circumstance had not obtained credit on the year before;
among other prodigies it rained flesh also;[115] which shower a great
number of birds is reported to have carried off by flying so as to
intercept it; that which did fall, is said to have lain scattered about
for several days, so that its smell evinced no change. The books[116]
were consulted by the duumviri for sacred rites: dangers of attacks
being made on the highest parts of the city, and of bloodshed thence
resulting, were predicted as about to come from an assemblage of
strangers; among other things, an admonition was given that all
intestine disturbances should be abandoned. The tribunes alleged that
that was done to obstruct the law, and a desperate contest was at hand.
Lo! (that the same circle of events may revolve every year) the
Hernicians bring word that the Volscians and the Æquans, though their
strength was much impaired, were recruiting their armies: that their
chief dependence was Antium; that the inhabitants of Antium openly held
councils at Ecetra: that that was the source--there the strength--for
the war. As soon as this announcement was made in the senate, a levy was
ordered: the consuls were commanded to divide the management of the war
between them; that the Volscians should be the province of the one, the
Æquans that of the other. The tribunes cried out to their faces in the
forum, "That the Volscian war was all a concerted farce: that the
Hernicians were instructed to act their parts; that the liberty of the
Roman people was now no longer crushed by manly efforts, but that it was
baffled by cunning; because all probability was now gone that the
Volscians, who were almost exterminated, and the Æquans, would of
themselves commence hostilities, new enemies were sought for: that a
loyal colony, and one in their very vicinity, was being rendered
infamous: that war was proclaimed against the unoffending people of
Antium, and in reality waged with the commons of Rome, which after
loading them with arms they were determined to drive out of the city
with precipitous haste, wreaking their vengeance on the tribunes, by the
exile and expulsion of their fellow-citizens. That by these means, and
let them not think that there was any other object contemplated, the law
was defeated; unless, whilst the matter was still in abeyance, whilst
they were still at home and in the garb of citizens, they would take
precaution that they may not be driven out of possession of the city,
and be subjected to the yoke. If they only had spirit, that support
would not be wanting; that all the tribunes were unanimous; that there
was no apprehension from abroad, no danger. That the gods had taken
care, on the preceding year, that their liberty could now be defended
with safety." Thus far the tribunes.
[Footnote 115: Niebuhr, ii. n. 631, asks whether it was worms. Sa????
??a?sµata. Dion. x. 2.]
[Footnote 116: The Sibylline books.]
11. But, on the other side, the consuls, having placed their chairs
within view of them, were proceeding with the levy; thither the tribunes
hasten, and draw the assembly along with them; a few were cited, by way
of making an experiment, and instantly violence commenced. Whomsoever
the lictor laid hold of by order of the consul, him the tribune ordered
to be discharged; nor did his own proper jurisdiction set a limit to
each, but whatever you set your mind upon, was to be attained by the
hope of strength and by force. Just as the tribunes had behaved in
impeding the levy, in the same manner did the consuls conduct themselves
in obstructing the law which was brought on every assembly day. The
commencement of the riot was, when the tribunes ordered the people to
proceed to the vote, because the patricians refused to withdraw. The
elder citizens scarcely attended the contest, inasmuch as it was one
likely not to be directed by prudence, but abandoned to temerity and
daring. The consuls also generally kept out of the way, lest in the
general confusion they should expose their dignity to any insult. There
was a young man, Cæso Quintius, a daring youth, as well by the nobility
of his descent, as by his personal size and strength; to those
endowments granted by the gods he himself had added many military
honours, and eloquence in the forum; so that no person in the state was
considered more efficient either in speaking or in acting. When this
person took his place in the centre of a body of the patricians,
conspicuous above the rest, carrying as it were in his eloquence and
bodily strength dictatorships and consulships combined, he alone
withstood the storms of the tribunes and the populace. Under his
guidance the tribunes were frequently driven from the forum, the commons
routed and dispersed; such as came in his way, went off after being
ill-treated and stripped; so that it became sufficiently evident, that,
if he were allowed to proceed in this way, the law would be defeated.
Then the other tribunes being now almost thrown into despair, Aulus
Virginius, one of the college, institutes a criminal prosecution on a
capital charge against Cæso. By this proceeding he rather irritated than
intimidated his violent temper: so much the more vigorously did he
oppose the law, annoyed the commons, and persecuted the tribunes, as it
were by a regular war. The prosecutor suffered the accused to rush on
headlong, and to heighten the charges against him by the flame and
material of the popular odium thus incurred: in the mean time he
proceeded with the law, not so much in the hope of carrying it through,
as to provoke the temerity of Cæso. There many inconsiderate expressions
and actions passing among the young men, are charged on the temper of
Cæso, through the prejudice raised against him; still the law was
resisted. And Aulus Virginius frequently remarks to the people, "Are you
even now sensible that you cannot have Cæso, as a fellow-citizen, with
the law which you desire? Though why do I say law? he is an opponent of
your liberty; he surpasses all the Tarquins in arrogance. Wait till he
is made consul or dictator, whom, though but a private citizen, you now
see exercising kingly sway over you by his strength and audacity." Many
assented, complaining that they had been beaten by him: and strongly
urged on the tribune to go through with the prosecution.
12. The day of trial now approached, and it was evident that persons in
general considered that their liberty depended on the condemnation of
Cæso: then, at length being forced to it, he addressed the commons
individually, though with a strong feeling of indignation; his relatives
followed him, the principal members of the state. Titus Quintius
Capitolinus, who had been thrice consul, after he recounted many
splendid achievements of his own, and of his family, stated, that
neither in the Quintian family, nor in the Roman state, had there
appeared such promising genius of such early valour. "That he had first
been his soldier, that he had often in his sight fought against the
enemy." Spurius Furius declared, that "he having been sent to him by
Quintius Capitolinus, had come to his aid when in the midst of danger;
that there was no individual by whose exertions he considered the common
weal more effectually re-established." Lucius Lucretius, the consul of
the preceding year, in the full splendour of recent glory, shared his
own services with Cæso; he recounted his battles, detailed his
distinguished exploits, both on expeditions and in the field; he advised
and recommended that they would prefer this extraordinary young man,
endowed with all the advantages of nature and of rank, and (one who
would prove) of the utmost importance to the interest of that state into
which he should come, to be their fellow-citizen, rather than the
citizen of a foreign state. "That with respect to that which may be
offensive in him, heat and vehemence, time would diminish daily; that
the prudence, which may be wanting in him, was increasing daily; that as
his faults were declining and his virtues ripening to maturity, they
should allow so distinguished a man to become old in their state." Among
these his father, Lucius Quintius, who bore the surname of Cincinnatus,
without dwelling on his merits, lest he should heighten public hatred,
but soliciting pardon for his errors and his youth, implored of them to
forgive his son for his sake, who had not given offence to any one by
either word or deed. But some, through respect or fear, turned away from
listening to his entreaties; others complaining that themselves and
their friends had been ill-treated, by the harshness of their answer
declared their sentence beforehand.
13. Independently of the general odium, one charge bore heavily on the
accused; that Marcus Volscius Fictor, who some years before had been
tribune of the people, had come forward as a witness: "that not long
after the pestilence had been in the city, he had fallen in with a party
of young men rioting in the Suburra; that a scuffle arose there; and
that his elder brother, not yet perfectly recovered from his illness,
had fallen down almost dead, being struck with the fist by Cæso; that he
was carried home between the hands of some persons, and that he
considered that he died from that blow; and that it had not been
permitted to him by the consuls of former years to follow up the
matter." In consequence of Volscius vociferating these charges, the
people became so excited, that Cæso was near being killed through the
violence of the people. Virginius orders him to be seized and carried to
prison. The patricians oppose force to force. Titus Quintius exclaims,
"that a person for whom a day of trial for a capital offence has been
appointed, and whose trial was now at hand, ought not to be outraged
before trial and without sentence being passed." The tribune says, "that
he would not inflict punishment[117] on him before condemnation, that he
would however keep him in prison until the day of trial; that the Roman
people may have an opportunity of inflicting punishment on one who had
killed a man." The tribunes being appealed to, secure their prerogative
by adopting a middle course;[118] they forbid his being thrown into
confinement, and declare it to be their wish that the accused should
appear on his trial, and that a sum of money should be promised to the
people, in case he should not appear. How large a sum of money ought to
be promised, came under discussion: that is referred to the senate. The
accused was detained in the public assembly, until the patricians should
be consulted: it was determined that he should give bail:[119] each bail
they bound to the amount of three thousand _asses_; how many should be
given, was left to the tribunes; they limited the number to ten; for ten
sureties the prosecutor discharged the accused. He was the first who
gave public sureties. Being discharged from the forum, he went the
following night into exile among the Etrurians. When on the day of trial
it was pleaded that he had quitted his home in order to go into exile,
Virginius notwithstanding holding the comitia, his colleagues when
appealed to dismissed the assembly: the fine was rigorously exacted[120]
from the father; so that after selling all his effects, he lived for a
considerable time in a solitary cottage on the other side of the Tiber,
as if in exile. This trial and the proposing of the law gave full
employment to the state: there was quiet from foreign arms.
[Footnote 117: Niebuhr denies that the tribunes had the power before the
establishment of the decemviri to commit patricians to prison. See
however Dion. vii. 17.]
[Footnote 118: In the original the words are, _Medio decreto jus auxilii
sui expediunt_. The tribunes were afraid lest, if they allowed Cæso to
go entirely at large, the commons might become irritated; whilst if they
refused to listen to the application of a patrician when he craved their
assistance, they feared lest they should lose an excellent opportunity
of establishing their influence and increasing their power. By adopting
a line of conduct then which conceded something both to the commons and
to Cæso, they as it were _extricate_ (expediunt) their power from this
double danger.]
[Footnote 119: _Vadis publicos_. According to Gronovius, _publico_,
scil. _plebi_. Niebuhr prefers this reading.]
[Footnote 120: _Rigorously exacted_. See Niebuhr ii. p. 289, who
expresses a different opinion on the matter.]
14. When the tribunes, flushed as it were with victory, imagined that
the law was in a manner passed, the patricians being now dismayed by the
banishment of Cæso, and when, with respect to the seniors of the
patricians, they had relinquished all share in the administration of the
commonwealth; the juniors, more especially those who were the intimate
friends of Cæso, redoubled their resentful feelings against the
commons, and suffered not their spirits to droop; but the greatest
improvement was made in this particular, that they tempered their
animosity by a certain degree of moderation. When for the first time
after Cæso's banishment the law began to be brought forward, arrayed and
well prepared with a numerous body of clients, they attacked the
tribunes, on their affording a pretext for it by attempting to remove
them, in such a manner, that no one individual carried home from thence
any prominent share either of glory or ill-will; the people complained
that for one Cæso a thousand had started up. During the intermediate
days, when the tribunes made no stir regarding the law, nothing could be
more mild or peaceable than those same persons; they saluted the
plebeians courteously, entered into conversation, and invited them home;
they attended the forum, and suffered the tribunes themselves to hold
their meetings without interruption: they never were uncivil to any one
either in public or in private, unless when the business respecting the
law began to be agitated. On other occasions the young men were popular.
And not only did the tribunes transact all their other affairs without
disturbance, but they were even re-elected for the following year,
without one offensive expression, much less any violence being employed.
By soothing and managing the commons they gradually rendered them
tractable. By these methods the law was evaded for the entire year.
15. The consuls Caius Claudius, the son of Appius, and Publius Valerius
Publicola, found the state in a more tranquil condition. The new year
had brought with it nothing new; the thoughts about carrying the law, or
submitting to it, engrossed all the members of the state. The more the
younger members of the senate endeavoured to insinuate themselves into
favour with the commons, the more strenuously did the tribunes strive to
thwart them, so that they rendered them suspicious in the eyes of the
commons by alleging: "that a conspiracy was formed; that Cæso was in
Rome; that plans were concerted for assassinating the tribunes, and
butchering the commons. That the commission assigned by the elder
members of the patricians was, that the young men should abolish the
tribunitian power from the state, and the form of government should be
the same as it had been before the sacred mount had been taken
possession of." Both a war from the Volsci and Æqui, which was now a
stated thing, and one that was a regular occurrence for almost every
year, was apprehended, and another evil nearer home started up
unexpectedly. The exiles and slaves to the number of four thousand and
five hundred men took possession of the Capitol and citadel during the
night, under the command of Appius Herdonius, a Sabine. Immediately a
massacre took place in the citadel of those who had evinced an
unwillingness to enter into the conspiracy and to take up arms. Some,
during the alarm, run down to the forum, driven precipitately through
the panic; the cries, "to arms," and "the enemy are in the city," were
heard alternately. The consuls were both afraid to arm the commons, and
to suffer them to remain unarmed; uncertain what sudden calamity had
assailed the city, whether external or intestine, whether from the
hatred of the commons or the treachery of the slaves: they were for
quieting the tumults, by such endeavours they sometimes exasperated
them; for the populace, panic-stricken and terrified, could not be
directed by authority. They give out arms, however, not
indiscriminately; only so that, the enemy being still uncertain,[121]
there might be a protection sufficient to be relied on for all
emergencies. The remainder of the night they passed in posting guards
through proper places through the entire city, anxious and uncertain, as
to who the persons might be, and how great the number of the enemy was.
Day-light then disclosed the war and the leader of the war. Appius
Herdonius summoned the slaves to liberty from the Capitol: "that he had
espoused the cause of every most unfortunate individual, in order to
bring back to their country those driven out by oppression, and to
remove the grievous yoke from the slaves. That he had rather that were
done under the authority of the Roman people. If there be no hope in
that quarter, that he would rouse the Volscians and Æqui, and would try
all extremities."
[Footnote 121: _Incerto hoste_, it being as yet uncertain who the enemy
was.]
16. The matter began to disclose itself more clearly to the patricians
and the consuls; besides those things, however, which were openly
declared, they dreaded lest this might be a scheme of the Veientes or
Sabines; and, as there were so many of the enemy in the city, lest the
Sabine and Etrurian troops might come on according to a concerted plan;
and then lest their eternal enemies, the Volscians and Æqui, should
come, not to ravage their territories, as before, but to their very
city, already in part taken. Many and various were their fears; among
others, the most prominent was their dread of the slaves, lest each
might harbour an enemy in his own house, one whom it was neither
sufficiently safe to trust, nor to deny[122] confidence to him lest, by
not trusting him, he might become more incensed. And (the evil) seemed
scarcely capable of being resisted by perfect harmony (between the
different orders of the state); only no one apprehended the tribunes or
commons, other evils predominating and constantly starting up; that
appeared an evil of a mild nature, and one always arising during the
cessation of other evils, and it then appeared to be lulled to rest by
external terror. Yet that was almost the only one that most aggravated
their distressing circumstances: for such madness took possession of the
tribunes, that they contended that not war, but the empty appearance of
war had taken possession of the Capitol, to avert the people's minds
from attending to the law; that these friends and clients of the
patricians would depart in greater silence than they came, if they once
perceived that, by the law being passed, they had raised these tumults
in vain. They then held a meeting for passing the law, having called
away the people from their arms. In the mean time, the consuls convene
the senate, another dread presenting itself on the part of the tribunes,
greater than that which the nightly foe had occasioned.
[Footnote 122: _Fidem abrogare_,--non habere fidem, non credere. _Non
credendo_ here seems superfluous.]
17. When it was announced that their arms were being laid aside, and
that the men were quitting their posts, Publius Valerius, his colleague
still detaining the senate, hastens from the senate-house; he comes
thence into the meeting to the tribunes: "What is all this," says he,
"tribunes? Are you determined to overthrow the commonwealth under the
guidance and auspices of Appius Herdonius? Has he been so successful in
corrupting you, who, by his authority, has not influenced your slaves?
When the enemies are over our heads, is it your pleasure that arms
should be given up, and laws be proposed?" Then directing his discourse
to the populace: "If, Romans, no concern for your city, for yourselves,
moves you, at least revere the gods of your country, now made captive by
the enemy. Jupiter, the best and greatest, Queen Juno, and Minerva, the
other gods and goddesses, are besieged; the camp of slaves now holds the
tutelary gods of the state. Does this seem to you the form of a state in
its senses? Such a crowd of enemies is not only within the walls, but in
the citadel, commanding the forum and senate-house: in the mean while
meetings are being held in the forum; the senate is in the senate-house,
just as when perfect tranquillity prevails; the senator gives his
opinion, the other Romans give their votes. Would it not behove all the
patricians and commons, consuls, tribunes, citizens, and all classes of
persons, to bring aid with arms in their hands, to run into the Capitol,
to liberate and restore to peace that most august residence of Jupiter,
the best and greatest? O Father Romulus! do thou infuse into thy progeny
that determination of thine, by which you once recovered from these same
Sabines the citadel, when obtained by gold. Order them to pursue this
same path, which thou, as leader, and thy army, pursued. Lo! I, as
consul, shall be the first to follow thee and thy footsteps, as far as a
mortal can follow a god." The close of his speech was: "That he would
take up arms, that he invited every citizen of Rome to arms; if any one
should oppose, that he, [123]forgetful of the consular authority, the
tribunitian power, and the devoting laws, would consider him as an
enemy, whoever he may, wheresoever he may, in the Capitol, or in the
forum. That the tribunes might order arms to be taken up against Publius
Valerius the consul, since they forbid it against Appius Herdonius; that
he would venture to act in that manner in the case of the tribunes, in
which the founder of his family had ventured to act in the case of
kings." It now became apparent that extreme violence was about to take
place, and that a disturbance among the Romans would be exhibited as a
sight to the enemy; the law, however, could neither be prepared, nor
could the consul proceed to the Capitol: night quashed the contest that
had commenced; the tribunes yielded to the night, dreading the arms of
the consuls. The fomenters of the disturbances being removed from
thence, the patricians went about among the commons, and introducing
themselves into their circles of conversation, they introduced
observations suited to the occasion: they advised them "to beware into
what hazard they were bringing the commonwealth; that the contest was
not between the patricians and commons, but that patricians and commons
together, the fortress of the city, the temples of the gods, the
guardian gods of the state and of private families, were being delivered
up to the enemy." Whilst these affairs are going on in the forum for the
purpose of appeasing the disturbances, the consuls in the mean time had
armed the several gates and the walls, lest the Sabines or the Veientian
enemy should make any move.
[Footnote 123: _Forgetful of the consular, &c._--i.e. forgetful of the
limits of the consular authority; acting in the same manner as if its
power were unbounded, and admitted no appeal.]
18. On the same night, messengers come to Tusculum announcing that the
citadel was taken, and the Capitol seized, and the other state of
disturbance in the city. Lucius Mamilius was at that time dictator at
Tusculum; he, having immediately convoked the senate and introduced the
messengers, earnestly advises: "That they should not wait until
ambassadors came from Rome, suing for assistance; that the very danger
and risk, and the social gods, and the faith of treaties, demanded it;
that the gods would never afford them an equal opportunity of obliging
so powerful a state and so near a neighbour." It is determined that
assistance should be sent: the young men are enrolled; arms are given to
them. Coming to Rome at break of day, they at a distance exhibited the
appearance of enemies. The Æqui or Volscians appeared to be coming. Then
when the groundless alarm was removed, they are admitted into the city,
and descend in a body into the forum. There Publius Valerius, having
left his colleague to guard the gates, was now drawing up in order of
battle. The great influence of the man had produced an effect, when he
affirmed that, "the Capitol being recovered, and the city restored to
peace, if they would allow themselves to be convinced what lurking fraud
was concealed under the law proposed by the tribunes, that he would
offer no obstruction to the meeting of the people, mindful of his
ancestors, mindful of his surname, and that the province of protecting
the people had been handed down to him as hereditary by his ancestors."
Following him as their leader, notwithstanding the tribunes cried out
against it, they direct their march up the Capitoline hill. The Tusculan
troops also joined them. Allies and citizens vied with each other which
of them should appropriate to themselves the honour of recovering the
citadel. Each leader encourages his own men. Then the enemy became
terrified, and placed no dependence on any but the place. The Romans and
allies advance on them whilst in this state of alarm. They had now
broken into the porch of the temple, when Publius Valerius is slain
animating the fight at the head of his men. Publius Volumnius, a man of
consular rank, saw him falling. Having directed his men to cover the
body, he rushes forward to the place and office of consul. Through their
ardour and impetuosity the perception of so heavy a blow did not reach
the soldiers; they conquered before they perceived that they conquered
without a leader. Many of the exiles defiled the temple with their
blood; many were taken alive; Herdonius was slain. Thus the Capitol was
recovered. With respect to the prisoners,[124] punishment was inflicted
on each according to his station, whether he was a freeman or a slave.
The commons are stated to have thrown farthings into the consul's house,
that he might be buried with greater solemnity.
[Footnote 124: Niebuhr thinks that Cæso was among the number. See cap.
25, where we read "Cæsonem neque Quintiæ familiæ, neque reipublicæ
restitui posse." Comp. Niebuhr ii. n. 673, Wachsmuth, p. 347.]
19. Peace being established, the tribunes then pressed on the patricians
to fulfil the promise of Publius Valerius; they pressed on Claudius, to
free the shade of his colleague from breach of faith, and to allow the
business of the law to proceed. The consul asserted that he would suffer
the discussion on the law to go on, till he had a colleague appointed in
the room of the deceased. These disputes held on until the elections for
substituting a consul. In the month of December,[125] by the most
zealous exertions of the patricians, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, Cæso's
father, is elected consul to enter on his office without delay. The
commons were dismayed at their being about to have as consul a man
incensed against them, powerful by the support of the patricians, by his
own merit, and by three sons, not one of whom yielded to Cæso in
greatness of spirit; "whilst they were superior to him by their
exercising prudence and moderation, when the occasion required." When he
entered on his office, in his frequent harangues from the tribunal, he
was not more vehement in restraining the commons than in reproving the
senate, "by the listlessness of which body the tribunes of the commons,
now become perpetual, by means of their tongues and prosecutions
exercised regal authority, not as in a republic of the Roman people, but
as if in an ill-regulated family. That with his son Cæso, fortitude,
constancy, all the splendid qualifications of youth in war or in peace,
had been driven and exiled from the city of Rome: that talkative and
turbulent men, sowers of discord, twice and even thrice re-elected
tribunes, lived in the most destructive practices with regal tyranny.
Did that Aulus Virginius," says he, "deserve less punishment than Appius
Herdonius, because he was not in the Capitol? considerably more, by
Jove, (in the mind of any one) who would judge the matter fairly.
Herdonius, if nothing else, by avowing himself an enemy, in a manner
gave you notice to take up arms: this man, by denying the existence of
war, took arms out of your hands, and exposed you defenceless to your
slaves and exiles. And did you, (without any offence to Caius Claudius
and to Publius Valerius, now no more let me say it,) did you advance
against the Capitoline hill before you expelled those enemies from the
forum. It is shameful before gods and men. When the enemy were in the
citadel, in the very Capitol, when the leader of the exiles and slaves,
after profaning every thing, took up his residence in the shrine of
Jupiter, the best and greatest, arms were taken up in Tusculum sooner
than in Rome. It was a matter of doubt whether Lucius Mamilius, the
Tusculan leader, or Publius Valerius and Caius Claudius, the consuls,
recovered the Roman citadel, and we, who formerly did not suffer the
Latins to touch arms, even in their own defence, when they had the enemy
in their very frontiers, should have been taken and destroyed now, had
not the Latins taken up arms of their own accord. Tribunes, is this
bringing aid to the commons, to expose them in a defenceless state to be
butchered by the enemy. Now, if any one, even the humblest individual of
your commons, (which portion you have as it were broken off from the
rest of the state, and made it your country and peculiar commonwealth,)
if any one of these persons were to bring word that his house was beset
by an armed band of slaves, you would think that assistance should be
afforded to him. Was Jupiter, the best and greatest, when surrounded by
the arms of exiles and of slaves, deserving of no human aid? And do
these persons require that they be considered sacred and
inviolable,[126] with whom the gods themselves are neither sacred nor
inviolable? But, steeped as ye are in crimes against both gods and men,
do ye say that you will pass your law this year? Verily then the day on
which I was created consul was a disastrous day for the commonwealth,
much more so even than that on which Publius Valerius the consul fell,
if ye should carry it. Now, first of all," says he, "Romans, it is the
intention of myself and of my colleague to march the legions against the
Volsci and the Æqui. I know not by what fatality we find the gods more
propitious when we are at war than in peace. How great the danger from
those states would have been, had they known that the Capitol was
besieged by exiles, it is better to conjecture from the past, than to
feel from actual experience."
[Footnote 125: The consuls under ordinary circumstances used to commence
their office at this time on the Calends of August.]
[Footnote 126: _Neque sacri neque sancti_. Whatever is consecrated by
religion is said to be _sacrum_; whilst _sanctum_ is said of that which
the law states to be inviolable.]
20. The consul's harangue had a great effect on the commons; the
patricians, recovering their spirits, considered the state as
re-established. The other consul, more eager as a seconder than as the
first mover (of a measure), readily suffering his colleague to take the
first lead in a matter of so much importance, claimed to himself his
share of the consular duty in executing the plan. Then the tribunes,
mocking these declarations as empty, went on inquiring "by what means
the consuls would lead out the army, as no one would allow them to hold
a levy?" "But," says Quintius, "we have no occasion for a levy; since at
the time Publius Valerius gave arms to the commons to recover the
Capitol, they all took an oath to him, that they would assemble on an
order from the consul, and would not depart without an order. We
therefore publish our order that all of you, who have sworn, attend
to-morrow under arms at the lake Regillus." The tribunes then began to
cavil, and wished to absolve the people from their obligation; that
Quintius was a private person at the time at which they were bound by
the oath. But that disregard of the gods which prevails in the present
age had not yet arrived; nor did every one, by his own interpretation,
accommodate oaths and laws to his own purposes, but rather adapted his
conduct to them. Wherefore the tribunes, as there was no hope of
obstructing the matter, attempted to delay the departure (of the army)
the more earnestly on this account, because a report had gone out "both
that the augurs had been ordered to attend at the lake Regillus, and to
consecrate a place, where business might be transacted with the people
with the benefit of auspices; that whatever had been passed at Rome by
tribunitian violence, might be repealed there in an assembly. That all
would agree to that which the consuls wished; for that there was no
appeal at a distance greater than that of a mile from the city: and that
the tribunes, if they should come there, would, among the rest of the
crowd, be subjected to the consular authority." These matters alarmed
them; but the greatest terror which acted on their minds was, that
Quintius frequently said, "that he would not hold an election of
consuls. That the state was affected with such a disease, as could not
be stopped by the ordinary remedies. That the commonwealth required a
dictator, so that whoever should stir a step to disturb the peace of the
state, might feel that the dictatorship was without appeal."
21. The senate was assembled in the Capitol. Thither the tribunes come
with the commons in great consternation: the populace, with loud
clamours, implore the protection now of the consuls, now of the
patricians: nor could they make the consul recede from his
determination, until the tribunes promised that they would be under the
direction of the patricians. Then on the consul's laying before them the
demands of the tribunes and commons, decrees of the senate are passed,
"That neither the tribunes should propose the law during that year, and
that the consuls should not lead the army from the city--that for the
time to come, the senate decided that it was to the injury of the
commonwealth, that the same magistrates should be continued, and the
same tribunes be re-appointed." The consuls conformed to the authority
of the senate, the tribunes were re-appointed notwithstanding the
remonstrances of the consuls. The patricians also, that they might not
yield to the commons in any particular, re-elected Lucius Quintius
consul. No proceeding of the consul was urged with more warmth during
the entire year. "Can I be surprised," says he, "if your authority is of
little weight, conscript fathers? yourselves are disparaging it.
Forsooth, because the commons have violated a decree of the senate, by
re-appointing their magistrates, you yourselves also wish it to be
violated, lest ye should yield to the populace in rashness; as if to
possess greater power in the state consisted in having more of
inconstancy and irregularity; for it is certainly more inconstant and
greater folly, to do away with one's own decrees and resolutions, than
those of others. Imitate, conscript fathers, the inconsiderate
multitude; and ye, who should be an example to others, transgress by the
example of others, rather than others should act correctly by yours,
provided I imitate not the tribunes, nor suffer myself to be re-elected
consul, contrary to a decree of the senate. But I advise you, Caius
Claudius, that both you on your part restrain the Roman people from this
licentiousness, and that you be persuaded of this on my part, that I
shall so take it, as not to consider that my honour has been obstructed
by you, but that the glory of declining the honour has been augmented,
and the odium, which would hang over me from its being continued, has
been lessened." Upon this they issue this order jointly: "That no one
should attempt to make Lucius Quintius consul: if any one should do so,
that they would not allow that vote."
22. The consuls elected were Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, a third time, and
Lucius Cornelius Maluginensis. The census was performed that year; it
was a matter of religious scruple that the lustrum should be closed, on
account of the Capitol having been taken and the consul slain. In the
consulate of Quintus Fabius and Lucius Cornelius, disturbances broke out
immediately at the commencement of the year. The tribunes were urging on
the commons. The Latins and Hernici brought word that a formidable war
was in preparation on the part of the Volscians and Æqui; that the
troops of the Volscians were now at Antium. Great apprehension was also
entertained, that the colony itself would revolt: and with difficulty
were the tribunes prevailed on to allow the war to take precedence. The
consuls then divided the provinces between them. It was assigned to
Fabius to march the legions to Antium; to Cornelius, to protect the
city; lest any part of the enemy, as was the practice of the Æqui,
should come to commit depredations. The Hernici and Latins were ordered
to supply soldiers in conformity to the treaty; and in the army two
parts consisted of allies, one part of natives. When the allies came to
the day already appointed, the consul pitches his camp outside the
Capuan gate. Then, after the army was purified, he set out for Antium,
and encamped not far from the town, and standing camp of the enemy.
Where, when the Volscians, not venturing to risk an engagement, were
preparing to protect themselves quietly within their ramparts, on the
following day Fabius drew up not one mixed army of allies and citizens,
but three separate bodies of the three states around the enemy's works.
He himself was in the centre with the Roman legions. He ordered them to
watch for the signal from thence, so that the allies might both commence
the action together, and retire together, if he should sound a retreat.
He placed their cavalry in the rear of each division. Having thus
assailed the camp in three different points, he surrounds it; and when
he pressed on from every side, he dislodges from the rampart the
Volscians, not able to sustain his attack. Having then crossed the
fortifications, he expels from the camp the crowd who were dismayed and
inclining towards one direction. Upon this the cavalry, who could not
easily pass over the rampart, having stood by up to that period mere
spectators of the fight, having come up with them whilst flying in
disorder on the open plain, enjoys a share of the victory, by cutting
down the affrighted troops. The slaughter of them as they fled was
great, both in the camp and outside the lines; but the booty was still
greater, because the enemy were scarcely able to carry off their arms
with them; and their entire army would have been destroyed, had not the
woods covered them in their flight.
23. Whilst these transactions are taking place at Antium, the Æqui, in
the mean while, sending forward the main strength of their youth,
surprise the citadel of Tusculum by night, and with the rest of their
army they sit down at no great distance from the walls of Tusculum, so
as to divide the forces of the enemy. This account being quickly brought
to Rome, and from Rome to Antium, affect the Romans not less than if it
was told them that the Capitol was taken; so recent were both the
services of the Tusculans, and the very similitude of the danger seemed
to require a return of the aid that had been afforded. Fabius, giving up
every other object, removes the booty hastily from the camp to Antium.
Having a small garrison there, he hurries on his army by forced marches
to Tusculum. The soldiers were allowed to carry nothing but their arms,
and whatever dressed provision was at hand. The consul Cornelius sends
provisions from Rome. The war was carried on at Tusculum for several
months. With one part of his army the consul assailed the camp of the
Æqui; a part he had given to the Tusculans to recover their citadel.
They never could have made their way to it by force. Famine at length
withdrew the enemy from it. And when they came to this at last, they
were all sent under the yoke by the Tusculans, unarmed and naked. These,
when betaking themselves home by an ignominious flight, were overtaken
by the Roman consul on Algidum and cut off to a man. After this victory,
having marched back[127] his army to Columen, (that is the name of the
place,) he pitches his camp. The other consul also, as soon as the Roman
walls ceased to be in danger, the enemy being defeated, set out from
Rome. Thus the consuls, having entered the territories of the enemies on
two different sides, strenuously vie with each other in depopulating the
Volscians on the one hand, the Æqui on the other. I find in some writers
that the people of Antium revolted[128] the same year. That Lucius
Cornelius, the consul, conducted that war and took the town, I would not
venture to affirm for certain, because no mention is made of the matter
among the older writers.
[Footnote 127: _Exercitu relicto_ is the ordinary reading. Crevier
observes that _reducto_ is the more correct.]
[Footnote 128: This account does not seem to be correct. See Niebuhr ii.
p. 254.]
24. This war being concluded, a tribunitian war at home alarms the
senate. They exclaim, "that the detaining the army abroad was done for a
fraudulent motive: that such frustration was for the purpose of doing
away with the law; that they, however, would go through with the matter
undertaken by them." Publius Lucretius, however, the præfect of the
city, so far prevailed that the proceedings of the tribunes were
postponed till the arrival of the consuls. A new cause of disturbance
also arose. Aulus Cornelius and Quintus Servilius, quæstors, appoint a
day of trial for Marcus Volscius, because he had come forward as a
manifestly false witness against Cæso. For it appeared by many proofs,
that the brother of Volscius, from the time he first became ill, not
only never appeared in public, but that he had not even arisen from his
sick bed, and that he died of an illness of several months' standing;
and that at the time to which the witness had referred the commission of
the crime, Cæso had not been seen at Rome: those who served in the army
with him, positively stating that at that time he had constantly
attended at his post with them without any leave of absence. Many
persons proposed on their own private responsibility to Volscius to have
a judicial decision on the matter.[129] As he would not venture to go to
trial, all these matters coinciding rendered the condemnation of
Volscius no less certain than that of Cæso had been on the testimony of
Volscius. The tribunes occasioned a delay, who said that they would not
suffer the quæstors to hold the assembly[130] concerning the accused,
unless it was first held concerning the law. Thus both matters were spun
out till the arrival of the consuls. When they entered the city in
triumph with their victorious army, because silence was (observed) with
regard to the law, many thought that the tribunes were struck with
dismay. But they, (for it was now the close of the year,) desirous of
obtaining a fourth tribuneship, had turned away their efforts from the
law to canvassing for the elections; and when the consuls strove with no
less strenuousness than if the law in question were proposed for the
purpose of lessening their own dignity, the victory in the contest was
on the side of the tribunes. On the same year peace was granted to the
Æqui on their suing for it. The census, a matter commenced on the
preceding year, is completed. The number of citizens rated were one
hundred and seventeen thousand three hundred and nineteen. The consuls
obtained great glory this year both at home and in war, because they
both re-established peace abroad and at home; though the state was not
in a state of absolute concord, yet it was less disturbed than at other
times.
[Footnote 129: _Ni ita esset_, a legal form of expression, amounting in
this place to "if Volscius attempted to deny it." _Privatim_. Besides
the quæstors who by virtue of their office were to prosecute Volscius,
many persons on their own account, and on their private responsibility,
cited him into court, and challenged him to discuss the case before a
judge. A prosecutor was said _ferre judicem res_, when he proposed to
the accused person some one out of the _judices selecti_, before whom
the case might be tried; if the accused person consented to the person
named by prosecutor, then the judge was said _convenisse_, to have been
agreed on. Sometimes the accused was allowed to select his own judge,
_judicem dicere_. When both the prosecutor and the accused agreed as to
the judge, they presented a joint petition to the prætor that he would
appoint (_ut daret_) that person to try the cause; at the same time they
both bound themselves to pay a certain sum, the one if he did not
establish his charge, _ni ita esset_; the other if he did not prove his
innocence.]
[Footnote 130: _Comitia_, i. e. _curiata_, which exercised authority in
the cases of persons accused of inflicting injuries on the patricians.]
25. Lucius Minucius and Caius Nautius being next elected consuls, took
up the two causes which lay over since the preceding year. The consuls
obstructed the law, the tribunes the trial of Volscius in the same
manner: but in the new quæstors there was greater power, and greater
influence. With Marcus Valerius, son of Valerius and grandson of
Volesus, Titus Quintius Capitolinus, who had been thrice consul, was
appointed quæstor. Since Cæso could neither be restored to the Quintian
family, nor could he, though a most promising young man, be restored to
the state, he justly, and as in duty bound, prosecuted the false witness
who had deprived an innocent person of the power of pleading his cause.
When Virginius in particular and the (other) tribunes were promoting the
passing of the law, the space of two months was allowed to the consuls
to examine into the law: so that, when they had satisfied the people, as
to what secret designs were concealed under it, they should then allow
them to give their votes. The granting this respite established
tranquillity in the city. The Æqui however did not allow them long rest;
who, in violation of the treaty which had been made with the Romans the
year before, confer the chief command on Gracchus Clælius. He was then
the leading man amongst the Æqui. Under the command of Gracchus they
carry hostile depredations into the district of Lavici, from thence into
that of Tusculum, and laden with booty they pitch their camp at Algidum.
To that camp Quintus Fabius, Publius Volumnius, Aulus Posthumius, come
to complain of the wrongs committed, and to demand restitution in
accordance with the treaty. The general of the Æqui commands them "to
deliver to the oak whatever instructions they brought from the Roman
senate; that he in the mean time should attend to other matters." A
large oak tree hung over the prætorium, the shade of which constituted a
pleasant seat. Then one of the ambassadors, when departing, says, "Let
both this consecrated oak and all the gods hear the treaty violated by
you, and favour both our complaints now, and our arms presently, when we
shall simultaneously avenge the rights of gods and men as violated by
you." As soon as the ambassadors returned to Rome, the senate ordered
one of the consuls to lead his army against Gracchus at Algidum, to the
other they assigned as his province the laying waste of the country of
the Æqui. The tribunes, according to their practice, attempted to
obstruct the levy; and probably would have eventually prevented it, but
a new cause of alarm was suddenly added.
26. A large body of Sabines, committing dreadful devastation, approached
very close to the walls of the city. The fields were laid waste, the
city was struck with terror. Then the commons cheerfully took up arms;
two large armies were raised, the tribunes remonstrating to no purpose.
Nautius led the one against the Sabines; and having pitched his camp at
Eretum, by small detachments, generally by nightly incursions, he
effected such desolation in the Sabine land, that, when compared to it,
the Roman territories seemed intact by an enemy. Minucius had neither
the same success nor the same energy of mind in conducting his business;
for after he had pitched his camp at no great distance from the enemy,
without having experienced any considerable loss, he kept himself
through fear within the camp. When the enemy perceived this, their
boldness increased, as sometimes happens, from others' fears; and having
attacked his camp by night, when open force did not succeed well, they
on the following day drew lines of circumvallation around it. Before
these could close up all the passes, by a vallum being thrown up on all
sides, five horsemen being despatched between the enemies' posts,
brought the account to Rome, that the consul and his army were besieged.
Nothing could have happened so unexpected, nor so unlooked-for.
Accordingly the panic and the alarm was as great as if the enemy
besieged the city, not the camp. They send for the consul Nautius; in
whom when there seemed to be but insufficient protection, and they were
determined that a dictator should be appointed to retrieve their
embarrassed affairs, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus is appointed by
universal consent. It is worth those persons' while to listen, who
despise all things human in comparison with riches, and who suppose
"that there is no room for exalted honour, nor for virtue, unless where
riches abound in great profusion." Lucius Quintius, the sole hope of the
Roman people, cultivated a farm of four acres, at the other side of the
Tiber, which are called the Quintian meadows, opposite to the very place
where the dock-yard now is. There, whether leaning on a stake in a ditch
which he was digging, or in the employment of ploughing, engaged at
least on some rural work, as is certain, after mutual salutations had
passed, being requested by the ambassadors to put on his gown, and
listen to the commands of the senate, (with wishes) that it might be
happy both to him and to the commonwealth, being astonished, and asking
frequently "whether all was safe," he bids his wife Racilia immediately
to bring his toga from his hut. As soon as he put this on and came
forward, after first wiping off the dust and sweat, the ambassadors,
congratulating him, unite in saluting him as dictator: they call him
into the city; explain to him what terror now exists in the army. A
vessel was prepared for Quintius by order of government, and his three
sons having come out to meet him, receive him on his landing at the
other side; then his other relatives and friends; then the greater part
of the patricians. Accompanied by this numerous attendance, and the
lictors going before him, he was conducted to his residence. There was a
numerous concourse of the commons also; but they by no means looked on
Quintius with equal pleasure, considering both the extent of his
authority as too great, and the man vested with such authority rather
arbitrary. And during that night indeed nothing was done in the city
besides posting guards.
27. On the next day the dictator, after he had come into the forum
before day-light, names a master of the horse, Lucius Tarquitius, a man
of patrician family, but one who, though he had served his campaigns
among the foot by reason of his scanty means, was yet considered by many
degrees the first in military skill among the Roman youth. With his
master of the horse he came into the assembly, proclaims a suspension of
civil business, orders the shops to be closed throughout the city, and
forbids any one to attend to any private affairs. Then he commands that
all, whoever were of the military age, should attend under arms, in the
Campus Martius, before sun-set, with dressed provisions for five days
and twelve palisades, and he commanded that whose age was too far
advanced for military service, should dress their victuals for the
soldiers in their vicinity, whilst the latter were preparing arms, and
procuring the palisade. Accordingly, the young men run in different
directions to procure the palisades; they took them wherever they were
nearest to them; no one was prevented, and they all attended punctually
according to the dictator's order. Then the troops being formed, not
more fitted for the march than for an engagement, should the occasion
require it, the dictator himself marches at the head of the legions, the
master of the horse at the head of his cavalry. In both bodies there
were such exhortations as the juncture itself required; that "they
should quicken their pace; that there was need of expedition, that they
might reach the enemy by night; that the consul and the Romans were
besieged; that they had been shut up now three days: that it was
uncertain what each day or night might bring with it; that the issue of
the most important affairs often depended on a moment of time." They, to
please their leaders, exclaimed among themselves, "Standard-bearer,
hasten on; follow, soldier." At midnight they reach Algidum: and, as
soon as they perceived that they were near the enemy, they halted.
28. There the dictator, having rode about, and having observed, as far
as could be ascertained by night, what the situation of the camp was,
and what its form, commanded the tribunes of the soldiers to order the
baggage to be thrown into one place, and that the soldiers with their
arms and palisades should return to their ranks. What he commanded was
executed. Then, with the regularity which they had observed on the
march, he draws the entire army in a long column around the enemies'
camp, and directs that, when the signal was given, they should all raise
a shout; and that on the shout being raised, each man should throw up a
trench before his post, and fix his palisade. The orders being issued,
the signal followed: the soldiers perform what they were commanded; the
shout resounds around the enemy: it then passes beyond the camp of the
enemy, and reaches the consul's camp: it occasions panic in one place,
great joy in another. The Romans, observing to each other with
exultation, "that this was the shout of their countrymen, and that aid
was at hand," from their watch-guards and out-posts intimidate the enemy
on their part. The consul says, that there must be no delay: "that by
that shout not only their arrival was intimated, but that proceedings
were already commenced by their friends; and that it would be a wonder
if the enemies' camp were not attacked on the outside." He therefore
orders his men to take up arms and follow him. The battle was commenced
by the legions during the night: they give notice to the dictator by a
shout, that on that side also the action was commenced. The Æquans were
now preparing to prevent the works from being brought around them,[131]
when, the battle being commenced by the enemy from within, turning their
attention from those employed on the fortifications to those who were
fighting on the inside, lest a sally should be made through the centre
of their camp, they left the night to remain without interruption for
the finishing of the work; and they continued the fight with the consul
till daylight. At the break of day they were now encompassed by the
dictator's works, and were scarcely able to maintain the fight against
one army. Then their lines were attacked by Quintius's army, who
immediately after completing their work returned to their arms. Here a
new fight pressed on them: the former one had suffered no relaxation.
Then the twofold peril pressing hard on them, turning from fighting to
entreaties, they implored the dictator on the one hand, the consul on
the other, not to make the victory consist in their general slaughter,
that they would suffer them to depart without arms. When they were bid
by the consul to go to the dictator, he, incensed against them, added
ignominy (to defeat). He orders Gracchus Cloelius, their general, and
other leaders to be brought to him in chains, and that they should
evacuate the town of Corbio; "that he wanted not the blood of the
Æquans: that they were allowed to depart; but that the confession may be
at length extorted, that their nation was defeated and subdued, that
they should pass under the yoke." The yoke is formed with three spears,
two fixed in the ground, and one tied across between the upper ends of
them. Under this yoke the dictator sent the Æquans.
[Footnote 131: _Ad prohibenda circumdari opera_. Stroth observes that it
should be more properly _ad prohibenda circumdanda opera_, i. e. ad
prohibendum, ne opera circumdarentur.]
29. The enemy's camp being taken, which was full of every thing, (for he
had sent them away naked,) he distributed all the booty among his own
soldiers only: chiding the consul's army and the consul himself, he
says, "Soldiers, ye shall do without any portion of the spoil taken from
that enemy to which you were well nigh becoming a spoil: and you, Lucius
Minutius, until you begin to assume the spirit of a consul, shall
command these legions as lieutenant-general." Minutius accordingly
resigns his office of consul, and remains with the army, as he had been
commanded. But so meekly obedient were the minds of men at that time to
authority combined with superior merit, that this army, mindful of the
kindness (conferred) rather than of the slur (cast on them), both voted
a golden crown of a pound weight to the dictator, and saluted him as
their patron when setting out. The senate at Rome, being convened by
Quintus Fabius, præfect of the city, ordered Quintius to enter the city
in triumph, in the order of march in which he was coming. The leaders of
the enemy were led before his car: the military standards were carried
before him: his army followed laden with spoil. Tables with provisions
are said to have been laid out before the houses of all, and (the
soldiers) partaking of the entertainment, followed the car with the
triumphal hymn and the usual jests, after the manner of revellers. On
that day the freedom of the state was granted to Lucius Mamilius of
Tusculum, with universal approbation. The dictator would have laid down
his office, had not the assembly for the trial of Marcus Volscius, the
false witness, detained him; the fear of the dictator prevented the
tribunes from obstructing it. Volscius was condemned and went into exile
to Lanuvium. Quintius laid down his dictatorship on the sixteenth day,
having received it for six months. During those days the consul Nautius
engages the Sabines at Eretum with distinguished success. Besides the
devastation of their lands, this additional blow also befell the
Sabines. Fabius Quintus was sent to Algidum as successor to Minucius.
Towards the end of the year the tribunes began to agitate the question
of the law; but because two armies were abroad, the patricians carried
the point, that no business should be proposed to the people. The
commons succeeded in electing the same tribunes for the fifth time.
They report that wolves seen in the Capitol were driven away by dogs;
that on account of that prodigy the Capitol was purified. Such were the
transactions in that year.
30. Quintus Minucius and Caius Horatius Pulvillus follow as the next
consuls. At the commencement of this year, when there was peace abroad,
the same tribunes and the same law occasioned disturbances at home; and
parties would have proceeded further, (so highly were their passions
inflamed,) had not, as if for the very purpose, news been brought, that
by an attack of the Æquans the garrison at Corbio had been cut off. The
consuls convene the senate; they are ordered to raise a hasty levy and
to proceed to Algidum. Then the contest about the law being given up, a
new dispute arose regarding the levy. And the consular authority[132]
was about to be overpowered by tribunitian influence, when an additional
cause of alarm comes on them: that the Sabine army had made a descent
into the Roman lands to commit depredations; that from thence they were
advancing to the city. This fear influenced the tribunes to allow the
levy to proceed, not without a stipulation, however, that since they had
been foiled for five years, and as that was but little protection to the
commons, ten tribunes of the people should henceforward be elected.
Necessity wrung this from the patricians; this exception only they made,
that they should not hereafter re-elect the same tribunes. The election
for the tribunes was held immediately, lest that measure also, like
others, might prove a delusion after the war. On the thirty-sixth year
after the first tribunes, ten were elected, two from each class; and
provision was made that they should be elected in this manner for the
future. The levy being then held, Minucius marched out against the
Sabines, and found no enemy. Horatius, after the Æquans, having put the
garrison at Corbio to the sword, had taken Ortona also, fights a battle
at Algidum; he slays a great number; drives the enemy not only from
Algidum, but from Corbio and Ortona also. Corbio he razed to the ground
for their having betrayed the garrison.
[Footnote 132: _Consulare, imperium tribunicio auxilio_.--The consuls
possessed _imperium_. The tribunes could not be said to possess it.
Their province was confined to _auxilii latio_, sc. adversus consules.]
31. Marcus Valerius and Spurius Virginius are next elected consuls.
Quiet prevailed at home and abroad. They laboured under a scarcity of
provisions on account of the excessive rains. A law was proposed
regarding the making Mount Aventine public property. The same tribunes
of the people being re-elected on the following year, Titus Romilius and
Caius Veturius being consuls, strongly recommended the law[133] in all
their harangues, "That they were ashamed of their number increased to no
purpose, if that question should lie for their two years in the same
manner as it had lain for the whole preceding five." Whilst they were
most busily employed in these matters, an alarming account comes from
Tusculum, that the Æquans were in the Tusculan territory. The recent
services of that state made them ashamed of delaying relief. Both the
consuls were sent with an army, and find the enemy in their usual post
in Algidum. A battle was fought there; upwards of seven thousand of the
enemy were slain; the rest were routed; immense booty was obtained. This
the consuls sold on account of the low state of the treasury; the
proceeding was the cause of dissatisfaction to the army, and it also
afforded to the tribunes materials for bringing a charge against the
consuls before the commons. Accordingly, as soon as they went out of
office, in the consulship of Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus Aterius, a day
was appointed for Romilius by Caius Claudius Cicero, tribune of the
people; for Veturius, by Lucius Alienus, plebeian ædile. They were both
condemned, to the great mortification of the patricians; Romilius to pay
ten thousand _asses_; Veturius, fifteen thousand. Nor did this
misfortune of their predecessors render the new consuls more remiss.
They said that they too might be condemned, and that the commons and
tribunes could not carry the law. Then having thrown up the law, which,
in its repeated publication, had now grown old, the tribunes adopted a
milder mode of proceeding with the patricians. "That they should at
length put an end to their disputes. If plebeian laws displeased them,
at least they should suffer legislators (chosen) in common, both from
the commons and from the patricians, who would propose measures
advantageous to both parties, and such as might tend to the
equalization of liberty." This proposal the patricians did not reject.
They said that "no one should propose laws, except some of the
patricians." When they agreed with respect to the laws, and differed
only with respect to the proposer; ambassadors were sent to Athens,
Spurius Posthumius Albus, Aulus Manlius, Publius Sulpicius Camerinus;
and they were ordered to copy out the celebrated laws of Solon, and to
become acquainted with the institutions, customs, and laws of the other
states of Greece.
[Footnote 133: It is extraordinary that Livy makes no mention here of
Siccius Dentatus, and his strenuous exertions in endeavouring to carry
the agrarian law, as well as of his angry contentions with the consuls.
For his character, see Dion. x. 31, 32.]
32. The year was undisturbed by foreign wars; the following one was
still more quiet, Publius Curiatius and Sextus Quintilius being consuls,
the tribunes observing uninterrupted silence, which was occasioned in
the first place by their waiting for the ambassadors who had gone to
Athens, and for the foreign laws; in the next place, two heavy
calamities arose at the same time, famine and pestilence, (which proved)
destructive to man, and equally so to cattle. The lands were left
desolate; the city exhausted by a constant succession of deaths. Many
and illustrious families were in mourning. The Flamen Quirinalis,
Servilius Cornelius, died; as also the augur, Caius Horatius Pulvillus;
into whose place the augurs elected Caius Veturius, the more eagerly,
because he had been condemned by the commons. The consul Quintilius
died, and four tribunes of the people. The year was rendered a
melancholy one by these manifold disasters; but from an enemy there was
perfect quiet. Then Caius Menenius and Publius Sestius Capitolinus were
elected consuls. Nor was there in that year any external war:
disturbances arose at home. The ambassadors had now returned with the
Athenian laws; the tribunes pressed the more urgently, that a
commencement should at length be made of compiling the laws. It was
resolved that decemvirs should be elected without appeal, and that there
should be no other magistrate during that year. There was, for a
considerable time, a dispute whether plebeians should be admitted among
them: at length the point was given up to the patricians, provided that
the Icilian law regarding the Aventine and the other devoting laws were
not repealed.
33. In the three hundred and first year after Rome was built, the form
of the government was a second time changed, the supreme power being
transferred from consuls to decemvirs, as it had passed before from
kings to consuls. The change was less remarkable, because not of long
duration; for the joyous commencement of that government became too
licentious. So much the sooner did the matter fall, and (the usage) was
recurred to, that the name and authority of consuls was committed to two
persons. The decemvirs appointed were, Appius Claudius, Titus Genucius,
Publius Sestius, Lucius Veturius, Caius Julius, Aulus Manlius, Servius
Sulpicius, Publius Curiatius, Titus Romilius, Spurius Postumius. On
Claudius and Genucius, because they had been elected consuls for that
year, the honour was conferred in compensation for the honour (of the
consulate); and on Sestius, one of the consuls of the former year,
because he had proposed that matter to the senate against the will of
his colleague. Next to these were considered the three ambassadors who
had gone to Athens; at the same time that the honour might serve as a
recompence for so distant an embassy; at the same time they considered
that persons acquainted with the foreign laws would be of use in
digesting the new code of regulations. Other persons made up the number.
They say that persons advanced in years were appointed by the last
suffrages, in order that they might oppose with less warmth the opinions
of others. The direction of the entire government was rested in Appius
through the favour of the commons, and he had assumed a demeanour so
new, that from a severe and harsh reviler of the people, he became
suddenly a protector of the commons, and a candidate for popular favour.
They administered justice to the people one every tenth day. On that day
the twelve fasces attended the præfect of justice; one beadle attended
each of his nine colleagues, and in the singular harmony among
themselves, which unanimity might sometimes prove prejudicial to private
persons, the strictest equity was shown to others. It will suffice to
adduce a proof of their moderation by instancing one matter. Though they
had been appointed without (the privilege of) appeal, yet a dead body
having been found buried in the house of Publius Sestius, a man of
patrician rank, and this having been brought forward in an assembly, in
a matter equally clear and atrocious, Caius Julius, a decemvir,
appointed a day of trial for Sestius, and appeared before the people as
prosecutor (in a matter) of which he was legally a judge; and
relinquished his right, so that he might add what had been taken from
the power of the office to the liberty of the people.
34. Whilst the highest and lowest alike experienced from them this
prompt administration of justice, impartial, as if from an oracle, then
their attention was devoted to the framing of laws; and the ten tables
being proposed amid the intense expectation of all, they summoned the
people to an assembly: and "what may prove favourable, advantageous, and
happy to the commonwealth themselves, and to their children, ordered
them to go and read the laws that were exhibited." "That they had
equalized the rights of all, both the highest and the lowest, as far as
could be devised by the abilities of ten men; that the understanding and
counsels of a greater number might prove more successful; that they
should turn in their minds each particular within themselves, canvass it
in conversation; and bring together under public discussion whatever
might seem an excess or deficiency under each particular. That the Roman
people should have such laws, as the general consent might appear not so
much to have ratified when proposed, as to have proposed from
themselves." When they appeared sufficiently corrected according to
public opinion (as expressed) regarding each chapter of the laws as it
was published, the laws of the ten tables were passed at the assembly
voting by centuries; which, even at the present time, amid this immense
heap of laws crowded one upon the other, still remain the source of all
public and private jurisprudence. A rumour was then spread that two
tables were wanting; on the addition of which a body, as it were, of the
whole Roman law might be completed. The expectation of this, as the day
of election approached, created a desire to appoint decemvirs again. The
commons now, besides that they detested the name of consuls as much as
that of kings, required not even the tribunitian aid, as the decemvirs
in turn submitted to appeal.
35. But when the assembly for electing decemvirs was proclaimed for the
third market-day, so strong a flame of ambition blazed forth, that the
first men of the state began to canvass individuals, (through fear, I
suppose, lest the possession of such high authority might become
accessible to persons not sufficiently worthy, if the post were left
unoccupied by themselves,) suppliantly soliciting for an honour, which
had been opposed by them with all their might, from that commons with
whom they had so often contended. Their dignity now lowered to the risk
of a contest, at such an age, and after passing through such honours,
stimulated the exertions of Appius Claudius. You would not know whether
to reckon him among the decemvirs or the candidates; he resembled more
closely one canvassing for the office than one invested with it; he
aspersed the nobility, extolled every most insignificant and humble
candidate; surrounded by the Duilii and Icilii who had been tribunes, he
bustled about the forum, through their means he recommended himself to
the commons; until his colleagues even, who till then had been extremely
devoted to him, turned their eyes on him, wondering what he meant. It
was evident to them, that there was no sincerity in it; "that certainly
such affability amid such pride would not be for nothing. That this
excessive lowering of himself, and putting himself on a level with
private citizens, was not so much the conduct to be expected from one
hastening to go out of office, as of one seeking the means of continuing
that office." Not daring openly to oppose his wishes, they set about
baffling his ardour by humouring it. They by common consent confer on
him, as being the youngest, the office of presiding at the elections.
This was an artifice, that he might not appoint himself; which no one
ever did, except the tribunes of the people, and that too with the very
worst precedent. He, however, declaring that with the favour of fortune
he would preside at the elections, seized on the (intended)
obstacle[134] as a happy occasion; and having by a coalition foiled the
two Quintii, Capitolinus and Cincinnatus, and his own uncle, Caius
Claudius, a man most stedfast in the interest of the nobility, and other
citizens of the same eminence, he appoints as decemvirs men by no means
equal in rank of life: himself in the first instance, which proceeding
honourable men disapproved so much the more, as no one had imagined that
he would have the daring to act so. With him were elected Marcus
Cornelius-Maluginensis, Marcus Sergius, Lucius Minutius, Quintus Fabius
Vibulanus, Quintus Pœtelius, Titus Antonius Merenda, Cæso Duilius,
Spurius Oppius Cornicen, Manius Rabuleius.[135]
[Footnote 134: _Impedimentum_. The fact of his presiding at the meeting
should have been a bar to his being elected a decemvir.]
[Footnote 135: Niebuhr will have it that five of these were of plebeian
rank.]
36. This was the end of Appius's assumption of a character not his own.
Henceforward he began to live according to his own natural disposition,
and to mould to his own temper his new colleagues before they should
enter on their office. They held daily meetings remote from witnesses:
then, furnished with their schemes of tyranny,[136] which they digested
apart from others, no longer dissembling their arrogance, difficult of
access, morose to all who addressed them, they carried out the matter to
the ides of May. The ides of May were at that time the usual period for
commencing office. At the commencement then of their magistracy, they
rendered the first day of their office remarkable by making an
exhibition of great terror. For when the preceding decemvirs had
observed the rule, that only one should have the fasces, and that this
emblem of royalty should pass through all in rotation, to each in his
turn, they all suddenly came forth with the twelve fasces. One hundred
and twenty lictors filled the forum, and carried before them the axes
tied up with the fasces: and they explained that it was of no
consequence that the axe should be taken away, as they had been
appointed without the privilege of appeal.[137] There was the appearance
of ten kings, and terrors were multiplied not only in the humblest
individuals, but even in the principal men among the patricians, who
thought that a pretext and commencement of bloodshed were sought for; so
that if any one should utter a word favourable to liberty, either in the
senate or in a meeting of the people, the rods and axes would be
instantly brought forward, even to intimidate the rest. For besides that
there was no protection in the people, the right of appeal being done
away with, they had also by mutual consent prohibited interference with
each other:[138] whereas the preceding decemvirs had allowed the points
of law decided by themselves to be amended by appeal to a colleague, and
had referred to the people some points which might seem to come within
their own jurisdiction. For a considerable time the terror seemed
equalized among all ranks; gradually it began to turn entirely on the
commons. They spared the patricians; arbitrary and cruel treatment was
shown to the humbler classes: they were wholly respective of the person,
not of the cause: as being persons with whom interest usurped the force
of justice. Their decisions they concerted at home, and pronounced in
the forum. If any person appealed to a colleague, he left the one to
whom he had appealed in such a manner as to regret that he had not
abided by the sentence of the former. An opinion also had gone abroad
without an authority, that they had conspired in their tyranny not only
for the present time, but that a clandestine league had been struck
among them (accompanied) with an oath, that they would not hold the
comitia, and that by perpetuating the decemvirate they would retain the
power now in their possession.
[Footnote 136: _Impotentibus_, sc. immoderatis--_rari aditus_, the
genitive singular.--_Stroth._]
[Footnote 137: _Nec attinuisse demi securim, quum sine provocatione
creati essent, interpretabantur_. Valerius Publicola had introduced the
custom of not having the axes tied up with the fasces when carried
before the consuls in the city. But the decemvirs said that this was,
because an appeal from the consuls to the people was allowed. Whence,
since their jurisdiction allowed of no appeal, they _interpreted_, i. e.
by interpreting the meaning or intention of this custom, they concluded
that they were not bound by it, and that there was no reason why they
should remove the axes from the fasces.--_Crev._]
[Footnote 138: _Provocatione_--intercessionem. The _provocatio_ was to
the people, whilst the _intercessio_ referred to the decemvirs against a
colleague.]