_A law was passed concerning the intermarriage of the patricians
and plebeians, after strong resistance on the part of the
patricians. Military tribunes with consular power. Censors created.
Restoration of the lands unjustly taken from the people of Ardea.
Spurius Melius, suspected of aiming at regal power, is slain by C.
Servilius Ahala by order of Quintius Cincinnatus, dictator.
Cornelius Cossus, having killed Tolumnius, king of the Veientes,
offers the second_ spolia opima. _Duration of the censorship,
originally five years, limited to one year and a half. Fidenæ
reduced, and a colony settled there. The colonists destroyed by the
Fidenatians, who are subsequently conquered by Mamercus Æmilius,
dictator. A conspiracy of the slaves put down. Postumius, a
military tribune, slain by the army for his cruelties. Pay from the
treasury first given to the soldiers. Operations against the
Volscians, Fidenatians, and Faliscians._
1. Marcus Genucius and Caius Curtius followed these as consuls. The year
was disturbed both at home and abroad. For at the commencement of the
year Caius Canuleius, tribune of the people, proposed a law concerning
the intermarriage of the patricians and commons; by which the patricians
considered that their blood would be contaminated, and the privileges of
birth would be confounded; and a hint at first lightly suggested by the
tribunes, that it should be lawful that one of the consuls should be
elected from the commons, afterwards proceeded so far, that the nine
tribunes proposed a bill, "that the people should have the power of
electing the consuls, whether they wished, from the commons or the
patricians. But they thought that if that were done, the supreme
authority would not only be shared with the lowest ranks, but be wholly
transferred from the nobility to the commons. With joy therefore the
patricians heard that the people of Ardea had revolted in consequence of
the injustice of the taking away their land, and that the Veientians had
laid waste the frontiers of the Roman territory, and that the Volscians
and Æquans murmured on account of the fortifying of Verrago; so much did
they prefer an unsuccessful war to an ignominious peace." These tidings
therefore being received and with exaggerations, in order that during
the din of so many wars the tribunitian proceedings might be suspended,
they order the levies to be held, preparations to be made for war and
arms with the utmost activity; with more energy, if possible, than had
been used in the consulship of Titus Quintius. Then Caius Canuleius
declared aloud in brief terms in the senate, that "the consuls wished in
vain to divert the commons from attention to the new laws; that they
never should hold a levee while he lived, before the commons had first
ratified the laws proposed by him and his colleagues;" and he instantly
summoned them to an assembly.
2. Both the consuls incited the senate against the tribune, and the
tribune the people against the consuls at one and the same time. The
consuls denied "that tribunitian frenzies could any longer be endured;
that they were now come to a crisis; that more hostilities were being
stirred up at home than abroad. That this happened not more through the
fault of the commons than of the patricians; nor more through that of
the tribunes than of the consuls. That the matter for which there was a
reward in the state thrived always with the greatest proficiency; that
thus it was that men became meritorious in peace, thus in war. That at
Rome the highest reward was for sedition; that had ever been the source
of honour both to individuals and to collective bodies. They should
remember in what condition they had received the majesty of the senate
from their forefathers, in what condition they were about to transmit it
to their children; that, like the commons, they should have it in their
power to boast that it was improved in degree and in splendour. That
there was no end, nor would there be, so long as the promoters of
sedition were rewarded with honour in proportion as sedition was
successful. What and how important schemes Caius Canuleius had set on
foot! that he was introducing confounding of family rank, a disturbance
of the auspices both public and private, that nothing may remain pure,
nothing uncontaminated; that, all distinction being abolished, no one
might know either himself or those he belonged to. For what other
tendency had those promiscuous intermarriages, except that intercourse
between commons and patricians might be made common after the manner of
wild beasts; so that of the offspring each may be ignorant of what blood
he may be, of what form of religion he was; that he may belong half to
the patricians, half to the commons, not being homogeneous even with
himself? That it appeared not enough, that all things divine and human
should be confounded; that those disturbers of the common people were
now preparing to (seize) the consulship; and first that they sounded
people's sentiments in mere conversation on the project of having one
consul appointed from the commons; that now the proposition was brought
forward, that the people may appoint the consuls, whether they pleased
from the patricians or from the people; and that they would appoint no
doubt every most turbulent person. The Canuleii, therefore, and the
Icilii would be consuls. (They expressed a hope) that Jupiter, the best
and greatest, would not suffer the imperial majesty of the sovereign
power to descend to that; and that they would certainly die a thousand
deaths rather than such a disgrace should be incurred. They were certain
that their ancestors, could they have divined that the commons would
become not more placable to them, but more intractable, by making
successive demands still more unreasonable, after they had obtained the
first, would have rather submitted to any struggle, than have suffered
such laws to be saddled on them. Because it was then conceded to them
with respect to tribunes, the concession was made a second time. There
was no end to it; tribunes of the commons and patricians could not
subsist in the same state; either the one order or the other office must
be abolished; and that a stop should be put to presumption and temerity
rather late than never. (Was it right) that they, by sowing discord,
should with impunity stir up the neighbouring states against us? and
then prevent the state from arming and defending itself against those
evils which they may have brought on us? and after they have almost sent
for the enemy, not suffer the armies to be levied against the enemies?
But Canuleius may have the audacity to declare openly in the senate
that, unless the patrician suffer the laws proposed by himself as
victorious, to be enacted, he would prevent the levy from being held.
What else was this, but threatening that he would betray his country;
that he would suffer it to be attacked and captured? What courage would
that expression afford, not to the Roman commons, but to the Volscians,
Æquans, and the Veientians! would they not hope that, under the
generalship of Canuleius, they should be able to scale the Capitol and
citadel, if with the deprivation of privilege and majesty, the tribunes
should rob the patricians of their courage also? That the consuls were
prepared to act against the wicked schemes of their countrymen, before
they would act against the arms of the enemy."
3. Just when these matters were going on in the senate, Canuleius thus
declaimed in favour of his laws and against the consuls: "Frequently
even before now I think I have observed how much the patricians despised
you, Romans, how unworthy they deemed you to dwell in the one city and
within the same walls with them; but on the present occasion most
clearly, in their having risen up so determinedly in opposition to those
propositions of ours: in which what else do we do, but remind them that
we are their fellow citizens, and that though we possess not the same
power, we inhabit the same city? In the one we demand intermarriage, a
thing which is usually granted to neighbours and foreigners: we have
granted even to vanquished enemies the right of citizenship, which is
more than the right of intermarriage. In the other we propose nothing
new; we only reclaim and demand that which is the people's; that the
Roman people may confer honours on whomsoever they may please. And what
in the name of goodness is it for which they embroil heaven and earth?
why was almost an attack made on me just now in the senate? why do they
say that they will not restrain themselves from violence, and threaten
that they will insult an office, sacred and inviolable? Shall this city
no longer be able to stand, and is the empire at stake, if the right of
free suffrage is granted to the Roman people, to confer the consulship
on whomsoever they may please, and if a plebeian, though he may be
worthy of the highest honour, is not precluded from the hope of
attaining that honour? and is this of the same import, whether a
plebeian be made a consul, as if any one were to propose a slave or the
son of a slave to be consul? Do you perceive in what contempt you live?
they would take from you a participation in this light, if it were
permitted them. That you breathe, that you enjoy the faculty of speech,
that you possess the forms of human beings, excites their indignation.
Nay even, as I hope for mercy, they say that it is contrary to religion
that a plebeian should be made consul. I pray, though we are not
admitted to the annals, nor to the commentaries of the pontiffs, do we
not know even those things which strangers know? that consuls have
succeeded kings? and that they possess no privilege, no majesty which
was not formerly inherent in kings? Do you suppose that we ever heard it
mentioned that Numa Pompilius, who not only was not a patrician, but not
even a citizen of Rome, was sent for from the country of the Sabines by
order of the people, with the approbation of the senate, and that he was
made king at Rome? that afterwards Lucius Tarquinius, who was not only
not of Roman, but not even of Italian extraction, the son of Damaratus
of Corinth, an emigrant from Tarquinii, was made king, even whilst the
sons of Ancus still lived? that after him Servius Tullius, the son of a
captive woman of Corniculum, with his father unknown, his mother a
slave, attained the throne by his ability and merit? For what shall I
say of Titus Tatius the Sabine, whom Romulus himself, the founder of our
city, admitted into partnership of the throne? Accordingly, whilst no
class of persons is disdained, in whom conspicuous merit may be found,
the Roman dominion increased. You do well to be dissatisfied now with a
plebeian consul, when your ancestors disdained not foreigners as kings,
and when, even after the expulsion of kings, the city was not shut
against foreign merit. After the expulsion of the kings, we certainly
admitted the Claudian family from the Sabine country not only into
citizenship, but even into the number of the patricians. Can a man from
a foreigner be made a patrician, then a consul? shall a Roman citizen,
if he belong to the commons, be precluded from all hope of the
consulate? Do we then deem it impossible that a man of the commons can
be a person of fortitude and activity, qualified to excel both in peace
and war, tyke to Numa, Lucius Tarquinius, and Servius Tullius? Or,
should such appear, shall we not suffer him to meddle with the helm of
government? or shall we have consuls like the decemvirs, the most
abandoned of mortals, who were, however, all patricians, rather than
like the best of kings, though new men?
4. "But (I may be told) no commoner has been consul since the expulsion
of the kings. What then? ought no innovation to be introduced? and what
has not yet been practised, (and in a new state there are many things
not yet practised,) ought not even such measures, even though they be
useful, be adopted? During the reign of Romulus there were no pontiffs,
nor augurs: they were appointed by Numa Pompilius. There was no census
in the state, nor the distribution of centuries and classes; it was
introduced by Servius Tullius: there never had been consuls; they were
created after the expulsion of the kings. Of a dictator neither the
office nor the name had existed; it commenced its existence among the
senators. There were no tribunes of the people, ædiles, nor quæstors: it
was resolved that those officers should be appointed. Within the last
ten years we both created decemvirs for compiling laws, and we abolished
them. Who can doubt but that in a city doomed for eternal duration,
increasing to an immense magnitude, new civil offices, priesthoods,
rights of families and of individuals, may be established? This very
matter, that there should not be the right of intermarriage between
patricians and commons, did not the decemvirs introduce within the last
few years to the utmost injury of the commons, on a principle most
detrimental to the public? Can there be a greater or more marked insult,
than that one portion of the state, as if contaminated, should be deemed
unworthy of intermarriage? What else is it than to suffer exile within
the same walls, actual rustication? They wish to prevent our being mixed
with them by affinity or consanguinity; that our blood be not mingled
with theirs. What? if this cast a stain on that nobility of yours, which
most of you, the progeny of Albans or Sabines, possess, not in right of
birth or blood, but by co-optation into the patricians, having been
elected either by the kings, or after the expulsion of kings, by order
of the people, could ye not keep it pure by private regulations, by
neither marrying into the commons, and by not suffering your daughters
or sisters to marry out of the patricians. No one of the commons would
offer violence to a patrician maiden; such lust as that belongs to the
patricians. None of them would oblige any man against his will to enter
into a marriage contract. But really that such a thing should be
prevented by law, that the intermarriage of the patricians and plebeians
should be interdicted, that it is which is insulting to the commons. Why
do you not combine in enacting a law that there shall be no
intermarriage between rich and poor? That which has in all places and
always been the business of private regulations, that a woman might
marry into whatever family she has been engaged to, and that each man
might take a wife out of whatever family he had contracted with, that ye
shackle with the restraints of a most tyrannical law, by which ye sever
the bonds of civil society and split one state into two. Why do ye not
enact a law that a plebeian shall not dwell in the neighbourhood of a
patrician? that he shall not go the same road with him? that he shall
not enter the same banquet with him? that he shall not stand in the same
forum? For what else is there in the matter, if a patrician man wed a
plebeian woman, or a plebeian a patrician? What right, pray, is thereby
changed? the children surely go with the father. Nor is there any thing
which we seek from intermarriage with you, except that we may be held in
the number of human beings and fellow citizens; nor is there any reason
why ye contest the point, except that it delights you to strive for
insult and ignominy to us.
5. "In a word, whether is the supreme power belonging to the Roman
people, or is it yours? Whether by the expulsion of kings has dominion
been acquired for you or equal liberty for all? It is fitting that the
Roman people should be allowed to enact a law, if it please. Or will ye
decree a levy by way of punishment, according as each bill shall be
proposed? and as soon as I, as tribune, shall begin to call the tribes
to give their votes, will you, forthwith, as consul, force the younger
men to take the military oath, and lead them out to camp? and will you
threaten the commons? will you threaten the tribune? What, if you had
not already twice experienced how little those threats availed against
the united sense of the people? Of course it was because you wished to
consult for our interest, that you abstained from force. Or was there no
contest for this reason, that the party which was the stronger was also
the more moderate? Nor will there be any contest now, Romans: they will
try your spirit; your strength they will not make trial of. Wherefore,
consuls, the commons are prepared to accompany you to these wars,
whether real or fictitious, if, by restoring the right of intermarriage,
you at length make this one state; if they can coalesce, be united and
mixed with you by private ties; if the hope, if the access to honours
be granted to men of ability and energy; if it is lawful to be in a
partnership and share of the government; if, what is the result of equal
freedom, it be allowed in the distribution of the annual offices to obey
and to govern in their turns. If any one shall obstruct these measures,
talk about wars, multiply them by report; no one will give in his name,
no one will take up arms, no one will fight for haughty masters, with
whom there is no participation of honours in public, nor of
intermarriage in private."
6. When both the consuls came forward into the assembly, and the matter
had changed from a long series of harangues to altercation, the tribune,
on asking why it was not right that a plebeian should be made a consul,
an answer was returned truly perhaps, though by no means expediently for
the present contest, "that no plebeian could have the auspices, and for
this reason the decemvirs had prohibited the intermarriage, lest from
uncertainty of descent the auspices might be vitiated." The commons were
fired with indignation at this above all, because, as if hateful to the
immortal gods, they were denied to be qualified to take auspices. And
now (as the commons both had a most energetic supporter in the tribune,
and they themselves vied with him in perseverance) there was no end of
the contentions, until the patricians, being at length overpowered,
agreed that the law regarding intermarriage should be passed, judging
that by these means most probably the tribunes would either give up
altogether or postpone till after the war the question concerning the
plebeian consuls; and that in the mean time the commons, content with
the intermarriage-law (being passed,) would be ready to enlist. When
Canuleius was now in high repute by his victory over the patricians and
by the favour of the commons, the other tribunes being excited to
contend for their bill, set to work with all their might, and, the
accounts regarding the war augmenting daily, obstruct the levy. The
consuls, when nothing could be transacted through the senate in
consequence of the opposition of the tribunes, held meetings of the
leading men at their own houses. It was becoming evident that they must
concede the victory either to the enemies or to their countrymen.
Valerius and Horatius alone of the consulars did not attend the
meetings. The opinion of Caius Claudius was for arming the consuls
against the tribunes. The sentiments of the Quintii, both Cincinnatus
and Capitolinus, were averse to bloodshed, and to violating (persons)
whom by the treaty concluded with the commons they had admitted to be
sacred and inviolable. Through these meetings the matter was brought to
this, that they suffered tribunes of the soldiers with consular
authority to be elected from the patricians and commons without
distinction; that with respect to the election of consuls no change
should be made; and with this the tribunes were content, as were also
the commons. An assembly is now proclaimed for electing three tribunes
with consular power. This being proclaimed, forthwith whoever had
contributed to promote sedition by word or deed, more particularly men
who had been tribunes, began to solicit support and to bustle about the
forum as candidates; so that despair, in the first instance, of
obtaining the honour, by reason of the irritated state of the people's
mind, then indignation at having to hold the office with such persons,
deterred the patricians; at length however, being forced, they stood as
candidates, lest they might appear to have relinquished all share in the
government. The result of this election showed that the sentiments of
persons in the struggle for liberty and dignity are different from those
they feel when the contest is laid aside, the judgment being unbiassed;
for the people elected all patricians as tribunes, content with this,
that the plebeians had been taken into account. Where could you now find
in an individual such moderation, disinterestedness, and elevation of
mind, as was then displayed by the entire people?
7. In the three hundred and tenth year after the city of Rome was built,
for the first time military tribunes in the room of consuls enter into
office, Aulus Sempronius Atratinus, Lucius Atilius, Titus Clælius; in
whose office the concord prevailing at home afforded peace also abroad.
There are some who, without mentioning the proposal of the law
concerning the election of consuls from among the commons, say that
three military tribunes were elected on account of the Veientian war
being added to the war of the Æquans and the Volscians and to the revolt
of the Ardeates, because two consuls could not execute so many wars
together, these tribunes being invested also with the authority and
insignia of consuls. The jurisdiction of that office however did not
stand on a firm footing, because the third month after they entered on
the office, they resigned the honour, in pursuance of a decree of the
augurs, as if unduly elected; because Caius Curtius, who had presided at
the election, had not selected his tent with due regard to ceremony.
Ambassadors came to Rome from Ardea complaining of the injustice in such
a manner, that it appeared that, if it were redressed, they would
continue in amity and the observance of the treaty, on the restitution
of their land. The answer returned by the senate was: "that the judgment
of the people could not be rescinded by the senate, besides such a
measure could not be adopted on precedent or with justice;, as an
additional reason also for the purpose of preserving concord between the
several orders of the state. If the Ardeans were willing to abide a
seasonable conjuncture, and leave to the senate the mode of redressing
the injustice done to them, that the consequence would be that they
would rejoice for having moderated their resentment, and that they
should be convinced that the patricians were equally anxious that no
injustice should arise against them, and that any which may have arisen
should not be lasting." Thus the ambassadors, saying that they should
lay the whole matter anew before their friends, were dismissed
courteously. The patricians, now that the republic was without any
curule magistrate, assembled together and elected an interrex. The
contest whether consuls or military tribunes should be elected, kept the
matter for several days in a state of interregnum. The interrex and
senate strive that the elections of consuls be held; the tribunes of the
people, and the people themselves, that elections of the military
tribunes be held. The patricians succeeded, because both the commons,
sure to confer the one or the other honour on patricians, gave up a
needless contest, and the leaders of the commons preferred those
elections at which no account was to be taken of them (as candidates) to
those at which they should be passed by as unworthy. The tribunes of the
commons also gave up the contest without a decision, as a compliment to
the chiefs of the patricians. Titus Quintius Barbatus, the interrex,
elects consuls Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, Lucius Sempronius Atratinus.
During their consulship, the treaty was renewed with the Ardeans; and
that is a record to prove, that they were consuls in that year, though
they are not to be found among the ancient annals, nor in the books of
the magistrates. I suppose because military tribunes existed at the
commencement of the year, on that account, though these consuls were
substituted, the names of the consuls were left out, just as if the
military tribunes were the entire year in office. Licinius Macer states,
that they were found both in the Ardean treaty and in the linen books at
the temple of Moneta. There was tranquillity both at home and abroad,
though so many alarms were held out by the neighbouring states.
8. This year (whether it had tribunes only, or consuls substituted in
the room of tribunes) is followed by a year when there were undoubtedly
consuls, scil. Marcus Geganius Macerinus a second time, Titus Quintius
Capitolinus a fifth time. This same year was the commencement of the
censorship, a thing which arose from an humble origin, which afterwards
increased so much in importance, that in it was vested the regulation of
the morals and discipline of Rome, the senate and the centuries of the
knights, the distinction of honour and of ignominy were under the sway
of that office, the legal right to public and private places, the
revenues of the Roman people fell under their beck and jurisdiction. The
institution of the thing originated in this, that the people not having
been subjected to a survey for several years, the census could neither
be deferred, nor had the consuls leisure to discharge their duty, when
wars impended from so many states. An observation was made by the
senate, "that an office laborious in itself, and one little suited to
the consular office, required a magistrate for itself, to whose
authority should be submitted the duties of the several scribes, the
custody and care of the records, as well as the adjustment of the form
to be adopted in the census." And inconsiderable though the proposal
might be, still the senate received it with great pleasure, because it
increased the number of patrician magistrates in the state, judging also
that that would come to pass, which really did occur, viz. that the
influence of those who should preside, and the honour of the office
would derive on it additional authority and dignity. The tribunes also,
considering the discharge of the duty (as was really the case) as
necessary rather than the duty itself, as being attended with lustre,
did not indeed offer opposition, lest they should through perverseness
show a disposition to thwart them even in trifles. After the honour was
rejected by the leading men of the state, the people by their suffrages
appointed to the office of conducting the census Papirius and
Sempronius, concerning whose consulate doubts are entertained, that in
that magistracy they might have some recompence for the incompleteness
of their consulate. They were called censors from the nature of their
office.
9. Whilst these matters are transacting at Rome, ambassadors come from
Ardea, imploring aid for their city, which was nearly destroyed, in
consideration of their very ancient alliance, and of the treaty recently
renewed. For by intestine wars they were not allowed to enjoy the peace
with Rome, which they had by the soundest policy preserved; the cause
and origin of which is said to have arisen from a struggle between
factions; which have proved and ever will prove more a cause of
destruction to several states, than foreign wars, famine, or disease, or
any of the other evils which men refer to the anger of heaven, as the
severest of public calamities. Two young men courted a maiden of a
plebeian family, highly distinguished for beauty: one of them on a level
with the maid in point of birth, and favoured by her guardians, who were
themselves of the same rank; the other of noble birth, captivated by
nothing but her beauty. The latter was aided by the good wishes of the
nobles, through which party disputes made their way even into the girl's
family. The nobleman was preferred in the judgment of the mother, who
was anxious that her daughter should have the most splendid match
possible: the guardians, mindful of party even in that transaction,
strove for the person of their own order. As the matter could not be
settled within the walls of the house, they proceeded to a court of
justice. On hearing the claim of the mother and of the guardians, the
magistrate decides the right of marriage in conformity with the wish of
the mother. But violence was the more powerful. For the guardians,
having harangued openly in the forum among persons of their own faction,
on the injustice of the decree, collected a party and carry off the girl
from her mother's house: against whom a body of nobles having arisen
more incensed than before, attends the young man rendered furious by the
outrage. A desperate battle takes place; the commons in no respect like
to the Roman commons were worsted, and having set out from the city in
arms, and taken possession of a hill, make excursions into the lands of
the nobles with fire and sword. The city too, which had been previously
free from all contest, they set about besieging, having induced, by the
hope of plunder, a multitude of artisans to join them: nor was any
appearance or calamity of war absent; as if the whole state were
infested by the mad rage of the two young men, who sought the
accomplishment of the fatal match through their country's ruin. The arms
and war at home seemed insufficient to both parties. The nobles called
in the Romans to the relief of their besieged city; the commons called
upon the Volscians to join them in storming Ardea. The Volscians, under
the command of Clælius, an Æquan, came first to Ardea, and drew a line
of circumvallation around the enemy's walls. When news of this was
brought to Rome, Marcus Geganius, the consul, having set out immediately
at the head of an army, selected a place for his camp about three miles
from the enemy; and the day being now fast declining, he orders his
soldiers to refresh themselves; then at the fourth watch he puts his
troops in motion; and the work, once commenced, was expedited in such a
manner, that at sun-rise the Volscians found themselves enclosed by the
Romans with stronger works than the city was by themselves. The consul
had also at another place connected an arm to the wall of Ardea, through
which his friends might pass to and from the town.
10. The Volscian general, who up to that period had maintained his army,
not out of provisions which had been previously provided, but with corn
brought in daily from the plunder of the country, when now encompassed
by a rampart he perceives himself suddenly destitute of every thing,
calling the consul to a conference, says, that "if the Roman came for
the purpose of raising the siege, he would withdraw the Volscians from
thence." To this the consul made answer, that "the vanquished had to
accept terms, not to dictate them; and as the Volscians came at their
own discretion to attack the allies of the Roman people, they should not
go off in the same same way." He orders, "that their general be given
up, their arms laid down, acknowledging themselves vanquished, and ready
to submit to his further orders: otherwise, whether they went away or
stayed, that he would prove a determined enemy, and would prefer to
carry to Rome a victory over the Volscians than an insidious peace."
The Volscians, determined on trying the slender hope they had in arms,
all other being now cut off, besides many other disadvantages, having
come to an engagement in a place unfavourable for fighting, and still
more so for retreat, when they were being cut down on every side, from
fighting have recourse to entreaties; having given up their general and
surrendered their arms, they are sent under the yoke and dismissed full
of disgrace and suffering, with one garment each. And when they halted
not far from the city of Tusculum, in consequence of an old grudge of
the Tusculans they were surprised, unarmed as they were, and suffered
severe punishment, a messenger being scarcely left to bring an account
of their defeat. The Roman general quieted the disturbed state of
affairs at Ardea, beheading the principal authors of that commotion, and
confiscating their effects to the public treasury of the Ardeans; the
Ardeans considered the injustice of the decision completely repaired by
such kindness on the part of the Roman people; it seemed to the senate,
however, that something remained to be done to obliterate the
remembrance of public avarice. The consul returns to the city in
triumph, Clælius, the general of the Volscians, being led before his
chariot, and the spoils being carried before him, of which he had
stripped the enemy's army after he had sent them under the yoke.
Quintius the consul, by his civil administration, equalled, which is no
easy matter, the glory attained by his colleague in war; for he so
regulated the domestic care of harmony and peace, by dispensing justice
with moderation to the highest and the lowest, that both the patricians
considered him a strict consul, and the commons, as one sufficiently
lenient. Against the tribunes too he carried his measures more by his
influence than by striving against them. Five consulships conducted with
the same even tenor of conduct, and every part of his life being passed
in a manner worthy of the consular dignity, rendered himself almost more
venerable than the high office itself. On this account no mention was
made of the military tribunes during this consulate.
11. They appoint as consuls Marcus Fabius Vibulanus, Publius Æbutius
Cornicen. Fabius and Æbutius, the consuls, inasmuch as they perceived
that they succeeded to a greater glory of achievements performed at home
and abroad, (the year was rendered particularly remarkable among the
neighbouring states, both friendly and hostile, because relief had been
afforded to the Ardeans in their perilous situation with so much zeal,)
the more strenuously exerted themselves in obtaining a decree of the
senate, that they might completely efface the infamy of the decision
from the memory of men, to the effect that since the state of the
Ardeans had been reduced to a few by intestine war, a colony should be
sent thither as a protection against the Volscians. This is what was
stated publicly on the tables, that the intention entertained of
rescinding the decision might escape the knowledge of the commons and
tribunes. But they had agreed that, a much greater number of Rutulian
colonists being enrolled than of Romans, no land should be distributed,
except that which had been intercepted by the infamous decision; and
that not a sod of it should be assigned to any Roman, until all the
Rutulians had had their share. In this way the land returned to the
Ardeans. The commissioners appointed to transplant the colony to Ardea
were Agrippa Menenius, Titus Clælius Siculus, and Marcus Æbutius Elva.
When they, in the discharge of their by no means popular office, had
given offence to the commons by assigning to the allies the land which
the Roman people had decided to be their own, and were not even much
supported by the patricians, because they had not deferred in any way to
the influence of any one, a day having been appointed for them by the
tribunes to appear before the people, they escaped all vexatious
annoyance by enrolling themselves as settlers and remaining in the
colony, which they now had as a testimony of their integrity and
justice.
12. There was peace at home and abroad both this and the following year,
Caius Furius Pacilus and Marcus Papirius Crassus being consuls. The
games which had been vowed by the decemvirs, in pursuance of a decree of
the senate on occasion of the secession of the commons from the
patricians, were performed this year. An occasion for sedition was
sought in vain by Pætelius, who, having been made a tribune of the
commons a second time, by denouncing these same threats, could neither
prevail on the consuls to submit to the senate the questions concerning
the division of the lands among the people; and when, after a hard
struggle, he had succeeded so far that the patricians should be
consulted as to whether it was their pleasure that an election should be
held of consuls or of tribunes, consuls were ordered to be elected; and
the menaces of the tribune were now laughed at, when he threatened that
he would stop the levy, inasmuch as the neighbouring states being now
quiet, there was no occasion either for war or for preparations for war.
This tranquil state of things is followed by a year, in which Proculus
Geganius Macerinus, Lucius Menenius Lanatus were consuls, remarkable for
a variety of disasters and dangers, also for disturbances, famine, for
their having almost submitted their necks to the yoke of arbitrary power
through the allurement of largesses. Foreign war alone was wanting, by
which if matters had been aggravated, they could scarcely have stood out
against them by the aid of all the gods. Their misfortunes began with
famine; whether it was that the season was unfavourable to the crops, or
that the cultivation of the land was relinquished for the allurements of
the city, and of public harangues; for both causes are assigned. And the
patricians accused the commons as being idle; the tribunes of the
commons complained sometimes of the fraud, at other times of the
negligence of the consuls. At length the commons prevailed, without
opposition on the part of the senate, that Lucius Minutius should be
appointed president of the market; doomed to be more successful in that
office in preserving liberty than in the discharge of his own peculiar
province: although in the end he bore away the well-earned gratitude of
the people as well as the glory of having lowered the price of
provisions. When he had made but slight advance in relieving the markets
by sending embassies around the neighbouring states by land and sea to
no purpose, except that an inconsiderable quantity of corn was imported
from Etruria, and applying himself to the careful dispensations of their
scanty stock, by obliging persons to show their supply, and to sell
whatever was over and above a month's provision, and by depriving the
slaves of one half of their daily allowance; then by censuring and
holding up to the resentment of the people the corn-hoarders, he rather
discovered the great scarcity of grain than relieved it by this rigorous
inquisition. Many of the commons, all hope being lost, rather than be
tortured by dragging out existence, muffled up their heads and
precipitated themselves into the Tiber.
13. Then Spurius Mælius, of the equestrian order, extremely rich
considering these times, set about a project useful in itself, but
having a most pernicious tendency, and a still more pernicious motive.
For having, by the assistance of his friends and clients, bought up corn
from Etruria at his private expense, (which very circumstance, I think,
had been an impediment in the endeavour to reduce the price of corn by
the exertions of the state,) he set about giving out largesses of corn:
and having won over the commons by this munificence, he drew them with
him wherever he went, conspicuous and consequential beyond the rank of a
private citizen, insuring to him as undoubted the consulship by the
favour (they manifested towards him) and the hopes (they excited in
him.) He himself, as the mind of man is not to be satiated with that
which fortune holds out the hope of, began to aspire to things still
higher, and altogether unwarrantable; and since even the consulship
would have to be taken from the patricians against their will, he began
to set his mind on kingly power;--that that would be the only prize
worthy of such grand designs and of the struggle which would have to be
endured. The consular elections were now coming on, which circumstance
destroyed him completely, his plans being not yet arranged or
sufficiently matured. Titus Quintius Capitolinus was elected consul for
the sixth time, a man by no means well suited to answer the views of one
meditating political innovations: Agrippa Menenius is attached to him as
colleague, who bore the cognomen of Lanatus: and Lucius Minutius as
president of the markets, whether he was re-elected, or created for an
indefinite period, as long as circumstances should require; for there is
nothing certain in the matter, except this, his name was entered as
president in the linen books among the magistrates for both years. Here
Minucius, conducting the same office in a public capacity which Mælius
had undertaken to conduct in a private character, the same class of
persons frequenting the houses of both, having ascertained the matter,
lays it before the senate, "that arms were collecting in the house of
Mælius, and that he held assemblies in his house: and that his designs
were unquestionably bent on regal dominion: that the time for the
execution of the project was not yet fixed: that all other matters were
settled; and that the tribunes were bought over for hire to betray the
public liberty, and that the several parts were assigned to the leaders
of the multitude. That he laid these things before them almost later
than was consistent with safety, lest he might be the reporter of any
thing uncertain or ill-grounded." When these things were heard, the
chiefs of the patricians both rebuked the consuls of the former year,
for having suffered those largesses and meetings of the people to go on
in a private house, as well as the new consuls for having waited until a
matter of such importance should be reported to the senate by the
president of the markets, which required the consul to be not only the
reporter, but the punisher also; then Titus Quintius said, "that the
consuls were unfairly censured, who being fettered by the laws
concerning appeal, enacted to weaken their authority, by no means
possessed as much power in their office as will, to punish that
proceeding according to its atrocity. That there was wanting a man not
only determined in himself, but one who was unshackled and freed from
the fetters of those laws. That he would therefore appoint Lucius
Quintius dictator; that in him there would be a determination suitable
to so great a power." Whilst all approved, Quintius at first refused;
and asked them what they meant, in exposing him in the extremity of age
to such a contest. Then when they all said that in that aged mind there
was not only more wisdom, but more energy also, than in all the rest,
and went on loading him with deserved praises, whilst the consul relaxed
not in his original determination; Cincinnatus at length having prayed
to the immortal gods, that his old age might not prove a detriment or
disgrace to the republic at so dangerous a juncture, is appointed
dictator by the consul: he himself then appoints Caius Servilius Ahala
his master of the horse.
14. On the next day, having stationed proper guards, when he had gone
down to the forum, and the attention of the commons was attracted to him
by the strangeness and extraordinary nature of the thing, and Mælius's
friends and himself their leader perceived that the power of such high
authority was directly aimed at them; when, moreover, those who were not
aware of the designs on regal power, went on asking, "what tumult, what
sudden war, had called for either the dictatorial authority, or
Quintius, after his eightieth year, administrator of affairs,"
Servilius, master of the horse, being sent by the dictator to Mælius,
says, "The dictator summons you." When he, being alarmed, asked what he
meant, and Servilius stated that "he must stand a trial," and answer the
charge brought against him before the senate by Minucius, Mælius drew
back into the band of his adherents, and at first, looking around him,
he began to skulk off: at length when the beadle, by order of the master
of the horse, was bringing him off, being rescued by those present, and
running away, he implored the protection of the Roman people, and
alleged that he was persecuted by a conspiracy of the patricians because
he had acted kindly towards the people: he besought them that they would
assist him in this critical emergency, and not suffer him to be
butchered before their eyes. Ahala Servilius overtook and slew him
whilst exclaiming in this manner; and smeared with the blood of the
person so slain, and surrounded by a body of young nobles, he carries
back word to the dictator that Mælius having been summoned to him, and
commencing to excite the multitude after he had repulsed the beadle, had
received condign punishment. "Thou hast acted nobly, Caius Servilius,"
said the dictator, "in having saved the republic."
15. He then ordered the multitude, who were much agitated, not knowing
what judgment to form of the deed, to be called to an assembly: and he
openly declared, "that Mælius had been justly put to death, even though
he may have been innocent of the charge of aiming at regal power, who,
when summoned to attend the dictator by the master of the horse, had not
come. That he himself had taken his seat to examine into the case; that,
after it had been investigated, Mælius should have met a result
corresponding to his deserts; that when employing force, in order that
he might not commit himself to a trial, he had been checked by force.
Nor should they proceed with him as with a citizen, who, born in a free
state amid laws and rights, in a city from which he knew that kings had
been expelled, and on the same year the sons of the king's sister and
the children of the consul, the liberator of his country, had been put
to death by their father, on a plot for readmitting the royal family
into the city having been discovered, from which Collatinus Tarquinius
the consul, through a hatred of his name, was ordered to resign his
office and go into exile; in which capital punishment was inflicted on
Spurius Cassius several years after for forming designs to assume the
sovereignty; in which the decemvirs were recently punished with
confiscation, exile, and death, in consequence of regal tyranny in that
city, Spurius Mælius conceived a hope of attaining regal power. And who
was this man? Although no nobility, no honours, no deserts should open
to any man the road to domination, yet still the Claudii and Cassii, by
reason of the consulates, the decemvirates, the honours of their own and
those of their ancestors, and from the splendour of their families, had
raised their aspiring minds to heights to which it was impious to raise
them: that Spurius Mælius, to whom a tribuneship of the commons should
rather be an object of wishes than of hope, a wealthy corn-merchant, had
conceived the hope to purchase the liberty of his countrymen for two
pounds of corn; had supposed that a people victorious over all their
neighbours could be cajoled into servitude by throwing them a morsel of
food; so that a person whom the state could scarcely digest as a
senator, it should tolerate as king, possessing the ensigns and
authority of Romulus their founder, who had descended from and had
returned to the gods. This was to be considered not more criminal than
it was monstrous: nor was it sufficiently expiated by his blood; unless
the roof and walls within which so mad a project had been conceived,
should be levelled to the ground, and his effects were confiscated, as
being contaminated with the price of purchasing kingly domination. He
ordered, therefore, that the quæstors should sell this property and
deposit the proceeds in the treasury."
16. He then ordered his house to be immediately razed, that the vacant
ground might serve as a monument of nefarious hopes destroyed. This was
called Æquimælium. Lucius Minucius was presented with a gilded ox on the
outside of the gate Trigemina, and this not even against the will of the
commons, because he distributed Mælius's corn, after valuing it at one
_as_ per bushel. In some writers I find that this Minucius had changed
sides from the patricians to the commons, and that having been chosen as
eleventh tribune of the people, he quieted a commotion which arose on
the death of Mælius. But it is scarcely credible that the patricians
would have suffered the number of the tribunes to be increased, and that
such a precedent should be introduced more particularly in the case of a
man who was a patrician; or that the commons did not afterwards
maintain, or at least attempt, that privilege once conceded to them. But
the legal provision made a few years before, viz. that it should not be
lawful for the tribunes to choose a colleague, refutes beyond every
thing else the false inscription on the statue. Quintus Cæcilius,
Quintus Junius, Sextus Titinius, were the only members of the college of
tribunes who had not been concerned in passing the law for conferring
honours on Minucius; nor did they cease both to throw out censures one
time on Minucius, at another time on Servilius, before the commons, and
to complain of the unmerited death of Mælius. They succeeded, therefore,
in having an election held for military tribunes rather than for
consuls, not doubting but that in six places, for so many were now
allowed to be elected, some plebeians also might be appointed, by their
professing to be avengers of the death of Mælius. The commons, though
they had been agitated that year by many and various commotions, neither
elected more than three tribunes with consular power; and among them
Lucius Quintius, son of Cincinnatus, from the unpopular nature of whose
dictatorship an occasion for disturbance was sought. Mamercus Æmilius, a
man of the highest dignity, was voted in, prior to Quintius. In the
third place they appoint Lucius Julius.
17. During their office Fidenæ, a Roman colony, revolted to Lars
Tolunmius, king of the Veientians, and to the Veientians. To the revolt
a more heinous crime was added. By order of Tolumnius they put to death
Caius Fulcinius, Clælius Tullus, Spurius Antius, Lucius Roscius, Roman
ambassadors, who came to inquire into the reason of this new line of
conduct. Some palliate the guilt of the king; that an ambiguous
expression of his, during a lucky throw of dice, having been mistaken by
the Fidenatians, as if it seemed to be an order for their execution, had
been the cause of the ambassadors' death. An incredible tale; that his
thoughts should not have been drawn away from the game on the arrival of
the Fidenatians, his new allies, when consulting him on a murder tending
to violate the law of nations; and that the act was not afterwards
viewed by him with horror. It is more probable that he wished the state
of the Fidenatians to be so compromised by their participation in so
great a crime, that they might not afterwards look to any hope from the
Romans. Statues of the ambassadors, who were slain at Fidenæ, were set
up in the rostra at the public expense. A desperate struggle was coming
on with the Veientians and Fidenatians, who, besides that they were
neighbouring states, had commenced the war with so heinous a
provocation. Therefore, the commons and their tribunes being now quiet,
so as to attend to the general welfare, there was no dispute with
respect to the electing of Marcus Geganius Macerinus a third time, and
Lucius Sergius Fidenas, as consuls; so called, I suppose, from the war
which he afterwards conducted. For he was the first who fought a
successful battle with the king of the Veientians on this side of the
Anio, nor did he obtain an unbloody victory. Greater grief was therefore
felt from the loss of their countrymen, than joy from the defeat of the
enemy: and the senate, as in an alarming crisis, ordered Mamercus
Æmilius to be appointed dictator. He appointed as his master of the
horse from the college of the preceding year, in which there had been
tribunes of the soldiers with consular power, Lucius Quintius
Cincinnatus, a youth worthy of his parent. To the levy held by the
consuls were added the old centurions well versed in war, and the number
of those lost in the late battle was made up. The dictator ordered
Lucius Quintius Capitolinus and Marcus Fabius Vibulanus to attend him as
his lieutenants-general. Both the higher powers, and the man suitable to
such powers, caused the enemy to move from the Roman territory to the
other side of the Anio, and continuing their retrograde movement, they
took possession of the hills between Fidenæ and the Anio, nor did they
descend into the plains until the troops of the Faliscians came to their
aid; then at length the camp of the Etrurians was pitched before the
walls of Fidenæ. The Roman dictator took his post at no great distance
from thence at the conflux on the banks of both rivers, lines being run
across between them, as far as he was able to follow by a fortification.
Next day he marched out his army into the field.
18. Among the enemy there was a diversity of opinion. The Faliscians,
impatient of the hardships of war at a distance from home, and
sufficiently confident of their own strength, earnestly demanded
battle; the Veientians and Fidenatians placed more hope in protracting
the war. Tolumnius, though the measures of his own subjects were more
agreeable to him, proclaims that he would give battle on the following
day, lest the Faliscians might not brook the service at so great a
distance from their home. The dictator and the Romans took additional
courage from the fact of the enemy having declined giving battle: and on
the following day, the soldiers exclaiming that they would attack the
camp and the city, if an opportunity of fighting were not afforded them,
the armies advance on both sides into the middle of a plain between the
two camps. The Veientians, having the advantage in numbers, sent around
a party behind the mountains to attack the Roman camp during the heat of
the battle. The army of the three states stood drawn up in such a
manner, that the Veientians occupied the right wing, the Faliscians the
left, whilst the Fidenatians constituted the centre. The dictator
charged on the right wing against the Faliscians, Quintius Capitolinus
on the left against the Veientians, and the master of the horse with the
cavalry advanced in the centre. For a short time all was silence and
quiet, the Etrurians being determined not to engage unless they were
compelled, and the dictator looking back towards a Roman fort, until a
signal should be raised, as had been agreed on, by the augurs, as soon
as the birds had given a favourable omen. As soon as he perceived this,
he orders the cavalry first to charge the enemy, after raising a loud
shout; the line of infantry following, engaged with great fury. In no
quarter did the Etrurian legions withstand the shock of the Romans. The
cavalry made the greatest resistance; and the king himself, far the
bravest of the cavalry, charging the Romans whilst they were pursuing in
disorder in every direction, prolonged the contest.
19. There was then among the cavalry, Aulus Cornelius Cossus, a tribune
of the soldiers, distinguished for the beauty of his person, and equally
so for courage and great strength of body, and mindful of his rank,
which, having received in a state of the highest lustre, he left to his
posterity still greater and more distinguished. He perceiving that the
Roman troops gave way at the approach of Tolumnius, wherever he directed
his charge, and knowing him as being remarkable by his royal apparel, as
he flew through the entire line, exclaims, "Is this the infringer of
human treaties and the violator of the law of nations? This victim I
shall now slay, (provided the gods wish that there should be any thing
sacred on earth,) and shall offer him up to the manes of the
ambassadors." Having clapped spurs to his horse, he advances against
this single foe with spear presented; and after having struck and
unhorsed him, he immediately, by help of his lance, sprung on the
ground. And as the king attempted to rise, he throws him back again with
the boss of his shield, and with repeated thrusts pins him to the earth.
He then stripped off the spoils from the lifeless body; and having cut
off his head and carrying it on the point of his spear, he puts the
enemy to rout through terror on seeing their king slain. Thus the line
of cavalry, which alone had rendered the combat doubtful, was beaten.
The dictator pursues closely the routed legions, and drove them to their
camp with slaughter. The greater number of the Fidenatians, through
their knowledge of the country, made their escape to the mountains.
Cossus, having crossed the Tiber with the cavalry, carried off great
plunder from the Veientian territory to the city. During the battle
there was a fight also at the Roman camp against a party of the forces,
which, as has been already mentioned, had been sent by Tolumnius to the
camp. Fabius Vibulanus first defends his lines by a ring; then, whilst
the enemy were wholly taken up with the entrenchment, sallying out from
the principal gate on the right, he suddenly attacks them with the
triarii: and a panic being thus struck into them there was less
slaughter, because they were fewer, but their flight was no less
disorderly than it had been on the field of battle.
20. Matters being managed successfully in every direction, the dictator,
by a decree of the senate and order of the people, returned to the city
in triumph. By far the most remarkable object in the triumph was Cossus,
bearing the _spolia opima_ of the king he had slain. The soldiers
chaunted their uncouth verses on him, extolling him as equal to Romulus.
With the usual form of dedication, he presented, as an offering, the
spoils in the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, near the spoils of Romulus,
which, having been the first called _opima_, were the only ones at that
time; and he attracted the eyes of all the citizens from the dictator's
chariot to himself, and enjoyed almost solely the honour of that day's
solemnity. The dictator offered up to Jupiter in the Capitol a golden
crown a pound in weight, at the public expense, by order of the people.
Following all the Roman writers, I have represented Aulus Cornelius
Cossus as a military tribune, when he carried the second _spolia opima_
to the temple of Jupiter Feretrius. But besides that those spoils are
rightly considered _opima_, which one general has taken from another;
and we know no general but the person under whose auspices the war is
conducted, the inscription itself written on the spoils proves, against
both me and them, that Cossus was consul when he took them. Having once
heard Augustus Cæsar, the founder or restorer of all our temples, on
entering the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, which being dilapidated by
time he rebuilt, aver that he himself had read the said inscription on
the linen breastplate, I thought it would be next to sacrilege to rob
Cossus of such a testimony respecting his spoils as that of Cæsar, the
renovator of the temple itself. Whether the mistake is chargeable on the
very ancient annals and the linen books of the magistrates, deposited in
the temple of Moneta, and which Licinius Macer occasionally cites as
authorities, which have Aulus Cornelius Cossus consul with Titus
Quintius Pennus, in the ninth year after this, every person may form his
own opinion. For there is this additional proof, that a battle so
celebrated could not be transferred to that year; that the three years
before and after the consulship of Aulus Cornelius were entirely free
from war, in consequence of a pestilence and a scarcity of grain; so
that some annals, as if in mourning, present nothing but the names of
the consuls. The third year from the consulship of Cossus has him as
military tribune with consular power; in the same year as master of the
horse, in which office he fought another distinguished horse battle.
Conjecture is open on the matter; but, as I think, idle surmises may be
turned to support any opinion: when the hero of the fight, having placed
the recent spoils in the sacred repository, having before him Jove
himself, to whom they were consecrated, and Romulus, no contemptible
witnesses in case of a false inscription, entitled himself Aulus
Cornelius Cossus consul.
21. Marcus Cornelius Maluginensis and Lucius Papirius Crassus being
consuls, the armies were led into the territories of the Veientians and
Faliscians; numbers of men and cattle were driven off as spoil; the
enemy was no where to be found on the land, and no opportunity of
fighting was afforded; the cities however were not attacked, because a
pestilential disorder ran through the people. Disturbances were also
sought at home, but not actually excited, however, by Spurius Mælius,
tribune of the people; who thinking that he might create some tumult
through the popularity of his name, had both appointed a day of trial
for Minucius, and had also proposed a law for confiscating the property
of Servilius Ahala: alleging that Mælius had been circumvented through
false impeachments by Minucius, charging Servilius with the killing of a
citizen on whom no sentence had been passed; charges which, when brought
before the people, proved to be more idle than the author himself. But
the virulence of the disease now becoming worse, was more an object of
concern to them, as also the terrors and prodigies, more especially
because accounts were being brought, that houses were falling throughout
the country, in consequence of frequent earthquakes. A supplication was
therefore performed by the people, according to the form dictated by the
decemvirs.[153] The year being still more pestilential, Caius Julius a
second time and Lucius Virginius being consuls, occasioned such dread of
desolation through the city and country, that not only no one left the
Roman territory for the purpose of committing depredations, and not only
did none of the patricians or commons entertain an idea of commencing
any military aggressions; but the Fidenatians, who at first had shut
themselves up either within their town, or mountains, or fortifications,
now descended without provocation to commit depredations on the Roman
territory. Then the army of the Veientians being called in to their aid,
(for the Faliscians could be induced to renew the war neither by the
distresses of the Romans, nor by the remonstrances of their allies,) the
two states crossed the Anio; and displayed their ensigns at no great
distance from the Colline gate. Great consternation arose therefore, not
more in the country than in the city. Julius the consul draws up his
troops on the rampart and walls; the senate is consulted by Virginius in
the temple of Quirinus. It is determined that Aulus Servilius be
appointed dictator, who some say had the cognomen of Priscus, others
that of Structus. Virginius having delayed whilst he consulted his
colleague, with his permission, named the dictator at night. He appoints
Postumus Æbutius Elva his master of the horse.
[Footnote 153: In the performance of such rites, the slightest mistake
of a word or syllable was deemed highly inauspicious; to prevent which,
the regular form of words was pronounced by a priest, and repeated after
him by the persons officiating.]
22. The dictator orders all to attend at break of day outside the
Colline gate. All whosoever had sufficient strength to bear arms,
attended; the standards were quickly brought forth from the treasury and
conveyed to the dictator. Whilst these matters were going on, the
enemies retired to the higher grounds; thither the dictator follows them
with a determined army; and having come to a general engagement not far
from Nomentum, he routed the Etrurian legions; he then drove them into
the city of Fidenæ, and surrounded it with a rampart. But neither could
the city be taken by storm as being high and well fortified, nor was
there any effect in a blockade, because corn was supplied to them in
abundance not only for necessary consumption, but for plenty also, in
consequence of that previously laid up. Thus all hope being lost of
taking it by assault, or of forcing it to a surrender, the dictator
determined on carrying a sap into the citadel in places which were well
known to him on account of their near situation on the remote side of
the city, as being most neglected because it was best protected by
reason of its own nature; he himself by advancing up to the walls in
places most remote, with his army divided into four sections, which were
to succeed each other in the action, by continuing the fight day and
night continuously he prevented the enemy from perceiving the work;
until the mountain being dug through from the camp, a passage was opened
up into the citadel; and the Etrurians being diverted from the real
danger by the idle threats, the shouting of the enemy over their heads
proved to them that their city was taken. On that year Caius Furius
Pacilus and Marcus Geganius Macerinus, censors, approved of the public
edifice[154] in the Campus Martius, and the census of the people was
there performed for the first time.
[Footnote 154: _Villa publica_. It was destined to public uses, such as
holding the _census_, or survey of the people, the reception of
ambassadors, &c.]
23. That the same consuls were re-elected on the following year, Julius
for the third time, Virginius for the second time, I find in Licinius
Macer. Valerius Antias and Quintus Tubero state that Marcus Manlius and
Quintus Sulpicius were, the consuls for that year. But in
representations so different both Tubero and Macer cite the linen books
as their authority; neither of them denies that it was said by ancient
historians that there were military tribunes on that year. Licinius
thinks that we should unhesitatingly follow the linen books; and Tubero
is uncertain as to the truth. But this also is left unsettled among
other points not ascertained from length of time. Alarm was raised in
Etruria after the capture of Fidenæ, not only the Veientians being
terrified by the apprehension of similar ruin, but the Faliscians also,
from the recollection of the war having first commenced with them,
although they had not joined with those who renewed hostilities.
Accordingly when the two nations, having sent ambassadors around to the
twelve states, succeeded so far that a general meeting was proclaimed
for all Etruria at the temple of Voltumna; the senate, apprehending a
great attack threatening from that quarter, ordered Mamercus Æmilius
again to be appointed dictator. Aulus Postumius Tubertus was appointed
by him as master of the horse; and preparations for war were made with
so much the more energy than on the last occasion, in proportion as
there was more danger from the whole body of Etruria than from two of
its states.
24. That matter passed off much more quietly than any one expected.
Therefore when word was brought by certain traders, that aid was refused
to the Veientians, and that they were bid to prosecute with their own
strength a war entered into on their own separate views, and not to seek
out persons as sharers in their distresses, to whom they had not
communicated their hopes when flourishing; the dictator, that his
appointment might not be in vain, all opportunity of acquiring military
glory being now taken from him, desirous of performing during peace some
work which might serve as a memorial of his dictatorship, sets about
limiting the censorship, either judging its powers excessive, or
disapproving of the duration rather than the extent of the office.
Accordingly, having summoned a meeting, he says "that the immortal gods
had taken on themselves that the public affairs should be managed
externally, and that the general security should be insured; that with
respect to what was to be done within the walls, he would provide for
the liberty of the Roman people. But that the most effectual guarding of
it was, that offices of great power should not be of long continuance;
and that a limit of time should be set to those to which a limit of
jurisdiction could not be set. That other offices were annual, that the
censorship was quinquennial; that it was a grievance to be subject to
the same individuals for such a number of years in a considerable part
of the affairs of life. That he would propose a law, that the censorship
should not last longer than a year and half." Amid the great approbation
of the people he passed the law on the following day, and says, "that
you may know, Romans, in reality, how little pleasing to me are offices
of long duration, I resign the dictatorship." Having laid down his own
office, and set a limit to the office of others, he was escorted home
with the congratulation and great good will of the people. The censors
resenting Mamercus' conduct for his having diminished the duration of
one of the offices of the Roman people, degraded him from his tribe, and
increasing his taxes eight-fold, disfranchised[155] him. They say that
he bore this with great magnanimity, as he considered the cause of the
disgrace, rather than the disgrace itself; that the principal patricians
also, though they had been averse to the curtailing the privileges of
the censorship, were much displeased at this instance of censorial
severity; inasmuch as each saw that he would be longer and more
frequently subjected to the censors, than he should hold the office of
censor. Certain it is that such indignation is said to have arisen on
the part of the people, that violence could not be kept off from the
censors through the influence of any person except of Mamercus himself.
[Footnote 155: _ærarium facere_, signifies to strip a person of all the
privileges of a citizen, on which he became _civis ærarius_, a citizen
only so far as he paid taxes.]
25. The tribunes of the people, by preventing the election of consuls by
incessant harangues, succeeded at length, after the matter had been well
nigh brought to an interregnum, in having tribunes of the soldiers
elected with consular authority: as for the prize of their victory,
which was the thing sought, _scil._ that a plebeian should be elected,
there was none. All patricians were elected, Marcus Fabius Vibulanus,
Marcus Foslius, Lucius Sergius Fidenas. The pestilence during that year
afforded a quiet in other matters. A temple was vowed to Apollo for the
health of the people. The duumvirs did much, by direction of the books,
for the purpose of appeasing the wrath of heaven and averting the plague
from the people; a great mortality however was sustained in the city and
country, by the death of men and of cattle promiscuously. Apprehending a
famine for the agriculturists, they sent into Etruria, and the Pomptine
district, and to Cumæ, and at last to Sicily also to procure corn. No
mention was made of electing consuls. Military tribunes with consular
authority were appointed, all patricians, Lucius Pinarius Mamercinus,
Lucius Furius Medullinus, Spurius Postumius Albus. In this year the
violence of the distemper abated, nor was there any danger from a
scarcity of corn, because provision had been previously made against it.
Schemes for exciting wars were agitated in the meetings of the Æquans
and Volscians, and in Etruria at the temple of Voltumna. Here the matter
was postponed for a year, and by a decree it was enacted, that no
meeting should be held before that time, the Veientian state in vain
complaining that the same destiny hung over Veii, as that by which
Fidenæ was destroyed. Meanwhile at Rome the chiefs of the commons, who
had now for a long time been vainly pursuing the hope of higher dignity,
whilst there was tranquillity abroad, appointed meetings to be held in
the houses of the tribunes of the commons. There they concerted plans in
secret: they complained "that they were so despised by the commons, that
though tribunes of the soldiers, with consular authority, were now
appointed for so many years, no plebeian ever obtained access to that
honour. That their ancestors had shown much foresight in providing that
plebeian offices should not be open to any patrician; otherwise they
should be forced to have patricians as tribunes of the commons; so
despicable were they even with their own party, and were not less
despised by the commons than by the patricians." Others exculpated the
commons, and threw the blame on the patricians,--"that by their
intriguing and schemes it happened that the road to honour was barred
against the commons. If the commons were allowed to breathe from their
mixed entreaties and menaces, that they would enter on their suffrages
with a due regard to men of their own party; and, assistance being
already procured, that they would assume a share in the government
also." It is determined that, for the purpose of doing away with all
intriguing, the tribunes should propose a law, that no person be allowed
to add white to his garment for the purposes of canvassing. The matter
may now appear trivial and scarcely deserving serious consideration,
which then enkindled such strife between the patricians and commons. The
tribunes, however, prevailed in carrying the law; and it appeared
evident, that in their present state of irritation, the commons would
incline their support to men of their own party; and lest this should be
optional with them, a decree of the senate is passed, that the election
for consuls should be held.
26. The cause was the rising, which the Hernicians and Latins announced
as about to take place on the part of the Æquans and Volscians. Titus
Quintius Cincinnatus, son of Lucius, (to the same person the cognomen of
Pennus also is annexed,) and Caius Julius Mento were elected consuls:
nor was the terror of war longer deferred. A levy being held under the
devoting law, which with them is the most powerful instrument of forcing
men into service, powerful armies set out from thence, and met at
Algidum; and there the Æquans and Volscians fortified their camps
separately; and the general took greater care than ever before to
fortify their posts and train their soldiers; so much the more terror
did the messengers bring to Rome. The senate wished that a dictator
should be appointed, because though these nations had been often
conquered, yet they renewed hostilities with more vigorous efforts than
ever before, and a considerable number of the Roman youth had been
carried off by sickness. Above all, the perverseness of the consuls, and
the disagreement between them, and their contentions in all the
councils, terrified them. There are some who state that an unsuccessful
battle was fought by these consuls at Algidum, and that such was the
cause of appointing a dictator. This much is certain, that, though
differing in other points, they perfectly agreed in one against the
wishes of the patricians, not to nominate a dictator; until when
accounts were brought, one more alarming than another, and the consuls
would not be swayed by the authority of the senate, Quintus Servilius
Priscus, who had passed through the highest honours with singular
honour, says, "Tribunes of the people, since we are come to
extremities, the senate calls on you, that you would, by virtue of your
authority, compel the consuls to nominate a dictator in so critical a
conjuncture of the state." On hearing this, the tribunes, conceiving
that an opportunity was presented to them of extending their power,
retire together, and declare for their college, that "it was their wish
that the consuls should be obedient to the instruction of the senate; if
they persisted further against the consent of that most illustrious
order, that they would order them to be taken to prison." The consuls
were better pleased to be overcome by the tribunes than by the senate,
alleging that the prerogatives of the highest magistracy were betrayed
by the patricians and the consulship subjugated to tribunitian power,
inasmuch as the consuls were liable to be overruled by a tribune in any
particular by virtue of his power, and (what greater hardship could a
private man have to dread?) even to be carried off to prison. The lot to
nominate the dictator (for the colleagues had not even agreed on that)
fell on Titus Quintius. He appointed a dictator, Aulus Postumius
Tubertus, his own father-in-law, a man of the utmost strictness in
command: by him Lucius Julius was appointed master of the horse: a
suspension of civil business is also proclaimed; and, that nothing else
should be attended to throughout the city but preparations for war, the
examination of the cases of those who claimed exemption from the
military service is deferred till after the war. Thus even doubtful
persons are induced to give in their names. Soldiers were also enjoined
of the Hernicians and Latins: the most zealous obedience is shown to the
dictator on both sides.
27. All these measures were executed with great despatch: and Caius
Julius the consul being left to guard the city, and Lucius Julius master
of the horse, for the sudden exigencies of the war, lest any thing which
they might want in the camp should cause delay, the dictator, repeating
the words after Aulus Cornelius the chief pontiff, vowed the great games
on account of the sudden war; and having set out from the city, after
dividing his army with the consul Quintius, he came up with the enemy.
As they had observed two separate camps of the enemy at a small distance
one from the other, they in like manner encamped separately about a mile
from them, the dictator towards Tusculum, the consul towards Lanuvium.
Thus they had their four armies, as many fortified posts, having between
them a plain sufficiently extended not only for excursions to skirmish,
but even for drawing up the armies on both sides in battle-array. From
the time camp was brought close to camp, they ceased not from light
skirmishing, the dictator readily allowing his soldiers, by comparing
strength, to entertain beforehand the hope of a general victory, after
they had gradually essayed the result of slight skirmishes. Wherefore
the enemy, no hope being now left in a regular engagement, attacked the
consuls' camp in the night, and bring the matter to the chance of a
doubtful result. The shout which arose suddenly awoke not only the
consuls' sentinels and then all the army, but the dictator also. When
circumstances required instant exertion, the consul evinced no
deficiency either in spirit or in judgment. One part of the troops
reinforce the guards at the gates, another man the rampart around. In
the other camp with the dictator, inasmuch as there is less of
confusion, so much the more readily is it observed, what is required to
be done. Despatching then forthwith a reinforcement to the consuls'
camp, to which Spurius Postumius Albus is appointed lieutenant-general,
he himself with a part of his forces, making a small circuit, proceeds
to a place entirely sequestered from the bustle, whence he might
suddenly attack the enemy's rear. Quintus Sulpicius, his
lieutenant-general, he appoints to take charge of the camp; to Marcus
Fabius as lieutenant he assigns the cavalry, and orders that those
troops, which it would be difficult to manage amid a nightly conflict,
should not stir before day-light. All the measures which any other
prudent and active general could order and execute at such a juncture,
he orders and executes with regularity; that was an extraordinary
specimen of judgment and intrepidity, and one deserving of no ordinary
praise, that he despatched Marcus Geganius with some chosen troops to
attack the enemy's camp, whence it had been ascertained that they had
departed with the greater part of their troops. When he fell on these
men, wholly intent on the result of the danger of their friends, and
incautious with respect to themselves, the watches and advanced guards
being even neglected, he took their camp almost before the enemy were
perfectly sure that it was attacked. Then when the signal given with
smoke, as had been agreed on, was perceived by the dictator, he
exclaims that the enemy's camp was taken, and orders it to be announced
in every direction.
28. And now day was appearing, and every thing lay open to view; and
Fabius had made an attack with his cavalry, and the consul had sallied
from the camp on the enemy now disconcerted; when the dictator on the
other side, having attacked their reserve and second line, threw his
victorious troops, both horse and foot, in the way of the enemy as they
turned themselves about to the dissonant shouts and the various sudden
assaults. Thus surrounded on every side, they would to a man have
suffered the punishment due to their reassumption of hostilities, had
not Vectius Messius, a Volscian, a man more ennobled by his deeds than
his extraction, upbraiding his men as they were forming a circle, called
out with a loud voice, "Are ye about offering yourselves here to the
weapons of the enemy, undefended, unavenged? why is it then ye have
arms? or why have you undertaken an offensive war, ever turbulent in
peace, and dastardly in war? What hopes have you in standing here? do
you expect that some god will protect you and bear you hence? With the
sword way must be opened. Come on ye, who wish to behold your homes,
your parents, your wives, and your children, follow me in the way in
which you shall see me lead you on. It is not a wall, not a rampart, but
armed men that stand in your way with arms in your hands. In valour you
are equal to them; in necessity, which is the ultimate and most
effective weapon, superior." As he uttered these words and was putting
them into execution, they, renewing the shout and following him, make a
push in that quarter where Postumius Alba had opposed his troops to
them: and they made the victor give ground, until the dictator came up,
as his own men were now retreating. To that quarter the whole weight of
the battle was now turned. On Messius alone the fortune of the enemy
depends. Many wounds and great slaughter now took place on both sides.
By this time not even the Roman generals themselves fight without
receiving wounds, one of them, Postumius, retired from the field having
his skull fractured by a stroke of a stone; neither the dictator could
be removed by a wound in the shoulder, nor Fabius by having his thigh
almost pinned to his horse, nor the consul by his arm being cut off,
from the perilous conflict.
29. Messius, with a band of the bravest youths, by a furious charge
through heaps of slaughtered foes, was carried on to the camp of the
Volscians, which had not yet been taken: the same route the entire body
of the army followed. The consul, pursuing them in their disordered
flight to the very rampart, attacks both the camp and the rampart; in
the same direction the dictator also brings up his forces on the other
side. The assault was conducted with no less intrepidity than the battle
had been. They say that the consul even threw a standard within the
rampart, in order that the soldiers might push on the more briskly, and
that the first impression was made in recovering the standard. The
dictator also, having levelled the rampart, had now carried the fight
into the camp. Then the enemy began in every direction to throw down
their arms and to surrender: and their camp also being taken, all the
enemy were set up to sale, except the senators.[156] Part of the plunder
was restored to the Latins and Hernicians, when they demanded their
property; the remainder the dictator sold by auction: and the consul,
being invested with the command of the camp, he himself, entering the
city in triumph, resigned his dictatorship. Some writers cast a gloom on
the memory of this glorious dictatorship, when they state that his son,
though victorious, was beheaded by Aulus Postumius, because, tempted by
a favourable opportunity of fighting to advantage, he had left his post
without orders. We are disposed to refuse our belief; and we are
warranted by the variety of opinions on the matter. And it is an
argument against it, that such orders have been entitled "Manlian," not
"Postumian," since the person who first set on foot so barbarous a
precedent, was likely to obtain the signal title of cruelty. Besides,
the cognomen of "Imperiosus" was affixed to Manlius: Postumius has not
been marked by any hateful brand. Caius Julius the consul, in the
absence of his colleague, without casting lots, dedicated the temple of
Apollo: Quintius resenting this, when, after disbanding his army, he
returned into the city, made a complaint of it in the senate to no
purpose.
To the year marked by great achievements is added an event which seemed
to have no relation to the interest of Rome, viz. that the
Carthaginians, destined to be such formidable enemies, then, for the
first times on the occasion of some disturbances among the Sicilians,
transported an army into Sicily in aid of one of the parties.
[Footnote 156: _Senators._ Niebuhr, ii. note 995, seems to doubt whether
these belonged to single cities or were the senators of the entire
Volscian nation.]