_Successful operations against the Volscians, and Æquans, and
Prænestines. Four tribes were added. Marcus Manlius, who had
defended the Capitol from the Gauls, being condemned for aspiring
to regal power, is thrown from the Tarpeian rock; in commemoration
of which circumstance a decree of the senate was passed, that none
of the Manlian family should henceforward bear the cognomen of
Marcus. Caius Licinius and Lucius Sextius, tribunes of the people,
proposed a law that consuls might be chosen from among the commons;
and after a violent contest, succeeded in passing that law,
notwithstanding the opposition of the patricians, the same tribunes
of the commons being for five years the only magistrates in the
state; and Lucius Sextius was the first consul elected from the
commons._
1. The transactions of the Romans, from the building of the city of Rome
to the capture of the same city, first under kings, then under consuls,
and dictators, and decemvirs, and consular tribunes, their wars abroad,
their dissensions at home, I have exhibited in five books: matters
obscure, as well by reason of their very great antiquity, like objects
which from their great distance are scarcely perceptible, as also
because in those times the use of letters, the only faithful guardian of
the memory of events, was inconsiderable and rare: and, moreover,
whatever was contained in the commentaries of the pontiffs, and other
public and private records, were lost for the most part in the burning
of the city. Henceforwards, from the second origin of the city, which
sprung up again more healthfully and vigorously, as if from its root,
its achievements at home and abroad, shall be narrated with more
clearness and authenticity. But it now stood erect, leaning chiefly on
the same support, Marcus Furius, by which it had been first raised; nor
did they suffer him to lay down the dictatorship until the end of the
year. It was not agreeable to them, that the tribunes during whose time
of office the city had been taken, should preside at the elections for
the following year: the administration came to an interregnum. Whilst
the state was kept occupied in the employment and constant labour of
repairing the city, in the mean time a day of trial was named by Caius
Marcius, tribune of the people, for Quintus Fabius, as soon as he went
out of office, because whilst an ambassador he had, contrary to the law
of nations, appeared in arms against the Gauls, to whom he had been sent
as a negotiator; from which trial death removed him so opportunely that
most people thought it voluntary. The interregnum commenced. Publius
Cornelius Scipio was interrex, and after him Marcus Furius Camillus. He
nominates as military tribunes with consular power, Lucius Valerius
Publicola a second time, Lucius Virginius, Publius Cornelius, Aulus
Manlius, Lucius Æmilius, Lucius Postumius. These having entered on their
office immediately after the interregnum, consulted the senate on no
other business previous to that which related to religion. In the first
place they ordered that the treaties and laws which could be found,
should be collected; (these consisted of the twelve tables, and some
laws made under the kings.) Some of them were publicly promulgated; but
such as appertained to religious matters were kept secret chiefly by the
pontiffs, that they might hold the minds of the people fettered by them.
Then they began to turn their attention to the subject of desecrated
days; and the day before the fifteenth day of the calends of August,
remarkable for a double disaster, (as being the day on which the Fabii
were slain at Cremera, and afterwards the disgraceful battle attended
with the ruin of the city had been fought at Allia,) they called the
Allian day from the latter disaster, and they rendered it remarkable for
transacting no business whether public or private. Some persons think,
that because Sulpicius, the military tribune, had not duly offered
sacrifice on the day after the ides of July, and because, without having
obtained the favour of the gods, the Roman army had been exposed to the
enemy on the third day after, an order was also made to abstain from all
religious undertakings on the day following the ides: thence the same
religious observance was derived with respect to the days following the
calends and the nones.
2. But it was not long allowed them to consult in quiet regarding the
means of raising the city, after so grievous a fall. On the one side
their old enemies, the Volscians, had taken arms, to extinguish the
Roman name: on the other, some traders brought [intelligence] that a
conspiracy of the leading men of Etruria from all the states had been
formed at the temple of Voltumna. A new cause of terror also had been
added by the defection of the Latins and Hernicians, who, since the
battle fought at the lake Regillus, had remained in friendship with the
Roman people with fidelity not to be questioned. Accordingly, when such
great alarms surrounded them on every side, and it became apparent to
all that the Roman name laboured not only under hatred with their
enemies, but under contempt also with their allies; it was resolved that
the state should be defended under the same auspices, as those under
which it had been recovered, and that Marcus Furius should be nominated
dictator. He, when dictator, nominated Caius Servilius Ahala master of
the horse; and a suspension of all public business being proclaimed, he
held a levy of the juniors, in such a manner as to divide them into
centuries after they had sworn allegiance to him. The army, when raised
and equipped with arms, he divided into three parts. One part he opposed
to Etruria in the Veientian territory; another he ordered to pitch their
camp before the city. A military tribune, Aulus Manlius, commanded the
latter; those who were sent against the Etrurians, Lucius Æmilius
commanded. The third part he led in person against the Volscians; and
not far from Lanuvium, (the place is called ad Mæcium,) he set about
storming their camp. Into these, who set out to the war from motives of
contempt, because they thought that all the Roman youth were cut off by
the Gauls, the fact of having heard that Camillus was appointed to the
command struck such terror, that they fenced themselves with a rampart,
and the rampart itself with trees piled up together, lest the enemy
might by any means reach to the works. When Camillus observed this, he
ordered fire to be thrown into the fence opposed to him; and it so
happened that a very strong wind was turned towards the enemy. He
therefore not only opened a passage by the fire, but the flames being
directed against the camp, by the vapour also and the smoke, and by the
crackling of the green timber as it burned, he so confounded the enemy
that the Romans had less difficulty in passing the rampart into the
camp of the Volscians, than they had experienced in climbing over the
fence which had been consumed by the fire. The enemy being routed and
cut down, after the dictator had taken the camp by assault, he gave up
the booty to the soldiers, which was so much the more agreeable, as it
was less expected, the commander being by no means profusely generous.
Then having pursued them in their flight, after he had depopulated the
entire Volscian land, he at length in the seventieth year forced the
Volscians to a surrender. After his victory he passed from the Volscians
to the Æquans, who were also preparing for hostilities: he surprised
their army at Bolæ, and having attacked not only their camp, but their
city also, he took them at the first onset.
3. When such fortune manifested itself on that side where Camillus, the
life and soul of the Roman interest, was, a great alarm had fallen on
another quarter. For almost all Etruria, taking up arms, were besieging
Sutrium, allies of the Roman people, whose ambassadors having applied to
the senate, imploring aid in their distress, obtained a decree, that the
dictator should at the earliest opportunity bear aid to the Sutrians.
And when the circumstances of the besieged would not suffer them to
brook the delay of this hope, and the small number of the townsmen were
spent with labour, watching, and wounds, all which fell heavily on the
same individuals, and when, the city being delivered up to the enemy by
a capitulation, they were leaving their habitations in a miserable
train, being discharged without their arms with only a single garment;
at that juncture Camillus happened to come up at the head of the Roman
army. And when the mournful crowd prostrated themselves at his feet, and
the address of the leading men, wrung from them by extreme necessity,
was followed by the weeping of women and boys, who were dragged along by
the companions of their exile, he bade the Sutrians to give over their
lamentations: that he brought with him grief and tears to the Etrurians.
He then orders the baggage to be deposited, and the Sutrians to remain
there with a small guard left with them, and the soldiers to follow him
in arms. Having thus proceeded to Sutrium with his army disencumbered,
he found, as he expected, every thing in disorder, as usually happens in
success; no advanced guard before the walls, the gates lying open, and
the conquerors dispersed, carrying out the booty from the houses of the
enemy. Sutrium is therefore taken a second time on the same day; the
Etrurians, lately victorious, are cut down in every quarter by their new
enemy, nor is time afforded them to collect and form one body, or even
to take up arms. When each pushed eagerly towards the gates, to try if
by any chance they could throw themselves into the fields, they found
the gates shut; for the dictator had given those orders in the first
instance. Upon this some took up arms, others, who happened to be armed
before the tumult came on them, called their friends together in order
to make battle; which would have been kindled by the despair of the
enemy, had not criers, sent in every direction through the city, issued
orders that their arms should be laid down, that the unarmed should be
spared, and that no one should be injured except those who were armed.
Then even those whose minds had been, in their last hope, obstinately
bent on fighting, when hopes of life were offered, threw down their arms
in every direction, and surrendered themselves unarmed to the enemy,
which fortune had rendered the safer method. Their number being
considerable, they were distributed among several guards; the town was
before night restored to the Sutrians uninjured and free from all the
calamities of war, because it had not been taken by force but delivered
up on terms.
4. Camillus returned to the city in triumph, being victorious in three
wars at the same time. By far the greatest number of the prisoners whom
he led before his chariot were from among the Etrurians. And these being
sold by auction, such a sum of money was raised, that after paying the
matrons the price of their gold, out of that which was over and above,
three golden bowls were made; which, inscribed with the name of
Camillus, it is certain, lay, before the burning of the Capitol, in the
recess of Jupiter's temple at the feet of Juno. On that year such of the
Veientians, Capenatians, and Faliscians as had come over to the Romans
during the wars with those nations, were admitted into the state, and
land was assigned to these new citizens. Those also were recalled by a
decree of the senate from Veii, who, from a dislike to building at Rome,
had betaken themselves to Veii, and had seized on the vacant houses
there. And at first there was a murmuring on their part disregarding the
order; then a day having been appointed, and capital punishment
[denounced against any one] who did not return to Rome, from being
refractory as they were collectively, rendered them when taken singly
obedient, each through fear for himself. And Rome both now increased in
numbers, and rose throughout its entire extent by its buildings, the
state assisting in the expenses, and the ædiles urging on the work as if
public, and private persons (for the want felt of accommodation
stimulated them) hastening to complete the work; and within a year a new
city was erected. At the termination of the year an election was held of
military tribunes with consular power. Those elected were, Titus
Quinctius Cincinnatus, Quintus Servilius Fidenas a fifth time, Lucius
Julius Iulus, Lucius Aquillius Corvus, Lucius Lucretius Tricipitinus,
Servius Sulpicius Rufus. They led one army against the Æquans, not to
war, (for they owned themselves conquered,) but from motives of
animosity, to lay waste their territories, lest they should leave them
any strength for new designs; the other into the territory of Tarquinii.
Here Cortuosa and Contenebra, towns belonging to the Etrurians, were
taken by storm and demolished. At Cortuosa there was no contest; having
attacked it by surprise, they took it at the first shout and onset; the
town was plundered and burned. Contenebra sustained a siege for a few
days; and it was continual labour, abated neither by night nor by day,
that reduced them. When the Roman army, having been divided into six
parts, each [division] relieved the other in the battle one hour in six
in rotation, and the paucity of numbers exposed the same individual
townsmen, wearied as they were, to a contest ever new, they at length
yielded, and an opportunity was afforded to the Romans of entering the
city. It was the wish of the tribunes that the spoil should be made
public property; but the order [that such should be so] was too late for
their determination. Whilst they hesitate, the spoil already became the
property of the soldiers; nor could it be taken from them, except by
means calculated to excite dissatisfaction. On the same year, that the
city should not increase by private buildings only, the lower parts of
the Capitol also were built of hewn stone; a work deserving of
admiration even amid the present magnificence of the city.
5. Now, whilst the state was busily occupied in building, the tribunes
of the commons endeavoured to draw crowds to their harangues by
[proposing] the agrarian laws. The Pomptine territory was then, for the
first time since the power of the Volscians had been reduced by
Camillus, held out to them as their indisputable right. They alleged it
as a charge, that "that district was much more harassed on the part of
the nobility than it had been on that of the Volscians, for that
incursions were made by the one party on it, only as long as they had
strength and arms; that persons belonging to the nobility encroached on
the possession of land that was public, nor would there be any room in
it for the commons, unless a division were now made, before they seized
on all." They made not much impression on the commons, who through their
anxiety for building attended the forum only in small numbers, and were
drained by their expenses on the same object, and were therefore
careless about land for the improvement of which means were wanting. The
state being full of religious impressions, and then even the leading men
having become superstitious by reason of their recent misfortunes, in
order that the auspices might be taken anew, the government had once
more recourse to an interregnum. The successive interreges were, Marcus
Manlius Capitolinus, Servius Sulpicius Camerinus, and Lucius Valerius
Potitus. The last at length held an election of military tribunes with
consular power. He nominates Lucius Papirius, Caius Cornelius, Caius
Sergius, Lucius Æmilius a second time, Lucius Menenius, and Lucius
Valerius Publicola a third time. These entered on their office after the
interregnum. This year the temple of Mars, vowed in the Gallic war, was
dedicated by Titus Quinctius, duumvir for performing religious rites.
Four tribes were added from the new citizens, the Stellatine, the
Tormentine, the Sabatine, and the Arnian, and they made up the number of
twenty-five tribes.
6. Regarding the Pomptine land the matter was pressed by Lucius
Sicinius, plebeian tribune, on the people, who now attended in greater
numbers, and more readily aroused to the desire of land than they had
been. And mention having been introduced in the senate regarding war
against the Latins and Hernicians, the matter was deferred in
consequence of their attending to a more important war, because Etruria
was up in arms. Matters reverted to their electing Camillus military
tribune with consular power. Five colleagues were added, Servius
Cornelius Maluginensis, Quintus Servilius Fidenas a sixth time, Lucius
Quinctius Cincinnatus, Lucius Horatius Pulvillus, and Publius Valerius.
At the commencement of the year the attention of the people was drawn
away from the Etrurian war, because a body of fugitives from the
Pomptine district, suddenly entering the city, brought word that the
Antians were up in arms; and that the states of the Latins privately
sent their youth to that war, denying that there was any public concert
in it, they alleging that volunteers were only not prevented from
serving in whatever quarter they pleased. They had now ceased to despise
any wars. Accordingly the senate returned thanks to the gods, because
Camillus was in office; for (they knew) that it would have been
necessary to nominate him dictator, if he were in a private station. And
his colleagues agreed that when any terror with respect to war
threatened, the supreme direction of every thing should be vested in one
man, and that they had determined to consign their authority into the
hands of Camillus; and that they did not consider, that any concession
they should make to the dignity of that man, derogated in any way from
their own. The tribunes having been highly commended by the senate,
Camillus himself also, covered with confusion, returned thanks. He then
said that "a heavy burden was laid on him by the Roman people, by their
having now nominated him dictator for the fourth time; a great one by
the senate, by reason of such flattering judgments of that house
concerning him; the greatest of all, however, by the condescension of
such distinguished colleagues. Where if any addition could be made to
his diligence and vigilance, that, vying with himself, he would strive
to render the opinion of the state, [expressed] with such unanimity
regarding him, as permanent as it was most honourable." In reference to
the war and to the people of Antium, that there was more of threats
there than of danger; that he, however, would advise that, as they
should fear nothing, so should they despise nothing. That the city of
Rome was beset by the ill-will and hatred of its neighbours: therefore
that the commonwealth should be maintained by a plurality, both of
generals and of armies. "It is my wish," said he, "that you, Publius
Valerius, as my associate in command and counsel, should lead the troops
with me against the enemy at Antium; that you, Quintus Servilius, after
raising and equipping another army, shall encamp in the city, ready to
act, whether Etruria, as lately, or these new causes of anxiety, the
Latins and Hernicians, should bestir themselves. I deem it as certain
that you will conduct matters, as is worthy of your father and
grandfather, and of yourself and six tribuneships. Let a third army be
raised by Lucius Quinctius, out of those excused from service and the
seniors, [those past the military age,] who may protect the city and the
walls. Let Lucius Horatius provide arms, weapons, corn, and whatever the
other exigencies of the war shall demand. You, Servius Cornelius, we
your colleagues appoint the president of this council of the state, the
guardian of religion, of the assemblies, of the laws, and of all matters
pertaining to the city." All cheerfully promising their utmost
endeavours in the discharge of their apportioned offices, Valerius,
chosen as his associate in command, added, "that Marcus Furius should be
considered by him as dictator, and that he would act as master of the
horse to him. Wherefore, that they should entertain hopes regarding the
war, proportioned to the opinion they formed of their sole commander."
The senate, elated with joy, cry out, that "they entertained good hopes,
both regarding war, and peace, and the republic in general; and that the
republic would never have need of a dictator, if it were to have such
men in office, united together in such harmony of sentiments, prepared
alike to obey and to command, and who were laying up praise as common
stock, rather than taking it from the common fund to themselves
individually."
7. A suspension of civil business being proclaimed, and a levy being
held, Furius and Valerius set out to Satricum; to which place the
Antians had drawn together not only the youth of the Volscians, selected
out of the new generation, but immense numbers of the Latins and
Hernicians, out of states which by a long [enjoyment of] peace were in
the most unimpaired condition. The new enemy then added to the old shook
the spirits of the Roman soldiers. When the centurions reported this to
Camillus, whilst forming his line of battle, that "the minds of the
soldiers were disturbed, that arms were taken up by them with
backwardness, and that they left the camp with hesitation and
reluctance; nay, that some expressions were heard, that they should each
have to fight with one hundred enemies, and that such numbers, even if
unarmed, much less when furnished with arms, could with difficulty be
withstood," he leaped on his horse, and in front of the troops, turning
to the line, and riding between the ranks, "What dejection of mind is
this, soldiers, what backwardness? Is it with the enemy, or me, or
yourselves you are unacquainted? What else are the enemy, but the
constant subject of your bravery and your glory? on the other hand, with
me as your general, to say nothing of the taking of Falerii and Veii,
you have lately celebrated a triple triumph for a three-fold victory
over these self-same Volscians and Æquans, and Etruria. Do you not
recognise me as your general, because I gave you the signal, not as
dictator, but as tribune? I neither feel the want of the highest
authority over you, and you should look to nothing in me but myself; for
the dictatorship neither added to my courage, any more than exile took
it from me. We are all therefore the same individuals; and as we bring
to this war the same requisites as we brought to former wars, let us
look for the same result of the war. As soon as you commence the fight,
each will do that which he has learned and been accustomed to do. You
will conquer, they will run."
8. Then having given the signal, he leaps from his horse, and seizing
the standard-bearer who was next him by the hand, he hurries him on with
him against the enemy, calling aloud, "Soldiers, advance the standard."
And when they saw Camillus himself, now disabled through age for bodily
exertion, advancing against the enemy, they all rush forwards together,
having raised a shout, each eagerly crying out, "Follow the general."
They say further that the standard was thrown into the enemy's line by
order of Camillus, and that the van was then exerted to recover it. That
there first the Antians were forced to give way, and that the panic
spread not only to the first line, but to the reserve troops also. Nor
was it merely the ardour of the soldiers animated by the presence of
their general that made this impression, but because nothing was more
terrible to the minds of the Volscians, than the sight of Camillus which
happened to present itself. Thus, in whatever direction he went, he
carried certain victory with him. This was particularly evident, when,
hastily mounting his horse, he rode with a footman's shield to the left
wing, which was almost giving way, by the fact of showing himself he
restored the battle, pointing out the rest of the line gaining the
victory. Now the result was decided, but the flight of the enemy was
impeded by their great numbers, and the wearied soldiers would have had
tedious work in putting so great a number to the sword, when rain
suddenly falling with a violent storm, put an end to the pursuit of the
victory which was now decided, rather than to the battle. Then the
signal for retreat being given, the fall of night put an end to the war,
without further trouble to the Romans. For the Latins and Hernicians,
having abandoned the Volscians, marched to their homes, having attained
results corresponding to their wicked measures. The Volscians, when they
saw themselves deserted by those through reliance on whom they had
resumed hostilities, abandoned their camp, and shut themselves up within
the walls of Satricum. Camillus at first prepared to surround them by
lines of circumvallation, and to prosecute the siege by a mound and
other works. But seeing that this was obstructed by no sally from the
town, and considering that the enemy possessed too little spirit for him
to wait in tedious expectation of victory under the circumstances, after
exhorting his soldiers not to waste themselves by tedious labours, as
[they had done] when besieging Veii, that the victory was in their
hands, he attacked the walls on every side, amid the great alacrity of
the soldiers, and took the town by scalade. The Volscians, having thrown
down their arms, surrendered themselves.
9. But the general's thoughts were fixed on a higher object, on Antium:
[he knew] that that was the great aim of the Volscians, and main source
of the late war. But because so strong a city could not be taken without
great preparations, engines and machines, leaving his colleague with the
army, he set out for Rome, in order to advise the senate to have Antium
destroyed. In the middle of his discourse, (I suppose that it was the
wish of the gods that the state of Antium should last a longer time,)
ambassadors came from Nepete and Sutrium, soliciting aid against the
Etrurians, urging that the time for giving them aid would soon pass by.
Thither did fortune avert the force of Camillus from Antium; for as
those places were situate opposite Etruria, and were barriers or gates
as it were on that side, both they had a wish to get possession of them,
whenever they meditated any new enterprise, and the Romans to recover
and secure them. Wherefore the senate resolved to treat with Camillus,
that he would relinquish Antium and undertake the Etrurian war. The city
troops, which Quinctius had commanded, are decreed to him. Though he
would have preferred the army which was in the Volscian territory, as
being tried and accustomed to him, he made no objection: he only
demanded Valerius as his associate in command. Quinctius and Horatius
were sent against the Volscians, as successors to Valerius. Furius and
Valerius, having set out from the city to Sutrium, found one part of the
town already taken by the Etrurians, and on the other part, the
approaches to which were barricaded, the townsmen with difficulty
repelling the assault of the enemy. Both the approach of aid from Rome,
as also the name of Camillus, universally respected both with the enemy
and the allies, sustained their tottering state for the present, and
afforded time for bringing them relief. Accordingly Camillus, having
divided his army, orders his colleague to lead round his troops to that
side which the enemy already possessed, and to assault the walls; not so
much from any hope that the city could be taken by scalade, as that, by
turning away the enemy's attention to that quarter, both the townsmen
who were wearied with fighting might have some relaxation of their toil,
and that he himself might have an opportunity of entering the city
without a contest. This having been done on both sides, and the double
terror now surrounding the Etrurians, when they saw that the walls were
assailed with the utmost fury, and that the enemy were within the walls,
they threw themselves out in consternation, in one body, by a gate which
alone happened not to be guarded. Great slaughter was made on them as
they fled, both in the city and through the fields. The greater number
were slain within the walls by Furius' soldiers: those of Valerius were
more alert for the pursuit; nor did they put an end to the slaughter
until night, which prevented them from seeing. Sutrium being recovered
and restored to the allies, the army was led to Nepete, which having
been received by capitulation, was now entirely in the possession of the
Etrurians.
10. It appeared probable, that there would be more of labour in
recovering the city, not only for this reason, because it was all in
possession of the enemy, but also because the surrender had been made in
consequence of a party of the Nepesinians having betrayed the state. It
was determined, however, that a message should be sent to their leading
men, to separate themselves from the Etrurians, and that they themselves
should evince that strict fidelity, which they had implored from the
Romans. Whence as soon as an answer was brought that there was nothing
in their power, that the Etrurians occupied the walls and the guards of
the gates, first, terror was struck into the townsmen by laying waste
their land; then, when the faith of the capitulation was more
religiously observed than that of the alliance, the army was led up to
the walls with fascines of bushes collected from the fields, and the
ditches being filled, the scaling ladders were raised, and the town was
taken at the first shout and attack. Proclamation was then made to the
Nepesinians, that they should lay down their arms, and orders were given
that the unarmed should be spared. The Etrurians, armed and unarmed,
were put to the sword without distinction: of the Nepesinians also the
authors of the surrender were beheaded. To the unoffending multitude
their property was restored, and the town was left with a garrison. Thus
having recovered two allied cities from the enemy, the tribunes marched
back their victorious army to Rome. During the same year restitution was
demanded from the Latins and Hernicians, and the cause was asked why
they had not during some years supplied soldiers according to
stipulation. An answer was given in a full assembly of both nations,
"that neither the blame was public, nor was there any design in the
circumstance of some of their youth having served among the Volscians.
That these individuals, however, suffered the penalty of their improper
conduct, and that none of them had returned. But that the cause of their
not supplying the soldiers had been their continual terror from the
Volscians, which pest adhering to their side, had not been capable of
being destroyed by so many successive wars." Which answer being reported
to the senate, they decided that there was wanting rather a seasonable
time for declaring war than sufficient grounds for it.
11. In the following year, Aulus Manlius, Publius Cornelius, Titus and
Lucius Quintii Capitolini, Lucius Papirius Cursor a second time, Caius
Sergius a second time, being military tribunes with consular power, a
grievous war broke out abroad, a still more grievous disturbance at
home; the war originated on the part of the Volscians, to which was
added a revolt of the Latins and Hernicians; the sedition from one from
whom it could be least of all apprehended, a man of patrician birth and
distinguished character, Marcus Manlius Capitolinus; who being too
aspiring in mind, whilst he despised the other leading men, envied one,
who was peculiarly distinguished both by honours and by merit, Marcus
Furius: he became indignant that he should be the only man among the
magistrates; the only man at the head of the armies; that he now
attained such eminence that he treated not as colleagues but as mere
tools the persons elected under the same auspices; though, in the mean
time, if any one would form a just estimate, his country could not have
been recovered by Marcus Furius from the siege of the enemy, had not the
Capitol and citadel been first preserved by him; and the other attacked
the Gauls, whilst their attention was distracted between receiving the
gold and the hope of peace, when he himself drove them off when armed
and taking the citadel; of the other's glory, a man's share appertained
to all the soldiers who conquered along with him; that in his victory no
man living was a sharer. His mind puffed by these notions, and moreover,
from a viciousness of disposition being vehement and headstrong, when he
perceived that his influence among the patricians did not stand forth as
prominent as he thought it should, he, the first of all the patricians,
became a plebeian partisan, and formed plans in conjunction with the
plebeian magistrates; and by criminating the fathers, and alluring the
commons to his side, he now came to be carried along by the tide of
popular applause, not by prudence, and preferred to be of a great,
rather than of a good character: and not content with agrarian laws,
which had ever served the tribunes of the commons as material for
disturbances, he now began to undermine public credit; for [he well
knew] "that the incentives of debt were sharper, as not only threatening
poverty and ignominy, but intimidated personal liberty with stocks and
chains." And the amount of the debt was immense, contracted by building,
a circumstance most destructive even to the rich. The Volscian war
therefore, heavy in itself, charged with additional weight by the
defection of the Latins and Hernicians, was held out as a colourable
pretext, for having a higher authority resorted to. But it was rather
the reforming plans that drove the senate to create a dictator. Aulus
Cornelius Cossus having been elected dictator, nominated Titus Quinctius
Capitolinus his master of the horse.
12. The dictator, though he perceived that a greater struggle was
reserved for him at home than abroad; still, either because there was
need of despatch for the war, or supposing that by a victory and a
triumph he should add to the powers of the dictatorship itself, held a
levee and proceeds into the Pomptine territory, where he had heard that
the Volscians had appointed their army to assemble. I doubt not but
that, in addition to satiety, to persons reading of so many wars waged
with the Volscians, this same circumstance will suggest itself, which
often served as an occasion of surprise to me when perusing the writers
who lived nearer to the times of these occurrences, from what source the
Volscians and Æquans, so often vanquished, could have procured supplies
of soldiers. And as this has been unnoticed and passed over in silence
by ancient writers; on which matter what can I state, except mere
opinion, which every one may from his own conjecture form for himself?
It seems probable, either that they employed, as is now practised in the
Roman levies, successive generations of their young men one after the
other, during the intervals between the wars; or that the armies were
not always recruited out of the same states, though the same nation may
have made war; or that there was an innumerable multitude of free-men in
those places, which, at the present day, Roman slaves save from being a
desert, a scanty seminary of soldiers being scarcely left. Certain it
is, (as is agreed upon among all authors,) although their power was very
much impaired under the guidance and auspices of Camillus, the forces of
the Volscians were strong: besides, the Latins and Hernicians had been
added, and some of the Circeians, and some Roman colonists also from
Velitræ. The dictator, having pitched his camp on that day, and on
coming forth on the day following after taking the auspices, and having,
by sacrificing a victim, implored the favour of the gods, with joyful
countenance presented himself to the soldiers, who were now taking arms
at day-break, according to orders, on the signal for battle being
displayed. "Soldiers," says he, "the victory is ours, if the gods and
their prophets see aught into futurity. Accordingly, as it becomes men
full of well-grounded hope, and who are about to engage with their
inferiors, let us place our spears at our feet, and arm our right hands
only with our swords. I would not even wish that any should push forward
beyond the line; but that, standing firm, you receive the enemy's charge
in a steady posture. When they shall have discharged their ineffective
missives, and, breaking their ranks, they shall rush on you as you stand
firm, then let your swords glitter, and let each man recollect, that
there are gods who aid the Roman; those gods, who have sent us into
battle with favourable omens. Do you, Titus Quinctius, keep back the
cavalry, attentively observing the very commencement of the contest; as
soon as you observe the armies closed foot to foot, then, whilst they
are taken up with another panic, strike terror into them with your
cavalry, and by making a charge on them, disperse the ranks of those
engaged in the fight." The cavalry, the infantry conduct the fight, just
as he had ordered them. Nor did either the general disappoint the
legions, nor fortune the general.
13. The army of the enemy, relying on nothing but on their number, and
measuring both armies merely by the eye, entered on the battle
inconsiderately, and inconsiderately gave it over: fierce only in their
shout and with their missive weapons, and at the first onset of the
fight, they were unable to withstand the swords, and the close
engagement foot to foot, and the looks of the enemy, darting fire
through their ardour for the fight. Their front line was driven in, and
confusion spread to the reserve troops, and the cavalry occasioned alarm
on their part: the ranks were then broken in many places, every thing
was set in motion, and the line seemed as it were fluctuating. Then
when, the foremost having fallen, each saw that death was about to reach
himself, they turn their backs. The Roman followed close on them; and as
long as they went off armed and in bodies, the labour in the pursuit
fell to the infantry; when it was observed that their arms were thrown
away in every direction, and that the enemy's line was scattered in
flight through the country; then squadrons of horse were sent out,
intimation being given that they should not, by losing time with the
massacre of individuals, afford an opportunity in the mean time to the
multitude to escape: it would be sufficient that their speed should be
retarded by missive weapons and by terror, and that the progress of
their forces should be detained by skirmishing, until the infantry
should be able to overtake and despatch the enemy by regular slaughter.
There was no end of the flight and slaughter before night; on the same
day the camp of the Volscians was taken also and pillaged, and all the
plunder, save the persons of free condition, was given up to the
soldiers. The greatest part of the prisoners consisted of Latins and
Hernicians, and these not men of plebeian rank, so that it could be
supposed that they had served for hire, but some young men of rank were
found among them: an evident proof that the Volscian enemies had been
aided by public authority. Some of the Circeians also were recognised,
and colonists from Velitræ; and being all sent to Rome, on being
interrogated by the leading senators, plainly revealed the same
circumstances as they had done to the dictator, the defection each of
his respective state.
14. The dictator kept his army in the standing camp, not at all doubting
that the senate would order war with these states; when a more momentous
difficulty having occurred at home, rendered it necessary that he should
be sent for to Rome, the sedition gaining strength every day, which the
fomenter was now rendering more than ordinarily formidable. For now it
was easy to see from what motives proceeded not only the discourses of
Manlius, but his actions also, apparently suggested by popular zeal, but
at the same time tending to create disturbance. When he saw a centurion,
illustrious for his military exploits, leading off to prison by reason
of a judgment for debt, he ran up with his attendants in the middle of
the forum and laid hands on him; and exclaiming aloud against the
insolence of the patricians, the cruelty of the usurers, and the
grievances of the commons, and the deserts and misfortunes of the man.
"Then indeed," said he, "in vain have I preserved the Capitol and
citadel by this right hand, if I am to see my fellow-citizen and
fellow-soldier, as if captured by the victorious Gauls, dragged into
slavery and chains." He then paid the debt to the creditor openly before
the people, and having purchased his freedom with the scales and brass,
he sets the man at liberty, whilst the latter implored both gods and
men, that they would grant a recompence to Marcus Manlius, his
liberator, the parent of the Roman commons; and being immediately
received into the tumultuous crowd, he himself also increased the
tumult, displaying the scars received in the Veientian, Gallic, and
other succeeding wars: "that he, whilst serving in the field, and
rebuilding his dwelling which had been demolished, though he had paid
off the principal many times over, the interest always keeping down the
principal, had been overwhelmed with interest: that through the kind
interference of Marcus Manlius, he now beheld the light, the forum, and
the faces of his fellow-citizens: that he received from him all the kind
services usually conferred by parents; that to him therefore he devoted
whatever remained of his person, of his life, and of his blood; whatever
ties subsisted between him and his country, public and private guardian
deities, were all centred in that one man." When the commons, worked
upon by these expressions, were now wholly in the interest of the one
individual, another circumstance was added, emanating from a scheme
still more effectually calculated to create general confusion. A farm in
the Veientian territory, the principal part of his estate, he subjected
to public sale: "that I may not," says he, "suffer any of you, Romans,
as long as any of my property shall remain, to be dragged off to prison,
after judgment has been given against him, and he has been consigned to
a creditor." That circumstance, indeed, so inflamed their minds, that
they seemed determined on following the assertor of their freedom
through every thing, right and wrong. Besides this, speeches [were made]
at his house, as if he were delivering an harangue, full of imputations
against the patricians; among which he threw out, waving all distinction
whether he said what was true or false, that treasures of the Gallic
gold were concealed by the patricians; that "they were now no longer
content with possessing the public lands, unless they appropriated the
public money also; if that were made public, that the commons might be
freed from their debt." When this hope was presented to them, then
indeed it seemed a scandalous proceeding, that when gold was to be
contributed to ransom the state from the Gauls, the collection was made
by a public tribute; that the same gold, when taken from the Gauls, had
become the plunder of a few. Accordingly they followed up the inquiry,
where the furtive possession of so enormous a treasure could be kept;
and when he deferred, and told them that he would inform them at the
proper time, all other objects being given up, the attention of all was
directed to this point; and it became evident that neither their
gratitude, if the information were true, nor their displeasure if it
proved false, would know any bounds.
15. Matters being in this state, the dictator, being summoned home from
the army, came into the city. A meeting of the senate being held on the
following day, when, having sufficiently sounded the inclinations of the
people, he forbade the senate to leave him, attended by that body, he
placed his throne in the comitium, and sent his sergeant to Marcus
Manlius; who on being summoned by the dictator's order, after he had
given intimation to his party that a contest was at hand, came to the
tribunal, attended by a numerous party. On the one side stood the
senate, on the other the people as if in battle-array, attentively
observing, each party, their respective leader. Then silence being made,
the dictator said, "I wish that I and the Roman patricians may agree
with the commons on all other matters, as I am confident we shall agree
on the business which regards you, and on that about which I am about to
interrogate you. I perceive that hopes have been raised by you in the
minds of the citizens, that, with safety to the public credit, their
debts may be paid off out of the Gallic treasures, which it is alleged
the leading patricians are secreting. To which proceeding so far am I
from being any obstruction, that on the contrary, Marcus Manlius, I
exhort you to free the Roman commons from the weight of interest; and to
tumble from their secreted spoil, those who lie now brooding on those
public treasures. If you refuse to do this, whether because you yourself
desire to be a sharer in the spoil, or because the information is
unfounded, I shall order you to be carried off to prison, nor will I any
longer suffer the multitude to be disquieted by you with delusive
hopes." To this Manlius replied, "That it had not escaped him, that it
was not against the Volscians, who were enemies as often as it suited
the interests of the patricians, nor against the Latins and Hernicians,
whom they were driving into hostilities by false charges, but against
him and the Roman commons, that he was appointed dictator. Now the war
being dropped, which was only feigned, that an attack was being made
against himself; that the dictator now professed to defend the usurers
against the commons; that now a charge and destruction was sought for
him out of the favour of the multitude. Does the crowd that surrounds my
person offend you," said he, "Aulus Cornelius, and you, conscript
fathers? Why then do you not draw it away from me, each of you by your
own acts of kindness? by becoming surety, by delivering your
fellow-citizens from the stocks, by preventing those cast in law-suits,
and assigned over to their creditors, from being dragged away to prison,
by sustaining the necessities of others out of your own superfluities?
But why do I exhort you to expend out of your own property? Fix some
capital; deduct from the principal what has been paid in interest; soon
will my crowd not be a whit more remarkable than that of any other
person. But [I may be asked] why do I alone thus interest myself in
behalf of my fellow-citizens? I have no other answer to give, than if
you were to ask me, why in the same way did I alone preserve the Capitol
and the citadel. Both then I afforded the aid which I could to all
collectively, and now I will afford it to each individually. Now with
respect to the Gallic treasures, the mode of interrogation renders
difficult a matter which in itself is easy. For why do you ask that
which you know? why do you order that which is in your own laps to be
shaken out of them rather than resign it, unless some fraud lurks
beneath? The more you require your own impositions to be examined into,
the more do I dread lest you should blind the eyes of those narrowly
watching you. Wherefore, it is not I that am to be compelled to discover
your hoard, but you must be forced to produce it to the public."
16. When the dictator ordered him to lay aside evasion, and urged him to
prove the truth of his information, or to own the guilt of having
advanced a false accusation against the senate, and of having exposed
them to the odium of a lying charge of concealment; when he refused to
speak, to meet the wishes of his enemies, he ordered him to be carried
off to prison. When arrested by the sergeant, he said, "O Jupiter,
supremely great and good, imperial Juno, and Minerva, and ye other gods
and goddesses, who inhabit the Capitol and citadel, do ye suffer your
soldier and defender to be thus harassed by his enemies? Shall this
right hand, by which I beat off the Gauls from your temples, be now in
bonds and chains?" Neither the eyes nor ears of any one could well
endure the indignity [thus offered him], but the state, most patient of
legitimate authority, had rendered certain offices absolute to
themselves; nor did either the tribunes of the commons, nor the commons
themselves, dare to raise their eyes or utter a sentence in opposition
to the dictatorial power. On Manlius being thrown into prison, it
appears that a great part of the commons put on mourning, that a great
many persons had let their hair and beard grow, and that a dejected
crowd presented itself at the entrance of the prison. The dictator
triumphed over the Volscians; and that triumph was the occasion rather
of ill-will than of glory. For they murmured that "it had been acquired
at home, not abroad, and that it was celebrated over a citizen, not over
an enemy; that only one thing was wanting to his arrogance, that Manlius
was not led before his car." And now the affair fell little short of
sedition, for the purpose of appeasing which, the senate, without the
solicitation of any one, suddenly becoming bountiful of their own
free-will, decreed that a colony of two thousand Roman citizens should
be conducted to Satricum; two acres and half of land were assigned to
each. And when they considered this, both as scanty in itself, conferred
on a few, and as a bribe for betraying Marcus Manlius, the sedition was
irritated by the remedy. And now the crowd of Manlius' partisans was
become more remarkable, both by their squalid attire and by the
appearance of persons under prosecutions, and terror being removed by
the resignation of the dictatorship, after the triumph had set both the
tongues and thoughts of men at liberty.
17. Expressions were therefore heard freely uttered of persons
upbraiding the multitude, that "by their favour they always raised their
defenders to a precipice, then at the very critical moment of danger
they forsook them. That in this way Spurius Cassius, when inviting the
commons to a share in the lands, in this way Spurius Mælius, when
warding off famine from the mouths of his fellow-citizens at his own
expense, had been undone; thus Marcus Manlius was betrayed to his
enemies, whilst drawing forth to liberty and light one half of the
state, when sunk and overwhelmed with usury. That the commons fattened
their favourites that they might be slaughtered. Was this punishment to
be suffered, if a man of consular rank did not answer at the nod of a
dictator? Suppose that he had lied before, and that on that account he
had had no answer to make; what slave was ever imprisoned in punishment
of a lie? Did not the memory of that night present itself, which was
well nigh the last and an eternal one to the Roman name? nor any idea of
the band of Gauls climbing up the Tarpeian rock? nor that of Marcus
Manlius himself, such as they had seen him in arms, covered with sweat
and blood, after having in a manner rescued Jupiter himself from the
hands of the enemy? Was a recompence made to the preserver of their
country with their half pounds of corn? and would they suffer a person,
whom they almost deified, whom they had set on a footing with Jupiter,
at least with respect to the surname of Capitolinus, to drag out an
existence subject to the will of an executioner, chained in a prison and
in darkness? Was there thus sufficient aid in one person for all; and no
relief for one in so many?" The crowd did not disperse from that place
even during the night, and they threatened that they would break open
the prison; when that being conceded which they were about to take by
force, Manlius was discharged from prison by a decree of the senate; by
which proceeding the sedition was not terminated, but a leader was
supplied to the sedition. About the same time the Latins and Hernicians,
as also the colonists of Circeii and Velitræ, when striving to clear
themselves of the charge [of being concerned] in the Volscian war, and
demanding back the prisoners, that they may punish them according to
their own laws, received a harsh answer; the colonists the severer,
because being Roman citizens they had formed the abominable design of
attacking their own country. They were therefore not only refused with
respect to the prisoners, but notice was given them in the name of the
senate, who however forbore from such a proceeding in the case of the
allies, instantly to depart from the city, from the presence and sight
of the Roman people; lest the law of embassy, provided for the
foreigner, not for the citizen, should afford them no protection.
18. The sedition excited by Manlius reassuming its former violence, on
the expiration of the year the election was held, and military tribunes
with consular power were elected from among the patricians; they were
Servius Cornelius Maluginensis a third time, Publius Valerius Potitus a
second time, Marcus Furius Camillus, Servius Sulpicius Rufus a second
time, Caius Papirius Crassus, Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus a second time.
At the commencement of which year peace with foreign countries afforded
every opportunity both to the patricians and plebeians: to the
plebeians, because not being called away by any levy, they conceived
hopes of destroying usury, whilst they had so influential a leader; to
the patricians, because their minds were not called away by any external
terror from relieving the evils existing at home. Accordingly, as both
sides arose much more strenuous then ever, Manlius also was present for
the approaching contest. Having summoned the commons to his house, he
holds consultations both by night and day with the leading men amongst
them with respect to effecting a revolution of affairs, being filled
with a much higher degree both of spirit and of resentment than he had
been before. The recent ignominy had lighted up resentment in a mind
unused to affront; it gave him additional courage, that the dictator had
not ventured to the same extent against him, as Quinctius Cincinnatus
had done in the case of Spurius Mælius, and because the dictator had not
only endeavoured to avoid the unpopularity of his imprisonment by
abdicating the dictatorship, but not even the senate could bear up
against it. Elated by these considerations, and at the same time
exasperated, he set about inflaming the minds of the commons, already
sufficiently heated of themselves: "How long," says he, "will you be
ignorant of your own strength, which nature has not wished even the
brutes to be ignorant of? At least count how many you are, and how many
enemies you have. Even if each of you were to attack an individual
antagonist, still I should suppose that you would strive more vigorously
in defence of liberty, than they in defence of tyranny. For as many of
you as have been clients around each single patron, in the same number
will ye be against a single enemy. Only make a show of war; ye shall
have peace. Let them see you prepared for open force; they themselves
will relax their pretensions. Collectively you must attempt something,
or individually submit to every thing. How long will you look to me? I
for my part will not be wanting to any of you: do you see that my
fortune fail not. I, your avenger, when my enemies thought well of it,
was suddenly reduced to nothing; and you all in a body beheld that
person thrown into chains, who had warded off chains from each one of
you. What am I to hope, if my enemies attempt more against me? Am I to
expect the fate of Cassius and Mælius? You acted kindly in appearing
shocked at it: the gods will avert it: but never will they come down
from heaven on my account: they must inspire you with a determination to
avert it; as they inspired me, in arms and in peace, to defend you from
barbarous foes and tyrannical fellow-citizens. Is the spirit of so great
a people so mean, that aid against your adversaries always satisfies
you? And are you not to know any contest against the patricians, except
how you may suffer them to domineer over you? Nor is this implanted in
you by nature; but you are theirs by possession. For why is it you bear
such spirit with respect to foreigners, as to think it meet that you
should rule over them? because you have been accustomed to vie with them
for empire, against these to essay liberty rather than to maintain it.
Nevertheless, whatsoever sort of leaders you have, whatever has been
your own conduct, ye have up to this carried every thing which ye have
demanded, either by force, or your own good fortune. It is now time to
aim at still higher objects. Only make trial both of your own good
fortune, and of me, who have been, as I hope, already tried to your
advantage. Ye will with less difficulty set up some one to rule the
patricians, than ye have set up persons to resist their rule.
Dictatorships and consulships must be levelled to the ground, that the
Roman commons may be able to raise their heads. Wherefore stand by me,
prevent judicial proceedings from going on regarding money. I profess
myself the patron of the commons--a title with which my solicitude and
zeal invests me. If you will dignify your leader by any more
distinguishing title of honour or command, ye will render him still more
powerful to obtain what ye desire." From this his first attempt is said
to have arisen with respect to the obtaining of regal power; but no
sufficiently clear account is handed down, either with whom [he acted],
or how far his designs extended.
19. But, on the other side, the senate began to deliberate regarding the
secession of the commons into a private house, and that, as it so
happened, situate in the citadel, and regarding the great danger that
was threatening liberty. Great numbers cry out, that a Servilius Ahala
was wanted, who would not irritate a public enemy by ordering him to be
led to prison, but would finish an intestine war with the loss of one
citizen. They came to a resolution milder in terms, but possessing the
same force, that the magistrates should see that "the commonwealth
received no detriment from the designs of Marcus Manlius." Then the
consular tribunes, and the tribunes of the commons, (for these also had
submitted to the authority of the senate, because they saw that the
termination of their own power and of the liberty of all would be the
same,) all these then consult together as to what was necessary to be
done. When nothing suggested itself to the mind of any, except violence
and bloodshed, and it was evident that that would be attended with great
risk; then Marcus Mænius, and Quintus Publilius, tribunes of the
commons, say, "Why do we make that a contest between the patricians and
commons, which ought to be between the state and one pestilent citizen?
Why do we attack, together with the commons, a man whom it is safer to
attack through the commons themselves, that he may fall overpowered by
his own strength? We have it in contemplation to appoint a day of trial
for him. Nothing is less popular than regal power; as soon as the
multitude shall perceive that the contest is not with them, and that
from advocates they are to be made judges, and shall behold the
prosecutors from among the commons, the accused a patrician, and that
the charge between both parties is that of aiming at regal power, they
will favour no object more than their own liberty."
20. With the approbation of all, they appoint a day of trial for
Manlius. When this took place, the commons were at first excited,
especially when they saw the accused in a mourning habit, and with him
not only none of the patricians, but not even any of his kinsmen or
relatives, nay, not even his brothers Aulus and Titus Manlius; a
circumstance which had never occurred before, that at so critical a
juncture a man's nearest friends did not put on mourning. When Appius
Claudius was thrown into prison [they remarked], that Caius Claudius,
who was at enmity with him and the entire Claudian family, appeared in
mourning; that this favourite of the people was about to be destroyed by
a conspiracy, because he was the first who had come over from the
patricians to the commons. When the day arrived, I find in no author,
what acts were alleged by the prosecutors against the accused bearing
properly on the charge of aspiring to kingly power, except his
assembling the multitude, and his seditious expressions and his
largesses, and pretended discovery; nor have I any doubt that they were
by no means unimportant, as the people's delay in condemning him was
occasioned not by the merits of the cause, but by the place of trial.
This seems deserving of notice, that men may know what great and
glorious achievements his depraved ambition of regal power rendered not
only bereft of all merit, but absolutely hateful. He is said to have
brought forward near four hundred persons to whom he had lent money
without interest, whose goods he had prevented from being sold, whom he
had prevented from being carried off to prison after being adjudged to
their creditors. Besides this, that he not only enumerated also his
military rewards, but also produced them to view; spoils of enemies
slain up to thirty; presents from generals to the number of forty; in
which the most remarkable were two mural crowns and eight civic. In
addition to this, that he brought forward citizens saved from the enemy,
amongst whom was mentioned Caius Servilius, when master of the horse,
now absent. Then after he had recounted his exploits in war, in pompous
language suitable to the dignity of the subject, equalling his actions
by his eloquence, he bared his breast marked with scars received in
battle: and now and then, directing his eyes to the Capitol, he called
down Jupiter and the other gods to aid him in his present lot; and he
prayed, that the same sentiments with which they had inspired him when
protecting the fortress of the Capitol, for the preservation of the
Roman people, they would now inspire the Roman people with in his
critical situation: and he entreated them singly and collectively, that
they would form their judgment of him with their eyes fixed on the
Capitol and citadel and their faces turned to the immortal gods. As the
people were summoned by centuries in the field of Mars, and as the
accused, extending his hands towards the Capitol, directed his prayers
from men to the gods; it became evident to the tribunes, that unless
they removed the eyes of men also from the memory of so great an
exploit, the best founded charge would find no place in minds
prejudiced by services. Thus the day of trial being adjourned, a meeting
of the people was summoned in the Pœteline grove outside the Nomentan
gate, from whence there was no view of the Capitol; there the charge was
made good, and their minds being now unmoved [by adventitious
circumstances], a fatal sentence, and one which excited horror even in
his judges, was passed on him. There are some who state that he was
condemned by duumvirs appointed to inquire concerning cases of treason.
The tribunes cast him down from the Tarpeian rock: and the same place in
the case of one man became a monument of distinguished glory and of
extreme punishment. Marks of infamy were offered to him when dead: one,
a public one; that, when his house had been that where the temple of
Moneta and the mint-office now stand, it was proposed to the people,
that no patrician should dwell in the citadel and Capitol: the other
appertaining to his family; it being commanded by a decree that no one
of the Manlian family should ever after bear the name of Marcus Manlius.
Such was the fate of a man, who, had he not been born in a free state,
would have been celebrated with posterity. In a short time, when there
was no longer any danger from him, the people, recollecting only his
virtues, were seized with regret for him. A pestilence too which soon
followed, no causes of so great a calamity presenting themselves, seemed
to a great many to have arisen from the punishment inflicted on Manlius:
"The Capitol" [they said] "had been polluted with the blood of its
preserver; nor was it agreeable to the gods that the punishment of him
by whom their temples had been rescued from the hands of the enemy, had
been brought in a manner before their eyes."
21. The pestilence was succeeded by a scarcity of the fruits of the
earth, and the report of both calamities by spreading [was followed] by
a variety of wars in the following year, Lucius Valerius a fourth time,
Aulus Manlius a third time, Servius Sulpicius a third time, Lucius
Lucretius, Lucius Æmilius a third time, Marcus Trebonius, being military
tribunes with consular power. Besides the Volscians, assigned by some
fatality to give eternal employment to the Roman soldiery, and the
colonies of Circeii and Velitræ, long meditating a revolt, and Latium
which had been suspected, new enemies suddenly sprung up in the people
of Lanuvium, which had been a most faithful city. The fathers,
considering that this arose from contempt, because the revolt of their
own citizens, the people of Velitræ, had been so long unpunished,
decreed that a proposition should be submitted to the people at the
earliest opportunity on the subject of declaring war against them: and
in order that the commons might be the more disposed for that service,
they appointed five commissioners for distributing the Pomptine land,
and three for conducting a colony to Nepete. Then it was proposed to the
people that they should order a declaration of war; and the plebeian
tribunes in vain endeavouring to dissuade them, all the tribes declared
for war. That year preparations were made for war; the army was not led
out into the field on account of the pestilence. And that delay afforded
full time to the colonists to deprecate the anger of the senate; and a
great number of the people were disposed that a suppliant embassy should
be sent to Rome, had not the public been involved, as is usual, with the
private danger, and the abettors of the revolt from the Romans, through
fear, lest they, being alone answerable for the guilt, might be given up
as victims to the resentment of the Romans, dissuaded the colonies from
counsels of peace. And not only was the embassy obstructed by them in
the senate, but a great part of the commons were excited to make
predatory excursions into the Roman territory. This new injury broke off
all hope of peace. This year a report first originated regarding a
revolt of the Prænestines; and the people of Tusculum, Gabii and Lavici,
into whose territories the incursions had been made, accusing them of
the fact, the senate returned so placid an answer, that it became
evident that less credit was given to the charges, because they wished
them not to be true.