_Two magistrates were added, the prætorship and curule ædileship. A
pestilence rages in the city, which carries off the celebrated
Furius Camillus. Scenic representations first introduced. Curtius
leaps on horseback completely armed into a gulf in the forum. Titus
Manlius, having slain a Gaul in single combat, who challenged any
of the Roman soldiers, takes from him a golden chain, and hence
gets the name of Torquatus. Two new tribes are added, called the
Pomptine and Publilian. Licinius Stolo is condemned on a law which
he himself had carried, for possessing more than five hundred acres
of land. Marcus Valerius, surnamed Corvinus, from having with the
aid of a crow killed a Gaul, who challenged him, is on the
following year elected consul, though but twenty-three years old. A
treaty of friendship made with the Carthaginians. The Campanians,
overpowered by the Samnites, surrender themselves to the Roman
people, who declare war against the Samnites. P. Decius Mus saves
the Roman army, when brought into very great danger by the consul
A. Cornelius. Conspiracy and revolt of the Roman soldiers in the
garrison of Capua. They are brought to a sense of duty, and
restored to their country, by Marcus Valerius Corvus, dictator.
Successful operations against the Hernicians, Gauls, Tiburtians,
Privernians, Tarquinians, Samnites, and Volscians._
1. This year will be remarkable for the consulship of a man of mean
birth, remarkable for two new magistracies, the prætorship and curule
ædileship. These honours the patricians claimed to themselves, in
consideration of one consulship having been conceded to the plebeians.
The commons gave the consulship to Lucius Sextius, by whose law it had
been obtained. The patricians by their popular influence obtained the
prætorship for Spurius Furius Camillus, the son of Marcus, the ædileship
for Cneius Quinctius Capitolinus and Publius Cornelius Scipio, men of
their own rank. To Lucius Sextius, the patrician colleague assigned was
Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus. In the beginning of the year mention was made
both of the Gauls, who, after having strayed about through Apulia, it
was now rumoured were forming into a body; and also concerning a revolt
of the Hernicians. When all business was purposely deferred, so that
nothing should be transacted through means of the plebeian consul,
silence was observed on all matters, and a state of inaction like to a
justitium; except that, the tribunes not suffering it to pass unnoticed
that the nobility had arrogated to themselves three patrician
magistracies as a compensation for one plebeian consul, sitting in
curule chairs, clad in the prætexta like consuls; the prætor, too,
administering justice, and as if colleague to the consuls, and elected
under the same auspices, the senate were in consequence made ashamed to
order the curule ædiles to be elected from among the patricians. It was
at first agreed, that they should be elected from the commons every
second year: afterwards the matter was left open. Then, in the consulate
of Lucius Genucius and Quintus Servilius, affairs being tranquil both at
home and abroad, that they might at no period be exempt from fear and
danger, a great pestilence arose. They say that a prætor, a curule
ædile, and three plebeian tribunes died of it, and that several other
deaths took place in proportion among the populace; and that pestilence
was made memorable chiefly by the death of Marcus Furius, which, though
occurring at an advanced age, was still much lamented. For he was a
truly extraordinary man under every change of fortune; the first man in
the state in peace and war, before he went into exile; still more
illustrious in exile, whether by the regret felt for him by the state,
which, when in captivity, implored his aid when absent; or by the
success with which, when restored to his country, he restored that
country along with himself. For five and twenty years afterwards (for so
many years afterwards did he live) he uniformly preserved his claims to
such great glory, and was deemed deserving of their considering him,
next after Romulus, a second founder of the city of Rome.
2. The pestilence continued both for this and the following year, Caius
Sulpicius Peticus and Caius Licinius Stolo being consuls. During that
year nothing worth recording took place, except that for the purpose of
imploring the favour of the gods, there was a Lectisternium, the third
time since the building of the city. And when the violence of the
disease was alleviated neither by human measures nor by divine
interference, their minds being broken down by superstition, among
other means of appeasing the wrath of heaven, scenic plays also are said
to have been instituted, a new thing to a warlike people (for hitherto
there had been only the shows of the circus). But the matter was
trivial, (as all beginnings generally are,) and even that itself from a
foreign source. Without any poetry, or gesticulating in imitation of
such poetry, actors were sent for from Etruria, dancing to the measures
of a musician, and exhibited, according to the Tuscan fashion, movements
by no means ungraceful. The young men afterwards began to imitate these,
throwing out at the same time among each other jocular expressions in
uncouth verses; nor were their gestures irrelevant to their language.
Wherefore the matter was received with approbation, and by frequent use
was much improved. To the native performers the name of _histriones_ was
given, because _hister_, in the Tuscan vocabulary, was the name of an
actor, who did not, as formerly, throw out alternately artless and
unpolished verses like the Fescennine at random, but represented medleys
complete with metre, the music being regularly adjusted for the
musician, and with appropriate gesticulation. Livius, who several years
after, giving up medleys, was the first who ventured to digest a story
with a regular plot, (the same being, forsooth, as all were at that
time, the actor of his own pieces,) after having broken his voice from
having been too repeatedly called on, and after having sought
permission, is said to have placed a boy before the musician to chaunt,
and to have performed the gesticulations with considerably freer
movement, because the employment of his voice was no impediment to him.
Thence commenced the practice of chaunting to the actors according to
their manual gesticulations, and the dialogues only were left to their
voice. When by this arrangement the business of the scenic performances
was called away from laughter and intemperate mirth, and the amusement
became gradually converted into an art, the young men, leaving to
regular actors the performance of plays, began themselves, according to
the ancient usage, to throw out ludicrous jests comprised in verses,
which from that time were called _exodia_, and were collected chiefly
from the Atellan farces. Which kind of amusement, received from the
Osci, the young kept to themselves, nor did they suffer it to be debased
by regular players. Hence it remains an established usage that the
actors of the Atellan farces are neither degraded from their tribe, and
may serve in the army, as if having no connexion with the profession of
the stage. Among the trifling beginnings of other matters, it seemed to
me that the first origin of plays also should be noticed; that it might
appear how from a moderate commencement it has reached its present
extravagance, scarcely to be supported by opulent kingdoms.
3. However, the first introduction of plays, intended as a religious
expiation, neither relieved their minds from religious awe, nor their
bodies from disease. Nay more, when the circus being inundated by the
overflowing of the Tiber happened to interrupt the middle of the
performance, that indeed, as if the gods were now turned from them, and
despised their efforts to soothe their wrath, excited great terror.
Accordingly, Cneius Genucius and Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus being a
second time consuls, when the searching for expiations harassed their
minds, more than the diseases did their bodies, it is said to have been
collected from the memory of the more aged, that a pestilence had
formerly been relieved, on the nail being driven by a dictator. Induced
by this superstitious circumstance, the senate ordered a dictator to be
appointed for the purpose of driving the nail. Lucius Manlius Imperiosus
being appointed, named Lucius Pinarius master of the horse. There is an
ancient law written in antique letters and words, that whoever is
supreme officer should drive a nail on the ides of September. It was
driven into the right side of the temple of Jupiter supremely good and
great, on that part where the temple of Minerva is. They say that the
nail was a mark of the number of years elapsed, because letters were
rare in those times, and that the law was referred to the temple of
Minerva, because number is the invention of that goddess. Cincius, a
careful writer on such monuments, asserts that there were seen at
Volsinii also nails fixed in the temple of Nortia, a Tuscan goddess, as
indices of the number of years. Marcus Horatius, being consul, according
to law dedicated the temple of Jupiter the best and greatest the year
after the expulsion of kings; the solemnity of fixing the nail was
afterwards transferred from the consuls to the dictators, because theirs
was a superior office. The custom being afterwards dropped, it seemed a
matter of sufficient importance in itself, on account of which a
dictator should be appointed. For which reason Lucius Manlius being
appointed, just as if he had been appointed for the purpose of managing
the business of the state in general, and not to acquit it of a
religious obligation, being ambitious to manage the Hernician war,
harassed the youth by a severe levy, and at length, all the plebeian
tribunes having risen up against him, whether overcome by force or
shame, he resigned the dictatorship.
4. Notwithstanding this, in the commencement of the ensuing year,
Quintus Servilius Ahala, Lucius Genucius being consuls, a day of trial
is appointed for Manlius, by Marcus Pomponius, tribune of the commons.
His severity in the levies, carried not only to the fining of the
citizens, but even to the laceration of their bodies, those who had not
answered to their names being some beaten with rods, others thrown into
prison, was hateful; and more hateful than all was his violent temper,
and the surname of Imperiosus, offensive to a free state, adopted by him
from an ostentation of severity, which he exercised not more against
strangers than his nearest friends, and even those of his own blood. And
among other things, the tribune alleged as a charge against him that "he
had banished his son, a youth convicted of no improper conduct, from the
city, home, household gods, forum, light, from the society of his
equals, and consigned him in a manner to a prison or workhouse; where a
youth of dictatorian rank, born of a very high family, should learn by
his daily suffering that he was descended of a truly imperious father.
And for what offence? because he was not eloquent, nor ready in
discourse. Which defect of nature, whether ought it to be treated with
leniency if there were a particle of humanity in him, or ought it to be
punished, and rendered more remarkable by harsh treatment? The dumb
beasts even, if any of their offspring happen to be badly formed, are
not the less careful in nourishing and cherishing them. But Lucius
Manlius aggravated the misfortune of his son by severity, and further
clogged the slowness of his intellects; and if there were in him even
the least spark of natural ability he extinguished it by a rustic life
and a clownish education, and keeping him among cattle."
5. By these charges the minds of all were exasperated against him more
than that of the young man himself: nay, on the contrary, being grieved
that he was even the cause of public odium and accusations to his
father, that all the gods and men might know that he would rather afford
aid to his father than to his enemies, he forms the design,
characteristic of a rude and rustic mind no doubt, and though of a
precedent not conformable to the rules of civil life, yet commendable
for its filial piety. Having furnished himself with a knife, without the
knowledge of any one he proceeds early in the morning into the city, and
from the gate straightway to the house of Marcus Pomponius the tribune:
he tells the porter, that he wanted to see his master immediately, and
bid him to announce that he was Titus Manlius, son of Lucius. Being
introduced immediately, (for he had hopes that the youth, incensed
against his father, brought either some new charge, or some advice to
accomplish the project,) after mutual greeting, he says that there were
some matters which he wished to transact with him in private. Then, all
persons being ordered to withdraw to a distance, he draws his dagger;
and standing over the couch with his dagger ready to strike, he
threatens that he would immediately stab him, unless he would swear in
the words which he would dictate, that "he never would hold a meeting of
the commons for the purpose of prosecuting his father." The tribune
alarmed, (for he saw the steel glittering before his eyes, himself alone
and unarmed; the other a young man, and very powerful, and what was no
less terrifying, savagely ferocious in his bodily strength,) swears in
the terms in which he was obliged; and afterwards acknowledged that
forced by this proceeding he gave up his undertaking. Nor though the
commons would have preferred that an opportunity was afforded them of
passing sentence on so cruel and tyrannical a culprit, they were not
much displeased that the son had dared to act so in behalf of his
father; and that was the more commendable in this, that such great
severity on the part of the father had not weaned his mind from his
filial affection. Wherefore the pleading of his cause was not only
dispensed with for the father, but the matter even became a source of
honour to the young man; and when it had been determined on that year
for the first time that tribunes of the soldiers for the legions should
be appointed by suffrage, (for before that the commanders themselves
used to appoint them, as they now do those whom they call Rufuli,) he
obtained the second place among six, without any merit of a civil or
military nature to conciliate public favour; as he had spent his youth
in the country and at a distance from all intercourse with the world.
6. On the same year the middle of the forum is said to have fallen in to
an immense depth, forming a sort of vast cave, either by reason of an
earthquake, or some other violent cause; nor could that gulf be filled
up by throwing earth into it, every one exerting himself to the utmost,
until by the admonition of the gods an inquiry began to be instituted,
as to what constituted the chief strength of the Roman people? for the
soothsayers declare that must be devoted to that place, if they desired
the Roman state to be perpetual. Then they tell us that Marcus Curtius,
a youth distinguished in war, reproved them for hesitating, whether
there was any greater Roman good than arms and valour. Silence being
made, looking to the temples of the immortal gods, which command a view
of the forum, and towards the Capitol, and extending his hands at one
time towards heaven, at another towards the infernal gods, through the
gaping aperture of the earth, he devoted himself: then, mounted on a
horse accoutred in the most gorgeous style possible, he plunged in full
armour into the opening, and offerings and the fruits of the earth were
thrown in over him by the multitude of men and women, and the lake was
called Curtian not from Curtius Mettus, the ancient soldier of Titus
Tatius, but from this circumstance. If any way would lead one's inquiry
to the truth, industry would not be wanting: now, when length of time
precludes all certainty of evidence, we must stand by the rumour of
tradition; and the name of the lake must be accounted for from this more
recent story. After due attention being paid to so great a prodigy, the
senate, during the same year, being consulted regarding the Hernicians,
(after having sent heralds to demand restitution in vain,) voted, that a
motion be submitted on the earliest day to the people on the subject of
declaring war against the Hernicians, and the people, in full assembly,
ordered it. That province fell by lot to the consul Lucius Genucius. The
state was in anxious suspense, because he was the first plebeian consul
that was about to conduct a war under his own auspices, being sure to
judge of the good or bad policy of establishing a community of honours,
according as the matter should turn out. Chance so arranged it that
Genucius, marching against the enemy with a considerable force, fell
into an ambush; the legions being routed by reason of a sudden panic,
the consul was slain after being surrounded by persons who knew not whom
they had slain. When this news was brought to Rome, the patricians, by
no means so grieved for the public disaster, as elated at the
unsuccessful guidance of the plebeian consul, every where exclaim, "They
might now go, and elect consuls from the commons, they might transfer
the auspices where it was impious to do so. The patricians might by a
vote of the people be driven from their own exclusive honour: whether
had this inauspicious law availed also against the immortal gods? They
had vindicated their authority, their auspices; which as soon as ever
they were defiled by one by whom it was contrary to human and divine law
that they should have been, the destruction of the army with its leader
was a warning, that elections should hereafter be conducted in utter
violation of the rights of birth." The senate-house and the forum
resound with expressions such as these. Appius Claudius, because he had
dissuaded the law, and now with greater authority blamed the issue of a
measure which had been found fault with by himself, the consul Servilius
appoints dictator by the general wish of the patricians, and a levy and
cessation of business are procaimed.
7. Before the dictator and the new legions could arrive among the
Hernicians, matters were conducted with great success under the
direction of Caius Sulpicius the lieutenant-general, making use of a
favourable opportunity. On the Hernicians, who after the death of the
consul came up contemptuously to the Roman camp with the certainty of
taking it, a sally was made by the exhortations of the consul, the minds
of the soldiers also being full of rage and indignation. The Hernicians
were much disappointed in their hopes of approaching the rampart; in
such complete confusion did they retire from thence. Then on the arrival
of the dictator the new army is joined to the old, the forces are
doubled; and the dictator in a public assembly, by bestowing praises on
the lieutenant-general and the soldiers by whose valour the camp had
been defended, at the same time raises the spirits of those who heard
their own deserved praises, and at the same time stimulates the others
to rival such valour. With no less vigour are the military preparations
made on the part of the enemy, who, mindful of the honour previously
acquired, and not ignorant that the enemy had increased their strength,
augment their forces also. The entire Hernician race, all of military
age, are called out. Eight cohorts, each consisting of four hundred men,
the chosen strength of their people, are levied. This, the select flower
of their youth, they filled with hope and courage by their having
decreed that they should receive double pay. They were exempt also from
military work, that, being reserved for the single labour of fighting,
they might feel that they should make exertions more than are made by
ordinary men. They are placed in an extraordinary position in the field,
that their valour might be the more conspicuous. A plain two miles in
breadth separated the Roman camp from the Hernicians; in the middle of
this, the spaces being about equal on both sides, they came to an
engagement. At first the fight was kept up with doubtful hope; the Roman
cavalry having repeatedly essayed to no purpose to break the enemy's
line by their charge. When their fighting as cavalry was less marked by
success than by great efforts, the cavalry, having first consulted the
dictator, and then obtained his permission, leaving their horses behind,
rush forward in front of the line, with a loud shout, and recommence the
battle after a new style; nor could they be resisted, had not the
extraordinary cohorts, possessing equal vigour both of body and spirit,
thrown themselves in their way.
8. Then the contest is carried on between the leading men of the two
states. Whatever the common fortune of war carried off from either side,
the loss was many times greater than can be estimated by the numbers:
the rest, an armed populace, as if they had delegated the fight to the
leading men, rest the issue of their own success on the bravery of
others. Many fall on both sides; more are wounded. At length the
horsemen, chiding each other, asking, "what now remained," if neither
when mounted they had made an impression on the enemy, nor as infantry
did they achieve any thing of moment; what third mode of fighting did
they wait for? Why had they so fiercely rushed forward before the line,
and fought in a post not belonging to them? Aroused by these mutual
chidings, they raise the shout anew, and press forward; and first they
made the enemy shrink, then made them give way, and at length fairly
made them turn their backs. Nor is it easy to say what circumstance
obtained the advantage against strength so well matched; except that the
constant fortune of both people might have raised or depressed their
spirits. The Romans pursued the Hernicians in their flight to their
camp; they refrained from attacking the camp, because it was late. The
fact of not having finished the sacrifices with success detained the
dictator, so that he could not give the signal before noon, and hence
the contest was protracted till night. Next day the camp of the
Hernicians was deserted, and some wounded men were found left behind,
and the main body of the fugitives was routed by the Signians, as their
standards were seen passing by their walls but thinly attended, and
dispersed over the country in precipitate flight. Nor was the victory an
unbloody one to the Romans; a fourth part of the soldiers perished; and,
where there was no less of loss, several Roman horsemen fell.
9. On the following year, when the consuls Caius Sulpicius and Caius
Licinius Calvus led an army against the Hernicians, and finding no enemy
in the country took their city Ferentinum by storm, as they were
returning thence, the Tiburtians shut their gates against them. Though
many complaints had been made on both sides before this, this was the
determining cause why war was declared against the Tiburtian people,
restitution having been demanded through heralds. It is sufficiently
ascertained that Titus Quinctius Pennus was dictator that year, and that
Servius Cornelius Maluginensis was his master of the horse. Macer
Licinius writes, that he was named by the consul for the purpose of
holding the elections, because his colleague hastening to have the
elections over before undertaking the war, that he might continue the
consulship, he thought it right to thwart his ambitious designs. This
being designed as a compliment to his own family, renders the authority
of Licinius of the less weight. As I find no mention of that
circumstance in the more ancient annals, my mind inclines me to consider
that the dictator was appointed on account of the Gallic war. On that
year, certainly, the Gauls pitched their camp at the third stone on the
Salarian road, at the further side of the bridge of the Anio. The
dictator, after he had proclaimed a cessation of civil business on
account of the Gallic tumult, bound all the younger citizens by the
military oath; and having set forth from the city with a great army,
pitched his camp on the hither bank of the Anio. The bridge lay between
both armies, neither side attempting to break it down, lest it should be
an indication of fear. There were frequent skirmishes for the possession
of the bridge; nor could it be clearly determined who were masters of
it, the superiority being so indecisive. A Gaul of very large stature
advanced on the bridge, then unoccupied, and says with as loud a voice
as he could exert, "Let the bravest man that Rome now possesses come
forward here to battle, that the event of an engagement between us both
may show which nation is superior in war."
10. There was for a long time silence among the young Roman nobility, as
they were both ashamed to decline the contest, and unwilling to claim
the principal post of danger. Then Titus Manlius, son of Lucius, the
same who had freed his father from the vexatious persecution of the
tribune, proceeds from his station to the dictator: "Without your
commands, general, I would never fight out of the ordinary course, not
though I should see certain victory before me. If you permit me, I wish
to show that brute, who insolently makes such a parade before the
enemy's line, that I am sprung from that family which dislodged a body
of Gauls from the Tarpeian rock." Then the dictator says, "Titus
Manlius, may you prosper for your valour and dutiful affection to your
father and your country. Go on, and make good the invincibility of the
Roman name with the aid of the gods." His companions then arm the youth;
he takes a footman's shield, girds himself with a Spanish sword, fit for
a close fight. When armed and equipped, they lead him out against the
Gaul, who exhibited stolid exultation, and (for the ancients thought
that also worthy of mention) thrust out his tongue in derision. They
then retire to their station; and the two being armed, are left in the
middle space, more after the manner of a spectacle, than according to
the law of combat, by no means well matched, according to those who
judged by sight and appearance. The one had a body enormous in size,
glittering in a vest of various colours, and in armour painted and
inlaid with gold; the other had a middle stature, as is seen among
soldiers, and a mien unostentatious, in arms fit for ready use rather
than adapted for show. He had no song, no capering, nor idle flourishing
of arms, but his breast, teeming with courage and silent rage, had
reserved all its ferocity for the decision of the contest. When they
took their stand between the two armies, the minds of so many
individuals around them suspended between hope and fear, the Gaul, like
a huge mass threatening to fall on that which was beneath it, stretching
forward his shield with his left hand, discharged an ineffectual cut of
his sword with a great noise on the armour of his foe as he advanced
towards him. The Roman, raising the point of his sword, after he had
pushed aside the lower part of the enemy's shield with his own, and
closing on him so as to be exempt from the danger of a wound, insinuated
himself with his entire body between the body and arms of the foe, with
one and immediately with another thrust pierced his belly and groin, and
stretched his enemy now prostrate over a vast extent of ground. Without
offering the body of the prostrate foe any other indignity, he despoiled
it of one chain; which, though smeared with blood, he threw around his
neck. Dismay with astonishment now held the Gauls motionless. The
Romans, elated with joy, advancing from their post to meet their
champion, with congratulations and praises conduct him to the dictator.
Among them uttering some uncouth jests in military fashion somewhat
resembling verses, the name of Torquatus was heard: this name, being
kept up, became afterwards an honour to the descendants even of the
family. The dictator added a present of a golden crown, and before a
public assembly extolled that action with the highest praises.
11. And, indeed, of so great moment was the contest with respect to the
issue of the war in general, that on the night following the army of the
Gauls, having abandoned their camp in confusion, passed over into the
territory of Tibur, and from thence soon after into Campania, having
concluded an alliance for the purpose of war, and being abundantly
supplied with provision by the Tiburtians. That was the reason why, on
the next year, Caius Pætelius Balbus, consul, though the province of the
Hernicians had fallen to the lot of his colleague, Marcus Fabius
Ambustus, led an army, by order of the people, against the Tiburtians.
To whose assistance when the Gauls came back from Campania, dreadful
devastations were committed in the Lavican, Tusculan, and Alban
territories. And though the state was satisfied with a consul as leader
against the Tiburtian enemy, the alarm created by the Gauls rendered it
necessary that a dictator should be appointed. Quintus Servilius Ahala
having been appointed, named Titus Quinctius master of the horse; and
with the sanction of the senate, vowed the great games, should that war
turn out successfully. The dictator then, having ordered the consular
army to remain to confine the Tiburtians to their own war, bound all the
younger citizens by the military oath, none declining the service. A
battle was fought not far from the Colline gate with the strength of the
entire city, in the sight of their parents, wives, and children: which
being great incitements to courage, even when these relatives are
absent, being now placed before their eyes, fired the soldiers at once
with feelings of shame and compassion. Great havoc being made on both
sides, the Gallic army is at length worsted. In their flight they make
for Tibur, as being the main stay of the war; and being intercepted
whilst straggling by the consul Pætelius not far from Tibur, and the
Tiburtians having come out to bring them aid, they are with the latter
driven within the gates. Matters were managed with distinguished success
both by the dictator and the consul. And the other consul, Fabius, at
first in slight skirmishes, and at length in one single battle, defeated
the Hernicians, when they attacked him with all their forces. The
dictator, after passing the highest encomiums on the consuls in the
senate and before the people, and yielding up the honour of his own
exploits to them, resigned his dictatorship. Pætelius enjoyed a double
triumph, over the Gauls and the Tiburtians. Fabius was satisfied with
entering the city in ovation. The Tiburtians derided the triumph of
Pætelius; "for where," they said, "had he encountered them in the field?
that a few of their people having gone outside the gates to witness the
flight and confusion of the Gauls, on seeing an attack made on
themselves, and that those who came in the way were slaughtered without
distinction, had retired within the city. Did that seem to the Romans
worthy of a triumph? They should not consider it an extraordinary and
wondrous feat to raise a tumult at the enemy's gates, as they should
soon see greater confusion before their own walls."
12. Accordingly in the year following, Marcus Popilius Lænas and Cneius
Manlius being consuls, during the first silence of the night having set
out from Tibur with an army prepared for action, they came to the city
of Rome. The suddenness of the thing, and the panic occurring at night,
occasioned some terror among them on being suddenly aroused from sleep;
further, the ignorance of many as to who the enemy were or whence they
had come. However they quickly ran to arms, and guards were posted at
the gates, and the walls were secured with troops; and when daylight
showed but an inconsiderable force before the walls, and that the enemy
were none other than the Tiburtines, the consuls, having gone forth from
the two gates, attack on either side the army of these now advancing up
to the walls; and it became obvious that they had come relying rather on
the opportunity than on their valour, for they hardly sustained the
first charge of the Romans. Nay more, it was evident that their coming
proved an advantage to the Romans, and that a disturbance just arising
between the patricians and commons was checked by the dread of a war so
near them. In the next war there was another irruption of the enemy,
more terrible to the country than to the city. The Tarquinians overran
the Roman frontiers, committing depredations on that side more
especially where they are contiguous to Etruria; and restitution being
demanded in vain, the new consuls, Cneius Fabius and Caius Plautius,
proclaimed war on them by order of the people; and that province fell to
the lot of Fabius, the Hernicians to Plautius. A rumour of a Gallic war
also was gaining ground. But amid their many terrors, they had some
consolation from a peace granted to the Latins at their own request, as
also from a considerable reinforcement of soldiers received from them in
conformity with an old treaty, which, they had for several years ceased
to observe. When the Roman cause was supported by this aid, the tidings
that the Gauls had come to Præneste and were encamped near to Pedum,
were less heeded. It was determined that Caius Sulpicius should be
appointed dictator. Caius Plautius the consul, being sent for for the
purpose, nominated him; Marcus Valerius was assigned as master of the
horse to the dictator. These having selected the best of the soldiers
out of the two consular armies, led them against the Gauls. This war was
more tedious than was satisfactory to either party. When at first the
Gauls only were desirous of fighting, afterwards the Roman soldiers
considerably surpassed the ferocity of the Gauls in their ardour for
arms and battle; it by no means met the approbation of the dictator when
no urgent necessity existed to run any hazard against an enemy, whose
strength time and inconvenient situation would daily impair, in total
inactivity, without provisions previously laid up or any fortified
situation; besides, being persons of such minds and bodies, that all
their force lay in brisk exertion, whilst the same flagged by short
delay. On these considerations the dictator protracted the war, and
denounced a severe penalty against any one who should fight against the
enemy without orders. The soldiers, being much dissatisfied with this,
first censured the dictator, in their conversation, when on guard and on
the watches; sometimes they found fault with the patricians in general,
for not having commanded the war to be conducted by the consuls. "That
an excellent general, an extraordinary commander, had been selected, who
thinks that whilst he does nothing victory will fly down from heaven
into his lap." Afterwards they gave expression to these same sentiments
openly during the day, and to others still more outrageous; that "they
would either fight without the general's orders, or would proceed in a
body to Rome." The centurions, too, began to mix with the soldiers; and
they murmured not only in their own quarters, but now their observations
began to be confounded together at head-quarters and at the general's
tent, and the crowd increased to the magnitude of an assembly, and they
now shouted from all quarters that "they should go forthwith to the
dictator; that Sextus Tullius should speak in behalf of the army, so as
became his courage."
13. Tullius was now for the seventh time first centurion of a legion,
nor was there in the army, at least among those who served in the
infantry, a man more distinguished by his conduct. He, at the head of a
body of the soldiers, proceeds to the tribunal, and to Sulpicius, not
more surprised at the crowd than at Tullius, the leader of the crowd, a
soldier most obedient to command, he says: "Dictator, the whole army,
conceiving that they have been condemned by you of cowardice, and kept
without their arms by way of disgrace, has entreated me to plead their
cause before you. In truth, if having deserted our post any where, if
turning our backs to the enemy, if the disgraceful loss of our
standards could be laid to our charge, I would still think it but just
that we should obtain this from you, that you would suffer us to redeem
our fault by our bravery, and to blot out the memory of our disgrace by
newly acquired glory. Even the legions defeated at the Allia, when they
afterwards set out from Veii, recovered by their valour the same country
which they had lost through a panic. We, by the bounty of the gods, your
good fortune, and that of the Roman people, have both our cause and our
glory uninjured. Though of glory I would scarcely venture to say any
thing; since both the enemy scoff at us with every kind of insult, as
women hiding ourselves behind a rampart; and you, our general, what we
grieve at still more, judge your army to be without spirit, without
arms, without hands; and before you had made trial of us, you have so
despaired of us, as to consider yourself to be the leader of a set of
maimed and disabled men. For what else shall we believe to be the reason
why you, a veteran general, most valiant in war, sit down with hands
folded, as they say. But however it may be, it is fitter that you should
seem to doubt of our courage than we of yours. If however this plan of
proceeding be not your own, but a public one, if some concerted scheme
of the patricians, and not the Gallic war, keeps us exiled from the
city, from our homes, I beg that you consider what I may say here, as
addressed not by soldiers to their general, but to the patricians by the
commons, who tell you that as ye have your separate plans, so will they
have theirs. Who in the name of goodness can be angry that we (consider
ourselves) your soldiers, not your slaves? as men who have been sent to
war, not into exile? as men who, if any one give the signal, and lead
them out into the field, will fight as becomes men and Romans? as men
who, if there be no need of arms, would spend their idle time in Rome
rather than in a camp? Consider these observations as addressed to the
patricians. As your soldiers, we entreat you, general, to afford us an
opportunity of fighting. We both desire to conquer, and also to conquer
with you for our leader; to confer on you the distinguished laurel, with
you to enter the city in triumph; following your car with
congratulations and rejoicings, to approach the temple of Jupiter
supremely great and good." The entreaties of the multitude followed the
speech of Tullius; and from every side they cried out, that he would
give the signal, that he would order them to take arms.
14. The dictator, though he saw that a good result was brought about by
a precedent not to be approved of, yet took on himself to do what the
soldiers wished, and inquires of Tullius privately, what the nature of
this transaction was, or on what precedent it was done? Tullius
earnestly entreated the dictator "not to believe him forgetful of
military discipline, of himself, nor of the respect due to his general;
that he had not declined to put himself at the head of the excited
multitude, who generally were like to their instigators, lest any other
person might step forward, such an excited multitude were wont to elect.
That for his own part he would do nothing without the orders of his
general; that he also however must carefully see, that he keep the army
in obedience. That minds so excited could not be put off: that they
would choose for themselves time and place, if they were not granted by
the general." While they are conversing in this way, it so happened,
that as a Gaul was driving away some cattle feeding on the outside of
the rampart two Roman soldiers took them from him. Stones were thrown at
them by the Gauls, then a shout was raised at the next Roman post, and
several ran forward on both sides. And now matters were not far from a
regular engagement, had not the contest been quickly stopped by the
centurions. By this event the testimony of Tullius was certainly
confirmed with the dictator; and the matter not admitting of further
delay, a proclamation is issued that they were to fight on the day
following. The dictator however, as one who went into the field relying
more on the courage of his men than on their numerical strength, began
to look about and consider how he might by some artifice strike terror
into the enemy. With a sagacious mind he devises a new project, which
many generals both of our own and of foreign countries have since
adopted, some indeed in our own times. He orders the panniers to be
taken from the mules, and two side-cloths only being left, he mounts the
muleteers on them, equipped with arms partly belonging to the prisoners,
and some to the sick. About a thousand of these being equipped, he mixes
with them one hundred horsemen, and orders them to go up during the
night into the mountains over the camp and to conceal themselves in the
woods, and not to stir from thence, till they should receive a signal
from him. As soon as day dawned, he himself began to extend his line
along the bottom of the mountain, for the express purpose that the enemy
should face the mountains. The measures for infusing groundless terror
being now completed, which terror indeed proved almost more serviceable
than real strength, the leaders of the Gauls first believed that the
Romans would not come down to the plain: then when they saw them begin
on a sudden to descend, they also, on their part eager for the fight,
rush forward to the encounter; and the battle commenced before the
signal could be given by the leaders.
15. The Gauls attacked the right wing with greater fierceness, nor could
they have been withstood, had not the dictator happened to be on the
spot, rebuking Sextus Tullius by name, and asking him, "Was it in this
way he had engaged that the soldiers would fight? Where now were the
shouts of those demanding their arms? where the threats that they would
commence the fight without the orders of their general? Behold the
general himself calling them with a loud voice to battle, and advancing
in arms before the front of the line. Would any of those now follow him,
who were just now to have led the way; fierce in the camp, but cowards
in the field?" What they heard was all true; wherefore shame applied
such strong incentives, that they rushed upon the weapons of the enemy,
their attention being turned away from the thought of danger. This
onset, which was almost frantic at first, threw the enemy into disorder;
then the cavalry charging them whilst thus disordered, made them turn
their backs. The dictator himself, when he saw their line wavering in
one direction, carries round some troops to the left wing, where he saw
a crowd of the enemy collected, and gave to those who were on the
mountain the signal which had been agreed on. When a new shout arose
from that quarter also, and they seemed to make their way in an oblique
direction, down the mountain to the camp of the Gauls; then through fear
lest they should be cut off from it, the fight was given up, and they
were carried towards the camp with precipitate speed. Where when Marcus
Valerius, master of the horse, who, after having routed their left wing,
was riding towards the enemies' entrenchment, met them, they turn their
flight to the mountains and woods: and the greater part of them were
there intercepted by the fallacious show of horsemen, and the muleteers,
and of those whom panic had carried into the woods, a dreadful slaughter
took place after the battle was ended. Nor did any one since Camillus
obtain a more complete triumph over the Gauls than Caius Sulpicius. A
considerable weight of gold taken from the Gallic spoils, which he
enclosed in hewn stone, he consecrated in the Capitol. The same year the
consuls also were engaged in fighting with various success. For the
Hernicians were vanquished and subdued by Cneius Plautius. His colleague
Fabius fought against the Tarquinians without caution or prudence; nor
was the loss sustained in the field so much [a subject of regret] as
that the Tarquinians put to death three hundred and seven Roman
soldiers, their prisoners, by which barbarous mode of punishment the
disgrace of the Roman people was rendered considerably more remarkable.
To this disaster moreover was added, the laying waste of the Roman
territory, which the Privernatians, and afterwards the people of
Velitræ, committed by a sudden incursion. The same year two tribes, the
Pomptine and Publilian, were added. The votive games, which Marcus
Furius in his dictatorship had vowed, were performed; and a proposition
was then for the first time made to the people regarding bribery at
elections by Caius Pætilius, tribune of the commons, with the
approbation of the senate; and by that bill they thought that the
ambition of new men in particular, who had been accustomed to go around
the markets and places of meeting, was checked.
16. Not equally pleasing to the patricians on the following year was a
law passed in the consulship of Caius Marcius and Cneius Manlius, by
Marcus Duilius and Lucius Mænius, tribunes of the commons, regarding the
interest of money at twelve per cent., and the people received and
passed it with much more eagerness. In addition to the new wars
determined on the preceding year, a new enemy arose in the Faliscians,
in consequence of a double charge; both that their youth had taken up
arms in conjunction with the Tarquinians, and because they had refused
to restore to the demand of the Roman heralds those who had fled to
Falerii, after the unsuccessful battle. That province fell to the lot of
Cneius Manlius, Marcius led the army into the Privernatian territory,
which, from the long continuance of peace, was in a flourishing
condition; and he enriched the soldiers with abundance of spoil. To the
great quantity of effects he added an act of munificence; for, by
setting aside nothing for public use, he favoured the soldier in his
endeavours to accumulate private property. When the Privernatians had
taken their post in a well-fortified camp under their own walls, having
summoned the soldiers to an assembly, he says to them, "I now give to
you the camp and city of the enemy for plunder, if you promise me that
you will exert yourselves bravely in the field, and that you are not
better prepared for plunder than for fighting." With loud shouts they
call for the signal, and elated and buoyed up with certain confidence,
they proceed to the battle. Then, in front of the line, Sextus Tullius,
whom we have already mentioned, exclaims, "Behold, general," says he,
"how your army are performing their promises to you;" and laying aside
his javelin, he attacks the enemy sword in hand. The whole van follow
Tullius, and at the first onset put the enemy to flight; then pursuing
them, when routed, to the town, when they were just applying the scaling
ladders to the walls, they received the city on a surrender. A triumph
was had over the Privernatians. Nothing worth mentioning was achieved by
the other consul, except that he, by an unusual precedent, holding an
assembly of the tribes in the camp at Sutrium, he passed a law regarding
the twentieth part of the value of those set free by manumission. As by
this law no small revenue was added to the treasury, now low, the senate
gave it their sanction. But the tribunes of the commons, influenced not
so much by the law as by the precedent, passed a law, making it a
capital offence for any one in future to summon an assembly of the
people at a distance from the city; for if that were allowed, there was
nothing, no matter how destructive to the people, that might not he done
by soldiers, who had sworn allegiance to their consul. The same year
Caius Licinius Stolo was condemned in a fine of ten thousand _asses_, on
his own law, by Marcus Popillius Lænas, because he possessed in
conjunction with his son a thousand acres of land, and because he had
attempted to evade the law by emancipating his son.
17. The next two consuls, Marcus Fabius Ambustus a second time, and
Marcus Popillius Lænas a second time, had two wars on their hands. The
one with the Tiburtians was easy, which Licinius managed, who drove the
enemy into their city, and laid waste their lands. The Faliscians and
Tarquinians routed the other consul in the commencement of the fight.
From these parties the utmost terror was raised, in consequence of their
priests, who, by carrying before them lighted torches and the figures of
serpents, and advancing with the gait of furies, disconcerted the Roman
soldiers by their extraordinary appearance; and then indeed they ran
back to their entrenchments, in all the hurry of trepidation, as if
frenzied or thunderstruck; and then when the consul, and
lieutenant-generals, and tribunes began to ridicule and chide them for
being frightened like children at mere sights, shame suddenly changed
their minds; and they rushed, as if blindfold, on those very objects
from which they had fled. Having, therefore, dissipated the idle
contrivance of the enemy, having attacked those who were in arms, they
drove their whole line before them, and having got possession of the
camp also on that day, and obtained great booty, they returned
victorious, uttering military jests, both on the stratagem of the enemy
as also on their own panic. Then the whole Etruscan nation is aroused,
and under the conduct of the Tarquinians and Faliscians, they come to
Salinæ. To meet this alarm, Caius Marcius Rutilus, being appointed
dictator, the first plebeian who was so, named Caius Plautius, also a
plebeian, master of the horse. This was deemed an indignity by the
patricians, that the dictatorship also was now become common, and with
all their exertions they prevented any thing from either being decreed
or prepared for the dictator, for the prosecution of that war. With the
more promptitude, on that account, did the people order things, as
proposed by the dictator. Having set out from the city, along both sides
of the Tiber, and transporting his army on rafts whithersoever his
intelligence of the enemy led him, he surprised many of them straggling
about in scattered parties, laying waste the lands. Moreover, he
suddenly attacked their camp and took it; and eight thousand of the
enemy being made prisoners, all the rest being either slain or driven
out of the Roman territory, he triumphed by order of the people, without
the sanction of the senate. Because they neither wished that the
consular elections should be held by a plebeian dictator or consul, and
the other consul, Fabius, was detained by the war, matters came to an
interregnum. There were then interreges in succession, Quintus
Servilius Ahala, Marcus Fabius, Cneius Manlius, Caius Fabius, Caius
Sulpicius, Lucius Æmilius, Quintus Servilius, Marcus Fabius Ambustas. In
the second interregnum a dispute arose, because two patrician consuls
were elected: and the tribunes protesting, Fabius the interrex said,
that "it was a law in the twelve tables, that whatever the people
ordered last should be law and in force; that the suffrages of the
people were their orders." When the tribunes by their protest had been
able to effect nothing else than to put off the elections, two
patricians were chosen consuls, Caius Sulpicius Peticus a third time,
Marcus Valerius Publicola; and on the same day they entered into office.
18. On the four hundredth year after the building of the city of Rome,
and the thirty-fifth after its recovery from the Gauls, the consulship
being taken away from the commons after eleven years, consuls, both
patricians, entered into office after the interregnum, Caius Sulpicius
Peticus a third time, and Marcus Valerius Publicola. During this year
Empulum was taken from the Tiburtians with a struggle not worth
mentioning; whether the war was waged there under the auspices of the
two consuls, as some have stated; or whether the lands of the
Tarquinians were laid waste by the consul Sulpicius about the same time
that Valerius led the troops against the Tiburtians. The consuls had a
more arduous contest at home with the commons and tribunes. As two
patricians had received the consulship, they considered that not only
their resolution, but their honour also, was involved in their
consigning it to two patricians. For if the consulship were made a
plebeian magistracy, they must either yield it up entirely, or possess
it entire, which possession they had received from their fathers
unimpaired. The commons on the other hand loudly remonstrate; "Why did
they live; why were they reckoned in the number of citizens; if they
collectively cannot maintain that which was acquired by the firmness of
two men, Lucius Sextius and Caius Licinius? That either kings, or
decemvirs, or, if there be any denomination of power more offensive,
would be submitted to rather than see both the consuls patricians, or
rather than not obey and rule in turn; but the one half, located in
perpetual power, thinks the commons born for no other purpose than to be
subservient." The tribunes are not remiss in encouraging the
disturbances; but amid the excited state of all scarcely any are
distinguished as leaders. When they had several times gone down to the
Campus Martius to no purpose, and when many days of meeting had been
spent in seditious movements; at length the resentment of the commons,
overcome by the perseverance of the consuls, broke out to such a degree,
that the commons followed in sorrow the tribunes, exclaiming, that there
was an end of liberty; that not only the Campus should be relinquished,
but the city also as being held captive and oppressed by the tyranny of
the patricians. The consuls, deserted by a part of the people, finish
the election nevertheless with the small number [who attended]. Both the
consuls elected were patricians, Marcus Fabius Ambustus a third time,
Titus Quinctius. In some annals I find Marcus Popilius mentioned as
consul instead of Titus Quinctius.
19. Two wars were conducted with success on that year: and they forced
the Tiburtians by force of arms to a surrender. The city of Sassula was
taken from them; and the other towns would have shared the same fate,
had not the entire nation laid down their arms, and put themselves under
the protection of the consul. A triumph was obtained by him over the
Tiburtians: in other respects the victory was a mild one. Rigorous
severity was practised against the Tarquinians. A great many being
slaughtered in the field, out of a great number of prisoners three
hundred and fifty-eight were selected, all of the highest rank, to be
sent to Rome; the rest of the multitude were put to the sword. Nor were
the people more merciful towards those who had been sent to Rome. They
were all beaten with rods and beheaded in the middle of the forum. That
was the punishment retaliated on the enemy for their butchering the
Romans in the forum of Tarquinii. The successes in war induced the
Samnites to seek their friendship. A courteous answer was returned to
their ambassadors by the senate: they were received into an alliance by
a treaty. The Roman commons had not the same success at home as in war.
For though the burden of interest money had been relieved by fixing the
rate at one to the hundred, the poor were overwhelmed by the principal
alone, and submitted to confinement. On this account, the commons took
little heed either of the two consuls being patricians, or the
management of the elections, by reason of their private distresses.
Both consulships therefore remained with the patricians. The consuls
appointed were Caius Sulpicius Pæticus a fourth time, Marcus Valerius
Publicola a second time. Whilst the state was occupied with the Etrurian
war, [entered into] because a report prevailed that the people of Cære
had joined the Tarquinians through compassion for them from their
relationship, ambassadors from the Latins drew their attention to the
Volscians, bringing tidings that an army enlisted and fully armed was
now on the point of attacking their frontiers; from thence that they
were to enter the Roman territory in order to commit depredations. The
senate therefore determined that neither affair should be neglected;
they ordered that troops should be raised for both purposes, and that
the consuls should cast lots for the provinces. The greater share of
their anxiety afterwards inclined to the Etrurian war; after it was
ascertained, from a letter of the consul Sulpicius, to whom the province
of Tarquinii had fallen, that the land around the Roman Salinæ had been
depopulated, and that part of the plunder had been carried away into the
country of the people of Cære, and that the young men of that people
were certainly among the depredators. The senate therefore, having
recalled the consul Valerius, who was opposed to the Volscians, and who
had his camp on the frontiers of Tusculum, ordered him to nominate a
dictator. He nominated Titus Manlius, son of Lucius. He, after he had
appointed Aulus Cornelius Cossus his master of the horse, content with
the consular army, declared war against the Cæritians by order of the
people, with the sanction of the senate.
20. Then for the first time were the Cæritians seized with a real dread
of war, as if there was greater power in the words of the enemy to
indicate war than in their own acts, who had provoked the Romans by
devastation; and they perceived how ill suited the contest was to their
strength. They repented of their depredations, and cursed the
Tarquinians as the instigators of the revolt. Nor did any one think of
preparing arms and hostilities; but each strenuously urged the necessity
of sending ambassadors to sue for pardon for their error. When their
ambassadors applied to the senate, being referred by the senate to the
people, they implored the gods, whose sacred utensils they had received
in the Gallic war and treated with all due ceremony, that the same
compassion for them might influence the Romans now in a flourishing
condition, which had formerly influenced themselves when the state of
the Roman people was distressed; and turning to the temple of Vesta,
they invoked the bonds of hospitality subsisting [between themselves]
and the flamens and vestals entered into by them with holy and religious
zeal: "Would any one believe that persons, who possessed such merits,
had suddenly become enemies without cause? or if they had committed any
act in a hostile manner, that they had, through design rather than under
the influence of error from frenzy, so acted, as to cancel their former
acts of kindness by recent injuries, more especially when conferred on
persons so grateful, and that they would choose to themselves as enemies
the Roman people, now in the most flourishing state and most successful
in war, whose friendship they had cultivated when they were distressed?
That they should not call it design, which should rather be called force
and necessity. That the Tarquinians, passing through their territory
with a hostile army, after they had asked for nothing but a passage,
forced with them some of their peasants, to accompany them in that
depredation, which was charged on them as a crime. That they were
prepared to deliver them up, if it pleased them that they should be
delivered up; or that they should be subjected to punishment, if [they
desired] that they should be punished. That Cære, the sanctuary of the
Roman people, the harbourer of its priests, the receptacle of the sacred
utensils of Rome, they should suffer to escape, in regard to the ties of
hospitality contracted with the vestals, and in regard to the religious
devotion paid to their gods, intact and unstained with the charge of
hostilities committed." The people were influenced not so much by [the
merits of] the present case, as by their former deserts, so as to be
unmindful rather of the injury than of the kindness. Peace was therefore
granted to the people of Cære, and it was resolved that the making of a
truce for one hundred years should be referred to a decree of the
senate. Against the Faliscians, implicated in the same charge, the force
of the war was turned; but the enemy was no where found. Though their
territories were visited in all directions with devastation, they
refrained from besieging the towns; and the legions being brought back
to Rome, the remainder of the year was spent in repairing the walls and
the towers, and the temple of Apollo was dedicated.
21. At the close of the year a dispute between the patricians and
commons suspended the consular elections, the tribunes refusing to allow
the elections to be held, unless they were held conformably to the
Licinian law; the dictator being determined to do away with the
consulate altogether from the state, rather than to make it common to
the patricians and the commons. Accordingly when, the elections being
repeatedly adjourned, the dictator resigned his office, matters came to
an interregnum. Upon this, when the interreges found the commons
incensed against the fathers, the contest was carried on by various
disturbances to the eleventh interrex. The tribunes held out as their
plea, the protection of the Licinian law. The people had the painful
sense of the increasing weight of interest nearer to their hearts; and
their private troubles became predominant amid the public contests.
Through the wearisome effects of which the patricians ordered Lucius
Cornelius Scipio, the interrex, for peace' sake to observe the Licinian
law in the election of consuls. To Publius Valerius Publicola, Caius
Marcius Rutilus, a plebeian, was assigned as a colleague. Once their
minds were disposed to concord, the new consuls, setting about to
relieve the affair of the interest money also, which seemed to prevent
perfect unanimity, made the payment of the debts a matter of public
concern, five commissioners having been appointed, whom from their
management of the money they called bankers. By their justice and
diligence they deserved to have their names signalized by the records of
every history. They were Caius Duilius, Publius Decius Mus, Marcus
Papirius, Quintus Publilius, and Titus Æmilius; who underwent a task
most difficult to be managed, and dissatisfactory in general to both
parties, certainly always so to one, both with moderation in other
respects, as well as at the public expense, rather than with any loss
[to the creditors]. For the tardy debts and those which were more
troublesome, rather by the inertness of the debtors than by want of
means, either the treasury paid off, tables with money being placed in
the forum, in such a manner that the public was first secured; or a
valuation, at equitable prices, of their property freed them; so that
not only without injury, but even without complaints on either side, an
immense amount of debt was cleared off. After this a groundless alarm of
an Etrurian war, as there was a report that the twelve states had
conspired, rendered it necessary that a dictator should be appointed.
Caius Julius was nominated in the camp, (for the decree of the senate
was sent thither to the consuls,) to whom Lucius Æmilius was attached as
master of the horse. But all things were quiet abroad.
22. An attempt made at home by the dictator, to have the election of two
patrician consuls, brought the government to an interregnum. The two
interreges, Caius Sulpicius and Marcus Fabius, succeeded in that which
the dictator had in vain attempted, scil. in having both the consuls
elected from the patricians, the people being rather more appeased in
consequence of the service done them in lightening their debts. The
persons elected were, Caius Sulpicius Peticus himself, who first
resigned the office of interrex, and Titus Quinctius Pennus. Some attach
the name of Kæso, others that of Caius to Quinctius. They both set out
to the war, Quinctius to the Faliscian, Sulpicius to the Tarquinian; and
the enemy no where meeting them in the field, they waged war more
against the lands than the men, by burning and laying waste every thing,
by the debilitating effects of which, as of a slow consumption, the
pertinacity of both states was so broken, that they solicited a truce,
first from the consuls, then through their permission from the senate.
They obtained a truce for forty years. Thus the concern regarding the
two wars which were hanging over them being laid aside, whilst there was
some repose from arms, it was determined that a census should be
instituted, because the payment of the debt had changed the owners of
much property. But when the assembly was proclaimed for the appointment
of censors, Caius Marcius Rutilus, who had been the first plebeian
dictator, having declared himself a candidate for the censorship,
disturbed the harmony of the different orders. This step he seemed to
have taken at an unseasonable time; because both the consuls then
happened to be patricians, who declared that they would take no account
of him. But he both succeeded in his undertaking by his own
perseverance, and the tribunes aided him by recovering a right lost in
the election of the consuls; and both the worth of the man brought him
to the level of the highest honour, and also the commons were anxious
that the censorship also should be brought within their participation
through the medium of the same person who had opened a way to the
dictatorship. Nor was any dissent [from this feeling] evinced at the
election, so that Marcius was elected censor along with Cneius Manlius.
This year also had Marcus Fabius as dictator, not by reason of any
terror of war, but in order that the Licinian law should not be observed
at the consular elections. Quintus Servilius was attached to the
dictator as master of the horse. Nor yet did the dictatorship render
that combination of the senators more effectual at the consular
elections, than it had proved at that of the censors.