(69 A.D.)
Martialis had scarcely reentered the Capitol when the furious soldiers
appeared before it, without a general, and each man acting on his own
suggestions. Having rapidly passed the forum, and the temples that
overlook it, they marched up the opposite hill, as far as the first
gates of the citadel. On the right side of the ascent, a range of
porticoes had been built in ancient times. Going out upon the roof of
those, the besieged threw a shower of stones and tiles. The assailants
had no weapons but their swords, and to fetch engines and missiles
seemed a tedious delay. They threw brands into the portico that jutted
near them. They followed up the fire, and would have forced their way
through the gate of the Capitol, which the fire had laid hold of, if
Sabinus had not placed as a barrier in the very approach, in lieu of a
wall, the statues, those honorable monuments of our ancestors, which
were pulled down wherever they could be found. They then assaulted the
Capitol in two different quarters near the grove of the asylum, and
where the Tarpeian rock is ascended by a hundred steps. Both attacks
were unforeseen.
That by the asylum was the nearer and most vigorous. Nor could they be
stopt from climbing up the contiguous buildings, which being raised
high under the idea of undisturbed peace, reach the basement of the
Capitol. Here a doubt exists whether the fire was thrown upon the
roofs by the storming party or the besieged, the latter being more
generally supposed to have done it, to repulse those who were climbing
up, and had advanced some way. The fire extended itself thence to the
porticoes adjoining the temples; soon the eagles that supported the
cupola caught fire, and as the timber was old they fed the flame. Thus
the Capitol, with its gates shut, neither stormed, nor defended, was
burned to the ground.
From the foundation of the city to that hour, the Roman republic had
felt no calamity so deplorable, so shocking, as that, unassailed by a
foreign enemy, and, were it not for the vices of the age, with the
deities propitious, the temple of Jupiter supremely good and great,
built by our ancestors with solemn auspices, the pledge of empire,
which neither Porsena,[126] when Rome surrendered to his arms, nor the
Gauls,[127] when they captured the city, were permitted to violate,
should be now demolished by the madness of the rulers of the state.
The Capitol was once before destroyed by fire during a civil war; but
it was from the guilty machinations of private individuals. Now it
was besieged publicly, publicly set fire to; and what were the motives
for the war? what was the object to be gained, that so severe a
calamity was incurred? Warred we in our country's cause?--Tarquinius
Priscus, during the war with the Sabines, built it in fulfillment of a
vow, and laid the foundations more in conformity with his
anticipations of the future grandeur of the empire, than the limited
extent of the Roman means at that time. Servius Tullius, assisted by
the zeal of the allies of Rome, and after him Tarquin the Proud, with
the spoils of Suessa Pometia, added to the building. But the glory of
completing the design was reserved for the era of liberty. When
tyrants were swept away, Horatius Pulvilus, in his second consulship,
dedicated the temple, finished with such magnificence that the wealth
of after ages graced it with new embellishments, but added nothing to
its dimensions. Four hundred and fifteen years afterward, in the
consulship of Lucius Scipio and Caius Norbanus, it was burned to the
ground, and again rebuilt on the old foundation. Sulla having now
triumphed over his opponents, undertook to build it, but nevertheless
did not dedicate it; the only thing wanting to crown his felicity.
That honor was reserved for Lutatius Catulus, whose name, amidst so
many works of the Caesars, remained legible till the days of Vitellius.
Such was the sacred building which was at this time reduced to ashes.