Dio's Rome Volume VI Part 9

3. --It is natural for the majority of the human race to quarrel with any opposing force even beyond what is to its own advantage and upon those who yield to bestow a benefit in turn even beyond its power.

(Mai, p.151.)

[Frag. XX]

[Sidenote: B.C. 477 (_a.u._ 277)] 1. --The Fabii, who on the basis of birth and wealth made pretensions equal with the n.o.blest, very quickly indeed saw that they were dejected. For when persons involve themselves in many undertakings that are at the same time hard to manage, they can discover no device for confronting the mult.i.tude and array of dangers, and give up as hopeless quite easy projects: after which their sober judgments and, contrary to what one would expect, their very opinions cause them to lose heart and they voluntarily abandon matters in hand with the idea that their labor will be but vain; finally they surrender themselves to unforseen dispensations of Heaven and await whatever Chance may bring. (Mai, p.151. Zonaras 7,17.)

2. --The Fabii, three hundred and six in number, were killed, by the Etruscans. Thus the arrogance which arises from confidence in valor is ofttimes ruined by its very boldness, and the boastfulness which comes from good fortune runs mad and suffers a complete reverse. (Mai, ib.

Zonaras 7, 17.)

3. For whom (plur.) the Romans grieved, both in private and with public demonstrations, to a greater degree than the number of the lost would seem to warrant. That number was not small, especially since it was composed entirely of patricians, but they further felt, when they stopped to consider the reputation and the resolute spirit of these men that all their strength had perished. For this reason they inscribed among the accursed days that one on which they had been destroyed and put under the ban the gates through which they had marched out, so that no magistrate might pa.s.s through them. And they condemned t.i.tus Menenius the praetor,--it was in his year that the disaster took place,--when he was later accused before the people of not having a.s.sisted the unfortunates and of having been subsequently defeated in battle. (Valesius, p.578.)

[Frag. XXI]

1. --The patricians openly took scarcely any retaliatory measures, except in a few cases, where they adjured some one of the G.o.ds, but secretly slaughtered a number of the boldest spirits. Nine tribunes on one occasion were delivered to the flames by the populace. This did not, however, restrain the rest: on the contrary, those who in turn held the tribuneship after that occurrence were rather filled with hope in the matter of their own quarrels than with fear as a result of the fate of their predecessors. Hence, so far from being calmed, they were even the more emboldened by those very proceedings. For they put forward the torture of the former tribunes as a justification of the vengeance they would take really in their own behalf; and they got great pleasure out of the idea that they might possibly, contrary to expectation, survive without harm. The consequence was that some of the patricians, being unable to accomplish anything in the other way, transferred themselves to the ranks of the populace: they thought its humble condition far preferable, considered in the light of their desire for the tribunician power, to the weakness of their own ornamental t.i.tles,--especially so because many held the office a second and third and even greater number of times in succession, although there was a prohibition against any one's taking the position twice. (Mai, p. 152. Zonaras 7, 17.)

2. -- The populace was incited to this course by the patricians themselves. For the policy which the latter pursued with an eye to their own advantage, that of always having some wars in readiness for them, so that the people might be compelled by the dangers from without to practice moderation,--this policy, I say, only rendered the people bolder. By refusing to go on a campaign unless they obtained in each instance the objects of their striving and by contending listlessly whenever they did take the field, they accomplished all that they desired. Meanwhile, as a matter of fact, not a few of the neighboring tribes, relying on the dissension of their foes more than on their own power, kept revolting. (Mai, ib. Zonaras 7, 17.)

[Frag. XXII]

1. --The aequi after capturing Tusculum and conquering Marcus [Footnote: Other accounts give his name as _Lucius_ or _Quintus_.] Minucius became so proud that, in the case of the Roman amba.s.sadors whom the latter people sent to chide them regarding the seizure of the place, they made no answer at all to the censure but after designating by the mouth of their general, Cloelius Gracchus, a certain oak, bade them speak to it, if they desired aught. (Ursinus, p.373. Zonaras 7, 17.)

2. That the Romans on learning that Minucius with some followers had been intercepted in a low-lying, bushy place elected as dictator against the enemy Lucius Quintius, in spite of the fact that he was a poor man and at the time was engaged in tilling with his own hands the little piece of ground which was his sole possession: for in general he was the peer in valor of the foremost and was distinguished by his wise moderation; though he did let his hair grow in curls, from which practice he received the nickname of Cincinnatus. (Valesius, p.578.

Zonaras 7, 17.)

[Sidenote: B.C. 449 (_a.u._ 305)] 2. --Affairs of state and camp alike were thrown into confusion. For the men under arms in their zealous eagerness that no success should attend those who held the power voluntarily surrendered both public and private interests. The other side, too, took no pleasure in the death of their own members at the hands of opponents, but themselves likewise destroyed in some convenient manner many of the most active persons who espoused the cause of the populace. As a result no small contention arose between them. (Mai, p.153. Zonaras, 7, 18.)

3. For they [Footnote: This must mean the "military tribunes with consular powers."]reached such a pitch of emulation and next of jealous rivalry of one another that they no longer, as the custom had been, all held office as one body, but each of them individually in turn; and the consequence was by no means beneficial. Since each one of them had in view his own profit and not the public weal and was more willing that the State should be injured, if it so happened, than that his colleagues should obtain credit, many unfortunate occurrences took place. (Mai, ib.)

4. --Democracy consists not in all winning absolutely the same prizes, but in every man's obtaining his deserts. [Footnote: Seemingly an excerpt from a speech of one of the optimates, though possibly a remark by Dio himself.] (Mai, p.154.)

[Frag. XXIII]

1[lacuna]. to have happened as the law of triumphs enjoins, about which Dio Cocceia.n.u.s writes. And if it seems to you an irksome thing to delve into books of ancient writers, at all events I will explain cursorily, as best I may, the entertainments pertaining to the triumph. They cause the celebrator of the triumph to ascend a car, smear his face with earth of Sinope or cinnabar (representing blood) to screen his blushes, fasten armlets on his arms, and put a laurel wreath and a branch of laurel in his right hand. Upon his head they also place a crown of some kind of wood having inscribed upon it his exploits or his experiences. A public slave, standing in the back part of the chariot holds up the crown, saying in his ear: "See also what comes after." Bells and a whip dangle from the pole of the chariot. Next he runs thrice about the place in a circle, mounts the stairs on his knees and there lays aside the garlands. After that he departs home, accompanied by musicians. (Tzetzes Epist. 107, p. 86.)

[Therefore the following words of Zonaras (7, 21) correspond nearly with those of Dio, concerning the popular anger against Camillus on account of his triumph (according to Plutarch's Camillus, Chap.

7).--Editor]

The celebration of the triumphal festivities, which they called _thriambos_, was of somewhat the following nature. When any great success, worthy of a triumph, had been gained, the general was immediately saluted as imperator by the soldiers, and he would bind twigs of laurel upon the rods and deliver them to the runners to carry, who announced the victory to the city. On arriving home he would a.s.semble the senate and ask to have the triumph voted him. And if he obtained a vote from the senate and from the people, his t.i.tle of imperator was confirmed. If he still held the office in the course of which he happened to be victorious, he continued to enjoy it while celebrating the festival; but if the term of his office had expired, he received some other name connected with it, since it was forbidden a private individual to hold a triumph. Arrayed in the triumphal dress he took armlets, and with a laurel crown upon his head and holding a branch in his right hand he called together the people. After praising his comrades of the campaign he presented some both publicly and privately with money: he honored them also with decorations, and upon some he bestowed armlets and spears without the iron; crowns, too, he gave to some of gold and to others of silver, bearing the name of each man and the representation of his particular feat. For example, either a man had been first to mount a wall and the crown bore the figure of a wall, or he had captured some point by storm, and a likeness of that particular place had been made. A man might have won a battle at sea and the crown had been adorned with ships, or one might have won a cavalry fight and some equestrian figure had been represented. He who had rescued a citizen from battle or other peril, or from a siege, had the greatest praise and would receive a crown fashioned of oak, which was esteemed as far more honorable than all, both the silver and the gold. And these rewards would be given not only to men singly, as each had shown his prowess, but were also bestowed upon cohorts and whole armies. Much of the spoils was likewise a.s.signed to the sharers in the campaign. Some have been known to extend their distributions even to the entire populace and have gone to expense for the festival and obtained public appropriations: if anything was left over, they would spend it for temples, porticos or for some public work.

After these ceremonies the triumphator ascended his chariot. Now the chariot did not resemble one used in games or in war, but had been made in the shape of a round tower. And he would not be alone in the chariot, but if he had children or relatives he would make the girls and the infant male children get up beside him in it and place those who were grown upon the horses, outriggers as well as the yoke-pair.

If these were many, they would accompany the procession on chargers, riding along beside the triumphator. None of the rest rode, but all went on foot wearing laurel wreaths. A public servant, however, rode also upon the chariot itself holding over him the crown made of precious stones set in gold and kept saying to him "Look behind!", the "behind" meaning naturally "Look ahead at the ensuing years of life, and do not be elated or puffed up by your present fortune." Both a bell and a whip were fastened to the chariot, signifying that it was possible for him to meet misfortune as well, to the extent of being disgraced or condemned to death. It was customary for those who had been condemned to die for any offence to wear a bell, to the end that no one should approach them as they walked along and so be affected with pollution.

Thus arrayed they entered the city, having at the head of the procession the spoils and trophies and in images the captured forts displayed, cities and mountains and rivers, lakes, seas,--everything that they had taken. If one day sufficed for the exhibition of these things in procession, well and good: otherwise, the celebration was held during a second and a third. When these adjuncts had gone on their way the triumphator reached the Roman Forum and after commanding that some of the captives be led to prison and put to death he rode up to the Capitol. There, when he had fulfilled certain rites and had brought offerings and had dined in the buildings on the hill, toward evening he departed homeward, accompanied by flutes and pipes.

Such were the triumphs in old times. Factions and powerful cliques attempted very frequently revolutionary movements on those occasions.

All the matters pertaining to the triumphal, the curule chair the letter contains. What need to write again? How after anointing with cinnabar or else Sinopian earth the man who held a triumph they put him on a chariot and placed upon his head a golden crown bearing plainly marked all he had accomplished: in the man's hand they lay a laurel sprig; armlets they clasp about his arms: they crown all who had gained distinction with crowns made out of silver material inscribed with the feats of daring; and how upon the chariot a public slave stands behind him holding up the crown and saying in his ear: "see also what comes after"--all things important the letter contains.

(Tzetzes, Hist. 13, 41-54.)

[Sidenote: B.C. 395 (_a.u._ 359)] 2. -- The Romans after fighting many battles against the Falisci, [Footnote: Perhaps Dio wrote _Fidenates_ or _Veientes_ (Livy, IV, 32), and _Falisci_ is due to the copyist, although, to be sure, there were wars with the last named (Livy, IV, 18). Whether the transference of Juno from Veii to Rome (Livy, V, 22) or the lectisternia just established about this time (Livy, V, 13) const.i.tutes the topic discussed is a matter respecting which scholars differ.] and after many sufferings and achievements as well, despised their ancestral rites and took up with foreign ones in the idea that the latter would suffice them. Human nature is for some reason accustomed in trouble to scorn what is usual even though it be divine, and to admire the untried. Thinking, as men do, that they are not helped by it at the present, they expect no benefit in the future, but from what is strange they hope to accomplish whatever they may wish, by means of its novelty.

(Mai, p. 153.)

3. -- The Romans, who were besieging the city of the Falisci would have consumed much time encamped before it, had not an incident of the following nature occurred. A school teacher of the place who instructed a number of children of good family, either under the influence of anger or through hope of gain led them all outside the wall, supposedly for some different purpose from his real one. They had so great an abundance of courage that they followed him even then. And he took them to Camillus, saying that in their persons he surrendered to him the whole city: for the inhabitants would no longer resist them when those dearest to them were held prisoners. However, he [Sidenote: B.C. 393 (_a.u._ 361)] to accomplish aught; for Camillus, filled with a sense of the conduct proper for Romans and also of the liability to failure of human plans, would not agree to take them by treachery: instead, he bound the traitor's hands behind his back and delivered him to the children themselves to lead home again.

After this episode the Falisci held out no longer, but in spite of the fact that they were securely entrenched and had ample resources to continue the war nevertheless came to terms voluntarily. They felt sure it would be no ordinary friendship that they would enjoy at the hands of one, whom, as an enemy even, they had found so just. (Valesius, p. 578.

Cp. Zonaras, 7, 22.)

4. Accordingly Camillus became on this account an object of even greater jealousy to the citizens, and he was indicted by the tribunes on the charge of not having benefited the public treasury with the plunder of the Veii; and before the trial he voluntarily withdrew.

(Valesius, ib. Cp. Zonaras, 7, 22.)

5. In Dio's 7th Book: "When he had ended his term of office they indicted him and imposed a money fine, not bringing him into danger of his life." [Footnote: Boissevain believes that this fragment does not refer to Camillus, and that the number of the Book is possibly a corruption. He would locate it earlier.](Bekker, Anecd. p. 146, 21.)

[Sidenote: B.C. 393 (_a.u._ 361)]6. To such a degree did not only the populace nor all those who were somewhat jealous of his reputation merely, but his best friends and his relatives, too, feel envy toward him that they did not even attempt to hide it. When he asked some of them for support in his case, and others to deposit the money for his release, they refused to a.s.sist him in regard to the vote but simply promised, if he were convicted, to estimate the proper money value and to help him pay the amount of the fine. This led him to take an oath in anger that the city should have need of him; and he went over to the Rutuli before accusation was brought against him. [Footnote: Very likely the copyist erred here. The sense requires "before sentence was pa.s.sed upon him."] (Mai, p. 154. Cp. Zonaras, 7, 22.)

[Frag. XXIV]

[Sidenote: B.C. 391 (_a.u._ 363)] 1. -- The cause of the Gallic expedition was this. The Clusini had endured hard treatment in the war from the Gauls and fled for refuge to the Romans, having considerable hope that they could obtain certainly some little help in that quarter, from the fact that they had not taken sides with the people of Veii, though of the same race. When the Romans failed to vote them aid, but sent amba.s.sadors to the Gauls and negotiated peace for them, they came very near accepting it (it was offered them in return for a part of the land); however, they attacked the barbarians after the conference and took the Roman envoys into battle along with them. The Gauls, vexed at seeing them on the opposite side, at first sent men to Rome, preferring charges against the envoys. Since, however, no punishment was visited upon the latter, but they were all, on the contrary, appointed consular tribunes, they were filled with wrath--being naturally quick to anger--and, as they held the Clusini in contempt, started for Rome. (Ursinus, p.373. Cp. Zonaras, 7, 23.)

[Sidenote: B.C. 364 (_a.u._ 390)] 2. -- The Romans after withstanding the inroads of the Gauls had no time to recover breath, but went immediately from their march into battle, just as they were, and lost.

Panic-stricken by the unexpectedness of the invaders' hostile expedition, by their numbers, their physical dimensions, and their voices uttering some foreign and terrifying sound they forgot their training in military science and after that lost possession of their valor. A good comprehension contributes very largely to bravery, because when present it confirms the strength of a man's resolution and when lacking destroys the same more thoroughly by far, than if such a thing had never existed at all. Many persons without experience often carry things through by the violence of their spirit, but those who fail of the discipline which they have learned lose also their strength of purpose. This caused the defeat of the Romans. (Mai, p.154. Cp. Zonaras, 7, 23.)

3. Coclius Horatius was by race a Roman. He, when on one occasion the army of the Romans had been routed, so that there was danger of their opponents occupying Rome, alone withstood them all at the wooden bridge, while Marcus cut it down behind Minucius. When it had been cut down, Coclius too crossed the Tiber, having saved himself and Rome by the cutting of the bridge. Yet, as he swam, he might have been struck by a spear of the enemy. To him the senate presents lands (as a reward for his excellent bravery) as much as he could mark out in a day with cattle fastened to a plow. He was called Coclius in the Roman tongue because he had lost one of his eyes before he fought. (Tzetzes, Hist.

3, 818-830. Cp. Haupt, _Hermes_ XIV.)

[Sidenote: B. C 364 (_a.u._ 390)] 4. -- The Romans who were on the Capitol under siege had no hope of safety unless from heavenly powers.

So scrupulously did they observe the mandates of religion, although in every extremity of evil, that when it was requisite for one of the sacred rites to be performed by the pontifices in another part of the city Caeso [Footnote: Very likely the copyist erred here. The sense requires "before sentence was pa.s.sed upon him."] Fabius, who exercised the office of priest, descended for the purpose from the Capitol after receiving his charge, as he had been accustomed to do, and pa.s.sing through the enemy performed the customary ceremony and returned the same day. I am led to admire the barbarians on the one hand because either on account of the G.o.ds or his bravery they spared him: and far more do I feel admiration for the man himself for two reasons, that he dared to descend alone among the enemy, and that when he might have withdrawn to some place of safety he refused and instead voluntarily returned up the Capitol again to a danger that he foresaw: he understood that they hesitated to abandon the spot which was the only part of their country they still held but saw at the same time that no matter how much they desired to escape it was impossible to do so by reason of the mult.i.tude of the besiegers. (Valesius, p.581.)

5. -- Camillus, being urged to let the leadership be entrusted to him, would not allow it because he was an exile and could not take the position according to time-honored usage. He showed himself so law-abiding and exact a man that in so great a danger to his native land he made precedent a matter of earnest thought and did not think it right to hand down to posterity an example of lawlessness.

(Valesius, p.582. Cp. Zonaras, 7, 23.)

6. When Rome had been sacked by the Gauls, Brennus being at the head of that expedition of theirs, as the Gauls were on the point of capturing the Capitol by ascending secretly to the Acropolis at night, a great outcry of geese arose in that quarter; and one Marcus Manlius roused from sleep saw the enemy creeping up, and by striking some with his oblong shield and slaying others with his sword he repulsed them all and saved the Romans. For this they gave him the t.i.tle of Capitolinus, and in honor of the geese they have door-keepers as guards in the palace in remembrance of their watch at that time, just as earlier the Greeks in Athens called Pelargikon Geraneia (Crane-ry) from such creatures. (Tzetzes, His. 830-842. Cp. Zonaras, 7, 23.)

[Frag. XXV]

[Sidenote: B.C. 384 (_a.u._ 370)] 1. -- The populace pa.s.sed sentence against Capitolinus, his house was razed to the ground, his money confiscated, and his name and even likeness, if such anywhere existed, were erased and destroyed. At the present day, too, all these punishments, except the razing to the ground, are visited upon those who conspire against the commonwealth. They gave judgment also that no patrician should dwell upon the height because Capitolinus happened to have had his house there. And his kinsmen among the Manlii prohibited any one of their number from being named Marcus, since that appellation had been his.

Capitolinus at any rate underwent a great reversal, both in his character and in his fortune. Having made a specialty of warfare he did not understand how to remain at peace; the Capitol he had once saved he occupied for the purpose of establishing a tyranny; although a patrician he became the prey of a house-servant; and whereas he was deemed a warrior, he was arrested after the manner of a slave and hurled down the very rock from which he had repulsed the Gauls.

(Valesius, p.582. Cp. Zonaras, 7, 24.)

2. -- Capitolinus was thrown headlong down the rock by the Romans. So true it is that nothing in the affairs of men,--generally speaking,--remains at it was; and success, in particular, leads many people on into catastrophes equally serious. It raises their hopes, makes them continually strive after like or greater results and, if they fail, casts them into just the opposite condition. (Mai, p. 155.

Cp. Zonaras, 7, 24.)

3. This Marcus Manlius, who was once termed also Capitolinus, and fell through seeking the tyranny, when about to be put to death by vote of all the jurors was saved by their looking just then at the Capitol, where he himself had performed famous deeds of valor,--until the one who spoke against him, perceiving the cause, transferred the a.s.sembly to another court-house from which the Capitol could not be seen at all and so a remembrance spring up of his trophies. Then they kill him.

But on the other hand, even so, through the whole period the populace of Rome wore black, recompensing the graces of his valor and the inimitable manner of his distinguished behavior. (Tzetzes, Hist. 3, 843-855. Cp. Zonaras, 7, 24.)

[Frag. XXVI]

[Sidenote: B.C. 381 (_a.u._ 373)] 1. -- Camillus made a campaign against the Tusculans, but thanks to the astonishing att.i.tude that they adopted they suffered no harm. For just as if they themselves were guilty of no offence and the Romans entertained no anger toward them, but were either coming to them as friends to friends or else marching through their territory against some other tribes, they changed none of their accustomed habits and were not in the least disturbed: instead, all without exception remaining in their places, at their occupations and at their other work just as in time of peace, received the army within their borders, gave them hospitable gifts, and in other ways honored them like friends. Consequently the Romans so far from doing them harm enrolled them subsequently among the citizens. (Valesius, p.582.)