The History of Rome Volume I Part 7

1. After the taking of Antium, t.i.tus aemilius and Quintus Fabius are elected consuls. This was the Fabius Quintus who alone had survived the family cut off at Cremera. Already, in his former consulate, aemilius had been an adviser of giving land to the people. Accordingly in his second consulate also both the abettors of the agrarian law had raised themselves to the hope of carrying the measure, and the tribunes, supposing that a matter frequently attempted in opposition to both consuls might be obtained with the a.s.sistance at least of one consul, take it up, and the consul remained stedfast in his sentiments. The possessors and a considerable part of the patricians complaining that a person at the head of the state was recommending himself by his tribunitial proceedings, and that he was making himself popular by giving away other persons' property, had transferred the odium of the entire affair from the tribunes to the consul. A violent contest was at hand, had not Fabius set the matter straight, by an expedient disagreeable to neither party, "that under the conduct and auspices of t.i.tus Quintius, there was a considerable tract of land taken the preceding year from the Volscians; that a colony might be sent to Antium, a neighbouring, convenient, and maritime city; that the commons might come in for lands without any complaints of the present occupiers, that the state might remain in quiet." This proposition was accepted. He appoints as triumvirs for distributing the land, t.i.tus Quintius, Aulus Virginius, and Publius Furius: those who wished to obtain land were ordered to give in their names. The gratification of their aim begat disgust, as usually happens; so few gave in their names that Volscian colonists were added to fill up the number: the rest of the people preferred clamouring for land in Rome, rather than receive it elsewhere.

The aequans sued for peace from Quintus Fabius, (he was sent thither with an army,) and they themselves broke it by a sudden incursion into the Latin territory.

2. In the following year Quintus Servilius, (for he was consul with Spurius Posthumius,) being sent against the aequans, fixed his camp in the Latin territory: inaction necessarily kept the army within the camp, involved as they were in a distemper. The war was protracted to the third year, Quintus Fabius and t.i.tus Quintius being consuls. To Fabius, because he, as conqueror, had granted[105] peace to the aequans, that province was a.s.signed by an extraordinary commission: who, setting out with certain hope that the fame of his name would reduce the aequans to submission, sent amba.s.sadors to the council of the nation, and ordered them to say "that Quintus Fabius, the consul, stated that he had brought peace to Rome from the aequans, that from Rome he now brought war to the aequans, that same right hand being armed, which he had formerly given to them in amity; that the G.o.ds were now witnesses, and would presently be avengers of those by whose perfidy and perjury that was brought to pa.s.s.

That he, however, be matters as they might, would even now prefer that the aequans should repent of their own accord than be subject to the vengeance of an enemy. If they repent, that there would be a safe retreat in that clemency already experienced; but if they still delighted in perjury, they would wage war with the angry G.o.ds rather than with enemies." This statement had so little effect on any of them, that the amba.s.sadors were near being ill-treated, and an army was sent to Algidum against the Romans. When these tidings were brought to Rome, the indignity of the affair, rather than the danger, called out the other consul from the city; thus two consular armies advanced against the enemy in order of battle, so that they might at once engage. But as it so happened that much of the day did not now remain, a person from the advanced guard of the enemy cries out, "This is making a display of war, Romans, not waging it; you draw up your army in line of battle, when night is at hand; we require a greater length of day-light for the contest which is to come on. To-morrow by sun-rise return to the field: you shall have an opportunity of fighting, never fear." The soldiers, stung by these threats, are marched back into the camp till the following day; thinking that the approaching night was tedious, which would cause delay to the contest. Then indeed they refresh their bodies with food and sleep: on the following day, when it was light, the Roman army took their post considerably sooner. At length the aequans also came forward. The battle was obstinate on both sides, because both the Romans fought under the influence of resentment and hatred; and a consciousness of danger brought on by misconduct, and despair of obtaining future confidence afterwards, obliged the aequans to exert and have recourse to the most desperate efforts. The aequans however did not withstand the Roman troops, and when on being beaten they had betaken themselves to their own territories, the outrageous mult.i.tude, with dispositions not at all more disposed to peace, began to chide their leaders: "that their interest was committed to the hazard of a pitched battle, in which mode of fighting the Romans were superior. That the aequans were better fitted for depredations and incursions, and that several parties acting in different directions conducted wars more successfully than the unwieldy ma.s.s of one single army."

[Footnote 105: _Dederat_. The _oratio obliqua_ would require _dederit_ here, but such instances of the indicative being used for the subjunctive are by no means infrequent.]

3. Having left therefore a guard on the camp, they marched out and attacked the Roman frontiers with such fury, as to carry terror even to the city: the unexpected nature of the thing also caused more alarm, because nothing could be less apprehended, than that an enemy, vanquished and almost besieged in their camp, should entertain a thought of depredation: and the peasants, in a panic pouring in at the gates, cried out, that it was not mere plundering, nor small parties of depredators, but, exaggerating every thing through groundless fear, that whole armies and legions of the enemy were advancing, and that they were pushing forward to the city determined for an a.s.sault. Those who were nearest (the gates) carried to others the accounts heard from these, uncertain as they were, and therefore the more groundless; and the hurry and confused clamour of those calling to arms bore no distant resemblance to the panic of a city taken by storm. It so happened that the consul Quintius had returned to Rome from Algidum; this was some relief for their terror; and the tumult being calmed, and after chiding them for being in dread of a vanquished enemy, he posted a guard on the gates. Then having convened the senate, when he set out to defend the frontiers, a suspension[106] of civil business having been proclaimed by a decree of the senate, leaving Quintus Servilius behind as prefect of the city, he found no enemy in the country. Matters were conducted with distinguished success by the other consul; who having attacked the enemy, wherever he knew that they were to come, laden with booty, and proceeding therefore with their army the more enc.u.mbered, made their depredation prove fatal to them. Few of the enemy escaped from the ambuscade; all the booty was recovered; thus the return of the consul Quintius to the city put a termination to the just.i.tium, which lasted only four days. A census was then held, and the l.u.s.trum was closed by Quintius: the number of citizens rated are said to have been one hundred and twenty-four thousand two hundred and fourteen, besides orphans of both s.e.xes. Nothing memorable occurred afterwards among the aequans; they betook themselves into their towns, suffering their possessions to be consumed by fire and to be devastated. The consul, after he had repeatedly carried depredation through the entire country of the enemy, returned to Rome with great glory and booty.

[Footnote 106: _Just.i.tium_--a jure sistendo.]

4. Then Aulus Posthumius Albus and Spurius Furius Fusus were consuls.

Furii some writers have written Fusii; this I mention, lest any one may imagine that the change, which is only in the names, may be in the persons themselves. There was no doubt but that one of the consuls would commence hostilities against the aequans. The aequans accordingly sought aid from the Volscians of Ecetra; which being granted readily, (so keenly did these states vie in inveterate hatred against the Romans,) preparations for war were made with the utmost vigour. The Hernicians came to the knowledge of it, and warned the Romans that the Ecetrans had revolted to the aequans; the colony of Antium also was suspected, because when the town was taken, a great number of the inhabitants had fled thence for refuge to the aequans: and these proved the bravest soldiers during the war with the aequans. Afterwards the aequans being driven into the towns, this rabble withdrawing privately, when they returned to Antium, seduced from the Romans the colonists who were already disposed to treachery of their own accord. The matter not being yet ripe, when it was announced to the senate that a defection was intended, the consuls were charged to inquire into the business by summoning to Rome the leading men of the colony. When those persons attended without reluctance, being conducted to the senate by the consuls, they so answered to the questions put to them, that they were dismissed more suspected than they had come. Upon this war was considered as inevitable. Spurius Fusius, one of the consuls to whom that province had fallen, having marched against the aequans, found the enemy committing depredations in the country of the Hernicians; and being ignorant of their numbers, because they had never been seen all together, he rashly hazarded an engagement with an army not a match for their forces. Being beaten from his ground at the first onset, he betook himself to his camp: nor was that an end of the danger: for both on the next night and the following day, his camp was beset and a.s.saulted with such vigour, that not even a messenger could be sent from thence to Rome. The Hernicians brought an account both that a defeat had taken place, and that the army was besieged: and they struck such terror into the senate, that a charge was given to the other consul Posthumius, that he should "take care that the commonwealth sustained no injury,"[107] which form of a decree has ever been deemed to be one of extreme exigency. It seemed most advisable that the consul himself should remain at Rome to enlist all who were able to bear arms: that t.i.tus Quintius should be sent as pro-consul[108] to the relief of the camp with the army of the allies: to complete that army the Latins and Hernicians, and the colony of Antium, were ordered to supply Quintius with subitary soldiers (so they then called auxiliaries raised for sudden emergencies).

[Footnote 107: According to Stroth, this is the first instance we have of a decree of the senate arming the consul with almost dictatorial power.]

[Footnote 108: _Pro-consul_:--the first mention of a pro-consul in Livy.]

5. During those days many movements and many attempts were made on either side, because the enemy, having the advantage in numbers, attempted to weaken the Roman strength by dividing it into many parts, as not being likely to suffice for all points of attack. At the same time the camp was besieged, at the same time a part of the army was sent to devastate the Roman territory, and to attempt the city itself, if fortune should favour. Lucius Valerius was left to guard the city: the consul Postumius was sent to repel the attacks on the frontiers. There was no abatement in any part either in vigilance or activity; watches in the city, out-posts before the gates, and guards stationed along the walls: and a just.i.tium was observed for several days (a thing which was necessary in such general confusion). In the mean time the consul Furius, after he had at first pa.s.sively endured the siege in his camp, burst forth from the Dec.u.man gate on the enemy when off their guard; and though he might have pursued them, he stopped through fear, lest an attack should be made on the camp from the other side. The lieutenant-general Furius (he was the consul's brother) was carried away too far by his ardour; nor did he, from his eagerness to pursue, observe his own party returning, nor the attack of the enemy on his rear: thus being shut out, after repeatedly making many unavailing efforts to force his way to the camp, he fell, fighting bravely. And the consul, turning about to renew the fight, on hearing the account that his brother was surrounded, rushing into the thick of the fight rather rashly than with sufficient caution, received a wound, and was with difficulty rescued by those around him. This both damped the courage of his own men, and rendered the enemy more daring; who, being encouraged by the death of the lieutenant-general, and by the consul's wound, could not afterwards be withstood by any force, so as to prevent the Romans from being driven within their camp and again submitting to a siege, as being a match for them neither in hopes nor in strength; and every thing would have been endangered, had not T. Quintius come to their relief with foreign troops from the Latin and Hernician army. He attacked the aequans on their rear whilst intent on the Roman camp, and insultingly displaying the head of the lieutenant-general, and, a sally being made at the same time from the camp on a signal given at a distance by him, he surrounded a great number of the enemy. Of the aequans on the Roman territory the slaughter was less, their dispersion was more complete. On these as they straggled in different directions, and were driving plunder before them, Postumius made an attack in several places, where he had posted convenient detachments; these straying about and pursuing their flight in great disorder, fell in with the victorious Quintius as he was returning with the wounded consul. Then did the consular army by their distinguished bravery take ample vengeance for the consul's wound, and for the death of the lieutenant-general and the cohorts; heavy losses were both inflicted and received on both sides during those days. In a matter of such antiquity it is difficult to state with certainty the exact number of those who fought or fell: Antias Valerius, however, ventures to sum them up; that in the Hernician territory there fell five thousand three hundred Romans; that of the predatory parties of the aequans, who strayed through the Roman frontiers for the purpose of plundering, two thousand four hundred were slain by the consul Postumius; that the rest of the body that were driving booty before them, and which fell in with Quintius, by no means got off with so light a loss: that of these four thousand, and by way of stating the number exactly, two hundred and thirty, were slain. After this they returned to Rome; the order for the just.i.tium was discharged. The sky seemed to be all on fire; and other prodigies either actually presented themselves to their sight, or exhibited imaginary appearances to their affrighted minds. To avert these terrors, a solemn festival of three days was proclaimed, during which, all the temples were filled with a crowd of men and women, earnestly imploring the protection of the G.o.ds. After this the Latin and Hernician cohorts were sent back to their respective homes, thanks having been returned to them for their spirited military services. The thousand soldiers from Antium were dismissed almost with disgrace, because they had come after the battle with a.s.sistance then too late.

6. The elections were then held: Lucius aebutius and Publius Servilius being elected consuls, enter on their office on the calends of August, which was then considered as the commencement of the year.[109] This was a distressing time, and it so happened that the season was pestilential to the city and country, and not more to men than to cattle; and they increased the malignity of the distemper, by admitting[110] the cattle and the peasants into the city through dread of devastation. This collection of animals of every kind mixed together, distressed both the citizens by the unusual stench, and the peasants crowded together into their close apartments, with heat, want of sleep, and their attendance on each other, and contact itself propagated the disease. Whilst with difficulty sustaining these calamities, amba.s.sadors from the Hernicians suddenly bring word that the aequans and Volscians, having united their forces, had pitched their camp in their territory, that from thence they were depopulating their frontiers with an immense army. Besides that the thinness of the senate was a proof to the allies that the state was prostrated by the pestilence, they further received this melancholy answer: "That the Hernicians, with the Latins, must now defend their possessions by their own exertions. That the Roman city, through the sudden anger of the G.o.ds, was now depopulated by disease. If any respite from that calamity should come, that they would afford aid to their allies, as they had done the year before, and always on other occasions." The allies departed, carrying home, instead of the melancholy news (they had brought), news still more melancholy, as being persons who were now obliged to sustain by their own means a war, which they had sustained with difficulty when backed by the power of Rome. The enemy did not confine themselves any longer to the Hernician territory.

They proceed thence with determined hostility into the Roman territories, which were already devastated without the injuries of war.

Where, when there was no one to meet them, not even an unarmed person, and they pa.s.sed through every place dest.i.tute not only of troops, but even of the cultivation of the husbandman, they reached as far as the third stone on the Gabinian road. aebutius, the Roman consul, was dead; his colleague, Servilius, was dragging out life with slender hope of recovery; most of the leading men, the chief part of the patricians, all of the military age, were lying sick, so that strength was wanting not only for the expeditions, which, amid such an alarm the conjuncture required, but scarcely had they sufficient even for quietly mounting guard. The senators whose age and health permitted them, discharged personally the duty of sentinels. The going around[111] and attending to these was a.s.signed to the aediles of the people; on them devolved the chief administration of affairs and the majesty of the consular authority.

[Footnote 109: Of the year,--i.e. the consular year, not the civil one, which commenced in January.]

[Footnote 110: A similar measure was adopted at Athens. See Thucyd. ii.

52.]

[Footnote 111: _Circuitio_. Stroth observes, that this is what we understand by 'the Round.']

7. The commonwealth thus desolate, without a head, without strength, the guardian G.o.ds and good fortune of the city saved, which inspired the Volscians and aequans with the disposition of banditti rather than of enemies; for so far was any hope not only of taking but even of approaching the walls of Rome[112] from taking possession of their minds, and so thoroughly did the sight of the houses in the distance, and the adjacent hills, divert their thoughts, (from such an attempt,) that, a murmur having arisen in every direction throughout the entire camp, "why they should waste time in indolence without booty in a wild and desert land, amid the putrid decay of cattle and of human beings, when they might repair to places uninjured by infection, the Tusculan territory abounding in wealth?" they suddenly tore up their standards, and by journeys across the country, they pa.s.sed through the Lavican territory to the Tusculan hills; and to that quarter was the whole violence and storm of the war directed. In the mean time the Hernicians and Latins, influenced not only by compa.s.sion but by shame, if they neither gave opposition to the common enemy, when making for the city of Rome with a hostile army, nor afforded any aid to their allies when besieged, march to Rome with their forces united. Where, when they did not find the enemy, following their tracks as indicated by rumour, they meet them as they are coming down from the Tusculan territory into the Alban valley: there a battle was fought under circ.u.mstances by no means equal; and their fidelity proved by no means favourable to the allies for the present. The mortality at Rome by disease was not less than that of the allies by the sword (of the enemy); the only surviving consul dies; other eminent characters also died, Marcus Valerius, t.i.tus Virginius Rutilus, the augurs; Servius Sulpicius, princ.i.p.al curio; and through persons of inferior note the virulence of the disease spread extensively: and the senate, dest.i.tute of human aid, directed the people's attention to the G.o.ds and to prayers; they were ordered to go to supplicate with their wives and children, and earnestly to implore the protection of heaven. Besides that their own sufferings obliged each to do so, when called on by public authority, they fill all the shrines; the prostrate matrons in every quarter sweeping the temples with their hair, beg for a remission of the divine displeasure, and a termination to the pestilence.

[Footnote 112: According to Dionysius, the Volsci attacked Rome on this occasion.]

8. From this time, whether it was from the favour of the G.o.ds being obtained, or that the more unhealthy season of the year was now pa.s.sed, the bodies of the people having shaken off disease, gradually began to be more healthy, and their attention being now directed to public concerns, when several interregna had expired, Publius Valerius Publicola, on the third day after he had entered on his office of interrex, causes Lucretius Tricipitinus, and t.i.tus Veturius Geminus, (or Velusius,) to be elected consuls. They enter on their consulship on the third day of the Ides of August, the state being now sufficiently strong, not only to repel a hostile attack, but even to act itself on the offensive. Therefore when the Hernicians brought an account that the enemy had made an incursion into their frontiers, a.s.sistance was readily promised; two consular armies were enlisted. Veturius was sent against the Volscians to carry on an offensive war. Tricipitinus being appointed to protect the territory of the allies from devastation, proceeds no further than into the country of the Hernicians. Veturius routs and puts to flight the enemy in the first engagement. A party of plunderers which had marched over the Praenestine mountains, and from thence descended into the plains, escaped the notice of Lucretius, whilst he lay encamped amongst the Hernicians. These laid waste all the country around Praeneste and Gabii: from the Gabinian territory they turn their course towards the heights of Tusculum; great alarm was excited in the city of Rome also, more from the suddenness of the affair, than that there was not sufficient strength to repel violence. Quintus Fabius had the command in the city;[113] he, by arming the young men and posting guards, rendered things secure and tranquil. The enemy therefore carrying off plunder from the adjacent places, not venturing to approach the city, when they were returning by a circuitous route, their caution being now more relaxed, in proportion as they removed to a greater distance from the enemy's city, fall in with the consul Lucretius, who had already explored their motions, drawn up in battle-array and determined on an engagement. Accordingly having attacked them with predetermined resolution whilst struck with sudden panic, though considerably fewer in numbers, they rout and put to flight their numerous army, and having driven them into the deep valleys, when an egress from thence was not easy, they surround them. There the Volscian nation was almost entirely cut off. In some histories I find that thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy fell in the field and in the pursuit, that one thousand two hundred and fifty were taken alive, that twenty-seven military standards were carried off; where, though there may have been some exaggeration in the number, there certainly was great slaughter. The victorious consul having obtained immense booty returned to the same standing camp. Then the consuls join their camps. The Volscians and aequans also unite their shattered strength. This was the third battle on that year; the same good fortune gave them victory; the enemy being beaten, their camp was also taken.

[Footnote 113: As _praefectus urbis_.]

9. Thus affairs at Rome returned to their former state; and successes abroad immediately excited commotions in the city. Caius Terentillus Arsa[114] was tribune of the people in that year: he, considering that an opportunity was afforded for tribunitian intrigues during the absence of the consuls, after railing against the arrogance of the patricians for several days before the people, inveighed chiefly against the consular authority, as being exorbitant and intolerable in a free state: "for that, in name only, it was less invidious, in reality almost more oppressive than that of kings. For that two masters had been adopted instead of one, with unbounded, unlimited power; who, themselves unrestrained and unbridled, directed all the terrors of the law, and all kinds of severity against the commons." Now, in order that this licentious power might not continue perpetual, he would propose a law, that five persons be appointed to draw up laws regarding the consular power. That the consul should use that right which the people may give him over them; that they should not hold their own caprice and licentiousness as law. This law being published, when the patricians became afraid, lest, in the absence of the consuls, they should be subjected to the yoke, the senate is convened by Quintus Fabius, praefect of the city, who inveighed so vehemently against the bill and the author of it, that nothing was omitted of threats and intimidation, even though both the consuls in all their exasperation surrounded the tribune, "that he had lain in wait, and, watching his opportunity, he made an attack on the commonwealth. If the G.o.ds in their anger had given them any tribune like him on the preceding year, during the pestilence and war, he could not have been withstood. Both the consuls being dead, and the exhausted state lying enfeebled in universal confusion, that he would have proposed laws to abolish the consular government altogether from the state; that he would have headed the Volscians and aequans to attack the city. What? if the consuls adopted any tyrannical or cruel proceedings against any of the citizens, was it not competent to him to appoint a day of trial for him; to arraign him before those very judges against any one of whom severity may have been exercised? That it was not the consular authority but the tribunitian power that he was rendering hateful and insupportable: which having been peaceable and reconciled to the patricians, was now about to be brought back anew to its former mischievous habits. Nor would he entreat him not to go on as he commenced. Of you, the other tribunes, says Fabius, we request, that you will first of all consider that that power was provided for the aid of individuals, not for the ruin of the community: that you were created tribunes of the commons, not enemies of the patricians. To us it is distressing, to you a source of odium, that the republic, now bereft of its chief magistrates, should be attacked; you will diminish not your rights, but the odium against you. Confer with your colleague, that he may postpone this business till the arrival of the consuls; even the aequans and the Volscians, when our consuls were carried off by pestilence last year, did not press on us with a cruel and tyrannical war." The tribunes confer with Terentillus, and the bill being to all appearance deferred, but in reality abandoned, the consuls were immediately sent for.

[Footnote 114: Niebuhr n. 24, 634, would have us read _Terentilius_, the Roman family names always, he says, ending in _ius_. He also thinks that for _Arsa_, we should read _Harsa_.]

10. Lucretius returned with immense spoil, and much greater glory; and this glory he increased on his arrival, by exposing all the booty in the Campus Martius, so that each person might, during three days, recognise his own and carry it away; the remainder was sold, for which no owners appeared. A triumph was by universal consent due to the consul: but the matter was deferred, the tribune still pressing his law; this to the consul seemed of greater importance. The business was discussed for several days, both in the senate and before the people: at length the tribune yielded to the majesty of the consul, and desisted; then the due honour was rendered to the general and his army. He triumphed over the Volscians and aequans: his troops followed him in his triumph. The other consul was allowed to enter the city in ovation without his soldiers. On the following year the Terentillian law having been taken up by the entire college, a.s.sailed the new consuls; the consuls were Publius Volumnius and Servius Sulpicius. On that year the sky seemed to be on fire; a violent earthquake also occurred; it was now believed that an ox spoke, which circ.u.mstance had not obtained credit on the year before; among other prodigies it rained flesh also;[115] which shower a great number of birds is reported to have carried off by flying so as to intercept it; that which did fall, is said to have lain scattered about for several days, so that its smell evinced no change. The books[116]

were consulted by the duumviri for sacred rites: dangers of attacks being made on the highest parts of the city, and of bloodshed thence resulting, were predicted as about to come from an a.s.semblage of strangers; among other things, an admonition was given that all intestine disturbances should be abandoned. The tribunes alleged that that was done to obstruct the law, and a desperate contest was at hand.

Lo! (that the same circle of events may revolve every year) the Hernicians bring word that the Volscians and the aequans, though their strength was much impaired, were recruiting their armies: that their chief dependence was Antium; that the inhabitants of Antium openly held councils at Ecetra: that that was the source--there the strength--for the war. As soon as this announcement was made in the senate, a levy was ordered: the consuls were commanded to divide the management of the war between them; that the Volscians should be the province of the one, the aequans that of the other. The tribunes cried out to their faces in the forum, "That the Volscian war was all a concerted farce: that the Hernicians were instructed to act their parts; that the liberty of the Roman people was now no longer crushed by manly efforts, but that it was baffled by cunning; because all probability was now gone that the Volscians, who were almost exterminated, and the aequans, would of themselves commence hostilities, new enemies were sought for: that a loyal colony, and one in their very vicinity, was being rendered infamous: that war was proclaimed against the unoffending people of Antium, and in reality waged with the commons of Rome, which after loading them with arms they were determined to drive out of the city with precipitous haste, wreaking their vengeance on the tribunes, by the exile and expulsion of their fellow-citizens. That by these means, and let them not think that there was any other object contemplated, the law was defeated; unless, whilst the matter was still in abeyance, whilst they were still at home and in the garb of citizens, they would take precaution that they may not be driven out of possession of the city, and be subjected to the yoke. If they only had spirit, that support would not be wanting; that all the tribunes were unanimous; that there was no apprehension from abroad, no danger. That the G.o.ds had taken care, on the preceding year, that their liberty could now be defended with safety." Thus far the tribunes.

[Footnote 115: Niebuhr, ii. n. 631, asks whether it was worms. Sa????

??a?sata. Dion. x. 2.]

[Footnote 116: The Sibylline books.]

11. But, on the other side, the consuls, having placed their chairs within view of them, were proceeding with the levy; thither the tribunes hasten, and draw the a.s.sembly along with them; a few were cited, by way of making an experiment, and instantly violence commenced. Whomsoever the lictor laid hold of by order of the consul, him the tribune ordered to be discharged; nor did his own proper jurisdiction set a limit to each, but whatever you set your mind upon, was to be attained by the hope of strength and by force. Just as the tribunes had behaved in impeding the levy, in the same manner did the consuls conduct themselves in obstructing the law which was brought on every a.s.sembly day. The commencement of the riot was, when the tribunes ordered the people to proceed to the vote, because the patricians refused to withdraw. The elder citizens scarcely attended the contest, inasmuch as it was one likely not to be directed by prudence, but abandoned to temerity and daring. The consuls also generally kept out of the way, lest in the general confusion they should expose their dignity to any insult. There was a young man, Caeso Quintius, a daring youth, as well by the n.o.bility of his descent, as by his personal size and strength; to those endowments granted by the G.o.ds he himself had added many military honours, and eloquence in the forum; so that no person in the state was considered more efficient either in speaking or in acting. When this person took his place in the centre of a body of the patricians, conspicuous above the rest, carrying as it were in his eloquence and bodily strength dictatorships and consulships combined, he alone withstood the storms of the tribunes and the populace. Under his guidance the tribunes were frequently driven from the forum, the commons routed and dispersed; such as came in his way, went off after being ill-treated and stripped; so that it became sufficiently evident, that, if he were allowed to proceed in this way, the law would be defeated.

Then the other tribunes being now almost thrown into despair, Aulus Virginius, one of the college, inst.i.tutes a criminal prosecution on a capital charge against Caeso. By this proceeding he rather irritated than intimidated his violent temper: so much the more vigorously did he oppose the law, annoyed the commons, and persecuted the tribunes, as it were by a regular war. The prosecutor suffered the accused to rush on headlong, and to heighten the charges against him by the flame and material of the popular odium thus incurred: in the mean time he proceeded with the law, not so much in the hope of carrying it through, as to provoke the temerity of Caeso. There many inconsiderate expressions and actions pa.s.sing among the young men, are charged on the temper of Caeso, through the prejudice raised against him; still the law was resisted. And Aulus Virginius frequently remarks to the people, "Are you even now sensible that you cannot have Caeso, as a fellow-citizen, with the law which you desire? Though why do I say law? he is an opponent of your liberty; he surpa.s.ses all the Tarquins in arrogance. Wait till he is made consul or dictator, whom, though but a private citizen, you now see exercising kingly sway over you by his strength and audacity." Many a.s.sented, complaining that they had been beaten by him: and strongly urged on the tribune to go through with the prosecution.

12. The day of trial now approached, and it was evident that persons in general considered that their liberty depended on the condemnation of Caeso: then, at length being forced to it, he addressed the commons individually, though with a strong feeling of indignation; his relatives followed him, the princ.i.p.al members of the state. t.i.tus Quintius Capitolinus, who had been thrice consul, after he recounted many splendid achievements of his own, and of his family, stated, that neither in the Quintian family, nor in the Roman state, had there appeared such promising genius of such early valour. "That he had first been his soldier, that he had often in his sight fought against the enemy." Spurius Furius declared, that "he having been sent to him by Quintius Capitolinus, had come to his aid when in the midst of danger; that there was no individual by whose exertions he considered the common weal more effectually re-established." Lucius Lucretius, the consul of the preceding year, in the full splendour of recent glory, shared his own services with Caeso; he recounted his battles, detailed his distinguished exploits, both on expeditions and in the field; he advised and recommended that they would prefer this extraordinary young man, endowed with all the advantages of nature and of rank, and (one who would prove) of the utmost importance to the interest of that state into which he should come, to be their fellow-citizen, rather than the citizen of a foreign state. "That with respect to that which may be offensive in him, heat and vehemence, time would diminish daily; that the prudence, which may be wanting in him, was increasing daily; that as his faults were declining and his virtues ripening to maturity, they should allow so distinguished a man to become old in their state." Among these his father, Lucius Quintius, who bore the surname of Cincinnatus, without dwelling on his merits, lest he should heighten public hatred, but soliciting pardon for his errors and his youth, implored of them to forgive his son for his sake, who had not given offence to any one by either word or deed. But some, through respect or fear, turned away from listening to his entreaties; others complaining that themselves and their friends had been ill-treated, by the harshness of their answer declared their sentence beforehand.

13. Independently of the general odium, one charge bore heavily on the accused; that Marcus Volscius Fictor, who some years before had been tribune of the people, had come forward as a witness: "that not long after the pestilence had been in the city, he had fallen in with a party of young men rioting in the Suburra; that a scuffle arose there; and that his elder brother, not yet perfectly recovered from his illness, had fallen down almost dead, being struck with the fist by Caeso; that he was carried home between the hands of some persons, and that he considered that he died from that blow; and that it had not been permitted to him by the consuls of former years to follow up the matter." In consequence of Volscius vociferating these charges, the people became so excited, that Caeso was near being killed through the violence of the people. Virginius orders him to be seized and carried to prison. The patricians oppose force to force. t.i.tus Quintius exclaims, "that a person for whom a day of trial for a capital offence has been appointed, and whose trial was now at hand, ought not to be outraged before trial and without sentence being pa.s.sed." The tribune says, "that he would not inflict punishment[117] on him before condemnation, that he would however keep him in prison until the day of trial; that the Roman people may have an opportunity of inflicting punishment on one who had killed a man." The tribunes being appealed to, secure their prerogative by adopting a middle course;[118] they forbid his being thrown into confinement, and declare it to be their wish that the accused should appear on his trial, and that a sum of money should be promised to the people, in case he should not appear. How large a sum of money ought to be promised, came under discussion: that is referred to the senate. The accused was detained in the public a.s.sembly, until the patricians should be consulted: it was determined that he should give bail:[119] each bail they bound to the amount of three thousand _a.s.ses_; how many should be given, was left to the tribunes; they limited the number to ten; for ten sureties the prosecutor discharged the accused. He was the first who gave public sureties. Being discharged from the forum, he went the following night into exile among the Etrurians. When on the day of trial it was pleaded that he had quitted his home in order to go into exile, Virginius notwithstanding holding the comitia, his colleagues when appealed to dismissed the a.s.sembly: the fine was rigorously exacted[120]

from the father; so that after selling all his effects, he lived for a considerable time in a solitary cottage on the other side of the Tiber, as if in exile. This trial and the proposing of the law gave full employment to the state: there was quiet from foreign arms.

[Footnote 117: Niebuhr denies that the tribunes had the power before the establishment of the decemviri to commit patricians to prison. See however Dion. vii. 17.]

[Footnote 118: In the original the words are, _Medio decreto jus auxilii sui expediunt_. The tribunes were afraid lest, if they allowed Caeso to go entirely at large, the commons might become irritated; whilst if they refused to listen to the application of a patrician when he craved their a.s.sistance, they feared lest they should lose an excellent opportunity of establishing their influence and increasing their power. By adopting a line of conduct then which conceded something both to the commons and to Caeso, they as it were _extricate_ (expediunt) their power from this double danger.]

[Footnote 119: _Vadis publicos_. According to Gronovius, _publico_, scil. _plebi_. Niebuhr prefers this reading.]

[Footnote 120: _Rigorously exacted_. See Niebuhr ii. p. 289, who expresses a different opinion on the matter.]

14. When the tribunes, flushed as it were with victory, imagined that the law was in a manner pa.s.sed, the patricians being now dismayed by the banishment of Caeso, and when, with respect to the seniors of the patricians, they had relinquished all share in the administration of the commonwealth; the juniors, more especially those who were the intimate friends of Caeso, redoubled their resentful feelings against the commons, and suffered not their spirits to droop; but the greatest improvement was made in this particular, that they tempered their animosity by a certain degree of moderation. When for the first time after Caeso's banishment the law began to be brought forward, arrayed and well prepared with a numerous body of clients, they attacked the tribunes, on their affording a pretext for it by attempting to remove them, in such a manner, that no one individual carried home from thence any prominent share either of glory or ill-will; the people complained that for one Caeso a thousand had started up. During the intermediate days, when the tribunes made no stir regarding the law, nothing could be more mild or peaceable than those same persons; they saluted the plebeians courteously, entered into conversation, and invited them home; they attended the forum, and suffered the tribunes themselves to hold their meetings without interruption: they never were uncivil to any one either in public or in private, unless when the business respecting the law began to be agitated. On other occasions the young men were popular.

And not only did the tribunes transact all their other affairs without disturbance, but they were even re-elected for the following year, without one offensive expression, much less any violence being employed.

By soothing and managing the commons they gradually rendered them tractable. By these methods the law was evaded for the entire year.

15. The consuls Caius Claudius, the son of Appius, and Publius Valerius Publicola, found the state in a more tranquil condition. The new year had brought with it nothing new; the thoughts about carrying the law, or submitting to it, engrossed all the members of the state. The more the younger members of the senate endeavoured to insinuate themselves into favour with the commons, the more strenuously did the tribunes strive to thwart them, so that they rendered them suspicious in the eyes of the commons by alleging: "that a conspiracy was formed; that Caeso was in Rome; that plans were concerted for a.s.sa.s.sinating the tribunes, and butchering the commons. That the commission a.s.signed by the elder members of the patricians was, that the young men should abolish the tribunitian power from the state, and the form of government should be the same as it had been before the sacred mount had been taken possession of." Both a war from the Volsci and aequi, which was now a stated thing, and one that was a regular occurrence for almost every year, was apprehended, and another evil nearer home started up unexpectedly. The exiles and slaves to the number of four thousand and five hundred men took possession of the Capitol and citadel during the night, under the command of Appius Herdonius, a Sabine. Immediately a ma.s.sacre took place in the citadel of those who had evinced an unwillingness to enter into the conspiracy and to take up arms. Some, during the alarm, run down to the forum, driven precipitately through the panic; the cries, "to arms," and "the enemy are in the city," were heard alternately. The consuls were both afraid to arm the commons, and to suffer them to remain unarmed; uncertain what sudden calamity had a.s.sailed the city, whether external or intestine, whether from the hatred of the commons or the treachery of the slaves: they were for quieting the tumults, by such endeavours they sometimes exasperated them; for the populace, panic-stricken and terrified, could not be directed by authority. They give out arms, however, not indiscriminately; only so that, the enemy being still uncertain,[121]

there might be a protection sufficient to be relied on for all emergencies. The remainder of the night they pa.s.sed in posting guards through proper places through the entire city, anxious and uncertain, as to who the persons might be, and how great the number of the enemy was.

Day-light then disclosed the war and the leader of the war. Appius Herdonius summoned the slaves to liberty from the Capitol: "that he had espoused the cause of every most unfortunate individual, in order to bring back to their country those driven out by oppression, and to remove the grievous yoke from the slaves. That he had rather that were done under the authority of the Roman people. If there be no hope in that quarter, that he would rouse the Volscians and aequi, and would try all extremities."

[Footnote 121: _Incerto hoste_, it being as yet uncertain who the enemy was.]

16. The matter began to disclose itself more clearly to the patricians and the consuls; besides those things, however, which were openly declared, they dreaded lest this might be a scheme of the Veientes or Sabines; and, as there were so many of the enemy in the city, lest the Sabine and Etrurian troops might come on according to a concerted plan; and then lest their eternal enemies, the Volscians and aequi, should come, not to ravage their territories, as before, but to their very city, already in part taken. Many and various were their fears; among others, the most prominent was their dread of the slaves, lest each might harbour an enemy in his own house, one whom it was neither sufficiently safe to trust, nor to deny[122] confidence to him lest, by not trusting him, he might become more incensed. And (the evil) seemed scarcely capable of being resisted by perfect harmony (between the different orders of the state); only no one apprehended the tribunes or commons, other evils predominating and constantly starting up; that appeared an evil of a mild nature, and one always arising during the cessation of other evils, and it then appeared to be lulled to rest by external terror. Yet that was almost the only one that most aggravated their distressing circ.u.mstances: for such madness took possession of the tribunes, that they contended that not war, but the empty appearance of war had taken possession of the Capitol, to avert the people's minds from attending to the law; that these friends and clients of the patricians would depart in greater silence than they came, if they once perceived that, by the law being pa.s.sed, they had raised these tumults in vain. They then held a meeting for pa.s.sing the law, having called away the people from their arms. In the mean time, the consuls convene the senate, another dread presenting itself on the part of the tribunes, greater than that which the nightly foe had occasioned.

[Footnote 122: _Fidem abrogare_,--non habere fidem, non credere. _Non credendo_ here seems superfluous.]

17. When it was announced that their arms were being laid aside, and that the men were quitting their posts, Publius Valerius, his colleague still detaining the senate, hastens from the senate-house; he comes thence into the meeting to the tribunes: "What is all this," says he, "tribunes? Are you determined to overthrow the commonwealth under the guidance and auspices of Appius Herdonius? Has he been so successful in corrupting you, who, by his authority, has not influenced your slaves?

When the enemies are over our heads, is it your pleasure that arms should be given up, and laws be proposed?" Then directing his discourse to the populace: "If, Romans, no concern for your city, for yourselves, moves you, at least revere the G.o.ds of your country, now made captive by the enemy. Jupiter, the best and greatest, Queen Juno, and Minerva, the other G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses, are besieged; the camp of slaves now holds the tutelary G.o.ds of the state. Does this seem to you the form of a state in its senses? Such a crowd of enemies is not only within the walls, but in the citadel, commanding the forum and senate-house: in the mean while meetings are being held in the forum; the senate is in the senate-house, just as when perfect tranquillity prevails; the senator gives his opinion, the other Romans give their votes. Would it not behove all the patricians and commons, consuls, tribunes, citizens, and all cla.s.ses of persons, to bring aid with arms in their hands, to run into the Capitol, to liberate and restore to peace that most august residence of Jupiter, the best and greatest? O Father Romulus! do thou infuse into thy progeny that determination of thine, by which you once recovered from these same Sabines the citadel, when obtained by gold. Order them to pursue this same path, which thou, as leader, and thy army, pursued. Lo! I, as consul, shall be the first to follow thee and thy footsteps, as far as a mortal can follow a G.o.d." The close of his speech was: "That he would take up arms, that he invited every citizen of Rome to arms; if any one should oppose, that he, [123]forgetful of the consular authority, the tribunitian power, and the devoting laws, would consider him as an enemy, whoever he may, wheresoever he may, in the Capitol, or in the forum. That the tribunes might order arms to be taken up against Publius Valerius the consul, since they forbid it against Appius Herdonius; that he would venture to act in that manner in the case of the tribunes, in which the founder of his family had ventured to act in the case of kings." It now became apparent that extreme violence was about to take place, and that a disturbance among the Romans would be exhibited as a sight to the enemy; the law, however, could neither be prepared, nor could the consul proceed to the Capitol: night quashed the contest that had commenced; the tribunes yielded to the night, dreading the arms of the consuls. The fomenters of the disturbances being removed from thence, the patricians went about among the commons, and introducing themselves into their circles of conversation, they introduced observations suited to the occasion: they advised them "to beware into what hazard they were bringing the commonwealth; that the contest was not between the patricians and commons, but that patricians and commons together, the fortress of the city, the temples of the G.o.ds, the guardian G.o.ds of the state and of private families, were being delivered up to the enemy." Whilst these affairs are going on in the forum for the purpose of appeasing the disturbances, the consuls in the mean time had armed the several gates and the walls, lest the Sabines or the Veientian enemy should make any move.

[Footnote 123: _Forgetful of the consular, &c._--i.e. forgetful of the limits of the consular authority; acting in the same manner as if its power were unbounded, and admitted no appeal.]

18. On the same night, messengers come to Tusculum announcing that the citadel was taken, and the Capitol seized, and the other state of disturbance in the city. Lucius Mamilius was at that time dictator at Tusculum; he, having immediately convoked the senate and introduced the messengers, earnestly advises: "That they should not wait until amba.s.sadors came from Rome, suing for a.s.sistance; that the very danger and risk, and the social G.o.ds, and the faith of treaties, demanded it; that the G.o.ds would never afford them an equal opportunity of obliging so powerful a state and so near a neighbour." It is determined that a.s.sistance should be sent: the young men are enrolled; arms are given to them. Coming to Rome at break of day, they at a distance exhibited the appearance of enemies. The aequi or Volscians appeared to be coming. Then when the groundless alarm was removed, they are admitted into the city, and descend in a body into the forum. There Publius Valerius, having left his colleague to guard the gates, was now drawing up in order of battle. The great influence of the man had produced an effect, when he affirmed that, "the Capitol being recovered, and the city restored to peace, if they would allow themselves to be convinced what lurking fraud was concealed under the law proposed by the tribunes, that he would offer no obstruction to the meeting of the people, mindful of his ancestors, mindful of his surname, and that the province of protecting the people had been handed down to him as hereditary by his ancestors."

Following him as their leader, notwithstanding the tribunes cried out against it, they direct their march up the Capitoline hill. The Tusculan troops also joined them. Allies and citizens vied with each other which of them should appropriate to themselves the honour of recovering the citadel. Each leader encourages his own men. Then the enemy became terrified, and placed no dependence on any but the place. The Romans and allies advance on them whilst in this state of alarm. They had now broken into the porch of the temple, when Publius Valerius is slain animating the fight at the head of his men. Publius Volumnius, a man of consular rank, saw him falling. Having directed his men to cover the body, he rushes forward to the place and office of consul. Through their ardour and impetuosity the perception of so heavy a blow did not reach the soldiers; they conquered before they perceived that they conquered without a leader. Many of the exiles defiled the temple with their blood; many were taken alive; Herdonius was slain. Thus the Capitol was recovered. With respect to the prisoners,[124] punishment was inflicted on each according to his station, whether he was a freeman or a slave.

The commons are stated to have thrown farthings into the consul's house, that he might be buried with greater solemnity.

[Footnote 124: Niebuhr thinks that Caeso was among the number. See cap.

25, where we read "Caesonem neque Quintiae familiae, neque reipublicae rest.i.tui posse." Comp. Niebuhr ii. n. 673, Wachs.m.u.th, p. 347.]

19. Peace being established, the tribunes then pressed on the patricians to fulfil the promise of Publius Valerius; they pressed on Claudius, to free the shade of his colleague from breach of faith, and to allow the business of the law to proceed. The consul a.s.serted that he would suffer the discussion on the law to go on, till he had a colleague appointed in the room of the deceased. These disputes held on until the elections for subst.i.tuting a consul. In the month of December,[125] by the most zealous exertions of the patricians, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, Caeso's father, is elected consul to enter on his office without delay. The commons were dismayed at their being about to have as consul a man incensed against them, powerful by the support of the patricians, by his own merit, and by three sons, not one of whom yielded to Caeso in greatness of spirit; "whilst they were superior to him by their exercising prudence and moderation, when the occasion required." When he entered on his office, in his frequent harangues from the tribunal, he was not more vehement in restraining the commons than in reproving the senate, "by the listlessness of which body the tribunes of the commons, now become perpetual, by means of their tongues and prosecutions exercised regal authority, not as in a republic of the Roman people, but as if in an ill-regulated family. That with his son Caeso, fort.i.tude, constancy, all the splendid qualifications of youth in war or in peace, had been driven and exiled from the city of Rome: that talkative and turbulent men, sowers of discord, twice and even thrice re-elected tribunes, lived in the most destructive practices with regal tyranny.

Did that Aulus Virginius," says he, "deserve less punishment than Appius Herdonius, because he was not in the Capitol? considerably more, by Jove, (in the mind of any one) who would judge the matter fairly.

Herdonius, if nothing else, by avowing himself an enemy, in a manner gave you notice to take up arms: this man, by denying the existence of war, took arms out of your hands, and exposed you defenceless to your slaves and exiles. And did you, (without any offence to Caius Claudius and to Publius Valerius, now no more let me say it,) did you advance against the Capitoline hill before you expelled those enemies from the forum. It is shameful before G.o.ds and men. When the enemy were in the citadel, in the very Capitol, when the leader of the exiles and slaves, after profaning every thing, took up his residence in the shrine of Jupiter, the best and greatest, arms were taken up in Tusculum sooner than in Rome. It was a matter of doubt whether Lucius Mamilius, the Tusculan leader, or Publius Valerius and Caius Claudius, the consuls, recovered the Roman citadel, and we, who formerly did not suffer the Latins to touch arms, even in their own defence, when they had the enemy in their very frontiers, should have been taken and destroyed now, had not the Latins taken up arms of their own accord. Tribunes, is this bringing aid to the commons, to expose them in a defenceless state to be butchered by the enemy. Now, if any one, even the humblest individual of your commons, (which portion you have as it were broken off from the rest of the state, and made it your country and peculiar commonwealth,) if any one of these persons were to bring word that his house was beset by an armed band of slaves, you would think that a.s.sistance should be afforded to him. Was Jupiter, the best and greatest, when surrounded by the arms of exiles and of slaves, deserving of no human aid? And do these persons require that they be considered sacred and inviolable,[126] with whom the G.o.ds themselves are neither sacred nor inviolable? But, steeped as ye are in crimes against both G.o.ds and men, do ye say that you will pa.s.s your law this year? Verily then the day on which I was created consul was a disastrous day for the commonwealth, much more so even than that on which Publius Valerius the consul fell, if ye should carry it. Now, first of all," says he, "Romans, it is the intention of myself and of my colleague to march the legions against the Volsci and the aequi. I know not by what fatality we find the G.o.ds more propitious when we are at war than in peace. How great the danger from those states would have been, had they known that the Capitol was besieged by exiles, it is better to conjecture from the past, than to feel from actual experience."