Whether the task I have undertaken of writing a complete history of the
							Roman people from the very commencement of its existence will reward me
							for the labour spent on it, I neither know for certain, nor if I did
							know would I venture to say.

For I see that this is an old-established and a common practice, each
							fresh writer being invariably persuaded that he will either attain
							greater certainty in the materials of his narrative, or surpass the
							rudeness of antiquity in the excellence of his style.

However this may be, it will still be a great satisfaction to me to have
							taken my part, too, in investing, to the utmost of my abilities, the
							annals of the foremost nation in the world with a deeper interest; and
							if in such a crowd of writers my own reputation is thrown into the
							shade, I would console myself with the renown and greatness of those who
							eclipse my fame.

The subject, moreover, is one that demands immense labour. It goes back
							beyond 700 years and, after starting from small and humble beginnings,
							has grown to such dimensions that it begins to be overburdened by its
							greatness. I have very little doubt, too, that for the majority of my
							readers the earliest times and those immediately succeeding, will
							possess little attraction; they will hurry on to these modern days in
							which the might of a long paramount nation is wasting by internal decay.

I, on the other hand, shall look for a further reward of my labours in
							being able to close my eyes to the evils which our generation has
							witnessed for so many years; so long, at least, as I am devoting all my
							thoughts to retracing those pristine records, free from all the anxiety
							which can disturb the historian of his own times even if it cannot warp
							him from the truth.

The traditions of what happened prior to the foundation of the City or
							whilst it was being built, are more fitted to adorn the creations of the
							poet than the authentic records of the historian, and I have no
							intention of establishing either their truth or their falsehood.

This much licence is conceded to the ancients, that by intermingling
							human actions with divine they may confer a more august dignity on the
							origins of states. Now, if any nation ought to be allowed to claim a
							sacred origin and point back to a divine paternity that nation is Rome.

For such is her renown in war that when she chooses to represent Mars as
							her own and her founder's father, the nations of the world accept the
							statement with the same equanimity with which they accept her dominion.

But whatever opinions may be formed or criticisms passed upon these and
							similar traditions, I regard them as of small importance. The subjects
							to which I would ask each of my readers to devote his earnest attention
							are these-the life and morals of the community; the men and the
							qualities by which through domestic policy and foreign war dominion was
							won and extended. Then as the standard of morality gradually lowers, let
							him follow the decay of the national character, observing how at first
							it slowly sinks, then slips downward more and more rapidly, and finally
							begins to plunge into headlong ruin, until he reaches these days, in
							which we can bear neither our diseases nor their remedies.

There is this exceptionally beneficial and fruitful advantage to be
							derived from the study of the past, that you see, set in the clear light
							of historical truth, examples of every possible type. From these you may
							select for yourself and your country what to imitate, and also what, as
							being mischievous in its inception and disastrous in its issues, you are
							to avoid.

Unless, however, I am misled by affection for my undertaking, there has
							never existed any commonwealth greater in power, with a purer morality,
							or more fertile in good examples; or any state in which avarice and
							luxury have been so late in making their inroads, or poverty and
							frugality so highly and continuously honoured, showing so clearly that
							the less wealth men possessed the less they coveted.

In these latter years wealth has brought avarice in its train, and the
							unlimited command of pleasure has created in men a passion for ruining
							themselves and everything else through self-indulgence and
							licentiousness. But criticisms which will be unwelcome, even when
							perhaps necessary, must not appear in the commencement at all events of
							this extensive work.

We should much prefer to start with favourable omens, and if we could
							have adopted the poets' custom, it would have been much pleasanter to
							commence with prayers and supplications to gods and goddesses that they
							would grant a favourable and successful issue to the great task before
							us.

To begin
							with, it is generally admitted that after the capture of Troy , whilst the rest of the Trojans
							were massacred, against two of them —Aeneas and Antenor —the Achivi
							refused to exercise the rights of war, partly owing to old ties of
							hospitality, and partly because these men had always been in favour of
							making peace and surrendering Helen.

Their subsequent fortunes were different. Antenor sailed into the
							furthest part of the Adriatic, accompanied by a number of Enetians who
							had been driven from Paphlagonia by a revolution and after losing their king
							Pylaemenes before Troy were looking for a settlement and a leader.

The combined force of Enetians and Trojans defeated the Euganei, who
							dwelt between the sea and the Alps and occupied their land. The place where they
							disembarked was called Troy ,
							and the name was extended to the surrounding district; the whole nation
							were called Veneti.

Similar misfortunes led to Aeneas becoming a wanderer but the Fates were
							preparing a higher destiny for him. He first visited Macedonia , then was carried down to
								 Sicily in quest of a
							settlement; from Sicily he
							directed his course to the Laurentian territory.

Here, too, the name of Troy is
							found, and here the Trojans disembarked, and as their almost infinite
							wanderings had left them nothing but their arms and their ships, they
							began to plunder the neighbourhood. The Aborigines, who occupied the
							country, with their king Latinus at their head came hastily together
							from the city and the country districts to repel the inroads of the
							strangers by force of arms. From this point there is a twofold
							tradition. According to the one, Latinus was defeated in battle, and
							made peace with Aeneas, and subsequently a family alliance.

According to the other, whilst the two armies were standing ready to
							engage and waiting for the signal, Latinus advanced in front of his
							lines and invited the leader of the strangers to a conference.

He inquired of him what manner of men they were, whence they came, what
							had happened to make them leave their homes, what were they in quest of
							when they landed in Latinus' territory.

When he heard that the men were Trojans, that their leader was Aeneas,
							the son of Anchises and Venus, that their city had been burnt, and that
							the homeless exiles were now looking for a place to settle in and build
							a city, he was so struck with the noble bearing of the men and their
							leader, and their readiness to accept alike either peace or war, that he
							gave his right hand as a solemn pledge of friendship for the future.

A formal treaty was made between the leaders and mutual greetings
							exchanged between the armies. Latinus received Aeneas as a guest in his
							house, and there, in the presence of his tutelary deities, completed the
							political alliance by a domestic one, and gave his daughter in marriage
							to Aeneas.

This incident confirmed the Trojans in the hope that they had reached
							the term of their wanderings and won a permanent home.

They built a town, which Aeneas called Lavinium after his wife. In a short time a boy was born
							of the new marriage, to whom his parents gave the name of Ascanius.

In a short time the Aborigines and Trojans became involved in war with
							Turnus, the king of the Rutulians. Lavinia had been betrothed to him
							before the arrival of Aeneas, and, furious at finding a stranger
							preferred to him, he declared war against both Latinus and Aeneas.

Neither side could congratulate themselves on the result of the battle;
							the Rutulians were defeated, but the victorious Aborigines and Trojans
							lost their leader Latinus.

Feeling their need of allies, Turnus and the Rutulians had recourse to
							the celebrated power of the Etruscans and Mezentius, their king, who was
							reigning at Caere , a wealthy
							city in those days. From the first he had felt anything but pleasure at
							the rise of the new city, and now he regarded the growth of the Trojan
							state as much too rapid to be safe to its neighbours, so he welcomed the
							proposal to join forces with the Rutulians.

To keep the Aborigines from abandoning him in the face of this strong
							coalition and to secure their being not only under the same laws, but
							also the same designation, Aeneas called both nations by the common name
							of Latins.

From that time the Aborigines were not behind the Trojans in their loyal
							devotion to Aeneas. So great was the power of Etruria that the renown of
							her people had filled not only the inland parts of Italy but also the coastal districts
							along the whole length of the land from the Alps to the Straits of Messina . Aeneas, however, trusting to the loyalty of
							the two nations who were day by day growing into one, led his forces
							into the field, instead of awaiting the enemy behind his walls.

The battle resulted in favour of the Latins, but it was the last mortal
							act of Aeneas His tomb — whatever it is lawful and right to call him —
							is situated on the bank of the Numicius. He is addressed as
							“Jupiter Indiges.”

His son Ascanius was not old enough
							to assume the government but his throne remained secure throughout his
							minority. During that interval —such was Lavinia's force of character
							—though a woman was regent, the Latin State, and the kingdom of his
							father and grandfather, were preserved unimpaired for her son.

I will not discuss the question-for who could speak decisively about a
							matter of such extreme antiquity ? —whether the man whom the Julian
							house claim, under the name of Iulus, as the founder of their name, was
							this Ascanius or an older one than he, born of Creusa, whilst Ilium was still intact, and after its
							fall a sharer in his father's fortunes.

This Ascanius, where-ever born, or of whatever mother-it is generally
							agreed in any case that he was the son of Aeneas-left to his mother (or
							his stepmother) the city of Lavinium , which was for those days a prosperous and
							wealthy city, with a superabundant population, and built a new city at
							the foot of the Alban hills,
							which from its position, stretching along the side of the hill, was
							called “ Alba
								Longa .”

An interval of thirty years elapsed between the foundation of Lavinium and the colonisation of
								 Alba Longa . Such had
							been the growth of the Latin power, mainly through the defeat of the
							Etruscans, that neither at the death of Aeneas, nor during the regency
							of Lavinia, nor during the immature years

of the reign of Ascanius, did either Mezentius and the Etruscans or any
							other of their neighbours venture to attack them.

When terms of peace were being arranged, the river Albula , now called the Tiber , had been fixed as the boundary
							between the Etruscans and the Latins.

Ascanius was succeeded by his son Silvius, who by some chance had been
							born in the forest. He became the father of Aeneas Silvius, who in his
							turn had a son, Latinus Silvius.

He planted a number of colonies: the colonists were called Prisci Latini . The cognomen of Silvius was
							common to all the remaining kings of Alba, each of whom succeeded his
							father.

Their names are Alba, Atys, Capys, Capetus, Tiberinus, who was drowned
							in crossing the Albula , and his
							name transferred to the river, which became henceforth the famous
								 Tiber . Then came his son
							Agrippa, after him his son Romulus Silvius. He was struck by lightning
							and left the crown to his son Aventinus, whose shrine was on the hill
							which bears his name and is now a part of the city of Rome .

He was succeeded by Proca, who had two sons, Numitor and Amulius. To
							Numitor, the elder, he bequeathed the ancient throne of the Silvian
							house. Violence, however, proved stronger than either the father's will
							or the respect due to the brother's seniority; for Amulius expelled his
							brother and seized the crown.

Adding crime to crime, he murdered his brother's sons and made the
							daughter, Rea Silvia, a Vestal virgin; thus, under the pretence of
							honouring her, depriving her of all hopes of issue.

But the Fates had, I
							believe, already decreed the origin of this great city and the
							foundation of the mightiest empire under heaven.

The Vestal was forcibly violated and gave birth to twins. She named Mars
							as their father, either because she really believed it, or because the
							fault might appear less heinous if a deity were the cause of it.

But neither gods nor men sheltered her or her babes from the king's
							cruelty; the priestess was thrown into prison, the boys were ordered to
							be thrown into the river.

By a heaven-sent chance it happened that the Tiber was then overflowing its banks,
							and stretches of standing water prevented any approach to the main
							channel. Those who were carrying the children expected that this
							stagnant water would be sufficient to drown them, so under the
							impression that they were carrying out the king's orders they

exposed the boys at the nearest point of the overflow, where the Ficus
							Ruminalis (said to have been formerly called Romularis) now stands. The
							locality was then a wild solitude.

The tradition goes on to say that after the floating cradle in which the
							boys had been exposed had been left by the retreating water on dry land,
							a thirsty she-wolf from the surrounding hills, attracted by the crying
							of the children, came to them, gave them her teats to suck and was so
							gentle towards them that the king's flock-master found her licking the
							boys with her tongue. According to the story his name was Faustulus.

He took the children to his hut and gave them to his wife Larentia to
							bring up. Some writers think that Larentia, from her unchaste life, had
							got the nickname of “She-wolf” amongst the shepherds, and
							that this was the origin of the marvellous story.

As soon as the boys, thus born and thus brought up, grew to be young men
							they did not neglect their pastoral duties but their special delight was
							roaming through the woods on hunting expeditions.

As their strength and courage were thus developed, they used not only to
							lie in wait for fierce beasts of prey, but they even attacked brigands
							when loaded with plunder. They distributed what they took amongst the
							shepherds, with whom, surrounded by a continually increasing body of
							young men, they associated themselves in their serious undertakings and
							in their sports and pastimes.

It is said that the festival of the Lupercalia, which is
							still observed, was even in those days celebrated on the Palatine hill.

This hill was originally called Pallantium from a city of the same name
							in Arcadia ; the name was
							afterwards changed to Palatium. Evander , an Arcadian , had held that territory many ages before, and
							had introduced an annual festival from Arcadia in which young men ran about naked for sport
							and wantonness, in honour of the Lycaean Pan, whom the Romans afterwards
							called Inuus.

The existence of this festival was widely recognised, and it was while
							the two brothers were engaged in it that the brigands, enraged at losing
							their plunder, ambushed them. Romulus successfully defended himself, but Remus was taken prisoner and brought
							before Amulius, his captors impudently accusing him of their own crimes.

The principal charge brought against them was that of invading Numitor's
							lands with a body of young men whom they had got together, and carrying
							off plunder as though in regular warfare.

Remus accordingly was handed
							over to Numitor for punishment. Faustulus had from the beginning
							suspected that it was royal offspring that he was bringing up, for he
							was aware that the boys had been exposed at the king's command and the
							time at which he had taken them away exactly corresponded with that of
							their exposure. He had, however, refused to divulge the matter
							prematurely, until either a fitting opportunity occurred or necessity
							demanded its disclosure. The necessity came first.

Alarmed for the safety of Remus 
							he revealed the state of the case to Romulus . It so happened that Numitor also, who had
								 Remus in his custody, on
							hearing that he and his brother were twins, and comparing their ages,
							and the character and bearing so unlike that of one in a servile
							condition, began to recall the memory of his grandchildren, and further
							inquiries brought him to the same conclusion as Faustulus; nothing was
							wanting to the recognition of Remus . So the king Amulius was being enmeshed on all
							sides by hostile purposes.

Romulus shrunk from a direct
							attack with his body of shepherds, for he was no match for the king in
							open fight. They were instructed to approach the palace by different
							routes and meet there at a given time, whilst from Numitor's house
								 Remus lent his assistance
							with a second band he had collected. The attack succeeded and the king
							was killed.

At the beginning of the fray, Numitor gave out that an enemy had entered
							the City and was attacking the palace, in order to draw off the
								 Alban soldiery to the
							citadel, to defend it. When he saw the young men coming to congratulate
							him after the assassination, he at once called a council of his people
							and explained his brother's infamous conduct towards him, the story of
							his grandsons, their parentage and bringing up, and how he recognised
							them. Then he proceeded to inform them of the tyrant's death and his
							responsibility for it.

The young men marched in order through the midst of the assembly and
							saluted their grandfather as king; their action was approved by the
							whole population, who with one voice ratified the title and sovereignty
							of the king.

After 
							the government of Alba was thus transferred to Numitor, Romulus and Remus were seized with the desire of
							building a city in the locality where they had been exposed. There was
							the superfluous population of the Alban and Latin towns, to these were added the
							shepherds: it was natural to hope that with all these Alba would be
							small and Lavinium small in
							comparison with the city which was to be founded.

These pleasant anticipations were disturbed by the ancestral curse
							—ambition —which led to a deplorable quarrel over what was at first a
							trivial matter. As they were twins and no claim to precedence could be
							based on seniority, they decided to consult the tutelary deities of the
							place by means of augury as to who was to give his name to the new city,
							and who was to rule it after it had been founded. Romulus accordingly selected the
								 Palatine as his station for
							observation, Remus the
								 Aventine .

Remus is said to have been the
							first to receive an omen: six vultures appeared to him. The augury had
							just been announced to Romulus 
							when double the number appeared to him. Each was saluted as king by his
							own party.

The one side based their claim on the priority of the appearance, the
							other on the number of the birds. Then followed an angry altercation;
							heated passions led to bloodshed; in the tumult Remus was killed. The more common
							report is that Remus 
							contemptuously jumped over the newly raised walls and was forthwith
							killed by the enraged Romulus ,
							who exclaimed, “So shall it be henceforth with every one who
							leaps over my walls.”

Romulus thus became sole ruler, and the city was called after him, its
							founder. His first work was to
							fortify the Palatine hill where
							he had been brought up. The worship of the other deities he conducted
							according to the use of Alba, but that of Hercules in accordance with the Greek rites as they had
							been instituted by Evander .

It was into this neighbourhood, according to the tradition, that
								 Hercules , after he had
							killed Geryon, drove his oxen, which were of marvellous beauty. He swam
							across the Tiber , driving the
							oxen before him, and wearied with his journey, lay down in a grassy
							place near the river to rest himself and the oxen, who enjoyed the rich
							pasture.

When sleep had overtaken him, as he was heavy with food and wine, a
							shepherd living near, called Cacus, presuming on his strength, and
							captivated by the beauty of the oxen, determined to secure them. If he
							drove them before him into the cave, their hoof-marks would have led
							their owner in his search for them in the same direction, so he dragged
							the finest of them backwards by their tails into his cave. At the first
							streak of dawn Hercules awoke,
							and on surveying his herd and saw that some were missing.

He proceeded towards the nearest cave, to see if any tracks pointed in
							that direction, but he found that every hoof-mark led from the cave and
							none towards it. Perplexed and bewildered he began to drive the herd
							away from so dangerous a neighbourhood. Some of the cattle, missing
							those which were left behind, lowed as they often do, and an answering
							low sounded from the cave.

Hercules turned in that
							direction, and as Cacus tried to prevent him by force from entering the
							cave, he was killed by a blow from Hercules ' club, after vainly appealing for help to his
							comrades. The king of the country at that time was Evander , a refugee from Peloponnesus,
							who ruled more by personal ascendancy than by the exercise of power.

He was looked up to with reverence for his knowledge of letters —a new
							and marvellous thing for uncivilized men-but he was still more revered
							because of his mother, who was believed to be a divine being and
							regarded with wonder, by all as an interpreter of Fate, in the days
							before the arrival of the Sibyl 
							in Italy .

This Evander , alarmed by the
							crowd of excited shepherds standing round a stranger whom they accused
							of open murder, ascertained from them the nature of his act and what led
							to it. As he observed the bearing and stature of the man to be more than
							human in greatness and august dignity, he asked who he was.

When he heard his name, and learnt his father and his country, he said,
							“ Hercules , son of
								 Jupiter , hail! My mother,
							who speaks truth in the name of the gods, has prophesied that thou shalt
							join the company of the gods, and that here a shrine shall be dedicated
							to thee, which in ages to come the most powerful nation in all the world
							shall call their Ara Maxima and honour with
							thine own special worship.”

Hercules grasped Evander 's right hand and said that he
							took the omen to himself and would fulfil the prophecy by building and
							consecrating the altar.

Then a heifer of conspicuous beauty was taken from the herd, and the
							first sacrifice was offered; the Potitii and Pinarii, the two principal
							families in those parts, were invited by Hercules to assist in the sacrifice and at the feast
							which followed.

It so happened that the Potitii were present at the appointed time and
							the entrails were placed before them; the Pinarii arrived after these
							were consumed and came in for the rest of the banquet.

It became a permanent institution from that time that as long as the
							family of the Pinarii survived they should not eat of the entrails of
							the victims. The Potitii, after being instructed by Evander , presided over that rite for
							many ages, until they handed over this ministerial office to public
							servants after which the whole race of the Potitii perished.

This, out of all foreign rites, was the only one which Romulus adopted, as though he felt
							that an immortality won through courage, of which this was the memorial,
							would one day be his own reward.

After the claims of religion had been duly
							acknowledged, Romulus called
							his people to a council. As nothing could unite them into one political
							body but the observance of common laws and customs, he gave them

a body of laws, which he thought would only be respected by a rude and
							uncivilised race of men if he inspired them with awe by assuming the
							outward symbols of power. He surrounded himself with greater state, and
							in particular he called into his service twelve lictors.

Some think that he fixed upon this number from the number of the birds
							who foretold his sovereignty; but I am inclined to agree with those who
							think that as this class of public officers was borrowed from the same
							people from whom the “ sella curulis 
							” and the “ toga praetexta ” were
							adopted —their neighbours, the Etruscans —so the number itself also was
							taken from them. Its use amongst the Etruscans is traced to the custom
							of the twelve sovereign cities of Etruria, when jointly electing a king
							furnishing him each with one lictor.

Meantime the City
							was growing by the extension of its walls in various directions an
							increase due rather to the anticipation of its future population than to
							any present overcrowding. His next care was to secure an addition to the
							population that the size of the City might not be a

source of weakness. It had been the ancient policy of the founders of
							cities to get together a multitude of people of obscure and low origin
							and then to spread the fiction that they were the children of the soil.
							In accordance with this policy, Romulus opened a place of refuge on the spot where, as
							you go down from the Capitol, you find an enclosed space

between two groves. A promiscuous crowd of freemen and slaves, eager for
							change, fled thither from the neighbouring states. This was the first
							accession of strength to the nascent greatness

of the city. When he was satisfied as to its
							strength, his next step was to provide for that strength being wisely
							directed. He created a hundred senators; either, because that number was
							adequate, or because there were only a hundred heads of houses who could
							be created. In any case they were called the “ Patres ” in virtue of their rank, and their
							descendants were called “Patricians.”

The Roman State had now become so strong that it
							was a match for any of its neighbours in war, but its greatness
							threatened to last for only one generation, since through the absence of
							women there was no hope of offspring, and there was no right of
							intermarriage with their neighbours.

Acting on the advice of the senate, Romulus sent envoys amongst the surrounding nations to
							ask for alliance and the right of intermarriage on behalf of his new
							community.

It was represented that cities, like everything else, sprung from the
							humblest beginnings, and those who were helped on by their own courage
							and the favour of heaven won for themselves great power and great
							renown.

As to the origin of Rome , it
							was well known that whilst it had received divine assistance, courage
							and self-reliance were not wanting. There should, therefore, be no
							reluctance for men to mingle their blood with their fellow-men.

Nowhere did the envoys meet with a favourable reception. Whilst their
							proposals were treated with contumely, there was at the same time a
							general feeling of alarm at the power so rapidly growing in their midst.
							Usually they were dismissed with the question, “whether they had
							opened an asylum for women, for nothing short of that would secure for
							them inter-marriage on equal terms.”

The Roman youth could ill brook such insults, and matters began to look
							like an appeal to force. To secure a favourable place and time for such
							an attempt, Romulus , disguising
							his resentment, made elaborate preparations for the celebration of games
							in honour of “Equestrian Neptune ,” which he called “the Consualia .”

He ordered public notice of the spectacle to be given amongst the
							adjoining cities, and his people supported him in making the celebration
							as magnificent as their knowledge and resources allowed, so that
							expectations were raised to the highest pitch.

There was a great gathering; people were eager to see the new City, all
							their nearest neighbours-the people of Caenina, Antemnae, and
							Crustumerium-were there, and the whole Sabine population came, with their wives and families.

They were invited to accept hospitality at the different houses, and
							after examining the situation of the City, its walls and the large
							number of dwelling-houses it included, they were astonished at the
							rapidity with which the Roman State had grown.

When the hour for the games had come, and their eyes and minds were alike
							riveted on the spectacle before them, the preconcerted signal was given
							and the Roman youth dashed in all directions to carry off the maidens
							who were present.

The larger part were carried off indiscriminately, but some particularly
							beautiful girls who had been marked out for the leading patricians were
							carried to their houses by plebeians told off for the task.

One, conspicuous amongst them all for grace and beauty, is reported to
							have been carried off by a group led by a certain Talassius, and to the
							many inquiries as to whom she was intended for, the invariable answer
							was given, “For Talassius.”

Hence the use of this word in the marriage rites. 
							Alarm and consternation broke up the games, and the parents of the
							maidens fled, distracted with grief, uttering bitter reproaches on the
							violators of the laws of hospitality and appealing to the god to whose
							solemn games they had come, only to be the victims of impious

perfidy. The abducted maidens were quite as despondent and indignant.
								 Romulus , however, went
							round in person, and pointed out to them that it was all owing to the
							pride of their parents in denying right of intermarriage to their
							neighbours. They would live in honourable wedlock, and share all their
							property and civil rights, and —dearest of all to human nature-would be
							the mothers of

freemen. He begged them to lay aside their feelings of resentment and
							give their affections to those whom fortune had made masters of their
							persons. An injury had often led to reconciliation and love; they would
							find their husbands all the more affectionate because each would do his
							utmost, so far as in him lay to make up for the loss of parents and

country. These arguments were reinforced by the endearments of their
							husbands who excused their conduct by pleading the irresistible force of
							their passion —a plea effective beyond all others in appealing to a
							woman's nature.

The feelings of the abducted maidens were now pretty
							completely appeased, but not so those of their parents. They went about
							in mourning garb, and tried by their tearful complaints to rouse their
							countrymen to action. Nor did they confine their remonstrances to their
							own cities; they flocked from all sides to Titus Tatius, the king of the
							Sabines, and sent formal deputations to him, for his was the most
							influential name in those parts.

The people of Caenina, Crustumerium, and Antemnae were the greatest
							sufferers; they thought Tatius and his Sabines were too slow in moving,
							so these three cities prepared to make war conjointly.

Such, however, were the impatience and anger of the Caeninensians that
							even the Crustuminians and Antemnates did not display enough energy for
							them, so the men of Caenina made an attack upon Roman territory on their
							own account.

Whilst they were scattered far and wide, pillaging and destroying,
								 Romulus came upon them with
							an army, and after a brief encounter taught them that anger is futile
							without strength. He put them to a hasty flight, and following them up,
							killed their king and despoiled his body; then after slaying their
							leader took their city at the first assault.

He was no less anxious to display his achievements than he had been
							great in performing them, so, after leading his victorious army home, he
							mounted to the Capitol with the spoils of his dead foe borne before him
							on a frame constructed for the purpose. He hung them there on an oak,
							which the shepherds looked upon as a sacred tree, and at the same time
							marked out the site for the temple of Jupiter , and addressing the god by a new title, uttered
							the following invocation: “Jupiter Feretrius!

these arms taken from a king, I, Romulus a king and conqueror, bring to thee, and on
							this domain, whose bounds I have in will and purpose traced, I dedicate
							a temple to receive the spolia opima which
							posterity following my example shall bear hither, taken from the kings
							and generals of our foes slain in battle.”

Such was the origin of the first temple dedicated in Rome . And the gods decreed that though
							its founder did not utter idle words in declaring that posterity would
							thither bear their spoils, still the splendour of that offering should
							not be dimmed by the number of those who have rivalled his achievement.
							For after so many years have elapsed and so many wars been waged, only
							twice have the spolia opima been
								offered. So seldom has
							Fortune granted that glory to men.

Whilst the Romans were thus occupied, the army of the Antemnates seized
							the opportunity of their territory being unoccupied and made a raid into
							it. Romulus hastily led his
							legion against this fresh foe and surprised them as they were scattered
							over the fields.

At the very first battle-shout and charge the enemy were routed and
							their city captured. Whilst Romulus was exulting over this double
							victory, his wife, Hersilia, moved by the entreaties of the abducted
							maidens, implored him to pardon their parents and receive them into
							citizenship, for so the State would increase in unity and strength.

He readily granted her request. He then advanced against the
							Crustuminians, who had commenced war, but their eagerness had been
							damped by the successive defeats of their neighbours, and they offered
							but slight resistance.

Colonies were planted in both places; owing to the fertility of the soil
							of the Crustumine district, the majority gave their names for that
							colony. On the other hand there were numerous migrations to Rome , mostly of the parents and
							relatives of the abducted maidens.

The last of these wars was commenced by the Sabines
							and proved the most serious of all, for nothing was done in passion or
							impatience; they masked their designs till war had actually commenced.

Strategy was aided by craft and deceit, as the following incident shows.
							Spurius Tarpeius was in command of the Roman citadel. Whilst his
							daughter had gone outside the fortifications to fetch water for some
							religious ceremonies, Tatius bribed her to admit his troops within the
							citadel.

Once admitted, they crushed her to death beneath their shields, either
							that the citadel might appear to have been taken by assault, or that her
							example might be left as a warning that no faith should be kept with
							traitors.

A further story runs that the Sabines were in the habit of wearing heavy
							gold armlets on their left arms and richly jeweled rings, and that the
							girl made them promise to give her “what they had on their left
							arms,” accordingly they piled their shields upon her instead of
							golden gifts.

Some say that in bargaining for what they had in their left hands, she
							expressly asked for their shields, and being suspected of wishing to
							betray them, fell a victim to her own bargain.

However this may be, the Sabines were in possession of the citadel. And
							they would not come down from it the next day, though the Roman army was
							drawn up in battle array over the whole of the ground between the
								 Palatine and the Capitoline
							hill, until, exasperated at the loss of their citadel and determined to
							recover it, the Romans mounted to the attack.

Advancing before the rest, Mettius Curtius, on the side of the Sabines,
							and Hostius Hostilius, on the side of the Romans, engaged in single
							combat.

Hostius, fighting on disadvantageous ground, upheld the fortunes of
								 Rome by his intrepid
							bravery, but at last he fell; the Roman line broke and fled to what was
							then the gate of the Palatine .

Even Romulus was being swept
							away by the crowd of fugitives, and lifting up his hands to heaven he
							exclaimed: “ Jupiter , it
							was thy omen that I obeyed when I laid here on the Palatine the earliest foundations of
							the City. Now the Sabines hold its citadel, having bought it by a bribe,
							and coming thence have seized the valley and are pressing hitherwards in
							battle.

Do thou, Father of gods and men, drive hence our foes, banish terror
							from Roman hearts, and stay our shameful flight!

Here do I vow a temple to thee, “Jove the Stayer,” as a
							memorial for the generations to come that it is through thy present help
							that the City has been saved.”

Then, as though he had become aware that his prayer had been heard, he
							cried, “Back, Romans! Jupiter Optimus Maximus bids you stand and
							renew the battle.”

They stopped as though commanded by a voice from heaven- Romulus dashed up to the foremost
							line, just as Mettius Curtius had run down from the citadel in front of
							the Sabines and driven the Romans in headlong flight over the whole of
							the ground now occupied by the Forum. He was now not far from the gate
							of the Palatine , and was
							shouting: “We have conquered our faithless hosts, our cowardly
							foes; now they know that to carry off maidens is a very different thing
							from fighting with men.”

In the midst of these vaunts Romulus , with a compact body of valiant troops, charged
							down on him. Mettius happened to be on horseback, so he was the more
							easily driven back, the Romans followed in pursuit, and, inspired by the
							courage of their king, the rest of the Roman army routed the Sabines.

Mettius, unable to control his horse, maddened by the noise of his
							pursuers, plunged into a morass. The danger of their general drew off
							the attention of the Sabines for a moment from the battle; they called
							out and made signals to encourage him, so, animated to fresh efforts, he
							succeeded in extricating himself. Thereupon the Romans and Sabines
							renewed the fighting in the middle of the valley, but the fortune of
								 Rome was in the ascendant.

Then it was that the Sabine women, whose wrongs had led to
							the war, throwing off all womanish fears in their distress, went boldly
							into the midst of the flying missiles with dishevelled hair and rent
							garments.

Running across the space between the two armies they tried to stop any
							further fighting and calm the excited passions by appealing to their
							fathers in the one army and their husbands in the other not to bring
							upon themselves a curse by staining their hands with the blood of a
							father-in-law or a son-in-law, nor upon their posterity the taint of
							parricide.

“If,” they cried, “you are weary of these ties of
							kindred, these marriage-bonds, then turn your anger upon us; it is we
							who are the cause of the war, it is we who have wounded and slain our
							husbands and fathers. Better for us to perish rather than live without
							one or the other of you, as widows or as orphans.”

The armies and their leaders were alike moved by this appeal. There was a
							sudden hush and silence. Then the generals advanced to arrange the terms
							of a treaty. It was not only peace that was made, the two nations were
							united into one State, the royal power was shared between them, and the
							seat of government for both nations was Rome .

After thus doubling the City, a concession was made to the Sabines in
							the new appellation of Quirites, from their old capital of Cures. As a
							memorial of the battle, the place where Curtius got his horse out of the
							deep marsh on to safer ground was called the Curtian lake.

The joyful peace, which put an abrupt close
							to such a deplorable war, made the Sabine women still dearer to their husbands and
							fathers, and most of all to Romulus himself.

Consequently when he effected the distribution of the people into the
							thirty curiae, he affixed their names to the curiae. No doubt there were
							many more than thirty women, and tradition is silent as to whether those
							whose names were given to the curiae were selected on the ground of age,
							or on that of personal distinction — either their own or their husbands'
							—or merely by lot.

The enrolment of the three centuries of knights took place at the same
							time; the Ramnenses were called after Romulus , the Titienses from T. Tatius. The origin of
							the Luceres and why they were so called is uncertain. Thenceforward the
							two kings exercised their joint sovereignty with perfect harmony.

Some years subsequently the kinsmen of King Tatius
							ill-treated the ambassadors of the Laurentines. They came to seek
							redress from him in accordance with international law, but the influence
							and importunities of his friends had more weight with Tatius than the
							remonstrances of the Laurentines.

The consequence was that he brought upon himself the punishment due to
							them, for when he had gone to the annual sacrifice at Lavinium , a tumult arose in which he
							was killed.

Romulus is reported to have
							been less distressed at this incident than his position demanded, either
							because of the insincerity inherent in all joint sovereignty, or because
							he thought he had deserved his fate.

He refused, therefore, to go to war, but that the wrong done to the
							ambassadors and the murder of the king might be expiated, the treaty
							between Rome and Lavinium was renewed. Whilst in this direction an unhoped-for peace was secured,
							war broke out in a much nearer quarter, in fact almost at the very gates
							of Rome . The people of Fidenae
							considered that a power was growing up too close to them, so to prevent
							the anticipations of its future greatness from being realised, they took
							the initiative in making war.

Armed bands invaded and devastated the country lying between the City
							and Fidenae. Thence they turned to the left-the Tiber barred their advance on the
							right-and plundered and destroyed, to the great alarm of the country
							people.

A sudden rush from the fields into the City was the first intimation of
							what was happening.

A war so close to their gates admitted of no delay, and Romulus hurriedly led out his army and
							encamped about a mile from Fidenae. Leaving a small detachment to guard
							the camp, he went forward with his whole force, and whilst one part were
							ordered to lie in ambush in a place overgrown with dense brushwood, he
							advanced with the larger part and the whole of the cavalry towards the
							city, and by riding up to the very gates in a disorderly and provocative
							manner he succeeded in drawing the enemy.

The cavalry continued these tactics and so made the flight which they
							were to feign seem less suspicious, and when their apparent hesitation
							whether to fight or to flee was followed by the retirement of the
							infantry, the enemy suddenly poured out of the crowded gates, broke the
							Roman line and pressed on in eager pursuit till they were brought to
							where the ambush was set.

Then the Romans suddenly rose and attacked the enemy in flank; their
							panic was increased by the troops in the camp bearing down upon them.
							Terrified by the threatened attacks from all sides, the Fidenates turned
							and fled almost before Romulus 
							and his men could wheel round from their simulated flight.

They made for their town much more quickly than they had just before
							pursued those who pretended to flee, for their flight was a genuine one.

They could not, however, shake off the pursuit; the Romans were on their
							heels, and before the gates could be closed against them, burst through
							pell-mell with the enemy.

The contagion
							of the war-spirit in Fidenae infected the Veientes. This people were
							connected by ties of blood with the Fidenates, who were also Etruscans,
							and an additional incentive was supplied by the mere proximity of the
							place, should the arms of Rome 
							be turned against all her neighbours. They made an incursion into Roman
							territory, rather for the sake of plunder than as an act of regular war.

After securing their booty they returned with it to Veii , without entrenching a camp or
							waiting for the enemy. The Romans, on the other hand, not finding the
							enemy on their soil, crossed the Tiber , prepared and determined to fight a decisive
							battle.

On hearing that they had formed an entrenched camp and were preparing to
							advance on their city, the Veientes went out against them, preferring a
							combat in the open to being shut up and having to fight from houses and
							walls.

Romulus gained the victory, not through stratagem, but through the
							prowess of his veteran army. He drove the routed enemy up to their
							walls, but in view of the strong position and fortifications of the
							city, he abstained from assaulting it. On his march home-wards, he
							devastated their fields more out of revenge than for the sake of
							plunder.

The loss thus sustained, no less than the previous defeat, broke the
							spirit of the Veientes, and they sent envoys to Rome to sue for peace. On condition
							of a cession of territory a truce was granted to them for a hundred
							years.

These were the principal events at home and in the field that marked the
							reign of Romulus. Throughout-whether we consider the courage he showed
							in recovering his ancestral throne, or the wisdom he displayed in
							founding the City and adding to its strength through war and peace
							alike-we find nothing incompatible with the belief in his divine origin
							and his admission to divine immortality after death.

It was, in fact, through the strength given by him that the City was
							powerful enough to enjoy an assured peace for forty years after his
							departure.

He was, however, more acceptable to the populace than to the patricians
							but most of all was he the idol of his soldiers. He kept a bodyguard of
							three hundred men round him in peace as well as in war These he called
							the “Celeres.”

After these immortal achievements,
							Romulus held a review of his army at the “Caprae Palus” in
							the Campus Martius . A violent
							thunder storm suddenly arose and enveloped the king in so dense a cloud
							that he was quite invisible to the assembly. From that hour Romulus was
							no longer seen on earth.

When the fears of the Roman youth were allayed by the return of bright,
							calm sun-shine after such fearful weather, they saw that the royal seat
							was vacant. Whilst they fully believed the assertion of the Senators,
							who had been standing close to him, that he had been snatched away to
							heaven by a whirlwind, still, like men suddenly bereaved, fear and grief
							kept them for some time speechless.

At length, after a few had taken the initiative, the whole of those
							present hailed Romulus as “a god, the son of a god, the King and
							Father of the City of Rome .” They put up supplications for his grace and
							favour, and prayed that he would be propitious to his children and save
							and protect them.

I believe, however, that even then there were some who secretly hinted
							that he had been torn limb from limb by the senators-a tradition to this
							effect, though certainly a very dim one, has filtered down to us.

The other, which I follow, has been the prevailing one, due, no doubt,
							to the admiration felt for the man and the apprehensions excited by his
							disappearance. This generally accepted belief was strengthened by one
							man's clever device. The tradition runs that Proculus Julius, a man
							whose authority had weight in matters of even the gravest importance,
							seeing how deeply the community felt the loss of the king, and how
							incensed they were against the senators, came forward into the assembly
							and said: “Quirites!

at break of dawn, to-day, the Father of this City suddenly descended
							from heaven and appeared to me.

Whilst, thrilled with awe, I stood rapt before him in deepest reverence,
							praying that I might be pardoned for gazing upon him,
							“Go,” said he, “tell the Romans that it is the will
							of heaven that my Rome should
							be the head of all the world. Let them henceforth cultivate the arts of
							war, and let them know assuredly, and hand down the knowledge to
							posterity, that no human might can withstand the arms of Rome .” ”

It is marvellous what credit was given to this man's story, and how the
							grief of the people and the army was soothed by the belief which had
							been created in the immortality of Romulus.

Disputes arose among the senators about
							the vacant throne. It was not the jealousies of individual citizens, for
							no one was sufficiently prominent in so young a State, but the rivalries
							of parties in the State that led to this strife.

The Sabine families were
							apprehensive of losing their fair share of the sovereign power, because
							after the death of Tatius they had had no representative on the throne;
							they were anxious, therefore, that the king should be elected from
							amongst them.

The ancient Romans could ill brook a foreign king; but amidst this
							diversity of political views, all were for a monarchy; they had not yet
							tasted the sweets of liberty.

The senators began to grow apprehensive of some aggressive act on the
							part of the surrounding states, now that the City was without a central
							authority and the army without a general. They decided that there must
							be some head of the State, but no one could make up his mind to concede
							the dignity to any one else.

The matter was settled by the hundred senators dividing them-selves into
							ten “decuries,” and one was chosen from each decury to
							exercise the supreme power.

Ten therefore were in office, but only one at a time had the insignia of
							authority and the lictors. Their individual authority was restricted to
							five days, and they exercised it in rotation. This break in the monarchy
							lasted for a year, and it was called by the name it still bears —that of
							“interregnum.”

After a time the plebs began to murmur that their bondage was
							multiplied, for they had a hundred masters instead of one. It was
							evident that they would insist upon a king being elected, and elected by
							them.

When the senators became aware of this growing determination, they
							thought it better to offer spontaneously what they were bound to part
							with, so, as an act of grace, they committed the supreme power into the
							hands of the people, but in such a way that they did not give away more
							privilege than they retained.

For they passed a decree that when the people had chosen a king, his
							election would only be valid after the senate had ratified it by their
							authority. The same procedure exists to-day in the passing of laws and
							the election of magistrates, but the power of rejection has been
							withdrawn; the senate give their ratification before the people proceed
							to vote, whilst the result of the election is still uncertain.

At that time the “interrex” convened the assembly and
							addressed it as follows: “Quirites! elect your king, and may
							heaven's blessing rest on your labours! If you elect one who shall be
							counted worthy to follow Romulus, the senate will ratify your
							choice.”

So gratified were the people at the proposal that, not to appear
							behindhand in generosity, they passed a resolution that it should be
							left to the senate to decree who should reign in Rome .

There was living, in those days, at Cures,
							a Sabine city, a man of
							renowned justice and piety-Numa Pompilius. He was as conversant as any
							one in that age could be with all divine and human law.

His master is given as Pythagoras of Samos , as tradition speaks of no other. But this is
							erroneous, for it is generally agreed that it was more than a century
							later, in the reign of Servius Tullius, that Pythagoras gathered round
							him crowds of eager students, in the most distant part of Italy , in the neighbourhood of
								 Metapontum ,
								 Heraclea , and Crotona .

Now, even if he had been contemporary with Numa, how could his
							reputation have reached the Sabines? From what places, and in what
							common language could he have induced any one to become his disciple?
							Who could have guaranteed the safety of a solitary individual travelling
							through so many nations differing in speech and character?

I believe rather that Numa's virtues were the result of his native
							temperament and self-training, moulded not so much by foreign influences
							as by the rigorous and austere discipline of the ancient Sabines, which
							was the purest type of any that existed in the old days.

When Numa's name was mentioned, though the Roman senators saw that the
							balance of power would be on the side of the Sabines if the king were
							chosen from amongst them, still no one ventured to propose a partisan of
							his own, or any senator, or citizen in preference to him. Accordingly
							they all to a man decreed that the crown should be offered to Numa
							Pompilius.

He was invited to Rome , and
							following the precedent set by Romulus, when he obtained his crown
							through the augury which sanctioned the founding of the City, Numa
							ordered that in his case also the gods should be consulted. He was
							solemnly conducted by an augur, who was afterwards honoured by being
							made a State functionary for life, to the Citadel, and took his seat on
							a stone facing south.

The augur seated himself on his left hand, with his head covered, and
							holding in his right hand a curved staff without any knots, which they
							called a “ lituus .” After
							surveying the prospect over the City and surrounding country, he offered
							prayers and marked out the heavenly regions by an imaginary line from
							east to west; the southern he defined as “the right hand,”
							the northern as “the left hand.”

He then fixed upon an object, as far as he could see, as a corresponding
							mark, and then transferring the lituus to his left hand, he laid his
							right upon Numa's head and offered this prayer:

“Father Jupiter , if it
							be heaven's will that this Numa Pompilius, whose head I hold, should be
							king of Rome , do thou signify
							it to us by sure signs within those boundaries which I have
							traced.”

Then he described in the usual formula the augury which he desired
							should be sent. They were sent, and Numa being by them manifested to be
							king, came down from the “ templum .”

Having in this way obtained the
							crown, Numa prepared to found as it were anew by laws and customs that
							City which had so recently been founded by force of arms He saw that
							this was impossible whilst a state of war lasted, for war brutalised
							men.

Thinking that the ferocity of his subjects might be mitigated by the
							disuse of arms, he built the temple of Janus at the foot of the
								 Aventine as an index of
							peace and war, to signify when it was open that the State was under
							arms, and when it was shut that all the surrounding nations were at
							peace.

Twice since Numa's reign has it been shut, once after the first Punic
							war in the consulship of T. Manlius, the second time, which heaven has
							allowed our generation to witness, after the battle of Actium , when peace on land and sea was
							secured by the emperor Caesar Augustus.

After forming treaties of alliance with all his neighbours and closing
							the temple of Janus, Numa turned his attention to domestic matters. The
							removal of all danger from without would induce his subjects to
							luxuriate in idleness, as they would be no longer restrained by the fear
							of an enemy or by military discipline. To prevent this, he strove to
							inculcate in their minds the fear of the gods, regarding this as the
							most powerful influence which could act upon an uncivilised and, in
							those ages, a barbarous people.

But, as this would fail to make a deep impression without some claim to
							supernatural wisdom, he pretended that he had nocturnal interviews with
							the nymph Egeria: that it was on her advice that he was instituting the
							ritual most acceptable to the gods and appointing for each deity his own
							special priests.

First of all he divided the year into twelve months, corresponding to the
							moon's revolutions. But as the moon does not complete thirty days in
							each month, and so there are fewer days in the lunar year than in that
							measured by the course of the sun, he interpolated intercalary months
							and so arranged them that every twentieth year the days should coincide
							with the same position of the sun as when they started, the whole twenty
							years being thus complete.

He also established a distinction between the days on which legal
							business could be transacted and those on which it could not, because it
							would sometimes be advisable that there should be no business transacted
							with the people.

Next he turned his attention to the appointment of priests. He himself,
							however, conducted a great many religious services, especially those
							which belong to the Flamen of Jupiter .

But he thought that in a warlike state there
							would be more kings of the type of Romulus than of Numa who would take
							the field in person. To guard, therefore, against the sacrificial rites
							which the king performed being interrupted, he appointed a Flamen as
							perpetual priest to Jupiter ,
							and ordered that he should wear a distinctive dress and sit in the royal
							curule chair. He appointed two additional Flamens, one for Mars, the
							other for Quirinus, and also chose virgins as priestesses to

Vesta. This order of priestesses came into existence originally in Alba
							and was connected with the race of the founder. He assigned them a
							public stipend that they might give their whole time to the temple, and
							made their persons sacred and inviolable by a vow of chastity and other
							religious

sanctions. Similarly he chose twelve “Salii” for Mars
							Gradivus, and assigned to them the distinctive dress of an embroidered
							tunic and over it a brazen cuirass. They were instructed to march in
							solemn procession through the City, carrying the twelve shields called
							the “ Ancilia ,” and singing
							hymns accompanied by a solemn dance in triple time. The next office to
							be filled was that of the Pontifex

Maximus. Numa appointed the son of Marcus, one of the senators —Numa
							Marcius —and all the regulations bearing on religion, written out and
							sealed, were placed in his charge. Here was laid down with what victims,
							on what days, and at what temples the various sacrifices were to be
							offered, and from what sources the expenses connected with them were to
							be

defrayed. He placed all other sacred functions, both public and private,
							under the supervision of the Pontifex, in order that there might be an
							authority for the people to consult, and so all trouble and confusion
							arising through foreign rites being adopted and their ancestral ones
							neglected might be

avoided. Nor were his functions confined to directing the worship of the
							celestial gods; he was to instruct the people how to conduct funerals
							and appease the spirits of the departed, and what prodigies sent by
							lightning or in any other way were to be attended to and expiated. To
							elicit these signs of the divine will, he dedicated an altar to Jupiter
							Elicius on the Aventine , and
							consulted the god through auguries, as to which prodigies were to
							receive attention.

The deliberations and arrangements which these matters involved diverted
							the people from all thoughts of war and provided them with ample
							occupation. The watchful care of the gods, manifesting itself in the
							providential guidance of human affairs, had kindled in all hearts such a
							feeling of piety that the sacredness of promises and the sanctity of
							oaths were a controlling force for the community scarcely less effective
							than the fear inspired by laws and penalties.

And whilst his subjects were moulding their characters upon the unique
							example of their king, the neighbouring nations, who had hitherto
							believed that it was a fortified camp and not a city that was placed
							amongst them to vex the peace of all, were now induced to respect them
							so highly that they thought it sinful to injure a State so entirely
							devoted to the service of the gods.

There was a grove through the midst of which a perennial stream flowed,
							issuing from a dark cave. Here Numa frequently retired unattended as if
							to meet the goddess, and he consecrated the grove to the Camaenae,
							because it was there that their meetings with his wife Egeria took
							place.

He also instituted a yearly sacrifice to the goddess Fides and ordered
							that the Flamens should ride to her temple in a hooded chariot, and
							should perform the service with their hands covered as far as the
							fingers, to signify that Faith must be sheltered and that her seat is
							holy even when it is in men's right hands.

There were many other sacrifices appointed by him and places dedicated
							for their performance which the pontiffs call the Argei. The greatest of
							all his works was the preservation of peace and the security of his
							realm throughout the whole of his reign.

Thus by two successive kings the greatness of the State was advanced; by
							each in a different way, by the one through war, by the other through
							peace. Romulus reigned thirty-seven years, Numa forty-three. The State
							was strong and disciplined by the lessons of war and the arts of peace.

The death of Numa was followed
							by a second interregnum. Then Tullus Hostilius, a grandson of the
							Hostilius who had fought so brilliantly at the foot of the Citadel
							against the Sabines, was chosen king by the people, and their choice was
							confirmed by the Senate.

He was not only unlike the last king, but he was a man of more warlike
							spirit even than Romulus, and his ambition was kindled by his own
							youthful energy and by the glorious achievements of his grandfather.

Convinced that the vigour of the State was becoming enfeebled through
							inaction, he looked all round for a pretext for getting up a war. It so
							happened that Roman peasants were at that time in the habit of carrying
							off plunder from the Alban 
							territory, and the Albans from Roman territory.

Gaius Cluilius was at the time ruling in Alba. Both parties sent envoys
							almost simultaneously to seek redress. Tullus had told his ambassadors
							to lose no time in carrying out their instructions; he was fully aware
							that the Albans would refuse satisfaction, and so a just ground would
							exist for proclaiming war.

The Alban envoys proceeded in a
							more leisurely fashion. Tullus received them with all courtesy and
							entertained them sumptuously. Meantime the Romans had preferred their
							demands, and on the Alban 
							governor's refusal had declared that war would begin in thirty days.

When this was reported to Tullus, he granted the Albans an audience in
							which they were to state the object of their coming. Ignorant of all
							that had happened, they wasted time in explaining that it was with great
							reluctance that they would say anything which might displease Tullus,
							but they were bound by their instructions; they were come to demand
							redress, and if that were refused they were ordered to declare war.

“Tell your king,” replied Tullus, “that the king of
								 Rome calls the gods to
							witness that whichever nation is the first to dismiss with ignominy the
							envoys who came to seek redress, upon that nation they will visit all
							the sufferings of this war.”

The Albans reported this at home. Both sides made extraordinary
							preparations for a war, which closely resembled a civil war between
							parents and children, for both were of Trojan descent, since Lavinium was an offshoot of
								 Troy , and Alba of
								 Lavinium , and the
							Romans were sprung from the stock of the kings of Alba.

The outcome of the war, however, made the conflict less deplorable, as
							there was no regular engagement, and though one of the two cities was
							destroyed, the two nations were blended into one.

The Albans were the first to move, and invaded the Roman territory with
							an immense army. They fixed their camp only five miles from the City and
							surrounded it with a moat; this was called for several centuries the
							“Cluilian Dyke” from the name of the Alban general, till through lapse of
							time the name and the thing itself disappeared. While they were encamped
							Cluilius, the Alban king, died,
							and the Albans made Mettius Fufetius dictator.

The king's death made Tullus more sanguine than ever of success. He gave
							out that the wrath of heaven which had fallen first of all on the head
							of the nation would visit the whole race of Alba with condign punishment
							for this unholy war. Passing the enemy's camp by a night march, he
							advanced upon Alban territory.
							This drew Mettius from his entrenchments.

He marched as close to his enemy as he could, and then sent on an
							officer to inform Tullus that before engaging it was necessary that they
							should have a conference. If he granted one, then he was satisfied that
							the matters he would lay before him were such as concerned Rome no less than Alba. Tullus did
							not reject the proposal, but in case the conference should prove
							illusory, he led out his men in order of battle.

The Albans did the same. After they had halted, confronting each other,
							the two commanders, with a small escort of superior officers, advanced
							between the lines.

The Alban general, addressing
							Tullus, said: “I think I have heard our king Cluilius say that
							acts of robbery and the non-restitution of plundered property, in
							violation of the existing treaty, were the cause of this war, and I have
							no doubt that you, Tullus, allege the same pretext. But if we are to say
							what is true, rather than what is plausible, we must admit that it is
							the lust of empire which has made two kindred and neighbouring peoples
							take up arms.

Whether rightly or wrongly I do not judge; let him who began the war
							settle that point; I am simply placed in command by the Albans to
							conduct the war. But I want to give you a warning, Tullus. You know, you
							especially who are nearer to them, the greatness of the Etruscan State,
							which hems us both in; their immense strength by land, still more by
							sea.

Now remember, when once you have given the signal to engage, our two
							armies will fight under their eyes, so that when we are wearied and
							exhausted they may attack us both, victor and vanquished alike. If then,
							not content with the secure freedom we now enjoy, we are determined to
							enter into a game of chance, where the stakes are either supremacy or
							slavery, let us, in heaven's name, choose some method by which, without
							great suffering or bloodshed on either side, it can be decided which
							nation, is to be master of the other.”

Although, from natural temperament, and the certainty he felt of
							victory, Tullus was eager to fight, he did not disapprove of the
							proposal. After much consideration on both sides a method was adopted,
							for which Fortune herself provided the necessary means.

There happened to be in each of
							the armies a triplet of brothers, fairly matched in years and strength.
							It is generally agreed that they were called Horatii and Curiatii. Few
							incidents in antiquity have been more widely celebrated, yet in spite of
							its celebrity there is a discrepancy in the accounts as to which nation
							each belonged. There are authorities on both sides, but I find that the
							majority give the name of Horatii to the Romans, and my sympathies lead
							me to follow them.

The kings suggested to them that they should each fight on behalf of
							their country, and where victory rested, there should be the
							sovereignty. They raised no objection; so the time and place were fixed.

But before they engaged a treaty was concluded between the Romans and
							the Albans, providing that the nation whose representatives proved
							victorious should receive the peaceable submission of the other. This is
							the earliest treaty recorded, and as all treaties, however different the
							conditions they contain, are concluded with the same forms, I will
							describe the forms with which this one was concluded as handed down by
							tradition.

The Fetial put the formal question to Tullus: “Do you, King,
							order me to make a treaty with the Pater
								Patratus of the Alban nation?” On the king replying in the
							affirmative, the Fetial said: “I demand of thee, King, some tufts
							of grass.” The king replied: “Take those that are
							pure.”

The Fetial brought pure grass from the Citadel. Then he asked the king:
							“Do you constitute me the plenipotentiary of the People of
								 Rome , the Quirites,
							sanctioning also my vessels and comrades?” To which the king
							replied: “So far as may be without hurt to myself and the People
							of Rome , the Quirites, I
							do.”

The Fetial was M. Valerius. He made Spurius Furius the Pater Patratus by
							touching his head and hair with the grass. Then the Pater Patratus, who
							is constituted for the purpose of giving the treaty the religious
							sanction of an oath, did so by a long formula in verse, which it is not
							worth while to quote.

After reciting the conditions he said: “Hear, 0 Jupiter , hear! thou Pater Patratus of
							the people of Alba! Hear ye, too, people of Alba! As these conditions
							have been publicly rehearsed from first to last, from these tablets, in
							perfect good faith, and inasmuch as they have here and now been most
							clearly understood, so these conditions the People of Rome will not be the first to go back
							from.

If they shall, in their national council, with false and malicious
							intent be the first to go back, then do thou, Jupiter , on that day, so smite the
							People of Rome , even as I here
							and now shall smite this swine, and smite them so much the more heavily,
							as thou art greater in power and might.”

With these words he struck the swine with a flint. In similar wise the
							Albans recited their oath and formularies through their own dictator and
							their priests.

On the conclusion of the treaty the six combatants armed themselves. They
							were greeted with shouts of encouragement from their comrades, who
							reminded them that their fathers' gods, their fatherland, their fathers,
							every fellow-citizen, every fellowsoldier, were now watching their
							weapons and the hands that wielded them. Eager for the contest and
							inspired by the voices round them, they advanced into the open space
							between the opposing lines.

The two armies were sitting in front of their respective camps, relieved
							from personal danger but not from anxiety, since upon the fortunes and
							courage of this little group hung the issue of dominion. Watchful and
							nervous, they gaze with feverish intensity on a spectacle by no means
							entertaining.

The signal was given, and with uplifted swords the six youths charged
							like a battle-line with the courage of a mighty host. Not one of them
							thought of his own danger; their sole thought was for their country,
							whether it would be supreme or subject, their one anxiety that they were
							deciding its future fortunes.

When, at the first encounter, the flashing swords rang on their
							opponents shields a deep shudder ran through the spectators, then a
							breathless silence followed as neither side seemed to be gaining any
							advantage.

Soon, however, they saw something more than the swift movements of limbs
							and the rapid play of sword and shield: blood became visible flowing
							from open wounds. Two of the Romans fell one on the other, breathing out
							their life, whilst all the three Albans were wounded.

The fall of the Romans was welcomed with a burst of exultation from the
								 Alban army; whilst the
							Roman legions, who had lost all hope, but not all anxiety, trembled for
							their solitary champion surrounded by the three Curiatii.

It chanced that he was untouched, and though not a match for the three
							together, he was confident of victory against each separately. So, that
							he might encounter each singly, he took to flight, assuming that they
							would follow as well as their wounds would allow.

He had run some distance from the spot where the combat began, when, on
							looking back, he saw them following at long intervals from each other,
							the foremost not far from him.

He turned and made a desperate attack upon him, and whilst the
								 Alban army were shouting to
							the other Curiatii to come to their brother's assistance, Horatius had
							already slain his foe and, flushed with victory, was awaiting the second
							encounter. Then the Romans cheered their champion with a shout such as
							men raise when hope succeeds to despair, and he hastened to bring the
							fight to a close.

Before the third, who was not far away, could come up, he despatched the
							second Curiatius.

The survivors were now equal in point of numbers, but far from equal in
							either confidence or strength. The one, unscathed after his double
							victory, was eager for the third contest; the other, dragging himself
							wearily along, exhausted by his wounds and by his running, vanquished
							already by the previous slaughter of his brothers, was an easy conquest
							to his victorious foe. There was, in fact, no fighting.

The Roman cried exultingly: “Two have I sacrificed to appease my
							brothers' shades; the third I will offer for the issue of this fight,
							that the Roman may rule the Alban .” He thrust his sword downward into the
							neck of his opponent, who could no longer lift his shield, and then
							despoiled him as he lay.

Horatius was welcomed by the Romans with shouts of triumph, all the more
							joyous for the fears they had felt. Both sides turned their attention to
							burying their dead champions, but with very different feelings, the one
							rejoicing in wider dominion, the other deprived of their liberty and
							under alien rule.

The tombs stand on the spots where each fell; those of the Romans close
							together, in the direction of Alba; the three Alban tombs, at intervals, in the
							direction of Rome .

Before the armies separated, Mettius inquired what commands he was to
							receive in accordance with the terms of the treaty. Tullus ordered him
							to keep the Alban soldiery
							under arms, as he would require their services if there were war with
							the Veientines.

Both armies then withdrew to their homes. Horatius was marching at the head of the Roman army,
							carrying in front of him his triple spoils. His sister, who had been
							betrothed to one of the Curiatii, met him outside the Capene gate. She
							recognised on her brother's shoulders the cloak of her betrothed, which
							she had made with her own hands; and bursting into tears she tore her
							hair and called her dead lover by

name. The triumphant soldier was so enraged by his sister's outburst of
							grief in the midst of his own triumph and the public rejoicing that he
							drew his sword and stabbed the

girl. “Go,” he cried, in bitter reproach, “go to
							your betrothed with your ill-timed love, forgetful as you are of your
							dead brothers, of the one who still lives and of your

country! So perish every Roman woman who mourns for an enemy!”
							The deed horrified patricians and plebeians alike; but his recent
							services were a set-off to it. He was brought before the king for trial.
							To avoid responsibility for passing a harsh sentence, which would be
							repugnant to the populace, and then carrying it into execution, the king
							summoned an assembly of the people, and said: “I appoint two
							duumvirs to judge the treason of Horatius according to

law.” The dreadful language of the law was: “The duumvirs
							shall judge cases of treason; if the accused appeal from the duumvirs
							the appeal shall be heard; if their sentence be confirmed the lictor
							shall hang him by a rope on the fatal tree and shall scourge him either
							within or without the

pomoerium .” The duumvirs appointed under
							this law did not think that by its provisions they had the power to
							acquit even an innocent person. Accordingly they condemned him; then one
							of them said “Publius Horatius, I pronounce you guilty

of treason. Lictor, bind his hands.” The lictor had approached
							and was fastening the cord, when Horatius, at the suggestion of Tullus,
							who placed a merciful interpretation on the law, said

“I appeal.” The appeal was accordingly brought before the
							people. Their decision was mainly influenced by Publius Horatius the
							father, who declared that his daughter had been justly slain , had it
							not been so, he would have exerted his authority as a father in
							punishing his son. Then he implored them not to bereave of all his
							children the man whom they had so lately seen surrounded with such

noble offspring. Whilst saying this he embraced his son, and then,
							pointing to the spoils of the Curiatii suspended on the spot now called
							the Pila Horatia , he said: “Can you
							bear, Quirites, to see bound scourged, and tortured beneath the gallows
							the man whom you saw, lately, coming in triumph adorned with his
							foemen's spoils? Why, the Albans themselves could not bear the sight of
							such a

hideous spectacle. Go, lictor, bind those hands which when armed but a
							little time ago won dominion for the Roman people. Go, cover the head of
							the liberator of this City! Hang him on the fatal tree, scourge him
							within the pomoerium if only it be amongst
							the trophies of his foes or without if only it be amongst the tombs of
							the Curiatii! To what place can you take this youth where the monuments
							of his splendid exploits will not vindicate him from such a

shameful punishment?” The father's tears and the young soldier's
							courage ready to meet every peril were too much for the people. They
							acquitted him because they admired his bravery rather than because they
							regarded his cause as a just one. But since a murder in broad daylight
							demanded some expiation, the father was commanded to make an atonement
							for his son at the cost of

the State. After offering certain expiatory sacrifices he erected a beam
							across the street and made the young man pass under it, as under a yoke,
							with his head covered. This beam exists to-day, having always been kept
							in repair by the State: it is called “The

Sister's Beam.” A tomb of hewn stone was constructed for Horatia
							on the spot where she was murdered.

But the peace with Alba was not a
							lasting one. The Alban dictator
							had incurred general odium through having entrusted the fortunes of the
							State to three soldiers, and this had an evil effect upon his weak
							character.

As straightforward counsels had turned out so unfortunate, he tried to
							recover the popular favour by resorting to crooked ones, and as he had
							previously made peace his aim in war , so now he sought the occasion of
							war in peace. He recognised that his State possessed more courage than
							strength, he therefore incited other nations to declare war openly and
							formally, whilst he kept for his own people an opening for treachery
							under the mask of an alliance.

The people of Fidenae, where a Roman colony existed, were induced to go
							to war by a compact on the part of the Albans to desert to them; the
							Veientines were taken into the plot.

When Fidenae had broken out into open revolt, Tullus summoned Mettius
							and his army from Alba and marched against the enemy. After crossing the
							Anio he encamped at the junction of that river with the Tiber .

The army of the Veientines had crossed the Tiber at a spot between his camp and Fidenae. In the
							battle they formed the right wing near the river, the Fidenates were on
							the left nearer the mountains. Tullus formed his troops in front of the
							Veientines, and stationed the Albans against the legion of the
							Fidenates. The Alban general
							showed as little courage as fidelity; afraid either to keep his ground
							or to openly desert, he drew away gradually towards the mountains.

When he thought he had retired far enough, he halted his entire army,
							and still irresolute, he began to form his men for attack, by way of
							gaining time, intending to throw his strength on the winning side.

Those Romans who had been stationed next to the Albans were astounded to
							find that their allies had withdrawn and left their flank exposed, when
							a horseman rode up at full speed and reported to the king that the
							Albans were leaving the field. In this critical situation, Tullus vowed
							to found a college of twelve Salii and to build temples to Pallor and
							Pavor.

Then, reprimanding the horseman loud enough for the enemy to hear, he
							ordered him to rejoin the fighting line, adding that there was no
							occasion for alarm, as it was by his orders that the Alban army was making a circuit that
							they might fall on the unprotected rear of the Fidenates.

At the same time he ordered the cavalry to raise their spears; this
							action hid the retreating Alban 
							army from a large part of the Roman infantry. Those who had seen them,
							thinking that what the king had said was actually the case, fought all
							the more keenly. It was now the enemies' turn to be alarmed; they had
							heard clearly the words of the king, and, moreover, a large part of the
							Fidenates who had formerly joined the Roman colonists understood Latin.

Fearing to be cut off from their town by a sudden charge of the Albans
							from the hills, they retreated. Tullus pressed the attack, and after
							routing the Fidenates, returned to attack the Veientines with greater
							confidence, as they were already demoralized by the panic of their
							allies.

They did not wait for the charge , but their flight was checked by the
							river in their rear. When they reached it, some, flinging away their
							arms, rushed blindly into the water, others, hesitating whether to fight
							or fly, were overtaken and slain. Never had the Romans fought in a
							bloodier battle.

Then the Alban army, who had
							been watching the fight, marched down into the plain. Mettius
							congratulated Tullus on his victory, Tullus replied in a friendly tone,
							and as a mark of goodwill, ordered the Albans to form their camp
							contiguous to that of the Romans, and made preparations for a
							“lustral sacrifice” on the

morrow. As soon as it was light, and all the preparations were made, he
							gave the customary order for both armies to muster on

parade. The heralds began at the furthest part of the camp, where the
							Albans were, and summoned them first of all; they, attracted by the
							novelty of hearing the Roman addressing his troops, took up their
							position close round

him. Secret instructions had been given for the Roman legion to stand
							fully armed behind them, and the centurions were in readiness to execute
							instantly the orders they received. Tullus commenced as follows:
							“Romans! if in any war that you have ever waged there has been
							reason for you to thank, first, the immortal gods, and then your own
							personal courage, such was certainly the case in yesterday's

battle. For whilst you had to contend with an open enemy, you had a
							still more serious and dangerous conflict to maintain against the
							treachery and perfidy of your allies. For I must undeceive you-it was by
							no command of mine that the Albans withdrew to the mountains. What you
							heard was not a real order but a pretended one, which I used as an
							artifice to prevent your knowing that you were deserted, and so losing
							heart for the battle, and also to fill the enemy with alarm and a desire
							to flee by making them think that they were being

surrounded. The guilt which I am denouncing does not involve all the
							Albans; they only followed their general, just as you would have done
							had I wanted to lead my army away from the field. It is Mettius who is
							the leader of this march, Mettius who engineered this war, Mettius who
							broke the treaty between Rome 
							and

Alba. Others may venture on similar practices, if I do not make this man
							a signal lesson to all the world.” The armed centurions closed
							round Mettius, and the king proceeded: “I shall take a course
							which will bring good fortune and happiness to the Roman people and
							myself, and to you, Albans; it is my intention to transfer the entire
								 Alban population to
								 Rome , to give the rights
							of citizenship to the plebeians, and enrol the nobles in the senate, and
							to make one City, one

State. As formerly the Alban 
							State was broken up into two nations, so now let it once more become
							one,” The Alban soldiery listened to these words with conflicting
							feelings, but unarmed as they were and hemmed in by armed men, a common
							fear kept them

silent. Then Tullus said: “Mettius Fufetius! if you could have
							learnt to keep your word and respect treaties, I would have given you
							that instruction in your lifetime, but now, since your character is past
							cure, do at least teach mankind by your punishment to hold those things
							as sacred which have been outraged by you. As yesterday your interest
							was divided between the Fidenates and the Romans, so now you shall give
							up your body to be divided and

dismembered.” Thereupon two four-horse chariots were brought up,
							and Mettius was bound at full length to each, the horses were driven in
							opposite directions, carrying off parts of the body in each chariot,
							where the limbs had been secured by the

cords. All present averted their eyes from the horrible spectacle. This
							is the first and last instance amongst the Romans of a punishment so
							regardless of humanity. Amongst other things which are the glory of
								 Rome is this, that no
							nation has ever been contented with milder punishments.

Meanwhile the cavalry had been sent on in advance
							to conduct the population to Rome ; they were followed by the legions, who were
							marched thither to destroy the city.

When they entered the gates there was not that noise and panic which are
							usually found in captured cities, where, after the gates have been
							shattered or the walls levelled by the battering-ram or the citadel
							stormed, the shouts of the enemy and the rushing of the soldiers through
							the streets throw everything into universal confusion with fire and
							sword.

Here, on the contrary, gloomy silence and a grief beyond words so
							petrified the minds of all, that, forgetting in their terror what to
							leave behind, what to take with them, incapable of thinking for
							themselves and asking one another's advice, at one moment they would
							stand on their thresholds, at another wander aimlessly through their
							houses, which they were seeing then for the last time.

But now they were roused by the shouts of the cavalry ordering their
							instant departure, now by the crash of the houses undergoing demolition,
							heard in the furthest corners of the city, and the dust, rising in
							different places, which covered everything like a cloud. Seizing hastily
							what they could carry, they went out of the city, and left behind their
							hearths and household gods and the homes in which they had been born and
							brought up.

Soon an unbroken line of emigrants filled the streets, and as they
							recognised one another the sense of their common misery led to fresh
							outbursts of tears. Cries of grief, especially from the women, began to
							make themselves heard, as they walked past the venerable temples and saw
							them occupied by troops, and felt that they were leaving their gods as
							prisoners in an enemy's hands.

When the Albans had left their city the Romans levelled to the ground
							all the public and private edifices in every direction, and a single
							hour gave over to destruction and ruin the work of those four centuries
							during which Alba had stood. The temples of the gods, however, were
							spared, in accordance with the king's proclamation.

The fall of Alba led to the growth of
								 Rome . The number of the
							citizens was doubled, the Caelian hill was included in the city, and
							that it might become more populated, Tullus chose it for the site of his
							palace, and for the future lived there.

He nominated Alban nobles to
							the senate that this order of the State might also be augmented, amongst
							them were the Tullii, the Servilii, the Quinctii, the Geganii, the
							Curiatii, and the Cloelii. To provide a consecrated building for the
							increased number of senators he built the senate-house, which down to
							the time of our fathers went by the name of the Curia Hostilia.

To secure an accession of military strength of all ranks from the new
							population, he formed ten troops of knights from the Albans; from the
							same source he brought up the old legions to their full strength and
							enrolled new ones.

Impelled by the confidence in his strength which
							these measures inspired, Tullus proclaimed war against the Sabines, a
							nation at that time second only to the Etruscans in numbers and military
							strength.

Each side had inflicted injuries on the other and refused all redress.
							Tullus complained that Roman traders had been arrested in open market at
							the shrine of Feronia; the Sabines' grievance was that some of their
							people had previously sought refuge in the Asylum and been kept in
								 Rome .

These were the ostensible grounds of the war. The Sabines were far from
							forgetting that a portion of their strength had been transferred to
								 Rome by Tatius, and that
							the Roman State had lately been aggrandised by the inclusion of the
							population of Alba; they, therefore , on their side began to look round
							for outside help.

Their nearest neighbour was Etruria, and, of the Etruscans, the nearest
							to them were the Veientines. Their past defeats were still rankling in
							their memories, and the Sabines, urging them to revolt, attracted many
							volunteers; others of the poorest and homeless classes were paid to join
							them. No assistance was given by the State.

With the Veientes-it is not so surprising that the other cities rendered
							no assistance —the truce with Rome was still held to be binding.

Whilst preparations were being made on both sides with the utmost
							energy, and it seemed as though success depended upon which side was the
							first to take the offensive, Tullus opened the campaign by invading the
								 Sabine territory. A severe
							action was fought at the Silva Malitiosa.

Whilst the Romans were strong in their infantry, their main strength was
							in their lately increased cavalry force. A sudden charge of horse threw
							the Sabine ranks into
							confusion, they could neither offer a steady resistance nor effect their
							flight without great slaughter.

This victory threw great lustre upon
							the reign of Tullus, and upon the whole State and added considerably to
							its strength. At this time it was reported to the king and the senate
							that there had been a shower of stones on the Alban Mount.

As the thing seemed hardly credible, men were sent to inspect the
							prodigy, and whilst they were watching, a heavy shower of stones fell
							from the sky, just like hailstones heaped together by the wind.

They fancied, too, that they heard a very loud voice from the grove on
							the summit bidding the Albans celebrate their sacred rites after the
							manner of their fathers. These solemnities they had consigned to
							oblivion, as though they had abandoned their gods when they abandoned
							their country and had either adopted Roman rites or, as sometimes
							happens, embittered against Fortune, had given up the service of the
							gods.

In consequence of this prodigy, the Romans, too, kept up a public
							religious observance for nine days, either —as tradition asserts —owing
							to the voice from the Alban Mount, or because of the warning of the
							soothsayers.

In either case, however, it became permanently established whenever the
							same prodigy was reported; a nine days' solemnity was observed. Not long
							after a pestilence caused great distress, and made men indisposed for
							the hardships of military service. The warlike king, however, allowed no
							respite from arms; he thought, too, that it was more healthy for the
							soldiery in the field than at home.

At last he himself was seized with a lingering illness, and that fierce
							and restless spirit became so broken through bodily weakness, that he
							who had once thought nothing less fitting for a king than devotion to
							sacred things, now suddenly became a prey to every sort of religious
							terror, and filled the City with religious observances.

There was a general desire to recall the condition of things which
							existed under Numa , for men
							felt that the only help that was left against sickness was to obtain the
							forgiveness of the gods and be at peace with heaven.

Tradition records that the king, whilst examining the commentaries of
								 Numa , found there a
							description of certain secret sacrificial rites paid to Jupiter Elicius: he withdrew into
							privacy whilst occupied with these rites, but their performance was
							marred by omissions or mistakes. Not only was no sign from heaven
							vouchsafed to him, but the anger of Jupiter was roused by the false
							worship rendered to him, and he burnt up the king and his house by a
							stroke of lightning. Tullus had achieved great renown in war, and
							reigned for two-and-thirty years.

On the death of Tullus, the government in
							accordance with the original constitution, again devolved on the senate.
							They appointed an interrex to conduct the election. The people chose
							Ancus Martius as king, the senate confirmed the choice. His mother was
								 Numa 's daughter.

At the outset of his reign-remembering what made his grandfather
							glorious, and recognising that the late reign, so splendid in all other
							respects, had, on one side, been most unfortunate through the neglect of
							religion or the improper performance of its rites-he determined to go
							back to the earliest source and conduct the state offices of religion as
							they had been organised by Numa . He gave the Pontifex instructions to copy them out
							from the king's commentaries and set them forth in some public place.
							The neighbouring states and his own people, who were yearning for peace,
							were led to hope that the king would follow his grandfather in
							disposition and policy.

In this state of affairs, the Latins, with whom a
							treaty had been made in the reign of Tullus, recovered their confidence,
							and made an incursion into Roman territory. On the Romans seeking
							redress, they gave a haughty refusal, thinking that the king of
								 Rome was going to pass his
							reign amongst chapels and altars, In the temperament of Ancus there was
							a touch of Romulus as well as
								 Numa .

He realised that the great necessity of Numa 's reign was peace, especially amongst a young and
							aggressive nation, but he saw, too, that it would be difficult for him
							to preserve the peace which had fallen to his lot unimpaired. His
							patience was being put to the proof, and not only put to the proof but
							despised; the times demanded a Tullus rather than a Numa . Numa had instituted religious observances for times of
							peace, he would hand down the ceremonies appropriate to a state of war.

In order, therefore, that wars might be not only conducted but also
							proclaimed with some formality, he wrote down the law, as taken from the
							ancient nation of the Aequicoli, under which the Fetials act down to
							this day when seeking redress for injuries. The procedure is as follows:
							—

The ambassador binds his head in a woollen fillet. When he has reached
							the frontiers of the nation from whom satisfaction is demanded, he says,
							“Hear, 0 Jupiter ! Hear
							ye confines”-naming the particular nation whose they are
							—“Hear, 0 Justice! I am the public herald of the Roman People
							rightly and duly authorised do I come; let confidence be placed in my
							words.”

Then he recites the terms of the demands and calls Jupiter to witness: “If I am
							demanding the surrender of those men or those goods, contrary to justice
							and religion, suffer me nevermore to enjoy my native land.”

He repeats these words as he crosses the frontier, he repeats them to
							whoever happens to be the first person he meets, he repeats them as he
							enters the gates and again on entering the forum, with some slight
							changes in the wording of the formula.

If what he demands are not surrendered at the expiration of thirty-three
							days-for that is the fixed period of grace-he declares war in the
							following terms: “Hear, 0 Jupiter , and thou Janus Quirinus, and all ye heavenly
							gods, and ye, gods of earth and of the lower world, hear me!

I call you to witness that this people” — mentioning it by name —
							“is unjust and does not fulfill its sacred obligations. But about
							these matters we must consult the elders in our own land in what way we
							may obtain our rights.” With these words the ambassador returned
							to Rome for consultation.

The king forthwith consulted the senate in words to the following
							effect: “Concerning the matters suits and causes, whereof the
								 Pater Patratus of the Roman people and
							Quirites hath complained to the Pater
								Patratus of the Prisci
							Latini , and to the people of the Prisci
								Latini which matters they were bound severally to
							surrender, discharge, and make good, whereas they have done none of
							these things —say what is your opinion?”

He whose opinion was first asked, replied, “I am of opinion that
							they ought to be recovered by a just and righteous war, wherefore I give
							my consent and vote for it.” Then the others were asked in order,
							and when the majority of those present declared themselves of the same
							opinion, war was agreed upon.

It was customary for the Fetial to carry to the enemies' frontiers a
							blood-smeared spear tipped with iron or burnt at the end, and, in the
							presence of at least three adults, to say, “Inasmuch as the
							peoples of the Prisci Latini have been
							guilty of wrong against the People of Rome and the Quirites, and inasmuch as the People of
								 Rome and the Quirites have
							ordered that there be war with the Prisci
								Latini , and the Senate of the People of Rome and the Quirites have determined
							and decreed that there shall be war with the Prisci
								Latini , therefore I and the People of Rome , declare and make war upon the
							peoples of the Prisci Latini. ”

With these words he hurled his spear into their territory. This was the
							way in which at that time satisfaction was demanded from the Latins and
							war declared, and posterity adopted the custom.

After handing over the care of the various sacrificial rites to the
							Flamens and other priests, and calling up a fresh army, Ancus advanced
							against Politorium, a city belonging to the Latins. He took it by
							assault, and following the custom of the earlier kings who had enlarged
							the State by receiving its enemies into Roman citizenship, he
							transferred the whole of the population to Rome .

The Palatine had been settled
							by the earliest Romans, the Sabines had occupied the Capitoline hill
							with the Citadel, on one side of the Palatine , and the Albans the Caelian hill, on the
							other, so the Aventine was
							assigned to the new-comers.

Not long afterwards there was a further addition to the number of
							citizens through the capture of Tellenae and Ficana. Politorium after
							its evacuation was seized by the Latins and was again recovered; and
							this was the reason why the Romans razed the city, to prevent its being
							a perpetual refuge for the enemy.

At last the whole war was concentrated round Medullia, and fighting went
							on for some time there with doubtful result. The city was strongly
							fortified and its strength was increased by the presence of a large
							garrison. The Latin army was encamped in the open and had had several
							engagements with the Romans.

At last Ancus made a supreme effort with the whole of his force and won
							a pitched battle, after which he returned with immense booty to
								 Rome , and many thousands of
							Latins were admitted into citizenship. In order to connect the
								 Aventine with the
								 Palatine , the district
							round the altar of Venus Murcia was
							assigned to them.

The Janiculum also was brought into the city boundaries, not because the
							space was wanted, but to prevent such a strong position from being
							occupied by an enemy. It was decided to connect this hill with the City,
							not only by carrying the City wall round it, but also by a bridge, for
							the convenience of traffic.

This was the first bridge thrown over the Tiber , and was known as the Pons
								Sublicius . The Fossa Quiritium also was the work of King Ancus and
							afforded no inconsiderable protection to the lower

and therefore more accessible parts of the City .Amidst this vast
							population now that the State had become so enormously increased, the
							sense of right and wrong was obscured, and secret crimes were committed.
							To overawe the growing lawlessness a prison was built in the heart of
							the City overlooking the

Forum. The additions made by this king were not confined to the City.
							The Mesian Forest was taken from the Veientines and the Roman dominion
							extended to the sea, at the mouth of the Tiber the city of Ostia was built, salt pits were constructed on both
							sides of the river, and the temple of Jupiter Feretrius was enlarged in
							consequence of the brilliant successes in the war.

During the reign of Ancus a wealthy and
							ambitious man named Lucumo removed to Rome , mainly with the hope and desire of winning high
							distinction, for which no opportunity had existed in Tarquinii , since there also he
							was an alien He was the son of Demaratus a Corinthian, who had been
							driven from home by a revolution, and who happened to settle in
								 Tarquinii .

There he married and had two sons, their names were Lucumo and Arruns.
							Arruns died before his father, leaving his wife with child; Lucumo
							survived his father and inherited all his property. For Demaratus died
							shortly after Arruns, and being unaware of the condition of his daughter
							in law, had made no provision in his will for a grandchild.

The boy, thus excluded from any share of his grandfathers property was
							called in consequence of his poverty, Egerius. Lucumo, on the other
							hand, heir to all the property, became elated by his wealth and his
							ambition was stimulated by his marriage with Tanaquil.

This woman was descended from one of the foremost families in the State
							and could not bear the thought of her position by marriage being
							inferior to the one she claimed by birth. The Etruscans looked down upon
							Lucumo as the son of a foreign refugee; she could not brook this
							indignity and, forgetting all ties of patriotism if only she could see
							her husband honoured, resolved to emigrate from Tarquinii .

Rome seemed the most suitable
							place for her purpose. She felt that among a young nation where all
							nobility is a thing of recent growth and won by personal merit, there
							would be room for a man of courage and energy.

She remembered that the Sabine 
							Tatius had reigned there, that Numa had been summoned from Cures to fill
							the throne, that Ancus himself was sprung from a Sabine mother, and
							could not trace his nobility beyond Numa. Her husband's ambition and the
							fact that Tarquinii was his
							native country only on the mother's side, made him give a ready ear to
							her proposals.

They accordingly packed up their goods and removed to Rome .

They had got as far as the Janiculum when a hovering eagle swooped gently
							down and took off his cap as he was sitting by his wife's side in the
							carriage, then circling round the vehicle with loud cries, as though
							commissioned by heaven for this service, replaced it carefully upon his
							head and soared away. It is said that Tanaquil, who, like most
							Etruscans, was expert in interpreting celestial prodigies, was delighted
							at the omen.

She threw her arms round her husband and bade him look for a high and
							majestic destiny, for such was the import of the eagle's appearance, of
							the particular part of the sky where it appeared, and of the deity who
							sent it. The omen was directed to the crown and summit of his person,
							the bird had raised aloft an adornment put on by human hands, to replace
							it as the gift of heaven.

Full of these hopes and surmises they entered the City, and after
							procuring a domicile there, they announced his name as Lucius Tarquinius
							Priscus.

The fact of his being a stranger, and a wealthy one, brought him into
							notice, and he increased the advantage which Fortune gave him by his
							courteous demeanour, his lavish hospitality, and the many acts of
							kindness by which he won all whom it was in his power to win, until his
							reputation even reached the palace.

Once introduced to the king's notice, he soon succeeded by adroit
							complaisance in getting on to such familiar terms that he was consulted
							in matters of state, as much as in private matters, whether they
							referred to either peace or war. At last, after passing every test of
							character and ability, he was actually appointed by the king's will
							guardian to his children.

Ancus reigned twenty-four
							years, unsurpassed by any of his predecessors in ability and reputation,
							both in the field and at home. His sons had now almost reached manhood.
							Tarquin was all the more anxious for the election of the new king to be
							held as soon as possible. At the time fixed for it he sent the boys out
							of the way on a hunting expedition.

He is said to have been the first who canvassed for the crown and
							delivered a set speech to secure the interest of the plebs.

In it he asserted that he was not making an unheard-of request, he was
							not the first foreigner who aspired to the Roman throne; were this so,
							any one might feel surprise and indignation. But he was the third.
							Tatius was not only a foreigner, but was made king after he had been
							their enemy; Numa , an entire
							stranger to the City, had been called to the throne without any seeking
							it on his part.

As to himself, as soon as he was his own master, he had removed to
								 Rome with his wife and his
							whole fortune; he had lived at Rome for a larger part of the period during which men
							discharge the functions of citizenship than he had passed in his old
							country;

he had learnt the laws of Rome ,
							the ceremonial rites of Rome ,
							both civil and military, under Ancus himself, a very sufficient teacher;
							he had been second to none in duty and service towards the king; he had
							not yielded to the king himself in generous treatment of others. Whilst
							he was stating these facts, which were certainly true, the Roman people
							with enthusiastic unanimity elected him king.

Though in all other respects an excellent man, his ambition, which
							impelled him to seek the crown, followed him on to the throne; with the
							design of strengthening himself quite as much as of increasing the
							State, he made a hundred new senators. These were afterwards called
							“the Lesser Houses” and formed a body of uncompromising
							supporters of the king, through whose kindness they had entered the
							senate. - The first war he engaged in
							was with the Latins.

He took the town of Apiolae by storm; and carried off a greater amount
							of plunder than could have been expected from the slight interest shown
							in the war. After this had been brought in wagons to Rome , he celebrated the Games with
							greater splendour and on a larger scale than his predecessors.

Then for the first time a space was marked for what is now the “
								 Circus Maximus .” Spots were
							allotted to the patricians and knights where they could each build for
							themselves stands-called “ fori 
							” —from which to view the Games.

These stands were raised on wooden props, branching out at the top,
							twelve feet high. The contests were horse-racing and boxing, the horses
							and boxers mostly brought from Etruria. They were at first celebrated on
							occasions of especial solemnity; subsequently they became an annual
							fixture, and were called indifferently the “Roman” or the
							“Great Games.”

This king also divided the ground round the Forum into building sites;
							arcades and shops were put up.

He was also making
							preparations for surrounding the City with a stone wall when his designs
							were interrupted by a war with the Sabines. So sudden was the outbreak
							that the enemy were crossing the Anio before a Roman army could meet and
							stop them.

There was great alarm in Rome .
							The first battle was indecisive, and there was great slaughter on both
							sides. The enemies' return to their camp allowed time for the Romans to
							make preparations for a fresh campaign. Tarquin thought his army was
							weakest in cavalry and decided to double the centuries, which Romulus had formed, of the Ramnes,
							Titienses, and Luceres, and to distinguish them by his own name.

Now as Romulus had acted under
							the sanction of the auspices, Attus Navius, a celebrated augur at that
							time, insisted that no change could be made, nothing new introduced,
							unless the birds gave a favourable omen.

The king's anger was roused, and in mockery of the augur's skill he is
							reported to have said, “Come, you diviner, find out by your
							augury whether what I am now contemplating can be done.” Attus,
							after consulting the omens, declared that it could.
							“Well,” the king replied, “I had it in my mind that
							you should cut a whetstone with a razor. Take these, and perform the
							feat which your birds portend can be done.” It is said that
							without the slightest hesitation he cut it through.

There used to be a statue of Attus, representing him with his head
							covered, in the Comitium, on the steps to the left of the senate-house,
							where the incident occurred. The whet-stone also, it is recorded, was
							placed there to be a memorial of the marvel for future generations.

At all events, auguries and the college of augurs were held in such
							honour that nothing was undertaken in peace or war without their
							sanction; the assembly of the curies, the assembly of the centuries,
							matters of the highest importance, were suspended or broken up if the
							omen of the birds was unfavourable.

Even on that occasion Tarquin was deterred from making changes in the
							names or numbers of the centuries of knights; he merely doubled the
							number of men in each, so that the three centuries contained eighteen
							hundred men.

Those who were added to the centuries bore the same designation, only
							they were called the “Second” knights, and the centuries
							being thus doubled are now called the “Six Centuries.”

After this division of the forces was augmented there
							was a second collision with the Sabines, in which the increased strength
							of the Roman army was aided by an artifice. Men were secretly sent to
							set fire to a vast quantity of logs lying on the banks of the Anio, and
							float them down the river on rafts. The wind fanned the flames, and as
							the logs drove against the piles and stuck there they set the
								bridge on fire.

This incident , occurring during the battle, created a panic among the
							Sabines and led to their rout, and at the same time prevented their
							flight; many after escaping from the enemy perished in the river. Their
							shields floated down the Tiber 
							as far as the City, and being recognised, made it clear that there had
							been a victory almost before it could be announced.

In that battle the cavalry especially distinguished themselves. They were
							posted on each wing, and when the infantry in the centre were being
							forced back it is said that they made such a desperate charge from both
							sides that they not only arrested the Sabine legions as they were pressing on the retreating
							Romans, but immediately put them to flight.

The Sabines in wild disorder, made for the hills, a few gamed them, by
							far the greater number, as was stated above, were driven by the cavalry
							into the river. Tarquin determined to follow them up before they could
							recover from their panic.

He sent the prisoners and booty to Rome ; the spoils of the enemy had been devoted to
								 Vulcan , they were
							accordingly collected into an enormous pile and burnt; then he proceeded
							forthwith to lead his army into the Sabine territory.

In spite of their recent defeat and the hopelessness of repairing it,
							the Sabines met him with a hastily raised body of militia, as there was
							no time for concerting a plan of operations. They were again defeated,
							and as they were now brought to the verge of ruin, sought for peace.

Collatia and all the territory on this side of
							it was taken from the Sabines; Egerius, the king's nephew, was left to
							hold it.

I understand that the procedure on the surrender of Collatia was as
							follows: The king asked, “Have you been sent as envoys and
							commissioners by the people of Collatia to make the surrender of
							yourselves and the people of Collatia?” “We have.”
							“And is the people of Collatia an independent people?”
							“It is.” “Do you surrender into my power and that
							of the People of Rome 
							yourselves, and the people of Collatia, your city, lands, water,
							boundaries, temples, sacred vessels, all things divine and
							human?”

“We do surrender them.”

“Then I accept them.” After bringing the
								 Sabine war to a conclusion
							Tarquin returned in triumph to Rome . Then he made war on the Prisci Latini. No general
							engagement took place, he attacked each of their towns in succession and
							subjugated the whole nation. The towns of Corniculum, Old Ficulea,
							Cameria, Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullia, Nomentum, were all taken from
							the Prisci Latini or those who had gone over to them.

Then peace was made. Works of peace were now commenced with
							greater energy even than had been displayed in war, so that the people
							enjoyed no more quiet at home than they had had in the field.

He made preparations for completing the work, which had been interrupted
							by the Sabine war, of enclosing
							the City in those parts where no fortification yet existed with a stone
							wall. The low-lying parts of the City round the Forum, and the other
							valleys between the hills, where the water could not escape, were
							drained by conduits which emptied into the Tiber .

He built up with masonry a level space on the Capitol as a site for the
							temple of Jupiter which he had
							vowed during the Sabine war,
							and the magnitude of the work revealed his prophetic anticipation of the
							future greatness of the place.

At that time an incident took place as
							marvellous in the appearance as it proved in the result. It is said that
							whilst a boy named Servius Tullius was asleep, his head was enveloped in
							flames, before the eyes of many who were present.

The cry which broke out at such a marvellous sight aroused the royal
							family, and when one of the domestics was bringing water to quench the
							flames the queen stopped him, and after calming the excitement forbade
							the boy to be disturbed until he awoke of his own accord. Presently he
							did so, and the flames disappeared.

Then Tanaquil took her husband aside and said to him, “Do you see
							this boy, whom we are bringing up in such a humble style? You may be
							certain that he will one day be a light to us in trouble and perplexity,
							and a protection to our tottering house. Let us henceforth bring up with
							all care and indulgence one who will be the source of measureless glory
							to the State and to ourselves.”

From this time the boy began to be treated as their child and trained in
							those accomplishments by which characters are stimulated to the pursuit
							of a great destiny. The task was an easy one, for it was carrying out
							the will of the gods. The youth turned out to be of a truly kingly
							disposition, and when search was made for a son-in-law to Tarquinius,
							none of the Roman youths could be compared with him in any respect, so
							the king betrothed his daughter to him.

The bestowal of this great honour upon him, whatever the reason for it,
							forbids our believing that he was the son of a slave, and, in his
							boyhood, a slave himself. I am more inclined to the opinion of those who
							say that in the capture of Corniculum, Servius Tullius, the leading man
							of that city, was killed, and his wife, who was about to become a
							mother, was recognised amongst the other captive women, and in
							consequence of her high rank was exempted from servitude by the Roman
							queen, and gave birth to a son in the house of Priscus Tarquinius.

This kind treatment strengthened the intimacy between the women and the
							boy brought up as he was from infancy in the royal household was held in
							affection and honour. It was the fate of his mother who fell into the
							hands of the enemy when her native city was taken that made people think
							he was the son of a slave.

When Tarquin had been about thirty-eight
							years on the throne Servius Tullius was held in by far the highest
							esteem of any one, not only with the king but also with the patricians
							and the commons.

The two sons of Ancus had always felt most keenly their being deprived
							of their father's throne through the treachery of their guardian; its
							occupation by a foreigner who was not even of Italian, much less of
							Roman descent, increased their indignation, when they saw that not even
							after the death of Tarquin would the crown revert to them, but would
							suddenly descend to a slave —that crown which Romulus, the offspring of
							a god, and himself a god, had worn whilst he was on earth, now to he the
							possession of a slave - born slave a hundred years later!

They felt that it would be a disgrace to the whole Roman nation, and
							especially to their house, if, while the male issue of Ancus was
							still,alive, the sovereignty of Rome should be open not only to foreigners but even to
							slaves. They determined, therefore, to repel that insult by the sword.

But it was on Tarquin rather than on Servius that they sought to avenge
							their wrongs; if the king were left alive he would be able to deal more
							summary vengeance than an ordinary citizen, and in the event of Servius
							being killed, the king would certainly make any one else whom he chose
							for a son-in-law heir to the crown. These considerations decided them to
							form a plot against the king's life.

Two shepherds, perfect desperadoes, were selected for the deed. They
							appeared in the vestibule of the palace, each with his usual implement,
							and by pretending to have a violent and outrageous quarrel, they
							attracted the attention of all the royal guards. Then, as they both
							began to appeal to the king, and their clamour had penetrated within the
							palace, they were summoned before the king.

At first they tried, by shouting each against the other, to see who
							could make the most noise, until, after being repressed by the lictor
							and ordered to speak in turn, they became quiet, and one of the two
							began to state his case.

Whilst the king's attention was absorbed in listening to him, the other
							swung aloft his axe and drove it into the king's head, and leaving the
							weapon in the wound both dashed out of the palace.

Whilst the bystanders were supporting the
							dying Tarquin in their arms, the lictors caught the fugitives. The
							shouting drew a crowd together, wondering, what had happened. In the
							midst of the confusion, Tanaquil ordered the palace to be cleared and
							the doors closed; she then carefully prepared medicaments for dressing
							the wound, should there be hopes of life; at the same time she decided
							on other precautions, should the case prove hopeless, and hastily
							summoned Servius.

She showed him her husband at the point of death, and taking his hand,
							implored him not to leave his father-in-law's death unavenged, nor to
							allow his mother-in-law to become the sport of her enemies.

“The throne is yours, Servius,” she said, “if you
							are a man; it does not belong to those who have, through the hands of
							others, wrought this worst of crimes. Up! follow the guidance of the
							gods who presaged the exaltation of that head round which divine fire
							once played! Let that heaven-sent flame now inspire you. Rouse yourself
							in earnest! We, too, though foreigners, have reigned. Bethink yourself
							not whence you sprang, but who you are. If in this sudden emergency you
							are slow to resolve, then follow my counsels.”

As the clamour and impatience of the populace could hardly be
							restrained, Tanaquil went to a window in the upper part of the palace
							looking out on the Via Nova-the king used to live by the temple of
							Jupiter Stator-and addressed the people.

She bade them hope for the best; the king had been stunned by a sudden
							blow, but the weapon had not penetrated to any depth, he had already
							recovered consciousness, the blood had been washed off and the wound
							examined, all the symptoms were favourable, she was sure they would soon
							see him again, meantime it was his order that the people should
							recognise the authority of Servius Tullius, who would administer justice
							and discharge the other functions of royalty.

Servius appeared in his trabea 
							 
							attended by the lictors, and after taking his seat in the royal chair
							decided some cases and adjourned others under pretence of consulting the
							king. So for several days after Tarquin's death Servius continued to
							strengthen his position by giving out that he was exercising a delegated
							authority. At length the sounds of mourning arose in the palace and
							divulged the fact of the king's death. Protected by a strong bodyguard
							Servius was the first who ascended the throne without being elected by
							the people, though without opposition from the

senate. When the sons of Ancus heard that the instruments of their crime
							had been arrested, that the king was still alive, and that Servius was
							so powerful, they went into exile at Suessa Pometia.

Servius consolidated his power quite as much
							by his private as by his public measures. To guard against the children
							of Tarquin treating him as those of Ancus had treated Tarquin, he
							married his two daughters to the scions of the royal house, Lucius and Arruns Tarquin.

Human counsels could not arrest the inevitable course of destiny, nor
							could Servius prevent the jealousy aroused by his ascending the throne
							from making his family the scene of disloyalty and hatred. The truce
							with the Veientines had now expired, and the resumption of war with them
							and other Etruscan cities came most opportunely to help in maintaining
							tranquillity at home.

In this war the courage and good fortune of Tullius were conspicuous,
							and he returned to Rome , after
							defeating an immense force of the enemy, feeling quite secure on the
							throne, and assured of the goodwill of both patricians and commons.

Then he set himself to by far the greatest of all works in times of
							peace. Just as Numa had been
							the author of religious laws and institutions, so posterity extols
							Servius as the founder of those divisions and classes in the State by
							which a clear distinction is drawn between the various grades of dignity
							and fortune.

He instituted the census, a most beneficial institution in what was to
							be a great empire, in order that by its means the various duties of
							peace and war might be assigned, not as heretofore, indiscriminately,
							but in proportion to the amount of property each man possessed. From it
							he drew up the classes and centuries and the following distribution of
							them, adapted for either peace or war.

Those whose property amounted to, or
							exceeded 100,000 lbs. weight of copper were formed into eighty
							centuries, forty of juniors and forty of seniors.

These were called the First Class. The seniors were to defend the City,
							the juniors to serve in the field. The armour which they were to provide
							themselves with comprised helmet, round shield, greaves, and coat of
							mail, all of brass; these were to protect the person. Their offensive
							weapons were spear and sword.

To this class were joined two centuries of carpenters whose duty it was
							to work the engines of war; they were without arms. The Second Class
							consisted of those whose property amounted to between 75,000 and 100,000
							lbs.

weight of copper; they were formed, seniors and juniors together, into
							twenty centuries. Their regulation arms were the same as those of the
							First Class, except that they had an oblong wooden shield instead of the
							round brazen one and no coat of mail.

The Third Class he formed of those whose property fell as low as 50,000
							lbs.; these also consisted of twenty centuries, similarly divided into
							seniors and juniors. The only difference in the armour was that they did
							not wear greaves.

In the Fourth Class were those whose property did not fall below 25,000
							lbs.

They also formed twenty centuries; their only arms were a spear and a
							javelin. The Fifth Class was larger, it formed thirty centuries. They
							carried slings and stones, and they included the supernumeraries, the
							horn-blowers, and the trumpeters, who formed three centuries. This Fifth
							Class was assessed at 11,000 lbs.

The rest of the population whose property fell below this were formed
							into one century and were exempt from military service. After thus
							regulating the equipment and distribution of the infantry, he rearranged
							the cavalry. He enrolled from amongst the principal men of the State
							twelve centuries.

In the same way he made six other centuries (though only three had been
							formed by Romulus ) under the
							same names under which the first had been inaugurated. For the purchase
							of the horse, 10,000 lbs. were assigned them from the public treasury;
							whilst for its keep certain widows were assessed to pay 2000 lbs. each,
							annually. The burden of all these expenses was shifted from the poor on
							to the rich.

Then additional privileges were conferred. The former kings had
							maintained the constitution as handed down by Romulus , viz., manhood suffrage in
							which all alike possessed the same weight and enjoyed the same rights.
							Servius introduced a graduation; so that whilst no one was ostensibly
							deprived of his vote, all the voting power was in the hands of the
							principal men of the State.

The knights were first summoned to record their vote, then the eighty
							centuries of the infantry of the First Class; if their votes were
							divided, which seldom happened, it was arranged for the Second Class to
							be summoned; very seldom did the voting extend to the lowest Class.

Nor need it occasion any surprise, that the arrangement which now exists
							since the completion of the thirty-five tribes, their number being
							doubled by the centuries of juniors and seniors, does not agree with the
							total as instituted by Servius Tullius.

For, after dividing the City with its districts and the hills which were
							inhabited into four parts, he called these divisions
							“tribes,” I think from the tribute they paid, for he also
							introduced the practice of collecting it at an equal rate according to
							the assessment. These tribes had nothing to do with the distribution and
							number of the centuries.

The work of the census was accelerated by an enactment in which Servius
							denounced imprisonment and even capital punishment against those who
							evaded assessment. On its completion he issued an order that all the
							citizens of Rome , knights and
							infantry alike, should appear in the Campus
								Martius , each in their centuries.

After the whole army had been drawn up there, he purified it by the
							triple sacrifice of a swine, a sheep, and an ox. This was called “a
							closed lustrum ,” because with it the
							census was completed. Eighty thousand citizens are said to have been
							included in that census. Fabius Pictor, the oldest of our historians
							states that this was the number of those who could bear arms.

To contain that population it was
							obvious that the City would have to be enlarged. He added to it the two
							hills —the Quirinal and the Viminal —and then made a further addition by
							including the Esquiline , and to
							give it more importance he lived there himself. He surrounded the City
							with a mound and moats and wall; in this way he extended the “
								 pomoerium .”

Looking only to the etymology of the word, they explain “
								 pomoerium ” as “ postmoerium ;” but it is rather a “
								 circamoerium .” For the space
							which the Etruscans of old, when founding their cities, consecrated in
							accordance with auguries and marked off by boundary stones at intervals
							on each side, as the part where the wall was to be carried, was to be
							kept vacant so that no buildings might connect with the wall on the
							inside (whilst now they generally touch), and on the outside some ground
							might remain virgin soil untouched by cultivation.

This space, which it was forbidden either to build upon or to plough,
							and which could not be said to be behind the wall any more than the wall
							could be said to be behind it, the Romans called the “ pomoerium .” As the City grew, these
							sacred boundary stones were always moved forward as far as the walls
							were advanced.

After the State was augmented by the expansion of
							the City and all domestic arrangements adapted to the requirements of
							both peace and war, Servius endeavoured to extend his dominion by
							state-craft, instead of aggrandising it by arms, and at the same time
							made an addition to the adornment of the City.

The temple of the Ephesian Diana was famous at that time, and it was
							reported to have been built by the cooperation of the states of
								 Asia . Servius had been
							careful to form ties of hospitality and friendship with the chiefs of
							the Latin nation, and he used to speak in the highest praise of that
							cooperation and the common recognition of the same deity. By constantly
							dwelling on this theme he at length induced the Latin tribes to join
							with the people of Rome in
							building a temple to Diana in
								 Rome .

Their doing so was an admission of the predominance of Rome ; a question which had so often
							been disputed by arms. Though the Latins, after their many unfortunate
							experiences in war, had as a nation laid aside all thoughts of success,
							there was amongst the Sabines one man who believed that an opportunity
							presented itself of recovering the supremacy through his own individual
							cunning.

The story runs that a man of substance belonging to that nation had a
							heifer of marvellous size and beauty. The marvel was attested in after
							ages by the horns which were fastened up in the vestibule of the temple
							of Diana .

The creature was looked upon as-what it really was-a prodigy, and the
							soothsayers predicted that, whoever sacrificed it to Diana , the state of which he was a
							citizen should be the seat of empire.

This prophecy had reached the ears of the official in charge of the
							temple of Diana . When the first
							day on which the sacrifice could properly be offered arrived the
								 Sabine drove the heifer to
								 Rome , took it to the temple
							and placed it front of the altar. The official in charge was a Roman,
							and, struck by the size of the victim which was well known by report he
							recalled the prophecy and addressing the Sabine said, “Why, pray, are you, stranger,
							preparing to offer a polluted sacrifice to Diana ? Go and bathe yourself first in running water.
							The Tiber is flowing down there
							at the bottom of the valley.”

Filled with misgivings, and anxious for everything to be done properly
							that the prediction might be fulfilled, the stranger promptly went down
							to the Tiber . Meanwhile the
							Roman sacrificed the heifer to Diana . This was a cause of intense gratification to the
							king and to his people.

Servius was now confirmed on the throne by long possession. It had,
							however, come to his ears that the young Tarquin was giving out that he
							was reigning without the assent of the people. He first secured the
							goodwill of the plebs by assigning to each householder a slice of the
							land which had been taken from the enemy. Then he was emboldened to put
							to them the question whether it was their will and resolve that he
							should reign.

He was acclaimed as king by a unanimous vote such as no king before him
							had obtained. The Assassination of the King. This action in
							no degree damped Tarquin's hopes of making his way to the throne, rather
							the reverse. He was a bold and aspiring youth, and his wife Tullia
							stimulated his restless ambition. He had seen that the granting of land
							to the commons was in defiance of the opinion of the senate, and he
							seized the opportunity it afforded him of traducing Servius and
							strengthening his own faction in that assembly.

So it came about that the Roman palace afforded an instance of the crime
							which tragic poets have depicted, with the result that the loathing felt

for kings hastened the advent of liberty, and the crown won by villainy
							was the last that was worn.

This Lucius Tarquinius-whether he was the son or the grandson of King
							Priscus Tarquinius is not clear; if I should give him as the son I
							should have the preponderance of authorities-had a brother, Arruns
							Tarquinius, a youth of gentle character. The two Tullias, the king's
							daughters, had, as I have already stated, married these two brothers;
							and they themselves were of utterly unlike dispositions.

It was, I believe, the good fortune of Rome which intervened to prevent two violent natures
							from being joined in marriage, in order that the reign of Servius
							Tullius might last long enough to allow the State to settle into its new
							constitution. The high-spirited one of the two Tullias was annoyed that
							there was nothing in her husband for her to work on in the direction of
							either greed or ambition. All her affections were transferred to the
							other Tarquin; he was her admiration, he, she said, was a man, he was
							really of royal blood.

She despised her sister, because having a man for her husband she was
							not animated by the spirit of a woman. Likeness of character soon drew
							them together, as evil usually consorts best with evil. But it was the
							woman who was the originator of all the mischief.

She constantly held clandestine interviews with her sister's husband, to
							whom she unsparingly vilified alike her husband and her sister,
							asserting that it would have been better for her to have remained
							unmarried and he a bachelor, rather than for them each to be thus
							unequally mated, and fret in idleness through the poltroonery of others.
							Had heaven given her the husband she deserved, she would soon have seen
							the sovereignty which her father wielded established in her own house.

She rapidly infected the young man with her own recklessness. Lucius
							Tarquin and the younger Tullia, by a double murder, cleared from their
							houses the obstacles to a fresh marriage; their nuptials were solemnised
							with the tacit acquiescence rather than the approbation of Servius.

From that time the old age of Tullius became more embittered, his reign
							more unhappy. The woman began to look forward from one crime to another;
							she allowed her husband no rest day or night, for fear lest the past
							murders should prove fruitless.

What she wanted, she said, was not a man who was only her husband in
							name, or with whom she was to live in uncomplaining servitude; the man
							she needed was one who deemed himself worthy of a throne, who remembered
							that he was the son of Priscus Tarquinius, who preferred to wear a crown
							rather than live in hopes of it.

“If you are the man to whom I thought I was married, then I call
							you my husband and my king; but if not, I have changed my condition for
							the worse, since you are not only a coward but a criminal to boot. Why
							do you not prepare yourself for

action? You are not, like your father, a native of Corinth or Tarquinii , nor is it a foreign crown
							you have to win. Your father's household gods, your father's image, the
							royal palace, the kingly throne within it, the very name of Tarquin, all
							declare you king. If you have not courage enough for this, why do you
							excite vain hopes in the

State? Why do you allow yourself to be looked up to as a youth of kingly
							stock? Make your way back to Tarquinii or Corinth , sink back to the position whence you sprung;
							you have your brother's nature rather than your father's.” With taunts like these she egged him

on. She, too, was perpetually haunted by the thought that whilst
							Tanaquil, a woman of alien descent, had shown such spirit as to give the
							crown to her husband and her son-in-law in succession, she herself,
							though of royal descent, had no power either in giving it or taking it

away. Infected by the woman's madness Tarquin began to go about and
							interview the nobles, mainly those of the Lesser Houses; he reminded
							them of the favour his father had shown them, and asked them to prove
							their gratitude; he won over the younger men with presents. By making
							magnificent promises as to what he would do, and by bringing charges
							against the king, his cause became stronger amongst all ranks. At last,
							when he thought the time for action had arrived, he appeared suddenly in
							the Forum with a body of armed

men. A general panic ensued, during which he seated himself in the royal
							chair in the senate-house and ordered the Fathers to be summoned by the
							crier “into the presence of King Tarquin.” They hastily
							assembled, some already prepared for what was coming; others,
							apprehensive lest their absence should arouse suspicion, and dismayed by
							the extraordinary nature of the incident, were convinced that the fate
							of Servius was

sealed. Tarquin went back to the king's birth, protested that he was a
							slave and the son of a slave, and after his (the

speaker's) father had been foully murdered, seized the throne, as a
							woman's gift, without any interrex being appointed as heretofore,
							without any assembly being convened, without any vote of the people
							being taken or any confirmation of it by the Fathers. Such was his
							origin, such was his right to the

crown. His sympathies were with the dregs of society from which he had
							sprung, and through jealousy of the ranks to which he did not belong, he
							had taken the land from the foremost men in the State and divided it
							amongst the vilest; he had shifted on to them the whole of the burdens
							which had formerly been borne in common by

all; he had instituted the census that the fortunes of the wealthy might
							be held up to envy, and be an easily available source from which to
							shower doles, whenever he pleased, upon the neediest.

Servius had been summoned by a breathless messenger, and arrived on the
							scene while Tarquin was speaking. As soon as he reached the vestibule,
							he exclaimed in loud tones, “What is the meaning of this,
							Tarquin?

How dared you, with such insolence, convene the senate or sit in that
							chair whilst I am alive?” Tarquin replied fiercely that he was
							occupying his father's seat, that a king's son was a much more
							legitimate heir to the throne than a slave, and that he, Servius, in
							playing his reckless game, had insulted his masters long enough. Shouts
							arose from their respective partisans, the people made a rush to the
							senate-house, and it was evident that he who won the fight would reign.

Then Tarquin, forced by sheer necessity into proceeding to the last
							extremity, seized Servius round the waist, and being a much younger and
							stronger man, carried him out of the senate-house and flung him down the
							steps into the Forum below. He then returned to call the senate to
							order.

The officers and attendants of the king fled. The king himself, half
							dead from the violence, was put to death by those whom Tarquin had sent
							in pursuit of him. It is the current belief that this was done at
							Tullia's suggestion, for it is quite in keeping with the rest of her
							wickedness.

At all events, it is generally agreed that she drove down to the Forum
							in a two-wheeled car, and, unabashed by the presence of the crowd,
							called her husband out of the senate-house and was the first to salute
							him as king.

He told her to make her way out of the tumult, and when on her return
							she had got as far as the top of the Cyprius Vicus, where the temple of
							Diana lately stood, and was turning to the right on the Urbius Clivus,
							to get to the Esquiline , the
							driver stopped horror-struck and pulled up, and pointed out to his
							mistress the corpse of the murdered Servius.

Then, the tradition runs, a foul and unnatural crime was committed, the
							memory of which the place still bears, for they call it the Vicus
							Sceleratus. It is said that Tullia, goaded to madness by the avenging
							spirits of her sister and her husband, drove right over her father's
							body, and carried back some of her father's blood with which the car and
							she herself were defiled to her own and her husband's house-hold gods,
							through whose anger a reign which began in wickedness was soon brought
							to a close by a like cause.

Servius Tullius reigned forty-four years, and even a wise and good
							successor would have found it difficult to fill the throne as he had
							done. The glory of his reign was all the greater because with him
							perished all just and lawful kingship in Rome .

Gentle and moderate as his sway had been, he had nevertheless, according
							to some authorities, formed the intention of laying it down, because it
							was vested in a single person, but this purpose of giving freedom to the
							State was cut short by that domestic crime.

Lucius Tarquinius now began his reign. His conduct procured for him the
							nickname of “Superbus,” for he deprived his father-in-law
							of burial, on the plea that Romulus was not buried, and he slew the
							leading nobles whom he suspected of being partisans of Servius.

Conscious that the precedent which he had set, of winning a throne by
							violence, might be used against himself, he surrounded himself with a
							guard.

For he had nothing whatever by which to make good his claim to the crown
							except actual violence; he was reigning without either being elected by
							the people or confirmed by the senate.

As more over, he had no hope of winning the affections of the citizens,
							he had to maintain his dominion by fear.

To make himself more dreaded, he conducted the trials in capital cases
							without any assessors, and under this pretence he was able to put to
							death, banish, or fine not only those whom he suspected or disliked, but
							also those from whom his only object was to extort money.

His main object was so to reduce the number of senators, by refusing to
							fill up any vacancies, that the dignity of the order itself might be
							lowered through the smallness of its numbers, and less indignation felt
							at all public business being taken out of its hands.

He was the first of the kings to break through the traditional custom of
							consulting the senate on all questions, the first to conduct the
							government on the advice of his palace favourites. War, peace, treaties,
							alliances were made or broken off by him, just as he thought good,
							without any authority from either people or senate.

He made a special point of securing the Latin nation, that through his
							power and influence abroad he might be safer amongst his subjects at
							home; he not only formed ties of hospitality with their chief men, but
							established family connections.

He gave his daughter in marriage to Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum, who
							was quite the foremost man of the Latin race, descended, if we are to
							believe traditions, from Ulysses and the goddess Circe; through that
							connection he gained many of his son-in-law's relations and friends.

Tarquin had now gained considerable influence amongst the Latin nobility,
							and he sent word for them to meet on a fixed date at the Grove of
							Ferentina, as there were matters of mutual interest about which he
							wished to consult them.

They assembled in considerable numbers at daybreak; Tarquin kept his
							appointment, it is true, but did not arrive till shortly before sunset.
							The council spent the whole day in discussing many topics. Turnus
							Herdonius, from Aricia , had
							made a fierce attack on the absent Tarquin.

It was no wonder, he said, that the epithet “Tyrant” had
							been bestowed upon him at Rome —for this was what people commonly called
							him, though only in whispers-could anything show the tyrant more than
							his thus trifling with the whole Latin nation? After summoning the
							chiefs from distant homes, the man who had called the council was not
							present.

He was in fact trying how far he could go, so that if they submitted to
							the yoke he might crush them. Who could not see that he was making his
							way to sovereignty over the Latins?

Even supposing that his own countrymen did well to entrust him with
							supreme power, or rather that it was entrusted and not seized by an act
							of parricide, the Latins ought not, even in that case, to place it in
							the hands of an alien.

But if his own people bitterly rue his sway, seeing how they are being
							butchered, sent into exile, stripped of all their property, what better
							fate can the Latins hope for? If they followed the speaker's advice they
							would go home and take as little notice of the day fixed for the council
							as he who had fixed it was taking.

Just while these and similar sentiments were being uttered by the man who
							had gained his influence in Aricia by treasonable and criminal practice, Tarquin
							appeared on the scene.

That put a stop to his speech, for all turned from the speaker to salute
							the king. When silence was restored, Tarquin was advised by those near
							to explain why he had come so late. He said that having been chosen as
							arbitrator between a father and a son, he had been detained by his
							endeavours to reconcile them, and as that matter had taken up the whole
							day, he would bring forward the measures he had decided upon the next
							day.

It is said that even this explanation was not received by Turnus without
							his commenting on it; no case, he argued, could take up less time than
							one between a father and a son, it could be settled in a few words; if
							the son did not comply with the father's wishes he would get into
							trouble.

With these censures on the Roman king he left the council. Tarquin took
							the matter more seriously than he appeared to do and at once began to
							plan Turnus' death, in order that he might inspire the Latins with the
							same terror through which he had crushed the spirits of his subjects at
							home.

As he had not the power to get him openly put to death, he compassed his
							destruction by bringing a false charge against him. Through the agency
							of some of the Aricians opposed to Turnus, he bribed a slave of his to
							allow a large quantity of swords to be carried secretly into his
							quarters.

This plan was executed in one night. Shortly before daybreak Tarquin
							summoned the Latin chiefs into his presence as though something had
							happened to give him great alarm. He told them that his delay on the
							previous day had been brought about by some divine providence, for it
							had proved the salvation both of them and himself.

He was informed that Turnus was planning his murder and that of the
							leading men in the different cities, in order that he might hold sole
							rule over the Latins. He would have attempted it the previous day in the
							council; but the attempt was deferred owing to the absence of the
							convener of the council, the chief object of attack.

Hence the abuse levelled against him in his absence , because his delay
							had frustrated the hopes of success. If the reports which reached him
							were true, he had no doubt that, on the assembling of the council at
							daybreak, Turnus would come armed and with a strong body of
							conspirators.

It was asserted that a vast number of swords had been conveyed to him.
							Whether this was an idle rumour or not could very soon be ascertained,
							he asked them to go with him to Turnus.

The restless, ambitious character of Turnus, his speech of the previous
							day, and Tarquin's delay, which easily accounted for the postponement of
							the murder all lent colour to their suspicions. They went, inclined to
							accept Tarquin's statement, but quite prepared to regard the whole story
							as baseless, if the swords were not discovered.

When they arrived, Turnus was roused from sleep and placed under guard
							and the slaves who from affection to their master were preparing to
							defend him were seized. Then, when the concealed swords were produced
							from every corner of his lodgings, the matter appeared only too certain
							and Turnus was thrown into chains. Amidst great excitement a council of
							the Latins was at once summoned.

The sight of the swords, placed in the midst, aroused such furious
							resentment that he was condemned, without being heard in his defence, to
							an unprecedented mode of death. He was thrown into the fountain of
							Ferentina and drowned by a hurdle weighted with stones being placed over
							him.

After the Latins had reassembled in council and
							had been commended by Tarquin for having inflicted on Turnus a
							punishment befitting his revolutionary and murderous designs, Tarquin
							addressed them as follows:

It was in his power to exercise a long-established right, since, as all
							the Latins traced their origin to Alba, they were included in the treaty
							made by Tullus under which the whole of the Alban State with its
							colonies passed under the suzerainty of Rome .

He thought, however, that it would be more advantageous for all parties
							if that treaty were renewed, so that the Latins could enjoy a share in
							the prosperity of the Roman people, instead of always looking out for,
							or actually suffering, the demolition of their towns and the devastation
							of their fields, as happened in the reign of Ancus and afterwards whilst
							his own father was on the throne.

The Latins were persuaded without much difficulty, although by that
							treaty Rome was the
							predominant State, for they saw that the heads of the Latin League were
							giving their adhesion to the king, and Turnus afforded a present example
							of the danger incurred by any one who opposed the king's wishes.

So the treaty was renewed, and orders were issued for the
							“juniors” amongst the Latins to
							muster under arms , in accordance with the treaty, on a given day, at
							the Grove of Ferentina.

In compliance with the order contingents assembled from all the thirty
							towns, and with a view to depriving them of their own general or a
							separate command, or distinctive standards, he formed one Latin and one
							Roman century into a maniple, thereby making one unit out of the two,
							whilst he doubled the strength of the maniples, and placed a centurion
							over each half.

However tyrannical the king was in his domestic administration he was by
							no means a despicable general; in military skill he would have rivalled
							any of his predecessors had not the degeneration of his character in
							other directions prevented him from attaining distinction here also.

He was the first to stir up war with the Volscians-a war which was to
							last for more than two hundred years after his time —and took from them
							the city of Pomptine Suessa.

The booty was sold and he realised out of the proceeds forty talents of
							silver. He then sketched out the design of a temple to Jupiter , which in its extent should be
							worthy of the king of gods and men, worthy of the Roman empire, worthy
							of the majesty of the City itself.

He set apart the above-mentioned sum for its construction. The next
							war occupied him longer than he expected. Failing to capture the
							neighbouring city of Gabii by
							assault and finding it useless to attempt an investment after being
							defeated under its walls, he employed methods against it which were
							anything but Roman, namely, fraud and deceit.

He pretended to have given up all thoughts of war and to be devoting
							himself to laying the foundations of his temple and other undertakings
							in the City.

Meantime it was arranged that Sextus, the youngest of his three sons,
							should go as a refugee to Gabii , complaining loudly of his father's insupportable
							cruelty and declaring that he had shifted his tyranny from others on to
							his own family and even regarded the presence of his children as a
							burden and was preparing to devastate his own family as he had
							devastated the senate so that not a single descendant, not a single heir
							to the crown might be left.

He had, he said, himself escaped from the murderous violence of his
							father, and felt that no place was safe for him except amongst Lucius
							Tarquin's enemies.

Let them not deceive themselves, the war which apparently was abandoned
							was hanging over them, and at the first chance he would attack them when
							they least expected it. If amongst them there was no place for
							suppliants, he would wander through Latium , he would petition the Volsci, the Aequi, the
							Hernici, until he came to men who know how to protect children against
							the cruel and unnatural persecutions of parents.

Perhaps he would find people with sufficient spirit to take up arms
							against a remorseless tyrant backed by a warlike people.

As it seemed probable that if they paid no attention to him he would, in
							his angry mood, take his departure, the people of Gabii gave him a kind reception.

They told him not to be surprised if his father treated his children as
							he had treated his own subjects and his allies; failing others he would
							end by murdering himself. They showed pleasure at his arrival and
							expressed their belief that with his assistance the war would be
							transferred from the gates of Gabii to the walls of Rome .

He was admitted to the meetings of the national council. Whilst
							expressing his agreement with the elders of Gabii on other subjects, on which
							they were better informed, he was continually urging them to war, and
							claimed to speak with special authority, because he was acquainted with
							the strength of each nation, and knew that the king's tyranny, which
							even his own children had found insupportable, was certainly detested by
							his subjects.

So after gradually working up the leaders of the Gabinians to revolt, he
							went in person with some of the most eager of the young men on foraging
							and plundering expeditions. By playing the hypocrite both in speech and
							action, he gained their mistaken confidence more and more; at last he
							was chosen as commander in the war.

Whilst the mass of the population were unaware of what was intended,
							skirmishes took place between Rome and Gabii in which the advantage generally rested with the
							latter, until the Gabinians from the highest to the lowest firmly
							believed that Sextus Tarquin had been sent by heaven to be their leader.

As for the soldiers, he became so endeared to them by sharing all their
							toils and dangers, and by a lavish distribution of the plunder, that the
							elder Tarquin was not more powerful in Rome than his son was in Gabii .

When he thought himself strong enough to succeed in anything that he
							might attempt, he sent one of his friends to his father at Rome to ask what he wished him to do
							now that the gods had given him sole and absolute power in Gabii . To this messenger no verbal
							reply was given, because, I believe, he mistrusted him.

The king went into the palace-garden, deep in thought, his son's
							messenger following him. As he walked along in silence it is said that
							he struck off the tallest poppy-heads with his stick.

Tired of asking and waiting for an answer, and feeling his mission to be
							a failure, the messenger returned to Gabii , and reported what he had said and seen, adding
							that the king, whether through temper or personal aversion or the
							arrogance which was natural to him, had not uttered a single word.

When it had become clear to Sextus what his father meant him to
							understand by his mysterious silent action, he proceeded to get rid of
							the foremost men of the State by traducing some of them to the people,
							whilst others fell victims to their own unpopularity. Many were publicly
							executed, some against whom no plausible charges could be brought were
							secretly assassinated.

Some were allowed to seek safety in flight, or were driven into exile;
							the property of these as well as of those who had been put to death was
							distributed in grants and bribes.

The gratification felt by each who received a share blunted the sense of
							the public mischief that was being wrought, until, deprived of all
							counsel and help, the State of Gabii was surrendered to the Roman king without a
							single battle.

After the
							acquisition of Gabii , Tarquin
							made peace with the Aequi and renewed the treaty with the Etruscans.
							Then he turned his attention to the business of the City. The first
							thing was the temple of Jupiter 
							on the Tarpeian Mount, which he was anxious to leave behind as a
							memorial of his reign and name, both the Tarquins were concerned in it,
							the father had vowed it, the son completed it.

That the whole of the area which the temple of Jupiter was to occupy might be wholly
							devoted to that deity, he decided to deconsecrate the fanes and chapels,
							some of which had been originally vowed by King Tatius at the crisis of
							his battle with Romulus, and subsequently consecrated and inaugurated.

Tradition records that at the commencement of this work the gods sent a
							divine intimation of the future vastness of the empire, for whilst the
							omens were favourable for the deconsecration of all the other shrines,
							they were unfavourable for that of the fane of Terminus.

This was interpreted to mean that as the abode of Terminus was not moved
							and he alone of all the deities was not called forth from his
							consecrated borders, so all would be firm and immovable in the future
							empire.

This augury of lasting dominion was followed by a prodigy which
							portended the greatness of the empire. It is said that whilst they were
							digging the foundations of the temple, a human head came to light with
							the face perfect; this appearance unmistakably portended that the spot
							would be the stronghold of empire and the head of all the world.

This was the interpretation given by the soothsayers in the City, as
							well as by those who had been called into council from Etruria.

The king's designs were now much more extensive; so much so that his
							share of the spoils of Pometia, which had been set apart to complete the
							work, now hardly met the cost of the foundations.

This makes me inclined to trust Fabius-who, moreover, is the older
							authority-when he says that the amount was only forty talents, rather
							than Piso, who states that forty thousand pounds of silver were set
							apart for that object.

For not only is such a sum more than could be expected from the spoils
							of any single city at that time, but it would more than suffice for the
							foundations of the most magnificent building of the present day.

Determined to finish his temple, he sent for workmen from all parts of
							Etruria, and not only used the public treasury to defray the cost, but
							also compelled the plebeians to take their share of the work. This was
							in addition to their military service, and was anything but a light
							burden.

Still they felt it less of a hardship to build the temples of the gods
							with their own hands, than they did afterwards when they were
							transferred to other tasks less imposing, but involving greater toil-the
							construction of the “ fori ”
							in the Circus and that of the Cloaca
							Maxima , a subterranean tunnel to receive all the sewage of the
							City. The magnificence of these two works could hardly be equalled by
							anything in the present day.

When the plebeians were no longer required for these works, he
							considered that such a multitude of unemployed would prove a burden to
							the State, and as he wished the frontiers of the empire to be more
							widely colonised, he sent colonists to Signia and Circeii to serve as a protection to the City by land
							and sea.

While he was carrying out these undertakings a
							frightful portent appeared; a snake gliding out of a wooden column
							created confusion and panic in the palace. The king himself was not so
							much terrified as filled with anxious forebodings.

The Etruscan soothsayers were only employed to interpret prodigies which
							affected the State; but this one concerned him and his house personally,
							so he decided to send to the world-famed oracle of Delphi .

Fearing to entrust the oracular response to any one else, he sent two of
							his sons to Greece , through
							lands at that time unknown and over seas still less known. Titus and
							Arruns started on their journey.

They had as a travelling companion L. Junius Brutus, the son of the
							king's sister, Tarquinia , a
							young man of a very different character from that which he had assumed.
							When he heard of the massacre of the chiefs of the State, amongst them
							his own brother, by his uncle's orders, he determined that his
							intelligence should give the king no cause for alarm nor his fortune any
							provocation to his avarice, and that as the laws afforded no protection,
							he would seek safety in obscurity and neglect.

Accordingly he carefully kept up the appearance and conduct of an idiot,
							leaving the king to do what he liked with his person and property, and
							did not even protest against his nickname of “Brutus”; for
							under the protection of that nickname the soul which was one day to
							liberate Rome was awaiting its
							destined hour.

The story runs that when brought to Delphi by the Tarquins, more as a butt for their sport
							than as a companion, he had with him a golden staff enclosed in a hollow
							one of cornel wood, which he offered to Apollo as a mystical emblem of
							his own character.

After executing their father's commission the young men were desirous of
							ascertaining to which of them the kingdom of Rome would come. A voice came from
							the lowest depths of the cavern: “Whichever of you, young men,
							shall be the first to kiss his mother, he shall hold supreme sway in
								 Rome .”

Sextus had remained behind in Rome and to keep him in ignorance of this oracle and so
							deprive him of any chance of coming to the throne, the two Tarquins
							insisted upon absolute silence being kept on the subject. They drew lots
							to decide which of them should be the first to kiss his mother.

On their return to Rome ,
							Brutus, thinking that the oracular utterance had another meaning,
							pretended to stumble, and as he fell kissed the ground, for the earth is
							of course the common mother of us all.

Then they returned to Rome ,
							where preparations were being energetically pushed forward for a war
							with the Rutulians

This people who were at that time in possession
							of Ardea , were, considering
							the nature of their country and the age in which they lived,
							exceptionally wealthy. This circumstance really originated the war, for
							the Roman king was anxious to repair his own fortune, which had been
							exhausted by the magnificent scale of his public works and also to
							conciliate his subjects by a distribution of the spoils of war.

His tyranny had already produced disaffection but what moved their
							special resentment was the way they had been so long kept by the king at
							manual and even servile labour.

An attempt was made to take Ardea by assault; when that failed recourse
							was had to a regular investment to starve the enemy out.

When troops are stationary, as is the case in a protracted more than in
							an active campaign, furloughs are easily granted, more so to the men of
							rank however, than to the common soldiers.

The royal princes sometimes spent their leisure hours in feasting and
							entertainments, and at a wine party given by

Sextus Tarquinius at which Collatinus, the son of Egerius, was present,
							the conversation happened to turn upon their wives, and each began to
							speak of his own in terms of extraordinarily high praise.

As the dispute became warm Collatinus said that there was no need of
							words, it could in a few hours be ascertained how far his Lucretia was superior to all the rest.
							“Why do we not,” he exclaimed, “if we have any
							youthful vigour about us mount our horses and pay your wives a visit and
							find out their characters on the spot?

What we see of the behaviour, of each on the unexpected arrival of her
							husband, let that be the surest test.” They were heated with
							wine, and all shouted: “Good! Come on!”

Setting spur to their horses they galloped off to Rome , where they arrived as darkness
							was beginning to close in; Thence they proceeded to Collatia, where they
							found Lucretia very differently
							employed from the king's daughters-in-law, whom they had seen passing
							their time in feasting and luxury with their acquaintances. She was
							sitting at her wool work in the hall, late at night, with her, maids
							busy round her.

The palm in this competition of wifely virtue was awarded to Lucretia . She welcomed the arrival of
							her husband and the Tarquins, whilst her victorious spouse courteously
							invited the royal princes to remain as his guests. Sextus Tarquin,
							inflamed by the beauty and exemplary purity of Lucretia , formed the vile project of
							effecting her dishonour.

After their youthful frolic they returned for the time to camp.

A few days afterwards Sextus Tarquin went, unknown to Collatinus, with
							one companion to Collatia.

He was hospitably received by the household, who suspected nothing, and
							after supper was conducted to the bedroom set apart for guests. When all
							around seemed safe and everybody fast asleep, he went in the frenzy of
							his passion with a naked sword to the sleeping Lucretia , and placing his left hand on
							her breast, said, “Silence, Lucretia ! I am Sextus Tarquin, and I have a sword in my
							hand; if you utter a word, you shall die.”

When the woman, terrified out of her sleep, saw that no help was near,
							and instant death threatening her, Tarquin began to confess his passion,
							pleaded, used threats as well as entreaties, and employed every argument
							likely to influence a female heart.

When he saw that she was inflexible and not moved even by the fear of
							death, he threatened to disgrace her, declaring that he would lay the
							naked corpse of the slave by her dead body, so that it might be said
							that she had been slain in foul adultery.

By this awful threat, his lust triumphed over her inflexible chastity,
							and Tarquin went off exulting in having successfully attacked her
							honour. Lucretia , overwhelmed
							with grief at such a frightful outrage, sent a messenger to her father
							at Rome and to her husband at
							Ardea, asking them to come to her, each accompanied by one faithful
							friend; it was necessary to act, and to act promptly; a horrible thing
							had happened.

Spurius Lucretius came with Publius Valerius, the son of Volesus;
							Collatinus with Lucius Junius Brutus, with whom he happened to be
							returning to Rome when he was
							met by his wife's messenger. They found Lucretia sitting in her room prostrate with grief.

As they entered, she burst into tears, and to her husband's inquiry
							whether all was well, replied, “No! what can be well with a woman
							when her honour is lost? The marks of a stranger Collatinus are in your
							bed. But it is only the body that has been violated the soul is pure;
							death shall bear witness to that. But pledge me your solemn word that
							the adulterer shall not go unpunished.

It is Sextus Tarquin, who, coming as an enemy instead of a guest forced
							from me last night by brutal violence a pleasure fatal to me, and, if
							you are men, fatal to him.”

They all successively pledged their word, and tried to console the
							distracted woman , by turning the guilt from the victim of the outrage
							to the perpetrator, and urging that it is the mind that sins not the
							body, and where there has been no consent there is no guilt “It
							is for you,” she said, “to see that he gets his deserts:

although I acquit myself of the sin, I do not free myself from the
							penalty; no unchaste woman shall henceforth live and plead Lucretia 's example.”

She had a knife concealed in her dress which she plunged into her, heart,
							and fell dying on the floor.

Her father and husband raised the death-cry.

Whilst they were absorbed in grief,
							Brutus drew the knife from Lucretia 's wound and holding it, dripping with blood,
							in front of him, said, “By this blood - most pure before the
							outrage wrought by the king's son —I swear, and you, 0 gods, I call to
							witness that I will drive hence Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, together
							with his cursed wife and his whole brood, with fire and sword and every
							means in my power, and I will not suffer them or any one else to reign
							in Rome .”

Then he handed the knife to Collatinus and then to Lucretius and
							Valerius, who were all astounded at the marvel of the thing, wondering
							whence Brutus had acquired this new character. They swore as they were
							directed; all their grief changed to wrath, and they followed the lead
							of Brutus, who summoned them to abolish the monarchy forthwith.

They carried the body of Lucretia from her home down to the Forum, where, owing
							to the unheard-of atrocity of the crime, they at once collected a crowd.

Each had his own complaint to make of the wickedness and violence of the
							royal house. Whilst all were moved by the father's deep distress, Brutus
							bade them stop their tears and idle laments, and urged them to act as
							men and Romans and take up arms against their insolent foes.

All the high-spirited amongst the younger men came forward as armed
							volunteers, the rest followed their, example. A portion of this body was
							left to hold Collatia, and guards were stationed at the gates to prevent
							any news of the movement from reaching the king; the rest marched in
							arms to Rome with Brutus in
							command.

On their, arrival, the sight of so many men in arms spread panic and
							confusion wherever they marched, but when again the people saw that the
							foremost men of the State were leading the way, they realised that
							what-ever the movement was it was a serious one.

The terrible occurrence created no less excitement in Rome than it had done in Collatia;
							there was a rush from all quarters of the City to the Forum. When they
							had gathered there, the herald summoned them to attend the
							“Tribune of the Celeres”; this was the office which Brutus
							happened at the time to be holding.

He made a speech quite out of keeping with the character and temper he
							had up to that day assumed. He dwelt upon the brutality and
							licentiousness of Sextus Tarquin, the infamous outrage on Lucretia and her pitiful death, the
							bereavement sustained by her, father, Tricipitinus, to whom the cause of
							his daughter's death was more shameful and distressing than the actual
							death itself.

Then he dwelt on the tyranny of the king, the toils and sufferings of
							the plebeians kept underground clearing out ditches and sewers —Roman
							men, conquerors of all the surrounding nations , turned from warriors
							into artisans and stonemasons!

He reminded them of the shameful murder of Servius Tullius and his
							daughter driving in her accursed chariot over her father's body, and
							solemnly invoked the gods as the avengers of murdered parents.

By enumerating these and, I believe, other still more atrocious
							incidents which his keen sense of the present injustice suggested, but
							which it is not easy to give in detail, he goaded on the incensed
							multitude to strip the king of his sovereignty and pronounce a sentence
							of banishment against Tarquin with his wife and children.

With a picked body of the “Juniors,” who volunteered to
							follow him, he went off to the camp at Ardea to incite the army against
							the king, leaving the command in the City to Lucretius, who had
							previously been made Prefect of the City by the king.

During the commotion Tullia fled from the palace amidst the execrations
							of all whom she met, men and women alike invoking against her father's
							avenging spirit.

When the news of these proceedings reached the camp, the king, alarmed at
							the turn affairs were taking, hurried to Rome to quell the outbreak. Brutus, who was on the same
							road, had become aware of his approach, and to avoid meeting him took
							another route, so that he reached Ardea and Tarquin Rome almost at the same time, though
							by different ways.

Tarquin found the gates shut, and a decree of banishment passed against
							him; the Liberator of the City received a joyous welcome in the camp,
							and the king's sons were expelled from it. Two of them followed their
							father, into exile amongst the Etruscans in Caere. Sextus Tarquin
							proceeded to Gabii, which he looked upon as his kingdom, but was killed
							in revenge for the old feuds he had kindled by his rapine and murders.

Lucius Tarquinius Superbus reigned twenty-five years. The whole duration
							of the regal government from the foundation of the City to its
							liberation was two hundred and forty-four years. Two consuls were then
							elected in the assembly of centuries by the prefect of the City, in
							accordance with the regulations of Servius Tullius. They were Lucius
							Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus.

It is of a Rome henceforth free that I am to write the history
							—her civil administration and the conduct of her wars, her annually
							elected magistrates, the authority of her laws supreme over all her
							citizens.

The tyranny of the last king made this liberty all the more welcome, for
							such had been the rule of the former kings that they might not
							undeservedly be counted as founders of parts, at all events, of the
							city; for the additions they made were required as abodes for the
							increased population which they themselves had augmented.

There is no question that the Brutus who won such glory through the
							expulsion of Superbus would have inflicted the gravest injury on the
							State had he wrested the sovereignty from any of the former kings,
							through desire of a liberty for which the people were not ripe.

What would have been the result if that horde of shepherds and
							immigrants, fugitives from their own cities, who had secured liberty, or
							at all events impunity, in the shelter of an inviolable sanctuary

—if, I say, they had been freed from the restraining power of kings and,
							agitated by tribunician storms, had begun to foment quarrels with the
							patricians in a City where they were aliens before sufficient time had
							elapsed for either family ties or a growing love for the very soil to
							effect a union of

hearts? The infant State would have been torn to pieces by internal
							dissension. As it was, however, the moderate and tranquilizing authority
							of the kings had so fostered it that it was at last able to bring forth
							the fair fruits of liberty, in the maturity of its

strength. But the origin of liberty may be referred to this time rather
							because the consular authority was limited to one year than because
							there was any weakening of the authority which the kings had

possessed. The first consuls retained all the old jurisdiction and
							insignia of office; one only, however, had the “ fasces ,” to prevent the fear which might
							have been inspired by the sight of both with those dread symbols.
							Through the concession of his colleague, Brutus had them first, and he
							was not less zealous in guarding the public liberty than he had been in
							achieving

it. His first act was to secure the people, who were now jealous of
							their newly-recovered liberty, from being influenced by any entreaties
							or bribes from the

king. He therefore made them take an oath that they would not suffer any
							man to reign in Rome . The
							senate had been thinned by the murderous cruelty of Tarquin, and Brutus'
							next care was to strengthen its influence by selecting some of the
							leading men of equestrian rank to fill the vacancies; by this means he
							brought it up to the old number of three

hundred. The new members were known as “ conscripti ,” the old ones retained their
							designation of “ patres .”
							This measure had a wonderful effect in promoting harmony in the State
							and bringing the patricians and plebeians together.

He next gave his attention to the affairs of religion. Certain public
							functions had hitherto been executed by the kings in person;

with the view of supplying their place a “king for
							sacrifices” was created, and lest he should become king in anything
							more than name, and so threaten that liberty which was their first care,
							his office was made subordinate to the Pontifex
								Maximus . I think that they went to unreasonable lengths in
							devising safeguards for their liberty, in all, even the smallest

points. The second consul —L. Tarquinius Collatinus —bore an unpopular
							name —this was his sole offence —and men said that the Tarquins had been
							too long in power. They began with Priscus; then Servius Tullius
							reigned, and Superbus Tarquinius, who even after this interruption had
							not lost sight of the throne which another filled, regained it by crime
							and violence as the hereditary possession of his house. And now that he
							was expelled, their power was being wielded by Collatinus; the Tarquins
							did not know how to live in a private station, the very name was a
							danger to

liberty. What were at first whispered hints became the common talk of
							the City, and as the people were becoming suspicious and alarmed, Brutus
							summoned an

assembly. He first of all rehearsed the people's oath, that they would
							suffer no man to reign or to live in Rome by whom the public liberty might be imperiled.
							This was to be guarded with the utmost care, no means of doing so were
							to be neglected. Personal regard made him reluctant to speak, nor would
							he have spoken had not his affection for the common-wealth compelled

him. The Roman people did consider that their freedom was not yet fully
							won; the royal race, the royal name, was still there, not only amongst
							the citizens but in the government; in that fact lay an injury, an
							obstacle to full

liberty. Turning to his brother consul: “These apprehensions it
							is for you, L. Tarquinius, to banish of your own free will. We have not
							forgotten, I assure you, that you expelled the king's family, complete
							your good work, remove their very name. Your fellow-citizens will, on my
							authority, not only hand over your property, but if you need anything,
							they will add to it with lavish generosity. Go, as our friend, relieve
							the common-wealth from a perhaps groundless, fear, men are persuaded
							that only with the family will the tyranny of the Tarquins

depart.” At first the consul was struck dumb with astonishment at
							this extraordinary request; then, when he was beginning to speak, the
							foremost men in the commonwealth gathered round him and repeatedly urged
							the same plea, but with little

success. It was not till Spurius Lucretius, his superior in age and
							rank, and also his father-in-law, began to use every method of entreaty
							and persuasion that he yielded to the universal

wish. The consul, fearing lest after his year of office had expired and
							he returned to private life, the same demand should be made upon him,
							accompanied with loss of property and the ignominy of banishment,
							formally laid down the consulship, and after transferring all his
							effects to Lanuvium, withdrew from the

State. A decree of the senate empowered Brutus to propose to the people
							a measure exiling all the members of the house of Tarquin. He conducted
							the election of a new consul, and the centuries elected as his colleague
							Publius Valerius, who had acted with him in the expulsion of the royal
							family.

Though no one doubted that war
							with the Tarquins was imminent, it did not come as soon as was
							universally expected. What was not expected, however, was that through
							intrigue and treachery the new-won liberty was almost lost.

There were some young men of high birth in Rome who during the late reign
							had done pretty much what they pleased, and being born companions of the
							young Tarquins were accustomed to live in royal fashion.

Now that all were equal before the law, they missed their former licence
							and complained that the liberty which others enjoyed had become slavery
							for them; as long as there was a king, there was a person from whom they
							could get what they wanted, whether lawful or not, there was room for
							personal influence and kindness, he could show severity or indulgence,
							could discriminate between his friends and his enemies.

But the law was a thing, deaf and inexorable, more favourable to the
							weak than to the powerful, showing no indulgence or forgiveness to those
							who transgressed; human nature being what it was, it was a dangerous
							plan to trust solely to one's innocence.

When they had worked themselves into a state of disaffection, envoys
							from the royal family arrived, bringing a demand for the restoration of
							their property without any allusion to their possible return. An
							audience was granted them by the senate, and the matter was discussed
							for some days; fears were expressed that the non-surrender would be
							taken as a pretext for war, while if surrendered it might provide the
							means of war.

The envoys, meantime, were engaged on another task: whilst ostensibly
							seeking only the surrender of the property they were secretly hatching
							schemes for regaining the crown.

Whilst canvassing the young nobility in favour of their apparent object,
							they sounded them as to their other proposals, and meeting with a
							favourable reception, they brought letters addressed to them by the
							Tarquins and discussed plans for admitting them secretly at night into
							the City.

The project was at first entrusted to the brothers Vitellii and Aquilii.
							The sister of the Vitellii was married to the consul Brutus, and there
							were grown-up children from this marriage — Titus and Tiberius . Their, uncles took them into the conspiracy,
							there were others besides, whose names have been lost.

In the meantime the opinion that the property ought to be restored was
							adopted by the majority of the senate, and this enabled the envoys to
							prolong their stay, as the consuls required time to provide vehicles for
							conveying the goods.

They employed their time in consultations with the conspirators, and
							they insisted on getting a letter, which they were to give to the
							Tarquins, for without such a guarantee, they argued, how could they be
							sure that their envoys had not brought back empty promises in a matter
							of such vast importance?

A letter was accordingly given as a pledge of good faith, and this it
							was that led to the discovery of the plot.

The day previous to the departure of the envoys they happened to be
							dining at the house of the Vitellii. After all who were not in the
							secret had left, the conspirators discussed many details respecting
							their projected treason, which were overheard by one of the slaves, who
							had previously

suspected that something was afoot, but was waiting for the moment when
							the letter should be given, as its seizure would be a complete proof of
							the plot. When he found that it had been given, he disclosed the affair
							to the consuls.

They at once proceeded to arrest the envoys and the conspirators, and
							crushed the whole plot without exciting any alarm. Their first care was
							to secure the letter before it was destroyed. The traitors were
							forthwith thrown into prison; there was some hesitation in dealing with
							the envoys, and although they had evidently been guilty of a hostile
							act, the rights of international law were accorded them.

The question of the restoration of the property was referred anew to the
							senate, who yielding to their feelings of resentment prohibited its
							restoration, and forbade its being brought into the treasury; it was
							given as plunder to the plebs, that their share in this spoliation might
							destroy for ever any prospect of peaceable relations with the Tarquins.

The land of the Tarquins, which lay between the City and the Tiber , was henceforth sacred to
								 Mars and known as the
								 Campus Martius .

There happened, it is said, to be a crop of corn there which was ripe
							for the harvest, and as it would have been sacrilege to consume what was
							growing on the Campus, a large body of men were sent to cut it. They
							carried it, straw and all, in baskets to the Tiber , and threw it into the river.

It was the height of the summer and the stream was low, consequently the
							corn stuck in the shallows, and heaps of it were covered with mud;
							gradually as the debris which the river brought down collected there, an
							island was formed. I believe that it was subsequently raised and
							strengthened so that the surface might be high enough above the water,
							and firm enough to carry temples and colonnades.

After the royal property had been disposed of, the traitors were
							sentenced and executed. Their punishment created a great sensation owing
							to the fact that the consular office imposed upon a father the duty of
							inflicting punishment on his own children; he who ought not to have
							witnessed it was destined to be the one to see it duly carried out.

Youths belonging to the noblest families were standing tied to the post,
							but all eyes were turned to the consul's children, the others were
							unnoticed.

Men did not grieve more for their punishment than for the crime which
							had incurred it —that they should have conceived the idea, in that year
							above all, of betraying to one, who had been a ruthless tyrant and was
							now an exile and an enemy, a newly liberated country, their father, who
							had liberated it, the consulship which had originated in the Junian
							house, the senate, the plebs, all that Rome possessed of human or divine.

The consuls took their seats, the lictors were told off to inflict the
							penalty; they scourged their bared backs with rods and then beheaded
							them. During the whole time, the father's countenance betrayed his
							feelings, but the father's stern resolution was still more apparent as
							he superintended the public execution.

After the guilty had paid the penalty, a notable example of a different
							nature was provided to act as a deterrent of crime, the informer was
							assigned a sum of money from the treasury and he was given his liberty
							and the rights of citizenship.

He is said to have been the first to be made free by the “
								 vindicta .” Some suppose this
							designation to have been derived from him, his name being Vindicius.
							After him it was the rule that those who were made free in this way were
							considered to be admitted to the citizenship.

A detailed report of these matters
							reached Tarquin. He was not only furious at the failure of plans from
							which he had hoped so much, but he was filled with rage at finding the
							way blocked against secret intrigues; and consequently determined upon
							open war.

He visited the cities of Etruria and appealed for help; in particular,
							he implored the people of Veii 
							and Tarquinii not to
							allow one to perish before their eyes who was of the same blood with
							them, and from being a powerful monarch was now, with his children,
							homeless and destitute. Others, he said, had been invited from abroad to
							reign in Rome ; he, the king,
							whilst extending the rule of Rome by a successful war, had been driven out by the
							infamous conspiracy of his nearest kinsmen.

They had no single person amongst them deemed worthy to reign, so they
							had distributed the kingly authority amongst themselves, and had given
							his property as plunder to the people, that all might be involved in the
							crime. He wanted to recover his country and his throne and punish his
							ungrateful subjects.

The Veientines must help him and furnish him with resources, they must
							set about avenging their own wrongs also, their legions so often cut to
							pieces, their territory torn from them. This appeal decided the
							Veientines, they one and all loudly demanded that their former
							humiliations should be wiped out and their losses made good, now that
							they had a Roman to lead them.

The people of Tarquinii 
							were won over by the name and nationality of the exile; they were proud
							of having a countryman as king in Rome .

So two armies from these cities followed Tarquin to recover his crown
							and chastise the Romans. When they had entered the Roman territory the
							consuls advanced against them; Valerius with the infantry in phalanx
								formation, Brutus
							reconnoitering in advance with the

cavalry. Similarly the enemy's cavalry was in front of his main body,
							Arruns Tarquin, the king's son, in command; the king himself followed
							with the legionaries. Whilst still at a distance Arruns distinguished
							the consul by his escort of lictors; as they drew nearer he clearly
							recognised Brutus by his features, and in a transport of rage exclaimed,
							“That is the man who drove us from our country; see him proudly
							advancing, adorned with our

insignia! Ye gods, avengers of kings, aid me!” With these words,
							he dug spurs into his horse and rode straight at the consul. Brutus saw
							that he was making for

him. It was a point of honour in those days for the leaders to engage in
							single combat, so he eagerly accepted the challenge, and they charged
							with such fury, neither of them thinking of protecting himself, if only
							he could wound his foe, that each drove his spear at the same moment
							through the other's shield, and they fell dying from their horses, with
							the spears sticking in

them. The rest of the cavalry at once engaged, and not long after the
							infantry came up. The battle raged with varying fortune, the two armies
							being fairly matched; the right wing of each was victorious, the left

defeated. The Veientes, accustomed to defeat at the hands of the Romans,
							were scattered in flight, but the Tarquinians, a new foe, not only held
							their ground, but forced the Romans to give way.

After the battle had gone in this way, so great a panic seized Tarquin
							and the Etruscans that the two armies of Veii and Tarquinii , on the approach of night, despairing of
							success, left the field and departed for their homes.

The story of the battle was enriched by marvels. In the silence of the
							next night a great voice is said to have come from the forest of Arsia,
							believed to be the voice of Silvanus, which spoke thus: “The
							fallen of the Tusci are one more than those of their foe; the Roman is
							conqueror.”

At all events the Romans left the field as victors; the Etruscans
							regarded themselves as vanquished, for when daylight appeared not a
							single enemy was in sight. P. Valerius, the consul, collected the spoils
							and returned in triumph to Rome .

He celebrated his colleague's obsequies with all the pomp possible in
							those days, but far greater honour was done to the dead by the universal
							mourning, which was rendered specially noteworthy by the fact that the
							matrons were a whole year in mourning for him, because he had been such
							a determined avenger of violated chastity.

After this the surviving consul,
							who had been in such favour with the multitude, found himself —such is
							its fickleness —not only unpopular but an object of suspicion, and that
							of a very grave character.

It was rumoured that he was aiming at monarchy, for he had held no
							election to fill Brutus' place, and he was building a house on the top
							of the Velia , an impregnable
							fortress was being constructed on that high and strong position.

The consul felt hurt at finding these rumours so widely believed, and
							summoned the people to an assembly. As he entered the “ fasces ” were lowered, to the great delight of the multitude, who
							understood that it was to them that they were lowered as an open avowal
							that the dignity and might of the people were greater than those of the

consul. Then, after securing silence, he began to eulogise the good
							fortune of his colleague who had met his death, as a liberator of his
							country, possessing the highest honour it could bestow, fighting for the
							commonwealth, whilst his glory was as yet undimmed by jealousy and
							distrust. Whereas he himself had outlived his glory and fallen on days
							of suspicion and opprobrium; from being a liberator of his country he
							had sunk to the level of the Aquilii and

Vitellii. “Will you,” he cried, “never deem any
							man's merit so assured that it cannot be tainted by suspicion? Am I, the
							most determined foe to kings, to dread the suspicion of desiring to be
							one

myself? Even if I were dwelling in the Citadel on the Capitol, am I to
							believe it possible that I should be feared by my fellow-citizens? Does
							my reputation amongst you hang on so slight a thread? Does your
							confidence rest upon such a weak foundation that it is of greater moment
							where I am than who I

am? The house of Publius Valerius shall be no check upon your freedom,
							your Velia shall be safe. I
							will not only move my house to level ground, but I will move it to the
							bottom of the hill that you may dwell above the citizen whom you
							suspect. Let those dwell on the Velia who are regarded as truer friends of liberty than
							Publius

Valerius.” All the materials were forthwith carried below the
							Velia and his house was built at the very bottom of the hill where now
							stands the temple of Vica Pota .

Laws were passed which not only cleared the consul from suspicion but
							produced such a reaction that he won the people's affections, hence his
							sobriquet of Publicola.

The most popular of these laws were those which granted a right of
							appeal from the magistrate to the people and devoted to the gods the
							person and property of any one who entertained projects of becoming
							king.

Valerius secured the passing of these laws while still sole consul, that
							the people might feel grateful solely to him; afterwards he held the
							elections for the appointment of a colleague. The consul elected was Sp.
							Lucretius.

But he had not, owing to his great age, strength enough to discharge the
							duties of his office, and within a few days he died. M. Horatius
							Pulvillus was elected in his place.

In some ancient authors I find no mention of Lucretius, Horatius being
							named immediately after Brutus; as he did nothing of any note during his
							office, I suppose, his memory has perished. The temple of Jupiter on the Capitol had not yet
							been dedicated, and the consuls drew lots to decide which should
							dedicate it.

The lot fell to Horatius. Publicola set out for the Veientine war. His
							friends showed unseemly annoyance at the dedication of so illustrious a
							fane being assigned to Horatius, and tried every means of preventing it.

When all else failed, they tried to alarm the consul, whilst he was
							actually holding the door-post during
							the dedicatory prayer; by a wicked message that his son was dead, and he
							could not dedicate a temple while death was in his house. As to whether
							he disbelieved the message, or whether his conduct simply showed
							extraordinary self-control, there is no definite tradition, and it is
							not easy to decide from the records.

He only allowed the message to interrupt him so far that he gave orders
							for the body to be burnt; then, with his hand still on the door-post, he
							finished the prayer and dedicated the temple. These were the principal
							incidents at home and in the field during the first year after the
							expulsion of the royal family.

The consuls elected for the next year were P. Valerius, for the second
							time, and T. Lucretius.

The Tarquins had now
							taken refuge with Porsena, the king of Clusium, whom they sought to
							influence by entreaty mixed with warnings. At one time they entreated
							him not to allow men of Etruscan race, of the same blood as himself, to
							wander as penniless exiles; at another they would warn him not to let
							the new fashion of expelling kings go unpunished.

Liberty, they urged, possessed fascination enough in itself;

unless kings defend their authority with as much energy as their
							subjects show in quest of liberty, all things come to a dead level,
							there will be no one thing preeminent or superior to all else in the
							State; there will soon be an end of kingly power, which is the most
							beautiful thing, whether amongst gods or amongst mortal men.

Porsena considered that the presence of an Etruscan upon the Roman
							throne would be an honour to his nation; accordingly he advanced with an
							army against Rome .

Never before had the senate been in such a state of alarm, so great at
							that time was the power of Clusium and the reputation of Porsena. They feared not
							only the enemy but even their own fellow-citizens, lest the plebs,
							overcome by their fears, should admit the Tarquins into the City, and
							accept peace even though it meant slavery.

Many concessions were made at that time to the plebs by the senate.
							Their first care was to lay in a stock of corn, and commissioners were
							despatched to Vulsi and Cumae 
							to collect supplies. The sale of salt, hitherto in the hands of private
							individuals who had raised the price to a high figure, was now wholly
							transferred to the State. The plebs were exempted from the payment of
							harbour-dues and the war-tax, so that they might fall on the rich, who
							could bear the burden; the poor were held to pay sufficient to the State
							if they brought up their children.

This generous action of the senate maintained the harmony of the
							commonwealth through the subsequent stress of siege and famine so
							completely that the name of king was not more abhorrent to the

highest than it was to the lowest, nor did any demagogue ever succeed in
							becoming so popular in after times as the senate was then by its
							beneficent legislation.

On the appearance of the enemy the country
							people fled into the City as best they could. The weak places in the
							defences were occupied by military posts; elsewhere the walls and the
								 Tiber were deemed
							sufficient protection.

The enemy would have forced their way over the Sublician bridge had it
							not been for one man, Horatius Cocles. The good fortune of Rome provided him as her bulwark on
							that memorable day.

He happened to be on guard at the bridge when he saw the Janiculum taken
							by a sudden assault and the enemy rushing down from it to the river,
							whilst his own men, a panic-struck mob, were deserting their posts and
							throwing away their arms.

He reproached them one after another for their cowardice, tried to stop
							them, appealed to them in heaven's name to stand, declared that it was
							in vain for them to seek safety in flight whilst leaving the bridge open
							behind them, there would very soon be more of the enemy on the
								 Palatine and the Capitol
							than there were on the Janiculum.

So he shouted to them to break down the bridge by sword or fire, or by
							whatever means they could, he would meet the enemies' attack so far as
							one man could keep them at bay. He advanced to the head of the bridge.

Amongst the fugitives, whose backs alone were visible to the enemy, he
							was conspicuous as he fronted them armed for fight at close quarters.
							The enemy were astounded at his preternatural courage.

Two men were kept by a sense of shame from deserting him —Sp. Lartius
							and T. Herminius —both of them men of high birth and renowned courage.
							With them he sustained the first tempestuous shock and wild confused
							onset, for a brief interval.

Then, whilst only a small portion of the bridge remained and those who
							were cutting it down called upon them to retire, he insisted upon these,
							too, retreating.

Looking round with eyes dark with menace upon the Etruscan chiefs, he
							challenged them to single combat, and reproached them all with being the
							slaves of tyrant kings, and whilst unmindful of their own liberty coming
							to attack that of others. For some time they hesitated, each looking
							round upon the others to begin.

At length shame roused them to action, and raising a shout they hurled
							their javelins from all sides on their solitary foe. He caught them on
							his outstretched shield, and with unshaken resolution kept his place on
							the bridge with firmly planted foot. They were just attempting to
							dislodge him by a charge when the crash of the broken bridge and the
							shout which the Romans raised at seeing the work completed stayed the
							attack by filling them with sudden panic.

Then Cocles said, “Tiberinus, holy father, I pray thee to receive
							into thy propitious stream these arms and this thy warrior.” So,
							fully armed, he leaped into the Tiber , and though many missiles fell over him he swam
							across in safety to his friends: an act of daring more famous than
							credible with posterity.

The State showed its gratitude for such courage; his statue was set up
							in the Comitium, and as much land given to him as he could drive the
							plough round in one day.

Besides this public honour, the citizens individually showed their
							feeling; for, in spite of the great scarcity, each, in proportions to
							his means, sacrificed what he could from his own store as a gift to
							Cocles.

Repulsed in his first attempt, Porsena
							changed his plans from assault to blockade. After placing a detachment
							to hold the Janiculum he fixed his camp on the plain between that hill
							and the Tiber ,

and sent everywhere for boats, partly to intercept any attempt to get
							corn into Rome and partly to
							carry his troops across to different spots for plunder, as opportunity
							might serve.

In a short time he made the whole of the district round Rome so insecure that not only were
							all the crops removed from the fields but even the cattle were all
							driven into the City, nor did any one venture to take them outside the
							gates.

The impunity with which the Etruscans committed their depredations was
							due to strategy on the part of the Romans more than to fear. For the
							consul Valerius, determined to get an opportunity of attacking them when
							they were scattered in large numbers over the fields, allowed small
							forages to pass unnoticed, whilst he was reserving himself for vengeance
							on a larger scale.

So to draw on the pillagers, he gave orders to a considerable body of
							his men to drive cattle out of the Esquiline gate, which was the furthest from the enemy,
							in the expectation that they would gain intelligence of it through the
							slaves who were deserting, owing to the scarcity produced by the
							blockade.

The information was duly conveyed, and in consequence they crossed the
							river in larger numbers than usual in the hope of securing the whole
							lot.

P. Valerius ordered T. Herminius with a small body of troops to take up
							a concealed position at a distance of two miles on the Gabian road,
							whilst Sp. Lartius with some light-armed infantry was to post himself at
							the Colline gate until the enemy had passed him and then to intercept
							their retreat to the river.

The other consul, T. Lucretius, with a few maniples made a sortie from
							the Naevian gate; Valerius himself led some picked cohorts from the
							Caelian hill, and these were the first to attract the enemy's notice.

When Herminius became aware that fighting was begun, he rose from ambush
							and took the enemy who were engaged with Valerius in rear.

Answering cheers arose right and left, from the Colline and the Naevian
							gates, and the pillagers, hemmed in, unequal to the fight, and with
							every way of escape blocked, were cut to pieces. That put an end to
							these irregular and scattered excursions on the part of the Etruscans.

The blockade, however, continued, and with it a growing scarcity of corn
							at famine prices. Porsena still cherished hopes of capturing the City by
							keeping up the investment.

There was a young noble, C. Mucius, who regarded it as a disgrace that
							whilst Rome in the days of
							servitude under her kings had never been blockaded in any war or by any
							foe, she should now, in the day of her freedom, be besieged by those
							very Etruscans whose armies she had often routed.

Thinking that this disgrace ought to be avenged by some great deed of
							daring, he determined in the first instance to penetrate into the
							enemy's camp on his own responsibility.

On second thoughts, however, he became apprehensive that if he went
							without orders from the consuls, or unknown to any one, and happened to
							be arrested by the Roman outposts, he might be brought back as a
							deserter, a charge which the condition of the City at the time would
							make only too probable.

So he went to the senate. “I wish,” he said,
							“Fathers, to swim the Tiber , and, if I can, enter the enemy's camp, not as a
							pillager nor to inflict retaliation for their pillagings. I am
							purposing, with heaven's help, a greater deed.”

The senate gave their approval. Concealing a sword in his robe, he
							started.

When he reached the camp he took his stand in the densest part of the
							crowd near the royal tribunal. It happened to be the soldiers' pay-day,
							and a secretary, sitting by the king and dressed almost exactly like
							him, was busily engaged, as the soldiers kept coming to him incessantly.
							Afraid to ask which of the two was the king, lest his ignorance should
							betray him, Mucius struck as fortune directed the blow and killed the
							secretary instead of the king.

He tried to force his way back with his blood-stained dagger through the
							dismayed crowd, but the shouting caused a rush to be made to the spot;
							he was seized and dragged back by the king's bodyguard to the royal
							tribunal. Here, alone and helpless, and in the utmost peril, he was
							still able to inspire more fear than he felt.

“I am a citizen of Rome ,” he said, “men call me C. Mucius. As an
							enemy I wished to kill an enemy, and I have as much courage to meet
							death as I had to inflict it.

It is the Roman nature to act bravely and to suffer bravely. I am not
							alone in having made this resolve against you, behind me there is a long
							list of those who aspire to the same distinction. If then it is your
							pleasure, make up your mind for a struggle in which you will every hour
							have to fight for your life and find an armed foe on the threshold of
							your royal tent.

This is the war which we, the youth of Rome , declare against you.

You have no serried ranks, no pitched battle to fear, the matter will be
							settled between you alone and each one of us singly.”

The king, furious with anger, and at the same time terrified at the
							unknown danger, threatened that if he did not promptly explain the
							nature of the plot which he was darkly hinting at he should be roasted
							alive. “Look,” Mucius cried, “and learn how lightly
							those regard their bodies who have some great glory in view.”
							Then he plunged his right hand into a fire burning on the altar.

Whilst he kept it roasting there as if he were devoid of all sensation,
							the king, astounded at his preternatural conduct, sprang from his seat
							and ordered the youth to be removed from the altar. “Go,”
							he said, “you have been a worse enemy to yourself than to me. I
							would invoke blessings on your courage if it were displayed on behalf of
							my country; as it is, I send you away exempt from all rights of war,
							unhurt, and safe.”

Then Mucius, reciprocating, as it were, this generous treatment. said,
							“Since you honour courage, know that what you could not gain by
							threats you have obtained by kindness. Three hundred of us, the foremost
							amongst the Roman youth, have sworn to attack you in this way.

The lot fell to me first, the rest, in the order of their lot will come
							each in his turn till fortune shall give us a favourable chance against
							you.”

Mucius was accordingly dismissed; afterwards he received the sobriquet of
							Scaevola from the loss of his right hand. Envoys from Porsena followed
							him to Rome .

The king's narrow escape from the first of many attempts which was owing
							solely to the mistake of his assailant, and the prospect of having to
							meet as many attacks as there were conspirators, so unnerved him that he
							made proposals of peace to Rome .

One for the restoration of the Tarquins was put forward, more because he
							could not well refuse their request than because he had any hope of its
							being granted.

The demand for the restitution of their territory to the Veientines, and
							that for the surrender of hostages as a condition of the withdrawal of
							the detachment from the Janiculum, were felt by the Romans to be
							inevitable, and on their being accepted and peace concluded, Porsena
							moved his troops from the Janiculum and evacuated the Roman territory.

As a recognition of his courage the senate gave C. Mucius a piece of
							land across the river, which was afterwards known as the Mucian Meadows.

The honour thus paid to courage incited even
							women to do glorious things for the State. The Etruscan camp was
							situated not far from the city, and the maiden Cloelia, one of the
							hostages, escaped, unobserved, through the guards and at the head of her
							sister hostages swam across the river amidst a shower of javelins and
							restored them all safe to their relatives.

When the news of this incident reached him, the king was at first
							exceedingly angry and sent to demand the surrender of Cloelia; the
							others he did not care about.

Afterwards his feelings changed to admiration; he said that the exploit
							surpassed those of Cocles and Mucius, and announced that whilst on the
							one hand he should consider the treaty broken if she were not
							surrendered, he would on the other hand, if she were surrendered, send
							her back to her people unhurt.

Both sides behaved honourably; the Romans surrendered her as a pledge of
							loyalty to the terms of the treaty; the Etruscan king showed that with
							him courage was not only safe but honoured, and after eulogising the
							girl's conduct, told her that he would make her a present of half the
							remaining hostages, she was to choose whom she would.

It is said that after all had been brought before her, she chose the
							boys of tender age; a choice in keeping with maidenly modesty, and one
							approved by the hostages themselves, since they felt that the age which
							was most liable to ill-treatment should have the preference in being
							rescued from hostile hands.

After peace was thus re-established, the Romans rewarded the
							unprecedented courage shown by a woman by an unprecedented honour,
							namely an equestrian statue. On the highest part of the Sacred Way a
							statue was erected representing the maiden sitting on horseback.

Quite inconsistent with this
							peaceful withdrawal from the City on the part of the Etruscan king is
							the custom which, with other formalities, has been handed down from
							antiquity to our own age of “selling the goods of King
							Porsena.”

This custom must either have been introduced during the war and kept up
							after peace was made, or else it must have a less bellicose origin than
							would be implied by the description of the goods sold as “taken
							from the enemy.”

The most probable tradition is that Porsena, knowing the City to be
							without food owing to the long investment, made the Romans a present of
							his richly-stored camp, in which provisions had been collected from the
							neighbouring fertile fields of Etruria.

Then, to prevent the people seizing them indiscriminately as spoils of
							war, they were regularly sold, under the description of “the
							goods of Porsena,” a description indicating rather the gratitude
							of the people than an auction of the king's personal property, which had
							never been at the disposal of the Romans.

To prevent his expedition from appearing entirely fruitless, Porsena,
							after bringing the war with Rome to a close, sent his son Aruns with a part of his
							force to attack Aricia .

At first the Aricians were dismayed by the unexpected movement, but the
							succours which in response to their request were sent from the Latin
							towns and from Cumae so far
							encouraged them that they ventured to offer battle. At the commencement
							of the action the Etruscans attacked with such vigour that they routed
							the Aricians at the first charge.

The Cuman cohorts made a strategical flank movement, and when the enemy
							had pressed forward in disordered pursuit, they wheeled round and
							attacked them in the rear.

Thus the Etruscans, now all but victorious, were hemmed in and cut to
							pieces. A very small remnant, after losing their general, made for
								 Rome , as there was no
							nearer place of safety. Without arms, and in the guise of suppliants,
							they were kindly received and distributed amongst different houses.

After recovering from their wounds, some left for their homes, to tell
							of the kind hospitality they had received; many remained behind out of
							affection for their hosts and the City. A district was assigned to them
							to dwell in, which subsequently bore the designation of “the
							Tuscan quarter.”

The new consuls were Sp. Lartius and T. Herminius. This year Porsena made
							the last attempt to effect the restoration of the Tarquins. The
							ambassadors whom he had despatched to Rome with this object were informed that the senate
							were going to send an embassy to the king, and the most honourable of
							the senators were forthwith despatched.

They stated that the reason why a select number of senators had been
							sent to him in preference to a reply being given to his ambassadors at
								 Rome was not that they had
							been unable to give the brief answer that, kings would never be allowed
							in Rome , but simply that all
							mention of the matter might be for ever dropped, that after the
							interchange of so many kindly acts there might be no cause of
							irritation, for he, Porsena, was asking for what would be against the
							liberty of Rome . The Romans,
							if they did not wish to hasten their own ruin, would have to refuse the
							request of one to whom they wished to refuse nothing.

Rome was not a monarchy, but a
							free City, and they had made up their minds to open their gates even to
							an enemy sooner than to a king. It was the universal wish that whatever
							put an end to liberty in the City should put an end to the City itself.

They begged him, if he wished Rome to be safe, to allow it to be free.

Touched with a feeling of sympathy and respect, the king replied,
							“Since this is your fixed and unalterable determination, I will
							not harass you by fruitless proposals, nor will I deceive the Tarquins
							by holding out hopes of an assistance which I am powerless to render.
							Whether they insist on war or are prepared to live quietly, in either
							case they must seek another place of exile than this, to prevent any
							interruption of the peace between you and me.”

He followed up his words by still stronger practical proofs of
							friendship, for he returned the remainder of the hostages and restored
							the Veientine territory which had been taken away under the treaty.

As all hope of restoration was cut off, Tarquin went to his son-in-law
							Mamilius Octavius at Tusculum . So the peace between Rome and Porsena remained unbroken.

. — The new consuls
							were M. Valerius and P. Postumius. This year a successful action was
							fought with the Sabines; the consuls celebrated a triumph.

Then the Sabines made preparations for war on a larger scale. To oppose
							them and also at the same time to guard against danger in the direction
							of Tusculum , from which
							place war, though not openly declared, was still apprehended, the
							consuls elected were P. Valerius for the fourth time and T. Lucretius
							for the second.

A conflict which broke out amongst the Sabines between the peace party
							and the war party brought an accession of strength to the Romans.

Attius Clausus, who was afterwards known in Rome as Appius Claudius, was an
							advocate for peace, but, unable to maintain his ground against the
							opposing faction, who were stirring up war, he fled to Rome with a large body of clients.

They were admitted to the citizenship and received a grant of land lying
							beyond the Anio. They were called the Old Claudian tribe, and their
							numbers were added to by fresh tribesmen from that district. After his
							election into the senate it was not long before Appius gained a
							prominent position in that body.

The consuls marched into the Sabine territory, and by their devastation of the
							country and the defeats which they inflicted so weakened the enemy that
							no renewal of the war was to be feared for a long time. The Romans
							returned home in triumph.

The following year, in the consulship of Agrippa Menenius and P.
							Postumius, P. Valerius died. He was universally admitted to be first in
							the conduct of war and the arts of peace, but though he enjoyed such an
							immense reputation, his private fortune was so scanty that it could not
							defray the expenses of his funeral.

They were met by the State. The matrons mourned for him as a second
							Brutus. In the same year two Latin colonies,
							Pometia and Cora , revolted to
							the Auruncans. War commenced, and after the defeat of an immense army
							which had sought to oppose the advance of the consuls into their
							territory, the whole war was centred round Pometia.

There was no respite from bloodshed after the battle any more than
							during the fighting, many more were killed than were taken prisoners;
							the prisoners were everywhere butchered; even the hostages, three
							hundred of whom they had in their hands, fell a victim to the enemy's
							bloodthirsty rage. This year also there was a triumph in Rome .

The consuls who succeeded, Opiter Verginius and Sp. Cassius, tried at
							first to take Pometia by storm, then they had recourse to regular
							siege-works.

Actuated more by a spirit of mortal hatred than by any hope or chance of
							success, the Auruncans made a sortie. The greater number were armed with
							blazing torches, and they carried flames and death everywhere.

The “ vineae ” were burnt, great
							numbers of the besiegers were killed and wounded, they nearly killed one
							of the consuls —the authorities do not give his name —after he had
							fallen from his horse severely

wounded. After this disaster the Romans returned home, with a large
							number of wounded, amongst them the consul, whose condition was
							critical. After an interval, long enough for the recovery of the wounded
							and the filling up of the ranks, operations were resumed at Pometia in
							stronger force and in a more angry

temper. The vineae were repaired and the
							other vast works were made good, and when everything was ready for the
							soldiers to mount the walls, the place

surrendered. The Auruncans, however, were treated with no less rigour
							after they had surrendered the city than if it had been taken by
							assault; the principal men were beheaded, the rest of the townsfolk sold
							as slaves. The town was razed, the land put up for

sale. The consuls celebrated a triumph more because of the terrible
							vengeance they had inflicted than on account of the importance of the
							war now terminated.

The following year had as consuls Postumius
							Cominius and T. Lartius.

During this year an incident occurred which, though small in itself,
							threatened to lead to the renewal of a war more formidable than the
							Latin war which was dreaded. During the games at Rome some courtesans were carried off
							by Sabine youths in sheer
							wantonness.

A crowd gathered, and a quarrel arose which became almost a pitched
							battle. The alarm was increased by the authentic report that at the
							instigation of Octavius Mamilius the thirty Latin towns had formed a

league. The apprehensions felt by the State at such a serious crisis led
							to suggestions being made for the first time for the appointment of a
							dictator. It is not, however, clearly ascertained in what year this
							office was created, or who the consuls were who had forfeited the
							confidence of the people owing to their being adherents of the Tarquins
							—for this, too, is part of the tradition —or who was the first

dictator. In the most ancient authorities I find that it was T. Lartius,
							and that Sp. Cassius was his master of the

horse. Only men of consular rank were eligible under the law governing
							the appointment. This makes me more inclined to believe that Lartius,
							who was of consular rank, was set over the consuls to restrain and
							direct them rather than Manlius Valerius, the son of Marcus and grandson
							of

Volesus. Besides, if they wanted the dictator to be chosen from that
							family especially, they would have much sooner chosen the father, M.
							Valerius, a man of proved worth and also of consular rank.

When, for the first time, a Dictator was created in Rome , a great fear fell on the
							people, after they saw the axes borne before him, and
							consequently they were more careful to obey his orders. For there was
							not, as in the case of the consuls, each of whom possessed the same
							authority, any chance of securing the aid of one against the other, nor
							was there any right of appeal, nor in short was there any safety
							anywhere except in

punctilious obedience. The Sabines were even more alarmed at the
							appointment of a Dictator than the Romans, because they were convinced
							that it was in their account that he had

been created. Accordingly envoys were sent with proposals for peace.
							They begged the Dictator and the senate to pardon what was a youthful
							escapade, but were told in reply that young men could be pardoned, but
							not old men, who were continually stirring up

fresh wars. However, the negotiations continued and peace would have
							been secured if the Sabines could have made up their minds to comply
							with the demand to make good the expenses of the war. War was
							proclaimed; an informal truce kept the year undisturbed.

The next consuls were Ser. Sulpicius and Manlius Tullius. Nothing worth
							recording took place. The consuls of
							the following year were T. Aebutius and C. Vetusius.

During their consulship Fidenae was besieged; Crustumeria captured;
								 Praeneste revolted
							from the Latins to Rome . The
							Latin war which had been threatening for some years now at last broke
							out.

A. Postumius, the Dictator, and T. Aebutius, Master of the Horse,
							advanced with a large force of infantry and cavalry to the Lake Regillus
							in the district of Tusculum and came upon the main army of the enemy.

On hearing that the Tarquins were in the army of the Latins, the
							passions of the Romans were so roused that they determined to engage at
							once.

The battle that followed was more obstinately and desperately fought
							than any previous ones had been. For the commanders not only took their
							part in directing the action, they fought personally against each other,
							and hardly one of the leaders in either army, with the exception of the
							Roman Dictator, left the field unwounded.

Tarquinius Superbus, though now enfeebled by age, spurred his horse
							against Postumius, who in the front of the line was addressing and
							forming his men. He was struck in the side and carried off by a body of
							his followers into a place of safety.

Similarly on the other wing Aebutius, Master of the Horse, directed his
							attack against Octavius Mamilius; the Tusculan leader saw him coming and
							rode at him full speed.

So terrific was the shock that Aebutius' arm was pierced,: Mamilius was
							speared in the breast, and led off by the Latins into their second line.

Aebutius, unable to hold a weapon with his wounded arm, retired from the
							fighting. The Latin leader, in no way deterred by his wound, infused
							fresh energy into the combat, for, seeing that his own men were
							wavering, he called up the cohort of Roman exiles, who were led by
							Lucius Tarquinius.

The loss of country and fortune made them fight all the more
							desperately; for a short time they restored the battle, and the Romans
							who were opposed to them began to give ground.

M. Valerius, the brother of Publicola, catching sight of the fiery young
							Tarquin conspicuous in the front line, dug spurs into his horse and made
							for him with levelled lance, eager to enhance the pride of his house,
							that the family who boasted of having expelled the Tarquins might

have the glory of killing them.

Tarquin evaded his foe by retiring behind his men. Valerius, riding
							headlong into the ranks of the exiles, was run through by a spear from
							behind. This did not check the horse's speed, and the Roman sank dying
							to the ground, his arms falling upon him.

When the Dictator Postumius saw that one of his principal officers had
							fallen, and that the exiles were rushing on furiously in a compact mass
							whilst his men were shaken and giving ground, he ordered his own cohort
							—a

picked force who formed his bodyguard —to treat any of their own side
							whom they saw in flight as enemy. Threatened in front and rear the
							Romans turned and faced the foe, and closed their ranks.

The Dictator's cohort, fresh in mind and body, now came into action and
							attacked the exhausted exiles with great slaughter.

Another single combat between the leaders took place; the Latin
							commander saw the cohort of exiles almost hemmed in by the Roman
							Dictator, and hurried to the front with some maniples of the reserves.
							T. Herminius saw them coming, and recognised Mamilius by his dress and
							arms.

He attacked the enemies' commander much more fiercely than the Master of
							the Horse had previously done, so much so, in fact, that he killed him
							by a single spear-thrust through his side.

Whilst despoiling the body he himself was struck by a javelin, and after
							being carried back to the camp, expired whilst his wound was being
							dressed. Then the Dictator hurried up to the cavalry and appealed to
							them to relieve the infantry, who were worn out with the struggle, by
							dismounting and fighting on foot.

They obeyed, leaped from their horses, and protecting themselves with
							their targets, fought in front of the standards.

The infantry recovered their courage at once when they saw the flower of
							the nobility fighting on equal terms and sharing the same dangers with
							themselves. At last the Latins were forced back, wavered, and finally
							broke their ranks.

The cavalry had their horses brought up that they might commence the
							pursuit, the infantry followed. It is said that the Dictator, omitting
							nothing that could secure divine or human aid, vowed, during the battle,
							a temple to Castor and promised rewards to those who should be the first
							and second to enter the enemies' camp.

Such was the ardour which the Romans displayed that in the same charge
							which routed the enemy they carried their camp. Thus was the battle
							fought at Lake Regillus. The Dictator and the Master of the Horse
							returned in triumph to the City.

For the next three years there was neither settled peace
							nor open war. The consuls were Q. Cloelius and T. Larcius. They were
							succeeded by A. Sempronius and M. Minucius.

During their consulship a temple was dedicated to Saturn and the
							festival of the Saturnalia instituted. The next consuls were A.
							Postumius and T. Verginius.

I find in some authors this year given as the date of the battle at Lake
							Regillus, and that A. Postumius laid down his consulship because the
							fidelity of his colleague was suspected, on which a Dictator was
							appointed.

So many errors as to dates occur, owing to the order in which the
							consuls succeeded being variously given, that the remoteness in time of
							both the events and the authorities make it impossible to determine
							either which consuls succeeded which, or in what year any particular
							event occurred.

Ap. Claudius and P. Servilius were the next consuls. This year is
							memorable for the news of Tarquin's death. His death took place at
								 Cuma , whither he had
							retired, to seek the protection of the tyrant Aristodemus after the
							power of the Latins was broken.

The news was received with delight by both senate and plebs. But the
							elation of the patricians was carried to excess. Up to that time they
							had treated the commons with the utmost deference, now their leaders
							began to practise injustice upon them.

The same year a fresh batch of colonists was sent to complete the number
							at Signia , a colony founded
							by King Tarquin. The number of tribes at Rome was increased to twenty-one. The temple of Mercury
							was dedicated on May 15.

The relations with the
							Volscians during the Latin war were neither friendly nor openly hostile.
							The Volscians had collected a force which they were intending to send to
							the aid of the Latins had not the Dictator forestalled them by the
							rapidity of his movements, a rapidity due to his anxiety to avoid a
							battle with the combined

armies. To punish them the consuls led the legions into the Volscian
							country. This unexpected movement paralysed the Volscians, who were not
							expecting retribution for what had been only an intention. Unable to
							offer resistance, they gave as hostages three hundred children belonging
							to their nobility, drawn from Cora and Pometia. The legions, accordingly, were
							marched back without

fighting. Relieved from the immediate danger, the Volscians soon fell
							back on their old policy, and after forming an armed alliance with the
							Hernicans, made secret preparations for

war. They also despatched envoys through the length and breadth of
								 Latium to induce that
							nation to join them. But after their defeat at Lake Regillus the Latins
							were so incensed against every one who advocated a resumption of
							hostilities that they did not even spare the Volscian envoys, who were
							arrested and conducted to Rome . There they were handed over to the consuls and
							evidence was produced showing that the Volscians and Hernicans were
							preparing for war with

Rome . When the matter was
							brought before the senate, they were so gratified by the action of the
							Latins that they sent back six thousand prisoners who had been sold into slavery, and also referred
							to the new magistrates the question of a treaty which they had hitherto
							persistently refused

to consider. The Latins congratulated themselves upon the course they
							had adopted, and the advocates of peace were in high honour. They sent a
							golden crown as a gift to the

Capitoline Jupiter. The deputation who brought the gift were accompanied
							by a large number of the released prisoners, who visited the houses
							where they had worked as slaves to thank their former masters for the
							kindness and consideration shown them in their misfortunes, and to form
							ties of hospitality with them. At no previous period had the Latin
							nation been on more friendly terms both politically and personally with
							the Roman government.

But a war
							with the Volscians was imminent, and the State was torn with internal
							dissensions; the patricians and the plebeians were bitterly hostile to
							one another,

owing mainly to the desperate condition of the debtors. They loudly
							complained that whilst fighting in the field for liberty and empire they
							were oppressed and enslaved by their fellow-citizens at home; their
							freedom was more secure in war than in peace, safer amongst the enemy
							than amongst their own people. The discontent, which was becoming of
							itself continually more embittered, was still

further inflamed by the signal misfortunes of one individual. An old
							man, bearing visible proofs of all the evils he had suffered, suddenly
							appeared in the Forum. His clothing was covered with filth, his personal
							appearance was made still more loathsome by a corpse-like pallor and
							emaciation, his unkempt

beard and hair made him look like a savage. In spite of this
							disfigurement he was recognised by the pitying bystanders; they said
							that he had been a centurion, and mentioned other military distinctions
							he possessed. He bared his breast and showed the scars which witnessed
							to many fights in which he had borne an honourable part. The crowd had
							now almost grown

to the dimensions of an Assembly of the people. He was asked,
							“Whence came that garb, whence that disfigurement?” He
							stated that whilst serving in the Sabine war he had not only lost the produce of his land
							through the depredations of the enemy, but his farm had been burnt, all
							his property plundered, his cattle driven away, the war-tax demanded
							when he was least able

to pay it, and he had got into debt. This debt had been vastly increased
							through usury and had stripped him first of his father's and
							grandfather's farm, then of his other property, and at last like a
							pestilence had reached his person. He had been carried off by his
							creditor, not into slavery

only, but into an underground workshop, a living death. Then he showed
							his back scored with recent marks of the lash. On seeing and hearing all
							this a great outcry arose; the excitement was not confined to

the Forum, it spread every where throughout the City. Men who were in
							bondage for debt and those who had been released rushed from all sides
							into the public streets and invoked “the protection of the
							Quirites.” Every one was eager to join the
							malcontents, numerous

bodies ran shouting through all the streets to the Forum. Those of the
							senators who happened to be in the Forum and fell in with the mob were
							in great danger of their lives. Open violence would have been resorted
							to, had not the consuls, P.

Servilius and Ap. Claudius, promptly intervened to quell the outbreak.
							The crowd surged round them, showed their chains and other marks of
							degradation. These, they said, were their rewards for having served
							their country; they tauntingly reminded the consuls of the various
							campaigns in which they had fought, and peremptorily demanded

rather than petitioned that the senate should be called together. Then
							they closed round the Senate-house, determined to be themselves the
							arbiters and directors of public policy.

A very small number of senators, who happened to be available, were got
							together by the consuls, the rest were afraid to go even to the Forum,
							much more to the Senate-house. No business could

be transacted owing to the requisite number not being present. The
							people began to think that they were being played with and put off, that
							the absent senators were not kept away by accident or by fear, but in
							order to prevent any redress of their grievances, and that

the consuls themselves were shuffling and laughing at their misery.
							Matters were reaching the point at which not even the majesty of the
							consuls could keep the enraged people in check, when the absentees,
							uncertain whether they ran the greater risk by staying away or coming,
							at last entered the Senate-house. The House was now full, and a division
							of opinion showed itself not

only amongst the senators but even between the two consuls. Appius, a
							man of passionate temperament, was of opinion that the matter ought to
							be settled by a display of authority on the part of the consuls; if one
							or two were brought up for trial, the rest would calm down. Servilius,
							more inclined to gentle measures, thought that when men's passions are
							aroused it was safer and easier to bend them than to break them.

In the middle of these disturbances, fresh alarm was created by some
							Latin horsemen who galloped in with the disquieting tidings that a
							Volscian army was on the march to attack the City. This intelligence
							affected the patricians and the plebeians very differently; to such an
							extent had civic discord rent the State in twain.

The plebeians were exultant, they said that the gods were preparing to
							avenge the tyranny of the patricians; they encouraged each other to
							evade enrolment, for it was better for all to die together than to
							perish one by one. “Let the patricians take up arms, let the
							patricians serve as common soldiers, that those who get the spoils of
							war may share its perils.”

The senate, on the other hand, filled with gloomy apprehensions by the
							twofold danger from their own fellow-citizens and from their enemy,
							implored the consul Servilius, who was more sympathetic towards the
							people, to extricate the State from the perils that beset it on
							all-sides.

He dismissed the senate and went into the Assembly of the plebs. There he
							pointed out how anxious the senate were to consult the interests of the
							plebs, but their deliberations respecting what was certainly the largest
							part; though still only a part, of the State had been cut short by fears
							for the safety of the State as a whole.

The enemy were almost at their gates, nothing could be allowed to take
							precedence of the war, but even if the attack were postponed, it would
							not be honourable on the part of the plebeians to refuse to take up arms
							for their country till they had been paid for doing so, nor would it be
							compatible with the self-respect of the senate to be actuated by fear
							rather than by good-will in devising measures for the relief of their
							distressed fellow-citizens.

He convinced the Assembly of his sincerity by issuing an edict that none
							should keep a Roman citizen in chains or duress whereby he would be
							prevented from enrolling for military service, none should distrain or
							sell the goods of a soldier as long as he was in camp, or detain his
							children or grandchildren.

On the promulgation of this edict those debtors who were present at once
							gave in their names for enrolment, and crowds of persons running in all
							quarters of the City from the houses where they were confined, as their
							creditors had no longer the right to detain them, gathered together in
							the Forum to take the military oath.

These formed a considerable force, and none were more conspicuous for
							courage and activity in the Volscian war. The consul led his troops
							against the enemy and encamped a short distance from them.

The very next night the Volscians, trusting to the dissensions amongst
							the Romans, made an attempt on the camp, on the chance of desertions
							taking place, or the camp being betrayed, in the darkness.

The outposts perceived them, the army was aroused, and on the alarm
							being sounded they rushed to arms, so the Volscian attempt was foiled;
							for the rest of the night both sides kept quiet. The following day, at
							dawn, the Volscians filled up the trenches and attacked the rampart.

This was already being torn down on all sides while the consul, in spite
							of the shouts of the whole army — of the debtors most of all —demanding
							the signal for action, delayed for a few minutes, in order to test the
							temper of his men. When he was quite satisfied as to their ardour and
							determination, he gave the signal to charge and launched his soldiery,
							eager to engage, upon the foe.

They were routed at the very first onset, the fugitives were cut down as
							far as the infantry could pursue them, then the cavalry drove them in
							confusion to their camp. They evacuated it in their panic, the legions
							soon came up, surrounded it, captured and plundered it.

The following day the legions marched to Suessa Pometia, whither the
							enemy had fled, and in a few days it was captured and given up to the
							soldiers to pillage. This to some extent relieved the poverty of the
							soldiers.

The consul, covered with glory, led his victorious army back to
								 Rome . Whilst on the march
							he was visited by envoys from the Volscians of Ecetra, who were
							concerned for their own safety after the capture of Pometia. By a decree
							of the senate, peace was granted to them, some territory was taken from
							them.

Immediately afterwards a fresh alarm was created at Rome by the Sabines, but it was more
							a sudden raid than a regular war. News was brought during the night that
							a Sabine army had advanced as
							far as the Anio on a predatory expedition, and that the farms in that
							neighbourhood were being harried and burnt.

A. Postumius, who had been the Dictator in the Latin war, was at once
							sent there with the whole of the cavalry force; the consul Servilius
							followed with a picked body of infantry.

Most of the enemy were surrounded by the cavalry while scattered in the
							fields; the Sabine legion
							offered no resistance to the advance of the infantry. Tired out with
							their march and the nocturnal plundering-a large proportion of them were
							in the farms full of food and wine —they had hardly sufficient strength
							to flee.

The Sabine war was announced and
							concluded in one night, and strong hopes were entertained that peace had
							now been secured everywhere. The next day, however, envoys from the
							Auruncans came with a demand for the evacuation of the Volscian
							territory, otherwise they were to proclaim war.

The army of the Auruncans had begun their advance when the envoys left
							home, and the report of its having been seen not far from Aricia created
							so much excitement and confusion amongst the Romans that it was
							impossible either for the senate to take the matter into formal
							consideration, or for a favourable reply to be given to those who were
							commencing hostilities, since they were themselves taking up arms to
							repel them.

They marched to Aricia; not far from there they engaged the Auruncans
							and in one battle finished the war.

After the defeat of the Auruncans, the Romans, who had, within a few
							days, fought so many successful wars, were expecting the fulfillment of
							the promises which the consul had made on the authority of the senate.
							Appius, partly from his innate love of tyranny and partly to undermine
							confidence felt in his colleague, gave the harshest sentences he could
							when debtors were brought before him.

One after another those who had before pledged their persons as security
							were now handed over to their creditors, and others were compelled to
							give such security. A soldier to whom this happened appealed to the
							colleague of Appius. A crowd gathered round Servilius, they reminded him
							of his promises, upbraided him with their services in war and the scars
							they had received, and demanded that he should either get an ordinance
							passed by the senate, or, as consul, protect his people; as commander,
							his soldiers.

The consul sympathised with them, but under the circumstances he was
							compelled to temporise; the opposite policy was so recklessly insisted
							on not only by his colleague but by the entire party of the nobility. By
							taking a middle course he did not escape the odium of the plebs nor did
							he win the favour of the patricians.

These regarded him as a weak popularity-hunting consul, the plebeians
							considered him false, and it soon became apparent that he was as much
							detested as Appius.

A dispute had arisen between the consuls as to which of them should
							dedicate the temple of Mercury. The senate referred the question to the
							people, and issued orders that the one to whom the dedication was
							assigned by the people should preside over the corn-market and form a
							guild of merchants and discharge
							functions in the presence of the Pontifex Maximus.

The people assigned the dedication of the temple to M. Laetorius, the
							first centurion of the legion, a choice obviously made not so much to
							honour the man, by conferring upon him an office so far above his
							station, as to bring discredit on the consuls.

One of them, at all events, was excessively angry, as were the senate,
							but the courage of the plebs had risen, and they went to work in a very
							different method from that which they had adopted at first.

For as any prospect of help from the consuls or the senate was hopeless,
							they took matters into their own hands, and whenever they saw a debtor
							brought before the court, they rushed there from all sides, and by their
							shouts and uproar prevented the consul's sentence from being heard, and
							when it was pronounced no one obeyed it.

They resorted to violence, and all the fear and danger to personal
							liberty was transferred from the debtors to the creditors, who were
							roughly handled before the eyes of the consul.

In addition to all this there were growing apprehensions of a Sabine war. A levy was decreed, but no
							one gave in his name. Appius was furious; he accused his colleague of
							courting the favour of the people, denounced him as a traitor to the
							common-wealth because he refused to give sentence where debtors were
							brought before him, and moreover he refused to raise troops after the
							senate had ordered a levy.

Still, he declared, the ship of State was not entirely deserted nor the
							consular authority thrown to the winds; he, single-handed, would
							vindicate his own dignity and that of the senate.

Whilst the usual daily crowd were standing round him, growing ever bolder
							in licence, he ordered one conspicuous leader of the agitation to be
							arrested. As he was being dragged away by the lictors, he appealed.
							There was no doubt as to what judgment the people would give, and he
							would not have allowed the appeal had not his obstinacy been with great
							difficulty overcome more by the prudence and authority of the senate
							than by the clamour of the people, so determined was he to brave the
							popular odium.

From that time the mischief became more serious every day, not only
							through open clamour but, what was far more dangerous, through secession
							and secret meetings. At length the consuls, detested as they were by the
							plebs, went out of office —Servilius equally hated by both orders,
							Appius in wonderful favour with the patricians.

Then A. Verginius and T. Vetusius took office. As the plebeians were
							doubtful as to what sort of consuls they would have, and were anxious to
							avoid any precipitate and ill-considered action which might result from
							hastily adopted resolutions in the Forum, they began to hold meetings at
							night, some on the Esquiline 
							and others on the Aventine .

The consuls considered this state of things to be fraught with danger,
							as it really was, and made a formal report to the senate. But any
							orderly discussion of their report was out of the question, owing to the
							excitement and clamour with which the senators received it, and the
							indignation they felt at the consuls throwing upon them the odium of
							measures which they ought to have carried on their own authority as
							consuls.

“Xurely,” it was said, “if there were really
							magistrates in the State, there would have been no meetings in
								 Rome beyond the public
							Assembly; now the State was broken up into a thousand senates and
							assemblies, since some councils were being held on the Esquiline and others on the Aventine .

Why, one man like Appius Claudius, who was worth more than a consul,
							would have dispersed these gatherings in a moment.” When the
							consuls, after being thus censured, asked what they wished them to do,

as they were prepared to act with all the energy and determination that
							the senate desired, a decree was passed that the levy should be raised
							as speedily as possible, for the plebs was waxing wanton through
							idleness.

After dismissing the senate, the consuls ascended the tribunal and called
							out the names of those liable to active service. Not a single man
							answered to his name. The people, standing round as though in informal
							assembly, declared that the plebs could no longer be imposed upon, the
							consuls should not get a single soldier until the promise made in the
							name of the State was fulfilled.

Before arms were put into their hands, every man's liberty must be
							restored to him, that they might fight for their country and their
							fellow-citizens and not for tyrannical masters.

The consuls were quite aware of the instructions they had received from
							the senate, but they were also aware that none of those who had spoken
							so bravely within the walls of the Senate-house were now present to
							share the odium which they were incurring.

A desperate conflict with the plebs seemed inevitable. Before proceeding
							to extremities they decided to consult the senate again. Thereupon all
							the younger senators rushed from their seats, and crowding round the
							chairs of the consuls, ordered them to resign their office and lay down
							an authority which they had not the courage to maintain.

Having had quite enough of trying to coerce the plebs on the one hand and
							persuading the senate to adopt a milder course on the other, the consuls
							at last said: “Senators, that you may not say you have not been
							forewarned, we tell you that a very serious disturbance is at hand. We
							demand that those who are the loudest in charging us with cowardice
							shall support us whilst we conduct the levy.

We will act as the most resolute may wish, since such is your
							pleasure.” They returned to the tribunal and purposely ordered
							one of those who were in view to be called up by name.

As he stood silent, and a number of men had closed round him to prevent
							his being seized, the consuls sent a lictor to him. The lictor was
							pushed away, and those senators who were with the consuls exclaimed that
							it was an outrageous insult and rushed down from the tribunal to assist
							the lictor.

The hostility of the crowd was diverted from the lictor, who had simply
							been prevented from making the arrest, to the senators. The
							interposition of the consuls finally allayed the conflict. There had,
							however, been no stones thrown or weapons used, it had resulted in more
							noise and angry words than personal injury.

The senate was summoned and assembled in disorder; its proceedings were
							still more disorderly. Those who had been roughly handled demanded an
							inquiry, and all the more violent members supported the demand by
							shouting and uproar quite as much as by their votes.

When at last the excitement had subsided, the consuls censured them for
							showing as little calm judgment in the senate as there was in the Forum.
							Then the debate proceeded in order.

Three different policies were advocated. P. Valerius did not think the
							general question ought to be raised; he thought they ought only to
							consider the case of those who, in reliance on the promise of the consul
							P. Servilius, had served in the Volscian, Auruncan, and Sabine wars.

Titus Larcius considered that the time had passed for rewarding only men
							who had served, the whole plebs was overwhelmed with debt, the evil
							could not be arrested unless there was a measure for universal relief.
							Any attempt to differentiate between the various classes would only
							kindle fresh discord instead of allaying it.

Appius Claudius, harsh by nature, and now maddened by the hatred of the
							plebs on the one hand and the praises of the senate on the other,
							asserted that these riotous gatherings were not the result of misery but
							of licence, the plebeians were actuated by wantonness more than by
							anger.

This was the mischief which had sprung from the right of appeal, for the
							consuls could only threaten without the power to execute their threats
							as long as a criminal was allowed to appeal to his fellow criminals.

“Come,” said he, “let us create a Dictator from
							whom there is no appeal, then this madness which is setting everything
							on fire will soon die down.

Let me see any one strike a lictor then, when he knows that his back and
							even his life are in the sole power of the man whose authority he
							attacks.”

To many the sentiments which Appius uttered seemed cruel and monstrous,
							as they really were. On the other hand, the proposals of Verginius and
							Larcius would set a dangerous precedent, that of Larcius at all events,
							as it would destroy all credit. The advice given by Verginius was
							regarded as the most moderate, being a middle course between the other
							two.

But through the strength of his party, and the consideration of personal
							interests which always have injured and always will injure public
							policy, Appius won the day.

He was very nearly being himself appointed Dictator, an appointment
							which would more than anything have alienated the plebians, and that too
							at a most critical time when the Volscians, the Aequi, and the Sabines
							were all in arms together.

The consuls and the older patricians, however, took care that a
							magistracy clothed with such tremendous powers should be entrusted to a
							man of moderate temper.

They created M. Valerius, the son of Volesus, Dictator. Though the
							plebeians recognised that it was against them that a Dictator had been
							created, still, as they held their right of appeal under a law which his
							brother had passed, they did not fear any harsh or tyrannical treatment
							from that family.

Their hopes were confirmed by an edict issued by the Dictator, very
							similar to the one made by Servilius.

That edict had been ineffective, but they thought that more confidence
							could be placed in the person and power of the Dictator, so, dropping
							all opposition, they gave in their names for enrolment.

Ten legions, were formed, a larger army than had ever before been
							assembled. Three of them were assigned to each of the consuls, the
							Dictator took command of four. The war could no longer be delayed. The
							Aequi had invaded the Latin territory.

Envoys sent by the Latins asked the senate either to send help or allow
							them to arm for the purpose of defending their frontier. It was thought
							safer to defend the unarmed Latins than to allow them to rearm
							themselves. The consul Vetusius was despatched, and that was the end of
							the raids.

The Aequi withdrew from the plains, and trusting more to the nature of
							the country than to their arms, sought safety on the mountain ridges.

The other consul advanced against the Volscians, and to avoid loss of
							time, he devastated their fields with the object of forcing them to move
							their camp nearer to his and so bringing on an engagement.

The two armies stood facing each other, in front of their respective
							lines, on the level space between the camps. The Volscians had
							considerably the advantage in numbers, and accordingly showed their
							contempt for their foe by coming on in disorder.

The Roman consul kept his army motionless, forbade their raising an
							answering shout, and ordered them to stand with their spears fixed in
							the ground, and when the enemy came to close quarters, to spring forward
							and make all possible use of their swords. The Volscians, wearied with
							their running and shouting, threw themselves upon the Romans as upon men
							benumbed with fear, but when they felt the strength of the
							counter-attack and saw the swords flashing before them, they retreated
							in confusion just as if they had been caught in an ambush, and owing to
							the speed at which they had come into action, they had not even strength
							to flee.

The Romans, on the other hand, who at the beginning of the battle had
							remained quietly standing, were fresh and vigorous, and easily overtook
							the exhausted Volscians, rushed their camp, drove them out, and pursued
							them as far as Velitrae ,
							victors and vanquished bursting pell-mell into the city.

A greater slaughter of all ranks took place there than in the actual
							battle; a few who threw down their arms and surrendered received
							quarter.

Whilst these events were occurring amongst the Volscians, the Dictator,
							after entering the Sabine 
							territory; where the most serious part of the war lay, defeated and
							routed the enemy and chased them out of their camp.

A cavalry charge had broken the enemy's centre which, owing to the
							excessive lengthening of the wings, was weakened by an insufficient
							depth of files, and while thus disordered the infantry charged them.

In the same charge the camp was captured and the war brought to a close.
							Since the battle at Lake Regillus no more brilliant action had been
							fought in those years. The Dictator rode in triumph into the City. In
							addition to the customary distinctions, a place was assigned in the
							Circus Maximus to him and to his posterity, from which to view the
							Games, and the sella curulis 
							 was placed there.

After the subjugation of the Volscians, the territory of Velitrae was annexed and a body of
							Roman citizens was sent out to colonise it. Some time later, an
							engagement took place with the Aequi. The consul was reluctant to fight
							as he would have to attack on unfavourable ground, but his soldiers
							forced him into action.

They accused him of protracting the war in order that the Dictator's
							term of office might expire before they returned home, in which case his
							promises would fall to the ground, as those of the consul had previously
							done.

They compelled him to march his army up the mountain at all hazards; but
							owing to the cowardice of the enemy this unwise step resulted in
							success. They were so astounded at the daring of the Romans that before
							they came within range of their weapons they abandoned their camp, which
							was in a very strong position, and dashed down into the valley in the
							rear.

So the victors gained a bloodless victory and ample spoil. Whilst these
							three wars were thus brought to a successful issue, the course which
							domestic affairs were taking continued to be a source of anxiety to both
							the patricians and the plebeians. The moneylenders possessed such
							influence and had taken such skillful precautions that they rendered the
							commons and even the Dictator himself powerless.

After the consul Vetusius had returned, Valerius introduced, as the very
							first business of the senate, the treatment of the men who had been
							marching to victory, and moved a resolution as to what decision they
							ought to come to with regard to the debtors.

His motion was negatived, on which he said, “I am not acceptable
							as an advocate of concord. Depend upon it, you will very soon wish that
							the Roman plebs had champions like me. As far as I am concerned, I will
							no longer encourage my fellow-citizens in vain hopes nor will I be
							Dictator in vain.

Internal dissensions and foreign wars have made this office necessary to
							the commonwealth; peace has now been secured abroad, at home it is made
							impossible. I would rather be involved in the revolution as a private
							citizen than as Dictator.” So saying, he left the House and
							resigned his dictatorship.

The reason was quite clear to the plebs; he had resigned office because
							he was indignant at the way they were treated. The non-fulfilment of his
							pledge was not due to him, they considered that he had practically kept
							his word and on his way home they followed him with approving cheers.

The senate now began to feel apprehensive lest on the disbandment of the
							army there should be a recurrence of the secret conclaves and
							conspiracies. Although the Dictator had actually conducted the
							enrolment, the soldiers had sworn obedience to the consuls. Regarding
							them as still bound by their oath, the senate ordered the legions to be
							marched out of the City on the pretext that war had been recommenced by
							the Aequi.

This step brought the revolution to a head. It is said that the first
							idea was to put the consuls to death that the men might be discharged
							from their oath; then, on learning that no religious obligation could be
							dissolved by a crime, they decided, at the instigation of a certain
							Sicinius, to ignore the consuls and withdraw to the Sacred Mount, which
							lay

on the other side of the Anio, three miles from the City. This is a more
							generally accepted tradition than the one adopted by Piso that the secession was made to
							the Aventine .

There, without any commander, in a regularly entrenched camp, taking
							nothing with them but the necessaries of life, they quietly maintained
							themselves for some days, neither receiving nor giving any provocation.

A great panic seized the City, mutual distrust led to a state of
							universal suspense. Those plebeians who had been left by their comrades
							in the City feared violence from the patricians; the patricians feared
							the plebeians who still remained in the City, and could not make up
							their minds whether they would rather have them go or stay.

“How long,” it was asked, “would the multitude who
							had seceded remain quiet?

What would happen if a foreign war broke out in the meantime?”
							They felt that all their hopes rested on concord amongst the citizens,
							and that this must be restored at any cost.

The senate decided, therefore, to send as their spokesman Menenius
							Agrippa, an eloquent man, and acceptable to the plebs as being himself
							of plebeian origin. He was admitted into the camp, and it is reported
							that he simply told them the following fable in primitive and uncouth
							fashion.

“In the days when all the parts of the human body were not as now
							agreeing together, but each member took its own course and spoke its own
							speech, the other members, indignant at seeing that everything acquired
							by their care and labour and ministry went to the belly, whilst it,
							undisturbed in the middle of them, did nothing but enjoy the pleasures
							provided for it, entered into a conspiracy; the hands were not to bring
							food to the mouth, the mouth was not to accept it when offered, the
							teeth were not to masticate it.

Whilst, in their resentment, they were anxious to coerce the belly by
							starving it, the members themselves wasted away, and the whole body was
							reduced to the last stage of exhaustion.

Then it became evident that the belly rendered no idle service, and the
							nourishment it received was no greater than that which it bestowed by
							returning to all parts of the body this blood by which we live and are
							strong, equally distributed into the veins, after being matured by the
							digestion of the food.”

By using this comparison, and showing how the internal disaffection
							amongst the parts of the body resembled the animosity of the plebeians
							against the patricians, he succeeded in winning over his audience.

Negotiations were then entered upon for a reconciliation. An agreement
							was arrived at, the terms being that the plebs should have its own
							magistrates, whose persons were to be inviolable, and who should have
							the right of affording protection against the consuls.

And further, no patrician should be allowed to hold that office. Two
							“tribunes of the plebs” were elected, C. Licinius and L.
							Albinus. These chose three colleagues. It is generally agreed that
							Sicinius, the instigator of the secession was amongst them, but who the
							other two were is not settled.

Some say that only two tribunes were created on the Sacred Hill and that
							it was there that the lex sacrata 
							 was passed. During the secession of the plebs Sp. Cassius
							and Postumius Cominius entered on their

consulship. In their year of office a treaty was concluded with the
							Latin towns and one of the consuls remained in Rome for the purpose. The other was
							sent to the Volscian war. He routed a force of Volscians from Antium , and pursued them to Longula,
							which he gained possession

of. Then he advanced to Polusca, also belonging to the Volscians, which
							he captured, after which he attacked Corioli in great force. Amongst the
							most distinguished of the young soldiers in their camp at that time was
							Cnaeus Marcius, a young man prompt in counsel and action, who afterwards
							received the epithet of

Coriolanus. During the progress of the siege, while the Roman army was
							devoting its whole attention to the townspeople whom it had shut up
							within their walls, and not in the least apprehending any danger from
							hostile movements without, it was suddenly attacked by Volscian legions
							who had marched from Antium . At
							the same moment a sortie was made from the

town. Marcius happened to be on guard, and with a picked body of men not
							only repelled the sortie but made a bold dash through the open gate, and
							after cutting down many in the part of the city nearest to him, seized
							some fire and hurled it on the buildings which abutted on the

walls. The shouts of the towns-men mingled with the shrieks of the
							terrified women and children encouraged the Romans and dismayed the
							Volscians, who thought that the city which they had come to assist was
							already captured. So the troops from Antium were routed and Corioli

taken. The renown which Marcius won so completely eclipsed that of the
							consul, that, had not the treaty with the Latins —which owing to his
							colleague's absence had been concluded by Sp. Cassius alone — been
							inscribed on a brazen column, and so permanently recorded, all memory of
							Postumius Cominius having carried on a war with the Volscians would have
							perished.

In the same year Agrippa Menenius died, a man who all through his life
							was equally beloved by the patricians and the plebeians, and made
							himself still more endeared to the plebeians after their

secession. Yet he, the negotiator and arbitrator of the reconciliation,
							who acted as the ambassador of the patricians to the plebs, and brought
							them back to the City, did not possess money enough to defray the cost
							of his funeral. He was interred by the plebeians, each man contributing
							a sextans 
							 towards the expense.

The new consuls were T. Geganius and P. Minucius. In this year, whilst
							all abroad was undisturbed by war and the civic dissensions at home were
							healed, the commonwealth was attacked by another much more serious evil:

first, dearness of food, owing to the fields remaining uncultivated
							during the secession, and following on this a famine such as visits a
							besieged city.

It would have led to the perishing of the slaves in any case, and
							probably the plebeians would have died, had not the consuls provided for
							the emergency by sending men in various directions to buy corn. They
							penetrated not only along the coast to the right of Ostia into Etruria, but also along
							the sea to the left past the Volscian country as far as Cumae . Their search extended even as
							far as Sicily ; to such an
							extent did the hostility of their neighbours compel them to seek distant
							help.

When corn had been bought at Cumae , the ships were detained by the tyrant
							Aristodemus, in lieu of the property of Tarquin, to whom he was heir.
							Amongst the Volscians and in the Pomptine district it was even
							impossible to purchase corn, the corn merchants were in danger of being
							attacked by the population. Some corn came from Etruria up the
								 Tiber ; this served for the
							support of the plebeians.

They would have been harassed by a war, doubly unwelcome when provisions
							were so scarce, if the Volscians, who were already on the march, had not
							been attacked by a frightful pestilence.

This disaster cowed the enemy so effectually that even when it had
							abated its violence they remained to some extent in a state of terror;
							the Romans increased the number of colonists at Velitrae and sent a new colony to
								 Norba , up in the
							mountains, to serve as a strong-hold in the Pomptine district.

During the consulship of M. Minucius and A.
							Sempronius, a large quantity of corn was brought from Sicily , and the question was discussed
							in the senate at what price it should be given to the plebs. Many were
							of opinion that the moment had come for putting pressure on the
							plebeians, and recovering the rights which had been wrested from the
							senate through the secession and the violence which accompanied it.

Foremost among these was Marcius Coriolanus, a determined foe to the
							tribunitian power. “If,” he argued, “they want
							their corn at the old price, let them restore to the senate its old
							powers.

Why, then, do I, after being sent under the yoke, ransomed as it were
							from brigands, see plebeian magistrates, why do I see a Sicinius in
							power? Am I to endure these indignities a moment longer than I can help?

Am I, who could not put up with a Tarquin as king, to put up with a
							Sicinius? Let him secede now! let him call out his plebeians, the way
							lies open to the Sacred Hill and to other hills. Let them carry off the
							corn from our fields as they did two years ago; let them enjoy the
							scarcity which in their madness they have produced!

I will venture to say that after they have been tamed by these
							sufferings, they will rather work as labourers themselves in the fields
							than prevent their being cultivated by an armed secession.”

It is not so easy to say whether they ought to have done this as it is
							to express one's belief that it could have been done, and the senators
							might have made it a condition of lowering the price of the corn that
							they should abrogate the tribunitian power and all the legal
							restrictions imposed upon them against their will.

The senate considered these sentiments too bitter, the plebeians in their
							exasperation almost flew to arms. Famine, they said, was being used as a
							weapon against them, as though they were enemies; they were being
							cheated out of food and sustenance; the foreign corn, which fortune had
							unexpectedly given them as their sole means of support, was to be
							snatched from their mouths unless their tribunes were given up in chains
							to Cn. Marcius, unless he could work his will on the backs of the Roman
							plebeians.

In him a new executioner had sprung up, who ordered them either to die
							or live as slaves. He would have been attacked on leaving the
							Senate-house had not the tribunes most opportunely fixed a day for his
							impeachment. This allayed the excitement, every man saw himself a judge
							with the power of life and death over his enemy.

At first Marcius treated the threats of the tribunes with contempt; they
							had the right of protecting not of punishing, they were the tribunes of
							the plebs not of the patricians. But the anger of the plebeians was so
							thoroughly roused that the patricians could only save themselves by the
							punishment of one of their order.

They resisted, however, in spite of the odium they incurred, and
							exercised all the powers they possessed both collectively and
							individually. At first they attempted to thwart proceedings by posting
							pickets of their clients to deter individuals from frequenting meetings
							and conclaves.

Then they proceeded in a body —you might suppose that every patrician
							was impeached —and implored the plebeians, if they refused to acquit a
							man who was innocent, at least to give up to them, as guilty, one
							citizen, one senator.

As he did not put in an appearance on the day of trial, their resentment
							remained unabated, and he was condemned in his absence. He went into
							exile amongst the Volscians, uttering threats against his country, and
							even then entertaining hostile designs against it. The Volscians
							welcomed his arrival, and he became more popular as his resentment
							against his countrymen became more bitter, and his complaints and
							threats were more frequently heard.

He enjoyed the hospitality of Attius Tullius, who was by far the most
							important man at that time amongst the Volscians and a lifelong enemy of
							the Romans. Impelled each by similar motives, the one by old-standing
							hatred, the other by newly-provoked resentment, they formed joint plans
							for war with Rome .

They were under the impression that the people could not easily be
							induced, after so many defeats, to take up arms again, and that after
							their losses in their numerous wars and recently through the pestilence,
							their spirits were broken. The hostility had now had time to die down;
							it was necessary, therefore, to adopt some artifice by which fresh
							irritation might be produced.

It so happened that preparations were being made for a repetition of the
							“Great Games.” The reason for their repetition was that early in the
							morning, prior to the commencement of the Games, a householder after
							flogging his slave had driven him through the middle of the Circus
							Maximus. Then the Games commenced, as though the incident had no
							religious

significance. Not long afterwards, Titus Latinius, a member of the
							plebs, had a dream. Jupiter 
							appeared to him and said that the dancer who commenced the Games was
							displeasing to him, adding that unless those Games were repeated with
							due magnificence, disaster would overtake the City, and he was to go and
							report this to the

consuls. Though he was by no means free from religious scruples, still
							his fears gave way before his awe of the magistrates, lest he should
							become an object of public

ridicule. This hesitation cost him dear, for within a few days he lost
							his son. That he might have no doubt as to the cause of this sudden
							calamity, the same form again appeared to the distressed father in his
							sleep, and demanded of him whether he had been sufficiently repaid for
							his neglect of the divine will, for a more terrible recompense was
							impending if he did not speedily go and inform the

consuls. Though the matter was becoming more urgent, he still delayed,
							and while thus procrastinating he was attacked by a serious illness in
							the form of sudden

paralysis. Now the divine wrath thoroughly alarmed him, and wearied out
							by his past misfortune and the one from which he was suffering, he
							called his relations together and explained what he had seen and heard,
							the repeated appearance of Jupiter in his sleep, the threatening wrath of heaven
							brought home to him by his

calamities. On the strong advice of all present he was carried in a
							litter to the consuls in the Forum, and from there by the consuls' order
							into the Senate-house. After repeating the same story to the senators,
							to the intense surprise of all, another marvel

occurred. The tradition runs that he who had been carried into the
							Senate-house paralysed in every limb, returned home, after performing
							his duty, on his own feet.

The senate decreed that the Games should be celebrated on the most
							splendid scale. At the suggestion of Attius Tullius, a large number of
							Volscians came to them.

In accordance with a previous arrangement with Marcius, Tullius came to
							the consuls, before the proceedings commenced, and said that there were
							certain matters touching the State which he wished to discuss privately
							with them.

When all the bystanders had been removed he began: “It is with
							great reluctance that I say anything to the disparagement of my people.
							I do not come however to charge them with having actually committed any
							offence but to take precautions against their committing one.

The character of our citizens is more fickle than I should wish;

we have experienced this in many defeats, for we owe our present
							security not to our own deserts but to your forbearance. Here at this
							moment are a great multitude of Volscians, the Games are going on, the
							whole City will be intent on the spectacle.

I remember what an outrage was committed by the young Sabines on a
							similar occasion, I shudder lest any ill-advised and reckless incident
							should occur. For our sakes, and yours, consuls, I thought it right to
							give you this warning.

As far as I am concerned, it is my intention to start at once for home,
							lest, if I stay, I should be involved in some mischief either of speech
							or act.” With these words he departed.

These vague hints, uttered apparently on good authority, were laid by the
							consuls before the senate. As generally happens, the authority rather
							than the facts of the case induced them to take even excessive
							precautions. A decree was passed that the Volscians should leave the
							City, criers were sent round ordering them all to depart before
							nightfall.

Their first feeling was one of panic as they ran off to their respective
							lodgings to take away their effects, but when they had started a feeling
							of indignation arose at their being driven away from the Games, from a
							festival which was in a manner a meeting of gods and men, as though they
							were under the curse of heaven and unfit for human society.

As they were going along in an almost continuous stream, Tullius, who had
							gone on in advance, waited for them at the Ferentine Fountain. Accosting
							their chief men as they came up in tones of complaint and indignation,
							he led them, eagerly listening to words which accorded with their own
							angry feelings, and through them the multitude, down to the plain which
							stretched below the road.

There he began a speech: “Even though you should forget the
							wrongs that Rome has inflicted
							and the defeats which the Volscian nation has suffered, though you
							should forget everything else, with what temper, I should like to know,
							do you brook this insult of yesterday, when they commenced their Games
							by treating us with ignominy?

Have you not felt that they have won a triumph over you today, that as
							you departed you were a spectacle to the townsfolk, to the strangers, to
							all those neighbouring populations; that your wives, your children, were
							paraded as a gazing-stock before men's eyes?

What do you suppose were the thoughts of those who heard the voice of
							the criers, those who watched us depart, those who met this ignominious
							cavalcade? What could they have thought but that there was some awful
							guilt cleaving to us, so that if we had been present at the Games we
							should have profaned them and made an expiation necessary, and that this
							was the reason why we were driven away from the abodes of these good and
							religious people and from all intercourse and association with them?

Does it not occur to you that we owe our lives to the haste with which
							we departed if we may call it a departure and not a flight? And do you
							count this City as anything else than the City of your enemies where had
							you lingered a single day you would all have been put to death? War has
							been declared against you to the great misery of those who have declared
							it if you are really men.”

So they dispersed to their homes, with their feelings of resentment
							embittered by this harangue. They so worked upon the feelings of their
							fellow-countrymen, each in his own city, that the whole Volscian nation
							revolted.

By the unanimous vote of the states, the conduct of the war was entrusted
							to Attius Tullius and Cn. Marcius, the Roman exile, on whom their hopes
							chiefly rested.

He fully justified their expectations, so that it became quite evident
							that the strength of Rome lay
							in her generals rather than in her army. He first marched against
							Cerceii, expelled the Roman colony and handed it over to the Volscians
							as a free city.

Then he took: Satricum ,
							Longula, Polusca, and Corioli, towns which the Romans had recently
							acquired. Marching across country into the Latin road, he recovered
								 Lavinium , and then, in
							succession, Corbio, Vetellia, Trebium Labici, and Pedum.

Finally, he advanced from Pedum against the City.

He entrenched his camp at the Cluilian Dykes, about five miles distant,
							and from there he ravaged the Roman territory. The raiding parties were
							accompanied by men whose business it was to see that the lands of the
							patricians were not touched;

a measure due either to his rage being especially directed against the
							plebeians, or to his hope that dissensions might arise between them and
							the patricians.

These certainly would have arisen —to such a pitch were the tribunes
							exciting the plebs by their attacks on the chief men of the State —had
							not the fear of the enemy outside —the strongest bond of union —brought
							men together in spite of their mutual suspicions and aversion.

On one point they disagreed; the senate and the consuls placed their
							hopes solely in arms, the plebeians preferred anything to war. Sp.
							Nautius and Sex.

Furius were now consul. Whilst they were reviewing the legions and
							manning the walls and stationing troops in various places, an enormous
							crowd gathered together. At first they alarmed the consuls by seditious
							shouts, and at last they compelled them to convene the senate and submit
							a motion for sending ambassadors to Cn. Marcius. As the courage of the
							plebeians was evidently giving way, the senate accepted the motion, and
							a deputation was sent to Marcius with proposals for peace.

They brought back the stern reply: If the territory were restored to the
							Volscians, the question of peace could be discussed;

but if they wished to enjoy the spoils of war at their ease, he had not
							forgotten the wrongs inflicted by his country-men nor the kindness shown
							by those who were now his hosts, and would strive to make it clear that
							his spirit had been roused, not broken, by his exile.

The same envoys were sent on a second mission, but were not admitted
							into the camp. According to the tradition, the priests also in their
							robes went as suppliants to the enemies' camp, but they had no more
							influence with him than the previous deputation.

Then the matrons went in a body to Veturia, the mother of Coriolanus, and
							Volumnia his wife.

Whether this was in consequence of a decree of the senate, or simply the
							prompting of womanly fear, I am unable to ascertain, but at all events
							they succeeded in inducing the aged Veturia to go with Volumnia and her
							two little sons to the enemies' camp. As men were powerless to protect
							the City by their arms, the women sought to do so by their tears and
							prayers.

On their arrival at the camp a message was sent to Coriolanus that a
							large body of women were present. He had remained unmoved by the majesty
							of the State in the persons of its ambassadors, and by the appeal made
							to his eyes and mind in the persons of its priests; he was still more
							obdurate to the tears of the women.

Then one of his friends, who had recognised Veturia, standing between
							her daughter-in-law and her grandsons, and conspicuous amongst them all
							in the greatness of her grief, said to him. “Unless my eyes
							deceive me, your mother and wife and children are here.”

Coriolanus, almost like one demented, sprung from his seat to embrace
							his mother. She, changing her tone from entreaty to anger, said,
							“Before I admit your embrace suffer me to know whether it is to
							an enemy or a son that I have come, whether it is as your prisoner or as
							your mother that I am in your camp.

Has a long life and an unhappy old age brought me to this, that I have
							to see you an exile and from that an enemy? Had you the heart to ravage
							this land, which has borne and nourished you?

However hostile and menacing the spirit in which you came, did not your
							anger subside as you entered its borders? Did you not say to yourself
							when your eye rested on Rome ,
							“Within those walls are my home, my household gods, my mother, my
							wife, my children”?

Must it then be that, had I remained childless, no attack would have
							been made on Rome ; had I never
							had a son, I should have ended my days a free woman in a free country?
							But there is nothing which I can suffer now that will not bring more
							disgrace to you than wretchedness to me; whatever unhappiness awaits me
							it will not be for long.

Look to these, whom, if you persist me your present course, an untimely
							death awaits, or a long life of bondage.” When she ceased, his
							wife and children embraced him, and all the women wept and bewailed
							their own and their country's fate. At last his resolution gave way. He
							embraced his family and dismissed them, and moved his camp away from the
							City.

After withdrawing his legions from the Roman territory, he is said to
							have fallen a victim to the resentment which his action aroused, but as
							to the time and circumstances of his death the traditions vary.

I find in Fabius, who is by far the oldest authority, that he lived to
							be an old man; he relates a saying of his, which he often uttered in his
							later years, that it is not till a man is old that he feels the full
							misery of exile. The Roman husbands did not grudge their wives the glory
							they had won, so completely were their lives free from the spirit of
							detraction and envy.

A temple was built and dedicated to Fortuna
								Muliebris , to serve as a memorial of their deed.
							Subsequently the combined forces of the Volscians and Aequi re-entered
							the Roman territory.

The Aequi, however, refused any longer to accept the generalship of
							Attius Tullius, a quarrel arose as to which nation should furnish the
							commander of the combined army, and this resulted in a bloody battle.
							Here the good fortune of Rome 
							destroyed the two armies of her enemies in a conflict no less ruinous
							than obstinate.

The new consuls were T. Sicinius and C. Aquilius. To Sicinius was
							assigned the campaign against the Volscians, to Aquilius that against
							the Hernici, for they also were in arms. In that year the Hernici were
							subjugated, the campaign against the Volscians ended indecisively.

For the next year Sp. Cassius and
							Proculus Verginius were elected consuls. A treaty was concluded with the
							Hernici, two-thirds of their territory was taken from them. Of this
							Cassius intended to give half to the Latins and half to the Roman plebs.

He contemplated adding to this a quantity of land which, he alleged,
							though State land, was occupied by private individuals. This alarmed
							many of the patricians, the actual occupiers, as endangering the
							security of their property. On public grounds, too, they felt anxious,
							as they considered that by this largess the consul was building up a
							power dangerous to liberty.

Then for the first time an Agrarian Law was proposed, and never, from
							that day to the times within our own memory, has one been mooted without
							the most tremendous commotions.

The other consul resisted the proposed grant. In this he was supported by
							the senate, whilst the plebs was far from unanimous in its favour.

They were beginning to look askance at a boon so cheap as to be shared
							between citizens and allies, and they often heard the consul Verginius
							in his public speeches predicting that his colleague's gift was fraught
							with mischief, the land in question would bring slavery on those who
							took it, the way was being prepared for a throne.

Why were the allies, he asked, and the Latin league included? What
							necessity was there for a third part of the territory of the Hernici, so
							lately our foes, being restored to them, unless it was that these
							nations might have Cassius as their leader in place of Coriolanus?

The opponent of the Agrarian Law began to be popular. Then both consuls
							tried who could go furthest in humouring the plebs. Verginius said that
							he would consent to the assignment of the lands provided they were
							assigned to none but Roman citizens.

Cassius had courted popularity amongst the allies by including them in
							the distribution and had thereby sunk in the estimation of his
							fellow-citizens. To recover their favour he gave orders for the money
							which had been received for the corn from Sicily to be refunded to the people.

This offer the plebeians treated with scorn as nothing else than the
							price of a throne. Owing to their innate suspicion that he was aiming at
							monarchy, his gifts were rejected as completely as if they had abundance
							of everything.

It is generally asserted that immediately upon his vacating office he was
							condemned and put to death. Some assert that his own father was the
							author of his punishment, that he tried him privately at home, and after
							scourging him put him to death and devoted his private property to
								 Ceres .

From the proceeds a statue of her was made with an inscription,
							“Given from the Cassian family.” I find in some authors a
							much more probable account, viz., that he was arraigned by the quaestors
							Caeso Fabius and L. Valerius before the people and convicted of treason,
							and his house ordered to be demolished. It stood on the open space in
							front of the temple of Tellus .

In any case, whether the trial was a public or a private one, his
							condemnation took place in the consulship of Servius Cornelius and Q.
							Fabius.

The popular anger
							against Cassius did not last long. The attractiveness of the Agrarian
							Law, though its author was removed, was in itself sufficient to make the
							plebeians desire it, and their eagerness for it was intensified by the
							unscrupulousness of the senate, who cheated the soldiers out of their
							share of the spoil which they had won that year from the Volscians and

Aequi. Everything taken from the enemy was sold by the consul Fabius and
							the amount realised paid into the treasury.

In spite of the hatred which this produced in the plebs against the whole
							Fabian house, the patricians succeeded in getting Caeso Fabius elected
							with L. Aemilius as consuls for the next year. This still further
							embittered the plebeians, and domestic disturbances brought on a foreign

war. For the time civic quarrels were suspended, patricians and
							plebeians were of one mind in resisting the Aequi and Volscians, and a
							victorious action was fought under

Aemilius. The enemy lost more in the retreat than in the battle, so
							hotly did the cavalry pursue their routed foe. In the same year the
							temple of Castor was dedicated on the 15th of July. It had been vowed by
							the Dictator Postumius in the Latin war; his son was appointed “
								 duumvir ” for its

dedication. In this year, too, the minds of the
							plebeians were much exercised by the attractions which the Agrarian Law
							held out for them, and the tribunes made their office more popular by
							constantly dwelling on this popular measure. The patricians, believing
							that there was enough and more than enough madness in the multitude as
							it was, viewed with horror these bribes and incentives

to recklessness. The consuls led the way in offering a most determined
							resistance, and the senate won

the day. Nor was the victory only a momentary one, for they elected as
							consuls for the following year M. Fabius, the brother of Caeso, and L.
							Valerius, who was an object of special hatred on the part of the plebs
							through his prosecution of Sp. Cassius. The contest with the tribunes
							went on through the year; the Law remained a dead letter, and the
							tribunes, with their fruitless promises, turned out to be idle boasters.
							The Fabian house gained an immense reputation through the three
							successive consulships of its members, all of whom had been uniformly
							successful in their resistance to

the tribunes. The office remained, like a safe investment, for some time
							in the family.

War now began with Veii , and
							the Volscians rose again. The people possessed more than sufficient
							strength for their foreign wars, but they wasted it in domestic strife.
							The universal anxiety was aggravated by supernatural portents, menacing
							almost daily City and country alike. The soothsayers, who were consulted
							by the State and by private persons, declared that the divine wrath was
							due to nothing else but the profanation of

sacred functions. These alarms resulted in the punishment of Oppia, a
							Vestal virgin who was convicted of unchastity.

The next consuls were Q.
							Fabius and C. Julius. During this year the civic dissensions were as
							lively as ever, and the war assumed a more serious form. The Aequi took
							up arms, and the Veientines made depredations on Roman territory. Amidst
							the growing anxiety about these wars Caeso Fabius and Sp. Furius were
							made consuls.

The Aequi were attacking Ortona , a Latin city; the Veientines, laden with plunder,
							were now threatening to attack Rome itself. This alarming condition of affairs ought
							to have restrained, whereas it actually increased, the hostility of the
							plebs, and they resumed the old method of refusing military service.

This was not spontaneous on their part; Sp. Licinius, one of their
							tribunes, thinking that it was a good time for forcing the Agrarian Law
							upon the senate through sheer necessity, had taken upon him the
							obstruction of the levy.

All the odium, however, aroused by this misuse of the tribunitian power
							recoiled upon the author, his own colleagues were as much opposed to him
							as the consuls; through their assistance the consuls completed the
							enrolment.

An army was raised for two wars at the same time, one against the
							Veientines under Fabius, the other against the Aequi under Furius. In
							this latter campaign nothing happened worth recording. Fabius, however,
							had considerably more trouble with his own men than with the enemy.

He, the consul, single handed, sustained the commonwealth, while his
							army through their hatred of the consul were doing their best to betray
							it.

For, besides all the other instances of his skill as a commander, which
							he had so abundantly furnished in his preparation for the war and his
							conduct of it, he had so disposed his troops that he routed the enemy by
							sending only his cavalry against
							them.

The infantry refused to take up the pursuit; not only were they deaf to
							the appeals of their bated general, but even the public disgrace and
							infamy which they were bringing upon themselves at the moment, and the
							danger which would come if the enemy were to rally, were powerless to
							make them quicken their pace, or, failing that, even to keep their
							formation.

Against orders they retired, and with gloomy looks —you would suppose
							that they had been defeated —they returned to camp, cursing now their
							commander, now the work which the cavalry had done.

Against this example of demoralisation the general was unable to devise
							any remedy; to such an extent may men of commanding ability be more
							deficient in the art of managing their own people than in that of
							conquering the enemy.

The consul returned to Rome ,
							but he had not enhanced his military reputation so much as he had
							aggravated and embittered the hatred of his soldiers towards him. The
							senate, however, succeeded in keeping the consulship in the family of
							the Fabii; they made M. Fabius consul, Gnaeus Manlius was elected as his
							colleague.

This year also found a tribune advocating the Agrarian Law. It was
							Tiberius Pontificius. He adopted the same course as Sp. Licinius and for
							a short time stopped the enrolment.

The senate were again perturbed, but Appius Claudius told them that the
							power of the tribunes had been overcome in the previous year, it was
							actually so at the present moment, and the precedent thus set would
							govern the future, since it had been discovered that its very strength
							was breaking it

down. For there would never be wanting a tribune who would be glad to
							triumph over his colleague and secure the favour of the better party for
							the good of the State. If more were needed, more were ready to come to
							the assistance of the consuls, even one was sufficient, against the

rest. The consuls and leaders of the senate had only to take the trouble
							to secure, if not all, at least some of the tribunes on the side of the
							commonwealth and the senate.

The senators followed this advice, and whilst, as a body, they treated
							the tribunes with courtesy and kindness, the men of consular rank, in
							each private suit which they instituted, succeeded, partly by personal
							influence, partly by the authority their rank gave them, in getting the
							tribunes to exert their power for the welfare of the

State. Four of the tribunes were opposed to the one who was a hindrance
							to the public good; by their aid the consuls raised the

levy. Then they set out for the campaign against Veii . Succours had reached this city
							from all parts of Etruria, not so much out of regard for the Veientines
							as because hopes were entertained of the possible dissolution of the
							Roman State through intestine

discord. In the public assemblies throughout the cities of Etruria the
							chiefs were loudly proclaiming that the Roman power would be eternal
							unless its citizens fell into the madness of mutual

strife. This, they said, had proved to be the one poison, the one bane
							in powerful states which made great empires mortal. That mischief had
							been for a long time checked, partly by the wise policy of the senate,
							partly by the forbearance of the plebs, but now things had reached
							extremities. The one State had been severed into two, each with its own
							magistrates and its own

laws. At first the enrolments were the cause of the quarrel, but when
							actually on service the men obeyed their generals. As long as military
							discipline was maintained the evil could be arrested, whatever the state
							of affairs in the City, but now the fashion of disobedience to the
							magistrates was following the Roman soldier even into the

camp. During the last war, in the battle itself, at the crisis of the
							engagement, the victory was by the common action of the whole army
							transferred to the vanquished Aequi, the standards were abandoned, the
							commander left alone on the field, the troops returned against orders
							into

camp. In fact, if matters were pressed, Rome could be vanquished through her own soldiers,
							nothing else was needful than a declaration of war, a show of military
							activity, the Fates and the gods would do the rest.

Anticipations like these had given the Etruscans fresh energy after their
							many vicissitudes of defeat and victory. The Roman consuls, too, dreaded
							nothing but their own strength and their own arms. The recollection of
							the fatal precedent set in the last war deterred them from any action
							whereby they would have to fear a simultaneous attack from two armies.

They confined themselves to their camp, and in face of the double danger
							avoided an engagement, hoping that time and circumstances might perhaps
							calm the angry passions and bring about a more healthy state of mind.

The Veientines and Etruscans were all the more energetic in forcing an
							engagement; they rode up to the camp and challenged the Romans to fight.

At last, as they produced no effect by the taunts and insults levelled
							at the army and consuls alike, they declared that the consuls were using
							the pretext of internal dissensions to veil the cowardice of their men,
							they distrusted their courage more than they doubted their loyalty.
							Silence and inactivity amongst men in arms was a novel kind of sedition.

They also made reflections, true as well as false, on the upstart
							quality of their nationality and descent. They shouted all this out
							close up to the ramparts and gates of the camp. The consuls took it with
							composure, but the simple soldiery were filled with indignation and
							shame, and their thoughts were diverted from their domestic troubles.

They were unwilling that the enemy should go on with impunity, they were
							equally unwilling that the patricians and the consuls should win the
							day, hatred against the enemy and hatred against their fellow-countrymen
							struggled in their minds for the mastery. At length the former
							prevailed, so contemptuous and insolent did the mockery of the enemy
							become.

They gathered in crowds round the generals' quarters, they insisted upon
							fighting, they demanded the signal for action. The consuls put their
							heads together as though deliberating, and remained for some time in
							conference.

They were anxious to fight, but their anxiety had to be repressed and
							concealed in order that the eagerness of the soldiers, once roused,
							might be intensified by opposition and delay. They replied that matters
							were not ripe, the time for battle had not come, they must remain within
							their camp.

They then issued an order that there must be no fighting, any one
							fighting against orders would be treated as an enemy. The soldiers,
							dismissed with this reply, became the more eager for battle the less
							they thought the consuls wished for it.

The enemy became much more exasperating when it was known that the
							consuls had determined not to fight, they imagined that they could now
							insult with impunity, that the soldiers were not entrusted with arms,
							matters would reach the stage of mutiny, and the dominion of Rome had come to an end.

In this confidence they ran up to the gates, flung opprobrious epithets
							and hardly stopped short of storming the camp. Naturally the Romans
							could brook these insults no longer, they ran from all parts of the camp
							to the consuls, they did not now prefer their demand quietly through the
							first centurions as before, they shouted them in all directions.

Matters were ripe, still the consuls hung back. At last Cn. Manlius,
							fearing lest the increasing disturbance might lead to open mutiny, gave
							way, and Fabius, after ordering the trumpets to command silence,
							addressed his colleague thus: “I know, Cn. Manlius, that these
							men can conquer; it is their own fault that I did not know whether they
							wished to do so.

It has, therefore, been resolved and determined not to give the signal
							for battle unless they swear that they will come out of this battle
							victorious. A Roman consul was once deceived by his soldiers, they
							cannot deceive the gods.”

Amongst the centurions of the first rank who had demanded to be led to
							battle was M. Flavoleius. “M. Fabius,” he said, “I
							will come back from the battle victorious.” He invoked the wrath
							of Father Jupiter and Mars
								 Gradivus and other deities if he broke
							his oath. The whole army took the oath, man by man, after him.

When they had sworn, the signal was given, they seized their weapons,
							and went into action, furious with rage and confident of victory. They
							told the Etruscans to continue their insults, and begged the enemy so
							ready with the tongue to stand up to them now they were armed.

All, patricians and plebeians alike, showed conspicuous courage on that
							day, the Fabian house especially covered itself with glory. They
							determined in that battle to win back the affection of the plebs, which
							had been alienated through many political contests.

The battle-line was formed; neither the Veientines nor the legions of
							Etruria declined the contest. They were almost certain that the Romans
							would no more fight with them than they fought with the Aequi, and they
							did not despair of something still more serious happening, considering
							the state of irritation they were in and the double opportunity which
							now presented itself.

Things took a very different course, for in no previous war had the
							Romans gone into action with more grim determination, so exasperated
							were they by the insults of the enemy and the procrastination of the

consuls. The Etruscans had scarcely time to form their ranks when, after
							the javelins had in the first confusion been flung at random rather than
							thrown regularly, the combatants came to a hand-to-hand encounter with
							swords, the most desperate kind of

fighting. Amongst the foremost were the Fabii, who set a splendid
							example for their countrymen to behold. Quintus Fabius —the one who had
							been consul two years previously — charged, regardless of danger, the
							massed Veientines, and whilst he was engaged with vast numbers of the
							enemy, a Tuscan of vast strength and splendidly armed plunged his sword
							into his breast, and as he drew it out Fabius fell forward on the

wound. Both armies felt the fall of this one man, and the Romans were
							beginning to give ground, when M. Fabius, the consul, sprang over the
							body as it lay, and holding up his buckler, shouted, “Is this
							what you swore, soldiers, that you would go back to camp as

fugitives? Are you more afraid of this cowardly foe than of Jupiter and
							Mars, by whom you swore? I, who did not swear, will either go back
							victorious, or will fall fighting by you, Quintus Fabius.” Then
							Caeso Fabius, the consul of the previous year, said to the consul,
							“Is it by words like these, my brother, that you think you will
							make them

fight? The gods, by whom they swore, will-do that; our duty as chiefs,
							if we are to be worthy of the Fabian name, is to kindle our soldiers'
							courage by fighting rather than haranguing.” So the two Fabii
							dashed forward with levelled spears, and carried the whole line with
							them.

Whilst the battle was restored in one direction, the consul Cn. Manlius
							was showing no less energy on the other wing, where the fortunes of the
							day took a similar turn.

For, like Q. Fabius on the other wing, the consul Manlius was here
							driving the enemy before him and his soldiers were following up with
							great vigour, when he was seriously wounded and retired from the front.

Thinking that he was killed, they fell back, and would have abandoned
							their ground had not the other consul ridden up at full gallop with some
							troops of cavalry, and, crying out that his colleague was alive and that
							he had himself routed the other wing of the enemy, succeeded in checking
							the retreat. Manlius also showed himself amongst them, to rally his men.
							The well-known voices of the two consuls gave the soldiers fresh
							courage.

At the same time the enemies' line was now weakened, for, trusting to
							their superiority in numbers, they had detached their reserves and sent
							them to storm the camp.

These met with but slight resistance, and whilst they were wasting time
							by thinking more about plundering than about fighting, the Roman
								 triarii , who had been unable to
							withstand the first assault, despatched messengers to the consul to tell
							him the position of affairs, and then, retiring in close order to the
							head-quarters tent, renewed the fighting without waiting for orders. The
							consul Manlius had ridden back to the camp and posted troops at all the
							gates to block the enemies'

escape. The desperate situation roused the Tuscans to madness rather
							than courage; they rushed in every direction where there seemed any hope
							of escape, and for some time their efforts were fruitless. At last a
							compact body of young soldiers made an attack on the consul himself,
							conspicuous from his arms. The first weapons were intercepted by those
							who stood round him, but the violence of the onset could not long be
							withstood. The consul fell mortally wounded and all around him were

scattered. The Tuscans were encouraged, the Romans fled in panic through
							the length of the camp, and matters would have come to extremities had
							not the members of the consul's staff hurriedly taken up his body and
							opened a way for the enemy through one

gate. They burst through it, and in a confused mass fell in with the
							other consul who had won the battle; here they were again cut to pieces
							and scattered in all

directions. A glorious victory was won, though saddened by the death of
							two illustrious men. The senate decreed a triumph, but the consul
							replied that if the army could celebrate a triumph without its
							commander, he would gladly allow them to do so in return for their
							splendid service in the

war. But as his family were in mourning for his brother, Quintus Fabius,
							and the State had suffered partial bereavement through the loss of one
							of its consuls, he could not accept laurels for himself which were
							blighted by public and private

grief. The triumph he declined was more brilliant than any actually
							celebrated, so much does glory laid by for the moment return sometimes
							with added splendour. Afterwards he conducted the obsequies of his
							colleague and his brother, and pronounced the funeral oration over each.
							The greatest share of the praise which he conceded to them rested upon
							himself. He had not lost sight of the object which he set before him at
							the beginning of his consulship, the conciliation of the

plebs. To further this, he distributed amongst the patricians the care
							of the wounded. The Fabii took charge of a large number, and nowhere was
							greater care showed them. From this time they began to be popular; their
							popularity was won by no methods which were inconsistent with the
							welfare of the State.

Consequently the election of Caeso Fabius as
							consul, together with Titus Verginius, was welcomed by the plebs as much
							as by the patricians. Now that there was a favourable prospect of
							concord, he subordinated all military projects to the task of bringing
							the patricians and the plebs into union at the earliest possible moment.

At the beginning of his year of office he proposed that before any
							tribune came forward to advocate the Agrarian Law, the senate should
							anticipate him by themselves undertaking what was their own work and
							distributing the territory taken in war to the plebeians as fairly as
							possible. It was only right that those should have it by whose sweat and
							blood it had been won.

The patricians treated the proposal with scorn, some even complained that
							the once energetic mind of Caeso was becoming wanton and enfeebled
							through the excess of glory which he had won.

There were no party struggles in the City. The Latins were being
							harassed by the inroads of the Aequi. Caeso was despatched thither with
							an army, and crossed over into the territory of the Aequi to ravage it.
							The Aequi withdrew into their towns and remained behind their walls.

No battle of any importance took place. But the rashness of the other
							consul incurred a defeat at the hands of the Veientines, and it was only
							the arrival of Caeso Fabius with reinforcements that saved the army from
							destruction. From that time there was neither peace nor war with the
							Veientines, whose methods closely resembled those of brigands.

They retired before the Roman legions into their city; then when they
							found that they were withdrawn they made inroads on the fields, evading
							war by keeping quiet, and then making quiet impossible by war. So the
							business could neither be dropped nor completed. Wars were threatening
							in other quarters also; some seemed imminent as in the case of the Aequi
							and Volscians, who were only keeping quiet till the effect of their
							recent defeat should pass away, whilst it was evident that the Sabines,
							perpetual enemies of Rome , and
							the whole of Etruria would soon be in motion.

But the Veientines, a persistent rather than a formidable foe, created
							more irritation than alarm because it was never safe to neglect them or
							to turn the attention elsewhere.

Under these circumstances the Fabii came to the senate and the consul on
							behalf of his house spoke as follows: “As you are aware senators
							the Veientine war does not require a large force so much as one
							constantly in the field. Let the other wars be your care, leave the
							Fabii to deal with the Veientines.

We will guarantee that the majesty of Rome shall be safe in that quarter. We propose to carry
							on that war as a private war of our own at our own cost. Let the State
							be spared money and men there.”

A very hearty vote of thanks was passed; the consul left the House and
							returned home accompanied by the Fabii, who had been standing in the
							vestibule awaiting the senate's decision. After receiving instructions
							to meet on the morrow, fully armed, before the consul's house, they
							separated for their homes.

News of what had happened spread through the whole City, the Fabii were
							praised up to the skies; people said, “One family had taken up
							the burden of the State, the Veientine war had become a private concern,
							a private quarrel.

If there were two houses of the same strength in the City, and the one
							claimed the Volscians for themselves, the other the Aequi, then all the
							neighbouring states could be subjugated while Rome itself remained in profound
							tranquillity.” The next day the Fabii took their arms and
							assembled at the appointed place.

The consul, wearing his “ paludamentum ,” went out into
							the vestibule and saw the whole of his house drawn up in order of march.
							Taking his place in the centre, he gave the word of advance. Never has
							an army marched through the City smaller in numbers or with a more
							brilliant reputation or

more universally admired. Three hundred and six soldiers, all
							patricians, all members of one house, not a single man of whom the
							senate even in its palmiest days would deem unfitted for high command,
							went forth, threatening ruin to the Veientines through the strength of

a single family. They were followed by a crowd; made up partly of their
							own relatives and friends, whose minds were not occupied with ordinary
							hope and anxiety, but filled with the loftiest anticipations; partly of
							those who shared the public anxiety, and could not find words to express
							their

affection and admiration. “Go on,” they cried, “you
							gallant band, go on, and may you be fortunate; bring back results equal
							to this beginning, then look to us for consulships and triumphs and

every possible reward.” As they passed the Citadel and the
							Capitol and other temples, their friends prayed to each deity, whose
							statue or whose shrine they saw, that they would send that band

with all favourable omens to success, and in a short time restore them
							safe to their country and their kindred. In vain were those

prayers sent up! They proceeded on their ill-starred way by the right
							postern of the Carmental gate, and reached the banks of the Cremera.
							This seemed to them a suitable position for a fortified post. L.
							Aemilius and C. Servilius were the next consuls. As long as it was only
							a question of forays and raids, the Fabii were quite strong enough not
							only to protect their own fortified post, but, by patrolling both sides
							of the border-line between the Roman and Tuscan territories, to make the
							whole district safe for themselves and dangerous

for the enemy. There was a brief interruption to these raids, when the
							Veientines, after summoning an army from Etruria, assaulted the
							fortified post

at the Cremera. The Roman legions were brought up by the consul L.
							Aemilius and fought a regular engagement with the Etruscan troops. The
							Veientines, however, had not time to complete their formation, and
							during the confusion, whilst the men were getting into line and the
							reserves were being stationed, a squadron of Roman cavalry suddenly made
							a flank attack, and gave them no chance of commencing a battle or even
							of

standing their ground. They were driven back to their camp at the Saxa
							Rubra, and sued for peace. They obtained it, but their natural
							inconstancy made them regret it before the Roman garrison was recalled
							from the Cremera.

The conflicts between the Fabii and the State of Veii were resumed without any more
							extensive military preparations than before. There were not only forays
							into each other's territories and surprise attacks upon the foragers,
							but sometimes they fought regular engagements, and this single Roman
							house often

won the victory over what was at that time the most powerful city in
							Etruria.

This was a bitter mortification to the Veientines, and they were led by
							circumstances to adopt the plan of trapping their daring enemy in an
							ambuscade; they were even glad that the numerous successes of the Fabii
							had increased their confidence.

Accordingly they drove herds of cattle,
							as if by accident, in the way of the foraying parties, the fields were
							abandoned by the peasants, and the bodies of troops sent to repel the
							raiders fled in a panic more often assumed than genuine. By this time
							the Fabii had conceived such a contempt for their foe as to be convinced
							that under no circumstances of either time or place could their
							invincible arms be resisted.

This presumption carried them so far that at the sight of some distant
							cattle on the other side of the wide plain stretching from the camp they
							ran down to secure them although but few of the enemy were visible.

Suspecting no danger and keeping no order they passed the ambuscade
							which was set on each side of the road, and whilst they were scattered
							in trying to catch the cattle, which in their fright were rushing wildly
							about, the enemy suddenly rose from their concealment and attacked them
							on all

sides. At first they were startled by the shouts round them, then
							javelins fell on them from every direction. As the Etruscans closed
							round them, they were hemmed by a continuous ring of men, and the more
							the enemy pressed upon them, the less the space in which they were
							forced to form their ever-narrowing

square. This brought out strongly the contrast between their scanty
							numbers and the host of Etruscans, whose ranks were multiplied through
							being

narrowed. After a time they abandoned their plan of presenting a front
							on all sides; facing in one direction they formed themselves into a
							wedge and by the utmost exertion of sword and muscle forced a passage

through. The road led up to gentle eminence, and here they halted. When
							the higher ground gave them room to breathe freely and to recover from
							the feeling of despair, they repelled those who mounted to the attack,
							and through the advantage of position the little band were beginning to
							win the day, when some Veientines who had been sent round the hill
							emerged on the

summit. So the enemy again had the advantage. The Fabii were all cut
							down to a man, and their fort taken. It is generally agreed that three
							hundred and six men perished, and that one only, an immature youth, was
							left as a stock for the Fabian house to be Rome 's greatest helper in her hour of danger both at
							home and in the field.

When this disaster occurred, C. Horatius and T.
							Menenius were consuls. Menenius was at once sent against the Tuscans,
							flushed with their recent victory. Another unsuccessful action was
							fought, and the enemy took possession of the Janiculum.

The City, which was suffering from scarcity as well as from the war,
							would have been invested —for the Etruscans had crossed the Tiber —had not the consul Horatius
							been recalled from the Volsci. The fighting approached so near the walls
							that the first battle, an indecisive one, took place near the temple of
							Spes, and the second at the Colline gate.

In the latter, although the Romans gained only a slight advantage, the
							soldiers recovered something of their old courage and were better
							prepared for future campaigns.

The next consuls were A. Verginius and Sp. Servilius. After their defeat
							in the last battle, the Veientines declined an engagement. There were
							forays. From the Janiculum as from a citadel they made raids in all
							directions on the Roman territory; nowhere were the cattle or the
							country-folk safe.

They were ultimately caught by the same stratagem by which they had
							caught the Fabii. Some cattle were purposely driven in different
							directions as a decoy; they followed them and fell into an ambuscade;
							and as their numbers were greater, the slaughter was greater.

Their rage at this defeat was the cause and commencement of a more
							serious one. They crossed the Tiber by night and marched up to an attack on
							Servilius' camp, but were routed with great loss, and with great
							difficulty reached the Janiculum.

The consul himself forthwith crossed the Tiber and entrenched himself at
							the foot of the Janiculum. The confidence inspired by his victory of the
							previous day, but still more the scarcity of corn, made him decide upon
							an immediate but precipitate move.

He led his army at daybreak up the side of the Janiculum to the enemies'
							camp; but he met with a more disastrous repulse than the one he had
							inflicted the day before. It was only by the intervention of his
							colleague that he and his army were saved.

The Etruscans caught between the two armies, and retreating from each
							alternately were annihilated. So the Veientine war was brought to a
							sudden close by an act of happy rashness.

Together with peace, food
							came more freely into the City. Corn was brought from Campania and as the fear of future
							scarcity had disappeared, each individual brought out what he had
							hoarded.

The result of ease and plenty was fresh restlessness, and as the old
							evils no longer existed abroad, men began to look for them at home. The
							tribunes began to poison the minds of the plebeians with the Agrarian
							Law and inflamed them against the senators who resisted it, not only
							against the whole body, but individual members. Q. Considius and T.
							Genucius, who were advocating the Law, appointed a day for the trial of
							T. Menenius.

Popular feeling was roused against him by the loss of the fort at the
							Cremera, since, as consul, he had his standing camp not far from it.
							This crushed him, though the senators exerted themselves for him no less
							than they had done for Coriolanus, and the popularity of his father
							Agrippa had not died away.

The tribunes contented themselves with a fine, though they had arraigned
							him on a capital charge; the amount was fixed at 2000 “ ases .”

This proved to be a death-sentence, for they say that he was unable to
							endure the disgrace and grief, and was carried off by a fatal malady.
							Sp. Servilius was the next to be impeached.

His prosecution, conducted by the tribunes L. Caedicius and T. Statius,
							took place immediately after his year had expired, at the commencement
							of the consulship of C. Nautius and P. Valerius. When the day of trial
							came, he did not, like Menenius, meet the attacks of the tribunes by
							appeals for mercy, whether his own or those of the senators, he relied
							absolutely on his innocence and personal influence. The charge against
							him was his conduct in the battle with the Tuscans on the Janiculum; but
							the same courage which he then displayed, when the State was in danger,
							he now displayed when his own life was in danger.

Meeting charge by counter-charge, he boldly laid upon the tribunes and
							the whole of the plebs the guilt of the condemnation and death of T.
							Menenius; the son, he reminded them, of the man through whose efforts
							the plebeians had been restored to their position in the State, and were
							enjoying those very magistracies and laws which now allowed them to be
							cruel and vindictive. By his boldness he dispelled the danger, and his
							colleague Verginius, who came forward as a witness, assisted him by
							crediting him with some of his own services to the State.

The thing that helped him more, however, was the sentence passed on
							Menenius, so completely had the popular sentiment changed.

The domestic conflicts came to an end; war began again
							with the Veientines, with whom the Sabines had formed an armed league.
							The Latin and Hernican auxiliaries were summoned, and the consul P.
							Valerius was sent with an army to Veii . He at once attacked the Sabine camp, which was situated in
							front of the walls of their allies, and created such confusion that
							while small bodies of the defenders were making sorties in various
							directions to repel the attack, the gate against which the assault had
							been first made was forced, and once inside the rampart it became a
							massacre rather than a battle.

The noise in the camp penetrated even to the city, and the Veientines
							flew to arms, in a state of as great alarm as if Veii itself was taken. Some went to
							the help of the Sabines, others attacked the Romans, who were wholly
							occupied with their assault on the camp.

For a few moments they were checked and thrown into confusion; then,
							forming front in both directions, they offered a steady resistance while
							the cavalry whom the consul had ordered to charge routed the Tuscans and
							put them to flight.

In the same hour, two armies, the two most powerful of the neighbouring
							states, were overcome. Whilst this was going on at Veii , the Volscians and Aequi had
							encamped in the Latin territory and were ravaging their borders. The
							Latins, in conjunction with the Hernici drove them out of their camp
							without either a Roman general or Roman troops.

They recovered their own property and obtained immense booty in
							addition. Nevertheless, the consul C. Nautius was sent from Rome against the Volscians. They did
							not approve, I think, of the custom of allies carrying on war in their
							own strength and on their own methods, without any Roman general or
							army.

There was no kind of injury or insult that was not practised against the
							Volscians; they could not, however, be driven to fight a regular battle.

L. Furius and C. Manlius were the
							next consuls. The Veientines fell to Manlius as his province. There was
							no war, however; a forty years' truce was granted on their request; they
							were ordered to furnish corn and pay for the troops.

Peace abroad was at once followed by discord at home. The tribunes
							employed the Agrarian Law to goad the plebs into a state of dangerous
							excitement. The consuls, nowise intimidated by the condemnation of
							Menenius or the danger in which Servilius had stood, resisted them with
							the utmost violence.

On their vacating office the tribune Genucius impeached them. They were
							succeeded by L. Aemilius and Opiter Verginius. I find in some annals
							Vopiscus Julius instead of Verginius. Whoever the consuls were, it was
							in this year that Furius and Manlius, who were to be tried before the
							people, went about in mourning garb amongst the younger members of the
							senate quite as much as amongst the plebs.

They urged them to keep clear of the high offices of state and to regard
							the consular “ fasces ,” the
							“ praetexta ,” and the curule
							chair as nothing but the pomp of death, for when invested with these
							insignia they were like victims adorned for sacrifice.

If the consulship possessed such attractions for them, they must clearly
							understand that this office had been captured and crushed by the
							tribunician power; the consul had to do every thing at the beck and call
							of the tribune just as if he were his apparitor.

If he took an active line, if he showed any regard for the patricians,
							if he thought that anything besides the plebs formed part of the
							commonwealth, he should keep before his eyes the banishment of Cn.
							Marcius, the condemnation and death of Menenius. Fired by these appeals
							the senators held meetings, not in the Senate-house but in private, only
							a few being invited.

As the one point on which they were agreed was that the two who were
							impeached were to be rescued, by lawful or unlawful means, the most
							desperate plan was the most acceptable, and men were found who advocated
							the most daring crime.

Accordingly, on the day of the trial, whilst the plebs were standing in
							the Forum on the tiptoe of expectation, they were surprised that the
							tribune did not come down to them. Further delay made them suspicious;
							they believed that he had been intimidated by the leaders of the senate,
							and they complained that the cause of the people had been abandoned and
							betrayed.

At last some who had been waiting in the vestibule of the tribune's
							house sent word that he had been found dead in his house. As this news
							spread throughout the assembly, they at once dispersed in all
							directions, like a routed army that has lost its general. The tribunes
							especially were alarmed, for they were warned by their colleague's death
							how absolutely ineffective the Sacred Laws were for their protection.

The patricians, on the other hand, showed extravagant delight; so far
							was any one of them from regretting the crime, that even those who had
							taken no part in it were anxious to appear as though they had, and it
							was openly asserted that the tribunitian power must be chastised into
							submission.

Whilst the impression produced by this frightful
							instance of triumphant crime was still fresh, orders were issued for a
							levy, and as the tribunes were thoroughly intimidated, the consuls
							carried it out without any interruption from them.

But now the plebeians were more angry at the silence of the tribunes
							than at the exercise of authority on the part of the consuls. They said
							that it was all over with their liberty, they had gone back to the old
							state of things, the tribunitian power was dead and buried with
							Genucius.

Some other method must be thought out and adopted by which they could
							resist the patricians, and the only possible course was for the commons
							to defend themselves, as they had no other help. Four-and-twenty lictors
							attended on the consuls, and these very men were drawn from the plebs.

Nothing was more contemptible and feeble than they were, if there were
							any that would treat them with contempt, but every one imagined them to
							be great and awful things. After they had excited one another by these
							speeches, Volero Publilius, a plebeian, said that he ought not to be
							made a common soldier after serving as a centurion.

The consuls sent a lictor to him. Volero appealed to the tribunes. None
							came to his assistance, so the consuls ordered him to be stripped and
							the rods got ready. “I appeal to the people,” he said,
							“since the tribunes would rather see a Roman citizen scourged
							before their eyes than be murdered in their beds by you.” The
							more excitedly he called out, the more violently did the lictor tear off
							his toga, to strip him.

Then Volero, himself a man of unusual strength, and helped by those to
							whom he called, drove the lictor off, and amidst the indignant
							remonstrances of his supporters, retreated into the thickest part of the
							crowd crying out, “I appeal to the plebs for protection. Help
							fellow citizens!

help fellow soldiers! You have nothing to expect from the tribunes, they
							themselves need your aid.”

The men greatly excited got ready as if for battle and a most critical
							struggle was evidently impending, where no one would show the slightest
							respect for either public or private rights The consuls tried to check
							the fury of the storm, but they soon found that there is little safety
							for authority without strength.

The lictors were mobbed, the fasces broken,
							and the consuls driven from the Forum into the Senate-house, uncertain
							how far Volero would push his victory.

As the tumult was subsiding they ordered the senate to be convened, and
							when it was assembled they complained of the outrage done to them, the
							violence of the plebeians, the audacious insolence of Volero.

After many violent speeches had been made, the opinion of the older
							senators prevailed; they disapproved of the intemperance of the plebs
							being met by angry resentment on the part of the patricians.

Volero was now in high favour with the plebs, and they made him a tribune
							at the next election. Lucius Pinarius and P. Furius were the consuls for
							that year.

Everybody supposed that Volero would use all the power of his
							tribuneship to harass the consuls of the preceding year. On the
							contrary, he sub-ordinated his private grievances to the interests of
							the State, and without uttering a single word which could reflect on the
							consuls, he

proposed to the people a measure providing that the magistrates of the
							plebs should be elected by the Assembly of the Tribes. At first sight
							this measure appeared to be of a very harmless description, but it would
							deprive the patricians of all power of electing through their clients'
							votes those whom they wanted as tribunes.

It was most welcome to the plebeians, but the patricians resisted it to
							the utmost. They were unable to secure the one effectual means of
							resistance, namely, inducing one of the tribunes, through the influence
							of the consuls or the leading patricians, to interpose his veto.

The weight and importance of the question led to protracted controversy
							throughout the year. The plebs re-elected Volero. The patricians,
							feeling that the question was rapidly approaching a crisis, appointed
							Appius Claudius, the son of Appius, who, ever since his father's
							contests with them, had been hated by them and cordially hated them in
							return.

From the very commencement of the year the Law took precedence of all
							other matters. Volero had been the first to bring it forward, but his
							colleague, Laetorius, though a later, was a still more energetic
							supporter of it.

He had won an immense reputation in war, for no man was a better
							fighter, and this made him a stronger opponent. Volero in his speeches
							confined himself strictly to discussing the Law and abstained from all
							abuse of the consuls.

But Laetorius began by accusing Appius and his family of tyranny and
							cruelty towards the plebs; he said it was not a consul who had been
							elected, but an executioner, to harass and torture the plebeians.

The untrained tongue of the soldier was unable to express the freedom of
							his sentiments; as words failed him, he said, “I cannot speak so
							easily as I can prove the truth of what I have said; come here
							to-morrow, I will either perish before your eyes or carry the
							Law.”

Next day the tribunes took their places on the “ templum ,” the consuls and the
							nobility stood about in the Assembly to prevent the passage of the

Law. Laetorius gave orders for all, except actual voters, to withdraw.
							The young patricians kept their places and paid no attention to the
							tribune's officer, whereupon Laetorius ordered some of them to be

arrested. Appius insisted that the tribunes had no jurisdiction over any
							but plebeians, they were not magistrates of the whole people, but only
							of the plebs; even he himself could not, according to the usage of their
							ancestors, remove any man by virtue of his authority, for the formula
							ran, “If it seems good to you, Quirites,

depart!” By making contemptuous remarks about his jurisdiction,
							he was easily able to disconcert Laetorius. The tribune, in a burning
							rage, sent his officer to the consul, the consul sent a lictor to the
							tribune, exclaiming that he was a private citizen without any
							magisterial

authority. The tribune would have been treated with indignity had not
							the whole Assembly risen angrily to defend the tribune against the
							consul, whilst people rushed from all parts of the City in excited
							crowds to the

Forum. Appius braved the storm with inflexible determination, and the
							conflict would have ended in bloodshed had not the other consul,
							Quinctius, entrusted the consulars with the duty of
							removing, by force if necessary, his colleague from

the Forum. He entreated the furious plebeians to be calm, and implored
							the tribunes to dismiss the Assembly; they should give their passions
							time to cool, delay would not deprive them of their power, but would add
							prudence to their strength; the senate would submit to the authority of
							the people, and the consuls to that of the senate.

With difficulty Quinctius succeeded in quieting the plebeians; the
							senators had much greater difficulty in pacifying Appius. At length the
							Assembly was dismissed and the consuls held a meeting of the senate Very
							divergent opinions were expressed according

as the emotions of fear or anger predominated but the longer the
							interval during which they were called away from impulsive action to
							calm deliberation, the more averse did they become to a prolongation of
							the conflict so much so indeed, that they passed a vote of thanks to
							Quinctius for having through his exertions allayed the disturbance
							Appius was called upon to consent to the consular authority being so far
							limited as to be compatible with a harmonious commonwealth.

It was urged that whilst the tribunes and the consuls each tried to
							bring everything under their respective authority, there was no basis
							for common action; the State was torn in two, and the one thing aimed at
							was, who should be its rulers not how could its security be preserved.
							Appius on the other hand, called gods and men to witness that the State
							was being betrayed and abandoned through fear; it was not the consul who
							was failing the senate, the senate was failing the consul; worse
							conditions were being submitted to than those which had been accepted on
							the Sacred Hill.

However, he was over-borne by the unanimous feeling of the senate and
							became quiet the Law was passed in silence. Then for the first time the
							Tribunes were elected by the Assembly of the Tribes. According to Piso
							three were added, as though there had only been two before. He gives
							their names as Cn Siccius, L. Numitorius, M. Duellius, Sp. Icilius, and
							L. Mecilius.

. —During the disturbances in
								 Rome , the war with the
							Volscians and Aequi broke out afresh. They had laid waste the fields, in
							order that if there were a secession of the plebs they might find refuge
							with them.

When quiet had been restored they moved their camp further away.

Appius Claudius was sent against the Volscians, the Aequi were left for
							Quinctius to deal with. Appius displayed the same savage temper in the
							field that he had shown at home, only it was more unrestrained because
							he was not now fettered by the tribunes.

He hated the commons with a more intense hatred than his father had
							felt, for they had got the better of him and had carried their Law
							though he had been elected consul as being the one man who could thwart
							the tribunitian power —a

Law, too, which former consuls, from whom the senate expected less than
							from him, had obstructed with less trouble. Anger and indignation at all
							this goaded his imperious nature into harassing his army by ruthless
							discipline.

No violent measures, however, could subdue them, such was the spirit of
							opposition with which they were filled. They did everything in a
							perfunctory, leisurely, careless, defiant way; no feeling of shame or
							fear restrained them.

If he wished the column to move more quickly they deliberately marched
							more slowly, if he came up to urge them on in their work they all
							relaxed the energy they had been previously exerting of their own
							accord;

in his presence they cast their eyes down to the ground, when he passed
							by they silently cursed him, so that the courage which had not quailed
							before the hatred of the plebs was sometimes shaken.

After vainly employing harsh measures of every kind, he abstained from
							any further intercourse with his soldiers, said that the army had been
							corrupted by the centurions, and sometimes called them, in jeering
							tones, tribunes of the plebs, and Voleros.

LIX. None of this escaped the notice of the Veientines, and they pressed
							on more vigorously in the hope that the Roman army would show the same
							spirit of disaffection towards Appius which it had shown towards Fabius.

But it was much more violent towards Appius than it had been towards
							Fabius, for the soldiers not only refused to conquer, like the army of
							Fabius, but they wished to be conquered. When led into action they broke
							into a disgraceful flight and made for their camp, and offered no
							resistance till they saw the Volscians actually attacking their
							entrenchments and doing frightful execution in their rear.

Then they were compelled to fight, in order that the victorious enemy
							might be dislodged from their rampart; it was, however, quite evident
							that the Roman soldiers only fought to prevent the capture of the camp;
							otherwise they rejoiced in their ignominious defeat.

Appius' determination as in no way weakened by this, but when he was
							meditating more severe measures and ordering an assembly of his troops,
							the officers of his staff and the military tribunes gathered round him
							and warned him on no account to try how far he could stretch his
							authority, for its force wholly depended upon the free consent of those
							who obeyed it.

They said that the soldiers as a body refused to come to the assembly,
							and demands were heard on all sides for the camp to be removed from the
							Volscian territory; only a short time before the victorious enemy had
							all but forced his way into the camp. There were not only suspicions of
							a serious mutiny, the evidence was before their eyes. Appius yielded at
							last to their remonstrances.

He knew that they would gain nothing but a delay of punishment, and
							consented to forego the assembly. Orders were issued for an advance on
							the morrow, and the trumpet gave the signal for starting at dawn.

When the army had got clear of the camp and was forming in marching
							order, the Volscians, aroused, apparently, by the same signal, fell upon
							the rear. The confusion thus created extended to the leading ranks, and
							set up such a panic in the whole army that it was impossible for either
							orders to be heard or a fighting line to be formed.

No one thought of anything but flight. They made their way over heaps of
							bodies and arms in such wild haste that the enemy gave up the pursuit
							before the Romans abandoned their flight.

At last, after the consul had vainly endeavoured to follow up and rally
							his men, the scattered troops were gradually got together again, and he
							fixed his camp on territory undisturbed by war. He called up the men for
							an assembly, and after inveighing, with perfect justice, against an army
							which had been false to military discipline and had deserted

its standards, he asked them individually where he standards were, where
							their arms were.

The soldiers who had thrown away their arms, the standard-bearers who
							had lost their standards, and in addition to these the centurions and
								 duplicarii 28 who had deserted their
							ranks, he ordered o be scourged and beheaded. Of the rank and file every
							tenth man was drawn by lot for punishment.

Just the opposite state of things prevailed in the army campaigning
							amongst the Aequi, where the consul and his soldiers vied with each
							other in acts of kindness and comrade-ship. Quinctius was naturally
							milder, and the unfortunate severity of his colleague made him all the
							more inclined to follow the bent of his gentle disposition.

The Aequi did not venture to meet an army where such harmony prevailed
							between the general and his men, and they allowed their enemy to ravage
							their territory in all directions. In no previous war had plunder been
							gathered from a wider area.

The whole of it was given to the soldiers, and with it those words of
							praise which, no less than material rewards, delight the soldier's
							heart. The army returned home on better terms with their general, and
							through him with the patricians; they said that whilst the senate had
							given them a father it had given the other army a tyrant.

The year, which had been passed in varying fortunes of war and furious
							dissensions both at home and abroad, was chiefly memorable for the
							Assembly of Tribes, which were important rather for the victory won in a
							prolonged contest than for any real advantage gained.

For through the withdrawal of the patricians from their council the
							Assembly lost more in dignity than either the plebs gamed, or the
							patricians lost, in strength.

L. Valerius and T. Aemilius
							were consuls for the next year, which was a still stormier one, owing, m
							the first place, to the struggle between the two orders over the
							Agrarian Law, and secondly to the prosecution of Appius Claudius.

He was impeached by the tribunes, M. Duellius and Cn. Siccius, on the
							ground of his determined opposition to the Law, and also because

he defended the cause of the occupiers of the public land, as if he were
							a third consul.

Never before had any one been brought to trial before the people whom
							the plebs so thoroughly detested, both on his own and his father's
							account. For hardly any one had the patricians exerted themselves more
							than for him whom they regarded as the champion of the senate and the
							vindicator of its authority, the stout bulwark against disturbances of
							tribunes or plebs, and now saw exposed to the rage of the plebeians
							simply for having gone too far in the struggle.

Appius Claudius himself alone of all the patricians, looked upon the
							tribunes, the plebs, and his own trial as of no account. Neither the
							threats of the plebeians nor the entreaties of the senate could induce
							him —I will not say to change his attire and accost men as a suppliant,
							but —even to soften and subdue to some extent his wonted asperity of
							language when he had to make his defence before the people.

There was the same expression, the same defiant look, the same proud
							tones of speech, so that a large number of the plebeians were no less
							afraid of Appius on his trial than they had been when he was consul.

He only spoke in his defence once, but in the same aggressive tone that
							he always adopted and his firmness so dumbfounded the tribunes and the
							plebs' that they adjourned the case of their own accord, and then
							allowed it to drag on.

There was not a very long interval however. Before the date of the
							adjourned trial arrived he was' carried off by illness.

The tribunes tried to prevent any funeral oration being pronounced over
							him, but the plebeians would not allow the obsequies of so great a man
							to be robbed of the customary honours. They listened to the panegyric of
							the dead as attentively as they had listened to the indictment of the
							living, and vast crowds followed him to the tomb.

In the same year the consul
							Valerius advanced with an army against the Aequi, but failing to draw
							the enemy into an engagement he commenced an attack on their camp. A
							terrible storm, sent down from heaven, of thunder and hail prevented him
							from continuing the attack.

The surprise was heightened when after the
							retreat had been sounded, calm and bright weather returned. He felt that
							it would be an act of impiety to attack a second time a camp defended by
							some divine power. His warlike energies were turned to the devastation
							of the country. The other consul, Aemilius, conducted a campaign amongst
							the Sabines.

There, too, as the enemy kept behind their walls, their
							fields were laid waste.

The burning not only of scattered homesteads but
							also of villages with numerous populations roused the Sabines to action.
							They met the depredators, an indecisive action was fought, after which
							they moved their camp into a safer locality.

The consul thought this a
							sufficient reason for leaving the enemy as though defeated, and coming
							away without finishing the war.

T. Numicius Priscus and A.
							Verginius were the new consuls. The domestic disturbance continued
							through these wars,

and the plebeians were evidently not going to
							tolerate any further delay with regard to the Agrarian Law, and were
							pre-paring for extreme measures, when the smoke of burning farms and the
							flight of the country folk announced the approach of the Volscians. This
							checked the revolution which was now ripe and on the point of breaking
							out.

The senate was hastily summoned, and the consuls led the men liable
							for active service out to the war, thereby making the rest of the plebs
							more peaceably disposed.

The enemy retired precipitately, having
							effected nothing beyond filling the Romans with groundless fears.

Numicius advanced against the Volscians to Antium , Verginius against the
							Aequi. Here he was ambushed and narrowly escaped a serious defeat; the
							valour of the soldiers restored the fortunes of the day, which the
							consul's negligence had imperilled.

More skillful generalship was shown against the Volscians; 
							the enemy were routed in the first engagement and driven in flight to Antium , which was, for those days,
							a very wealthy city. The consul did not venture to attack it, but he
							took Caeno from the Antiates,
								not by any means so wealthy a place.

Whilst the Aequi and Volscians were
							keeping the Roman armies engaged, the Sabines extended their ravages up
							to the gates of the City. In a few days the consuls invaded their
							territory, and, attacked fiercely by both armies, they suffered heavier
							losses than they had inflicted.

Towards the close of the year
							there was a short interval of peace, but, as usual, it was marred by the
							struggle between the patricians and the plebeians. The plebs, in their
							exasperation, refused to take any part in the election of consuls;

T.
							Quinctius and Q. Servilius were elected consuls by the patricians and
							their clients. They had a year similar to the previous one: agitation
							during the first part, then the calming of this by foreign war.

The
							Sabines hurriedly traversed the plains of Crustumerium, and carried fire
							and sword into the district watered by the Anio, but were repulsed when
							almost close to the Colline gate and the walls of the City. They
							succeeded, however, in carrying off immense spoil both in men and
							cattle.

The consul Servilius followed them up with an army bent on revenge, and
							though unable to come up with their main body in the open country, he
							carried on his ravages on such an extensive scale that he left no part
							unmolested by war, and returned with spoil many times greater than that
							of the enemy.

Amongst the Volscians also the cause of Rome was splendidly upheld by the
							exertions of general and soldiers alike. To begin with, they met on
							level ground and a pitched battle was fought with immense losses on both
							sides in killed and wounded.

The Romans, whose paucity of numbers made
							them more sensible of their loss, would have retreated had not the
							consul called out that the enemy on the other wing were in flight, and
							by this well-timed falsehood roused the army to fresh effort. They made
							a charge and converted a supposed victory into a real one.

The consul,
							fearing lest by pressing the attack too far he might force a renewal of
							the combat, gave the signal for retiring.

For the next few days both
							sides kept quiet, as though there were a tacit understanding. During
							this interval, an immense body of men from all the Volscian and Aequan
							cities came into camp, fully expecting that when the Romans heard of
							their arrival they would make a nocturnal retreat.

Accordingly, about
								the third watch they moved out to attack the camp.

After allaying the
							confusion caused by the sudden alarm, Quinctius ordered the soldiers to
							remain quietly in their quarters, marched out a cohort of Hernicans to
							the outposts, mounted the buglers and trumpeters on horseback, and
							ordered them to sound their calls and keep the enemy on the alert till
							dawn.

For the remainder of the night all was so quiet in the camp that the
							Romans even enjoyed ample sleep. The sight of the armed infantry whom
							the Volscians took to be Romans and more numerous than they really were,
							the noise and neighing of the horses, restless under their inexperienced
							riders and excited by the sound of the trumpets, kept the enemy in
							constant apprehension of an attack.

At daybreak the Romans, fresh
							from their undisturbed sleep, were led into action, and at the first
							charge broke the Volscians, worn out as they were with standing and want
							of sleep.

It was, however, a retreat rather than a rout, for in their
							rear there were hills to which all behind the front ranks safely
							retired. When they reached the rising ground, the consul halted his
							army. The soldiers were with difficulty restrained, they clamoured to be
							allowed to follow up the beaten foe.

The cavalry were much more
							insistent, they crowded round the general and loudly declared that they
							would go on in advance of the infantry. While the consul, sure of the
							courage of his men, but not reassured as to the nature of the ground,
							was still hesitating, they shouted that they would go on, and followed
							up their shouts by making an advance. Fixing their spears in the ground
							that they might be more lightly equipped for the ascent, they went up at
							a run.

The Volscians hurled their javelins at the first onset, and then
							flung the stones lying at their feet upon the enemy as they came up.
							Many were hit, and through the disorder thus created they were forced
							back from the higher ground.In this way the Roman left wing was nearly overwhelmed, but through the
							reproaches which the consul cast upon his retreating men for their
							rashness as well as their cowardice, he made their fear give way to the
							sense of shame.

At first they stood and offered a firm resistance, then
							when by holding their ground they had recovered their energies they
							ventured upon an advance. With a renewed shout the whole line went
							forward, and pressing on in a second charge they surmounted the
							difficulties of the ascent,

and were just on the point of reaching the
							summit when the enemy turned and fled. With a wild rush, pursuers and
							fugitives almost in one mass dashed into the camp,

which was taken.
							Those of the Volscians who succeeded in escaping made for Antium ; thither the Roman army was
							led. After a few days' investment the place was surrendered, not owing
							to any unusual efforts on the part of the besiegers, but simply because
							after the unsuccessful battle and the loss of their camp the enemy had
							lost heart.

For the year following the capture of
								 Antium , Titus Aemilius
							and Quinctius Fabius were made consuls. This was the Fabius who was the
							sole survivor of the extinction of his house at the Cremera.1

Aemilius had already in his former consulship advocated the grant of
							land to the plebeians. As he was now consul for the second time, the
							agrarian party entertained hopes that the Law would be carried out; the
							tribunes took the matter up in the firm expectation that after so many
							attempts they would gain their cause, now that one consul, at all
							events, was supporting them; the consul's views on the question remained
							unchanged.

Those in occupation of the land-the majority of the patricians
							complained that the head of the State was adopting the methods of the
							tribunes and making himself popular by giving away other people's
							property, and in this way they shifted all the odium from the tribunes
							on to the consul.

There was every prospect of a serious contest, had not Fabius smoothed
							matters by a suggestion acceptable to both sides, namely, that as there
							was a considerable quantity of land which had been taken from the
							Volscians the previous year, under

the auspicious general-ship of T. Quinctius, a colony might be settled
							at Antium , which, as a
							seaport town, and at no great distance from Rome , was a suitable city for the
							purpose.

This would allow the plebeians to enter on public land without any
							injustice to those in occupa-tion, and so harmony would be restored to
							the State. This suggestion was adopted. He appointed as the three
							commis-sioners for the distribution of the land, T. Quinctius, A.
							Verginius, and P. Furius.

Those who wished to receive a grant were ordered to give in their names.
							As usual, abundance produced disgust,2 and so few gave in their names
							that the number was made up by the addition of Volscians as colonists.

The rest of the people preferred to ask for land at Rome rather than accept it elsewhere.
							The Aequi sought for peace from Q. Fabius, who had marched against them,
							but they broke it by a sudden incursion into Latin territory.

In the following year, Q. Servilius
							—for he was consul with Sp. Postumius —was sent against the Aequi, and
							fixed his entrenched camp on Latin territory. His army was attacked by
							an epidemic and compelled to remain inactive.

The war was protracted into the third year, when Quinctius Fabius and T.
							Quinctius were the consuls. As Fabius after his victory had granted
							peace to the Aequi, they were by special edict assigned to him as his
							sphere of operation.

He set out in the firm belief that the renown of his name would dispose
							them to peace; accordingly he sent envoys to their national council who
							were instructed to carry a message from Q. Fabius the consul to the
							effect that as he had brought peace from the Aequi to Rome , so now he was bringing war from
								 Rome to the Aequi, with
							the same right hand, now armed, which he had formerly given to them as a
							pledge of peace.

The gods were now the witnesses and would soon be the avengers of those
							through whose perfidy and perjury this had come about.

In any case, however, he would rather that the Aequi should repent of
							their own accord than suffer at the hands of an enemy; if they did
							repent they could safely throw themselves on the clemency they had
							already experienced, but if they

found pleasure in perjuring themselves, they would be warring more
							against the angered gods than against earthly foes.

These words, however, had so little effect that the envoys barely escaped
							maltreatment, and an army was despatched to Mount Algidus against the
							Romans. On this being reported at Rome , feelings of indignation rather than apprehension
							of danger hurried the other consul out of the City.

So two armies under the command of both consuls advanced against the
							enemy in battle formation, to bring about an immediate engagement. But,
							as it happened, not much daylight remained, and a soldier called out
							from the enemies outposts: “This, Romans, is making a display of
							war, not waging it.

You form your line when night is at hand; we need more daylight for the
							coming battle. When tomorrow's sun is rising, get into line again. There
							will be an ample opportunity of fighting, do not fear!”

Smarting under these taunts the soldiers were marched back into camp, to
							wait for the next day. They thought the coming night a long one, as it
							delayed the contest; after returning to camp they refreshed themselves
							with food and sleep. When the next day dawned the Roman line was formed
							some time before that of the enemy. At length the Aequi advanced.

The fighting was fierce on both sides; the Romans fought in an angry and
							bitter temper; the Aequi, conscious of the danger in which their
							misdoing had involved them, and hopeless of ever being trusted in the
							future, were compelled to make a desperate and final effort.

They did not, however, hold their ground against the Roman army, but
							were defeated and forced to retire within their frontiers. The spirit of
							the rank and file of the army was unbroken and not a whit more inclined
							to peace.

They censured their generals because they staked all on one pitched
							battle, a mode of fighting in which the Romans excelled, whereas the
							Aequi, they said, were better at destructive forays and raids; numerous
							bands acting in all directions would be more successful than if massed
							in one great army.

Accordingly, leaving a detachment to guard the camp, they sallied forth,
							and made such devastating forays in the Roman territory that the terror
							they caused extended even to the City.

The alarm was all the greater because such proceedings were quite
							unexpected. For nothing was less to be feared than that an enemy who had
							been defeated and almost surrounded in his camp should think of

predatory incursions, whilst the panic-stricken country people, pouring
							in at the gates and exaggerating everything in their wild alarm,
							exclaimed that they were not mere raids or small bodies of plunderers,
							entire armies of the enemy were near, preparing to swoop down on the
							City in force.

Those who were nearest carried what they heard to others, and the vague
							rumours became still more exaggerated and false. The running and clamour
							of men shouting “To arms!” created nearly as great a panic
							as though the City was actually taken.

Fortunately the consul Quinctius had returned to Rome from Algidus. This relieved
							their fears, and after allaying the excitement and rebuking them for
							being afraid of a defeated enemy, he stationed troops to guard the
							gates.

The senate was then convened, and on their authority he proclaimed a
							suspension of all business; after which he set out to protect the
							frontier, leaving Q. Servilius as prefect of the City.

He did not, however, find the enemy. The other consul achieved a
							brilliant success. He ascertained by what routes the parties of the
							enemy would come, attacked each while laden with plunder and therefore
							hampered in their movements, and made their plundering expeditions fatal
							to them.

Few of the enemy escaped; all the plunder was recovered. The consul's
							return put an end to the suspension of business, which lasted four days.

Then the census was made and the “lustrum” closed by
								Quinctius. The numbers of the census are stated to
							have been one hundred and four thousand seven hundred and fourteen,
							exclusive of widows

and orphans. Nothing further of any importance occurred amongst the
							Aequi. They withdrew into their towns and looked on passively at the
							rifling and burning of their homesteads. After repeatedly marching
							through the length and breadth of the enemies' territory and carrying
							destruction everywhere, the consul returned to Rome with immense glory and immense
							spoil.

The next consuls were A. Postumius Albus and Sp. Furius Fusus. Some
							writers call the Furii, Fusii. I mention this in case any one should
							suppose that the different names denote different people.

It was pretty certain that one of the consuls would continue the war with
							the Aequi. They sent, accordingly, to the Volscians of Ecetra for
							assistance. Such was the rivalry between them as to which should show
							the most inveterate enmity to Rome , that the assistance was readily granted, and
							preparations for war were carried on with the utmost energy.

The Hernici became aware of what was going on and warned the Romans that
							Ecetra had revolted to the Aequi. The colonists of Antium were also suspected, because
							on the capture of that town a large number of the inhabitants had taken
							refuge with the Aequi, and they were the most efficient soldiers
							throughout the war.

When the Aequi were driven into their walled towns, this body was broken
							up and returned to Antium .

There they found the colonists already disaffected, and they succeeded
							in completely alienating them from Rome . Before matters were ripe, information was laid
							before the senate that a revolt was in preparation, and the consuls were
							instructed to summon the chiefs of the colony to Rome and question them as to what was
							going on.

They came without any hesitation, but after being introduced by the
							consuls to the senate, they gave such unsatisfactory replies that
							heavier suspicion attached to them on their departure than on their
							arrival.

War was certain. Sp. Furius, the consul to whom the conduct of the war
							had been assigned, marched against the Aequi and found them committing
							depredations in the territory of the Hernici. Ignorant of their
							strength, because they were nowhere all in view at once, he rashly
							joined battle with inferior forces.

At the first onset he was defeated, and retired into his camp, but he
							was not out of danger there. For that night and the next day the camp
							was surrounded and attacked with such vigour that not even a messenger
							could be despatched to Rome .

The news of the unsuccessful action and the investment of the consul and
							his army was brought by the Hernici, and created such an alarm in the
							senate that they passed a decree in a form which has never been used
							except under extreme emergencies. They charged Postumius to “see
							that the commonwealth suffered no hurt.”

It was thought best that the consul himself should remain in Rome to enrol all who could bear
							arms, whilst T. Quinctius was sent as his representative to relieve the camp with
							an army furnished by the

allies. This force was to be made up of the Latins and the Hernici,
							whilst the colony at Antium 
							was to supply “subitary” troops —a designation then
							applied to hastily raised auxiliary troops.

Numerous maneuvers and skirmishes took place during these days, because
							the enemy with his superior numbers was able to attack the Romans from
							many points and so wear out their strength, as they were not able to
							meet them everywhere.

Whilst one part of their army attacked the camp, another was sent to
							devastate the Roman territory, and, if a favourable opportunity arose,
							to make an attempt on the City itself.

L. Valerius was left to guard the City, the consul Postumius was sent to
							repel the raids on the frontier.

No precaution was omitted, no exertion spared; detachments were posted
							in the City, bodies of troops before the gates, veterans manned the
							walls, and as a necessary measure in a time of such disturbance, a
							cessation of public business was ordered for some days.

In the camp, meanwhile, the consul Furius, after remaining inactive
							during the first days of the siege, made a sortie from the
							“decuman” 
							gate and surprised the enemy, and though he could have pursued him, he
							refrained from doing so, fearing lest the camp might be attacked from
							the other

side. Furius, a staff officer and brother of the consul, was carried too
							far in the charge, and did not notice, in the excitement of the pursuit,
							that his own men were returning and that the enemy were coming upon him
							from behind. Finding himself cut off, after many fruitless attempts to
							cut his way back to camp, he fell fighting

desperately. The consul, hearing that his brother was surrounded,
							returned to the fight, and whilst he plunged into the thick of the fray
							was wounded, and with difficulty rescued by those round him. This
							incident damped the courage of his own men and raised that of the enemy,
							who were so inspirited by the death of a staff officer and the wound of
							the consul that the Romans, who had been driven back to their camp and
							again besieged, were no longer a match for them either in spirits or
							fighting

strength. Their utmost efforts failed to keep the enemy in check, and
							they would have been in extreme danger had not T. Quinctius come to
							their assistance with foreign troops, an army composed of Latin and
							Hernican

contingents. As the Aequi were directing their whole attention to the
							Roman camp and exultingly displaying the staff officer's head he
							attacked them in rear, whilst at a signal given by him a sortie was made
							simultaneously from the camp and a large body of the enemy were

surrounded. Amongst the Aequi who were in the Roman territory there was
							less loss in killed and wounded, but they were more effectually
							scattered in flight. Whilst they were dispersed over the country with
							their plunder, Postumius attacked them at various points where he had
							posted

detachments. Their army was thus broken up into scattered bodies of
							fugitives, and in their flight they fell in with Quinctius, returning
							from his victory, with the wounded consul. The consul's army fought a
							brilliant action and avenged the wounds of the consuls and the slaughter
							of the staff officer and his

cohorts. During those days great losses were inflicted and sustained by
							both

sides. In a matter of such antiquity it is difficult to make any
							trustworthy statement as to the exact number of those who fought or
							those who fell. Valerius of Antium , however, ventures to give definite totals. He
							puts the Romans who fell in Hernican territory at 5800, and the Antiates
							who were killed by A. Postumius whilst raiding the Roman territory at
							2400. The rest who fell in with Quinctius whilst carrying off their
							plunder got off with nothing like so small a loss; he gives as the exact
							number of their killed, 4230.

On the return to Rome , the
							order for the cessation of all public business was revoked. The sky
							seemed to be all on fire, and other portents were either actually seen,
							or people in their fright imagined that they saw them. To avert these
							alarming omens, public intercessions were ordered for three days, during
							which all the temples were filled with crowds of men and women imploring
							the protection of the

gods. After this the Latin and Hernican cohorts received the thanks of
							the senate for their services and were dismissed to their homes. The
							thousand soldiers from Antium who had come after the battle, too late to
							help, were sent back almost with ignominy.

Then the
							elections were held and L. Aebutius and P. Servilius were chosen as
							consuls; they entered upon office on August I, which was then the
							commencement of the consular year.

The season was a trying one, and that year happened to be a pestilential
							one both for the City, and the rural districts, for the flocks and herds
							quite as much as for human beings.

The violence of the epidemic was aggravated by the crowding into the
							City of the country people and their cattle through fear of raids. This
							promiscuous collection of animals of all kinds became offensive to the
							citizens, through the unaccustomed smell, and the country people,
							crowded as they were into confined dwellings, were distressed by the
							oppressive heat which made it impossible to sleep.

Their being brought into contact with each other in ordinary intercourse
							helped to spread the disease. Whilst they were hardly able to bear up
							under the pressure of this calamity, envoys from the Hernici announced
							that the Aequi and Volscians had united their forces, had entrenched
							their camp within their territory, and were ravaging their frontier with
							an immense army.

The allies of Rome not only
							saw in the thinly-attended senate an indication of the widespread
							suffering caused by the epidemic, but they had also to carry back the
							melancholy reply that the Hernici must, in conjunction with the Latins,
							undertake their own defence.

Through a sudden visitation of the angry gods, the City of Rome was being ravaged by pestilence;
							but if any respite from the evil should come, then she would send
							succour to her allies as she had done the year before and on all
							previous occasions.

The allies departed, carrying home in answer to the gloomy tidings they
							had brought a still more gloomy response, for they had in their own
							strength to sustain a war which they had hardly been equal to when
							supported by the power of Rome . The enemy no longer confined himself to the country
							of the Hernici, he went on to destroy the fields of Rome , which were already lying waste
							without having suffered the ravages of war.

He met no one, not even an unarmed peasant, and after overrunning the
							country, abandoned as it was by its defenders and even devoid of all
							cultivation, he reached the third milestone from Rome on the Gabian road. Aebutius,
							the consul, was dead, his colleague Servilius was still breathing, with
							little hope of recovery, most of the leading men were down, the majority
							of the senators, nearly all the men of military age, so that not only
							was their strength unequal to an expeditionary force such as the
							position of affairs required, but it hardly allowed of their mounting
							guard for home defence.

The duty of sentinel was discharged in person by those of the senators
							whose age and health allowed them to do so; the Aediles of the plebs
							were responsible for their inspection. On these magistrates had devolved
							the consular authority and the supreme control of affairs.

The helpless commonwealth, deprived of its head and all its strength, was
							saved by its guardian deities and the fortune of the City, who made the
							Volscians and Aequi think more of plunder than of their enemy.

For they had no hope of even approaching the walls of Rome , still less of effecting its
							capture. The distant view of its houses and its hills, so far from
							alluring them repelled them.

Everywhere throughout their camp angry remonstrances arose: “Why
							were they idly wasting their time in a waste and deserted land amid
							plague stricken beasts and men while they could find places free from
							infection in the territory of Tusculum with its abundant wealth?” They hastily
							plucked up their standards, and by cross-marches
							through the fields of Labici 
							they reached the hills of Tusculum . All the violence and storm of war was now
							turned in this direction. Meantime the Hernici and Latins joined their
							forces and proceeded to Rome .

They were actuated by a feeling not only of pity but also of the
							disgrace they would incur if they had offered no opposition to their
							common foe while he was advancing to attack Rome , or had brought no succour to
							those who were their allies.

Not finding the enemy there, they followed up their traces from the
							information supplied them, and met them as they were descending from the
							hills of Tusculum into the
							valley of Alba. Here a very one-sided action was fought, and their
							fidelity to their allies met with little success for the time.

The mortality in Rome through
							the epidemic was not less than that of the allies through the sword. The
							surviving consul died; amongst other illustrious victims were M.
							Valerius and T. Verginius Rutilus, the augurs, and Ser. Sulpicius, the
							“Curio Maximus.”

Amongst the common people the violence
							of the epidemic made great ravage. The senate, deprived of all human
							aid, bade the people betake themselves to prayers; they with their wives
							and children were ordered to go as suppliants and entreat the gods to be

gracious. Summoned by public authority to do what each man's misery was
							constraining him to do, they crowded all the temples. Prostrate matrons,
							sweeping with their dishevelled hair the temple floors, were everywhere
							imploring pardon from offended heaven, and entreating that an end might
							be put to the pestilence.

Whether it was that the gods
							graciously answered prayer or that the unhealthy season had passed,
							people gradually threw off the influence of the epidemic and the public
							health became more satisfactory.

Attention was once more turned to affairs of State, and after one or two
							interregna had expired, P. Valerius Publicola, who had been interrex for
							two days, conducted the election of L. Lucretius Tricipitmus and T.
							Veturius Geminus or Vetusius as consuls.

They entered office on August II, and the State was now strong enough
							not only to defend its frontiers, but to take the offensive.

Consequently, when the Hernici announced that the enemy had crossed
							their frontiers, help was promptly sent. Two consular armies were
							enrolled.

Veturius was sent to act against the Volsci, Tricipitinus had to protect
							the country of the allies from predatory incursions, and did not advance
							beyond the Hernican frontier.

In the first battle Veturius defeated and routed the enemy. Whilst
							Lucretius lay encamped amongst the Hernici, a body of plunderers evaded
							him by marching over the mountains of Praeneste , and descending into the plains devastated
							the fields of the Praenestines and Gabians, and then turned off to the
							hills above Tusculum .

Great alarm was felt in Rome ,
							more from the surprising rapidity of the movement than from
							insufficiency of strength to repel any attack. Quintus Fabius was
							prefect of the City. By arming the younger men and manning the defences,
							he restored quiet and security everywhere.

The enemy did not venture to attack the City, but returned by a
							circuitous route with the plunder they had secured from the
							neighbourhood. The greater their distance from the City the more
							carelessly they marched, and in this state they fell in with the consul
							Lucretius, who had reconnoitred the route they were taking and was in
							battle formation, eager to engage.

As they were on the alert and ready for the enemy, the Romans, though
							considerably fewer in numbers, routed and scattered the vast host, whom
							the unexpected attack had thrown into confusion, drove them into the
							deep valleys and prevented their escape.

The Volscian nation was almost wiped out there. I find in some of the
							annals that 13,470 men fell in the battle and the pursuit, and 1750 were taken prisoners, whilst twenty-seven
							military standards were captured.

Although there may be some exaggeration, there certainly was a great
							slaughter. The consul, after securing enormous booty, returned
							victorious to his camp. The two consuls then united their camps; the
							Volscians and Aequi also concentrated their shattered forces. A third
							battle took place that year; again fortune gave the victory to the
							Romans, the enemy were routed and their camp taken.

Matters at home drifted back to their old
							state; the successes in the war forthwith evoked disorders in the City.
							Gaius Terentilius Harsa was a tribune of the plebs that year.

Thinking that the absence of the consuls afforded a good opportunity for
							tribunitian agitation, he spent several days in haranguing the plebeians
							on the overbearing arrogance of the patricians.

In particular he inveighed against the authority of the consuls as
							excessive and intolerable in a free commonwealth, for whilst in name it
							was less invidious, in reality it was almost more harsh and oppressive
							than that of the kings had been, for now, he said, they

had two masters instead of one, with uncontrolled, unlimited powers,
							who, with nothing to curb their licence, directed all the threats and
							penalties of the laws against the plebeians.

To prevent this unfettered tyranny from lasting for ever, he said he
							would propose an enactment that a commission of five should be appointed
							to draw up in writing the laws which regulated the power of the consuls.
							Whatever jurisdiction over themselves the people gave the consul, that
							and that only was he to exercise; he was not to regard his own licence
							and caprice as law.

When this measure was promulgated, the patricians were apprehensive lest
							in the absence of the consuls they might have to accept the yoke. A
							meeting of the senate was convened by Q. Fabius, the prefect of the
							City. He made such a violent attack upon the proposed law and its
							author, that the threats and intimidation could not have been greater
							even if the two consuls had been standing by the tribune, threatening
							his life.

He accused him of plotting treason, of seizing a favourable moment for
							compassing the ruin of the commonwealth. “Had the gods,”
							he continued, “given us a tribune like him last year, during the
							pestilence and the war, nothing could have stopped him.

After the death of the two consuls, whilst the State was lying
							prostrate, he would have passed laws, amid the universal confusion, to
							deprive the commonwealth of the power of the consuls, he would have led
							the Volscians and Aequi in an attack on the City.

Why, surely it is open to him to impeach the consuls for whatever
							tyranny or cruelty they may have been guilty of towards any citizen, to
							bring them to trial before those very judges, one of whom had been their
							victim.

His action was making —not the authority of the consuls, but —the power
							of the tribunes odious and intolerable, and after being exercised
							peaceably and in harmony with the patricians, that power was now
							reverting to its old evil practices.” As to Terentilius, he would
							not dissuade him from continuing as he began.

“As to you,” said Fabius, “the other tribunes, we
							beg you to reflect that in the first instance your power was conferred
							upon you for the assistance of individual citizens, not for the ruin of
							all; you have been elected as the tribunes of the plebs, not as the
							enemies of the patricians. To us it is distressing, to you it is a
							source of odium that the commonwealth should be thus attacked while it
							is without its head.

You will not impair your rights, but you will lessen the odium felt
							against you if you arrange with your colleague to have the whole matter
							adjourned till the arrival of the consuls. Even the Aequi and Volscians,
							after the consuls had been carried off by the epidemic last year, did
							not harass us with a cruel and ruthless war.”

The tribunes came to an understanding with Terentilius and the
							proceedings were ostensibly adjourned, but, as a matter of fact,
							abandoned. The consuls were immediately summoned home.

Lucretius returned with an immense amount of booty, and with a still more
							brilliant reputation. This prestige he enhanced on his arrival by laying
							out all the booty in the Campus
								Martius for three days, that each person might recognise
							and take away his own property.

The rest, for which no owners appeared, was sold. By universal consent a
							triumph was due to the consul, but the matter was delayed through the
							action of the tribune, who was pressing his measure.

The consul regarded this as the more important question. For some days
							the subject was discussed both in the senate and the popular assembly.
							At last the tribune yielded to the supreme authority of the consul and
							dropped his measure.

Then the consul and his army received the honour they deserved; at the
							head of his victorious legions he celebrated his triumph over the
							Volscians and Aequi. The other consul was allowed to enter the City
							without his troops and enjoy an

ovation. The following
							year the new consuls, P. Volumnius and Ser. Sulpicius, were confronted
							by the proposed law of Terentilius, which was now brought forward by the
							whole college of

tribunes. During the year, the sky seemed to be on fire; there was a
							great earthquake; an ox was believed to have spoken —the year before
							this rumour found no credence. Amongst other portents it rained flesh,
							and an enormous number of birds are said to have seized it while they
							were flying about; what fell to the ground lay about for several days
							without giving out any bad

smell. The Sibylline Books were consulted by the “ duumviri ,” and a prediction was found of
							dangers which would result from a gathering of aliens, attempts on the
							highest points of the City and consequent bloodshed. Amongst other
							notices, there was a solemn warning to abstain from all seditious
							agitations. The tribunes alleged that this was done to obstruct the
							passing of the Law, and a desperate conflict seemed imminent.

As though to show how events revolve in the same cycle year by year, the
							Hernici reported that the Volscians and Aequi, in spite of their
							exhaustion, were equipping fresh armies. Antium was the centre of the movement; the colonists of
								 Antium were holding
							public meetings in Ecetra, the capital, and the main strength of the
							war. On this information being laid before the senate, orders were given
							for a

levy. The consuls were instructed to divide the operations between them;
							the Volscians were to be the province of the one, the Aequi of the

other. The tribunes, even in face of the consuls, filled the Forum with
							their shouts, declaring that the story of a Volscian war was a
							prearranged comedy, the Hernici had been prepared beforehand for the
							part they were to play; the liberties of the Roman were not being
							repressed by straightforward opposition, but were being cunningly fooled

away. It was impossible to persuade them that the Volscians and Aequi,
							after being almost exterminated, could themselves commence hostilities;
							a new enemy, therefore, was being sought for; a colony which had been a
							loyal neighbour was being covered with

infamy. It was against the unoffending people of Antium that war was declared; it
							was against the Roman plebs that war was really being waged. After
							loading them with arms they would drive them in hot haste out of the
							City, and wreak their vengeance on the tribunes by sentencing their
							fellow-citizens to

banishment. By this means —they might be quite certain —the Law would be
							defeated; unless, while the question was still undecided, and they were
							still at home, still unenrolled, they took steps to prevent their being
							ousted from their occupation of the City, and forced under the yoke of

servitude. If they showed courage, help would not be wanting, the
							tribunes were unanimous. There was no cause for alarm; no danger from
							abroad. The gods had taken care, the previous year, that their liberties
							should be safely protected.

Thus far the tribunes. The
							consuls at the other end of the Forum, however, placed their chairs in
							full view of the tribunes and proceeded with the levy. The tribunes ran
							to the spot, carrying the Assembly with them. A few were cited,
							apparently as an experiment, and a tumult arose at once.

As soon as any one was seized by the consuls' orders, a tribune ordered
							him to be released. None of them confined himself to his legal rights;
							trusting to their strength they were bent upon getting what they set
							their minds upon by main force.

The methods of the tribunes in preventing the enrolment were followed by
							the patricians in obstructing the Law, which was brought forward every
							day that the Assembly met.

The trouble began when the tribunes had ordered the people to proceed to
							vote —the patricians refused to withdraw. The older members
							of the order were generally absent from proceedings which were certain
							not to be controlled by reason, but given over to recklessness and
							licence;

the consuls, too, for the most part kept away, lest in the general
							disorder the dignity of their office might be exposed to insult.

Caeso was a member of the Quinctian house, and his noble descent and
							great bodily strength and stature made him a daring and intrepid young
							man. To these gifts of the gods he added brilliant military qualities
							and eloquence as a public speaker, so that no one in the State was held
							to surpass him either in speech or action.

When he took his stand in the middle of a group of patricians,
							conspicuous amongst them all, carrying as it were in his voice and
							personal strength all dictatorships and consulships combined, he was the
							one to withstand the attacks of the tribunes and the storms of popular
							indignation.

Under his leadership the tribunes were often driven from the Forum, the
							plebeians routed and chased away, anybody who stood in his way went off
							stripped and beaten. It became quite clear that if this sort of thing
							were allowed to go on, the Law would be defeated.

When the other tribunes were now almost in despair, Aulus Verginius, one
							of the college, impeached Caeso on a capital charge. This procedure
							inflamed more than it intimidated his violent temper; he opposed the Law
							and harassed the plebeians more fiercely than ever, and declared regular
							war against the tribunes.

His accuser allowed him to rush to his ruin and fan the flame of popular
							hatred, and so supply fresh material for the charges to be brought
							against him. Meantime he continued to press the Law, not so much in the
							hope of carrying it as in order to provoke Caeso to greater
							recklessness.

Many wild speeches and exploits of the younger patricians were fastened
							on Caeso to strengthen the suspicions against him.

Still the opposition to the Law was kept up. A. Verginius frequently
							said to the plebeians, “Are you now aware, Quirites, that you
							cannot have the Law which you desire, and Caeso as a citizen, together?
							Yet, why do I talk of the Law?

He is a foe to liberty, he surpasses all the Tarquins in tyranny. Wait
							till you see the man who now, in private station, acts the king in
							audacity and violence —wait till you see him made consul, or
							dictator.” His words were endorsed by many who complained of
							having been beaten, and the tribune was urged to bring the matter to a
							decision.

The day of trial was now at hand, and it was evident that men generally
							believed that their liberty depended upon the condemnation of Caeso.

At last, to his great indignation, he was constrained to approach
							individual members of the plebs; he was followed by his friends, who
							were amongst the foremost men of the State.

Titus Quinctius Capitolinus, who had three times been consul, after
							recounting his own numerous distinctions and those of his family
							asserted that neither in the Quinctian house nor in the Roman State did
							there exist another such example of personal merit and youthful courage.
							He had been the foremost soldier in his army, he had often fought under
							his own eyes.

Sp. Furius said that Caeso had been sent by Quinctius Capitolinus to his
							assistance when in difficulties, and that no single person had done more
							to retrieve the fortunes of the day.

L. Lucretius, the consul of the previous year, in the splendour of his
							newly-won glory, associated Caeso with his own claim to distinction,
							enumerated the actions in which he had taken part, recounted his
							brilliant exploits on the march and in the field, and did his utmost to
							persuade them to retain

as their own fellow-citizen a young man furnished with every advantage
							that nature and fortune could give, who would be an immense power in any
							state of which he became a member, rather than drive him to an alien
							people.

As to what had given such offence —his hot temper and audacity —these
							faults were being continually lessened; what was wanting in him
							—prudence —was increasing day by day. As his faults were decaying and
							his virtues maturing, they ought to allow such a man to live out his
							years in the commonwealth.

Among those who spoke for him was his father, L. Quinctius Cincinnatus.
							He did not go over all his merits again, for fear of aggravating the
							feeling against him, but he pleaded for indulgence to the errors of
							youth; he himself had never injured any one either by word or deed, and
							for his own sake he implored them to pardon his son.

Some refused to listen to his prayers, lest they should incur the
							displeasure of their friends; others complained of the maltreatment they
							had received, and by their angry replies showed beforehand what their
							verdict would be.

Over and above the general exasperation, one charge in particular weighed
							heavily against him. M. Volscius Fictor, who had some years previously
							been tribune of the plebs, had come forward to give evidence that not
							long after the epidemic had visited the City, he had met some young men
							strolling in the Suburra.

A quarrel broke out and his elder brother, still weak from illness, was
							knocked down by a blow from Caeso's fist, and carried home in a critical
							condition, and afterwards died, he believed, in consequence of the blow.

He had not been allowed by the consuls, during the years that had
							elapsed, to obtain legal redress for the outrage. Whilst Volscius was
							telling this story in a loud tone of voice, so much excitement was
							created that Caeso was very near losing his life at the hands of the
							people. Verginius ordered him to be arrested and taken to prison. The
							patricians met violence by violence.

T. Quinctius called out that when the day of trial has been fixed for
							any one indicted on a capital charge and is near at hand, his personal
							liberty ought not to be interfered with before the case is heard and
							sentence given.

The tribune replied that he was not going to inflict punishment upon a
							man not yet found guilty; but he should keep him in prison till the day
							of the trial, that the Roman people might be in a position to punish one
							who has taken a man's life.

The other tribunes were appealed to, and they saved their prerogative by
							a compromise; they forbade him to be cast into prison, and
							announced as their decision that the accused should appear in court, and
							if he failed to do so, he should forfeit a sum of money to the people.
							The question was, what sum would it be fair to

fix? The matter was referred to the senate, the accused was detained in
							the Assembly whilst the senators were deliberating. They decided that he
							should give sureties, and each surety was bound in 3000

“ ases .” It was left to the
							tribunes to decide how many should be given; they fixed the number at
							ten. The prosecutor released the accused on that bail. Caeso was the
							first who gave securities on a state trial. After leaving the Forum, he
							went the following night into exile amongst the Tuscans. When the day
							for the trial came, it was pleaded in defence of his non-appearance that
							he had changed his domicile by going into

exile. Verginius, nevertheless, went on with the proceedings, but his
							colleagues, to whom an appeal was made, dismissed the

Assembly. The money was unmercifully extorted from the father, who had
							to sell all his property and live for some time like a banished man in
							an out-of-the-way hut on the other side of the Tiber .

This trial and the discussions on the
							Law kept the State employed; there was a respite from foreign troubles.

The patricians were cowed by the banishment of Caeso, and the tribunes,
							having, as they thought, gained the victory, regarded the Law as
							practically carried.

As far as the senior senators were concerned, they abandoned the control
							of public affairs, but the younger members of the order, mostly those
							who had been Caeso's intimates, were more bitter than ever against the
							plebeians, and quite as aggressive. They made much more progress by
							conducting the attack in a methodical manner.

The first time that the Law was brought forward after Caeso's flight
							they were organised in readiness, and on the tribunes furnishing them
							with a pretext, by ordering them to withdraw, they attacked them with a
							huge army of clients in such a way that no single individual could carry
							home any special share of either glory or odium. The plebeians
							complained that for one Caeso thousands had sprung up.

During the intervals when the tribunes were not agitating the Law,
							nothing could be more quiet or peaceable than these same men; they
							accosted the plebeians affably, entered into conversation with them,
							invited them to their houses, and when present in the Forum even allowed
							the tribunes to bring all other questions forward without interrupting
							them. They were never disagreeable to any one either in public or
							private, except when a discussion commenced on the Law; on all other
							occasions they were friendly with the people.

Not only did the tribunes get through their other business quietly, but
							they were even reelected for the following year, without any offensive
							remark being made, still less any violence being offered. By gentle
							handling they gradually made the plebs tractable, and through these
							methods the Law was cleverly evaded throughout the year.

The new consuls, C. Claudius, the son of Appius, and P. Valerius
							Publicola, took over the State in a quieter condition than usual. The
							new year brought nothing new. Political interest centred in the fate of
							the Law.

The more the younger senators ingratiated themselves with the plebeians,
							the fiercer became the opposition of the tribunes.

They tried to arouse suspicion against them by alleging that a
							conspiracy had been formed; Caeso was in Rome , and plans were laid for the assassination of the
							tribunes and the wholesale massacre of the plebeians, and further that
							the senior senators had assigned to the younger members of the order the
							task of abolishing the tribunitian authority so that the political
							conditions might be the same as they were before the occupation of the
							Sacred Hill.

War with the Volscians and Aequi had become now a regular thing of almost
							annual recurrence, and was looked forward to with apprehension. A fresh misfortune happened nearer home.

The political refugees and a number of slaves, some 2500 in all, under
							the leadership of Appius Herdonius the Sabine , seized the Capitol and Citadel by night.

Those who refused to join the conspirators were instantly massacred,
							others in the confusion rushed in wild terror down to the Forum; various
							shouts were heard: “To arms!” “The enemy is in the
							City.” The consuls were afraid either to arm the plebeians or to
							leave them without arms.

Uncertain as to the nature of the trouble which had overtaken the City,
							whether it was caused by citizens or by foreigners, whether due to the
							embittered feelings of the plebs or to the treachery of slaves, they
							tried to allay the tumult, but their efforts only increased it; in their
							terrified and distracted state the population could not be controlled.

Arms were, however, distributed, not indiscriminately, but only, as it
							was an unknown foe, to secure protection sufficient for all emergencies.
							The rest of the night they spent in posting men in all the convenient
							situations in the City, while their uncertainty as to the nature and
							numbers of the enemy kept them in anxious suspense.

Daylight at length disclosed the enemy and their leader. Appius Herdonius
							was calling from the Capitol to the slaves to win their liberty, saying
							that he had espoused the cause of all the wretched in order to restore
							the exiles who had been wrongfully banished and remove the heavy yoke
							from the necks of the slaves. He would rather that this be done at the
							bidding of the Roman people, but if that were hopeless, he would run all
							risks and rouse the Volscians and Aequi.

The state of affairs became clearer to the senators and consuls. They
							were, however, apprehensive lest behind these openly declared aims there
							should be some design of the Veientines or Sabines, and

whilst there was this large hostile force within the City the Etruscan
							and Sabine legions should
							appear, and then the Volscians and Aequi, their standing foes, should
							come, not into their territory to ravage, but into the City itself,
							already partly captured. Many and various were their fears.

What they most dreaded was a rising of the slaves, when every man would
							have an enemy in his own house, whom it would be alike unsafe to trust
							and not to trust, since by withdrawing confidence he might be made a
							more determined enemy.

Such threatening and overwhelming dangers could only be surmounted by
							unity and concord, and no fears were felt as to the tribunes or the
							plebs. That evil was mitigated, for as it only broke out when there was
							a respite from other evils, it was believed to have subsided now in the
							dread of foreign aggression. Yet it, more than almost anything else,
							helped to further depress the fortunes of the sinking State.

For such madness seized the tribunes that they maintained that it was
							not war but an empty phantom of war which had settled in the Capitol, in
							order to divert the thoughts of the people from the Law. Those friends,
							they said, and clients of the patricians would depart more silently than
							they had come if they found their noisy demonstration frustrated by the
							passing of the Law.

They then summoned the people to lay aside their arms and form an
							Assembly for the purpose of carrying the Law. Meantime the consuls, more
							alarmed at the action of the tribunes than at the nocturnal enemy,
							convened a meeting of the senate.

When it was reported that arms were being laid aside and men were
							deserting their posts, P. Valerius left his colleague to keep the senate
							together and hurried to the tribunes at the templum 
							 .
							“What,” he asked, “is the meaning of this,

tribunes? Are you going to overthrow the State under the leadership of
							Appius Herdonius? Has the man whose appeals failed to rouse a single
							slave been so successful as to corrupt you? Is it when the enemy is over
							our heads that you decide that men shall lay down their arms and discuss
							laws?” Then turning to the Assembly he said, “If,
							Quirites, you feel no concern for the City, no anxiety for yourselves,
							still show reverence for your gods who have been taken captive by an

enemy! Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Queen Juno and Minerva , with other gods and
							goddesses, are being besieged; a camp of slaves holds the tutelary
							deities of your country in its

power. Is this the appearance which you think a State in its senses
							ought to present —a large hostile force not only within the walls, but
							in the Citadel, above the Forum, above the Senate-house, whilst meantime
							the Assembly is being held in the Forum, the senate are in the
							Senate-house, and as though peace and quiet prevailed, a senator is
							addressing the House, whilst the Quirites in the Assembly are proceeding
							to

vote? Would it not be more becoming for every man, patrician and
							plebeian alike, for the consuls and tribunes, for gods and men, to come,
							one and all, to the rescue with their arms, to run to the Capitol and
							restore liberty and calm to that most venerable abode of Jupiter Optimus

Maximus? 0, Father Romulus, grant to thine offspring that spirit in
							which thou didst once win back from these same Sabines the Citadel which
							had been captured with gold! Bid them take the road on which thou didst
							lead thine army. Behold, I, the consul, will be the first to follow thee
							and thy footsteps as far as mortal man can follow a god.” He
							ended his speech by saying that he was taking up arms, and he summoned
							all the Quirites to

arms. If any one tried to obstruct, he should now ignore the limits set
							to his consular authority, the power of the tribunes, and the laws which
							made them inviolable, and whoever or wherever he might be, whether in
							the Capitol or the Forum; he should treat him as a public enemy. The
							tribunes had better order arms to be taken up against P. Valerius the
							consul, as they forbade them to be used against Appius

Herdonius. He would dare to do in the case of the tribunes what the head
							of his family had dared to do in the case of the kings.
							There was every prospect of an appeal to force, and of the enemy
							enjoying the spectacle of a riot

in Rome . However, the Law could
							not be voted upon, nor could the consul go to the Capitol, for night put
							an end to the threatened conflict. As night came on the tribunes
							retired, afraid of the

consul's arms. When the authors of the disturbance were out of the way,
							the senators went about amongst the plebeians, and mingling with
							different groups pointed out the seriousness of the crisis, and warned
							them to reflect into what a dangerous position they were bringing

the State. It was not a contest between patricians and plebeians;
							patricians and plebeians alike, the stronghold of the City, the temples
							of the gods, the guardian deities of the State and of every home, were
							being surrendered to the enemy.

While these steps were being taken to lay the spirit of discord in the
							Forum, the consuls had gone away to inspect the gates and walls, in case
							of any movement on the part of the Sabines or Veientines.

The same night messengers reached Tusculum with tidings of the capture of the Citadel,
							the seizure of the Capitol, and the generally disturbed state of the
							City.

L. Mamilius was at that time Dictator of Tusculum . After hurriedly convening the senate and
							introducing the messengers, he strongly urged the senators not to wait
							until envoys arrived from Rome 
							begging for help;

the fact of the danger and the seriousness of the crisis, the gods who
							watched over alliances, and loyalty to treaties, all demanded instant
							action. Never again would the gods vouchsafe so favourable an
							opportunity for conferring an obligation on so powerful a State or one
							so close to their own doors.

They decided that help should be sent, the men of military age were
							enrolled, arms were distributed. As they approached Rome in the early dawn, they presented
							in the distance the appearance of enemies; it seemed as though Aequi or
							Volscians were coming.

When this groundless alarm was removed they were admitted into the City
							and marched in order into the Forum, where P. Valerius, who had left his
							colleague to direct the troops on guard at the gates, was forming his
							army for battle.

It was his authority that had achieved this result; he declared that if,
							when the Capitol was recovered and the City pacified they would allow
							the covert dishonesty of the Law which the tribunes supported to be
							explained to them, he would not oppose the holding of a plebeian
							Assembly, for he was not unmindful of his ancestors or of the name he
							bore, which made the protection of the plebs, so to speak, a hereditary
							care.

Following his leadership, amid the futile protests of the tribunes, they
							marched in order of battle up the Capitoline hill, the legion from
								 Tusculum marching with
							them. The Ro- mans and their allies were striving which should have the
							glory of recapturing the Citadel.

Each of the commanders were encouraging his men. Then the enemy lost
							heart, their only confidence was in the strength of their position;
							whilst thus demoralised the Romans and allies advanced to the charge.

They had already forced their way into the vestibule of the temple, when
							P. Valerius, who was in the front, cheering on his men, was killed. P.
							Volumnius, a man of consular rank, saw him fall. Directing his men to
							protect the body, he ran to the front and took the consul's place. In
							the heat of their charge the soldiers were not aware of the loss they
							had sustained; they gained the victory before they knew that they were
							fighting without a general.

Many of the exiles defiled the temple with their blood, many were taken
							prisoners, Herdonius was killed. So the Capitol was recovered.
							Punishment was inflicted on the prisoners according to their condition,
							whether slave or freeman; a vote of thanks was accorded to the
							Tusculans; the Capitol was cleansed and solemnly purified.

It is stated that the plebeians threw quadrantes into the consul's house that he might have a
							more splendid funeral.

No sooner were order and quiet
							restored than the tribunes began to press upon the senators the
							necessity of redeeming the promise made by Publius Valerius; they urged
							Claudius to free his colleague's manes 
							 from the guilt of deception by allowing the Law to be proceeded
							with. The consul refused to allow it until he had secured the election
							of a

colleague. The contest went on till the election was held. In the month
							of December, after the utmost exertions on the part of the patricians,
							L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, the father of Caeso, was elected consul, and
							at once took up his

office. The plebeians were dismayed at the prospect of having as consul
							a man incensed against them, and powerful in the warm support of the
							senate, in his own personal merits, and in his three children, not one
							of whom was Caeso's inferior in loftiness of mind, while they were his
							superiors in exhibiting the prudence and moderation where

necessary. When he entered on his magistracy he continually delivered
							harangues from the tribunal, in which he censured the senate as
							energetically as he put down the

plebs. It was, he said, through the apathy of that order that the
							tribunes of the plebs, now perpetually in office, acted as kings in
							their speeches and accusations, as though they were living, not in the
							commonwealth of Rome , but in
							some wretched ill-regulated family. Courage, resolution, all that makes
							youth distinguished at home and in the battlefield, had been expelled
							and banished from Rome with his
							son

Caeso. Loquacious agitators, sowers of discord, made tribunes for the
							second and third time in succession, were living by means of infamous
							practices in regal licentiousness. “Did that fellow,” he
							asked, “Aulus Verginius, because he did not happen to be in the
							Capitol, deserve less punishment than Appius Herdonius? Considerably
							more, by Jove, if any choose to form a true estimate of the

matter. Herdonius, if he did nothing else, avowed himself an enemy and
							in a measure summoned you to take up arms; this man, by denying the
							existence of a war, deprived you of your arms, and exposed you
							defenceless to the mercy of your slaves and exiles. And did you —without
							disrespect to C. Claudius and the dead P. Valerius, I would ask —did you
							advance against the Capitol before you cleared these enemies out of the
							Forum? It is an outrage on gods and men, that when there were enemies in
							the Citadel, in the Capitol, and the leader of the slaves and exiles,
							after profaning everything, had taken up his quarters in the very shrine
							of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, it should be at Tusculum , not at Rome , that arms were first taken

up. It was doubtful whether the Citadel of Rome would be delivered by the Tusculan general, L.
							Mamilius, or by the consuls, P. Valerius and C. Claudius. We, who had
							not allowed the Latins to arm, even to defend themselves against
							invasion, would have been taken and destroyed, had not these very Latins
							taken up arms

unbidden. This, tribunes, is what you call protecting the plebs,
							exposing it to be helplessly butchered by the enemy! If the meanest
							member of your order, which you have as it were severed from the rest of
							the people and made into a province, a State of your own — if such an
							one, I say, were to report to you that his house was beset by armed
							slaves, you would, I presume, think that you ought to render him

assistance; was not Jupiter Optimus Maximus, when shut in by armed
							slaves and exiles, worthy to receive any human aid? Do these fellows
							demand that their persons shall be sacred and inviolable when the very
							gods themselves are neither sacred nor inviolable in their

eyes? But, steeped as you are in crimes against gods and men, you give
							out that you will carry your Law this year. Then, most assuredly, if you
							do carry it, the day when I was made consul will be a far worse day for
							the State than that on which P. Valerius

perished. Now I give you notice, Quirites, the very first thing that my
							colleague and myself intend to do is to march the legions against the
							Volscians and Aequi. By some strange fatality, we find the gods more
							propitious when we are at war than when we are at peace. It is better to
							infer from what has occurred in the past than to learn by actual
							experience how great the danger from those States would have been had
							they known that the Capitol was in the hands of exiles.”

The consul's speech produced an impression on the plebs; the patricians
							were encouraged and regarded the State as reestablished. The other
							consul, who showed more courage in supporting than in proposing, was
							quite content for his colleague to take the first step in a matter of
							such importance, but in carrying it out he claimed his full
							responsibility as consul.

The tribunes laughed at what they considered idle words, and constantly
							asked, “By what method were the consuls going to take out an
							army, when no one would allow one to be levied?”

“We do not,” said Quinctius, “require to make a
							levy. At the time when P. Valerius supplied the people with arms for the
							recovery of the Capitol, they all took the oath to muster at the
							consul's orders, and not to disband without his orders.

We, therefore, issue an order that all of you who took that oath appear
							under arms, tomorrow, at Lake Regillus.” Thereupon the tribunes
							wanted to release the people from their oath by raising a quibble. They
							argued that Quinctius was not consul when the oath was taken.

But the neglect of the gods, which prevails in this age, had not yet
							appeared, nor did every man interpret oaths and laws in just the sense
							which suited him best; he preferred to shape his own conduct by their
							requirements.

The tribunes, finding any attempt at obstruction hopeless, set
							themselves to delay the departure of the army. They were the more
							anxious to do this as a report had got abroad that the augurs had
							received instructions to repair to Lake Regillus and set apart with the
							usual augural formalities a spot where business could be transacted by a
							properly constituted Assembly. This would enable every measure which had
							been carried by the violent exercise of the tribunitian authority to be
							repealed by the regular Assembly of the Tribes.

All would vote as the consuls wished, for the right of appeal did not
							extend beyond a mile from the City, and the tribunes themselves, if they
							went with the army, would be subject to the authority of the consuls.

These rumours were alarming; but what filled them with the greatest
							alarm were the repeated assertions of Quinctius that he should not hold
							an election of consuls; the diseases of the State were such that none of
							the usual remedies could check them; the commonwealth needed a Dictator,
							in order that any one who took steps to disturb the existing
							constitution might learn that from a Dictator there lay no appeal.

The senate was in the Capitol. Thither the tribunes proceeded,
							accompanied by the plebeians in a great state of consternation. They
							loudly appealed for help, first to the consuls, then to the senators,
							but they did not shake the determination of the consul, until the
							tribunes had promised that they would bow to the authority of the
							senate.

The consuls laid before the senate the demands of the plebs and their
							tribunes, and decrees were passed that the tribunes should not bring
							forward their Law during the year, nor should the consuls take the army
							out of the City. The senate also judged it to be against the interests
							of the State that a magistrate's tenure of office should be prolonged,
							or that the tribunes should be reelected.

The consuls yielded to the authority of the senate, but the tribunes,
							against the protests of the consuls, were reelected. On this, the senate
							also, to avoid giving any advantage to the plebs, reappointed Lucius
							Quinctius as consul.

Nothing during the whole year roused the indignation of the consul more
							than this proceeding of theirs. “Can I,” he exclaimed,
							“be surprised, Conscript Fathers, if your authority has little
							weight with the plebs? You yourselves are weakening it.

Because, forsooth, they have disregarded the senatorial decree
							forbidding a magistrate's continuance in office, you yourselves wish it
							to be disregarded, that you may not be behind the populace in headstrong
							thoughtlessness, as though to possess more power in the State was to
							show more levity and lawlessness. It is undoubtedly a more idle and
							foolish thing to do away with one's own resolutions and decrees than
							with those of others.

Imitate, Conscript Fathers, the inconsiderate multitude; sin after the
							example of others, you who ought to be an example to others, rather than
							that others should act rightly after your example, as long as I do not
							imitate the tribunes or allow myself to be returned as consul in
							defiance of the resolution of the senate.

To you, C. Claudius, I earnestly appeal, that you, too, will restrain
							the Roman people from this lawlessness. As to myself, rest assured that
							I will accept your action in the firm belief that you have not stood in
							the way of my advancement to honour, but that I have gathered greater
							glory by rejecting it, and have removed the odium which my continuance
							in office would have provoked.”

Thereupon the two consuls issued a joint edict that no one should make L.
							Quinctius consul; if any one attempted it, they would not allow the
							vote.

The consuls elected were Q. Fabius Vibulanus, for the third time, and L.
							Cornelius Maluginensis. In that year the census was taken, and owing to
							the seizure of the Capitol and the death of the consul, the “
								 lustrum ” was closed on
							religious grounds.

During their consulship matters became disturbed at the very beginning of
							the year. The tribunes began to instigate the plebs. The Latins and Hernici reported that war
							on an immense scale was commenced by the Volscians and Aequi, the
							Volscian legions were already at Antium , and there were grave fears of the colony itself
							revolting. With great difficulty the tribunes were induced to allow the
							war to take precedence of their Law.

Then their respective spheres of operation were allotted to the consuls:
							Fabius was commissioned to take the legions to Antium ; Cornelius was to protect
								 Rome and prevent
							detachments of the enemy from coming on marauding expeditions, as was
							the custom with the Aequi.

The Hernici and Latins were ordered to furnish troops, in accordance
							with the treaty; two-thirds of the army consisted of allies, the rest of
							Roman citizens. The allies came in on the appointed day, and the consul
							encamped outside the Capene gate. When the lustration of the army was
							completed, he marched to Antium and halted at a short distance from the city and
							from the enemies' standing camp.

As the army of the Aequi had not arrived, the Volscians did not venture
							on an engagement, and prepared to act on the defensive and protect their
							camp. The next day Fabius formed his troops round the enemies' lines,
							not in one mixed army of allies and citizens, but each nation in a
							separate division, he himself being in the centre with the Roman
							legions.

He gave orders to carefully observe his signals, that all might commence
							the action and retire —should the signal for retirement be sounded —at
							the same moment. The cavalry were stationed behind their respective
							divisions.

In this triple formation he assaulted three sides of the camp, and the
							Volscians, unable to meet the simultaneous attack, were dislodged from
							the breastworks. Getting inside their lines he drove the panic-struck
							crowd, who were all pressing in one direction, out of their camp.

The cavalry, unable to surmount the breastworks, had so far been merely
							spectators of the fight, now they overtook the enemy and cut them down
							as they fled in disorder over the plain, and so enjoyed a share of the
							victory.

There was a great slaughter both in the camp and in the pursuit, but a
							still greater amount of spoil, as the enemy had hardly been able to
							carry away even their arms. Their army would have been annihilated had
							not the fugitives found shelter in the forest.

Whilst these events were occurring at Antium , the Aequi sent forward some of their best
							troops and by a sudden night attack captured the citadel of Tusculum ; the rest of the army
							they halted not far from the walls, in order to distract the enemy.

Intelligence of this quickly reached Rome , and from Rome was carried to the camp before Antium , where it produced as much
							excitement as if the Capitol had been taken. The service which
								 Tusculum had so
							recently rendered and the similar character of the danger then and now,
							demanded a similar return of assistance.

Fabius made it his first object to carry the spoil from the camp into
								 Antium ; leaving a small
							force there he hastened by forced marches to Tusculum . The soldiers were not
							allowed to carry anything but their arms and whatever baked bread was at
							hand, the consul Cornelius brought up supplies from Rome . The fighting went on for some
							months at Tusculum .

With a portion of his army the consul attacked the camp of the Aequi,
							the rest he lent to the Tusculans for the recapture of their citadel.
							This could not be approached by direct assault.

Ultimately, famine compelled the enemy to evacuate it, and after being
							reduced to the last extremities, they were all stripped of their arms
							and clothes and sent under the yoke. Whilst they were making their way
							home in this ignominious plight, the Roman consul on Algidus followed
							them up and slew them to a man.

After this victory he led his army back to a place called Columen, where
							he fixed his camp. As the walls of Rome were no longer exposed to danger after the defeat
							of the enemy, the other consul also marched out of the City.

The two consuls entered the enemies' territories by separate routes, and
							each tried to outdo the other in devastating the Volscian lands on the
							one side and those of the Aequi eon the other. I find it stated in the
							majority of authorities that Antium revolted this year, but that the consul L.
							Cornelius conducted a campaign and recaptured the town, I would not
							venture to assert, as there is no mention of it in the older writers.

When this war
							had been brought to a close, the fears of the patricians were aroused by
							a

war which the tribunes commenced at home. They exclaimed that the army
							was being detained abroad from dishonest motives; it was intended to
							frustrate the passing of the Law; all the same they would

carry through the task they had begun. L. Lucretius, the prefect of the
							City, succeeded, however, in inducing the tribunes to defer action till
							the arrival of the consuls. A fresh cause of trouble arose. A. Cornelius
							and Q. Servilius, the quaestors, indicted M. Volscius on the ground

that he had given what was undoubtedly false evidence against Caeso. It
							had become known from many sources that after the brother of Volscius
							first became ill, he had not only never been seen in public, but had not
							even left his bed, and

his death was due to an illness of many months' standing. On the date at
							which the witness fixed the crime, Caeso was not seen in Rome , whilst those who had served
							with him declared that he had constantly been in his place in

the ranks with them and had not had leave of absence. Many people urged
							Volscius to institute a private suit before a judge. As he did not
							venture to take this course, and all the above mentioned evidence
							pointed to one conclusion, his condemnation was no more doubtful than
							that

of Caeso had been on the evidence which he had given. The tribunes
							managed to delay matters; they said they would not allow the quaestors
							to bring the accused before the Assembly unless it had first been
							convened to carry the

Law. Both questions were adjourned till the arrival of the consuls. When
							they made their triumphal entry at the head of their victorious army,
							nothing was said about

the Law; most people therefore supposed that the tribunes were
							intimidated. But it was now the end of the year and they were aiming at
							a fourth year of office, so they turned their activity from the Law to
							canvassing the electors. Though the consuls had opposed the tribunes'
							continuance in office as strenuously as if the Law had been mooted

solely to impair their authority, the victory remained with the
							tribunes. In the same year the Aequi sued for and obtained peace. The
							census, commenced the previous year, was completed, and the “
								 lustrum ,” which was then closed,
							is stated

to have been the tenth since the beginning of the City. The numbers of
							the census amounted to 117,319. The consuls in that year won a great
							reputation both at home and in war, for they secured peace abroad, and
							though there was not harmony at home, the commonwealth was less
							disturbed than it had been on other occasions.

The new consuls, L. Minucius and C.
							Nautius, took over the two subjects which remained from the previous
							year. As before, they obstructed the Law, the tribunes obstructed the
							trial of Volscius; but the new quaestors possessed greater energy and
							greater weight.

T. Quinctius Capitolinus, who had been thrice consul, was quaestor with
							M. Valerius, the son of Valerius and grandson of Volesus.

As Caeso could not be restored to the house of the Quinctii, nor could
							the greatest of her soldiers be restored to the State, Quinctius was
							bound in justice and by loyalty to his family to prosecute the false
							witness who had deprived an innocent man of the power to plead in his
							own defence.

As Verginius, most of all the tribunes, was agitating for the Law, an
							interval of two months was granted the consuls for an examination of it,
							in order that when they had made the people understand what insidious
							dishonesty it contained, they might allow them to vote upon it.

During this interval matters were quiet in the City. The Aequi, however,
							did not allow much respite. In violation of the treaty made with
								 Rome the year before, they
							made predatory incursions into the territory of Labici and then into that of
								 Tusculum .

They had placed Gracchus Cloelius in command, their foremost man at that
							time. After loading themselves with plunder they fixed their camp on
							Mount Algidus. Q. Fabius, P. Volumnius, and A. Postumius were sent from
								 Rome to demand
							satisfaction, under the terms of the treaty.

The general's quarters were located under an enormous oak, and he told
							the Roman envoys to deliver the instructions they had received from the
							senate to the oak under whose shadow he was sitting, as he was otherwise
							engaged.

As they withdrew one of the envoys exclaimed, “May this
							consecrated oak, may each
							offended deity hear that you have broken the treaty! May they look upon
							our complaint now, and may they presently aid our arms when we seek to
							redress the outraged rights of gods as well as

men!” On the return of the envoys, the senate ordered one of the
							consuls to march against Gracchus on Algidus; the other was instructed
							to ravage the territory of the Aequi. As usual, the tribunes attempted
							to obstruct the levy and probably would in the end have succeeded, had
							there not been fresh cause for alarm.

An immense body of Sabines came in their ravages almost up to the walls
							of the City. The fields were ruined, the City thoroughly alarmed. Now
							the plebeians cheerfully took up arms, the tribunes remonstrated in
							vain, and two large armies were levied.

Nautius led one of them against the Sabines, formed an entrenched camp,
							sent out, generally at night, small bodies who created such destruction
							in the Sabine territory that
							the Roman borders appeared in comparison almost untouched by war.

Minucius was not so fortunate, nor did he conduct the campaign with the
							same energy; after taking up an entrenched position not far from the
							enemy, he remained timidly within his camp, though he had not suffered
							any important defeat. As usual, the enemy were emboldened by the lack of
							courage on the other side.

They made a night attack on his camp, but as they gained little by a
							direct assault they proceeded the following day to invest it. Before all
							the exits were closed by the circumvallation, five mounted men got
							through the enemies' outposts and brought to Rome the news that the consul and his
							army were blockaded. Nothing could have happened so unlooked for, so
							undreamed of; the panic and confusion were as great as if it had been
							the City and not the camp that was invested.

The consul Nautius was summoned home, but as he did nothing equal to the
							emergency, they decided to appoint a Dictator to retrieve the
							threatening position of affairs.

By universal consent L. Quinctius Cincinnatus was called to the office.
							It is worth while for those who despise all human interests in
							comparison with riches, and think that there is no scope for high
							honours or for virtue except where lavish wealth abounds to listen to
							this story.

The one hope of Rome , L. Quinctius, used to cultivate a four-acre field
							on the other side of the Tiber ,
							just opposite the place where the dockyard and arsenal are now situated;
							it bears the name of the “Quinctian Meadows.”

There he was found by the deputation from the senate either digging out
							a ditch or ploughing, at all events, as is generally agreed, intent on
							his husbandry.

After mutual salutations he was requested to put on his toga that he
							might hear the mandate of the senate, and they expressed the hope that
							it might turn out well for him and for the State. He asked them, in
							surprise, if all was well, and bade his wife, Racilia, bring him his
							toga quickly from the cottage.

Wiping off the dust and perspiration, he put it on and came forward, on
							which the deputation saluted him as Dictator and congratulated him,
							invited him to the City and explained the state of apprehension in which
							the army were.

A vessel had been provided for him by the government, and after he had
							crossed over, he was welcomed by his three sons, who had come out to
							meet him. They were followed by other relatives and friends, and by the
							majority of the senate. Escorted by this numerous gathering and preceded
							by the lictors, he was conducted to his house.

There was also an enormous gathering of the plebs, but they were by no
							means so pleased to see Quinctius; they regarded the power with which he
							was invested as excessive, and the man himself more dangerous than his
							power. Nothing was done that night beyond adequately guarding the City.

The following morning the Dictator went, before daylight, into the Forum
							and named as his Master of the Horse, L. Tarquitius, a member of a
							patrician house, but owing to his poverty he had served in the infantry,
							where he was considered by far the finest of the Roman soldiers.

In company with the Master of the Horse the Dictator proceeded to the
							Assembly, proclaimed a suspension of all public business, ordered the
							shops to be closed throughout the City, and forbade the transaction of
							any private business whatever.

Then he ordered all who were of military age to appear fully armed in
							the Campus Martius before
							sunset, each with five days' provisions and twelve palisades.

Those who were beyond that age were required to cook the rations for
							their neighbours, whilst they were getting their arms ready and looking
							for palisades.

So the soldiers dispersed to hunt for palisades; they took them from the
							nearest places , no one was interfered with, all were eager to carry out
							the Dictator's edict.

The formation of the army was equally adapted for marching or, if
							circumstances required for fighting; the Dictator led the legions in
							person, the Master of the Horse was at the head of his cavalry.

To both bodies words of encouragement were addressed suitable to the
							emergency, exhorting them to march at extra speed, for there was need of
							haste if they were to reach the enemy at night; a Roman army with its
							consul had been now invested for three days, it was uncertain what a day
							or a night might bring forth, tremendous issues often turned on a moment
							of time.

The men shouted to one another, “Hurry on,
							standard-bearer!” “Follow up, soldiers!” to the
							great gratification of their leaders. They reached Algidus at midnight,
							and on finding that they were near the enemy, halted.

The Dictator, after riding round and reconnoitring as well as he could in
							the night the position and shape of the camp, commanded the military
							tribunes to give orders for the baggage to be collected together and the
							soldiers with their arms and palisades to resume their places in the
							ranks.

His orders were carried out. Then, keeping the formation in which they
							had marched, the whole army, in one long column, surrounded the enemies'
							lines. At a given signal all were ordered to raise a shout; after
							raising the shout each man was to dig a trench in front of him and fix
							his palisade.

As soon as the order reached the men, the signal followed. The men
							obeyed the order, and the shout rolled round the enemies' line and over
							them into the consul's camp. In the one it created panic, in the other
							rejoicing.

The Romans recognised their fellow-citizens' shout, and congratulated
							one another on help being at hand. They even made sorties from their
							outposts against the enemy and so increased their alarm.

The consul said there must be no delay, that shout meant that their
							friends had not only arrived but were engaged; he should be surprised if
							the outside of the enemies' lines was not already attacked. He ordered
							his men to seize their arms and follow him. A nocturnal battle began.

They notified the Dictator's legions by their shouts that on their side
							too the action had commenced.

The Aequi were already making preparations to prevent themselves from
							being surrounded when the enclosed enemy began the battle; to prevent
							their lines from being broken through, they turned from those who were
							investing them to fight the enemy within, and so left the night free for
							the Dictator to complete his work. The fighting with the consul went on
							till dawn.

By this time they were completely invested by the Dictator, and were
							hardly able to keep up the fight against one army. Then their lines were
							attacked by Quinctius' army, who had completed the circumvallation and
							resumed their arms. They had now to maintain a fresh conflict, the
							previous one was in no way slackened.

Under the stress of the double attack they turned from fighting to
							supplication, and implored the Dictator on the one side and the consul
							on the other not to make their extermination the price of victory, but
							to allow them to surrender their arms and depart. The consul referred
							them to the Dictator, and he, in his anger, determined to humiliate his
							defeated enemy.

He ordered Gracchus Cloelius and others of their principal men to be
							brought to him in chains, and the town of Corbio to be evacuated. He
							told the Aequi he did not require their blood, they were at liberty to
							depart; but, as an open admission of the defeat and subjugation of their
							nation, they would have to pass under the yoke.

This was made of three spears, two fixed upright in the ground, and the
							third tied to them across the top. Under this yoke the Dictator sent the
							Aequi.

Their camp was found to be full of everything —for they had been sent
							away with only their shirts on —and the Dictator gave the whole of the
							spoil to his own soldiers alone.

Addressing the consul and his army in a tone of severe rebuke,
							“You, soldiers,” he said, “will go without your
							share of the spoil, for you all but fell a spoil yourselves to the enemy
							from whom it was taken; and you, L. Minucius, will command these legions
							as a staff officer, until you begin to show the spirit of a
							consul.”

Minucius laid down his consulship and remained with the army under the
							Dictator's orders. But such obedience did men in those days pay to
							authority when ably and wisely exercised, that the soldiers, mindful of
							the service he had done them rather than of the disgrace inflicted on
							them, voted to the Dictator a gold crown a pound in weight, and when he
							left they saluted him as their “patron.”

Quintus Fabius, the prefect of the City, convened a meeting of the
							senate, and they decreed that Quinctius, with the army he was bringing
							home, should enter the City

in triumphal procession. The commanding officers of the enemy were led
							in front, then the military-standards were borne before the general's
							chariot, the arm followed

loaded with spoil. It is said that tables spread with provisions stood
							before all the houses, and the feasters followed the chariot with songs
							of triumph and the customary jests and lampoons. On that day the freedom
							of the City was bestowed on L. Mamilius the Tusculan, amidst universal
							approval.

The Dictator would at once have laid down his office had not the meeting
							of the Assembly for the trial of M. Volscius detained him: fear of the
							Dictator prevented the tribunes from obstructing it. Volscius was
							condemned and went into exile at Lanuvium . Quinctius resigned on the sixteenth day the
							dictatorship which had been conferred upon him for six months. During
							that period the consul Nautius fought a brilliant action with the
							Sabines at Eretum, who suffered a severe defeat, in addition to the
							ravaging

of their fields. Fabius Quintus was sent to succeed Alinucius in command
							at Algidus. Towards the end of the year, the tribunes began to agitate
							the Law, but as two armies were absent, the senate succeeded in
							preventing any measure from being brought before the plebs. The latter
							gained their point, however, in securing the reelection of the tribunes
							for

the fifth time. It is said that wolves pursued by dogs were seen in the
							Capitol; this prodigy necessitated its purification. These were the
							events of the year.



The next consuls were Quintus Minucius and C. Horatius Pulvillus. As
							there was peace abroad at the beginning of the year, the domestic
							troubles began again; the same tribunes agitating for the same Law.
							Matters would have gone further —so inflamed were the passions on both
							sides —had not news arrived, as though it had been purposely arranged,
							of the loss of

the garrison at Corbio in a night attack of the Aequi. The consuls
							summoned a meeting of the senate; they were ordered to form a

force of all who could bear arms and march to Algidus. The contest about
							the Law was suspended, and a fresh struggle began about the enlistment.
							The consular authority was on the point of being overborne by

the interference of the tribunes when a fresh alarm was created. A
								 Sabine army had descended
							on the Roman fields for plunder, and were approaching the City.
							Thoroughly alarmed, the tribunes allowed the enrolment to proceed; not,
							however, without insisting on an agreement that since they had been
							foiled for five years and but slight protection to the plebeians had so
							far been

afforded, there should henceforth be ten tribunes of the plebs elected.
							Necessity extorted this from the senate, with only one condition, that
							for the future they should not see the same tribunes in two successive
							years. That this agreement might not, like all the others, prove
							illusory, when once the

war was over, the elections for tribunes were held at once. The office
							of tribune had existed for thirty-six years when

for the first time ten were created, two from each class. It was
							definitely laid down that this should be the rule in all future
							elections. When the enrolment was completed Minucius advanced against
							the Sabines, but did not find the enemy. After massacring the garrison
							at Corbio, the Aequi had captured Ortona ; Horatius fought them on Algidus, inflicting
							great slaughter, and drove them not only from Algidus but also out of
							Corbio and Ortona ; Corbio he
							totally destroyed on account of their having betrayed the garrison.

M. Valerius and Sp. Vergilius were the new consuls. There was quiet at
							home and abroad. Owing to excessive rain there was a scarcity of
							provisions. A law was carried making the Aventine a part of the State domain. The tribunes of
							the plebs were reelected.

These men in the following year, when T. Romilius and C. Veturius were
							the consuls, were continually making the Law the staple of all their
							harangues, and said that they should be ashamed of their number being
							increased to no purpose, if that matter made as little progress during
							their two years of office as it had made during the five preceding
							years.

Whilst the agitation was at its height, a hurried message came from
								 Tusculum to the effect
							that the Aequi were in the Tusculan territory. The good services which
							that nation had so lately rendered made the people ashamed to delay
							sending assistance. Both consuls were sent against the enemy, and found
							him in his usual position on Algidus.

An action was fought there; above 7000 of the enemy were killed, the
							rest were put to flight; immense booty was taken. This, owing to the low
							state of the public treasury, the consuls sold. Their action, however,
							created ill-feeling in the army, and afforded the tribunes material on
							which to base an accusation against them.

When, therefore, they went out of office, in which they were succeeded
							by Spurius Tarpeius and A. Aeternius, they were both impeached —Romilius
							by C. Calvius Cicero, plebeian tribune, and Veturius by L. Alienus,
							plebeian aedile.

To the intense indignation of the senatorial party, both were condemned
							and fined Romilius had to pay 10,000 “ ases ,” and Veturius 15,000. The fate of their
							predecessors did not shake the resolution of the new consuls; they said
							that while it was quite possible that they might also be condemned, it
							was not possible for the plebs and its tribunes to carry the Law.

Through long discussion it had become stale, the tribunes now threw it
							over and approached the patricians in a less aggressive spirit They
							urged that an end should be put to their disputes and if they objected
							to the measures adopted by the plebeians they should consent to the
							appointment of a body of legislators, chosen in equal numbers from
							plebeians and patricians to enact what would be useful to both orders
							and secure equal liberty for each.

The patricians thought the proposal worth consideration, they said,
							however, that no one should legislate unless he were a patrician since
							they were agreed as to the laws and only differed as to who should enact
							them. Commissioners were sent to Athens with instructions to make a copy of the famous
							laws of Solon, and to investigate the institutions, customs, and laws of
							other Greek States. Their names were Spurius Postumius Albus, A.
							Manlius, P. Sulpicius Camerinus.

As regards foreign war, the year was a
							quiet one. The following one, in which P. Curiatius and Sextus
							Quinctilius were consuls, was still quieter owing to the continued
							silence of the

tribunes. This was due to two causes: first, they were waiting for the
							return of the commissioners who had gone to Athens , and the foreign laws which
							they were to bring; and secondly, two fearful disasters came together,
							famine and a pestilence which was fatal to men and fatal to cattle. The
							fields lay waste, the City was depleted by an unbroken series of deaths,
							many illustrious houses were in

mourning. The Flamen Quirinalis , Servius
							Cornelius, died, also the augur C. Horatius Pulvillus, in whose place
							the augurs chose C. Veturius, all the more eagerly because he had been
							condemned by the

plebs. The consul Quinctilius and four tribunes of the plebs died. The
							year was a gloomy one owing to the numerous

losses. There was a respite from external enemies. The succeeding
							consuls were C. Menenius and P. Sestius Capitolinus. This year also was
							free from war abroad, but commotions began at

home. The commissioners had now returned with the laws of Athens ; the tribunes, in
							consequence, were more insistent that a commencement should at last be
							made in the compilation of the laws. It was decided that a body of Ten
							(hence called the “Decemvirs”) should be created, from
							whom there should be no appeal, and that all other magistrates should be
							suspended for the

year. There was a long controversy as to whether plebeians should be
							admitted; at last they gave way to the patricians on condition that the
							Icilian Law concerning the Aventine and the other sacred laws should not be
							repealed.

For the second time —in the 301st year from the foundation of Rome —was
							the form of government changed; the supreme authority was transferred
							from consuls to decemvirs, just as it had previously passed from kings
							to consuls.

The change was the less owing to its short duration, for the happy
							beginnings of that government developed into too luxuriant a growth;
							hence its early failure and the return to the old practice of entrusting
							to two men the name and authority of consul.

The decemvirs were Appius Claudius, T. Genucius, P. Sestius, L.
							Veturius, C. Julius, A. Manlius, P. Sulpicius, P. Curiatius, T.
							Romilius, and Sp. Postumius.

As Claudius and Genucius were the consuls designate, they received the
							honour in place of the honour of which they were deprived. Sestius, one
							of the consuls the year before, was honoured because he had, against his
							colleague, brought that subject before the senate.

Next to them were placed the three commissioners who had gone to
								 Athens , as a reward for
							their undertaking so distant an embassage, and also because it was
							thought that those who were familiar with the laws of foreign States
							would be useful in the compilation of new ones.

It is said that in the final voting for the four required to complete
							the number, the electors chose aged men, to prevent any violent
							opposition to the decisions of the others.

The presidency of the whole body was, in accordance with the wishes of
							the plebs, entrusted to Appius. He had assumed such a new character that
							from being a stern and bitter enemy of the people he suddenly appeared
							as their advocate, and trimmed his sails to catch every breath of
							popular favour.

They administered justice each in turn, the one who was presiding judge
							for the day was attended by the twelve lictors, the others had only a
							single usher each. Notwithstanding the singular harmony which prevailed
							amongst them —a harmony which under other circumstances might be
							dangerous to individuals —the most perfect equity was shown to others.

It will be sufficient to adduce a single instance as proof of the
							moderation with which they acted. A dead body had been discovered and
							dug up in the house of Sestius, a member of a patrician family.

It was brought into the Assembly. As it was clear that an atrocious
							crime had been committed, Caius Julius, a decemvir, indicted Sestius,
							and appeared before the people to prosecute in person, though he had the
							right to act as sole judge in the case. He waived his right in order
							that the liberties of the people might gain what he surrendered of his
							power.

Whilst highest and lowest alike were enjoying their prompt and impartial
							administration of justice, as though delivered by an oracle, they were
							at the same time devoting their attention to the framing of the laws.

These eagerly looked for laws were at length inscribed on ten tables
							which were exhibited in an Assembly specially convened for the purpose.
							After a prayer that their work might bring welfare and happiness to the
							State, to them and to their children, the decemvirs bade them go and
							read the laws which were exhibited.

“As far as the wisdom and foresight of ten men admitted, they had
							established equal laws for all, for highest and lowest alike; there was,
							however, more weight in the intelligence and advice of many men.

They should turn over each separate item in their minds, discuss them in
							conversations with each other, and bring forward for public debate what
							appeared to them superfluous or defective in each enactment.

The future laws for Rome 
							should be such as would appear to have been no less unanimously proposed
							by the people themselves than ratified by them on the proposal of
							others.”

When it appeared that they had been sufficiently amended in accordance
							with the expression of public opinion on each head, the Laws of the Ten
							Tables were passed by the Assembly of Centuries. Even in the mass of
							legislation today, where laws are piled one upon another in a confused
							heap, they still form the source of all public and private
							jurisprudence.

After their ratification, the remark was generally made that two tables
							were still wanting; if they were added, the body, as it might be called,
							of Roman law would be complete. As the day for the elections approached,
							this impression created a desire to appoint decemvirs for a second year.

The plebeians had learnt to detest the name of “consul” as
							much as that of “king,” and now as the decemvirs allowed
							an appeal from one of their body to another, they no longer required the
							aid of their tribunes.

But after notice had been given that the election of decemvirs would be
							held on

the third market day, such eagerness to be amongst those elected
							displayed itself, that even the foremost men of the State began an
							individual canvass as humble suitors for an office which they had
							previously with all their might opposed, seeking it at the hands of that
							very plebs with which they had hitherto

been in conflict. I think they feared that if they did not fill posts of
							such great authority, they would be open to men who were not worthy of
							them. Appius Claudius was keenly alive to the chance that he might not
							be reelected, in spite of his age and the honours

he had enjoyed. You could hardly tell whether to consider him as a
							decemvir

or a candidate. Sometimes he was more like one who sought office than
							one who actually held it; he abused the nobility, and extolled all the
							candidates who had neither birth nor personal weight to recommend them;
							he used to bustle about the Forum surrounded by ex-tribunes of the
							Duellius and Scilius stamp and through them made overtures to the
							plebeians, until even his colleagues, who till then had been wholly
							devoted to him, began to watch him, wondering

what he meant. They were convinced that there was no sincerity about it,
							it was certain that so haughty a man would not exhibit such affability
							for nothing. They regarded this demeaning of himself and hobnobbing with
							private individuals as the action of a man who was not so keen to resign
							office as to discover some way

of prolonging it. Not venturing to thwart his aims openly, they tried to
							moderate his violence by humouring him. As he was the youngest member of
							their body, they unanimously conferred on him the office of presiding

over the elections. By this artifice they hoped to prevent him from
							getting himself elected; a thing which no one except the tribunes of the
							plebs had ever done, setting thereby the worst of precedents.

However, he gave out that, if all went well, he should hold the
							elections, and he seized upon what should have been an impediment as a
							good opportunity for effecting his purpose. By forming a coalition he
							secured the rejection of the two Quinctii — Capitolinus and Cincinnatus
							—his own uncle, C. Claudius, one of the firmest supporters of the
							nobility, and other citizens of

the same rank. He procured the election of men who were very far from
							being their equals either socially or politically, himself amongst the
							first, a step which respectable men disapproved of; all the more because
							no one had supposed that he would have the audacity

to take it. With him were elected M. Cornelius Maluginensis, M. Sergius,
							L. Minucius, Q. Fabius Vibulanus, Q. Poetilius, T. Antonius Merenda, K.
							Duillius, Sp. Oppius Cornicen, and Manlius Rabuleius.

This was the end of Appius' assumption of a
							part foreign to his nature. From that time his conduct was in accordance
							with his natural disposition, and he began to mould his new colleagues,
							even before they entered on office, into the lines of his own character.

They held private meetings daily; then, armed with plans hatched in
							absolute secrecy for exercising unbridled power, they no longer troubled
							to dissemble their tyranny, but made themselves difficult of access,
							harsh and stern to those to whom they granted interviews.

So matters went on till the middle of May. At that period, May 15, was
							the proper time for magistrates to take up their office. At the outset,
							the first day of their government was marked by a demonstration which
							aroused great fears. For, whereas the previous decemvirs had observed
							the rule of only one having the “ fasces ” at a time and making this emblem of
							royalty go to each in turn, now all the Ten suddenly appeared, each with
							his twelve lictors.

The Forum was filled with one hundred and twenty lictors, and they bore
							the axes tied up in the “ fasces .” The decemvirs explained it by saying that as
							they were invested with absolute power of life and death, there was no
							reason for the axes being removed.

They presented the appearance of ten kings, and manifold fears were
							entertained not only by the lowest classes but even by the foremost of
							the senators. They felt that a pretext for commencing bloodshed was
							being sought for, so that if any one uttered, either in the senate or
							amongst the people, a single word which reminded them of liberty, the
							rods and axes would instantly be made ready for him, to intimidate the
							rest.

For not only was there no protection in the people now that the right of
							appeal to them was withdrawn, but the decemvirs had mutually agreed not
							to interfere with each other's sentences, whereas the previous decemvirs
							had allowed their judicial decisions to be revised on appeal to a
							colleague, and certain matters which they considered to be within the
							jurisdiction of the people they had referred to them.

For some time they inspired equal terror in all, gradually it rested
							wholly on the plebs. The patricians were unmolested; it was the men in
							humble life for whom they reserved their wanton and cruel treatment.
							They were solely swayed by personal motives, not by the justice of a
							cause, since influence had with them the force of equity.

They drew up their judgments at home and pronounced them in the Forum;
							if any one appealed to a colleague, he left the presence of the one to
							whom he had appealed bitterly regretting that he had not abided by the
							first sentence.

A belief, not traceable to any authoritative source, had got abroad that
							their conspiracy against law and justice was not for the present only, a
							secret and sworn agreement existed amongst them not to hold any
							elections, but to keep their power, now they had once obtained it, by
							making the decemvirate perpetual.

The plebeians now began to study the faces of the patricians, to catch
							haply some gleam of liberty from the men from whom they had dreaded
							slavery and through that dread had brought the commonwealth into its
							present condition.

The leaders of the senate hated the decemvirs, and hated the plebs; they
							did not approve of what was going on, but they thought that the
							plebeians deserved all that they got,

and refused to help men who by rushing too eagerly after liberty had
							fallen into slavery.

They even increased the wrongs they suffered, that through their disgust
							and impatience at the present conditions they might begin to long for
							the former state of things and the two consuls of old. The greater part
							of the year had now elapsed; two tables had been added to the ten of the
							previous year; if these additional laws were passed by the “
								 Comitia Centuriata ” there was
							no reason why the decemvirate should be any longer considered necessary.

Men were wondering how soon notice would be given of the election of
							consuls; the sole anxiety of the plebeians was as to the method by which
							they could reestablish that bulwark of their liberties, the power of the
							tribunes, which was now suspended.

Meantime nothing was said about any elections. At first the decemvirs had
							bid for popularity by appearing before the plebs, surrounded by
							ex-tribunes, but now they were accompanied

by an escort of young patricians, who crowded round the tribunals,
							maltreated the plebeians and plundered their property, and being the
							stronger, succeeded in getting whatever they had taken a fancy to.

They did not stop short of personal violence, some were scourged, others
							beheaded, and that this brutality might not be gratuitous, the
							punishment of the owner was followed by a grant of his effects.
							Corrupted by such bribes, the young nobility not only declined to oppose
							the lawlessness of the decemvirs, but they openly showed that they
							preferred their own freedom from all restraints to the general liberty.

The fifteenth of May arrived, the decemvirs' term of office expired, but
							no new magistrates were appointed. Though now only private citizens, the
							decemvirs came forward as determined as ever to enforce their authority
							and retain all the emblems of power.

It was now in truth undisguised monarchy. Liberty was looked upon as for
							ever lost, none stood forth to vindicate it, nor did it seem likely that
							any one would do so. Not only had the people sunk into despondency
							themselves but they were beginning to be despised by their neighbours,
							who scorned the idea of sovereign power existing where there was no
							liberty.

The Sabines made an incursion into Roman territory in great force, and
							carrying their ravages far and wide, drove away an immense quantity of
							men and cattle to Eretum, where they collected their scattered forces
							and encamped in the hope that the distracted state of Rome would prevent an army from being
							raised. Not only the messengers who brought the information but the
							country people who were flying into the City created a panic.

The decemvirs, hated alike by the senate and the plebs, were left
							without any support, and whilst they were consulting as to the necessary
							measures, Fortune added a fresh cause of alarm.

The Aequi, advancing in a different direction, had entrenched themselves
							on Algidus, and from there were making predatory incursions into the
							territory of Tusculum . The
							news was brought by envoys from Tusculum who implored assistance. The
							panic created unnerved the decemvirs, and seeing the City encompassed by
							two separate wars they were driven to consult the senate.

They gave orders for the senators to be summoned, quite realising what a
							storm of indignant resentment was awaiting them, and that they would be
							held solely responsible for the wasted territory and the threatening
							dangers.

This, they expected, would lead to an attempt to deprive them of office,
							unless they offered a unanimous resistance, and by a sharp exercise of
							authority on a few of the most daring spirits repress the attempts of
							the others.

When the voice of the crier was heard in the Forum calling the patricians
							to the Senate-house to meet the decemvirs, the novelty of it, after so
							long a suspension of the meetings of the senate, filled the plebeians
							with astonishment. “What,” they asked, “has
							happened to revive a practice so long disused? We ought to be grateful
							to the enemy who are menacing us with war, for causing anything to
							happen which belongs to the usage of a free State.”

They looked in every part of the Forum for a senator, but seldom was one
							recognised; then they contemplated the Senate-house and the solitude
							round the decemvirs.

The latter put it down to the universal hatred felt for their authority,
							the plebeians explained it by saying that the senators did not meet
							because private citizens had not the right to summon them. If the plebs
							made common cause with the senate, those who were bent on recovering
							their liberty would have men to lead them, and as the senators when
							summoned would not assemble, so the plebs must refuse to be enrolled for
							service. Thus the plebeians expressed their opinions. As to the
							senators, there was hardly a single member of the order in the Forum,
							and very few in the City.

Disgusted with the state of matters they had retired to their country
							homes and were attending to their own affairs, having lost all interest
							in those of the State. They felt that the more they kept away from any
							meeting and intercourse with their tyrannical masters the safer would it
							be for them.

As, on being summoned, they did not come, the ushers were despatched to
							their houses to exact the penalties for non-attendance and to ascertain
							whether they absented themselves of set purpose. They took back word
							that the senate was in the country. This was less unpleasant for the
							decemvirs than if they had been in the City and had refused to recognise
							their authority.

Orders were issued for all to be summoned for the following day. They
							assembled in greater numbers than they themselves expected. This led the
							plebeians to think that their liberty had been betrayed by the senate,
							since they had obeyed men whose term of office had expired and who,
							apart from the force at their disposal, were only private
							citizens; thus recognising their right to convene the senate.

This obedience, however, was shown more by their coming to the
							Senate-house than by any servility in the sentiments which we understand
							that they expressed.

It is recorded that after the question of the war had been introduced by
							Appius Claudius, and before the formal discussion began, L. Valerius
							Potitus created a scene by demanding that he should be allowed to speak
							on the political question, and on the decemvirs forbidding him in
							threatening tones to do so, he declared that he would present himself
							before the people.

Marcus Horatius Barbatus showed himself an equally determined opponent,
							called the decemvirs “ten Tarquins,” and reminded them
							that it was under the leadership of the Valerii and the Horatii that
							monarchy had been expelled from Rome .

It was not the name of “king” that men had now grown weary
							of, for it was the proper title of Jupiter , Romulus the founder of the City and his
							successors were called “kings,” and the name was still
							retained for religious purposes.

It was the tyranny and violence of kings that men detested. If these
							were insupportable in a king or a king's son, who would endure them in
							ten private citizens?

They should see to it that they did not, by forbidding freedom of speech
							in the House, compel them to speak outside its walls. He could not see
							how it was less permissible for him as a private citizen to convene an
							Assembly of the people than for them to summon the senate.

They might find out whenever they chose how much more powerful a sense
							of wrong is to vindicate liberty than greedy ambition is to support
							tyranny.

They were bringing up the question of the Sabine war as if the Roman people had any more serious
							war to wage than one against men who, appointed to draw up laws, left no
							vestige of law or justice in the State; who had abolished the elections,
							the annual magistrates, the regular succession of rulers, which formed
							the sole guarantee of equal liberty for all; who, though simple
							citizens, still retained the fasces and the
							power of despotic monarchs.

After the expulsion of the kings, the magistrates were patricians; after
							the secession of the plebs, plebeian magistrates were appointed.
							“What party did these men belong to?”he asked. “The
							popular party? Why, what have they ever done in conjunction with the
							people? The nobility? What! these men, who have not held a meeting of
							the senate for nearly a year, and now that they are holding one, forbid
							any speaking on the political situation?

Do not place too much reliance on the fears of others. The ills that men
							are actually suffering from seem to them much more grievous than any
							they may fear in the future.”

Whilst Horatius was delivering this impassioned speech, and the decemvirs
							were in doubt how far they ought to go, whether in the direction of
							angry resistance

or in that of concession, and unable to see what the issue would be, C.
							Claudius, the uncle of the decemvir Appius, made a speech more in the
							nature of entreaty than of censure.

He implored him by the shade of his father to think rather of the social
							order under which he had been born than of the nefarious compact made
							with his colleagues.

It was much more, he said, for the sake of Appius than of the State that
							he made this appeal, for the State would assert its rights in spite of
							them, if it could not do so with their consent. But great controversies
							generally kindle great and bitter passions, and it was what these might
							lead to that he dreaded.

Though the decemvirs forbade the discussion of any subject save the one
							they had introduced, their respect for Claudius prevented them from
							interrupting him, so he concluded with a resolution that no decree
							should be passed by the senate.

This was universally taken to mean that Claudius adjudged them to be
							private citizens, and many of the consulars expressed their concurrence.

Another proposal, apparently more drastic, but in reality less
							effective, was that the senate should order the patricians to hold a
							special meeting to appoint an “ interrex .” For by voting for this, they decided
							that those who were presiding over the senate were lawful magistrates,
							whoever they were, whereas the proposal that no decree should be passed
							made them private citizens.

The cause of the decemvirs was on the point of collapsing, when L.
							Cornelius Maluginensis, the brother of M. Cornelius the decemvir, who
							had been purposely selected from among the consulars to wind up the
							debate, undertook to defend his brother and his brother's colleagues by
							professing great anxiety about the war.

He was wondering, he said, by what fatality it had come about that the
							decemvirs should be attacked by those who had sought the

office or by their allies or in particular by these men, or why, during all the months that the
							commonwealth was undisturbed, no one questioned whether those at the
							head of affairs were lawful magistrates or not, whereas now, when the
							enemy were almost at their gates, they were fomenting civic discord
							—unless indeed they supposed that the nature of their proceeding would
							be less apparent in the general confusion.

No one was justified in importing prejudice into a matter of such moment
							whilst they were preoccupied with much more serious anxieties. He gave
							it as his opinion that the point raised by Valerius and Horatius,
							namely, that the decemvirs had ceased to hold office by May 15, should
							be submitted to the senate for decision after the impending wars had
							been brought to a close and the tranquillity of the State restored.

And further, that Ap. Claudius must at once understand that he must be
							prepared to make a proper return of the election which he held for the
							appointment of decemvirs, stating whether they were elected only for a
							year, or until such time as the laws which were still required should be
							passed.

In his opinion every matter but the war should for the present be laid
							aside. If they thought that the reports of it which had got abroad were
							false, and that not only the messengers which had come in but even the
							Tuscan envoys had invented the story, then they ought to send out
							reconnoitring parties to bring back accurate information.

If, however, they believed the messengers and the envoys, a levy ought
							to be made at the earliest possible moment, the decemvirs should lead
							the armies in whatever direction each thought best, and nothing else
							should take precedence.

Whilst a division was being taken and the younger senators were carrying
							this proposition, Valerius and Horatius rose again in great excitement
							and loudly demanded leave to discuss the political situation. If, they
							said, the faction in the senate prevented them, they would bring it
							before the people, for private citizens had no power to silence them
							either in the Senate-house or in the Assembly, and they were not going
							to give way before the fasces of a mock
							authority.

Appius felt that unless he met their violence with equal audacity, his
							authority was practically at an end.

“It will be better,” he said, “not to speak on any
							subject but the one we are now considering,” and as Valerius
							insisted that he should not keep silent for a private citizen, Appius
							ordered a lictor to go to him.

Valerius ran to the doors of the Senate-house and invoked “the
							protection of the Quirites.” L. Cornelius put an end to the scene
							by throwing his arms round Appius as though to protect Valerius, but
							really to protect Appius from further mischief. He obtained permission
							for Valerius to say what he wanted, and as this liberty did not go
							beyond words, the decemvirs achieved their purpose.

The consulars and senior senators felt that the tribunitian authority,
							which they still regarded with detestation, was much more eagerly
							desired by the plebs than the restoration of the consular authority, and
							they would almost rather have had the decemvirs voluntarily resigning
							office at a subsequent period than that the plebs should recover power
							through their unpopularity.

If matters could be quietly arranged and the consuls restored without
							any popular disturbance, they thought that either the preoccupation of
							war or the moderate exercise of power on the part of the consuls would
							make the plebs forget all about their tribunes.

The levy was proclaimed without any protest from the senate. The men of
							age for active service answered to their names, as there was no appeal
							from the authority of the decemvirs. When the legions were enrolled, the
							decemvirs arranged among themselves their respective commands.

The prominent men amongst them were Q. Fabius and Appius Claudius. The
							war at home threatened to be more serious than the one abroad, and the
							violent disposition of Appius was deemed more fitted to repress
							commotions in the City, whilst Fabius was looked upon as more inclined
							to evil practices than to be any permanent good to them.

This man, at one time so distinguished both at home and in the field,
							had been so changed by office and the influence of his colleagues that
							he preferred to take Appius as his model rather than be true to himself.

He was entrusted with the Sabine war, and Manlius Rabuleius and Q. Poetilius were
							associated with him in its conduct. M. Cornelius was sent to Algidus,
							together with L. Minucius, T. Antonius, Kaeso Duillius, and M. Sergius.
							It was decreed that Sp. Oppius should assist Ap. Claudius in the defence
							of the City, with an authority coordinate with that of the other
							decemvirs.

The military operations were not any
							more satisfactory than the domestic administration.

The commanders were certainly at fault in having made themselves objects
							of detestation to the citizens, but otherwise the whole of the blame
							rested on the soldiers, who, to prevent anything from succeeding under
							the auspices and leadership of the decemvirs, disgraced both themselves
							and their generals by allowing themselves to be defeated.

Both armies had been routed, the one by the Sabines at Eretum, the other
							by the Aequi on Algidus. Fleeing from Eretum in the silence of the
							night, they had entrenched themselves on some high ground near the City
							between Fidenae and Crustumeria.

They refused to meet the pursuing enemy anywhere on equal terms, and
							trusted for safety to their entrenchments and the nature of the ground,
							not to arms or courage.

On Algidus they behaved more disgracefully, suffered a heavier defeat,
							and even lost their camp. Deprived of all their stores, the soldiers
							made their way to Tusculum ,
							looking for subsistence to the good faith and compassion of their hosts,
							and their confidence was not misplaced.

Such alarming reports were brought to Rome that the senate, laying aside their feeling
							against the decemvirs, resolved that guards should be mounted in the
							City, ordered that all who were of age to bear arms should man the walls
							and undertake outpost duty before the gates, and decreed a supply of
							arms to be sent to Tusculum to
							replace those which had been lost, whilst the decemvirs were to evacuate
								 Tusculum and keep their
							soldiers encamped.

The other camp was to be transferred from Fidenae on to the Sabine territory, and by assuming the
							offensive deter the enemy from any project of attacking the City.

To these defeats at the hands of the
							enemy have to be added two infamous crimes on the part of the decemvirs.

L. Siccius was serving in the campaign against the Sabines. Seeing the
							bitter feeling against the decemvirs, he used to hold secret
							conversations with the soldiery and threw out hints about the creation
							of tribunes and resorting to a secession.

He was sent to select and survey a site for a camp, and the soldiers who
							had been told off to accompany him were instructed to choose a
							favourable opportunity for attacking and despatching him.

They did not effect their purpose with impunity, several of the
							assassins fell around him whilst he was defending himself with a courage
							equal to his strength, and that was exceptional.

The rest brought a report back to camp that Siccius had fallen into an
							ambush and had died fighting bravely, whilst some soldiers had been lost
							with him.

At first the informants were believed, but subsequently a cohort which
							had gone out by permission of the decemvirs to bury those who had
							fallen, found, when they reached the spot, no corpse despoiled, but the
							body of Siccius lying in the centre fully armed with those around all
							turned towards him, whilst there was not a single body belonging to the
							enemy nor any trace of their having retired. They brought the body back
							and declared that, as a matter of fact, he had been killed by his own
							men.

The camp was filled with deep resentment, and it was decided that
							Siccius should be forthwith carried to Rome . The decemvirs anticipated this resolve by hastily
							burying him with military honours at the cost of the State. The soldiers
							manifested profound grief at his funeral, and the worst possible
							suspicions were everywhere entertained against the decemvirs

This 
							was followed by a second atrocity, the result of brutal lust, which
							occurred in the City and led to consequences no less tragic than the
							outrage and death of Lucretia ,
							which had brought about the expulsion of the royal family. Not only was
							the end of the decemvirs the same as that of the kings, but the cause of
							their losing their power was the same in each case.

Ap. Claudius had conceived a guilty passion for a girl of plebeian
							birth. The girl's father, L. Verginius, held a high rank in the army on
							Algidus; he was a man of exemplary character both at home and in the
							field.

His wife had been brought up on equally high principles, and their
							children were being brought up in the same way. He had betrothed his
							daughter to L. Icilius, who had been tribune, an active and energetic
							man whose courage had been proved in his battles for the plebs.

This girl, now in the bloom of her youth and beauty, excited Appius'
							passions, and he tried to prevail on her by presents and promises. When
							he found that her virtue was proof against all temptation, he had
							recourse to unscrupulous and brutal violence.

He commissioned a client, M. Claudius, to claim the girl as his slave,
							and to bar any claim on the part of her friends to retain possession of
							her till the case was tried, as he thought that the father's absence
							afforded a good opportunity for this illegal action.

As the girl was going to her school in the Forum —the grammar schools
							were held in booths there —the decemvir's pander laid his hand upon her,
							declaring that she was the daughter of a slave of his, and a slave
							herself.

He then ordered her to follow him, and threatened, if she hesitated, to
							carry her off by force. While the girl was stupefied with terror, her
							maid's shrieks, invoking “the protection of the Quirites,”
							drew a crowd together. The names of her father Verginius and her
							betrothed lover, Icilius, were held in universal respect.

Regard for them brought their friends, feelings of indignation brought
							the crowd to the maiden's support. She was now safe from violence; the
							man who claimed her said that he was proceeding according to law, not by
							violence, there was no need for any excited gathering.

He cited the girl into court. Her supporters advised her to follow him;
							they came before the tribunal of Appius. The claimant rehearsed a story
							already perfectly familiar to the judge as he was the author of the
							plot, how the girl had been born in his house, stolen from there,
							transferred to the house of Verginius and fathered on him;

these allegations would be supported by definite evidence, and he would
							prove them to the satisfaction of Verginius himself, who was really most
							concerned, as an injury had been done to him. Meanwhile, he urged, it
							was only right that a slave girl should follow her master.

The girl's advocates contended that Verginius was absent on the service
							of the State, he would be present in two days' time if information were
							sent to him, and it was contrary to equity that in his absence he should
							incur risk with regard to his children.

They demanded that he should adjourn the whole of the proceedings till
							the father's arrival, and in accordance with the law which he himself
							had enacted, grant the custody of the girl to those who asserted her
							freedom, and not suffer a maiden of ripe age to incur danger to her
							reputation before her liberty was imperilled.

Before giving judgment, Appius showed how liberty was upheld by that very
							law to which the friends of Verginia had appealed in support of their
							demand.

But, he went on to say, it guaranteed liberty only so far as its
							provisions were strictly adhered to as regarded both persons and cases.
							For where personal freedom is the matter of claim, that provision holds
							good, because any one can lawfully plead, but in the case of one who is
							still in her father's power, there is none but her father to whom her
							master need renounce possession.

His decision, therefore, was that the father should be summoned, and in
							the meanwhile the man who claimed her should not forego his right to
							take the girl and give security to produce her on the arrival of her
							reputed father.

The injustice of this sentence called forth many murmurs, but no one
							ventured on open protest, until P. Numitorius, the girl's grandfather,
							and Icilius, her betrothed, appeared on the scene.

The intervention of Icilius seemed to offer the best chance of thwarting
							Appius, and the crowd made way for him. The lictor said that judgment
							had been given, and as Icilius continued loudly protesting he attempted
							to remove him.

Such rank injustice would have fired even a gentle temper. He exclaimed,
							“I am, at your orders, Appius, to be removed at the point of the
							sword, that you may stifle all comment on what you want to keep
							concealed.

I am going to marry this maiden, and I am determined to have a chaste
							wife. Summon all the lictors of all your colleagues, give orders for the
							axes and rods to be in readiness —the betrothed of Icilius shall not
							remain outside her father's house.

Even if you have deprived us of the two bulwarks of our liberty —the aid
							of our tribunes and the right of appeal to the Roman plebs —that has
							given you no right to our wives and children, the victims of your lust.

Vent your cruelty upon our backs and necks; let female honour at least
							be safe. If violence is offered to this girl, I shall invoke the aid of
							the Quirites here for my betrothed, Verginius that of the soldiers for
							his only daughter;

we shall all invoke the aid of gods and men, and you shall not carry out
							that judgment except at the cost of our lives.

Reflect, Appius, I demand of you, whither you are going! When Verginius
							has come, he must decide what action to take about his daughter; if he
							submits to this man's claim, he must look out another husband for her.
							Meantime I will vindicate her liberty at the price of my life, sooner
							than sacrifice my honour.”

The people were excited and a conflict appeared imminent.

The lictors had closed round Icilius, but matters had not got beyond
							threats on both sides when Appius declared that it was not the defence
							of Verginia that was Icilius' main object; a restless intriguer, even
							yet breathing the spirit of the tribuneship, was looking out for a
							chance of creating sedition.

He would not, however, afford him material for it that day, but that he
							might allow that it was not to his insolence that he was making a
							concession, but to the absent Verginius, to the name of father, and to
							liberty, he would not adjudicate on that day, or issue any decree. He
							would ask M. Claudius to forego his right, and allow the girl to be in
							the custody of her friends till the morrow.

If the father did not then appear, he warned Icilius and men of his
							stamp that neither as legislator would he be disloyal to his own law,
							nor as decemvir would he lack firmness to execute it. He certainly would
							not call upon the lictors of his colleagues to repress the ringleaders
							of sedition, he should be content with his own.

The time for perpetrating this illegality was thus postponed, and after
							the girl's supporters had withdrawn, it was decided as the very first
							thing to be done that the brother of Icilius and one of Numitor's sons,
							both active youths, should make their way straight to the gate and
							summon Verginius from the camp with all possible speed.

They knew that the girl's safety turned upon her protector against
							lawlessness being present in time. They started on their mission, and
							riding at full speed brought the news to the father.

While the claimant of the girl was pressing Icilius to enter his plea
							and name his sureties, and Icilius kept asserting that this very thing
							was being arranged, purposely spinning out the time to allow of his
							messengers getting first to the camp, the crowd everywhere held up their
							hands to show that every one of them was ready to be security for him.

With tears in his eyes, he said, “It is most kind of you.
							To-morrow I may need your help, now I have sufficient
							securities.” So Verginia was bailed on the security of her
							relatives.

Appius remained for some time on the bench, to avoid the appearance of
							having taken his seat for that one case only. When he found that owing
							to the universal interest in this one case no other suitors appeared, he
							withdrew to his home and wrote to his colleagues in camp not to grants
							leave of absence to Verginius, and actually to keep him under arrest.

This wicked advice came too late, as it deserved to do; Verginius had
							already obtained leave, and started in the first watch. The letter
							ordering his detention was delivered the next morning, and was therefore
							useless.

In the City, the citizens were standing in the Forum in the early dawn,
							on the tiptoe of expectation. Verginius, in mourning garb, brought his
							daughter, similarly attired, and accompanied by a number of matrons,
							into the Forum. An immense body of sympathisers stood round him.

He went amongst the people, took them by the hand and appealed to them
							to help him, not out of compassion only but because they owed it to him;
							he was at the front day by day, in defence of their children and their
							wives; of no man could they recount more numerous deeds of endurance and
							of daring than of him. What good was it all, he asked, if while the City
							was safe, their children were exposed to what would be their worst fate
							if it were actually captured? Men gathered round him, whilst he spoke as
							though he were addressing the Assembly.

Icilius followed in the same strain. The women who accompanied him made
							a profounder impression by their silent weeping than any words could
							have made.

Unmoved by all this —it was really madness rather than love that had
							clouded his judgment —Appius mounted the tribunal. The claimant began by
							a brief protest against the proceedings of the previous day; judgment,
							he said, had not been given owing to the partiality of the judge. But
							before he could proceed with his claim or any opportunity was given to
							Verginius of replying, Appius intervened.

It is possible that the ancient writers may have correctly stated some
							ground which he alleged for his decision, but I do not find one anywhere
							that would justify such an iniquitous decision. The one thing which can
							be propounded as being generally admitted is the judgment itself.

His decision was that the girl was a slave. At first all were stupefied
							with amazement at this atrocity, and for a few moments there was a dead
							silence.

Then, as M. Claudius approached the matrons standing round the girl, to
							seize her amidst their outcries and tears, Verginius, pointing with
							outstretched arm to Appius, cried, “It is to Icilius and not to
							you, Appius, that I have betrothed my daughter; I have brought her up
							for wedlock, not for outrage. Are you determined to satisfy your brutal
							lusts like cattle and wild beasts? Whether these people will put up with
							this, I know not, but I hope that those who possess arms will refuse to
							do so.”

Whilst the man who claimed the maiden was being pushed back by the group
							of women and her supporters who stood round, the crier called for
							silence.

The decemvir, utterly abandoned to his passion, addressed the crowd and
							told them that he had ascertained not only through the insolent abuse of
							Icilius on the previous day and the violent behaviour of Verginius,
							which the Roman people could testify to, but mainly from certain
							definite information received, that all through the night meetings had
							been held in the City to organise a seditious movement.

Forewarned of the likelihood of disturbances, he had come down into the
							Forum with an armed escort, not to injure peaceable citizens, but to
							uphold the authority of the government by putting down the disturbers of
							public tranquillity.

“It will therefore,” he proceeded, “be better for
							you to keep quiet. Go, lictor, remove the crowd and clear a way for the
							master to take possession of his slave.” When, in a transport of
							rage, he had thundered out these words, the people fell back and left
							the deserted girl a prey to injustice.

Verginius, seeing no prospect of help anywhere, turned to the tribunal.
							“Pardon me, Appius, I pray you, if I have spoken disrespectfully
							to you, pardon a father's grief. Allow me to question the nurse here, in
							the maiden's presence, as to what are the real facts of the case, that
							if I have been falsely called her father, I may leave her with the
							greater resignation.”

Permission being granted, he took the girl and her nurse aside to the
							booths near the temple of Venus Cloacina, now known as the “New
							Booths,” and there, snatching up a butcher's knife, he plunged it
							into her breast, saying, “In this the only way in which I can, I
							vindicate, my child, thy freedom.” Then, looking towards the
							tribunal, “By this blood, Appius, I devote thy head to the
							infernal gods.”

Alarmed at the outcry which arose at this terrible deed, the decemvir
							ordered Verginius to be arrested. Brandishing the knife, he cleared the
							way before him, until, protected by a crowd of sympathisers, he reached
							the city gate.

Icilius and Numitorius took up the lifeless body and showed it to the
							people; they deplored the villainy of Appius, the ill-starred beauty of
							the girl, the terrible compulsion under which the father had acted.

The matrons, who followed with angry cries, asked, “Was this the
							condition on which they were to rear children, was this the reward of
							modesty and purity?” with other manifestations of that womanly
							grief, which, owing to their keener sensibility, is more demonstrative,
							and so expresses itself in more moving and pitiful fashion.

The men, and especially Icilius, talked of nothing but the abolition of
							the tribunitian power and the right of appeal and loudly expressed their
							indignation at the condition of public affairs.

The people were excited partly by the atrocity of the deed, partly by the
							opportunity now offered of recovering their liberties.

Appius first ordered. Icilius to be summoned before him, then, on his
							refusal to come, to be arrested. As the lictors were not able to get
							near him, Appius himself with a body of young patricians forced his way
							through the crowd and ordered him to be taken to prison.

By this time Icilius was not only surrounded by the people, but the
							people's leaders were there —L. Valerius and M. Horatius. They drove
							back the lictors and said, if they were going to proceed by law, they
							would undertake the defence of Icilius against one who was only a
							private citizen, but if they were going to attempt force, they would be
							no unequal match for him.

A furious scuffle began; the decemvir's lictors attacked Valerius and
							Horatius; their “ fasces ”
							were broken up by the people; Appius mounted the platform, Horatius and
							Valerius followed him; the Assembly listened to them, Appius was shouted
							down.

Valerius, assuming the tone of authority, ordered the lictors to cease
							attendance on one who held no official position; on which Appius,
							thoroughly cowed, and fearing for his life, muffled his head with his
							toga and retreated into a house near the Forum, without his adversaries
							perceiving his flight.

Sp. Oppius burst into the Forum from the other side to support his
							colleague, and saw that their authority was overcome by main force.
							Uncertain what to do and distracted by the conflicting advice given him
							on all sides, he gave orders for the senate to be summoned.

As a great number of the senators were thought to disapprove of the
							conduct of the decemvirs, the people hoped that their power would be put
							an end to through the action of the senate, and consequently became
							quiet.

The senate decided that nothing should be done to irritate the plebs,
							and, what was of much more importance, that every precaution should be
							taken to prevent the arrival of Verginius from creating a commotion in
							the army.

Accordingly, some of the
							younger senators were sent to the camp, which was then on Mount
							Vecilius. They informed the three decemvirs who were in command that by
							every possible means they

were to prevent the soldiers from mutinying. Verginius caused a greater
							commotion in the camp than the one

he had left behind in the City. The sight of his arrival with a body of
							nearly 400 men from the City, who, fired with indignation, had enlisted
							themselves as his comrades, still more the weapon still clenched in his
							hand and his blood-besprinkled clothes, attracted the attention of the
							whole camp. The civilian garb seen in all directions in the camp made
							the number of the citizens who had

accompanied him seem greater than it was. Questioned as to what had
							happened, Verginius for a long time could not speak for weeping; at
							length when those who had run up stood quietly round him and there was
							silence, he explained

everything in order just as it happened. Then lifting up his hands to
							heaven he appealed to them as his fellow-soldiers and implored them not
							to attribute to him what was really the crime of Appius, nor to look
							upon him with

abhorrence as the murderer of his children. His daughter's life was
							dearer to him than his own, had she been allowed to live in liberty and
							purity; when he saw her dragged off as a slave-girl to be outraged, he
							thought it better to lose

his child by death than by dishonour. It was through compassion for her
							that he had fallen into what looked like cruelty, nor would he have
							survived her had he not entertained the hope of avenging her death by
							the aid of his fellow-soldiers. For they, too, had daughters and sisters
							and wives; the lust of Appius was not quenched with his daughter's life,
							nay rather, the more impunity it met

with the more unbridled would it be. Through the sufferings of another
							they had received a warning how to guard themselves against a like
							wrong. As for him, his wife had been snatched from him by Fate, his
							daughter, because she could no longer live in chastity, had

met a piteous but an honourable death. There was no longer in his house
							any opportunity for Appius to gratify his lust, from any other violence
							on that man's part he would defend himself with the same resolution with
							which he had defended his child; others must look out for themselves and
							for their children.

To this impassioned appeal of Verginius the crowd replied with a shout
							that they would not fail him in his grief or in the defence of his
							liberty. The civilians mingling in the throng of soldiers told the same
							tragic story, and how much more shocking this incident was to behold
							than to hear about; at the same time they announced that affairs were in
							fatal confusion at Rome and
							that some had followed them into camp with the tidings that Appius after

being almost killed had gone into exile. The result was a general call
							to arms, they plucked

up the standards and started for Rome . The decemvirs, thoroughly alarmed at what they
							saw and at what they heard of the state of things in Rome , went to different parts of the
							camp to try and allay the excitement. Where they tried persuasion no
							answer was returned, but where they attempted to exercise authority, the
							reply was, “We are men and have arms.”

They marched in military order to the City and occupied the Aventine . Every one whom they met was
							urged to recover the liberties of the plebs and appoint tribunes; apart
							from this no appeals to violence were heard. The meeting of the

senate was presided over by Sp. Oppius. They decided not to adopt any
							harsh measures, as it was through their own lack

of energy that the sedition had arisen. Three envoys of consular rank
							were sent to the army to demand in the name of the senate by whose
							orders they had abandoned their camp, and what they meant by occupying
							the Aventine in arms, and
							diverting the war from foreign foes to their own country,

which they had taken forcible possession of. They were at no loss for an
							answer, but they were at a loss for some one to give it, since they had
							as yet no regular leader, all individual officers did not venture to
							expose themselves to the dangers of such a position. The only reply was
							a loud and general demand that L. Valerius and. M. Horatius should be
							sent to them, to these men they would give a formal reply.

After the envoys were dismissed, Verginius pointed out to the soldiers
							that they had a few moments ago felt themselves embarrassed in a matter
							of no great importance, because they were a multitude without a head,
							and the answer they had given, though it served their turn was the
							outcome

rather of the general feeling at the time than of any settled purpose.

He was of opinion that ten men should be chosen to hold supreme command,
							and by virtue of their military rank should be called tribunes of the
							soldiers.

He himself was the first to whom this distinction was offered, but he
							replied, “Reserve the opinion you have formed of me till both you
							and I are in more favourable circumstances; so long as my daughter is
							unavenged no honour can give me pleasure, nor in the present disturbed
							state of the commonwealth is it any advantage for those men to be at
							your head who are most obnoxious to party malice.

If

I am to be of any use, I shall be none the less so in a private
							capacity.”

Ten military tribunes, accordingly, were appointed. The army acting
							against the Sabines did not remain passive. There, too, at the
							instigation of Icilius and Numitorius, a revolt against the decemvirs
							took place. The feelings of the soldiery were roused by the recollection
							of the murdered Siccius no less than by the fresh story of the maiden
							whom it had been sought to make a victim of foul lust.

When Icilius heard that tribunes of the soldiers had been elected on the
								 Aventine , he anticipated
							from what he knew of the plebs that

when they came to elect their tribunes they would follow the lead of the
							army and choose those who were already elected as military tribunes.

As he was looking to a tribuneship himself, he took care to get the same
							number appointed and invested with similar powers by his own men, before
							they entered the City. They made their entry through the Colline gate in
							military order, with standards displayed, and proceeded through the
							heart of the City to the Aventine .

There the two armies united, and the twenty military tribunes were
							requested to appoint two of their number to take the supreme direction
							of affairs. They appointed. M. Oppius and. Sex. Manlius.

Alarmed at the direction affairs were taking, the senate held daily
							meetings, but the time was spent in mutual reproaches rather than in
							deliberation. The decemvirs were openly charged with the murder of
							Siccius, the profligacy of Appius, and the disgrace incurred in the
							field. It was proposed that Valerius and Horatius should go to the
								 Aventine , but they refused
							to go unless the decemvirs gave up the insignia of an office which had
							expired the previous year.

The decemvirs protested against this attempt to coerce them, and said
							that they would not lay down their authority until the laws which they
							were appointed to draw up were duly enacted.

M. Duillius, a former tribune, informed the plebs that, owing to
							incessant wranglings, no business was being transacted in the senate.

He did not believe that the senators would trouble about them till they
							saw the City deserted; the Sacred Hill would remind them of the firm
							determination once shown by the plebs, and they would learn that unless
							the tribunitian power was restored there could be no concord in the
							State.

The armies left the Aventine 
							and, going out by the Nomentan —or, as it was then called, the Ficulan
							—road, they encamped on the Sacred Hill, imitating the moderation of
							their fathers by abstaining from all injury.

The plebeian civilians followed the army, no one whose age allowed him
							to go hung back. Their wives and children followed them, asking in
							piteous tones, to whom would they leave them in a City where neither
							modesty nor liberty were respected?

The unwonted solitude gave a dreary and deserted look to every part of
								 Rome ; in the Forum there
							were only a few of the older patricians, and when the senate was in
							session it was wholly deserted. Many besides Horatius and Valerius were
							now angrily asking, “What are you waiting for, senators?

If the decemvirs do not lay aside their obstinacy, will you allow
							everything to go to wrack and ruin? And what, pray, is that authority,
							decemvirs, to which you cling so closely? Are you going to administer
							justice to walls and roofs? Are you not ashamed to see a greater number
							of lictors in the Forum than of all other citizens put together?

What will you do if the enemy approach the City? What if the plebs
							seeing that their secession has no effect, come shortly against us in
							arms? Do you want to end your power by the fall of the City?

Either you will have to do without the plebeians or you will have to
							accept their tribunes; sooner than they will go without their
							magistrates, we shall have to go without ours.

That power which they wrested from our fathers, when it was an untried
							novelty, they will not submit to be deprived of, now that they have
							tasted the sweets of it, especially as we are not making that moderate
							use of our power which would prevent their needing its
							protection.”

Remonstrances like these came from all parts of the House; at last the
							decemvirs, overborne by the unanimous opposition, asserted that since it
							was the general wish, they would submit to the authority of the senate.

All they asked for was that they might be protected against the popular
							rage; they warned the senate against the plebs becoming by their death
							habituated to inflicting punishment on the patricians.

Valerius and Horatius were then sent to the plebs with terms which it was
							thought would lead to their return and the adjustment of all
							differences; they were also instructed to procure guarantees for the
							protection of the decemvirs against popular violence.

They were welcomed in the camp with every expression of delight, for
							they were unquestionably regarded as liberators from the commencement of
							the disturbance to its close. Thanks therefore were offered to them on
							their arrival. Icilius was the spokesman.

A policy had been agreed upon before the arrival of the envoys, so when
							the discussion of the terms commenced, and the envoys asked what the
							demands of the plebs were, Icilius put forward proposals of such a
							nature as to show clearly that their hopes lay in the justice of their
							cause rather than in an appeal to arms.

They demanded the re-establishment of the tribunitian power and the
							right of appeal, which before the institution of decemvirs had been
							their main security. They also demanded an amnesty for those who had
							incited the soldiers or the plebs to recover their liberties by a
							secession.

The only vindictive demand made was with reference to the punishment of
							the decemvirs.

They insisted, as an act of justice, that they should be surrendered,
							and they threatened to burn them alive. The envoys replied to these
							demands as follows: “The demands you have put forward as the
							result of your deliberations are so equitable that they would have been
							voluntarily conceded, for you ask for them as the safeguards of your
							liberties, not as giving you licence to attack others.

Your feelings of resentment are to be excused rather than indulged; for
							it is through hatred of cruelty that you are actually hurrying into
							cruelty, and almost before you are free yourselves you want to act the
							tyrant over your adversaries.

Is our State never to enjoy any respite from punishments inflicted
							either by the patricians on the Roman plebs, or by the plebs on the
							patricians?

You need the shield rather than the sword. He is humble enough who lives
							in the State under equal laws, neither inflicting nor suffering injury.

Even if the time should come when you will make yourselves formidable,
							when, after recovering your magistrates and your laws, you will have
							judicial power over our lives and property —even then you will decide
							each case on its merits, it is enough now that your liberties are won
							back.”

Permission having been unanimously granted them to do as they thought
							best, the envoys announced that they would return shortly after matters
							were arranged.

When they laid the demands of the plebs before the senate, the other
							decemvirs, on finding that no mention was made of inflicting punishment
							on them, raised no objection whatever.

The stern Appius, who was detested most of all, measuring the hatred of
							others towards him by his hatred towards them, said, “I am quite
							aware of the fate that is hanging over me.

I see that the struggle against us is only postponed till our weapons
							are handed over to our opponents. Their rage must be appeased with
							blood. Still, even I do not hesitate to lay down my decemvirate.”

A decree was passed for the decemvirs to resign office as soon as
							possible, Q. Furius, the Pontifex Maximus, to appoint tribunes of the
							plebs, and an amnesty to be granted for the secession of the soldiers
							and the plebs.

After these decrees were passed, the senate broke up, and the decemvirs
							proceeded to the Assembly and formally laid down their office, to the
							immense delight of all.

This was reported to the plebs on the Sacred Hill. The envoys who
							carried the intelligence were followed by everybody who was left in the
							City; this mass of people was met by another rejoicing multitude who
							issued from the camp.

They exchanged mutual congratulations on the restoration of liberty and
							concord. The envoys, addressing the multitude as an Assembly, said,
							“Prosperity, fortune, and happiness to you and to the State!
							Return to your fatherland, your homes, your wives, and your children!
							But carry into the City the same self-control which you have exhibited
							here, where no man's land has been damaged, notwithstanding the need of
							so many things necessary for so large a multitude.

Go to the Aventine , whence you
							came; there, on the auspicious spot where you laid the beginnings of
							your liberty, you will appoint your tribunes; the Pontifex Maximus will
							be present to hold the election.”

Great was the delight and eagerness with which they applauded
							everything. They plucked up the standards and started for Rome , outdoing those they met in
							their expressions of joy. Marching under arms through the City in
							silence, they reached the Aventine .

There the Pontifex Maximus at once proceeded to hold the election for
							tribunes. The first to be elected was L. Verginius; next, the organisers
							of the secession, L. Icilius and.

P. Numitorius, the uncle of Verginius; then, C. Sicinius, the son of the
							man who is recorded as the first to be elected of the tribunes on the
							Sacred Hill, and M. Duillius, who had filled that office with
							distinction before the appointment of the decemvirs, and through all the
							struggles with them had never failed to support the plebs.

After these came M. Titinius, M. Pomponius, C. Apronius, Appius Villius,
							and Caius Oppius, all of whom were elected rather in hope of their
							future usefulness than for any services actually rendered.

When he had entered on his tribuneship L. Icilius at once proposed a
							resolution which the plebs accepted, that no one should suffer for the
							secession.

Marcus Duillius immediately carried a measure for the election of
							consuls and the right to appeal from them to the people. All these
							measures were passed in a council of the plebs which was held in the
							Flaminian Meadows, now called the Circus Flaminius.

The election of consuls took place under
							the presidency of an “ interrex .” Those elected were L. Valerius and. M.
							Horatius, and they at once assumed office.

Their consulship was a popular one, and inflicted no injustice upon the
							patricians, though they regarded it with suspicion, for whatever was
							done to safeguard the liberties of the plebs they looked upon as an
							infringement of their own powers.

First of all, as it was a doubtful legal point whether the patricians
							were bound by the ordinances of the plebs, they carried a law in the
							Assembly of Centuries that what the plebs had passed in their Tribes
							should be binding on the whole people.

By this law a very effective weapon was placed in the hands of the
							tribunes. Then another consular law, confirming the right of appeal, as
							the one defence of liberty, which had been annulled by the decemvirs,
							was not only restored but strengthened for the future by a fresh
							enactment.

This forbade the appointment of any magistrate from whom there was no
							right of appeal, and provided that any one who did so appoint might be
							rightly and lawfully put to death, nor should the man who put him to
							death be held guilty of murder.

When they had sufficiently strengthened the plebs by the right of appeal
							on the one hand and the protection afforded by the tribunes on the
							other, they proceeded to secure the personal inviolability of the
							tribunes themselves.

The memory of this had almost perished, so they renewed it with certain
							sacred rites revived from a distant past, and in addition to securing
							their inviolability by the sanctions of religion, they enacted a law
							that whoever offered violence to the magistrates of the plebs, whether
							tribunes, aediles, or decemviral judges, his person should

be devoted to Jupiter , his
							possessions sold and the proceeds assigned to the temple of Ceres , Liber, and Libera, Jurists say
							that by this law no one was actually “sacrosanct,” but
							that when injury was offered to any of those mentioned above the
							offender was “ sacer ”.

If an aedile, therefore, were arrested and sent to prison by superior
							magistrates, though this could not be done by law —for by this law it
							would not be lawful for him to be injured —yet

it is a proof that an aedile is not held to be
							“sacrosanct” whereas the tribunes of the plebs were
							“sacrosanct” by the ancient oath taken by the plebeians
							when that office was first created.

There were some who interpreted the law as including even the consuls in
							its provisions, and the praetors, because they were elected under the
							same auspices as the consuls, for a consul was called a
							“judge.”

This interpretation is refuted by the fact that in those times it was
							the custom for a judge to be called not “consul” but
							“praetor.”

These were the laws enacted by the consuls. They ordered that the decrees
							of the senate, which used formerly to be suppressed and tampered with at
							the pleasure of the consuls should henceforth be taken to the aediles at
							the temple of Ceres .

Marcus Duillius, the tribune, then proposed a resolution which the plebs
							adopted, that any one who should leave the plebs without tribunes, or
							who should create a magistrate from whom there was no appeal; should be
							scourged and beheaded.

All these transactions were distasteful to the patricians, but they did
							not actively oppose them, as none of them had yet been marked out for
							vindictive proceedings.

The power of the tribunes and the liberties of the plebs were now on a
							secure basis. The next step was taken by the tribunes, who thought the
							time had come when they might safely proceed against individuals.

They selected Verginius to take up the first prosecution, which was that
							of Appius. When the day had been fixed, and Appius had come down to the
							Forum with a bodyguard of young patricians, the sight of him and his
							satellites reminded all present of the power he had used so vilely.

Verginius began: “Oratory was invented for doubtful cases. I will
							not, therefore, waste time by a long indictment before you of the man
							from whose cruelty you have vindicated yourselves by force of arms, nor
							will I allow him to add to his other crimes an impudent defence.

So I will pass over, Appius Claudius, all the wicked and impious things
							that you had the audacity to do, one after another, for the last two
							years. One charge only will I bring against you, that contrary to law
							you have adjudged a free person to be a slave, and unless you name an
							umpire before whom you can prove your innocence, I shall order you to be taken to prison.”

Appius had nothing to hope for in the protection of the tribunes or the
							verdict of the people. Nevertheless he called upon the tribunes, and
							when none intervened to stay proceedings and he was seized by the
							apparitor, he said, “I appeal.”

This single word, the protection of liberty, uttered by those lips which
							had so lately judicially deprived a person of her freedom, produced a
							general silence.

Then the people remarked to one another that there were gods after all
							who did not neglect the affairs of men; arrogance and cruelty were
							visited by punishments which, though lingering, were not light;

that man was appealing who had taken away the power of appeal; that man
							was imploring the protection of the people who had trampled underfoot
							all their rights; he was losing his own liberty and being carried off to
							prison who had sentenced a free person to slavery. Amidst the murmur of
							the Assembly the voice of Appius himself was heard imploring “the
							protection of the Roman people.”

He began by enumerating the services of his ancestors to the State, both
							at home and in the field; his own unfortunate devotion to the plebs,
							which had led him to resign his consulship in order to enact equal laws
							for all, giving thereby the greatest offence to the patricians; his laws
							which were still in force, though their author was being carried to
							prison.

As to his own personal conduct and his good and evil deeds, however, he
							would bring them to the test when he had the opportunity of pleading his
							cause. For the present he claimed the common right of a Roman citizen to
							be allowed to plead on the appointed day and submit himself to the
							judgment of the Roman people.

He was not so apprehensive of the general feeling against him as to
							abandon all hope in the impartiality and sympathy of his
							fellow-citizens.

If he was to be taken to prison before his case was heard, he would once
							more appeal to the tribunes, and warn them not to copy the example of
							those whom they hated. If they admitted that they were bound by the same
							agreement to abolish the right of appeal which they accused the
							decemvirs of having formed, then he would appeal to the people and
							invoke the laws which both consuls and tribunes had enacted that very
							year to protect that right.

For if before the case is heard and judgment given there is no power of
							appeal, who would appeal? What plebeian, even the humblest, would find
							protection in the laws, if Appius Claudius could not? His case would
							show whether it was tyranny or freedom that was conferred by the new
							laws, and whether the right of challenge and appeal against the
							injustice of magistrates was only displayed in empty words or was
							actually granted.

Verginius replied. Appius Claudius, he said, alone was outside the laws,
							outside all the bonds that held states or even human society together.

Let men cast their eyes on that tribunal, the fortress of all
							villainies, where that perpetual decemvir, surrounded by hangmen not
							lictors, in contempt of gods and men alike, wreaked his vengeance on the
							goods, the backs, and the lives of the

citizens, threatening all indiscriminately with the rods and axes, and
							then when his mind was diverted from rapine and murder to lust, tore a
							free-born maiden from her father's arms, before the eyes of Rome , and gave her to a client, the
							minister of his intrigues —that

tribunal where by cruel decree and infamous judgment he armed the
							father's hand against the daughter, where he ordered those who took up
							the maiden's lifeless body — her betrothed lover and her grandfather —to
							be thrown into prison, moved less by her death than by the check to his
							criminal gratification. For him as much as for others was that prison
							built which he used to call “the domicile of the Roman
							plebs.”

Let him appeal again and again, he (the speaker) would always refer him
							to an umpire on the charge of having sentenced a free person to slavery.
							If he would not go before an umpire he should order him to be imprisoned
							as though found guilty.

He was accordingly thrown into prison, and though no one actually opposed
							this step, there was a general feeling of anxiety, since even the
							plebeians themselves thought it an excessive use of their liberty to
							inflict punishment on so great a man. The tribune adjourned the day of
							trial.

During these proceedings ambassadors came from the Latins and Hernicans
							to offer their congratulations on the restoration of harmony between the
							patriciate and the plebs. As a memorial of it, they brought an offering
							to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, in the shape of a golden crown. It was not a
							large one, as they were not wealthy States; their religious observances
							were characterised by devotion rather than magnificence. They also
							brought information that the Aequi and.

Volscians were devoting all their energies to preparing for war. The
							consuls were thereupon ordered to arrange their respective commands.

The Sabines fell to Horatius, the Aequi to Valerius They proclaimed a
							levy for these wars, and so favourable was the attitude of the plebs
							that not only did the men liable for service promptly give in their
							names, but a large part of the levy consisted of men who had served
							their time and came forward as volunteers. In this way the army was
							strengthened not only in numbers but in the quality of the soldiers, as
							veterans took their places in the ranks.

Before they left the City, the laws of the decemvirs, known as the
							“Twelve Tables,” were engraved in brass and publicly
							exhibited; some writers assert that the aediles discharged this task
							under orders from the tribunes.

Caius Claudius, through detestation of
							the crimes committed by the decemvirs, and the anger which he, more than
							any one, felt at the tyrannical conduct of his nephew, had retired to
							Regillum, his ancestral home. Though advanced in years, he now returned
							to the City, to deprecate the dangers threatening the man whose vicious
							practices had driven him into retirement.

Going down to the Forum in mourning garb, accompanied by the members of
							his house and by his clients, he appealed to the citizens individually,
							and implored them not to stain the house of the Claudii with such an
							indelible disgrace as to deem them worthy of bonds and imprisonment. To
							think that a man whose image would be held in highest honour by posterity, the
							framer of their laws and the founder of Roman jurisprudence, should be
							lying manacled amongst nocturnal thieves and

robbers! Let them turn their thoughts for a moment from feelings of
							exasperation to calm examination and reflection, and forgive one man at
							the intercession of so many of the Claudii, rather than through their
							hatred of one man despise the prayers of

many. So far he himself would go for the honour of his family and his
							name, but he was not reconciled to the man whose distressed condition he
							was anxious to

relieve. By courage their liberties had been recovered, by clemency the
							harmony of the orders in the State could be strengthened. Some were
							moved, but it was more by the affection he showed for his nephew than by
							any regard for the man for whom he was pleading. But Verginius begged
							them with tears to keep their compassion for him and his daughter, and
							not to listen to the prayers of the Claudii, who had assumed sovereign
							power over the plebs, but to the three tribunes, kinsmen of Verginia,
							who, after being elected to protect the plebeians, were now seeking
							their

protection. This appeal was felt to have more justice in

it. All hope being now cut off, Appius put an end to his life before the
							day of trial came. Soon after Sp. Oppius was arraigned by P. Numitorius.
							He was only less detested than Appius, because he had been in the City
							when his colleague pronounced the iniquitous

judgment. More indignation, however, was aroused by an atrocity which
							Oppius had committed than by his not having prevented one. A witness was
							produced, who after reckoning up twenty-seven years of service, and
							eight occasions on which he had been decorated for conspicuous bravery,
							appeared before the people wearing all his decorations. Tearing open his
							dress he exhibited his back lacerated with stripes. He asked for nothing
							but a proof on Oppius' part of any single charge against him; if such
							proof were forthcoming, Oppius, though now only a private citizen, might
							repeat all his cruelty towards

him. Oppius was taken to prison and there, before the day of trial, he
							put an end to his life. His property and that of Claudius were
							confiscated by the tribunes. Their colleagues changed their domicile by
							going into exile; their property also was

confiscated. M. Claudius, who had been the claimant of Verginia, was
							tried and condemned. Verginius himself, however, refused to press for
							the extreme penalty, so he was allowed to go into exile to

Tibur . Verginia was more
							fortunate after her death than in her lifetime; her shade, after
							wandering through so many houses in quest of expiatory penalties, at
							length found rest, not one guilty person being now left.

Great alarm seized the patricians; the looks of the tribunes were now as
							menacing as those of the decemvirs had been. M. Duillius the tribune
							imposed a salutary check upon their excessive exercise of authority.

“They have gone,” he said, “far enough in the
							assertion of our liberty and the punishment of our opponents, so for
							this year I will allow no man to be brought to trial or cast into
							prisons.

I disapprove of old crimes, long forgotten, being raked up, now that the
							recent crimes have been atoned for by the punishment of the decemvirs.
							The unceasing care which both the consuls are taking to protect your
							liberties is a guarantee that nothing will be done which will call for
							the power of the tribunes.”

This spirit of moderation shown by the tribune relieved the fears of the
							patricians, but it also intensified their resentment against the
							consuls, for they seemed to be so wholly devoted to the plebs, that the
							safety and liberty of the patricians were a matter of more immediate
							concern to the plebeian than they were to the patrician magistrates. It
							seemed as though their adversaries would grow weary of inflicting
							punishment on them sooner than the consuls would curb their insolence.

It was pretty generally asserted that they had shown weakness, since
							their laws had been sanctioned by the senate, and no doubt was
							entertained that they had yielded to the pressure of circumstances.

After matters had been
							settled in the City and the position of the plebs firmly assured, the
							consuls left for their respective provinces. Valerius wisely suspended
							operations against the combined forces of the Aequi and Volscians.

If he had at once hazarded an engagement, I question whether,
							considering the temper of both Rome and the enemy after the inauspicious leadership of
							the decemvirs, he would not have incurred a serious defeat.

Taking up a position about a mile from the enemy, he kept his men in
							camp. The enemy formed up for battle, and filled the space between the
							camps, but their challenge met with no response from the Romans.

Tired at last of standing and vainly waiting for battle, and regarding
							victory as practically conceded to them, the two nations marched away to
							ravage the territories of the Hernici and Latins. The force left behind
							was sufficient to guard the camp, but not to sustain an action.

On seeing this the consul made them in their turn feel the terror which
							they had inspired, drew up his men in order of battle and challenged
							them to fight.

As, conscious of their reduced strength, they declined an engagement,
							the courage of the Romans at once rose, and they looked upon the men who
							kept timidly within their lines as already defeated.

After standing the whole day eager to engage, they retired at nightfall;
							the enemy in a very different state of mind sent men hurriedly in all
							directions to recall the plundering parties; those in the neighbourhood
							hastened back to camp, the more distant ones were not traced.

As soon as it grew light, the Romans marched out, prepared to storm
							their camp if they did not give them the chance of a battle. When the
							day was far advanced without any movement on the part of the enemy, the
							consul gave the order to advance. As the line moved forward, the Aequi
							and Volscians, indignant at the prospect of their victorious armies
							being protected by earthworks rather than by courage and arms, clamoured
							for the signal for battle.

It was given, and part of their force had already emerged from the gate
							of the camp, whilst others were coming down in order and taking up their
							allotted positions, but before the enemy could mass his whole strength
							in the field the Roman consul delivered his attack.

They had not all marched out of the camp, those who had done so were not
							able to deploy into line, and crowded together as they were, they began
							to waver and sway. Whilst they looked round helplessly at each other,
							undecided what to do, the Romans raised their war-cry, and at first the
							enemy

gave ground, then, when they had recovered their presence of mind and
							their generals were appealing to them not to give way before those whom
							they had defeated, the battle was restored.

On the other side the consul bade the Romans remember that on that day
							for the first time they were fighting as free men on behalf of a free
								 Rome . It was for
							themselves that they would conquer, the fruits of their victory would
							not go to decemvirs.

The battle was not being fought under an Appius, but under their consul
							Valerius, a descendant of the liberators of the Roman people, and a
							liberator himself.

They must show that it was owing to the generals, not to the soldiers,
							that they had failed to conquer in former battles; it would be a
							disgrace if they showed more courage against their own citizens than
							against a foreign foe, or dreaded slavery at home more than abroad.

It was only Verginia whose chastity was imperilled, only Appius whose
							licentiousness was dangerous, in a time of peace, but if the fortune of
							war should turn against them, every one's children would be in danger
							from all those thousands of enemies.

He would not forebode disasters which neither Jupiter nor Mars their Father would
							permit to a City founded under those happy auspices. He reminded them of
							the Aventine and the Sacred
							Hill, and besought them to carry back unimpaired dominion to that spot
							where a few months before they had won their liberties.

They must make it clear that Roman soldiers possessed the same qualities
							now that the decemvirs were expelled which they had before they were
							created, and that Roman courage was not weakened by the fact that the
							laws were equal for all.

After this address to the infantry, he galloped up to the cavalry.
							“Come, young men,” he shouted, “prove yourselves
							superior to the infantry in courage, as you are superior to them in
							honour and rank.

They dislodged the enemy at the first onset, do you ride in amongst them
							and drive them from the field. They will not stand your charge, even now
							they are hesitating rather than resisting.”

With slackened rein, they spurred their horses against the enemy already
							shaken by the infantry encounter, and sweeping through their broken
							ranks were carried to the rear. Some, wheeling round in the open ground,
							rode across and headed off the fugitives who were everywhere making for
							the camp.

The line of infantry with the consul in person and the whole of the
							battle rolled in the same direction; they got possession of the camp
							with an immense loss to the enemy, but the booty was still greater than
							the carnage.

The news of this battle was carried not only to the City, but to the
							other army amongst the Sabines. In the City it was celebrated with
							public rejoicings, but in the other camp it fired the soldiers to
							emulation.

By employing them in incursions and testing their courage in skirmishes,
							Horatius had trained them to put confidence in themselves instead of
							brooding over the disgrace incurred under the leadership of the
							decemvirs, and this had gone far to make them hope for ultimate success.

The Sabines, emboldened by their success of the previous year were
							incessantly provoking them and urging them to fight, and wanting to know
							why they were wasting their time in petty incursions and retreats like
							bandits, and frittering away the effort of one decisive action in a
							number of insignificant engagements.

Why, they tauntingly asked, did they not meet them in a pitched battle
							and trust once for all to the fortune of war?

The Romans had not only recovered their courage, but they were burning
							with indignation. The other army, they said, was about to return to the
							City in triumph, whilst they were exposed to the taunts of an insolent
							foe. When would they ever be a match for the enemy if they were not now?

The consul became aware of these murmurings of discontent, and after
							summoning the soldiers to an assembly, addressed them as follows:
							“How the battle was fought on Algidus, soldiers, I suppose you
							have heard. The army behaved as the army of a free people ought to
							behave. The victory was won by the generalship of my colleague and the
							bravery of his soldiers.

As far as I am concerned, I am ready to adopt that plan of operations
							which you, my soldiers, have the courage to execute. The war may either
							be prolonged with advantage, or brought to an early close.

If it is to be protracted I shall continue the method of training which
							I have begun, so that your spirits and courage may rise day by day. If
							you want it brought to a decisive issue, come now, raise such a shout as
							you will raise in battle as a proof of your willingness and
							courage.”

After they had raised the shout with great alacrity, he assured them
							that, with the blessing of heaven, he would comply with their wishes and
							lead them out to battle on the morrow. The rest of the day was spent in
							getting their armour and weapons ready.

No sooner did the Sabines see the Romans forming in order of battle the
							next morning than they also advanced to an engagement which they had
							long been eager for. The battle was such as would be expected between
							armies both of which were full of self-confidence —the one proud of its
							old and unbroken renown, the other flushed with its recent victory.

The Sabines called strategy to their aid, for, after giving their line
							an extent equal to that of the enemy, they kept 2000 men in reserve to
							make an impression on the Roman left when the battle was at its height.

By this flank attack they had almost surrounded and were beginning to
							overpower that wing, when the cavalry of the two legions —about 600
							strong- -sprang from their horses and rushed to the front to support
							their comrades, who were now giving way.

They checked the enemy's advance and at the same time roused the courage
							of the infantry by sharing their danger, and appealing to their sense of
							shame, by showing that whilst the cavalry could fight either mounted or
							on foot, the infantry, trained to fight on foot, were inferior even to
							dismounted cavalry.

So they resumed the struggle which they were giving up and recovered the
							ground they had lost, and in a moment not only was the battle restored
							but the Sabines on that wing were even forced back.

The cavalry returned to their horses, protected by the infantry through
							whose ranks they passed, and galloped off to the other wing to announce
							their success to their comrades. At the same time they made a charge on
							the enemy, who were now demoralised through the defeat of their
							strongest wing. None showed more brilliant courage in that battle.

The consul's eyes were everywhere, he commended the brave, had words of
							rebuke wherever the battle seemed to slacken. Those whom he censured
							displayed at once the energy of brave men, they were stimulated by a
							sense of shame, as much as the others by his commendation.

The battle-cry was again raised, and by one united effort on the part of
							the whole army they repulsed the enemy; the Roman attack could no longer
							be withstood. The Sabines were scattered in all directions through the
							fields, and left their camp as a spoil to the enemy. What the Romans
							found there was not the property of their allies, as had been the case
							on Algidus, but their own, which had been lost in the ravaging of their
							homesteads.

For this double victory, won in two separate battles, the senate decreed
							thanksgivings on behalf of the consuls, but their jealousy restricted
							them to one day. The people, however, without receiving orders, went on
							the second day also in vast crowds to the temples, and this unauthorised
							and spontaneous thanksgiving was celebrated with almost greater
							enthusiasm than the former.

The consuls had mutually agreed to approach the City during these two
							days and convene a meeting of the senate in the Campus Martius .

Whilst they were making their report there on the conduct of the
							campaigns, the leaders of the senate entered a protest against their
							session being held in the midst of the troops, in order to intimidate
							them. To avoid any ground for this charge the consuls immediately
							adjourned the senate to the Flaminian Meadows, where the temple of
							Apollo —then called the Apollinare —now
							stands.

The senate by a large majority refused the consuls the honour of a
							triumph, whereupon L. Icilius, as tribune of the plebs, brought the
							question before the people.

Many came forward to oppose it, particularly C. Claudius, who exclaimed
							in excited tones that it was over the senate, not over the enemy, that
							the consuls wished to celebrate their triumph. It was demanded as an act
							of gratitude for a private service rendered to a tribune, not as an
							honour for merit.

Never before had a triumph been ordered by the people, it had always
							lain with the senate to decide whether one was deserved or not; not even
							kings had infringed the prerogative of the highest order in the State.
							The tribunes must not make their power pervade everything, so as to
							render the existence of a council of State impossible. The State will
							only be free, the laws equal, on condition that each order preserves its
							own rights, its own power and dignity.

Much to the same effect was said by the senior members of the senate, but
							the tribes unanimously adopted the proposal. That was the first instance
							of a triumph being celebrated by order of the people without the
							authorisation of the senate.

This victory of the tribunes and the plebs very nearly led to a dangerous
							abuse of power. A secret understanding was come to amongst the tribunes
							that they should all be reappointed and to prevent their factious
							purpose from being too noticeable they were to secure a continuance of
							the consuls in office also.

They alleged as a reason the agreement of the senate to undermine the
							rights of the plebs by the slight they had cast on the consuls:

“What,” they argued, “would happen if, before the
							laws were yet securely established, the patricians should attack fresh
							tribunes through consuls belonging to their own party?

For the consuls would not always be men of the stamp of Valerius and
							Horatius, who subordinated their own interests to the liberty of the
							plebs.” By a happy chance it fell to the lot of M. Duillius to
							preside over the elections.

He was a man of sagacity, and foresaw the obloquy that would be incurred
							by the continuance in office of the present magistrates. On his
							declaring that he would accept no votes for the former tribunes his
							colleagues insisted that he should either leave the tribes free to vote
							for whom they chose, or else resign the control of the elections to his
							colleagues who would conduct them according to law rather than at the
							will of the patricians.

As a contention had arisen, Duillius sent for the consuls and asked them
							what they intended to do about the consular elections. They replied that
							they should elect fresh consuls. Having thus gained popular supporters
							for a measure by no means popular, he proceeded in company with them
							into the Assembly.

Here the consuls were brought forward to the people and the question was
							put to them, “If the Roman people, remembering how you have
							recovered their liberty for them at home, remembering, too, your
							services and achievements in war, should make you consuls a second time,
							what do you intend to do?”

They declared their resolution unchanged, and Duillius, applauding the
							consuls for maintaining to the last an attitude totally unlike that of
							the decemvirs, proceeded to hold the election. Only five tribunes were
							elected, for owing to the efforts of the nine tribunes in openly pushing
							their canvass, the other candidates could not get the requisite majority
							of votes.

He dismissed the Assembly and did not hold a second election, on the
							ground that he had satisfied the requirements of the law, which nowhere
							fixed the number of tribunes, but merely enacted that the office of
							tribune should not be left vacant.

He ordered those who had been elected to co-opt colleagues, and recited
							the formula which governed the case as follows: “If I require you
							to elect ten tribunes of the plebs; if on this day you have elected less
							than ten, then those whom they co-opt shall be lawful tribunes of the
							plebs by the same law, in like manner as those whom you have this day
							made tribunes of the plebs.”

Duillius persisted in asserting to the last that the commonwealth could
							not possibly have fifteen tribunes, and he resigned office, after having
							won the goodwill of patricians and plebeians alike by his frustration of
							the ambitious designs of his colleagues.

Fresh Internal Dissensions. The new tribunes of the plebs
							studied the wishes of the senate in coopting colleagues; they even
							admitted two patricians of consular rank, Sp. Tarpeius and A. Aeternius.

The new consuls were Spurius Herminius and T. Verginius Caelimontanus,
							who were not violent partisans of either the patricians or the
							plebeians. They maintained peace both at home and abroad.

L. Trebonius, a tribune of the plebs, was angry with the senate because,
							as he said, he had been hoodwinked by them in the cooptation of
							tribunes, and left in the lurch by his colleagues.

He brought in a measure providing that when tribunes of the plebs were
							to be elected, the presiding magistrate should continue to hold the
							election until ten tribunes were elected. He spent his year of office in
							worrying the patricians, which led to his receiving the nickname of
							“ Asper ,” (i.e. “the
							Cantankerous”).

The next consuls were M. Geganius Macerinus and C. Julius. They appeased
							the quarrels which had broken out between the tribunes and the younger
							members of the nobility without interfering with the powers of the
							former or compromising the dignity of the patricians.

A levy had been decreed by the senate for service against the Volscians
							and Aequi, but they kept the plebs quiet by holding it over, and
							publicly asserting that when the City was at peace everything abroad was
							quiet, whereas civil discord encouraged the enemy.

Their care for peace led to harmony at home. But the one order was
							always restless when the other showed moderation.

Whilst the plebs was quiet it began to be subjected to acts of violence
							from the younger patricians. The tribunes tried to protect the weaker
							side, but they did little good at first, and soon even they them- selves
							were not exempt from ill-treatment, especially in later months of their
							year of office. Secret combinations amongst the stronger party resulted
							in lawlessness, and the exercise of the tribunitian authority usually
							slackened towards the close of the year.

Any hopes the plebeians might place in their tribunes depended upon
							their having men like Icilius; the last two years they had had mere
							names.

On the other hand, the older patricians realised that their younger
							members were too aggressive, but if there were to be excesses they
							preferred that their own side should commit them rather than their
							opponents.

So difficult is it to observe moderation in the defence of liberty,
							while each man under the pretence of equality raises himself only by
							keeping others down, and by their very precautions against fear men make
							themselves feared, and in repelling injury from ourselves we inflict it
							on others as though there were no alternative between doing wrong and
							suffering it.

T. Quinctius Capitolinus and Agrippa Curius were
							the next consuls elected —the former for the fourth time. They found on
							entering office no disturbances at home nor any war abroad, though both
							were threatening.

The dissensions of the citizens could now no longer be checked, as both
							the tribunes and the plebs were exasperated against the patricians,
							owing to the Assembly being constantly disturbed by fresh quarrels
							whenever one of the nobility was prosecuted.

At the first bruit of these outbreaks, the Aequi and Volscians, as though
							at a given signal, took up arms. Moreover their leaders, eager for
							plunder, had persuaded them that it had been impossible to raise the
							levy ordered two years previously, because the plebs refused to obey,
							and it was owing to this that no armies had been sent against them;

military discipline was broken up by insubordination; Rome was no longer looked upon as the
							common fatherland; all their rage against foreign foes was turned
							against one another. Now was the opportunity for destroying these wolves
							blinded by the madness of mutual hatred.

With their united forces they first completely desolated the Latin
							territory; then, meeting with none to check their depredations, they
							actually approached the walls of Rome , to the great delight of those who had fomented
							the war. Extending their ravages in the direction of the Esquiline gate, they plundered and
							harried, through sheer insolence, in the sight of the City.

After they had marched back unmolested with their plunder to Corbio, the
							consul Quinctius convoked the people to an Assembly.

I find that he spoke there as follows: “Though, Quirites, my own
							conscience is clear, it is, nevertheless, with feelings of the deepest
							shame that I have come before you. That you should know —that it will be
							handed down to posterity —that the Aequi and Volscians, who were lately
							hardly a match for the Hernici, have in the fourth consulship of T.
							Quinctius come in arms up to the walls of Rome with impunity!

Although we have long been living in such a state, although public
							affairs are in such a condition, that my mind augurs nothing good,
							still, had I known that this disgrace was coming in this year, of all
							others, I would have avoided by exile or by death, had there been no
							other means of escape, the honour of a consulship.

So then, if those arms which were at our gates had been in the hands of
							men worthy of the name, Rome 
							could have been taken whilst I was consul! I had enough of honours,
							enough and more than enough of life, I ought to have died in my third
							consulship.

Who was it that those most dastardly foes felt contempt for, us consuls,
							or you Quirites? If the fault is in us, strip us of an office which we
							are unworthy to hold, and if that is not enough, visit us with
							punishment. If the fault is in you, may there be no one, either god or
							man, who will punish your sins; may you repent of them!

It was not your cowardice that provoked their contempt, nor their valour
							that gave them confidence; they have been too often defeated, put to
							flight, driven out of their entrenchments, deprived of their territory,
							not to know themselves and you. It is the dissensions between the two
							orders, the quarrels between patricians and plebeians that is poisoning
							the life of this City.

As long as our power respects no limits, and your liberty acknowledges
							no restraints, as long as you are impatient of patrician, we of plebeian
							magistrates, so long has the courage of our enemies been rising. What in
							heaven's name do you want? You set your hearts on having tribunes of the
							plebs, we yielded, for the sake of peace.

You yearned for decemvirs, we consented to their appointment; you grew
							utterly weary of them, we compelled them to resign. Your hatred pursued
							them into private life; to satisfy you, we allowed the noblest and most
							distinguished of our order to suffer death or go into exile.

You wanted tribunes of the plebs to be appointed again; you have
							appointed them.

Although we saw how unjust it was to the patricians that men devoted to
							your interests should be elected consuls, we have seen even that
							patrician office conferred by favour of the plebs The tribunes'
							protective authority, the right of appeal to the people, the resolutions
							of the plebs made binding on the patricians, the suppression of our
							rights and privileges under the pretext of making the laws equal for all
							—these things we have submitted to, and do submit to.

What term is there to be to our dissensions? When shall we ever be
							allowed to have a united City, when will this ever be our common
							fatherland?

We who have lost, show more calmness and evenness of temper than you who
							have won. Is it not enough that you have made us fear you? It was
							against us that the Aventine 
							was seized, against us the Sacred Hill occupied. When the Esquiline is all but captured and the
							Volscian is trying to scale the rampart, no one dislodges
								 him . Against us you show yourselves men;
							against us you take up arms.”

“Well, then, now that you have beleaguered the Senate-house, and
							treated the Forum as enemies' ground, and filled the prison with our

foremost men, display the same daring courage in making a sortie from
							the Esquiline gate, or if you
							have not the courage even for this, mount the walls and watch your
							fields disgracefully laid waste with fire and sword, plunder carried off
							and smoke rising everywhere from your burning dwellings.

But I may be told it is the common interests of all that are being
							injured by this; the land is burned, the City besieged, all the honours
							of war rest with the enemy. Good heavens! In what condition are your own
							private interests? Every one of you will have losses reported to him
							from the fields.

What, pray, is there at home from which to make them good? Will the
							tribunes restore and repay you for what you have lost? They will
							contribute any amount you like of talk and words and accusations against
							the leading men, and law after law, and meetings of the Assembly. But
							from those meetings not a single one of you will ever go home the
							richer.

Who has ever brought back to his wife and children anything but
							resentment and hatred, party strife and personal quarrels, from which
							you are to be protected not by your own courage and honesty of purpose,
							but by the help of others?

But, let me tell you, when you were campaigning under us your consuls,
							not under tribunes, in the camp not in the Forum, and your battle-cry
							appalled the enemy in the field, not the patricians of Rome in the Assembly then you
							obtained booty, took territory from the enemy, and returned to your
							homes and household gods in triumph, laden with wealth and covered with
							glory both for the State and for yourselves. Now you allow the enemy to
							depart laden with your property.

Go on, stick to your Assembly meetings, pass your lives in the Forum,
							still the necessity, which you shirk, of taking the field follows you.
							It was too much for you to go out against the Aequi and Volscians; now
							the war is at your gates. If it is not beaten back, it will be within
							the walls, it will scale the Citadel and the Capitol and follow you into
							your homes.

It is two years since the senate ordered a levy to be raised and an army
							led out to Algidus; we are still sitting idly at home, wrangling with
							one another like a troop of women, delighted with the momentary peace,
							and shutting our eyes to the fact that we shall very soon have to pay
							for our inaction many times over in war.”

“I know that there are other things pleasanter to speak about
							than these, but necessity compels me, even if a sense of duty did not,
							to say what is true instead of what is agreeable. I should only be too
							glad, Quirites, to give you pleasure, but I would very much rather have
							you safe, however you may feel towards me for the future.

Nature has so ordered matters that the man who addresses the multitude
							for his own private ends is much more popular than the man who thinks of
							nothing but the public good. Possibly, you imagine that it is in your
							interest that those demagogues who flatter the plebs and do not suffer
							you either to take up arms or live in peace, excite you and make you
							restless.

They only do so to win notoriety or to make something out of it, and
							because they see that when the two orders are in harmony they are
							nowhere, they are willing to be leaders in a bad cause rather than in
							none, and get up disturbances and seditions.”

“If there is any possibility of your becoming at last weary of
							this sort of thing, if you are willing to resume the character which
							marked your fathers and yourselves in old days,

instead of these new-fangled ideas, then there is no punishment I will
							not submit to, if I do not in a few days drive these destroyers of our
							fields in confusion and flight out of their camp, and remove from our
							gates and walls to their cities this dread aspect of war which now so
							appalls you.”

Seldom if ever was speech of popular tribune more favourably received by
							the plebeians than that of this stern consul.

The men of military age who in similar emergencies had made refusal to
							be enrolled their most effective weapon against the senate, began now to
							turn their thoughts to arms and war. The fugitives from the country
							districts, those who had been plundered and wounded in the fields,
							reported a more terrible state of things than what was visible from the
							walls, and filled the whole City with a thirst for vengeance.

When the senate met, all eyes turned to Quinctius as the one man who
							could uphold the majesty of Rome . The leaders of the House declared his speech to
							be worthy of the position he held as consul, worthy of the many
							consulships he had previously held, worthy of his whole life, rich as it
							was in honours, many actually enjoyed, many more deserved.

Other consuls, they said, had either flattered the plebs by betraying
							the authority and privileges of the patricians, or, by insisting too
							harshly upon the rights of their order, had intensified the opposition
							of the masses. Titus Quinctius, in his speech, had kept in view the
							authority of the senate, the concord of the two orders, and, above all,
							the circumstances of the hour.

They begged him and his colleague to take over the conduct of public
							affairs, and appealed to the tribunes to be of one mind with the consuls
							in wishing to see the war rolled back from the walls of the City, and
							inducing the plebs, at such a crisis, to yield to the authority of the
							senate. Their common fatherland was, they declared, calling on the
							tribunes and imploring their aid now that their fields were ravaged and
							the City all but attacked.

By universal consent a levy was decreed and held. The consuls gave public
							notice that there was no time for investigating claims for exemption,
							and all the men liable for service were to present themselves the next
							day in the Campus Martius .

When the war was over they would give time for inquiry into the cases of
							those who had not given in their names, and those who could not prove
							justification would be held to be deserters.

All who were liable to serve appeared on the following day. Each of the
							cohorts selected their own centurions, and two senators were placed in
							command of each cohort. We understand that these arrangements were so
							promptly carried out that the standards, which had been taken from the
							treasury and carried down to the Campus Martius by the quaestors in the
							morning, left the Campus at 10 o'clock that same day, and the army, a
							newly-raised one with only a few cohorts of veterans following as
							volunteers, halted at the tenth milestone.

The next day brought them within sight of the enemy, and they entrenched
							their camp close to the enemy's camp at Corbio.

The Romans were fired by anger and resentment; the enemy, conscious of
							their guilt after so many revolts, despaired of pardon. There was
							consequently no delay in bringing matters to an issue.

In the Roman army the two consuls possessed equal authority. Agrippa,
							however, voluntarily resigned the supreme command to his colleague —a
							very beneficial arrangement where matters of great importance are
							concerned —and the latter, thus preferred by the ungrudging
							self-suppression of his colleague, courteously responded by imparting to
							him his plans, and treating him in every way as his equal.

When drawn up in battle order, Quinctius commanded the right wing,
							Agrippa the left. The centre was assigned to Sp. Postumius Albus,
							lieutenant-general; the other lieutenant-general, P. Sulpicius, was
							given charge of the cavalry.

The infantry on the right wing fought splendidly, but met with stout
							resistance on the side of the Volscians.

P. Sulpicius with his cavalry broke the enemy's centre. He could have
							got back to the main body before the enemy reformed their broken ranks,
							but he decided to attack from the rear, and would have scattered the
							enemy in a moment, attacked as they were in front and rear, had not the
							cavalry of the Volscians and Aequi, adopting his own tactics,
							intercepted him and kept him for some time engaged.

He shouted to his men that there was no time to lose, they would be
							surrounded and cut off from their main body if they did not do their
							utmost to make a finish of the cavalry fight;

it was not enough simply to put them to flight, they must dispose of
							both horses and men, that none might return to the field or renew the
							fighting. They could not resist those before whom a serried line of
							infantry had given way. His words did not fall on deaf ears.

In one shock they routed the whole of the cavalry, hurled a vast number
							from their seats, and drove their lances into the horses.

That was the end of the cavalry fight. Next they made a rear attack on
							the infantry, and when their line began to waver they sent a report to
							the consuls of what they had done. The news gave fresh courage to the
							Romans, who were now winning, and dismayed the retreating Aequi.

Their defeat began in the centre, where the cavalry charge had thrown
							them into disorder. Then the repulse of the left wing by the consul
							Quinctius commenced.

The right wing gave more trouble. Here Agrippa, whose age and strength
							made him fearless, seeing that things were going better in all parts of
							the field than with him, seized standards from the standard-bearers and
							advanced with them himself, some he even began to throw amongst the
							masses of the enemy. Roused at the fear and disgrace of losing them, his
							men made a fresh charge on the enemy, and in all directions the Romans
							were equally successful.

At this point a message came from Quinctius that he was victorious, and
							was now threatening the enemy's camp, but would not attack it till he
							knew that the action on the left wing was decided.

If Agrippa had defeated the enemy he was to join him, so that the whole
							army might together take possession of the spoil. The victorious
							Agrippa, amidst mutual congratulations, proceeded to his colleague and
							the enemy's camp.

The few defenders were routed in a moment and the entrenchment forced
							without any resistance. The army was marched back to camp after securing
							immense spoil and recovering their own property which had been lost in
							the ravaging of their lands.

I cannot find that a triumph was either demanded by the consuls or
							granted by the senate; nor is any reason recorded for this honour having
							been either not expected or not thought worth asking for.

As far as I can conjecture after such an interval of time, the reason
							would appear to be that as a triumph was refused by the senate to the
							consuls Valerius and Horatius, who, apart from the Volscians and Aequi,
							had won the distinction of bringing the Sabine war to a close, the
							present consuls were ashamed to ask for a triumph for doing only half as
							much, lest, if they did obtain it, it might appear to be out of
							consideration for the men more than for their services.

This
							honourable victory won from an enemy was sullied by a disgraceful
							decision

of the people respecting the territory of their allies. The inhabitants
							of Aricia and Ardea had frequently gone to war over some disputed land;
							tired at last of their many reciprocal defeats,

they referred the matter to the arbitrament of Rome. The magistrates
							convened an Assembly on their behalf, and when they had come to plead
							their cause, the debate was conducted with much warmth. When the
							evidence was concluded and the time came for the tribes to be called
							upon to vote, P. Scaptius, an aged plebeian, rose and said, “If,
							consuls, I am allowed to speak on matters of high policy, I will not

suffer the people to go wrong in this matter.” The consuls
							refused him a hearing, as being a man of no credit, and when he loudly
							exclaimed that the commonwealth was being betrayed they ordered

him to be removed. He appealed to the tribunes. The tribunes, who are
							almost always ruled by the multitude more than they rule them, finding
							that the plebs were anxious to hear

him, gave Scaptius permission to say what he wanted. So he began by
							saying that he was now in his eighty-third year and had seen service in
							that country which was now in dispute, not as a young man but as a
							veteran of twenty years'

standing, when the war was going on against Corioli. He therefore
							alleged as a fact, forgotten through lapse of time, but deeply imprinted
							in his own memory, that the disputed land formed part of the territory
							of Corioli, and when that city was taken, became by the right of war
							part of the State domain of Rome. The Ardeates and Aricians had never
							claimed it while Corioli was unconquered, and he was wondering how they
							could hope to filch it from the people of Rome,

whom they had made arbiters instead of rightful owners. He had not long
							to live, but he could not, old as he was, bring himself to refrain from
							using the only means in his power, namely, his voice, in order to assert
							the right to that territory which as a soldier he had done his best to
							win. He earnestly advised the people not to pronounce, from a false
							feeling of delicacy, against a cause which was really their own.

When the consuls saw that Scaptius was listened to not only in silence
							but even with approval, they called gods and men to witness that a
							monstrous injustice was being perpetrated, and sent for the leaders of
							the senate.

Accompanied by them they went amongst the tribes and implored them not
							to commit the worst of crimes and establish a still worse precedent by
							perverting justice to their own advantage. Even supposing it were
							permissible for a judge to look after his own interest, they would
							certainly never gain by appropriating the disputed territory as much as
							they would lose by estranging the feelings of their allies through their
							injustice.

The damage done to their good name and credit would be incalculable.
							Were the envoys to carry back this to their home, was it to go out to
							the world, was it to reach the ears of their allies and of their
							enemies? With what pain the former would receive it, with what joy the
							latter!

Did they suppose that the surrounding nations would fix the
							responsibility for it on Scaptius, a mob-orator in his dotage? To him it
							might be a patent of nobility, but on the Roman people it would stamp a
							character for trickery and fraud.

For what judge has ever dealt with a private suit so as to adjudge to
							himself the property in dispute? Even Scaptius would not do that,
							although he has outlived all sense of shame.

In spite of these earnest appeals which the consuls and senators made,
							cupidity and Scaptius its instigator prevailed. The tribes, when called
							upon to vote, decided that it was part of the public domain of Rome.

It is not denied that the result would have been the same had the case
							gone before other judges, but as it is, the disgrace attaching to the
							judgment is not in the least degree lightened by any justice in the
							case, nor did it appear more ugly and tyrannical to the people of Aricia
							and Ardea than it did to the Roman senate. The rest of the year remained
							undisturbed both at home and abroad.

The 
							consuls who succeeded were M. Genucius and C. Curtius. The year was a
							troubled one both at home and abroad. In the beginning of the year C.
							Canuleius, a tribune of the plebs, introduced a law with regard to the
							intermarriage of patricians and plebeians.

The patricians considered that their blood would be contaminated by it
							and the special rights of the houses thrown into confusion. Then the tribunes
							began to throw out hints about one consul being elected from the plebs,
							and matters advanced so far that nine tribunes brought in a measure
							empowering the people to elect consuls from the plebeians or the
							patricians as they chose.

The patricians believed that, if this were carried, the supreme power
							would not only be degraded by being shared with the lowest of the
							people, but would entirely pass away from the chief men in the State
							into the hands of the plebs. The senate were not sorry, therefore,

to hear that Ardea had revolted as a consequence of the unjust decision
							about the territory, that the Veientines had ravaged the districts on
							the Roman frontier, and that the Volscians and Aequi were protesting
							against the fortifying of Verrugo;

so much did they prefer war, even when unsuccessful, to an ignominious
							peace. On receiving these reports-which were somewhat exaggerated-the
							senate tried to drown the voice of the tribunes in the uproar of so many
							wars by ordering a levy to be made and all preparations for war pushed
							on with the utmost vigour, more so, if possible, than during the
							consulship of T. Quinctius.

Thereupon C. Canuleius addressed the senate in a short and angry speech.
							It was, he said, useless for the consuls to hold out threats in the hope
							of distracting the attention of the plebs from the proposed law; as long
							as he was alive they should never hold a levy until the plebs had
							adopted the measures brought forward by himself and his colleagues. He
							at once convened an Assembly.

The consuls began to rouse the senate to take action against the
							tribunes, and at the same time the tribunes were getting up an agitation
							against the consuls. The consuls declared that the revolutionary
							proceedings of the tribunes could no longer be tolerated, matters had
							come to a crisis, there was a more bitter war going on at home than
							abroad.

This was not the fault of the plebs so much as of the senate, nor of the
							tribunes more than of the consuls. Those things in a State which attain
							the highest development are those which are encouraged by rewards;

it is thus that men become good citizens in times of peace, good
							soldiers in times of war.

In Rome the greatest rewards are won by seditious agitations, these have
							always brought honour to men both individually and in the mass. Those
							present should reflect upon the greatness and dignity of the senate as
							they had received it from their fathers, and consider what they were
							going to hand on to their children, in order that they might be able to
							feel pride in the extension and growth of its influence, as the plebs
							felt pride in theirs.

There was no final settlement in sight, nor would there be as long as
							agitators were honoured in proportion to the success of their agitation.
							What enormous questions had C. Canuleius raised!

He was advocating the breaking up of the houses, tampering with the
							auspices, both those of the State and those of individuals, so that
							nothing would be pure, nothing free from contamination, and in the
							effacing of all distinctions of rank, no one would know either himself
							or his kindred.

What other result would mixed marriages have except to make unions
							between patricians and plebeians almost like the promiscuous association
							of animals? The offspring of such marriages would not know whose blood
							flowed in his veins, what sacred rites he might perform; half of him
							patrician, half plebeian, he would not even be in harmony with himself.
							And as though it were a small matter for all things human and divine to
							be thrown into confusion, the disturbers of the people were now making
							an onslaught on the consulship.

At first the question of one consul being elected from the plebs was
							only mooted in private conversations, now a measure was brought forward
							giving the people power to elect consuls from either patricians or
							plebeians as they chose.

And there was no shadow of doubt that they would elect all the most
							dangerous revolutionaries in the plebs; the Canuleii and the Icilii
							would be consuls. Might Jupiter Optimus Maximus never allow a power
							truly royal in its majesty to sink so low! They would rather die a
							thousand deaths than suffer such an ignominy to be perpetrated.

Could their ancestors have divined that all their concessions only
							served to make the plebs more exacting, not more friendly, since their
							first success only emboldened them to make more and more urgent demands,
							it was quite certain that they would have gone any lengths in resistance
							sooner than allow these laws to be forced upon them.

Because a concession was once made in the matter of tribunes, it had
							been made again; there was no end to it. Tribunes of the plebs and the
							senate could not exist in the same State, either that office or this
							order (i.e. the nobility) must go. Their insolence and recklessness must
							be opposed, and better late than never.

Were they to be allowed with impunity to stir up our neighbours to war
							by sowing the seeds of discord and then prevent the State from arming in
							its defence against those whom they had stirred up, and after all but
							summoning the enemy not allow armies to be enrolled against the enemy?

Was Canuleius, forsooth, to have the audacity to give out before the
							senate that unless it was prepared to accept his conditions, like those
							of a conqueror, he would stop a levy being held? What else was that but
							threatening to betray his country and allowing it to be attacked and
							captured? What courage would his words inspire, not in the Roman plebs
							but in the Volscians and Aequi and Veientines!

Would they not hope, with Canuleius as their leader, to be able to scale
							the Capitol and the Citadel, if the tribunes, after stripping the senate
							of its rights and its authority, deprived it also of its courage? The
							consuls were ready to be their leaders against criminal citizens before
							they led them against the enemy in arms.

At the very time when this was going on in the senate, Canuleius
							delivered the following speech in defence of his laws and in opposition
							to the consuls:

“I fancy, Quirites, that I have often noticed in the past how
							greatly the patricians despise you, how unworthy they deem you to live
							in the same City, within the same walls, as they.

Now, however, it is perfectly obvious, seeing how bitter an opposition
							they have raised to our proposed laws. For what is our purpose in
							framing them except to remind them that we are their fellow-citizens,
							and though we do not possess the same power, we still inhabit the same
							country?

In one of these laws we demand the right of intermarriage, a right
							usually granted to neighbours and foreigners-indeed we have granted
							citizenship, which is more than intermarriage,

even to a conquered enemy-in the other we are bringing forward nothing
							new, but simply demanding back what belongs to the people and claiming
							that the Roman people should confer its honours on whom it will.

What possible reason is there why they should embroil heaven and earth,
							why recently in the Senate-house I was on the point of being subjected
							to personal violence, why they declare they will not keep their hands
							off, and threaten to attack our inviolable authority?

Will this City be no longer able to stand, is our dominion at an end, if
							a free vote is allowed to the Roman people so that they may entrust the
							consulship to whomsoever they will, and no plebeian may be shut out from
							the hope of attaining the highest honour if only he be worthy of the
							highest honour?

Does the phrase “Let no plebeian be made consul” mean just
							the same as “No slave or freedman shall be consul”? Do you
							ever realise in what contempt you are living? They would rob you of your
							share in this daylight, if they could.

They are indignant because you breathe and utter speech and wear the
							form of men. Why! Heaven forgive me, they actually say that it would be
							an act of impiety for a plebeian to be made consul! Though we are not
							allowed access to the “ Fasti 
							” or the records of the pontiffs, do we not, pray, know what
							every stranger knows, that the consuls have simply taken the place of
							the kings, and possess no right or privilege which was not previously
							vested in the kings?

I suppose you have never heard tell that Numa Pompilius, who was not
							only no patrician but not even a Roman citizen, was summoned from the
							land of the Sabines, and after being accepted by the people and
							confirmed by the senate, reigned as king of Rome?

Or that, after him, L. Tarquinius, who belonged to no Roman house, not
							even to an Italian one, being the son of Demaratus of Corinth, who had
							settled in Tarquinii, was made king while the sons of Ancus were still
							alive?

Or that, after him again, Servius Tullius, the illegitimate son of a
							female slave captured at Corniculum, gained the crown by sheer merit and
							ability? Why need I mention the Sabine Titus Tatius, with whom Romulus
							himself, the Father of the City, shared his throne?

As long as no class of person in which conspicuous merit appeared was
							rejected, the Roman dominion grew. Are you then to regard a plebeian
							consul with disgust, when our ancestors showed no aversion to strangers
							as their kings?

Not even after the expulsion of the kings was the City closed to foreign
							merit. The Claudian house, at all events, who migrated from the Sabines,
							was received by us not only into citizenship, but even into the ranks of
							the patricians.

Shall a man who was an alien become a patrician and afterwards consul,
							and a Roman citizen, if he belongs to the plebs, be cut off from all
							hope of the consulship?

Do we believe that it is impossible for a plebeian to be brave and
							energetic and capable both in peace and war, or if there be such a man,
							are we not to allow him to touch the helm of the State;

are we to have, by preference, consuls like the decemvirs, those vilest
							of mortals-who, nevertheless, were all patricians-rather than men who
							resemble the best of the kings, new men though they were?”

“But, I may be told, no consul, since the expulsion of the kings,
							has ever been elected from the plebs. What then? Ought no innovation
							ever to be introduced; and because a thing has not yet been done-and in
							a new community there are many things which have not yet been done-
							ought they not to be done, even when they are advantageous?

In the reign of Romulus there were no pontiffs, no college of augurs;
							they were created by Numa Pompilius. There was no census in the State,
							no register of the centuries and classes; it was made by Servius
							Tullius.

There were never any consuls; when the kings had been expelled they were
							created. Neither the power nor the name of Dictator was in existence; it
							originated with the senate. There were no tribunes of the plebs, no
							aediles, no quaestors; it was decided that these offices should be
							created. Within the last ten years we appointed decemvirs to commit the
							laws to writing and then we abolished their office.

Who doubts that in a City built for all time and without any limits to
							its growth new authorities have to be established, new priesthoods,
							modifications in the rights and privileges of the houses as well as of
							individual citizens?

Was not this very prohibition of intermarriage between patricians and
							plebeians, which inflicts such serious injury on the commonwealth and
							such a gross injustice on the plebs, made by the decemvirs within these
							last few years?

Can there be a greater or more signal disgrace than for a part of the
							community to be held unworthy of intermarriage, as though contaminated?
							What is this but to suffer exile and banishment within the same walls?
							They are guarding against our becoming connected with them by affinity
							or relationship, against our blood being allied with theirs.

Why, most of you are descended from Albans and Sabines, and that
							nobility of yours you hold not by birth or blood, but by co-optation
							into the patrician ranks, having been selected for that honour either by
							the kings, or after their expulsion by the mandate of the people. If
							your nobility is tainted by union with us, could you not have kept it
							pure by private regulations, by not seeking brides from the plebs, and
							not suffering your sisters or daughters to marry outside your order?

No plebeian will offer violence to a patrician maiden, it is the
							patricians who indulge in those criminal practices.

None of us would have compelled any one to enter into a marriage
							contract against his will. But, really, that this should be prohibited
							by law and the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians made impossible
							is indeed insulting to the plebs.

Why do you not combine to forbid intermarriage between rich and poor?
							Everywhere and in all ages there has been an understanding that a woman
							might marry into any house in which she has been betrothed, and a man
							might marry from any house the woman to whom he has become engaged, and
							this understanding you are fettering by the manacles of a most insolent
							law, through which you may break up civil society and rend one State
							into two.

Why do you not enact a law that no plebeian shall live in the
							neighbourhood of a patrician, or go along the same road, or take his
							place at the same banquet, or stand in the same Forum? For, as a matter
							of fact, what difference is there, if a patrician marries a plebeian
							woman or a plebeian marries a patrician?

What rights are infringed, pray? Of course, the children follow the
							father. There is nothing that we are seeking in intermarriage with you,
							except that we may be reckoned amongst men and citizens; there is
							nothing for you to fight about, unless you delight in trying how far you
							can insult and degrade us.”

“In a word, does the supreme power belong to you or to the Roman
							people? Did the expulsion of the kings mean absolute ascendancy for you
							or equal liberty for all?

Is it right and proper for the Roman people to enact a law, if it wishes
							to do so, or are you going, whenever a measure is proposed, to order a
							levy by way of punishment? Am I to call the tribes up to vote, and as
							soon as I have begun, are you, the consuls, going to compel those who
							are liable for service to take the military oath, and then march them
							off to camp, threatening alike the plebs and the tribunes?

Why, have you not on two occasions found out what your threats are worth
							against a united plebs? Was it, I wonder, in our interest that you
							abstained from an open conflict, or was it because the stronger party
							was also the more moderate one that there was no fighting?

Nor will there be any conflict now, Quirites;

they will always try your courage, they will not test your
							strength.” “And so, consuls, the plebeians are ready to
							follow you to these wars, whether real or imaginary, on condition that
							by restoring the right of intermarriage you at last make this
							commonwealth a united one, that it be in their power to be allied with
							you by family ties, that the hope of attaining high office be granted to
							men of ability and energy, that it be open to them to be associated with
							you in taking their share of the government, and-which is the essence of
							equal liberty-to rule and obey in turn, in the annual succession of
							magistrates.

If any one is going to obstruct these measures, you may talk about wars
							and exaggerate them by rumour, no one is going to give in his name, no
							one is going to take up arms, no one is going to fight for domineering
							masters with whom they have in public life no partnership in honours,
							and in private life no right of intermarriage.”

After the two consuls had come forward into the Assembly, set speeches
							gave place to a personal altercation. The tribune asked why it was not
							right for a plebeian to be elected consul.

The consuls gave a reply which, though perhaps true, was an unfortunate
							one in view of the present controversy. They said, “Because no
							plebeian could have the auspices, and the reason why the decemvirs had
							put an end to intermarriage was to prevent the auspices from being
							vitiated through the uncertainty of descent.”

This bitterly exasperated the plebeians, for they believed that they
							were held incompetent to take the auspices because they were hateful to
							the immortal gods. As they had got a most energetic leader in their
							tribune and were supporting him with the utmost determination, the
							controversy ended in the defeat of the patricians.

They consented to the intermarriage law being passed, mainly in the
							belief that the tribunes would either abandon the struggle for plebeian
							consuls altogether, or would at least postpone it till after the war,
							and that the plebeians, contented with what they had gained, would be
							ready to enlist. Owing to his victory over the patricians Canuleius was
							now immensely popular.

Fired by his example, the other tribunes fought with the utmost energy
							to secure the passing of their measure, and though the rumours of war
							became more serious every day they obstructed the enlistment.

As no business could be transacted in the senate owing to the
							intervention of the tribunes, the consuls held councils of the leaders
							at their own houses. It was evident that they would have to yield the
							victory either to their foreign foes or to their own countrymen.

Valerius and Horatius were the only men of consular rank who did not
							attend these councils. C. Claudius was in favour of empowering the
							consuls to use armed force against the tribunes; the Quinctii,
							Cincinnatus and Capitolinus, were averse from bloodshed or injury to
							those whom in their treaty with the plebs they had agreed to hold
							inviolable. The result of their deliberations was that they allowed
							tribunes of the soldiers with consular powers to be elected from the
							patricians and plebeians indiscriminately;

no change was made in the election of consuls. This arrangement
							satisfied the tribunes and it satisfied the plebs. Notice was published
							that an Assembly would be held for the election of three tribunes with
							consular powers.

No sooner was this announcement made than everybody who had ever acted
							or spoken as a fomenter of sedition, especially those who had been
							tribunes, came forward as candidates, and began to bustle about the
							Forum, canvassing for votes.

The patricians were at first deterred from seeking election, as in the
							exasperated mood of the plebeians they regarded their chances as
							hopeless, and they were disgusted at the prospect of having to hold
							office with these men. At last, under compulsion from their leaders,
							lest they should appear to have withdrawn from any share in the
							government, they consented to stand.

The result of the election showed that when men are contending for
							liberty and the right to hold office their feelings are different from
							what they are when the contest is over and they can form an unbiased
							judgment. The people were satisfied now that votes were allowed for
							plebeians, and they elected none but patricians.

Where in these days will you find in a single individual the moderation,
							fairness, and loftiness of mind which then characterised the people as a
							whole?

In the 310th year after the foundation of
							Rome ( 444 B.C.), military tribunes with
							consular powers for the first time took office. Their names were Aulus
							Sempronius Atratinus, L. Atilius, and T. Caecilius, and during their
							tenure of office concord at home procured peace abroad.

Some writers omit all mention of the proposal to elect consuls from the
							plebs, and assert that the creation of three military tribunes invested
							with the insignia and authority of consuls was rendered necessary by the
							inability of two consuls to cope at the same time with the Veientine war
							in addition to the war with the Aequi and Volscians and the defection of
							Ardea.

The jurisdiction of that office was not yet, however, firmly
							established, for in consequence of the decision of the augurs they
							resigned office after three months, owing to some irregularity in their
							election.

C. Curtius, who had presided over their election, had not rightly
							selected his position for taking the auspices.
							Ambassadors came from Ardea to complain of the injustice done them; they
							promised that if it were removed by the restoration of their territory
							they would abide by the treaty and remain good friends with Rome.

The senate replied that they had no power to rescind a judgment of the
							people, there was no precedent or law to allow it, the necessity of
							preserving harmony between the two orders made it impossible.

If the Ardeates were willing to wait their time and leave the redress of
							their wrongs in the hands of the senate, they would afterwards
							congratulate themselves on their moderation, and would discover that the
							senators were just as anxious that no injustice should be done them as
							that whatever had been done should speedily be repaired.

The ambassadors said that they would bring the whole matter again before
							their senate, and were then courteously dismissed. As the State was now
							without any curule magistrate, the patricians met together and appointed an
							interrex. Owing to a dispute whether consuls or military tribunes should
							be elected, the interregnum lasted several days.

The interrex and the senate tried to secure the election of consuls; the
							plebs and their tribunes that of military tribunes.

The senate conquered, for the plebeians were sure to confer either
							honour on the patricians and so refrained from an idle contest, whilst
							their leaders preferred an election in which no votes could be received
							for them to one in which they would be passed over as unworthy to hold
							office. The tribunes, too, gave up the fruitless contest out of
							complaisance to the leaders of the senate.

T. Quinctius Barbatus, the interrex, elected as consuls Lucius Papirius
							Mugilanus and L. Sempronius Atratinus. During their consulship the
							treaty with Ardea was renewed. This is the sole proof that they were the
							consuls for that year, for they are not found in the ancient annals nor
							in the official list of magistrates.

The reason, I believe, was that since at the beginning of the year there
							were military tribunes, the names of the consuls who replaced them were
							omitted as though the tribunes had continued in office through the year.

According to Licinius Macer, their names were found in the copy of the
							treaty with Ardea, as well as in the “Linen Rolls.” In spite of so many alarming symptoms of unrest
							amongst the neighbouring nations, things were quiet both abroad and at
							home.

Whether there were tribunes this year,
							or whether they were replaced by consuls, there is no doubt that the
							following year the consuls were M. Geganius Macerinus and T. Quinctius
							Capitolinus;

the former consul for the second time, the latter for the fifth time.
							This year saw the beginning of the censorship, an office which, starting
							from small beginnings, grew to be of such importance that it had the
							regulation of the conduct and morals of Rome, the control of the senate
							and the equestrian order; the power of honouring and degrading was also
							in the hands of these magistrates; the legal rights connected with
							public places and private property, and the revenues of the Roman
							people, were under their absolute control.

Its origin was due to the fact that no census had been taken of the
							people for many years, and it could no longer be postponed, whilst the
							consuls, with so many wars impending, did not feel at liberty to
							undertake the task.

It was suggested in the senate that as the business would be a
							complicated and laborious one, not at all suitable for the consuls, a
							special magistrate was needed who should superintend the registrars and
							have the custody of the lists and assessment schedules and fix the
							valuation of property and the status of citizens at his discretion.

Though the suggestion was not of great importance, the senate gladly
							adopted it, as it would add to the number of patrician magistrates in
							the State, and I think that they anticipated what actually happened,
							that the influence of those who held the office would soon enhance its
							authority and dignity.

The tribunes, too, looking more at the need which certainly existed for
							such an office than at the lustre which would attend its administration,
							offered no opposition, lest they should appear to be raising troublesome
							difficulties even in small matters.

The foremost men of the State declined the honour, so Papirius and
							Sempronius-about whose consulship doubts were entertained-were elected
							by the suffrages of the people to conduct the census. Their election to
							this magistracy made up for the incompleteness of their consulship. From
							the duties they had to discharge they were called Censors.

Whilst this was going on in Rome,
							ambassadors came from Ardea, appealing, in the name of the ancient
							alliance and recently renewed treaty, for help for their city which was
							almost destroyed.

They were not allowed, they said, to enjoy the peace which in pursuance
							of the soundest policy they had maintained with Rome, owing to internal
							disputes.

The origin and occasion of these is said to have been party struggles,
							which have been and will be more ruinous to the majority of States than
							external wars or famine and pestilence or whatever else is ascribed to
							the wrath of the gods as the last evil which a State can suffer. Two
							young men were courting a maiden of plebeian descent celebrated for her
							beauty.

One of them, the girl's equal in point of birth, was encouraged by her
							guardians, who belonged to the same class; the other, a young noble
							captivated solely by her beauty, was supported by the sympathy and
							good-will of the nobility.

Party feeling had even penetrated into the girl's home, for the mother,
							who wanted her daughter to make as splendid a match as possible,
							preferred the young noble, whilst the guardians, carrying their
							partisanship even into such a matter as this, were working for the man
							of their own class.

As the matter could not be settled within the four walls of the house,
							they brought it into court. After hearing the appeals of the mother and
							of the guardians, the magistrates granted the disposal of the girl's
							hand in accordance with the mother's wishes.

But violence won the day, for the guardians, after haranguing a number
							of their partisans in the Forum on the iniquity of the verdict,
							collected a body of men and carried off the maiden from her mother's
							house.

They were met by a still more determined troop of nobles, assembled to
							follow their young comrade, who was furious at the outrage. A desperate
							fight ensued and the plebeians got the worst of it. In a very different
							spirit from the Roman plebs they marched, fully armed, out of the city
							and took possession of a hill from which they raided the lands of the
							nobles and laid them waste with fire and sword.

A multitude of artisans who had previously taken no part in the
							conflict, excited by the hope of plunder, joined them, and preparations
							were made to besiege the city.

All the horrors of war were present in the city, as though it had been
							infected with the madness

of the two young men who were seeking fatal nuptials out of their
							country's ruin. Both sides felt the need of an addition to their
							strength; the nobles prevailed on the Romans to come to the relief of
							their beleaguered city;

the plebs induced the Volscians to join them in attacking Ardea.

The Volscians, under the leadership of Cluilius, the Aequian, were the
							first to come, and drew lines of circumvallation round the enemy's
							walls. When news of this reached Rome the consul M. Geganius at once
							left with an army and fixed his camp three miles distant from the enemy,
							and as the day was declining he ordered his men to rest. At the fourth
							watch he ordered an advance, and so expeditiously was the task
							undertaken and completed, that at sunrise the Volscians saw themselves
							enclosed by a stronger circumvallation than the one which they had
							themselves carried round the city.

In
							another direction the consul constructed a covered way up to the wall of
							Ardea by which his friends in the city could go to and fro.

Up to that time the Volscian commander had not laid in any stock of
							provisions, as he had been able to maintain his army upon the corn
							carried off each day from the surrounding country. Now, however, that he
							was suddenly shut in by the Roman lines, he found himself destitute of
							everything. He invited the consul to a conference, and said that if the
							object for which the Romans had come was to raise the siege, he would
							withdraw the Volscians. The consul replied that it was for the defeated
							side to submit to terms, not to impose them, and as the Volscians had
							come at their own pleasure to attack the allies of Rome, they should not
							depart on the same terms. He required them to lay down their arms,
							surrender their general, and make acknowledgment of their defeat by
							placing themselves under his orders; otherwise, whether they remained or
							departed, he would prove a relentless foe, and would rather carry back
							to Rome a victory over them than a faithless peace. The only hope of the
							Volscians lay in their arms, and slight as it was they risked it.

The ground was unfavourable to them for fighting, still more so for
							flight. As they were being cut down in all directions, they begged for
							quarter, but they were only allowed to get away after their general had
							been surrendered, their arms given up, and they themselves sent under
							the yoke. Covered with disgrace and disaster, they departed with only
							one garment apiece. They halted not far from the city of Tusculum, and
							owing to an old grudge which that city had against them, they were
							suddenly attacked, and defenceless as they were, suffered severe
							punishment, few being left to carry the news of the disaster. The consul
							settled the troubles in Ardea by beheading the ringleaders of the
							disturbance and confiscating their property to the treasury of the city.

The citizens considered that the injustice of the recent decision was
							removed by the great service that Rome had rendered, but the senate
							thought that something ought still to be done to wipe out the record of
							national avarice. The consul Quinctius achieved the difficult task of
							rivalling in his civil administration the military renown of his
							colleague. He showed such care to maintain peace and concord by
							tempering justice equally for the highest and the lowest, that whilst
							the senate looked upon him as a stern consul, the plebeians regarded him
							as a lenient one.

He held his ground against the tribunes more by personal authority than
							by active opposition. Five consulships marked by the same even tenor of
							conduct, a whole lifetime passed in a manner worthy of a consul,
							invested the man himself with almost more reverence than the office he
							filled. Whilst these two men were consuls there was no talk of military
							tribunes. The new consuls were Marcus Fabius Vibulanus and Postumius
							Aebutius Cornicinen. The previous year was regarded by the neighbouring
							peoples, whether friendly or hostile, as chiefly memorable because of
							the trouble taken to help Ardea in its peril. The new consuls, aware
							that they were succeeding men distinguished both at home and abroad,
							were all the more anxious to obliterate from men's minds the infamous
								judgment. Accordingly, they obtained a senatorial
							decree ordering that as the population of Ardea had been seriously
							reduced through the internal disturbances, a body of colonists should be
							sent there as a protection against the Volscians. This was the reason
							alleged in the text of the decree, to prevent their intention of
							rescinding the judgment from being suspected by the plebs and tribunes.

They had, however, privately agreed that the majority of the colonists
							should consist of Rutulians, that no land should be allotted other than
							what had been appropriated under the infamous judgment, and that not a
							single sod should be assigned to a Roman till all the Rutulians had
							received their share. So the land went back to the Ardeates. Agrippa
							Menenius, T. Cluilius Siculus, and M. Aebutius Helva were the triumvirs
							appointed to superintend the settlement of the colony. Their office was
							not only extremely unpopular, but they gave great offence to the plebs
							by assigning to allies land which the Roman people had formally adjudged
							to be their own.

Even with the leaders of the patricians they were out of favour, because
							they had refused to allow themselves to be influenced by any of them.
							The tribunes impeached them, but they avoided all further vexatious
							proceedings by enrolling themselves amongst the settlers and remaining
							in the colony which they now possessed as a testimony to their justice
							and integrity. XII.There was peace abroad and at home during this and
							the following year when C. Furius Pacilus and M. Papirius Crassus were
							consuls. The Sacred Games, which in accordance with a decree of the
							senate had been vowed by the decemvirs on the occasion of the secession
							of the plebs, were celebrated this year. Poetilius, who had again raised
							the question of the division of territory, was made tribune. He made
							fruitless efforts to create sedition, and was unable to prevail upon the
							consuls to bring the question before the senate.

After a great struggle he succeeded so far that the senate should be
							consulted as to whether the next elections should be held for consuls or
							for consular tribunes. They ordered consuls to be elected. The tribune's
							menaces were laughed at when he threatened to obstruct the levy at a
							time when all the neighbouring States were quiet and there was no
							necessity for war or for any preparations for war. Proculus Geganius Macerinus and Lucius Menenius Lanatus were
							the consuls for the year which followed this state of tranquillity; a
							year remarkable for a multiplicity of disasters and dangers, seditions,
							famine, and the imminent risk of the people being bribed to bow their
							necks to despotic power.

A foreign war alone was wanting. Had this come to aggravate the
							universal distress, resistance would hardly have been possible even with
							the help of all the gods. The misfortunes began with a famine, owing
							either to the year being unfavourable to the crops, or to the
							cultivation of the land being abandoned for the attractions of political
							meetings and city life; both causes are assigned. The senate blamed the
							idleness of the plebeians, the tribunes charged the consuls at one time
							with dishonesty, at another with negligence. At last they induced the
							plebs, with the acquiescence of the senate, to appoint as Prefect of the
							Corn-market L. Minucius.

In that capacity he was more successful in guarding liberty than in the
							discharge of his office, though in the end he deservedly won gratitude
							and reputation for having relieved the scarcity. He despatched numerous
							agents by sea and land to visit the surrounding nations, but as, with
							the sole exception of Etruria, who furnished a small supply, their
							mission was fruitless, he made no impression on the market. He then
							devoted himself to the careful adjustment of the scarcity, and obliged
							all who possessed any corn to declare the amount, and after retaining a
							month's supply for themselves, sell the rest to the Government. By
							cutting down the daily rations of the slaves to one half, by holding up
							the corn-merchants to public execration, by rigorous and inquisitorial
							methods, he revealed the prevailing distress more than he relieved it.
							Many of the plebs lost all hope, and rather than drag on a life of
							misery muffled their heads and threw themselves
							into the Tiber.

It was at that time that
							Spurius Maelius, a member of the equestrian order and a very wealthy man
							for those days, entered upon an undertaking, serviceable in itself, but
							forming a very bad precedent and dictated by still worse motives.

Through the instrumentality of his clients and foreign friends he
							purchased corn in Etruria, and this very circumstance, I believe,
							hampered the Government in their efforts to cheapen the market.

He distributed this corn gratis, and so won the hearts of the plebeians
							by this generosity that wherever he moved, conspicuous and consequential
							beyond an ordinary mortal, they followed him, and this popularity seemed
							to his hopes a sure earnest of a consulship.

But the minds of men are never satisfied with Fortune's promises, and he
							began to entertain loftier and unattainable aims; he knew the consulship
							would have to be won in the teeth of the patricians, so he began to
							dream of royalty.

After all his grand schemes and efforts he looked upon that as the only
							fitting reward which owing to its greatness must be won by the greatest
							exertions. The consular elections were now close at hand, and as his
							plans were not yet matured, this circumstance proved his ruin.

T. Quinctius Capitolinus, a very awkward man for any one meditating a
							revolution, was chosen consul for the sixth time, and Agrippa Menenius,
							surnamed Lanatus, was assigned to him as his colleague.

Lucius Minucius was either reappointed prefect of the corn-market, or
							his original appointment was for an indefinite period as long as
							circumstances required; there is nothing definitely stated beyond the
							fact that the name of the prefect was entered on the “Linen
							Rolls” among the magistrates for both years.

Minucius was discharging the same function as a State official which
							Maelius had undertaken as a private citizen, and the same class of
							people frequented both their houses.

He made a discovery which he brought to the notice of the senate, viz.,
							that arms were being collected in Maelius' house, and that he was
							holding secret meetings at which plans were being undoubtedly formed to
							establish a monarchy. The moment for action was not yet fixed, but
							everything else had been settled; the tribunes had been bought over to
							betray the liberties of the people, and these leaders of the populace
							had had their various parts assigned to them.

He had, he said, delayed making his report till it was almost too late
							for the public safety, lest he should appear to be the author of vague
							and groundless suspicions. On hearing this the leaders of the senate
							censured the consuls of the previous year for having allowed those free
							distributions of corn and secret meetings to go on, and they were
							equally severe on the new consuls for having waited till the prefect of
							the corn-market had made his report, for the matter was of such
							importance that the consuls ought not only

to have reported it, but also dealt with it. In reply, Quinctius said
							that the censure on the consuls was undeserved, for, hampered as they
							were by the laws giving the right of appeal, which were passed to weaken
							their authority, they were far from possessing as much power as will to
							punish the atrocious attempt with the severity it deserved. What was
							wanted was not only a strong man, but one who was free to act,
							unshackled by the laws.

He should therefore nominate Lucius Quinctius as Dictator, for he had
							the courage and resolution which such great powers demanded. This met
							with universal approval. Quinctius at first refused and asked them what
							they meant by exposing him at the close of his life to such a bitter
							struggle.

At last, after well-merited commendations were showered upon him from
							all parts of the House and he was assured that “in that aged mind
							there was not only more wisdom but more courage than in all the
							rest,” whilst the consul adhered to his decision, he yielded.

After a prayer to heaven that in such a time of danger his old age might
							not prove a source of harm or discredit to the republic, Cincinnatus was
							made Dictator. He appointed Caius Servilius Ahala as his Master of the
							Horse.

The next day, after posting guards at different points, he came down to
							the Forum. The novelty and mystery of the thing drew the attention of
							the plebs towards him.

Maelius and his confederates recognised that this tremendous power was
							directed against them, whilst those who knew nothing of the plot asked
							what disturbance or sudden outbreak of war called for the supreme
							authority of a Dictator or required Quinctius, after reaching his
							eightieth year, to assume the government of the republic.

Servilius, the Master of the Horse, was despatched by the Dictator to
							Maelius with the message: “The Dictator summons you.”
							Alarmed at the summons, he inquired what it meant. Servilius explained
							that he had to stand his trial and clear himself of the charge brought
							against him by Minucius in the senate.

On this Maelius retreated amongst his troop of adherents, and looking
							round at them began to slink away, when an officer by order of the
							Master of the Horse seized him and began to drag him away. The
							bystanders rescued him, and as he fled he implored “the
							protection of the Roman plebs,” and said that he was the victim
							of a conspiracy amongst the patricians, because he had acted generously
							towards the plebs.

He entreated them to come to his help in this terrible crisis, and not
							suffer him to be butchered before their eyes.

Whilst he was making these appeals, Servilius overtook him and slew him.
							Besprinkled with the dead man's blood, and surrounded by a troop of
							young patricians, he returned to the Dictator and reported that Maelius
							after being summoned to appear before him had driven away his officer
							and incited the populace to riot, and had now met with the punishment he
							deserved.

“Well done!” said the Dictator, “C. Servilius, you
							have delivered the republic.”

The populace did not know what to make of the deed and were becoming
							excited. The Dictator ordered them to be summoned to an Assembly. He
							declared that Maelius had been lawfully slain, even if he were guiltless
							of treason, because he had refused to come to the Dictator when summoned
							by the Master of the Horse.

He, Cincinnatus, had sat to investigate the case, after it had been
							investigated Maelius would have been treated in accordance with the
							result.

He was not to be dealt with like an ordinary citizen. For, though born
							amongst a free people under laws and settled rights, in a City from
							which he knew that royalty had been expelled, and in the very same year,
							the sons of the king's sister, children of the consul who liberated his
							country, had, on the discovery of a conspiracy for restoring royalty,
							been beheaded by their own father-a City from which Collatinus

Tarquin the consul had been ordered to lay down his office and go into
							exile, because the very name of Tarquin was detested-a City in which
							some years later Spurius Cassius had been punished for entertaining
							designs of sovereignty-a City in which recently the decemvirs had been
							punished by confiscation, exile, and death because of a tyranny as
							despotic as that of kings-in that City Maelius had
							conceived hopes of sovereignty!

And who was this man? Although no nobility of birth, no honours, no
							services to the State paved the way for any man to sovereign power,
							still it was their consulships, their decemvirates, the honours achieved
							by them and their ancestors and the splendour of their families that
							raised the ambitions of the Claudii and the Cassii to an impious height.

But Spurius Maelius, to whom the tribuneship of the plebs was a thing to
							be wished for rather than hoped for, a wealthy corn-factor, hoped to buy
							the liberty of his fellow-citizens for a couple of pounds of spelt, and
							imagined that by throwing a little corn to

them he could reduce to slavery the men who had conquered all the
							neighbouring States, and that he whom the State could hardly stomach as
							a senator would be tolerated as a king, possessing the power and
							insignia of Romulus, who had sprung from the gods and been carried back
							to the gods!

His act must be regarded as a portent quite as much as a crime; for that
							portent his blood was not sufficient expiation, those walls within which
							such madness had been conceived must be levelled to the ground, and his
							property, contaminated by the price of treason, confiscated to the
							State.

So far the Dictator. He then gave orders for the house to be forthwith
							razed to the ground, that the place where it stood might be a perpetual
							reminder of impious hopes crushed.

It was afterwards called the Aequimaelium. L. Minucius was presented
							with the Image of a golden ox set up outside the Trigeminan gate.

As he distributed the corn which had belonged to Maelius at the price of
							one “ as ” per bushel, the
							plebs raised no objection to his being thus honoured. I find it stated
							in some authorities that this Minucius went over from the patricians to
							the plebeians and after being co-opted as an eleventh tribune quelled a
							disturbance which arose in consequence of the death of Maelius.

It is, however, hardly credible that the senate would have allowed this
							increase in the number of the tribunes, or that such a precedent, above
							all others, should have been introduced by a patrician, or that if that
							concession had been once made, the plebs should not have adhered to it,
							or at all events tried to do so.

But the most conclusive refutation of the lying inscription on his image
							is to be found in a provision of the law passed a few years previously
							that it should not be lawful for tribunes to co-opt a colleague. Q.
							Caecilius, Q. Junius, and Sex.

Titinius were the only members of the college of tribunes who did not
							support the proposal to honour Minucius, and they never ceased to attack
							Minucius and Servilius in turn before the Assembly and charge them with
							the undeserved death of Maelius. They succeeded in securing the creation
							of military tribunes instead of consuls at the next election, for they
							felt no doubt that for the six vacancies- that number could now be
							elected-some of the plebeians, by giving out that they would avenge the
							death of Maelius, would be elected.

But in spite of the excitement amongst the plebeians owing to the
							numerous commotions through the year, they did not create more than
							three tribunes with consular powers; amongst them L. Quinctius the son
							of the Cincinnatus who as Dictator incurred such odium that it was made
							the pretext for disturbances.

Mam. Aemilius polled the highest number of votes, L. Julius came in
							third.

During their magistracy Fidenae, where a body of
							Romans were settled, revolted to Lars Tolumnius, king of the Veientines.

The revolt was made worse by a crime. C. Fulcinius, Cloelius Tullus, Sp.
							Antius, and L. Roscius, who were sent as envoys to ascertain the reasons
							for this change of policy, were murdered by order of Tolumnius.

Some try to exculpate the king by alleging that whilst playing at dice
							he made a lucky throw and used an ambiguous expression which might be
							taken to be an order for death, and that the Fidenates took it so, and
							this was the reason of the death of the envoys.

This is incredible; it is impossible to believe that when the Fidenates,
							his new allies, came to consult him as to committing a murder in
							defiance of the law of nations, he should

not have turned his thoughts from the game, or should afterwards have
							imputed the crime to a misunderstanding.

It is much more probable that he wished the Fidenates to be implicated
							in such an awful crime in order to make it impossible for them to hope
							for any reconciliation with Rome. The statues of the murdered envoys
							were set up in the Rostra. Owing to the proximity of the Veientines and
							Fidenates, and still more to the heinous crime with which they began the
							war, the struggle threatened to be a desperate one.

Anxiety for the national safety kept the plebs quiet, and their tribunes
							raised no difficulties in the election of M. Geganius Macerinus as
							consul for the third time, and L. Sergius Fidenas, who, I believe, was
							so called from the war which he afterwards conducted.

He was the first who fought a successful action with the king of Veii on
							this side of the Anio. The victory he gained was by no means a bloodless
							one; there was more mourning for their countrymen who were lost than joy
							over the defeat of the enemy.

Owing to the critical aspect of affairs, the senate ordered Mamercus
							Aemilius to be proclaimed Dictator. He chose as his Master of the Horse
							L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, who had been his colleague in the college of
							consular tribunes the previous year, a young man worthy of his father.

To the force levied by the consuls were added a number of war-seasoned
							veteran centurions, to fill up the number of those lost in the late
							battle. The Dictator ordered Quinctius Capitolinus and M. Fabius
							Vibulanus to accompany him as seconds in command.

The higher power of the Dictator, wielded by a man quite equal to it,
							dislodged the enemy from Roman territory and sent him across the Anio.
							He occupied the line of hills between Fidenae and the Anio, where he
							entrenched himself, and did not go down into the plains until the
							legions of Falerii had come to his support.

Then the camp of the Etruscans was formed in front of the walls of
							Fidenae. The Roman Dictator chose a position not far from them at the
							junction of the Anio and the Tiber, and extended his lines as far as
							possible from the one river to the other. The next day he led his men
							out to battle.

Amongst the enemy there was diversity of opinion. The men of Falerii,
							impatient at serving so far from home, and full of self-confidence,
							demanded battle; those of Veii and Fidenae placed more hope in a
							prolongation of the war.

Although Tolumnius was more inclined to the opinion of his own men, he
							announced that he would give battle the next day, in case the Faliscans
							should refuse to serve through a protracted campaign.

This hesitation on the part of the enemy gave the Dictator and the
							Romans fresh courage. The next day, whilst the soldiers were declaring
							that unless they had the chance of fighting they would attack the
							enemy's camp and city, both armies advanced on to the level ground
							between their respective camps.

The Veientine general, who was greatly superior in numbers, sent a
							detachment round the back of the hills to attack the Roman camp during
							the battle. The armies of the three States were stationed thus: The
							Veientines were on the right wing, the Faliscans on the left, the
							Fidenates in the centre.

The Dictator led his right wing against the Faliscans, Capitolinus
							Quinctius directed the attack of the left against the Veientines, whilst
							the Master of the Horse advanced with his cavalry against the enemy's
							centre.

For a few moments all was silent and motionless, as the Etruscans would
							not commence the fight unless they were compelled, and the Dictator was
							watching the Citadel of Rome and waiting for the agreed signal from the
							augurs as soon as the omens should prove favourable.

No sooner had he caught sight of it than he let loose the cavalry, who,
							raising a loud battle-cry, charged; the infantry followed with a furious
							onslaught.

In no quarter did the legions of Etruria stand the Roman charge; their
							cavalry offered the stoutest resistance, and the king, himself by far
							the bravest of them, charged the Romans whilst they were scattered
							everywhere in pursuit of the enemy, and so prolonged the contest.

There was in the cavalry, on that day, a military tribune named A.
							Cornelius Cossus, a remarkably handsome man, and equally distinguished
							for strength and courage, and proud of his family name, which,
							illustrious as it was when he inherited it, was rendered still more so
							when he left it to his posterity.

When he saw the Roman squadrons shaken by the repeated charges of
							Tolumnius in whatever direction he rode, and recognised him as he
							galloped along the entire line, conspicuous in his royal habiliments, he
							exclaimed, “Is this the breaker of treaties between man and man,
							the violator of the law of nations?

If it is the will of heaven that anything holy should exist on earth, I
							will slay this man and offer him as a sacrifice to the manes of the murdered envoys.”

Putting spurs to his horse he charged with levelled spear against this
							single foe, and having struck and unhorsed him, he leaped with the aid
							of his spear to the ground.

As the king was attempting to rise he pushed him back with the boss of
							his shield, and with repeated spear-thrusts pinned him to the earth.
							Then he despoiled the lifeless body, and cutting off his head stuck it
							on his spear, and carrying it in triumph routed the enemy, who were
							panic-struck at the king's death. So the enemy's cavalry, who had alone
							made the issue of the contest doubtful, now shared in the general rout.

The Dictator hotly pursued the flying legions and drove them to their
							camp with great slaughter. Most of the Fidenates, who were familiar with
							the country, escaped to the hills. Cossus with the cavalry crossed the
							Tiber and brought to the City an enormous amount of booty from the
							country of the Veientines.

During the battle there was also an engagement at the Roman camp with
							the detachment which, as already stated, Tolumnius had sent to attack
							it.

Fabius Vibulanus at first confined himself to the defence of the circuit
							of his lines; then, while the enemy's attention was wholly directed to
							forcing the stockade, he made a sortie from the Porta
								Principalis 
							 on the right, and this unexpected attack produced such
							consternation among the enemy, that though there were fewer killed,
							owing to the smaller number engaged, the flight was just as disorderly
							as in the main battle.

Successful in all directions, the Dictator returned home to enjoy the
							honour of a triumph granted him by decree of the senate and resolution
							of the people.

By far the finest sight in the procession was Cossus bearing the
								 spolia opima 
							 of the king he had slain.

The soldiers sang rude songs in his honour and placed him on a level
							with Romulus. He solemnly dedicated the spoils to Jupiter Feretrius, and
							hung them in his temple near those of Romulus, which were the only ones
							which at that time were called spolia opima
								prima . All eyes were turned from the chariot of the
							Dictator to him; he almost monopolised the honours of the day.

By order of the people, a crown of gold, a pound in weight, was made at
							the public expense and placed by the Dictator in the Capitol as an
							offering to Jupiter. In stating

that Cossus placed the spolia opima secunda 
							in the temple of Jupiter Feretrius when he was a military tribune I have
							followed all the existing authorities.

But not only is the designation of spolia
								opima restricted to those which a commander-in-chief has
							taken from a commander-in-chief —and we know of no commander-in-chief
							but the one under whose auspices the war is conducted —but I and my
							authorities are also confuted by the actual inscription on the spoils,
							which states that Cossus took them when he was consul.

Augustus Caesar, the founder and restorer of all the temples, rebuilt
							the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, which had fallen to ruin through age,
							and I once heard him say that after entering it he read that inscription
							on the linen cuirass with his own eyes. After that I felt it would be
							almost a sacrilege to withhold from Cossus the evidence as to his spoils
							given by the Caesar who restored that very temple.

Whether the mistake, if there be one, may have arisen from the fact that
							the ancient annals, and the “Linen Rolls” —the lists of
							magistrates preserved in the temple of Moneta which Macer Licinius
							frequently quotes as authorities — have an A. Cornelius Cossus as consul
							with T. Quinctius Poenus, ten years later-of this every man must judge
							for himself.

For there is this further reason why so famous a battle could not be
							transferred to this later date, namely, that during the three years
							which preceded and followed the consulship of Cossus war was impossible
							owing to pestilence and famine, so that some of the annals, as though
							they were records of deaths, supply nothing but the names of the
							consuls.

The third year after his consulship has the name of Cossus as a consular
							tribune, and in the same year he is entered as Master of the Horse, in
							which capacity he fought another brilliant cavalry action.

Every one is at liberty to form his own conjecture; these doubtful
							points, in my belief, can be made to support any opinion. The fact
							remains that the man who fought the battle placed the newly-won spoils
							in the sacred shrine near Jupiter himself, to whom they were
							consecrated, and with Romulus in full view —two witnesses to be dreaded
							by any forger —and that he described himself in the inscription as
							“A. Cornelius Cossus, Consul.”

The M. Cornelius Maluginensis and L. Papirius Crassus
							were the next consuls. Armies were led into the territories of the
							Veientines and Faliscans and men and cattle were carried off.

The enemy was nowhere found in the open, nor was there any opportunity
							of fighting.

Their cities, however, were not attacked, for the people were visited by
							an epidemic. Spurius Maelius, a tribune of the plebs, tried to get up
							disturbances, but failed to do so. Relying upon the popularity of the
							name he bore, he had impeached Minucius and brought forward a proposal
							for the confiscation of the property of Servilius Ahala on the plea that
							Maelius had been the

victim of false charges by Minucius, whilst Servilius had been guilty of
							putting a citizen to death without trial.

people paid less attention to these accusations than even to their
							author; they were much more concerned about the increasing virulence of
							the epidemic and the terrifying portents; most of all about the reports
							of frequent earthquakes which laid the houses in the country districts
							in ruins.

A solemn supplication, therefore, was offered up by the people, led by
							the duumvirs. The following year, in which the consuls were C. Julius,
							for the second time, and L. Verginius, was still more fatal, and created
							such alarming desolation in town and country that no plundering parties
							left Roman territory, nor did either senate or plebs entertain any idea
							of taking the offensive.

The Fidenates, however, who had at first confined themselves to their
							mountains and walled villages, actually came down into the Roman
							territory and ravaged it.

As the Faliscans could not be induced to renew the war, either by the
							representations of their allies or by the fact that Rome was prostrated
							by the epidemic, the Fidenates sent to invite the Veientine army, and
							the two States crossed the Anio and displayed their standards not far
							from the Colline gate.

The alarm was as great in the City as in the country districts. The
							consul Julius disposed his troops on the rampart and the walls;
							Verginius convened the senate in the temple of Quirinus.

They decreed that Q. Servilius should be nominated Dictator. According
							to one tradition he was surnamed Priscus, according to another,
							Structus. Verginius waited till he could consult his colleague; on
							gaining his consent, he nominated the Dictator at night. The Dictator
							appointed Postumius Aebutius Helva as Master of the Horse.

The Dictator issued an order for all to muster outside the Colline gate
							by daybreak. Every man strong enough to bear arms was present. The
							standards were quickly brought to the Dictator from the treasury. While
							these arrangements were being made, the enemy withdrew to the foot of
							the hills.

The Dictator followed them with an army eager for battle, and engaged
							them not far from Nomentum. The Etruscan legions were routed and driven
							into Fidenae; the Dictator surrounded the place with lines of
							circumvallation.

But, owing to its elevated positron and strong fortifications, the city
							could not be carried by assault, and a blockade was quite ineffective,
							for there was not only corn enough for their actual necessities, but
							even for a lavish supply from what had been stored up beforehand. So all
							hope of either storming the place or starving it into surrender was
							abandoned.

As it was near Rome, the nature of the ground was well known, and the
							Dictator was aware that the side of the city remote from his camp was
							weakly fortified owing to its natural strength. He determined to carry a
							mine through from that side to the citadel.

He formed his army into four divisions, to take turns in the fighting,
							and by keeping up a constant attack upon the walls in all directions,
							day and night, he prevented the enemy from noticing the work.

At last the hill was tunnelled through and the way lay open from the
							Roman camp up to the citadel. Whilst the attention of the Etruscans was
							being diverted by feigned attacks from their real danger, the shouts of
							the enemy above their

heads showed them that the city was taken. In that year the censors C.
							Furius Pacilus and M. Geganius Macerinus passed the government building on
							the Campus Martius, and the census of the people was made there for the
							first time.

I find in Macer Licinius that the same consuls were
							re-elected for the following year-Julius for the third time and
							Verginius for the second. Valerius Antias and Q. Tubero give M. Manlius
							and Q. Sulpicius as the consuls for that year.

In spite of this discrepancy Tubero and Macer both claim the authority
							of the “Linen Rolls”; both admit that in the ancient
							historians it was asserted that there were military tribunes that year.

Licinius considers that we ought unhesitatingly to follow the
							“Linen Rolls”; Tubero has not made up his mind. But
							amongst the many points obscure through lapse of time, this also is left
							unsettled. The capture of Fidenae created alarm in Etruria.

Not only were the Veientines apprehensive of a similar fate, but the
							Faliscans too had not forgotten the war which they had commenced in
							alliance with them, though they had taken no part in its renewal.

The two States sent round envoys to the twelve cantons, and in
							compliance with their request a meeting was proclaimed of the national
							council of Etruria, to be held at the temple of Voltumna. As a great
							struggle seemed imminent, the senate ordered that Mamercus Aemilius
							should be again nominated Dictator.

A. Postumius Tubertus was appointed Master of the Horse. Preparations
							for war were made with all the greater energy now than on the last
							occasion, as the danger to be apprehended from the whole of Etruria was
							greater than from only two of its towns

The occasion passed off more
							quietly than anybody expected.

Information was brought by traders that help had been refused to the
							Veientines; they were told to prosecute with their own resources a war
							which they had commenced on their own initiative, and not, now that they
							were in difficulties, to look for allies amongst those whom in their
							prosperity they refused to take into their confidence.

The Dictator was now deprived of any opportunity of acquiring fame in
							war, but he was anxious to achieve some work which might be a memorial
							of his dictatorship and prevent it from appearing an unnecessary
							appointment, so he made preparations for abridging the censorship,
							either because he considered its power excessive, or because he objected
							not so much to the greatness as the length of

duration of the office. Accordingly he convened the Assembly and said
							that as the gods had undertaken the conduct of the State in external
							affairs and made everything safe, he would do what required to be done
							within the walls, and take counsel for the liberties of the Roman
							people. Those liberties were most securely guarded when those who held
							great powers did not hold them long, and when offices which could not be
							limited in their jurisdiction were limited in their tenure.

Whilst the other magistracies were annual, the censorship was a
							quinquennial one. It was a distinct grievance to have to live at the
							mercy of the same men for so many years, in fact for a considerable part
							of one's life.

He was going to bring in a law that the censorship should not last
							longer than eighteen months. He carried the law the next day amidst the
							enthusiastic approval of the people, and then made the following
							announcement: “That you may really know, Quirites, how much I
							disapprove of prolonged rule, I now lay down my dictatorship.”

After thus resigning his own magistracy and limiting the other one, he
							was escorted home amidst the hearty good-will and congratulations of the
							people. The censors were extremely angry with Mamercus for having
							limited the power of a Roman magistrate, they struck him out of his
							tribe, increased his assessment eightfold, and disfranchised him.

It is recorded that he bore this most magnanimously, thinking more of
							the cause which led to the ignominy being inflicted upon him than of the
							ignominy itself. The leading men amongst the patricians, though
							disapproving of the limitation imposed on the censorial jurisdiction,
							were shocked at this instance of the harsh exercise of its power, for
							each recognised that he would be subject to the censors more frequently
							and for a longer time than he would be censor himself.

At all events the people, it is said, felt so indignant that no one but
							Mamercus possessed sufficient authority to protect the censors from
							violence.

The tribunes of the
							plebs held constant meetings of the Assembly with a view to preventing
							the election of consuls, and after bringing matters almost to the
							appointment of an interrex, they succeeded in getting consular tribunes

elected. They looked for plebeians to be elected as a reward for their
							exertions, but not a single one came in; all who were elected were

patricians. Their names were M. Fabius Vibulanus, M. Folius, and L.
							Sergius Fidenas. The pestilence that year kept everything quiet. The
							duumvirs did many things prescribed by the sacred books to appease the
							wrath of the gods and remove the pestilence from the

people. The mortality, notwithstanding, was heavy both in the City and
							in the country districts; men and beasts alike perished. Owing to the
							losses amongst the cultivators of the soil, a famine was feared as the
							result of the pestilence, and agents were despatched to Etruria and the
							Pomptine territory and Cumae, and at last even to Sicily, to procure

corn. No mention was made of the election of consuls; consular tribunes
							were appointed, all patricians. Their names were L. Pinarius Mamercus,
							L. Furius Medullinus, and Sp. Postumius

Albus. In this year the violence of the epidemic abated and there was no
							scarcity of corn, owing to the provision that had been made. Projects of
							war were discussed in the national councils of the Volscians and Aequi,
							and in Etruria at the temple of

Voltumna. There the question was adjourned for a year and a decree was
							passed

that no council should be held till the year had elapsed, in spite of
							the protests of the Veientines, who declared that the same fate which
							had overtaken Fidenae was threatening

them. At Rome, meantime, the leaders of the plebs, finding that their
							cherished hopes of higher dignity were futile whilst there was peace
							abroad, got up meetings in the houses of the tribunes, where they
							discussed their plans in

secret. They complained that they had been treated with such contempt by
							the plebs, that though consular tribunes had now been elected for many
							years, not a single plebeian had ever found his way to that

office. Their ancestors had shown much foresight in taking care that the
							plebeian magistracies should not be open to patricians, otherwise they
							must have had patricians as tribunes of the plebs, for so insignificant
							were they in the eyes of their own order that they were looked down upon
							by plebeians quite as much as by the

patricians. Others threw the blame on the patricians, it was owing to
							their unscrupulous cleverness in pushing their canvassing that the path
							to honour was closed to the plebeians. If the plebs were allowed a
							respite from their menaces and entreaties, they would think of their own
							party when they went to vote, and by their united efforts would win
							office and

power. It was decided that, with a view to doing away with the abuses of
							canvassing, the tribunes should bring in a law forbidding any one to
							whiten his toga , when he appeared as a candidate. To us now
							the matter may appear trivial and hardly worth serious discussion, but
							it kindled a tremendous conflict between patricians and

plebeians. The tribunes, however, succeeded in carrying their law, and
							it was clear that, irritated as they were, the plebeians would support
							their own men. That they might not be free to do so, a resolution was
							passed in the senate that the forthcoming elections should be held for
							the appointment of consuls.

The reason for this decision was the
							report sent in by the Latins and Hernicans of a sudden rising amongst
							the Volscians and Aequi.

T. Quinctius Cincinnatus —surnamed Poenus —the son of Lucius, and Gnaeus
							Julius Mento were made consuls. War very soon broke out.

After a levy had been raised under the Lex Sacrata , which
							was the most powerful means they possessed of compelling men to serve,
							the armies of both nations advanced and concentrated on Algidus, where
							they entrenched themselves, each in a separate

camp. Their generals showed greater care than on any previous occasion
							in the construction of their lines and the exercising of the troops. The
							reports of this increased the alarm in

Rome. In view of the fact that these two nations after their numerous
							defeats were now renewing the war with greater energy than they had ever
							done before, and, further, that a considerable number of the Romans fit
							for active service had been carried off by the epidemic, the senate
							decided upon the nomination of a

Dictator. But the greatest alarm was caused by the perverse obstinacy of
							the consuls and their incessant wranglings in the senate. Some
							authorities assent that these consuls fought an unsuccessful action at
							Algidus and that this was the reason why a Dictator was

nominated. It is at all events generally agreed that whilst at variance
							in other matters, they were at one in opposing the senate and preventing
							the appointment of a Dictator. At last, when each report that came in
							was more alarming than the last, and the consuls refused to accept the
							authority of the senate, Quintus Servilius Priscus, who had filled the
							highest offices in the State with distinction, said, “Tribunes of
							the

plebs! now that matters have come to extremities, the senate calls upon
							you in this crisis of the commonwealth, by virtue of the authority of
							your office, to compel the consuls to nominate a Dictator.” On
							hearing this appeal, the tribunes considered that a favourable
							opportunity presented itself for augmenting their authority, and they
							retired to

deliberate. Then they formally declared in the name of the whole college
							of tribunes that it was their determination that the consuls should bow
							to the will of the senate; if they offered any further opposition to the
							unanimous decision of that most august order, they, the tribunes, would
							order them to be thrown into

prison. The consuls preferred defeat at the hands of the
							tribunes rather than at those of the senate. If, they said, the consuls
							could be coerced by the tribunes in virtue of their authority, and even
							sent to prison —and what more than this had ever a private citizen to
							fear? —then the senate had betrayed the rights and privileges of the
							highest office in the State, and made an ignominious surrender, putting
							the consulship under the yoke of

the tribunitian power. They could not even agree as to who should
							nominate the Dictator, so they cast lots and the lot fell to T.
							Quinctius. He nominated A. Postumius Tubertus, his father-in-law, a
							stern and resolute commander. The Dictator named L. Julius as the Master

of the Horse. Orders were issued for a levy to be raised and for all
							business, legal and otherwise, to be suspended in the City, except the
							preparations for war. The investigation of claims for exemption from
							military service was postponed till the end of the war, so even in
							doubtful cases men preferred to give in their names. The Hernici and the
							Latins were ordered to furnish troops; both nations carried out the
							Dictator's orders most zealously.

All these preparations were completed with extraordinary despatch. The
							consul Gn. Julius was left in charge of the defences of the City; L.
							Julius, the Master of the Horse, took command of the reserves to meet
							any sudden emergency, and to prevent operations from being delayed
							through inadequacy of supplies at the front.

As the war was such a serious one, the Dictator vowed, in the form of
							words prescribed by the Pontifex Maximus, A. Cornelius, to celebrate the
							Great Games if he were victorious.

He formed the army into two divisions, one of which he assigned to the
							consul Quinctius, and their joint force advanced up to the enemies'
							position.

As they saw that the hostile camps were separated by a short distance
							from each other, they also formed separate camps, about a mile from the
							enemy, the Dictator fixing his in the direction of Tusculum, the consul
							nearer Lanuvium. The four armies had thus separate entrenched positions,

with a plain between them broad enough not only for small skirmishes,
							but for both armies to be drawn out in battle order.

Ever since the camps had confronted each other there had been no
							cessation of small fights, and the Dictator was quite content for his
							men to match their strength against the enemy, in order that through the
							issues of these contests they might entertain the hope of a decisive and
							final victory. The enemy, hopeless of winning a regular battle,
							determined to stake everything on the chances of a night attack on the
							consul's camp.

The shout which suddenly arose not only startled the consul's outposts
							and the whole army, but even woke the Dictator.

Everything depended on prompt action; the consul showed equal courage
							and coolness; part of his troops reinforced the guards at the camp
							gates, the rest lined the entrenchments. As the Dictator's camp was not
							attacked, it was easier for him to see what had to be done. Supports
							were at once sent to the consul under Sp. Postumius Albus,
							lieutenant-general, and the Dictator in person with a portion of his
							force made for a place away from the actual fighting, from which to make
							an attack on the enemy's rear.

He left Q. Sulpicius, lieutenant-general, in charge of the camp, and
							gave the command of the cavalry to M. Fabius, lieutenant-general, with
							orders not to move their troops before daylight, as it was difficult to
							handle them in the confusion of a night attack.

Besides taking every measure which any other general of prudence and
							energy would have taken under the circumstances, the Dictator gave a
							striking instance of his courage and generalship, which deserves
							especial praise, for, on ascertaining that the enemy had left his camp
							with the greater part of his force, he sent M. Geganius with some picked
							cohorts to storm it.

The defenders were thinking more of the issue of their comrades'
							dangerous enterprise than of taking precautions for their own safety,
							even their outposts and picket-duty were neglected, and he stormed and
							captured the camp almost before the enemy realised that it was attacked.

When the Dictator saw the smoke —the agreed signal —he called out that
							the enemy's camp was taken, and ordered the news to be spread
							everywhere.

It was now growing light and everything lay open to view. Fabius had
							delivered his attack with the cavalry and the consul had made a sortie
							against the enemy, who were now wavering.

The Dictator from the other side had attacked the second line of
							reserves, and whilst the enemy faced about to meet the sudden charges
							and confused shouts, he had thrown his victorious horse and foot across
							their front.

They were now hemmed in, and would, to a man, have paid the penalty for
							renewing the war, had not a Volscian, Vettius Messius, a man more
							distinguished by his exploits than by his pedigree, remonstrated loudly
							with his comrades, who were being rolled up into a helpless mass.
							“Are you going,” he shouted, “to make yourselves a
							mark for the enemies' javelins, unresisting, defenceless?

Why then have you got arms, why did you begin an unprovoked war; you who
							are ever turbulent in peace and laggards in war? What do you expect to
							gain by standing here? Do you suppose that some deity will protect you
							and snatch you out of danger? A path must be made by the sword.

Come on in the way you see me go. You who are hoping to visit your homes
							and parents and wives and children, come with me. It is not a wall or a
							stockade which is in your way; arms are met by arms. Their equals in
							courage, you are their superiors by force of necessity, which is the
							last and greatest weapon.”

He then rushed forward and his men followed him, raising again their
							battle-shout, and flung the weight of their charge where Postumius Albus
							had interposed his cohorts. They forced the victors back, until the
							Dictator came up to his retreating men, and all the battle rolled to
							this part of the field.

The fortunes of the enemy rested solely on Messius. Many were wounded,
							many killed in all directions. By this time even the Roman generals were
							not unhurt.

Postumius, whose skull was fractured by a stone, was the only one who
							left the field. The Dictator was wounded in the shoulder, Fabius had his
							thigh almost pinned to his horse, the consul had his arm cut off, but
							they refused to retire while the battle was undecided.

Messius with a body of their bravest troops charged through heaps of
							slain and was carried on to the Volscian camp, which was not yet taken;
							the entire army followed.

The consul followed them up in their disordered flight as far as the
							stockade and began to attack the camp, whilst the Dictator brought up
							his troops to the other side of it.

The storming of the camp was just as furious as the battle had been. It
							is recorded that the consul actually threw a standard inside the
							stockade to make the soldiers more eager to assault it, and in
							endeavouring to recover it the first breach was made. When the stockade
							was torn down and the Dictator had now carried the fighting into the
							camp, the enemy began everywhere to throw away their arms and surrender.

After the capture of this camp, the enemy, with the exception of the
							senators, were all sold as slaves. A part of the booty comprised the
							plundered property of the Latins and Hernicans, and after being
							identified, was restored to them, the rest the Dictator sold
							“under the spear”. After
							placing the consul in command of the camp, he entered the City in
							triumph and then laid down his dictatorship.

Some writers have cast a gloom over the memory of this glorious
							dictatorship by handing down a tradition that the Dictator's son, who,
							seeing an opportunity for fighting to advantage, had left his post
							against orders, was beheaded by his father, though victorious.

I prefer to disbelieve the story, and am at liberty to do so, as
							opinions differ. An argument against it is that such cruel displays of
							authority are called “Manlian” not
							“Postumian,” for it is the first man who practiced such
							severity to whom the stigma would have been affixed. Moreover, Manlius
							received the soubriquet of “Imperiosus”; Postumius was not
							distinguished by any invidious epithet. The other consul, C. Julius, dedicated the temple
							of Apollo in his colleague's absence, without waiting to draw lots with
							him as to who should do it.

Quinctius was very angry at this, and after he had disbanded his army
							and returned to the City, he laid a protest before the senate, but
							nothing came of it. In this year so memorable for great achievements an
							incident occurred which at the time seemed to have little to do with
							Rome.

Owing to disturbances amongst the Sicilians, the Carthaginians, who were
							one day to be such powerful enemies, transported an army into Sicily for
							the first time to assist one of the contending parties.

In the City the tribunes made
							great efforts to secure the election of consular tribunes for the next
							year, but they failed. L. Papirius Crassus and L. Julius were made
							consuls. Envoys came from the Aequi to ask from the senate a treaty as
							between independent States; instead of this they were offered peace on
							condition they acknowledged the supremacy of Rome; they obtained a truce
							for eight

years. After the defeat which the Volscians had sustained on Algidus,
							their State was distracted by obstinate and bitter quarrels between the
							advocates of war and those of

peace. There was quiet for Rome in all

quarters. The tribunes were preparing a popular measure to fix the scale
							of fines, but one of their body betrayed the fact to the consuls, who
							anticipated the tribunes by bringing it in themselves. The new consuls
							were L. Sergius Fidenas, for the second time, and Hostius Lucretius
							Tricipitinus. Nothing worth recording took place in their

consulship. They were followed by A. Cornelius Cossus, and T. Quinctius
							Poenus for the second time. The Veientines made inroads into the Roman
							territory, and it was rumoured that some of the Fidenates had taken part
							in

them. L. Sergius, Q. Servilius, and Mamercus Aemilius were commissioned
							to investigate the affair. Some were interned at Ostia, as they were
							unable to account satisfactorily for their absence from Fidenae at that

time. The number of colonists was increased, and the lands of those who
							had perished in the war were assigned to them. Very great distress was
							caused this year by a

drought. Not only was there an absence of water from the heavens, but
							the earth, through lack of its natural moisture, barely sufficed to keep
							the rivers flowing. In some cases the want of water made the cattle die
							of thirst round the dried-up springs and brooks, in others they were
							carried off by the

mange. This disease spread to the men who had been in contact with them;
							at first it attacked the slaves and agriculturists, then the City was
							infected. Nor was it only the body that was affected by the pest, the
							minds of men also became a prey to all kinds of superstitions, mostly
							foreign

ones. Pretended soothsayers went about introducing new modes of
							sacrificing, and did a profitable trade amongst the victims of

superstition, until at last the sight of strange un-Roman modes of
							propitiating the wrath of the gods in the streets and chapels brought
							home to the leaders of the commonwealth the public scandal which was
							being

caused. The aediles were instructed to see to it that none but Roman
							deities were worshipped, nor in any other than the established fashion.
								Hostilities with the Veientines were
							postponed till the following year, when Caius Servilius Ahala and L.
							Papirius Mugilanus were the

consuls. Even then the formal declaration of war and the despatch of
							troops were delayed on religious grounds; it was considered necessary
							that the fetials should first be sent to demand

satisfaction. There had been recent battles with the Veientines at
							Nomentum and Fidenae, and a truce had been made, not a lasting peace,
							but before the days of truce had expired they had renewed hostilities.
							The fetials, however, were sent, but when they presented their demands,
							in accordance with ancient usage , they were refused a

hearing. A question then arose whether war should be declared by the
							mandate of the people, or whether a resolution passed by the senate was
							sufficient. The tribunes threatened to stop the levying of troops and
							succeeded in forcing the consul Quinctius to refer the question to the

people. The centuries decided unanimously for war. The plebs gained a
							further advantage in preventing the election of consuls for the next
							year.

Four consular tribunes were elected-T. Quinctius Poenus, who had been
							consul, C. Furius, M. Postumius, and A. Cornelius Cossus.

Cossus was warden of the City, the other three after completing the levy
							advanced against Veii, and they showed how useless a divided command is
							in war. By each insisting on his own plans, when they all held different
							views, they gave the enemy his opportunity.

For whilst the army was perplexed by different orders, some giving the
							signal to advance, whilst the others ordered a retreat, the Veientines
							seized the opportunity for an attack.

Breaking into a disorderly flight, the Romans sought refuge in their
							camp which was close by; they incurred more disgrace than loss. The
							commonwealth, unaccustomed to defeat, was plunged in grief; they hated
							the tribunes and demanded a Dictator; all their hopes rested on that.
							Here too a religious impediment was met with, as a Dictator could only
							be nominated by a consul.

The augurs were consulted and removed the difficulty. A. Cornelius
							nominated Mamercus Aemilius as Dictator, he himself was appointed by him
							Master of the Horse.

This proved how powerless the action of the censors was to prevent a
							member of a family unjustly degraded from being entrusted with supreme
							control when once the fortunes of the State demanded real courage and
								ability. Elated by their success, the
							Veientines sent envoys round to the cantons of Etruria, boasting that
							three Roman generals had been defeated by them in a single battle.

As, however, they could not induce the national council to join them,
							they collected from all quarters volunteers who were attracted by the
							prospect of booty.

The Fidenates alone decided to take part in the war, and as though they
							thought it impious to begin war otherwise than with a crime, they
							stained their weapons with the blood of the new colonists, as they had
							previously with the blood of the Roman ambassadors.

Then they joined the Veientines. The chiefs of the two peoples consulted
							whether they should make Veii or Fidenae the base of operations. Fidenae
							appeared the more suitable; the Veientines accordingly crossed the Tiber
							and transferred the war to Fidenae.

Very great was the alarm in Rome.

The army, demoralised by its ill-success, was recalled from Veii; an
							entrenched camp was formed in front of the Colline gate, the walls were
							manned, the shops and law courts closed, and a cessation of all business
							in the Forum ordered. The whole City wore the appearance of a camp. The
							Dictator despatched criers through the streets to summon the anxious
							citizens to an Assembly.

When they were gathered together he reproached them for allowing their
							feelings to be so swayed by slight changes of fortune that, after
							meeting with an insignificant reverse, due not to the courage of the
							enemy or the cowardice of the Roman army, but simply to want of harmony
							amongst the generals, they should be in a state of panic over the
							Veientines, who had been defeated six times, and Fidenae, which had been
							captured almost more frequently than it had been attacked.

Both the Romans and the enemy were the same that they had been for so
							many centuries, their courage, their prowess, their arms were what they
							had always been. They had as Dictator the same Mamercus Aemilius who at
							Nomentum defeated the combined forces of Veii and Fidenae supported by
							the Faliscans;

the Master of the Horse would in future battles be the same A. Cornelius
							who killed Lars Tolumnius, king of Veii, before the eyes of the two
							armies and carried the spolia opima to the
							temple of Jupiter Feretrius.

They must take up arms, remembering that on their side were triumphs and
							the spoils of victory, on the side of the enemy, the crime against the
							law of nations in the assassination of the ambassadors and the massacre
							of the colonists at Fidenae in a time of peace, a broken truce, a
							seventh unsuccessful revolt — remembering all this, they must take up
							arms.

When once they were in touch with their enemy, he was confident that the
							guilt-stained foe would not long rejoice over the disgrace that had
							overtaken the Roman army, and the people of Rome would see how much
							better service was rendered to the republic by those who

had, for the third time, nominated him Dictator, than by those who had
							cast a slur upon his second dictatorship because he had deprived the
							censors of their autocratic power. After reciting

the usual vows, he marched out and fixed his camp a mile and a half on
							this side of Fidenae, with the hills on his right and the Tiber on his
							left.

He ordered T. Quinctius to secure the hills and to seize, by a concealed
							movement, the ridge in the enemies' rear. On the following day, the
							Etruscans advanced to battle in high spirits at their success the
							previous day, which had been due rather to good luck than good fighting.
							After waiting a short time till the scouts reported that Quinctius had
							gained the height near the citadel of Fidenae, the Dictator ordered the
							attack and led the infantry at a quick double against the enemy.

He gave instructions to the Master of the Horse not to begin fighting
							till he got orders; when he needed the assistance of the cavalry he
							would give him the signal, then he must take his part in the action,
							inspired by the memory of his combat with Tolumnius, of the spolia opima , and of Romulus and Jupiter
							Feretrius.

The legions charged with great impetuosity. The Romans expressed their
							burning hatred in words as much as in deeds; they called the Fidenates
							“traitors,” the Veientines “brigands,”
							“breakers of truces,” “stained with the horrible
							murder of the ambassadors and the blood of Roman colonists,”
							“faithless as allies, cowardly as soldiers.”

The enemy were shaken at the very first onset, when suddenly the gates of
							Fidenae were flung open and a strange army sallied forth, never seen or
							heard of before.

An immense multitude, armed with firebrands, and all waving blazing
							torches, rushed like men possessed on the Roman line. For a moment this
							extraordinary mode of fighting put the Romans into a fright.

Then the Dictator called up the Master of the Horse with his cavalry,
							and sent to order Quinctius back from the hills, whilst he himself,
							encouraging his men, rode up to the left wing, which looked more like a
							conflagration than a body of combatants, and had given way through sheer
							terror at the flames.

He shouted to them: “Are you overcome with smoke, like a swarm of
							bees? Will you let an unarmed enemy drive you from your ground? Will you
							not put the fire out with your swords?

If you must fight with fire, not with arms, will you not snatch those
							torches away and attack them with their own weapons? Come! remember the
							name of Rome and the courage you have inherited from your fathers; turn
							this fire upon the enemies' city, and destroy with its own flames the
							Fidenae which you could not conciliate by your kindness.

The blood of ambassadors and colonists, your fellow-countrymen, and the
							devastation of your borders call upon you to do this.” At the
							Dictator's command the whole line advanced; some of the torches were
							caught as they were thrown, others were wrenched from the bearers; both
							armies were armed with fire.

The Master of the Horse, too, on his part, invented a new mode of
							fighting for his cavalry.

He ordered his men to take the bits off the horses, and, giving his own
							horse his head and putting spurs to it, he was carried into the midst of
							the flames, whilst the other horses, urged into a hard gallop, carried
							their riders against the enemy. The dust they raised, mixed with the
							smoke, blinded both horses and men. The sight which had terrified the
							infantry had no terrors for the horses.

Wherever the cavalry moved they left the slain in heaps. At this moment
							fresh shouts were heard, creating astonishment in both armies. The
							Dictator called out that Quinctius and his men had attacked the enemy in
							the rear, and on the shouts being renewed, he pressed his own attack
							with more vigour.

When the two bodies in two distinct attacks had forced the Etruscans
							back both in front and rear and hemmed them in, so that there was no way
							of escape either to their camp or to the hills —for in that direction
							the fresh enemy had intercepted them —and the horses, with their reins
							loose, were carrying their riders about in all directions, most of the
							Veientines made a wild rush for the Tiber; the survivors amongst the
							Fidenates made for their city.

The flight of the terrified Veientines carried them into the midst of
							slaughter, some were killed on the banks, others were driven into the
							river and swept away by the current; even good swimmers were carried
							down by wounds and fright and exhaustion, few out of the many got
							across.

The other body made their way through their camp to their city with the
							Romans in close pursuit, especially Quinctius and his men, who had just
							come down from the hills, and having arrived towards the close of the
							struggle, were fresher for the work.

The latter entered the gates pell-mell with the enemy, and as soon as
							they had mounted the walls they signalled to their friends that the city
							was taken.

The Dictator had now reached the enemies' abandoned camp, and his
							soldiers were anxious to disperse in quest of booty, but when he saw the
							signal he reminded them that there was richer spoil in the city, and led
							them up to the gate. Once within the walls he proceeded to the citadel,
							toward which he saw the crowd of fugitives rushing.

The slaughter in the city was not less than there had been in the
							battle, until, throwing down their arms, they surrendered to the
							Dictator and begged that at least their lives might be spared.

The city and camp were plundered. The following day the cavalry and
							centurions each received one prisoner, selected by lot, as their slave,
							those who had shown conspicuous gallantry, two; the rest were sold
							“under the chaplet.” The Dictator led back in triumph to Rome his
							victorious army laden with spoil.

After ordering the Master of the Horse to resign his office, he resigned
							office himself on the sixteenth day after his nomination, surrendering
							amidst peace

the sovereign power which he had assumed at a time of war and danger.
							Some of the annalists have recorded a naval engagement with the
							Veientines at Fidenae, an incident as difficult as it is incredible.

Even to-day the river is not broad enough for this, and we learn from
							ancient writers that it was narrower then. Possibly, in their desire for
							a vain-glorious inscription, as often happens, they magnified a
							gathering of ships to prevent the passage of the river into a naval
							victory.

The following year had for consular
							tribunes A. Sempronius Atratinus, L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, L. Furius
							Medullinus, and L. Horatius

Barbatus. A truce for eighteen years was granted to the Veientines and
							one for three years to the Aequi, though they had asked for a longer
							one. There was also a respite from civic

disturbances. The following year, though not marked by either foreign
							war or domestic troubles, was rendered memorable by the celebration of
							the Games vowed on the occasion of the war seven years before, which
							were carried out with great magnificence by the consular tribunes, and
							attended by large numbers from the surrounding

cities. The consular tribunes were Ap. Claudius Crassus, Spurius Nautius
							Rutilus, L. Sergius Fidenas, and Sex. Julius Julus. The spectacle was
							made more attractive to the visitors by the courteous reception which it
							had been publicly decided to give

them. When the Games were over, the tribunes of the plebs began to
							deliver inflammatory

harangues. They reproached the populace for allowing their stupid
							admiration of those whom they really hated to keep them in perpetual
							servitude. Not only did they lack the courage to claim their share in
							the chance of preferment to the consulship, but even in the election of
							consular tribunes, which was open to both patricians and plebeians, they
							never thought of their tribunes or their

party. They need be no longer surprised that no one interested himself
							in the welfare of the plebs. Toil and danger were incurred for those
							objects from which profit and honour might be expected. There was
							nothing which men would not attempt if rewards were held out
							proportionate to the greatness of the

effort. But that any tribune of the plebs should rush blindly into
							contests which involved enormous risks and brought no advantage, which
							he might be certain would make the patricians whom he opposed persecute
							him with relentless fury, whilst amongst the plebeians on whose behalf
							he fought he would not be in the slightest degree more honoured, was a
							thing neither to be expected nor demanded. Great honours made great

men. When the plebeians began to be respected, every plebeian would
							respect himself. Surely they might now try the experiment in one or two
							cases, to prove whether any plebeian is capable of holding high office,
							or whether it would be little short of a miracle for any one sprung from
							the plebs to be at the same time a strong and energetic

man. After a desperate fight, they had secured the election of military
							tribunes with consular powers, for which plebeians were eligible. Men of
							tried ability, both at home and in the field, became candidates. For the
							first few years they were knocked about, rejected, treated with derision
							by the patricians; at last they declined to expose themselves to these

affronts. They saw no reason why a law should not be repealed which
							simply legalised what would never happen. They would have less to be
							ashamed of in the injustice of the law than in being passed over in the
							elections as though unworthy to hold office.

Harangues of this sort were listened to with approval, and some were
							induced to stand for a consular tribuneship, each of them promising to
							bring in some measure in the interest of the plebs.

Hopes were held out of a division of the State domain and the formation
							of colonies, whilst money was to be raised for the payment of the
							soldiers by a tax on the occupiers of

the public land. The consular tribunes waited till the usual exodus from
							the City allowed a meeting of the senate to be held in the absence of
							the tribunes of the plebs, the members who were in the country being
							recalled by private notice.

A resolution was passed that owing to rumours of an invasion of the
							Hernican territory by the Volscians the consular tribunes should go and
							find out what was happening, and that at the forthcoming elections
							consuls should be chosen.

On their departure they left Appius Claudius, the son of the decemvir,
							to act as warden of the City, a young man of energy, and imbued from his
							infancy with a hatred of the plebs and its tribunes. The tribunes had
							nothing on which to raise a contest either with the consular tribunes,
							who were absent, the authors of the decree, or with Appius, as the
							matter had been settled.

The consuls elected were
							C. Sempronius Atratinus and Q. Fabius Vibulanus. There is recorded under
							this year an incident which occurred in a foreign country, but still
							important enough to be mentioned, namely, the capture of Volturnus, an
							Etruscan city, now called Capua, by the

Samnites. It is said to have been called Capua from their general, but
							it is more probable that it was so called from its situation in a
							champaign country ( campus ). It was after
							the Etruscans, weakened by a long war, had granted them a joint
							occupancy of the city and its territory that they seized

it. During a festival, whilst the old inhabitants were overcome with
							wine and sleep, the new settlers attacked them in the night and
							massacred them. After the proceedings described in the last chapter, the
							above-named consuls entered on office in the middle of

December. By this time intelligence as to the imminence of a Volscian
							war had been received not only from those who had been sent to
							investigate, but also from the Latins and Hernicans, whose envoys
							reported that the Volscians were devoting greater energy than they had
							ever done before to the selection of their generals and the levying of
							their

forces. The general cry amongst them was that either they must consign
							all thoughts of war to eternal oblivion and submit to the yoke, or else
							they must in courage, endurance, and military skill be a match for those
							with whom they were fighting for

supremacy. These reports were anything but groundless, but not only did
							the senate treat them with comparative indifference, but C. Sempronius,
							to whom that field of operations had fallen, imagined that as he was
							leading the troops of a victorious people against those whom they had
							vanquished, the fortune of war could never

change. Trusting to this, he displayed such rashness and negligence in
							all his measures that there was more of the Roman discipline in the
							Volscian army than there was in the Roman army

itself. As often happens, fortune waited upon desert. In the very first
							battle Sempronius made his dispositions without plan or forethought, the
							fighting line was not strengthened by reserves, nor were the cavalry
							placed in a suitable

position. The war-cries were the first indication as to how the action
							was going; that of the enemy was more animated and sustained; on the
							side of the Romans the irregular, intermittent shout, growing feebler at
							each repetition, betrayed their waning

courage. Hearing this, the enemy attacked with greater vigour, pushed
							with their shields and brandished their swords. On the other side their
							helmets drooped as the men looked round for supports; men wavered and
							faltered and crowded together for mutual protection; at one moment the
							standards while holding their ground were abandoned by the front rank,
							the next they retreated between their respective

maniples. As yet there was no actual flight,
							no decided victory. The Romans were defending themselves rather than
							fighting, the Volscians were advancing, forcing back their line; they
							saw more Romans slain than flying.

Now in all directions they were giving way; in vain
							did Sempronius the consul remonstrate and encourage, neither his
							authority nor his dignity was of any avail.

They would soon have been completely routed had not Tempanius, a
								 decurio of cavalry , retrieved by his
							ready courage the desperate position of affairs. He shouted to the
							cavalry to leap down from their horses if they wished the commonwealth
							to be safe, and all the troops of cavalry followed his direction as
							though it were the order of the consul.

“Unless,” he continued, “this bucklered cohort
							check the enemies' attack, there is an end of our sovereignty. Follow my
							spear as your standard! Show Romans and Volscians alike that no cavalry
							are a match for you as cavalry, no infantry a match for you as
							infantry!”

This stirring appeal was answered by shouts of approval, and he strode
							on, holding his spear erect. Wherever they went they forced their way;
							holding their bucklers in front, they made for that part of the field
							where they saw their comrades in the greatest difficulty;

in every direction where their onset carried them, they restored the
							battle, and undoubtedly, if so small a body could have attacked the
							entire line at once, the enemy would have been routed.

As it was impossible to check them in any direction, the Volscian
							commander gave a signal for a passage to be opened for this novel cohort
							of targeteers, until by the impetus of their charge they should be cut
							off from the main body.

As soon as this happened, they were unable to force their way back in
							the same directional they had advanced, as the enemy had massed in the
							greatest force there.

When the consul and the Roman legions no longer saw anywhere the men who
							had just been the shield of the whole army, they endeavoured at all
							risks to prevent so many brave fellows from being surrounded and
							overwhelmed by the enemy.

The Volscians formed two fronts, in one direction they met the attack of
							the consul and the legions, from the opposite front they pressed upon
							Tempanius and his troopers. As these latter after repeated attempts
							found themselves unable to break through to their main body, they took
							possession of some rising ground, and forming a circle defended
							themselves, not without inflicting losses on the enemy.

The battle did not terminate till nightfall. The consul too kept the
							enemy engaged without any slackening

of the fight as long as any light remained. Night at last put an end to
							the indecisive action, and through ignorance as to the result such a
							panic seized each of the camps that both armies, thinking themselves
							defeated, left their wounded behind and the greater part of their
							baggage and retired to the nearest hills.

The eminence, however, which Tempanius had seized was surrounded till
							after midnight, when it was announced to the enemy that their camp was
							abandoned. Looking upon this as a proof that their army was defeated,
							they fled in all directions wherever their fears carried them in the
							darkness.

Tempanius, fearing a surprise, kept his men together till daylight. Then
							he came down with a few of his men to reconnoitre, and after
							ascertaining from the enemies' wounded that the Volscian camp was
							abandoned, he joyfully called his men down and made his way to the Roman
							camp.

Here he found a dreary solitude; everything presented the same miserable
							spectacle as in the enemies' camp. Before the discovery of their mistake
							could bring the Volscians back again, he collected all the wounded he
							could carry with him, and as he did not know what direction the Dictator
							had taken, proceeded by the most direct road to the City.

Rumours of an unfavourable battle and the
							abandonment of the camp had already been brought. Most of all was the
							fate of the cavalry deplored, the whole community felt the loss as
							keenly as their families.

There was general alarm throughout the City, and the consul Fabius was
							posting pickets before the gates when cavalry were descried in the
							distance. Their appearance created alarm, as it was doubtful who they
							were; presently they were recognised, and the fears gave place to such
							great joy that the City rang with shouts of congratulation at the
							cavalry having returned safe and victorious.

People flocked into the streets out of houses which had just before been
							in mourning and filled with wailings for the dead; anxious mothers and
							wives, forgetting decorum in their joy, ran to meet the column of
							horsemen, each embracing her own friends and hardly able

to control mind or body for joy. The tribunes of the plebs had appointed
							a day for the trial of M. Postumius and T. Quinctius on the ground of
							their ill-success at Veii, and they thought it a favourable opportunity
							for reviving the public feeling against them through the odium now
							incurred

by Sempronius. Accordingly they convened the Assembly, and in excited
							tones declared that the commonwealth had been betrayed at Veii by their
							generals, and in consequence of their not having been called to account,
							the army acting against the Volscians had been betrayed by the consul,
							their gallant cavalry had been given over to slaughter, and the camp had
							been disgracefully abandoned. C. Junius, one of the tribunes, ordered
							Tempanius to be called forward.

He then addressed him as follows: “Sextus Tempanius, I ask you,
							would you consider that the consul Caius Sempronius commenced the action
							at the fitting moment, or strengthened his line with supports, or
							discharged any of the duties of a good consul?

When the Roman legions were worsted, did you on your own authority
							dismount the cavalry and restore the fight? And when you and the cavalry
							were cut off from our main body, did the consul render any assistance or
							send you succour?

Further, did you on the following day receive any reinforcements, or did
							you and the cohort force your way to the camp by your own bravery? Did
							you find any consul, any army in the camp, or did you find it abandoned
							and the wounded soldiers left to their fate?

Your honour and loyalty, which have alone sustained the commonwealth in
							this war, require you to state these things today. Lastly, where is
							Caius Sempronius? where are our legions? Were you deserted, or have you
							deserted the consul and the army? In a word, are we defeated, or have we
							been victorious?”

The speech which Tempanius made in reply is said to have been unpolished,
							but marked by soldierly dignity, free from the vanity of self-praise,
							and showing no pleasure in the inculpation of others.

“It was not,” he said, “a soldier's place to
							criticise his commander, or judge how much military skill he possessed;
							that was for the Roman people to do when they elected him consul.

They must not therefore demand of him what tactics a commander should
							adopt, or what military capacity a consul should display; these were
							matters which even great minds and intellects would have to weigh very
							carefully. He could, however, relate what he saw.

Before he was cut off from the main body he saw the consul fighting in
							the front line, encouraging his men, going to and fro between the Roman
							standards and the missiles of the enemy.

After he, the speaker, was carried out of sight of his comrades, he knew
							from the noise and shouting that the combat was kept up till night; and
							he did not believe that a way could have been made to the eminence which
							he had occupied, owing to the numbers of the enemy.

Where the army was he knew not; he thought that as he found protection
							for himself and his men at a moment of extreme peril in the nature of
							the ground, so the consul had selected a stronger position for his camp,
							to save his army.

He did not believe that the Volscians were in any better plight than the
							Romans; the varying fortunes of the fight and the fall of night had led
							to all sorts of mistakes on both sides.”

He then begged them not to keep him any longer, as he was exhausted with
							his exertions and his wounds, and thereupon was dismissed amidst loud
							praises of his modesty no less than his courage. Whilst this was going
							on the consul had reached the Labican road and was at the chapel of
								 Quies .

Wagons and draught-cattle were despatched thither from the City for the
							conveyance of the army, who were worn out by the battle and night march.
							Shortly afterwards the consul entered the City, quite as anxious to give
							Tempanius the praise he so

well deserved as to remove the blame from his own shoulders. Whilst the
							citizens were mourning over their reverses and angry with their
							generals, M. Postumius, who as consular tribune had commanded at Veii,
							was brought before them for trial.

He was sentenced to a fine of 10,000 “ ases .” His colleague, T. Quinctius, who had been
							successful against the Volscians under the auspices of the Dictator
							Postumius Tubertus, and at Fidenae as second in command under the other
							Dictator, Mam. Aemilius, threw all the blame for the disaster at Veii on
							his colleague who had been previously sentenced. He was acquitted by the
							unanimous vote of the tribes.

It is said that the memory of his venerated father, Cincinnatus, stood
							him in good stead, as also did the now aged Capitolinus Quinctius, who
							earnestly entreated them not to allow him, with so brief a span of life
							left to him, to be the bearer of such sad tidings to Cincinnatus.

The plebs elected as their tribunes, in their absence, Sex. Tempanius, A.
							Sellius, Sextus Antistius, and Sp. Icilius, all of whom had, on the
							advice of Tempanius, been selected by the cavalry to act as
								centurions.

The exasperation against Sempronius made the very name of consul
							offensive, the senate therefore ordered consular tribunes to be elected.

Their names were L. Manlius Capitolinus, Q. Antonius Merenda, and L.
							Papirius Mugilanus. At the very beginning of the year, L. Hortensius, a
							tribune of the plebs, appointed a day for the trial of C. Sempronius,
							the consul of the previous year. His four colleagues begged him,
							publicly, in full view of the Roman people, not to prosecute their
							unoffending commander, against whom nothing but ill-luck could be
							alleged.

Hortensius was angry, for he looked upon this as an attempt to test his
							resolution, he regarded the entreaties of the tribunes as meant simply
							to save appearances, and

he was convinced that it was not to these the consul was trusting, but
							to their interposing their veto. Turning to Sempronius he asked:
							“Where is your patrician spirit, and the courage which is
							supported by the consciousness of innocence?

An ex-consul actually sheltering under the wing of the tribunes!”
							Then he addressed his colleagues: “You, what will you do, if I
							carry the prosecution through?

Are you going to deprive the people of their jurisdiction and subvert
							the power of the tribunes?” They replied that the authority of
							the people was supreme over Sempronius and over everybody else;

they had neither the will nor the power to do away with the people's
							right to judge, but if their entreaties on behalf of their commander,
							who was a second father to them, proved unavailing, they would appear by
							his side in suppliant garb.

Then Hortensius replied: “The Roman plebs shall not see its
							tribunes in mourning; I drop all proceedings against C. Sempronius,
							since he has succeeded, during his command, in becoming so dear to his
							soldiers.”

Both plebeians and patricians were pleased with the loyal affection of
							the four tribunes, and quite as much so with the way in which Hortensius
							had yielded to their just remonstrances.

The consuls for the next year were Numerius Fabius
							Vibulanus and T. Quinctius Capitolinus, the son of Capitolinus. The
							Aequi had claimed the doubtful victory of the Volscians as their own,
							but fortune no longer favoured them.

The campaign against them fell to Fabius, but nothing worth mention took
							place. Their dispirited army had but shown itself when it was routed and
							put to a disgraceful flight, without the consul gaining much glory from
							it.

A triumph was in consequence refused him, but as he had removed the
							disgrace of Sempronius' defeat he was allowed to enjoy an ovation. As, contrary to
							expectation, the war had been brought to a close with less fighting than
							had been feared, so in the City the calm was broken by unlooked-for and
							serious disturbances between the plebs and the

patricians. It began with the doubling of the number of quaestors. It
							was proposed to create in addition to the two City quaestors two others
							to assist the consuls in the various duties arising from a state of war.
							When this proposal was laid by the consuls before the senate and had
							received the warm support of that body, the tribunes of the plebs
							insisted that half the number should be taken from the plebeians; up to
							that time only patricians had been

chosen. This demand was at first opposed most resolutely by the consuls
							and the senate; afterwards they yielded so far as to allow the same
							freedom of choice in the election of quaestors as the people already
							enjoyed in that of consular tribunes. As they gained nothing by this,
							they dropped the proposal to augment the number

altogether. The tribunes took it up, and many revolutionary proposals,
							including the Agrarian Law, were set on foot in quick succession. In
							consequence of these commotions the senate wanted consuls to be elected
							rather than tribunes, but owing to the veto of the tribunes a formal
							resolution could not be carried, and

on the expiry of the consuls' year of office an interregnum followed,
							and even this did not happen without a tremendous struggle, for the
							tribunes vetoed any meeting of the

patricians. The greater part of the following year was wasted in
							contests between the new tribunes of the plebs and some of the
							interreges. At one time the tribunes would intervene to prevent the
							patricians from meeting together to appoint an interrex, at another they
							would interrupt the interrex and prevent him from obtaining a decree for
							the election of

consuls. At last L. Papirius Mugilanus, who had been made interrex,
							sternly rebuked the senate and the tribunes, and reminded them that upon
							the truce with Veii and the dilatoriness of the Aequi, and upon these
							alone, depended the safety of the commonwealth, which was deserted and
							forgotten by men, but protected by the providential care of the

gods. Should any alarm of war sound from that quarter, was it their wish
							that the State should be taken by surprise while without any patrician
							magistrate; that there should be no army, no general to enrol

one? Were they going to repel a foreign war by a civil one? If both
							these should come together, the destruction of Rome could hardly be
							averted even with the help of the

gods. Let them rather try to establish concord by making concessions on
							both sides-the patricians by allowing military tribunes to be elected
							instead of consuls; the tribunes of the plebs by not interfering with
							the liberty of the people to elect the four quaestors from patricians or
							plebeians indiscriminately.

The election of consular tribunes was the first to be held. They were all
							patricians; L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, for the third time, L. Furius
							Medullinus, for the second, M. Manlius, and A. Sempronius Atratinus.

The last-named conducted the election of the quaestors. Amongst other
							plebeian candidates were the son of Antistius, tribune of the plebs, and
							a brother of Sextus Pompilius, another tribune. Their authority and
							interest were not, however, strong enough to prevent the voters from
							preferring on the ground of their high birth those whose fathers and
							grandfathers they had seen in the consul's chair.

All the tribunes of the plebs were furious, Pompilius and Antistius,
							more especially, were incensed at the defeat of their relations.

“What,” they angrily exclaimed, “is the meaning of
							all this? In spite of our good offices, in spite of the wrongs done by
							the patricians, with all the freedom you now enjoy of exercising powers
							you did not possess before, not a single member of the plebs has been
							raised to the quaestorship, to say nothing of the consular tribuneship!

The appeals of a father on behalf of a son, of a brother on behalf of a
							brother, have been unavailing, though they are tribunes, invested with
							an inviolable authority to protect your liberties. There has certainly
							been dishonesty somewhere; A. Sempronius has shown more adroitness than
							straightforwardness.”

They accused him of having kept their men out of office by illegal
							means. As they could not attack him directly, protected as he was by his
							innocence and his official position, they turned their resentment
							against Caius Sempronius, the uncle of Atratinus, and having obtained
							the support of their colleague, M. Canuleius,

they impeached him upon the ground of the disgrace incurred in the
							Volscian war. These same tribunes frequently mooted the question in the
							senate of a distribution of the public domain, a proposal which C.
							Sempronius always stoutly resisted.

They thought, and rightly as the event proved, that when the day of
							trial came, he would either abandon his opposition and so lose influence
							with the patricians, or by persisting in it give offence to the
							plebeians.

He chose the latter, and preferred to incur the odium of his opponents
							and injure his own cause than prove false to the cause of the State. He
							insisted that “there should be no grants of land, which would
							only increase the influence of the three tribunes; what they wanted now
							was not land for the plebs, but to wreak their spite upon him.

He, like others, would meet the storm with a stout heart; neither he nor
							any other citizen ought to stand so high with the senate that any
							leniency shown to an individual might be disastrous to the
							commonwealth.”

When the day of trial came there was no lowering of his tone, he
							undertook his own defence, and though the patricians tried every means
							to soften the plebeians, he was condemned to pay a fine of 15,000
							“ ases .” In this same year
							Postumia, a Vestal virgin, had to answer a charge of unchastity.

Though innocent, she had given grounds for suspicion through her gay
							attire and unmaidenly freedom of manner. After she had been remanded and
							finally acquitted, the Pontifex Maximus, in the name of the whole
							college of priests, ordered her to abstain from

frivolity and to study sanctity rather than smartness in her appearance.
							In the same year, Cumae, at that time held by the Greeks, was captured
							by the Campanians.

The following year had as consular tribunes Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, P.
							Lucretius Tricipitinus, and Spurius Nautius Rutilus. Thanks to the good
							fortune of Rome, the year was marked by serious danger more than by
							actual disaster.

The slaves had formed a plot to fire the City in various spots, and
							whilst the people were everywhere intent on saving their houses, to take
							armed possession of the Capitol. Jupiter frustrated their nefarious
							project; two of their number gave information, and the actual culprits
							were arrested and punished.

The informers received a reward of 10,000 “ ases ” —a large sum in those days —from the public
							treasury, and their freedom. After this the Aequi began to prepare for a
							renewal of hostilities, and it was reported on good authority at Rome
							that a new enemy, the Labicans, were forming a coalition with their old
							foes.

The commonwealth had come to look upon hostilities with the Aequi as
							almost an annual occurrence. Envoys were sent to Labici. The reply they
							brought back was evasive; it was evident that whilst there were no
							immediate preparations for war, peace would not last long.

The Tusculans were requested to be on the watch for any fresh movement
							on the part of the Labicans. The consular
							tribunes for the following year were Lucius Sergius Fidenas, M. Papirius
							Mugilanus, and C. Servilius, the son of the Priscus in whose
							dictatorship Fidenae had been taken.

At the very beginning of their term of office, envoys came from Tusculum
							and reported that the Labicans had taken up arms and in conjunction with
							the Aequi had, after ravaging the Tusculan territory, fixed their camp
							on Algidus.

War was thereupon proclaimed and the senate decreed that two tribunes
							should leave for the war, and one remain in charge of the City. This at
							once led to a quarrel amongst the tribunes. Each urged his superior
							claims to command in the war and looked down upon the charge of the City
							as distasteful and inglorious.

Whilst the senators were watching with astonishment this unseemly strife
							amongst colleagues, Q. Servilius said, “Since no respect is shown
							either to this House or to the State, the authority of a father shall
							put an end to this altercation. My son, without having recourse to lots,
							shall take charge of the City. I trust that those who are so anxious for
							the command in the war will conduct it in a more considerate and
							amicable spirit than they have shown in their eagerness to obtain
							it.”

It was decided that the levy should not be raised from the whole
							population indiscriminately; ten tribes were drawn by lot; from these
							the two tribunes enlisted the men of military age and led them to the
							war.

The quarrels which had begun in the City became much more heated in the
							camp through the same eagerness to secure the command. They agreed on no
							single point, they fought for their own opinions, each wanted his own
							plans and orders carried out exclusively, they felt mutual contempt for
							each other.

At length, through the remonstrances and reproofs of the
							lieutenants-general, matters were so far arranged that they agreed to
							hold the command in chief on alternate days.

When this state of things was reported at Rome it is said that Q.
							Servilius, taught by years and experience, offered up a solemn prayer
							that the disagreement of the tribunes might not prove more hurtful to
							the State than it had been at Veii; then, as though disaster were
							undoubtedly impending, he urged his son to enrol troops and prepare
							arms.

He was not a false prophet. It happened to be the
							turn of L. Sergius to hold command, and the enemy by a pretended flight
							had drawn his troops on to unfavourable ground close to their camp, in
							the vain hope of storming it. Then the Aequi made a sudden charge and
							drove them down a steep valley where numbers were overtaken and killed
							in what was not so much a flight as a tumbling over each other.

It was with difficulty that they held their camp that day; the next day,
							after the enemy had surrounded a considerable part of it, they evacuated
							it in a disgraceful flight through the rear gate.

The commanders and lieutenants-general and as much of the army as
							remained with the standards made for Tusculum, the others, straggling in
							all directions through the fields, hurried on to Rome and spread the
							news of a more serious defeat than had been actually incurred.

There was less consternation felt because the result was what every one
							had feared and the reinforcements which they could look to in the hour
							of danger had been got ready beforehand by the consular tribune.

By his orders, after the excitement had been allayed by the inferior
							magistrates, scouting parties were promptly sent out to reconnoitre, and
							they reported that the generals and the army were at Tusculum, and that
							the enemy had not shifted his camp.

What did most to restore confidence was the nomination, by a senatorial
							decree, of Q. Servilius Priscus as Dictator. The citizens had had
							previous experience of his political foresight in many stormy crises,
							and the issue of this war afforded a fresh proof, for he alone suspected
							danger from the differences of the tribunes before the disaster
							occurred.

He appointed as his Master of the Horse the tribune by whom he had been
							nominated Dictator, namely, his own son.

This at least is the statement of some authorities, others say that
							Ahala Servilius was Master of the Horse that year. With his fresh army
							he proceeded to the seat of war, and after recalling the troops who were
							at Tusculum, he selected a position for his camp two miles distant from
							the enemy.

The arrogance and carelessness which the Roman
							generals had shown had now passed over to the Aequi in the hour of their
							success.

The result appeared in the very first battle. After shaking the enemies'
							front with a cavalry charge, the Dictator ordered the standards of the
							legions to be rapidly advanced, and as one of his standard-bearers
							hesitated, he slew him.

So eager were the Romans to engage that the Aequi did not stand the
							shock. Driven from the field in headlong flight they made for their
							camp; the storming of the camp took less time and involved less fighting
							than the actual battle.

The spoils of the captured camp the Dictator gave up to the soldiers.
							The cavalry who had pursued the enemy as they fled from the camp brought
							back intelligence that the whole of the defeated

Labicans and a large proportion of the Aequi had fled to Labici.

On the morrow the army marched to Labici, and after the town was
							completely invested it was captured and plundered. After leading his
							victorious army home, the Dictator laid down his office just a week
							after he had been appointed. Before the tribunes of the plebs had time
							to get up an agitation about the division of the Labican territory, the
							senate in a full meeting passed a resolution that a body of colonists
							should be settled at Labici.

One thousand five hundred colonists were sent, and each received two
								 jugera 
							 of land. In the year following the capture of Labici
							the consular tribunes were Menenius Lanatus, L. Servilius Structus, P.
							Lucretius Tricipitinus-each for the second time- and Spurius Veturius

Crassus. For the next year they were A. Sempronius Atratinus-for the
							third time- and M. Papirius Mugilanus and Sp. Nautius Rutilus- each for
							the second time. During these two years foreign affairs were quiet, but
							at home there were contentions over the agrarian laws.

The fomenters of the disturbance were Sp. Maecilius,
							who was tribune of the plebs for the fourth time, and M. Metilius,
							tribune for the third time; both had been elected in their absence.

They brought forward a measure providing that the territory taken from
							an enemy should be assigned to individual owners. If this were passed
							the fortunes of a large number of the nobility would be confiscated.

For as the City itself was founded upon foreign soil, it possessed
							hardly any territory which had not been won by arms, or which had become

private property by sale or assignment beyond what the plebeians
								possessed. There seemed every prospect of a
							bitter conflict between the plebs and the patricians.

The consular tribunes, after discussing the matter in the senate and in
							private gatherings of patricians, were at a loss what to do, when Appius
							Claudius, the grandson of the old decemvir and the youngest senator
							present, rose to speak.

He is represented as saying that he was bringing from home an old device
							well known to his house. His grandfather, Appius Claudius, had pointed
							out to the senate the only way of breaking down the power of the
							tribunes, namely, through the interposition of their colleagues' veto.

Men who had risen from the masses were easily induced to change their
							opinions by the personal authority of the

leaders of the State if only they were addressed in language suitable to
							the occasion rather than to the rank of the speaker. Their feelings
							changed with their fortunes.

When they saw that those of their colleagues who were the first to
							propose any measure took the whole credit of it with the plebs and left
							no place for them, they would feel no hesitation in coming over to

the cause of the senate, and so win the favour not only of the leaders
							but of the whole order. His views met with universal approval; Q.
							Servilius Priscus was the first to congratulate the youth on his not
							having degenerated from the old Claudian stock.

The leaders of the senate were charged to persuade as many tribunes as
							they could to interpose their veto. After the close of the sitting they
							canvassed the tribunes. By the use of persuasion, warning, and promises,
							they showed how acceptable that action would be to them individually and
							to the whole senate.

They succeeded in bringing over six. The next day, in accordance with a
							previous understanding, the attention of the senate was drawn to the
							agitation which Maecilius and Metilius were causing by proposing a bribe
							of the worst possible type.

Speeches were delivered by the leaders of the senate, each in turn
							declaring that he was unable to suggest any course of action, and saw no
							other resource but the assistance of the tribunes. To the protection of
							that power the State in its embarrassment, like a private citizen in his
							helplessness, fled for succour.

It was the glory of the tribunes and of the authority they wielded that
							they possessed as much strength to withstand evil-minded colleagues as
							to harass the senate and create dissension between the two orders.

Cheers arose from the whole senate and the tribunes were appealed to
							from every quarter of the House. When silence was restored, those
							tribunes who had been won over made it clear that since the senate was
							of opinion that the proposed measure tended to the break-up of the
							republic, they should interpose their veto on it.

They were formally thanked by the senate. The proposers of the measure
							convened a meeting in which they showered abuse on their colleagues,
							calling them “traitors to the interests of the plebs” and
							“slaves of the consulars,” with other insulting epithets.
							Then they dropped all further proceedings.

The consular tribunes for
							the following year were P. Cornelius Cossus, C. Valerius Potitus, Q.
							Quinctius Cincinnatus, and Numerius Fabius Vibulanus. There would have
							been two wars this year if the Veientine leaders had not deferred
							hostilities owing to religious scruples. Their lands had suffered from
							an inundation of the Tiber chiefly through the destruction of their farm

buildings. The Bolani, a people of the same nationality as the Aequi,
							had made incursions into the adjoining territory of Labici and attacked
							the newly-settled colonists, in the hope of averting the consequences by
							receiving the unanimous support of the

Aequi. But the defeat they had sustained three years before made them
							disinclined to render

assistance; the Bolani, abandoned by their friends, lost both town and
							territory after a siege and one trifling engagement in a war which is
							not even worth

recording. An attempt was made by L. Sextius, a tribune of the plebs, to
							carry a measure providing that colonists should be sent to Bolae as they
							had been to Labici, but it was defeated by the intervention of his
							colleagues, who made it clear that they would not allow any resolution
							of the plebs to take effect except on the authorisation of the senate.
							The consular tribunes for the following year were Cnaeus Cornelius
							Cossus, L. Valerius Potitus, Q. Fabius Vibulanus-for the second time-and
							M. Postumius

Regillensis. The Aequi recaptured Bolae and strengthened the town by
							introducing fresh colonists. The war against the Aequi was entrusted to
							Postumius, a man of violent and obstinate temper, which, however, he
							displayed more in the hour of victory than during the war. After
							marching with his hastily-raised army to Bolae and crushing the spirit
							of the Aequi in some insignificant actions, he at length forced his way
							into the town. Then he diverted the contest from the enemy to his own

fellow-citizens. During the assault he had issued an order that the
							plunder should go to the soldiers, but after the capture of the town he
							broke his word. I am led to believe that this was the real ground for
							the resentment felt by the army rather than that in a city which had
							been recently sacked and where a new colony had been settled, the amount
							of booty was less than the tribune had given

out. After he had returned to the City on the summons of his colleagues
							owing to the commotions excited by the tribunes of the plebs, the
							feeling against him was intensified by a stupid and almost insane
							utterance in a meeting of the

Assembly. Sextius was introducing an agrarian law, and stated that one
							of its provisions was that colonists be settled at Bolae.
							“Those,” he said, “who had captured Bolae deserved
							that the city and its territory should belong to them.” Postumius
							exclaimed, “It will be a bad thing for my soldiers if they do not
							keep quiet.” This exclamation was quite as offensive to the
							senators, when they heard of it, as it was to the

Assembly. The tribune of the plebs was a clever man and not a bad
							speaker; he had now got amongst his opponents a man of insolent temper
							and hot tongue, whom he could irritate and provoke into saying things
							which would bring odium not only upon himself, but upon his cause and
							upon the whole of his order. There was no one amongst the consular
							tribunes whom he oftener drew into argument before the Assembly than

Postumius. After the above quoted coarse and brutal utterance Sextius
							said, “Do you hear, Quirites, this man threatening his soldiers
							with punishment, as if they were slaves? Shall this monster appear in
							your eyes more worthy of his high office than the men who are trying to
							send you out as colonists to receive as a free gift city and land, and
							provide a resting-place for your old age; who are fighting gallantly for
							your interests against such savage and insolent opponents? Now you can
							begin to wonder why it is that so few take up your cause. What have they
							to hope for from you? Is it high office? You would rather confer it on
							your opponents than on the champions of the Roman people. You broke out
							into indignant murmurs just now when you heard what this man said. What
							difference does it

make? If you had to give your votes now, you would prefer this man who
							threatens you with punishment to those who want to secure for you lands
							and houses and property.” When this exclamation of Postumius was
							reported to the soldiers it aroused much more indignation in the camp.
							“What!” they said, “is the embezzler of the spoils,
							the robber, actually threatening his soldiers with punishment?”
							Open as the expressions of resentment were, the quaestor P. Sestius
							still thought that the excitement could be repressed by the same
							exhibition of violence by which it had been aroused. A lictor was sent
							to a soldier who was shouting, this led to uproar and

disorder. The quaestor was struck by a stone and got out of the crowd,
							the man who had hurt him exclaimed that the quaestor had got what the
							commander had threatened the

soldiers. Postumius was sent for to deal with the outbreak; he
							aggravated the general irritation by the ruthless way in which he made
							his investigations and the cruelty of the punishments he inflicted. At
							last, when his rage exceeded all bounds, and a crowd had gathered at the
							cries of those whom he had ordered to be put to death “under the
							hurdle,” he rushed down from his tribunal in a
							frenzy to those who were interrupting the execution; the lictors and
							centurions tried in all directions to disperse the crowd, and drove them
							to such a pitch of exasperation that the tribune was overwhelmed beneath
							a shower of stones from his own

army. When this dreadful deed was reported at Rome, the consular
							tribunes urged the senate to order an inquiry into the circumstances of
							the death of their colleague, but the tribunes of the plebs interposed
							their veto. That matter was closely connected with another subject of

dispute. The senate were apprehensive lest the plebeians, either through
							dread of an investigation or from feelings of resentment, should elect
							the consular tribunes from their own body, and they did their utmost
							accordingly to secure the election of consuls. As the tribunes of the
							plebs would not allow the senate to pass a decree, and also vetoed the
							election of consuls, matters passed to an interregnum. The victory
							rested finally with the senate.

Q. Fabius Vibulanus, as interrex, presided over the
							elections. The consuls elected were A. Cornelius Cossus and L. Furius
							Medullinus.

At the beginning of their year of office, a resolution was adopted by
							the senate empowering the tribunes to bring before the plebs at the
							earliest possible date the subject of an inquiry into the circumstances
							of the death of Postumius, and allowing the plebs to choose whom they
							would to preside over the inquiry.

The plebs by a unanimous vote left the matter to the consuls. They
							discharged their task with the greatest moderation and clemency; only a
							few suffered punishment, and there are good grounds for believing that
							these died by their own hands.

They were quite unable, however, to prevent their action from being
							bitterly resented by the plebeians, who complained that whilst measures
							brought forward in their own interests were abortive, one which involved
							the punishment and death of members of their order was meanwhile passed
							and put into immediate execution.

After justice had been meted out for the mutiny, it would have been a
							most politic step to appease their resentment by distributing the
							conquered territory of Bolae. Had the senate done this they would have
							lessened the eagerness for an agrarian law which proposed to expel the
							patricians from their unjust occupation of the State domains.

As it was, the sense of injury was all the keener because the nobility
							were not only determined to keep the public land, which they already
							held, by force, but actually refused to distribute the vacant territory
							recently conquered, which would soon, like everything else, be
							appropriated by a few. During this year the consul Furius led the
							legions against the Volscians, who were ravaging the Hernican territory.

As they did not find the enemy in that quarter they advanced against
							Ferentinum, to which place a large number of Volscians had retreated,
							and took it.

There was less booty there than they had expected to find, for as there
							was little hope of defending the place, the Volscians carried off their
							property and evacuated it by night. The next day, when captured, it was
							almost deserted. The town and its territory were given to the Hernici.

This year which, owing to the moderation
							of the tribunes, had been free from disturbances, was followed by one in
							which L. Icilius was tribune, the consuls being Q. Fabius Ambustus and
							C. Furius Pacilus.

At the very beginning of the year he took up the work of agitation, as
							though it were the allotted task of his name and family, and announced
							proposals for dealing with the land question.

Owing to the outbreak of a pestilence which, however, created more alarm
							than mortality, the thoughts of men were diverted from the political
							struggles of the Forum to their homes and the necessity of nursing the
							sick.

The pestilence was regarded as less baneful than the agrarian agitation
							would have been. The community escaped with very few deaths considering
							the very large number of cases. As usually happens, the pestilence
							brought a famine the following year, owing to the fields lying
							uncultivated.

The new consuls were M. Papirius Atratinus and C. Nautius Rutilus. The
							famine would have been more fatal than the pestilence had not the
							scarcity been relieved by the despatch of commissioners to all the
							cities lying on the Etruscan sea and the Tiber.

The Samnites, who occupied Capua and Cumae, refused in insolent terms to
							have any communication with the commissioners; on the other hand,
							assistance was generously given by the Sicilian Tyrant. The largest
							supplies were brought down the Tiber, through the ungrudging exertions
							of the Etruscans.

In consequence of the prevalence of sickness in the republic, the
							consuls found hardly any men available; as only one senator could be
							obtained for each commission, they were compelled to attach two knights
							to it.

Apart from the pestilence and the famine, there was no trouble either at
							home or abroad during these two years, but as soon as these causes of
							anxiety had disappeared, all the usual sources of disturbance in the
							commonwealth —dissensions at home, wars abroad —broke out afresh.

Manlius Aemilius and C.
							Valerius Potitus were the new consuls. The Aequi made preparations for
							war, and the Volscians, without the sanction of their government, took
							up arms and assisted them as

volunteers. On the report of these hostile movements —they had already
							crossed over into the Latin and Hernican territories —the consul
							Valerius commenced to levy troops. He was obstructed by M. Menenius, the
							proposer of an agrarian law, and under the protection of this tribune,
							no one who objected to serve would take the

oath. Suddenly the news came that the citadel of Carventum had been
							seized by the

enemy. This humiliation gave the senate an opening for stirring up
							popular resentment against Menenius, while it afforded to the other
							tribunes, who were already prepared to veto his agrarian law, stronger
							justification for opposing their

colleague. A long and angry discussion took place. The consuls called
							gods and men to witness that Menenius by obstructing the levy was solely
							responsible for whatever defeat and disgrace at the hands of the enemy
							had already been incurred or was

imminent. Menenius on the other hand loudly protested that if those who
							occupied the public land would give up their wrongful possession of it,
							he would place no hindrance in the way of the levy. The nine tribunes
							put an end to the quarrel by interposing a formal resolution and
							declaring that it was the intention of the college

to support the consul, in spite of their colleague's veto, whether he
							imposed fines or adopted other modes of coercion on those who refused to
							serve in the

field. Armed with this decree the consul ordered a few who were claiming
							the tribune's protection to be seized and brought before him; this cowed
							the rest and they took the

oath. The army was marched to the citadel of Carventum, and though
							disaffected and embittered against the consul, they no sooner arrived at
							the place than they drove out the defenders and recaptured the citadel.
							The attack was facilitated by the absence of some of the garrison, who
							had through the laxity of their generals stolen away on a plundering

expedition. The booty which had been gathered in their incessant raids
							and stored here for safety was considerable. This the consul ordered to
							be sold “under the spear,” the
							proceeds to be paid by the quaestors into the treasury. He announced
							that the army would only have a share in the spoils when they had not
							declined to

serve. This increased the exasperation of the plebs and the soldiers
							against the consul. The senate decreed him an “ovation,”
							and whilst he made his formal entry into the City, rude verses were
							bandied by

the soldiers with their accustomed licence in which the consul was
							abused and Menenius extolled in alternate couplets, whilst at every
							mention of the tribune the voices of the soldiers were drowned in the
							cheers and applause of the

bystanders. This latter circumstance occasioned more anxiety to the
							senate than the licence of the soldiers, which was almost a regular
							practice, and as there was no doubt that if Menenius became a candidate
							he would be elected as a consular tribune, he was shut out by the
							election of consuls.

The two who were elected were Cnaeus
							Cornelius Cossus and L. Furius Medullinus.

On no other occasion had the plebs been more indignant at not being
							allowed to elect consular tribunes. They showed their indignation in the
							election of quaestors, and they had their revenge, for that was the
							first time that plebeians were elected quaestors, and so far did they
							carry their resentment, that out of the four who were elected one place
							only was left open for a patrician, viz.,

Kaeso Fabius Ambustus. The three plebeians, Q. Silius, P. Aelius, and P.
							Pupius, were chosen in preference to scions of the most illustrious
							families.

It was the Icilii, I find, who induced the people to show this
							independence at the poll; that family was most bitter against the
							patricians, and three of its members were elected tribunes for this year
							by holding out hopes of numerous important reforms on which the people
							had set their hearts.

They declared that they would not take a single step if the people had
							not sufficient courage even in electing quaestors to secure the end
							which they had long desired and which the laws had put within their
							reach, seeing that this was the only office which the senate had left
							open to patricians and plebeians alike.

The plebeians regarded this as a splendid victory; they valued the
							quaestorship not by what it was in itself, but as opening the path for
							men who had risen from the ranks to consulships and triumphs. The
							patricians on the other hand were indignant; they felt that they were
							not so much giving a share of the honours of the State as losing them
							altogether.

“If,” they said, “this is the state of things,
							children must no longer be reared, since they will only be banished from
							the station their ancestors filled, and whilst seeing others in
							possession of the dignity which is theirs by right, they will be left,
							deprived of all authority and power, to act as Salii or Flamens, with no
							other duty than that of offering sacrifices for the people.”

Both parties were exasperated, and as the spirit of the plebs was rising
							and they had three leaders bearing a name illustrious in the popular
							cause, the patricians saw that the results of all the elections would be
							the same as that for quaestors in which the plebs had a free choice.

They exerted themselves, therefore, to secure the election of consuls,
							which was not yet open to both orders; whilst the Icilii on the other
							hand said that consular tribunes must be elected, and that the highest
							honours must sooner or later be shared by the plebs.

But so far no action had been taken by the consuls to give an opening for
							obstruction and the wresting of the desired concessions from the
							patricians. By a marvellous piece of good luck, news came that the
							Volscians and Aequi had made a predatory inroad into the Latin and
							Hernican territories.

The senate decreed a levy for this war, but when the consuls began to
							raise it the tribunes vigorously opposed them, and declared that they
							themselves and the plebs had now got their opportunity.

There were three of them, all very energetic, who might be considered of
							good family as far as plebeians could be. Two of them assumed the task
							of keeping a close watch on each of the consuls; to the third was
							assigned the duty of alternately restraining and urging on the plebeians
							by his harangues.

The consuls could not get through with the levy, nor the tribunes with
							the election which they were so anxious for.

Fortune at last took the side of the plebs, for tidings came that whilst
							the troops who were holding the citadel of Carventum were dispersed in
							quest of plunder, the Aequi had attacked it, and after killing the few
							left on guard, had cut to pieces some who were hastening back and others
							whilst straggling in the fields. This incident, so unfortunate for the
							State, strengthened the hands of the tribunes.

Fruitless attempts were made to induce them in this emergency to desist
							from opposing the war, but they would not give way either in view of the
							threatening danger to the State or the odium which might fall upon
							themselves, and finally succeeded in forcing the senate to pass a decree
							for the election of consular tribunes.

It was, however, expressly stipulated that none of the present tribunes
							of the plebs should be eligible for that post, or should be re-elected
							as plebeian tribunes for the next year.

This was undoubtedly aimed at the Icilii, whom the senate suspected of
							aiming at the consulship as a reward for their exertions as tribunes.
							Then, with the consent of both orders, the levy was raised and
							preparations for war commenced. Authorities differ as to whether both
							consuls proceeded to the citadel of Carventum, or whether one remained
							behind to conduct the elections. There is no dispute, however, as to the
							Romans retiring from the citadel of Carventum after a long and
							ineffectual siege, and recovering Verrugo after committing great
							depredations and securing much booty in both the Volscian and Aequian
							territories.

At Rome, whilst the plebs had
							been so far victorious as to secure the election which they preferred,
							the result of that election was a victory for the senate.

Contrary to all expectation, three patricians were elected consular
							tribunes, viz., C. Julius Julus, P. Cornelius Cossus, and C. Servilius
							Ahala. It was stated that the patricians had recourse to a trick; the
							Icilii actually accused them of it at the time.

They were charged with having introduced a crowd of unsuitable
							candidates amongst those who were worthy of being elected, and the
							disgust felt at the notoriously low character of some of these
							candidates alienated the people from the plebeian

candidates as a body. After this a report was received that the
							Volscians and Aequi were devoting their utmost energies to getting ready
							for war. Either the fact that they had kept possession of the citadel of
							Carventum had raised their hopes, or the loss of the detachment at
							Verrugo had roused their ire.

The Antiates were stated to be the prime movers; their ambassadors had
							gone the round of the cities of both nations reproaching them with
							cowardice in having skulked behind their walls the year before and
							allowing the Romans to harry their fields in all directions and the
							garrison at Verrugo to be destroyed.

Not only were armies despatched, but even colonists were being settled
							in their territories. Not only had the Romans distributed their property
							amongst themselves, but they had even made a present to the Hernici of
							Ferentinum, after they had taken it.

These reproaches kindled the war spirit in each city as they came to it,
							and a large number of fighting men were enrolled. A force gathered from
							all the States was concentrated at Antium; there they fixed their camp
							and awaited the enemy.

These proceedings were reported at Rome, and created greater excitement
							than the facts warranted, and the senate at once ordered a Dictator to
							be nominated-the last resource in imminent

danger. It is stated that Julius and Cornelius were extremely angry at
							thus step, and matters proceeded amidst much bitterness on both sides.

The leaders of the senate censured the consular tribunes for not
							recognising the authority of the senate, and finding their protests
							useless, actually appealed at last to the tribunes of the plebs and
							reminded them how on a similar occasion their authority had acted as a
							check on the consuls.

The tribunes, delighted at the dissension amongst the senators, said
							that they could render no assistance to those in whose eyes they were
							not regarded as citizens or even as men.

If the honours of the State were ever open to both orders, and they had
							their share in the government, then they would take measures to prevent
							the decisions of the senate from being nullified by the arrogance of any
							magistrate;

till then the patricians, devoid as they were of any respect for
							magistrates or laws, might deal with the consular tribunes by
							themselves.

This controversy preoccupied men's thoughts at a most inopportune moment,
							when such a serious war was on their hands.

At last, after Julius and Cornelius had, one after the other, argued at
							great length that as they were quite competent to conduct that war, it
							was unjust to deprive them of the honour which the people had conferred
							upon them, Ahala Servilius, the other consular tribune, intervened in
							the dispute.

He had, he said, kept silent so long, not because he had any doubt in
							his own mind, —for what true patriot could separate his own interest
							from that of the State? —but because he would rather have had his
							colleagues yield voluntarily to the authority of the senate than allow
							the power of the plebeian tribunes to be invoked against them.

Even now he would have gladly given them time to abandon their
							unyielding attitude if circumstances allowed. But the necessities of war
							do not wait on the counsels of men, and the commonwealth was more to him
							than the goodwill of his colleagues.

If, therefore, the senate adhered to its decision, he would nominate a
							Dictator the next night, and if any one vetoed the passing of a
							senatorial decree he should be content to act simply on their
							resolution. By taking this course he won the well-deserved praise and
							sympathy of all, and after nominating P. Cornelius as Dictator, he was
							himself appointed Master of the Horse.

He furnished an example to his colleagues, as they compared his position
							with their own, of the way in which high office and popularity come
							sometimes most readily to those who do not covet them. The war was far
							from being a memorable one.

The enemy were defeated with great slaughter at Antium in a single
							easily-won battle. The victorious army devastated the Volscian
							territory. The fort at Lake Fucinus was stormed, and the garrison of
							3000 men taken prisoners, whilst the rest of the Volscians were driven
							into their walled towns, leaving their fields at the mercy of the enemy.

After making what use he could of Fortune's favours in the conduct of
							the war , the Dictator
							returned home with more success than glory and

laid down his office. The consular tribunes waived all proposals for the
							election of consuls —owing, I believe, to their resentment at the
							appointment of a Dictator —and issued orders for the election of
							consular tribunes.

This increased the anxiety of the senators, for they saw that their
							cause was being betrayed by men of their own party.

Accordingly, as in the previous year they had excited disgust against
							all plebeian candidates, however worthy, by means of those who were
							perfectly worthless, so now the leaders of the senate appeared as
							candidates, surrounded by everything that could lend distinction or
							strengthen personal influence.

They secured all the places and prevented the entrance of any plebeian.
							Four were elected, all of whom had previously held office, viz., L.
							Furius Medullinus, C. Valerius Potitus, N. Fabius Vibulanus, and C.
							Servilius Ahala. The latter owed his continuance in office to the
							popularity he had won by his singular moderation as much as to his other
							merits.

During this year the armistice
							with Veii expired, and ambassadors and fetials 
							 were sent to demand
							satisfaction. When they reached the frontier they were met by a
							deputation from Veii, who begged them not to go there before they
							themselves had an audience of the Roman senate.

They obtained from the senate the withdrawal of the demand for
							satisfaction, owing to the internal troubles from which Veii was
							suffering. So far were the Romans from seeking their opportunity in the
							misfortunes of others! A disaster was incurred on Volscian ground in the
							loss of the garrison at Verrugo.

So much depended here upon a few hours that the soldiers who were being
							besieged by the Volscians and begging for assistance could have been
							relieved if prompt measures had been taken. As it was, the relieving
							force only arrived in time to surprise the enemy, who, fresh from the
							massacre of the garrison, were scattered in quest of plunder.

The responsibility for the delay rested more with the senate than with
							the consular tribunes; they heard that the garrison were offering a most
							determined resistance, and they did not reflect that there are limits to
							human strength which no amount of courage can transcend.

The gallant soldiers were not unavenged either in their lives or their
							deaths. The following year the consular tribunes were P. Cornelius
							Cossus, Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus, Numerius Fabius Ambustus, and L.
							Valerius Potitus.

Owing to the action of the senate of Veii, a war with that city was
							threatened.

The envoys whom Rome had sent to demand satisfaction received the
							insolent reply that unless they speedily departed from the city and
							crossed the frontiers the Veientines would give them what Lars Tolumnius
							had given.

The senate were indignant and passed a decree that the consular tribunes
							should bring before the people at the earliest possible day a proposal
							to declare war against Veii. No sooner was the subject brought forward
							than the men who were liable for service protested.

They complained that the war with the Volscians had not been brought to
							a close, the garrisons of two forts had been annihilated, and the forts,
							though recaptured, were held with difficulty,

there was not a single year in which there was not fighting, and now, as
							if they had not enough work on hand, they were preparing for a fresh war
							with a most powerful neighbour who would rouse the whole of Etruria.

This disaffection amongst the plebs was fanned by their tribunes,

who were continually giving out that the most serious war was the one
							going on between the senate and the plebs, who were purposely harassed
							by war and exposed to be butchered by the enemy and kept as it were in
							banishment far from their homes lest the quiet of city life might awaken
							memories of their liberties and lead them to discuss schemes for
							distributing the State lands amongst colonists and securing a free
							exercise of their franchise.

They got hold of the veterans, counted up each man's campaigns and
							wounds and scars, and asked what blood was still left in him which could
							be shed for the State.

By raising these topics in public speeches and private conversations
							they produced amongst the plebeians a feeling of opposition to the
							projected war. The subject was therefore dropped for the time, as it was
							evident that in the then state of opinion it would, if brought forward,
							be rejected.

Meantime the consular tribunes decided to lead the
							army into the territory of the Volscians; Cnaeus Cornelius was left in
							charge of the City.

The three tribunes ascertained that there was no camp of the Volscians
							anywhere, and that they would not risk a battle, so they divided into
							three separate forces to ravage the country.

Valerius made Antium his objective; Cornelius, Ecetrae. Wherever they
							marched they destroyed the homesteads and crops far and wide to divide
							the forces of the Volscians. Fabius marched to Anxur, which was the
							chief objective, without losing time in devastating the country.

This city is now called Terracina; it was built on the side of a hill
							and sloped down to the marshes. Fabius made a show of attacking the city
							on that side.

Four cohorts were despatched with C. Servilius Ahala by a circuitous
							route to seize the hill which overhung the town on the other side. After
							doing so they made an attack amidst loud shouts and uproar from their
							higher position upon that part of the town where there was no defence.

Those who were holding the lower part of the city against Fabius were
							stupefied with astonishment at the noise, and this gave him time to
							plant his scaling ladders. The Romans were soon in all parts of the
							city, and for some time a ruthless slaughter went on of fugitives and
							fighters, armed and unarmed alike.

As there was no hope of quarter, the defeated enemy were compelled to
							keep up the fight, till suddenly an order was issued that none but those
							taken with arms should be injured. On this the whole of the population
							threw down their arms; prisoners to the number of 2500 were taken.

Fabius would not allow his men to touch

the other spoils of war until the arrival of his colleagues, for those
							armies too had taken their part in the capture of Anxur, since they had
							prevented the Volscians from coming to its relief.

On their arrival the three armies sacked the town, which, owing to its
							long-continued prosperity, contained much wealth.

This generosity on the part of the generals was the first step towards
							the reconciliation of the plebs and the senate. This 
							was followed by a boon which the senate, at a most opportune moment,
							conferred on the plebeians. Before the question was mooted either by the
							plebs or their tribunes, the senate decreed that the soldiery should
							receive pay from the public treasury. Previously, each man had served at
							his own expense.

Nothing, it is recorded, was ever welcomed by the plebs with such
							delight; they crowded round the Senate-house, grasped the hands of the
							senators as they came out, acknowledged that they were rightly called
							“Fathers,” and declared that after what they had done no
							one would ever spare his person or his blood, as long as any strength
							remained, for so generous a country.

They saw with pleasure that their private property at all events would
							rest undisturbed at such times as they were impressed and actively
							employed in the public service, and the fact of the boon being
							spontaneously offered, without any demand on the part of their tribunes,
							increased their happiness and gratitude immensely.

The only people who did not share the general feeling of joy and
							goodwill were the tribunes of the plebs. They asserted that the
							arrangement would not turn out such a pleasant thing for the senate or
							such a benefit to the whole community as they supposed. The policy was
							more attractive at first sight than it would prove in actual practice.

From what source, they asked, could the money be raised; except by
							imposing a tax on the people? They were generous at other people's
							expense. Besides, those who had served their time would not, even if the
							rest approved, permit others to serve on more favourable terms than they
							themselves had done and after having had to provide for their own
							expenses, now provide for those of others. These arguments influenced
							some of the plebeians.

At last, after the tax had been imposed, the tribunes actually gave
							notice that they would protect any one who refused to contribute to the
							war tax.

The senators were determined to uphold a measure so happily inaugurated,
							they were themselves the first to contribute, and as coined money was
							not yet introduced, they carried the copper by weight in wagons to the
							treasury, thereby drawing public attention to the fact of their
							contributing.

After the senators had contributed most conscientiously the full amount
							at which they were assessed, the leading plebeians, personal friends of
							the nobles, began, as had been agreed, to pay in their share.

When the crowd saw these men applauded by the senate and looked up to by
							the men of military age as patriotic citizens, they hastily rejected the
							proffered protection of the tribunes and vied with one another in their

eagerness to contribute. The proposal authorising the declaration of war
							against Veii was carried, and the new consular tribunes marched thither
							an army composed to a large extent of men who volunteered for service.

These tribunes were T.
							Quinctius Capitolinus, Q. Quinctius Cincinnatus, C. Julius Julus —for
							the second time —Aulus Manlius, L. Furius Medullinus —for the third time
							—and Manius Aemilius Mamercus.

It was by them that Veii was first invested. Immediately after the siege
							had commenced, a largely-attended meeting of the national council of the
							Etruscans was held at the fane of Voltumna, but no decision was arrived
							at as to whether the Veientines should be defended by the armed strength
							of

the whole nation. The following year the siege was prosecuted with less
							vigour owing to some of the tribunes and a portion of the army being
							called off to the Volscian war.

The consular tribunes for the year were C. Valerius Potitus —for the
							third time —Manius Sergius Fidenas, P. Cornelius Maluginensis, Cnaeus
							Cornelius Cossus, Kaeso Fabius Ambustus, and Spurius Nautius Rutilus
							—for the second time.

A pitched battle was fought with the Volscians between Ferentinum and
							Ecetrae, which resulted in favour of the Romans.

Then the tribunes commenced the siege of Artena, a Volscian town. In
							attempting a sortie the enemy were driven back into the town, giving
							thereby an opportunity to the Romans of forcing an entrance, and with
							the exception of the citadel the whole place was captured.

A body of the enemy retired into the citadel, which was protected by the
							nature of its position; below the citadel many were killed or taken
							prisoners. The citadel was then invested, but it could not be taken by
							assault as the defenders were quite sufficient for the extent of the
							fortifications, nor was there any hope of its surrendering, as all the
							corn from the public magazines had been conveyed there before the city
							was taken.

The Romans would have retired in disgust had not a slave betrayed the
							place to them.

The soldiers, guided by him up some steep ground, effected its capture,
							and after they had massacred those on guard, the rest, panic-struck,
							surrendered. After the town and citadel had been demolished, the legions
							were withdrawn from Volscian territory and the whole strength of Rome
							was directed against Veii.

The traitor was rewarded not only with his freedom, but also with the
							property of two households, and was called Servius Romanus. Some suppose
							that Artena belonged to the Veientines, not the Volscians.

The mistake arises from the fact that there was a city of the same name
							between Caere and Veii, but it was destroyed in the time of the kings of
							Rome, and it belonged to Caere, not Veii. The other town of the same
							name whose destruction I have mentioned was in the Volscian territory.

Whilst peace
							prevailed elsewhere, Rome and Veii were confronting each other in arms,
							animated by such fury and hatred that utter ruin clearly awaited the
							vanquished. Each elected their magistrates, but on totally different

principles. The Romans increased the number of their consular tribunes
							to eight —a larger number than had ever been elected before. They were
							Manius Aemilius Mamercus —for the second time —L. Valerius Potitus —for
							the third time —Appius Claudius Crassus, M. Quinctilius Varus, L. Julius
							Julus, M. Postumius, M. Furius Camillus, and M. Postumius Albinus. The
							Veientines, on the other hand, tired of the annual canvassing for
							office, elected a

king. This gave great offence to the Etruscan cantons, owing to their
							hatred of monarchy and their personal aversion to the one who was

elected. He was already obnoxious to the nation through his pride of
							wealth and overbearing temper, for he had put a violent stop to the
							festival of the Games, the interruption of which is an act of

impiety. His candidature for the priesthood had been
							unsuccessful, another being preferred by the vote of the twelve cantons,
							and in revenge he suddenly withdrew the performers, most of whom were
							his own slaves, in the middle of the

Games. The Etruscans as a nation were distinguished above all others by
							their devotion to religious observances, because they excelled in the
							knowledge and conduct of them, and they decided, in consequence, that no
							assistance should be given to the Veientines as long as they were under
							a

king. The report of this decision was suppressed at Veii through fear of
							the king; he treated those who mentioned anything of the kind, not as
							authors of an idle tale, but as ringleaders of

sedition. Although the Romans had received intelligence that there was
							no movement on the part of the Etruscans, still, as it

was reported that the matter was being discussed in all their councils,
							they so constructed their lines as to present a double face, the one
							fronting Veii to prevent sorties from the city, the other looking
							towards Etruria to intercept any succour from that side.

As the Roman generals placed more reliance on a blockade than on an
							assault, they began to build huts for winter quarters, a novelty to the
							Roman soldier. Their plan was to keep up the war through the winter. The
							tribunes of the plebs had for a long time been unable to find any
							pretext for creating a revolt.

When, however, news of this was brought to Rome, they dashed off to the
							Assembly and produced great excitement by declaring that this was the
							reason why it had been settled to pay the troops. They, the tribunes,
							had not been blind to the fact that this gift from their adversaries
							would prove to be tainted with poison.

The liberties of the plebs had been bartered away, their able-bodied men
							had been permanently sent away, banished from the City and the State,
							without any regard to winter or indeed to any season of the year, or to
							the possibility of their visiting their homes or looking after their
							property. What did they think was the reason for this continuous
							campaigning?

They would most assuredly find it to be nothing else but the fear that
							if a large body of these men, who formed the whole strength of the
							plebs, were present, it would be possible to discuss reforms in favour
							of the plebeians. Besides, they were suffering much more hardship and
							oppression than the Veientines, for these passed the winter under their
							own roofs in a city protected by its magnificent walls and the natural
							strength of its position, whilst the Romans, amidst labour and toil,
							buried in frost and snow, were roughing it patiently under their
							skin-covered tents, and could not lay aside their arms even in the
							season of winter, when there is a respite from all wars, whether by land
							or sea.

This form of slavery, making military service perpetual, was never
							imposed either by the kings, or by the consuls who were so domineering
							before the institution of the tribuneship, or during the stern rule of
							the Dictator, or by the unscrupulous decemvirs —it was the consular
							tribunes who were exercising this regal despotism over the Roman plebs.

What would these men have done had they been consuls or Dictators,
							seeing that they have made their proconsular authority, which is only a
							shadow of the other, so outrageously cruel? But the commons had got what
							they had deserved.

Amongst all the eight consular tribunes not a single plebeian had found
							a place. Hitherto, with their utmost efforts, the patricians had usually
							filled only three places at a time; now a team of eight were bent on
							maintaining their power. Even in such a crowd not a single plebeian
							could get a footing, to warn his colleagues, if he could do nothing
							else, that those who were serving as soldiers were free men, their own
							fellow-citizens, and not slaves, and that they ought to be brought back,
							at all events in the winter, to their houses and their homes, and during
							some part of the year visit their parents and wives and children, and
							exercise their rights as free citizens in electing the magistrates.
							Whilst indulging in declamations of this sort, they found an opponent
							who was quite a match for them in Appius Claudius.

He had from early manhood taken his part in the contests with the plebs,
							and as stated above, had some years previously recommended the senate to
							break down the power of the tribunes by securing the intervention of
							their colleagues. He was not only a man of ready and versatile mind, but
							by this time an experienced debater.

He delivered the following speech on this occasion: — “If,
							Quirites, there has ever been any doubt as to whether it was in your
							interest or their own that the tribunes have always been the advocates
							of sedition, I feel quite certain that this year all doubt has ceased to
							exist. Whilst I rejoice that an end has at last been put to a
							long-standing delusion, I congratulate you, and on your behalf the whole
							State, that its removal has been effected just at the time when your
							circumstances are most prosperous.

Is there any one who doubts that whatever wrongs you may have at any
							time suffered, they never annoyed and provoked the tribunes so much as
							the generous treatment of the plebs by the senate, in establishing the
							system of pay for the soldiers?

What else do you suppose it was that they were afraid of at that time,
							and would today gladly upset, except the harmony of the two orders,
							which they look upon as most of all calculated to destroy their power?
							They are, really, like so many quack doctors looking for work, always
							anxious to find some diseased spot in the republic that there may be
							something which you can call them in to cure.” Then, turning to
							the tribunes, “Are you defending or attacking the plebs? Are you
							trying to injure the men on service or are you pleading their cause?

Or perhaps this is what you are saying, “Whatever the senate
							does, whether in the interest of the plebs or against them, we object
							to.”

Just as masters forbid strangers to hold any communication with their
							slaves, and think it right that they should abstain from showing them
							either kindness or unkindness, so you interdict the patricians from all
							dealings with the plebs, lest we should appeal to their feelings by our
							graciousness and generosity and secure their loyalty and obedience. How
							much more dutiful it would have been in you, if you had had a spark —I
							will not say of patriotism, but —of common humanity, to have viewed with
							favour, and as far as in you lay, to have fostered the kindly feelings
							of the patricians and the grateful goodwill of the plebeians!

And if this harmony should prove to be lasting, who would not be bold
							enough to guarantee that this empire will in a short time be the
							greatest among the neighbouring States?”

“I shall subsequently show not only the expediency but even the
							necessity of the policy which my colleagues have adopted of refusing to
							withdraw the army from Veii until their object was effected.

For the present I prefer to speak of the actual conditions under which
							it is serving, and if I were speaking not before you only but in the
							camp as well, I think that what I say would appear just and fair in the
							judgment of the soldiers themselves. Even if no arguments presented
							themselves to my mind, I should find those of my opponents quite
							sufficient for my purpose.

They were saying lately that pay ought not to be given to the soldiers
							because it never had been given. How then can they now profess
							indignation at those who have gained additional benefits being required
							to undergo additional exertion in proportion? Nowhere do we find labour
							without its reward, nor, as a rule, reward without some expenditure of
							labour.

Toil and pleasure, utterly dissimilar by nature, have been brought by
							nature into a kind of partnership with each other.

Formerly, the soldier felt it a grievance that he gave his services to
							the State at his own cost, he had the satisfaction, however, of
							cultivating his land for a part of the year, and acquiring the means of
							supporting himself and his family whether he were at home or on service.

Now he has the pleasure of knowing that the State is a source of income
							to him, and he is glad to receive his pay. Let him therefore take it
							patiently that he is a little longer absent from his home and his
							property, on which no heavy expense now falls.

If the State were to call him to an exact reckoning, would it not be
							justified in saying, “You receive a year's pay, put in a year's
							work. Do you think it fair to receive a whole twelve-month's pay for six
							months' service?”

It is with reluctance, Quirites, that I dwell on this topic, for it is
							those who employ mercenaries who ought to deal thus with them, but we
							want to deal with you as with fellow-citizens, and we think it only fair
							that you should deal with us as with your fatherland.”
							“Either the war ought not to have been undertaken, or

it ought to be conducted as befits the dignity of Rome and brought to a
							close as soon as possible.

It will certainly be brought to a close if we press on the siege, but
							not if we retire before we have fulfilled our hopes by the capture of
							Veii. Why, good heavens! if there were no other reason, the very
							discredit of the thing ought to inspire us with perseverance.

A city was once besieged by the whole of Greece for ten years, for the
							sake of one woman, and at what a distance from home, how many lands and
							seas lay between!

Are we growing tired of keeping up a siege for one year, not twenty
							miles off, almost within sight of the City? I suppose you think the
							reason for the war is a trivial one, and we do not feel enough just
							resentment to urge us to persevere.

Seven times have they recommenced war against us; they have never
							loyally kept to the terms of peace; they have ravaged our fields a
							thousand times; they forced the Fidenates to revolt;

they slew the colonists whom we settled there; they instigated the
							impious murder of our ambassadors in violation of the law of nations;
							they wanted to raise the whole of Etruria against us, and they are
							trying to do so today; when we sent ambassadors to demand satisfaction,
							they very nearly outraged them.”

“Are these the men with whom war ought to be carried on in a
							half-hearted and dilatory fashion? If such just reasons for resentment
							have no force with us, do not the following considerations, I pray you,
							possess any weight?

The city is hemmed in by immense siege-works which confine the enemy
							within his walls. He has not tilled his land, and what was tilled before
							has been devastated by war.

If we bring our army back again, has anybody the slightest doubt that
							they will invade our territory not only from a thirst for revenge, but
							also through the sheer necessity they are under of plundering other
							people's property since they have lost their own?

If we adopt your policy we do not postpone the war, we simply carry it
							within our own frontiers.” “Well, now, what about the
							soldiers in whom these worthy tribunes have suddenly become interested
							after vainly endeavouring to rob them of their pay; what about them?

They have carried a rampart and a fosse —each requiring enormous labour
							—over all that extent of ground; they have built forts, few at first,
							but after the army was increased, very numerous; they have raised
							defences not only against the city, but also as a barrier against
							Etruria in case any succours came from there.

What need to describe the towers, the vineae , the testudines , and
							the other engines used in storming cities? Now that so much labour has
							been spent and the work of investment at last completed, do you think
							that they ought to be abandoned in order that by next summer we may be
							again exhausted by the toil of constructing them all afresh?

How much less trouble to defend the works already constructed, to press
							on and persevere, and so bring our cares and labours to an end! For
							assuredly the undertaking is not a lengthy one, if it is carried through
							by one continuous effort, if we do not by our own interruptions and
							stoppages delay the fulfilment of our hopes.” “I have been
							speaking of the work and the loss of time.

Now there are frequent meetings of the national council of Etruria to
							discuss the question of sending succours to Veii. Do these allow us to
							forget the danger we incur by prolonging the war?

As matters now stand, they are angry, resentful, and say that they will
							not send any —Veii may be captured, as far as they are concerned. But
							who will guarantee that if the war is prolonged they will continue in
							the same mind?

For if you give the Veientines a respite they will send a more numerous
							and influential embassy, and what now gives such displeasure to the
							Etruscans, namely, the election of a king, may after a time be annulled
							either by the unanimous act of the citizens in order to win the
							sympathies of Etruria, or by voluntary abdication on the part of the
							king himself, through his unwillingness to allow his

crown to endanger the safety of his people.” “See how many
							disastrous consequences follow from the policy you recommend —the
							sacrifice of works constructed with so much trouble; the threatening
							devastation of our borders;

a war with the whole of Etruria instead of one with Veii alone.”
							This, tribunes, is what your proposals amount to; very much, upon my
							word, as if any one were to tempt a sick person, who by submitting to
							strict treatment could speedily recover, to indulge in eating and
							drinking, and so lengthen his illness and perhaps make it incurable.

“Though it might not affect this present war, it would, you may
							depend upon it, be of the utmost importance to our military training
							that our soldiers should be habituated not only to enjoy a victory when
							they have won one, but also, when a campaign progresses slowly, to put
							up with its tediousness and await the fulfilment of their hopes though
							deferred.

If a war has not been finished in the summer they must learn to go
							through the winter, and not, like birds of passage, look out for roofs
							to shelter them the moment autumn comes.

The passion and delight of hunting carries men through frost and snow to
							the forests and the mountains. Pray tell me, shall we not bring to the
							exigencies of war the same powers of endurance which are generally
							called out by sport or pleasure?

Are we to suppose that the bodies of our soldiers are so effeminate and
							their spirits so enfeebled that they cannot hold out in camp or stay
							away from their homes for a single winter? Are we to believe that like
							those engaged in naval warfare, who have to watch the seasons and catch
							the favourable weather, so these men cannot endure times of heat and
							cold?

They would indeed blush if any one laid this to their charge, and would
							stoutly maintain that both in mind and body they were capable of manly
							endurance, and could go through a campaign in winter as well as in
							summer. They would tell you that they had not commissioned their
							tribunes to act as protectors of the effeminate and the indolent, nor
							was it in cool shade or under sheltering roofs that their ancestors had
							instituted this very tribunitian power.

The valour of your soldiers, the dignity of Rome, demand that we should
							not limit our view to Veii and this present war, but seek for reputation
							in time to come in respect of other wars and amongst all other
							nations.” “Do you imagine that the opinion men form of us
							in this crisis is a matter of slight importance?

Is it a matter of indifference whether our neighbours regard Rome in
							such a light that when any city has sustained her first momentary attack
							it has nothing more to fear from her, or whether

on the other hand, the terror of our name is such that no weariness of a
							protracted siege, no severity of winter, can dislodge a Roman army from
							any city which it has once invested, that it knows no close to a war but
							victory, and that it conducts its campaigns by perseverance as much as
							by dash?

Perseverance is necessary in every kind of military operation, but
							especially in the conduct of sieges, for the majority of cities are
							impregnable, owing to the strength of their fortifications and their
							position, and time itself conquers them with hunger and thirst, and
							captures them as it will capture Veii unless the tribunes of the plebs
							extend their protection to the enemy and the Veientines find in Rome the
							support which they are vainly seeking in Etruria.

Can anything happen to the Veientines more in accordance with their
							wishes than that the City of Rome should be filled with sedition and the
							contagion of it spread to the camp?

But amongst the enemy there is actually so much respect for law and
							order that they have not been goaded into

revolution either by weariness of the siege or even aversion to absolute
							monarchy, nor have they shown exasperation at the refusal of succours by
							Etruria. The man who advocates sedition will be put to death on the
							spot, and no one will be allowed to say the things which are uttered
							amongst you with impunity.

With us the man who deserts his standard or abandons his post is liable
							to be cudgelled to

death, but those who urge the men to abandon the standards and desert
							from the camp are listened to, not by one or two only; they have the
							whole army for an audience.

To such an extent have you habituated yourselves to listen calmly to
							whatever a tribune of the plebs may say, even if it means the betrayal
							of your country and the destruction of the republic. Captivated by the
							attraction which that office has for you, you allow all sorts of
							mischief to lurk under its shadow.

The one thing left for them is to bring forward in the camp, before the
							soldiers, the same arguments which they have so loudly urged here, and
							so corrupt the army that they will not allow it to obey its commanders.

For evidently liberty in Rome simply means that the soldiers cease to
							feel any reverence for either the senate, or the magistrates, or the
							laws, or the traditions of their ancestors, or the institutions of their
							fathers, or military discipline.”

Appius was already quite
							a match for the tribunes even on the platform, and now his victory over
							them was assured by the sudden intelligence of a most unexpected
							disaster, the effect of which was to unite all classes in an ardent
							resolve to prosecute the siege of Veii more vigorously.

A raised way had been carried up to the city, and the vineae had almost been placed in contact with the walls,
							but more attention had been devoted to their construction by day than to
							their protection by night.

Suddenly the gates were flung open and an enormous multitude, armed
							mostly with torches, flung the flaming missiles on to the works, and in
							one short hour the flames consumed both the raised way and the vineae , the work of so many days.

Many poor fellows who vainly tried to render assistance perished either
							in the flames or by the sword. When the news of this reached Rome there
							was universal mourning, and the senate were filled with apprehension
							lest disturbances should break out in the City and the camp beyond their
							power to repress, and the tribunes of the plebs exult over the
							vanquished republic. Suddenly, however, a number of

men who, though assessed as knights, had not been provided with horses,
							after concerting a common plan of action, went to the Senate-house, and
							on permission being given to address the senate, they engaged to serve
							as cavalry on their own horses.

The senate thanked them in the most complimentary terms. When the news
							of this incident had circulated through the Forum and the City, the
							plebeians hastily assembled at the Senate-house and declared that they
							were now

part of the infantry force, and though it was not their turn to serve,
							they promised to give their services to the republic to march to Veii or
							wherever else they were led. If, they said, they were led to Veii they
							would not return till the city was taken. On hearing this it was with
							difficulty that the senate restrained their delight.

They did not, as in the case of the knights, pass a resolution of thanks
							to

be conveyed through the presiding magistrates, nor were any summoned
							into the House to receive their reply, nor did they themselves remain
							within the precincts of their House.

They came out on the raised space in front and each independently
							signified by voice and gesture to the people standing in the comitium the joy they all felt, and expressed
							their confidence that this unanimity of feeling would make Rome a
							blessed City, invincible and eternal. They applauded the knights, they
							applauded the commons, they showered encomiums on the very day itself,
							and frankly admitted that the senate had been outdone in courtesy and
							kindness.

Senators and plebeians alike shed tears of joy. At last the sitting was
							resumed, and a resolution was carried that the consular tribunes

should convene a public meeting and return thanks to the infantry and
							the knights, and say that the senate would never forget this proof of
							their affection for their country. They further decided that pay should
							be reckoned from that day for those who, though not called out, had
							volunteered to serve.

A fixed sum was assigned to each knight; this was the first occasion on
							which the knights received military pay. The army of volunteers marched
							to Veii, and not only reconstructed the works that had been lost, but
							constructed new ones. More care was taken in bringing up supplies from
							the City, that nothing might be wanting for the use of an army that had
							behaved so well.

The consular tribunes for the following
							year were C. Servilius Ahala —for the third time —Q. Servilius, Lucius
							Verginius, Q. Sulpicius, Aulus Manlius —for the second time —and Manius
							Sergius —also for the second time.

During their term of office, whilst every one was preoccupied with the
							Veientine war, Anxur was lost. The garrison had become weakened through
							the absence of men on furlough, and Volscian traders were admitted
							indiscriminately, with the result that the guard before the gates were
							surprised and the fortified post taken.

The loss in men was slight, as with the exception of the sick, they were
							all scattered about the fields and neighbouring towns, driving bargains
							like so many camp-followers. At Veii, the chief point of interest,
							things went no better.

Not only were the Roman commanders opposing one another more vigorously
							than they opposed the enemy, but the war was rendered more serious by
							the sudden arrival of the Capenates and the Faliscans.

As these two States were nearest in point of distance, they believed
							that if Veii fell they would be the next on whom Rome would make war.

The Faliscans had their own reasons for fearing hostilities, since they
							were mixed up in the previous war against Fidenae. So both States, after
							mutually despatching commissioners for the purpose, swore alliance with
							each other, and their two armies arrived unexpectedly at Veii.

It so happened that they attacked the entrenchments on the side where
							Manius Sergius was in command, and they created great alarm, for the
							Romans were convinced that all Etruria had risen and was present in
							great force. The same conviction roused the Veientines in the city to
							action, so the Roman lines of investment were attacked from within and
							from without.

Rushing from side to side to meet first the one attack, then the other,
							they were unable to confine the Veientines sufficiently within their
							fortifications or repel the assault from their own works and defend
							themselves from the enemy outside. Their only hope was if help came from
							the main camp so that the legions might fight back to back, some against
							the Capenates and Faliscans, and others against the sortie from the
							town.

But Verginius was in command of that camp, and he and Sergius mutually
							detested each other.

When it was reported to him that most of the forts had been attacked and
							the connecting lines surmounted, and that the enemy were forcing their
							way in from both sides, he kept his men halted under arms, and
							repeatedly declared that if his colleague needed assistance he would
							send to him.

This selfishness on his part was matched by the other's obstinacy, for
							Sergius, to avoid the appearance of having sought help from a personal
							foe, preferred defeat at the hands of the enemy rather than owe success
							to a fellow-countryman.

For some time the soldiers were being slaughtered between the two
							attacking forces; at last a very small number abandoned their lines and
							reached the main camp; Sergius himself, with the greatest part of his
							force, made his way to Rome. Here he threw all the blame on his
							colleague, and it was decided that Verginius should be summoned from the
							camp and his lieutenants put in command during his absence.

The case was then discussed in the senate; few studied the interests of
							the republic, most of the senators supported one or other of the
							disputants as their party feeling or private sympathy prompted them.

The leaders of the senate gave it as their opinion that whether it was
							through the fault or the misfortune of the commanders that such a
							disgraceful defeat had been incurred, they ought not to wait until the
							regular time for the elections, but proceed at once to appoint

new consular tribunes, to enter office on October 1. On their proceeding
							to vote on this proposal, the other consular tribunes offered no
							opposition, but strange to say, Sergius and Verginius —the

very men on whose account obviously the senate were dissatisfied with
							the magistrates for that year —after protesting against such
							humiliation, vetoed the resolution. They declared that they would not
							resign office before December 13, the usual day for new magistrates to
							take office.

On hearing this, the tribunes of the plebs, who had maintained a
							reluctant silence while the State was enjoying concord and prosperity,
							now made a sudden attack upon the consular tribunes, and threatened, if
							they did not bow to the authority of the senate, to order them to be
							imprisoned.

There upon C. Servilius Ahala, the consular tribune, replied: “As
							for you and your menaces, tribunes of the plebs, I should very much like
							to put it to the proof how your threats possess as little legality as
							you possess courage to carry them out, but it is wrong to storm against
							the authority of the senate.

Cease, therefore, to look for a chance of making mischief by meddling in
							our disputes; either my colleagues will act upon the senate's
							resolution, or if they persist in their obstinacy, I shall at once
							nominate a Dictator that he may compel them to resign.”

This speech was received with universal approval, and the senate were
							glad to find that without bringing in the bugbear of the plebeian
							tribunes' power, another and a more effectual method existed for
							bringing pressure to bear on the magistrates.

In deference to the universal feeling, the two recalcitrant tribunes
							held an election for consular tribunes who entered office on October 1,
							they themselves having previously resigned office.

The newly elected
							tribunes were L. Valerius Potitus —for the fourth time —M. Furius
							Camillus-for the second time —Manius Aemilius Mamercus —for the third
							time —Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus —for the second time — Kaeso Fabius
							Ambustus, and L. Julius Julus. Their year of office was marked by many
							incidents at home and

abroad. There was a multiplicity of wars going on at once —at Veii, at
							Capena, at Falerii, and against the Volscians for the recovery of

Anxur. In Rome the simultaneous demands of the levy and the war-tax
							created distress; there was a dispute about the co-opting of tribunes of
							the plebs, and the trial of two men who had recently held consular power
							caused great excitement. The consular tribunes made it their first
							business to raise a

levy. Not only were the “juniors” enrolled, but the
							“seniors” were also compelled to give in their names that
							they might act as City guards. But the increase in the number of
							soldiers necessitated a corresponding increase in the amount required
							for their pay, and those who remained at

home were unwilling to contribute their share because, in addition, they
							were to be harassed by military duties in defence of the City, as
							servants of the

State. This was in itself a serious grievance, but it was made to appear
							more so by the seditious harangues of the tribunes of the plebs, who
							asserted that the reason why military pay had been established was that
							one half of the plebs might be crushed by the war-tax, and the other by
							military

service. One single war was now dragging along into its third year, and
							it was being badly managed deliberately in order that they might have it
							the longer to manage. Then, again, armies had been enrolled for four
							separate wars in one levy, and even boys and old men had been torn from
							their

homes. There was no difference made now between summer and winter, in
							order that the wretched plebeians might never have any

respite. And now, to crown all, they even had to pay a war-tax, so that
							when they returned, worn out by toil and wounds, and last of all by age,
							and found all their land untilled through want of the owner's care, they
							had to meet this demand out of their wasted property and return to the
							State their pay as soldiers many times over, as though they had borrowed
							it on

usury. What with the levy and the war-tax and the preoccupation of men's
							minds with still graver anxieties, it was found impossible to get the
							full number of plebeian tribunes elected. Then a struggle began to
							secure the co-optation of patricians into the vacant

places. This proved to be impossible, but in order to weaken the
							authority of the Trebonian Law, it was arranged, doubtless through the
							influence of the patricians, that C. Lucerius and M. Acutius should be
							co-opted as tribunes of the plebs.

As chance would have it, Cnaeus Trebonius was tribune of the plebs that
							year, and he came forward as a champion of the Trebonian Law, as a duty
							apparently to his family and the name he bore.

He declared in excited tones that the position which the senate had
							assailed, though they had been repulsed in their first attack, had been
							at last carried by the consular tribunes. The Trebonian Law had been set
							aside and the tribunes of the plebs had not been elected by the vote of
							the people, but co-opted at the command of the patricians, matters had
							now come to

this pass, that they must have either patricians or the hangers-on to
							patricians as tribunes of the plebs.

The Sacred Laws were being wrested from them, the power and authority of
							their tribunes was being torn away. This, he contended, was done through
							the craft and cunning of the patricians and the treacherous villainy of
							his colleagues. The flame of popular indignation was now beginning to
							scorch not only the senate, but even the tribunes of the plebs, co-opted
							and co-opters alike, when three members of the tribunitian college —P.
							Curatius, M. Metilius, and M. Minucius —trembling for their own safety,
							instituted proceedings against Sergius and Verginius, the consular
							tribunes of the preceding year.

By fixing a day for their trial, they diverted from themselves on to
							these men the rage and resentment of the plebs. They reminded the people
							that those who had felt the burden of the levy, the war-tax, and the
							long duration of the war, those who were distressed at the defeat
							sustained at Veii, those whose homes were in mourning for

the loss of children, brothers, and relations, had every one of them the
							right and the power to visit upon two guilty heads their own personal
							grief and that of the whole State.

The responsibility for all their misfortunes rested on Sergius and
							Verginius; this was not more clearly proved by the prosecutor than
							admitted by the defendants, for whilst both were guilty, each threw the
							blame on the other, Verginius denouncing the flight of Sergius, and
							Sergius the treachery of Verginius.

They had behaved with such incredible madness that it was in all
							probability a concerted plan earned out with the general connivance of
							the patricians.

These men had previously given the Veientines an opening for firing the
							siege works, now they had betrayed the army and delivered a Roman camp
							up to the Faliscans. Everything was being done to compel their young men
							to grow old at Veii, and to make it impossible for their tribunes to
							secure the support of a full Assembly in

the City either in their resistance to the concerted action of the
							senate, or for their proposals regarding the distribution of land and
							other measures in the interest of the plebs.

Judgment had already been passed upon the accused by the senate, the
							Roman people, and their own colleagues, for it was a vote of the senate
							which removed them from office, it was their own colleagues who upon
							their refusal to resign, compelled them to do so by the threat of a
							Dictator, whilst it was the people who had elected consular tribunes to
							enter upon office, not on the usual day, December 13, but immediately
							after their election, on October 1, for the republic could no longer be
							safe if these men remained in office.

And yet, shattered as they were by so many adverse verdicts, and
							condemned beforehand, they were presenting themselves for trial, and
							fancying that they had purged their offence and suffered an adequate
							punishment because they had been relegated to private life two months
							before the time.

They did not understand that this was not the infliction of a penalty,
							but simply the depriving them of power to do further mischief, since
							their colleagues also had to resign, and they, at all events, had
							committed no offence.

The tribunes continued. “Recall the feelings, Quirites, with
							which you heard of the disaster which we sustained and watched the army
							staggering through the gates, panic-stricken fugitives, covered with
							wounds, accusing not Fortune or any of the gods, but these generals of
							theirs.

We are confident that there is not a man in this Assembly who did not on
							that day call down curses on the persons and homes and fortunes of L.
							Verginius and Manius Sergius.

It would be utterly inconsistent for you not to use your power, when it
							is your right and duty to do so, against the men on whom each of you has
							called down the wrath of heaven. The gods never lay hands themselves on
							the guilty; it is enough when they arm the injured with the opportunity
							for vengeance.”

The passions of the plebs were roused by these speeches, and they
							sentenced the accused to a fine of 10,000 “ ases ” each, in spite of Sergius' attempt to throw
							the blame on Fortune and the chances of war, and Verginius'

appeal that he might not be more unfortunate at home than he had been in
							the field. The 
							turning of the popular indignation in

this direction threw into the shade the memories of the co-optation of
							tribunes and the evasion of the Trebonian Law.

As a reward to the plebeians for the sentence they had passed, the
							victorious tribunes at once gave notice of an agrarian measure. They
							also prevented contributions being paid in for the war-tax, though pay
							was required for all those armies, and such successes as had been gained
							only served to prevent any of the wars from being brought to a close.

The camp at Veii which had been lost was recaptured and strengthened
							with forts and men to hold them. The consular tribunes, Manius Aemilius
							and Kaeso Fabius, were in command. M. Furius in the Faliscan territory
							and Cnaeus Cornelius in that of Capenae found no enemy outside his
							walls; booty was carried off and the territories were ravaged, the farms
							and crops being burnt.

The towns were attacked, but not invested; Anxur, however, in the
							Volscian territory, and situated on high ground, defied all assaults,
							and after direct attack had proved fruitless, a regular investment by
							rampart and fosse was commenced.

The conduct of the Volscian campaign had fallen to Valerius Potitus.
							Whilst military affairs were in this position, internal troubles were
							more difficult to manage than the foreign wars. Owing to the tribunes,
							the war-tax could not be collected, nor the necessary funds remitted to
							the commanders; the soldiers clamoured for their pay, and it seemed as
							though the camp would be polluted by the contagion of the seditious
							spirit which prevailed in the City.

Taking advantage of the exasperation of the plebs against the senate,
							the tribunes told them that the long wished for time had come for
							securing their liberties and transferring the highest office in the
							State from people like Sergius and Verginius to strong and energetic
							plebeians.

They did not, however, get further in the exercise of their rights than
							to secure the election of one member of the plebs as consular tribune,
							viz.,

P. Licinius Calvus —the rest were patricians —P. Manlius, L. Titinus, P.
							Maelius, L. Furius Medullinus, and L. Popilius Volscus.

The plebeians were no less surprised at such a success than the
							tribune-elect himself; he had not previously filled any high office of
							State, and was only a senator of long standing, and now advanced in
							years.

Our authorities are not agreed as to the reason why he was selected
							first and foremost to taste the sweets of this new dignity. Some believe
							that he was thrust forward to so high a position through the popularity
							of his brother, Cnaeus Cornelius, who had been consular tribune the
							previous year, and had given triple pay to the “knights.”
								 Others attribute it to a well-timed speech he
							delivered on the agreement of the two orders, which was welcomed by both
							patricians and plebeians.

In their exultation over this electoral victory, the tribunes of the
							plebs gave way over the war-tax, and so removed the greatest political
							difficulty. It was paid in without a murmur and remitted to the army.

The Volscian
							Anxur was recaptured owing to the laxity of the guard during a festival.
							The year was remarkable for such a cold and snowy winter that the roads
							were blocked and the Tiber rendered unnavigable. There was no change in
							the price of corn, owing to a previous accumulation

of supplies. P. Licinius had won his position without exciting any
							disturbance, more to the delight of the people than to the annoyance of
							the senate, and he discharged his office in such a way that there was a
							general desire to choose the consular tribunes out of the plebeians at
							the

next election. The only patrician candidate who secured a place was M.
							Veturius. The rest, who were plebeians, received the support of nearly
							all the centuries. Their names were M. Pomponius, Cnaeus Duilius, Volero
							Publilius, and

Cnaeus Genucius. In consequence either of the unhealthy weather
							occasioned by the sudden change from cold to heat, or from some other
							cause, the severe winter was followed by a pestilential summer, which
							proved fatal to man

and beast. As neither a cause nor a cure could be found for its fatal
							ravages, the senate ordered the Sibylline Books to be consulted. The
							priests who had charge of them appointed for the first time in Rome

a lectisternium . Apollo and Latona, Diana
							and Hercules, Mercury and Neptune were for eight days propitiated on
							three couches decked with the most magnificent coverlets that could be
							obtained. Solemnities were conducted also in

private houses. It is stated that throughout the City the front gates of
							the houses were thrown open and all sorts of things placed for general
							use in the open courts, all comers, whether acquaintances or strangers,
							being brought in to share

the hospitality. Men who had been enemies held friendly and sociable
							conversations with each other and abstained from all litigation, the
							manacles even were removed from prisoners during this period, and
							afterwards it seemed an act of impiety that men to whom the gods had
							brought such relief should be put in chains again. In the meanwhile, at
							Veii there was increased alarm, created by the three wars being combined

in one. For the men of Capenae and Falerii had suddenly arrived to
							relieve the city, and as on the former occasion, the Romans had to fight
							a back to back battle round the entrenchments against three armies. What
							helped them most of all was the recollection of the condemnation of
							Sergius

and Verginius. From the main camp, where on the former occasion there
							had been inaction, forces were rapidly brought round and attacked the
							Capenates in the rear while their attention was concentrated on the

Roman lines. The fighting which ensued created panic in the Faliscan
							ranks also, and whilst they were wavering, a well-timed charge from the
							camp routed them, and the victors, following them up, caused immense
							losses

amongst them. Not long afterwards the troops who were devastating the
							territory of Capenae came upon them whilst straggling in disorder as
							though safe from attack, and those whom the battle had spared

were annihilated. Of the Veientines also, many who were fleeing to the
							city were killed in front of the gates, which were closed to prevent the
							Romans from breaking in, and so the hindmost of the fugitives were shut
							out.

These were the occurrences of the year. And now the time for the election
							of consular tribunes was approaching. The senate was almost more anxious
							about this than about the war, for they recognised that they were not
							simply sharing the supreme power with the plebs, but had almost
							completely lost it.

An understanding was come to by which their most distinguished members
							were to come forward as candidates; they believed that for very shame
							they would not be passed over. Besides this, they resorted to every
							expedient, just as if they were every one of them candidates, and called
							to their aid not men alone, but even the gods. They made a religious
							question of the last two elections.

In the former year, they said, an intolerably severe winter had occurred
							which seemed to be a divine warning; in the last year they had not
							warnings only but the judgments themselves.

The pestilence which had visited the country districts and the City was
							undoubtedly a mark of the divine displeasure, for it had been found in
							the Books of Fate that to avert that scourge the gods must be appeased.

The auspices were taken before an election, and the gods deemed it an
							insult that the highest offices should be made common and the
							distinction of classes thrown into confusion. Men were awestruck not
							only by the dignity and rank of the candidates, but by the religious
							aspect of the question, and they elected all the consular tribunes from
							the patricians, the great majority being all men of high distinction.

Those elected were L. Valerius Potitus —for the fifth time —M. Valerius
							Maximus, M. Furius Camillus —for the second time —L. Furius Medullinus
							—for the third time —Q. Servilius Fidenates —for the second time —and Q.
							Sulpicius Camerinus —for the second time. During their year of office
							nothing of any importance was done at Veii; their whole activity was
							confined to raids.

Two of the commanders-in-chief carried off an enormous quantity of
							plunder —Potitus from Falerii and Camillus from Capenae. They left
							nothing behind which fire or sword could destroy.

During this period many portents were
							announced, but as they rested on the testimony of single individuals,
							and there were no soothsayers to consult as to how to expiate them,
							owing to the hostile attitude of the Etruscans, these reports were
							generally disbelieved and disregarded. One incident, however, caused
							universal anxiety.

The Alban Lake rose to an unusual height, without any rainfall or other
							cause which could prevent the phenomenon from appearing supernatural.
							Envoys were sent to the oracle of Delphi to ascertain why the gods sent
							the portent.

But an explanation was afforded nearer at hand.

An aged Veientine was impelled by destiny to announce, amidst the jeers
							of the Roman and Etruscan outposts, in prophetic strain, that the Romans
							would never get possession of Veii until the water had been drawn off
							from the Alban Lake. This was at first treated as a wild utterance, but
							afterwards it began to be talked about.

Owing to the length of the war, there were frequent conversations
							between the troops on both sides, and a Roman on outpost duty asked one
							of the townsmen who was nearest to him who the man was who was throwing
							out such dark hints about the Alban Lake.

When he heard that he was a soothsayer, being himself a man not devoid
							of religious fears, he invited the prophet to an interview on the
							pretext of wishing to consult him, if he had time, about a portent which
							demanded his own personal expiation.

When the two had gone some distance from their respective lines,
							unarmed, apprehending no danger, the Roman, a young man of immense
							strength, seized the feeble old man in the sight of all, and in spite of
							the outcry of the Etruscans, carried him off to his own side.

He was brought before the commander-in-chief and then sent to the senate
							in Rome. In reply to inquiries as to what he wanted people to understand
							by his remark about the Alban Lake, he said that the gods must certainly
							have been wroth

with the people of Veii on the day when they inspired him with the
							resolve to disclose the ruin which the Fates had prepared for his native
							city.

What he had then predicted under divine inspiration he could not now
							recall or unsay, and perhaps he would incur as much guilt by keeping
							silence about things which it was the will of heaven should be revealed
							as by uttering what ought to be concealed.

It stood recorded in the Books of Fate, and had been handed down by the
							occult science of the Etruscans, that whenever the water of the Alban
							Lake overflowed and the Romans drew it off in the appointed way, the
							victory over the Veientines would be granted them; until that happened
							the gods would not desert the walls of Veii. Then he explained the
							prescribed mode of drawing off the water.

The senate, however, did not regard their informant as sufficiently
							trustworthy in a matter of such importance, and determined to wait for
							the return of their embassy with the oracular reply of the Pythian god.

Previous to their return,
							and before any way of dealing with the Alban portent was discovered, the
							new consular tribunes entered upon office. They were L. Julius Julus, L.
							Furius Medullinus —for the fourth time —L. Sergius Fidenas, A. Postumius
							Regillensis, P. Cornelius Maluginensis, and A. Manlius. This year a new
							enemy

arose. The people of Tarquinii saw that the Romans were engaged in
							numerous campaigns —against the Volscians at Anxur, where the garrison
							was blockaded; against the Aequi at Labici, who were attacking the Roman
							colonists, and, in addition to these, at Veii, Falerii, and Capenae,
							whilst, owing to the contentions between the plebs and the senate,
							things were no quieter within the walls of the

City. Regarding this as a favourable opportunity for mischief, they
							despatched some light-armed cohorts to harry the Roman territory, in the
							belief that the Romans would either let the outrage pass unpunished to
							avoid having another war on their shoulders, or would resent it with a
							small and weak

force. The Romans felt more indignation than anxiety at the raid, and
							without making any great effort, took prompt steps to avenge it. A.
							Postumius and L. Julius raised a force, not by a regular levy —for they
							were obstructed by the tribunes of the plebs —but consisting mostly of
							volunteers whom they had induced by strong appeals to come

forward. With this they advanced by cross marches through the territory
							of Caere and surprised the Tarquinians as they were returning heavily
							laden with

booty. They slew great numbers, stripped the whole force of their
							baggage, and returned with the recovered possessions from their farms to
							Rome. Two days were allowed for the owners to identify their

property; what was unclaimed on the third day, most of it belonging to
							the enemy, was sold “under the spear,” and the proceeds distributed amongst the

soldiers. The issues of the other wars, especially of that against Veii,
							were still undecided, and the Romans were already despairing of success
							through their own efforts, and were looking to the Fates and the gods,
							when the embassy returned from Delphi with the sentence of the

oracle. It was in accord with the answer given by the Veientine
							soothsayer, and ran as follows: — “See to it, Roman, that the
							rising flood At Alba flow not o'er its banks and shape Its channel

seawards. Harmless through thy fields Shalt thou disperse it, scattered
							into rills. Then fiercely press upon thy foeman's walls, For now the
							Fates have given thee victory. That city which long years thou hast
							besieged Shall now be

thine. And when the war hath end, Do thou, the victor, bear an ample
							gift Into my temple, and the ancestral rites Now in disuse, see that
							thou celebrate Anew with all their wonted pomp.”

From that time the captive prophet began to be held in very high esteem,
							and the consular tribunes, Cornelius and Postumius, began to make use of
							him for the expiation of the Alban portent and the proper method of
							appeasing the gods.

At length it was discovered why the gods were visiting men for neglected
							ceremonies and religious duties unperformed.

It was in fact due to nothing else but the fact that there was a flaw in
							the election of the magistrates, and consequently they had not
							proclaimed the Festival of the Latin League and the sacrifice on the
							Alban Mount with the due formalities.

There was only one possible mode of expiation, and that was that the
							consular tribunes should resign office, the auspices to be taken
							entirely afresh, and an interrex appointed. All these measures were
							earned out by a decree of the senate.

There were three interreges in succession —L. Valerius, Q. Servilius
							Fidenas, and M. Furius Camillus. During all this time there were
							incessant disturbances owing to the tribunes of the plebs hindering the
							elections until

an understanding was come to that the majority of the consular tribunes
							should be elected from the plebeians. Whilst this was going on the
							national council of Etruria met at the Fane of Voltumna.

The Capenates and the Faliscans demanded that all the cantons of Etruria
							should unite in common action to raise the siege of Veii; they were told
							in reply that assistance had been previously refused to the Veientines
							because they had no right to seek help from those whose advice they had
							not sought in a matter of such importance.

Now, however, it was their unfortunate circumstances and not their will
							that compelled them to refuse. The Gauls, a strange and unknown race,
							had recently overrun the greatest part of Etruria, and they were not on
							terms of either assured peace or open war with them.

They would, however, do this much for those of their blood and name,
							considering the imminent danger of their kinsmen —if

any of their younger men volunteered for the war they would not prevent
							their going. The report spread in Rome that a large number had reached
							Veii, and in the general alarm the internal dissensions, as usual, began
							to calm down.

The prerogative centuries elected P. Licinius Calvus consular tribune,
							though he was not a candidate. His appointment was not at all
							distasteful to the senate, for when in office before he had shown
							himself a man of moderate views.

He was, however, advanced in years. As the voting proceeded it became
							clear that all who had been formerly his colleagues in office were being
							reappointed one after another. They were L. Titinius, P. Maenius, Q.
							Manlius, Cnaeus Genucius, and L. Atilius.

After the tribes had been duly summoned to hear the declaration of the
							poll, but before it was actually published, P. Licinius Calvus, by
							permission of the interrex, spoke as follows: “I see, Quirites,
							that from what you remember of our former tenure of office, you are
							seeking in these elections an omen of concord for the coming year, a
							thing most of all helpful in the present state of affairs.

But, whilst you are re-electing my old comrades, who have become wiser
							and stronger by experience, you see in me not the man I was, but only a
							mere shadow and name of P. Licinius.

My bodily powers are worn out, my sight and hearing are impaired, my
							memory is failing, my mental vigour is dulled. Here,” he said,
							holding his son by the hand, “is a young man, the image and
							counterpart of him whom in days gone by you elected as the first
							consular tribune taken from the ranks of the plebs.

This young man whom I have trained and moulded I now hand over and
							dedicate to the republic to take my place, and I beg you, Quirites, to
							confer this honour which you have bestowed unsought on me, on him who is
							seeking it, and whose candidature I would fain support and further by my
							prayers.”

His request was granted, and his son P. Licinius was formally announced
							as consular tribune with those above mentioned. Titinius and Genucius
							marched against the Faliscans and Capenates, but they proceeded with
							more courage than caution and fell into an ambuscade.

Genucius atoned for his rashness by an honourable death, and fell
							fighting amongst the foremost. Titinius rallied his men from the
							disorder into which they had fallen and gained some rising ground where
							he reformed his line, but would not come down to continue the fight on
							level terms.

More disgrace was incurred than loss, but it almost resulted in a
							terrible disaster, so great was the alarm it created not only in Rome,
							where very exaggerated accounts were received, but also in the camp
							before Veii.

Here a rumour had gained ground that after the destruction of the
							generals and their army, the victorious Capenates and Faliscans and the
							whole military strength of Etruria had proceeded to Veii and were at no
							great distance; in consequence of this the soldiers were with difficulty
							restrained from taking to flight.

Still more disquieting rumours were current in Rome; at one moment they
							imagined that the camp before Veii had been stormed, at another that a
							part of the enemies' forces was in full march to the City.

They hurried to the walls; the matrons, whom the general alarm had drawn
							from their homes, made prayers and supplications in the temples; solemn
							petitions were offered up to the gods that they would ward off
							destruction from the houses and temples of the City and from the walls
							of Rome, and divert the fears and alarms to Veii if the sacred rites had
							been duly restored and the portents expiated.

By this time the Games and the Latin Festival
							had been celebrated afresh, and the water drawn off from the Alban Lake
							on the fields, and now the fated doom was closing over Veii.

Accordingly the commander destined by the Fates for the destruction of
							that city and the salvation of his country —M. Furius Camillus —was
							nominated Dictator.

He appointed as his Master of the Horse P. Cornelius Scipio.

With the change in the command everything else suddenly changed; men's
							hopes were different, their spirits were different, even the fortunes of
							the City wore a different aspect. His first measure was to execute
							military justice upon those who had fled during the panic from the camp,
							and he made the soldiers realise that it was not the enemy who was most
							to be feared.

He then appointed a day for the enrolment of troops, and in the interim
							went to Veii to encourage the soldiers, after which he returned to Rome
							to raise a fresh army. Not a man tried to escape enlistment. Even
							foreign troops —Latins and Hernicans —came to offer assistance for the
							war.

The Dictator formally thanked them in the senate, and as all the
							preparations for war were now sufficiently advanced, he vowed, in
							pursuance of a senatorial decree, that on the capture of Veii he would
							celebrate the Great Games and restore and dedicate the temple of Matuta
							the Mother, which had been originally dedicated by Servius Tullius.

He left the City with his army amid a general feeling of anxious
							expectation rather than of hopeful confidence on the part of the
							citizens, and his first engagement was with the Faliscans and Capenates
							in the territory of Nepete.

As usual where everything was managed with consummate skill and
							prudence, success followed. He not only defeated the enemy in the field,
							but he stripped them of their camp and secured immense booty. The
							greater part was sold and the proceeds paid over to the quaestor, the
							smaller share was given to the soldiers. From there the army was led to
							Veii.

The forts were constructed more closely together. Frequent skirmishes
							had occurred at random in the space between the city wall and the Roman
							lines, and an edict was issued that none should fight without orders,
							thereby keeping the soldiers to the construction of the siege works.

By far the greatest and most difficult of these was a mine which was
							commenced, and designed to lead into the enemies' citadel.

That the work might not be interrupted, or the troops exhausted by the
							same men being continuously employed in underground labour, he formed
							the army into six divisions. Each division was told off in rotation to
							work for six hours at a time; the work went on without any intermission
							until they had made a way into the citadel.

When the Dictator saw that victory was now within his grasp, that a very
							wealthy city was on the point of capture, and that there would be more
							booty than had been amassed in all the previous wars taken together, he

was anxious to avoid incurring the anger of the soldiers through too
							niggardly a distribution of it on the one hand, and the jealousy of the
							senate through too lavish a grant of it on the other.

He sent a despatch to the senate in which he stated that through the
							gracious favour of heaven, his own generalship, and the persevering
							efforts

of his soldiers, Veii would in a very few hours be in the power of Rome,
							and he asked for their decision as to the disposal of the booty. The
							senate were divided. It is reported that the aged P. Licinius, who was
							the first to be asked his opinion by his son, urged that the people
							should receive public notice that whoever wanted to share in the spoils
							should go to the camp at Veii.

Appius Claudius took the opposite line. He stigmatised the proposed
							largesse as unprecedented, wasteful, unfair, reckless. If, he said, they
							once thought it sinful for money taken from the enemy to lie in the
							treasury, drained as it had been by the wars, he would advise that the
							pay of the soldiers be supplied from that source, so that the plebs
							might have so much less tax to pay.

“The homes of all would feel alike the benefit of a common boon,
							the rewards won by brave warriors would not be filched by the hands of
							city loafers, ever greedy for plunder, for it so constantly happens that
							those who usually seek the foremost place in toil and danger are the
							least active in appropriating the spoils.”

Licinius on the other hand said that “this money would always be
							regarded with suspicion and aversion, and would supply material for
							indictments before the plebs, and consequently bring about disturbances
							and revolutionary measures.

It was better, therefore, that the plebs should be conciliated by this
							gift, that those who had been crushed and exhausted by so many years of
							taxation should be relieved and get some enjoyment from the spoils of a
							war in which they had almost become old men. When any one brings home
							something he has taken from the enemy with his own hand, it affords him
							more pleasure and gratification than if he were to receive many times
							its value at the bidding of another.

The Dictator had referred the question to the senate because he wanted
							to avoid the odium and misrepresentations which it might occasion; the
							senate, in its turn, ought to entrust it to the plebs and allow each to
							keep what the fortune of war has given him.” This was felt to be
							the safer course, as it would make the senate popular.

Notice accordingly was given that those who thought fit should go to the
							Dictator in camp to share in the plunder of Veii.

An enormous crowd went and filled the camp. After the Dictator had taken
							the auspices and issued orders for the soldiers to arm for battle, he
							uttered this prayer:

“Pythian Apollo, guided and inspired by thy will I go forth to
							destroy the city of Veii, and a tenth part of its spoils I devote to
							thee.

Thee too, Queen Juno, who now dwellest in Veii, I beseech, that thou
							wouldst follow us, after our victory, to the City which is ours and
							which will soon be thine, where a temple worthy of thy majesty will
							receive thee.”

After this prayer, finding himself superior in numbers, he attacked the
							city on all sides, to distract the enemies' attention from the impending
							danger of the mine.

The Veientines, all unconscious that their doom had already been sealed
							by their own prophets and by oracles in foreign lands, that some of the
							gods had already been invited to their share in the spoils, whilst
							others, called upon in prayer to leave their city, were looking to new
							abodes in the temples of their foes;

all unconscious that they were spending their last day, without the
							slightest suspicion that their walls had been undermined and their
							citadel already filled with the enemy, hurried with

their weapons to the walls, each as best he could, wondering what had
							happened to make the Romans, after never stirring from their lines for
							so many days, now run recklessly up to the walls as though struck with
							sudden

frenzy. At this point a tale is introduced to the effect that whilst the
							king of the Veientines was offering sacrifice, the soothsayer announced
							that victory would be granted to him who had cut out the sacrificial
							parts of the victim. His words were heard by the soldiers in the mine,
							they burst through, seized the parts and carried them to the Dictator.

But in questions of such remote antiquity I should count it sufficient
							if what bears the stamp of probability be taken as true.

Statements like this, which are more fitted to adorn a stage which
							delights in the marvellous than to inspire belief, it is not worth while
							either to affirm or deny. The mine, which was now full of picked
							soldiers, suddenly discharged its armed force in the temple of Juno,
							which was inside the citadel of Veii. Some attacked the enemy on the
							walls from behind, others forced back the bars of the gates, others
							again set fire to the houses from which stones and tiles were being
							hurled by women and slaves.

Everything resounded with the confused noise of terrifying threats and
							shrieks of despairing anguish blended with the wailing of women and
							children.

In a very short time the defenders were driven from the walls and the
							city gates flung open.

Some rushed in in close order, others scaled the deserted walls; the
							city was filled with Romans; fighting went on everywhere. At length,
							after great carnage, the fighting slackened, and the Dictator ordered
							the heralds to proclaim that the unarmed were to be spared.

That put a stop to the bloodshed, those who were unarmed began to
							surrender, and the soldiers dispersed with the Dictator's permission in
							quest of booty.

This far surpassed all expectation both in its amount and its value, and
							when the Dictator saw it before him he is reported to have raised his
							hands to heaven and prayed that if any of the gods deemed the good
							fortune which had befallen him and the Romans to be too great, the
							jealousy which it caused might be allayed by such a calamity as would be
							least injurious to him and to Rome.

The tradition runs that whilst he was turning round during this devotion
							he stumbled and fell. To those who judged after the event it appeared as
							if that omen pointed to Camillus' own condemnation and the subsequent
							capture of Rome which occurred a few years

later. That day was spent in the massacre of the enemy and the sack of
							the city with its enormous wealth.

The following day the Dictator sold all freemen who had been spared, as
							slaves. The money so realised was the only amount paid into the public
							treasury, but even that proceeding roused the ire of the plebs.

As for the spoil they brought home with them, they did not acknowledge
							themselves under any obligation for it either to their general, who,
							they thought, had referred a matter within his own competence to the
							senate in the hope of getting their authority for his niggardliness, nor
							did they feel any gratitude to the senate.

It was the Licinian family to whom they gave the credit, for it was the
							father who had advocated the popular measure and the son who had taken
							the opinion of the senate upon it. When all that belonged to man had
							been carried away from Veii, they began to remove from the temples the
							votive gifts that had been made to the gods, and then the gods
							themselves;

but this they did as worshippers rather than as plunderers.

The deportation of Queen Juno to Rome was entrusted to a body of men
							selected from the whole army, who after performing their ablutions and
							arraying themselves in white vestments, reverently entered the temple
							and in a spirit of holy dread placed their hands on the statue, for it
							was as a rule only the priest of one particular house who, by Etruscan
							usage, touched it. Then one of them, either under a sudden inspiration,
							or in a spirit of youthful mirth, said, “Art thou willing, Juno,
							to go to Rome?”

The rest exclaimed that the goddess nodded assent. An addition to the
							story was made to the effect that she was heard to say, “I am
							willing.”

At all events we have it that she was moved from her place by appliances
							of little power, and proved light and easy of transport, as though she
							were following of her own accord.

She was brought without mishap to the Aventine, her everlasting seat,
							whither the prayers of the Roman Dictator had called her, and where this
							same Camillus afterwards dedicated the temple which he had vowed. Such
							was the fall of Veii, the most wealthy city of the Etruscan league,
							showing its greatness even in its final overthrow, since after being
							besieged for ten summers and winters and inflicting more loss than it
							sustained, it succumbed at last to destiny, being after all carried by a
							mine and not by direct assault.

Although the portents had been averted by due expiation and the answers
							given by the soothsayer and the oracle were matters of common knowledge,
							and all that man could do had been done by the selection of M. Furius,
							the greatest of all commanders —notwithstanding

all this, when the capture of Veii was announced in Rome, after so many
							years of undecided warfare and numerous defeats, the rejoicing was as
							great as if there had been no hope of success.

Anticipating the order of the senate, all the temples were filled with
							Roman mothers offering thanksgivings to the gods. The senate ordered
							that the public thanksgivings should be continued for four days, a
							longer period than for any previous war.

The arrival of the Dictator, too, whom all classes poured out to meet,
							was welcomed by a greater concourse than that of any general before.

His triumph went far beyond the usual mode of celebrating the day;
							himself the most conspicuous object of all, he was drawn into the City
							by a team of white horses, which men thought unbecoming even for a
							mortal man, let alone a Roman citizen.

They saw with superstitious alarm the Dictator putting himself on a
							level in his equipage with Jupiter and Sol, and this one circumstance
							made his triumph more brilliant than popular.

After this he signed a contract for building the temple of Queen Juno on
							the Aventine and dedicated one to Matuta the Mother. After having thus
							discharged his duties to gods and men he resigned his Dictatorship.
							Subsequently a difficulty arose about the offering to Apollo.

Camillus stated that he had vowed a tenth of the spoils to the deity,
							and the college of pontiffs decided that the people must fulfil their
							religious obligation.

But it was not easy to find a way of ordering the people to restore
							their share of booty so that the due proportion might be set apart for
							sacred purposes.

At length recourse was had to what seemed the smoothest plan, namely,
							that any one who wished to discharge the obligation for himself and his
							household should make a valuation of his share and contribute the value
							of a tenth of it to the public treasury, in

order that out of the proceeds a golden crown might be made, worthy of
							the grandeur of the temple and the august divinity of the god, and such
							as the honour of the Roman people demanded.

This contribution still further estranged the feelings of the plebeians
							from Camillus. During these occurrences envoys from the Volscians and
							Aequi came to sue for peace. They succeeded in obtaining it, not so much
							because they deserved it as that the commonwealth, wearied with such a
							long war, might enjoy repose.

The year following
							the capture of Veii had for the six consular tribunes two of the Publii
							Cornelii, namely, Cossus and Scipio, M. Valerius Maximus —for the second
							time —Caeso Fabius Ambustus —for the third time —L. Furius Medullinus
							—for the fifth time —and Q. Servilius —for the third time.

The war against the Faliscans was allotted to the Cornelii, that against
							Capenae to Valerius and Servilius. They did not make any attempt to take
							cities either by assault or investment, but confined themselves to
							ravaging the country and carrying off the property of the
							agriculturists; not a single fruit tree, no produce whatever, was left
							on the land.

These losses broke the resistance of the Capenates, they sued for peace
							and it was granted them. Amongst the Faliscans the war went on.

In Rome, meanwhile, disturbances arose on various matters. In order to
							quiet them it had been decided to plant a colony on the Volscian
							frontier, and the names of 3000 Roman citizens were entered for it.
							Triumvirs appointed for the purpose had divided the land into lots of 3
							7/12 jugera per man.

This grant began to be looked upon with contempt, they regarded it as a
							sop offered to them to divert them from hoping for something better.
							“Why,” they asked, “were plebeians to be sent into
							banishment amongst the Volscians when the splendid city of Veii and the
							territory of the Veientines was within view, more fertile and more ample
							than the territory of Rome?”

Whether in respect of its situation or of the magnificence of its public
							and private buildings and its open spaces, they gave that city the
							preference over Rome.

They even brought forward a proposal, which met with still more support
							after the capture of Rome by the Gauls, for migrating to Veii.

They intended, however, that Veii should be inhabited by a portion of
							the plebs and a part of the senate;

they thought it a feasible project that two separate cities should be
							inhabited by the Roman people and form one State. In opposition to these
							proposals, the nobility went so far as to declare that they would sooner
							die before the eyes of the Roman people than that any of those schemes
							should be put to the vote.

If, they argued, there was so much dissension in one city, what would
							there be in two? Could any one possibly prefer a conquered to a
							conquering city, and allow Veii to enjoy a greater good fortune after
							its capture than while it stood safe?

It was possible that in the end they might be left behind in their
							native City by their fellow-citizens, but no power on earth would compel
							them to abandon their native City and their fellow-citizens in order to
							follow T. Sicinius —the proposer of this measure —to Veii as its new
							founder, and so abandon Romulus, a god and the son of a god, the father
							and creator of the City of Rome.

This discussion was attended by disgraceful quarrels, for the senate had
							drawn over a section of the tribunes of the plebs to their

view, and the only thing that restrained the plebeians from offering
							personal violence was the use which the patricians made of their
							personal influence. Whenever shouts were raised to get up a brawl, the
							leaders of the senate were the first to go into the crowd and tell them
							to vent their rage on them, to beat and kill them.

The mob shrank from offering violence to men of their age and rank and
							distinction, and this feeling prevented them from attacking the other
							patricians.

Camillus went about delivering harangues everywhere, and saying that it
							was no wonder that the citizens had gone mad, for though bound by a vow,
							they showed more anxiety about everything than about discharging their
							religious obligations.

He would say nothing about the contribution, which was really a sacred
							offering rather than a tithe, and since each individual bound himself to
							a tenth, the State, as such, was free from the obligation.

But his conscience would not allow him to keep silence about the
							assertion that the tenth only applied to movables, and that no mention
							was made of the city and its territory, which were also really included
							in the vow.

As the senate considered the question a difficult one to decide, they
							referred it to the pontiffs, and Camillus was invited to discuss it with
							them. They decided that of all that had belonged to the Veientines
							before the vow was uttered and had subsequently passed into the power of
							Rome, a tenth part was sacred to Apollo. Thus the city and territory
							came into the estimate.

The money was drawn from the treasury, and the consular tribunes were
							commissioned to purchase gold with it. As there was not a sufficient
							supply, the matrons, after meeting to talk the matter over, made
							themselves by common consent responsible to the tribunes for the gold,
							and sent all their trinkets to the treasury.

The senate were in the highest degree grateful for this, and the
							tradition goes that in return for this munificence the matrons had
							conferred upon them the honour of driving to sacred festivals and games
							in a carriage, and on holy days and work days in a two-wheeled car.

The gold received from each was appraised in order that the proper
							amount of money might be paid for it, and it was decided that a golden
							bowl should be made and carried to Delphi as a gift to Apollo. When the
							religious question no longer claimed their attention, the tribunes of
							the plebs renewed their agitation;

the passions of the populace were aroused against all the leading men,
							most of all against Camillus.

They said that by devoting the spoils of Veii to the State and to the
							gods he had reduced them to nothing. They attacked the senators
							furiously in their absence;

when they were present and confronted their rage, shame kept them
							silent. As soon as the plebeians saw that the matter would be carried
							over into the following year, they reappointed the supporters of the
							proposal as their tribunes; the patricians devoted themselves to
							securing the same support for those who had vetoed the proposal.
							Consequently, nearly all the same tribunes of the plebs were re-elected.

In the election of consular tribunes the
							patricians succeeded by the utmost exertions in securing the return of
							M. Furius Camillus. They pretended that in view of the wars they were
							providing themselves with a general; their real object was to get a man
							who would oppose the corrupt policy of the plebeian tribunes.

His comrades in the tribuneship were L. Furius Medullinus —for the sixth
							time —C. Aemilius, L. Valerius Publicola, S. Postumius, and P. Cornelius
							—

for the second time. At the beginning of the year the tribunes of the
							plebs made no move until Camillus left for operations against the
							Faliscans, the theatre of war assigned to him. This delay took the heart
							out of their agitation, whilst Camillus, the adversary whom they most
							dreaded, was gaining fresh glory amongst the Faliscans.

At first the enemy kept within their walls, thinking this the safest
							course, but by devastating their fields and burning their farms he
							compelled them to come outside their city.

They were afraid to go very far, and fixed their camp about a mile away;
							the only thing which gave them any sense of security was the difficulty
							of approaching it, as all the country round was rough and broken, and
							the roads narrow in some parts, in others steep. Camillus, however, had
							gained information from a prisoner captured in the neighbourhood, and
							made him act as guide.

After breaking up his camp in the dead of night, he showed himself at
							daybreak in a position considerably higher than the enemy. The Romans of
							the third line began to entrench, the rest of the army stood ready
							for battle.

When the enemy attempted to hinder the work of entrenchment, he defeated
							them and put them to flight, and such a panic seized the Faliscans that
							in their disorderly flight they were carried past their own camp, which
							was nearer to them, and made for their city.

Many were killed and wounded before they could get inside their gates.
							The camp was taken, the booty sold, and the proceeds paid over to the
							quaestors, to the intense indignation of the soldiers, but they were
							overawed by the sternness of their general's discipline, and though they
							hated his firmness, at the same time they admired it.

The city was now invested and regular siege-works were constructed. For
							some time the townsmen used to attack the Roman outposts whenever they
							saw an opportunity, and frequent skirmishes took place. Time went on and
							hope inclined to neither side; corn and other supplies had been
							previously collected, and the besieged were better provisioned than the
							besiegers.

The task seemed likely to be as long as it had been at Veii, had not
							fortune given the Roman commander an opportunity of displaying that
							greatness of mind which had already been proved in deeds of war, and so
							secured him an early victory.

It was the custom of the Faliscans to employ the same person as the
							master and also as the attendant of their children, and several boys
							used to be entrusted to one man's care; a custom which prevails in
							Greece at the present time.

Naturally, the man who had the highest reputation for learning was
							appointed to instruct the children of the principal men. This man had
							started the practice, in the time of peace, of taking the boys outside
							the gates for games and exercise, and he kept up the practice after the
							war had begun, taking them sometimes a shorter, sometimes a longer
							distance from the city gate. Seizing a favourable opportunity, he kept
							up the games and the conversations longer than usual, and went on till
							he was in the midst of the Roman outposts.

He then took them into the camp and up to Camillus in the headquarters
							tent.

There he aggravated his villainous act by a still more villainous
							utterance. He had, he said, given Falerii into the hands of the Romans,
							since those boys, whose fathers were at the head of affairs in the city,
							were now placed in their power.

On hearing this Camillus replied, “You, villain, have not come
							with your villainous offer to a nation or a commander like yourself.

Between us and the Faliscans there is no fellowship based on a formal
							compact as between man and man, but the fellowship which is based on
							natural instincts exists between us, and will continue to do so. There
							are rights of war as there are rights of peace, and we have learnt to
							wage our wars with justice no less than with courage.

We do not use our weapons against those of an age which is spared even
							in the capture of cities, but against those who are armed as we are, and
							who without any injury or provocation from us attacked the Roman camp at
							Veii.

These men you, as far as you could, have vanquished by an unprecedented
							act of villainy; I shall vanquish them as I vanquished Veii, by Roman
							arts, by courage and strategy and force of arms.”

He then ordered him to be stripped and his hands tied behind his back,
							and delivered him up to the boys to be taken back to Falerii, and gave
							them rods with which to scourge the traitor into the city.

The people came in crowds to see the sight, the magistrates thereupon
							convened the senate to discuss the extraordinary incident, and in the
							end such a revulsion of feeling took place that the very people who in
							the madness of their rage and hatred would almost sooner have shared the
							fate of Veii than obtained the peace which Capena enjoyed, now found
							themselves in company with the whole city asking for peace.

The Roman sense of honour, the commander's love of justice, were in all
							men's mouths in the forum and in the senate, and in accordance with the
							universal wish, ambassadors were despatched to Camillus in the camp, and
							with his sanction to the senate in Rome, to make the surrender of
							Falerii. On being introduced to the senate, they are reported to have
							made the following speech: “Senators!

vanquished by you and your general through a victory which none, whether
							god or man, can censure, we surrender ourselves to you, for we think it
							better to live under your sway than under our own laws, and this is the
							greatest glory that a conqueror can attain.

Through the issue of this war two salutary precedents have been set for
							mankind. You have preferred the honour of a soldier to a victory which
							was in your hands; we, challenged by your good faith, have voluntarily
							given you that victory.

We are at your disposal; send men to receive our arms, to receive the
							hostages, to receive the city whose gates stand open to you.

Never shall you have cause to complain of our loyalty, nor we of your
							rule.” Thanks were accorded to Camillus both by the enemy and by
							his own countrymen. The Faliscans were ordered to supply the pay of the
							troops for that year, in order that the Roman people might be free from
							the war-tax. After the peace was granted, the army was marched back to
							Rome.

After thus subduing the enemy by his justice and good faith, Camillus
							returned to the City invested with a much nobler glory than when white
							horses drew him through it in his triumph. The senate could not
							withstand the delicate reproof of his silence, but at once proceeded to
							free him from his vow.

L. Valerius, L. Sergius, and A. Manlius were appointed as a deputation
							to carry the golden bowl, made as a gift to Apollo, to Delphi, but the
							solitary warship in which they were sailing was captured by Liparean
							pirates not far from the Straits of Sicily, and taken to the islands of
							Liparae.

Piracy was regarded as a kind of State institution, and it was the
							custom for the government to distribute the plunder thus acquired. That
							year the supreme magistracy was held by Timasitheus, a man more akin to
							the Romans in character than to his own countrymen.

As he himself reverenced the name and office of the ambassadors, the
							gift they had in charge and the god to whom it was being sent, so he
							inspired the multitude, who generally share the views of their ruler,
							with a proper religious sense of their duty. The deputation were
							conducted to the State guest-house, and from there sent on their way to
							Delphi with a protecting escort of ships, he then brought them back safe
							to Rome.

Friendly relations were established with him on the part of the State,
							and presents bestowed upon him. During this year
							there was war with the Aequi of so undecided a character that it was a
							matter of uncertainty, both in the armies themselves and in Rome,
							whether they were victorious or vanquished.

The two consular tribunes, C. Aemilius and Spurius Postumius, were in
							command of the Roman army. At first they carried on joint operations;
							after the enemy had been routed in the field, they arranged that
							Aemilius should hold Verrugo whilst Postumius devastated their
							territory.

Whilst he was marching somewhat carelessly after his success, with his
							men out of order, he was attacked by the Aequi, and such a panic ensued
							that his troops were driven to the nearest hills, and the alarm spread
							even to the other army at Verrugo.

After they had retreated to a safe position, Postumius summoned his men
							to assembly and severely rebuked them for their panic and flight, and
							for having been routed by such a cowardly and easily defeated foe. With
							one voice the army exclaimed that his reproaches were deserved; they
							had, they confessed, behaved disgracefully, but they would themselves
							repair their fault, the enemy would not long have cause for rejoicing.

They asked him to lead them at once against the enemy's camp —it was in
							full view down in the plain —and no punishment would be too severe if
							they failed to take it before nightfall.

He commended their eagerness, and ordered them to refresh themselves and
							to be ready by the fourth watch. The enemy, expecting the Romans to
							attempt a nocturnal flight from their hill, were posted to cut them off
							from the road leading to Verrugo. The action commenced before dawn, but
							as there was a moon all night, the battle was as clearly visible as if
							it had been fought by day.

The shouting reached Verrugo, and they believed that the Roman camp was
							being attacked. This created such a panic that in spite of all the
							appeals of Aemilius in his efforts to restrain them, the garrison broke
							away and fled in scattered groups to Tusculum.

Thence the rumour was carried to Rome that Postumius and his army were
							slain. As soon as the rising dawn had removed all apprehensions of a
							surprise in case the pursuit was carried too far, Postumius rode down
							the ranks demanding the fulfilment of their promise.

The enthusiasm of the troops was so roused that the Aequi no longer
							withstood the attack. Then followed a slaughter of the fugitives, such
							as might be expected where men are actuated by rage even more than by
							courage; the army was destroyed. The doleful report from Tusculum and
							the groundless fears of the City were followed by a laurelled
								despatch from Postumius announcing
							the victory of Rome and the annihilation of the Aequian army.

As the agitation of the tribunes of the plebs had so
							far been without result, the plebeians exerted themselves to secure the
							continuance in office of the proposers of the land measure, whilst the
							patricians strove for the re-election of those who had vetoed it.

The plebeians, however, carried the election, and the senate in revenge
							for this mortification passed a resolution for the appointment of
							consuls, the magistracy which the plebs detested.

After fifteen years, consuls were once more elected in the persons of L.
							Lucretius Flavus and Servius Sulpicius Camerinus. At the beginning of
							the year, as none of their college was disposed to interpose his veto,
							the tribunes were combined in a determined effort to carry their
							measure, while the consuls, for the same reason, offered a no less
							strenuous resistance. Whilst all the citizens were preoccupied with this
							struggle, the Aequi successfully attacked the Roman colony at Vitellia,
							which was situated in their territory.

Most of the colonists were uninjured, for the fact of its treacherous
							capture taking place in the night gave them the chance of escaping in
							the opposite direction from the enemy and reaching Rome.

That field of operations fell to L. Lucretius. He advanced against the
							enemy and defeated them in a regular engagement, and then came back
							victorious to Rome, where a still more serious contest awaited him. A
							day had been fixed for the prosecution of A. Verginius and Q. Pomponius,
							who had been tribunes of the plebs two years previously.

The senate unanimously agreed that their honour was concerned in
							defending them, for no one brought any charge against them touching
							their private life or their public action; the only ground of indictment
							was that it was to please the senate that they had exercised their veto.

The influence of the senate, however, was overborne by the angry temper
							of the plebeians, and a most vicious precedent was set by the
							condemnation of those innocent men to a fine of 10,000 “ ases ” each. The senate were extremely
							distressed.

Camillus openly accused the plebeians of treason in turning against
							their own magistrates because they did not see that through this
							iniquitous judgment they had taken from their tribunes the power of
							veto, and in depriving them of that had overthrown their power.

They were deceived if they expected the senate to put up with the
							absence of any restraint upon the licence of that magistracy. If the
							violence of tribunes could not be met by the veto of tribunes, the
							senate would find another weapon.

He poured blame on the consuls also for having silently allowed the
							honour of the State to be compromised in the case of tribunes who had
							followed the instructions of the senate. By openly repeating these
							charges he embittered the feeling of the populace more every day.

The senate, on the other hand, he was perpetually inciting to oppose the
								measure. They must not,
							he said, go down to the Forum, when the day came for voting on it, in
							any other temper than that of men who realised that they would have to
							fight for their hearths and altars, for the temples of the gods, and
							even for the soil on which they had been born.

As for himself, if he dared to think of his own reputation when his
							country's existence was at stake, it would be indeed an honour to him
							that the city which he had taken should become a popular resort, that
							that memorial of his glory should give him daily delight, that he should
							have before his eyes the city which had been caried in his triumphal
								procession, and that all should tread in the track of his
							renown.

But he considered it an offence against heaven for a city to be
							repeopled after it had been deserted and abandoned by the gods, or for
							the Roman people to dwell on a soil enslaved and

change the conquering country for a conquered one. Roused by these
							appeals of their leader, the senators, old and young, came down in a
							body to the Forum when the proposal was being put to the vote.

They dispersed among the tribes, and each taking his fellow-tribesmen by
							the hand, implored them with tears not to desert the fatherland, for
							which they and their fathers had fought so bravely and so successfully.

They pointed to the Capitol, the temple of Vesta, and the other divine
							temples round them, and besought them not to drive the Roman people, as
							homeless exiles, from their ancestral soil and their household gods into
							the city of their foes. They even went so far as to say that it were
							better that Veii had never been taken than that Rome should be deserted.

As they were having recourse not to violence but to entreaties, and were
							interspersing their entreaties with frequent mention of the gods, it
							became for the majority of voters a religious question and the measure
							was defeated by a majority of

one tribe. The senate were so delighted at their victory that on the
							following day a resolution was passed, at the instance of the consuls,
							that seven jugera of the Veientine
							territory should be allotted to each plebeian, and not to the heads of
							families only, account was taken of all the children in the house, that
							men might be willing to bring up children in the hope that they would
							receive their share.

This bounty soothed the feelings of the plebs, and no
							opposition was offered to the election of consuls.

The two elected were L. Valerius Potitus and M. Manlius, who afterwards
							received the title of Capitolinus. They celebrated the “Great
							Games” which M. Furius had vowed when Dictator in the Veientine
							war.

In the same year the temple of Queen Juno, which he had also vowed at
							the same time, was dedicated, and the tradition runs that this
							dedication excited great interest amongst the matrons, who were present
							in large numbers. An unimportant campaign was conducted against the
							Aequi on Algidus;

the enemy were routed almost before they came to close quarters.
							Valerius had shown greater energy in following up the fugitives; he was
							accordingly decreed a triumph; Manlius an ovation. In the same year a
							new enemy appeared in the Volsinians.

Owing to famine and pestilence in the district round Rome, in
							consequence of excessive heat and drought, it was impossible for an army
							to march. This emboldened the Volsinians in conjunction with the
							Salpinates to make inroads upon Roman territory. Thereupon war was
							declared against the two States. C. Julius, the censor, died, and M.
							Cornelius was appointed in his place.

This proceeding was afterwards regarded as an offence against religion
							because it was during that lustrum that
							Rome was taken, and no one has ever since been appointed as censor in
							the room of one deceased.

The consuls were attacked by the epidemic, so it was decided that the
							auspices should be taken afresh by an interrex.

The consuls accordingly resigned office in compliance with a resolution
							of the senate, and M. Furius Camillus was appointed interrex. He
							appointed P. Cornelius Scipio as his successor, and Scipio appointed L.
							Valerius Potitus.

The last named appointed six consular tribunes, so that if any of them
							became incapacitated through illness there might still be a sufficiency
							of magistrates to administer the republic.

These were L. Lucretius, Servius Sulpicius, M. Aemilius, L. Furius
							Medullinus —for the seventh time —Agrippa Furius, and C. Aemilius —for
							the second time. They entered upon office on the 1st of July.

L. Lucretius and C. Aemilius were charged with the campaign against the
							Volsinians; Agrippa Furius and Servius Sulpicius with the one against
							the Salpinates.

The first action took place with the Volsinians; an immense number of
							the enemy were engaged, but the fighting was by no means severe. Their
							line was scattered at the first shock; 8000 who were surrounded by the
							cavalry laid down their arms and surrendered.

On hearing of this battle the Salpinates would not trust themselves to a
							regular engagement in the field, but sought the protection of their
							walls. The Romans carried off plunder in all directions from both the
							Salpinate and Volsinian territories without meeting any resistance.

At last the Volsinians, tired of the war, obtained a truce for twenty
							years on condition that they paid an indemnity for their previous raid
							and supplied the year's pay for the army. It was in this year that Marcus Caedicius, a member of
							the plebs, reported to the tribunes that whilst he

was in the Via Nova where the chapel now stands, above the temple of
							Vesta, he heard in the silence of the night a voice more powerful than
							any human voice bidding the magistrates be told that the Gauls were
							approaching.

No notice was taken of this, partly owing to the humble rank of the
							informant, and partly because the Gauls were a distant and therefore an
							unknown nation. It was not the monitions of the gods only that were set
							at nought in face of the coming doom. The one human aid which they had
							against it, M. Furius Camillus, was removed from the City.

He was impeached by the plebeian tribune L. Apuleius for his action with
							reference to the spoils of Veii, and at the time had just been bereaved
							of his son. He invited the members of his tribe and his clients, who
							formed a considerable part of the plebs, to his house and sounded their
							feelings towards him. They told him that they would pay whatever fine
							was imposed, but it was impossible for them to acquit him.

Thereupon he went into exile, after offering up a prayer to the immortal
							gods that if he were suffering wrongfully as an innocent man, they would
							make his ungrateful citizens very soon feel the need of him. He was
							condemned in his absence to pay a fine of15,000 “ ases .”

After the expulsion of that
							citizen whose presence, if there is anything certain in human affairs,
							would have made the capture of Rome impossible, the doom of the fated
							City swiftly approached. Ambassadors came from Clusium begging for
							assistance against the Gauls.

The tradition is that this nation, attracted by the report of the
							delicious fruits and especially of the wine —a novel pleasure to them
							—crossed the Alps and occupied the lands formerly cultivated by the
							Etruscans, and that Arruns of Clusium imported wine into Gaul in order
							to allure them into Italy.

His wife had been seduced by a Lucumo, to whom he was guardian, and from
							whom, being a young man of considerable influence, it was impossible to
							get redress without getting help from abroad.

In revenge, Arruns led the Gauls across the Alps and prompted them to
							attack Clusium. I would not deny that the Gauls were conducted to
							Clusium by Arruns or some one else living there, but it is quite clear
							that those who attacked that city were not the first who crossed the
							Alps.

As a matter of fact, Gauls crossed into Italy two centuries before they
							attacked Clusium and took Rome.

Nor were the Clusines the first Etruscans with whom the Gaulish armies
							came into conflict; long before that they had fought many battles with
							the Etruscans who dwelt between the Apennines and the Alps.

Before the Roman supremacy, the power of the Tuscans was widely extended
							both by sea and land. How far it extended over the two seas by which
							Italy is surrounded like an island is proved by the names, for the
							nations of Italy call the one the “Tuscan Sea,” from the
							general designation of the people, and the other the
							“Atriatic,” from Atria, a Tuscan colony.

The Greeks also call them the “Tyrrhene” and the
							“Adriatic.”

The districts stretching towards either sea were inhabited by them. They
							first settled on this side the Apennines by the western sea in twelve
							cities, afterwards they founded twelve colonies beyond the Apennines,
							corresponding to the number of the mother cities.

These colonies held the whole of the country beyond the Po as far as the
							Alps, with the exception of the corner inhabited by the Veneti, who
							dwelt round an arm of the sea.

The Alpine tribes are undoubtedly of the same stock, especially the
							Raetii, who had through the nature of their country become so
							uncivilised that they retained no trace of their original condition
							except their language, and even this was not free from corruption.

About the passage of the Gauls into Italy we have received the following
							account. Whilst Tarquinius Priscus was king of Rome, the supreme power
							amongst the Celts, who formed a third part of the whole of Gaul, was in
							the hands of the Bituriges; they used to furnish the king for the whole
							Celtic race.

Ambigatus was king at that time, a man eminent for his own personal
							courage and prosperity as much as for those of his dominions. During his
							sway the harvests were so abundant and the population increased so
							rapidly in Gaul that the government of such vast numbers seemed almost
							impossible.

He was now an old man, and anxious to relieve his realm from the burden
							of over-population. With this view he signified his intention of sending
							his sister's sons Bellovesus and Segovesus, both enterprising young men,
							to settle in whatever locality the gods should by augury assign to them.

They were to invite as many as wished to accompany them, sufficient to
							prevent any nation from repelling their approach. When the auspices were
							taken, the Hercynian forest was assigned to Segovesus; to Bellovesus the
							gods gave the far pleasanter way into Italy.

He invited the surplus population of six tribes —the Bituriges, the
							Averni, the Senones, the Aedui, the Ambarri, the Carnutes, and the
							Aulerci.

Starting with an enormous force of horse and foot, he came to the
							Tricastini. Beyond stretched the barrier of the Alps, and I am not at
							all surprised that they appeared insurmountable, for they had never yet
							been surmounted by any route, as far at least as unbroken memory
							reaches, unless you choose to believe the fables about Hercules.

Whilst the mountain heights kept the Gauls fenced in as it were there,
							and they were looking everywhere to see by what path they could cross
							the peaks which reached to heaven and so enter a new world, they were
							also prevented from advancing by a sense of religious obligation, for
							news came that some strangers in quest of territory were being attacked
							by the Salyi.

These were Massilians who had sailed from Phocaea. The Gauls, looking
							upon this as an omen of their own fortunes, went to their assistance and
							enabled them to fortify the spot where they had first landed, without
							any interference from the Salyi.

After crossing the Alps by the passes of the Taurini and the valley of
							the Douro, they defeated the Tuscans in battle not far from the Ticinus,
							and when they learnt that the country in which they had settled belonged
							to the Insubres, a name also borne by a canton of the Haedui, they
							accepted the omen of the place and built a city which they called
							Mediolanum.

Subsequently another body, consisting of the Cenomani, under the
							leadership of Elitovius, followed the track of the former and crossed
							the Alps by the same pass, with the goodwill of Bellovesus. They had
							their settlements where the cities of Brixia and Verona now stand.

The Libui came next and the Saluvii; they settled near the ancient tribe
							of the Ligurian Laevi, who lived about the Ticinus. Then the Boii and
							Lingones crossed the Pennine Alps, and as all the country between the Po
							and the Alps was occupied, they crossed the Po on rafts and expelled not
							only the Etruscans but the Umbrians as well.

They remained, however, north of the Apennines. Then the Senones, the
							last to come, occupied the country from the Utis to the Aesis. It was
							this last tribe, I find, that came to Clusium, and from there to Rome;

but it is uncertain whether they came alone or helped by contingents
							from all the Cisalpine peoples. The people
							of Clusium were appalled by this strange war, when they saw the numbers,
							the extraordinary appearance of the men, and the kind of weapons they
							used, and heard that the legions of Etruria had been often routed by
							them on both sides of the Po. Although they had no claim on Rome, either
							on the ground of alliance or friendly relations, unless it was that they
							had not defended their kinsmen at Veii against the Romans, they
							nevertheless sent ambassadors to ask the senate for assistance.

Active assistance they did not obtain. The three sons of M. Fabius
							Ambustus were sent as ambassadors to negotiate with the Gauls and warn
							them not to attack those from whom they had suffered no injury, who were
							allies and friends of Rome, and who, if circumstances compelled them,
							must be defended by the armed force of Rome.

They preferred that actual war should be avoided, and that they should
							make acquaintance with the Gauls, who were strangers to them, in peace
							rather than in arms.

A peaceable enough mission, had it not contained envoys of a violent
							temper, more like Gauls than Romans.

After they had delivered their instructions in the council of the Gauls,
							the following reply was given: “Although we are hearing the name
							of Romans for the first time, we believe nevertheless that you are brave
							men, since the Clusines are imploring your assistance in their time of
							danger.

Since you prefer to protect your allies against us by negotiation rather
							than by armed force, we on our side do not reject the peace you offer,
							on condition that the Clusines cede to us Gauls, who are in need of
							land, a portion of that territory which they possess to a greater extent
							than they can cultivate.

On any other conditions peace cannot be granted. We wish to receive
							their reply in your presence, and if territory is refused us we shall
							fight, whilst you are still here, that you may report to those at home
							how far the Gauls surpass all other men in courage.”

The Romans asked them what right they had to demand, under threat of
							war, territory from those who were its owners, and what business the
							Gauls had in Etruria. The haughty answer was returned that they carried
							their right in their weapons, and that everything belonged to the brave.
							Passions were kindled on both sides; they flew to arms and joined
							battle.

Thereupon, contrary to the law of nations, the envoys seized their
							weapons, for the Fates were already urging Rome to its ruin. The fact of
							three of the noblest and bravest Romans fighting in the front line of
							the Etruscan army could not be concealed, so conspicuous was the valour
							of the strangers.

And what was more, Q. Fabius rode forward at a Gaulish chieftain, who
							was impetuously charging right at the Etruscan standards, ran his spear
							through his side and slew him. Whilst he was in the act of despoiling
							the body the Gauls recognised him, and the word was passed through the
							whole army that it was a Roman ambassador.

Forgetting their rage against the Clusines, and breathing threats
							against the Romans, they sounded the retreat. Some were for an instant
							advance on Rome. The older men thought that ambassadors should first be
							sent to Rome to make a formal complaint and demand the surrender of the
							Fabii as satisfaction for the violation of the law of nations.

After the ambassadors had stated their case, the senate, whilst
							disapproving of the conduct of the Fabii, and recognising the justice of
							the demand which the barbarians made, were prevented by political
							interests from placing their convictions on record in the form of a
							decree in the case of men of such high rank.

In order, therefore, that the blame for any defeat which might be
							incurred in a war with the Gauls might not rest on them alone, they
							referred the consideration of the Gauls' demands to the people. Here
							personal popularity and influence had so much more weight that the very
							men whose punishment was under discussion were elected consular tribunes
							for the next year.

The Gauls regarded this procedure as it deserved to be regarded, namely,
							as an act of hostility, and after openly threatening war, returned to
							their people. The other consular tribunes elected with the Fabii were Q.
							Sulpicius Longus, Q. Servilius —for the fourth timeand P. Cornelius
							Maluginensis.

To such an extent does Fortune blind men's eyes when she will not have
							her threatened blows parried, that though such a weight of disaster was
							hanging over the State, no special steps were taken to avert it. In the
							wars against Fidenae and Veii and other neighbouring States, a Dictator
							had on many occasions been nominated as a last resource.

But now when an enemy, never seen or even heard of before, was rousing
							up war from ocean and the furthest corners of the world, no recourse was
							had to a Dictator, no extraordinary efforts were made.

Those men through whose recklessness the war had been brought about were
							in supreme commands as tribunes, and the levy they raised was not larger
							than had been usual in ordinary campaigns, they even made light of

the resorts as to the seriousness of the war. Meantime the Gauls learnt
							that their embassy had been treated with contempt, and that honours had
							actually been conferred upon men who had violated the law of nations.
							Burning with rage —as a nation they cannot control their passions —they
							seized their standards and hurriedly set out on their march.

At the sound of their tumult as they swept by, the affrighted cities
							flew to arms and the country folk took to flight. Horses and men, spread
							far and wide, covered an immense tract of country; wherever they went
							they made it understood by loud shouts that they were going to Rome.

But though they were preceded by rumours and by messages from Clusium,
							and then from one town after another, it was the swiftness of their
							approach that created most alarm in Rome.

An army hastily raised by a levy en masse 
							marched out to meet them. The two forces met hardly eleven miles from
							Rome, at a spot where the Alia, flowing in a very deep channel from the
							Crustuminian mountains, joins the river Tiber a little below the road to
							Crustumerium.

The whole country in front and around was now swarming with the enemy,
							who, being as a nation given to wild outbreaks, had by their hideous
							howls and discordant clamour filled everything with dreadful noise.

The consular tribunes had secured no position for their camp, had
							constructed no entrenchments behind which to retire, and had shown as
							much disregard of the gods as of the enemy, for they formed their order
							of battle without having obtained favourable auspices.

They extended their line on either wing to prevent their being
							outflanked, but even so they could not make their front equal to the
							enemy's, whilst by thus thinning their line they weakened the centre so
							that it could hardly keep in touch. On their right was a small eminence
							which they decided to hold with reserves, and this disposition, though
							it was the beginning of the panic and flight, proved to be the only
							means of safety to the fugitives.

For Bennus, the Gaulish chieftain, fearing some ruse in the scanty
							numbers of the enemy, and thinking that the rising ground was occupied
							in order that the reserves might attack the flank and rear of the Gauls
							while their front was engaged with the legions,

directed his attack upon the reserves, feeling quite certain that if he
							drove them from their position, his overwhelming numbers would give him
							an easy victory on the level ground. So not only Fortune but tactics
							also were on the side of the barbarians.

In the other army there was nothing to remind one of Romans either
							amongst the generals or the private soldiers. They were terrified, and
							all they thought about was flight, and so utterly had they lost their
							heads that a far greater number fled to Veii, a hostile city, though the
							Tiber lay in their way, than by the direct road to Rome, to their wives
							and children. For a short time the reserves were protected by their
							position.

In the rest of the army, no sooner was the battle-shout heard on their
							flank by those nearest to the reserves, and then by those at the other
							end of the line heard in their rear, than they fled, whole and unhurt,
							almost before they had seen their untried foe, without any attempt to
							fight or even to give back the battle-shout.

None were slain while actually fighting; they were cut down from behind
							whilst hindering one another's flight in a confused, struggling mass.

Along the bank of the Tiber, whither the whole of the left wing had
							fled, after throwing away their arms, there was great slaughter. Many
							who were unable to swim or were hampered by the weight of their
							cuirasses and other armour were sucked down by the current.

The greater number, however, reached Veii in safety, yet not only were
							no troops sent from there to defend the City, but not even was a
							messenger despatched to report the defeat to Rome.

All the men on the right wing, which had been stationed some distance
							from the river, and nearer to the foot of the hill, made for Rome and
							took refuge in the Citadel without even closing the City gates.

The Gauls for their part were almost dumb with astonishment at so sudden
							and extraordinary a victory. At first they did not dare to move from the
							spot, as though puzzled by what had happened, then they began to fear a
							surprise, at last they began to despoil the dead, and, as their custom
							is, to pile up the arms in heaps.

Finally, as no hostile movement was anywhere visible, they commenced
							their march and reached Rome shortly before sunset. The cavalry, who had
							ridden on in front, reported that the gates were not shut, there were no
							pickets on guard in front of them, no troops on the walls. This second
							surprise, as extraordinary as the previous one, held them back, and
							fearing a nocturnal conflict in the streets of an unknown City, they
							halted and bivouacked between Rome and the Anio.

Reconnoitring parties were sent out to examine the circuit of the walls
							and the other gates, and to ascertain what plans their enemies were
							forming in their desperate plight.

As for the Romans, since the greater number had fled from the field in
							the direction of Veii instead of Rome, it was universally believed that
							the only survivors were those who had found refuge in Rome, and the
							mourning for all who were lost, whether living or dead, filled the whole
							City with the cries of lamentation.

But the sounds of private grief were stifled by the general terror when
							it was announced that the enemy were at hand. Presently the yells and
							wild war-whoops of the squadrons were heard as they rode round the
							walls.

All the time until the next day's dawn the citizens were in such a state
							of suspense that they expected from moment to moment an attack on the
							City.

They expected it first when the enemy approached the walls, for they
							would have remained at the Alia had not this been their object; then
							just before sunset they thought the enemy would attack because there was
							not much daylight left; and then when night was fallen they imagined
							that the attack was delayed till then to create all the greater terror.

Finally, the approach of the next day deprived them of their senses; the
							entrance of the enemy's standards within the gates was the dreadful
							climax to fears that had known no respite. But all through that night
							and the following day the citizens afforded an utter contrast to those
							who had fled in such terror at the Alia.

Realising the hopelessness of attempting any defence of the City with
							the small numbers that were left, they decided that the men of military
							age and the able-bodied amongst the senators should, with their wives
							and children, withdraw into the Citadel and the Capitol, and after
							getting in stores of

arms and provisions, should from that fortified position defend their
							gods, themselves, and the great name of Rome.

The Flamen and priestesses of Vesta were to carry the sacred things of
							the State far away from the bloodshed and the fire, and their sacred
							cult should not be abandoned as long as a single person survived to
							observe it.

If only the Citadel and the Capitol, the abode of gods; if only the
							senate, the guiding mind of the national policy; if only the men of
							military age survived the impending ruin of the City, then the loss of
							the crowd of old men left behind in the City could be easily borne; in
							any case, they were certain to perish.

To reconcile the aged plebeians to their fate, the men who had been
							consuls and enjoyed triumphs gave out that they would meet their fate
							side by side with them, and not burden the scanty force of fighting men
							with bodies too weak to carry arms or defend their country.

Thus they sought to comfort one another —these aged men doomed to death.
							Then they turned with words of encouragement to the younger men on their
							way to the Citadel and Capitol, and solemnly commended to their strength
							and courage all that was left of the fortunes of a City which for 360
							years had been victorious in all its wars.

As those who were carrying with them all hope and succour finally
							separated from those who had resolved not to survive the fall of the
							City the misery of the scene was heightened by the distress of the
							women.

Their tears, their distracted running about as they followed first their
							husbands then their sons, their imploring appeals to them not to leave
							them to their fate, made up a picture in which no element of human
							misery was wanting.

A great many of them actually followed their sons into the Capitol, none
							forbidding or inviting them, for though to diminish the number of
							non-combatants would have helped the besieged, it was too inhuman a step
							to take.

Another crowd, mainly of plebeians, for whom there was not room on so
							small a hill or food enough in the scanty store of corn, poured out of
							the City in one continuous line and made for the Janiculum.

From there they dispersed, some over the country, others towards the
							neighbouring cities, without any leader or concerted action, each
							following his own aims, his own ideas and all despairing of the public
							safety. While all this was going on, the Flamen of Quirinus and the
							Vestal virgins,

without giving a thought to their own property, were deliberating as to
							which of the sacred things they ought to take with them, and which to
							leave behind, since they had not strength enough to carry all, and also
							what place would be the safest for their custody.

They thought best to conceal what they could not take in earthen jars
							and bury them under the chapel next to the Flamen's house, where
							spitting is now forbidden. The rest they divided amongst them and
							carried off, taking the road which leads by the Pons
								Sublicius to the Janiculum.

Whilst ascending that hill they were seen by L. Albinius, a Roman
							plebeian who with the rest of the crowd who were unfit for war was
							leaving the City. Even in that critical hour the distinction between
							sacred and profane was not forgotten.

He had his wife and children with him in a wagon, and it seemed to him
							an act of impiety for him and his family to be seen in a vehicle whilst
							the national priests should be trudging along on foot, bearing the
							sacred vessels of Rome. He ordered his wife and children to get down,
							put the virgins and their sacred burden in the wagon, and drove them to
							Caere, their destination.

After all the arrangements that circumstances permitted had been made for
							the defence of the Capitol, the old men returned to their respective
							homes and, fully prepared to die, awaited the coming of the enemy.

Those who had filled curule offices resolved to meet their fate wearing
							the insignia of their former rank and honour and distinctions. They put
							on the splendid dress which they wore when conducting the chariots of
							the gods or riding in triumph through the City, and thus arrayed, they
							seated themselves in their ivory chairs in front of their houses.

Some writers record that, led by M. Fabius, the Pontifex Maximus, they
							recited the solemn formula in which they devoted themselves

to death for their country and the Quirites. As the Gauls were refreshed
							by a night's rest after a battle which had at no point been seriously
							contested, and as they were not now taking the City by assault or storm,
							their entrance the next day was not marked by any signs of excitement or
							anger. Passing the Colline gate, which was standing open, they came to
							the Forum and gazed round at the temples and at the Citadel, which alone
							wore any appearance of war.

They left there a small body to guard against any attack from the
							Citadel or Capitol whilst they were scattered, and then they dispersed
							in quest of plunder through streets in which they did not meet a soul.
							Some poured in a body into all the houses near, others made for the most
							distant ones, expecting to find them untouched and full of spoils.

Appalled by the very desolation of the place and dreading lest some
							stratagem should surprise the stragglers, they returned to the
							neighbourhood of the Forum in close order.

The houses of the plebeians were barricaded, the halls of the patricians
							stood open, but they felt greater hesitation about entering the open
							houses than those which were closed.

They gazed with feelings of real veneration upon the men who were seated
							in the porticoes of their mansions, not only because of the superhuman
							magnificence of their apparel and their whole bearing and demeanour, but
							also because of the majestic expression of their countenances, wearing
							the very aspect of gods.

So they stood, gazing at them as if they were statues, till, as it is
							asserted, one of the patricians, M. Papirius, roused the passion of a
							Gaul, who began to stroke his beard —which in those days was universally
							worn long —by smiting him on the head with his ivory staff. He was the
							first to be killed, the others were butchered in their chairs.

After this slaughter of the magnates, no living being was thenceforth
							spared; the houses were rifled, and then set on fire.

Now —whether it was that the Gauls were not all animated by a passion for
							the destruction of the City, or whether their chiefs had decided on the
							one hand to present the spectacle of a few fires as a means of
							intimidating the besieged into surrender from a

desire to save their homes, and on the other, by abstaining from a
							universal conflagration, hold what remained of the City as a pledge by
							which to weaken their enemies' determination —certain it is that the
							fires were far from being so indiscriminate or so extensive as might be
							expected on the first day of a captured city.

As the Romans beheld from the Citadel the City filled with the enemy who
							were running about in all the streets, while some new disaster was
							constantly occurring, first in one quarter then in another, they could
							no longer control their eyes and ears, let alone their thoughts and
							feelings.

In whatever direction their attention was drawn by the shouts of the
							enemy, the shrieks of the women and boys, the roar of the flames, and
							the crash of houses falling in, thither they turned their eyes and minds
							as though set by Fortune to be spectators of their country's fall,
							powerless to protect anything left of all they possessed beyond their
							lives.

Above all others who have ever stood a siege were they to be pitied, cut
							off as they were from the land of their birth and seeing all that had
							been theirs in the possession of the enemy. The day which had been spent
							in

such misery was succeeded by a night not one whit more restful, this
							again by a day of anguish, there was not a single hour free from the
							sight of some ever fresh calamity.

And yet, though, weighed down and overwhelmed with so many misfortunes,
							they had watched everything laid low in flame and ruin, they did not for
							a moment relax their determination to defend by their courage the one
							spot still left to freedom, the hill which they held, however small and
							poor it might be.

At length, as this state of things went on day by day, they became as it
							were hardened to misery, and turned their thoughts from the
							circumstances round them to their arms and the sword in their right
							hand, which they gazed upon as the only things left to give them hope.

For some days the Gauls had
							been making useless war merely upon the houses of the City. Now that
							they saw nothing surviving amidst the ashes and ruin of the captured
							City except an armed foe whom all these disasters had failed to appal,
							and who would entertain no thought of surrender unless force were
							employed, they determined as a last resort to make an assault on the
							Citadel.

At daybreak the signal was given and the whole of their number formed up
							in the Forum. Raising their battle-shout and locking their shields
							together over their heads, they advanced. The Romans awaited the attack
							without excitement or fear, the detachments were strengthened to guard
							all the approaches, and in whatever direction they saw the enemy
							advancing, there they posted a picked body of men and allowed the enemy
							to climb up, for the steeper the ground they got on to, the easier they
							thought it would be to fling them down the slope.

About midway up the hill the Gauls halted; then from the higher ground,
							which of itself almost hurled them against the enemy, the Romans
							charged, and routed the Gauls with such loss and overthrow that they
							never again attempted that mode of fighting either with detachments or
							in full strength.

All hope, therefore, of forcing a passage by direct assault being laid
							aside, they made preparations for a blockade. Up to that time they had
							never thought of one; all the corn in the City had been destroyed in the
							conflagrations, whilst that in the fields around had been hastily
							carried off to Veii since the occupation of the City.

So the Gauls decided to divide their forces; one division was to invest
							the Citadel, the other to forage amongst the neighbouring States so that
							they could supply corn to those who were keeping up the investment.
								It was

Fortune herself who led the Gauls after they left the City to Ardea,
							that they might have some experience of Roman courage.

Camillus was living there as an exile, grieving more over his country's
							fortunes than his own, eating his heart out in reproaches to gods and
							men, asking in indignant wonder where the men were with whom he had
							taken Veii and Falerii; men whose valour in all their wars was greater
							even than their success.

Suddenly he heard that the Gaulish army was approaching, and that the
							Ardeates were engaged in anxious deliberation about it. He had generally
							avoided the council meetings, but now, seized with an inspiration
							nothing short of divine, he hastened to the assembled councillors and
							addressed them as follows:

“Men of Ardea! friends of old, and now my fellow-citizens —for
							this your kindness has granted, this my fortunes have compelled —let
							none of you imagine that I have come here in forgetfulness of my
								position. The force of circumstances and
							the common danger constrain every man to contribute what help he can to
							meet the crisis. When shall I ever be able to show my gratitude for all
							the obligations you have conferred if I fail in my duty now?

When shall I ever be of any use to you if not in war? It was by that
							that I held my position in my native City as having never known defeat;
							in times of peace my ungrateful countrymen banished me.

Now the chance is offered to you, men of Ardea, of proving your
							gratitude for all the kindness that Rome has shown you —you have not
							forgotten how great it is, nor need I bring it up against those who so
							well remember it —the chance of winning for your city a vast reputation
							for war at the expense of our common foe. Those who are coming here in
							loose and disorderly fashion are a race to whom nature has given bodies
							and minds distinguished by bulk rather than by resolution and endurance.

It is for this reason that they bring into every battle a terrifying
							appearance rather than real force. Take the disaster of Rome as a proof.

They captured the City because it lay open to them; a small force
							repelled them from the Citadel and Capitol. Already the irksomeness of
							an investment has proved too much for them, they are giving it up and
							wandering through the fields in straggling parties.

When they are gorged with food and the wine they drink so greedily, they
							throw themselves down like wild beasts, on the approach of night, in all
							directions by the streams, without entrenching themselves, or setting
							any outposts or pickets on guard. And now after their success they are
							more careless than ever.

If it is your intention to defend your walls and not to allow all this
							country to become a second Gaul, seize your arms and muster in force by
							the first watch and follow me to what will be a massacre, not a battle.
							If I do not deliver them, whilst enchained by sleep, into your hands to
							be slaughtered like cattle, I am ready to accept the same fate in Ardea
							which I met with in Rome.”

Friends and foes were alike
							persuaded that nowhere else was there at that time so great a master of
							war. After the council broke up they refreshed themselves and waited
							eagerly for the signal to be given. When it was given in the silence of
							the night they were at the gates ready for Camillus.

After marching no great distance from the city they came upon the camp
							of the Gauls, unprotected, as he had said, and carelessly open on every
							side.

They raised a tremendous shout and rushed in; there was no battle, it
							was everywhere sheer massacre; the Gauls, defenceless and dissolved in
							sleep, were butchered as they lay. Those in the furthest part of the
							camp, however, startled from their lairs, and not knowing whence or what
							the attack was, fled in terror, and some actually rushed, unawares,
							amongst their assailants.

A considerable number were carried into the neighbourhood of Antium,
							where they were surrounded by the townsmen. A similar slaughter of
							Etruscans took place in the district of Veii. So far were these people
							from feeling sympathy with a City which for almost four centuries had
							been their neighbour, and was now crushed by an enemy never seen or
							heard of before, that they chose that time for making forays into Roman
							territory, and after loading themselves with plunder, intended to attack
							Veii, the bulwark and only surviving hope of the Roman name.

The Roman soldiers at Veii had seen them dispersed through the fields,
							and afterwards, with their forces collected, driving their booty in
							front of them.

Their first feelings were those of despair, then indignation and rage
							took possession of them. “Are even the Etruscans,” they
							exclaimed, “from whom we have diverted the arms of Gaul on to
							ourselves, to find amusement in our disasters?”

With difficulty they restrained themselves from attacking them.
							Caedicius, a centurion whom they had placed in command, induced them to
							defer operations till nightfall.

The only thing lacking was a commander like Camillus, in all other
							respects the ordering of the attack and the success achieved were the
							same as if he had been present. Not content with this, they made some
							prisoners who had survived the night's massacre act as guides, and, led
							by them, surprised another body of Tuscans at the salt works and
							inflicted a still greater loss upon them. Exultant at this double
							victory they returned to Veii.

During these days there was little
							going on in Rome; the investment was maintained for the most part with
							great slackness; both sides were keeping quiet, the Gauls being mainly
							intent on preventing any of the enemy from slipping through their lines.
							Suddenly a Roman warrior drew upon himself the admiration of foes and
							friends alike.

The Fabian house had an annual sacrifice on the Quirinal, and C. Fabius
							Dorsuo, wearing his toga in the “Gabine cincture,” and bearing in his
							hands the sacred vessels, came down from the Capitol, passed through the
							middle of the hostile pickets, unmoved by either challenge or threat,
							and reached the Quirinal.

There he duly performed all the solemn rites and returned with the same
							composed expression and gait, feeling sure of the divine blessing, since
							not even the fear of death had made him neglect the worship of the gods;
							finally he re-entered the Capitol and rejoined his comrades. Either the
							Gauls were stupefied at his extraordinary boldness, or else they were
							restrained by religious feelings, for as a nation they are by no means
							inattentive to the claims of religion. At Veii there was a steady
							accession of strength as well as courage.

Not only were the Romans who had been dispersed by the defeat and the
							capture of the City gathering there, but volunteers from Latium also
							flocked to the place that they might be in for a share of the booty. The
							time now seemed ripe for the recovery of their native City out of the
							hands of the enemy. But though the body was strong it lacked a head.

The very place reminded men of Camillus, the majority of the soldiers
							had fought successfully under his auspices and leadership, and Caedicius
							declared that he would give neither gods nor men any pretext for
							terminating his command;

he would rather himself, remembering his subordinate rank, ask for a
							commander-in-chief. It was decided by general consent that Camillus
							should be invited from Ardea, but the senate was to be consulted first;
							to such an extent was everything regulated by reverence for law;

the proper distinctions of things were observed, even though the things
							themselves were almost lost. Frightful risk would have to be incurred in
							passing through the enemies' outposts. Pontius Cominius, a fine soldier,
							offered himself for the task.

Supporting himself on a cork float, he was carried down the Tiber to the
							City. Selecting the nearest way from the bank of the river, he scaled a
							precipitous rock which, owing to its steepness, the enemy had left
							unguarded, and found his way into the Capitol.

On being brought before the supreme magistrates he delivered his
							instructions from the army.

After receiving the decree of the senate, which was to the effect that
							after being recalled from exile by the comitia
								curiata , Camillus should be forthwith nominated Dictator
							by order of the people, and the soldiers should have the commander they
							wanted, the messenger returned by the same route and made the best of
							his way to Veii. A deputation was sent to Ardea to conduct Camillus to
							Veii.

The law was passed in the comitia curiata 
							annulling his banishment and nominating him Dictator, and it is, I
							think, more likely that he did not start from Ardea until he learnt that
							this law had been passed, because he could not change his domicile
							without the sanction of the people, nor could he take the auspices in
							the name of the army until he had been duly nominated Dictator.

While these
							proceedings were taking place at Veii, the Citadel and Capitol of Rome
							were in imminent

danger. The Gauls had either noticed the footprints left by the
							messenger from Veii, or had themselves discovered a comparatively easy
							ascent up the cliff to the temple of Carmentis. Choosing a night when
							there was a faint glimmer of light, they sent an unarmed man in advance
							to try the road; then handing one another their arms where the path was
							difficult, and supporting each other or dragging each other up as the
							ground required, they finally reached the

summit. So silent had their movements been that not only were they
							unnoticed by the sentinels, but they did not even wake the dogs, an
							animal peculiarly sensitive to nocturnal

sounds. But they did not escape the notice of the geese, which were
							sacred to Juno and had been left untouched in spite of the extremely
							scanty supply of food. This proved the safety of the garrison, for their
							clamour and the noise of their wings aroused M. Manlius, the
							distinguished soldier, who had been consul three years before. He
							snatched up his weapons and ran to call the rest to arms, and while the
							rest hung back he struck with the boss of his shield a Gaul who had got
							a foothold on the summit and knocked him

down. He fell on those behind and upset them, and Manlius slew others
							who had laid aside their weapons and were clinging to the rocks with
							their hands. By this time others had joined him, and they began to
							dislodge the enemy with volleys of stones and javelins till the whole
							body fell helplessly down to the

bottom. When the uproar had died away, the remainder of the night was
							given to sleep, as far as was possible under such disturbing
							circumstances, whilst their peril, though past, still made them

anxious. At daybreak the soldiers were summoned by sound of trumpet to a
							council in the presence of the tribunes, when the due rewards for good
							conduct and for bad would be

awarded. First, Manlius was commended for his bravery, and rewarded not
							by the tribunes alone but by the soldiers as a body, for every man
							brought to him at his quarters, which were in the Citadel, half a pound
							of meal and a quarter of a pint of wine. This does not sound much, but
							the scarcity made it an overwhelming proof of the affection felt for
							him, since each stinted himself of food and contributed in honour of
							that one man what had to be taken from his necessaries of

life. Next, the sentinels who had been on duty at the spot where the
							enemy had climbed up without their noticing it were called forward. Q.
							Sulpicius, the consular tribune, declared that he should punish them all
							by martial

law. He was, however, deterred from this course by the shouts of the
							soldiers, who all agreed in throwing the blame upon one man. As there
							was no doubt of his guilt, he was amidst general approval flung from the
							top of the

cliff. A stricter watch was now kept on both sides; by the Gauls because
							it had become known that messengers were passing between Rome and Veii;
							by the Romans, who had not forgotten the danger they were in that night.

But the greatest of all the evils
							arising from the siege and the war was the famine which began to afflict
							both armies, whilst the Gauls were also visited with pestilence.

They had their camp on low-lying ground between the hills, which had
							been scorched by the fires and was full of malaria, and the least breath
							of wind raised not dust only but ashes.

Accustomed as a nation to wet and cold, they could not stand this at
							all, and tortured as they were by heat and suffocation, disease became
							rife among them, and they died off like sheep. They soon grew weary of
							burying their dead singly, so they piled the bodies into heaps and
							burned them indiscriminately, and made the locality notorious; it was
							afterwards known as the Busta Gallica .

Subsequently a truce was made with the Romans, and with the sanction of
							the commanders, the soldiers held conversations with each other. The
							Gauls were continually bringing up the famine and calling upon them to
							yield to necessity and surrender. To remove this impression it is said
							that bread was thrown in many places from the Capitol into the enemies'
							pickets.

But soon the famine could neither be concealed nor endured any longer.
							So, at the very time that the Dictator was raising his own levy at
							Ardea, and ordering his Master of the Horse, L. Valerius, to withdraw
							his army from Veii, and making preparations for a sufficient force with
							which to attack

the enemy on equal terms, the army of the Capitol, worn out with
							incessant duty, but still superior to all human ills, had nature not
							made famine alone insuperable by them, were day by day eagerly watching
							for signs of any help from the Dictator.

At last not only food but hope failed them. Whenever the sentinels went
							on duty, their feeble frames almost crushed by the weight of their
							armour, the army insisted that they should either surrender or purchase
							their ransom on the best terms they could, for the Gauls were throwing
							out unmistakable hints that they could be induced to abandon the siege
							for a moderate consideration.

A meeting of the senate was now held, and the consular tribunes were
							empowered to make terms. A conference took place between Q. Sulpicius,
							the consular tribune, and Brennus, the Gaulish chieftain, and an
							agreement was arrived at by which 1000 lbs. of gold was fixed as the
							ransom of a people destined ere long to rule the world.

This humiliation was great enough as it was, but it was aggravated by
							the despicable meanness of the Gauls, who produced unjust weights, and
							when the tribune protested, the insolent Gaul threw his sword into the
							scale, with an exclamation intolerable to Roman ears, “ Woe
								to the vanquished! ”

But gods and men alike prevented the Romans from
							living as a ransomed people. By a dispensation of Fortune it came about
							that before the infamous ransom was completed and all the gold weighed
							out, whilst the dispute was still going on, the Dictator appeared on the
							scene and ordered the gold to be carried away and the Gauls to move off.

As they declined to do so, and protested that a definite compact had
							been made, he informed them that when he was once appointed Dictator no
							compact was valid which was made by an inferior magistrate without his
							sanction.

He then warned the Gauls to prepare for battle, and ordered his men to
							pile their baggage into a heap, get their weapons ready, and win their
							country back by steel, not by gold. They must keep before their eyes the
							temples of the gods, their wives and children, and their country's soil,
							disfigured by the ravages of war —everything, in a word, which it was
							their duty to defend, to recover or to avenge.

He then drew up his men in the best formation that the nature of the
							ground, naturally uneven and now half burnt, admitted, and made every
							provision that his military skill suggested for securing the advantage
							of position and movement for his men. The Gauls, alarmed at the turn
							things had taken, seized their weapons and rushed upon the Romans with
							more rage than method.

Fortune had now turned, divine aid and human skill were on the side of
							Rome. At the very first encounter the Gauls were routed as easily as
							they had conquered at the Alia.

In a second and more sustained battle at the eighth milestone on the
							road to Gabii, where they had rallied from their flight, they were again
							defeated under the generalship and auspices of Camillus.

Here the carnage was complete; the camp was taken, and not a single man
							was left to carry tidings of the disaster. After thus recovering his
							country from the enemy, the Dictator returned in triumph to the City,
							and amongst the homely jests which soldiers are wont to bandy, he was
							called in no idle words of praise, “A Romulus,”
							“The Father of his country,” “The Second Founder of
							the City.” He had saved his country in war, and now that peace
							was restored, he proved, beyond all doubt, to be its saviour again, when
							he prevented the migration to Veii.

The tribunes of the plebs were urging this course more strongly than
							ever now that the City was burnt, and the plebs were themselves more in
							favour of it.

This movement and the pressing appeal which the senate made to him not
							to abandon the republic while the position of affairs was so doubtful,
							determined him not to lay down his dictatorship after his triumph.

As he was
							most scrupulous in discharging religious obligations, the very first
							measures he introduced into the senate were those relating to the
							immortal

gods. He got the senate to pass a resolution containing the following
							provisions: All the temples, so far as they had been in possession of
							the enemy, were to be restored and purified, and their boundaries marked
							out afresh; the ceremonies of purification were to be ascertained from
							the sacred books by the

duumvirs. Friendly relations as between State and State were to be
							established with the people of Caere, because they had sheltered the
							sacred treasures of Rome and her priests, and by this kindly act had
							prevented any interruption to the divine

worship. Capitoline Games were to be instituted, because Jupiter Optimus
							Maximus had protected his dwelling-place and the Citadel of Rome in the
							time of danger, and the Dictator was to form a college of priests for
							that object from amongst those who were living on the Capitol and in the

Citadel. Mention was also made of offering propitiation for the neglect
							of the nocturnal Voice which was heard announcing disaster before the
							war began, and orders were given for a temple to be built in
							the Nova Via to AIUS

LOCUTIUS . The gold which had been rescued
							from the Gauls and that which during the confusion had been brought from
							the other temples, had been collected in the temple of Jupiter. As no
							one remembered what proportion ought to be returned to the other
							temples, the whole was declared sacred, and ordered to be deposited
							under the throne of

Jupiter. The religious feeling of the citizens had already been shown in
							the fact that when there was not sufficient gold in the treasury to make
							up the sum agreed upon with the Gauls, they accepted the contribution of
							the matrons, to avoid touching that which was sacred. The matrons
							received public thanks, and the distinction was conferred upon them of
							having funeral orations pronounced over them as in the case of

men. It was not till after those matters were disposed of which
							concerned the gods, and which therefore were within the province of the
							senate, that Camillus' attention was drawn to the tribunes, who were
							making incessant harangues to persuade the plebs to leave the ruins and
							migrate to Veii, which was ready for them. At last he went up to the
							Assembly, followed by the whole of the senate, and delivered the
							following speech: —

“So painful to
							me, Quirites, are controversies with the tribunes of the plebs, that all
							the time I lived at Ardea my one consolation in my bitter exile was that
							I was far removed from these conflicts. As far as they are concerned I
							would never have returned even if you recalled me by a thousand
							senatorial decrees and popular votes.

And now that I am returned, it was not change of mind on my part but
							change of fortune on yours that compelled me. The question at stake was
							whether my country was to remain unshaken in her seat, not whether I was
							to be in my country at any cost. Even now I would gladly remain quiet
							and hold my peace, if I were not fighting another battle for my country.
							To be wanting to her, as long as life shall last, would be for other men
							a disgrace, for Camillus a downright sin.

Why did we win her back, why did we, when she was beset by foes, deliver
							her from their hands, if, now that she is recovered, we desert her?
							Whilst the Gauls were victorious and the whole of the City in their
							power, the gods and men of Rome still held, still dwelt in, the Capitol
							and the Citadel. And now that the Romans are victorious and the City
							recovered, are the Citadel and Capitol to be abandoned? Shall our good
							fortune inflict greater desolation on this City than our evil fortune
							wrought?

Even had there been no religious institutions established when the City
							was founded and passed down from hand to hand, still, so clearly has
							Providence been working in the affairs of Rome at this time, that I for
							one would suppose that all neglect of divine worship has been banished
							from human life.

Look at the alternations of prosperity and adversity during these late
							years; you will find that all went well with us when we followed the
							divine guidance, and all was disastrous when we neglected it.

Take first of all the war with Veii. For what a number of years and with
							what immense exertions it was carried on! It did not come to an end
							before the water was drawn off from the Alban Lake at the bidding of the
							gods.

What, again, of this unparalleled disaster to our City? Did it burst
							upon us before the Voice sent from heaven announcing the approach of the
							Gauls was treated with contempt, before the law of nations had been
							outraged by our ambassadors, before we had, in the same irreligious
							spirit, condoned that outrage when we ought to have punished it?

And so it was that, defeated, captured, ransomed, we received such
							punishment at the hands of gods and men that we were a lesson to the
							whole world. Then, in our adversity, we bethought us of our religious
							duties.

We fled to the gods in the Capitol, to the seat of Jupiter Optimus
							Maximus; amidst the ruin of all that we possessed we concealed some of
							the sacred treasures in the earth, the rest we carried out of the
							enemies' sight to neighbouring cities; abandoned as we were by gods and
							men, we still did not intermit the divine worship.

It is because we acted thus that they have restored to us our native
							City, and victory and the renown in war which we had lost; but against
							the enemy, who, blinded by avarice, broke treaty and troth in the
							weighing of the gold, they have launched terror and rout and
							death.”

“When you see such momentous consequences for human affairs
							flowing from the worship or the neglect of the gods, do you not realise,
							Quirites, how great a sin we are meditating whilst hardly yet emerging
							from the shipwreck caused by our former guilt and fall?

We possess a City which was founded with the divine approval as revealed
							in auguries and auspices; in it there is not a spot which is not full of
							religious associations and the presence of a god; the regular sacrifices
							have their appointed places no less than they have their appointed days.

Are you, Quirites, going to desert all these gods —those whom the State
							honours, those whom you worship, each at your own altars? How far does
							your action come up to that of the glorious youth C. Fabius, during the
							siege, which was watched by the enemy with no less admiration than by
							you, when he went down from the Citadel through the missiles of the
							Gauls and celebrated the appointed sacrifice of his house on the
							Quirinal?

Whilst the sacred rites of the patrician houses are not interrupted even
							in time of war, are you content to see the State offices of religion and
							the gods of Rome abandoned in a time of peace?

Are the Pontiffs and Flamens to be more neglectful of their public
							functions than a private individual is of the religious obligations of
							his house?” “Some one may possibly reply that we can
							either discharge these duties at Veii or send priests to discharge them
							here.

But neither of these things can be done if the rites are to be duly
							performed. Not to mention all the ceremonies or all the deities
							individually, where else, I would ask, but in the Capitol can the couch
							of Jupiter be prepared on the day of his festal banquet?

What need is there for me to speak about the perpetual fire of Vesta,
							and the Image —the pledge of our dominion — which is in the safe keeping
							of her temple? And you, Mars Gradivus, and you, Father Quirinus, what
							need to speak of your sacred shields? Is it your wish that all these
							holy things, coeval with the City, some of even greater antiquity,
							should be abandoned and left on unhallowed soil?

See, too, how great the difference between us and our ancestors. They
							left to us certain rites and ceremonies which we can only duly perform
							on the Alban Mount or at Lavinium. If it was a matter of religion that
							these rites should not be transferred from cities which belonged to an
							enemy to us at Rome, shall we transfer them from here to the enemies'
							city, Veii, without offending heaven?

Call to mind, I pray you, how often ceremonies are repeated, because
							through negligence or accident some detail of the ancestral ritual has
							been omitted. What remedy was there for the republic, when crippled by
							the war with Veii after the portent of the Alban Lake, except the
							revival of sacred rites and the taking of fresh auspices?

And more than that, as though after all we reverenced the ancient
							faiths, we have transferred foreign deities to Rome, and have
							established new ones. Queen Juno was lately carried from Veii and
							dedicated on the Aventine, and how splendidly that day was celebrated
							through the grand enthusiasm of our matrons!

We ordered a temple to be built to Aius Locutius because of the divine
							Voice which was heard in the Via Nova. We have added to our annual
							festivals the Capitoline Games, and on the authority of the senate we
							have founded a college of priests to superintend them.

What necessity was there for all these undertakings if we intended to
							leave the City of Rome at the same time as the Gauls, if it was not of
							our own free will that we remained in the Capitol through all those
							months, but the fear of the enemy which shut us up there?”
							“We are speaking about the temples and the sacred rites and
							ceremonies.

But what, pray, about the priests? Do you not realise what a heinous sin
							will be committed? For the Vestals surely there is only that one abode,
							from which nothing has ever removed them but the capture of the City.
							The Flamen of Jupiter is forbidden by divine law to stay a single night
							outside the City.

Are you going to make these functionaries priests of Veii instead of
							priests of Rome? Will thy Vestals desert thee, Vesta? Is the Flamen to
							bring fresh guilt upon himself and the State for every night he sojourns
							abroad?

Think of the other proceedings which, after the auspices have been duly
							taken, we conduct almost entirely within the City boundaries-to what
							oblivion, to what neglect are we consigning them!

The Assembly of the Curies, which confers the supreme command, the
							Assembly of the Centuries, in which you elect the consuls and consular
							tribunes —where can they be held and the auspices taken except where
							they are wont to be held?

Shall we transfer these to Veii, or are the people, when an Assembly is
							to be held, to meet at vast inconvenience in this City after it has been
							deserted by gods and men?”

“But, you may say, it is obvious that the whole City is polluted,
							and no expiatory sacrifices can purify it; circumstances themselves
							compel us to quit a City devastated by fire, and all in ruins, and
							migrate to Veii where everything is untouched. We must not distress the
							poverty-stricken plebs by building here.

I fancy, however, Quirites, that it is evident to you, without my
							telling you, that this suggestion is a plausible excuse rather than a
							true reason. You remember how this same question of migrating to Veii
							was mooted before the Gauls came, whilst public and private buildings
							were still safe and the City stood secure. And mark you, tribunes, how
							widely my view differs from yours.

Even supposing it ought not to have been done then, you think that at
							any rate it ought to be done now, whereas —do not express surprise at
							what I say before you have grasped its purport —I am of opinion that
							even had it been right to migrate then when the City was wholly unhurt,
							we ought not to abandon these ruins now.

For at that time the reason for our migrating to a captured city would
							have been a victory glorious for us and for our posterity, but now this
							migration would be glorious for the Gauls, but for us shame and
							bitterness.

For we shall be thought not to have left our native City as victors, but
							to have lost it because we were vanquished; it will look as though it
							was the flight at the Alia, the capture of the City, the beleaguering of
							the Capitol, which had laid upon us the necessity of deserting our
							household gods and dooming ourselves to banishment from a place which we
							were powerless to defend.

Was it possible for Gauls to overthrow Rome and shall it be deemed
							impossible for Romans to restore it?” “What more remains
							except for them to come again with fresh forces —we all know that their
							numbers surpass belief —and elect to live in this City which they
							captured, and you abandoned, and for you to allow them to do so?

Why, if it were not Gauls who were doing this, but your old enemies, the
							Aequi and Volscians, who migrated to Rome, would you wish them to be
							Romans and you Veientines? Or would you rather that this were a desert
							of your own than the city of your foes? I do not see what could be more
							infamous.” Are you prepared to allow this crime and endure this
							disgrace because of the trouble of building?

If no better or more spacious dwelling could be put up in the whole City
							of Rome than that hut of our Founder, would it not be better to live in
							huts after the manner of herdsmen and peasants, surrounded by our
							temples and our gods, than to go forth as a nation of exiles?

Our ancestors, shepherds and refugees, built a new City in a few years,
							when there was nothing in these parts but forests and swamps; are we
							shirking the labour of rebuilding what has been burnt, though the
							Citadel and Capitol are intact, and the temples of the gods still stand?
							What we would each have done in our own case, had our houses caught
							fire, are we as a community refusing to do now that the City has been
							burnt?

“Well now, suppose that either through crime or accident a fire
							broke out in Veii, and the flames, as is quite possible, fanned by the
							wind, consumed a great part of the city, are we going to look out for
							Fidenae or Gabii, or any other city you please, as a place to which to
							migrate?

Has our native soil, this land we call our motherland, so slight a hold
							upon us? Does our love for our country cling only to its buildings?

Unpleasant as it is to recall my sufferings, still more your injustice,
							I will nevertheless confess to you that whenever I thought of my native
							City all these things came into my mind —the hills, the plains, the
							Tiber, this landscape so familiar to me, this sky beneath which I was
							born and bred —and I pray that they may now move you by the affection
							they inspire to remain in your City, rather than that, after you have
							abandoned it, they should make you pine with home-sickness.

Not without good reason did gods and men choose this spot as the site of
							a City, with its bracing hills, its commodious river, by means of which
							the produce of inland countries may be brought down and over-sea
							supplies obtained; a sea near enough for all useful purposes, but not so
							near as to be exposed to danger from foreign fleets; a district in the
							very centre of Italy —in a word, a position singularly adapted by nature
							for the expansion of a city.

The mere size of so young a City is a proof of this. This is the 365th
							year of the City, Quirites, yet in all the wars you have for so long
							been carrying on amongst all those ancient nations —not to mention the
							separate cities —the Volscians in conjunction with the Aequi and all
							their strongly fortified towns, the whole of Etruria, so powerful by
							land and sea, and stretching across Italy from sea to sea —none have
							proved a match for you in war. This has hitherto been your Fortune; what
							sense can there be —perish the thought!

—in making trial of another Fortune? Even granting that your valour can
							pass over to another spot, certainly the good Fortune of this place
							cannot be transferred.

Here is the Capitol where in the old days a human head was found, and
							this was declared to be an omen, for in that place would be fixed the
							head and supreme sovereign power of the world. Here it was that whilst
							the Capitol was being cleared with augural rites, Juventas and Terminus,
							to the great delight of your fathers, would not allow themselves to be
							moved. Here is the Fire of Vesta; here are the Shields sent down from
							heaven; here are all the gods, who, if you remain, will be gracious to
							you.”

It is stated that this speech of
							Camillus made a profound impression, particularly that part of it which
							appealed to the religious feelings. But whilst the issue was still
							uncertain, a sentence, opportunely uttered, decided the matter. The
							senate, shortly afterwards, were discussing the question in the Curia Hostilia , and some cohorts returning from
							guard happened to be marching through the Forum. They had just entered
							the Comitium , when the centurion shouted,
							“Halt, standard-bearer! Plant the standard; it will be best for
							us to stop here.”

On hearing these words, the senators rushed out of the Senate-house,
							exclaiming that they welcomed the omen, and the people crowding round
							them gave an emphatic approval. The proposed measure for migration was
							dropped, and they began to rebuild the City in a haphazard way.

Tiling was provided at the public expense; every one was given the right
							to cut stone and timber where he pleased, after giving security that the
							building should be completed within the year.

In their haste, they took no trouble to plan out straight streets; as
							all distinctions of ownership in the soil were lost, they built on any
							ground that happened to be vacant.

That is the reason why the old sewers, which originally were carried
							under public ground, now run everywhere under private houses, and why
							the conformation of the City resembles one casually built upon by
							settlers rather than one regularly planned out.

THE history of the Romans from the foundation of the City to its capture,
							first under kings, then under consuls, dictators, decemvirs, and
							consular tribunes, the record of foreign wars and domestic dissensions,
							has been set forth in the five preceding books.

The subject matter is enveloped in obscurity; partly from its great
							antiquity, like remote objects which are hardly discernible through the
							vastness of the distance; partly owing to the fact that written records,
							which form the only trust- worthy memorials of events, were in those
							times few and scanty, and even what did exist in the pontifical
							commentaries and public and private archives nearly all perished in the
							conflagra- tion of the City.

Starting from the second beginnings of the clty which, like a plant cut
							down to its roots, sprang up in greater beauty and fruitfulness, the
							details of its history both civil and military will now be exhibited in
							their proper order, with greater clearness

and certainty. At first the State was supported by the same prop by
							which it had been raised from the ground, M. Furius, its chief, and he
							was not allowed to resign office until a year had

elapsed. It was decided that the consular tribunes, during whose rule the
							capture of the City had taken place, should not hold the elections for
							the ensuing year; matters reverted to an inter- regnum.

The citizens were taken up with the pressing and laborious task of
							rebuilding their City, and it was during this interval that Q. Fabius,
							immediately on laying down his office, was indicted by Cn. Marcius, a
							tribune of the plebs, on the ground that after being sent as an envoy to
							the Gauls to speak on behalf of the Clusians, he had, contrary to the
							law of nations, fought against them.

He was saved from the threatened pro- ceedings by death; a death so
							opportune that many people believed it to be a voluntary one. The
							interregnum began with P. Cornelius Scipio as the first interrex; he was
							followed by M. Furius Camillus, under whom the election of military
							tribunes was conducted.

Those elected were L. Valerius Publicola, for the second time, L.
							Verginius, P. Cornelius, A. Manlius, L. Aemilius, and L. Postumius.

. —They entered upon their office
							immediately, and their very first case was to submit to the senate
							measures affecting religion. Orders were made that in the first place
							search should be made for the treaties and laws — these latter including
							those of the Twelve Tables and some belonging to the time of the kings
							—as far as they were still extant.

Some were made accessible to the public, but those which dealt with
							divine worship were kept secret by the pontiff mainly in order that the
							people might remain dependent on them for religious guidance. Then they
							entered upon a discussion of the “days of prohibition.”
								 The

18th of July was marked by a double disaster, for on that day the Fabii
							were annihilated at the Cremera, and in after years the battle at the
							Alia which involved the ruin of the City was lost on the same day. From
							the latter disaster the day was called “the day of the
							Alia,” and was observed by a religious abstinence from all public
							and private business.

The consular tribune Sulpicius had not offered acceptable sacrifices on
							July 16 (the day after the Ides), and without having secured the good
							will of the gods the Roman army was exposed to the enemy two days later.
							Some think that it was for this reason that on the day after the Ides in
							each month all religious functions were ordered to be suspended, and
							hence it became the custom to observe the second and the middle days of
							the month in the same way.

. —They were not, however, long left
							undisturbed whilst thus considering the best means of restoring the
							commonwealth after its grievous fall.

On the one side, the Volscians, their ancient foes, had taken up arms in
							the determination to wipe out the name of Rome; on the other side,
							traders were bringing in reports of an assembly at the fane of Voltumna,
							where the leading men from all the Etruscan cantons were forming a
							hostile league.

Still further alarm was created by the defection of the Latins and
							Hernicans.

After the battle of Lake Regillus these nations had never wavered for
							100 years in their loyal friendship with Rome. As so many dangers were
							threatening on all sides and it became evident the name of Rome was not
							only held in hatred by her foes, but regarded with contempt by her
							allies, the senate decided that the State should be defended under

the auspices of the man by whom it had been recovered, and that M.
							Furius Camillus should be nominated Dictator.

He nominated as his Master of the Horse, C. Servilius Ahala, and after
							closing the law courts and suspending all business he proceeded to
							enroll all the men of military age.

Those of the “seniors” who still possessed some vigour
							were placed in separate centuries after they had taken the military
							oath. When he had completed the enrollment and equipment of the army he
							formed it into three divisions. One he stationed in the Veientine
							territory fronting Etruria.

The second was ordered to form an entrenched camp to cover the City; A.
							Manlius, as military tribune, was in command of this division, whilst L.
							Aemilius in a similar capacity directed the movement against the
							Etruscans. The third division he led in person against the Volscians and
							advanced to attack their encampment at a place called Ad Mecium, not far
							from Lanuvium.

They had gone to war in a feeling of contempt for their enemy as they
							believed that almost all the Roman fighting men had been annihilated by
							the Gauls, but when they heard that Camillus was in command they were
							filled with such alarm that they raised a rampart round them and
							barricaded the

rampart with trees piled up round it to prevent the enemy from
							penetrating their lines at any point. As soon as he became aware of this
							Camillus ordered fire to be thrown on the barricade.

The wind happened to be blowing strongly towards the enemy, and so it
							not only opened up a way through the fire, but by driving the flames
							into the camp it produced such consternation amongst the defenders, with
							the steam and smoke and crackling of the green wood as it burnt, that
							the Roman soldiers found less difficulty in surmounting the rampart and
							forcing the camp than in crossing the burnt barricade.

The enemy were routed and cut to pieces. After the capture of the camp
							the Dictator gave the booty to the soldiers; an act all the more welcome
							to them as they did not expect it from a general by no means given to
							generosity.

In the pursuit he ravaged the length and breadth of the Volscian
							territory, and at last after seventy years of war forced them to
							surrender.

From his conquest of the Volscians he marched across to the Aequi who
							were also preparing for war, surprised their army at Bolae, and in the
							first assault captured not only their camp but their city.

While these successes were occurring in the field of
							operations where Camillus was the life and soul of the Roman cause, in
							another direction a terrible danger was threatening.

Nearly the whole of Etruria was in arms and was besieging Sutrium, a
							city in alliance with Rome. Their envoys approached the senate with a
							request for help in their desperate condition, and the senate passed a
							decree that the Dictator should render assistance to the Sutrines as
							soon as he possibly could.

Their hopes were deferred, and as the circumstances of the besieged were
							such as to admit of no longer delay —their scanty numbers being worn out
							with toil, want of sleep, and fighting, which always fell upon the same
							persons —they made a conditional surrender of their city.

As the mournful procession set forth, leaving their hearths and homes,
							without arms and with only one garment apiece, Camillus and his army
							happened just at that moment to appear on the scene. The grief-stricken
							crowd flung themselves at his feet; the appeals of their leaders, wrung
							from them by dire necessity, were drowned by the weeping of the women
							and children who were being dragged along as companions in exile .
							Camillus bade the Sutrines spare their laments, it was to the Etruscans
							that he was bringing grief and tears.

He then gave orders for the baggage to be deposited, and the Sutrines to
							remain where they were, and leaving a small detachment on guard ordered
							his men to follow him with only their arms. With his disencumbered army
							he marched to Sutrium, and found, as he expected, everything in
							disorder, as usual after a success, the gates open and unguarded, and
							the victorious enemy dispersed through the streets carrying plunder away
							from the houses.

Sutrium was captured accordingly twice in the same day; the lately
							victorious Etruscans were everywhere massacred by their new enemies; no
							time was allowed them either to concentrate their strength or seize
							their weapons.

As they tried each to make their way to the gates on the chance of
							escaping to the open country they found them closed; this was the first
							thing the Dictator ordered to be done.

Then some got possession of their arms, others who happened to be armed
							when the tumult surprised them called their comrades together to make a
							stand. The despair of the enemy would have led to a fierce struggle had
							not criers been despatched throughout the city to order all to lay down
							their arms and those without arms to be spared; none were to be injured
							unless found in arms.

Those who had deter- mined in their extremity to fight to the end, now
							that hopes of life were offered them threw away their arms in all
							directions, and, since Fortune had made this the safer course, gave
							themselves as unarmed men to the enemy.

Owing to their great number, they were distributed in various places for
							safe keeping. Before nightfall the town was given back to the Sutrines
							uninjured and untouched by all the ruin of war, since it had not been
							taken by storm but surrendered on conditions.

. —Camillus returned in triumphal procession to
							the City, after having been victorious in three simultaneous wars.

By far the greatest number of the prisoners who were led before his
							chariot belonged to the Etruscans. They were publicly sold, and so much
							was realized that after the matrons had been repaid for their gold , three golden bowls were made from what was
							left.

These were inscribed with the name of Camillus, and it is generally
							believed that previous to the fire in the Capitol they
							were deposited in the chapel of Jupiter before the feet of Juno.

During the year, those of the inhabitants of Veii, Capenae, and Fidenae
							who had gone over to the Romans whilst these wars were going on, were
							admitted into full citizenship and received an allotment of land.

The senate passed a resolution recalling those who had repaired to Veii
							and taken possession of the empty houses there to avoid the labour of
							rebuilding. At first they protested and took no notice of the order;
							then a day was fixed, and those who had not returned by that date were
							threatened with outlawry. This step made each man fear for himself, and
							from being united in defiance they now showed individual obedience.

Rome was growing in population, and buildings were rising up in every
							part of it The State gave financial assistance; the aediles urged on the
							work as though it were a State undertaking; the individual citizens were
							in a hurry to complete their task through need of accommodation. Within
							the year the new City was built.

. —At the close of the year elections of
							consular tribunes were held. Those elected were T. Quinctius
							Cincinnatus, Q. Servilius Fidenas (for the fifth time), L. Julius Julus,
							L. Aquilius Corvus, L. Lucretius Tricipitinus, and Ser. Sulpicius Rufus.

One army was led against the Aequi —not to war, for they acknowledged
							that they were conquered, but —to ravage their territories so that no
							strength might be left them for future aggression. The other advanced
							into the district of Tarquinii. There, Cortuosa and Contenebra, towns
							belonging to the Etruscans, were taken by assault.

At Cortuosa there was no fighting, the garrison were surprised and the
							place was carried at the very first assault. Contenebra stood a siege
							for a few days, but the incessant toil without any remission day or
							night proved too much for them.

The Roman army was formed into six divisions, each of which took its
							part in the fighting in turn every six hours. The small number of the
							defenders necessitated the same men continually coming into action
							against a fresh enemy; at last they gave up, and an opening was afforded
							the Roman for entering the city.

The tribunes decided that the booty should be sold on behalf of the
							State, but they were slower in announcing their decision than in forming
							it; whilst they were hesitating, the soldiery had already appropriated
							it, and it could not be taken from them without creating bitter
							resentment.

The growth of the City was not confined to private buildings. A
							substructure of squared stones was built beneath the Capitol during this
							year, which, even amidst the present magnificence of the City, is a
							conspicuous object.

Whilst the citizens were taken up with their
							building, the tribunes of the plebs tried to make the meetings of the
							Assembly more attractive by bringing forward agrarian proposal.

They held out the prospect of acquiring the Pomptine territory, which,
							now that the Volscians had been reduced by Camillus, had become the
							indisputable possession of of Rome.

This territory, they alleged, was in much greater danger from the nobles
							than it had been from the Volscians, for the latter only made raids into
							it as long as they had

strength and weapons, but the nobles were putting themselves in
							possession of the public domain, and unless it was allotted before they
							appropriated everything there would be no room for plebeians

there. They did not produce much impression on the plebeians, who were
							busy with their building and only attended the Assembly in small
							numbers, and as their expenses had exhausted their means, they felt no
							interest in land which they were unable to develop owing to want of
							capital.

In a community devoted to religious observances, the recent disaster had
							filled the leading men with superstitious fears; in order, therefore,
							that the auspices might be taken afresh they fell back upon an
							interregnum. There were three interreges in, succession —M. Manlius
							Capitolinus, Ser.

Sulpicius Camerinus, and L. Valerius Potitus. The last of these
							conducted the election of consular tribunes. Those elected were: L.
							Papirius, C. Cornelius, C. Sergius, L. Aemilius (for the second time),
							L. Menenius, and L. Valerius Publicola (for the third time). They
							immediately entered office.

In this year the temple of Mars, which had been vowed in the Gaulish war,
							was dedicated by T. Quinctius, one of the two custodians of the
							Sibylline Books. The new citizens were formed into four additional
							tribes —the Stellatine, the Tromentine, the Sabatine, and the Arnian.
							These brought up the number of the tribes to twenty-five.

The question of the Pomptine
							territory was again raised by L. Sicinius, a tribune of the plebs, and
							the people attended the Assembly in greater numbers and showed a more
							eager desire for land than they had done.

In the senate the subject of the Latin and Hernican wars was mentioned,
							but owing to the concern felt about a more serious war, it was
							adjourned.

Etruria was in arms. They again fell back on Camillus He was made
							consular tribune, and five colleagues were assigned to him: Ser.
							Cornelius Maluginensis, Q. Servilius Fidenas (for the sixth time), L.
							Quinctius Cincinnatus, L. Horatius Pulvillus, and P. Valerius.

At the beginning of the year public anxiety was diverted from the
							Etruscan war by the arrival in the City of a body of fugitives from the
							Pomptine territory, who reported that the Antiates were in arms, and
							that the Latin cantons had sent their fighting men to assist them.

The latter explained in their defence that it was not in consequence of
							a formal act of their government; all they had done was to decline
							prohibiting any one from serving where he chose as a volunteer.

It was no longer the fashion to think lightly of any wars. The senate
							thanked heaven that Camillus was in office, for certainly had he been a
							private citizen he must have been nominated Dictator.

His colleagues admitted that when any alarm arose of threatened war the
							supreme direction of everything must be in one man's hands, and they had
							made up their minds to subordinate their powers to Camillus, feeling
							assured that to enhance his authority in no way derogated from their
							own.

This action of the consular tribunes met with the hearty approval of the
							senate, and Camillus, in modest confusion, returned thanks to them. He
							went on to say that a tremendous burden had been laid upon him by the
							people of Rome in making him practically Dictator for the fourth time; a
							heavy responsibility had been put upon him by the senate, who had passed
							such a flattering judgment upon him; heaviest of all by his colleagues
							in the honour they had done him.

If it were possible for him to show still greater activity and
							vigilance, he would strive so to surpass himself that he might make the
							lofty estimation, which his fellow-citizens had with such striking
							unanimity formed of him, a lasting one.

As far as war with the Antiates was concerned, the outlook was
							threatening rather than dangerous; at the same time he advised them,
							whilst fearing nothing, to treat nothing with indifference.

Rome was beset by the ill-will and hatred of its neighbours, and the
							interests of the State therefore required several generals and several
							armies.

He proceeded: “You, P. Valerius, I wish to associate with myself
							in counsel and command, and you will lead the legions in concert with me
							against the Antiates.

You, Q. Servilius, will keep a second army ready for instant service
							encamped by the City, prepared for any movement, such as recently took
							place, on the part of Etruria or on the side of the Latins and Hernicans
							who are causing us this fresh trouble. I am quite certain that you will
							conduct the campaign in a manner worthy of your father, your
							grandfather, yourself, and your six tribuneships.

A third army must be raised by L. Quinctius from the seniors, and those
							excused from service on grounds of health, to garrison the defences of
							the City.

L. Horatius is to provide armour, weapons, corn, and everything else
							required in a time of war. You, Ser. Cornelius, are appointed by us your
							colleagues as president of this Council of State, and guardian of
							everything

pertaining to religion, of the Assembly, the laws, and all matters
							touching the City.” All gladly promised to devote themselves to
							the various duties assigned them;

Valerius, associated in the chief command, added that he should look
							upon M. Furius as Dictator and regard himself as his Master of the
							Horse, and the estimation in which they held their sole commander should
							be the measure of the hopes they entertained as to the issue of the war.

The senators, in high delight, exclaimed that they at all events were
							full of hope with regard to war and peace and all that concerned the
							republic; there would never be any need for a Dictator when they had
							such men in office, with such perfect harmony of feeling, prepared
							equally to obey or command, conferring glory on their country instead of
							appropriating their country's glory to themselves.

After proclaiming a suspension of all public business and completing the
							enrolment of troops, Furius and Valerius proceeded to Satricum. Here the
							Antiates had massed not only Volscian troops drawn from a new generation
								 but also
							an immense body of Latins and Hernicans, nations whose strength had been
							growing through long years of peace. This coalition of new enemies with
							old ones daunted the spirits of the Roman

soldiers. Camillus was already drawing up his men for battle when the
							centurions brought reports to him of the discouragement of his troops,
							the want of alacrity in arming themselves, and the hesitation and
							unwillingness with which they were marching out of camp. Men were even
							heard saying that “they were going to fight one against a
							hundred, and that such a multitude could hardly be withstood even if
							unarmed, much less now that they were in

arms.” He at once sprang on his horse, faced the line and, riding
							along the front, addressed his men “What is this gloom, soldiers,
							this extraordinary hesitation? Are you strangers to the enemy, or to me,
							or to yourselves? As for the enemy — what is he but the means through
							which you always prove your courage and win

renown? And as for you —not to mention the capture of Falerii and Veii
							and the slaughter of the Gaulish legions inside your captured City —have
							you not, under my leadership, enjoyed a triple triumph for a threefold
							victory over these very Volscians, as well as over the Aequi and over

Etruria? Or is it that you do not recognise me as your general because I
							have given the battle signal not as Dictator but as a consular tribune?
							I feel no craving for the highest authority over you, nor ought you to
							see in me anything beyond what I am in myself; the Dictatorship has
							never increased my spirits and energy, nor did my exile diminish

them. We are all of us, then, the same that we have ever been, and since
							we are bringing just the same qualities into this war that we have
							displayed in all former wars, let us look forward to the same result. As
							soon as you meet your foe, every one will do what he has been trained
							and accustomed to do; you will conquer, they will fly.”

Then, after sounding the charge, he sprang from his horse and, catching
							hold of the nearest standard-bearer, he hurried with him against the
							enemy, exclaiming at the same time: “On, soldier, with the
							standard!”

When they saw Camillus, weakened as he was by age, charging in person
							against the enemy, they all raised the battle-cry and rushed forward,
							shouting in all directions, “Follow the General!”

It is stated that by Camillus' orders the standard was flung into the
							enemy's lines in order to incite the men of the front rank to recover
							it.

It was in this quarter that the Antiates were first repulsed, and the
							panic spread through the front ranks as far as the reserves.

This was due not only to the efforts of the troops, stimulated as they
							were by the presence of Camillus, but also to the terror which his
							actual appearance inspired in the Volscians, to whom he was a special
							object of dread.

Thus, wherever be advanced he carried certain victory with him. This was
							especially evident in the Roman left, which was on the point of giving
							way, when, after flinging himself on his horse and armed with an
							infantry shield, he rode up to it and by simply showing himself and
							pointing to the rest of the line who were winning the day, restored the
							battle.

The action was now decided, but owing to the crowding together of the
							enemy their flight was impeded and the victorious soldiers grew weary of
							the prolonged slaughter of such an enormous number of fugitives. A
							sudden storm of rain and wind put an end to what had become a decisive
							victory more than a battle.

The signal was given to retire, and the night that followed brought the
							war to a close without any further exertions on the part of the Romans,
							for the Latins and Hernicans left the Volscians to their fate and
							started for home,

after obtaining a result correspondent to their evil counsels When the
							Volscians found themselves deserted by the men whom they had relied upon
							when they renewed hostilities, they abandoned their camp and shut
							themselves up in Satricum.

At first Camillus invested them with the usual siege works; but when he
							found that the sorties were made to impede his operations, he considered
							that the enemy did not possess sufficient courage to justify him in
							waiting for a victory of which there was only a distant prospect. After
							encouraging his soldiers by telling them not to wear themselves by
							protracted toil, as though they were attacking another Veii, for victory
							was already within their grasp, he planted scaling ladders all round the
							walls and took the place by storm. The Volscians flung away their arms
							and surrendered.

The general, however, had a more important object in view —Antium, the
							capital of the Volscians and the starting point of the last war.

Owing to its strength, the capture of that city could only be effected
							by a considerable quantity of siege apparatus, artillery, and war
							machines.

Camillus therefore left his colleague in command and went to Rome to
							urge upon the senate the necessity of destroying Antium In the middle of
							his speech —I think it was the will of heaven that Antium should remain
							some time longer —envoys arrived from Nepete and Sutrium begging for
							help against the Etruscans and pointing out that the chance of rendering
							assistance would soon be lost.

Fortune diverted Camillus' energies from Antium to that quarter, for
							those places, fronting Etruria, served as gates and barriers on that
							side, and the Etruscans were anxious to secure them whenever they were
							meditating hostilities, whilst the Romans were equally anxious to
							recover and hold them.

The senate accordingly decided to arrange with Camillus that he should
							let Antium go and undertake the war with Etruria.

They assigned to him the legions in the City which Quinctius was
							commanding, and though he would have preferred the army which was acting
							against the Volsci, of which he had had experience and which was
							accustomed to his command, he raised no objection; all he asked for was
							that Valerius should share the command with him.

Quinctius and Horatius were sent against the Volscian in succession to
							Valerius. When they reached Sutrium, Furius and Valerius found a part of
							the city in the hands of the Etruscans; in the rest of the place the
							inhabitants were with difficulty keeping the enemy at bay behind
							barricades which they had erected in the streets.

The approach of succours from Rome and the name of Camillus, famous
							amongst allies and enemies alike, relieved the situation for the moment
							and allowed time to render assistance.

Camillus accordingly formed his army into two divisions and ordered his
							colleague to take one round to the side which the enemy were holding and
							commence an attack on the walls. This was done not so much in the hope
							that the attack would succeed as that the enemy's attention might be
							distracted so as to afford a respite to the wearied defenders and an
							opportunity for him to effect an entrance into the town without
							fighting.

The Etruscans, finding themselves attacked on both sides, the walls
							being assaulted from without and the townsmen fighting within, flung
							themselves in one panic-stricken mass through the only gate which
							happened to be clear of the enemy.

A great slaughter of the fugitives took place both in the city and in
							the fields outside. Furious men accounted for many inside the walls,
							whilst Valerius' troops were more lightly equipped for pursuit, and they
							did not put an end to the carnage till nightfall prevented their seeing
							any longer.

After the recapture of Sutrium and its restoration to our allies, the
							army marched to Nepete, which had surrendered to the Etruscans and of
							which they were in complete possession.

It looked as if the capture of that city would give more trouble, not
							only because the whole of it was in the hands of the enemy, but also
							because the surrender had been effected through the treachery of some of
							the townsfolk.

Camillus, however, determined to send a message to their leaders
							requesting them to withdraw from the Etruscans and give a practical
							proof of that loyalty to allies which they had implored the Roman to
							observe towards them.

Their reply was that they were powerless; the Etruscans were holding the
							walls and guarding the gates. At first it was sought to intimidate the
							townsmen by harrying their territory.

As, however, they persisted in adhering more faithfully to the terms of
							surrender than to their alliance with Rome, fascines of brushwood were
							collected from the surrounding country to fill up the fosse, the army
							advanced to the attack, the scaling ladders were placed against the
							walls, and at the very first attempt the town was captured.

Proclamation was then made that the Nepesines were to lay down their
							arms, and all who did so were ordered to be spared. The Etruscans,
							whether armed or not, were killed, and the Nepesines who had been the
							agents of the surrender were beheaded; the population who had no share
							in it received their property back, and the town was left with a
							garrison.

After thus recovering two cities in alliance with Rome from the enemy,
							the consular tribunes led their victorious army, covered with glory,
							home. During this year satisfaction was demanded from the Latins and
							Hernici; they were asked why they had not for these last few years
							furnished a contingent in accordance with the treaty.

A full representative assembly of each nation was held to discuss the
							terms of the reply.

This was to the effect that it was through no fault or public act of the
							State that some of their men had fought in the Volscian ranks; these had
							paid the penalty of their folly, not a single one had returned. The
							reason why they had supplied no troops was their incessant fear of the
							Volscians; this thorn in their side they had not, even after such a long
							succession of wars, been able to get rid of.

The senate regarded this reply as affording a justifiable ground for war,
							but the present time was deemed inopportune.

The consular tribunes who
							succeeded were A. Manlius, P. Cornelius, T and L. Quinctius Capitolinus,
							L. Papirius Cursor (for the second time>, and C. Sergius (for the
							second time). In this year a serious war broke out, and a still more
							serious disturbance at home.

The war was begun by the Volscians, aided by the revolted Latins and
							Hernici. The domestic trouble arose in a quarter where it was least to
							be apprehended, from a man of patrician birth and brilliant reputation
							—M. Manlius Capitolinus .

Full of pride and presumption, he looked down upon the foremost men with
							scorn; one in particular he regarded with envious eyes, a man
							conspicuous for his distinctions and his merits —M. Furius Camillus.

He bitterly resented this man's unique position amongst the magistrates
							and in the affections of the army, and declared that he was now such a
							superior person that he treated those who had been appointed under the
							same auspices as himself, not as his colleagues, but as his servants,
							and yet if any one would form a just judgment he would see that M.
							Furius could not possibly have rescued his country. When it was beleaguered by the enemy had not he,
							Manlius, saved the

Capitol and the Citadel? Camillus attacked the Gauls while they were off
							their guard, their minds pre-occupied with obtaining the gold and
							securing peace; he , on the other hand, had driven them off
							when they were armed for battle and actually capturing the Citadel.
							Camillus' glory was shared by every man who conquered with him, whereas
							no mortal man could obviously claim any

part in his victory. With his head full of these notions
							and being unfortunately a man of headstrong and passionate nature, he
							found that his influence was not so powerful with the patricians as he
							thought it ought to be, so he went over to the plebs —the first
							patrician to do so —and adopted the political

methods of their magistrates. He abused the senate and courted the
							populace and, impelled by the breeze of popular favour more than by
							conviction or judgment,

preferred notoriety to respectability. Not content with the agrarian
							laws which had hitherto always served the tribunes of the plebs as the
							material for their agitation, he began to undermine the whole system of
							credit for he saw that the laws of debt caused more irritation than the
							others; they not only threatened poverty and disgrace, but they
							terrified the freeman with the prospect

of fetters and imprisonment. And, as a matter of fact, a vast amount of
							debt had been contracted owing to the expense of building, an expense
							most ruinous even to the rich. It became, therefore, a question of
							arming the government with stronger powers, and the Volscian war,
							serious in itself but made much more so by the defection of the Latins
							and Hernici, was put forward

as the ostensible reason. It was, however, the revolutionary designs of
							Manlius that mainly decided the senate to nominate a Dictator. A.
							Cornelius Cossus was nominated and he named T. Quinctius Capitolinus as
							his Master of the Horse.

Although the Dictator recognised that a more difficult
							contest lay before him at home than abroad, he enrolled his troops and
							proceeded to the Pomptine territory, which, he heard, had been invaded
							by the Volscians. Either he considered it necessary to take prompt
							military measures or he hoped to strengthen his hands as Dictator by a
							victory and a triumph.

I have no doubt that my readers will be tired of such a long record of
							incessant wars with the Volscians, but they will also be struck with the
							same difficulty which I have myself felt whilst examining the
							authorities who lived nearer to the period, namely, from what source did
							the Volscians obtain sufficient soldiers after so many defeats?

Since this point has been passed over by the ancient writers, what can I
							do more than express an opinion such as any one may form from his own
							inferences?

Probably, in the interval between one war and another, they trained each
							fresh generation against the renewal of hostilities, as is now done in
							the enlistment of Roman troops, or their armies were not always drawn
							from the same districts, though it was always the same nation that
							carried on the war, or there must have been an innumerable free
							population in those districts which

are barely now kept from desolation by the scanty tillage of Roman
							slaves, with hardly so much as a miserably small recruiting ground for
							soldiers left.

At all events, the authorities are unanimous in asserting that the
							Volscians had an immense army in spite of their having been so lately
							crippled by the successes of Camillus. Their numbers were increased by
							the Latins and Hernici, as well as by a body of Circeians, and even by a
							contingent from Velitrae, where there was a Roman colony.

On the day he arrived the Dictator formed his camp. On the, morrow, after
							taking the auspices and supplicating the favour of the gods by sacrifice
							and prayer, he advanced in high spirits to the soldiers who were already
							in the early dawn arming themselves according to orders against the
							moment when the signal for battle should be given.

“Ours, soldiers,” he exclaimed, “is the victory, if
							the gods and their interpreters see at all into the future. Let us then,
							as becomes men filled with sure hopes, who are going to engage an enemy
							who is no match for us, lay our javelins at our feet and arm ourselves
							only with our swords. I would not even have any running forward from the
							line; stand firm and receive the enemy's charge without stirring a foot.

When they have hurled their ineffective missiles and their disordered
							ranks fling themselves upon you, then let your swords flash and let
							every man remember that it is the gods who are helping the Romans, it is
							the gods who have sent you into battle with favourable omens.

You, T. Quinctius, keep your cavalry in hand and wait till the fight has
							begun, but when you see the lines locked together, foot to foot, then
							strike with the terror of your cavalry those who are already overtaken
							with other terrors. Charge and scatter their ranks while they are in the
							thick of the fight.”

Cavalry and infantry alike fought in accordance with their instructions.
							The commander did not disappoint his soldiers, nor did Fortune
							disappoint the commander.

The vast host of the enemy, relying solely on their numbers and measuring
							the strength of each army merely by their eyes, went recklessly into the
							battle and as recklessly abandoned it.

Courageous enough in the battle shout, in discharging their weapons, in
							making the first charge, they were unable to stand the foot to foot
							fighting and the looks of their opponents, glowing with the ardour of
							battle.

Their front was driven in and the demoralisation extended to the
							supports; the charge of the cavalry produced fresh panic; the ranks were
							broken in many places, the whole army was in commotion and resembled a
							retreating wave. When each of them saw that as those in front fell he
							would be the next to be cut down, they turned and fled.

The Romans pressed hard upon them, and as long as the enemy defended
							themselves whilst retreating, it was the infantry to whom the task of
							pursuit fell. When they were seen to be throwing away their arms in all
							directions and dispersing over the field, the signal was given for the
							squadrons of cavalry to be launched against them, and these were
							instructed not to lose time by cutting down individual fugitives and to
							give the main body a chance of escaping.

It would be enough to check them by hurling missiles and galloping
							across their front, and generally terrifying them until the infantry
							could come up and regularly dispatch the enemy.

The flight and pursuit did not end till nightfall. The Volscian camp was
							taken and plundered on the same day, and all the booty, with the
							exception of the prisoners, was bestowed on the soldiers.

The majority of the captives belonged to the Hernici and Latins, not men
							of the plebeian class, who might have been regarded as only mercenaries,
							they were found to include some of the principal men of their fighting
							force, a clear proof that those States had formally assisted the enemy.
							Some were also recognised as belonging to Circeii and to the colony at
							Velitrae.

They were all sent to Rome and examined by the leaders of the senate;
							they gave them the same replies which they had made to the Dictator, and
							disclosed without any attempt at evasion the defection of their
							respective nations.

The Dictator kept his army
							permanently encamped, fully expecting that the senate would declare war
							against those peoples. A much greater trouble at home, however,
							necessitated his recall. The sedition which, owing to its ringleader's
							work, was exceptionally alarming, was gaining strength from day to day.

For to any one who looked at his motives, not only the speeches, but
							still more the conduct of M. Manlius, though ostensibly in the interest
							of the people, would have appeared revolutionary and dangerous.

When he saw a centurion, a distinguished soldier, led away as an adjudged
							debtor, he ran into the middle of the Forum with his crowd of supporters
							and laid his hand on him. After declaiming against the tyranny of
							patricians and the brutality of usurers and the wretched condition of
							the plebs he said:

“It was then in vain that I with this right hand saved the
							Capitol and Citadel if I have to see a fellow-citizen and a comrade in
							arms carried off to chains and slavery just as though he had been
							captured by the victorious Gauls.” Then, before all the people,
							he paid the sum due to the creditors, and after thus freeing the man by
							“copper and scales,” sent him home.

The released debtor appealed to gods and men to reward Manlius, his
							deliverer and the beneficial protector of the Roman plebs. A noisy crowd
							immediately surrounded him, and he increased the excitement by
							displaying the scars left by wounds he had received in the wars against
							Veii and the Gauls and in recent campaigns.

“Whilst,” he cried, “I was serving in the field and
							whilst I was trying to restore my desolated home,

I paid in interest an amount equal to many times the principal, but as
							the fresh interest always exceeded my capital, I was buried beneath the
							load of debt.

It is owing to M. Manlius that I can now look upon the light of day, the
							Forum, the faces of my fellow-citizens; from him I have received all the
							kindness which a parent can show to a child; to him I devote all that
							remains of my bodily powers, my blood, my life. In that one man is
							centred everything that binds me to my home, my country, and my
							country's gods.”

The plebs, wrought upon by this language, had now completely espoused
							this one man's cause, when another circumstance occurred, still more
							calculated to create universal confusion.

Manlius brought under the auctioneer's hammer an estate in the Veientine
							territory which comprised the principal part of his patrimony —
							“In order,” he said, “that as long as any of my
							property remains, I may prevent any of you Quirites from being delivered
							up to your creditors as judgment debtors.” This roused them to
							such a pitch that it was quite clear that they would follow the champion
							of their liberties through anything, right or wrong.

To add to the mischief, he delivered speeches in his own house, as though
							he were haranguing the Assembly, full of calumnious abuse of the senate.
							Indifferent to the truth or falsehood of what he said, he declared,
							among other things, that the stores of gold collected for the Gauls were
							being hidden away by the patricians; they were no longer content with
							appropriating the public lands unless they could also embezzle the
							public funds; if that affair were brought to light, the debts of the
							plebs could be wiped off.

With this hope held out to them, they thought it a most shameful
							proceeding that whilst the gold got together to ransom the City from the
							Gauls had been raised by general taxation, this very gold when recovered
							from the enemy had become the plunder of a few.

They insisted, therefore, on finding out where this vast stolen booty
							was concealed, and as Manlius kept putting them off and announcing that
							he would choose his own time for the disclosure, the universal interest
							became absorbed in this question to the exclusion of everything else.
							There would clearly be no limit to their gratitude if his information
							proved correct, or to their displeasure if it turned out to be false.

Whilst matters were in this state of suspense the Dictator had been
							summoned from the army and arrived in the City. After satisfying himself
							as to the state of public feeling he called a meeting of the senate for
							the following day and ordered them to remain in constant attendance upon
							him. He then ordered his chair of office to be placed on the tribunal in
							the Comitium and, surrounded by the senators as a bodyguard, sent his
							officer to M. Manlius. On receiving the Dictator's summons, Manlius gave
							his party a signal that a conflict was imminent, and appeared before the
							tribunal with an immense crowd round him.

On the one side the senate, on the other side the plebs,, each with
							their eyes fixed on their respective leaders, stood facing one another
							as though drawn up for battle.

After silence was obtained, the Dictator said: “I wish the senate
							and myself could come to an understanding with the plebs on all other
							matters as easily as, I am convinced, we shall about you and the subject
							on which I am about to examine you.

I see that you have led your fellow-Citizens to expect that all debts
							can be paid without any loss to the creditors out of the treasure
							recovered from the Gauls, which you say the leading patricians are
							secreting. I am so far from wishing to hinder this project that, on the
							contrary, I challenge M. Manlius, to take off from their hidden hordes
							those who, like sitting hens, are brooding over treasures which belong
							to the State.

If you fail to do this, either because you yourself have your part in
							the spoils or because your charge is unfounded, I shall order you to be
							thrown into prison and will not suffer the people to be excited by the
							false hopes which you have raised.” Manlius said in reply that he
							had not been mistaken in his suspicions; it was not against the
							Volscians who were treated as enemies whenever it was in the interest of
							the patricians so to treat them, nor against the Latins and Hernici whom
							they were driving to arms by false charges, that a Dictator had been
							appointed, but against him and the Roman plebs.

They had dropped their pretended war and were now attacking him; the
							Dictator was openly declaring himself the protector of the usurers
							against the plebeians; the gratitude and affection which the people were
							showing towards himself were being made the ground for charges against
							him which would ruin him. He proceeded: “The crowd which I have
							round me is an offence in your eyes, A. Cornelius, and in yours,
							senators. Then why do you not each of you withdraw it from me by acts of
							kindness by offering security, by releasing your fellow-citizens from
							the stocks, by preventing them from being adjudged to their creditors,
							by supporting others in their necessity out of the superabundance of
							your own wealth?

But why should I urge you to spend your own money? Be content with a
							moderate capital, deduct from the principal what has already been paid
							in interest, then the crowd round me will be no more noticeable than
							that round any one else.” “But do I alone show this
							anxiety for my fellow-citizens? I can only answer that question as I
							should answer anotherWhy did I alone save the Capitol and the Citadel?

Then I did what I could to save the body of citizens as a whole, now I
							am doing what I can to help individuals. As to the gold of the Gauls,
							your question throws difficulties round a thing which is simple enough
							in itself. For why do you ask me about a matter which is within your own
							knowledge? Why do you order what is in your purse to be shaken out from
							it rather than surrender it voluntarily, unless there is some dishonesty
							at bottom?

The more you order your conjuring tricks to be detected, the more, I
							fear, will you hoodwink those who are watching you. It is not I who
							ought to be compelled to discover your plunder for you, it is you who
							ought to be compelled to publicly produce it.” The Dictator
							ordered him to drop all subterfuge, and insisted upon his either
							adducing trustworthy evidence or admitting that he had been guilty of
							concocting false accusations against the senate and exposing them to
							odium on a baseless charge of theft.

He refused, and said he would not speak at the bidding of his enemies,
							whereupon the Dictator ordered him to be taken to prison. When
							apprehended by the officer he exclaimed: “Jupiter Optimus
							Maximus, Queen Juno, Minerva, all ye gods and goddesses who dwell in the
							Capitol, do ye suffer your soldier and defender to be thus persecuted by
							his enemies? Shall this right hand with which I drove the Gauls from
							your shrines be manacled and fettered?”

None could endure to see or hear the indignity offered him, but the
							State, in its absolute submission to lawful authority, had imposed upon
							itself limits which could not be passed; neither the tribunes of the
							plebs nor the plebeians themselves ventured to cast an angry look or
							breathe a syllable against the action of the Dictator. It seems pretty
							certain that after Manlius was thrown into prison, a great number of
							plebeians went into mourning; many let their hair grow, and the
							vestibule of the prison was beset by a depressed and sorrowful crowd.

The Dictator celebrated his triumph over the Volscians, but his triumph
							increased his unpopularity; men complained that the victory was won at
							home, not in the field, over a citizen, not over an enemy. One thing
							alone was lacking in the pageant of tyranny, Manlius was not led in
							procession before the victor's chariot. Matters were rapidly drifting
							towards sedition, and the senate took the initiative in endeavouring to
							cause the prevailing unrest. Before any demand had been put forward they
							ordered that 2000 Roman citizens should be settled as colonists at
							Satricum, and each receive two and a half jugera of land.

This was regarded as too small a grant, distributed amongst too small a
							number; it was looked upon, in fact, as a bribe for the betrayal of
							Manlius, and the proposed remedy only inflamed the disease. By this time
							the crowd of Manlian sympathisers had become conspicuous for their dirty
							garments and dejected
							looks. It was not till the Dictator laid down his office after his
							triumph and so removed the terror which he inspired that the tongues and
							spirits of men were once more free.

Men were heard openly reproaching the populace for always encouraging
							their defenders till they led them to the brink of the precipice and
							deserting them when the moment of danger actually came.

It was in this way, they said, that Sp. Cassius, while seeking to get
							the plebs on to the land, and Sp. Maelius, whilst staving off famine at
							his own cost from the mouths of his fellow-citizens, had both been
							crushed; it was in this way that M. Manlius was betrayed to his foes,
							whilst rescuing a part of the community who were overwhelmed and
							submerged by usurious extortion and bringing them back to light and
							liberty.

The plebs fattened up their own defenders for slaughter. Was it not to
							be permitted that a man of consular rank should refuse to answer at the
							beck and call of a Dictator? Assuming that he had previously been
							speaking falsely, and had therefore no reply ready at the time, was
							there ever a slave who had been thrown into prison as a punishment for
							lying?

Had they forgotten that night which was all but a final and eternal
							night for Rome? Could they not recall the sight of the troop of Gauls
							climbing up over the Tarpeian rock, or that of Manlius himself as they
							had actually seen him, covered with blood and sweat, after rescuing, one
							might almost say, Jupiter himself from the hands of the enemy. Had he
							discharged their obligation to the saviour of their country by giving
							him half a pound of corn each?

Was the man whom they almost regarded as a god, whom they at all events
							placed, on a level with Jupiter of the Capitol by giving him the epithet
							of Capitolinus —was that man to be allowed to drag out his life in
							chains and darkness at the mercy of the executioner? Had the help of one
							man sufficed to save all, and was there amongst them all no help to be
							found for that one man?

By this time the crowd refused to leave the spot even at night, and were
							threatening to break open the prison when the senate conceded what they
							were going to extort by violence, and passed a resolution that Manlius
							should be released. This did not put an end to the seditious agitation,
							it simply provided it with a leader.

During this time the Latins and Hernici, together with the colonists from
							Circeii and Velitrae, sent to Rome to clear themselves from the charge
							of being concerned in the Volscian war and to ask for the surrender of
							their countrymen who had been made prisoners, that they might proceed
							against them under their own laws. An unfavourable reply was given to
							the Latins and Hernici, a still more unfavourable one to the colonists,
							because they had entertained the impious project of attacking their
							mother country.

Not only was the surrender of the prisoners refused, but they received a
							stern warning from the senate, which was withheld from the Latins and
							Hernici, to make their way speedily from the City out of the sight of
							the Roman people; otherwise they would be no longer protected by the
							rights of ambassadors, rights which were established for foreigners, not
							for citizens.

At the close of the year, amidst the growing agitation headed by Manlius,
							the elections were held. The new consular tribunes were: Ser. Cornelius
							Maluginensis and P. Valerius Potitus (each for the second time), M.
							Furius Camillus (for the fifth time), Ser. Sulpicius Rufus (for the
							second time), C. Papirius Crassus and T. Quinctius Cincinnatus (for the
							second time).

The year opened in peace, which was most opportune for both patricians
							and plebeians —for the plebs, because as they were not called away to
							serve in the ranks, they hoped to secure relief from the burden of debt,
							especially now that they had such a strong leader; for the patricians,
							as no external alarms would distract their minds from dealing with their
							domestic troubles.

As each side was more prepared for the struggle it could not long be
							delayed. Manlius, too, was inviting the plebeians to his house and
							discussing night and day revolutionary plans with their leaders in a
							much more aggressive and resentful spirit than formerly.

His resentment was kindled by the recent humiliation inflicted on a
							spirit unaccustomed to disgrace; his aggressiveness was encouraged by
							his belief that the Dictator had not ventured to treat him as Quinctius
							Cincinnatus had treated Sp. Maelius, for not only had the Dictator
							avoided the odium created by his imprisonment through resignation, but
							even the senate had not been able to face it. Emboldened and embittered
							by these considerations, he roused the passions of the plebs, who were
							already incensed enough, to a higher pitch by his harangues.

“How long, pray,” he asked, “are you going to
							remain in ignorance of your strength, an ignorance which nature forbids
							even to beasts? Do at least reckon up your numbers and those of your
							opponents. Even if you were going to attack them on equal terms, man for
							man, I believe that you would fight more desperately for freedom than
							they for power. But you are much more numerous, for all you who have
							been in attendance on your patrols as clients will now confront them as
							adversaries.

You have only to make a show of war and you will have peace. Let them
							see you are prepared to use force, they will abate their claims.

You must dare something as a body or you will have to suffer everything
							as individuals. How long will you look to me?

I certainly shall not fail you, see to it that Fortune does not fail me.
							I, your avenger, when your enemies thought fit was suddenly reduced to
							nothing, and you watched the man carried off to prison who had warded
							off imprisonment from so many of you. What have I to hope for, if my
							enemies dare to do more to me? Am I to look for the fate of Cassius and
							Maelius?

It is all very well to cry in horror, “The gods will prevent
							that,” but they will never come down from heaven on my account.
							You must prevent it; they must give you the courage to do so, as they
							gave me courage to defend you as a soldier from the barbarian enemy and
							as a civilian from your tyrannical fellow-citizens. Is the spirit of
							this great nation so small that you will always remain contented with
							the aid which your tribunes now afford you against your enemies, and
							never know any subject of dispute with the patricians, except as to how
							far you allow them to lord it over you?

This is not your natural instinct, you are the slaves of habit. For why
							is it that you display such spirit towards foreign nations as to think
							it fair and just that you should rule over them?

Because with them you have been wont to contend for dominion, while
							against these domestic enemies it has been a contest for liberty, which
							you have mostly attempted rather than maintained.

Still, whatever leaders you have had, whatever qualities you yourselves
							have shown, you have so far, either by your strength or your good
							fortune, achieved every object, however great, on which you have set
							your hearts. Now it is time to attempt greater things.

If you will only put your own good fortune to the test, if you will only
							put me to the test, who have already been tested fortunately, I hope,
							for you, you will have less trouble in setting up some one to lord it
							over the patricians than you have had in setting up men to resist their
							lording it over you.

Dictatorships and consulships must be levelled to the ground in order
							that the Roman plebs may lift up its head. Take your places, then, in
							the Forum; prevent any judgment for debt from being pro- nounced.

I profess myself the Patron of the plebs, a title with which my
							care and fidelity have invested me; if you prefer to designate your
							leader by any other title of honour or command, you will find in him a
							more powerful instrument for attaining the objects you

desire.” It is said that this was the first step in his attempt
							to secure kingly power, but there is no clear tradition as to his
							fellow- conspirators or the extent to which his plans were developed.

On the other side, however, the senate were discussing this secession of
							the plebs to a private house, which happened to be situated on the
							Capitol, and the great danger with which liberty was menaced.

A great many exclaimed that what was wanted was a Servilius Ahala, who
							would not simply irritate an enemy to the State by ordering him to be
							sent to prison, but would put an end to the intestine war by the
							sacrifice of a single citizen.

They finally took refuge in a resolution which was milder in its terms
							but possessed equal force, viz., that “the magistrates should see
							to it that the republic received no hurt from the mischievous designs of
							M. Manlius.” Thereupon the consular tribunes and the tribunes of
							the plebs —for

these latter recognised that the end of liberty would also be the end of
							their power, and had, therefore, placed them- selves under the authority
							of the senate —all consulted together as to what were the necessary
							steps to take.

As no one could suggest anything but the employment of force and its
							inevitable bloodshed, while this would obviously lead to a frightful
							struggle, M. Menenius and Q. Publilius, tribunes of the plebs, spoke as
							follows: “Why are we making that which ought to be a contest
							between the State and one pestilent citizen into a conflict between
							patricians and plebeians?

Why do we attack the plebs through him when it is so much safer to
							attack him through the plebs, so that he may sink into ruin under the
							weight of his own strength? It is our intention to fix a day for his
							trial.

Nothing is less desired by the people than kingly power. As soon as that
							body of plebeians become aware that the quarrel is not with them, and
							find that from being his supporters they have become his judges; as soon
							as they see a patrician on his trial, and learn that the charge before
							them is one of aiming at monarchy, they will not show favour to any man
							more than to their own liberty.”

Amidst universal approval they fixed a day for the trial of Manlius.

There was at first much perturbation amongst the plebs, especially when
							they saw him going about in mourning garb without a single patrician, or
							any of his relatives or connections and, strangest of all, neither of
							his brothers, Aulus and Titus Manlius, being similarly attired. For up
							to that day such a thing had never been known, that at such a crisis in
							a man's fate even those nearest to him did not put on mourning.

They remembered that when Appius Claudius was thrown into prison, his
							personal enemy, Caius Claudius, and the whole house of the Claudii, wore
							mourning. They regarded it as a conspiracy to crush a popular hero,
							because he was the first man to go over from the patricians to the
							plebs.

What evidence strictly bearing out the charge of treason was adduced by
							the prosecution at the actual trial, beyond the gatherings at his house,
							his seditious utterances, and his false statement about the gold, I do
							not find stated by any authority.

But I have no doubt that it was anything but slight, for the hesitation
							shown by the people in finding him guilty was not due to the merits of
							the case, but to the locality where the trial took place. This is a
							thing to be noted in order that men may see how great and glorious deeds
							are not only deprived of all merit, but made positively hateful by a
							loathesome hankering after kingly power.

He is said to have produced nearly four hundred people to whom he had
							advanced money without interest, whom he had prevented from being sold
							up and having their persons adjudged to their creditors.

It is stated that besides this he not only enumerated his military
							distinctions, but brought them forward for inspection; the spoils of as
							many as thirty enemies whom he had slain, gifts from commanders-in-chief
							to the number of forty, amongst them two mural crowns and eight civil
							ones.

In addition to these, he produced citizens whom he had rescued from the
							enemy, and named C. Servilius, Master of the Horse, who was not present,
							as one of them.

After he had recalled his warlike achievements in a great speech
							corresponding to the loftiness of his theme, his language rising to the
							level of his exploits, he bared his breast, ennobled by the scars of
							battle, and looking towards the Capitol repeatedly invoked Jupiter and
							the other deities to come to the aid of his shattered fortunes. He
							prayed that they would, in this crisis of his fate, inspire the Roman
							people with the same feeling with which they inspired him when he was
							protecting the Citadel and the Capitol and so saving Rome. Then turning
							to his judges, he implored them one and all to judge his cause with
							their eyes fixed on the Capitol, looking towards the immortal gods.

As it was in the Campus Martius 
							that the people were to vote in their centuries, and the defendant,
							stretching forth his hands towards the Capitol, had turned from men to
							the gods in his prayers, it became evident to the tribunes that unless
							they could release men's spell-bound eyes from the visible reminder of
							his glorious deed, their minds, wholly possessed with the sense of the
							service he had done them, would find no place for charges against him,
							however true.

So the proceedings were adjourned to another day, and the people were
							summoned to an Assembly in the Peteline Grove outside the Flumentan
							Gate, from which the Capitol was not visible.

Here the charge was established, and with hearts steeled against his
							appeals, they passed a dreadful sentence, abhorrent even to the judges.
							Some authorities assert that he was sentenced by the duumvirs, who were
							appointed to try cases of treason. The tribunes hurled him from the
							Tarpeian rock, and the place which was the monument of his exceptional
							glory became also the scene of his final punishment.

After his death two stigmas were affixed to his memory. One by the
							State. His house stood where now the temple and mint of Juno Moneta
							stand, a measure was consequently brought before the people that no
							patrician should occupy a dwelling within the Citadel or on the
							Capitoline.

The other by the members of his house, who made a decree forbidding any
							one henceforth to assume the names of Marcus Manlius. Such was the end
							of a man who, had he not been born in a free State, would have attained
							distinction.

When danger was no longer to be feared from him the people, remembering
							only his virtues, soon began to regret his loss. A pestilence which
							followed shortly after and inflicted great mortality, for which no cause
							could be assigned, was thought by a great many people to be due to the
							execution of Manlius.

They imagined that the Capitol had been polluted by the blood of its
							deliverer, and that the gods had been displeased at a punishment having
							been inflicted almost before their eyes on the man by whom their temples
							had been wrested from an enemy's hands.

The pestilence was followed by
							scarcity, and the widespread rumour of these two troubles was followed
							the next year by a number of wars. The consular tribunes were: L.
							Valerius (for the fourth time), A Manlius, Ser.

Sulpicius, L. Lucretius, and L. Aemilius (all for the third time), and
							M. Trebonius. In addition to the Volscians, who seemed destined by some
							fate to keep the Roman soldiery in perpetual training; in addition to
							the colonies of Circeii and Velitrae, who had long been meditating
							revolt; in addition to Latium, which was an object of suspicion, a new
							enemy suddenly appeared at Lanuvium, which had hitherto been a most
							loyal city.

The senate thought this was due to a feeling of contempt because the
							revolt of their countrymen at Velitrae had remained so long unpunished.
							They accordingly passed a decree that the people should be asked as soon
							as possible to consent to a declaration of war against them.

To make the plebs more ready to enter on this campaign, five
							commissioners were appointed to distribute the Pomptine territory and
							three to settle a colony at Nepete.

Then the proposal was submitted to the people, and in spite of the
							protests of the tribunes the tribes unanimously declared for war.

Preparations for war continued throughout the year, but, owing to the
							pestilence, the army was not led out. This delay allowed the colonists
							time for propitiating the senate, and there was a considerable party
							amongst them in favour of sending a deputation to Rome to ask for
							pardon.

But, as usual, the interest of the State was bound up with the interests
							of individuals, and the authors of the revolt, fearing that they alone
							would be held responsible and surrendered, in consequence, to appease
							the resentment of the Romans, turned the colonists from all thoughts of
							peace.

Nor did they confine themselves to persuading their senate to veto the
							proposed embassy; they stirred up a large number of the plebs to make a
							predatory incursion on Roman territory.

This fresh outrage destroyed all hopes of peace. This year, for the
							first time, there arose a rumour of a revolt at Praeneste, but when the
							people of Tusculum, Gabinii, and Labici, whose territories had been
							invaded, laid a formal complaint, the senate took it so calmly that it
							was evident they did believe the charge because they did not wish it to
							be true.

Sp. and L. Papirius, the new consular tribunes, marched with the legions
							to Velitrae. Their four colleagues, Ser. Cornelius Maluginensis, Q.
							Servilius, C. Sulpicius, and L. Aemilius were left to defend the City
							and to meet any fresh movement in Etruria, for danger was suspected
							everywhere on that side.

At Velitrae, where the auxiliaries from Praeneste were almost more
							numerous than the colonists themselves, an engagement took place in
							which the Romans soon won the day, for as the city was so near, the
							enemy took to flight early in the battle and made for the city as their
							one refuge. The tribunes abstained from storming the place, for they
							were doubtful of success and did not think it right to reduce the colony
							to ruin.

The dispatches to the senate announcing the victory were more severe on
							the Praenestines than on the Veliternians. Accordingly, by a decree of
							the senate confirmed by the people, war was declared against Praeneste
							The Praenestines joined forces with the Volscians and in the following
							year took by storm the Roman colony of Satricum, after an obstinate
							defence, and made a brutal use of their victory.

This incident exasperated the Romans.

They elected M. Furius Camillus as consular tribune for the sixth time,
							and gave him four colleagues, A. and L. Postumius Regillensis, L.
							Furius, L. Lucretius, and M. Fabius Ambustus . By a special decree of
							the senate the war with the Volscians was entrusted to M. Furius
							Camillus; the tribune chosen by lot as his coadjutor was L. Furius, not
							so much, as it turned out, in the interest of the State, as in the
							interest of his colleague, for whom he served as the means of gaining
							fresh renown.

He gained it on public grounds by restoring the fortunes of the State
							which had been brought low by the other's rashness, and on private
							grounds, because he was more anxious to win the other's gratitude after
							retrieving his error than to win glory for himself.

Camillus was now advanced in age, and after being elected was prepared
							to make the usual affidavit declining office on the grounds of health,
							but the people refused to allow him. His vigorous breast was still
							animated by an energy unweakened by age, his senses were unimpaired, and
							his interest in political affairs was lost in the prospect of war. Four
							legions were enrolled, each consisting of 4000 men The army was ordered
							to muster the next day at the Esquiline Gate and at once marched for
							Satricum.

Here the captors of the colony awaited him, their decided superiority of
							numbers inspiring them with complete confidence. When they found that
							the Romans were approaching they advanced at once to battle, anxious to
							bring matters to a decisive issue as soon as possible.

They imagined that this would prevent the inferiority in numbers of
							their opponents from being in any way aided by the skill of their
							commander, which they looked upon as the sole ground of confidence for
							the Romans.

The same eagerness for battle was felt by the Roman army and by Camillus'
							colleague. Nothing stood in the way of their hazarding an immediate
							engagement except the prudence and authority of one man, who was seeking
							an opportunity, by protracting the war, for aiding the strength of his
							force by strategy.

This made the enemy more insistent; they not only deployed their lines
							in front of their camp, but even marched forward in the middle of the
							plain and showed their supercilious confidence in their numbers by
							advancing their standards close to the Roman intrenchments.

This made the Romans indignant, still more so L. Furius. Young and
							naturally hightempered, he was now infected with the hopefulness of the
							rank and file whose spirits were rising with very little to justify
							their confidence.

He increased their excitement by belittling the authority of his
							colleague on the score of his age, the only possible reason he had for
							doing so; he declared that wars were the province of the younger men,
							for courage grows and decays in correspondence with the bodily powers.

“Camillus,” he said, “once a most active warrior,
							had now become a laggard; he, whose habit it had been, immediately on
							arriving at camps or cities, to take them at the first assault, was now
							wasting time and stagnating inside his lines. What accession to his own
							strength or diminution of the enemy's strength was he hoping for?

What favourable chance, what opportune moment, what ground on which to
							employ his strategy? The old man's plans had lost all fire and life.

Camillus had had his share of life as well as glory. What was gained by
							letting the strength of a State which ought to be immortal share in the
							senile decay of one mortal frame?”

By speeches of this kind he had brought over the whole camp to his view
							and in many quarter they were demanding to be led to immediate battle.
							Addressing Camillus, he said: “M. Furius, we cannot resist the
							impetuosity of the soldiers, and the enemy to whom we have given fresh
							courage by our hesitation are now showing intolerable contempt for us.
							You are one against all; yield to the universal desire and allow
							yourself to be overcome in argument that you may the sooner overcome in
							battle.”

In his reply, Camillus said that in all the wars he had waged down to
							that day, as sole commander, neither he nor the Roman people had had any
							reason to complain of either his generalship or his good fortune. Now he
							was aware that he had as a colleague one who was his equal in authority
							and rank, his superior in physical strength and activity.

As for the army, he had been accustomed to direct and not to be
							directed, but as for his colleague, he could not hamper his authority.
							Let him do with the help of heaven whatever he considered best for the
							State.

He begged that owing to his years he might be excused from being in the
							front line; whatever duties an old man could discharge in battle, in
							these he would not show himself lacking. He prayed to the immortal gods
							that no mischance might make them feel that his plan alter all was the
							best.

His salutory advice was not listened to by men, nor was his patriotic
							prayer heard by the gods. His colleague who had determined on battle
							drew up the front line, Camillus formed a powerful reserve and posted a
							strong force in front of the camp. He himself took his station on some
							rising ground and anxiously awaited the result of tactics so different
							from his own.

No sooner had their arms clashed together at the first onset than the
							enemy began to retire, not through fear but for tactical reasons.

Behind them the ground rose gently up to their camp, and owing to their
							preponderance in numbers they had been able to leave several cohorts
							armed and drawn up for action in their camp.

After the battle had begun these were to make a sortie as soon as the
							enemy were near their entrenchments. In pursuing the retiring enemy the
							Romans had been drawn on to the rising ground and were in some disorder.
							Seizing their opportunity the enemy made their charge from the camp.

It was the victors' turn now to be alarmed, and this new danger and the
							uphill fighting made the Roman line give ground. Whilst the Volscians
							who had charged from the camp pressed home their attack, the others who
							had made the pretended flight renewed the contest.

At last the Romans no longer retired in order; forgetting their recent
							battle-ardour and their old renown they began to flee in all directions,
							and in wild disorder were making for their camp. Camillus, after being
							assisted to mount by those around, hastily brought up the reserves and
							blocked their flight. “Is this, soldiers,” he cried,
							“the battle which you were clamouring for? Who is the man, who is
							the god that you can throw the blame upon?

Then you were foolhardy; now you are cowards. You have been following
							another captain, now follow Camillus and conquer, as you are accustomed
							to do, under my leadership. Why are you looking at the rampart and the
							camp?

Not a man of you shall enter there unless you are victorious.” A
							feeling of shame at first arrested their disorderly flight, then, when
							they saw the standards brought round and the line turning to face the
							enemy, and their leader, illustrious through a hundred triumphs and now
							venerable through age, showing himself amongst the fore- most ranks
							where the risk and toil were greatest, mutual reproaches mingled with
							words of encouragement were heard through the whole field till finally
							they burst into a ringing cheer.

The other tribune did not show himself wanting to the occasion. Whilst
							his colleague was rallying the infantry he was sent to the cavalry. He
							did not venture to censure them —his share in their fault left him too
							little authority for that —but dropping all tone of command be implored
							them one and all to clear him from the guilt of that day's misfortunes.

“In spite,” he said, “of the refusal and opposition
							of my colleague I preferred to associate myself with the rashness of all
							rather than with the prudence of one. Whatever your fortunes may be,
							Camillus sees his own glory reflected in them; I, unless the day is won,
							shall have the utter wretchedness of sharing the fortunes of all but
							bearing the infamy alone.”

As the infantry were wavering it seemed best for the cavalry, after
							dismounting and leaving their horses to be held, to attack the enemy on
							foot. Conspicuous for their arms and dashing courage they went wherever
							they saw the infantry force pressed.

Officers and men emulated each other in fighting with a determination
							and courage which never slackened. The effect of such strenuous bravery
							was shown in the result; the Volscians who a short time before had given
							ground in simulated fear were now scattered in real panic. A large
							number were killed in the actual battle and the subsequent flight,
							others in the camp, which was carried in the same charge; there were
							more prisoners, however, than slain.

On examining the prisoners, it was discovered that some were from
							Tusculum; these were brought separately before the tribunes and on being
							questioned admitted that their State authorised their taking up arms.

Alarmed at the prospect of a war so close to the City, Camillus said
							that he would at once conduct the prisoners to Rome so that the senate
							might not remain in ignorance of the fact that the Tusculans had
							abandoned the alliance with Rome.

His colleague might, if he thought good, remain in command of the army
							in camp. One day's experience had taught him not to prefer his own
							counsels to wiser ones, but even so, neither he nor any one in the army
							supposed that Camillus would calmly pass over that blunder of his by
							which the republic had been exposed to headlong disaster.

Both in the army and at Rome it was universally remarked that in the
							chequered fortune which had attended the Volscian campaign, the blame
							for the unsuccessful battle and flight would be visited on L. Furius,
							the glory of the

successful one would rest with M.. Furius Camillus. After the
							examination of the prisoners the senate resolved upon war with Tusculum,
							and entrusted the conduct of it to Camillus. He requested that he might
							have one coadjutor, and on receiving permission to choose whom he would,
							he selected, to every one's surprise, L. Furius By this act of
							generosity he removed the stigma attaching to his colleague and won
							great glory for himself.

But there was no war with the Tusculans. Unable to resist the attack of
							Rome by force of arms they turned it aside by a firm and lasting peace.

When the Romans entered their territory, there was no flight of the
							inhabitants from the places near their line of march, the cultivation of
							the fields was not interrupted, the gates of the city stood open, and
							the townsmen in civic attire came in crowds to meet the commanders,
							whilst provisions for the camp were brought ungrudgingly from town and
							country.

Camillus fixed his camp in front of the gates and decided to ascertain
							for himself whether the peaceful aspect which things wore in the country
							prevailed within the walls as well.

Inside the city he found the doors of the houses standing open and all
							kinds of things exposed for sale in the stalls; the workmen all busy at
							their respective tasks and the schools humming with the voices of the
							children learning to read;

the streets filled with crowds, including women and children going in
							all directions about their business and wearing an expression free not
							only from fear but even from surprise.

He looked everywhere in vain for some signs of war; there was not the
							slightest trace of anything having been removed or brought forward just
							for the moment; all things looked so calm and peaceful that it seemed
							hardly possible that the bruit of war could have reached them.

Disarmed by the submissive demeanour of the enemy he gave orders for the
							senate to be summoned. He then addressed them in the following terms:
							“Men of Tusculum, you are the only people who have discovered the
							true weapons, the true strength, with which to protect yourselves from
							the wrath of Rome.

Go to the senate at Rome; they will decide aright whether your past
							offence deserves punishment most or your present submission, pardon. I
							will not anticipate the grace and favour which the State may show you;
							you shall receive from me the permission to plead for forgiveness; the
							senate will vouchsafe to your supplication the answer which shall seem
							good to them.”

After the arrival of the Tusculan senators in Rome, when the mournful
							countenances of those who a few weeks before had been staunch allies
							were seen in the vestibule of the Senate-house, the Roman senate were
							touched with pity and at once ordered them to be called in as
							guest-friends rather than as enemies.

The Dictator of Tusculum was the spokesman. “Senators,” he
							said, “we against whom you have declared and commenced
							hostilities, went out to meet your generals and your legions armed and
							equipped just as you see us now standing in the vestibule of your House.

This civilian dress has always been the dress of our order and of our
							plebs and ever will be, unless at any time we receive from you arms for
							your defence. We are grateful to your generals and to your armies
							because they trusted their eyes rather than their ears, and did not make
							enemies where none existed.

We ask of you the peace which we have ourselves observed, and pray you
							to turn the tide of war where a state of war exists; if we are to learn
							by painful experience the power which your arms can exert against us, we
							will learn it without using arms ourselves. This is our determination —
							may the gods make it as fortunate as it is dutiful!

As for the accusations which induced you to declare war, although it is
							unnecessary to refute in words what has been disproved by facts, still,
							even supposing them to be true, we believe that it would have been safe
							to admit them, since we should have given such evident proofs of
							repentance.

Let us acknowledge that we havo wronged you, if only you are worthy to
							receive such satisfaction.” This was practically what the
							Tusculans said. They obtained peace at the time and not long after full
							citizonship. The legions were marched back from Tusculum.

After thus distinguishing himself
							by his skill and courage in the Volscian war and bringing the expedition
							against Tusculum to such a happy termination, and on both occasions
							treating his colleague with singular consideration and forbearance,
							Camillus went out of

office. The consular tribunes for the next year were: Lucius Valerius
							(for the fifth time) and Publius (for the third time), C. Sergius (also
							for the third time), L. Menenius (for the second time), P. Papirius, and
							Ser. Cornelius

Maluginensis. This year it was found necessary to appoint censors,
							mainly owing to the vague rumours which were afloat about the burden of
							debt. The plebeian tribunes, in order to stir up ill-feeling,
							exaggerated the amount, while it was underestimated by those whose
							interest it was to represent the difficuity as due to the unwillingness
							rather than the inability of the debtor to

pay. The censors appointed were C. Sulpicius Camerinius and Sp.
							Postumius Regillensis. They commenced a fresh
							assessment, but the work was interrupted by the death of Postumius,
							because it was doubtful whether the co-optation of a colleague, in the
							case of the censors,

was permissible. Sulpicius accordingiy resigned, and fresh magistrates
							were appointed, but owing to some flaw in their election did not act.
							Religious fears deterred them from proceding to a third election; it
							seemed as though the gods would not allow a censorship for

that year. The tribunes declared that such mockory was intolerable.
							“The senate,” according to them, “dreaded the
							publication of the assessment lists, which supplied information as to
							every man's property, because they do not wish the amount of the debtor
							to be brought to light for it would show how one half of the community
							was being ruined by the other balf, while the debt-burdened plebs were
							all the time being exposod to one enemy

after another. Excuses for war were being sought indiscriminately in
							every direction; the legions were marched from Antium to Satricum, from
							Satricum to Velitrae, from there to Tusculum. And now the Latins, the
							Hernici, and the Praenestines were being threatened with hostilities in
							order that the patricians might wreak their vongeance on their
							fellow-citizens more even than upon the enemy. They were wearing out the
							plebs by keeping them under arms and not allowing them any breathing
							time in the City or any leisure for thoughts of liberty, or any
							possibility for taking their place in the Assembly, where they might
							listen to the voice of a tribune urging the reduction of interest and
							the redress of

other grievances. Why, if the plebs had spirit enough to recall to mind
							the liberties which their fathers won, they would never suffer a Roman
							citizen to be made over to his creditors, nor would they permit an army
							to be raised until an account was taken of the existing debt and some
							method of reducing it discovered, so that each man might know what he
							actually owed, and what was left for himself —whether his person was
							free or whether that, too, was due to

the stocks.” The premium thus put upon sedition made it at once
							more active. Many cases were occurring of men being made over to their
							creditors, and in view of a war with Praeneste, the senate, had resolved
							that fresh legions should be enrolled, but both these proceedings were
							arrested by the intervention of the tribunes, supported by the whole
							body of the plebs The tribunes refused to allow the judgment debtors to
							be

carried off; the men whose names were called for enrolment refused to
							answer. The senate was less concerned to insist upon the rights of
							creditors than to carry out the enlistment, for information had been
							received that the enemy had advanced from Praeneste and were encamped in
							the district

of Gabii. This intelligence however, instead of deterring the plebeian
							tribunes from opposition, only made them more determined, and nothing
							availed to quiet the agitation in the City but the approach of war to
							its very walls.

A report had reached Praeneste that no army had been raised in Rome and
							no commander-in-chief selected, and that the patricians and plebeians
							had turned against one another.

Seizing the opportunity, their generals had led their army by rapid
							marches through fields which they had utterly laid waste and appeared
							before the Colline Gate. There was wide-spread alarm in the City.

A general cry arose, “To arms!” and men hurried to the
							walls and gates. At last, abandoning sedition for war, they nominated T.
							Quinctius Cincinnatus as Dictator.

He named A. Sempronius Atratinus as his Master of the Horse. No sooner
							did they hear of this —so great was the terror which a Dictatorship
							inspired —than the enemy retired from the wails, and the men liable for
							active service assembled without any hesitation at the Dictator's
							orders.

Whilst the army was being mobilised in Rome, the camp of the enemy had
							been fixed not far from the Alia. From this point they spread
							devastation far and wide, and congratulated themselves that they had
							chosen a position of fatal import for the City of Rome; they expected
							that there would be the same panic and flight as in the Gaulish war.

For, they argued if the Romans regarded with horror even the day which
							took its name from that spot and was under a curse, how much more would
							they dread the Alia itself, the memorial of that great disaster. They
							would most assuredly have the appalling sight of the Gauls before their
							eyes and the sound of their voices in their ears. Indulging in these
							idle dreams, they placed all their hopes in the fortune of the place.

The Romans, on the other hand, knew perfectly well that wherever he was,
							the Latin enemy was the same as the one who had been conquered at Lake
							Regillus and kept in peaceable subjection for a hundred years.

The fact that the place was associated with the memories of their great
							defeat would sooner stimulate them to wipe out the recollection of that
							disgrace than make them feel that any place on earth could be of ill
							omen for their success.

Even if the Gauls them- selves were to appear there, they would fight
							just as they fought when they recovered their City, just as they fought
							the next day at Gabii, when they did not leave a single enemy who had
							entered Rome to carry the news of their defeat and the Roman victory to
							their countrymen.

In these different moods, each side reached the banks of the Alia. When
							the enemy came into view in battle forma- tion ready for action, the
							Dictator turned to A. Sempronius, “Do you see,” he said,
							“how they have taken their station on the Alia relying on the
							fortune of the place? May heaven have given them nothing more certain to
							trust to, or stronger to help them!

You, however, placing your confidence in arms and valour, will charge
							their centre at full gallop, while I with the legions will attack them
							whilst in disorder. Ye deities who watch over treaties, assist us, and
							exact the penalties due from those who have sinned against you and
							deceived us by appealing to your divinity!”

Neither the cavalry charge nor the infantry attack was sus- tained by the
							Praenestines. At the first onset and battle shout their ranks were
							broken, and when no portion of the line any longer kept its formation
							they turned and fled in confusion. In their panic they were carried past
							their camp, and did not stop their headlong flight until they were
							within sight of Praeneste.

There the fugitives rallied and seized a position which they hastily
							fortified; they were afraid of retiring within the walls of their city
							lest their territory should be wasted with fire and, after everything
							had been devastated, the city should be in- vested.

The Romans, however, after spoiling the camp at the Alia, came up; this
							position, therefore, was also abandoned.

They shut themselves in Praeneste, feeling hardly safe even behind its
							walls. There were eight towns under the jurisdiction of Praeneste. These
							were successively attacked and reduced without much fighting. Then the
							army advanced against Velitrae, which was successfully stormed.

Finally, they arrived at Praeneste, the origin and centre of the war.

It was captured, not by assault, but after surrender. After being thus
							victorious in battle and capturing two camps and nine towns belonging to
							the enemy and receiving the surrender of Praeneste, Titus Quinctius
							returned to Rome. In his triumphal procession he carried up to the
							Capitol the image of Jupiter Imperator, which had been brought from
							Praeneste.

It was set up in a recess between the shrines of Jupiter and Minerva,
							and a tablet was affixed to the pedestal recording the Dictator's
							successes.

The inscription ran something like this: “Jupiter and all the
							gods have granted this boon to Titus Quinctius the Dictator, that he
							should capture nine towns.” On the twentieth day after his
							appointment he laid down the Dictatorship.

Renewed Fighting with the Volscians —When the election of Consular
							tribunes took place, an equal number were elected from each order.

The patricians were: P. and C. Manlius, together with L. Julius; the
							plebeians were: C. Sextilius, M. Albinius, and L. Anstitius.

As the two Manlii took precedence of the plebeians by birth and were
							more popular than Julius, they had the Volscians assigned to them by
							special resolution, without casting lots or any understanding with the
							other consular tribunes; a step which they themselves and the.senate who
							made the arrangement had cause to regret.

They sent out some cohorts to forage without previously reconnoitering.
							On receiving a false message that these were cut off, they started off
							in great haste to their support, without detaining the messenger, who
							was a hostile Latin and had passed himself off as a Roman soldier.
							Consequently, they fell straight into an ambuscade.

It was only the sheer courage of the men that enabled them to make a
							stand on unfavourable ground and offer a desperate resistance. At the
							same time, their camp, which lay on the plain in another direction, was
							attacked.

In both incidents the generals had imperiled everything by their
							rashness and ignorance; if by the good fortune of Rome anything was
							saved it was due to the steadiness and courage of the soldiers who had
							no one to direct operations.

On the report of these occurrences reaching Rome, it was at first decided
							that a Dictator should be nominated, but on subsequent information being
							received that all was quiet amongst the Volscians, who evidently did not
							know how to make use of their victory, the armies were recalled from
							that quarter.

On the side of the Volscians peace prevailed; the only trouble that
							marked the close of the year was the renewal of hostilities by the
							Praenestines, who had stirred up the Latin cantons.

The colonists of Setia complained of the fewness of their number, so a
							fresh body of colonists was sent to join them. The misfortunes of the
							war were compensated by the quiet which prevailed at home owing to the
							influence and authority which the consular tribunes from the plebeians
							possessed with their party.

The new consular tribunes were Sp. Furius, Q.
							Servilius (for the second time), L. Menenius (for the third time), P.
							Cloelius, M. Horatius, and L. Geganius. No sooner had their year begun
							than the flames of a violent disturbance broke out, for which the
							distress caused by the debts supplied both cause and motive.

Sp. Servilius Priscus and Q. Cloelius Siculus were appointed censors to
							go into the matter, but they were prevented from doing so by the
							outbreak of war.

The Volscian legions invaded the Roman territory and were committing
							ravages in all directions. The first intimation came through
							panic-stricken messengers followed by a general flight from the country
							districts.

So far was the alarm thus created from repressing the domestic
							dissensions that the tribunes showed all the greater determination to
							obstruct the enrolment of troops. They succeeded at last in imposing two
							conditions on the patricians: that none should pay the war-tax until the
							war was over, and that no suits for debt should be brought into court.

After the plebs had obtained this relief there was no longer any delay in
							the enrolment. When the fresh troops had been raised they were formed
							into two armies, both of which were marched into the Volscian territory.
							Sp. Furius and M. Horatius turned to the right in the direction of
							Antium and the coast; Q. Servilius and L. Geganius proceeded to the left
							towards Ecetra and the mountain district.

In neither direction did the enemy meet them. So they commenced to
							ravage the country in a very different method from that which the
							Volscians had practised. These, emboldened by the dissensions but afraid
							of the courage of their enemy, had made hasty depredations like
							freebooters dreading a surprise, but the Romans acting as a regular army
							wreaked their just anger in ravages which were all the more destructive
							because they were continuous.

The Volscians, fearing lest an army might come from Rome, confined their
							ravages to the extreme frontier; the Romans, on the other hand, lingered
							in the enemy's country to provoke him to battle.

After burning all the scattered houses and several of the villages and
							leaving not a single fruit tree or any hope of harvest for the year, and
							carrying off as booty all the men and cattle that remained outside the
							walled towns, the two armies returned to Rome.

A short breathing space had been
							allowed to the debtors, but as soon as hostilities ceased and quiet was
							restored large numbers of them were again being adjudged to their
							creditors, and so completely had all hopes of lightening the old load of
							debt vanished that new debts were being contracted to meet a tax imposed
							for the construction of a stone wall for which the censors had made a
							contract.

The plebs were compelled to submit to this burden because there was no
							enrolment which their tribunes could obstruct.

They were even forced by the influence of the nobility to elect only
							patricians as consular tribunes; their names were: L. Aemilius, P.
							Valerius (for the fourth time), C. Veturius, Ser. Sulpicius, L. and C.
							Quinctius Cincinnatus.

The patricians were also strong enough to effect the enrolment of three
							armies to act against the Latins and Volscians, who had united their
							forces and were encamped at Satricum. All those who were liable for
							active service were made to take the military oath; none ventured to
							obstruct.

One of these armies was to protect the City; another was to be in
							readiness to be despatched wherever any sudden hostile movement might be
							attempted; the third, and by far the strongest, was led by P. Valerius
							and L. Aemilius to Satricum.

Here they found the enemy drawn up for battle on favourable ground and
							immediately engaged him. The action, though so far not decisive, was
							going in favour of the Romans when it was stopped by violent storms of
							wind and rain.

The next day it was resumed and was kept up for some time on the part of
							the enemy with a courage and success equal to that of the Romans, mainly
							by the Latin legions who through their long alliance were familiar with
							Roman tactics.

A cavalry charge disordered their ranks, and before they could recover,
							the infantry made a fresh attack and the further they pressed forward
							the more decided the retreat of the enemy became, and once the battle
							turned, the Roman attack became irresistible.

The rout of the enemy was complete, and as they did not make for their
							camp but tried to reach Satricum, which was two miles distant, they were
							mostly cut down by the cavalry.

The camp was taken and plundered. The following night they evacuated
							Satricum, and in a march which was much more like a flight made their
							way to Antium, and though the Romans followed almost on their heels, the
							state of panic they were in enabled them to outstrip their pursuers.

The enemy entered the city before the Romans could delay or harass their
							rear. Some days were spent in harrying the country as the Romans were
							not sufficiently provided with military engines for attacking the walls,
							nor were the enemy disposed to run the risk of a battle.

A quarrel now arose between the Antiates and the Latins. The Antiates,
							crushed by their misfortunes and exhausted by a state of war which had
							lasted all their lives, were contemplating peace;

the newly revolted Latins, who had enjoyed a long peace and whose
							spirits were yet unbroken, were all the more determined to keep up
							hostilities. When each side had convinced the other that it was
							perfectly free to act as it thought best, there was an end of the
							quarrel.

The Latins took their departure and so cleared themselves from all
							association with a peace which they considered dishonourable; the
							Antiates, when once the inconvenient critics of their salutary counsels
							were out of the way, surrendered their city and territory to the Romans.

The exasperation and rage of the Latins at finding themselves unable to
							injure the Romans in war or to induce the Volscians to keep up
							hostilities rose to such a pitch that they set fire to Satricum, which
							had been their first shelter after their defeat. They flung firebrands
							on sacred and profane buildings alike, and not a single roof of that
							city escaped except the temple of Mother Matuta.

It is stated that it was not any religious scruple or fear of the gods
							that restrained them, bus an awful Voice which sounded from the temple
							threatening them with terrible punishment if they did not keep their
							accursed firebrands far from the shrine.

Whilst in this state of frenzy, they next attacked Tusculum, in revenge
							for its having deserted the national council of the Latins and not only
							becoming an ally of Rome but even accepting her citizenship.

The attack was unexpected and they burst in through the open gates. The
							town was taken at the first alarm with the exception of the citadel.
							Thither the townsmen fled for refuge with their wives and children,
							after sending messengers to Rome to inform the senate of their plight.

With the promptitude which the honour of the Roman people demanded an
							army was marched to Tusculum under the command of the consular tribunes,
							L. Quinctius and Ser.

Sulpicius. They found the gates of Tusculum closed and the Latins, with
							the feelings of men who are at once besieging and being besieged, were
							in one direction defending the walls and in the other attacking the
							citadel, inspiring terror and feeling it at the same time.

The arrival of the Romans produced a change in the temper of both sides;

it turned the gloomy forebodings of the Tusculans into the utmost
							cheerfulness, whilst the confidence which the Latins had felt in a
							speedy capture of the citadel, as they were already in possession of the
							town, sank into a faint and feeble hope of even their own safety. The
							Tusculans in the citadel gave a cheer, it was answered by a much louder
							one from the Roman army.

The Latins were hard pressed on both sides; they could not withstand the
							attack of the Tusculans charging from the higher ground, nor could they
							repel the Romans who were mounting the walls and forcing the gates. The
							walls were first taken by escalade, then the bars of the gates were
							burst. The double attack in front and rear left the Latins no strength
							to fight and no room for escape; between the two they were killed to a
							man.

The greater the tranquillity which prevailed
							everywhere abroad after these successful operations so much the greater
							became the violence of the patricians and the miseries of the plebeians,
							since the ability to pay their debts was frustrated by the very fact
							that payment had become necessary.

They had no means left on which to draw, and after judgment had been
							given against them they satisfied their creditors by surrendering their
							good name and their personal liberty; punishment took the place of
							payment.

To such a state of depression had not only the humbler classes but even
							the leading men amongst the plebeians been reduced, that there was no
							energetic or enterprising individual amongst them who had the spirit to
							take up

or become a candidate even for the plebeian magistracies, still less to
							win a place amongst the patricians as consular tribune, an honour which
							they had previously done their utmost to secure. It seemed as though the
							patricians had for all time won back from the plebs the sole enjoyment
							of a dignity which for the last few years had been shared with them.

As a check to any undue exaltation on the part of the patricians, an
							incident occurred which was slight in itself, but, as is often the case,
							led to important results. M. Fabius Ambustus, a patrician, possessed
							great influence amongst the men of his own order and also with the
							plebeians, because they felt that he did not in any way look down on
							them. His two daughters were married, the elder one to Ser. Sulpicius,
							the younger to C. Licinius Stolo, a distinguished man, but a plebeian.

The fact that Fabius did not regard this alliance as beneath him had
							made him very popular with the masses. The two sisters happened to be
							one day at Ser. Sulpicius' house, passing the time in conversation, when
							on his return from the Forum the tribune's apparitor gave the customary
							knocks on the door with his rod. The younger Fabia was startled at what
							was to her an unfamiliar custom, and her sister laughed at her and
							expressed surprise that she was ignorant of it. That laugh, however,
							left its sting in the mind of a woman easily excited by trifles.

I think, too, that the crowd of attendants coming to ask for orders
							awoke in her that spirit of jealousy which makes every one anxious to be
							surpassed as little as possible by one's neighbours. It made her regard
							her sister's marriage as a fortunate one and her own as a mistake.

Her father happened to see her whilst she was still upset by this
							mortifying incident and asked her if she was well. She tried to conceal
							the real reason, as showing but little affection for her sister and not
							much respect for her own husband.

He kindly but firmly insisted upon finding out, and she confessed the
							real cause of her distress; she was unwed to one who was her inferior in
							birth, married into a house where neither honour nor political influence
							could enter.

Ambustus consoled his daughter and bade her keep up her spirits; she
							would very soon see in her own house the same honours which she saw at
							her sister's. From that time he began to concert plans with his
							son-in-law;

they took into their counsels L. Sextius, a pushing young man who
							regarded nothing as beyond his ambition except patrician blood.

A favourable opportunity for making innovations presented itself in the
							terrible pressure of debt, a burden from which the plebs did not hope
							for any alleviation until they had raised men of their own order to the
							highest authority in the State . This, they thought, was

the aim which they must devote their utmost efforts to reach, and they
							believed that they had already, by dint of effort, secured a foothold
							from which, if they pushed forward, they could secure the

highest positions, and so become the equals of the patricians in dignity
							as they now were in courage.

For the time being, C. Licinius and L. Sextius decided to become tribunes
							of the plebs; once in this office they could clear for themselves the
							way to all the other distinctions. All the measures which they brought
							forward after they were elected were directed against the power and
							influence of the patricians and calculated to promote the interests of
							the plebs One dealt with the debts, and provided that the amount paid in
							interest should be deducted from the

principal and the balance repaid in three equal yearly instalments, The
							second restricted the occupation of land and prohibited any one from
							holding more than five hundred jugera . The
							third provided that there should be no more consular tribunes elected,
							and that one consul should be elected from each order.

They were all questions of immense importance, which could not be
							settled without a tremendous struggle. The prospect of a fight over
							those things which excite the keenest desires of men —land, money,
							honours —produced consternation among the patricians. After excited
							discussions in the senate and in private houses, they found no better
							remedy than the one they had adopted in previous contests, name]y, the
							tribunitian veto, So they won over some of the tribunes to interpose
							their veto against these proposals.

When they saw the tribes summoned by Licinius and Sextius to give their
							votes, these men, surrounded by a bodyguard of patricians, refused to
							allow either the reading of the bills or any other procedure which the
							plebs usually adopted when they came to vote.

For many weeks the Assembly was regularly summoned without any business
							being done, and the bills were looked upon as dead. “Very
							good,” said Sextius, “since it is your pleasure that the
							veto shall possess so much power, we will use this same weapon for the
							protection of the plebs.

Come then, patricians, give notice of an Assembly for the election of
							consular tribunes, I will take care that the word which our colleagues
							are now uttering in concert to your great delight, the word “I
							FORBID,” shall not give you much pleasure.”

These were not idle threats. No elections were held beyond those of the
							tribunes and aediles of the plebs. Licinius and Sextius, when
							re-elected, would not allow any curule magistrates to be appointed, and
							as the plebs constantly re-elected them, and as they constantly stopped
							the election of consular tribunes, this dearth of magistrates lasted in
							the City for five years.

Fortunately, with one exception, there was a respite from foreign war.
							The colonists of Velitrae, becoming wanton in a time of peace and in the
							absence of any Roman army, made various incursions into Roman territory
							and began an attack on Tusculum.

The citizens, allies of old, and now citizens, implored help, and their
							situation moved not only the senate, but the plebs as well, with a sense
							of shame.

The tribunes of the plebs gave way and the elections were conducted by
							an interrex. The consular tribunes elected were: L. Furius, A. Manlius,
							Ser. Sulpicius, Ser. Cornelius, P. and C. Valerius.

They did not find the plebeians nearly so amenable in the enlistment as
							they had been in the elections; it was only after a very great struggle
							that an army was raised. They not only dislodged the enemy from before
							Tusculum, but forced him to take refuge behind his walls.

The siege of Velitrae was carried on with far greater vigour than that
							of Tusculum had been. Those commanders who had commenced the investment
							did not, however, effect its capture.

The new consular tribunes were: Q. Servilius, C. Veturius, A. and M.
							Cornelius, Q. Quinctius, and M. Fabius. Even under these tribunes
							nothing worth mention took place at Velitrae. At home affairs were
							becoming more critical.

Sextius and Licinius, the original proposers of the laws, who had been
							re-elected tribunes of the plebs for the eighth time, were now supported
							by Fabius Ambustus, Licinius Stolo's father-in-law. He came forward as
							the decided advocate of the measures which he had initiated, and whereas
							there had at first been eight members of the college of tribunes who had
							vetoed the proposals, there were now only five.

These five, as usually happens with men who desert their party, were
							embarrassed and dismayed, and defended their opposition by borrowed
							arguments privately suggested to them by the patricians. They urged that
							as a large number of plebeians were in the army at Velitrae the Assembly
							ought to be adjourned till the return of the soldiers, to allow of the
							entire body of the plebs voting on matters affecting their interests.

Sextius and Licinius, experts after so many years' practice in the art
							of handling the plebs, in conjunction with some of their

colleagues and the consular tribune, Fabius Ambustus, brought forward
							the leaders of the patrician party and worried them with questions on
							each of the measures they were referring to the people.

“Have you,” they asked, “the audacity to demand
							that whilst two jugera are allotted to each
							plebeian, you yourselves should each occupy more than five hundred
								 jugera , so that while a singe patrician
							can occupy the land of nearly three hundred citizens, the holding of a
							plebeian is hardly extensive enough for the roof he needs to shelter
							him, or the place where he is to be buried?

Is it your pleasure that the plebeians, crushed by debt, should
							surrender their persons to fetters and punishments sooner than that they
							should discharge their debts by repaying the principal? That, they
							should be led off in crowds from the Forum as the property of their
							creditors? That the houses of the nobility should be filled with
							prisoners, and wherever a patrician lives there should be a private
							dungeon?”

They were denouncing these indignities in the ears of men, apprehensive
							for their own safety, who listened to them with stronger indignation
							than the men who were speaking felt.

They went on to assert that after all there would be no limit to the
							seizure of land by the patricians or the murder of the plebs by the
							deadly usury until the plebs

elected one of the consuls from their own ranks as a guardian of their
							liberties.

The tribunes of the plebs were now objects of contempt since their power
							was shattering itself by their own veto. There could be no fair or just
							administration as long as the executive power was in the hands of the
							other party, while they had only the right of protesting by their veto;
							nor would the plebs ever have an equal share in the government till the
							executive authority was thrown open to them; nor would it be enough, as
							some people might suppose, to allow plebeians to be voted for at the
							election of consuls.

Unless it was made obligatory for one consul at least to be chosen from
							the plebs, no plebeian would ever become consul. Had they forgotten that
							after they had decided that consular tribunes should be elected in
							preference to consuls in order that the highest office might be open to
							plebeians, not a single plebeian was elected consular tribune for
							four-andforty years?

What did they suppose? Did they imagine that the men who had been
							accustomed to fill all the eight places when consular tribunes were
							elected would of their own free will consent to share two places with
							the plebs, or that they would allow the path to the consulship to be
							opened when they had so long blocked the one to the consular
							tribuneship?

The people would have to secure by law what they could not gain by
							favour, and one of the two consulships would have to be placed beyond
							dispute as open to the plebs alone, for if it were open to a contest it
							would always be the prey of the stronger party.

The old, oft-repeated taunt could no longer be made now that there were
							no men amongst the plebs suitable for curule magistracies. Was the
							government carried on with less spirit and energy after the consulship
							of P. Licinius Calvus., who was the first plebeian to be elected to that
							post, than during the years when only patricians held the office?

Nay, on the contrary, there had been some cases of patricians being
							impeached after their year of office, but none of plebeians. The
							quaestors also, like the consular tribunes, had a few years previously
							begun to be elected from the plebs; in no single instance had the Roman
							people had any cause to regret those appointments.

The one thing that was left for the plebs to strive for was the
							consulship. That was the pillar, the stronghold of their liberties. If
							they arrived at that, the Roman people would realise that monarchy had
							been completely banished from the City, and that their freedom was
							securely established, for in that day everything in which the patricians
							were pre-eminent would come to the plebs —

power, dignity, military glory, the stamp of nobility; great things for
							themselves to enjoy, but greater still as legacies to their children.

When they saw that speeches of this kind were listened to with approval,
							they brought forward a fresh proposal, viz. that instead of the duumviri
							(the two keepers of the Sacred Books) a College of Ten should be formed,
							half of them plebeians and half patricians. The meeting of the Assembly,
							which was to pass these measures, was adjourned till the return of the
							army which was besieging Velitrae.

The year passed away before the legions were brought back. Thus the new
							measures were hung up and left for the new consular tribunes to deal
							with. They were T. Quinctius, Ser. Cornelius, Ser. Sulpicius, Sp.
							Servilius, L. Papirius, and L. Veturius.

The plebs re-elected their tribunes, at all events the same two who had
							brought forward the new measures. At the very beginning of the year the
							final stage in the struggle was reached.

When the tribes were summoned and the pro- posers refused to be thwarted
							by the veto of their colleagues, the patricians, now thoroughly alarmed,
							took refuge in their last line of defence —supreme power, and a supreme
							citizen to wield it. They resolved upon the nomination of a Dictator,
							and M. Furius Camillus was nominated; he chose L. Aemilius as his Master
							of the Horse.

Against such formidable preparations on the part of their opponents, the
							proposers on their side prepared to defend the cause of the plebs with
							the weapons of courage and resolution.

They gave notice of a meeting of the Assembly and summoned the tribes to
							vote. Full of anger and menace, the Dictator, surrounded by a compact
							body of patricians, took his seat, and the proceedings commenced as
							usual with a struggle between those who were bringing in the bills and
							those who were interposing their veto against them. The latter were in
							the stronger position legally but they were overborne by the popularity
							of the measures and the men who were proposing them.

The first tribes were already voting “Aye,” when Camillus
							said, “Since, Quirites, it is not the authority of your tribunes
							but their defiance of authority that you are ruled by now, and their
							right of veto, which was once secured by the secession of the plebs, is
							now being rendered nugatory by the same violent conduct by which you
							obtained; if, I, as Dictator, acting in your own interests quite as much
							as in that of the State, shall support the right of veto and protect, by
							my authority the safeguard which you are destroying.

If therefore, C. Licinius and L. Sextius give way before the opposition
							of their colleagues, I will not intrude the powers of a patrician
							magistrate into the councils of the plebs;

if, however, in spite of that opposition they are bent on imposing their
							measures on the State, as though it had been subjugated in war, I will
							not allow the tribunitian power to work its own destruction.” The
							tribunes of the plebs treated this pronouncement with contempt, and
							persisted in their course with unshaken resolution.

Thereupon Camillus, excessively angry, sent lictors to disperse the
							plebeians and threatened, if they went on, to bind the fighting men by
							their military oath and march them out of the City. The plebs were
							greatly alarmed, but their leaders were exasperated rather than
							intimidated by his opposition. But while the contest was still undecided
							he resigned office, either owing to some irregularity in his nomination,
							as certain writers maintain, or because the tribunes proposed a
							resolution, which the plebs adopted, to the effect that if Camillus took
							any action as Dictator a fine of 500,000 asses should be imposed upon
							him.

That his resignation was due to some defect in the auspices rather than
							to the effect of such an unprecedented proposal I am led to believe by
							the following considerations: the well-known character of the man
							himself; the fact that P. Manlius immediately succeeded him as Dictator
							—for what in fluence could he have exerted in a contest in which
							Camillus had been worsted?

the further fact that Camillus was again Dictator, the following year,
							for surely he would have been ashamed to reassume an authority which had
							been successfully defied the year before.

Besides, at the time when, according to the tradition, the resolution
							imposing a fine on him was passed, either he had as Dictator the power
							to negative a measure which

he saw was meant to circumscribe his authority, or else he was powerless
							to resist even those other measures on account of which this one was
							carried. But amidst all the conflicts in which tribunes and consuls have
							been engaged, the Dictator's powers have always been above controversy.

Between Camillus' resignation of office and Manlius' entrance on his
							Dictatorship, the tribunes held a council of the plebs as though an
							interregnum had occurred. Here it was evident which of the proposed
							measures were preferred by the plebs and which their tribunes were most
							eager about.

The measures dealing with usury and the allotment of State land were
							being adopted, that providing that one consul should always be a
							plebeian was rejected; both the former would probably have been carried
							into law if the tribunes had not said that they were putting them
								 en bloc .

P. Manlius, on his nomination as Dictator, strengthened the cause of the
							plebs by appointing a plebeian, C. Licinius, who had been a consular
							tribune, as his Master of the Horse.

I gather that the patricians were much annoyed; the Dictator generally
							defended his action on the ground of relationship; he pointed out also
							that the authority of a Master of the Horse was no greater than that of
							a consular tribune.

When notice was given for the election of tribunes of the plebs, Licinius
							and Sextius declared their unwillingness to be re-elected, but they put
							it in a way which made the plebeians all the more eager to secure the
							end which they secretly had in view.

For nine years, they said, they had been standing in battle array, as it
							were, against the patricians, at the greatest risk to themselves and
							with no advantage to the people. The measures they had brought forward
							and the whole power of the tribunes had, like themselves, become
							enfeebled by age.

Their proposed legislation had been frustrated first by the veto of
							their colleagues, then by the withdrawal of their fighting men to the
							district of Velitrae, and last of all the Dictator had launched his
							thunders at them.

At the present time there was no obstacle either from their colleagues
							or from war or from the Dictator, for he had given them an earnest of
							the future election of plebeian consuls by appointing a plebeian as
							Master of the Horse.

It was the plebs who stood in the way of their tribunes and their own
							interests. If they chose they could have a City and a Forum free from
							creditors, and fields rescued from their unlawful occupiers.

When were they ever going to show sufficient gratitude for these boons,
							if while accepting these beneficial measures they cut off from those who
							proposed them all hope of attaining the highest honours? It was not
							consistent with the self-respect of the Roman people for them to demand
							to be relieved of the burden of usury and placed on the land which is
							now wrongfully held by the magnates, and then to leave the tribunes,
							through whom they won these reforms, without honourable distinction in
							their old age or any hope of attaining it.

They must first make up their minds as to what they really wanted and
							then declare their will by their votes at the election.

If they wanted the proposed measures carried as a whole, there was some
							reason for their re-electing the same tribunes, because they would carry
							their own measures through; if, however, they only wished that to be
							passed which each man happened to want for himself, there was no need
							for them to incur odium by prolonging their term of office; they would
							not have the tribuneship themselves, nor would the people obtain the
							proposed reforms.

This determined language from the tribunes filled the patricians with
							speechless indignation and amazement.

It is stated that Appius Claudius, a grandson of the old decemvir, moved
							by feelings of anger and hatred more than by any hope of turning them
							from their purpose, came forward and spoke to the following effect:

“It would be nothing new or surprising to me, Quirites, to hear
							once more the reproach that has always been levelled against our family
							by revolutionary tribunes, namely, that from the very beginning we have
							never regarded anything in the State as more important than the honour
							and dignity of the patricians, and that we have always been inimical to
							the interests of the plebs.

The former of these charges I do not deny. I acknowledge that from the
							day when we were admitted into the State and into the senate we have
							laboured most assiduously in order that the greatness of those houses
							amongst which it was your will that we should be numbered might be said
							in all truth to have been enhanced rather than impaired.

In reply to the second charge, I would go so far as to assert, on my own
							behalf and on that of my ancestors, that neither as individuals nor in
							our capacity as magistrates have we ever done anything knowingly which
							was against the interests of the plebs, unless any one should suppose
							that what is done on behalf of the State as a whole is necessarily
							injurious to the plebs as though they were living in another city; nor
							can any act or word of ours be truthfully brought up as opposed to your
							real welfare, though some may have been opposed to your wishes.

Even if I did not belong to the Claudian house and had no patrician
							blood in my veins, but more simply one of the Quirites, knowing only
							that I was sprung from free-born parents and was living in a free State
							—even

then, could I keep silence when I see that this L. Sextius, this C.
							Licinius, tribunes for life —good heavens! — have reached such a pitch
							of impudence during the nine years of their reign that they are refusing
							to allow you to vote as you please in the elections and in the enacting
							of laws?”

“On one condition,” they say, “you shall reappoint
							us tribunes for the tenth time.” What is this but saying,
							“What others seek we so thoroughly despise that we will not
							accept it without a heavy premium”?

But what premium have we to pay that we may always have you as tribunes
							of the plebs? “That you adopt all our measures en bloc , whether you agree with them or not, whether they
							are useful or the reverse.”

“Now I ask you —you Tarquinian tribunes of the
							plebs —to listen to me. Suppose that I, as a citizen, call out from the
							middle of the Assembly, “Allow us, with your kind permission, to
							choose out of these proposed measures what we think beneficial for us
							and reject the

others.” “No,” he says, “you will not be
							allowed to do so. You would pass the measure about usury and the one
							about the distribution of land, for these concern you all; but you would
							not allow the City of Rome to witness the portentous sight of L. Sextius
							and C. Licinius as consuls, a prospect you regard with detestation and
							loathing. Either accept all, or I propose

none.” Just as if a man were to place poison together with food
							before some one famished with hunger and bid him either abstain from
							what would support his life or mix with it what would bring death. If
							this were a free State, would not hundreds of voices have exclaimed,
							“Be gone with your tribuneships and proposals.” What? If
								 you do not bring in reforms which it is to the people's
							advantage to adopt, is there no one else who

will? If any patrician, if even a Claudius whom they detest still more
							—were to say, “Either accept all, or I propose none,”
							which of you, Quirites, would tolerate it? Will you never have more
							regard for measures than for

men? Will you always listen with approving ears to everything which your
							magistrate says and with hostile ears to whatever is said by any of
							us?” “His language is utterly unbecoming a citizen of a
							free

republic. Well, and what sort of a proposal is it, in heaven's name,
							that they are indignant with you for having rejected? One, Quirites,
							which quite matches his language. “I am proposing,” he
							says, “that you shall not be allowed to appoint whom you please
							as

consuls.” What else does his proposal mean? He is laying down the
							law that one consul at least shall be elected from the plebs, and is
							depriving you of the power of electing two

patricians. If there were to-day a war with Etruria such as when Porsena
							encamped on the Janiculum, or such as that in recent times with the
							Gauls, when everything round us except the Capitol and the Citadel were
							in the enemy's hands, and, in the press of such a war, L. Sextius were
							standing for the consulship with M. Furius Camillus and some other
							patrician, could you tolerate Sextius being quite certain of election
							and Camillus in danger of

defeat? Is this what you call an equal distribution of honours, when it
							is lawful for two plebeians to be made consuls, but not for two
							patricians; when one must necessarily be taken from the plebs, while it
							is open to reject every patrician? What is this comradeship, this
							equality of yours? Do you count it little to come into a share of what
							you have had no share in hitherto, unless whilst you are seeking to
							obtain the half you can carry off the

whole? He says, “I am afraid if it is left open for two
							patricians to be elected, you will never elect a plebeian.” What
							is this but saying, “Because you would not of your own will elect
							unworthy persons, I will impose upon you the necessity of electing them
							against your

will”? What follows? That if only one plebeian is standing with
							two patricians he has not to thank the people for his election; he may
							say he was appointed by the law not by their vote.”

“Their aim is not to sue for honours but to extort them from you,
							and they will get the greatest favours from you without showing the
							gratitude due even for the smallest. They prefer seeking posts of honour
							by trusting to accident rather than by personal merit.

There is many a man, too proud to submit his merits and claims to
							inspection and examination, who would think it quite fair that he alone
							among his competitors should be quite certain of attaining a post of
							honour, who would withdraw himself from your judgment and transfer your
							free votes into compulsory and servile ones.

Not to mention Licinius and Sextius, whose years of uninterrupted power
							you number up as though they were kings in the Capitol , who is there in
							the State to-day in such humble circumstances as not to find the path to
							the consulship made easier by the opportunities offered in that measure
							for him than it is for us and our children? Even when you sometimes wish
							to elect us you will not have the power; those people you will be
							compelled to elect, even if you do not wish to do so.”
							“Enough has been said about the indignity of the

thing. Questions of dignity, however, only concern men; what shall I say
							about the duties of religion and the auspices, the contempt and
							profanation of which specially concern the gods? Who is there who knows
							not that it was under auspices that this City was founded, that only
							after auspices have been taken is anything done in war or peace, at home
							or in the

field? Who have the right to take the auspices in accordance with the
							usage of our fathers? The patricians, surely, for not a single plebeian
							magistrate is elected under

auspices. So exclusively do the auspices belong to us that not only do
							the people when electing patrician magistrates elect them only when the
							auspices are favourable, but even we, when, independently of the people,
							we are choosing an interrex, only do so after the auspices have been
							taken: we as private citizens have the auspices which your order does
							not possess even as

magistrates. What else is the man doing who by the creation of plebeian
							consuls takes away the auspices from the patricians who alone can
							possess them —what else, I ask, is he doing but depriving the State of
							the auspices? Now, men are at liberty to mock at our religious

fears. “What does it matter if the sacred chickens do not feed,
							if they hesitate to come out of their coop, if a bird has shrieked
							ominously?” These are small matters, but it was by not despising
							these small matters that our ancestors have achieved the supreme
							greatness of this State. Now, as though there were no need of securing
							peace with the gods, we are polluting all ceremonial

acts. Are pontiffs, augurs, kings for sacrifice to be appointed
							indiscriminately? Are we to place the mitre of the Flamen of Jupiter
							upon any one's head provided only he be a man? Are we to hand over the
							sacred shields, the shrines, the gods, and the care of their worship to
							men to whom it would be impious to entrust

them? Are laws no longer to be passed, or magistrates elected in
							accordance with the auspices? Are the senate no longer to authorise the
							Assembly of centuries, or the Assembly of curies? Are Sextius and
							Licinius to reign in this City of Rome as though they were a second
							Romulus, a second Tatius, because they give away other people's money
							and other people's

lands? So great a charm is felt in preying upon other people's fortunes,
							that it has not occurred to them that by expelling the occupiers from
							their lands under the one law vast solitudes will be created, whilst by
							the action of the other all credit will be destroyed and with it all
							human society

abolished. For every reason I consider that these proposals ought to be
							rejected, and may heaven guide you to a right decision!”

The speech of Appius only availed to effect the postponement of the
							voting.

Sextius and Licinius were re-elected for the tenth time. They carried a
							law providing that of the ten keepers of the Sibylline Books, five
							should be chosen from the patricians and five from the plebeians. This
							was regarded as a further step towards opening the path to the
							consulship.

The plebs, satisfied with their victory, made the concession to the
							patricians that for the present all mention of consuls should be
							dropped. Consular tribunes were accordingly elected. Their names were A.
							and M. Cornelius (each for the second time), M. Geganius, P. Manlius, L.
							Veturius, and P. Valerius (for the sixth time).

With the exception of the siege of Velitrae, in which the result was
							delayed rather than doubtful, Rome was quiet so far as foreign affairs
							went. Suddenly the City was startled by rumours of the hostile advance
							of the Gauls. M. Furius Camillus was nominated Dictator for the fifth
							time. He named as his Master of the Horse T. Quinctius Poenus.

Claudius is our authority for the statement that a battle was fought at
							the Anio with the Gauls this year, and that it was then that the famous
							fight took place on the bridge in which T. Manlius killed a Gaul who had
							challenged him and then despoiled him of his golden collar in the sight
							of both armies.

I am more inclined, with the majority of authors, to believe that these
							occurrences took place ten years later.

There was, however, a pitched battle fought this year by the Dictator, M.
							F. Camillus, against the Gauls in the Alban territory. Although, bearing
							in mind their former defeat, the Romans felt a great dread of the Gauls,
							their victory was neither doubtful nor difficult.

Many thousands of the barbarians were slain in the battle, many more in
							the capture of their camp. Many others, making chiefly in the direction
							of Apulia, escaped, some by distant flight, and others who had become
							widely scattered and in their panic had lost their way. By the joint
							consent of the senate and plebs a triumph was decreed to the Dictator.

He had hardly disposed of that war before a more alarming commotion
							awaited him at home. After tremendous conflicts, the Dictator and the
							senate were worsted; consequently the proposals of the tribunes were
							carried, and in spite of the opposition of the nobility the elections
							were held for consuls.

L. Sextius was the first consul to be elected out of the plebs. Even
							that was not the end of the conflict.

The patricians refused to confirm the appointment, and matters were
							approaching a secession of the plebs and other threatening signs of
							appalling civic struggles. The Dictator, however, quieted the
							disturbances by arranging a compromise; the nobility made a concession
							in the matter of a plebeian consul, the plebs gave way to the nobility
							on the appointment of a praetor to administer justice in the City who
							was to be a patrician.

Thus after their long estrangement the two orders of the State were at
							length brought into harmony. The senate decided that this event deserved
							to be commemorated —and if ever the immortal gods merited men's
							gratitude, they merited it then —by the celebration of the Great Games,
							and a fourth day was added to the three hitherto devoted to them.

The plebeian aediles refused to superintend them, whereupon the younger
							patricians were unanimous in declaring that they would gladly allow
							themselves to be appointed aediles for the honour of the immortal gods.

They were universally thanked, and the senate made a decree that the
							Dictator should ask the people to elect two aediles from amongst the
							patricians, and that the senate should confirm all the elections of that
							year.

This year will be noteworthy for the first consulship held by a plebeian,
							and also for two new magistracies, the praetorship, and the curule
							aedileship. These offices the patricians created in their own interest
							as an equivalent for their concession of one consulship to the plebs,
							who bestowed it on L. Sextius, the man who had secured it for them.

The patricians secured the praetorship for Sp. Furius, the son of old
							Camillus, and the two aedileships for Gnaeus Quinctius Capitolinus and
							P. Cornelius Scipio, members of their own order. L. Aemilius Mamercus
							was elected from the patricians as colleague to L. Sextius.

The main themes of discussion at the beginning of the year were the
							Gauls, about whom it was rumoured that after wandering by various routes
							through Apulia they had reunited their forces, and the Hernici, who were
							reported to have revolted.

All preparations were deferred with the sole purpose of preventing any
							action from being taken by the plebeian consul; everything was quiet and
							silent in the City, as though a suspension of all business had been
							proclaimed, with the one exception of the tribunes of the plebs.

They did not silently submit to the procedure of the nobility in
							appropriating to themselves three patrician magistrates, sitting in
							curule chairs and clothed in the praetexta like consuls, as a set-off
							against one plebeian consul —

the praetor even administering justice, as though he were a colleague of
							the consuls and elected under the same auspices.

The senate felt somewhat ashamed of their resolution by which they had
							limited the curule aediles to their own order; it had been agreed that
							they should be elected in alternate years from the plebs; afterwards it
							was left open. The 
							consuls for the following year were L. Genucius and Q.

Servilius. Matters were quiet as regarded domestic troubles or foreign
							wars, but, lest there should be too great a feeling of security, a
							pestilence broke aediles, and three tribunes of the plebs fell victims,
							and in the population generally there was a corresponding proportion of
							deaths. The most illustrious victim was M. F. Camillus, whose death,
							though occurring in ripe old age, was bitterly

lamented. He was, it may be truly said, an exceptional man in every
							change of fortune; before he went into exile foremost in peace and war,
							rendered still more illustrious when actually in exile by the regret
							which the State felt for his loss, and the eagerness with which after
							its capture it implored his assistance, and quite as much so by the
							success with which, after being restored to his country, he restored his
							country's fortunes together with his

own. For five-and-twenty years after this he lived fully up to his
							reputation, and was counted worthy to be named next to Romulus, as the
							second founder of the City.

—The pestilence lasted into the
							following year. The new consuls were C. Sulpicius Peticus and C.
							Licinius

Stolo. Nothing worth mentioning took place, except that in order to
							secure the peace of the gods a lectisternium was instituted, the third since the
							foundation of the

City. But the violence of the epidemic was not
							alleviated by any aid from either men or gods, and it is asserted that
							as men's minds were completely overcome by superstitious terrors they
							introduced, amongst other attempts to placate the wrath of heaven,
							scenic representations, a novelty to a nation of warriors who had
							hitherto only had the games of the

Circus. They began, however, in a small way, as nearly everything does,
							and small as they were, they were borrowed from abroad. The players were
							sent for from Etruria; there were no words, no mimetic action; they
							danced to the measures of the flute and practised graceful movements in
							Tuscan

fashion. Afterwards the young men began to imitate them, exercising
							their wit on each other in burlesque verses, and suiting their action to
							their

words. This became an established diversion, and was kept up by frequent
							practice. The Tuscan word for an actor is istrio , and so the native performers were called

histriones . These did not, as in former
							times, throw out rough extempore effusions like the Fescennine verse,
							but they chanted satyrical verses quite metrically arranged and adapted
							to the notes of the flute, and these they accompanied with appropriate
							movements. Several years later Livius for the first time abandoned the
							loose satyrical verses and ventured to compose a play with a coherent

plot. Like all his contemporaries, he acted in his own plays, and it is
							said that when he had worn

out his voice by repeated recalls he begged leave to place a second
							player in front of the flutist to sing the monologue while he did the
							acting, with all the more energy because his voice no longer embarrassed

him. Then the practice commenced of the chanter following the movements
							of the actors, the dialogue alone being left to their

voices. When, by adopting this method in the presentation of pieces, the
							old farce and loose jesting was given up and the play became a work of
							art, the young people left the regular acting to the professional
							players and began to improvise comic verses. These were subsequently
							known as exodia (after-pieces), and were
							mostly worked up into the “Atellane

Plays.” These farces were of Oscan origin, and were kept by the young men
							in their own hands; they would not allow them to be polluted by the
							regular actors. Hence it is a standing rule that those who take part in
							the Atellanae are not deprived of their
							civic standing, and serve in the army as being in no way connected with
							the

regular acting. Amongst the things which have arisen from small
							beginnings, the origin of the stage ought to be put foremost, seeing
							that what was at first healthy and innocent has grown into a mad
							extravagance that even wealthy kingdoms can hardly support.

However, the first introduction of plays, though intended as a means of
							religious expiation, did not relieve the mind from religious terrors nor
							the body from the inroads of disease.

Owing to an inundation of the Tiber, the Circus was flooded in the
							middle of the Games, and this produced an unspeakable dread; it seemed
							as though the gods had turned their faces from men and despised all that
							was done to propitiate their wrath.

C. Genucius and
							L. Aemilius Mamercus were the new consuls, each for the second time. The
							fruitless search for effective means of propitiation was affecting the
							minds of the people more than disease was affecting

their bodies. It is said to have been discovered that the older men
							remembered that a pestilence had once been assuaged by the Dictator
							driving in a nail. The senate believed this to be a religious
							obligation, and ordered a Dictator to be nominated for

that purpose. L. Manlius Imperiosus was nominated, and he appointed L.
							Pinarius as his Master of the Horse. There is an ancient instruction
							written in archaic letters which runs: Let him who is the praetor
								maximus fasten a nail on the Ides of September . This notice
							was fastened up on the right side of the temple of Jupiter Optimus
							Maximus, next to the chapel

of Minerva. This nail is said to have marked the number of the year
							—written records being scarce in those days —and was for that reason
							placed under the protection of Minerva because she was the inventor

of numbers. Cincius, a careful student of monuments of this kind,
							asserts that at Volsinii also nails were fastened in the temple of
							Nortia, an Etruscan goddess, to indicate the number of

the year. It was in accordance with this direction that the consul
							Horatius dedicated the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in the year
							following the expulsion of the kings ; from the consuls the ceremony of
							fastening the nails passed to the Dictators, because they possessed
							greater authority. As the custom had been subsequently dropped, it was
							felt to be of sufficient importance to require the appointment of a
							Dictator.

L. Manlius was accordingly nominated, but, regarding his appointment as
							due to political rather than to religious reasons and eager to command
							in the war with the Hernici, he caused a very angry feeling among the
							men liable to serve by the inconsiderate way in which he conducted the
							enrolment. At last, in consequence of the unanimous resistance offered
							by the tribunes of the plebs, he gave way, either voluntarily or through
							compulsion, and laid down his Dictatorship.

. —This did not, however, prevent his
							impeachment the following year, when Q. Servilius Ahala and L. Genucius
							were consuls, the prosecutor being M. Pomponius, one of the tribunes of
							the plebs. He had incurred universal hatred through the unfeeling
							severity with which he had carried out the enlistment; the citizens had
							not only been fined, but subjected to personal ill-treatment, some
							scourged and others imprisoned because they had not answered to their
							names.

But what men most loathed was his brutal temperament, and the epithet
							“Imperiosus” (masterful) which had been fastened on him
							from his unblushing cruelty, an epithet utterly repugnant to a free
							State. The effects of his cruelty were felt quite as much by his nearest
							kindred, by his own blood as by strangers. Amongst other charges which
							the tribune brought against him was his treatment of his young son. It
							was alleged that although guilty of no offence he had banished him from
							the City, from his home and household gods, had forbidden him to appear
							in public in the Forum or to associate with those of his own age, and
							had consigned him to servile work, almost to the imprisonment of a
							workshop.

Here the youth, of high birth, the son of a Dictator, was to learn by
							daily suffering how rightly his father was called
							“Imperiosus.” And for what offence? Simply because he was
							lacking in eloquence, in readiness of speech! Ought not this natural
							defect to have been helped and remedied by the father, if there were a
							spark of humanity in him, instead of being punished and branded by
							persecution? Not even do brute beasts show less care and protection to
							their offspring if they happen to be sickly or deformed.

But L. Manlius actually aggravated his son's misfortune by fresh
							misfortunes, and increased his natural dullness and quenched any faint
							glimmerings of ability which he might have shown by the clodhopper's
							life to which he was condemned and the boorish bringing up amongst
							cattle to which he had to submit. The youth himself was the last to be
							exasperated by these accusations brought against his father. On the
							contrary, he was so indignant at finding himself made the ground of the
							charges against his father and the deep resentment they created that he
							was determined to let gods and men see that he preferred standing by his
							father to helping his enemies.

He formed a project which, though natural to an ignorant rustic and no
							precedent for an ordinary citizen to follow, still afforded a laudable
							example of filial affection. Arming himself with a knife, he went off
							early in the morning, without any one's knowledge, to the City, and once
							inside the gates proceeded straight to the house of M. Pomponius. He
							informed the porter that it was necessary for him to see his master at
							once, and announced himself as T. Manlius, the son of Lucius. Pomponius
							imagined that he was either bringing some matter for a fresh charge, to
							revenge himself on his father, or was going to offer some advice as to
							the management of the prosecution.

After mutual salutations, he informed Pomponius that he wished the
							business in hand to be transacted in the absence of witnesses. After all
							present had been ordered to withdraw, he grasped his knife and standing
							over the tribune's bed and pointing the weapon towards him, threatened
							to plunge it into him at once unless he took the oath which he was going
							to dictate to him, “That he would never hold an Assembly of the
							plebs for the prosecution of his father.” The tribune was
							terrified, for he saw the steel glittering before his eyes, while he was
							alone and defenceless, in the presence of a youth of exceptional
							strength, and what was worse, prepared to use that strength with savage
							ferocity. He took the required oath and publicly announced that,
							yielding to violence, he had abandoned his original purpose.

The plebs would certainly have been glad of the opportunity of passing
							sentence on such an insolent and cruel offender, but they were not
							displeased at the son's daring deed in defence of his parent, which was
							all the more meritorious because it showed that his father's brutality
							had not in any way weakened his natural affection and sense of duty. Not
							only was the prosecution of the father dropped, but the incident proved
							the means of distinction for the son. That year, for the first time, the
							military tribunes were elected by the popular vote; previously they had
							been nominated by the commander-in-chief, as is the case now with those
							who are called Rufuli. This youth obtained the second out of six places,
							though he had done nothing at home or in the field to make him popular,
							having passed his youth in the country far from city life.

In this year, owing either to an earthquake or the
							action of some other force, the middle of the Forum fell in to an
							immense depth, presenting the appearance of an enormous cavern.

Though all worked their hardest at throwing earth in, they were unable
							to fill up the

gulf, until at the bidding of the gods inquiry was made as to what that
							was in which the strength of Rome lay.

For this, the seers declared, must be sacrificed on that spot if men
							wished the Roman republic to be eternal. The story goes on that M.
							Curtius, a youth distinguished in war, indignantly asked those who were
							in doubt what

answer to give, whether anything that Rome possessed was more precious
							than the arms and valour of her sons.

As those around stood silent, he looked up to the Capitol and to the
							temples of the immortal gods which looked down on the Forum, and
							stretching out his hands first towards heaven and then to the yawning
							chasm beneath, devoted himself to the gods below.

Then mounting his horse, which had been caparisoned as magnificently as
							possible, he leaped in full armour into the cavern. Gifts and offerings
							of fruits of the earth were flung in after him by crowds of men and
							women.

It was from this incident that the designation “The Curtian
							Gulf” originated, and not from that old-world soldier of Titius
							Tatius, Curtius Mettius.

If any path would lead an inquirer to the truth, we should not shrink
							from the labour of investigation; as it is, on a matter where antiquity
							makes certainty impossible we must adhere to the legend which supplies
							the more famous derivation of the name.

After this appalling portent had been duly
							expiated, the deliberations of the senate were concerned with the
							Hernici.

The mission of the Fetials who had been sent to demand satisfaction
							proved to be fruitless; the senate accordingiy decided to submit to the
							people at the earliest possible day the question of declaring war
							against the Hernici.

The people in a crowded Assembly voted for war. Its conduct fell by lot
							to L. Genucius.

As he was the first plebeian consul to manage a war under his own
							auspices the State awaited the issue with keen interest, prepared to
							look

upon the policy of admitting plebeians to the highest offices of state
							as wise or unwise according to the way matters turned out.

As chance would have it, Genucius, whilst making a vigorous attack upon
							the enemy, fell into an ambush, the legions were taken by surprise and
							routed, and the consul was surrounded and killed without the enemy being
							aware who their victim was.

When the report of the occurrence reached Rome, the patricians were not
							so much distressed at the disaster which had befallen the commonwealth
							as they were exultant over the unfortunate generalship of the consul.
							Everywhere they were taunting the plebeians: “Go on!

Elect your consuls from the plebs, transfer the auspices to those for
							whom it is an impiety to possess them!

The voice of the plebs may expel the patricians from their rightful
							honours, but has your law, which pollutes the auspices, any force
							against the immortal gods?

They have themselves vindicated their will as expressed through the
							auspices, for no sooner have these been profaned by one who took them
							against divine and human law than the army and its general have been
							wiped out as a lesson to you not to conduct the elections to the
							confusion of all the rights of the patrician houses.”

The Senate-house and the Forum alike were resounding with these
							protests. Appius Claudius, who had led the opposition to the law, spoke
							with more weight than ever while he denounced the result of a

policy which he had severely censured, and the consul Servilius, with
							the unanimous approval of the patricians, nominated him Dictator. Orders
							were issued for an immediate enrolment and the suspension of all
							business.

After Genucius had fallen, C. Sulpicius had assumed the command, and
							before the arrival of the Dictator and the newlyraised legions, he
							distinguished himself by a smart action.

The death of the consul had led the Hernici to think very lightly of the
							Roman arms, and they surrounded the Roman camp fully expecting to carry
							it by assault. The defenders, encouraged by their general and burning
							with rage and indignation at their recent defeat, made a sortie, and not
							only destroyed any hopes the Hernici had of forcing the entrenchment but
							created such disorder amongst them that they precipitately retreated.

By the arrival of the Dictator and the junction of the old and
							newly-raised legions, their strength was doubled. In the presence of the
							entire force, the Dictator commended Sulpicius and the men who had so
							gallantly defended the camp, and whilst he raised the courage of those
							who listened to the praise which they so well deserved, he at the same
							time made the rest all the keener to emulate them.

The enemy showed no less energy in preparing for a renewal of the
							struggle. Aware of the increase in the strength of their enemy, and
							animated by the thought of their recent victory, they called every man
							in the Hernican nation who could bear arms.

Eight cohorts were formed of four hundred men each, who had been
							carefully selected. These, the picked flower of their manhood, were full
							of hope and courage, and they were further encouraged by a decree which
							had been passed to allow them double pay. They were exempt from all
							fatigue duty, in order that they might devote themselves more than the
							rest of the troops to the one duty reserved for them-that of fighting.

In order to make their courage more conspicuous they occupied a special
							position in the fighting line. The Roman camp was separated from the
							Hernican by a plain two miles broad. In the middle of this plain, almost
							equally distant from both camps, the battle took place.

For some time neither side gained any advantage, though the Roman
							cavalry made frequent attempts to break the enemy's line.

When they found that the effect produced was much feebler than the
							efforts they made, they obtained the Dictator's permission to abandon
							their horses and fight on foot. They raised a loud cheer and commenced a
							novel kind of fighting by charging as infantry.

Their onset would have been irresistible had not the special cohorts of
							the enemy opposed them with a strength and courage equal to their own.

Then the struggle was kept up by the foremost men of each nation.
							Whatever losses the common chances of battle inflicted on each side were
							many times greater than could have been expected from their numbers. The
							rest of the soldiers stood like a crowd of spectators, leaving the
							fighting to their chiefs as if it were their special privilege, and
							placing all their hopes of victory on the courage of others. Many fell
							on both sides, still more were wounded.

At length the cavalry began to ask each other somewhat bitterly,
							“What was left for them to do if after failing to repulse the
							enemy when mounted they could make no impression on them whilst fighting
							on foot. What third mode of fighting were they looking for?

Why had they dashed forward so eagerly in front of the standards to
							fight in a position which was not their proper one?” Urged on by
							these mutual reproaches, they raised their battle shout again and
							pressed forward. Slowly they compelled the enemy to give ground, then
							they drove them back more rapidly, and at last fairly routed them.

It is not easy to say what gave the advantage where the two sides were
							so evenly matched, unless it be that the Fortune which ever watches over
							each nation had the power to raise and to depress their courage.

The Romans followed up the fleeing Hernici as far as their camp; but they
							abstained from attacking it, as it was late in the day. They offered
							sacrifices the next morning for a long time without obtaining any
							favourable omen, and this prevented the Dictator from giving the signal
							for attack before noon; the fight consequently went on into the night.

The next day they found the camp abandoned; the Hernici had fled and
							left some of their wounded behind. The people of Signium saw the main
							body of the fugitives streaming past their walls with their standards
							few and far between, and sallying out to attack them they scattered them
							in headlong flight over the fields.

The victory was anything but a bloodless one for the Romans; they lost a
							quarter of their whole force, and by no means the smallest loss fell on
							the cavalry, a considerable number of whom perished.

The consuls for the following year were C. Sulpicius and C. Licinius
							Calvus. They resumed operations against the Hernici, and invaded their
							territory, but did not find the enemy in the open. They attacked and
							captured Ferentinum, a Hernican city; but as they were returning home
							the Tiburtines closed their gates against them.

There had previously been numerous complaints made on both sides, but
							this last provocation finally decided the Romans, in case the Fetials
							failed to get redress, to declare war against the Tiburtines.

It is generally understood that T. Quinctius Pennus was the Dictator and
							Ser. Cornelius Maluginensis the Master of the horse. According to
							Licinius Macer, the Dictator was nominated by the consul Licinius.

His colleague, Sulpicius, was anxious to get the elections over before
							he departed for the war, in the hope of being himself re-elected, if he
							were on the spot, and Licinius determined to thwart his colleague's
							self-seeking ambition.

Licinius Macer's desire to appropriate the credit of this to his house
							(the Licinii) lessens the weight of his authority. As I find no mention
							of this in the older annalists, I am more inclined to believe that it
							was the prospect of a Gaulish war which was the immediate cause why a
							Dictator was nominated.

At all events it was in this year that the Gauls formed their camp by
							the Salarian road, three miles from the City at the bridge across the
							Anio. In face of this sudden and alarming
							inroad the Dictator proclaimed a suspension of all business, and made
							every man who was liable to serve take the military oath.

He marched out of the City with an immense army and fixed his camp on
							this side the Anio. Each side had left the bridge between them intact,
							as its destruction might have been thought due to fears of an attack.

There were frequent skirmishes for the possession of the bridge; as
							these were indecisive, the question was left unsettled. A Gaul of
							extraordinary stature strode forward on to the unoccupied bridge, and
							shouting as loudly as he could, cried: “Let the bravest man that
							Rome possesses come out and fight me, that we two may decide which
							people is the superior in war.”

A long silence followed. The best and bravest of the Romans made no
							sign;they felt ashamed of appearing to decline the challenge, and yet
							they were reluctant to expose themselves to such terrible danger.

Thereupon T. Manlius, the youth who had protected his father from the
							persecution of the tribune, left his post and went to the
							Dictator.“Without

your orders, General,” he said, “I will never leave my
							post to fight, no, not even if I saw that victory was certain ; but if
							you give me permission I want to show that monster as he stalks so
							proudly in front of their lines that I am a scion of that family which
							hurled the troop of Gauls from the Tarpeian rock.”

Then the Dictator: “Success to your courage, T. Manlius, and to
							your affection for your father and your fatherland . Go, and with the
							help of the gods show that the name of Rome is invincible.”

Then his comrades fastened on his armour; he took an infantry shield and
							a Spanish sword as better adapted for close fighting; thus
							armed and equipped they led him forward against the Gaul, who was
							exulting in his brute strength, and even —the ancients thought this
							worth recording —putting his tongue out in derision.

They retired to their posts and the two armed champions were left alone
							in the midst, more after the manner of a scene on the stage than under
							the conditions of serious war, and to those who judged by appearances,
							by no means equally matched.

The one was a creature of enormous bulk, resplendent in a many-coloured
							coat and wearing painted and gilded armour; the other a man of average
							height, and his arms, useful rather than ornamental, gave him quite an
							ordinary appearance. There was no singing of war-songs, no prancing
							about, no silly brandishing of

weapons. With a breast full of courage and silent wrath Manlius reserved
							all his ferocity for the actual moment of

conflict. When they had taken their stand between the two armies, while
							so many hearts around them were in suspense between hope and fear, the
							Gaul, like a great overhanging mass, held out his shield on his left arm
							to meet his adversary's blows and aimed a tremendous cut downwards with
							his

sword. The Roman evaded the blow, and pushing aside the bottom of the
							Gaul's shield with his own, he slipped under it close up to the Gaul,
							too near for him to get at him with his sword. Then turning the point of
							his blade upwards, he gave two rapid thrusts in succession and stabbed
							the Gaul in the belly and the groin, laying his enemy prostrate over a
							large extent of

ground. He left the body of his fallen foe undespoiled with the
							exception of his chain, which though smeared with blood he placed round
							his own

neck. Astonishment and fear kept the Gauls motionless; the Romans ran
							eagerly forward from their lines to meet their warrior, and amidst
							cheers and congratulations they conducted him to the

Dictator. In the doggerel verses which they extemporised in his honour
							they called him Torquatus (“adorned with a chain”), and
							this soubriquet became for his posterity a proud family

name. The Dictator gave him a golden crown, and before the whole army
							alluded to his victory in terms of the highest praise.

Strange to relate, that single combat had such a farreaching influence
							upon the whole war that the Gauls hastily abandoned their camp and moved
							off into the neighbourhood of Tibur. They formed an alliance offensive
							and defensive with that city, and the Tiburtines supplied them
							generously with provisions. After receiving this assistance they passed
							on into Campania.

This was the reason why in the following year the
							consul, C. Poetilius Balbus, led an army, by order of the people,
							against the Tiburtines, though the conduct of the war against the
							Hernici had fallen by lot to his colleague, M. Fabius Ambustus.

Though the Gauls had come back from Campania to their assistance, it was
							undoubtedly by the Tiburtine generals that the cruel depredations in the
							territories of Labici, Tusculum, and Alba were carried out. To act
							against the Tiburtines, the republic was content with a consul, but the
							sudden re-appearance of the Gauls required a Dictator.

Q. Servilius Ahala was nominated, and he selected T. Quinctius as Master
							of the Horse. On the authority of the senate, he made a vow to celebrate
							the Great Games, should the issue of the war prove favourable.

After giving orders for the consul's army to remain where it was, in
							order to confine the Tiburtines to their own war, the Dictator mode all
							the “juniors” take the military oath, without a single
							refusal.

The battle, in which the whole strength of the City was engaged, took
							place not far from the Colline Gate in the sight of the parents and
							wives and children of the Roman soldiers. Even when absent, the thought
							of those near and dear to one is a great incentive to courage, but now
							that they were within view they fired the men with a firm resolve to win
							their applause and secure their safety.

There was great slaughter on both sides, but the Gauls were in the end
							repulsed, and fled in the direction of Tibur as though it were a Gaulish
							stronghold. The straggling fugitives were intercepted by the consul not
							far from Tibur; the townsmen sallied out to render them assistance, and
							they and the Gauls were driven within their gates.

So the consul was equally successful with the Dictator. The other
							consul, Fabius, crushed the Hernici in successive defeats, at first in
							comparatively unimportant actions and then finally in one great battle
							when the enemy attacked him in full strength. The Dictator passed
							splendid encomiums on the consuls, both in the senate and before the
							people, and even transferred to them the credit for his own success.

He then laid down his office. Poetilius celebrated a double triumph
							—over the Gauls and over the Tiburtines. It was considered a sufficient
							honour for Fabius to be allowed to enter the City in an ovation.

The Tiburtines laughed at Poetilius' triumph. “When,” they
							said, “had he ever met them in a pitched battle? A few of them
							had come outside their gates to watch the disordered flight of the
							Gauls, but when they found that they, too, were being attacked and cut
							down indiscriminately they retreated into their city.

Did the Romans deem that sort of thing worthy of a triumph? They must
							not look upon it as too great and wonderful a thing to create disorder
							in an enemy's gates; they would themselves see greater confusion and
							panic before their own walls.”

Accordingly, the following year, when M. Popilius Laenas and Cnaeus
							Manlius were the consuls, an army from Tibur marched in the early hours
							of the night when all was still against the City of Rome.

The citizens, suddenly aroused from sleep, were alarmed by the danger of
							a nocturnal attack and one quite unlooked for, and the alarm was
							heightened by their ignorance as to who the enemies were and whence they
							came.

However, the word quickly passed “To arms”; the gates were
							protected by pickets and the walls manned. When the early dawn revealed
							a comparatively small force before the walls and the enemy turned out to
							be none other than the Tiburtines, the consuls decided upon an immediate
							attack. They issued from two separate gates and attacked the enemy, as
							they were advancing to the walls, on both flanks.

It soon became obvious that they had been trusting more to the chances
							of a surprise than to their own courage, so little resistance did they
							offer to the very first onset of the Romans.

Their expedition turned out to be an advantage to the Romans, for the
							apprehensions aroused by a war so close to their gates stifled a nascent
							conflict between the patricians and the plebs.

In the war which followed there was another hostile incursion, but one
							more formidable to the country districts than to the City; the
							Tarquinians were carrying on their depredations within the Roman
							frontiers mainly on the side towards Etruria. As redress was refused,
							the new consuls, C. Fabius and C. Plautius, by order of the people,
							declared war against them.

This campaign was allotted to Fabius, the one against the Hernici to
							Plautius. Rumours of
							hostilities on the part of the Gauls were becoming more frequent. Amidst
							these numerous alarms, however, there was one consolation — peace had
							been granted on their request to the Latins, and a strong contingent was
							sent by them in accordance with the old treaty which for many years they
							had not observed.

Now that the cause of Rome was strengthened by this reinforcement, there
							was less excitement created by the news that the Gauls had recently
							reached Praeneste and from there had settled in the country round Pedum.

It was decided that C. Sulpicius should be nominated Dictator; the
							consul, C. Plautius, was summoned home for the purpose. M. Valerius was
							appointed Master of the Horse.

They selected the finest troops out of the two armies which the consuls
							had commanded and led them against the Gauls. The war was somewhat more
							tedious than was agreeable to either side. At first it was only the
							Gauls who were anxious to fight, then the Romans showed even more
							alacrity than the Gauls in arming themselves for action.

The Dictator by no means approved of this, since there was no necessity
							for him to run any risks. The enemy was daily becoming weaker by
							remaining inactive in a disadvantageous position, without any supplies
							previously collected, and with no proper entrenchments thrown up. Their
							whole strength both of mind and body depended upon rapid movements, and
							even a short delay told upon their vigour.

For these reasons the Dictator prolonged the war and announced that he
							would inflict severe punishment on any one who fought against orders.
							The soldiers grew impatient at this state of things. When on picket or
							outpost duty at night, they talked in very disparaging terms about the
							Dictator, sometimes they abused the senators generally for not having
							given orders that the war should be conducted by consuls.

“An extraordinary commander,” they said, “had been
							selected, one man out of a thousand, who thought that if he sat still
							and did nothing himself, victory would fly down from heaven into his
							lap.” Then they uttered these sentiments and still more angry
							ones openly in the daytime; they declared that they would either fight
							without waiting for orders or they would march back in a body to Rome.

The centurions made common cause with the soldiers; the murmurs were not
							confined to scattered groups, a general discussion went on in the main
							thoroughfares of the camp and in the open space before the headquarters'
							tent. The crowd grew to the dimensions of an Assembly, and shouts were
							raised from all sides to go at once to the Dictator. Sextius Tullius was
							to be spokesman for the army, a position he was well worthy to fill.

Tullius was now first centurion for the seventh time, and there was not
							in the whole army amongst the infantry officers a more distinguished
							soldier.

He led the procession to the tribunal, and Sulpicius was not more
							surprised at seeing the gathering than at seeing Tullius at the head of
							it. He began: “Do not be surprised, Dictator, at my being here.

The whole army is under the impression that it has been condemned by you
							for cowardice and to mark its disgrace has been deprived of its arms. It
							has asked me to plead its cause before you.

Even if we could be charged with deserting our ranks and turning our
							backs to the enemy, or with the disgraceful loss of our standards, even
							then I should think it only fair for you to allow us to amend our fault
							by courage and to wipe out the memory of our disgraceful conduct by
							winning fresh glory.

Even the legions which were routed at the Alia marched out afterwards
							from Veii and recovered the City which they had lost through panic. For
							us, thanks to the goodness of the gods and the happy fortune which
							attends on you and on Rome, our fortunes and our honour remain
							unimpaired.

And yet I hardly dare mention the word “honour” whilst the
							enemy ventures to mock us with every kind of insult, as if we were
							hiding ourselves like women behind our rampart, and —what grieves us
							much more —even you our commander have made up your mind that your army
							is without courage, without weapons, without hands to use them, and
							before you have put us to the proof have so despaired of us that you
							look upon yourself as the commander of cripples and weaklings.

What other reason can we believe there to be, why you, a veteran
							commander, a most gallant soldier, should be as they say sitting with
							your arms folded? However the case may be, it is more true to say that
							you appear to doubt our courage than that we doubt yours.”

“But if this is not your doing, but a piece of State policy, if
							it is some concerted scheme of the patricians and not war with the Gauls
							that is keeping us in banishment from the City and from our household
							gods, then I ask you to regard what I am now going to say as addressed
							not by soldiers to their commander but to the patricians by the plebs,
							who say that as you have your projects so they will have theirs.

Who could possibly be angry with us for regarding ourselves as your
							soldiers, not your slaves, sent to war not into banishment, ready, if
							any one gives the sign and leads us into battle, to fight as becomes men
							and Romans, equally ready, if there is no need for arms, to live a life
							of peace and quietness in Rome rather than in camp? This is what we
							would say to the patricians.”

“But you are our commander, and we your soldiers implore you to
							give us a chance of fighting. We are eager to win a victory, but to win
							it under your leadership; it is on you that we want to bestow the
							laurels of glory, it is with you that we desire to enter the City in
							triumphal procession, it is behind your chariot that we would go with
							joyous thanksgivings up to the temple of Jupiter Optimus
							Maximus.”

This speech of Tullius' was followed by earnest requests from the whole
							army that he would give the signal and order them to arm.

Although the Dictator recognized that, however satisfactory the soldiers'
							action might be, a most undesirable precedent had been set, he
							nevertheless undertook to carry out their wishes.

He interrogated Tullius privately as to what the whole thing meant and
							what warrant he had for his procedure. Tullius earnestly entreated the
							Dictator not to think that he had forgotten military discipline or the
							respect due to his commanding officer. “But an excited multitude
							is generally swayed by their advisers, and he had consented to act as
							their leader to prevent any one else from coming forward whom they might
							have chosen because he shared their excitement.

He himself would do nothing against the wish of the commanderin-chief,
							but the commander also must be most careful to keep his men in hand.
							They were too excited now to be put off; they would themselves choose
							the place and time for fighting if the Dictator did not do so.”
							During this conversation some cattle which happened to be grazing
							outside the rampart were being driven off by a Gaul, when two Roman
							soldiers took them from him.

The Gauls pelted them with stones, a shout was raised by the Roman
							outpost and men ran together from both sides. Affairs were rapidly
							approaching a pitched battle had not the centurions promptly stopped the
							fighting.

This incident confirmed the Dictator's belief in what Tullius had told
							him, and as matters no longer admitted of delay he issued orders to
							prepare for battle on the following day. The Dictator was going into
							action feeling more assured as to the courage than as to the strength of
							his troops. He began to turn over in his mind every possible device by
							which he could inspire fear into the enemy.

At last he thought out an ingenious and original plan, one, too, which
							has since been adopted by many of our own generals as well as those of
							other countries and which is even practised to-day. He ordered the
							packsaddles to be taken off the mules and two pieces of coloured cloth
							placed on their backs.

The muleteers were then furnished with arms, some taken from the
							prisoners and others belonging to the invalided soldiers, and after thus
							equipping about a thousand of them and

distributing a hundred of the cavalry amongst them he ordered them to
							ascend the mountains which overlooked the camp and conceal themselves in
							the woods, and remain there motionless till they received the signal
							from him.

As soon as it grew light the Dictator extended his lines along the lower
							slopes of the mountain in order that the enemy might have to form their
							front facing the mountain.

The arrangements for creating a groundless alarm were now completed, and
							that groundless alarm proved almost more serviceable than an actual
							increase of strength would have been. At first the leaders of the Gauls
							did not believe that the Romans would come down on to the plain, but
							when they saw them suddenly descending, they rushed on to meet them,
							eager for the encounter, and the battle commenced before the signal had
							been given by the commanders.

The Gauls directed their fiercest attack upon the Roman right, and the
							Dictator's presence with that division alone prevented the attack from
							succeeding.

When he saw the men wavering he called out sharply to Sextius and asked
							him if this was the way in which he had pledged his soldiers to fight.
							“Where,” he cried, “are the shouts of the men who
							clamoured for arms? Where are their threats of going into battle without
							their commander's orders?

Here is the commander, calling loudly to them to fight, and himself
							fighting in the forefront of the battle; who out of all those who were
							just now going to lead the way was following him? Braggarts in camp,
							cowards in battle!” They felt the truth of what they heard, and
							they were so stung by a sense of shame that they rushed on the enemy's
							weapons without any thought of danger.

They charged like madmen and threw the enemy's lines into confusion, and
							a cavalry attack which followed turned the confusion into rout.

As soon as the Dictator saw their line broken in this part of the field
							he turned the attack on to their left, where he saw them closing up into
							a crowded mass, and at the same time gave the agreed signal to those on
							the mountain.

When a fresh battle shout arose and these were seen crossing the
							mountain slope in the direction of the Gauls' camp, the enemy, afraid of
							being cut off, gave up the fight and ran in wild disorder to their camp.

They were met by Marcus Valerius, the Master of the Horse, who after
							putting their right wing to flight was riding up to their lines, and he
							turned their flight towards the mountain and woods.

A great many were intercepted by the muleteers whom they took for
							cavalry, and a terrible slaughter took place amongst those whom panic
							had driven into the woods after the main battle was over. No one since
							Camillus celebrated a more justly deserved triumph over the Gauls than
							C. Sulpicius.

A large quantity of gold taken out of the spoil was dedicated by him and
							stored away in a vault beneath the Capitol. The campaigns in which the
							consuls for the year were engaged ended in a very different way.

Whilst the Hernici were defeated and reduced to submission by his
							colleague, Fabius showed a sad want of caution and skill in his
							operations against the Tarquinians. The humiliation which Rome incurred
							through his defeat was embittered by the barbarity of the enemy, who
							sacrificed 307 prisoners of war.

That defeat was followed by a sudden predatory incursion of the
							Privernates and afterwards by one in which the Veliternians took part.

In this year two additional tribes were formed —the Pomptine and the
							Publilian. The Games which Camillus had vowed when Dictator were
								celebrated. A measure dealing with improper canvassing was for the
							first time submitted to the people, after passing the senate, by C.
							Poetilius, tribune of the plebs.

It was intended to check the canvassing, mainly by rich plebeians, in
							the markets and promiscuous gatherings.

Another measure, by no means so welcome to the patricians, was brought
							forward the following year, the consuls being C. Marcius and Cnaeus
							Manlius. M. Duilius and L. Menenius, tribunes of the plebs, were the
							proposers of this measure, which fixed the rate of interest at 8 and 1/3
							per cent.;

the plebs adopted it with much more eagerness than the Poetilian Law
							against canvassing. In addition
							to the fresh wars decided upon the previous year, the Faliscans had been
							guilty of two acts of hostility; their men had fought in the ranks of
							the Tarquinians, and they had refused to give up those who had fled
							after their defeat to Tarquinii, when the Fetials demanded their
							surrender.

That campaign fell to Cn. Manlius; Marcius conducted the operations
							against Privernum. This district had remained uninjured during the long
							years of peace, and when Marcius led his army thither, they loaded
							themselves with plunder.

Its value was enhanced by the munificence of the consul, for he
							appropriated none of it for the State, and so encouraged the efforts of
							the private soldier to increase his private means. The Privernates had formed a
							strongly entrenched camp in front of their walls, and before attacking
							it Marcius summoned his troops to assembly, and said: “If you
							promise me that you will do your duty bravely in battle and are quite as
							ready for fighting as for plunder, I give you now the camp and city of
							the enemy.”

With a mighty shout they demanded the signal for battle, and with heads
							erect and full of confidence they marched proudly into line. Sex.
							Tullius, who has been already mentioned, was in the front, and he called
							out, “See, General, how your army is fulfilling its promise to
							you,” and with the word he dropped his javelin and drawing his
							sword charged the enemy.

The whole of the front line followed him and at the very first onset
							defeated the Privernates and pursued them as far as the town, which they
							prepared to storm. When the scaling ladders were actually placed against
							the walls the place surrendered. A triumph was celebrated over the
							Privernates.

Nothing worth recording was done by the other consul, except his
							unprecedented action in getting a law passed in camp by the tribes
							levying 5 per cent. on the value of every slave who was manumitted. As the money raised under this law would be a handsome addition
							to the exhausted treasury, the senate confirmed

it. The tribunes of the plebs, however, looking not so much to the law
							as to the precedent set, made it a capital offence for any one to
							convene the Assembly outside their usual place of meeting. If it were
							once legalised, there was nothing, however injurious to the people,
							which could not be carried through men who were bound by the oath of
							military

obedience. In this year C. Licinius Stolo was impeached by M. Popilius
							Laenas for having violated his own law; he and his son together occupied
							a thousand jugera of land, and he had
							emancipated his son in order to evade the law. He was condemned to pay a
							fine of 10,000 ases .

The new consuls were M. Fabius Ambustus and M. Popilius Laenas, each for
							the second time. They had two wars on hand.

The one which Laenas waged against the Tiburtines presented little
							difficulty; after driving them into their city he ravaged their fields.
							The other consul, who was operating against the Faliscans and
							Tarquinians, met with a defeat in the first battle.

What mainly contributed to it and produced a real terror amongst the
							Romans was the extraordinary spectacle presented by their priests who,
							brandishing lighted torches and with what looked like snakes entwined in
							their hair, came on like so many Furies.

At this sight the Romans were like men distraught or thunderstruck and
							rushed in a panic-stricken mass into their entrenchments. The consul and
							his staff officers and the military tribunes laughed at them and scolded
							them for being terrified by conjuring tricks like a lot of boys.

Stung by a feeling of shame, they suddenly passed from a state of terror
							to one of reckless daring, and they rushed like blind men against what
							they had just fled from. When, after scattering the idle pageantry of
							the enemy, they got at the armed men behind, they routed the entire
							army.

The same day they gained possession of the camp, and after securing an
							immense amount of booty returned home flushed with victory, jesting as
							soldiers do, and deriding the enemy's contrivance and their own panic.
							This led to a rising of the whole of Etruria, and under the leadership
							of the Tarquinians and Faliscans they marched to the salt-works.

In this emergency C. Marcius Rutilus was nominated Dictator —the first
							Dictator nominated from the plebs —and he appointed as Master of the
							Horse C. Plautius, also a plebeian. The patricians were indignant at
							even the dictatorship becoming common property, and they offered all the
							resistance in their power to any decree being passed or any preparations
							made to help the Dictator in prosecuting that war.

This only made the people more ready to adopt every proposal which the
							Dictator made.

On leaving the City he marched along both banks of the Tiber, ferrying
							the troops across in whichever direction the enemy were reported to be;
							in this way he surprised many of the raiders scattered about the fields.
							Finally he surprised and captured their camp; 8ooo prisoners were taken,
							the rest were either killed or hunted out of the Roman territory.

By an order of the people which was not confirmed by the senate a
							triumph was awarded him.

As the senate would not have the elections conducted by a plebeian
							Dictator or a plebeian consul, they fell back on an interregnum. There
							was a succession of interreges —Q. Servilius Ahala, M. Fabius, Cn.
							Manlius, C. Fabius, C. Sulpicius, L. Aemilius, Q. Servilius, and M.
							Fabius Ambustus.

In the second of these interregna a contest arose because two patrician
							consuls were elected. When the tribunes interposed their veto and
							appealed to the Licinian Law, Fabius, the interrex, said that it was
							laid down in the Twelve Tables that whatever was the last order that the
							people made that should have the force of law, and the people had made
							an order by electing the two consuls.

The tribunes' veto only availed to postpone the elections, and
							ultimately two patrician consuls were elected, namely C. Sulpicius
							Peticus (for the third time) and M. Valerius Publicola. They entered
							upon their office the day they were elected.

So in the 4ooth year from the foundation of the City and the 35th after
							its capture by the Gauls, the second consulship was wrested from the
							plebs, for the first time since the passing of the Licinian Law seven
							years previously. Empulum was taken this year from the Tiburtines
							without any serious fighting.

It seems uncertain whether both consuls held joint command in this
							campaign, as some writers assert, or whether the fields of the
							Tarquinians were ravaged by Sulpicius at the same time that Valerius was
							leading his legions against the Tiburtines. The consuls had a more serious conflict at home with
							the plebs and their tribunes.

They considered it as a question not only of courage but of honour and
							loyalty to their order that as two patricians had received the
							consulship so they should hand it on to two patricians.

They felt that they must either renounce all claims to it, if it became
							a plebeian magistracy, or they must keep it in its entirety as a
							possession which they had received in its entirety from their fathers.
							The plebs protested:“What were they living for?

Why were they enrolled as citizens if they could not with their united
							strength maintain the right to what had been won for them by the courage
							of those two men, L. Sextius and C. Licinius?

It were better to put up with kings or decemvirs or any other form of
							absolutism, even though with

a worse name, than to see both consuls patricians, the other side not
							alternately governing and being governed but regarding itself as placed
							in perpetual authority, and looking upon the plebs as simply born to be
							their slaves.” There was no lack of tribunes to lead the
							agitation, but in such a state of universal excitement everybody was his
							own leader.

After many fruitless journeys to the Campus Martius, where numerous
							election days had been wasted in disturbances, the plebs was at last
							worsted by the steady persistence of the consuls.

There was such a feeling of despair that the tribunes, followed by a
							gloomy and sullen plebs, exclaimed as they left the Campus that there
							was an end to all liberty, and that they must not only quit the Campus
							but must even abandon the City now that it was crushed and enslaved by
							the tyranny of the patricians.

The consuls, though deserted by the majority of the people, only a few
							voters remaining behind, proceeded none the less determinedly with the
							election. Both the consuls elected were patricians, M. Fabius Ambustus
							(for the third time) and T Quinctius. In some of the annalists I find M.
							Popilius given as consul instead of T. Quinctius.

. Two wars were brought to a successful close
							this year. The Tiburtines were reduced to submission; the city of
							Sassula was taken from them and all their other towns would have shared
							the same fate had not the nation as a whole laid down their arms and
							made peace with the consul.

A triumph was celebrated over them, otherwise the victory was followed
							by mild treatment of the vanquished. The Tarquinians were visited with
							the utmost severity. A large number were killed in battle; of the
							prisoners, all those of noble birth to the number of 358 were sent to
							Rome, the rest were put to the sword.

Those who had been sent to Rome met with no gentler treatment from the
							people, they were all scourged and beheaded in the middle of the Forum
							This punishment was an act of retribution for the Romans who had been
							immolated in the forum of Tarquinii. These successes in war induced the
							Samnites to ask for a league of friendship.

Their envoys received a favourable reply from the senate and a treaty of
							alliance was concluded with them.

The plebs did not enjoy the same good fortune at home which they had met
							with in the field. In spite of the reduction in the rate of interest,
							which was now fixed at 8 and 1/3 per cent., the poor were unable to
							repay the capital, and were being made over to their creditors. Their
							personal distress left them little thought for public affairs and
							political struggles, elections, and patrician consuls; both consulships
							accordingly remained with the patricians.

The consuls elected were C. Sulpicius Peticus (for the fourth time) and
							M. Valerius Publicola (for the second). Rumours were brought that the
							people of Caere, out of sympathy with their co-nationalists, had sided
							with the Tarquinians. Whilst the minds of the citizens were in
							consequence filled with apprehensions of a war with Etruria, the arrival
							of envoys from Latium diverted their thoughts to the Volscians. They
							reported that an army had been raised and equipped and was now
							threatening their frontiers and intended to enter and ravage the Roman
							territory.

The senate thought that neither of these movements ought to be ignored;
							orders were issued for troops to be enrolled for both wars; the consuls
							were to draw lots for their respective commands.

The arrival of despatches from the consul Sulpicius made the Etruscan war
							appear the more serious of the two. He was directing the operations
							against Tarquinii, and reported that the country round the Roman
							salt-works had been raided and a portion of the plunder sent to Caere,
							some of whose men had undoubtedly been amongst the depredators.

The consul Valerius, who was acting against the Volscians and had his
							camp on the frontiers of Tusculum, was recalled and received orders from
							the senate to nominate a Dictator.

Titus, the son of Lucius Manlius, was nominated, and he named A.
							Cornelius Cossus as Master of the Horse. Finding the army which the
							consul had commanded sufficient for his purpose, he was authorised by
							the senate and the people to formally declare war upon the Caerites.

It would seem as though this formal
							declaration of war brought home to the Caerites the horrors of a war
							with Rome more clearly than the action of those who had provoked the
							Romans by their depredations. They realised how unequal their strength
							was to such a conflict; they bitterly regretted the raid, and cursed the
							Tarquinians who had instigated them to revolt.

No one made any preparation for war, but each did his utmost to urge the
							despatch of an embassy to Rome to beg pardon for their offence. When the
							deputation came before the senate they were referred by the senate to
							the people.

They besought the gods whose sacred things they had taken charge of and
							made due provision for in the Gaulish war that the Romans in their day of prosperity might
							feel the same pity for them that they had shown for Rome in her hour of
							distress. Then turning to the temple of Vesta they invoked the bond of
							hospitality which they formed in all purity and reverence with the
							Flamens and the

Vestals. “Could any one believe,” they asked, “that
							men who had rendered such services would all of a sudden, without any
							reason, have become enemies, or if they had been guilty of any hostile
							act that they had committed it deliberately rather than in a fit of

madness? Was it possible that they could, by inflicting fresh injuries,
							obliterate their old acts of kindness, especially when they had been
							conferred on those who were so grateful for them; or that they would
							make an enemy of the Roman people now that it was prosperous and
							successful in all its wars after having sought its friendship at a time
							when it was in trouble and adversity? That should not be described as
							deliberate purpose which ought to be called violence and

constraint. After simply asking for a free passage, the Tarquinians
							traversed their territory in hostile array and compelled some of their
							country-fold to accompany them in that predatory expedition for which
							the city of Caere was now held

responsible. If it was decided that these men must be surrendered, they
							would surrender them, if they must be punished, punished they should be.
							Caere, once the sanctuary of Rome, the shelter of her sacred things,
							ought to be declared innocent of any thought of war, and acquitted of
							any charge of hostile intentions in return for her hospitality to the
							Vestals and her devotion to the

gods.” Old memories rather than the actual circumstances of the
							case so wrought upon the people that they thought less of the present
							grievance than of the former kindness. Peace was accordingly granted to
							the people of Caere, and it was agreed to leave to the senate the
							question of a truce for 100

years. The Faliscans were implicated in the same charge and the war was
							diverted to them, but the enemy was nowhere to ho found in the open.
							Their territory was ravaged from end to end, but no attempt was made
							against their cities. After the return of the legions, the rest of the
							year was spent in repairing the walls and towers. The temple of Apollo
							was also dedicated.

. —At the close of the year the consular elections
							were put off owing to the quarrel between the two orders —the tribunes
							declared that they would not permit the elections to be held unless they
							were conducted in accordance with the Licinian Law, whilst the Dictator
							was determined to abolish the consulship altogether rather than make it
							the common property of plebeians and patricians.

The elections were still postponed when the Dictator resigned office; so
							matters reverted to an interregnum. The interreges declined to hold the
							elections in consequence of the hostile attitude of the plebs, and the
							contest went on till the eleventh interregnum.

Whilst the tribunes were sheltering themselves behind the Licinian Law
							and fighting the political battle, the plebs felt their most pressing
							grievance to be the steadily growing burden of debt; the personal
							question quite overshadowed the political controversy.

Wearied out with the prolonged agitation the senate ordered L. Cornelius
							Scipio, the interrex, to restore harmony to the State by conducting the
							consular elections in accordance with the Licinian Law.

P. Valerius Publicola was elected and C. Marcius Rutilus was his
							plebeian colleague. Now that there was a general desire for concord, the
							new consuls took up the financial question which was the one hin- drance
							to union.

The State assumed the responsibility for the liquidation of the debts,
							and five commissioners were appointed, who were charged with the
							management of the money and were hence called mensarii (=“bankers”). The impartiality and
							diligence with which these commissioners discharged their functions make
							them worthy of an honourable place in every historical record. Their
							names were: C. Duilius, Publius Decius Mus, M. Papirius, Q. Publilius,
							and T. Aemilius.

The task they undertook was a difficult one, and involved hardship
							generally to both sides; on one side, at any rate, it always pressed
							heavily; but they carried it out with great consideration for all
							parties, and whilst incurring a large outlay on the part of the State
							they did not involve it in loss.

Seated at tables in the Forum, they dealt with long-standing debts due
							to the slackness of the debtor more than to his want of means, either by
							advancing public money on proper security, or by making a fair valuation
							of his property. In this way an immense amount of debt was cleared off without
							any injustice or even complaints on either side.

Owing to a report that the twelve cities of Etruria had formed a hostile
							league, a good deal of alarm was felt, which subsequently proved to be
							groundless, and it was thought necessary that a Dictator should be
							nominated. This took place in camp, for it was there that the consuls
							received the senatorial decree. C. Julius was nominated and L. Aemilius
							was assigned to him as Master of the Horse.

Abroad, however, everything
							was tranquil. At home, owing to the Dictator's attempt to secure the
							election of patricians to both consulships, matters were brought to an
							interregnum.

There were two interreges, C. Sulpicius and M. Fabius, and they
							succeeded where the Dictator had failed, as the plebs, owing to the
							pecuniary relief recently granted them, were in a less aggressive mood..

Both consuls elected were patricians —C. Sulpicius Peticus, who had been
							the first of the two interreges, and T Quinctius Pennus, some give as
							his third name Caeso, others Gaius. They both proceeded to war;
							Quinctius against Falerii, Sulpicius against Tarquinii.

The enemy nowhere faced them in open battle; the war was carried on
							against fields rather than against men; burning and destroying went on
							everywhere.

This waste and decay, like that of a slow decline, wore down the
							resolution of the two peoples, and they asked for a truce first from the
							consuls then by their permission from the senate. They obtained one for
							forty years.

After the anxiety created by these two threatening wars was in this way
							allayed, there was a respite for a time from arms. The liquidation of
							the debts had in the case of many properties led to a change of
							ownership, and it was decided that a fresh assessment should be made.

When, however, notice was given of the election of censors, C. Marcius
							Rutilus, who had been the first Dictator nominated from the plebs,
							announced that he was a candidate for the censorship.

This upset the good feeling between the two orders. He took this step at
							what looked like an unfavourable moment because both consuls happened to
							be patricians, and they declared that they would allow no vote for him.

But he resolutely held to his purpose, and the tribunes, anxious to
							recover the rights of the plebs which were lost in the consular
							elections, assisted him to the utmost of their power. There was no
							dignity which the greatness of his character was unequal to supporting,
							and the plebs were desirous of being called to share the censorship by
							the same man who had opened up the path to the dictatorship.

There was no division of opinion shown in the elections, Marcius was
							unanimously elected censor, together with Manlius Gnaeus. This year also
							saw M. Fabius as Dictator, not from any apprehension of war but to
							prevent the Licinian Law from being observed in the consular elections.

The Dictatorship, however, did not make the combined efforts of the
							senate more influential in the election of consuls than it had been in
							the election of censors.

M. Popilius Laenas was the consul elected from the
							plebs, L. Cornelius Scipio the one from the patricians.

Fortune conferred the greater distinction upon the plebeian consul, for
							upon the receipt of information that an immense army of Gauls had
							encamped in the territory of Latium, the conduct of tbat war, owing to
							Scipio's serious illness at the time, was entrusted by special
							arrangement to Popilius.

He promptly raised an army, and ordered all who were liable for active
							service to meet under arms outside the Capene Gate at the temple of
							Mars; the quaestors were ordered to carry the standards from the
							treasury to the same place.

After bringing up four legions to full strength, he handed over the rest
							of the troops to P. Valerius Publicola, the praetor, and advised the
							senate to raise a second army to protect the republic against any
							emergency. When all preparations were completed and everything in
							readiness, he advanced towards the enemy.

With the view of ascertaining their strength before testing it in a
							decisive action, he seized some rising ground as near to the camp of the
							Gauls as possible and began to construct the rampart.

When the Gauls saw the Roman standards in the distance they formed their
							line, prepared, with their usual impulsiveness and instinctive love of
							fighting, to engage at once. Observing, however, that the Romans did not
							come down into the plain and were trusting to the protection of their
							position and their rampart, they imagined that they were smitten with
							fear, and at the same time would be more open to attack whilst they were
							occupied in the work of entrenchment. So raising a wild shout they
							advanced to the attack.

The triarii , who formed the working party,
							were not interrupted, for they were screened by the hastati and principes 
							 who
							were posted in front and who began the fighting.

Their steady courage was aided by the fact that they were on higher
							ground, for the pila and hastae were not thrown ineffectively as often happens on
							level ground, but being carried forward by their weight they reached
							their mark.

The Gauls were borne down by the weight of the missiles which either
							pierced their bodies or stuck in their shields, making them extremely
							heavy to carry. They had almost reached the top of the hill in their
							charge when they halted, uncertain what to do.

The mere delay raised the courage of the Romans and depressed that of
							the enemy. Then the Roman line swept down upon them and forced them
							back; they fell over each other and caused a greater loss in this way
							than that inflicted by the enemy; so headlong was their flight that more
							were crushed to death than were slain by the sword.

But the victory was not yet decided. When the Romans reached the level
							ground another mass remained to be dealt with.

The number of the Gauls was great enough to prevent them from feeling
							the loss already sustained, and as though a new army had risen from the
							earth, fresh troops were brought up against their victorious enemy.

The Romans checked their onset and stood still, for not only had they,
							wearied as they were, to sustain a second fight, but the consul, while
							riding incautiously in the front, had his left shoulder almost run
							through by a heavy javelin and had retired.

The victory was all but forfeited by this delay, when the consul, after
							his wound was bound up, rode back to the front. “Why are you
							standing still, soldiers?” he exclaimed. “You have not to
							do with Latins or Sabines whom, after you have defeated, you can make
							into allies, it is against wild beasts that we have drawn the sword; we
							must either drain their blood or give them ours.

You have repulsed them from your camp, you have driven them headlong
							down into the valley, you are standing over the prostrate bodies of your
							foes. Fill the valley with the same carnage with which you filled the
							mountain side.

Do not look for them to flee while you are standing here; the standards
							must go forward, you must advance against the enemy.”

Thus encouraged they made a fresh charge, dislodged the front companies
							of the Gauls, and closing up their maniples into a wedge penetrated the
							enemy's centre.

Then the barbarians were broken up, and having no leadership or definite
							orders they turned the attack on to their own reserves. They were
							scattered over the plain, and their headlong flight carried them past
							their camp in the direction of the Alba hills. As the hill on which the
							old Alban stronghold stood appeared to be the highest in the range, they
							made for it

The consul did not continue the pursuit beyond the camp as his wound was
							troublesome and he did not wish to risk an attack upon hills held by the
							enemy. All the spoil of the camp was given up to the soldiers, and he
							led back to Rome an army flushed with victory and enriched by the
							plunder of the Gauls, but owing to his wound his triumph was delayed.

As both consuls were on the sick list, the senate found it necessary to
							appoint a Dictator to conduct the elections.

L. Furius Camillus was nominated, and P. Cornelius Scipio was associated
							with him as Master of the Horse. He restored to the patricians their old
							monopoly of the consulship, and for this service he was through their
							enthusiastic support elected consul, and he procured the election of
							Appius Claudius Crassus as his colleague.

. —Before the new consuls entered
							upon their office Popilius celebrated his triumph over the Gauls amidst
							the delighted applause of the plebs, and people asked each other with
							bated breath whether there was any one who regretted the election of a
							plebeian consul.

At the same time they were very bitter against the Dictator for having
							seized the consulship as a bribe for his treating the Licinian Law with
							contempt.

They considered that he had degraded the consulship more by his greedy
							ambition than by his acting against the public interest, since he had
							actually procured his own election as consul whilst he was Dictator. The
							year was marked by numerous disturbances. The Gauls came down from the
							hills of Alba because they could not stand the severity of the winter,
							and they spread themselves in plundering hordes over the plains and the
							maritime districts.

The sea was infested by fleets of Greek pirates who made descents on the
							coast round Antium and Laurentum and entered the mouth of the Tiber. On
							one occasion the searobbers and the land-robbers encountered one another
							in a hard-fought battle, and drew off, the Gauls to their camp, the
							Greeks to their ships, neither side knowing whether they were to
							consider themselves victors or vanquished.

These various alarms were followed by a much more serious one. The Latins
							had received a demand from the Roman government to furnish troops, and
							after discussing the matter in their national council replied in these
							uncompromising terms: “Desist from making demands on those whose
							help you need;

we Latins prefer to bear arms in defence of our own liberty rather than
							in support of an alien dominion.”

With two foreign wars on their hands and this revolt of their allies,
							the anxious senate saw that they would have to restrain by fear those
							who were not restrained by any considerations of honour. They ordered
							the consuls to exert their authority to the utmost in levying troops,
							since, as the body of their allies were deserting them, they would have
							to depend upon their fellow-citizens entirely.

Men were enlisted everywhere, not only from the City but also from the
							country districts. It is stated that ten legions were enrolled, each
							containing 4200 foot and 300 horse.

In these days the strength of Rome, for which the world hardly finds
							room, would even, if concentrated, find it difficult on any sudden alarm
							to raise a fresh army of that size; to such an extent have we progressed
							in those things to which alone we devote our efforts-wealth and luxury.
							Amongst the other mournful events of this year was the death of the
							second consul, Ap. Claudius, which occurred while the preparations for
							war were going on.

The government passed into the hands of Camillus, as sole consul, and
							the senate did not think it well for a Dictator to be appointed, either
							because of the auspicious omen of his name in view of trouble with the
							Gauls, or because they would not place a man of his distinction under a
							Dictator.

Leaving two legions to protect the City, the consul divided the remaining
							eight between himself and L. Pinarius, the praetor.

He kept the conduct of the war against the Gauls in his own hands
							instead of deciding upon the field of operations by the usual drawing of
							lots, inspired as he was by the memory of his father's brilliant
							successes. The praetor was to protect the coast-line and prevent the
							Greeks from effecting a landing, whilst he himself marched down into the
							Pomptine territory.

His intention was to avoid any engagement in the flat country unless he
							was forced to fight, and to confine himself to checking their
							depredations; for as it was only by pillaging that they were able to
							maintain themselves, he thought that he could best crush them in this
							way. Accordingly he selected suitable ground for a stationary camp.

Whilst the Romans were
							passing their time quietly at the outposts, a gigantic Gaul in splendid
							armour advanced towards them, and delivered a challenge through an
							interpreter to meet any Roman in single

combat. There was a young military tribune, named Marcus Valerius, who
							considered himself no less worthy of that honour than T. Manlius had
							been. After obtaining the consul's permission, he marched, completely
							armed, into the open ground between the two

armies. The human element in the fight was thrown into the shade by the
							direct interposition of the gods, for just as they were engaging a crow
							settled all of a sudden on the Roman's helmet with its head towards his

antagonist. The tribune gladly accepted this as a divinely-sent augury,
							and prayed that whether it were god or goddess who had sent the
							auspicious bird that deity would be gracious to him and help

him. Wonderful to relate, not only did the bird keep its place on the
							helmet, but every time they encountered it rose on its wings and
							attacked the Gaul's face and eyes with beak and talon, until, terrified
							at the sight of so dire a portent and bewildered in eyes and mind alike,
							he was slain by Valerius. Then, soaring away eastwards, the crow passed
							out of

sight. Hitherto the outposts on both sales had remained quiet, but when
							the tribune began to despoil his foeman's corpse, the Gauls no longer
							kept their posts, whilst the Romans ran still more swiftly to help the
							victor. A furious fight took place round the body as it lay, and not
							only the maniples at the nearest outposts but the legions pouring out
							from the camp joined in the

fray. The soldiers were exultant at their tribune's victory and at the
							manifest presence and help of the gods, and as Camillus ordered them
							into action he pointed to the tribune, conspicuous with his spoils, and
							said: “Follow his example, soldiers, and lay the Gauls in heaps
							round their fallen

champion!” Gods and man alike took part in the battle, and it was
							fought out to a finish, unmistakably disastrous to the Gauls, so
							completely had each army anticipated a result corresponding to that of
							the single combat. Those Gauls who began the fight fought desperately,
							but the rest of the host who come to help them turned back before they
							came within range of the

missiles. They dispersed amongst the Volscians and over the Falernian
							district; from thence they made their way to Apulia and the western sea.
							The consul mustered his troops on parade, and after praising the conduct
							of the tribune presented him with ten oxen and a golden

chaplet. In consequence of instructions received from the senate he took
							over the maritime war and joined his forces with those of the

praetor. The Greeks were too lacking in courage to run the risk of a
							general engagement, and there was every prospect of the war proving a
							long

one. Camillus was in consequence authorised by the senate to nominate T.
							Manlius Torquatus as Dictator for the purpose of conducting the
							elections. After appointing A. Cornelius Cossus as Master of the Horse,
							the Dictator proceeded to hold the consular elections. Marcus Valerius
								 Corvus (for that was henceforth his cognomen), a young
							man of twenty-three, was declared to be duly elected amidst the
							enthusiastic cheers of the

people. His colleague was the plebeian, M. Popilius Laenas, now elected
							for the fourth time. Nothing worth recording took place between Camillus
							and the Greeks; they were no fighters on land and the Romans could not
							fight on the

sea. Ultimately, as they were prevented from landing anywhere and water
							and the other necessaries of life failed them, they abandoned

Italy. To what Greek state or nationality that fleet belonged is a
							matter of uncertainty; I think it most likely that it belonged to the
							Tyrant of Sicily, for Greece itself was at that time exhausted by
							intestine wars and was watching with dread the growing power of
							Macedonia.

After the armies were disbanded there was an interval of peace abroad and
							harmony between the two orders at home. To prevent things, however, from
							becoming too pleasant, a pestilence attacked the citizens, and the
							senate found themselves under the necessity of issuing an order to the
							decemvirs requiring them to consult the Sibylline Books.

On their advice a lectisternium was held.
							In this year colonists from Antium rebuilt Satricum, which had been
							destroyed by the Latins, and settled there. A treaty was concluded
							between Rome and Carthage; the latter city had sent envoys to ask for a
							friendly alliance.

As long as the succeeding consuls —T. Manlius Torquatus and C.
							Plautius-held office the same peaceful conditions prevailed. The rate of
							interest was reduced by one half and payment of the principal was to be
							made in four equal installments, the first at once, the remainder in
							three successive years.

Though many plebeians were still in distress, the senate looked upon the
							maintenance of public credit as more important than the removal of
							individual hardships. What afforded the greatest relief was the
							suspension of military service and the war-tax.

Three years after Satricum had been rebuilt by the Volscians, whilst M.
							Vaierius Corvus was consul for the second time with Caius Poetilius, a
							report was sent on from Latium that emissaries from Antium were going
							round the Latin cantons with the view of stirring war.

Valerius was instructed to attack the Volscians before the enemy became
							more numerous, and he proceeded with his army to Satricum. Defeat of the
							Volscians and Destruction of Satricum. —Here he was met by the Antiates
							and other Volscian troops who had been previously mobilised in case of
							any movement on the sale of Rome. The old standing hatred between the
							two nations made each side eager for battle; there was consequently no
							delay in trying conclusions.

The Volscians, bolder to begin war than to sustain it, were completely
							defeated and fled precipitately to Satricum. The city was surrounded,
							and as it was on the point of being stormed —the scaling ladders were
							against the walls —they lost all hope and surrendered to the number of
							4000 fighting men in addition to a multitude of noncombatants.

The town was sacked and burnt; the temple of Matuta the Mother was alone
							spared by the flames; all the plunder was given to the soldiers. In
							addition to the booty, there were the 4000 who had surrendered; these
							were marched in chains before the consul's chariot in his triumphal
							procession, then they were sold and a large sum was realised for the
							treasury.

Some authors assert that these prisoners were slaves who had been
							captured in Satricum, and this is more likely to have been the case than
							that men who had surrendered should have been sold.

M. Fabius Dorsuo and Ser. Sulpicius Camerinus were the next consuls. A
							sudden raid by the Auruncans led to a war with that people.

Fears were entertained that more than one city was concerned in this,
							that in fact it had been planned by the entire Latin League. To meet all
							Latium in arms L. Furius Camillus was nominated Dictator; he appointed
							Cnaeus Manlius Capitolinus Master of the Horse.

As usual in great and sudden alarms a suspension of all business was
							proclaimed and the enlistment was made without any claims to exemption
							being allowed; when it was completed the legions were marched as rapidly
							as possible against the Auruncans. They showed the temper of marauders
							rather than of soldiers, and the war was finished in the very first
							battle.

But as they had begun the war without any provocation and had shown no
							reluctance to accept battle, the Dictator thought it his duty to secure
							the help of the gods, and during the actual fighting he vowed a temple
							to Juno Moneta. On his victorious return to Rome, he resigned his
							Dictatorship to discharge his vow.

The senate ordered two commissioners to be appointed to carry out the
							construction of that temple in a style commensurate with the greatness
							of the Roman people, and a site was marked out in the Citadel where the
							house of M. Manlius Capitolinus had stood.

The consuls employed the Dictator's army in war with the Volscians and
							took from them by a coup-de-main the city
							of Sora. The temple of Moneta was dedicated in the following year, when
							C. Marcius Rutilus was consul for the third time and T. Manlius
							Torquatus for the second.

A portent followed close on the dedication similar to the old portent on
							the Alban Mount; a shower of stones fell and night seemed to stretch its
							curtain over the day. The citizens were filled with dread at this
							supernatural occurrence, and after the Sibylline Books had been
							consulted the senate decided upon the appointment of a Dictator to
							arrange the ceremonial observances for the appointed days.

P. Valerius Publicola was nominated and Q. Fabius Ambustus was appointed
							Master of the Horse. It was arranged that not only the Roman tribes but
							also the neighbouring populations should take part in the public
							intercessions, and the order of the days which each was to observe was
							definitely laid down.

There were prosecutions this year of moneylenders by the aediles, and
							heavy sentences are stated to have been passed on them by the people.
							For some reason, which is not recorded, matters reverted to an
							interregnum.

As, however, it ended in the election of two patrician consuls, this
							would appear to be the reason why it was resorted to. The new consuls
							were M. Valerius Corvus (for the third time) and A. Cornelius Cossus.

—The history will now be
							occupied with wars greater than any previously recorded; greater whether
							we consider the forces en gaged in them or the length of time they
							lasted, or the extent of country over which they were waged. For it was
							in this year ( 343 B.C.) that hostilities
							commenced with the SAMNITES, a people strong in material resources and
							military

power. Our war with the Samnites, with its varying fortunes, was
							followed by the war with Pyrrhus, and that again by the war with
							Carthage. What a chapter of great events! How often had we to pass
							through the very extremity of danger in order that our dominion might be
							exalted to its present greatness, a greatness which is with difficulty

maintained! The cause of the war between the Romans and the Samnites,
							who had been our friends and allies, came, however, from without; it did
							not arise between the two peoples

themselves. The Samnites, simply because they were the stronger, made an
							unprovoked attack upon the Sidicines; the weaker side were compelled to
							fly for succour to those who were more powerful and threw in their lot
							with the

Campanians. The Campanians brought to the help of their allies the
							prestige of their name rather than actual strength; enervated by luxury
							they were worsted by a people inured to the use of arms, and after being
							defeated on Sidicine territory diverted the whole weight of the war
							against

themselves. The Samnites, dropping operations against the Sidicines,
							attacked the Campanians as being the mainstay and stronghold of their
							neighbours; they saw, too, that whilst victory would be just as easily
							won here, it would bring more glory and spoils. They seized the Tifata
							hills which overlook Capua and left a strong force to hold them, then
							they descended in close order into the plain which lies between the
							Tifata hills and

Capua. Here a second battle took place, in which the Campanians were
							defeated and driven within their walls. They had lost the flower of
							their army, and as there was no hope of any assistance near, they found
							themselves compelled to ask for help from Rome.

On being admitted to an audience,
							their envoys addressed the senate to the following effect:
							“Senators! the people of Capua have sent us as ambassadors to you
							to ask for a friendship which shall be perpetual, and for help for the
							present hour.

Had we sought this friendship in the day of our prosperity it might have
							been cemented more readily, but at the same time by a weaker bond. For
							in that case, remembering that we had formed our friendship on equal
							terms, we should perhaps have been as close friends as now, but we
							should have been less prepared to accept your mandates, less at your
							mercy.

Whereas now, won over by your compassion and defended in our extremity
							by your aid, we should be bound to cherish the kindness bestowed on us
							if we are not to appear ungrateful and undeserving of any help from
							either gods or man.

I certainly do not consider that the fact of the Samnites having already
							become your friends and allies should be a bar to our being admitted
							into your friendship; it only shows that they take precedence of us in
							the priority and degree of the honour which you have conferred upon
							them. There is nothing in your treaty with them to prevent you from
							making fresh treaties.

It has always been held amongst you to be a satisfactory reason for
							friendship, when he who made advances to you was anxious to be your
							friend.

Although our present circumstances forbid us to speak proudly about
							ourselves, still we Campanians are second to no people, save yourselves,
							in the size of our city and the fertility of our soil, and we shall
							bring, I consider, no small accession to your prosperity by entering
							into your friendship.

Whenever the Aequi and Volscians, the perpetual enemies of this City,
							make any hostile movement we shall be on their rear, and what you lead
							the way in doing on behalf of our safety, that we shall always continue
							to do on behalf of your dominion and your glory.

When these nations which lie between us are subjugated —and your courage
							and fortune are a guarantee that this will soon come about — you will
							have an unbroken dominion up to our frontier.

Painful and humiliating is the confession which our fortunes compel us
							to make; but it has come to this, senators, we Campanians must be
							numbered either amongst your friends or your enemies. If you defend us
							we are yours, if you abandon us we shall belong to the Samnites.

Make up your minds, then, whether you would prefer that Capua and the
							whole of Campania should form an addition to your strength or

should augment the power of the Samnites It is only right, Romans, that
							your sympathy and help should be extended to all, but especially should
							it be so to those who, when others appealed to them, tried to help them
							beyond their strength and so have brought themselves into these dire
							straits.

Although it was ostensibly on behalf of the Sidicines that we fought, we
							really fought for our own liberty, for we saw our neighbours falling
							victims to the nefarious brigandage of the Samnites, and we knew that
							when the Sidicines had been consumed the fire would sweep on to us.

The Samnites are not coming to attack us because we have in any way
							wronged them, but because they have gladly seized upon a pretext for
							war.

Why, if they only sought retribution and were not catching at an
							opportunity for satisfying their greed, ought it not to be enough for
							them that our legions have fallen on Sidicine territory and a second
							time in Campania itself?

Where do we find resentment so bitter that the blood shed in two battles
							cannot satiate it? Then think of the destruction wrought in our fields,
							the men and cattle carried off, the burning and ruining of our farms,
							everything devastated with fire and sword —cannot all this appease their
							rage? No, they must satisfy their greed.

It is this that is hurrying them on to the storm of Capua; they are bent
							on either destroying that fairest of cities or making it their own. But
							you, Romans, should make it your own by kindness, rather than allow them
							to possess it as the reward of iniquity.”

“I am not speaking in the presence of a nation that refuses to go
							to war when war is righteous, but even so, I believe if you make it
							clear that you will help us you will not find it necessary to go to war.

The contempt which the Samnites feel for their neighbours extends to us,
							it does not mount any higher; the shadow of your help therefore is
							enough to protect us, and we shall regard whatever we have, whatever we
							are, as wholly yours.

For you the Campanian soil shall be tilled, for you the city of Capua
							shall be thronged; you we shall regard as our founders, our parents,
							yes, even as gods; there is not a single one amongst your colonies that
							will surpass us in devotion and loyalty towards you.

Be gracious, senators, to our prayers and manifest your divine will and
							power on behalf of the Campanians, and bid them entertain a certain hope
							that Capua will be safe.

With what a vast crowd made up of every class, think you, did we start
							from the gates? How full of tears and prayers did we leave all behind.
							In what a state of expectancy are the senate and people of Capua, our
							wives and children, now living!

I am quite certain that the whole population is standing at the gates,
							watching the road which leads from here, in anxious suspense as to what
							reply you are ordering us to carry back to them.

The one answer will bring them safety, victory, light, and liberty; the
							other —I dare not say what that might bring. Deliberate then upon our
							fate, as that of men who are either going to be your friends and allies,
							or to have no existence anywhere.”

When the envoys had withdrawn, the senate proceeded to discuss the
							question. Many of the members realised how the largest and richest city
							in Italy, with a very productive country near the sea, could become the
							granary of Rome, and supply every variety of provision.

Notwithstanding, however, loyalty to treaties outweighed even these
							great advantages, and the consul was authorised by the senate to give
							the following reply: “The senate is of opinion, Campanians, that
							you are worthy of our aid, but justice demands that friendship with you
							shall be established on such a footing that no older friendship and
							alliance is thereby impaired. Therefore we refuse to employ on your
							behalf against the Samnites arms which would offend the gods sooner than
							they injured men. We shall, as is just and right, send an embassy to our
							allies and friends to ask that no hostile violence be offered
							you.”

Thereupon the leader of the embassy, acting according to the instructions
							they had brought with them, said: “Even though you are not
							willing to make a just use of force against brute force and injustice in
							defence of what belongs to us, you will at all events defend what
							belongs to you. Wherefore we now place under your sway and jurisdiction,
							senators, and that of the Roman people, the people of Campania and the
							city of Capua, its fields, its sacred temples, all things human and
							divine.

Henceforth we are prepared to suffer what we may have to suffer as men
							who have surrendered themselves into your hands.”

At these words they all burst into tears and stretching out their hands
							towards the consul they prostrated themselves on the floor of the
							vestibule.

The senators were deeply moved by this instance of the vicissitudes of
							human fortune, where a people abounding in wealth, famous for their
							pride and luxuriousness, and from whom, shortly before, their neighbours
							had sought assistance, were now so broken in spirit that they put
							themselves and all that belonged to them under the power and authority
							of others.

It at once became a matter of honour that men who had formally
							surrendered themselves should not be left to their fate, and it was
							resolved “that the Samnite nation would commit a wrongful act if
							they attacked a city and territory which had by surrender become the
							possession of Rome.”

They determined to lose no time in despatching envoys to the Samnites.
							Their instructions were to lay before them the request of the
							Campanians, the reply which the senate, mindful of their friendly
							relations with the Samnites, had given, and lastly the surrender which
							had been made.

They were to request the Samnites, in virtue of the friendship and
							alliance which existed between them, to spare those who had made a
							surrender of themselves and to take no hostile action against that
							territory which had become the possession of the Roman people.

If these mild remonstrances proved ineffective, they were to solemnly
							warn the Samnites in the name of the senate and people of Rome to keep
							their hands off the city of Capua and the territory of Campania.

The envoys delivered their
							instructions in the national council of Samnium. The reply they received
							was couched in such defiant terms that not only did the Samnites declare
							their intention of pursuing the war against Capua, but their magistrates
							went outside the council chamber and, in tones loud

enough for the envoys to bear, ordered the prefects of cohorts to march
							at once into the Campanian territory and ravage it.

When the result of this mission was reported in Rome, all other matters
							were at once laid aside and the fetials 
							 were sent to demand redress. This was
							refused and the senate decreed that a formal declaration of war should
							be submitted for the approval of the people as soon as possible.

The people ratified the action of the senate and ordered the two consuls
							to start, each with his army; Valerius for Campania, where he fixed his
							camp at Mount Glaurus, whilst Cornelius advanced into Samnium and
							encamped at Saticula. . —Valerius was
							the first to come into touch with the Samnite legions.

They had marched into Campania because they thought that this would be
							the main theatre of war, and they were burning to wreak their rage on
							the Campanians who had been so ready first to help others against them
							and then to summon help for themselves.

As soon as they saw the Roman camp, they one and all clamoured for the
							signal for battle to be given by their leaders; they declared that the
							Romans would have the same luck in helping the Campanians that the
							Campanians had had in helping the Sidicines.

For a few days Valerius confined himself to skirmishes, with the object
							of testing the enemy's strength.

At length he put out the signal for battle and spoke a few words of
							encouragement to his men. He told them not to let themselves be daunted
							by a new war or a new enemy, for the further they carried their arms
							from the City the more unwarlike were the nations whom they approached.

They were not to measure the courage of the Samnites by the defeats they
							had inflicted on the Sidicines and the Campanians; whenever two nations
							fought together, whatever the qualities they possessed, one side must
							necessarily be vanquished.

There was no doubt that as far as the Campanians were concerned they
							owed their defeats more to their want of hardihood and the weakening
							effects of excessive luxury than to the strength of their enemies. What
							could two successful wars an the part of the Samnites through all those
							centuries weigh against the many brilliant achievements at the Roman
							people,

who reckoned up almost more triumphs than years since the foundation of
							their City, who had subdued by the might at their arms all the
							surrounding nations —Sabines, Etruscans, Latins, Hernici, Aequi,
							Volscians, and Auruncans —who had slain the Gauls in so many battles and
							driven them at last to their ships?

His men must not only go into action in full reliance upon their own
							courage and warlike reputation, but they must also remember under whose
							auspices and generalship they were going to fight, whether under a man
							who is only

to be listened to provided he is a big talker, courageous only in words,
							ignorant of a soldier's work, or under one who himself knows how to
							handle weapons, who can show himself in the front, and do his duty in
							the melee at battle.

“I want you, soldiers,” he continued, “to follow my
							deeds not my words, and to look to me not only for the word at command
							but also for example. It was not by party struggles nor by the intrigues
							so common amongst the nobles but by my own right hand that I won three
							consulships and attained the highest reputation.

There was a time when it might have been said to me, “Yes, for
							you were a patrician descended from the liberators at our country, and
							your family held the consulship in the very year when this City first
							possessed consuls.”

Now, however, the consulship is open to you, plebeians, as much as to us
							who are patricians; it is not the reward of high birth as it once was,
							but of personal merit. Look forward then, soldiers, to securing all the
							highest honours!

If with the sanction of the gods you men have given me this new name at
							Corvinus, I have not forgotten the old cognomen of our family; I have
							not forgotten that I am a Publicola.

I always study and always have studied the interests of the Roman plebs,
							both at home and in the field, whether as a private citizen or holding
							public office, whether as military tribune or as consul. I have been
							consistent to this aim in all my successive consulships.

And now for what is immediately before us: go on with the help at
							heaven, and win with me for the first time a triumph over your new foes
							—the Samnites.”

Nowhere was there ever a general who endeared himself more to his
							soldiers by cheerfully sharing every duty with the humblest

of his men In the military sports when the soldiers got up contests of
							speed and strength among themselves he was equally ready to win or to
							lose, and never thought any man unworthy to be his antagonist.

He showed practical kindness as circumstances required; in his language
							he was not less mindful of other men's liberty than of his own dignity,
							and what made him most popular was that he displayed the same qualities
							in discharging the duties of his office which he had shown as a
							candidate for it.

Following up their commander's words, the whole army marched out of camp
							with extraordinary alacrity.

In no battle that was ever fought did men engage with strength more
							equally matched, or more assured hopes of victory on both sides, or a
							stronger spirit of self-confidence unaccompanied, however, by any
							feeling of contempt for their opponents.

The fighting temper of the Samnites was roused by their recent
							achievements and the double victory won a few days previously; the
							Romans on the other hand were inspired by their glorious record of four
							centuries of victory reaching back to the foundation of the City.

But each side felt some anxiety at meeting a new and untried foe.

The battle was an index to their feelings; for some time they fought so
							resolutely that neither line showed any signs of giving way.

At length the consul, seeing that the Samnites could not be repulsed by
							steady fighting, determined to try the effect of a sudden shock and
							launched his cavalry at them. This made no impression, and as he watched
							them wheeling round in the narrow space between the opposing armies
							after their ineffective charge, having utterly failed to penetrate the
							enemy's line, he rode back to the front ranks of the legions, and after
							dismounting said: “Soldiers, this task belongs to us infantry.

Come on! Wherever you see me making my way through the enemy's lines
							with my sword follow, and each of you do his best to cut down those in
							front.

All that ground which is now glittering with uplifted spears you shall
							see cleared by a vast carnage.” During those words the cavalry,
							at the consul's order, retired an both flanks, leaving the centre clear
							for the legions. The consul led the charge, and slew the first man he
							engaged with.

Fired at the sight, every man, right and left, charged straight forward
							and began a fight to be remembered. The Samnites did not flinch, though
							they were receiving more wounds than they inflicted.

The battle had now gone on for a considerable time; there was a terrible
							slaughter round the Samnite standards but no signs of flight anywhere,
							so resolved were they that death alone should be their conqueror.

The Romans began to find their strength failing through fatigue and not
							much daylight remained, so goaded on by rage and disappointment they
							flung themselves madly upon their foe.

Then for the first time the Samnites were seen to be giving ground and
							preparing to flee; they were being taken prisoners and killed in all
							directions, and not many would have survived had not night put an end to
							what was becoming a victory rather than a battle.

The Romans admitted that they had never fought with a more obstinate
							enemy, and when the Samnites were asked what it was that first turned
							them, with all their determination, to flight, they said that the eyes
							of the Romans looked like fire, and their faces and expression like
							those of madmen;

it was this more than anything else which filled them with terror. This
							terror showed itself not only in the result of the battle but also in
							their hurrying away in the night.

The next day the Romans took possession of their empty camp, and all the
							population of Capua came out there to congratulate them.

But these rejoicings were very
							nearly being embittered by a great disaster in Samnium. The consul
							Cornelius had advanced from Saticula and led his army by a mountain pass
							which descended into a narrow valley.

All the surrounding heights were occupied by the enemy, and he did not
							notice them high up above him till retreat was impossible.

The Samnites were waiting quietly till the whole of the column should
							descend into the lowest part of the valley, but meantime P. Decius, a
							military tribune, descried a peak jutting out on the pass which
							commanded the enemy's camp. This height would have been a difficult one
							for a heavy-armed force to climb but not for one in light marching
							order.

Decius came up to the consul, who was in a great state of alarm, and
							said to him: “Do you see, A. Cornelius, that height above the
							enemy?

If we promptly seize that position which the Samnites were blind enough
							to leave unoccupied, it will prove a stronghold in which all our hopes
							of safety will centre. Do not give me more than the hastati and principes of one
							legion. When I have reached the summit with them you may march on out of
							this and save yourself and the army, for the enemy below, a mark for
							every missile we hurl, will not be able to move without being destroyed.

Either the Fortune of Rome or our own courage will then clear the way
							for our escape.”

The consul warmly thanked him, and after being furnished with the
							detachment he asked for, he marched through the pass unobserved and only
							came into view of the enemy when he was close to the spot for which he
							was making.

Then whilst every eye was fixed upon him in silent astonishment, he gave
							the consul time to withdraw his army into a more favourable position
							until he had halted his own men on the summit.

The Samnites marched aimlessly hither and thither; they could not follow
							the consul except by the same path where he had been exposed to their
							weapons and which was now equally dangerous to them, nor could they lead
							a force up the hill above them which Decius had seized.

He and his men had snatched victory from their grasp, and therefore it
							was against him that their rage was mainly directed, whilst the nearness
							of the position and the paucity of its defenders were additional
							incentives to them to attack it.

First they were bent upon investing the peaks on all sides so as to cut
							Decius off from the consul, then they thought of retiring and leaving
							the way open for him so that they could attack when he had descended
							into the valley.

Whilst they were still in this state of indecision night overtook them.
							At first Decius hoped to be able to attack them from his higher ground
							while they were coming up the height; then he began to wonder why they
							did not show fight, or, at all events, if they were deterred by the
							nature of the ground why they did not enclose him with a
							circumvallation.

He called the centurions round him. “What ignorance, what
							cowardice this is!” he exclaimed. “How on earth did those
							men win a victory over the Sidicines and Campanians? You see them there
							marching up and down, at one time forming up in close order, at another
							extending. We could by this time have been completely invested yet no
							one begins to entrench.

We shall be like them if we stay here longer than we need. Come along
							with me and let us reconnoitre their positions while some light is still
							left and find out where the exit from here is open.”

Disguised in a common soldier's cloak that the enemy might not mark the
							general going his rounds, and with his centurion similarly attired, he
							made a thorough examination of all these details.

After arranging the watches, he ordered the tessera to be given to the rest of the troops; when the
							bugle sounded for the second watch they were to muster round him

in silence. When they had assembled in accordance with instructions, he
							said: “This silence, soldiers, must be maintained, and all
							applause as you listen to me checked. When I have laid my proposals
							fully before you, those of you who approve will cross over silently to
							the right. The opinion of the majority will be adopted. Now listen to

my plans. You were not carried here in flight, nor have you been
							abandoned through cowardice, and the enemy are investing you. You seized
							this position by your courage, by your courage you must get away from
							it. By coming here you have saved a splendid army for Rome, now you must
							save yourselves by cutting your

way out. Though few in number you have brought aid to many, and it is
							only fitting to your deserts that you yourselves should need the aid

of none. We have to do with an enemy who through his slackness yesterday
							failed to use the chance which Fortune gave him of wiping out an entire
							army; who did not perceive this most useful peak hanging over his head
							until it had been seized

by us. With all their thousands of men they did not prevent us, few as
							we are, from climbing it, and now that we are holding it, did they,
							though plenty of daylight remained, enclose us with lines of
							circumvallation? The enemy whom you eluded while his eyes were open, and
							he was on the watch, you certainly ought to evade when he is heavy

with sleep. In fact, it is absolutely necessary for you to do so, for
							our position is such that I have rather to point out the necessity in
							which you are placed than to suggest any plan

of action. For there can be no question as to your remaining here or
							departing, since Fortune has left you nothing but your arms and the
							courage which knows how to use them. If we show more fear of the sword
							than becomes men and Romans we shall have to die of hunger

and thirst. Our one chance of safety, then, lies in our breaking our way
							through and departing. We must do that either in the daytime or

at night. But this is a point which admits of little doubt; if we wait
							for daylight how can we hope that the enemy, who, as you see, has drawn
							a ring of men all round us, will not completely enclose us with
							entrenchments? On the other hand, if night be best for our sortie, as it
							most certainly is, then this hour of the night is most assuredly

the fittest. You have mustered at the call for the second watch, an hour
							when men are buried in sleep. You will pass through them in silence,
							unnoticed by the sleepers, but should they become aware of your presence
							you will throw them into a panic by a

sudden shout. You have followed me so far, follow me still, while I
							follow Fortune who has guided us here Those of you who think this a safe
							plan step forward and pass over to the right.”

All Crossed over. They there followed Decius as he moved through the
							intervals between the pickets.

They had already got as far as the centre of the Samnite lines when a
							soldier striding over the bodies of the sleeping sentinels made a noise
							by striking his shield against one of them. The sentinel awakened by the
							sound shook the one next him; they both jumped up and aroused others,
							not knowing whether friends or foes were amongst them, whether it was
							Decius' force breaking out or the consul capturing the camp.

As they were no longer unobserved, Decius ordered his men to raise a
							shout, which paralysed the half-awakened sleepers with terror.

In their confusion they were unable to seize their arms promptly and
							could neither offer any resistance nor follow up their assailants.

While the Samnites were in this state of confusion and panic, the
							Romans, cutting down all who opposed them, made their way in the
							direction of the consul's camp. A considerable portion of the night
							still remained and they were evidently now in safety. Decius addressed
							them: “All honour to you, brave Romans!

Your march up that height and your return will be extolled in every age
							But for the due recognition of such courage the light of day is needed;
							you have deserved something more than to carry your glory back to camp
							hidden in the silence of the night.

We will rest here and wait for the daylight.” They rested
							accordingly. As soon as it was light and the news was sent on to the
							consul in camp, there was great excitement and rejoicing, and where it
							was officially announced throughout the camp that the men who saved the
							army at the risk of their own lives had themselves returned safe and
							sound, they all poured out in crowds to meet them, showered
							congratulations upon them, gave thanks and praise to the gods, and
							extolled Decius to the skies.

He marched through the camp in what amounted to a triumphal procession
							with his small force fully armed. Every eye was fixed upon him; the
							military tribune was treated with as much distinction as if he had been
							a consul.

When he reached the headquarters' tent, the consul ordered the Assembly
							to be sounded.

He was beginning to give Decius the praise he had so well earned, before
							the whole army, when Decius interrupted him and begged him to postpone
							those proceedings in view of the splendid opportunity which they now had
							in their hands.

He accordingly dismissed the parade and followed Decius' advice, which
							was to attack the enemy before they had recovered from their nocturnal
							panic and were still stationed round the height in separate detachments;
							some who had been sent in pursuit were believed to be still defiling
							through the pass.

The legions were ordered to arm for battle and were conducted by a more
							open route towards the enemy, as scouting parties had brought back
							fuller information about the locality. The attack was sudden and
							unexpected; the Samnites were everywhere in scattered bodies, most of
							them without arms, unable to secure their weapons or get into any
							compact formation or retire within their entrenchments. They were first
							driven in panic into their camp, there the camp itself was rushed and
							captured.

The shouting rolled round the height and the detachments who had been
							posted to watch it fled from a foe whom they had not yet seen. Those who
							had fled panic-struck into their camp —some 3o,ooo —were all slain.

After this success the consul summoned an Assembly, and in the presence
							of his fellow-soldiers pronounced a eulogy on Decius not only for his
							former services but also for this crowning proof of his soldierly
							qualities. In addition to the other military rewards he presented him
							with a golden chaplet and a hundred oxen, and one white oxen of especial
							beauty, the horns of which had been gilded.

The men who had been with him on the height were rewarded with a
							standing order for double rations and also with one ox and two tunics
							apiece. After the consul had made the presentation, the legionaries,
							amidst loud cheers, placed on Decius' head an “obsidial”
							wreath of grass. Another similar wreath was bestowed upon him by his
							own

men. With these decorations upon him he sacrificed the beautiful ox to
							Mars and presented the hundred oxen which had been given him to the men
							who had accompanied him on his expedition. The legionaries also
							contributed a pound of meal and a pint of wine for each of them. During
							all these proceedings enthusiastic cheering went on through the whole
							camp.

After the rout it had
							suffered at the hands of Valerius, the Samnite army was determined to
							put its fortunes to the proof in a final conflict, and a third battle
							was fought at Suessula. The whole fighting strength of the nation was

brought up. The alarming news was sent in haste to Capua; from there
							horsemen galloped to the Roman camp to beg for help

from Valerius. He at once ordered an advance, and leaving a strong force
							to protect the camp and the baggage, proceeded by forced marches to
							Suessula. He selected a site for his camp not far from the enemy, and
							very restricted in area, as with the exception of the horses there were
							no baggage, animals, or camp-followers to be

provided for. The Samnite army, assuming that there would be no delay in
							giving battle, formed their lines, and as no enemy advanced against them
							they marched on towards the Roman camp prepared to

assault it. When they saw the soldiers on the rampart and learnt from
							the report of the reconnoitring parties who had been sent in every
							direction that the camp was of small dimensions, they concluded that
							only a weak force of the enemy

held it. The whole army began to clamour for the fosse to be filled up
							and the rampart torn down that they might force their way into the camp.
							If the generals had not checked the impetuosity of their men, their
							recklessness would have terminated

the war. As it was, however, their huge numbers were exhausting their
							supplies, and owing to their previous inaction at Suessula and the delay
							in bringing on an action they were not far from absolute scarcity. They
							determined, therefore, since, as they imagined, the enemy was afraid to
							venture outside his camp, to send foraging parties into

the fields. Meantime they expected that as the Romans made no movement
							and had brought only as much corn as they could carry with the rest of
							their equipment on their shoulders, they, too, would soon be in want

of everything. When the consul saw the enemy scattered through the
							fields and only a few left on outpost duty in front of the camp, he
							addressed a few words of encouragement to his men and led them out to
							storm the

Samnite camp. They carried it at the first rush; more of the enemy were
							killed in their tents than at the gates or on the rampart. All the
							standards which were captured he ordered to be collected together.
							Leaving two legions to hold the camp, he gave strict orders that they
							were not to touch the booty till

he returned. He went forward with his men in open column and sent the
							cavalry to round up the scattered Samnites, like so much game, and drive
							them against

his army. There was an immense slaughter, for they were too much
							terrified to think under what standard to rally or whether to make for
							their camp or flee

further afield. Their fears drove them into such a hasty flight that as
							many as 40,000 shields — far more than the number of the slain —and
							military standards, including those captured in the storming of the
							camp, to the number of 170 were brought to

the consul. He then returned to the Samnite camp and all the booty there
							was given to the soldiers.

The success which attended these operations made the people of Falerii
							anxious to convert their forty years' truce into a permanent treaty of
							peace with Rome. It also led the Latins to abandon their designs against
							Rome and employ the force they had collected against the Paelignians.

The fame of these victories was not confined to the limits of Italy;
							even the Carthaginians sent a deputation to congratulate the senate and
							to present a golden crown which was to be placed in the chapel of
							Jupiter on the Capitol. It weighed twenty-five pounds.

Both the consuls celebrated a triumph over the Samnites A striking
							figure in the procession was Decius, wearing his decorations; in their
							extempore effusions the soldiers repeated his name as often as that of
							the consul. Mutiny of Troops in Campania.

—Soon after this an audience was granted to deputations from Capua and
							from Suessa, and at their request it was arranged that a force should be
							sent to winter in those two cities to act as a check upon the Samnites.

Even in those days a residence in Capua was by no means conducive to
							military discipline; having pleasures of every kind at their command,
							the troops became enervated and their patriotism was undermined. They
							began to hatch plans for seizing Capua by the same criminal means by
							which its present holders had taken it from its ancient possessors.

“They richly deserved,” it was said, “to have the
							precedent which they had set turned against themselves. Why should
							people like the Campanians who were incapable of defending either their
							possessions or themselves enjoy the most fertile territory in Italy, and
							a city well worthy of its territory, in preference to a victorious army
							who had driven off the Samnites from it by their sweat and blood?

Was it just that these people who had surrendered themselves into their
							power should be enjoying that fertile and delightful country while they,
							wearied with warfare, were struggling with the arid and pestilential
							soil round the City, or suffering the ruinous consequences of an
							evergrowing interest which were awaiting them in Rome?”

This agitation which was being conducted in secret, only a few being yet
							taken into the conspirators' confidence, was discovered by the new
							consul, Caius Marcius Rutilus, to whom Campania had been allotted as his
							province, his colleague, Q. Servilius, being left in the City.

Taught by years and experience —he had been four times consul as well as
							Dictator and censor —he thought his best course would be, after he was
							in possession of the facts as ascertained through the tribunes, to
							frustrate any chance of the soldiers carrying out their design by
							encouraging them in the hope of executing it whenever they pleased. The
							troops had been distributed amongst the cities of Campania, and the
							contemplated plan had been propagated from Capua throughout the entire
							force.

The consul caused a rumour, therefore, to be spread that they were to
							occupy the same winter quarters the following year. As there appeared to
							be no necessity for their carrying out their design immediately, the
							agitation quieted down for the present.

After settling the army in their summer quarters, whilst all was quiet
							among the Samnites the consul began to purify it by getting rid of the
							mutinous spirits.

Some were dismissed as having served their time; others were pronounced
							to be incapacitated through age or infirmity ; others were sent home on
							furlough, at first separately, then selected cohorts were sent together,
							on the ground that they had passed the winter far from their homes and
							belongings. A large number were transferred to different places,
							ostensibly for the needs of the service. All these the other consuls and
							the praetor detained in Rome on various imaginary pretexts.

At first, unaware of the trick that was being played upon them, they
							were delighted to revisit their homes.

They soon, however, found out that even those who were first sent away
							were not rejoining the colours and that hardly any were disbanded but
							those who had been in Campania, and amongst these mainly the leading
							agitators. At first they were surprised, and then they felt a
							well-grounded apprehension that their plans had leaked out.

“Now,” they said, “we shall have to suffer
							courtmartial, informers will give evidence against us, we shall one
							after another be executed in secret; the reckless and ruthless tyranny
							of the consuls and senators will be let loose on us.” The
							soldiers,

seeing how those who were the backbone of the conspiracy had been
							cleverly got rid of by the consuls, did not venture to do more than
							whisper these things to one another.

One cohort, which was stationed not far from Antium, took up a position
							at Lantulae in a narrow pass between the mountains and the sea to
							intercept those whom the consul was sending home on the various pretexts
							mentioned above.

They soon grew to a very numerous body, and nothing was wanting to give
							it the form of a regular army except a general. They moved on into the
							Alban district, plundering as they went, and entrenched themselves in a
							camp under the hill of Alba Longa.

After completing their entrenchments they spent the rest of the day in
							arguing about the choice of a leader, as they had not sufficient
							confidence in any one amongst themselves. But who could be invited from
							Rome?

Which of the patricians or plebeians would expose himself to such peril,
							or to whom could the cause of an army maddened by injustice be safely
							committed? The next day found them still engaged in the discussion, when
							some of those who had been dispersed in the marauding expedition brought
							back the

information that Titus Quinctius was cultivating a farm in the
							neighbourhood and had lost all interest in his City and the honourable
							distinctions he had won.

This man belonged to a patrician house, and after achieving great
							reputation as a soldier, had his military career cut short by a wound
							which made him lame in one of his feet, and he betook himself to a rural
							life, far from the Forum and its party struggles.

On hearing his name mentioned they recalled the man to mind, and hoping
							that all might turn out well they ordered an invitation to be sent to
							him. They hardly expected that he would come voluntarily, and prepared
							to intimidate him into compliance.

The messengers accordingly entered his farmhouse in the dead of night
							and woke him up from a sound sleep, and after telling him that there was
							no alternative, it must either be authority and rank or, if he resisted,
							death, they carried him off to the camp.

On his arrival he was saluted as their commander, and all dismayed as he
							was by the strangeness and suddenness of the affair, the insignia of his
							office were brought to him and he was peremptorily told to lead them to
							the City.

Acting on their own impulse rather than their leader's advice they
							plucked up their standards and marched in hostile array as far as the
							eighth milestone on what is now the Appian Way.

They would have gone on at once to the City had they not received word
							that an army was on its march, and that M. Valerius Corvus had been
							nominated Dictator, with L. Aemilius Mamercus as his Master of the
							Horse, to act against them.

As soon as they came into
							view and recognised the arms and standards, the thought of their country
							instantly calmed the passions of them all.

They had not yet been hardened to the sight of civic bloodshed, they
							knew of no wars but those against foreign foes, and secession from their
							own countrymen began to be looked upon as the last degree of madness.
							First the leaders then the men on both sides sought an opening for
							negotiations.

Quinctius, who had had enough of fighting for his country and was the
							last man to fight against it, and Corvus, who was devoted to all his
							countrymen, especially to the soldiers and above all to his own army,
							came forward to a colloquy.

When the latter was recognised, his opponents showed as much respect for
							him as his own men by the silence with which they prepared to listen to
							him. He addressed them as follows: “Soldiers! When I left the
							City I offered up prayers to the immortal gods who watch over our State,
							your State and mine, that they would of their goodness grant me, not a
							victory over you, but the glory of bringing about a reconciliation.

There have been and there will be abundant opportunities for winning
							glory in war, and this occasion we must seek for peace.

That which I implored of the immortal gods, when I offered up my
							prayers, you have it in your power now to grant me if you will please to
							remember that you are encamped not in Samnium, not amongst the
							Volscians, but on Roman soil. Those hills which you see are the hills of
							your City; I, your consul, am the man under whose auspices and
							leadership you twice defeated the legions of the Samnites a year ago and
							twice captured their camp.

I am Marcus Valerius Corvus, soldiers, a patrician it is true, but my
							nobility has shown itself in benefits to you, not in wrongs; I have
							never been the author of any law bearing harshly on you or of any
							oppressive enactment of the senate; in all my commands I have been
							stricter with myself than with you.

If noble birth, if personal merit, if high office, if distinguished
							service could make any man proud, I venture to say that such is my
							descent, such the proof I have given of myself, such the age at which I
							obtained the consulship, being only twenty-three, that I had it in my
							power to show myself harsh and overbearing not only to the plebs but
							even to the patricians.

What have you heard that I have said or done as consul more than I
							should had I been one of your tribunes? In that spirit I administered
							two successive consulships, in that spirit will this dread Dictatorship
							be administered; I shall not be more gentle towards these soldiers of
							mine and of my country than to you who would be —I loathe the word —

its enemies.” “You then will draw the sword against me
							before I shall draw it against you; if there is to be fighting it is on
							your side that the advance will be sounded, on your side will the
							battleshout and charge begin.

Make up your minds to do what your fathers and grandfathers —those who
							seceded to the Sacred Mount and those who afterwards took possession of
							the Aventine —could not make up their minds to do!

Wait till your wives and mothers come out from the City with dishevelled
							hair to meet you as they once came to meet Coriolanus! Then the Volscian
							legions refrained from attacking us because they had a Roman for their
							general; will not you, an army of Romans, desist from an impious war?
							Titus Quinctius!

by whatever means you were placed in your present position, whether
							willingly or unwillingly, if there is to be a conflict, retire, I beg
							you to the rearmost line; it will be more honourable for you to flee
							from a fellow-citizen than to fight against your country.

But if there is to be peace you will take your place with honour amongst
							the foremost and play the part of a beneficent mediator in this
							conference. Demand what is just and you shall receive it, though we
							should acquiesce even in what is unjust rather than embrue impious hands
							in one another's blood.”

T. Quinctius, bathed in tears, turned to his men and said: “If,
							soldiers, I am of any use at all you will find that I am a better leader
							in peace than in war. The words you have heard are not those of a
							Volscian or a Samnite but of a Roman.

They were spoken by your consul, your commander, soldiers, whose
							auspices you have found by experience to be favourable for you; do not
							desire to learn by experience what they may be when directed against
							you.

The senate had at its disposal other generals more ready to fight
							against you; it has selected the one man who has showed most
							consideration for his soldiers, in whom you have placed most confidence
							as your commander.

Even those who have victory in their power wish for peace, what ought we
							to wish for?

Why do we not lay aside all resentment and ambitious hopes —those
							treacherous advisers — and trust ourselves and all our interests to his
							tried fidelity?”

There was a universal shout of approval, and T. Quinctius advancing to
							the front asserted that his men would submit to the authority of the
							Dictator. He implored Valerius to take up the cause of his unhappy
							fellow-citizens, and when he had taken it up to maintain it with the
							same integrity that he had always shown in his public administration.

For himself he demanded no conditions, he would not place his hope in
							anything but his innocence, but for the soldiers there must be the same
							guarantee that was given in the days of their fathers to the plebs and
							afterwards to the legions, namely, that no man should be punished for
							having taken part in the secession.

The Dictator expressed his approval of what had been said, and after
							telling them all to hope for the best he galloped back to the City, and
							after obtaining the consent of the senate, brought a measure before the
							people who were assembled in the Petilian Grove granting immunity to all
							who had taken part in the secession.

He then begged the Quirites to grant him one request, which was that no
							one should ever either in jest or earnest bring that matter up against
							any one. A military Lex Sacrata 
							 was also passed, enacting that no soldier's
							name should be struck off the muster-roll without his consent.

An additional provision was subsequently embodied in it, forbidding any
							one who had once been military tribune from being made to serve
							afterwards as a

centurion. This was in consequence of a demand made by the mutineers
							with respect to P. Salonius, who had been every year either military
							tribune or centurion of the first class. They were incensed against him
							because he had always opposed their mutinous projects and had fled from
							Lautulae to avoid being mixed up with

them. As this proposal was aimed solely at Salonius the senate refused
							to allow it. Then Salonius himself appealed to the senators not to
							consider his dignity of more importance than the harmony of the State,
							and at his request they ultimately passed

it. Another demand just as impudent was that the pay of the cavalry
							should be reduced at that time they were receiving three times the
							infantry pay —because they had acted against the mutineers.

In addition to these measures I find the following recorded by various
							authorities.

L. Genucius, a tribune of the plebs, brought before them a measure
							declaring usury illegal, whilst other resolutions were adopted
							forbidding any one to accept re-election to the same office in less than
							ten years or fill two offices in the same year, and also that both
							consuls might legally be elected from the plebs If all these concessions
							were really made it is quite clear that the revolt possessed
							considerable strength.

In other annalists it is stated that Valerius was not nominated
							Dictator, but the matter was entirely arranged by the consuls; also that
							it was not before they came to Rome but in Rome itself that the body of
							conspirators broke out into armed revolt;

also that it was not to T. Quinctius' farm but to the house of C.
							Manlius that the nocturnal visit was paid, and that it was Manlius who
							was seized by the conspirators and made their leader, after which they
							marched out to a distance of four miles and entrenched themselves;

also that it was not their leaders who made the first suggestions of
							concord, but what happened was that as the two

armies advanced towards each other prepared for action the soldiers
							exchanged mutual greetings, and as they drew nearer grasped each other's
							hands and embraced one another, and the consuls, seeing how averse the
							soldiers were from fighting, yielded to circumstances and made proposals
							to the senate for reconciliation and concord.

Thus the ancient authorities agree in nothing but the simple fact that
							there was a mutiny and that it was suppressed.

The report of this disturbance and the seriousness of the war which had
							been commenced with the Samnites made many nationalities averse from an
							alliance with Rome. The Latins had long been faithless to their treaty,
							and in addition to that the Privernates made a sudden incursion and
							devastated the neighbouring Roman colonies of Norba and Setia.

When
							messengers from Setia and Norba arrived in Rome with complaints of a
							defeat they had suffered at the hands of the revolted Privernates, the
							consulship was held by C.

Plautius (for the second time) and L. Aemilius Mamercus. News was also
							brought that an army of Volscians led by the people of Antium

had concentrated at Satricum. Both wars fell to Plautius. He marched
							first to Privernum and at once engaged the enemy who were defeated
							without much trouble. The town was captured and then given back to the
							Privernates after a strong garrison had been

placed in it; two-thirds of their territory were confiscated. Then the
							victorious army was led against the Antiates at Satricum. There a battle
							was fought with terrible bloodshed on both sides, and whilst the result
							was still uncertain night separated the combatants. The Romans were in
							no way discouraged by the indecisiveness of

the conflict, and prepared for battle the next day. The Volscians, after
							reckoning up their losses in the battles, were by no means eager to run
							any further risk; looking upon themselves as defeated, they made a
							hurried departure to Antium in the night, leaving

their wounded and a part of their baggage behind. An immense quantity of
							arms was found both amongst the dead on the field and in the camp. These
							the consul said he was offering to Lua Mater. He then ravaged the
							enemy's territories down to the sea-board.

When the other consul entered the Sabellian territory, he found that the
							Samnites had no camp, no legions confronting him. Whilst he was laying
							waste their fields with fire and sword, envoys came to him to ask for
							peace and he referred them to the senate.

After permission had been given them to state their case, they laid aside
							their truculent manner and requested that peace might be granted them
							and

also the right of making war against the Sidicines. They considered that
							they were the more justified in making this request because they had
							formed friendly relations with Rome when their affairs were prosperous,
							not as in the case of the Campanians when they were in adversity, and
							they were taking up arms against the Sidicines, who had always been
							their enemies and never

friends of Rome, who had not, like the Samnites, sought its friendship
							in a time of peace, nor like the Campanians, asked for its help in a
							time of war, and who were not under the protection and suzerainty of
							Rome.

The praetor, T Aemilius, put these demands to the senate, and they
							decided that the former treaty should be renewed with them.

The reply given then by the praetor was to the effect that it was no
							fault of the Roman people that the friendship with them had not remained
							unbroken, and there was no objection to its being re-established since
							they themselves were weary of a war brought on them by their own fault.

As to the Sidicines there was nothing to prevent the Samnites from being
							free to make either peace or war.

After the treaty was made the Roman army was at once withdrawn. The men
							had received a year's pay and three months' rations, for which the
							consul had stipulated, that he might allow time for an armistice until
							the envoys returned. The Samnites advanced against the Sidicines

with the same troops that they had employed in the war with Rome, and
							they were very hopeful of effecting an early capture of the city. Then
							at last the Sidicines took steps to make a surrender of themselves to
							Rome.

The senate rejected it as being made too late and forced from them by
							extreme necessity. They then made it to the Latins who were already in
							arms on their own account.

Even the Campanians did not refuse to take part in the hostile movement,
							so much keener was their sense of the injuries inflicted by the Samnites
							than of the kindness shown them by Rome. One immense army, composed of
							these many nationalities and under Latin leadership, invaded the Samnite
							country and inflicted more disasters by ravages than by actual fighting.

Although the Latins proved superior in the various encounters, they were
							not loath to retire from the enemy's territory lest they might have to
							fight too often. This allowed the Samnites time to send envoys to Rome.

When they were admitted to an audience they complained to the senate
							that they were suffering more now that they were in treaty with them
							than they had before, when they were enemies;

they very humbly requested them to be satisfied with having snatched
							from them the victory they had won over the Campanians and the
							Sidicines, and not permit them, in addition, to be conquered by these
							most cowardly people.

If the Latins and Campanians were really under the suzerainty of Rome
							they should exert their authority to keep them off the Samnite land, if
							they renounced that suzerainty they should coerce them by force.

They received an ambiguous reply, for the senate shrank from
							acknowledging that the Latins no longer recognised their authority, and
							on the other hand they were afraid, if they reprimanded them, that they
							might alienate them altogether.

The circumstances of the Campanians were quite different; they were
							bound not by treaty but by the terms of surrender, and they must keep
							quiet whether they would or no. There was nothing in their treaty with
							the Latins which prevented them from making war with whom they pleased.

With this reply the Samnites
							were dismissed, quite uncertain as to what the Romans were going to do.
							But its effect was to completely estrange the Campanians, who now feared
							the worst, and it made the Latins more determined than ever, since the
							Romans refused any further concessions.

Under the pretext of making preparations for a Samnite war, they held
							frequent meetings of their national council, and in all the
							consultations of their leaders they hatched plans in secret for war with
							Rome. The Campanians also took part in this movement against their
							preservers.

But in spite of the careful secrecy with which everything was being
							conducted —for they wanted the Samnites to be dislodged from their rear
							before the Romans made any movement —some who had friends and relatives
							in Rome sent hints about the league which was being formed.

The consuls were ordered to resign before the expire of their year of
							office in order that the new consuls might be elected at an earlier date
							in view of such a formidable war.

There were religious difficulties in the way of the elections being held
							by those whose tenure of office had been curtailed, and so an
							interregnum commenced. There were two interreges, M. Valerius and M.
							Fabius. The latter elected T. Manlius Torquatus (for the third time) and
							P. Decius Mus as consuls.

It was in this year ( 341 B.C.), it appears,
							that Alexander, King of Epirus, landed in Italy, and there is no doubt
							that had he been fairly successful at first that war would have extended
							to Rome.

This, too, was about the time of the achievements of Alexander the
							Great, the son of this man's sister, who, after proving himself
							invincible in another region of the globe, was cut off, whilst a young
							man, by disease.

Although there could be no doubt as to the revolt of their allies —the
							Latin league —still, as though they were concerned for the Samnites and
							not for themselves, the Romans invited the ten chiefs of the league to
							Rome to give them instructions as to what they wanted.

Latium at that time had two praetors, L. Annius of Setia and L. Numisius
							of Cerceii, both belonging to the Roman colonists. Through these men not
							only had Signia and Velitrae, themselves Roman colonies, but the Volsci
							also been instigated to take up arms. It was decided that they should be
							particularly invited by name.

No one had the slightest doubt as to the reason for this invitation. A
							meeting of their council was accordingly held prior to their departure;
							they informed those present that they had been asked by the senate to go
							to Rome, and they requested them to decide as to what reply they should
							give with reference to the matters which they had reason to suppose
							would be discussed.

After various opinions had been expressed, Annius spoke as follows:
							“Although it was I who put the question to you as to what answer
							should be given, I still think that it is of more importance to the
							interests of the State to decide what must be done rather than what must
							be said. When our plans are developed it will be easy enough to fit
							words to facts.

If even now we are capable of submitting to servitude under the shadowy
							pretext of a treaty on equal terms, what is to prevent us from deserting
							the Sidicines and receiving our orders not only from the Romans but even
							from the Samnites, and giving as our reply that we are ready to lay down
							our arms at the beck and call of the Romans?

But if your hearts are at last touched by any yearning for independence;
							if a treaty, an alliance, an equality of rights really exists; if we are
							at liberty to boast of the fact that the Romans are of the same stock as
							ourselves, though once we were ashamed of it; if our army, which when
							united with theirs doubles their strength, and which the consuls will
							not dispense with when conducting wars which concern them alone —if,

I say, that army is really an army of their allies, then why are we not
							on an equal footing in all respects?

Why is not one consul elected from the Latins? Those who possess half
							the strength, do they possess half the government?

This is not in itself too much honour for us, seeing that we acknowledge
							Rome to be the head of Latium, but we have made it appear so by our
							prolonged forbearance.” “But if ever you longed for an
							opportunity of taking your place in the government and of making use of
							your liberty, now is the time;

this is the opportunity which has been given you by your own courage and
							the goodness of the gods.

You tried their patience by refusing to supply troops. Who doubts that
							they were intensely irritated when we broke through a custom more than
							two centuries old? Still they put up with the annoyance.

We waged war with the Paelignians on our own account; they who before
							did not allow us the right to defend our own frontiers did not
							intervene. They heard that the Sidicines were received into our
							protection, that the Campanians had revolted from them to us, that we
							were preparing an army to act against the Samnites with whom they had a
							treaty, they never moved out of their City.

What was this extraordinary self-restraint due to but to a consciousness
							of our strength and of theirs? I have it on good authority that when the
							Samnites were laying their complaints about us they received a reply
							from the Roman senate, from which it was quite evident that they
							themselves do not now claim that Latium is under the authority of Rome.

Make your rights effective by insisting on what they are tacitly
							conceding to you. If any one is afraid of saying this, I declare my
							readiness to say it not only in the ears of the Roman people and their
							senate but in the audience of Jupiter himself who dwells in the Capitol,
							and to tell them that if they wish us to remain in alliance with them
							they must accept one consul from us and half their senate.”

His speech was followed by a universal shout of approval, and he was
							empowered to do and to say whatever he deemed to be in furtherance of
							the interests of the State of Latium and of his own honour.

On their arrival in Rome, the senate assembled in the Capitol and granted
							them an audience. T. Manlius, the consul, acting on the instructions of
							the senate, recommended them not to make war upon the Samnites, with
							whom the Romans had a treaty, on which Annius, as though he were a
							conqueror who had captured the Capitol by arms instead of an ambassador
							protected by the law of nations, said:

“It is about time, Titus Manlius and senators, that you gave up
							treating us as though you were our suzerains, when you see the State of
							Latium raised by the bounty of the gods to a most flourishing position,
							both in population and in military power, the Samnites defeated, the
							Sidicines and Campanians in alliance with us, even the Volscians now
							making common cause with us, whilst your own colonies actually prefer
							the government of Latium to that of Rome.

But since you cannot bring your minds to abandon your impudent claims to
							sovereignty, we will go so far, in recognising that we are kindred
							nations, as to offer peace upon the conditions of equal rights for both,
							since it has pleased the gods to grant equal strength to both; though we
							are quite able to assert the independence of Latium by force of arms.
							One consul must be elected from Rome, the other from Latium; the senate
							must contain an equal number of members from both nations; there must be
							one nation, one republic. And in order that there may be one seat of
							government and one name for all, since one side or the other must make
							some concession, let us, if this City really takes precedence, be all
							called Romans.” It so happened that the Romans had in their
							consul T. Manlius, a man who was quite as proud and passionate as
							Annius. He was so enraged as to declare that if the senate were visited
							by such madness as to accept these conditions from a man from Setia, he
							would come with his sword drawn into the Senatehouse and kill every
							Latin he found there.

Then turning to the image of Jupiter, he exclaimed: “Hear, O
							Jupiter, these abominable words! Hear them, O Justice and Right! Thou,
							Jupiter, as though thou hadst been conquered and made captive, art to
							see in thy temple foreign consuls and a foreign senate! Were these the
							terms of the treaty, Latins, which Tullus, the King of Rome, made with
							your fathers of Alba, or which L. Tarquin made with you afterwards? Have
							you forgotten the battle at Lake Regillus? Are you so utterly oblivious
							of your defeats in the old days and of our kindness towards you?”
							This outburst was followed by the indignant protest of the senate, and
							it is recorded that whilst on all hands appeals were being made to the
							gods, whom the consuls were continually invoking as the guardians of
							treaties, the voice of Annius was heard pouring contempt upon the divine
							majesty of the Jupiter of Rome.

At all events when, in a storm of passion he was flinging himself out of
							the vestibule of the temple, he slipped down the steps and struck his
							head so heavily against the bottom step that he became unconscious.

The authorities are not agreed as to whether he was actually killed, and
							I leave the question undecided, as also the statement that during the
							appeals to the gods to avenge the breach of treaties, a storm burst from
							the sky with a terrific roar; for they may either be true or simply
							invented as an appropriate representation of the wrath of the gods.
							Torquatus was sent by the senate to conduct the envoys away, and when he
							saw Annius lying on the ground he exclaimed, loud enough to be heard by
							the senators and populace alike: “It is well. The gods have
							commenced a just and righteous war! There is a divine power at work;
							thou, O Great Jupiter, art here . Not in vain have we consecrated this
							to be thine abode, O Father of gods and men . Why do you hesitate,
							Quirites, and you, senators, to take up arms when the gods are your
							leaders?

I will lay the legions of the Latins low, just as you see their envoy
							lying here.” The consul's words were received by the people with
							loud applause and raised them to such a pitch of excitement that when
							the envoys took their departure they owed their safety more to the care
							of the magistrates who, on the consul's order, accompanied them to
							protect them from the attacks of the angry people than to any respect
							felt for the law of nations. War having been decided upon by senate as
							much as people, the consuls enrolled two armies and proceeded through
							the territories of the Marsi and Paeligni, where they were joined by an
							army of Samnites. They fixed their camp at Capua, where the Latins and
							their allies had assembled. It is said that whilst they were there each
							consul had the same vision in the quiet of the night. A Form greater and
							more awful than any human form appeared to them and announced that the
							commander of the one army and the army itself on the other side were
							destined as a sacrifice to the Dii Manes and to Mother Earth.

In whichever army the commander should have devoted the legions of his
							enemies and himself as well to those deities, that army, that people
							would have the victory. When the consuls compared these visions of the
							night together, they decided that victims should be slain to avert the
							wrath of the gods, and further, that if, on inspection, they should
							portend the same as the vision had announced, one of the two consuls
							should fulfill his destiny. When the answers of the soothsayers, after
							they had inspected the victims, proved to correspond with their own
							secret belief in the vision, they called up the superior officers and
							told them to explain publicly to the soldiers what the gods had decreed,
							in order that the voluntary death of a consul might not create a panic
							in the army.

They arranged with each other that when either division began to give
							way, the consul in command of it should devote himself “on behalf
							of the Roman people and the Quirites.” The council of war also
							decided that if ever any war had been conducted with the strict
							enforcement of orders, on this occasion certainly, military discipline
							should be brought back to the ancient standard.

Their anxiety was increased by the fact that it was against the Latins
							that they had to fight, a people resembling them in language, manners,
							arms, and especially in their military organisation. They had been
							colleagues and comrades, as soldiers, centurions, and tribunes, often
							stationed together in the same posts and side by side in the same
							maniples. That this might not prove a source of error and confusion,
							orders were given that no one was to leave his post to fight with the
							enemy.

Amongst the troop commanders, who had been sent out
							everywhere to reconnoitre, there happened to be T. Manlius, the consul's
							son. He had ridden out with his men by the enemy's camp and was hardly a
							stone's-throw from their nearest post, where the

Tusculan cavalry were stationed, when Geminus Maecius, who was in
							command, a man of high reputation amongst his own people, recognised the
							Roman cavalry and the consul's son at their head, for they were all —

especially the men of distinction —known to each other.

Accosting Manlius he said: “Are you going to conduct the war
							against the Latins and their allies with that single troop of yours?
							What will the consuls, what will their two armies be doing in the
							meantime?” “They

will be here in good time,” Manlius replied, “and so will
							Jupiter, the Great and Powerful, the witness of your breach of faith. If
							we fought at Lake Regillus till you had quite enough, certainly we

shall succeed here also in preventing you from finding too much pleasure
							in meeting us in battle.”

In reply, Geminus rode forward a short distance and said: “Are
							you willing, before the day comes when you are to set your armies in
							motion for so great an effort, to have a meeting with me that the result
							of our single combat may show how much a Latin horseman is superior to a
							Roman?”

Either urged on by anger or feeling ashamed to decline the contest, or
							dragged on by the irresistible power of destiny, the high-spirited youth
							forgot the consul's edict and the obedience due to a father and rushed
							headlong into a contest in which victory or defeat were alike fatal. The
							rest of the cavalry retired to remain spectators of the fray; the two
							combatants selected a clear space over which they charged each other at
							full gallop with levelled spears.

Manlius' lance passed above his adversary's helmet, Maecius' across the
							neck of the other's horse. They wheeled their horses round, and Manlius
							standing in his stirrups was the first to get in a second stroke ; he
							thrust his lance between the horse's ears.

Feeling the wound, the horse reared, shook its head violently, and threw
							its rider off.

Whilst he was trying to rise after his heavy fall by supporting himself
							with his lance and shield, Manlius drove his lance right through his
							body and pinned him to the earth. After despoiling the body he returned
							to his men, and amidst their exulting shouts entered the camp

and went straight to his father at the headquarters' tent, not in the
							least realising the nature of his deed or its possible consequences,
							whether praise or punishment.

“That all may say, my father,” he said, “that I am
							a true scion of your blood, I bring to you these equestrian spoils taken
							from a dead enemy who challenged me to single combat.” On hearing
							this the consul turned away from his son and ordered the trumpet to
							sound the Assembly.

The soldiers mustered in large numbers and the consul began:
							“Since you, T. Manlius, have shown no regard for either

the authority of a consul or the obedience due to a father, and in
							defiance of our edict have left your post to fight against

the enemy, and have done your best to destroy the military discipline
							through which the Roman State has stood till now unshaken, and have
							forced upon me the necessity of forgetting either my duty to the
							republic or my duty to myself and my children, it is better that we
							should

suffer the consequences of our offence ourselves than that the State
							should expiate our crime by inflicting great injury upon itself. We
							shall be a melancholy example, but one that will be profitable to the
							young men of the future.

My natural love of my children and that proof of courage which from a
							false sense of honour you

have given, move me to take your part, but since either the consuls'
							authority must be vindicated by your death or forever abrogated by
							letting you go unpunished, I would believe that even you yourself, if
							there is a drop of my blood in your veins, will not shrink from
							restoring by your punishment the military discipline which has been
							weakened by your misconduct.

Go, lictor, bind him to the stake.” All were paralysed by such a
							ruthless order; they felt as if the axe was directed against each of
							them; fear rather than discipline kept them motionless.

For some moments they stood transfixed in silence, then suddenly, when
							they saw the blood pouring from his severed neck, their voices rose in
							unrestrained and angry complaint; they spared neither laments nor
							curses.

The body of the youth covered with his spoils was cremated on a pyre
							erected outside the rampart, with all the funeral honours that the
							soldiers' devotion could pay. “Manlian orders” were not
							only regarded with horror for the time, but were looked upon as setting
							a frightful precedent for the future.

The terrible severity of the punishment, however, made the soldiers more
							obedient to their general, and not only did it lead to greater attention
							being paid to the pickets and sentry duties and the ordering of the
							outposts, but when they went

into battle for the final contest, this severity proved to be of the
							greatest service.

The battle was exactly like one fought in a civil war; there was nothing
							in the Latin army different from the Roman except their courage. At first the Romans used the large
							round shield called the clipeus ,
							afterwards, when the soldiers received pay, the smaller oblong shield
							called the scutum was adopted.

The phalanx formation, similar to the Macedonian of the earlier days,
							was abandoned in favour of the distribution into companies ( manipuli ); the rear portion being broken up into
							smaller divisions.

The foremost line consisted of the hastati ,
							formed into fifteen companies, drawn up at a short distance from each
							other.

These were called the lightarmed companies, as whilst one-third carried
							a long spear ( hasta and short iron
							javelins, the remainder carried shields. This front line consisted of
							youths in the first bloom of manhood just old enough for service.

Behind them were stationed an equal number of companies, called principes , made up of men in the full vigour of
							life, all carrying shields and furnished with superior weapons. This
							body of thirty companies were called the antepilani .

Behind them were the standards under which were stationed fifteen
							companies, which were divided into three sections called vexillae , the first section in each was called
							the pilus , and they consisted of 180 men to
							every standard ( vexillum ). The first
								 vexillum was followed by the triarii , veterans of proved courage; the second
							by the rorarii , or
							“skirmishers,” younger men and less distinguished; the
							third by the accensi , who were least to be
							depended upon, and were therefore placed in the rearmost line.

When the battle formation of the army was completed, the hastati were the first to engage. If they failed
							to repulse the enemy, they slowly retired through the intervals between
							the companies of the principes who then
							took up the fight, the hastati following in
							their rear.

The triarii , meantime, were resting on one
							knee under their standards, their shields over their shoulders and their
							spears planted on the ground with the points upwards, giving them the
							appearance of a bristling palisade.

If the principes were also unsuccessful,
							they slowly retired to the triarii, which has given rise to the
							proverbial saying, when people are in great difficulty “matters
							have come down to the triarii .”

When the triarii had admitted the hastati and principes through the intervals separating their
							companies, they rose from their kneeling posture

and instantly closing their companies up they blocked all passage
							through them and in one compact mass fell on the enemy as the last hope
							of the army.

The enemy who had followed up the others as though they had defeated
							them, saw with dread a now and larger army rising apparently out of the
							earth. There were generally four legions enrolled, consisting each of
							5000 men, and 300 cavalry were assigned to each legion.

A force of equal size used to be supplied by the Latins, now, however,
							they were hostile to Rome. The two armies were drawn up in the same
							formation, and they knew that if the maniples kept their order they
							would have to

fight, not only vexilla with vexilla, hastati with hastati, principes
							with principes, but even centurion with Centurion.

There were amongst the triarii two centurions, one in each army —the
							Roman, possessing but little bodily strength but an energetic and
							experienced soldier, the Latin, a man of enormous strength and a
							splendid fighter —very well known to each other because they had always
							served in the same Company.

The Roman, distrusting his own strength, had obtained the consuls'
							permission before leaving Rome to choose his own sub-centurion to
							protect him from the man who was destined to be his enemy.

This youth, finding himself face to face with the Latin centurion,
							gained a victory over him.

The battle took place near
							the base of Mount Vesuvius, where the road led to Veseris. Before
							leading out their armies to battle the consuls offered sacrifice.
								The haruspex , whose duty it was to
							inspect the different organs in the victims, pointed out to Decius a
							prophetic intimation of his death, in all other respects the signs were
							favourable. Manlius' sacrifice was entirely satisfactory.

“It is well,” said Decius,“if my colleague has
							obtained favourable signs.”

They moved forward to battle in the formation I have already described,
							Manlius in command of the right division, Decius of the left. At first
							both armies fought with equal strength and equal determination. After a
							time the Roman hastati on the left, unable to withstand the insistency
							of the Latins, retired behind the principes.

During the temporary confusion created by this movement, Decius
							exclaimed in a loud voice to M. Valerius: “Valerius, we need the
							help of the gods! Let the Pontifex Maximus dictate to me the words in
							which I am to devote myself for the legions.”

The Pontifex bade him veil his head in his toga praetexta, and rest his
							hand, covered with the toga, against his chin, then standing upon a
							spear to say these words:

“Janus, Jupiter, Father Mars, Quirinus, Bellona, Lares, ye
							Novensiles and Indigetes, deities to whom belongs the power over us and
							over our foes, and ye, too, Divine Manes, I pray to you, I do you
							reverence,

I crave your grace and favour that you will bless the Roman People, the
							Quirites, with power and victory, and visit the enemies of the Roman
							People, the Quirites, with fear and dread and death.

In like manner as I have uttered this prayer so do I now on behalf of
							the commonwealth of the Quirites, on behalf of the army, the legions,
							the auxiliaries of the Roman People, the Quirites, devote the legions
							and auxiliaries of the enemy, together with myself to the Divine Manes
							and to Earth.”

After this prayer he ordered the lictors to go to T. Manlius and at once
							announce to his colleague that he had devoted himself on behalf of the
							army.

He then girded himself with the Gabinian cincture, and in full armour
							leaped upon his horse and dashed into the middle of the enemy. To those
							who watched him in both armies, he appeared something awful and
							superhuman, as though sent from heaven to expiate and appease all the
							anger of the gods and to avert destruction from his people and bring it
							on their enemies.

All the dread and terror which he carried with him threw the front ranks
							of the Latins into confusion which soon spread throughout the entire
							army.

This was most evident, for wherever his horse carried him they were
							paralysed as though struck by some death-dealing star; but when he fell,
							overwhelmed with darts, the Latin cohorts, in a state of perfect
							consternation, fled from the spot and left a large space clear.

The Romans, on the other hand, freed from all religious fears, pressed
							forward as though the signal was then first given and commenced a great
							battle.

Even the rorarii rushed forward between the companies of antepilani and
							added strength to the hastati and principes, whilst the triarii,
							kneeling on their right knee, waited for the consul's signal to rise.

When Manlius heard the fate of his colleague, he honoured his glorious
							death with tears no less than with the due meed of praise. Meantime the
							battle proceeded, and in some quarters the weight of numbers was giving
							the advantage to the Latins.

For some time Manlius was in doubt whether the moment had not come for
							calling up the triarii, but judging it better for them to be kept fresh
							till the final crisis of the battle, he gave orders for the accensi at
							the extreme rear to advance to the front.

When they came up, the Latins, taking them for the opposing triarii,
							instantly called up their own. In the desperate struggle they had tired
							themselves out and broken or blunted their spears, but as they were
							still driving the enemy back by main force, they imagined that the
							battle was decided and that they had reached their last line.

Then it was that the consul said to his triarii: “Rise up now,
							fresh and vigorous against a wearied foe; think of your country and your
							parents and wives and children; think of your consul lying there dead
							that ye might win the victory!”

They rose up fresh and resplendent in their armour, as though a new army
							had suddenly sprung up, and after letting the antepilani retire through
							them they raised their battle-shout.

The front ranks of the Latins were thrown into disorder, the Romans
							thrust their spears into their faces, and in this way killed the main
							support of their army. They went on without being touched through the
							remaining companies as though through a crowd of unarmed men, and they
							marked their advance with such a slaughter that they left hardly a
							fourth part of the enemy.

The Samnites, too, who were drawn up close to the lowest spurs of the
							mountain, were threatening the Latins on their flank, and so adding to
							their demoralisation.

The chief credit for that successful battle was given by all, Romans and
							allies alike, to the two consuls —one of whom had diverted on to himself
							alone all the dangers that threatened from the gods supernal and the
							gods infernal, whilst the other had shown such consummate generalship in
							the battle itself that the Roman and Latin historians who have left an
							account of it, are quite agreed that whichever side had had T. Manlius
							as their commander must have won the victory.

After their flight the Latins took refuge in Menturnae. Their camp was
							captured after the battle, and many were killed there, mostly
							Campanians.

The body of Decius was not found that day, as night overtook those who
							were searching for it, the next day it was discovered, buried beneath a
							heap of javelins and with an immense number of the enemy lying round it.

His obsequies were conducted by his colleague in a manner befitting that
							glorious death. I ought to add here that a consul or Dictator or
							praetor, when he devotes the legions of the enemy, need not necessarily
							devote himself but may select any one he chooses out of a legion that
							has been regularly enrolled.

If the man who has been so devoted is killed, all is considered to have
							been duly performed. If he is not killed, an image of the man, seven
							feet high at least, must be buried in the earth, and a victim slain as
							an expiatory sacrifice; on the spot, where such an image has been
							buried, no Roman magistrate must ever set his foot.

If, as in the case of Decius, the commander devotes himself but survives
							the battle, he can no longer discharge any religious function, either on
							his own account or on behalf of the State. He has the right to devote
							his arms, either by offering a sacrifice or otherwise, to Vulcan or to
							any other deity.

The spear on which the consul stands, when repeating the formula of
							devotion, must not pass into the enemy's hands; should this happen a
								 suovetaurilia 
							 must be
							offered as a propitiation to Mars.

Although the memory of every traditional custom relating to either human
							or divine things has been lost through our abandonment of the old
							religion of our fathers in favour of foreign novelties, I thought it not
							alien from my subject to record these regulations in the very words in
							which they have been handed down.

In some authors I find it stated that it was only after the battle was

over that the Samnites who had been waiting to see the result came to
							support the Romans.

Assistance was also coming to the Latins from Lanuvium whilst time was
							being wasted in deliberation, but whilst they were starting and a part
							of their column was already on the march, news came of the defeat of the
							Latins. They faced about and re-entered their city and it is stated that
							Milionius, their praetor, remarked that for that very short march they
							would have to pay a heavy price to Rome.

Those of the Latins who survived the battle retreated by many different
							routes, and gradually assembled in the city of Vescia.

Here the leaders met to discuss the situation, and Numisius assured them
							that both armies had really experienced the same fortune and an equal
							amount of bloodshed; the Romans enjoyed no more than the name of
							victory, in every other respect they were as good as defeated.

The headquarters of both consuls were polluted with blood; the one had
							murdered his son, the other had devoted himself to death; their whole
							army was massacred, their hastati and principes killed; the companies
							both in front of and behind the standards had suffered enormous losses;
							the triarii in the end saved the situation.

The Latin troops, it was true, were equally cut up, but Latium and the
							Volsci could supply reinforcements more quickly than Rome.

If, therefore, they approved, he would at once call out the fighting men
							from the Latin and Volscian peoples and march back with an army to
							Capua, and would take the Romans unawares; a battle was the last thing
							they were expecting.

He despatched misleading letters throughout Latium and the Volscian
							country, those who had not been engaged in the battle being the more
							ready to believe what he said, and a hastilylevied body of militia,
							drawn from all quarters, was got together.

This army was met by the consul at Trifanum, a place between Sinuessa
							and Menturnae. Without waiting even to choose the sites for their camps,
							the two armies piled their baggage, fought and finished the war, for the
							Latins were so utterly worsted

that when the consul with his victorious army was preparing to ravage
							their territory, they made a complete surrender and the Campanians
							followed their example. Latium and Capua were deprived of their
							territory.

The Latin territory, including that of Privernum, together with the
							Falernian, which had belonged to the Campanians as far as the Volturnus,
							was distributed amongst the Roman plebs.

They received two jugera a head in the
							Latin territory, their allotment being made up by three-quarters of a
								 jugerum in the Privernate district; in
							the Falernian district they received three entire jugera , the additional quarter being allowed owing to the
							distance.

The Laurentes, amongst the Latins and the aristocracy of the Campanians,
							were not thus penalised because they had not revolted. An order was made
							for the treaty with the Laurentes to be renewed, and it has since been
							renewed annually on the tenth day after the Latin Festival.

The Roman franchise was conferred on the aristocracy of Campania, and a
							brazen tablet recording the fact was fastened up in Rome in the temple
							of Castor, and the people of Campania were ordered to pay them each
							—they numbered 1600 in all —the sum of 450
								 denarii annually.

The war having been thus brought to a close, and rewards and punishments
							having been meted out to each according to their deserts, T. Manlius
							returned to Rome. There seems good reason for believing that only the
							older men went out to meet him on his arrival, the younger part of the
							population showed their aversion and detestation for him not only then
							but all through his life.

The Antiates made incursions into the territories of Ostia, Ardea, and
							Solonia. Manlius' health prevented him from prosecuting this war, so he
							nominated L. Papirius Crassus as Dictator, and he named L. Papirius
							Cursor as his Master of the Horse.

No important action was taken by the Dictator against the Antiates,
							though he had a permanent camp in their country for some months.

This year had been signalised by victories over many powerful nations,
							and still more by the noble death of one consul, and the stern,
							never-to-be-forgotten exercise of authority on the part of the other. It
							was followed by the consulship of Titus Aemilius Mamercinus and Q.
							Publilius Philo.

They did not meet with similar materials out of which to build a
							reputation, nor did they study the interests of their country so much as
							their own or those of the political factions in the republic The Latins
							resumed hostilities to recover the domain they had lost, but were routed
							in the Fenectane plains and driven out of their camp.

There Publilius, who had achieved this success, received into surrender
							the Latin cities who had lost their men there, whilst Aemilius led his
							army to Pedum. This place was defended by a combined force from Tibur,
							Praeneste, and Velitrae, and help was also sent from Lanuvium and
							Antium.

In the various battles the Romans had the advantage, but at the city
							itself, and at the camp of the allied forces which adjoined the city,
							their work had to be done all over again.

The consul suddenly abandoned the war before it was brought to a close,
							because he heard that a

triumph had been decreed to his colleague, and he actually returned to
							Rome to demand a triumph before he had won a victory.

The senate were disgusted at this selfish conduct, and made him
							understand that he would have no triumph till Pedum had either been
							taken or surrendered. This produced a complete estrangement between
							Aemilius and the senate, and he thenceforth administered his consulship
							in the spirit and temper of a seditious tribune.

As long as he was consul he perpetually traduced the senate to the
							people, without any opposition from his colleague, who himself also
							belonged to the plebs.

Material for his charges was afforded by the dishonest allocation of the
							Latin and Falernian domain amongst the plebs, and after the senate,
							desirous of restricting the consul's authority, had issued an order for
							the nomination of a Dictator to act against the Latins, Aemilius, whose
							turn

it then was to have the fasces , nominated
							his own colleague, who named Junius Brutus as his Master of the Horse.

He made his Dictatorship popular by delivering incriminatory harangues
							against the senate and also by carrying three measures which were directed against the nobility and were most
							advantageous to the

plebs. One was that the decisions of the plebs should be binding on all
							the Quirites; the second, that measures which were brought before the
							Assembly of centuries should be sanctioned by the patricians before
							being finally put to the

vote; the third, that since it had come about that both censors could
							legally be appointed from the plebs, one should in any case be always
							chosen from that

order. The patricians considered that the consul and the Dictator had
							done more to injure the State by their domestic policy than to
							strengthen its power by their successes in the field.

The consuls for the next year were L. Furius Camillus and C. Maenius. In
							order to bring more discredit upon Aemilius for his neglect of his
							military duties the previous year, the senate insisted that no
							expenditure of arms and men must be spared in order to reduce and
							destroy Pedum.

The new consuls were peremptorily ordered to lay aside everything else
							and march at once. The state of affairs in Latium was such that they
							would neither maintain peace nor undertake war.

For war their resources were utterly inadequate, and they were smarting
							too keenly under the loss of their territory to think of peace. They
							decided, therefore, on a middle course, namely, to confine themselves to
							their towns, and if they were informed of any town being attacked, to
							send assistance to it from

the whole of Latium . The people of Tibur and Praeneste, who were the
							nearest, reached Pedum, but the troops from Aricium, Lanuvium, and
							Veliternae, in conjunction with the

Volscians of Antium, were suddenly attacked and routed by Maenius at the
							river Astura. Camillus engaged the Tiburtines who were much the
							strongest force, and, though with greater difficulty, achieved a similar
							success.

During the battle the townsmen made a sudden sortie, but Camillus,
							directing a part of his army

against them, not only drove them back within their walls, but stormed
							and captured the town, after routing the troops sent to their
							assistance, all in one day. After this successful attack on one city,
							they decided to make a greater and bolder effort, and to lead their
							victorious army on to the complete subjugation of Latium.

They did not rest until, by capturing or accepting the surrender of one
							city after another, they had effected their purpose. Garrisons were
							placed in the captured towns, after which they returned to Rome to enjoy
							a triumph which was by universal consent accorded to them.

An additional honour was paid to the two consuls in the erection of
							their equestrian statues in the Forum, a rare incident in that age
							Before the consular elections for the following year were held, Camillus
							brought before the senate the question of the future settlement of
							Latium.

“Senators,” he said, “our military operations in
							Latium have by the gracious favour of the gods and the bravery of our
							troops been brought to a successful close.

The hostile armies were cut down at Pedum and the Astura, all the Latin
							towns and the Volscian Antium have either been stormed or have
							surrendered and are now held by your garrisons.

We are growing weary of their constant renewal of hostilities, it is for
							you to consult as to the best means of binding them to a perpetual
							peace.

The immortal gods have made you so completely masters of the situation
							that they have put it into your bands to decide whether there shall be
							henceforth a Latium or not.

So far, then, as the Latins are concerned, you can secure for yourselves
							a lasting peace by either cruelty or kindness. Do you wish to adopt
							ruthless measures against a people that have surrendered and been
							defeated?

It is open to you to wipe out the whole Latin nation and create
							desolation and solitude in that country which has furnished you with a
							splendid army of allies which you have employed in many great wars. Or
							do you wish to follow the example of your ancestors and make Rome
							greater by conferring her citizenship on those whom she has defeated?

The materials for her expansion to a glorious height are here at hand.
							That is assuredly the most firmly-based empire, whose subjects take a
							delight in rendering it their obedience.

But whatever decision you come to, you must make haste about it You are
							keeping so many peoples in suspense, with their minds distracted between
							hope and fear, that you are bound to relieve yourselves as soon as
							possible from your anxiety about them, and by exercising either
							punishment or kindness to pre-occupy minds which a state of strained
							expectancy has deprived of the power of thought.

Our task has been to put you in a position to take the whole question
							into consultation, your task is to decree what is best for yourselves
							and for the republic.”

The leaders of the senate applauded the way in which the consul had
							introduced the motion, but as the circumstances differed in different
							cases they thought that each case ought to be decided upon its merits,
							and with the view of facilitating discussion they requested the consul
							to put the name of each place separately.

Lanuvium received the full citizenship and the restitution of her sacred
							things, with the proviso that the temple and grove of Juno Sospita
							should belong in common to the Roman people and the citizens living at
							Lanuvium.

Aricium, Nomentum, and Pedum obtained the same political rights as
							Lanuvium.

Tusculum retained the citizenship which it had had before, and the
							responsibility for the part it took in the war was removed from the
							State as a whole and fastened on a few individuals.

The Veliternians, who had been Roman citizens from old times, were in
							consequence of their numerous revolts severely dealt with; their walls
							were thrown down, their senate deported and ordered to live on the other
							side of the Tiber ;

if any of them were caught on this side of the river, he was to be fined
							1000 ases , and the man who caught him was
							not to release him from confinement till the money was paid.

Colonists were sent on to the land they had possessed, and their numbers
							made Velitrae look as populous as formerly.

Antium also was assigned to a fresh body of colonists, but the Antiates
							were permitted to enrol themselves as colonists if they chose; their
							warships were taken away, and they were forbidden to possess any more;
							they were admitted to citizenship.

Tibur and Praeneste had their domains confiscated, not owing to the part
							which they, in common with the rest of Latium, had taken in the war, but
							because, jealous of the Roman power, they had joined arms with the
							barbarous nation of the Gauls.

The rest of the Latin cities were deprived of the rights of
							intermarriage, free trade, and common councils with each other. Capua,
							as a reward for the refusal of its aristocracy to join the Latins, were
							allowed to enjoy the private rights of Roman citizens, as were also
							Fundi and Formiae, because they had always allowed a free passage
							through their territory. It was decided that Cumae and Suessula should
							enjoy the same rights as Capua.

Some of the ships of Antium were taken

into the Roman docks, others were burnt and their beaks ( rostra ) were fastened on the front of a raised
							gallery which was constructed at the end of the Forum, and which from
							this circumstance was called the Rostra.

. —C. Sulpicius Longus
							and P. Aelius Paetus were the new consuls. The blessings of peace were
							now enjoyed everywhere, a peace maintained not more by the power of Rome
							than by the influence she had acquired through her considerate treatment
							of her vanquished enemies, when a war broke out between the Sidicines
							and the Auruncans.

After their surrender had been accepted by the consul Manlius, the
							Auruncans had kept quiet, which gave them a stronger claim to the help
							of Rome.

The senate decided that assistance should be afforded them, but before

the consuls started, a report was brought that the Auruncans had been
							afraid to remain in their town and had fled with their wives and
							children to Suessa —now called Aurunca —which they had fortified, and
							that their city with its ancient walls had been destroyed by the
							Sidicines.

The senate were angry with the consuls, through whose delay their allies
							had been betrayed, and ordered a Dictator to be nominated.

C. Claudius Regillensis was nominated accordingly, and he named as his
							Master of the Horse C. Claudius Portator. There was some difficulty
							about the religious sanction of the Dictator's appointment, and as the
							augurs pronounced that there was an

irregularity in his election, both the Dictator and the Master of the
							Horse resigned. This year Minucia, a Vestal, incurred suspicion through
							an improper love of dress , and subsequently was
							accused of unchastity on the evidence of a slave.

She had received orders from the pontiffs to take no part in the sacred
							rights and not to manumit any of her slaves . She was tried and found guilty, and
							was buried alive near the Colline Gate to the right of the high road in
							the Campus Sceleratus (“the accursed field”), which, I
							believe, derives its name from this incident.

In this year also Q. Publilius Philo was elected as the first plebeian
							praetor against the opposition of the consul Sulpicius; the senate,
							after failing to keep the highest posts in their own hands, showed less
							interest in retaining the praetorship.

The consuls for the following year were L. Papirius Crassus and Caeso
							Duillius.

There was war with the Ausonians; the fact that it was against a new
							enemy rather than a formidable one made it noticeable.

This people inhabited the city of Cales, and had joined arms with their
							neighbours, the Sidicines. The combined army of the two cities was
							routed in a quite insignificant engagement; the proximity of their
							cities made them all the sooner seek a safety in flight which they did
							not find in fighting. The senate were none the less anxious about the
							war, in view of the fact that the Sidicines had so frequently either
							taken the aggressive themselves or assisted others to do so, or had been
							the cause of hostilities.

They did their utmost, therefore, to secure the election of M. Valerius
							Corvus, the greatest commander of his day, as consul for the fourth
							time.

M. Atilius Regulus was assigned to him as his colleague.

To avoid any chance of mistake, the consuls requested that this war
							might be assigned to Corvus without deciding it by lot. After taking
							over the victorious army from the previous consuls, he marched to Cales,
							where the war had originated. The enemy were dispirited through the
							remembrance of the former conflict, and he routed them at the very first
							attack.

He then advanced to an assault upon their walls . Such was the eagerness
							of the soldiers that they were anxious to bring up the scaling ladders
							and mount the walls forthwith, but Corvus perceived the difficulty of
							the

task and preferred to gain his object by submitting his men to the
							labours of a regular siege rather than by exposing them to unnecessary
							risks. So he con- structed an agger and
							brought up the vineae and the turrets close
							to the walls, but a fortunate circumstance rendered them unnecessary.

M. Fabius, a Roman prisoner, succeeded in eluding his guards on a
							festival, and after breaking his chains fastened a rope from a
							battlement of the wall and let himself down amongst the Roman works.

He induced the commander to attack the enemy while they were sleeping
							off the effects of their wine and feasting, and the Ausonians were
							captured, together with their city, with no more trouble than they had
							previously been routed in the open field. The booty seized was enormous,
							and after a garrison was placed in Cales the legions were marched back
							to Rome.

The senate passed a resolution allowing the consul to celebrate a
							triumph, and in order that Atilius might have a chance of distinguishing
							himself, both the consuls were ordered to march against the Sidicines.

Before starting they nominated, on the resolution of the senate, L.
							Aemilius Mamercinus as Dictator, for the purpose of conduct- ing the
							elections; he named Q. Publilius Philo as his Master of the Horse.

The consuls elected were T. Veturius and Spurius Postumius. Although
							there was still war with the Sidicines, they brought forward a proposal
							to send a colony to Cales in order to anticipate the wishes of the plebs
							by a voluntary act of kindness.

The senate passed a resolution that 2500 names should be enrolled, and
							the three commissioners appointed to settle the colonists and allocate
							the holdings were Caeso Duillius, T. Quinctius, and M. Fabius.

The new consuls, after taking over the army from their predecessors,
							entered the enemy's territory and carried their depredations up to the
							walls of their city.

The Sidicines had got together an immense army, and were evidently
							prepared to fight desperately for their last hope; there was also a
							report that Samnium was being roused into hostilities.

A Dictator was accordingly nominated by the consuls on the resolution of
							the senate —P. Cornelius Rufinus; the Master of the Horse was M.
							Antonius.

Subsequently a religious difficulty arose through an informality in
							their nomination, and they resigned their posts. In consequence of a
							pestilence which followed, it seemed as though all the auspices were
							tainted by that informality, and matters reverted to an interregnum.

There were five interreges and under the last one, M. Valerius Corvus,
							the consuls elected were C. Cornelius (for the second time) and Cn.
							Domitius.

Matters were now quiet, but a rumour of a Gaulish war created as much
							alarm as an actual invasion, and it was decided that a Dictator should
							be appointed. M. Papirius Crassus was nominated, his Master of the Horse
							being P. Valerius Publicola.

Whilst they were raising a stronger levy than was usual in wars near at
							hand, the reconnoitring parties that had been sent out reported that all
							was quiet amongst the Gauls.

For the last two years there had been suspicions of a move ment in
							Samnium in favour of a change of policy, and as a measure of precaution
							the Roman army was not withdrawn from the Sidicine territory.

The landing of Alexander of Epirus near Paestum led the Samnites to make
							common cause with the Lucanians, but their united forces were defeated
							by turn in a pitched battle.

He then established friendly relations with Rome, but it is very
							doubtful how far he would have maintained them had his other enterprises
							been equally successful.

In this year a census was taken, the censors being Q. Publilius Philo and
							Sp. Postumius. The new citizens were assessed and formed into two
							additional tribes, the Maecian and the Scaptian.

L. Papirius, the praetor, secured the passage of a law by which the
							rights of citizenship without the franchise were conferred on the
							inhabitants of Acerrae. These were the military and civil transactions
							for the year.

M Claudius Marcellus and T
							Valerius were the new consuls. I find in the annals Flaccus and Potitus
							variously given as the consul's cognomen, but the question is of small
							importance.

This year gained an evil notoriety, either through the unhealthy weather
							or through human guilt. I would gladly believe —and the authorities are
							not unanimous on the point — that it is a false story which states that
							those whose deaths made the year notorious for pestilence were really
							carried off by poison.

I shall, however, relate the matter as it has been handed down to avoid
							any appearance of impugning the credit of our authorities.

The foremost men in the State were being attacked by the same malady, and
							in almost every case with the same fatal results. A maid-servant went to
							Q. Fabius Maximus, one of the curule aediles, and promised to reveal the
							cause of the public mischief if the government would guarantee her
							against any danger in which her discovery might involve her.

Fabius at once brought the matter to the notice of the consuls and they
							referred it to the senate, who authorised the promise of immunity to be
							given.

She then disclosed the fact that the State was suffering through the
							crimes of certain women; those poisons were concocted by Roman matrons,
							and if they would follow her at once she promised that they should catch
							the poisoners in the act.

They followed their informant and actually found some women compounding
							poisonous drugs and some poisons already made up.

These latter were brought into the Forum, and as many as twenty matrons,
							at whose houses they had been seized, were brought up by the
							magistrates' officers. Two of them, Cornelia and Sergia, both members of
							patrician houses, contended that the drugs were medicinal preparations.
							The maid-servant, when confronted with them, told them to drink some
							that they might prove she had given false evidence.

They were allowed time to consult as to what they would do, and the
							bystanders were ordered to retire that they might take counsel with the
							other matrons. They all consented to drink the drugs, and after doing so
							fell victims to their own criminal designs.

Their attendants were instantly arrested, and denounced a large number
							of matrons as being guilty of the same offence, out of whom a hundred
							and seventy were found guilty. Up to that time there had never been a
							charge of poison investigated in Rome.

The whole incident was regarded as a portent, and thought to be an act
							of madness rather than deliberate wickedness. In consequence of the
							universal alarm created, it was decided to follow the precedent recorded
							in the annals.

During the secessions of the plebs in the old days a nail had been
							driven in by the Dictator, and by this act of expiation men's minds,
							disordered by civil strife, had been restored to sanity. A resolution
							was passed accordingly, that a Dictator should be appointed to drive in
							the nail.

Cnaeus Quinctilius was appointed and named L. Valerius as his Master of
							the Horse. After the nail was driven in they resigned office.

L. Papirius Crassus and L.
							Plautius Venox were thereupon elected consuls, the former for the second
							time. At the beginning of the year deputations came from Fabrateria and
							Luca, places belonging to the Volscians, with a request

to be received into the protection al Rome, whose overlordship they
							would faithfully and loyally acknowledge if they would undertake to
							defend them from the Samnites The senate acceded to their request, and
							sent to warn the Samnites against violating the territory of these two
							cities.

The Samnites took the warning, not because they were anxious for peace,
							but because they were not yet ready for war.

This year a war commenced with Privernum and its ally, Fundi; their
							commander was a Fundan, Vitrubius Baccus, a man of great distinction not
							only in his own city but even in Rome, where he had a house on the
							Palatine, which was afterwards destroyed and the site sold, the place
							being thenceforth known as the Bacci Prata.

Whilst he was spreading devastation far and wide through the districts
							of Setia, Norba, and Cora, L. Papirius advanced against him and took up
							a position not far from his camp.

Vitrubius had neither the prudence to remain within his lines in
							presence of an enemy stronger than himself nor the courage to fight at a
							distance from his camp.

He gave battle whilst his men were hardly clear of their camp, and
							thinking more of retreating back to it than of the battle or the enemy,
							was with very little effort put to a decisive defeat.

Owing to the proximity of the camp retreat was easy, and he had not much
							difficulty in protecting his men from serious loss; hardly any were
							killed in the actual battle, and only a few in the rear of the crowded
							fugitives as they were rushing into their camp As soon as it grew dark
							they abandoned it for Privernum, trusting to stone walls for protection
							rather than to the rampart round their camp.

The other consul, Plautius, alter ravaging the fields in all directions
							and carrying off the plunder, led his army into the territory of Fundi.
							As he was crossing their frontier the senate of Fundi met him and
							explained that they had not come to intercede for Vitrubius and those
							who had belonged to his party, but for the people of Fundi.

They pointed out that Vitrubius himself had cleared them from all
							responsibility by seeking shelter in Privernum and not in Fundi, though
							it was his city. At Privernum, therefore, the enemies of Rome were to be
							looked for and punished, for they had been faithless both to Fundi and
							Rome.

The men of Fundi wished for peace; their sympathies were wholly Roman,
							and they retained a grateful sense of the boon they received when the
							rights of citizenship were conferred upon them.

They besought the consul to abstain from making war upon an unoffending
							people; their lands, their city, their own persons and the persons of
							their wives and children were and would continue to be at the disposal
							of Rome.

The consul commended them for their loyalty and sent despatches to Rome
							to inform the senate that the Fundans were firm in their allegiance,
							after which he marched to Privernum. Claudius gives a different account.

According to him the consul first proceeded against the ringleaders of
							the revolt, of whom three hundred and fifty were sent in chains to Rome.
							He adds that the senate refused to receive the surrender because they
							considered that the Fundans were anxious to escape with the punishment
							of poor and obscure individuals.

Whilst Privernum was invested by two consular armies, one of the consuls
							was recalled home to conduct the elections. It was in this year that the
								 carceres 
							 were erected in the Circus Maximus

The trouble of the war with Privernum was not yet over when a most
							alarming report of a sudden movement amongst the Gauls reached the
							senate. Such reports were not often treated lightly. The new consuls, L.
							Aemilius Mamercinus and C. Plautius, were immediately ordered to arrange
							their respective commands on the very day they assumed office, namely
							July 1. The Gaulish war fell to Mamercinus, and he allowed none of those
							who were called up for service to claim exemption.

It is even asserted that the mob of mechanics and artizans, a class
							utterly unfit for warfare, were called out. An immense army was
							concentrated at Veii to check the advance of the Gauls. It was thought
							better not to march any further in case the enemy took some other route
							to the City. After a thorough reconnaissance had been made, it was
							ascertained after a few days that all was quiet as far as the Gauls were
							concerned, and the whole force was thereupon marched to Privernum.

From this point there is a twofold story. Some state that the city was
							stormed and Vitrubius taken alive; other authorities aver that before
							the final assault the townsmen came out with a caduceus and surrendered to the consul,
							whilst Vitrubius was given up by

his own men. The senate, when consulted as to the fate of Vitrubius and
							the Privernates, instructed the consul to demolish the walls of
							Privernum and station a strong garrison there, and then to celebrate his
							triumph. Vitrubius was to be kept in prison until the consul returned
							and then to be scourged and beheaded; his house on the Palatine was to
							be razed and his goods devoted to Semo Sancus. The money realised by
							their sale was melted down into brazen orbs which were deposited in the
							chapel of Sancus opposite the

temple of Quirinus. With regard to the senate of Privernum, it was
							decreed that every senator who had remained in that city after its
							revolt from Rome should be deported beyond the Tiber on the same
							conditions as those of Velitrae. After his triumph, when Vitrubius and
							his accomplices had been put to death, the consul thought that as the
							senate was satisfied with the punishment of the guilty, he might safely
							refer to the matter of the Privernates. He addressed the House in the
							following terms:

“Since the authors of the revolt, senators, have been visited by
							the immortal gods and by you with the punishment they deserved, what is
							your pleasure with regard to the innocent population? Although it is my
							duty to ask for opinions rather than to give them, I should like to say
							that in view of the fact that the Privernates are neighbours of the
							Samnites, with whom peaceful relations are now upon a most uncertain
							footing, I am anxious that as few grounds of complaint as possible
							should exist between

us and them.” The question was not an easy one to settle, for the
							senators were governed largely by their temperaments and some advised a
							harsh, others a gentler course. The general divergence of opinion was
							widened by one of the Privernate envoys who was thinking more of the
							state of things in which he had been born than of his present plight.
							One of the senators who was advocating sterner measures asked him what
							punishment he thought

his countrymen deserved. He replied: “The punishment which those
							deserve who assert their liberty.” The consul saw that this
							spirited reply only exasperated those who were already adverse to the
							cause of the Privernates, and he tried to get a softer answer by a

more considerate question. “Well,” he said, “if we
							spare you now, what sort of a peace may we hope to have with you for the
							time to come?” “A real and lasting one,” was the
							reply, “if its terms be good, but if they are bad, one that will
							soon be broken.” On hearing this, some of the senators exclaimed
							that he was using open threats, and that it was by such language that
							even those states which had been pacified were incited

to renew hostilities. The better part of the senate, however, put a more
							favourable construction on his reply, and declared that it was an
							utterance worthy of a man and a man who loved liberty. Was it, they
							asked, to be supposed that any people or, for that matter, any
							individual would remain longer than he could help under conditions which

made him discontented? Peace would only be faithfully kept where those
							who accepted it did so voluntarily; they could not hope that it would be
							faithfully kept where they sought to reduce men to servitude. The senate
							was brought to adopt this view mainly by the consul himself who kept
							repeating to the consulars —the men who had to state their opinions
							first —in a tone loud enough for many to hear, “Men whose first
							and last thought is their liberty deserve to become Romans.” Thus
							they gained their cause in the senate, and the proposal to confer full
							citizenship on the Privernates was submitted to the people.

The new consuls were P. Plautius Proculus and P. Cornelius Scapula. The
							year was not remarkable for anything at home or abroad beyond the fact
							that a colony was sent to Fregellae which was in the territory of
							Sidicum and had afterwards belonged to the Volscians.

There was also a distribution of meat made to the people by M. Flavius on
							the occasion of his mother's funeral.

There were many who looked upon this as the payment of a bribe to the
							people under the pretext of honouring his mother's memory.

He had been prosecuted by the aediles on the charge of seducing a
							married woman, and had been acquitted, and this was considered in the
							light of a dole given in return for the favour shown him at the trial.

It proved also to be the means of his gaining office, for at the next
							election he was made a tribune of the plebs in his absence and over the
							heads of competitors who had personally canvassed. Palaeopolis was a city not far from the present site of
							Neapolis The two cities formed one community.

The original inhabitants came from Cumae; Cumae traced its origin to
							Chalcis in Euboea. The fleet in which they had sailed from home gave
							them the mastery of the coastal district which they now occupy, and
							after landing in the islands of Aenaria and Pithecusae they ventured to
							transfer their settlements to the mainland.

This community, relying on their own strength and on the lax observance
							of treaty obligations which the Samnites were showing towards the
							Romans, or possibly trusting to the effect of the pestilence which they
							had heard was now attacking the City, committed many acts of aggression
							against the Romans who were living in Campania and the Falernian
							country.

In consequence of this, the consuls, L. Cornelius Lentulus and Q.
							Publilius Philo, sent the fetials to
							Palaeopolis to demand redress. On hearing that the Greeks, a people
							valiant in words rather than in deeds, had sent a defiant reply, the
							people, with the sanction of the senate, ordered war to be made on
							Palaeopolis.

The consuls arranged their respective commands; the Greeks were left for
							Publilius to deal with; Cornelius, with a second army, was to check any
							movement on the part of the Samnites.

As, however, he received intelligence that they intended to advance into
							Campania in anticipation of a rising there, he thought it best to form a
							standing camp there.

Both consuls sent word to the senate
							that there were very slender hopes of the Samnites remaining at peace.
							Publilius informed them that 2000 troops from Nola and 4000 Samnites had
							been admitted into Palaeopolis, more under pressure from Nola than

from any great desire for their presence on the part of the Greeks;
							Cornelius sent the additional information that orders for a general levy
							had been issued

throughout Samnium, and attempts were being openly made to induce the
							neighbouring communities of Privernum, Fundi, and Formiae to rise.

Under these circumstances it was decided to send ambassadors to the
							Samnites before actually commencing war. The Samnites sent an insolent
							reply.

They accused the Romans of wanton aggression, and absolutely denied the
							charges made against themselves; they declared that the assistance which
							the Greeks had received was not furnished by their government, nor had
							they tampered with Fundi and Formiae, for they had no reason to distrust
							their own strength if it came to war.

Moreover, it was impossible to disguise the deep irritation which the
							Samnite nation felt at the conduct of the Roman people in restoring
							Fregellae

after they had taken it from the Volscians and destroyed it, and placing
							a colony on Samnite territory which the colonists called Fregellae.

If this insult and injury were not removed by those responsible for it,
							they would themselves exert all their strength to get rid of it The
							Roman ambassadors invited them to submit the questions at issue to
							arbitration before their common friends, but the Samnites replied:
							“Why should we beat about the bush?

No diplomacy, no arbitration can adjust our quarrel; arms and the
							fortune of war can alone decide the issue. We must meet in
							Campania.”

To which the Roman replied: “Roman soldiers will march not
							whither the enemy summons them, but whither their commander leads
							them.” Publilius meantime had taken up a suitable position
							between Palaeopolis and Neapolis in order to prevent them from rendering
							each other the mutual assistance they had hitherto given. The time for
							the elections was close at hand, and it would have been most inexpedient
							for the public interest to recall Publilius, as he was ready to attack
							the place and in daily expectation of effecting its capture.

An arrangement was accordingly made with the tribunes of the plebs to
							propose to the people that at the expiration

of his term of office Publilius should continue to act as proconsul till
							the war with the Greeks was brought to a close.

The same step was taken with regard to Cornelius, who had already
							entered Samnium, and written instructions were sent to him to nominate a
							Dictator to hold the elections. He nominated M. Claudius Marcellus, and
							Sp. Postumius was named by him Master of the Horse.

The elections, however, were not held by that Dictator, doubts having
							been raised as to whether the proper formalities had been observed in
							his nomination. The augurs, when consulted, declared that they had not
							been duly observed. The tribunes characterised their action as dishonest
							and iniquitous.

“How,” they asked, “could they know that there was
							any irregularity? The consul rose at midnight to nominate the Dictator;
							he had made no communication to any one either officially or privately
							about the matter;

there was no one living who could say that he had seen or heard anything
							which would vitiate the auspices; the augurs sitting quietly in Rome
							could not possibly divine what difficulty the consul may have met with
							in the camp. Who was there who could not see that the irregularity which
							the augurs had discovered lay in the fact that the Dictator was a
							plebeian?”

These and other objections were raised by the tribunes. Matters,
							however, reverted to an interregnum, and owing to the repeated
							adjournment of the elections on one pretext after another, there were no
							fewer than fourteen interegna. At last L. Aemilius, the fourteenth
							interrex, declared C. Poetilius and L. Papirius Mugilanus duly elected.
							In other lists I find Cursor.

The foundation of Alexandria in Egypt is
							stated to have taken place this year ( 327 
							B.C..>, and also the assassination of Alexander of Epirus at the
							hands of a Lucanian refugee, an event which fulfilled the oracular
							prediction of the Dodonean Jupiter.

When he was invited by the Tarentines into Italy, he received a warning
							to beware of the water of Acheron and the city of Pandosia; for it was
							there that the limits of his destiny were fixed.

This made him cross over into Italy all the sooner, that he might be as
							far as possible from the city of Pandosia in Epirus and the river
							Acheron, which flows from Molossis into the Infernal Marshes and finally
							empties itself into the Thesprotian Gulf.

But, as often happens, in trying to avoid his fate he rushed upon it. He
							won many victories over the nationalities of Southern Italy, inflicting
							numerous defeats upon the legions of Bruttium and Lucania, capturing the
							city of Heraclea, a colony of settlers from Tarentum, taking Potentia
							from the Lucanians, Sipontum from the Apulians, Consentia and Terina
							from the Bruttii and other cities belonging to the Messapians and
							Lucanians.

He sent three hundred noble families to Epirus to be detained there as
							hostages. The circumstances under which he met his death were these. He
							had taken up a permanent position on three hills not far from the city
							of Pandosia which is close to the frontiers of the Lucanians and
							Bruttii.

From this point he made incursions into every part of the enemy's
							territory, and on these expeditions he had as a bodyguard some two
							hundred Lucanian refugees, in whose fidelity he placed confidence, but
							who, like most of their countrymen, were given to changing their minds
							as their fortunes changed.

Continuous rains had inundated the whole country and prevented the three
							divisions of the army from mutually supporting each other, the level
							ground between the hills being impassable. While they were in this
							condition two out of the three divisions were suddenly attacked in the
							king's absence and overwhelmed.

After annihilating them the enemy invested the third hill, where the
							king was present in person. The Lucanian refugees managed to communicate
							with their countrymen, and promised, if a safe return were guaranteed to
							them, to place the king in their hands alive or dead.

Alexander, with a picked body of troops, cut his way, with splendid
							courage, through the enemy, and meeting the Lucanian general slew him
							after a hand to hand fight.

Then getting together those of his men who were scattered in flight, he
							rode towards the ruins of a bridge which had been carried away by the
							floods and came to a river.

Whilst his men were fording it with very uncertain footing, a soldier,
							almost spent by his exertions and his fears, cursed the river for its
							unlucky name, and said, “Rightly art thou called Acheros
							!” When these words fell on his ear the king at once recalled to
							mind the oracular warning, and stopped, doubtful whether to cross or
							not.

Sotimus, one of his personal attendants, asked him why he hesitated at
							such a critical moment and drew his attention to the suspicious
							movements of the Lucanian refugees who were evidently meditating
							treachery.

The king looked back and saw them coming on in a compact body; he at
							once drew his sword and spurred his horse through the middle of the
							river. He had already reached the shallow water on the other side when
							one of the refugees some distance away transfixed him with a javelin.

He fell from his horse, and his lifeless body with the weapon sticking
							in it was carried down by the current to that part of the bank where the
							enemy were stationed. There it was horribly mutilated.

After cutting it through the middle they sent one half to Consentia and
							kept the other to make sport of . Whilst they were pelting it at a
							distance with darts and stones a solitary woman ventured among the
							rabble who were showing such incredible brutality and implored them to
							desist. She told them amid her tears that her husband and children were
							held prisoners by the enemy and she hoped to ransom them with the king's
							body however much it might have been disfigured.

This put an end to the outrages. What was left of the limbs was cremated
							at Consentia by the reverential care of this one woman, and the bones
							were sent back to Metapontum;

from there they were carried to Cleopatra, the king's wife, and
							Olympias, his sister, the latter of whom was the mother, the former the
							sister of Alexander the Great.

I thought it well to give this brief account of the tragic end of
							Alexander of Epirus, for although Fortune kept him from hostilities with
							Rome, the wars he waged in Italy entitle him to a place in this history.

A laetisternium 
							 took place this year ( 326 
							B.C.>, the fifth since the foundation of the City, and

the same deities were propitiated in this as in the former one. The new
							consuls, acting on the orders of the people, sent heralds to deliver a
							formal declaration of war to the Samnites, and made all their
							preparations on a much

greater scale for this war than for the one against the Greeks. New and
							unexpected succours were forthcoming, for the Lucanians and Apulians,
							with whom Rome had up to that time established no relations, came
							forward with offers to make an

alliance and promised armed assistance; a friendly alliance was formed
							with them. Meantime the operations in Samnium were attended with
							success, the towns of Allifae, Callifae, and Rufrium passed into the
							hands of the Romans, and ever since the consuls had entered the country
							the rest of the territory was ravaged far and wide.

Whilst this war was commencing thus favourably, the other war against the
							Greeks was approaching its close. Not only were the two towns
							Palaeopolis and Neapolis cut off from all communication with each other
							by the enemy's lines, but the townsfolk within the walls were
							practically prisoners to their own defenders, and were suffering

more from them than from anything which the outside enemy could do;
							their wives and children were exposed to such extreme indignities as are
							only inflicted when cities are stormed and sacked. A report

reached them that succours were coming from Tarentum and from the
							Samnites. They considered that they had more Samnites than they wanted
							already within their walls, but the force from Tarentum composed of
							Greeks, they were prepared to welcome, being Greeks themselves, and
							through their means they hoped

to resist the Samnites and the Nolans no less than the Romans. At last,
							surrender to the Romans seemed the less of the two evils. Charilaus and
							Nymphius, the leading men in the

city, arranged with one another the respective parts they were to play.
							One was to desert to the Roman Commander, the other to remain in the
							city and prepare it for the successful execution

of their plot. Charilaus was the one who went to Publilius Philo. After
							expressing the hope that all might turn out for the good and happiness
							of Palaeopolis and Rome, he went on to say that he had decided to
							deliver up the fortifications. Whether in doing this he should be found
							to have preserved

his country or betrayed it depended upon the Roman sense of honour. For
							himself he made no terms and asked for no conditions, but for his
							countrymen

he begged rather than stipulated that if his design succeeded the people
							of Rome should take into consideration the eagerness with which they
							sought to renew the old friendly relations, and the risk attending their
							action rather

than their folly and recklessness in breaking the old ties of duty. The
							Roman commander gave his approval to the proposed scheme and furnished
							him with 3000 men to seize that part of the city which was in the
							occupation of the Samnites. L. Quinctius, a military tribune, was in
							command of this force.

Nymphius at the same time approached the Samnite praetor and persuaded
							him, now that the whole of the Roman fighting force was either round
							Palaeopolis or engaged in Samnium, to allow him to sail round with the
							fleet to the Roman seaboard and ravage not only the coastal districts
							but even the country close to the city.

But to ensure secrecy he pointed out that it would be necessary to start
							by night, and that the ships should be at once launched. To expedite
							matters the whole of the Samnite troops, with the exception of those who
							were mounting guard in the city, were sent down to the shore.

Here they were so crowded as to impede one another's movements and the
							confusion was heightened by the darkness and the contradictory orders
							which Nymphius was giving in order to gain time. Meantime Charilaus had
							been admitted by his confederates into the city. When the Romans had
							completely occupied the highest parts of the city, he ordered them to
							raise a shout, on which the Greeks, acting on the instructions of their
							leaders kept quiet.

The Nolans escaped at the other end of the city and took the road to
							Nola. The Samnites, shut out as they were from the city, had less
							difficulty in getting away but when once out of danger they found
							themselves in a much more sorry flight.

They had no arms, there was nothing they possessed which was not left
							behind with the enemy; they returned home stripped and destitute, an
							object of derision not only to foreigners but even to their own
							countrymen.

I am quite aware that there is another view of this transaction,
							according to which it was the Samnites who surrendered, but in the above
							account I have followed the authorities whom I consider most worthy of
							credit Neapolis became subsequently the chief seat of the Greek
							population, and the fact of a treaty being made with that city renders
							it all the more probable that the re-establishment of friendly relations
							was due to them.

As it was generally believed that the enemy had been forced by the siege
							to come to terms, a triumph was decreed to Publilius. Two circumstances
							happened in connection with his consulship which had never happened
							before —a prolongation of command and a triumph after he had laid down
							his command.

This was followed almost immediately by a war
							with the Greeks on the eastern coast.

The Tarentines had encouraged the people of Palaeopolis through their
							long resistance with vain hopes of succour, and when they heard that the
							Romans had got possession of the place they severely blamed the
							Palaeopolitans for leaving them in the lurch, as though they were quite
							guiltless of having behaved in a similar manner themselves.

They were furious with the Romans, especially after they found that the
							Lucanians and Apulians had established friendly relations with them —for
							it was in this year that the alliance had been formed —and they realised
							that they would be the next to be involved.

They saw that it must soon become a question of either fighting Rome or
							submitting to her, and that their whole future in fact depended upon the
							result of the Samnite war. That nation stood out alone, and even their
							strength was inadequate for the struggle, now that the Lucanians had
							abandoned them.

They believed, however, that these could still be brought back and
							induced to desert the Roman alliance, if sufficient skill were shown in
							sowing the seeds of discord between them.

These arguments found general acceptance among a people who were fickle
							and restless, and some young Lucanians, distinguished for their
							unscrupulousness rather than for their sense of honour, were bribed to
							make themselves tools of the war party.

After scourging one another with rods they presented themselves with
							their backs exposed, in the popular Assembly, and loudly complained that
							after they had ventured inside the Roman camp, they had been scourged by
							the consul's orders and were within an ace of losing their heads.

The affair had an ugly look, and the visible evidence removed any
							suspicion of fraud. The Assembly became greatly excited, and amidst loud
							shouts insisted upon the magistrates convening the senate.

When it assembled the senators were surrounded by a crowd of spectators
							who clamoured for war with Rome, whilst others went off into the country
							to rouse the peasantry to arms. Even the coolest heads were carried away
							by the tumult of popular feeling; a decree was passed that a fresh
							alliance should be made with the Samnites, and negotiations were opened
							with them accordingly.

The Samnites did not feel much confidence in this sudden and apparently
							groundless change of policy, and the Lucanians were obliged to give
							hostages and allow the Samnites to garrison their fortified places.
							Blinded by the imposition that had been practised on them and by their
							furious resentment at it, they made no difficulty about accepting these
							terms.

Shortly afterwards, when the authors of the false charges had removed to
							Tarentum, they began to see how they had been hoodwinked, but it was
							then too late, events were no longer in their power, and nothing
							remained but unavailing repentance.

This year ( 326 B.C.> was marked by the dawn,
							as it were, of a new era of liberty for the plebs; creditors were no
							longer allowed to attach the persons of their debtors. This change in
							the law was brought about by a signal instance of lust and cruelty upon
							the part of a moneylender.

L. Papirius was the man in question. C. Publilius had pledged his person
							to him for a debt which his father had contracted. The youth and beauty
							of the debtor which ought to have called forth feelings of compassion
							only acted as incentives to lust and insult.

Finding that his infamous proposals only filled the youth with horror
							and loathing, the man reminded him that he was absolutely in his power
							and sought to terrify him by threats. As these failed to crush the boy's
							noble instincts, he ordered him to be stripped and beaten.

Mangled and bleeding the boy rushed into the street and loudly
							complained of the usurer's lust and brutality.

A vast crowd gathered, and on learning what had happened became furious
							at the outrage offered to one of such tender years, reminding them as it
							did of the conditions under which they and their children were living.

They ran into the Forum and from there in a compact body to the
							Senate-house.

In face of this sudden outbreak the consuls felt it necessary to convene
							a meeting of the senate at once, and as the members entered the House
							the crowd exhibited the lacerated back of the youth and flung themselves
							at the feet of the senators as they passed in one by one. The strongest
							bond and support of credit was there and then overthrown through the mad
							excesses of one individual.

The consuls were instructed by the senate to lay before the people a
							proposal “that no man be kept in irons or in the stocks, except
							such as have been guilty of some crime, and then only till they have
							worked out their sentence; and, further, that the goods and not the
							person of the debtor shall be the security for the debt.”

So the nexi 
							 were released, and it was forbidden for any
							to become nexi in the future.

The Samnite war, the sudden dejection of the
							Lucanians, and the fact that the Tarentines had been the instigators
							were quite sufficient in themselves to cause the senators anxiety.

Fresh trouble, however, arose this year through the action of the
							Vestinians, who made common cause with the Samnites The matter had been
							a good deal discussed, though it had not yet occupied the attention of
							the government. In the following year, however, the new consuls, L.
							Furius Camillus and Junius Brutus Scaeva, made it the very first
							question to bring before the senate.

Though the subject was no new one, yet it was felt to be so serious that
							the senators shrank from either taking it up or refusing to deal with it
							They were afraid that if they left that nation unpunished, the
							neighboring states might be encouraged to make a similar display of
							wanton arrogance, while to punish them by force of arms might lead
							others to fear similar treatment and arouse feelings of resentment.

In fact, the whole of these nations —the Marsi, the Paeligni, and the
							Marrucini —were quite as warlike as the Samnites, and in case the
							Vestinians were attacked would have to be reckoned with as enemies.

The victory, however, rested with that party in the senate who seemed at
							the time to possess more daring than prudence, but the result showed
							that Fortune favours the bold.

The people, with the sanction of the senate, resolved on war with the
							Vestinians.

The conduct of that war fell by lot to Brutus, the war in Samnium to
							Camillus.

Armies were marched into both countries, and by carefully watching the
							frontiers the enemy were prevented from effecting a junction. The consul
							who had the heavier task, L. Furius, was overtaken by a serious illness
							and was obliged to resign his command.

He was ordered to nominate a Dictator to carry on the campaign, and he
							nominated L. Papirius Cursor, the foremost soldier of his day, Q. Fabius
							Maximus Rullianus being appointed Master of the Horse.

The two distinguished themselves by their conduct in the field, but they
							made themselves still more famous by the conflict which broke out
							between them, and which almost led to fatal consequences.

The other consul, Brutus, carried on an active campaign amongst the
							Vestinians without meeting with a single reverse. He ravaged the fields
							and burnt the farm buildings and crops of enemy, and at last drove him
							reluctantly into action.

A pitched battle was fought, and he inflicted such a defeat on the
							Vestinians, though with heavy loss on his own side also, that they fled
							to their camp, but not feeling sufficiently protected by fosse and
							rampart they dispersed in scattered parties to their towns, trusting to
							their strong positions and stone walls for their defence. Brutus now
							commenced an attack upon their towns.

The first to be taken was Cutina, which he carried by escalade, after a
							hot assault by his men, who were eager to avenge the heavy losses they
							had sustained in the previous battle. This was followed by the capture
							of Cingilia.

He gave the spoil of both cities to his troops as a reward for their
							having surmounted the walls and gates of the enemy.

The advance into Samnium was made under doubtful
							auspices. This circumstance did not portend the result of the campaign,
							for that was quite favourable,

but it did foreshadow the insane passion which the commanders displayed.
							Papirius was warned by the pullarius 
							 that it would be necessary to take the auspices
							afresh. On his departure for Rome for this purpose, he strictly charged
							the Master of the Horse

to keep within his lines and not to engage the enemy. After he had gone
							Q. Fabius learnt from his scouts that the enemy were showing as much

carelessness as if there were not a single Roman in Samnium. Whether it
							was that his youthful temper resented everything being dependent on the
							Dictator, or whether he was tempted by the chance offered him of a
							brilliant success, at any rate, after making the necessary preparations
							and dispositions he advanced as far as Inbrinium — for so

is the district called —and fought a battle with the Samnites. Such was
							the fortune of the fight that had the Dictator himself been present he
							could have done nothing to make the success more complete. The general
							did

not disappoint his men, nor did the men disappoint their general. The
							cavalry made repeated charges but failed to break through the massed
							force opposed to them, and acting on the advice of L. Cominius, a
							military tribune, they removed the bits from their horses and spurred
							them on so furiously that nothing could withstand them. Riding down men
							and armour they spread carnage far and wide.

The infantry followed them and completed the disorder of the enemy. It
							is said that they lost 20,000 men that day. Some authorities whom I have
							consulted state that there were two battles fought in the Dictator's
							absence, and each was a brilliant success. In the oldest writers,
							however, only one battle is mentioned, and some annalists omit the
							incident altogether.

In consequence of the vast number slain, a large amount of spoil in the
							shape of armour and weapons was picked up on the battle-field, and the
							Master of the Horse had this collected into a huge heap and burnt. His

object may have been to discharge a vow to some deity. But if we are to
							trust the authority of Fabius, he did this to prevent the Dictator from
							reaping the fruits of his glory, or carrying the

spoils in his triumph and afterwards placing his name upon them. The fact also of
							his sending the despatches announcing his victory to the senate and not
							to the Dictator would seem to show that he was by no means anxious to
							allow him any share in the credit of it. At all events the Dictator took
							it in that night, and whilst everybody else was jubilant at the victory
							which

had been won, he wore an expression of gloom and wrath. He abruptly
							dismissed the senate and hurried from the Senate-house, repeatedly
							exclaiming that the authority and dignity of the Dictator would be as
							completely overthrown by the Master of the Horse as the Samnite legions
							had been if this contempt of his orders were to remain unpunished. In
							this angry and

menacing mood, he started with all possible speed for the camp. He was
							unable, however, to reach it before news arrived of his approach, for
							messengers had started from

the City in advance of him, bringing word that the Dictator was coming
							bent on vengeance, and almost every other word he uttered was in praise
							of T Manlius.

Fabius immediately summoned his troops to assembly, and appealed to them
							to show the same courage with which they had defended the republic from
							a brave and determined foe in protecting from the unrestrained ferocity
							of the Dictator the man under whose auspices and generalship they had
							been victorious.

He was coming, maddened by jealousy, exasperated at another man's merits
							and good fortune, furious because the republic had triumphed in his
							absence. If it were in his power to change the fortune of the day, he
							would rather that victory rested with the Samnites than with the Romans.

He kept talking about the contempt of orders as though the reason why he
							forbade all fighting were not precisely the same as that which makes him
							vexed now that we have fought.

Then , prompted by jealousy, he wanted to suppress the
							merits of others and deprive of their arms men who were most eager to
							use them, so as to prevent their being employed in his absence; now he
							is exasperated and furious because the soldiers were not crippled or
							defenceless though L. Papirius was not with them, and because Q. Fabius
							considered himself Master of the Horse and not the lacquey of the
							Dictator.

What would he have done if, as often happens amid the chances of war,
							the battle had gone against us, seeing that now, after the enemy has
							been thoroughly defeated and a victory won for the republic which even
							under his unrivalled generalship could not have been more complete, he
							is actually menacing the Master of the Horse with punishment! He would,
							were it in his power, treat all with equal severity, not only the Master
							of Horse but the military tribunes, the centurions, the men of the rank
							and file.

Jealousy, like lightning, strikes the summits, and because he cannot
							reach all he has selected one man as his victim whom he regards as the
							chief conspirator —your general.

If he should succeed in crushing him and quenching the splendour of his
							success, he will treat this army as a victor treats the vanquished, and
							with the same ruthlessness which he has been allowed to practise on the
							Master of the Horse. In defending his cause they will be defending the
							liberty of all.

If the Dictator sees that the army is as united in guarding its victory
							as it was in fighting for it, and that one man's safety is the common
							concern of all, he will bring himself to a calmer frame of mind. His
							closing words were: “I entrust my fortunes and my life to your
							fidelity and courage.” His words were greeted with universal
							shouts of approval.

They told him not to be dismayed or depressed, no man should harm him
							while the legions of Rome were alive.

Not long after this the Dictator appeared, and at once ordered the
							trumpet to sound the Assembly. When silence was restored an usher
							summoned Q. Fabius, the Master of the Horse. He advanced and stood
							immediately below the Dictator's tribunal.

The Dictator began: “Quintus Fabius, inasmuch as the Dictator
							possesses supreme authority, to which the consuls who exercise the old
							kingly power, and the praetors who are elected under the same auspices
							as the

consuls alike submit, I ask you whether or not you think it right and
							fitting that the Master of the Horse should bow to that authority?

Further, I ask you whether as I was aware that I had left the City under
							doubtful auspices I ought to have jeopardised the safety of the republic
							in the face of this religious difficulty, or whether I ought to have
							taken the auspices afresh and so avoided any action till the pleasure of
							the gods was known? I should also like to know whether, if a religious
							impediment prevents the Dictator from acting, the Master of the Horse is
							at liberty to consider himself free and unhampered by such impediment?

But why am I putting these questions? Surely, if I had gone away without
							leaving any orders, you ought to have used your judgment in interpreting
							my wishes and acted accordingly. Answer me this, rather: Did I forbid
							you to take any action in my absence? Did I forbid you to engage the
							enemy?

In contempt of my orders, whilst the auspices were still indecisive and
							the sanctions of religion withheld, you dared

to give battle, in defiance of all the military custom and discipline of
							our ancestors, in defiance of the will of the gods. Answer the questions
							put to you, but beware of uttering a single word about anything else.

Lictor, stand by him!” Fabius found it far from easy to reply to
							each question in detail, and protested against the same man being both
							accuser and judge in a matter of life and death.

He exclaimed that it would be easier to deprive him of his life than of
							the glory he had won, and went on to exculpate himself and bring charges
							against the Dictator.

Papirius in a fresh outburst of rage ordered the Master of the Horse to
							be stripped and the rods and axes to be got ready. Fabius appealed to
							the soldiers for help, and as the lictors began to tear off his clothes,
							he retreated behind the triarii who were now raising a tumult.

Their shouts were taken up through the whole concourse, threats and
							entreaties were heard everywhere.

Those nearest the tribunal, who could be recognised as being within view
							of the Dictator implored him to spare the Master of the Horse and not
							with him to condemn the whole army; those furthest off and the men who
							had closed round Fabius reviled the Dictator as unfeeling and merciless.
							Matters were rapidly approaching a mutiny.

Even those on the tribunal did not remain quiet; the staff officers who
							were standing round the Dictator's chair begged him to adjourn the
							proceedings to the following day to allow his anger to cool and give
							time for quiet consideration.

They urged that the youthful spirit of Fabius had been sufficiently
							chastened and his victory sufficiently sullied;

they begged him not to push his punishment to extremities or to brand
							with ignominy not only a youth of exceptional merit but also his
							distinguished father and the whole Fabian house. When they found their
							arguments and entreaties alike unavailing, they asked him to look at the
							angry multitude in front.

To add fire to men whose tempers were already inflamed and to provide
							the materials for a mutiny was, they said, unworthy of a man of his age
							and experience.

If a mutiny did occur, no one would throw the blame of it upon Q.
							Fabius, who was only deprecating punishment; the sole responsibility
							would lie on the Dictator for having in his blind passion provoked the
							multitude to a deplorable struggle with him.

And as a final argument they declared that to prevent him from supposing
							that they were actuated by any personal feeling in favour of Fabius,
							they were prepared to state on oath that they considered the infliction
							of punishment on Fabius under present circumstances to be detrimental to
							the interests of the State.

These remonstrances only irritated the Dictator against them instead of
							making him more peaceably disposed towards Fabius, and he ordered them
							to leave the tribunal.

In vain the ushers demanded silence, neither the Dictator's voice nor
							those of his officers could be heard owing to the noise and uproar; at
							last night put an end to the conflict as though it had been a battle.

The Master of the Horse was ordered to appear on the following day. As,
							however, everybody assured him that Papirius was so upset and embittered
							by the resistance he had met with that he would be more furious than
							ever, Fabius left the camp secretly and reached Rome in the night.

On the advice of his father, M. Fabius, who had been thrice consul as
							well as Dictator, a meeting of the senate was at once summoned.

Whilst his son was describing to the senators the violence and injustice
							of the Dictator, suddenly the noise of the lictors clearing the way in
							front of the Senate-house was heard and the Dictator himself appeared,
							having followed him up with some light cavalry as soon as he heard that
							he had quitted the camp.

Then the contention began again, and Papirius ordered Fabius to be
							arrested. Though not only the leaders of the senate but the whole House
							sought to deprecate his wrath, he remained unmoved and persisted in his
							purpose.

Then M. Fabius, the father, said: “Since neither the authority of
							the senate nor the years which I, whom you are preparing to bereave of a
							son, have reached, nor the noble birth and personal merits of the Master
							of the Horse whom you yourself appointed, and entreaties such as have
							often mitigated the fierceness of human foes and pacified the anger of
							offended deities —since none of these move you —I claim the intervention
							of the tribunes of the plebs and appeal to the people.

As you are seeking to escape from the judgment which the army has passed
							upon you and which the senate is passing now, I summon you before the
							one judge who has at all events more power and authority than your
							Dictatorship.

I shall see whether you will submit to an appeal to which a Roman king
							—Tullus Hotilius —submitted.” He at once left the Senate-house for the

Assembly. Thither the Dictator also proceeded with a small party, whilst
							the Master of the Horse was accompanied by all the leaders of the senate
							in a body. They had both taken their places on the rostra when Papirius
							ordered Fabius to be removed to the space

below. His father followed him and turned to Papirius with the remark,
							“You do well to order us to be removed to a position from which
							we can speak as private

citizens.” For some time regular debate was out of the question,
							nothing was heard but mutual

altercations. At last the loud and indignant tones of the elder Fabius
							rose above the hubbub as he expatiated on the tyranny and brutality of
							Papirius. He himself, he said, had been Dictator, and not a single
							person, not a single plebeian, whether centurion or private soldier, had
							ever suffered any wrong from

him. But Papirius would wrest victory and triumph from a Roman commander
							just as he would from hostile generals. What a difference there was
							between the moderation shown by the men of old and this new fashion of
							ruthless

severity! The Dictator, Quinctius Cincinnatus, rescued the consul, L.
							Minucius, from a blockade, and the only punishment he inflicted was to
							leave him as second in command of the

army. L. Furius, after expressing his contempt for
							the age and authority of M. F. Camillus, incurred a most disgraceful
							defeat, but Camillus not only checked his anger for
							the moment and refrained from putting in his despatches to the people,
							or rather to the senate, anything reflecting on his colleague, but on
							his return to Rome, after the senate had allowed him to choose from the
							consular tribunes one to be associated with him in his command, he
							actually

chose L. Furius. Why, even the people themselves, who hold in their
							hands the sovereign power, have never allowed their feelings to carry
							them beyond the imposition of a fine even where armies have been lost
							through the foolhardiness or ignorance

of their generals. Never up to this day has a commander-inchief been
							tried for his life because he was defeated. But now generals who have
							won victories and earned the most splendid triumphs are threatened with
							the rods and axes, a treatment which the laws of war forbid even

to the vanquished. What, he asked, would his son have suffered if he had
							met with defeat, been routed and stripped of his camp? Could that man's
							rage and violence go beyond

scourging and killing? It was owing to Q. Fabius that the State was
							offering up joyous and grateful thanksgivings for victory; it was on his
							account that the sacred fanes stood open and prayers and libations were
							being offered at the altars, and the smoke of

sacrifice was ascending. How fitting it was that this very man should be
							stripped and torn with rods before the eyes of the Roman people, in
							sight of the Capitol and the Citadel, in sight of the gods whom he
							invoked in two battles nor

invoked in vain! What would be the feelings of the army who had won
							their victories under his auspices and generalship? What grief would
							there be in the Roman camp, what exultation among the enemy!

The old man wept bitterly as he uttered these protests and
							expostulations, ever and anon throwing his arms round his son and
							appealing for help to gods and men.

He had on his side the support of the august and venerable senate, the
							sympathy of the people, the protection of the tribunes, and the
							remembrance of the absent army.

On the other side were pleaded the unquestioned sovereign power of the
							Roman people and all the traditions of military discipline, the
							Dictator's edict which had ever been regarded as possessing divine
							sanction, and the example of Manlius who had sacrificed his affection
							for his son to the interests of the State.

Brutus too, urged the Dictator, the founder of Roman freedom, had done
							this before in the case of his two children. Now fathers were indulgent,
							and aged men, easy-going in matters that do not touch themselves, were
							spoiling the young men, teaching them to despise authority and treating
							military discipline as of little importance.

He declared his intention of adhering to his purpose, he would not abate
							a single jot of the punishment due to the man who had fought in defiance
							of his injunctions, while the auspices were doubtful and the religious
							sanction withheld.

Whether the supreme authority of the Dictator was to remain unimpaired
							did not depend on him; he, L. Papirius, would do nothing to weaken its
							power.

He sincerely hoped that the tribunes would not use their authority,
							itself inviolable, to violate by their interference the sovereignty of
							the Roman government, and that the people to whom the appeal had been
							made would not extinguish in his case especially Dictator and
							Dictatorship alike.

“If it did, it will not be L. Papirius but the tribunes, the
							corrupt judgment of the people that posterity will accuse and accuse in
							vain.

When the bond of military discipline has once been broken no soldier
							will obey his centurion, no centurion his military tribune, no military
							tribune his general, no Master of the Horse the Dictator.

No one will have any reverence or respect for either men or gods, no
							observance will be shown to the orders of commanders or the auspices
							under which they acted.

Without obtaining leave of absence soldiers will roam at will through
							friendly or hostile country; in total disregard of their military oath
							they will abandon their standards when and where they chose, they will
							refuse to assemble when ordered, they will fight regardless of day or
							night, whether the ground were favourable or unfavourable, whether their
							commander has given orders or not, keeping no formation, no order.

Military service, instead of being the solemn and sacred thing it is,
							will resemble wild and disorderly brigandage. Expose yourselves,
							tribunes, to all future ages as the authors of these evils! Make
							yourselves personally responsible for the criminal recklessness of Q.
							Fabius!”

The tribunes were dismayed and felt more anxiety now about their own
							position than about the man who had sought their protection. They were
							relieved from their heavy responsibility by the action of the people;
							the whole Assembly appealed to the Dictator and besought him with
							earnest entreaties that he would for their sakes forego inflicting
							punishment on the Master of the Horse.

When the tribunes saw the turn matters had taken they added their
							entreaties also, and implored the Dictator to make allowance for human
							frailty and to pardon Q. Fabius for an error natural to youth, for he
							had already suffered punishment enough.

And now the youth himself, and even his father, abandoning all further
							contention, fell on their knees and sought to turn aside the Dictator's
							anger.

At last, when silence was restored, the Dictator spoke. “This,
							Quirites,” he said, “is as it should be. Military
							discipline has conquered, the supreme authority of government has
							prevailed; it was a question whether either would survive this day's
							proceedings.

Q. Fabius is not acquitted of guilt in having fought against his
							commander's orders, but though condemned as guilty he is restored as a
							free gift to the people of Rome, to the authority of the tribunes, who
							protected him not by exercising their legal powers but by their
							intercession.

Live, Q. Fabius; happier now in the unanimous desire of your
							fellow-citizens to defend you than in the hour of exultation after your
							victory! Live, though you dared to do what even your father, had he been
							in the place of Papirius, could not have pardoned!

As for me, you shall be restored to favour whenever you please. But to
							the Roman people to whom you owe your life you can make no better return
							than to show that you have this day learnt the lesson of submission to
							lawful commands in peace and in war.”

After announcing that he would no longer detain the Master of the Horse
							he left the rostra. The joyful senate, the still more joyful people,
							flocked round the Dictator and the Master of the Horse, and
							congratulated them on the result and then escorted them to their homes.

It was felt that military authority had been strengthened no less by the
							peril in which Q. Fabius had been placed than by the terrible punishment
							of young Manlius.

It so happened that on each occasion on which the Dictator was absent
							from the army, the Samnites showed increased activity. M. Valerius,
							however, the second in command, who was in charge of the camp, had the
							example of Q. Fabius before his eyes and dreaded the stern Dictator's
							anger more than an attack from the enemy.

A foraging party were ambushed and cut to pieces, and it was commonly
							believed that they could have been relieved from the camp had not the
							commanding officer been deterred by the peremptory orders he had
							received.

This incident still further embittered the feelings of the soldiers who
							were already incensed against the Dictator owing to his implacable
							attitude towards Fabius and then to his having pardoned him at the
							request of the people alter having refused to do so on their
							intercession.

After placing L. Papirius Crassus in command al
							the City and prohibiting Q. Fabius from any action in his capacity as
							Master of the Horse, the Dictator returned to the camp.

His arrival was not viewed with much pleasure by his own men, nor did it
							create any alarm amongst the enemy. For the very next day, either
							unaware al his presence or regarding it of small importance whether he
							were present or absent, they marched towards the camp in order of
							battle.

And yet so much depended upon that one man, L. Papirius, such care did
							he show in choosing his ground and posting his reserves, so far did he
							strengthen his force in every way that military skill could suggest,
							that if the general's tactics' had been backed up by the goodwill of the
							troops it was considered absolutely certain that the Samnite war would
							that day have been brought to a close.

As it was, the soldiers showed no energy; they deliberately threw the
							victory away that their commander's reputation might be damaged. The
							Samnites lost a larger proportion of killed, the Romans had more
							wounded.

The quick eye of the general saw what prevented his success, and he
							realised that he must curb his temper and soften his sternness by
							greater affability.

He went round the camp accompanied by his staff and visited the wounded,
							putting his head inside their tents and asking them how they were
							getting on, and commending them individually by name to the care of his
							staff officers, the military tribunes, and prefects.

In adopting this course, which naturally tended to make him popular, he
							showed so much tact that the feelings of the men were much sooner won
							over to their commander now that their bodies were being properly looked
							after. Nothing conduced more to their recovery than the gratitude they
							felt for his attention.

When the health of the army was completely restored he gave battle to
							the enemy, both he and his men feeling quite confident of victory, and
							he so completely defeated and routed the Samnites that this was the last
							occasion on which they ventured on a regular engagement with the
							Dictator.

After this the victorious army advanced in every direction where there
							was any prospect of plunder, but wherever they marched they found no
							armed force; they were nowhere openly attacked or surprised from ambush.

They showed all the greater alertness because the Dictator had issued an
							order that the whole of the spoil was to be given to the soldiers; the
							chance of private gain stimulated their warlike spirit quite as much as
							the consciousness that they were avenging the wrongs of their country.

Cowed by these defeats, the Samnites made overtures for peace and gave
							the Dictator an undertaking to supply each of the soldiers with a set of
							garments and a year's pay.

On his referring them to the senate they replied that they would follow
							him to Rome and trust their cause solely to his honour and rectitude.
							The army was thereupon withdrawn from Samnium.

The Dictator made a triumphal entry into the City, and as he wished to
							lay down his office, he received instructions from the senate before
							doing so to conduct the consular elections.

The new consuls were C. Sulpicius Longus (for the second time) and Q.
							Aemilius Cerretanus. The Samnites did not succeed in obtaining a
							permanent peace, as they could not agree on the conditions; they took
							back with them a truce for one year.

But even this was soon broken, for when they heard that Papirius had
							resigned they were eager to renew hostilities. The new consuls —some
							authorities give Aulus instead of Aemilius for the second consul —had on
							their hands a fresh enemy, the Apulians, in addition to the revolt of
							the Samnites Armies were despatched against both;

the Samnites were allotted to Sulpicius, the Apulians to Aemilius.

Some writers assert that it was not against the Apulians that the
							campaign was undertaken, but for the protection of their allies against
							the wanton aggressions of the Samnites The circumstances of that people,
							however, who were hardly able to defend themselves, make it more
							probable that they had not attacked the Apulians but that both nations
							were united in hostilities against Rome.

Nothing noteworthy took place; the districts of both Samnium and Apulia
							were laid waste, but neither in the one nor the other was the enemy met
							with. At Rome the citizens were one night suddenly aroused from sleep by
							an alarm so serious that the Capitol, the Citadel, the walls, and gates
							were filled with troops.

The whole population was called to arms, but when it grew light neither
							the author nor the cause of the excitement was discovered.

In this year M. Flavius, a tribune of the
							plebs, brought before the people a proposal to take measures against the
							Tusculans, “by whose counsel and assistance the peoples of
							Velitrae and Privernum had made war against the people of Rome.”

The people of Tusculum came to Rome with their wives and children in
							mourning garb, like men awaiting trial, and went from tribe to tribe
							prostrating themselves before the tribesmen. The compassion which their
							attitude called out went further to procure their pardon than their
							attempts to exculpate themselves.

All the tribes, with the exception of the Pollian tribe, vetoed the
							proposal.

That tribe voted for a proposal that all the adult males should be
							scourged and beheaded, and their wives and children sold into slavery.

Even as late as the last generation the Tusculans retained the memory of
							that cruel sentence, and their resentment against its authors showed
							itself in the fact that the Papirian tribe (in which the Tusculans were
							afterwards incorporated) hardly ever voted for any candidate belonging
							to the Pollian tribe.

. Fabius and L. Fulvius were the
							consuls for the following year. The war in Samnium was threatening to
							take a more serious turn, as it was stated that mercenary troops had
							been hired from the neighbouring states. The apprehensions created led
							to the nomination of A. Cornelius Arvina as Dictator, with M. Fabius
							Ambustus as Master of the Horse.

These commanders carried out the enrolment with unusual strictness, and
							led an exceptionally fine army into Samnium. But although they were on
							hostile territory, they exercised as little caution in choosing the site
							for their camp as though the enemy had been at a great distance.

Suddenly the Samnite legions advanced with such boldness that they
							encamped with their rampart close to the Roman outposts.

The approach of night prevented them from making an immediate attack;
							they disclosed their intention as soon as it grew light the next
							morning. The Dictator saw that a battle was nearer than he expected, and
							he determined to abandon a position which would hamper the courage of
							his men Leaving a number of watch-fires alight to deceive the enemy, he
							silently

withdrew his troops, but owing to the proximity of the camps his
							movement was not unobserved. The Samnite cavalry immediately followed on
							his heels but refrained from actual attack till it grew lighter, nor did
							the infantry emerge from their camp before daybreak.

As soon as they could see, the cavalry began to harass the Roman rear,
							and by pressing upon them where difficult ground had to be crossed,
							considerably delayed their advance.

Meantime the infantry had come up, and now the entire force of the
							Samnites was pressing on the rear of the column. As the Dictator saw
							that no further advance was possible without heavy loss, he ordered the
							ground he was holding to be measured out for a camp. But as the enemy's
							cavalry was gradually enveloping them, it was impossible to procure wood
							for the stockade or to commence their entrenchment.

Finding that to go forward and to remain where he was were equally out
							of the question, the Dictator ordered the baggage to be removed from the
							column and collected and the line of battle formed.

The enemy formed also into line, equally matched in courage and in
							strength. Their confidence was increased by their attributing the
							retirement of the Romans to fear and not, as was actually the case, to
							the disadvantageous position of their camp.

This made the fight for some considerable time an even one, though the
							Samnites had long been unaccustomed to stand the battle-shout of the
							Romans. We read that actually from nine o'clock till two in the
							afternoon the contest was maintained so equally on both sides that the
							shout which was raised at the first onset was never repeated, the
							standards neither advanced nor retreated, in no direction was there any
							giving way. They fought, each man keeping his ground, pressing forward
							with their shields, neither looking back nor pausing for breath.

Their noise and tumult never grew weaker, the fighting went on perfectly
							steadily, and it looked as if it would only be terminated by the
							complete exhaustion of the combatants or the approach of night.

By this time the men were beginning to lose their strength and the sword
							its vigour, whilst the generals were baffled. A troop of Samnite
							cavalry, who had ridden some distance round the Roman rear, discovered
							that their baggage was lying at a distance from the combatants without
							any guard or protection of any kind. On learning this the whole of the
							cavalry rode up to it eager to secure the plunder.

A messenger in hot haste reported this to the Dictator, who remarked:
							“All right, let them encumber themselves with spoil.” Then
							the soldiers one after another began to exclaim that their belongings
							were being plundered and carried off.

The Dictator sent for the Master of the Horse. “Do you
							see,” he said, “M. Fabius, that the enemy's cavalry have
							left the fight? They are hampering and impeding themselves with our
							baggage.

Attack them whilst they are scattered, as plundering parties always are;
							you will find very few of them in the saddle, very few with swords in
							their hands. Cut them down whilst they are loading their horses with
							spoil, with no weapons to defend themselves, and make it a bloody spoil
							for them!

I will look after the infantry battle, the glory of the cavalry victory
							shall be yours.”

The cavalry force, riding in perfect order, charged the enemy whilst
							scattered and hampered by their plunder and filled the whole place with
							carnage.

Incapable of either resistance or flight they were cut down amongst the
							packages which they had thrown away and over which their startled horses
							were stumbling.

After almost annihilating the enemy's cavalry, M. Fabius led his cavalry
							by a short circuit round the main battle and attacked the Samnite
							infantry from behind.

The fresh shouting which arose in that direction threw them into a
							panic, and when the Dictator saw the men in front looking round, the
							standards getting into confusion, and the whole line wavering, he called
							upon his men and encouraged them to fresh efforts; he appealed to the
							military tribunes and first cen- turions by name to join him in renewing
							the fight.

They again raised the battle-shout and pressed forward, and wherever
							they advanced they saw more and more demoralisation amongst the enemy.

The cavalry were now within view of those in front, and Cornelius,
							turning round to his maniples, indicated as well as he could by voice
							and hand that he recognised the standards and bucklers of his own
							cavalry.

No sooner did they see and hear them than, forgetting the toil and
							travail they had endured for almost a whole day, forgetting their
							wounds, and as eager as though they had just emerged fresh from their
							camp after receiving the signal for battle, they flung themselves on the
							enemy.

The Samnites could no longer bear up against the terrible onset of the
							cavalry behind them and the fierce charge of the infantry in front. A
							large number were killed between the two, many were scattered in flight.

The infantry accounted for those who were hemmed in and stood their
							ground, the cavalry created slaughter among the fugitives; amongst those
							killed was their commander-in-chief.

This battle completely broke down the resistance; so much so that in all
							their councils peace was advocated. It could not, they said, be a matter
							of surprise that they met with no success in an unblest war, undertaken
							in defiance of treaty obligations, where the gods were more justly
							incensed against them than men. That war would have to be expiated and
							atoned for at a great cost.

The only question was whether they should pay the penalty by sacrificing
							the few who were guilty or shedding the innocent blood of all. Some even
							went so far as to name the instigators of the war.

One name, especially, was generally denounced, that of Brutulus Papius.
							He was an aristocrat and possessed great influence, and there was not a
							shadow of doubt that it was he who had brought about the breach of the
							recent truce.

The praetors found themselves compelled to submit a decree which the
							council passed, ordering Brutulus Papius to be surrendered and all the
							prisoners and booty taken from the Romans to be sent with him to Rome,
							and further that the redress which the fetials had demanded in
							accordance with treaty-rights should be made as law and justice
							demanded.

Brutulus escaped the ignominy and punishment which awaited him by a
							voluntary death, but the decree was carried out; the fetials were sent
							to Rome with the dead body, and all his property was surrendered with
							him.

None of this, however, was accepted by the Romans beyond the prisoners
							and whatever articles amongst the spoil were identified by the owners;
							so far as anything else was concerned, the surrender was fruitless. The
							senate decreed a triumph for the Dictator.

Some authorities state that this war was managed by the consuls and it
							was they who celebrated the triumph over the Samnites, and further that
							Fabius invaded Apulia and brought away great quantities of spoil.

There is no discrepancy as to A. Cornelius having been Dictator that
							year, the only doubt is whether he was appointed to conduct the war, or
							whether, owing to the serious illness of L. Plautius, the praetor, he
							was appointed to give the signal for starting the chariot races, and
							after discharging this not very noteworthy function resigned office.

It is difficult to decide which account or which authority to prefer.

I believe that the true history has been falsified by funeral orations
							and lying inscriptions on the family busts, since each family
							appropriates to itself an imaginary record of noble deeds and official
							distinctions. It is at all events owing to this cause that so much
							confusion has been introduced into the records of private careers and
							public events.

There is no writer of those times now extant who was contemporary with
							the events he relates and whose authority, therefore, can he depended
							upon.

The following year ( 321 B.C.) was rendered memorable by the disaster which
							befell the Romans at Caudium and the capitulation which they made there.

T. Veturius Calvinus and Spurius Postumius were the consuls. The
							Samnites had for their captain-general that year C. Pontius, the son of
							Herennius, the ablest statesman they possessed, whilst the son

was their foremost soldier and commander. When the envoys who had been
							sent with the terms of surrender returned from their fruitless mission,
							Pontius made the following speech in the Samnite council: “Do not
							suppose that this mission has been barren of results.

We have gained this much by it, whatever measure of divine wrath we may
							have incurred by our violation of treaty obligations has now been atoned
							for. I am perfectly certain that all those deities whose will it was
							that we should he reduced to the necessity of making the restitution
							which was demanded under the terms of the treaty, have viewed with
							displeasure the haughty contempt with which the Romans have treated our
							concessions.

What more could we have done to placate the wrath of heaven or soften
							the resentment of men than we have done?

The property of the enemy, which we considered ours by the rights of
							war, we have restored; the author of the war, whom we could not
							surrender alive, we gave up after he had paid his debt to nature, and
							lest any taint of guilt should remain with us we carried his possessions
							to Rome.

What more, Romans, do I owe to you or to the treaty or to the gods who
							were invoked as witnesses to the treaty? What arbitrator am I to bring
							forward to decide how far your wrath, how far my punishment is to go?

I am willing to accept any, whether it he a nation or a private
							individuaI. But if human law leaves no rights which the weak share with
							the stronger, I can still fly to the gods, the avengers of intolerable
							tyranny, and I will pray them to turn their wrath against those for whom
							it is not enough to have

their own restored to them and to he loaded also with what belongs to
							others, whose cruel rage is not satiated by the death of the guilty and
							the surrender of their lifeless remains together with their property,
							who cannot he appeased unless we give them our very blood to suck and
							our bowels to tear.

A war is just and right, Samnites, when it is forced upon us; arms are
							blessed by heaven when there is no hope except in arms.

Since then it is of supreme importance in human affairs what things men
							do under divine favour and what they do against the divine will, he well
							assured that, if in your former wars you were fighting against the gods
							even more than against men, in this war which is impending you will have
							the gods themselves to lead you.”

After uttering this prediction, which proved to he as true as it was
							reassuring, he took the field and, keeping his movements as secret as
							possible, fixed his camp in the neighbourhood of Caudium.

From there he sent ten soldiers disguised as shepherds to Calatia, where
							he understood that the Roman consuls were encamped, with instructions to
							pasture some cattle in different directions near the Roman outposts.

When they fell in with any foraging parties they were all to tell the
							same story, and say that the Samnite legions were in Apulia investing
							Luceria with their whole force and that its capture was imminent.

This rumour had purposely been spread before and had already reached the
							ears of the Romans; the captured shepherds confirmed their belief in it,
							especially as their statements all tallied.

There was no doubt but that the Romans would assist the Lucerians for
							the sake of protecting their allies and preventing the whole of Apulia
							from being intimidated by the Samnites into open revolt. The only matter
							for consideration was what route they would take.

There were two roads leading to Luceria; one along the Adriatic Coast
							through open country, the longer one of the two but so much the safer;
							the other and shorter one through the Caudine Forks.

This is the character of the spot; there are two passes, deep, narrow,
							with wooded hills on each side, and a continuous chain of mountains
							extends from one to the other. Between them lies a watered grassy plain
							through the middle of which the road goes.

Before you reach the plain you have to pass through the first defile and
							either return by the same path by which you entered or, if you go on,
							you must make your way out by a still narrower and more difficult pass
							at the other end. The Roman column descended into this plain from the
							first defile with its overhanging cliffs, and marched straight through
							to the other pass.

They found it blocked by a huge barricade of felled trees with great
							masses of rock piled against them. No sooner did they become aware of
							the enemy's stratagem than his outposts showed themselves on the heights
							above the pass.

A hasty retreat was made, and they proceeded to retrace their steps by
							the way they had come when they discovered that this pass also had its
							own barricade and armed men on the heights above. Then without any order
							being given they called a halt. Their senses were dazed and stupefied
							and a strange numbness seized their limbs.

Each gazed at his neighbour, thinking him more in possession of his
							senses and judgment than himself. For a long time they stood silent and
							motionless, then they saw the consuls' tents being set up and some of
							the men getting their entrenching tools ready.

Though they knew that in their desperate and hopeless plight it would he
							ridiculous for them to fortify the ground on which

they stood still, not to make matters worse by any fault of their own
							they set to work without waiting for orders and entrenched their camp
							with its rampart close to the water.

While they were thus engaged the enemy showered taunts and insults upon
							them, and they themselves in bitter mockery jeered at their own
							fruitless labour.

The consuls were too much depressed and unnerved even to summon a
							council of war, for there was no place for either counsel or help, but
							the staff-officers and tribunes gathered round them, and the men with
							their faces turned towards their tents sought from their leaders a
							succour which the gods themselves could hardly render them.

Night surprised them while they were lamenting over their situation
							rather than consulting how to meet it The different temperaments of the
							men came out; some exclaimed: “Let us break through the
							barricades, scale the mountain slopes, force our way through the forest,
							try every way where we can carry arms.

Only let us get at the enemy whom we have beaten for now nearly thirty
							years; all places will he smooth and easy to a Roman fighting against
							the perfidious Samnite.”

Others answered: “Where are we to go? How are we to get there?
							Are we preparing to move the mountains from their seat? How will you get
							at the enemy as long as these peaks hang over us? Armed and unarmed,
							brave and cowardly we are all alike trapped and conquered. The enemy
							will not even offer us the chance of an honourable death by the sword,
							he will finish the war without moving from his seat.”

Indifferent to food, unable to sleep, they talked in this way throughout
							he night. Even the Samnites were unable to make up their minds what to
							do under such fortunate circumstances. It was unanimously agreed to
							write to Herennius, the captain-general's father, and ask his advice.

He was now advanced in years and had given up all public business, civil
							as well as military, but though his physical powers were failing his
							intellect was as sound and clear as ever.

He had already heard that the Roman armies were hemmed in between the
							two passes at the Caudine Forks, and when his son's courier asked for
							his advice he gave it as his opinion that the whole force ought to he at
							once allowed to depart uninjured.

This advice was rejected and the courier was sent back to consult him
							again.

He now advised that they should every one he put to death. On receiving
							these replies, contradicting each other like the ambiguous utterances of
							an oracle, his son's first impression was that his father's mental
							powers had become impaired through his physical weakness. However, he
							yielded to the unanimous wish and invited his father to the council of
							war.

The old man, we are told, at once complied and was conveyed in a wagon
							to the camp. After taking his seat in the council, it became clear from
							what he said that he had not changed his mind, but he explained his
							reasons for the advice he gave.

He believed that by taking the course he first proposed, which he
							considered the best, he was establishing a durable peace and friendship
							with a most powerful people in treating them with such exceptional
							kindness; by adopting the second he was postponing war for many
							generations, for it would take that time for Rome to recover her
							strength painfully and slowly after the loss of two armies.

There was no third course. When his son and the other chiefs went on to
							ask him what would happen if a middle course were taken, and they were
							dismissed unhurt but under such conditions as by the rights of war are
							imposed on the vanquished, he replied:

“That is just the policy which neither procures friends nor rids
							us of enemies. Once let men whom you have exasperated by ignominious
							treatment live and you will find out your mistake.

The Romans are a nation who know not how to remain quiet under defeat.
							Whatever disgrace this present extremity burns into their souls will
							rankle there for ever, and will allow them no rest till they have made
							you pay for it many times over.”

Neither of these plans was approved and Herennius was carried home from
							the camp. In the Roman camp, after many fruitless attempts had been made
							to break out and

they found themselves at last in a state of utter destitution, necessity
							compelled them to send envoys to the Samnites to ask in the first
							instance for fair terms of peace, and failing that to challenge them to
							battle.

Pontius replied that all war was at an end, and since even now that they
							were vanquished and captured they were incapable of acknowledging their
							true position, he should deprive them of their arms and send them under
							the yoke, allowing them to retain one garment each.

The other conditions would he fair to both victors and vanquished. If
							they evacuated Samnium and withdrew their colonists from his country,
							the Roman and

the Samnite would henceforth live under their own laws as sovereign
							states united by a just and honourable treaty. On these conditions he
							was ready to conclude a treaty with the consuls, if they rejected any of
							them he forbade any further overtures to he made to him.

When the result was announced, such a universal cry of distress arose,
							such gloom and melancholy prevailed, that they evidently could not have
							taken it more heavily if it had been announced to them all that they
							must die on the spot.

Then followed a long silence. The consuls were unable to breathe a word
							either in favour of a capitulation so humiliating or against one so
							necessary.

At last L. Lentulus, of all the staff-officers the most distinguished,
							both by his personal qualities and the offices he had held, spoke:
							“I have often,” he said, “heard my father, consuls,
							say that he was the only one in the Capitol who refused to ransom the
							City from the Gauls with gold, for the force in the Capitol was not
							invested and shut in with fosse and rampart, as the Gauls were to
							indolent to undertake that sort of work; it was therefore quite possible
							for them to make a sortie involving, perhaps, heavy loss, but not
							certain destruction.

If we had the same chance of fighting, whether on favourable or
							unfavourable ground, which they had of charging down upon the foe from
							the capitol, in the same way as the besieged have often made sorties
							against their besiegers, I should not fall behind my father's spirit and
							courage in the advice which I should give.

To die for one's country is, I admit, a glorious thing, and as concerns
							myself I am ready to devote myself for the people and legions of Rome or
							to plunge into the midst of the enemy.

But it is here that I beheld my country, it is on this spot that all the
							legions which Rome possesses are gathered, and unless they wish to rush
							to death for their own sakes, to save their honour, what else have they
							that they can save by their death.

“The dwellings of the City,” somebody may reply,
							“and its walls, and that crowd of human beings who form its
							population.” Nay, on the contrary, all these things are not
							saved, they are handed over to the enemy if this army is annihilated.

For who will protect them? A defenceless multitude of non-combatants, I
							suppose; as successfully as it defended them from the approach of the
							Gauls.

Or will they implore the help of an army from Veii with Camillus at its
							head? Here and here alone are all our hopes, all our strength. If we
							save these we save our country, if we give these up to death we desert
							and betray our country.

“Yes,” you say, “but surrender is base and
							ignominious.” It is; but true affection for our country demands
							that we should preserve it, if need be, by our disgrace as much as by
							our death.

However great then the indignity, we must submit to it and yield to the
							compulsion of necessity, a compulsion which the gods themselves cannot
							evade! Go, consuls, give up your arms as a ransom for that State which
							your ancestors ransomed with gold!”

The consuls left to confer with Pontius. When the victor began to insist
							upon a treaty, they told him that a treaty could not possibly be made
							without the orders of the people nor without the fetials and the usual
							ceremonial.

So that the convention of Claudium did not, as is commonly believed and
							as even Claudius asserts, take the form of a regular treaty. It was
							concluded through a sponsio , i.e. by the
							officers giving their word of honour to observe the conditions.

For what need would there have been in the case of a treaty for any
							pledge from the officers or for any hostages, since in concluding a
							treaty the imprecation 
							is always used: “By whosoever default it may come about that the
							said conditions are not observed, may Jupiter so smite that people as
							this swine is new struck by the

fetials.” The consuls, the staff - officers, the quaestors, and
							the military tribunes all gave their word on oath, and all their names
							are extant to-day, whereas if a regular treaty had been concluded no
							names but those of the two fetials would have

survived. Owing to the inevitable delay in arranging a treaty, 6oo
							equites were demanded as hostages to answer with their lives if the
							terms of the capitulation were not

observed. Then a definite time
							was fixed for surrendering the hostages and sending the army, deprived
							of its arms, under the yoke. The return of the consuls with the terms of
							surrender henewed the grief and distress in the camp. So bitter was the
							feeling that the men had difficulty in keeping their hands off those
							“through whose rashness,” they said, “they had been
							brought into that place and through whose cowardice

they would have to leave it in a more shameful plight than they

had come. They had had no guides who knew the neighbourhood, no scouts
							had been thrown out, they had fallen blindly like wild animals into a
							trap.” There they were, looking at each other, gazing sadly at
							the armour and weapons which were soon to be given up, their right hands
							which were to be defenceless, their bodies which were to be at the mercy
							of

their enemies. They pictured to themselves the hostile yoke, the taunts
							and insulting looks of the victors, their marching disarmed between the
							armed ranks, and then afterwards the miserable progress of an army in
							disgrace through the cities of their allies, their return to their
							country and their parents, whither their ancestors had so often returned
							in

triumphal procession. They alone, they said, had been defeated without
							receiving a single wound, or using a single weapon, or fighting a single
							battle; they had not been allowed to draw the sword or come to grips
							with the enemy; courage and strength had been given them in vain.

While they were uttering these indignant protests, the hour of their
							humiliation arrived which was to make everything more bitter for them by
							actual experience than they had anticipated

or imagined. First of all they were ordered to lay down their arms and
							go outside the rampart with only one garment each. The first to be dealt
							with were those surrendered as hostages who were taken away for

safe keeping. Next, the lictors were ordered to retire from the consuls,
							who were then stripped of

their paludamenta . This aroused such deep
							commiseration amongst those who a short time ago had been cursing them
							and saying that they ought to be surrendered and scourged, that every
							man, forgetting his own plight, turned away his eyes from such an
							outrage upon the majesty of state as from a spectacle too horrible to
							behold.

The consuls were the first to be sent, little more than half-clothed,
							under the yoke, then each in the order of his rank was exposed to the
							same disgrace, and finally, the legionaries one after another.

Around them stood the enemy fully armed, reviling and jeering at them;
							swords were pointed at most of them, and when they offended their
							victors by showing their indignation and resentment too plainly some
							were wounded and even killed.

. —Thus were they marched under the yoke.
							But what was still harder to bear was that after they had emerged from
							the pass under the eyes of the foe, though, like men dragged up from the
							jaws of hell, they seemed to behold the light for the first time, the
							very light itself, serving only to reveal such a hideous sight as they
							marched along, was more gloomy than any shape of death.

They could have reached Capua before nightfall, but not knowing how their
							allies would receive them, and kept back by a feeling of shame, they all
							flung themselves, destitute of everything, on the sides of the road near
							Capua.

As soon as news of this reached the place, a proper feeling of
							compassion for their allies got the better of the inborn disdain of the
							Campanian;

they immediately sent to the consuls their own insignia of office, the
							fasces and the lictors, and the soldiers they generously supplied with
							arms, horses, clothes, and provisions.

As they entered Capua the senate and people came out in a body to meet
							them, showed them all due hospitality, and paid them all the
							consideration to which as individuals and as members of an allied state
							they were entitled.

But all the courtesies and kindly looks and cheerful greetings of their
							allies were powerless to evoke a single word or even to make them lift
							up their eyes and look in the face the friends who were trying to
							comfort them.

To such an extent did feelings of shame make their gloom and

despondency all the heavier, and constrain them to shun the converse and
							society of men.

The next day some young nobles were commissioned to escort them to the
							frontier. On their return they were summoned to the Senate-house, and in
							answer to inquiries on the part of the older senators they reported that
							they seemed to be much more gloomy and depressed than the day before;

the column moved along so silently that they might have been dumb; the
							Roman mettle was cowed; they had lost their spirit with their arms; they
							saluted no man, nor did they return any man's salutation; not a single
							man had the power to open his mouth for fear of what was coming; their
							necks were bowed as if they were still beneath the yoke.

The Samnites had won not only a glorious victory but a lasting one; they
							had not only captured Rome as the Gauls had done before them, but, what
							was a still more warlike exploit, they had captured the Roman courage
							and hardihood.

While this report was being made and listened to with the greatest
							attention, and the name and greatness of Rome were being mourned over

as though lost for ever, in the council of her faithful allies, Ofillius
							Calavius, the son of Ovus, addressed the senators. He was a man of high
							birth and with a distinguished career and now venerable for his age.

He is reported to have said: “The truth is far otherwise. That
							stubborn silence, those eyes fixed on the ground, those ears deaf to all
							consolation, that shame - faced shrinking from the light, are all
							indications of a terrible resentment fermenting in their hearts which
							will break out in vengeance.

Either I know nothing of the Roman character or that silence will soon
							call forth amongst the Samnites cries of distress and groans of anguish.

The memory of the capitulation of Caudium will be much more bitter to
							the Samnites than to the Romans. Whenever and wherever they meet each
							side will be animated by its own courage and the Samnites will not find
							the Caudine Forks everywhere.”

Rome was now aware of its disaster. The first
							information they received was that the army was blockaded, then came the
							more gloomy news of the ignominious capitulation.

Immediately on receiving the first intelligence of the blockade they
							began to levy troops, but when they heard that the army had surrendered
							in such a disgraceful way, the preparations for relieving them were
							abandoned, and without waiting for any formal order the whole City
							presented the aspect of public mourning.

The booths round the Forum were shut up; all public business in the
							Forum ceased spontaneously before the proclamation closing it was made;
							the senators laid aside their purple striped tunics and gold rings; the
							gloom amongst the citizens was almost greater than that in the army.

Their indignation was not confined to the generals or the officers who
							had made the convention, even the innocent soldiers were the objects of
							resentment, they said they would not admit them into the City.

But this angry temper was dispelled by the arrival of the troops; their
							wretched appearance awoke commiseration amongst the most resentful.

They did not enter the City like men returning in safety after being
							given up for lost, but in the guise and with the expression of
							prisoners. They came late in the evening and crept to their homes, where
							they kept themselves so close that for some days not one of them would
							show himself in public or in the Forum.

The Consuls shut themselves up in privacy and refused to discharge any
							official functions with the exception of one which was wrung from them
							by a decree of the senate,

namely, the nomination of a Dictator to conduct the elections. They
							nominated Q. Fabius Ambustus, with P. Aelius Paetus as Master of the
							Horse.

Their appointment was found to be irregular, and they were replaced by
							M. Aemilius Papus as Dictator and L. Valerius Flaccus as Master of the
							Horse. Even they, however, were not allowed to conduct the elections;
							the people were dissatisfied with all the magistrates of that year, and
							so matters reverted to an interregnum.

Q. Fabius Maximus and M. Valerius Corvus were successively interreges,
							and the latter held the consular elections. Q. Publilius Philo and L.
							Papirius Cursor —the latter for the second time —were returned. The
							choice was universally approved, for all knew there were no more
							brilliant generals at that day.

They entered upon the active duties of
							their office on the very day of their election, for so had the senate
							decreed, and after disposing of the business connected with their
							accession to office, they proceeded at once to introduce the subject of
							the capitulation of Caudium.

Publilius, who was the presiding consul, called upon Spurius Postumius
							to speak. He rose in his place with just the same expression that he had
							worn when passing under the yoke, and began:

“Consuls, I am quite aware that I have been called upon to speak
							first, not because I am foremost in honour, but because I am foremost in
							disgrace and hold the position not of a senator but of a man on his
							trial who has to meet the charge not only of an unsuccessful war but
							also of an ignominious peace.

Since, however, you have not introduced the question of our guilt or
							punishment, I shall not enter upon a defence which in the presence of
							men not unacquainted with the mutability of human fortunes would not be
							a very difficult one to undertake. I will state in a few words what I
							think about the question before us, and you will he able to judge from
							what I say whether it was myself or your legions that I spared when I
							pledged myself to the convention, however shameful or however necessary
							it was.

This convention, however, was not made by the order of the Roman people,
							and therefore the Roman people are not bound by it, nor is anything due
							to the Samnites under its terms beyond our own persons.

Let us be surrendered by the fetials, stripped and bound; let us release
							the people from their religious obligations if we have involved them in
							any, so that without infringing any law human or divine we may resume a
							war which will be justified by the law of nations and sanctioned by the
							gods.

I advise, that in the meantime the consuls enrol and equip an army and
							lead it forth to war, but that they do not cross the hostile frontier
							until all our obligations under the terms of surrender have been
							discharged.

And you, immortal gods, I pray and beseech, that as it was not your will
							that the consuls Sp. Postumius and T. Veturius

should wage a successful war against the Samnites, you may at least deem
							it enough to have witnessed us sent under the yoke and compelled to
							submit to a shameful convention, enough to witness us surrendered, naked
							and in chains, to the enemy, taking upon our heads the whole weight of
							his anger and vengeance!

May it be in accordance with your will that the legions of Rome under
							fresh consuls should wage war against the Samnites in the same way in
							which all wars were waged before we were consuls!”

When he finished speaking, such admiration and pity were felt for him
							that they could hardly think that it was the same Sp. Postumius who had
							concluded such a disgraceful peace.

They viewed with the utmost sadness the prospect of such a man suffering
							at the hands of the enemy such terrible punishment as he was sure to
							meet with, enraged as they would be at the rupture of the peace.

The whole House expressed in terms of the highest praise their approval
							of his proposal. They were beginning to vote on the question when two of
							the tribunes of the plebs, L. Livius and Q. Maelius, entered a protest
							which they afterwards withdrew.

They argued that the people as a whole would not be discharged from
							their religious obligation by this surrender unless the Samnites were
							placed in the same position of advantage which they held at Caudium.

Further, they said they did not deserve any punishment for having saved
							the Roman army by undertaking to procure peace, and they urged as a final reason that as they, the
							tribunes, were sacrosanct and their persons inviolable they could not be
							surrendered to the enemy or exposed to any violence.

To this Postumius replied: “In the meanwhile, surrender us, whom
							no inviolability protects and whose surrender will violate no man's
							conscience.

Afterwards you will surrender those “sacrosanct” gentlemen
							also as soon as their year of office expires, but if you take my advice
							you will see that before they are surrendered they are scourged in the
							Forum by way of paying interest for a punishment that will have been
							delayed.

Why, who is so ignorant of fetial law as not to see that these men are
							saying this, not because it represents the fact but to prevent their
							being surrendered?

I do not deny, senators, that where the pledged words of men are held to
							possess a binding force only second to the sanctions of religion, then
							such undertakings as we have given are as sacred as formal treaties. But
							I do say that without the express order of the people nothing can be
							ratified which can bind the people.

Suppose the Samnites, in the same spirit of insolent pride in which they
							extorted this capitulation from us, had compelled us to recite the
							formula for the surrender of cities, 
							would you say, tribunes, that the Roman people was surrendered and that
							this City with its shrines and temples, its territory, and its waters
							had become the property of the Samnites? I say no more about surrender,
							because what we are considering is the pledge we gave in the
							capitulation.

Well now, suppose we had given a pledge that the Roman people would
							abandon this City, would burn it, would no longer have its own
							magistrates and senates and laws, but would live under the rule of
							kings. “Heaven forbid!” you say.

Yes, but the binding force of a capitulation is not lightened by the
							humiliating nature of its terms. If the people can be bound by any
							article, it can by all. The point which some consider important, namely
							whether it is a consul or a Dictator or a praetor who has given the
							undertaking is of no weight whatever.

The Samnites themselves made this clear, for it was not enough for them
							that the consuls pledged themselves, they compelled the staff-officers,
							the quaestors, and the military tribunes to do the same.”

“Now no one need say to me, “Why did you pledge yourself
							in that way, seeing that a consul has no right to do so and you were not
							in a position to promise them a peace of which you could not guarantee
							the ratification, or to act on behalf of the people when they had given
							you no mandate to do so?”

Nothing that happened at Caudium, senators, was dictated by human
							prudence; the gods deprived both the enemy's commanders and your own of
							their senses. We did not exercise sufficient caution in our various
							movements, they in their folly threw away a victory when they had won
							through our folly.

They hardly felt safe on the very ground which gave them their victory,
							such a hurry were they in to agree to any conditions if only they could
							deprive of their arms men who were home to arms.

If they had been in their senses, would they have had any difficulty in
							sending envoys to Rome whilst they were fetching an old man from his
							home to advise them? Was it impossible for them to enter into
							negotiations with the senate and with the people about securing peace
							and making a treaty?

It is a three days' journey for lightly-equipped horsemen, and in the
							meantime there would have been an armistice until the envoys returned
							bringing either peace or the certainty of their victory. Then and then
							only would there have been a binding agreement, because we should have
							made it by order of the people.

But you would not have made such an order, nor should we have given such
							a pledge. It was not the will of heaven that there should be any other
							result than this, namely, that the Samnites should be vainly deluded by
							a dream too delightful for their minds

to grasp, that the same Fortune which had imprisoned our army should
							also release it, that an illusory victory should be rendered futile by a
							still more illusory peace, and that stipulations should be brought in,
							binding on none but those who actually made them.

For what share have you, senators, what share has the people in this
							business? Who can call you to account, who can say that you have
							deceived him? The enemy? You have given no pledge to the enemy. Any
							fellow-citizen? You have not empowered my fellow-citizen to give a
							pledge on your behalf.

You are not in my way involved with us, for you have given us no
							mandate; you are not answerable to the Samnites, for you have had no
							dealings with them.

It is we who are answerable, pledged as debtors and quite able to
							discharge the debt in respect of what is our own, which we are prepared
							to pay, that is, our own persons and lives. On these let them wreak
							their vengeance, for these let them sharpen their swords and their rage.

As for the tribunes,. you ought to consider whether it is possible for
							them to be surrendered at once, or whether it ought to be deferred, but
							as for us, T. Veturius and the rest of you who are concerned, let us in
							the meantime offer these worthless lives of ours in discharge of our
							bond, and by our deaths set free the arms of Rome for action.”

Both the speech and the speaker produced
							a great impression on all who heard him, including the tribunes, who
							were so far influenced by what they had heard that they formally placed
							themselves at the disposal of the senate.

They immediately resigned their office and were handed over to the
							fetials to be conducted with the rest to Caudium. After the senate had
							passed their resolution, it seemed as though the light of day was once
							more shining on the State.

The name of Postumius was in all men's mouths, he was extolled to the
							skies, his conduct was put on a level with the selfsacrifice of P.
							Decius and other splendid deeds of heroism.

It was through his counsel and assistance, men said, that the State had
							found its way out of a dishonourable and guilty peace; he was exposing
							himself to the rage of the enemy and all the tortures they could inflict
							as an expiatory victim for the Roman people.

All eyes were turned to arms and war; “shall we ever be
							allowed,” they exclaimed, “to meet the Samnites in
							arms?”

Amidst this blaze of angry
							excitement and thirst for vengeance, a levy was made and nearly all
							re-enlisted as volunteers. Nine legions were formed out of the former
							troops, and the army marched to Caudium.

The fetials went on in advance, and on arriving at the city gate they
							ordered the garment to be stripped off from those who had made the
							capitulation and their arms to be tied behind their backs.

As the apparitor, out of respect for Postumius' rank, was binding his
							cords loosely, “Why do you not,” he asked, “draw
							the cord tight that the surrender may be made in due form?” When
							they had entered the council chamber and reached the tribunal where
							Pontius was seated, the fetial addressed him thus:

“Forasmuch as these men have, without being ordered thereto by
							the Roman people, the Quirites, given their promise and oath that a
							treaty shall be concluded and have thereby been guilty of high crime and
							misdemeanour, I do herewith make surrender to you of these men, to the
							end that the Roman people may he absolved from the guilt of a heinous
							and detestable act.”

As the fetial said this Postumius struck him as hard as he could with
							his knee, and in a loud voice declared that he was a Samnite citizen,
							that he had violated the law of nations in maltreating the fetial who,
							as herald, was inviolable, and that after this the Romans would be all
							the more justified in prosecuting the war.

Pontius replied:“I shall not accept this surrender of yours nor
							will the Samnites regard it as valid.

Why do you not, Spurius Postumius, if you believe in the existence of
							gods, either cancel the whole agreement or abide by what you have
							pledged yourself to. The Samnite people have a right to all those whom
							it held in its power, or in their stead it has a right to make peace
							with Rome.

But why do I appeal to you? You are keeping your word as far as you can
							and rendering yourself as prisoner to your conqueror. I appeal to the
							Roman people. If they are dissatisfied with the convention of the
							Caudine Forks, let them place their legions once more between the passes
							which imprisoned them.

Let there be no fraudulent dealing on either side, let the whole
							transaction be annuled, let them resume the arms which they delivered up
							at the capitulation, let them return to that camp of theirs, let them
							have everything that they had on the eve of their surrender. When that
							is done, then let them take a bold line and vote for war, then let the
							convention and the peace agreed to be repudiated.

Let us carry on the war with the same fortune and on the same ground
							which we held before any mention was made of peace; the Roman people
							will not then have any occasion to blame their consuls for pledges they
							had no right to give, nor shall we have any reason to charge the Roman
							people with any breach of faith.”

“Will you never be at a loss for reasons why, after defeat, you
							should not abide by your agreements? You gave hostages to Porsena,
							afterwards you stole them away.

You ransomed your city from the Gauls with gold, whilst they were in the
							act of receiving the gold they were cut down. You made peace with us on
							condition of our restoring your captured legions, you are now making
							that peace null and void.

You always cloak your dishonest dealing under some specious pretext of
							right and justice. Does the Roman people not approve of its legion being
							saved at the cost of a humiliating peace? Then let it keep its peace to
							itself, only let it restore to the victor its captured legions.

Such action would be in accord with the dictates of honour, with the
							faith of treaties, with the solemn proceedings of the fetials. But that
							you should secure what you stipulated for, the safety of thousands of
							your countrymen, whilst I am not to secure the peace which I stipulated
							for when I released them —is this what you Aulus Cornelius and you
							fetials call acting according to the law of nations?”

“As to those men whom you make believe to surrender I neither
							accept them nor do I regard them as surrendered, nor do I hinder them
							from returning to their countrymen, who are bound by a convention, the
							violation of which brings down the wrath of all the gods whose majesty
							is being trifled with.

True, Spurius Postumius has just struck the herald fetial with his knee,
							then wage war! Of course the gods will believe that Postumius is a
							Samnite citizen not a Roman, and that it is by a Samnite citizen that a
							Roman herald has been maltreated, and that for that reason you are
							justified in making war upon us.

It is sad to think that you feel no shame in exposing this mockery of
							religion to the light of day, and that old men of consular rank should
							invent excuses for breaking their word which even children would think
							beneath them.

Go, lictor, remove the bonds from the Romans, let none of them be
							hindered from departing where they please.” Thus set free they
							returned to the Roman camp, their personal obligations and possibly
							those of the State having been discharged.

The Samnites clearly saw that instead of the peace
							which they had so arrogantly dictated, a most bitter war had commenced.
							They not only had a foreboding of all that was coming but they almost
							saw it with their eyes; now when it was too late they began to view with
							approval the two alternatives which the elder Pontius had suggested.

They saw that they had fallen between the two, and by adopting a middle
							course had exchanged the secure possession of victory for an insecure
							and doubtful peace.

They realised that they had lost the chance of doing either a kindness
							or an injury, and would have to fight with those whom they might have
							got rid of for ever as enemies or secured for ever as friends. And
							though no battle had yet given either side the advantage, men's feelings
							had so changed that Postumius enjoyed a

greater reputation amongst the Romans for his surrender than Pontius
							possessed amongst the Samnites for his bloodless victory.

The Roman regarded the possibility of war as involving the certainty of
							victory, whilst the Samnites looked upon the renewal of hostilities by
							the Roman as equivalent to their own defeat. In the meantime, Satricum
							revolted to the Samnites. The latter made a sudden descent on Fregellae
							and succeeded in occupying it in the night, assisted, there is no doubt
							by the Satricans.

Mutual fear kept both the Samnites and the Fregellans quiet till
							daylight, with the return of light the battle began. For some time the
							Fregellans held their ground, for they were fighting for their hearths
							and homes and the noncombatant population assisted them from the roofs
							of the houses.

At length the assailants gained the advantage by adopting a ruse. A
							proclamation was made that all who laid down their arms should depart
							unhurt, and the defenders did not interfere with the crier who made it
							Now that there were hopes of safety they fought with less energy and in
							all directions arms were thrown away.

Some, however, showed more determination and made their way fully armed
							through the opposite gate. Their courage proved a better protection than
							the timid credulity of the others, for these were hemmed in by the
							Samnites with a ring of fire, and in spite of their cries for mercy were
							burnt to death..

After arranging their respective commands, the consuls took the field.
							Papirius marched into Apulia as far as Luceria, where the equites who
							had been given as hostages at Caudium were interned; Publilius remained
							in Samnium to oppose the legions who had been at Caudium.

His presence made the Samnites uncertain how to act; they could not
							march to Luceria for fear of exposing themselves to a rear attack, nor
							did they feel satisfied to remain where they were, as Luceria might in
							the meantime he lost.

They decided that the best course would be to try their fortune and
							hazard a battle with Publilius.

Accordingly they drew up their forces for action. Before engaging them
							Publilius thought he ought to address a few words to his men, and
							ordered the Assembly to be sounded. There was such an eager rush,
							however, to the general's tent, and such loud shouts were raised in all
							directions as the men clamoured to be led to battle, that none of the
							general's address was heard; the memory of their recent disgrace was
							quite enough of itself to stimulate every man to fight.

They strode rapidly into battle, urging the standard-bearers to move
							faster, and, to avoid any delay in having to hurl their javelins, they
							flung them away as if at a given signal and rushed upon the enemy with
							naked steel.

There was no time for the commander's skill to be shown in manoeuvring
							his men or posting his reserves, it was all carried through by the
							enraged soldiers, who charged like madmen.

The enemy were not only routed, they did not even venture to stay their
							flight at their camp, but went in scattered parties in the direction of
							Apulia. Eventually they rallied and reached Luceria in a body.

The same rage and fury which had carried the Romans through the midst of
							the enemy hurried them on to the Samnite camp, and more carnage took
							place there than on the battle-field. Most of the plunder was destroyed
							in their excitement. The other army under Papirius had marched along the
							coast and reached Arpi.

The whole of the country through which he passed was peaceably disposed,
							an attitude which was due more to the injuries inflicted by the Samnites
							than to any services which the Romans had rendered.

For the Samnites used to live at that day in open hamlets among the
							mountains, and they were in the habit of making marauding incursions
							into the low country and the coastal districts. Living the free open-air
							life of mountaineers, themselves they despised the less hardy
							cultivators of the plains who, as often happens, had developed a
							character in harmony with their surroundings.

If this tract of country had been on good terms with the Samnites, the
							Roman army would either have failed to reach Arpi or they would have
							been unable to obtain provisions on their route, and so would have been
							cut off from supplies of every kind.

Even as it was, when they had advanced to Luceria both besieged and
							besiegers were suffering from scarcity of provisions. The Romans drew
							all their supplies from Arpi but in very small quantities, for, as the
							infantry were all employed in outpost and patrol duty and in the
							construction of the

siege-works, the cavalry brought the corn from Arpi in their haversacks,
							and sometimes when they encountered the enemy they were compelled to
							throw these away so as to be free to fight. The besieged, on the other
							hand, were obtaining their provisions and reinforcements from Samnium.

But the arrival of the other consul, Publilius, with his victorious army
							led to their being more closely invested. He left the conduct of the
							siege to his colleague that he might be free to intercept the enemy's
							convoys on all sides.

When the Samnites, who were encamped before Luceria, found that there
							was no hope of the besieged enduring their privations any longer, they
							were compelled to concentrate their whole strength and offer battle to
							Papirius.

Whilst both sides were making their preparations for battle, a deputation
							from Tarentum appeared on the scene with a peremptory demand that both
							the Samnites and the Romans should desist from hostilities. They
							threatened that whichever side stood in the way of a cessation of arms,
							they would assist the other side against them.

After hearing the demands which the deputation advanced and apparently
							attaching importance to what they had said, Papirius replied that he
							would communicate with his colleague. He then sent for him and employed
							the interval in hastening the preparations for battle. After talking
							over the matter, about which there could be no two opinions, he
							displayed the signal for battle.

Whilst the consuls were engaged in the various duties, religious and
							otherwise, which are customary before a battle, the Tarentines waited
							for them, expecting an answer, and Papirius informed them that the
							pullarius had reported that the auspices were favourable and the
							sacrifice most satisfactory.

“You see,” he added, “that we are going into action
							with the sanction of the gods.”

He then ordered the standards to be taken up, and as he marched his men
							on to the field he expressed his contempt for a people of such egregious
							vanity, that whilst quite incapable of managing their own affairs, owing
							to domestic strife and discord, they thought themselves justified in
							prescribing to others how far they must go in making peace or war.

The Samnites, on the other hand, had given up all thoughts of fighting,
							either because they were really anxious for peace or because it was
							their interest to appear so, in order to secure the goodwill of the
							Tarentines.

When they suddenly caught sight of the Romans drawn up for battle, they
							shouted that they should act according to the instructions of the
							Tarentines; they would neither go down into the field nor carry their
							arms outside their rampart, they would rather let advantage be taken of
							them and bear whatever chance might bring them than be

thought to have flouted the peaceful advice of Tarentum The consuls said
							that they welcomed the omen, and prayed that the enemy might remain in
							that mood so as not even to defend their rampart.

Advancing in two divisions up to the entrenchments, they attacked them
							simultaneously on all sides. Some began to fill up the fosse, others
							tore down the abattis on the rampart and hurled the timber into the
							fosse. It was not their native courage only, but indignation and rage as
							well which goaded them On smarting as they were from their recent
							disgrace.

As they forced their way into the camp, they reminded one another that
							there were no Forks of Caudium there, none of those insuperable defiles
							where deceit had won an insolent victory over incaution, but Roman
							valour which neither rampart nor fosse could check. They slew alike
							those who fought and those who fled, armed and unarmed, slaves and
							freemen, young and old, men and beasts.

Not a single living thing would have survived had not the

consuls given the signal to retire, and by stern commands and threats
							driven the soldiers who were thirsting for blood out of the enemy's
							camp.

As the men were highly incensed at this interruption to a vengeance
							which was so delightful, it was necessary to explain to them on the spot
							why they were prevented from carrying it further.

The consuls assured them that they neither had yielded nor would yield
							to any man in showing their hatred of the enemy, and as they had been
							their leaders in the fighting so they would have been foremost in
							encouraging their insatiable rage and vengeance.

But they had to consider the 6oo equites who were being detained as
							hostages in Luceria, and to take care that the enemy, despairing of any
							quarter for themselves, did not wreak their blind rage on their
							captives, and destroy them before they perished themselves.

The soldiers quite approved and were glad that their indiscriminate fury
							had been checked; they admitted that they must submit to anything rather
							than endanger the safety of so many youths belonging to the noblest
							families in Rome.

The soldiers were dismissed to quarters, and a council of war was held to
							decide whether they should press on the siege of Luceria with their
							whole force or whether Publilius with his army should visit the Apulians
							and ascertain their intentions, about which there was considerable
							doubt.

The latter was decided upon, and the consul succeeded in reducing a
							considerable number of their towns in one campaign, whilst others were
							admitted into alliance.

Papirius, who had remained behind to prosecute the siege of Luceria, soon
							found his expectations realised, for as all the roads by which supplies
							could be brought in were blocked, the Samnite garrison in Luceria was so
							reduced by famine that they sent to the Roman consul an offer to restore
							the hostages, for whose recovery the war had been undertaken, if he
							would raise the siege.

He replied that they ought to have consulted Pontius, at whose
							instigation they had sent the Romans under the yoke, as to what terms he
							thought ought to he imposed on the vanquished.

As, however, they preferred that equal terms should be fixed by the
							enemy rather than proposed by themselves, he told the negotiators to
							take back word to Luceria that all the arms, baggage, and beasts of
							burden together with the non-combatant population were to be left
							behind; the soldiers he should send under the yoke and leave them one
							garment apiece.

In doing this, he said, he was subjecting them to no novel disgrace but
							simply retaliating upon them one which they had themselves inflicted.

They were compelled to accept these terms and 7000 men were sent under
							the yoke. An enormous amount of booty was found in Luceria, all the arms
							and standards which had been taken at Caudium, and what created the
							greatest joy of all —they recovered the equites, the hostages whom the
							Samnites had placed there for security.

Hardly any victory that Rome ever won was more noteworthy for the sudden
							change that it wrought in the circumstances of the republic, especially
							if, as I find stated in some annals, Pontius, the son of Herennius, the
							Samnite captain-general, was sent under the yoke with the rest, to
							expiate the disgrace he had inflicted on the consul.

I am not, however, so much surprised that uncertainty should exist with
							regard to this point as I am that any doubt should be felt as to who
							really captured Luceria;

whether, that is to say, it was Lucius Cornelius, acting as Dictator,
							with L. Papirius Cursor as Master of the Horse, who achieved those
							successes at Caudium and afterwards at Luceria, and as the one man who
							avenged the stain on Roman honour celebrated what I am inclined to think
							was, with the exception of that of F. Camillus, the most justly earned
							triumph that any down to that day had enjoyed, or whether the glory of
							that distinction should be attributed to the consuls and especially to
							Papirius.

There is a further mistake here owing to doubts as to whether at the
							next consular elections Papirius Cursor was re-elected for the third
							time in consequence of his success at Luceria, together with Q. Aulius
							Corretanus for the second time, or whether the name should really be L.
							Papirius Mugilanus.

The authorities are agreed that the
							remainder of the war was conducted by the consuls. Aulius finished the
							campaign against the Frentanians in one battle. Their routed army fled
							to their city, and after giving hostages the consul received their
							surrender.

The other consul was equally fortunate in his campaign against the
							Satricans. Though admitted to Roman citizenship they had revolted to the
							Samnites after the Caudine disaster and allowed them to garrison their
							city.

But when the Roman army was close to their walls they sent an urgent
							request, couched in very humble terms, for peace. The consul replied
							that unless they handed over the Samnite garrison or put them to death
							they were not to go to him again. The severity of this reply created
							more terror amongst them than the actual presence of the Roman army.

They repeatedly asked him by what means he thought that such a small and
							weak body as they were could attempt to use force against a strong and
							well-armed garrison. He told them to seek counsel from those through
							whose advice they had admitted the garrison in the first instance. After
							having with some difficulty obtained his permission to consult their
							senate, they returned to the city.

There were two parties in the senate: the leaders of the one were the
							authors of the revolt from Rome, the other consisted of loyal citizens.

Both, however, were equally anxious that every effort should be made to
							induce the consul to grant peace. As the Samnite garrison were not in
							the least prepared to stand a siege, they intended to evacuate the city
							the following night.

The party who had introduced them thought it would be quite sufficient
							to let the consul know at what hour and by what gate they would leave;
							the others who had been all along opposed to their coming actually
							opened the gate to the consul that very night and admitted his troops
							into the city.

The Samnites were unexpectedly attacked by a force concealed in the
							woods through which they were marching whilst the shouts of the Roman
							were resounding in all parts of the city; by this double act of
							treachery the Samnites were slain and Satricum captured within the space
							of one short hour and the consul became complete master of the
							situation.

He ordered a strict inquiry to be made as to who were responsible for
							the revolt, and those who were found to be guilty were scourged and
							beheaded.

The Satricans were deprived of their arms and a strong garrison was
							placed in the city. The writers who tell us that it was under Papirius
							that Luceria was recovered and the Samnites sent under the yoke,

go on to inform us that after the capture of Satricum he returned to
							Rome to celebrate his triumph.

And indeed he was, undoubtedly, a man deserving of all praise for his
							soldierly qualities, distinguished as he was not only by intellectual
							force but also by his physical prowess.

He was especially noted for his swiftness of foot, which gave him his
								cognomen ; he is stated to have
							beaten all those of his own age in racing. Owing either to his great
							strength or the amount of exercise he took he had an enormous appetite.

Under no commander did either horse or foot find service harder, for he
							himself never knew what it was to be tired. On one occasion the cavalry
							ventured to ask him to excuse them some of their fatigue duty in
							consideration of their having fought a successful action.

He replied: “That you may not say I never excuse you anything, I
							excuse you from rubbing your horses' backs when you dismount.”

He was as much of a martinet to the allies of Rome as he was to his own
							countrymen.

The commander of the Praenestine detachment had shown a lack of courage
							in bringing his men up from the rear into the fighting line . Papirius,
							walking in front of his tent, ordered him to be called up, and on his
							appearance told the lictor to get the axe ready. The Praenestine, on
							hearing this, stood paralysed with fear.

“Come, lictor,” said Papirius, “cut out this root;
							it is in the way of people as they walk.” After almost
							frightening him to death with this threat, he dismissed him with a fine.

No age has been more prolific in great and noble characters than the one
							in which he lived, and even in that age there was no one whose single
							arm did more to sustain the commonwealth. Had Alexander the Great, after
							subjugating Asia, turned his attention to Europe, there are many who
							maintain that he would have met his match in Papirius.

Nothing can he thought to be further from my aim
							since I commenced this task than to digress more than is necessary from
							the order of the narrative or by embellishing my work with a variety of
							topics to afford pleasant resting-places, as it were, for my readers and
							mental relaxation for myself.

The mention, however, of so great a king and commander induces me to lay
							before my readers some reflections which I have often made when I have
							proposed to myself the question, “What would have been the
							results for Rome if she had been engaged in war with Alexander?”

The things which tell most in war are the numbers and courage of the
							troops, the ability of the commanders, and Fortune, who has such a
							potent influence over human affairs, especially those of war.

Any one who considers these factors either separately or in combination
							will easily see that as the Roman empire proved invincible against other
							kings and nations, so it would have proved invincible against Alexander.

Let us, first of all, compare the commanders on each side. I do not
							dispute that Alexander was an exceptional general, but his reputation is
							enhanced by the fact that he died while still young and before he had
							time to experience any change of fortune.

Not to mention other kings and illustrious captains, who afford striking
							examples of the mutability of human affairs, I will only instance Cyrus,
							whom the Greeks celebrate as one of the greatest of men. What was it
							that exposed him to reverses and misfortunes but the length of his life,
							as recently in the case of Pompey the Great?

Let me enumerate the Roman generals —not all out of all ages but only
							those with whom as consuls and Dictators Alexander would have had to
							fight —

M. Valerius Corvus, C. Marcius Rutilus, C. Sulpicius, T. Manlius
							Torquatus, Q. Publilius Philo, L. Papirius Cursor, Q. Fabius Maximus,
							the two Decii, L. Volumnius, and Manlius Curius. Following these come
							those men of colossal mould who would have confronted him if he had
							first turned his arms against Carthage and then crossed over into Italy
							later in life.

Every one of these men was Alexander's equal in courage and ability, and
							the

art of war, which from the beginning of the City had been an unbroken
							tradition, had now grown into a science based on definite and permanent
							rules. It was thus that the kings conducted their wars, and alter them
							the Junii and the Valerii, who expelled the kings, and in later
							succession the Fabii, the Quinctii, and the Cornelii.

It was these rules that Camillus followed, and the men who would have
							had to fight with Alexander had seen Camillus as an old man when they
							were little more than boys. Alexander no doubt did all that a soldier
							ought to do in battle, and that is not his least title to fame.

But if Manlius Torquatus had been opposed to him in the field, would he
							have been inferior to him in this respect, or Valerius Corvus, both of
							them distinguished as soldiers before they assumed command?

Would the Decii, who, after devoting themselves, rushed upon the enemy,
							or Papirius Cursor with his vast physical courage and strength?

Would the clever generalship of one young man have succeeded in baffling
							the whole senate, not to mention individuals, that senate of which he,
							who declared that it was composed of kings, alone formed a true idea?

Was there any danger of his showing more skill than any of those whom I
							have mentioned in choosing the site for his camp, or organising his
							commissariat, or guarding against surprises, or choosing the right
							moment for giving battle, or disposing his men in line of battle and
							posting his reserves to the best advantage?

He would have said that it was not with Darius that he had to do,
							dragging after him a train of women and eunuchs, wrapped up in purple
							and gold, encumbered with all the trappings of state, He found him an
							easy prey rather than a formidable enemy and defeated him without loss,
							without being called to do anything more daring than to show a just
							contempt for the idle show of power.

The aspect of Italy would have struck him as very different from the
							India which he traversed in drunken revelry with an intoxicated army; he
							would have seen in the passes of Apulia and the mountains of Lucania the
							traces of the recent disaster which befell his house when his uncle
							Alexander, King of Epirus, perished.

I am speaking of Alexander as he was before he was submerged in the flood
							of success, for no man was less capable of bearing prosperity than he
							was.

If we look at him as transformed by his new fortunes and presenting the
							new character, so to

speak, which he had assumed after his victories, it is evident he would
							have come into Italy more like Darius than Alexander, and would have
							brought with him an army which had forgotten its native Macedonia and
							was rapidly becoming Persian in character.

It is a disagreeable task in the case of so great a man to have to
							record his ostentatious love of dress; the prostrations which he
							demanded from all who approached his presence, and which the Macedonians
							must have felt to be humiliating, even had they been vanquished, how
							much more when they were victors;

the terribly cruel punishments he in- flicted; the murder of his friends
							at the banquet-table; the vanity which made him invent a divine pedigree
							for himself.

What, pray, would have happened if his love of wine had become stronger
							and his passionate nature more violent and fiery as he grew older? I am
							only stating facts about which there is no dispute. Are we to regard
							none of these things as serious draw- backs to his merits as a
							commander?

Or was there any danger of that happening which the most frivolous of
							the Greeks, who actually extol the Parthians at the expense of the
							Romans, are so constantly harping upon, namely, that the Roman people
							must have bowed before the greatness of Alexander's name — though I do
							not think they had even beard of him —and

that not one out of all the Roman chiefs would have uttered his true
							sentiments about him, though men dared to attack him in Athens, the very
							city which had been shattered by Macedonian arms and almost well in
							sight of the smoking ruins of `Thebes, and the speeches of his
							assailants are still extant to prove this? However lofty our ideas of
							this man's greatness, still it is the greatness of one individual,
							attained in a successful career of little more than ten years.

Those who extol it on the ground that though Rome has never lost a war
							she has lost many battle, whilst Alexander has never fought a battle
							unsuccess- fully, are not aware that they are comparing the actions of
							one individual, and he a youth, with the achievements of a people who
							have had 8oo years of war.

Where more generations are reckoned on one side than years on the other,
							can we be sur- prised that in such a long space of time there

have been more changes of fortune than in a period of thirteen years?
							Why do you not compare the fortunes of one man with another, of one
							commander with another?

How many Roman generals could I name who have never been unfortunate in
							a single battle! You may run through page after page of the lists of
							magistrates, both consuls and Dictators, and not find one with whose
							valour and fortunes the Roman people have ever for a single day had
							cause to be dissatisfied.

And these men are more worthy of admiration than Alexander or any other
							king.

Some retained the Dictatorship for only ten or twenty days; none held a
							con- sulship for more than a year; the levying of troops was often
							obstructed by the tribunes of the plebs; they were late, in consequence,
							in taking the field, and were often recalled before the time to conduct
							the elections;

frequently, when they were commencing some important operation, their
							year of office expired; their colleagues frustrated or ruined their
							plans, some through recklessness, some through jealousy; they often had
							to succeed to the mistakes or failures of others and take over an army
							of raw recruits or one in a bad state of discipline.

Kings are free from all hindrances; they are lords of time and
							circumstance, and draw all things into the sweep of their own designs.

Thus, the invincible Alexander would have crossed swords with invincible
							captains, and would have given the same pledges to Fortune which they
							gave.

Nay, he would have run greater risks than they, for the Macedonians had
							only one Alexander, who was not only liable to all sorts of accidents
							but deliberately exposed himself to them, whilst there were

many Romans equal to Alexander in glory and in the grandeur of their
							deeds, and yet each of them might fulfil his destiny by his life or by
							his death without imperilling the existence of the State.

It remains for us to compare the one army with the other as regards
							either the numbers or the quality of the troops or the strength of the
							allied forces.

Now the census for that period gives 250,000 persons. In all the revolts
							of the Latin league ten legions were raised, consisting almost entirely
							of city troops.

Often during those years four or five armies were engaged simultaneously
							in Etruria, in Umbria (where they had to meet the Gauls as well), in
							Samnium, and in Lucania.

Then as regards the attitude of the various Italian tribes —the whole of
							Latium with the Sabines, Volscians, and Aequi, the whole of Campania,
							parts of Umbria and Etruria, the Picentines, the Marsi, and Paeligni,
							the Vestinians and Apulians, to which we should add the entire coast of
							the western sea, with its Greek population, stretching from Thurii to
							Neapolis and Cumae, and from there as far as Antium and Ostia —all these
							nationalities he would have found to be either strong allies of Rome or
							reduced to impotence by Roman arms.

He would have crossed the sea with his Macedonian veterans, amounting to
							not more than 30,000 men and 4000 cavalry, mostly Thracian. This formed
							all his real strength. If he had brought over in addition Persian and
							Indians and other Orientals, he would have found them a hindrance rather
							than a help.

We must remember also that the Romans had a reserve to draw upon at
							home, but Alexander, warring on a foreign soil, would have found his
							army diminished by the wastage of war, as happened afterwards to
							Hannibal.

His men were armed with round shields and long spears, the Romans had
							the large shield called the scutum, a better protection for the body,
							and the javelin, a much more effective weapon than the spear whether for
							hurling or thrusting.

In both armies the soldiers fought in line rank by rank, but the
							Macedonian phalanx lacked mobility and formed a single unit; the Roman
							army was more elastic, made up of numerous divisions, which could easily
							act separately or in combination as required.

Then with regard to fatigue duty, what soldier is better able to stand
							hard work than the Roman? If Alexander had been worsted in one battle
							the war would have been over; what army could have broken the strength
							of Rome, when Caudium and Cannae failed to do so?

Even if things had gone well with him at first, he would often have been
							tempted to wish that Persians and Indians and effeminate Asiatics were
							his foes, and would have confessed that

his former wars had been waged against women, as Alexander of Epirus is
							reported to have said when after receiving his moral wound was comparing
							his own fortune with that of this very youth in his Asiatic campaigns.

When I remember that in the first Punic war we fought at sea for
							twenty-four years, I think that Alexander would hardly have lived long
							enough to see one war through.

It is quite possible, too, that as Rome and Carthage were at that time
							leagued together by an old-standing treaty, the same apprehensions might
							have led those two powerful states to take up arms against the common
							foe, and Alexander would have been crushed by their combined forces.

Rome has had experience of a Macedonian war, not indeed when Alexander
							was commanding nor when the resources of Macedon were still unimpaired,
							but the contests against Antiochus, Philip, and Perses were fought not
							only without loss but even without risk. I trust that I shall not give
							offence when I say that, leaving out of sight the civil wars, we have
							never found an enemy's cavalry or infantry too much

for us, when we have fought in the open field, on ground equally
							favourable for both sides, still less when the ground has given us an
							advantage.

The infantry soldier, with his heavy armour and weapons, may reasonable
							fear the arrows of Parthian cavalry, or passes invested by the enemy, or
							country where supplies cannot be brought up,

but he has repulsed a thousand armies more formidable than those of
							Alexander and his Macedonians, and will repulse them in the future if
							only the domestic peace and concord which we now enjoy remains
							undisturbed for all the years to come.

M. Foslius Flaccina and L. Plautius Venox were the next consuls. In this
							year several communities amongst the Samnites made overtures for a fresh
							treaty. These deputations, when admitted to an audience, prostrated
							themselves on the ground, and their humble attitude influenced the
							senate in their favour.

Their prayers, however, were by no means so efficacious with the
							Assembly, to which they had been referred by the senate.

Their request for a treaty was refused, but after they had spent several
							days in appealing to individual citizens, they succeeded in obtaining a
							two years' truce.

In Apulia, too, the people of Teanum and Canusium, tired of the constant
							ravages which they had suffered, gave hostages and surrendered to the
							consul, L. Plautius.

It was in this year also that prefects were first appointed for Capua and
							a code of laws given to that city by the praetor, L. Furius.

Both these boons were granted in response to a request from the
							Campanians themselves as a remedy for the deplorable state of things
							brought about by civic discord.

Two new tribes were formed, the Ufentine and the Falernian. As the power
							of Apulia was declining, the people of Teate came to the new consuls,
							C. Junius Bubulcus and Q. Aemilius Barbula, to negotiate for a treaty.

They gave a formal undertaking that throughout Apulia peace would be
							maintained towards Rome, and the confident assurances they gave led to a
							treaty being granted, not, however, as between two independent states;
							they were to acknowledge the suzerainty of Rome.

After the subjugation of Apulia —for Forentum, also a place of
							considerable strength, had been captured by Junius —an advance was made
							into Lucania, and the consul, Aemilius, surprised and captured the city
							of Nerulum.

The order introduced into Capua by the adoption of Roman institutions had
							become generally known amongst the states in alliance with Rome, and the
							Antiates asked for the same privilege, as they were without a fixed code
							of laws or any regular magistrates of their own. The patrons of the
								colony were commissioned by
							the senate to draw out a system of jurisprudence. Not only the arms of
							Rome but her laws were spreading far and wide.

At the termination of their year of office the consuls did not hand the
							legions over to their successors, Sp. Nautius and M. Popilius, but to
							the Dictator, L. Aemilius.

In conjunction with M. Fulvius, the Master of the Horse, he commenced an
							attack on Saticula, and the Samnites at once seized this opportunity to
							renew hostilities.

The Romans were threatened by a double danger; the Samnites, after
							getting a large army together, had entrenched themselves not far from
							the Roman camp in order to relieve their blockaded allies, whilst the
							Saticulans suddenly flung their gates open and made a tumultuous attack
							on the Roman outposts.

The two bodies of combatants, each relying more on the help of the other
							than on its own strength, united in a regular attack on the Roman camp.
							Though both sides of the camp were attacked, the Dictator kept his men
							free from panic, owing to his having selected a position which could not
							easily be turned, and also because his men presented two fronts.

He directed his efforts mainly against those who had made the sortie,
							and drove them back, without much trouble, behind their walls. Then he
							turned his whole strength against the Samnites.

Here the fighting was more sustained and the victory was longer in
							coming, but when it did come it was decisive. The Samnites were driven
							in disorder to their camp, and after extinguishing all the camp fires
							they departed silently in the night, having abandoned all hope of saving
							Saticula. By way of retaliation they invested Plistica, a city in
							alliance with Rome.

The year having expired, the war was thenceforward carried on by the
							Dictator, Q. Fabius, whilst the new consuls, like their predecessors,
							remained in Rome. Fabius marched with reinforcements to Saticula to take
							over the army from Aemilius.

The Samnites did not remain before Plistica; they had called up fresh
							troops from home, and trusting to their numbers they fixed their camp on
							the same ground as in the previous year and endeavoured to distract the
							Romans from their siege operations by a series of harassing attacks.

This made the Dictator all the more determined to press the siege, as he
							Considered that the reduction of the place would largely affect the
							character of the war; he treated the Samnites with comparative
							indifference, and merely strengthened the pickets on that side of the
							camp to meet any attack that might be made.

This emboldened the Samnites; they rode up to the rampart day after day
							and allowed the Romans no rest. At last they almost got within the gates
							of the camp, when Q. Aulius, the Master of the Horse, without consulting
							the Dictator, charged them furiously from the camp with the whole of his
							cavalry and drove them off.

Though this was only a desultory conflict, Fortune influenced it so
							largely that she inflicted a signal loss on both sides and brought about
							the deaths of both Commanders.

First, the Samnite general, indignant at being repulsed and put to
							flight from the ground over which he had ridden with such confidence,
							induced his cavalry by entreaties and encouragement to renew the combat.

Whilst he was conspicuous amongst them as he urged on the fighting, the
							Master of the Horse levelled his lance and spurred his horse against him
							with such force that with one thrust he hurled him from his saddle dead.

His men were not, as often happens, dismayed at their leader's fall. All
							who were round him flung their missiles on Aulius, who had incautiously
							ridden on amongst them, but they allowed the dead general's brother to
							have the special glory of avenging his death.

In a frenzy of grief and rage he dragged the Master of the Morse out of
							his saddle and slew him.

The Samnites, amongst whom he had fallen, would have secured the body
							had not the Romans suddenly leaped from their horses, on which the
							Samnites were obliged to do the same. A fierce infantry fight raged
							round the bodies of the two generals in which the Roman was decidedly
							superior; the body of Aulius was rescued, and amidst mingled
							demonstrations of grief and joy the victors carried it into camp.

After losing their leader and seeing the unfavourable result of the
							trial of strength in the cavalry action, the Samnites considered it
							useless to make any further efforts on behalf of Saticula and resumed
							the siege of Plistica. A few days later Saticula surrendered to the
							Romans and Plistica was carried by assault by the Samnites

The seat of war was now changed; the legions were
							marched from Samnium and Apulia to Sora.

This place had revolted to the Samnites alter putting the Roman
							colonists to death. The Roman army marched thither with all speed to
							avenge the death of their countrymen and to re-establish the colony.

No sooner had they arrived before the place than the reconnoitring
							parties who had been watching the different routes brought in reports
							one after another that the Samnites were following and were now at no
							great distance.

The consul marched to meet the enemy, and an indecisive action was
							fought at Lantulae.

The battle was put a stop to, not by the losses or flight of either side
							but by night, which overtook the combatants while still uncertain
							whether they were victors or vanquished.

I find in some authorities that this battle was unfavourable to the
							Romans, and that Q. Aulius, the Master of the Horse, fell there. C.
							Fabius was appointed Master of the Horse in his place and came with a
							fresh army from Rome. He sent orderlies in advance to consult the
							Dictator as to where he should take up his position and also as to the
							time and mode of attacking the enemy.

After becoming thoroughly acquainted with the Dictator's plans, he
							halted his army in a place where he was well concealed.

The Dictator kept his men for some days confined to their camp, as though
							he were enduring a siege rather than conducting one. At last he suddenly
							displayed the signal for battle. Thinking that brave men were more
							likely to have their courage stimulated when all their hopes depended
							upon themselves, he kept the arrival of the Master

of the Horse and the fresh army concealed from his soldiers, and as
							though all their prospects of safety depended upon their cutting their
							way out, he said to his men:

“We have been caught in a position where we are shut in, and we
							have no way out unless we can open one by our victorious swords. Our
							standing camp is sufficiently protected by its entrenchments, but it is
							untenable owing to want of provisions; all the places from which
							supplies could be obtained have revolted, and even if the people were
							willing to help us the country is impassable for convoys.

I shall not cheat your courage by leaving a camp here into which you can
							retire, as you did on the last occasion, without winning the victory.

Entrenchments are to be protected by arms, not arms by entrenchments.
							Let those who think it worth their while to prolong the war hold their
							camp as a place of retreat; we must have regard to nothing but victory.

Advance the standards against the enemy, and when the column is clear of
							the camp those who have been told off for the purpose will set it on
							fire.

What you lose, soldiers, will he made up to you in the plunder of all
							the surrounding cities which have revolted.” The Dictator's
							words, pointing to the dire necessity to which they were reduced,
							produced intense excitement, and rendered desperate by the sight of the
							burning camp- the Dictator had only ordered some spots nearest to them
							to be set on fire —they charged like madmen, and at the first onset
							threw the enemy into confusion.

At the same moment the Master of the Horse seeing the burning camp in
							the distance —the agreed signal —attacked the enemy in the rear. Thus
							hemmed in, the Samnites fled in all directions, each as best he could.

A vast number, who had crowded together in their panic and were so close
							to one another that they could not use their weapons, were killed
							between the two armies.

The enemy's camp was captured and plundered, and the soldiers, loaded
							with spoil, were marched back to their own camp. Even their victory did
							not give them so much pleasure as the discovery that with the exception
							of a small part spoilt by fire their camp was unexpectedly safe.

They then returned to Sora, and the new consuls, M. Poetilius and C.
							Sulpicius, took over the army from the Dictator Fabius, after a large
							proportion of the veterans had been sent home and new cohorts brought up
							as reinforcements.

Owing, however, to the difficulties presented by the position of the
							city, no definite plan of attack was yet formed; a long time would be
							needed to reduce it by famine, and to attempt to storm it would involve
							considerable

risk. In the midst of this uncertainty a Soran deserter left the town
							secretly and made his way to the Roman sentinels, whom he requested to
							conduct him at once to the consuls.

On being brought before them he undertook to betray the place into their
							hands. When questioned as to the means by which he would carry out his
							undertaking, he laid his proposals before them and they appeared quite
							feasible.

He advised them to remove their camp, which was almost adjoining the
							walls, to a distance of six miles from the town, this would lead to less
							vigilance on the part of those who were on outpost duty during the day
							and sentry duty at night. The following night, after some cohorts had
							been ordered to conceal themselves in some wooded spots close under the
							town, he conducted a picked body of ten men by a steep and almost
							inaccessible path into the citadel.

Here a quantity of missile weapons had been collected, far more than
							would be required for the men who had been brought there, and m addition
							there were large stones, some lying about as is usual in craggy places,
							others piled in heaps by the townsmen to use for the defence of the
							place.

When he had posted the Romans here and had pointed out to them a steep
							and narrow path leading up from the town, he said to them: “From
							this ascent even three armed men could keep back a multitude however
							large.

You are ten in number, and what is more you are Romans, and the bravest
							of them. You have the advantage of position and you will be helped by
							the night, which by its obscurity makes everything look more terrible. I
							will now spread panic everywhere; you devote yourselves to holding the
							citadel.”

Then he ran down and created as great a tumult as he possibly could,
							shouting: “To arms, citizens! Help, help! The citadel has been
							seized by the enemy, hasten to its defence!”

He kept up the alarm as he knocked at the doors of the principal men, he
							shouted it in the ears of all whom he met, of all who rushed out
							terror-struck into the streets. The panic which one man had started was
							carried by numbers through the city.

The magistrates hurriedly sent men up to the citadel to find out what
							had happened, and when they heard that it was held by an armed force,
							whose numbers were grossly exaggerated, they gave up all hopes of
							recovering it.

All quarters of the city were filled with fugitives; the gates were
							burst open by people who were only half awake and mostly without arms,
							and through one of these the Roman cohorts, roused by the shouting,
							rushed in and slew the frightened crowds who were thronging the streets.

Sora was already captured when in the early dawn the consul appeared and
							accepted the surrender of those whom Fortune had spared from the
							nocturnal massacre.

Amongst these two hundred and twenty-five were sent in chains to Rome as
							they were universally admitted to have been the instigators of the
							murder of the colonists and the revolt which followed. The rest of the
							population were left uninjured and a garrison was stationed in the town.

All those taken to Rome were scourged and beheaded to the great
							satisfaction of the plebs, who felt it to be a matter of supreme
							importance that those who had been sent out in such large numbers as
							colonists should be safe wherever they were.

After 
							leaving Sora the consuls extended the war to the cities and fields of
							Ausonia, for the whole country had become restless owing to the presence
							of the Samnites after the battle of Lautulae.

Plots were being hatched everywhere throughout Campania, even Capua was
							not free from disaffection, and it was found upon investigation that the
							movement had actually reached some of the principal men in Rome.

It was, however, as in the case of Sora, through the betrayal of her
							cities that Ausonia fell under the power of Rome.

There were three cities —Ausona, Menturnae, and Vescia — which some
							twelve young men belonging to the principal families there had mutually
							agreed to betray to the Romans.

They came to the consuls and informed them that their people had long
							been looking forward to the arrival of the Samnites, and after they had
							heard of the battle of Lautulae, they looked upon the Romans as
							vanquished and many of the younger men had volunteered to serve with the
							Samnites After the Samnites,

however, had been driven out of their country they were wavering between
							peace and war, afraid to close their gates to the Romans lest they
							should provoke a war and yet determined to close them if a Roman army
							approached their city. In this state of indecision they would fall an
							easy prey.

Acting on their advice, the Romans moved their camp into the
							neighbourhood of these cities, and at the same time soldiers were
							despatched, some fully armed, to occupy concealed positions near the
							walls, others in ordinary dress, with swords hidden under their togas,
							were to enter the cities through the open gates at the approach of
							daylight.

As soon as the latter began to attack the guards the signal was given
							for the others to rush from their ambush. Thus the gates were secured,
							and the three towns were captured at the same time and by the same
							stratagem.

As the generals were not there to direct the attack, there was no check
							upon the carnage which ensued, and the nation of the Ausonians was
							exterminated, just as if they had been engaged in an internecine war,
							though there was no certain proof of their having revolted.

During this year the Roman garrison at Luceria was treacherously
							betrayed, and the Samnites became masters of the place.

The traitors did not go long unpunished. A Roman army was not far away,
							and the city, which lay in a plain, was taken at the first assault.

The Lucerines and Samnites were put to death, no quarter being given,
							and such deep indignation was felt at Rome that when the question of
							sending fresh colonists to Luceria was under discussion in the senate
							many voted for the complete destruction of the city.

Not only the bitter feeling towards a people who had been twice subdued
							but also the distance from Rome made them shrink from banishing their
							countrymen so far from home.

However, the proposal to despatch colonists was adopted; 2500 were sent.
								Whilst disloyalty was thus manifesting
							itself everywhere, Capua also became the centre of intrigues amongst
							some of her principal men.

When the matter came up in the senate, there was a general feeling that
							it ought to he dealt with at once.

A decree was passed authorising the immediate opening of a court of
							inquiry, and C. Maenius was nominated Dictator to conduct the
							proceedings. M. Foslius was appointed Master of the Horse. The greatest
							alarm was created by this step, and the Calavii, Ovius, Novius, who had
							been the ringleaders, did not wait to be denounced to the Dictator, but
							placed themselves beyond the reach of prosecution by what was
							undoubtedly a self-inflicted death.

As there was no longer any matter for investigation at Capua, the
							inquiry was directed to those who were suspected in Rome.

The decree was interpreted as authorising an inquiry, not in regard to
							Capua especially, but generally in respect of all who had formed cabals
							and conspiracies against the republic, including the secret leagues
							entered into by candidates for office. The inquiry began to embrace a
							wider scope both with respect to the nature of the alleged offences and
							the persons affected, and the Dictator insisted that

the authority vested in him as criminal judge was unlimited.

Men of high family were indicted, and no one was allowed to appeal to
							the tribunes to arrest proceedings. When matters had gone thus far, the
							nobility — not only those against whom information was being laid, but
							the order as a whole —protested

that the charge did not lie on the patricians, to whom the path to
							honours always lay open, unless it was obstructed by intrigue, but on
							the novi homines .

They even asserted that the Dictator and the Master of the Horse were
							more fit to be put upon their trial than to act as inquisitors in cases
							where this charge was brought, and they would find that out as soon as
							they had vacated their office.

Under these circumstances, Maenius, more anxious to clear his reputation
							than to retain his office, came forward in the Assembly and addressed it
							in the following terms: “You are all cognisant, Quirites, of what
							my life has been in the past, and this very office which has been
							conferred upon me is a testimony to my innocence.

There are men amongst the nobility —as to their motives it is better
							that you should form your own opinion than that I, holding the office I
							do, should say anything without proof —who tried their utmost to stifle
							this inquiry.

When they found themselves powerless to do this they sought to shelter
							themselves, patricians though they were, behind the stronghold of their
							opponents, the tribunician veto, so as to escape from trial.

At last, driven from that position, and thinking my course safer than
							that of trying to prove their innocence, they have directed their
							assaults against us, and private citizens have not been ashamed to
							demand the impeachment of the Dictator.

Now, that gods and men alike may know that in trying to avoid giving an
							account of themselves these men are attempting the impossible, and that
							I am prepared to answer any charge and meet my accusers face to face, I
							at once resign my Dictatorship.

And if the senate should assign the task to you, consuls, I beg that you
							will begin with M. Foslius and myself, so that it may be conclusively
							shown that we are protected from such charges, not by our official
							position, but by our innocence.” He then at once laid down his
							office, followed by the Master of the Horse.

They were the first to be tried before the consuls, for so the senate
							ordered, and as the evidence given by the nobles against them completely
							broke down, they were triumphantly acquitted.

Even Publilius Philo, a man who had repeatedly filled the highest
							offices as a reward for his services at home and in the field, but who
							was disliked by the nobility, was put on his trial and acquitted.

As usual, however, it was only whilst this inquisition was a novelty
							that it had strength enough to attack illustrious names; it soon began
							to stoop to humbler victims, until it was at length stifled by the very
							cabals and factions which it had been instituted to suppress.

The rumour of these proceedings,
							and, still more, the expectation of a Campanian revolt, which had
							already been secretly organised, recalled the Samnites from their
							designs in Apulia.

They marched to Caudium, which from its proximity to Capua would make it
							easy for them, if the opportunity offered, to wrest that city from the
							Romans.

The consuls marched to Caudium with a strong force. For some time both
							armies remained in their positions on either side of the pass, as they
							could only reach each other by a most difficult route.

At length the Samnites descended by a short detour through open country
							into the flat district of Campania, and there for the first time they
							came within sight of each other's camp.

There were frequent skirmishes, in which the cavalry played a greater
							part than the infantry, and the Romans had no cause to be dissatisfied
							with these trials of strength, nor with the delay which was prolonging
							the war.

The Samnite generals, on the other hand, saw that these daily encounters
							involved daily losses, and that the prolongation of the war was sapping
							their strength.

They decided, therefore, to bring on an action. They posted their
							cavalry on the two flanks of their army with instructions to keep their
							attention on their camp, in case it were attacked, rather than on the
							battle, which would be safe in the hands of the infantry.

On the other side, the consul Sulpicius directed the right wing,
							Poetilius the left. The Roman right was drawn up in more open order than
							usual, as the Samnites opposed to them were standing in thinly extended
							ranks in order either to surround the enemy or to prevent themselves
							from being surrounded.

The left, which was in a much closer formation, was further strengthened
							by a rapid manoeuvre of Poetilius, who suddenly brought up into the
							fighting line the cohorts which were usually kept in reserve, in case
							the battle was prolonged. He then charged the enemy with his full
							strength.

As the Samnite infantry were shaken by the weight of the attack their
							cavalry came to their support, and riding obliquely between the two
							armies were met by the Roman cavalry who charged them at a hard gallop
							and threw infantry and cavalry alike into confusion, until they had
							forced back the whole line in this part of the field.

Sulpicius was taking his part with Poetilius in encouraging the men in
							this division, for on hearing the battleshout raised he had ridden
							across from his own division, which was not yet engaged.

Seeing that the victory was no longer doubtful here he rode back to his
							post with his 1200 cavalry, but he found a
							very different condition of things there, the Romans had been driven
							from their ground and the victorious enemy were pressing them hard.

The presence of the consul produced a sudden and complete change, the
							courage of the men revived at the sight of their general, and the
							cavalry whom he had brought up rendered an assistance out of all
							proportion to their numbers, whilst the sound, followed soon by the
							sight of the success on the other wing, re-animated the combatants to
							redouble their exertions.

From this moment the Romans were victorious along the whole line, and
							the Samnites abandoning all further resistance, were all killed or taken
							prisoners, with the exception of those who succeeded in escaping to
							Maleventum, now called Beneventum Their loss in prisoners and slain is
							stated by the chroniclers to have amounted to 30,000.

After this great victory
							the consuls advanced to Bovianum, which they proceeded to invest.

They remained there in winter quarters until C. Poetilius, who had been
							named Dictator with M. Foslius as Master of the Horse, took over the
							army from the new consuls, L. Papirius Cursor, consul for the fifth
							time, and C. Junius Bubulcus, for the second time.

On learning that the citadel of Fregellae had been captured by the
							Samnites, he raised the siege of Bovianum and marched to Fregellae. The
							place was retaken without fighting, for the Samnites evacuated it in the
							night, and after leaving a strong garrison there, the Dictator returned
							to Campania with the main object of recovering Nola.

At his approach the whole of the Samnite population and the native
							peasantry retired within the wails.

After examining the position of the city, he gave orders for all the
							buildings outside the wall —and there was a considerable population in
							the suburbs —to be destroyed in order to render the approach easier. Not
							long afterwards, Nola was taken, either by the Dictator or by the
							consul, C. Junius, for both accounts are given.

Those who give the credit of the capture to the consul state that Atina
							and Calatia were also taken by him, and they explain the appointment of
							Poetilius by saying that he was nominated Dictator for the purpose of
							driving in the nail on the outbreak of an epidemic.

Colonies were sent out this year to Suessa and Pontia; Suessa had
							belonged to the Auruncans, and the island of Pontia had been inhabited
							by the Volscians, as it lay off their coast.

The senate also authorised the settlement of a colony at Interamna on
							the Casinus, but it fell to the succeeding consuls, M. Valerius and P.
							Decius, to appoint the commissioners and send out the colonists to the
							number of 4000.

The Samnite war was now drawing to
							a close, but before the senate could dismiss it entirely from their
							thoughts there was a rumour of war on the side of Etruria.

With the one exception of the Gauls, no nation was more dreaded at that
							time, owing to their proximity to Rome and their vast population.

One of the consuls remained in Samnium to finish the war, the other, P.
							Decius, was detained in Rome by serious illness, and on instructions
							from the senate, nominated C. Junius Bubulcus Dictator.

In view of the seriousness of the emergency the Dictator compelled all
							who were liable for service to take the military oath, and used his
							utmost endeavours to have arms and whatever else was required in
							readiness. Notwithstanding the great preparations he was making, he had
							no intention of assuming the aggressive, and had quite made up his mind
							to wait until the Etruscans made the first move The Etruscans were
							equally energetic in their preparations, and equally reluctant to
							commence hostilities.

Neither side went outside their own frontiers. This year ( 312 B.C.> was signalised by the censorship of
							Appius Claudius. His claim to distinction with posterity rests mainly
							upon his public works, the road and the aqueduct which bear his name.

He carried out these undertakings single-handed, for, owing to the odium
							he incurred by the way he

revised the senatorial lists and filled up the vacancies, his colleague,
							thoroughly ashamed of his conduct, resigned. In the obstinate temper
							which had always marked his house, Appius continued to hold office
							alone.

It was owing to his
							action that the Potitii, whose family had always possessed

the right of ministering at the Ava Maxima of Hercules, transferred that
							duty to some temple servants, whom they had instructed in the various

observances. There is a strange tradition connected with this, and one
							well calculated to create religious scruples in the minds of any who
							would disturb the established order of ceremonial usages. It is said
							that though when the change was made there were twelve branches of the
							family of the Potitii comprising thirty adults, not one member, old or young,
							was alive twelve months

later. Nor was the extinction of the Potitian name the only consequence;
							Appius himself some years afterwards was struck with blindness by the
							unforgetting wrath of the gods.

The consuls for the following year were C. Junius Bubulcus (for the third
							time) and Q. Aemilius Barbula (for the second time). At the beginning of
							their year of office they laid a complaint before the Assembly touching
							the unscrupulous way in which vacancies in the senate had been filled
							up, men having been passed over who were far superior to some who had
							been selected, whereby the whole senatorial order had been sullied and
							disgraced.

They declared that the selection had been made solely with a view to
							popularity and out of sheer caprice, and that no regard whatever had
							been paid to the good or bad characters of those chosen.

They then gave out that they should ignore them altogether, and at once
							proceeded to call over the names of the senators as they appeared on the
							roll before Appius Claudius and C. Plautius were made censors. Two
							official posts were for the first time this year placed at the disposal
							of the people, both of a military character. One was the office of
							military tribune ; sixteen were henceforth appointed by the people for
							the four legions; these had hitherto been selected by the Dictators and
							consuls, very few places being left to the popular vote. L. Atilius and
							C. Marcius, tribunes of the plebs, were responsible for that measure.

The other was the post of naval commissioner; the people were to appoint
							two to superintend the equipment and refitting of the fleet. This
							provision was due to M. Decius, a tribune of the plebs.

An incident of a somewhat trifling character occurred this year which I
							should have passed over did it not appear to be connected with religious
							customs. The guild of flute-players had been forbidden by the censors
							to hold their annual banquet in the temple of Jupiter, a privilege they
							had enjoyed from ancient times Hugely disgusted, they went off in a body
							to Tibur, and not one was left in the City to perform at the sacrificial
							rites.

The senate were alarmed at the prospect of the various religious
							ceremonies being thus shorn of their due ritual, and they sent envoys to
							Tibur, who were to make it their business to see that the Romans got
							these men back again.

The Tiburtines promised to do their best, and invited the musicians into
							the Senate-house, where they were strongly urged to return to Rome. As
							they could not be persuaded to do so the Tiburtines adopted a ruse quite
							appropriate to the character of the men they were dealing with.

It was a feast day and they were invited to various houses, ostensibly
							to supply music at the banquets. Like the rest of their class, they were
							fond of wine, and they were plied with it till they drank themselves
							into a state of torpor.

In this condition they were thrown into wagons and carried off to Rome.
							They were left in the wagons all night in the Forum, and did not recover
							their senses till daylight surprised them still suffering from the
							effect of their debauch.

The people crowded round them and succeeded in inducing them to stay,
							and they were granted the privilege of going about the City for three
							days every year in their long dresses and masks with singing and mirth;
							a custom which is still observed. Those members of the guild who played
							on solemn occasions in the temple of Jupiter had the right restored to
							them of holding their banquets there. These incidents occurred while the
							public attention was fixed on two most serious wars.

The consuls drew lots for their respective
							commands; the Samnites fell to Junius, the new theatre of war in Etruria
							to Aemilius.

The Roman garrison of Cluvia in Samnium, alter being unsuccessfully
							attacked, were starved into surrender, and were then massacred after
							being cruelly mangled by the scourge.

Enraged at this brutality, Junius felt that the first thing to be done
							was to attack Cluvia, and on the very day he arrived before the place he
							took it by storm and put all the adult males to death. Thence his
							conquering army marched to Bovianum.

This was the chief city of the Pentrian Samnites, and by far the
							wealthiest and best supplied with arms.

There was not the same cause for resentment here as at Cluvia, the
							soldiers were mainly animated by the prospect of plunder, and on the
							capture of the place the enemy were treated with less severity; but
							there was almost more booty collected there than from all the rest of
							Samnium, and the whole of it was generously given up to the soldiers.

Now that nothing could withstand the overwhelming might of Roman arms,
							neither armies nor camps nor cities, the one idea in the minds of all
							the Samnite leaders was to choose some position from which Roman troops
							when scattered on their foraging expeditions might be caught and
							surrounded.

Some peasants who pretended to be deserters and some who had, either
							deliberately or by accident, been made prisoners, came to the consuls
							with a story in which they all agreed, and which really was true,
							namely, that an immense quantity of cattle had been driven into a
							pathless forest. The consuls were induced by this story to send the
							legions, with nothing but their kits to encumber them, in the direction
							the cattle had taken, to secure them.

A very strong body of the enemy were concealed on either side of the
							road, and when they saw that the Romans had entered the forest they
							suddenly raised a shout and made a tumultuous attack upon them.

The suddenness of the affair at first created some confusion, while the
							men were piling their kits in the centre of the column and getting at
							their weapons, but as soon as they had each freed themselves from their
							burdens and put themselves in fighting trim, they began to assemble
							round the standards. From their old discipline and long experience they
							knew their places in the ranks, and the line was formed without any
							orders being needed, each man acting on his own initiative.

The consul rode up to the part where the fighting was hottest and,
							leaping off his horse, called Jupiter, Mars, and other gods to witness
							that he had not gone into that place in quest of

any glory for himself, but solely to provide booty for his soldiers, nor
							could any other fault be found with him except that he had been too
							anxious to enrich his men at the expense of the enemy. From that
							disgrace nothing would clear him but the courage of his men.

Only they must one and all make a determined attack. The enemy had been
							already worsted in the field, stripped of his camp, deprived of his
							cities, and was now trying the last chance by lurking secretly in ambush
							and trusting to his ground, not to his arms.

What ground was too difficult for Roman courage? He reminded them of the
							citadels of Fregellae and of Sora and of the successes they had
							everywhere met with when the nature of the ground was all against them.

Fired by his words, his men, oblivious of all difficulties, went straight
							at the hostile line above them.

Some exertion was needed while the column were climbing up the face of
							the hill, but when once the leading standards had secured a footing on
							the summit and the army found that it was on favourable ground, it was
							the enemy's turn to be dismayed; they flung away their arms, and in wild
							flight made for the lurking-places in which they had shortly before
							concealed themselves.

But the place which they had selected as presenting most difficulty to
							the enemy now became a trap for themselves, and impeded them in every
							way. Very few were able to escape. As many as 20,000 men were killed,
							and the victorious Romans dispersed in different directions to secure
							the cattle of which the enemy had made them a present.

During these occurrences in Samnium the whole of the
							cities of Etruria with the exception of Arretium had taken up arms and
							commenced what proved to be a serious war by an attack on Sutrium. This
							city was in alliance with Rome, and served as a barrier on the side of
							Etruria.

Aemilius marched thither to raise the siege, and selected a site before
							the city where he entrenched himself. His camp was plentifully supplied
							with provisions from Sutrium.

The Etruscans spent the day after his arrival in discussing whether they
							should bring on an immediate engagement or protract the war. Their
							generals decided upon the more energetic course as the safer one, and
							the next day at sunrise the signal for battle was displayed and the
							troops marched into the field.

As soon as this was reported to the consul he ordered the tessera to he
							given out, instructing the men to take their breakfast, and after they
							were strengthened by food to arm themselves for battle.

When he saw that they were in complete readiness, he ordered the
							standards to go forward, and after the army had emerged from the camp he
							formed his battle-line not far from the enemy.

For some time both sides stood in expectation, each waiting for the
							other to raise the battle-shout and begin the fighting. The sun passed
							the meridian before a single missile was discharged on either side.

At length the Etruscans, not caring to leave the field without securing
							some success, raised the battle-shout; the trumpets sounded and the
							standards advanced.

The Romans showed no less eagerness to engage. They closed with each
							other in deadly earnest. The Etruscans had the advantage in numbers, the
							Romans in courage.

The contest was equally maintained and cost many lives, including the
							bravest on both sides, nor did either army show any signs of giving way
							until the second Roman line came up fresh into the place of the first,
							who were wearied and exhausted. The Etruscans had no reserves to support
							their first line, and all fell in front of their standards or around
							them.

No battle would have witnessed fewer fugitives or involved greater
							carnage had not the Tuscans, who had made up their minds to die, found
							protection in the approach of night, so that the victors were the first
							to desist from fighting.

After sunset the signal was given to retire, and both armies returned in
							the night to their respective camps. Nothing further worth mention took
							place that year at Sutrium. The enemy had lost the whole of their first
							line in a single battle and had only their reserves left, who were
							hardly sufficient to protect their camp.

Amongst the Romans there were so many wounded that those who left the
							field disabled were more numerous than those who had fallen in the
							battle.

The 
							consuls for the following year were Q. Fabius and C. Marcius Rutilus.
							Fabius took over the command at Sutrium, and brought reinforcements from
							Rome.

A fresh army was also raised in Etruria and sent to support the
							besiegers. Very many years had elapsed since there had been any contests
							between the patrician magistrates and the tribunes of the plebs.

Now, however, a dispute arose through that family which seemed marked
							out by destiny to be the cause of quarrels with the plebs and its
							tribunes. Appius Claudius had now been censor eighteen months, the
							period fixed by the Aemilian Law for the duration of that office.

In spite of the fact that his colleague, C. Plautius, had resigned, he
							could under no circumstances whatever be induced to vacate his office.
							P. Sempronius was the tribune of the plebs who commenced an action for
							limiting his censorship to the legal period.

In taking this step he was acting in the interests of justice quite as
							much as in the interests of the people, and he carried the sympathies of
							the aristocracy no less than he had the support of the masses.

He recited the several provisions of the Aemilian Law and extolled its
							author, Mamercus Aemilius, the Dictator, for having shortened the
							censorship. Formerly, he reminded his hearers, it was held for five
							years, a time long enough to make it tyrannical and despotic, Aemilius
							limited it to eighteen months.

Then turning to Appius he asked him: “Pray tell me, Appius, what
							would you have done had you been censor at the time that C. Furius and
							M. Geganius were censors?” Appius Claudius replied that the
							tribune's question had not much bearing on his case.

He argued that though the law might be binding in the case of those
							censors during whose period of office it was passed, because it

was after they had been appointed that the people ordered the measure to
							become law, and the last order of the people was law for the time being,
							nevertheless, neither he nor any of the censors subsequently appointed
							could be bound by it because all succeeding censors had been appointed
							by the order of the people and the last order of the people was the law
							for the time being.

This quibble on the part of Appius convinced no one. Sempronius then
							addressed the Assembly in the following language: “Quirites, here
							you have the progeny of that Appius who, after being appointed decemvir
							for one year, appointed himself for a second year, and then, without
							going through any form of appointment either at his own hands or at any
							one

else's, retained the fasces and the supreme authority for a third year,
							and persisted in retaining them until the power which he gained by foul
							means, exercised by foul means, and retained by foul means, proved his
							ruin.

This is the family, Quirites, by whose violence and lawlessness you were
							driven out of your City and compelled to occupy the Sacred Mount;

the family against which you won the protection of your tribunes; the
							family on whose account you took up your position, in two armies, on the
							Aventine.

It is this family which has always opposed the laws against usury and
							the agrarian laws; which interfered with the right of intermarriage
							between patricians and plebeians; which blocked the path of the plebs to
							curule offices.

This name is much more deadly to your liberties than the name of the
							Tarquins. Is it really the case, Appius Claudius, that though it is a
							hundred years since Mamercus Aemilius was Dictator, and there have been
							all those censors since, men of the highest rank and strength of
							character, not one of them ever read the Twelve Tables, not one of them
							knew that the last order of the people is the law for the time being?

Of course they all knew it, and because they knew it they preferred to
							obey the Aemilian Law rather than that older one by which the censors
							were originally appointed, simply because the former was

the last passed by order of the people and also because when two laws
							contradict each other the later one repeals the earlier.

Do you maintain, Appius, that the people are not bound by the Aemilian
							Law, or do you claim, if they are bound by it, that you alone are exempt
							from its provisions? That law availed to bind those arbitrary censors C.
							Furius and M. Geganius, who gave us a proof of the mischief which that
							office could work in the republic when, in revenge for the limitation of
							their power, they placed among

the aerarii the foremost soldier and
							statesman of his time, Mamercus Aemilius. It bound all the succeeding
							censors for a hundred years, it binds your colleague C. Plautius, who
							was appointed under the same auspices, with the same powers as yourself.

Did not the people appoint him “with all the customary powers and
							privileges” that a censor can possess? Or are you the solitary
							exception in whom all these powers and privileges reside?

Whom then can you appoint as “king for sacrifices”? He
							will cling to the name of “king” and say that he was ap-
							pointed with all the powers that the Kings of Rome possessed. Who do you
							suppose would be contented with a six months' dictatorship or a five
							days' interregnum?

Whom would you venture to nominate as Dictator for the purpose of
							driving in the nail or presiding at the Games? How stupid and
							spiritless, Quirites, you must consider those men to have been who after
							their magnificent achievements resigned their dictatorship in twenty
							days, or vacated their office owing to some flaw in their appointment!

But why should I recall instances of old time? It is not ten years since
							C. Maenius as Dictator was conducting a criminal process with a rigour
							which some powerful people con- sidered dangerous to themselves, and in
							consequence his enemies charged him with being tainted with the very
							crime he was investigating.

He at once resigned his dictatorship in order to meet, as a private
							citizen, the charges brought against him. I am far from wishing to see
							such moderation in you, Appius . Do not show yourself a degenerate scion
							of your house; do not fall short of your ancestors in their craving for
							power, their love of tyranny; do not vacate your office a day or an hour
							sooner than you are obliged, only see that you do not exceed the fixed
							term.

Perhaps you will he satisfied with an additional day or an additional
							month?

“No,” he says, “I shall hold my censorship for
							three years and a half beyond the period fixed by the Aemilian Law and I
							shall hold it alone.”

This sounds very much like an absolute monarch. Or will you co-opt a
							colleague, a pro- ceeding forbidden by divine laws even where one has
							been lost by death?” “There is a sacred function going
							back to the very earliest times, the only one actually initiated by the
							deity in whose honour it is performed, which has always been discharged
							by men of the highest rank and most blameless character.

You, conscientious censor that you are, have transferred this ministry
							to servants, and a House older than this City, hallowed by the
							hospitality they showed to immortal gods, has become extinct in one
							short year owing to you and your censorship.

But this is not enough for you, you will not rest till you have involved
							the whole commonwealth in a sacrilege the consequences of which I dare
							not contemplate.

The capture of this City occurred in that lustrum in which the censor,
							L. Papirius Cursor, after the death of his colleague, C. Julius,
							co-opted as his colleague M. Cornelius Maluginensis sooner than abdicate
							his office. And yet how much more moderation did he show even then than
							you Appius; he did not continue to hold his censorship alone nor beyond
							the legal term.

L. Papirius did not, however, find any one to follow his example, all
							succeeding censors resigned office on the death of their colleague. But
							nothing restrains you, neither the expiry of your term of office nor the
							resignation of your colleague nor the Law nor any feeling of
							self-respect.

You consider it a merit to show arrogance, effrontery, contempt of gods
							and men. When I consider the majesty and reverence which surround the
							office that you have held, Appius Claudius, I am most reluctant to
							subject you to personal restraint or even to address you in severe
							terms.

But your obstinacy and arrogance have compelled me to speak as I have
							done, and now I warn you that if you do not comply with the Aemilian Law
							I shall order you to be taken to prison.

Our ancestors made it a rule that if at the election of censors two
							candidates did not get the requisite majority of votes one should not be
							returned alone, but the election should be adjourned. Under this rule,
							as you cannot be appointed sole censor, I will not allow you to remain
							in office alone.”

He then ordered the censor to be arrested and taken to prison. Appius
							formally appealed to the protection of the tribunes, and though
							Sempronius was supported by six of his colleagues, the other three
							vetoed any further proceedings. Appius continued to hold his office
							alone amidst universal indignation and disgust.

During these proceedings in Rome the siege of Sutrium
							was being kept up by the Etruscans. The consul Fabius was marching to
							assist the allies of Rome and to attempt the enemy's lines wherever it
							seemed practicable. His route lay along the lowest slopes of the
							mountain range, when he came upon the hostile forces drawn up in battle
							formation.

The wide plain which stretched below revealed their enormous numbers,
							and in order to compensate for his own inferiority in that respect by
							the advantage of position, he deflected his column a little way on to
							the rising ground, which was rough and covered with stones.

He then formed his front against the enemy. The Etruscans, thinking of
							nothing but their numbers, on which they solely relied, came on with
							such eager impetuosity that they flung away their javelins in order to
							come more quickly to a hand-to-hand fight, and rushed upon their foe
							with drawn swords.

The Romans, on the other hand, showered down upon them first their
							javelins and then the stones with which the ground plentifully supplied
							them.

Shields and helmets alike were struck, and those who were not wounded
							were confounded and bewildered; it was almost impossible for them to get
							to close quarters, and they had no missiles with which to keep up the
							fight from a distance.

Whilst they were standing as a mark for the missiles, without any
							sufficient protection, some even retreating, the whole line wavering and
							unsteady, the Roman hastati and principes raised their battleshout again
							and charged down upon them with drawn swords.

The Etruscans did not wait for the charge but faced about and in
							disorderly flight made for their camp. The Roman cavalry, however,
							galloping in a slanting direction across the plain, headed off the
							fugitives, who gave up all idea of reaching their camp and turned off to
							the mountains.

For the most part without arms, and with a large proportion of wounded,
							the fugitives entered the Ciminian forest. Many thousands of Etruscans
							were killed, thirty-eight standards were taken, and in the capture of
							the camp the Romans secured an immense amount of booty. Then the
							question was discussed whether to pursue the enemy or no.

The Ciminian forest was, in those days, more frightful and impassable
							than the German forests were recently found to be; not a single trader
							had, up to that time, ventured through it. Of those present in the
							council of war, hardly any one but the general himself was bold enough
							to undertake to enter it; they had not yet forgotten the horrors of
							Caudium.

According to one tradition, it appears that M. Fabius, the consul's
							brother —others say Caeso, others again L. Claudius, the consul's
							halfbrother —declared that he would go and reconnoitre, and shortly
							return with accurate information.

He had been brought up in Caere, and was thoroughly conversant with the
							Etruscan language and literature. There is authority for asserting that
							at that time Roman boys were, as a rule, instructed in Etruscan
							literature as they now are in Greek, but I think the probability is that
							there was something remarkable about the man who displayed such boldness
							in disguising himself and mingling with the enemy.

He is said to have been accompanied by only one servant, and during
							their journey they only made brief inquiries as to the nature of the
							country and the names of its leading men, lest they should make some
							startling blunder in conversing with the natives and so be found out.

They went disguised as shepherds, with their rustic weapons, each
							carrying two bills and two heavy javelins.

But neither their familiarity with the language nor the fashion of their
							dress nor their implements afforded them so much protection as the
							impossibility of believing that any stranger would enter the Cimiman
							forest. It is stated that they penetrated as far as Camerinum in Umbria,
							and on their arrival there the Roman ventured to say who they were.

He was introduced into the senate, and, acting in the consul's name, he
							established a treaty of friendship with them.

After having been most kindly and hospitably received, he was requested
							to inform the Romans that thirty days' provision would be ready for them
							if they came into that district, and the Camertine soldiery would he
							prepared to act under their orders. When the consul received this
							report, he sent the baggage on in advance at the first watch.

The legions were ordered to march behind the baggage, while he himself
							remained behind with the cavalry. The following day at dawn he rode up
							with his cavalry to the

enemy's outposts stationed on the edge of the forest, and after he had
							engaged their attention for a considerable time, he returned to the camp
							and, in the evening, leaving by the rear gate, he started after the
							column. By dawn on the following day he was holding the nearest heights
							of the Ciminian range, and after surveying the rich fields of Etruria he
							sent out parties to forage.

A very large quantity of plunder had already been secured when some
							cohorts of Etruscan peasantry, hastily got together by the authorities
							of the neighbourhood, sought to check the foragers;

they were, however, so badly organised that, instead of rescuing the
							prey, they almost fell a prey themselves.

After putting them to flight with heavy loss, the Romans ravaged the
							country far and wide, and returned to their camp loaded with plunder of
							every kind.

It happened to be during this raid that a deputation, consisting of five
							members of the senate with two tribunes of the plebs, came to warn
							Fabius, in the name of the senate, not to traverse the Ciminian forest.
							They were very glad to find that they had come too late to prevent the
							expedition, and returned to Rome to report victory.

This expedition did not bring the war to a close, it only extended it.
							The whole country lying below the Ciminian range had felt the effect of
							his devastations, and they roused the indignation of the cantons of
							Etruria and of the adjoining districts of Umbria.

A larger army than had ever assembled before was marched to Sutrium. Not
							only did they advance their camp beyond the edge of the forest, but they
							showed such eagerness that they marched down in battle order on to the
							plain as soon as possible.

After advancing some distance they halted, leaving a space between them
							and the Roman camp for the enemy to form his lines.

When they became aware that their enemy declined battle, they marched up
							to the rampart of the camp and, on seeing that the outposts retired
							within the camp, they loudly insisted upon their generals ordering the
							day's rations to be brought down to them from their camp, as they
							intended to remain under arms and attack the hostile camp, if not by
							night, at all events at dawn. The Romans were quite as excited at the
							prospect of battle, but they were kept quiet by their commander's
							authority.

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when the general ordered the
							troops to take food, and instructed them to remain under arms and in
							readiness at what- ever hour he gave the signal, whether by day or by
							night.

In a brief address to his men he drew a contrast between the military
							qualities of the Samnites and those of the Etruscans, speaking highly of
							the former and disparaging the latter, saying that there was no
							comparison between them as regarded either their courage or their
							numbers.

They would learn in time that he had another weapon in reserve,
							meanwhile he must keep silence. By these dark hints he made his men
							believe that the enemy were being betrayed, and this helped to restore
							the courage which had quailed at the sight of such an immense multitude.
							This impression was confirmed by the absence of any intention on the
							part of the enemy to entrench the ground they were occupying.

After the troops had had dinner, they rested until about the fourth
							watch. Then they rose quietly and armed themselves.

A quantity of mattock-headed axes were distributed to the
							camp-followers, with which they were to dig away the rampart and fill up
							the fosse with it The troops were formed up within their entrenchments,
							and picked cohorts were posted at the exits of the camp. Then a little
							before dawn —in summer nights the time for deepest sleep —the signal was
							given, the men crossed the levelled rampart in line and fell upon the
							enemy, who were lying about in all directions.

Some were killed before they could stir, others only half awake as they
							lay, most of them whilst wildly endeavouring to seize their arms. Only a
							few had time to arm themselves, and these, with no standards under which
							to rally, no officers to lead them, were routed and fled, the Romans
							following in hot pursuit. Some sought their camp, others the forest. The
							latter proved the safer refuge, for the camp, situated in the plain
							below, was taken the same day.

The gold and silver were ordered to be brought to the consul; the rest
							of the spoil became the property of the soldiers. The killed and
							prisoners amounted to 6o,ooo. Some authors assert that this great battle
							was fought beyond the Cimiman forest, at Perusia, and that fears were
							felt in the City lest the army, cut off from all help by that terrible
							forest, should he overwhelmed by a united force of Tuscans and Umbrians.

But wherever it was fought, the Romans had the best of it As a result of
							this victory, Perusia, Cortona, and Arretium, which were at that time
							the three leading cantons of Etruria, sent to Rome for a treaty of
							peace. A thirty years' truce was granted them.

During these occurrences in
							Etruria the other consul, C. Marcius Rutilus, took Allifae from the
							Samnites. Many other fortified posts and hamlets were either destroyed
							or passed uninjured into the power of the Romans.

While this was going on, P. Cornelius, whom the senate had made maritime
							prefect, took the Roman fleet to Campania and brought up at Pompeii.
							Here the crews landed and proceeded to ravage the territory of Nuceria.
							After devastating the district near the coast, from which they could
							have easily reached their ships, they went further inland, attracted as
							usual by the desire for plunder, and here they roused the inhabitants
							against them.

As long as they were scattered through the fields they met nobody,
							though they might have been cut off to a man, but when they returned,
							thinking themselves perfectly safe, they were overtaken by the peasants
							and stripped of all their plunder. Some were killed; the survivors were
							driven helter-skelter to their ships.

However great the alarm created in Rome by Q. Fabius' expedition through
							the Ciminian forest, there was quite as much pleasure felt by the
							Samnites when they heard of it. They said that the Roman army was hemmed
							in; it was the Caudine disaster over again;

the old recklessness had again led a nation always greedy for further
							conquests into an impassable forest; they were beset by the difficulties
							of the ground quite as much as by hostile arms.

Their delight was, however, tinged with envy when they reflected that
							fortune had diverted the glory of finishing the war with Rome from the
							Samnites to the Etruscans.

So they concentrated their whole strength to crush C. Marcius or, if he
							did not give them a chance of fighting, to march through the country of
							the Marsi and Sabines into Etruria. The consul advanced against them,
							and a desperate battle was fought with no decisive result.

Which side lost most heavily was doubtful, but a rumour was spread that
							the Romans had been worsted, as they had lost some belonging to the
							equestrian order and some military tribunes, besides a staff officer,
							and —what was a signal disaster —the consul himself was wounded. Reports
							of the battle, exaggerated as usual, reached Rome and created the
							liveliest alarm among the senators.

It was decided that a Dictator should be nominated, and no one had the
							slightest doubt that Papirius Cursor would be nominated, the one man who
							was regarded as the supreme general of his day.

But they did not believe that a messenger could get through to the army
							in Samnium, as the whole country was hostile nor were they by any means
							sure that Marcius was still alive.

The other consul, Fabius, was on bad terms with Papirius. To prevent this
							private feud from causing public danger, the senate resolved to send a
							deputation to Fabius, consisting of men of consular rank, who were to
							support

their authority as public envoys by using their personal influence to
							induce him to lay aside all feeling of enmity for the sake of his
							country.

When they had handed to Fabius the resolution of the senate, and had
							employed such arguments as their instructions demanded, the consul,
							keeping his eyes fixed on the ground, withdrew from the deputation,
							without making any reply and leaving them in utter uncertainty as to
							what he would do.

Subsequently, he nominated L. Papirius dictator according to the
							traditional usage at midnight. When the deputation thanked him for
							having shown such rare self-command, he remained absolutely silent, and
							without vouchsafing any reply or making any allusion to what he had
							done, he abruptly dismissed them, showing by his conduct what a painful
							effort it had cost him.

Papirius named C. Junius Bubulcus, Master of the Horse. Whilst he was
							submitting to the Assembly of Curies the resolution conferring the
							Dictatorial power, an unfavourable omen compelled him to adjourn the
							proceedings. It fell to the Faucian cury to vote first, and this cury
							had voted first in the years in which two memorable disasters occurred,
							the capture of the City and the capitulation of Caudium.

Licinius Macer adds a third disaster through which this cury became
							ill-omened, the massacre at the Cremera.

The following day, after fresh auspices had been taken, the Dictator was
							invested with his official powers. He took command of the legions which
							were raised during the scare connected with the expedition through the
							Ciminian forest, and led them to Longula.

Here he took over the consul's troops, and with the united force went
							into the field. The enemy showed no disposition to shirk battle, but
							while the two armies stood facing each other fully prepared for action,
							yet neither anxious to begin, they were overtaken by night.

Their standing camps were within a short distance of each other, and for
							some days they remained

quiet, not, however, through any distrust of their own strength or any
							feeling of contempt for the enemy.

Meantime the Romans were meeting with success in Etruria, for in an
							engagement with the Umbrians the enemy were unable to keep up the fight
							with the spirit with which they began it, and, without any great loss,
							were completely routed. An engagement also took place at Lake Vadimonis,
							where the Etruscans had concentrated an army raised under a lex sacrata , 
							in which each man chose his comrade.

As their army was more numerous than any they had previously raised, so
							they exhibited a higher courage than they had ever shown before. So
							savage was the feeling on both sides that, without discharging a single
							missile, they began the fight at once with swords.

The fury displayed in the combat, which long hung in the balance, was
							such that it seemed as though it was not the Etruscans who had been so
							often defeated that we were fighting with, but some new, unknown people.
							There was not the slightest sign of yielding anywhere; as the men in the
							first line fell, those in the second took their places, to defend the
							standards.

At length the last reserves had to be brought up, and to such an
							extremity of toil and danger had matters come that the Roman cavalry
							dismounted, and, leaving their horses in charge, made their way over
							piles of armour and heaps of slain to the front ranks of the infantry.

They appeared like a fresh army amongst the exhausted combatants, and at
							once threw the Etruscan standards into confusion.

The rest of the men, worn out as they were, nevertheless followed up the
							cavalry attack, and at last broke through the enemy's ranks. Their
							determined resistance was now overcome, and when once their maniples
							began to give way, they soon took to actual flight.

That day broke for the first time the power of the Etruscans after their
							long-continued and abundant prosperity. The main strength of their army
							was left on the field, and their camp was taken and plundered.

Equally hard fighting and an equally brilliant success characterised the
							campaign which immediately followed against the Samnites. In addition to
							their usual preparations for war, they had new glittering armour made in
							which their troops were quite resplendent.

There were two divisions; one had their shields plated with gold, the
							other with silver. The shield was made straight and broad at the top to
							cover the chest and shoulders, then became narrower towards the bottom
							to allow of it being more easily moved about.

To protect the front of the body they wore coats of chain armour; the
							left leg was covered with a greave, and their helmets were plumed to
							give them the appearance of being taller than they really were.

The tunics of the men with gold plated shields were in variegated
							colours, those with the silver shields had tunics of white linen. The
							latter were assigned to the right wing, the former were posted on the
							left.

The Romans knew that all this splendid armour had been provided, and they
							had been taught by their generals that a soldier ought to inspire dread
							not by being decked out in gold and silver but by trusting to his
							courage and his sword.

They looked upon those things as a spoil for the enemy rather than a
							defence for the wearer, resplendent enough before a battle but soon
							stained and fouled by wounds and bloodshed.

They knew that the one ornament of the soldier was courage, and all that
							finery would belong to whichever side won the victory; an enemy however
							rich was the prize of the victor, however poor the victor might be. With
							this teaching fresh in their minds, Cursor led his men into battle.

He took his place on the right wing, and gave the command of the left to
							the Master of the Horse.

As soon as the two lines came into collision, a contest began between
							the Dictator and the Master of the Horse, quite as keen as the struggle
							against the enemy, as to whose division should be the first to win the
							victory. Junius happened to be the first to dislodge the enemy.

Bringing up his left wing against the enemy's right, where the "devoted"
							soldiers were posted, conspicuous in their white tunics and glittering
							armour, he declared that he would sacrifice them to Orcus, and, pushing
							the attack, he shook their ranks and made them visibly give way.

On seeing this, the Dictator exclaimed, “Shall the victory begin
							on the left wing? Is the right wing, the Dictator's own division, going
							to follow where another had led the way in battle, and not win for
							itself the greatest share of the victory?”

This roused the men; the cavalry behaved with quite as much gallantry as
							the infantry, and the staff-officers displayed no less energy than the
							generals.

M. Valerius on the right wing, and P. Decius on the left, both men of
							consular rank, rode up to the cavalry who were covering the flanks and
							urged them to snatch some of the glory for themselves. They charged the
							enemy on both flanks, and the double attack increased the consternation
							of the enemy.

To complete their discomfiture, the Roman legions again raised their
							battleshout and charged home. Now the Samnites took to flight, and soon
							the plain was filled with shining armour and heaps of bodies.

At first the terrified Samnites found shelter in their camp, but they
							were not able even to hold that; it was captured, plundered, and burnt
							before nightfall. The senate decreed a triumph for the Dictator.

By far the greatest sight in the procession was the captured armour, and
							so magnificent were the pieces considered that the gilded shields were
							distributed amongst the owners of the silversmiths' shops to adorn the
							Forum.

This is said to be the origin of the custom of the aediles decorating
							the Forum when the symbols of three Capitoline deities are conducted in
							procession through the City on the occasion of the Great Games. Whilst
							the Romans made use of this armour to honour the gods, the Campanians,
							out of contempt and hatred towards the Samnites, made the gladiators who
							performed at their banquets wear it, and they then called them
							“Samnites.”

The consul Fabius fought a battle this year with the remnants of the
							Etruscans at Perusia, for this city had broken the truce.

He gained an easy and decisive victory, and after the battle he
							approached the walls and would have taken the place had not envoys been
							sent on to surrender it.

After he had stationed a garrison in Perusia, deputations came to him
							from different cities in Etruria to ask for a restoration of amicable
							relations; these he sent on to the senate at Rome.

Then he entered the city in triumphal procession, after achieving a more
							solid success than the Dictator, especially as the defeat of the
							Samnites was put down largely to the credit of the staff-officers, P.
							Decius and M. Valerius. These men were chosen by an almost unanimous
							vote at the next elections —one as consul, the other as praetor.

Owing to his splendid services in the subjugation of Etruria, the
							consulship of Fabius was extended to another year, Decius being his
							colleague.

Valerius was elected praetor for the fourth time.

The consuls arranged their respective commands; Etruria fell to Decius,
							and Samnium to Fabius. Fabius marched to Nuceria, where the people of
							Alfaterna met him with a request for peace, but as they had refused it
							when offered to them before, he declined to grant it now.

It was not till he actually began to attack the place that they were
							forced into unconditional surrender. He fought an action with the
							Samnites and won an easy victory.

The memory of that battle would not have survived if it had not been
							that the Marsi engaged for the first time on that occasion in
							hostilities with Rome. The Peligni, who had followed the example of the
							Marsi, met with the same fate. The other consul, Decius, was also
							successful.

He inspired such alarm in Tarquinii that its people provided his army
							with corn and asked for a forty years' truce.

He captured several fortified posts belonging to Volsinii, some of which
							he destroyed that they might not serve as retreats for the enemy, and by
							extending his operations in all directions he made his name so dreaded
							that the whole Etruscan league begged him to grant a treaty. There was
							not the slightest chance of their obtaining one, but a truce was granted
							them for one year.

They had to provide a year's pay for the troops and two tunics for every
							soldier. That was the price of the truce.

While matters were thus quieted in Etruria fresh trouble was caused by
							the sudden defection of the Umbrians, a people hitherto untouched by the
							ravages of war beyond what their land had suffered from the passage of
							the Romans. They called out all their fighting men and compelled a large
							section of the Etruscan population to resume hostilities. The army which
							they mustered was so large that they began to talk in very braggart
							tones about themselves and in very contemptuous terms about the Romans.

They even expressed their intention of leaving Decius in their rear and
							marching straight to attack Rome.

Their intentions were disclosed to Decius; he at once hastened by forced
							marches to a city outside the frontiers of Etruria and took up a
							position in the territory of Pupinia, to watch the enemy's movements.

This hostile movement on the part of the Umbrians was regarded very
							seriously in Rome, even their menacing language made people, after their
							experience of the Gaulish invasion, tremble for the safety of their
							City.

Instructions were accordingly sent to Fabius, ordering him, if he could
							for the time being suspend operations in Samnium, to march with all
							speed into Umbria.

The consul at once acted upon his instructions and proceeded by forced
							marches to Mevania, where the forces of the Umbrians were stationed.
							They were under the impression that he was far away in Samnium, with
							another war on his hands, and his sudden arrival produced such
							consternation amongst them,

that some advised a retreat into their fortified cities, while others
							were in favour of abandoning the war.

There was one canton —the natives call it Materina —which not only kept
							the rest under arms but even induced them to come to an immediate
							engagement. They attacked Fabius while he was fortifying his camp. When
							he saw them making a rush towards his entrenchments he called his men
							off from their work and marshalled them in the best order that the
							ground and the time at his disposal allowed. He reminded them of the
							glory they had won in Etruria and in Samnium, and bade them finish off
							this wretched aftergrowth of the Etruscan war and exact a fitting
							retribution for the impious language in which the enemy had threatened
							to attack Rome.

His words were received with such eagerness by his men that their
							enthusiastic shouts interrupted their commander's address, and without
							waiting for the word of command or the notes of the trumpets and bugles
							they raced forward against the enemy.

They did not attack them as though they were armed men; marvellous to
							relate, they began by snatching the standards from those who bore them,
							then the standardbearers were themselves dragged off to the consul, the
							soldiers were pulled across from the one army to the other, the action

was everywhere fought with shields rather than with swords, men were
							knocked down by the bosses of shields and blows under the arm-pits. More
							were captured tan killed, and only one cry was heard throughout the
							ranks: “Lay down your arms!”

So, on the field of battle, the prime authors of the war surrendered.
							During the next few days the rest of the Umbrian communities submitted.
							The Ocriculans entered into a mutual undertaking with Rome and were
							admitted to her friendship.

After bringing to a victorious close the war which had been allotted to
							his colleague, Fabius returned to his own sphere of action.

As he had conducted operations with such success the senate followed the
							precedent set by the people in the previous year and extended his
							command for a third year in spite of the strenuous opposition of Appius
							Claudius who was now consul, the other consul being L. Volumnius.

I find in some annalists that Appius was a candidate for the consulship
							while he was still censor, and that L. Furius, a tribune of the plebs,
							stopped the election until he had resigned his censorship.

A new enemy, the Sallentines, had appeared, and the conduct of this war
							was assigned to his colleague; Appius himself remained in Rome with the
							view of strengthening his influence by his domestic administration, as
							the attainment of military glory was in other hands.

Volumnius had no cause to regret this arrangement, he fought many
							successful actions and took some of the enemy's cities by storm.

He was lavish in distributing the spoil, and this generosity was
							rendered still more pleasing by his frank and cordial manner; by
							qualities such as these he made his men keen to face any perils or
							labours. Q. Fabius, as proconsul, fought a pitched battle with the
							Samnites near the city of Allifae. There was very little uncertainty as
							to the result; the enemy were routed and driven to their camp, and they
							would not have held that had more daylight been left.

Before night, however, their camp was completely invested, so that none
							could escape. On the morrow while it was still twilight they made
							proposals for surrender, and their surrender was accepted on condition
							that the Samnites should be dismissed with one garment apiece after they
							had all passed under the yoke.

No provision had been made for their allies, and as many as 7000 of them
							were sold into slavery.

Those who declared themselves Hernicans were separated and placed under
							guard; subsequently Fabius sent them all to the senate in Rome.

After inquiries had been made as to whether they had fought for the
							Samnites against Rome as conscripts or as volunteers, they were
							committed to the custody of the Latin cities. The new consuls, P.
							Cornelius Arvina and Q. Marcius Tremulus, were ordered to bring the
							whole question of the prisoners before the senate.

The Hernicans resented this, and a national council was held at Anagnia
							in what they call the Maritime Circus; the whole nation thereupon, with
							the exception of Aletrium, Ferentinae, and Verulae, declared war against
							Rome.

Now that Fabius had evacuated the country the
							Samnites became restless. Calatia and Sora and the Roman garrisons there
							were taken by storm, and the soldiers who had been taken prisoners were
							cruelly massacred. P. Cornelius was despatched thither with an army.

The Anagnians and Hernicans had been assigned to Marcius. At first the
							enemy occupied such a well-chosen position

between the camps of the two consul that no messenger, however active,
							could get through, and for some days both consuls were kept in ignorance
							of everything

and in anxious suspense as to each other's movements. Tidings of this
							alarming state of things reached Rome, and every man liable to service
							was called out; two complete armies were raised against sudden
							emergencies. But the progress of the war did not justify this extreme
							alarm, nor was it

worthy of the old reputation which the Hernicans enjoyed. They attempted
							nothing worth mentioning, within a few days they were stripped of three
							camps in succession, and begged for a thirty days'

armistice to allow of their sending envoys to Rome. To obtain this they
							consented to supply the troops with six months' pay and one tunic per
							man. The envoys were referred by the senate to Marcius, to whom they had
							given full powers to treat,

and he received the formal surrender of the Hernicans. The other consul
							in Samnium, though superior in strength, was more hampered in his
							movements. The enemy had blocked all the roads and secured the passes so
							that no supplies could be brought in, and though the consul drew up his
							line and offered battle each day

he failed to allure the enemy into an engagement. It was quite clear
							that the Samnites would not risk an immediate conflict, and

that the Romans could not stand a prolonged campaign. The arrival of
							Marcius, who after subjugating the Hernicans had hurried to the
							assistance of his colleague, made it

impossible for the enemy to delay matters any longer. They had not felt
							themselves strong enough to meet even one army in the open field, and
							they knew that their position would be perfectly

hopeless if the two consular armies formed a junction; they decided,
							therefore, to attack Marcius while he was on the march before he had
							time to deploy his men . The soldiers' kits were hurriedly thrown
							together in the centre, and the fighting

line was formed as well as the time allowed. The noise of the
							battle-shout rolling across and then the sight of the cloud of dust in
							the distance

created great excitement in the standing camp of Cornelius. He at once
							ordered the men to arm for battle, and led them hurriedly out of the
							camp into line. It would, he exclaimed, be a scandalous disgrace if they
							allowed the other army to win a victory which both ought to share, and
							failed to maintain their claim to the

glory of a war which was especially their own. He then made a flank
							attack, and breaking through

the enemy's centre pushed on to their camp, which was denuded of
							defenders, and burnt it As soon as Marcius' troops caught sight of the
							flames, and the enemy looking behind them saw them too, the Samnites
							took to flight in all directions, but no place

afforded them a safe refuge, death awaited them everywhere. After 30,000
							of the enemy had

been killed the consuls gave the signal to retire. They were recalling
							and collecting the troops together amidst mutual congratulations when
							suddenly fresh cohorts of the enemy were seen in the distance,
							consisting of recruits who had been sent up as reinforcements. This
							renewed the carnage, for, without any orders from the consuls or any
							signal given, the victorious Romans attacked them, exclaiming as they
							charged that the Samnite

recruits would have to pay dearly for their training. The consuls did
							not check the ardour of their men, for they knew well that raw soldiers
							would not even attempt to fight

when the veterans around them were in disorderly flight. Nor were they
							mistaken; all the Samnite forces,

veterans and recruits alike, fled to the nearest mountains. The Romans
							went up after them, no place afforded safety to the beaten foe, they
							were routed from the heights they had occupied, and at last with one
							voice they all begged for peace. They were ordered to supply corn for
							three months, a year's pay, and a tunic for each soldier, and envoys
							were

despatched to the senate to obtain terms of peace. Cornelius was left in
							Samnium; Marcius entered the City in triumphal procession alter his
							subjugation of the Hernicans. An equestrian statue was decreed to him
							which was erected in

the Forum in front of the Temple of Castor. Three of the
							Hernican communities —Aletrium, Verulae, and Ferentinum —had their
							municipal independence restored to them as they preferred that to the
							Roman franchise, and the right of intermarriage with each other was
							granted them, a privilege which for a considerable period they

were the only communities amongst the Hernicans to enjoy. The Anagnians
							and the others who had taken up arms against Rome were

admitted to the status of citizenship without the franchise, they were
							deprived of their municipal self-government and the right of
							intermarriage with each other, and their magistrates were forbidden

to exercise any functions except those connected with religion. In this
							year the censor C. Junius Bubulcus signed a contract for the building of
							the temple to Salus which he had vowed when engaged as consul in the
							Samnite war. He and his colleague, M. Valerius Maximus, also undertook
							the construction of roads

through the country districts out of the public funds. The treaty with
							the Carthaginians was renewed for the third time this year and
							munificent presents were made to the plenipotentiaries who had come over
							for the purpose.

P. Cornelius Scipio was nominated Dictator this year, with P. Decius Mus
							as Master of the Horse, for the purpose

of holding the elections, as neither of the consuls could leave the seat
							of war. The consuls elected were L. Postumius and Tiberius Minucius.

Piso places these consuls immediately after Q. Fabius and P. Decius,
							omitting the two years in which I have inserted the consulships of
							Claudius and Volumnius and of Cornelius and Marcius.

Whether this was due to a slip of memory in drawing up the lists or
							whether he purposely omitted them, believing them to be wrongly
							inserted, is uncertain.

The Samnites made forays this year into the district of Stellae in
							Campania. Both consuls accordingly were despatched to Samnium.

Postumius marched to Tifernum, Minucius made Bovianum his objective.
							Postumius was the first to come into touch with the enemy and a battle
							was fought at Tifernum.

Some authorities state that the Samnites were thoroughly beaten and
							24,000 prisoners taken. According to others the battle was an indecisive
							one, and

Postumius, in order to create an impression that he was afraid of the
							enemy, withdrew by night into the mountains, whither the enemy followed
							him and took up an entrenched position two miles away from him.

To keep up the appearance of having sought a safe and commodious place
							for a standing camp —and such it really was —the consul strongly
							entrenched himself and furnished his camp with all necessary stores.

Then, leaving a strong detachment to hold it, he started at the third
							watch and led his legions in light marching order by the shortest
							possible route to his colleague, who was also encamped in front of
							another Samnite army.

Acting on Postumius' advice Minucius engaged the enemy, and after the
							battle had gone on for the greater part of the day without either side
							gaining the advantage, Postumius brought up his fresh legions and made
							an unsuspected attack upon the enemy's wearied lines.

Exhausted by fighting and by wounds they were incapable of flight and
							were practically annihilated. Twenty-one standards were captured.

Both armies marched to the camp which Postumius had formed, and there
							they routed and dispersed the enemy, who were demoralised by the news of
							the previous battle. Twenty-six standards were captured, the
							captain-general of the Samnites, Statius Gellius, and a large number of
							men were made prisoners, and both camps were taken.

The next day they commenced an attack on Bovianum which was soon taken,
							and the consuls after their brilliant successes celebrated a joint
							triumph.

Some authorities assert that the consul Minucius was carried back to the
							camp severely wounded and died there, and that M. Fulvius was made
							consul in his place, and after taking over the command of Minucius' army
							effected the capture of Bovianum.

During the year Sora, Arpinum, and Cesennia were recovered from the
							Samnites The great statue of Hercules was also set up and dedicated in
							the Capitol.

P. Sulpicius Saverrio and P. Sempronius Sophus were the next consuls.
							During their consulship the Samnites, anxious for either a termination
							or at least a suspension of hostilities, sent envoys to Rome to sue for
							peace.

In spite of their submissive attitude they did not meet with a very
							favourable reception. The reply they received was to the effect that if
							the Samnites had not often made proposals for peace while they were
							actually preparing for war negotiations might possibly have been entered
							into, but now as their words had proved worthless the question must be
							decided by their deeds.

They were informed that the consul P. Sempronius would shortly be in
							Samnium with his army, and he would he able to judge accurately whether
							they were more disposed to peace or to war.

When he had obtained all the information that he wanted he would lay it
							before the senate; on his return from Samnium the envoys might follow
							him to Rome.

Wherever Sempronius marched they found the Samnites peaceably disposed
							and ready to supply them with provisions and stores. The old treaty was
							therefore restored. From that quarter the Roman arms were turned against
							their old enemies the Aequi. For many years this nation had remained
							quiet, disguising their real sentiments under a peaceable attitude.

As long as the Hernicans remained unsubdued the Aequi had frequently
							co-operated with them in sending help to the Samnites, but after their
							final subjugation almost the whole of the Aequian nation threw off the
							mask and openly went over to the enemy. After Rome had renewed the
							treaty with the Samnites the fetials went on to the Aequi to demand
							satisfaction.

They were told that their demand was simply regarded as an attempt on
							the part of the Romans to intimidate them by threats of war into
							becoming Roman citizens.

How desirable a thing this citizenship was might be seen in the case of
							the Hernicans who, when allowed to choose, preferred living under their
							own laws to becoming citizens of Rome. To men who were not allowed which
							they would prefer, but were made Roman citizens by compulsion, it would
							be a punishment.

As these opinions were pretty generally expressed in their different
							councils, the Romans ordered war to be declared against the Aequi.

Both the consuls took the field and selected a position four miles
							distant from the enemy's camp.

As the Aequi had for many years had no experience of a national war,
							their army was like a body of irregulars with no properly appointed
							generals and no discipline or obedience. They were in utter confusion;
							some were of opinion that they ought to give battle, others thought they
							ought to confine themselves to defending their camp.

The majority were influenced by the prospect of their fields being
							devastated and their cities, with their scanty garrisons, being
							destroyed.

In this diversity of opinions one was given utterance to which put out
							of sight all care for the common weal and directed each man's regards to
							his own private interests.

They were advised to abandon their camp at the first watch, carry off
							all their belongings, and disperse to their respective cities to protect
							their property behind their walls. This advice met with the warmest
							approval from all.

Whilst the enemy were thus straggling homewards, the Romans as soon as it
							was light marched out and formed up in order of battle, and as there was
							no one to oppose, they went on at a quick march to the enemy's camp.

Here they found no pickets before the gates or on the rampart, none of
							the noise which is customary in a camp, and fearing from the unusual
							silence that a surprise was being prepared they came to a halt. At
							length they climbed over the rampart and found everything deserted.

Then they began to follow up the enemy's footsteps, but as these went in
							all directions alike, they found themselves going further and further
							astray. Subsequently they discovered through their scouts what the
							design of the enemy was, and their cities were successively attacked.
							Within a fortnight they had stormed and captured thirty-one walled
							towns. Most of these were sacked and burnt, and the nation of the Aequi
							was almost exterminated.

A triumph was celebrated over them, and warned by their example the
							Marrucini, the Marsi, the Paeligni, and the Feretrani sent spokesmen to
							Rome to sue for peace and friendship. These tribes obtained a treaty
							with Rome.

It was during this year that Cn.
							Flavius, the son of a freedman, born in a humble station of life, but a
							clever plausible man, became curule aedile.

I find in some annalists the statement that at the time of the election
							of aediles he was acting as apparitor to the aediles, and when he found
							that the first vote was given in his favour, and was disallowed on the
							ground that he was a clerk, he laid aside his writing tablet and took an
							oath that he would not follow that profession.

Licinius Macer, however, attempts to show that he had given up the
							clerk's business for some time as he had been a tribune of the plebs,
							and had also twice held office as a triumvir, the first time as a
								 triumvir nocturnus , and afterwards as one
							of the three commissioners for settling a

colony. However this may be, there is no question that he maintained a
							defiant attitude towards the nobles, who regarded his lowly origin with

contempt. He made public the legal forms and processes which had been
							hidden away in the closets of the pontiffs; he exhibited a calendar
							written on whitened boards in the Forum, on which were marked the days
							on which legal proceedings were allowed; to the intense disgust of the
							nobility he dedicated the temple of Concord on the

Vulcanal. At this function the Pontifex Maximus, Cornelius Barbatus, was
							compelled by the unanimous voice of the people to recite the usual form
							of devotion in spite of his insistence that in accordance with ancestral
							usage none but a consul or a commander-in-chief could dedicate a

temple. It was in consequence of this that the senate authorised a
							measure to be submitted to the people providing that no one should
							presume to dedicate a

temple or an altar without being ordered to do so by the senate or by a
							majority of the tribunes of the plebs. I will relate an incident,
							trivial enough in itself, but affording a striking proof of the way in
							which the liberties of the plebs were asserted against the insolent
							presumption of the

nobility. Flavius went to visit his colleague, who was ill. Several
							young nobles who were sitting in the room had agreed not to rise when he
							entered, on which he ordered his curule chair to be brought, and from
							that seat of dignity calmly surveyed his enemies, who were filled with
							unutterable

disgust. The elevation of Flavius to the aedileship was, however, the
							work of a party in the Forum who had gained their power during the
							censorship of Appius

Claudius. For Appius had been the first to pollute the senate by
							electing into it the sons of freedmen, and when no one recognised the
							validity of these elections and he failed to secure in the Senate-house
							the influence which he had sought to gain in the City, he corrupted both
							the Assembly of Tribes and the Assembly of Centuries by distributing the
							dregs of the populace amongst all the

tribes. Such deep indignation was aroused by the election of Flavius
							that most of the nobles laid aside their gold rings and military
							decorations as a sign of

mourning. From that time the citizens were divided into two parties; the
							uncorrupted part of the people, who favoured and supported men of
							integrity and patriotism, were aiming at one thing, the "mob of the
							Forum" were aiming at something

else. This state of things lasted until Q. Fabius and P. Decius were
							made censors. Q. Fabius, for the sake of concord, and at the same time
							to prevent the elections from being controlled by the lowest of the
							populace, threw the whole of the citizens of the lowest class —the
							“mob of the Forum” —into four tribes and called them
							“the City

Tribes.” Out of gratitude for his action, it is said, he received
							an epithet which he had not gained by all his victories, but which was
							now conferred upon him for the wisdom he had shown in thus adjusting the
							orders in the State — the cognomen “Maximus.” It is stated
							that he also instituted the annual parade of the cavalry on July 5.

During the consulship of L. Genucius and
							Ser. Cornelius there was almost a complete respite from foreign wars.
							Colonists were settled at Sora and Alba.

The latter was in the country of the Aequi; 6000 colonists were settled
							there. Sora had been a Volscian town, but the Samnites had occupied it;
							4000 men were sent there.

The right of citizenship was conferred this year upon the Arpinates and
							the Trebulans. The Frusinates were mulcted in a third of their
							territory, for it had been ascertained that they were the instigators of
							the Hernican revolt. The senate decreed that the consuls should hold an
							inquiry, and the ringleaders were scourged and beheaded.

However, in order that the Romans might not pass a whole year without any
							military operations, a small expeditionary force was sent into Umbria. A
							certain cave was reported to be the rendezvous of a body of freebooters,
							and from this hiding-place they made armed excursions into the
							surrounding country.

The Roman troops entered this cave, and many of them were wounded,
							mostly by stones, owing to the darkness of the place. At length they
							discovered another entrance, for there was a passage right through the
							cave, and both mouths of the cavern were filled up with wood.

This was set on fire, and, stifled by the smoke, the bandits, in trying
							to escape, rushed into the flames and 2000 perished. M. Livius Denter
							and M. Aurelius were the new consuls, and during their year of office
							hostilities were resumed by the Aequi.

They resented the planting within their borders of a colony which was to
							be a stronghold of Roman power, and they made a desperate effort to
							capture it, but were beaten off by the colonists.

In their weakened condition it seemed almost incredible that the Aequi
							could have begun war, relying solely upon themselves, and the fear of an
							indefinitely extended war necessitated the appointment of a Dictator. C.
							Junius Bubulcus was nominated, and he took the field, with M. Titinius
							as Master of the Horse.

In the very first battle he crushed the Aequi, and a week later he
							returned in triumph to the City. Whilst Dictator he dedicated the temple
							of Salus which he had vowed as consul and the con- struction of which he
							had contracted for when censor.

During the year a
							fleet of Greek ships under the command of the Lacedaemonian Cleonymus
							sailed to the shores of Italy and captured the city of Thuriae in the
							Sallentine country.

The consul, Aemilius, was sent to meet this enemy, and in one battle he
							routed him and drove him to his ships.

Thuriae was restored to its former inhabitants, and peace was
							established in the Sallentine territory. In some annalists I find it
							stated that the Dictator, Junius Bubulcus, was sent into that country,
							and that Cleonymus left Italy to avoid a conflict with the Romans.

He sailed round the promontory of Brundisium, and was carried up the
							Adriatic, where he had on his left the harbourless shores of Italy and
							on his right the countries occupied by the Illyrians, the Liburnians,
							and the Histrians, savage tribes chiefly notorious for their acts of
							piracy.

He dreaded the possibility of falling in with these, and consequently
							directed his course inland until he reached the coasts of the Veneti.
							Here he landed a small party to explore the neighbourhood. The
							information they brought back was to the effect that there was a narrow
							beach, and on crossing it they found lagoons which were affected by the
							tide; beyond these level cultivated country was visible, and in the
							further distance hills could be seen.

At no great distance was the mouth of a river deep enough to allow of
							ships being brought up and safely anchored —this was the Meduacus.

On hearing this he ordered the fleet to make for that river and sail
							up-stream. As the river channel did not admit the passage of his largest
							ships, the bulk of his troops went up in the lighter vessels and came to
							a populous district belonging to the maritime villages of the Patavii,
							who inhabit that coast.

After leaving a few to guard the ships they landed, seized the villages,
							burnt the houses, and carried off the men and cattle as booty.

Their eagerness for plunder led them too far from their ships. The
							people of Patavium were obliged to be always under arms owing to their
							neighbours, the Gauls, and when they heard what was going on, they
							divided their forces into two armies.

One of these was to proceed to the district where the invaders were
							reported to be carrying on their depredations; the other was to go by a
							different route, to avoid meeting any of the plunderers, to where the
							ships were anchored, about fourteen miles from the town. The latter
							attacked the ships, and after killing those who resisted them, they
							compelled the terrified sailors to take their vessels over to the
							opposite bank.

The other army had been equally successful against the plunderers, who
							in their flight to their ships were intercepted by the Veneti, and,
							hemmed in between the two armies, were cut to pieces.

Some of the prisoners informed their captors that King Cleonymus, with
							his fleet, was only three miles distant. The prisoners were sent to the
							nearest village for safe-keeping, and some of the defenders got into
							their river boats, which were flatbottomed to allow of their passing
							over the shallows in the lagoons, whilst others manned the vessels they
							had captured and sailed down the river.

When they reached the Greek fleet they surrounded the large ships, which
							were afraid to stir and dreaded unknown waters more than the enemy, and
							pursued them to the mouth of the river. Some which in the confused
							fighting had run aground were captured and burnt.

After this victory they returned. Failing to effect a successful landing
							in any part of the Adriatic, Cleonymus sailed away with barely a fifth
							part of his fleet undamaged.

There are many still living who have seen the beaks of the ships and the
							spoils of the Lacedaemonians hung up in the old temple of Juno in
							Patavium, and the anniversary of that battle is celebrated by a sham
							fight of ships on the river which flows through the town.

The Vestinians had requested to be placed on the footing
							of a friendly State, and a treaty was made with them this year.

Subsequently several incidents created alarm in Rome. Intelligence was
							received of the renewal of hostilities by the Etruscans, owing to
							disturbances in Arretium. The powerful house of the Cilnii 
							had created widespread jealousy through their enormous wealth, and an
							attempt was made to expel them from the city. The Marsi also were giving
							trouble, for a body of 4000 colonists had been sent to Carseoli, and
							they were prevented by force from occupying the place.

In view of this threatening aspect of affairs, M. Valerius Maximus was
							nominated Dictator, and he named M. Aemilius Paulus Master of the Horse.

I think that this is more probable than that Q. Fabius was made Master
							of the Horse and, therefore, in a subordinate position to Valerius, in
							spite of his age and the offices he had held;

but I am quite prepared to admit that the error arose from the cognomen
							Maximus, common to both men. The Dictator took the field and routed the Marsi in one
							battle. After compelling them to seek shelter in their fortified cities,
							he took Milionia, Plestina, and Fresilia within a few days.

The Marsi were compelled to surrender a portion of their territory, and
							then the old treaty with Rome was renewed. The war was now turned
							against the Etruscans, and an unfor- tunate incident occurred during
							this campaign.

The Dictator had left the camp for Rome to take the auspices afresh, and
							the Master of the Horse had gone out to forage. He was surprised and
							surrounded, and after losing some standards and many of his men, he was
							driven in disgraceful flight back to his camp.

Such a precipitate flight is contradictory to all that we know of
							Fabius; for it was his reputation as a soldier that more than anything
							else justified his epithet of Maximus, and he never forgot the severity
							of Papirius towards him, and could never have been tempted to fight
							without the Dictator's orders.

The news of this defeat created a quite unnecessary alarm in Rome.
							Measures were adopted as though an army had been annihilated;

all legal business was suspended, guards were stationed at the gates,
							watches were set in the different wards of the City, armour and weapons
							were stored in readiness on the walls, and every man within the military
							age was embodied.

When the Dictator returned to the camp he found that, owing to the
							careful arrangements which the Master of the Horse had made, everything
							was quieter than he had expected.

The camp had been moved back into a safer position; the cohorts who had
							lost their standards were punished by being stationed outside the
							rampart without any tents;

the whole army was eager for battle that they might all the sooner wipe
							out the stain of their defeat.

Under these circumstances the Dictator at once advanced his camp into
							the neighbourhood of Rusella. The enemy followed him, and although they
							felt the utmost confidence in a trial of strength in the open field,
							they decided to practise stratagem on their enemy, as they had found it
							so successful before.

At no great distance from the Roman camp were some half-demolished
							houses belonging to a village which had been burnt when the land was
							harried.

Some soldiers were concealed in these and cattle were driven past the
							place in full view of the Roman outposts, who were under the command of
							a staff-officer, Cnaeus Fulvius. As not a single man left his post to
							take the bait, one of the drovers, coming up close to the Roman lines,
							called out to the others who were driving the cattle somewhat slowly
							away from the ruined cottages to ask them why they were so slow, as they
							could drive them safely through the middle of the Roman camp.

Some Caerites who were with Fulvius interpreted the words, and all the
							maniples were extremely indignant at the insult, but they did not dare
							to move without orders.

He then instructed those who were familiar with the language to notice
							whether the speech of the herdsmen was more akin to that of rustics or
							to that of towndwellers. On being told that the accent and personal
							appearance were too refined for cattle-drovers, he said, “Go and
							tell them to unmask the ambush they have tried in vain to conceal; the
							Romans know all, and can now no more be trapped by cunning than they can
							be vanquished by arms.”

When these words were carried to those who were lying concealed, they
							suddenly rose from their lurking-place and advanced in order of battle
							on to the open plain, which afforded a view in all directions.

The advancing line appeared to Fulvius to be too large a body for his
							men to withstand, and he sent a hasty message to the Dictator to ask for
							help; in the meantime he met the attack single-handed.

When the message reached the Dictator, he ordered the standards to go
							forward and the troops to follow.

But everything was done almost more rapidly than the orders were given.
							The standards were instantly snatched up, and the troops were with
							difficulty prevented from charging the enemy at a run. They were burning
							to avenge their recent defeat, and the shouts, becoming continually
							louder in the battle that was already going on, made them still more
							excited.

They kept urging each other on, and telling the standard-bearers to
							march more quickly, but the more haste the Dictator saw them making the
							more determined was he to check the column and insist upon their
							marching deliberately.

The Etruscans had been present in their full strength when the battle
							began. Message after message was sent to the Dictator telling him that
							all the legions of the Etruscans were taking part in the fight and that
							his men could no longer hold out against them, whilst he himself from
							his higher ground saw for himself in what a critical position the
							outposts were.

As however, he felt quite confident that their commander could still
							sustain the attack, and as he was himself near enough to save him from
							all danger of defeat, he decided to wait until the enemy became utterly
							fatigued, and then to attack him with fresh troops.

Although his own men were advancing so slowly there was now only a
							moderate distance over which to charge, at all events for cavalry,
							between the two lines. The standards of the legions were in front, to
							prevent the enemy from suspecting any sudden or secret manoeuvre, but
							the Dictator had left intervals in the ranks of infantry through which
							the cavalry could pass.

The legions raised the battle-shout, and at the same moment the cavalry
							charged down upon the enemy, who were unprepared for such a hurricane,
							and a sudden panic set in.

As the outposts, who had been all but cut off, were now relieved at the
							last moment, they were all allowed a respite from further exertions. The
							fresh troops took up the fighting, and the result did not long remain in
							doubt.

The routed enemy sought their camp, and as they retreated before the
							Romans who were attacking it, they became crowded together in the
							furthest part.

In trying to escape, they became blocked in the narrow gates, and a good
							many climbed on to the mound and stockade in the hope of defending
							themselves on higher ground, or possibly of crossing ramparts and fosse
							and so escaping.

In one part the mound had been built up too loosely, and, owing to the
							weight of those standing on it, crumbled down into the fosse, and many,
							both soldiers and non-combatants, exclaiming that the gods had cleared
							the passage for their flight, made their escape that way.

In this battle the power of the Etruscans was broken up for the second
							time. After undertaking to provide a year's pay for the army and a two
							months' supply of corn, they obtained permission from the Dictator to
							send envoys to Rome to sue for peace.

A regular treaty of peace was refused, but they were granted a two
							years' truce. The Dictator returned in triumphal procession to the City.
							Some of my authorities aver that Etruria was pacified without any
							important battle being fought simply through the settlement of the
							troubles in Arretium and the restoration of the Cilnii to popular
							favour. No sooner had M. Valerius laid down the Dictatorship than he was
							elected consul.

Some have thought that he was elected without having been a candidate
							and, therefore, in his absence, and that the election was conducted by
							an interrex. There is no question, however, that he held the consulship
							with Apuleius Pansa.

During their year of office foreign affairs were
							fairly peaceful; the ill-success the Etruscans had met with in war and
							the terms of the truce kept the Etruscans quiet;

the Samnites, after their many years of defeat and disaster, were so far
							quite satisfied with their recent treaty with Rome. In the City itself
							the large number of colonists sent out made the plebs less restless and
							lightened their financial burdens.

But to prevent anything like universal tranquillity a conflict between
							the most prominent plebeians and the patricians was started by two of
							the tribunes of the plebs, Quintus and Cnaeus Olgunius.

These men had sought everywhere for an opportunity of traducing the
							patricians before the plebs, and after all other attempts had failed
							they adopted a policy which was calculated to inflame the minds, not of
							the dregs of the populace, but of the actual leaders of the plebs, men
							who

had been consuls and enjoyed triumphs, and to whose official
							distinctions nothing was lacking but the priesthood.

This was not yet open to both orders. The Ogulnii accordingly gave
							notice of a measure providing that as there were at that time four
							augurs and four pontiffs, and it had been decided that the number of

priests should be augmented, the four additional pontiffs and five
							augurs should all be co-opted from the plebs How the college of augurs
							could have been reduced to four, except by the death of two of their
							number, I am unable to discover.

For it was a settled rule amongst the augurs that their number was bound
							to consist of threes, so that the three ancient tribes of the Ramnes,
							Titienses, and Luceres might each have their own augur, or if more were
							needed, the same number should be added for each. This was the principle
							on which they proceeded when by adding five to four the number was made
							up to nine, so that three were assigned to each tribe.

But the co-optation of the additional priests from the plebs created
							almost as much indignation amongst the patricians as when they saw the
							consulship made open.

They pretended that the matter concerned the gods more than it concerned
							them; as for their own sacred functions they would see for themselves
							that these were not polluted; they only hoped and prayed that no
							disaster might befall the republic.

Their opposition, however, was not so keen, because they had become
							habituated to defeat in these political contests, and they saw that
							their opponents in striving for the highest honours were not, as
							formerly, aiming at what they had little hopes of winning; everything
							for which they had striven, though with doubtful hopes of success, they
							had hitherto gained —numberless consulships, censorships, triumphs.

Appius Claudius and P. Decius are said to have been the leaders in this
							controversy, the former as the opponent, the latter as the supporter of
							the proposed measure.

The arguments they advanced were practically the same as those employed
							for and against the Licinian Laws when the demand was made for the
							consulship to be thrown open to the plebeians. After going over much of
							the old ground, Decius made a final appeal on behalf of the proposals.

He began by recalling the scene which many of those present had
							witnessed, when the elder Decius, his father, vested in the Gabine
								cincture and standing upon a spear, solemnly
							devoted himself on behalf of the legions and people of Rome.

He proceeded, “The offering which the consul Decius made on that
							occasion was in the eyes of the immortal gods as pure and holy as that
							of his colleague, T. Manlius, would have been if he had devoted himself.
							Could not that Decius also have been fitly chosen to exercise priestly
							functions on behalf of the Roman people?

And for me, are you afraid that the gods will not listen to my prayers
							as they do to those of Appius Claudius? Does he perform his private
							devotions with a purer mind or worship the gods in a more religious
							spirit than I do?

Who has ever had occasion to regret the vows which have been made on
							behalf of the commonwealth by so many plebeian consuls, so many plebeian
							Dictators, when they were going to take command of their armies, or when
							they were actually engaged in battle?

Count up the commanders in all the years since war was for the first
							time waged under the leadership and auspices of plebeians, you will find
							as many triumphs as commanders. The plebeians, too, have their nobility
							and have no cause to be dissatisfied with them.

You may be quite certain that, if a war were suddenly to break out now,
							the senate and people of Rome would not put more confidence in a general
							because he was a patrician than in one who happened to be a plebeian.

Now, if this is the case, who in heaven or earth could regard it as an
							indignity that the men whom you have honoured with curule chairs, with
							the toga praetexta , the tunica palmata , and the toga
								picta , with the
							triumphal crown and the laurel wreath, the men upon whose houses you
							have conferred special distinction by affixing to them the spoils taken
							from the enemy —that these men, I say, should have in addition to their
							other marks of rank the insignia of the pontiffs and

the augurs? A triumphing general drives through the City in a gilded
							chariot, apparelled in the splendid vestments of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
							After this he goes up to the Capitol; is he not to be seen there with
								 capis and lituus 
							 ? Is it to be
							regarded as an indignity, if he with veiled head slay a victim, or from
							his place on the citadel take

an augury? And if in the inscription on his bust the words
							“consulship,” “censorship,”
							“triumph” are read without arousing any indignation, in
							what mood will the reader regard the words which you are going to add,
							“augurship”

and “pontificate”? I do indeed hope, please heaven, that,
							thanks to the good will of the Roman people, we now possess sufficient
							dignity to be capable of conferring as much honour on the priesthood as
							we shall receive. For the sake of the gods as much as for ourselves let
							us insist that as we worship them now as private individuals so we may
							worship them for the future as officials of the State.”

“But why have I so far been assuming that the question of the
							patricians and the priesthood is still an open one, and that we are not
							yet in possession of the highest of all offices?

We see plebeians amongst the ten keepers of the Sacred Books, acting as
							interpreters of the Sibyl's runes and the Fates of this people; we see
							them, too, presiding over the sacrifices and other rites connected with
							Apollo.

No injustice was inflicted on the patricians when an addition was made
							to the number of the keepers of the Sacred Books on the demand of the
							plebeians.

None has been inflicted now, when a strong and capable tribune has
							created five more posts for augurs and four more for priests, which are
							to be filled by plebeians, not, Appius, with the design of ousting you
							patricians from your places, but in order that the plebs may assist you
							in the conduct of divine matters as they do to the utmost of their power
							in the administration of human affairs.”

“Do not blush, Appius, to have as your colleague in the
							priesthood a man whom you might have had as colleague in the censorship
							or in the consulship, who might be Dictator with you as his Master of
							Horse, just as much as you might be Dictator with him for your Master of
							the Horse.

A Sabine immigrant, Attius
							Clausus, or if you prefer it, Appius Claudius, the founder of your noble
							house, was admitted by those old patricians into their number;

do not think it beneath you to admit us into the number of the priests.

We bring with us many distinctions, all those, in fact, which have made
							you so proud. L. Sextius was the first plebeian to be elected consul, C.
							Licinius Stolo was the first plebeian Master of the Horse, C. Marcius
							Rutilus the first plebeian who was both Dictator and censor, Q.
							Publilius Philo was the first praetor.

We have always heard the same objection raised —that the auspices were
							solely in your hands, that you alone enjoy the privileges and
							prerogatives of noble birth, that you alone can legitimately hold
							sovereign command and take the auspices either in peace or war.

Have you never heard the remark that it was not men sent down from
							heaven who were originally created patricians, but those who could cite
							a father, which is nothing more than saying that they
							were

freeborn. I can now cite a consul as my father, and my son will be able
							to cite him as his grandfather. It simply comes to this, Quirites, that
							we can get nothing without a struggle. It is only a quarrel that the
							patricians are seeking, they do not care in the least about the

result. I for my part support this measure, which I believe will be for
							your good and happiness and a blessing to the State, and I hold that you
							ought to pass it.”

The Assembly was on the point of ordering the voting to proceed, and it
							was evident that the measure would be adopted, when, on the intervention
							of some of the tribunes, all further business was adjourned for the day.

On the morrow, the dissentient tribunes having given way, the law was
							passed amid great enthusiasm. The co-opted pontiffs were P. Decius Mus,
							the supporter of the measure, P. Sempronius Sophus, C. Marcius Rutilus,
							and M. Livius Denter. The five augurs who were also taken from the plebs
							were C. Genucius, P. Aelius Paetus, M. Minucius Faesus, C. Marcius, and
							T. Publilius.

So the number of the pontiffs was raised to eight and that of the augurs
							to nine. In this year the consul, M. Valerius, carried
							a proposal to strengthen the provisions of the law touching the right of
							appeal.

This was the third time since the expulsion of the kings that this law
							was re-enacted, and always by the same family. I think that the reason
							for renewing it so often was solely the fact that the excessive power
							exercised by a few men was dangerous to the liberties of the plebs.

The Porcian law, however, seems to have been passed solely for the
							protection of the citizens in life and limb, for it imposed the severest
							penalties on any one who killed or scourged a Roman citizen.

The Valerian law, it is true, forbade any one who had exercised his
							right of appeal to be scourged or beheaded, but if any one transgressed
							its provisions it added no penalty, but simply declared such
							transgression to be a “wicked act.”

Such was the self-respect and sense of shame amongst the men of those
							days, that I believe that declaration to have been a sufficiently strong
							barrier against violations of the law.

Nowadays there is hardly a slave who would not use stronger language
							against his master. Valerius also
							conducted a war against the Aequi, who had recommenced hostilities, but
							who retained nothing of their earlier character except their restless
							temper. The other consul, Apuleius, invested the town of Nequinum in
							Umbria.

It was situated where Narnia now stands, on high ground which on one
							side was steep and precipitous, and it was impossible to take it either
							by assault or by regular siege works.

It was left to the new consuls, M. Fulvius Paetus and T. Manlius
							Torquatus, to carry the siege to a successful issue.

According to Licinius Macer and Tubero, all the centuries intended to
							elect Q. Fabius consul for this year, but he urged them to postpone his
							consulship until some more important war broke out, for he considered
							that he would be more useful to the State as a City magistrate. So
							without dissembling his real wishes or ostensibly seeking the post, he
							was elected curule aedile along with L. Papirius Cursor.

I cannot, however, be certain on this point, for the earlier annalist,
							Piso, states that the curule aediles for this year were Cn. Domitius,
							Cn. F. Calvinus, Sp. Carvilius, and Q. F. Maximus I think that the
							cognomen of the last-mentioned aedile —Maximus

—was the cause of the error, and that a story in which the lists of both
							elections were combined was constructed to fit in with the mistake.

The lustrum was closed this year by the censors, P. Sempronius Sophus and
							P. Sulpicius Saverrio, and two new tribes were added, the Aniensis and
							the Teretina. These were the principal events of the year in Rome .

Meantime the siege of Nequinum was dragging slowly on and time was being
							wasted. At length two of the townsmen, whose houses abutted on the city
							wall, made a tunnel, and came by that secret passage to the Roman
							outposts.

They were conducted to the consul, and undertook to admit a detachment
							of soldiers within the fortifications and the city walls. It did not
							seem right to reject their proposal, nor yet to accept it offhand.

One of them was instructed to conduct two spies through the underground
							passage; the other was detained as a hostage.

The report of the spies was satisfactory, and 300 soldiers, led by the
							deserter, entered the city by night and seized the nearest gate. This
							was broken open, and the consul with his army took possession of the
							place without any fighting. Thus Nequinum passed into the power of Rome.

A colony was sent there as an outpost against the Umbrians, and the
							place was called Narnia from the river Nar. The army marched back to
							Rome with a large amount of spoil. This year the Etruscans determined to
							break the truce, and began to make preparations for war.

But the invasion of their country by an enormous army of Gauls —the last
							thing they were expecting —turned them for a time from their purpose.

Trusting to the power of money, which with them was very considerable,
							they endeavoured to convert the Gauls from enemies into allies in order
							that they might combine their forces in an attack on Rome. The
							barbarians did not object to an alliance, the only question was as to
							the amount of pay.

After this had been agreed upon and all the other preparations for war
							had been completed, the Etruscans called upon the Gauls to follow them.
							They refused to do so, and asserted that they had not taken the money to
							make war on Rome.

Whatever they had received had been accepted as compensation for not
							devastating the land of Etruria or subjecting its inhabitants to armed
							violence.

However, they expressed their willingness to serve if the Etruscans
							really wished them to do so, but only on one condition, namely that they
							should be admitted to a share of their territory and be able to settle
							at last in a permanent home.

Many councils were held in the various cantons to discuss this proposal,
							but it was found impossible to accept the terms, not so much because
							they would not consent to any loss of territory as because they dreaded
							the prospect of having as their neighbours men belonging to such a
							savage race.

The Gauls were accordingly dismissed, and carried back with them an
							enormous sum of money gained without labour and without risk. The rumour
							of a Gaulish invasion in addition to the Etruscan war created alarm in
							Rome, and there was less hesitation in concluding a treaty with the
							Picentes.

The campaign in Etruria fell to the consul T. Manlius. He had scarcely
							entered the hostile territory when, as he was wheeling his horse round
							in some cavalry exercises, he was flung off and almost killed on the
							spot.

Three days later the consul ended his life. The Etruscans derived
							encouragement from this incident, for they took it as an omen, and
							declared that the gods were fighting for them.

When the sad news reached Rome, not only was the loss of the man
							severely felt, but also the inopportuneness of the time when it
							occurred.

The senate were prepared to order the nomination of a Dictator, but
							refrained from doing so as the election of a successor to the consul
							went quite in accordance with the wishes of the leading patricians.
							Every vote was given in favour of M. Valerius, the man whom the senate
							had decided upon as Dictator.

The legions were at once ordered to Etruria. Their presence acted as such
							a check upon the Etruscans that no one ventured outside their lines;
							their fears shut them up as closely as though they were blockaded.

Valerius devastated their fields and burnt their houses, till not only
							single farms but numerous villages were reduced to smoking ashes, but he
							failed to bring the enemy to action.

While this war was progressing more slowly than had been anticipated,
							apprehensions were felt as to another war which, from the numerous
							defeats sustained formerly on both sides, was not unreasonably regarded
							with dread. The Picentes had sent information that the Samnites were
							arming for war, and that they had approached the Picentes to induce them
							to join them.

The latter were thanked for their loyalty, and the public attention was
							diverted to a large extent from Etruria to Samnium.

The dearness of provisions caused widespread distress amongst the
							citizens. Those writers who make Fabius Maximus a curule aedile for that
							year assert that there would have been actual famine if he had not shown
							the same wise care in the control of the market and the accumulation of
							supplies which he had so often before displayed in war. An interregnum
							occurred this year —tradition assigns no reason for it.

The interreges were Ap. Claudius and P. Sulpicius. The latter held the
							consular elections, at which L. Cornelius Scipio and Cn. Fulvius were
							returned. At the beginning of their year a deputation came from the
							Lucanians to lay a formal complaint against the Samnites.

They informed the senate that that people had tried to allure them into
							forming an offensive and defensive alliance with them, and, finding
							their efforts futile, they invaded their territory and were laying it
							waste, and so, by making war upon them, trying to drive them into a war
							with Rome.

The Lucanians, they said, had made too many mistakes already; they had
							now quite made up their minds that it would be better to bear and suffer
							everything than to attempt anything against Rome.

They implored the senate to take them under its protection and to defend
							them from the wanton aggressions of the Samnites. They were fully aware
							that it Rome declared war against Samnium their loyalty to her would be
							a matter of life and death, but, notwithstanding that, they were
							prepared to give hostages as a guarantee of good faith.

The discussion in the
							senate was brief. The members unanimously decided that a treaty of close
							alliance should be made with the Lucanians and satisfaction demanded
							from the Samnites.

When the envoys were readmitted, they received a favourable reply and a
							treaty was concluded with them. The fetials were sent to insist upon the
							evacuation by the Samnites of the territories of the allies of Rome and
							the withdrawal of their forces from the Lucanian frontiers.

They were met by emissaries from the Samnites, who warned them that if
							they appeared in any of the Samnite councils their inviolability would
							be no longer respected. On this being reported in Rome, the Assembly
							confirmed the resolution passed by the senate and ordered war to be made
							upon the Samnites In the allotment of their respective commands Etruria
							fell to Scipio and the Samnites to Fulvius.

Both consuls took the field. Scipio, who was anticipating a tedious
							campaign similar to the one of the previous year, was met by the enemy
							in battle formation at Volaterrae.

The contest lasted the greater part of the day, with heavy loss on both
							sides.

Night came on whilst they were still uncertain with whom the victory
							lay; the following morning made it clear, for the Etruscans had
							abandoned their camp in the dead of the night. When the Romans marched
							out to battle and saw that the enemy had by their action admitted their
							defeat, they went on to the deserted camp.

This they took possession of, and as it was a standing camp and had been
							hurriedly abandoned, they secured a considerable amount of booty. The
							troops were marched back into the neighbourhood of Falerii, and after
							leaving the baggage with a small escort there they proceeded, in light
							marching order, to harry the Etruscan land.

Everything was laid waste with fire and sword; prey was driven in from
							all sides. Not only was the soil left an absolute waste for the enemy,
							but their fortified posts and villages were burnt.

The Romans refrained from attacking the cities in which the terrified
							Etruscans had sought shelter. Cnaeus Fulvius sought a brilliant action
							at Bovianum in Samnium, and gained a decisive victory. He then carried
							Bovianum by storm, and not long afterwards Aufidena.

During the year a colony was settled at Carseoli, in the country of the
							Aequicoli. The consul Fulvius celebrated a triumph over the Samnites.

Just as the consular elections were coming on, a rumour spread that the
							Etruscans and Samnites were levying immense armies.

According to the reports which were sent, the leaders of the Etruscans
							were attacked in all the cantonal council meetings for not having
							brought the Gauls over on any terms whatever to take part in the war;
							the Samnite government were abused for having employed against the
							Romans a force which was only raised to act against the Lucanians;

the enemy was arising in his own strength and in that of his allies to
							make war on Rome, and matters would not be settled without a conflict on
							a very much larger scale than formerly.

Men of distinction were amongst the candidates for the consulship, but
							the gravity of the danger turned all eyes to Quintus Fabius Maximus . He
							at first simply declined to become a candidate, but when he saw the
							trend of popular feeling he distinctly refused to allow his name to
							stand:

“Why,” he asked, “do you want an old man like me,
							who has finished his allotted tasks and gained all the rewards they have
							brought? I am not the man I was either in strength of body or mind, and
							I fear lest some god should even deem my good fortune too great or too
							unbroken for human nature to enjoy.

I have grown up to the measure of the glory of my seniors, and I would
							gladly see others rising to the height of my own renown.

There is no lack of honours in Rome for the strongest and most capable
							men, nor is there any lack of men to win the honour.” This
							display of modesty and unselfishness only made the popular feeling all
							the keener in his favour by showing how rightly it was directed.

Thinking that the best way of checking it would be to appeal to the
							instinctive reverence for law, he ordered the law to be rehearsed which
							forbade any man from being re-elected consul within ten years.

Owing to the clamour the law was hardly heard, and the tribunes of the
							plebs declared that there was no impediment here; they would make a
							proposition to the Assembly that he should be exempt from its
							provisions.

He, however, persisted in his refusal, and repeatedly asked what was the
							object in making laws if they were deliberately broken by those who made
							them; “we,” said he,“are now ruling the laws
							instead of the laws ruling us.”

Notwithstanding his opposition the people began to vote, and as each
							century was called in, it declared without the slightest hesitation for
							Fabius. At last, yielding to the general desire of his countrymen, he
							said, “May the gods approve what you have done and what you are
							going to do. Since, however, you are going to have your own way as far
							as I am concerned, give me the opportunity of using my influence with
							you so far as my colleague is concerned.

I ask you to elect as my fellow-consul, P. Decius, a man whom I have
							found to work with me in perfect harmony, a man who is worthy of your
							confidence, worthy of his illustrious sire.”

The recommendation was felt to be well deserved, and all the centuries
							which had not yet voted elected Q. Fabius and P. Decius consuls. During
							the year a large number of people were prosecuted by the aediles for
							occupying more than the legal quantity of land. Hardly one could clear
							himself from the charge, and a very strong curb was placed upon
							inordinate covetousness.

The consuls were busy with their arrangements for
							the campaign, deciding which of them should deal with the Etruscans, and
							which with the Samnites, what troops they would each require, which
							field of

operations each was best fitted for, when envoys arrived from Sutrium,
							Nepete, and Falerii bringing definite information that the local
							assemblies of Etruria were being convened to decide upon a peace policy.

On the strength of this information the whole weight of war was turned
							against the Samnites. In order to facilitate the transport of supplies,
							and also to make the enemy more uncertain as to the line of the Roman
							advance, Fabius led his legions by way of Sora, while Decius proceeded
							through the Sidicine district.

When they had crossed the frontiers of Samnium they marched on a widely
							extended front, laying the country waste as they went on.

They threw out their scouting parties still more widely, and so did not
							fail to discover the enemy near Tifernum.

They had concealed themselves in a secluded valley, prepared to attack
							the Romans, should they enter the valley, from the rising ground on each
							side. Fabius removed the baggage into a safe place and left a small
							guard over it.

He then informed his men that a battle was impending, and massing them
							into a solid square came up to the above-mentioned hiding-place of the
							enemy.

The Samnites, finding all chance of a surprise hopeless, since matters
							would have to be decided by an action in the open, thought it better to
							meet their foes in a pitched battle. Accordingly they came down to the
							lower ground, and placed themselves in the hands of Fortune with more of
							courage than of hope.

But whether it was that they had got together the whole strength out of
							every community in Samnium, or that their courage was stimulated by the
							thought that their very existence as a nation depended upon this battle,
							they certainly did succeed in creating a good deal of alarm in the Roman
							ranks, even though they were fighting in a fair field.

When Fabius saw that the enemy were holding their ground in every part
							of the field, he rode up to the first line with his son, Maximus, and
							Marcus Valerius, both

military tribunes, and ordered them to go to the cavalry and tell them
							that if they remembered any single occasion on which the republic had
							been aided by the efforts of the

cavalry, they should that day strive their utmost to sustain the
							reputation of that invincible arm of the State, for the enemy were
							standing immovable against the infantry and all their hopes rested on
							the cavalry.

He made a personal appeal to each of them, showering commendations upon
							them and holding out the prospect of great rewards.

Since, however, the cavalry charge might fail in its object, and
							attacking in force prove useless, he thought he ought to adopt a
							stratagem. Scipio, one of his staff, received instructions to draw off
							the hastati of the first legion and, attracting as little observation as
							possible, take them to the nearest hills.

Then climbing up where they could not be seen, they were suddenly to
							show themselves in the enemy's rear. The cavalry, led by the two young
							tribunes, dashed out in front of the standards, and their sudden
							appearance created almost as much confusion amongst their own people as
							amongst the enemy.

The Samnite line stood perfectly firm against the galloping squadrons,
							nowhere could they be forced back or broken. Finding their attempt a
							failure, the cavalry retired behind the standards and took no further
							part in the fighting.

This increased the courage of the enemy, and the Roman front could not
							have sustained the prolonged contest, met as they were by a resistance
							which was becoming more stubborn as its confidence rose, had not the
							consul ordered the second line to relieve the first.

These fresh troops checked the advance of the Samnites, who were now
							pressing forward. Just at this moment the standards were descried on the
							hills, and a fresh battle-shout arose from the Roman ranks.

The alarm which was created among the Samnites was greater than
							circumstances warranted, for Fabius exclaimed that his colleague Decius
							was coming, and every soldier, wild with

joy, took up the cry and shouted that the other consul with his legions
							was at hand.

This mistake occurring so opportunely filled the Samnites with dismay;
							they dreaded, exhausted as they were by fighting, the prospect of being
							overwhelmed by a second army, fresh and unhurt. Unable to offer any
							further resistance they broke and fled, and owing to their scattered
							flight, the bloodshed was small when compared with the greatness of the
							victory; 3400 were killed, about 830 made prisoners, and 23 standards
							were captured.

Before this battle took place the Samnites would have been joined by the
							Apulians had not the consul Decius anticipated their action by fixing
							his camp at Maleventum.

He drew them into an engagement and routed them, and in this battle also
							there were more who escaped by flight than were slain; these amounted to
							2000. Without troubling himself further about the Apulians, Decius led
							his army into Samnium.

There the two consular armies spent five months in ravaging and
							desolating the country.

There were forty-five different places in Samnium where Decius at one
							time or another had fixed his camp; in the case of the other consul
							there were eightysix.

Nor were the only traces left those of ramparts and fosses, more
							conspicuous still were those which attested the devastation and
							depopulation of all the country round.

Fabius also captured the city of Cimetra, where 2900 became prisoners of
							war, 830 having been killed during the assault.

After this he returned to Rome for the elections and arranged for them to
							be held at an early date. The centuries who voted first declared without
							exception for Fabius. Amongst the candidates was the energetic and
							ambitious Appius Claudius.

Anxious to secure the honour for himself, he was quite as anxious that
							both posts should be held by patricians, and he brought his utmost
							influence, supported by the whole of the nobility, to bear upon the
							electors so that they might return him together with Fabius.

At the outset Fabius refused, and alleged the same grounds for his
							refusal as he had alleged the year before. Then all the nobles crowded
							round his chair and begged him to extricate the consulship from the
							plebeian mire and restore both to the office itself and to the patrician
							houses the august dignity which they possessed of old.

As soon as he could obtain silence he addressed them in terms which
							calmed their excitement. He would, he said, have arranged to admit votes
							for two patricians if he saw that any one else than himself was

being elected, but as matters were he would not allow his name to stand,
							since it would be against the law and form a most dangerous precedent.

So L. Volumnius, a plebeian, was elected together with Appius Claudius;
							they had already been associated in a previous consulship. The nobles
							taunted Fabius and said that he refused to have Appius Claudius as a
							colleague because he was unquestionably his inferior in eloquence and
							state-craft.

When the elections were over, the previous consuls received a six months'
							extension of their command and were ordered to prosecute the war in
							Samnium.

P. Decius, who had been left by his colleague in Samnium and was now
							proconsul, continued his ravages of the Samnite fields until he had
							driven their army, which nowhere ventured to encounter him, outside
							their frontiers. They made for Etruria, and were in hopes that the
							object which they had failed to secure by their numerous deputations
							might be achieved now that they had a strong force and could back up
							their appeals by intimidation.

They insisted upon a meeting of the Etruscan chiefs being convened.

When it had assembled they pointed out how for many years they had been
							fighting with the Romans, how they had tried in every possible way to
							sustain the weight of that war in their own strength, and how they had
							proved the assistance of their neighbours to be of small value.

They had sued for peace because they could no longer endure war, they
							had taken to war again because a peace which reduced them to slavery was
							heavier to bear than a war in which they could fight as free men. The
							only hope left to them now lay in the Etruscans.

They knew that they of all the nations of Italy were the richest in arms
							and men and money, and they had for their neighbours the Gauls, trained
							to arms from the cradle, naturally courageous to desperation and
							especially against the Romans, a nation whom they justly boast of having
							captured and then allowing them to ransom themselves with gold.

If the Etruscans had the same spirit which Porsena and their ancestors
							once had there was no reason why they should not expel the Romans from
							the whole of their land as far as the Tiber and compel them to fight,
							not for their insupportable dominion over Italy, but for their very
							existence.

The Samnite army had come to them completely provided with arms and a
							war chest, and were ready to follow them at once, even if they led them
							to an attack on Rome itself.

While they were thus busy with their intrigues in Etruria the warfare
							which the Romans were carrying on in Samnium was terribly destructive.
							When P. Decius had ascertained through his scouts the departure of the
							Samnite army he summoned a council of war.

“Why,” he asked, “are we roaming through the
							country districts, making war only upon the villages? Why are we not
							attacking the walled cities? There is no army to defend them, the army
							has abandoned its country and gone into voluntary exile.”

His proposal was unanimously adopted and he led them to the attack of
							Murgantia, a powerfully fortified city. Such was the eagerness of the
							soldiers, due partly to the affection they felt for their commander and
							partly to the expectation of a larger amount of plunder than they were
							securing in the country districts, that they stormed and captured the
							city in a single day.

Two thousand one hundred combatants were cut off and made prisoners and
							an enormous quantity of plunder was seized.

To avoid loading the army with a lot of heavy baggage Decius called his
							men together and addressed them thus: “Are you going to content
							yourselves with this one victory and this spoil? Raise your hopes and
							expectations to the height of your courage. All the cities of the
							Samnites and all the wealth left in them are yours now that their
							legions, routed in so many battles, have at last been driven by you
							beyond their frontiers.

Sell what you now hold and attract traders by the hope of profit to
							follow our armies; I shall frequently supply you with things for sale.

Let us go on to the city of Romulea where still greater spoil awaits you
							but not greater exertions.” The booty was then sold and the men,
							urging on their commander, marched to Romulea. Here, too, no siege works
							were constructed, no artillery employed, the moment the standards were
							brought up to the walls no resistance on the part of the defenders could
							keep the men back; they planted their scalingladders just where they
							happened to be, and swarmed on to the walls.

The town was taken and sacked, 2300 were killed, 6ooo taken prisoners,
							and a vast amount of plunder secured, which the troops, as before, were

obliged to dispose of to the traders. The next place to be attacked was
							Ferentinum, and though no rest was allowed the men, they marched thither
							in the highest spirits.

Here, however, they had more trouble and more risk. The position had
							been made as strong as possible by nature and by art, and the walls were
							defended with the utmost energy, but a soldiery habituated to plunder
							overcame all obstacles.

As many as 3000 of the enemy were killed round the walls; the plunder
							was given to the troops. In some annalists the greater part of the
							credit of these captures is given to Maximus; Decius they say took
							Murgantia, Ferentinum and Romulea being captured by Fabius.

Some again claim this honour for the new consuls, while a few restrict
							it to L. Volumnius, to whom they say Samnium was assigned as his sphere
							of action.

Whilst this campaign was
							going on in Samnium —whoever may have been the commander —a very serious
							war against Rome was being organised in Etruria, in which many nations
							were to take part.

The chief organiser was Gellius Egnatius, a Samnite. Almost all the
							Tuscan cantons had decided on war, the contagion had infected the
							nearest cantons in Umbria, and the Gauls were being solicited to help as
							mercenaries.

All these were concentrating at the Samnite camp. When the news of this
							sudden rising reached Rome, L. Volumnius had already left for Samnium
							with the second and third legions and 15,000 allied troops; it was
							therefore decided that Appius Claudius should at the earliest possible
							moment enter Etruria. Two Roman legions followed him, the first and
							fourth, and 12,000 allies.

He fixed his camp not far from the enemy.

The advantage gained by his prompt arrival did not, however, show itself
							in anywise or fortunate generalship on his part so much as the check
							imposed by the fear of Rome upon some of the Etrurian cantons which were
							meditating war. Several engage- ments took place in unfavourable
							positions and at unfortunate times, and the more the enemy's hopes of
							success, the more formidable he became.

Matters almost reached the point when the soldiers distrusted their
							general and the general had no confidence in his soldiers. I find it
							stated by some annalists that he sent a letter to his colleague
							summoning him from Samnium, but I cannot assert this as a fact since
							this very circumstance became a subject of dispute between the two
							consuls, who were now in office together for the second time;

Appius denying that he had sent any letter and Volumnius insisting that
							he had been summoned by a letter from Appius

Volumnius had by this time taken three fortified posts in Samnium in
							which as many as 3000 men were killed and almost half that number made
							prisoners. He had also sent Q. Fabius, the proconsul, with his veteran
							army, much to the satisfaction of the Lucanian magnates, to repress the
							disturbances which had been got up in that part of the country by the
							plebeian and indigent classes. Leaving the ravaging of the enemy's
							fields to Decius he proceeded with his whole force to Etruria.

On his arrival he was universally welcomed.

As to the way Appius treated him, I think that if he had a clear
							conscience in the matter, that is, if he had written nothing, his anger
							was justifiable, but if he had really stood in need of help he showed a
							disingenuous and ungrateful spirit in concealing the fact.

When he went out to meet his colleague, almost before they had had time
							to exchange mutual greetings, he asked: “Is all well, Volumnius?
							How are things going in Samnium? What induced you to leave your allotted
							province?”

Volumnius replied that all was going on satisfactorily and that he had
							come because he had been asked to do so by letter. If it was a forgery
							and there was nothing for him to do in Etruria he would at once
							countermarch his troops and depart.

“Well then,” said Appius, “go, let nobody keep you
							here for it is by no means right that whilst perhaps you are hardly able
							to cope with your own war you should boast of having come to the
							assistance of others.”

“May Hercules guide all for the best,” replied Volumnius.
							“I would rather have taken all this trouble in vain than that
							anything should happen which would make one consular army insufficient
							for Etruria.”

As the consuls were parting from each other, the staffofficers and
							military tribunes stood round them; some of them implored their own
							commander not to reject the assistance of his colleague, assistance
							which he himself ought to have invited and which was now spontaneously
							offered;

many of the others tried to stop Volumnius as he was leaving and
							appealed to him not to betray the safety of the republic through a
							wretched quarrel with his colleague.

They urged that if any disaster occurred the responsibility for it would
							fall on the one who abandoned the other, not on the other who was
							abandoned; it came to this —all the glory of success and all the
							disgrace of failure in Etruria was transferred to Volumnius.

People would not inquire what words Appius had used, but what fortune
							the army was meeting with; he may have been dismissed by Appius, but his
							presence was demanded by the republic and by the army.

He had only to test the feelings of the soldiers to find this out for
							himself. Amidst appeals and warnings of this character they almost
							dragged the reluctant consuls into a council of war.

There the dispute which had previously been witnessed by only a few went
							on at much greater length. Volumnius had not only the stronger case, but
							he showed himself by no means a bad speaker, even when compared with the
							exceptional eloquence of his colleague.

Appius remarked sarcastically that they ought to look upon it as due to
							him that they had a consul who was actually able to speak, instead of
							the dumb inarticulate man he once was.

In their former consulship, especially during the first months of
							office, he could not open his lips, now he was becoming quite a popular
							speaker. Volumnius observed, “I would much rather that you had
							learnt from me to act with vigour and decision than that I should have
							learnt from you to be a clever speaker.”

He finally made a proposal which would settle the question who was —not
							the better orator, for that was not what the republic needed, but —the
							better commander. Their two provinces were Etruria and Samnium; Appius
							might choose which he preferred, he, Volumnius, was willing to conduct
							operations either in Etruria or in Samnium.

On this the soldiers began to clamour; they insisted that both consuls
							should carry on the war in Etruria.

When Volumnius saw that this was the general wish he said, “Since
							I have made a mistake in interpreting my colleague's wishes I will take
							care that there shall be no doubt as to what it is that you want.

Signify your wishes by acclamation; do you wish me to stay or to
							go?” Such a shout arose in reply that it brought the enemy out of
							their camp; seizing their arms they came down to the battlefield.

Then Volumnius ordered the battle signal to be sounded and the standards
							to be carried out of the camp. Appius, it is said, was for some time
							undecided, as he saw that whether he fought or remained inactive the
							victory would be his colleague's, but at last, fearing lest his legions
							also should follow Volumnius, he yielded to their loud demands and gave
							the signal for battle.

On both sales the dispositions were far from
							complete. The Samnite captain-general, Gellius Egnatius, had gone off
							with a few cohorts on a foraging expedition, and his troops commenced
							the battle in obedience to their own impulses rather than to any word of
							command.

The Roman armies again were not both led to the attack at the same time,
							nor was sufficient time allowed for their formation.

Volumnius was engaged before Appius reached the enemy, so the battle
							began on an irregular front, and the usual opponents happened to be
							interchanged, the Etruscans facing Volumnius and the Samnites, after a
							short delay owing to their leader's absence, closing with Appius. The
							story runs that he lifted up his hands to heaven so as to be visible to
							those about the foremost standards and uttered this prayer:
							“Bellona!

if thou wilt grant us victory to-day, I, in return, vow a temple to
							thee.” After this prayer it seemed as though the goddess had
							inspired him, he displayed a courage equal to his colleague's, or indeed
							to that of the whole army.

Nothing was lacking on the part of the generals to ensure success, and
							the rank and file in each of the consular armies did their utmost to
							prevent the other from being the first to achieve victory.

The enemy were quite unable to withstand a force so much greater than any
							they had been accustomed to meet, and were in consequence routed and put
							to flight.

The Romans pressed the attack when they began to give ground, and when
							they broke and fled, followed them up till they had driven them to their
							camp.

There the appearance of Gellius and his cohorts led to a brief stand
							being made; soon, however, these were routed and the victors attacked
							the camp. Volumnius encouraging his men by his own example led the
							attack upon one of the gates in person, whilst Appius was kindling the
							courage of his troops by repeatedly invoking “Bellona the
							victorious.”

They succeeded in forcing their way through rampart and fosse; the camp
							was captured and plundered, and a very considerable amount of booty was
							discovered and given to the soldiery; 6900 of the enemy were killed,
							2120 made prisoners.

Whilst both the consuls with the
							whole strength of Rome were devoting their energies more and more to the
							Etruscan war, fresh armies were raised in Samnium for the purpose of
							ravaging the territories which belonged to the feudatories of Rome. They
							passed through the Vescini into the country round Capua and Falernum and
							secured immense spoil.

Volumnius was returning to Samnium by forced marches, for the extended
							command of Fabius and Decius had almost expired, when he heard of the
							devastations which the Samnites were committing in Campania. He at once
							diverted his route in that direction to protect our allies.

When he was in the neighhourhood of Cales he saw for himself the fresh
							traces of the destruction that had been wrought, and the inhabitants
							informed him that the enemy were carrying off so much plunder that they
							could hardly keep any proper formation on the march.

In fact their generals had openly given out that they dared not expose
							an army so heavily laden to the chances of battle, and they must at once
							return to Samnium and leave their plunder there, after which they would
							return for a fresh raid.

However true all this might be, Volumnius thought he ought to get
							further information, and accordingly he despatched some cavalry to pick
							up any stragglers they might find among the raiders.

On questioning them he learnt that the enemy were halted at the river
							Volturnus, and were going to move forward at the third watch and take
							the road to Samnium.

Satisfied with this information he marched on and fixed his camp at such
							a distance from the enemy that while it was not close enough for his
							arrival to be detected it was sufficiently near to allow of his
							surprising them while they were leaving their camp.

Some time before daylight he approached their camp and sent some men
							familiar with the Oscan language to find out what was going on. Mingling
							with the enemy, an easy matter in the confusion of a nocturnal
							departure, they found that the standards had already gone with only a
							few to defend them, the booty and those who were to escort it were just
							leaving, the army as a whole were incapable of any military evolution,
							for each was looking

after his own affairs, without any mutually arranged plan of action or
							any definite orders from their commander.

This seemed the moment for delivering his attack, and daylight was
							approaching, so he ordered the advance to be sounded and attacked the
							enemy's column. The Samnites were encumbered with their booty, only a
							few were in fighting trim; some hurried on and drove before them the
							animals they had seized, others halted, undecided whether to go on or
							retreat to the camp; in the midst of their hesitation they were
							surrounded and cut off.

The Romans had now got over the rampart, and the camp became a scene of
							wild disorder and carnage. The confusion created in the Samnite column
							by the swiftness of the attack was increased by the sudden outbreak of
							their prisoners.

Some after releasing themselves broke the fetters of those round them,
							others snatched the weapons which were fastened up with the baggage and
							created in the centre of the column a tumult more appalling even than
							the battle which was going on.

Then they achieved a most extraordinary feat. Statius Minacius, the
							general commanding, was riding up and down the ranks encouraging his
							men, when the prisoners attacked him, and after dispersing his escort,
							hurried him off, whilst still in the saddle, as a prisoner to the Roman
							consul.

The noise and the tumult recalled the cohorts who were at the head of
							the column, and the battle was resumed, but only for a short time, as a
							long resistance was impossible.

As many as 6ooo men were killed, there were 2500 prisoners, amongst them
							four military tribunes, thirty standards were taken, and, what gave the
							victors more pleasure than anything else, 7400 captives were rescued and
							the immense booty which had been taken from the allies recovered. Public
							notice was given inviting the owners to identify and recover what
							belonged to them.

Everything for which no owner appeared on the appointed day was given to
							the soldiers, but they were obliged to sell it all that nothing might
							distract their thoughts from their military duties.

This predatory incursion into Campania created great excitement in Rome,
							and it so happened that just at this time grave news was received from
							Etruria.

After the withdrawal of Volumnius' army, the whole country, acting in
							concert with the Samnite captain-general, Gellius Egnatius, had risen in
							arms; whilst the Umbrians were being called on to join the movement, and
							the Gauls were being approached with offers of lavish pay.

The senate, thoroughly alarmed at these tidings, ordered all legal and
							other business to be suspended, and men of all ages and of every class
							to be enrolled for service.

Not only were the freeborn and all within the military age obliged to
							take the oath, but cohorts were formed of the older men, and even the
							freedmen were formed into centuries. Arrangements were made for the
							defence of the City, and P. Sempronius took supreme command.

The senate was, however, relieved of some of its anxiety by the receipt
							of despatches from L. Volumnius, from which it was ascertained that the
							raiders of Campania had been routed and killed.

Thanksgivings for this success were ordered in honour of the consul, the
							suspension of business was withdrawn after lasting eighteen days, and
							the thanksgivings were of a most joyous character.

The next question was the protection of the district which had been
							devastated by the Samnites, and it was decided to settle bodies of
							colonists about the Vescinian and Falernian country.

One was to be at the mouth of the Liris, now called the colony of
							Menturna, the other in the Vescinian forest where it is contiguous with
							the territory of Falernum. Here the Greek city of Sinope is said to have
							stood, and from this the Romans gave the place the name of Sinuessa.

It was arranged that the tribunes of the plebs should get a plebiscite
							passed requiring P. Sempronius, the praetor, to appoint commissioners
							for the founding of colonies in those spots.

But it was not easy to find people to be sent to what was practically a
							permanent outpost in a dangerously hostile country, instead of having
							fields allotted to them for cultivation.

The attention of the senate was diverted from these matters to the
							growing seriousness of the outlook in Etruria. There were frequent
							despatches from Appius warning them not to neglect the movement that was
							going on in that part of the world;

four nations were in arms together, the Etruscans, the Samnites, the
							Umbrians, and the Gauls, and they were compelled to form two separate
							camps, for one place would not hold so great a multitude.

The date of the elections was approaching, and Volumnius was recalled to
							Rome to conduct them, and also to advise on the general policy. Before
							calling upon the centuries to vote he summoned the people to an
							Assembly. Here he dwelt at some length upon the serious nature of the
							war in Etruria.

Even, he said, when he and his colleague were conducting a joint
							campaign, the war was on too large a scale for any single general with
							his one army to cope with. Since then he understood that the Umbrians
							and an enormous force of Gauls had swollen the ranks of their enemies.

The electors must bear in mind that two consuls were being elected on
							that day to act against four nations. The choice of the Roman people
							would, he felt certain, fall on the one man who was unquestionably the
							foremost of all their generals. Had he not felt sure of this he was
							prepared to nominate him at once as Dictator.

After this speech no one felt the slightest doubt that Q. Fabius would be
							unanimously elected. The “prerogative” centuries and all
							those of the first class were voting for him and Volumnius, when he
							again addressed the electors very much

in the terms he had employed two years before, and as on the former
							occasion when he yielded to the universal wish, so now he again
							requested that P. Decius might be his colleague.

He would be a support for his old age to lean upon, they had been
							together as censors, and twice as consuls, and he had learnt by
							experience that nothing went further to protect the State than harmony
							between colleagues. He felt that he could hardly at his time of life get
							accustomed to a new comrade in office, he could so much more easily
							share all his counsels with one whose character and disposition he knew.

Volumnius confirmed what Fabius had said. He bestowed a well-deserved
							encomium on Decius, and pointed out what an advantage in military
							operations is gained by harmony between the consuls,

and what mischief is wrought when they are at variance. He mentioned as
							an instance the recent misunderstanding between him and

his colleague which almost led to a national disaster, and he solemnly
							admonished Decius and Fabius that they should live together with one
							mind and one heart. They were, he continued, born commanders, great in
							action, unskilled in wordy debate, possessing, in fact, all the
							qualifications of a consul.

Those, on the other hand, who were clever and cunning in law, and
							practised pleaders, like Appius Claudius, ought to be employed in the
							City and on the bench; they should be elected praetors to administer
							justice.

The discussion in the Assembly lasted the whole day. On the morrow the
							elections were held for both consuls and praetors.

The consul's recommendation was acted upon; Q. Fabius and P. Decius were
							elected consuls, and Appius Claudius was returned as praetor; they were
							all elected in their absence. The senate passed a resolution, which the
							Assembly confirmed by a plebiscite, that Volumnius' command should be
							extended for a year.

Several portents occurred this year and, with
							the view of averting them, the senate passed a decree that special
							intercessions should be offered for two days.

The wine and incense were provided at the public cost, and both men and
							women attended the religious functions in great numbers.

This time of special observance was rendered memorable by a quarrel
							which broke out amongst the matrons in the chapel of the Patrician
							Pudicitia, which is in the Forum Boarium, against the round temple of
							Hercules.

Verginia, the daughter of Aulus Verginius, a patrician, had married the
							plebeian consul, L. Volumnius, and the matrons excluded her from their
							sacred rites because she had married outside the patriciate. This led to
							a brief altercation, which, as the women became excited, soon blazed up
							into a storm of passion.

Verginia protested with perfect truth that she entered the temple of
							Pudicitia as a patrician and a pure woman, the wife of one man to whom
							she had been betrothed as a virgin, and she had nothing to be ashamed of
							in her husband or in his honourable career and the offices which he had
							held.

The effect of her high-spirited language was considerably enhanced by
							her subsequent action. In the Vicus Longus, where she lived, she shut
							off a portion of her house, sufficient to form a moderately sized
							chapel, and set up an altar there.

She then called the plebeian matrons together and told them how unjustly
							she had been treated by the patrician ladies. “I am
							dedicating,” she said,“this altar to the Plebeian
							Pudicitia, and I earnestly exhort you as matrons to show the same

spirit of emulation on the score of chastity that the men of this City
							display with regard to courage, so that this altar may, if possible,
							have the reputation of being honoured with a holier observance and by
							purer worshippers than that of the patricians.”

The ritual and ceremonial practised at this altar was almost identical
							with that at the older one; no matron was allowed to sacrifice there
							whose moral character was not well attested, and who had had more than
							one husband.

Afterwards it was polluted by the presence of women of every kind, not
							matrons only, and finally passed into oblivion. The curule aediles,
							Cnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius, brought up several money-lenders for trial
							this year.

The proportion of their fines which was paid into the treasury was
							devoted to various public objects; the wooden thresholds of the Capitol
							were replaced by bronze, silver vessels were made for the three tables
							in the shrine of Jupiter, and a statue of the god himself, seated in a
							four-horsed chariot, was set up on the roof.

They also placed near the Ficus Ruminalis a group
							representing the Founders of the City as infants being suckled by the
							she-wolf. The street leading from the Porta Capena to the temple of Mars
							was paved, under their instructions, with stone slabs.

Some graziers were also prosecuted for exceeding the number of cattle
							allowed them on the public land, and the plebeian aediles, L. Aelius
							Paetus and C. Fulvius Curvus, spent the money derived from their fines
							on public games and a set of golden bowls to be placed in the temple of
							Ceres.

. Fabius and P. Decius were now entering
							their year of office, the former being consul for the fifth time, the
							latter for the fourth.

Twice before they had been consuls together, they had held the
							censorship together, and the perfect unanimity between them, quite as
							much as their discharge of its duties, made their tenure of office a
							distinguished one.

But this was not to last for ever; the conflict which broke out between
							them was, however, I think, due more to the antagonism of the two orders
							to which they belonged than to any personal feeling on their part.

The patrician senators were extremely anxious that Fabius should have
							Etruria assigned to him without going through the usual procedure; the
							plebeian senators urged Decius to insist upon the question being settled
							in the usual way by lot. There was, at all events, a sharp division of
							opinion in the senate, and, when it became apparent that the Fabian
							interest was the stronger, the matter was referred to the people.

As both were first of all soldiers, trusting more to deeds than to words,
							their speeches before the Assembly were brief.

Fabius declared that it would be an unworthy proceeding if another
							should gather up the fruit beneath the tree which he had planted; he had
							opened up the Ciminian forest and made a way through pathless jungle for
							the arms of Rome. Why had they troubled him at his time of life, if they
							were going to carry on the war under another general?

Then he turned to Decius: “Surely,” he said, “I
							have chosen an opponent, not a comrade, in office; Decius is annoyed at
							our three years of joint power having been so harmonious.”

Finally, he asserted that he desired nothing more than that if they
							thought him worthy of that command, they should send him there; he had
							bowed to the will of the senate and should accept the decision of the
							people.

P. Decius, in reply, protested against the injustice of the senate. The
							patricians, he said, had done their utmost to exclude the plebeians from
							the great offices of the State.

Since personal merit had so far won the day that it no longer failed of
							recognition in any class of men, their object was now not only to
							stultify the deliberate decisions of the people as expressed by their
							votes, but even to turn the judgments which Fortune is ever passing into
							so many reasons for retaining their power, small as their number was.

All the consuls before his time had drawn lots for their commands, now
							the senate was giving Fabius his province independently of the lot.

If this was simply as a mark of honour, then he would admit that Fabius
							had rendered services both to the republic and to himself and he would
							gladly consent to anything that would add to his reputation, provided it
							did not involve casting a slur upon himself.

But who could fail to see that when a peculiarly difficult and
							formidable war is entrusted to one consul without any resort to the lot,
							it means that the other consul is regarded as superfluous and useless?

Fabius pointed with pride to his achievements in Etruria; Decius wished
							to be able to do so too, and possibly he might succeed in totally
							extinguishing the fire which the other had only smothered, and smothered
							in such a way that it was constantly breaking out where one least
							expected in fresh conflagrations.

He was prepared to concede honours and rewards to his colleague out of
							respect to his age and position, but when it was a question of danger or
							of fighting he did not give way, and would not voluntarily.

If he gained nothing else from this dispute, he would at least gain this
							much, that the people should decide a question which was theirs to
							decide, rather than that the senate should show undue partiality. He
							prayed Jupiter Optimus Maximus and the immortal gods to grant to him the
							impartial chance of the lot with his colleague, if they were going to
							grant them each the same courage and good fortune in the conduct of the
							war.

It was, at all events, a thing eminently fair in itself, and an
							excellent precedent for all time, and a thing which touched the good
							name of Rome very closely, that both the consuls should be men by either
							of whom the Etruscan war could be conducted without any risk of failure.

Fabius' only reply was to entreat the people to listen to some despatches
							which had been sent by Appius before they proceeded to vote. He then
							left the Assembly. The people were no less strong in his support than
							the senate had been, and Etruria was decreed to Fabius without any
							casting of lots.

When this decision was
							come to, all the men of military age flocked to the consul, and every
							one began to give in his name, so eager were they to serve under him as
							their general.

Seeing himself surrounded by this crowd, he called out: “I do not
							intend to enlist more than 4000 infantry and 6oo cavalry, and will take
							with me those of you who give in your names to-day and tomorrow.

I am more concerned to bring you all back wealthy men than to have a
							large number of men for my fighting force.”

With this compact army full of confidence and hope —all the more so
							because he felt no need of a great host —he marched to the town of
							Aharna, which was not far from the enemy, and from there went on to
							Appius camp.

He was still some miles distant from it when he was met by some soldiers
							sent to cut wood who were accompanied by an armed escort. When they saw
							the lictors marching in front of him, and heard that it was Fabius their
							consul, they were overjoyed and thanked the gods and the people of Rome
							for having sent him to them as their commander.

As they pressed round the consul to salute him, Fabius asked them where
							they were going, and on their replying that they were going to cut wood,
							“What do you say?”

he inquired; “surely you have a ramparted camp?” They
							informed him that they had a double rampart and fosse round the camp,
							and yet they were in a state of mortal fear.

“Well, then,” he replied, “go back and pull down
							your stockade, and you will have quite enough wood.” They
							returned into camp and began to demolish the rampart, to the great
							terror of those who

had remained in camp, and especially of Appius himself, until the news
							spread from one to another that they were acting under the orders of Q.
							Fabius, the consul. On the following day the camp was shifted, and
							Appius was sent back to Rome to take up his duties as praetor.

From that time the Romans had no standing camp. Fabius said that it was
							bad for the army to remain fixed in one spot; it became more healthy and
							active by frequent marches and change of position.

They made as long and frequent marches as the season allowed, for the
							winter was not yet over. As soon as spring set in, he left the second
							legion at Clusium, formerly called Camars, and placed L. Scipio in
							charge of the camp as propraetor.

He then returned to Rome to consult the senate as to future operations.
							He may have taken this step on his own initiative after finding from
							personal observation that the war was a bigger thing than he had
							believed it to be from the reports received, or he may have been
							summoned home by the senate; both reasons are assigned by our
							authorities.

Some want to make it appear that he was compelled to return, owing to
							the action of Appius Claudius, who had sent alarming despatches about
							the state of things in Etruria, and was now adding to the alarm by his
							speeches in the senate and before the Assembly.

He considered one general with only one army quite insufficient to cope
							with four nations; whether they combined their forces against him or
							acted separately, there was the danger of his being unable,
							single-handed, to meet all emergencies.

He had left only two legions there, and less than 5000 infantry and
							cavalry had arrived with Fabius, and he advised that P. Decius should
							join his colleague in Etruria as soon as possible.

Samnium could be handed over to L. Volumnius, or, if the consul
							preferred to keep to his own province, Volumnius should go to the
							support of Fabius with a full consular army.

As the praetor's representations were producing a considerable
							impression, we are told that Decius gave it as his opinion that Fabius
							ought not to be interfered with, but left free to act as he thought best
							until he had either himself come to Rome, if he could do so with safety
							to the State, or had sent some member

of his staff from whom the senate could learn the actual state of things
							in Etruria, what force would be necessary, and how many generals would
							be required.

Immediately on his arrival in Rome, Fabius addressed the senate and also
							the Assembly on the subject of the war. His tone was calm and temperate,
							he did not exaggerate, nor did he underrate the difficulties. If, he
							said, he accepted a colleague's assistance it would be more out of
							consideration for other people's fears than to provide against any
							danger either to himself or to the republic.

If, however, they did give him a coadjutor to be associated with him in
							the command, how could he possibly overlook P. Decius, who had been so
							frequently his colleague, and whom he knew so well?

There was no one in the world whom he would sooner have; if Decius were
							with him he should always find his forces sufficient for the work and
							never find the enemy too numerous for him to deal with.

If his colleague preferred some other arrangement they might give him L.
							Volumnius. The people, the senate, and his own colleague all agreed that
							Fabius should have a perfectly free hand in the matter, and when Decius
							made it clear that he was ready to go either to Samnium or to Etruria,
							there was universal joy and congratulation. Victory was already regarded
							as certain, and it looked as though a triumph, and not a serious war,
							had been decreed to the consuls.

I find it stated in some authorities that Fabius and Decius both started
							for Etruria immediately on entering office, no mention being made of
							their not deciding their provinces by lot, or of the quarrel between the
							colleagues which I have described.

Some, on the other hand, were not satisfied with simply narrating the
							dispute, but have given in addition certain charges which Appius brought
							against the absent Fabius before the people, and the bitter attacks he
							made upon him in his presence, and mention is made of a second quarrel
							between the colleagues caused by Decius insisting that each should keep
							the province assigned to him.

We find more agreement amongst the authorities from the time that both
							consuls left Rome for the scene of war. But before the consuls arrived
							in Etruria the Senonian Gauls came in immense numbers to Clusium with
							the intention of attacking the Roman camp and the legion stationed
							there.

Scipio was in command, and thinking to assist the scantiness of his
							numbers by taking up a strong position, he marched his force on to a
							hill which lay between his camp and the city.

The enemy had appeared so suddenly that he had had no time to
							reconnoitre the ground, and he went on towards the summit after the
							enemy had already seized it, having approached it from the other side.

So the legion was attacked in front and rear and completely surrounded.
							Some authors say that the entire legion was wiped out there, not a man
							being

left to carry the tidings, and that though the consuls were not far from
							Clusium at the time, no report of the disaster reached them until
							Gaulish horsemen appeared with the heads of the slain hanging from their
							horses' chests and fixed on the points of their spears, whilst they
							chanted war-songs after their manner.

According to another tradition they were not Gauls at all, but Umbrians,
							nor was there a great disaster; a foraging party commanded by L. Manlius
							Torquatus, a staff officer, was surrounded, but Scipio sent assistance
							from the camp, and in the end the Umbrians were defeated and the
							prisoners and booty recovered.

It is more probable that this defeat was inflicted by Gauls and not by
							Umbrians, for the fears of an irruption of Gauls which had been so often
							aroused were especially present to the minds of the citizens this year,
							and every precaution was taken to meet it.

The force with which the consuls had taken the field consisted of four
							legions and a large body of cavalry, in addition to 1000 picked
							Campanian troopers detailed for this war, whilst the contingents
							furnished by the allies and the Latin League formed an even larger army
							than the Roman army.

But in addition to this large force two other armies were stationed not
							far from the City, confronting Etruria; one in the Faliscan district,
							another in the neighbourhood of the Vatican. The propraetors, Cnaeus
							Fulvius and L. Postumius Megellus, had been instructed to fix their
							standing camps in those positions.

After crossing the Apennines, the consuls
							descended into the district of Sentinum and fixed their camp about four
							miles distance from the enemy.

The four nations consulted together as to their plan of action, and it was decided that they should not all
							be mixed up in one camp nor go into battle at the some

time. The Gauls were linked with the Samnites, the Umbrians with the
							Etrurians. They fixed upon the day of battle, the brunt of the fighting
							was to be reserved for the Gauls and Samnites, in the midst of the
							struggle the Etruscans and Umbrians were to attack the Roman

camp. These arrangements were upset by three deserters, who came in the
							secrecy of night to Fabius and disclosed the enemy's plans. They were
							rewarded for their information and dismissed with instructions to find
							out and report whatever fresh decision was arrived

at. The consuls sent written instructions to Fulvica and Postumius to
							bring their armies up to Clusium and ravage the enemy's country on their
							march as far as they possibly

could. The news of these ravages brought the Etruscans away from
							Sentinum to protect their own territory. Now that they had got them out
							of the way, the consuls tried hard to bring on an

engagement. For two days they sought to provoke the enemy to fight, but
							during those two days nothing took place worth mentioning; a few fell on
							both sides and enough exasperation was produced to make them desire a
							regular battle without, however, wishing to hazard everything on a
							decisive conflict.

On the third day the whole force on both sides marched down into the
							plain. Whilst the two armies were standing ready to engage, a hind
							driven by a wolf from the mountains ran down into the open space between
							the two lines with the wolf in pursuit. Here they each took a different
							direction, the hind ran to the Gauls, the wolf to the

Romans. Way was made for the wolf between the ranks; the Gauls speared
							the hind. On this a soldier in the front rank exclaimed: “In that
							place where you see the creature sacred to Diana lying dead, flight and
							carnage will begin; here the wolf, whole and unhurt, a creature sacred
							to Mars, reminds us of our Founder and that we too are of the race of

Mars.” The Gauls were stationed on the right, the Samnites on the
								left. 
							Q. Fabius posted the first and third legions on the right wing, facing
							the Samnites; to oppose the Gauls, Decius had the fifth and sixth
							legions, who formed the Roman

left. The second and fourth legions were engaged in Samnium with L.
							Volumnius the proconsul. When the armies first met they were so evenly
							matched that had the Etruscans and Umbrians been present, whether taking
							part in the battle or attacking the camp, the Romans must have been
							defeated.

But although neither side was gaining any advantage and Fortune had not
							yet indicated in any way to whom she would grant the victory, the
							fighting on the right wing was very different from that on the left.

The Romans under Fabius were acting more on the defensive and were
							protracting the contest as long as possible.

Their commander knew that it was the habitual practice of both the Gauls
							and the Samnites to make a furious attack to begin with, and if that
							were successfully resisted, it was enough;

the courage of the Samnites gradually sank as the battle went on, whilst
							the Gauls, utterly unable to stand heat or exertion, found their
							physical strength melting away; in their first efforts they were more
							than men, in the end they were weaker than women.

Knowing this, he kept the strength of his men unimpaired against the
							time when the enemy usually began to show signs of defeat. Decius, as a
							younger man, possessing more vigour of mind, showed more dash;

he made use of all the strength he possessed in opening the attack, and
							as the infantry battle developed too slowly for him, he called on the
							cavalry.

Putting himself at the head of a squadron of exceptionally gallant
							troopers, he appealed to them as the pick of his soldiers to follow him
							in charging the enemy, for a twofold glory would be theirs if victory
							began on the left wing and, in that wing, with the cavalry. Twice they
							swept aside the Gaulish horse.

Making a third charge, they were carried too far, and whilst they were
							now fighting desperately in the midst of the enemy's cavalry they were
							thrown into consternation by a new style of warfare.

Armed men mounted on chariots and baggage wagons came on with a
							thunderous noise of horses and wheels, and the horses of the Roman
							cavalry, unaccustomed to that kind of uproar, became uncontrollable
							through fright; the cavalry, after their victorious charges, were now
							scattered in frantic terror; horses and men alike were overthrown in
							their blind flight.

Even the standards of the legionaries were thrown into confusion, and
							many of the front rank men were crushed by the weight of the horses and
							vehicles dashing through the lines.

When the Gauls saw their enemy thus demoralised they did not give them a
							moment's breathing space in which to recover themselves, but followed up
							at once with a fierce attack.

Decius shouted to his men and asked them whither they were fleeing, what
							hope they had in flight; he tried to stop those who were retreating and
							recall the scattered units. Finding himself unable, do what he would, to
							check the demoralisation, he invoked the name of his father, P. Decius,
							and cried: “Why do I any longer delay the destined fate of my
							family?

This is the privilege granted to our house that we should be an
							expiatory sacrifice to avert dangers from the State. Now will I offer
							the legions of the enemy together with myself as a sacrifice to Tellus
							and the Dii Manes.”

When he had uttered these words he ordered the pontiff, M. Livius, whom
							he had kept by his side all through the battle, to recite the prescribed
							form in which he was to devote “himself and the legions of the
							enemy on behalf of the army of the Roman people, the Quirites.”

He was accordingly devoted in the same words and wearing the same garb
							as his father, P. Decius, at the battle of Veseris in the Latin war.

After the usual prayers had been recited he uttered the following awful
							curse: “I carry before me terror and rout and carnage and blood
							and the wrath of all the gods, those above and those below.

I will infect the standards, the armour, the weapons of the enemy with
							dire and manifold death, the place of my destruction shall also witness
							that of the Gauls and Samnites.”

After uttering this imprecation on himself and on the enemy he spurred
							his horse against that part of the Gaulish line where they were most
							densely massed and leaping into it was slain by their missiles.

From this moment the battle could hardly have appeared to any man to be
							dependent on human strength alone. After losing their leader, a thing
							which generally demoralises an army, the Romans arrested their flight
							and recommenced the struggle.

The Gauls, especially those who were crowded round the consul's body,
							were discharging their missiles aimlessly and harmlessly as though
							bereft of their senses; some seemed paralysed, incapable of either fight
							or flight.

But, in the other army, the pontiff Livius, to whom Decius had
							transferred his lictors and whom he had commissioned to act as
							propraetor, announced in loud tones that the consul's death had freed
							the Romans from all danger and given them the victory, the Gauls and
							Samnites were made over to Tellus the Mother and the Dii Manes.

Decius was summoning and dragging down to himself the army which he had
							devoted together with himself, there was terror everywhere among the
							enemy, and the Furies were lashing them into madness.

Whilst the battle was thus being restored, L. Cornelius Scipio and C.
							Marcius were ordered by Fabius to bring up the reserves from the rear to
							the support of his colleagues. There they learnt the fate of P. Decius,
							and it was a powerful encouragement to them to dare everything for the
							republic.

The Gauls were standing in close order covered by their shields, and a
							hand-to-hand fight seemed no easy matter, but the staff officers gave
							orders for the javelins which were lying on the ground between the two
							armies to be gathered up and hurled at the enemy's shield wall.

Although most of them stuck in their shields and only a few penetrated
							their bodies, the closely massed ranks went down, most of them falling
							without having received a wound, just as though they had been struck by
							lightning. Such was the change that Fortune had brought about in the
							Roman left wing.

On the right Fabius, as I have stated, was protracting the contest.. When
							he found that neither the battle-shout of the enemy, nor their onset,
							nor the discharge of their missiles were as strong as they had been at
							the beginning, he

ordered the officers in command of the cavalry to take their squadrons
							round to the side of the Samnite army, ready at a given signal to
							deliver as fierce a flank attack as possible. The infantry were at the
							same time to press steadily forwards and dislodge the enemy.

When he saw that they were offering no resistance, and were evidently
							worn out, he massed all his support which he had kept in reserve for the
							supreme moment, and gave the signal for a general charge of infantry and
							cavalry.

The Samnites could not face the onslaught and fled precipitately past
							the Gauls to their camp, leaving their allies to fight as best they
							could. The Gauls were still standing in close order behind their shield
								wall.

Fabius, on hearing of his colleague's death, ordered a squadron of
							Campanian horse, about 500 strong, to go out of action and ride round to
							take the Gauls in the rear.

The principes of the third legion were
							ordered to follow, and, wherever they saw the enemy's line disordered by
							the cavalry, to press home the attack and cut them down.

He vowed a temple and the spoils of the enemy to Jupiter Victor, and
							then proceeded to the Samnite camp to which the whole crowd of
							panic-struck fugitives was being driven.

As they could not all get through the gates, those outside tried to
							resist the Roman attack and a battle began close under the rampart. It
							was here that Gellius Egnatius, the captain-general of the Samnites,
							fell.

Finally the Samnites were driven within their lines and the camp was
							taken after a brief struggle. At the same time the Gauls were attacked
							in the rear and overpowered; 25,000 of the enemy were killed in that
							day's fighting and 8000 made prisoners.

The victory was by no means a bloodless one, for P. Decius lost

7000 killed and Fabius 1700 . After sending out
							a search party to find his colleague's body, Fabius had the spoils of
							the enemy collected into a heap and burnt as a sacrifice to Jupiter
							Victor.

The consul's body could not be found that day as it was buried under a
							heap of Gauls; it was discovered the next day and brought back to camp
							amidst the tears of the soldiers.

Fabius laid aside all other business in order to pay the last rites to
							his dead colleague; the obsequies were conducted with every mark of
							honour and the funeral oration sounded the welldeserved praises of the
							deceased consul.

During these occurrences in Umbria,
							Cnaeus Fulvius, the propraetor, was succeeding to the utmost of his
							wishes in Etruria. Not only did he carry destruction far and wide over
							the enemy's fields, but he fought a brilliant action with the united
							forces of

Perusia and Clusium in which more than 3000 of the enemy were killed and
							as many as 20 standards taken.

The remains of the Samnite army attempted to escape through the
							Pelignian territory, but were intercepted by the native troops, and out
							of 5000 as many as 1000 were killed.

Great as the glory of the day on which the battle of Sentinum was fought
							must appear to any writer who adheres to the truth, it has by some
							writers been exaggerated beyond all belief.

They assert that the enemy's army amounted to 1,000,000 infantry and
							46,000 cavalry, together with 1000 war chariots. That, of course,
							includes the Umbrians and Tuscans who are represented as taking part in
							the battle.

And by way of increasing the Roman strength they tell us that Lucius
							Volumnius commanded in the action as well as the consuls, and that their
							legions were supplemented by his army.

In the majority of the annalists the victory is assigned only to the two
							consuls; Volumnius is described as campaigning during that time in
							Samnium, and after driving a Samnite army on to Mount Tifernus, he
							succeeded, in spite of the difficulty of the position, in defeating and
							routing them.

Q. Fabius left Decius' army to hold Etruria and led back his own legions
							to the City to enjoy a triumph over the Gauls, the Etruscans, and the
							Samnites.

In the songs which the soldiers sang in the procession the glorious
							death of Decius was celebrated quite as much as the victory of Fabius,
							and they recalled the father's memory in their praises of the son who
							had rivalled his father in his devotion and all that it had done for the
							State.

Out of the spoils each soldier received eighty-two ases of bronze, with cloaks and tunics, rewards not to be
							despised in those days.

In spite of these defeats neither the
							Etruscans nor the Samnites remained quiet. After the consul had
							withdrawn his army the Perusians recommenced hostilities, a force of
							Samnites

descended into the country round Vescia and Formiae, plundering and
							harrying as they went, whilst another body invaded the district of
							Aesernum and the region round the Vulturnus.

Appius Claudius was sent against these with Decius' old army; Fabius,
							who had marched into Etruria, slew 4500 of the Perusians, and took 1740 prisoners, who were ransomed at 310
								 ases per head; the rest of the booty
							was given to the soldiers.

The Samnites, one body of which was pursued by Appius Claudius, the other
							by L. Volumnius, effected a junction in the Stellate district and took
							up a position there.

A desperate battle was fought, the one army was furious against those
							who had so often taken up arms against them, the other felt that this
							was their last hope. The Samnites lost 16,300 killed and 2700 prisoners;
							on the side of the Romans 2700 fell.

As far as military operations went, the year was a prosperous one, but it
							was rendered an anxious one by a severe pestilence and by alarming
							portents.

In many places showers of earth were reported to have fallen, and a
							large number of men in the army under Appius Claudius were said to have
							been struck by lightning.

The Sacred Books were consulted in view of these occurrences. During
							this year Q. Fabius Gurges, the consul's son, who was an aedile, brought
							some matrons to trial before the people on the charge of adultery. Out
							of their fines he obtained sufficient money to build the temple of Venus
							which stands near the Circus.

The Samnite wars are still with us, those wars which I have been occupied
							with through these last four books, and which have gone on continuously
							for six-and-forty years, in fact ever since the consuls, M. Valerius and
							A. Cornelius, carried the arms of Rome for the first time into Samnium.

It is unnecessary now to recount the numberless defeats which overtook
							both nations, and the toils which they endured through all those years,
							and yet these things were powerless to break down the resolution or
							crush the spirit of that people;

I will only allude to the events of the past year. During that period
							the Samnites, fighting sometimes alone, sometimes in conjunction with
							other nations, had been defeated by Roman armies under Roman generals on
							four several occasions, at Sentinum, amongst the Paeligni, at Tifernum,
							and in the Stellate plains;

they had lost the most brilliant general they ever possessed; they now
							saw their allies —Etruscans, Umbrians, Gauls —overtaken by the same
							fortune that they had suffered; they were unable any longer to stand
							either in their own strength or in that afforded by foreign arms.

And yet they would not abstain from war; so far were they from being
							weary of defending their liberty, even though unsuccessfully, that they
							would rather be worsted than give up trying for victory.

What sort of a man must he be who would find the long

story of those wars tedious, though he is only narrating or reading it,
							when they failed to wear out those who were actually engaged in them?

Q. Fabius and P. Decius were succeeded in the consulship by L. Postumius
							Megellus and M. Atilius Regulus.

Samnium was assigned to both of them as the field of operations in
							consequence of information received that three armies had been raised
							there, one being destined for Etruria, another was to ravage Campania,
							and the third was intended for the defence of their frontiers.

Illness kept Postumius in Rome, but Atilius marched out at once in
							accordance with the senate's instructions, with the view of surprising
							the Samnite armies before they had started on their expeditions.

He met the enemy, as though they had had a previous understanding, at a
							point where he himself was stopped from entering the Samnite country and
							at the same time barred any movement on their part towards Roman
							territory or the peaceable lands of her allies.

The two camps confronted each other, and the Samnites, with the
							recklessness that comes of despair, ventured upon an enterprise which
							the Romans, who had been so often victorious, would hardly have
							undertaken, namely an attack on the enemy's camp. Their daring attempt
							did not achieve its end, but it was not altogether fruitless.

During a great part of the day there had been so dense a fog that it was
							not only impossible to see anything beyond the rampart, but even people
							who were together were unable to see each other.

The Samnites, relying on their movements being concealed, came on in the
							dim twilight —what light there was being obscured by the fog —and

reached the outpost in front of the gate who were keeping a careless
							look-out, and who being thus attacked unawares had neither the strength
							nor the courage to offer any resistance. After disposing of the guard
							they entered the camp through the decuman gate and got

possession of the quaestor's tent, the quaestor, L. Opimius Pansa, being
							killed. Then there was a general call to arms.

The consul roused by the tumult ordered two of the allied cohorts, those
							from Luca and Suessa, which happened to be the nearest, to protect the
							headquarters' tent, and then he mustered the maniples in the via principalis .

They got into line almost before they were in proper fighting trim, and
							they located the enemy by the direction of the shouting rather than by
							anything that they could see; as to his numbers they were quite unable
							to form any estimate.

Doubtful as to their position they at first retreated, and thus allowed
							the enemy to advance as far as the middle of the camp.

Seeing this the consul asked them whether they were going to be driven
							outside their rampart, and then try to recover their camp by assaulting
							it. Then they raised the battle-shout and steadily held their ground
							until they were able to take the offensive and force the

enemy back, which they did persistently without giving him a moment's
							respite, until they had driven him outside the gate and past the
							rampart. Further than that they did not venture to go in pursuit,
							because the bad light made them fear the possibility of a surprise.

Content with having cleared the enemy out of the camp they retired
							within the rampart, having killed about 300. On the Roman side, the
							outposts who were killed and those who fell round the quaestor's tent
							amounted to 230.

The partial success of this daring manoeuvre raised the spirits of the
							Samnites, and they not only prevented the Romans from advancing but they
							even kept the foraging parties out of their fields, who had consequently
							to fall back on the pacified district of Sora.

The report of this occurrence which reached Rome, and which was a much
							more sensational one than the facts warranted, compelled the other
							consul, L. Postumius, to leave the City before his health was quite
							re-established.

He issued a general order for his men to assemble at Sora, and previous
							to his departure he dedicated the temple to Victory which he had, when
							curule aedile, built out of the proceeds of fines.

On rejoining his army he marched from Sora to his colleague's camp. The
							Samnites despaired of offering an effectual resistance to two consular
							armies and withdrew; the consuls then proceeded in different directions
							to lay waste their fields and storm their cities.

Amongst the latter was Milionia, which Postumius unsuccessfully attempted
							to carry by assault.

He then attacked the place by regular approaches, and after his vineae were brought up to the walls he forced an
							entrance. From ten o'clock in the morning till two in the afternoon
							fighting went on in all quarters of the town with doubtful result; at
							last the Romans got possession of the place;

3200 Samnites were killed and 4700 made prisoners, in addition to the
							rest of the booty.

From there the legions marched to Feritrum, but the townsfolk evacuated
							the place quietly during the night, taking with them all their
							possessions, everything which could be either driven or carried.

Immediately on his reaching the vicinity, the consul approached the
							walls with his men prepared for action, as though there was going to be
							as much fighting there as there had been at Milionia.

When he found that there was a dead silence in the city and no sign of
							arms or men was visible in the towers or on the walls, he checked his
							men, who were eager to get into the deserted fortifications, for fear he
							might be rushing blindly into a trap.

He ordered two troops of cavalry belonging to the Latin contingent to
							ride round the walls and make a thorough reconnaissance. They discovered
							one gate open and another near it also open, and on the road leading
							from these gates traces of the enemy's nocturnal flight.

Riding slowly up to the gates they obtained an uninterrupted view of the
							city through the straight streets, and brought back report to the consul
							that the city had been evacuated, as was clear from the unmistakable
							solitude and the things scattered about in the confusion of the night
							—evidence of their hasty flight.

On receiving this information the consul led his army round to that side
							of the city which the cavalry had examined. Halting the standards near
							the gates, he ordered five horsemen to enter the city, and after going
							some distance three were to remain where they were, and two were to
							return and report to him what they had discovered.

They reported that they had reached a point from which a view was
							obtained in all directions, and everywhere they saw a silent solitude.

The consul immediately sent some light-armed cohorts into the city, the
							rest of the army received orders to form an entrenched camp.

The soldiers who had entered the place broke open some of the houses and
							found a few old and sick people and such property left behind as they
							found too difficult to transport.

This was appropriated, and it was ascertained from the prisoners that
							several cities in the neighbourhood had mutually agreed to leave their
							homes, and the Romans would probably find the same solitude in other
							cities.

What the prisoners had said proved to be true, and the consul took
							possession of the abandoned towns.

The other consul, M. Atilius, found his task by no means so easy. He had
							received information that the Samnites were besieging Luceria, and he
							marched to its relief, but the enemy met him at the frontier of the
							Lucerine territory.

Exasperation and rage lent them a strength which made them a match for
							the Romans. The battle went on with changing fortunes and an indecisive
							result, but in the end the Romans were in the sorrier plight, for they
							were unaccustomed to defeat, and it was after the two armies had
							separated rather than in the battle itself that they realised how much
							greater the loss was on their side in both killed and wounded.

When they were once more within their camp they became a prey to fears
							which, had they felt them whilst actually fighting, would have brought
							upon them a signal disaster. They passed an anxious night expecting that
							the Samnites would make an immediate attack on the camp, or that they
							would have to engage their victorious foe at daybreak.

On the side of the enemy the loss was less, but certainly the courage
							displayed was not greater. As soon as it began to grow light the Romans
							were anxious to retire without fighting, but there was only one way and
							that led past the enemy; if they took that route it would amount to a
							challenge, for it would look as though they were directly advancing to
							attack the Samnite camp.

The consul issued a general order for the soldiers to arm for battle and
							follow him outside the rampart.

He then gave the necessary instructions to the officers of his staff,
							the military tribunes, and the prefects of the allies.

They all assured him that as far as they were concerned they would do
							everything that he wished them to do, but the men had lost heart, they
							had passed a sleepless night amidst the wounded and the groans of the
							dying, and had the enemy attacked the camp while it was still dark,

they were in such a state of fright that they would have deserted their
							standards. As it was they were only kept from flight by a feeling of
							shame, in every other respect they were practically beaten men.

Under these circumstances the consul thought he ought to go round and
							address the soldiers personally.

When he came to any who were showing reluctance to arm themselves he
							asked them why they were so slow and so cowardly; the enemy would come
							up to their camp unless they met him outside; they would have to fight
							to defend their tents if they refused to fight in front of their
							rampart.

Armed and fighting they had a chance of victory, but the men who awaited
							the enemy unarmed and defenceless would have to suffer either death or
							slavery.

To these taunts and reproaches they replied that they were exhausted
							with the fighting on the previous day, they had no strength or blood
							left, and the enemy seemed to be in greater force than ever.

Whilst this was going on the hostile army approached, and as they were
							now closer and could be seen more clearly the men declared that the
							Samnites were carrying stakes with them, and there was no doubt they
							intended to shut the camp in with a circumvallation.

Then the consul loudly exclaimed that it would indeed be a disgrace if
							they submitted to such a galling insult from so dastardly a foe.
							“Shall we,” he cried, “be actually blockaded in our
							camp to perish ignominiously by hunger rather than, if we must die, die
							bravely at the sword's point?

Heaven forbid! Act, every man of you, as you deem worthy of yourselves!

I, the consul, M. Atilius, will go against the enemy alone if none will
							follow and fall amongst the standards of the Samnites sooner than see a
							Roman camp hedged in by circumvallation.”

The consul's words were welcomed by all his officers, and the rank and
							file, ashamed to hold back any longer, slowly put themselves in fighting
							trim and slowly marched out of camp. They moved in a long irregular
							column, dejected and to all appearance thoroughly cowed, but the enemy
							against whom they were advancing felt no more confidence and showed no
							more spirit than they did.

As soon as they caught sight of the Roman standards a murmur ran through
							the Samnite army from the foremost to the hindmost ranks that what they
							feared

was actually happening, the Romans were coming out to oppose their
							march, there was no road open even for flight, they must either fall
							where they were or make their escape over the bodies of their prostrate
							foes.

They piled their knapsacks in the centre and formed up in order of
							battle.

There was by this time only a narrow space between the two armies, and
							each side were standing motionless waiting for the others to raise the
							battle-shout and begin the attack.

Neither of them had any heart for fighting, and they would have marched
							off in opposite directions if they were not each apprehensive that the
							other would attack them on the retreat. In this timid and reluctant mood
							they commenced a feeble fight, without receiving any order to attack or
							raising any regular battle-shout, and not a man stirred a foot from
							where he stood.

Then the consul, in order to infuse some spirit into the combatants,
							sent a few troops of cavalry to make a demonstration; most of them were
							thrown from their horses and the rest got into hopeless confusion. A
							rush was made by the Samnites to overpower those who had been
							dismounted; this was met by a rush from the Roman ranks to protect their
							comrades.

This made the fighting somewhat more lively, but the Samnites rushed
							forward with more dash and in greater numbers, whilst the disordered
							Roman cavalry on their terrified horses were riding down their own
							supports.

The demoralisation which began here extended to the whole army; there
							was a general flight, and the Samnites had none to fight with but the
							rearmost of their foes.

At this critical moment the consul galloped back to the camp and posted
							a cavalry detachment before the gate with strict orders to treat as an
							enemy any one who made for the rampart whether Roman or Samnite. He then
							stopped his men who were running back to the camp in disorder, and in
							menacing tones called out, “Where are you going, soldiers?

Here, too, you will find armed men, and not one of you shall enter the
							camp while your consul is alive unless you come as victors; now make
							your choice whether you would rather fight with your own countrymen or
							with the enemy.”

While the consul was speaking, the cavalry closed round the fugitives
							with levelled spears and peremptorily ordered them to return to the
							battlefield. Not only did the consul's courage help them to rally, but
							Fortune also favoured them. As the Samnites were not in close pursuit
							there was space enough for the standards to wheel round and the whole
							army to change front from the camp to the enemy.

Now the men began to encourage each other, the centurions snatched the
							standards from the hands of the bearers and carried them forward,
							pointing out at the same time to their men how few the enemy were, and
							in what loose order they were coming.

In the middle of it all the consul, raising his hands towards heaven and
							speaking in a loud voice so that he might be well heard, vowed a temple
							to Jupiter Stator if the Roman army stayed its flight and
							renewed the battle and defeated and slew the Samnites.

The officers and men, infantry and cavalry alike, exerted themselves to
							the utmost to restore the battle. Even the divine providence seemed to
							have looked with favour on the Romans, so easily did matters take a
							favourable turn. The enemy were repulsed from the camp, and in a short
							time were driven back to the ground where the battle began.

Here their movements were hampered by the heap of knapsacks they had
							piled up in their centre; to prevent these from being plundered they
							took up their position round them.

But the Roman infantry pressed upon them in front and the cavalry
							attacked them in rear, so between the two they were all either killed or
							made prisoners. The latter amounted to 7800, these were all stripped and
							sent under the yoke.

The number of those killed was reported to be 4800. The Romans had not
							much cause for rejoicing over their victory, for when the consul
							reckoned up the losses sustained through the two days' fighting the
							number of missing was returned as 7800. During these incidents in
							Apulia, the Samnites made an attempt with a second army upon the Roman
							colony at Interamna, situated on the Latin road.

Failing to get possession of the city, they ravaged the fields and
							proceeded to carry off, along with their other plunder, a number of men
							and several head of cattle and some colonists whom they had captured.

They fell in with the consul, who was returning from his victorious
							campaign in Luceria, and not only lost their booty, but their long
							straggling column was quite unprepared for attack and was consequently
							cut up.

The consul issued a notice summoning the owners of the plundered
							property to Interamna to identify and recover what belonged to them, and
							leaving his army there, started for Rome to conduct the elections.

He requested to be allowed a triumph, but this honour was refused him on
							the ground that he had lost so many thousands of men, and also because
							he had sent his prisoners under the yoke without its having been made a
							condition of their surrender.

The other consul, Postumius, finding nothing for his troops to do amongst
							the Samnites, led them into Etruria and began to lay waste the district
							of Volsinia.

The townsmen came out to defend their borders and a battle ensued not
							far from their walls ; 2800 of the Etruscans were killed, the rest were
							saved by the proximity of their city.

He then passed over into the Rusellan territory; there, not only were
							the fields harried, but the town itself was successfully assaulted. More
							than 2000 were made prisoners, and under 2000 killed in the storming of
							the place. The peace which ensued this year in Etruria was more
							important and redounded more to the honour of Rome than even the war
							which led to it.

Three very powerful cities, the chief cities in Etruria, Vulsinii,
							Perusia, and Arretium, sued for peace, and after agreeing to supply the
							troops with clothing and corn, they obtained the consul's consent to
							send spokesmen to Rome, with the result that they obtained a forty
							years' truce.

Each of the cities was at once to pay an indemnity of 500,000 ases . For these services the consul asked the
							senate to decree him a triumph.

The request was made more as a matter of form, to comply with the
							established custom, than from any hope of obtaining it . He saw that
							some who were his personal enemies and others who were friends of his
							colleague refused his request on various grounds, some alleging that he
							had been

too late in taking the field, others that he had transferred his army
							from Samnium to Etruria without any orders from the senate, whilst a
							third party were actuated by a desire to solace Atilius for the refusal
							which he had met with.

In face of this opposition he simply said: “Senators, I am not so
							mindful of your authority as to forget that I am consul. By the same
							right and authority by which I have conducted wars, now that these wars
							have been brought to a successful close, Samnium and Etruria subdued,
							victory and peace secured, I shall celebrate my triumph.” And
							with that he left the senate.

A sharp contention now broke out between the tribunes of the plebs. Some
							declared that they should interpose to prevent his obtaining a triumph
							in a way which violated all precedent, others asserted that they should
							give him their support in spite of their colleagues.

The matter was brought before the Assembly, and the consul was invited
							to be present. In his speech he alluded to the cases of the consuls M.
							Horatius and L. Valerius and the recent one of Gaius Marcius Rutilus,
							the father of the man who was censor at the time. All these, he said,
							had been allowed a triumph, not on the authority of the senate but by an
							order of the people.

He would have brought the question before the people himself had he not
							been aware that certain tribunes of the plebs who were bound hand and
							foot to the nobles would veto the proposal.

He regarded the goodwill and favour of a unanimous people as tantamount
							to all the formal orders that were made. Supported by three of the
							tribunes against the veto of the remaining seven and against the
							unanimous voice of the senate he celebrated his triumph on the following
							day amidst a great outburst of popular enthusiasm.

The records of this year vary widely from each other. Accord — ing to
							Claudius, Postumius, after taking some cities in Samnium, was routed and
							put to flight in Apulia, he himself being wounded, and was driven with a
							small body of his troops to Luceria; the victories in Etruria were won
							by Atilius and it was he who celebrated the triumph.

Fabius tells us that both consuls conducted the campaign in Samnium and
							at Luceria, and that the army was transferred to Etruria, but he does
							not say by which consul.

He also states that at Luceria the losses were heavy on both sides, and
							that a temple was vowed to Jupiter Stator in that battle. This same vow
							Romulus had made many centuries before, but only the fanum , that is the site of the temple, had been
							consecrated.

As the State had become thus doubly pledged, it became necessary to
							discharge its obligation to the god, and the senate made an order this
							year for the construction of the temple.

The year following was marked by the consulship of L. Papirius Cursor,
							who had not only inherited his father's glory but enhanced it by his
							management of a great war and a victory over the Samnites, second only
							to the one which his father had won.

It happened that this nation had taken the same care and pains to adorn
							their soldiery with all the wealth of splendour as they had done on the
							occasion of the elder Papirius' victory. They had also called in the aid
							of the gods by submitting the soldiers to a kind of initiation into an
							ancient form of oath.

A levy was conducted throughout Samnium under a novel regulation; any
							man within the military age who had not assembled on the
							captain-general's proclamation, or any one who

had departed without permission, was devoted to Jupiter and his life

forfeited. The whole of the army was summoned to Aquilonia, and 40,000
							men, the full strength of Samnium, were concentrated there. A space,
							about 200 feet square, almost in the centre of their camp, was boarded
							off and covered all over with linen

cloth. In this enclosure a sacrificial service was conducted, the words
							being read from an old linen book by an aged priest, Ovius Paccius, who
							announced that he was taking that form of service from the old ritual of
							the Samnite religion. It was the form which their ancestors used when
							they formed their secret design of wresting Capua from the

Etruscans. When the sacrifice was completed the captain-general sent a
							messenger to summon all those who were of noble birth or who were
							distinguished for their military

achievements. They were admitted into the enclosure one by one. As each
							was admitted he was led up to the altar, more like a victim than like
							one who was taking part in the service,

and he was bound on oath not to divulge what he saw and heard in that
							place. Then they compelled him to take an oath couched in the most
							terrible language, imprecating a

curse on himself, his family, and his race if he did not go into battle
							where the commanders should lead him or if he either himself fled from
							battle or did not at once slay any one whom he saw

fleeing. At first there were some who refused to take this oath; they
							were massacred beside the altar, and their dead bodies lying amongst the
							scattered remains of the victims were a plain hint to the rest not to

refuse. After the foremost men among the Samnites had been bound by this
							dread formula, ten were especially named by the captain-general and told
							each to choose a comrade-in-arms, and these again to choose others until
							they had made up the number of 16,ooo. These were called the
							“linen legion,” from the material with which the place
							where they had been sworn was covered. They were provided with
							resplendent armour and plumed helmets to distinguish them from the

others. The rest of the army consisted of something under 20,000 men,
							but they were not inferior to the linen legion either in their personal
							appearance or soldierly qualities or in the excellence of their
							equipment. This was the number of those in camp at Aquilonia, forming
							the total strength of Samnium.

The consuls left the City. The first to go was Spurius Carvilius, to whom
							were assigned the legions which M. Atilius, the previous consul, had
							left in the district of Interamna.

With these he advanced into Samnium, and while the enemy were taken up
							with their superstitious observance and forming secret plans, he stormed
							and captured the town of Amiternum.

Nearly 2800 men were killed there, and 4270 made prisoners. Papirius
							with a fresh army raised by senatorial decree successfully attacked the
							city of Duronia.

He made fewer prisoners than his colleague, but slew a somewhat greater
							number. In both towns rich booty was secured. Then the consuls traversed
							Samnium in different directions; Carvilius, after ravaging the Atinate
							country, came to Cominium; Papirius reached Aquilonia, where the main
							army of the Samnites was posted.

For some time his troops, while not quite
							inactive, abstained from any serious fighting. The time was spent in
							annoying the enemy when he was quiet, and retiring when he showed
							resistance —in threatening rather than in offering battle.

As long as this practice went on day after day, of beginning and then
							desisting, even the slightest skirmish led to no result.

The other Roman camp was separated by an interval of 20 miles, but
							Carvilius was guided in all his measures by the advice of his distant
							colleague; his thoughts were dwelling more on Aquilonia, where the state
							of affairs was so critical, than on Cominium, which he was actually
							besieging. Papirius was at length perfectly ready to fight, and he sent
							a message to his colleague announcing his intention, if the auspices
							were favourable, of engaging the enemy the next day, and impressing upon
							him the necessity of attacking Cominium with his full strength, to give
							the Samnites no opportunity of sending succour to Aquilonia.

The messenger had the day for his journey, he returned in the night,
							bringing word back to the consul that his colleague approved of his
							plan.

Immediately after despatching the messenger Papirius ordered a muster of
							his troops, and addressed them preparatory to the battle.

He spoke at some length upon the general character of the war they were
							engaged in, and especially upon the style of equipment which the enemy
							had adopted, which he said served for idle pageantry rather than for
							practical use.

Plumes did not inflict wounds, their painted and gilded shields would be
							penetrated by the Roman javelin, and an army resplendent in dazzling
							white would be stained with gore when the sword came into play.

A Samnite army all in gold and silver had once been annihilated by his
							father, and those trappings had brought more glory as spoils to the
							victors than they had brought as armour to the wearers.

It might, perhaps, be a special privilege granted to his name and family
							that the greatest efforts which the Samnites had ever made should be
							frustrated and defeated under their generalship and that the spoils
							which they brought back should be sufficiently splendid to serve as
							decorations for the public places in the City.

Treaties so often asked for, so often broken, brought about the
							intervention of the immortal gods, and if it were permitted to make to
							form any conjecture as to the feelings of the gods, he believed that
							they had never

been more incensed against any army than against this one of the
							Samnites It had taken part in infamous rites and been stained with the
							mingled blood of men and beasts;

it was under the two-fold curse of heaven, filled with dread at the
							thought of the gods who witnessed the treaties made with Rome and
							horror-struck at the imprecations which were uttered when all

oath was taken to break those treaties, an oath which the soldiers took
							under compulsion and which they recall with loathing. They dread alike
							the gods, their fellow-countrymen, and. the enemy.

These details the consul had gathered from information supplied by
							deserters, and his mention of them increased the exasperation of the
							troops. Assured of the favour of heaven and satisfied that humanly
							speaking they were more than a match for their foes, they clamoured with
							one voice to be led to battle, and were intensely disgusted at finding
							that it was put off till the morrow; they chafed angrily at the delay of
							a whole day and night.

After receiving the reply from his colleague, Papirius rose quietly in
							the third watch of the night and sent a pullarius to observe the omens.

There was not a man, whatever his rank or condition, in the camp who was
							not seized by the passion for battle, the highest and lowest alike were
							eagerly looking forward to it;

the general was watching the excited looks of the men, the men were
							looking at their general, the universal excitement extended even to
							those who were engaged in observing the sacred birds. The chickens
							refused to eat, but the pullarius ventured
							to misrepresent matters, and reported to the consul that they had eaten
							so greedily that the corn dropped from their mouths on to the
								ground.

The consul, delighted at the news, gave out that the omens could not
							have been more favourable; they were going to engage the enemy under the
							guidance and blessing of heaven.

He then gave the signal for battle. Just as they were taking up their
							position, a deserter brought word that 20 cohorts of the Samnites,
							comprising about 400 men each, had gone to Cominium.

He instantly despatched a message to his colleague in case he should not
							be aware of this movement, and ordered the standards to be advanced more
							rapidly. He had already posted the reserves in their respective
							positions and told off an officer to take command of each detach- ment.

The right wing of the main army he entrusted to L. Volumnius, the left
							to L. Scipio, and two other members of his staff, C. Caedicius and T.
							Trebonius, were placed in command of the cavalry. He gave orders for
							Spurius Nautius to remove the pack-saddles from the mules and to take
							them together with three of the auxiliary cohorts by a circuitous route
							to some rising ground visible from the battlefield, where during

the pro- gress of the fight he was to attract attention by raising as
							great a cloud of dust as possible. While the consul was busy with these
							arrangements an alterca- tion began between the pullarii about the omens which had been observed in the
							morning. Some of the Roman Cavalry overheard it and thought it of
							sufficient importance to justify them in reporting to Spurius Papirius,
							the consul's nephew, that the omens were being called in question.

This young man, born in an age when men were not yet taught to despise
							the gods, inquired into the matter in order to make quite sure that what
							he was reporting was true and then laid it before the consul.

He thanked him for the trouble be had taken and bade him have no fears.
							“But,” he continued, “if the man who is watching
							the omens makes a false report, he brings down the divine wrath on his
							own head.

As far as I am concerned, I have received the formal intimation that the
							chickens ate eagerly, there could be no more favourable omen for the
							Roman people and army.” He then issued instructions to the
							centurions to place the pullarius in front
							of the fighting line.

The standards of the Samnites were now advancing, followed by the army
							in gorgeous array; even to their enemies they presented a magnificent
							sight. Before the battle-shout was raised or the lines closed a chance
							javelin struck the pullarius and he fell in
							front of the standards.

When this was reported to the consul he remarked, “The gods are
							taking their part in the battle, the guilty man has met with his
							punishment.” While the consul was speaking a crow in front of him
							gave a loud and distinct caw. The consul welcomed the augury and
							declared that the gods had never more plainly manifested their presence
							in human affairs. He then ordered the charge to be sounded and the
							battle-shout to be raised.

A savagely fought contest ensued. The two sides were, however, animated
							by very different feelings. The Romans went into battle eager for the
							fray, confident of victory, exasperated against the enemy and thirsting
							for his blood. The Samnites were, most of them, dragged in against their
							will by sheer compulsion and the terrors of religion, and they adopted
							defensive rather than aggressive tactics.

Accustomed as they had been for so many years to defeat, they would not
							have sustained even the first shout and charge of the Romans had not a
							still more awful object of fear possessed their minds and stayed them
							from flight.

They had before their eyes all that paraphernalia of the secret rite
							—the armed priests, the slaughtered remains of men and beasts scattered
							about indiscriminately, the altars sprinkled with the blood of the
							victims and of their murdered countrymen, the awful imprecations, the
							frightful curses which they had invoked on their family and race —these
							were the chains which bound them so that they could not flee.

They dreaded their own countrymen more than the enemy. The Romans
							pressed on from both wings and from the centre and cut down men who were
							paralysed by fear of gods and men. Only a feeble resistance could be
							offered by those who were only kept from flight by fear.

The carnage had almost extended to the second line where the standards
							were stationed when there appeared in the side distance a cloud of dust
							as though raised by the tread of an immense army. It was Sp. Nautius
							—some say Octavius Maecius —the commander of the auxiliary cohorts.

They raised a dust out of all proportion to their numbers, for the
							camp-followers mounted upon the mules were dragging leafy boughs along
							the ground. At first the arms and standards gradually became visible
							through the beclouded light, and then a loftier and thicker Cloud of
							dust gave the appearance of cavalry closing the column.

Not only the Samnites but even the Romans were deceived, and the consul
							endorsed the mistake by shouting to his front rank so that the enemy
							could hear: “Cominium has fallen, my victorious colleague is
							coming on the field, do your best to win the victory before the glory of
							doing so falls to the other army!”

He rode along while saying this, and commanded the tribunes and
							centurions to open their ranks to allow passage for the cavalry. He had
							previously told Trebonius and Caedicius that when they saw him brandish
							his spear aloft they should launch the cavalry against the enemy with
							all the force they could.

His orders were carried out to the letter; the legionaries opened their
							ranks, the cavalry galloped through the open spaces, and with levelled
							spears charged the enemy's centre. Wherever they attacked they broke the
							ranks. Volumnius and Scipio followed up the cavalry charge and completed
							the discomfiture of the Samnites At last the dread of gods and men had
							yielded to a greater terror, the “linen cohorts” were
							routed;

those who had taken the oath and those who had not alike fled; the only
							thing they feared now was the enemy.

The bulk of the infantry who survived the actual battle were driven
							either into their camp or to Aquilonia, the nobility and cavalry fled to
							Bovianum. The cavalry were pursued by cavalry, the infantry by infantry;
							the wings of the Roman army separated, the right directed its course
							towards the Samnite camp, the left to the city of Aquilonia. The first
							success fell to Volumnius, who captured the Samnite camp.

Scipio met with a more sustained resistance at the city, not because the
							defeated foe showed more courage there, but because stone walls are more
							difficult to surmount than the rampart of a camp. They drove the
							defenders from their wails with showers of stones.

Scipio saw that unless his task was completed before the enemy had time
							to recover from their panic, an attack on a fortified city would be a
							somewhat slow affair. He asked his men whether they would be content to
							allow the enemy's camp to be captured by the other army, whilst they
							themselves after their victory were repulsed from the gates of the city.

There was a universal shout of “No!” On hearing this he
							held his shield above his head and ran to the gate, the men followed his
							example, and roofing themselves with their shields burst through into
							the city. They
							dislodged the Samnites from the walls on either side of the gate, but as
							they were only a small body did not venture to penetrate into the
							interior of the city.

The consul was at first unaware of what was going on, and was anxious to
							recall his troops, for the sun was now rapidly sinking and the
							approaching night was making every place suspicious and dangerous, even
							for victorious troops.

After he had ridden forward some distance he saw that the camp on his
							right hand had been captured, and he heard at the same time the mingled
							clamour of shouts and groans arising in the direction of the city on his
							left; just then the fighting at the gate was going on.

As he approached more closely he saw his men on the walls and recognised
							that the position was no longer doubtful, since by the reckless daring
							of a few the opportunity for a brilliant success had been won. He at
							once ordered the troops whom he had recalled to be brought up and
							prepared for a regular attack on the city.

Those who were within bivouacked near the gate as night was approaching,
							and during the night the place was evacuated by the enemy.

The Samnite losses during the day amounted to 20,340 killed and 3870
							made prisoners, whilst 97 standards were taken.

It is noticed in the histories that hardly any other general ever
							appeared in such high spirits during the battle, either owing to his
							fearless temperament or to the confidence he felt in his final success.

It was this dauntless and resolute character which prevented him from
							abandoning all idea of fighting when the omens were challenged. It was
							this, too, that made him in the very crisis of the struggle, at the
							moment when it is customary to vow temples to the gods, make a vow to
							Jupiter Victor that if he routed the legions of the enemy he would offer
							him a cup of sweetened wine before he drank anything stronger himself.
							This vow was acceptable to the gods and they changed the omens into
							favourable ones.

The same good fortune attended the other consul at
							Cominium. At the approach of daylight he brought his whole force up to
							the walls so as to enclose the city with a ring of steel, and stationed
							strong bodies of troops before the gates to prevent any sortie from
							being made.

Just as he was giving the signal for assault the alarming message
							reached him from his colleague about the 20 cohorts. This delayed the
							attack and necessitated the recall of a portion of his troops, who were
							ready and eager to begin the storm.

He ordered D. Brutus Scaeva, one of his staff, to intercept the hostile
							reinforcements with the first legion and ten auxiliary cohorts with
							their complement of cavalry.

Wherever he fell in with them he was to hold them and stop their
							advance; if circumstances should make it necessary he was to offer them
							battle; in any case he was to prevent those troops from reaching
							Cominium.

Then he went on with his preparations for the assault. Orders were issued
							for scaling ladders to be reared against the walls in all directions and
							an approach made to the gates under a shield roof. Simultaneously with
							the smashing in of the gates the storming parties clambered up on the
							walls on every side.

Until they saw their enemy actually on the walls the Samnites had
							sufficient courage to try to keep them from approaching the city, but
							when they had to fight not by discharging their missiles from a
							distance, but at close quarters, when those who had forced their way on
							to the walls and overcome the disadvantage of being on lower ground were
							fighting on even terms

with an enemy who was no match for them, the defenders abandoned their
							walls and towers and were driven back into the forum.

Here they made a desperate effort to retrieve their fortune, but after a
							brief struggle they threw down their arms and 11,400 men surrendered
							after losing 4880 killed.

Thus matters went at Cominium as they had gone at Aquilonia. In the
							country between these two cities, where a third battle was expected,
							nothing was seen of the 20 cohorts. When they were still seven miles
							from Cominium they were recalled by their comrades, and so did not come
							in for either battle.

Just as twilight was setting in, when they had reached a spot from which
							their camp and Aquilonia were both visible, a noise of shouting from
							both quarters made them call a halt.

Then in the direction of their camp, which had been set on fire by the
							Romans, flames sheeting up far and wide, a more certain indication of
							disaster, stopped them from going any further.

They threw themselves down just where they were under arms, and passed a
							restless night waiting for and dreading the day.

When it began to grew light, whilst they were still uncertain what
							direction to take, they were espied by the cavalry who had gone in
							pursuit of the Samnites in their nocturnal retreat from Aquilonia. The
							whole body were plainly discernible, with no entrenchments to protect
							them, no outposts on guard.

They were visible, too, from the walls of the city, and in a short time
							the legionary cohorts were on their track. Thev made a hasty flight, and
							the infantry were unable to come up with them, but some 280 in the
							extreme rear were cut down by the cavalry. A great quantity of arms and
							22 standards were left hehind in their hurry to escape.

The other body who had escaped from Aquilenia reached Bovianum in
							comparative safety, considering the confusion which marked their
							retreat.

The rejoicings in each of the Roman armies were all the greater because
							of the success achieved by the other. The consuls, by mutual agreement,
							gave up the captured cities to be sacked by the soldiery.

When they had cleared out the houses they set them on lire and in one
							day Aquilonia and Cominium were burnt to the ground. Amidst their own
							mutual congratulations and those of their soldiers, the consuls united
							their camps.

In the presence of the two armies rewards and decorations were bestowed
							by both Carvilius and Papirius. Papirius had seen his men through many
							different actions in the open field, around their camp, under city
							walls, and the rewards he bestowed were well merited. Spurius Nautius,
							Spurius Papirius, his nephew, four centurions, and a maniple of hastati
							all received golden bracelets and crowns.

Sp. Nautius won his for his success in the manoeuvre by which he
							frightened the enemy with the appearance of a large army; the young
							Papirius owed his reward to the work he did with his cavalry in the
							battle and in the following night, when he harassed the retreat of the
							Samnites from Aquilonia;

the centurions and men of the maniple were rewarded for having been the
							first to seize the gate and wall of the city. All the cavalry were
							presented with ornaments for their helmets and silver bracelets as
							rewards for their brilliant work in various localities.

Subsequently a council of war was held to settle whether the time had
							come for withdrawing both armies from Samnium, or, at all events, one of
							them.

It was thought best to continue the war, and to carry it on more and
							more ruthlessly in proportion as the Samnites became weaker, in order
							that they might hand over to the consuls who succeeded them a thoroughly
							subdued nation.

As the enemy had now no army in a condition to fight in the open field,
							the war could only be carried on by attacking their cities, and the sack
							of those which they captured would enrich the soldiers, whilst the
							enemy, compelled to fight for their hearths and homes, would gradually
							become exhausted.

In pursuance of this plan the consuls sent despatches to Rome giving an
							account of their operations and then separated, Papirius marching to
							Saepinum, whilst Carvilius led his legions to the assault on Velia.

The contents of these despatches were listened to with every
							manifestation of delight, both in the senate and in the Assembly.

A four days' thanksgiving was appointed as an expression of the public
							joy, and festal observances were kept up in every house. These successes
							were not only of great importance in themselves, but they came most
							opportunely for Rome, as it so happened that at that very time
							information was received that Etruria had again commenced hostilities.

The question naturally occurred to people's minds, how would it have
							been possible to withstand Etruria if any reverse had been met with in
							Samnium? The Etruscans, acting upon a secret understanding with the
							Samnites, had seized the moment when both consuls and the whole force of
							Rome were employed against Samnium as a favourable opportunity for
							recommencing war.

Embassies from the allied states were introduced by M. Atilius the
							praetor into the senate and complained of the ravaging and burning of
							their fields by their Etruscan neighbours because they would not revolt
							from Rome.

They appealed to the senate to protect them from the outrageous violence
							of their common foe, and were told in reply that the senate would see to
							it that their allies had no cause to regret their fidelity, and that the
							day was near when the Etruscans would be in the same

position as the Samnites Still, the senate would have been somewhat
							dilatory in dealing with the Etruscan question had not intelligence come
							to hand that even the Faliscans, who had for many years been on terms of
							friendship with Rome, had now made common cause with the Etruscans.

The proximity of this city to Rome made the senate take a more serious
							view of the position, and they decided to send the fetials to demand
							redress.

Satisfaction was refused, and by order of the people with the sanction
							of the senate war was formally declared against the Faliscans. The
							consuls were ordered to decide by lot which of them should transport his
							army from Samnium into Etruria.

By this time Carvilius had taken from the Samnites three of their cities,
							Velia, Palumbinum, and Herculaneum. Velia he took after a few days'
							siege, Palumbinum on the day he arrived before its walls.

Herculaneum gave him more trouble; after an indecisive battle in which,
							however, his losses were somewhat the heavier he moved his camp close up
							to the town and shut up the enemy within their walls.

The place was then stormed and captured. In these three captures the
							number of killed and prisoners amounted to 10,000, the prisoners forming
							a small majority of the total loss. On the consuls casting lots for
							their respective commands, Etruria fell to Carvilius, much to the
							satisfaction of his men, who were now unable to stand the intense cold
							of Samnium.

Papirius met with more resistance at Saepinum. There were frequent
							encounters, in the open field, on the march, and round the city itself
							when he was checking the sorties of the enemy. There was no question of
							siege operations, the enemy met him on equal terms, for the Samnites
							protected their walls with their arms quite as much as their walls
							protected them.

At last by dint of hard fighting he compelled the enemy to submit to a
							regular siege, and after pressing the siege with spade and sword he
							finally effected the capture of the place.

The victors were exasperated by the obstinate resistance, and the
							Samnites suffered heavily, losing no less than 7400 killed, while only
							3000 were made prisoners. Owing to the Samnites having stored their
							property in a limited number of cities there was a vast amount of
							plunder, the whole of which was given to the soldiery.

Everything was now deep in snow, and
							it was impossible to remain any longer in the open, so the consul
							withdrew his army from Samnium.

On his approach to Rome a triumph was granted to him by universal
							consent. This triumph, which he celebrated while still in office, was a
							very brilliant one for those days.

The infantry and cavalry who marched in the procession were conspicuous
							with their decorations, many were wearing civic, mural, and vallarian
								crowns.

The spoils of the Samnites attracted much attention; their splendour and
							beauty were compared with those which the consul's father had won, and
							which were familiar to all through their being used as decorations of
							public places Amongst those in the victor's train were some prisoners of
							high rank distinguished for their own or their fathers' military
							services;

there were also carried in the procession 2,533,000 bronze ases , stated to be the proceeds of the sale of
							the prisoners, and 1830 pounds of silver taken
							from the cities. All the silver and bronze was stored in the treasury,
							none of this was given to the soldiers.

This created dissatisfaction amongst the plebs, which was aggravated by
							the collection of the war tax to provide the soldiers' pay, for if
							Papirius had not been so anxious to get the credit of paying the price
							of the prisoners into the treasury there would have been enough to make
							a gift to the soldiers and also to furnish their pay. He dedicated the
							temple of Quirinus.

I do not find in any ancient author that it was he who vowed this temple
							in the crisis of a battle, and certainly he could not have completed it
							in so short a time; it was vowed by his father when Dictator, and the
							son dedicated it when consul, and adorned it with the spoils of the
							enemy.

There was such a vast quantity of these that not only were the temple
							and the Forum adorned with them, but they were distributed amongst the
							allied peoples and the nearest colonies to decorate their public spaces
							and temples.

After his triumph Papirius led his army into the neighbourhood of Vescia,
							as that district was still infested by the Samnites, and there he
							wintered.

During this time Carvilius was
							making preparations to attack Troilum in Etruria.

He allowed 470 of its wealthiest citizens to leave the place after they
							had paid an enormous sum by way of ransom; the town with the rest of its
							population he took by storm.

Going on from there he carried five forts, positions of great natural
							strength. In these actions the enemy lost 2400 killed and 2000
							prisoners. The Faliscans sued for peace, and he granted them a truce for
							one year on condition of their supplying a year's pay to his troops, and
							an indemnity of 100,000 ases of bronze
							coinage.

After these successes he went home to enjoy his triumph, a triumph less
							illustrious than his colleague's in regard of the Samnite campaign, but
							fully equal to it considering his series of successes in Etruria.

He brought into the treasury 380,000 ases 
							out of the proceeds of the war, the rest he disposed of partly in
							contracting for the building of a temple to Fortis Fortuna, near the
							temple of that

deity, which King Servius Tullius had dedicated, and partly as a
							donative to the soldiers, each legionary receiving 102 ases , the centurions and cavalry twice as much.
							This gift was all the more acceptable to the men after the niggardliness
							of his colleague.

L. Postumius, one of his staff, was indicted before the people, but was
							protected by the consul's popularity. His prosecutor was M. Scantius, a
							tribune of the plebs, and the report was that he had evaded trial by
							being made a staff-officer, proceedings, therefore, could only be
							threatened without being carried out.

The year having now expired, new plebeian tribunes
							entered upon office, but there was a flaw in their election, and five
							days later others took their place.

The lustrum was closed this year by the censors, P. Cornelius Arvina and
							C. Marcius Rutilus. The census returns gave the population as numbering
							262,321 . These were the twenty-sixth pair of censors since the first,
							the lustrum was the nineteenth.

This year, for the first time, those who had been crowned for their deeds
							in war were allowed to wear their decorations at the Roman Games, and
							then, too, for the first time, palms were given to the victors after a
							custom borrowed from Greece.

This year also the road from the temple of Mars to Bovillae was paved
							throughout its length by the curule aediles, who devoted to the purpose
							the fines levied on cattle-breeders.

L. Papirius conducted the consular elections. The consuls elected were Q.
							Fabius Gurgites, the son of Maximus, and D. Junius Brutus Scaeva.
							Papirius himself was made praetor.

The many incidents which helped to make the year a happy one served to
							console the citizens for one calamity, a pestilence which raged in the
							City and country districts alike. The mischief it did was looked upon as
							a portent. The Sacred Books were consulted to see what end or what
							remedy would be vouchsafed by the gods.

It was ascertained that Aesculapius must be sent for from Epidaurus.
							Nothing, however, was done that year, owing to the consuls being
							engrossed with the war, beyond the appointment of a day of public
							intercession to Aesculapius.