The contests at home were now concluded. A war against the Veientines, with whom the Sabines had united their forces, broke out afresh. The consul Publius Valerius, after auxiliaries had been sent for from the Latins and Hernicans, being despatched to Veii with an army, immediately attacked the Sabine camp, which had been pitched before the walls of their allies, and occasioned such great consternation that, while scattered in different directions, they sallied forth in small parties to repel the assault of the enemy, the gate which he first atacked was taken: then within the rampart a massacre rather than a battle took place. From within the camp the alarm spread also into the city; the Veientines ran to arms in as great a panic as if Veii had been taken: some came up to the support of the Sabines, others fell upon the Romans, who had directed all their force against the camp. For a little while they were disconcerted and thrown into confusion; then they in like manner formed two fronts and made a stand: and the cavalry, being commanded by the consul to charge, routed the Tuscans and put them to flight; and in the self-same hour two armies and two of the most influential and powerful of the neighbouring states were vanquished. While these events were taking place at Veii, the Volscians and AEquans had pitched their camp in Latin territory, and laid waste their frontiers. The Latins, being joined by the Hernicans, without either a Roman general or Roman auxiliaries, by their own efforts, stripped them of their camp. Besides recovering their own effects, they obtained immense booty. The consul Gaius Nautius, however, was sent against the Volscians from Rome. The custom, I suppose, was not approved of, that the allies should carry on wars with their own forces and according to their own plans without a Roman general and troops. There was no kind of injury and petty annoyance that was not practised against the Volscians; they could not, however, be prevailed on to come to an engagement in the field.

Lucius Furius and Gaius Manlius were the next consuls. The Veientines fell to Manlius as his province. No war, however, followed: a truce for forty years was granted them at their request, but they were ordered to provide corn and pay for the soldiers. Disturbance at home immediately followed in close succession on peace abroad: the commons were goaded by the spur employed by the tribunes in the shape of the agrarian law. The consuls, no whit intimidated by the condemnation of Menenius, nor by the danger of Servilius, resisted with their utmost might; Gnaeus Genucius, a tribune of the people, dragged the consuls before the court on their going out of office. Lucius AEmilius and Opiter Verginius entered upon the consulate. Instead of Verginius I find Vopiscus Julius given as consul in some annals. In this year (whoever were the consuls) Furius and Manlius, being summoned to trial before the people, in sordid garb solicited the aid of the younger patricians as much as that of the commons: they advised, they cautioned them to keep themselves from public offices and the administration of public affairs, and indeed to consider the consular fasces, the toga praetexta and curule chair, as nothing else but a funeral parade: that when decked with these splendid insignia, as with fillets, [70] they were doomed to death. But if the charms of the consulate were so great they should even now rest satisfied that the consulate was held in captivity and crushed by the tribunician power; that everything had to be done by the consul, at the beck and command of the tribune, as if he were a tribune's beadle. If he stirred, if he regarded the patricians at all, if he thought that there existed any other party in the state but the commons, let him set before his eyes the banishment of Gnaeeus Marcius, the condemnation and death of Menenius. Fired by these words, the patricians from that time held their consultations not in public, but in private houses, and remote from the knowledge of the majority, at which, when this one point only was agreed on, that the accused must be rescued either by fair means or foul, the most desperate proposals were most approved; nor did any deed, however daring, lack a supporter.[71] Accordingly, on the day of trial, when the people stood in the forum on tiptoe of expectation, they at first began to feel surprised that the tribune did not come down; then, the delay now becoming more suspicious, they believed that he was hindered by the nobles, and complained that the public cause was abandoned and betrayed. At length those who had been waiting before the entrance of the tribune's residence announced that he had been found dead in his house. As soon as rumour spread the news through the whole assembly, just as an army disperses on the fall of its general, so did they scatter in different directions. Panic chiefly seized the tribunes, now taught by their colleague's death how utterly ineffectual was the aid the devoting laws afforded them.[72] Nor did the patricians display their exultation with due moderation; and so far was any of them from feeling compunction at the guilty act, that even those who were innocent wished to be considered to have perpetrated it, and it was openly declared that the tribunician power ought to be subdued by chastisement.

Immediately after this victory, that involved a most ruinous precedent, a levy was proclaimed; and, the tribunes being now overawed, the consuls accomplished their object without any opposition. Then indeed the commons became enraged more at the inactivity of the tribunes than at the authority of the consuls: they declared there was an end of their liberty: that things had returned to their old condition: that the tribunician power had died along with Genucius and was buried with him; that other means must be devised and adopted, by which the patricians might be resisted: and that the only means to that end was for the people to defend themselves, since they had no other help: that four-and-twenty lictors waited on the consuls, and they men of the common people: that nothing could be more despicable, or weaker, if only there were persons to despise them; that each person magnified those things and made them objects of terror to himself. When they had excited one another by these words, a lictor was despatched by the consuls to Volero Publilius, a man belonging to the commons, because he declared that, having been a centurion, he ought not to be made a common soldier. Volero appealed to the tribunes. When no one came to his assistance, the consuls ordered the man to be stripped and the rods to be got ready. "I appeal to the people," said Volero, "since the tribunes prefer to see a Roman citizen scourged before their eyes, than themselves to be butchered by you each in his bed." The more vehemently he cried out, the more violently did the lictor tear off his clothes and strip him. Then Volero, being both himself a man of great bodily strength, and aided by his partisans, having thrust back the lictor, retired into the thickest part of the crowd, where the outcry of those who expressed their indignation was loudest, crying out: "I appeal, and implore the protection of the commons; assist me, fellow-citizens: assist me, fellow-soldiers: it is no use to wait for the tribunes, who themselves stand in need of your aid." The men, excited, made ready as if for battle: and it was clear that a general crisis was at hand, that no one would have respect for anything, either public or private right. When the consuls had faced this violent storm, they soon found out that authority unsupported by strength had but little security; the lictors being maltreated, and the fasces broken, they were driven from the forum into the senate-house, uncertain how far Volero would follow up his victory. After that, the disturbance subsiding, having ordered the members to be summoned to the senate, they complained of the insults offered to themselves, of the violence of the people, of the daring conduct of Volero. After many violent measures had been proposed, the older members prevailed, who did not approve of the rash behaviour of the commons being met by the resentment of the patricians.

The commons having warmly espoused the cause of Volero, at the next meeting, secured his election as tribune of the people for that year, in which Lucius Pinarius and Publics Furius were consuls: and, contrary to the opinion of all, who thought that he would make free use of his tribuneship to harass the consuls of the preceding year, postponing private resentment to the public interest, without the consuls being attacked even by a single word, he brought a bill before the people that plebeian magistrates should be elected at the comitia tributa.[73] A measure of no small importance was now proposed, under an aspect at first sight by no means alarming; but one of such a nature that it really deprived the patricians of all power of electing whatever tribunes they pleased by the suffrage of their clients. The patricians resisted to the utmost this proposal, which met with the greatest approval of the commons: and though none of the college[74] could be induced by the influence either of the consuls or of the chief members of the senate to enter a protest against it, which was the only means of effectual resistance, yet the matter, a weighty one from its own importance, was spun out by party struggles for a whole year. The commons re-elected Volero as tribune. The senators, considering that the matter would end in a desperate struggle, elected as Consul Appius Claudius, the son of Appius, who was both hated by and had hated the commons, ever since the contests between them and his father. Titus Quinctius was assigned to him as his colleague. Immediately, at the beginning of the year,[75]no other question took precedence of that regarding the law. But like Volero, the originator of it, so his colleague, Laetorius, was both a more recent, as well as a more energetic, supporter of it. His great renown in war made him overbearing, because, in the age in which he lived, no one was more prompt in action. He, while Volero confined himself to the discussion of the law, avoiding all abuse of the consuls, broke out into accusations against Appius and his family, as having ever been most overbearing and cruel toward the Roman commons, contending that he had been elected by the senators, not as consul, but as executioner, to harass and torture the people: his tongue, unskilled in speech, as was natural in a soldier, was unable to give adequate expression to the freedom of his sentiments. When, therefore, language failed him, he said: "Romans, since I do not speak with as much readiness as I make good what I have spoken, attend here to-morrow. I will either die before your eyes, or will carry the law." On the following day the tribunes took possession of the platform: the consuls and the nobles took their places together in the assembly to obstruct the law. Laetorius ordered all persons to be removed, except those going to vote. The young nobles kept their places, paying no regard to the officer; then Laetorius ordered some of them to be seized. The consul Appius insisted that the tribune had no jurisdiction over any one except a plebeian; for that he was not a magistrate of the people in general, but only of the commons; and that even he himself could not, according to the usage of their ancestors, by virtue of his authority remove any person, because the words were as follows: "If ye think proper, depart, Quirites." He was easily able to disconcert Laetorius by discussing his right thus contemptuously. The tribune, therefore, burning with rage, sent his officer to the consul; the consul sent his lictor to the tribune, exclaiming that he was a private individual, without military office and without civil authority: and the tribune would have been roughly handled, had not both the entire assembly risen up with great warmth in behalf of the tribune against the consul, and a crowd of people belonging to the excited multitude, rushed from all parts of the city into the forum. Appius, however, withstood this great storm with obstinacy, and the contest would have ended in a battle, not without bloodshed, had not Quinctius, the other consul, having intrusted the men of consular rank with the task of removing his colleague from the forum by force, if they could not do so in any other way, himself now assuaged the raging people by entreaties, now implored the tribunes to dismiss the assembly. Let them, said he, give their passion time to cool: delay would not in any respect deprive them of their power, but would add prudence to strength; and the senators would be under the control of the people, and the consul under that of the senators.

The people were with difficulty pacified by Quinctius; the other consul with much more difficulty by the patricians. The assembly of the people having been at length dismissed, the consuls convened the senate; in which, though fear and resentment by turns had produced a diversity of opinions, the more their minds were called off, by lapse of time, from passion to reflection, the more adverse did they become to contentiousness, so that they returned thanks to Quinctius, because it was owing to his exertions that the disturbance had been quieted. Appius was requested to give his consent that the consular dignity should be merely so great as it could be in a state if it was to be united: it was declared that, as long as the tribunes and consuls claimed all power, each for his own side, no strength was left between: that the commonwealth was distracted and torn asunder: that the object aimed at was rather to whom it should belong, than that it should be safe. Appius, on the contrary, called gods and men to witness that the commonwealth was being betrayed and abandoned through cowardice; that it was not the consul who had failed to support the senate, but the senate the consul: that more oppressive conditions were now being submitted to than had been submitted to on the Sacred Mount. Overcome, however, by the unanimous feeling of the senators, he desisted: the law was carried without opposition.

Then for the first time the tribunes were elected in the comita tributa. Piso is the authority for the statement that three were added to the number, as if there had been only two before. He also gives the names of the tribunes, Gnaeus Siccius, Lucius Numitorius, Marcus Duellius, Spurius Icilius, Lucius Mecilius. During the disturbance at Rome, a war broke out with the Volscians and AEquans, who had laid waste the country, so that, if any secession of the people took place, they might find a refuge with them. Afterward, when matters were settled, they moved back their camp. Appius Claudius was sent against the Volscians; the AEquans fell to Quinctius as his province. Appius exhibited the same severity in war as at home, only more unrestrained, because it was free from the control of the tribunes. He hated the commons with a hatred greater than that inherited from his father: he had been defeated by them: when he had been chosen consul as the only man able to oppose the influence of the tribunes, a law had been passed, which former consuls had obstructed with less effect, amid hopes of the senators by no means so great as those now placed in him. His resentment and indignation at this stirred his imperious temper to harass the army by the severity of his command; it could not, however, be subdued by any exercise of authority, with such a spirit of opposition were the soldiers filled. They carried out all orders slowly, indolently, carelessly, and stubbornly: neither shame nor fear restrained them. If he wished the march to be accelerated, they designedly went more slowly: if he came up to them to encourage them in their work, they all relaxed the energy which they had before exerted of their own accord: they cast down their eyes in his presence, they silently cursed him as he passed by; so that that spirit, unconquered by plebeian hatred, was sometimes moved. Every kind of severity having been tried without effect, he no longer held any intercourse with the soldiers; he said the army was corrupted by the centurions; he sometimes gibingly called them tribunes of the people and Voleros.

None of these circumstances were unknown to the Volscians, and they pressed on with so much the more vigour, hoping that the Roman soldiers would entertain the same spirit of opposition against Appius as they had formerly exhibited against the consul Fabius. However, they showed themselves still more embittered against Appius than against Fabius. For they were not only unwilling to conquer, like the army of Fabius, but even wished to be conquered. When led forth into the field, they made for their camp in ignominious flight, and did not stand their ground until they saw the Volscians advancing against their fortifications, and the dreadful havoc in the rear of their army. Then they were compelled to put forth their strength for battle, in order that the now victorious enemy might be dislodged from their lines; while, however, it was sufficiently clear that the Roman soldiers were only unwilling that the camp should be taken, in regard to all else they gloried in their own defeat and disgrace. When the haughty spirit of Appius, in no wise broken by this behaviour of the soldiers, purposed to act with still greater severity, and summoned a meeting, the lieutenants and tribunes flocked around him, recommending him by no means to decide to put his authority to the proof, the entire strength of which lay in unanimous obedience, saying that the soldiers generally refused to come to the assembly, and that their voices were heard on all sides, demanding that the camp should be removed from the Volscian territory: that the victorious enemy were but a little time ago almost at the very gates and rampart, and that not merely a suspicion but the visible form of a grievous disaster presented itself to their eyes. Yielding at last—since they gained nothing save a respite from punishment—having prorogued the assembly, and given orders that their march should be proclaimed for the following day, at daybreak he gave the signal for departure by sound of trumpet. At the very moment when the army, having got clear of the camp, was forming itself, the Volscians, as if they had been aroused by the same signal, fell upon those in the rear: from these the alarm spreading to the van, threw both the battalions and companies into such a state of consternation, that neither could the general's orders be distinctly heard, nor the lines drawn up. No one thought of anything but flight. In such loose order did they make their way through heaps of dead bodies and arms, that the enemy ceased their pursuit sooner than the Romans their flight. The soldiers having at length rallied from their disordered flight, the consul, after he had in vain followed his men, bidding them return, pitched his camp in a peaceful part of the country; and having convened an assembly, after inveighing not without good reason against the army, as traitors to military discipline, deserters of their posts, asking them, one by one where were their standards, where their arms, he first beat with rods and then beheaded those soldiers who had thrown down their arms, the standard-bearers who had lost their standards, and also the centurions, and those who received double allowance,[76] who had deserted their ranks. With respect to the rest of the rank and file, every tenth man was drawn by lot for punishment.

On the other hand, the consul and soldiers among the AEquans vied with each other in courtesy and acts of kindness: Quinctius was naturally milder in disposition, and the ill-fated severity of his colleague had caused him to give freer vent to his own good temper. This remarkable agreement between the general and his army the AEquans did not venture to meet, but suffered the enemy to go through their country committing devastations in every direction. Nor were depredations committed more extensively in that quarter in any preceding war. The whole of the booty was given to the soldiers. In addition, they received praise, in which the minds of soldiers find no less pleasure than in rewards. The army returned more reconciled both to their general, and also, thanks to the general, to the patricians, declaring that a parent had been given to them, a tyrant to the other army by the senate. The year which had passed with varied success in war, and violent dissensions at home and abroad, was rendered memorable chiefly by the elections of tribes, a matter which was more important from the victory in the contest[77] that was undertaken than from any real advantage; for more dignity was withdrawn from the elections themselves by the fact that the patricians were excluded from the council, than influence either added to the commons or taken from the patricians.[78]

A still more stormy year followed, when Lucius Valerius and Titus AEmilius were consuls, both by reason of the struggles between the different orders concerning the agrarian law, as well as on account of the trial of Appius Claudius, for whom Marcus Duilius and Gnaeus Siccius appointed a day of trial, as a most active opposer of the law, and one who supported the cause of the possessors of the public land, as if he were a third consul [79]. Never before was an accused person so hateful to the commons brought to trial before the people, overwhelmed with their resentment against himself and also against his father. The patricians too seldom made equal exertions so readily on one's behalf: they declared that the champion of the senate, and the upholder of their dignity, set up as a barrier against all the storms of the tribunes and commons, was exposed to the resentment of the commons, although he had only exceeded the bounds of moderation in the contest. Appius Claudius himself was the only one of the patricians who made light both of the tribunes and commons and his own trial. Neither the threats of the commons, nor the entreaties of the senate, could ever persuade him even to change his garb, or accost persons as a suppliant, or even to soften or moderate his usual harshness of speech in the least degree, when his cause was to be pleaded before the people. The expression of his countenance was the same; the same stubbornness in his looks, the same spirit of pride in his language: so that a great part of the commons felt no less awe of Appius when on his trial than they had felt for him when consul. He pleaded his cause only once, and in the same haughty style of an accuser which he had been accustomed to adopt on all occasions: and he so astounded both the tribunes and the commons by his intrepidity, that, of their own accord, they postponed the day of trial, and then allowed the matter to die out. No long interval elapsed: before, however, the appointed day came, he died of some disease; and when the tribunes of the people endeavoured to put a stop to his funeral panegyric, the commons would not allow the burial day of so great a man to be defrauded of the customary honours: and they listened to his eulogy when dead as patiently as they had listened to the charges brought against him when living, and attended his obsequies in vast numbers.

In the same year the consul Valerius, having marched with an army against the Aequans, and being unable to draw out the enemy to an engagement, proceeded to attack their camp. A dreadful storm coming down from heaven accompanied by thunder and hail prevented him. Then, on a signal for a retreat being given, their surprise was excited by the return of such fair weather, that they felt scruples about attacking a second time a camp which was defended as it were by some divine power: all the violence of the war was directed to plundering the country. The other consul, Aemilius, conducted the war in Sabine territory. There also, because the enemy confined themselves within their walls, the lands were laid waste. Then the Sabines, roused by the burning not only of the farms, but of the villages also, which were thickly inhabited, after they had fallen in with the raiders retired from an engagement the issue of which was left undecided, and on the following day removed their camp into a safer situation. This seemed a sufficient reason to the consul why he should leave the enemy as conquered, and depart thence, although the war was as yet unfinished.

During these wars, while dissensions still continued at home, Titus Numicius Priscus and Aulus Verginius were elected consuls. The commons appeared determined no longer to brook the delay in accepting the agrarian law, and extreme violence was on the point of being resorted to, when it became known by the smoke from the burning farms and the flight of the peasants that the Volscians were at hand; this circumstance checked the sedition that was now ripe and on the point of breaking out. The consuls, under the immediate compulsion of the senate, led forth the youth from the city to war, and thereby rendered the rest of the commons more quiet. And the enemy indeed, having merely filled the Romans with fear that proved groundless, departed in great haste. Numicius marched to Antium against the Volscians, Verginius against the Aequans. There, after they had nearly met with a great disaster in an attack from an ambuscade, the bravery of the soldiers restored their fortunes, which had been endangered through the carelessness of the consul. Affairs were conducted better in the case of the Volscians. The enemy were routed in the first engagement, and driven in flight into the city of Antium, a very wealthy place, considering the times: the consul, not venturing to attack it, took from the people of Antium another town, Caeno,[80] which was by no means so wealthy While the Aequans and Volscians engaged the attention of the Roman armies, the Sabines advanced in their depredations even to the gates of the city: then they themselves, a few days later, sustained from the two armies heavier losses than they had inflicted, both the consuls having entered their territories under the influence of exasperation.

At the close of the year to some extent there was peace, but, as frequently at other times, a peace disturbed by contests between the patricians and commons. The exasperated commons refused to attend the consular elections: Titus Quinctius and Quintus Servilius were elected consuls through the influence of the patricians and their dependents: the consuls had a year similar to the preceding, disturbed at the beginning, and afterward tranquil by reason of war abroad. The Sabines crossing the plains of Crustumerium by forced marches, after carrying fire and sword along the banks of the Anio, being repulsed when they had nearly come up to the Colline gate and the walls, drove off, however, great booty of men and cattle: the consul Servilius, having pursued them with an army bent on attacking them, was unable to overtake the main body itself in the level country: he, however, extended his devastations over such a wide area, that he left nothing unmolested by war, and returned after having obtained booty many times greater than that carried off by the enemy. The public cause was also extremely well supported among the Volscians by the exertions both of the general and the soldiers. First a pitched battle was fought, on level ground, with great slaughter and much bloodshed on both sides: and the Romans, because their small numbers caused their loss to be more keenly felt, would have given way, had not the consul, by a well-timed fiction, reanimated the army, by crying out that the enemy was in flight on the other wing; having charged, they, by believing themselves victorious, became so. The consul, fearing lest, by pressing on too far, he might renew the contest, gave the signal for retreat. A few days intervened, both sides resting as if by tacit suspension of hostilities: during these days a vast number of persons from all the states of the Volscians and Equans came to the camp, feeling no doubt that the Romans would depart during the night, if they perceived them. Accordingly, about the third watch [81], they came to attack the camp. Quinctius having allayed the confusion which the sudden panic had occasioned, and ordered the soldiers to remain quiet in their tents, led out a cohort of the Hernicans for an advance guard: the trumpeters and horn blowers he mounted on horseback, and commanded them to sound their trumpets before the rampart, and to keep the enemy in suspense till daylight: during the rest of the night everything was so quiet in the camp, that the Romans had even the opportunity of sleeping.[82] The sight of the armed infantry, whom they both considered to be more numerous than they were, and at the same time Romans, the bustle and neighing of the horses, which became restless, both from the fact of strange riders being mounted on them, and moreover from the sound of the trumpets frightening them, kept the Volscians intently awaiting an attack of the enemy.

When the day dawned, the Romans, invigorated and having enjoyed a full sleep, on being marched out to battle, at the first onset caused the Volscians to give way, wearied as they were from standing and keeping watch: though indeed the enemy rather retired than were routed, because in the rear there were hills to which the unbroken ranks behind the first line had a safe retreat. The consul, when he came to the uneven ground, halted his army; the infantry were kept back with difficulty; they loudly demanded to be allowed to pursue the discomfited foe. The cavalry were more violent: crowding round the general, they cried out that they would proceed in front of the first line. While the consul hesitated, relying on the valour of his men, yet having little confidence in the nature of the ground, they all cried out that they would proceed; and execution followed the shout. Fixing their spears in the ground, in order that they might be lighter to mount the heights, they advanced uphill at a run. The Volscians, having discharged their missile weapons at the first onset, hurled down the stones that lay at their feet upon the Romans as they were making their way up, and having thrown them into confusion by incessant blows, strove to drive them from the higher ground: thus the left wing of the Romans was nearly overborne, had not the consul dispelled their fear by rousing them to a sense of shame as they were on the point of retreating, chiding at the same time their temerity and their cowardice. At first they stood their ground with determined firmness; then, as they recovered their strength by still holding their position, they ventured to advance of themselves, and, renewing their shouts, they encouraged the whole body to advance: then having made a fresh attack, they forced their way up and surmounted the unfavourable ground. They were now on the point of gaining the summit of the hill, when the enemy turned their backs, and pursued and pursuer at full speed rushed into the camp almost in one body. During this panic the camp was taken; such of the Volscians as were able to make good their escape, made for Antium. The Roman army also was led thither; after having been invested for a few days, the town surrendered, not in consequence of any new efforts on the part of the besiegers, but because the spirits of the inhabitants had sunk ever since the unsuccessful battle and the loss of their camp.

[Footnote 1: The functions of the old priest-king were divided, the political being assigned to the consuls, the duty of sacrificing to the newly-created rex sacrificulus, who was chosen from the patricians: he was, nevertheless, subject to the control of the Pontifex Maximus, by whom he was chosen from several nominees of the college of priests.]

[Footnote 2: This, of course applied only to patricians. Plebians were accounted nobodies.—D.O.]

[Footnote 3: The insula Tiberina between Rome and the Janiculum.]

[Footnote 4: Vindicta was properly the rod which was laid on the head of a slave by the magistrate who emancipated him, or by one of his attendants: the word is supposed to be derived from vim dicere (to declare authority).]

[Footnote 5: Near the Janiculum, between the Via Aurelia and the Via Claudia.]

[Footnote 6: A part of the Palatine.—D.O.]

[Footnote 7: The goddess of victory [vi(n)co-pot(is)].]

[Footnote 8: Practically a sentence of combined excommunication and outlawry.—D.O.]

[Footnote 9: Now Chiusi.]

[Footnote 10: They did not let these salt-works by auction, but took them under their own management, and carried them on by means of persons employed to work on the public account. These salt-works, first established at Ostia by Ancus, were, like other public property, farmed out to the publicans. As they had a high rent to pay, the price of salt was raised in proportion; but now the patricians, to curry favour with the plebeians, did not let the salt-pits to private tenants, but kept them in the hands of public labourers, to collect all the salt for the public use; and appointed salesmen to retail it to the people at a cheaper rate.]

[Footnote 11: Just below the sole remaining pillar of the Pons Aemilius.—D.O.]

[Footnote 12: Macaulay, in his "Lays of Ancient Rome," has made this incident the basis of one of the most stirring poems in the English language. Though familiar to all, it does not seem out of place to quote from his "Horatius" in connection with the story as told by Livy:

"Alone stood brave Horatius, But constant still in mind; Thrice thirty thousand foes before And the broad flood behind. 'Down with him!' cried false Sextus, With smile on his pale face. 'Now yield thee,' cried Lars Porsena, 'Now yield thee to our grace.'

* * * * *

'O Tiber! father Tiber! To whom the Romans pray, A Roman's life, a Roman's arms, Take thou in charge this day!' So he spake, and speaking, sheathed The good sword by his side, And with his harness on his back Plunged headlong in the tide.

No sound of joy or sorrow Was heard from either bank, But friends and foes, in dumb surprise, With parted lips and straining eyes, Stood gazing where he sank; And when above the surges They saw his crest appear, All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry, And even the ranks of Tuscany Could scarce forbear to cheer.

But fiercely ran the current, Swollen high by months of rain; And fast his blood was flowing, And he was sore in pain, And heavy with his armour, And spent with changing blows; And oft they thought him sinking, But still again he rose.

* * * * *

'Curse on him!' quoth false Sextus, 'Will not the villain drown? But for this stay, ere close of day, We should have sacked the town!' 'Heaven help him!' quoth Lars Porsena 'And bring him safe to shore; For such a gallant feat of arms Was never seen before.'

And now he feels the bottom; Now on dry earth he stands; Now round him throng the fathers To press his gory hands; And now with shouts and clapping, And noise of weeping loud, He enters through the River-gate Borne by the joyous crowd.

* * * * *

When the goodman mends his armour, And trims his helmet's plume; When the good wife's shuttle merrily Goes flashing through the loom; With weeping and with laughter Still is the story told, How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old." ]

[Footnote 13: Of the left hand.—D.O.]

[Footnote 14: Probably where the Cliva Capitolina begins to ascend the slope of the Capitol.—D.O.]

[Footnote 15: The most ancient of the Greek colonies in Italy. Its ruins are on the coast north of the Promontory of Miseno.—D.O.]

[Footnote 16: Leading from the forum to the Velabrum.]

[Footnote 17: It was situated in the Alban Hills about ten miles from Rome, on the site of the modern Frascati.—D.O.]

[Footnote 18: Suessa-Pometia, mentioned in former note. Cora is now Cori.—D.O.]

[Footnote 19: Their home was in Campania.—D.O.]

[Footnote 20: Wooden roofs covered with earth or wet hides, and rolled forward on wheels for the protection of those engaged in battering or mining the walls.—D.O.]

[Footnote 21: That is, the Romans'.]

[Footnote 22: Perhaps because the twenty-four axes of both consuls went to the dictator.—D.O.]

[Footnote 23: Now Palestrina]

[Footnote 24: See Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome": The Battle of Lake Regillus.]

[Footnote 25: The bound (by the law of debt), from nexo, to join or connect.—D.O.]

[Footnote 26: That is, for allowing themselves to suffer it and yet fight for their oppressors.—D.O.]

[Footnote 27: For military service.]

[Footnote:28 Known as Mercuriales. Mercury was the patron of merchants.—D.O.]

[Footnote 29: That is, over the senate.—D.O.]

[Footnote 30: About 40,000 men.—D.O.]

[Footnote 31: That is, like Vetusius, watching the Aequans, who uncrippled were lying in their mountain fastnesses in northern Latium, waiting a chance to renew their ravages.—D.O.]

[Footnote 32: Modern Velletri.]

[Footnote 33: a chair-shaped X .Its use was an insignia first of royalty, then of the higher magistracies.—D.O.]

[Footnote 34: Supposed to be the hill beyond and to the right of the Ponte Nomentano.—D.O.]

[Footnote 35: Lucius Calpurnius Piso, the historian.]

[Footnote 36: This fable is of very great antiquity. Max Mueller says it is found among the Hindus.]

[Footnote 37: The law which declared the persons of the tribunes inviolate and him who transgressed it accursed.—D.O.]

[Footnote 38: Modern Anzio, south of Ostia on the coast of Latium.—D.O.]

[Footnote 39: Between Ardea and Aricia.]

[Footnote 40: The sixth part of the as, the Roman money unit, which represented a pound's weight of copper.—D.O.]

[Footnote 41: Its ruins lie on the road to Terracina, near Norma, and about forty-five miles from Rome.—D.O.]

[Footnote 42: The clientes formed a distinct class; they were the hereditary dependents of certain patrician families (their patroni) to whom they were under various obligations; they naturally sided with the patricians.]

[Footnote 43: Dionysius and Plutarch give an account of the prosecution much more favourable to the defendant.—D. O.]

[Footnote 44: Celebrated annually in the Circus Maximus, September 4th to 12th, in honour of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, or, according to some authorities, of Consus and Neptunus Equestus.—D.O.]

[Footnote 45: A >-shaped yoke placed on the slave's neck, with his hands tied to the ends.—D.O.]

[Footnote 46: In a grove at the foot of the Alban Hill.—D.O.]

[Footnote 47: There seems to be something wrong here, as Satricum, etc., were situated west of the Via Appia, while Livy places them on the Via Latina. Niebuhr thinks that the words "passing across ... Latin way," should be transposed, and inserted after the words "he then took in succession." For the position of these towns, see Map.]

[Footnote 48: Quintus Fabius Pictor, the historian.—D.O.]

[Footnote 49: The ager publicus consisted of the landed estates which had belonged to the kings, and were increased by land taken from enemies who had been conquered in war. The patricians, having the chief political power, gained exclusive occupation (possessio) of this ager publicus, for which they paid a nominal rent in the shape of produce and tithes. The nature of the charge brought by Cassius was not the fact of its being occupied by privati, but by patricians to the exclusion of plebeians.]

[Footnote 50: "Quaestors," this is the first mention of these officers in Livy; in early times it appears to have been part of their duty to prosecute those who were guilty of treason, and to carry out the punishment.]

[Footnote 51: On the west slope of the Esquiline.—D.O.]

[Footnote 52: There seems to be something wrong in the text here, as the subterfuge was distinctively a patrician one, and the commons had nothing to gain and all to lose by it. If Livy means that the commons provoked war by giving cause for the patricians to seek refuge in it, he certainly puts it very vaguely.—D. O.]

[Footnote 53: July 15th.]

[Footnote 54: By being buried alive. The idea being that the ceremonies could not be duly performed by an unchaste vestal.—D. O.]

[Footnote 55: By his power of veto.—D.O.]

[Footnote 56: These were veterans and formed the third line. The first were the "hastati," so called from their carrying long spears, which were later discarded for heavy javelins. The second were the "principes," the main line.—D. O.]

[Footnote 57: The space assigned for the general's tent.—D. O.]

[Footnote 58: The legati of a general were at once his council of war and his staff.—D. O.]

[Footnote 59: There is much in the description of this battle not easy to understand, and I am inclined to believe it was at least no better than drawn. The plundered camp, the defeat of the triarii, and the failure to mention pursuit or consequences, all favour this supposition.—D. O.]

[Footnote 60: It was to be victory or annihilation.—D. O.]

[Footnote 61: so called from the altar of Carmenta, which stood near it. It was located in or near what is now the Piazza Montanara, and was always after considered a gate of evil omen.—D. O.]

[Footnote 62: Now the Valchetta.—D. O.]

[Footnote 63: Probably of mercenaries, as the Veientines are alluded to throughout the paragraph as commanding, and it was apparently not a case of alliance.—D. O.]

[Footnote 64: On the Via Flaminia (near the grotta rossa).]

[Footnote 65: This story has been much questioned by learned commentators. I see nothing improbable in it if we pare down the exploits a little, and the evidence, such as it is all pro.—D.O.]

[Footnote 66: As this temple was about a mile from the city, it is probable the Romans were defeated and that the second fight at the gate means simply that they repulsed an assault on the walls.—D.O.]

[Footnote 67: That is, did not renew their assault on the walls.—D.O.]

[Footnote 68: Evidently only a small detatchment, since they were in condition to assault a fortified consular camp despite their defeat.—D.O.]

[Footnote 69: The story of this war is much more doubtful than the exploit of the Fabii, and Livy, as usual, furnishes the material for his own criticism.—D.O.]

[Footnote 70: After the manner of animals about to be sacrificed.—D.O.]

[Footnote 71: This was probably the origin of the "clubs" of young patricians, to which so much of the later violance was due.—D.O.]

[Footnote 72: The lex sacrata, which declared their persons inviolate.—D.O.]

[Footnote 73: The assembly of the plebeians by tribes.—D.O.]

[Footnote 74: Of tribunes.]

[Footnote 75: The consular year.]

[Footnote 76: One of the rewards of good conduct was double rations.—D.O.]

[Footnote 77: That is, the contest to obtain the reform.—D.O.]

[Footnote 78: While the plebeians lost the dignity conferred on the assembly by the presence of distinguished patricians, they gained nothing, as, in the mere matter of votes, they already had a majority; and the patricians lost nothing, as the number of their votes would not be sufficient to render them of much importance.]

[Footnote 79: There were other specific charges, but Livy confines himself to the spirit of the prosecution.—D.O.]

[Footnote 80: The port of Antium, now Nettuno.—D.O.]

[Footnote 81: Midnight.—D. O.]

[Footnote 82: The rendering of the rest of this section is vague and unsatisfactory.—D. O.]



BOOK III

THE DECEMVIRATE

After the capture of Antium, Titus AEmilius and Quintus Fabius became consuls. This was the Fabius who was the sole survivor of the family that had been annihilated at the Cremera. AEmilius had already in his former consulship recommended the bestowal of land on the people. Accordingly, in his second consulship also, both the advocates of the agrarian law encouraged themselves to hope for the passing of the measure, and the tribunes took it up, thinking that a result, that had been frequently attempted in opposition to the consuls, might be obtained now that at any rate one consul supported it: the consul remained firm in his opinion. The possessors of state land [1]—and these a considerable part of the patricians—transferred the odium of the entire affair from the tribunes to the consul, complaining that a man, who held the first office in the state, was busying himself with proposals more befitting the tribunes, and was gaining popularity by making presents out of other people's property. A violent contest was at hand; had not Fabius compromised the matter by a suggestion disagreeable to neither party. That under the conduct and auspices of Titus Quinctius a considerable tract of land had been taken in the preceding year from the Volscians: that a colony might be sent to Antium, a neighbouring and conveniently situated maritime city: in this manner the commons would come in for lands without any complaints on the part of the present occupiers, and the state remain at peace. This proposition was accepted. He secured the appointment of Titus Quinctius, Aulus Verginius, and Publius Furius as triumvirs for distributing the land: such as wished to receive land were ordered to give in their names. The attainment of their object created disgust immediately, as usually happens, and so few gave in their names that Volscian colonists were added to fill up the number: the rest of the people preferred to ask for land in Rome, rather than to receive it elsewhere. The Aequans sued for peace from Quintus Fabius (he had gone thither with an army), and they themselves broke it by a sudden incursion into Latin territory.

In the following year Quintus Servilius (for he was consul with Spurius Postumius), being sent against the Aequans, pitched his camp permanently in Latin territory: unavoidable inaction held the army in check, since it was attacked by illness. The war was protracted to the third year, when Quintus Fabius and Titus Quinctius were consuls. To Fabius, because he, as conqueror, had granted peace to the Aequans that sphere of action was assigned in an unusual manner.[2]He, setting out with a sure hope that his name and renown would reduce the Aequans to submission, sent ambassadors to the council of the nation, and ordered them to announce that Quintus Fabius, the consul, stated that he had brought peace to Rome from the Aequans, that from Rome he now brought them war, with that same right hand, but now armed, which he had formerly given to them in amity; that the gods were now witnesses, and would presently take vengeance on those by whose perfidy and perjury that had come to pass. That he, however, be matters as they might, even now preferred that the Aequans should repent of their own accord rather than suffer the vengeance of an enemy. If they repented, they would have a safe retreat in the clemency they had already experienced; but if they still took pleasure in perjury, they would wage war with the gods enraged against them rather than their enemies. These words had so little effect on any of them that the ambassadors were near being ill-treated, and an army was sent to Algidum[3] against the Romans. When news of this was brought to Rome, the indignity of the affair, rather than the danger, caused the other consul to be summoned from the city; thus two consular armies advanced against the enemy in order of battle, intending to come to an engagement at once. But as it happened that not much of the day remained, one of the advance guard of the enemy cried out: "This is making a show of war, Romans, not waging it: you draw up your army in line of battle, when night is at hand; we need a longer period of daylight for the contest which is to come. Tomorrow at sunrise return to the field: you shall have an opportunity of fighting, never fear." The soldiers, stung by these taunts, were marched back into camp till the following day, thinking that a long night was approaching, which would cause the contest to be delayed. Then indeed they refreshed their bodies with food and sleep: on the following day, when it was light, the Roman army took up their position some considerable time before. At length the Aequans also advanced. The battle was hotly contested on both sides, because the Romans fought under the influence of resentment and hatred, while the Aequans were compelled by a consciousness of danger incurred by misconduct, and despair of any confidence being reposed in them hereafter, to venture and to have recourse to the most desperate efforts. The Aequans, however, did not withstand the attack of the Roman troops, and when, having been defeated, they had retired to their own territories, the savage multitude, with feelings not at all more disposed to peace, began to rebuke their leaders: that their fortunes had been intrusted to the hazard of a pitched battle, in which mode of fighting the Romans were superior. That the Aequans were better adapted for depredations and incursions, and that several parties, acting in different directions, conducted wars with greater success than the unwieldy mass of a single army.

Accordingly, having left a guard over the camp, they marched out and attacked the Roman frontiers with such fury that they carried terror even to the city: the fact that this was unexpected also caused more alarm, because it was least of all to be feared that an enemy, vanquished and almost besieged in their camp, should entertain thoughts of depredation: and the peasants, rushing through the gates in a state of panic, cried out that it was not a mere raid, nor small parties of plunderers, but, exaggerating everything in their groundless fear, whole armies and legions of the enemy that were close at hand, and that they were hastening toward the city in hostile array. Those who were nearest carried to others the reports heard from these, reports vague and on that account more groundless: and the hurry and clamour of those calling to arms bore no distant resemblance to the panic that arises when a city has been taken by storm. It so happened that the consul Quinctius had returned to Rome from Algidum: this brought some relief to their terror; and, the tumult being calmed, after chiding them for their dread of a vanquished enemy, he set a guard on the gates. Then a meeting of the senate was summoned, and a suspension of business proclaimed by their authority: he himself, having set out to defend the frontiers, leaving behind Quintus Servilius as prefect of the city, found no enemy in the country. Affairs were conducted with distinguished success by the other consul; who, having attacked the enemy, where he knew that they would arrive, laden with booty, and therefore marching with their army the more encumbered, caused their depredation to prove their destruction. Few of the enemy escaped from the ambuscade; all the booty was recovered. Thus the return of the consul Quinctius to the city put an end to the suspension of business, which lasted four days. A census[4] was then held, and the lustrum [Footnote: The ceremony of purification took place every five years, hence "Justrum" came to be used for a period of five years.] closed by Quinctius: the number of citizens rated is said to have been one hundred and four thousand seven hundred and fourteen, not counting orphans of both sexes. Nothing memorable occurred afterward among the AEquans; they retired into their towns, allowing their possessions to be consumed by fire and devastated. The consul, after he had repeatedly carried devastation with a hostile army through the whole of the enemy's country, returned to Rome with great glory and booty.

The next consuls were Aulus Postumius Albus and Spurius Furius Fusus. Furii is by some writers written Fusii; this I mention, to prevent any one thinking that the change, which is only in the names, is in the persons themselves. There was no doubt that one of the consuls was about tobegin hostilities against the AEquans. The latter accordingly sought help from the Volscians of Ecetra; this was readily granted (so keenly did these states contend in inveterate hatred against the Romans), and preparations for war were made with the utmost vigour. The Hernicans came to hear of it, and warned the Romans that the Ecetrans had revolted to the AEquans: the colony of Antium also was suspected, because, after the town had been taken a great number of the inhabitants had fled thence for refuge to the AEquans: and these soldiers behaved with the very greatest bravery during the course of the war. After the AEquans had been driven into the towns, when this rabble returned to Antium, it alienated from the Romans the colonists who were already of their own accord disposed to treachery. The matter not yet being ripe, when it had been announced to the senate that a revolt was intended, the consuls were charged to inquire what was going on, the leading men of the colony being summoned to Rome. When they had attended without reluctance, they were conducted before the senate by the consuls, and gave such answers to the questions that were put to them that they were dismissed more suspected than they had come.

After this, war was regarded as inevitable. Spurius Furius, one of the consuls to whom that sphere of action had fallen, having marched against the Aequans, found the enemy committing depredations in the country of the Hernicans; and being ignorant of their numbers, because they had nowhere been seen all together, he rashly hazarded an engagement with an army which was no match for their forces. Being driven from his position at the first onset, he retreated to his camp; nor was that the end of his danger; for both on the next night and the following day, his camp was beset and assaulted with such vigour that not even a messenger could be despatched thence to Rome. The Hernicans brought news both that an unsuccessful battle had been fought, and that the consul and army were besieged; and inspired the senate with such terror, that the other consul Postumius was charged to see to it that the commonwealth took no harm,[5] a form of decree which has ever been deemed to be one of extreme urgency. It seemed most advisable that the consul himself should remain at Rome to enlist all such as were able to bear arms: that Titus Quinctius should be sent as proconsul[6] to the relief of the camp with the army of the allies: to complete this army the Latins and Hernicans, and the colony of Antium were ordered to supply Quinctius with troops hurriedly raised-such was the name (subitarii) that they gave to auxiliaries raised for sudden emergencies.

During those days many manoeuvres and many attacks were carried out on both sides, because the enemy, having the advantage in numbers, attempted to harass the Roman forces by attacking them on many sides, as not likely to prove sufficient to meet all attacks. While the camp was being besieged, at the same time part of the army was sent to devastate Roman territory, and to make an attempt upon the city itself, should fortune favour. Lucius Valerius was left to guard the city: the consul Postumius was sent to prevent the plundering of the frontiers. There was no abatement in any quarter either of vigilance or activity; watches were stationed in the city, outposts before the gates, and guards along the walls: and a cessation of business was observed for several days, as was necessary amid such general confusion. In the meantime the consul Furius, after he had at first passively endured the siege in his camp, sallied forth through the main gate[7] against the enemy when off their guard; and though he might have pursued them, he stopped through apprehension, that an attack might be made on the camp from the other side. The lieutenant Furius (he was also the consul's brother) was carried away too far in pursuit: nor did he, in his eagerness to follow them up, observe eitherhis own party returning, or the attack of the enemy on his rear: being thus shut out, having repeatedly made many unavailing efforts to force his way to the camp, he fell, fighting bravely. In like manner the consul, turning about to renew the fight, on being informed that his brother was surrounded, rushing into the thick of the fight rashly rather than with sufficient caution, was wounded, and with difficulty rescued by those around him. This both damped the courage of his own men, and increased the boldness of the enemy; who, being encouraged by the death of the lieutenant, and by the consul's wound, could not afterward have been withstood by any force, as the Romans, having been driven into their camp, were again being besieged, being a match for them neither in hopes nor in strength, and the very existence of the state would have been imperilled, had not Titus Quinctius come to their relief with foreign troops, the Latin and Hernican army. He attacked the Aequans on their rear while their attention was fixed on the Roman camp, and while they were insultingly displaying the head of the lieutenant: and, a sally being made at the same time from the camp at a signal given by himself from a distance, he surrounded a large force of the enemy. Of the Aequans in Roman territory the slaughter was less, their flight more disorderly. As they straggled in different directions, driving their plunder before them, Postumius attacked them in several places, where he had posted bodies of troops in advantageous positions. They, while straying about and pursuing their flight in great disorder, fell in with the victorious Quinctius as he was returning with the wounded consul. Then the consular army by its distinguished bravery amply avenged the consul's wound, and the death of the lieutenant and the slaughter of the cohorts; heavy losses were both inflicted and received on both sides during those days. In a matter of such antiquity it is difficult to state, so as to inspire conviction, the exact number of those who fought or fell: Antias Valerius, however, ventures to give an estimate of the numbers: that in the Hernican territory there fell five thousand eight hundred Romans; that of the predatory parties of the Aequans, who strayed through the Roman frontiers for the purpose of plundering, two thousand four hundred were slain by the consul Aulus Postumius; that the rest of the body which fell in with Quinctius while driving its booty before them, by no means got off with a loss equally small: of these he asserts that four thousand, and by way of stating the number exactly, two hundred and thirty were slain. After their return to Rome, the cessation of business was abandoned. The sky seemed to be all ablaze with fire; and other prodigies either actually presented themselves before men's eyes, or exhibited imaginary appearances to their affrighted minds. To avert these terrors, a solemn festival for three days was proclaimed, during which all the shrines were filled with a crowd of men and women, earnestly imploring the favour of the gods. After this the Latin and Hernican cohorts were sent back to their respective homes, after they had been thanked by the senate for their spirited conduct in war. The thousand soldiers from Antium were dismissed almost with disgrace, because they had come after the battle too late to render assistance.

The elections were then held: Lucius Aebutius and Publius Servilius were elected consuls, and entered on their office on the calends of August[8] according to the practice of beginning the year on that date. It was an unhealthy season, and it so happened that the year [9] was pestilential to the city and country, and not more to men than to cattle; and they themselves increased the severity of the disease by admitting the cattle and the peasants into the city in consequence of their dread of devastation. This collection of animals of every kind mingled together both distressed the inhabitants of the city by the unusual stench, and also the peasants, crowded together into their confined dwellings, by heat and want of sleep while their attendance on each other, and actual contact helped to spread disease. While they were hardly able to endure the calamities that pressed upon them, ambassadors from the Hernicans suddenly brought word that the Aequans and Volscians had united their forces, and pitched their camp in their territory: that from thence they were devastating their frontiers with an immense army. In addition to the fact that the small attendance of the senate was a proof to the allies that the state was prostrated by the pestilence, they further received this melancholy answer: That the Hernicans, as well as the Latins, must now defend their possessions by their own unaided exertions. That the city of Rome, through the sudden anger of the gods, was ravaged by disease. If any relief from that calamity should arise, that they would afford aid to their allies, as they had done the year before, and always on other occasions. The allies departed, carrying home, instead of the melancholy news they had brought, news still more melancholy, seeing that they were now obliged to sustain by their own resources a war, which they would have with difficulty sustained even if backed by the power of Rome. The enemy no longer confined themselves to the Hernican territory. They proceeded thence with determined hostility into the Roman territories, which were already devastated without the injuries of war. There, without any one meeting them, not even an unarmed person, they passed through entire tracts destitute not only of troops, but even uncultivated, and reached the third milestone on the Gabinian road.[10] Aebutius, the Roman consul, was dead: his colleague, Servilius, was dragging out his life with slender hope of recovery; most of the leading men, the chief part of the patricians, nearly all those of military age, were stricken down with disease, so that they not only had not sufficient strength for the expeditions, which amid such an alarm the state of affairs required, but scarcely even for quietly mounting guard. Those senators, whose age and health permitted them, personally discharged the duty of sentinels. The patrol and general supervision was assigned to the plebeian aediles: on them devolved the chief conduct of affairs and the majesty of the consular authority.

The commonwealth thus desolate, since it was without a head, and without strength, was saved by the guardian gods and good fortune of the city, which inspired the Volscians and AEquans with the disposition of freebooters rather than of enemies; for so far were their minds from entertaining any hope not only of taking but even of approaching the walls of Rome, and so thoroughly did the sight of the houses in the distance, and the adjacent hills, divert their thoughts, that, on a murmur arising throughout the entire camp—why should they waste time in indolence without booty in a wild and desert land, amid the pestilence engendered by cattle and human beings, when they could repair to places as yet unattacked—the Tusculan territory abounding in wealth? They suddenly pulled up their standards,[11] and, by cross-country marches, passed through the Lavican territory to the Tusculan hills: to that quarter the whole violence and storm of the war was directed. In the meantime the Hernicans and Latins, influenced not only by compassion but by a feeling of shame, if they neither opposed the common enemy who were making for the city of Rome with a hostile army, nor afforded any aid to their allies when besieged, marched to Rome with united forces. Not finding the enemy there, they followed their tracks in the direction they were reported to have taken, and met them as they were coming down from Tusculan territory into the Alban valley: there a battle was fought under circumstances by no means equal; and their fidelity proved by no means favourable to the allies for the time being. The havoc caused by pestilence at Rome was not less than that caused by the sword among the allies: the only surviving consul died, as well as other distinguished men, Marcus Valerius, Titus Verginius Rutilus, augurs: Servius Sulpicius, chief priest of the curies:[12] while among undistinguished persons the virulence of the disease spread extensively: and the senate, destitute of human aid, directed the people's attention to the gods and to vows: they were ordered to go and offer supplications with their wives and children, and to entreat the favour of Heaven. Besides the fact that their own sufferings obliged each to do so, when summoned by public authority, they filled all the shrines; the prostrate matrons in every quarter sweeping the temples with their hair, begged for a remission of the divine displeasure, and a termination to the pestilence.

From this time, whether it was that the favour of the gods was obtained, or that the more unhealthful season of the year was now over, the bodily condition of the people, now rid of disease, gradually began to be more healthy, and their attention being now directed to public concerns, after the expiration of several interregna, Publius Valerius Publicola, on the third day after he had entered on his office of interrex,[13] procured the election of Lucius Lucretius Tricipitinus, and Titus Veturius (or Vetusius) Geminus, to the consulship. They entered on their consulship on the third day before the ides of August,[14] the state being now strong enough not only to repel a a hostile attack, but even to act itself on the offensive. Therefore when the Hernicans announced that the enemy had crossed over into their boundaries, assistance was readily promised: two consular armies were enrolled. Veturius was sent against the Volscians to carry on an offensive war. Tricipitinus, being posted to protect the territory of the allies from devastation, proceeded no further than into the countryof the Hernicans. Veturius routed and put the enemy to flight in the first engagement. A party of plunderers, led over the Praenestine Mountains, and from thence sent down into the plains, was unobserved by Lucretius, while he lay encamped among the Hernicans. These laid waste all the countryaround Praeneste and Gabii: from the Gabinian territory they turned their course toward the heights of Tusculum; great alarm was excited in the city of Rome also, more from the suddenness of the affair than because there was not sufficient strength to repel the attack. Quintus Fabius was in command of the city; he, having armed the young men and posted guards, made things secure and tranquil. The enemy, therefore, not venturing to approach the city, when they were returning by a circuitous route, carrying off plunder from the adjacent places, their caution being now more relaxed, in proportion as they removed to a greater distance from the enemy's city, fell in with the consul Lucretius, who had already reconnoitred his lines of march, and whose army was drawn up in battle array and resolved upon an engagement. Accordingly, having attacked them with predetermined resolution, though with considerably inferior forces, they routed and put to flight their numerous army, while smitten with sudden panic, and having driven them into the deep valleys, where means of egress were not easy, they surrounded them. There the power of the Volscians was almost entirely annihilated. In some annals, I find that thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy fell in battle and in flight that one thousand seven hundred and fifty were taken alive, that twenty-seven military standards were captured: and although in accounts there may have been some exaggeration in regard to numbers, undoubtedly great slaughter took place. The victorious consul, having obtained immense booty, returned to his former standing camp. Then the consuls joined camps. The Volscians and AEquans also united their shattered strength. This was the third battle in that year; the same good fortune gave them victory; the enemy was routed, and their camp taken.

Thus the affairs of Rome returned to their former condition; and successes abroad immediately excited commotions in the city. Gaius Terentilius Harsa was tribune of the people in that year: he, considering that an opportunity was afforded for tribunician intrigues during the absence of the consuls began, after railing against the arrogance of the patricians for several days before the people, to inveigh chiefly against the consular authority, as being excessive and intolerable for a free state: for that in name only was it less hateful, in reality it was almost more cruel than the authority of the kings: that forsooth in place of one, two masters had been accepted, with unbounded and unlimited power, who, themselves unrestrained and unbridled, directed all the terrors of the law, and all kinds of punishments against the commons. Now, in order that their unbounded license might not last forever, he would bring forward a law that five persons be appointed to draw up laws regarding the consular power, by which the consul should use that right which the people should have given him over them, not considering their own caprice and license as law. Notice having been given of this law, as the patricians were afraid, lest, in the absence of the consuls, they should be subjected to the yoke; the senate was convened by Quintus Fabius, prefect of the city, who inveighed so vehemently against the bill and its proposer that no kind of threats or intimidation was omitted by him, which both the consuls could supply, even though they surrounded the tribune in all their exasperation: That he had lain in wait, and, having seized a favourable opportunity, had made an attack on the commonwealth. If the gods in their anger had given them any tribune like him in the preceding year, during the pestilence and war, it could not have been endured: that, when both the consuls were dead, and the state prostrate and enfeebled, in the midst of the general confusion he would have proposed laws to abolish the consular government altogether from the state; that he would have headed the Volscians and AEquans in an attack on the city. What, if the consuls behaved in a tyrannical or cruel manner against any of the citizens, was it not open to him to appoint a day of trial for them, to arraign them before those very judges against any one of whom severity might have been exercised? That he by his conduct was rendering, not the consular authority, but the tribunician power hateful and insupportable; which, after having been in a state of peace, and on good terms with the patricians, was now being brought back anew to its former mischievous practices; nor did he beg of him not to proceed as he had begun. "Of you, the other tribunes," said Fabius, "we beg that you will first of all consider that that power was appointed for the aid of individuals, not for the ruin of the community; that you were created tribunes of the commons, not enemies of the patricians. To us it is distressing, to you a source of odium, that the republic, now bereft of its chief magistrates, should be attacked; you will diminish not your rights, but the odium against you. Confer with your colleague that he may postpone this business till the arrival of the consuls, to be then discussed afresh; even the AEquans and the Volscians, when our consuls were carried off by pestilence last year, did not harass us with a cruel and tyrannical war." The tribunes conferred with Terentilius, and the bill being to all appearance deferred, but in reality abandoned, the consuls were immediately sent for.

Lucretius returned with immense spoil, and much greater glory; and this glory he increased on his arrival, by exposing all the booty in the Campus Martius, so that each person might, for the space of three days, recognise what belonged to him and carry it away; the remainder, for which no owners were forthcoming, was sold. A triumph was by universal consent due to the consul; but the matter was deferred, as the tribune again urged his law; this to the consul seemed of greater importance. The business was discussed for several days, both in the senate and before the people: at last the tribune yielded to the majesty of the consul, and desisted; then their due honour was paid to the general and his army. He triumphed over the Volscians and AEquans; his troops followed him in his triumph. The other consul was allowed to enter the city in ovation[15]unaccompanied by his soldiers.

In the following year the Terentilian law, being brought forward again by the entire college, engaged the serious attention of the new consuls, who were Publius Volumnius and Servius Sulpicius. In that year the sky seemed to be on fire, and a violent earthquake took place: it was believed that an ox spoke, a phenomenon which had not been credited in the previous year: among other prodigies there was a shower of flesh, which a large flock of birds is said to have carried off by pecking at the falling pieces: that which fell to the ground is said to have lain scattered about just as it was for several days, without becoming tainted. The books were consulted[16] by the duumviri for sacred rites: dangers of attacks to be made on the highest parts of the city, and of consequent bloodshed, were predicted as threatening from an assemblage of strangers; among other things, admonition was given that all intestine disturbances should be abandoned.[17] The tribunes alleged that that was done to obstruct the law, and a desperate contest was at hand.

On a sudden, however, that the same order of events might be renewed each year, the Hernicans announced that the Volscians and the AEquans, in spite of their strength being much impaired, were recruiting their armies: that the centre of events was situated at Antium; that the colonists of Antium openly held councils at Ecetra: that there was the head—there was the strength—of the war. As soon as this announcement was made in the senate, a levy was proclaimed: the consuls were commanded to divide the management of the war between them; that the Volscians should be the sphere of action of the one, the AEquans of the other. The tribunes loudly declared openly in the forum that the story of the Volscian war was nothing but a got-up farce: that the Hernicans had been trained to act their parts: that the liberty of the Roman people was now not even crushed by manly efforts, but was baffled by cunning; because it was now no longer believed that the Volscians and the AEquans who were almost utterly annihilated, could of themselves begin hostilities, new enemies were sought for: that a loyal colony, and one in their very vicinity, was being rendered infamous: that war was proclaimed against the unoffending people of Antium, in reality waged with the commons of Rome, whom, loaded with arms, they were determined to drive out of the city with precipitous haste, wreaking their vengeance on the tribunes by the exile and expulsion of their fellow-citizens. That by these means—and let them not think that there was any other object contemplated—the law was defeated, unless, while the matter was still in abeyance, while they were still at home and in the grab of citizens, they took precautions, so as to avoid being driven out of possession of the city, or being subjected to the yoke. If they only had spirit, support would not be wanting: that all the tribunes were unanimous: that there was no apprehension from abroad, no danger. That the gods had taken care, in the preceding year that their liberty could be defended with safety. Thus spoke the tribunes.

But on the other side, the consuls, having placed their chairs[18] within view of them, were holding the levy; thither the tribunes hastened down, and carried the assembly along with them; a few [19] were summoned, as it were, by way of making an experiment, and instantly violence ensued. Whomsoever the lictor laid hold of by order of the consul, him the tribune ordered to be released; nor did his own proper jurisdiction set a limit to each, but they rested their hopes on force, and whatever they set their mind upon, was to be gained by violence. Just as the tribunes had behaved in impeding the levy, in the same manner did the consuls conduct themselves in obstructing the law which was brought forward on each assembly day. The beginning of the riot was that the patricians refused to allow themselves to be moved away, when the tribunes ordered the people to proceed to give their vote. Scarcely any of the older citizens mixed themselves up in the affair, inasmuch as it was one that would not be directed by prudence, but was entirely abandoned to temerity and daring. The consuls also frequently kept out of the way, lest in the general confusion they might expose their dignity to insult. There was one Caeso Quinctius, a youth who prided himself both on the nobility of his descent, and his bodily stature and strength; to these endowments bestowed on him by the gods, he himself had added many brave deeds in war, and eloquence in the forum; so that no one in the state was considered readier either in speech or action. When he had taken his place in the midst of a body of the patricians, pre-eminent above the rest, carrying as it were in his eloquence and bodily strength dictatorships and consulships combined, he alone withstood the storms of the tribunes and the populace. Under his guidance the tribunes were frequently driven from the forum, the commons routed and dispersed; such as came in his way, came off ill-treated and stripped: so that it became quite clear that, if he were allowed to proceed in this way, the law was as good as defeated Then, when the other tribunes were now almost thrown into despair, Aulus Verginius, one of the colleges, appointed a day for Caeso to take his trial on a capital charge. By this proceeding he rather irritated than intimidated his violent temper: so much the more vigorously did he oppose the law, harass the commons, and persecute the tribunes, as if in a regular war. The accuser suffered the accused to rush headlong to his ruin, and to fan the flame of odium and supply material for the charges he intended to bring against him: in the meantime he proceeded with the law, not so much in the hope of carrying it through, as with the object of provoking rash action on the part of Caeso. After that many inconsiderate expressions and actions of the younger patricians were put down to the temper of Caeso alone, owing to the suspicion with which he was regarded: still the law was resisted. Also Aulus Verginius frequently remarked to the people: "Are you now sensible, Quirites that you can not at the same time have Caeso as a fellow-citizen, and the law which you desire? Though why do I speak of the law? He is a hindrance to your liberty; he surpasses all the Tarquins in arrogance. Wait till that man is made consul or dictator, whom, though but a private citizen, you now see exercising kingly power by his strength and audacity." Many agreed, complaining that they had been beaten by him: and, moreover, urged the tribune to go through with the prosecution.

The day of trial was now at hand, and it was evident that people in general considered that their liberty depended on the condemnation of Caeso: then, at length being forced to do so, he solicited the commons individually, though with a strong feeling of indignation; his relatives and the principal men of the state attended him. Titus Quinctius Capitolinus, who had been thrice consul, recounting many splendid achievements of his own, and of his family, declared that neither in the Quinctian family, nor in the Roman state, had there ever appeared such a promising genius displaying such early valour. That he himself was the first under whom he had served, that he had often in his sight fought against the enemy. Spurius Furius declared that Caeso, having been sent to him by Quinctius Capitolinus, had come to his aid when in the midst of danger; that there was no single individual by whose exertions he considered the common weal had been more effectually re-established. Lucius Lucretius, the consul of the preceding year, in the full splendour of recent glory, shared his own meritorious services with Caeso; he recounted his battles detailed his distinguished exploits, both in expeditions and in pitched battle; he recommended and advised them to choose rather that a youth so distinguished, endowed with all the advantages of nature and fortune, and one who should prove the greatest support of whatsoever state he should visit, should continue to be a fellow-citizen of their own, rather than become the citizen of a foreign state: that with respect to those qualities which gave offence in him, hot-headedness and overboldness, they were such as increasing years removed more and more every day: that what was lacking, prudence, increased day by day: that as his faults declined, and his virtues ripened, they should allow so distinguished a man to grow old in the state. Among these his father, Lucius Quinctius, who bore the surname of Cincinnatus, without dwelling too often on his services, so as not to heighten public hatred, but soliciting pardon for his youthful errors, implored them to forgive his son for his sake, who had not given offence to any either by word or deed. But while some, through respect or fear, turned away from his entreaties, others, by the harshness of their answer, complaining that they and their friends had been ill-treated, made no secret of what their decision would be.

Independently of the general odium, one charge in particular bore heavily on the accused; that Marcus Volscius Fictor, who some years before had been tribune of the people, had come forward to bear testimony: that not long after the pestilence had raged in the city, he had fallen in with a party of young men rioting in the Subura;[20] that a scuffle had taken place: and that his elder brother, not yet perfectly recovered from his illness, had been knocked down by Caeso with a blow of his fist: that he had been carried home half dead in the arms of some bystanders, and that he was ready to declare that he had died from the blow: and that he had not been permitted by the consuls of former years to obtain redress for such an atrocious affair. In consequence of Volscius vociferating these charges, the people became so excited that Caeso was near being killed through the violence of the crowd. Verginius ordered him to be seized and dragged off to prison. The patricians opposed force to force. Titus Quinctius exclaimed that a person for whom a day of trial for a capital offence had been appointed, and whose trial was now close at hand, ought not to be outraged before he was condemned, and without a hearing. The tribune replied that he would not inflict punishment on him before he was condemned: that he would, however, keep him in prison until the day of trial, that the Roman people might have an opportunity of inflicting punishment on one who had killed a man.[21] The tribunes being appealed to, got themselves out of the difficulty in regard to their prerogative of rendering aid, by a resolution that adopted a middle course: they forbade his being thrown into confinement, and declared it to be their wish that the accused should be brought to trial, and that a sum of money should be promised to the people, in case he should not appear. How large a sum of money ought to be promised was a matter of doubt: the decision was accordingly referred to the senate. The accused was detained in public custody until the patricians should be consulted: it was decided that bail should be given: they bound each surety in the sum of three thousand asses; how many sureties should be given was left to the tribunes; they fixed the number at ten: on this number of sureties the prosecutor admitted the accused to bail.[22] He was the first who gave public sureties. Being discharged from the forum, he went the following night into exile among the Tuscans. When on the day of trial it was pleaded that he had withdrawn into voluntary exile, nevertheless, at a meeting of the comitia under the presidency of Verginius, his colleagues, when appealed to, dismissed the assembly: [23] the fine was rigorously exacted from his father, so that, having sold all his effects, he lived for a considerable time in an out-of-the-way cottage on the other side of the Tiber, as if in exile.

This trial and the proposal of the law gave full employment to the state: in regard to foreign wars there was peace. When the tribunes, as if victorious, imagined that the law was all but passed owing to the dismay of the patricians at the banishment of Caeso, and in fact, as far as regarded the seniors of the patricians, they had relinquished all share in the administration of the commonwealth, the juniors, more especially those who were the intimate friends of Caeso, redoubled their resentful feelings against the commons, and did not allow their spirits to fail; but the greatest improvement was made in this particular, that they tempered their animosity by a certain degree of moderation. The first time when, after Cseso's banishment, the law began to be brought forward, these, arrayed and well prepared, with a numerous body of clients, so attacked the tribunes, as soon as they afforded a pretext for it by attempting to remove them, that no one individual carried home from thence a greater share than another, either of glory or ill-will, but the people complained that in place of one Caeso a thousand had arisen. During the days that intervened, when the tribunes took no proceedings regarding the law, nothing could be more mild or peaceable than those same persons; they saluted the plebeians courteously, entered into conversation with them, and invited them home: they attended them in the forum,[24] and suffered the tribunes themselves to hold the rest of their meetings without interruption: they were never discourteous to any one either in public or in private, except on occasions when the matter of the law began to be agitated. In other respects the young men were popular. And not only did the tribunes transact all their other affairs without disturbance, but they were even re-elected or the following year. Without even an offensive expression, much less any violence being employed, but by soothing and carefully managing the commons the young patricians gradually rendered them tractable. By these artifices the law was evaded through the entire year.