18. The sedition excited by Manlius reassuming its former violence, on the expiration of the year the election was held, and military tribunes with consular power were elected from among the patricians; they were Servius Cornelius Maluginensis a third time, Publius Valerius Potitus a second time, Marcus Furius Camillus, Servius Sulpicius Rufus a second time, Caius Papirius Crassus, Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus a second time. At the commencement of which year peace with foreign countries afforded every opportunity both to the patricians and plebeians: to the plebeians, because not being called away by any levy, they conceived hopes of destroying usury, whilst they had so influential a leader; to the patricians, because their minds were not called away by any external terror from relieving the evils existing at home. Accordingly, as both sides arose much more strenuous then ever, Manlius also was present for the approaching contest. Having summoned the commons to his house, he holds consultations both by night and day with the leading men amongst them with respect to effecting a revolution of affairs, being filled with a much higher degree both of spirit and of resentment than he had been before. The recent ignominy had lighted up resentment in a mind unused to affront; it gave him additional courage, that the dictator had not ventured to the same extent against him, as Quinctius Cincinnatus had done in the case of Spurius Maelius, and because the dictator had not only endeavoured to avoid the unpopularity of his imprisonment by abdicating the dictatorship, but not even the senate could bear up against it. Elated by these considerations, and at the same time exasperated, he set about inflaming the minds of the commons, already sufficiently heated of themselves: "How long," says he, "will you be ignorant of your own strength, which nature has not wished even the brutes to be ignorant of? At least count how many you are, and how many enemies you have. Even if each of you were to attack an individual antagonist, still I should suppose that you would strive more vigorously in defence of liberty, than they in defence of tyranny. For as many of you as have been clients around each single patron, in the same number will ye be against a single enemy. Only make a show of war; ye shall have peace. Let them see you prepared for open force; they themselves will relax their pretensions. Collectively you must attempt something, or individually submit to every thing. How long will you look to me? I for my part will not be wanting to any of you: do you see that my fortune fail not. I, your avenger, when my enemies thought well of it, was suddenly reduced to nothing; and you all in a body beheld that person thrown into chains, who had warded off chains from each one of you. What am I to hope, if my enemies attempt more against me? Am I to expect the fate of Cassius and Maelius? You acted kindly in appearing shocked at it: the gods will avert it: but never will they come down from heaven on my account: they must inspire you with a determination to avert it; as they inspired me, in arms and in peace, to defend you from barbarous foes and tyrannical fellow-citizens. Is the spirit of so great a people so mean, that aid against your adversaries always satisfies you? And are you not to know any contest against the patricians, except how you may suffer them to domineer over you? Nor is this implanted in you by nature; but you are theirs by possession. For why is it you bear such spirit with respect to foreigners, as to think it meet that you should rule over them? because you have been accustomed to vie with them for empire, against these to essay liberty rather than to maintain it. Nevertheless, whatsoever sort of leaders you have, whatever has been your own conduct, ye have up to this carried every thing which ye have demanded, either by force, or your own good fortune. It is now time to aim at still higher objects. Only make trial both of your own good fortune, and of me, who have been, as I hope, already tried to your advantage. Ye will with less difficulty set up some one to rule the patricians, than ye have set up persons to resist their rule. Dictatorships and consulships must be levelled to the ground, that the Roman commons may be able to raise their heads. Wherefore stand by me, prevent judicial proceedings from going on regarding money. I profess myself the patron of the commons—a title with which my solicitude and zeal invests me. If you will dignify your leader by any more distinguishing title of honour or command, ye will render him still more powerful to obtain what ye desire." From this his first attempt is said to have arisen with respect to the obtaining of regal power; but no sufficiently clear account is handed down, either with whom [he acted], or how far his designs extended.

19. But, on the other side, the senate began to deliberate regarding the secession of the commons into a private house, and that, as it so happened, situate in the citadel, and regarding the great danger that was threatening liberty. Great numbers cry out, that a Servilius Ahala was wanted, who would not irritate a public enemy by ordering him to be led to prison, but would finish an intestine war with the loss of one citizen. They came to a resolution milder in terms, but possessing the same force, that the magistrates should see that "the commonwealth received no detriment from the designs of Marcus Manlius." Then the consular tribunes, and the tribunes of the commons, (for these also had submitted to the authority of the senate, because they saw that the termination of their own power and of the liberty of all would be the same,) all these then consult together as to what was necessary to be done. When nothing suggested itself to the mind of any, except violence and bloodshed, and it was evident that that would be attended with great risk; then Marcus Maenius, and Quintus Publilius, tribunes of the commons, say, "Why do we make that a contest between the patricians and commons, which ought to be between the state and one pestilent citizen? Why do we attack, together with the commons, a man whom it is safer to attack through the commons themselves, that he may fall overpowered by his own strength? We have it in contemplation to appoint a day of trial for him. Nothing is less popular than regal power; as soon as the multitude shall perceive that the contest is not with them, and that from advocates they are to be made judges, and shall behold the prosecutors from among the commons, the accused a patrician, and that the charge between both parties is that of aiming at regal power, they will favour no object more than their own liberty."

20. With the approbation of all, they appoint a day of trial for Manlius. When this took place, the commons were at first excited, especially when they saw the accused in a mourning habit, and with him not only none of the patricians, but not even any of his kinsmen or relatives, nay, not even his brothers Aulus and Titus Manlius; a circumstance which had never occurred before, that at so critical a juncture a man's nearest friends did not put on mourning. When Appius Claudius was thrown into prison [they remarked], that Caius Claudius, who was at enmity with him and the entire Claudian family, appeared in mourning; that this favourite of the people was about to be destroyed by a conspiracy, because he was the first who had come over from the patricians to the commons. When the day arrived, I find in no author, what acts were alleged by the prosecutors against the accused bearing properly on the charge of aspiring to kingly power, except his assembling the multitude, and his seditious expressions and his largesses, and pretended discovery; nor have I any doubt that they were by no means unimportant, as the people's delay in condemning him was occasioned not by the merits of the cause, but by the place of trial. This seems deserving of notice, that men may know what great and glorious achievements his depraved ambition of regal power rendered not only bereft of all merit, but absolutely hateful. He is said to have brought forward near four hundred persons to whom he had lent money without interest, whose goods he had prevented from being sold, whom he had prevented from being carried off to prison after being adjudged to their creditors. Besides this, that he not only enumerated also his military rewards, but also produced them to view; spoils of enemies slain up to thirty; presents from generals to the number of forty; in which the most remarkable were two mural crowns and eight civic. In addition to this, that he brought forward citizens saved from the enemy, amongst whom was mentioned Caius Servilius, when master of the horse, now absent. Then after he had recounted his exploits in war, in pompous language suitable to the dignity of the subject, equalling his actions by his eloquence, he bared his breast marked with scars received in battle: and now and then, directing his eyes to the Capitol, he called down Jupiter and the other gods to aid him in his present lot; and he prayed, that the same sentiments with which they had inspired him when protecting the fortress of the Capitol, for the preservation of the Roman people, they would now inspire the Roman people with in his critical situation: and he entreated them singly and collectively, that they would form their judgment of him with their eyes fixed on the Capitol and citadel and their faces turned to the immortal gods. As the people were summoned by centuries in the field of Mars, and as the accused, extending his hands towards the Capitol, directed his prayers from men to the gods; it became evident to the tribunes, that unless they removed the eyes of men also from the memory of so great an exploit, the best founded charge would find no place in minds prejudiced by services. Thus the day of trial being adjourned, a meeting of the people was summoned in the Poeteline grove outside the Nomentan gate, from whence there was no view of the Capitol; there the charge was made good, and their minds being now unmoved [by adventitious circumstances], a fatal sentence, and one which excited horror even in his judges, was passed on him. There are some who state that he was condemned by duumvirs appointed to inquire concerning cases of treason. The tribunes cast him down from the Tarpeian rock: and the same place in the case of one man became a monument of distinguished glory and of extreme punishment. Marks of infamy were offered to him when dead: one, a public one; that, when his house had been that where the temple of Moneta and the mint-office now stand, it was proposed to the people, that no patrician should dwell in the citadel and Capitol: the other appertaining to his family; it being commanded by a decree that no one of the Manlian family should ever after bear the name of Marcus Manlius. Such was the fate of a man, who, had he not been born in a free state, would have been celebrated with posterity. In a short time, when there was no longer any danger from him, the people, recollecting only his virtues, were seized with regret for him. A pestilence too which soon followed, no causes of so great a calamity presenting themselves, seemed to a great many to have arisen from the punishment inflicted on Manlius: "The Capitol" [they said] "had been polluted with the blood of its preserver; nor was it agreeable to the gods that the punishment of him by whom their temples had been rescued from the hands of the enemy, had been brought in a manner before their eyes."

21. The pestilence was succeeded by a scarcity of the fruits of the earth, and the report of both calamities by spreading [was followed] by a variety of wars in the following year, Lucius Valerius a fourth time, Aulus Manlius a third time, Servius Sulpicius a third time, Lucius Lucretius, Lucius AEmilius a third time, Marcus Trebonius, being military tribunes with consular power. Besides the Volscians, assigned by some fatality to give eternal employment to the Roman soldiery, and the colonies of Circeii and Velitrae, long meditating a revolt, and Latium which had been suspected, new enemies suddenly sprung up in the people of Lanuvium, which had been a most faithful city. The fathers, considering that this arose from contempt, because the revolt of their own citizens, the people of Velitrae, had been so long unpunished, decreed that a proposition should be submitted to the people at the earliest opportunity on the subject of declaring war against them: and in order that the commons might be the more disposed for that service, they appointed five commissioners for distributing the Pomptine land, and three for conducting a colony to Nepete. Then it was proposed to the people that they should order a declaration of war; and the plebeian tribunes in vain endeavouring to dissuade them, all the tribes declared for war. That year preparations were made for war; the army was not led out into the field on account of the pestilence. And that delay afforded full time to the colonists to deprecate the anger of the senate; and a great number of the people were disposed that a suppliant embassy should be sent to Rome, had not the public been involved, as is usual, with the private danger, and the abettors of the revolt from the Romans, through fear, lest they, being alone answerable for the guilt, might be given up as victims to the resentment of the Romans, dissuaded the colonies from counsels of peace. And not only was the embassy obstructed by them in the senate, but a great part of the commons were excited to make predatory excursions into the Roman territory. This new injury broke off all hope of peace. This year a report first originated regarding a revolt of the Praenestines; and the people of Tusculum, Gabii and Lavici, into whose territories the incursions had been made, accusing them of the fact, the senate returned so placid an answer, that it became evident that less credit was given to the charges, because they wished them not to be true.

22. In the following year the Papirii, Spurius and Lucius, new military tribunes, led the legions to Velitrae; their four colleagues in the tribuneship, Servius Cornelius Maluginensis a fourth time, Quintus Servilius, Servius Sulpicius, Lucius AEmilius a fourth time, being left behind to protect the city, and in case any new commotion should be announced from Etruria; for every thing was apprehended from that quarter. At Velitrae they fought a successful battle against the auxiliaries of the Praenestines, who were almost greater than the number of colonists themselves; so that the proximity of the city was both the cause of an earlier flight to the enemy, and was their only refuge after the flight. The tribunes refrained from besieging the town, both because [the result] was uncertain, and they considered that the war should not be pushed to the total destruction of the colony. Letters were sent to Rome to the senate with news of the victory, expressive of more animosity against the Praenestine enemy than against those of Velitrae. In consequence, by a decree of the senate and an order of the people, war was declared against the Praenestines: who, in conjunction with the Volscians, took, on the following year, Satricum, a colony of the Roman people, by storm, after an obstinate defence by the colonists, and made, with respect to the prisoners, a disgraceful use of their victory. Incensed at this, the Romans elected Marcus Furius Camillus a seventh time military tribune. The colleagues conjoined with him were the two Postumii Regillenses, Aulus and Lucius, and Lucius Furius, with Lucius Lucretius and Marcus Fabius Ambustus. The Volscian war was decreed to Marcus Furius out of the ordinary course, Lucius Furius is assigned by lot from among the tribunes his assistant; [which proved] not so advantageous to the public as a source of all manner of praise to his colleague: both on public grounds, because he restored the [Roman] interest which had been prostrated by his rash conduct; and on private grounds, because from his error he sought to obtain his gratitude rather than his own glory. Camillus was now in the decline of life, and when prepared at the election to take the usual oath for the purpose of excusing himself on the plea of his health, he was opposed by the consent of the people: but his active mind was still vigorous within his ardent breast, and he enjoyed all his faculties entire, and now that he concerned himself but little in civil affairs, war still aroused him. Having enlisted four legions of four thousand men each, and having ordered the troops to assemble the next day at the Esquiline gate, he set out to Satricum. There the conquerors of the colony, nowise dismayed, confiding in their number of men, in which they had considerably the advantage, awaited him. When they perceived that the Romans were approaching, they marched out immediately to the field, determined to make no delay to put all to the risk of an engagement, that by proceeding thus they should derive no advantage from the judgment of their distinguished commander, on which alone they confided.

23. The same ardour existed also in the Roman army; nor did any thing, but the wisdom and authority of one man, delay the fortune of the present engagement, who sought, by protracting the war, an opportunity of aiding their strength by skill. The enemy urged them the more on that account, and now not only did they draw out their troops in order of battle before their camp, but advanced into the middle of the plain, and by throwing up trenches near the battalions of the enemy, made a show of their insolent confidence in their strength. The Roman soldier was indignant at this; the other military tribune, Lucius Furius, still more so, who, encouraged both by his youth and his natural disposition, was still further elated by the hopes entertained by the multitude, who assumed great spirits on grounds the most uncertain. The soldiers, already excited of themselves, he still further instigated by disparaging the authority of his colleague by reference to his age, the only point on which he could do so: saying constantly, "that wars were the province of young men, and that with the body the mind also flourishes and withers; that from having been a most vigorous warrior he was become a drone; and that he who, on coming up, had been wont to carry off camps and cities at the first onset, now consumed the time inactive within the trenches. What accession to his own strength, or diminution of that of the enemy, did he hope for? What opportunity, what season, what place for practising stratagem? that the old man's plans were frigid and languid. Camillus had both sufficient share of life as well as of glory. What use was it to suffer the strength of a state which ought to be immortal, to sink into old age along with one mortal body." By such observations, he had attracted to himself the attention of the entire camp; and when in every quarter battle was called for, "We cannot," he says, "Marcus Furius, withstand the violence of the soldiers; and the enemy, whose spirits we have increased by delaying, insults us by insolence by no means to be borne. Do you, who are but one man, yield to all, and suffer yourself to be overcome in counsel, that you may the sooner overcome in battle." To this Camillus replies, that "whatever wars had been waged up to that day under his single auspices, in these that neither himself nor the Roman people had been dissatisfied either with his judgment or with his fortune; now he knew that he had a colleague, his equal in command and in authority, in vigour of age superior; with respect to the army, that he had been accustomed to rule, not to be ruled; with his colleague's authority he could not interfere. That he might do, with the favour of the gods, whatever he might deem to be to the interest of the state. That he would even solicit for his years the indulgence, that he might not be placed in the front line; that whatever duties in war an old man could discharge, in these he would not be deficient; that he prayed to the immortal gods, that no mischance might prove his plan to be the more advisable." Neither his salutary advice was listened to by men, nor such pious prayers by the gods. The adviser of the battle draws up the front line; Camillus forms the reserve, and posts a strong guard before the camp; he himself took his station on an elevated place as a spectator, anxiously watching the result of the other's plan.

24. As soon as the arms clashed at the first encounter, the enemy, from stratagem, not from fear, retreated. There was a gentle acclivity in their rear, between the army and their camp; and because they had sufficient numbers, they had left in the camp several strong cohorts, armed and ready for action, which were to rush forth, when the battle was now commenced, and when the enemy had approached the rampart. The Roman being drawn into disadvantageous ground by following the retreating enemy in disorder, became exposed to this sally. Terror therefore being turned on the victor, by reason of this new force, and the declivity of the valley, caused the Roman line to give way. The Volscians, who made the attack from the camp, being fresh, press on them; those also who had given way by a pretended flight, renew the fight. The Roman soldiers no longer recovered themselves; but unmindful of their recent presumption and former glory, were turning their backs in every direction, and with disorderly speed were making for their camp, when Camillus, being mounted on his horse by those around him, and hastily opposing the reserved troops to them, "Is this," says he, "soldiers, the battle which ye called for? What man, what god is there, whom ye can blame? That was your rashness, this your cowardice. Having followed another leader, now follow Camillus; and as ye are accustomed to do under my leadership, conquer. Why do ye look to the rampart and camp? Not a man of you shall that camp receive, except as victor." Shame at first stopped their disorderly flight; then when they saw the standards wheel about, and a line formed to meet the enemy, and the general, besides being distinguished by so many triumphs, venerable also by his age, presented himself in front of the battalions, where the greatest toil and danger was, every one began to upbraid both himself and others, and mutual exhortation with a brisk shout pervaded the entire line. Nor was the other tribune deficient on the occasion. Being despatched to the cavalry by his colleague, who was restoring the line of the infantry, not by rebuking them, (for which task his share in their fault had rendered him an authority of little weight,) but from command turning entirely to entreaties, he besought them individually and collectively, "to redeem him from blame, who was answerable for the events of that day. Notwithstanding the repugnance and dissuasion of my colleague, I gave myself a partner in the rashness of all rather than in the prudence of one. Camillus sees his own glory in your fortune, whatever it be; for my part, unless the battle is restored, I shall feel the result with you all, the infamy alone (which is most distressing)." It was deemed best that the horse should be transferred into the line whilst still unsteady, and that they should attack the enemy by fighting on foot. Distinguished by their arms and courage, they proceed in whatever direction they perceive the line of the infantry most pressed; nor among either the officers or soldiers is there any abatement observed from the utmost effort of courage. The result therefore felt the aid of the bravery exerted; and the Volscians being put to real flight in that direction in which they had lately retreated under pretended fear, great numbers were slain both in the battle itself, and afterwards in flight; the others in the camp, which was taken in the same onset: more, however, were captured than slain.

25. Where when, on taking an account of the prisoners, several Tusculans were recognised, being separated from the rest, they are brought to the tribunes; and they confessed to those who interrogated them, that they had taken up arms by the authority of the state. By the fear of which war so near home Camillus being alarmed, says that he would immediately carry the prisoners to Rome, that the senate might not be ignorant, that the Tusculans had revolted from the alliance; meanwhile his colleague, if he thought proper, should command the camp and army. One day had been a lesson to him not to prefer his own counsels to better. However neither himself, nor any person in the army, supposed that Camillus would pass over his misconduct without some angry feelings, by which the commonwealth had been brought into so perilous a situation; and both in the army and at Rome, the uniform account of all was, that, as matters had been conducted with varying success among the Volscians, the blame of the unsuccessful battle and of the flight lay with Lucius Furius, all the glory of the successful one was to be attributed to Camillus. The prisoners being brought into the senate, when the senate decreed that the Tusculans should be punished with war, and they intrusted the management of that war to Camillus, he requests one assistant for himself in that business, and being allowed to select which ever of his colleagues he pleased, contrary to the expectation of every one, he solicited Lucius Furius. By which moderation of feeling he both alleviated the disgrace of his colleague, and acquired great glory to himself. There was no war, however, with the Tusculans. By firm adherence to peace they warded off the Roman violence, which they could not have done by arms. When the Romans entered their territories, no removals were made from the places adjoining to the road, the cultivation of the lands was not interrupted: the gates of the city lying open, they came forth in crowds clad in their gowns to meet the generals; provision for the army was brought with alacrity from the city and the lands. Camillus having pitched his camp before the gates, wishing to know whether the same appearance of peace, which was displayed in the country, prevailed also within the walls, entered the city, where he beheld the gates lying open, and every thing exposed to sale in the open shops, and the workmen engaged each on their respective employments, and the schools of learning buzzing with the voices of the scholars, and the streets filled amid the different kinds of people, with boys and women going different ways, whithersoever the occasions of their respective callings carried them; nothing in any quarter that bore any appearance of panic or even of surprise; he looked around at every object, attentively inquiring where the war had been. No trace was there of any thing having been removed, or brought forward for the occasion; so completely was every thing in a state of steady tranquil peace, so that it scarcely seemed that even the rumour of war could have reached them.

26. Overcome therefore by the submissive demeanour of the enemy, he ordered their senate to be called. "Tusculans," he says, "ye are the only persons who have yet found the true arms and the true strength, by which to protect your possessions from the resentment of the Romans. Proceed to Rome to the senate. The fathers will consider, whether you have merited more punishment for your former conduct, or forgiveness for your present. I shall not anticipate your gratitude for a favour to be conferred by the state. From me ye shall have the power of seeking pardon. The senate will grant to your entreaties such a result, as they shall consider meet." When the Tusculans came to Rome, and the senate [of a people], who were till a little before faithful allies, were seen with sorrowful countenances in the porch of the senate-house, the fathers, immediately moved [at the sight,] even then ordered them to be called in rather in a friendly than a hostile manner. The Tusculan dictator spoke as follows: "Conscript fathers, we against whom ye proclaimed and made war, just as you see us now standing in the porch of your house, so armed and so attired did we go forth to meet your generals and your legions. This was our habit, this the habit of our commons; and ever shall be, unless whenever we shall receive arms from you and defence of you. We return thanks to your generals and your troops for having trusted their eyes more than their ears; and for having committed nothing hostile, where none subsisted. The peace, which we observed, the same we solicit at your hands: we pray you, avert war to that quarter where, if any where, it subsists. What your arms may be able to effect on us, if after our submission we are to experience it, we will experience unarmed. This is our determination. May the immortal gods grant that it be as successful as it is dutiful! With respect to the charges, by which you were induced to declare war against us, though it is needless to refute by words what has been contradicted by facts; yet, admitting they were true, we think it safe for us to confess them, after having shown such evident marks of repentance. Admit then that we have offended against you, since ye deserve that such satisfaction be made to you." These were nearly the words used by the Tusculans. They obtained peace at the present, and not long after the freedom of the state also. The legions were withdrawn from Tusculum.

27. Camillus, distinguished by his prudence and bravery in the Volscian war, by his success in the Tusculan expedition, in both by his extraordinary moderation and forbearance towards his colleague, went out of office; the military tribunes for the following year being Lucius and Publius Valerius, Lucius a fifth, Publius a third time, and Caius Sergius a third time, Lucius Menenius a second time, Spurius Papirius, and Servius Cornelius Maluginensis. The year required censors also, chiefly on account of the uncertain representations regarding the debt; the tribunes of the commons exaggerating the amount of it on account of the odium of the thing, whilst it was underrated by those whose interest it was that the difficulty of procuring payment should appear to depend rather on [the want of] integrity, than of ability in the debtors. The censors appointed were Caius Sulpicius Camerinus, Spurius Postumius Regillensis; and the matter having been commenced was interrupted by the death of Postumius, because it was not conformable to religion that a substitute should be colleague to a censor. Accordingly after Sulpicius had resigned his office, other censors having been appointed under some defect, they did not discharge the office; that a third set should be appointed was not allowed, as though the gods did not admit a censorship for that year. The tribunes denied that such mockery of the commons was to be tolerated; "that the senate were averse to the public tablets, the witnesses of each man's property, because they were unwilling that the amount of the debt should be seen, which would clearly show that one part of the state was depressed by the other; whilst in the mean time the commons, oppressed with debt, were exposed to one enemy after another. Wars were now sought out in every direction without distinction. Troops were marched from Antium to Satricum, from Satricum to Velitrae, and thence to Tusculum. The Latins, Hernicians, and the Praenestines were now threatened with hostilities, more through a hatred of their fellow-citizens than of the enemy, in order to wear out the commons under arms, and not suffer them to breathe in the city, or to reflect on their liberty at their leisure, or to stand in an assembly where they may hear a tribune's voice discussing concerning the reduction of interest and the termination of other grievances. But if the commons had a spirit mindful of the liberty of their fathers, that they would neither suffer any Roman citizen to be assigned to a creditor on account of debt, nor a levy to be held; until, the debts being examined, and some method adopted for lessening them, each man should know what was his own, and what another's; whether his person was still free to him, or that also was due to the stocks." The price held out for sedition soon raised it: for both several were made over to creditors, and on account of the rumour of the Praenestine war, the senate decreed that new legions should be levied; both which measures began to be obstructed by tribunitian interposition and the combined efforts of the commons. For neither the tribunes suffered those consigned to their creditors to be thrown into prison, nor did the young men give in their names. While the senate felt less pressing anxiety about enforcing the laws regarding the lending of money than about the levy; for now it was announced that the enemy, having marched from Praeneste, had encamped in the Gabinian territory; meanwhile this very report rather aroused the tribunes of the commons to the struggle commenced than deterred them; nor did any thing else suffice to allay the discontent in the city, but the approach of hostilities to the very walls.

28. For when the Praenestines had been informed that no army was levied at Rome, no general fixed on, that the senate and people were turned the one against the other; their leaders thinking that an opportunity presented itself, making a hasty march, and laying waste the country as they went along, they advanced their standards as far as the Colline gate. The panic in the city was great. The alarm was given to take up arms; persons ran together to the walls and gates, and at length turning from sedition to war, they created Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus dictator. He appointed Aulus Sempronius Atratinus his master of the horse. When this was heard, (such was the terror of that office,) the enemy retired from the walls, and the young Romans assembled to the edict without refusal. Whilst the army is being levied at Rome, in the mean time the enemy's camp is pitched not far from the river Allia: thence laying waste the land far and wide, they boasted one to the other that they had chosen a place fatal to the Roman city; that there would be a similar consternation and flight from thence as occurred in the Gallic war. For "if the Romans dread a day deemed inauspicious, and marked with the name of that place, how much more than the Allian day would they dread the Allia itself, the monument of so great a disaster. No doubt the fierce looks of the Gauls and the sound of their voices would recur to their eyes and ears." Turning over in mind those groundless notions of circumstances as groundless, they rested their hopes on the fortune of the place. On the other hand, the Romans [considered] that, "in whatever place a Latin enemy stood, they knew full well that they were the same whom, after having utterly defeated at the lake Regillus, they kept in peaceable subjection for one hundred years; that the place being distinguished by the memory of their defeat, would rather stimulate them to blot out the remembrance of their disgrace, than raise a fear that any land should be unfavourable to their success. Were even the Gauls themselves presented to them in that place, that they would fight just as they fought at Rome in recovering their country, as the day after at Gabii; then, when they took care, that no enemy, who had entered the walls of Rome, should carry home an account of their success or defeat."

29. With these feelings on either side they came to the Allia. The Roman dictator, when the enemy were in view drawn up and ready for action, says, "Aulus Sempronius, do you see that these men have taken their stand at the Allia, relying on the fortune of the place? nor have the immortal gods granted them any thing of surer confidence, or any more effectual support. But do you, relying on arms and on courage, make a brisk charge on the middle of their line; I will bear down on them when thrown into disorder and consternation with the legions. Ye gods, witnesses of the treaty, assist us, and exact the penalty, due for yourselves having been violated, and for us who have been deceived through the appeal made to your divinity." The Praenestines sustained not the attack of cavalry, or infantry; their ranks were broken at the first charge and shout. Then when their line maintained its ground in no quarter, they turn their backs; and being thrown into consternation and carried beyond their own camp by their panic, they stop not from their precipitate speed, until Praeneste came in view. There, having been dispersed in consequence of their flight, they select a post for the purpose of fortifying it in a hasty manner; lest, if they betook themselves within the walls, the country should be burned forthwith, and when all places should be desolated, siege should be laid to the city. But when the victorious Romans approached, the camp at the Allia having been plundered, that fortress also was abandoned, and considering the walls scarcely secure, they shut themselves up within the town of Praeneste. There were eight towns besides under the sway of the Praenestines. Hostilities were carried round to these also; and these being taken one after the other without much difficulty, the army was led to Velitrae. This also was taken by storm. They then came to Praeneste, the main source of the war. That town was obtained, not by force, but by capitulation. Titus Quinctius, being once victorious in a pitched battle, having taken also two camps belonging to the enemy, and nine towns by storm, and Praeneste being obtained by surrender, returned to Rome: and in his triumph brought into the Capitol the statue of Jupiter Imperator, which he had conveyed from Praeneste. It was dedicated between the recesses of Jupiter and Minerva, and a tablet fixed under it, as a monument of his exploits, was engraved with nearly these words: "Jupiter and all the gods granted, that Titus Quinctius, dictator, should take nine towns." On the twentieth day after the appointment he abdicated the dictatorship.

30. An election was then held of military tribunes with consular power; in which the number of patricians and plebeians was equal. From the patricians were elected Publius and Caius Manlius, with Lucius Julius; the commons gave Caius Sextilius, Marcus Albinius, and Lucius Antistius. To the Manlii, because they had the advantage of the plebeians in family station, and of Julius in interest, the province of the Volscians was assigned out of the ordinary course, without lots, or mutual arrangement; of which circumstance both themselves and the patricians who conferred it afterwards repented. Without any previous reconnoitre they sent out some cohorts to forage. It having been falsely reported to them that these were ensnared, whilst they march in great haste, in order to support them, without even retaining the author [of the report] who had deceived them, he being a Latin enemy instead of a Roman soldier, they themselves fell into an ambuscade. There, whilst they suffer and commit great havoc, making resistance on disadvantageous ground solely by the valour of the soldiers, the enemy in the mean time in another quarter attacked the Roman camp which was situate on a plain. By their temerity and want of skill, matters were brought into jeopardy in both places by the generals. Whatever portion [of the army] was saved, the good fortune of the Roman people, and the steady valour of the soldiers, even without a director, protected. When an account of these events was brought to Rome, it was at first agreeable to them that a dictator should be appointed; then when intelligence was received from the Volscian country that matters were quiet, and it appeared manifest that they knew not how to take advantage of victory and of opportunity, the army and generals were recalled from thence also; and there was quiet from that quarter, as far as regarded the Volscians. The only disturbance there was towards the end of the year was, that the Praenestines, having stirred up some of the states of the Latins, renewed hostilities. During the same year new colonists were enrolled for Setia, the colony itself complaining of the paucity of men. Domestic tranquillity, which the influence of the plebeian military tribunes and the respect shown to them among their own party procured, was a consolation for the want of success in war.

31. The commencement of the following year blazed forth with violent sedition, the military tribunes with consular power being Spurius Furius, Quintus Servilius a second time, Caius Licinius, Publius Cloelius, Marcus Horatius, Lucius Geganius. The debt was both the ground-work and cause of the disturbance: for the purpose of ascertaining which Spurius Servilius Priscus and Quintus Cloelius Siculus, being appointed censors, were prevented by war from proceeding in the business. For alarming news at first, then the flight [of the country people] from the lands, brought intelligence that the legions of the Volscians had entered the borders, and were laying waste the Roman land in every direction. In which alarm, so far was the fear of the foreign enemy from putting a check to the domestic feuds, that on the contrary the tribunitian power became even more vehement in obstructing the levy; until these conditions were imposed on the patricians, that no one was to pay tribute as long as the war lasted, nor issue any judicial process respecting money due. This relaxation being obtained for the commons, there was no delay with respect to the levy. New legions being enlisted, it was resolved that two armies should be led into the Volscian territory, the legions being divided. Spurius Furius and Marcus Horatius proceed to the right, towards the sea-coast and Antium; Quintus Servilius and Lucius Geganius to the left, to Ecetra towards the mountains. On neither side did the enemy meet them. Devastation was therefore committed, not similar to that straggling kind which the Volscian had practised by snatches under the influence of trepidation after the manner of a banditti, relying on the dissensions among the enemy and dreading their valour; but committed with the full meed of their resentment by a regular army, more severe also by reason of their continuance. For the incursions had been made by the Volscians on the skirts of the borders, as they were afraid lest an army might in the mean time come forth from Rome: the Romans, on the contrary, had a motive for tarrying in the enemy's country, in order to entice them to an engagement. All the houses therefore on the lands, and some villages also, being burnt down, not a fruit-tree nor the seed being left for the hope of a harvest, all the booty both of men and cattle, which was outside the walls, being driven off, the troops were led back from both quarters to Rome.

32. A short interval having been granted to the debtors to recover breath, when matters became perfectly quiet with respect to the enemy, legal proceedings began to be instituted anew; and so remote was all hope of relieving the former debt, that a new one was now contracted by a tax for building a wall of hewn stone bargained for by the censors: to which burden the commons were obliged to submit, because the tribunes of the commons had no levy which they could obstruct. Forced by the influence of the nobles, they elected all the military tribunes from among the patricians, Lucius AEmilius, Publius Valerius a fourth time, Caius Veturius, Servius Sulpicius, Lucius and Caius Quinctius Cincinnatus. By the same influence they succeeded in raising three armies against the Latins and Volscians, who with combined forces were encamped at Satricum, all the juniors being bound by the military oath without any opposition; one army for the protection of the city; the other to be sent for the sudden emergencies of war, if any disturbance should arise elsewhere. The third, and by far the most powerful, Publius Valerius and Lucius AEmilius led to Satricum. Where when they found the enemy's line of battle drawn up on level ground, they immediately engaged; and before the victory was sufficiently declared, the battle, which held out fair hopes of success, was put a stop to by rain accompanied by a violent storm of wind. On the following day the battle was renewed; and for a considerable time the Latin troops particularly, who had learned the Roman discipline during the long confederacy, stood their ground with equal bravery and success. A charge of cavalry broke their ranks; when thus confused, the infantry advanced upon them; and as much as the Roman line advanced, so much were the enemy dislodged from their ground; and when once the battle gave way, the Roman prowess became irresistible. When the enemy being routed made for Satricum, which was two miles distant, not for their camp, they were cut down chiefly by the cavalry; their camp was taken and plundered. The night succeeding the battle, they betake themselves to Antium in a march resembling a flight; and though the Roman army followed them almost in their steps, fear however possessed more swiftness than anger. Wherefore the enemy entered the walls before the Roman could annoy or impede their rear. After that several days were spent in laying waste the country, as the Romans were neither supplied with military engines to attack walls, nor the others to hazard the chance of a battle.

33. At this time a dissension arose between the Antians and the Latins; when the Antians, overcome by misfortunes and reduced by a war, in which they had both been born and had grown old, began to think of a surrender; whilst their recent revolt after a long peace, their spirits being still fresh, rendered the Latins more determined to persevere in the war. There was an end to the contest, when it became evident to both parties that neither would stand in the way of the other so as to prevent them from following out their own views. The Latins by departing redeemed themselves from a share in what they deemed a dishonourable peace. The Antians, on the removal of those who by their presence impeded their salutary counsels, surrender their city and lands to the Romans. The resentment and rage of the Latins, because they were neither able to damage the Romans in war, nor to retain the Volscians in arms, vented itself in setting fire to the city of Satricum, which had been their first place of retreat after their defeat; nor did any other building in that city remain, since they cast firebrands indiscriminately into those sacred and profane, except the temple of Mother Matuta. From that neither the sanctity of the building itself, nor respect for the gods, is said to have restrained them, but an awful voice, emitted from the temple with threats of dismal vengeance, unless they removed their abominable fires to a distance from the temples. Fired with this rage, their impetuosity carried them on to Tusculum, under the influence of resentment, because, having abandoned the general association of the Latins, they joined themselves not only in alliance with the Romans, but also as members of their state. As they unexpectedly rushed in at the gates, which were lying open, the town, except the citadel, was taken at the first shout. The townsmen with their wives and children took refuge in the citadel, and sent messengers to Rome, to inform the senate of their situation. An army was led to Tusculum with no less expedition than was worthy of the honour of the Roman people. Lucius Quinctius and Servius Sulpicius, military tribunes, commanded it. They beheld the gates of Tusculum shut, and the Latins, with the feelings of besiegers and besieged, on the one side defending the walls of Tusculum, on the other hand attacking the citadel; they struck terror and felt it at the same time. The arrival of the Romans produced a change in the minds of both parties: it turned the Tusculans from great alarm into the utmost alacrity, and the Latins from almost assured confidence of soon taking the citadel, as they were masters of the town, to very slender hope of even their own safety. A shout is raised by the Tusculans from the citadel; it is answered by a much louder one from the Roman army. The Latins are hard pressed on both sides: they neither withstand the force of the Tusculans pouring down on them from the higher ground; nor are they able to repel the Romans advancing up to the walls, and forcing the bars of the gates. The walls were first taken by scalade; the gates were then broken open; and when the two enemies pressed them both in front and in the rear, nor did there remain any strength for fight, nor any room for running away, between both they were all cut to pieces to a man. Tusculum being recovered from the enemy, the army was led back to Rome.

34. In proportion as all matters were more tranquil abroad in consequence of their successes in war this year, so much did the violence of the patricians and the distresses of the commons in the city increase every day; as the ability to pay was prevented by the very fact that it was necessary to pay. Accordingly, when nothing could now be paid out of their property, being cast in suits and assigned over to custody, they satisfied their creditors by their character and persons, and punishment was substituted for payment. Wherefore not only the lowest, but even the leading men in the commons had sunk so low in spirit, that no enterprising and adventurous man had courage, not only to stand for the military tribuneship among the patricians, (for which privilege they had strained all their energies,) but not even to take on them and sue for plebeian magistracies: and the patricians seemed to have for ever recovered the possession of an honour that had been only usurped by the commons for a few years. A trifling cause, as generally happens, which had the effect of producing a mighty result, intervened to prevent the other party from exulting too much in that. Two daughters of Marcus Fabius Ambustus, an influential man, both among persons of his own station, and also with the commons, because he was by no means considered a despiser of persons of that order, had been married, the elder to Servius Sulpicius, the younger to Caius Licinius Stolo, a distinguished person, but still a plebeian; and the fact of such an alliance not having been scorned, had gained influence for Fabius with the people. It so happened, that when the two sisters, the Fabiae, were passing away the time in conversation in the house of Servius Sulpicius, military tribune, a lictor of Sulpicius, when he returned home from the forum, rapped at the door, as is usual, with the rod. When the younger Fabia, a stranger to this custom, was frightened at it, she was laughed at by her sister, who was surprised at her sister not knowing the matter. That laugh, however, gave a sting to the female mind, sensitive as it is to mere trifles. From the number of persons attending on her, and asking her commands, her sister's match, I suppose, appeared to her to be a fortunate one, and she repined at her own, according to that erroneous feeling, by which every one is most annoyed at being outstripped by those nearest to him. When her father happened to see her disappointed after the recent mortification, by kindly inquiring he prevailed on her, who was dissembling the cause of her annoyance, (as being neither affectionate with respect to her sister, nor respectful towards her husband,) to confess, that the cause of her chagrin was, that she had been united to an inferior, and married into a house which neither honour nor influence could enter. Ambustus then, consoling his daughter, bid her keep up good spirits; that she should soon see the same honours at her own house, which she now sees at her sister's. Upon this he began to draw up his plans with his son-in-law, having attached to himself Lucius Sextius, an enterprising young man, and one to whose hope nothing was wanting but patrician descent.

35. There appeared a favourable opportunity for making innovations on account of the immense load of debt, no alleviation of which evil the commons could hope for unless their own party were placed in the highest authority. To [bring about] that object [they saw] that they should exert themselves. That the plebeians, by endeavouring and persevering, had already gained a step towards it, whence, if they struggled forward, they might reach the summit, and be on a level with the patricians, in honour as well as in merit. For the present it was resolved that plebeian tribunes should be created, in which office they might open for themselves a way to other honours. And Caius Licinius and Lucius Sextius, being elected tribunes, proposed laws all against the power of the patricians, and for the interests of the commons: one regarding the debt, that, whatever had been paid in interest being deduced from the principal, the remainder should be paid off in three years by equal instalments; the other concerning the limitation of land, that no one should possess more than five hundred acres of land; a third, that there should be no election of military tribunes, and that one at least of the consuls should be elected from the commons; all matters of great importance, and such as could not be attained without the greatest struggles. A contest therefore for all those objects, of which there is ever an inordinate desire among men, viz. land, money, and honours, being now proposed, the patricians became terrified and dismayed, and finding no other remedy in their public and private consultations except the protest, which had been tried in many previous contests, they gained over their colleagues to oppose the bills of the tribunes. When they saw the tribes summoned by Licinius and Sextius to announce their votes, surrounded by bands of patricians, they neither suffered the bills to be read, nor any other usual form for taking the votes of the commons to be gone through. And now assemblies being frequently convened to no purpose, when the propositions were now considered as rejected; "It is very well," says Sextius; "since it is determined that a protest should possess so much power, by that same weapon will we protect the people. Come, patricians, proclaim an assembly for the election of military tribunes; I will take care that that word, I FORBID IT, which you listen to our colleagues chaunting with so much pleasure, shall not be very delightful to you." Nor did the threats fall ineffectual: no elections were held, except those of aediles and plebeian tribunes. Licinius and Sextius, being re-elected plebeian tribunes, suffered not any curule magistrates to be appointed, and this total absence of magistrates continued in the city for the space of five years, the people re-electing the two tribunes, and these preventing the election of military tribunes.

36. There was an opportune cessation of other wars: the colonists of Velitrae, becoming wanton through ease, because there was no Roman army, made repeated incursions on the Roman territory, and set about laying siege to Tusculum. This circumstance, the Tusculans, old allies, new fellow-citizens, imploring aid, moved not only the patricians, but the commons also, chiefly with a sense of honour. The tribunes of the commons relaxing their opposition, the elections were held by the interrex; and Lucius Furius, Aulus Manlius, Servius Sulpicius, Servius Cornelius, Publius and Caius Valerius, found the commons by no means so complying in the levy as in the elections; and an army having been raised amid great contention, they set out, and not only dislodged the enemy from Tusculum, but shut them up even within their own walls. Velitrae began to be besieged by a much greater force than that with which Tusculum had been besieged; nor still could it be taken by those by whom the siege had been commenced. The new military tribunes were elected first: Quintius Servilius, Caius Veturius, Aulus and Marcus Cornelius, Quintus Quinctius, Marcus Fabius. Nothing worthy of mention was performed even by these at Velitrae. Matters were involved in greater peril at home: for besides Sextius and Licinius, the proposers of the laws, re-elected tribunes of the commons now for the eighth time, Fabius also, military tribune, father-in-law of Stolo, avowed himself the unhesitating supporter of those laws of which he had been the adviser. And whereas, there had been at first eight of the college of the plebeian tribunes protesters against the laws, there were now only five: and (as is usual with men who leave their own party) dismayed and astounded, they in words borrowed from others, urged as a reason for their protest, that which had been taught them at home; "that a great number of the commons were absent with the army at Velitrae; that the assembly ought to be deferred till the coming of the soldiers, that the entire body of the commons might give their vote concerning their own interests." Sextius and Licinius with some of their colleagues, and Fabius one of the military tribunes, well-versed now by an experience of many years in managing the minds of the commons, having brought forward the leading men of the patricians, teased them by interrogating them on each of the subjects which were about to be brought before the people: "would they dare to demand, that when two acres of land a head were distributed among the plebeians, they themselves should be allowed to have more than five hundred acres? that a single man should possess the share of nearly three hundred citizens; whilst his portion of land scarcely extended for the plebeian to a stinted habitation and a place of burial? Was it their wish that the commons, surrounded with usury, should surrender their persons to the stocks and to punishment, rather than pay off their debt by [discharging] the principal; and that persons should be daily led off from the forum in flocks, after being assigned to their creditors, and that the houses of the nobility should be filled with prisoners? and that wherever a patrician dwelt, there should be a private prison?"

37. When they had uttered these statements, exasperating and pitiable in the recital, before persons alarmed for themselves, exciting greater indignation in the hearers than was felt by themselves, they affirmed "that there never would be any other limit to their occupying the lands, or to their butchering the commons by usury, unless the commons were to elect one consul from among the plebeians, as a guardian of their liberty. That the tribunes of the commons were now despised, as being an office which breaks down its own power by the privilege of protest. That there could be no equality of right, where the dominion was in the hands of the one party, assistance only in that of the other. Unless the authority were shared, the commons would never enjoy an equal share in the commonwealth; nor was there any reason why any one should think it enough that plebeians were taken into account at the consular elections; unless it were made indispensable that one consul at least should be from the commons, no one would be elected. Or had they already forgotten, that when it had been determined that military tribunes should be elected rather than consuls, for this reason, that the highest honours should be opened to plebeians also, no one out of the commons was elected military tribune for forty-four years? How could they suppose, that they would voluntarily confer, when there are but two places, a share of the honour on the commons, who at the election of military tribunes used to monopolize the eight places? and that they would suffer a way to be opened to the consulship, who kept the tribuneship so long a time fenced up? That they must obtain by a law, what could not be obtained by influence at elections; and that one consulate must be set apart out of the way of contest, to which the commons may have access; since when left open to dispute it is sure ever to become the prize of the more powerful. Nor can that now be alleged, which they used formerly to boast of, that there were not among the plebeians qualified persons for curule magistracies. For, was the government conducted with less activity and less vigour, since the tribunate of Publius Licinius Calvus, who was the first plebeian elected to that office, than it was conducted during those years when no one but patricians was a military tribune? Nay, on the contrary, several patricians had been condemned after their tribuneship, no plebeian. Quaestors also, as military tribunes, began to be elected from the commons a few years before; nor had the Roman people been dissatisfied with any one of them. The consulate still remained for the attainment of the plebeians; that it was the bulwark, the prop of their liberty. If they should attain that, then that the Roman people would consider that kings were really expelled from the city, and their liberty firmly established. For from that day that every thing in which the patricians surpassed them, would flow in on the commons, power and honour, military glory, birth, nobility, valuable at present for their own enjoyment, sure to be left still more valuable to their children." When they saw such discourses favourably listened to, they publish a new proposition; that instead of two commissioners for performing religious rites, ten should be appointed; so that one half should be elected out of the commons, the other half from the patricians; and they deferred the meeting [for the discussion] of all those propositions, till the coming of that army which was besieging Velitrae.

38. The year was completed before the legions were brought back from Velitrae. Thus the question regarding the laws was suspended and deferred for the new military tribunes; for the commons re-elected the same two plebeian tribunes, because they were the proposers of the laws. Titus Quinctius, Servius Cornelius, Servius Sulpicius, Spurius Servilius, Lucius Papirius, Lucius Valerius, were elected military tribunes. Immediately at the commencement of the year the question about the laws was pushed to the extreme of contention; and when the tribes were called, nor did the protest of their colleagues prevent the proposers of the laws, the patricians being alarmed have recourse to their two last aids, to the highest authority and the highest citizen. It is resolved that a dictator be appointed: Marcus Furius Camillus is appointed, who nominates Lucius AEmilius his master of the horse. To meet so powerful a measure of their opponents, the proposers of the laws also set forth the people's cause with great determination of mind, and having convened an assembly of the people, they summon the tribes to vote. When the dictator took his seat, accompanied by a band of patricians, full of anger and of threats, and the business was going on at first with the usual contention of the plebeian tribunes, some proposing the law and others protesting against it, and though the protest was more powerful by right, still it was overpowered by the popularity of the laws themselves and of their proposers, and when the first tribes pronounced, "Be it as you propose," then Camillus says, "Since, Romans, tribunitian extravagance, not authority, sways you now, and ye are rendering the right of protest, acquired formerly by a secession of the commons, totally unavailing by the same violent conduct by which you acquired it, I, as dictator, will support the right of protest, not more for the interest of the whole commonwealth than for your sake; and by my authority I will defend your rights of protection, which have been overturned. Wherefore if Caius Licinius and Lucius Sextius give way to the protest of their colleagues, I shall not introduce a patrician magistrate into an assembly of the commons. If, in opposition to the right of protest, they will strive to saddle laws on the state as though captive, I will not suffer the tribunitian power to be destroyed by itself." When the plebeian tribunes still persisted in the matter with unabated energy and contemptuously, Camillus, being highly provoked, sent his lictors to disperse the commons; and added threats, that if they persisted he would bind down the younger men by the military oath, and would forthwith lead an army out of the city. He struck great terror into the people; by the opposition he rather inflamed than lessened the spirits of their leaders. But the matter inclining neither way, he abdicated his dictatorship, either because he had been appointed with some informality, as some have stated; or because the tribunes of the people proposed to the commons, and the commons passed it, that if Marcus Furius did any thing as dictator, he should be fined five hundred thousand asses. But both the disposition of the man himself, and the fact that Publius Manlius was immediately substituted as dictator for him, incline me to believe, that he was deterred rather by some defect in the auspices than by this unprecedented order. What could be the use of appointing him (Manlius) to manage a contest in which Camillus had been defeated? and because the following year had the same Marcus Furius dictator, who certainly would not without shame have resumed an authority which but the year before had been worsted in his hands; at the same time, because at the time when the motion about fining him is said to have been published, he could either resist this order, by which he saw himself degraded, or he could not have obstructed those others on account of which this was introduced, and throughout the whole series of disputes regarding the tribunitian and consular authority, even down to our own memory, the pre-eminence of the dictatorship was always decided.

39. Between the abdication of the former dictatorship and the new one entered on by Manlius, an assembly of the commons being held by the tribunes, as if it were an interregnum, it became evident which of the laws proposed were more grateful to the commons, which to the proposers. For they passed the bills regarding the interest and the land, rejected the one regarding the plebeian consulate. And both decisions would have been carried into effect, had not the tribunes declared that they consulted the people on all the laws collectively. Publius Manlius, dictator, then inclined the advantage to the side of the people, by naming Caius Licinius from the commons, who had been military tribune, as master of the horse. The patricians, I understand, were much displeased at this nomination, but the dictator used to excuse himself to the senate, alleging the near relationship between him and Licinius; at the same time denying that the authority of master of the horse was higher than that of consular tribune. When the elections for the appointment of plebeian tribunes were declared, Licinius and Sextius so conducted themselves, that by denying that they any longer desired a continuation of the honour, they most powerfully stimulated the commons to effectuate that which they were anxious for notwithstanding their dissimulation. "That they were now standing the ninth year as it were in battle-array against the patricians, with the greatest danger to their private interests, without any benefit to the public. That the measures published, and the entire strength of the tribunitian authority, had grown old with them; the attack was made on their propositions, first by the protest of their colleagues, then by banishing their youth to the war at Velitrae; at length the dictatorial thunder was levelled against them. That now neither colleagues, nor war, nor dictator stood in their way; as being a man, who by nominating a plebeian as master of the horse, has even given an omen for a plebeian consul. That the commons retarded themselves and their interests. They could, if they liked, have the city and forum free from creditors, their lands immediately free from unjust possessors. Which kindnesses, when would they ever estimate them with sufficiently grateful feelings, if, whilst receiving the measures respecting their own interests, they cut away from the authors of them all hopes of distinction? That it was not becoming the modesty of the Roman people to require that they themselves be eased from usury, and be put in possession of the land unjustly occupied by the great, whilst they leave those persons through whom they attained these advantages, become old tribunitians, not only without honour, but even without the hope of honour. Wherefore they should first determine in their minds what choice they would make, then declare that choice at the tribunitian elections. If they wished that the measures published by them should be passed collectively, there was some reason for re-electing the same tribunes; for they would carry into effect what they published. But if they wished that only to be entertained which may be necessary for each in private, there was no occasion for the invidious continuation of honour; that they would neither have the tribuneship, nor the people those matters which were proposed."

40. In reply to such peremptory language of the tribunes, when amazement at the insolence of their conduct and silence struck all the rest of the patricians motionless, Appius Claudius Crassus, the grandson of the decemvir, is said to have stepped forward to refute their arguments, [urged on] more by hatred and anger than by hope [of succeeding], and to have spoken nearly to this effect: "Romans, to me it would be neither new nor surprising, if I too on the present occasion were to hear that one charge, which has ever been advanced against our family by turbulent tribunes, that even from the beginning nothing in the state has been of more importance to the Claudian family than the dignity of the patricians; that they have ever resisted the interests of the commons. Of which charges I neither deny nor object to the one, that we, since we have been admitted into the state and the patricians, have strenuously done our utmost, that the dignity of those families, among which ye were pleased that we should be, might be truly said rather to have been increased than diminished. With respect to the other, in my own defence and that of my ancestors, I would venture to maintain, Romans, (unless any one may consider those things, which may be done for the general good of the state, were injurious to the commons as if inhabitants of another city,) that we, neither in our private nor in our official capacity, ever knowingly did any thing which was intended to be detrimental to the commons; and that no act nor word of ours can be mentioned with truth contrary to your interest (though some may have been contrary to your inclinations). Even though I were not of the Claudian family, nor descended from patrician blood, but an ordinary individual of the Roman citizens, who merely felt that I was descended from free-born parents, and that I lived in a free state, could I be silent on this matter: that Lucius Sextius and Caius Licinius, perpetual tribunes, forsooth, have assumed such a stock of arrogance during the nine years in which they have reigned, as to refuse to allow you the free exercise of your suffrage either at the elections or in enacting laws. On a certain condition, one of them says, ye shall re-elect us tribunes for the tenth time. What else is it, but saying, what others sue for, we disdain so thoroughly, that without some consideration we will not accept it? But in the name of goodness, what is that consideration, for which we may always have you tribunes of the commons? that ye admit collectively all our measures, whether they please or displease, are profitable or unprofitable. I beg you, Tarquinii, tribunes of the commons, suppose that I, an individual citizen, should call out in reply from the middle of the assembly, With your good leave be it permitted us to select out of these measures those which we deem to be beneficial to us; to reject the others. It will not be permitted, he says. Must you enact concerning the interest of money and the lands, that which tends to the interest of you all; and must not this prodigy take place in the city of Rome, that of seeing Lucius Sextius and this Caius Licinius consuls, a thing which you loathe and abominate? Either admit all; or I propose none. Just as if any one were to place poison and food together before any one who was oppressed with famine, and order him either to abstain from that which would sustain life, or to mix with it that which would cause death. Wherefore, if this state were free, would they not all in full assembly have replied to you, Begone hence with your tribuneships and your propositions? What? if you will not propose that which it is the interest of the people to accept, will there be no one who will propose it? If any patrician, if (what they desire to be still more invidious) any Claudius should say, Either accept all, or I propose nothing; which of you, Romans, would bear it? Will ye never look at facts rather than persons? but always listen with partial ears to every thing which that officer will say, and with prejudiced ears to what may be said by any of us? But, by Jove, their language is by no means becoming members of a republic. What! what sort is the measure, which they are indignant at its having been rejected by you? very like their language, Romans. I ask, he says, that it may not be lawful for you to elect, as consuls, such persons as ye may wish. Does he require any thing else, who orders that one consul at least be elected from the commons; nor does he grant you the power of electing two patricians? If there were wars at the present day, such as the Etrurian for instance, when Porsenna took the Janiculum, such as the Gallic war lately, when, except the Capitol and citadel, all these places were in possession of the enemy; and should Lucius Sextius stand candidate for the consulate with Marcus Furius or any other of the patricians: could ye endure that Sextius should be consul without any risk; that Camillus should run the risk of a repulse? Is this allowing a community of honours, that it should be lawful that two plebeians, and not lawful that two patricians, be made consuls, and that it should be necessary that one be elected from among the commons, and lawful to pass by both of the patricians? what fellowship, what confederacy is that? Is it not sufficient, if you come in for a share of that in which you had no share hitherto, unless whilst suing for a part you seize on the whole? I fear, he says, lest, if it be lawful that two patricians are to be elected, ye will elect no plebeian. What else is this but saying, Because ye will not of your own choice elect unworthy persons, I will impose on you the necessity of electing persons whom you do not wish? What follows, but that if one plebeian stand candidate with two patricians, he owes no obligation to the people, and may say that he was appointed by the law, not by suffrages?

41. "How they may extort, not how they may sue for honours, is what they seek: and they are anxious to attain the highest honour, so that they may not owe the obligations incurred even for the lowest; and they prefer to sue for honours rather through favourable conjunctures than by merit. Is there any one who can feel it an affront to have himself inspected and estimated; who thinks it reasonable that to himself alone, amidst struggling competitors, honours should be certain? who would withdraw himself from your judgment? who would make your suffrages necessary instead of voluntary; servile instead of free? I omit mention of Licinius and Sextius, whose years of perpetuated power ye number, as that of the kings in the Capitol; who is there this day in the state so mean, to whom the road to the consulate is not rendered easier through the advantages of that law, than to us and to our children? inasmuch as you will sometimes not be able to elect us even though you may wish it; those persons you must elect, even though you were unwilling. Of the insult offered to merit enough has been said (for merit appertains to human beings); what shall I say respecting religion and the auspices, which is contempt and injustice relating exclusively to the immortal gods? Who is there who does not know that this city was built by auspices, that all things are conducted by auspices during war and peace, at home and abroad? In whom therefore are the auspices vested according to the usage of our forefathers? In the patricians, no doubt; for no plebeian magistrate is ever elected by auspices. So peculiar to us are the auspices, that not only do the people elect in no other manner, save by auspices, the patrician magistrates whom they do elect, but even we ourselves, without the suffrages of the people, appoint the interrex by auspices, and in our private station we hold those auspices, which they do not hold even in office. What else then does he do, than abolish auspices out of the state, who, by creating plebeian consuls, takes them away from the patricians who alone can hold them? They may now mock at religion. For what else is it, if the chickens do not feed? if they come out too slowly from the coop? if a bird chaunt an unfavourable note? These are trifling: but by not despising these trifling matters, our ancestors have raised this state to the highest eminence. Now, as if we had no need of the favour of the gods, we violate all religious ceremonies. Wherefore let pontiffs, augurs, kings of the sacrifices be appointed at random. Let us place the tiara of Jupiter's flamen on any person, provided he be a man. Let us hand over the ancilia, the shrines, the gods, and the charge of the worship of the gods, to those to whom it is impious to commit them. Let not laws be enacted, nor magistrates elected under auspices. Let not the senate give their approbation, either to the assemblies of the centuries or of the Curiae. Let Sextius and Licinius, like Romulus and Tatius, reign in the city of Rome, because they give away as donations other persons' money and lands. So great is the charm of plundering the possessions of other persons: nor does it occur to you that by the one law vast wilds are produced throughout the lands by expelling the proprietors from their territories; by the other credit is destroyed, along with which all human society ceases to exist. For every reason, I consider that those propositions ought to be rejected by you. Whatever ye may do, I pray the gods to render it successful."

42. The speech of Appius merely had this effect, that the time for passing the propositions was deferred. The same tribunes, Sextius and Licinius, being re-elected for the tenth time, succeeded in passing a law, that of the decemvirs for religious matters, one half should be elected from the commons. Five patricians were elected, and five out of the plebeians; and by that step the way appeared opened to the consulship. The commons, content with this victory, yielded to the patricians, that, all mention of consuls being omitted for the present, military tribunes should be elected. Those elected were, Aulus and Marcus Cornelius a second time, Marcus Geganius, Publius Manlius, Lucius Veturius, and Publius Valerius a sixth time. When, except the siege of Velitrae, a matter rather of a slow than dubious result, there was no disquiet from foreign concerns among the Romans; the sudden rumour of a Gallic war being brought, influenced the state to appoint Marcus Furius dictator for the fifth time. He named Titus Quinctius Pennus master of the horse. Claudius asserts that a battle was fought that year with the Gauls, on the banks of the Anio; and that then the famous battle was fought on the bridge, in which Titus Manlius, engaging with a Gaul by whom he had been challenged, slew him in the sight of the two armies and despoiled him of his chain. But I am induced by the authority of several writers to believe that those things happened not less than ten years later; but that in this year a pitched battle was fought with the Gauls by the dictator, Marcus Furius, in the territory of Alba. The victory was neither doubtful nor difficult to the Romans, though from the recollection of the former defeat the Gauls had diffused great terror. Many thousands of the barbarians were slain in the field, and great numbers in the storming of the camp. The rest dispersing, making chiefly for Apulia, saved themselves from the enemy, both by continuing their flight to a great distance, as also because panic and terror had scattered them very widely. A triumph was decreed to the dictator with the concurrence of the senate and commons. Scarcely had he as yet finished the war, when a more violent disturbance awaited him at home; and by great struggles the dictator and the senate were overpowered, so that the measures of the tribunes were admitted; and the elections of the consuls were held in spite of the resistance of the nobility, at which Lucius Sextius was made consul, the first of plebeian rank. And not even was that an end of the contests. Because the patricians refused to give their approbation, the affair came very near a secession of the people, and other terrible threats of civil contests: when, however, the dissensions were accommodated on certain terms through the interference of the dictator; and concessions to the commons were made by the nobility regarding the plebeian consul; by the commons to the nobility, with respect to one praetor to be elected out of the patricians, to administer justice in the city. The different orders being at length restored to concord after their long-continued animosity, when the senate were of opinion that for the sake of the immortal gods they would readily do a thing deserving, and that justly, if ever on any occasion before, that the most magnificent games should be performed, and that one day should be added to the three; the plebeian aediles refusing the office, the young patricians cried out with one accord, that they, for the purpose of paying honour to the immortal gods, would readily undertake the task, so that they were appointed aediles. And when thanks were returned to them by all, a decree of the senate passed, that the dictator should ask of the people two persons as aediles from among the patricians; that the senate should give their approbation to all the elections of that year.



BOOK VII.

Two magistrates were added, the praetorship and curule aedileship. A pestilence rages in the city, which carries off the celebrated Furius Camillus. Scenic representations first introduced. Curtius leaps on horseback completely armed into a gulf in the forum. Titus Manlius, having slain a Gaul in single combat, who challenged any of the Roman soldiers, takes from him a golden chain, and hence gets the name of Torquatus. Two new tribes are added, called the Pomptine and Publilian. Licinius Stolo is condemned on a law which he himself had carried, for possessing more than five hundred acres of land. Marcus Valerius, surnamed Corvinus, from having with the aid of a crow killed a Gaul, who challenged him, is on the following year elected consul, though but twenty-three years old. A treaty of friendship made with the Carthaginians. The Campanians, overpowered by the Samnites, surrender themselves to the Roman people, who declare war against the Samnites. P. Decius Mus saves the Roman army, when brought into very great danger by the consul A. Cornelius. Conspiracy and revolt of the Roman soldiers in the garrison of Capua. They are brought to a sense of duty, and restored to their country, by Marcus Valerius Corvus, dictator. Successful operations against the Hernicians, Gauls, Tiburtians, Privernians, Tarquinians, Samnites, and Volscians.

1. This year will be remarkable for the consulship of a man of mean birth, remarkable for two new magistracies, the praetorship and curule aedileship. These honours the patricians claimed to themselves, in consideration of one consulship having been conceded to the plebeians. The commons gave the consulship to Lucius Sextius, by whose law it had been obtained. The patricians by their popular influence obtained the praetorship for Spurius Furius Camillus, the son of Marcus, the aedileship for Cneius Quinctius Capitolinus and Publius Cornelius Scipio, men of their own rank. To Lucius Sextius, the patrician colleague assigned was Lucius AEmilius Mamercinus. In the beginning of the year mention was made both of the Gauls, who, after having strayed about through Apulia, it was now rumoured were forming into a body; and also concerning a revolt of the Hernicians. When all business was purposely deferred, so that nothing should be transacted through means of the plebeian consul, silence was observed on all matters, and a state of inaction like to a justitium; except that, the tribunes not suffering it to pass unnoticed that the nobility had arrogated to themselves three patrician magistracies as a compensation for one plebeian consul, sitting in curule chairs, clad in the praetexta like consuls; the praetor, too, administering justice, and as if colleague to the consuls, and elected under the same auspices, the senate were in consequence made ashamed to order the curule aediles to be elected from among the patricians. It was at first agreed, that they should be elected from the commons every second year: afterwards the matter was left open. Then, in the consulate of Lucius Genucius and Quintus Servilius, affairs being tranquil both at home and abroad, that they might at no period be exempt from fear and danger, a great pestilence arose. They say that a praetor, a curule aedile, and three plebeian tribunes died of it, and that several other deaths took place in proportion among the populace; and that pestilence was made memorable chiefly by the death of Marcus Furius, which, though occurring at an advanced age, was still much lamented. For he was a truly extraordinary man under every change of fortune; the first man in the state in peace and war, before he went into exile; still more illustrious in exile, whether by the regret felt for him by the state, which, when in captivity, implored his aid when absent; or by the success with which, when restored to his country, he restored that country along with himself. For five and twenty years afterwards (for so many years afterwards did he live) he uniformly preserved his claims to such great glory, and was deemed deserving of their considering him, next after Romulus, a second founder of the city of Rome.

2. The pestilence continued both for this and the following year, Caius Sulpicius Peticus and Caius Licinius Stolo being consuls. During that year nothing worth recording took place, except that for the purpose of imploring the favour of the gods, there was a Lectisternium, the third time since the building of the city. And when the violence of the disease was alleviated neither by human measures nor by divine interference, their minds being broken down by superstition, among other means of appeasing the wrath of heaven, scenic plays also are said to have been instituted, a new thing to a warlike people (for hitherto there had been only the shows of the circus). But the matter was trivial, (as all beginnings generally are,) and even that itself from a foreign source. Without any poetry, or gesticulating in imitation of such poetry, actors were sent for from Etruria, dancing to the measures of a musician, and exhibited, according to the Tuscan fashion, movements by no means ungraceful. The young men afterwards began to imitate these, throwing out at the same time among each other jocular expressions in uncouth verses; nor were their gestures irrelevant to their language. Wherefore the matter was received with approbation, and by frequent use was much improved. To the native performers the name of histriones was given, because hister, in the Tuscan vocabulary, was the name of an actor, who did not, as formerly, throw out alternately artless and unpolished verses like the Fescennine at random, but represented medleys complete with metre, the music being regularly adjusted for the musician, and with appropriate gesticulation. Livius, who several years after, giving up medleys, was the first who ventured to digest a story with a regular plot, (the same being, forsooth, as all were at that time, the actor of his own pieces,) after having broken his voice from having been too repeatedly called on, and after having sought permission, is said to have placed a boy before the musician to chaunt, and to have performed the gesticulations with considerably freer movement, because the employment of his voice was no impediment to him. Thence commenced the practice of chaunting to the actors according to their manual gesticulations, and the dialogues only were left to their voice. When by this arrangement the business of the scenic performances was called away from laughter and intemperate mirth, and the amusement became gradually converted into an art, the young men, leaving to regular actors the performance of plays, began themselves, according to the ancient usage, to throw out ludicrous jests comprised in verses, which from that time were called exodia, and were collected chiefly from the Atellan farces. Which kind of amusement, received from the Osci, the young kept to themselves, nor did they suffer it to be debased by regular players. Hence it remains an established usage that the actors of the Atellan farces are neither degraded from their tribe, and may serve in the army, as if having no connexion with the profession of the stage. Among the trifling beginnings of other matters, it seemed to me that the first origin of plays also should be noticed; that it might appear how from a moderate commencement it has reached its present extravagance, scarcely to be supported by opulent kingdoms.

3. However, the first introduction of plays, intended as a religious expiation, neither relieved their minds from religious awe, nor their bodies from disease. Nay more, when the circus being inundated by the overflowing of the Tiber happened to interrupt the middle of the performance, that indeed, as if the gods were now turned from them, and despised their efforts to soothe their wrath, excited great terror. Accordingly, Cneius Genucius and Lucius AEmilius Mamercinus being a second time consuls, when the searching for expiations harassed their minds, more than the diseases did their bodies, it is said to have been collected from the memory of the more aged, that a pestilence had formerly been relieved, on the nail being driven by a dictator. Induced by this superstitious circumstance, the senate ordered a dictator to be appointed for the purpose of driving the nail. Lucius Manlius Imperiosus being appointed, named Lucius Pinarius master of the horse. There is an ancient law written in antique letters and words, that whoever is supreme officer should drive a nail on the ides of September. It was driven into the right side of the temple of Jupiter supremely good and great, on that part where the temple of Minerva is. They say that the nail was a mark of the number of years elapsed, because letters were rare in those times, and that the law was referred to the temple of Minerva, because number is the invention of that goddess. Cincius, a careful writer on such monuments, asserts that there were seen at Volsinii also nails fixed in the temple of Nortia, a Tuscan goddess, as indices of the number of years. Marcus Horatius, being consul, according to law dedicated the temple of Jupiter the best and greatest the year after the expulsion of kings; the solemnity of fixing the nail was afterwards transferred from the consuls to the dictators, because theirs was a superior office. The custom being afterwards dropped, it seemed a matter of sufficient importance in itself, on account of which a dictator should be appointed. For which reason Lucius Manlius being appointed, just as if he had been appointed for the purpose of managing the business of the state in general, and not to acquit it of a religious obligation, being ambitious to manage the Hernician war, harassed the youth by a severe levy, and at length, all the plebeian tribunes having risen up against him, whether overcome by force or shame, he resigned the dictatorship.