Chapter XXII: Book V (2)

16. Before the commissioners returned from Delphos, or an expiation of the Alban prodigy was discovered, the new military tribunes with consular power entered on their office, Lucius Julius Iulus, Lucius Furius Medullinus for the fourth time, Lucius Sergius Fidenas, Aulus Postumius Regillensis, Publius Cornelius Maluginensis, and Aulus Manlius. This year a new enemy, the Tarquinians, started up. Because they saw the Romans engaged in many wars together, that of the Volscians at Anxur, where the garrison was besieged, that of the Æquans at Lavici, who were attacking the Roman colony there, moreover in the Veientian, Faliscan, and Capenatian war, and that matters were not more tranquil within the walls, by reason of the dissensions between the patricians and commons; considering that amid these [troubles] there was an opportunity for an attack, they send their light-armed cohorts to commit depredations on the Roman territory. For [they concluded] either that the Romans would suffer that injury to pass off unavenged, that they might not encumber themselves with an additional war, or that they would resent it with a scanty army, and one by no means strong. The Romans [felt] greater indignation, than alarm, at the inroads of the Tarquinians. On this account the matter was neither taken up with great preparation, nor was it delayed for any length of time. Aulus Postumius and Lucius Julius, having raised a body of men, not by a regular levy, (for they were prevented by the tribunes of the commons,) but [a body consisting] mostly of volunteers, whom they had aroused by exhortations, having proceeded by cross marches through the territory of Cære, fell unexpectedly on the Tarquinians, as they were returning from their depredations and laden with booty; they slew great numbers, stripped them all of their baggage, and, having recovered the spoils of their own lands, they return to Rome. Two days were allowed to the owners to reclaim their effects. On the third day, that portion not owned (for most of it belonged to the enemies themselves) was sold by public auction; and what was produced from thence, was distributed among the soldiers. The other wars, and more especially the Veientian, were of doubtful issue. And now the Romans, despairing of human aid, began to look to the fates and the gods, when the deputies returned from Delphos, bringing with them an answer of the oracle, corresponding with the response of the captive prophet: "Roman, beware lest the Alban water be confined in the lake, beware of suffering it to flow into the sea in its own stream. Thou shalt let it out and form a passage for it through the fields, and by dispersing it in channels thou shalt consume it. Then press boldly on the walls of the enemy, mindful that the victory is granted to you by these fates which are now revealed over that city which thou art besieging for so many years. The war being ended, do thou, as victorious, bring ample offerings to my temples, and having renewed the religious institutions of your country, the care of which has been given up, perform them in the usual manner."

17. Upon this the captive prophet began to be held in high esteem, and Cornelius and Postumius, the military tribunes, began to employ him for the expiation of the Alban prodigy, and to appease the gods in due form. And it was at length discovered wherein the gods found fault with the neglect of the ceremonies and the omission of the customary rites; that it was undoubtedly nothing else, than that the magistrates, having been appointed under some defect [in their election], had not directed the Latin festival and the solemnities on the Alban mount with due regularity. The only mode of expiation in the case was, that the military tribunes should resign their office, the auspices be taken anew, and an interregnum be adopted. All these things were performed according to a decree of the senate. There were three interreges in succession, Lucius Valerius, Quintus Servilius Fidenas, Marcus Furius Camillus. In the mean time disturbances never ceased to exist, the tribunes of the commons impeding the elections until it was previously stipulated, that the greater number of the military tribunes should be elected out of the commons. Whilst these things are going on, assemblies of Etruria were held at the temple of Voltumna, and the Capenatians and Faliscians demanding that all the states of Etruria should by common consent and resolve aid in raising the siege of Veii, the answer given was: "that on a former occasion they had refused that to the Veientians, because they had no right to demand aid from those from whom they had not solicited advice on so important a matter. That for the present their own condition instead of themselves[160] denied it to them, more especially in that part of Etruria. That a strange nation, the Gauls, were become new neighbours, with whom they neither had a sufficiently secure peace, nor a certainty of war: to the blood, however, and the name and the present dangers of their kinsmen this [mark of respect] was paid, that if any of their youth were disposed to go to that war, they would not prevent them." Hence there was a report at Rome, that a great number of enemies had arrived, and in consequence the intestine dissensions began to subside, as is usual, through alarm for the general safety.

[Footnote 160: So I have rendered _pro se_--or it may be rendered, "considering their circumstances," scil. the external circumstances in which they were placed.]

18. Without opposition on the part of the patricians, the prerogative tribe elect Publius Licinius Calvus military tribune without his suing for it, a man of tried moderation in his former tribunate, but now of extreme old age; and it was observed that all were re-elected in regular succession out of the college of the same year, Lucius Titinius, Publius Mænius, Publius Mælius, Cneius Genucius, Lucius Atilius: before these were proclaimed, the tribes being summoned in the ordinary course, Publius Licinius Calvus, by permission of the interrex, spoke as follows: "Romans, I perceive that from the recollection of our administration you are seeking an omen of concord, a thing most important at the present time, for the ensuing year. If you re-elect the same colleagues, improved also by experience, in me you no longer behold the same person, but the shadow and name of Publius Licinius now left. The powers of my body are decayed, my senses of sight and hearing are grown dull, my memory falters, the vigour of my mind is blunted. Behold here a youth," says he, holding his son, "the representation and image of him whom ye formerly made a military tribune, the first from among the commons. This youth, formed under my own discipline, I present and dedicate to the commonwealth as a substitute for myself. And I beseech you, Romans, that the honour readily offered by yourselves to me, you would grant to his suit, and to my prayers added in his behalf." The favour was granted to the request of the father, and his son, Publius Licinius, was declared military tribune with consular power along with those whom I have mentioned above. Titinius and Genucius, military tribunes, proceeded against the Faliscians and Capenatians, and whilst they conduct the war with more courage than conduct, they fall into an ambush. Genucius, atoning for his temerity by an honourable death, fell among the foremost in front of the standards. Titinius, having collected his men from the great confusion [into which they were thrown] on a rising ground, restored their order of battle; nor did he, however, venture to engage the enemy on even ground. More of disgrace than of loss was sustained; which was well nigh proving a great calamity; so much alarm was excited not only at Rome, whither an exaggerated account of it had reached, but in the camp also at Veii. There the soldiers were with difficulty restrained from flight, as a report had spread through the camp that, the generals and army having been cut to pieces, the victorious Capenatians and Faliscians and all the youth of Etruria were not far off. At Rome they gave credit to accounts still more alarming than these, that the camp at Veii was now attacked, that a part of the enemy was now advancing to the city prepared for an attack: they crowded to the walls, and supplications of the matrons, which the public panic had called forth from their houses, were offered up in the temples; and the gods were petitioned by prayers, that they would repel destruction from the houses and temples of the city and from the walls of Rome, and that they would avert that terror to Veii, if the sacred rites had been duly renewed, if the prodigies had been expiated.

19. The games and the Latin festival had now been performed anew; now the water from the Alban lake had been discharged upon the fields, and the fates were demanding [the ruin of] Veii. Accordingly a general destined for the destruction of that city and the preservation of his country, Marcus Furius Camillus, being nominated dictator, appointed Publius Cornelius Scipio his master of the horse. The change of the general suddenly produced a change in every thing. Their hopes seemed different, the spirits of the people were different, the fortune also of the city seemed changed. First of all, he punished according to military discipline those who had fled from Veii in that panic, and took measures that the enemy should not be the most formidable object to the soldier. Then a levy being proclaimed for a certain day, he himself in the mean while makes an excursion to Veii to strengthen the spirits of the soldiers: thence he returns to Rome to enlist the new army, not a single man declining the service. Youth from foreign states also, Latins and Hernicians, came, promising their service for the war: after the dictator returned them thanks in the senate, all preparations being now completed for the war, he vowed, according to a decree of the senate, that he would, on the capture of Veii, celebrate the great games, and that he would repair and dedicate the temple of Mother Matuta, which had been formerly consecrated by King Servius Tullius. Having set out from the city with his army amid the high expectation[161] rather than mere hopes of persons, he first encountered the Faliscians and Capenatians in the district of Nepote. Every thing there being managed with consummate prudence and skill, was attended, as is usual, with success. He not only routed the enemy in battle, but he stripped them also of their camp, and obtained a great quantity of spoil, the principal part of which was handed over to the quæstor; not much was given to the soldiers. From thence the army was marched to Veii, and additional forts close to each other were erected; and by a proclamation being issued, that no one should fight without orders, the soldiers were taken off from those skirmishes, which frequently took place at random between the wall and rampart, [so as to apply] to the work. Of all the works, far the greatest and more laborious was a mine which they commenced to carry into the enemies' citadel. And that the work might not be interrupted, and that the continued labour under ground might not exhaust the same individuals, he divided the number of pioneers into six companies; six hours were allotted for the work in rotation; nor by night or day did they give up, until they made a passage into the citadel.

[Footnote 161: _Expectatione, &c._ With confident expectations on the part of his countrymen, rather than simple hope.]

20. When the dictator now saw that the victory was in his hands, that a most opulent city was on the point of being taken, and that there would be more spoil than had been obtained in all previous wars taken together, that he might not incur either the resentment of the soldiers from a parsimonious partition of the plunder, or displeasure among the patricians from a prodigal lavishing of it, he sent a letter to the senate, "that by the kindness of the immortal gods, his own measures, and the perseverance of the soldiers, Veii would be soon in the power of the Roman people." What did they think should be done with respect to the spoil? Two opinions divided the senate; the one that of the elder Publius Licinius, who on being first asked by his son, as they say, proposed it as his opinion, that a proclamation should be openly sent forth to the people, that whoever wished to share in the plunder, should proceed to the camp before Veii; the other that of Appius Claudius,[162] who, censuring such profusion as unprecedented, extravagant, partial, and one that was unadvisable, if they should once judge it criminal, that money taken from the enemy should be [deposited] in the treasury when exhausted by wars, advised their pay to be paid to the soldiers out of that money, so that the commons might thereby have to pay less tax. For that "the families of all would feel their share of such a bounty in equal proportion; that the hands of the idlers in the city, ever greedy for plunder, would not then carry off the prizes due to brave warriors, as it generally so happens that according as each individual is wont to seek the principal part of the toil and danger, so is he the least active as a plunderer." Licinius, on the other hand, argued that the money in that case would ever prove the source of jealousy and animosity, and that it would afford grounds for charges before the commons, and thence for seditions and new laws. "That it was more advisable therefore that the feelings of the commons should be conciliated by that bounty; that succour should be afforded them, exhausted and drained by a tax of so many years, and that they should feel the fruits arising from a war, in which they had in a manner grown old. What each took from the enemy with his own hand and brought home with him would be more gratifying and delightful, than if he were to receive a much larger share at the will of another." That the dictator himself wished to shun the odium and recriminations arising from the matter; for that reason he transferred it to the senate. The senate, too, ought to hand the matter thus referred to them over to the commons, and suffer every man to have what the fortune of war gave to him. This proposition appeared to be the safer, as it would make the senate popular. A proclamation was therefore issued, that those who chose should proceed to the camp to the dictator for the plunder of Veii.

[Footnote 162: According to Niebuhr, (vol. ii. p. 233,) this fear put into the mouth of Claudius, is attributable to ignorance or forgetfulness on the part of Livy, of the early usage in the dividing of spoils, which had ceased to be observed in the time of Augustus. According to former Roman usage, half of the conquering army was employed, under the sanction of a solemn oath, to subtract nothing, in collecting the spoil, which was then partly divided by lot, partly sold, and the proceeds, if promised to the soldiers, disbursed to them man by man, if otherwise, it was brought into the treasury. Both schemes mentioned here by Livy, it will be observed, contemplated compensation to the people for the war-tax which they had so long paid; but that of Licinius was more favourable, especially to the poor, as the ordinary citizens would receive equal shares, and the compensation would be direct and immediate.--_Gunne._]

21. The vast multitude who went filled the camp. Then the dictator, going forth after taking the auspices, having issued orders that the soldiers should take arms, says, "Under thy guidance, O Pythian Apollo, and inspired by thy divinity, I proceed to destroy the city of Veii, and I vow to thee the tenth part of the spoil.[163] Thee also, queen Juno, who inhabitest Veii, I beseech, that thou wilt accompany us, when victors, into our city, soon to be thine, where a temple worthy of thy majesty shall receive thee."[164] Having offered up these prayers, there being more than a sufficient number of men, he assaults the city on every quarter, in order that the perception of the danger threatening them from the mine might be diminished. The Veientians, ignorant that they had already been doomed by their own prophets, already by foreign oracles, that the gods had been already invited to a share in their plunder, that some, called out by vows from their city, were looking towards the temple of the enemy and new habitations, and that they were spending that the last day [of their existence], fearing nothing less than that, their walls being undermined, the citadel was now filled with enemies, briskly run to the walls in arms, wondering what could be the reason that, when no one had stirred from the Roman posts for so many days, then, as if struck with sudden fury, they should run heedlessly to the walls. A fabulous narrative is introduced here, that, when the king of the Veientians was offering sacrifice, the voice of the aruspex, declaring that the victory was given to him who should cut up the entrails of that victim, having been heard in the mine, incited the Roman soldiers to burst open the mine, carry off the entrails, and bring them to the dictator. But in matters of such remote antiquity, I should deem it sufficient, if matters bearing a resemblance to truth be admitted as true. Such stories as this, more suited to display on the stage, which delights in the marvellous, than to historic authenticity, it is not worth while either to affirm or refute. The mine, at this time full of chosen men, suddenly discharged the armed troops in the temple of Juno which was in the citadel of Veii.[165] Some of them attack the rear of the enemy on the walls; some tore open the bars of the gates; some set fire to the houses, while stones and tiles were thrown down from the roofs by the women and slaves. Clamour, consisting of the various voices of the assailants and the terrified, mixed with the crying of women and children, fills every place. The soldiers being in an instant beaten off from the walls, and the gates being thrown open, some entering in bodies, others scaling the deserted walls, the city become filled with enemies, fighting takes place in every quarter. Then, much slaughter being now made, the ardour of the fight abates; and the dictator commands the heralds to proclaim that the unarmed should be spared. This put an end to bloodshed. Then laying down their arms, they commenced to surrender; and, by permission of the dictator, the soldiers disperse in quest of plunder. And when this was collected before his eyes, greater in quantity and in the value of the effects than he had hoped or expected, the dictator, raising his hands to heaven, is said to have prayed, "that, if his success and that of the Roman people seemed excessive to any of the gods and men, it might be permitted to the Roman people to appease that jealousy with as little detriment as possible to himself and the Roman people."[166] It is recorded that, when turning about during this prayer, he stumbled and fell; and to persons judging of the matter by subsequent events, that seemed to refer as an omen to Camillus' own condemnation, and the disaster of the city of Rome being akin, which happened a few years after. And that day was consumed in slaughtering the enemy and in the plunder of this most opulent city.

[Footnote 163: "This vow frequently occurs in Grecian history, like that made of the Persian booty, but this is the only instance in the history of Rome."--_Niebuhr_, vol. ii. 239.]

[Footnote 164: _Evocatos_. When the Romans besieged a town, and thought themselves sure of taking it, they used solemnly to call out of it the gods in whose protection the place was supposed to be.]

[Footnote 165: The idea of the Romans working a mine, even through the soil of Veii, so as to be sure of reaching not only the town and the citadel, and even the temple, is considered by Niebuhr as extremely ridiculous. He deems the circumstance a clear proof of the fiction that attaches to the entire story of the capture of Veii. The whole seems to be an imitation of the siege of Troy.--_Gunne._]

[Footnote 166: The passage in the original, in the generality of editions, is read as follows: _ut eam invidium lenire, quàm minimo suo privato incommodo publicoque, populo Romano liceret_: i. e. that both himself and the Roman people may get over the evil consequences of the jealousy of the gods with as little detriment as possible to either: _populi Romani_ seems preferable here: i. e. "that it might be allowed to lighten that jealousy, by the least possible injury to his own private interest, and to the public interests of the Roman people." There were certainly two persons concerned in the _invidia_ and _incommodum_ here, Camillus himself, and the Roman people; to whom respectively the _damnatio_, and _elades captæ urbis_, afterwards mentioned, obviously refer. Some editions read, _invidiam lenire suo privato incommodo, quàm minimo publico populi Romani liceret_. This is the reading adopted by Crevier; i. e. "to appease the jealousy by his own private loss, rather than the least public loss." This is more in accordance with the account given of Camillus by Plutarch, and contains a sentiment certainly more worthy both of Livy and of Camillus. Sentiments ascribed by Plutarch to Camillus, will have suo privato incommodo, quam minimo publico P. R., giving him the patriotic wish to render light the odium by his own private loss, _rather than_ the least public loss; or, by his own private loss, but if not, _by_ as small a public loss as possible. Pop-_li_ R-_i_, better than _o_, _o_, as _liceret_ would, in the latter case, apply only to one of the parties; in the former both are understood.]

22. On the following day the dictator sold the inhabitants of free condition by auction: that was the only money applied to public use, not without resentment on the part of the people: and for the spoil they brought home with them, they felt no obligation either to their commander, who, in his search for abettors of his own parsimony, had referred to the senate a matter within his own jurisdiction, or to the senate, but to the Licinian family, of which the son had laid the matter before the senate, and the father had been the proposer of so popular a resolution. When all human wealth had been carried away from Veii, they then began to remove the offerings to their gods and the gods themselves, but more after the manner of worshippers than of plunderers. For youths selected from the entire army, to whom the charge of conveying queen Juno to Rome was assigned, after having thoroughly washed their bodies and arrayed themselves in white garments, entered her temple with profound adoration, applying their hands at first with religious awe, because, according to the Etrurian usage, no one but a priest of a certain family had been accustomed to touch that statue. Then when some one, moved either by divine inspiration, or in youthful jocularity, said, "Juno, art thou willing to go to Rome," the rest joined in shouting that the goddess had nodded assent. To the story an addition was afterwards made, that her voice was heard, declaring that "she was willing." Certain it is, we are informed that, having been raised from her place by machines of trifling power, she was light and easily removed, like as if she [willingly] followed; and that she was conveyed safe to the Aventine, her eternal seat, whither the vows of the dictator had invited her; where the same Camillus who had vowed it, afterwards dedicated a temple to her. Such was the fall of Veii, the wealthiest city of the Etrurian nation, which even in its final overthrow demonstrated its greatness; for having been besieged for ten summers and winters without intermission, after it had inflicted considerably greater losses than it had sustained, eventually, fate now at length urging [its destruction], it was carried after all by the contrivances of art, not by force.

23. When news was brought to Rome that Veii was taken, although both the prodigies had been expiated, and the answers of the prophets and the Pythian responses were well known, and though they had selected as their commander Marcus Furius, the greatest general of the day, which was doing as much to promote success as could be done by human prudence; yet because the war had been carried on there for so many years with various success, and many losses had been sustained, their joy was unbounded, as if for an event not expected; and before the senate could pass any decree, all the temples were crowded with Roman matrons returning thanks to the gods. The senate decrees supplications for the space of four days, a number of days greater than [was prescribed] in any former war. The dictator's arrival also, all ranks pouring out to meet him, was better attended than that of any general before, and his triumph considerably surpassed all the ordinary style of honouring such a day. The most conspicuous of all was himself, riding through the city in a chariot drawn by white horses; and that appeared unbecoming, not to say a citizen, but even a human being. The people considered it an outrage on religion that the dictator's equipage should emulate that of Jupiter and Apollo; and for that single reason his triumph was rather splendid than pleasing. He then contracted for a temple for queen Juno on Mount Aventine, and consecrated that of Mother Matuta: and, after having performed these services to the gods and to mankind, he laid down his dictatorship. They then began to consider regarding the offering to Apollo; and when Camillus stated that he had vowed the tenth part of the spoil to him, and the pontiff declared that the people ought to discharge their own obligation, a plan was not readily struck out of ordering the people to refund the spoil, so that the due proportion might be set aside out of it for sacred purposes. At length they had recourse to this which seemed the easiest course, that, whoever wished to acquit himself and his family of the religious obligation, after he had made his own estimate of his portion of the plunder, should pay into the treasury the value of the tenth part, so that out of it a golden offering worthy of the grandeur of the temple and the divinity of the god might be made, suitable to the dignity of the Roman people. This contribution also tended to alienate the affections of the commons from Camillus. During these transactions ambassadors came from the Volscians and Æquans to sue for peace; and peace was obtained, rather that the state wearied by so tedious a war might obtain repose, than that the petitioners were deserving of it.

24. After the capture of Veii, the following year had six military tribunes with consular power, the two Publii Cornelii, Cossus and Scipio, Marcus Valerius Maximus a second time, Kæso Fabius Ambustus a third time, Lucius Furius Medullinus a fifth time, Quintus Servilius a third time. To the Cornelii the Faliscian war, to Valerius and Servilius the Capenatian war, fell by lot. By them no cities were attempted by storm or by siege, but the country was laid waste, and the plunder of the effects on the lands was driven off; not a single fruit tree, not a vegetable was left on the land. These losses reduced the people of Capena; peace was granted to them on their suing for it. The war among the Faliscians still continued. At Rome in the mean time sedition became multiplied; and for the purpose of assuaging this they resolved that a colony should be sent off to the Volscian country, for which three thousand Roman citizens should be enrolled; and the triumvirs appointed for the purpose, distributed three acres and seven-twelfths to each man. This donation began to be scorned, because they thought that it was offered as a solace for the disappointment of higher hopes. For why were the commons to be sent into exile to the Volscians, when the magnificent city of Veii was still in view, and the Veientian territory, more fertile and extensive than the Roman territor? The city also they extolled as preferable to the city of Rome, both in situation, in the grandeur of its enclosures, and buildings, both public and private. Nay, even that scheme was proposed, which after the taking of Rome by the Gauls was still more strongly urged, of removing to Veii. But they destined Veii to be inhabited by half the commons and half the senate; and that two cities of one common republic might be inhabited by the Roman people.[167] When the nobles strove against these measures so strenuously, as to declare "that they would sooner die in the sight of the Roman people, than that any of these things should be put to the vote; for that now in one city there were so many dissensions; what would there be in two? Would any one prefer a vanquished to a victorious city; and suffer Veii now after being captured to enjoy greater prosperity than it had before its capture? Lastly, that they may be forsaken in their country by their fellow-citizens; that no power should ever oblige them to forsake their country and fellow-citizens, and follow Titus Licinius (for he was the tribune of the commons who proposed the measure) as a founder to Veii, abandoning the divine Romulus, the son of a god, the parent and founder of the city of Rome." When these proceedings were going on with shameful contentions, (for the patricians had drawn over, one half of the tribunes of the commons to their sentiments,) nothing else obliged the commons to refrain from violence, but that whenever a clamour was set up for the purpose of commencing a riot, the principal members of the senate, presenting themselves among the foremost to the crowd, ordered that they themselves should be attacked, struck, and put to death. Whilst they abstained from violating their age, dignity, and honourable station, their respect for them checked their rage even with respect to similar attempts on others.

[Footnote 167: "A proposal so absurd would have justified the most vehement opposition of the senate. But it is much more probable, that the scope of the proposition was, that on this occasion the whole of the conquered land should be divided, but amongst the whole nation, so that the patricians also and their clients should receive a share as absolute property."--_Neibuhr_, vol. ii. p. 248.]

25. Camillus, at every opportunity and in all places, stated publicly, "that this was not at all surprising; that the state was gone mad; which, though bound by a vow, yet felt greater concern in all other matters than in acquitting itself of its religious obligations. He would say nothing of the contribution of an alms more strictly speaking than of a tenth; since each man bound himself in his private capacity by it, the public was set free. However, that his conscience would not permit him to pass this over in silence, that out of that spoil only which consisted of movable effects, a tenth was set apart; that no mention was made of the city and captured land, which were also included in the vow." As the discussion of this point seemed difficult to the senate, it was referred to the pontiffs; Camillus being invited [to the council], the college decided, that whatever had belonged to the Veientians before the uttering of the vow, and had come into the power of the Roman people after the vow was made, of that a tenth part was sacred to Apollo. Thus the city and land were brought into the estimate. The money was issued from the treasury, and the consular tribunes of the soldiers were commissioned to purchase gold with it. And when there was not a sufficient quantity of this [metal], the matrons having held meetings to deliberate on the subject, and by a general resolution having promised the military tribunes their gold and all their ornaments, brought them into the treasury. This circumstance was peculiarly grateful to the senate, and they say that in return for this generosity the honour was conferred on the matrons, that they might use covered chariots [when going] to public worship and the games, and open chaises on festival and common days. A certain weight of gold being received from each and valued, in order that the price might be paid for it, it was resolved that a golden bowl should be made of it, which was to be carried to Delphos as an offering to Apollo. As soon as they disengaged their minds from the religious obligation, the tribunes of the commons renew their seditious practices; the populace are excited against all the nobles, but above all against Camillus: that "he by confiscating and consecrating the plunder of Veii had reduced it to nothing." The absent [nobles] they abuse in violent terms: they evince a respect for them in their presence, when they voluntarily presented themselves to their fury. As soon as they perceived that the business would be protracted beyond that year, they re-elect as tribunes of the commons for the following year the same abettors of the law; and the patricians strove to accomplish the same thing with respect to those who were opponents of the law. Thus the same persons in a great measure were re-elected tribunes of the commons.

26. At the election of military tribunes the patricians succeeded by their utmost exertions in having Marcus Furius Camillus elected. They pretended that he was wanted as a commander on account of the wars; but he was intended as an opponent to the tribunes in their profusion. The military tribunes with consular authority elected with Camillus were, Lucius Furius Medullinus a sixth time, Caius Æmilius, Lucius Valerius Publicola, Spurius Postumius, Publius Cornelius a second time. At the commencement of the year the tribunes of the commons took not a step until Marcus Furius Camillus should set out to the Faliscians, as that war had been assigned to him. Then by delaying the project cooled; and Camillus, whom they chiefly dreaded as an antagonist, acquired an increase of glory among the Faliscians. For when the enemy at first confined themselves within the walls, considering it the safest plan, by laying waste their lands and burning their houses, he compelled them to come forth from the city; but their fears prevented them from proceeding to any considerable length. At about a mile from the town they pitch their camp; trusting that it was sufficiently secure from no other cause, than the difficulty of the approaches, the roads around being rough and craggy, in some parts narrow, in others steep. But Camillus having followed the direction of a prisoner belonging to the country as his guide, decamping at an advanced hour of the night, at break of day shows himself on ground considerably higher [than theirs]. The Romans worked at the fortifications in three divisions: the rest of the army stood prepared for battle. There he routs and puts to flight the enemy when they attempted to interrupt his works; and such terror was struck into the Faliscians in consequence, that, in their precipitate flight passing by their own camp which lay in their way, they made for the city. Many were slain and wounded, before that in their panic they could make their way through the gates. Their camp was taken; the spoil was given up to the quæstors, to the great dissatisfaction of the soldiers; but overcome by the strictness of his authority, they both hated and admired the same firmness of conduct. Then a regular siege of the city took place, and the lines of circumvallation were carried on, and sometimes occasional attacks were made by the townsmen on the Roman posts, and slight skirmishes took place: and the time was spent, no hope [of success] inclining to either side, whilst corn and other provisions were possessed in much greater abundance by the besieged than the besiegers from [the store] which had been previously laid in. And their toil appeared likely to prove just as tedious as it had at Veii, had not fortune presented to the Roman general at once both an opportunity for displaying his virtuous firmness of mind already tested in warlike affairs, and a speedy victory.

27. It was the custom among the Faliscians to employ the same person as preceptor and private tutor for their children; and, as continues the usage to this day in Greece, several youths were intrusted to the care of one man. The person who appeared to excel in knowledge, instructed, as it is natural to suppose, the children of the leading men. As he had established it as a custom during peace to carry the boys out beyond the city for the sake of play and of exercise; that custom not having been discontinued during the existence of the war; then drawing them away from the gate, sometimes in shorter, sometimes in longer excursions, advancing farther than usual, when an opportunity offered, by varying their play and conversation, he led them on between the enemy's guards, and thence to the Roman camp into his tent to Camillus. There to the atrocious act he added a still more atrocious speech: that "he had delivered Falerii into the hands of the Romans, when he put into their power those children, whose parents are there at the head of affairs." When Camillus heard this, he says, "Wicked as thou art, thou hast come with thy villanous offering neither to a people nor a commander like thyself. Between us and the Faliscians there exists not that form of society which is established by human compact; but between both there does exist, and ever will exist, that which nature has implanted. There are laws of war as well of peace; and we have learned to wage them justly not less than bravely. We carry arms not against that age which is spared even when towns are taken, but against men who are themselves armed, and who, not having been injured or provoked by us, attacked the Roman camp at Veii. Those thou hast surpassed, as far as lay in you, by an unprecedented act of villany: I shall conquer them, as I did Veii, by Roman arts, by bravery, labour, and by arms." Then having stripped him naked, and tied his hands behind his back, he delivered him up to the boys to be brought back to Falerii; and supplied them with rods to scourge the traitor and drive him into the city. At which spectacle, a crowd of people being assembled, afterwards the senate being convened by the magistrates on the extraordinary circumstance, so great a change was produced in their sentiments, that the entire state earnestly demanded peace at the hands of those, who lately, outrageous by hatred and anger, almost preferred the fate of the Veientians to the peace of the Capenatians. The Roman faith, the justice of the commander, are cried up in the forum and in the senate-house; and by universal consent ambassadors set out to the camp to Camillus, and thence by permission of Camillus to Rome to the senate, in order to deliver up Falerii. When introduced before the senate, they are represented as having spoken thus: "Conscript fathers, overcome by you and your commander by a victory at which neither god nor man can feel displeasure, we surrender ourselves to you, considering that we shall live more happily under your rule than under our own law, than which nothing can be more glorious for a conqueror. In the result of this war, two salutary examples have been exhibited to mankind. You preferred faith in war to present victory: we, challenged by your good faith, have voluntarily given up to you the victory. We are under your sovereignty. Send men to receive our arms, our hostages, our city with its gates thrown open. You shall never have to repent of our fidelity, nor we of your dominion." Thanks were returned to Camillus both by the enemy and by his own countrymen. Money was required of the Faliscians to pay off the soldiers for that year, that the Roman people might be relieved from the tribute. Peace being granted, the army was led back to Rome.

28. When Camillus returned home, signalized by much more solid glory than when white horses had drawn him through the city, having vanquished the enemy by justice and good faith, the senate did not conceal their sense of respect for him, but immediately set about acquitting him of his vow; and Lucius Valerius, Lucius Sergius, Aulus Manlius, being sent in a ship of war as ambassadors to carry the golden bowl to Delphos as an offering to Apollo, were intercepted by the pirates of the Liparenses not far from the Sicilian Strait, and carried to Liparæ. It was the custom of the state to make a division of all booty which was acquired, as it were, by public piracy. On that year it so happened that one Timasitheus filled the office of chief magistrate, a man more like the Romans than his own countrymen. Who, himself reverencing the name of ambassadors, and the offering, and the god to whom it was sent, and the cause of the offering, impressed the multitude also, who almost on all occasions resemble their ruler, with [a sense] of religious justice; and after having brought the ambassadors to a public entertainment, escorted them with the protection of some ships to Delphos, and from thence brought them back in safety to Rome. By a decree of the senate a league of hospitality was formed with him, and presents were conferred on him by the state. During the same year the war with the Æquans was conducted with varying success; so that it was a matter of doubt both among the troops themselves and at Rome, whether they had been victorious or were vanquished. The Roman commanders were Caius Æmilius and Spurius Postumius, two of the military tribunes. At first they acted in conjunction; then, after the enemy were routed in the field, it was agreed that Æmilius should take possession of Verrugo with a certain force, and that Postumius should devastate the country. There, as the latter proceeded rather negligently, and with his troops irregularly drawn up, he was attacked by the Æquans, and an alarm being occasioned, he was driven to the nearest hill; and the panic spread from thence to Verrugo to the other detachment of the army. When Postumius, having withdrawn his men to a place of safety, summoned an assembly and upbraided them with their fright and flight; with having been beaten by a most cowardly and dastardly enemy; the entire army shout aloud that they deserved to hear all this, and admitted the disgrace they had incurred; but [they promised] that they would make amends, and that the enemy's joy should not be of long duration. Demanding that he would instantly lead them from thence to the camp of the enemy, (this lay in the plain within their view,) they submitted to any punishment, if they did not take it before night. Having praised them, he orders them to take refreshment, and to be in readiness at the fourth watch. And the enemy, in order to prevent the flight of the Romans from the hill through the road which led to Verrugo, were posted to meet them; and the battle commenced before daylight, (but the moon was up all the night,) and was not more confused than a battle fought by day. But the shout having reached Verrugo, when they thought that the Roman camp was attacked, occasioned such a panic, that in spite of the entreaties of Æmilius and his efforts to stop them, they fled to Tusculum in great disorder. From thence a report was carried to Rome that "Postumius and his army were cut to pieces." When the dawn of day had removed all apprehension of an ambuscade in case of a hasty pursuit, after riding through the ranks, by demanding [the performance of] their promises he infused such ardour into them, that the Æquans could no longer withstand their impetuosity. Then the slaughter of them in their flight, such as takes place when matters are conducted more under the influence of anger than of courage, was continued even to the total destruction of the enemy, and the melancholy news from Tusculum, the state having been alarmed without cause, was followed by a letter from Postumius decked with laurel, (announcing) that "the victory belonged to the Roman people; that the army of the Æquans was destroyed."

29. As the proceedings of the plebeian tribunes had not yet attained a termination, both the commons exerted themselves to continue their office for the promoters of the law, and the patricians to re-elect the opponents of the law; but the commons were more successful in the election of their own magistrates. Which annoyance the patricians avenged by passing a decree of the senate that consuls should be elected, magistrates detested by the commons. After an interval of fifteen years, Lucius Lucretius Flavus and Servius Sulpicius Camerinus were appointed consuls. In the beginning of this year, whilst the tribunes of the commons united their efforts to pass the law, because none of their college were likely to oppose them, and the consuls resisted them with no less energy, the Æquans storm Vitellia, a Roman colony in their territory. The chief part of the colonists made their way in safety to Rome, because the town, having been taken by treachery in the night, afforded an unimpeded mode of escape by the remote side of the city. That province fell to the lot of Lucius Lucretius the consul. He having set out with his army, vanquished the enemy in the field; and returned victorious to Rome to a much more serious contest. A day of trial had been appointed for Aulus Virginius and Quintus Pomponius, plebeian tribunes of the two preceding years, in whose defence by the combined power of the patricians, the honour of the senate was involved. For no one laid against them any other impeachment, either of their mode of life or of their conduct in office, save that, to gratify the patricians, they had protested against the tribunitian law. The resentment of the commons, however, prevailed over the influence of the senate; and by a most pernicious precedent these men, though innocent, were condemned [to pay a fine of] ten thousand _asses_ in weight. At this the patricians were very much incensed. Camillus openly charged the commons with gross violation of duty, "who, now turning their venom against their own body, did not feel that by their iniquitous sentence on the tribune they abolished the right of protesting; that abolishing this right of protesting, they had upset the tribunitian authority. For they were mistaken in expecting that the patricians would tolerate the unbridled licentiousness of that office. If tribunitian violence could not be repelled by tribunitian aid, that the patricians would find out some other weapon." The consuls he also blamed, because they had in silence suffered those tribunes who had followed the authority of the senate to be deceived by [their reliance] on the public faith. By openly expressing these sentiments, he every day still further exasperated the angry feelings of the people.

30. But he ceased not to urge the senate to oppose the law; "that when the day for proposing the law had arrived they should go down to the forum with no other feeling than as men who remembered that they had to contend for their altars and homes, and the temples of the gods, and the soil in which they had been born. For that as far as he himself individually was concerned, if during this contest [to be sustained] by his country it were allowable for him to think of his own glory, it would even reflect honour on himself, that a city captured by him should be densely inhabited, that he would daily enjoy the monument of his glory, and that he would have before his eyes a city borne by him in his triumph, that all would tread in the footsteps of his renown. But that he deemed it an impiety that a city deserted and forsaken by the immortal gods should be inhabited; that the Roman people should reside in a captive soil, and that a vanquished should be taken in exchange for a victorious country." Stimulated by these exhortations of their leader, the patricians, both young and old, entered the forum in a body, when the law was about to be proposed: and dispersing themselves through the tribes, each earnestly appealing to the members of their own tribe, began to entreat them with tears "not to desert that country for which they themselves and their fathers had fought most valiantly and successfully," pointing to the Capitol, the temple of Vesta, and the other temples of the gods around; "not to drive the Roman people, exiles and outcasts, from their native soil and household gods into the city of the enemy; and not to bring matters to such a state, that it was better that Veii were not taken, lest Rome should be deserted." Because they proceeded not by violence, but by entreaties, and in the midst of these entreaties frequent mention was [made] of the gods, the greatest part [of the people] were influenced by religious scruples: and more tribes by one rejected the law than voted for it. And so gratifying was this victory to the patricians, that on the following day, on a motion made by the consuls, a decree of the senate was passed, that seven acres a man of Veientian territory should be distributed to the commons; and not only to the fathers of families, but so that all persons in their house in a state of freedom should be considered, and that they might be willing to rear up their children with that prospect.

31. The commons being won over by such a boon, no opposition was made to holding the elections for consuls. Lucius Valerius Potitus, and Marcus Manlius, who afterwards obtained the surname of Capitolinus, were elected consuls. These consuls celebrated the great games which Marcus Furius, when dictator, had vowed in the Veientian war. In the same year the temple of imperial Juno, vowed by the same dictator and during the same war, is dedicated; and they state that the dedication was attended with great zeal by the matrons. A war scarcely worth mentioning was waged with the Æquans at Algidum, the enemies taking to flight almost before they commenced the fight. To Valerius, because he was more persevering in slaughtering them in their flight, a triumph was granted; it was decreed that Manlius should enter the city with an ovation. The same year a new war broke out with the Volsinians; whither an army could not be led, on account of a famine and pestilence in the Roman territories, which arose from drought and excessive heat; on account of which the Volsinians forming a junction with the Salpinians, being elated with pride, made an unprovoked incursion into the Roman territories. War was then proclaimed against the two states. Caius Julius died during his censorship; Marcus Cornelius was substituted in his room; a proceeding which was afterwards considered as offensive to religion; because during that lustrum Rome was taken. Nor since that time has a censor ever been substituted in the room of one deceased. And the consuls being seized by the distemper, it was determined that the auspices should be taken anew during an interregnum.