Chapter XXIX: Book VII (2)

18. On the four hundredth year after the building of the city of Rome, and the thirty-fifth after its recovery from the Gauls, the consulship being taken away from the commons after eleven years, consuls, both patricians, entered into office after the interregnum, Caius Sulpicius Peticus a third time, and Marcus Valerius Publicola. During this year Empulum was taken from the Tiburtians with a struggle not worth mentioning; whether the war was waged there under the auspices of the two consuls, as some have stated; or whether the lands of the Tarquinians were laid waste by the consul Sulpicius about the same time that Valerius led the troops against the Tiburtians. The consuls had a more arduous contest at home with the commons and tribunes. As two patricians had received the consulship, they considered that not only their resolution, but their honour also, was involved in their consigning it to two patricians. For if the consulship were made a plebeian magistracy, they must either yield it up entirely, or possess it entire, which possession they had received from their fathers unimpaired. The commons on the other hand loudly remonstrate; "Why did they live; why were they reckoned in the number of citizens; if they collectively cannot maintain that which was acquired by the firmness of two men, Lucius Sextius and Caius Licinius? That either kings, or decemvirs, or, if there be any denomination of power more offensive, would be submitted to rather than see both the consuls patricians, or rather than not obey and rule in turn; but the one half, located in perpetual power, thinks the commons born for no other purpose than to be subservient." The tribunes are not remiss in encouraging the disturbances; but amid the excited state of all scarcely any are distinguished as leaders. When they had several times gone down to the Campus Martius to no purpose, and when many days of meeting had been spent in seditious movements; at length the resentment of the commons, overcome by the perseverance of the consuls, broke out to such a degree, that the commons followed in sorrow the tribunes, exclaiming, that there was an end of liberty; that not only the Campus should be relinquished, but the city also as being held captive and oppressed by the tyranny of the patricians. The consuls, deserted by a part of the people, finish the election nevertheless with the small number [who attended]. Both the consuls elected were patricians, Marcus Fabius Ambustus a third time, Titus Quinctius. In some annals I find Marcus Popilius mentioned as consul instead of Titus Quinctius.

19. Two wars were conducted with success on that year: and they forced the Tiburtians by force of arms to a surrender. The city of Sassula was taken from them; and the other towns would have shared the same fate, had not the entire nation laid down their arms, and put themselves under the protection of the consul. A triumph was obtained by him over the Tiburtians: in other respects the victory was a mild one. Rigorous severity was practised against the Tarquinians. A great many being slaughtered in the field, out of a great number of prisoners three hundred and fifty-eight were selected, all of the highest rank, to be sent to Rome; the rest of the multitude were put to the sword. Nor were the people more merciful towards those who had been sent to Rome. They were all beaten with rods and beheaded in the middle of the forum. That was the punishment retaliated on the enemy for their butchering the Romans in the forum of Tarquinii. The successes in war induced the Samnites to seek their friendship. A courteous answer was returned to their ambassadors by the senate: they were received into an alliance by a treaty. The Roman commons had not the same success at home as in war. For though the burden of interest money had been relieved by fixing the rate at one to the hundred, the poor were overwhelmed by the principal alone, and submitted to confinement. On this account, the commons took little heed either of the two consuls being patricians, or the management of the elections, by reason of their private distresses. Both consulships therefore remained with the patricians. The consuls appointed were Caius Sulpicius Pæticus a fourth time, Marcus Valerius Publicola a second time. Whilst the state was occupied with the Etrurian war, [entered into] because a report prevailed that the people of Cære had joined the Tarquinians through compassion for them from their relationship, ambassadors from the Latins drew their attention to the Volscians, bringing tidings that an army enlisted and fully armed was now on the point of attacking their frontiers; from thence that they were to enter the Roman territory in order to commit depredations. The senate therefore determined that neither affair should be neglected; they ordered that troops should be raised for both purposes, and that the consuls should cast lots for the provinces. The greater share of their anxiety afterwards inclined to the Etrurian war; after it was ascertained, from a letter of the consul Sulpicius, to whom the province of Tarquinii had fallen, that the land around the Roman Salinæ had been depopulated, and that part of the plunder had been carried away into the country of the people of Cære, and that the young men of that people were certainly among the depredators. The senate therefore, having recalled the consul Valerius, who was opposed to the Volscians, and who had his camp on the frontiers of Tusculum, ordered him to nominate a dictator. He nominated Titus Manlius, son of Lucius. He, after he had appointed Aulus Cornelius Cossus his master of the horse, content with the consular army, declared war against the Cæritians by order of the people, with the sanction of the senate.

20. Then for the first time were the Cæritians seized with a real dread of war, as if there was greater power in the words of the enemy to indicate war than in their own acts, who had provoked the Romans by devastation; and they perceived how ill suited the contest was to their strength. They repented of their depredations, and cursed the Tarquinians as the instigators of the revolt. Nor did any one think of preparing arms and hostilities; but each strenuously urged the necessity of sending ambassadors to sue for pardon for their error. When their ambassadors applied to the senate, being referred by the senate to the people, they implored the gods, whose sacred utensils they had received in the Gallic war and treated with all due ceremony, that the same compassion for them might influence the Romans now in a flourishing condition, which had formerly influenced themselves when the state of the Roman people was distressed; and turning to the temple of Vesta, they invoked the bonds of hospitality subsisting [between themselves] and the flamens and vestals entered into by them with holy and religious zeal: "Would any one believe that persons, who possessed such merits, had suddenly become enemies without cause? or if they had committed any act in a hostile manner, that they had, through design rather than under the influence of error from frenzy, so acted, as to cancel their former acts of kindness by recent injuries, more especially when conferred on persons so grateful, and that they would choose to themselves as enemies the Roman people, now in the most flourishing state and most successful in war, whose friendship they had cultivated when they were distressed? That they should not call it design, which should rather be called force and necessity. That the Tarquinians, passing through their territory with a hostile army, after they had asked for nothing but a passage, forced with them some of their peasants, to accompany them in that depredation, which was charged on them as a crime. That they were prepared to deliver them up, if it pleased them that they should be delivered up; or that they should be subjected to punishment, if [they desired] that they should be punished. That Cære, the sanctuary of the Roman people, the harbourer of its priests, the receptacle of the sacred utensils of Rome, they should suffer to escape, in regard to the ties of hospitality contracted with the vestals, and in regard to the religious devotion paid to their gods, intact and unstained with the charge of hostilities committed." The people were influenced not so much by [the merits of] the present case, as by their former deserts, so as to be unmindful rather of the injury than of the kindness. Peace was therefore granted to the people of Cære, and it was resolved that the making of a truce for one hundred years should be referred to a decree of the senate. Against the Faliscians, implicated in the same charge, the force of the war was turned; but the enemy was no where found. Though their territories were visited in all directions with devastation, they refrained from besieging the towns; and the legions being brought back to Rome, the remainder of the year was spent in repairing the walls and the towers, and the temple of Apollo was dedicated.

21. At the close of the year a dispute between the patricians and commons suspended the consular elections, the tribunes refusing to allow the elections to be held, unless they were held conformably to the Licinian law; the dictator being determined to do away with the consulate altogether from the state, rather than to make it common to the patricians and the commons. Accordingly when, the elections being repeatedly adjourned, the dictator resigned his office, matters came to an interregnum. Upon this, when the interreges found the commons incensed against the fathers, the contest was carried on by various disturbances to the eleventh interrex. The tribunes held out as their plea, the protection of the Licinian law. The people had the painful sense of the increasing weight of interest nearer to their hearts; and their private troubles became predominant amid the public contests. Through the wearisome effects of which the patricians ordered Lucius Cornelius Scipio, the interrex, for peace' sake to observe the Licinian law in the election of consuls. To Publius Valerius Publicola, Caius Marcius Rutilus, a plebeian, was assigned as a colleague. Once their minds were disposed to concord, the new consuls, setting about to relieve the affair of the interest money also, which seemed to prevent perfect unanimity, made the payment of the debts a matter of public concern, five commissioners having been appointed, whom from their management of the money they called bankers. By their justice and diligence they deserved to have their names signalized by the records of every history. They were Caius Duilius, Publius Decius Mus, Marcus Papirius, Quintus Publilius, and Titus Æmilius; who underwent a task most difficult to be managed, and dissatisfactory in general to both parties, certainly always so to one, both with moderation in other respects, as well as at the public expense, rather than with any loss [to the creditors]. For the tardy debts and those which were more troublesome, rather by the inertness of the debtors than by want of means, either the treasury paid off, tables with money being placed in the forum, in such a manner that the public was first secured; or a valuation, at equitable prices, of their property freed them; so that not only without injury, but even without complaints on either side, an immense amount of debt was cleared off. After this a groundless alarm of an Etrurian war, as there was a report that the twelve states had conspired, rendered it necessary that a dictator should be appointed. Caius Julius was nominated in the camp, (for the decree of the senate was sent thither to the consuls,) to whom Lucius Æmilius was attached as master of the horse. But all things were quiet abroad.

22. An attempt made at home by the dictator, to have the election of two patrician consuls, brought the government to an interregnum. The two interreges, Caius Sulpicius and Marcus Fabius, succeeded in that which the dictator had in vain attempted, scil. in having both the consuls elected from the patricians, the people being rather more appeased in consequence of the service done them in lightening their debts. The persons elected were, Caius Sulpicius Peticus himself, who first resigned the office of interrex, and Titus Quinctius Pennus. Some attach the name of Kæso, others that of Caius to Quinctius. They both set out to the war, Quinctius to the Faliscian, Sulpicius to the Tarquinian; and the enemy no where meeting them in the field, they waged war more against the lands than the men, by burning and laying waste every thing, by the debilitating effects of which, as of a slow consumption, the pertinacity of both states was so broken, that they solicited a truce, first from the consuls, then through their permission from the senate. They obtained a truce for forty years. Thus the concern regarding the two wars which were hanging over them being laid aside, whilst there was some repose from arms, it was determined that a census should be instituted, because the payment of the debt had changed the owners of much property. But when the assembly was proclaimed for the appointment of censors, Caius Marcius Rutilus, who had been the first plebeian dictator, having declared himself a candidate for the censorship, disturbed the harmony of the different orders. This step he seemed to have taken at an unseasonable time; because both the consuls then happened to be patricians, who declared that they would take no account of him. But he both succeeded in his undertaking by his own perseverance, and the tribunes aided him by recovering a right lost in the election of the consuls; and both the worth of the man brought him to the level of the highest honour, and also the commons were anxious that the censorship also should be brought within their participation through the medium of the same person who had opened a way to the dictatorship. Nor was any dissent [from this feeling] evinced at the election, so that Marcius was elected censor along with Cneius Manlius. This year also had Marcus Fabius as dictator, not by reason of any terror of war, but in order that the Licinian law should not be observed at the consular elections. Quintus Servilius was attached to the dictator as master of the horse. Nor yet did the dictatorship render that combination of the senators more effectual at the consular elections, than it had proved at that of the censors.

23. Marcus Popillius Lænas was chosen consul on the part of the commons, Lucius Cornelius Scipio on that of the patricians. Fortune even rendered the plebeian consul more distinguished; for when news was brought that a vast army of the Gauls had pitched their camp in the Latin territory, Scipio being attacked with a serious fit of illness, the Gallic war was intrusted out of course to Popillius. He having raised an army with great energy, after he had ordered the younger citizens to assemble in arms outside the Capuan gate, and the quæstors to carry the standards from the treasury to the same place, having completed four legions, he gave the surplus of the men to the prætor Publius Valerius Publicola, recommending to the senate to raise another army, which might be a reserve to the state against the sudden contingencies of war. He himself, after sufficiently preparing and arranging every thing, proceeds towards the enemy; and in order to ascertain their strength before he should hazard a decisive action, he commenced drawing an intrenchment on a hill, the nearest he could select to the camp of the Gauls. They being a fierce race and of an eager turn for fighting, when, on descrying the standards of the Romans at a distance, they drew out their forces, as expecting to commence the battle forthwith, when they perceived that neither the opposite army descended into the plain, and that the Romans were protected both by the height of the ground and also by the entrenchments, supposing that they were dismayed with fear, and also more exposed to attack, because they were intent on the work, they advance with a furious shout. On the side of the Romans neither the works were interrupted, (it was the triarii who were employed at them,) but the battle was commenced by the hastati and the principes, who stood in front of the workmen armed and prepared for the fight. Besides their own valour, the higher ground aided them, so that all the spears and javelins did not fall ineffectual, as when thrown on the same level, (as is generally the case,) but being steadied by their own weight they took effect; and the Gauls weighed down by the weapons, with which they had their bodies transfixed, or their shields rendered too cumbrous by those sticking in them. When they advanced almost up the steep at a run, becoming irresolute, they at first halted; then when the very delay shook the courage of the one party, and raised that of the enemy, being then pushed backwards they fell one upon the other, and produced a carnage among themselves more shocking than the carnage [caused by the enemy]. For more were crushed by the precipitate rout, than there were slain by the sword.

24. Nor as yet was the victory decided in favour of the Romans; another difficulty still was remaining for them after they had descended into the plain; for the great numbers of the Gauls being such as to prevent all feeling of such a disaster, raised up fresh troops against the victorious enemy, as if a new army rose up once more. And the Romans stood still, suppressing their ardour; both because the struggle had to be undergone a second time by them wearied as they were, and the consul, having his left arm well nigh transfixed with a javelin, whilst he exposed himself incautiously in the van, had retired for a short time from the field. And now, by the delay, the victory was on the point of being relinquished, when the consul, having had his wound tied up, riding back to the van, cries out, "Soldiers, why do you stand? You have not to do with a Latin or Sabine enemy, whom, when you have vanquished by your arms, from an enemy you may make an ally; against brutes we have drawn our swords. Their blood must be drawn or ours given to them. You have repulsed them from your camp, you have driven them headlong down the valley, you stand on the prostrated bodies of your foes. Fill the plains with the same carnage as you have filled the mountains; do not wait till they fly, you standing still; your standards must be advanced, you must proceed against the enemy." Roused again by these exhortations, they drive back from their ground the foremost companies of the Gauls, and by forming wedges, they break through the centre of their body. By these means, the enemy being disunited, as being now without regular command, or subordination of officers, they turn their violence against their own; and being dispersed through the plains, and carried beyond their own camp in their precipitate flight, they make for the citadel of Alba, which met their eyes as the most elevated among hills of equal altitude. The consul, not pursuing them beyond the camp, because the wound weakened him, and he was unwilling to expose his wearied army to hills occupied by the enemy, bestowed the entire plunder of the camp on the soldiers, and led back his army, victorious and enriched with the Gallic spoils, to Rome. The consul's wound occasioned a delay of the triumph, and the same cause made the senate wish for a dictator, that there might be some one who, the consuls being both sick, should hold the elections. Lucius Furius Camillus being nominated dictator, Publius Cornelius Scipio being attached as master of the horse, restored to the patricians their former possession of the consulship. He himself being, for that service, elected consul, had Appius Claudius Crassus named as his colleague.

25. Before the new consuls entered on their office, a triumph was celebrated by Popillius over the Gauls amid the great applause of the commons; and they, in a low voice, frequently asked one another, whether any one was dissatisfied with a plebeian consul. At the same time they found fault with the dictator, who had obtained the consulship as a bribe for having infringed the Licinian law, more dishonourable for the private ambition [evinced] thereby than for the injury inflicted on the public, so that, when dictator, he might have himself appointed consul. The year was remarkable for many and various commotions. The Gauls [descending] from the Alban mountains, because they were unable to endure the severity of the winter, straggling through the plains and the parts adjoining the sea, committed devastations. The sea was infested by fleets of the Greeks; and the borders of the Antian shore, and the mouth of the Tiber; so that the maritime plunderers, encountering those on land, fought on one occasion an obstinate fight, and separated, the Gauls to their camp, the Greeks back to their ships, doubting whether they should consider themselves as vanquished or victors. Among these the greatest alarm arose at the circumstance, that assemblies of the Latin states were held at the grove of Ferentina; and an unequivocal answer was given to the Romans on their ordering soldiers from them, "that they should cease to issue their orders to those of whose assistance they stood in need: that the Latins would take up arms in defence of their own liberty, rather than for the dominion of others." The senate becoming uneasy at the defection of their allies, whilst two foreign wars existed at the same time, when they perceived that those whom fidelity had not restrained, should be restrained by fear, ordered the consuls to exert to the utmost the energies of their authority in holding a levy. For that they should depend on an army of their countrymen, since their allies were deserting them. Ten legions are said to have been levied, consisting each of four thousand two hundred infantry and three hundred horse. Such a newly-raised army, if any foreign force should assail, the present power of the Roman people, which is scarcely confined within the whole world, could not easily raise now, if concentrated upon one point: so true it is, we have improved in those particulars only about which we are solicitous, riches and luxury. Among the other distressing events of this year, Appius Claudius, one of the consuls, dies in the midst of the preparations for the war; and the whole direction of affairs devolved on Camillus; over whom, the only consul, it did not appear seemly that a dictator should be appointed, either in consideration of his high character, which should not be made subordinate to the dictatorship, or on account of the auspicious omen of his surname with respect to a Gallic war. The consul, then, having stationed two legions to protect the city, and divided the remaining eight with the prætor Lucius Pinarius, mindful of his father's valour, selects the Gallic war for himself without any appeal to lots: the prætor he commanded to protect the sea-coast, and to drive the Greeks from the shore. And after he had marched down into the Pomptine territory, because he neither wished to engage on the level ground, no circumstance rendering it necessary, and he considered that the enemy were sufficiently subdued, by preventing from plunder persons whom necessity obliged to live on what was so obtained, he selected a suitable place for a fixed encampment.

26. Where when they were spending the time in quiet in their quarters, a Gaul, remarkable for his size and the appearance of his arms, came forward; and striking his shield with his spear, after he had procured silence, through an interpreter he challenged any one of the Romans to contend with him with the sword. There was a tribune of the soldiers, a young man, Marcus Valerius, who considering himself not less worthy of that distinction than Titus Manlius, having first ascertained the consul's pleasure, advanced fully armed into the middle space. The human contest was rendered less remarkable by reason of the interposition of the divine power. For just as the Roman was commencing the encounter, a crow settled suddenly on his helmet, facing the enemy, which, as an augury sent from heaven, the tribune at first received with pleasure. Then he prayed that whatever god or goddess had sent him the auspicious bird, would willingly and kindly aid him. Wondrous to relate, the bird not only kept the place it had once taken, but as often as the encounter was renewed, raising itself on its wings, it attacked the face and eyes of the foe with its beak and talons, until Valerius slays him, terrified at the sight of such a prodigy, and confounded both in his vision and understanding. The crow soaring out of sight makes towards the east. Hitherto the advanced guards on both sides remained quiet. When the tribune began to strip the body of the slain enemy, neither the Gauls any longer confined themselves to their post, and the Romans began to run to their successful champion with still greater speed. There a scuffle taking place around the body of the prostrate Gaul, a desperate fight is stirred up. And now the contest is carried on not by the companies of the nearest posts, but by the legions pouring out from both sides. The soldiers exulting in the victory of the tribune, and also at such favour and attention from the gods, are commanded by Camillus to advance against the enemy: and he, pointing to the tribune distinguished by the spoils, "Soldiers," said he, "imitate this man; and around their fallen leader strew heaps of Gauls." Gods and men assisted at that fight; and the struggle was carried on against the Gauls with a fury by no means equivocal in its result, so thoroughly were both armies impressed with the respective success of the two soldiers, between whom the single combat had taken place. Among the first party, whose encounter had called out the others, there was a desperate encounter: the rest of the soldiery, before they came within throw of a weapon, turned their backs. At first they were dispersed through the Volscians and the Falernian territory; thence they made for Apulia and the upper sea. The consul, calling an assembly, after heaping praises on the tribune, bestows on him ten oxen and a golden crown. He himself, being commanded by the senate to take charge of the maritime war, joined his camp to that of the prætor. There because matters seemed to be delayed by the dastardly conduct of the Greeks, who did not venture into the field, with the approbation of the senate, he nominated Titus Manlius Torquatus dictator. The dictator, after appointing Aulus Cornelius Cossus his master of the horse, held the consular elections, and with the greatest applause of the people he returned Marcus Valerius Corvus (for that was his surname from thenceforth) as consul, though absent, the rival of his own glory, then three and twenty years of age. As colleague to Corvus, Marcus Popillius Lænas, a plebeian, was assigned to be consul for the fourth time. Nothing memorable occurred between Camillus and the Greeks; neither the one were warriors by land, nor the Romans by sea. At length, when they were repelled from the shore, among other things necessary for use, water also failing, they abandoned Italy. To what state or what nation that fleet belonged, there is nothing certain. I would be most inclined to think that they belonged to the tyrants of Sicily; for the farther Greece, being at that time wearied by intestine war, was now in dread of the power of the Macedonians.

27. The armies being disbanded, whilst there was both peace abroad, and tranquillity at home by reason of the concord of the different orders, lest matters might be too happy, a pestilence having attacked the state, compelled the senate to order the decemvirs to inspect the Sibylline books, and by their suggestion a lectisternium took place. The same year a colony was led to Satricum by the Antians, and the city, which the Latins had demolished, was rebuilt. And a treaty was concluded at Rome with the Carthaginian ambassadors, they having come to request friendship and an alliance. The same tranquillity continued at home and abroad, during the consulate of Titus Manlius Torquatus and Caius Plautius. Only the interest of money from twelve was reduced to six per cent; and the payment of the debts was adjusted into equal portions of three years, on condition that the fourth payment should be made at the present time. And then also, though a portion of the commons were distressed, still public credit engrossed the attention of the senate in preference to the difficulties of private individuals. Their circumstances were relieved most effectually, because a cessation was introduced of the taxes and levy. On the third year after Satricum was rebuilt by the Volscians, Marcus Valerius Corvus having been elected consul for the second time with Caius Poetelius, when news had been brought from Latium, that ambassadors from Antium were going round the states of the Latins to excite a war, being ordered to attack the Volscians, before greater numbers of the enemy should be assembled, proceeds to Satricum with his army ready for action. And when the Antians and other Volscians met him, their forces being previously prepared, in case any movement should be made on the part of Rome, no delay of engaging took place between the two parties incensed with long pent-up hate. The Volscians, a nation more spirited to renew hostilities than to carry on war, being defeated in the fight, make for the walls of Satricum in a precipitate flight; and their reliance in their walls not being sufficiently strong, when the city, encompassed by a continuous line of troops, was now on the point of being taken by scalade, they surrendered to the number of four thousand soldiers, besides the unarmed multitude. The town was demolished and burnt; only they kept the fire from the temple of Mother Matuta. The entire plunder was given up to the soldiers. The four thousand who had surrendered were considered exclusive of the spoil; these the consul when triumphing drove before his chariot in chains; afterwards by selling them he brought a great sum of money into the treasury. There are some who state that this body of captives consisted of slaves; and this is more probable than that persons who had surrendered were exposed to sale.

28. Marcus Fabius Dorso and Servius Sulpicius Camerinus succeeded these consuls. After this the Auruncan war commenced in consequence of a sudden attempt at depredation: and through fear lest this act of one state might be the concerted scheme of the whole Latin nation, Lucius Furius being created dictator, as if against all Latium already in arms, nominated Cneius Manlius Capitolinus his master of the horse. And when, a suspension of public business being proclaimed, (a measure usually adopted during great alarms,) the levy was held without exemptions, the legions were led against the Auruncans with all possible expedition. The spirit of freebooters rather than of enemies was found there. They were vanquished therefore in the first encounter. However the dictator, both because they had commenced hostilities without provocation, and presented themselves to the contest without reluctance, considering that the aid of the gods should also be engaged, vowed a temple to Juno Moneta in the heat of the battle, and when he returned victorious to Rome, obliged by his vow, he resigned his dictatorship. The senate ordered duumvirs to be appointed to have the temple built suitably to the grandeur of the Roman people; the site destined for it was in the citadel, where the ground was on which the house of Marcus Manlius Capitolinus had stood. The consuls, having employed the dictator's army for the Volscian war, took Sora from the enemy, having attacked them by surprise. The temple of Moneta is dedicated the year after it had been vowed, Caius Marcius Rutilus being consul for the third time, and Titus Manlius Torquatus for the second time. A prodigy immediately followed the dedication, similar to the ancient one of the Alban mount. For it both rained stones, and during the day night seemed to be spread [over the sky]; and on the books being inspected, the state being filled with religious scruples, it was resolved by the senate that a dictator should be nominated for the purpose of regulating the ceremonies. Publius Valerius Publicola was nominated; Quintus Fabius Ambustus was assigned to him as master of the horse. It was determined that not only the tribes, but the neighbouring states also should offer supplications: and a certain order was appointed for them on what day each should offer supplication. Severe sentences of the people are said to have been passed on that year against usurers, for whom a day of trial had been appointed by the ædiles. Matters came to an interregnum, there being no particular reason on record. After the interregnum, both the consuls were elected from the patricians, Marcus Valerius Corvus a third time, and Aulus Cornelius Cossus, so that it would seem that such was the end aimed at.

29. Henceforward shall be recorded wars of greater importance, both by the strength of the belligerent powers, by the distance of the countries, or the length of time during which they were carried on. For in that year arms were taken up against the Samnites, a nation powerful both in wealth and in arms. Pyrrhus followed as an enemy the war of the Samnites carried on with various success, the Carthaginians followed Pyrrhus. How great a mass of events! How often have extreme dangers been encountered, that the empire might be raised to its present magnitude, which is now scarcely sustained! But the cause of the war between the Samnites and Romans, as they had been joined in alliance and friendship, came from without; it originated not among themselves. After the Samnites had unjustly taken up arms, because they had the advantage in strength, against the Sidicinians, the weaker party being obliged to have recourse to the aid of the more powerful, unite themselves to the Campanians. As the Campanians brought to the relief of their allies rather a name than strength, enervated as they were by luxury, they were beaten in the Sidicinian territory by men who were inured to the use of arms, and then brought on themselves the entire burthen of the war. For the Samnites, taking no further notice of the Sidicinians, having attacked the Campanians as being the chief of the neighbouring states, from whom the victory might be equally easy, and a greater share of spoil and glory, after they had secured Tifata, a ridge of hills hanging over Capua, with a strong garrison, they march down from thence with their army formed in a square into the plain which lies between Capua and Tifata. There a second battle was fought; and the Campanians, after an unsuccessful fight, being driven within their walls, when the flower of their youth being cut down, no hope was nigh at hand, they were obliged to sue for aid from the Romans.

30. Their ambassadors, being introduced into the senate, spoke as near as possible to this purport: "Conscript fathers, the Campanian state has sent us to you, to solicit from you friendship for ever, and present aid, which if we had solicited whilst our affairs were prosperous, as it would have commenced more readily, so would it have been bound by a weaker tie. For then, as we should have recollected that we entered into friendship on equal terms, we might be equally friendly as now, but less submissive and compliant with your wishes. Now, won over by your compassion for us, and defended by your aid in our critical circumstances, it is incumbent on us that we show our sense also of the kindness received; lest we should seem ungrateful, and undeserving of aid from either god or man. Nor, indeed, do I think that because the Samnites first became your allies and friends, such a circumstance is sufficient to prevent our being admitted into friendship; but merely shows that they excel us in priority and in the degree of honour; for no provision has been made in your treaty with the Samnites that you should not form any new treaties. It has ever been with you a sufficient title to your friendship, that he who sought it desired to be a friend of yours. We, Campanians, though our present state forbids us to speak in high terms, not yielding to any state save you in the extent of our city, or in the fertility of our land, come into friendship with you, no inconsiderable accession in my opinion to your flourishing condition. We shall be in the rear of the Æquans and Volscians, the eternal enemies of this city, whenever they may stir; and whatever ye shall be the first to perform in defence of our safety, the same shall we ever do in defence of your empire and glory. Those nations which lie between us and you being reduced, which both your bravery and good fortune makes it certain will soon be the case, you will then have an uninterrupted empire extending even to us. It is distressing and painful, what our condition obliges us to confess. Conscript fathers, matters are come to this, that we Campanians must be the property either of friends or enemies. If you defend us, yours; if you desert us, we shall be the property of the Samnites. Consider, then, whether you would rather that Capua and all Campania should be added to your power or to that of the Samnites. Romans, it is surely but just, that your compassion and your aid should lie open to all men; to those, however, chiefly, who, whilst they afford it beyond their means to others imploring aid, have themselves been involved in this distress. Although we fought nominally for the Sidicinians, in reality for ourselves, when we saw a neighbouring state assailed by the nefarious plunder of the Samnites; and after the Sidicinians had been consumed, we saw that the conflagration would pass over to ourselves. For the Samnites do not come to attack us, because they resent an injury received, but because they are glad that a pretext has been presented to them. If this were the gratification of their resentment, and not an occasion for satiating their ambition, was it not sufficient that they cut down our legions once in the Sidicinian territory, a second time in Campania itself? What sort of resentment must that be, which the blood shed in two pitched battles cannot satiate? To this add the laying waste of our lands; the spoil of men and cattle driven away, the burning and ruin of our country-houses, every thing destroyed by fire and sword. Could not resentment be satisfied with this? But ambition must be satiated. That hurries them on to besiege Capua. They either wish to destroy that most beautiful city, or to possess it themselves. But, Romans, do you take possession of it in your kindness, rather than suffer them to hold it by injustice. I am not addressing a people who decline just wars; but still, if you make but a show of your aid, I do not think that you will have occasion for war. The contempt of the Samnites has just reached to us; it soars not higher. Accordingly, Romans, we may be protected even by the shadow of your aid: whatever after this we shall possess, whatever we ourselves shall be, determined to consider all that as yours. For you the Campanian field shall be ploughed; for you the city of Capua shall be made populous; you shall be to us in the light of founders, parents, ay, even immortal gods. There shall be no colony of your own which shall surpass us in attachment and loyalty to you. Grant to the Campanians, conscript fathers, your nod, and your irresistible favour, and bid us hope that Capua will be safe. With what crowds of persons of all classes attending us do you suppose that we set out from thence--how, think you, did we leave every place full of vows and tears? In what a state of expectation do you suppose that the senate are, the Campanian nation, our wives and our children? I am certain that the entire multitude are standing at the gates, looking forward to the road that leads from hence, anxious as to what answer you may order us, conscript fathers, to bring back to them, in their solicitude and suspense of mind. One kind of answer may bring them safety, victory, light, and liberty--what the other may, I feel horror to think. Determine therefore about us, as about persons who will be your future friends and allies, or as persons who are to have no existence any where."

31. The ambassadors then withdrawing, after the senate had been consulted, though to a great many, their city the greatest and wealthiest in Italy, their land the most fertile, and situated near the sea, seemed likely to prove a granary to the Roman people for all varieties of provision; still the faith of their engagements was more regarded than such great advantages, and the consul, by the direction of the senate, answered as follows: "Campanians, the senate considers you deserving of aid. But it is meet that friendship be so established with you, that no prior friendship and alliance be violated. The Samnites are united in a treaty with us. Therefore we refuse you arms against the Samnites, which would be a violation of duty to the gods first, and then to men. We will, as divine and human law requires, send ambassadors to our allies and friends to entreat that no violence be committed against you?" To this the chief of the embassy replied, (for such were the instructions they had brought from home,) "Since you are not willing to defend by just force our possessions against violence and injustice, at least you will defend your own. Wherefore, conscript fathers, we surrender the Campanian people, and the city of Capua, their lands, the temples of the gods, all things divine and human, into your jurisdiction and that of the Roman people; whatever we shall suffer henceforth, being determined to suffer as men who have surrendered to you." On these words, all extending their hands towards the consuls, bathed in tears they fell prostrate in the porch of the senate-house. The fathers, affected at the vicissitude of human greatness, seeing that a nation abounding in wealth, noted for luxury and pride, from which a little time since their neighbours had solicited assistance, was now so broken in spirit, as to give up themselves and all they possessed into the power of others; moreover, their honour also seemed to be involved in not betraying those who had surrendered, nor did they consider that the people of the Samnites would act fairly, if they should attack a territory and a city which had become the property of the Roman people by a surrender. It was resolved therefore, that ambassadors should be sent forthwith to the Samnites; instructions were given "that they should lay before the Samnites the entreaties of the Campanians, the answer of the senate duly mindful of the friendship of the Samnites, and finally the surrender that had been concluded. That they requested, in consideration of the friendship and alliance subsisting between them, that they would spare their subjects; and that they would not carry hostilities into that territory which had become the property of the Roman people. If by gentle measures they did not succeed, that they should denounce to the Samnites in the name of the senate and Roman people, to withhold their arms from the city of Capua and the Campanian territory." When the ambassadors urged these matters in the assembly of the Samnites, so fierce an answer was returned, that they not only said that they would prosecute that war, but their magistrates, having gone out of the senate-house, in the very presence of the ambassadors, summoned the prefects of the cohorts; and with a distinct voice commanded them, to proceed forthwith into the Campanian territory, in order to plunder it.

32. The result of this embassy being reported at Rome, the care of all other concerns being laid aside, the senate, having despatched heralds to demand satisfaction, and, because this was not complied with, war being proclaimed in the usual way, they decreed that the matter should be submitted to the people at the very earliest opportunity; and both the consuls having set out from the city by order of the people with two armies, Valerius into Campania, Cornelius into Samnium, the former pitches his camp at Mount Gaurus, the latter at Saticula. The legions of the Samnites met with Valerius first; for they thought that the whole weight of the war would incline to that side. At the same time resentment stimulated them against the Campanians, that they should be so ready at one time to lend aid, at another to call in aid against them. But as soon as they beheld the Roman camp, they fiercely demanded the signal each from his leader; they maintained that the Roman would bring aid to the Campanian with the same fate with which the Campanian had done to the Sidicinian. Valerius, having delayed for a few days in slight skirmishes for the purpose of making trial of the enemy, displayed the signal for battle, exhorting his men in few words "not to let the new war or the new enemy terrify them. In proportion as they should carry their arms to a greater distance from the city, the more and more unwarlike should the nation prove to be against whom they should proceed. That they should not estimate the valour of the Samnites by the defeats of the Sidicinians and Campanians. Let the combatants be of what kind they may be, that it was necessary that one side should be vanquished. That as for the Campanians indeed, they were undoubtedly vanquished more by circumstances flowing from excessive luxury and by their own want of energy than by the bravery of the enemy. What were the two successful wars of the Samnites, during so many ages, against so many glorious exploits of the Roman people, who counted almost more triumphs than years since the building of their city? who held subdued by their arms all the states around them, the Sabines, Etruria, the Latins, Hernicians, Æquans, Volscians, Auruncans? who eventually drove by flight into the sea, and into their ships, the Gauls, after slaughtering them in so many engagements? That soldiers ought both to enter the field relying on their national military renown, and on their own valour, and also to consider under whose command and auspices the battle is to be fought; whether he be one which is to be listened to as a pompous exhorter, bold merely in words, unacquainted with military labours, or one who knows how to wield arms himself also, to advance before the standards, and to show himself in the midst of the danger. My acts, not my words merely, I wish you to follow; and to seek from me not military orders only, but example also. It was not by intrigues merely, nor by cabals usual among the nobles, but by this right hand, I procured for myself three consulships, and the highest eulogies. There was a time when this could be said; [no wonder,] for you were a patrician, and sprung from the liberators of your country; and that family of yours had the consulship the same year that the city had consuls. Now the consulship lies open in common to us patricians and to you plebeians; nor is it, as formerly, the prize of birth, but of valour. Look forward, therefore, soldiers, to even the highest honour. Though you, as men, have, with the approbation of the gods, given me this new surname of Corvus, the ancient surname of our family, Publicolæ, has not been erased from my memory. I ever do and ever have cultivated the good will of the Roman commons abroad and at home, as a private man and in public offices, high and low, as tribune equally as when consul, with the same undeviating line of conduct through all my successive consulships. Now, with respect to that which is at hand, with the aid of the gods, join with me in seeking a new and complete triumph over the Samnites."

33. Never was a general on a more familiar footing with his soldiers, by his performing all the duties among the lowest of the soldiers without reluctance. Moreover in the military sports, wherein equals vie with their equals in contests of swiftness and strength, affable and condescending, he conquered and was conquered with the same countenance; nor did he spurn any competitor who should offer; in his acts kind according to the occasion; in his conversation no less mindful of the ease of others than of his own dignity; and, a thing than which nothing is more agreeable to the people, he administered his offices by the same line of conduct by which he had gained them. The whole army therefore, cheering the exhortation of their leader with the utmost alacrity, march forth from the camp. The battle commenced with equal hopes and equal strength on both sides, as much as any battle ever did, with confidence in themselves, and without contempt of their enemies. Their recent exploits and their double victory a few days before, increased the spirits of the Samnites on the other side; the glories of four hundred years and victory coeval with the building of their city [had the same effect] on the Romans; to both sides, however, the circumstance of the enemy being a new one gave additional anxiety. The battle was a proof what spirits they possessed; for they maintained the conflict in such a manner, that, for a considerable time, the armies inclined to neither side. Then the consul, thinking that some confusion should be caused among them, since they could not be overpowered by force, endeavours to disorder their foremost battalions by a charge of cavalry. And when he saw them wheel their troops within a narrow compass in fruitless disorder, and that they could not open a passage to the enemy, riding back to the van of the legions, after leaping from his horse, he says, "Soldiers, this is the task for us infantry; come on, as ye shall see me making way with my sword, in whatever direction I shall advance into the enemy's line, so let each man, with all his might, beat down those who oppose him. All those places, where their erected spears now glitter, you shall see cleared by widely-extended slaughter." He had uttered these words, when the cavalry by order of the consul turn to the wings, and open a passage for the legions to the centre of the line. First of all, the consul attacks the enemy, and slays him whom he happened to engage. Those on the right and left, fired at this sight, commence a dreadful fight, each with the foe opposite him. The Samnites obstinately stand their ground, though they receive more wounds than they inflict. The battle had now lasted for a considerable time, great slaughter occurred around the standards of the Samnites; in no part was there a flight, so firmly had they made up their minds to be vanquished by death alone. Wherefore the Romans, when they perceived their strength to relax by fatigue, and but a small part of the day still remained, fired with fury, rush upon the enemy. Then for the first time it appeared that they were giving ground, and that the matter was inclining to a flight; then the Samnites were taken, some slain; nor would many have survived, had not night terminated the victory rather than the battle. Both the Romans confessed, that they had never fought with a more determined enemy; and the Samnites, on being asked what cause first drove them to fly after being so determined, said, that it was the eyes of the Romans which seemed to them to flash fire, and their distracted looks, and furious aspect; that more of terror arose from thence, than from any thing else. Which terror they confessed not only in the issue of the battle, but in their departure by night. Next day the Romans take possession of the deserted camp of the enemy, whither all the Campanians flocked to congratulate them.