From The History of Rome by Titus Livius. Translated from the Original with Notes and Illustrations by George Baker, A.M. First American, from the Last London Edition, in Six Volumes (New York: Peter A. Mesier et al., 1823).
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Titus Livius, the illustrious author of the Roman History, descended from a noble family in Rome, and was born at Patavium, now called Padua, in Italy, in the 694th year of Rome, fifty-eight years before the commencement of the Christian æra.
Like many other literary men, his life was contemplative, rather than active; very few particulars, therefore, concerning him, have come down to us. He resided at Rome for a considerable time, where he was much noticed, and highly honoured, by Augustus; to whom he was previously known, it is said, by some writings which he had dedicated to him. Seneca, however, is silent upon the subject of this supposed dedication, though he mentions the work itself, which, he says, consisted of moral and philosophical dialogues.
He appears to have conceived the project of writing his history, immediately upon his settling at Rome; or, perhaps, he came thither for the purpose of collecting the necessary materials for that great work.
Augustus appointed him preceptor to his grandson Claudius, afterwards emperor. But he seems not much to have attended to the advantage which might have resulted from so advantageous a connection, and to have occupied himself, entirely, in the composition of his history; parts of which, as they were finished, he read to Augustus and Macænas.
Distracted with the tumult, and disgusted, it may be, with the intrigues and cabals of Rome, he sought retirement and tranquillity in the beautiful country, and delightful climate, of Naples. Here, enjoying uninterrupted literary ease and quiet, he continued his labour, and finished his work, comprising, in an hundred and forty-two books, the history of Rome, from the foundation of that city to the death of Drusus, containing a period of seven hundred and forty-three years, ending nine years before the birth of our Saviour. Having completed this great work, he returned to pass the remainder of his days in his native country, where he died, 17, at the age of seventy-five years.
What family he left behind him, is not known. Quintilian, however, mentions that he had a son, for whose instruction he drew up some excellent observations on rhetoric; and there is also reason to suppose that he had a daughter, married to Lucius Magius, an orator, who is advantageously spoken of by Seneca.
How highly his works were esteemed, and himself personally honoured and respected, may be gathered from the manner in which he is mentioned by many ancient authors. Tacitus tells us,* that “T. Livius, that admirable historian, not more distinguished by his eloquence than by his fidelity, was so lavish in his praise of Pompey, that Augustus called him the Pompeian: and yet his friendship for him was unalterable.” The younger Pliny informs us,* that “a certain inhabitant of the city of Cadiz was so struck with the illustrious character of Livy, that he travelled to Rome on purpose to see that great genius; and as soon as he had satisfied his curiosity, returned home.”
Of the hundred and forty-two books, of which the history of Rome originally consisted, thirty-five only have come down to us. The contents of the whole, the hundred and thirty-seventh and eighth excepted, have been preserved; compiled, as some, without any good reason, have supposed, by Livy himself; while others, with equal improbability, have asserted them to be the work of Lucius Florus, author of a portion of Roman history. Whoever may have been the compiler, a fact as useless, as it is now impossible to ascertain, they are highly curious; and although they contain but a faint outline, yet they serve to convey some idea of the original, and greatly excite regret at the loss of so large a portion of this valuable work.
The parts of this history which we now possess, are, the first decade: for it appears, from his having prefixed separate prefatory introductions to each portion, that the author had divided his work into distinct parts, consisting each of ten books. The first decade commences with the foundation of the city of Rome, and rapidly runs over the affairs of four hundred and sixty years. The second decade is lost: it comprised a period of seventy-five years; the principal occurrence in it was the first Punic war, in which the Romans, after a long and arduous struggle, were finally victorious. The third decade is extant: it contains a particular and well-detailed account of the second Punic war; the longest, as our author himself observes, and the most hazardous war, the Romans had ever been engaged in; in the course of which they gained so many advantages, and acquired so much military experience, that no nation was ever able, afterwards, to withstand them. The fourth decade contains the Macedonian war against Philip, and the Asiatic against Antiochus. These are related at considerable length, insomuch that the ten books comprise a space of twenty-three years only. Of the fifth decade, the first five books only remain, and these very imperfect. They give an account of the war with Perseus king of Macedonia, who gains several advantages against the Romans, but is at length subdued, and his kingdom reduced to the form of a Roman province; of the corruption of several Roman governors in the administration of the provinces, and their punishment; and of the third Punic war, which lasted only five years.
Of the remaining books, it has been already said, that the contents only have been preserved; and they serve to show us the greatness of our loss, the greatest literary loss, perhaps, owing to the ravages of the time. Livy had employed forty-five books in the history of six centuries; but so many, so various, and so interesting were the events, which he had before him for selection, in the latter period of the Republic, that it took him above double that number to relate the occurrences of little more than an hundred and twenty years. From the admirable manner in which he has written the former part of his History, we may judge of what must have been the merit of this latter part, which fails us, unfortunately, at a most remarkable period, when rational curiosity is raised to the highest pitch. Nor can we doubt the excellence of its execution, when we consider how much better, and how much more copious his materials must have been; for, besides what he could draw from his own personal knowledge, having lived among, and conversed familiarly with, the most considerable men in the empire, who were themselves principal actors in the important transactions which he relates, he had access to the best possible written materials; to the memoirs of Sylla, Cæsar, Labienus, Pollio, Augustus, and many others which were then extant. What would we not give for the picture, finished by so able a hand, from the sketches of such masters? What delight would it not afford us, to see the whole progress of a government from liberty to servitude? — the whole series of causes and effects, apparent and real, public and private? — those which all men saw, and all good men opposed and lamented, at the time; and those which were so disguised to the prejudices, to the partialities, of a divided people, and even to the corruption of mankind, that many did not, and that many could pretend they did not, discern them, till it was too late to resist them? I own, says a noble author,* I should be glad to exchange what we have of this History, for what we have not.
Much as our historian was admired, and highly as he was respected, yet he was not without his detractors. He was charged with patavinity in his writings. The first person who brought this charge against him, seems to have been Asinius Pollio, a polite and elegant writer, and a distinguished ornament of the age of Augustus.*
In what this patavinity consisted, no ancient author having defined it, it is not now easy to say; and, accordingly, it is a matter which has been much disputed. Some will have it, that it was a political term, and that it signified an attachment to the Pompeian party: others contend that it meant a hatred to the Gauls; that it was symbolical of some blameable particularity, they know not what. The more probable opinion, however, seems, from the term itself, to be, that it signified some provincial peculiarity of dialect. Ancient Italy, like modern Italy, had its differences, not of idiom merely, but of language, in every different province. In proportion as their language varies, at this day, from the purity of the Tuscan dialect, they become almost unintelligible to each other: with difficulty can a Venetian and a Neapolitan converse together; that is, the people: for the well-educated in every country learn to speak and write the dialect of the metropolis; although, if brought up in their own provinces, however nearly their language may approach the purity of that of the capital, yet it will ever retain some tincture of provinciality.
If this supposition of the meaning of the word patavinity be right, the fact, upon such authority as that of Pollio, must be admitted; although in what, precisely, it consisted, it is not, at present, perhaps, possible to determine. Much has been written upon the subject, which in reality seems now to be an idle inquiry; and, as a dissertation upon this matter could afford neither instruction nor entertainment to the mere English reader, for whose use the following translation is principally intended, we shall dismiss the subject with observing, that what Quintilian has not told us, no modern scholar will ever, it is probable, have penetration enough to discover: and we may be also allowed to suppose that, whatever these peculiarities may have been, as that great critic has not thought them worth pointing out, they cannot have been either very numerous, or of very material consequence.
Nor will, perhaps, another objection, made by modern critics, be deemed of much greater weight. They dislike, it seems, the plan of his History, and they found that dislike, chiefly on the speeches which he so frequently introduces, which, they contend, it is not probable could have been spoken upon the occasions alleged; and therefore they pronounce them to be violations of truth. That many of them were not spoken by the persons to whom they are ascribed, nor upon the occasions alleged, must be admitted: but they do not, upon that account, violate the truth of history. Nobody can suppose that our author ever meant to impose upon his readers, and to make them believe that what he has given us, as said by the different persons whom he introduces, was really said by them: the supposition is absurd. He could only mean to vary his style; and to enliven and embellish matter, which, if continued in the even and unvaried tone of narration, would be sometimes heavy and tedious; making these supposed speeches a vehicle for conveying, and that in a very lively manner, the arguments for and against a proposed measure; and he thus often brings into them a relation of facts, chiefly facts of remoter times, and much more agreeably than he could have interwoven them into his narrative, which should always be progressive. Modern historians, it is true, have rejected this plan: but Livy is not reprehensible, because his ideas of historic structure were different from theirs. He chose rather to conform himself to a custom which prevailed very generally before his time, and which succeeding writers, of great taste and judgment, have approved and adopted. The conduct of Livy, in this respect, if necessary, might be justified by the example of Herodotus, Xenophon, Polybius, Sallust, Tacitus, and others, whose histories abound with speeches. These speeches frequently give a more perfect idea of the character of the supposed speaker, than could easily have been done by mere description; and it must be acknowledged, that the facts which they sometimes contain, would, if thrown into formal narrative, with episodes and digressions, lose much of their animation and force, and consequently much of their grace and beauty.
When we consider the use of such speeches, we shall not perhaps feel inclined to give them up, although many are to be held as mere fictions; contrived, however, with much ingenuity, and for the laudable purpose of conveying useful reflections and salutary admonitions. But though it be admitted, that several of them are fictitious, yet it may be contended that they are not all so. Many of those delivered in the senate, in popular assemblies, in conventions of ambassadors, and other the like occasions, are most probably genuine; and, if they are so, they furnish us with very curious specimens of ancient eloquence. Public speakers among the Romans were in the habit of publishing their speeches upon particular occasions; and others, delivered upon important occurrences, would, doubtless, be noted down, and circulated, by those who were curious about, and probably interested in, the subjects of them. We know that, in our own times, the substance of speeches in the British parliament, and other assemblies, has often been accurately collected, and carefully preserved; and we may, therefore, reasonably suppose that speeches in the Roman senate, upon matters in which the whole community were deeply interested, would be heard with equal attention, and preserved with equal care.
A charge, of a very heavy nature, has been brought against our author, which, were it well founded, would utterly disqualify him from writing a credible history. He is accused of superstitious credulity. That he was of a serious and religious turn of mind is sufficiently apparent from many passages in his history, in which he severely reprehends the licentiousness and profligacy of the times he lived in, and applauds the simplicity of conduct, and sanctity of manners, of ancient days, when “that disregard of the gods, which prevails in the present age, had not taken place; nor did every one, by his own interpretations, accommodate oaths and the laws to his particular views, but rather adapted his practice to them.”* Again, speaking of Spurius Papirius, he describes him as a “youth, born in an age when that sort of learning which inculcates contempt of the gods was yet unknown.”† Numberless passages, to this effect, might be cited; suffice it, however, to observe, that, while reprehending, with strong indignation, the profane, the impious, and the immoral among his countrymen, he omits no opportunity of applauding the virtuous and the good.
But, to be religious is one thing; to be superstitious is another. He has certainly recorded many and monstrous prodigies; to enumerate which would be both tedious and disgusting. As, however, they were not merely the subject of popular tales and vulgar conversation, but the objects of particular attention, noticed always by the magistrates, and even by the senate, whom we frequently find ordering expiations of them, it was his duty, as an historian, to relate them, since they thus made a part of the public transactions of the times. And this he does with great caution; apparently anxious lest he should be supposed to believe in such absurdities, and protesting, as it were, against the imputation of superstition. Thus, upon an occasion where he relates extraordinary prodigies, (more extraordinary, indeed, than in any other part of his history,) he introduces his account of them by saying — “Numerous prodigies were reported to have happened this year; and the more they were credited by simple and superstitious people, the more such stories multiplied.”* He generally prefaces the mention of all such, with a reserve as to his own belief of them:—“Many prodigies were reported.”† “It was believed that crows had not only torn with their beaks some gold in the capitol, but had even eaten it.”‡ And again; “Fires from heaven, breaking out in various places, had, as was said,”§ &c. Nor is he at all scrupulous in declaring these numerous prodigies to derive their origin from superstitious weakness; thus — “So apt is superstitious weakness to introduce the deities into the most trivial occurrences”∥ “The mention of one prodigy was, as usual, followed by reports of others.”¶ “From this cause arose abundance of superstitious notions; and the minds of the people became disposed both to believe and to propagate accounts of prodigies, of which a very great number were reported.”** “The consuls expiated several prodigies which had been reported.”†† “Several deceptions of the eyes and ears were credited.”‡‡ One is almost tempted to think, that those who charge our author with credulity, had never read him; otherwise, how could they overlook such passages as these, and especially the following, in which he seems aware that such a charge might be brought against him, and labours to obviate it? —“In proportion as the war was protracted to a greater length, and successes and disappointments produced various alterations, not only in the situations, but in the sentiments of men, superstitious observances, and these mostly introduced from abroad, gained such ground among the people in general, that it seemed as if either mankind, or the deities, had undergone some sudden change.”*
From the passages here adduced, and very many others to the same purport might be quoted, it may be confidently pronounced, that our author was not the dupe of those vulgar rumours, those “deceptions of the eyes and ears,” which yet he has thought it his duty to record. And, in truth, it seems as if the people themselves, at least the more enlightened of them, were equally inclined, if established custom would have allowed, to disregard them: “They grew weary,” we are told, “not only of the thing itself, but of the religious rites enjoined in consequence; for neither could the senate be convened, nor the business of the public be transacted, the consuls were so constantly employed in sacrifices and expiations.”† And accordingly, with a view to diminish the reports of these miracles, and the troublesome ceremonies consequent thereupon, the consuls, by direction of the senate, published an edict, that when “on any day public worship should be ordered, in consequence of the report of an earthquake, no person should report another earthquake on that day.”* Indeed, how very little faith the senate really had in omens, prodigies, and auspices, we may learn from a remarkable order made by them, upon receiving from a consul the report of unfavourable omens, in no less than three victims successively sacrificed; “they ordered him,” says the Historian, “to continue sacrificing the larger victims, until the omens should prove favourable.”†
It may be asked — if Livy, the senate, and very many, perhaps the greater number, of the people, disbelieved these omens and prodigies, why relate them? He answers the question himself; “I am well aware,” he says, “that, through the same disregard to religion, which has led men into the present prevailing opinion, of the gods never giving portents of any future events, no prodigies are now either reported to government, or recorded in histories. But, for my part, while I am writing the transactions of ancient times, my sentiments, I know not how, become antique; and I feel a kind of religious awe, which compels me to consider that events, which the men of those times, renowned for wisdom, judged deserving of the attention of government, and of public expiation, must certainly be worthy of a place in my History.”‡ And, in truth, it must be allowed, that an account of the religious ceremonies, and the superstitious observances, of different nations at different periods, forms not the least curious chapter in the history of the human mind.
A still heavier charge hath been brought against our author; indeed, the heaviest that can be alleged against an historian; namely, the violation of the first great law of history; which is, not to dare to assert any thing false, and not to suppress any truth.* He who could not be warped by views of private interest, has yet been supposed, from an excess of zeal for the honour and glory of his country, in some instances to have gone beyond the truth, in others to have suppressed it.
It has been already mentioned how highly he was esteemed by Augustus, and that he had even received no inconsiderable marks of favour from him. Yet he does not seem to have courted this esteem, or those favours, by any particular attention on his part; nor to have endeavoured to repay them, by the only return which authors can make, the loading their patrons with perhaps undeserved praises. Although, at the time when he wrote his History, Augustus was in complete possession of the Roman empire, yet he names him but three times, and then but in a slight and cursory manner; not availing himself of the opportunity to heap adulation upon him, but simply giving him that praise to which he was unquestionably entitled. On occasion of shutting the temple of Janus, he takes the opportunity of mentioning, that it had been but twice shut since the reign of Numa; the first time in the consulship of Titus Manlius, on the termination of the first Punic war, and that “the happiness of seeing it shut again, the gods granted to our own times, when, after the battle of Actium, the emperor, Cæsar Augustus, established universal peace on land and sea.”* As Augustus was highly vain of this circumstance, had our author’s disposition led him to flatter this master of the world, it would have afforded him an excellent opportunity; as would another occasion, where, speaking of spolia opima, deposited by Cossus in one of the temples, he appeals to the testimony of Augustus Cæsar, whom he styles “the founder or restorer of all our temples.”† But above all, he might have found a niche for him, as well as others of his family, when he mentions the distinguished victory gained by Livius and Nero over Hasdrubal.‡ He relates the affair itself in very splendid terms, and bestows the most exalted praises on the admirable conduct of those victorious generals. He who was thus rigidly tenacious, when private motives, friendship, or interest might have swayed him, is, nevertheless, accused, from national vanity, of having written with partiality; and of having sometimes exaggerated, and sometimes concealed, the truth.
It must be acknowledged that, when the grandeur of the Roman empire presents itself to his mind, he is not always sufficiently reserved in the terms which he uses. Thus, speaking of Cincinnatus,§ so early as the 296th year of Rome, he calls him “the sole hope of the empire of Rome,” at a time when we know that this thus pompously announced empire extended not more than twenty miles beyond the city. And again, not many years after,* he introduces Canuleius boasting of its “eternal duration and immense magnitude.”† When we find him applying such magnificent terms to the Roman state, then in its infancy, we must suppose him to have forgot the period of which he was writing, and to have had present to his mind the splendor and extent to which it had attained at the time when he himself lived and wrote. He even puts the same language into the mouths of foreigners, and of enemies: he makes Hannibal call Rome “the capital of the world,”‡ at a time when the Romans had not even the whole of Italy in subjection, and no possessions whatever out of Italy, except a part of Sicily and Sardinia. In the same vainglorious boasting strain he tells us,§ that the Romans “were never worsted by the enemy’s cavalry, never by their infantry, never in open fight, never on equal ground.” He seems here not to have recollected, what he afterwards acknowledges,∥ that, in the first battle with Hannibal, “it manifestly appeared that the Carthaginian was superior in cavalry; and, consequently, that open plains, such as those between the Po and the Alps, were unfavourable to the Romans.” Although he thus asserts, in unqualified terms, that the Romans were never worsted in the open field, yet he gives very just and candid accounts, not only of this battle with Hannibal, but of another also against the same commander, and of that of the Allia, against the Gauls, in every one of which the Romans were completely overthrown.
But these, it is probable, should rather be considered as inadvertencies than falsehoods; and, however inclined we may be to overlook or excuse them, we shall not, perhaps, find it so easy to justify some other omissions, or changes, which he has made in his narrative, respecting facts which, if fairly and fully related, would do no honour to his country; or would tend, in some degree, to tarnish the lustre of those celebrated characters which he holds up to our admiration.
Polybius is allowed to be an author of consummate judgment, indefatigable industry, and strict veracity. Livy himself admits that he is entitled to entire credit. He takes extraordinary pains to investigate the causes of the second Punic war, and to determine which of the two nations had incurred the guilt of breach of treaty. He discusses the matter at considerable length;* stating accurately, and carefully examining, the facts and arguments urged on both sides; and brings the matter to this issue — that, if the war is to be considered as taking its rise from the destruction of Saguntum, the Carthaginians were in the wrong; but by no means so, if the matter be taken up somewhat higher, and the taking of Sardinia by the Romans, and the imposing a tribute upon that island, be included in the account: for that, then, the Carthaginians did no more than take occasion to avenge an injury done them.
Now, how stands the account of this affair, according to Livy?* From this disquisition of Polybius, he carefully selects, and strongly states, every thing which tends to favour the cause of the Romans; but passes over in silence every fact, and every argument, urged by the Greek historian in favour of the Carthaginians; and thus he makes the worse appear the better cause.
It has been urged in defence of Livy, that, in his twelfth book, he gave the account of the affair of Sardinia: and that, if that book had not been lost, it might from thence have appeared, that the conduct of the Romans in that transaction was perfectly justifiable; and that, consequently, what he has suppressed of Polybius’s argument, he has omitted, not so much to favour the cause of his own countrymen, as because he knew the allegations therein to be false. It must, however, be observed, that Polybius was neither a Roman nor a Carthaginian; that he has always been held to be an historian of the highest credit, and the strictest impartiality; that he lived nearer the times he writes of than Livy, and was a most diligent inquirer into the truth of the facts which he relates in his history; that he was by no means unfriendly to the Romans, but the contrary, taking all opportunities to speak of them with the highest praise.
It is not meant here to detract from the merit of Livy as an historian, by the mention of such particulars as these. It may be assumed as a maxim, that no historian of his own country can be, strictly speaking, impartial: he may intend to be so; but the mind will be under an involuntary bias, influenced by some secret inclination, of which he himself may be unconscious; he may believe what he asserts, and yet it may not be true.
Another instance of his partiality to his countrymen may be found in his account of the murder of Brachyllas,* who, he tells us, was made Bœotarch, or chief magistrate of the Bœotians, “for no other reason, than because he had been commander of the Bœotians serving in the army of Philip; passing by Zeuxippus, Pisistratus, and the others who had promoted the alliance with Rome.” That these men, offended at present, and alarmed about future consequences, resolved to take off Brachyllas, and accordingly procured six assassins, who put him to death. In these, and other circumstances, our author perfectly agrees with Polybius, whose account of this whole affair he seems to have almost literally copied; with the omission, however, out of tenderness for the character of Quintius, of a very material circumstance; which is, that the project of murdering Brachyllas was first opened in a conference between Zeuxis, Pisistratus, and Quintius, who told them, that he would not himself do any thing to promote it; but that, if they were disposed to the execution of such a plan, he would do nothing to obstruct it: and he adds, that he directed them to confer upon the matter with Alexamenes, the Ætolian, who was the person, he says, that procured the assassins.
Another, and a very remarkable instance of partiality to the character of his countrymen, we have in his celebrated account of Scipio Africanus; who seems, above all others mentioned in his History, to have engaged his fondest, and, as he himself admits, his partial attention: for when he first introduces him, he does it in the most advantageous manner, as a youth who had scarcely attained to manhood, rescuing his father, who was wounded in a battle with Hannibal. “This,” says he,* “is the same youth who is, hereafter, to enjoy the renown of terminating this war, and to receive the title of Africanus, on account of his glorious victory over Hannibal and the Carthaginians.” He then, in a manner, avows his partiality; for he tells us, that Cœlius attributes the honour of saving the consul to a slave, by nation a Ligurian: “but I rather wish the account to be true which gives it to his son; and so the fact is represented by most authors, and generally believed.”
That Scipio was a most accomplished character, eminently distinguished by his military talents, valour, coolness, patience under difficulties, and moderation in victory, of most gentle manners, and a most generous temper, never has been, nor ever will be denied. But, if other writers knew the truth, and have spoken it, he was not that model of absolute perfection which Livy paints him: and perhaps, had he been the cold and unimpassioned stoic, which he describes him to have been, he had deserved less praise than is undoubtedly due to him, when considered, as other authors represent him, of a very different temperament.
That he generously restored a beautiful captive to her parents, and to her intended spouse, Livy and Polybius are agreed; but they differ somewhat in the account of that affair. Polybius tells us,* that a party of Roman youth, having taken captive a damsel of exquisite beauty, brought her to Scipio, whom they knew to be much attached to the sex; and he makes Scipio say to them, that “a more acceptable gift could not have been presented to him, were he in a private station: but that, in his situation of general, he could by no means accept of it.” Livy suppresses entirely the circumstance of his favourite’s amorous disposition: and yet, what he represents him as saying to Allucius, bears so strong a resemblance to his answer, recorded by Polybius, though he gives it a different turn, to accommodate it to his purpose, that we cannot doubt his having had this passage in his eye: “If my thoughts were not totally employed by the affairs of the public, and if I were at liberty to indulge in the pleasurable pursuits adapted to my time of life,”† &c.
That Scipio, with all his perfections, was not that mirror of chastity which Livy is desirous of representing him, we learn, also, from an anecdote related by Valerius Maximus,‡ who highly praises the amiable temper and patient forbearance of his wife Æmilia, “who,” he tells us, “knew of his attachment to a female slave, and yet concealed the fact, that there might be no stain upon so illustrious a character.”
Such are the principal facts alleged to prove our historian’s neglect of veracity in his narration: rigorous, and, it may be, invidious scrutiny, has noted some few more; but they are of little importance: and, as it is not improbable, so it is not unfair to suppose, that the paucity of cotemporary historians may have induced those, who were also predisposed, to believe that to be false, which fuller information might perhaps have proved to be true. Why may we not believe that he had better opportunities of knowing the truth than the Greek historian? He admits Polybius to be an author of credit, and yet he differs from him without scruple: he cannot, then, surely, be thought to mean more than that he was a writer of integrity, who compiled his history with fidelity, according to the best information he was able to obtain: that he did not wilfully falsify any fact, rather than that every fact he relates is strictly and absolutely true. He acknowledges him for his master, but does not conceive himself bound to swear to his words.
Besides, it is but doing justice to our author to observe, that if, in some few, and those not very material instances, he may have deviated from the truth, if he has done so, it is never with an ill-design: if he palliates a fault, or suppresses a fact, it is not so much for the purpose of lessening the reputation, or tarnishing the glory of others, whether nations or individuals, as to aggrandize the character of his own nation. He allows himself in a practice which some of his countrymen have, since his time, carried to a much greater, as well as a more blameable extent, and which has received the name of pious fraud.
But, whatever may be the case, whether our author must lie under the reproach of softening facts in some instances, or even of suppressing them in others, yet will his genius and talents, as an historian, ever be respected. He cannot be denied the merit of having furnished us with a perfect model of historical composition, in the purest and most elegant style; more remarkable for perspicuity of narration, and neatness of expression, than for depth of reasoning, or pomp of diction. Although he seldom digresses, and but rarely indulges in moral observations or philosophical reflections, yet he never loses sight of what he himself lays down in his preface as the great object of history: the furnishing “clear and distinct examples of every line of conduct; that we may select for ourselves, and for the state to which we belong, such as are worthy of imitation; and carefully noting such, as, being dishonourable in their principles, are equally so in their effects, learn to avoid them.”
All that the present writer feels it necessary to say, upon delivering to the public a new translation of so esteemed a work as Livy’s History, is, that it has been the employment, and amusement, of many years — a very laborious, but not unuseful, occupation: and that, if he be not deceived by self-love, and the partiality of a few friends, who have taken the trouble of looking into the work, it will be found not altogether unworthy of public acceptance.
The translator had intended a much more copious commentary, than that which now accompanies this work; and, in that view, he had prepared several dissertations upon the manners and customs of the Romans; their senate; their laws; their religious rites; their arts of war, navigation, and commerce, &c. But he acknowledges, with much pleasure, that he has since found his labour, upon those subjects, rendered unnecessary by the publication of Dr. Adam’s Koman Antiquities: a work so excellent in its kind, that whoever has the instruction of youth committed to his care, will do them injustice, if he omits to recommend it to their perusal. The notes, therefore, which are added, and which the translator now thinks it his duty to make as few, and as short as possible, are such only as were deemed more immediately necessary to render some passages intelligible to the mere English reader.
It hath been an usual practice, in prefaces to works of this kind, for the authors of them to load the labours of their predecessors with abuse: a practice, of which the present translator acknowledges he neither sees the necessity, nor the utility. For, should he succeed in disparaging the works of others in the humble walk of translation; should he be able to prove them ever so wretchedly executed, it will by no means follow from thence, that his is better. That he thinks it so, is clear from his presuming to publish it. But, as the public has an undoubted right to judge for itself, and will most assuredly exercise that right, the success of every work, of whatever kind, must ultimately depend upon its own merit.
To the public judgment, therefore, he submits his labour; knowing that every endeavour of his, except that of rendering it worthy of acceptance, would be useless; and that, in spite of his utmost exertions, his book will stand or fall by its own merit or demerit, whichever shall be found to preponderate. The public candour he has no reason to doubt; and he awaits its decision with tranquillity, but not without anxiety.
* Annal. iv. 34.
* Ep. II. 3.
* Bolingbroke.
* Quintil. Instit. i. 5. viii. 1.
* B. iii. 46.
† B. x. 40.
* B. xxiv. 10.
† B. xxvii. 4.
‡ B. xxx. 2.
§ B. xxxix. 22.
∥ B. xxvii. 23.
¶ Ib. 37.
** B. xxix. 14.
†† B. xxiv. 44.
‡‡ Ibid.
* B. xxv. 1.
† B. xxxiv. 55.
* B. xxxiv. 55.
† B. xli. 15.
‡ B. xlii. 13.
* Cic. de Orat.
* B. i. 19.
† B. iv. 20.
‡ B. xxvii. 47, 48, 49.
§ B. iii. 26.
* Y. R. 310.
† B. iv. 4.
‡ B. xxi. 30.
§ B. ix. 19.
∥ B. xxi. 47.
* Lib. x.
* B. xxi. 19.
* B. xxxiii. 27, 28.
* B. xxxi. 46.
* Lib. x.
† B. xxxvi. 50.
‡ Lib. vi. 7.
Whether, in tracing the series of the Roman History, from the foundation of the city, I shall employ my time to good purpose, is a question which I cannot positively determine; nor, were it possible, would I venture to pronounce such determination: for I am aware that the matter is of high antiquity, and has been already treated by many others; the latest writers always supposing themselves capable, either of throwing some new light on the subject, or, by the superiority of their talents for composition, of excelling the more inelegant writers who preceded them. However that may be, I shall, at all events, derive no small satisfaction from the reflection that my best endeavours have been exerted in transmitting to posterity the achievements of the greatest people in the world; and if, amidst such a multitude of writers, my name should not emerge from obscurity, I shall console myself by attributing it to the eminent merit of those who stand in my way in the pursuit of fame. It may be farther observed, that such a subject must require a work of immense extent, as our researches must be carried back through a space of more than seven hundred years; that the state has, from very small beginnings, gradually increased to such a magnitude, that it is now distressed by its own bulk; and that there is every reason to apprehend that the generality of readers will receive but little pleasure from the accounts of its first origin; or of the times immediately succeeding, but will be impatient to arrive at that period, in which the powers of this overgrown state have been long employed in working their own destruction. On the other hand, this much will be derived from my labour, that, so long at least as I shall have my thoughts totally occupied in investigating the transactions of such distant ages, without being embarrassed by any of those unpleasing considerations, in respect of later days, which, though they might not have power to warp a writer’s mind from the truth, would yet be sufficient to create uneasiness, I shall withdraw myself from the sight of the many evils to which our eyes have been so long accustomed. As to the relations which have been handed down of events prior to the founding of the city, or to the circumstances that gave occasion to its being founded, and which bear the semblance rather of poetic fictions, than of authentic records of history — these, I have no intention either to maintain or refute. Antiquity is always indulged with the privilege of rendering the origin of cities more venerable, by intermixing divine with human agency; and if any nation may claim the privilege of being allowed to consider its original as sacred, and to attribute it to the operations of the Gods, surely the Roman people, who rank so high in military fame, may well expect, that, while they choose to represent Mars as their own parent, and that of their founder, the other nations of the world may acquiesce in this, with the same deference with which they acknowledge their sovereignty. But what degree of attention or credit may be given to these and such-like matters I shall not consider as very material. To the following considerations, I wish every one seriously and earnestly to attend; by what kind of men, and by what sort of conduct, in peace and war, the empire has been both acquired and extended: then, as discipline gradually declined, let him follow in his thoughts the structure of ancient morals, at first, as it were, leaning aside, then sinking farther and farther, then beginning to fall precipitate, until he arrives at the present times, when our vices have attained to such a height of enormity, that we can no longer endure either the burden of them, or the sharpness of the necessary remedies. This is the great advantage to be derived from the study of history; indeed the only one which can make it answer any profitable and salutary purpose: for, being abundantly furnished with clear and distinct examples of every kind of conduct, we may select for ourselves, and for the state to which we belong, such as are worthy of imitation; and, carefully noting such, as being dishonourable in their principles, are equally so in their effects, learn to avoid them. Now, either partiality to the subject of my intended work misleads me, or there never was any state either greater, or of purer morals, or richer in good examples, than this of Rome; nor was there ever any city into which avarice and luxury made their entrance so late, or where poverty and frugality were so highly and so long held in honour; men contracting their desires in proportion to the narrowness of their circumstances. Of late years, indeed, opulence has introduced a greediness for gain, and the boundless variety of dissolute pleasures has created, in many, a passion for ruining themselves, and all around them. But let us, in the first stage at least of this undertaking, avoid gloomy reflections, which, when perhaps unavoidable, will not, even then, be agreeable. If it were customary with us, as it is with poets, we would more willingly begin with good omens, and vows, and prayers to the gods and goddesses, that they would propitiously grant success to our endeavours, in the prosecution of so arduous a task.
The arrival of Æneas in Italy, and his achievements there, the reign of Ascanius in Alba, and of the other Sylvian kings, his successors. Birth of Romulus and Remus. Romulus builds Rome; forms the senate: divides the people into curias. His wars. He offers the spolia opima to Jupiter Feretrius; is deified. Numa Pompilius institutes the rights of religious worship; builds a temple to Janus; rules in peace, and is succeeded by Tullus Hostilius. His war with the Albans; combat of the Horatii and Curiatii. The Albans removed to Rome. Tullus killed by lightning. Ancus Martius conquers the Latines, and incorporates them with the Romans; enlarges the city, and the bounds of his dominions. Lucumo arrives at Rome: assumes the name of Tarquinius; and on the death of Ancus, gains possession of the throne; defeats the Latines and Sabines; builds a wall round the city, and makes the common sewers: is slain by the sons of Ancus, and is succeeded by Servius Tullius. He institutes the census; divides the people into classes and centuries: extenus the pomœrium; is murdered by Lucius Tarquinius, afterwards surnamed Superbus. He seizes the throne, wages war with the Volscians, and, with their spoils, builds a temple to Jupiter in the Capitol, in consequence of his son Sextus having forcibly violated the chastity of Lucretia, he is dethroned and banished. Consuls elected.
I. It has been handed down to us, as a certain fact, that the Greeks, when they had taken Troy, treated the Trojans with the utmost severity; with the exception, however, of two of them, Æneas and Antenor, towards whom they exercised none of the rights of conquest. This lenity they owed, partly, to an old connection of hospitality, and partly, to their having been, all along, inclined to peace, and to the restoration of Helen. These chiefs experienced afterwards great varieties of fortune. Antenor, being joined by a multitude of the Henetians, who had been driven out of Paphlagonia in a civil war, and having lost their king Pylæmenes at Troy, were at a loss both for a settlement and a leader, came to the innermost bay of the Adriatic sea, and expelling the Euganeans, who then inhabited the tract between the Alps and the sea, settled the Trojans and Henetians in the possession of the country. The place where they first landed is called Troy, and from thence the Trojan canton also has its name; the nation in general were called Henetians. Æneas, driven from home by the same calamity, but conducted by the fates to an establishment of more importance, came first to Macedonia; thence, in search of a settlement, he sailed to Sicily, and from Sicily proceeded with his fleet to the country of the Laurentians.* Here also, to the spot where they landed, was given the name of Troy. Here the Trojans disembarked; and as, after wandering about for a great length of time, they had nothing left, beside their ships and arms, they began to make prey of whatever they found in the country. On this king Latinus, and the Aborigines, who were then in possession of those lands, assembled hastily from the city and country, in order to repel the violence of the strangers. Of what followed, there are two different accounts. Some writers say, that Latinus, being overcome in battle, contracted an alliance, and afterwards an affinity, with Æneas; others, that when the armies were drawn up in order of battle, before the signal was given, Latinus, advancing in the front, invited the leader of the strangers to a conference; then inquired who they were, whence they came, what had induced them to leave their home, and with what design they had landed on the Laurentian coast; and that, when he was informed that the leader was Æneas, the son of Anchises by Venus, and his followers Trojans; that they had made their escape from the flames of their native city and of their houses, and were in search of a settlement, and a place where they might build a town; being struck with admiration of that renowned people and their chief, and of their spirit, prepared alike for war or peace, he gave him his right hand, and by that pledge assured him of his future friendship. A league was then struck between the leaders, and mutual salutations passed between the armies. Latinus entertained Æneas in his palace, and there, in the presence of his household gods, added a domestic alliance to their public one, giving him his daughter in marriage. This event fully confirmed the hopes of the Trojans, that here, at last, they were to find an end of their wanderings; that here they would enjoy a fixed and permanent settlement. They built a town, which Æneas called Lavinium, from the name of his wife. In a short time after, his new consort bore him a son, who was named by his parents Ascanius.
II. The Aborigines, in conjunction with the Trojans, soon found themselves engaged in a war. Turnus, king of the Rutulians, to whom Lavinia had been affianced before the arrival of Æneas, enraged at seeing a stranger preferred to him, declared war against both Æneas and Latinus. A battle that ensued gave neither army reason to rejoice. The Rutulians were defeated, and the victorious Aborigines and Trojans lost their leader Latinus. Whereupon Turnus and the Rutulians, diffident of their strength, had recourse to the flourishing state of the Etrurians, and their king Mezentius, who held his court at Cære, at that time an opulent city. He had been, from the beginning, not at all pleased at the foundation of the new city; and now began to think that the Trojan power was increasing to a degree inconsistent with the safety of the neighbouring states; and therefore, without reluctance, concluded an alliance, and joined his forces with those of the Rutulians. Æneas, with the view of conciliating the affection of the Aborigines, that he might be the better able to oppose such formidable enemies, gave to both the nations under his rule the name of Latines, that all should not only be governed by the same laws, but have one common name. From thenceforth the Aborigines yielded not to the Trojans in zeal and fidelity towards their king Æneas. This disposition of the two nations, who coalesced daily with greater cordiality, inspired him with so much confidence, that, notwithstanding Etruria was possessed of such great power, that it had filled with the fame of its prowess not only the land, but the sea also, through the whole length of Italy, from the Alps to the Sicilian Streight; and although he might have remained within his fortifications, secure from any attack of the enemy, yet he led out his troops to the field. The battle that followed was, with respect to the Latines, their second, with respect to Æneas, the last of his mortal acts. He, by whatever appellation the laws of gods and men require him to be called, is deposited on the bank of the river Numicus. The people gave him the title of Jupiter Indiges.*
III. His son Ascanius was as yet too young to assume the government; nevertheless his title to the sovereignty remained unimpeached, until he arrived at maturity. During this interval, and under the regency of Lavinia, a woman of great capacity, the Latine state, and the united subjects of the prince’s father and grandfather, continued firm in their allegiance. I am not without some doubts (for who can affirm with certainty in a matter of such antiquity?) whether this was the same Ascanius mentioned above, or one older than him, born of Creusa, wife to Æneas, before the destruction of Troy, and who accompanied his father in his flight from thence; whom, being also called Iulus, the Julian family claim as the founder of their name. This Ascanius, wheresoever, and of whatsoever mother born, certainly the son of Æneas, finding the number of inhabitants in Lavinium too great, left that city, then in a flourishing and opulent state, considering the circumstances of those times, to his mother, or step-mother, and built a new one on the Alban mount, which, from its situation being stretched along the hill, was called Alba Longa.† Between the building of Lavinium, and the transplanting the colony to Alba Longa, the interval was only about thirty years; yet so rapidly had this people increased in power, especially after the defeat of the Etrurians, that, not even on the death of Æneas, nor afterwards, during the regency of a woman, and the first essays of a youthful reign, did either Mezentius and the Etrurians, or any other of the bordering nations, dare to attempt hostilities against them. A peace was agreed upon, in which it was stipulated that the river Albula, now called the Tiber, should be the boundary between the Etrurians and Latines. Ascanius’s son, called Sylvius, from his having by some accident been born in the woods, succeeded him in the kingdom. He begat Æneas Sylvius, who afterwards begat Latinus Sylvius. This prince planted several colonies, who have obtained the name of Ancient Latines. The surname of Sylvius was henceforward given to all those who reigned at Alba. Of Latinus was born Alba; of Alba, Atys; of Atys, Capys; of Capys, Capetus; of Capetus, Tiberinus; who, being drowned in endeavouring to cross the river Albula, gave to that river the name so celebrated among his posterity. Agrippa, son of Tiberinus, reigned next; after Agrippa, Romulus. Sylvius received the kingdom from his father, and being struck by lightning, demised it to Aventinus, who, being buried on that hill which is now a part of the city of Rome, gave it his name. To him succeeded Procas, who had two sons, Numitor and Amulius. To Numitor, as being the first-born, he bequeathed the ancient kingdom of the Sylvian family; but force prevailed over both the will of their father, and the respect due to priority of birth. Amulius dethroned his brother, took possession of the kingdom, and adding crime to crime, put to death the male offspring of Numitor, making his daughter Rhea Sylvia a vestal, under the specious pretence of doing her honour, but, in fact, to deprive her of all hope of issue, the vestals being obliged to vow perpetual virginity.*
IV. But the fates, I suppose, demanded the founding of this great city, and the first establishment of an empire, which is now, in power, next to the immortal gods. The vestal being deflowered by force, brought forth twins, and declared that the father of her doubtful offspring was Mars; either because she really thought so, or in hopes of extenuating the guilt of her transgression by imputing it to the act of a deity. But neither gods nor men screened her or her children from the King’s cruelty: the priestess was loaded with chains, and cast into prison, and the children were ordered to be thrown into the stream of the river. It happened providentially that the Tiber, overflowing its banks, formed itself into stagnant pools in such a manner, as that the regular channel was every where inaccessible, and those who carried the infants supposed that they would be drowned in any water, however still. Wherefore, as if thereby fulfilling the King’s order, they exposed the boys in the nearest pool, where now stands the Ruminal fig-tree, which, it is said, was formerly called Romular. Those places were at that time wild deserts. A story prevails that the retiring flood having left on dry ground the trough, hitherto floating, in which they had been exposed, a thirsty she-wolf from the neighbouring mountains, directed her course to the cries of the children, and, stooping, presented her dugs to the infants, showing so much gentleness, that the keeper of the King herds found her licking the boys with her tongue; and that this shepherd, whose name was Faustulus, carried them home to his wife Laurentia to be nursed. Some there are who think that this Laurentia, from her having been a prostitute, was, by the shepherds, called Lupa; and to this circumstance they ascribe the origin of this fabulous tale. Thus born, and thus educated, as soon as years supplied them with strength, they led not an inactive life at the stables, or among the cattle, but traversed the neighbouring forests in hunting. Hence acquiring vigour, both of body and mind, they soon began not only to withstand the wild beasts, but to attack robbers loaded with booty. The spoil thus acquired they divided with the shepherds; and, in company with these, the number of their young associates continually increasing, they carried on both their business, and their sports.
V. It is said, that even at that early period, the sports of the Lupercal,* which we still celebrate, were practised on the Palatine hill, and that this was called Palatium, from Pallanteum, a city of Arcadia, and afterwards the Palatine hill; and that Evander, who was of that tribe of Arcadians, and had been many years before in possession of this part of the country, had instituted there this solemnity brought from Arcadia, in which young men were to run about naked, in sport and wantonness, in honour of Lycean Pan, whom the Romans afterwards called Inuus. While they were intent on the performance of these sports, the time of their celebration being generally known, the robbers, enraged at the loss of their booty, attacked them by surprise, having placed themselves in ambush. Romulus making a vigorous defence, extricated himself; but they took Remus prisoner, delivered him up to King Amulius, and had the assurance to accuse them both of criminal misbehaviour. The principal charge made against them was, that they had made violent inroads on the lands of Numitor, and, with a band of youths which they had collected, plundered the country in a hostile manner. In consequence of this, Remus was given up to Numitor to be punished. From the very beginning, Faustulus had entertained hopes, that the children whom he educated, would prove to be descended of the royal blood; for he knew that the infants of Rhea had been exposed by order of the King, and that the time when he had taken them up, corresponded exactly with that event; but he had resolved to avoid any hasty disclosure, unless some favourable conjuncture or necessity should require it. The necessity happened first; wherefore, constrained by his apprehensions, he imparted the affair to Romulus. It happened also that Numitor, while he had Remus in his custody, heard that the brothers were twins; and when he combined with this circumstance their age, and their turn of mind, which gave no indication of a servile condition, he was struck with the idea of their being his grandchildren; and all his inquiries leading to the same conclusion, he was upon the point of acknowledging Remus. In consequence, a plot against the King was concerted between all the parties. Romulus, not going at the head of a band of youths, for he was unequal to an open attempt, but ordering the shepherds to come at a certain hour, by different roads, to the palace, forced his way to the King, and was supported by Remus, with another party, procured from the house of Numitor. Thus they put the King to death.
VI. In the beginning of the tumult, Numitor, calling out that the city was assaulted by an enemy, and the palace attacked, had drawn away the Alban youth to the citadel, on pretence of securing it by an armed garrison; and, in a little time seeing the young men, after perpetrating the murder, coming towards him, with expressions of joy, he instantly called the people to an assembly, laid before them the iniquitous behaviour of his brother towards himself; the birth of his grandchildren, how they were begotten, how educated, how discovered; then informed them of the death of the usurper, and that he had himself encouraged the design. The youths at the same time advancing with their followers, through the midst of the assembly, saluted their grandfather as King; on which the multitude, testifying their assent by universal acclamations, ratified to him the royal title and authority. When Numitor was thus reinstated in the sovereignty at Alba, Romulus and Remus were seized with a desire of building a city in the place where they had been exposed and educated. There were great numbers of Albans and Latines, who could be spared for the purpose, and these were joined by a multitude of shepherds; so that, all together, they formed such a numerous body, as gave grounds to hope that Alba and Lavinium would be but small, in comparison with the city which they were about to found. These views were interrupted by an evil, hereditary in their family, ambition for rule. Hence arose a shameful contest; though they had in the beginning rested their dispute on this amicable footing, that, as they were twins, and consequently, no title to precedence could be derived from priority of birth, the gods, who were guardians of the place, should choose by auguries,* which of the two should give a name to the new city, and enjoy the government of it when built. Romulus chose the Palatine, Remus the Aventine mount, as their consecrated stands to wait the auguries. We are told that the first omen appeared to Remus, consisting of six vultures; and, that, after this had been proclaimed, twice that number showed themselves to Romulus; on which each was saluted King by his own followers; the former claiming the kingdom on the ground of the priority of time; the latter, on that of the number of the birds. On their meeting, an altercation ensued, then blows; and their passions being inflamed by the dispute, the affair proceeded at last to extremity, and murder was the consequence. Remus fell by a blow received in the tumult. There is another account more generally received, that Remus, in derision of his brother, leaped over the new wall, and that Romulus, enraged thereat, slew him, uttering at the same time this imprecation, “So perish every one that shall hereafter leap over my wall.” 751. By these means Romulus came into the sole possession of the government, and the city, when built, was called after the name of its founder. The first buildings which he raised, were on the Palatine hill, where he himself had been brought up. To the other deities he performed worship, according to the mode of the Albans, but to Hercules, according to that of the Greeks, as instituted by Evander.
VII. It is recorded that Hercules, after having slain Geryon, drove away his cattle, which were surprisingly beautiful; and that, being fatigued with travelling, he lay down, near the river Tiber, in a grassy place, to which he had swum over, driving the herd before him, in order to refresh the cattle with rest and the rich pasture. There, having indulged himself in meat and wine, he was overpowered by sleep; whereupon a shepherd, who dwelt in the neighbourhood, named Cacus, of great strength and fierceness, being struck with the beauty of the cattle, wished to make prey of some of them; but considering, that if he should drive the herd before him into his cave, their tracks would direct the owner’s search, he dragged the cattle backward by the tails into the cave, picking out those that were the most remarkable for their beauty. Hercules awaking at the dawn of day, took a view of his herd, and missing some of the number, went directly to the next cave, to examine whether the footsteps led thither; but when he observed that they all pointed outward, and yet did not direct to any other quarter, perplexed, and not knowing how to act, he began to drive forward his herd from that unlucky place. Some of the cows, as they were driven off, missing those that were left behind, began, as was natural, to low after them, and the sound being returned from the cave, by those that were shut up in it, brought Hercules back. Cacus, endeavouring by force to prevent his approach to the cave, and invoking in vain the assistance of the shepherds, received a blow of his club, which put an end to his life. At that time, Evander, a native of Peloponnesus, who had removed hither, governed that part of the country, rather through an influence acquired by his merit, than any power of sovereignty vested in him. He was highly revered on account of his having introduced the wonderful knowledge of letters, a matter quite new to these men, who were ignorant of all the arts; and still more so, on account of the supposed divinity of his mother Carmenta, whose prophetic powers had been an object of admiration to those nations, before the arrival of the Sibyl in Italy. Evander then, being alarmed by the concourse of the shepherds, hastened to the spot, where they were assembled in a tumultuous manner about the stranger, whom they accused as undeniably guilty of murder; and when he was informed of the fact, and of the cause of it, observing the person and mien of the hero, filled with more dignity and majesty than belonged to a human being, he inquired who he was; and being told his name, that of his father and his country, he addressed him in these words; “Hail, Hercules, son of Jove! my mother, the infallible interpreter of the gods, foretold to me that you were destined to increase the number of the celestials, and that an altar would be dedicated to you in this place, which a nation, hereafter the most powerful in the world, should distinguish by the name of The Greatest,* and would offer thereon sacrifices to your honour.” Hercules, giving his right hand, replied, that, “he embraced the omen, and would fulfil the decree of the fates, by building and dedicating an altar in the place.” There, then for the first time, was performed a sacrifice to Hercules, of a chosen heifer taken out of the herd; and the Potitii and Pinarii, the most distinguished families in the neighbourhood at the time, were invited to assist in the ceremonies, and share the entertainment. It happened that the Potitii attended in time, and the entrails were served up to them; the Pinarii, arriving after the entrails were eaten, came in for the rest of the feast; hence it continued a rule, as long as the Pinarian family existed, that they should not eat of the entrails. The Potitii, instructed by Evander, were directors of that solemnity for many ages, until the solemn office of the family was delegated to public servants, on which the whole race of the Potitii became extinct. These were the only foreign rites that Romulus then adopted, showing thereby, from the beginning, a respect for immortality obtained by merit, a dignity to which his own destiny was conducting him.
VIII. After paying due worship to the gods, he summoned the multitude to an assembly; and, knowing that they could never be brought to incorporate as one people, by any other means, than by having their conduct directed by certain rules, he gave them a body of laws;* and judging, that if he added to the dignity of his own carriage, by assuming the ensigns of sovereignty, it would help to procure respect to those laws, among a rude uninformed people, he adopted a more majestic style of appearance, both with regard to his other appointments, and particularly in being attended by twelve lictors. Some think that he was led to fix on this number by that of the birds in the augury which had portended the kingdom to him: I am rather inclined to be of their opinion, who suppose that all the officers attendant on magistrates, and among the rest, the lictors, as well as the number of them, were borrowed from their neighbours, the Etrurians, from whom the curule chair, and the gown edged with purple, were taken; and that the Etrurians, used that number, because their King being elected by the suffrages of twelve states, each state gave him one lictor. Meanwhile the city increased in buildings, which were carried on to an extent proportioned rather to the number of inhabitants they hoped for in future, than to what they had at the time.* But that its size might not increase beyond its strength, in order to augment his numbers, he had recourse to a practice common among founders of cities, who used to feign that the multitude of mean and obscure people, thus collected, had sprang out of the earth. He opened a sanctuary, in the place where the inclosure now is, on the road down from the Capitol, called The Pass of the Two Groves. Hither fled, from the neighbouring states, crowds of all sorts, without distinction; whether freemen or slaves, led by a fondness for novelty; and this it was that gave solidity to the growing greatness of the city. Having reason now to be pretty well satisfied with his strength, he next made provision that this strength should be regulated by wisdom; and for that purpose, he created an hundred senators,† either because that number was sufficient, or because there were no more than an hundred citizens who could prove their descent from respectable families. They were certainly styled Fathers from their honourable office, and their descendants Patricians.
IX. The Roman state had now attained such a degree of power, that it was a match in arms for any of the neighbouring nations; but, from the small number of its women, its greatness was not likely to last longer than one age of man, as they had neither hopes of offspring among themselves, nor had yet contracted any intermarriages with their neighbours. Romulus, therefore, by advice of the senate, sent ambassadors round to all the adjoining states, soliciting their alliance, and permission for his new subjects to marry among them: he intimated to them, that “cities, like every thing else, rise from low beginnings; that, in time those which are supported by their own merit, and the favour of the gods, procure to themselves great power, and a great name: and that he had full assurance both that the gods favoured the founding of Rome, and that the people would not be deficient in merit. Wherefore, as men, they ought to show no reluctance to mix their blood and race with men.” In no one place were his ambassadors favourably heard; such contempt of them did people entertain, and, at the same time, such apprehensions of danger to themselves and their posterity, from so great a power growing up in the midst of them. By the greater part, they were dismissed with the question, “whether they had opened an asylum for women also, for that would be the only way to procure suitable matches for them?” This was highly resented by the Roman youth, insomuch that the business appeared evidently to point towards violence. Romulus, in order to afford them a convenient time and place for a design of that sort, dissembling his displeasure, prepared, with that intent, to celebrate solemn games in honour of the equestrian Neptune,* to which he gave the name of Consualia. He then ordered the intended celebration to be proclaimed among the neighbouring nations, while his people exerted themselves in making the most magnificent preparations that their knowledge and abilities allowed, in order to engage attention and raise expectation. Great numbers of people assembled, induced, in some measure, by a desire of seeing the new city, especially those whose countries lay nearest, the Cæninensians, Crustuminians, and Antemnatians, especially the whole multitude of the Sabines came with their wives and children. They were hospitably invited to the different houses; and when they viewed the situation, and the fortifications, and the city crowded with houses, they were astonished at the rapid increase of the Roman power. When the show began, and every person’s thoughts and eyes were attentively engaged on it, then, according to the preconcerted plan, on a signal being given, the Roman youth ran different ways to carry off the young women.Y. R. 4. 748. Some they bore away, as they happened to meet with them, without waiting to make a choice; but others of extraordinary beauty, being designed for the principal senators, were conveyed to their houses by plebeians employed for that purpose. It is said, that one highly distinguished above the rest for her beauty, was carried off by the party of one Talassius, and that in answer to many who eagerly inquired to whom they were hurrying her, they, every now and then, to prevent any interruption in their course, cried out, that they were carrying her to Talassius; this circumstance gave rise to the use of that word at weddings. The terror occasioned by this outrage put an end to the sports, and the parents of the young women retired full of grief, inveighing against such a violation of the laws of hospitality, and appealing to the god, to whose solemn festival and games they had come, relying on the respect due to religion, and on the faith of nations. Nor did the women who were seized entertain better hopes with regard to themselves, or a less degree of indignation: however Romulus went about in person, and told them, that “this proceeding had been occasioned by the haughtiness of their parents, who refused to allow their neighbours to marry among them; that, notwithstanding this, they should be united to his people in wedlock in the common enjoyment of all property, and of their common children; a bond of union than which the human heart feels none more endearing. He begged of them to soften their resentment, and to bestow their affections on those men on whom chance had bestowed their persons. It often happened, he said, that to harsh treatment mutual regard had succeeded, and they would find their husbands behave the better on this very account; that every one would exert himself, not merely in performing his duty as a husband, but to make up to them for the loss of their parents and of their country.” To these persuasions was added, the soothing behaviour of their husbands themselves, who urged, in extenuation of the violence they had been tempted to commit, the excess of passion, and the force of love: arguments, than which there can be none more powerful to assuage the irritation of the female mind.
X. The women, who had been forcibly carried off, soon became reconciled to their situation; but their parents, still more than at first, endeavoured to rouse their several states to revenge, employing both complaints and tears, and wearing the dress of mourners. Nor did they confine their demands of vengeance within the limits of their own states, but made joint applications from all quarters to Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines, the embassies being addressed to him as the person of the highest renown in all those parts. The people who were the principal sufferers by the outrage, were the Cæninensians, the Crustuminians, and the Antemnatians. To them, the proceedings of Tatius and the Sabine nation appeared too dilatory; wherefore these three states, uniting in a confederacy, prepared for immediate war. Nor did even the Crustuminians and Antemnatians exert activity enough for the impatient rage of the Cæninensians. This state, therefore, alone, made an irruption into the Roman territories; but while they carried on their ravages in a disorderly manner, Romulus met them, and, without much difficulty, taught them that rage without strength avails but little. He routed and dispersed their army; pursued it in its flight; slew their king in the battle, and seized his spoils; after which he made himself master of their city at the first assault. From thence he led home his victorious troops; and being not only capable of performing splendid actions, but also fond of displaying those actions to advantage, he marched up in procession to the Capitol, carrying on a frame, properly constructed for the purpose, the spoils of the enemy’s general whom he had slain; and there laying them down under an oak, which the shepherds accounted sacred, he, at the same time, while he offered this present, marked out with his eye the bounds of a temple for Jupiter, to whom he gave a new name, saying, “Jupiter Feretrius,* in acknowledgment of the victory which I have obtained, I, Romulus the king, offer to thee these royal arms, and dedicate a temple to thee on that spot which I have now measured out in my mind, to be a repository for those grand spoils, which, after my example, generals in future times shall offer, on slaying the kings and generals of their enemies.” This was the origin of that temple which was the first consecrated in Rome. Accordingly, it pleased the gods so to order, that neither the prediction of the founder of the temple, intimating that future generals should carry spoils thither, should prove erroneous, nor that the honour of making such offerings should be rendered common, by being imparted to many. In after times, during so many years, and so many wars, there have been only two instances of the grand spoils being obtained; so rare was the attainment of that high honour.
XI. While the Romans were thus employed, the army of the Antemnatians, taking advantage of the opportunity which the country being left without troops afforded them, made an hostile incursion into the Roman territories; but a Roman legion,* hastily led out, surprised them, while they straggled through the country. They were routed therefore at the first onset, and their town was taken. While Romulus exulted in this second victory, his consort, Hersilia, teased by the intreaties of the captured women, earnestly petitioned him that he would show favour to their parents, and admit them into the number of his citizens, a measure which could not fail of forming an union satisfactory to all parties. This request was easily obtained. He then marched against the Crustuminians, who were carrying on hostilities: with these he had still less trouble than with the Antemnatians, because they had been dispirited by the defeats of their allies. Colonies were sent to both countries, but greater numbers were found willing to give in their names for Crustuminum, on account of the fertility of the soil. There were frequent migrations also from those places to Rome, chiefly of the parents and relations of the ravished women.Y. R. 5. 747. The last war, on this occasion, was begun by the Sabines; and it was by far the most formidable, for none of their operations were directed by rage or passion, nor did they disclose their intentions until they began to act. They employed stratagem, too, in aid of prudence. The Roman citadel was commanded by Spurius Tarpeius. His maiden daughter, who had accidentally gone without the fortifications to bring water for the sacred rites, was bribed by Tatius with gold to admit some of his troops into the citadel. As soon as they gained admittance they put her to death, by throwing their armour in a heap upon her, either because they wished that the citadel should rather appear to have been taken by storm, or for the sake of establishing a precedent that faith was not to be kept with a traitor. The story is told in another manner; that, as the Sabines generally carried on their left arms bracelets of great weight, and wore rings set with precious stones, which made a great show, she bargained for what they wore on their left arms; accordingly, instead of the presents of gold which she expected, they threw their shields upon her. Others say, that, in pursuance of their agreement to deliver up what was on their left arms, she expressly demanded their shields; and this seeming to be done with a treacherous intent, she was put to death by means of the very reward which she required.
XII. The Sabines however kept possession of the citadel; but though, on the following day, the Roman army, in order of battle, filled the whole plain between the Palatine and Capitoline hills, yet they did not come down to the level ground; until the Romans, stimulated by rage and eagerness to recover the citadel, advanced to an assault. The foremost champions of the two parties, who led on the troops, were Mettius Curtius on the side of the Sabines, and Hostus Hostilius on that of the Romans. The latter, in the front of the army, by his spirit and intrepidity, enabled the Romans to support the fight, in spite of the disadvantage of the ground; but, on his falling, the Roman soldiers quickly gave way, and were driven back to the old gate of the Palatium. Romulus himself being forced along by the flying crowd, raised his hands toward heaven, and said, “O Jupiter! by the direction of thy auspices, I, here on the Palatine hill, laid the first foundation of my city. The Sabines are already in possession of our citadel, which they obtained by fraud; from thence they now make their way hither, in arms, and have passed the middle of the valley; but do thou, O father of gods and men! from hence at least repel the enemy; remove dismay from the minds of the Romans, and stop their shameful flight. I vow a temple here to thee, Jupiter Stator,* as a testimony to posterity of the city being preserved by thy immediate aid.” Having prayed thus, as if he had perceived that his supplications were heard, he called out, “Here Romans, Jupiter, supremely good and great, orders you to halt, and renew the fight.” The Romans, as if they had heard a voice from heaven, halted, and Romulus himself flew forward to the front. On the side of the Sabines, Mettius Curtius had run down first from the citadel; had driven back the Romans, in disorder, through the whole space at present occupied by the Forum, and was now at no great distance from the gate of the Palatium, crying aloud, “We have conquered these traitors to hospitality, these cowards in war. They now feel that it is one thing to ravish virgins, and another, far different, to fight with men.” While he was vaunting in this manner, Romulus attacked him with a band of the most courageous of the youths. Mettius happened at that time to fight on horseback, and on that account was the more easily repulsed: he soon gave way, and was pursued by the Romans: the rest of the Roman troops also, animated by the bravery of their king, put the Sabines to the route. Mettius was plunged into a lake, his horse taking fright at the noise of the pursuers: and this circumstance turned the attention of the Sabines to the danger in which they saw a person of so much consequence to them. However, his friends beckoning and calling to him, he acquired fresh courage from the affection of the multitude, and accomplished his escape. Both parties now renewed the engagement in the plain between the two hills, but the advantage was on the side of the Romans.
XIII. At this crisis the Sabine women, whose sufferings had given cause to the war, with their hair dishevelled and garments torn, their natural timidity being overcome by the sight of such disastrous scenes, had the resolution to throw themselves in the way of the flying weapons; and, rushing across between the armies, separated the incensed combatants, and assuaged their fury; beseeching, on the one hand their parents, on the other their husbands, “not to pollute themselves with the impious stain of the blood of father-in-law and son-in-law, nor brand with the infamy of parricide their offspring, the children of one, and grandchildren of the other party. If ye wish, said they, to destroy the affinity and connection formed between you by our marriage, turn your rage against us; we are the cause of the war; we are the cause of wounds and death to our husbands and fathers. It is better for us to perish, than to live either widowed by the loss of one party or fatherless by that of the other.” This transaction powerfully affected both the multitude and the leaders: silence suddenly ensued and a suspension of the fight. The commanders then came forward, in order to concert measures for a pacification; and they not only concluded a peace, but combined the two nations into one,Y. R. 7. 745. associating the two sovereigns in the government, and establishing the seat of empire at Rome. By this accession the number of citzens was doubled; and, as some compliment to the Sabines, the united people were called Quirites, from the town of Cures. To perpetuate the remembrance of that battle, the place where his horse, emerging from the deep of the lake, first brought Curtius to a shallow, was called the Curtian lake.* This happy re-establishment of peace, after a war so distressing, rendered the Sabine women still dearer both to their husbands and parents, and above all to Romulus himself, so that, when he divided the people into thirty Curias,† he gave these the names of the women. But as the number of the women was undoubtedly greater than that of the Curias, whether those who were to give their names to them were selected on account of their age, or their own dignity, or that of their husbands, or by lot we are not informed. At the same time also, three centuries of knights were enrolled; the Ramnenses, so called from Romulus; the Titienses, from Titus Tatius; and the Luceres, the reason of whose name and origin is unknown. Thenceforward the two kings reigned together, not only with equal power but with concord.
XIV. Several years after, some relations of king Tatius offered violence to the ambassadors of the Laurentians; for which violation of the law of nations, the latter demanded satisfaction: But Tatius paid more regard to the interest and importunities of his relations, and thereby drew upon himself the punishment due to them. For he was slain afterwards at Lavinium, in a tumult raised on his going thither to an anniversary sacrifice. It is said, that Romulus showed less resentment of this proceeding than became him, either because there had been no sincere cordiality between them, while associated in the government, or because he thought that the other deserved the death which he met. He avoided therefore entering into a war on the occasion; but to make some atonement for the ill treatment of the ambassadors, and the murder of the king, the league between the cities of Rome and Lavinium was renewed. Thus, beyond their expectations, the Romans enjoyed peace on that side; but a war broke out from another quarter, much nearer home, and almost at their gates. The Fidenatians, looking with jealousy on the great increase of power in so near a neighbour, determined to make war on them before they should arrive at that degree of strength which it was evident they would in time acquire, and sent a body of young men in arms, who laid waste the whole country between Fidenæ and the city. Then, turning to the left hand, because the Tiber confined them on the right, and continuing their depredations, they threw the country people into the utmost consternation, and the sudden alarm spreading from the country into the city, made known what had happened. Romulus instantly led out his forces; for a war so near home admitted no delay, and pitched his camp at the distance of a mile from Fidenæ. Leaving there a small guard, and marching out with all the rest of his troops, he ordered a party to lie in ambush, among the bushes that grew there in abundance; then advancing with the other more numerous body of infantry, and all the cavalry, by riding up almost to the gates and offering battle, in an irregular and insulting manner, he drew the enemy out of the town, as he wished. The cavalry, acting in this manner, answered also another purpose, as it afforded a more specious pretext for the retreat, which he was to counterfeit; and when the foot too began to retire, while the horse seemed irresolute, whether to fight or fly, the enemy rushing suddenly out of the gates in crowds, eager to pursue and press on the Roman army in its retreat, were drawn to the place of the ambuscade. The Romans, now rising suddenly, attacked their line in flank; and the ensigns of those who had been left to guard the camp, advancing at the same time, added to their fears. Dismayed at so many dangers, the Fidenatians fled, before Romulus and the horseman with him, could well turn to pursue them. Thus they, who had lately pursued an enemy, who only pretended to fly, now fled themselves in earnest, with much greater haste, back to the city: but they could not get clear of the enemy; the Romans pressing close on their rear, rushed into the city along with them, before the gates could be shut.
XV. The contagion of the Fidenatian war infected the Veientians. Induced by the relationship subsisting between them and the Fidenatians, (for they also were Etrurians,) and urged on beside by their dangerous vicinity of situation, in case the Roman arms were to be turned against all their neighbours, made an incursion into the Roman territories, in the manner of a predatory, rather than of a regular, war; and thus, without encamping or waiting the approach of the enemy’s army, they returned to Veii, carrying home the plunder collected in the country. On the other side, the Roman commander, not finding the enemy in the country, and being prepared for, and determined on, a decisive action, crossed over the Tiber. The Veientians, hearing that he was forming a camp, and that he intended to advance to their city, marched out to meet him; for they chose rather to engage in the open field, than to remain shut up, and fight from the walls and houses. There, unassisted by any stratagem, the Roman King, through the mere force of his veteran troops, obtained the victory, and pursued the routed enemy to their walls. The city was so strong, and so well secured both by art and by nature, that he did not choose to attempt it, but led home his troops, and, in his way, ravaged the enemy’s country for the sake of revenge rather than of booty. These devastations having distressed the Veientians no less than the loss of the battle, they sent deputies to Rome to sue for peace. A part of their lands was taken from them, and a truce granted for an hundred years. These were the principal transactions in peace and war, during the reign of Romulus; and none of them was unsuitable to the belief of his divine origin, or to the rank of a divinity, which after his death he was supposed to have obtained. This may be said of the spirit which he showed in recovering the kingdom for his grandfather, as well as of his wise conduct in founding the city, and establishing its power, by the arts both of war and peace; for, by the strength which it acquired under his management, it became so respectable, that, during forty years after, it enjoyed profound peace and security. He stood, however, much higher in the favour of the people than he did in that of the senate; and was yet more beloved by his army. He established a body guard of three hundred men, whom he called Celeres;* and these he kept constantly about his person, in time of peace as well as war.
Y. R. 37. 715.XVI. Such were his achievements in his mortal state. One day, while holding an assembly in the plain, on the borders of the lake of Capra, for the purpose of reviewing his army, a sudden storm arose, accompanied with violent thunder and lightning; the king was enveloped in a thick cloud, which hid him from the eyes of the assembly, and was never more seen upon earth. The Roman youth were at length eased of their apprehensions, by the return of calm and serene weather, after such a turbulent day; but when they saw the royal seat empty, though they readily believed the senators, who had stood nearest to him, that he had been carried up on high by the storm, yet they were struck with such dread at being thus left in a manner fatherless, that, for some time, they remained in mournful silence. At last, some few setting the example, the whole multitude saluted Romulus as “a deity, the son of a deity, the king and parent of the city of Rome;” and implored his favour, with prayers, that he would be pleased always “propitiously to watch over the safety of his own offspring.” Some, I believe, even at that time, harboured silent suspicions that the king had been torn in pieces by the hands of the senators. Such a report was spread abroad, but it was little credited, both on account of the high admiration entertained of the man, and because the general consternation caused the other account to be more universally received. It is farther mentioned, that a contrivance of one particular man procured additional credit to this representation of the matter: for Proculus Julius, a person whose testimony, as we are told, deserved respect in any case, even of the greatest importance, while the public were full of grief for the king, and of displeasure against the senators, came out into an assembly of the people, and said, “Romans, yesterday at the dawn of day, Romulus, the parent of this our city, descending suddenly from heaven, appeared before me; and when, seized with horror, I stood in a worshipping posture, and addressed him with prayers, that I might be allowed to behold him without being guilty of impiety, Go, said he, tell the Romans that it is the will of the gods that my Rome should be the metropolis of the world. Let them therefore cultivate the arts of war; and be assured, and hand this assurance down to posterity, that no human power is able to withstand the Roman arms. After these words, he went up, and vanished from my sight.” It was wonderful how readily the story was credited on this man’s word; and how much the grief of the people, and of the army, was assuaged, by their being satisfied of his immortality.
XVII. Meanwhile the minds of the senators were agitated by ambition and contention for the vacant throne. Factions had not yet taken their rise from the interests of individuals; for, among a new people, no one yet possessed any eminent superiority over the rest. The contest lay between the different bodies of which the state was composed: those of Sabine descent were anxious that a king should be chosen from among them, apprehensive lest they might lose their claim by disuse, there having been no king of their race since the death of Tatius; although, by the terms of the union, they were entitled to equal privileges. On the other hand, the original Romans spurned the thought of a foreigner being placed on the throne. Notwithstanding this diversity in their views, yet all concurred in wishing for a king, for they had not yet tasted the sweets of liberty. The senate now began to fear, lest as the sentiments of many of the neighbouring states were very unfriendly towards them, some foreign power might attack them, while the state was destitute of a government, and the army destitute of a commander. Every one therefore was desirous that there should be some head, but no one party could be induced to give way to another. In this difficulty, the senators shared the government among themselves; forming, out of their number, which consisted of an hundred, ten decades, with one president in each, who were to have the direction of public affairs. Each ten governed jointly; the president alone had the lictors and other badges of sovereignty. The time of each holding the government was limited to five days, and the administration went to them all in rotation. In this manner a year passed without a king; and that interval, from this circumstance,Y. R. 38. 714. was called an Interregnum; which term is still applied to similar interruptions of the regular government. By this time, the people began to murmur, alleging that slavery was multiplied on them; that they had an hundred masters set over them instead of one; and it became evident that they would no longer be satisfied without a king, nor without one chosen by themselves. The senators, perceiving that such schemes were in agitation, judged it prudent to make a voluntary offer of what they could not much longer retain. Yet while they gratified the people in surrendering to them the sovereign power, they took care not to give up a larger share of privilege than they kept in their own hands; for they passed a decree, that, when the people should elect a king, that election should not be valid, unless the senate approved their choice. And, to this day, the same right is claimed with respect to the enacting of laws, and the appointing of magistrates; though the efficacy of it has been quite taken away: at present, before the people begin to vote, the senate previously declare their approbation of the proceedings of the assembly, and that, even before they are yet resolved upon. The Interrex, then, having called an assembly, said, “Romans! be the event prosperous, fortunate, and happy; elect a king: the fathers have thought proper to decree that it should be so. If ye choose a person worthy to be esteemed a fit successor to Romulus, the fathers will join their approbation.” This proceeding was so pleasing to the people, that, lest they might appear to be outdone in generosity, they voted, and ordered, nothing more than that the senate should determine, by their decree, who should be king of Rome.
XVIII. There was at that time a person named Numa Pompilius,* who was universally celebrated for justice and piety: he lived at Cures, in the country of the Sabines; and was as eminently skilled, as any one in that age could be, in all laws human and divine: he was supposed to have been instructed by Pythagoras of Samos; for which supposition there is no other foundation, than its not being known from what other quarter he derived his knowledge: certain it is, that more than an hundred years after this period, in the reign of Servius Tullius, Pythagoras assembled the youth of the remoter parts of Italy, about Metapontum, Heracla, and Croton, and had them instructed under his own direction. From places so remote, even if he had lived in the time of Numa, how could such a character of him have reached the Sabines, as should have inspired them with the desire of receiving his instructions? In what common language could they have communicated? or with what safety could a single man have made his way thither, through so many nations differing in their language and manners? I therefore rather believe, that his mind was, by nature, furnished with virtuous dispositions, and that the instructions which he received were, not so much in foreign learning, as in the coarse and severe discipline of the Sabines, than whom no race of men were less corrupted by refinements. On hearing the name of Numa Pompilius, although the Roman fathers saw that the balance of power would incline to the Sabines, if a king were chosen from among them, yet, no one presuming to prefer himself, or any other of his own party, or, in short, any one of the fathers, or citizens, to him, they all, to a man, concurred in voting that the kingdom should be conferred on Numa Pompilius.Y. R. 39. 713. When he arrived, in consequence of their invitation, he ordered, that, as Romulus, on the founding of the city, had obtained the sovereign power by an augury, so the gods should be consulted, in like manner, concerning himself. Accordingly, being conducted into the citadel by an augur, to which profession was annexed, for ever after, by public authority, the honour of performing that solemn office, he sat down on a stone with his face turned towards the South: the augur took his seat at his left hand, with his head covered, holding in his right hand a crooked wand free from knots, which they called lituus; then, taking a view towards the city, and the adjacent country, after offering prayers to the gods, he marked out the regions of the sky frow East to West; the parts towards the South, he called the right, those towards the North, the left; and, in front of him, he set, in his mind, a boundary at the greatest distance that his eye could reach. Then, shifting the lituus into his left hand, and laying his right on Numa’s head, he prayed in this manner:—“Father Jupiter, if it is thy will that this Numa Pompilius, whose head I hold, should be king of Rome, display to us, we beseech thee, clear tokens of the same, within those limits which I have marked out.” He then named the particular auspices, which he wished should be sent; and, these having appeared, Numa was declared king, and came down from the consecrated stand.
XIX. Being thus put in possession of the kingdom, and considering that the city was but of short standing, and had been founded by means of violence and arms, he formed a design of establishing it anew, upon principles of justice, laws, and morals; and, knowing that the minds of the people, rendered ferocious by a military life, would never accommodate themselves to the practice of these, during the continuance of war, he resolved, by a disuse of arms, to mollify the fierceness of their temper. With this view, he built a temple to Janus,* near the foot of the hill Argiletum,† which was to notify a state either of war or of peace: when open, it denoted that the state was engaged in war; when shut, that there was peace with all the surrounding nations. Since the reign of Numa, it has been shut but twice; once, in the consulate of Titus Manlius, upon the conclusion of the first Punic war: the happiness of seeing it once more shut, the gods granted to our own times, when, after the battle of Actium, the emperor Cæsar Augustus established universal peace, on land and sea. This temple he then shut; and having, by treaties and alliances, secured the friendship of all his neighbours, and thereby removed all apprehension of danger from abroad, he made it his first aim, lest the dispositions of the people, which had hitherto been restrained by fear of their enemies, and by military discipline, should, in time of tranquillity, grow licentious, to inspire them with fear of the gods; a principle of the greatest efficacy with the multitude, in that rude and ignorant age. And as this did not seem likely to make much impression on their minds, without the aid of some pretended miracle, he made them believe that he had nightly meetings with the goddess Egeria, and that, by her direction, he instituted the sacred rites, most acceptable to the gods, and appointed proper priests for each of the deities. His first undertaking was to divide the year into twelve months, according to the course of the moon: and because the moon does not make up the number of thirty days in each month, and consequently there are some days wanted to fill up the complete year, formed by the revolution of the sun, he managed in such a manner, by inserting intercalary months, that every twenty-fourth year, the space of all the intermediate years being completed, the days coincided with the same position of the sun from whence they had set out. He also appointed days of business, and days of cessation therefrom, foreseeing how expedient it would be in future, that there should be times wherein no business could be brought before the people.
XX. He next turned his thoughts to the appointment of priests, though he performed in person the greatest part of the sacred rites, especially those which now belong to the office of the flamen of Jupiter;* judging, that in such a warlike state, the greater number of kings would resemble Romulus, rather than Numa, and would go abroad themselves to war; therefore, lest the sacred rites, the performance of which pertained to the office of the king, should be neglected, he created a flamen of Jove, who was to attend constantly on the duties of that priesthood, and decorated him with a splendid dress, and a royal curule chair. He created likewise two other flamens; one of Mars, the other of Quirinus. He also selected virgins for the service of Vesta, an order of priesthood derived from Alba, and therefore related, in some sort, to the family of the founder of the city. For these he fixed a stipend, to be paid out of the public treasury, that they might, without interruption, attend to the business of the temple; and by enjoining virginity, and other religious observances, gave them a sanctity of character that attracted veneration. He elected also twelve priests, called salii, for Mars Gradivus; and gave them, as an ornament of distinction, a flowered tunic, and, over the tunic, a brazen covering for the breast. He ordered these to carry the celestial armour, called Ancilia, and to go in procession through the city, singing hymns, with leaping and solemn dancing. He then chose, out of the senators, a pontiff, named Numa Marcius, son of Marcus, and gave him a written and sealed copy of the institutions respecting all the sacred rites, together with directions as to what victims, and on what days, and in what temples, each should be performed; and out of what funds the expenses of them should be defrayed. He also subjected all other religious performances, whether public or private, to the determination of the pontiff; in order that there should be an authorized person to whom the people might, on every occasion, resort for instruction, lest, through their neglect of the rites of their own country, or the introduction of foreign ones, irregularities might take place in the worship of the gods. The same pontiff was also to determine all matters relative, not only to the invocation of the celestial gods, but to funeral solemnities, and the worship of the infernal deities, and when and how such prodigies as appeared either by lightning or any other phænomenon, should be attended to and expiated. For the purpose of obtaining information of the sentiments of the deities, respecting these matters, he dedicated an altar, on the Aventine, to Jupiter Elicius;* and consulted the god, by auguries, concerning the prodigies that were to be expiated.
XXI. The attention of the whole community being diverted from violence and arms, to the considering and adjusting of these matters, necessarily prevented idleness; whilst reverence towards the gods, with the thought of the deity of heaven interfering in the concerns of mankind, filled their breasts with such a degree of piety, that good faith, and regard to the obligation of oaths, operated as powerfully on their minds, as the dread of the laws and of punishment. And while the people formed their manners after the example of the king, as the most perfect model, the neighbouring powers, who had formerly looked upon Rome, not as a city, but as a camp pitched in the midst of them, for the purpose of disturbing the general peace, were brought to entertain such respect for it, as to deem any one guilty of impiety, who should give trouble to a state entirely occupied in the worship of the gods. There was a grove, in the centre of which, from out of a dark cave, flowed a rivulet, fed by a perpetual spring; thither it was Numa’s custom frequently to repair unattended, to meet, as he pretended, the goddess Egeria. He therefore dedicated it to the Muses, they having been, he alleged, of her councils, whom he called his spouse. To Faith, under the designation of Single Faith, he instituted an anniversary festival; in the celebration of which, he ordered the flamens to be carried in a covered chariot, drawn by two horses; and, while employed in the worship of her, to have their hands covered, close down to the fingers, to signify that Faith was to be carefully preserved, and that even its seat, in the right hand, was sacred. He appointed many other sacrifices, and consecrated the places where they were to be performed, which the priests call Argenses. But the greatest of all his works was the establishment of a permanent peace, which he maintained through the whole course of his reign, with no less care than he employed in securing his own authority. Thus two kings in succession, by different methods, one by warlike, the other by peaceful institutions, contributed to the aggrandizement of the state. Romulus reigned thirty-seven years, Numa forty-three. The nation, by this time, became possessed not only of great strength, but had also attained to a competent knowledge of the arts both of war and peace.
Y. R. 82. 660.XXII. On the death of Numa, an interregnum again took place. After some time, the people elected to the throne Tullus Hostilius, grandson to that Hostilius who distinguished himself in the battle with the Sabines, at the foot of the citadel; and the senate gave their approbation. He was not only of a temper very different from that of the late king, but more warlike in his disposition than even Romulus himself. His youth and vigour, and at the same time, the renown of his grandfather, stimulated his native courage. Thinking, therefore, that the strength of the state was growing languid, through inactivity, he sought on all sides for an opportunity of stirring up a war. It happened that some Roman and Alban peasants committed mutual depredations on each other’s lands: at this time, C. Cluilius held the government of Alba. Ambassadors were sent from both sides, at nearly the same time, to demand restitution. Tullus gave orders to his, that they should attend to nothing else, until they executed their commission: he well knew that the Alban would give a refusal, and then war might be proclaimed, without incurring the charge of impiety. The Albans proceeded with less despatch; being courteously and liberally entertained by Tullus in his palace, they cheerfully enjoyed the pleasures of the king’s table. Meanwhile, the Romans had made the first demand of restitution, and, on the Alban’s refusal, had declared war to commence on the thirtieth day after, and returned to Tullus with an account of their proceedings. He then gave the ambassadors an opportunity of proposing the business of their embassy; they, entirely ignorant of what had passed, spent some time, at first, in making apologies; that “it was very disagreeable to them to say any thing that would not be pleasing to Tullus, but that they were compelled by their instructions: they came to demand restitution, and if that were not granted, had orders to declare war.” To this Tullus answered: “Tell your king, that the king of Rome appeals to the gods, to judge which of the two states first dismissed, with a refusal, the ambassadors of the other demanding restitution; that, upon that state, they may inflict all the calamities of this war.”
Y. R. 85. 667.XXIII. This answer the Albans carried home, and both parties made the most vigorous preparations for a war, which might almost be called a civil war, as it was to be waged, in some manner, between parents and their children, both parties deriving their descent from Troy: for Lavinium owed its origin to Troy, from Lavinium sprung Alba, and, from the race of the Alban kings, the Romans were descended. The issue of the war, however, was such as rendered the dispute less grievous than might have been apprehended; for, without a general engagement, and without any farther damage than the demolition of the houses of one of the cities, the two states were incorporated into one. The Albans first, with very numerous forces, made an irruption into the Roman territories; and, at the distance of no more than five miles from the city, fortified their camp with a trench, which, from the name of their leader, was afterwards called the Cluilian Trench, and retained the name for several ages, until the occasion being in time forgotten, the name too fell into disuse. In this camp, Cluilius the Alban king died, on which the Albans created Mettius Fuffetius their dictator. Tullus, now, impatient for action, especially after the death of the king, assured his men that the supreme power of the gods, which had already begun with the head, would inflict, upon the whole body of the Albans, the penalty incurred by their having occasioned this impious war; and, marching past the enemy’s camp in the night, he advanced with his army ready for action, into the Alban territories. This procedure drew out Mettius from the camp where he lay; he led his troops, by the shorest road, towards the enemy, sending forward an ambassador to tell Tullus, that “it was highly expedient that they should confer together, before they came to an engagement; that, if he would give him a meeting, he was confident that what he had to propose to his consideration would appear to concern the interest of Rome, no less than that of Alba.” Tullus, not thinking it proper to decline the proposal, though he saw no probability of any good consequence arising from it, led out his troops into the field; the Albans likewise marched out to meet him. When both parties were drawn up in order of battle, the leaders, attended by a few of the principal officers, advanced into the middle space, where the Alban began thus:—“I understood, from our king Cluilius, that, on our part, injuries sustained, and a refusal of satisfaction, when demanded, were the causes of the present war; and I doubt not that you, Tullus, allege, on your part, the same grounds of quarrel: but if, instead of plausible professions, I may be allowed to declare the truth, it is a thirst for dominion that stimulates two nations, connected by their situation, and by consanguinity, to take up arms against each other. Nor do I examine whether the measures pursued are justifiable or not; the determination of that point was the business of him who commenced the war; for my part, it was for the purpose of carrying it on, that the Albans constituted me their leader. Of this, however, Tullus, I wish to warn you: what a formidable power the Etrurians possess, both in our neighbourhood and more especially in yours, you, as being nearer to them, know better than we. On land, they are very powerful; on the sea, exceedingly so. Now consider, that, when you shall give the signal for battle, they will enjoy the sight of these two armies engaged as they would a show, and will not fail to attack both the victor and the vanquished together, when they see them fatigued, and their strength exhausted. Wherefore, since we are not content with the certain enjoyment of liberty, but are going to hazard an uncertain cast for dominion or slavery, let us, in the name of the gods, pursue some method, whereby, without great loss, without much blood of either nation, it may be decided which shall have dominion over the other.” This proposal was not unpleasing to Tullus, though, from his natural disposition, as well as from confidence of success, he was rather inclined to violent measures. Both of them then turning their thoughts to devise some plan, they adopted one, for which accident had already laid the foundation.
XXIV. It happened, that in each of the armies, there were three twin brothers, between whom there was no disparity, in point of age, or of strength. That their names were Horatius and Curiatius, we have sufficient certainty, for no occurrence of antiquity has ever been more universally noticed; yet, notwithstanding that the fact is so well ascertained, there still remains a doubt respecting the names, to which nation the Horatii belonged, and to which the Curiatii: authors are divided on the point; finding, however, that the greater number concur, in calling the Horatii, Romans, I am inclined to follow them. To these three brothers, on each side, the Kings proposed, that they should support by their arms the honour of their respective countries; informing them, that the sovereignty was to be enjoyed by that nation, whose champions should prove victorious in the combat. No reluctance was shown on their parts, and time and place were appointed. Previous to the fight, a league was made between, the Romans and Albans, on these conditions; that, whichever of the two nations should, by its champions, obtain victory in the combat, that nation should, without further dispute, possess sovereign dominion over the other. Treaties are variously formed, but the mode of ratification is the same in all. The following is the manner in which, as we are told, they proceeded on that occasion; and we have no record of any more ancient treaty. The herald addressed the king in these words: “Dost thou, O king, order me to strike a league with the Pater Patratus* of the Alban nation?” Having received the king’s order, he said, “O king, I demand vervain from thee:” the king answered, “Take it pure.” The herald brought clean stalks of that herb from the citadel. He afterwards asked the king in these words; “Dost thou, O king, constitute me the royal delegate of the Roman people, the Quirites; including, in my privileges, my attendants and implements.” The king replied, “Be it without detriment to me, and to the Roman people, the Quirites, I do constitute thee.” The herald was Marcus Valerius, and he made Spurius Fusius Pater Patratus, by touching his head and hair with the vervain. The Pater Patratus is appointed “ad jusjurandum patrandum,” that is, to ratify the league; and this he does in a great many words, which being expressed in a long set form, I may be excused from repeating. Then, after reciting the conditions, he said, “Hear thou, O Jupiter! hear thou, Pater Patratus of the Alban nation: hear, ye people of Alba: as those conditions, from first to last, have been recited openly from those tablets, or that wax, without fraud or deceit, in such sense as they are most clearly understood here this day, from those conditions the Roman people will not first depart: if they shall, at any time, first depart from them, under authority of the state, through any fraud or deceit, do thou, O Jupiter, on that day, strike the Roman people, in like manner as I shall here, this day, strike this swine; and strike them, thou, with greater severity, in proportion as thy power and ability are greater.” So saying, he struck down the swine with a flint stone. The Albans likewise, by their dictator and their priests, repeated their form of ratification and their oath.
XXV. The league being concluded, the three brothers, on each side, pursuant to the agreement, took arms; the friends of each putting them in mind that “the gods of their country, their country itself, the whole of their countrymen, whether at home or in the army, rested on their prowess the decision of their fate.” Naturally bold and courageous, and highly animated besides by such exhortations, they advanced into the midst between the two armies. The two armies sat down before their respective camps, free from all apprehensions of immediate danger to themselves, but not from deep anxiety; no less than sovereign power being at stake, and depending on the bravery and success of so small a number. With all the eagerness therefore of anxious suspense, they fixed their attention on an exhibition, which was far indeed from being a matter of mere amusement. The signal being given, the three youths, who had been drawn up on each side, as in battle array, their breasts animated with the magnanimous spirits of whole armies, rushed forward to the fight, intent on mutual slaughter, utterly thoughtless of their own personal peril, and reflecting, that, on the issue of the contest, depended the future fate and fortune of their respective countries. On the first onset, as soon as the clash of their arms, and the glittering of their swords, were perceived, the spectators shuddered with excess of horror; and their hopes being, as yet, equally balanced, their voice was suppressed, and even their breath was suspended. Afterwards, in the progress of the combat, during which, not only the activity of the young men’s limbs, and the rapid motions of their arms, offensive and defensive, were exhibited to view, the three Albans were wounded, and two of the Romans fell lifeless to the ground. On their fall, the Alban army set up a shout of joy; while the Roman legions were almost reduced to a state of despair, by the situation of their champion, who was now surrounded by the three Curiatii. It happened that he was unhurt; so that, though singly, he was by no means a match for them collectively, yet was he confident of success, against each taken singly. In order therefore to avoid their joint attack, he betook himself to flight, judging from their wounds that they would pursue him with different degrees of speed. He had now fled some way from the place where they had fought, when, looking back, he perceived that there were large intervals between the pursuers, and that one was at no great distance from him: he therefore turned about, with great fury, and while the Alban army called out to the Curiatii to succour their brother, Horatius, having in the mean time slain his antagonist, proceeded victorious to attack the second. The Romans then cheered their champion with shouts of applause, such as naturally burst forth on occasions of unexpected success: on his part, he delayed not to put an end to the combat; for, before the third could come up to the relief of his brother, he had despatched him. And now, they were brought to an equality, in point of number, only one on each side surviving, but were far from an equality either in hopes or in strength; the one, unhurt, and flushed with two victories, advanced with confidence to the third contest; the other, enfeebled by a wound, fatigued with running, and dispirited, besides, by the fate of his brethren, already slain, met the victorious enemy. What followed, could not be called a fight; the Roman, exulting, cried out, “Two of you have I offered to the shades of my brothers, the third I will offer to the cause in which we are engaged, that the Roman may rule over the Alban;” and, whilst the other could scarcely support the weight of his armour, he plunged his sword downward into his throat; then, as he lay prostrate, he despoiled him of his arms. The Romans received Horatius with triumphant congratulations, and a degree of joy proportioned to the greatness of the danger that had threatened their cause. Both parties then applied themselves to the burying of their dead, with very different dispositions of mind; the one being elated with the acquisition of empire, the other depressed under a foreign jurisdiction. The sepulchres still remain, in the several spots where the combatants fell; those of the two Romans in one place nearer to Alba, those of the three Albans, on the side next to Rome, but, in different places, as they fought.
XXVI. Before the armies separated, Mettius, in conformity to the terms of the treaty, desired to know from Tullus what commands he would give, and was ordered to keep the young men in readiness, under arms, as he intended to employ them in case of a war breaking out with the Veientians. The two parties then retired to their respective homes. Horatius advanced at the head of the Romans, bearing in triumph the spoils of the three brothers: near the gate Capena he was met by his sister, a maiden who had been betrothed to one of the Curiatii: observing on her brother’s shoulder, the military robe of her lover, made by her own hands, she tore her hair, and with loud and mournful outcries, called on the name of her deceased spouse. His sister’s lamentations, in the midst of his own triumph, and of so great public joy, irritated the fierce youth to such a degree, that drawing his sword, he plunged it into her breast, at the same time upbraiding her, in these words, “Begone to thy spouse, with thy unseasonable love, since thou couldst forget what is due to the memory of thy deceased brothers, to him who still survives, and to thy native country: so perish every daughter of Rome that shall mourn for its enemy.” Both the senate and people were shocked at the horrid deed; but still, in their opinion, his recent merit outweighed its guilt: he was, however, instantly carried before the king for judgment. The king, unwilling to take on himself a decision of such a melancholy nature, and evidently disagreeable to the multitude, or to inflict the consequent punishment, summoned an assembly of the people, and then said “I appoint two commissioners to pass judgment on Horatius for murder, according to the law.” The law was of dreadful import: “Let two commissioners pass judgment for murder; if the accused appeal from the commissioners, let the appeal be tried; if their sentence be confirmed, cover his head, hang him by a rope on the gallows, let him be scourged either within the Pomærium or without the Pomærium.” The two commissioners appointed were of opinion, that according to that law, they were not authorised to acquit him: however small his offence might be; and, after they had found him guilty, one of them pronounced judgment in these words, “Publius Horatius, I sentence thee to punishment as a murderer; go, lictor, bind his hands.” The lictor had come up to him, and was fixing the cord, when Horatius by the advice of Tullus, who wished to give the mildest interpretation to the law, said, “I appeal;” so the trial on the appeal, came before the commons. During this trial, the people were very deeply affected, especially by the behaviour of Publius Horatius the father, who declared that, “in his judgment, his daughter was deservedly put to death; had it not been so, he would, by his own authority as a father, have inflicted punishment on his son.” He then besought them that “they would not leave him childless, whom they had beheld, but a few hours ago surrounded by a progeny of uncommon merit.” Uttering these words, the old man embraced the youth, and pointing to the spoils of the Curatii, which were hung up in the place where now stands the Horatian column; “O my fellow citizens,” he exclaimed, “can you bear to behold him laden with chains, and condemned to ignominy, stripes, and torture, whom, but just now, you saw covered with the ornaments of victory, marching in triumph! a sight so horrid, that scarcely could the eyes of the Albans themselves endure it. Go, lictor, bind the arms, which but now wielded those weapons which acquired dominion to the Roman people: cover the head of that man to whom your city owes its liberty: hang him upon the gallows: scourge him within the Pomærium; but do it between those pillars, to which are suspended the trophies of his victory: scourge him, without the Pomærium, but do it between the tombs of the Curiatii. For to what place can ye lead this youth, where the monuments of his glory would not redeem him from the ignominy of such a punishment?” The people could not withstand either the tears of the father, or the intrepid spirit of the youth himself, which no kind of danger could appal, and rather out of admiration of his bravery, than regard to the justice of his cause, they passed a sentence of acquittal. Wherefore, that some expiation might be made for the act of manifest murder, the father was ordered to make atonement for his son at the public expense. After performing expiatory sacrifices, which continued afterwards to be celebrated by the Horatian family, he laid a beam across the street, and, covering the young man’s head, made him pass as it were, under the yoke. The beam remains to this day, being constantly kept in repair at the expense of the public, and is called the Sister’s beam. A tomb of squared stone was raised for Horatia, on the spot where she fell.
XXVII. The peace with Alba was not of long continuance. The dissatisfaction of the multitude, on account of the power and fortune of the state having been hazarded on three champions, perverted the unsteady mind of the dictator; and as his designs, though honourable, had not been crowned with success, he endeavoured, by others of a different kind, to recover the esteem of his countrymen. With this view, therefore, as formerly, in time of war, he had sought peace, so now, when peace was established, he as ardently wished for war: but, perceiving that his own state possessed more courage than strength, he persuaded other nations to make war, openly, by order of their governments, reserving to his own people the part of effecting their purposes, by treachery, under the mask of allies. The Fidenatians, a Roman colony, being assured of the concurrence of the Veientians, and receiving from the Albans a positive engagement to desert to their side, were prevailed on to take arms and declare war. Fidenæ having thus openly revolted, Tullus, after summoning Mettius and his army from Alba, marched against the enemy, and passing the Anio, pitched his camp at the conflux of the rivers. Between that place, and Fidenæ, the Veientians had crossed the Tiber, and, in the line of battle, they composed the right wing near the river, the Fidenatians being posted on the left towards the mountains. Tullus drew up his own men facing the Veientians, and posted the Albans opposite to the troops of the Fidenatians. The Alban had not more resolution than fidelity, so that, not daring either to keep his ground, or openly to desert, he filed off slowly towards the mountains. When he thought he had proceeded to a sufficient distance, he ordered the whole line to halt, and being still irresolute, in order to waste time, he employed himself in forming the ranks: his scheme was to join his forces to whichever of the parties fortune should favour with victory. At first, the Romans who stood nearest were astonished at finding their flank left uncovered, by the departure of their allies, and in a short time a horseman at full speed brought an account to the king that the Albans were retreating. Tullus, in this perilous juncture vowed to institute twelve new Salian priests, and also to build temples to Paleness and Terror; then, rebuking the horseman with a loud voice, that the enemy might hear, he ordered him to return to the fight, telling him, that “there was no occasion for any uneasiness; that it was by his order the Alban army was wheeling round, in order to fall upon the unprotected rear of the Fidenatians.” He commanded him, also, to order the cavalry to raise their spears aloft; and, this being performed, intercepted, from a great part of the infantry, the view of the Alban army retreating; while those who did see them, believing what the king had said, fought with the greater spirit. The fright was now transferred to the enemy, for they had heard what the king had spoken aloud, and many of the Fidenatians understood the Latine tongue, as having been intermixed with Romans in the colony. Wherefore, dreading lest the Albans might run down suddenly from the hills, and cut off their retreat to the town, they betook themselves to flight. Tullus pressed them close, and after routing this wing composed of the Fidenatians, turned back with double fury against the Veientians, now disheartened by the dismay of the other wing. Neither could they withstand his attack, and the river intercepting them behind, prevented a precipitate flight. As soon as they reached this, in their retreat, some, shamefully throwing away their arms, plunged desperately into the water, and the rest, hesitating on the bank, irresolute whether to fight or fly, were overpowered and cut off. Never before had the Romans been engaged in so desperate an action.
XXVIII. When all was over, the Alban troops, who had been spectators of the engagement, marched down into the plain, and Mettius congratulated Tullus on his victory over the enemy. Tullus answered him, without showing any sign of displeasure, and gave orders that the Albans should, with the favour of fortune, join their camp with that of the Romans, and appointed a sacrifice of purification to be performed next day. As soon as it was light, all things being prepared in the usual manner, he commanded both armies to be summoned to an assembly. The heralds, beginning at the outside, summoned the Albans first; and they, struck with the novelty of the affair, and wishing to hear the Roman king delivering a speech, took their places nearest to him: the Roman troops, under arms, pursuant to directions previously given, formed a circle round them, and a charge was given to the centurions to execute without delay such orders as they should receive. Then Tullus began in this manner; “If ever, Romans, there has hitherto occurred, at any time, or in any war, an occasion that called on you to return thanks, first, to the immortal gods, and, next, to your own valour, it was the battle of yesterday: for ye had to struggle not only with your enemies, but, what is a more difficult and dangerous struggle, with the treachery and perfidy of your allies: for I will now undeceive you; it was not by my order that the Albans withdrew to the mountains, nor was what ye heard me say, the issuing of orders, but a stratagem, and a pretext of having given orders, to the end that while ye were kept in ignorance of your being deserted, your attention might not be drawn away from the fight; and that, at the same time, the enemy, believing themselves to be surrounded on the rear, might be struck with terror and dismay: but the guilt which I am exposing to you, extends not to all the Albans: they followed their leader, as ye would have done, had I chosen that the army should make any movement from the ground which it occupied. Mettius there was the leader of that march, the same Mettius was the schemer of this war. Mettius it was who broke the league between the Romans and Albans. May others dare to commit like crimes, if I do not now make him a conspicuous example to all mankind.” On this the centurions in arms gathered round Mettius, and the king proceeded in his discourse: “Albans, be the measure prosperous, fortunate, and happy to the Roman people, to me, and to you; it is my intention to remove the entire people of Alba to Rome, to give to the commons the privileges of citizens, and to enrol the principal inhabitants among the fathers, to form of the whole one city, one republic. As the state of Alba, from being one people, was heretofore divided into two, so let these be now re-united.” On hearing this, the Alban youth who were unarmed, and surrounded by armed troops, however different their sentiments were, yet, being all restrained by the same apprehensions, kept a profound silence. Tullus then said, “Mettius Fuffetius, if you were capable of learning to preserve faith, and a regard to treaties, I should suffer you to live, and supply you with instructions; but your disposition is incurable: let your punishment, then, teach mankind to consider those things as sacred, which you have dared to violate. As, therefore, you lately kept your mind divided between the interest of the Fidenatians and of the Romans, so shall you now have your body divided and torn in pieces.” Then two chariots being brought, each drawn by four horses, he tied Mettius, extended at full length, to the carriages of them, and the horses being driven violently in different directions, bore away on each carriage part of his mangled body, with the limbs which were fastened by the cords. The eyes of all were turned with horror from this shocking spectacle. This was the first, and the last, instance among the Romans, of any punishment inflicted without regard to the laws of humanity. In every other case, we may justly boast, that no nation in the world has shown greater mildness.
Y. R. 87. 665.XXIX. During these proceedings, the cavalry had been sent forward to Alba, to remove the multitude to Rome. The legions were now led thither, to demolish the city. As soon as they entered the gates, there ensued not a tumult, or panic, as is usual in cities taken by storm, where the gates being burst open, or the walls levelled by the ram, or the citadel being taken by force, the shouts of the enemy, and the troops running furiously through the city, throw all into confusion with fire and sword; but gloomy silence, and dumb sorrow, so stupified the inhabitants, that, not knowing in their distraction what to leave behind or what to carry with them, and incapable of forming any plan, they stood at their doors, making inquiries of each other, or wandered through their own houses, which they were now to see for the last time. But now, when the horsemen, with shouts, urged them to depart, and the crash of the houses, which the troops were demolishing in the outer parts of the city, assailed their ears, and the dust, raised in distant places, had filled all parts, enveloping them as with a cloud; each of them hastily snatching up whatever he could, and leaving behind his guardian deity, his household gods, and the house wherein he had been born and educated, they began their departure, and soon filled the roads with one continued troop of emigrants. The sight of each other continually renewed their tears, through the mutual commiseration which it excited in every breast. Their ears were assailed with bitter lamentations, especially from the women, as they passed the temples which they had been used to revere, now filled with armed soldiers, and reflected that they were leaving their gods, as it were, in captivity. When the Albans had evacuated the city, the Romans levelled to the ground all the buildings in every part of it, both public and private, and in one hour ruined and destroyed the work of four hundred years, during which Alba had stood. The temples of the gods, however, they left untouched, for so the king had commanded.
XXX. Meanwhile from this destruction of Alba, Rome received a considerable augmentation. The number of citizens was doubled. The Cælian mount was added to the city; and, in order to induce others to fix their habitations there, Tullus chose that situation for his palace, where, from thenceforth, he resided. The persons of chief note among the Albans, the Tulii, Servilii, Quintii, Geganii, Curiatii, Clœlii, he enrolled among the senators, that this part of the state also might receive an addition: and, as a consecrated place of meeting for this body, thus augmented, he built a senate-house which retained the name of Hostilia, even within the memory of our fathers. And, that every order in the state might receive an accession of strength from this new people, he chose from among the Albans ten troops of horsemen. From among them also he drew recruits, with which he both filled up the old, and formed some new, legions. Encouraged by this formidable state of his forces, he declared war against the Sabines, a nation the most powerful of that age,Y. R. 100. 652. next to the Etrurians, both in point of numbers, and of skill in arms. Injuries had been offered on both sides, and satisfaction demanded in vain. Tullus complained that some Roman traders had been seized in an open fair at the temple of Feronia. The Sabines, that prior to this, some of their people had fled into the asylum, and were detained at Rome. These were the reasons assigned for the war. The Sabines, reflecting that a great part of their original strength had been fixed at Rome by Tatius, and that the Roman power had been also lately increased, by the accession of the people of Alba, took care, on their part, to look round for foreign aid. Etruria lay in their neighbourhood, and the state of the Etrurians nearest to them was that of the Veientians. From among these they procured a number of volunteers, who were induced to take part against the Romans, principally by the resentment which they still retained on account of their former quarrels. Several also of the populace, who were indigent and unprovided of a settlement, were allured by pay. From the government they received no assistance, and the Veientians, for it was less surprising in others, adhered to the terms of the truce stipulated with Romulus. Vigorous preparations being made on both sides, and it being evident, that, whichever party should first commence hostilities, would have considerably the advantage, Tullus seized the opportunity of making an incursion into the lands of the Sabines. A furious battle ensued at the wood called Malitiosa, in which the Romans obtained the victory. For this, they were indebted not only to the firm strength of their infantry, but chiefly to the cavalry, which had been lately augmented: since, by a sudden charge of this body, the ranks of the Sabines were thrown into such disorder, that they were neither able to continue the fight, nor to make good their retreat, without great slaughter.
XXXI. After the defeat of the Sabines, the government of Tullus, and the Roman state in general, possessed a large degree of power and of fame. At this time an account was brought to the king and the senate that a shower of stones had fallen on the Alban mount. This appearing scarcely credible, and some persons being sent to examine into the prodigy, there fell from the air in their sight, a vast quantity of stones, like a storm of hail. They imagined also that they heard a loud voice from the grove on the summit of the hill, ordering, that the Albans should perform religious rites according to the practice of their native country. These the Albans had entirely neglected, as if, with their country they had also abandoned its deities, and had adopted the Roman practice, or perhaps, incensed against fortune, had renounced the worship of the gods. On account of the same prodigy the Romans also instituted for themselves, by order of government, a festival of nine days; either in obedience to a voice from heaven, uttered on the Alban mount, for that likewise is mentioned, or by direction of the aruspices. Be this as it may, it is certain, that, whenever an account was received of a similar phenomenon, a festival for nine days was celebrated. In a short time after, the country was afflicted with a pestilence; and though this necessarily rendered men averse to military service, yet the king, in himself fond of war, and persuaded that young men enjoyed better health while employed abroad, than when loitering at home, gave them no rest from arms, until he was seized by a tedious disorder. Then, together with the strength of his body, the fierceness of his spirit was reduced to such a degree, that he, who, lately, thought nothing less becoming a king, than to busy his thoughts in matters of religion, became, at once, a slave to every kind of superstition, in cases either of great or of trifling import, and even filled the minds of the people also with superstitious notions. The generality, comparing the present state of their affaris with that which they had enjoyed under Numa, became possessed of an opinion, that the only prospect left them, of being relieved from the sickness, was, in obtaining pardon and favour from the gods. It is said, that the king himself, turning over the commentaries of Numa, and discovering therein that certain sacrifices, of a secret and solemn nature, had been performed to Jupiter Elicius, shut himself up, and set about the performance of this solemnity; but, not having undertaken, or conducted, the rites in due form, he not only failed of obtaining any notification from the gods, but, through the resentment of Jupiter, for being addressed in an improper manner, was struck with lightning, and reduced to ashes, together with his house. Tullus reigned thirty-two years, highly renowned for his military achievements.
Y. R. 114. 638.XXXII. On the death of Tullus, the direction of affairs according to the mode adopted from the beginning, fell into the hands of the senate; they nominated an interrex, who presided at the election, when the people created Ancus Marcius king, and the senate approved of their choice. Ancus Marcius was the grandson of Numa Pompilius, by his daughter. As soon as he was in possession of the throne, reflecting on the glory which his grandfather had acquired, and considering that the late reign, though highly honourable in other respects, yet, in one particular, had been very deficient, the affairs of religion having been either quite neglected, or improperly managed, he judged it to be a matter of the utmost consequence, to provide that the public worship, should be performed in the manner instituted by Numa, and ordered the pontiff to make a transcript of every particular rite, from the commentaries of that king, on white tables, and to expose it to the view of the people. From these proceedings, not only his subjects, whose wishes tended to peace, but the neighbouring states also, conceived hopes that the king would conform himself to the manners and institutions of his grandfather. In consequence of which, the Latines, with whom a treaty had been concluded in the reign of Tullus, assumed new courage, and made an incursion into the Roman territories; and, when the Romans demanded satisfaction, returned a haughty answer, imagining the Roman king so averse to action, that he would spend his reign among the chapels and altars. The genius of Ancus was of a middle kind, partaking both of that of Numa and of Romulus. He was sensible, not only that peace had been more necessary in the reign of his grandfather, to a people who were but lately incorporated and still uncivilized, but also, that the tranquillity, which had obtained at that time, could not now be preserved, without a tame submission to injuries; that they were making trial of his patience, and would soon come to despise it; in short, that the times required a king like. Tullus, rather than one like Numa. However, being desirous, that, as Numa had instituted the religious rites to be observed in time of peace, so the ceremonies, to be observed in war, should have himself for their founder, and that wars should not only be waged, but be proclaimed likewise, according to a certain established mode, he borrowed from the ancient race of the Æquicolæ, that form of demanding satisfaction which is still used by the heralds. The ambassador, when he comes to the frontiers of the state, from whom satisfaction is demanded, having his head covered with a fillet of wool, says, “O Jupiter, hear me! hear, ye frontiers,” (naming the state to which they belong) “let justice hear; I am a public messenger of the Roman people. I come, an ambassador duly authorised, according to the forms of justice and religion; let my words therefore meet with credit.” He then makes his demands, and afterwards appeals to Jupiter: “If I demand that those persons, and those effects, should be given up to me, the messenger of the Roman people, contrary to justice and the law of nations, then suffer me not to enjoy my native country.” These words he repeats when he passes over the boundaries; the same, to the first person that he meets, again, when he enters the gate; and lastly, when he enters the Forum, only making the necessary change of a few words, in the form of the declaration and of the oath. If the persons whom he demands are not given up, then, on on the expiration of thirty three days, that being the number enjoined by the rule, he declares war in this manner: “O Jupiter, hear me! and thou, Juno, Quirinus, and all ye gods of heaven, and ye of the earth, and ye of the infernal regions, hear, I call you to witness, that that people,” naming them, whoever they are, “are unjust, and do not perform what equity requires. But concerning those affairs we will consult the elders in our own country, by what means we may obtain our right.” After this, the messenger returned to Rome, in order that the opinion of the government might be taken. The king immediately consulted the senate, nearly in these words: “Concerning those matters, controversies, and arguments which were agitated between the Pater Patratus of the Roman people, the Quirites, and the Pater Patratus of the ancient Latines, and the ancient Latine people, which matters ought to have been granted, performed, and discharged; but which they have neither granted, performed, nor discharged, declare,” said he, to the person whose vote he first asked, “what is your opinion.” The other then said, “I am of opinion, that the performance of them ought to be exacted in just and regular war, wherefore I consent to and vote for it.” The rest were then asked in order, and the majority of those present being of the same opinion, a vote passed for war. It was a customary practice for the herald to carry a spear pointed with steel, or burnt at the point and dipped in blood, to the frontiers, and there, in the presence of at least three grown-up persons, to say, “Forasmuch as the states of the ancient Latines, and the ancient Latine people, have acted against and behaved unjustly towards the Roman people the Quirites, forasmuch as the Roman people the Quirites have ordered that there should be war with the ancient Latines, and the senate of the Roman people the Quirites have given their opinion, consented, and voted that war should be made with the ancient Latines; therefore I, and the Roman people, do declare and make war against the states of the ancient Latines, and the ancient Latine people;” and saying this, he threw the spear within their boundaries. In this manner was satisfaction demanded from the Latines, at that time, and war declared; succeeding generations adopted the same method.
XXXIII. Ancus, having committed the care of religious affairs to the flamens and other priests, assembled a new army, set out to the war, and took Politorium, a city of the Latines, by storm. Then, pursuing the practice of former kings, who had augmented the power of the Roman state, by receiving enemies into the number of their citizens, he removed the whole multitude to Rome; and, as the original Romans entirely occupied the ground round the Palatium, the Sabines the Capitol with the citadel, and the Albans the Cælian Mount, the Aventine was assigned to this body of new citizens; and in a little time after, on the reduction of Tellenæ and Ficana, an additional number of inhabitants were settled in the same place. Politorium was soon after attacked, a second time, by the Roman forces, the ancient Latines having taken possession of it, when left without inhabitants; and this induced the Romans to demolish that city, that it might not again serve as a receptacle for the enemy. At length, the whole force of the Latine war was collected aboat Medullia, and the contest was carried on there with various success: for the city was not only well defended by works, and secured by a strong garrison, but the army of the Latines, having pitched their camp in the open country, fought the Romans several times in close engagement. At last, Ancus, making a vigorous effort with all his force, first defeated them in the field, and then made himself master of the city, from whence he returned, with immense booty, to Rome. On this occasion too, many thousands of the Latines, being admitted into the number of citizens, had ground allotted to them near the temple of Murcia, in order to unite the Aventine to the Palatine hill. The Janiculum also was taken in, not for want of room, but to prevent its serving, at any time, as a place of strength to an enemy; and it was determined that this should be joined to the city, not only by a wall, but likewise, for the convenience of passage, by a wooden bridge, which was then first built over the Tiber. The Quiritian trench also, no inconsiderable defence to those parts, which, from their low situation, are of easy access, is a work of king Ancus. In consequence of these vast accessions to the state, and the numbers of people becoming so very large, many, disregarding the distinctions between right and wrong, committed various crimes, and escaped discovery. In order to suppress by terror the boldness which the vicious assumed from hence, and which gained ground continually, a prison was built in the middle of the city, adjoining the Forum: and not only the city, but the territory also and boundaries of the state, were extended by this king. The Mæsian forset was taken away from the Veientians, the Roman dominion extended as far as the sea, and the city of Ostia built at the mouth of the Tiber, near which, salt-pits were formed; and in consequence of the glorious success obtained in war, the temple of Jupiter Feretrius was enlarged.
Y. R. 121. 631.XXXIV. During the reign of Ancus, a person named Lucumo, of an enterprising spirit, and possessed of great wealth, came and settled at Rome, led principally by ambition, and hopes of attaining higher honours than he could expect at Tarquinii, where also he was considered as an alien. He was the son of Demaratus a Corinthian, who, having left his native country, in consequence of some intestine commotions, happened to fix his residence at Tarquinii, and marrying there, had two sons. Their names were Lucumo and Aruns. Lucumo survived his father, and inherited all his property. Aruns died before the father, leaving a wife pregnant. The father did not long survive his son, and not knowing that his daughter-in-law was with child, he died, without taking any notice of a grandson in his will, so that the boy, who was born after his grandfather’s decease, not being entitled to any share of his property, was called, from the poverty of his situation, Egerius. Lucumo, on the other hand, becoming sole heir, was, by his riches, inspired with elevated notions; and these were much increased by his marriage with Tanaquil, a woman of the highest distinction, who could not endure, with patience, that the rank of the man whom she had married, should remain inferior to that of the family which gave her birth. As the Etrurians looked with contempt on Lucumo, the descendant of a foreign exile, she could not support the indignity, but, disregarding her natural attachment to her country, in comparison with the pleasure of seeing her husband raised to an honourable rank, formed the design of removing from Tarquinii. Rome appeared best suited to her purpose. In a new state, where all nobility was of late date, and acquired by merit, she thought there would be room for a man of spirit and industry. She considered that Tatius, a Sabine, had enjoyed the throne; that Numa had been called to the crown from Cures; and that Ancus was of a Sabine family by his father, and could show only the single image of Numa to entitle him to nobility. It was not difficult to persuade her husband, who was ambitious of honours, and had no natural attachment to Tarquinii, except through his mother, to enter into her designs. Wherefore, carrying their effects along with them, they set out together for Rome. They happened to come through the Janiculum; there, as he sat in the chariot with his wife, an eagle, suspending herself on her wings, stooped gently, and took off his cap, and, after hovering for some time over the chariot, with loud screams, replaced it in its proper position on his head, as if she had been sent by some deity to perform that office; and then, flying up into the air, disappeared. It is said, that this augury was received with great joy by Tanaquil, who was well skilled in celestial prodigies, as the Etrurians generally are. Embracing her husband, she desired him to cherish hopes of high and magnificent fortune, for that such a bird, from such a quarter of the heaven, the messenger of such a deity, portended no less; that it had exhibited the omen on the most elevated part of the human body, and had lifted up the ornament, placed on the head of man, in order to replace it on the same part, by direction of the gods. Full of these thoughts and expectations, they advanced into the city, and having purchased a house there, they gave out his name as Lucius Tarquinius. The circumstance of his being a stranger, and his wealth, soon attracted the general notice of the Romans; nor was he wanting, on his part, in aiding the efforts of fortune in his favour; he conciliated the friendship of all, to the utmost of his power, by his courteous address, hospitable entertainments, and generous acts; at last his character reached even the palace. Having thus procured an introduction there, he soon improved it to such a degree, by his politeness and dexterity in paying his court, that he was admitted to the privileges of familiar friendship, and was consulted in all affairs both public and private, foreign and domestic, and having acquitted himself to satisfaction in all, was at length, by the king’s will, appointed guardian to his children. Ancus reigned twenty-four years, equal in renown, and in the arts both of peace and war, to any of the former kings.
XXXV. The sons of Ancus had now nearly reached the age of manhood; for which reason Tarquinius the more earnestly pressed, that an assembly might be convened as speedily as possible for the election of a king. The proclamation for this purpose being issued, when the time approached, he sent the youths to a distance, on a hunting party. He is said to have afforded the first instance of making way to the crown, by paying court to the people, and to have made a speech, composed for the purpose of gaining the affections of the populace; telling them, that “It was no new favour which he solicited; if that were the case, people might indeed be displeased and surprized; that he was not the first foreigner, but the third, who aimed at the government of Rome:— that Tatius, from being not only a foreigner, but even an enemy, was made king, and Numa, entirely unacquainted with the city, and not proposing himself as a candidate, had been, from their own choice, invited to accept the crown:— that he, as soon as he became his own master, had removed to Rome, with his wife and all his substance:— that he had spent the most active part of his life at Rome:— that both in civil and military employments he had learned the Roman laws and Roman customs, under such a master as ought to be wished for, king Ancus himself:— that in duty and obedience to the king, he had vied with all men; in kindness towards others, with the king himself.” As these assertions were no more than the truth, the people unanimously consented that he should be elected king.Y. R. 138. 614. And this was the reason that this man, of extraordinary merit in other respects, retained, through the whole course of his reign, the same affectation of popularity which he had used in suing for the crown. For the purpose of strengthening his own authority, as well as of increasing the power of the commonwealth, he added an hundred to the number of the senate, who afterwards were entitled, “minorum gentium,” i. e. of the younger families, and necessarily constituted a party in favour of the king, by whose kindness they had been brought into the senate. His first war was with the Latines, from whom he took the city Appiolæ by storm; and having brought from thence a greater quantity of booty than had been expected, from a war of so little consequence, he exhibited games in a more expensive and splendid manner than any of the former kings. On that occasion, the ground was first marked out for the circus, which is now called “maximus” (the principal), in which certain divisions were set apart for the senators and knights, where each were to build seats for themselves, which were called Fori (benches.) They remained, during the exhibition, on these seats, supported by pieces of timber, twelve feet high from the ground: the games consisted of horse-races, and the performances of wrestlers, collected mostly from Etruria; and from that time continued to be celebrated annually, being termed the Roman, and, sometimes, the great games. By the same king, lots for building were assigned to private persons, round the Forum, where porticoes and shops were erected.
XXXVI. He intended also to have surrounded the city with a stone wall; but a war with the Sabines interrupted his designs. And so suddenly did this break out, that the enemy passed the Anio, before the Roman troops could march out to meet them, and stop their progress. This produced a great alarm at Rome, and, in the first engagement, the victory remained undecided, after great slaughter on both sides. The enemy afterwards having retired to their camp, and allowed the Romans time to prepare for the war anew, Tarquinius, observing that the principal defect of his army was the want of cavalry, resolved to add other centuries to the Ramnenses, Titienses, and Luceres, instituted by Romulus, and to have them distinguished by his own name. As Romulus, when he first formed this institution, had made use of augury, Accius Nævius, a celebrated augur at that time, insisted that no alteration or addition could be made to it, without the sanction of the birds. The king was highly displeased at this, and, in ridicule of the art said, as we are told, “Come, you diviner, discover, by your augury, whether what I am now thinking of can be accomplished.” The other having tried the matter according to the rules of augury, and declared that it could be accomplished, “Well,” said he, “what I was thinking of was, whether you could cut a whetstone in two with a razor. Take these, then, and perform what your birds portend to be practicable.” On which, as the story goes, he, without any difficulty, cut the whetstone. There was a statue of Accius, with a fillet on his head, in the place where the transaction happened, in the Comitium* or place of assembly, just on the steps, at the left hand side of the senate-house. It is also said, that the whetstone was fixed in the same place, there to remain, as a monument of this miracle, to posterity. This is certain, that the respect paid to auguries, and the office of augurs, rose so high, that, from that time forth, no business either of war or peace was undertaken without consulting the birds: meetings of the people, embodying of armies, the most important concerns of the state, were postponed when the birds did not allow them. Nor did Tarquinius then make any change in the number of the centuries of the knights but doubled the number in each, so that there were one thousand eight hundred men in the three centuries. The additional men were only distinguished by the appellation of the younger, prefixed to the original names of their centuries; and these at present, for they have been since doubled, are called the Six Centuries.
XXXVII. Having augmented this part of his army, he came to a second engagement with the Sabines. And here, besides that the Roman army had an addition of strength, a stratagem also was made use of, which the enemy, with all their vigilance, could not elude. A number of men were sent to throw a great quantity of timber, which lay on the bank of the Anio, into the river, after setting it on fire; and the wind being favourable, the blazing timber, most of which was placed on rafts, being driven against the piers, where it stuck fast, burned down the bridge. This event not only struck terror into the Sabines during the fight, but prevented their retreating when they betook themselves to flight, so that great numbers who had escaped the enemy, perished in the river: and their arms being known at the city, as they floated in the Tiber, gave certain assurance of the victory, sooner almost than any, messenger could arrive. In that battle the cavalry gained extraordinary honour. We are told, that being posted on both wings, when the line of their infantry which formed the centre was obliged to give ground, they made so furious a charge on the flanks of the enemy, that they not only checked the Sabine legions, who were vigorously pressing the troops which gave way, but quickly put them to the rout. The Sabines fled precipitately toward the mountains, which but few of them reached. The greatest part, as has been mentioned, were driven by the cavalry into the river. Tarquinius, judging it proper to pursue the enemy closely, before they should recover from their dismay, as soon as he had sent off the booty and prisoners to Rome, and burned the spoils, collected together in a great heap, according to a vow which he had made to Vulcan, proceeded to lead his army forward into the Sabine territories. On the other hand, the Sabines, though they had met with a defeat, and had no reason to hope that they should be able to retrieve it, yet, their circumstances not allowing time for deliberation, advanced to meet him, with such troops as they had hastily levied; and being routed a second time, and reduced almost to ruin, they sued for peace.
XXXVIII. Collatia, and all the land around that city, was taken from the Sabines, and Egerius, son to the king’s brother, was left there with a garrison. This was the manner, as I understand, in which the people of Collatia came under the dominion of the Romans, and this was the form of the surrender. The king asked, “Are ye ambassadors and deputies on behalf of the people of Collatia, to surrender yourselves, and the people of Collatia?” “We are.”—“Are the people of Collatia in their own disposal?” “They are.”—“Do ye surrender yourselves and the people of Collatia, together with your city, lands, waters, boundaries, temples, utensils, all property both sacred and common, under my dominion, and that of the Roman people?” “We do surrender them.”—“Well, I receive them.” The Sabine war being thus concluded, Tarquinius returned in triumph to Rome.* Soon after this, he made war on the ancient Latines, during which there happened no general engagement. By leading about his army to the several towns, he reduced the whole Latine race to subjection. Corniculum, old Ficulnea, Cameria, Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullia, Nomentum, all these, which either belonged to the ancient Latines, or had revolted to them, were taken, and soon after peace was re-established. He then applied himself to works of peace, with a degree of spirit, which even exceeded the efforts that he had made in war: so that the people enjoyed little more rest at home than they had during the campaigns: for he set about surrounding with a wall of stone, those parts of the city which he had not already fortified; which work had been interrupted, at the beginning, by the war of the Sabines. The lower parts of the city about the Forum, and the other hollows that lay between the hills, from whence it was difficult to discharge the water, by reason of their situation, he drained, by means of sewers drawn on a slope down to the Tiber. He also marked out, and laid the foundations for inclosing, a court round the temple of Jupiter, in the Capitol, which he had vowed during the Sabine war, his mind already presaging the future magnificence of the place.
XXXIX. About that time a prodigy was seen in the palace, wonderful, both in the appearance and in the event. They relate that, whilst a boy, whose name was Servius Tullius, lay asleep, his head blazed with fire, in the sight of many people; that, by the loud cries of astonishment, occasioned by such a miraculous appearance, the king and queen were alarmed; and that when some of the servants brought water to extinguish it, the queen prevented them; and, having quieted the uproar, forbad the boy to be disturbed until he awake of his own accord. In a short time on his awaking the flame disappeared. Then Tanaquil, calling her husband aside, to a private place, said to him, “Do you see this boy, whom we educate in such an humble style? Be assured that he will hereafter prove a light to dispel a gloom which will lie heavy on our affairs, and will be the support of our palace in distress. Let us therefore, with every degree of attention that we can bestow, nourish this plant, which is, hereafter, to become the greatest ornament to our family, and our state.” From that time they treated the boy as if he were their own child, and had him instructed in all those liberal arts, by which the mind is qualified to support high rank with dignity. That is easily brought to pass which is pleasing to the gods. The youth proved to be of a disposition truly royal, so that when Tarquinius came to look for a son-in-law, there was not one among the Roman youth who could be set in competition with him, in any kind of merit; and to him Tarquinius betrothed his daughter. This extraordinary honour conferred on him, whatever might be the reason for it, will not let us believe that he was born of a slave, and had himself been a slave in his childhood. I am rather inclined to be of their opinion, who say, that, when Corniculum was taken, the wife of Servius Tullius, the principal man in that city, being pregnant when her husband was slain, and being known among the rest of the prisoners, and, on account of her high rank, exempted from servitude by the Roman queen, was delivered of a son at Rome, in the house of Tarquinius Priscus; that, in consequence of such kind treatment, an intimacy grew between the ladies, and that the boy also being brought up in the house, from his infancy, was highly beloved and respected; and that the circumstance of his mother having fallen into the enemy’s hands, on the taking of her native city, gave rise to the opinion of his being born of a slave.
XL. About the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Tarquinius, Servius Tullius stood in the highest degree of estimation, not only with the king, but with the senate and the commons. At this time, the two sons of Ancus, although they had before this always considered it as the highest indignity, that they should be expelled from the throne of their father, by the perfidy of their guardian, and that the sovereignty of Rome should be enjoyed by a stranger, whose family, so far from being natives of the city, were not even natives of Italy, yet now felt their indignation rise to a higher pitch of violence, at the probability that the crown was not to revert to them even after Tarquinius, but was to continue to sink one step after another, until it fell on the head of a slave: so that, within the space of a little more than an hundred years from the time when Romulus, descended from a deity, and himself a deity, had, during his abode on earth, held the government, a slave, the son of a slave, should now get possession of it. They looked on it as a disgrace to the Roman name in general, and particularly to their own house, if, while there was male issue of king Ancus surviving, the government of Rome should be prostituted not only to strangers, but to slaves. They determined, therefore, to prevent this dishonour by the sword. But resentment for the injury which they had suffered stimulated them strongly to attack Tarquinius himself, rather than Servius, and also the consideration that the king, if he survived, would be able to take severer vengeance for any murder committed than a private person could; and that, besides, were Servius put to death, it was to be expected that whatever other son-in-law he might choose, would be made heir of the kingdom. For these reasons, they formed a plot against the king himself; for the execution of which, two of the most undaunted of the shepherds were chosen, who, armed with the iron tools of husbandmen, which they were used to carry, pretended a quarrel in the porch of the palace, and attracted, by their outrageous behaviour, the attention of all the king’s attendants: then both appealing to the king, and their clamour having reached the palace, they were called in and brought before him. At first they both bawled aloud, and each furiously abused the other, until, being rebuked by a lictor, and ordered to speak in their turns, they desisted from railing. Then, as they had concerted, one began to explain the affair; and while the king, attentive to him, was turned quite to that side, the other, raising up his axe, struck it into his head, and leaving the weapon in the wound they both rushed out of the house.
XLI. Whilst the persons present raised up Tarquinius who scarcely retained any signs of life, the lictors seized the assassins, who were endeavouring to escape. An uproar immediately ensued, and the people ran together in crowds, surprised, and eager to be informed of what had happened. Tanaquil, during this tumult, turned out every person from the palace, and ordered the doors to be shut, and at the same time appeared to be very busy in procuring such things as were necessary for the dressing of the wound, as if there were reason to hope; nor did she neglect to provide other means of safety, in case her hopes should fail. Sending instantly for Servius, and showing him her husband just expiring, she laid hold of his righthand, besought him that he would not suffer the death of his father-in-law to pass unrevenged, nor his mother-in-law to be exposed to the insults of their enemies. “Servius,” said she, “if you act as a man, the kingdom is yours and not theirs, who, by the hands of others, have perpetrated the basest of crimes. Call forth your best exertions, and follow the guidance of the gods, who formerly, by the divine fire which they spread around your head, gave an evident indication that it would afterwards be crowned with glory. Now let that heavenly flame rouse you. Now awake to real glory. We, though foreigners, have reigned before you. Consider your present situation, not of what family you are sprung. If the suddenness of this event deprives you of the power of forming plans of your own, then follow mine.” When the clamour and violence of the populace could hardly be withstood, Tanaquil addressed them from the upper part of the palace, through the windows facing the new street; for the king resided near the temple of Jupiter Stator. She desired them “not to be disheartened:” told them, that “the king had been stunned by a sudden blow; that the weapon had not sunk deep into his body; that he had come to himself again; that when the blood was wiped off, the wound had been examined, and all appearances were favourable; that she hoped he might be able to show himself to them again in a few days; and that, in the mean time, he commanded the people to obey the orders of Servius Tullius; that he would administer justice, and supply the king’s place in other departments.” Servius came forth in the robe of state, attended by the lictors, and seating himself on the king’s throne, adjudged some causes, and, concerning others, pretended that he would consult the king. Thus, though Tarquinius had already expired, his death was concealed for several days; while Servius, under the appearance of supplying the place of another, strengthened his own interest. Then, at length, the truth being made public, and loud lamentations raised in the palace, Servius, supported by a strong guard, with the approbation of the senate, took possession of the kingdom, being the first who attained the sovereignty without the orders of the people. The sons of Ancus, as soon as they found that the instruments of their villainy were seized;Y. R. 176. 576. and understood that the king was alive, and, that the interest of Servius was so strong, had gone into exile to Suessa Pometia.
XLII. And now Servius laboured to confirm his authority, not only by schemes of a public, but by others of a private nature. And lest the sons of Tarquinius should entertain the same sentiments of resentment against him, which had animated the sons of Ancus against Tarquinius, he joined his two daughters in marriage to the young princes, the Tarquinii, Lucius and Aruns. But by no human devices could he break through the unalterable decrees of fate, or prevent envy of the sovereign power from raising discord and animosity, even among those of his own family. Very seasonably for preserving stability to the present establishment, war was undertaken against the Veientians, the truce with them having expired, and against the other Etrurians. In that war, both the valour and the good fortune of Tullius were very conspicuous: and, after vanquishing a powerful army of the enemy, he returned to Rome, no longer considering his authority as precarious, whether it were to depend on the disposition of the patricians towards himself, or on that of the commons. He then entered on an improvement in civil polity of the utmost importance, intending, that, as Numa had been the founder of such institutions as related to the worship of the gods, so posterity should celebrate Servius, as the author of every distinction between the members of the state; and of that subordination of ranks, by means of which, the limits between the several degrees of dignity and fortune are exactly ascertained. For he instituted the Census, an ordinance of the most salutary consequence, in an empire that was to rise to such a pitch of greatness;Y. R. 197. 555. according to which the several services requisite in war and peace were to be discharged, not by every person indiscriminately, as formerly, but according to the proportion of their several properties. He then, according to the Census, formed the plan of the Classes and Centuries, and the arrangement which subsists at present, calculated to preserve regularity and propriety in all transactions either of peace or war.
XLIII. Of those who possessed a hundred thousand asses,* or more, he formed eighty Centuries, forty elder, and the same number of younger.† The collective body of these was denominated the first class. The business of the elder was to guard the city; that of the younger, to carry on war abroad. The arms which they were ordered to provide, were a helmet, shield, greaves, coat of mail, all of brass — these for the defence of the body: their weapons of offence were a spear and a sword. To this class were added two Centuries of artificers, who were to serve without arms; the service allotted to them was to attend the machines in war. The fortune fixed for the second class, was from a hundred down to seventy-five thousand asses:‡ of these, elder and younger, were formed twenty centuries: the arms for these were, a buckler, instead of a shield, and all the rest, except the coat of mail, the same with the former. The fortune of the third class he fixed at fifty thousand asses:§ the number of Centuries was the same, and these regulated by the same distinctions of age; nor was any difference made in their arms, only the greaves were taken from them. In the fourth class the fortune was twenty-five thousand asses:* the same number of Centuries were formed: their arms were different; they were allowed none but a spear and a buckler. The fifth class was larger; it contained thirty Centuries: these carried slings and stones, which they were to throw. Among these, the extraordinaries, trumpeters, and fifers, were distributed into three Centuries. This class was rated at eleven thousand asses.† The rest of the populace were comprehended under an estimate lower than this, and of them was formed one Century, exempted from military service. The foot forces being thus distinguished and armed, he enrolled twelve Centuries of horsemen from among the principal persons of the state. He formed likewise six other Centuries, out of the three instituted by Romulus, preserving still the original names under which they had been incorporated. Ten thousand asses‡ were given these out of the public funds, to purchase horses; and certain widows were appointed, who were to pay them annually two thousand asses§ each, towards the maintenance of their horses. In all these instances, the burthen was taken off from the poor, and laid on the rich. To make the latter some amends, additional honours were conferred on them. For henceforth suffrages were given, not according to the mode established by Romulus, and retained by the other kings, man by man promiscuously, with equal weight, and equal privileges; but degrees of precedency were established in such a manner, that while no one appeared to be excluded from giving his suffrage, still the whole power was lodged in the chiefs of the state: the knights being first called, then the eighty Centuries of the higher class. If there was a difference of opinion among these, which seldom happened, then the Centuries of the second class were to be called; and scarcely ever did an instance occur of their descending beyond this, so as to come to the lowest classes. Nor ought it to be wondered at, that the arrangement, which subsists at present, after the tribes had been increased to thirty-five, and the number of them almost doubled, does not agree in the number of Centuries younger and elder, with the amount of those instituted by Servius Tullius: for the city being laid out into four divisions, according to the several quarters and hills (the parts that were inhabited,) these were what he called Tribes, I suppose from the tribute; for the mode of the people’s paying their shares of this, in an equal proportion to their rated property, took its rise also from him: nor had these tribes any relation to the number and distribution of the Centuries.
XLIV. When the Census was completed, which he had expedited by the terrors of a law passed concerning such as should neglect to attend it, with denunciations of confinement and death, he issued a proclamation, that all citizens of Rome, horse and foot, should assemble in the Campus Martius at the dawn of day, each in his respective Century; and having there drawn up the whole army in order, he performed the lustration or purification of it, by the ceremonies and sacrifices called Suovetaurilia.* This was called the closing of the lustrum, because it was the conclusion of the Census. In that survey eighty thousand citizens are said to have been rated. Fabius Pictor, the most ancient of our writers, adds, that this was the number of those who were able to bear arms. To accommodate so great a multitude, it was found necessary to enlarge the city in proportion: he added to it, therefore, two hills, the Quirinal and Viminal, and immediately adjoining the latter extended the limits of the Esquiliæ, and there fixed his own residence, in order to bring the place into repute. He surrounded the city with a rampart, trenches, and a wall, and thus extended the Pomœrium. Those who consider merely the etymology of the word, explain Pomœrium, as denoting a space on the outside of the wall, Postmœrium: but it is rather a space on each side of the wall, which the Etrurians, formerly, on the founding of cities, consecrated with the ceremonies used by augurs, in the direction wherein they intended the wall should run, of a certain breadth on both sides of it; with the intention that, on the inside, no buildings should be erected close to the walls, though now they are, in many places, joined to them; and also that, on the outside, a certain space of ground should lie open and unoccupied. This space, which it was unlawful either to inhabit or to till, the Romans called Pomœrium, not because it was on the outside of the wall, any more than because the wall was on the outside of it: and always, on occasion of an addition being made to the city, as far as they intended that the walls should advance outward, so far these sacred limits were extended.
XLV. Having increased the power of the state by this enlargement of the city, and made every internal regulation that appeared best adapted to the exigences both of war and peace, the king, who wished that the acquisition of power should not always depend on the mere force of arms, laid a scheme for extending his dominion, by the wisdom of his counsels, and raising, at the same time, a conspicuous ornament to the city. The temple of Diana at Ephesus was at that time universally celebrated, and it was commonly believed, that it had been built by a general contribution from the several states of Asia: Servius, in conversation with the chief men of the Latines, with whom he had taken pains to form connections of hospitality and friendship, both in his public and private capacity, used frequently in the strongest terms, to recommend concord and a social union between their several gods; and by often repeating the same sentiments, prevailed so far at last, that the Latine states agreed to build, in conjunction with the Roman people, a temple to Diana at Rome. This was an acknowledgment that Rome was the sovereign head of both nations, a point which had been so often disputed in arms. But though the Latines, finding all their efforts in war ineffectual, seemed now to have thrown aside all concern with regard to that matter, yet among the Sabines one particular person did not neglect an opportunity, which seemed to be thrown in his way by fortune, of recovering independence, by the execution of a scheme which he planned himself. It is related, that this person, the head of a family, had a heifer calf of extraordinary size and beauty produced by one of his cows: her horns, which remained for many ages fixed in the porch of the temple of Diana, were a monument of this wonder. The matter was considered in the light of a prodigy, as it deserved, and the soothsayers declared, that sovereignty would reside in that state whose subject should sacrifice this heifer to Diana; and this prediction had reached the ears of the priest who had the charge of Diana’s temple. The Sabine, as soon as he had fixed on a proper day for the sacrifice, drove the heifer to Rome, brought her to the temple of Diana, and placed her before the altar; the priest, suspecting the truth, from the size of the victim, of which he had heard so much, and remembering the prediction, addresses the Sabine thus: “Stranger, what are you preparing to do? To perform sacrifice to Diana without the necessary purification? Why do you not first dip yourself in a running stream? The Tiber flows along in the bottom of that vale.” The stranger, struck with the scruple, and anxious to have every thing performed in due order, that the event might answer to the prodigy, went down from the temple to the Tiber. In the mean time the Roman sacrificed the heifer to Diana, a circumstance which gave great pleasure to the king, and to the whole state.
XLVI. Servius, though long possession had now rendered his title to the crown indisputable, yet having heard that young Tarquinius sometimes threw out insinuations, that he held the government without the order of the people, first ingratiated himself with the commons, by making a general distribution among them of the lands taken from the enemy; and then ventured to propose the question to he people, whether they “chose and ordered that he should be king?” Whereupon he was declared king, with greater unanimity than had ever before appeared on any similar occasion. But the event did not lessen the hopes, which Tarquinius had conceived, of being able to seat himself on the throne: on the contrary, having observed that the proceedings, relative to the lands for the commons, were highly disagreeable to the patricians, he embraced, the more eagerly, the opportunity which this afforded him, of arraigning the conduct of Servius before them, and of increasing his own influence in the senate. This young man was naturally of a fiery temper, and his restless spirit was continually stimulated at home by his wife Tullia: and the palace at Rome was destined to exhibit a scene of tragical villainy; so that, disgusted at kings, the people might become more ripe for the asserting of their liberty, and that a reign, founded in wickedness, should prove the last. Whether this Lucius Tarquinius was the son or grandson of Tarquinius Priscus, is not clear; following, however, the authority of the greater number, I have chosen to call him his son. He had a brother Aruns Tarquinius, a youth of a mild disposition: to these two, as has already been mentioned, were married the two Tullias, the king’s daughters, who were also of widely different tempers. It happened, luckily, that the two violent dispositions were not united in wedlock, owing, I presume, to the good fortune of the Roman people, that the reign of Servius being lengthened, the manners of the people might be fully formed. The haughty Tullia was highly chagrined, at finding in her husband no principle either of ambition or enterprise; she turned, therefore, her whole regard towards the other Tarquinius; him she admired, him she called a man, and a true descendant of the royal blood; her sister she despised, who, having got a man for her husband, showed nothing of that spirit of enterprise which became a woman. Similarity of disposition quickly produced an intimacy between them, as is generally the case; evil is fittest to consort with its like. But it was the woman who set on foot the scene of universal confusion which followed. In the many private conversations which she used to hold with her sister’s husband, she refrained not from throwing out the most violent reproaches against her own, to his brother, and against her sister, to that sister’s husband; affirming, that “it were better that both he and she were unmarried, than to be so unsuitably matched; that, through the stupidity of others, they were condemned to a life of inactivity. If the gods had granted her such a husband, as she deserved, quickly would be seen in her own house, that crown which was now upon her father’s head.” She soon inspired the young man with notions as desperate as her own. Aruns Tarquinius, and the younger Tullia, dying almost immediately after, and thus leaving room in their families for new nuptials, they were joined in matrimony, Servius rather not obstructing, than approving of, the match.
XLVII. From that time forward, Tullius, now in an advanced age, found himself daily exposed to new disquietudes, and his authority to new dangers; for Tullia now prepared to proceed from one wickedness to another, and never ceased, either night or day, teasing her husband not to let the parricides which they had committed, pass without effect. “She wanted not,” she said, “a person, who should give her the name of a wife, or with whom she might, in silence, submit to bondage; what she desired was, one who would consider himself as worthy of the throne; who would remember that he was the son of Tarquinius Priscus; who would prefer the present possession, to distant hopes, of a kingdom. If you be such a man as I took you for, when I married you, I address you by the titles of my husband, and my king: if not, my condition is now changed so far for the worse, that in you, together with poverty of spirit, I find villainy united. Why not proceed in the business? You are not obliged to set out from Corinth or Tarquinii, as your father was, to struggle for foreign kingdoms. The gods of your family, and those of your native country, and your father’s image, and the royal palace in which you reside, and the royal throne in that palace, and the name of Tarquinius, these constitute you, and call you king. Or, if you have not a spirit daring enough for such an enterprise, why deceive the nation? Why assume the figure of a youth of royal blood? Get you hence to Tarquinii, or to Corinth. Sink back again into the original obscurity of your race; fitter to be compared with your brother, than with your father.” With these, and other such reproaches and incentives, she spurred on the young man; nor could she herself, with any degree of patience, endure the reflection, that Tanaquil, a foreign woman, had by her spirited exertions acquired such consequence, as to be able to dispose of the kingdom twice successively; first, to her husband, and next, to her son-in-law; while she, sprung from royal blood, was to have no influence in bestowing it, or taking it away. Tarquinius, hurried on by the phrenzy infused into him by this woman, went round among the patricians, particularly those of the younger families, and solicited their interest; put them in mind of his father’s kindness to them, and demanded a requital of it; enticed the young men by presents; and endeavoured to increase his consequence on every occasion, both by magnificent promises on his part, and by heavy charges of misconduct against the king. At length, judging the season ripe for the accomplishment of his purpose, he rushed suddenly into the Forum, attended by a band of armed men, and, while all were struck motionless with terror, proceeded through it, and then seating himself on the king’s throne in the senate-house, ordered the senators to be summoned by a herald, to attend their king Tarquinius. They assembled instantly, some having been prepared before for the occasion, others dreading ill consequences to themselves in case they did not attend; for they were filled with amazement at the novelty and strangeness of the proceeding, and thought the case of Servius utterly desperate. Then Tarquinius, beginning his invectives with reflections on the king’s immediate ancestors, represented him as a “slave, the son of a slave, who, after the untimely death of his parent, without an interregnum being appointed as usual, without an election being held, had taken possession of the throne, not in consequence of a vote of the people, or of the approbation of the senate, but as the gift of a woman. Being thus descended, and thus created king, ever favouring the lowest class of people, to which he himself belonged, he had, through an antipathy to the honourable descent of others, taken away the lands from the chief men in the state, and distributed them among the very meanest. All the burthens which heretofore had been borne in common, he had thrown on those of highest rank. He had instituted the Census, in order that the fortunes of the more wealthy might be more conspicuously exposed to envy, and become a ready fund, out of which he could, when he chose, give bribes to the most needy.”
XLVIII. In the midst of this harangue, Servius, having been alarmed by an account of the disturbance, entered, and immediately, from the porch of the senate-house, called out with a loud voice, “What is the matter here, Tarquinius? How dare you presume, while I am alive, to convene the senate, or to sit on my throne?” To this the other, in a determined tone, replied, “That the seat which he occupied was the seat of his own father: that, as the king’s son, he was much better entitled to inherit the throne than a slave; and that he (Servius) had been suffered long enough to insult his masters with arbitrary insolence.” A clamorous dispute immediately began between the partizans of each; the people ran together in crowds into the senate-house, and it became evident, that the possession of the throne depended on the issue of this contest. On this, Tarquinius, compelled now, by necessity, to proceed to the last extremity, having greatly the advantage in point of age and strength, caught Servius by the middle, and carrying him out of the senate-house, threw him from the top to the bottom of the stairs, and then returned to keep the senators together. The king’s officers and attendants fled immediately. He himself, being desperately hurt, attempted, with the royal retinue, who were terrified almost to death, to retire to his house, and had arrived at the head of the Cyprian street, when he was slain by some, who had been sent thither for that purpose by Tarquinius, and had overtaken him in his flight. It is believed, other instances of her wickedness rendering it credible, that this was done by the advice of Tullia. It is certain, for there is sufficient proof of the fact, that she drove into the Forum in her chariot; and without being abashed at such a multitude of men, called out her husband from the senate-house, and was the first who saluted him king. She was then ordered by him, to withdraw from such a tumult; and when, in her return home, she arrived at the head of the Cyprian street, where the enclosure of Diana lately stood, as the chariot turned to the right towards the Virbian hill, in order to drive up to the Esquilian mount, the person who drove the horses, struck with horror, stopped and drew in the reins and showed his mistress the murdered Servius lying on the ground. Her behaviour on this occasion is represented as inhuman and shocking; and the place bears testimony to it, being thence called the Wicked street, where Tullia, devested of all feeling, agitated by the furies, the avengers of her sister and husband, is said to have driven her chariot over her father’s corpse, and to have carried on her bloody vehicle, part of the body and the blood of that parent, with which she herself was also sprinkled and stained, to the household gods of her and her husband’s family, through whose resentment followed, shortly after, a train of events suited to the iniquitous commencement of this reign. Servius Tullius reigned forty-four years, during which his conduct was such, that even a good and moderate successor would have found it difficult to support a competition with him. This circumstance also still farther enhanced his fame, that, together with him perished all regular and legal government. Mild and moderate as his administration was, yet, because the government was lodged in the hands of a single person, some authors tell us, he intended to have resigned it, had not the wickedness of his family broken off the designs which he meditated, for establishing the liberty of his country.
Y. R. 220. 532.XLIX. Thus began the reign of Lucius Tarquinius, who, from his subsequent behaviour, acquired the surname of the Proud; for this unworthy son-in-law prohibited the burial of the king, alleging that Romulus likewise had remained unburied. The principal senators, whom he suspected of favouring the interest of Servius, he put to death; and soon becoming apprehensive, that the precedent of acquiring the crown by wicked means, might be adopted, from his own practice, against himself, he kept an armed band about him, for the security of his person; for he had no kind of title to the crown, but that of force, holding it neither by the order of the people, nor with the approbation of the senate. And besides this, as he could place no reliance on the affection of his subjects, he was obliged to raise, in their fears, a fence to his authority. In order to diffuse these the more extensively, he took entirely into his own hands, the cognizance of capital offences, which he determined without consulting with any person whatever; so that he could put to death, banish, or impose fines, not only on those whom he suspected or disliked, but on persons, with respect to whom, he could have no other view, than that of plunder. Having, by these means, diminished the number of the senate, against whom his proceedings were chiefly levelled, he determined not to fill up the vacancies; hoping that the smallness of their number would expose that body to the greater contempt: and that they would show the less resentment, at their not being consulted on any business: for he was the first of the kings who discontinued the practice of his predecessors, of consulting the senate upon every occasion. In the administration of public affairs, he advised with none but his own private family. War, peace, treaties, alliances, he of himself, with such advisers as he chose, declared, contracted, and dissolved, without any order, either of the people, or of the senate. He took particular pains to attach the nation of the Latines to his interest, availing himself of foreign aid, the more effectually to ensure his safety at home: and he formed with their chiefs, not only connections of hospitality, but affinities: to Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum he gave his daughter in marriage. Mamilius was of the most illustrious family, by far, of any among the Latines, being descended, if we may give credit to fame, from Ulysses and the goddess Circe. By this match he engaged the support of his numerous friends and relations.
L. Tarquinius now possessed great influence among the Latine chiefs, when he issued orders, that they should assemble on a certain day, at the grove of Ferentina, saying, that he wished to confer with them on some matters of common concern. They accordingly met in great numbers, at the dawn of day: Tarquinius himself observed indeed the day, but did not come until a little before sun-set. Meanwhile, many topics were discussed, and various opinions uttered in the assembly. Turnus Herdonius, of Aricia, inveighed violently against Tarquinius, for not attending. “It was no wonder,” he said, “that the surname of proud had been bestowed on him at Rome;” for, at this time, they generally gave him that appellation, though only in private discourse. “Could any instance be given of greater pride, than his trifling thus with the whole nation of the Latines? After their chiefs had been brought together by his summons, at so great a distance from home, the very person who called the meeting did not attend. He was certainly making trial of their patience, intending, if they submitted to the yoke, to crush them, when they could not resist. For who did not see plainly, that he was aiming at sovereignty over the Latines? and if his own countrymen had reason to be pleased at having entrusted him with that power; or if, in reality, it had been entrusted to him, and not forcibly seized on through parricide, then the Latines ought also to entrust him with it. But no: not even in that case, because he was a foreigner. Yet, if the Romans repined at his government, exposed as they were to murders, banishment, and confiscations without end, what better prospect could the Latines entertain? If they listened to him, they would depart each to his own home, and would pay no more regard to the day of assembly, than was shown by the person who appointed it.” Whilst this man, who was naturally seditious and turbulent, and who had by these means acquired some degree of power at home, was thus haranguing the people, Tarquinius came into the assembly. This put an end to his discourse. Every one turned away from him to salute Tarquinius, who, being advised by his friends to make an apology for having come at that time of the day, when silence was made, told them, that “he had been chosen arbiter between a father and son, and had been detained by the pains which he was obliged to take to bring about a reconciliation; and that, as that business had consumed the day, he would, on the morrow, lay before them what he had to propose.” Even this, we are told, was not suffered by Turnus to pass without notice; for he observed, that “there could be no controversy shorter than one between a father and son, which might be despatched in a few words; if the son did not submit to his father, he should take the ill consequences.”
LI. Uttering these reflections against the Roman king, the Arician withdrew from the assembly; and Tarquinius, who was more incensed at his behaviour than he appeared to be, began immediately to contrive schemes for the destruction of Turnus, in order to strike the same terror into the Latines, by which he had depressed the spirits of his subjects at home. And as he could not, of his own mere authority, openly put him to death, he effected, by a false accusation, the ruin of an innocent man. By means of some Aricians, of the opposite faction, he bribed a servant of Turnus to suffer a large quantity of swords to be privately conveyed into his lodging: this part of his scheme being completed, during the course of that same night, Tarquinius, a little before day, called together about him the chiefs of the Latines, as if he had been alarmed by some extraordinary occurrence, and told them, that “his delay yesterday, as if it were the effect of the particular care of the gods, had been the means of preserving him and them from destruction:— that he had received information, that a plan had been laid by Turnus to murder him and the Latine chiefs, in order that he might enjoy alone the government of the Latines:— that he intended to have fallen upon them yesterday, in the assembly, but the business was deferred, because the person who called the meeting, and who was his principal object, was not there; this was the reason of all that abuse thrown on him for being absent; because, by that absence, he had frustrated his design:— that he had no doubt, but, if the intelligence was true, he would, early next morning, when the assembly met, come thither in arms, and attended by an armed force. He was told, that a vast number of swords had been carried to his house; whether that were false or not, might be instantly known, and he requested that they would go with him directly to Turnus.” They saw some grounds of suspicion in the violent temper of Turnus; his discourse the day before, and the delay of Tarquinius; and it seemed not impossible that the massacre might have been deferred on that account. They went, therefore, with minds inclined to believe the report, but at the same time determined, unless the swords were discovered, to consider all the rest as groundless. When they came to the spot, guards were placed round Turnus, who was roused from sleep; and the servants, who, out of affection to their master, prepared to use force, being secured, the swords, which had been concealed, were drawn out from every part of the lodging, and then the affair appeared manifest. Turnus was loaded with chains, and a great tumult ensuing, an assembly of the Latines was immediately summoned. There, on the swords being placed in the midst of them, to such a pitch of fury were they raised, that, not allowing him to make a defence, and using an extraordinary method of execution, they threw him into the reservoir of the water of Ferentina, where a hurdle being placed over him, and a heap of stones cast on that, he was drowned.
LII. Tarquinius, having then re-assembled the Latines, and highly commended them, for having inflicted on Turnus, as one convicted of parricide, the punishment which he had merited by his attempt to overturn the government, spoke to this purpose: “That he might, without doubt, take upon himself to act, in virtue of a right long since established, because all the Latines, deriving their origin from Alba, were comprehended in that treaty, by which, under Tullus, the whole Alban nation, together with their colonies, were subjected to the dominion of the Romans. However, for the sake of the general advantage of all parties, he rather wished, that that treaty should be renewed, and that the Latines should, as partners, enjoy the good fortune of the Roman people, than live always under the apprehension or endurance of the demolition of their cities, and the devastation of their lands, to which they had, during the reign of Ancus, first, and afterwards, in that of his father, been continually exposed.” He found no difficulty in persuading the Latines, though in that treaty the advantage lay on the side of the Romans: they saw, too, that the chiefs of the Latine nation, in their behaviour and sentiments, concurred with the king; and Turnus was a recent instance of the danger to be apprehended by any one who should attempt opposition. The treaty was therefore renewed, and orders were given to the young men of the Latines, that they should on a certain day, according to the treaty, attend in a body under arms, at the grove of Ferentina. And when, in obedience to the edict of the Roman king, they had assembled there, from all the several states, in order that they should not have a general of their own, nor a separate command, or their own colours, he mixed the Romans and Latines together in companies, by dividing every company into two parts, and then, forming two of these divisions, one of each nation, into one company, and having by this means doubled the number of the companies, he appointed centurions to command them.
LIII. Iniquitous as he was, in his conduct as king, his behaviour, at the head of an army, was not equally reprehensible: in that capacity, indeed, he would have equalled his predecessors, had not his degeneracy, in other particulars, detracted from the merit which, in that line, he possessed. He began the war against the Volscians, which lasted for more than two hundred years after his death, and took Suessa Pometia from them by storm; from the sale of the plunder of which place, having amassed silver and gold to the value of forty talents,* he conceived a design of erecing a temple to Jupiter, of such grandeur as should be worthy of the king of gods and men, worthy of the Roman empire, and of the dignity of the place itself; for the building of this temple, he set apart the money which arose from the spoils. He was soon after engaged in a war, which gave him employment longer than he expected, during which, having in vain attempted, by storm, to make himself master of Gabii, a town in his neighbourhood, and seeing no reason to hope for success from a blockade, after he had been repulsed from the walls, he at length resolved to pursue the attack, not in a method becoming a Roman, but by fraud and stratagem. Accordingly, whilst he pretended to have laid aside all thoughts of proceeding in the war, and to have his attention entirely engaged in laying the foundation of the temple, and the construction of other works in the city, his son Sextus, the youngest of three, pursuant to a plan concerted, fled as a deserter to Gabii, making grievous complaints of his father’s intolerable severity towards him, saying, that, “he now made his own family feel the effects of his pride, which hitherto had fallen only on strangers, and was uneasy at seeing a number even of his own children about him, so that he intended to cause the same desolation in his own house, which he had already caused in the senate house, and not to suffer any of his offspring, or any heir of the kingdom, to remain: that he himself had, with difficulty, made his escape from the sword of his father, and could in no place consider himself safe, except among the foes of Lucius Tarquinius. That the war against them, which was pretended to be laid aside, was not at an end; but, on the first opportunity, when he found them off their guard, he would certainly attack them. For his part, if, among them, suppliants could find no refuge, he would traverse every part of Latium, and if rejected there, would apply to the Volscians, the Æquans, and the Hernicians, nor rest, until he found some who were disposed to afford protection to children, from the cruel and unnatural severity of fathers. Perhaps, too, he should meet with those who might be inspired with ardour to take arms, and wage war, against the proudest of kings, and the most overbearing of nations.” The Gabians, supposing that, if they did not show some regard to him, he would go from them, full of resentment, to some other place, received him with every mark of kindness; told him, “he ought not to be surprised, that his father’s behaviour towards his children now, was no better than what he had formerly shown towards his subjects and allies; that if other objects could not be found, he would at last vent his rage on himself: assured him, that his coming was very acceptable to them, and that they expected, in a short time, to see the seat of war transferred, with his assistance, from the gates of Gabii, to the walls of Rome.”
LIV. He was immediately admitted to a share in their public councils; and on these occasions, while he declared, that in other affairs, he would be guided by the opinion of the Gabian elders, who had better knowledge of those matters than he could have, he took every opportunity of recommending war, in respect of which he assumed to himself a superior degree of judgment, because he was well acquainted with the resources of both nations, and knew how utterly detestable to his subjects the king’s pride had become, which even his own children could not endure. Whilst he thus, by degrees, worked up the minds of the Gabian chiefs to a renewal of the war, he used to go out himself, with the boldest of the youth, on expeditions and plundering parties; and, as all his words and actions were framed to the purpose of carrying on the deceit, their ill-grounded confidence in him increased to such a degree, that at length he was chosen commander-in-chief of the army. In this capacity, he fought several slight engagements with the Romans, in which he generally got the advantage: so that the Gabians, from the highest to the lowest, began to consider Sextus Tarquinius as a leader sent to them by the favour of the gods. Among the soldiers particularly, from his readiness to expose himself to danger and fatigue, and likewise from the liberal distribution of the spoil, he was so highly beloved, that Tarquinius was not more absolute at Rome, than Sextus was at Gabii. Finding himself, therefore, secure of a support sufficient to carry him through any enterprise, he sent one of his attendants to his father at Rome, to inquire in what manner he would choose that he should proceed, since the gods had granted to him the entire disposal of every thing at Gabii: to this messenger, no answer was given in words, I suppose because he did not seem fit to be trusted. The king, seemingly employed in deep deliberation, walked out into a garden adjoining the palace, followed by the messenger, and walking there in silence, as we are told, struck off with his cane the heads of the tallest poppies. The messenger, weary of repeating the question and waiting for an answer, returned to Gabii without having accomplished his business, as he thought; told what he himself had said, and what he had seen; that the king, either through anger or dislike, or the pride natural to his disposition, had not uttered a word. Sextus, readily comprehending his father’s meaning, and what conduct he recommended by those silent intimations, cut off all the principal men of the state; some by prosecutions before the people; others, who, being generally odious, could be attacked with greater safety, he put to death of his own authority; many were executed openly; several, against whom accusations would appear less plausible, were privately murdered; some who chose to fly were not prevented, others were forced into banishment; and the effects of the absentees, as well as of those who had suffered death, were distributed in largesses among the people: by these means, all sense of the public calamity was so entirely drowned in the sweets of bribery, plunder, and private profit, that, at length, the Gabian state, stripped of its counsellors and supporters, was delivered over, without a struggle, into the hands of the Roman king.
LV. Tarquinius, having thus acquired possession of Gabii, concluded a peace with the nation of the Æquans, renewed the treaty with the Etrurians, and then turned his thoughts to the internal business of the city: among which, the object of his principal concern was to leave the temple of Jupiter on the Tarpeian mount a monument of his reign and of his name, to testify, that of two Tarquinii both of whom reigned, the father had vowed, and the son completed it. And in order that the ground might be clear from the interference of any of the other gods, and the temple to be erected thereon, be appropriated wholly to Jupiter, he determined to cancel the inauguration of the temples and chapels, several of which had been vowed, first by Tatius during the very heat of the battle against Romulus, and afterwards consecrated there. It is related, that, during the preparations for founding this structure, the gods exerted their divine power, to exhibit indications of the stability of this great empire; for, whilst the birds admitted the cancelling the inaugurations of all the other chapels, they did not give the signs of approbation, in the case of the temple of Terminus; and that omen, and that augury, were deemed to import that the residence of Terminus must not be changed; and his being the only one of the gods who would not submit to be called forth from the boundaries consecrated to him, denoted that all things there were to stand firm and immoveable. After they had received this presage of its perpetual duration, there followed another prodigy, portending the greatness of the empire: a human head, with the face entire, is said to have appeared to those who were opening the foundation of the temple; which appearance denoted, without the help of any far-fetched allusion, that this would be the metropolis of the empire, and the head of the world. Such was the interpretation given of it by the soothsayers, both those who were in the city, and others whom they sent for from Etruria, to hold a consultation on the subject. This encouraged the king to enlarge the expense, so that the spoils of Pometia, which, according to his first design, were to have completed the edifice, were scarcely sufficient for the foundations. For this reason, besides his being the more ancient writer, I should rather believe Fabius, that these amounted to no more than forty talents,* than Piso, who writes, that forty thousand pounds weight of silver† were set apart for that purpose; a sum of money, that could not be expected out of the spoil of any one city in that age, and which must have been more than sufficient for laying the foundations even of the most magnificent of our modern structures. Intent on finishing the temple, he sent for workmen from all parts of Etruria, and converted to that use, not only the public money, but the public labour; and although this, which was in itself no small hardship, was added to the toils of military service, yet the people murmured the less, when they considered that they were employing their hands in erecting temples to the gods. They were afterwards obliged to toil at other works, which, though they made less show, were attended with greater difficulty; the erecting seats in the Circus, and conducting under ground the principal sewer, the receptacle of all the filth of the city; two works, to which the magnificence of modern times can scarcely produce any thing equal. After the people had been fatigued by these labours, the king, considering so great a multitude as a burthen to the city, where there was not employment for them, and wishing at the same time to extend the frontiers of his dominions, by means of colonies, sent a number of colonists to Signia and Circeii, to serve as barriers to the city, against an enemy, both by land and sea.
LVI. While he was thus employed, a dreadful prodigy appeared to him; a snake, sliding out of a wooden pillar, terrified the beholders, and made them fly into the palace. This not only struck the king himself with sudden terror, but filled his breast with anxious apprehensions: so that, whereas in the case of public prodigies, the Etrurian soothsayers only were applied to, being thoroughly frightened at this domestic apparition, as it were, he resolved to send to Delphi, the most celebrated oracle in the world; and judging it unsafe to entrust the answers which should be given to indifferent persons, he sent his two sons into Greece, through lands little known at that time, and seas still more so. Titus and Aruns set out, and, as a companion, was sent with them, Lucius Junius Brutus, son to Tarquinia, the king’s sister, a young man of a capacity widely different from the appearance which he had put on. Having heard that the principal men in the state, and among the rest, his brother, had been put to death by his uncle, he resolved that the king should find nothing to dread, either from his manners or his means, and to seek security in contempt. He took care, therefore, to fashion his behaviour to the semblance of foolishness, submitting himself and his fortune to the pleasure and rapacity of the king. Nor did he show any dislike to the surname of Brutus, content that, under the cover of that appellation, the genius which was to be the deliverer of the Roman people, should lie concealed, and wait the proper season for exertion. He was, at this time, carried to Delphi by the Tarquinii, rather as a subject of sport than as a companion; and is said to have brought as an offering to Apollo, a golden wand, inclosed in a staff of cornel-wood, hollowed for that purpose, an emblem figurative of the state of his own capacity. When they arrived there, and executed their father’s commission, the young men felt a wish to inquire to which of them the kingdom of Rome was to belong; and we are told that these words were uttered from the bottom of the cave. “Young men, which ever of you shall first kiss your mother, he shall possess the sovereign power at Rome.” The Tarquinii ordered that this matter should be kept secret with the utmost care; that Sextus, who had been left behind at Rome, might remain ignorant of the answer, so as to have no chance for the kingdom. They themselves had recourse to lots to determine which of them should first kiss their mother on their return to Rome: Brutus judged that the expression of Apollo had another meaning, and as if he had accidentally stumbled and fallen, he touched the earth with his lips, considering that she was the common mother of all mankind. On their return from thence to Rome, they found vigorous preparations going on for a war against the Rutulians.
LVII. Ardea was a city belonging to the Rutulians, a nation, considering the part of the world and the age, remarkably opulent; and this very circumstance gave occasion to the war; for the Roman king was earnestly desirous, both of procuring money for himself, his treasury being exhausted by the magnificence of his public works, and also of reconciling, by means of the spoils, the minds of his subjects, who were highly dissatisfied with his government: for, besides other instances of his pride, they thought themselves ill-treated by being engaged, for such a length of time, in the employments of handicrafts, and in labour fit for slaves. An attempt was made to take Ardea by storm, and that not succeeding, he adopted the plan of distressing the enemy by a blockade, and works erected round them. In this fixed post, as is generally the case when the operations of war are rather tedious than vigorous, leave of absence was readily granted, and to the principal officers, more readily than to the soldiers; the young men of the royal family in particular, frequently passed their leisure time in feasting and entertainments. It happened that while these were drinking together, at the quarters of Sextus Tarquinius, where Collatinus Tarquinius, the son of Egerius, also supped, mention was made of their wives; each extolled his own to the skies: on this a dispute arising, Collatinus told them, that “there was no need of words; it could easily be known, in a few hours, how much his Lucretia excelled the rest: we are young and strong; let us mount our horses, and inspect in person the behaviour of our wives: that must be the most unexceptionable proof which meets our eyes, on the unexpected arrival of the husband.” They were heated with wine: “Agreed,” was the word; at full speed they fly to Rome. Having arrived there at the first dusk of the evening, they proceeded thence to Collatia, where they found Lucretia, not like the king’s daughters-in-law, whom they had seen spending their time in luxurious entertainments among those of their own rank, but busily employed with her wool, though at that late hour, and sitting in the middle of the house, with her maids at work around her: the honour of superiority among the ladies mentioned in the dispute, was of course acknowledged to belong to Lucretia. Her husband, on his arrival, and the Tarquinii, were kindly received; and the husband, exulting in his victory, gave the royal youths a friendly invitation. There, Sextus Tarquinius, instigated by brutal lust, formed a design of violating Lucretia’s chastity by force, both her beauty and her approved modesty serving as incentives: after this youthful frolic of the night, they returned to the camp.
LVIII. A few days after, Sextus Tarquinius, without the knowledge of Collatinus, went to Collatia, with only a single attendant: he was kindly received by the family, who suspected not his design, and, after supper, conducted to the chamber where guests were lodged. Then, burning with desire, as soon as he thought that every thing was safe, and the family all at rest, he came with his sword drawn to Lucretia, where she lay asleep, and, holding her down, with his left hand pressed on her breast, said, “Lucretia be silent: I am Sextus Tarquinius; my sword is in my hand, if you utter a word, you die.” Terrified at being thus disturbed from sleep, she saw no assistance near, and immediate death threatening her. Tarquinius then acknowledged his passion, intreated, mixed threats with intreaties, and used every argument likely to have effect on a woman’s mind; but finding her inflexible, and not to be moved, even by the fear of death, he added to that fear, the dread of dishonour, telling her that, after killing her, he would murder a slave, and lay him naked by her side, that she might be said to have been slain in base adultery. The shocking apprehensions, conveyed by this menace, overpowering her resolution in defending her chastity, his lust became victorious; and Tarquinius departed, applauding himself for this triumph over a lady’s honour. But Lucretia, plunged by such a disaster into the deepest distress, despatched a messenger to Rome to her father, with orders to proceed to Ardea to her husband, and to desire them to come to her, each with one faithful friend; to tell them, that there was a necessity for their doing so, and speedily; for that a dreadful affair had happened. Spurius Lucretius came with Publius Valerius, the son of Volesus; Collatinus with Lucius Junius Brutus, in company with whom he chanced to be returning to Rome, when he was met by his wife’s messenger. They found Lucretia sitting in her chamber, melancholy and dejected: on the arrival of her friends, she burst into tears, and on her husband’s asking, “Is all well?” “Far from it,” said she, “for how can it be well with a woman who has lost her chastity? Collatinus, the impression of another man is in your bed; yet my person only has been violated, my mind is guiltless, as my death will testify. But give me your right hands and pledge your honour, that the adulterer shall not escape unpunished. He is Sextus Tarquinius, who, under the appearance of a guest, disguising an enemy, obtained here, last night, by armed violence, a triumph deadly to me, and to himself also, if ye be men.” They all pledged their honour, one after another, and endeavoured to comfort her distracted mind, acquitting her of blame, as under the compulsion of force, and charging it on the violent perpetrator of the crime, told her, that “the mind alone was capable of sinning, not the body, and that where there was no such intention, there could be no guilt.” “It is your concern,” said she, “to consider what is due to him; as to me, though I acquit myself of the guilt, I cannot dispense with the penalty, nor shall any woman ever plead the example of Lucretia, for surviving her chastity.” Thus saying, she plunged into her heart a knife, which she had concealed under her garment, and falling forward on the wound, dropped lifeless. The husband and father shrieked aloud.
LIX. But Brutus, while they were overpowered by grief, drawing the knife from the wound of Lucretia, and holding it out reeking with blood, before him, said, “By this blood, most chaste until injured by royal insolence, I swear, and call you, O ye gods, to witness, that I will prosecute to destruction, by sword, fire, and every forcible means in my power, both Lucius Tarquinius the Proud, and his impious wife, together with their entire race, and never will suffer one of them, nor any other person whatsoever, to be king in Rome.” He then delivered the knife to Collatinus, afterwards to Lucretius, and Valerius, who were filled with amazement, as at a prodigy, and at a loss to account for this unusual elevation of sentiment in the mind of Brutus. However they took the oath as directed, and converting their grief into rage, followed Brutus, who put himself at their head, and called on them to proceed, instantly to abolish kingly power. They brought out the body of Lucretia from the house, conveyed it to the Forum, and assembled the people, who came together quickly, in astonishment, as may be supposed, at a deed so atrocious and unheard of. Every one exclaimed with vehemence against the villainy and violence of the prince: they were deeply affected by the grief of her father, and also by the discourse of Brutus, who rebuked their tears and ineffectual complaints, and advised them, as became men, as became Romans, to take up arms against those who had dared to treat them as enemies. The most spirited among the youth offered themselves with their arms, and the rest followed their example. On which, leaving half their number at the gates to defend Collatia, and fixing guards to prevent any intelligence of the commotion being carried to the princes, the rest, with Brutus at their head, marched to Rome. When they arrived there, the sight of such an armed multitude spread terror and confusion wherever they came: but, in a little time, when people observed the principal men of the state marching at their head, they concluded, that whatever the matter was, there must be good reason for it. Nor did the heinousness of the affair raise less violent emotions in the minds of the people at Rome, than it had at Collatia: so that, from all parts of the city, they hurried into the Forum; where, as soon as the party arrived, a crier summoned the people to attend the tribune of the Celeres, which office happened at that time to be held by Brutus. He there made a speech, no way consonant to that low degree of sensibility and capacity, which, until that day, he had counterfeited; recounting the violence and lust of Sextus Tarquinius, the shocking violation of Lucretia’s chastity, and her lamentable death; the misfortune of Tricipitinus, in being left childless, who must feel the cause of his daughter’s death as a greater injury and cruelty, than her death itself: to these representations he added the pride of the king himself, the miseries and toils of the commons, buried under ground to cleanse sinks and sewers, saying, that “the citizens of Rome, the conquerors of all the neighbouring nations, were, from warriors, reduced to labourers and stone-cutters;” mentioned the barbarous murder of king Servius Tullius, his abominable daughter driving in her carriage over the body of her father, and invoked the gods to avenge the cause of parents. By descanting on these and other, I suppose, more forcible topics, which the heinousness of present injuries suggests at the time, but which it is difficult for writers to repeat, he inflamed the rage of the multitude to such a degree, that they were easily persuaded to deprive the king of his government and to pass an order for the banishment of Lucius Tarquinius, his wife, and children: Brutus himself, having collected and armed such of the young men as voluntarily gave in their names, set out for the camp at Ardea, in order to excite the troops there to take part against the king. The command in the city he left to Lucretius, who had some time before been appointed by the king to the office of præfect of the city.* During this tumult Tullia fled from her house; both men and women, wherever she passed, imprecating curses on her head, and invoking the furies, the avengers of parents.
LX. News of these proceedings having reached the camp, and the king, alarmed at such extraordinary events, having begun his march towards Rome, to suppress the commotions, Brutus, informed of his approach, turned into another road, in order to avoid a meeting, and very nearly at the same time, by different roads, Brutus arrived at Ardea, and Tarquinius at Rome. Tarquinius found the gates shut against him, and an order of banishment pronounced. The deliverer of the city was received in the camp with joy, and the king’s sons were driven thence with disgrace. Two of these followed their father, and went into exile at Cære, among the Etrurians. Sextus Tarquinius having retired to Gabii, as if to his own dominions, was slain by some persons, who were glad of an opportunity of gratifying old animosities, which he had excited there by his rapine and murders. Lucius Tarquinius Superbus reigned twenty-five years. The government of kings continued, from the building of the city to the establishment of its liberty, two hundred and forty-four years. After that, in an assembly of the Centuries, held by the præfect of the city, were elected, conformably to a plan found in the commentaries of Servius Tullius, two magistrates, called Consuls. These were, Lucius Junius Brutus, and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus.Y. R. 245. 507.
* The Trojans were in number about six hundred.
* Indiges is the term applied to deified heroes, otherwise called gods terrestrial.
† It was called Alba, from a white sow with a litter of thirty young ones, found there by Æneas.
* For an account of the vestal virgins, see Dr. Adam’s Roman Antiquities, p. 314.
* See Adam, p. 312.
* For an account of augurs, auspices &c. see Adam, p. 296.
* Ara Maxima: it stood in the cattle market, where it remained in the time of Augustus.
* Without doubt, he framed the government, and the laws, nearly on the model of those established at Alba.
* About 3000 foot, and 300 horsemen.
† This expression must be understood in a qualified sense, in the same manner as when a magistrate, presiding at an election, is said to elect such and such persons. Romulus nominated one senator; each tribe, and each curia, chose three; and thus the number was made up.
* So called, from his having produced the first horse from the earth by a stroke of his trident. Romulus called him Consus, the god of counsel, as having suggested the scheme of seizing the women. The games, which he called Consualia, were afterwards termed the Roman, or the great games; they lasted, at first, one day, then two, three, and at length, nine days.
* So called, from the feretrum, or frame, supporting the spoils. The second spolia opima, or grand spoils, were offered by Cornelius Cossus, who killed Tolumnius, king of the Veientians; and the third by Claudius Marcellus, who killed Viridomarus, a king of the Gauls. The spoils, called spolia opima, or grand, or chief spoils, were so denominated when they were taken from a king or general-in-chief, commanding an army.
* So called from legere, to choose, to select. The legion consisted, at this time, of 3,000 foot and 300 horse. The number afterwards was generally 4,000 foot and 300 horse, and sometimes augmented to 6,000 foot and 400 horse. It was divided into 10 cohorts, 30 companies, and 60 centuries.
* From stare, to halt.
* This name it retained long after it was filled up, and became a part of the Forum.
† He divided the city into three tribes: the Ramnenses, so called from Romulus, being his original followers; the Titienses, from Titus Tatius, composed of the Sabines; and the Luceres, of those who had assembled in the Lucus, or sanctuary, or afterwards joined the Romans. Each tribe, he divided into ten curias, or wards. Each curia had its own priest, called curio, and its own place of worship, where, on certain stated days, sacrifices were offered to particular deities; and the people of the curia feasted together. The centuries of knights were named after the tribes out of which they were taken.
* Or, the Swift, if we suppose them to derive their name from the Latin word, celer. This must be allowed to be the most probable origin of the appellation, although it must be admitted to be by no means certain, that they were not so called, as some allege, from the name of their captain, Celer; while others contend that they were so called from the Greek word Κεληρ which signifies a horseman.
* He was the son of a Sabine nobleman, and had been married to a daughter of king Tatius, but was now a widower.
* Janus is the most ancient king in Italy, of whom any knowledge has been handed down to posterity; he was the first who introduced civilization, and the useful arts, among the wild inhabitants of that country. He is represented with two faces, as knowing both the past and the future; sometimes with four; in which latter form, one of the many temples dedicated to him at Rome, was erected; having four equal sides, on each side one door and three windows; the four doors were emblematical of the seasons; the twelve windows, of the months; and the whole, of the year.
† A small hill, to the east of the Palatine.
* For a full account of the duty and office of the different flamens, see Dr. Adam’s Roman Antiquities. Also for those of the vestal virgins, and the salii, mentioned in this chapter, see the same learned work, which may be considered as a perpetual commentary upon the Roman historians, in general, and Livy, in particular.
* From elicere, to solicit information.
* The duty of the Pater Patratus was, to attend the making of the treaty, and to ratify it by oath.
* The Comitium was a part of the Roman Forum, where, in early times, assemblies of the people were held; and the assemblies of the Curiæ always.
* This is the first instance of a regular triumph mentioned in the Roman History; the invention of which ceremony is, by some, ascribed to Tarquinius. For a full account of the Roman triumph, see Dr. Adam.
* 322l. 18s. 4d. according to Dr. Arbuthnot’s calculation.
† The elder, consisted of those who had attained to forty-six years of age; the younger, from seventeen to forty-six.
‡ 242l. 3s. 9d.
§ 161l. 9s. 2d.
* 80l. 14s. 7d.
† 35l. 10s. 5d.
‡ 32l. 5s. 10d.
§ 6l. 9s. 2d.
* So called from the victims, sus, ovis, taurus, a swine, a sheep, and bull; which, after being three times led round the army, were offered in sacrifice to Mars. See Adam.
* 7,750l.
* 7,750l.
† 129,166l.
* The præfect of the city was, in these times, a magistrate extraordinary, appointed to administer justice, and transact other necessary business, in the absence of the king, or consuls.
Brutus binds the people, by an oath, never to restore the kingly government; obliges Tarquinius Collatinus, on account of his relationship to the Tarquinii, to resign the consulship, and retire from the city, puts to death his own sons, together with some other young men of rank, for a conspiracy in favour of the Tarquinii; falls in battle against the Veientians and Tarquinians, together with his antagonist Aruns, son of Superbus. War with Porsena. Exploits of Horatius Cocles, Mutius Scævola, and Clœlia. The Claudian tribe formed, and the number of the tribes increased to twenty-one. The Latines, attempting to restore Tarquinius, are defeated by Aulus Postumius, dictator. The commons, on account of the great numbers confined for debt, secede to the sacred mount; are appeased, and brought back, by the prudence of Menenius Agrippa. Five tribunes of the commons created. Banishment and subsequent conduct of Caius Marcius Coriolanus. First proposal of an Agrarian law. Spurius Cassius, aspiring to regal power, put to death. Oppia, a vestal virgin, convicted of incest, buried alive. The Fabian family undertake the Veientian war, and are all cut off, except one boy. Wars with the Volscians, Æquans, and Veientians. Dissensions between the Patricians and Plebeians.
Y. R. 245. 507.I.Henceforward I am to treat of the affairs, civil and military, of a free people, for such the Romans were now become; of annual magistrates and the authority of the laws exalted above that of men. What greatly enhanced the public joy on having attained to this state of freedom, was, the haughty insolence of the late king: for the former kings governed in such a manner, that all of them, in succession, might deservedly be reckoned as founders of the several parts at least, of the city, which they added to it, to accommodate the great numbers of inhabitants, whom they themselves introduced. Nor can it be doubted, that the same Brutus, who justly merited so great glory, for having expelled that haughty king, would have hurt the public interest most materially, had he, through an over hasty zeal for liberty, wrested the government from any one of the former princes. For what must have been the consequence, if that rabble of shepherds and vagabonds, fugitives from their own countries, having, under the sanction of an inviolable asylum, obtained liberty, or at least impunity; and uncontrolled by dread of kingly power, had once been set in commotion by tribunitian storms, and had, in a city, where they were strangers, engaged in contests with the Patricians, before the pledges of wives and children, and an affection for the soil itself, which in length of time is acquired from habit, had united their minds in social concord? The state, as yet but a tender shoot, had, in that case, been torn to pieces by discord; whereas the tranquil moderation of the then government cherished it, and, by due nourishment, brought it forward to such a condition, that its powers being ripened, it was capable of producing the glorious fruit of liberty. The origin of liberty is to be dated from that period, rather on account of the consular government being limited to one year, than of any diminution made of the power which had been possessed by the kings. The first consuls enjoyed all their privileges, and all their ensigns of authority; in this respect, only, care was taken, not to double the objects of terror by giving the fasces to both the consuls. Brutus, with the consent of his colleague, was first honoured with the fasces, and the zeal which he had shown as the champion of liberty in rescuing it from oppression, was not greater than that which he afterwards displayed in the character of its guardian. First of all, while the people were in raptures at their new acquisition of freedom, lest they might afterwards be perverted by the importunities or presents of the princes, he bound them by an oath, that they would never suffer any man to assume the authority of king at Rome. Next, in order that the fullness of their body might give the greater weight to the senate, he filled up the number of the senators, which had been diminished by the king’s murders, to the amount of three hundred, electing into that body the principal men of equestrian rank; and hence the practice is said to have taken its rise of summoning to the senate those who are fathers, and those who are conscripti; for they called those who were elected into this new senate conscripti. This had a wonderful effect towards producing concord in the state, and in attaching the affection of the commons to the patricians.
II. People then turned their attention to matters of religion; and because some public religious rites had been usually performed by the kings in person, in order that there should be no want of one on any occasion, they appointed a king of the sacrifices. This office they made subject to the jurisdiction of the pontiff, fearing lest honour, being joined to the title, might in some shape be injurious to liberty, which was then the first object of their concern: I know not whether they did not carry to excess their great anxiety to raise bulwarks to it, on all sides, even in points of the most trivial consequence; for the name of one of the consuls, though there was no other cause of dislike, became a subject of jealousy to the people. It was alleged, that “the Tarquinii had been too long accustomed to the possession of sovereign power: Priscus first began; next indeed reigned Servius Tullius, yet though that interruption occurred, Tarquinius Superbus never lost sight of the crown, so as to consider it the right of another; but, by violent and flagitious means, reclaimed it, as the inheritance of his family. Now, that Superbus had been expelled, the government was in the hands of Collatinus; the Tarquinii knew not how to live in a private station; the very name itself was displeasing, and dangerous to liberty.” These discourses were at first, gradually circulated through every part of the city, for the purpose of trying the disposition of the people. After the suspicions of the commons had, by these suggestions, been sufficiently excited, Brutus called them together: when they were assembled, after first reciting the oath which the people had taken, that “they would never suffer a king at Rome, or any thing else that might be dangerous to liberty;” he told them, that “they must support this resolution with their utmost power; and that no circumstance, of any tendency that way, ought to be overlooked: that from his regard to the person alluded to, he mentioned the matter unwillingly; nor would he have mentioned it at all, did not his affection for the commonwealth outweigh all other considerations. The Roman people did not think that they had recovered entire freedom: the regal family, the regal name remained, not only in the city, but in the government: this was a circumstance, not merely unpropitious, but dangerous to liberty. Do you, Lucius Tarquinius, of your own accord, remove from us this apprehension: we remember, we acknowledge that you expelled the princes: complete your kindness: carry hence their name. Your countrymen, on my recommendation, will not only give you up your property, but if you have occasion for more, will make liberal additions to it. Depart in friendship. Deliver the state from this, it may be groundless, apprehension; but the opinion is deeply rooted in their minds, that, only with the race of the Tarquinii, will kingly power depart hence.” Astonishment at this extraordinary and unexpected affair at first deprived the consul of all power of utterance; and when he afterwards began to speak, the principal men of the state gathered round him, and with earnest importunity urged the same request. Others affected him less; but when Spurius Lucretius, his superior in age, and dignity of character, and his father-in-law besides, began to try every method of persuasion, using by turns, arguments and entreaties, that he would suffer himself to be overcome by the general sense of his countrymen, the consul, fearing lest hereafter, when he should have returned to a private station, the same measures might be used against him, with the addition perhaps of confiscation of his property, and other marks of ignominy, resigned the office of consul, and removing all his effects to Lavinium, withdrew from the territories of the state. Brutus in pursuance of a decree of the senate, proposed to the people, that all who were of the Tarquinian family should be banished; and in an assembly of the Centuries, he elected for his colleague, Publius Valerius, who had been his assistant in expelling the royal family.
III. No person now doubted but war would be immediately commenced by the Tarquinii: that event, however, did not take place so soon as was expected. But, what they entertained no apprehension of, liberty was very near being lost, by secret machinations and treachery. There were, among the Romans, several young men of no inconsiderable families, who, during the reign of the king, had indulged their pleasures too freely; and being of the same age, and constant companions of the younger Tarquinii, had been accustomed to live in a princely style: the privileges of all ranks being now reduced to one level, these grew uneasy at the restraint hereby laid on their irregularities, and complained heavily among themselves, that the liberty of others had imposed slavery on them. “A king was a human being; from him might a request be obtained, whether right or wrong; with him there was room for favour, and for acts of kindness; he could be angry, and he could forgive; he knew a distinction between a friend and an enemy. But the law was a deaf inexorable being, calculated rather for the safety and advantage of the poor, than of the rich; and admitted of no relaxation or indulgence, if its bounds were transgressed. Men being liable to so many mistakes, to have no other security but innocence is a hazardous situation.” While their minds were in this discontented state, ambassadors arrived from the Tarquinii, who, without any mention of their restoration, demanded only their effects: the senate, having granted them an audience, continued their deliberations on the subject for several days, being apprehensive that a refusal to give them up, would afford a plausible reason for a war, and the giving them up, a fund in aid of it. Meanwhile the ambassadors were busily employed in schemes of another nature: whilst they openly demanded the effects, they were secretly forming a plan for recovering the throne, and addressing themselves to the young nobles, seemingly on the business which they were supposed to have in charge, they made trial of their dispositions. To those who lent an ear to their suggestions, they delivered letters from the Tarquinii, and concerted measures with them for receiving those princes privately into the city by night.
IV. The business was first intrusted to the brothers of the name of Vitellii, and those of the name of Aquillii; a sister of the Vitellii had been married to the consul Brutus, and there were two sons born of that marriage, now grown up, Titus and Tiberius: these were led in, by their uncles, to take part in the design; and several others of the young nobility were drawn into the conspiracy, whose names, at this distance of time, are unknown. In the meanwhile, the opinion of those, who advised the giving up of the property, having prevailed in the senate, this afforded the ambassadors a pretext for remaining in the city, because they had been allowed time by the consuls to procure carriages for the conveyance of the effects of the princes; all which time they spent in consultations with the conspirators, and had, by pressing instances, prevailed upon them to send letters for the Tarquinii; for “without these, how could they be so fully assured, as an affair of that high importance required, that the report of the ambassadors was not groundless?” These letters, given as a pledge of their sincerity, proved the means of detecting the plot: for the day before that on which they were to return to the Tarquinii, the ambassadors happening to sup with the Vitellii, and the conspirators having here in private had much conversation, as was natural, on the subject of their new enterprise, their discourse was overheard by one of the slaves who had, before this, discovered that such a design was in agitation, but waited for this opportunity, until the letters should be given to the ambassadors; because these, being seized, would furnish full proof of the transaction. As soon as he found that they were delivered, he made a discovery of the affair to the consuls. The consuls, setting out from home directly, and apprehending the ambassadors and conspirators in the fact, effectually crushed the affair without any tumult; taking particular care, with regard to the letters, that they should not escape them. They instantly threw the traitors into chains, but hesitated for some time with regard to proceeding against the ambassadors; and though, by their behaviour, they had deserved to be treated as enemies, yet regard to the law of nations prevailed.
V. With respect to the effects of the princes, which they had before ordered to be restored, the business was now laid before the senate for re-consideration; and they, actuated entirely by resentment, decreed, that they should not be restored, but converted to the use of the state. They were, therefore, given up to the commons as plunder, with the intent, that these, after such an act of violence against the princes, as the seizing of their effects, might for ever lose all hope of reconciliation with them. The land of the Tarquinii, which lay between the city and the Tiber, being consecrated to the god of war, has, from that time, been called the Field of Mars. It happened, that there was then on that ground a crop of corn, ripe for the sickle, and because it would be an impiety to make use of this produce of the field, a great number of men were sent in at once, who, having cut it down, carried it in baskets, and threw it, grain and straw together, into the Tiber, whose waters were low at that time, as is generally the case in the middle of summer. The heaps of corn then being frequently stopped for a while in the shallows, and having contracted a covering of mud, sunk, and, remained fixed, and by these means, with the afflux of other materials which the stream is apt to carry down, an island* was gradually formed. I suppose that mounds were afterwards added, and assistance given by art, to raise the surface to its present height, and give it sufficient firmness to support temples and porticoes. After the people had made plunder of the effects of the princes, the traitors were condemned and executed. And the execution was the more remarkable on this account, that his office of consul imposed on a father the severe duty of inflicting punishment on his own sons; and that he, who ought not to have been present as a spectator, was yet the very person whom fortune pitched on to exact the penalty of their offence. The youths, all of the first distinction, stood tied to stakes, but the sons of the consul entirely engaged the eyes of the spectators, as if the others were persons unknown; and people felt compassion, not only for their punishment, but even for the crime by which they had brought it on themselves: to think that “they could, during that year particularly, have been induced to entertain a design of betraying their country, just delivered from tyranny, their father its deliverer, the consulship, which had commenced in the Junian family, the patricians, commons, in a word, whatever Rome held in highest veneration, into the hands of one who was formerly a tyrannical king, now an enraged exile.” The consuls mounted their throne, and the lictors were sent to inflict the punishment: after stripping the criminals naked, they beat them with rods, and beheaded them; whilst, through the whole process of the affair, the looks and countenance of Brutus afforded an extraordinary spectacle, the feelings of the father often struggling with the character of the magistrate enforcing the execution of the laws. Justice done to the offenders, in order to exhibit a striking example for the prevention of crimes, in their treatment of the several parties, they gave, as a reward to the discoverer of the treason, a sum of money out of the treasury, his freedom, and the rights of a citizen. This man is said to be the first who was made free by the Vindicta.* Some think that the term “Vindicta” was taken from him, his name having been Vindicius: after him, it obtained, as a rule, that whoever was made free in that manner, should be considered and admitted a citizen.
VI. Tarquinius, on being informed of these transactions, became inflamed, not only with grief for the disappointment of such promising hopes, but with hatred and resentment; and finding every pass shut against secret plots, determined to have recourse to open war; and to that end, he went round to all the cities of Etruria, in the character of a suppliant, addressing himself particularly to the people of Veii and Tarquinii, intreating them, “not to suffer him, who was sprung from themselves, and of the same blood; who was lately possessed of so great a kingdom, now exiled and in want, to perish before their eyes, together with the young men his sons. Others had been invited from foreign countries to Rome, to fill the throne; but he, when in possession of the government, and while he was employing his arms in extending the limits of the Roman empire, was expelled by a villainous conspiracy of men who were most closely connected with him; who, because no one of their number was qualified to hold the reins of government, had forcibly shared the several parts of it among them, and had given up his property to be plundered by the populace, to the intent that all might be equally guilty. He only wished to be restored to his own country and crown, and to be avenged on his ungrateful subjects. He besought them to support and assist him, and at the same time, to take revenge for the injuries which they themselves had sustained of old, for their legions so often slaughtered, and their lands taken from them.” These arguments had the desired effect on the Veientians, every one of whom earnestly, and with menaces, declared that they ought now at least, with a Roman at their head, to efface the memory of their disgraces, and recover, by arms, what they had lost. The people of Tarquinii were moved by his name, and his relation to themselves: they thought it redounded to their honour, that their countrymen should reign at Rome. Thus two armies of two states followed Tarquinius to demand his restoration, and prosecute war against the Romans. When they advanced into the Roman territories, the consuls marched out to meet the enemy. Valerius led the infantry, in order of battle; Brutus, with the cavalry, marched at some distance before them, in order to procure intelligence. In like manner, the vanguard of the enemy was composed of cavalry, under the command of Aruns Tarquinius, the king’s son; the king himself followed with the legions. Aruns, perceiving at a distance, by the lictors, that a consul was there, and afterwards, on a nearer approach, plainly distinguishing Brutus by his face, became inflamed with rage, and cried out, “That is the man who has driven us as exiles from our country; see how he marches in state, decorated with our ensigns: ye gods, avengers of kings, assist me!” He then spurred on his horse, and drove furiously against the consul. Brutus perceived that the attack was meant for him; and as it was at that time reckoned not improper for generals themselves to engage in fight, he eagerly offered himself to the combat; and they advanced against each other with such furious animosity, neither thinking of guarding his own person, but solely intent on wounding his enemy, that, in the violence of the conflict, each of them received his antagonist’s spear in his body, through his buckler, and being entangled together by the two spears, they both fell lifeless from their horses. At the same time, the rest of the cavalry began to engage, and were shortly after joined by the infantry: a battle then ensued, in which victory seemed alternately to incline to either party, the advantages being nearly equal: for the right wings of both armies got the better, and the left were worsted. At length the Veientians, accustomed to be vanquished by the Roman troops, were routed and dispersed: the Tarquinians, a new enemy, not only kept their ground, but even, on their side, made the Romans give way.
VII. Though such was the issue of the battle, yet so great terror took possession of Tarquinius and the Etrurians, that, giving up the enterprise as impracticable, both armies, the Veientian and the Tarquinian, retired by night to their respective countries. To the accounts of this battle, writers have added miracles; that, during the silence of the following night, a loud voice was uttered from the Arsian wood, which was believed to be the voice of Sylvanus, in these words: “The number of the Etrurians who fell in the engagement was the greater by one. The Romans have the victory.” The Romans certainly departed from the field as conquerors, the Etrurians as vanquished: for when day appeared, and not one of the enemy was to be seen, the consul, Publius Valerius, collected the spoils, and returned in triumph to Rome. He celebrated the funeral of his colleague with the utmost degree of magnificence which those times could afford; but a much higher mark of honour to the deceased, was the grief expressed by the public, singularly remarkable in this particular, that the matrons mourned for him as for a parent, during a whole year, in gratitude for his vigorous exertions in avenging the cause of violated chastity. In a little time, the consul who survived, so changeable are the minds of the populace, from having enjoyed a high degree of popularity, became an object not only of jealousy, but of suspicion, attended with a charge of an atrocious nature: it was given out that he aspired at the sovereignty, because he had not substituted a colleague in the room of Brutus; and besides, was building a house on the summit of Mount Velia, which, in such a lofty and strong situation, would be an impregnable fortress. The consul’s mind was deeply affected with concern and indignation, at finding that such reports were circulated and believed; he therefore summoned the people to an assembly, and, ordering the fasces to be lowered,* mounted the rostrum. It was a sight highly pleasing to the multitude, to find the ensigns of sovereignty lowered to them, and an acknowledgment thus openly given, that the majesty and power of the people were superior to those of the consul. Attention being ordered, the consul extolled the good fortune of his colleague, who, “after having accomplished the deliverance of his country, and being raised to the highest post of honour, met with death while fighting in defence of the republic, when his glory had arrived at full maturity, without having excited jealousy: whereas he himself, surviving his glory, was become an object of calumny; and from the character of deliverer of his country, had sunk to a level with the Aquillii and Vitellii. Will no degree of merit then,” said he, “ever gain your confidence, so far as to be secure from the attacks of suspicion? Could I have the least apprehension that I, the bitterest enemy to kings, should undergo the charge of aiming at kingly power? Supposing that I dwelt in the very citadel, and in the Capitol, could I believe that I was an object of terror to my countrymen? Does my reputation among you depend on so mere a trifle? Is my title to your confidence so slightly founded, that it is more to be considered where I am, than what I am? Citizens, the house of Publius Valerius shall be no obstruction to your freedom; the Velian mount shall be secure to you: I will not only bring down my house to the plain, but will fix it under the hill, that your dwellings may overlook that of your suspected countryman. Let those build on the Velian mount to whom ye can better intrust your liberty than to Publius Valerius.” Immediately all the materials were brought down from the Velian mount, and the house was built at the foot of the hill, where the temple of victory now stands.
VIII. Some laws were then proposed by the consul, which not only cleared him from all suspicion of a design to possess himself of regal power, but whose tendency was so contrary thereto, that they even rendered him popular, and from thence he acquired the surname of Publicola. Such particularly, was that concerning an appeal to the people against the decrees of the magistrates, and that which devoted both the person and goods of any who should form a design of assuming regal power. These laws were highly acceptable to the populace, and having effected the ratification of them, while alone in office, in order that the credit of them might be entirely his own, he then held an assembly for the election of a new colleague. The consul elected was Spurius Lucretius, who, being far advanced in years, and too feeble to support the duties of his office, died in a few days after. Marcus Horatius Pulvillus was substituted in the room of Lucretius. In some old writers I find no mention of Lucretius as consul; they place Horatius as immediate successor to Brutus: I suppose he was not taken notice of, because his consulate was not signalized by any important transaction. The temple of Jupiter in the Capitol had not yet been dedicated; the consuls Valerius and Horatius cast lots which should perform the dedication, and it fell to Horatius. Publicola set out to conduct the war against the Veientians. The friends of Valerius showed more displeasure, than the occasion merited, at the dedication of a temple so celebrated being given to Horatius. Having endeavoured, by every means, to prevent its taking place, and all their attempts having failed of success, when the consul had already laid his hand on the door-post, and was employed in offering prayers to the gods, they hastily addressed him with the shocking intelligence, that his son was dead, and insisted that his family being thus defiled, he could not dedicate the temple. Whether he doubted the truth of the intelligence, or whether it was owing to great firmness of mind, we are not informed with certainty, nor is it easy to conjecture; but he was no farther diverted from the business he was engaged in, by that information, than just to give orders that the body should be buried; and, still holding the post, he finished his prayer, and dedicated the temple. Such were the transactions at home and abroad, which occurred during the first year after the expulsion of the royal family. The next consuls appointed were, Publius Valerius, a second time, and Titus Lucretius.Y. R. 246. 506.
IX. Meanwhile, the Tarquinii had carried their complaints to Lars Porsena, king of Clusium; and there, mixing admonitions with intreaties, they at one time besought him that he would not suffer those, who derived their origin from Etruria, and were of the same blood and name, to spend their lives in poverty and exile; then warned him “not to let this new practice of dethroning kings proceed without chastisement; adding, that liberty had in itself sufficient sweets to allure others to follow the example, unless kings would show the same degree of vigour, in support of kingly power, which the people exerted to wrest it from them: the highest ranks would be reduced to a level with the lowest: there would be no dignity, no pre-eminence among the several members of society: there would soon be an end of regal authority, which among gods and men had heretofore been held in the highest degree of estimation.” Porsena, considering it as highly conducive to the honour of Etruria, that there should be a king at Rome, and also that that king should be of Etrurian race, led an army to Rome, determined to support his pretensions by force of arms. Never on any former occasion were the senate struck with such terror, so powerful was the state of Clusium at that time, and so great the name of Porsena: nor were they in dread of their enemies only, but also of their own countrymen; lest the Roman populace, overcome by their fears, might admit the kings into the city, and for the sake of peace, submit to slavery. The senate, therefore, at this season practised many conciliatory measures toward the commons: their first care was applied to the markets, and people were sent, some to the Volscians, others to Cumæ, to purchase corn; the privilege also of selling salt, because the price had been raised to an extravagant height, was taken out of the hands of private persons, and placed entirely under the management of government; the commons were also exempted from port duties and taxes, that the public expenses might fall upon the rich, who were equal to the burthen, the poor paying tax sufficient if they educated their children. This indulgent care preserved such harmony in the state, even during the people’s severe sufferings afterwards, from siege and famine, that the name of king was abhorred by all; nor did any single person, in after times, ever acquire such a high degree of popularity by artful intrigues, as the whole senate then obtained by their wise administration.
X. As the enemy drew nigh, every one removed hastily from the country into the city, on every side of which strong guards were posted. Some parts seemed well secured by the walls, others by the Tiber running close to them. The Sublician bridge was very near affording the enemy an entrance, had it not been for one man, Horatius Cocles: no other bulwark had the fortune of Rome on that day. He happened to be posted on guard at the bridge, and when he saw the Janiculum taken by a sudden assault, and the enemy pouring down from thence in full speed, his countrymen in disorder and confusion no longer attempting opposition, but quitting their ranks, he caught hold of every one that he could, and, appealing to gods and men, assured them that “it was in vain that they fled, after deserting the post which could protect them; that if they passed the bridge, and left it behind them, they would soon see greater numbers of the enemy in the Palatium and the Capitol than in the Janiculum; wherefore he advised and warned them to break down the bridge, by their swords, fire, or any other effectual means, while he should sustain the attack of the enemy, as long as it was possible for one person to withstand them.” He then advanced to the first entrance of the bridge, and being easily distinguished from those who showed their backs in retreating from the fight, by his facing to the front, with his arms prepared for action, he astonished the enemy by such wonderful intrepidity. Shame however prevailed on two to remain with him, Spurius Lartius and Titus Herminius, both of them men of distinguished families and characters: with their assistance he, for a time, supported the first storm, and the most furious part of the fight. Even these he sent back, when the bridge was nearly destroyed, and those who were employed in breaking it down called upon them to retire; then darting fierce menacing looks at each of the leaders of the Etrurians, he sometimes challenged them singly, sometimes upbraided them altogether, as slaves of haughty kings, who, incapable of relishing liberty themselves, had come to wrest it from others. For a considerable time they hesitated, looking about for some other to begin the combat: shame at length put their troops in motion, and, setting up a shout, they poured their javelins from all sides against their single opponent: all which, having stuck in the shield with which he guarded himself, and he still persisting with the same undaunted resolution, and with haughty strides, to keep possession of his post, they had now resolved, by making a violent push, to force him from it, when the crash of the falling bridge, and at the same time a shout raised by the Romans, for joy at having completed their purpose, filled them with sudden dismay, and stopped them from proceeding in the attempt. Then Cocles said, “Holy father, Tiberinus, I beseech thee to receive these arms, and this thy soldier, into thy propitious stream.” With these words, armed as he was, he leaped down into the Tiber, and through showers of darts which fell around him, swam safe across to his friends, having exhibited a degree of intrepidity which, in after times, was more generally celebrated than believed. The state showed a grateful sense of such high desert; a statue was erected to him in the Comitium, with a grant of land as large as he could plough completely in one day. The zeal of private persons too was conspicuous, amidst the honours conferred on him by the public; for, great as the scarcity then was, every one contributed something to him, in proportion to the stock of their family, abridging themselves of their own proper support.
XI. Porsena, disappointed of success in this first effort, changed his plan from an assault to a blockade; and, leaving a force sufficient to secure the Janiculum, encamped his main body in the plain along the bank of the Tiber, at the same time collecting ships from all quarters, at once to guard the passage, that no corn should be conveyed to Rome, and to enable his troops to cross over the river in different places, as occasion offered, to lay waste the country. In a short time he extended his depredations so successfully, through every part of the Roman territories, that people were obliged to convey their effects into the city, as also their cattle, which no one would venture to drive without the gates. The Etrurians were permitted to act in this uncontrolled manner, not so much through fear, as design; for Valerius the consul, intent on gaining an opportunity of making an unexpected attack on a large number of them, at a time when they were unprepared, overlooked trifling advantages, reserving his force for a severe revenge on a more important occasion. With this view, in order to allure the plunderers, he gave orders to his men to drive out some cattle through the Esquiline gate, which was at the opposite side from the enemy; judging that these would soon get information of it, because, during the blockade and the scarcity of provisions, many of the slaves turned traitors and deserted. Accordingly they were informed of it by a deserter, and passed over the river in much greater numbers than usual, in hopes of getting possession of the entire booty. Publius Valerius then ordered Titus Herminius, with a small body of men, to lie concealed near the two-mile stone on the Gabian road; Spurius Lartius, with a body of light armed troops, to stand at the Colline gate until the enemy should pass by, and then to take post in their rear, so as to cut off their retreat to the river: the other consul, Titus Lucretius, with some companies of foot, marched out of the Nævian gate; Valerius himself led down his chosen cohorts from the Cœlian mount, and these were the first who were observed by the enemy. Herminius, as as soon as he found that the alarm was taken, rushed out from his ambush, to take his share in the fray, and while the Etrurians were busied in forming an opposition to Valerius, fell upon their rear; the shout was returned, both from the right and from the left; from the Colline gate on one hand, and the Nævian on the other. The plunderers being thus surrounded, destitute of strength to make head against their adversaries, and shut out from all possibility of a retreat, were cut to pieces. After this the Etrurians confined their ravages to narrower limits.
XII. The siege continued notwithstanding, and provisions becoming exceedingly scarce and dear, Porsena entertained hopes, that, by remaining quiet in his present position, he should become master of the city; when Caius Mucius, a noble youth, filled with indignation on reflecting that the Roman people, while they were in bondage under their kings, were never in any war besieged by any enemy, and that the same people, now in a state of freedom, were held besieged by those very Etrurians whose armies they had often routed, resolved, therefore, by some great and daring effort, to remove such reproach. At first he designed to make his way into the enemy’s camp, without communicating his intention; but afterwards, dreading lest, if he should go without the order of the consuls, and the knowledge of any, he might be apprehended by the Roman guards, and brought back as a deserter, an imputation for which the present circumstances of the city would afford plausible grounds, he applied to the senate, and told them, “Fathers, I intend to cross the Tiber, and to enter, if I can, the enemy’s camp, not to seek for plunder, or to revenge their depredations in kind; the blow which I meditate, with the aid of the gods, is of more importance.” The senate gave their approbation, and he set out with a sword concealed under his garment. When he came into the camp, he took his place close to the king’s tribunal, where a very great crowd was assembled. It happened that, at this time, the soldiers were receiving their pay, and a secretary, sitting beside the king, and dressed nearly in the same manner, acted a principal part in the business, and to him the soldiers generally addressed themselves. Mucius, not daring to inquire which was Porsena, lest his not knowing the king should discover what he was, fortune blindly directing the stroke where it was not intended, slew the secretary instead of the king. Then endeavouring to make his escape through a passage, which with his bloody weapon he cleared for himself among the dismayed crowd, a concourse of the soldiers being attracted by the noise, he was seized by the king’s life-guards, and dragged back. Standing there single, among a crowd of enemies, before the king’s tribunal, even in this situation, in the midst of fortune’s severest threats, showing himself more capable of inspiring terror than of feeling it, he spoke to this effect: “I am a Roman citizen; my name is Caius Mucius. As an enemy, I intended to have slain an enemy, nor is my resolution less firmly prepared to suffer death than to inflict it. It is the part of a Roman both to act and to suffer with fortitude: nor am I the only one who has harboured such designs against you. There is a long list, after me, of candidates for the same glorious distinction. Prepare, therefore, if you choose, for a contest of this sort, wherein you must every hour engage at the hazard of your life, and have the enemy and the sword continually in the porch of your pavilion; this is the kind of war in which we, Roman youths, engage against you; fear not an army in the field, nor in battle; the affair will rest between your single person, and each of us, separately.” The king, inflamed with rage, and, at the same time, terrified at the danger, ordered fires to be kindled round him, threatening him with severe punishment unless he instantly explained what those plots were, with which he threatened him in those ambiguous expressions: “Behold,” said Mucius, “and perceive what little account is made of the body, by those who have in view the attainment of great glory;” and thrusting his right hand into a chafing-dish of coals which had been kindled for the purpose of a sacrifice, held it there to burn, as if he were void of all sense of feeling: on which the king, thunderstruck in a manner by such astonishing behaviour, leaped from his seat, ordered the youth to be removed from the altars, and said to him, “Retire in safety, for the treatment which you intended for me, was mild in comparison of that which you have practised on yourself. I should wish increase and success to your bravery, if that bravery were exerted on the side of my own country. However, I dismiss you untouched and unhurt; and discharge you from the penalties, which, by the laws of war, I might inflict.” Mucius then, as if to make a return for this act of favour, told him, “Since I find you disposed to honour bravery, that you may obtain from me by kindness what you could not by threats, know that three hundred of us, the principal youths in Rome, have bound ourselves to each other by an oath, to attack you in this manner; my lot happened to be first; the others will be with you, each in his turn, according as the lot shall set him foremost, until fortune shall afford an opportunity of succeeding against you.”
XIII. Mucius, who afterwards got the surname of Scævola, or the left handed, from the loss of his right hand, being thus dismissed, was followed to Rome by ambassadors from Porsena. The king had been so deeply affected by the danger to which he had been exposed, in the first attempt, from which nothing had protected him but the mistake of the assailant; and by the consideration that he was to undergo the same hazard, as many times as the number of the other conspirators amounted to, that he thought proper, of his own accord, to offer terms of accommodation to the Romans. During the negotiation, mention was made, to no purpose, of the restoration of the Tarquinian family to the throne; and this proposal he made, rather because he had not been able to refuse it to the Tarquinii, than from entertaining the slightest expectation of its being accepted by the Romans. He carried the point, respecting the giving up of the lands taken from the Veientians, and compelled the Romans to submit to give hostages, if they wished to see his forces withdrawn from the Janiculum. Peace being concluded on these terms, Porsena withdrew his troops from the Janiculum, and retired out of the Roman territories. To Caius Mucius, as a reward of his valour, the senate gave a tract of ground on the other side of the Tiber, which was afterwards called the Mucian meadows; and, such honour being paid to courage, excited even the other sex to merit public distinctions. A young lady called Clœlia, one of the hostages, (the camp of the Etrurians happening to be pitched at a small distance from the banks of the Tiber,) evaded the vigilance of the guards, and, at the head of a band of her companions, swam across the Tiber, through a shower of darts discharged at them by the enemy, and restored them all, in safety, to their freinds at Rome. When the king was informed of this, being at first highly incensed, he sent envoys to Rome, to insist on the restoration of the hostage Clœlia; as to the rest, he showed little concern. But his anger, in a little time, being converted into admiration, he spoke of her exploit as superior to those of Cocles and Mucius; and declared that as, in case the hostage should not be given up, he would consider the treaty as broken off; so, if she should be surrendered, he would send her back to her friends in safety. Both parties behaved with honour; the Romans, on their side, returned the pledge of peace, agreeably to the treaty, and with the Etrurian king merit found, not security only, but honours. After bestowing high compliments on the lady, he told her that he made her a present of half of the hostages, with full liberty to choose such as she liked. When they were all drawn out before her, she is said to have chosen the very young boys, which was not only consonant to maiden delicacy, but, in the universal opinion of the hostages themselves, highly reasonable, that those who were of such an age as was most liable to injury, should in preference, be delivered out of the hands of enemies. Peace being thus re-established, the Romans rewarded this instance of intrepidity, so uncommon in the female sex, with a mark of honour as uncommon, an equestrian statue. This was erected at the head of the sacred street.
XIV. Very inconsistent with this peaceful manner, in which the Etrurian king retired from the city, is the practice handed down from early times, and continued, among other customary usages, even in our own days, of proclaiming at public sales, that they are selling the goods of king Porsena: which custom must necessarily either have taken its rise originally, during the war, or it must be derived from a milder source than seems to belong to the expression, which intimates that the goods for sale were taken from an enemy. Of the several accounts which have been given, this seems to be the nearest to truth: that Porsena, on retiring from the Janiculum, made a present to the Romans of his camp, which was plentifully stored with provisions collected from the neighbouring fertile lands of Etruria, the city at that time labouring under a scarcity, in consequence of the long siege; and lest the populace, if permitted, might seize on them, as the spoil of an enemy, they were set up to sale, and called the goods of Porsena; the appellation denoting rather gratitude for the gift, than an auction of the king’s property, which, besides, never came into the power of the Romans. After he had put an end to the war with Rome, Porsena, that he might not appear to have led his troops into those countries to no purpose, sent his son Aruns, with half of his forces, to lay siege to Aricia: the unexpectedness of the attack struck the Aricians at first with dismay; but afterwards having collected aid, both from the Latine states and from Cumæ, they assumed such confidence, as to venture an engagement in the field. At the beginning of the battle, the Etrurians rushed on so furiously, that at the very first onset they put the Aricians to the rout: the cohorts from Cumæ, opposing art to force, moved a little to one side; and when the enemy, in the impetuosity of their career, had passed them, faced about, and attacked their rear. By these means the Etrurians, after having almost gained the victory, were surrounded and cut to pieces: a very small part of them, their general being lost, and no place of safety nearer, made the best of their way to Rome, without arms, and in their circumstances and appearance merely like suppliants; there they were kindly received, and provided with lodgings: when their wounds were cured, some of them returned home, and gave an account of the hospitality and kindness which they had experienced. A great number remained at Rome, induced by the regard which they had contracted for their hosts and for the city: they had ground allotted to them for building houses, which was afterwards called the Tuscan street.
Y. R. 247. 505.XV. The next elected consuls were Publius Lucretius, and Publius Valerius Publicola a third time. During this year, ambassadors came from Porsena, for the last time, about restoring Tarquinius to the throne. The answer given to them was, that the senate would send ambassadors to the king; and accordingly, without delay, a deputation, consisting of the persons of the highest dignity among the senators, was sent with orders to acquaint him, that “it was not because their answer might not have been given in these few words, that the kings would not be admitted, that they had chosen to send a select number of their body to him, rather than to give the answer to his ambassadors at Rome, but in order that an end might be put for ever to all mention of that business; and that the intercourse of mutual kindness, at present subsisting between them, might not be disturbed by the uneasiness which must arise to both parties, if he were to request what would be destructive of the liberty of the Roman people; and the Romans, unless they chose to comply at the expense of their own ruin, must give a refusal to a person, to whom they would wish to refuse nothing: that the Roman people were not under regal government, but in a state of freedom, and were fully determined to open their gates to declared enemies, rather than to kings: that this was the fixed resolution of every one of them; that the liberty of the city, and the city itself, should have the same period of existence; and, therefore, to intreat him that, if he wished the safety of Rome, he would allow it to continue in its present state.” The king, convinced of the impropriety of interfering any farther, replied, “Since this is your fixed and unalterable resolution, I will neither teaze you by a repetition of fruitless applications on the same subject, nor will I disappoint the Tarquinii, by giving hopes of assistance, which they must not expect from me. Let them, whether they look for war or for quiet, seek some other residence in their exile, that there may subsist no cause of jealousy, to disturb, henceforward, the good understanding, which I wish to maintain between you and me.” To these expressions he added acts still more friendly; the hostages, which remained in his possession, he restored, and gave back the Veientian land, of which the Romans had been deprived by the treaty at the Janiculum. Tarquinius, finding all hopes of his restoration cut off, retired for refuge to Tusculum, to his father-in-law, Mamilius Octavius. Thus peace and confidence were firmly established between the Romans and Porsena.
Y. R. 249. 503.XVI. The next consuls were Marcus Valerius and Publius Postumius. During this year, war was carried on, with success, against the Sabines, and the consuls had the honour of a triumph. The Sabines, afterwards, preparing for a renewal of hostilities in a more formidable manner; to oppose them, and, at the same time, to guard against any sudden danger which might arise from the side of Tusculum, where, though war was not openly declared, there was reason to apprehend that it was intended, Publius Valerius, a fourth time, and Titus Lucretius, a second time, were chosen consuls.Y. R. 250. 502. A tumult which arose among the Sabines, between the advocates for peace and those for war, was the means of transferring a considerable part of their strength to the side of the Romans. For Atta Clausus, called afterwards at Rome Appius Claudius, being zealous in favour of peaceful measures, but overpowered by the turbulent promoters of war, and unable to make head against their faction, withdrew from Regillum to Rome, accompanied by a numerous body of adherents.* These were admitted to the rights of citizens, and had land assigned them beyond the Anio. They have been called the old Claudian tribe, to distinguish them from the new members, who, coming from the same part of the country, were afterwards added to that tribe. Appius was elected into the senate, and soon acquired a reputation among the most eminent. The consuls, in prosecution of the war, marched their army into the Sabine territories, and, after reducing the power of the enemy, by wasting their lands, and afterwards in battle, to such a degree, that there was no room to apprehend a renewal of hostilities in that quarter for a long time to come, returned in triumph to Rome. In the ensuing year,Y. R. 251. 501. when Agrippa Menenius and Publius Postumius were consuls, died Publius Valerius, a man universally allowed to have excelled all others, in superior talents both for war and peace, full of glory, but in such slender circumstances, that he left not sufficient to defray the charges of his funeral. He was buried at the expense of the public, and the matrons went into mourning for him, as they had done for Brutus. During the same year, two of the Latine colonies, Pometia and Cora revolted to the Auruncians, and war was undertaken against that people; a very numerous army, with which they boldly attempted to oppose the consuls, who were entering their borders, was entirely routed, and the Auruncians compelled to make their last stand at Pometia: nor was the carnage less after the battle was over, than during its continuance; there were greater numbers slain than taken, and those who were made prisoners, were in general put to death; nay, in the violence of their rage, which ought to be confined to foes in arms, the enemy spared not even the hostages, three hundred of whom had been formerly put into their hands. During this year also there was a triumph at Rome.
Y. R. 252. 500.XVII. The succeeding consuls, Opiter Virginius and Spurius Cassius, attacked Pometia, at first by storm, afterwards by regular approaches.* The Auruncians, actuated rather by implacable hatred, than by any hope of success, and without waiting for a favourable opportunity, resolved to assail them; and, sallying out, armed with fire and sword, they filled every place with slaughter and conflagration; and, besides burning the machines, and killing and wounding great numbers of their enemies, were very near killing one of the consuls, (which of them, writers do not inform us,) who was grievously wounded, and thrown from his horse. The troops, thus foiled in their enterprize, returned to Rome, leaving the consul, whose recovery was doubtful, together with a great number of wounded. After a short interval, just sufficient for the curing of their wounds, and recruiting the army; the Romans renewed their operations against Pometia, with redoubled fury and augmented strength; and when they had a-new completed their military works, the soldiers being just on the point of scaling the walls, the garrison capitulated. However, although the city had surrendered, the chiefs of the Auruncians were from all parts dragged to execution, with the same degree of cruelty, as if it had been taken by assault: the other members of the colony were sold by auction: the town was demolished, and the land set up to sale. The consuls obtained a triumph, rather in consideration of their having gratified the people’s resentment by severe revenge, than of the magnitude of the war which they had brought to a conclusion.
Y. R. 253. 499.XVIII. The following year the consuls were Postumus Cominius and Titus Lartius; when some Sabine youths having, through wantonness, used violence to certain courtezans at Rome, during the celebration of the public games, and a mob assembling, a scuffle ensued, which might almost be called a battle; and, from this trifling cause, matters seemed to have taken a tendency towards a renewal of hostilities. Besides the apprehension of a war with the Sabines, there was another affair which created much uneasiness: undoubted intelligence was received, that thirty states had already formed a conspiracy, at the instigation of Octavius Mamilius. While Rome remained in this perplexity, looking forward with anxious apprehension to the issue of such a perilous conjuncture, mention was made, for the first time, of creating a dictator.* But in what year, or who the consuls were, who could not be confided in, because they were of the Tarquinian faction, for that also is related, or who was the first person created dictator, we have no certain information. In the most ancient writers, however, I find it asserted, that the first dictator was Titus Lartius, and that Spurius Cassius was appointed master of the horse. They chose men of consular dignity, as ordered by the law enacted concerning the creating of a dictator. For this reason, I am the more induced to believe, that Lartius, who was of consular dignity, and not Manius Valerius, son of Marcus, and grandson of Volesus, who had not yet been consul, was placed over the consuls, as their director and master, as, even if it had been thought proper, that the dictator should be chosen out of that family, they would the rather have elected the father, Marcus Valerius, a man of approved merit, and of consular dignity. On this first establishment of a dictator at Rome, the populace, seeing the axes carried before him, were struck with such terror, as made them more submissive to rule; for they could not now, as under consuls who were equal in authority hope for protection, from one of them, against the other; but prompt obedience was required of them, and in no case was there any appeal. Even the Sabines were alarmed at the appointment of a dictator by the Romans, the more so, because they supposed that he had been named to act against them; they therefore sent ambassadors to treat of an accommodation; who, requesting of the dictator and senate, that they would pardon the misconduct of thoughtless young men, were answered, that pardon might be granted to young men, but not to the old, who made it their constant practice to kindle one war after another. However, a negociation was entered into for an adjustment of affairs, and it would have been concluded, if the Sabines had been willing to reimburse the costs expended on the war, for that was the condition required. War was proclaimed, but still a suspension of hostilities continued during the remainder of the year.
Y. R. 254. 498.XIX. The consuls of the next year were Servius Sulpicius, and Manius Tullius. Nothing worth mention occurred. Then succeeded Titus Æbutius and Caius Vetusius. In their consulate, Fidenæ was besieged, Crustumeria-taken, Præneste revolted from the Latines to the Romans, and a Latine war, the seeds of which had, for several years past, been growing to maturity, could not now be choaked. Aulus Postumius dictator, and Titus Æbutius master of the horse,Y. R. 255. 497. marching out a numerous army of cavalry and infantry, met the forces of the enemy at the lake Regillus, in the territory of Tusculum; and, as it was known that the Tarquinii were in the army of the Latines, the rage of the Romans could not be restrained, but they insisted on engaging instantly; for this reason, too, the battle was unusually obstinate and bloody; for the generals not only performed the duty of directing every thing, but, exposing their own persons, mixed with the combatants, and shared the fight; and scarcely one of the principal officers of either army left the field without being wounded, except the Roman dictator. As Postumius was encouraging and marshalling his men in the first line, Tarquinius Superbus, though now enfeebled by age, spurred on his horse furiously against him; but receiving a blow, was quickly surrounded by his own men, and carried off to a place of safety. On the other wing, Æbutius, the master of the horse, made an attack on Octavius Mamilius; nor was his approach unobserved by the Tusculan general, who advanced in full career to meet him, and each aiming his spear at his antagonist, they encountered with such violence, that the arm of Æbutius was pierced through, and Mamilius received a wound in his breast; the latter was received by the Latines in their second line; while Æbutius, disabled by the wound in his arm from wielding a weapon, retired from the fight. The Latine general, not in the least dispirited by his wound, continued his vigorous exertions; and perceiving his men begin to give ground, sent for a cohort of Roman exiles, commanded by Lucius the son of Tarquinius; these, fighting under the impulse of keen resentment, on account of their having been deprived of their property, and of their country, kept the battle for some time in suspense.
XX. The Romans were now on one side giving way, when Marcus Valerius, brother of Publicola, observing young Tarquinius, with ostentatious fierceness, exhibiting his prowess in the front of the exiles, and inflamed with a desire of supporting the glory of his house, and that those who enjoyed the honour of having expelled the royal family, might also be signalized by their destruction, set spurs to his horse, and, with his javelin presented, made towards Tarquinius; Tarquinius avoided this violent adversary, by retiring into the body of his men, and Valerius rashly pushing forward into the line of the exiles, was attacked, and run through, by some person on one side of him, and as the horse’s speed was in no degree checked by the wound of the rider, the expiring Roman sunk to the earth, his arms falling over his body. Postumius the dictator, seeing a man of such rank slain, the exiles advancing to the charge with fierce impetuosity, his own men disheartened and giving way, issued orders to his cohort, a chosen band which he kept about his person as a guard, that they should treat as an enemy, every man of their own army whom they should see retreating. Meeting danger thus on both sides, the Romans, who were flying, faced about against the enemy, and renewed the fight; the dictator’s cohort then, for the first time, engaged in battle; and, with fresh strength and spirits, falling on the exiles who were exhausted with fatigue, made great slaughter of them. On this occasion another combat between two general officers took place; the Latine general, on seeing the cohort of exiles almost surrounded by the Roman dictator, ordered several companies from the reserve to follow him instantly to the front; Titus Herminius, a lieutenant-general, observing these as they marched up, and, among them, knowing Mamilius, who was distinguished by his dress and arms, encountered him with a strength so much superior to what had been shown a little before, by the master of the horse, that with one blow he slew Mamilius, driving the spear through his side. Thus was he victorious; but having received a wound from a javelin, while he was stripping the armour from his adversary’s body, he was carried off to the camp, and expired during the first dressing of it. The dictator then flew to the cavalry, entreating them, as the infantry were now fatigued, to dismount and support the engagement: they obeyed his orders, leaped from their horses, flew forward to the van, and covering themselves with their targets, took post as the front line: this instantly revived the courage of the infantry, who saw the young men of the first distinction foregoing every advantage in their manner of fighting, and taking an equal share of the danger. By these means, the Latines were at length overpowered, their troops were beaten from their ground, and began to retreat: the horses were then brought up to the cavalry, in order that they might pursue the enemy, and the line of infantry followed. At this juncture, the dictator, omitting no means of engaging the aid both of gods and men, is said to have vowed a temple to Castor; and to have proclaimed rewards to the first, and to the second of the soldiers who should enter the enemy’s camp; and so great was the ardour of the Romans, that they never remitted the impetuosity of the charge, by which they had broken the enemy’s line, until they made themselves masters of the camp. Such was the engagement at the lake Regillus. The dictator and master of the horse, on their return to the city, were honoured with a triumph.
Y. R. 256. 496.XXI. During the three ensuing years, there was neither war, nor yet a security of lasting peace. The consuls were, Quintus Clœlius and Titus Lartius: then Aulus Sempronius and Marcus Minutius,Y. R. 257. 495. in whose consulate the temple of Saturn was dedicated, and the festival called Saturnalia instituted. After them, Aulus Postumius and Titus Virginius were made consuls.Y. R. 258. 494. I find it asserted by some writers, that the battle at the lake Regillus was not fought until this year, and that Aulus Postumius, because the fidelity of his colleague was doubtful, abdicated the consulship, and was then made dictator. Such perplexing mistakes, with regard to dates, occur from the magistrates being ranged in different order, by different writers, that it is impossible, at this distance of time, when not only the facts, but the authors who relate them, are involved in the obscurity of antiquity, to trace out a regular series of the consuls as they succeeded each other, or of the transactions as they occurred in each particular year.Y. R. 259. 493. Appius Claudius and Publius Servilius were next appointed to the consulship. This year was rendered remarkable by the news of Tarquinius’s death; he died at Cumæ, whither, on the reduction of the power of the Latines, he had retired for refuge, to the tyrant Aristodemus. By this news, both the patricians and the commons were highly elated; but the former suffered their exultation on the occasion to carry them to unwarrantable lengths; and the latter, who, until that time, had been treated with the utmost deference, began to feel themselves exposed to insults from the nobility. During the same year, the colony of Signia, which Tarquinius had founded in his reign, was re-established, by filling up its number of colonists. The tribes of Rome were increased to the number of twenty-one. The temple of Mercury was dedicated on the ides of May.
XXII. During these proceedings against the Latines, it could hardly be said that there was either war or peace with the nation of the Volscians: for, on the one hand, these had got troops in readiness, which they would have sent to the assistance of the Latines, if the Roman dictator had not been so quick in his measures; and, on the other, the Roman had used this expedition, in order that he might not be obliged to contend against the united forces of the Latines and Volscians. In resentment of this behaviour, the consuls led the legions into the Volscian territory: the Volscians, who had no apprehensions of punishment, for a design which had not been put in execution, were confounded at this unexpected proceeding, insomuch that, laying aside all thoughts of opposition, they gave three hundred hostages, the children of the principal persons at Cora and Pometia; in consequence whereof, the legions were withdrawn from thence, without having come to an engagement. However, in a short time after, the Volscians being delivered from their fears, resumed their former disposition, renewed secretly their preparations for war, and prevailed on the Hernicians to join them; they also sent ambassadors through every part of Latium, to stir up that people to arms. But the Latines were so deeply affected by their recent disaster, at the lake Regillus, and so highly incensed at any persons attempting to persuade them to engage in a war, that they even offered violence to the ambassadors: seizing the Volscians, they conducted them to Rome, and there delivered them to the consuls, with information, that the Volscians and Hernicians were preparing to make war on the Romans. The affair being laid before the senate, the conduct of the Latines was so acceptable to the senators, that they restored to them six thousand of the prisoners, and made an order, besides, that the new magistrates should proceed in the business relative to an alliance, a point which had been almost absolutely refused them. The Latines then highly applauded themselves for the part which they had acted, and the friends of peaceful measures were held in high estimation: they sent to the capitol a golden crown, as a present to Jupiter, and, together with the ambassadors, and the present, came a great multitude of attendants, consisting of the prisoners who had been sent back to their friends. These proceeded to the several houses of the persons, with whom each of them had been in servitude, returned thanks for their generous behaviour and treatment of them, during the time of their calamity, and formed mutual connexions of hospitality. Never, at any former time, was the Latine nation more closely united to the Roman government; by ties both of a public and private nature.
XXIII. But, besides being immediately threatened with a Volscian war, the state itself was torn in pieces by intestine animosities, between the particians and commons, on account principally of persons confined for debt:* these complained loudly, that after fighting abroad for freedom and empire, they were made prisoners and oppressed by their countrymen at home, and that the liberty of the commons was more secure in war than in peace, amongst their foes than amongst their own countrymen. This spirit of discontent, of itself increasing daily, was kindled into a flame, by the extraordinary sufferings of one man. A person far advanced in years, whose appearance denoted severe distress, threw himself into the Forum; his garb was squalid, and the figure of his person still more shocking, pale and emaciated to the last degree; besides, a long beard and hair had given his countenance a savage appearance: wretched as was the plight in which he appeared, he was known notwithstanding; several declared, that he had been centurion in the army, and, filled with compassion for him, mentioned publicly many other distinctions, which he had obtained in the service; he himself exhibited scars on his breast, as testimonies of his honourable behaviour in several actions. To those who inquired the cause of that wretched condition, both of his person and apparel, (a crowd meantime having assembled round him, which resembled, in some degree, an assembly of the people,) he answered, that “while he served in the army during the Sabine war, having not only lost the produce of his farm by the depredations of the enemy, but his house being burnt, all his goods plundered, his cattle driven off, and a tax being imposed at a time so distressing to him, he was obliged to run in debt; that this debt, aggravated by usury, had consumed, first, his farm, which he had inherited from his father and frandfather; then, the remainder of his substance; and lastly, like a pestilence, had reached his person: that he had been dragged by a creditor not into servitude, but into a house of correction, or rather a place of execution.” He then showed his back disfigured with the marks of fresh stripes: on this sight, after such a relation, a great uproar arose; and the tumult was no longer confined to the Forum, but spread through every part of the city: those who were then in confinement, and those who had been released from it, forced their way into the public street; and implored the protection of their fellow-citizens: there was no spot which did not afford a voluntary associate to add to the insurrection; from all quarters they ran in bodies, through every street, with great clamour, into the Forum. The situation of the senators who happened to be there at that time, and who fell in the way of this mob, became highly perilous, for they would certainly have proceeded to violence, had not the consuls, Publius Servilius and Appius Claudius, hastily interposed their authority. To them the multitude turned their applications; showed their chains, and other marks of wretchedness; said, this was what they had deserved; and reminding them of their former services in war, and in various engagements, insisted, with menaces rather than supplications, that they should assemble the senate; they then placed themselves round the senate-house, that they might act as witnesses, and directors of the councils of government. A very small number of the senators, whom chance threw in the way, and these against their will, attended the consuls: fear kept the rest at a distance; so that nothing could be done by reason of the thinness of the meeting. The populace then conceived an opinion, that there was a design to elude their demands by delay; that the absence of certain of the senators was occasioned, not by chance, nor by fear, but by their wishes to obstruct the business; that the consuls themselves showed a backwardness, and that their miseries were manifestly made a matter of mockery. The affair had now nearly arrived at such a state, that even the majesty of the consuls, it was feared, might be insufficient to restrain the rage of the people. At length the senators, beginning to doubt, whether they should incur the greater danger, by absenting themselves, or by attending, came to the senate; and when, after all this delay, a proper number had assembled, not only the senators, but even the consuls themselves, differed widely in opinion. Appius, a man of a violent temper, thought that the riot ought to be quelled by the weight of the consular authority, and that when one or two were taken into custody, the rest would be quiet: Servilius, more inclined to gentle remedies, maintained that, as the people’s spirits were already wound up to such a pitch of ill-humour, it would be both the safer and the easier method, to bend, than to break them. To add to these perplexities, they were threatened with still greater peril from another quarter.
XXIV. Some Latine horsemen arrived, in the utmost haste, with the alarming intelligence, that the Volscians, in hostile array, were coming to attack the city; which news, so entirely opposite were the views of the parties into which the state was split, affected the patricians and the commons in a very different manner. The commons exulted with joy; said the gods were coming to take vengeance for the tyranny of the patricians, and encouraged each other in the resolution not to enrol themselves; saying, “it was better that all should perish together, than that they should be the only victims; let the patricians serve as soldiers; let the patricians take arms, that those who reap the advantages of war, may also undergo its severities and hazards.” On the other hand, the senate, dejected and confounded on finding themselves thus encompassed by dangers, from their countrymen on one side, and from the enemy on the other, besought the consul Servilius, whose temper was adapted to conciliate the regard of the people, that he would find means to extricate the commonwealth from the dreadful apprehensions with which it was beset. Whereupon the consul, dismissing the senate, went forth to the assembly of the people; there he assured them, that the senators were solicitous that care should be taken of the interest of the commons; but that their “fears for the safety of the commonwealth, in general, had interrupted their deliberations, concerning that part of the state, which, though it must be allowed to be the largest, was still but a part; nor could they, while the enemy was just at the gates, allow any business to take place of the necessary provisions for the war, nor, even it they were allowed a little respite, would it be either for the honour of the commons, to have refused to take arms in defence of their country, unless on condition of first receiving hire for it; nor could it fail of injuring the reputation of the senators themselves, if they should appear to have now applied their attention to the good of their countrymen, through fear, rather than afterwards through inclination.” He gave proof of his sincerity in this discourse, by an edict, whereby he ordained, that “no person should hold any Roman citizen in bonds or confinement, so as to prevent his giving in his name to the consuls; that no person should take possession, or make sale, of the goods of a soldier, while upon service; nor detain in custody either his children or grandchildren.” On the publication of this edict, such debtors under arrest, as were present, instantly gave in their names, and crowds of others, in every part of the city, rushing out of their confinement, when the creditors had no longer a right to detain them, ran together to the Forum, to take the military oath: these composed a large body of troops, and none, during the Volscian war, displayed a greater share of bravery and activity. The consul led out his army against the enemy, and pitched his camp at a small distance from theirs.
XXV. The following night, the Volscians, expecting great advantages from the dissensions of the Romans, approached their camp, in hopes that, in the surrounding darkness, some might desert or betray their posts. They were, however, perceived by the sentinels; the troops were called up, and, the signal being given, they ran to arms; and by these means frustrated the attempt of the Volscians: the remainder of the night was dedicated to repose by both parties. Next day, at the first dawn, the Volscians, having filled up the trenches, assaulted the rampart, and were proceeding to demolish the fortifications on every side, when the consul, having delayed for some time in order to try the temper of his men, though called on from all sides, and particularly by the debters, to give the signal, at length, on finding their ardour so great, issued the order for sally-ing, and sent forth his troops, eager for the fight. At the first onset, the enemy were immediately routed, and their rear harassed in their retreat, as far as the infantry were able to pursue, while the cavalry, not suffering them to recover from their consternation, drove them to their camp. In a little time, the camp itself was surrounded by the legions, and the Volscians not having courage enough left to make a stand there, it was taken, and plundered. Next day, the legions were led in Suessa Pometia, whither the enemy had retreated, and shortly after the town was taken, and given up to the troops to be plundered by these means, the needy soldiers were in some measure relieved. The counsul, having acquired great glory, led back his victorious army to Rome. As he was preparing for his departure, ambassadors came to him from the Volscians of Ecetrea, who, after the taking of Pometia, felt apprehensions for their own safety: these had peace granted them by decree of the senate, but were deprived of their lands.
XXVI. Immediately after, the Sabines also caused an alarm at Rome, but it was, in fact, a tumult rather than a war. An account was brought by night, to the city, there a Sabine army were plundering the country, and had advanced so far as the river Anio, and that they were ravaging and burning all the farms in that neighbourhood. Aulus Postumius, who had been dicator in the Latine war, was instantly despatched thither with all the cavalry, and the consul Servilius followed, with a chosen body of foot. The greater part of the stragglers were cut off by the cavalry; nor was the man body of the Sabines capable of resisting the infantry on their approach, fatigued both by their march and by collecting booty, a great number of them in the country houses, overcharged with meat and wine, had scarcely strength sufficient to enable them to fly. Thus was this Sabine war finished within the same night in which the first account of it had been received. The next day while sanguine hopes were entertained that peace with all their neighbours was now securely established, ambassadors cam to the senate from the Auruncians, denouncing war, unless the troops were withdrawn from the territories of the Volscians: the army of the Auruncians had set out from home, at the same time with the ambassadors: and intelligence arriving, that it had been seen not far from Aricia, it excited such an alarm among the Romans, that neither could the senate be consulted in a regular manner, no could they, while busy themselves in taking up arms, give a peaceable answer to those who were advancing against them. The troops marched to Aricia, and not far from thence meeting with the enemy, came to a general engagement, which, without further contest, put an end to the war.
XXVII. When the Auruncians were defeated, the Romans, having vanquished so many different powers, within the space of a few days, expected the fulfillment of the promises made them by the consuls, and strengthened by the engagements of the senate. But Appius, instigated both by his own natural haughtiness, and a desire to undermine the credit of his colleague, issued his decrees on suits between debtor and creditor, with all possible severity; in consequence of which, both those who had formerly been in confinement, were delivered up to their creditors, and others also were taken into custody. When this happened to be the cast of nay of the auditors; he appealed to the other consul; a crowd gathered about Servillus, reminded him of his promises, upbraided him with their services in war, and the scars which they had received; insisted that he should lay the affair before the senate; and that, as consul, he should support his countrymen, and as general, his soldiers. The consul was affected by these remonstrances, but circumstances obliged him to decline interfering; not only his colleague, but the whole faction of the nobles, having gone so violently into opposite measures. By thus acting a middle part, he neither avoided the hatred of the commons, no procured the esteem of the patricians; the latter, considering him as destitute of the firmness becoming his office, and as too fond of popular applause, while the former looked upon him as a deceiver; and it shortly appeared that he was become no less odious than Appius. A contest happened between the consuls, as to which of them should dedicate the temple of Mercury. The senate refused to decide the matter, and referred it to the people, passing a vote that to whichever of them the dedication should be granted, the same should preside over the markets, should institute a college of merchants, and join the pontiff in the performance of the ceremonies usual on such occasions. The people gave the honour of the dedication to Marcus Detorius, a centurion of the first rank, showing plainly, that they acted thus, not merely out of respect to the person on whom they conferred an office of higher dignity than became his station, but with design to affront the consuls. This threw the patricians, and one of the consuls, particularly, into a rage but the commons had now assumed a greater degree of courage, and began to prosecute then measures in a very different method from that in which they had set out. Having given up all hope of protection from the consuls and the senate, whenever they saw a debtor led to the court, they flew together from all quarters so that neither could the sentence of the consul be heard amidst their noise and clamours, nor when it was pronounced did any one obey it. All was managed by force; and the whole dread and danger, with respect to their freedom, was transferred from the debtors to the creditors, who, standing single, were abused by the multitude, under the very eye of the consul. To add to the perplexity of the senate the alarm was spread of an attack being intended by the Sabines and orders being issued for levying troops, not a man gave in his name. Meanwhile Appius in a rage inveighed bitterly against the criminal lenity of his colleague, saying that by his popular silence, he was betraying the commonwealth, and that besides refusing to enforce the laws with respect to creditors, he neglected also to execute the decree of the senate, for levying troops. He declared that “the interest of the state was not yet entirely deserted, nor the consular office yet stripped of its authority; that he himself would stand forth singly, and vindicate his own dignity, and that of the senate.” Though surrounded by the multitude which assembled daily, and were of a temper too violent to be controlled, he ordered one of the principal ringleaders of the mob to be apprehended, When the lictors laid hold of him he appealed, but the consul would not at first allow the appeal, there being no doubt what the sentence of the people would be. His obstinacy, however, was at length overcome, more by the advice and influence of the nobility than by the clamours of the people; so firmly did he withstand the indignation of the multitude. From this time, the evil daily gained ground, showing itself not only in open expressions of discontent, but, what was much more pernicious, in secret meetings and private cabals. At length these consuls, so odious to the people, went out of office, Appius in high favour with the patricians. Servilius with neither party.
XXVIII. Next entered on the consulship, Aulus Virginius and Titus Vetusius. The people now, not being able to judge what sort of consuls they were to have, took care to form nightly meetings, some on the Esquiline, others on the Aventine mount, in order that their proceedings might not be confused by their being obliged to adopt measures hastily in the Forum, and to act, on every occasion, at random, and without a plan. The consuls, considering this as a very dangerous proceeding, which it really was, proposed it to the consideration of the senate, but were not allowed, after proposing it, to take the votes regularly, a great tumult arising on the mention of it among the senators, who exclaimed, and expressed the highest indignation at the consuls attempting to throw on that body the odium of an affair which ought to have been quelled by the consular authority. They told them, that “if there really had been magistrates in the commonwealth, there would have been no council at Rome, but the public one. At present the government was divided and dispersed into a thousand senate houses, and assemblies, some meetings being held on the Esquiline mount, others on the Aventine. That they had no doubt, but one man, such as Appius Claudius, would have dispersed those meetings in a moment’s time.” The consuls, on receiving this rebuke, asked the senate, what then they would have them do? for they were resolved, they said, to act with all the activity and vigour which the senate might recommend. A decree then passed, that they should enforce the levies with the utmost strictness; for that the commons were grown insolent through want of employment. Dismissing the senate the consuls mounted the tribunal, and cited the younger citizens by their name. No answer being made, the multitude which stood round, like a general assembly, declared, that “the commons could be no longer deceived; and that not a single soldier should be raised, until the public engagements were fulfilled. That every man must have his liberty restored, before arms were put into his hands, that the people might be convinced they were to fight for their country and fellow-citizens, not for their masters.” The consuls saw clearly enough what the senate expected from them; but of those who spoke with the greatest vehemence within the walls of the senate-house, not one was present to stand the brunt of the contests, and every thing threatened a desperate one with the commons. It was resolved, therefore, before they should proceed to extremities, to consult the senate again; the consequence of which was, that all the younger senators rushed up hastily to the seats of the consuls, desiring them to abdicate the consulship, and lay down a command which they wanted spirit to support.
XXIX. Having made sufficient trial of the dispositions of both sides, the consuls at length spoke out: “Conscript fathers, lest ye should hereafter say that ye were not forewarned, know that a dangerous sedition is ready to break out. We demand that those who are the most forward to censure us for inactivity, may assist us by their presence, while we hold the levy. We will proceed in the business in such a manner as shall be approved by the most strenuous advocates for vigorous measures, since such is your pleasure.” They then went back to the tribunal, and ordered, purposely, one of those, who were within view, to be cited: finding that he stood mute, and that a number of people had formed in a circle round him, to prevent any force being used, the consuls sent a lictor to him, who being driven back, those of the senators who attended the consuls, exclaiming against the insolence of such behaviour, flew down from the tribunal to assist the lictor. The populace then, quitting the lictor, to whom they had offered no other opposition than that of hindering him from making the seizure, directed their force against the senators; but the consuls interposing quickly, put an end to the scuffle, in which as neither stones nor weapons had been used, there was more clamour and rage than mischief. The senate called tumultuously together, proceeded in a manner still more tumultuous; those who had been beaten, demanding an inquiry into the affair; and the most violent of them endeavouring to carry their point by clamour and noise, rather than by vote. At length, when their rage had somewhat subsided, the consuls, reproaching them with being equally disorderly in the senate-house as in the Forum, began to collect the votes. There were three different opinions; Publius Virginius thought that “the case did not extend to the whole body of the commons, and that those only were to be considered, who, relying on the promises of the consul Publius Servilius, had served in the Volscian, Auruncian, and Sabine wars:” Titus Largius was of opinion, that “the present juncture required something more than the making a return for services performed; that the whole body of the commons were overwhelmed with debt, nor could the progress of the evil be stopped, unless the advantages of the whole were attended to. On the contrary, if distinctions were made, this would add fuel to the dissensions, instead of extinguishing them.” Appius Claudius, whose temper naturally harsh, was roused to a degree of ferocity by his hatred to the commons on the one hand, and the applause of the patricians on the other, affirmed that “all these dirturbances were excited, not by the people’s sufferings, but their licentiousness; and that the commons were actuated by a spirit of wantonness, rather than by resentment of injuries: this was the consequence of giving them a right to appeal; for all that a consul could do, was to threaten, he could not command, when people are allowed to appeal to those who have been accomplices in their transgressions. Come, said he, let us create a dictator, from whom there is no appeal: this madness, which has set the whole state in a flame, will quickly sink into silence. Let me then see, who will strike a lictor, when he knows that the very person whose dignity he insults, has the sole and entire disposal of his person and of his life.”
XXX. To many, the expedient recommended by Appius appeared too rough and violent, and justly so; on the other hand, the propositions of Virginius and Largius were considered as tending to establish a bad precedent; particularly that of Largius, which was utterly subversive of all credit. The advice of Virginius was deemed to be the farthest from excess on either side, and a just medium between the other two. But, through the spirit of faction, and men’s regard to their private interests, (things which ever did and ever will impede the public councils,) Appius prevailed, and was himself very near being created dictator; which proceeding, beyond any other, would have highly disgusted the commons, at a very critical juncture, when the Volscians, the Æquans, and the Sabines, happened to be all in arms at the same time. But the consuls and the elder part of the senate took care that a command, in itself uncontrolable, should be intrusted to a person of a mild disposition; and accordingly they chose for dictator Manius Valerius, son of Volesus. Although the commons saw that the dictator was created in opposition to them, yet, as by his brother’s law, they enjoyed the privilege of appeal, they dreaded nothing harsh or overbearing from that family. Their hopes were farther encouraged by an edict which the dictator published, of the same tenor in general with the edict of the consul Servilius; but as they thought that they had now securer grounds of confidence, both in the man himself, and in the power with which he was invested, they desisted from the contest, and gave in their names. Ten legions were completed, a force greater than had ever been raised before; of these, three were assigned to each of the consuls, the other four were commanded by the dictator. War could now be no longer deferred: the Æquans had invaded the territories of the Latines; and these by their ambassadors petitioned the senate, that they would either send troops to protect them, or permit them to take arms themselves, to defend their frontiers. It was judged the safer method to defend the Latines without their own assistance, than to allow them to handle arms again: the consul Vetusius was therefore sent thither, who put an end to the depredations. The Æquans retired from the plains, and provided for their safety on the tops of the mountains, relying more on the situation than on their arms. The other consul who marched against the Volscians, not choosing that his time should be wasted in like manner, used every means, particularly by ravaging the country, in order to provoke the enemy to approach nearer, and to hazard an engagement. They were drawn up in order of battle in a plain between the two camps, each party before their own rampart. The Volscians had considerably the advantage in point of numbers; they therefore advanced to the fight, in a careless manner, as if despising the enemy. The Roman consul did not suffer his troops to move, nor to return the shout, but ordered them to stand with their javelins fixed in the ground, and as soon as the enemy should come within reach, then to exert at once their utmost efforts, and decide the affair with their swords. The Volscians, fatigued with running and shouting, rushed upon the Romans, whom they believed to be benumbed with fear; but when they found a vigorous resistance, and the swords glittering before their eyes, struck with consternation, just as if they had fallen into an ambuscade, they turned their backs: nor had they strength left to enable them to make their escape, having exhausted it by advancing to the battle in full speed. The Romans, on the other hand, having stood quiet during the first part of the engagement, had their vigour fresh, and easily overtaking the wearied fugitives, took their camp by assault, and pursuing them, as they fled from thence to Velitræ, the victors and the vanquished composing, as it were, but one body, rushed into the city together. People of every kind were put to the sword, without distinction, and there was more blood spilt than even in the fight: a small number only, who threw down their arms, obtained quarter.
XXXI. While these things passed in the country of the Volscians, the Sabines, who were by far the most formidable enemy, were routed, put to flight, and beaten out of their camp by the dictator. He had at first, by a charge of his cavalry, thrown the centre of the enemy’s line into disorder; which, while they extended their wings too far, had not been sufficiently strengthened by a proper depth of files. Before they could recover from this confusion, the infantry fell upon them, and continued their attack, without intermission, until they made themselves masters of their camp, and put a conclusion to the war. Since the battle at the lake Regillus, there had not been obtained in those times, a more glorious victory than this: the dictator entered the city in triumph, and besides the accustomed honours, there was a place in the circus assigned to him and his posterity, for a seat, and a curule chair fixed in it. From the vanquished Volscians the lands of the district of Velitræ were taken, for which inhabitants were sent from the city, and a colony established there. Soon after this, a battle was fought with the Æquans, against the inclination indeed of the consul, who considered the disadvantage of the ground which the troops had to traverse; but the soldiers, accusing him of protracting the business, in order that the dictator might go out of office before they should return to the city, and so his promises fall to the ground without effect, as had those of the former consul, they at length prevailed on him to march up his army, at all hazards, against the steep of the mountain. Rash as this undertaking was, yet, through the cowardice of the enemy, it was crowned with success; for, before a weapon could be thrown, struck with amazement at the boldness of the Romans, they abandoned their camp, which they had fixed in a very strong position, and ran down precipitately into the vallies, on the opposite side: there the Romans gained a bloodless victory, and abundance of booty. Though their arms were thus attended with success, in three different quarters, neither patricians nor commons were free from anxiety respecting the issue of their domestic affairs. With such powerful influence, and with such art also, had the lenders of money concerted their measures, that they were able to disappoint not only the commons, but even the dictator himself: for Valerius, on the return of the consul Vetusius, took care that the first business which came before the senate should be that of the people, who had returned home victorious; and proposed the question, what did they think proper to be done with respect to the persons confined for debt? and when they refused to take the matter into consideration, he said, “My endeavours to restore concord are, I see, displeasing to you: believe me when I solemnly declare, that the time will shortly come when you will wish, that the commons of Rome had just such patrons as I am: as to myself, I will neither be the means of farther disappointments to the hopes of my countrymen, nor will I hold the office of dictator without effect. Intestine discord and foreign wars made it necessary for the commonwealth to have such a magistrate: peace has been procured abroad, at home it is not suffered to take place: it is my determination then, in time of sedition, to appear in the character of a private citizen, rather than that of dictator.” Then withdrawing from the senate-house, he abdicted the dictatorship. The case appeared to the commons, as if he had resigned his office out of resentment of the treatment shown to them, and therefore, as if he had fulfilled his engagements, it not having been his fault that they were not fulfilled, they attended him, as he retired to his house, with approbation and applause.
XXXII. The senate were then seized with apprehensions, that if the citizens should be discharged from the army, their secret cabals and conspiracies would be renewed; wherefore, supposing that, though the levy was made by the dictator, yet as the soldiers had sworn obedience to the consuls, they were still bound by that oath, they ordered the legions, under the pretext of hostilities being renewed by the Æquans, to be led out of the city: which step served only to hasten the breaking out of the sedition. It is said that the plebeians, at first, entertained thoughts of putting the consuls to death, in order that they might be thereby discharged from the oath; but being afterwards informed that no religious obligation could be dissolved by an act of wickedness, they, by the advice of a person called Sicinus, retired without waiting for orders from the consuls, to the sacred mount, beyond the river Anio, about three miles from the city. This account is more generally credited than that given by Piso, who says, the secession was made to the Aventine. In this place, without any commander, having fortified their camp with a rampart and trench, they remained quiet for several days, taking nothing from any one but necessary subsistence, neither receiving nor giving offence. Great was the consternation in the city; all was fearful suspense and mutual apprehension: the plebeians, who were left behind by their brethren, dreaded the violence of the patricians; the patricians dreaded the plebeians who remained in the city, not knowing whether they ought to wish for their stay, or for their departure: but “how long could it be supposed that the multitude which had seceded would remain inactive? And what would be the consequence, if, in the mean time, a foreign war should break out? No glimpse of hope could they see left, except in concord between the citizens, which must be re-established in the state on any terms, whether fair or unfair.” They determined, therefore, to send as ambassador to the plebeians, Menenius Agrippa, a man of eloquence, and acceptable to the commons, because he had been originally one of their body. He, being admitted into the camp, is said to have related to them the following fable, delivered in antiquated language, and an uncouth style:—“At a time when the members of the human body did not, as at present, all unite in one plan, but each member had its own scheme, and its own language; the other parts were provoked at seeing that the fruits of all their care, of all their toil and service, were applied to the use of the belly; and that the belly meanwhile remained at its ease, and did nothing but enjoy the pleasure provided for it: on this they conspired together, that the hand should not bring food to the mouth, nor the mouth receive it if offered, nor the teeth chew it. While they wished, by these angry measures, to subdue the belly through hunger, the members themselves, and the whole body, were, together with it, reduced to the last stage of decay: from thence it appeared that the office of the belly itself was not confined to a slothful indolence; that it not only received nourishment, but supplied it to the others, conveying to every part of the body, that blood, on which depend our life and vigour, by distributing it equally through the veins, after having brought it to perfection by digestion of the food.” Applying this to the present case, and showing what similitude there was between the dissension of the members, and the resentment of the commons against the patricians, he made a considerable impression on the people’s minds.
XXXIII. A negociation was then opened for a reconciliation; and an accommodation was effected, on the terms, that the plebeians should have magistrates of their own, invested with inviolable privileges, who might have power to afford them protection against the consuls; and that it should not be lawful for any of the patricians to hold that office. Accordingly, there were two tribunes of the commons created, Caius Licinius and Lucius Albinius; and these created three colleagues to themselves, among whom was Sicinius, the adviser of the secession: but who the other two were, is not agreed: some say that there were only two tribunes created on the sacred mount, and that the devoting law* was passed there.Y. R. 261. 491. During the secession of the commons, Spurius Cassius and Postumus Cominius entered on the consulship. In their consulate the treaty with the Latines was concluded; for the purpose of ratifying this, one of the consuls remained at Rome, and the other, being sent with an army against the Volscians, defeated and put to flight those of Antium; and having driven them into the town of Longula, pursued the blow, and made himself master of the town. He afterwards took Polusca, another town belonging to the same people; then with all his force attacked Corioli. There was then in the camp, among others of the young nobility, Caius Marcius, a youth of quick judgment and lively courage, who was afterwards surnamed Coriolanus. The Roman army, while engaged in the siege of Corioli, applying their whole attention to the garrison, which they kept shut up in the town, without any fear of an attack from without, were assaulted on a sudden by the Volscian legions, who had marched thither from Antium, and at the same time the enemy sallied out from the town: Marcius happened to be then on guard, and being supported by a chosen body of men, he not only repelled the attack of the sallying party, but rushed furiously in at the open gate; and putting all to the sword in that part of the city, laid hold of the first fire which he found, and threw it on the houses adjoining the wall; on which the shouts of the townsmen mingling with the cries of the women and children, occasioned by the first fright, served both to add courage to the Romans, and to dispirit the Volscians, as they perceived that the town was taken which they had come to relieve. By this means the Volscians of Antium were defeated, and the town of Corioli taken; and so entirely did the glory of Marcius eclipse the fame of the consul, that, were it not that the treaty with the Latines, being engraved on a brazen pillar, remained to testify that it was ratified by Spurius Cassius alone, the other consul being absent, it would not have been remembered that Postumus Cominius was appointed to conduct the war. This year died Menenius Agrippa, through the whole course of his life equally beloved by the patricians and the plebeians; and after the secession, still more endeared to the latter. This man, who, in the character of mediator and umpire, had re-established concord among his countrymen, the ambassador of the senate to the plebeians, the person who brought back the Roman commons to the city, was not possessed of property sufficient for the expense of a funeral. He was buried at the charge of the commons, by a contribution of a sextans* from each person.
Y. R. 262. 490.XXXIV. The consuls who succeeded, were Titus Greganius and Publius Minucius. During this year, when the state was undisturbed by foreign wars, and the dissentions at home had been healed, a more grievous calamity of another nature fell upon it: at first a scarcity of provisions, occasioned by the lands lying untilled during the secession of the commons; and afterwards, a famine, not less severe than what is felt in a besieged city. This without doubt would have increased to such a degree that the slaves, and also many of the commons, must have perished, had not the consuls taken measures to remedy it, by sending to all quarters to buy up corn; not only into Etruria on the coast to the right of Ostia, and by permission of the Volscians, along the coast on the left as far as Cumæ, but even to Sicily; for the hatred entertained against them by their neighbours compelled them thus to look for aid to distant countries. After a quantity of corn had been purchased at Cumæ, the ships were detained by the tyrant Aristodemus, as the property of the Tarquinii, whose heir he was. Among the Volscians, and in the Pomptine district, it could not even be purchased, the persons employed in that business being in danger of their lives from the violence of the inhabitants. From Etruria, some corn was conveyed by the Tiber, by which the people were supported. At this unseasonable time, while thus distressed by the scarcity, they were in danger of being farther harassed by war, had not a most destructive pestilence attacked the Volscians, when they were just ready to commence hostilities. By this dreadful calamity the enemy were so dispirited, that, even after it had abated, they could not entirely rid their minds of the terror which it had occasioned. Besides, the Romans not only augmented the numbers in their settlement at Velitræ, but sent a new colony into the mountains of Norba, to serve as a barrier in the Pomptine territory.Y. R. 263. 489. In the succeeding consulate of Marcus Minucius and Aulus Sempronius, a great quantity of corn was brought from Sicily, and it was debated in the senate, at what price it should be given to the commons. Many were of opinion, that now was the time to humble the commons, and to recover those rights which, by the secession and violence had been extorted from the patricians; Marcius Coriolanus particularly, an avowed enemy of the power of the tribunes, said, “If they wish to have provisions at the usual price, let them restore to the patricians their former rights: why am I obliged, after being sent under the yoke, after being ransomed, as it were, from robbers, to behold plebeian magistrates, to behold Sicinius invested with power and authority? Shall I submit to such indignities longer than necessity compels me? Shall I, who could not endure Tarquinius on the throne, endure Sicinius? Let him now secede, let him call away the commons: the road is open to the sacred mount, and to other hills: let them carry off the corn from our lands, as they did two years ago: let them make the best of the present state of the market, which they have occasioned by their own madness. I affirm with confidence, that when they are brought to reason by their present sufferings, they will themselves become tillers of the lands, rather than take arms and secede, to prevent their being tilled.” Whether such a measure were expedient, is not now easy to say; but, in my opinion, it was very practicable for the patricians, by insisting on terms for lowering the price of provisions, to have freed themselves from the tribunitian power, and every other restraint imposed on them against their will.
XXXV. The method proposed appeared to the senate to be too harsh, and incensed the commons to such a degree, that they were very near having recourse to arms. They complained, that, “as if they were enemies, attempts were made to destroy them by famine: that they were defrauded of food and sustenance; that the foreign corn, the only support which, unexpectedly, fortune had given them, was to be snatched out of their mouths, unless the tribunes were surrendered up in bonds to Caius Marcius; unless he were gratified by the personal sufferings of the Roman commons: a new kind of executioner had come forward, who gave them no alternative but death or slavery.” They would have proceeded to violence against him as he came out of the senate-house, had not the tribunes very opportunely summoned him to a trial. This suppressed their rage, when every one saw himself a judge, and empowered to decide on the life and death of his foe. At first, Marcius heard the threats of the tribunes with scorn: “The authority given to their office,” he said, “extended only to the affording protection, not to the inflicting of punishment. That they were tribunes of the commons, not of the patricians.” But the whole body of the commons had taken up the cause with such implacable animosity, that the patricians were under the necessity of devoting one victim to punishment for the general safety. They struggled however, notwithstanding the weight of the public hatred which they had to contend with, and not only each particular member, but the whole collective body exerted their utmost efforts; and first they tried, whether, by posting their clients in divers places convenient for the purpose, they could not deter the several plebeians from attending the meetings and cabals, and thereby put a stop to farther proceedings. Afterwards, they all came forth in a body, addressing the commons with intreaties and supplications; one would have thought that every patrician was going to stand his trial. They besought them, if they did not think proper to acquit Marcius as innocent, yet considering him as guilty, to grant as a favour, on their request, the pardon of one citizen, one senator. However, as he himself did not appear on the day appointed, they persisted in their resentment. He was condemned in his absence, and went into exile to the Volscians, uttering menaces against his country, and breathing already the resentment of an enemy. The Volscians received him kindly, and daily increased their attention and respect, in proportion as they had opportunities of observing the violence of his anger towards his countrymen, against whom he would often utter complaints, and even threats. He lodged in the house of Attius Tullus, who was then the man of by far greatest consequence among the Volscians, and an inveterate enemy to the Romans: so that the one, being stimulated by an old animosity, the other, by fresh resentment, they began to concert schemes for bringing about a war with Rome. They judged, however, that it would be a difficult matter to prevail on their people to take arms, which they had so often tried without success; that by the many wars which they had sustained at different times, and lately by the loss of their young men in the pestilence, their spirits were broken; and that it was necessary to make use of art, in order that their hatred, which had now lost its keenness through length of time, might be thereby whetted anew.
XXXVI. It happened that preparations were then making at Rome for a repetition of the great games. The reason of repeating them was this: on the morning of the day when the games were to have been celebrated, before the shows began, a master of a family, after lashing his slave loaded with a neck-yoke, had driven him across the middle of the circus; the games were afterwards exhibited, as if this affair had no relation to religion. Some short time after, Titus Atinius, a plebeian, had a dream; he imagined Jupiter to have said to him, that “the dancer, who performed previously to the games, had been displeasing to him, and unless those games were repeated, and that in a magnificent manner, the city would be in danger; and ordered him to go and tell this to the consuls.” Although the man’s mind was under the influence of a considerable degree of superstition, yet the awe which he felt at the high dignity of the magistrates, and his own apprehensions lest he should be treated by them, and the public, as an object of ridicule, overcame his religious fears: this delay cost him dear; for within a few days he lost his son; and, lest the cause of that sudden disaster should be doubtful, while he was overwhelmed with grief, the same phantom appeared to him in his sleep, and seemed to ask him, “whether he had gotten a sufficient reward for his contempt of the deity?” telling him that “a still greater awaited him, unless he went immediately and delivered the message to the consuls.” This made a deeper impression on his mind, and yet he hesitated and delayed, until at length he was attacked by a grievous disorder, a stroke of the palsy. He then submitted to the admonitions of the divine displeasure: and, wearied out by his past sufferings, and the apprehension of others which threatened him, he called a council of his intimate friends; and, after acquainting them with the several things which he had seen and heard, and with Jupiter’s having appeared to him so often in his sleep, and likewise the anger and threats of the deity, so speedily fulfilled in the calamities which had befallen him, he was, in pursuance of the clear and unanimous opinion of all present, carried in a litter into the Forum, to the consuls: from thence he was conveyed, by their order, into the senate-house; where, when he had related the same accounts, to the utter astonishment of all, behold another miracle; it is recorded that he, who had been carried thither incapable of using any of his limbs, had no sooner discharged his duty, than he was able to walk home without assistance.
XXXVII. The senate decreed that the games should be exhibited in the most splendid manner. To these games, in consequence of a plan laid by Attius Tullus, a vast number of the Volscians repaired. Before the commencement of the exhibition, Tullus, according to a scheme concerted at home with Marcius, came to the consuls, told them that he wished to confer with them, in private, on some matters which concerned the commonwealth, and every other person having retired, he addressed them thus: “It is painful to me in the extreme, to say any thing of my countrymen that is not to their honour: I do not come, however, to charge them with having committed any wrong act, but to guard against such being committed. That the dispositions of our people are fickle, to a degree infinitely beyond what might be wished, numerous disasters have given sensible proofs; for, to your forbearance it is owing, and not to our own deserts, that we have not been utterly destroyed. There are great numbers of the Volscians now in Rome; there are games to be celebrated, the public will be intent on the exhibition, I well remember the outrage which was committed in this city, by the Sabine youths, on a similar occasion. I shudder with apprehension, lest some inconsiderate and rash deed may ensue; thus much I thought it my duty, both for our own sake, and for yours, to mention beforehand to you, who are consuls; for my own part, I intend instantly to return home, lest, if I should be present, my character might be stained with the imputation of some improper word or action.” After this discourse he departed. The consuls proposed the matter to the consideration of the senate; a matter, indeed, unsupported by proof, but yet coming from a person whose authority was of great weight. The authority then, rather than any reason appearing in the case, as it often happens, determined them to use precautions, even though they might be unnecessary; and a decree being passed, that the Volscians should retire from the city, criers were despatched to every quarter, to order them all to remove before night. At first, they were struck with great terror, as they ran up and down to their lodgings, to take away their effects: indignation afterwards filled their minds, when they were beginning their journey; they considered themselves stigmatized as persons infamous and polluted; driven away from the converse of men and gods; from public games, on the day of a festival.
XXXVIII. As they formed in their journey almost one continued train, Tullus, who had proceeded to the fountain of Ferintina, accosted the chief persons among them as each arrived; and, by asking questions, and expressing indignation, while they greedily listened to expressions which favoured their resentment, led them on, and by their means, the rest of the multitude, to a plain that lay near the road, and there began to harangue them, as if at a general assembly: “Although,” said he, “ye should forget all the injurious treatment which ye formerly received from the Roman people, the calamities of the Volscian race, and every other matter of the kind, with what degree of patience do ye bear this insult thrown on you, when they commenced their games by exhibiting us to public ignominy? Did ye not perceive, that they performed a triumph over you this day? That, as ye were retiring, ye served as a spectacle to all their citizens, to foreigners, to so many of the neighbouring nations? That your wives and your children were led captives before the eyes of the public? What do ye suppose were the sentiments of those who heard the words of the crier, of those who beheld you departing, or of those who met this disgraceful cavalcade? What else but that we must be some polluted wretches, whose presence at the shows would contaminate the games, and render an expiation necessary; and that therefore we were driven away from the mansions of a people of such purity of character, from their meeting and converse? And besides, does it not strike you, that we should not now be alive, if we had not hastened our departure? if indeed it ought to be called a departure, and not a flight. And do ye not consider as enemies the inhabitants of that city, wherein, had ye delayed for one day, ye must, every one of you, have perished? It was a declaration of war against you; for which, those who made it will suffer severely, if ye have the spirit of men.” Their anger, which was hot before, was by this discourse, kindled to a flame, in which temper they separated to their several homes; and each taking pains to rouse those of his own state to vengeance, they soon effected a general revolt of the whole Volscian nation.
XXXIX. The commanders appointed for this war, by the unanimous choice of all the states, were Attius Tullus and Caius Marcius the Roman exile; on the latter of whom they reposed by far the greater part of their hopes; nor did he disappoint their expectations, but gave a convincing proof that the commonwealth was more indebted for power to its generals, than to its troops. Marching to Circeii, he first expelled the Roman colonists, and delivered the city, after restoring it to freedom, into the hands of the Volscians: turning thence across the country towards the Latine road, he deprived the Romans of their late acquisitions, Satricum Longula, Polusca, and Corioli. He then retook Lavinium, and afterwards made a conquest of Corbio, Vitellia, Trebia, Lavici, and Pedum, one after another. From Pedum, lastly he led his forces towards Rome, and pitching his camp at the Cluilian trenches, five miles from the city, sent parties to ravage the lands; at the same time appointing persons among the plunderers to take care that the possessions of the patricians should be left unmolested; either because his anger was levelled principally against the plebeians, or with the design of causing thereby a greater dissension between these different orders; and this would, no doubt, have been the consequence, so powerfully did the tribunes, by their invectives against the patricians, excite the resentment of the commons, which was sufficiently too violent before, but that, however full their minds were of mutual distrust and rancour, their dread of a foreign enemy, the strongest tie of concord, obliged them to unite: in one point only did they disagree; the senate and consuls placing their hopes entirely in arms, the commons preferring all other measures to war. By this time Spurius Nautius and Sextus Furius were consuls.Y. R. 266. 486. While they were employed in reviewing the legions, and posting troops on the walls, and in other places, where it was thought proper to fix guards and watches, a vast multitude of people assembling, and insisting on peace, terrified them, at first, by their seditious clamours, and, at length, compelled them to assemble the senate, and there propose the sending of ambassadors to Caius Marcius. The senate, finding that they could not depend on the support of the commons, took the matter into consideration, and sent deputies to Marcius to treat of an accommodation: to these he replied in harsh terms, that “if the lands were restored to the Volscians, a treaty might then be opened for an accommodation; but if they were resolved to enjoy, at their ease, what they had plundered from their neighbours in war, he would not forget either the injustice of his countrymen, or the kindness of his hosts, but would take such steps as should show the world, that his courage was irritated by exile, not depressed.” The same persons being sent a second time, were refused admittance into the camp. It is related, that the priests, afterwards, in their sacred vestments, went as suppliants to the camp of the enemy, but had no more influence on him than the ambassadors.
XL. The matrons then assembled in a body about Veturia, the mother of Coriolanus, and Volumnia his wife; whether this was a scheme of government, or the result of the women’s own fears, I cannot discover. It is certain that they carried their point, and that Veturia, who was far advanced in years, and Volumnia, leading two little sons whom she had by Marcius, went to the camp of the enemy; so that women, by tears and prayers, preserved the city which the men were not able to preserve by arms. When they arrived at the camp, and Coriolanus was informed that a great procession of women was approaching, he, who had not been moved, either by the majesty of the state, represented in its ambassadors, or by the awful address made by the ministers of religion both to his sight and his understanding, at first resolved to show himself still more inflexible against female tears: but soon after, one of his acquaintance knowing Veturia, who was distinguished above the rest by an extraordinary degree of sadness; as she stood between her daughter-in-law and grand-children, said to him, “unless my eyes deceive me, your mother with your wife and children are coming.” Coriolanus, in a transport of amazement, and almost distracted, sprang from his seat to embrace his mother as she advanced, who, instead of intreaties, addressed him with angry reproofs: “Let me know,” said she, “before I receive your embrace, whether I am come to an enemy or to a son; whether I am in your camp a prisoner, or a mother. Was it for this, that age has been lengthened out, that I might behold you an exile, and afterwards an enemy; could you lay waste this land, which gave you birth and education; whatever degree of anger, whatever thirst of vengeance, might have occupied your mind on your march, did you not, on entering its borders, feel your passion subside? When you came within sight of Rome, did it not recur to you — Within those walls are my house and guardian gods, my mother, my wife, my children? Had I never been a mother, then Rome would not have been now besieged: had I not a son, I might have died free, and left my country free; but, for my part, there is no suffering to which I can be exposed, that will not reflect more dishonour on you, than misery on me; and be my lot as wretched as it may, I am not to endure it long; let these claim your regard, who, if you persist, can have no other prospect, but either untimely death or lasting slavery.” His wife and children then embraced him; and the whole crowd of women, uttering bitter lamentations, and deploring their own and their country’s fate, at length got the better of his obstinacy: so that, after embracing and dismissing his family, he removed his camp to a greater distance from the city. In a short time he drew off the troops entirely from the Roman territories, which is said to have incensed the Volscians so highly against him, that he perished under the effects of their resentment; by what kind of death writers do not agree. In the account given by Fabius, the most ancient writer by far, I find that he lived even to old age; he mentions positively, that, when Marcius became far advanced in years, he used frequently to utter this remark, that “the evils of exile bore much the heavier on the aged.” The men of Rome were not sparing in bestowing on the women the honours which they had earned; so distant were the manners of that age from the practice of detracting from the merits of others: they even erected and dedicated a temple to Female Fortune, as a lasting monument of their meritorious conduct. The Volscians afterwards, in conjunction with the Æquans, made another inroad into the Roman territories; but the Æquans soon became dissatisfied at being commanded by Attius Tullus; and in consequence of the dispute, whether the Volscians or the Æquans should give a general to the combined army, a separation ensued, and soon after a furious battle. There the good fortune of the Roman people wasted the two armies of its enemies, in a contest no less bloody than obstinate. The consuls of the next year were Titus Sicinius and Caius Aquillius.Y. R. 267. 483. The Volsoians were allotted, as a province, to Sicinius; the Hernicians, for they also were in arms, to Aquillius. The Hernicians were subdued in that year. The operations against the Volscians ended without any advantage being gained on either side.
Y. R. 268. 484.XLI. The next consuls elected were Spurius Cassius and Proculus Virginius. A league was made with the Hernicians. Two-thirds of their lands were taken from them, one half of which the consul Cassius intended to distribute among the Latines, the other half among the commons. To this donation he proposed to add a considerable tract of land, which belonged, he said, to the public, though possessed by private persons. Many of the patricians, who were themselves in possession of this land, were hereby alarmed for their property, and besides, that body in general was seized with anxiety for the safety of the people; observing that the consul, by these donatives, was forming an influence at once dangerous to liberty and to right. This was the first proposal of the agrarian law, which, from that time to the present age, has never been agitated without the most violent commotions in the state. The other consul opposed the donations; and in this, he was supported by the patricians; nor did all the commons oppose him: at first, they began to despise a gift, which was not confined to themselves, but extended to the allies, in common with the citizens: then they were accustomed to hear the consul Virginius in the assemblies frequently, as it were prophesying, that “the donatives of his colleagues were full of infectious poison; that those lands would bring slavery on such as should receive them; that he was paving the way to arbitrary power; for why should the allies and the Latine nation be thus included? What was the intent of restoring a third part of the lands, taken in war, to the Hernicians, who so lately were enemies, only that these nations might set Cassius at their head as a leader, instead of Coriolanus.” Whoever argued and protested against the agrarian law, as thus proposed, was sure of popularity: and, from that time, both the consuls vied with each other in humouring the commons. Virginius declared, that he would allow the lands to be assigned, provided they were not made over to any other than citizens of Rome. Cassius, finding that, by his pursuit of popularity among the allies, which he had betrayed in the proposed distribution of the lands, he had lowered himself in the estimation of his countrymen, and, hoping to recover their esteem by another donative, proposed an order that the money received for the Sicilian corn should be refunded to the people. But this the commons rejected with as much disdain, as if he were avowedly bartering for arbitrary power: so strongly were they influenced by their inveterate suspicions of his ambition, that they spurned at all his presents, as if they were in a state of affluence; and no sooner did he go out of office, than he was condemned and executed, as we are informed by undoubted authority. Some say that it was his father who inflicted this punishment on him; that having, at home, held an inquiry into his conduct, he scourged him, and put him to death, and consecrated the allowance settled on his son,* to Ceres; that out of this a statue was erected, with this inscription, “Given from the Cassian family.” I find in some writers, and it is the more credible account, that he was prosecuted for treason by the quæstors Cæso Fabius and Lucius Valerius; that he was found guilty on a trial before the people, and his house razed by a public decree: it stood on the spot which is now the area before the temple of Tellus. However, whether the trial was private or public, he was condemned in the consulate of Servius Cornelius and Quintus Fabius.Y. R. 269. 483.
XLII. The anger which the people had conceived against Cassius, was not of long continuance. The alluring prospects, held out by the agrarian law, were sufficient, of themselves, now the proposer of it was removed out of the way, to make a lively impression on their minds; and their eagerness, in pursuit of them, was inflamed, by an act of unreasonable parsimony in the patricians, who, when the Volscians and Æquans were vanquished in that year, deprived the troops of the booty: the whole of what was taken from the enemy, the consul Fabius sold, and lodged the produce of it in the treasury. The name of Fabius was odious to the commons, on account of this conduct; yet the patricians had influence enough to procure the election of Cæso Fabius to the consulship, with Lucius Æmilius.Y. R. 270. 482. This farther exasperated the people, who, by raising a sedition at home, encouraged foreign enemies to attack them: but war, put a stop to intestine dissensions. The patricians and plebeians united, and under the conduct of Æmilius, with little loss to themselves, overthrew in battle the Volscians and Æquans, who had revived hostilities. On this occasion the enemy lost greater numbers during their retreat, than in the battle; for, after they were broken, they were pursued by the cavalry to a vast distance. In the same year, on the ides of July, the temple of Castor was dedicated: it had been vowed, during the Latine war, by Postumius the dictator, and his son, being appointed duumvir for the purpose, performed the dedication. This year also the people were tempted to new exertions, by the charms of the agrarian law. The tribunes wished to enhance the importance of their office, by promoting that popular decree. The patricians, convinced that the multitude were, of themselves, too much inclined to desperate measures, looked with horror on such largesses, as incitements to acts of temerity; and they found in the consuls, leaders as active as they could wish, in opposing those proceedings. Their party consequently prevailed; and that, not only for the present, but they were unable to appoint as consuls for the approaching year Marcus Fabius, brother to Cæso, and Lucius Verus,Y. R. 271. 481. who was still more odious to the plebeians, on account of his having been the prosecutor of Spurius Cassius. In that consulship, there was another contest with the tribunes; the law in question was considered as a vain project, and the proposers of it disregarded as claiming merit from holding out to the people’s view, advantages which were not attainable. The name of Fabius was now held in the highest estimation after three successive consulates, all of which had been uniformly distinguished by opposition to the tribunitian power; and, for that reason, this dignity was continued in the same family, for a considerable time, from a general persuasion that it could not be placed in better hands. Soon after this, war was undertaken against the Veientians. The Volscians also renewed hostilities. For security against foreign enemies, the strength of the Romans was more than sufficient; but they perverted it to a bad purpose, namely, to the support of quarrels among themselves. To add to the general disquiet, several prodigies appeared; the sky, almost daily, exhibiting threatening portents, both in the city and in the country. The soothsayers, employed as well by the state, as by private persons, after consulting both entrails, and birds, declared that no other cause of the displeasure of the deity existed, than that the worship of the gods was not duly performed. All their apprehensions however ended in this; Oppia, a vestal, was convicted of a breach of chastity, and suffered punishment.
Y. R. 272. 480.XLIII. Quintus Fabius, a second time, and Caius Julius, then succeeded to the consulship. During this year, the domestic dissensions abated not of their acrimony, and the war abroad wore a more dangerous aspect. The Æquans took up arms. The Veientians even carried their depredations into the territories of the Romans. And as these wars appeared every day more alarming, Cæso Fabius and Spurius Furius were made consuls.Y. R. 273. 479. The Æquans laid siege to Ortona, a Latine city. The Veientians, now satiated with booty, threatened to besiege Rome itself: yet all these dangers which surrounded them, instead of restraining the ill-humour of the commons, only served to augment it. They resumed the practice of refusing to enlist as soldiers, not indeed of their own accord, but by the advice of Spurius Licinius, a plebeian tribune, who, thinking that this was the time to force the Agrarian law on the patricians, when it would be impossible for them to make opposition, had undertaken to obstruct the preparations for war. However, all the odium excited by this exertion of the tribunitian power rested solely on the author; nor did the consuls unite their efforts against him with more eager zeal, than did his own colleagues, by whose assistance the levy was completed. Armies were raised for the two wars at the same time; the command of one was given to Fabius, to be led against the Æquans; of the other to Furius, against the Veientians. In the expedition against the latter, nothing memorable was performed. Fabius met with a great deal more trouble from his countrymen, than from the enemy: that single man, by his conduct, as consul, supported the commonwealth, which the troops, out of aversion to him as far as lay in their power, treacherously betrayed to ruin: for, after numberless other instances of military skill, which he had displayed, both in his preparatory measures, and in his operations in the field, and when he had made such a disposition of his forces, that, by a charge of his cavalry alone, he put the enemy to rout, the infantry refused to pursue their broken troops; nor could any motive, not to mention the exhortations of the general, whom they hated, nor even the immediate consequence of infamy to themselves, and disgrace to the public, nor the danger to which they would be exposed, should the enemy resume their courage, prevail on them to quicken their pace, or even to stand in order of battle, so as to resist an attack. Without orders, they faced about; and, with countenances as dejected as though they had been vanquished, retired to their camp, execrating, at one time, the general, at another, the exertions of the cavalry. The consul, however, sought not any remedy against so pestilent an example, showing by one instance among many, that men of the most transcendant abilities are more apt to be deficient in regard to the discipline of their own troops, than in conquering an enemy. Fabius returned to Rome, having reaped little fresh glory from the war, but having irritated and exasperated, to a high degree, the hatred of the soldiers against him. The patricians, notwithstanding, had influence enough to continue the consulship in the Fabian family: they elected Marcus Fabius to that office, and Cneius Manlius was appointed his colleague.Y. R. 274. 478.
XLIV. This year also produced a tribune hardy enough to make another attempt at carrying the agrarian law. This was Titus Pontificius, who pursued the same method, as if it had succeeded, with Spurius Licinius, and for some time obstructed the levy: the patricians being hereby again perplexed, Appius Claudius asserted, that “the plan adopted last year had effectually subdued the tribunitian power, for the present, by the very act, and, to all future times, by the example, which it had established; since it was discovered, how that power might be deprived of efficacy, through the very means supplied by its own strength; for there would, at all times, be one among them, desirous of procuring to himself a superiority over his colleague, and, at the same time, the favour of the better part of the community, by promoting the good of the public. They would even find more than one tribune, if more were necessary, ready to support the consuls, though one would be sufficient against all the rest: only let the consuls, and principal senators, exert themselves, to secure in the interest of the commonwealth and of the senate, if not all the tribunes, yet as many at least as they could.” Convinced of the propriety of Appius’s advice, the patricians in general addressed the tribunes with civility and kindness; and those of consular dignity employed whatever personal influence they had over each of them; and thus, partly by conciliating their regard, and partly by the weight of their influence, they prevailed on them to let their powers be directed to the advantage of the state: while the consuls, being supported by four tribunes, against one opposer of the public interest, completed the levy. They then marched their army against the Veientians, to whom auxiliaries had flocked from all parts of Etruria, induced to take arms, not so much from affection to the Veientians, as in the hope that the Roman state might be brought to ruin by intestine discord. Accordingly, in the assemblies of each of the states of Etruria, the leading men argued warmly, that “the power of the Romans would be everlasting, unless civil dissension armed them with rage against each other. This was the only infection, the only poison that operated, so as to set limits to the duration of great empires. This evil, whose progress had been long retarded, partly by the wise management of the patricians, and partly by the patient conduct of the commons, had now proceeded to extremity: out of the one, were formed two distinct states, each of which had its own magistrates, and its own laws. At first, though they used to give a loose to their rancorous animosities, when troops were to be levied, yet these very men, as long as war continued, paid obedience to their officers; and while military discipline remained in force, whatever might be the state of affairs in the city, ruin might be deferred. But now, the Roman soldier carried with him to the field, the custom of refusing submission to superiors: during the last war, in the very heat of battle, the troops conspired to make a voluntary surrender of victory to the vanquished Æquans; deserted their standards, forsook their general, and, in despite of orders, retreated to their camp. Without doubt, if proper exertions were made, Rome might be subdued by means of its own forces: nothing more was necessary, than to make a declaration, and a show of war. The fates and the gods would of themselves accomplish the rest.” Such prospects as these had allured the Etrurians to arm, notwithstanding the little success they had experienced in their wars.
XLV. The Roman consuls had no other dread than of the power, and the arms, of their countrymen. When they reflected on the very dangerous tendency of their misbehaviour in the last war, they were deterred from bringing themselves into a situation where they would have two armies to fear at the same time: to avoid therefore being exposed to this double danger, they kept the troops confined within the camp, in hopes that delay, and time itself might perhaps soften their resentment, and bring them back to a right way of thinking. This encouraged their enemies the Veientians and Etrurians, to act with greater precipitation: at first, they endeavoured to provoke the foe to fight, by riding up to the camp, and offering challenges; and, at length, finding that this had no effect, by reviling both the consuls and the army; telling them, that “the pretence of dissensions among themselves, was an artifice contrived to cover their cowardice; that the consuls were more diffident of the courage of their troops than of their disposition to obey orders: that was a strange kind of sedition, which showed itself in silence, and inaction, among men who had arms in their hands:” throwing out, besides, many reproaches, some true, and some false, on their upstart origin. Such invectives, though uttered with great vociferation, close to the very rampart and the gates, gave the consuls no manner of uneasiness: but the minds of the uninformed multitude were strongly agitated, at one time by indignation, at another by shame, which diverted them from reflecting on domestic quarrels: they could not bear the thoughts of suffering the enemy to insult them unrevenged, neither could they wish success either to the consuls, or the patricians. Thus there was a struggle in their breasts, between their animosity against foreigners, and that which inflamed them against their countrymen: the former at length prevailed, in consequence of the haughty and insolent scoffs of the enemy: they assembled in crowds at the Prætorium,* demanding the fight, and requiring the signal to be given. The consuls held a consultation together, as if deliberating on the demand, and conferred for a considerable time: they wished to fight; but it was necessary to restrain and conceal that wish, in order, by opposition and delay, to add to the alacrity which had now sprung up in the minds of the troops: they returned for answer, that “the measure was premature: it was not yet a proper time for meeting the enemy. That they must keep within the camp.” They then issued orders, that “all should refrain from fighting; declaring, that if any should engage without orders, they would be punished.” After the troops were thus dismissed, their ardour for battle increased, in proportion to the aversion, which they supposed, in the consuls: besides, the enemy approached with much greater boldness, as soon as it became known that it was determined not to come to an engagement. They thought they might continue their insults with perfect safety; that the soldiers would not be intrusted with arms, that the business would end in a desperate mutiny; and that the final period of the Roman empire was arrived. Buoyed up with these hopes, their parties pressed forward to the very gates, heaped reproaches on the troops, and hardly refrained from assaulting the camp. But now, the Romans could no longer endure such insults; from every quarter of the camp, they ran hastily to the consuls, and did not, as before, propose their demand regularly, through the principal centurions, but joined in one general clamour. The affair was now ripe; yet still the consuls showed a backwardness: but at length beginning, from the increasing uproar, to dread a mutiny, Fabius, with the consent of his colleague, having caused silence by sound of trumpet, said, “Cneius Manlius, that those men are able to conquer, I know; but they themselves have given me reason to doubt, whether it is their wish: for which reason I am determined not to give the signal, unless they swear that they will return from the battle with victory. Soldiers have once deceived a Roman consul in the field, but they will never deceive the gods.” There was a centurion, called Marcus Flavoleius, who was among the foremost in demanding battle; he cried out, “Marcus Fabius, I will return victorious from the field;” and, at the same time, imprecated on himself the anger of Father Jupiter, of Mars Gradivus, and the other gods, if he did not perform his promise: after him the whole army severally took the same oath. As soon as they had sworn, the signal was given; instantly they marched out to battle, full of rage and of confidence. They bade the Etrurians now throw out their reproaches, now let the enemy, who was so bold in words, come in the way of their arms. There was not a man, on that day, either plebeian or patrician, who did not display an uncommon degree of valour: the Fabian name, and Fabian race, shone forth with peculiar lustre: they were determined to recover, in that battle, the affection of the commons, which, during the many quarrels of the parties at home, had been withdrawn from them. The line was formed, nor did their Veientian enemy or the Etrurian legions decline the combat.
XLVI. These expected, and indeed firmly believed, that the Romans would show no more willingness to fight with them, than they had with the Æquans: nay, considering the high ferment of their passions, and that, in the present case, the issue of a battle was the more uncertain, they did not despair of obtaining some important advantage. In this they were entirely disappointed, for in no former war did the Romans enter the field, inflamed with keener animosity; so highly were they exasperated by the taunts of the enemy on one side, and the delay of the consuls on the other. The Etrurians had scarcely time to form their ranks, before they found themselves engaged in close fight, hand to hand with swords, the most desperate method of deciding a battle, the javelins having in the first hurry been thrown at random, rather than aimed at the enemy. Among the foremost, the Fabian family particularly attracted the notice of their countrymen, and encouraged them by their example: as one of these, Quintus Fabius, who had been consul two years before, advanced before the rest against a thick body of the Veientians, a Tuscan, who assumed resolution from a confidence in his strength and skill in arms, came up to him unobserved, while he was busily engaged with a number of foes, and thrust him through the breast with his sword; on the weapon’s being drawn out of the wound, Fabius fell to the ground. Both armies felt the fall of this one man, and the Romans were in consequence of it beginning to give ground, when Marcus Fabius the consul leaped over the body where it lay, and opposing his buckler to the enemy, called out, “Soldiers, is this what ye bound yourselves to perform? Was it that ye would return to the camp in flight? Are ye so much more afraid of the most dastardly enemy, than of Jupiter and Mars, by whom ye swore? But for my part, though bound by no oath, I will either return victorious, or die here, fighting beside thee, Quintus Fabius.” On this, Cæso Fabius, consul of the former year, said, “Brother, do you expect by words to prevail on them to fight? The gods by whom they have sworn will prevail on them. Let us, as becomes our noble birth, as is worthy of the Fabian name, animate the men by deeds of valour, rather than by exhortations.” The two Fabii then rushed forward to the front with their presented spears, and drew the whole line along with them.
XLVII. By these means, the battle was renewed on that side; nor, in the other wing, was Cneius Manlius, the consul, less strenuous in his efforts against the enemy. Here, too, a like course of events took place: for as the soldiers followed Quintus Fabius with alacrity, so did they here follow the consul Manlius, while he pressed, and almost routed the enemy: and when he was compelled by a severe wound to retire from the field, supposing him slain, they began to shrink. They would indeed have given way entirely, had not the other consul, riding up to the place at full speed with some troops of horse, revived their drooping courage; calling out, that his colleague was alive, and that he was come to their support, having defeated the enemy in the other wing: Manlius also showed himself, in order to encourage them to return to the fight. The sight of the two consuls rekindled the courage of the soldiers, and by this time, too, the enemy’s line was considerably weakened; for, confiding in the superiority of their numbers, they had drawn off a part, and sent them to attack the camp: these met but little resistance in the assault, but wasted time afterwards, being more intent on plunder than on fighting. The Roman Triarii,* however, who had not been able to prevent their breaking in at first, and who had despatched to the consuls an account of their situation, returned in a compact body to the Prætorium, and without waiting for aid, of themselves renewed the combat. At the same time, the consul Manlius having rode back to the camp, posted troops at all the gates, and blocked up every passage by which the enemy could retreat. The desperate situation in which the Etrurians then saw themselves, inspired them not only with boldness, but with fury; so that, after they had made several fruitless efforts, attempting every place where they saw any prospect of gaining a passage, one band of their young men made an attack on Manlius himself, whom they distinguished by his armour. His attendants covered him from the first discharge of their weapons; but could not long withstand their force: the consul, receiving a mortal wound, fell, and his defenders were entirely dispersed. This added new confidence to the Etrurians, and so dispirited the Romans, that they fled in dismay, through all parts of the camp; and would probably have been utterly ruined, had not the lieutenant-generals, hastily removing the consul’s body, opened a passage for the enemy by one of the gates. Through this they rushed out; and, as they were retreating in the utmost disorder, fell in with Fabius, who was flushed with success. In this second encounter many were cut off, and the rest fled different ways. The victory was complete, but the joy, which it occasioned, was greatly damped by the death of two such illustrious persons as Fabius and Manlius: for which reason the consul, when the senate were proceeding to vote him a triumph, told them, that “if the army could triumph without their general, he would readily consent to it, on account of their extraordinary good behaviour in that war: but as to himself, while his own family was overwhelmed with grief, for the death of his brother Quintus Fabius, and the commonwealth bewailed the loss of a parent, as it were, in that of one of its consuls, he would not accept of the laurel, blasted both by public and private mourning.” A triumph refused on such grounds, redounded more to his honour, than if he had actually enjoyed it: so true it is, that fame prudently declined, often breaks forth with increased lustre. He then celebrated the two funerals of his colleague and his brother, one after the other, and took upon himself the office of pronouncing the panegyric of both; in which he attributed to them the merit of his own performances, in such a manner, as showed him to be entitled to the greatest share of any. Not losing sight of the design which he had conceived at the beginning of his consulate, of recovering the affection of the commons, he distributed the wounded soldiers among the patricians, to be taken care of, until they were cured. The greater number were given to the Fabii, and by no others were they treated with more attention. Henceforward the Fabii grew high in the favour of the people, and that without any practices prejudicial to the state.
Y. R. 275. 477.XLVIII. With the same view, Cæso Fabius, whose election to the consulship, with Titus Virginius, was owing as much to the support of the commons, as to that of the patricians, would enter on no business, either of wars or levies, or any other matter, until the hopes of concord, which had already made some progress, should be ripened into a perfect union between the plebeians and patricians. In the beginning of the year therefore he proposed, that “before any tribune should stand forth to press the agrarian law, the senate should seize the opportunity, and take to themselves the merit of conferring that favour: that they should distribute among the commons, in as equal proportion as possible, the lands taken from their enemies: for it was but just that they should be enjoyed by those whose blood and labour acquired them.” The senate rejected the proposal with disdain; some of them even complained, that the talents of Cæso, formerly so brilliant, were, through a surfeit of glory, become heavy and languid. No disputes ensued between the factions in the city. The Latines were harassed by incursions of the Æquans; Cæso being sent thither, with an army, retaliated on the Æquans, by ravaging their territories. They retired into the towns, and kept themselves within the walls; consequently, there was no battle of any importance. But, from the arms of the Veientians, a severer blow was received, through the rashness of the other consul: and the army would have been utterly destroyed, had not Cæso Fabius arrived seasonably to its support. From that time there was properly neither peace nor war with the Veientians, whose proceedings were more like those of a banditti, than of regular troops. On the approach of the Roman legions, they retreated into the town, and when they understood that those were withdrawn, they made incursions into the country; shifting alternately from war to quiet, and from quiet to war. For this reason, nothing could be brought to a conclusion. There was also apprehension of other wars, two of which were just ready to break out, that is, with the Æquans and Volscians, who only remained inactive, until the smart of their late disaster should wear off. And besides, it was evident that the Sabines, ever hostile, and all Etruria, would soon be in motion. But the Veientians kept the Romans in continual uneasiness, rather indeed by frequent insults, than by any enterprise which threatened danger, yet this was such a business as would neither allow them to neglect it at any time, nor to turn their attention to other matters. While affairs were in this state, the Fabian family addressed the senate; the consul, in the name of the whole, speaking in this manner:—“Conscript fathers, ye know that the Veientian war requires rather an established, than a strong force, on the frontiers: let your care be directed to other wars: commit to the Fabii that against the Veientians. We pledge ourselves, that the majesty of the Roman name shall be safe on that side: that war, as the particular province of our family, we propose to wage at our own private expense. The state shall not be troubled either for men or money to support it.” The warmest thanks were given to them, and the consul coming out of the senate, returned to his house, accompanied by the Fabii in a body, who had stood in the porch of the senate house, waiting the senate’s determination. They received orders to attend next day in arms, at the consul’s gate, and then retired to their respective homes.
XLIX. The report of this conduct spread immediately over the whole city, and all extolled the Fabii with the most exalted encomiums; that “a single family had undertaken to sustain the burthen of the state; that the Veientian war was become a private concern, a private quarrel. If there were two other families of equal strength in the city, one of them might claim the Volscians for their share, the other the Æquans; thus all the neighbouring states might be subdued, and the majority of Roman people, in the mean time, enjoy perfect tranquillity.” Next day the Fabii took arms, and assembled in the place appointed. The consul, coming forth in his military robe,* saw his whole family in the court-yard, drawn up in order of march, and being received into the centre, commanded them to set forward. Never did an army, either smaller in number, or more highly distinguished in fame, and the general admiration of all men, march through the city. Three hundred and six soldiers, all of them patricians, not one of whom would be judged unfit for supreme command by the senate at any time whatever, proceeded on their way, threatening destruction to the state of the Veientians, by the prowess of one family. A crowd attended them, composed, partly, of their own connections, relations, and particular acquaintances, who held no moderation either in their hopes or anxieties; and partly, of such as were attracted by zeal for the public interest, all enraptured with esteem and admiration. They bade “the heroes to proceed; to proceed with happy fortune, and to obtain success proportioned to the merit of their undertaking: desiring them to expect afterwards, consulships, triumphs, every reward, every honour, which was in the power of the public to bestow.” As they passed by the Capitol, the citadel, and other sacred places, whatever deities occurred to the people’s sight or thoughts, to them they offered up their prayers, that they would “crown that band with success and prosperity, and soon restore them in safety to their country and their parents.” But their prayers were made in vain. Passing through the right hand postern of the Carmental gate, they arrived at the river Cremera, which they judged to be a proper situation for securing a post by fortifications. Lucius Æmilius and Caius Servilius were soon after elected consuls.Y. R. 276. 476. As long as the operations of the war were confined to predatory expeditions, the Fabii were not only sufficiently able to defend their post, but by their excursions, along the common boundaries, they both effectually secured their own frontiers, and spread terror and devastation in those of the enemy, through the whole tract, as far as the Etrurian territories join the Roman. Their mutual depredations were soon after discontinued, though but for a short time, for the Veientians having collected a reinforcement from Etruria, laid siege to the post at the Cremera; and the Roman legions led thither by the consul Lucius Æmilius, fought a close engagement with the Etrurians in the field, in which, however, the Veientians had scarcely time to form their troops; for in the midst of the hurry, while they were taking their posts under their several banners, and placing bodies of reserve, a brigade of Roman cavalry charged them suddenly on the flank, in such manner as to put it out of their power either to make a regular onset, or even to stand their ground. Being thus compelled to retreat to the Red Rocks, where they had their camp, they humbly sued for peace: yet after it had been granted, they renounced it, before the Roman guard was withdrawn from the Cremera; such was their natural inconstancy, and such their bad faith.
L. The contest, then, again lay between the Fabii and the Veientian state, unsupported by any additional forces on either side. There passed between them not only incursions into each other’s territories, and sudden attacks on the parties employed in those incursions, but several pitched battles in the open field; in which a single family of the Roman people often obtained victory over a state, at that time the most powerful in Etruria. This, at first, stung the Veientians with grief and indignation; afterwards they formed a design, suggested by the present circumstances, of ensnaring their enemy, elated with success; and they even observed, with pleasure, the confidence of the Fabii daily increasing, from a series of successful attempts. In pursuance of this design, cattle were frequently driven in the way of the plundering parties, as if they had come there by chance; the fields were deserted, by the flight of the peasants, and the bodies of troops, sent to repel the invaders, retreated with pretended, oftener than real, fear. The Fabii had now contracted such a contempt of the enemy, that they thought their own arms invincible, and not to be withstood in any place or on any occasion. This presumption carried them so far, that on seeing, from Cremera, some cattle at a distance — a long tract of country lying between, in which, however, but few of the enemy’s troops appeared — they ran down to seize them, and pressed forward with such careless haste, as to pass by the Veientians, who lay in ambush on each side of the very road through which they marched. They then dispersed themselves on all sides to collect the cattle, which ran up and down, as was natural on being frightened; when, suddenly, the soldiers rose from their concealments, and appeared not only in front, but on every side of them. The shout first struck them with terror, and in a little time, they were assailed by weapons on all sides. As the Etrurians closed in upon them, they were obliged, hemmed in as they were, by one continued line of troops, to contract the circle which they had formed, into a narrower compass; which circumstance showed plainly, both the smallness of their number, and the great superiority of the Etrurians, whose ranks were multiplied as the space grew narrower. They then changed their method of fighting, and instead of making head on all sides, bent their whole force towards one point; where, forming in the shape of a wedge, and exerting every effort of their bodies and arms, they at length forced a passage. Their course led to a hill of moderate acclivity; there, first, they halted; and then the advantage of the ground affording them a little time to breathe, and to recover from the consternation into which they had been thrown, they afterwards even repulsed an attack of the enemy; and this little band would probably, with the aid of the ground, have come off victorious, had not a body of Veientians sent round the ridge of the hill, made their way to the summit: by which means the enemy became again superior; the Fabii were all cut off to a man, and their fort taken. It is agreed on all hands, that the three hundred and six perished; and that only one single person, then quite a youth, was left, as a stock for the propagation of the Fabian race; and who was, afterwards, on many emergences, both in peace and war, to prove the firmest support of the state.
Y. R. 277. 475.LI. At the time when this disaster happened, Caius Horatius and Titus Menenius were in the consulship. Menenius was immediately sent against the Etrurians, elated with their victory. He also was worsted in battle, and the enemy took possession of the Janiculum; nor would the city, which, besides the war, was distressed also by scarcity, have escaped a siege, the Etrurians having passed the Tiber, had not the consul Horatius been recalled from the country of the Volscians. So near, indeed, did the enemy approach to the walls, that the first engagement was at the temple of Hope, in which little was gained on either side; and the second at the Coline gate, in which the Romans obtained some small advantage; and this, though far from decisive, yet by restoring to the soldiers their former courage, qualified them the better to contend with the enemy in future. Aulus Virginius and Spurius Servilius were next elected consuls. After the loss sustained in the last battle, the Veientians avoided coming again to an engagement.Y. R. 278. 474. They employed themselves in committing depredations, by sending out parties from the Janiculum, which served them as a fortress; and these parties scoured every part of the Roman territories, so that neither the cattle nor the husbandmen, could any where remain in safety. At last they were entrapped by the same stratagem by which they had circumvented the Fabii: pursuing some cattle, which had been purposely thrown in their way as a temptation, they fell into an ambuscade. In proportion as their numbers were greater, so was the slaughter. The violent rage which this overthrow excited, gave cause to one of greater magnitude: for, having crossed the Tiber by night, they made an assault on the camp of the consul Servilius; and being repulsed with great loss, with difficulty effected a retreat to the Janiculum. The consul immediately passed the Tiber, and fortified a camp at the foot of the Janiculum. Next day, as soon as light appeared, partly led by the confidence inspired by his success in the fight of the day before, but chiefly because the scarcity of corn made it expedient to adopt even dangerous measures, provided they were expeditious, he rashly marched up his troops against the steep of the Janiculum, to the camp of the enemy: there he met with a repulse, more shameful than that which he had given them the preceding day; and both he and his army owed their preservation from destruction to the timely intervention of his colleague. The Etrurians, now inclosed between the two armies, to one or other of which their rear was by turns exposed, were entirely cut off. Thus, through a fortunate act of temerity, the Veientians were effectually overpowered, and the war brought to a conclusion.
LII. Together with peace, plenty returned to the city, corn being brought from Campania; and every one, as soon as he was freed from the dread of impending famine, producing the stores which he had concealed. In this state of abundance and ease, the people began again to grow licentious, and not finding abroad any cause of complaint, sought for it, as usual, at home. By infusing into their minds the usual poison, the agrarian law, the tribunes threw the people into a ferment, at the same time rousing their resentment against the patricians, who opposed it; and, not only against that body in general, but against particular members of it. Quintus Considius and Titus Genucius, the present proposers of the agrarian law, lodged an accusation against Titus Menenius: the charge brought against him was, the loss of the fort of Cremera, when he, the consul, was encamped in a fixed post at no great distance. Him they crushed, although the patricians struggled in his cause with no less zeal than they had shown for Coriolanus, and though his father Agrippa’s title to the favour of the public was not yet forgotten. The tribunes, however, went no farther than to impose a fine, though they had carried on the prosecution as for a capital offence. On his being found guilty, they fixed the mulct at two thousand asses.* This proved fatal to him; for we are told that he could not bear the ignominy and anguish of mind which it occasioned, and that this threw him into a disorder which put an end to his life. Another was soon after brought to trial, Spurius Servilius, against whom, as soon as he went out of the consulship,Y. R. 279. 473. in the beginning of the year in which Caius Nautius and Publius Valerius were consuls, a prosecution was commenced by two tribunes, Lucius Cædicius and Titus Statius. He did not, like Menenius, meet the attacks of these tribunes with supplications from himself and the patricians, but with the utmost confidence, inspired by innocence, and by the justice of his claim to the favour of the public. He was charged with misconduct in the battle with the Etrurians at the Janiculum; but being a man of an intrepid spirit, as he had done formerly in the case of public peril, so now in one that threatened himself, he dispelled the danger by facing it with boldness. In a speech full of undaunted fortitude, he retorted on both tribunes and commons, and upbraided them with the condemnation and death of Titus Menenius, the son of that man, to whose good offices the people stood indebted for the restoration of their privileges, for those very laws and magistrates, which enabled them now to let loose their passions in this unreasonable manner. His colleague Virginius too, being produced as a witness, greatly assisted his cause, by attributing to him a share of his own merit; but what did him the most essential service was, the sentence passed on Menenius; so great a change had taken place in the minds of the people.
LIII. No sooner had these domestic disputes subsided, than a new war broke out with the Veientians, with whom the Sabines had united their forces. After auxiliaries had been brought from the Latines and Hernicians, the consul Valerius, being sent with an army to Veii, instantly attacked the Sabine camp, which they had pitched under the walls of their allies. This occasioned such consternation among the Sabines, that while they ran different ways in small parties, to repel the enemy’s assault, the gate, first attacked, was taken; and afterwards, within the rampart, there was rather a carnage than a battle. From the tents the alarm spread into the city, and the Veientians ran to arms in as great a panic as if Veii itself were taken: some went to support the Sabines, others fell upon the Romans, whose whole force and attention were employed on the camp. For a little time the latter were put to a stand and disordered; but soon forming two fronts, they faced the enemy on both sides; and, at the same time, the cavalry being ordered by the consul to charge, routed and dispersed the Etrurians. Thus were overcome in the same hour, two armies of the two greatest and most powerful of the neighbouring states. During these transactions at Veii, the Volscians and Æquans had encamped in the Latine territories, and laid waste the country. The Latines, however, being joined by the Hernicians, without the aid either of Roman general or troops, beat them out of their camp, and there, besides recovering their own effects, got possession of immense booty. The consul Caius Nautius was, however, sent against the Volscians from Rome, where, I suppose, it was considered as improper, that the allies should get a custom of carrying on wars, with their own forces and under their own direction, without a Roman general and troops. Every kind of severity and indignity was practised against the Volscians, yet they could not be brought to an engagement in the field.
Y. R. 280. 472.LIV. The next consuls were Lucius Furius and Aulus Manlius. The Veientians fell to the lot of Manlius as his province; but the war with that people did not continue. At their request a truce for forty years was granted them, and they were obliged to furnish corn, and to pay the soldiers. No sooner was peace restored abroad, than discord began at home. The commons were set in a flame at the instigation of the tribunes, on their constant subject, the agrarian law, which the consuls, not deterred by the condemnation of Menenius, or the danger incurred by Servilius, opposed with all their might. On this account, as soon as they went out of office, Titus Genucius, the tribune, laid hold of them. They were succeeded in the consulship by Lucius Æmilius and Opiter Virginius.Y. R. 281. 471. In some annals, instead of Virginius, I find Vopiscus Julius set down for consul. During this year, whoever were the consuls, Furius and Manlius being summoned to a trial before the people, went about in the garb of suppliants, addressing not only the commons, but the younger patricians. The latter they advised and cautioned to “keep at a distance from public employments, and the administration of affairs, and to look on the consular fasces, the prætexta, and curule chair, as nothing better than the decorations of a funeral, for those splendid badges, like the fillets of victims, were placed on men who were doomed to death. But, if there were such charms in the consulship, let them, once for all, be convinced, that the office was crushed, and held in captivity by the tribunitian power; that a consul must act in every thing according to command, and, like a bailiff, be obedient even to the tribune’s nod. If he should exert himself, if he should show any respect to the patricians, if he should suppose that there was any powerful part in the state but the commons alone, let him place before his eyes the banishment of Caius Marcius, with the penalty and death of Menenius.” By such discourses the patricians were fired with indignation, and from that time they no longer held their consultations publicly, but in private, and suffered but now to be privy to them: and here, however they might differ in other points, in this they were unanimous, that the accused should be rescued from danger by any means possible, whether right or wrong; and the most violent method proposed, was the most acceptable. Nor were they at a loss for an actor to perpetrate any, the most atrocious deed: on the day of trial, therefore, the people, standing in the Forum, in eager expectation of the tribune’s appearing, first began to wonder that he did not come down; then beginning from his delay, to suspect something amiss, they supposed that he had been terrified from attending by the nobles, while some complained that the cause of the public was deserted and betrayed by him. At length, an account was brought of the tribune’s being found dead in his house. As soon as this report had spread through the assembly, every one separated different ways, just as an army disperses on the fall of its leader. The tribunes, particularly, were seized with the greatest terror, warned by the death of their colleague, how very little security the devoting laws afforded them. The patricians, on the other side, exulted with too little moderation: and so far were they from feeling any compunction at the deed, that even those who were clear of the crime, wished to be considered as the perpetrators of it; and they declared openly, that the tribunitian power must be subdued by severity.
LV. Soon after this victory had been obtained, by means which furnished a precedent of the worst tendency, a proclamation was issued for a levy of soldiers: and the tribunes being awed into submission, the consuls accomplished the business without any interruption. The commons, on this, were highly enraged, more on account of the acquiescence of the tribunes, than of the execution of the orders of the consuls; they declared that “there was an end of their liberty; that they were reduced again to their old condition, for the tribunitian power had expired with, and was buried in the grave of Genucius. Other means must be devised and practised, to put a stop to the tyranny of the patricians. There remained now only one method to be pursued; which was, that the commons, since they were destitute of every other protection, should undertake their own defence. The retinue of the consuls consisted of twenty-four lictors, and even these were plebeians; no force could be more contemptible, or less capable of resistance, if people had but the spirit to despise them; but every one magnified those matters, and made them objects of terror to himself.” While they thus spurred on each other with such discourses as these, it happened that a lictor was sent by the consul to a plebeian of the name of Volero Publilius, who had insisted, that, having been a centurion, he could not be compelled to enlist as a common soldier. Volero appealed to the tribunes; but none of them supporting him, the consuls ordered the man to be stripped, and the rods to be got ready: “I appeal to the people,” said Volero; “the tribunes choose rather that a Roman citizen should be beaten with rods before their eyes, than that themselves should be murdered in their beds by your faction.” The more vehemently he exclaimed, the more violently did the lictor proceed in tearing off his clothes, and stripping him. Then Volero, who was a man of great bodily strength, and aided also by those who took part with him, drove away the lictor, and retired into the thickest part of the crowd, where he heard the loudest expressions of indignation at the treatment which he received; at the same time crying aloud, “I appeal, and implore the protection of the commons. Support me, citizens; support me, fellow-soldiers. You have nothing to expect from the tribunes, who themselves stand in need of your support.” The people, inflamed with passion, prepared themselves as for a battle: and there was every appearance of the contest proceeding to such extremity, as that no regard whatever would be paid either to public or private rights. The consuls, having undertaken to face this violent storm, quickly experienced that dignity, unsupported by strength, is not exempt from danger. Their lictors were abused, the fasces broken, and themselves forced to take refuge in the senate-house, uncertain how far Volero would push his victory. In some time after, the tumult subsiding, they assembled the senators, and complained to them of the ill-treatment which they had suffered, of the violence of the commons, and the audacious behaviour of Volero. Though many harsh methods of proceeding were proposed, the opinion of the elder members prevailed; who recommended to the senate, not to let their conduct be as strongly marked by passionate resentment, as that of the commons was by inconsiderate violence.
LVI. The commons, interesting themselves warmly in favour of Volero,Y. R. 282. 470. chose him at the next election tribune for the year: the consuls being Lucius Pinarius and Publius Furius. And now, contrary to the expectation of all men, who supposed that he would give a loose to the reins of the tribunitian power, in harassing the consuls of the preceding year; postponing his own resentment, and affecting only the public interest, without uttering even a word to offend the consuls, he proposed a law that plebeian magistrates should be elected in assemblies where the votes were given by tribes. This, though covered under an appearance which, at first view, showed not any evil tendency, was considered as a matter of no trivial consequence; as it would entirely deprive the patricians of the power of electing such tribunes as they liked, by means of the votes of their dependents. To prevent this proposition, which was highly pleasing to the commons, from passing into a law, the patricians strained every nerve; and though neither the influence of the consuls nor that of themselves could prevail on any one of the college of tribunes to protest against it, that being the only power that could effectually stifle it; yet, as it was in itself an affair of great weight, and required long and laborious exertions, the obstacles thrown in its way were sufficient to delay it until the following year. The commons re-elected Volero to the tribuneship; and the patricians, judging that this business would not end without the severest struggle, procured the consulship for Appius Claudius,Y. R. 283. 469. son of Appius, who both hated, and was hated by the commons, in consequence of the contentions between them and his father. Titus Quintius was given him for colleague. The law was the first matter agitated in the beginning of the year; and though Volero was the author of it, yet Lætorius his colleague, from having more recently joined in the business, became in consequence the more eager for its adoption: his renown in war inspired him with confidence, for there was no one of that age possessed of more personal prowess. Volero contented himself with arguing in favour of the law, and avoided all abuse against the consuls; but Lætorious began with severe invectives against Appius and his family, charging them with having always shown a disposition in the highest degree overbearing and cruel: asserting that the patricians had elected him not for a consul, but an executioner, to torment and torture the plebeians. Being however a rough soldier, unskilled in the art of speaking, he was at a loss for expressions suited to the boldness of his thoughts; and finding himself unable to proceed in his discourse, he said, “Citizens, since I cannot speak with the same readiness with which I can perform what I have spoken, I request your attendance tomorrow. Either I will lose my life, here in your presence, or I will carry the law.” Next day the tribunes took possession of the temple; and the consuls and nobles placed themselves among the crowd, in order to oppose the law. Lætorius ordered all persons to retire, except those who were to vote; but the younger nobility kept their seats, and paid no regard to the officer; on which Lætorius ordered some of them to be taken into custody. The consul Appius insisted, that “a tribune had no power over any but the plebeians; for he was not a magistrate of the people at large, but of the commons; that even he himself could not, conformably to ancient usage, of his own authority, compel people to withdraw, the words in use being, If ye think proper, Romans, retire.” It was easy for him to disconcert Lætorius in arguing, even thus contemptuously, about his authority; the tribune therefore, inflamed with anger, sent one of his officers to the consul, while the consul sent a lictor to the tribune, calling out that he was but a private person without command and without magistracy; nor would the tribune have escaped ill-treatment, had not the whole assembly joined, with great warmth, in taking his part against the consul; and at the same time, the alarm having spread among the populace, brought a great concourse from all parts of the city to the Forum. Appius, notwithstanding, inflexibly withstood the violence of the storm; and the dispute must have terminated in blood, had not Quintius the other consul, giving it in charge to the consulars to take away his colleague from the Forum by force, if they could not do it otherwise, now soothing the enraged plebeians with intreaties, then begging the tribunes to dismiss the assembly, so as to “give time for their anger to cool,” telling them, that “delay would not diminish aught of their power, but would afford them the advantage of uniting prudence with that power; that the patricians would still be under the direction of the people, and the consul under that of the patricians.”
LVII. With great difficulty the commons were pacified by Quintius; and with much greater, was the other consul quieted by the patricians; and the assembly of the people being at length dismissed, the consuls convened the senate. There, fear and anger prevailing by turns, produced for some time a variety of opinions; but having gained time for reflection, in proportion as passion gave place to reason, they became more and more averse from inflammatory measures; in so much, that they returned thanks to Quintius, for having by his exertions put a stop to the quarrel. Appius they requested to “be satisfied with such a degree of deference to the consular authority, as was compatible with concord between the several parts of the state; for, whilst the tribune and consuls violently drew all power, each to their own side, there was none left in the other members of the community. The object of the dispute was not the safety of the commonwealth, but who should have the disposal of it, mangled and torn as it was.” On the other hand, Appius appealed to gods and men that “the state was betrayed and deserted through cowardice; that the consul was not wanting in support of the senate, but the senate in support of the consul; and that they were submitting to more grievous laws than those which were imposed at the sacred mount.” Yielding, however, to the unanimous judgment of the senate, he desisted, and the law was carried through without farther opposition.
LVIII. Then, for the first time, were the tribunes elected in an assembly of the people, voting by tribes. Piso relates also, that there were three added to their number, having before been but two. He even names the tribunes, Caius Sicinius, Lucius Numitorius, Marcus Duilius, Spurius Icilius, Lucius Mecilius. During the dissensions at Rome, war commenced with the Æquans and Volscians, who had committed depredations on the Roman lands, with design that if the commons should again think proper to secede they might find a refuge with them. When the differences in the city were afterwards composed, they removed their camp to a greater distance: Appius Claudius was sent against the Volscians, the Æquans fell to Quintius as his province. The same severity, which Appius had shown at home, he practised at the head of the army abroad, and even with less reserve, as he was out of the reach of any control from the tribunes. He detested the commons to a degree of rancour, even beyond what he inherited from his father; and considered himself as vanquished by them; for that when he had been set up as the only person, who, in the character of consul, was qualified to oppose the tribunitian power, that law had been carried which the former consuls had been able to prevent, though they made not such strenuous exertions as himself against it, nor did the patricians expect so much from them. His anger and indignation hereby excited, he sought to wreak on the army every kind of rigour which the command had put in his power: but no degree of violence was able to subdue the temper of the troops, such an unconquerable spirit of opposition had they imbibed. In every part of their business they showed indolence and carelessness, negligence and stubbornness; neither shame nor fear had any effect on them. If he wished that the army should proceed with more expedition, they marched the slower; if he came to encourage them to hasten their work, every one relaxed the diligence which he had used before; when he was present, they cast down their eyes; as he passed by, they muttered curses against him; so that while he seemed invulnerable to popular dislike, his mind was occasionally affected with disagreeable emotions. After trying every kind of harsh treatment without effect, he renounced all intercourse with the soldiers, declaring that the army was corrupted by the centurions, whom, in a gibing manner, he sometimes called plebeian tribunes, and Voleroes.
LIX. Not one of these circumstances was unknown to the Volscians, who, for that reason, pressed forward their operations the more vigorously, in hopes that the Roman army would be animated with the same spirit of opposition against Appius, which they had formerly displayed against Fabius, when consul; and in fact, in Appius’s case, it showed itself with a much greater degree of inveteracy than in that of Fabius; for they were not only unwilling to conquer, like Fabius’s troops, but even chose to be conquered. When led out to the field, they fled shamefully to their camp, nor made a halt, until they saw the Volscians advancing to the rampart, and committing great slaughter on the rear of the army. The necessity of repelling the victorious enemy from the rampart, then prevailed on them to fight, which, however, they did in such a manner, as made it evident, that they acted only because Roman soldiers would not suffer their camp to be taken: in other respects, they rejoiced at their own losses and disgrace. All this had so little effect towards softening the stubborn fierceness of Appius, that he resolved to exhibit farther examples of severity; but when he had summoned an assembly for the purpose, the lieutenant-generals and tribunes gathered hastily about him, and cautioned him “not to hazard a trial of the extent of an authority whose whole efficacy depended on the will of those who were to obey it: informed him, that the soldiers in general declared that they would not attend the assembly; and that in every quarter, they were heard loudly demanding that the camp should be removed out of the Volscian territories. They reminded him that the conquering army had approached almost to the gates and to the rampart, and that if he persisted, there was not only reason to apprehend, but every certain indication of a most grievous calamity ensuing.” At length yielding to persuasion, as nothing but a delay of punishment could be the consequence, he prorogued the assembly; gave orders that the troops should be in readiness to march next day; and, at the first dawn, gave, by sound of trumpet, the signal for setting out. When the army had scarcely got clear of the camp, and while they were just forming in order of march, the Volscians, as if they had been summoned by the same signal, made an attack on their rear; and, the alarm spreading from thence to the van, caused such consternation, as threw both the battalions and ranks into confusion, so that neither could orders be heard, nor a line formed. No one now thought of any thing but flight, and with such precipitation did they make their way through the ranks, that the enemy ceased to pursue sooner than the Romans to fly. In vain did the consul follow his men, calling on them to halt. But when he had at length collected them together, he encamped in a peaceful part of the country; and there, having summoned an assembly, after uttering severe and just reproaches against the army as betrayers of military discipline, and deserters from their posts, asking each where were their standards? where were their arms? he beat with rods, and beheaded, the soldiers who had thrown away their swords, the standard-bearers who had lost their ensigns, and also such of the centurions, and of the privates as had quitted their ranks. Of the rest of the multitude every tenth man was drawn by lot and punished.
LX. In a very different manner were matters conducted in the country of the Æquans. There seemed a mutual contest carried on between the consul and his troops, who should exceed the other in civility and good offices. Quintius was naturally of a milder disposition, and besides, the ill consequences attending the harshness of his colleague made him feel the greater satisfaction in indulging his own temper. The Æquans, not daring to meet, in the field, a general and army so cordially united, suffered them to carry their depredations through every part of the country; and in no former war was a greater abundance of booty brought off from thence, all which was distributed among the soldiers. Their behaviour was also rewarded with praises, in which the minds of soldiers find as much delight as in gain. The troops returned home in better temper towards their general, and, on the general’s account, towards the patricians also; declaring, that the senate had given to them a parent, to the other army a master. This year, during which they experienced a variety of fortune in their military operations, and furious dissensions both at home and abroad, was particularly distinguished by the assemblies of the people voting by tribes; a matter which derived its seeming importance rather from the honour of the victory obtained by one party over the other, than from any real advantage accruing from it. For the share of power, which was either gained by the commons, or taken from the patricians, was trifling, in proportion to the great degree of dignity of which the assemblies themselves were deprived by the exclusion of the patricians.
Y. R. 284. 468.LXI. The following year, the consulate of Lucius Valerius and Tiberius Æmilius was disturbed by more violent commotions, both in consequence of the struggles between the different orders of the state concerning the agrarian law, and also of the trial of Appius Claudius; who, having taken a most active part, in opposition to the law, and supported the cause of those who were in possession of the public lands, as if he were a third consul, and thought it his duty, had a criminal prosecution instituted against him by Marcus Duilius and Caius Sicinius. Never hitherto had a person, so odious to the commons, been brought to trial before the people, overwhelmed as he was with their hatred, on his father’s account, besides the load which his own conduct had drawn on him; and hardly ever did the patricians exert such strenuous efforts in favour of any other, seeing this champion of the senate, the assertor of its dignity, their bulwark against all the outrageous attempts both of tribunes and commons, exposed to the rage of the populace, only for having in the contest exceeded, in some degree, as they conceived, the bounds of moderation. Appius Claudius himself was the only one among the patricians, who looked with scorn on the tribunes and commons, even affecting a disregard as to his own trial. Neither the threats of the commons, nor the intreaties of the senate, could ever prevail on him either to change its garb,* or use a suppliant address, or even to soften and relax, in any degree, the usual harshness of his language, when he was to plead his cause before the people. He still preserved the same expression of countenance, the same stubborn fierceness in his looks, and the same vehemence in his discourse; so that a great many of the commons felt to less dread of Appius, while he stood a culprit at their bar, than they had done when he was consul. He pleaded in his defence, and that with all the haughtiness which he could have shown, had he been the accuser, just as he used to behave on every other occasion; and, by his intrepidity, so astonished the tribunes and commons, that, of their own choice, they adjourned the trial to another day, and afterwards suffered the business to cool. The day of adjournment was not very distant, yet, before it arrived, he was seized with a disorder and died. The tribunes endeavoured to prevent his being honoured with a funeral panegyric, but the commons would not allow that the last day of so great a man should be defrauded of the usual glories. They listened to the encomiums pronounced on him after his death with as favourable an attention as they had shown to the charges brought against him when alive, and, in vast numbers, attended his funeral.
LXII. During this year, the consul Valerius marched with an army against the Æquans; and, finding it impracticable to entice them to an engagement, made an assault on their camp. A violent storm of thunder and hail obliged him to desist, and people’s surprise was increased, when, as soon as the signal for retreat had been given, the weather became perfectly calm and clear; so that they were deterred by a religious scruple from again attacking a camp which had been defended by an evident interposition of some divinity, and vented all their rage in devastations on the enemy’s lauds. The other consul Æmilius conducted the war in the country of the Sabines, and there also, the enemy keeping within their walls, the lands were laid waste; at length, by the burning, not only of the country-houses, but of the villages, which in that populous country were very numerous, the Sabines were provoked to give battle to the troops employed in the depredations; and, being obliged to retreat without having gained any advantage, removed their camp, next day, to a place of greater safety. This appeared to the consul a sufficient reason to consider the enemy as vanquished, and to cease any farther operations; he accordingly withdrew his men, without having made any progress in the war.
Y. R. 235. 467.LXIII. While these wars still raged abroad, and party divisions at home, Titus Numicius Priscus and Aulus Virginius were elected consuls. There was reason to believe that the commons would not endure any farther delay with respect to the agrarian law, and every degree of violence was ready to be committed, when it was discovered, by the smoke from the burning of the country-houses, and by the inhabitants flying to the city, that the Volscians were at hand; this incident repressed the sedition, when just ripe, and on the point of breaking forth. The consuls were instantly ordered by the senate to lead out the youth from the city against the enemy; and this made the rest of the commons less turbulent. On the other side, the assailants, without performing any thing farther than alarming the Romans by the destruction of some few buildings, retired with great precipitation. Numicius marched to Antium against the Volscians; Virginius against the Æquans. Here, the army falling into an ambuscade, and being in the utmost danger of a total overthrow, was rescued by the bravery of the soldiers from the imminent peril to which the carelessness of the consul had exposed them. The operations against the Volscians were better conducted; in the first engagement, the enemy were routed, and compelled to fly into Antium, which, considering those times, was a city of great strength; the consul therefore not choosing to venture to attack it, took from the Antians another town called Ceno, which was not near so strong. Whilst the Æquans and Volscians gave employment to the Roman armies, the Sabines carried depredation to the very gates of the city; however, they themselves, in a few days after, suffered, from the two Roman armies, greater losses than any which they had occasioned; both the consuls, provoked at their proceedings, having marched into their territories.
LXIV. Towards the close of the year, there was some interval of peace, but disturbed, as was always the case, by struggles between the patricians and plebeians. The latter were so incensed, that they refused to attend the assembly held for the election of consuls, so that by the votes of the patricians and their dependants, Titus Quintius and Quintus Servilius were appointed to the consulship. These experienced a year similar to the preceding; the beginning of it filled with civil broils,Y. R. 286. 466. which were afterwards repressed by the breaking out of foreign wars. The Sabines, marching across the plains of Crustuminum with great rapidity, carried fire and sword through all the country on the banks of the Anio; and though, when they had advanced almost to the Colline gate, and the walls of the city, they met with a repulse, yet they carried off a vast booty both of men and cattle. The consul Servilius marched in pursuit, with design to bring them to an engagement: but, not being able to overtake their main body in the champaign country, he spread devastation to such an extent, as to leave nothing unmolested, and returned with a quantity of spoil, exceeding, by many degrees, what the enemy had carried off. In the campaign against the Volscians also, the arms of the state were remarkably successful, through the conduct both of the general and of the soldiers: first, they fought a pitched battle, on equal ground, with great loss of blood on both sides. The Romans, however, whose small number made them feel the loss more sensibly, would have quitted the field, had not the consul, by a happy feint, re-animated the troops, calling out, that the enemy were flying on the other wing: they then returned to the charge, and the opinion that victory was on their side, was the means of their obtaining it in reality. But Titus fearing lest, if he pressed the fugitives too far, he might have the battle to fight over again, gave the signal for retreat. After this, an interval of some few days passed, during which both parties reposed, as if they had tacitly agreed to a suspension of arms; and, in the mean time, vast multitudes from every state of the Volscians and Æquans flocked to their camp, not doubting but that the Romans, when informed of their numbers, would make their retreat by night. About the third watch, therefore, they came to attack the camp. Quintius, after appeasing the tumult which the sudden alarm had excited, and ordering the soldiers to stay quiet in their tents, led out a cohort of Hernicians to form an advanced guard, mounted the trumpeters, with others of their band, on horses, and ordered them to sound their instruments before the rampart, so as to keep the enemy in suspense until day-light. During the remainder of the night, every thing was quiet in the camp, so that the Romans were not even prevented from sleeping. The Volscians, on the other hand, expecting every instant an attack, were kept in a state of earnest attention by the appearance of the armed infantry, whom they believed to be Romans, and whom they also conceived to be more numerous than they really were, from the bustle and neighing of the horses, and which, being under the management of riders with whom they were acquainted, and having their ears continually teazed with the sound of the instruments, made in their trampling a considerable noise.
LXV. When day appeared, the Romans, marching into the field in full vigour, after being thoroughly refreshed with sleep, at the first onset overpowered the Volscians, fatigued with standing and want of rest. However, the enemy might be said to retire, rather than to be routed; for some hills, which lay behind them, afforded a safe retreat to all the troops that were stationed to the rear of the first line, whose ranks were still unbroken. On coming to this place, where the height of the ground was against him, the consul ordered his men to halt: but it was with great difficulty that they could be restrained; they called out, and insisted on being allowed to pursue the advantage which they had gained: while the horsemen, collected round the general, were still more ungovernable, loudly declaring that they would advance before the front line. While Titus hesitated, between the confidence which he knew he might place in the valour of his men, and the difficulty of the ground, all cried out, with one voice, that they would proceed; and they instantly put their words in execution; sticking their spears in the ground, that they might be lighter to climb the steeps, they ran forward in full speed. The Volscians having at the first onset discharged their missive weapons, began to pour down on them, as they approached. The incessant blows from the stones of the higher ground, and which lay among their feet, so galled and disordered the Romans, that their left wing was by this means almost overborne; when the consul, just as they were beginning to give way, reproaching them with their rashness, and at the same time with want of spirit, made their fears give place to shame. At first, they stood their ground with determined firmness; then, as they recovered strength to renew the attack, in spite of the disadvantage of situation, they ventured to advance, and raising the shout anew, moved forward in a body. Rushing on again in full career, they forced their way, and when they had reached almost to the summit of the hill, the enemy turned their backs, and the pursuers and pursued, exerting their utmost speed, both rushed into the camp together, almost in one body. In this consternation of the Volscians, their camp was taken. Such of them as could make their escape, took the road to Antium; thither also the Roman army marched; and, after a siege of a few days, the town surrendered, not because the force of the besiegers was stronger now than in the former attack, but because the spirits of the besieged were broken by the late unsuccessful battle, and the loss of their camp.
* Between the Janiculum and the city. It was afterwards called the Holy Island, from the number of temples built upon it.
* The vindicta was a rod, or wand, with which the consul, in early times, afterwards the city-prætor, struck the slave presented to him for enfranchisement, the owner having previously given him a slight blow, and let him go out of his hands. The prætor then gave the rod to a lictor, who likewise struck the person manumitted. He was then registered as a freeman, and assumed the cap, the symbol of liberty, with much ceremony, in the temple of Feronia.
* At the same time, he took the axes out of the fasces, and they were never, afterwards, carried in the fasces of the consuls within the city.
* Not less than five thousand families accompanied him.
* Orig, Vi, deinde vineis, alusque operibus. The great difficulty of translation consists in the impossibility of finding corresponding terms. The modern art of war differs, so entirely, from the ancient, owing to the various improvements that have been introduced into that destructive science, during a period of more than two thousand years, and principally to the invention of gunpowder, that the ancient modes of attack and defence, as well as the various military machines, are not only now disused, but even no equivalent terms can, in any of the modern languages, be found for them. Thus, in the above passage, wherein the translator has taken the liberty, rather of describing the operation, than translating the original, the word vinea occurs; this, as Vegetius informs us, was a machine constructed of timbers, strongly framed together, mounted on wheels and covered with hurdles, over which was put a quantity of earth; the assailants, thus protected against the missile weapons of the enemy, moved forward the machine; and, under cover of it, endeavoured to beat down, or undermine, the walls. The translator here begs leave, once for all, to observe, that he will often take the liberty he has done in this place, of dropping terms, which cannot be translated; and which, if left untranslated in the text, could convey no idea whatever to the English reader: endeavouring however, he hopes not unsuccessfully, by a short description, or slight circumlocution, to make his author’s meaning sufficiently intelligible.
* The dictator was an officer endued with absolute authority over all orders and bodies of men whatever; and from whom there was, in the early times of the republic, no appeal. He could not hold the office longer than six months, nor go out of Italy, nor could he march on horseback without leave previously obtained from the people. It became the practice, that one of the consuls, in the night, within the territory of the republic, named the dictator; and it was required that the nomination should be confirmed by auspices.
* If a debtor did not discharge his debt, within thirty days after it was demanded, he was summoned before the prætor, who gave him up into the hands of the creditor. He was kept in chains by him for sixty days; and then, on three successive market days, was brought to the prætor’s tribunal, where a crier proclaimed the debt, and sometimes, wealthy persons redeemed the poor, by discharging their debts; but, if that did not happen, the creditor, after the third market day, had a right to sell him, or keep him a slave in his own house. This slavery was afterwards changed into imprisonment.
* Which declared, that any person who should violate the person or privileges of a plebeian tribune, should be devoted to Ceres, with his property; and any one might put him to death with impunity. These tribunes, at their first institution, could not properly be called magistrates, having no particular tribunal, nor any jurisdiction over their fellow citizens. Dressed like private men, and attended only by one officer, or beadle, called Viator, they sat on a bench without the senate, into which they were not admitted, except when the consuls required their attendance, to give their opinion on some affair which concerned the interest of the plebeians. Their sole function was to protect the plebeians, by interposing in case of any grievance or imposition attempted by their superiors; and their power extended no farther than one mile round the city. Yet they afterwards found means, under various pretences, and by almost imperceptible degrees, to draw to themselves, and to the commons, the larger share of the power of government; introducing a great degree of democracy into the polity of the state, which, since the expulsion of the kings, had been a kind of aristocracy. They were not allowed to be absent from the city one whole day, except during the Latine festivals, and were obliged to keep their doors open, night and day, to admit complainants. At the same time were elected two other plebeian officers, called assistants to the tribunes; but being afterwards charged with the care of the public buildings, and the cognizance of a like nature, which had before belonged to the consuls, they got the title Ædiles; (ab ædibus curandis,) from inspecting the public edifices.
* About one half-penny each.
* By the Roman law, a father had full and absolute power, even to life and death, over his children, who were in a state of absolute slavery; even what property they might acquire, belonged not to them, but to their father.
* The general’s quarters.
* The Triarii were veteran soldiers, of approved valour: they formed the third line, hence their name.
* Before a consul set out on any expedition, he offered sacrifices and prayers in the Capitol; and then, laying aside his consular gown, marched out of the city, dressed in a military robe of state, called Paludamentum.
* Five pounds sterling.
* It was usual for persons under accusation to put on a mourning dress, and to let their hair and beard grow.
Dissensions about the agrarian laws. The Capitol seized by exiles and slaves. Quintius Cincinnatus called from the cultivation of his farm, to conduct a war against the Æquans; vanquishes them and makes them pass under the yoke. The number of the tribunes of the people augmented to ten. Ten magistrates, called decemvirs, invested with the authority of the consuls, and of all other magistrates, are appointed for the purpose of digesting and publishing a body of laws. These having promulgated a code of laws, contained in ten tables, obtain a continuation of their authority for another year, during which, they add two more to the former ten tables. They refuse to resign their office and retain it a third year. At first they act equitably and justly; afterwards, arbitrarily and tyrannically. At length the commons, provoked by a base attempt of one of them, Appius Claudius, to violate the chastity of a daughter of Virginius, seize upon the Aventine mount, and compel them to resign. Appius and Oppius, two of the most obnoxious, are thrown into prison, where they put an end to their own lives; the rest are banished. War with the Sabines, Volscians, and Æquans. Unjust determination of the Roman people, who, being chosen arbitrators in an affair between the people of Ardea and Aricia, concerning some disputed lands, adjudge them to themselves.
Y. R. 287. 465.I. Soon after the taking of Antium, Titus Æmilius and Quintus Fabius were elected consuls. This Quintus was the single one of the Fabii who remained alive when the family were cut off at the Cremera. Æmilius had before, in his former consulate, recommended the distribution of lands among the commons: now, therefore, on his being a second time invested with that office, those, who expected the lands, conceived sanguine hopes of the law being passed. The tribunes, supposing that an affair for which such struggles had often been made, in opposition to both the consuls, might probably be accomplished now, when one of those magistrates was an advocate for it, set the business on foot; and the consul continued in the same sentiments. The possessors of the lands, and most of the patricians, complaining loudly that a person at the head of the state aimed to distinguish himself by intrigues more becoming a tribune courting popularity, by making donations out of other people’s property, removed the odium of the whole transaction from the tribunes to the consul. A desperate contest would have ensued, had not Fabius struck out an expedient to prevent it, by a plan disagreeable to neither party; which was, that, as a considerable tract of land had been taken from the Volscians in the preceding year, under the conduct and auspices of Titus Quintius, a colony should be led off to Antium, a town at no great distance, convenient in every respect, and a sea-port; by these means, the commons might come in for lands, without any complaints from the present possessors at home, and harmony might be preserved in the state. This proposition was approved of, and he had commissioners, called triumvirs, appointed to distribute the same; these were Titus Quintius, A. Virginius, and Publius Furius; and such as chose to accept of those lands, were ordered to give in their names. The gratification of their wishes, as is generally the case, instantly begat disgust; and so few subscribed to the proposal, that, to fill up the colony, they were obliged to take in a number of the Volscians. The rest of the populace chose rather to prosecute claims of land at Rome, than to receive immediate possession of it elsewhere. The Æquans sued to Quintus Fabius for peace, for he had gone against them with an army; yet they themselves broke it, by a sudden incursion into the Latine territories.
Y. R. 288. 464.II. In the year following, Quintus Servilius, who was consul with Spurius Postumius, being sent against the Æquans, fixed his camp in the Latine territory, a post which he intended to retain. Here the troops were compelled, by sickness, to remain inactive within their lines; by which means the war was protracted to the third year, in which Quintus Fabius and Titus Quintius were consuls.Y. R. 289. 463. As Fabius, in consequence of his former successes there, had granted peace to the Æquans, that province was now particularly assigned to him. He set out with confident expectations, that the splendor of his name would be sufficient to induce the Æquans to put an end to hostilities, and sent ambassadors to the general meeting of that nation, with orders to tell them, that “Quintus Fabius, consul, gave them notice, that, as he had brought peace to Rome from the Æquans, so now he brought war to the Æquans from Rome; having armed for war the same hand which he had formerly given to them as a pledge of peace. Which of the parties had, by perjury and perfidy, given occasion to this rupture, was known to the gods, who would soon prove avengers of the crime: yet, notwithstanding this, he was still more desirous that the Æquans should, of their own accord, repent of their misconduct, than suffer the evils of war. If they repented, they should find safety in that clemency which they had already experienced: if they chose to persist in a conduct which involved them in the guilt of perjury, they must expect, in the progress of the war, to find the resentment of the gods even greater than that of their enemies.” So far were these declarations from producing the desired effect on them, that the ambassadors narrowly escaped ill-treatment, and an army was sent to Algidum against the Romans. When the news of these transactions was brought to Rome, the indignity of the affair, rather than the danger, called out the other consul from the city, and the two consular armies advanced to the enemy in order of battle, prepared for an immediate engagement. But this happening rather late in the day, a person called out from one of the enemy’s posts, “Romans, this is making an ostentatious parade, not waging war: ye draw up your forces for battle, when night is at hand. We require a greater length of day-light to decide the contest which is to come on: return into the field to-morrow at sun-rise; ye shall have an opportunity of fighting, doubt it not.” The soldiers were led back into camp until the next day, highly irritated by those expressions, and thinking the approaching night would appear too long, which was to occasion a delay to the combat: the intervening hours, however, they employed in refreshing themselves with food and sleep. Next morning, as soon as it was light, the Roman army were the first, by a considerable time, to take their post in the field. At length, the Æquans also came forward. The battle was fought with great fury on both sides, for the Romans were stimulated both by anger and hatred, while the Æquans, conscious that the dangers to which they were exposed were the consequence of their own crimes, and despairing of ever being treated with confidence in future, felt a necessity of making the most desperate exertions. However, they were not able to withstand the Roman troops. They were driven from the field, and retreated to their own territories; where the outrageous multitude, not at all the more disposed to peace from their failure, censured their leaders for having hazarded success in a pitched battle; a manner of fighting in which the Romans possessed superior skill. The Æquans, they said, were better fitted for predatory expeditions; and there was greater reason to hope for success, from a number of detached parties acting separately, than from one army of unwieldy bulk.
III. Leaving therefore a guard in the camp, they marched out, and fell upon the Roman frontiers with such fury, as to carry terror even to the city. Such an event caused the greater uneasiness, because it was entirely unexpected; for nothing could be less apprehended, than that a vanquished enemy, almost besieged in their camp, should entertain a thought of committing depredations. The country people, in a panic, pouring into the gates, and, in the excess of their fright, exaggerating every thing, cried out, that they were not small ravaging parties, nor employed in plundering; but that the legions, and the entire army of the enemy, were approaching, marching rapidly towards the city, and prepared for an assault. The first who heard these rumours, spread them about among others, unauthenticated as they were, and therefore the more liable to exaggeration; which caused such a hurry and confused clamour, every one calling to arms, as, in some measure, resembled the consternation of a city taken by storm. Luckily Quintius the consul had returned from Algidum; this proved a remedy for their fears; he calmed the tumult, upbraiding them with being afraid of a vanquished people, and posted guards at the gates. He then convened the senate, and having, by their directions, issued a proclamation for a cessation of all civil business,* marched out to protect the frontiers, leaving Quintus Servilius to command in the city; but he found no enemy in the country. The other consul encountered the Æquans with extraordinary success; for he attacked them on the road while heavily laden with booty, which so embarrassed their motions, as to render them unfit for action, and took severe revenge for the devastations which they had committed. He succeeded so effectually, that few made their escape, and the whole of the booty was recovered. On this the consul Quintius returned to the city, and took off the prohibition of business, when it had continued four days. The general survey was then held, and the lustrum was closed by Quintius;* the number of citizens rated in the survey, being one hundred and twenty-four thousand two hundred and fourteen, besides the orphans of both sexes. Nothing memorable passed afterwards in the country of the Æquans: they took shelter in their towns, abandoning their surrounding possessions to fire and devastation. The consul, after having repeatedly carried hostilities and depredations through every part of the enemy’s country, returned to Rome with great glory, and abundance of spoil.
Y. R. 290. 462.IV. The next consuls were Aulus Postumius Albus and Spurius Furius Fusus. The Furii, some writers have called Fusii: this I mention, lest any should think there was a difference in the persons, when it is only in the name. There was no doubt entertained, but that one of the consuls would march an army against the Æquans; these, therefore, requested assistance from the Volscians of Ecetra, who gladly complied with the request; and so inveterate was the hatred which those states bore towards the Romans, that they eagerly vied with each other, in making the most vigorous preparations for war. This coming to the knowledge of the Hernicians, they gave notice to the Romans, that the people of Ecetra had revolted to the Æquans. The colony of Antium was also suspected, because on that town being taken, a great multitude had fled thence for refuge to the Æquans; and while the war with that people lasted, these proved the most valiant soldiers in their army. Afterwards, when the Æquans were driven into their towns, this rabble withdrawing privately, and returning to Antium, seduced the colonists there, from their allegiance to the Romans, which, even before that time, was not much to be relied on. Before the business was yet ripe, on the first information being laid before the senate of their intention to revolt, directions were given to the consuls to send for the heads of the colony, and inquire into the truth of the matter. These having readily attended, and being introduced to the senate by the consuls, answered the questions put to them in such a manner, that the suspicions against them were stronger when they were dismissed, than before they came. War was then considered as inevitable. Spurius Furius, to whose lot that province had fallen, marching against the Æquans, found the enemy in the country of the Hernicians, employed in collecting plunder; and, being ignorant of their numbers, because they had never been seen all together, he rashly hazarded an engagement, though his army was very unequal to the forces of the enemy. At the first onset, he was driven from his ground, and obliged to retreat to his tents; nor did the misfortune end there: in the course of the next night, and the following day, his camp was surrounded on all sides, and attacked so vigorously, that there was no possibility even of sending a messenger from thence to Rome. The Hernicians brought an account both of the defeat, and of the consul and the army being besieged, which struck the senate with such dismay, that by a decree, in that form which has been always deemed to be appropriated to cases of extreme exigency, the other consul Postumius was charged to “take care, that the commonwealth should receive no detriment.” It was judged most expedient, that the consul himself should remain at Rome, in order to enlist all who were able to bear arms; and that Titus Quintius should be sent as proconsul to the relief of the camp, with an army composed of the allies; to complete the number of which, the Latines, Hernicians, and the colony at Antium, were ordered to supply Quintius with subitary soldiers; this was the appellation then given to auxiliaries called out on a sudden emergency.
V. For some time there was a great variety of movements, and many attempts made, both on one side and on the other; for the enemy, relying on their superiority in number, endeavoured to weaken the force of the Romans, by obliging them to divide it into many parts, in hopes that it would prove insufficient to withstand them on every different quarter. At the same time that the siege of the camp was carried on, a part of their forces was sent to ravage the lands of the Romans, and to attempt even Rome itself, if a favourable occasion should offer. Lucius Valerius was left to guard the city, and the consul Postumius was sent to protect the frontiers from the enemy’s incursions. No degree of vigilance and activity was left unemployed in any particular: watches were stationed in the town, out-posts before the gates, and guards along the walls; and, as was necessary in a time of such general confusion, a cessation of civil business was observed for several days. Meanwhile at the camp, the consul Furius, after having endured the siege for some time, without making any effort, burst forth, from the Decuman gate,* on the enemy, when they least expected him; and though he might have pursued their flying troops with advantage, yet, fearing lest an attack might be made on the camp from the opposite side, he halted. Another Furius, who was a lieutenant-general, and brother to the consul, hastily pushed forward too far; and so eagerly intent was he on the pursuit, that he neither perceived his own party retreating, nor the enemy intercepting him behind: being thus shut out from assistance, and having often in vain essayed, by every kind of effort, to open himself a passage, he fell, fighting with great bravery. The consul on the other hand, hearing that his brother was surrounded, turned back on the enemy, and while, forgetting all caution, he rushed too precipitately into the thick of the fight, he received a wound, and was, not without difficulty, carried off by his attendants. This both damped the courage of his own men, and rendered the enemy more daring; and so highly were the latter elated by the death of the lieutenant-general, and the consul’s being wounded, that no force could afterwards withstand them, so as to prevent their driving the Romans back to their camp, and compelling them to submit again to a siege, with both strength and hopes considerably diminished; they were even in danger of utter destruction, had not Titus Quintius, with the troops supplied by the Latines and Hernicians, come to their relief. He attacked the Æquans on their rear, whilst their attention was employed on the Roman camp, and as they were insultingly exhibiting to view the head of the lieutenant-general; and a sally being made from the camp at the same time, on a signal given by him at some distance, a great number of the enemy were surrounded and cut off. Of the Æquans who were employed in the Roman territories, the number slain was less, but their defeat and dispersion was more complete. Being divided into separate parties, and busied in collecting plunder, they were attacked by Postumius in several places, where he had posted troops in convenient situations; when, not knowing what course to take, and pursuing their flight in great disorder, they fell in with Quintius, who, after his victory, was returning home with the wounded consul. Then did the consular army, exerting themselves with extraordinary alacrity, take full vengeance for the consul’s wound, and for the loss of the lieutenant-general and the cohorts. Many heavy losses were sustained on both sides in the course of that campaign: but it is difficult, at this distance of time, to assign, with any degree of certainty, the precise number of those who were engaged, and of those who fell. Yet Valerius Antias undertakes to estimate them, affirming that, of the Romans, there fell in the country of the Hernicians five thousand three hundred; that, of the plundering parties of the Æquans, who spread themselves over the Roman territories, two thousand four hundred were slain by the consul Aulus Postumius; that the other body of them, who, while they were carrying off the spoil, fell in with Quintius, escaped not without a much greater loss, there being slain of these, four thousand (and pretending exactness, he adds) two hundred and thirty. After this, the troops returned to Rome, and the order for cessation of civil business was discharged. The sky appeared as on fire in many places, and other portents either occurred to people’s sight, or were formed by terror in their imaginations. To avert the evils which these foreboded, a proclamation was issued for a solemn festival, to be observed for three days, during which all the temples were filled with crowds, both of men and women, supplicating the favour of the gods. The cohorts of the Latines and Hernicians were then dismissed by the senate to their respective homes, with thanks for their spirited behaviour. During the campaign, a thousand men, who came from Antium after the battle, but too late to be of any service, were sent off in a manner little less than ignominious.
Y. R. 291. 461.VI. The elections were then held, and Lucius Æbutius and Publius Servilius being chosen consuls, entered on their office, on the calends of August, which was at that time considered as the beginning of the year with respect to them. This was a season of great distress; for, during this year, a pestilential disorder spread itself, not only through the city, but over the country, affecting both men and cattle with equal malignity; the violence of the disorder was increased by admitting into the city the cattle, and also the inhabitants of the country, who fled thither for shelter from the enemy’s ravages. Such a collection of animals of every kind nearly suffocated the citizens by the intolerable stench; while the country people, crowded together in narrow apartments, suffered no less from the heat, the want of rest, and their attendance on each other; besides which, mere contact served to propagate the infection. While they could scarcely support the weight of the calamities under which they laboured ambassadors from the Hernicians suddenly arrived with intelligence, that the Æquans and Volscians in conjunction had encamped in their territory, and from thence were ravaging the country with very numerous forces. Besides the proof, which the thinness of the senate afforded to the observation of the allies, of the low state to which the commonwealth was reduced by the pestilence, the answer which they received, demonstrated a great dejection of spirits: that “the Hernicians themselves, with the assistance of the Latines, must provide for their own safety. That the city of Rome, through the sudden anger of the gods, was depopulated by sickness. If they (the Romans) should find any respite from that calamity, they would, as they had done the year before, and on all occasions, give assistance to their allies.” Thus the ambassadors departed, carrying home the most sorrowful intelligence; as they now found themselves obliged, with their own single strength, to support a war, to which they had hardly been equal, even when assisted by the power of Rome. The enemy remained not long in the country of the Hernicians, but proceeded thence, with hostile intentions, into the Roman territory; which, without the injuries of war, was now become a desert. Without meeting there one human being even unarmed, and finding every place through which they passed destitute, not only of troops, but of the culture of the husbandman, they yet came as far as the third stone on the Gabian road. By this time Æbutius the Roman consul was dead, and his colleague Servilius so ill, that there was very little hope of his recovery; most of the leading men were siezed by the distemper, as were the greater part of the patricians, and almost every one of military age, so that they wanted strength, not only to form the expeditions which were requisite in a conjuncture so alarming, but even to mount the guards, where no exertion was necessary. The duty of the watches was performed by such of the senators in person, as by their age and strength were qualified for it: the care of posting and visiting these, was intrusted to the plebeian ædiles; on them devolved the whole administration of affairs, and the dignity of the consular authority.
VII. The commonwealth in this forlorn state, without a head, without strength, was saved from destruction by its guardian deities, who inspired the Volscians and Æquans with the spirit of banditti, rather than of warriors; for so far were they from conceiving any hope, either of mastering, or even of approaching the walls of Rome, and such an effect had the distant view of the houses and adjacent hills, to divert their thoughts from the attempt, that murmurs spread through all the camp, each asking the other, why they should throw away their time without employment, and without booty, in a waste and desert country, among the putrid carcases of men and cattle; when they might repair to places that had felt no distress; to the territory of Tusculum, where every kind of opulence abounded?” and accordingly, they hastily put themselves in motion, and, crossing the country, passed on through the territory of Lavici, to the Tusculan hills; and to that quarter was the whole storm and violence of the war directed. Meanwhile, the Hernicians and Latines, prompted not only by compassion, but also by the shame which they must incur, if they neither gave opposition to the common enemy, marching to attack the city of Rome, nor even when their allies were besieged, afforded them any assistance, united their forces, and proceeded to Rome. Not finding the enemy there, and pursuing their tracks by such intelligence as they could procure, they met them coming down from the heights of Tusculum to the Alban vale. There an engagement ensued, in which they were by no means a match for the combined forces, and the fidelity of the allies proved, for the present unfortunate to them. The mortality occasioned by the distemper at Rome was not less than what the sword caused among the allies. The consul Servilius, with many other illustrious persons, died: namely, Marcus Valerius and Titus Virginius Rutilus, augurs; Servius Sulpicius, principal curio; while, among persons of inferior note the virulence of the disorder spread its ravages on every side. The senate, unable to discover a prospect of relief in any human means, directed the people to have recourse to vows and to the deities: they were ordered to go, with their wives and children, to offer supplications and implore the favour of the gods; and all being thus called out by public authority, to perform what each man was strongly urged to by his own private calamities, they quickly filled the places of worship. In every temple, the prostrate matrons, sweeping the ground with their hair, implored a remission of the displeasure of heaven, and deliverance from the pestilence.
VIII. From that time, whether it was owing to the gods having become propitious, or to the more unhealthy season of the year being now past, the people began to find their health gradually restored. And now their attention being turned to public business, several interregna having expired, Publius Valerius Publicola, on the third day after he had entered on the office of interrex,Y. R. 292. 460. caused Lucius Lucretius Tricipitinus and Titus Veturius, or Vetusius, Geminus to be elected consuls. These assumed their office on the third of the ides of August, at which time the state had recovered its strength so far as to be able not only to repel an attack but to act offensively on occasion. Wherefore, on the Hernicians sending information, that the enemy had made an irruption into their frontiers, they cheerfully promised to assist them. Two consular armies were raised. Veturius was sent to carry on an offensive war against the Volscians. Tricipitinus being appointed to protect the territories of the allies from all incursions, proceeded no farther than the country of the Hernicians. Veturius, in the first engagement, routed and dispersed his enemy. While Lucretius lay encamped among the Hernicians, a party of plunderers, unobserved by him, marched over the Prænestine mountains, and from thence descended into the plains. These laid waste all the country about Præneste and Gabii, and from the latter turned their course towards the high grounds of Tusculum. Even Rome was very much alarmed, more so by the unexpectedness of the affair, than that they wanted strength to defend themselves. Quintus Fabius had the command in the city. He armed the young men, posted guards, and soon put every thing into a state of safety and tranquillity. The enemy therefore not daring to approach the walls, but hastily carrying off whatever they could find in the adjacent places, set out on their return, making a long circuit and while their caution relaxed, in proportion as they removed to a greater distance, they fell in with the consul Lucretius, who, having procured intelligence of all their motions, lay with his troops drawn up and impatient for the combat. These the consul, with premeditated resolution, attacked, who, terrified and thrown into disorder by this sudden appearance of danger, and though considerably greater in number, were easily routed and put to flight. He then drove them into deep vallies, from which being surrounded by his troops, it was difficult to escape. On this occasion the Volscian race was nearly extinguished. I find in some histories, that there fell in the field and the pursuit, thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy; that one thousand two hundred and fifty were made prisoners; and that twenty-seven military standards were taken. However, though, in those accounts, the numbers may be somewhat exaggerated, the slaughter certainly was very great. The victorious consul, possessed of an immense booty, returned to his former post. The consuls then made a junction of their forces. The Volscians and Æquans also united their shattered troops. On which ensued the third battle in the course of that campaign. The same good fortune attended the Romans, the enemy being routed with the loss of his camp.
IX. Thus did the course of affairs at Rome return into its former channel, and successes abroad immediately excited commotions at home. Caius Terentillus Arsa was tribune of the people that year. He, taking advantage of the absence of the consuls, as an opportunity favourable to tribunitian intrigues, entertained the commons for several days with railings against the arrogance of the patricians; but levelled his invectives chiefly against the consular government, as possessing an exorbitant degree of power, and intolerable in a free state: “in name,” he said, “it was less odious than regal government; while, in fact, it was rather more oppressive: as, instead of one tyrant, two had been set over them, invested with immoderate and unlimited rule; who, while they themselves were privileged and uncontrolled, directed every terror of the laws, and every kind of severity against the commons. Now, in order to prevent their continuing for ever to possess this arbitrary influence, he would propose, that five commissioners be appointed to compose a set of laws for the regulation of the consular government. Whatever share of authority the people should think proper to intrust in the hands of the consuls, such they should enjoy; but they should not hold their own will and absolute determinations, as law.” When this decree was published, the patricians were filled with dread, lest, in the absence of the consuls, the yoke might be imposed on them: the senate was called together by the præfect of the city, Quintus Fabius, who inveighed against the proposition, and the author of it, with such vehemence, as to omit no kind of threats, or means of intimidation, which could have been applied, had both the consuls, provoked to the highest, stood beside the tribune. He urged, that “this man had lain in ambush, and watching his opportunity, had made an assault on the commonwealth. If the gods, in their anger, had sent a tribune like him, during the last year, while sickness and war raged together, his designs could not have been prevented. When both the consuls were dead, and the enfeebled state lay overwhelmed in universal anarchy and confusion, he would probably have introduced laws for abolishing the consular government, and would have become a leader to the Volscians and Æquans in an attack upon the city. And, after all, where was the occasion for such a law? If a consul, in his behaviour towards the citizens, proved himself arbitrary or cruel, was it not in the tribune’s power to bring him to a trial? to prosecute him, where his judges would be those very persons, against one of whom the injury was committed? His manner of acting tended to render, not the consular government, but the office of tribune, odious and intolerable, because, from being in a state of peace and amity with the patricians, he was forcing it back into the old evil practices. But it was not intended to beseech him to desist from proceeding as he had begun. Of you, the other tribunes,” said Fabius; “we request, that ye will, first of all, consider, that your office was instituted for the protection of individuals, and not for the destruction of any part of the community; that ye were created tribunes of the commons, not foes of the patricians. It reflects as much dishonour on you, as it does concern on us, that the commonwealth should be invaded in the absence of its chief magistrates. Take measures with your colleague, that he may adjourn this business until the arrival of the consuls, ye will not hereby lessen your rights, but ye will lessen the odium which such proceedings must excite. Even the Æquans and Volscians, when the consuls were carried off last year by the sickness, refrained from adding to our afflictions by a cruel and implacable prosecution of war.” The tribunes accordingly made application to Terentillus, and the business being suspended, in appearance, but, in reality, suppressed, the consuls were immediately called home.
X. Lucretius returned with a very great quantity of spoil, and much greater glory. He added to the glory which he had acquired, by exposing, on his arrival, all the spoil in the field of Mars, in order that every one should have an opportunity, during three days, to recognize and carry home his share of the same. The remainder, not having claimants, was sold. All men agreed in opinion, that a triumph was due to the consul; but the consideration of that matter was postponed, because the tribune had renewed his attempts to carry his law; and this was deemed by the consul an affair of more importance. The business was canvassed during several days, both in the senate, and the assembly of the people: at length, the tribune yielded to the weight of the consul’s authority, and desisted. Then was paid to the consul and his army, the honour which they so justly merited. He triumphed over the Volscians and Æquans, his own legions attending him in the procession. To the other consul, was granted the honour of entering the city in ovation,* unattended by the troops. In the following year, the law of Terentillus, supported by the concurrence of all the tribunes, again assailed the consuls.Y. R. 293. 459. These were Publius Volumnius and Servius Sulpicius. In this year the sky appeared on fire, and a violent earthquake happened; it was also now believed that an ox spoke, an incident to which in the last yeat credit had been refused. Among other prodigies, a shower of flesh fell, which, as was reported, was in a great measure intercepted in its fall by a vast number of birds flying about the place, and what escaped them, lay scattered on the ground for several days, without any degree of putrefaction, or being even changed in smell. The books* were consulted by the duumviri presiding over sacred rites, and it was predicted that dangers impended from a concourse of foreigners, that an attack was to be made on the higher parts of the city, and lives lost in consequence; among other things, warning was given, that all seditious practices should be avoided. This the tribunes cried out against, as a forgery, contrived for the purpose of hindering the passing of their law; and matters were tending to a desperate contest; when, lo! that things might revolve in the same circle every year, the Hernicians brought an account, that the Volscians and Æquans, notwithstanding their late defeat, were recruiting their armies; that their chief dependence was upon Antium; that the people of that colony held meetings openly at Ecetra; that they were the first movers of the war, and composed the greatest part of the forces. As soon as this intelligence was communicated to the senate, an order was passed for levying troops, and the consuls were directed to take the management of the war between them, so that one should have the Volscians as his province, the other the Æquans. The tribunes exclaimed loudly to their faces in the Forum that “this Volscian war was but a concerted farce; that the Hernicians had been instructed how to act their part in it; that now the Roman people were not deprived of liberty by manly efforts, but cheated out of it by cunning. That because it was incredible, that the Volscians and Æquans, who were almost exterminated, could of themselves commence hostilities, new enemies had been sought for, and slanders thrown on a loyal colony closely connected with Rome; that the war was proclaimed, indeed, against the unoffending people of Antium, but waged against the commons of Rome, whom they intended to lead out of the city with precipitate haste, loaded with arms, thus wreaking their vengeance on the tribunes by the expulsion and banishment of the citizens. That by these means, and let not people think there was any other design, all efforts in favour of the law would be effectually overpowered, if they did not, before matters proceeded farther, while they were yet at home, and retained the garb of citizens, adopt such measures as would prevent their being driven out of possession of the city, and obliged to submit to the yoke. If they had spirit, they should not want support; the tribunes were all unanimous in their favour; there was no danger, no reason of apprehension from abroad. The gods had taken care the year before, that they might now stand up with safety in defence of their liberty.” Such was the language of the tribunes.
XI. But, on the other side, the consuls, fixing their chairs within view of them, began to proceed in the levy; thither the tribunes hastened, and drew the assembly with them. A few were cited by way of experiment, and immediately outrages commenced. Whenever a lictor, by the consul’s command, laid hold of any person, a tribune ordered him to be set at liberty. Nor did either party confine themselves within the limits of that authority, to which their office entitled them; every measure taken was to be supported by force. The same line of conduct, which the tribunes had observed in obstructing the levy, was followed by the consuls in their opposition to the law, which was brought forward on every day whereon an assembly could be held. The riot was continued by the patricians refusing to withdraw, after the tribunes had ordered the people to proceed to the place of voting. The elder citizens hardly ever attended the meetings on this affair, by reason that they were not regulated by prudence, but abandoned to the direction of rashness and violence; and the consuls generally kept out of the way, lest, in such general confusion, they should expose their dignity to insult. There was a young man, called Cæso Quintius, full of presumption, on account both of the nobility of his descent, and his personal size and strength; to these qualifications bestowed by the gods, he added many warlike accomplishments, and had evinced a considerable degree of eloquence in the Forum, insomuch that no person in the state was deemed to possess greater abilities, either for acting or speaking. This man having placed himself in the midst of the body of the patricians, conspicuous in stature above the rest, and as if he carried in his eloquence and bodily strength, every power of the consulship or dictatorship, withstood by his single efforts the attacks of the tribunes, and the whole popular storm. In consequence of his exertions, the tribunes were often driven out of the Forum, and the commons routed and dispersed. Such of them as came in his way, he caused to be stripped, and otherwise severely handled; so that every one saw, that if he were allowed to proceed in this manner, it would be impossible to carry the law. At this juncture, when the tribunes were almost reduced to despair, Aulus Virginius, one of their body, instituted a criminal prosecution on a capital charge against Cæso. But by this proceeding he rather irritated than repressed his impetuous temper: he thence became the more vehement in his opposition to the law, persecuted the commons, and harassed the tribunes, in a manner, with open hostilities. The prosecutor suffered the accused to run headlong to ruin, and to draw down on himself such a degree of public displeasure, as would serve to inflame men’s minds on the charges which he had brought against him, and in the meantime frequently introduced the law, not so much in hope of carrying it through, as with design to provoke the rashness of Cæso. Many inconsiderate expressions and actions, which often passed on these occasions among the young men, were all, through the general prejudice against him, imputed to Cæso’s violent temper. The law, however, was still opposed, and Aulus Virginius frequently observed to the people, “Do ye not perceive, Romans, that it is impossible for you to have, at the same time, Cæso among the number of your citizens, and this law which ye wish for? Though why do I speak of this law? Your liberty is endangered by him; he surpasses, in tyrannical pride, all the Tarquinii together: wait until he is made consul or dictator, whom ye now behold in a private station, exerting all the prerogatives of royalty.” He was supported in these invectives by great numbers, who complained of being personally abused by Cæso, and importuned the tribune to go through with the prosecution.
XII. The day of trial now approached, and it was manifest that the people in general had conceived an opinion, that the existence of their liberty depended upon the condemnation of Cæso. Then at length he was compelled, though not without indignation, to solicit the favour of each: he was followed by his relations, who were the principal persons in the state. Titus Quintius Capitolinus, who had been thrice consul, after recounting many honourable achievements of his own, and of his family, affirmed, that “there never had appeared, either in the Quintian family, or in the Roman state, any person possessed of such a capacity, and who exhibited so early, such displays of valour. That he served his first campaign under himself, and had often in his sight fought with the enemy.” Spurius Furius declared that “he had, by order of Quintius Capitolinus, come to his relief, when in a dangerous situation; and that there was no one person to whom he thought the public so much indebted for the restoration of their affairs.” Lucius Lucretius, consul the preceding year, in the full splendour of fresh glory, atributed to Cæso a share of his own merits; enumerated the battles he had been engaged in; related extraordinary instances of his good behaviour, both on expeditions and in the field; advised and warned them, rather “to preserve among themselves, than to drive into a foreign country, a youth of such extraordinary merit, endowed with every accomplishment which nature and fortune could bestow, and who would prove a vast accession to the interest of any state, of which he should become a member. That the only parts in his character which could give offence, heat and vehemence, diminished daily, as he advanced in age; while the only requisite wanting, namely, prudence, was continually gathering strength: that as his faults were on the decline, and his virtues advancing to maturity, they should allow a man of such rare talents to become an old member of their community.” Along with these, his father, Lucius Quintius, surnamed Cincinnatus, not dwelling on his praises, for fear of heightening the public displeasure, but intreating their forgiveness for his mistakes and his youth, besought them to pardon the son for the sake of him who, neither in word or deed had ever given offence to any. But some, either through respect or fear, avoided listening to his intreaties; while others, complaining of the ill treatment which they and their friends had received, showed beforehand, by their harsh answers, what their sentence would be.
XIII. Besides the notorious instances of the ill conduct of the accused, there was one charge which bore heavily on him: Marcus Volscius Fictor, who some years before had been tribune of the people, stood forth and testified, that “a short time after the pestilence in the city, he met with a number of young men rioting in the Suburra;* that a scuffle ensued, and that his brother, who was advanced in years, and not thoroughly recovered from the disorder, received from Cæso a blow of his fist, which felled him to the ground; that he was carried home from thence, and that he believed this blow was the cause of his death; but that he was prevented from prosecuting him for such an atrocious act, by the consuls of the preceding years.” The loud asseverations of Volscius on the matter so enraged the people, that they could hardly be restrained from falling on Cæso, and putting him to death. Virginius ordered him to be seized and carried to prison: the patricians opposed force to force. Titus Quintius exclaimed, that “a person formally accused of a capital crime, whose trial was shortly to come on, ought not, before trial, and without sentence passed, to suffer violence.” The tribune declared, that “he had no intention of inflicting pains before condemnation, but that he would keep him in custody until the day of trial, that the Roman people might have it in their power to punish the man who had been guilty of murder.” The other tribunes being appealed to, resolved on a middle course, and thereby avoided every impeachment of their right to give protection: they forbade his being put in confinement, and declared it as their determination, that Cæso should give bail for his appearance, and that a sum of money should be secured to the people, in case of his failing so to do. The sum in which it was reasonable that the sureties should be bound, came then to be discussed; it was refered to the senate; and until they should come to a resolution, the accused was detained in the public assembly. It was determined that he should find sureties, and that each surety should be bound to the amount of three thousand asses:* the number of sureties to be furnished was left to the decision of the tribunes; they fixed it at ten, and on that number being bound, the prosecutor consented that the offender should be admitted to bail. He was the first who gave bail, in this manner, where the penalty was to be applied to the use of the public. Being dismissed from the Forum, he went the night following into exile among the Etrurians. On the day appointed for his trial it was pleaded in his favour, that he had gone into exile; nevertheless, Virginius presiding in the assembly, his colleagues, on being appealed to, dismissed the meeting, and the forfeited money was exacted from his father with such severity, that all his property being sold, he lived for a long time in an obscure cottage beyond the Tiber, as if banished from his country. This trial, and the proceedings about the law, gave full employment to the state. There was no disturbance from foreign enemies.
XIV. The tribunes, flushed with this success, imagined, from the dismay into which the patricians had been thrown by the exile of Cæso, that the passing of the law was almost certain. But though the elder patricians had in fact relinquished the administration of affairs, the younger part of them, especially those who were Cæso’s friends, instead of suffering their spirits to droop, assumed a higher degree of vehemence in their rage against the commons. Yet in one particular they improved their plan exceedingly, which was by moderation. The first time, indeed, after Cæso’s banishment, when the law in all their proceedings became the question, having prepared themselves for the occasion, and formed in a body with a great band of their dependents, they, as soon as the tribunes afforded a pretext by ordering them to retire, attacked the people furiously, and all exerted themselves with activity so equal, that no one carried home a greater share than another, either of honour or of ill-will; while the commons complained, that a thousand Cæsos had started up in the room of one. During the intermediate days, however, in which the tribunes brought forward no proceedings respecting the law, nothing could be more mild and peaceable than these same persons; they saluted the plebeians kindly; entered into conversation with them; invited them to their houses; took care of their affairs in the Forum, and allowed even the tribunes themselves to hold meetings for any other purposes without interruption. In a word, they showed no kind of incivility to any, either in public or private, except when the business of the law began to be agitated. On other occasions, as I have said, the behaviour of the young patricians was popular, and the tribunes not only executed the rest of their business without disturbance, but were even re-elected for the following year without one offensive expression, much less any violence being used. By thus soothing and managing the commons, they rendered them, by degrees, more tractable, and by these methods the passing of the law was evaded during that whole year.
Y. R. 294. 458.XV. The succeeding consuls, Caius Cladius, son of Appius, and Publius Valerius found, on entering on the office, the commonwealth in a state of perfect tranquillity. The new year had brought no change in affairs. The thoughts of every member of the state were occupied, either in wishes for the passing of the law, or in apprehensions of being obliged to submit to it. The more the younger patricians endeavoured to insinuate themselves into the favour of the commons, the more earnestly did the tribunes strive to counteract them; exciting suspicions to their prejudice in the minds of the populace; and asserting, that there was a conspiracy formed. They maintained likewise, that Cæso was at Rome; that plans had been concerted for putting the tribunes to death, and massacring the commons: that the elder patricians had engaged the younger to abolish the office of tribune, and to reduce the state to the same form which had subsisted before the secession to the sacred mount. While fears were entertained of an attack from the Volscians and Æquans, which had now become a stated matter, and occurred regularly almost every year, a new danger made its appearance nearer home. A number of exiles and slaves, amounting to four thousand five hundred, under the command of Appius Herdonius a Sabine, seized on the Capitol and citadel by night, and put to death all those in the latter, who refused to join the conspiracy, and take arms along with them. Some, during this tumult, ran down to the Forum with all the precipitance which their fright inspired, and the cries of, “to arms,” and “the enemy are in the city,” resounded alternately. The consuls were afraid either to arm the commons, or let them remain without arms, not knowing what this peril was, which had so suddenly assailed the city; whether it was occasioned by foreign or domestic forces; whether by the disaffection of the commons, or the treachery of the slaves. They exerted themselves to quiet the tumults; but, not unfrequently, these very endeavours served but to exasperate them the more: for it was impossible, in such a state of terror and consternation, to make the populace obey command. They gave them arms notwithstanding, but not to all without distinction, only to such as they could safely rely on in all emergences, not yet knowing with what enemy they had to contend. The rest of the night was passed in posting guards in proper places all over the city, the magistrates still remaining in anxious suspense, and unable to find out who the enemy were, or what their number. Daylight then arriving, made a discovery of the insurgents, and of their leader: Appius Herdonius from the Capitol invited the slaves to liberty, telling them that “he had undertaken the cause of all the unfortunate, with intent of restoring to their country those who had been unjustly driven into banishment, and of delivering those who groaned under the grievous yoke of slavery. He rather wished that this might be accomplished by the voluntary act of the Roman people: but if it was not to be so effected, he would rouse the Volscians and Æquans in the cause, and would persevere in the attempt to the utmost extremity.”
XVI. The affair appeared now to the consuls and senate in a less formidable light, yet they still dreaded lest, besides the purposes which were declared, that this might be a scheme of the Veientians or the Sabines; and that the disaffected might, in consequence of a concerted plan, be supported presently by the Sabine and Etrurian legions; and that their everlasting enemies, the Volscians and Æquans, might come, not, as formerly, to ravage the country, but to seize on the city, which their favourers already possessed in part. Many and various were their fears, the principal of which was their dread of the slaves, lest every one should find in his own house an enemy, whom it was neither safe to trust, nor, by apparent distrust, to provoke to infidelity and hate. So critical, indeed, was their situation, that, had perfect harmony subsisted in the state, they could scarcely hope to be extricated from it. But amidst the crowd of dangers which started up on every side, no one had any apprehensions from the turbulence of the tribunes or the commons: that was deemed an evil of a milder nature; and which, as it always began to operate in times undisturbed by foreign affairs, they supposed would now be at rest. Yet this alone proved the heaviest aggravation of their distress; for such madness possessed the tribunes, that they insisted that they were not enemies, but people under the appearance of enemies, who had seized on the capitol, for the purpose of diverting the attention of the commons from the business of the law; and that these guests and dependants of the patricians, if the law were once passed, and it were perceived that the tumults, which they raised, had not answered their purpose, would depart in greater silence than they came. They then called away the people from their arms, and held an assembly for passing the law. In the mean time, the consuls convened the senate, more terrified by the danger apprehended from the tribunes, than from the exiles and slaves.
XVII. On hearing that the people were laying down their arms, and quitting their posts, Publius Valerius, leaving his colleague to preside in the senate, rushed forth from the senate-house, and came to the assembly of the tribunes, whom he thus accosted: “What mean ye, tribunes, by these proceedings? Do ye intend, under the command and auspices of Appius Herdonius, to overturn the commonwealth? Has he been successful in corrupting you, though he had not authority sufficient to influence the slaves? Do ye think this a proper time, when the foe is within our walls, for arms to be laid aside, and laws to be proposed?” Then directing his discourse to the populace, “If, Romans, ye are unconcerned for the city and for yourselves, yet pay respect to the gods of your country, now taken captive. Jupiter supremely good and great, Juno queen of heaven, Minerva, with the other gods and goddesses, are held in confinement: a band of slaves occupies the residence of the tutelar deities of the state. Do ye think this method of acting consistent with sound policy? These slaves have a powerful force, not only within the walls, but in the citadel, looking down on the Forum and the senate-house; meanwhile, in the Forum, are assemblies of the people; in the senate-house, the senate sitting; just as in time of perfect tranquillity the senator gives his opinion, the other Romans their votes. Ought not every man, as well of the patricians as commoners, the consul, tribunes, citizens, all in short, to have snatched up arms in such a cause, to have run to the capitol, to have restored to liberty and peace that most august residence of the supremely good and great Jupiter? O father Romulus, grant to thine offspring that spirit, by which thou formerly recoveredst the citadel from these same Sabines, when they had got possession of it by means of gold. Direct them to pursue the same path, in which thou ledst the way, and which thine army followed. Lo, I as consul will be the first to follow thee and thy footsteps, as far as a mortal can follow a divinity.” The conclusion of his speech was, that “he now took up arms, and summoned every citizen of Rome to arms. If any one should attempt to prevent the execution of this order, he would never,” he said, “regard the extent of the consular authority, nor of the tribunitian power, nor the devoting laws; but, be he who he might, or where he might, whether in the capitol, or in the Forum, he would treat him as an enemy. Let the tribunes, then, give orders for arming against Publius Valerius the consul, since they had forbidden it against Appius Herdonius, and he would not hesitate to use those tribunes, in the same manner which the founder of his family had the spirit to show towards kings.” On this declaration, every one expected the utmost degree of violence, and that the enemy would be gratified with the sight of a civil war among the Romans. Yet neither could the law be carried, nor the consul march to the capitol; night coming on, put a stop to the contests; and the tribunes dreading the armed attendants of the consuls, retired. And as soon as the fomenters of sedition had withdrawn, the patricians went about among the commons, and introducing themselves into their circles of conversation, threw out discourses adapted to the juncture, advising them to “consider well into what hazards they were bringing the commonwealth;” telling them, that “the contest was not between the patricians and plebeians, but whether the patricians and plebeians together the fortress of the city, the temples of the gods, and the guardian deities of the state, and of private families, should all be given up into the hands of the enemy.” While these measures were employed in the Forum to appease the dissensions, the consuls had gone to visit the gates and walls, lest the Sabines or Veientians might make any hostile attempt.
XVIII. The same night, messengers arrived at Tusculum, with accounts of the citadel being taken, the capitol seized, and of the other disturbances which had taken place in the city. Lucius Mamilius was at that time dictator at Tusculum. He instantly assembled the senate, and introducing the messengers, warmly recommended, that “they should not wait until ambassadors might arrive from Rome to request assistance, but instantly send it; the danger and distress of their allies, with the gods, who witnessed their alliance, and the faith of treaties, demanded it. That the deities would never afford them again perhaps so good an opportunity of engaging the gratitude of so powerful a state, and so near a neighbour.” It was immediately resolved, that assistance should be sent; and the youth were enrolled and armed. Coming to Rome at day-break, they were at a distance taken for enemies; it was imagined that they were the Æquans or the Volscians; but this groundless alarm being removed, they were received into the city, and marched down in a body to the Forum, where Publius Valerius, having left his colleague to secure the gates, was employed at the time in drawing up the people in order of battle. They had been prevailed on to arm by the confidence placed in his promises, when he assured them, that, “as soon as the capitol should be recovered, and peace restored in the city, if they would suffer themselves to be convinced of the dangerous designs that lurked under the law proposed by the tribunes, he would give no obstruction to the assembly of the people, mindful of his ancestors, mindful of his surname, by which, attention to promote the interest of the community was handed down to him, as an inheritance from his ancestors.” Led by him, then, and notwithstanding that the tribunes cried out loudly against it, they directed their march up the steep of the capitol. They were joined by the troops of Tusculum; and citizens and allies vied with each other for the glory of recovering the citadel; each leader encouraging his own men. The besieged, on this, were greatly terrified, having no reliance on any thing but the strength of the place; and while they were thus disconcerted, the Romans and allies pushed forward to the assault. They had already broken into the porch of the temple, when Publius Valerius, leading on the attack, was slain at the head of his men. Publius Volumnius, formerly consul, saw him fall, and charging those about him to cover the body, rushed forward to take the place and the office of the consul. The ardour and eagerness of the soldiers were such, as hindered their perceiving so great a loss, and they gained the victory, before they knew that they were fighting without their leader. Many of the exiles defiled the temple with their blood; many were taken alive; Herdonius was slain. Thus was the capitol recovered. Punishments were inflicted on the prisoners, suitable to their several conditions either of freemen or slaves. Thanks were given to the Tusculans. The capitol was cleansed and purified. It is said, that the plobeians threw into the consul’s house a quadrans each, that his funeral might be solemnized with the greater splendour.
XIX. Peace being re-established, the tribunes earnestly pressed the senate to fulfil the promise of Publius Valerius, and pressed Claudius to acquit the shade of his colleague of breach of faith, and suffer the business of the law to proceed. The consul declared, that he would not listen to the matter, until he should have a colleague appointed in the room of the deceased. The disputes on this subject lasted until the assembly was held for substituting a consul. In the month of December, in consequence of very zealous efforts of the patricians, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, father of Cæso, was elected consul, to enter on his office without delay. The commons were quite dismayed, on finding, that they were to have for consul a person highly incensed against them, and whose power was strengthened by the support of the patricians, by his own merit, and by three sons, no one of whom was inferior to Cæso in greatness of spirit, while they excelled him in prudence and moderation on proper occasions. When he came into office, in the frequent harangues which he made from the tribunal, he showed not more vehemence in his censures of the commons, than in his reproofs to the senate, “through the indolence of which body,” he said, “the tribunes, now become perpetual, by means of their harangues and prosecutions, exercised sovereign authority, as if they were not in a republic of Roman citizens, but in an ill regulated family. That, together with his son Cæso, fortitude, constancy, and every qualification that gives ornament to youth, either in war or peace, had been driven out and banished from the city of Rome; while talkative, seditious men, sowers of dissension, twice and even thrice re-elected tribunes, spent their lives in the most pernicious practices, and in the exercise of regal tyranny. Did Aulus Virginius,” said he, “because he was not in the Capitol, deserve less severe punishment than Appius Herdonius would have merited? More, undoubtedly, if we judge fairly of the matter. Herdonius, though nothing else could be said in his favour, by announcing himself an enemy gave out public orders in such a manner, that ye necessarily would take arms. The other, denying that there were enemies to be opposed, took the arms out of your hands, and exposed you defenceless to your slaves and exiles. And did ye, notwithstanding, (I wish to speak without offence to Caius Claudius, or in detriment to the memory of Publius Valeririus) lead your troops to an attack on the Capitoline hill, before ye had expelled these enemies from the Forum? It is scandalous in the sight of gods and men, that when a host of rebels was in the citadel, in the Capitol, and when a leader of exiles and slaves, profaning every thing sacred, took up his habitation in the shrine of Jupiter supremely good and great, it is disgraceful, I say, that arms were taken up at Tusculum sooner than at Rome. It actually appeared doubtful, whether Lucius Mamilius, a Tusculan general, or Publius Valerius and Caius Claudius, consuls, should have the honour of recovering the Roman citadel. Thus we who, heretofore, would not suffer the Latines to take up arms, not even in their own defence, and when they had the enemy within their territories, should have been taken and destroyed, had not these very Latines afforded us assistance of their own accord. Is this, tribunes, your duty towards the commons, to unarm and expose them to slaughter? Surely, if any, even the lowest person among these commons of yours, whom from being a part ye have broken off, as it were, from the body of the people, and made a republic peculiar to yourselves; if any one of these should inform you that his house was surrounded by an armed band of slaves, surely ye would think that he ought to go to his assistance. And was the supremely good and great Jupiter, when hemmed round by the arms of exiles and slaves, unworthy of any human aid? Yet these men expect to be held sacred and inviolable, who esteem not the gods themselves as either sacred or inviolable. But it seems, contaminated as ye are with the guilt of your offences against gods and men, ye give out that ye will carry through your law before the end of this year. It would then, indeed, be an unfortunate day to the state, on which I was created consul, much more so, than that on which the consul Valerius perished, if ye should carry it. Now, first of all, Romans, my colleague and I intend to march the legions against the Volscians and Æquans. I know not by what fatality we find the gods more propitious, while we are employed in war than during peace. How great the danger from those nations would have been if they had known that the Capitol was in the possession of exiles, it is better that we should conjecture from the past than feel from experience.”
XX. The consul’s discourse had a considerable effect on the commons: and the patricians recovering their spirits, looked on the commonwealth as restored to its proper state. The other consul, showing more eagerness in promoting than in forming a design, readily allowed his colleague to take the lead in the preparatory proceedings on so weighty an affair; but in the execution of the plan, claimed to himself a share of the consular duties. The tribunes mocking these declarations, proceeded to ask, “by what means the consuls would be enabled to lead out an army, when no one would suffer them to make a levy? To this Quintius replied, “We have no occasion for a levy, because when Publius Valerius gave arms to the commons, for the recovery of the Capitol, they all took an oath to him, that they would assemble on an order from the consul, and would not depart without his permission. We therefore publish our orders, that every one of you who have taken the oath, attend tomorrow, under arms, at the lake Regillus.” The tribunes then began to cavil, and alleged, that “the people were absolved of that obligation, because Quintius was in a private station, at the time when the oath was taken.” But that disregard of the gods, which prevails in the present age, had not then taken place; nor did every one, by his own interpretations, accommodate oaths and the laws to his particular views, but rather adapted his practice to them. The tribunes, therefore, finding no hope of succeeding in their opposition on that ground, endeavoured to delay the marching of the troops; and in this they were the more earnest, because a report had spread, that orders had been given for the augurs also to attend at the lake Regillus, and that a place should be consecrated by them, in order that the people might transact business with the benefit of auspices, so that any measures enacted at Rome through means of the violence of the tribunes, might be repealed in an assembly held there. It was urged, however, that any one would vote there, just as the consuls chose; for at any greater distance from the city than that of a mile, there was no appeal: and even should the tribunes come thither, they would, among the crowd of other citizens, be subject to the consular authority. This alarmed them. But what excited their strongest apprehensions was, that Quintius used frequently to say, that “he would not hold an election of consuls: that the distemper of the state was not such as could be stopped by the usual remedies: that the commonwealth stood in need of a dictator, in order that any person who should stir one step towards raising disturbances, might feel, that the power of that magistrate was above an appeal.”
XXI. The senate was sitting in the Capitol; thither came the tribunes, attended by the commons, who were full of perplexity and fear: the populace, with loud clamours, implored the protection, at one time, of the consuls, at another of the senate; yet they could not prevail on the consul to recede from his resolution, until the tribunes promised that they would be directed by the senate. The consul then laid before the senate the demand of the tribunes and commons, and it was decreed, that “the tribunes should not introduce the law during that year; and that, on the other hand, the consuls should not lead out the troops from the city. For the time to come, it was the judgment of the senate, that re-electing the same magistrates, and re-appointing the same tribunes, was injurious to the interest of the commonwealth.” The consuls conformed to the decisions of the senate; but the tribunes, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the consuls, were re-appointed. The senate likewise, not to yield to the commons in any particular, on their side wished to re-elect Lucius Quintius consul. On no occasion during the whole year, did the consul exert himself with more warmth. “Can I wonder,” said he, “conscript fathers, if your authority is lightly regarded among the commons? ye yourselves deprive it of its weight. For instance, because the commons have broken through a decree of the senate with respect to the re-election of their magistrates, ye wish to break through it also, lest ye should fall short of the populace in rashness; as if superiority of power in the state consisted in superior degrees of inconstancy and irregularity; for it is, certainly, an instance of greater inconstancy and irregularity, for us to counteract our own decrees and resolutions, than those of others. Go on, conscript fathers, to imitate the inconsiderate multitude; and ye, who ought to show an example to the rest, rather follow the steps of others in a wrong course, than guide them into the right one. But let me not imitate the tribunes, nor suffer myself to be declared consul in contradiction to the decree of the senate. And you, Caius Claudius, I exhort, that you, on your part, restrain the Roman people from this licentiousness; and be persuaded, that, on my part, I shall regard your conduct therein in such a light, that I shall not consider you as obstructing my attainment of honour, but as augmenting the glory of my refusal, and protecting me against the ignominy which I should incur by being re-elected.” They then issued their joint orders, that “no person should vote for Lucius Quintius being consul; and that, if any one did, they would not allow such vote.”
Y. R. 295. 457.XXII. The consuls elected were Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, a third time, and Lucius Cornelius Maluginensis. The general survey was performed that year. The lustrum could not be closed, consistently with the rules of religion, on account of the Capitol having been taken and the consul slain. In the beginning of the year, in which Quintus Fabius and Lucius Cornelius were consuls, various disturbances arose. The tribunes excited commotions among the commons. The Latines and Hernicians gave information of a formidable war being commenced against them by the Volscians and Æquans; that the legions of the Volscians were at Antium; and that there were strong apprehensions of that colony itself revolting. With difficulty the tribunes were prevailed on to allow the business of the war to be first attended to. The consuls then divided the provinces between them: Fabius was appointed to march the legions to Antium, Cornelius to remain at Rome, for the protection of the city, in case any party of the enemy, as was the practice of the Æquans, should come to make depredations. The Hernicians and Latines were ordered to supply a number of men in conformity to the treaties; and of the army, two parts were composed of the allies, the third consisted of natives. The allies arriving on the day appointed, the consul encamped outside the Capuan gate; and, after purifying the army, marched from thence to Antium, and sat down at a small distance from the city, and the post occupied by the enemy; where the Volscians, not daring to risk an engagement, because the troops from the Æquans had not yet arrived, endeavoured to screen themselves within their trenches. Fabius, next day, forming his troops, not in one body, composed of his countrymen and the allies intermixed, but in three separate bodies, consisting of the three several nations, surrounded the rampart of the enemy. Placing himself in the centre with the Roman legions, he commanded all to look for the signals from thence, in order that the allies and his own forces might begin the action at the same time, and also retire together, if he should sound a retreat: in the rear of each division, he also placed their own cavalry. Having thus surrounded the camp, he assaulted it in three different places, and pressing them vigorously on every side, beat down the Volscians from the rampart, who were unable to withstand his force: then advancing within the fortifications, he drove them before him in confusion and dismay towards one side, and at length compelled them to abandon their works. After which, the cavalry, who could not easily have passed over the rampart, and had hitherto stood as spectators of the fight, coming up with them, as they fled in disorder in the open plain, and making great havoc of their affrighted troops, enjoyed a share in the honour of the victory. The number of slain, both within the camp, and on the outside of the fortifications, was great, but the spoil was much greater; for the enemy were scarcely able to carry off their arms, and their army would have been entirely destroyed, had not the woods covered them in their flight.
XXIII. During these transactions at Antium, the Æquans, sending forward the main strength of their youth, surprized the citadel of Tusculum by night; and, with the rest of their army, sat down, at a little distance from the walls of that town, for the purpose of dividing the force of their enemies. Intelligence of this being carried to Rome, and from Rome to the camp at Antium, the Romans were not less deeply affected, than if they had been told that the Capitol was taken. Their obligations to the Tusculans were recent, and the similarity of the danger seemed to demand a requital, in kind, of the aid which they had received. Fabius, therefore, neglecting every other business, having hastily conveyed the spoils from the camp to Antium, and left a small garrison there, hastened to Tusculum by forced marches. The soldiers were allowed to carry nothing but their arms, and what food they had ready dressed; the consul Cornelius sent supplies of provision from Rome. The troops found employment at Tusculum for several months. With one half of the army, the consul besieged the camp of the Æquans; the other he gave to the Tusculans to effect the recovery of the citadel; but they never could have made their way into it by force. Famine, however, compelled the enemy to give it up: and when they were reduced to that extremity, the Tusculans sent them all away unarmed and naked under the yoke. But as they were attempting their ignominious flight, the Roman consul overtook them at Algidum, and put every man to the sword. After this success, he led back his army to a place called Columen, where he pitched his camp. The other consul also, the city being no longer in danger, after the defeat of the Æquans, marched out from Rome. Thus the two consuls entering the enemy’s territories on different sides, vied eagerly with each other in making depredations, the one on the Volscians, the other on the Æquans. I find, in many writers, that the people of Antium revolted this year, that Lucius Cornelius, consul, conducted the war against them, and took their city. I cannot venture to affirm this as certain, because in the earlier writers there is no mention of such a transaction.
XXIV. No sooner was this war brought to a conclusion, than a tribunitian commotion at home alarmed the senate. The tribunes exclaimed, that “the detaining of the troops abroad was a mere artifice, calculated to frustrate their endeavours respecting the law. But that they were determined, nevertheless, to go through with the business which they had undertaken.” However, Publius Lucretius, præfect of the city, so managed matters, that the proceedings of the tribunes were postponed until the arrival of the consuls. There arose also a new cause of disturbance: Aulus Cornelius and Quintus Servilius, quæstors, commenced a prosecution against Marcus Volscius for having manifestly given false evidence against Cæso: a discovery having been made, supported by many proofs, that the brother of Volscius, from the time when he was first taken ill, had not only never appeared in public, but that he never rose from his sick bed, where he died of a disorder, which lasted many months; and also that, at the time when the witness had charged the fact to have been committed, Cæso had not been seen at Rome. Those who had served in the army with him also affirmed that he, at that time, regularly attended in his post along with them, without having once obtained leave of absence. Many in private stations challenged Volscius, in their own names, to abide the decision of the judge,* content to submit to the penalty, if they should fail in proof. As he did not dare to stand the trial, all these circumstances concurring together, no more doubt was entertained of the condemnation of Volscius, than there had been of Cæso’s, after Volscius had given his testimony. The business, however, was put a stop to by the tribunes, who declared, that they would not suffer the quæstors to hold an assembly on the business of the prosecution, until one was first held on that of the law; and thus both affairs were deferred till the arrival of the consuls. When these entered the city in triumph, with their victorious army, silence being observed with respect to the law, people from thence imagined that the tribunes were struck with fear. But they, directing their views to the tribuneship for the fourth time, it being now the latter end of the year, had changed the direction of their efforts, from the promoting of the law, to canvassing for the election; and although the consuls struggled against the continuing of that office in the same hands with no less earnestness than if the act had been proposed for the purpose of lessening their own dignity, the tribunes got the better in the contest. The same year, peace was, on petition, granted to the Æquans; and a survey which had been begun in the former one, was now finished, the lustrum being closed, which was the tenth from the founding of the city. The number of citizens rated, was one hundred and thirty-two thousand four hundred and nine. The consuls acquired great glory this year, as well in the conduct of the war, as in the establishing of peace while at home: though the state enjoyed not perfect concord, yet the dissensions were less violent than at other times.
Y. R. 296. 456.XXV. Lucius Minucius and Caius Nautius, who were next elected consuls, found on their hands the two causes in dispute, which lay over from the last year. The consuls obstructed the passing of the law, and the tribunes the trial of Volscius, with equal degrees of activity. But the new quæstors were possessed of greater power and influence. Together with Marcus Valerius, son of Manius Valerius, grandson of Volesus, Titus Quintius Capitolinus, who had been thrice consul, was quæstor. Although Cæso could not be thereby restored to the Quintian family, and, in him, one of the most valuable of the young Romans, to the state, yet with a rigour dictated by justice and duty, he prosecuted the false witness, by whose means an innocent person had been deprived of the liberty of making his defence. The tribunes, and particularly Virginius, endeavouring to procure the passing of their law, the consuls were allowed the space of two months to examine it, on condition that when they should have informed the people of the dangerous designs which were concealed under the propositions which it contained, they would then allow them to give their votes on it. This respite of proceedings being acceded to, rendered matters quiet in the city. But the Æquans did not allow them long to enjoy rest; for, violating the league which had been made the preceding year with the Romans, they conferred the chief command on Gracchus Clœlius, a man at that time of by far the greatest consequence among them; and, headed by him, carried hostile depredations into the district of Lavici; from thence into that of Tusculum; and then, loaded with booty, pitched their camp at Algidum. To that camp came Quintus Fabius, Publius Volumnius, and Aulus Postumius, ambassadors from Rome, to complain of injuries, and demand redress, in conformity to the treaty. The general of the Æquans bade them deliver to that oak whatever message they had from the Roman senate, while he should attend to other business: a very large oak tree hung over the prætorium, and under its shade afforded a pleasant seat: to this, one of the ambassadors, as he was going away, replied, “Let that consecrated oak, and all the deities, bear witness, that the treaty has been broken by you, and so favour both our complaints at present, and our arms hereafter, as that we avenge the violated rights of gods and men.” On the return of the ambassadors to Rome, the senate ordered one of the consuls to lead an army to Algidum against Gracchus; and gave to the other, as his province, the ravaging the territories of the Æquans. The tribunes, according to their usual custom, obstructed the levy, and might, perhaps, have effectually prevented it, but that a new and sudden alarm excited stronger apprehensions of danger.
XXVI. A very large body of Sabines, spreading devastations around, advanced almost to the walls of Rome. The fields were deserted, and the city struck with terror. The commons then cheerfully took arms, while the tribunes in vain attempted to dissuade them from it. Two large armies were raised. Nautius led one against the Sabines, and, pitching his camp at Eretum, by detaching small parties, especially on incursions by night, he caused such desolation in the country of the Sabines, that, compared to it, the injuries sustained in the Roman territories seemed trifling. Minucius neither met the same success, nor showed the same ability in the conduct of his business: for, having encamped at a little distance, without experiencing any considerable loss, he kept his men confined within the trenches. When the enemy perceived this, they assumed new boldness from the others’ fears, and made an assault on the camp by night; but finding that they were not likely to succeed by open force, they began, next day, to inclose it by lines of circumvallation. Before this work could be completed, and the passes thereby entirely shut up, five horsemen were despatched, who, making their way between the enemy’s posts, brought intelligence to Rome, that the consul and his army were besieged. Nothing could have happened so unexpected, or so contrary to people’s hopes; and the fright and consternation, in consequence of it, were not less than if the city were surrounded and threatened, instead of the camp. They sent for the consul Nautius, yet not supposing him capable of affording them sufficient protection, resolved that a dictator should be chosen to extricate them from this distress, and Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus was accordingly appointed with unanimous approbation. Here, they may receive instruction, who despise every quality which man can boast, in comparison with riches; and who think, that those who possess them can alone have merit, and to such alone honours and distinctions belong. Lucius Quintius, the now sole hope of the people, and of the empire of Rome, cultivated a farm of four acres on the other side of the Tiber, at this time called the Quintian meadows, opposite to the very spot where the dock-yard stands. There he was found by the deputies, either leaning on a stake, in a ditch which he was making, or ploughing; in some work of husbandry he was certainly employed. After mutual salutations, and wishes on the part of the commissioners, “that it might be happy both to him and the commonwealth,” he was requested to “put on his gown, and hear a message from the senate.” Surprised, and asking if “all was well?” he bade his wife Racilia bring out his gown quickly from the cottage. When he had put it on, after wiping the sweat and dust from his brow, he came forward, when the deputies congratulated him, and saluted him dictator; requested his presence in the city, and informed him of the alarming situation of the army. A vessel had been prepared for Quintius by order of government, and on his landing on the other side, he was received by his three sons, who came out to meet him; then by his other relations and friends, and afterwards by the greater part of the patricians. Surrounded by this numerous attendance, and the lictors marching before him, he was conducted to his residence. The plebeians likewise ran together from all quarters; but they were far from beholding Quintius with equal pleasure, for they thought the powers annexed to his office too unlimited, and the man still more arbitrary. During that night, no farther steps were taken than to post watches in the city.
XXVII. Next day, the dictator coming into the Forum before it was light, named Lucius Tarquitius master of the horse; he was of a patrician family, but though, by reason of the narrowness of his circumstances, he had served among the foot, yet he was accounted by many degrees the first in military merit among all the young men of Rome. Attended, then, by his master of the horse, Quintius came to the assembly of the people, proclaimed a cessation of civil business, ordered the shops to be shut in all parts of the city, and that no one should attend to any private affairs. He then issued orders that all who were of the military age should attend, under arms, in the field of Mars, before sun-set, with victuals for five days, and twelve palisades each; and that those whose age rendered them unfit for service, should dress that victuals for the soldiers who lived near them, while they were preparing their arms, and procuring the military pales. Immediately the young men ran different ways to look for palisades, which every one without molestation took, wherever he could find them; and they all attended punctually according to the dictator’s order. The troops being then formed in a such a manner as was not only proper for a march, but for an engagement also, if occasion should require it, the dictator set out at the head of the legions, and the master of the horse at the head of his cavalry. In both bodies such exhortations were used, as the juncture required; that “they should quicken their pace; that there was a necessity for expedition, in order to reach the enemy in the night; that the Roman consul and his army were besieged; that this was the third day of their being invested; that no one could tell what any one night or day might produce; that the issue of the greatest affairs often depended on a moment of time.” The men too, to gratify their leaders, called to each other “standard-bearer, advance quicker; soldiers follow.” At midnight they arrived at Algidum, and when they found themselves near the enemy, halted.
XXVIII. The dictator then having rode about, and examined as well as he could in the night, the situation and form of the enemy’s camp, commanded the tribunes of the soldiers to give orders that the baggage should be thrown together in one place; and then that the soldiers, with their arms and palisades, should return into the ranks. These orders were executed; and then with the same regularity in which they had marched, he drew the whole army in a long column, and directed that, on a signal being given, they should all raise a shout, and that on the shout being raised, every man should throw up a trench in front of his post, and fix his palisades. As soon as these orders were communicated, and the signal given, the soldiers performed what they were commanded: the shout resounded on every side of the enemy, and reaching beyond their camp, was heard in that of the consul, exciting terror in the one, and the greatest joy in the other. The Romans observing to each other, with exultation, that this was the shout of their countrymen, and that assistance was at hand, took courage, and from their watch-guards and outposts issued threats. The consul likewise declared, that “they ought not to lose time, for that the shout then heard was a signal, not only that their friends were arrived, but that they had entered upon action; and they might take it for granted, that the camp was attacked on the outside.” He therefore ordered his men to take arms, and follow him; these falling on the enemy before it was light, gave notice by a shout to the dictator’s legions, that on their side also the action was begun. The Æquans were now preparing measures to hinder themselves from being surrounded with works; when being attacked within, they were obliged, lest a passage might be forced through the midst of their camp, to turn their attention from those employed on the fortifications, to the others who assailed them on the inside, and thus left the former at leisure, through the remainder of the night, to finish the works, and the fight with the consul continued until morn appeared. At the break of day, they were entirely encompassed by the dictator’s works, and while they were hardly able to support the fight against one army, their trenches were assaulted by Quintius’s troops, who instantly, on completing those works, had returned to their arms. Thus they found themselves obliged to encounter a new enemy, and the former never slackened their attack. Being thus closely pressed on every side, instead of fighting, they had recourse to entreaties, beseeching the dictator on one side, and the consul on the other, to be content with the victory without their entire destruction, and to permit them to retire without arms. By the consul they were referred to the dictator, and he, highly incensed against them, added ignominy to their defeat. He ordered their general, Gracchus Clœlius, and the other leaders, to be brought to him in chains, and the town of Corbio to be evacuated; then told them, that “he wanted not the blood of the Æquans; that they were at liberty to depart; but he would send them under the yoke, as an acknowledgment, at length extorted, that their nation was conquered and subdued.” The yoke is formed of three spears, two being fixed upright in the ground, and the other tied across between the upper ends of them. Under this yoke the dictator sent the Æquans.
XXIX. Having possessed himself of the enemy’s camp, which was filled with plenty, for he had sent them away naked, he distributed the entire booty among his own troops. Reprimanding the consular army and the consul himself, he said to them, “Soldiers, ye shall share no part of the spoil of that enemy, to whom ye were near becoming a prey; and as to you, Lucius Minucius, until you begin to show a spirit becoming a consul, you shall command those legions with the rank of lieutenant-general only.” Accordingly Minucius resigned the consulship, and, in obedience to orders, remained with the army. But so well were people then disposed to obey, without repining, the commands of superiors, that this army, regarding more the benefit which he had conferred, than the disgrace which he had inflicted on them, not only voted a golden crown of a pound weight to the dictator, but at his departure saluted him as their patron. At Rome, the senate, being convened by Quintus Fabius, præfect of the city, ordered that Quintius on his arrival should enter the city in triumph, without changing his order of march. The generals of the enemy were led before his chariot, the military ensigns carried before him, and his army followed, laden with spoil. It is said that tables were laid out with provisions before every house, and that the troops, partaking of the entertainment, singing the triumphal hymn, and throwing out their customary jests, followed the chariot like revellers at a feast. The same day, the freedom of the state was, with universal approbation, conferred on Lucius Mamilius of Tusculum. The dictator would have immediately resigned his office, but was induced to hold it some time longer on account of the assembly for the trial of Volscius, the false witness. Their dread of the dictator, prevented the tribunes from obstructing it, and Volscius being sentenced to exile, departed into Lanuvium. Quintius, on the sixteenth day resigned the dictatorship, which he had received for the term of six months. About the same time, the consul Nautius engaged the Sabines at Eretum with great success; a heavy blow to the Sabines after the devastation of their country: Fabius Quintus was sent to Algidum in the room of Minucius. Toward the end of the year, the tribunes began to agitate the affair of the law; but as two armies were then abroad, the patricians carried the point, that no business should be proposed to the people. The commons prevailed so far as to appoint the same tribunes the fifth time. It was reported that wolves had been seen in the Capitol, and were driven away by dogs: and, on account of that prodigy, the Capitol was purified: such were the transactions of that year.
Y. R. 297. 455.XXX. Quintus Minucius and Caius Horatius Pulvillus succeeded to the consulship. In the beginning of this year, while the public were undisturbed by any foreign enemy, the same tribunes and the same law occasioned seditions at home; and these would have proceeded to still greater lengths, so highly were people’s passions inflamed, but that, as if it had been concerted for the purpose, news was brought, that by an attack of the Æquans, in the night, the garrison at Corbio was cut off. The consuls called the senate together, by whom they were ordered to make a hasty levy of troops, and to lead them to Algidum. The contest about the law was now laid aside, and a new struggle began about the levy; in which the consular authority was in danger of being overpowered by the force of tribunitian privileges, when their fears were more effectually roused by an account of the Sabine army having come down into the Roman territories to plunder, and nearly advanced to the city. This struck such terror, that the tribunes suffered the troops to be enlisted, yet not without a stipulation, that since they had been baffled for five years, and as their office, as it stood, was but a small protection to the commons, there should for the future be ten tribunes of the people appointed. Necessity extorted a concession from the senate: they only made one exception; that the people should not, hereafter, re-elect the same tribunes. An assembly was instantly held for the election of those officers, lest, if the war was once ended, they might be disappointed in that, as in other matters. In the thirty-sixth year from the first creation of the tribunes of the people, the number ten were elected, two out of each of the classes; and it was established as a rule, that they should thenceforth be elected in the same manner. The levy being then made, Minucius marched against the Sabines, but did not come up with them. Horatius, after the Æquans had put the garrison of Corbio to the sword, and had also taken Ortona, brought them to an engagement in the district of Algidum, killed a great number, and drove them not only out of that district, but from Corbio and Ortona. Corbio he razed to the ground, in revenge for the treachery practised there against the garrison.
Y. R. 298. 454.XXXI. Marcus Valeriũs and Spurius Virginius were next elected consuls. Quiet prevailed both at home and abroad. The price of provisions was high, in consequence of an extraordinary fall of rain. A law passed for disposing of the Aventine as public property. The same tribunes of the people were continued in office. These, during the following year, which had for consuls Titus Romilius and Caius Veturius, warmly recommended the law in all their harangues.Y. R. 299. 453. “They must be ashamed of the useless addition made to their number, if that affair were to lie, during the course of their two years, in the same hopeless state, in which it had lain for the last five.” While they were most earnestly engaged in this pursuit, messengers arrived, in a fright, from Tusculum, with information that the Æquans were in the Tusculan territory. The recent services of that people made the tribunes ashamed of throwing any delay in the way of assistance being given them. Both the consuls were sent with an army, and found the enemy in their usual post, in the district of Algidum. There they fought; above seven thousand of the Æquans were slain, the rest dispersed, and vast booty was acquired. This the consuls sold on account of the low state of the treasury; which proceeding excited a general dissatisfaction among the soldiery, and also afforded grounds to the tribunes for bringing an accusation against the consuls before the commons. Accordingly,Y. R. 300. 452. as soon as they went out of office, Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus Alterius having succeeded them a charge was instituted against Romilius by Caius Claudius Cicero, tribune of the people, and against Veturius, by Lucius Allienus, plebeian ædile. To the great mortification of the patricians they were both sentenced to fine, Romilius to pay ten thousand asses,* Veturius fifteen thousand.† The sufferings of these consuls, however, did not lessen the activity of their successors; they said, they were able to support a similar sentence, while both tribunes and commons combined, were insufficient to carry the point. The tribunes now desisting from farther prosecution of the law, with regard to which, in the length of time since its publication, people’s ardour had cooled, applied to the senate in amicable terms, requesting that they would at length “put an end to all contentions: and, since it was disagreeable to them, that laws should be proposed by plebeians, would permit lawgivers to be chosen in common, out of the plebeians, and out of the patricians, in order to the framing of such as would be advantageous to both parties, and tend to establish liberty on an equal footing.” This proposal the senate did not disapprove of, but declared that no one, except a patrician, should have the propounding of laws. As they agreed with regard to the necessary statutes, and only differed about the persons to propose them, ambassadors were sent to Athens, namely, Spurius Postumius Albus, Aulus Manlius, and Servius Sulpicius Camerinus, who were ordered to procure a copy of the famous laws of Solon, and to make themselves acquainted with the institutions, customs, and laws of the other states of Greece.
Y. R. 301. 451.XXXII. This year passed undisturbed by any foreign wars. The following also, in which Publius Curiatius and Sextus Quintilius were consuls, was still more quiet: the tribunes observing uninterrupted silence, which was owing, at first, to their waiting for the arrival of the ambassadors who had gone to Athens, for copies of the laws of that state; and, afterwards, to two heavy calamities which fell on them at once, famine and pestilence making dreadful havoc among both men and cattle. The country was desolated, the city exhausted, by a continual succession of deaths. Many illustrious houses were in mourning: Servilius Cornelius, Flamen Quirinalis died, and Caius Horatius Pulvillus, augur, in whose room the augurs elected Caius Veturius, with the greater satisfaction, because he had been condemned by the commons. The consul Quintilius also died, and four tribunes of the people. Such a multiplicity of losses made it a melancholy year, but there was no disturbance from any enemy.Y. R. 302. 450. The next consuls were Caius Menenius and Publius Sestius Capitolinus. Neither during this consulate was there any foreign war: at home, however, some commotions arose. The ambassadors had now returned with the Athenian laws, and the tribunes therefore pressed more earnestly, that the buisness of compiling and settling their own laws might be begun. It was at last resolved, that ten magistrates, to be called decemvirs, should be created, from whom no appeal should lie, and that there should be no other appointed during that year. It was disputed for some time, whether plebeians should be admitted among them. At length, that point was given up to the patricians, provided that the Icilian law concerning the Aventine, and others, called the devoting laws, should not be repealed.
XXXIII. Thus, in the three hundred and first year from the building of Rome, the form of the government underwent a second change; the supreme power being transferred from consuls to decemvirs, as it had formerly been from kings to consuls. This new form, however, was not of long duration; for the happy beginnings of that government terminated in extravagant licentiousness, which hastened its dissolution; and recourse was had to the former practice of intrusting the power and consular title to two persons. The decemvirs created were, Appius Claudius, Titus Genucius, Publius Sestius,Y. R. 303. 449. Lucius Veturius, Caius Julius, Aulus Manlius, Servius Sulpicius, Publius Curiatius, Titus Romilius, and Spurius Postumius. Claudius and Genucius being consuls elect, this honour of being of the decemvirate was conferred on them as a compensation for the loss of the other; and on Sestius, one of the consuls of the former year, because he had proposed this business to the senate, against the will of his colleague. Next to these, were considered the three who had gone ambassadors to Athens, that the honour might serve as a recompense for such a distant embassy, and, at the same time, it was supposed, that they, having acquired a knowledge of the laws of foreign countries, would be useful in digesting the new proposed regulations. It is said, that in choosing the remainder, they pitched upon persons far advanced in years, with intent that there should be the less warmth in any opposition which might be made to the opinions of the others. The direction of the whole business of government, however, was lodged in the hands of Appius Claudius, through the favour of the people; for he had assumed a demeanour so entirely new, that from a harsh and severe prosecutor of the commons, he became, on a sudden, a zealous promoter of their interests, and an eager candidate for popular applause. Each of them administered justice one in day in ten. On that day, the twelve fasces attended him who presided in the court of justice; his nine colleagues being attended each by a beadle; and, while perfect harmony subsisted among themselves, although such union between governors is sometimes found prejudicial to the governed, they observed the strictest equity towards all. It will be sufficient to produce a single proof of their moderation and fairness. Though by the terms of their appointment there could be no appeal from their decisions; yet upon occasion of a dead body being found buried in the house of Publius Sestius, a man of patrician family, and of the decemvirate, (and which dead body was produced in a public assembly, in a case as clear as it was atrocious,) Caius Julius, a decemvir, also commenced a criminal process against Sestius, and appeared before the people as prosecutor when he might legally have sat as judge; departing from his own right, that, while he took away from the power of the magistracy, he might add, in proportion, to the liberty of the people.
XXXIV. Whilst the highest and the lowest alike experienced this prompt execution of justice, impartial, as if dictated by an oracle, the decemvirs at the same time employed themselves assiduously in framing the laws; and at length, after people’s expectations had been raised to the utmost height, they produced for public inspection ten tables; and then, summoning an assembly of the people, after praying that “it might prove fortunate and advantageous, and happy to the commonwealth, to themselves, and to their posterity;” ordered them, “to go and read the laws which were exhibited; declared, that they had placed the rights of all on an equal footing, and in as precise a manner as could be devised by the abilities of ten men; but that the understandings and judgments of a larger number might, perhaps, strike out improvements: desired them to examine rigorously each particular in their own minds, canvass it in conversation, and bring it to public discussion, should any deficiency or excess appear in any article. They were resolved,” they said, “that the Roman people should be bound only by such laws as the whole community, with general consent, might appear, not so much to have ratified, when proposed, as to have proposed from themselves.” When, according to the reports of the people, respecting each head of the laws, they appeared sufficiently correct, then, in an assembly voting by centuries, were ratified the laws of the ten tables, which even at this present time, after all which have been added, continue to be the source of all our jurisprudence, respecting either public or private affairs. It was afterwards said, that there were two tables wanting, and that by the addition of these, a body, as it were, of the whole Roman law might be completed. The expectation of this, when the day of election of officers approached, raised a wish that decemvirs should be chosen a second time; and the commons, besides that they hated the name of consuls, as much as they did that of kings, felt, at the present, no loss even of the support of the tribunes, because the decemvirs in turn allowed an appeal to their colleagues.
XXXV. But when the assembly for electing decemvirs was proclaimed to be held on the third market-day, the minds of many were so fired with ambition of obtaining the office, that even persons of the first dignity in the state, dreading, I suppose, lest if it should be left unoccupied by them, an opening might be given for improper persons to obtrude themselves in a post of such high authority, solicited votes, humbly suing for a power, the establishment of which they had with their utmost efforts before opposed, and from those same plebeians, against the gratification of whose wishes they had hitherto so strenuously contended. Persons of advanced age, and who had passed through dignified stations, thus lowering their pride to hazard a contest of this sort, made Appius Claudius redouble his exertions. It were difficult to determine whether he should be reckoned among the decemvirs, or among the candidates: he appeared sometimes more like a person petitioning for, than one who was invested with, the office: he aspersed the characters of the candidates of high rank, and extolled the most insignificant and the lowest. Surrounded by the Icilii and Duilii, who had been tribunes, he bustled about the Forum, and through their means recommended himself to the commons; until even his colleagues, who till that time had been entirely attached to his interests, looked on him with amazement, wondering what his intentions could be. They were convinced, that there was no sincerity in his professions; that such affability, in one who had always evinced a haughty mind, could not be without some interested views; that lowering himself to the common level in this extraordinary manner, and mixing on an equal footing with the private citizens, did not look like haste to quit the office, but rather like seeking for means to be continued in it. Not daring, however, openly to oppose his wishes, they endeavoured to baffle his efforts by a seeming desire to gratify him; and agreed among themselves to appoint him, as the youngest of their body, to the office of presiding at the election. This was an artifice to prevent his returning himself, which no one had ever done, except in the case of tribunes of the people; and, even there, it was deemed a most pernicious precedent. However, he declared, that, with the favour of fortune, he would preside at the election; and he laid hold of the intended obstruction to his design, as the lucky means of effecting its accomplishment. Having, by means of a coalition which he formed, foiled he pretensions of the two Quintii, Capitolinus and Cincinnatus; of his own uncle Caius Claudius, a most steady supporter of the cause of the nobility; and of other citizens of the same high rank, he promoted to the decemvirate persons of very inferior condition in life. And among the first raised, was himself: an act highly disapproved of by all men of honourable minds, and which no one had believed that he would dare to be guilty of. Together with him were elected Marcus Cornelius Maluginensis, Marcus Sergius, Lucius Minucius, Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, Quintus Pætilius, Titus Antonius Merenda, Cæso Duilius, Spurius Oppius Cornicen, and Manius Rabuleius.
XXXVI. Now the mask, which Appius had assumed, fell off. He began to live according to his natural disposition; and to form his new colleagues early to his own plan of proceeding before they should enter on the administration of their office. They held daily cabals, remote from witnesses; wherein, being furnished with schemes of tyranny, digested among themselves, and without the knowledge of any, they no longer dissembled their arrogance; became difficult of access, morose to such as addressed them, and continued this behaviour until the ides of May, the then usual time for entering on office.Y. R. 304. 448. At the beginning, then, of their magistracy, they distinguished the very first day of it by an exhibition which excited the greatest alarm: for whereas the former decemvirs had observed a rule, that only one should have the fasces, and that this emblem of royalty should pass in rotation with them all, that is, to each in his turn, but these unexpectedly made their appearance, attended severally by twelve fasces. One hundred and twenty lictors filled the Forum, and carried axes bound up with those ensigns, the decemvirs alleging that, as, by the terms of their appointment, there lay not any appeal, there could be no reason why the axe should be taken away. Thus these ten magistrates appeared as so many kings, and thus they multiplied terrors, not only among the lower classes, but among the principal patricians; every one being persuaded, that they wanted only a pretext to begin the work of death, so that should any one, either in the senate, or in a meeting of the people, utter an expression favourable to liberty, the rods and axes would instantly be got ready, to strike terror into the rest. For, besides that there was no hope of protection from the people, an appeal to them having been prohibited, they had, by agreement, also prohibited themselves from interfering with each other’s decrees; whereas the former decemvirs had allowed their decrees to be amended by an appeal to a colleague, and had referred to the public decision several matters which might seem to belong to their own jurisdiction. For some time the danger seemed to threaten equally all ranks of men, but began, by degrees, to be directed entirely against the commons. They avoided giving offence to the patricians, while they treated the lower ranks with arbitrary cruelty. Interest having usurped in their breasts the place of justice, they on every occasion regarded the person, not the cause. Their decisions they adjusted privately at home, and afterwards pronounced them in the Forum. If an appeal was made from any one of them to his colleagues, the treatment he met from those to whom he appealed was always such as made him repent of not having abided by the former sentence. An opinion had also gone abroad, though without known authority, that they had conspired in this scheme of iniquity, not merely for the present year, but that a clandestine league had been struck among them, and ratified by an oath, that they would not call an assembly for elections, but, perpetuating the decemvirate, keep a lasting hold of the power which they had now in their hands.
XXXVII. The plebeians now began to watch the countenances of the patricians; and though they had been accustomed to dread being enslaved by them, and, influenced by that dread, had brought the commonwealth into its present situation; yet they now anxiously looked to those patricians for some ray of hope which might guide them to liberty. The principal of these, while they hated the decemvirs, bore no less hatred toward the commons; and, though they did not approve the proceedings of the former, thought the latter suffered no more than they had deserved; and had no inclination to give assistance to men who, through their intemperate eagerness in pursuit of liberty, had fallen into slavery. On the contrary, they heaped injuries on them, in hopes, that, being thoroughly disgusted with the present state of affairs, they might wish for the restoration of the former government by consuls. The greater part of the year was now past; and two tables of laws had been added to ten of the former year; so that there was not any circumstance, if these laws were once ratified in assembly of the centuries, which could make the now form of government necessary to the commonwealth. People were in continual expectation of an assembly being called for the election of consuls, and the thoughts of the commons were solely employed in devising a revival of that bulwark of liberty, the tribunitian office, which had been laid aside so long. In the meantime, not the least mention was made of an election, and the decemvirs, who, at first, had exhibited themselves to the commons, for the purpose of gaining their favour, surrounded by men who had been tribunes, now collected about them crowds of young patricians. These encompassed every tribunal; they seized, and drove about at will, the commons and their effects; the most powerful being sure of success, in possessing himself of any man’s property, in which he saw any thing desirable, while even their persons were not secure from injury. Some were beaten with rods; others felt the stroke of the axe; in a word, cruelty and profit went hand in hand, for a grant of his effects to some of their partizans ever followed the execution of the owner. The young nobility, corrupted by such bribes, not only declined making opposition to the injustice, but openly demonstrated that they preferred the indulgence of their own licentiousness to the establishment of the general liberty.
Y. R. 305. 447.XXXVIII. The ides of May came. The offices of the state not having been filled up by election, men, invested with no public character, made their appearance as decemvirs, retaining still the same spirit to enforce their authority, and the same emblems to support the splendor of their station. This was held the height of arbitrary government, and the loss of liberty was deplored as irrecoverable. No one champion stood forth in its cause, nor was there a prospect of any such appearing: so that the people not only sunk into despondence, but began to be despised by the neighbouring nations, who thought it would reflect shame on themselves, if a state which had forfeited its own liberty, should be allowed to retain its dominion over others. The Sabines, with a numerous army, made an irruption into the Roman territories; and, having spread devastation through a great part of the country, and collected, without loss, a great booty of men and cattle, they recalled their forces from the various parts in which they were dispersed, and pitched their camp at Eretum, grounding their hopes on the dissensions at Rome, which they trusted would prevent the raising of troops. Besides the couriers that arrived, the country people, flying into the city, caused a general alarm. The decemvirs held a consultation on the measures necessary to be taken; and, while they were left destitute of support on every side, being equally detested by the patricians and the commons, another circumstance occurred which aggravated their fears by presenting an additional danger to their view: the Æquans on the opposite side had encamped in the district of Algidum, and ambassadors, who came from Tusculum to request assistance, brought accounts, that their lands were ravaged by detachments from thence. The decemvirs were so thoroughly frightened, on finding the city surrounded by two enemies at once, that they determined to have recourse to the advice of the senate; accordingly they ordered the senators to be summoned to a meeting, though they well knew what a storm of public resentment threatened to break upon themselves; that all men would heap on their heads, the blame of the devastations of the country, and of all the dangers by which they were encompassed; and that, on these grounds, attempts would be made to deprive them of their office, if they did not firmly unite in the support of their cause; and, by enforcing their authority with severity, on a few of the most intractable tempers, repress the forwardness of others. When the voice of the crier was heard in the Forum, summoning the senators to attend the decemvirs in the senate-house, it excited no less wonder than if it were a matter entirely new; “what could have happened now,” the people said, “that those who had, for a long time past, laid aside the custom of consulting the senate, should now revive it? But they might, no doubt, thank the war, and their enemies, for any thing being done that was formerly usual with them as a free state.” They looked about the Forum for senators, yet could hardly discover one. They then turned their eyes to the senate-house, remarking the solitude which appeared round the decemvirs, who, on their part, attributed the non-attendance of the summoned to the general detestation of their government; while the commons found a reason for it, in the want of authority in private persons to convene them, observing at the same time, that a head was now formed for those who wished for the recovery of liberty, if the people generally would let their endeavours accompany those of the senate; and if, as the fathers refused to attend in senate, they should in like manner refuse to enlist. Such were the general topics of discourse among the commons; while of the senators, there was scarcely one in the Forum, and very few in the city. Disgusted with the times, they had retired to their country-seats; and, being deprived of their share in the administration of the public business, attended solely to their private affairs; thinking, that, by removing to a distance from the meeting and converse of their tyrannic masters, they were out of the reach of ill-treatment. Not meeting according to summons, apparitors were despatched to all their houses, to levy the penalties, and at the same time to discover whether their non-attendance was owing to design; and these brought back an account that the members of the senate were in the country. This gave less pain to the decemvirs, than if they had heard that they were in town, and refused to obey their commands. They then gave orders, that every one of them should be summoned, and proclaimed a meeting of the senate on the day following, when the members assembled in much greater numbers than the decemvirs themselves had hoped. This raised a suspicion in the minds of the commons, that the senators had deserted the cause of liberty, since they had paid obedience, as to a legal summons, to the order of men whose office had expired, and who, except so far as force prevailed, were nothing more than private citizens.
XXXIX. But, by all accounts, they showed more obedience in coming to the house, than servility in delivering their sentiments. It is related, that after Appius Claudius had proposed the business to be considered, and before the opinions were demanded in order, Lucius Valerius Potitus occasioned a great ferment, by insisting on being allowed to speak on the state of the commonwealth; and, when the decemvirs endeavoured to prevent him, by declaring, that he would go out and apply to the commons. It is likewise said that Marcus Horatius Barbatus entered the lists with no less boldness, calling them “ten Tarquinii, and putting them in mind, that the Valerii and Horatii were among the foremost in effecting the expulsion of the Kings. Nor was it the title merely, which had then given people so much offence; for it was one which was properly applied to Jupiter, one which had been applied to Romulus, the founder of the city, and to the princes his successors; and which was still retained in the religious institutions, and even considered as material to the performance of the sacred rites. It was the haughtiness, the violence of Tarquin, which then filled them with abhorrence; and if these were not to be borne, in a person who was, at the time, a king, and the son of a king, who would bear them in so many private citizens? Let them take care, lest, by forbidding men to speak with freedom in the senate-house, they might oblige them to utter their sentiments in another place. Nor did he see how he, in his private capacity, had less right to call the people to an assembly, than they, to convene the senate. Let them try, whenever they chose, how much more forcibly a sense of injuries would operate in vindication of liberty, than ambition in retaining usurped authority. They had proposed the Sabine war as the business to be considered: as if the Roman people had any more important war on their hands, than against those, who, having been created for the purpose of framing laws, had left no law remaining in the state; who had abolished elections; abolished annual magistrates; abolished the regular changing of the chief magistrate, the only means of preserving the balance of liberty; who, standing in the rank of private citizens, kept possession of the fasces and of regal sovereignty. After the expulsion of the kings, there were patrician magistrates; afterwards, on the secession of the commons, plebeian magistrates were created. Of which party were the decemvirs?” he asked, “Were they of the popular party? In what business did they ever look for the concurrence of the people? Were they of that of the nobility? who, during almost a whole year, never held a meeting of the senate; and, now, hold it in such a manner, that people are not allowed to speak of the state of the commonwealth. Let them not rely too much on the timidity of their fellows; for men feel more sensibly the weight of present sufferings, than of such as exist only in apprehension.”
XL. While Horatius was exclaiming in this manner, and the decemvirs knew not how either to gratify their anger, or to pass over the provocation, nor could judge how the business would end, Caius Claudius, uncle to Appius, addressed him in a speech, fraught with intreaties rather than reproaches; besought him by the shade of his own brother, the decemvir’s father, “to pay more regard to the rights of that civil society in which he was born, than to a confederacy, formed on the most flagitious principles. This he requested, more earnestly on Appius’s account, than even on that of the commonwealth; for the commonwealth would, doubtless, be abundantly able to assert its own rights, in spite of any resistance which the then magistrates could make; but that, as great contests generally excited great animosities, he could not, without horror, think of what might be the consequence.” Although the decemvirs had refused liberty to speak on any subject, but the business which they had proposed, yet such was their respect for Claudius, that they did not interrupt him; he proceeded, therefore, in his discourse, which he concluded, with moving a resolution, that no decree of the senate should be passed. This was considered by every one, as importing that, in the judgment of Claudius, they were but private citizens, and many of the consulars expressed their approbation. Another measure was proposed, more harsh in appearance, but much less efficacious; it was, to order the patricians to assemble and appoint an interrex: for that the passing of any resolution would be an acknowledgment that the persons, who convened the senate, were invested with some office; whereas the member, who recommended that no resolution should pass, meant thereby to declare them private citizens. When the cause of the decemvirs was thus sinking into ruin, Lucius Cornelius Maluginensis, brother to Marcus Cornelius, the decemvir, having been purposely reserved from among the consulars to close the debate, under the pretence of anxiety about the war, supported his brother and his colleagues thus: “He wondered,” he said, “by what fatality it happened, that those, who had been themselves candidates for the decemvirate, were the persons who, either as secondaries or principals, waged this attack on the decemvirs; and why they should now, at this particular time, when the enemy were just at the gates, take such pains to sow dissension among the citizens; while during so many months, wherein the attention of the state had been disengaged, no one ever made it a matter of dispute, whether those, who held the administration of the government, were legal magistrates or not; unless it were because they supposed, that, in a state of confusion, their conduct would not be so easily seen through. However, it was highly improper in any one to attempt to prejudice a cause of that magnitude, while men’s minds were occupied by more urgent concerns. It was his opinion, then, that the plea urged by Valerius and Horatius, that the office of decemvirs had expired on the ides of May, should be taken into consideration, and discussed by the senate, when the wars with which they were then threatened should be brought to a conclusion, and tranquillity restored to the state: that Appius Claudius should consider himself as having now received sufficient notice, that he must be ready to give an account of the proceedings of the assembly in which he, in quality of decemvir, had presided, and in which the decemvirs were elected, whether they were appointed for one year, or until the laws, then wanting, should be ratified. It was also his opinion, that, for the present, every other business, except the war, should be laid aside; and that, if they imagined that the reports concerning it were propagated without foundation, and that not only the couriers, but the Tusculan ambassadors, had conveyed false intelligence, then that scouts should be despatched to procure more certain information; but that, if they gave credit to the couriers and the ambassadors in that case, troops should be levied without delay, and the decemvirs should lead armies to whatever places each should think proper. He repeated, that no other business ought to take place, until this was disposed of.”
XLI. This resolution was carried, on a division, by means of the young patricians. Valerius and Horatius then, with greater vehemence, renewed their efforts, and loudly demanded permission to speak more particularly on the state of the commonwealth, declaring, that “if by a faction they were prevented from delivering their sentiments in the senate, they would appeal to the people; for that private men had no right to hinder them from speaking, either in the senate house, or in a general assembly, nor would they give way to those men’s imaginary fasces.” Appius then, thinking the juncture so critical, that the authority of the decemvirate must be overpowered, unless the violence of their opposers were resisted with an equal degree of boldness, called out, that “whoever uttered a sentence, except on the business proposed, should have cause to repent;” and, on Valerius insisting that he would not be silenced by a private citizen, ordered a lictor to advance: Valerius, from the door of the senate-house, implored the protection of the citizens; when Lucius Cornelius embracing Appius, through concern for an effect so different from what he intended, put a stop to the contest, and procured Valerius permission to say what he chose. This producing nothing beyond words in favour of liberty, the decemvirs carried their point; and even the consulars and elder patricians, from inveterate hatred to the tribunitian office, which they supposed the people wished for with much more eagerness than for the consular government, would have been rather better pleased that the decemvirs themselves should, at some future time, voluntarily resign their office, than that, through means of the indignation of the public against them, the commons should rise again to consequence. They hoped, too, that if, by gentle management, the consular government should be restored, without the turbulent interposition of the populace, they might, either by the intervention of wars, or by the moderation of the consuls in the exercise of their authority, induce the commons to forget their tribunes. No objection being made by the patricians, a levy was proclaimed, and the young men, there being no appeal from the present government, answered to their names. When the legions were filled up, the decemvirs settled among themselves, who should go out with the troops, and who command the several armies. The leading men among the decemvirs were Quintus Fabius and Appius Claudius. It was evident that there would be a greater war at home than abroad. The violence of Appius was thought the better calculated for suppressing commotions in the city, as the disposition of Fabius had long been considered as rather wanting in good pursuits, than strenuous in bad; yet this man, hitherto highly distinguished both in civil and military conduct, was so entirely changed by his office of decemvir and the example of his colleagues, that he now chose rather to be like Appius, than like himself. To him was given in charge the war against the Sabines; and, along with him, were sent his colleagues Manius Rabuleius and Quintus Pætilius. Marcus Cornelius was sent to the territory of Algidum, with Lucius Minutius; Titus Antonius, Cæso Duilius, and Marcus Sergius, and it was determined that Spurius Appius should assist Appius Claudius in the management of affairs in the city, where they should have full authority, as if all the decemvirs were present.
XLII. Public affairs were conducted with no better success in war than at home. In this, the leaders were no farther to blame, than for having rendered themselves odious to their countrymen; in other respects, the fault lay entirely in the soldiery, who, rather than that any enterprise should succeed under the conduct and auspices of the decemvirs, suffered themselves to be overcome, to the disgrace of both. The armies were routed, both by the Sabines at Eretum, and by the Æquans in the country of Algidum. From Eretum the troops made a retreat in the dead of the night, and fortified a camp nearer to the city, on a high ground, between Fidenæ and Crustumeria, and, being pursued by the enemy, would not risk a battle on equal ground, but provided farther safety by the nature of the place and a rampart, not by valour and arms. In the country of Algidum greater disgrace and greater loss were sustained: even the camp was taken; and the soldiers, deprived of all their utensils, betook themselves to Tusculum, depending, for the necessaries of life, on the good faith and compassion of their hosts, who, on this occasion, did not disappoint their expectations. Such terrifying accounts were brought to Rome, that the senate, dropping the prosecution of their hatred to the decemvirs, passed an order, that watches should be held in the city; commanded all, who were of an age to bear arms, to mount guard on the walls, and to form outposts before the gates; they also decreed a supply of arms to be carried to Tusculum; that the decemvirs should come down from the citadel of Tusculum, and keep their troops encamped; and that the other camp should be removed from Fidenæ into the country of the Sabines, to the end that the enemy, feeling themselves attacked at home, might be deterred from operations against the city.
XLIII. To the calamities inflicted by the enemy, the decemvirs added two most flagitious deeds, one at home, and the other in the army. In the army which acted against the Sabines, a person, called Lucius Siccius, taking advantage of the general aversion from the decemvirs, and having frequently, in private conversation with the common soldiers, made mention of a secession, and of electing tribunes, they sent him on a party of observation, to choose ground for a camp, and gave instructions to the men whom they sent to attend on the expedition, that they should fall upon him in some convenient place, and put him to death. He did not fall unrevenged; for, though surrounded on all sides, he stood on his defence; and being possessed of extraordinary personal strength, and of spirit equal to his strength, he slew several of the assassins. The rest, on the return, gave out in the camp, that they had fallen into an ambush, and that Siccius was lost, after fighting with great bravery, and some of the soldiers with him. At first this story was believed: but afterwards, a cohort, which went, with permission of the decemvirs, to bury those who had fallen, observing that none of them were stripped; that Siccius, with his arms, lay in the middle, with the faces of all the others turned towards him, while not a trace could be found of the enemy having retreated from thence; they brought back the body, with an account that he was evidently slain by his own men. The camp was now filled with indignation; and it was resolved, that Siccius should be carried directly to Rome, which would have been put in execution, had not the decemvirs, as speedily as possible, buried him with military honours, at the public expense. His funeral was attended with great grief of the soldiery, and a general belief of guilt in the decemvirs.
XLIV. There followed, in the city, another atrocious proceeding, which took its rise from lust, and was not less tragical in its consequences than that which, through the injured chastity and violent death of Lucretia, had occasioned the expulsion of the Tarquinii from the throne and the city; so that the government of the decemvirs not only ended in the same manner as that of the kings, but was lost through the same cause. Appius Claudius was inflamed with a criminal passion towards a young woman of plebeian rank. The father of this young woman, Lucius Virginius, held an honourable rank among the centurions, in the camp near Algidum, a man of exemplary good conduct, both as a soldier and a citizen, and by the same principles were the behaviour of his wife, and the education of his family regulated. He had betrothed his daughter to Lucius Icilius, who had been tribune, a man of spirit, and of approved zeal in the cause of the commons. This maiden, in the bloom of youth, and of extraordinary beauty, Appius, burning with desire, had attempted to seduce by bribes and promises; but, finding every avenue to his hopes barred by modesty, he resolved to have recourse to violence. He gave instructions to Marcus Claudius, one of his dependents, that he should claim the young woman as his slave, and not submit to any demand which should be made, of her being left at liberty until the decision of the suit, thinking that the absence of the damsel’s father afforded the fittest opportunity for the injury which he meditated. As Virginia came into the Forum, (for the schools of learning were held there in sheds,) this minister of the decemvir’s lust laid his hand on her, and affirming that “she was a slave, and born of a woman who was his slave,” ordered her to follow him; threatening, in case of refusal, to drag her away by force. While the girl stood motionless through fright and astonishment, a crowd was collected by the cries of her nurse, who implored the protection of the citizens. The popular names of her father Virginius, and her spouse Icilius, were heard on every side. Their acquaintances were engaged in favour of the maiden, by their regard for them; and the multitude in general, by the heinousness of the proceeding. She was now secured from violence, when the claimant said “there was no occasion for raising a mob, he was proceeding by law, not by force,” and summoned the maiden to a court of justice. She being advised, by those who appeared in her favour, to follow him, they arrived at the tribunal of Appius. The claimant rehearsed the concerted farce before the judge, alleged that “the girl was born in his house, and had been clandestinely removed from thence to that of Virginius, her supposed father; that of this he had sufficient evidence, and would prove it even to the satisfaction of Virginius himself, the principal sufferer in the case; and it was reasonable,” he added, “that in the meantime, the servant should remain in the custody of her master.” The advocates for Virginia, pleading that Virginius was absent on business of the state, and would, were notice sent him, attend in two days’ time, and that it was unreasonable that a suit concerning his child should be carried on in his absence, demanded of Appius to adjourn all proceedings in the cause, until the father’s arrival; that, in conformity to the law which he himself had framed, he should leave her in the meantime in the enjoyment of her liberty; and not suffer a young woman of ripe age to encounter the hazard of her reputation, before the case of her freedom was determined.
XLV. Appius prefaced his decree with observing that “the very law, which Virginius’s friends held out as the foundation of their demand, was a proof how much he was inclined to favour liberty: however, that law could afford no firm security to liberty, if it were not invariable in the tenor of its operation, without regard either to causes or persons. In the case of those who, from servitude, claimed a right to freedom, the privilege mentioned was allowed, because any citizen can act in their behalf; but in the case of her, who was in the hands of her father, there was no other person to whom the owner should yield the custody of her. It was, therefore, his determination, that the father should be sent for; that, in the meantime, the claimant should suffer no loss of his right, but should take the maiden into his custody, and give security for her appearance, on the arrival of him who was alleged to be her father.” Whilst all murmured against the injustice of this decree, though not one had courage to oppose it, Publius Numitorius, the maiden’s uncle, and Icilius, her bethrothed spouse, arrived at the spot. The crowd having readily made way for them, because they were of opinion, that if any thing could stop the proceedings of Appius, it would be the interference of Icilius, the lictor called out, that “sentence was passed;” and, on Icilius making loud remonstrances, ordered him to retire. Even a cool temper would have been inflamed by such gross ill treatment; Icilius said, “Appius, you must drive me hence with the sword, before you shall accomplish, in silence, what you wish to be concealed. This young woman I intend to wed, and expect to find in her a lawful and a chaste wife. Call together then even all the lictors of your colleagues, order the rods and axes to be got ready: the spouse of Icilius shall not remain in any other place than her father’s house. Though you have taken from us the protection of tribunes, and an appeal to the Roman people, the two bulwarks which secured our liberty, yet there has been no grant made, to your lust of absolute dominion over our wives and daughters. Vent your fury on our persons and our lives; let chastity, at least, find safety. If any violence is offered to her, I shall appeal for succour to the citizens now present, in behalf of my spouse; Virginius will appeal to the soldiers in behalf of his only daughter; and all of us to the gods, and to all mankind: nor shall you ever carry that sentence into effect, while we have life to prevent it. I charge you, Appius, consider again and again to what lengths you are proceeding: let Virginius, when he comes, determine what measures he will pursue in regard to his daughter; only of this I would have him assured, that if he submits to this man’s claim of obtaining the custody of her, he must seek another match for his daughter: as for me, in vindication of the liberty of my spouse, I will forfeit my life sooner than my honour.”
XLVI. The passions of the multitude were now raised, and there was every sign of a violent contest ensuing. The lictors had gathered round Icilius, but proceeded, however, no farther than threats, when Appius said, “that the defence of Virginia was not the motive which actuated Icilius; but, turbulent by nature, and breathing, at that instant, the spirit of the tribuneship, he was seeking an occasion of sedition. He would not however, at that time, give him matter to work on: but, in order to convince him at once that this indulgence was granted, not to his petulance, but to the absent Virginius, to the name of father, and to liberty, he would not then decide the cause, nor interpose any decree; he would even request of Marcus Claudius to depart somewhat from his right, and suffer the maiden to be bailed until the next day. But if, on the next day, the father did not attend, he now gave notice to Icilius, and to persons like Icilius, that, as its founder, he would not fail to support his own law; nor, as decemvir, to show a proper degree of resolution: nor should he call together the lictors of his colleagues, to check the efforts of the fomenters of sedition, but be content with his own lictors.” The execution of his iniquitous design being thus deferred, the advocates of the girl having retired, resolved, first of all, that the brother of Icilius and the son of Numitorius, active young men, should set off directly, and with all possible haste call home Virginius from the camp, acquainting him that “the safety of the maiden depended on his being present in time next day to protect her from injury.” They set out the instant they received their directions, and, with all the speed their horses could make, carried the account to her father. In the meantime, the claimant of the maiden urged Icilius to profess himself a defendant in the cause, and to produce sureties. This, however, Icilius delayed, in order that the messengers despatched to the camp might gain the longer time for their journey, telling him that he was preparing to do so. The whole multitude on this held up their hands, and every one showed himself ready to be surety to Icilius. To them he replied, tears at the same time filling his eyes, “I am thankful for your goodness; to-morrow I will claim your assistance; at present, I have sufficient sureties.” Virginia was then admitted to bail on the security of her relations. Appius, after remaining on the tribunal for a short time lest he should seem to have sat merely for the sake of the present business, and finding that no one applied to him, the general anxiety about Virginia calling their attention from every other subject, retired to his house, and wrote to his colleagues in camp not to allow Virginius to leave it, and even to keep him in confinement. This wicked scheme, as it deserved, was too late to succeed; for Virginius, having already got leave of absence, had set out at the first watch; so that the letter for detaining him, which was delivered in the morning, necessarily produced no effect.
XLVII. In the city, a vast multitude of citizens were assembled in the Forum at day break, full of anxious expectation. Virginius, clad in mourning, and accompanied by a great number of advocates, led his daughter into the Forum, habited in weeds, denoting her distress, and attended by a number of matrons. There he began to solicit each man’s favour; and not only requested their aid, as a boon granted to his prayers, but demanded it as his due, reminding them, that, “he stood daily in the field of battle, in defence of their wives and children; nor was there any man who had given greater proof of valour and intrepidity in action than he had done. Yet what did this avail, if, while the city was secure from danger, their children were exposed to calamities as grievous as could be dreaded, if it were taken by an enemy?” With such discourses, uttered in a manner as if he were addressing a public assembly, he applied to the people individually. Icilius addressed them with like arguments; and the female attendants, by their silent tears, affected them more deeply than any words could do. Appius, whose mind was hardened against all such occurrences, violent madness, rather than love, having perverted his understanding, ascended the tribunal; and when the claimant had just begun to urge, that, “through partiality, he had refused yesterday to pronounce judgment in the cause;” Appius, without allowing him to proceed in statinghis claim, or giving Virginius an opportunity of answering, delivered his sentence. The discourse with which he introduced his decree some ancient writers have set down, perhaps with truth; but as I no where find any one that seems likely to have been used on occasion of such an iniquitous business, I think it best to represent the plain fact, of which there is no doubt: he decreed, that she should be held in bondage until the final decision. At first, all were struck motionless with astonishment at such an atrocious proceeding. Silence then prevailed for some time, afterwards, when Marcus Claudius went to seize the maiden, where she stood in the midst of the matrons, and was opposed by the women with lamentable cries of grief, Virginius, stretching forth his hands in a menacing attitude towards Appius, said, “Appius, I betrothed my daughter to Icilius, not to thee; and I have educated her for a wife, not for a harlot. Do you intend that men shall indulge their lust promiscuously like cattle and wild beasts? Whether these present will endure such things I know not: but those who carry arms, I hope, never will.” The claimant of the maiden being forced back, by the crowd of women and advocates who stood round her, silence was commanded by the crier.
XLVIII. The decemvir, whose mind was warped by his ungovernable lust, said, that “the abusive language of Icilius yesterday, and the violence of Virginius, now the whole Roman people were witnesses of, but that he had learned on good authority, that, during the whole night, cabals had been held for the purpose of stirring up sedition. Wherefore being aware of the disputes likely to ensue, he had come down with a band of men in arms, not with a design of injuring any person who should demean himself, but of punishing, in a manner suited to the majesty of government such as should presume to disturb the tranquillity of the state. It will, therefore (said he,) be your better way to remain quiet. Go, lictor, remove the crowd, and make way for the owner to seize his slave.” When, bursting with passion, he had thundered out these words, the multitude of themselves voluntarily separated, and the maiden stood forsaken a prey to injustice. Virginius then seeing no prospect of assistance from any quarter, said “Appius, I entreat you first, to make allowance for a father’s grief, if I have made use of too harsh expressions towards you; and next, to allow me here, in the presence of the maiden, to inquire of her nurse the truth of this affair; that, if I have been falsely called her father, I may depart hence with the more resignation.” Permission being granted, he drew the maiden and her nurse aside, to the sheds near the temple of Cloacina, now called the new sheds, and there, snatching a knife from a butcher, plunged it into his daughter’s breast, with these words: “In this manner, my child, the only one in my power, do I secure your liberty.” Then looking back on Appius, “With this blood, Appius,” said he, “I devote thee and thine head to perdition.” Appius alarmed by the cry raised at such a horried deed, ordered Virginius to be seized. But he, clearing a passage with the weapon wherever he went, and protected also by a great number of young men who escorted him, made his way to the gate. Icilius and Numitorius raised up the lifeless body, and exposed it to the view of the people, deploring the villainy of Appius, the fatal beauty of the maiden, and the necessity which had urged the father to the act. The matrons who followed joined their exclamations: “were these the consequences of rearing children? were these the rewards of chastity?” with other mournful reflections, such as are suggested by grief to women, and which, from the greater sensibility of their tender minds, are always the most affecting. The discourse of the men, and particularly of Icilius, turned entirely on their being deprived of the protection of tribunes, and consequently of appeals to the people, and on the indignities thrown upon all.
XLIX. The passions of the multitude were strongly excited, partly by the villainy of the decemvir, partly by their hopes that the occasion might be improved to the recovery of liberty. Appius now ordered Icilius to be called before him; then, on his refusing to attend, to be seized: at last, when the beadles were not suffered to come near him, he himself, with a band of young patricians, pushing through the crowd, ordered him to be taken into confinement. By this time, there had collected round Icilius, not only the multitude, but persons fit to head that multitude, Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius, who, driving back his lictor, told Appius, that “if he meant to proceed in a legal way, they would be security for Icilius, against any charge which he, as a private citizen, should bring. If he should attempt to make use of force, in that point too they would not be his inferiors.” A furious scuffle ensued. The decemvir’s lictor attacked Valerius and Horatius. The fasces were broken by the people. Appius then mounted the tribunal, whither he was followed by Horatius and Valerius; to these the assembly paid attention, but drowned the decemvir’s voice with noise. Valerius now assumed authority to order the lictors to depart from one who was but a private citizen; and then Appius, bereft of courage, and dreading for his life, covered his head, and, unobserved by his adversaries, made his escape into a house near the Forum. Spurius Oppius rushing into the Forum from the other side, in order to assist his colleague, saw their authority overpowered by force. After revolving several expedients, confused by listening to a multitude of advisers on every side, he at last commanded the senate to be summoned. This step calmed the minds of the populace, by giving them hopes, that as the conduct of the decemvirs seemed displeasing to the greater part of the patricians, their government would be abolished through the means of the senate. The senate gave their opinion, that the commons should not be farther exasperated; and that, above all things, care should be taken to hinder disturbances being excited in the camp on the arrival of Virginius.
L. Accordingly some of the younger patricians were sent to the camp, which, at that time, was on mount Vecilius, to caution the decemvirs to use their utmost efforts for preventing a mutiny among the soldiers. Here, Virginius caused greater commotions than he had left in the city: for, besides the notice which he attracted, by coming attended by a band of near four hundred men; who, incensed at the scandalous injustice done him, had accompanied him from the city; the unsheathed weapon, and himself being besmeared with blood, engaged the general attention, while gowns* being observed in many different parts of the camp, made the number of people from the city appear much larger than it was. Being asked the reason of all this, grief for a long time prevented Virginius from uttering a word. At length, when the crowd grew still, and silence took place, he related every circumstance in order as it passed. Then raising his hands towards heaven, besought his fellow-soldiers “not to impute to him the guilt which belonged to Appius Claudius, nor to abhor him as the murderer of his child. Declaring, that the life of his daughter was dearer to him than his own, could she have lived with honour and liberty. When he saw her dragged as a slave to violation, he thought it better that his child should be lost by death than by dishonour. Actuated by compassion, he had fallen under the appearance of cruelty: nor would he have survived his daughter, had he not looked to the aid of his fellow-soldiers, with hopes of revenging her death: for they also had daughters, sisters, wives; and the lust of Appius Claudius was not extinguished by the death of Virginia, but would be encouraged, by impunity, to rage with less restraint. They had now warning given them, in the calamity of another, to guard themselves against the like injury. As to what concerned himself, his wife had been torn from him by fate; his daughter, because she could not longer preserve her chastity, had fallen by an unfortunate but honourable death. There was now in his house no object for Appius’s lust; and from any other kind of violence which he could offer he would defend his own person with the same spirit with which he had rescued that of Virginia. Let others take care of themselves and of their children.” To these representations, uttered by Virginius in a loud voice, the multitude replied, with shouts, that they would not be backward in vindicating either his wrongs or their own liberty. At the same time, the gownmen intermixed with the crowd of soldiers, relating with sorrow the same circumstances, and observing how much more shocking they appeared to the sight than hearing, acquainting them also that the affairs of the decemvirs at Rome were desperate; while some, who came later, averred that Appius, having with difficulty escaped with life, was gone into exile. All this had such an effect on the soldiery, that they cried out, To arms! snatched up the standards, and marched towards Rome. The decemvirs, exceedingly alarmed, as well by the transactions which they saw, as by those which they heard had passed at Rome, ran to different parts of the camp, in order to quell the commotion. While they acted with mildness, they received no answer. If any of them offered to exert authority, he was answered, That they were men; and besides, had arms. The soldiers proceeded in a body to the city, and posted themselves on the Aventine, exhorting the commons, whenever they met any of them, to reassume their liberty, and create plebeian tribunes. No other violent expression was heard. Spurius Oppius held the meeting of the senate, when it was resolved, that no harsh measures should be used, because themselves had given occasion to the insurrection. Three consulars were sent as deputies to the mount, Spurius Tarpeius, Caius Julius, and Servius Sulpicius, to ask, in the name of the senate, by whose orders they had quitted the camp; or what was their intention in posting themselves, in arms, on the Aventine; in changing the direction of their hostile operations from the enemy, and by seizing a strong post in their native country. The revolters were at no loss what to answer; but they were at a loss for a person to give the answer, having not yet appointed any particular leader, and individuals not being very forward to take on themselves the invidious, and perhaps dangerous, office. The multitude only called out with one voice, that Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius might be sent, and to them they would give their answer.
LI. When the deputies were dismissed, Virginius reminded the soldiers, “how much they had been embarrassed in a case of no extraordinary difficulty, in consequence of their being a multitude without a head; and that the answer given, though not inexpedient, was the result rather of an accidental concurrence, than of a concerted plan: he recommended to them, therefore, to elect ten persons, who should preside in the direction of their affairs, and, in the style of military dignity, be called tribunes of the soldiers.” This honour being offered, in the first place, to himself, he said, “Reserve to a juncture more happy, both to you and me, such expressions of your good opinion of me. It is neither possible for me, while my daughter is unrevenged, to reap satisfaction from any honour, nor is it expedient for you, in the present disordered state of the commonwealth, to have those at your head who are most obnoxious to party malice. If I can be of any service, my remaining in a private capacity will in no degree prevent it.” They accordingly elected ten military tribunes. Nor was the army in the country of the Sabines inactive. There also, at the instance of Icilius and Numitorius, a secession from the decemvirs was made; men being no less strongly agitated by having the murder of Siccius recalled to their memory, than by the recent account of the barbarous attempt against the chastity of Virginia. When Icilius heard that tribunes of the soldiers had been elected on the Aventine, he feared lest the assembly of election in the city might follow the lead of the military assembly, and choose the same persons tribunes of the commons. Being well versed in popular intrigues, and aiming himself at that office, he took care that, before they proceeded to the city, the same number of soldiers, with equal powers, should be elected by the party then with him. They entered the city, in military array, through the Colline gate, and continued their march in a body through the middle of the city to the Aventine. There, in conjunction with the other army, they gave directions to the twenty tribunes of the soldiers to choose two out of their number, who were to hold the command in chief: they chose Marcus Oppius and Sextus Manilius. The senate were alarmed for the general safety, but though they sat every day, they spent more time in wrangling than in deliberation: the decemvirs were upbraided with the murder of Siccius, the lust of Appius, and the disgraces which they had incurred in war. It was resolved, at length, that Valerius and Horatius should proceed to the Aventine: but they refused to go thither, on any other terms than those of the decemvirs resigning the badges of office, their title to which had expired a year before. The decemvirs, remonstrating against the severity of degrading them to the common level, declared that they would not resign their authority, until the purpose of their election should be fulfilled, by the ratification of the laws.
LII. The commons, on being informed by Marcus Duilius, who had been plebeian tribune, that the time was passed by the patricians in continual disputes, and no business done, removed from the Aventine to the sacred mount: for Duilius had assured them, that “the senate would never attend seriously to the business, until they saw the city deserted; that the sacred mount would remind them of the firmness of the commons, and that they would then discover, that the reestablishment of concord was impracticable, without the restoration of the tribunitian office.” Marching along the Nomentan road, then called the Ficulnean, they encamped on the sacred mount, imitating the moderation of their fathers, in refraining from every act of violence. The army was followed by the commons, not one, whose age would permit him, refusing to go. Their wives and children attended their steps, asking, in melancholy accents, to whose care they were to be left, in such a city, where neither chastity nor liberty was safe? So general a desertion, beyond what was ever known, left every part of the city void, not a creature being even seen in the Forum, except a few very old men, when the senators were called into their house. Thus the Forum appearing entirely forsaken, many others, with Horatius and Valerius, began to exclaim, “Conscript fathers! how long will ye delay? If the decemvirs will not desist from their obstinacy, will ye suffer every thing to sink into ruin? And ye, decemvirs, what is this power which ye so positively refuse to part with? Do ye intend to administer justice to bare walls and empty houses? Are ye not ashamed, that the number of your lictors should exceed that of all the other citizens in the Forum? What do ye propose to do, should the enemy advance to the city? What, if the commons, finding that we are not moved by their secession, should presently come in arms? Do ye choose that your command should be terminated by the fall of the city? The case stands thus; either we must lose the commons, or they must have their tribunes. We would sooner part with our patrician magistrates, than they with the plebeian. The office of tribunes, when it was a thing unknown and untried, they extorted from our fathers; and it is much more improbable that, after having tasted the sweets of it, they will put up with its loss, especially as we do not exercise authority with such moderation, as to prevent their standing in need of protection.” Assailed by such arguments from every quarter, and overpowered by the united opinions of all, the decemvirs declared, that since it was judged necessary, they would submit to the orders of the senate. This only they requested, that they would afford them protection from the rage of the opposite party: warning them at the same time, not to suffer the commons, by the spilling of their blood, to come into the practice of inflicting punishment on patricians.
LIII. Valerius and Horatius were then deputed to invite the commons to return, on such conditions as they should judge proper, and to adjust all matters in dispute. They were ordered also to take measures, for securing the decemvirs from the rage and violence of the populace. On their arrival at the camp, they were received with excessive joy, as having evidently proved themselves the patrons of liberty, both at the commencement of the disturbances, and on the determination of the business. For this, they received thanks on their coming, Icilius addressing them in the name of the whole; and when they began to treat about conditions, the same person, on the deputies inquiring what were the demands of the commons, proposed, in pursuance of a plan which had been adjusted before their arrival, such terms as plainly evinced, that they grounded their expectations on the equity of their cause, rather than on their strength: for they only required the restitution of the tribunitian office, and the privilege of appeal, by which the rights of the commons had been guarded, before the creation of decemvirs; and, that no one should suffer for having instigated the soldiery, or the commons, to procure the restoration of liberty, by a secession. They were intemperate only in respect to the punishment of the decemvirs: for they expected that they should be delivered into their hands, and they threatened to burn them alive. In reply, the deputies said, “such of your demands, as have been the result of deliberation, are so equitable, that they ought to be voluntarily offered to you: for the object of them is the attainment of a security for liberty, not for unbounded licence to violate the rights of others. But the dictates of your resentment, we must rather pardon than indulge: for, through your detestation of cruelty, ye are precipitating yourselves into the very vice which ye abhor; and before ye can well be said to be free yourselves, ye wish to act the tyrant over your adversaries. Is our state never to enjoy rest from punishments, either inflicted by the patricians on the Roman commons, or by the commons on the patricians? Ye stand in need of a shield, rather than of a sword. It is abundantly sufficient to humble a man so far as that he shall live on an equal footing with the rest of his countrymen, neither offering nor enduring injury. Besides, should ye ever choose to render yourselves objects of terror, when ye shall have recovered your magistrates, and your laws, and shall have the power, in your hands, of deciding on our lives and fortunes, then ye will determine according to the merit of each case; at present it is sufficient to require the restoration of liberty.”
LIV. Having, with universal consent, received permission to act as they thought proper, the deputies assured them that they would speedily bring back a final settlement of the business; and, returning, reported to the senate the message from the commons. On which the other decemvirs, finding that, beyond their hopes, no mention was made of any punishment being reserved for them, raised no objection. Appius, stern in his nature, conscious that he was the object of particular detestation, and measuring the rancour of others towards him by his own towards them, said, “I am not blind to the fate which hangs over me. I see that violent proceedings against us are deferred until our arms are surrendered into the hands of our adversaries. Blood must be offered to the rage of the populace. I myself no longer demur to resign the office of decemvir.” A decree of the senate was then made, that “the decemvirs should, without delay, resign their office. That Quintus Furius, chief pontiff, should hold an election of plebeian tribunes, and that no one should suffer, on account of the secession of the soldiers and commons.” As soon as these decrees were finished, the senate was dismissed, and the decemvirs coming forth to the comitium, made a resignation of their office, to the extreme joy of all. News of this was carried to the commons. Whatever people there were remaining in the city, escorted the deputies. This was met by another procession from the camp, exulting with joy; and they mutually congratulated each other on the re-establishment of liberty and concord in the state. The deputies addressed the assembly thus: “Be it advantageous, fortunate, and happy to you, and to the commonwealth. Return into your native city, to your household gods, your wives and children: the same moderation, with which ye have behaved here, where, notwithstanding the great consumption of necessaries in so large a multitude, no man’s field had been injured, that moderation carry with you into the city. Go to the Aventine, whence ye removed. In that auspicious place, where ye took the first step towards liberty, ye shall elect tribunes of the commons: the chief pontiff will attend and preside in the assembly.” Great were the applauses given, and the cheerfullest approbation was shown of every thing which was done. They then hastily raised the standards; and, as they marched towards Rome, vied with such as they met in expressions of joy. They proceeded under arms, in silence, through the city to the Aventine. There, the chief pontiff holding an assembly, they instantly elected tribunes of the commons; first, Lucius Virginius; then Lucius Icilius, and Publius Numitorius, uncle of Virginia, the first advisers of the secession; then Caius Sicinius, a descendant of that man who is recorded as the first tribune of the commons, elected on the sacred mount; with Marcus Duilius, who had distinguished himself by his conduct in the tribuneship, before the creation of the decemvirs, and who, during the contest with them, had not failed to exert himself in the support of the common cause. At the same time were elected, rather on account of hopes entertained of their future conduct, than of their previous deserts, Marcus Titinius, Marcus Pomponius, Caius Apronius, Publius Villius, and Caius Oppius. Lucius Icilius, as soon as he entered on the office of tribune, proposed to the commons, and the commons ordered, that no person should suffer on account of the secession from the decemvirs. Immediately after, Duilius carried a proposition for electing consuls, with privilege of appeal. All this was transacted in an assembly of the commons in the Flaminian meadows, now called the Flaminian circus.
Y. R. 306. 446.LV. After this, under the direction of an interrex, consuls were elected. These were Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius, who entered immediately upon the exercise of their office. Their consulate was popular. But though unattended by any actual ill treatment of the patricians, it yet incurred their displeasure; for they imagined that whatever added to the liberty of the commons, was necessarily a diminution of their own power. First of all, as if it were a point in controversy, whether the patricians were bound by regulations enacted in an assembly of the commons, a law was passed in an assembly of the centuries, “that whatever was ordered by the commons collectively, should bind the whole people.” A law which gave the keenest edge to such propositions as might be introduced by the tribunes. Another law, introduced by a consul, concerning the right of appeal, (a singular security to liberty, and which had been subverted by the power granted to the decemvirs,) they not only revived, but guarded for the time to come, by further enacting, “That no magistrate should ever be chosen, from whom there should not be a right of appeal; and that if any person should cause the election of such, then it should be lawful and right to put that person to death, and the killing of him should not be accounted a capital offence.” When they had provided sufficient barriers for the commons, by the right of appeal on one side, and the aid of the tribunes on the other, they renewed to the tribunes themselves the privilege of being deemed sacred and inviolable, a matter which now had been almost forgotten, reviving also, for the purpose, certain ceremonies which had been long disused; and they not only rendered them inviolable by this religious institution, but by a law, enacting, that “whoever should offer injury to the tribunes of the commons, the ædiles, the judges, his person should be devoted to Jupiter, and his property confiscated at the temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera.” Lawyers deny, than any one is thus rendered sacred and inviolable; but admit, that the person who does injury to any of the abovenamed, is deemed to be devoted. Accordingly, an ædile is sometimes seized, and put in confinement by superior magistrates; which, though it is not a legal proceeding, as offending against a person exempted by this law, is yet a sufficient proof that such person is not deemed sacred and inviolable. It is alleged, however, by some, that the tribunes became sacred and inviolable, in consequence of the old oath taken by the commons when they first created that office; while other expositors have supposed, that, by this Horatian law, the same exemptions were extended to the consuls also, the consuls being termed judges; and to the prætors, as being elected under the same auspices with the consuls. But that exposition is refuted by this argument, that in those times, it was not the custom, as it has been since, to call a consul, judge, but prætor. These were the laws proposed by the consuls. A regulation was also made by the same consuls, that the decrees of the senate should be deposited with the plebeian ædiles, in the temple of Ceres; they had hitherto been frequently suppressed and altered at the pleasure of the consuls. Marcus Duilius, plebeian tribune, afterwards proposed to the commons, and the commons enacted, that “whoever should cause the commons to be left without tribunes, or any magistrate to be elected from whom there was no appeal, should be punished with stripes and beheaded.” All these transactions, though highly disagreeable to the patricians, passed without opposition from them, because no severity was yet aimed at any particular person.
LVI. The tribunitian office and the liberty of the commons being thus fixed on a solid foundation, the tribunes, judging it now seasonable and safe to attack individuals, singled out Virginius as the first prosecutor, and Appius defendant. Virginius, having preferred a charge against Appius, and the latter coming to the Forum, attended by a crowd of young patricians, the sight of him and his attendants instantly recalled to every mind his shocking abuses of authority. Virginius then said, “Long speeches are only of use in cases of a doubtful nature. I shall, therefore, neither waste time in descanting before you on the guilt of this man, from whose cruelty ye have rescued yourselves by force of arms; nor will I suffer him to add impudence to his crimes, in endeavours to exculpate himself. Wherefore, Appius Claudius, I remit to you all the impious and flagitious deeds, which, during two years past you have dared to commit in constant succession. With respect to one charge, unless you name a judge, and engage to acquit yourself of having, contrary to the laws, sentenced a free person to slavery, I order that you be taken into custody.” Neither in the protection of the tribunes, nor in a sentence of the people, could Appius place any hope: yet he called on the tribunes for aid, and when that was disregarded, and he was seized by the bailiff, cried out, “I appeal.” This expression, the peculiar safeguard of liberty, uttered from that mouth which had so lately threatened the subversion of liberty, caused a general silence; whilst all with earnestness observed one to another, that “at length it appeared that there were gods, and that they did not disregard the affairs of mankind. That the punishments which attended pride and cruelty, though they might come late, were not light. That he now pleaded for the right of appeal, who had abolished that right: he implored the protection of the people, who had trodden under foot all the people’s rights; and he, who had so lately doomed a free person to slavery, was himself refused the privilege of liberty, and dragged to prison.” Amidst these murmurs of the assembly, Appius’s voice was also heard imploring the protection of the people. He enumerated “the services of his ancestors to the state, both in peace and war; his own unfortunate zeal for the interest of the Roman commons, when, for the sake of obtaining equitable laws, he resigned the consulship, to the high displeasure of the patricians: mentioning his own laws; and that while they yet remained in force, the framer of them was to be dragged to prison. But the peculiar advantages or disadvantages attending his case, he would endeavour to set in a proper light, when he should be allowed to make his defence. At present, by the common right of every member of the state, he, a Roman citizen, accused of an offence, demanded liberty of speaking in his own behalf, and the benefit of a trial before the Roman people. That his apprehensions from the popular rage were not so great as to deprive him of all hope from the equity and compassion of his countrymen. But if he was led to prison without being heard, he again called on the tribunes of the commons, and warned them not to follow the example of those who were the objects of their hatred. But should the tribunes acknowledge themselves to have combined in the same kind of confederacy, for abolishing the right of calling for their protection, which they charged the decemvirs with having formed, then he appealed to the people, and implored the benefit of the laws concerning appeals, passed that very year at the instance of the consuls and of the tribunes. For who was to appeal, if that privilege was refused to a person on whom no sentence was passed, and who had not been heard in his defence? What plebeian or person in a low station could expect to find protection in the laws, if Appius Claudius found none? His case would afford a proof, whether, by the new regulations, tyranny or liberty was established; and whether appeals to the tribunes and people, against the injustice of magistrates, were effectually granted, or only held out in show, to amuse the people with empty words.”
LVII. Virginius, on the other hand, affirmed, that Appius Claudius was the only person who was not entitled to any of the privileges of the laws, nor of civil nor even of human society: desired people to “look at the tribunal, that fortress, where every kind of wickedness had been exercised with impunity, where that perpetual decemvir, venting his fury on the goods, the persons, and lives of the citizens, threatening all with his rods and axes, showing an utter contempt both of gods and men, encompassed with executioners, not lictors, changing at length his pursuits from rapines and murders to the gratifications of lust, had, before the eyes of the Roman people, torn a free-born maid from the embraces of her father, as if she had been a captive taken in war, and given her as a present to one of his clients, the pander of his secret pleasures; where, by a cruel decree, and a decision dictated by the blackest villainy, he armed the hand of a father against his child; where, more strongly affected by the disappointment of his unruly passion than by her untimely death, he had ordered the uncle and spouse of the maid, while employed in raising her lifeless body, to be dragged to prison. The prison was built for him as well as for others, though he used to call it the mansion of the Roman commons. Wherefore, however frequently he might appeal, he would as frequently insist on his abiding the decision of a judge, on the charge of his having sentenced a free person to slavery. And if he declined appearing before a judge, would now order him, as convicted, to be carried into confinement.” Accordingly he was thrown into prison, a step, which, though disapproved by none in point of justice, yet gave occasion to much serious reflection; the commons themselves considering their power as carried rather too far, in the punishment inflicted on a person of such consequence. The tribune deferred the trial to a distant day. Meanwhile ambassadors came to Rome from the Latines and Hernicians, with congratulations on the re-establishment of concord between the patricians and commons, and, as an offering on that account to Jupiter, supremely good and great, carried to the Capitol a golden crown, of small weight, as riches at that time did not abound, and the worship of the gods was performed with greater piety than magnificence. The same persons also brought information that the Æquans and Volscians were preparing for war with the utmost vigour. The consuls were, therefore, ordered to divide the provinces between them. The Sabines fell to Horatius, the Æquans and Volscians to Valerius: and so highly were they regarded by the commons, that, on proclaiming a levy of troops for those wars, not only the younger men, but even a great number of those who had served out the legal time, attended, mostly as volunteers, to give in their names. Thus the strength of the army was increased beyond what was usual, not only in respect of number, but also of the kind of soldiers that composed it: a considerable proportion of them being veterans. Before they marched out of the city, they engraved on brass, and fixed up, in public view, the laws of the decemvirs, which are called the “Twelve Tables;” some writers, however say, that this business was performed by the ædiles, in pursuance of orders from the tribunes.
LVIII. Caius Claudius, uncle to Appius, detesting the iniquitous proceedings of the decemvirs, and, above all, disgusted at the arrogant conduct of his nephew, had retired to Regillum, the country of his ancestors. Alarmed, however, at the danger which now threatened the man whose vices he had fled to avoid the sight of, old as he was, he returned, in hopes of deprecating the impending mischief. He appeared in the Forum, clad in a mourning habit, and surrounded by his relations and dependants, implored the favour and protection of every individual citizen he met with, and besought them, “not to throw such a stain upon the Claudian family, as to show that they thought them deserving of imprisonment and chains; represented to them, that a person, whose image would be revered among posterity, as distinguished by the highest honours, the framer of their laws, the founder of the Roman jurisprudence, lay in fetters among common thieves and robbers. He begged that they would for a while suspend resentment, and employ their thoughts in candid examination and cool reflection; and grant to the intercession of such a number of Claudii, the pardon of one individual, rather than through hatred towards that one, reject the prayers of a multitude: declaring, that he himself, in his present conduct, was actuated merely by a regard to the race and to the name: for he had not renewed any friendly intercourse with him for whose wretched situation he wished to find a remedy: that, by fortitude, liberty had been recovered; and by clemency, harmony might be established among the several orders of the state.” He brought several to incline to his side, rather in consideration of such laudable attachment to his family, than of the merits of him whose cause he espoused. On the other hand, Virginius besought them, “rather to bestow their compassion on himself and daughter. He prayed them not to listen to the supplications of the Claudian family, but to those of the near relations of Virginia, the three tribunes; who, having been elected for the protection of the commons, now, in their own cause, implored from those commons favour and protection.” The tears of the latter seemed the more entitled to pity. Wherefore Appius, precluded from all hope, voluntarily put an end to his life, before the day arrived to which the trial had been adjourned. Immediately after, Publius Numitorius arraigned Spurius Oppius, who stood next in the way of the public indignation, as having been present in the city when the unjust sentence was pronounced by his colleague. However, an act of injustice, committed by himself, drew on Oppius greater weight of resentment than his conduct in regard to Appius. A soldier stood forward, who reckoned up twenty-seven campaigns, in which he had served; during which service, he proved that he had been eight times particularly distinguished by honourable rewards. These rewards he produced to the view of the people; and then, throwing open his garment, he showed his back mangled with stripes; begging no other terms of favour, than that “unless the accused (Spurius Oppius) could name any one offence of which he (the soldier) had ever been guilty, he then should have liberty, though a private citizen, to repeat the same cruel treatment towards him.” Oppius was thrown into prison, and before the day of trial put an end to his life. The tribunes confiscated the property of Appius and Oppius. Their colleagues went into exile, and their property was confiscated. Then Marcus Claudius, who laid claim to Virginia, was brought to trial and condemned; but Virginius himself agreeing to a mitigation of the sentence, so far as it affected his life, he was discharged, and also went into exile to Tibur. And now the shade of Virginia, whose cause was best supported after her death, having roamed through so many families in quest of vengeance, rested in peace, none of the guilty being left unpunished.
LIX. The patricians were now filled with dreadful apprehensions — for the tribunes seemed to wear the same countenance which had formerly marked the decemvirs — when Marcus Duilius, tribune of the commons, imposed a salutary restraint on their power, tending, as it was, to excess, by telling them, “We have proceeded to a sufficient length, both in asserting our liberty, and in punishing our enemies. Wherefore, during the remainder of this year, I will not suffer any person either to be brought to trial, or to be put into confinement. For I think it highly improper, that old crimes, now buried in oblivion, should be again dragged forth to notice, and after recent ones have been expiated by the punishment of the decemvirs. Add to this, that we have sufficient security, in the unremitting attention ever shown by both our consuls to the interests of liberty, that no instance of misconduct will henceforth occur, which can require the interposition of the tribunitian power.” This moderation of the tribune first dissipated the fears of the patricians; and, at the same time, increased their ill-will towards the consuls; for they had been so entirely devoted to the interest of the commons, that even a plebeian magistrate had shown more readiness to consult the liberty and safety of the patricians, than they who were themselves of that order. Indeed their enemies were weary of inflicting punishments on them, before the consuls showed any intention of opposing the violence of those measures; and many said, that the senate had betrayed a want of firmness in giving their approbation to the laws proposed: in fact, there was not a doubt, but that in this troubled state of the public affairs, they had yielded to the times.
LX. After all business in the city was adjusted, and the rights of the commons firmly established, the consuls departed to their respective provinces. Valerius prudently delayed engaging with the armies of the Æquans and Volscians, who had by this time formed a junction in the district of Algidum. Had he attempted to bring the matter to an immediate decision, such was the state of mind, both of the Romans and of their enemies, in consequence of the misfortunes which had attended the auspices of the decemvirs, that I know not whether the contest could have been decided without a heavy loss. Pitching his camp at the distance of a mile from that of the united army, he kept his men quiet. The enemy filled the middle space, between the two camps, with their troops, in order of battle, and gave several challenges to fight, to which no Roman returned an answer. Fatigued at length with standing, and waiting in vain for an engagement, the Æquans and Volscians, considering this as almost equivalent to an acknowledgment of the victory in their favour, detached several parties to make depredations, some against the Hernicians, others against the Latines; leaving rather a guard to the camp, than such a force as could contend with the Romans. As soon as the consul understood this, he retorted the menaces which they had before used to him, and drawing up his troops, advanced to provoke them to battle: and when, in consequence of so great a part of their force being absent, they declined to fight, the Romans instantly assumed fresh courage, and looked upon those troops as already vanquished, who, through fear, kept within their rampart. After remaining the whole day in readiness for action, they retired at the close of it. The Romans, on their part, full of confidence, employed the night in refreshing themselves, while the enemy, very differently affected, despatched messengers in the utmost hurry to every quarter, to call in the plundering parties. Such as were in the nearest places returned with speed; those who had gone to a greater distance could not be found. At the first dawn, the Romans marched out of their camp, resolved to assault the enemy’s rampart, if they should refuse to fight, and, when a great part of the day had passed, and no movement was made by the enemy, the consul ordered the troops to advance. On the army beginning to march, the Æquans and Volscians, indignant that victorious troops were to be defended by a rampart, rather than by valour and arms, demanded the signal for battle, in which they were gratified by their leaders. And now, half of them had got out of the gates, and the rest followed in regular order, marching down each to his own post, when the Roman consul, before the enemy’s line could be completed, and strengthened with their whole force, advancing to the engagement, fell on them, and thus encountering an unsteady multitude, who were hurrying from one place to another, and throwing their eyes about on themselves and their friends, he added to their confusion by a shout, and a violent onset. They at first gave ground, but afterwards collected their spirits, their leaders on every side asking them in reproach, if they intended to yield to vanquished enemies; and the fight was renewed.
LXI. On the other side, the Roman consul desired his troops to reflect, that, “on that day, for the first time, they as free men, fought for Rome, as a free city; that they were to conquer for themselves, and not in order to become a prize to the decemvirs; that they were not acting under the orders of Appius, but of their consul Valerius, descended from the deliverers of the Roman people, and, himself, one of their deliverers. He bade them show, that in the former battles the failure of victory had been owing to the leaders, not to the soldiers. He told them, it would be scandalous to evince a greater courage against their countrymen than against their enemies, and to be more afraid of slavery at home, than abroad; that Virginia had not, perhaps, been the only person whose chastity was in danger in time of peace; but that Appius, their countryman, was the only one from whose lust danger was to be dreaded; and that, should the fortune of war turn against them, the children of every one of them would be in like hazard, from so many thousands of enemies. That he was unwilling, on account of the omen, to mention such things, as neither Jupiter, nor Father Mars, would suffer to happen to a city built under such auspices.” He put them in mind of the Aventine and sacred mounts, and that “they ought to bring back dominion unimpaired to that spot, where a few months ago they had obtained liberty; to show that the Roman soldiers retained the same abilities after the expulsion of the decemvirs, which they had possessed before their appointment, and that the valour of the Roman people was not diminished by the establishment of laws which equalized their rights.” After speaking to this purpose among the battalions of the infantry, he flew from thence to the cavalry. “Come on young men,” said he, “show that ye excel the infantry in valour, as ye excel them in honour and in rank. The infantry at the first onset have made the enemy give way; before they recover the shock, give the reins to your horses, and drive them out of the field; they will not stand against your charge, and even now they rather hesitate than resist.” They spurred on their horses, and drove furiously against the enemy, already disordered by the attack of the foot; and after they had broken through the ranks, and pushed on to the rear of their line, a part, wheeling round in the open space, cut off their retreat to the camp, towards which the greater number now began to fly on all sides; and, by riding on before, compelled them, through fear, to take another course. The line of infantry, with the consul himself, and the main body of the army, rushed into the camp, and made themselves masters of it, killing a vast number, and getting possession of considerable booty. The news of this victory was carried both to the city, and to the camp in the country of the Sabines: in the city it excited only general joy; in the camp it fired the minds of the soldiers with emulation of the glory their fellow soldiers had acquired. Horatius had already inured them to the field by excursions and skirmishes, so that they began rather to place confidence in themselves, than to think of the ignominy which had been incurred under the command of the decemvirs; while these slight engagements had strengthened their hopes with regard to a general one. The Sabines, at the same time, who were rendered presumptuous by their successes in the last year, ceased not to provoke and urge them to fight; asking, “why they wasted time in excursions and retreats like marauders; and, instead of making one main effort to decide a single war, multiply their operations into a number of insignificant skirmishes. Why not come to a general engagement in the field, and let fortune determine the victory at once?”
LXII. The Romans, besides that they had now acquired a high degree of courage, were exasperated at the dishonour which it would reflect on them, if the other army were to return victorious to Rome, while they lay exposed to the abuse and insults of the enemy: “and when,” said they, “shall we ever be a match for that enemy, if we are not at present?” When the consul understood that such were the sentiments generally expressed by the soldiers in the camp, he called them to an assembly and said, “Soldiers, I suppose ye have heard the issue of the campaign in Algidum; the army have behaved as became the army of a free people. Through the judicious conduct of my colleague, and the bravery of the soldiers, victory has been obtained. For my part, what plan I am to adopt, or what degree of resolution I am to maintain, depends upon you. The war may either be prolonged with advantage, or it may be brought to a speedy conclusion. If it is to be prolonged, I shall take care, that, through means of the same discipline with which I began, your hopes and your valour shall every day increase. If ye have already sufficient courage, and wish for a speedy decision, come on, raise here a shout, such as ye would raise in the field. That will demonstrate at once your inclinations and your spirit.” The shout being given with uncommon alacrity, he assured them, that, “with the good favour of fortune, he would comply with their desire, and next morning lead them to the field.” The remainder of that day was spent in putting their arms in order. On the following, as soon as the Sabines perceived that the Romans were forming their line of battle, they also marched out, having for a long time ardently wished for an opportunity of fighting. The battle was such as might be expected, between armies both of whom were assured of their own courage; the one animated by a long and uninterrupted career of glory, the other lately elevated by unusual success. The Sabines added to their strength the advantage of a stratagem; for, after forming a line equal to that of the enemy, they kept two thousand men in reserve, who were to make a push during the heat of the engagement on the left wing of the Romans. These, by attacking their flank, were likely to overpower that wing, which was thus, in a manner, surrounded, when the cavalry of two legions, amounting to about six hundred, leaped from their horses, and rushing forward to the front of their party who were giving way, stopped the progress of the enemy, and at the same time roused the courage of the infantry, both by taking an equal share of the danger, and by exciting their emulation; for they reflected, that it would be shameful that the horse should incur double danger, by discharging both their own duty and that of others; and that the foot should not be equal to the horse, even when they were dismounted.
LXIII. They pressed forward therefore to the fight, which on their part had been suspended, and endeavoured to recover the ground which they had lost. In a moment they were on an equality, while one wing of the Sabines was compelled to give way. The horsemen then, covered between the ranks of the foot, returned to their horses, and galloped across to the other division; they carried with them an account of this success; and, at the same time, made a charge on the enemy, disheartened by the defeat of their stronger wing. None displayed in that battle more conspicuous bravery than themselves. The consul’s attention was every where employed. He commended the active, and reproved the remiss. These immediately, on being rebuked, exerted themselves with spirit; shame stimulating them as powerfully, as commendation had done the others. The shout being raised anew, and all uniting their efforts, they drove the enemy from their ground, and then the force of the Romans could no longer be resisted; the Sabines abandoned their camp, and were dispersed all over the country. The Romans here recovered not the property of their allies, as was the case in Algidum, but their own, which they had lost in the devastation of the country. For this victory, obtained in two battles, and in different places, the senate, so unwilling were they to gratify the consuls, decreed a supplication, in their name, of one day only. The people, however, went in great numbers on the second day also, to offer thanksgivings, and which they did with rather greater zeal than before. The consuls by concert came to the city within a day of each other, and called out the senate to the field of Mars; where, while they were relating the services which they had performed, the principal members began to complain, that the senate was purposely held in the midst of the soldiers, to keep them in terror. The consuls therefore, to take away all ground for such a charge, removed the assembly into the Flaminian meadows, to a place where the temple of Apollo now stands, called, even at that time, the Circus of Apollo. Here, a vast majority of the senators concurring in refusing a triumph to the consul, Lucius Icilius, tribune of the commons, proposed to the people, that they should take on them the ordering of it. Many stood forth to argue against this proceeding; particularly Caius Claudius exclaimed, that “it was over the patrieians, not over the enemy, that the consuls sought to triumph; and that more as a return for their private kindness to a tribune, not as an honour due to valour. That a triumph was a matter which had never, hitherto, been directed by the people; but that the judgment on the merit, and the disposal of it, had always been in the senate. That even the kings had not in this respect derogated from that order, the principal one in the state. He charged the tribunes not to occupy every department so entirely with their own authority, as to leave no room for the deliberation of the public; and asserted, that by no other means could the state be free, or the laws equalized, than by each class maintaining its own rights, and its own dignity.” Though many arguments were used to the same purpose by the other and elder senators, yet every one of the tribes approved of the proposition. This was the first instance of a triumph celebrated by order of the people, without the approbation of the senate.
LXIV. This victory of the tribunes and commons was very near terminating in a wanton irregularity of pernicious tendency, a conspiracy being formed among the tribunes to procure the re-election of the same persons to that office; and, in order that their own ambition might be the less conspicuous or objectionable, to re-elect also the same consuls. They alleged, as a pretext, a combination of the patricians to sap the foundation of the rights of the commons, by the affronts which they threw upon the consuls. “What would be the consequence,” they said, “if, before the laws were firmly established, consuls should, with the power of their factions, make an attack on the new tribunes! For they could not always have Valerii and Horatii for consuls, who would postpone their own interest, when the liberty of the commons was in question.” By a concurrence of circumstances, fortunate at this juncture, the charge of presiding at the election fell to the lot of Marcus Duilius, a man of prudence, and who clearly perceived what a heavy load of public displeasure they would probably have to sustain, if they should be continued in office. He declared, that he would admit no vote for any of the former tribunes; while his colleagues strenuously insisted, that he should leave the tribes at liberty to vote as they thought proper; or else, should give up his turn of presiding to his colleagues, who would hold the election, according to the laws, rather than according to the pleasure of the patricians. Duilius, on finding a contest thus forced upon him, called the consuls to his seat, and asked them what was their intention with respect to the consular election. To which they answered; that they were resolved to appoint new consuls. Having thus gained popular supporters of his unpopular measure, he advanced together with them into the assembly. The consuls being there brought forward, and asked, in what manner they would act, should the Roman people, out of gratitude for having, by their means, recovered their liberty and for their meritorious and successful services in war, appoint them a second time to the consulship, declared the same resolution as before. On which, Duilius, after many eulogiums paid to them for persevering in a line of conduct quite different from that of the decemvirs, proceeded to the election; and when five tribunes of the commons were elected, the other candidates not being able to make up the requisite number of tribes, on account of the eagerness with which the nine tribunes openly pushed for the office, he dismissed the assembly, and did not afterwards call one. He said, that he had fulfilled the law; which, without any where specifying the number of tribunes, only enacted, that tribunes should be left; and he recited the terms of the law, in which it is said, “If I propose ten tribunes of the commons, and if there should at that time be found a less number than ten tribunes, then the persons whom these shall assume as colleagues, shall be legal tribunes of the commons, with the same privileges as those whom ye on that day made tribunes of the commons.” Duilius, persevering to the last, and declaring the commonwealth could not have fifteen tribunes, after baffling the ambition of his colleagues, resigned his office, with high approbation both from the patricians and the plebeians.
Y. R. 307. 445.LXV. The new tribunes of the commons showed, in their election of colleagues, an inclination to gratify the patricians. They chose two, who were patricians and even consulars, Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus Aterius. The consuls, then elected, were Largius Herminius and Titus Virginius Cœlimontanus, men not warmly attached to either party, patricians or plebeians. They had a peaceful year both at home and abroad. Lucius Trebonius, tribune of the commons, a bitter enemy to the patricians, because; as he said, he had been imposed on by them, and betrayed in the affair of choosing colleagues, carried a proposal that whoever took the votes of the commons on the election of plebeian tribunes, should continue the proceedings until he should return ten of that order. The whole time of being in office was passed in creating uneasiness to the patricians, from whence the surname of Asper (harsh) was given him.Y. R. 308. 444. Marcus Geganius Macerinus and Caius Julius, the next consuls chosen, prevented the ill effects of some combinations, formed by the tribunes against the young nobles, without taking any violent steps against those magistrates, and, at the same time preserving unhurt the dignity of the patricians. Wishing to give time for the matter to cool, they restrained the commons from rising in sedition by a proclamation for a levy of troops, to act against the Æquans and Volscians; giving, as a sufficient reason, that while harmony prevailed in the city, every thing abroad was also quiet, but whenever civil discord broke out, their foreign enemies assumed new courage. This care to preserve peace abroad, proved the cause of domestic concord. But each of the orders always took an improper advantage of moderation in the other. As soon as the commons grew tranquil, the younger patricians began to insult them. When the tribunes attempted to protect the weaker party, even at first they were of little use; afterwards, they themselves incurred ill-treatment, particularly in the latter months, because the combinations, then formed among the more powerful, encouraged them to it, while the vigour of every magistracy generally relaxes somewhat at that time. And now the commons began to think that they had nothing to hope from their tribunes, unless they procured such as Icilius, for those whom they had for two years past were but nominal tribunes. On the other side, the elder patricians, although they were convinced that the younger part of their body carried their presumption too far, yet were better pleased, if the bounds of moderation were to be exceeded, that those of their own order should possess a redundancy of spirit, than should their adversaries. So difficult it is to preserve moderation in the asserting of liberty, while, under the pretence of a desire to balance rights, each elevates himself in such a manner, as to depress another; for men are apt, by the very measures which they adopt to free themselves from fear, to become the objects of fear to others; and to fasten upon them the burthen of injustice, which they have thrown off from their own shoulders: as if there existed in nature a perpetual necessity, either of doing or of suffering injury.
Y. R. 309. 443.LXVI. The next consuls elected were Titus Quintius Capitolinus a fourth time, and Agrippa Furius, who found, at the commencement of their year, neither sedition at home, nor war abroad, but reason sufficient to apprehend both. The citizens could no longer be kept within bounds, both tribunes and commons being highly exasperated against the patricians, and every charge brought against any of the nobility constantly embroiling the assemblies and creating new contests. As soon as these were noised abroad, the Æquans and Volscians, as if they had waited for this signal, immediately took up arms; being, at the same time, persuaded by their leaders, who were eager for plunder, that the levy which had been proclaimed the last year had been found impracticable, the commons refusing obedience; and that, for that reason, no army had been sent against them; that their military discipline was subverted by licentiousness, and that Rome was no longer considered as their common country; that all the resentment and animosity which they had entertained against foreigners, was now turned against each other, and that there was a favourable opportunity of destroying those wolves, while they were blinded by intestine rage. Having therefore united their forces, they laid waste the country of Latium; where, none attempting to obstruct them, and the promoters of the war highly exulting, they advanced to the very walls of Rome, carrying on their ravages opposite to the Esquiline gate, and insulting the city. From thence, they marched back without molestation, in regular order, driving the prey before them to Corbio. Quintius the consul then summoned the people to an assembly.
LXVII. There, as we are told, he spoke to this purpose: “Although unconscious of any misconduct on my part, yet it is with the utmost shame, Romans, that I am come here, to meet you in assembly. That ye should be witnesses of such an event, that it should be handed down, on record, to posterity; that, in the fourth consulate of Titus Quintius, the Æquans and Volscians, who, a short time ago, were barely a match for the Hernicians, should have marched in arms, without molestation, to the walls of the city of Rome! Could I have foreseen that this ignominy was reserved for this particular year, though such is the general state of manners for a long time past, such the condition of affairs, that my mind could presage no good, I would yet have avoided this honourable post, by exile or by death, if there had been no other way of escaping it. Could Rome then have been taken in my consulship, if those arms, that were at our gates, had been in the hands of men of courage? I had enjoyed enough of honours, more than enough of life: I ought not to have outlived my third consulship. But, of whom have those once dastardly enemies dared to show such contempt; of us consuls? or of you Romans? If the fault lies in us, we should be deprived of the command, as unworthy of it, and if that be not enough, inflict some farther punishment: if in you, may no divine, or human being chastise your transgressions, only may ye yourselves gain a proper sense of them. They have not been actuated to this conduct, as supposing you void of spirit, nor from confidence in their own valour. After being so often routed and put to flight, beaten out of their camps, stripped of their territories; and sent under the yoke, they well know both themselves and you. Party dissensions are the bane of this city; the struggles between the patricians and the plebeians, while neither we fix due limits to our authority, nor ye to your liberty; while ye wish to get rid of patrician, we of plebeian magistrates, they have assumed unusual courage. In the name of the gods, what would ye have? Ye wished for tribunes of the commons; for the sake of concord, we granted them to you. Ye longed for decemvirs; we allowed them to be created. Ye grew weary of decemvirs; we compelled them to resign the office. Your resentment against them continuing, even after they were devested of their public character, we suffered men of the most distinguished families and stations, some to perish, and others to go into exile. Ye wished again to create tribunes of the commons; ye created them. Although we saw manifest injustice to the nobles in electing men of your order to the consulship; yet have we beheld patrician magistracy, along with the rest, conceded to the commons. The tribunes’ power of protecting the privilege of appeal to the people; the acts of the commons rendered binding on the patricians; our own rights subverted, under the pretext of equalizing the laws; all this we have endured, and still endure. Where, then, will be the end of our dissensions? Shall we never be allowed to have an united city and one common country? We, the party vanquished, sit down in quiet, with greater composure, than ye who have gained the victory. Do ye think it enough, that to us ye are objects of terror? The Aventine is taken from us; the sacred mount is seized. But when the Esquiline is almost in the hands of the enemy, no one appears in its defence. The Volscian foe scales your rampart, and not a man drives him back. Against us ye exert your courage, against us ye readily take arms.”
LXVIII. “Now then that ye have blockaded the senate-house, rendered the Forum the seat of hostilities, and filled the prison with the principal citizens, show an equal degree of valour, and march out through the Esquiline gate; or if ye have not courage for that, view from the walls your lands desolated with fire and sword, your own property carried off, and the burning houses smoking all round. But ye will say, it is the public interest that suffers by these means, by the country being wasted with fire, the city besieged, and the enemy enjoying the honour of the war. Be it so; but I will ask in what situation are your private affairs? Soon will you hear from the country accounts of your losses: and what means have ye, at home, of procuring a compensation for them? Will the tribunes bring back, will they restore what ye have lost? Words they will load you with, until ye are tired, and accusations against the principal citizens, and laws upon laws, and public meetings; but, from these, never did one of you return home with an increase of substance or fortune. Let me see any, who ever carried thence aught to his wife and children, except hatreds, quarrels, animosities, public and private; from the ill effects of which, indeed, ye have always been screened, not however by your own merit and innocence, but by the protection of others. But I will affirm, that, when ye used to make your campaigns, under the command of consuls, not of tribunes, in the camp, not in the Forum; when your shout used to strike terror into the enemy in the field, not into the Roman nobles in an assembly; after enriching yourselves with plunder, taking possession of your adversaries’ lands, and acquiring a plentiful stock of wealth and glory, both to the public and to yourselves; then, I say, ye returned home in triumph to your families; now, ye suffer these invaders to depart laden with your property. Continue immoveably tied to your assemblies, and live in the Forum; still the necessity of fighting, which ye so studiously avoid, attends you. Was it too great a hardship to march out against the Æquans and Volscians? The war is at your gates. If not repelled from thence, it will shortly be within the walls. It will scale the citadel and the capitol, and will pursue you, even into your houses. A year ago, the senate ordered a levy to be made, and an army to be led into Algidum. Yet we sit at home in listless inactivity, delighted with the present interval of peace, scolding each other like women, and never perceiving, that, after that short suspension, wars double in number must return upon us. I know that I might find more agreeable topics to dwell upon; but even though my own disposition did not prompt to it, necessity compels me to speak what is true, instead of what is agreeable. I sincerely wish, Romans, to give you pleasure; but I feel wishes, much more ardent, to promote your safety, let your sentiments respecting me afterwards be what they may. It results from the nature of the human mind, that he who addresses the public with a view to his own particular benefit, is studious of rendering himself more generally agreeable than he who has no other object but the advantage of the public. But perhaps ye imagine that it is out of regard to your individual interests, that those public sycophants, those artful flatterers of the commons, who neither suffer you to carry arms, nor to live in peace, excite and stimulate your passions. When they have once raised you in a ferment, the consequence to them is, either honour or profit. And because they see that, while concord prevails between the orders of the state, they are of no consequence on any side, they wish to be leaders of a bad cause, rather than of none, of tumults even, and seditions. Which kind of proceedings, if ye can at length be prevailed on to renounce; and, if ye are willing, instead of these new modes of acting, to resume those practised by your fathers, and formerly by yourselves, I am content to undergo any punishment, if I do not within a few days rout and disperse those ravagers of our country, drive them out of their camp, and transfer from our gates and walls, to their own cities, the whole terror of the war, which at present fills you with consternation.”
LXIX. Scarcely ever was the speech of a popular tribune more acceptable to the commons, than was this of a consul remarkable for strictness. Even the young men who were accustomed to consider a refusal to enlist, in such times of danger, as their most effectual weapon against the patricians, began to turn their thoughts towards war and arms. At the same time the inhabitants flying from the country, and several, who had been robbed there and wounded, relating facts still more shocking than what appeared to view, filled the entire city with a desire of vengeance. When the senate assembled, all men turned their eyes on Quintius, regarding him as the only champion for the majesty of Rome; and the principal senators declared, “that his discourse had been worthy of the consular command, worthy of his former administration in so many consulships, worthy of his whole life, which had been filled up with honours, often enjoyed, and oftener merited. That other consuls either flattered the commons, so far as to betray the dignity of the senate, or through the harshness of their measures, in support of the rights of their order, exasperated the populace by their attempts to reduce them; but that Titus Quintius, beyond all others, had delivered sentiments suitable, at once, to the dignity of the senate, to the harmony which ought to subsist between the several orders, and to the juncture of the times: and they entreated him and his colleague, to exert themselves in behalf of the commonwealth. The tribunes they intreated to unite cordially with the consuls in repelling the enemy from their walls, and to bring the commons to submit, at this perilous juncture, to the direction of the senate. Their common country, they told them, at that crisis, when the lands were laid waste, and the city besieged, called on them as tribunes, and implored their protection.” With universal approbation, a levy of troops was decreed. The consuls gave public notice in assembly, that “they could not now admit excuses, but that all the young men must attend next day at the first light, in the field of Mars: that, when the war should be brought to a conclusion, they would appoint a time for considering such matters, and that he whose excuse was not satisfactory should be treated as a deserter.” All the young men attended accordingly. The cohorts chose each its own centurions, and two senators were appointed to command each cohort. We are told, that all these measures were executed with such expedition, that the standards brought out from the treasury on that same day by the quæstors, and carried down to the field of Mars, began to move from thence at the fourth hour; and that this new-raised army, with a few cohorts of veterans who followed as volunteers, halted at the tenth stone. The following morning brought them within view of the enemy, and they pitched their camp close to theirs, near Corbio. On the third day they came to an engagement; the Romans being hurried on by desire of revenge, and the others by consciousness of guilt, and despair of pardon, after so many rebellions.
LXX. In the Roman army, although the two consuls were invested with equal powers, yet they adopted a measure exceedingly advantageous in all important exigences. The supreme command was, with the consent of Agrippa, lodged in the hands of his colleague, who being thus raised to a superiority, made the politest return for the other’s cheerful condescension to act in a subordinate capacity; making him a sharer in all his counsels and honours. In the line of battle, Quintius commanded the right wing, Agrippa the left; the care of the centre they entrusted to Spurius Postumius Albus, lieutenant-general; and that of the cavalry to another lieutenant-general, Servius Sulpicius. The infantry, in the right wing, fought with extraordinary valour, and met with a stout resistance from the Volscians. Servius Sulpicius, with the cavalry, broke the centre of the enemy’s line, and when he might have returned to his own station, he thought it more adviseable to make an attack on the rear of the enemy, before they could recover from the disorder into which their ranks had been thrown. By his charge on their rear, the enemy, being assailed on both sides, must have been instantly dispersed, had not the cavalry of the Volscians and Æquans, throwing themselves in his way, given him employment for a considerable time, opposing him with forces the same as his own. On this Sulpicius told his men, that there was no time to hesitate; and called out that they were surrounded and cut off from their friends, if they did not unite their most vigorous efforts, and rout the enemy’s cavalry: nor was it enough to drive them off the ground, without disabling them; they must kill both horses and riders, lest any should return and renew the fight. The enemy, he said, were not able to withstand them, to whom a compact body of infantry had been obliged to give way. His orders were obeyed with alacrity. By one charge they routed the whole body of cavalry, dismounted vast numbers, and killed with their javelins, both the men and horses. They met no farther obstruction from the cavalry. And now falling on the line of infantry, they despatched an account of their success to the consuls, before whom the enemy’s line was beginning to give ground. The news gave fresh spirit to the Romans, to pursue their advantage; while it dismayed the Æquans, who were already wavering. Victory began to declare against them, first in the centre, where the charge of the cavalry had disordered their ranks: their left wing next began to retreat before the consul Quintius: the greatest struggle was made by their right: there Agrippa, full of the ardour inspired by youth and vigour, when he saw every part of the Roman line more successful than his own, snatched some of the ensigns from the standard-bearers, and carried them forward himself: some he even threw into the thick of the enemy; and the dread of the disgrace to which this might expose them, so animated the soldiers, that they instantly rushed on. This rendered the victory equally decisive in every quarter. At this juncture, a message was brought to him from Quintius, that he had defeated the enemy, and was ready to attack their camp; but did not choose to break into it, until he should understand that the battle was determined on the left wing also; and desiring that if he had completed the discomfiture there, he would march up his troops to join him, that the whole army might take possession of the prize. Agrippa, now victorious, met his victorious colleague with mutual congratulations; and, in conjunction with him, advanced to the enemy’s camp; where, meeting very few to oppose them, and these being instantly routed, they forced their way through the fortifications without difficulty; and the troops having here acquired an immense booty, besides recovering their own effects which had been lost in the plundering of the country, were then led home. I do not find, either that the consuls sued for a triumph, or that it was bestowed on them by the senate: neither is there any reason assigned why they either did not wish, or might not hope to obtain that honour. It might probably be, as far as I can conjecture at this distance of time, that as this mark of approbation had been refused by the senate to the consuls Valerius and Horatius, who, besides having vanquished the Volscians and Æquans, had acquired the glory of subduing the Sabines also, the consuls were ashamed to demand a triumph for services which amounted only to the half of theirs; lest, even if they should obtain it, there might be room to imagine that the compliment was paid to the persons rather than to their deserts.
LXXI. This honourable victory obtained over their enemies, the people disgraced at home, by a scandalous decision of a dispute concerning the boundaries of their allies. The people of Aricia, and those of Ardea, had often contended in arms the right of property to a certain district of land, and, wearied by many losses on both sides, referred the affair to the arbitration of the Roman people. Both parties attended to support their claims, and an assembly was held by the magistrates at their request. Here the matter was debated with great vehemence; and after the witnesses had been produced, when the tribes ought to have been called, and the assembled proceed to give their suffrages, there arose one Publius Scaptius, a plebeian, a very old man, who said, “Consuls, if I may be permitted to speak on a matter which concerns the interest of the commonwealth, I will not suffer the people to proceed in a mistake, with respect to this affair.” The consuls saying, that he was not worthy of attention, and should not be heard, he exclaimed, that the cause of the public was betrayed; and on their ordering him to be removed, called on the tribunes for protection. The tribunes, who in almost every case are rather ruled by, than rule the multitude, to gratify the populace, gave liberty to Scaptius to say what he pleased. He then began with informing them, that “he was in his eighty-third year, that he had served as a soldier in the very district in dispute, and was not young even then, that being his twentieth campaign, when the operations against Corioli were carried on. He could, therefore, speak with knowledge of an affair, which, though after such a length of time it was generally forgotten, was deeply fixed in his memory. The lands in dispute, he said, had belonged to the territory of Corioli, and when Corioli was taken, became, by the right of war, the property of the Roman people. He wondered by what precedent the Ardeans and Aricians could justify their expectations, of surreptitiously wresting from the Roman state, by making it an arbiter instead of proprietor, its right to a tract, to which, while the state of Corioli subsisted, they had never advanced any kind of claim. For his part, he had but a short time to live; yet he could not prevail on himself, old as he was, to decline asserting by his voice, the only means then in his power, a title to those lands, which, by his vigorous exertions as a soldier, he had contributed to acquire: and he warmly recommended it to the people, not to be led by improper notions of delicacy, to pass a sentence subversive of their own rights.”
LXXII. The consuls, when they perceived that Scaptius was heard, not only with silence, but with approbation, appealed to gods and men against the infamy of the proceeding; and, sending for the principal senators, went round with them to the tribes, beseeching them “not to be guilty of a crime of the worst kind, which would afford a precedent still more pernicious, by converting to their own use a matter in dispute, whereon they were to decide as judges. Especially when, as the case stood, although it were allowable for a judge to show regard to his own emolument, yet the utmost advantage that could accrue from the seizure of the lands, would by no means counterbalance the loss which they must sustain in the alienation of the affections of the allies, by such an act of injustice: for the loss of reputation and the esteem of mankind are of importance beyond what can be estimated. Must the deputies carry home this account? Must this be made known to the world? Must the allies, must the enemy hear this? What grief would it give to the former, what joy to the latter! Did they imagine, that the neighbouring states would impute this proceeding to Scaptius, an old babbler in the assemblies? This indeed would serve, instead of a statue, to dignify the Scaptian name; but the Roman people would incur the imputation of corrupt chicanery and fraudulent usurpation of the claims of others. For what judge, in a cause between private persons, ever acted in this manner, adjudging to himself the property in dispute? Surely, even Scaptius himself, dead as he was to all sense of shame, would not act in such a manner.” Thus the consuls, thus the senators exclaimed; but covetousness, and Scaptius, the instigator of that covetousness, had greater influence. The tribes being called, gave their judgment; that the land in question was the property of the Roman people. It is not denied, that it might with justice have been so determined, had the matter been tried before other judges: but, as the affair was circumstanced, the infamy of the determination was in no degree lessened by the equity of their title; nor did it appear to the Aricians and Ardeans themselves in blacker or more hideous colours than it did to the Roman senate. The remainder of the year passed without any commotion either at home or abroad.
* Justitium; quia jus sistebatur. In cases of great and immediate danger, all proceedings at law were suspended; the shops also were shut, and all civil business stopped, until the alarm was over.
* The lustrum was a period of five years, at the expiration of which a general review of the people was held, and their number, state, and circumstances inquired into. The senate also was reviewed by one of the censors: and if any one, by his behaviour, had rendered himself unworthy of a place in that body, or had sunk his fortune below the requisite qualification, his name was passed over by the censor, in reading the roll of senators; and thus he was held to be excluded from the senate. When the business was done, the censor, to whose lot it fell, condidit lustrum, closed the lustrum, by offering a solemn sacrifice in the Campus Martius.
* The Decuman gate was in the rear of the encampment. For the order and disposition of a Roman camp, see Adam’s Roman Antiquities.
* The ovation was an inferior kind of triumph, in which the victorious general entered the city, crowned with myrtle, not with laurel; and instead of bullocks, as in the triumph, sacrificed a sheep, ovis; hence the name.
* These were the famous sibylline books, purchased, it was said, by Tarquinius Superbus, from an old woman whom nobody knew, and who was never seen again. These books, which were supposed to contain prophetic information of the fate and fortune of the Roman state, were carefully reposited in a stone chest, in a vault under the Capitol, and two officers chosen from the order of patricians, called duumviri sacrorum, appointed to take care of them. The number of these was afterwards in creased to ten, half of whom were plebeians; then to fifteen, upon which occasion they were called Quindecemviri; which name they retained when augmented to sixty. Upon occasions of extreme danger, of pestilence, or the appearance of any extraordinary prodigies, these officers were ordered by the senate to consult, or to pretend to consult, the books, and they reported what expiations and other rites were necessary to avert the impending evil.
* A part of the town, so called.
* 9l. 13s. 6d.
* As the prætors could not attend the trial of every cause, they always had a list of persons properly qualified, called judices selecti, out of whose number, as occasion required, they delegated judges to act in their stead. These select judges were chosen in an assembly of the tribes, five out of each tribe; and the prætor, according to the importance or the difficulty of the cause in dispute, appointed one or more of them to try it. This office was, at first, confined to the senators; but was, afterwards, transferred to the knights; and was, at different times, held sometimes by one of these bodies, sometimes by the other, and sometimes in common between them both. The usual method of proceeding was this: the plaintiff either named the judge, before whom he summoned the defendant to appear, which was termed feire judicem; or he left the nomination to the defendant, ut judicem diceret, and when they had agreed on the judge, quum judicem convenisset, they presented a joint petition to the prætor, praying that he would appoint, ut daret, that person to try the cause; and, at the same time, they bound themselves to pay a certain sum of money, the plaintiff, ni ita esset, if he should not establish his charge; the defendant, if he should not acquit himself.
* 25l.
† 37l. 10s.
* The citizen’s dress, different from that of the military.
A law, permitting the intermarriage of plebeians with patricians, carried, after a violent struggle and strong opposition on the part of the patricians. Military tribunes, with consular power, created. Censors created. The lands which were taken from the people of Ardea, by an unjust determination of the Roman people, restored. Spurius Mælius, aiming at regal power, slain by Caius Servilius Ahala. Cornelius Cossus, having killed Tolumnius, king of the Veientians, offers the second opima spolia. The duration of the censorship limited to a year and a half. Fidenæ educed, and a colony settled there. The colonists murdered by the Fidenatians, who are reconquered by Mamercus Æmilius, dictator. A conspiracy of slaves suppressed. Postumius, a military tribune, slain by the army, exasperated by his cruelties. Pay first given to the soldiers out of the public treasury. Military operations against the Volscians, Fidenatians, and Faliscians.
Y. R. 310. 442.I.The next who succeeded in the consulship were Marcus Genucius and Caius Curtius, whose year was disturbed by commotions, both at home and abroad. For, in the beginning of it, Caius Canuleius, a tribune of the people, proposed a law, for allowing the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians, which the former considered as tending to contaminate their blood, and to confound all the distinctions and privileges of noble birth. Some hints, too, suggested by the tribunes, that liberty ought to be granted of choosing one of the consuls from among the commons, were afterwards improved, to such a degree, that the other nine tribunes proposed a law, that the people should have power of electing consuls, either from among the commons or the patricians, as they should think fit. The patricians were of opinion, that if this took place, the supreme authority would not only be shared with the very lowest ranks, but perhaps be entirely removed out of the hands of the nobility into those of the plebeians. With great joy, therefore, they received intelligence, that the people of Ardea, in resentment of the injustice of the sentence which had deprived them of their land, had revolted; that the Veientians were laying waste the Roman frontiers, and that the Volscians and Æquans expressed great discontent on account of the fortifying of Verrugo, preferring even a war, which promised not success, to an ignominious peace. These tidings being brought, with exaggerations, the senate, in order to silence the intrigues of the tribunes during the bustle of so many wars, ordered a levy to be held, and preparations for hostilities to be made with the utmost diligence, even with more despatch, if possible, than had been used in the consulate of Titus Quintius. On which Caius Canuleius declared aloud in the senate, that “the consuls would in vain think of diverting the attention of the commons from the new laws, by holding out objects of terror to their view, and that, while he was alive, they should never hold a levy, until the people had first ratified the laws proposed by him and his colleagues;” and then he instantly called an assembly.
II. Whilst the consuls were employed in rousing the indignation of the senate against the tribune, the tribune was as busy in exciting the people against the consuls. The latter asserted that “the outrageous proceedings of the tribunes could not be any longer endured; that matters were now come to a crisis, there being more dangerous hostilities excited at home than abroad; that for this the commons were not more to be blamed than the senate, nor the tribunes more than the consuls. In any state, whatever practices meet with rewards, these are always pursued to the greatest degree of proficiency, and these are the incitements which call forth merit, both in peace and war. Now, at Rome, there was nothing so highly rewarded as sedition; this was in every instance attended with honours both to individuals and to collective bodies. They ought therefore carefully to consider, in what condition they had received the majesty of the senate from their fathers, and in what condition they were likely to hand it down to their children; whether they could make the same boast which the commons might, with respect to their privileges, that it was improved both in degree and in splendor. No end appeared of these proceedings, nor would, so long as the fomenters of sedition were rewarded with honours in proportion to the success of their projects. What were the new and important schemes which Caius Canuleius had set on foot? No less than the prostitution of the privileges of nobility, and the confounding the rights of auspices, both public and private; that nothing might be left pure and unpolluted; and that, every distinction being removed, no person might know what himself was, nor to what order he belonged. For what other tendency had such promiscuous intermarriages, than to produce an irregular intercourse between patricians and plebeians, not very different from that between brutes? So that, of their offspring, not one should be able to tell, of what blood he was, or in what mode he was to worship the gods, being in himself a heterogeneous composition, half patrician and half plebeian? And, not content with the confusion which this would create in every affair, divine and human, those incendiaries, the tribunes, were now preparing to invade the consulship itself. At first they had ventured no farther than to sound people’s sentiments in conversation, on a plan of one of the consuls being elected from among the commons; now, they publicly proposed a law, that the people might appoint consuls, either from among the patricians, or from among the plebeians, as they should think fit; and there could be no doubt that they would appoint from among the commons the most seditious that could be found. The Canuleii and Icilii therefore would be consuls. But might Jupiter supremely good and great forbid, that the imperial majesty of the sovereign power should sink so low as that, and for their part, they would rather die a thousand deaths, than suffer such disgrace to be incurred. They were confident, that could their ancestors have foreseen, that, in consequence of unlimited concessions, the commons, instead of showing a better temper towards them, would become more intractable, and, as fast as they obtained their demands, would advance others more unreasonable and exorbitant, they would have struggled at first with any difficulties whatever, rather than have allowed such terms to be imposed on them. Because a concession was then made to them with respect to tribunes, it was for the same reason made a second time. This would be the case for ever. Tribunes of the commons, and a senate, could not subsist together, in the same state: either the office of the former, or the order of the latter, must be abolished, and it was better late than never, to endeavour to put a stop to presumption and temerity. Must they with impunity, after they have, by sowing discord, encouraged the neighbouring nations to attack us, prevent the state afterwards from arming and defending itself against the attack which they have brought on it? and, when they had done every thing but send an invitation to the enemy, prevent troops from being enlisted to oppose that enemy? But Canuleius has had the audacity to declare openly in the senate, that he would hinder the making of the levy, unless the senate, acknowledging in a manner his superiority, allowed his laws to be enacted. What else was this, than to threaten that he would betray his country: that he would suffer it to be attacked, and to fall into the enemy’s hands? What courage must that declaration afford, not to the Roman commons, but to the Volscians, to the Æquans, and Veientians? Might not these hope, that, under the guidance of Canuleius, they would be able to scale the capitol and the citadel; might they not hope this, if the tribunes, while they stripped the patricians of their privileges and their dignity, robbed them also of their courage?” The consuls concluded by saying, that they were ready to act as their leaders, first against the wicked practices of their countrymen; and afterwards, against the arms of their enemies.
III. At the very time while such arguments as these were urged in the senate, Canuleius was employed in declaiming in favour of his laws, and against the consuls, in the following manner: “Roman citizens! in many former instances I have seen enough to convince me in what degree of contempt the patricians hold you, how unworthy they esteem you to live in the same city, within the same walls with them. But this is now more clearly than ever demonstrated by their outrageous opposition to those propositions of ours. And this, for what? unless for reminding them thereby that we are members of the same community with themselves; and that, though we possess not the same degree of power, we are yet inhabitants of the same country. By the one, we require the liberty of intermarrying with them, a liberty usually granted to people of the neighbouring states, and to foreigners: for we have admitted even vanquished enemies to the right of citizenship, which is of more importance than that of intermarriage. By the other, we offer no innovation, we only reclaim and enforce an inherent right; that the Roman people should commit the high offices of the state to such persons as they think proper. And what is there in this, that can justify the patricians in thus disturbing heaven and earth? Their treatment of me just now, in the senate, very little short of personal violence? Their open declarations that they will have recourse to force, and their threatening to insult an office which has been held sacred and inviolable? Can the city no longer subsist, if the Roman people are allowed to give their suffrages with freedom, and to intrust the consulship to such persons as they may approve; or must the downfall of the empire ensue, if a plebeian, how worthy soever of the highest station, is not precluded from every hope of attaining to it? And does the question, whether a commoner may be elected consul, carry the same import, as if a person spoke of a slave, or the issue of a slave, for the consulship? Do ye not perceive, do ye not feel, in what a despicable view ye are considered? Were it in their power, they would hinder you from sharing even the light of the sun. That ye breathe, that ye enjoy the faculty of speech, that ye wear the human shape, are subjects of mortification to them. But then they tell you, that truly it is contrary to the rules of religion that a plebeian should be made consul. For heaven’s sake though we are not admitted to inspect the records,* or the annals† of the pontiffs, are we ignorant of the things which even every foreigner knows? That consuls were substituted in the place of kings; and consequently have no kind of privilege or dignity which was not possessed before by kings? Do ye suppose that we never heard it mentioned, that Numa Pompilius, not only no patrician, but not even a citizen of Rome, was invited hither from the country of the Sabines and made sovereign at Rome, by the order of the people, and with the approbation of the senate? That Lucius Tarquinius, of a race which, so far from being Roman, was not even Italian, the son of Demaratus a Corinthian, having come hither a stranger from Tarquinii, was raised to the like high station, though the sons of Ancus were alive? That after him Servius Tullius, the son of a captive woman of Corniculum, his father not known and his mother in servitude, obtained the crown, through his abilities and merit? Need I speak of Titus Tatius, the Sabine, whom Romulus himself, the founder of this city, admitted into partnership in the throne? The consequence was, that while no objection was made to any family, in which conspicuous merit appeared, the Roman empire continually increased. It well becomes you to show disgust, now, at a plebeian consul; though our ancestors disdained not to call foreigners to the throne, nor even after the expulsion of the kings, ever shut the gates of the city against foreign merit. It is well known, that we since admitted the Claudian family from among the Sabines, not only into the number of citizens, but even into that of the patricians. May a person, then, from a foreigner, become a patrician, and in consequence, consul; and shall a citizen of Rome, if he be a commoner, be cut off from every hope of the consulship? Is it deemed impossible that a plebeian can be a man of fortitude and activity, qualified to excel in peace and war, like Numa, Lucius Tarquinius, and Servius Tullius? Or, should such appear, shall we still prohibit him from meddling with the helm of government? In a word shall we choose to have consuls rather resembling the decemvirs, the most profligate of mankind, who in their time were all patricians, than like the best of the kings, who were new men?”*
IV. “But it is argued, that since the expulsion of the kings, there has been no instance of a plebeian consul. What then? Is no new institution ever to be known? Must every measure not heretofore practised, (and in a new state there must be many measures not yet introduced into practice,) be therefore rejected, even though it should be evidently advantageous? In the reign of Romulus, there were neither pontiffs nor augurs; Numa Pompilius introduced them. There was no such thing in the state as a general survey, and distribution of the centuries and classes, until instituted by Servius Tullius. There was a time when there never had been consuls; on the expulsion of the kings they were created. Of a dictator neither the office nor name had existed; in the time of our fathers it was introduced. There had never been tribunes of the commons, ædiles or quæstors; and yet it was resolved that those offices should be created. The office of decemvirs for compiling laws, we ourselves have, within the last ten years, both created and abolished. Who is not convinced that in a city, founded for eternal duration, and growing up to an immense magnitude, many new offices both civil and religious, many new rights, both of families and individuals, must necessarily be instituted. This very rule, prohibiting the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians, was it not enacted by the decemvirs within these few years, with the utmost injustice towards the plebeians, on a principle highly detrimental to the public? Can there be any insult greater or more flagrant, than that one half of the state, as if it were contaminated, should be held unworthy of intermarrying with the other? What else is this than, within the same walls, to suffer all the evils of rustication or of exile? They are anxious to prevent our being united to them by any affinity or consanguinity; to prevent our blood from being mingled with theirs. What! if this would be a stain on that nobility, which the greater number of you the progeny of Albans and Sabines, possess not in right of birth or of blood, but of cooptation into the body of the patrician; having been elected, either by the kings, or after their expulsion, by order of the people, could ye not preserve its purity by regulations among yourselves? By neither taking plebeian wives nor suffering your daughters and sisters to marry out of the patrician line? No plebeian will offer violence to a noble maiden; such outrageous lust is to be found only among nobles. None of them would compel any man against his will to enter into a marriage contract. But it is the prohibition of it by a law, the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians being interdicted; this is what the commons must consider as an insult. Why do ye not procure a law to be passed, that the rich shall not marry with the poor? A matter which in all countries has been left to the regulation of people’s own prudence; that each woman should marry into whatever family she has been betrothed to; and each man take a wife from whatever family he had contracted with; this ye shackle with the restraints of a most tyrannical law, whereby ye tear asunder the bands of civil society, and split one state into two. Why do ye not enact, that a plebeian shall not dwell in the neighbourhood of a patrician? that he shall not travel on the same road? That he shall not appear at the same entertainment? That he shall not stand in the same Forum? For what more material consequence can in reality ensue, should a patrician wed a plebeian woman, or a plebeian a patrician woman? What alteration is thereby made in the rights of any person? Surely the children follow the condition of the father. So that neither have we any advantage in view, from intermarriage with you, except that of being considered on the footing of human beings and of fellow-citizens; nor is there any reason for contesting the point, unless ye feel pleasure in labouring to subject us to scorn and insult.”
V. “In fine, let me ask you, whether is the supreme power vested in the Roman people, or in you? Was the expulsion of the kings intended to procure absolute dominion to yourselves, or equal freedom to all? Is it fitting that the Roman people should have the power of enacting such laws as they choose? or whenever any matter of the kind has been proposed to their consideration, shall ye, by way of punishment, pass a decree for a levy of troops? And as soon as, in capacity of tribune, I shall begin to call the tribes to give their suffrages, will you, in the office of consul, compel the younger citizens to take the military oath, and lead them out to camp? Will you menace the commons? Will you menace their tribune? As if ye had not already experienced, on two several occasions, how little such menaces avail against the united sense of the people. I suppose it was out of regard to our interests, that ye did not proceed to force; or was the avoiding of extremities owing to this that the party which possessed the greater share of strength, possessed also a greater degree of moderation? Romans, there will now be no occasion for force. Those men will on every occasion make trial of your patriot spirit: your strength at home they will never try. Wherefore, consuls, to those wars, whether real or fictitious, the commons are ready to attend you, provided that by restoring the right of intermarriage, ye at length unite the state into one body; provided they are allowed to coalesce, to intermix with you by the ties of relationship; provided the road to honours shall be laid open to men of industry and abilities; provided, in short, they are allowed to stand on the footing of partners and associates in the commonwealth; and, what is the natural result of equal freedom, be admitted in the rotation of annual magistracies, to obey and to command in turn. If any shall obstruct these measures, harangue about wars, and multiply them by reports, not a man will give in his name; not a man will take arms; not a man will fight for haughty masters, by whom he is excluded as an alien, both from the participation of public honours, and the private connections of marriage.”
VI. The consuls then came into the assembly, and, after a long series of harangues on the subject, an altercation arising, and the tribune asking, “for what reason was it improper that a plebeian should be made consul?” one of them answered, though perhaps with truth, yet unluckily, with regard to the present dispute, “Because no plebeian had the right or power of taking the auspices; and, for that reason the decemvirs had prohibited intermarriage, lest, from the uncertainty of men’s descent, the auspices might be vitiated.” This, above all, kindled the indignation of the commons into a flame; they heard it affirmed that they were not qualified to take auspices, as if they were objects of the aversion of the immortal gods. So that the contest grew high, the commons being headed by a tribune of undaunted resolution, and themselves vying with him in steadiness, until the senate were at length overpowered, and gave their consent to the passing of the law concerning intermarriage; judging, that the tribunes might most probably be thereby induced, either to lay aside entirely, or to defer until the end of the war, the struggle for plebeian consuls; and that, in the mean time, the commons, satisfied with having obtained the right in question, would be ready to enlist. On the other hand, the high degree of credit which Canuleius had attained by his victory over the senate, and the favour of the commons, proved a strong incentive to the other tribunes to exert their utmost efforts in support of the law, which they had proposed in regard to the consulship: and whilst the accounts of the enemy’s proceedings grew every day more alarming, they obstructed the enlisting of troops. The consuls, finding that, by the continual protests of the tribunes, every proceeding of the senate was rendered abortive, held consultations at their houses with the principal patricians. Here they saw their dilemma: they must be vanquished, either by their enemies, or by their countrymen. The only consulars who were present at their deliberations were Valerius and Horatius. Caius Claudius gave his opinion, that the consuls should proceed against the tribunes by force of arms. The Quintii, both Cincinnatus and Capitolinus, declared themselves averse from the shedding of blood, and of offering violence to those officers, whom, by the treaty concluded with the commons, they had acknowledged as sacred and inviolable. The result of these consultations was, that they should allow military tribunes, with consular power, to be elected out of the patricians and plebeians without distinction; and that, with respect to the election of consuls, no change should be made; and with this the tribunes were satisfied, and the commons also. An assembly was now proclaimed for the election of three tribunes with consular power; and, as soon as this proclamation was issued, immediately every one, who had, either by word or deed, been a promoter of the sedition, particularly those who had held the office of tribune, began to solicit votes, and to bustle through the Forum as candidates; so that the patricians were deterred, first, in despair of attaining that dignity, while the minds of the commons were in such a ferment; and, afterwards, from making their appearance, from the indignation which they felt at the thoughts of holding the office in conjunction with such colleagues. At last, however, overcome by the pressing instances of the leading patricians, some of them declared themselves candidates, lest they might seem to have voluntarily surrendered the administration of public affairs. The issue of that election afforded a proof, that men’s sentiments during the heat of the contest for liberty and dignity, are very different from those which they feel after the contest has been ended, and when the judgment is unbiassed. For the advocates for the plebeians, satisfied with the admission of their right to stand candidates, elected every one of the tribunes from among the patricians. Never was there found, even in a single individual, such moderation, disinterestedness, and elevation of mind, as was displayed on that occasion by the whole body of the poople.
Y. R. 311. 441.VII. In the year three hundred and ten from the foundation of the city of Rome, for the first time, military tribunes in the room of consuls entered into office. These were Aulus Sempronius Atratinus, Lucius Atilius, and Titus Cæcilius; and, during their continuance in office, concord prevailing at home, produced likewise peace abroad. There are some writers, who, without mentioning the proposal of the law concerning the election of plebeian consuls, affirm, that on account of a war breaking out with the Veientians, in addition to those with the Æquans and Volscians, and the revolt of the Ardeans, two consuls being unequal to the task of conducting so many wars at once, three military tribunes were created, and vested both with the authority and the badges of consuls. However, the establishment of this office did not, at that time, remain on a permanent footing; for in the third month from its commencement they resigned their dignity, in pursuance of a decree of the augurs, alleging a defect in the election, Caius Curtius, who had presided on that occasion, not having performed the requisite ceremonies in marking out the ground for his tent. Ambassadors came from Ardea to Rome, complaining of the injustice done to them, and at the same time professing an intention of remaining in amity, and adhering to the treaty, provided that, by the restoration of their lands, that injustice were redressed. The senate answered, that “they could not rescind the sentence of the people, were there no other reason than the preservation of concord between the orders in the state; but, besides, such a measure was not justified either by law or precedent. If the Ardeans would be content to wait until a seasonable conjuncture, and leave it entirely to the senate to find a remedy for the injury offered them, they would have reason afterwards to rejoice for having moderated their resentment, and should be convinced that the senate had ever been sincerely disposed to prevent any harm being done to them; and also that they were not less so to hear that which they now complained of.” On which the ambassadors declaring, that they would take the sense of their countrymen anew, before they formed any resolution, they were dismissed with expressions of friendship. The commonwealth being now without any curule magistrate, the patricians assembled and created an interrex, and the interregnum was prolonged for a great many days, by a contention whether consuls or military tribunes should be appointed. The interrex and the senate warmly promoted the election of consuls; the plebeian tribunes and the commons, the election of military tribunes. The patricians at length prevailed, for the commons, who had no intention of conferring either the one office or the other on any but patricians, desisted from their fruitless opposition: and besides, the leaders of the commons were better pleased with an election where they were not to appear as candidates, than with one where they would be passed over as unworthy. The plebeian tribunes wished also that their declining to press the dispute to a decision should be considered as a compliment to the patricians. Titus Quintius Barbatus, the interrex, elected consuls Lucius Papirius Mugilanus and Lucius Sempronius Atratinus. In their consulate, the treaty with the Ardeans was renewed; and this serves as a record to prove, that they were actually consuls in that year, though they are not to be found, either in the old annals, or in the books of the magistrates, by reason, as I imagine, that in the beginning of the year there were military tribunes, and therefore though these consuls were afterwards substituted in their room, yet the names of the consuls were omitted, as if the others had continued in office through the whole of the appointed time. Licinius Macer affirms, that they were found both in the Ardean treaty, and in the linen books in the temple of Moneta. Tranquillity prevailed, not only at home but abroad, notwithstanding so many alarms given by the neighbouring states.
Y. R. 312. 440.VIII. Whether this year had tribunes only, or consuls substituted in their room, is uncertain, but the succeeding one undoubtedly had consuls; Marcus Geganius Macerinus a second time, and Titus Quintius Capitolinus a fifth time, being invested with that honour. This same year produced the first institution of the censorship, an office which sprung from an inconsiderable origin, but grew up afterwards to such a height of importance, that it became possessed of the entire regulation of the morals and discipline of the Roman people. The senate, the centuries of the knights, and the distribution of honour and ignominy, were all under the supreme jurisdiction of these magistrates. The discrimination of public from private property in lands or houses, and the entire revenue of the Roman people, were finally adjusted by their sovereign decision. What gave rise to the institution was, that as the people had not, for many years past, undergone a survey, the census could neither be longer deferred, nor could the consuls find leisure to perform it, while they were threatened with war by so many different states. An observation was made in the senate, that a business, so laborious and ill suited to the office of consul, would require officers to be appointed for that particular purpose, to whose management should be committed the business of the public secretaries, the superintendance and custody of the records, and the adjustment of the form of proceeding in the census. This proposal, though deemed of little consequence, yet, as it tended to increase the number of patrician magistrates in the commonwealth, the senate, on their part, received with great pleasure; foreseeing also, I suppose, what really happened, that the influence of those who should be raised to that post, would derive additional authority and dignity on the office itself. And, on the other side, the tribunes, looking on the employment rather as necessary, which was the case at the time, than as attended with any extraordinary lustre, did not choose to oppose it, lest they should seem, through perverseness, to carry on their opposition even in trifles. The leading men in the state showing a dislike of the office, the people by their suffrages conferred the employment of performing the census on Papirius and Sempronius, the persons whose consulate is doubted, in order to recompense them, by that office, for having enjoyed the consulship only for a part of the usual period. From the business of their office they were called Censors.
IX. During these transactions at Rome, ambassadors came from Ardea, imploring, in regard of the alliance subsisting between them from the earliest times, and of the treaty lately renewed, relief for their city, now on the brink of ruin. The peace with Rome, which they had, by the soundest policy, preserved, they were prevented from enjoying by intestine war, the cause and origin of which is said to have arisen from a struggle between factions, which have proved, and will ever continue to prove, a more deadly cause of downfall to most states, than either foreign wars, or famine, or pestilence, or any other of those evils, which men are apt to consider as the severest of public calamities, and the effects of the divine vengeance. Two young men courted a maiden of a plebeian family, highly distinguished for beauty: one of them, on a level with the maid, in point of birth, and favoured by her guardians, who were themselves of the same rank; the other of noble birth, captivated merely by her beauty. The pretensions of the latter were supported by the interest of the nobles, which proved the means of introducing party disputes into the damsel’s family; for the nobleman’s wishes were seconded by her mother, who was ambitious of securing the more splendid match for her daughter, while the guardians, actuated even in a matter of that sort, by a spirit of party, exerted themselves in favour of the person of their own order. Not being able to come to any conclusion on the point in domestic conferences, they had recourse to a court of justice, where the magistrates having heard the claims of the mother and of the guardians, decreed, that she should marry according to the direction of her parent: but this was prevented by violence; for the guardians, after haranguing openly in the Forum, among people of their own faction, on the iniquity of the decree, collected a party in arms, and forcibly carried off the maiden from her mother’s house: while the nobles, more highly incensed against them than ever, united in a body, and in military array followed their young friend, who was rendered furious by this outrage. A desperate battle was fought, in which the commons were worsted; and, being incapable of imitating, in any particular, those of Rome, they marched out of the city, seized on a neighbouring hill, and from thence made excursions with fire and sword on the lands of the nobles. Even the city itself, which had hitherto escaped the effects of their dispute, they prepared to besiege, having, by the hopes of plunder, allured a great number of the artizans to come out and join them: nor is there any shocking form or calamity of war which was not experienced on the occasion, as if the whole state were infected with the mad rage of two youths, who sought the accomplishment of that fatal match through the means of their country’s ruin. Both parties thinking that they had not enough of hostilities among themselves, the nobles called upon the Romans to relieve their city from a siege; while the commons besought the Volscians to join them in the storming of Ardea. The Volscians, under the command of Cluilius, an Æquan, arrived first at Ardea, and drew a line of circumvallation round the enemy’s walls. An account of this being conveyed to Rome, Marcus Geganius, consul, instantly set out with an army, chose ground for his camp, at the distance of three miles from the enemy; and, as the day was now far spent, ordered his men to refresh themselves: then, at the fourth watch, he put his troops in motion. They were soon set to work, and made such expedition, that at sun-rise the Volscians saw themselves inclosed by the Romans with stronger works than those with which they had surrounded the city. The consul had also, on one side, drawn a line across, to the wall of Ardea, to open a communication with his friends in the city.
X. The general of the Volscians, who had hitherto maintained his troops, not out of magazines provided for the purpose, but by corn brought in daily from the plunder of the country, finding himself cut off at once from every resource, by being shut up within the enemy’s lines, requested a conference with the consul, and told him, that “if the intention of the Romans in coming thither was to raise the siege, he was willing to withdraw the troops of the Volscians from the place.” To this the consul answered, that “it was the part of the vanquished to receive terms, not to dictate them; and that the Volscians should not have the making of their own conditions for departure, as they had for coming to attack the allies of the Roman people.” He insisted, that “they should deliver up their general into his hands, lay down their arms, and acknowledging themselves vanquished, submit to his farther orders;” declaring, that “if these terms were not complied with, whether they remained there, or retired, he would proceed against them as a determined enemy; and would be better pleased to carry home a victory, over the Volscians, than an insidious peace.” The Volscians, resolving to make trial of the small remains of hope, which they could place in their arms, as they were utterly destitute of every other, came to an engagement; in which, besides other disadvantages, the ground rendered it difficult for them to fight, and still more so to retreat. When, finding themselves repulsed on all sides, with much slaughter, from fighting they had recourse to intreaties; and, having delivered up their general, and surrendered their arms, they were sent under the yoke, each with a single garment, loaded with ignominy and sufferings; and, having afterwards halted near the city of Tusculum, the inhabitants of that city, out of the inveterate hatred which they bore them, attacked them unarmed as they were, and executed severe vengeance on them; leaving scarcely any to carry home the news of their defeat. The Roman general re-established tranquillity in the affairs of Ardea, which had been thrown into great confusion by the sedition, beheading the principal authors of the disturbances, and confiscating their effects to the public treasury. These now considered the injustice of the former sentence against them, as sufficiently repaired by such an important act of kindness: the senate, however, were of opinion that something still remained to be done, to obliterate, if possible, all remembrance of the Roman people’s avarice. The consul returned into the city in triumph, Cluilius the general of the Volscians being led before his chariot, and the spoils borne before him, of which he had stripped the enemy when he disarmed, and sent them under the yoke. The other consul, Quintius, had the singular felicity of acquiring by his administration in the civil department, a share of glory equal to what his colleague had acquired by his military achievements: for so steadily did he direct his endeavours for the preservation of internal peace and harmony, dispensing justice tempered with moderation, equally to the highest and the lowest, that while the patricians approved of his strictness in the execution of his office, the commons were highly satisfied with his lenity. Even against the schemes of the tribunes, he carried his measures more by means of the respect universally paid to him, than by exertions of authority. Five consulships administered with the same tenor of conduct, and every part of his life being suited to the consular dignity, attracted to his person almost a greater degree of veneration than was paid even to the high office which he bore. There was, therefore, no mention of military tribunes in this consulate.
Y. R. 313. 439.XI. There were chosen, to succeed them, Marcus Fabius Vebulanus and Postumius Æbutius Cornicen. These consuls were emulous of the high renown, which they observed their predecessors had attained by their services at home and abroad, that year having been rendered very remarkable among all the neighbouring states, both friends and enemies, by the very zealous support afforded to the Ardeans in their extreme distress. They exerted themselves then the more earnestly, with the view of erasing entirely from the minds of men the infamy of the former sentence of the people in respect of the appropriation of the lands: and sought to procure a decree of the senate, that whereas the Ardeans had by intestine war been reduced to an inconsiderable number, therefore a colony should be conducted thither, to serve as a barrier against the Volscians. These were the expressions made use of in the tables exhibited to public view, in order to conceal from the tribunes and commons the design which they had formed of rescinding the sentence. But they had agreed among themselves, to enrol for the colony a much greater number of Rutulians than of Romans; and then, that no other land should be distributed, but that which had been fraudulently obtained by the infamous sentence of the people; and that not a sod of it should be assigned to any Roman until every one of the Rutulians should have received his share: by these means the land returned to the Ardeans. The commissioners appointed to conduct the colony to Ardea, were Agrippa Menenius, Titus Clælius Siculus, and Marcus Æbutius Elva; who, in the execution of their very unpopular employment, having given offence to the commons, by assigning to the allies that land which the Roman people had by their sentence pronounced to be their own; and not being much favoured even by the principal patricians, because they had shown no difference to the influence of any of them, were by the tribunes cited before the people, to answer a charge of misconduct; but they evaded all vexations attacks, by enrolling themselves as settlers, and remaining in that colony, which would ever bear testimony to their justice and integrity.
Y. R. 314. 438.XII. Tranquillity continued at home and abroad during both this and the following year, in which Caius Furius Pacilus, and Marcus Papilius Crassus were consuls. The games vowed by the decemvirs in pursuance of a decree of the senate, on occasion of the secession of the commons from the patricians were this year performed. An occasion of sedition was sought in vain by Petilius; who, though he was elected tribune of the commons a second time, merely out of people’s reliance on the strength of his declaration, which was, that the consuls should propose to the senate a distribution of lands to be made to the commons; yet he was neither able to carry this point, nor when, after a great struggle, he had prevailed so far as that the senate should be consulted, whether it was their pleasure that consuls should be elected, or tribunes, could he prevent an order for the election of consuls; and the tribune made himself still more ridiculous by threatening to hinder a levy of troops, at a time when, all their neighbours remaining in quiet, there was no occasion either for war or any preparation for it.Y. R. 315. 437. This tranquillity was succeeded by a busy year, wherein Proculus Geganius Macerinus and Lucius Menenius Lanatus were consuls; a year remarkable for a variety of dangers and disasters; for seditions, for famine, and for the people having almost bowed their necks to the yoke of arbitrary government, seduced by allurements of largesses. One calamity they were exempt from, foreign war: had this aggravation been added to their condition, the aid of all the gods could scarcely have preserved them. Their misfortune began with a famine; whether owing to the season being unfavourable to the productions of the earth; or, from more attention being paid to the pleasures of the city and the assemblies than to agriculture; for both causes are mentioned. The patricians laid the blame on the idleness of the commons: the tribunes sometimes on the evil designs, sometimes on the negligence of the consuls. At length the plebeians prevailed, the senate giving no opposition, that Lucius Minucius should be created president of the market, who proved, in the course of that employment, more successful in guarding the public liberty, than in the immediate business of his own department; although in the end, he obtained the honour of having relieved the people in regard to the scarcity, and also their gratitude for that important service. He first proceeded as follows: Finding little addition to the markets from several embassies which he sent, by land and sea, to all the neighbouring nations, except that some corn was brought, though in no great quantity, from Etruria, he had recourse to the expedient of dealing out, in shares, the scanty stock of provisions, at the same time compelling all to discover their stores of corn, and to sell whatever they had beyond a month’s allowance. He took from the slaves one half of their daily portion of food; passed censures on the hoarders of corn, and exposed them to the rage of the people. So strict a scrutiny, however, served rather to make known the greatness of the scarcity, than to remedy it; so that many of the commoners abandoning themselves to despair, rather than drag on their lives in torment, covered their heads, and threw themselves into the Tiber.
XIII. While things were in this situation, Spurius Mælius, a man of equestrian rank, and possessed of extraordinary wealth for those times, engaged in a plan, which, though useful for the present, was pernicious in its tendency; and was in fact suggested by designs still more pernicious: for having by means of his connections and dependents bought in a quantity of corn from Etruria (which very proceeding, I suppose, obstructed the endeavours of the magistrates to lower the price of provisions,) he began the practice of bestowing largesses of corn; and, having gained the hearts of the commons by this munificence, became the object of general attention. Assuming thence a degree of consequence, beyond what belonged to a private citizen, wherever he went, he drew them after him in crowds; and they, by the favour which they expressed towards him, encouraged him to look up to the consulship with a certain prospect of success. As men’s desires are never satiated, while fortune gives room to hope for more, he began to aim at higher and less justifiable objects. And since even the consulship must be obtained by violent efforts, in opposition to the inclinations of the patricians, and be, at the same time, a contest attended with such difficulties as would cost infinite labour to surmount, he directed his views to regal power. The election of consuls drew nigh; and the circumstance of its coming on before his schemes were sufficiently digested, and ripe for execution, was the cause of their being entirely disconcerted. To the consulship was elected, Titus Quintius Cincinnatus a sixth time,Y. R. 316. 436. a man not at all calculated to encourage the views of one who aimed at innovationts: his colleague was Agrippa Menenius, surnamed Lanatus. Minucius, too, was either re-elected president of the market, or was originally appointed for an unlimited term, as long as occasion should require; for there is nothing certain on this head, only that his name, as president, was entered in the linen books among the other magistrates for both years. This Minucius transacting, in a public character, the same kind of business which Mælius had undertaken in a private capacity, the houses of both were consequently frequented by the same sort of people; which circumstance, having led to a discovery of the designs of the latter, Minucius laid the information before the senate: that “arms were collected in the dwelling of Mælius; that he held assemblies in his house; and that there remained not a doubt of his having formed a design to possess himself of absolute power: that the time for the execution of that design was not yet fixed, but every other particular had been settled: that tribunes had been corrupted, by bribes, to betray the public liberty; and that the leaders of the multitude had their several parts assigned them. That he had deferred laying this matter before the senate, rather longer than was consistent with safety, lest he might offer any information which was ill-grounded or uncertain.” On hearing this, the principal patricians highly blamed the consuls of the former year, for suffering such largesses, and such meetings of the commons in a private house; and also, the new ones for their supineness, while the president of the market reported to the senate an affair of such importance, and which it was the duty of a consul both to discover and to punish. To this Quintius replied, that “it was unfair to blame the consuls, who being tied down by the laws concerning appeals, enacted for the purpose of weakening their authority, had not, in their office, the ability, however much they might have the will, to inflict condign punishment on such atrocious proceedings: that the business required not only a man of resolution, but one who should be free and unshackled by the fetters of those laws: that therefore he would name Lucius Quintius dictator: in him would be found a spirit equal to so great a power.” Every one expressed his approbation. Quintius at first refused the office, and asked them, what they meant by exposing him in the extremity of age to such a violent contest. On which they all joined in asserting, that his aged breast was fraught not only with more wisdom, but with more fortitude also, than was to be found in all the rest, loading him with deserved praises, while the consul persisted in his intention: so that at length Cincinnatus, after praying to the immortal gods that his declining years might not, at a juncture so dangerous, be the cause of detriment or dishonour to the commonwealth, was appointed dictator by the consul, and he then named Caius Servilius Ahala his master of the horse.
XIV. Next day, after fixing proper guards, the dictator went down to the Forum, the whole attention of the commons being turned towards him by the surprise and novelty of the affair; and whilst the partizans of Mælius, and also himself, perceived that the power of this high authority was aimed against them; others, who were ignorant of their designs, were wholly at a loss to discover what tumult, what sudden war, required either the majesty of a dictator, or the appointment of Quintius, after his eightieth year, to the administration of affairs. The master of the horse, by order of the dictator, then came to Mælius, and said to him, “the dictator calls you.” Struck with apprehension, he asked the reason, and was informed by Servilius, that he must stand a trial, and acquit himself of a charge made against him in the senate by Minucius. Mælius then drew back into the band of his associates; and, at first, cautiously looking round, attempted to skulk away; and when, at length, a serjeant, by order of the master of the horse, laid hold on him, he was rescued by the by-standers, and betook himself to flight, imploring the protection of the commons of Rome; affirming that he was persecuted by a conspiracy of the patricians, for having acted with kindness toward the people; and beseeching them to assist him in this extremity of danger, and not to suffer him to be murdered before their eyes. Whilst he exclaimed in this manner, Ahala Servilius overtook and slew him, and besmeared with the blood which flowed from the wounds, and surrounded by a band of young patricians, carried back an account to the dictator, that Mælius, on being summoned to attend him, had driven back the serjeant, and endeavoured to excite the multitude to violence, for which he had received condign punishment. “I applaud,” said the dictator, “your meritorious conduct; Caius Servilius, you have preserved the commonwealth.”
XV. He then ordered the multitude, who, not knowing what judgment to form of the deed, were in violent agitation, to be called to an assembly; there he publicly declared, that “Mælius had been legally put to death, even supposing him to have been innocent of the crime of aspiring at regal power, for having refused to attend the dictator, when summoned by the master of the horse. That he himself had resolved to examine into the charge; and that, when the trial should have been finished, Mælius would have met such treatment as his cause merited: but when he attempted by force to elude a legal decision, force was employed to stop his proceedings. Nor would it have been proper to treat him as a citizen, for though born in a free state, under the dominion of the laws divine and human, in a city from which he knew that kings had been expelled; and that in the same year the offspring of the king’s sister, and the sons of the consul the deliverer of his country, on discovery of their engaging in a plot for re-admitting the kings into the city, where by their father publicly beheaded; from which, Collatinus Tarquinius, consul, was ordered, through the general detestation of the name, after resigning his office, to retire into exile; in which Spurius Cassius was, several years after, capitally punished, for having formed a design of assuming the sovereignty; in which, not long ago, the decemvirs, on account of their regal tyranny, had been punished with confiscations, exile, and death; in that very city Spurius Mælius had conceived hopes of possessing himself of regal power. And who was this man? Although no nobility, no honours, no merits, could open to any man the way to tyranny; yet still the Claudii and Cassii, when they raised their views to an unlawful height, were elated by consulships, by decemvirates, by honours conferred on themselves and their ancestors, and by the splendor of their families. But Spurius Mælius, to whom a plebeian tribuneship should have been an object rather of wishes, than of hope, a wealthy corn-merchant, had conceived the design of purchasing the liberty of his countrymen, for a few measures of corn; had supposed, that a people victorious over all their neighbours, could be inveigled into slavery by being supplied with a little food. A person, whose elevation to the rank of senator, the state could have hardly digested, they were patiently to endure as king, possessing the ensigns and the authority of Romulus their founder, who had descended from, and returned to the gods. This must be deemed not more criminal than it was monstrous: nor was it sufficiently expiated by his blood; it was farther necessary that the roof, the walls, within which such a desperate design had been conceived, should be levelled to the ground; and that his effects should be confiscated, being contaminated by the intention of making them the price of the people’s liberty; and that therefore he directed the quæstors to sell those effects, and deposit the produce in the public treasury.”
XVI. He then ordered his house to be immediately razed, and that the vacant space should remain as a monument of the suppression of that abominable enterprize. This was called Æquimælium. Lucius Minucius was honoured with a present of an ox, with its horns gilded, and a statue, on the outside of the gate Trigemina; and this with the approbation of the commons, for he distributed among them the corn collected by Mælius, at the rate of an as for each peck. In some authors, I find, that this Minucius had changed sides from the patricians to the commons, and that having been chosen by the plebeian tribunes, as an eleventh member of their body, he quieted the commotion which arose on the death of Mælius. But it is hardly credible, that the patricians suffered the number of tribunes to be augmented, or that the precedent should have been introduced particularly in regard of a man of their own order; or that the commons did not afterwards maintain, or even attempt to maintain, a privilege once conceded to them. But what above all evinces the falsehood of that inscription on his statue, is, that, a few years before this, provision had been made by a law, that the tribunes should not have power to assume colleagues in their office. Of the college of tribunes Quintus Cæcilius, Quintus Junius, and Sextus Titinius had neither been concerned in the law for conferring honours on Minucius, nor did they cease to throw out censures in presence of the people, at one time on Minucius, at another on Servilius; and to complain of the unmerited death of Mælius. By such methods they accomplished their purpose so far as to procure an order, that military tribunes should be elected instead of consuls; not doubting, but in the filling up of six places, for so many were then allowed to be elected, some plebeians, who should profess a resolution to revenge the death of Mælius, would be appointed among the rest. The commons, though kept in continual agitation during that year, from many and various causes, elected three tribunes only, with consular power, and even chose among these Lucius Quintius the son of Cincinnatus, whose conduct in the dictatorship those men wished to render odious, and thence to gain occasion of new disturbances. Prior to Quintius, Mamercus Æmilius was voted in, a man who stood in the first rank of merit: in the third place, they elected Lucius Icilius.
Y. R. 317. 435.XVII. While these were in office, Fidenæ, a Roman colony, revolted to the Veientians, whose king was Lars Tolumnius. To their revolt a more heinous crime was added; for, in pursuance of an order from Tolumnius, they put to death Caius Fulcinius, Clœlius Tullus, Spurius Ancius, and Lucius Roscius, Roman ambassadors, who came to inquire into the reasons of this change of conduct. Some palliate the guilt of the king, alleging, that an ambiguous expression of his, on a successful throw at dice, being misapprehended by the Fidenatians, as an order for their execution, occasioned the death of the ambassadors. But this seems an incredible tale; for it cannot be supposed that the thoughts of Tolumnius would be so intently employed upon his game, that he should be regardless of a circumstance of so much consequence, as the arrival of his new allies, the Fidenatians, and who, if this be admitted, must have come to consult him upon the perpetration of a murder, which would violate all the laws of nations; or that, in such an affair, he should feel no compunction. It is much more probable, that his view was to involve them in such guilt, as to cut off all hope of reconciliation with the Romans. Statues of the ambassadors slain at Fidenæ were erected near the rostrum, at the public expense. A desperate struggle was now to be expected with the Veientians and Fidenatians; as, besides the circumstance of their situation, contiguous to the frontiers, they had stained the commencement of the war with an action so abominable. The commons, therefore, and their tribunes, seeing the necessity of attending to the general welfare, and suffering other matters to pass in quiet, there was no opposition to the election of consuls, who were Marcus Geganius Macerinus a third time, and Lucius Sergius Fidenas, so called, I suppose, from his services in the succeeding war.Y. R. 318. 434. For he was the first who engaged in battle with the king of the Veientians on this side of the Anio, in which he had the advantage; but he gained not an unbloody victory, so that people’s grief for the loss of their countrymen exceeded their joy for the defeat of the enemy; and the senate, as in a case particularly alarming, ordered Mamercus Æmilius to be named dictator. He chose his master of the horse from among his colleagues of the former year, in the office of military tribunes with consular power, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, a young man worthy of the father from whom he sprung. To the troops levied by the consuls, were added many veteran centurions, skilled in the business of war, and the number of men lost in the last battle was replaced. The dictator ordered Quintius Capitolinus and Marcus Fabius Vibulanus to attend him in quality of lieutenant-general. The appointment of a magistrate with extraordinary power, and the character of the person appointed being fully suited to those powers, both together so affected the enemy, that they withdrew from the Roman territory to the other side of the Anio: and continuing to retreat, took possession of the hills between Fidenæ and the Anio. Nor did they descend into the plains, until the legions of the Faliscians came to their aid: then, indeed, the camp of the Etrurians was pitched under the walls of Fidenæ. The Roman dictator took his post at a little distance from thence, at the conflux and on the banks of the two rivers, drawing lines across from one to the other, where the length of ground between them was not greater than he was able to fortify. On the day following, he led out his forces, prepared for battle.
XVIII. Among the enemy there were various opinions. The Faliscians, finding it very distressing to carry on war at such a distance from home, and being full of confidence in their own prowess, were urgent for fighting. The Veintians and Fidenatians foresaw greater advantages in protracting the war. Tolumnius, although the advice of his countrymen was more agreeable to his own sentiments, yet fearing lest the Faliscians should grow weary of a distant war, gave notice that he would fight on the following day. This, however, being still deferred, added to the confidence of the dictator and the Romans; so that the soldiers, openly threatening that they would assault the camp and the city, if the enemy did not come to an engagement, both armies marched forth into the middle of a plain which lay between the two camps. The Veientians, being superior in numbers, sent a party round behind the mountains, who were to attack the Roman camp during the heat of the battle. The army of the three states was drawn up in such a manner, that the Veientians formed the right wing, the Faliscians the left, and the Fidenatians the centre. The dictator charged on the right wing against the Faliscians; Quintius Capitolinus on the left against the Veientians; and the master of the horse, with the cavalry, advanced in the centre. For a short time all was silence and quiet; the Etrurians being resolved not to engage unless they were compelled, and the dictator keeping his eyes fixed on a Roman fort in the rear, until a signal which had been concerted should be raised by the augurs, as soon as the birds gave a favourable omen: on perceiving which, he ordered the cavalry first to charge the enemy with a loud shout: the line of infantry following, began the conflict with great fury. The Etrurian legions could not in any quarter withstand the attack of the Romans. The cavalry made the greatest resistance; but the king himself, distinguished in valour far beyond even these, by frequent charges on the Romans, while they were pursuing in disorder, in all parts of the field, prolonged the contest.
XIX. There was at that time among the Roman cavalry, a military tribune called Aulus Cornelius Cossus, remarkable for the extraordinary beauty of his person, as well as for his spirit and bodily strength, and for attention to the honour of his family, which having descended to him with great degree of lustre, he conveyed to his posterity with a large increase, and with additional splendor. Perceiving that wherever Tolumnius directed his course, the troops of Roman cavalry shrunk from his charge, and knowing him by his royal apparel, as he flew through every part of the army, he cried out, “Is this he who breaks the bands of human society, and violates the law of nations? This victim will I quickly slay, provided it is the will of the gods that any thing should remain sacred on earth, and will offer him to the manes of the ambassadors.” With these words, he clapped spurs to his horse, and with his spear presented, rushed against him. Having unhorsed him with a stroke, and pressing him down with his spear, he instantly sprung down on the ground; where, as the king attempted to rise, he struck him back with the boss of his shield, and with repeated thrusts pinned him to the earth. He then stripped off the spoils from the lifeless body, and having cut off the head, and carrying it about on the point of his spear as a trophy of the victory, he put the enemy to rout, through the dismay which struck them on the death of their king. Their body of cavalry likewise, which alone had kept the victory in suspense, was defeated with the rest. The dictator pursued close on the flying legions, and drove them to their camp with great slaughter. The greater number of the Fidentians, through their knowledge of the country, made their escape into the mountains. Cossus, having crossed the Tiber with the cavalry, brought to the city an immense booty, from the lands of the Veientians. During this battle, there was another fight at the Roman camp, against the party which Tolumnius, as was mentioned above, had sent against it: Fabius Vibulanus, manning the rampart all round, stood at first on the defensive; then, when the enemy were earnestly engaged against the rampart, sallying out with the veterans from the principal gate on the right, he made a sudden attack on them, which struck such terror, that though the slaughter was less, they being fewer in number, yet the rout was not less disorderly than that of their grand army.
XX. Crowned with success in every quarter, the dictator, in pursuance of a decree of the senate and an order of the people, returned into the city in triumph. By far the most distinguished object in this procession was Cossus, carrying the spolia opima (grand spoils) of the king whom he had slain, while the soldiers chanted their uncouth verses, extolling him as equal to Romulus. With the usual form of dedication he presented and hung up the spoils in the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, near to those dedicated by Romulus, and first denominated opima, which were the only ones then existing. He drew off the people’s attention from the chariot of the dictator to himself, and enjoyed almost solely the honour of that day’s solemnity. The former, by order of the people, deposited in the capitol, as an offering to Jupiter, a golden crown of a pound weight, at the expense of the public. Following all the Roman authors, I have represented Aulus Cornelius Cossus, as a military tribune, when he carried the second spolia opima into the temple of Jupiter Feretrius: but, besides that those spoils only are properly deemed opima, which one general has taken from another, and we know no general but the person under whose auspices the war is carried on, the inscription itself written on the spoils proves against both them and myself, that Cossus was consul when he took them. Having once heard Augustus Cæsar the founder or restorer of all our temples, on entering the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, which from a ruin he had rebuilt, aver, that he himself had read the said inscription on the linen breast-plate, I thought it would be next to sacrilege, to rob Cossus of such a testimony respecting his spoils, as that of Cæsar, to whom the temple itself owed its renovation. Whether the mistake is chargeable on the very ancient annals and the books of the magistrates, written on linen and deposited in the temple of Moneta, and continually cited as authority by Licinius Macer, which have Aulus Cornelius Cossus, consul, with Titus Quintius Penius, in the ninth year after this, every one may form his own judgment. For, that so celebrated a battle could not be transferred to that year, there is this farther proof: that for three years before and after the consulship of Aulus Cornelius, there was an almost entire cessation from war on account of a pestilence, and a scarcity of the fruits of the earth; so that several annals, as if they had no other transactions but those of mourning to relate, mention nothing more than the names of the consuls. Cossus, indeed, is mentioned as military tribune, with consular power, in the third year before his consulate; and in the same year as master of the horse, in which post he fought another remarkable battle with cavalry. In respect to this there is room for conjecture: but in my opinion, surmises are not to be brought in support of any matter whatsoever; when the person concerned in the fight, on placing the recent spoils in the sacred repository, and having in a manner before his eyes Jupiter, to whom they were consecrated, and Romulus, as witnesses; and, as would be the case in falsifying the inscription, who were not to be treated with contempt, entitled himself Aulus Cornelius Cossus, consul.
Y. R. 319. 433.XXI. During the next year, wherein Marcus Cornelius Maluginensis and Lucius Papirius Crassus were consuls, armies were led into the territories of the Veientians and of the Faliscians, and numbers of men and cattle were carried off as spoil, but the enemy did not show themselves, nor give any opportunity of fighting. However, no attempt was made on their towns, the people at Rome being attacked by a pestilential disorder. Endeavours were also used at home to excite disturbances, but without effect, by Spurius Mælius, a plebeian tribune, who, imagining that, by the popularity of his name, he should be able to raise some commotion, had commenced a prosecution against Minucius; and also proposed a law for confiscating the effects of Servilius Ahala, alleging that Mælius had been insidiously crushed under false charges by Minucius; and objecting to Servilius his having put to death a citizen who was under no legal sentence. These charges, however, when canvassed before the people, were found entitled to as little credit and attention as the promoter of them. But they found greater cause for anxiety in the increasing violence of the pestilence, attended with other alarming occurrences and prodigies; particularly in the accounts which were received, of many houses in the country being thrown down by frequent earthquakes. A general supplication to the gods was therefore performed by the people, who repeated it in form after the decemvirs.* The disorder increasing during the following year,Y. R. 320. 432. in which Caius Julius a second time, and Lucius Virginius were consuls, occasioned such dreadful apprehensions of total desolation, both in the city and the country, that not only an entire stop was put to predatory excursions from the Roman territories, but every thought of offensive operations laid aside both by patricians and commons. The Fidenatians, who had at first shut themselves up within their towns or forts, or among the mountains, now ventured to come down into the lands of the Romans, and commit depredations. Then the army of the Veientians being called to their aid, (For the Faliscians could not be prevailed on, either by the calamities of the Romans, or the intreaties of their allies, to renew hostilities,) the two nations crossed the Anio, and displayed their ensigns at a little distance from the Colline gate. This occasioned great consternation as well in the city as in the country. The consul Julius drew up the troops on the rampart and the walls, whilst Virginius held a consultation of the senate in the temple of Quirinus. Here it was resolved to create for dictator Quintus Servilius, to whom some gave the surname of Priscus, others that of Structus. Virginius delayed no longer than till he had conferred with his colleague, and having obtained his consent, named the dictator that night. He appointed Postumius Æbutius Elva his master of the horse.
XXII. The dictator issued an order that all should appear at the first light, outside the Colline gate; and that the ensigns from the treasury should be brought to him. Every one, whose strength enabled him to carry arms, attended accordingly. In the mean-time, the enemy withdrew to the higher grounds: thither the dictator followed, and coming to a general engagement near Nomentum, defeated the Etrurian legions, drove them from thence into the city of Fidenæ, and inclosed them with lines of circumvallation. But neither could the city be taken by storm, by reason of its high situation and the strength of its works, nor could a blockade turn to any effect, because they had such abundant stores of corn laid up in their magazines, as to be more than sufficient for necessary consumption. The dictator, therefore, having no hopes, either of taking the place by assault, or of reducing it to a surrender, being thoroughly acquainted with the same, resolved to carry a mine into the citadel, on the opposite side of the city; which, being the best secured by its natural strength, was the least attended to. He carried on his approaches to the walls, in the parts most distant from this; and, having formed his troops into four divisions, who were to relieve each other successively in the action, by continuing the fight night and day, without intermission, he so engaged the attention of the enemy, that they never perceived the work which was carrying on until, a way being dug from the camp through the mountain, a passage was opened up into the citadel, and the Etrurians, whose thoughts were diverted from their real danger by false alarms, discovered, from the shouts of the enemy over their heads, that their city was taken. In this year the censors, Caius Furius Pacilus and Marcus Geganius Macerinus, pronounced that the undertakers had fulfilled their contract for finishing the courthouse* in the field of Mars, and the survey of the people was performed there for the first time.
Y. R. 321. 431.XXIII. I find, in Licinius Macer, the same consuls re-elected for the following year: yet Valerius Quintius and Quintus Tubero mention Marcus Manlius and Quintus Sulpicius as consuls. In support of representations so widely different, both Tubero and Macer cite the linen books as their authority: but neither of them deny the record of ancient writers, who maintain that there were military tribunes in that year. Lucinius is of opinion, that the linen books ought to be implicitly followed. Tubero cannot determine positively on either side. But this is a point which, among others, involved in obscurity by length of time, must be left unsettled. The capture of Fidenæ spread great alarm in Etruria; for not the Veientians only were terrified with apprehensions of similar ruin, but the Faliscians also, conscious of having commenced the war in conjunction with them, although they had not joined them in the renewing of hostilities. Those two nations therefore, having sent ambassadors to all the twelve states, and procured an order for a general meeting at the temple of Voltumna, the senate, apprehensive of a powerful attack from that quarter, ordered Mamercus Æmilius to be a second time appointed dictator. He named Aulus Postumius Tubertus master of the horse, making more powerful preparations for this campaign than for the last, in proportion as the danger was greater from the whole body of Etruria, than it had been from two of its states.
XXIV. That business ended more quietly than could have been expected. For accounts were received from some itinerant traders, that the Veientians had met with a refusal of aid, and had been desired to prosecute with their own strength, a war in which they had engaged on their own separate views, and not endeavour to bring others to partake in their distresses, to whom they had imparted no share of their prospects, when they were favourable. The dictator, thus robbed of the harvest of glory which he expected to have reaped from military affairs, in order that his appointment might not be altogether without effect, conceived a desire of performing some exploit in the civil line of business, and which should remain as a monument of his dictatorship. He undertook therefore to limit the censorship; either judging its powers excessive, or disapproving of their duration more than of their extent. In pursuance of this design, having summoned an assembly of the people, he told them, that, “with regard to foreign affairs, and the establishing of security on every side, the immortal gods had taken the administration on themselves. That as to what was fitting to be done within the walls he would zealously maintain the liberty of the Roman people: now there was no method of guarding it so effectual, as the taking care that offices of great power should not be of long continuance; and that those, whose jurisdiction could not be limited, should be limited in point of duration:— that while other magistracies were annual, the censorship was of five years continuance; and it was grievous to people to have the greater part of their actions subjected to the control of the same persons for such a number of years: he would therefore propose a law, that the censorship should not last longer than a year and a half.” Next day, the law was passed, and with the universal approbation of the people. He then said, “To convince you by my conduct, Romans, how much I disapprove of long continuance in office, I here resign the dictatorship.” Having thus put an end to one office, and limits to another, he was, upon his resignation, escorted by the people to his house with the warmest expressions of gratitude and affection. The censors, highly offended at his having imposed a restriction on a public office of the Roman state, degraded Mamercus into a lower tribe,* and, increasing his taxes eight-fold, disfranchised him.† We are told, that he bore this treatment with great magnanimity, regarding the cause of the disgrace rather than the disgrace itself: and that the principal patricians, though they had been averse from a diminution of the privileges of the censorship, were, nevertheless, highly displeased at this instance of harsh severity in the censors; every one perceiving, that he must be oftener and for a longer time subject to others in the office of censor, than he could hold the office himself. The people’s indignation certainly rose to such a height, that no other influence than that of Mamercus himself could have deterred them from offering violence to the censors.
Y. R. 322. 430.XXV. The plebeian tribunes, by constantly haranguing the people against the election of consuls, prevailed at last, after bringing the affair almost to an interregnum, that military tribunes, with consular power, should be elected. In the prize of victory which they aimed at, the procuring a plebeian to be elected, they were entirely disappointed. The persons chosen were all patricians, Marcus Fabius Vibulanus, Marcus Foslius, and Lucius Sergius Fidenas. During that year, the pestilence kept other matters quiet. For the restoration of health to the people, a temple was vowed to Apollo, and the decemvirs, by direction of the books, performed many rites for the purpose of appeasing the wrath of the gods, and averting the pestilence. The mortality, notwithstanding, was great among men and cattle, both in the city and the country. Dreading a famine, in consequence of the death of the husbandmen, they sent for corn to Etruria, and the Pomptine district, to Cumæ, and at last to Sicily also. No mention was made of electing consuls.Y. R. 323. 429. Military tribunes with consular power were appointed, all patricians, Lucius Pinarius Mamercinus, Lucius Furius Medullinus, and Spurius Postumius Albus. In this year, the violence of the disorder abated, nor were there any apprehensions of a scarcity of corn, care having been taken to provide against it. Schemes for exciting wars were agitated in the meetings of the Æquans and Volscians, and in Etruria at the temple of Voltumna. Here the business was adjourned for a year, and a decree passed, forbidding any assembly to be held before that time, while the nation of the Veientians in vain complained, that the same misfortunes hung over Veii, which had destroyed Fidenæ. Meanwhile at Rome the leaders of the commons, who had for a long time in vain pursued the hopes of attaining higher dignity during this interval of tranquillity abroad, called the people together in the houses of the tribunes, and there concerted their plans in secret. They complained that “they were treated with such contempt by the commons, that, notwithstanding military tribunes with consular power had been elected for so many years, no plebeian had ever yet been allowed to attain that honour. Their ancestors, they said, had shown great foresight in providing that the plebeian magistracies should not lie open to any patrician, otherwise they would have had patrician tribunes of the commons; so despicable are we even in the eyes of our own party, and not less contemned by the commons than by the patricians themselves.” Others took off the blame from the commons, and threw it on the patricians: “It was through their arts and intrigues,” they said, “that the access to honours was barred against the plebeians. If the commons were allowed time to breathe from their intreaties mixed with menaces, they would come to an election with a due regard to the interest of their own party, and as they had already secured protection to themselves, would assume also the administration of the government.” It was resolved, that, for the purpose of abolishing the practice of those intrigues, the tribunes should propose a law, that no person should be allowed, on applying for an office, to add any white to his garment.* This may appear at present a trivial matter, scarcely fit to be seriously mentioned, yet it then kindled a very hot contention between the patricians and plebeians. The tribunes, however, got the better, and carried the law; and as it was evident that the commons, in their present state of ill-humour, would give their support to persons of their own party, in order to put this out of their power, a decree of the senate was passed, that the election should be held for consuls.
Y. R. 324. 428.XXVI. The reason assigned was, intelligence received from the Latines and Hernicians of the Æquans and Volscians having suddenly commenced hostilities. Titus Quintius Cincinnatus, who had also the surname of Pennus, son of Lucius, and Caius Julius Mento, were made consuls. Nor were they kept in suspense with respect to the danger apprehended from their enemies. The Æquans and Volscians having held a levy of troops under their devoting law, which is their most powerful instrument for forcing men into the service, marched a numerous company from each nation to Algidum, where they met, and formed separate camps; the generals taking extraordinary pains, beyond what had ever been practised before, in fortifying their posts, and exercising their men; which rendered the accounts brought to Rome still more alarming. The senate resolved that a dictator should be appointed, because, though these were nations often vanquished, yet, in the present revival of hostilities, they had used more vigorous efforts than before; and no small number of the Roman youth had been cut off by the sickness. Above all, they were alarmed by the perverseness of the consuls, the disagreement between themselves, and the opposition which they gave each other in every measure. Some writers say, that these consuls were defeated in a battle at Algidum, and that this was the reason for appointing a dictator. Thus much is certain, that though they differed in every thing else, they perfectly agreed in the one point, that of opposing the will of the senate, and refusing to name a dictator, until Quintus Servilius Priscus, a man who had passed through the highest dignities with singular honour, finding the intelligence which arrived grow more and more alarming, and that the consuls would not be directed by the senate, expressed himself thus: “Tribunes of the commons, matters having come to extremity, the senate appeals to you, that, in the present state of public affairs, ye may, by the authority vested in you, oblige the consuls to name a dictator.” This application seemed to the tribunes to afford them a good opportunity of extending their power; wherefore, after retiring together, they declared, by the authority of their body, that “it was their determination that the consuls should follow the directions of the senate, and that if they persisted in their opposition to the sentiments of that most illustrious body, they would order them to be carried to prison.” The consuls were better pleased to be overcome by the tribunes than by the senate, at the same time remonstrating, that “the prerogatives of the chief magistracy were betrayed by the senators, and the consulship subjugated to the tribunitian power. If the consuls were liable to be over-ruled by a tribune, by virtue of his office, in any particular, they were liable also to be sent to prison. And what greater hardship could any private person apprehend? It fell by lot, for even on that point the colleagues could not agree, to Titus Quintius to name the dictator, and he made choice of Aulus Postumius Tubertus, his own father-in-law, a man of remarkable strictness in command. Lucius Julius was by him nominated master of the horse. At the same time, a proclamation was issued for a vacation from civil business, and that nothing should be attended to, in any part of the city, but preparations for hostilities. The examination of the cases of those who claimed immunity from service, was to be made at the conclusion of the war, which induced even those whose claims were doubtful, to give in their names. The Hernicians and Latines also were ordered to send a supply of forces, and they both exerted themselves with zeal, in obedience to the dictator’s will.
XXVII. All these measures were executed with the utmost despatch, the consul Caius Julius being left to guard the city, while Lucius Julius, master of the horse, was to answer the exigences of the camp; and that there should be no delay with respect to any thing which might there be wanted, the dictator, repeating the form after the chief pontiff Aulus Cornelius, vowed to celebrate the great games on the occasion of this sudden war. Then, dividing his troops with the consul Quintius, he began his march from the city, and quickly came up with the enemy. Having observed that these had formed two camps at a little distance from each other, they in like manner encamped separately at about a mile from them, the dictator towards Tusculum, and the consul towards Lanuvium. Thus there were four armies, and so many fortified posts, having between them a plain of sufficient extent not only for the skirmishes of small parties, but even for drawing up the armies, on both sides, in battle array. From the time when the camps were pitched in the neighbourhood of each other, there was continual skirmishing, the dictator readily allowing his men to compare strength, and from the success of these combats he gradually formed a confident expectation of future victory in a regular fight. The enemy, therefore, finding no hopes left of succeeding in a general engagement, made an attack by night on the camp of the consul, on the issue of which the final decision of the dispute would probably depend. Their shout, which they set up on a sudden, roused from sleep, not only the consul’s watch guards, and afterwards all his troops, but the dictator also. The conjuncture requiring instant exertion, the consul showed no deficiency either of spirit or of judgment. One part of the troops reinforced the guards at the gates, while another manned the rampart around. In the other camp where the dictator commanded, as there was less tumult, so it was easier to perceive what was necessary to be done. Despatching, then, a reinforcement to the consul’s camp, under the command of Spurius Postumius Albus, lieutenant-general, he himself, with a body of forces, making a small circuit, proceeded to a place quite retired from the hurry of action, whence he proposed to make an unexpected attack on the enemy’s rear. To Quintus Sulpicius, lieutenant-general, he gave the charge of the camp; to Marcus Fabius, lieutenant-general, he assigned the cavalry, with orders that those troops, which it would be hardly possible to manage in the confusion of a conflict by night, should not stir until day-light. Every measure, which any other general, however skilful and active, could at such a juncture order and execute, he ordered and executed with perfect regularity. But it was a singular instance of judgment and intrepidity, and entitled to more than ordinary praise, that, not content with defensive plans, he despatched Marcus Geganius, with some chosen cohorts, to attack that camp of the enemy, from which, according to the intelligence of his scouts, they had marched out the greater number of troops. Falling upon men whose whole attention was engrossed by the danger of their friends, while they were free from any apprehension for themselves, and had neglected posting watches or advanced guards, he made himself master of the camp, sooner almost than they knew that it was attacked. A signal being then given by smoke, as had been concerted, the dictator perceiving it, cried out, that the enemy’s camp was taken, and ordered the news to be conveyed to all the troops.
XXVIII. By this time day appeared, and every thing lay open to view. Fabius had already charged with the cavalry, and the consul had sallied from the camp on the enemy, who were now much disconcerted, when the dictator on another side, having attacked their reserve and second line, threw his victorious troops, both horse and foot, in the way of all their efforts, as they turned themselves about to the dissonant shouts, and the various sudden assaults. Being thus hemmed in on every side, they would, to a man, have undergone the punishment due to their infraction of the peace, had not Vectius Messius, a Volscian, a man more renowned for his deeds than his descent, upbraiding his men as they were forming themselves into a circle, called out with a loud voice, “Do ye intend to offer yourselves to the weapons of the enemy here, where ye can neither make defence nor obtain revenge? To what purpose, then, have ye arms in your hands? Or why did ye undertake an offensive war, ever turbulent in peace and dastardly in arms? What hopes do ye propose in standing here? Do ye expect that some god will protect and carry you from hence? With the sword the way must be opened. Come on, ye who wish to see your houses and your parents, your wives and children, follow wherever ye see me lead the way. There is neither wall nor rampart, nothing to obstruct you, but men in arms, with which ye are as well furnished as they. Equal in bravery, ye are superior to them in point of necessity, the ultimate and most forcible of weapons.” No sooner had he uttered these words, than he put them in execution, and the rest raising the shout anew, and following him, made a violent push on that part where Postumius Albus had drawn up his forces in their way, and made the conqueror give ground, until the dictator came up, just as his men were on the point of retreating. Thus the whole weight of the battle was turned to that quarter. Messius alone supported the fortune of the enemy, while many wounds were received, and great slaughter was made on both sides. By this time the Roman generals themselves were not unhurt in the fight: one of them, Postumius, retired from the field, having his skull fractured by the stroke of a stone; but neither could the dictator be prevailed on, by a wound in his shoulder, nor Fabius, by having his thigh almost pinned to his horse, nor the consul by his arm being cut off, to withdraw from this perilous conflict.
XXIX. Messius, at the head of a band of the bravest youths, charged the enemy with such impetuosity, that he forced his way through heaps of slaughtered foes to the camp of the Volscians, which was still in their possession, and the whole body of the army followed the same route. The consul, pursuing their disordered troops to the very rampart, assaulted the camp itself, and the dictator brought up his forces with the same purpose on the other side. There was no less bravery shown on both sides in this assault than had been seen in the battle. We are told that the consul even threw a standard within the rampart, to make the soldiers push on with more briskness, and that the first impression was made in recovering it. The dictator, having levelled the rampart, had now carried the fight within the works, on which the enemy every where began to throw down their arms and surrender; and on giving up themselves and their camp, they were all, except the members of their senate, exposed to sale. Part of the spoil was restored to the Latines and Hernicians, who claimed it as their property; the rest the dictator sold by auction; and having left the consul to command in the camp, after making his entry into the city in triumph, he resigned the dictatorship. Some historians have thrown a gloom on the memory of this glorious dictatorship; they relate that Aulus Postumius beheaded his son, after a successful exploit, because he had left his post, without orders, tempted by a favourable opportunity of fighting to advantage. While we feel a reluctance against giving credit to this story, we are also at liberty to reject it, there being a variety of opinions on the subject: and there is this argument against it, that such orders, by those who believe in the circumstance, have been denominated Manlian, not Postumian; while the person who first set an example of such severity would surely have acquired the disgraceful title of cruel. Besides, the surname of Imperiosus has been imposed on Manlius, and Postumius has not been marked by any hateful appellation. The consul Caius Julius, in the absence of his colleague, without casting lots for the employment, dedicated the temple of Apollo; at which Quintius being offended on his return to the city, after disbanding the army, made a complaint to the senate, but without any effect. To the great events of this year was added a circumstance, which, at that time, did not appear to have any relation to the interests of Rome. The Carthaginians, who were to become such formidable enemies, then for the first time, on occasion of some intestine broils among the Sicilians, transported troops into Sicily, in aid of one of the parties.
Y. R. 325. 427.XXX. In the city, endeavours were used by the tribunes of the commons to procure an election of military tribunes with consular power, but they were not able to effect it. Lucius Papirius Crassus and Lucius Julius were made consuls. Ambassadors from the Æquans having requested of the senate that a treaty of peace might be concluded, it was required of them, that instead of a treaty they should make a surrender of themselves. In the end they obtained a truce of eight years. The affairs of the Volscians, besides the loss sustained at Algidum, were involved in seditions, arising from an obstinate contention between the advocates for peace and those for war. The Romans enjoyed tranquillity on all sides. The consuls having obtained information from one of the tribunes, who betrayed the secret, that those officers intended to promote a law concerning the commutation of fines,* which would be highly acceptable to the people, they themselves took the lead in proposing it.Y. R. 326. 426. The next consuls were Lucius Sergius Fidenas, a second time, and Hostus Lucretius Tricipitinus, in whose consulate nothing worth mention occurred. They were succeeded by Aulus Cornelius Cossus and Titus Quintius Pennus, a second time.Y. R. 327. 425. The Veientians made inroads on the Roman territories, and a report prevailing, that some of the youth of Fidenæ were concerned in those depredations, the cognizance of that matter was committed to Lucius Sergius, Quintius Servilius, and Mamercus Æmilius. Some of them, who could not give satisfactory reasons for their being absent from Fidenæ at the time, were sent into banishment to Ostia. A number of new settlers were added to the colony, to whom were assigned the lands of those who had fallen in war. There was very great distress that year, occasioned by drought; for, besides a want of rain, the earth, destitute of its natural moisture, scarcely enabled the rivers to continue their course; in some places, the want of water was such, that the cattle died of thirst, in heaps, about the springs and rivulets, which had ceased to flow: in others, they were cut off by the mange, and their disorders began to spread by infection to the human species. At first they fell heavy on the husbandmen and slaves; soon after the city was filled with them: and not only men’s bodies were afflicted by the contagion, but superstitions of various kinds, and mostly of foreign growth, took possession also of their minds; while those who converted this weakness to their own emolument, introduced into people’s families, through their pretences to the art of divination, new modes of worship, until at length the principal men of the state were touched with shame for the dishonour brought on the public, seeing in every street and chapel extraneous and unaccustomed ceremonies of expiation practised, for obtaining the favour of the gods. A charge was then given to the ædiles, to see that no other deities should be worshipped than those acknowledged by the Romans; nor they, in any other modes than those established by the custom of the country.Y. R. 328. 424. The prosecution of their resentment against the Veientians was deferred to the ensuing year, wherein Caius Servilius Ahala and Lucius Papirius Mugillanus were consuls: even then, an immediate declaration of war and the march of the army were prevented by superstition. It was deemed necessary that heralds should first be sent to demand restitution. There had been open war, and battles fought, with the Veientians, not long before, at Nomentum and Fidenæ, since which, not a peace but a truce, had been concluded, the term of which had not yet expired, yet they had renewed hostilities. Nevertheless, the heralds were sent, and when, after taking the customary oath, they demanded satisfaction, no attention was paid to them. Then arose a dispute whether the war should be declared, by order of the people, or whether a decree of the senate were sufficient. The tribunes, by threatening openly that they would hinder any levy of soldiers, carried the point that the consuls should take the sense of the people concerning it. All the centuries voted for it. In another particular too, the commons showed a superiority, for they carried the point that consuls should not be elected for the next year.
Y. R. 329. 423.XXXI. Four military tribunes, with consular power, were elected, Titus Quintius Pennus from the consulship, Caius Furius, Marcus Postumius, and Aulus Cornelius Cossus. Of these, Cossus held the command in the city. The other three, after enlisting forces, marched to Veii, and there exhibited an instance of the pernicious effects on military operations resulting from a divided command: for while each maintained an opinion different from the rest, and endeavoured to enforce his own plans, they gave an opportunity to the enemy to take them at advantage. Accordingly, the Veientians, seizing a critical moment, made an attack on their troops, who knew not how to act, one of their generals ordering the signal for retreat to be given, another the charge to be sounded. They were thrown into confusion consequently, and turned their backs, but found safety in their camp, which was nigh at hand: their disgrace therefore was greater than their loss. The citizens, unaccustomed to defeats, were seized with dismal apprehensions, execrated the tribunes, and called aloud for a dictator; in him alone, they said, the state could place any hopes. Here again a religious scruple interfered, lest there should be an impropriety in a dictator being nominated by any other than a consul: but the augurs being consulted, removed that doubt. Aulus Cornelius nominated Mamercus Æmilius dictator, and was himself nominated by him master of the horse, so little was the effect of the disgrace inflicted by the censors: for when the state once came to stand in need of a person of real merit, it would not be prevented from seeking a supreme director of its affairs in a house undeservedly censured. The Veientians, puffed up by their success, sent ambassadors to all the states of Etruria, boasting, that they had in one battle defeated three Roman generals; and though they could not thereby prevail on the general confederacy to embark publicly in their cause, yet they procured from all parts a number of volunteers allured by the hopes of plunder. The Fidenatians were the only state which resolved to renew hostilities; and, as if there were some kind of impiety in commencing war, otherwise than with some atrocious deed, staining their arms now with the blood of the new colonists, as they had formerly done with that of the ambassadors, they joined themselves to the Veientians. The leaders of the two nations then consulted together, whether they should choose Veii or Fidenæ, for the seat of the war: Fidenæ appeared the more convenient. The Veientians, therefore, crossing the Tiber, removed it thither. At Rome the alarm was excessive: the troops were recalled from Veii, very much dispirited by their defeat, and encamped before the Colline gate: others were armed and posted on the walls. Business was stopped in the courts of justice, the shops were shut up, and every thing bore the appearance of a camp rather than of a city.
XXXII. The dictator then, sending criers through the streets called the alarmed people to an assembly, and rebuked them sharply “for suffering their courage to depend so entirely on every trifling incident in the course of fortune, as that on meeting with an inconsiderable loss, and that not owing to the bravery of the enemy, or to want of courage in the Roman army, but to a disagreement between their commanders, they should be seized with dread of their enemies of Veii, whom they had six times vanquished, and of Fidenæ, a town as often taken as attacked. He reminded them, that both the Romans and their enemies were the same that they had been for so many centuries past, their courage the same; their strength of body the same; and the same the arms which they wore. That he himself, Mamercus Æmilius, was also the same dictator who formerly at Fidenæ routed the armies of the Veientians and Fidenatians, when they had the additional support of the Faliscians; and his master of the horse was the same Aulus Cornelius, who in a former war, when he ranked as military tribune, slew Lars Tolumnius, the king of these Veientians, in the sight of both armies, and carried his spolia opima to the temple of Jupiter Feretrius. He exhorted them therefore to take arms, reflecting that on their side were triumphs, on their side spoils, on their side victory; on the side of the enemy, the guilt of violating the laws of nations by the murder of ambassadors, the massacre of the Fidenatian colonists in time of peace, the infraction of truces, and a seventh unsuccessful revolt: assuring them, he was fully confident, that when they should have once encamped within reach of the foe, the joy of those enemies, so deeply plunged in guilt, for the late disgrace of the Roman army, would soon be at an end; and also that a demonstration would be given to the Roman people, how much better these persons merited of the commonwealth, who nominated him dictator a third time, than those, who, out of malice, on account of his having snatched arbitrary power out of the hands of the censors, threw a blot on his second successful dictatorship.” Having offered up vows to the gods, he soon began his march, and pitched his camp fifteen hundred paces on this side of Fidenæ, having his right covered by mountains, and his left by the river Tiber. He ordered Titus Quintius Pennus, lieutenant-general, to take possession of the hills, and to post himself privately on whatever eminence stood in the enemy’s rear. Next day, when the Etrurians had marched out to the field, full of confidence in consequence of their success on the former day, though more indebted for it to accident than to their prowess in fight, the dictator, after waiting a short time, until he received information from his scouts that Quintius had reached an eminence which stood near the citadel of Fidenæ, put his troops in motion, and led on his line of infantry in order of battle in their quickest pace against the enemy. The master of the horse he commanded not to enter on action without orders, telling him that he would give a signal when there should be occasion for the aid of the cavalry, and desiring him then to show by his behaviour, that he still bore in mind his fight with their king, the magnificent offering which he had made, and the respect which he owed to Romulus and Jupiter Feretrius. The legions began the conflict with impetuosity. The Romans, inflamed with keen animosity, gratified their rancour both with deeds and words, upbraiding the Fidenatians with impiety, the Veientians as robbers, calling them truce-breakers, polluted with the horrid murder of ambassadors, stained with the blood of their own brethren of the colony, perfidious allies, and dastardly foes.
XXXIII. Their very first onset had made an impression on the enemy, when, on a sudden, the gates of Fidenæ flying open, a strange kind of army sallied forth, unknown and unheard-of before. An immense multitude, armed with burning fire-brands, as if hurried on by frantic rage, rushed on against the Romans. This very extraordinary mode of fighting filled the assailants for some time with terror; on which the dictator, who was actively employed in animating the fight, having called up the master of the horse with the cavalry, and also Quintius from the mountains, hastened himself to the left wing, which being in horror from the conflagration, as it might more properly be called than a battle, had retired from the flames, and with a loud voice called out, “Will ye suffer yourselves to be driven from your ground, and retreat from an unarmed enemy, vanquished with smoke, like a swarm of bees? Will ye not extinguish those fires with the sword? Or will ye not each in his post, if we must fight with fire, and not with arms, seize on those brands, and throw them back on the foe? Advance; recollect the honour of the Roman name, your own bravery, and that of your fathers: turn this conflagration on the city of your enemy, and with its own flames demolish Fidenæ, which ye could never reclaim by your kindness. This is what the blood of your ambassadors and colonists, and the desolation of your frontiers, ought to suggest.” At the command of the dictator, the whole line advanced; the firebrands which had been thrown, were caught up; others were wrested away by force, and thus the troops on both sides were armed alike. The master of the horse too, on his part, introduced among the cavalry a new mode of fighting: he ordered his men to take off the bridles from their horses, while he himself clapping spurs to his own, sprung forward, and was carried headlong by the unbridled animal into the midst of the flames. In like manner, the other horses, being spurred on and freed from all restraint, carried their riders with full speed against the enemy. The clouds of dust intermixed with the smoke, excluded the light from both men and horses; so that the latter were consequently not affrighted as the former had been. The cavalry, therefore, wherever they penetrated, bore down every thing with irresistible force. A shout was now heard from a new quarter, which having surprised and attracted the attention of both armies, the dictator called out aloud, that his lieutenant-general Quintius and his party had attacked the enemy’s rear, and then, raising the shout anew, advanced against them with redoubled vigour. The Etrurians, surrounded and attacked both in front and rear, and closely pressed by two armies in two different battles, had no room for retreat, either to the camp, or to the mountains. The way was blocked up by the new enemy, and the horses, freed from the bridles, having spread themselves with their riders over every different part, the greatest number of the Veientians fled precipitately to the Tiber. The surviving Fidenatians made towards the city of Fidenæ. The former, flying in consternation, fell into the midst of their foes and met destruction. Many were cut to pieces on the banks of the river, some were forced into the water and swallowed in the eddies; even such as were expert at swimming, were weighed down by fatigue, by their wounds, and the fright: so that, out of a great number, few reached the opposite bank. The other body proceeded, through their camp, to the city, whither the Romans briskly pursued them, particularly Quintius, and those who had descended with him from the mountains, these being the freshest for action, as having come up towards the end of the engagement.
XXXIV. These entering the gate together with the enemy made their way to the top of the walls, and from thence gave a signal to their friends of the town being taken. The dictator, who had by this time taken possession of the deserted camp, encouraging his men, who were eager to disperse themselves in search of plunder, and with hopes of finding the greater booty in the city, led them on to the gate; and, being admitted within the walls, proceeded to the citadel, whither he saw the crowds of fugitives hurrying. Nor was less slaughter made here than in the field; until, throwing down their arms, and begging only their lives, the enemy surrendered to the dictator: both the city and camp were given up to be plundered. Next day the dictator assigned by lot one captive to each horseman and centurion, and two to such as had distinguished themselves by extraordinary behaviour, and sold the rest by auction: then he led back to Rome his victorious army, enriched with abundance of spoil, and ordering the master of the horse to resign his office he immediately gave up his own, on the sixteenth day of his holding it; leaving the government in a state of tranquillity, which he had received in a state of war and of danger. Some annals have reported, that there was also a naval engagement with the Veientians, at Fidenæ, a fact equally impracticable and incredible; the river, even at present, being not broad enough for the purpose, and at that time, as we learn from old writers, considerably narrower. This we can no otherwise account for, than by supposing that they magnified the importance of a scuffle which took place, perhaps, between a few ships, in disputing the passage of the river, and thereon grounded those empty pretensions to a naval victory.
Y. R. 330. 422.XXXV. The ensuing year had military tribunes, with consular power, Aulus Sempronius Atratinus, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, Lucius Furius Medullinus, and Lucius Horatius Barbatus. A truce, for twenty years, was granted to the Veientians; and one for three years to the Æquans, although these had petitioned for a longer term. At home, there were no disturbances. The year following, though not distinguished by either troubles abroad or at home, was rendered remarkable by the celebration of the games, which had been vowed on occasion of the war, through the splendid manner in which they were exhibited by the military tribunes, and also through the extraordinary concourse of the neighbouring people.Y. R. 331. 421. The tribunes, with consular power, were Appius Claudius Crassus, Spurius Nautius Rutilus, Lucius Sergius Fidenas, and Sextus Julius Iulus. The shows, to which the several people had come with the concurrent approbation of their states, were rendered more agreeable by the courtesy of their hosts. After the conclusion of the games, the tribunes of the commons began their seditious harangues, upbraiding the multitude, that “they were so benumbed with awe of those very persons who were the objects of their hatred, as to sit down listless in a state of endless slavery; they not only wanted spirit to aspire to the recovery of their hopes of sharing in the consulship; but even, in the election of military tribunes, which lay open to both patricians and plebeians, they showed no regard to themselves or their party. They ought therefore to cease wondering, that no one busied himself in the service of the commons: labour and danger would always be extended on objects from whence honour and emolument might be looked for; and there was nothing which men would not undertake, if, for great attempts, great rewards were proposed. But surely it could neither be required nor expected, that any tribune should rush blindfold into disputes, the danger of which was great, the profit nothing: in consequence of which, he knew, with certainty, that the patricians, against whom his efforts were directed would persecute him with inexpiable rancour; and the commons, on whose side he contended, would never think themselves the more obliged to him. By great honours, the minds of men were elevated to greatness; no plebeian would think meanly of himself, when he ceased to be contemned by others. The experiment ought at length to be made, whether there were any plebeian capable of sustaining a high dignity, or whether it were next to a miracle and a prodigy, that there should exist a man of that extraction endowed with fortitude and industry. By the most vigorous exertions, and after a violent struggle, the point had been gained, that military tribunes with consular power might be chosen from among the commons. Men of approved merit, both in the civil and military line, had stood candidates. During the first years they were hooted at, rejected and ridiculed by the patricians: of late they had desisted from exposing themselves to insult. For his part he could see no reason why the law itself could not be repealed, which granted permission for that which was never to happen: for they would have less cause to blush at the injustice of the law, than at their being passed by on account of their own want of merit.”
XXXVI. Discourses of this sort being listened to with approbation, induced several to offer themselves as candidates for the military tribuneship, each professing intentions of introducing when in office some measure or regulation, advantageous to the commons. Hopes were held forth of a distribution of the public lands, of colonies to be settled, and of money to be raised, for paying the troops, by a tax imposed on the proprietors of estates. The military tribunes soon after laid hold of an opportunity, when most people had retired from the city, having previously given private notice to the senators to attend on a certain day, to procure a decree of the senate, in the absence of the plebeian tribunes — that whereas it was reported, that the Volscians had marched from home with intent to plunder the country of the Hernicians, the military tribunes should therefore proceed to the spot and inspect into the matter, and that an assembly should be held for the election of consuls. At their departure, they left Appius Claudius, son of the decemvir, præfect of the city, a young man of activity; and who had, even from his cradle, imbibed a hatred towards the commons and their tribunes. The plebeian tribunes had no room for contention, either with those who had procured the decree of the senate during their absence; nor with Appius, as the business was already concluded.
Y. R. 332. 420.XXXVII. The consuls elected were Caius Sempronius Atratinus, and Quintus Fabius Vibulanus. An event which is related to have happened in this year, though in a foreign country, deserves to be recorded. Vulturnum, a city of the Etrurians, now Capua, was seized by the Samnites, and called Capua, from Capys their leader, or, which is more probable, from its champaign grounds. The manner in which they made themselves masters of it was this: they were some time before, when the Etrurians had been greatly harassed in war, admitted to a share of this city and its lands; these new settlers, afterwards taking the opportunity of a festival, attacked and massacred in the night the first inhabitants, heavy with sleep and food. After this transaction, the consuls, whom we have mentioned, entered on office on the ides of December: by this time, not only those employed in inquiries had reported that the Volscians were ready to commence hostilities; but also ambassadors from the Latines and Hernicians had brought information, that “never at any former time had the Volscians exerted more diligence and care either in the choice of commanders, or the enlisting of troops: that it was a common expression among them, that they must either lay aside for ever all thoughts of war and arms, and submit to the yoke, or they must prove themselves not inferior to their competitors for empire, either in courage, perseverance, or military discipline.” The intelligence was not without foundation: yet the senate were not affected by it, as might have been expected; and Caius Sempronius, to whom the command fell by lot, acted with carelessness and negligence, in every particular, relying on fortune, as if it were incapable of change, because he before had headed a victorious soldiery against those who had been before overcome; so that there was more of the Roman discipline in the Volscian army than in his own. Success, therefore, as on many other occasions, attended merit. The engagement was entered on by Sempronius, without either prudence or caution, without strengthening the line by a reserve, and without posting the cavalry in a proper situation. The shout gave a presage at the very beginning to which side the victory would incline. That raised by the Volscians was loud and full; whilst the shout of the Romans, dissonant, unequal, lifeless, and often begun anew, betrayed, by its unsteadiness, the fears which possessed them. This made the enemy charge with the greater boldness; they pushed with their shields, and brandished their swords: on the other side, the helmets were seen to droop as the wearers looked round for safety, disconcerted and disordered on every side. The ensigns sometimes kept their ground, deserted by those who ought to support them; at other times they retreated between their respective companies. As yet there was no absolute flight, nor was the victory complete. The Romans covered themselves rather than fought; the Volscians advanced, and pushed fiercely against the line, but still were seen greater numbers of the former falling than running away.
XXXVIII. The Romans now began to give way in every quarter, while the consul Sempronius in vain reproached them, and exhorted them to stand; neither his authority, nor his dignity, had any effect; and they would shortly have turned their backs to the enemy, had not Sextus Tempanius, a commander of a body of horse, with great presence of mind, brought them support, and when their situation was almost desperate. He called aloud, that the horsemen who wished the safety of the commonwealth, should leap from their horses, and, his order being obeyed by every troop, as if it had been delivered by the consul, he said, “unless this cohort, by the power of its arms, can stop the progress of the enemy, there is an end of the empire. Follow my spear, as your standard: show, both to Romans and Volscians, that as no horse are equal to you when mounted, so no foot are equal to you when ye dismount.” This exhortation being received with a shout of applause, he advanced, holding his spear aloft: wherever they directed their march, they forced their way in spite of opposition; and, advancing their targets, pushed on to the place where they saw the distress of their friends the greatest. The fight was restored in every part as far as their onset reached; and there was no doubt, that if it had been possible for so small a number to have managed the whole business of the field, the enemy would have turned their backs.
XXXIX. Finding that nothing could withstand them, the Volscian commander gave directions, that an opening should be made for these targeteers, until the violence of their charge should carry them so far, that they might be shut out from their friends: which being executed, the horsemen on their part were intercepted, in such a manner, that it was impossible for them to force a passage back; the enemy having collected their thickest numbers in the place through which they had made their way. The consul and Roman legions, not seeing, any where, that body which just before had afforded protection to the whole army, lest so many men, of such consummate valour, should be surrounded and overpowered by the enemy, resolved at all hazards to push forward. The Volscians forming two fronts, withstood, on one side, the consul; and the legions, on the other, pressed on Tempanius and the horsemen, who, after many fruitless attempts to break through to their friends, took possession of an eminence, and there forming a circle defended themselves, not without taking vengeance on the assailants. Nor was the fight ended when night came on. The consul kept the enemy employed, never relaxing his efforts as long as any light remained. The darkness at length separated them, leaving the victory undecided: and such a panic seized both camps, from the uncertainty in which they were with respect to the issue, that both armies, as if they had been vanquished, retreated into the nearest mountains, leaving behind their wounded, and a great part of their baggage. The eminence however was kept besieged until after midnight; when intelligence being brought to the besiegers that their camp was deserted, they, supposing that their friends had been defeated, fled also, each wherever his fears transported him. Tempanius apprehending an ambush, kept his men quiet until day-light; and then going out himself with a small party, to make observations, and discovering on inquiry from the wounded men of the enemy, that the camp of the Volscians was abandoned, he called down his men from the eminence with great joy, and made his way into the Roman camp. Here finding every place waste and deserted, and in the same disgraceful state in which he had seen the post of the enemy, before the discovery of their mistake should bring back the Volscians, he took with him as many of the wounded as he could; and not knowing what route the consul had taken, proceeded by the shortest roads to the city.
XL. News had already arrived there of the loss of the battle, and of the camp being abandoned: and great lamentations had been made; for the horsemen above all, the public grief being not inferior to that of their private connections. The consul Fabius, the city being alarmed for its own safety, had troops posted before the gates, when the horsemen being seen at a distance, occasioned at first some degree of fright, while it was not known who they were: but this being presently discovered, people’s fears were converted into such transports of joy, that every part of the city was filled with shouting; each one congratulating the other on the return of the horsemen, safe and victorious. Then were seen pouring out in crowds into the streets from the houses, which a little before had been filled with lamentation and mourning, for friends supposed lost, their mothers and wives; each rushing wildly to her own, and scarcely retaining, in the extravagance of their rejoicings, the powers either of mind or body. The tribunes of the commons, who had commenced a prosecution against Marcus Postumius and Titus Quintius, for having occasioned the loss of the battle at Veii, thought that the recent displeasure of the people towards the consul Sempronius, afforded a fit opportunity for reviving the anger of the public against them. Having, therefore, convened the people, they exclaimed loudly, that the commonwealth had been betrayed by its commanders at Veii; and afterwards, in consequence of their escaping with impunity, the army was also betrayed by the consul in the country of the Volscians, the cavalry, men of distinguished bravery, given up to slaughter, and the camp shamefully deserted. Then Caius Junius, one of the tribunes, ordered Tempanius the horseman to be called; and in their presence addressed him thus: “Sextus Tempanius, I demand of you, whether it is your opinion that the consul Caius Sempronius either engaged the enemy at a proper season, or strengthened his line with a reserve, or discharged any duty of a good consul: and whether you yourself, when the Roman legions were defeated, did not, of your own judgment, dismount the cavalry and restore the fight? Did he afterwards, when you and the horsemen were shut out from our army, either come himself to your relief or send you assistance? Then again, on the day following, did you find support any where? Did you and your cohort, by your own bravery, make your way into the camp? Did ye in the camp find any consul or any army? Or, did ye find the camp forsaken, and the wounded soldiers left behind? These things, it becomes your bravery and honour, which have proved in this war the security of the commonwealth, to declare this day. In fine, where is Caius Sempronius? where are our legions? Have you been deserted, or have you deserted the consul and the army? In short, have we been defeated, or have we gained the victory?”
XLI. In answer to these interrogatories, Tempanius is said to have spoken, not with studied eloquence, but with the manly firmness of a soldier, neither vainly displaying his own merit, nor showing pleasure at the censure thrown on others: “As to the degree of military skill possessed by Caius Sempronius the general, it was not his duty, as a soldier, to judge; that was the business of the Roman people, when, at the election, they chose him consul. He desired, therefore, that they would not require from him a detail of the designs and duties becoming the office of a general, or of a consul; matters which, even from persons of the most exalted capacity and genius, required much consideration: but what he saw, that he could relate. He had seen, before his communication with the army was cut off, the consul fighting in the front of the line, encouraging the men, and actively employed between the Roman ensigns and the weapons of the enemy. He was afterwards carried out of sight of his countrymen: however, from the noise and shouting, he perceived that the battle was prolonged until night; nor did he believe, that it was in their power, on account of the great numbers of the enemy, to force their way to the eminence where he had taken post. Where the army was, he knew not. He supposed that as he, in a dangerous crisis, had taken advantage of the ground to secure himself and his men, in like manner the consul, consulting the safety of his army, had chosen a stronger situation for his camp. Nor did he believe, that the affairs of the Volscians were in a better posture than those of the Roman people: for fortune and the night had caused abundance of mistakes, both on one side and the other.” He then begged that they would not detain him, as he was much distressed with fatigue and wounds; and he was dismissed with the highest expressions of applause, no less for his modesty than his bravery. Meanwhile the consul had come as far as the Temple of Rest, on the road leading to Lavici; whither wagons and other carriages were sent from the city, and which took up the men who were spent with the fatigue of the action, and the march by night. The consul soon after entered the city, and was not more anxiously desirous to clear himself from blame, than he was to bestow on Tempanius the praise which he deserved. While the minds of the citizens were full of grief for the ill success of their affairs, and of resentment against their commanders, the first object thrown in the way of their ill humour was Marcus Postumius, formerly military tribune, with consular power, at Veii, who was brought to trial, and condemned in a fine of ten thousand asses in weight, of brass.* Titus Quintius endeavoured to transfer all the blame of that event from himself on his colleague, who was already condemned; and as he had conducted business with success, both in the country of the Volscians when consul, under the auspices of the dictator Postumius Tubertus, and also at Fidenæ, when lieutenant-general to another dictator, Mamercus Æmilius, all the tribes acquitted him. It is said that his cause was much indebted to the high veneration in which his father Cincinnatus was held; and likewise to Quintius Capitolinus, who being now extremely old, begged with humble supplications that they would not suffer him who had so short a time to live, to carry any dismal tidings to Cincinnatus.
Y. R. 333. 419.XLII. The commons created Sextus Tempanius, Aulus Sellius, Lucius Antistius, and Sextus Pompilius, in their absence, plebeian tribunes; these being the persons whom, by the advice of Tempanius, the horsemen had appointed to command them as centurions. The senate finding that through the general aversion from Sempronius, the name of consul was become displeasing, ordered military tribunes with consular power to be chosen. Accordingly there were elected Lucius Manlius Capitolinus, Quintus Antonius Merenda, and Lucius Papirius Mugillanus. No sooner had the year begun, than Lucius Hortensius, a plebeian tribune, commenced a prosecution* against Caius Sempronius, consul of the preceding year. His four colleagues, in the presence of the Roman people, besought him not to involve in vexation an unoffending general, in whose case fortune alone could be blamed: Hortensius took offence at this, thinking it meant a trial of his perseverance; and that the accused depended not on the intreaties of the tribunes, which were thrown out only for the sake of appearance, but on their protection. Turning first therefore to him, he asked, “Where were the haughty airs of the patrician? Where was the spirit upheld in confidence by conscious innocence, that a man of consular dignity took shelter under the shade of tribunes?” Then to his colleagues; “As to you, what is your intention in case I persist in the prosecution? Do ye mean to rob the people of their jurisdiction, and to overturn the power of the tribunes?” To this they replied; “that with respect both to Sempronius, and to all others, the Roman people possessed supreme authority; that it was neither in their power nor in their wishes to obstruct the exercise of it, but if their prayers in behalf of their general, who was to them a parent, should have no effect, they were determined to change their apparel along with him.” Hortensius then declared, “the commons of Rome shall not see their tribunes in the garb of culprits: I have nothing farther to say to Sempronius, since, by his conduct in command, he has rendered himself so dear to his soldiers.” Nor was the dutiful attachment of the four tribunes more pleasing to the patricians and to the commons, than was the temper of Hortensius, complying so readily with intreaties founded on justice. Fortune no longer indulged the Æquans, who had embraced the doubtful success of the Volscians as their own.
Y. R. 334. 418.XLIII. In the year following, which had for consuls Numerius Fabius Vibulanus and Titus Quintius Capitolinus, son of Capitolinus, nothing memorable was performed under the conduct of Fabius, to whom the province of encountering the enemy fell by lot. The Æquans, on merely showing their spiritless army, were driven off the field in a shameful flight, without affording the consul much honour, for which reason he was refused a triumph; however, as he had effaced the ignominy of the misfortune under Sempronius, he was permitted to enter the city in ovation. As the war was brought to a conclusion with less difficulty than had been apprehended, so the city, from a state of tranquillity, was unexpectedly involved in a scene of turbulent dissensions between the patricians and plebeians. This was the effect of a plan for doubling the number of quæstors: for the consuls having proposed, that, in addition to the two city-quæstors, two others should always attend the consuls, to discharge the business relative to the army, and the measure having been warmly approved by the patricians, the tribunes contended, in opposition to the consuls, that half the number of quæstors should be taken from among the commons, for hitherto patricians only had been elected: against which scheme both consuls and patricians struggled at first with their utmost power. They afterwards offered a concession, that according to the practice in the election of tribunes with consular power, the people should have equal freedom of suffrage with respect to quæstors; yet finding that this had no effect, they, entirely laid aside the design of augmenting the number. No sooner, however, was it dropped by them, than it was taken up by the tribunes, while several other seditious schemes were continually started, and among the rest, one for an agrarian law. The senate was desirous, on account of these commotions, that consuls should be elected rather than tribunes, but no decree could be passed, by reason of the protests of the tribunes, so that the government, from being consular, became a kind of interregnum: nor was even that accomplished without a violent struggle, the tribunes obstructing the meeting of the patricians. The greater part of the ensuing year was wasted in contentions between the new tribunes, and the several interreges, the tribunes sometimes hindering the patricians from assembling to declare an interrex; at others, protesting against the interreges passing a decree for the election of consuls; at last, Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, being declared interrex, severely reproved both the senate and the plebeian tribunes, affirming, that, “the commonwealth, being forsaken by men, and preserved by the care and providence of the gods, subsisted merely by means of the Veientian truce, and the dilatoriness of the Æquans: from which quarter, should an alarm of danger be heard, did they think it right, that the nation, destitute of a patrician magistrate, should be exposed to a surprise? That it neither should have an army, nor a general to enlist one? Did they think an intestine war the proper means to repel a foreign one? Should both take place at the same time, the power of the gods would scarcely be able to preserve the Roman state from ruin. It were much fitter that both parties should remit somewhat of their strict rights; and, by a mutual compromise of their pretensions, unite the whole in concord, the senate permitting military tribunes to be appointed instead of consuls, and the tribunes of the commons ceasing to protest against the four quæstors being chosen out of the patricians and plebeians, indiscriminately, by the free suffrages of the people.”
Y. R. 335. 417.XLIV. The election of tribunes was first held, and there were chosen tribunes, with consular power, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus a third time, Lucius Furius Medullinus a second time, Marcus Manlius and Aulus Sempronius Atratinus, all patricians. The last-named tribune presided at the election of quæstors, when there appeared among several other plebeian candidates, a son of Antistius, a plebeian tribune, and a brother of Sextus Pompilius, of the same order: but neither their power nor interest were able to prevent the people from choosing rather to raise those to the rank of nobility, whose fathers and grandfathers they had seen in the consulship. This enraged all the tribunes to madness, especially Pompilius and Antistius, who were incensed at the disappointment of their relations. “What could be the meaning of this,” they said, “that neither their services, nor the injurious behaviour of the patricians, nor even the pleasure of exercising a newly acquired right, though a power was now granted which had hitherto been refused, had been sufficient to procure, for any plebeian whatever, the office of military tribune, or even that of quæstor? The prayers of a father in behalf of his son, those of one brother in behalf of another, those of persons invested with the tribuneship of the commons, that sacred and inviolable power created for the protection of liberty, had all proved ineffectual. There must certainly have been some fraudulent practices in the case, and Aulus Sempronius must have used more artifice in the election than was consistent with honour;” in fine, they complained loudly, that their relations had been disappointed of the office by his unfair conduct. But as no serious attack could be made on him, because he was secured, both by innocence, and by the office which he held at the time, they turned their resentment against Caius Sempronius, uncle to Atratinus; and, aided by Canuleius, one of their colleagues, entered a prosecution against him on account of the disgrace sustained in the Volscian war. By the same tribunes mention was frequently introduced, in the senate, of the distribution of lands, which scheme Caius Sempronius had always most vigorously opposed; for they foresaw, as it fell out, that, on the one hand, should he forsake that cause, he would be less warmly defended by the patricians; and, on the other if he should persevere, at the time when his trial was approaching, he would give offence to the commons. He chose to face the torrent of popular displeasure, and rather to injure his own cause, than to be wanting to that of the public; and therefore, standing firm in the same opinion, he declared, that “no such largess should be made, which would only tend to aggrandize the three tribunes; affirming, that the object of their pursuits was not to procure lands for the commons, but ill-will against him. That, for his own part, he would undergo the storm with determined resolution; and, with regard to the senate, it was their duty, not to set so high a value on him, or on any other citizen, as through tenderness to an individual, to give room for an injury to the public.” When the day of trial arrived, he pleaded his own cause with the same degree of intrepidity; and, notwithstanding the patricians used every expedient to soften the commons, he was condemned in a fine of fifteen thousand asses.* The same year Postumia, a vestal virgin, was charged with breach of chastity. She was free from the guilt, but took too little pains to avoid the imputation of it, which was grounded merely on suspicion, caused by her too great gayety of dress, and from her manners being less reserved than became her state. The trial having been adjourned to a farther hearing, and she being afterwards acquitted, the chief pontiff, by direction of the college, ordered her to refrain from indiscreet mirth; and, in her dress, to attend more to the sanctity of her character, than to the fashion. In this year Cumæ, a city then possessed by Greeks, was taken by the Campanians.
Y. R. 336. 416.XLV. The ensuing year had for military tribunes with consular power, Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, Publius Lucretius Tricipitinus, Spurius Nautius, and Caius Servilius; a year which, by good fortune, was rendered remarkable, rather by great dangers, than by losses. The slaves formed a conspiracy to set fire to the city in different quarters; and, while the people should be every where intent on saving the houses, to take arms, and seize on the citadel and the capitol. Jupiter frustrated their horrid designs, and the offenders, being seized upon the information of two of their number, were punished. The informers were rewarded with their freedom, and ten thousand asses† in weight of brass, paid out of the treasury, a sum which, at that time, was reckoned wealth. Soon after, intelligence was received at Rome, from good authority, that the Æquans were preparing to renew hostilities, and that this old enemy was joined in the design by a new one, the Lavicanians. Fighting with the Æquans was now become to the state almost an anniversary custom. To Lavici ambassadors were sent, who having returned with an evasive answer, from which it was evident that, though immediate war was not intended, yet peace would not be of long continuance, orders were given to the Tusculans to watch attentively, lest any new commotion should arise at Lavici. The military tribunes, with consular power, of the next year, Lucius Sergius Fidenas, Marcus Papirius Mugillanus,Y. R. 337. 415. Caius Servilius son of Priscus, who, in his dictatorship, had taken Fidenæ, were, soon after the commencement of their office, attended by an embassy from Tusculum, the purport of which was, that the Lavicanians had taken arms, and after having, in conjunction with the Æquans, ravaged that territory, had pitched their camp at Algidum. War was then proclaimed against the Lavicanians. The senate having decreed that two of the tribunes should go out to command the army, and that the other should manage affairs at Rome, there sprung up on a sudden a warm dispute among the tribunes, each representing himself as the fittest person to command in the war, and scorning the business of the city as disagreeable and inglorious. The senate, beholding with surprise this indecent contention between the colleagues, Quintus Servilius said, “Since ye pay no deference either to this august body, or to the commonwealth, parental authority shall put an end to your unseemly altercation. My son, without putting it to the lots, shall hold the command in the city. I hope that those, who are so ambitious of being employed in the war, may act with greater prudence and manliness in their conduct of it, than they show in their present competition.”
XLVI. It was resolved, that the levy should not be made out of the whole body of the people indiscriminately: ten tribes were drawn by lot, and out of these the tribunes enlisted the younger men, and led them to the field. The contentions which began in the city, were, through the same eager ambition for command, raised to a much greater height in the camp. On no one point did their sentiments agree; each contended strenuously for his own opinion; endeavoured to have his own plans and his own commands only put in execution; showed a contempt of the other; and met with the like contempt in return: until at length, on the remonstrances of the lieutenant-generals, they came to a compromise, which was to enjoy the supreme command alternately, each for a day. When these proceedings were reported at Rome, Quintus Servilius, whose wisdom was matured by age and experience, is said to have prayed to the immortal gods, that the discord of the tribunes might not prove as he feared it might, more detrimental to the commonwealth than it had done at Veii; and to have urged his son earnestly to enlist soldiers and prepare arms, as if he foresaw with certainty some impending misfortune. Nor was he a false prophet: for under the conduct of Lucius Sergius, whose day of command it was, the troops were suddenly attacked by the Æquans, in disadvantageous ground, adjoining the enemy’s camp; into which they had been decoyed by vain hopes of mastering it; the enemy counterfeiting fear, and having retreated to their rampart. They were driven in great disorder down a declivity in the rear, and while they tumbled one on another rather than fled, vast numbers were overpowered and slain. With difficulty they defended the camp for that day; and on the following, the enemy having invested it on several sides, they abandoned it in shameful flight through the opposite gate. The generals, lieutenant-generals, and such part of the body of the army as followed the colours, took the rout to Tusculum: the rest dispersing up and down, made their way to Rome by many different roads, bringing exaggerated accounts of the disaster which had happened. This unfortunate affair caused the less consternation, because it was not unexpected, and because there was a reinforcement of troops already prepared by the military tribune, to which, in this disorder of their affairs, they could look for security. By his orders also, after the confusion in the city had been quieted by means of the inferior magistrates, scouts were instantly despatched for intelligence, who brought accounts that the generals and the army were at Tusculum, and that the enemy had not removed their camp. But what chiefly contributed to raise people’s spirits was, that in pursuance of a decree of the senate, Quintus Servilius Priscus was created dictator, a man whose extensive judgment in public affairs the state had experienced, as well on many former occasions as in the issue of that campaign; he alone having, before the misfortune happened, expressed apprehensions of danger from the disputes of the tribunes. He appointed for his master of the horse the tribune by whom he had been nominated dictator, his own son, according to some accounts; but other writers mention Servilius Ahala as master of the horse that year. Then, putting himself at the head of the new raised troops, and sending orders to those at Tusculum to join him, he marched against the enemy, and chose ground for his camp within two miles of theirs.
XLVII. The negligence and the vanity inspired by success, which were formerly manifested in the Roman commanders, were now transferred to the Æquans. In the first engagement, the dictator having thrown the enemy’s van into disorder by a charge of the cavalry, immediately directed the infantry to advance with speed, and slew one of his own standard-bearers who did not readily obey the order. Such ardour was in consequence displayed by the troops that the Æquans could not support the shock of their onset. Vanquished in the field, they fled precipitately to their camp, the taking of which cost even less time and trouble than the battle had done. After the camp had been taken and plundered, the dictator giving up the spoil to the soldiers, the horsemen, who had pursued the enemy in their flight, returned with intelligence, that after their defeat all the Lavicanians, and a great part of the Æquans, had retreated to Lavici; on which the army was next day conducted thither, and the town, being invested on every side, was taken by storm. The dictator having led back his victorious army to Rome, resigned his office, on the eighth day after his appointment; and the senate, seizing the opportunity before the tribunes of the commons should raise seditions about the agrarian laws, voted, in full assembly, that a colony should be conducted to Lavici, at the same time introducing a proposal for a distribution of its lands. One thousand five hundred colonists, sent from the city, received each two acres.Y. R. 338. 414. During two years after the taking of Lavici, in the first of which Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, Lucius Servilius Structus, Publius Lucretius Tricipitinus, all these a second time, and Spurius Rutilus Crassus were military tribunes with consular power; and in the following, Aulus Sempronius Atratinus a third time,Y. R. 339. 413. and Marcus Papirius Mugillanus and Spurius Nautius Rutilus both a second time. There was tranquillity with respect to affairs abroad, but at home dissensions occasioned by agrarian laws.
XLVIII. The incendiaries of the populace were the Spurii, tribunes of the commons, Mæcilius a fourth time, and Mætilius a third, both elected in their absence. A very violent contest between the patricians and plebeians was now expected on the subject of the agrarian laws; for these tribunes had publicly proposed, that the lands, taken from their enemies, should be distributed in such a manner, that every man might have a share. Had this proposal passed into a law, the property of a great part of the nobles would have been confiscated; for scarcely was there any of the public territory, not even the ground on which the city itself was built, but what had been acquired by arms; all of which consequently must have been comprehended in it; nor could the military tribunes, either in the senate, or in the private meetings of the nobles, devise, in this exigency, any promising plan of conduct: when Appius Claudius, grandson of him who had been decemvir for compiling the laws, being the youngest senator in the assembly, is said to have told them, that “he had brought from home, for their use an old scheme, which had been first devised by his family:— that his great grandfather Appius Claudius had shown the patricians one method of baffling the power of the tribunes, by the protests of their colleagues:— that new men were easily drawn off from their designs by the influence of people of consequence, if they were addressed in language suited to the times rather than to the dignity of the speakers. Their sentiments were ever directed by their circumstances. When they should see that their colleagues who first set the business on foot had got the start; and monopolized the whole credit of it with the commons, so that there was no room left for them to come in for any share, they would, without reluctance, lean for support to the cause of the senate, by means of which they might conciliate the favour, not only of the principal patricians, but of the whole body.” Every one expressing approbation, and particularly Quintus Servilius Priscus, highly commending the youth for not having degenerated from the Claudian race, a general charge was given, that they should gain over as many of the college of tribunes as possible, to enter protests. On the breaking up of the senate, the principal patricians made their applications to the tribunes, and by persuasions, admonitions, and assurances that it would be acknowledged as a favour by each of them in particular, and also by the whole senate, they prevailed on six to promise their protests. Accordingly, on the day following, when the senate was consulted, as had been preconcerted, concerning the sedition which Mæcilius and Mætilius were exciting, by the proposal of a largess of most pernicious tendency, the speeches of the principal patricians ran all in the same strain, each declaring that, for his part, “he could neither devise any satisfactory mode of proceeding, nor could he see a remedy any where, unless it were found in the protection of the tribunes. To that office the commonwealth, embarrassed with difficulties, in like manner as a private person in distress, had now recourse for aid: and that it would be highly honourable to themselves, and to their office, if they showed that the tribuneship possessed not greater power to harass the senate, and excite discord between the orders in the state, than to favour ill-designing colleagues.” The voices of the whole senate were then heard together, appeals to the tribunes, coming from every corner of the house; and, in some time, silence being obtained, those who had been prepared through the influence of the principal nobility gave notice, “that the proposal of a law, published by their colleagues, which, in the judgment of the senate, tended to the dissolution of the commonwealth, they would oppose with their protests.” The thanks of the senate were given to the protestors: but the authors of the proposal, having called an assembly of the people, abused their colleagues as traitors to the interests of the commons, and slaves to the consulars: but, after uttering other bitter invectives against them, dropped the prosecution of their scheme.
Y. R. 340. 412.XLIX. The two perpetual enemies of the Romans would have given them employment during the following year, in which Publius Cornelius Cossus, Caius Valerius Potitus, Quintus Quintius Cincinnatus, and Numerius Fabius Vibulanus were military tribunes with consular power, had not the religious scruples of their leaders deferred the military operations of the Veientians, in consequence of their lands having suffered severely, principally in the destruction of their country-seats, by an inundation of the Tiber. At the same time, the Æquans, by the loss which they had sustained three years before, were deterred from affording aid to the Volani, one of their kindred states. These had made inroads on the contiguous district of Lavici, and committed hostilities on the new colony: in which unjust proceeding they had hoped to have been supported by the concurrence of all the Æquans; but, being forsaken by their confederates, they, without performing any action worth mentioning, were stripped, in one slight battle and a siege, both of their lands and their city. An attempt made by Lucius Sextius, plebeian tribune, to procure a law that a colony should be sent to Volæ, in like manner as to Lavici, was crushed by the protests of his colleagues; who declared openly that they would not suffer any order of the commons to be passed, unless it were approved by the senate.Y. R. 341. 411. Next year the Æquans, having recovered Volæ, and sent a colony thither, strengthened the town with additional fortifications, the military tribunes with consular power, at Rome, being Cneius Cornelius Cossus, Lucius Valerius Potitus, Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, a second time, and Marcus Postumius Regillensis. The conduct of the war with the Æquans was intrusted to the last mentioned, a man of a depraved mind; which, however, did not appear so much in his management of the campaign, as in his behaviour on gaining success. Having, with great activity, levied an army and marched to Volæ, after breaking the spirits of the Æquans in slight engagements, he at length forced his way into the place; where he began a contention with his countrymen, instead of the Æquans. For having proclaimed, during the assault, that the plunder should be given to the soldiers, he broke his word on getting possession of the town. This, I am inclined to believe, was the cause of the displeasure of the army; rather than from finding less booty than the tribune had represented, and which they could not well expect in a new colony, and a town which had been sacked a short time before. Their anger was farther inflamed on his return to the city, (whither he had been summoned by his colleagues, on account of seditions raised by the plebeian tribunes,) from an expression which he was heard to utter in an assembly of the people, and which showed great weakness, or rather a degree of insanity. On Sextius, the plebeian tribune, preposing an agrarian law, and at the same time declaring that he would also propose the sending of a colony to Volæ, because those men deserved to enjoy the city and lands of Volæ, who had gained possession of them by their arms, he exclaimed, “Wo to my soldiers, if they are not quiet.” Which words gave not greater offence to the assembly, than they did soon after to the patricians, when they heard them; and the plebeian tribune, a keen man, and not destitute of eloquence, having found among his adversaries this haughty temper and ungoverned tongue, which he could easily provoke to such expressions as would excite indignation, not only against himself, but against the whole body and their cause, took occasion to draw Postumius more frequently into disputes than any other of the military tribunes. But now, on such a barbarous and inhuman expression, he remarked, “Do ye hear him, citizens! denouncing wo to soldiers as he would to slaves? and yet this brute will be judged by you more deserving of his high office than those who send you into colonies, and enrich you with lands and cities; who provide a settlement for your old age; and who fight, to the last, in defence of your interests. Begin then to learn why so few undertake your cause. What would they have to expect at your hands? posts of honour? These ye choose to confer on your adversaries, rather than on the champions of the Roman people. Ye murmured just now on hearing that man’s words. What does that avail? If ye had an opportunity, this moment, of giving your votes, ye would no doubt prefer him who denounces wo to you, before those who wish to procure establishments for you, of lands, habitations, and property.”
L. The words of Postumius being conveyed to the soldiers, excited in the camp a much higher degree of indignation. “Should a fraudulent embezzler of the spoils,” they said, “denounce also wo to the soldiers?” A general and open avowal of their resentment ensuing, the quæstor, Publius Sextius, supposing that the mutiny might be quashed, by the same violence which had given rise to it, sent a lictor to one of the most clamorous of the soldiers, on which a tumult and scuffle arose, in which he received a blow of a stone, which obliged him to withdraw from the crowd; the person who had wounded him adding, with a sneer, that “the quæstor had got what the general had threatened to the soldiers.” Postumius being sent for, on account of this disturbance, exasperated still farther the general ill humour, by the severity of his inquiries and cruelty of his punishments. At last, a crowd being drawn together, by the cries of some whom he had ordered to be put to death under a hurdle, he gave a loose to his rage, running down from the tribunal, like a madman, against those who interrupted the execution. There the indignation of the multitude, increased by the lictors clearing the way on all sides, and by the conduct of the centurions, burst out with such fury, that the tribune was overwhelmed with stones by his own troops. When this deed of such a heinous nature was reported at Rome, and the military tribunes endeavoured to procure a decree of the senate, for an inquiry into the death of their colleague, the plebeian tribunes interposed their protest. But this dispute was a branch of a contest of another kind; for the patricians had been seized with apprehensions that the commons, actuated by resentment and dread of the inquiries, would elect military tribunes out of their own body; therefore, they laboured with all their might for an election of consuls. The plebeian tribunes, not suffering the decree of the senate to pass, and also protesting against the election of consuls, the affair was brought to an interregnum. The patricians then obtained the victory.
Y. R. 342. 410.LI. Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, interrex, presiding in the assembly, Marcus Cornelius Cossus and Lucius Furius Medullinus were chosen consuls. In the beginning of their year of office, the senate passed a decree, that the tribunes should, without delay, propose to the commons an inquiry into the murder of Postumius, and that the commons should appoint whomsoever they should think proper to conduct the inquiry. The employment was, by a vote of the commons, which was approved by the people at large, committed to the consuls; who, notwithstanding they proceeded in the business with the utmost moderation and lenity, passing sentence of punishment only on a few, who, as there is good reason to believe, put an end to their own lives; yet could he not prevent the commons from conceiving the highest displeasure, and from observing that “any constitutions, enacted for their advantage, lay long dormant and unexecuted; whereas a law passed, in the mean time, consigning their persons and lives to forfeiture, was instantly enforced, and that with such full effect.” This would have been a most seasonable time, after the punishment of the mutiny, to have soothed their minds with such a healing measure as the distribution of the territory of Volæ; as it would have diminished their eagerness in the pursuit of an agrarian law, which tended to expel the patricians from the public lands, the possession of which they had unjustly acquired. But as matters were managed, the ill treatment shown them, in this very instance, was an additional source of vexation, as the nobility not only persisted with obstinacy to retain possession of those public lands, but even refused to distribute to the commons such as had been lately taken from the enemy, which otherwise would, like the rest, in a short time become the prey of a few. This year the legions were led out by the consul Furius against the Volscians, who were ravaging the country of the Hernicians; but not finding the enemy there, they proceeded to and took Ferentinum, whither a great multitude had retreated. The quantity of the spoil was less than they had expected, because the Volscians, seeing small hopes of holding out, had carried off their effects by night, and abandoned the town; which, being left almost without an inhabitant, fell next day into the hands of the Romans. The lands were given to the Hernicians.
Y. R. 343. 409.LII. That year, through the moderation of the tribunes, passed in domestic quiet; but the succeeding one, wherein Quintus Fabius Ambustus and Caius Furius Pacilus were consuls, was ushered in with the turbulent operations of Lucius Icilius, a plebeian tribune. Whilst, in the very beginning of the year, he was employed in exciting sedition by the publication of agrarian laws, as if that were a task incumbent on his name and family, a pestilence broke out, more alarming, however, than deadly, which diverted men’s thoughts from the Forum, and political disputes, to their own houses, and the care of their personal safety. It is believed that the disorder was less fatal in its effects, than the sedition would have proved, the state being delivered from it, with the loss of very few lives; though the sickness had been exceedingly general.Y. R. 344. 408. This year of pestilence was succeeded by one of scarcity, owing to the neglect of agriculture, usual in such cases. Marcus Papirius Atratinus and Caius Nauticus Rutilus were consuls. Famine would now have produced more dismal effects than the pest, had not a supply been procured to the market by despatching envoys round all the nations bordering on the Tuscan sea, and on the Tiber, to purchase corn. The Samnites, who were then in possession of Capua and Cumæ, in a haughty manner prohibited them from trading there: they met, however, with a different reception from the tyrants of Sicily, who kindly afforded every assistance. The largest supplies were brought down by the Tiber, through the very active zeal of the Etrurians. In consequence of the sickness, the consuls were at a loss for men to transact the business of the nation, so that not finding more than one senator for each embassy, they were obliged to join to it two knights. Except from the sickness and the scarcity, there happened nothing during those two years, either at home or abroad, to give them any trouble. But no sooner did those causes of uneasiness disappear than all the evils which had hitherto so frequently distressed the state, started up together, intestine discord and foreign wars.
Y. R. 345. 407.LIII. In the succeeding consulate of Mamercus Æmilius and Caius Valerius Potitus, the Æquans made preparations for war; and the Volscians, though they took not arms by public authority, supplied them with volunteers who served for pay. On the report of hostilities having been committed by them, for they had now marched out into the territories of the Latines and Hernicians, Valerius the consul began to enlist troops, whilst Marcus Mænius, a plebeian tribune, who was pushing forward an agrarian law, obstructed the levies; and as the people were secure of the support of the tribune, no one, who did not choose it, took the military oath — when on a sudden, news arrived that the citadel of Carventa had been seized by the enemy. The disgrace incurred by this event, while it served the senate as a ground of severe reproaches against Mænius, afforded at the same time to the other tribunes, who had been already preengaged to protest against the agrarian law, a more justifiable pretext for acting in opposition to their colleague. Wherefore, after the business had been protracted to a great length, by wrangling disputes, the consuls appealing to gods and men, maintained that whatever losses or disgrace had already been, or was likely to be suffered from the enemy, the blame of all was to be imputed to Mænius, who hindered the levies; Mænius, on the other hand, exclaiming, that if the unjust occupiers would resign the possession of the public lands, he would give no delay to the levies. On this, the nine tribunes interposed, by a decree, and put an end to the contest, proclaiming as the determination of their college, that “they would, for the purpose of enforcing the levy, in opposition to the protest of their colleague, support Caius Valerius in inflicting fines and other penalties, on such as should refuse to enlist.” Armed with this decree, the consul ordered a few, who appealed to the tribune, to be taken into custody; at which, the rest, being terrified, took the military oath. The troops were led to the citadel of Carventa, and though mutual dislike prevailed between them and the consul, yet, as soon as they arrived at the spot, they retook the citadel with great spirit, driving out the troops which defended it. Numbers having carelessly straggled from the garrison, in search of plunder, had left the place so exposed as to be attacked with success. The booty was there considerable; because the whole of what they collected, in their continual depredations, had been stored up in the citadel, as a place of safety. This the consul ordered the quæstors to sell by auction, and to carry the produce into the treasury, declaring that when the soldiers should appear not to have a desire to decline the service, they should then share in the spoil. This so much increased the anger of the people and soldiers against the consul, that when, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, he entered the city in ovation, in the couplets of rude verses, thrown out with military license, and in which he was reflected on with severity, the name of Mænius was extolled with praises, and on every mention of the tribune, the attachment of the surrounding populace, manifested itself in expressions of approbation and applause, which vied with the commendations of the soldiers. This circumstance, in regard to the tribune, more than the wanton raillery of the soldiers against the consul, and which was in some measure customary, gave great uneasiness to the senate; so that, not doubting but Mænius would be honoured with a place among the military tribunes, if he were to be a candidate, they put it out of his reach by appointing an election of consuls.
Y. R. 346. 406.LIV. The consuls elected were Cneius Cornelius Cossus and Lucius Furius Medullinus a second time. The commons were never more highly displeased than now, at not being allowed to elect tribunes. At the nomination of quæstors, they discovered this displeasure, and at the same time took their revenge by raising, for the first time, plebeians to their place: of the four appointed, Cæso Fabius Ambustus was the only patrician; the three plebeians, Quintus Silius, Publius Ælius, and Publius Pupius being preferred before young men of the most illustrious families. That the people exerted this freedom, in giving their suffrages, was owing, I find, to the Icilii, out of which family, the most hostile of any to the patricians, three were chosen tribunes for that year; who, after flattering the multitude with the prospect of various and great designs to be achieved, and thereby exciting their most ardent expectations, affirmed that they would not stir a step, unless the nation would, at least in the election of quæstors, the only one which the senate had left open to both patricians and plebeians, show a proper degree of spirit for the accomplishment of what they had long wished for, and what the laws had put in their power. The commons, therefore, considered this as an important victory, and estimated the quæstorship in its present state, not according to the intrinsic value of the office itself, but as it appeared to lay open to new men an access to the consulship and the honours of a triumph. On the other hand, the patricians expressed great indignation at the prospect of the posts of honour not only being shared with others, but perhaps lost to themselves, affirming, that “if things were to remain in that state, it would be folly to educate children, who, being excluded from the station of their ancestors, and seeing such in possession of their rightful honours, would be left without command or power in the character of Salii or Flamens, with no other employment than that of offering sacrifices for the people.” The minds of both parties became highly irritated, while the commons assumed new courage, in having acquired three leaders of the popular cause, of most distinguished reputation. The senate, seeing that every election wherein the commons had liberty of choosing out of both parties, would prove in the issue like that of the quæstors, were earnest for the naming of consuls, which was not yet laid open to them. On the other hand, the Icilii insisted that military tribunes should be elected, and some posts of dignity be at length imparted to the commons.
LV. The consuls had no business on their hands, by an opposition to which they could extort a compliance with their wishes: when at a moment surprizingly seasonable for their purpose, news was brought that the Volscians and Æquans had marched beyond their own frontiers, to ravage the lands of the Latines and Hernicians. But when the consuls began to levy troops, the tribunes exerted themselves strenuously to hinder it; affirming that this was an advantageous opportunity, presented by fortune to them and to the commons. There were three of them all men of the most active talents, and considerable families among the plebeians. Two of these chose each a consul, whose motions he was to watch with unremitting assiduity, the third had the charge assigned him, of sometimes restraining, sometimes spiriting up the commons by his harangues. Thus the consuls could not accomplish the levy, nor the tribunes the election which they had planned. After some time expresses arrived that the Æquans had attacked the citadel of Carventa, while the soldiers of the garrison were straggling abroad in search of plunder, and had put to death the few who were left to guard it; that several were slain as they were hastily returning to the citadel, with others who were dispersed through the country. This incident, while it prejudiced the state, added force to the project of the tribunes. For, though assailed by every argument to induce them to desist, at least in the present situation of affairs, from obstructing the business of the war, they would not give way either to the storm which threatened the public, or to the torrent of displeasure to which themselves were exposed; and, at length, carried their point, that the senate should pass a decree for the election of military tribunes. This, however, was accompanied with an express stipulation, that no person should be admitted as a candidate who was in that year a plebeian tribune; and that no plebeian tribune should be rechosen for the year following: the senate in this, pointing undoubtedly at the Icilii, whom they suspected of aiming at the consular tribuneship. After this, the levy and other preparations for war, went forward, with the general concurrence of all ranks. The diversity of the accounts given by writers renders it uncertain, whether the two consuls marched to the citadel of Carventa, or whether one remained at home to hold the elections, but those facts in which they do not disagree, we may receive as certain; that, after having carried on the attack for a long time, without effect, the army retired from that citadel; that, by the same army, Verrugo, in the country of the Volscians, was retaken, great devastation made, and immense booty captured, in the territories both of the Æquans and Volscians.
Y. R. 347. 405.LVI. At Rome, as the commons gained the victory, so far as to procure the kind of election which they preferred, so in the issue of it, the patricians were victorious: for, contrary to the expectation of all, three patricians were chosen military tribunes with consular power; Caius Julius Iulus, Publius Cornelius Cossus, and Caius Servilius Ahala. It is said that an artifice was practised by the patricians on the occasion, and the Icilii charged them with it at the time; that by intermixing a number of unworthy candidates, with the deserving, they turned away the people’s thoughts from the plebeian candidates. The disgust was excited by the remarkable meanness of some of the number. Information was now received that the Volscians and Æquans, actuated by hopes, from having been able to keep possession of the citadel of Carventa, or by anger, for the loss of the garrison of Verrugo, had in conjunction commenced hostilities with the utmost force which they could muster, and that the Antians were the chief promoters of this measure; for that their ambassadors had gone about among both those states, upbraiding their spiritless conduct, saying that they had the year before lain hid behind walls, and suffered the Romans to carry their depredations through every part of the country, and the garrison of Verrugo to be overpowered. That now, armed troops, as well as colonies, were sent into their territories; and that the Romans not only kept possession of their property, and distributed it among themselves, but even made presents of a part of it to the Hernicians of Terentinum, a district of which they had been stripped. People’s minds being inflamed by these representations of the envoys, great numbers of the young men were enlisted. Thus the youth of all the several nations were drawn together to Antium, and there pitching their camp, they waited the attack. These violent proceedings being reported at Rome, and exaggerated beyond the truth, the senate instantly ordered a dictator to be nominated, their ultimate resource in all perilous conjunctures. We are told that this measure gave great offence to Julius and Cornelius, and was not accomplished without much ill temper in others. The principal patricians, after many fruitless complaints against the military tribunes, for refusing to be directed by the senate, at last went so far as to appeal to the tribunes of the commons, representing, that compulsory measures had been used by that body even to consuls in a similar case. The plebeian tribunes, overjoyed at this dissension among the patricians, made answer, that “there was no support to be expected from persons who were not accounted in the number of citizens, and scarcely of the human race. If at any time the posts of honour should cease to be confined to one party, and the people should be admitted to a share in the administration of government, they would then exert their endeavours to prevent the decrees of the senate being invalidated by any arrogance of magistrates. Until then, the patricians, who were under no restraint in respect to the laws, might by themselves manage the tribunitian office along with the rest.”
LVII. This connection, at a most unseasonable time, and when they had on their hands a war of such importance, occupied every one’s thoughts; until at length, after Julius and Cornelius had for a long time descanted, by turns, on the injustice done them in snatching out of their hands the honourable employment entrusted to them by the people, (they being sufficiently qualified to conduct the war,) Servilius Ahala, one of the military tribunes, said, that “he had kept silence so long, not because he was in doubt as to the part he ought to take; for what good citizen would consider his own emolument, rather than that of the public? but because he wished that his colleagues would, of their own accord, yield to the authority of the senate, rather than let supplications be made to the college of tribunes, for support against them. That notwithstanding what had passed, if the situations of affairs would allow it, he would still give them time to recede from an opinion, too obstinately maintained. But as the exigences of war would not wait on the counsels of men, he would prefer the interest of the commonwealth to the regard of his associates; and if the senate continued in the same sentiments, he would, on the following night, nominate a dictator; and if any person protested against the senate passing a decree, he would consider a vote of that body as sufficient authority.”* By this conduct, having, deservedly, obtained the praises and countenance of all, after he had nominated Publius Cornelius dictator, he was himself appointed by him master of the horse, and afforded an example to such as observed his case, and that of his colleagues, that honours and public favour sometimes offer themselves the more readily to those who show no ambition for them. The war produced no memorable event. In one battle, and that gained without difficulty, the enemy were vanquished at Antium. The victorious army laid the lands of the Volscians entirely waste. Their fort, at the lake Fucinus, was taken by storm, and in it three thousand men made prisoners; the rest of the Volscians were driven into the towns, without making any attempt to defend the country. The dictator having conducted the war in such a manner as showed only that he was not negligent of fortune’s favours, returned to the city with a greater share of success than of glory, and resigned his office. The military tribunes, without making any mention of an election of consuls, I suppose through pique for the appointment of a dictator, issued a proclamation for the choosing of military tribunes. The perplexity of the patricians became now greater than ever, when they saw their cause betrayed by men of their own order. In like manner, therefore, as they had done the year before, they set up as candidates the most unworthy of the plebeians, thus creating a disgust against all of these, even the deserving; and then, by engaging those patricians who were most eminently distinguished by the splendor of their character, and by their interest, to stand forth as candidates, they secured every one of the places according to their wish. There were four military tribunes elected,Y. R. 348. 404. all of whom had already served, Lucius Furius Medullinus, Caius Valerius Potitus, Numerius Fabius Vibulanus, and Caius Servilius Ahala: the last being continued in office, by re-election, as well on account of his other deserts, as in consequence of the popularity which he had recently acquired by his singular moderation.
LVIII. In that year, the term of the truce with the Veientian nation being expired, ambassadors and heralds were employed to make a demand of satisfaction for injuries, who, on coming to the frontiers, were met by an embassy from the Veientians. These requested that the others would not proceed to Veii, until they should first have access to the Roman senate. From the senate they obtained, that, in consideration of the Veientians being distressed by intestine dissensions, satisfaction should not be demanded: so far were they from seeking, in the troubles of others, an occasion of advancing their own interests. In another quarter, and in the country of the Volscians, a disaster was felt in the garrison at Verrugo being lost. On which occasion so much depended on time, that though the troops besieged there by the Volscians had requested assistance, and might have been succoured, if expedition had been used, the army sent to their relief, came only in time to destroy the enemy, who, just after putting the garrison to the sword, were dispersed, in search of plunder. This dilatoriness was not to be imputed to the tribunes, so much as to the senate; who, because they were told that a very vigorous resistance was made, never considered, that there are certain limits to human strength, beyond which no degree of bravery can proceed. These very gallant soldiers, however were not without revenge, both before and after their death, In the following year, Publius and Cneius Cornelius Cossus,Y. R. 349. 403. Numerius Fabius Ambustus, and Lucius Valerius Potitus being military tribunes with consular power, war was commenced against the Veientians, in resentment of an insolent answer of their senate; who, when the ambassadors demanded satisfaction, ordered them to be told, that if they did not speedily quit the city, they would give them the satisfaction which Lars Tolumnius had given. The Roman senate being highly offended at this, decreed, that the military tribunes should, as early as possible, propose to the people the proclaiming war against the Veientians. As soon as that proposal was made public, the young men openly expressed their discontent. “The war with the Volscians,” they said, “was not yet at an end; it was not long since two garrisons were utterly destroyed, and one of the forts was with difficulty retained. Not a year passed, in which they were not obliged to meet an enemy in the field, and, as if these fatigues were thought too trifling, a new war was now set on foot against a neighbouring and most powerful nation, who would soon rouse all Etruria to arms.” These discontents, first suggested by themselves, were farther aggravated by the plebeian tribunes, who affirmed, that “the war of greatest moment subsisting, was that between the patricians and plebeians. That the latter were designedly harassed by military service, and exposed to the destructive weapons of enemies. They were kept at a distance from the city, and in a state of banishment, lest, should they enjoy rest at home, they might turn their thoughts towards liberty, and the establishment of colonies, and form plans, either for obtaining possession of the public lands, or asserting their right of giving their suffrages with freedom.” Then taking hold of the veterans, they recounted the years which each of them had served, their wounds and scars, asking, “where was there room on their bodies to receive new wounds? what quantity of blood had they remaining which could be shed for the commonwealth?” As they had by these insinuations and remarks, thrown out in public assemblies, rendered the commons averse from the war, the determination on the proposition was adjourned, because it was manifest, that, if it came before them, during the present ill-humour it would certainly be rejected.
LIX. It was resolved, that, in the mean time, the military tribunes should lead an army into the territories of the Volscians. Cneius Cornelius alone was left at Rome. The three tribunes, finding that the Volscians had not any where formed a camp, and that they were resolved not to hazard a battle, divided their forces into three parts, and set out towards different quarters to waste the enemy’s country. Valerius directed his march to Antium, Cornelius to Ecetra, and wherever they came, they made extensive depredations both on the lands and houses, in order to separate the troops of the Volscians. Fabius marched, without plundering, to attack Anxur, which was the principal object in view. Anxur is the city which we now call Tarracinæ, situated on a declivity adjoining a morass. On this side, Fabius made a feint of attacking it, but sent round four cohorts under Caius Servilius Ahala, who, having seized on an eminence which commands the city, assailed the walls, with great shouting and tumult, and where there was no guard to defend them. Those, who were employed in protecting the lower part of the city against Fabius, being stunned and in amazement at this tumult, gave him an opportunity of applying the scaling ladders. Every place was quickly filled with the Romans, and a dreadful slaughter continued a long time without distinction of those who fled and those who made resistance, of the armed or unarmed. The vanquished therefore were under a necessity of fighting, there being no hope for such as retired, until an order was suddenly proclaimed, that no one should be injured except those who were in arms, which induced all the surviving multitude instantly to surrender. Of these, there were taken alive, to the number of two thousand five hundred. Fabius would not suffer his soldiers to meddle with the spoil, until his colleagues arrived, saying, that those armies had also a part in the taking of Anxur, who had diverted the other troops of the Volscians from the defence of the place. On their arrival the three armies plundered the city, which a long course of prosperity had filled with opulence; and this liberality of the commanders first began to reconcile the commons to the patricians: which end was soon after farther promoted; for the principal nobility, with a generosity towards the multitude the most seasonable that ever was shown, procured a decree of the senate, and before such a scheme could be mentioned by the tribunes or commons, that the soldiers should receive pay out of the public treasury,* whereas hitherto every one had served at his own expense.
LX. No measure, we are told, was ever received by the commons with such transports of joy: they ran in crowds to the senate-house, caught the hands of the senators as they came out, declaring that they were fathers in reality, and acknowledging that their conduct had been such, that every man, whilst he had any share of strength remaining, would risk his person, and property, in the cause of a country so liberal to its citizens. Whilst they were delighted with the comfortable prospect of their private substance at all events resting unimpaired, during such time as they should be consigned over to the commonwealth, and employed in its service, their joy received a manifold addition, and their gratitude was raised to a higher pitch, from the consideration that this had been a voluntary grant, having never been agitated by the tribunes, nor attempted to be gained by any requisitions of their own. The plebeian tribunes, alone, partook not of the general satisfaction and harmony diffused through every rank, but averred, that “this would not prove such matter of joy nor so honourable to the patricians, as they themselves imagined. That the plan appeared better on the first view, than it would prove on experience. For how could that money be procured unless by imposing a tax on the people? They were generous to some, therefore, at others’ expense. Besides, even though this should be borne, those who had served out their time in the army would never endure, that their successors should be retained on better terms than they themselves had been; and that they should bear the expense first of their own service and then of that of others.” These arguments had an effect on great numbers of the commons. At last, on the publication of the decree for levying the tax, the tribunes went so far, as, on their part, to give public notice, that they would give protection to any person who should refuse his proportion, of the tax for payment to the soldiers. The patricians persisted in support of a matter so happily begun. They first of all paid in their own assessment; and there being no silver coined at that time, some of them conveying their weighed brass to the treasury in wagons, gave a pompous appearance to their payments. This being done by the senate with the strictest punctuality, and according to their rated properties, the principal plebeians, connected in friendship with the nobility, in pursuance of a plan laid down, began to pay; and, when the populace saw these highly commended by the patricians, and also respected as good citizens by those of military age, scorning the support of the tribunes, they began at once to vie with each other in paying the tax. The law being then passed, for declaring war against the Veientians, a numerous army, composed chiefly of volunteers, followed the new military tribunes, with consular power, to Veii.
Y. R. 350. 402.LXI. These tribunes were Titus Quintius Capitolinus, Publius Quintius Cincinnatus, Caius Julius Iulus a second time, Aulus Manlius, Lucius Furius Medullinus a second time, and Manius Æmilius Mamercinus. By these Veii was first invested. A little before this siege began, a full meeting of the Etrurians being held at the temple of Voltumna, the question whether the Veientians should be supported by the joint concurrence of the whole confederacy, was left undecided. During the following year the siege was prosecuted with less vigour, because some of the tribunes and their troops were called away to oppose the Volscians.Y. R. 351. 401. The military tribunes, with consular power, of this year were, Caius Valerius Potitus a third time, Manius Sergius Fidenas, Publius Cornelius Maluginensis, Cneius Cornelius Cossus, Cæso Fabius Ambustus, Spurius Nautius Rutilus, a second time. A pitched battle was fought with the Volscians, between Ferentinum and Ecetra, in which the Romans had the advantage. Siege was then laid by the tribunes to Artena, a town of the Volscians. After some time, the enemy having attempted a sally, and being driven back into the town, the besiegers got an opportunity of forcing their way in, and made themselves masters of every place, except the citadel. This fortress was naturally very strong, and a body of armed men had thrown themselves into it. Under its wall great numbers were slain and made prisoners. The citadel was then besieged, but it neither could be taken by storm, because it had a garrison sufficient for the size of the place, nor did it afford any hope of a surrender, because, before the city was taken, all the public stores of corn had been conveyed thither, so that the Romans would have grown weary of the attempt, and retired, had not the fortress been betrayed to them by a slave. He gave admittance, through a place of difficult access, to some soldiers, who made themselves masters of it; and while they were employed in killing the guards, the rest of the multitude, losing all courage at the sight of this unexpected attack, laid down their arms. After demolishing both the citadel and city of Artena, the legions were led back from the country of the Volscians, and the whole power of Rome turned against Veii. The traitor received as a reward, besides his liberty, the property of two families, and was called Servius Romanus. Some are of opinion, that Artena belonged to the Veientians, not to the Volscians: a mistake occasioned by there having been once a town of that name, between Cære and Veii. But that town the Roman kings demolished; it was the property of the Cæritians, not of the Veientians; this other of the same name, the destruction of which we have related, was in the country of the Volscians.
* The records, in which the names of the magistrates in succession, and the most memorable events were recorded.
† The annals were a compendious registry of events, as they occurred, made by the pontiffs, who likewise had the care of the records, and kept both carefully shut up from the inspection of the lower order.
* The first in a family who attained any of the curule offices, that is, any of the superior magistracies, was called novus homo, a new man.
* In the performance of such rites, the slightest mistake of a word or syllable was deemed highly inauspicious; to prevent which, the regular form of words was pronounced by a priest, and repeated after him by the persons officiating.
* Villa publica. It was destined to public uses, such as holding the census or survey of the people, the reception of ambassadors, &c.
* The division of the people into tribes, made by Romulus, regarded the stock, or origin, of the constituent members; the subsequent one, by Servius, was merely local, and a tribe then signified nothing more than a certain space of ground with its inhabitants: but as the tribes increased in number, which they did at last to thirty-five, this kind of division was set aside, and a tribe became, not a quarter of the city, but a fraternity of citizens, connected by a participation in the common rights of the tribe, without any reference to their places of residence. The rustic tribes were always reckoned more honourable than the city tribes, because the business of agriculture was held in the highest estimation, and because the lowest of the people were enrolled in the latter. The difference of rank, among the rustic tribes, depended, partly on their antiquity, and, partly, on the number of illustrious families contained in each. In many cases, the tribes took their names from some of those distinguished families.
† Ærarium facere, signifies to strip a person of all the privileges of a citizen, on which he became civis ærarius, a citizen so far only as he paid taxes.
* To rub it with chalk, in order to increase its whiteness, and render themselves more conspicuous. It was the practice of those who solicited any public office, thus to make their garments more white, candidam: hence they were called candidati; candidates, a word still in use.
* The fines imposed in early times were certain numbers of sheep or oxen: afterwards it was ordered by law that these fines might be appraised, and the value paid in money. Another law fixed a certain rate at which the cattle should be estimated, 100 asses for an ox, 10 for a sheep.
* 32l. 5s. 10d.
* A prosecution before the people was a very tedious business, and afforded the person accused many chances of escaping, even though he should not be able to prove his innocence: he might prevail on the prosecutor to relinquish the charge, or on a plebeian tribune to interpose, or on the augurs to report ill omens on the day of the assembly for the decision; or, at the worst, he might go into voluntary exile: vertere solum exilii gratiâ. A magistrate, who intended to impeach a person before the people, mounted the rostrum, and gave notice that on such a day he intended to accuse that person of such a crime; on which the party accused was obliged to give bail for his appearance, which if he failed to do, he was thrown into prison. On the day appointed, the people being assembled (by centuries if the crime charged was capital, by tribes if fineable,) the person accused was summoned by the crier, and if he did not appear, was punished at the pleasure of the prosecutor. If he appeared, the accuser mounted the rostrum, and began his charge, which he carried on through that and two other days, allowing an interval of one day between each. On the third day he made a recapitulation of the charge, and mentioned the punishment specified in the law for such an offence. This was expressed in writing, and exhibited to public view during three market-days. This proceeding was termed rogatio in respect of the people, and irrogatio in respect of the accused. On the day after the third market-day, the accuser finished the business of the prosecution, and concluded with giving notice of the day on which the assembly should meet to pass judgment. The accused was then at liberty to make his defence, either by himself, or by advocates.
* 48l. 8s. 9d.
† 32l. 5s. 10d.
* Many circumstances might prevent the senate’s passing a decree; in such cases the opinion of the majority was recorded, and was called senatus auctoritas. It might be referred to the people for confirmation.
* The foot soldiers only. The horse did not receive pay until three years after. The pay of a foot soldier, in the time of the second Punick war, was three asscs; too small, if they had not received an allowance of corn and sometimes of clothes.
On occasion of the siege of Veii, winter huts erected for the troops; on account of which, being a new plan, the tribunes of the people endeavour to excite discontent, complaining that no repose is given to the soldiers, even in winter. The cavalry, for the first time, serve on horses of their own. Veii, after a siege of ten years, taken by Furius Camillus, dictator. In the character of military tribunes, he lays seige to Falisci; sends back the children of the enemy, who were betrayed into his hands; being charged with criminal conduct, goes into exile. The Senonian Gauls lay siege to Clusium. Roman ambassadors sent to mediate peace, take part with the Clusians; provoked at which, the Gauls march directly against Rome, and, after routing the Romans at the Allia, take possession of the whole city, except the Capitol. Having scaled the Capitol in the night, they are discovered by the cackling of geese, and repulsed, principally by the exertions of Marcus Manlius. The Romans, compelled by famine, agree to ransom themselves. While they are weighing the gold, Camillus arrives with an army, beats off the Gauls, and destroys their army. He prevents the design of moving to Veii.
Y. R. 352. 400.I.Peace now subsisted in all other quarters; but the Romans and Veientians were still in arms, and displayed such violent rancour and animosity as made it evident that utter destruction would be the fate of the party vanquished. The election of magistrates in the two states was conducted in very different methods. The Romans augmented the number of their military tribunes with consular power, electing eight, a number greater than had hitherto been known. These were Manius Æmilius Mamercinus a second time, Lucius Valerius Potitus a third time, Appius Claudius Crassus, Marcus Quintilius Varus, Lucius Julius Iulus, Marcus Postumius, Marcus Furius Camillus, Marcus Postumius Albinus. The Veientians, on the other hand, disgusted at the annual intrigues of candidates, which were sometimes the cause of violent dissensions, elected a king. This step gave great offence to all the states of Etruria, as besides their abhorrence of kingly government, they held the person elected in no less detestation. He, out of the insolence of wealth, and the arrogance of his temper, had before this rendered himself obnoxious to the nation, by violently breaking off the performance of certain annual games, the omission of which was deemed an impiety: for instigated by pique, because another candidate for the office of priest had been preferred before him, by the suffrages of the twelve states, in the middle of the solemnity, he abruptly carried away the performers, of whom a great part were his slaves. That nation, therefore devoted beyond all others to religious performances, the more so, because they excelled in the conduct of them, passed a decree, by which all aid was refused to the Veientians, so long as they should continue under the government of a king. At Veii, all mention of this decree was suppressed by people’s dread of the king, who would have treated any person, reported to have mentioned such a matter, as a leader of sedition, not as the author of an idle rumour. Although the Romans received intelligence that all was quiet in Etruria, yet being also informed that this business was agitated in every one of their meetings, they formed and strengthened their fortifications in such a manner as gave them security on both sides. Some they raised on the part next the town, against the irruptions of the townsmen; others, the side opposite Etruria, so as to guard against any auxiliaries which might come from thence.
II. The Roman generals, conceiving greater hopes from a blockade, than from an assault, resolved to carry on their operations during the whole winter; and accordingly they began to erect huts, a proceeding quite new to Roman soldiers. As soon as an account of this was brought to the plebeian tribunes, who for a long time past found no pretext for starting new disturbances, they flew out to meet the people in assembly, and laboured to inflame the minds of the commons, asserting, that “this was the purpose for which pay for the soldiery had been established; nor had they been so blind, as not to see, that such a present from their enemies was tainted with poison. That the liberty of the commons had been sold; their young men carried away without hope of return, exposed to the severity of winter, excluded from their houses and family affairs. What did they suppose was the reason for keeping the troops on duty without intermission? They would find it, in fact, to be no other than the apprehension, lest in case of the attendance of those youths, in whom the whole strength of the commons consisted, some steps might be taken towards promoting their interests. Besides, the men were more harassed, and subjected to greater hardships than the Veientians. For the latter passed the winter under their own roofs, having their city secured by strong walls, and its natural situation; while the Roman soldiers, in the midst of labour and toils, lay perishing in tents, overwhelmed by snow and frost; never laying their arms out of their hands even in that severe season, which had ever given a respite to all wars either on land or sea. Neither kings nor consuls, overbearing as they were before the institution of the tribunitian office; nor the stern government of a dictator; nor the arbitrary decemvirs; ever imposed such a pain as this of unremitting military service. Yet military tribunes assumed that degree of kingly power over the commons of Rome. What would have been the behaviour of those men, in the office of consul or dictator, who have exhibited a picture of proconsular power in colours of such harshness and cruelty? but this was no worse than what the people deserved. Among eight military tribunes, they did not give room to one plebeian. Till of late, the patricians used to find the utmost difficulty in filling up three places; but, now they march in files, eight deep, to take possession of the posts of government; and even in such a crowd, no plebeian is found intermixed, who, if he served no other purpose, might remind his colleagues, that the army was composed not of slaves but of freemen; of citizens who ought to be brought home, at least in winter, to their habitations, and the comforts of their own roofs, and allowed, at some time of the year, to visit their parents, children, and wives; to exercise the rights of Romans, and to take a part in the election of magistrates.” While they exclaimed in these, and such like terms, they were not unequally matched in an opponent, Appius Claudius, who had been left at home, by his colleagues, for the purpose of repressing the turbulent schemes of the tribunes; a man trained, from his youth, in contentions with the plebeians; who some years before, had recommended, as has been mentioned, the disuniting the power of the tribunes by the protests of their colleagues.
III. Endowed by nature with good abilities, and possessed also of experience, from long practice, he spoke on this occasion in the following manner: “if it ever was a matter of doubt, citizens, whether the motives which led the plebeian tribunes to foment sedition, on every occasion, regarded your interests or their own, I am confident that, in the course of this year, every such doubt must have vanished; and while I rejoice at your being at length undeceived in respect of a mistake of long continuance, I cannot, at the same time, refrain from congratulating you, and on your account, the commonwealth, that the delusion has been removed by a train of prosperous events, rather than by any other means. Is there a person living, who is not convinced that the plebeian tribunes were never so highly displeased and provoked by any instance of the ill treatment felt by you, if any such ever really existed, as by the generosity of the patricians towards the commons, in establishing pay for the army? What other event do ye think they either dreaded then, with so much anxiety; or wish so ardently, at present to obviate, as an union between the orders, which in their opinion would prove the subversion of the tribunitian power? Thus, in fact, as labourers in the field of iniquity, they are at a loss for employment, and even wish, that there may be always some diseased part in the commonwealth, for the cure of which they may be employed by you. For whether, tribunes, are ye at present defending the commons, or making an attack on them? Whether are ye adversaries of the soldiery, or patrons of their cause. Perhaps ye will say thus, whatever the patricians do, we disapprove, whether it be favourable or prejudicial to the commons; and, just as masters forbid their slaves to have any dealings with those belonging to others, and think proper to cut off the commerce between them either of kindness or unkindness, ye, in like manner, interdict us, the patricians, from all intercourse with the commons; lest by our civility and generosity, we should challenge their regard, and they become obedient and willing to be directed as we might see best. Would it not much better become you, if ye had any of the sentiments, or feelings, I say not, of fellow citizens, but of human beings, rather to favour, and, as far as in your power to cherish this kindness of the patricians, and the tractable disposition of the commons? Were such harmony once established, on a permanent footing, who is there that would not venture to engage, that this empire would soon arrive at a height of grandeur far beyond all the neighbouring states?
IV. “I shall hereafter explain to you, not only the expediency, but the necessity, of the plan adopted by my colleagues, of not drawing off the troops from Veii, until the business shall be completed. At present I choose to confine my observations to the state of the soldiery: and if what I shall say on that head were to be spoken, not only before you, but also in the camp, I am persuaded, that it would appear reasonable, to the army themselves. Indeed, if my own understanding were incapable of suggesting any arguments on the subject, I might be well content with those which have been thrown out in the discourses of our adversaries. They lately insisted that pay ought not to be given to the soldiers, because it had never been given before. Upon what grounds, therefore can they now be displeased, if persons who have received an addition of profit, beyond what was usual, are enjoined to perform some additional labour proportioned thereto? In no case is labour to be procured without emolument, nor emolument, in general, without the expense of labour. Toil and pleasure, in their natures opposite, are yet linked together in a kind of necessary connection. Formerly, the soldier deemed it a hardship to give up his labour to the commonwealth, and to bear his own expenses. At the same time, he found pleasure in having it in his power, for a part of the year, to till his own ground, and to acquire the means of supporting himself and his family, at home, and in the field. At present, he has a source of pleasure in the profits set apart for him by the commonwealth, and he no doubt receives his pay with joy. Let him, therefore, bear with resignation the being detained a little longer from his home, and from his family affairs, which are not now burthened with his expenses. Suppose the commonwealth called him to a statement of accounts, might it not justly say, you receive pay by the year, give me your labour by the year. Do you think it just, that for half a-year’s service, you should receive a whole year’s pay? It is disagreeable to me, Romans, to dwell on this topic; for this kind of proceeding suits only those, who employ mercenary soldiers; but we wish to deal, as with our fellow-citizens. Either, then, the war ought not to have been undertaken, or it ought to be conducted in a manner suited to the dignity of the Roman people, and to be brought to a conclusion as soon as possible. Now it will certainly be brought to a conclusion, if we press forward the siege; if we do not retire, until we have attained the object of our hopes, in the capture of Veii. In truth, if there were no other motive, the very discredit of acting otherwise ought to urge us to perseverance. In former times, a city was held besieged for ten years on account of one woman, by the united force of all the Greeks. At what a distance from their homes! What tracts of land and sea lying between! Yet we grumble at the fatigue of a siege of one year’s continuance, within less than twenty miles of us, almost within sight of our city; because, I suppose, the ground of our quarrel is not sufficiently just to stimulate us to persevere. This is the seventh time that the people have rebelled. During peace, they never were faithful to their engagements. They have laid waste our territories a thousand times. They have compelled the Fidenatians to revolt from us; have put to death our colonists in that district; and have been the instigators of the impious murder of our ambassadors, in violation of the laws of nations: they have endeavoured, in short, to stir up all Etruria against us; and, at this day, are busy in the same attempt: and scarcely did they refrain from offering violence to our ambassadors who demanded satisfaction. Against such people, ought war to be waged in a remiss and dilatory manner?
V. “If such just causes of resentment have no weight with us, have, I beseech you, the following considerations none? The city has been inclosed with immense works, by which the enemy are confined within their walls. Of late they have not tilled their lands; and what were cultivated before, have been laid waste in the course of the war. If we withdraw our army, who can doubt that not only through desire of revenge, but even through the necessity imposed on them of plundering the property of others, since they have lost their own, they will make an invasion on our territories? By such conduct, therefore, we should not defer the war, but open it a passage into our own frontiers. What shall we say, as to the circumstances immediately affecting the soldiers, of whose interests your worthy tribunes have, all on a sudden, grown so careful, after having attempted to wrest their pay out of their hands? How do they stand? They have formed a rampart and a trench, both works of immense labour, through so great an extent of ground: they have erected forts, at first only a few, afterwards a great number, when the army was augmented; and they have raised defences, not only on the side next to the city, but also opposite Etruria, against any succours which should arrive from thence. Why need I mention towers, covered approaches, and the like; together with all the various machines used in attacking towns? Now, that such a quantity of labour has been expended, and that they have just come to the finishing of the work, do ye think it would be prudent to abandon all these preparations, that, the next summer, they may be obliged to undergo again the same course of toil and labour in forming them a-new? How much less difficult would it be, to support the works already formed, to press forward, to persevere, and thus at once to be set at rest? The business might soon be accomplished by an uniform course of exertions; for it is certain, that by thus interrupting and suspending all proceedings, we absolutely hinder the attainment of our own hopes. What I have said, regards only the labour, and the loss of time. But let me ask farther, can we disregard the danger which we incur by procrastination, while we see so frequent meetings held by the Etrurians on the subject of sending aid to Veii? As matters stand at present, they are displeased and angry with that people; declare that they will not send them aid; and, for any concern which they take in the affair, we are at liberty to take Veii. But who can promise that if we suspend our operations, they will be in the same temper hereafter? For, if you allow any relaxation, more respectable, and more frequent, embassies will be despatched; and the very circumstance which now disgusts the Etrurians, the establishment of a king at Veii, may, in the interim, be done away, either by the joint determination of the several members of the state, for the sake of recovering the friendship of Etruria, or by a voluntary act of the king himself, who may be unwilling to continue on the throne, when he finds it an obstruction to the welfare of his countrymen. See now how many consequences, and how detrimental, attend that method of proceeding; the loss of works formed with so great labour; the consequent devastation of our frontiers; and, instead of the Veientians, the whole nation of Etruria united against us. These, tribunes, are your plans, much indeed, of the same kind, as if, in the case of a sick person, who by submitting to a regimen with resolution, might quickly recover his health, should render his disorder tedious, and perhaps incurable, for the sake of the present pleasure which eating and drinking would afford him.
VI. “I insist, that, though it were of no consequence, with respect to the present war, yet it is certainly of the utmost importance to military discipline, that our soldiers be accustomed, not only to enjoy the fruits of victory, but, should the business prove tedious, to endure the irksomeness of delay; to wait the issue of their hopes, though tardy; and, if the summer did not finish the war, to try what the winter might produce; and not, like birds of spring, to look about for hiding places and shelter, the moment autumn arrived. Consider, I beseech you, how the pleasure of hunting and eagerness in the chace hurry men through woods and over mountains, in the midst of frost and snow; and shall we not bestow on the necessary exigences of war, the same degree of patience, which is usually called forth, even by sport and amusement? Do we suppose the bodies of our soldiers so effeminate, their minds so feeble, that they cannot for one winter, endure the fatigue of a camp, and absence from home? That, like those who carry on war by sea, they must regulate their operations by taking advantage of the weather, and observing the seasons of the year? That they are incapable of enduring either heat or cold? I am convinced they would blush, if such things were laid to their charge, and would maintain that both their minds and bodies were possessed of manly firmness: that they were able to perform the duties of war, as well in winter as in summer: that they never had commissioned the tribunes to patronize sloth and effeminancy; and remembered very well, that it was not under their own roofs, nor in the shade, that their ancestors established the tribuneship. Such sentiments are worthy of the valour of soldiers, such are worthy of the Roman name; not to consider merely the city of Veii, nor the present war, in which ye are employed, but to seek a reputation which may last during other wars, and among all other nations. Do ye look on the difference between the characters which will be applied to you, according to your conduct in this affair, as a matter of trivial importance? Whether the neighbouring nations deem the Romans to be soldiers of such a kind, that any town which can withstand their first assault, and that of very short continuance, has nothing farther to apprehend; or, whether our name be terrible on this account, that neither the fatigue of a tedious siege, nor the severity of winter, can remove a Roman army from a place, which it has once invested; that it knows no other termination of war, than victory; and that its operations are not more distinguished by briskness of action, than by steady perseverance? a qualification which, as it is highly requisite in every kind of military service, is most particularly so in carrying on sieges of towns; because these being generally, from the nature of their situation, and the strength of their works, impregnable by assault, time alone overpowers and reduces them by means of hunger and thirst, as it will certainly reduce Veii, unless the tribunes of the commons supply aid to the enemy, and the Veientians find in Rome that support, which they seek in vain in Etruria. Could any other event so fully accord to the wishes of the Veientians, as that the city of Rome first, and then, by the spreading of the contagion, the camp, should be filled with sedition? But now, among the enemy, such a temperate disposition prevails, that neither through disgust at the length of the siege, nor even at the establishment of kingly government, has one change of measures been attempted; nor has the refusal of aid, from the Etrurians, soured their temper; because, if any one there proposes seditious measures, he will be instantly put to death; nor will any person be suffered to utter such things, as are uttered among you without any fear of punishment. He deserves the bastinade who forsakes his colours, or quits his post: yet men are heard, openly in public assembly, recommending, not to one or two particular soldiers, but to whole armies, to leave their colours, and desert their camp. With such partiality are ye accustomed to listen to whatever a plebeian tribune advances, although it manifestly tends to the ruin of your country, and the dissolution of the commonwealth; and so captivated are ye by the charms of that office, that, under shelter of it, ye suffer every kind of wickedness to lurk unnoticed. They have but one step farther to take, to engage the soldiers in camp, in the same measures which they urge here with so much clamour, to debauch the troops, and allow them no longer to obey their officers, since liberty, according to the present notion of it at Rome, consists in casting off all reverence for the senate, for the magistrates, for the laws, for the practices of our ancestors, for the institutions of our fathers, and for military discipline.”
VII. Appius was now fully equal to a contention with the plebeian tribunes, even in the assemblies of the people, when a misfortune suffered before Veii, by an effect which no one could have expected, threw the superiority at once on his side, and produced both an unusual harmony between the orders of the state, and a general ardour to push on the siege of Veii with greater vigour. For when the trenches had been advanced almost to the very town, and the machines were just ready to be applied to the walls, the troops, employing greater assiduity in forming their works by day, than in guarding them by night, one of the gates was thrown open on a sudden, and a vast multitude, armed chiefly with torches, sallied forth, and set fire to them on all sides; so that the flames destroyed in an instant both the rampart and the machines, the construction of which had cost so much time; and great numbers of men, attempting, in vain, to save them, perished by fire and the sword. When news of this disaster arrived at Rome, it diffused a general sadness through all ranks of men, and filled the senate also with anxiety and strong apprehensions, lest they should find it impossible to withstand any longer the machinations of the seditious, either in the city or the camp, and lest the tribunes of the commons should insult over the commonwealth, as if it lay vanquished at their feet. At this juncture, those persons who possessed equestrian fortunes, and had not had horses assigned them by the public, after previously consulting together, went in a body to the senate, and having obtained permission to speak, declared their resolution to serve in the army, on horses provided at their own expense. On which the senate returning them thanks, in the most honourable terms, and the report of this proceeding having spread through the Forum, and all parts of the city, there immediately ensued a general concourse of the commons to the senate-house, where they declared, that “they were now the infantry of that army; and that, though it was not their turn to serve, yet they freely engaged in the cause of the commonwealth, whether it should be thought proper to lead them to Veii, or to any other place. If they should be led to Veii,” they affirmed “that they would never return from thence until that city should be taken from the enemy.” The senate now scarce set any bounds to the torrent of joy which flowed in upon them; for they did not, as in the case of the horsemen, pass an order for thanks to be conveyed by the magistrates, neither were the people called into the senate-house to receive an answer; nor did the senators confine themselves within their house; but, from the eminence adjoining, every one of them eagerly, with voice and hands, testified the public satisfaction, to the multitude who stood below in the assembly; declared, that, by such unanimity, the city of Rome was rendered happy, invincible, and everlasting; praised the horsemen, praised the commons; blessed even the day, as a day of happiness, and acknowledged that the courtesy and kindness of the patricians were now outdone, while, through excess of joy, tears flowed in abundance, both from the patricians and commons; until the senators, being called back into their house, passed a decree, that “the military tribunes, summoning an assembly, should give thanks to the infantry, and to the horsemen, and should assure them, that the senate would keep in remembrance the dutiful affection which they had shown towards their country; and had come to a resolution that every one of those who had, out of turn, voluntarily undertaken the service, should enjoy rank and pay from that date.” A certain stipend was also assigned to the horsemen. This was the first instance of the cavalry serving on their own horses. This army of volunteers, being led to Veii, not only restored the works which had been destroyed, but erected new ones. Greater care than ever was used, in sending them supplies from the city, that no kind of accommodation should be wanting to troops who merited so highly.
Y. R. 353. 399.VIII. The ensuing year had military tribunes with consular power, Caius Servilius Ahala a third time, Quintus Servilius, Lucius Virginius, Quintus Sulpicius, Aulus Manlius a second time, Manius Sergius a second time. In their tribunate, whilst all men’s attention was directed to the Veientian war, the security of the garrison at Anxur was neglected, the soldiers obtaining leave of absence, and the Volscian traders being freely admitted: the consequence of which was, that the guards at the gates were suddenly overpowered, and the place taken by surprize. The number of soldiers slain was the less, because, except the sick, they were all employed like suttlers, in trafficking about the country and the neighbouring cities. Nor did better success attend the operations before Veii, which were then the grand object which engrossed all the public solicitude; for the Roman commanders showed a stronger disposition to quarrel among themselves, than to act with spirit against the enemy. Besides, the power of their adversaries received an addition, by the unexpected arrival of the Capenatians and Faliscians. These two states of Etruria, contiguous in situation to Veii, judged that, should that city be conquered, they should be the next exposed to the attacks of the Romans. The Faliscians were farther induced, by a reason particularly affecting themselves, to enter into the quarrel, as having been formerly a party in the war of the Fidenatians: wherefore, after having, by reciprocal embassies, ratified their engagements with an oath, they advanced with their forces to Veii, at a moment when no one thought of their coming. They happened to attack the camp on that quarter, where Manius Sergius, military tribune, commanded, which caused a violent alarm; for the Romans imagined that all Etruria had been set in motion, and had come out in a mass against them. The same opinion roused to action the Veientians in the city. Thus the camp was attacked on both sides; and the troops, in opposing the attempts of the enemy, being obliged to wheel round their battalions from one post to another, could neither effectually confine the Veientians within their fortifications, nor repel the assault from their own works, nor even defend themselves on the outer side. Their only hope was, that they might be reinforced from the greater camp, and then the several different legions would support the different parts of the fight, some against the Capenatians and Faliscians, others against the sallies from the town. But that camp was commanded by Virginius, between whom and Sergius subsisted a personal hatred: on being informed that most of the forts were attacked, the fortifications scaled, and that the enemy poured in on both sides, he kept his men within his own works, under arms, saying, that if there were need of a reinforcement, his colleague would send to him. His arrogance was equalled by the obstinacy of the other; who, rather than appear to have asked any assistance from a person with whom he was at variance, chose to be conquered by the enemy. His troops inclosed on either side, suffered great slaughter for a long time; at last, abandoning the works, a very small part of them made their way to the principal camp; the greater number, with Sergius himself, proceeded to Rome; here, as he threw the entire blame on his colleague, it was determined that Virginius should be called home, and that in the mean time the lieutenant-generals should hold the command. The affair was taken into consideration by the senate, where the dispute between the colleagues was carried on with mutual recriminations. Few of the members regarded the interests of the commonwealth, each adhered to one, or the other, just as he happened to be prejudiced by private regard, or interest.
IX. The principal senators were of opinion, that whether the misconduct, or the misfortune of the commanders, had been the cause of such an ignominious overthrow, they ought not to wait for the regular time of election, but to create immediately new military tribunes, who should enter into office on the calends of October. While the members were proceeding to show their assent to this opinion, the other military tribunes offered no objection; but Sergius and Virginius, to whose behaviour it was evidently owing that men wished to get rid of the magistrates of that year, at first deprecated the ignominy which would hereby be thrown upon them, and afterwards protested against the passing of the decree, and declared that they would not retire from office before the ides of December, the usual day for others entering into office. On this the tribunes of the commons, who, during the general harmony and the prosperity of public affairs, had unwillingly kept silence, at once assuming confidence, threatened the military tribunes, that, unless they submitted to the direction of the senate, they would order them to be carried to prison. Then Caius Servilius Ahala, one of the military tribunes, said, “As to your part, tribunes of the people, I assure you I would with great pleasure put it to the proof, whether your threats are more destitute of authority, or yourselves of spirit. But I consider it as impious to act in opposition to the will of the senate; wherefore on the one hand, I desire that ye may desist from seeking in our disputes for an opportunity of doing mischief; and on the other hand, either my colleagues shall act according to the order of the senate, or if they persist any farther in opposition, I will instantly nominate a dictator, who will compel them to retire from office.” This discourse being received with universal approbation, and the senators rejoicing that another power had been thought of, which, by its superior authority, might reduce the magistrates to order without the terrors of the tribunitian office, those magistrates yielded to the universal desire of the public, and held an election of military tribunes, who were to enter into office on the calends of October; and before that day, they devested themselves of the magistracy.
Y. R. 354. 398.X. This military tribunate with consular power, of Lucius Valerius Potitus a fourth time, Marcus Furius Camillus a second, Manius Æmilius Mamercinus a third, Cneius Cornelius Cossus a second, Cæso Fabius Ambustus and Lucius Julius Iulus, was occupied by a multiplicity of business both civil and military: for the operations of war were to be carried on in many different places at once, at Veii, and at Capena; at Falerii, and among the Volscians for the recovery of Anxur. Then at Rome, there was great uneasiness, occasioned by the levying of troops, and at the same time by the paying in of the tax. There was also a struggle about the appointment of the plebeian tribunes; while the trials of two of those, who had lately been invested with consular power excited no trifling disturbance. The military tribunes applied themselves, first of all, to the raising of troops, and not only the younger men were enlisted, but the elder citizens also were compelled to give in their names, to serve as a garrison to the city. Now, in proportion as the number of soldiers was augmented, so much the more money became necessary for their pay, and this was made up by a tax, which was very unwillingly paid by those who remained at home, because, as the guard of the city lay upon them, they must also perform military duty, and give their labour to the public. These circumstances, grievous in themselves, were set forth in more provoking terms, in the seditious harangues of the plebeian tribunes, who insisted, that “the establishment of pay to the soldiers was intended for the purpose of ruining one-half of the commons, by the fatigues of war, and the other half, by a tax. That one war had now been protracted to the fifth year; and was conducted, without success, designedly, in order that it might afford them the longer employment. Besides armies had been enlisted at one levy for four different expeditions, and even boys and old men dragged from their homes. That no distinction was made between summer and winter, lest any respite should be allowed to the wretched commons; who, now, as the finishing stroke, had been made subject to a tax; so that when they should return, with their bodies wasted through toils, wounds, and even age, and find every thing at home in disorder, from the long absence of the owners, would at the same time be obliged, out of their ruined property, to refund in a manifold proportion, to the state, the money which they had received as pay, as if it had been taken up at usurious interest.” Between the levy, and the tax, and from men’s thoughts being occupied by more important concerns, the number of plebeian tribunes could not be filled up on the day of election. A violent effort was afterwards made to have patricians assumed into the vacant places, but that being found impracticable, another plan was adopted, for the purpose of weakening at least the authority of the Trebonian law, by the assumption of Caius Lacerius and Marcus Acutius as plebeian tribunes; and this was effected evidently by the influence of the patricians.
XI. It so happened, that this year Caius Trebonius was a plebeian tribune: and he considered it as a duty incumbent on his name and family, to patronize the Trebonian law. He therefore complained loudly, that “a measure which had been attempted by some patricians, and in which they were baffled at their first setting out, had been violently carried by the military tribunes:— that the Trebonian law had been subverted, and plebeian tribunes elected, not in conformity to the suffrage of the people, but to the mandate of the patricians. That the matter was brought to this issue, that people must be content to see the office of plebeian tribune filled either by patricians or their dependants:— that all the advantages of the devoting laws were wrested from them, and the tribunitian power forcibly transferred to other hands.” And he insisted, that “this must have been effected, either by some artifices of the patricians, or by the villainy and treachery of his colleagues.” The public being inflamed with an high degree of resentment, not only against the patricians, but the tribunes of the people also; as well those who had been elected, as those who had elected them; three of that body, Publius Curatius, Marcus Metilius, and Marcus Minucius, greatly alarmed for their own interests, made an attack on Sergius and Virginius, military tribunes of the former year, and, by a prosecution which they commenced, turned off upon them the anger of the commons, and the resentment of the public. They desired people to “take notice, that such as felt themselves aggrieved by the levy, by the tax, by long service in the army, and the distance of the seat of war; such as lamented the loss sustained at Veii; such as had their houses in mourning for the loss of children, brethren, kinsmen, and relations; all these had now, by their means, both the right and the power afforded them, of avenging the public and private calamities on the two persons who were the guilty causes of them. For to Sergius and Virginius were owing,” they asserted, “all their misfortunes. And that was not more fully evinced by the charge of the prosecutor, than by the acknowledgment of the defendants; who, being equally conscious of crime, each imputed it to the other; Virginius charging Sergius with cowardice; Sergius, Virginius with treachery. The absurdity of whose conduct was so great, that there was a high degree of probability that the whole affair had been transacted by concert, and according to a wicked design of the patricians, who, for the purpose of protracting the war, first gave the Veientians an opportunity to burn the works, and now, had delivered up an army to the sword of the enemy, and surrendered a Roman camp to the Faliscians. The management of all affairs was directed to one end, that the young men should grow old before Veii; and that the tribunes should be thereby deprived of the power of taking the sense of the people, either concerning the lands, or any other advantages of the commons; of having their plans supported by a numerous attendance of citizens, or of making head against the conspiracy of the patricians. That the cause of the defendants had been already prejudged by the senate, by the Roman people, and by their own colleagues. For, by a decree of the senate, they had been removed from the administration of government; and, refusing to resign their office, had been constrained to submit, by their colleagues, who threatened them with a dictator, and that the Roman people had elected tribunes, who were to assume the government, not on the usual day, the ides of December, but instantly on the calends of October; because the continuance of the former in office was incompatible with the safety of the commonwealth. Yet, after all this, those men, censured, and overwhelmed by so many decisions against them, presented themselves for trial before the people, and imagined that they were discharged, and had undergone sufficient punishment, because they had been reduced to the rank of private citizens, two months sooner than ordinary; never considering, that this was only taking out of their hands the power of doing farther mischief, not inflicting punishment; their colleagues, who were manifestly clear of all share of the blame, being deprived of authority as well as themselves. They requested that the citizens of Rome would resume the same sentiments, which they had felt when the disastrous event was recent, when they beheld the army flying in consternation, covered with wounds, and filled with dismay; pouring into the gates, accusing not fortune, nor any of the gods, but these their comrades. They were confident, that there was not a man present in the assembly who did not, on that day, utter execrations and curses against the persons, the families, and fortunes of Lucius Virginius and Marcus Sergius. And it would be the highest inconsistency if they did not now, when it was not only lawful but their duty, exert their own power against those, on whom each of them had imprecated the vengeance of the gods. The gods themselves never laid their hands on the guilty, it was enough if they armed the injured with power to take revenge.”
XII. Instigated by such discourses, the commons condemned the accused in a fine of ten thousand asses in weight;* while Sergius in vain alleged that the miscarriage was to be imputed to fortune, and the common chance of war; and Virginius made earnest supplications that they would not render him more unfortunate at home, than he had been in the field. The current of popular resentment, having been thus turned against them, almost obliterated the remembrance of the assumption of tribunes, and the fraudulent infraction of the Trebonian law. The victorious tribunes, in order that the commons might reap an immediate advantage from their effort, published a proposal of an agrarian law, and forbade the tax to be paid, since pay was required for such a number of troops, while the success of their arms in any of the wars, had been no more than sufficed to keep their hopes in suspense. At Veii, the camp which had been lost, was recovered, and strengthened with forts and a garrison. Here Marcus Æmilius and Cæso Fabius, military tribunes, commanded. Marcus Furius in the territory of the Faliscians, and Cneius Cornelius in that of the Capenatians, meeting with none of the enemy in the field, drove off the spoil and ravaged the country, burning all the houses and the fruits of the earth. The towns they neither assaulted nor besieged. But in the country of the Volscians, after the lands had been wasted, Anxur was assaulted, though without success. Being seated on a lofty eminence, and force being found ineffectual, it was determined to surround it with a rampart and trench. This province of the Volscians had fallen to Valerius Potitus. While the business of the campaign was in this state, a sedition burst out at home, with more formidable violence than appeared in the operations against the enemy. And as the tribunes would not suffer the tax to be paid, and consequently no remittances were made to the generals for the payment of the troops, and as the soldiers clamorously demanded their due, there was the greatest danger that the contagion of sedition might spread from the city, and the camp also be involved in confusion. Though the commons were so much incensed against the patricians, and though the plebeian tribunes asserted, that the time was now come for establishing liberty, and transferring the supreme dignity from such as Sergius and Virginius, to men of plebeian rank, men of fortitude and industry, yet they proceeded no farther in gratification of their passion,Y. R. 355. 397. than the election of one plebeian, Publius Licinius Calvus, to the office of military tribune with consular power, for the purpose of establishing their right by a precedent. The others elected were patricians, Publius Mænius, Lucius Titinius, Publius Mælius, Lucius Furius Medullinus, and Lucius Publius Volscus. The commons themselves were surprised at having carried such an important point, no less than the man himself who had been elected, a person who had no post of honour before, although a senator of long standing, and now far advanced in years. Nor does it sufficiently appear why he was chosen in preference to others, to taste the first sweets of this new dignity. Some are of opinion, that he was appointed to so high a station by the influence of his brother Cneius Cornelius, who had been military tribune the preceding year, and had given triple pay to the cavalry. Others, that it was owing to a seasonable discourse, made by himself, recommending harmony between the orders of the state, which was equally acceptable to the patricians and plebeians. The plebeian tribunes, filled with exultation by this victory in the election, remitted their opposition with respect to the tax, which was the principal obstruction to the public business. It was then paid in without murmuring, and sent to the army.
XIII. In the country of the Volscians, Anxur was quietly retaken, through the neglect of the guards on a festival day. This year was remarkable for a cold winter and great fall of snow, so that the roads were impassable, and the navigation of the Tiber shut up. There was no change in the price of provisions, considerable stores having been previously collected. As Publius Licinius had obtained his office without any riotous proceeding, to the great joy of the commons, and the no less mortification of the patricians, so the same regularity was preserved through the whole course of his administration. Hence the people became enraptured with the thoughts of choosing plebeians at the next election of military tribunes.Y. R. 356. 396. Of the patrician candidates Marcus Veturius alone carried his election. The centuries almost unanimously appointed the following plebeians military tribunes with consular power: Marcus Pomponius, Caius Duilius, Volero Publilius, Cneius Genutius, and Lucius Atilius. The severe winter, whether from the ill temperature of the air, occasioned by the sudden transition from one extreme to the other, or from some other cause, was succeeded by a sickly summer, fatal to all kinds of animals, and as neither the beginning nor end of the virulence of the disorder could be discovered, the Sibylline books were consulted, in pursuance of a decree of the senate. The decemvirs who had the direction of religious matters, then first introduced the lectisternium* in the city of Rome, and decking out three couches with the utmost magnificence which those times could afford, implored thus the favour of Apollo, Latona, and Diana; and of Hercules, Mercury, and Neptune, for the space of eight days. The same solemn rites were performed by private persons. We are told, that the doors were thrown open in every part of the city; that every thing was exposed in public to be used in common; that passengers, whether known or unknown, were universally invited to lodgings; and even that people at variance, refraining from animosity and ill language, conversed together with camplaisance and kindness. During those days too, such as were in confinement were set at liberty; and that afterwards, people were deterred, by a religious scruple, from imprisoning those persons to whom the gods had brought such deliverance. Meanwhile dangers multiplied at Veii, to which point the operations of three different wars were concentred, for the Capenatians and Faliscians coming up unexpectedly to the relief of the town, the troops were obliged, in the same manner as formerly, to make head against three different armies, on different sides, through the whole extent of their works. What contributed to their safety beyond every thing else, was the recollection of the sentence passed on Sergius and Virginius: so that a reinforcement was quickly led round from the principal camp, where the delay had been made in the former case, and these fell upon the rear of the Capenatians, while their front was engaged against the rampart of the Romans. The fight no sooner began here, than it struck terror into the Faliscians also, and a seasonable sally, made from the camp while they were thus disordered, obliged them to turn their backs. The victors then, pursuing them in their retreat, made vast slaughter among them; and, in a short time after, a party, which had been employed in ravaging the territory of Capena, accidentally meeting them as they fled in confusion, entirely cut off those who had survived the fight. Great numbers of the Veientians also, in their retreat to the city, were slain before the gates; for, dreading lest the Romans should force in along with them, they closed the gates, and shut out the hindmost of their own men. These were the transactions of that year.
XIV. And now approached the election of military tribunes, which seemed to engross a greater share of the attention of the patricians, than even the business of the war: for they saw that the sovereign power was not only shared with the commons, but almost entirely lost to themselves. They therefore, by concert, engaged the most illustrious characters to stand candidates, such as they believed people would be ashamed to pass by; the others, nevertheless, put in practice every possible expedient, as if they had all been aiming at the same object, and endeavoured to draw to their side, not only men, but the gods, representing the election held two years before in a light offensive to religion: that “in the former of those years, a winter came on with intolerable severity, such as bore every appearance of a prodigy sent from the gods. In the following, no longer portents but events ensued; a pestilence fell on both country and city, manifestly displaying the wrath of heaven; whom, as was discovered in the books of the fates, it was necessary to appease, in order to avert that plague. It appears to the immortals as an affront, that, in an election held under their auspices, honours should be prostituted, and the distinctions of birth confounded.” The people being deeply struck, both by the high dignity of the candidates, and also by a sense of religion, chose all the military tribunes with consular power from among the patricians, the greater part of them men who had been highly distinguished by public honours: Lucius Valerius Potitus a fifth time, Marcus Valerius Maximus,Y. R. 357. 395. Marcus Furius Camillus a third time, Lucius Furius Medullinus a third time, Quintus Servilius Fidenas a second time, Quintus Sulpicius Camerinus a second time. During their tribunate, nothing very memorable was performed at Veii: the forces were wholly employed in wasting the country: two commanders of consummate abilities did nothing more than carry off vast quantities of spoil, Potitus from Falerii, and Camillus from Capena, leaving nothing undestroyed that could be injured either by sword or fire.
XV. In the mean time, many prodigies were reported to have happened, the greater part of which met with little credit, and were generally disregarded; partly, because the accounts rested on the testimony of single persons; and partly because, while they were at war with the Etrurians, they could not procure aruspices to perform the expiations. One of them, however, attracted universal attention; the lake in the Alban forest swelled to an unusual height, without any rain or other cause, so that the fact could only be accounted for by a miracle. Commissioners were sent to the oracle at Delphi, to inquire what the gods portended by this prodigy; but an interpreter of the will of the fates was thrown in their way nearer home: a certain aged Veientian, amidst the scoffs thrown out by the Roman and Etrurian soldiers, from the outposts and guards, pronounced, in the manner of one delivering a prophesy, that “the Roman would never be master of Veii, until the water were discharged from the Alban lake.” This, at first, was disregarded, as thrown out at random; afterwards it became the subject of conversation: at length one of the Roman soldiers on guard asked a townsman on the nearest post, as from the long continuance of the war they had come into the practice of conversing with each other, who that person was, that threw out those ambiguous expressions concerning the Alban lake; and, on hearing that he was an aruspex, the man, whose mind was not without a tincture of religion, pretending that he wished to consult him on the expiation of a private portent, enticed the prophet to a conference. When they had proceeded free from any apprehensions, being both without arms, to a considerable distance from their parties, the young Roman, having the superiority in strength, seized the feeble old man in the view of all, and, in spite of the bustle made by the Etrurians, carried him off to his own party. Being conducted to the general, he was sent by him to Rome to the senate; and, on their inquiring the meaning of the information which he had given concerning the Alban lake, he answered, that “certainly the gods had been incensed against the Veientian nation, on that day when they prompted him to disclose the decree of the fates, which doomed his native country to destruction. What, therefore, he had then delivered under the influence of divine inspiration, he could not now recall, so as to render it unsaid; and perhaps the guilt of impiety might be contracted in as high a degree, by concealing what it was the will of the gods should be published, as by publishing what ought to be concealed. Thus, therefore, it was denounced in the books of the fates, and the Etrurian doctrine, that whensoever the Alban water should rise to an unusual height, if the Romans should then discharge it in a proper manner, victory would be granted them over the Veientians; but until that should be done, the gods would never abandon the walls of Veii.” He then gave directions with respect to the proper method of draining it; but the senate, deeming his authority of but little weight, and not to be entirely relied on in a case of such importance, determined to wait for the deputies, with the answer of the Pythian oracle.
Y. R. 358. 394.XVI. Before the commissioners returned from Delphi, or the method of expiating the Alban prodigy was discovered, the new military tribunes with consular power came into office. These were Lucius Julius Iulus, and Lucius Furius Medullinus a fourth time, Lucius Sergius Fidenas, Aulus Postumius Regillensis, Publius Cornelius Maluginensis, and Aulus Manlius. This year there started up a new enemy, the Tarquinians; who, seeing the Romans embroiled in so many wars at once, against the Volscians at Anxur, where the garrison was besieged; at Lavici against the Æquans, who were besieging the colony there; and also against the Veientians and the Faliscians, and the Capenatians, while their affairs within the walls were not less embarrassed by dissensions, thought this a favourable season to attack them with effect. They sent their light-armed cohorts to make depredations on the Roman territories, concluding that the people would either suffer that affront to pass unrevenged, rather than burthen themselves with an additional war, or if they resented it, would send out an army neither numerous nor strong. The Romans felt greater indignation at the affront than concern for the loss sustained by the inroads of the Tarquinians. They, therefore, undertook the business without either much preparation or long delay. Aulus Postumius and Lucius Julius having collected a body of troops, not by a regular levy, for in that they were prevented by the tribunes of the commons, but mostly volunteers, whom by persuasions they had prevailed on to follow them, directed their march by cross roads through the territory of Cære, and came upon the Tarquinians unawares, as they were returning from their depredations, heavily laden with booty: they slew great numbers of their men, got possession of all their baggage; and, having re-taken the spoils of their lands, returned to Rome. The space of two days was allowed to the owners to reclaim their property; on the third, what remained unclaimed, the greatest part of which had belonged to the enemy, was sold by auction, and the produce distributed among the soldiers. The issue of the other wars, particularly that of Veii, still remained doubtful. And now the Romans, despairing of success through human aid, began to look for succour towards the fates and the gods, when the deputies arrived from Delphi, bringing with them the decision of the oracle, which corresponded with the answer of the captive prophet. “Roman, beware lest the Alban water be confined in the lake; beware lest thou suffer it to flow into the sea in a stream. Thou shalt form for it a passage over the fields; and, by dispersing it in a multitude of channels, consume it. Then press thou boldly on the walls of the enemy; assured, that over the city which thou besiegest through so many years, conquest is granted by these orders of the fates, which are now disclosed. The war concluded, do thou, possessed of victory, bring ample offerings to my temples, and renewing the religious rites of thy country, the observation of which has been neglected, perform them in the usual manner.”
XVII. The captive prophet, upon this, began to be held in very high esteem, and the military tribunes, Cornelius and Postumius, thenceforward consulted with him concerning the expiation of the Alban prodigy, and the proper method of appeasing the gods. It was at length discovered what was that neglect of ceremonies, and omission of customary rites, for which they were blamed by the gods. It was, in fact, nothing else than that the magistrates, their election being defective, had not, with due regularity, directed the Latine festival,* and the anniversary solemnities on the Alban mount. The only mode of expiation in this case was, that the military tribunes should resign the government, the auspices be taken anew, and an interregnum appointed. All which was performed, pursuant to a decree of the senate. There were three interreges in succession: Lucius Valerius, Quintus Servilius Fidenas, and Marcus Furius Camillus. In the meantime the city was a scene of unceasing confusion and disorder, the plebeian tribunes refusing to let the elections proceed, unless a previous stipulation were agreed to, that the greater number of the military tribunes should be chosen out of the commons, During these transactions, a general assembly of Etruria was held at the temple of Voltumna, and the Capenatians and Faliscians demanding that all the states of Etruria should unite in the design of raising the siege of Veii, the answer returned was, that “they had formerly given a refusal of the same request to the Veientians, because these ought not to apply for succour, where in a case of such consequence, they had not applied for advice. That at present, though they of themselves would not refuse it, yet the situation of their affairs compelled them so to do: especially, as in that part of Etruria, the Gauls, a race of men with whom they were unacquainted, had lately become their neighbours, and with whom they were not on a footing, either of secure peace, or of determined war. Nevertheless, in consideration of the blood, the name, and the present dangers of their kinsmen, they would go so far, as that if any of their young men chose to go to that war, they would not hinder them.” The arrival of these was announced at Rome, as of a formidable number of enemies; and, through the apprehensions which this excited for the public safety, the violence of their intestine quarrels of course began to subside.
XVIII. Without causing any displeasure to the patricians, the prerogative tribe,* at the election, chose for military tribune Publius Licinius Calvus, although he had not declared himself a candidate; this honour was done him, because in his former administration he had approved himself a man of moderation; but he was now in extreme old age. It was observed, that those who had been his colleagues, in that year, were re-elected in order; Lucius Titinius, Publius Mænius, Publius Mælius, Cneius Genutius, and Lucius Atilius. Before these were proclaimed to the tribes, who were to vote in the ordinary course, Publius Licinius Calvus, with permission of the interrex, spoke to this effect: “I consider it, Romans, as an omen of concord, a thing essentially requisite to the state at the present juncture, that, from the remembrance of our former administration, ye are desirous of re-electing the same colleagues, improved by experience. As to me, ye no longer see me the same, but the shadow and the name of Publius Licinius. The powers of my body are decayed, my senses of sight and hearing are grown dull, my memory falters, and the vigour of my mind is blunted. Behold here a youth,” pursued he, holding his son, “the representation and image of him whom ye formerly made a military tribune, the first plebeian that was ever so honoured. Him, formed under my own discipline, I present and dedicate to the commonwealth as a substitute in my stead. And I beseech you, Romans, that the honour, which of your own motion, ye offered to me, ye will vouchsafe to grant to his petition, and to my prayers, which I add in his behalf.” This request of the father was complied with, and his son Publius Licinius was declared military tribune with consular power, together with those whom we mentioned before.Y. R. 359. 393. The military tribunes, Titinius and Genucius, marched against the Faliscians and Capenatians, and acting with more courage than conduct, fell into an ambush. Genucius atoned for his rashness by an honourable death, falling among the foremost, and in the front of the standards. Titinius after rallying his men, who had been thrown into the utmost confusion, and leading them to a rising ground, formed them again in order of battle; but did not venture to come down and meet the enemy. The disgrace was greater than the loss, and had like to have proved the cause of grievous misfortunes, so great was the alarm which it excited not only at Rome, where it was highly exaggerated by report, but also in the camp before Veii. Here the soldiers were, with difficulty, restrained from flight, on a rumour having spread, that the generals and the army had been cut to pieces; and that the Capenatians and Faliscians, flushed with victory, and all the youth of Etruria, were at no great distance from their posts. Accounts still more dreadful had gained credit at Rome: that the camp at Veii was already attacked, and that part of the enemy were already on their march to the city prepared for an assault. The men ran in crowds to the walls, and the matrons, called out from their houses by the public distraction, offered supplications for protection in all the temples, beseeching the gods to repel destruction from the Roman walls, from the houses of the city, and the temples, and to turn back such terrors on Veii, if the sacred rites had been renewed, and the prodigies expiated in due manner.
XIX. The games and the Latine festival had now been performed anew, the water from the Alban lake* discharged on the fields and the fates demanded the ruin of Veii. Accordingly a general, selected both for the destruction of that city, and the preservation of his native country, Marcus Furius Camillus, was nominated dictator, and he appointed Publius Cornelius Scipio his master of the horse. The change of the commander at once produced a change in every particular: even the fortune of the city seemed to have assumed a new face; so that men felt themselves inspired with different hopes and different spirits. He first of all put in force the rules of military discipline against such as had fled from Veii, on the alarm excited there, and took effectual care that the enemy should not be the principal object of the soldier’s fears. Then having, by proclamation, appointed a certain day for holding a levy of troops, he made, in the mean time, a hasty excursion in person to Veii, in order to strengthen the courage of the soldiers. From thence he returned to Rome to enlist the new army, and not a man declined the service. Young men came even from foreign states, Latines and Hernicians, offering their service in the war: to whom the dictator returned thanks in the senate. And now, having completed all necessary preparations for the campaign, he vowed, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, that he would, on the capture of Veii, celebrate the great games: and would repair and dedicate the temple of Mother Matuta, which had been formerly consecrated by king Servius Tullius. Marching out of the city at the head of his army, while people’s anxiety was stronger than their hopes, he came to the first engagement with the Faliscians and Capenatians, in the district of Nepote, on which occasion every particular was conducted with consummate prudence and skill; success of course ensued. He not only routed the enemy in battle, but took possession of their camp, and seized a vast quantity of spoil, the greatest part of which was put into the hands of the quæstor, and no great share distributed to the soldiers. From thence the troops were led to Veii, where additional forts were erected at smaller distances from each other, and by an edict, forbidding any to fight without orders, the soldiers were taken off from skirmishing, which had hitherto been frequently practised between the walls and the rampart of the camp, and their labour applied to the works. Of these, the greatest by far and most laborious was a mine, which they undertook to carry into the citadel of the enemy. In order that there should be no interruption in this, and at the same time that the same set of persons should not, by unintermitted labour under ground, be spent with fatigue, he formed the whole number of pioneers into six divisions, and six hours were allotted for each division to work in rotation; nor did they stop, either by night or day, until they formed a passage into the citadel.
XX. When the dictator now saw conquest within his reach and that he was on the point of getting possession of a city of the greatest opulence, the spoil of which would exceed in quantity whatever had been obtained in all former wars taken together, fearing lest he might incur either the resentment, of the soldiers, as being too sparing in his distribution of it, or the displeasure of the senators as being profusely lavish, he despatched a letter to the senate, that “through the favour of the immortal gods, his own conduct, and the persevering courage of the troops, Veii would immediately be in the power of the Roman people, and requested their directions with regard to the spoil.” Two opinions divided the senate; one was that of the elder Publius Licinius, who being first called upon by his son, as we are told, proposed a resolution, that public notice should be given to the people by proclamation, that whosoever chose to share in the spoil should retire to the camp before Veii. The other that of Appius Claudius, who censured such profusion as unprecedented, extravagant, and partial; and which would also be productive of ill consequences, if people should once conceive an opinion that it would be criminal to deposit in the treasury, when exhausted by wars, the money taken from the enemy. He therefore recommended it to them to make that a fund for the payment of the soldiers’ wages, to the end that the commons might be eased of part of the tax. For “every man’s family,” he said, “would feel its share of such a bounty in equal proportion, and the hands of the idle city rabble, ever greedy of rapine, would not then snatch away the prizes due to men who had showed their bravery in war: it being generally the case, that the man who is most ready, on every occasion, to undertake the largest share of toil and danger, is the least active in plundering.” Licinius, on the other hand, argued, that in that case the money would be an eternal cause of jealousy and ill-humour, would afford grounds for invidious representations to the commons, and, in consequence, for seditions, and the enacting of new laws. “It was therefore more to be desired,” he said, “that the affection of the commons might be conciliated by a bounty of that kind; that this resource should be afforded them, after they had been exhausted and entirely drained, by the payment of the tax for so many years; and that they should enjoy the fruits arising from a war, in which they had employed, one might say, the better part of their lives. That what a man took with his own hand from the enemy, and brought home with him, would afford him more satisfaction and delight, than a share many times larger conferred on him by another. That the dictator himself was aware of the odium and the disagreeable reflections to which this business might subject him, and had for that reason transferred the determination of it from himself to the senate: and that the senate ought, on their part, since the business had been thus thrown upon them, to hand it over to the commons, and let every man enjoy what the chance of war should give him.” This plan was deemed the safer, as it promised to procure popularity to the senate. Accordingly proclamation was made, that all such as chose might go to the camp of the dictator, to share in the plunder of Veii. The vast multitude who went entirely filled the camp.
XXI. Then the dictator, after taking the auspices, came forth, and having previously ordered the soldiers to take arms, spoke thus: “O Pythian Apollo, under thy guidance, and inspired by thy divinity, I am now proceeding to destroy the city of Veii, and I devote to thee the tenth part of the spoil thereof. Thee also, imperial Juno, who now dwellest in Veii, I beseech, that when we shall have obtained the victory, thou wilt accompany us into our city, soon to be thine own, where a temple shall receive thee, worthy of thy majesty.” After these prayers, having more than a sufficient number of men, he assaulted the city on every quarter; in order to prevent their perceiving the danger which threatened from the mine. The Veientians, ignorant that they had been already doomed to ruin by their own prophets, and likewise by foreign oracles; that the gods had been already invited to a share in their spoil; that some of them, listening to the vows by which they had been solicited to forsake their city, began to look towards the temples of the enemy, and new habitations, and that this was the last day of their existence; fearing nothing less, than their walls being already undermined, and the citadel filled with enemies, ran briskly in arms to the ramparts, wondering what could be the reason, that when for so many days not one Roman had stirred from his post, they should now run up to the walls without apprehension, as if struck with a sudden fit of madness. A fabulous account has been given of an incident happening at this juncture; it is, that while the king of the Veientians was offering sacrifice, the words of the aruspex were heard in the mine, denouncing, that whoever should cut up the entrails of that victim should obtain the victory, and that this incited the Roman soldiers to burst open the mine, seize the entrails, and carry them to the dictator. But in matters of such remote antiquity, I think it enough, if relations which carry a resemblance of truth, be received as true; stories of this kind, better calculated for the extravagant exhibitions of the stage, which delights in the marvellous, than for gaining belief, it is needless either to affirm or refute. The mine at this time, full of chosen men, suddenly discharged its armed bands in the temple of Juno, which stood in the citadel of Veii, some of whom attacked the rear of the enemy on the walls, some tore down the bars of the gates, some set fire to the houses, from the roofs of which stones and tiles were thrown by females and slaves. Every place was filled with confused clamour, composed of the terrifying shouts of the assailants, and the cries of the affrighted joined to the lamentations of the women and children. Those who defended the works were in an instant beaten off, and the gates forced open, where some entering in bodies, others scaling the deserted walls, the town was filled with the enemy, and a fight commenced in every quarter. After great slaughter the ardour of the combatants began to abate, and the dictator, proclaiming orders by the heralds, that no injury should be done to the unarmed, put an end to the effusion of blood. The townsmen then began to lay down their arms and surrender, and the soldiers, with permission of the dictator, dispersed in search of booty. When the spoil was collected before his eyes, far exceeding both in quantity and in the value of the effects all his calculations and hopes, the dictator is said to have raised his hands towards heaven, and prayed, “that if any gods or men looked on his success and that of the Roman people as excessive, such jealousy might be appeased by some calamity peculiar to himself alone, rather than by the slightest detriment to the Roman people.” It is recorded, that as he turned himself about, during this address to the gods, he stumbled and fell; and this was considered afterwards, by such as judged of the matter by the events which followed, to be an omen portending Camillus’s own condemnation, and the disaster of the city of Rome being taken, which happened a few years after. The subduing of the enemy, and the plundering of this very opulent city, employed that whole day.
XXII. Next day the dictator sold the inhabitants of free condition by auction: the money arising from this sale was all that was applied to the use of the public, and even that was resented by the commons. As to what spoil they brought home, they did not think themselves under any obligation, in applying it, either to the general who, with design to procure their countenance to his own parsimony, had referred to the senate a business which properly belonged to his own jurisdiction, or to the senate, but to the Licinian family, of which the son had laid the affair before the senate, and the father first proposed the popular resolution. When the wealth, belonging to the inhabitants, had been carried away from Veii, they then began to remove the treasures of the gods, and the gods themselves, but with the demeanor of worshippers rather than of ravishers: for certain young men selected out of the army, to whom was assigned the charge of conveying imperial Juno to Rome, after thoroughly washing their bodies, and clothing themselves in white garments, entered her temple with tokens of adoration, and approaching, laid hands upon her with religious awe, because, according to the Etrurian rules, no person but a priest of a particular family, had been usually allowed to touch that statue. Afterwards one of them, either prompted by divine inspiration, or in a fit of youthful jocularity, saying, “Juno, art thou willing to go to Rome,” the rest cried out at once, that the goddess had assented. To this fable an addition was made, that she was heard to utter the words, “I am willing.” However we are informed, that she was raised from the place whereon she stood by machines, with slight efforts, and was found light and easy to be removed, as if she accompanied them with her own consent; that she was brought safe to the Aventine, her eternal seat, to which the vows of the Roman dictator had invited her, where the same Camillus who had vowed it afterwards dedicated her temple. Thus fell Veii, the most powerful city of the Etrurian nation, even in its final overthrow demonstrating its greatness; for, after having withstood a siege during ten summers and winters, without intermission, after inflicting on its enemy losses considerably greater than itself had felt; even now, even when fate at last urged its doom, yet still it was vanquished not by force, but by the art of engineers.
XXIII. When the news arrived at Rome that Veii was taken, notwithstanding that the prodigies had been expiated, that the answers of the prophets and the responses of the Pythian oracle were known to all, and that they had used the most effectual means which human wisdom could suggest, for insuring success, in giving the command to Marcus Furius, the greatest general of the age; yet, as they had for so many years experienced such a variety of fortune in that war, and had sustained so many losses, their joy was as unbounded as if they had entertained no hopes of that event. And before the senate passed any decree to the purpose, every temple was filled with the Roman matrons returning thanks to the gods. The senate ordered supplications for the space of four days, a longer term than had ever been appointed in the case of any former war. The dictator also on his arrival was more numerously attended than any general had ever been before; all ranks pouring out to meet him, while the honours, conferred on him in his triumph, far surpassed the compliments usually paid on such occasions. He himself was the most conspicuous object of all, riding through the city in a chariot drawn by white horses, which was deemed unbecoming, not to say a member of a commonwealth, but a human being, people deeming it an affront to religion, that the dictator should emulate the equipage of Jupiter and Apollo; and on account chiefly of that single circumstance, his triumph was more splendid than pleasing. He then contracted for the building of a temple to imperial Juno on the Aventine, and dedicated that of mother Matuta: after performing these services to the gods, and to mankind, he laid down his office of dictator. The offering to be made to Apollo came then under consideration, and Camillus declaring that he had vowed the tenth part of the spoil to that use, and the pontiffs having given their opinion that the people ought to dischage that vow, it was found difficult to strike out a proper mode of obliging them to refund the spoil, in order that the due proportion might be set apart for that religious purpose. At length, recourse was had to a method which seemed least troublesome, that every man who wished to acquit himself and his family of the obligation of the vow, making his own estimate of his share of the spoil, should pay into the treasury the tenth part of the value, in order that a golden offering might be made, worthy of the grandeur of the temple, the divinity of the god, and the dignity of the Roman people: this contribution also helped to alienate the affection of the commons from Camillus. During these transactions, ambassadors had come from the Volscians and Æquans to sue for peace, and peace was granted them rather out of a desire that the state, wearied with so tedious a war, might enjoy some repose, than in consideration of the desert of the persons petitioning.
Y. R. 360. 392.XXIV. The year which followed the taking of Veii had six military tribunes, with consular power, the two Publii Cornelii, Cossus, and Scipio, Marcus Valerius Maximus a second time, Cæso Fabius Ambustus a third time, Lucius Furius Medullinus a fifth time, and Quintus Servilius a third time. The war with the Faliscians fell by lot to the Cornelii; that with the Capenatians to Valerius and Servilius. These latter made no attempt on the towns, either by assault or siege, but spread devastation over the lands, and carried off as spoil every thing found in the country; not a fruit tree, nor any useful vegetable, was left in the whole territory. These losses reduced the people of Capena to submission, and on their suing for peace, it was granted. The war with the Faliscians still continued. Meanwhile seditions multiplied at Rome, and in order to assuage their violence it was resolved, that a colony should be sent to the country of the Volscians, for which three thousand Roman citizens should be enrolled, and the triumvirs, appointed to conduct it, distributed three acres and seven twelths to each man. This donation was looked on with scorn, because they considered the offer as intended to pacify them, on the disappointment of higher expectations: for “why,” said they, “should the commons be sent into exile among the Volscians, when the beautiful city of Veii lay within view, and the territory belonging to it being more fertile and more extensive than the territory of Rome?” This city, too, they extolled as preferable even to that of Rome, both in point of situation, and the magnificence of its edifices and inclosures, both public and private. Nay, they went so far as to propose the scheme which, after the taking of Rome by the Gauls, was more generally adopted, of removing to Veii. But their plan now was, that half of the commons, and half of the senate, should fix their habitations at Veii; and thus two cities, composing one commonwealth, might be inhabited by the Roman people. The nobles opposed these measures with such warmth, as to declare, that they would sooner die in the sight of the Roman people, than that any of those matters should be put to the vote: for, “when one city at present supplied such abundance of dissensions, what would be the case with two? Was it possible that any one could prefer a vanquished, to a victorious city, and suffer Veii, after being captured, to enjoy a greater degree of prosperity than ever it had known in its most flourishing days? In short, they might be forsaken in their native country by their fellow citizens, but no force ought ever to compel them to forsake that country and those citizens, and to follow Titus Sicinius, (for he was the plebeian tribune who had brought forward the proposition,) as a founder to Veii, abandoning the divine Romulus, the son of a god, the parent and founder of the city of Rome.” These disputes proceeded to a shameful height: for the patricians had drawn over one half of the plebeian tribunes to their sentiments; so that no other circumstance obliged the commons to refrain from outrage, but that after a clamour had been set up as the prelude to a riot, the principal members of the senate, throwing themselves foremost in the way of the crowd, desired that they might be the persons attacked, struck, or put to death. On this the populace not only abstained from offering violence to their age, their dignity, and honourable characters, but in respect for their opinions restrained their rage even from any such attempts on others.
XXV. Camillus on every occasion, and in every place, publicly asserted, that “there was nothing surprizing in all these commotions; that the state was actually gone mad; for though it was engaged by a vow, yet it bestowed more concern on every other kind of business, than on acquitting itself of the obligation. He would say nothing of the contribution of an alms in reality, rather than of a tenth. However, as each man had bound himself, in his private capacity, the public was set free. But his conscience would not suffer him to be silent on another head — that the tenth of that part only of the spoil was set apart, which consisted of moveable effects, and no mention was made of the city, or of the lands, which as well as the rest were comprehended in the vow.” The senate, finding it difficult to come to a determination on this point, referred it to the pontiffs in conjunction with Camillus; and that body gave their opinion, that whatsoever had been the property of the Veientians before the uttering of the vow, and after the vow was made, came into the power of the Roman people; of that the tenth part was sacred to Apollo. Thus the city and the land were brought into the estimate. The money was issued from the treasury, and the consular military tribunes were commissioned to lay it out in the purchase of gold. A sufficient quantity of this metal could not be procured; on which the matrons, after holding some meetings to deliberate on the subject, with unanimous consent, engaged to supply the military tribunes with gold, and actually carried all their ornaments into the treasury. Nothing ever happened which gave greater pleasure to the senate, and it is said, that in return for this generosity, these women were honoured with the privilege of using covered chariots, when going to public worship or games, and open chaises on any day whether festival or common. The gold being received from each by weight, and a valuation being made, in order that the price might be repaid, it was resolved that a golden bowl should be made thereof, to be carried to Delphi as an offering to Apollo. No sooner were men’s minds disengaged from religious concerns, than the plebeian tribunes renewed their seditious practices, stimulating the resentment of the populace against all the nobility, but especially against Camillus; alleging that, “by his confiscations and consecrations, he had reduced the spoils of Veii to nothing;” daringly abusing the nobles, in their absence; yet, on their appearing, as they sometimes threw themselves in the way of their fury, showing them some respect. When they perceived that the business would be protracted beyond the present year, they re-elected for the year following such tribunes of the commons, as had promoted the passing of the law, and the patricians exerted themselves to effect the same with regard to such of them as had protested against it. By these means the same persons mostly were re-elected plebeian tribunes.
Y. R. 361. 391.XXVI. At the election of military tribunes, the patricians, by straining their interest to the utmost, prevailed to have Marcus Furius Camillus chosen. They pretended, that on account of the wars in which they were engaged, they wished to have him as a commander: but, in fact, they wanted him as an antagonist to the tribunes, to check their corrupt profusion. Together with Camillus were elected military tribunes with consular power, Lucius Furius Medullinus a sixth time, Caius Æmilius, Lucius Valerius Poplicola, Spurius Postumius and Publius Cornelius a second time. In the beginning of the year, the plebeian tribunes declined proceeding on the business, until Marcus Furius Camillus should set out against the Faliscians: for he had been appointed to the command in that war. In consequence of this delay, the ardour of the pursuit was cooled, and Camillus, whom they had chiefly dreaded as an opponent, found an increase of glory in the country of the Faliscians: for the enemy at first confining themselves within their walls, which appeared to be the safest plan, he, by ravaging the country and burning the houses, compelled them to come forth from the city. But still their fears prevented them from advancing to any considerable length. At the distance of about a mile from the town, they pitched their camp, for the security of which they confided entirely in the difficulty of the approaches, all the roads on every side being rough and craggy, in some parts narrow, in others steep: but Camillus, following the directions of a prisoner taken in the country, who acted as his guide, decamped in the latter end of the night, and, at break of day, showed himself on ground much higher than theirs. The Romans were formed into three divisions, each of which, in turn, worked on the fortifications of the camp, while the rest of the troops stood in readiness for battle. The enemy then making an attempt to interrupt his works, he attacked and put them to flight; and with such consternation were the Faliscians struck, that in their haste, they passed by their own camp, which lay in their way, and pushed forward to the city. Great numbers were slain and wounded before they reached the gates, through which they rushed in great confusion and dismay. Their camp was taken, and the spoil given up by Camillus to the quæstors, to the great dissatisfaction of the soldiers: but such was the influence of his strictness in discipline, that the same propriety of conduct which excited their resentment, raised also their admiration. The town was then invested, and the approaches carried on, while sometimes occasional attacks were made by the townsmen on the Roman posts, and trifling skirmishes ensued. Thus time was spent without either party gaining a prospect of success, and as the beseiged were more plentifully supplied than the beseigers, with corn and all other necessaries, from magazines which they had formed some time before, the affair, to judge from appearances, would have been as laborious and tedious as at Veii, had not fortune, together with an instance of meritorious conduct, which, in respect of military matters, he had already sufficiently displayed, procured to the Roman commander a speedy victory.
XXVII. It was the custom among the Faliscians, to employ the same person as master and private tutor to their children; and, as it continues to be the practice to this day in Greece, several were intrusted at the same time to the care of one man. The teacher who appeared to have the greater share of knowledge, had of course the instruction of the children of the first rank. The person supposed to possess this knowledge, and now so intrusted, having made it a custom in time of peace, to carry the boys out of the city for the sake of exercise and play, and having never discontinued the practice since the war began, drew them away from the gate, sometimes in shorter, sometimes in longer excursions. At length, he found an opportunity of straying farther than usual; and, by introducing a variety of plays and conversations, he led them on between the advanced guards of the enemy, and then through the Roman camp, into the tent of Camillus; and there, to this atrocious act, added a speech still more atrocious: that “he had delivered Falerii into the hands of the Romans, by putting into their power those boys, whose parents were there at the head of affairs.” On hearing which, Camillus told him, “Neither the people, nor the commander, to whom thou hast come, thou wretch, with thy villainous offer, is like unto thyself. Between us and the Faliscians there subsists not, it is true, that kind of society which is formed by human compact, but that which nature has implanted in both, does, and ever will subsist. War has its laws as well as peace; and we have learned in waging it, to be as observant of those laws, as we are brave. We carry arms, not against persons of such age as these, who, even in the storming of towns, are exempted from injury, but against men who have arms in their hands, as well as ourselves, and who, without being either injured or provoked by us, made an attack on a Roman camp at Veii. Those thou hast conquered as far as in thee lay, by an act of unexampled villainy. I shall conquer them as I conquered Veii, by Roman methods, by valour, by labour, and by arms.” Then ordering him to be stripped naked, and his hands to be tied behind his back, he delivered him to the boys to be conducted back to Falerii, and gave them rods with which they should scourge the traitor, and drive him into the city. Such a spectacle first attracting a concourse of people, and the senate being afterwards summoned by the magistrates on the extraordinary case, so great an alteration was hereby effected in their sentiments, that they, who a short time before were so outrageous in their hatred and anger, as almost to have chosen the catastrophe of the Vientians, rather than the truce obtained by the Capenatians; these same persons now, through every rank in the state, universally called out for peace. The faith of the Romans, and the justice of their general, were extolled by every mouth in the Forum, and in the senate-house: and in compliance with the universal desire, ambassadors went to the camp to Camillus, and from thence, with permission of Camillus, to Rome, to make a surrender of Falerii. On being introduced to the senate, they are said to have spoken in this manner: “Conscript fathers! overcome by you and your general, by a victory of such a kind, as neither God nor man can view with displeasure we surrender ourselves into your hands, and in an expectation which redounds in the highest degree to the honour of the conqueror, that we shall live more happily under your government than under our own laws. In the issue of this war, two salutary examples have been held out to mankind. Ye have preferred good faith in war, to present victory. We, challenged to emulation in the observance of faith, have voluntarily presented you with conquest. We are your subjects: send persons to receive our arms, hostages, and our city, whose gates they will find open. Ye will never have reason to complain of our fidelity, or we of your government.” Camillus received the thanks both of the enemy and of his countrymen. The Faliscians were ordered to furnish that year’s pay for the soldiers, that the Roman people might enjoy a respite from the tax. As soon as peace was acceded to, the troops were brought home to Rome.
XXVIII. Camillus returning home, crowned with honours of far greater value than when white horses had drawn him in triumph through the city, being distinguished by a conquest acquired through the means of justice and good faith, the senate did not conceal their sense of the respectful attention due to his concerns, but hastened the measures for acquitting him of his vow. Lucius Valerius, Lucius Sergius, and Aulus Manlius were sent ambassadors with one ship of war, to carry the golden bowl to Delphi, as an offering to Apollo. These falling in with some Liparensian pirates, not far from the Sicilian streight, were taken and carried to Liparæ. It was the custom of this state, to make a general division of all booty acquired, as if piracy were the public act of the government. It happened that the office of chief magistrate was filled by one Timasitheus, a man more like the Romans than his own countrymen, who, being touched himself with reverence for the character of ambassadors, for the offering, for the god to whom it was sent, and the cause for which it was presented, impressed the multitude likewise, who almost in all cases resemble their ruler, with proper sentiments of religion on the occasion; and, after entertaining the ambassadors at the public expense, convoyed them with some of his own ships to Delphi, and from thence conducted them in safety to Rome. By decree of senate, a league of hospitality was formed with him, and presents were made him by order of the state. During this year, the war with the Æquans was attended with advantages pretty equal on both sides; so that it was a matter of doubt, both at Rome and even among the troops themselves, whether they were victorious or vanquished. The Roman commanders were Caius Æmilius and Spurius Postumius, two of the military tribunes. At first they acted in conjunction, but after having defeated the enemy in the field, they came to a determination that Æmilius, with a sufficient force, should keep possession of Verrugo, and that Postumius should lay waste the country. In performance of this, the latter, since the late success, thinking less caution requisite, and marching in an unguarded manner, was attacked by the Æquans, who threw his troops into confusion, and drove them to the next hills. The panic spread from thence even to Verrugo, to the other part of the army posted there. Postumius having withdrawn his men to a place of safety, called them to an assembly, where he upbraided them with their fright, and with having fled from the field, being routed by an enemy heretofore remarkable for cowardice and running away. On which the whole army cried out together, that they deserved to hear such reproaches, and that they acknowledged the shamefulness of their behaviour; but that they were at the same time determined to make amends for it, and that the conqueror’s joy on the occasion should be but of short duration. They requested earnestly that he would lead them thence directly to the camp of the enemy, which lay in the plain within their view, offering to submit to any punishment if they did not take it before night. After commending their resolution, he ordered them to refresh themselves, and to be in readiness at the fourth watch: the enemy on the other side, with design to prevent the Romans from flying from the hill by night, through the road which led to Verrugo, were there prepared to receive them, and the battle began at the first hour. However, the moon was up through the whole night, so that the fight was managed with as little confusion as it could have been by day. But the shout reaching Verrugo, where it was imagined that the Roman camp had been attacked, the troops were seized with such terror, that in spite of the intreaties of Æmilius, and all his endeavours to detain them, they fled to Tusculum in the utmost disorder. From thence a report was carried to Rome, that Postumius and his army were cut to pieces. However, as soon as day-light had removed the danger of falling into ambuscades, in case of a hasty pursuit, riding through the ranks, and demanding the performance of their promises, the general infused into the men such a degree of ardour, that the Æquans could no longer withstand their efforts, but betook themselves to flight, when a slaughter of them ensued (as in a case where anger was more concerned than courage,) that ended in the entire destruction of their army; and the afflicting news from Tusculum, which had caused a great, though groundless, alarm in the city, were followed by a letter from Postumius decked with laurel,* — that victory had fallen to the Roman people, and that the army of the Æquans was wholly destroyed.
XXIX. As no determination had yet been made, with respect to the plans introduced by the plebeian tribunes, the commons on the one hand laboured to continue in office such of them as had promoted the passing of the law, and the patricians on the other, to procure the re-election of those who had protested against it. But the commons had the superior influence in the election of their own magistrates: for which disappointment the patricians revenged themselves by passing a decree of senate, that consuls (magistrates ever odious to the commons) should be elected. Thus, after an interval of fifteen years, consuls were again appointed, Lucius Lucretius Flavus, and Servius Sulpicius Camerinus.Y. R. 362. 390. In the beginning of this year, while the plebeian tribunes, uniting their efforts, pressed the passing of their law with great confidence, because there was not any of their body who would protest against it, and while the consuls for that very reason were no less active in opposing it, (the whole attention of the public being taken up with this business,) the Æquans made themselves masters of Vitellia, a Roman colony in their territory. The general part of the colonists escaped with safety to Rome; for the town being betrayed to the enemy in the night, there was nothing to hinder their flight from the contrary side of the city. That province fell to the lot of the consul Lucius Lucretius. He marched thither with an army, defeated the enemy in the field, and returned to Rome, where he was to encounter a contest of much greater difficulty. A prosecution had been commenced against Aulus Virginius, and Quintus Pomponius, plebeian tribunes of the two preceding years, whom the senate was bound in honour to defend with the joint exertions of all the patricians; for no one laid any other charge against them, with respect either to their conduct in life, or their behaviour in office, than that, to gratify the nobles, they had protested against the law proposed by the tribunes. However, the resentment of the commons overpowered the influence of the senate, and by a sentence, of most pernicious example, those men, convicted of no crime, were condemned to pay a fine of ten thousand asses in weight.* This highly incensed the patricians: Camillus openly reproached the commons with violating the duty which they owed to their own order, telling them, that “while they thus vented their spleen on their own magistrates, they did not perceive that by their iniquitous sentence they had abolished the privilege of protesting, and by taking away that privilege, had overturned the tribunitian power. For they were much mistaken if they imagined, that the patricians would endure the unbridled licentiousness of that office. If tribunitian violence could not be repelled by tribunitian aid, the patricians would find out a weapon of some other kind. He censured the consuls also, for silently suffering those tribunes, who had complied with the directions of the senate, to be disappointed in their reliance on the faith of the public.” By such discourses, uttered in public, he exasperated people daily more and more against him.
XXX. As to the senate, he never ceased urging them to a vigorous opposition to the passing of the law; exhorting them, that “when the day arrived on which it was to be put to the vote, they should go down to the Forum with no other sentiments than such as became men who knew they were to contend for their religion and liberty; for the temples of their gods, and the soil that gave them birth. As to his own particular part, if it were allowable for him, during a contest wherein the interest of his country lay at stake, to consider the aggrandizement of his own character, it would even redound to the increase of his fame, that a city which he had taken should be filled with inhabitants, that he should every day enjoy that monument of his own glory, and have before his eyes a people whom he himself had led in his triumph, and that all men, at every step they took, should meet with testimonies of his valour. But in his opinion, it would be an impious proceeding, if a city forsaken and abandoned by the immortal gods were to be inhabited; if the Roman people were to reside in a captivated soil, and to exchange a victorious for a vanquished country.” Stimulated by such arguments, uttered by the first man in the state, the patricians, both old and young, when the law was to be debated, came in a body to the Forum, and dispersing themselves through the tribes, each endeavoured to influence the members of his own body; beseeching them, with tears, “not to abandon the country, in defence of which themselves, and their fathers, had fought with the greatest bravery and the greatest success, pointing at the same time to the capitol, the temple of Vesta, and the other temples of the gods which stood within view; that they would not drive the Roman people, as exiles and outcasts, away from their native soil and guardian deities, into a once hostile city, and bring matters to such a conclusion, that it would be better if Veii had never been taken, lest Rome should be abandoned.” As they made use of no violence, but of entreaties only, and among these entreaties made frequent mention of the gods, the greatest part of the people were impressed with an opinion that religion was concerned in the case, and the tribes, by a majority of one, rejected the law. The patricians were so highly gratified by this success, that next day, the consuls holding a meeting for the purpose, a decree of senate was passed, that a distribution should be made to the commons of the Veientian lands, in the proportion of seven acres to each, and that this distribution should be extended not only to the fathers of families, but to every person in their houses of free condition, that they might have satisfaction in rearing children with the hope of such an establishment.
Y. R. 363. 389.XXXI. This generosity had such a conciliatory effect on the minds of the commons, that no opposition was made to the election of consuls. Lucius Valerius Potitus and Marcus Manlius, afterwards surnamed Capitolinus, were appointed to that office. In their consulate were celebrated the great games which Marcus Furius when dictator had vowed, on occasion of the war with the Veientians. In this year also, the temple of imperial Juno, vowed by the same dictator, during the same war, was dedicated, and it is mentioned that the matrons displayed an extraordinary degree of zeal in their attendance on the dedication. In the campaign against the Æquans, the seat whereof was at Algidum. nothing memorable occurred; the enemy scarcely waiting for the engagement to begin, before they betook themselves to flight. To Valerius, because he continued the pursuit and slaughter with great earnestness, a triumph was decreed; to Manlius an ovation. This year there sprung up a new enemy, the Volsinians, against whom no army could be sent on account of a famine and pestilence which raged in the Roman territories, in consequence of extraordinary drought and heat. On these circumstances the Volsinians presumed with such confidence, that, forming a junction with the Salpinians, they made incursions on the lands of the Romans. War was then proclaimed against those two nations. Caius Julius died in the office of censor, and Marcus Cornelius was substituted in his room, which proceeding came afterwards to be considered as displeasing to the gods, because in that lustrum Rome was taken. Nor since that time is a censor ever substituted in the room of one dying. The consuls being seized by the distemper, it was resolved that an interregnum should be constituted, and auspices taken a-new.
Y. R. 364. 388.XXXII. In pursuance therefore of a decree of the senate, the consuls having resigned their office, Marcus Furius Camillus was created interrex, who appointed Publius Cornelius Scipio interrex, and he, afterwards, Lucius Valerius Potitus. By him were elected six military tribunes with consular power, to the end that in case any of them should be disabled by bad health, the commonwealth might still have a sufficient number of magistrates. These were Lucius Lucretius, Servius Sulpicius, Marcus Æmilius, Lucius Furius Medullinus a seventh time, Agrippa Furius, and Caius Æmilius a second time, who entered into office on the calends of July. Of these Lucius Lucretius and Caius Æmilius had the Volsinians as their province; Agrippa Furius and Servius Sulpicius the Salpinians. The first battle happened with the Volsinians. This war, formidable in appearance, from the great number of the enemy, was terminated without any difficulty: at the first onset, their army was put to flight, and eight thousand of their soldiers, being surrounded by the cavalry, laid down their arms, and surrendered. The account which they received of that battle, made the Salpinians determine not to hazard an engagement; their troops secured themselves in the towns. The Romans, meeting no opposition, carried off the spoil from all parts, both of the Volsinian and Salpinian territories, until the Volsinians, becoming weary of the war, had a truce for twenty years granted them, on condition that they should make restitution to the Roman people, and furnish the pay of the army for that year. During this year, Marcus Cædicius, a plebeian, gave information to the tribunes, that “in the new street, where the chapel now stands, above the temple of Vesta, he had heard in the dead of the night, a voice louder than that of a man, ordering notice to be given to the magistrates, that the Gauls were approaching.” This intelligence, on account of the mean condition of the author, was, as frequently happens, disregarded; and also, because that nation, lying at a great distance, was therefore very little known. They not only slighted the warnings of the gods, at this crisis of impending fate, but the only human aid which could have availed them, Marcus Furius, they drove away to a distance from the city: for, having been cited by Apuleius, a plebeian tribune, to answer a charge concerning the plunder of Veii, and having about the same time suffered the loss of a son, who had almost arrived at the years of manhood, he called together to his house the members of his tribe and dependants, who composed a great part of the commons, and asked their sentiments on the occasion; when being told, in answer, that they would make up by a contribution whatever fine he should be condemned to pay, but to effect his acquittal was out of their power, he went into exile, after praying to the immortal gods, that if he was underserving of such injurious treatment, they would speedily give that ungrateful state reason to regret his absence. On his not appearing, he was fined fifteen thousand asses in weight.*
XXXIII. Having thus driven away the citizen, whose presence, if in any case we can pronounce with certainty on human affairs, would have effectually saved Rome from falling into the hands of an enemy, the destined ruin now approached the city with hasty steps: at this time ambassadors arrived from the people of Clusium, soliciting aid against the Gauls. According to some reports, that nation was allured to cross the Alps, and take possession of the country formerly cultivated by the Etrurians, by the deliciousness of its productions, and especially of the wine, a luxury then new to them: and Aruns of Clusium having introduced it into Gaul for the purpose of enticing that people, that he might, by their means, gratify his resentment for his wife’s being debauched by Lucumo, (whose guardian he himself had been,) a young man of overgrown power, on whom it would have been impossible to inflict punishment without foreign assistance. He acted as their guide, in passing the Alps, and advised them to lay siege to Clusium. I do not indeed take upon me to deny, that the Gauls were conducted to Clusium by Aruns, or some other Clusian, but that those who laid siege to Clusium, were not the first who crossed the Alps, is certain; for the Gauls went over into Italy, two hundred years before they besieged that town, and took the city of Rome. Nor were these the first of the Etrurians with whom they waged war; for long before this, the Gallic armies fought many battles with those who dwelt between the Apennines and the Alps. The Tuscans, before the growth of the Roman empire, possessed very extensive sway both by land and sea: how great their power was in the upper and lower seas, by which Italy is almost surrounded, as an island, the names of those seas demonstrate; one being called by the Italian nations, the Tuscan, the general appellation of that people; the other the Adriatic, from Adria, a colony of Tuscans. The Greeks also call those seas the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic. This people inhabited both the tracts of territory which stretch from each side of the mountain, to the two seas, having founded twelve cities on either, first on the hither side towards the lower sea, and afterwards sending to the other side of the Apennines as many colonies as there were capital cities in the mother country. These acquired possession of the whole region beyond the Po, all the way to the Alps, except the corner of the Venetians who dwell round the extreme point of the Adriatic. The Alpine nations also, without doubt, derived their origin from them, particularly the Rhetians, who were rendered savage merely by their situation, so as to retain no mark of their original, except the accent of their language, and not even that without corruption.
XXXIV. Concerning the passage of the Gauls into Italy, what we have learned is this: when Tarquinius Priscus reigned at Rome, the supreme government of the Celts, who composed one-third part of Gaul, lay in the hands of the Biturigians. These gave a king to the Celtic nation. Ambigatus, a man very eminently distinguished by his own merit, and by the extraordinary degree of prosperity which attended him, both in his own private concerns, and in those of the public; in his time Gaul was so fruitful, and so numerously peopled, that it seemed scarcely practicable to retain such an enormous multitude under the direction of one government. Being far advanced in years, and wishing to exonerate his realm of a crowd with which it was overburthened, he declared his intention of sending away his sister’s sons, Bellovesus and Sigovesus, two spirited young men, to whatever settlements the gods should point out by their auguries; and that they should carry with them any number of men, which they themselves should choose; so that no nation which lay in their way should be able to obstruct their course. Sigovesus was then directed by the oracle to the Hercinian forest: to Bellovesus the gods showed a much more delightful route into Italy. He carried with him from the Biturigians, the Arvernians the Senonians, the Æduans, the Ambarrians the Carnutians, and the Aulercians, all their superfluous numbers: and setting out, at the head of an immense body of horse and foot, arrived in the country of the Tricastinians. The Alps then stood in his way, which I do not wonder that these people should consider as impassable, having never been climbed over by any path, at least as far as we have been able to learn, unless we choose to believe the fables told of Hercules. Whilst the height of the mountains kept the Gauls penned up as it were, and while they were looking about for some route between those lofty summits which joined the sky, an ominous incident also gave them some delay; for an account was brought to them, that some strangers, who had come in search of lands, were attacked by the nation of the Salyans: these were the Massilians who had come by sea from Phocea.* The Gauls, considering this as prognostic of their own fortune, gave them their assistance, in fortifying the ground, which they had first seized on their landing, covered with wide extended woods. They themselves climbed over the pathless Alps, through the forest of Taurinum, routed the Tuscans in battle, not far from the river Ticinus; and, hearing that the district in which they had posted themselves, was called Insubria, the same name by which one of the cantons of the Insubrian Æduans was distinguished, they embraced the omen which the place presented, and founded there a city which they called Mediolanum,
XXXV. Some time after, another body, composed of the Cenomanians, under the conduct of Elitovius, following the tracks of the former, made their way over the Alps, through the same forest, Bellovesus favouring their march, and settled themselves where the cities Brixia and Verona now stand, places then possessed by the Libuans. After these, came the Salluvians, who fixed their abode near the ancient canton of the Ligurians, called Lævi, who inhabited the banks of the Ticinus. The next who came over were the Boians and Lingonians, through the Penine pass, who, finding all the space between the Alps and the Po already occupied, crossed the Po on rafts, and drove out of the country, not only the Etrurians, but the Umbrians also. They confined themselves however within the Apennines. After them the Senonians, the latest of these emigrants, possessed themselves of the track which reaches from the river Utens to the Æsis. This latter people, I find, it was, who came to Clusium, and from thence to Rome. But whether alone, or assisted by all the nations of Cisalpine Gauls, is not known with certainty. The Clusians, on observing so great a multitude, the appearance of the men, too, being different from any which they had seen before, and also the kind of arms which they carried, were terrified at the approach of this strange enemy; and having heard that the legions of the Etrurians had been often defeated by them, on both sides of the Po, determined, although they had no claim on the Romans, either in right of alliance or friendship, except that they had not protected their relations the Veientians in opposition to the Roman people, to send ambassadors to Rome, to solicit aid from the senate; which request was not complied with. The three Fabii, sons of Ambustus, were sent to mediate with the Gauls, in the name of the senate and commons of Rome; who recommended to them not to attack the allies and friends of the Roman people, from whom they had received no injury, and whom they would be obliged to support even by force of arms, if matters went so far; but who, at the same time, would be better pleased, that hostile proceedings should be avoided if possible, and that their acquaintance with the Gauls, a nation to whom they were as yet strangers, should commence in an amicable rather than in an hostile manner.
XXXVI. This was an embassy mild in its import, but intrusted to men of tempers too ferocious, more resembling Gauls than Romans. These, having explained their commission in an assembly of the Gauls, received for answer, that although this was the first time that they had heard the name of the Romans, yet they supposed, that they were men of bravery, whose assistance the Clusians had implored in a conjuncture so perilous; and in consideration of their having chosen to interfere between their allies and them, in the way of negociation, rather than that of arms, they would make no objection to the amicable terms which they proposed, provided that the Clusians, who possessed a greater portion of land than they turned to use, would give up a part of it to the Gauls, who wanted it. On no other terms, they said, was peace to be obtained: that they wished to receive an answer in presence of the Romans, and if the land were refused them, would also decide the matter by arms in the presence of the same Romans, that they might inform their countrymen, how far the Gauls excelled the rest of mankind in bravery. The Romans asking, by what right they could demand land from the possessors, and in case of refusal threaten war; and what concern the Gauls had in Etruria? The others fiercely replied, that they carried their right on the points of their swords, and that all things were the property of the brave. Thus, with minds inflamed on both sides, they hastily separated to prepare for battle, which began without delay. Here, fate now pressing the city of Rome, the ambassadors, contrary to the law of nations, took a part in the action; a fact which could not be concealed, for three of the noblest and bravest of the Roman youth fought in the van of the Etrurian army; and the valour of these foreigners was eminently conspicuous. Besides, Quintus Fabius rode forward beyond the line, and slew a general of the Gauls, who was making a furious charge against the standards of the Etrurians, running him through the side with his spear. He was known by the Gauls, while he was stripping him of his spoils; on which notice was conveyed round through the whole army, that he was one of the Roman ambassadors. Dropping therefore their resentment against the Clusians, they sounded a retreat, threatening to wreak their vengeance on the Romans. Some advised that they should march instantly to Rome. But the opinion of the elders prevailed; that ambassadors should first be sent to complain of the ill treatment, which they had received, and to demand that the Fabii should be delivered into their hands as a satisfaction for having violated the law of nations. When the ambassadors of the Gauls had explained those matters according to their commission, the senate were highly displeased at the behaviour of the Fabii, and thought the demand of the barbarians just: but in the case of nobles, of such exalted rank, partial favour prevented their passing a decree conformable to their judgment. Lest, therefore, they might be chargeable with any misfortune, which might perhaps be sustained in a war with the Gauls, they referred the determination, on the demands of the Gauls, to the assembly of the people: where so prevalent was the influence of interest and wealth, that the very persons whose punishment was the subject of deliberation, were appointed military tribunes with consular power for the ensuing year. At which proceeding the Gauls being justly enraged, and openly denouncing war, returned to their countrymen.Y. R. 365. 387. Together with the three Fabii, were appointed military tribunes, Quintus Sulpicius Longus, Quintus Servilius a fourth time, and Servius Cornelius Maluginensis.
XXXVII. When fortune is determined upon the ruin of a people, she can so blind them, as to render them insensible to danger, even of the greatest magnitude: accordingly the Roman state, which, in its wars with the Fidenatians and Veientians and other neighbouring enemies, had left no means untried to procure aid, and had, on many occasions, nominated a dictator; yet now, when an enemy whom they had never met, or even heard of, was, from the ocean and the remotest coasts, advancing in arms against them, they looked not for any extraordinary command or assistance. Tribunes, whose temerity had brought on the troubles, were intrusted with the reins of government, and they used no greater diligence in levying forces, than was usual in case of a rupture with any of their neighbours, extenuating the importance which fame gave to the war. Meanwhile the Gauls, hearing that the violators of the rights of mankind had even been recompensed with honours, and that their embassy had been slighted, inflamed with anger, a passion which that nation knows not how to control, instantly snatched up their ensigns, and began to march with the utmost expedition. When their precipitate movement caused such an alarm wherever they passed, that the inhabitants of the cities ran together to arms, and the peasants betook themselves to flight, they signified to them, by loud shouts, that it was to Rome they were going, while the space covered by their men and horses was immense, the troops spreading widely on every side. But report outstripped them; and messengers also from the Clusian, and from several other states, one after another, and the quickness of the enemy’s proceedings, caused the utmost consternation among the Romans, whose army, composed, in a manner, of tumultuary troops, with all the haste which they could make, scarce advanced so far as the eleventh stone before they met them, where the river Allia, running down from the Crustuminian mountains in a very deep channel, joins the Tiber, a little way below the road. Already every place, in front, and on each side, was occupied by numerous bodies of Gauls; and, as that nation has a natural turn for aggravating terror by confusion, by their harsh music and discordant clamours, they filled the air with a horrible din.
XXXVIII. There the military tribunes, without having previously formed a camp, without the precaution of raising a rampart which might secure a retreat, regardless of duty to the gods, to say nothing of that to man, without taking auspices, without offering a sacrifice, drew up their line, which they extended on towards the flanks, lest they should be surrounded by the numerous forces of the enemy. Still they could not show an equal front, and at the same time thinned their line in such a manner, as weakened the centre, and left it scarce sufficient to fill up the ranks without a breach. There was a small eminence on the right, which they determined to occupy with a body of reserve; which measure, as it gave the first cause to their dismay and desertion of the field, so it proved the only means of safety in their flight. Brennus, the chieftain of the Gauls, thinking, that as his enemies were few, their skill was what he had chiefly to guard against; and supposing, that the eminence had been seized with design, that when the Gauls should be engaged in front with the line of the legions, that reserved body might make an attack on their rear and flank, turned his force against the reserve, not doubting, that if he could dislodge them from their post, his troops, so much superior in number, would find an easy victory in the plain: thus not only fortune, but judgment also stood on the side of the barbarians. In the opposite army there appeared nothing like Romans, either among the commanders, or the soldiers. Terror and dismay had taken possession of their minds, and such a total unconcern for the rest of mankind, that greater numbers by far fled to Veii, a city of their enemy, though the Tiber lay across the way, than by the direct road to Rome, to their wives and children. The situation of the ground for some time defended the reserve: but those who composed the rest of the line, on their flank, and on their rear, no sooner heard the shout, than, not only without attempting to fight, but without even returning the shout, fresh as they were, and unhurt, they ran away from an untried enemy, and at whom they had scarcely ventured to look. Thus, no lives were lost in battle; but their rear was cut to pieces while they crowded on one another, in such hurry and confusion, as retarded their retreat. Great slaughter was made on the bank of the Tiber, whither the whole left wing, after throwing away their arms, had directed their flight; and great numbers who knew not how to swim, or were not very strong, being burthened with their coats of mail and other defensive armour, were swallowed up in the current. However the greatest part escaped safe to Veii, from whence they neither sent any reinforcement to Rome, nor even a courier to give notice of their defeat. Those of the right wing which had been posted at a distance from the river, near the foot of the mountain, all took the way to Rome, and without even shutting the gates of the city, made their way into the citadel.
XXXIX. On the other hand, the attainment of such a speedy, such an almost miraculous victory, astonished the Gauls. At first, they stood motionless through apprehension for their own safety, scarcely knowing what had happened; then, they dreaded some stratagem; at length, they collected the spoils of the slain, and piled the arms in heaps, according to their practice. And now, seeing no sign of an enemy any where, they at last began to march forward, and a little before sun-set arrived near the city of Rome, where receiving intelligence by some horsemen who had advanced before, that the gates were open without any troops posted to defend them, nor any soldiers on the walls, this second incident, not less unaccountable than the former, induced them to halt: and, apprehending danger from the darkness of the night, and their ignorance of the situation of the city, they took post between Rome and the Anio, sending scouts about the walls, and the several gates, to discover what plans the enemy would pursue in this desperate state of their affairs. The Roman soldiers, who were living, their friends lamented as lost; the greater part of them having gone from the field of battle to Veii, and no one supposing that any survived, except those who had come home to Rome. In fine, the city was almost entirely filled with sorrowings. But on the arrival of intelligence that the enemy were at hand, the apprehensions excited by the public danger stifled all private sorrow; soon after, the barbarians patroling about the walls in troops, they heard their yells and the dissonant clangour of their martial instruments. During the whole interval, between this and the next morning, they were held in the most anxious suspense, every moment expecting an assault to be made on the city. At the enemy’s first approach, it was supposed that they would begin the attack as soon as they should arrive at the city, since, if this were not their intention, they would probably have remained at the Allia. Their fears were various and many; first, they imagined that the place would be instantly stormed, because there was not much of the day remaining; then that the design was put off until night, in order to strike the greater terror. At last, the approach of light sunk them in dismay, and the evil itself which they dreaded, closed this scene of unremitted apprehension, the enemy marching through the gates in hostile array. During that night, however, and also the following day, the state preserved a character, very different from that which such a dastardly flight at the Allia had indicated: for there being no room to hope that the city could possibly be defended by the small number of troops remaining, a resolution was taken, that the young men who were fit to bear arms, and the abler part of the senate, with their wives and children, should go up into the citadel and the capitol; and having collected stores of arms and corn, should, in that strong post, maintain the defence of the deities, of the inhabitants, and of the honour of Rome. That the Flamen Quirinalis, and the vestal priestesses, should carry away, far from slaughter and conflagration, all that appertained to the gods of the state; and that their worship should not be intermitted, until there should be no one left to perform it. “If the citadel and the capitol, the mansion of the gods; if the senate, the source of public counsel; if the youth of military age, should survive the ruin which impended over the city, they must deem the loss of the aged light, as of a crowd whom they were under the necessity of leaving behind, though with a certain prospect of their perishing.” That such of this deserted multitude as consisted of plebeians, might bear their doom with the greater resignation, the aged nobles, formerly dignified with triumphal honours and consulships, openly declared, that “they would meet death along with them, and would not burthen the scanty stores of the fighting men, with bodies incapable of carrying arms, and of protecting their country.” Such were the consolations addressed to each other by the aged who were destined to death.
XL. Their exhortations were then turned to the band of young men, whom they escorted to the capitol and citadel, commending to their valour and youthful vigour the remaining fortune of their city, which, through the course of three hundred and sixty years, had ever been victorious in all its wars. When those who carried with them every hope and every resource, parted with the others, who had determined not to survive the capture and destruction of the city, the view which it exhibited was sufficient to call forth the liveliest feelings, the women at the same time running up and down in distraction, now following one party, then the other, asking their husbands and their sons, to what fate they would consign them? All together formed such a picture of human wo as could admit of no aggravation. A great part, however, of the women followed their relations into the citadel, no one either hindering or inviting them; because, though the measure of lessening the number of useless persons in a siege, might doubtless be advisable in one point of view, yet it was a measure of extreme inhumanity. The rest of the multitude, consisting chiefly of plebeians, for whom there was neither room on so small a hill, nor a possibility of support in so great a scarcity of corn, pouring out of the city in one continued train, repaired to the Janiculum. From thence some dispersed through the country, and others made their way to the neighbouring cities, without any leader, or any concert, each pursuing his own hopes and his own plans, those of the public being deplored as desperate. In the mean time, the Flamen Quirinalis, and the Vestal virgins, laying aside all concern for their own affairs, and consulting together which of the sacred deposits they should take with them, and which they should leave behind, for they had not strength sufficient to carry all, and what place they could best depend on for preserving them in safe custody, judged it the most eligible method to inclose them in casks, and to bury them under ground, in the chapel next to the dwelling-house of the Flamen Quirinalis, where at present it is reckoned profane even to spit. The rest they carried, distributing the burthens among themselves, along the road which leads over the Sublician bridge, to the Janiculum. On the ascent of that hill, Lucius Albinius, a Roman plebeian, was conveying away in a wagon his wife and children, but observing them among the crowd of those who being unfit for war were retiring from the city, and retaining, even in his present calamitous state, a regard to the distinction between things divine and human, he thought it would betray a want of respect to religion, if the public priests of the Roman people were to go on foot, thus holily laden, whilst he and his family were seen mounted in a carriage; ordering his wife and children then to alight, he put the virgins and the sacred things into the wagon, and conveyed them to Cære, whither the priests had determined to go.
XLI. Meanwhile, at Rome, when every disposition for the defence of the citadel had been completed, as far as was possible in such a conjuncture, the aged crowd withdrew to their houses, and there, with a firmness of mind not to be shaken by the approach of death, waited the coming of the enemy: such of them as had held curule offices, choosing to die in that garb which displayed the emblems of their former fortune, of their honours, or of their merit, put on the most splendid robes worn, when they draw the chariots of the gods in procession, or ride in triumph. Thus habited, they seated themselves in their ivory chairs at the fronts of their houses. Some say that they devoted themselves for the safety of their country and their fellow citizens; and that they sung a hymn upon the occasion, Marcus Fabius, the chief pontiff, dictating the form of words to them. On the side of the Gauls, as the keenness of their rage, excited by the fight, had abated during the night; and, as they had neither met any dangerous opposition in the field, nor were now taking the city by storm or force; they marched next day, without any anger or any heat of passion, into the city, through the Colline gate, which stood open, and advanced to the Forum, casting round their eyes on the temples of the gods, and on the citadel, the only place which had the appearance of making resistance. From thence, leaving a small guard to prevent any attack from the citadel or capitol, they ran about in quest of plunder. Not meeting a human being in the streets, part of them rushed in a body to the houses that stood nearest; part sought the most distant, as expecting to find them untouched and abounding with spoil. Afterwards, being frightened from thence, by the very solitude, and fearing lest some secret design of the enemy might be put in execution against them, while they were thus dispersed, they formed themselves into bodies, and returned again to the Forum, and places adjoining to it. Finding the houses of the plebeians shut up, and the palaces of the nobles standing open, they showed rather greater backwardness to attack these that were open, than such as were shut: with such a degree of veneration did they behold men sitting in the porches of those palaces, who, beside their ornaments and apparel, more splendid than became mortals, bore the nearest resemblance to gods, in the majesty displayed in their looks, and the gravity of their countenances. It is said, that while they stood gazing as on statues, one of them, Marcus Papirius, provoked the anger of a Gaul, by striking him on the head with his ivory sceptre, while he was stroaking his beard, which at that time was universally worn long; that the slaughter began with him, and that the rest were slain in their seats. The nobles being put to death, the remainder of the people met the same fate. The houses were plundered, and then set on fire.
XLII. However, whether it was, that they were not all possessed with a desire of reducing the city to ruins, or whether the design had been adopted by the chiefs of the Gauls, that some fires should be presented to the view of the besieged, for the purpose of terrifying them, and to try if they could be compelled to surrender, through affection to their own dwellings, or that they had determined that all the houses should not be burned down, because whatever remained, they could hold as a pledge, by means of which they might work upon the minds of the garrison, the fire did not, during the first day, spread extensively, as is usual in a captured city. The Romans, beholding the enemy from the citadel, who ran up and down through every street, while some new scene of horror arose to their view in every different quarter, were scarcely able to preserve their presence of mind. To whatever side the shouts of the enemy, the cries of women and children, the crackling from the flames; and the crash of falling houses called their attention, thither, deeply shocked at every incident, they turned their eyes, their thoughts, as if placed by fortune to be spectators of the fall of their country; — left, in short, not for the purpose of protecting any thing belonging to them, but merely their own persons, much more deserving of commiseration, indeed, than any before who were ever beleaguered; as by the siege which they had to sustain they were excluded from their native city, whilst they saw every thing which they held dear in the power of the enemy. Nor was the night, which succeeded such a shocking day, attended with more tranquillity. The morning appeared with an aspect equally dismal; nor did any portion of time relieve them from the sight of a constant succession of new distresses. Loaded and overwhelmed with such a multiplicity of evils, they notwithstanding remitted nought of their firmness; determined, though they should see every thing in flames, and levelled with the dust, to defend by their bravery the hill which they occupied, small and ill provided as it was, yet being the only refuge of their liberty. And as the same events recurred every day, they became so habituated, as it were, to disasters, that, abstracting their thoughts as much as possible from their circumstances, they regarded the arms, and the swords in their hands, as their only hopes.
XLIII. On the other side, the Gauls, having for several days waged only an ineffectual war against the buildings, and perceiving that among the fires and ruins of the city nothing now remained but a band of armed enemies, who were neither terrified in the least, nor likely to treat of a capitulation unless force were applied, resolved to have recourse to extremities, and to make an assault on the citadel. On a signal given, at the first light, their whole multitude was marshalled in the Forum, from whence, after raising the shout, and forming a testudo,* they advanced to the attack. The Romans in their defence did nothing rashly, nor in a hurry; but having strengthened the guards at every approach, and opposing the main strength of their men on the quarter where they saw the battalions advancing, they suffered them to mount the hill, judging that the higher they should ascend, the more easily they might be driven back, down the steep. About the middle of the ascent they met: and there making their charge down the declivity, which of itself bore them against the enemy, routed the Gauls with such slaughter, and such destruction, occasioned by their falling down the precipice, that they never afterwards, either in parties, or with their whole force, made another trial of that kind of fight. Laying aside therefore the hope of effecting their approaches by force of arms, they resolved to form a blockade, for which, having never until this time thought of making provision, they were ill prepared. With the houses, all was consumed in the city; and in the course of the days they had passed there, the produce of the country round about had been hastily carried off to Veii. Wherefore dividing their forces, they determined that one part should be employed in plundering among the neighbouring nations, while the other carried on the siege of the citadel, in order that the ravagers of the country might supply the besiegers with corn.
XLIV. The party of Gauls, which marched away from the city, were conducted merely by the will of fortune, who chose to make a trial of Roman bravery, to Ardea, where Camillus dwelt in exile, pining in sorrow, and more deeply grieving at the distresses of the public, than at his own; accusing gods and men, burning with indignation, and wondering where were now those men who with him had taken Veii, and Falerii; those men who, in other wars, had ever been more indebted to their own courage, than to chance. Thus pondering, he heard, on a sudden, that the army of the Gauls was approaching, and that the people of Ardea in consternation were met in council on the subject. On which, as if moved by divine inspiration, he advanced into the midst of their assembly, having hitherto been accustomed to absent himself from such meetings, and said, “People of Ardea, my friends of old, of late my fellow-citizens also, a relation encouraged by your kindness, and formed by my fortune; let not any of you imagine, that my coming hither to your council is owing to my having forgotten my situation; but the present case, and the common danger, render it necessary that every one should contribute to the public every kind of assistance in his power. And when shall I repay so great obligations as I owe you, if I am now remiss? On what occasion can I ever be serviceable to you, if not in war? By my knowledge in that line, I supported a character in my native country, and though never overcome by an enemy in war, I was banished in time of peace by my ungrateful countrymen. To you, men of Ardea, fortune has presented an opportunity of making a recompense for all the valuable favours which the Roman people have formerly conferred on you. How great these have been, ye yourselves remember; nor need I, who know you to be grateful, remind you of them. At the same time you may acquire, for this your city, a high degree of military renown, by acting against the common enemy. The nation, which is now approaching, in a disorderly march, is one to whom nature has given minds and bodies of greater size than strength: for which reason, they bring to every contest more of terror, than of real vigour. The disaster of Rome may serve as a proof of this; they took the city, when every avenue lay open; but still a small band in the citadel and capitol are able to withstand them. Already tired of the slow proceedings of the siege, they retire and spread themselves over the face of the country. When gorged by food, and greedy draughts of wine, as soon as night comes on, they stretch themselves promiscuously, like brutes, near streams of water, without intrenchment, and without either guards or advanced posts; using at present, in consequence of success, still less caution than usual. If it is your wish to defend your own walls, and not to suffer all this part of the world to become a province of Gaul, take arms unanimously at the first watch. Follow me, to kill, not to fight. If I do not deliver them into your hands, overpowered with sleep, to be slaughtered like cattle, I am content to meet the same issue of my affairs at Ardea which I found at Rome.”
XLV. Every one who heard him, had long been possessed with an opinion, that there was not any where in that age a man of equal talents for war. The meeting then being dismissed, they took some refreshment, and waited with impatience for the signal being given. As soon as that was done, during the stillness of the beginning of the night, they attended Camillus at the gates: they had not marched far from the city, when they found the camp of the Gauls, as had been foretold, unguarded and neglected on every side, and, raising a shout, attacked it. There was no fight any where, but slaughter every where: being naked, and surprised in sleep, they were easily cut to pieces. However, those who lay most remote, being roused from their beds, and not knowing how or by whom the tumult was occasioned, were by their fears directed to flight, and some of them even into the midst of the enemy, before they perceived their mistake. A great number, flying into the territory of Antium, were attacked on their straggling march by the inhabitants of that city, surrounded and cut off. A like carnage was made of the Tuscans in the territory of Veii: for they were so far from feeling compassion for a city, which had been their neighbour now near four hundred years, and which had been overpowered by a strange and unheard of enemy, that they made incursions at that very time on the Roman territory: and, after loading themselves with booty, purposed even to lay siege to Veii, the bulwark, and the last remaining hope of the whole Roman race. The soldiers there, who had seen them straggling over the country, and also collected in a body, driving the prey before them, now perceived their camp pitched at no great distance from Veii. At first, their minds were filled with melancholy reflections on their own situation; then with indignation, afterwards with rage. “Must their misfortunes, they said, be mocked even by the Etrurians, from whom they had drawn off the Gallic war on themselves?” Scarce could they curb their passions so far as to refrain from attacking them that instant; but, being restrained by Quintus Cædicius, a centurion, whom they had appointed their commander, they consented to defer it until night. The action which ensued wanted nothing to render it equal to the former, except that it was not conducted by a general equal to Camillus: in every other respect the course of events was the same, and the issue equally fortunate. Not content with this blow, but taking, as guides, some prisoners who had escaped the slaughter, and advancing to Salinæ against another body of Tuscans, they surprised them on the night following, slew a still greater number, and then returned to Veii, exulting in their double victory.
XLVI. Meanwhile, at Rome the siege, in general, was carried on slowly, and both parties lay quiet; for the attention of the Gauls was solely employed in preventing any of the enemy from escaping between their posts; when, on a sudden, a Roman youth drew on himself the attention and admiration both of his countrymen and the enemy. There was a sacrifice always solemnized by the Fabian family at stated times, on the Quirinal hill; to perform which, Caius Fabius Dorso having come down from the capitol, dressed in the form called the Gabine cincture, and carrying in his hands the sacred utensils requisite for the ceremony, passed out through the midst of the enemy’s posts, without being moved in the least by any of their calls or threats. He proceeded to the Quirinal hill, and after duly performing there the solemn rites, returned by the same way, preserving the same firmness in his countenance and gait, confident of the protection of the gods, whose worship, even the fear of death, had not power to make him neglect, and came back to his friends in the capitol, while the Gauls were either held motionless with astonishment at his amazing confidence, or moved by considerations of religion, of which that nation is by no means regardless. Meanwhile, those at Veii found not only their courage, but their strength also increasing daily. Not only such of the Romans repaired thither, who, in consequence either of the defeat in the field, or of the disaster of the city being taken, had been dispersed in various parts, but volunteers also flowed in from Latium, with a view to share in the spoil; so that it now seemed high time to attempt the recovery of their native city, and rescue it out of the hands of the enemy. But this strong body wanted a head: the spot where they stood reminded them of Camillus; a great number of the soldiers having fought with success under his banners and auspices. Besides, Cædicius declared, that he would not take any part which might afford occasion, either for god or man, to take away his command; but rather, mindful of his own rank, would himself insist on the appointment of a general. With universal consent it was resolved, that Camillus should be invited from Ardea; but that first the senate at Rome should be consulted: so carefully did they regulate every proceeding by a regard to propriety, and, though in circumstances nearly desperate, maintained the distinctions of the several departments of government. It was necessary to pass through the enemy’s guards, which could not be effected without the utmost danger. A spirited youth, called Pontius Cominius, offered himself for the undertaking, and supporting himself on pieces of cork, was carried down the stream of the Tiber to the city. From thence, where the distance from the bank was shortest, he made his way into the capitol over a part of the rock which was very steep and craggy, and therefore neglected by the enemy’s guards; and being conducted to the magistrates, delivered the message of the army. Then, having received a decree of the senate, that Camillus should both be recalled from exile in an assembly of the Curias, and instantly nominated dictator by order of the people, and that the soldiers should have the general whom they wished, going out of the same way, he proceeded with his despatches to Veii; from whence deputies were sent to Ardea to Camillus, who conducted him to Veii: or else, the law was passed by the Curians, and he was nominated dictator in his absence; for I am inclined to believe, that he did not set out from Ardea until he found, that this was done, because he could neither change his residence without an order of the people, nor hold the privilege of the auspices in the army, until he was nominated dictator.
XLVII. Thus they were employed at Veii, whilst, in the mean time, the citadel and capitol at Rome were in the utmost danger. The Gauls either perceived the track of a human foot, where the messenger from Veii had passed; or, from their own obeservation, had remarked the easy ascent at the rock of Carmentis: on a moon-light night, therefore, having first sent forward a person unarmed to make trial of the way, handing their arms to those before them; when any difficulty occurred, supporting and supported in turns, and drawing each other up according as the ground required, they climbed to the summit in such silence, that they not only escaped the notice of the guards, but did not even alarm the dogs, animals particularly watchful with regard to any noise at night. They were not unperceived however by some geese, which being sacred to Juno, the people had spared, even in the present great scarcity of food; a circumstance to which they owed their preservation; for by the cackling of these creatures, and the clapping of their wings, Marcus Manlius was roused from sleep — a man of distinguished character in war, who had been consul the third year before; and snatching up his arms, and at the same time calling to the rest to do the same, he hastened to the spot: where, while some ran about in confusion, he by a stroke with the boss of his shield tumbled down a Gaul who had already got footing on the summit; and this man’s weight, as he fell, throwing down those who were next, he slew several others, who in their consternation, threw away their arms, and caught hold of the rocks, to which they clung. By this time many of the garrison had assembled at the place, who by throwing javelins and stones, beat down the enemy, so that the whole band, unable to keep either their hold or footing, were hurled down the precipice in promiscuous ruin. The alarm then subsiding, the remainder of the night was given to repose, as much at least as could be enjoyed after such perturbation, when the danger though past, kept up the agitation of people’s minds. As soon as day appeared, the soldiers were summoned by sound of trumpet, to attend the tribunes in assembly, when due recompense was to be made both to merit and demerit. Manlius was first of all commended for the bravery which he had displayed, and was presented with gifts, not only by the military tribunes, but by the soldiers universally; for every one carried to his house, which was in the citadel, a contribution of half a pound of corn, and half a pint of wine — a present which appears trifling in the relation, yet the scarcity which prevailed rendered it a very strong proof of esteem, since each man contributed, in honour of a particular person, a portion subtracted from his necessary supplies. Those who had been on guard at the place where the enemy climbed up unobserved, were now cited; and though Quintus Sulpicius, military tribune had declared, that he would punish every man according to the rules of military discipline, yet being deterred by the unanimous remonstrances of the soldiers, who threw all the blame on one particular man of the guard, he spared the rest. The one who was manifestly guilty he with the approbation of all threw down from the rock. From this time forth, the guards on both sides became more vigilant: on the side of the Gauls, because a rumour spread that messengers passed between Veii and Rome; and on that of the Romans, from their recollection of the danger to which they had been exposed in the night.
XLVIII. But beyond all the evils of the war and the siege, famine distressed both armies. To which was added on the side of the Gauls, a pestilential disorder, occasioned by their lying encamped in low ground surrounded with hills, which besides having been heated by the burning of the buildings, and filled with exhalations, when the wind rose ever so little, sent up not only ashes but embers. These inconveniencies that nation, of all others, is the worst qualified to endure, as being accustomed to cold and moisture. In a word, they suffered so severely from the heat and suffocation, that they died in great numbers, disorders spreading as among a herd of cattle. And now growing weary of the trouble of burying separately, they gathered the bodies in heaps promiscuously, and burned them, and this rendered the place remarkable by the name of the Gallic piles. A truce was now made with the Romans, and conferences held with permission of the commanders: in which, when the Gauls frequently made mention of the famine to which the former were reduced, and thence inferred the necessity of their surrendering, it is said, that in order to remove this opinion, bread was thrown from the capitol into their advanced posts, though the famine could scarcely be dissembled or endured any longer. But whilst the dictator was employed in person in levying forces at Ardea, in sending his master of the horse, Lucius Valerius, to bring up the troops from Veii, and in making such preparations and arrangements as would enable him to attack the enemy on equal terms, the garrison of the capitol was worn down with the fatigue of guards and watches. They had hitherto stood superior to all evils, yet famine was one which nature would not allow to be overcome, so that looking out day after day for some assistance from the dictator, and at last, not only provisions, but hope failing, their arms in the course of relieving the guards at the same time almost weighing down their feeble bodies, they insisted that either a surrender should be made, or the enemy bought off, on such terms as could be obtained: for the Gauls had given plain intimations, that, for a small compensation, they might be induced to relinquish the siege. The senate then met, and the military tribunes were commissioned to conclude a capitulation. The business was afterwards managed in a conference between Quintus Sulpicius a military tribune, and Brennus the chieftain of the Gauls, and a thousand pounds weight of gold* was fixed as the ransom of that people, who were afterwards to be rulers of the world. To a transaction so very humiliating in itself, insult was added. False weights were brought by the Gauls, and on the tribune objecting to them, the insolent Gaul threw in his sword in addition to the weights, and was heard to utter an expression intolerable to Roman ears, “wo to the vanquished.”
XLIX. But both gods and men stood forth to prevent the Romans living under the disgrace of being ransomed. For, very fortunately, before the abominable payment was completed, the whole quantity of gold being not yet weighed in consequence of the altercation, the dictator came up to the spot, ordered the gold to be carried away from thence, and the Gauls to clear the place. And when they made opposition, and insisted on the agreement, he affirmed that such an agreement could have no validity, being made after he had been created dictator, without his order, by a magistrate of subordinate authority; and he gave notice to the Gauls to prepare for battle. His own men he ordered to throw their baggage in a heap, to get ready their arms, and to recover their country with steel, not with gold; having before their eyes the temples of the gods, their wives and children, the site of their native city, disfigured with rubbish through the calamities of war, and every object which they were bound by the strongest duties to defend, to recover, and to revenge. He then drew up his forces for battle, as far as the nature of the ground would allow, on the site of the half demolished city, which was in itself naturally uneven, having made every previous arrangement and preparation, which could be suggested by knowledge in war, to secure all possible advantages to himself. The Gauls, alarmed at this unexpected event, took up arms, and with more rage than conduct rushed upon the Romans. Fortune had now changed sides; and both divine favour and human wisdom aided the Roman cause. At the first onset, therefore, the Gauls were put to the route with no greater difficulty than they had themselves found, when they gained the victory at the Allia. They were afterwards defeated, under the conduct and auspices of the same Camillus, in a more regular engagement at the eighth stone on the Gabine road, where they rallied after their flight. Here the slaughter was immense; their camp was taken, and not even a single person left to carry the news of the defeat. The dictator, having thus recovered his country from the enemy, returned in triumph, and among the rough jokes which the soldiers throw out on such occasions, received the appellations of a Romulus, a second founder of the city — praises certainly not unmerited. His country thus saved by arms, he evidently saved it a second time in peace, when he hindered the people from removing to Veii, a scheme pressed by the tribunes with greater earnestness after the burning of the city, and which the commons, of themselves, were then more inclined to pursue; and for that reason he did not resign the dictatorship immediately after his triumph, being entreated by the senate not to leave the commonwealth in that unsettled state.
L. The first business which he laid before the senate was that which respected the immortal gods; for he was remarkably attentive to all matters in which religion was concerned. He procured a decree of senate, that “all the temples having been in possession of the enemy should be restored, their bounds traced, and expiation made for them, and that the form of expiation should be sought in the books by the duumvirs. That a league of hospitality should be formed by public authority with the people of Cære, because they had afforded a reception to the sacred utensils, and to the priests of the Roman people; and because to the kindness of that nation it was owing, that the worship of the immortal gods had not been intermitted; that Capitoline games should be exhibited in honour of Jupiter, supremely good and great, for having, in time of danger, protected his own mansion, and the citadel of Rome; and that a certain number of citizens, for the due performance thereof, should be incorporated by the dictator, out of those who resided in the capitol and fort.” Mention was also introduced of expiating the voice which had been heard by night, giving notice of the calamity before the Gallic war, and which had been neglected; and an order was made that a temple should be erected to Aius Locutius, in the new street. The gold, which had been rescued from the Gauls, and also what had been, during the hurry of the alarm, carried from the other temples into the recess of Jupiter’s temple, was altogether judged to be sacred, and ordered to be deposited under the throne of Jupiter, because no one could recollect to what temples it ought to be returned. The state had, before this, manifested a high regard to religion, in accepting a contribution of gold from the matrons, when the public fund was found insufficient to make up the sum stipulated to be paid to the Gauls, rather than meddle with the sacred gold. To the matrons public thanks were given, and also the privilege of having funeral orations delivered in honour of them on their death, the same as on that of the men. When he had finished such business as respected the gods, and such as could be determined by the authority of the senate, and as the tribunes never ceased teasing the commons in their harangues to abandon the ruins, and remove to Veii, a city ready for their reception, being attended by the whole body of the senate, he mounted the tribunal and spoke to this effect.
LI. “Romans, so strong is my aversion from holding contentions with the tribunes of the people, that while I resided at Ardea, I had no other consolation in my melancholy exile than that I was at a distance from such contests; and, on account of these, I was fully determined never to return, even though ye should recall me by a decree of senate and order of the people. Nor was it any change of my sentiments, which induced me now to revisit Rome, but the situation of your affairs. For the point in question was, not whether I should reside in my native land, but whether that land, (if I may so express myself,) should keep in its own established seat? And on the present occasion most willingly would I remain silent, did not this struggle also affect the essential interests of my country; to be wanting to which, as long as life remains, were base in others, in Camillus infamous. For to what purpose have we laboured its recovery? Why have we rescued it out of the hands of the enemy? After it has been recovered, shall we voluntarily desert it? Notwithstanding that the capitol and citadel continued to be held and inhabited by the gods and the natives of Rome, even when the Gauls were victorious, and in possession of the whole city; notwithstanding that the Romans are now the victors; shall that capitol and citadel be abandoned with all the rest, and our prosperity become the cause of greater desolation, than our adversity was? In truth, if we had no religious institutions which were founded together with the city, and regularly handed down from one generation to another; yet the divine power has been so manifestly displayed at this time in favour of the Roman affairs, that I should think all disposition to be negligent in paying due honour to the gods effectually removed from the minds of men. For, take a review of the transactions of these latter years in order — prosperous and adverse — ye will find that in every instance prosperity constantly attended submission to the immortals, and adversity the neglect of them. To begin with the war of Veii: for what a number of years, and with what an immensity of labour, was it carried on? Yet it could not be brought to a conclusion, until, in obedience to the admonition of the gods, the water was discharged from the Alban lake. Consider, did this unparalleled train of misfortunes, which ruined our city, commence until the voice sent from heaven, concerning the approach of the Gauls, had been disregarded; until the laws of nations had been violated by our ambassadors; and until we, with the same indifference towards the deities, passed over that crime which we were bound to punish? Vanquished, therefore, made captives, and ransomed, we have suffered such punishments at the hands of gods and men, as render us a warning to the whole world. After this, our misfortunes again reminded us of our duty to the heavens. We fled for refuge into the capitol, to the mansion of Jupiter, supremely good and great. The sacred utensils, amidst the ruin of our own properties, we partly concealed in the earth, partly conveyed out of the enemy’s sight, to the neighbouring cities. Abandoned by gods and men, yet we did not intermit the sacred worship. The consequence was, they restored us to our country, to victory, and to our former renown in war, which we had forfeited; and on the heads of the enemy, who, blinded by avarice, broke the faith of a treaty in respect to the weight of the gold, they turned dismay, and flight, and slaughter.
LII. “When ye reflect on these strong instances of the powerful effects produced on the affairs of men by their either honouring or neglecting the deity, do ye not perceive, Romans, what an act of impiety we are about to perpetrate, even in the very moment of emerging from the wreck and ruin which followed our former misconduct? We are in possession of a city built under the direction of auspices and auguries, in which there is not a spot but is full of gods and religious rites. The days of the anniversary sacrifices are not more precisely stated, than are the places where they are to be performed. All these gods, both public and private, do ye intend, Romans, to forsake? What similitude does your conduct bear to that, which lately, during the siege, was beheld, with no less admiration by the enemy than by yourselves, in that excellent youth Caius Fabius, when he went down from the citadel through the midst of Gallic weapons, and performed on the Quirinal hill the anniversary rites pertaining to the Fabian family? Is it your opinion that the religious performances of particular families should not be intermitted, though war obstruct, but that the public rites and the Roman gods should be forsaken even in time of peace; and that the pontiffs and flamens should be more negligent of those rites of religion than was a private person? Some, perhaps, may say, we will perform these at Veii; we will send our priests thither for that purpose: but this cannot be done without an infringement of the established forms. Even in the case of the feast of Jupiter, (not to enumerate all the several gods, and all the different kinds of sacred rites,) can the ceremonies of the lectisternium be performed in any other place than the capitol? What shall I say of the eternal fire of Vesta; and of the statue, that pledge of empire, which is kept under the safeguard of her temple? What, O Mars Gradivus, and thou, Father Quirinus, of thy Ancilia?* Is it right that those sacred things, coeval with the city, nay some of them more ancient than the city itself, should all be abandoned to profanation? Now, observe the difference between us and our ancestors. They handed down to us certain sacred rites to be performed on the Alban, and on the Lavinian mounts. Was it then deemed not offensive to the gods, that such rites should be brought to Rome, and from the cities of our enemies; and shall we, without impiety, remove them from hence to an enemy’s city, to Veii? Recollect, I beseech you, how often sacred rites are performed anew, because some particular ceremony of our country has been omitted through negligence or accident. In a late instance, what other matter, after the prodigy of the Alban lake, proved a remedy for the distresses brought on the commonwealth by the war of Veii, but the repetition of them, and the renewal of the auspices? But besides, as if zealously attached to religious institutions, we have brought not only foreign deities to Rome, but have established new ones. It was but the other day that imperial Juno was removed hither from Veii; and with what a crowded attendance was her dedication on the Aventine celebrated? And how greatly was it distinguished by the extraordinary zeal of the matrons? We have passed an order for the erecting of a temple to Aius Locutius in the new street, out of regard to the heavenly voice which was heard there. To our other solemnities we have added Capitoline games, and have, by direction of the senate, founded a new college for the performance thereof. Where was there occasion for any of these institutions, if we were to abandon the city at the same time with the Gauls; if it was against our will that we resided in the capitol for the many months that the seige continued; if it was through a motive of fear that we suffered ourselves to be confined there by the enemy? Hitherto we have spoken of the sacred rites and the temples, what are we now to say of the priests? Does it not occur to you, what a degree of profaneness would be committed with respect to them? For the vestals have but that one residence, from which nothing ever disturbed them, except the capture of the city. It is deemed impious if the Flamen Dialis remain one night out of the city. Do ye intend to make them Veientian priests instead of Roman? And, O Vesta, shall thy virgins forsake thee? And shall the flamen, by foreign residence, draw every night on himself and the commonwealth so great a load of guilt? What shall we say of other kinds of business which we necessarily transact under auspices, and almost all within the Pomœrium? To what oblivion, or to what neglect, are we to consign them? The assemblies of the curias, which have the regulation of military affairs; the assemblies of the centuries, in which ye elect consuls and military tribunes; where can they be held under auspices, except in the accustomed place? Shall we transfer these to Veii? Or shall the people, in order to hold their meetings, lawfully crowd together here, with so great inconvenience, and into a city deserted by gods and men?
LIII. “But it is urged that the case itself compels us to leave a city desolated by fire and ruin, and remove to Veii, where every thing is entire, and not to distress the needy commons by building here. Now, I think, Romans, it must be evident to most of you, though I should not say a word on the subject, that this is but a pretext held out to serve a purpose, and not the real motive. For ye remember, that this scheme of our removing to Veii was agitated before the coming of the Gauls, when the buildings, both public and private, were unhurt, and when the city stood in safety. Observe, then, tribunes, the difference between my way of thinking and yours. Ye are of opinion, that even though it were not advisable to remove at that time, yet it is plainly expedient now. On the contrary, and be not surprised at what I say until ye hear my reasons, even allowing that it had been advisable so to do, when the whole city was in a state of safety, I would not vote for leaving these ruins now. At that time, removing into a captured city from a victory obtained, had been a cause glorious to us and our posterity; but now, it would be wretched and dishonourable to us, while it would be glorious to the Gauls. For we shall appear not to have left our country in consequence of our successes, but from being vanquished; and by the flight at the Allia, the capture of the city, and the blockade of the capitol, to have been obliged to forsake our dwellings, and fly from a place which we had not strength to defend. And have the Gauls been able to demolish Rome, and shall the Romans be deemed unable to restore it? What remains, then, but that ye allow them to come with new forces, for it is certain they have numbers scarcely credible, and make it their choice to dwell in this city, once captured by them, and now forsaken by you? What would you think, if, not the Gauls, but your old enemies the Æquans or Volscians, should form the design of removing to Rome? Would ye be willing that they should become Romans, and you Veientians? Or would ye that this should be either a desert in your possession, or a city in that of the enemy? Any thing more impious I really cannot conceive. Is it out of aversion from the trouble of rebuilding, that ye are ready to incur such guilt and such disgrace? Supposing that there could not be erected a better or more ample structure than that cottage of our founder, were it not more desirable to dwell in cottages, after the manner of shepherds and rustics, in the midst of your sacred places and tutelar deities, than to have the commonwealth go into exile? Our forefathers, a body of uncivilized strangers, when there was nothing in these places but woods and marshes, erected a city in a very short time. Do we, though we have the capitol and citadel safe, and the temples of the gods standing, think it too great a labour to rebuild one that has been burned? What each particular man would have done, if his house had been destroyed by fire, should the whole of us refuse, in the case of a general conflagration?
LIV. “Let me ask you, if, through some ill design or accident, a fire should break out at Veii, and the flames being spread by the wind, as might be the case, should consume a great part of the city: must we seek Fidenæ, or Gabii, or some other city, to remove to? Has our native soil so slight a hold of our affections; and this earth, which we call our mother? Or does our love for our country extend no farther than the surface, and the timber of the houses? I assure you, for I will confess it readily, that during the time of my absence, (which I am less willing to recollect, as the effect of ill treatment from you, than of my own hard fortune,) as often as my country came into my mind, every one of these circumstances occurred to me; the hills, the plains, the Tiber, the face of the country to which my eyes had been accustomed, and this sky, under which I had been born and educated; and it is my wish, Romans, that these may now engage you, by the ties of affection, to remain in your own established settlements, rather than hereafter prove the cause of your pining away in anxious regret at having left them. Not without good reason did gods and men select this spot for the building of Rome, where are most healthful hills, a commodious river, whose stream brings down the produce of the interior countries, while it opens a passage for foreign commerce; the sea, so near as to answer every purpose of convenience, yet at such a distance as not to expose it to danger from the fleets of foreigners: and in the centre of the regions of Italy, a situation singularly adapted by its nature to promote the increase of a city. Of this the very size, as it was, must be held a demonstration. Romans, this present year is the three hundred and sixty-fifth of the city; during so long a time have ye been engaged in war, in the midst of nations of the oldest standing: yet, not to mention single nations, neither the Æquans in conjunction with the Volscians, who possess so many and so strong towns, nor the whole body of Etruria, possessed of such extensive power by land and sea, and occupying the whole breadth of Italy, from one sea to the other, have shown themselves equal to you in war. This being the case, where can be the wisdom in making trial of a change, when, though your valour might accompany you in your removal to another place, the fortune of this spot could not certainly be transferred? Here is the capitol, where a human head being formerly found, it was foretold that in that spot should be the head of the world, and the seat of sovereign empire. Here, when the capitol was to be cleared by the rites of augury, Juventas and Terminus, to the very great joy of our fathers, suffered not themselves to be moved. Here is the fire of Vesta, here the Ancilia sent down from heaven, here all the gods, and they, too, propitious to your stay.” Camillus is said to have affected them much by other parts of his discourse, but particularly by that which related to religious matters. But still the affair remained in suspense, until an accidental expression, seasonably uttered, determined it. For in a short time after this, the senate sitting on this business in the Curia Hostilia, it happened that some cohorts, returning from relieving the guards, passed through the Forum in their march, when a centurion in the Comitium called out, “Standard-bearer, fix your standard. It is best for us to stay here.” On hearing which expression, the senate, coming forth from the Curia, called out with one voice, that “they embraced the omen;” and the surrounding crowd of commons joined their approbation. The proposed law being then rejected, they set about rebuilding the city in all parts at once. Tiles were supplied at the public expense, and liberty granted to hew stones and fell timber, wherever each person chose, security being taken for their completing the edifices within the year. Their haste took away all attention to the regulation of the course of the streets: for setting aside all regard to distinction of property, they built on any spot which they found vacant. And that is the reason that the old sewers, which at first were conducted under the public streets, do now, in many places, pass under private houses, and that the form of the city appears as if force alone had directed the distribution of the lots.
* 32l. 5s. 10d.
* From lectus, a bed, or rather couch, and sterno, to spread. Upon couches of this kind the Romans reclined at their meals, but especially at entertainments. Upon this occasion these couches were brought out into the streets, and being decorated in the most magnificent manner, the statues of the gods and goddesses were laid thereupon, and sumptuous banquets placed before them. Of these repasts all comers were allowed to partake.
* The Romans, Latines, and some states of the Hernicians and Volscians, met annually on the Alban mount to celebrate this festival, in commemoration of the treaty made with those states by Tarquin the Proud. It was attended by the deputies of forty-seven states, who, under the direction of the Roman consul, or other chief magistrate, offered joint sacrifices to Jupiter, whom they termed Latialis. In particular, they offered a white bull, of which the deputies of each state received a piece. The public festivals, feriæ, were of four kinds: stativæ immoveable; conceptivæ, or indictæ, moveable; imperativæ, commanded on particular occasions; and nundinæ, for holding markets; so called, because the time was fixed by proclamation: they were generally celebrated by the consuls, before departure for their provinces.
* The prerogative tribe was that to which the lot fell to vote first, at the election of magistrates. Anciently, the centuries were called to give their votes according to the order established among them by Servius Tullius, first the equites, then the centuries of the first class, &c. It was afterwards (at what time is not known) determined by lot, sortitio, in what order they should vote.
* The remains of the sewer, a stupendous work, by which the water was discharged, still subsist, at the bottom of the hill on which stands Castel Gandolpho, the elegant country-retirement of the Pope.
* It was the custom when the Roman generals sent intelligence of a victory, to wrap their letters up in laurel.
* 32l. 5s. 10d.
* 48l. 8s. 3d.
* A city of Asia Minor, built by a colony of Athenians. Being besieged and hard pressed by Harpagus, an officer of Cyrus king of Persia, the inhabitants resolved to abandon the town, and seek another residence. Accordingly, after uttering heavy imprecations on themselves, if they should ever return, they carried their effects on board their ships, and sailing to the coast of Provence, founded the city of Marseilles.
* Forming themselves into a compact body, with their shields joined together, and held over their heads to protect them from the missile weapons of the enemy.
* 45,000l.
* Ancile, a shield, supposed to be of the god Mars, said to have fallen from heaven in the reign of Numa. It was reposited in the sanctuary, and kept with great care by the priests of Mars, called Salii. Being considered as a symbol of the perpetual duration of the empire to prevent its being stolen, eleven others were made, exactly resembling it, and laid up with it.
Successful operations against the Æquans, and Volscians, and Prænestines. Four new tribes added. Marcus Manlius, who defended the Capitol, being convicted of aspiring to regal power, is thrown from the Tarpeian rock. A law, proposed by two plebeian tribunes, that consuls might be chosen from among the commons, causes a long and violent contest, during which, for five years, the same set of plebeian tribunes are the only magistrates in the state: is at length passed: and Lucius Sextus, one of the proposers, made the first plebeian consul. A law passed, that no person shall possess more than five hundred acres of land.
I. IN the five preceding books, I have exhibited a view of the affairs of the Romans,Y.R.365. 387. from the building of the city of Rome, until its capture; under the government, first, of kings; then of consuls and dictators, decemvirs, and consular tribunes; their foreign wars, and domestic dissensions: matters involved in obscurity, not only by reason of their great antiquity, like objects placed at such a distance as to be scarcely discernible by the eye; but also because that in those times, the use of letters, the only faithful guardian of the memory of events, was very rare. And besides, whatever information might have been contained in the commentaries of the pontiffs, and other public or private records, it was almost entirely lost in the burning of the city. Henceforward, from the second origin of Rome, from whence, as from its root, receiving new life, it sprung up with redoubled health and vigour, I shall be able to give the relation of its affairs, both civil and military, with more clearness and certainty. Now, after its restoration, it leaned still, for principal support, on the same instrument which had raised it from ruin, Marcus Furius Camillus. Nor did the people suffer him to lay aside the dictatorship before the end of that year. It was judged improper that the tribunes, during whose administration the city had been taken, should preside at the elections for the year ensuing, and an interregnum was resolved on. While the public were kept diligently employed in repairing the city, Quintus Fabius, as soon as he went out of office, had a prosecution instituted against him by Caius Marcius, a tribune of the commons, for having, while in the character of ambassador, contrary to the law of nations, acted in arms against the Gauls, with whom he had been sent as a minister to negotiate: he escaped standing his trial, by a death so opportune, that most people believed it voluntary. The interregnum commenced. Publius Cornelius Scipio was interrex; and, after him, Marcus Furius Camillus a second time.Y.R.366. 386. He elected military tribunes, with consular power, Lucius Valerius Poplicola a second time, Lucius Virginius, Publius Cornelius, Aulus Manlius, Lucius Æmilius, and Lucius Postumius. These, entering on office, immediately on the conclusion of the interregnum, consulted the senate on no other business previous to that which related to religion. They ordered, in the first place, that a collection should be made of the treaties and laws which could be found. The latter consisted of the twelve tables, and some laws enacted by the kings. Some of these were publicly promulgated; but such as related to religious matters were kept secret, chiefly through means of the pontiffs, that they might hold the minds of the multitude in bondage. They next turned their deliberations to those days, which were to be accounted displeasing to the gods; and the fifteenth day of the calends of August was distinguished by an order, that on that unfortunate day no public or private business whatever should be transacted: it was deemed doubly unfortunate: for, on that day, the Fabii were slain at Cremera; and, afterwards, on the same day, the fatal battle of Allia, which effected the destruction of the city, was fought: from the latter disaster, it was denominated the Allian day. Some are of opinion, that, because, on the day following the ides of July, Sulpicius, when military tribune, had neglected to perform the rites of the augury; and, without being assured of the favour of the gods, had, on the third day after, exposed the Roman army to the enemy, it was ordained, that the days following the calends, and the nones, should also be accounted equally inauspicious.
II. But it was not long allowed them to consult, in quiet, on the means of raising up the city, after such a grievous fall. On one side, their old enemy, the Volscians, had taken arms, resolved to extinguish the Roman name; and, on the other, according to intelligence received from certain traders, a conspiracy of the leading men, from all the several states of Etruria, had been formed at the temple of Voltumna, for the purpose of commencing hostilities. To which was added a new cause of apprehension, by the defection of the Latines and Hernicians, who, ever since the battle fought at the lake Regillus, during the course of near an hundred years, had continued in friendship with the Roman people without ever giving reason to doubt their fidelity. Wherefore, when such alarms started up on every side, and all men plainly perceived, that the Roman name was not only loaded with hatred among their enemies, but also with contempt among their allies, it was determined that the defence of the commonwealth should be conducted by the same auspices which had effected its recovery, and that Marcus Furius Camillus should be nominated dictator. On being invested with that office, he appointed Caius Servilius Ahala master of the horse; and, proclaiming a cessation of civil business, made a levy of the younger citizens, at the same time administering the oath of obedience to such of the elders also as retained any considerable degree of strength, and enrolling them among the troops. The army, thus enlisted and armed, he divided into three parts; one division he opposed to the Etrurians, in the Veientian territories; another he ordered to encamp near the city: the latter were commanded by Aulus Manlius, military tribune; those who were sent against the Etrurians, by Lucius Æmilius. The third division he led, in person, against the Volscians, and prepared to assault their camp at a place called Admarcium, near Lanuvium. Their inducement to begin this war was, a belief that almost the whole of the Roman youth were cut off by the Gauls; nevertheless, on hearing that the command was given to Camillus, they were struck with such terror, that they fenced themselves with a rampart, which they further secured with trees piled on each other, that the enemy might find no pass by which they could enter the works. As soon as Camillus saw the nature of this defence, he ordered it to be set on fire: a high wind blowing at the time towards the enemy, the flames quickly opened a passage, which, together with the heat, the smoke, and the cracking of the green timber in burning, filled them with such consternation, that the Romans found less difficulty in climbing over the rampart into the Volscian camp, than they had met in making their way across the fence, after it was consumed by the flames. The enemy being routed and put to the sword, the dictator, as he had taken the camp by assault, gave the spoil to the soldiers; a present the more acceptable to them, the less hopes they had conceived of it, from a commander by no means inclined to profuse generosity. Proceeding then in pursuit of those who fled, by entirely wasting every part of their lands, he at length, in the seventieth year, reduced the Volscians to submission. After subduing the Volscians, he marched against the Æquans, who likewise had begun hostilities; surprised their army at Bolæ, and, having attacked not only their camp, but their city also, carried both at the first onset.
III. While such fortune attended the operations, on that side where Camillus, the life of the Roman affairs, was employed, a violent alarm had fallen on another quarter: for the Etrurians, having taken arms, with almost their entire force, laid siege to Sutrium, a place in alliance with the Roman people, whose ambassadors, having applied to the senate, imploring aid in their distress, obtained a decree, that the dictator should, as soon as possible, carry assistance to the Sutrians. But the circumstances of the besieged not permitting them to wait the issue of their hopes, from that quarter, the townsmen being quite spent with labour, watching, and wounds, which, through the smallness of their number, fell continually on the same persons, they gave up the city to the enemy, by capitulation; and being discharged without arms, with only a single garment each, were leaving their habitations in a miserable train, when, at the very juncture, Camillus happened to come up at the head of the Roman army. The mournful crowd prostrated themselves at his feet, and their leaders addressed him in a speech dictated by extreme necessity, and seconded by the lamentations of the women and children, who were dragged into exile with them: on which he bade the Sutrians cease their lamentations, for he was come “to turn mourning and tears to the side of the Etrurians.” He then ordered the baggage to be deposited, the Sutrians to remain there with a small guard, which he left, and the soldiers to follow him in arms: then, advancing to Sutrium, with his troops freed from incumbrance, he found, as he expected, every thing in disorder, the usual consequence of success; no advanced guard before the walls, the gates open, and the conquerors dispersed, carrying out the booty from the houses of their enemies: Sutrium therefore was taken a second time on the same day. The Etrurians, lately victorious, were cut to pieces in every quarter, by this new enemy; nor was time given them to assemble together, and form a body, or even to take up arms. They then pushed hastily towards the gates, in order, if possible, to throw themselves out into the fields, when they found them shut, for such had been the dictator’s order at the beginning. On this, some took arms; others, who happened to be in arms before the tumult began, called their friends together to make battle, and a warm engagement would have been kindled by the despair of the enemy, had not criers been sent through every part of the city, with orders to proclaim, that “they should lay down their arms; that the unarmed should be spared, and no injury done to any but those who made opposition.” On which, even those who had been most resolutely bent on fighting, when their situation was desperate, now that hopes of life were given, threw down their arms, and surrendered themselves to the enemy; the safest method in their present circumstances. Their number being very great, they were divided under several guards; and the town was, before night, restored to the Sutrians uninjured, because it had not been taken by force, but had surrendered on terms.
IV. Camillus returned to the city in triumph, crowned at once with conquest over three different enemies. By far the greater part of the prisoners, led before his chariot, were Etrurians; and these, being sold by auction, such a vast sum of money was brought into the treasury, that, after payment of the price of their gold to the matrons, there were three golden bowls made out of the surplus, which being inscribed with the name of Camillus, lay, before the burning of the Capitol, as we are well informed, in the recess of Jupiter’s temple, at Juno’s feet. In that year, such of the Veientians, Capenatians, and Faliscians, as had, during the wars with those nations, come over to the Romans, were admitted members of the state, and lands were assigned to these new citizens. Those were also recalled by decree of senate from Veii, who, to avoid the trouble of building at Rome, had betaken themselves thither, and seized on the vacant houses. This produced only murmurs, and they disregarded the order: but afterwards, a certain day being fixed, and capital punishment denounced against those who did not return to Rome, refractory as the whole had been, each particular person was reduced to obedience, through fear for his own safety. And now Rome increased, not only in number of inhabitants, but in buildings, which rose up at the same time in every part; as the state gave assistance in the expences, the ædiles pressed forward the work, as if a public one; and private persons, of themselves, incited by their feeling of the want of accommodations, hastened to finish it; so that within the year, a new city was erected. On the year being ended, an election was held of military tribunes, with consular power.Y.R.367. 385. Those elected were Titus Quintius Cincinnatus, Quintus Servilius Fidenas a fifth time, Lucius Julius Iulus, Lucius Aquilius Corvus, Lucius Lucretius Tricipitinus, and Servius Sulpicius Rufus. They led one army against the Æquans, not to wage war, for that people acknowledged themselves conquered, but, in the warmth of animosity, to lay waste their country, that they might not have strength for any new enterprises; and another, into the territory of Tarquinii. Here Cortuosa and Contenebra, towns belonging to the Etrurians, were taken by storm, and demolished. At Cortuosa there was no contest; attacking it by surprise, they took it at the first onset: the town was then plundered and burnt. Contenebra sustained a siege for a few days, and it was continual labour, unintermitted either by night or by day, which subdued the townsmen; for the Roman army being divided into six parts, each division maintained the fight, for one hour in six, in rotation, whereas the smallness of their number exposed the same townsmen always, fatigued as they were, to a contest with an enemy who were continually relieved. They gave way at length, and made room for the Romans to enter the city. It was agreed between the tribunes, that the spoil should be converted to the use of the public; but the order not being issued in time, during the delay, the soldiers possessed themselves of the spoil, which could not be taken from them, without occasioning general discontent. In the same year, that the additions to the city should not consist of private buildings only, the lower parts of the Capitol were rebuilt with hewn stone; a work deserving notice, even amidst the present magnificence of the city.
V. And now, while the citizens were busily employed in building, the tribunes of the commons endeavoured to draw crowds to their harangues, by proposals of agrarian laws. The Pomptine territory was held out as a lure to their hopes, as the possession of it was then, by the reduction of the Volscian power by Camillus, perfectly secure, which had not been the case before. They laid heavy charges, that “that territory was much more grievously oppressed by the nobility, than it had been by the Volscians; for the latter had only made incursions into it, at such times as they had arms and strength; whereas certain persons of the nobility forcibly usurped possession of land, which was the property of the public: nor, unless there were a division of it now made, would there be any room left for the commons.” They made no great impression on the commons, who were so inintent on building, that they did not much frequent the Forum; and, besides, were so exhausted by their expences in that way, that they were careless about land, which they had not abilities to improve. The state having ever been strongly affected with religious impressions, and even those of the first rank having, at that time, in consequence of the late misfortunes, become superstitious, the government was changed to an interregnum, in order that the auspices might be taken anew. There were interreges in succession, Marcus Manlius Capitolinus, Servius Sulpicius Camerinus, and Lucius Valerius Potitus.Y.R.368. 384. The last held, at length, an election of military tribunes, with consular power; and appointed Lucius Papirius, Caius Cornelius, Caius Sergius, Lucius Æmilius a second time, Lucius Menenius, and Lucius Valerius Poplicola a third time. These entered into office immediately on the expiration of the interregnum. In that year the temple of Mars, vowed during the Gallic war, was dedicated by Titus Quintius, one of the duumvirs appointed for the performance of religious rites. Four new tribes were formed of the new citizens, the Stellatine, the Tromentine, the Sabatine, and the Narnian, which made up the number of twenty-five tribes.
VI. Lucius Sicinius, plebeian tribune, pressed the business of the Pomptine lands in the assemblies of the people, who now attended in greater numbers, and were also more easily led to wish for land than formerly. Mention was introduced, in the senate, of declaring war against the Latines and Hernicians, but that business was postponed, by their attention being called to a more important war, Etruria being in arms.Y.R.369. 383. They had recourse, therefore, to the expedient of electing Camillus a military tribune, with consular power. The five colleagues, joined with him, were Servius Cornelius Maluginensis, Quintus Servilius Fidenas a sixth time, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, Lucius Horatius Pulvillus, and Publius Valerius. The cares of the public were, in the very beginning of the year, diverted from the Etrurian war: for a number of fugitives, from the Pomptine district, running hastily into the city, in a body, brought intelligence, that the Antians were in arms, and that the states of the Latines had privately sent their young men to co-operate with them in the war, alleging that the state was not concerned in the business, but only did not hinder volunteers to engage in any service which they chose. It had ceased to be the practice to despise any enemy: the senate therefore thanked the gods that Camillus was in office, because, had he been in a private station, it would have been necessary to have nominated him dictator: his colleagues also agreed, that, when any danger threatened, the entire direction of affairs should be vested in him singly, and determined to consign all their authority into his hands; nor did they think, that any concession which they made, towards exalting his dignity, derogated in the least from their own. After the tribunes had been highly commended by the senate, Camillus too, covered with confusion, returned them his thanks, and proceeded to say, that “a heavy burthen was laid on him by the Roman people, who had created him, in a manner, dictator, now a fourth time; a very great one, by the senate, in such judgments as that body had expressed concerning him; but the greatest of all, by the condescension of colleagues of such eminent distinction. Wherefore, if it were possible to add to his diligence and vigilance, he would vie with himself, and labour earnestly, that the opinion of the state concerning him, so universally conceived, might be as lasting, as it was honourable to him. With respect to the war, and the Antians, there was more of threats in it than of danger; nevertheless his advice was, that, as they should fear nothing, so they should despise nothing. The city of Rome was besieged on all sides, by the ill-will and hatred of its neighbours. The business of the commonwealth would therefore require more generals and more armies than one. It is my design,” said he, “that you, Publius Valerius, as my associate in command and counsel, shall march with me, at the head of the legions, against the enemy at Antium: that you, Quintus Servilius, after forming another army, and putting it in readiness, shall encamp in the city, and be ready to act, in case the Etrurians, as lately, or these new disturbers, the Latines and Hernicians, should, in the mean time, make any attempts: I am perfectly assured, that your conduct will be worthy of your father, of your grandfather, of yourself, and of six tribunates. Let a third army be enlisted by Lucius Quintius, for the guard of the city, out of those excused from service, and those past the military age. Let Lucius Horatius provide arms, weapons, corn, and whatever else the exigencies of war may demand. You, Servius Cornelius, we, your colleagues, appoint the president of this grand council of the state, the guardian of religion, of the assemblies, of the laws, and of every thing else pertaining to the city.” All of them cheerfully promising their best endeavours, in the several departments committed to them, Valerius, whom he had chosen his associate in command, added, that, “he should consider Camillus as dictator, and himself as his master of the horse,” and desired them therefore to “regulate their expectations respecting the war, according to the opinion which they entertained of their sole commander.” The senate, elated with joy, one and all declared, that “they really cherished the best expectations with regard to war and peace, and every branch of public business; nor would the commonwealth ever stand in need of a dictator, if it were to have such men in office, united in such harmony of sentiment, equally ready to obey and to command, and who rather considered fame as their joint stock, than endeavoured to monopolize it, to the exclusion of others.”
VII. A cessation of civil business being proclaimed, and troops levied, Camillus and Valerius marched towards Satricum, to which place the Antians had drawn together not only the youth of the Volscians, chosen from among the new generation, but immense numbers from the Latines and Hernicians, nations who, from a long enjoyment of peace, were in the fullest vigour. This new enemy then being united in addition to the old, shook the resolution of the Roman soldiery: and the centurions reporting to Camillus, while he was employed in forming his line of battle, that “the minds of the soldiers were disturbed; that a backwardness appeared in their taking up arms, and that they went out of the camp with reluctance, and after several halts; nay, that some had been heard to say, that each of them would have to fight against an hundred enemies; that so great a multitude, even if unarmed, could hardly be withstood, much less when they were furnished with arms;” he leaped on his horse, and in the front of the battalions, turning to the line, and riding between the ranks, asked them, “what is the meaning, soldiers, of this dejection, of this unusual backwardness? Are ye unacquainted with the enemy, or with me, or with yourselves? The enemy, what are they, but the continual subject of your bravery and your glory? On the other hand, with me at your head, not to mention the taking of Falerii, and Veii, or the cutting to pieces the Gallic legions, by whom our country was held in captivity, you have lately celebrated a triple triumph, for three several victories gained over these same Volscians, Æquans, and Etrurians. Is it that ye do not recognize me as your leader, because I gave you the signal not in character of dictator, but of tribune? I desire not the highest degree of authority over you; and with respect to me, you ought to regard nothing but myself: for neither did the dictatorship ever add to my courage, nor even exile deprive me of it. We are all therefore the same, and since we bring to this war all the same advantages which accompanied us in the former, let us expect the same issue. Do you once begin the fight, each party will do what they have learned and practised: you will conquer; they will fly.”
VIII. Then, giving the signal, he leaped from his horse, and laying hold of the nearest standard-bearer, hurried him onward against the foe, calling aloud, “Soldier, advance the standard.” On seeing this, that Camillus himself, now unequal, through age, to acts of bodily strength, was advancing against the enemy, they all raised the shout, and rushed forward together, every one crying out eagerly, “Follow the general.” It is said, that the standard was even thrown, by order of Camillus, into the ranks of the enemy, and the van hereby excited to exert themselves for its recovery: that in this spot, the Antians were first compelled to give way, and that the panic spread, not only through the first line, but even to the troops in reserve. Nor was it only the force of the soldiers, animated by the presence of their leader, which disheartened the enemy, the very sight of Camillus struck terror into the Volscians: so that wherever he met their eyes, victory was no longer doubtful. This was particularly evident, when hastily mounting his horse, he rode with a footman’s shield to the left wing, when it was almost driven from its ground, and by his appearance restored the battle, while he pointed to the rest of the line who were fighting with success. The affair was now decided. On the one side the enemy’s disordered numbers impeded their flight; on the other, the wearied soldiers would have had a long and laborious task, in putting to the sword so great a multitude, when heavy rain suddenly falling, attended with a violent storm of wind, prevented the pursuit of the victory, for it was no longer a fight. The signal for retreat was then given, and the following night put an end to the war, without any farther trouble to the Romans: for the Latines and Hernicians abandoning the Volscians, marched away to their homes; having found such an issue of their enterprise as the wickedness of it deserved. The Volscians seeing themselves deserted by those, through reliance on whom they had been induced to revive hostilities, abandoned their camp, and shut themselves up within the walls of Satricum: against these, the first plan of operations, adopted by Camillus, was to inclose them with lines of circumvallation, and to carry on his approaches by mounds, and other works: but finding that no obstruction was ever given to these, by any sally from the town, he judged that the enemy were not possessed of such a degree of spirit, as should induce him, in apprehension thereof, to wait in tedious expectation of victory; and therefore exhorting his men not to waste their strength by a long course of labours, as in the siege of Veii, for victory was within their reach; and the soldiers showing the greatest alacrity, he assailed the walls on all sides by scalade, and made himself master of the town. The Volscians threw down their arms, and surrendered.
IX. But the general’s thoughts were intent on a matter of greater moment, on the city of Antium. That, he knew, was the grand spring which set the Volscians in motion, and had given rise to the last war. But as a city of so great strength could not be taken without great preparations for the siege, and a large train of engines and machines, he left his colleague to command the army, and went to Rome, in hopes of persuading the senate to resolve on the destruction of Antium. In the middle of his discourse on the subject, it being, I suppose, the will of the gods, that the state of Antium should have a longer duration, ambassadors arrived from Nepete and Sutrium, imploring aid against the Etrurians, and urging that the opportunity for assisting them would be quickly lost. Thither did fortune divert the force of Camillus from Antium: for as those places were situated opposite Etruria, and served as barriers, or gates, as it were, on that side, that people, on the one hand, whenever any new enterprise was undertaken, were ever anxious to get possession of them; and the Romans, on the other, to recover and secure them. The senate therefore resolved, that application should be made to Camillus, to drop the design against Antium, and undertake the Etrurian war. The city legions, which had been under the command of Quintius, were decreed to him: although he would have preferred the army which was in the country of the Volscians, of which he had made trials, and which was accustomed to his command, yet he offered no objections; he only insisted on Valerius being associated with him in command. Accordingly Quintius and Horatius were sent to succeed Valerius, in the country of the Volscians. Camillus and Valerius marching from the city to Sutrium, found one part of the town already taken by the Etrurians; and, in the other part, the passages to which were barricaded, the townsmen with great difficulty in repelling the assault of the enemy. The approach of aid from Rome, together with the name of Camillus, universally celebrated among friends and foes, not only gave them respite for the present from the ruin which impended, but also afforded an opportunity of effectuating their relief. Camillus then, dividing his army into two parts, ordered his colleague to lead round his division, to that side which was in possession of the enemy, and to make an assault on the walls; not so much in expectation that the city should be taken by scalade, as that, whilst the enemy should be diverted to that side, the townsmen, now fatigued with fighting, might gain some relaxation, and also that he himself might have an opportunity of entering the city without a dispute: both which consequences taking place, at the same time, and terrifying the Etrurians by the double danger to which they stood exposed, when they saw the walls of one part assailed with the greatest fury, and the enemy within the walls of the other, they were struck with such consternation, that they threw themselves out, in one body, by a gate which alone happened to be unguarded. Great numbers were slain in their flight, both in the city and in the fields: the greatest execution done by the soldiers of Camillus was within the walls: those of Valerius were more alert in the pursuit; nor did they desist from the slaughter, until it was so dark that they could see no longer. Sutrium being thus recovered, and restored to the allies, the army was conducted to Nepete, of which the Etrurians had now the entire possession, having received it by capitulation.
X. It was expected, that the recovery of this city would have been attended with greater difficulty; not only because the whole of it was possessed by the enemy, but also, because it was in consequence of a party of the Nepesinians betraying the public, that the surrender had been made. However, it was thought proper that a message should be sent to their principal men, to separate themselves from the Etrurians, and show on their own part the same faithful attachment, which they had implored from the Romans. But their answer importing, that there was nothing in their power, for that the Etrurians held possession of the walls and the guards of the gates, a trial was first made to terrify the townsmen, by laying waste their lands. But when they were found to adhere more religiously to the terms of the capitulation, than to those of the alliance, the army was led up to the walls, with fascines, made of bushes, collected in the country, with which the ditches being filled, the scaling ladders were raised, and the town taken at the first attack. Proclamation was then made that the Nepesinians should lay down their arms, and that the unarmed should be spared. The Etrurians, armed and unarmed, were put to the sword without distinction: of the Nepesinians, likewise, the authors of the surrender were beheaded. To the guiltless multitude their effects were restored, and a garrison was left in the town. Having thus recovered two allied cities from the enemy, the tribunes, with great glory, led home the victorious army. During this year, satisfaction was demanded from the Latines and Hernicians, and the reason required, of their not having, for some years past, sent the supplies of soldiers stipulated by treaty. An answer was given in full assembly by both nations, that “there was neither design nor blame to be imputed to the public, because some of their young men carried arms in the service of the Volscians. That these, however, had suffered the penalty of their improper conduct; not one of them having returned home. As to the supplies of soldiers, the reason of their not sending them was, their continual apprehensions from the Volscians, that pest still clinging to their side, which so many successive wars had not been able to exhaust.” Which answer being reported to the senate, they were of opinion, that a declaration of war, in consequence of it, would rather be unseasonable than ill-grounded.
XI. In the following year, Aulus Manlius, Publius Cornelius, Titus and Lucius Quintii Capitolini,Y.R.370. 382. Lucius Papirius Cursor a second time, and Caius Sergius a second time, being military tribunes, with consular power, a grievous war broke out abroad, and a more grievous sedition at home: the war was set on foot by the Volscians, assisted by a revolt of the Latines and Hernicians: the sedition, by one, from whom it could, least of all, have been apprehended; a man of patrician birth, and of illustrious character, Marcus Manlius Capitolinus; who, being of a temper too aspiring, while he looked with contempt on the other men of chief distinction, burned with envy of one, who was most eminently distinguished, at the same time, by honours and by merit, Marcus Furius Camillus. It gave him great uneasiness, that “he should be the only man considered among the magistrates, the only man at the head of the armies; that he was now exalted to such eminence, that the persons elected under the same auspices with himself, he used, not as colleagues, but as subordinate officers; while, at the same time, if a just estimate were made, it would have been impossible for Camillus to have recovered their native city from the Gauls who besieged it, if he himself had not first saved the Capitol and citadel. The other indeed attacked the Gauls when, between the receiving of the gold and the expectation of peace, they were off their guard: but he had beaten them off, when armed for fight, and taking possession of the citadel. In the other’s glory, as far as bravery was concerned, every soldier who conquered along with him had a right to share; in his own victory, no man living could claim a part.” Puffed up with such notions as these, and being, besides, of a vicious disposition, vehement and headstrong, when he perceived that his interest had not that prevailing influence among the patricians which he thought his due, he, the first of all the patricians, became a partizan of the plebeians; formed schemes in conjunction with the magistrates of the commons, and, while he criminated the patricians, and allured the commons to his side, he came to be actuated by ambition for popular applause, not by prudence, and to prefer a great to a good character. Not content with agrarian laws, which had ever served the plebeian tribunes as matter of sedition, he attempted to undermine public credit: for debt, he knew, supplied sharper incentives, as it not only threatened poverty and ignominy, but menaced personal freedom with stocks and chains: and the amount of the debts which the people had contracted by building, an undertaking most distressing to the circumstances even of the rich, was immense. The Volscian war therefore, heavy in itself, and charged with additional weight by the defection of the Latines and Hernicians, was held out as a colourable pretext for having recourse to a higher authority; while, in fact, they were the reforming plans of Manlius which obliged the senate to create a dictator. Aulus Cornelius Cossus being created, he nominated Titus Quintius Capitolinus master of the horse.
XII. The dictator, although he perceived that he should have a greater struggle to maintain at home than in the field; yet, either because the war required dispatch, or because he thought that, by a victory and triumph, he might add to the power of the dictatorship itself, as soon as the levies were completed, proceeded to the Pomptine territory; where he was informed, the Volscians had appointed the assembling of their army. To persons reading in so many former books, of wars continually waged with the Volscians, I doubt not that, besides satiety, this difficulty also will occur, whence the Volscians and Æquans, so often vanquished, could procure supplies of soldiers? which having been passed over in silence by the ancient writers, what can I possibly advance, but opinion? and that every one, indeed, can form for himself. It seems probable, however, either that they employed, according to the present practice in the Roman levies, the several different generations of their young men successively, as they sprung up, during the intervals between wars; or, that the troops were not always enlisted out of the states of the nation making war; or, that there was an innumerable multitude of freemen in those places, which, at present, were it not for the Roman slaves, would be a desert, and where scarcely the smallest seminary of soldiers remains. Certain it is, all authors agreeing therein, that notwithstanding their strength had lately been greatly reduced under the conduct and auspices of Camillus, yet the forces of the Volscians were exceedingly numerous; and to them were added the Latines and Hernicians, a number of the Circeians, together with some colonists from Velitræ. The Roman dictator encamped on the first day; and on the following, having taken the auspices before he made his appearance, and sacrificing a victim, implored the favour of the gods. With joy in his countenance, he presented himself to the soldiers, who were now at day-break taking arms, according to orders, on the signal for battle being displayed, and said, “Soldiers, victory is ours, if the gods and their prophets know aught of futurity. Therefore, as becomes men full of well-grounded hopes, and about to engage with their inferiors, let us, fixing our spears at our feet, bear no other arms than our swords. I do not wish that any should even push forward beyond the line; but that standing firm ye receive the enemy’s onset in a steady posture. When they shall have discharged their ineffectual weapons, and, breaking their order, rush against you as ye stand, then let your swords glitter in their eyes, and let every one recollect, that there are gods who support the Roman cause; gods, who have sent us to battle with favourable omens. Do you, Titus Quintius, keep back the cavalry, watching attentively the beginning of the conflict: as soon as you shall see the armies closed foot to foot, then, while their fears are employed on some other object, strike dismay into them with your horsemen; and, by a brisk charge, disperse the ranks that dispute the victory.” As he had ordered, so did the cavalry, so did the infantry manage the fight. Nor did either the general deceive the legions, or fortune the general.
XIII. The enemy, grounding their confidence on no other circumstance than their number, and measuring both armies merely by the eye, entered on the battle inconsiderately, and inconsiderately gave it over. Fierce, only in their shout, and the discharge of their missive weapons at the first onset, they were unable to withstand the swords, the close engagement foot to foot, and the looks of the Romans darting fire through their ardour for the fight. Their first line was driven from its ground; the confusion spread to the troops in reserve; and the charge of the cavalry increasing the disorder, the ranks were quickly broken, so as to resemble the waves of the sea. Thus the foremost fell, and as each saw death approaching, they quickly turned their backs. The Romans followed close, and as long as the enemy retreated in bodies, the trouble of the pursuit fell to the share of the infantry; but when it was perceived, that they every where threw away their arms, and were scattered over the country, then squadrons of horse were sent out, with instructions that they should not, by spending time in attacking single persons, give the multitude an opportunity of escaping: that it would be sufficient if their speed were retarded, and their forces kept employed by frequent skirmishes, until the infantry might overtake them, and complete their destruction. The flight and pursuit did not cease until night came on. The camp of the Volscians was also taken the same day, and plundered, and the whole booty, except the persons of free condition, bestowed on the soldiers. The greatest number of the prisoners were Latines and Hernicians, and these not men of plebeian station, who could be supposed to have served for hire, but many young men of the first rank were found amongst them; an evident proof, that aid had been given to the Volscians by public authority. Several of the Circeians were likewise found there, with colonists from Velitræ, and being all sent to Rome, on being examined by the principal senators, they made a plain discovery, as they had done to the dictator, of the defection of their respective states.
XIV. The dictator kept his army encamped in one post, not doubting that the senate would order war to be made on those states; when more momentous business, arising at home, made it necessary that he should be called back to Rome; this was the sedition which ripened daily, and which was become more than commonly alarming, on account of the person who fomented it. It was now easy to perceive from what motive proceeded the discourses of Manlius, disguised under the veil of popular zeal, but pregnant with mischief. On seeing a centurion, who was highly distinguished for his behaviour in the army, led to prison, in consequence of a judgment given against him for debt, he ran up, with his band of attendants, into the middle of the Forum, and laid hands on him, exclaiming against the tyranny of the patricians, the cruelty of the usurers, the miseries of the commons, and the merits and hard fortune of the man. “Then, indeed, it was in vain,” said he, “that with this right hand I saved the capitol and citadel, if I must see my fellow-citizen and fellow-soldier, as if a prisoner to the victorious Gauls, dragged into slavery.” He then paid the debt to the creditor in the view of the people, and gave the man his liberty, after purchasing him, in the regular form, with the scales and brass, whilst the latter besought both gods and men to grant a recompense to his deliverer, Marcus Manlius, the parent of the Roman commons; and being instantly received into the tumultuous crowd, he himself increased the tumult, shewing the scars of the wounds which he had received in the Veientian, Gallic, and other succeeding wars; telling them, that “his services in the army, and the rebuilding his ruined dwelling, had been the means of overwhelming him with accumulated interest of a debt; the interest always precluding the possibility of discharging the principal, though he had already paid the amount of the first sum many times over. That it was owing to the generosity of Marcus Manlius that he now beheld the light of day, the Forum, and the faces of his fellow-citizens. Every obligation, due to parents, he owed to him; to him, therefore, he devoted whatever remained of his person, his life, and his blood: whatever ties should bind him to his country, to public or private guardian deities, by all these united he was bound to that one man.” While the commons were deeply affected by these expressions, another scheme was introduced, of still greater efficacy, towards promoting a general commotion. A piece of ground in the country of the Veientians, the principal part of Manlius’s patrimony, he ordered to be sold by auction; adding, that “I will not suffer one of you, my fellow-citizens, while I have any property remaining, to have judgments given against him, and to be ordered into custody of a creditor.” This, above all, inflamed their minds to such a degree, that they seemed ready to follow the asserter of their liberty through every measure, whether right or wrong. Besides this, he made speeches at his own house, as if he were haranguing an assembly of the people, full of imputations against the patricians, in which he threw out, among the rest, without regarding any distinction between truth and falsehood, that “treasure, consisting of the gold rescued from the Gauls, was concealed by the patricians; that they were not content, now, with keeping possession of the public lands, unless they converted the public money likewise to their own use; and that if this were brought to light, it would be sufficient to clear the commons of their debts.” On this prospect being presented to them, they at once conceived it to be a scandalous proceeding, that when gold was to be procured for the ransom of the city from the Gauls, the collection had been made by a general contribution, and that the same gold, when taken from the enemy, should become the prey of a few. The next step, therefore, was, to inquire in what place a treasure of such magnitude was kept concealed: to this, he declined giving an answer at present, saying, he would explain that point in due time; on which all other concerns were neglected, and the attention of every man directed solely to this: and it was easy to foresee, that neither people’s gratitude, in case the information were well founded, nor their displeasure, should it prove false, would be confined within the bounds of moderation.
XV. While things were in this state, the dictator, being called home from the army, came into the city. Next day he called a meeting of the senate; when, having made sufficient trial of the people’s inclinations, he forbade the senate to depart from him, and being attended by the whole body, he fixed his throne in the Comitium, and sent a serjeant to Marcus Manlius; who, on being summoned by order of the dictator, after giving the signal to his party, that a contest was at hand, came to the tribunal surrounded by a very numerous band. On one side stood the senate, on the other the commons, as if in order of battle, watching attentively each their own leader. Then silence being made, the dictator said, “I wish that I, and the Roman patricians, may agree with the commons on every other subject, as I am very confident we shall with respect to you, and the business on which I am to interrogate you. I understand that expectations have been raised by you, in the minds of the citizens, that, without injury to credit, their debts may be discharged by means of the Gallic gold secreted by the principal patricians. To which proceeding, so far am I from giving any obstruction, that, on the contrary, I exhort you, Marcus Manlius, to deliver the Roman commons from the burthen of interest, and to tumble from off these heaps of peculated wealth, those men who lie brooding over it. But if you refuse to perform this, either because you wish to be yourself a sharer in the peculation, or because your information is groundless, I shall order you to be led to prison; nor will I suffer the multitude to be any longer disquieted by you with fallacious hopes.” To this Manlius answered, that “it had not escaped his observation that Cornelius was created dictator, not for the purpose of acting against the Volscians, who were enemies as often as it answered any purpose to the patricians, nor against the Latines and Hernicians, whom they were driving into hostilities by false imputations, but against himself and the Roman commons. And now, the war which had been feigned to subsist, being dropped, an assault was made upon him: now the dictator acted as the professed patron of usurers against the commons. Now the favour of the multitude towards him was made a handle for criminal charges, and for effecting his destruction. The crowd that attends my person,” said he, “offends you, Aulus Cornelius, and you, conscript fathers. Why then do ye not draw it away from me by doing acts of kindness? by becoming surety, by delivering your countrymen from the stocks? by hindering them, when cast in suits and ordered into custody of creditors, to be carried to prison? by relieving the necessities of others out of your own superfluities? But why do I exhort you to expend your property? Only fix a new capital, deduct from the principal what has been paid as interest, and then the crowd about me will not be more remarkable than about any other. But why do I, alone, interest myself for my fellow-citizens? To this, I have no other answer to make, than if you should ask why I, alone, saved the capitol and the citadel? I then gave every aid in my power to the whole community, and will do so still to each individual. Now, as to the Gallic treasures, the manner in which I am questioned causes difficulty in a matter which, in itself, has none. Why do ye ask, what ye already know? Why do ye order others to shake out what lies in your own laps, rather than lay it down yourselves, unless to conceal some treacherous scheme? The more carnestness ye shew for inquiry, the more I fear, lest ye should be albe to blind the eyes of the observers. Wherefore compulsion ought not to be used to make me discover your hoard, but to yourselves, to make you produce it to the public.”
XVI. The dictator ordered him to lay aside all evasion, and insisted on his either proving the truth of his information, or acknowledging himself guilty of having charged the senate falsely of a fraudulent concealment; and on his declaring that he would not speak at the pleasure of his enemies, ordered him to be led to prison. Being arrested by the serjeant, he exclaimed, “O Jupiter, supremely good and great, imperial Juno, Minerva, and all ye gods and goddesses who inhabit the capitol and citadel, do ye suffer your soldier and guardian to be harassed in this manner? Shall this hand, with which I beat off the Gauls from your temples, be now loaded with chains?” Neither the eyes nor ears of any present could well endure the indignity offered him: but the people of this state had taught themselves to consider the authority of certain magistrates as indisputable; nor dared either the plebeian tribunes, or the commons themselves, to open their lips, or lift up their eyes, against the dictatorial power. On Manlius being thrown into prison, it appears, that a great part of the commons put on mourning: and that great numbers of the people, neglecting their hair and beard, dejectedly flocked about its gates. The dictator had triumphed over the Volscians; and by that triumph had attracted a greater share of ill-will than of glory: for it was a general murmur, that “he had acquired at home, not in war; and that it was a victory over a citizen, not over an enemy; that only one thing was wanting to complete his arrogance, that Marcus Manlius should be led before his chariot.” And now the affair fell little short of open sedition; when, for the purpose of softening it, the senate, without any solicitation, became suddenly bountiful, ordering a colony of two thousand Roman citizens to be conducted to Sutrium, and two acres and a half of land to be assigned to each; which being represented as trifling in itself, conferred on a few, and that too as a bribe for betraying Marcus Manlius, the sedition was irritated by the intended remedy. The crowd of Manlius’s followers was now become more remarkable by their mourning dress, and the frequent appearance of persons under prosecution: while the dread of the dictator’s power was removed by his resignation; it had set men’s thoughts and tongues at liberty.
XVII. Many were heard, therefore, to speak out freely in public, upbraiding the multitude, that “they always continued their attachment to their defenders, until they raised them to the top of a precipice; and then, in the hour of danger, deserted them. Thus had Spurius Cassius been undone, while he was inviting the citizens to the possession of lands. Thus Spurius Mælius; when, by the expenditure of his own property, he warded off famine: and thus was Marcus Manlius betrayed into the hands of his enemies, and, while drawing forth to liberty and light one half of the state, sunk and buried under usury. That the commons fattened their favourites, in order that they might be slaughtered. Was such a punishment as this to be endured, because a man of consular dignity did not answer at the nod of a dictator? Admitting that what he said before was false, and therefore he had no answer to make, what slave was ever punished with imprisonment for a lie? Had they no recollection of that night, which had so nearly proved fatal, for ever, to the Roman name? None, of the band of Gauls, climbing up the Tarpeian rock? None, of Marcus Manlius himself, such as they had seen him in arms, covered with sweat and blood, after rescuing, in a manner Jove himself, out of the enemy’s hands? Had recompense been made to the saviour of their country by their half pounds of bread? And would they suffer a person, whom they had almost deified, whom, at least with respect to the surname of Capitolinus, they had set on an almost equal footing with Jupiter, to waste his life in chains, in prison, in darkness, subjected to the will of an executioner? That all had found such effectual support from a single person, and now that single person found no support at all from such great numbers.” The crowd did not, even during the night, disperse from the spot; and they threatened to break open the prison, when, conceding what would have been taken by force, the senate, by a decree, discharged Manlius from confinement. But this proceeding, instead of putting an end to the sedition, supplied it with a leader. About the same time the Latines and Hernicians, and also the colonists of the Circeii and Velitræ, endeavouring to clear themselves of the charge of being concerned in the Volscian war, and re-demanding the prisoners, in order to punish them according to their own laws, met with severe replies; the colonists with the severer, because, being Roman citizens, they had framed the abominable design of attacking their own country. They were therefore not only refused with respect to the prisoners, but had notice given them, in the name of the senate (who, however, did not proceed to such a length with regard to the allies,) to depart instantly from the city, from the presence and the sight of the Roman people; lest the privilege of ambassadors, instituted for the benefit of foreigners, not of fellow-citizens, should afford them no protection.
Y.R.371. 381.XVIII. The sedition, headed by Manlius, reassumed its former violence, and on the expiration of the year the election was held, when military tribunes, with consular power, were elected out of the patricians: these were Servius Cornelius Maluginensis, a third time, Publius Valerius Potitus a second time, Marcus Furius Camillus a sixth time, Servius Sulpicius Rufus a second time, Caius Papirius Crassus, and Titus Quintius Cincinnatus a second time. Peace being established with foreign nations, in the beginning of this year, was highly agreeable to both patricians and plebeians; to the latter, because, as they were not called to serve in the army, and had such a powerful leader at their head, they conceived hopes of being able to abolish usury; to the former, because their thoughts would not be drawn away, by any dangers abroad, from applying remedies to the evils subsisting at home. Both parties, therefore, exerting themselves much more strenuously than ever, a decisive contest approached apace. Manlius, on his part, calling together the commons at his house, held consultations, night and day, with the principal persons amongst them, on the methods of effecting a revolution in affairs, being filled with a much higher degree both of courage and resentment, than he had possessed before. The ignominy, recently thrown on him, operating on a mind unaccustomed to affronts, had inflamed his resentment; his courage was augmented by the consideration, that Cossus had not ventured to proceed in the same manner towards him, as Quintius Cincinnatus had done towards Spurius Mælius; and that, besides, not only the dictator had endeavoured, by abdicating his office, to avoid the general odium excited by his imprisonment, but even the senate itself had not been able to withstand it. Elated with these reflections, and exasperated at the same time, he laboured to inflame the spirits of the commons, which, of themselves, were sufficiently heated. “How long,” said he, “will ye continue ignorant of your own strength, a knowledge which nature has not denied even to brutes? Only calculate your numbers, and those of your adversaries. But supposing that, in attacking them, each of you were to meet an antagonist, yet I should imagine, that ye would contend more vigorously in behalf of liberty, than they in behalf of tyranny. For whatever number of clients ye compose round your several respective patrons, so many of you will there be against each single foe. Only make a shew of war, and ye shall have peace. Let them see you ready to make use of force, and they will voluntarily relax their pretensions. All must concur in some effort, or separately submit to every kind of ill-treatment. How long will ye look to me for aid? I certainly will not be wanting to any of you; it is your part to take care that sufficient aid be not wanting to me. Even I, your champion, when my enemies thought proper, was at once reduced to nothing; and ye, all together, beheld the person thrown into chains, who had warded off chains from each individual of you. What am I to hope, if my enemies should attempt something more grievous against me? The fate of Cassius and Mælius? Ye act right, in shewing yourselves shocked even at the mention of this: may the gods avert it. But they will never come down from heaven on my behalf: they must inspire you with proper sentiments, that ye may avert it; as they inspired me, in arms and in peace, to defend you, both from barbarous foes, and from tyrannical fellow-citizens. Has so great a people a spirit so mean as to be always satisfied with being protected against its enemies? And are ye never to know any dispute with the patricians, except about the degree of tyranny which ye are to allow them to exercise over you? Yet this temper is not implanted in you by nature; ye are become their property through habit. For, what is the reason, that towards foreigners ye shew such vigour of mind, as to think yourselves entitled to bear rule over them? Because ye have been accustomed to vie with them for empire. But against the others ye are content to make a few feeble essays towards obtaining liberty, rather than, by manly exertions, to maintain it. Nevertheless, whatever sort of leaders ye have had, and whatever has been your own conduct, ye have hitherto, either by force or good fortune, carried every point, of what magnitude soever, which ye have attempted. It is now time to aim at higher objects. Only make trial of your own good fortune, and of me, whom ye have already tried, I hope to your advantage. Ye will, with less difficulty, raise up one, to rule the patricians, than ye have raised up others, to oppose their rule. Dictatorships and consulships must be levelled to the ground, that the Roman commons may raise up their heads. Give me, therefore, your support; stop all judicial proceedings respecting money. I profess myself the patron of the commons — a title which I am authorized to assume, both by my zeal and my fidelity. If, on your part, ye choose to dignify your leader with any more distinguishing appellation of honour or command, ye will render him the better able to accomplish the objects of your wishes.” This, we are told, was the first introduction of his scheme for attaining regal power; but we have no clear account who were his accomplices, nor to what length the design was carried.
XIX. On the other side, the senate were seen deliberating on the secession of the commons to one particular house, and that, as it happened, standing in the citadel; and on the important danger which threatened the liberty of the public. Great numbers exclaimed that they wanted a Servilius Ahala, who would not irritate a public enemy, by ordering Manlius to be led to prison, but would finish an intestine war with the loss of one citizen. A resolution was at length adopted, comprised in milder terms, but comprehending the same force: that “the magistrates should take care that the commonwealth received no detriment from the pernicious designs of Marcus Manlius.” On this, the consular and plebeian tribunes consulted together on the measures necessary to be pursued in the present exigency; for even these latter magistrates, seeing that their own power must come to an end, as also the liberty of the public, had put themselves under the direction of the senate. And now no other expedient occurring but that of force, and the shedding of blood, Marcus Mænius and Quintus Publius, plebeian tribunes, spoke to this effect: “Why do we make that a contest between the patricians and plebeians, which ought to be between the state and one pestilent citizen? Why do we attack the commons in conjunction with him, whom we could attack, with more safety, through the means of those very commons; so that he should sink under the weight of his own strength? Our recommendation is, to institute a legal prosecution against him. Nothing is less popular than regal power: as soon as the multitude shall perceive that the contest is not with them; and that instead of advocates, they are to be judges; and shall behold the prosecutors, plebeians; the accused, a patrician; and that the charge is, that of aiming at regal power; they will show more zeal in defence of their own liberty, than they will attachment to any person whatever.”
XX. This proposal meeting universal approbation, a prosecution was commenced against Manlius. At first it raised a great ferment among the commons; more especially when they saw the accused in a mourning habit, unaccompanied, not only by any of the patricians, but by those who were connected with him by blood or affinity; nay, even deserted by his own brothers, Aulus and Titus Manlius: and indeed it had never before occurred, on an occasion of such danger, that a man’s nearest relations did not put on a dress of sorrow. It was mentioned, that when Appius Claudius was thrown into prison, Caius Claudius, who was at enmity with him, and the whole Claudian family, appeared in mourning. That a conspiracy was now formed to destroy this favourite of the people, because he was the first who had come over from the patricians to the commons. On the day of trial, I do not find, in any author, what matters were objected to the accused by the prosecutors, reading properly to prove the charge of his aspiring to kingly authority, except this; his assembling the multitude, his seditious expressions, his largesses, and pretended discovery of fraudulent practices: but I have no doubt that they were of importance; since not the merits of the cause, but the place, was what prevented his being immediately condemned by the commons. This I have thought proper to remark, in order to show, that even such great and glorious achievements, as those of this man, were not only stripped of all their merit, but even rendered matter of detestation, by his depraved ambition for regal power. It is said, that he produced near four hundred persons, to whom he had lent money without interest; whose goods he had prevented being sold, or whose persons he had redeemed from confinement, after they had been adjudged to creditors. That, besides this, he not only enumerated the military rewards which he had obtained, but also produced them to view: spoils of enemies slain, to the number of thirty; presents from generals, to the amount of forty; among which were particularly remarkable, two mural, and eight civic crowns* . That he produced also the citizens, whose lives he had saved in battle; and mentioned among them Caius Servilius, when he was master of the horse, now absent. Then, after recounting his exploits in war, in a manner suited to the dignity of the subject, displaying, in a pompous discourse, eloquence equal to the bravery of his actions, he uncovered his breast, marked with an uncommon number of scars from wounds received in battle; and frequently turning his eyes to the Capitol, called down Jupiter, and the other gods, to aid him in his present unhappy situation; and prayed, that the same sentiments with which they had inspired him, while he stood in defence of the fortress, for the preservation of the Roman people, they would now, in the crisis of his fate, infuse into the breasts of that same Roman people; and he besought each person present, in particular, and the whole assembly, that, with their eyes fixed on the Capitol and citadel, and their faces turned to the immortal gods, they would form their judgment concerning him. As the people were summoned by centuries in the field of Mars, and as the accused stretched out his hands to the Capitol, and instead of addressing his intreaties to men, directed them to the gods, the tribunes saw plainly, that unless they removed the multitude from a situation where even their eyes must remind them of such an honourable exploit, the best founded charge would never gain belief in minds so influenced: wherefore, adjourning the trial, they summoned a meeting in the Peteline grove, on the outside of the Nomentan gate, from whence there was no view of the Capitol: there the charge was established; and, people’s minds being unmoved by any foreign or adventitious circumstance, a severe sentence, and which excited horror even in the breasts of his judges, was passed on him. Some authors say, that he was condemned by two commissioners appointed to take cognizance of matters of treason. The tribunes cast him down from the Tarpeian rock: thus the same spot, in the case of one man, became a monument of distinguished glory, and of the cruelest punishment. After his death, marks of infamy were fixed on him: for his house having stood where the temple of Moneta and the mint office now stand, an order was made by the people, that no patrician should dwell in the citadel or Capitol: a decree at the same time being passed, to prohibit any of the Manlian family from ever after bearing the name of Marcus Manlius. Such was the end of a man, who, had he not been born in a free state, would have merited the esteem of posterity. A short time after, the people, recollecting only his virtues, were filled with deep regret for his loss. A pestilence, too, which presently followed, without any apparent cause of so great a malady, was attributed, by most men, to the punishment inflicted on Manlius. “The Capitol,” they observed, “had been polluted with the blood of its preserver; and it had given displeasure to the gods, that the person, by whom their temples had been rescued out of the hands of the enemy, should be brought before their eyes, in a manner, to suffer punishment.”
Y.R.372. 380.XXI. The pestilence was succeeded by a scarcity of the fruits of the earth; and the report of both calamities spreading abroad, a variety of wars ensued in the following year, in which Lucius Valerius a fourth time, Aulus Manlius a third time, Servius Sulpicius a third time, Lucius Lucretius, Lucius Æmilius a third time, and Marcus Trebonius were military tribunes, with consular power. Besides the Volscians, destined by some fatality to give perpetual employment to the Roman soldiery; and the colonies of Circeii and Velitræ, long meditating a revolt; and Latium, whose conduct gave room for suspicion, a new enemy suddenly sprung up in the people of Lanuvium, a city whose fidelity had hitherto been remarkably steady. The senate, judging that this arose from contemptuous notions entertained by that nation, on seeing that the revolt of the people of Velitræ, members of the Roman state, remained so long unpunished, decreed, that an assembly should be held as soon as possible, concerning a declaration of war against that colony: and to induce the commons to engage in that service with the greater readiness, they appointed five commissioners to make a distribution of the Pomptine lands, and three to conduct a colony to Nepete. Then it was proposed to the people, that they should order the declaration of war; and the plebeian tribunes in vain endeavouring to dissuade them, the tribes unanimously passed it. During that year, preparations were made for hostilities, but, on account of the pestilence, the troops were not led into the field. This delay afforded sufficient time to the colonists, to take measures to appease the anger of the senate; and the greater part of their people were inclined to send a suppliant embassy to Rome; which would have taken place, had not, as is often the case, the interest of the public been involved with the danger of individuals; and had not the authors of the revolt, dreading lest themselves only might be considered as answerable for the guilt, and be delivered up as victims to the resentment of the Romans, infused into the colonists an aversion from peaceful councils. They therefore found means, not only to obstruct the proposed embassy in the senate, but to excite a great part of the commons to make predatory excursions into the Roman territory, which new injury broke off all hopes of peace. This year also, a report was first propagated of the Prænestians having revolted; and when the people of Tusculum, and Gabii, and Lavici, on whose lands they had made incursions, brought the charge against them, the senate, in their answer, showed so little resentment, as made it evident, that they gave the less credit to the charges, because they wished them not to be true.
XXII. In the following year, the two Papirii, Spurius and Lucius, new military tribunes, with consular power,Y.R.373. 379. led the legions to Velitræ, leaving their four colleagues in the tribuneship, Servius Cornelius Maluginensis a fourth time, Quintus Servilius, Servius Sulpicius, and Lucius Æmilius a fourth time, to secure the safety of the city, and to be in readiness, in case intelligence of any new commotion should arrive from Etruria; for now every thing was apprehended from that quarter. At Velitræ, they fought a battle with success, in which they were opposed by a number of Prænestine auxiliaries, rather greater than that of the colonists: and here the city being so near, was the reason of the enemy quitting the field the sooner, as it was their only refuge after their flight. The tribunes did not proceed to lay siege to the town, because the issue was uncertain; and besides, they did not think that they ought to push the war to the utter destruction of the colony. The letters sent to Rome to the senate, with news of the victory, expressed greater animosity against the Prænestine enemy, than against those of Velitræ. In consequence of which, by decree of the senate, and order of the people, war was declared against the Prænestians. These, the next year, in conjunction with the Volscians, took Satricum, a colony of the Roman people, by storm, after an obstinate defence made by the colonists, and in their treatment of the prisoners made a barbarous use of their victory.Y.R.374. 378. Incensed thereat, the Romans elected Marcus Furius Camillus a seventh time, military tribune; the colleagues joined with him were the two Postumii Regillenses, Aulus and Lucius, and Lucius Furius, with Lucius Lucretius, and Marcus Fabius Ambustus. The war with the Volscians was decreed to Camillus out of the ordinary course. Lucius Furius was chosen by lot, from among the rest of the tribunes, his assistant, an appointment which proved not so advantageous to the public, as productive of honour to Camillus, in every branch of his conduct: in that which respected the public, as he restored their cause, when nearly ruined by the temerity of Furius; and in that which concerned themselves in particular, as, from the error of that man, he sought the means of engaging his gratitude rather than of augmenting his own glory. Camillus was now far in the decline of life, and had intended at the election to take the usual oath, in order to be excused, on account of his health, but was prevented by the unanimous desire of the people. He retained all his faculties entire; his vigorous genius still bloomed and flourished, in a breast which glowed with youthful ardour; and though he took little share in civil affairs, yet the business of war roused his spirit. Enlisting four legions, of four thousand men each, and ordering the troops to assemble next day at the Esquiline gate, he marched towards Satricum. There the conquerors of the colony waited for him, nowise dismayed, confiding in their number of men, in which they had considerably the advantage: and when they understood that the Romans were approaching, marched out immediately to the field, determined without any delay to put all on the hazard of one decisive effort: which manner of proceeding, they thought, would put it out of the power of the enemy to compensate for the smallness of their number by the skill of their great commander, on which they placed their sole reliance.
XXIII. The same ardour prevailed likewise in the troops of the Romans, and in one of their generals; nor was there any thing which prevented them from hazarding an immediate engagement, but the wisdom and authority of that general, who sought, by protracting the war, to find some opportunity wherein their strength might receive aid from skill. The more on that account did the enemy urge them, and now, not only drew out their troops in order of battle before their own camp, but advanced into the middle of the plain, and throwing up trenches near the Roman battalions, made ostentatious show of boldness derived from their strength. The soldiers were highly provoked at this, and much more highly Lucius Furius, the other military tribune: who, besides a naturally sanguine temper, and his vigorous time of life, was elated with the hopes which he saw possess the multitude, who are ever apt to assume confidence from causes the worst founded. The soldiery, of themselves full of impatience, he instigated still farther, by depreciating his colleague’s judgment on account of his great age, the only point on which he could possibly impeach it, saying, “that war was the province of youth, and that men’s minds flourished, and withered, together with their bodies; that he, who certainly had been a most active warrior, was become a mere drone; and, though it had been his custom, immediately on coming up with an enemy, to snatch from them the possession of their camps and cities at the first onset; yet now he wasted time, lying inactive within the trenches. And what accession to his own strength, or diminution of that of the enemy, did he hope for? What opportunity, what season, what place for practising stratagem? The old man’s schemes were too cold and languid. Camillus, for his own part, had enjoyed a sufficient share both of life and of glory: but where was the propriety of suffering the strength of the state, which ought to be immortal, to sink into the debility of old age together with one mortal body.” By such discourses, he had drawn to himself the attention of the whole camp; and when, in every quarter, they called for battle, he said to his colleague, “Camillus, we cannot withstand the violence of the soldiers; and the enemy, whose courage we have increased by our delays, insults us with arrogance absolutely intolerable. Give up your single judgment to the general one, and suffer yourself to be overcome in counsel, that you may the sooner overcome in battle.” To which Camillus replied, that “in all the wars which, to that day, had been waged under his single auspices, neither himself nor the Roman people had found reason to be displeased, either with his conduct or his fortune: at present, he was sensible, that he had a colleague, in command and authority, equal to himself; in vigour of age, superior: as to what regarded the troops, he had ever hitherto been accustomed to rule, not to be ruled; but his colleague’s right of command he could not call in question. Let him do, with the favour of the gods, what he thought the interest of the common-wealth required. He would even request so much indulgence to his age, as that he should not be in the front line. That what-ever duties in war an old man qualified for, in these he would not be deficient; and that he besought the immortal gods, that no misfortune might give them reason to think his plain the wiser one.” Neither was his salutary advice listened to by men, nor such pious prayers by the gods: the adviser of the fight drew up the first line; Camillus formed the reserve, and posted a strong guard in front of the camp; then, taking his own station on a eminence, as a spectator, he anxiously watched the issue of the other’s plan.
XXIV. As soon as the clash of arms was heard in the first encounter, the enemy, through stratagem, not through fear, began to retire. There was a gentle acclivity in their rear between the army and their camp, and as they had plenty of men, they had left in their camp several strong cohorts, armed and ready for action, who were to sally forth after the battle should begin, and when the enemy approached the rampart. The Romans, eagerly following the retreating army, were drawn into disadvantageous ground, where this sally could be made on them with effect: terror thus reverting on the conqueror, from this new force, the declivity of the ground obliged the Roman line to give way. The Volscians, who had come fresh from their tents to the attack, pressed them close; and those, too, who had counterfeited retreat, now returned to the fight. The Roman soldiers no longer retired in order, but forgetting their late presumption and their former reaction every where turned their backs, and, with utmost speed, ran towards their camp: when Camillus being lifted on his horse by his attendants, and hastily opposing the reserved troops on their way, called out, “Is this, soldiers, the fight that ye demanded? What man, what god can ye blame? The former temerity was all your own; your own this present cowardice. As ye have followed another leader, follow now Camillus; and, as ye are accustomed to do, under my conduct, conquer. Why do ye look towards the rampart and camp? Not a man of you, unless victorious, shall find admittance there.” Shame, at first, stopped their precipitate flight: then, when they saw the standards wheel about, and a line formed to front the enemy; when a leader, who, besides being distinguished by so many triumphs, was venerable even on account of his age, exposed himself in the front of the battalions, where there was the greatest share both of labour and danger; every one began to upbraid both himself and others, and mutual exhortation spread, in a brisk shout, through the whole length of the line. Nor was the other tribune deficient in activity. Being sent to the cavalry by his colleague, while he was reforming the line of infantry, he did not offer to rebuke them; for the share which he had in their fault had rendered any thing he could say of little weight. Instead of command, therefore, he had recourse entirely to intreaties; beseeching each, and and all together, to “redeem him from misconduct, who was answerable for the events of that day. In spite,” said he, “of the advice and endeavours of my colleague, I have associated myself in the rashness of the many, rather than listened to the prudence of one. Camillus sees matter of glory to himself, on either side to which your fortune may incline; but I, unless the fight is restored, shall feel the evil, in common with you all, and shall alone experience all the infamy; the most wretched lot that could befal me.” It was thought best, while the line was still unsteady, that the cavalry should dismount, and charge the enemy on foot. Accordingly, distinguished beyond others by their arms and their spirit, they advanced on the part where they saw the infantry most pressed: nor was there one among them, whether officer or soldier, who did not display the utmost efforts of courage: the aid, therefore, which their vigorous exertions of bravery supplied, soon determined the event. The Volscians were driven headlong in real flight over the same ground, where they had just before retired with counterfeited fear: great numbers of them were slain, both in the battle, and afterwards in the pursuit: of the rest, however, who were found in the camp, which the enemy took before they halted, more were made prisoners than put to death.
XXV. Here, in taking an account of the prisoners, several Tusculans being observed, they were separated from the rest, and brought to the tribunes: and, being examined, confessed that they had served in the war under the authority of the state. Hereupon Camillus, alarmed at the apprehension of a war so near home, declared, that he would immediately carry the prisoners to Rome, that the senate might not be ignorant of the revolt of the Tusculans from the confederacy: meanwhile, his colleague, if he thought proper, should command the camp and the army. One day had been sufficient to teach him, not to prefer his own counsels to better. However, neither himself, nor any person in the army supposed, that Camillus would, without marks of displeasure, pass over his misconduct, by which the public had been thrown into such perilous hazard; and, as well in the army, as at Rome, the account uniformly received and universally admitted, was, that, with respect to the different degrees of success, experienced in the country of the Volscians, the blame of the troops being worsted in fight, and quitting the field, was to be imputed to Lucius Furius, and that the whole honour of their victory belonged to Camillus. On the prisoners being brought before the senate, it was decreed, that war should be made on the Tusculans, and Camillus was appointed to the command in that expedition: on which, he requested to be allowed one assistant in the business, and having received permission to name any of his colleagues, whom he thought proper, contrary to all men’s expectation he chose Lucius Furius; by which, he both alleviated the disgrace of his colleague, and, at the same time, acquired great honour to himself. However, there was no war with the Tusculans. By a strict adherence to peaceable measures, they warded off the force of the Romans, which it had been impossible for them to have done by arms: for, on entering their territory, no removals were made from the places adjacent to the roads, no interruption in the cultivation of the grounds, the gates of their city stood open, crowds of the inhabitants came forth in their gowns to meet the generals, and provisions for the troops were brought with cheerfulness into the camp, both from the city and the country. Camillus pitched his camp before the gates, and being desirous to know, whether the same appearance of peace prevailed within the walls, which was held out in the country, went into the city; and when he saw the doors and the shops open, and all kinds of wares exposed to sale; tradesmen busy in their respective employments, the schools of learning buzzing with the voices of the scholars, and the streets filled with the populace of every sort, among whom were women and children going different ways, as their several occasions called them, and when, in short, he perceived no circumstance which bore any appearance of fright, or even of surprise; he looked round to find in what manner, and where the preparation for war had been made, for there was not the least trace of any thing having been either removed, or placed to oppose him in his way: all, indeed, was in an uniform state of peace, so that one could hardly suppose, that even the rumour of war had reached them.
XXVI. Overcome, therefore, by the submissive demeanour of the enemy, he ordered their senate to be called, and said to them: “Men of Tusculum; ye are the only persons who have hitherto discovered the real strength, and the true arms, wherewith ye might secure yourselves from the resentment of the Romans. Go to Rome, to the senate. The fathers will consider whether your former conduct more merited punishment, or your present forgiveness. I shall not arrogate to myself the gratitude which ye will owe for favour conferred by the public. From me, ye shall have liberty to solicit pardon. The senate will grant such return to your prayers, as they shall judge proper.” When the Tusculans came to Rome, and the senate of that people, who, very lately, were faithful allies, appeared in the porch of the senate-house, with sorrow in their countenances, the senators, moved with compassion, immediately ordered them to be called in, in a manner expressive of hospitality, rather than of enmity. The Tusculan dictator spoke to this effect: “Conscript fathers; we, against whom ye have proclaimed and were about to wage war, just as ye see us now, standing in the porch of your house, went forth to meet your commanders and your legions. This was our habit, this the habit of our commons; and ever shall be, unless, at any time, we shall receive arms from you, and in your cause. We return thanks to your generals and your troops for having given credit to their own eyes, rather than to public rumour; and for committing no hostilities themselves, where they found none subsisting. The peace, by which our conduct has been governed, the same we request from you. War, we beseech you to avert to that quarter, where, if any where, war subsists. The power of your arms against us, if after submission we are to experience it, we will experience unarmed. This is our determination; may the immortal gods render it as successful as it is dutiful. As to what regards the charges, by which ye were moved to declare war against us, although it is needless to refute with words, what has been contradicted by facts, yet, admitting that they were true, after giving such evident proofs of repentance, we should think ourselves safe in pleading guilty before you. Consider us then as guilty towards you, since ye are persons, to whom such satisfaction may be made with propriety.” These were nearly the words of the Tusculans. They obtained peace at the present, and not very long after, the freedom of the state also. The legions were then withdrawn from Tusculum.
XXVII. Camillus, after having highly signalized himself by his conduct and bravery in the Volscian war, by his successful management in the Tusculan expedition, and in both, by his singular moderation towards his colleague, went out of office,Y.R.375. 377. having elected military tribunes for the ensuing year, Lucius and Publius Valerius, Lucius a fifth time, Publius a third, and Caius Sergius a third time, Lucius Menenius a second time, Spurius Papirius, and Servius Cornelius Maluginensis. Censors became necessary this year principally on account of the various representations made of the debts; the tribunes of the commons exaggerating the amount of them, with design to increase the general discontent, while it was under-rated by those whose interest it was, that the difficulty of procuring payment should appear to be owing rather to the want of honesty than of ability in the debtors. The censors appointed were Caius Sulpicius Camerinus, and Spurius Postumius Regillensis: after they had entered on the business, it was interrupted by the death of Postumius, as it was not allowable to employ a substitute as colleague with a censor. Sulpicius, therefore, abdicating the office, others were named to it; but some defect being discovered in the manner of their appointment, they were not received; and to appoint a third set was not allowed, as the gods seemed unwilling to admit of censors for that year. The plebeian tribunes now exclaimed, that such mockery of the commons was not to be endured; that “the senate declined a public inquiry, which would ascertain each man’s property, as that would discover that one-half of the commonwealth was held in a state of depression by the other; while, in the mean time, the commons, overwhelmed with debt, were exposed continually to the arms of one enemy after another. Wars were now industriously sought on all sides, without any distinction. From Antium the legions were led to Satricum, from Satricum to Velitræ, from thence to Tusculum. The Latines, the Hernicians, the Prænestians, were now threatened with hostilities; and this, out of hatred to the citizens, rather than for injuries; with design to wear out the commons under arms, not suffering them either to take breath in the city, or to have leisure to reflect on their liberty, or to take their places in an assembly, where they might sometimes hear a tribune’s voice, discoursing about the reduction of interest, and the removal of other grievances. But, for their part, if they could find in the commons a spirit capable of emulating the liberty of their fathers, they would neither suffer any Roman citizen to be made over to a creditor for money lent, nor any levy of troops to be made, until, the debts being examined, and some method adopted for lessening them, every man should know what was his own, and what another’s; whether his person was still to enjoy freedom, or whether that too was due to the stocks.” The prize, held out to sedition, quickly excited it; for numbers were continually made over to creditors; and, accounts being received of the Prænestines being in arms, the senate voted new legions to be levied, to both which proceedings obstructions began to be raised, at once by the interposition of the tribunitian power, and the united efforts of the commons. For neither did the tribunes suffer those who were adjudged to their creditors to be carried to prison, nor did the younger citizens give in their names for the war; while the senate were less solicitous at present about enforcing the laws concerning the lending of money, than about effecting the levy; for now they were informed that the enemy had marched from Præneste, and taken post in the Sabine territory. That very intelligence, however, rather irritated the tribunes to persist in the opposition which they had set up, than deterred them; nor was any thing sufficient to allay the discontents, but the approach of hostilities almost to the very walls.
XXVIII. For the Prænestines having learned that there was no army levied at Rome, no general fixed on, and that the patricians and commons were taken up with quarrels among themselves, their leaders deemed this a fortunate opportunity for molestation; and, having made a hasty march, ravaging the country all along as they passed, they advanced their standards to the Colline gate. Great was the consternation in the city; the alarm was given through every part; people ran together to the walls and gates, and turning at length their thoughts from sedition to war, they created Titus Quintius Cincinnatus dictator, who nominated Aulus Sempronius Atratinus master of the horse. No sooner was this heard, than the enemy, such was the terror of that office, retired from the walls; while, on the dictator’s edict being issued, the Roman youth attended without excuse. During the time that the levy was going on at Rome, the enemy encamped not far from the river Allia, whence they carried their depredations through all the country round, boasting among themselves, that they had chosen a post fatal to the city of Rome, whose troops would be dismayed, and fly from thence, as they had done in the Gallic war. For, “if the Romans were afraid of a day, which was deemed inauspicious, and marked with the name of that place, how much more than the Allian day would they dread the Allia itself, the monument of so great a disaster? The fierce looks of the Gauls, and the sound of their voices, would certainly recur to their eyes and ears.” Possessed with these groundless notions of circumstances as groundless, they rested their hopes on the fortune of the place. On the other hand, the Romans considered that “in whatever place their Latine enemies stood, they knew very well that they were the same whom they had utterly vanquished at the lake Regillus, and had held under peaceable subjection for now an hundred years: that the Allia, being that way distinguished, would rather stimulate them to blot out the remembrance of their misfortune, than raise apprehensions of any ground being inauspicious to their success. Were they even to meet the Gauls themselves on that spot, they would fight, as they fought at Rome, for the recovery of their country; as, the day after at Gabii, where they took effectual care, that not a single enemy, who had entered the walls of Rome, should carry home an account either of their successes or defeats.”
XXIX. With these sentiments on each side, they met at the Allia. As soon as the Roman dictator came within sight of the enemy, who were drawn up and ready for action, he said, “Aulus Sempronius, do you perceive that those men have taken post at the Allia, relying, no doubt, on the fortune of the place? Nor have the immortal gods afforded them any surer ground of confidence, or any more effectual support. But do you, relying on arms and courage, make a brisk charge on the middle of their line. When they shall be thrown into disorder, I will bear down on them with the legions. Ye gods! who witnessed the treaty, be favourable to our cause, and exact the penalty due for the affront offered to yourselves, and also for the deception imposed on us, through an appeal to your divinity.” The Prænestines were unable to stand against either the cavalry or the infantry: the first shout and charge broke their ranks. In a little time, no part of their line remaining entire, they turned their backs, and fled in such consternation, that they even passed by their own camp, and never relaxed their speed, until Præneste was in view. There, rallying, they took possession of a post, which they fortified after a hasty manner, dreading, lest, if they retreated within the walls, the country should be immediately wasted with fire, and when every other place was desolated, siege should be laid to the city. But no sooner did the victorious Romans approach, after plundering the camp at the Allia, than they abandoned this fortress also, and shut themselves up in the town of Præneste, scarcely thinking the walls a sufficient security. There were eight other towns under the dominion of the Prænestines: these were attacked in succession, and taken, without any great difficulty, and the army led to Velitræ. That also was taken by storm. They then came to Præneste, the main source of the war, and it fell into their hands, not by force, but capitulation. Titus Quintius having thus gained the victory in one pitched battle, having taken from the enemy, by storm, two camps and nine towns, and Præneste on surrender, returned to Rome; and, in his triumph, carried into the Capitol the statue of Jupiter Imperator, which he had brought away from Præneste. It was dedicated between the recesses of Jupiter and Minerva, and on a tablet, fixed under it as a monument of his exploits, were engraved nearly these words: “Jupiter, and all the gods, granted that Titus Quintius, dictator, should take nine towns in nine days.” On the twentieth day after his appointment he abdicated the dictatorship.
XXX. An election was then held of military tribunes, with consular power,Y.R.376. 376. when equal numbers of patricians and plebeians were chosen. The patricians were, Publius and Caius Manlius, with Lucius Julius; the plebeians, Caius Sextilius, Marcus Albinius, and Lucius Antistius. To the Manlii, because they were superior to the plebeians in point of descent, and to Julius in interest, the Volscians were assigned as a province, out of the ordinary course, without casting of lots, or mutual agreement: of which step both they themselves, and the senate, who made the disposal, had afterwards reason to repent. Without taking measures to obtain the proper intelligence, they sent out some cohorts to forage. Marching hastily to support these, in consequence of a false report brought to them, of their being ensnared, without even retaining the author of the report, and who was not a Roman but a Latine soldier, they themselves fell into an ambuscade; where, whilst they gave and received many wounds, maintaining resistance on disadvantageous ground merely by dint of valour, the enemy, in another quarter, made an assault on the Roman camp, which lay in a low situation. The generals, by their rashness and unskilfulness, had thrown affairs, in both places, into most imminent danger; and that any part of the army was saved was owing to the fortune of the Roman people, and the bravery of the soldiers, capable of acting with steadiness, even without a commander. When an account of these transactions was brought to Rome, it was, at first, thought necessary that a dictator should be nominated: but intelligence being received from the country of the Volscians that matters were quiet, and it being evident that they knew not how to take advantage of success and opportunity, even the troops and generals which were there were recalled; and a cessation of hostilities continued during the remainder of the year, as far as regarded that people. The only interruption of tranquillity which occurred, and that towards the end of the year, was the revival of hostilities by the Prænestines, who had prevailed on the states of the Latines to co-operate with them. During this year, new colonists were inrolled for Setia, the colony themselves complaining of a scarcity of men. Internal tranquillity, which was procured by the influence of the plebeian military tribunes, and the respect paid to their dignity by those of their own condition, proved some consolation for the failure of success in war.
XXXI. In the beginning of the next year, the flames of sedition blazed out with great violence;Y.R.377. 375. the military tribunes, with consular power, being Spurius Furius, Quintus Servilius a second time, Caius Licinius, Publius Clœlius, Marcus Horatius, and Lucius Geganius. This sedition again arose from the debts; for the purpose of ascertaining which, Spurius Servilius Priscus and Quintus Clœlius Siculus were appointed censors, but were hindered, by a war, from proceeding in the business: for hasty messengers, at first, and then people who fled from the country, brought information that the Volscian legions had entered the borders, and were committing depredations through the Roman territory. Alarming as this intelligence was, so far was their fear of a foreign enemy from restraining the violence of their domestic feuds, that, on the contrary, it gave occasion to the tribunitian power to exert itself with greater vehemence in obstructing the levies, until these conditions were imposed on the senate: that, during the continuance of the war, no one should pay a tax, nor should any judicial process be carried on respecting money due. This relaxation being obtained for the commons, there was no farther delay in the levies. When the new legions were enlisted, it was resolved that they should be divided, and two different armies led into the Volscian territory. Spurius Furius and Marcus Horatius proceeded to the right, towards Antium and the sea-coast; Quintus Servilius and Lucius Geganius to the left, towards Ecetra and the mountains. On neither side did the enemy meet them. Devastations were therefore made, not like those which the Volscians had committed in the manner of banditti, snatching an opportunity, and hurried by their fears, relying on the dissensions among the Romans, and dreading their valour; but with a regular army, and giving full scope to their resentment, more detrimental, too, by reason of their continuance; for the Volscians, dreading lest an army should come out from Rome against them, had made their incursions only into the skirts of the frontiers; the Romans loitered in their country, in hopes of bringing them to an engagement. Every house, therefore, was burnt, and several villages also; not a fruit-tree was left, nor the seed in the ground to give a prospect of a harvest. All the men and cattle found without the walls were driven off as spoil, and the troops, from both quarters, were led back to Rome.
XXXII. Thus a short interval had been allowed to the debtors, but no sooner was quiet restored abroad, than the courts were filled anew with lawsuits against them: and so distant was every hope of lessening the burthen of former debts, that they were obliged to contract new ones, by a tax for building a wall of hewn stone, which the censors had contracted for. To this hardship the commons were necessitated to submit, because there were, at the time, no levies which the tribunes might obstruct; nay, such an ascendancy had the nobility,Y.R.378. 374. that they obliged them to choose all the military tribunes out of the patricians, Lucius Æmilius, Publius Valerius a fourth time, Caius Veturius, Servius Sulpicius, Lucius and Caius Quintius Cincinnatus. By the same influence, a resolution was carried, without opposition, that, to make head against the Latines and Volscians, who, with their forces united, were encamped at Satricum, all the young men should be obliged to take the military oath; and that three armies should be formed; one, for the protection of the city; another, which, in case any disturbance should arise elsewhere, might be sent where the sudden exigencies of war should require. The third, and by far the most powerful, Publius Valerius and Lucius Æmilius led to Satricum, and there, finding the enemy drawn up in order of battle, on level ground, they instantly came to an engagement. But a heavy rain, attended with a violent storm of wind, put a stop to the fight; when, though victory had not declared for them, they yet had a fair prospect of it. Next day the battle was renewed, and, for a considerable time, the Latine legions particularly, who, during the long continuance of the confederacy, had learned the Roman discipline, maintained their ground with equal bravery and success. At length, a charge of the cavalry disordered their ranks, and before this could be remedied, the infantry advanced upon them. Wherever the Roman line attacked, the enemy were pushed from their ground; and when once the advantage turned against them, they found the Roman force irresistible. They were therefore utterly routed; and flying to Satricum, which was two miles distant, had many of their men slain, chiefly by the cavalry. Their camp was taken and plundered. The night after the battle, they went off from Satricum to Antium, in a manner more like a flight than a march: and though the Roman army followed, almost in their steps, yet fear proved fleeter than fury; so that they had got within their walls, before the Romans could harass or impede their rear. Several days were spent in wasting the country; for the Romans were not properly furnished with military engines for attacking walls, nor the others in a condition to hazard a battle.
XXXIII. At this time a dissension arose between the Antians and the Latines: for the Antians, quite reduced by a war which had lasted from their birth, began to think of submission. The Latines, having but lately revolted, after a long enjoyment of peace, and their spirits being still fresh, were, therefore, the more resolutely determined to persevere in the war. Their dispute lasted no longer, than until each party perceived that they might accomplish their own views, without obstruction from the other. The Latines, by leaving the place, freed themselves from the imputation of being concerned in a peace which they deemed dishonourable. The Antians, as soon as those were removed, whose presence impeded their salutary designs, surrendered themselves and their territory to the Romans. The rage of the Latines, on finding that they could neither do any damage to the Romans in war, nor keep the Volscians any longer in arms, vented itself in setting fire to the city of Satricum, which had been their first place of refuge after defeat. Not a building in that city remained; for they threw their firebrands indiscriminately on those that belonged to gods and to men, except the temple of mother Matuta: and from this they were withheld, not by any scruples of their own, or reverence towards the gods, but by a tremendous voice, which issued through the temple, with severe denunciations of vengeance, unless they removed their abominable fires to a distance from the temples. Inflamed with the same rage, they proceeded to Tusculum, in resentment of its having forsaken the general association of the Latines, and joined itself to the Romans, not only as an ally, but even as a member of their state. No notice being received there of their intention, they rushed in by the gates, and, on the first shout, made themselves masters of the whole town, excepting the citadel. Into this the townsmen had made their escape, with their wives and children, and sent messengers to Rome, to acquaint the senate with their misfortune. With no less expedition than became the honour of the Roman people, an army was despatched to Tusculum, commanded by Lucius Quintius and Servius Sulpicius, military tribunes. They found the gates of Tusculum shut, and the Latines acting the parts both of besiegers and besieged; on one side, defending the walls of the town; on the other, carrying on the attack of the citadel; at once striking terror into others, and feeling it themselves. The approach of the Romans made a great alteration in the minds of both parties: the despondency of the Tusculans it converted into the most joyful alacrity; and the assured confidence entertained by the Latines, that they should quickly become masters of the citadel, as they were already of the town, into an anxiety almost hopeless for their own safety. The shout was now raised by the Tusculans from the citadel, and returned, by a much louder one, from the Roman army. The Latines were hard pressed on all sides; nor could they either sustain the force of the Tusculans, pouring down on them from the higher ground, or repel the Romans advancing to the walls, and forcing the bars of the gates. The walls, first, were mastered by scalade; the gates were then broke open; and the two enemies, pressing them in front and in rear, no strength being left for fight, no room for escape, they were surrounded and cut to pieces to a man. Tusculum being thus recovered from the enemy, the army returned to Rome.
XXXIV. In proportion to the degree of tranquillity which prevailed this year abroad, in consequence of the successes obtained in war, did the violence of the patricians, and the distresses of the commons, increase daily in the city; the necessity of immediate payment, of itself, impairing the ability to pay: so that, having no means left of answering any demands out of their property, they were cast in suits, and ordered into custody. Thus, at the expense of their reputations and persons, they satisfied their creditors; punishment being substituted in the place of money. In consequence of this, they sunk into such despondency, not only the lowest, but even the principal plebeians, that no man could be found adventurous enough either to stand candidate, among patricians, for the military tribuneship (a privilege which they had used such mighty efforts to obtain); or even to sue for and undertake the plebeian magistracies: insomuch that it seemed as if the patricians had now recovered, for ever, the possession of that honour; and that it had been only usurped, for a few years, by the commons. The excessive joy, which that party would have reaped from this event, was prevented by a cause, which was but trifling, as is very often the case, in comparison with the important consequences which it produced. Marcus Fabius Ambustus was a man of considerable weight among those of his own rank, and also among the commons, because they considered him as one who was not at all disposed to treat them with contempt: he had two daughters married, the elder to Servius Sulpicius, the younger to Caius Licenius Stolo, of high reputation, but a plebeian: and the very circumstance of Fabius not having scorned this alliance had procured him favour in the minds of the populace. It happened, that while the two sisters were amusing themselves in conversation at the house of Servius Sulpicius, then military tribune, on Sulpicius’s return home from the Forum, one of his lictors, according to custom, rapped at the door with his rod: the younger Fabia, who was a stranger to the custom, being frightened at this, was laughed at by her sister, who was surprised at her ignorance of the matter. That laugh, however, left a sting in the other’s breast; as the merest trifles will often affect the female mind. The crowd also of attendants, and of people offering their service, I suppose, made her think her sister happy in her marriage, and repine at her own; according to the so generally prevailing foible, for it is certain that scarcely any can bear to be surpassed by those nearest their own level. While she was under great disquietude, from this recent mortification, her father happened to see her, and asked, “Is all well?” and though she dissembled, at first, the cause of her uneasiness, because it was neither very consistent with the affection of a sister, nor very honourable to her husband, he, by tender inquiries, at length brought her to confess, that her unhappiness arose from being united to an inferior, from being married into a house which neither dignities nor honours could enter. Ambustus, then, consoling his daughter, bid her keep up her spirits: for that she should shortly see, in her own house, the same honours which she saw at her sister’s. He then, with his son-in-law, began to frame his designs, and in conjunction with Lucius Sextius, a young man of active talents, to whose hopes there appeared no impediment, except the want of patrician descent.
XXXV. The juncture appeared seasonable for the introduction of innovations, on account of the immense burthen of debt, from which evil the commons could have no hope of relief, except some of their own order were placed in the administration of government. To that point they saw it necessary to direct their most vigorous exertions. The commons, by spirited endeavours and perseverance, had already gained one step towards it; from whence, if they struggled forward, they might arrive at the summit, and be placed on an equal footing with the patricians, in honour as well as in merit. It was resolved, that at present there should be plebeian tribunes created; in which office the commons might find the means of opening for themselves a way to the other distinctions.Y.R.379. 373. Accordingly, Caius Licinius and Lucius Sextius were elected tribunes, and proposed several new laws, every one of which was injurious to the power of the patricians, and in favour of the interest of the plebeians. One related to debt, enacting, that whatever had been paid as interest, being deducted from the principal, the remainder should be discharged in three years, by so many equal instalments. Another, setting bounds to landed property, enacted, that no one should possess more than five hundred acres of land: a third, that there should be no election of military tribunes; and that one of the consuls should, indispensably, be chosen out of the commons: all points of the utmost consequence, and not to be accomplished without powerful struggles. When the patricians were thus challenged to contend, at once, for all those objects which excite the warmest desires in the human heart, they were terrified and dismayed; nor could they, either in their public or private consultations, devise any other remedy than the one which they had frequently tried before, a protest: accordingly, they engaged some of the tribunes to oppose the propositions of their colleagues. These, having collected about them a band of patricians for their support, as soon as they saw the tribes summoned by Licinius and Sextius, to give their suffrages, refused to suffer either the proposition to be read, or any of the usual forms, in taking the votes of the people, to be gone through. After assemblies had been often called to no purpose, and the propositions were now considered as rejected, Sextius said to them, “It is very well; since it is determined that a protest shall carry such force in it, we will defend the commons with the same weapon. Come, patricians, proclaim an assembly for the election of military tribunes; I will take care that those words, I FORBID IT, shall not be very pleasing in your ears, though ye listen with such delight to our colleagues chaunting them at present.” Nor did his threats fall without effect; except for ædiles and plebeian tribunes, there were no elections held. Licinius and Sextius being re-elected plebeian tribunes, suffered not any curule magistrates to be appointed; and, during the space of five years, the city was kept without magistrates in those offices, the commons constantly re-electing the two tribunes, and these preventing the election of military tribunes.
XXXVI. There had been a seasonable cessation of wars; but the colonists of Velitræ, grown wanton through ease, and knowing that there was no army on foot at Rome, made several incursions into the Roman territory, and even laid siege to Tusculum. When, on this event, the Tusculans, their old allies and new fellow-citizens, implored assistance, not only the patricians, but even the commons, were moved, principally by a sense of honour; and the plebeian tribunes withdrawing their opposition,Y.R.385. 367. an election of military tribunes was held by an interrex, when Lucius Furius, Aulus Manlius, Servius Sulpicius, Servius Cornelius, and the two Valerii, Publius and Caius, were chosen into that office. These, in raising the levies, found not the same tractable temper in the commons which they had shewn in the election: however, having, after very warm disputes, completed the number of troops, they began their march, and compelled the enemy, not only to retire from Tusculum, but to take shelter within their own walls; and Velitræ was then besieged by a much greater force than had threatened Tusculum. Yet the commanders, who conducted the siege, were not able to bring it to a conclusion before the new military tribunes were elected: these were Quintus Servilius, Caius Veturius a second time,Y.R.386. 366. Aulus and Marcus Cornelius, Quintus Quintius, and Marcus Fabius. Neither did these, in their tribunate, perform any thing memorable at Velitræ. The dangerous state of affairs at home called more powerfully for their attention: for, besides Sextius and Licinius, the proposers of the laws, now re-elected the eighth time to the office of plebeian tribune, Fabius likewise, the military tribune, father-in-law of Stolo, without disguise, professed himself a supporter of those laws of which he had been an adviser: and whereas there had been, at first, among the plebeian tribunes, eight protesters against the laws, there were now only five; and these, as usual with men who desert their party, were embarrassed and perplexed. In expressions borrowed from others, they alleged, as a pretext for their protesting, merelv what they had been privately instructed to say, that “a large share of the commons were absent in the army at Velitræ; that the assembly ought to be deferred until the soldiers returned, in order that the entire body of the commons might have an opportunity of giving their votes, in matters wherein they were so deeply interested.” Sextius and Licinius, in conjunction with the other part of their colleagues, and Fabius, one of the military tribunes, having, from the experience of so many years, acquired the art of managing the minds of the commons, called on the principal patricians, and teazed them with interrogatories, on each of the subjects proposed to the people: “Were they so shameless as to require, that when the proportion of a plebeian was only two acres of land, they should be allowed to possess above five hundred acres each? That a single man should enjoy the share of near three hundred citizens; while a plebeian had scarcely an extent of land sufficient for a stinted habitation, or a place of burial? Did they think it reasonable, that the commons, inextricably embarrassed by the accumulation of interest, should surrender their persons to the stocks, and to the harsh treatment of creditors, rather than that they should be allowed a discharge of the debt, on paying off the principal? That men should daily be driven in flocks from the Forum, after being made over to their creditors? That the houses of the nobility should be filled with such prisoners? And that, in the habitation of every patrician, there should be a private prison?”
XXXVII. After painting those matters in the most invidious and pitiable colours, to an audience, whereof each individual was in dread that the case might become his own, and exciting, in the hearers, even greater indignation than they felt themselves, they went on to insist, that “there never could be any stop put to the patricians engrossing the lands to themselves, and crushing the commons under the weight of interest, unless the latter should constitute one of the consuls out of their own body, to be a guardian of their liberty. That the tribunes of the commons were now despised, because those invested with that power, by the present practice of protests, rendered its own strength inefficacious. It was impossible to deal on equal terms, while the others held in their hands the power of command, and they, only that of giving protection. Unless admitted to a share in the government, the commons could never enjoy an equal portion in the commonwealth. Nor ought it to be thought sufficient that plebeians should be allowed to stand candidates at the election of consuls; none of them would ever be elected, unless it were made an indispensable rule that one consul must, necessarily, be taken from among the commons. Had they now forgotten, that though the practice of electing military tribunes, rather than consuls, had been instituted, for the very purpose of opening the highest honours to the plebeians, yet, during a space of forty-four years, not one plebeian had been elected into that office? How then could they believe, that when there were but two places to be filled, those men would voluntarily bestow a share of the honour on the commons, who were accustomed to monopolize the whole eight places at the election of military tribunes? That they would suffer a passage to be laid open to the consulship, who, for such a length of time, had kept the tribuneship so closely fenced up? They must acquire by a law, what they could not accomplish by influence at elections; and one consul’s place must be set apart, beyond the reach of contest, to which the commons may have access: since, as long as it is left subject to dispute, it will ever become the prize of the more powerful. Nor could the nobles now pretend to say, what formerly they had been fond of asserting, that there were not to be found, among the plebeians, men qualified for the curule offices. For, was the administration of government conducted with less diligence and vigour since the tribunate of Publius Licinius Calvus, the first plebeian elected, than during those years in which none but patricians were military tribunes? Nay, on the contrary, several patricians, on the expiration of their office, had been condemned for misconduct, but never one plebeian. Quæstors too, in like manner as military tribunes, began, a few years before, to be elected out of the commons: nor had the Roman people seen reason to be displeased with any one of them. The consulship now remained to be attained by the plebeians; that was the bulwark, that the basis of their liberty. Could they once arrive at that, then, indeed, the Roman people would be satisfied that kings were really banished from the city, and liberty settled on a sure foundation. For, from that day, every advantage, in which the patricians now surpassed them, would come into the possession of the commons; command and honour, military glory, birth, nobility, all highly valuable to themselves in the present enjoyment, and which they could leave, with an increase of value, to their children.” Finding such discourses favourably attended to, they published another proposition: that instead of two commissioners for performing religious rites, ten should be appointed, half of whom should be plebeians, half patricians; and they deferred the meeting, which was to decide on all these matters, until the troops, then engaged in the siege of Velitræ, should return.
Y.R.387. 365.XXXVIII. The year expired before the legions were brought home from Velitræ; and consequently, the affair of the laws remained suspended, and was handed over to the new military tribunes: for as to the plebeian tribunes, the commons re-elected the same; particularly the two who had proposed the laws. The military tribunes elected were Titus Quintius, Servius Cornelius, Servius Sulpicius, Spurius Servilius, Lucius Papirius, and Lucius Veturius. Immediately on the commencement of the new year, the contest about the laws was pushed to extremity; and when, on the tribes being assembled, the proposers of the laws persisted in their proceedings, in spite of the protests of their colleagues, the patricians were so alarmed that they recurred for aid to their last resource, an office superior to all others in power, and a citizen superior to all others in reputation. It was resolved that a dictator should be appointed. Accordingly Marcus Furius Camillus was nominated, and he chose Lucius Æmilius master of the horse. On the other side, the proposers of the laws, in opposition to this great effort of their adversaries, with determined resolution, collected every means of strength, in aid of the plebeian cause; and, summoning an assembly of the people, cited the tribes to give their votes. The dictator, attended by a band of patricians, having taken his seat, with many angry and menacing expressions, the business, at first, produced the usual contest among the plebeian tribunes; some of them supporting the law, and others protesting against it. But their protest, which by right ought to have prevailed, being nevertheless overpowered by the people’s warm attachment to the laws themselves, and to the promoters of them; and, the first tribes having pronounced, “Be it as you propose;” Camillus said, “Roman citizens, since the headstrong passions of your tribunes, not their legal authority, rule your proceedings; and since, after having at the expense of a secession, procured the privilege of protesting, ye now yourselves invalidate it, by the same violence through which ye obtained it; I, as dictator, out of regard, as well to your particular interest, as to the general interest of the commonwealth, will support the right of protesting: and, by the power of my authority, will defend your rights of protection, which ye endeavour to betray. Wherefore, if Caius Licinius and Lucius Sextius will give way to the protest of their colleagues, I shall be far from introducing the authority of a patrician magistrate into an assembly of the commons. But if, in opposition to the protest, they persist in their attempt to impose laws on the state, as if it were under captivity to them, I will not suffer the tribunitian power to be brought to dissolution by its own act.” The tribunes, in contempt of this declaration, still proceeding in the business with unabated activity, Camillus was so highly provoked, that he sent his lictors to disperse the commons; adding threats, that “if they persisted, he would compel every one of the younger men to take the military oath, and would instantly lead an army out of the city.” This struck great terror into the populace: but the opposition served rather to inflame than lessen the resolution of their leaders. However, before the dispute was brought to any decision, the dictator abdicated his office; either, because some informality was discovered in his appointment, as some writers have said; or because the plebeian tribunes proposed to the commons, and the commons passed it into an order, that if Marcus Furius Camillus performed any act as dictator, he should be fined five hundred thousand asses.* But the following considerations induce me to believe, that he was deterred from acting rather by a defect in the auspices, than by such an unprecedented order: first, the temper of the man himself; then Publius Manlius being immediately substituted in his room. What end could it answer, to appoint him for managing a dispute in which Camillus had been worsted? besides, the year following, the same Camillus was created dictator, and he certainly could not, without shame, have resumed an authority, which had been foiled in his hands the year before. At the time too, when the proposition about fining him is reported to have been published, he must either have had power sufficient to have prevented the passing of this order, by which he saw himself degraded, or else he could not have been able to oppose the others, on account of which this was introduced; for through the whole course of the various disputes, in regard to the authority of the tribunes, and that of the consuls even down to our memory, the dictatorship ever held a decided pre-eminence over both.
XXXIX. During the interval between the abdication of the former dictator, and the new one, Manlius, entering into office, as if it were an interregnum, the tribunes summoned an assembly of the people; and it was there discovered, which of the laws proposed were favourites of the public, and which of the proposers. For the commons passed those which respected interest of money, and the lands, and rejected the one respecting a plebeian consul; both which decisions would have been carried into effect, had not the tribunes insisted, that they had put the question to the assembly, on the whole of the laws collectively. Publius Manlius then turned the advantage to the side of the commons, by nominating as his master of the horse, a plebeian, Caius Licinius, who had been military tribune. This, we are informed, gave much displeasure to the patricians, to whom the dictator apologized for his conduct, alleging the near relationship between him and Licinius; at the same time asserting, that the post of master of the horse was no way superior to that of consular tribune. When the assembly for electing plebeian tribunes was proclaimed, Licinius and Sextius conducted themselves in such a manner, that, while they professed an unwillingness any longer to be continued in office, they applied to the commons the most powerful incentives, towards the effectuating of that purpose, which, from their dissimulation in the above particular, they seemed little desirous to promote. Telling them, that “they were now standing the ninth year, as it were in battle array against the nobility, with the greatest danger to their own particular interests, and without any advantage to the public. That, as they were now grown old, so, together with them, both the propositions which they had published, and the whole tribunitian power, were fallen into a state of languor. At first, the attack was carried on, against their propositions, by the protest of their colleagues; then, by banishing the younger citizens to the war of Velitræ; at last, the dictatorial thunder had been levelled against themselves. At present, neither colleagues, nor war, nor dictator stood in their way: for the latter had even, by nominating a plebeian master of the horse, given them an omen of a plebeian consul. The commons were the only obstruction to themselves, and to their own interests. They could, if they chose it, immediately, have the city and the forum free from creditors, and the lands free from unjust occupiers. And when would they ever consider these kindnesses with proper gratitude, if, at the very time when they were receiving plans for their own advantage, they precluded the authors of them from all hope of distinction? It was not suitable with the candour of the Roman people, to require that the burthen of interest money should be taken off from them, and that they should be introduced into the possession of the lands unjustly occupied by the powerful, and at the same time leave the persons, through whose means they acquired those lands, to grow old in the quality of tribunitians; not only without honours, but even without hope of them. Wherefore, let them, first, determine in their own mind what choice they would make, and then notify that choice, in the election of their tribunes. If they chose that the propositions published by them should be passed collectively, then there would be some reason for re-electing the same tribunes; for they would carry into effect their own wishes. But, if they chose that nothing more should pass, than what each found necessary to his private affairs, there would then be no occasion for the invidious mode of re-election; and, as they would fail of obtaining the tribuneship, so would the people of obtaining the matters proposed to them.”
XL. On hearing such peremptory language from the tribunes, and whilst amazement, at the insolence of their behaviour, held the rest of the patricians motionless and silent, Appius Claudius Crassus, grandson of the decemvir, is said to have stood forth to combat their argument; and, prompted, rather by hatred and anger, than by hope of success, to have spoken to this effect: “Roman citizens, to me it would be neither new nor surprising, if I should hear applied to myself on the present occasion, the same charge, which has always been objected, by seditious tribunes, to our family; that the Claudian race, even from the very beginning, has shown a more zealous attachment to the dignity of the patricians, than to any other object in the state; and that they have constantly opposed the interests of the commons. One of these assertions, neither I, nor any of the Claudii, will deny; that, from the time when we were first adopted, and admitted into the order of the patricians, we have earnestly endeavoured that the dignity of those families, among which ye were pleased to place us, might truly be said to have been augmented, rather than diminished, through our means. As to the other declaration, I can take upon me to insist and maintain, in behalf of myself and of my ancestors, that, unless we are to suppose that actions, which tend to the general good of the state, are injurious to the commons, as if they were inhabitants of another city, we never, either in our private capacity, or in office, proceeded knowingly, in any instance, to the detriment of those commons: and that there cannot, consistently with truth, be mentioned any one act, or word, of ours, contrary to your interest; though some indeed there may have been contrary to your inclinations. But even were I not of the Claudian family, nor sprung from patrician blood, but an individual in the general mass of citizens, only supposing me sensible that I was descended from free-born parents, and that I lived in a free state, could I keep silence in such a case as this; when Lucius Sextius, and Caius Licinius, perpetual tribunes, as it seems, have during the nine years in which they have reigned, acquired such a degree of arrogance, as to declare, that they will not allow you freedom of suffrage, either in elections or in enacting laws? On a certain condition, one of them says, ye shall reelect us tribunes, a tenth time. What else is this, than if he said, what others court, we disdain, so far, that, without a valuable consideration, we will not accept of it? And now, I pray you, what is that consideration, for which we may have you perpetually tribunes of the commons? Why, he tells you it is, that ye admit all our propositions collectively, be they pleasing or displeasing, profitable or unprofitable. Let me intreat you, ye Tarquinii, who are tribunes of the commons, to suppose that I, one of the citizens, called out in reply to you from the middle of the assembly: with your good leave, let us be permitted to choose, out of these propositions, such as we judge salutary to ourselves, and to reject others. No, says he, ye shall have no such permission. Must ye enact, concerning interest of money and lands, which tends to the good of every one of yourselves, and must not the prodigy of seeing Lucius Sextius and Caius Licinius consuls take place in the city of Rome, because ye view it with scorn and abhorrence? Either admit all, or I propose nothing. Just as if, before a person pressed with hunger, one were to lay food and poison together, and then to order him either to abstain from what would minister to life, or to mix along with it what would cause death. If then this state were really free, would not the whole assembly have replied to you thus; begone with your tribuneships and your propositions. What? If you do not propose that which is advantageous to the people to admit, can there be no other found to procure them advantages? If any patrician (or what they wish to be thought more invidious) if a Claudian should say, either admit all, or I propose nothing; what man among you, citizens, would endure it? Will ye never learn to attend to facts, rather than persons? For ever listen with partial ears to every thing uttered by men of their office, and with prejudice to what is said by any of us? But, surely, their language is very different from what becomes members of a republic: and what shall we say of their proposal, which they are so incensed at your rejecting? It is exactly of a piece, citizens, with their language. He says, I desire it may be enacted, that it shall not be lawful for you to elect into the consulship such persons as ye may approve: for can he mean otherwise who orders, that one consul must necessarily be taken from the plebeians, and does not allow you the power of electing two patricians? If wars were to be waged now, such as the Etrurian for instance, when Porsena lay on the Janiculum; or, as the Gallic lately, when, except the Capitol and citadel, all places were in possession of the enemy, and that Lucius Sextius stood candidate for the consulship with Camillus, would ye be able to bear, that Sextius should, without any competition, be made consul, while Camillus would be obliged to struggle against the danger of a repulse? Is this to introduce a community of honours? to make it lawful for two plebeians, but unlawful for two patricians, to be chosen consuls. To make it necessary to elect one plebeian, but allowable to pass by all the patricians; what sort of fellowship, what sort of confederacy is this? Are you not satisfied with obtaining a part of that in which hitherto you have had no concern; must you be laying violent hands on the whole? I fear, says Sextius, that if ye are at liberty to elect two patricians, ye will elect no plebeian. What is this but to say, because ye would not, of your own choice, elect unworthy persons, I will impose on you a necessity of admitting them without choice. What follows, but that, if one plebeian be named, together with two patricians, he is not even under an obligation to the people, and may say, that he was appointed by the law, and not elected by their suffrages?
XLI. “The power of extorting, not of suing for honours, is what they aim at; and to attain the most exalted without incurring the obligations even of the lowest: they choose also to make their way to them by means of accidental successes, rather than by merit. Is there any man who can think it an affront to have his character inspected and estimated? Who can deem it reasonable, that he alone, amidst struggling competitors, should have a certainty of obtaining honours? Who would exempt himself from your judgment? Who would render your suffrages necessary (if suffrages I must say) instead of voluntary; servile instead of free? Not to mention Licinius and Sextius, the years of whose perpetuated power, as if they were kings, ye number in the Capitol; what man is there this day, in the state, so mean that he might not, by the opportunities created by this law, make his way to the consulship, with greater ease, than we or our children? Since, in some cases, it will not be in your power to elect us, though ye wish it, and ye will be under a necessity of electing them, though against your will. Of the injury offered to merit, I shall say no more, for merit regards only the human race. But what shall I say, with respect to religion, and the auspices; the affront and injury offered to which, reflect immediately on the immortal gods? That this city was founded under auspices; that all business, civil and military, foreign and domestic, is conducted under them, who can be ignorant? In whom therefore is the privilege of auspices vested according to the constitution of our forefathers? In the patricians undoubtedly. For no plebeian magistrate is even so elected. So peculiar to us are the auspices, that the patrician magistrates, whom the people may approve, can be in no other manner elected; while we ourselves, without the suffrages of the people, create an interrex, under auspices; and, in private stations also hold such privilege, which they do not, even when in office. Does not he then, in effect, abolish the auspices, who by creating plebeian consuls, takes them out of the hands of the patricians, the only persons capable of holding them? They may now mock at religion, and say, where is the great matter, if the chickens do not feed? If they come out too slowly from the coop? If a bird chaunt an ominous note? These are trivial matters: but by not disregarding these trivial matters, our ancestors raised this state to the highest eminence. In the present times, as if we stood in no need of the favour of the gods, we violate all religious institutions. Let therefore pontiffs, augurs, kings of the sacrifices, be chosen at random. Let us place the tiara of Jupiter’s flamen on any one that offers, provided he be a man. Let us commit the Ancilia, the shrines, the gods, and the charge of their worship, to persons to whom they cannot, without impiety, be intrusted. Let neither laws be enacted, nor magistrates elected under auspices. Let not the approbation of the senate be requisite, either to the assemblies of the centuries, or of the Curias. Let Sextius and Licinius, like Romulus and Tatius, reign in the city of Rome, in return for their generosity in plundering from other men’s fortunes: in giving away other men’s money and lands, does it not occur to you, that by one of these laws, great part of the possessions must be converted into desolate wilds, in consequence of the owners being expelled from them: by the other, that credit would be annihilated, by which all human society must be at an end. For every reason, then, I am of opinion, that ye ought to reject those propositions altogether. Whatever is your determination, may the gods grant it a happy issue.”
XLII. The speech of Appius produced no other effect, than the putting off the decision on the propositions to another time. Sextius and Licinius, being again re-elected tribunes, the tenth time, procured a law to be enacted, that, of the decemvirs for superintending religious matters, half should be chosen from among the commons. Accordingly, five patricians were elected, and five plebeians. Which step being gained, the way seemed open to the consulship. Satisfied with this victory, the commons conceded so far to the patricians, that, no mention being made of consuls for the present, military tribunes should be elected.Y.R.388. 364. The election fell on Aulus and Marcus Cornelius a second time, Marcus Geganius, Publius Manlius, Lucius Veturius, and Publius Valerius a sixth time. Except the siege of Velitræ, an affair of which the issue was rather tedious than doubtful, the Romans were undisturbed by any foreign concerns; when a sudden report of the Gauls approaching in arms, occasioned so great an alarm, that Marcus Furius Camillus was appointed dictator the fifth time, and he nominated Titus Quintius Pennus master of horse. Claudius asserts, that a battle was fought with the Gauls this year, on the banks of the river Anio, and that, at this time, happened the famous combat on the bridge, in which Titus Manlius, engaging with a Gaul who had challenged him, slew him in the sight of the two armies, and spoiled him of a chain. But I am led, by the authority of many writers to believe, that these events happened at least ten years later; and that a pitched battle was now fought with the Gauls by the dictator Camillus, in the territory of Alba. The victory was neither doubtful, nor obtained with difficulty by the Romans; although, from people’s recollection of former misfortunes, the coming of the Gauls had diffused very great terror. Many thousands of the barbarians were slain in the field, and great numbers in the storming of their camp. The rest dispersing, mostly towards Apulia, escaped, partly by continuing their flight to a great distance; and partly by being, through dismay and terror, scattered widely, in different quarters. The dictator had a triumph decreed him, with the concurrence of the senate and commons. Scarcely, however, had he got rid of the business of this war, than he found employment, from a more violent commotion at home: and the issue of an obstinate struggle was, that the dictator and senate were overpowered, and the propositions of the tribunes admitted. In consequence, an election of consuls was held, in spite of the opposition of the nobility, in which Lucius Sextius was made consul, the first of plebeian rank. Nor did the disputes end even here. The patricians refusing to give their approbation, the affair was likely to produce a secession of the commons, with dreadful consequences; when their dissensions were accommodated on terms, by the interposition of the dictator. The nobility made concessions to the commons, with respect to the plebeian consul, and the commons to the nobility with respect to one prætor to be elected out of the patricians, to administer justice in the city. Concord being, by these means, restored between the orders, after such a long continuance of mutual animosity, the senate were of opinion, that such an event deserved to be signalized by an exhibition of the most magnificent games, and by the addition of another day, to the usual three, of the Latine festival; expecting on this occasion, if on any whatever, to find a general willingness to show that testimony of gratitude to the immortal gods. But the plebeian ædiles refused to undertake the business: on which the younger patricians, with one accord, cried out, that out of their desire of paying due honour to the deities, they would with pleasure perform it, provided they were appointed ædiles. Their offer was accepted, with universal thanks, and the senate decreed, that the dictator should propose to the people, to appoint two of the patricians to the office of ædiles; and that the senate would give their approbation to all the elections made in that year.
* The mural crown was made of gold, and presented to those, who, in assaults, were the first that forced their way into the towns. The civic crown was composed of oak leaves, and bestowed on him who had saved the life of a citizen. The camp crown, corona vallaris or castrensis, was of gold, and given to the man who first mounted the rampart of an enemy’s camp. The obsidional crown, corona obsidionalis, was composed of grass, and presented by the troops relieved from a siege, to the commander who succoured them.
* 1614l. 11s. 8d.
The offices of prætor and curule ædile instituted. A pestilential disorder rages in the city; of which dies the celebrated Furius Camillus. Scenic representations first introduced. Curtius, armed, on horseback, leaps into a gulph in the Forum. Titus Manlius, having slain in single combat a Gaul, who challenged any of the Roman soldiers to fight, takes from him a golden chain which he wears, and is, from thence, called Torquatus. Two new tribes added, called the Pomptine and Publilian. Licinius Stolo is found guilty, upon a law carried by himself, of possessing more than five hundred acres of land. Marcus Valerius, surnamed Corvinus, from having, with the aid of a crow, killed a Gaul, who challenged him, is next year elected consul, though but twenty-three years old. A treaty of friendship made with the Carthaginians. The Campanians, overpowered by the Samnites, surrender themselves to the Roman people, who declare war against the Samnites. P. Decius Mus saves the Roman army, brought into extreme danger by the consul A. Cornelius. Conspiracy and revolt of the Roman soldiers in the garrison of Capua. They are brought to a sense of duty, and restored to their country, by Marcus Valerius Corvus, dictator. Successful operations against the Hernicians, Gauls, Tiburtians, Privernians, Tarquinians, Samnites, and Volscians.
Y.R.389. 363.I. THIS year will ever be remarkable for the consulship of a man of no ancestry; and remarkable, also, for the institution of two new public offices, the prætorship and the curule ædileship. These honours the patricians claimed to themselves, as a compensation for their concession of one consul’s place to the plebeians. The commons gave the consulship to Lucius Sexties, the introducer of the law by which it was obtained. The patricians, by their influence among the people, gained the prætorship for Spurius Furius Camillus son of Marcus; and the ædileship, for Cneius Quintius Capitolinus and Publius Cornelius Scipio, men of their own rank. The patrician colleague, given to Lucius Sextius, was Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus. In the beginning of the year, rumours were spread concerning the Gauls, who, after having been dispersed over Apulia, were now said to be collecting themselves into a body; and also concerning a revolt of the Hernicians. But all kinds of business were purposely deferred, lest the plebeian consul should have an opportunity of performing any service, and silence was as much observed on every subject, as though it had been proclaimed. The tribunes, however, did not suffer it to pass unnoticed, that the patricians, by way of requital for one plebeian consulship, had assumed to themselves three patrician magistrates, sitting in curule chairs, and clad in robes of state like consuls; the prætor even administering justice, as a colleague to the consuls, and elected under the same auspices. In consequence of this, the senate were afterwards ashamed to order, that the curule ædiles should be chosen from among the patricians. It was at first agreed that plebeians should be appointed every second year, but in after time the choice was left open. In the consulate of Lucius Genucius and Quintus Servilius, who immediately succeeded, though affairs were tranquil both at home and abroad, yet, as if at no time there could be an exemption from danger and alarm, a pestilence broke out with great violence; a censor, a curile ædile, and three plebeian tribunes, are said to have fallen victims to it, while its ravages among the populace were proportionably numerous; but this calamity was rendered memorable chiefly by the death of Marcus Furius Camillus,Y.R.390. 362. whose loss, though at an advanced period of life, was much to be regreted: he was, in truth, a man singularly eminent in every change of fortune; before he went into banishment, the first person in the state, as well in civil as military departments; in exile, still more illustrious, whether we consider the disaster by which the nation was induced to supplicate his return; or his own successful conduct, by which, on being restored to his country, he effected that country’s liberation, and justified his own fair claim to celebrity. He then, through a course of twenty-five years after, uniformly maintained a character equal to this high rank of glory, allowed on all hands as deserving of being reckoned, next to Romulus, a second founder of the city of Rome.
Y.R.391. 361.II. The pestilence continuing during both this and the following year, in which Caius Sulpicius Pæticus and Caius Licinius Stolo were consuls; nothing memorable was transacted, only that, for the purpose of soliciting the favour of the gods, the Lectisternium was performed the third time since the building of the city. But the disorder receiving no alleviation, either from human wisdom or divine aid, the strength of the people’s minds became almost overpowered by superstition, and, it is said, that on this occasion, among other devices for appeasing the wrath of heaven, scenic plays were introduced; a new thing to a warlike people; for hitherto there had been only the shows of the Circus. However, this kind of performance was, as in general all beginnings are, but a trifling matter, and even that borrowed from abroad. Actors were sent for from Etruria, who, though without any poetical language, or any gestures correspondent to such language, yet regulating their motions by the measures of the music, exhibited, in the Tuscan manner, something far from ungraceful. The younger citizens soon began to imitate these; throwing out, at the same time, among each other, ludicrous expressions in coarse verses, and with gestures adapted to the words: this kind of performance then being received with approbation, in the course of frequent practice gained much improvement. The native performers were called Histriones, from the Tuscan word Hister, signifying a player; and they did not, as formerly, pronounce alternately, without regard to order, verses like the Fescennine, artless and unpolished, but represented comic medleys,* composed in regular metre, with the several parts of the performance properly adjusted to the music; the delivery of the words and the gesticulation being performed in concert with the music. Several years after this, Livius, who was the first to lay aside medleys, and to digest a story into a regular plot, being also, as all were at that time, the actor of his own pieces; and, having broken his voice by being obliged to repeat them too often, after requesting the indulgence of the public, placed a boy before the musician, to chaunt,† while he himself performed the gesticulations. And this he executed with much freer action, because disengaged from attention to the management of his voice. Hence originated the practice of the chaunting being performed by another, to the gesticulation of the actors, whose voices were eased of all but the dialogue. When, by this regulation, the scenic business was directed to other objects than laughter and intemperate mirth, and the amusement was, by degrees, converted into an art, the younger citizens, leaving to professed actors the exhibition of plays, began, according to the ancient practice, to throw out alternately ludicrous jests, comprised in verse, which thence got the name of exodia, or interludes, and were collected principally out of the Atellan farces.* This kind of entertainment, thus borrowed from Oscia, these younger citizens kept in their own hands, not suffering it to be debased by professed players. For this reason the rule was established, which is still observed, that the actors of these Atellan farces are not degraded from their tribe, and are capable of serving in the army, as if no way concerned in the business of the stage. Among the trifling beginnings of other matters, I thought it not amiss to give a view of the origin of theatrical exhibitions also, in order to show, from a moderate setting out, to what an intolerable extravagance they have proceeded; such extravagance, indeed, as scarcely to be supported by opulent kingdoms.
III. However, this introduction of stage plays, intended as a pious expiation, neither relieved men’s minds from religious dread, nor their bodies from the disorder: so far otherwise, that an inundation of the Tiber happening to overflow the Circus, and to interrupt a play in the middle of the performance, that incident excited the utmost degree of terror, as it was deemed a token of the displeasure of the gods, and that they disdained the atonements offered to their wrath.Y.R.392. 360. Wherefore, in the next consulate, of Cneius Genucius, and Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus a second time, people’s minds being more harassed in searching for expiations, than their bodies by the sickness, it was collected, from the memory of some of the more aged, that a pestilence had formerly ceased, on the nail being driven by a dictator. The senate were so superstitious on the occasion, as to order a dictator to be appointed, for the purpose of driving the nail: Lucius Manlius Imperiosus was accordingly nominated, and he appointed Lucius Pinarius master of the horse. There is an obsolete law, written in antique letters and words, that whoever is supreme officer, should drive a nail on the ides of September. It used to be driven into the right side of the temple of Jupiter, supremely great and good, in that part where the statue of Minerva stands. This nail, it is said, served as a mark of the number of years elapsed, the use of letters being rare in those times; and the law directed the ceremony to the temple of Minerva, because the use of numbers was an invention of that goddess. Cincius, a diligent inquirer into such monuments of antiquity, assures us, that there were to be seen, among the Volscians also, nails fixed in the temple of the Tuscan goddess Nortia, by which they kept account of the number of years. Marcus Horatius, being then consul, first performed this ceremony, in obedience to the law, at the temple of Jupiter, supremely good and great, in the year after the expulsion of the kings. Afterwards, the solemnity of driving the nail was transferred from the consuls to a dictator, because this was a superior office: the custom was dropped in after times, but it was now deemed an affair of sufficient importance in itself, to require the nomination of a chief. Manlius, who was appointed for the purpose, as if he had been commissioned to manage the affairs of the state in general, and not merely to acquit it of a religious duty, being ambitious of commanding an army against the Hernicians, harassed the youth by a rigorous severity in levying troops, until at length all the plebeian tribunes united to oppose him; and then overcome, either by force or shame, he resigned the dictatorship.
IV. Notwithstanding which, in the beginning of the next year, Quintus Servilius Ahala,Y.R.393. 359. and Lucius Genucius a second time, being consuls, a criminal prosecution was commenced against Manlius, by Marcus Pomponius, a plebeian tribune. His rigour in the levies, which he had carried, not only to the fining of the citizens, but even to the wounding of their persons, (those who refused to answer to their names being some beaten with rods, others loaded with chains, had excited a general hatred against him; but more obnoxious than all were his impetuous temper, and the surname of Imperiosus, which he had assumed out of an ostentation of severity, a quality which appeared not more conspicuously in his behaviour to strangers, than to the persons most closely connected with him, and to those of his own blood. — One of the charges brought against him, by the tribune, was, that “he had banished his son, a youth convicted of no dishonourable act, from the city, from his house, from his tutelar gods, from the Forum; prohibited him the enjoyment of the light, and of the conversation of his equals; having reduced him to work like a slave, in a kind of prison or work-house, and thus had one of most distinguished birth, of dictatorian rank, learned, from his daily sufferings, that he was born of a father really imperious. And for what fault? Because he was not endowed with eloquence, nor ready in discourse. And whether ought the father, if he had a particle of humanity in him, to apply gentle remedies to a natural defect, or to attempt to correct it by punishment, and cause it to be more noticed by a course of harsh treatment? Even beasts, if any of their offspring chance to be unhappily formed, are nevertheless careful in nourishing and cherishing it. But Manlius aggravated the misfortune of his son, and clogged the slowness of his capacity with additional impediments; and whatever spark of natural ability he possessed, took the method to extinguish it by accustoming him to a rustic life and clownish manners, keeping him among his cattle.”
V. By these charges every one was highly incensed against Manlius, except the young man himself; on the contrary, grieving that he should be the cause of hatred and accusations against his parent, in order to demonstrate to gods and men that he wished support to his father, rather than to his enemies, he formed a design, which, though not reconcileable to the rules of civil society, was yet commendable in its principle of filial duty. Having provided himself with a dagger, he came to the city, without the knowledge of any one, early in the morning, and proceeding directly to the house of Marcus Pomponius the tribune, told the porter that he wanted to see his master immediately, and desired him to acquaint him that Titus Manlius, the son of Lucius, was there. He was immediately introduced: for the other hoped that he came inflamed with resentment against his father, and had brought either some new matter for accusation, or some scheme for accomplishing the design. Manlius then, after mutual salutations, told him that he wished to confer with him, on some business, in private. All who were present being ordered to withdraw to a distance from the apartment, he drew his dagger, and standing over the couch with the weapon ready to strike, threatened to stab him that moment, if he did not swear, in the words which he should dictate, that he “never would hold a meeting of the commons for the purpose of prosecuting his father.” The tribune, affrighted at seeing the steel glittering before his eyes, himself alone and unarmed, the other a young man, his superior in strength, and, what was no less terrifying, full of savage ferocity from consciousness of his strength, swore in the terms enjoined him; and afterwards alleged this sorry proceeding, as his reason for desisting from his undertaking. Nor did the people conceive any displeasure at so bold an attempt of a son in behalf of his parent, although they would have been much better pleased to have had an opportunity of passing sentence on a culprit of such a cruel and tyrannical disposition; and it was thought the more commendable in him, that the excessive rigour of his father had not erased from his mind the love of him. Wherefore, besides the father being excused from standing a trial, that very affair was also productive of honours to the son; and, on its being determined that year, for the first time, that the tribunes of the soldiers for the legions should be appointed by vote of the people, (for until then, the commanders used to appoint them of their own authority, as they do at present those termed Ruffuli,) he obtained the second place among six, though not recommended to public favour by any merit, either in a civil or military line, having spent his youth in the country, and out of the way of any intercourse with the world.
VI. In the same year, we are told, the earth, near the middle of the Forum, in consequence either of an earthquake, or some other violent cause, sunk down to an immense depth, forming a vast aperture; nor could the gulph be filled up by all the earth which they could throw into it, though every one exerted himself in bringing it thither, until, pursuant to advice of the gods, they set about enquiring what it was which constituted the principal strength of the Roman people; for, according to the responses of the soothsayers, that must be devoted to this place, if they wished that the Roman commonwealth should be everlasting. Then they tell us, that Marcus Curtius, a youth highly distinguished by his military exploits, reproved them for deliberating whether Rome was possessed of any greater good than arms and valour; and, on this, silence being made, throwing his eyes round to the temples of the gods within view of the Forum, and to the Capitol, and extending his hands, at one time towards heaven, at another, towards the infernal gods, through the gaping aperture of the earth, he devoted himself as a victim. Then, having dressed himself in complete armour, and mounted a horse accoutred with the most gorgeous furniture which could be procured, he plunged into the opening, and the multitude, men and women, threw in over him their offerings, and quantities of the fruits of the earth; and thus it is said the lake received its name, and not, as it supposed by some, from Mettius Curtius, the ancient soldier of Titus Tatius. If there were any way of coming at the truth, no diligence should be wanting, on my part, in the pursuit of it: but now, when the distance of time precludes all certain evidence, we must abide by the reports of tradition, and account for the name of the lake from this latter fable. This great prodigy being expiated, the senate, during the same year, taking the affair of the Hernicians into consideration, voted, (after sending heralds to demand satisfaction, without effect,) that on the first proper day, the sense of the people should be taken on the subject of a declaration of war against them, and the people, in full assembly, ordered it. That province fell, by lot, to the consul Lucius Genucius: and now the whole state was in anxious suspense; because, being the first plebeian who, in quality of consul, was to wage war under his own auspices, the issue of the expedition would furnish an opportunity of judging of the wisdom or imprudence of introducing a community of honours. Fortune so ordered it, that Genucius marching against the enemy with a powerful force, fell into an ambush, where the legions being seized with a sudden panic, and routed, the consul was surrounded and slain by persons, who knew not at the time who they had killed. When the news of this was brought to Rome, the patricians, who were not so much grieved at the calamity of the public, as they were elated at the ill success attending the command of a plebeian consul, every where exclaimed, “Let them go now and elect plebeian consuls; yet transfer the auspices, they could not without impiety. The patricians might indeed, by a vote of the people, be driven from the possession of their own peculiar honours; but had this inauspicious law been able to prevail likewise against the immortal gods? These had interposed to vindicate their own authority, their own auspices: for no sooner had these been defiled by a person prohibited by divine and human laws, than the destruction of their army, together with their commander, had given them warning, not to conduct elections in such a manner hereafter, as to confound the rights of birth.” The senate-house and the Forum resounded with such expressions. Appius Claudius, who had argued against the law, and therefore, with greater authority, blamed the people now for the issue of a scheme, of which he had manifested his disapprobation, was, at the general desire of the patricians, nominated dictator by the consul Servilius, and proclamation was issued for a levy and a cessation of business.
VII. Before the arrival of the dictator, and the new legions, at the place where the Hernicians lay, Caius Sulpicius, the lieutenant-general, who held the command, making use of an opportunity which offered, fought the enemy with brilliant success. After the death of the consul, the Hernicians had advanced towards the Roman camp, in a contemptuous manner, confident, beyond doubt, of becoming masters of it; on which the soldiers, burning with rage and indignation, and encouraged by the lieutenant-general, sallied out upon them. The Hernicians were so widely disappointed in their hopes of approaching the rampart, that they were obliged to retire in great confusion. Soon after, by the arrival of the dictator, the new army was joined to the old, and the forces doubled. The dictator, by bestowing commendations, in a public speech, on the lieutenant-general and the soldiers, by whose bravery the camp had been defended, animated still farther the courage of those, who heard their own praises justly set forth, and stimulated the rest to emulation of their merit. Nor were the preparations for action less vigorous on the side of the enemy; mindful of the honour which they had before acquired, and not ignorant of the addition to the strength of the Romans, they applied themselves to augment their own likewise. The whole Hernician race, every man of military age, was called out. Eight cohorts were formed, consisting each of four hundred men, the ablest which could be chosen out of all their number. This select body, the flower of their youth, they also filled with hope and spirits by a decree, that they should receive double pay: they were, besides, excused from military works, in order that, being reserved entirely for the single labour of fighting, they might be sensible that they ought to make exertions beyond what was expected from the generality of men: even an extraordinary post in the field was allotted them, that their valour might be the more conspicuous. A plain of two miles in breadth separated the Roman camp from that of the Hernicians: in the middle of this, the spaces being nearly equal on both sides, they came to an engagement. The fight was maintained, for some time, without any apparent advantage, the Roman cavalry making many fruitless attempts to disorder the enemy’s line by their charge: but when they found that, acting as cavalry, they could produce no effect in proportion to their efforts, the horsemen, after first consulting the dictator, and obtaining his permission, dismounted from their horses, rushed forward, with a loud shout, before the line, and recommenced the fight in a new mode. Nor could they have been resisted, had not the extraordinary cohorts, their equals in vigour both of body and mind, thrown themselves in their way.
VIII. The contest then lay between the nobility of the two nations. Whatever the common chance of war carried off from the one side or the other, was a loss to be estimated on a much higher scale than that of the numbers. The rest, an armed populace, as if they had delegated the fight to their nobles, rested the issue of their own cause on the bravery of the others. Many fell on both sides; more were wounded. At length the horsemen, chiding each other, began to ask, “In what manner they were to act next? since, neither on horseback had they made an impression on the enemy, nor on foot were performing any service of consequence? What other method of fighting did they wait for? To what purpose was their rushing forward so fiercely before the line, and their combating in a post which did not belong to them?” Animated by these mutual reproaches, they raised the shout anew, pressed forward, and compelled the enemy, first to shrink, then to give way, and at last fairly drove them off the field. It is not here easy to say what circumstance turned the advantage against strength so equally matched with their own; unless it were, that the fortune, which continually attended each nation, had power both to exalt and to depress courage. The Romans pursued the flying Hernicians to their camp; but they did not choose to attack it, because it was then late in the day. Some delay in finishing the sacrifices with success had detained the dictator, so that he could not give the signal before noon, and, in consequence, the battle had lasted until night. Next day, the camp of the Hernicians was found deserted, and many of their wounded left behind. Their main body, as they fled, was attacked by the Signians, who observing, as they passed by their walls, that their standards were but thinly attended, routed and dispersed them through the country in precipitate flight. Nor did the Romans gain the victory without bloodshed; a fourth part of their soldiers perished, and, what was a loss of no less importance, several of the Roman horsemen fell.
Y.R.394. 358.IX. In the year following, the consuls, Caius Sulpicius, and Caius Licinius Calvus, led an army against the Hernicians, and, not finding the enemy in the field, took Ferentinum, one of their cities, by storm; when, on their return from thence, the Tiburtians shut their gates against them. This behaviour finally determined the Romans, many complaints having been made on both sides, before this, to declare war against the people of Tibur, after demanding satisfaction by heralds. We learn, from very good authority, that Titus Quintius Pennus was dictator this year, and Servius Cornelius Maluginensis master of the horse. Macer Licinius writes, that he was nomimated by the consul Licinius, for the purpose of holding the elections; because, observing that his colleague hastened the elections, in order to have them over before the commencement of the campaign, with design to procure his own re-election to the consulship, he judged it necessary to thwart his ambitious designs. This account, being calculated to enhance the honour of his own family, renders the authority of Licinius of the less weight; as I find no mention of that circumstance in the earlier annals, I am inclined to think, that the dictator was appointed rather on account of the Gallic war. There is no doubt that, in that year, the Gauls were encamped at the third stone on the Salarian road, at the farther side of the bridge of the Anio. The dictator having, in consequence of the alarm of a Gallic tumult, proclaimed a cessation of civil business, obliged all the younger citizens to take the military oath; and, marching out of the city with a very powerful army, encamped on the hither bank of the Anio. The bridge lay between the armies, neither party choosing to break it down, lest it should be construed as an indication of fear. Frequent skirmishes were fought for the possession of the bridge, but so indecisive, that it could not be clearly discovered to which party it belonged. While affairs were in this posture, a Gaul, of a stature remarkably large, advanced on the bridge, then unoccupied; and, with a loud voice, called out, “Let the bravest man that Rome can produce, come forth here to battle, that the event of a combat between us two may determine which of the nations is to be held superior in war.”
X. The young Roman nobility were for a long time silent, ashamed to refuse the challenge, yet unwilling to claim the first post of danger. Then Titus Manlius, son of Lucius, the same who had freed his father from the persecution of the tribune, advancing from his station to the dictator, said, “General, I would on no account leave my post to fight without your orders, not though I should see a certain prospect of victory: but if you permit me, I wish to show that brute, who makes such an insolent parade in the front of the enemy’s army, that I am sprung from that family which beat down an army of Gauls from the Tarpeian rock.” The dictator answered, “Titus Manlius, I honour your bravery, and your dutiful regard to your father, and to your country; go, and with the help of the gods, show the Roman name invincible.” The youth was then armed by his companions, took a footman’s shield, and girded on a Spanish sword, adapted to close fight. As soon as they had fitted on his armour and ornaments, they conducted him out towards the Gaul, who showed a savage joy, and (the ancients have thought that circumstance also worth mention) even thrust out his tongue in derision. They then retired to their posts, and the two champions were left in the middle space, in the manner of a spectacle, rather than according to the rules of combat, very unequally matched, in the eyes of such as judged by sight and appearance. The one had a body of enormous size, glittering in a vest of various colours, having armour painted and inlaid with gold: the other was of the middle stature among soldiers, and his mein devoid of ostentation, in arms calculated for ready use more than for show. On his side there was no song of defiance, no capering, or vain flourishing of arms, but his breast, replete with resolution and silent rage, reserved all its fierceness for the decision of the contest. They took their ground between the two armies, while the minds of such great numbers of men on both sides were suspended between hope and fear. The Gaul, like some huge mass, ready to crush the other under it, stretching forward his shield with his left hand, discharged an ineffectual blow on the edge of his sword, with great noise, on the armour of Manlius, as he approached; while the Roman, pushing aside the lower part of his antagonist’s shield with his own, and insinuating himself between that and his body, closed in with him in such a manner, as to be in no danger of a wound. He then raised the point of his sword, and with one, and then a second thrust, piercing the belly and groin of his foe, laid him prostrate on the ground, of which he covered a vast extent. The body, without offering it any other indignity, he despoiled of a chain only, which, bloody as it was, he threw round his own neck. Astonishment and dismay held the Gauls motionless. The Romans, in rapture, advanced from their posts to meet their champion, and with congratulations and praises conducted him to the dictator. Among the unpolished jests which they threw out, according to the soldiers’ custom, composed in a manner somewhat resembling verses, the appellation Torquatus was heard joined with his name; which, being generally adopted, has since done honour to the descendants of that whole line. The dictator also presented him with a golden crown, and, in a public speech, extolled the action in the highest terms.
XI. In fact, that combat was of so great consequence with respect to the general issue of the campaign, that, on the night following, the army of the Gauls, abandoning their camp in hurry and confusion, removed into the territory of Tibur; and from thence, soon after, into Campania, having first concluded an alliance with the Tiburtians, for the purpose of carrying on the war, and received from them liberal supplies of provisions.Y.R.395. 357. This was the reason, that in the next year Caius Pœtelius Balbus, consul, notwithstanding that province of the Hernicians had fallen to the lot of his colleague Marcus Fabius Ambustus, led an army, by order of the people, against the Tiburtians, to whose assistance the Gauls came back from Campania, and dreadful ravages were committed in the territories of Lavici, Tusculum, and Alba, in which the Tiburtians openly took the lead. Though the state had been content with a consul at the head of the army, against such an enemy as the Tiburtians, the alarm of a Gallic war made it requisite, that a dictator should be created. Quintus Servilius Ahala being accordingly appointed, he nominated Titus Quintius master of the horse; and, by direction of the senate, vowed to celebrate the great games, if in that war he should be crowned with success. The dictator then, ordering the consular army to remain where it was, in order to keep the Tiburtians at home, by obliging them to employ their arms in their own defence, enlisted all the younger citizens, none declining the service. A battle was fought with the enemy at no great distance from the Colline gate, in which the entire strength of the city was employed, in the sight of their parents, wives, and children. Such incitements to courage as the preservation of their dearest relatives, which operate powerfully, even when those relatives are absent, being now placed before their eyes, roused every sentiment of honour and every feeling of affection. After great slaughter on both sides, the army of the Gauls was at length defeated. They directed their flight towards Tibur, which the Gauls considered as the grand stay of the war; but being met in disorder, not far from that city, by the consul Pœtelius, and the Tiburtians marching out to their aid, they were all driven within the gates. Thus both the dictator and the consul conducted their operations most successfully. Fabius likewise, the other consul, at first, in slight skirmishes, and, at last, in one remarkable engagement, wherein the Hernicians attacked him with their whole force, entirely defeated them. The dictator, after passing magnificent encomiums on the consuls, and declining in their favour the honours due to his own exploits, abdicated the dictatorship. Pœtelius enjoyed a double triumph over the Gauls and the Tiburtians. Fabius was contented with entering the city in ovation. The Tiburtians treated the triumph of Pœtelius with derision; for, “where,” they asked, “had he tried their strength in the field? a few of their people, who had gone out at the gates, as spectators of the flight and confusion of the Gauls, on finding themselves also attacked, and that every one who came in the way was slain, without distinction, had retired into the city. Did the Romans deem this a matter worthy of a triumph? They had thought it a great and marvellous exploit to raise a tumult at an enemy’s gates, but they should soon experience greater trepidation round their own walls.”
XII. Accordingly, in the year following, when Marcus Popillius Lænas, and Cneius Manlius,Y.R.396. 356. were consuls, setting out from Tibur in the dead of the night, with forces prepared for action, they came to the city of Rome, where the people, being roused hastily from sleep, were filled with consternation, by the suddenness of the affair, and the alarm happening in the night, great numbers also being ignorant who were the enemy or whence they came. However, they quickly ran to arms, posted guards at the gates, and manned the walls; and when day-break showed no other enemy before the city but the Tiburtians, and those not very considerable, the consuls marching out by two different gates, attacked their army on both flanks as they were just advancing to the walls. It then appeared, that they had come with greater reliance on the opportunity for a surprise, than on their own valour; for they scarcely withstood the first onset of the Romans. Their coming proved, in the event, even fortunate to the Romans, a dissension which was on the point of breaking out between the patricians and plebeians being suppressed by their apprehensions from a war so near at home. Another irruption into their territory, and by another enemy, succeeded this; more terrible, however, to the country, than to the city. The Tarquinians over-ran the Roman frontiers, committing depredations, principally, on the side contiguous to Etruria: and, after restitution had been demanded in vain, the new consuls, Caius Fabius, and Caius Plautius, by order of the people,Y.R.397. 355. declared war against them: that province fell to Fabius, the Hernicians to Plautius. A rumour of a Gallic war also prevailed. But amid these causes of apprehension, they derived some consolation in a peace with the Latines, granted at their own request, and also from a large supply of soldiers sent by that nation in compliance with an ancient treaty, the terms of which had been disregarded for many years past. This addition of strength was such an effectual support to the cause of the Romans, that they heard with the less concern, soon after, that the Gauls had come to Præneste, and, afterwards, that they were encamped near Pedum. It was determined that Caius Sulpicius should be created dictator; he was accordingly nominated by the consul, Caius Plautius, who was called home for the purpose; and Marcus Valerius was appointed master of the horse. These led against the Gauls the ablest of the soldiers, chosen out of the two consular armies. This war proved much more tedious than was suitable to the views of either party. At first, the Gauls only were in haste to come to an engagement; but, in a little time, the Roman soldiery far surpassed them in their eagerness for the fight. The dictator thought it highly improper, when no urgent occasion required it, to hazard a battle against an enemy, whose strength, time, and an incommodious situation, would daily impair, while they lay there inactive, without either a magazine of provisions, or a fortification of any strength; and who were, besides, of such a constitution, both of body and mind, that their whole force consisted in brisk exertions, but flagged on a short delay. On these considerations, the dictator protracted the war, and denounced a severe punishment if any should engage without orders. With this the soldiers were highly displeased, censuring, in their private conversations, sometimes the dictator, and sometimes the senate in general, for not having ordered the war to be conducted by the consuls. “An excellent general,” they said, “had been chosen, an extraordinary commander, who expected, that, without any effort, victory would fly down from heaven into his lap.” Afterwards, they began openly in the day to utter the same expressions, and others still more outrageous, saying, that, “without regarding the general’s orders, they would either fight the enemy, or go in a body to Rome.” The centurions, too, mixed themselves with the soldiers; nor did they confine their murmurs to their own circles, but, at length, in the head-quarters, and about the general’s tent, uttered their sentiments in one general confused clamour; until, the crowd increasing to the size of a general assembly, it was at last shouted from every side, that they should go that instant to the dictator, and that Sextus Tullius should speak in behalf of the army, in such manner as became his courage.
XIII. Tullius was now, the seventh time, in the post of first centurion of a legion; nor was there a man in the army, at least among the infantry, more eminently distinguished by his behaviour. At the head of the body of the soldiery, he proceeded to the tribunal, and while Sulpicius wondered not more at the crowd, than at Tullius, a soldier most remarkable for obedience to command, being the leader of that crowd, he addressed him thus:—“Dictator, permit me to inform you, that the whole army, thinking themselves condemned, in your judgment, as cowards, and kept without arms, almost as if they had been sentenced to ignominy, have entreated me to plead their cause before you. In truth, could it even be objected to us, that, on any occasion, we had deserted our post, turned our backs to an enemy, or shamefully lost our standards, I think we might, notwithstanding, reasonably expect to obtain so much favour from you, as that you would allow us by our bravery to atone for our fault; and, by a new acquisition of glory, to blot out the memory of our disgrace. Even the legions, defeated at the Allia, marching out afterwards from Veii, recovered by their valour, the country which they had lost through cowardice. We, by the blessing of the gods, your good fortune, and that of the Roman people, have both our cause and our glory unimpaired; although I scarcely dare to mention glory, whilst the enemy scoff at us with every kind of insult, as hiding ourselves, like women, behind a rampart. And what grieves us still more, is, that you, our general, should entertain so mean an opinion of our army, as to suppose us without spirit, without arms, without hands; and that, before you have made any trial of your strength, you should despair of us, as if you considered yourself the commander of a set of maimed and disabled men. For what else can we believe to be the reason, that you, a general of long experience, remarkable for spirit in war, sit, as the saying is, with folded hands? But however this may be, it is fitter that you should doubt our courage than we yours. If, however, this plan be not your own; if it be enjoined by public authority; and if some scheme concerted among the patricians, and not the Gallic war, detains us in banishment from the city, and from our homes, I beseech you, that what I say on this head, you will not consider as spoken by soldiers to their general, but to the patricians by the commons, who declare, that as ye have your separate plans, so will they have theirs. In such case, who can blame us, if we look on ourselves as your soldiers, not as your slaves; as men sent to war, not into exile; as men who, if any one were to give the signal, and lead them to the field, would fight as becomes Romans; but who, if there were no occasion for their arms, would rather pass a time of peace at Rome, than in a camp? Let this be deemed as addressed to the patricians. Of you, general, we, your soldiers, intreat that you will give us an opportunity of fighting. We wish to conquer, and under your command: to present you with distinguished laurels; to enter the city with you in triumph, and following your chariot with congratulations and rejoicings, to approach the temple of Jupiter supremely good and great.” The speech of Tullius was followed by the entreaties of the multitude, who, from every side, loudly requested that he would give the signal, that he would order them to take arms.
XIV. This proceeding, however laudable in its principle, was yet conducted in a manner which the dictator could by no means approve. He yet undertook to comply with the wishes of the soldiers; and inquired of Tullius in private, what sort of transaction this was, and on what precedent they had acted? Tullius earnestly besought Sulpicius to believe that he had not forgotten either his duty as a soldier, or the high respect due to his general: assuring him that “his reason for not declining to put himself at the head of the incensed soldiery, who were all actuated by the same spirit, was, lest some other might stand forth, and such as a multitude in commotion generally appoint. That, as to himself, most certainly, he would do nothing without the direction of the general; on whom, nevertheless, it was highly incumbent to use every precaution on his part, for retaining the army in obedience to command. That minds so exasperated would not brook delay, and that they would themselves choose a time and place for fighting, if not granted to them by the general.” While they were talking in this manner, it happened that as a Gaul was attempting to drive off some cattle that were feeding on the outside of the rampart, two Roman soldiers took them from him. Stones were thrown by the Gauls, then a shout was raised at the next Roman post, and several ran out from both sides. The affair was now likely to end in a general battle, had not the contest been quickly stopped by the centurions. This accident, however, served to confirm the testimony of Tullius in the judgment of the dictator; and the matter admitting no farther delay, notice was given that they were to fight on the day following. The dictator, however, as he was going out to the field, confiding in the courage more than in the numbers of his men, began to look about and study how he might, by some artifice, strike terror into the enemy. His sagacious mind struck out a new device, which many commanders, both of our own and foreign nations, have since practised, some even in our times. He ordered the panniers to be taken off from the mules, two side-cloths only being left on each, and on these he mounted the muleteers dressed up in arms, of which some had been taken from the enemy, the rest belonged to the sick. Having thus equipped about one thousand of these, he mixed with them an hundred horsemen, and ordered them to go up during the night, into the mountains above the camp, to conceal themselves in the woods, and not to stir from thence, until they should receive a signal from him. As soon as day appeared, he began to extend his line along the bottom of the mountain, with the purpose of making the enemy draw up with their faces towards the ascent: he thus completed his preparatory measures for infusing terror, which terror, groundless as it was, proved rather more serviceable to him, than his real strength. The leaders of the Gauls at first believed that the Romans would not come down to the plain: afterwards, when they saw them begin on a sudden to descend, they also, on their part, eager for the contest, rushed on to battle, and the fight began before the signal had been given by the generals.
XV. The Gauls made their fiercest attack on the right wing, which would not have been able to withstand them, had not the dictator happened to be on the spot, who reproached Sextus Tullius by name, and asked him, “Was that the manner in which he had engaged that the soldiers should fight? Where were those shouts, with which they had demanded arms? Where their threats that they would engage without the general’s orders? Behold their general now, calling them with a loud voice to battle, and advancing in arms before the front of the line. Would any of those follow him, who just now were to have led the way; fierce in the camp, but dastardly in the field?” These reproaches were just; the men were, therefore, so deeply stung with shame, that, totally regardless of danger, they rushed against the weapons of their adversaries. This onset, made with a degree of madness, first disordered the enemy; and the cavalry charging them while in disorder, forced them to give way. Sulpicius, when he saw their line wavering on that side, went round with some troops to the left wing, where he observed them collected in a close body, and gave the signal agreed on to those who were stationed on the mountains; whereupon a new shout was raised on that quarter also, and they were seen coming down the mountain in an oblique direction towards the camp of the Gauls; these, then, dreading lest they should be cut off from their camp, ceased fighting, and ran towards it with precipitation; but being met in the way by Marcus Valerius, the master of the horse, who, after having routed their left wing, was pushing forward to the intrenchment, they turned their flight towards the mountains and woods. Here the greater part of them were intercepted by the muleteers, who personated horsemen; and of those, whose fears had carried them into the woods, a terrible slaughter was made, after the battle was ended. Nor did any one, since Camillus, obtain a more complete triumph over the Gauls than Caius Sulpicius. From the spoils he consecrated a very large quantity of gold, in the Capitol, inclosing it within a wall of hewn stone. The same year, the consuls also engaged with the enemy, but with different success: for the Hernicians were entirely defeated, and subdued by Caius Plautius: whereas Fabius, his colleague, came to an engagement with the Tarquinians without caution or prudence. Nor was the loss sustained in the field, on the occasion, so much to be regretted, as that the Tarquinians put to death three hundred and seven Roman soldiers, their prisoners; by which barbarity the disgrace of the Roman people was rendered the more conspicuous. To this disaster were added devastations of the Roman territories, made, in sudden incursions, by the Privernatians, and afterwards, by the people of Velitræ. This year two tribes, the Pomptine and Publilian, were added to the others. The votive games vowed by Marcus Furius Camillus, in his dictatorship, were performed. And a law was now first proposed to the people by Caius Pætilius, plebeian tribune, in pursuance of the directions of the senate, concerning the corrupting of voters at elections, by the passing of which they thought a sufficient restraint was laid on the vicious practices of new men particularly, who had been accustomed to frequent the markets, and other places of meeting, for that purpose.
Y.R.398. 354.XVI. Not equally pleasing to the patricians was a law, carried in the year following, when Caius Marcius and Cneius Manlius were consuls, by Marcus Duilius, and Lucius Mænius, plebeian tribunes, fixing the interest of money at the rate of twelve for each hundred by the year, and which the commons admitted, and passed with much the greater eagerness. In addition to the wars determined on in the foregoing year, a new one arose with the Faliscians; against whom, two charges were made: first, that their youth had fought in conjunction with the Tarquinians; the second, that they had refused, on the demand of the Roman heralds, to restore those soldiers, who, after the defeat, had escaped to Falerii. That province fell to Cneius Manlius. Marcius led an army into the territory of Privernum, which was in a flourishing state, and abounding in plenty, through a long continuance of peace; and there he enriched his soldiers with abundance of spoil. To the great quantity of effects, he added an act of munificence; for, by sequestering no part for the use of the public, he favoured the soldier in the acquisition of private property. The Privernians having taken post in a strongly fortified camp under their walls, he called the soldiers to an assembly, and said to them, “I now bestow upon you the spoil of the camp and city of the enemy, provided ye promise me, that ye will exert yourselves with bravery in the field, and show that ye are not better disposed to plunder than to fight.” They called for the signal with loud shouts; and, full of spirits and with the utmost confidence, advanced to battle. There Sextus Tullius, whom we mentioned above, called out in the front of the line, “General, behold how your troops perform their promises to you.” Then, laying aside his javelin, he rushed forward with his drawn sword. The whole van followed Tullius, and, by their first onset, overthrew the enemy, thence pursuing them as they fled to the town; and, when they were just raising the scaling ladders to the walls, the city surrendered. A triumph was performed over the Privernians. By the other consul nothing memorable was done, only that, holding an assembly of the tribes in the camp at Sutrium, a proceeding unprecedented, he procured a law to be passed concerning the twentieth of the value of persons set free by manumission. As this law produced no small increase of revenue to the treasury, which was very low, the senate gave it their approbation. However, the plebeian tribunes, not so much displeased with the rule as with the precedent, had a law enacted, by which it was made a capital offence for any person, in future, to hold an assembly of the people, at a distance from the city: for they said, “if that were allowed, there was nothing, how prejudicial soever to the community, which might not be passed into a law by soldiers sworn to obey their consuls.” This year, Caius Licinius Stolo, being prosecuted on his own law, by Marcus Popillius Lænas, was fined ten thousand asses,* for holding in partnership with his son a thousand acres of land, and for attempting, by emancipating his son†, to elude the law.
Y.R.399. 353.XVII. The new consuls who succeeded, Marcus Fabius Ambustus and Marcus Popillius Lænas, both a second time, had two wars on their hands, one with the Tiburtians of no great difficulty, in which Lænas commanded, who, after forcing the enemy to take shelter in their town, laid waste their country: the other consul was routed, in the beginning of the fight, by the Faliscians and Tarquinians. These continued to excite the greatest terrors by means of their priests, who, carrying lighted torches and the figures of serpents, and advancing with the gestures of furies, utterly disconcerted the Roman soldiers by their extraordinary appearance; so that they ran back to their entrenchments, in all the hurry of dismay, like men seized with phrenzy or thunder-struck. Afterwards, when the consuls, lieutenant-generals, and tribunes, began to ridicule and upbraid them for being frightened like children at strange sights, which could do them no injury, shame wrought such a sudden change in their minds, that they rushed, as if blindfold, on those very objects from which they had fled. Having quickly dispersed those insignificant instruments of the enemy, and fallen in with those who were in arms, they drove their whole line from the field, and before the day was at an end, getting possession of their camp, where they found an immense booty, returned to their own with victory, uttering ludicrous reflections, in the military style, both on the stratagem of the enemy and their own fright. The whole Etrurian nation then rose up in arms, and, headed by the Tarquinians and Faliscians, advanced as far as Salinæ. To make head against such an alarming force, Caius Marcius Rutilus was nominated dictator, the first plebeian who held that office, and he chose, for his master of the horse, Caius Plautius, a plebeian likewise. It excited great indignation in the minds of the patricians, that the dictatorship, along with the other offices, should now become common; and they laboured, with all their might, to prevent any thing requisite to the war from being decreed or prepared for the dictator; for which reason the people ordered, with the greater readiness, every thing which the dictator proposed. Marching his forces from the city on both sides of the Tiber, and transporting his troops on rafts, occasionally, as his intelligence of the enemy required, he surprized many of their straggling parties, scattered over the country in search of plunder: attacking their camp also by surprise, he made himself master of it; and eight thousand of the enemy being made prisoners, and the rest either slain or driven out of the Roman territory, he triumphed by order of the people, contrary to the approbation of the senate. The nobility, being unwilling that the election of consuls should be held either by a plebeian dictator or consul, and the other consul, Fabius, being detained abroad by the war, an interregnum took place. There were then interreges, in succession, Quintus Servilius Ahala, Marcus Fabius, Cneius Manlius, Caius Fabius, Caius Sulpicius, Lucius Æmilius, Quintus Servilius, and Marcus Fabius Ambustus. In the second interregnum, a contention arose on account of two patricians being elected consuls; and, on the tribunes protesting, the interrex Fabius said, that “was set down in the twelve tables, that whatever the people ordered last, that should be law, and in force; and that the people’s votes were their orders.” The tribunes not being able, by their protests, to obtain any other advantage, than that of putting off the election, two patricians were at length chosen consuls,Y.R.400. 352. Caius Sulpicius Pæticus a third time, and Marcus Valerius Publicola, and on the same day entered into office.
XVIII. In the four hundredth year from the building of the city of Rome, and the thirty-fifth since its recovery from the Gauls, the consulship was taken out of the hands of the commons, at the end of eleven years; and consuls, who were both patricians, the interregnum ceasing, entered on their office, Caius Sulpicius Pæticus a third time, and Marcus Valerius Publicola. During this year, Empulum was taken from the Tiburtians without much difficulty; but whether this was owing, as some writers assert, to the war being waged there under the auspices of both consuls; or, whether it arose from the lands of the Tarquinians being wasted by the consul Sulpicius, at the same time that Valerius led his legions against the Tiburtians, is uncertain. The consuls, however, had a more difficult contest to maintain at home against the commons and tribunes. As they were both patricians, they thought themselves bound, as well in regard to their honour as to their resolution, to deliver the consulships over to two patricians likewise: for that if the consulship were now made a plebeian magistracy, they must yield it for ever. They therefore held it proper to retain entire a right, which they had received entire from their fathers. The commons, on the other hand, made loud remonstrances; “Why did they live? Why were they reckoned in the number of citizens, if they could not maintain by their united efforts, what had been procured by the firmness of two men, Lucius Sextius and Caius Licinius? It were better to endure kings or decemvirs, or, if such there were, any title of government still more obnoxious, than to have both their consuls of the patrician order, and not to be allowed to command and obey in turn. Shall one half of the citizens be placed in perpetual command, and think the commons born for no other purpose than to be their slaves?” The tribunes were not remiss in fomenting these disorders; but all were in such a ferment, that hardly were any distinguished particularly as leaders. After they had several times gone down to the field of election to no purpose, and after many days of meeting had been wasted in debates, the commons, being at last overcome by the perseverance of the consuls, took this method of venting their resentment at the disappointment: the tribunes exclaimed, that there was an end of liberty, and that now they ought to leave not only the field, but the city also, since it was held under captivity and oppression by the arbitrary power of the patricians; and then they were followed by the plebeians in a melancholy crowd. The consuls, though deserted by a part of the people, yet, nevertheless, with the small number who remained,Y.R.401. 351. finished the election. Both the consuls appointed were patricians, Marcus Fabius Ambustus a third time, and Titus Quintius. In some annals I find, instead of Titus Quintius, Marcus Popillius consul.
XIX. Two wars were carried on this year with success. The Tiburtians were reduced by force of arms to submission; the city of Sassula was taken from them; and the rest of their towns would have shared the same fate, had not the whole nation laid down their arms, and surrendered themselves to the consul. He triumphed over the Tiburtians. In other respects, the victory was used with much moderation: but the Tarquinians were treated with rigorous severity. After a great slaughter had been made of them in the field, there were chosen out of the vast number of prisoners, three hundred and fifty-eight of the most distinguished birth, to be sent to Rome: the rest of the multitude were put to the sword: nor were the people more merciful to those who were sent to Rome: they were all beaten with rods, and beheaded in the middle of the Forum. Such was the punishment retaliated on the enemy, in return for their murdering the Romans in the Forum of Tarquinii. These successes in war induced the Samnites to solicit their friendship; their ambassadors received a courteous answer, and a treaty of alliance was concluded with them. The Roman commons did not experience the same prosperity at home as in war; for, although the burthen of interest-money had been lightened, by fixing the rate at one for the hundred, the poor were unequal to the discharge of the principal alone, and were put in confinement by their creditors. The thoughts of the commons, therefore, were so much engrossed by their private distresses, as to exclude all solicitude about both the consuls being patricians, or the business of elections, or any party concerns. The consulate therefore remained with the patricians, and Caius Sulpicius Pæticus a fourth time, and Marcus Valerius Publicola a second time, were elected.Y.R.402. 350. While the state was occupied with the Etrurian war, entered on in consequence of a report prevailing that the people of Cære, out of compassion to their relations, had joined the Tarquinians; ambassadors from the Latines diverted their attention to the Volscians, bringing information that these had enlisted and armed a number of troops, with which they threatened to invade their borders, whence they would certainly carry forward their depredations into the Roman territories. The senate therefore determined not to neglect either affair; they ordered legions to be enlisted for both purposes, and the consuls to cast lots for their provinces. The greater share of their attention was afterwards directed to the Etrurian war, when it was discovered, from the letters of the consul Sulpicius, to whose lot Tarquinii had fallen as his province, that the country round the Roman Salinæ had been laid waste: that part of the plunder had been conveyed into the country of the Cæritians; and that the young men of that nation were certainly among the plunderers. Wherefore, recalling the consul Valerius, who had been sent to oppose the Volscians, and was then encamped on the frontiers of Tusculum, the senate ordered him to nominate a dictator. He nominated Titus Manlius, son of Lucius, who, having appointed Aulus Cornelius Cossus his master of the horse, and thinking the consular army sufficient, with the approbation of the senate, and by order of the people, declared war against the Cæritians.
XX. These were then first seized with real dread of a war, not considering that the Romans were provoked to it by the ravages committed on their territory. They perceived how unequal their own strength was to such a contest, repented heartily of their depredations, and cursed the Tarquinians, the advisers of their revolt. Nor did any entertain a thought of arms and hostilities, but every one earnestly recommended that ambassadors should be sent to solicit pardon of their error. Their ambassadors having applied to the senate, and being by them referred to the people, implored the gods, whose sacred property they had taken into their care in the Gallic war, and treated with all due reverence, that the Romans, in their present flourishing state, might feel for them the same commiseration which they had formerly felt for the Roman people in their distress; and, turning to the temple of Vesta, appealed to the bonds of hospitality subsisting between themselves and the priests and vestals, to the forming of which they had contributed on their part with pure and religious zeal: “Could any one believe, that people who had such merits to plead, would, on a sudden, without reason, commence enemies? Or, if they had been guilty of some hostile act, that it was design, and not rather mistake occasioned by frenzy, that could induce them to act in such a manner, as would cancel their ancient kindnesses by recent injuries; especially as those, on whom they were conferred, had shown so grateful a sense of them? Could it be supposed, that they would choose to themselves, as an enemy, the Roman people, while flourishing in prosperity, and most successful in arms, with whom, when oppressed by calamities, they had formed a friendship? Let them not call that a studied matter, which really arose from necessity. The Tarquinians, marching through their territory in hostile array, although they had asked for nothing but a passage, compelled some of their peasants to accompany them in that predatory expedition, the guilt of which was now charged on them. If it were the pleasure of the Romans, that these should be delivered into their hands, they were ready to deliver them; or, if that they should be punished, they would inflict the punishment. They then intreated, that Cære, the sanctuary of the public worship of the Roman people, the refuge of its priests, and the receptacle of Rome’s sacred effects, might, out of regard to the rights of hospitality contracted with the vestals, and to the gods whose worship was there preserved, be left unhurt, and unstained with the imputation of having commenced hostilities.” The people were moved, not so much by the merits of their present case, as by their old deserts, to overlook the injury, rather than the kindness. Peace was therefore granted to the people of Cære, and a resolution passed, that it should be referred to the senate to pass a decree, granting them a truce of an hundred years. The force of the war was then meant to be turned against the Faliscians, who were guilty of the same crime; but the enemy were no where to be found. Depredations were made in all parts of their country, but it was not thought proper to besiege the towns; and, the legions being brought home to Rome, the remainder of the year was spent in repairing the walls and the towers: the temple of Apollo was also dedicated.
XXI. In the latter end of the year, a dispute between the patricians and plebeians suspended the election of consuls; for the tribunes declared, that they would not suffer it to be held, unless conformably to the Licinian law, and Manlius was obstinately determined rather to abolish the consulship entirely out of the state, than to lay it open to all promiscuously. The election, therefore, being frequently adjourned, and the dictator going out of office, the matter ended in an interregnum. The interreges found the commons highly incensed against the patricians, so that the contest between the parties was prolonged to the eleventh interrex. The pretext of the tribunes was, the support of the Licinian law. The commons had a cause of uneasiness in a matter which touched them more nearly, the increasing weight of interest-money; and the ill temper, contracted from their private grievances, broke out in the public disputes, of which the patricians became so wearied,Y.R.403. 349. that for concord’s sake, they ordered the interrex Lucius Cornelius Scipio to conform to the Licinian law in the election of consuls. To Publius Valerius Publicola, a plebeian colleague was assigned, Caius Marcius Rutilus. When a disposition to harmony once began to prevail, the new consuls directed their endeavours to the procuring relief in the affair of interest-money also, which seemed the only obstacle in the way of universal quiet; accordingly, they made the payment of the debts a public concern, appointing five commissioners for the management thereof, whom, from their dealing out the money, they called bankers. These, by their equity and diligence, rendered themselves deserving of having their names recorded, with honour, in every history of the times. They were Caius Duilius, Publius Decius Mus, Marcus Papirius, Quintus Publilius, and Titus Æmilius, who went through a business of a most difficult nature, (at first dissatisfactory, in general, to both parties, always, certainly, to one,) with moderation, and, moreover, at the expense of the public, rather than of the creditors: for the more tardy debts, and such as were rendered troublesome, rather by unwillingness than want of ability in the debtors to satisfy them, were either discharged by the treasury, on security being first given to the public (tables being placed in the Forum with money for the purpose); or were settled by composition, after an equitable valuation of the effects of the debtor. So that, not only without injury, but finally without complaint from any party, was an immense amount of debts cleared off. After this, a false alarm of an Etrurian war, grounded on a rumour that the twelve states had conspired to that purpose, occasioned the nomination of a dictator. Caius Julius was appointed in the camp, for the decree of senate was sent thither to the consuls, and Lucius Æmilius was joined as master of the horse. However, every thing abroad remained in quiet.
XXII. At home, an attempt, made by Julius, to procure the election of two patricians to the consulship, brought the government to an interregnum. The two intermediate interreges, Caius Sulpicius and Marcus Fabius, effected what the dictator had endeavoured in vain, the election of consuls out of the patricians, the temper of the commons being now appeased by the late kindness shown them in the lightening of their debts.Y.R.404. 348. Caius Sulpicius Pæticus himself, who was the first interrex, and now out of office, was chosen with Titus Quintius Pennus. Some gave the surname of Cælo, others that of Caius to Quintius. They both marched against the enemy: Quintius against the Faliscians, Sulpicius against the Tarquinians; and, not meeting either enemy in the field, turned the rage of war on the lands, plundering and burning every thing throughout the country: by which kind of operations, as by a slow consumption, both those states were so enfeebled, that they were obliged to abate of their obstinacy, and send to request a truce; first, from the consuls, and afterwards, with their permission, from the senate: they obtained one for forty years. The public being thus freed from all concern about the two nations which threatened their quiet, it was resolved, that, while they enjoyed some repose from war, a general survey should be made, on account of the many alterations in property, caused by the payment of the debts. But, when the assembly was proclaimed for the appointing of censors, Caius Marcius Rutilus, who had been the first plebeian dictator, declaring himself a candidate for the censorship, disturbed the harmony of the public: and this step he seemed to have taken at an unfavourable juncture, because it happened that both the consuls were then patricians, who declared that they would not allow his pretensions. However, he effected his purpose, partly through his own resolute perseverance, and partly through the aid of the tribunes; for they supported him, with their utmost power, in the recovery of a right, which they had lost in the election of consuls. Besides, as the worth of the man himself set him on a level with any of the highest honours, so the commons were also desirous, that their title to a share in the censorship should be established through the same person, who had opened their way to the dictatorship. At the election no dissent was shewn to the appointment of Marcius along with Cneius Manlius. There was likewise a dictator appointed this year, Marcus Fabius; not in consequence of any alarm of war, but to prevent the observance of the Licinian law, in the choice of consuls. The dictatorship, however, gave no greater efficacy to this scheme of the patricians, as to the election of consuls, than it had in that of censors.
Y.R.405. 347.XXIII. Marcus Popillius Lænas was chosen consul on the part of the commons, Lucius Cornelius Scipio on that of the patricians. Fortune even threw the greater share of lustre on the plebeian consul: for, on the receipt of intelligence that a vast army of Gauls had pitched their camp in the Latine territory, Scipio then labouring under a heavy fit of sickness, the Gallic war was given, out of course, to Popillius. He levied forces with great diligence, ordered the younger citizens to assemble in arms, at the temple of Mars, outside the Capuan gate, and the Quæstors to carry out the standards from the treasury to the same place; and, having completed four legions, gave the surplus of the men to the prætor Publius Valerius Publicola; recommending it to the senate, to raise another army as a reserve against the uncertain contingencies of war. Then, having completed every necessary preparation and arrangement, he proceeded towards the enemy. In order to acquire a knowledge of their strength, before he should hazard a decisive action, he began to form an intrenchment on a hill, the nearest possible to the camp of the Gauls. These being of a race naturally fierce and eager for fighting, as soon as they saw the Roman standards at a distance, drew out their forces in order for battle, as if they were immediately to engage: but, when the opposite army did not descend to the plain, (the Romans being secure both from the height of the ground, and by entrenchments,) imagining that they were dispirited with fear, and also that they might be attacked with greater advantage, being particularly busy on their fortifications, they advanced with a furious shout. On the side of the Romans, the works suffered no interruption, the veterans being the persons employed therein; but the battle was supported by the younger soldiers and spearmen, who had been formed in front of the others, armed and ready for the fight. Besides their own superior valour, the Romans had the advantage of the higher ground, so that the spears and javelins did not all fall without effect, as is generally the case when thrown on the same level, but flying with the greater force and steadiness, by means of their own weight, almost every one of them took effect; so that the Gauls were weighed down with the weapons with which they either had their bodies transfixed, or their shields rendered too heavy for them to support, from the number sticking in them. Though they had advanced against the steep, almost in full speed at first, yet they became irresolute, and halted. This delay abated their courage, while it augmented that of the opposite party; they were then pushed backwards headlong from the height, the carnage ensuing in consequence being more horrid than even that made by the enemy; for greater numbers were bruised to death, by falling one on the other with their ponderous shields, than were slain by the sword.
XXIV. But the victory was not yet decided in favour of the Romans. On coming down to the plain, they found another formidable opposition still to be overcome: for the numbers of the Gauls being so great as to prevent them from feeling their loss, they led on fresh troops against the victorious enemy, as if a new army had sprung up from the ruins of the other. The Romans therefore desisted from the pursuit; seeing that, after all their fatigue, another laborious contest remained for them to maintain; besides, that the consul having his left shoulder pierced almost through with a javelin, while he exposed himself incautiously in the van, had retired for a short time from the line. They were now letting victory slip out of their hands by delay, when the consul, having got his wound dressed, rode back to the front of the line, and called out, “Soldiers, why do ye thus stand? Ye have not to do with a Latine or Sabine enemy, whom, when ye have conquered him by your arms, ye can, perhaps, make an ally: they are brutes against whom we have drawn the sword; we must destroy them, or they will destroy us. Ye have repulsed them from your camp; ye have driven them headlong down the declivity; ye stand on the prostrated bodies of your enemy; cover, then, the plains with the same carnage, with which ye have covered the mountains; wait not until they fly from you, advance your standards, and charge your enemy.” Roused again to action by these exhortations, they drove back the foremost companies of the Gauls, and then, forming in wedges, broke through the centre of their line. The barbarians being thus disunited, and having no regular system of command or subordination of officers, in their confusion destroyed each other as before. After being dispersed over the plains, and carried by the precipitancy of their flight, even beyond their own camp, they bent their way towards the citadel of Alba; which, among the hills nearly equal in height, happened to strike their eyes as the highest eminence. The consul did not contine the pursuit farther than to their camp, being greatly weakened by his wounds, and at the same time unwilling to expose his troops, already fatigued, to new toil; especially as the high grounds were now occupied by the enemy. Bestowing, therefore, on the soldiers the entire plunder of the camp, he led them back to Rome, exulting in victory, and enriched with the spoils of the Gauls. The consul’s wound occasioned a delay of his triumph, and the same cause made the senate wish for a dictator, for both the consuls being sick, a magistrate was wanted to hold the election. Lucius Furius Camillus being nominated accordingly, and Publius Cornelius Scipio appointed his master of horse, he restored to the patricians their original possession of the consulship: in return for which service, being himself elected consul, through the zeal exerted by the patricians, he declared Appius Claudius Crassus his colleague.
XXV. Previous to the new consuls entering into office, the triumph of Popillius over the Gauls was celebrated,Y.R.406. 346. with the highest applause from the commons, who, in making their observations among themselves, frequently asked, did any one see reason to be sorry for having a plebeian consul? At the same time they censured the dictator severely, who, they said, had received the consulship as a bribe, for having infringed the Licinian law, in a manner more dishonourable on account of his selfish ambition, than even of the injury offered to the public; as, while he was invested with the office of dictator, he made himself consul. This year was rendered remarkable by many and various commotions. The Gauls, unable to endure the severity of the winter, came down from the Alban mountains, and spread themselves over the plains, and the parts near the sea, plundering wherever they came. The sea was infested by fleets of the Grecians, as were the coast of Antium, the Laurentian district, and the mouth of the Tiber: and it so fell out that these pirates even fought an obstinate battle with the plunderers on land; after which they separated, the Gauls to their camp, and the Grecians to their ships, doubtful, on both sides, whether they should consider themselves as victors or vanquished. At the same time, the most alarming apprehensions were excited by assemblies of the Latine states being held at the grove of Ferentina; and by the answer, which they gave in plain terms, to the order of the Romans for a supply of soldiers; “that they should cease to issue orders to people of whose assistance they stood in need; that the Latines would take arms, rather in support of their own liberty, than of the dominion of others.” The senate being greatly disturbed at this defection of their allies, in addition to the two former wars, which they had already on their hands, and, perceiving the necessity of keeping them under restraint by fear, since the faith of treaties had proved ineffectual, ordered the consul to exert the whole power of his office, to the utmost stretch, in levying troops; observing, that they must now rely for support on an army of their own countrymen, since their allies had deserted them. We are told, that, by collecting men from all quarters, (not only the youth of the city, but of the country likewise,) there were ten legions completed, consisting each of four thousand two hundred foot, and three hundred horse; such a body of new raised troops, as, in case of danger from a foreign power, the whole world, though directed to one point, could not easily furnish. So true it is, that our improvements have been confined to those particulars, on which alone we bestow our labour and our wealth. Among the melancholy events of this year, one of the consuls, Appius Claudius, died in the midst of the preparations for war, and the whole administration of affairs fell on Camillus; over whom, though standing single in the consulship, the senate did not think it decent that a dictator should be appointed, as well in consideration of the high respectability of his character, which ought to exempt him from being placed in a state of subordination, as of the auspicious omen afforded by his surname with regard to a Gallic war. The consul then stationed two legions to guard the city, divided the other eight with the prætor Lucius Pinarius, and, emulating his father’s bravery, assumed to himself the Gallic war without the decision of lots; ordering the prætor to guard the sea coast, and prevent the landing of the Grecians. When he had marched down into the Pomptine territory, not choosing to come to an engagement on the level grounds, when no circumstance made it necessary, and judging that the enemy would be effectually subdued, by being prevented from the acquisition of plunder, as they had no other resource than what they obtained in that way, he chose out a situation convenient for a fixed encampment.
XXVI. Here, while the men passed the time in quiet in their quarters, a Gaul of extraordinary size, splendidly armed, advanced towards them; and striking his shield with his spear, having caused silence, he challenged, by an interpreter, any one of the Romans to enter the lists with him in arms. There was a tribune of the soldiers called Marcus Valerius, a young man, who, thinking himself not less qualified for an honourable enterprise of the kind than Titus Manlius, after first inquiring whether it would be agreeable to the consul, advanced in armour into the middle space. The contest between these men was the less noticed, because of an interposition of the power of the gods: for, just as the Roman began the combat, a crow pitched suddenly on his helmet, looking towards his antagonist, which, as an augury sent from heaven, the tribune at first received with joy, and then prayed that “whatever god or goddess had sent him, the auspicious bird would be favourable and propitious to him.” What is wonderful to be told, the bird not only kept the seat where it had once pitched, but as often as the rencounter was renewed, raising itself on its wings, attacked the face and eyes of his antagonist, the Gaul, with its beak and talons, who became so much terrified by the sight of such a prodigy, that he was slain by Valerius. The crow then flew up on high towards the east, until it was out of sight. Hitherto the advanced guards on both sides had remained quiet: but when the tribune began to strip the spoils from the body of his fallen enemy, the Gauls no longer confined themselves to their post, and the Romans ran with still greater speed to the conqueror, when a scuffle arising round the body of the prostrate Gaul, a desperate fight ensued. And now the contest was supported, not by the companies from the nearest posts, but by the legions pouring out from both sides. While the Roman soldiers exulted at the victory of the tribune, and likewise at such attention and favour shown them by the gods, Camillus ordered them to march on to battle, and pointing to the tribune decorated with the spoils, “Soldiers, imitate him,” said he, “and strew heaps of Gauls round their fallen champion.” Both gods and men contributed their aid to insure success in that engagement, and a complete and acknowledged victory was obtained over the Gauls, according to the forebodings entertained by both parties from the issue of the combat. The first party of Gauls maintained the battle with fury; but the remainder, before they came within a weapon’s cast, turned their backs, and fled. They were dispersed through the territories of the Volscians, and of Falerii; from thence they made towards Apulia and the upper sea. The consul calling an assembly, besides bestowing praises on the tribune, presented him with ten oxen, and a golden crown; and then being ordered by the senate, to attend in person to the war on the coast, he joined his camp to that of the prætor. There, as the business did not promise a speedy conclusion, from the dastardly conduct of the Grecians, who would not venture into the field, he, by direction of the senate, nominated Titus Manlius Torquatus, dictator, for the purpose of the elections. The dictator accordingly, after appointing Aulus Cornelius Cossus master of the horse, held the elections; and, with the warmest applause of the people, declared consul, though absent, his rival in his own line of glory, Marcus Valerius Corvus, for that surname was given him from thenceforth; he was then only twenty-three years old.Y.R.407. 345. The colleague joined with Corvus was a plebeian, Marcus Popillius Lænas, who was now to enjoy that office a fourth time. Between the Grecians and Camillus nothing memorable occurred. The former were not warriors by land, nor the latter by sea. At length the Greeks, not being suffered to leave their ships, and, besides other necessaries, their water also failing, withdrew from Italy. To what nation or what state that fleet belonged, there is no certain account. I am most inclined to believe, that it was sent by the tyrants of Sicily; for the farther Greece, at that time, besides being weakened by intestine wars, stood much in dread of the power of the Macedonians.
XXVII. After the armies were disbanded, peace prevailed abroad, and concord subsisted between the orders at home; but, lest their happiness should be too great, a pestilence attacked the state, which obliged the senate to order the decemvirs to inspect the Sibylline books; and, by their direction, a lectisternium was performed. This year, a colony was led by the Antians to Satricum; and the city, which the Latines had demolished, rebuilt. There was also a treaty concluded at Rome with ambassadors of the Carthaginians, who had come to solicit friendship and alliance. The same tranquillity continued at home and abroad, during the consulate of Titus Manlius Torquatus and Caius Plautius.Y.R.408. 344. The only business which occurred out of course, was, that the interest of money, instead of twelve, was reduced to six for the hundred;* and the payment of the debts adjusted in such a manner, that one-fourth part being paid at the present, the other three parts should be discharged in three years, by so many equal payments. Notwithstanding which, numbers of the commons were still distressed; but the senate paid more regard to public credit, than to the difficulties of particular persons. The greatest relief to their circumstances was the cessation of the taxes and levies. In the third year after the rebuilding of Satricum by the Volscians, Marcus Valerius Corvus, being a second time consul, with Caius Pœtelius, on intelligence received from Latium, that ambassadors from Antium were going round the states of the Latines,Y.R.409. 343. to excite them to war, he was ordered to march an army against the Volscians, before the enemies should be joined by others; and he proceeded to Satricum with his troops ready for action. To this place the Antians, and other Volscians, had advanced to meet him, with forces which they had, some time before, got in readiness, to oppose any enterprize which might be undertaken on the side of Rome; and both parties being inflamed with an inveterate hatred, an engagement commenced without delay. The Volscians, a nation who enter into war with more ardour than they support it, being vanquished in the fight, fled precipitately to the walls of Satricum; but not relying, with any great confidence, even on the protection of those walls, and the city being encompassed by a continued line of troops, who were on the point of taking it by scalade, they surrendered themselves prisoners, to the number of four thousand, besides the unarmed multitude. The town was burned, the temple of Mother Matuta only being exempted from the flames. The entire spoil was given to the soldiers. The four thousand who surrendered, were not considered as part of the spoil: these, the consul, in his triumph, drove before his chariot in chains; and, from the sale of them afterwards, brought a large sum of money into the treasury. Some writers allege, that this body of prisoners consisted of slaves; and it is more probable that they were so, than that men, who had capitulated, should be set up to sale.
Y.R.410. 342.XXVIII. These consuls were succeeded by Marcus Fabius Dorso, and Servius Sulpicius Camerinus. The Auruncians soon after commenced hostilities, by a sudden predatory irruption; and apprehensions being entertained, that this act of one state was part of a scheme formed by the whole Latine nation, Lucius Furius was created dictator, as if all Latium were already in arms. He nominated Cneius Manlius Capitolinus master of the horse; and a cessation of civil business being proclaimed, as usual on alarms of a dangerous nature, and levies being made, without allowing any exemption, the legions were led, with all possible expedition, against the Auruncians, who were found to possess the spirit of freebooters rather than of soldiers; so that they were utterly vanquished in the first engagement. However, the dictator, considering that they had brought on hostilities by their incursions, and that they had no apparent desire to decline the fight, wished to engage the aid of the gods in his favour; and, in the heat of the battle, vowed a temple to Juno Moneta; and then returning to Rome, under the obligation of this vow, in consequence of his success, he abdicated the dictatorship. The senate ordered two commissioners to be appointed to erect the temple, with a magnificence becoming the Roman people: the site chosen for it was that spot in the citadel, whereon had stood the house of Marcus Manlius Capitolinus. The consuls, making use of the dictator’s troops for carrying on the Volscian war, took Sora from the enemy by surprise. The temple of Moneta was dedicated in the next year after it had been vowed, Caius Marcius Rutilus a third time, and Titus Manlius Torquatus a second time, being consuls.Y.R.411. 341. The dedication was immediately followed by a prodigy, similar to the ancient one of the Alban lake; for a shower of stones fell, and, during the day, night seemed to cover the sky: the state being filled with pious fears, and the books being inspected, the senate came to a resolution that a dictator should be nominated, for the purpose of directing the religious rites. Publius Valerius Publicola was accordingly nominated, and Quintus Fabius Ambustus appointed his master of the horse. It was thought proper, that not the tribes only should offer supplications, but even the neighbouring nations; and a regular course was fixed for them, and on what day each should perform that duty. Some severe sentences are recorded, which were passed this year by the people against usurers, on charges brought by the ædiles. An interregnum took place in the same year, for which no particular reason has been given.Y.R.412. 340. At the conclusion of the interregnum, both consuls were elected out of the patricians, Marcus Valerius Corvus a third time, and Aulus Cornelius Cossus; and this seems to have been the purpose intended by it.
XXIX. Henceforward will be related wars of greater importance, whether we consider the strength of the powers, the length of their continuance, or the distance of the countries in which they were carried on: for in this year, arms were first taken up against the Samnites, a nation powerful in wealth and arms. After the Samnitian war, in which a variety of fortune was experienced, Pyrrhus appeared as an enemy; after Pyrrhus, the Carthaginians. What a series of important events! How often have the extremities of danger been undergone, before the structure of this empire could be raised to its present magnitude, which the world can scarcely endure! The cause of the war with the Samnites originated, with respect to the Romans, in the affairs of others; not immediately between themselves, who had, till then, been united in alliance and friendship. The Samnites had, unjustly, merely because they were superior in strength, made war on the Sidicinians. The weak, being obliged to seek assistance, united themselves to the Campanians, who, bringing to the support of these their allies rather a nominal than any real strength, enervated as they were by luxury, were defeated in the Sidicinian territory, by men inured to arms. Thus they thenceforth drew on themselves the whole burthen of the war: for the Samnites, neglecting the Sidicinians, turned their arms on the Campanians, as chief of the neighbouring states, from whom they expected to gain victory with equal ease, and a greater share both of spoil and glory. After posting a strong guard on Tifata, a ridge of hills hanging over Capua, they marched down from thence, with their army formed in a square, ready for action, into the plain which lies between Capua and Tifata. There another battle was fought, in which the Campanians were defeated, and driven into the the town; and, seeing no prospect of support at hand, the flower of their youth being greatly reduced in number, they were under a necessity of imploring aid from the Romans.
XXX. Their ambassadors, being introduced to the senate, spoke nearly to this effect: “Conscript Fathers, the Campanian nation has sent us, its ambassadors, to solicit, at your hands, perpetual friendship and present succour. Had this request been made when our affairs were in a prosperous state, the connection, though it might have been more readily effected, would have been bound by a weaker tie. For, in that case, as we should have been sensible that we met in friendship on terms of equality, though, perhaps, with as friendly dispositions as at present, yet we might have been less submissive and compliant to your inclinations. In the present case, attached to you in consideration of your compassion towards us, and defended, by your aid, from the perils which surround us, we become bound to show also, in our conduct, a due sense of the benefit received; otherwise we must be deemed ungrateful and unworthy of any assistance either from gods or men. Nor, certainly, can we suppose, that the circumstance of the Samnites having, first, become friends and allies to you, is of efficacy to preclude our being received into your friendship; or that it gives them any advantage over us, except in point of priority, and order of precedence: for there is no cautionary provision in your treaty with the Samnites, prohibiting your forming other alliances. It has ever, indeed, been deemed by you, a sufficient title to your friendship, that the person who sought it, wished to be your friend. Now, the Campanians, who, although our present circumstances forbid ostentatious language; yield to no other nation except yourselves, either in the magnificence of our city, or the fertility of our soil, if admitted to your friendship, bring no small accession, we think, to the advantages which ye already enjoy. Whenever the Æquans and Volscians, the perpetual enemies of this city, shall take arms, we will be on their rear; and what ye shall have performed in behalf of our safety, the same we shall, on every occasion, perform in behalf of your dominion, and your glory. When those nations, which lie between you and us, shall be subdued, (which period, we may infer, both from your prowess and your good fortune, is not very distant,) ye will then have an uninterrupted extent of dominion reaching to our borders. It is a mortifying and a melancholy truth, which our situation forces us to acknowledge, Conscript Fathers, that our affairs are in such a state, that we must become the property either of friends or enemies. If ye defend us, yours: if ye abandon us, that of the Samnites. Consider, therefore, whether that Capua, and all Campania, shall become an addition to your strength, or to that of the Samnites. Romans, it is undoubtedly reasonable that your compassion and assistance should lie open, as a resource, to all men; but still more especially to those, who, by performing the same good offices to others imploring their aid, have, by exertions beyond their strength, brought themselves into such distresses as ours. Although, while we fought, in appearance, for the Sidicinians, we were, in reality, fighting for ourselves: because that nation, which is in our neighbourhood, was plundered by the Samnites in a most cruel manner; and because we were apprehensive that the flames, after consuming the Sidicinians, would spread from thence to ourselves: for they do not attack us, as feeling themselves aggrieved, but they rejoice at a pretext being afforded them for it. If their object were the gratification of resentment, and not of satiating their ambition, would it not be enough that they cut our legions to pieces, once in the territory of the Sidicinians, and a second time in Campania itself? What kind of resentment must that be, which could not be satisfied by all the blood spilt in two general engagements? Add to this the devastation of our country; men and cattle driven away as spoil; our country-houses burned or otherwise destroyed; every thing, in short, nearly annihilated by fire and sword. This, we say, was surely enough to gratify resentment, yet their ambition must be gratified also. It is that which hurries them on to the siege of Capua: they wish either to lay that most beautiful city in ruins, or to hold the possession of it themselves. But make it, Romans, your own, by your generous kindness, nor suffer them thus unjustly to hold it. We speak not to a people disposed to decline just and necessary wars, yet allow us to observe, that, if disposed to assist us, ye will not even have occasion to use your arms. The insolence of the Samnites has reached to our level; higher it does not soar. So that even the prospect of your assistance will be our security. And whatever, thenceforward, we shall possess, whatever we ourselves shall be, we must ever esteem it all as yours. For you will the fields of Campania be ploughed; for you the city of Capua be stored with inhabitants; ye will be reckoned by us among our founders, our parents, and our gods. Not one of your own colonies shall surpass us in obsequiousnesss and fidelity towards you. Grant, then, Conscript Fathers, to the prayers of the Campanians, the nod of favour; your irresistible, your providential aid: bid us hope that Capua will be saved. Multitudes of every denomination escorted us on our setting out. Full of vows and tears we left every place. Think, then, in what a state of eager expectation are now the senate and people of Campania, our wives and our children. Doubtless, at this moment, they are standing at the gates, watching the road which leads from hence, impatient to know what answer, Conscript Fathers, ye may order us to bring back to them. One kind of answer brings them safety, life, and liberty: another — there is horror in the thought. Determine, then, about us, as about people, who are either to be your friends and allies, or not to exist at all.”
XXXI. The ambassadors then withdrawing, the senate took the affair into consideration. A great many were of opinion, that their city of Capua, the largest and most opulent in Italy; and their land, the most fertile, and situated near the sea, would serve the Roman people as a granary, from whence they might be supplied with all the various kinds of provisions, yet they paid greater regard to the faith of their engagements, than to these great advantages; and the consul, by direction of the senate, gave them this answer: “Campanians, the senate deems you deserving of their assistance. But, in contracting a friendship with you, it is proper to guard against the violation of any prior alliance. The Samnites are associated with us by treaty. We refuse, therefore, to take arms against the Samnites, which would be a breach of duty, first towards the gods, and then towards men. But, as is consistent with both those duties, we will send ambassadors to those our friends and allies, to request that no violence may be offered to you.” To this, the chief of the embassy replied, according to instructions which they had brought from home: “Though ye do not think proper to defend us and our rights against violence and injustice, ye will surely defend your own. We therefore surrender into your jurisdiction, Conscript Fathers, and that of the Roman people, the inhabitants of Campania, the city of Capua, our lands, the temples of the gods, and all things else appertaining to us, divine and human. Whatever sufferings we shall henceforward undergo, will be the sufferings of men who have put themselves under your dominion.” Having spoken thus, they all stretched forth their hands towards the consuls, and, with floods of tears, prostrated themselves in the porch of the senate-house. The senate were deeply affected at this instance of the vicissitude of human grandeur; seeing that nation which possessed an exuberance of wealth, and was universally noted for luxury and pride, and to whom, a short time since, the neighbouring states looked up for support, so utterly depressed in spirit, as voluntarily to resign themselves, and all that belonged to them, into the power of others. They therefore thought themselves bound in honour not to abandon those who were now become their subjects; and that it would be unjustifiable behaviour in the Samnites, if they persisted in carrying on hostilities against a city and country which, in consequence of the surrender, had become the property of the Roman people. It was in consequence resolved, that ambassadors should be sent immediately to that nation. These were instructed to make known “the request of the Campanians; the answer of the senate, in which due regard was paid to the friendship of the Samnites; and the surrender made in conclusion. To request, that in consideration of the alliance and intercourse subsisting between the states, they would spare their subjects, and not carry arms into a country which now made a part of the Roman state. And, if gentle remonstrances did not produce the desired effect, that they should then denounce to the Samnites, as the will of the senate and people of Rome, that they should retire from the city of Capua, and the Campanian territory.” When these things were represented to the ambassadors in the assembly of the Samnites, they not only answered fiercely, that they would continue the war, but their magistrates, going out of the senate-house, while the ambassadors were standing on the spot, called the commanders of their cohorts, and, with a loud voice, gave them orders to march instantly into the Campanian territory, and plunder it.
XXXII. When the result of this embassy was reported at Rome, the senate, laying aside all other business, dispatched heralds to demand satisfaction; which not being complied with, and war being, in consequence, declared in the customary manner, they decreed that the affair should, without loss of time, be submitted to the consideration of the people. This was done accordingly, and, in pursuance of their order, the consuls instantly began their march; Valerius to Campania, Cornelius to Sunium. The former pitched his camp near mount Gaurus, the later at Saticula. The legions of the Samnites met Valerius first; for they supposed that the whole weight of the war would be directed to that side. They were, at the same time, stimulated by rage against the Campanians, for having shown themselves so ready, at one time to give, at another to call in aid against them. But no sooner did they see the Roman camp, than, with one voice, they furiously demanded the signal from their leaders; maintaining, confidently, that the Romans should meet the same fate, in supporting the Campanians, which had attended the latter, in supporting the Sidicinians. Valerius, after spending 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 and the new enemy dispirit them. “In proportion as they carried their arms to a greater distance from the city, they would, in every stage of their progress, meet nations more and more unwarlike. They ought not to estimate the value of the Samnites by the losses of the Sidicinians and Campanians. Let the combatants be of what kind soever, one side must necessarily be worsted. As to the Campanians, they were undoubtedly vanquished by debility, flowing from excessive luxury, and by their own pusillanimity, rather than by the strength of their enemy. And, after all, of what weight were two successful wars on the side of the Samnites during so many ages, in the balance against the glorious achievements of the Roman people, who reckoned nearly a greater number of triumphs than of years from the foundation of their city, and who had extended the sway of their victorious arms over all around them; the Sabines, Etruria, the Latines, the Hernicians, the Æquans, the Volscians, the Auruncians? who, after slaying myriads of Gauls, in so many battles, forced them, at last, to fly to their ships? As every soldier ought to go courageously into the field, animated by the national renown in arms, so ought he, at the same time, to consider the commander, under whose conduct and auspices he is to fight, whether he be one capable of attracting attention merely by his pompous exhortations, spirited in words alone, and unqualified for military labours: or one who well knows how to wield arms, to advance before the standards, and to encounter the thickest of the fight. Soldiers,” said he, “I wish you to be led by my actions, not by my words; and to take, not only orders, but example also, from me. It was not by intrigues, nor by cabals, usual among the nobles, but by this right hand, that I procured to myself three consulships, and the highest praises of my countrymen. There was a time when it might have been said of me — You enjoyed these dignities because you were a patrician, and descended from the deliverers of your country; and because your family had the consulship in the same year wherein the city first had a consul. — This might have been said. But at present the consulship lies open to us patricians, and to you plebeians, without distinction; nor is it, as formerly, the prize of birth, but of merit. Look forward, therefore, soldiers, to the very summit of honours. Although ye have given me, among yourselves, and in consequence of the approbation of the gods, the new surname of Corvus, the ancient one of our family, the Publicolæ, is not erased from my memory. I do, and ever did, cultivate the favour of the Roman commons, in war and in peace; in a private station, and in public offices, both high and low; in that of tribune, equally as in that of consul; and with the same tenor of conduct through all my several consulships. As to the present business, join your endeavours with mine, to obtain, by the favour of the gods, a new and signal triumph over these Samnites.”
XXXIII. Never was there a commander who put himself on a more familiar footing with his soldiers, performing every subaltern duty, without reluctance. In the military sports, wherein it is the custom for equals to vie with equals in speed and strength, he was condescending and affable; success or defeat made no alteration in him, nor did he disdain any competitor whatever. In his actions, beneficent according to the occasion; in his conversation, as attentive to the ease and freedom of others, as to his own dignity; and, what is in the highest degree attractive of public esteem, the same mode of conduct, by which he had gained the magistracy, was pursued by him throughout the whole of his administration. The troops, therefore, universally applauding the exhortations of their commander, marched out of the camp with incredible alacrity. The battle commenced with as equal hopes, and as equal strength, on both sides, as any that ever was fought; each party full of confidence in themselves, without despising their adversary. The Samnites were emboldened by their late exploits, and the having gained two victories within the space of a few days: the Romans, on the other side, by the glorious achievements of four hundred years, and success coeval with the foundation of their city; both parties, however, felt some unusual concern on engaging with a new enemy. The conflict gave proof of the spirit which they possessed; for they maintained it for a considerable time, without either giving way in the least. The consul, since the enemy could not be overpowered by force, endeavoured, by a charge of his cavalry, to disorder their foremost battalions; but when he saw their irregular efforts attended with no success, being obliged to wheel their squadrons in a narrow compass, and that they could not open to themselves a passage, he rode back to the van of the legions, and, leaping from his horse, said to them, “Soldiers, the task belongs to infantry; come on, then; as ye shall see me making way with my sword to the main body of the enemy; so let each, with all his might, beat down those who oppose him. Soon then shall that ground, where their erected spears are now glittering, be effectually cleared by a wide-extended slaughter.” By the time he had uttered these words, the cavalry, by his order, turned to the wings, and left the way open for the legions. The consul advanced first, and slew the person whom he happened to engage. Fired at this sight, every one on the right and left of him, assaulted his opposite foe with extraordinary fury. The Samnites, though they received a greater number of wounds than they gave, obstinately stood their ground. The battle had now continued a considerable time, and great slaughter was made round the standards of the Samnites, yet in no part were any of them seen to fly; so determined were they to be vanquished by death alone. The Romans, therefore, finding their strength beginning to relax, and that only a small part of the day remained, rushed upon the enemy. Now was the first appearance of the Samnites giving ground, and of the matter being likely to end in their flight; great numbers were made prisoners or slain; nor would many of them have survived, had not night stopped the pursuit, for it was no longer a battle. On the one side, the Romans acknowledged that they never had fought with a more determined enemy; and on the other, the Samnites, on being asked what was the cause which first impelled men so firm at the outset to fly, made answer, that it was occasioned by the eyes of the Romans, which appeared to flash with fire, together with their desperate looks and furious aspect; for that in fact they felt more terror from these, than from any other circumstance. And this terror was confirmed, not only in the issue of the battle, but by their marching away during the night. Next day, the Romans took possession of the deserted camp, into which the Campanians poured in a body to congratulate them.
XXXIV. But the joy caused by this event had nearly been allayed by a terrible disaster in Samnium: for the consul Cornelius, departing from Saticula, incautiously led his army into a mountainous tract, passable only through a deep defile, and occupied on all sides by the enemy: nor did he perceive their troops posted over his head, until it was too late for his men to retreat with safety; while the Samnites waited only until he should bring down the whole of his army into the valley. Publius Decius, a tribune of the soldiers, observed one hill higher than the rest, hanging over the enemy’s camp, too steep to be climbed by an army encumbered with baggage, but not difficult to troops lightly accoutred. Addressing, therefore, the consul, who was in great perturbation, he said, “Aulus Cornelius, do you see that high point above the enemy? That is the bulwark of our hopes and safety, if we are expeditious in making ourselves masters of a post, which nothing but blindness could have hindered the enemy from seizing. I ask only the first rank and spearmen of one legion; when I shall have arrived at the summit with these, then do you proceed forward, free from all apprehension, and preserve yourself and the army. For the enemy will not have in their power to move without bringing destruction on themselves, as they, from occupying the lower ground, will be exposed to every weapon we throw. As for ourselves, either the fortune of the Roman people, or our own courage, will extricate us.” He was highly commended by the consul, and having received the body of troops which he desired, made his way through the mountains by concealed paths; nor was he noticed by the enemy, until he came near the spot which he wished to gain: they were then universally seized with astonishment and affright; so that, attracting the eyes of all to himself, he gave time to the consul to lead off his troops to more favourable ground, while he took post himself on the highest summit. The Samnites, marching their forces sometimes towards one side, sometimes towards the other, lost the opportunity of effecting either business; for they could neither pursue the consul, except through the same defile in which they lately had him under the power of their weapons, nor march up their men against the acclivity, to the eminence occupied by Decius, over their heads. They were enraged principally against those who had snatched from them the opportunity of acting with success, and the nearness of their situation, and the smallness of the party, would have led them to seek for vengeance there: but they could resolve on nothing: at one time it was intended to surround the hill on all sides with troops, and thus cut off Decius from the consul; at another, to leave open a passage, and then to fall on him, when he should have descended into the defile; night however came upon them, before they had determined which measure to pursue. Decius, at first, entertained hopes that he might engage them advantageously, as they should advance against the steep; and was afterwards surprized that they did not proceed to attack him, or, if they were deterred by the difficulty of the ground, that they did not surround him with works. At length, calling the centurions to him, he said, “What a want of military skill, and what indolence do they not discover? How did such men as these gain a victory over the Sidicinians and Campanians? See how their battalions move to and fro, sometimes collected into one spot, sometimes drawn out for a march: not a man doing any thing, although, by this time, they might have surrounded us with a rampart. As this is the case, we should too much resemble them, if we remained here longer than is expedient. Come on, then; follow me, that, while there is yet some little day-light remaining, we may discover in what places they post their guards, and if there is a passage for us left open.” Of all these matters he took an accurate view, clad in a soldier’s vest; the centurions, whom he took with him, being also in the dress of common soldiers, lest the enemy should take notice of the commander going the round.
XXXV. Having placed watch-guards in proper places, he commanded notice to be issued, by ticket*, to all the rest, that, on the signal being given, by the cornet sounding the second watch, they should come to him silently in arms. When they had assembled there, according to their orders, he addressed them thus: “Soldiers, silence is necessary, ye must therefore listen to me, without testifying your approbation in the usual manner. When I shall have fully explained my sentiments to you, then such of you, as agree in opinion with me, will pass over, without noise, to the right; on which ever side the majority shall be, that judgment shall be followed. Now hear what I have to propose. The enemy have surrounded you; but not in consequence of your taking refuge here in cowardice. By valour ye seized this spot; by valour ye must make your way from it. By coming hither, ye have saved a most valuable army to the Roman people; by forcing your passage hence, save yourselves. It becomes your character that, though few in number, ye afford succour to multitudes, while ye yourselves need no aid. The enemy whom ye have to deal with, is the same who, yesterday, stupidly neglected to make use of the opportunity, which fortune had put in their hands, of cutting off our whole army; who never saw this hill hanging with such advantage over their heads, until they found us in possession of it; and who, with all the thousands of which their forces consist, neither prevented the ascent of such a small party as our’s, nor, when we became masters of the place, surrounded us with entrenchments, though there was so much of the day remaining. Those whom ye baffled in such a manner, while they were awake, it is your business to elude, when they are buried in sleep. Nay, there is a necessity for it: for in such a situation are our affairs, that my part is rather to point out what necessity enforces, than to offer you counsel. For whether ye are to stay, or to remove from this place, admits not of deliberation. Fortune has left us nothing here, besides our arms and courage to make use of them: and consequently, we must perish through hunger and thirst, if we fear the sword of the enemy, beyond what becomes men and Romans. There is, therefore, but one way to safety; and that is, to sally forth. This we must do either by day, or by night. But there is another consideration, that cuts off all hesitation; which is, that if we wait for the light, we can have no hope that the enemy, who, at present, encompass the hill on all sides, as ye see, with their bodies exposed at disadvantage, will not hem us in with a continued rampart and trench. If night then be favourable to a sally, as it appears to be, this certainly is the fittest hour of it. Ye assembled here on the signal of the second watch; a time in which your foes are sunk in the profoundest sleep. Ye will pass among them, either in silence, entirely escaping their notice, or ready, if they should perceive you, to terrify them with a sudden shout. Only follow me, whom ye have hitherto followed. The same fortune which conducted us hither, will conduct us home. And now, such of you as are of opinion, that this is a salutary plan, come over with me, to the right.”
XXXVI. Every man of them went over, and followed Decius, who bent his way through the spaces which lay open between the guards. They had now passed the middle of the camp, when a soldier, striding over the bodies of the watchmen, who lay asleep on the ground, by striking one of their shields, occasioned a noise; on which the watchman being roused, stirred the next to him, and each, as he awoke, called up the rest, ignorant whether these were friends or foes, whether the party had sallied from the hill, or the consul had taken their camp. Decius, finding that he was discovered, ordered his men to raise a shout, and thus disheartened them with affright before they had shaken off the heaviness of sleep, perplexing them to such a degree, that they were incapable of taking arms briskly, so as to make head against, or to harass him in pursuit. During this consternation and confusion of the Samnites, the party of Romans, killing such of the guards as fell in their way, made good their passage to the camp of the consul. There was a considerable part of the night yet to come, and they now seemed to be in safety, when Decius said to them, “Roman soldiers, I honour your bravery: ages to come shall extol both your enterprize and your return. But, in order that others may be gratified with a view of such eminent merit, light is requisite; nor is it fitting that you be concealed under darkness and silence, while returning into the camp with such distinguished glory. Here let us wait in quiet for the day.” His words were obeyed; and, as soon as morning appeared, a messenger being sent forward into the camp, to the consul, the troops there were roused from sleep to excessive joy; and the news being conveyed round by ticket, that those men were returning, in safety, who had exposed themselves to such imminent danger for the preservation of them all, they poured out in a body eagerly to meet them; praised them, congratulated them, called them each, and all together, their preservers; gave thanks and praises to the gods, and almost worshipped Decius. Thus did the tribune enjoy a kind of triumph in the camp, as he marched through the middle of it, with his party in arms, all men fixing their eyes on, and honouring him in the same manner as the consul. When they arrived at the general’s tent, the consul summoned an assembly by sound of trumpet; but which (after having begun to expatiate on the merits of Decius) he adjourned, on the interposition of Decius himself; who recommended, that every other business should be postponed, while it was in their power to improve the occasion which presented itself. He then advised the consul to attack the enemy while they were under consternation, and scattered round the hill in detached parties: adding, that he even believed that numbers who had been sent out in pursuit of him, were straggling through the forest. The legions were accordingly ordered to take arms, and, marching out of camp, the forest being now better known by means of scouts, were led towards the enemy through a more open tract. By sudden and unexpected attacks, the soldiers of the Samnites being dispersed up and down, and most of them unarmed, as was supposed, they first drove them in a panic into the camp, and then, after beating off the guards, took the camp itself. The shout spread quite round the hill, and put all the parties to flight from their several posts. Thus a great part of them yielded the victory to an enemy whom they did not see. Those, whose fears had driven them within the ramparts, amounting to thirty thousand, were all put to the sword. The camp was plundered.
XXXVII. The business being thus concluded, the consul again called an assembly, and pronounced a panegyric on Decius; representing his actions, not merely as he had begun to recite them, but as consummated since, by a new display of merit; and, besides other military gifts, presented him with a golden crown, and a hundred oxen, one of them white, of extraordinary beauty, richly ornamented, and having gilded horns. To the soldiers, who had been on the party with him, he assigned a double portion of corn for ever, with an ox and two vests to each. Beside the consul’s donations, the legions set on Decius’s head a crown of grass, denoting deliverance from a blockade, accompanying the present with a military shout of approbation. Another crown, expressive of the same compliment, was put on his head by his own party. Decorated with these honourable emblems, he sacrificed the beautiful white ox to Mars, and bestowed the hundred others on the soldiers who had accompanied him in the expedition. To the same soldiers the legions made a contribution, each man of a pound of corn, and a pint of wine; all this was performed with an extraordinary degree of cordiality, accompanied with the military shout, a token of universal approbation. The third battle was fought near Suessula, where the army of the Samnites, which had been routed by Marcus Valerius, being joined by all the able young men of their nation, whom they called from home, determined to try their fortune in a final contest. From Suessula hasty messengers came to Capua, and horsemen from thence at full speed to the consul Valerius, to beg for succour. The troops were quickly put in motion, and, leaving a strong guard with the baggage in the camp, proceeded on their march with rapidity. They chose for their camp a very narrow spot, at a small distance from the enemy, as they were not attended by a crowd of servants, and having no other cattle than horses. The Samnites, without delay, drew up in order of battle; and when they found that no army was sent to meet them, advanced, in readiness for action, to the Roman camp. When they saw the soldiers on the rampart, and when the scouts brought accounts from every quarter into how narrow a compass the camp was contracted, they thence inferred that the number of the enemy was but small. The whole army began to exclaim, that they ought to fill up the trenches, tear down the rampart, and break into the camp; and in that rash manner they would have proceeded, had not their leaders restrained their impetuosity. However, as their own great numbers bore hard on their supplies, and, as in consequence of their lying so long at Suessula, and of the battle being now deferred, they had a prospect of being shortly in want of every thing, they resolved, that while the enemy remained shut up, and in appearance through fear, their troops should be led out into the country to forage. They had supposed too, that the Romans, having marched in haste, could have brought no more corn with them than they were able to carry on their shoulders, along with their arms, so that they would, in a little time, be reduced to actual distress. When the consul observed that the enemy were dispersed over the country, and that the guards which they had left were not numerous, after exhorting his soldiers in few words, he led them to an attack of their camp, and having taken it, (a greater number being slain in their tents, than at the gates, or on the rampart,) he ordered the standards taken from them to be collected together. Then, leaving two legions to guard them, with strict injunctions to abstain from plundering until he should return, he set out with his troops in regular order; and, sending on the cavalry before him, to drive the scattered Samnites together, as if with hunting toils, made great slaughter of them: for, in their fright, they could neither fix on any signal to collect their troops in a body, nor resolve whether they should repair to the camp, or fly to a greater distance. Such was their consternation, and such the precipitancy of their flight, that there were brought to the consul not less than forty thousand shields, though there was nothing like that number of slain; and of military standards, including those which had been taken within their ranks, one hundred and seventy. He then returned to the enemy’s camp, the entire spoil of which he gave to the soldiers.
XXXVIII. The event of this engagement obliged the Faliscians, who were under the terms of a truce, to petition the senate for a treaty of alliance; and induced the Latines, who had their armies already prepared, to turn their operations, from the Romans, against the Pelignians. Nor was the fame of these successes confined within the limits of Italy: the Carthaginians also sent ambassadors to Rome with congratulations, and with a present of a golden crown, weighing twenty-five pounds, to be placed in Jupiter’s shrine in the Capitol. Both the consuls triumphed over the Samnites, while Decius followed them, highly distinguished by praises and presents; and, in the rough jests of the soldiers, the name of the tribune was heard as frequently as those of the commanders. The embassies of the Campanians and Suessans were then heard; and, in compliance with their petitions, a body of troops was sent thither into winter quarters, to protect them against the incursions of the Samnites. Capua, even at that time, destructive of military discipline through the allurements of every kind of pleasures, so debauched the minds of the soldiers, as to alienate their affections from their country; and schemes were formed, in their winter quarters, to take Capua from the Campanians by the same wicked means by which they themselves had taken it from its ancient possessors. “Nor was there any injustice,” they said, “in turning their own example on themselves: for why should the Campanians, who were unable to defend either their persons or their property, enjoy the most fertile lands in Italy, and a city proportioned to the goodness of those lands, rather than the victorious army, who, at the expence of their sweat and blood, had driven the Samnites out of it? was it reasonable that these should have the full enjoyment of such a fruitful and delicious country, while they, after being spent with the fatigues of war, must toil in the unwholesome and parched soil round their own city, or, within the city, endure the oppressive grievance of interest money daily increasing?” These schemes were agitated in secret cabals, and as yet communicated only to a few, when the new consul, Caius Marcius Rutilus, came among them, the province of Campania having fallen to him by lot, his colleague Quintus Servilius being left in the city.Y.R.413. 339. He was a man of good judgment, matured both by age and experience, for he was then in his fourth consulship, and had served the offices of dictator and censor. When, therefore, he was informed by the tribunes of all the circumstances of the affair, he concluded, that the best method of proceeding would be, to frustrate the violent designs of the soldiery, by prolonging the period during which they might hope to be able to execute their design whenever they pleased; and accordingly, he caused a report to be spread, that the troops were to have their winter quarters, for the next year, in the towns they then occupied: for they had been cantoned in different places of Campania, and the plot had spread from Capua through the whole army. Their eagerness in pursuit of their design being, by these means, relaxed, the mutiny was composed for the present.
XXXIX. The consul, on leading out his troops to the summer campaign, resolved, while he found the Samnites quiet, to purge the army by dismissing the turbulent men; some he discharged, under the pretence of their having served out their regular time; others, as being enfeebled by age, or otherwise debilitated: several were sent away on furloughs, at first, singly; afterwards, even several cohorts, because they had spent the winter at a great distance from home, and from their private concerns: others, too, were dispatched to different places, under pretence of the business of the army, by which means a great part of them were removed out of the way. All these the other consul, and the prætor, detained under various pretences at Rome. At first, the men, not suspecting the artifice practised on them, were not displeased at the thought of re-visiting their homes. But when they perceived, that none returned to their standards, and that moreover, hardly any were dismissed except those who had wintered in Campania; and, of these, the fomentors of the mutiny in particular; they at first began to wonder, and afterwards to fear, what seemed beyond a doubt, that their designs had been divulged; and that they would have to undergo trials, discoveries, secret punishments of individuals, and the cruel and unrestrained tyranny of the consuls and senate. These were the subjects of secret conferences among the troops in the camp, when they observed, that those who were the sinews of the conspiracy had been sent away through the art of the consul. One cohort, coming near Anxur, seated themselves at Lautulæ, in a narrow woody pass, between the sea and the mountains, in order to intercept those who were daily dismissed under various pretexts, as has been mentioned. Their body soon grew strong in numbers, nor was any thing now wanting of the form of a regular army, except a leader. Without order, however, and plundering the country in their way, they came into the Alban territory, and, under the hill of Alba Longa, enclosed their camp with a rampart; where, when the work was finished, they spent the remainder of the day in discussing different opinions respecting the choice of a commander, having no great confidence in the abilities of any who were present. And “on whom,” they said, “could they prevail to come out from Rome, on their invitation? what man was there, among the patricians or plebeians, who would, with his eyes open, expose himself to such imminent danger; or, to whom could the cause of the army, driven to madness by ill-treatment, be properly confided?” Next day, while they were employed in deliberating on the same subject, some of the rambling marauders brought intelligence, that Titus Quintius was cultivating his farm in the territory of Tusculum, regardless of the city and of its honours. He was of patrician race, who, being obliged to relinquish the military profession, in which he had acquired great glory, in consequence of one of his feet being lamed by a wound, determined to spend his life in the country, far from ambition and the contentions of the Forum. As soon as his name was heard, they immediately recognised the man: and, with wishes of success to the measure, ordered him to be sent for. But as there was little room to hope that he would voluntarily appear in the cause, it was resolved that both menaces and force should be employed. Accordingly those who were sent for the purpose, entering his house in the dead of night, while he lay composed in sleep, and denouncing, as the only alternative, either honour and command, or, when he made opposition, death, they brought him by force to their camp. Immediately on his arrival, he was saluted general, and while he was terrified at this unaccountable and sudden transaction, they brought to him the ensigns of the office, and insisted on his leading them to the city. Then, with haste dictated by their own unruliness, taking up the standards, they came in hostile array to the eighth stone on the road, which is now the Appian, and would have proceeded directly to the city, had they not been told that an army was coming to meet them; Marcus Valerius Corvus being nominated dictator, and Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus master of the horse.
XL. As soon as the army sent to oppose them came in sight, and they distinguished the well-known arms and standards, their regard for their country instantly reviving, softened the resentment of every breast. They were not yet hardy enough to shed the blood of their countrymen; they had never yet known any but foreign wars; and secession from their fellow-citizens was deemed the utmost effort of rage. Now, therefore, the leaders, and even the soldiers on both sides, expressed a desire that there should be a meeting held for a negotiation. Accordingly, on one side Quintius, who would not have borne arms, even in favour of his country, but with extreme reluctance, and of course with much greater against it; and on the other, Corvus, who entertained the warmest affection for every one of his countrymen, particularly the soldiery, and above all others, those who had served under his own banner, advanced to a conference. The instant the latter appeared, the same respectful deference was paid to him by his adversaries, which his own men manifested by their silence: he then addressed them in this manner; “Soldiers, at my departure from the city, I made it my earnest prayer to the immortal gods, whom ye, the public and myself adore, and humbly implored them of their goodness, to grant me, not a victory over you, but the happiness of restoring concord. The time past has afforded, and doubtless the future will afford occasions enough for the acquisition of military glory. At the present, peace should be the object of our wishes. The request which I urged to the immortal gods, whilst I offered up my vows, it is in your power to fulfil for me, if you will allow yourselves to recollect that your camp stands not in Samnium, nor in the territory of the Volscians, but on Roman ground; that those hills, which ye see, are your native soil; that this army is composed of your countrymen; that I am your own consul, under whose conduct and auspices ye last year twice defeated the legions of the Samnites, and twice took their camp by storm. Soldiers, I am Marcus Valerius Corvus, whose nobility of birth ye have ever felt to be productive of benefits to you, not of ill-treatment. I have been the adviser of no severe law against your interest, of no cruel decree of the senate; in every post of command which I have held, more strict towards myself than you. Yet, if any man might presume upon personal merit, upon high dignity, and upon public honours, I might: for I am descended from ancestors so distinguished, and I have besides given such proof of my own qualifications, that I attained the honour of the consulship when only twenty-three years old: I might then assume a degree of pride not only towards the commons, but towards the patricians. But in what instance did ye ever hear that I either acted or spoke with greater harshness, when consul, than when only a tribune? The same has been the constant tenor of my administration, in two successive consulships; the same shall it be, in this uncontroullable office of dictator. So that I shall be found not more gentle to these my own soldiers, and the soldiers of my country, than to you (it shocks me so to call you) its enemies. Ye shall therefore draw the sword against me, before I unsheath it against you: on your side, if a battle must take place, the signal shall be sounded; from your side the shouts and onset shall begin. You must determine, then, to do what neither your grandfathers nor fathers could; neither those who seceded to the sacred mount, nor yet those who afterwards took post on the Aventine. Wait until your wives and mothers come out from the city with dishevelled hair, as formerly to Coriolanus. At that time the legions of the Volscians, because they had a Roman for their leader, ceased from hostilities. And will not ye, an army of Romans, desist from this unnatural war? Titus Quintius, under whatever circumstances you stand on that side, whether voluntarily, or through compulsion, if the business must be decided by arms, do you then retire to the rear. It will be more honourable for you to turn your back and fly, than to fight against your country. You will at present stand with propriety and honour among the foremost for the promoting of peaceful measures, and may you be a salutary agent in this conference. Let your demands and your offers be reasonable; although, indeed, it were better to admit even unreasonable terms, than engage in an unnatural combat with each other.”
XLI. Titus Quintius then turning to his party, his eyes full of tears, said, “In me too, soldiers, if I am of any use, ye have a better leader to peace than to war. For he who has spoken what ye have just now heard, is not a Volscian nor a Samnite, but a Roman; he, soldiers, is your own consul, your own general; the influence of whose auspices ye have already experienced operating in your favour. Wish not, then, to try its effects against you. The senate could have employed other commanders, who would fight against you with animosity; but they chose the one who would be most tender of you, who were his own soldiers, and in whom, as your own general, ye could most thoroughly confide. Even those who have conquest in their power wish for peace; what, then, ought to be our wish? Why do we not, renouncing both anger and hope, those fallacious guides, resign ourselves and all our interests to his well-known honour.” All declaring their approbation by a shout, Titus Quintius advanced before the standards, and said, that “the soldiers would be governed by the dictator;” he besought them to “undertake the cause of those his unfortunate countrymen, and support it under his patronage, with the same honour which had ever marked his administration of the public affairs. That with regard to his own particular case, he stipulated no terms, he wished not to found a hope on aught but innocence. But provision should be made for the safety of the soldiers, as had been formerly practised by the senate, once, in the case of the commons, and a second time in that of the legions, so that no one should suffer for the secession.” The dictator, highly commending Quintius, and desiring the others to hope for the best, rode back with speed to the city, and, with the approbation of the senate, proposed to the people assembled in the Peteline grove, that none of the soldiers should be punished on account of the secession; and even made it his request to them, which he hoped they would approve, that no person, either in jest or earnest, should upbraid any of them with that proceeding. A military law was also passed, sanctioned with a devoting clause, that the name of any soldier, once enrolled, should not be erased without his own consent; and it was included in the law, that no person who had been a tribune of the soldiers should afterwards be a centurion. This demand of the conspirators was pointed against Publius Salonius, who had long been alternately tribune of the soldiers, and first centurion, which they now call primipili. The soldiers were incensed against him, because he had always opposed their licentious proceedings, and, to avoid being concerned therein, had fled from Lautulæ. This was the only proposal with which the senate refused to comply; on which Salonius, earnestly intreating the conscript fathers not to pay greater regard to his promotion, than to the public concord, prevailed on them to let that also pass. There was another requisition, equally unreasonable, that a deduction of one-third should be made from the pay of the cavalry, because they had opposed the conspiracy. They at that time received triple the pay of the foot.
XLII. Besides these regulations, I find in some writers, that Lucius Genucius, plebeian tribune, proposed a law to the people, that no one should lend money at interest. Likewise, that, by other orders of the commons, it was enacted, that no person should hold the same public office a second time within ten years, or enjoy two offices in the same year; and, that it should be lawful to elect both the consuls from among the plebeians. If all these concessions were really made, it is evident that the revolters possessed no small degree of strength. According to the accounts of other historians, Valerius was not nominated dictator, but the whole business was managed by the consuls; nor was it before they came to Rome, but in the city itself, that the conspirators became so desperate as to have recourse to arms. That the attack by night was not at the country-seat of Titus Quintius, but at the house of Caius Manlius; on whom they laid violent hands, and made him their leader; then, marching out as far as the fourth stone, they took possession of a strong post; also, that no mention of a reconciliation was first made by the commanders, but that after the troops had marched out to battle, mutual salutations suddenly took place; and that the soldiers, mixing together, began to shake hands, and embrace each other with tears; and that the consuls, finding the minds of the soldiers averse from fighting, were obliged to make the proposition to the senate, of admitting the revolters to terms. So that in no circumstance do the ancient writers of the history agree, except in relating that there was a mutiny, and that it was composed. The report of this sedition, and the heavy war, undertaken at the same time against the Samnites, induced several nations to forsake the alliance of the Romans; and besides the Latines, who were known, for a long time past, to be in a disposition to break the treaty, the Privernians also, by a sudden incursion, ravaged Norba and Setia, colonies of the Romans, which lay in their neighbourhood.
* Satura signified a dish filled with a variety of fruits, and other kinds of food, offered to Ceres, at the time of her festival, and was used to denote a poetic medley, comprising a variety of topics and matter. Livius Andronicus, a freed man of Marcus Livius Salinator, began to write about the year of Rome 512.
† It was customary, at the end of every act, to chaunt a set of verses, accompanied by the music, and with correspondent gesticulations.
* The Atellan farces were borrowed from Atella, a town in Oscia, which was a district of Campania, comprehending the two states of the Auruncians and Sidicinians.
* 321. 5s. 10d.
† The method of emancipating a son was this: the father made a fictitious sale of his son to a person, who then manumitted, i. e. gave him his freedom in due form; and this process, being performed thrice, released the son from the jurisdiction of the father. It has been already mentioned, that fathers had an entire property in, and jurisdiction, even to life and death, over their sons, who were in a condition little, if at all, better than that of slaves. One sale and manumission released a daughter, or a grand child.
* In this place, and in the sixteenth chapter, Livy uses the expressions unciarum, and semunciarum fænus, in a sense very different from the common acceptation. In general, as was considered as the integer, consequently, unciarum should mean as 1-12th per month, one per cent. for the year. But he here considers uncia as the integer, meaning one per cent. per month, 12 per cent. by the year.
* The common method of communicating the watch-word, and such orders as required expedition, was, to write them on a small tablet or ticket, tessera, which the tribunes sent to the first centurion, by whom it was sent on to the next; and thus it passed to all the centurions in order, until it came to the last, who returned it to the tribune.
The Latines, in conjunction with the Campanians, revolt; send ambassadors to Rome, to propose, as the condition of peace, that one of the consuls shall in future be chosen from among them. Their requisition rejected with disdain. Titus Manlius, the consul, puts his own son to death, for fighting, although successfully, contrary to orders. Decius, the other consul, devotes himself for the army. The Latines surrender. Manlius returning to the city, none of the young men go out to meet him. Minutia, a vestal, condemned for incest. Several matrons convicted of poisoning. Laws then first made against that crime. The Ausonians, Privernians, and Palæpolitans subdued. Quintus Publilius the first instance of a person continuing in command, after the expiration of his office, and of a triumph decreed to any person not a consul. Law against confinement for debt. Quintus Fabius, master of the horse, fights the Samnites, with success, contrary to the orders of Lucius Papirius, dictator; and, with difficulty, obtains pardon, through the intercession of the people. Successful expedition against the Samnites.
Y.R.414. 338.I. THE new consuls were now in office, Caius Plautius a second time, and Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus, when messengers from Setia and Norba brought information to Rome of the revolt of the Privernians, with complaints of the damages sustained by those colonies. News also arrived that an army of Volscians, headed by the people of Antium, had taken post at Satricum. Both these wars fell by lot to Plautius, who, marching first to Privernum, came to an immediate engagement. The enemy, after a slight resistance, were entirely defeated, and their town taken, but this was restored to the inhabitants, being first secured by a strong garrison, while two-thirds of their lands were taken from them. From thence the victorious army was led to Satricum against the Antians: there a furious battle was fought, with a great effusion of blood on both sides. A storm separated the combatants, while there was no evident advantage on either part; the Romans, however, no wise disheartened by the fatigue of an engagement so indecisive, prepared for battle against the next day. But the Volscians, when they had reckoned up their loss, found not in themselves the same degree of resolution for making a second trial, and marched off in the night to Antium, with all the hurry of a defeat; leaving behind their wounded, and part of their baggage. A vast quantity of arms was found, both in the field and in the camp: these the consul declared an offering to Mother Lua*, and, entering the enemy’s country, laid it all waste as far as the sea-coast. The other consul, Æmilius, on marching into the Sabellan territory, found neither a camp of the Samnites, nor legions to oppose him; but, while he was wasting their country with fire and sword, ambassadors came to him, suing for peace. He referred them to the senate; where, when they were admitted to an audidence, laying aside their fierceness of spirit, they requested of the Romans that peace might be restored between the two nations, and that they might be at liberty to carry on war against the Sidicinians: these requests, they alleged, they were the better entitled to make, as “they had united in friendship with the Roman people, at a time when their own affairs were in a flourishing state, not in a season of distress, as the Campanians had done; and, because those, against whom they wished to take arms, were the Sidicinians, who had ever been enemies to them, and never friends to the Romans; who had neither, as the Samnites, sought their friendship in time of peace; nor, as the Campanians, their assistance in war; nor were connected with them in any way, either of alliance or subjection.”
II. The prætor Tiberius Æmilius, having required the opinion of the senate respecting the demands of the Samnites, and the senate having voted a renewal of the treaty with them, gave them this answer, that, “as the Romans had given no cause to hinder the uninterrupted continuance of their friendship, so neither did they now object to its being revived; since the Samnites showed an unwillingness to persevere in a war, which they had brought on themselves through their own fault. That, as to what regarded the Sidicinians, they did not interfere with the liberty of the Samnite nation to determine for themselves with respect to peace and war.” The treaty being concluded, and the ambassadors returning home, the Roman army was immediately withdrawn from thence, after receiving a year’s pay for the soldiers, and corn for three months; which were the conditions stipulated by the consul, on his granting them a truce, until the ambassadors should return. The Samnites marched against the Sidicinians, with the same troops which they had employed in the Roman war, sanguine in their expectation of getting immediate possession of the enemy’s capital. On this the Sidicinians proposed, first, to the Romans, to put themselves under their dominion; but the senate rejected the proposal, as made too late, and forced from them merely by extreme necessity; then the same offer was made to, and accepted by the Latines, who were ready to commence hostilities on their own account. Nor did even the Campanians refrain from taking a part in this quarrel, much stronger impressions being left on their minds by the ill-treatment received from the Samnites, than by the kindness of the Romans. Out of such a number of nations, one vast army was composed, under the direction of the Latines, which, entering the territories of the Samnites, did much greater damage by depredations than by fighting. But, although the Latines had the better in the field, yet they were well pleased to retire out of the enemy’s country, to avoid the necessity of too frequent engagements. This respite afforded time to the Samnites to send ambassadors to Rome, who, having obtained an audience of the senate, made heavy complaints, that, though now their confederates, they suffered the same calamities which they had felt, when their enemies; and, with the humblest entreaties, requested, that the Romans would “think it enough to have deprived the Samnites of conquest over their enemies, the Campanians and Sidicinians; and that they would not, besides, suffer them to be conquered by such a union of dastardly nations. That they would, by their sovereign authority, oblige the Latines and Campanians, if those people were really under the dominion of the Romans, to forbear from entering the territory of the Samnites, and, if they refused obedience, compel them to it by arms.” To this the Romans gave an indeterminate answer, because it would have been mortifying to acknowledge that the Latines were not under their power, and they feared, lest, by charging them with misbehaviour, they might attempt to free themselves from all subjection: but considered the case of the Campanians as very different, they having come under their protection, not by treaty, but by surrender. They answered, therefore, that “the Campanians, whether willing or not, should be quiet; but, in the treaty with the Latines, there was no article which prohibited their waging war against whom they chose.”
III. This answer, as it sent away the Samnites in doubt what opinion to form, with respect to the conduct which the Romans intended to pursue, entirely subverted the allegiance of the Campanians by the menaces held out to them; it also increased the presumption of the Latines, as the senate seemed now not disposed, in any respect, to control them. These last, therefore, under the pretext of preparing for war against the Samnites, held frequent meetings, in which their chiefs, concerting matters among themselves, secretly fomented the design of a war with Rome. The Campanians, too, gave their support to this war, though against their preservers. But, notwithstanding that they took all possible pains to keep their proceedings from being generally known, and though they wished to get rid of the Volscian enemy then at their back, before the Romans should be alarmed; yet, by means of persons connected with the latter in hospitality, and other private ties, intelligence of the conspiracy was conveyed to Rome. There, the consuls being commanded to abdicate their office, in order that the new ones might be the sooner elected, and have the more time to prepare for a war of so great importance, it began to be considered as improper that the election should be held by persons not vested with full authority; consequently an interregnum took place, and continued under two interreges, Marcus Valerius and Marcus Fabius.Y.R.415. 337. The latter elected consuls, Titus Manlius Torquatus a third time, and Publius Decius Mus. It is agreed on all hands, that, in this year, Alexander, King of Epirus, made a descent with a fleet on Italy, in which expedition, had his first attempts been crowned with success, he would, without doubt, have carried his arms against the Romans. This period was also distinguished by the exploits of Alexander the Great, son to the other’s sister, who, in another quarter of the globe, after showing himself invincible in war, was doomed by fortune to be cut off by sickness in the prime of life. Now, the Romans, although they entertained not a doubt of the revolt of their allies, and of the Latine nation, yet, as if they acted in behalf of the Samnites, not of themselves, summoned ten of the chiefs of the Latines to appear at Rome, and receive their orders. The Latines had, at that time, two prætors, Lucius Annius, a native of Setia, and Lucius Numicius, of Circei, both Roman colonists; through whose means, besides Signia and Velitræ, which belonged to the Romans, the Volscians also had been engaged to join in the war. It was thought proper that these two should be particularly summoned; every one clearly perceived on what account they were sent for: the prætors, therefore, before they set out for Rome, called a general assembly, whom they informed, that they were called to attend the Roman senate, and desired their opinion with respect to the business which they supposed would be the subject of discussion, and to make known to them the answers which they chose should be given on the occasion.
IV. After several different opinions had been advanced, Annius said, “Although I myself proposed the question, of what answer should be made, yet, in my judgment, the general interest requires that ye determine how we are to act, rather than how we are to speak. When your designs shall be clearly unfolded, it will be easy to adapt words to the subject: for, if we are still capable of submitting to slavery, under the shadow of a confederacy between equals, what have we more to do than to abandon the Sidicinians, yield obedience to the commands, not only of the Romans, but of the Samnites, saying in answer to the former, that, whenever they intimate their pleasure, we are ready to lay down our arms? But, on the other hand, if our minds are at length penetrated by an ardent desire of liberty; if there be a confederacy subsisting; if alliance be equality of rights; if the Romans have now reason to glory in a circumstance, of which they were formerly ashamed, our being of the same blood with them; if they have, in our troops, such an army of allies, that, by its junction with their own, they double their strength; such a one, in short, as their consuls, either in commencing, or concluding their own wars, would, very unwillingly, disunite from their party: why is there not a perfect and settled equalization? why is it not permitted, that one of the consuls should be chosen from among the Latines? and that they, who supply an equal share of strength, should be admitted to an equal share in the government? This, indeed, considered in itself, would not redound to our honour, in any extraordinary degree: as we should still acknowledge Rome to be the metropolis of Latium; but that it may possibly appear to do so, is owing to our tame resignation for such a length of time. But, if ye ever wished to acquire a participation in the government, the opportunity now presents itself, afforded to you by the bounty of the gods, and your own resolution. Ye have tried their patience, by refusing the supply of troops: who can doubt that they were incensed, to the highest degree, when we broke through a practice of more than two hundred years continuance? yet they thought proper to smother their resentment. We waged war with the Pelignians in our own name: those who, formerly, would not grant us liberty to defend our own frontiers, interfered not then. They heard that we had received the Sidicinians into our protection; that the Campanians had revolted from them to us; that we were preparing an army to act against the Samnites, their confederates; yet they stirred not a step from their city. What but a knowledge of our strength, and of their own, made them thus moderate? I am informed, from good authority, that, when the Samnites made their complaints of us, the Roman senate answered them in such terms, as plainly evinced that they themselves did not insist on Latium being under the dominion of Rome. Urge, then, your claim, and assume the exercise of that right which they tacitly concede to you. If fear deters you from making this demand, lo! here I pledge myself that I will require, in the hearing, not only of the senate, and people of Rome, but of Jove himself, who resides in the Capitol, that, if they wish us to continue in confederacy and alliance with them, they receive from us, one of the consuls, and half of the senate.” On his not only recommending this measure with boldness, but undertaking the execution of it, they unanimously, with acclamations of applause, gave him authority to act, and speak, in such manner, as he should judge conducive to the interest of the republic of the Latine nation, and becoming his own honour.
V. When the prætors arrived in Rome, they had audience of the senate in the Capitol; and the consul, Titus Manlius, having, by the direction of the senate, required of them that they should not make war on the Samnites, the confederates of the Romans — Annius, as if he were a conqueror, who had taken the Capitol by arms, and not an ambassador, who owed his safety, in speaking, to the law of nations, replied thus: “Titus Manlius, and ye, Conscript Fathers, it is full time for you to cease to treat us as a people subject to your commands, since ye see the very flourishing state, which, through the bounty of the gods, Latium enjoys at present, both with respect to numbers and strength: the Samnites are conquered by our arms; the Sidicinians and Campanians, and now the Volstians also, are united to us in alliance; and even your own colonies prefer the government of Latium to that of Rome. But, since ye do not think proper to put an end to your imperious exertions of arbitrary dominion, we, although able, by force of arms, to assert the independency of Latium, will yet pay so much regard to the connexion subsisting between us, as to offer an association on terms of equality, as it has pleased the gods that the strength of both should be, as it is, completely balanced. One of the consuls must be chosen out of Latium, the other out of Rome; the senate must consist of an equal number of each nation; we must become one people, one republic; and, in order that both may have the same seat of government, and the same name, as one side or the other must make the concession, let this, to the happiness of both, have the advantage of being deemed the mother country, and let us all be called Romans.” The Romans happened to have a consul, (Titus Manlius,) of a temper as vehement as that of Annius, who, so far from restraining his anger, openly declared, that, if the Conscript Fathers should be so infatuated, as to receive laws from a man of Setia, he would come into the senate, with his sword in hand, and put to death every Latine that he should find in their house; then turning to the statue of Jupiter, he exclaimed, “Jupiter, hear these impious demands; hear justice and equity. O Jupiter, are you, as if overpowered and made captive, to behold, in your consecrated temple, a foreign consul, and a foreign senate? are these, Latines, the treaties which the Roman king, Tullus, made with the Albans your forefathers, or which Lucius Tarquinius, afterwards concluded with yourselves? does not the fight at the lake Regillus recur to your thoughts? are your calamities of old, and our recent kindnesses towards you, entirely obliterated from your memories?”
VI. These words of the consul were followed by expressions of indignation from the senators; and it is related, that, in reply to the frequent addresses to the gods, whom the consuls often invoked as witnesses to the treaties, Annius was heard to express contempt of the divinity of the Roman Jupiter. However, being inflamed with wrath, and quitting the porch of the temple with hasty steps, he fell down the stairs, and was dashed against a stone at the bottom with such violence, that he received a contusion on his head, which deprived him of sense. As all authors do not concur in mentioning his death to have ensued, I, for my part, must leave that circumstance in doubt; as I shall another, of a violent storm, with dreadful noise in the air, happening while appeals were made to the gods, concerning the infraction of the treaties. For, as these accounts may possibly be founded in fact, so may they likewise have been invented, to express, in a lively manner, an immediate denunciation of the wrath of the gods. Torquatus, being sent by the senate to dismiss the ambassadors, on seeing Annius stretched on the ground, exclaimed, in a voice so loud as to be heard both by the senators and the people, “Ye gods, proceed in so just a war, in which your own rights are concerned; there is a Deity in heaven; thou dost exist, great Jupiter; not without reason have we consecrated you, in this mansion, as the father of gods and men. Why do you hesitate, Romans, and ye, Conscript Fathers, to take up arms, when the gods thus lead the way? Thus will I throw down, in the dust, the legions of the Latines, as ye see their ambassador prostrated.” These words of the consul were received by the multitude with applause, and excited such a flame in their breasts, that the ambassadors, at their departure, owed their safety rather to the care of the magistrates, who escorted them, by the consul’s order, than to the people’s regard to the laws of nations. The senate concurred in voting for the war; and the consuls, after raising two armies, marched through the territories of the Marsians and Pelignians; and, having formed a junction with the army of the Samnites, pitched their camp in the neighbourhood of Capua, where the Latines and their allies had already collected their forces. Here, as it is related, there appeared to both the consuls, in their sleep, the same figure of a man, of a form larger, and more majestic, than the human, who said to them, that “of the one party a general, of the other the army, were due as victims to the infernal gods, and to mother earth; and that on whichever side a general should devote the legions of his enemy, and himself, together with them, to that party and nation the victory would fall.” The consuls, having communicated to each other these visions of the night, determined, that victims should be slain to avert the wrath of the gods; and also, that, if the portents, appearing in their entrails, concurred with what they had seen in their sleep, one or other of the consuls should fulfil the will of the fates. Finding the answers of the auspices to agree with the awful impressions already made on their minds in private, they then called together the lieutenant-generals and tribunes; and, having made known to them all the decrees of the gods, settled between themselves, that, lest the voluntary death of a consul might dishearten the troops in the field, on whichever side the Roman army should begin to give ground, the consul commanding there should devote himself for the Roman people, and for his country. In this consultation, it was also mentioned, that, if ever strictness in command had been enforced in any war, it was then, particularly, requisite that military discipline should be brought back to the ancient model. Their attention was the more strongly directed to this point, by the consideration, that the enemies, with whom they had to deal, were the Latines; people who used the same language, and who had the same manners, the same kind of arms, and, what was more than all, the same military institutions as themselves; who had been intermixed with them in the same armies, often in the same companies, soldiers with soldiers, centurions with centurions, tribunes with tribunes, as comrades and colleagues. Lest, in consequence of this, the soldiers might be betrayed into any mistake, the consuls issued orders, that no person should fight with any of the enemy, except in his post.
VII. It happened that, among the other commanders of the troops of horsemen, which were dispatched to every quarter to procure intelligence, Titus Manlius, the consul’s son, came, with his troop, to the back of the enemy’s camp, so near as to be scarcely distant a dart’s throw from the next post, where some horsemen of Tusculum were stationed, under the command of Geminius Metrius, a man highly distinguished amongst his countrymen, both by his birth and conduct. On observing the Roman horsemen, and the consul’s son, remarkable above the rest, marching at their head, (for they were all known to each other, particularly men of any note,) he called out, “Romans, do ye intend, with one troop, to wage war against the Latines and their allies? What employment will the two consuls and their armies have in the mean time?” Manlius answered, “they will come in due season, and with them will come one whose power and strength is superior to either, Jupiter himself, the witness of those treaties which ye have violated. If, at the lake of Regillus, we gave you fighting until ye were weary, I will answer for it, that we shall, in this place also, give you such entertainment, that, for the future, it will not be extremely agreeable to you to face us in the field.” To this, Geminius, advancing a little from his men, replied, “Do you choose, then, until that day arrives, when, with such great labour ye move your armies, to enter the lists yourself with me, that, from the event of a combat between us two, it may immediately be seen how much a Latine horseman surpasses a Roman?” Either anger, or shame of declining the contest, or the irresistible power of destiny, urged on the daring spirit of the youth, so that, disregarding his father’s commands, and the edict of the consuls, he rushed precipitately to a contest, in which, whether he was victorious or vanquished, was of no great consequence to himself. The other horsemen removed to some distance, as if to behold a show; and then, in the space of clear ground which lay between, the combatants spurred on their horses against each other, and, on their meeting in fierce encounter, the point of Manlius’s spear passed over the helmet of his antagonist, and that of Metius, across the neck of the other’s horse: they then wheeled their horses round, and Manlius having, with the greater quickness, raised himself in his seat, to repeat his stroke, fixed his javelin between the ears of his opponent’s horse, the pain of which wound made the animal rear his fore feet on high, and toss his head with such violence, that he shook off his rider, whom as he endeavoured to raise himself, after the severe fall, by leaning on his javelin and buckler, Manlius pierced through the throat, so that the steel came out between his ribs, and pinned him to the earth. Then collecting the spoils, he rode back to his men, and, together with his troop, who exulted with joy, proceeded to the camp, and so on to his father, without ever reflecting on the nature, or the consequences of his conduct, or whether he had merited praise or punishment. “Father,” (said he,) “that all men may justly attribute to me the honour of being descended of your blood, having been challenged to combat, I bring these equestrian spoils taken from my antagonist, whom I slew.” Which, when the consul heard, turning away instantly from the youth, in an angry manner, he ordered an assembly to be called, by sound of trumpet; and, when the troops had come together in full numbers, he spoke in this manner: “Titus Manlius, for as much as you, in contempt of the consular authority, and of the respect due to a father, have, contrary to our edict, fought with the enemy, out of your post; and, as far as in you lay, subverted the military discipline, by which the power of Rome has to this day been supported; and have brought me under the hard necessity either of overlooking the interests of the public, or my own, and those of my nearest connections; it is fitter that we undergo the penalty of our own transgressions, than that the commonwealth should expiate our offences so injurious to it. We shall afford a melancholy example, but a profitable one, to the youth of all future ages. For my part, I own, both the natural affection of a parent, and the instance which you have shewn of bravery, misguided by a false notion of honour, affect me deeply. But, since the authority of a consul’s orders must either be established by your death; or, by your escaping with impunity, be annulled for ever; I expect that even you yourself, if you have any of our blood in you, will not refuse to restore, by your punishment, that military discipline which has been subverted by your fault. Go, lictor: bind him to the stake.” Shocked to the last degree at such a cruel order, each looking on the axe as if drawn against himself, all were quiet, through fear, rather than discipline. They stood, therefore, for some time motionless and silent; and when the blood spouted from his severed neck, then, their minds emerging, as it were, from the stupefaction in which they had been plunged, they all at once united their voices in free expressions of compassion, refraining not either from lamentations or execrations; and covering the body of the youth with the spoils, they burned it on a pile, erected without the rampart, with every honour which the warm zeal of the soldiers could bestow on a funeral. From thence, ‘ Manlian orders’ were not only then considered with horror, but have been transmitted, as a model of austerity, to future times. The harshness of this punishment, however, rendered the soldiery more obedient to their commander; while the guards and watches, and the regulation of the several posts, were thenceforth attended to with greater diligence: this severity was also found useful, when the troops, for the final decision, went into the field of battle.
VIII. A battle between these two nations much resembled that of a civil war; for, except in point of courage, there was a perfect similarity between the Latines and Romans, in every particular. The Romans formerly made use of targets; afterwards, when they came to receive pay, they made shields for themselves, instead of the targets; and their army, which before was composed of phalanxes, like those of the Macedonians, began to be formed in a line of distinct companies. At length a farther division was made of these, into centuries; each century containing sixty-two soldiers, one centurion, and a standard-bearer. The spearmen formed the first line, in ten companies, with small intervals between them. A company had twenty light armed soldiers, the rest bearing shields; those were called light, who carried only a spear and short iron javelins. This body, which formed the van in the field of battle, contained the youth in early bloom, who were advancing to the age of service; next to them followed the men of more robust age, in the same number of companies, whom they called Principes, all bearing shields, and distinguished by the completest armour. This band of twenty companies they called Antepilani, because there were, at the same time, ten others placed behind them with the standards. Of these companies, each was distinguished into three divisions, and the first division of each they called a Pilus. Each company had three ensigns, and contained one hundred and eighty-six men. The first ensign was at the head of the Triarii, veteran soldiers of approved courage; the second, at the head of the Rorarii, men whose age and course of service afforded less ability; the third, at that of the Accensi, the body in whom they placed the least confidence of all, for which reason also they were thrown back to the last line. An army being marshalled according to this disposition, the spearmen first began the fight: if these were unable to repulse the enemy, they retreated leisurely, and the principes received them into the intervals of their ranks. The fight then rested on the principes, the spearmen following in their rear. The veterans continued kneeling behind the ensigns, with their left leg extended forward, holding their shields resting on their shoulders, and their spears fixed in the ground, with the points erect; so that their line presented an appearance of strength, like that of a rampart. If the principes also failed in making an impression upon the enemy, they fell back slowly, from the front to the veterans. Hence came into use the proverbial expression, denoting a case of difficulty, that the affair had come to the Triarii. These, then, rising up, received the principes and spearmen into the intervals of their ranks, and immediately closing their files, shut up, as it were, every opening, and in one compact body fell upon the enemy; after which, there was no other resource left. This was the most formidable circumstance to the enemy, when, after having pursued them as vanquished, they saw a new line of battle suddenly starting up, with an increase of strength. The number of legions, generally raised, was four, each consisting of four thousand foot, and three hundred horse. To these, an addition of an equal number used to be made by levies, among the Latines, with whom the Romans were now to contend as enemies, and who practised the same method in drawing up their troops. So that it was well known, that, unless the ranks should be put out of their order, they would have to engage, not only ensign against ensign, a body of every description against one exactly similar, but even centurion against centurion. There were among the veterans two first centurions, one in each army; the Roman, deficient in bodily strength, but a man of courage and experience in service: the Latine, exceedingly strong, and a first-rate warrior. These were perfectly well known to each other, because they had always commanded centuries in equal rank. The Roman, diffident of his strength, had, before he left Rome, obtained permission from the consuls, to appoint any one, whom he thought proper, his sub-centurion, to defend him against the one who was destined to be his antagonist; and the youth whom he chose, being opposed to the Latine centurion in battle, obtained a victory over him. The armies came to an engagement at a little distance from the foot of Mount Vesuvius, where the road led to the Veseris.
IX. The Roman consuls, before they led out their forces to the field, performed sacrifices. We are told, that the aruspex showed to Decius, that the head of the liver was wounded on the side which respected himself, in other respects the victim was acceptable to the gods: but Manlius found, in his immolation, omens highly favourable. On which Decius said, “All is well yet, since my colleague’s offering has been accepted.” With their troops, arrayed in the order already described, they marched forth to battle. Manlius commanded the right wing; Decius, the left. At the beginning, the conflict was maintained with equal strength on both sides, and with equal courage. Afterwards, the Roman spearmen, on the left wing, unable to withstand the violent push made by the Latines, retreated to the principes. On this disorder happening, the consul Decius called to Marcus Valerius, with a loud voice, “Valerius, we want the aid of the gods: as public pontiff of the Roman people, dictate to me the words in which I may devote myself for the legions.” The pontiff then directed him to take the gown called Prætexta, and, with his head covered, and his hand thrust up under the gown to his chin, standing upon a spear laid under his feet, to repeat these words: “O Janus, Jupiter, father Mars, Quirinus, Bellona, ye Lares, ye gods Novensiles*, ye gods Indigetes, ye divinities, under whose dominion we and our enemies are, and ye gods of the infernal regions, I beseech you, I adore you, I implore of you, that ye may propitiously grant strength and victory to the Roman people, the Quirites; and affect the enemies of the Roman people, the Quirites, with terror, dismay, and death. In such manner as I have expressed in words, so do I devote the legions, and the auxiliaries of our foes, together with myself, to the infernal gods, and to earth, for the republic of the Romans, for the army, legions, and auxiliaries of the Roman people, the Quirites.” After he had uttered these solemn words, he ordered his lictors to go to Titus Manlius, and to inform his colleague, without delay, that he had devoted himself for the army. Then girding himself in the Gabine cincture, and taking his arms, he leaped on his horse, and plunged into the midst of the enemy. He appeared, in the view of both armies, much more majestic than one of the human race, as if sent from heaven to expiate all the wrath of the gods, to avert destruction from his friends, and transfer it to the side of their enemies: accordingly, all the terror and dismay went along with him; at first, disturbed the battalions of the Latines, and then spread universally over their whole line. This appeared most evidently, in that wherever he was carried by his horse, there they were seized with a panic, as if struck by some pestilent constellation: but where he fell, overwhelmed with darts, manifest consternation took possession of the cohorts of the Latines, so that they fled from the spot, leaving it void to a considerable extent. At the same time, the Romans, their minds being delivered from the dread of the gods, exerted themselves with fresh ardour, as if they were then rushing to the first onset, on receiving the signal. Then even the Rorarii pushed forward among the Antepilani, and added strength to the spearmen and principes, and the veterans, resting on their right knee, waited for the consul’s nod to rise up to the fight.
X. Afterwards, in the course of the battle, the Latines had the advantage in some places, on account of their superior numbers. The consul Manlius, who had heard the circumstances of his colleague’s death, and, as was justly due to him, expressed his sentiments of the glorious manner in which he died, both by tears, and by the praises to which it was entitled, hesitated a while whether it were yet time for the veterans to rise: then, judging it better to reserve them fresh for the decisive blow, he ordered the Accensi to advance from the rear, before the standards. On their moving forward, the Latines immediately called up their veterans, thinking their adversaries had done the same; and, when these, by fighting furiously for a considerable time, had fatigued themselves, and either broken off the points of their spears, or blunted them, yet continuing to drive back their opponents, thinking that the fate of the battle was nearly decided, and that they had come to the last line, then the consul called to the veterans, “Now arise, fresh as ye are, against men who are fatigued, and think on your country, your parents, your wives, and children; think on your consul, submitting to death to ensure your success.” The veterans rising, with their arms glittering, and receiving the Antepilani into the intervals of their ranks, presented a new face which was not foreseen; raising their shout, they broke the first line of the Latines; then, after slaying those who constituted the principal strength, forced their way, almost without a wound, through the other companies, as if through an unarmed crowd; and, such havoc did they make in their thickest bands, that they left alive scarce a fourth part of the enemy. The Samnites, who stood in order of battle, at a distance, close to the foot of the mountain, increased the fears of the Latines. But of all, whether citizens, or allies, the principal share of honour was due to the consuls; one of whom drew down, upon his own single person, all the dangers and threats denounced by the deities either of heaven or hell; while the other displayed such a degree both of courage and conduct, that it is universally agreed, among all who have transmitted to posterity an account of that battle, both Latines and Romans, that, on whichever side Manlius had held the command, victory must have attended. The Latines fled towards Minturnæ. The body of Decius was not found that day, night putting a stop to the search: on the following, it was discovered, pierced with a multitude of darts, amidst vast heaps of slaughtered enemies, and his funeral was solemnized, under the direction of his colleague, in a manner suited to his honourable death. It seems proper to mention here, that it is allowable for a consul, dictator, and prætor, when they devote the legions of their enemies, to devote along with them not themselves in particular, but any citizen whom they choose, out of a Roman legion regularly enrolled. “If the person devoted perishes, the performance is deemed complete. If he die not, then an image seven feet high, or more, must be buried in the earth, and a victim sacrificed, as an expiation. Where that image shall be buried, there it shall be unlawful for a Roman magistrate to pass.” But if he shall choose to devote himself, as Decius did, then “if he who devotes himself, die not, he shall not be capable of performing, with propriety, any act of worship, in behalf either of himself, or of the public. Let him have a right to devote his arms to Vulcan, or to any other god he shall do it, either by a victim, or in any other mode. The enemy should, if possible, be hindered from getting possession of the weapon, on which the consul stood when he uttered his imprecation: but if they chance to attain it, an atonement must be made to Mars by the sacrifices called Suovetaurilia.” Although the memory of every divine and human rite has been obliterated through the preference given to what is new and foreign, above that which is ancient and the growth of our own country, yet I thought it not amiss to recite these particulars, as they have been transmitted to us, and even in the very words in which they were expressed.
XI. Several authors relate, that the Samnites having waited to see the issue of the fight, came up, at length, with support to the Romans, after the battle was ended. In like manner, a reinforcement from Lavinium, after wasting time in deliberation, set out to the aid of the Latines, after they had been vanquished; and, when the first standards and part of the army had passed the gates, receiving information of the overthrow of the Latines, they faced about, and returned to the city; on which their prætor, named Millionius, is reported to have said, that “a high price must be paid to the Romans for so short a journey.” Such of the Latines as survived the fight, after being scattered through different roads, collected themselves in a body, and took refuge in the city of Vescia. There their general Numisius insisted, in their meetings, that “the variable chances of war had ruined both armies, by equal losses, and that the name only of victory was on the side of the Romans; and that they were, in fact, no better than defeated. The two pavilions of their consuls were polluted; one, by the parricide committed on a son; the other, by the death of a devoted consul: every part of their army had suffered great slaughter: their spearmen and their first ranks were cut to pieces; and, both before and behind their standards, multitudes were slain, until the veterans at last restored their cause. Now, although the forces of the Latines were reduced in an equal proportion, yet still, for the purpose of procuring reinforcements, either Latium, or the territory of the Volscians, was nearer than Rome. Wherefore, if they approved of it, he would with all speed call out the youth from the states of the Latines and Volscians; would march back to Capua, with an army prepared for action, and, while the Romans thought of nothing less than a battle, strike them with dismay by his unexpected arrival.” The misrepresentations contained in his letters, which he dispatched round Latium and the Volscian nation, were the more easily credited by the people, as they had not been present at the battle, and, in consequence, a tumultuary army, levied in haste, assembled together from all quarters. This body the consul Torquatus met at Trisanum, a place between Sinuessa and Minturnæ. Without waiting to choose ground for camps, both parties threw down their baggage in heaps, and immediately began an engagement, which decided the fate of the war: for the strength of the Latines was so entirely broken, that, on the consul leading his victorious army to ravage their country, they all submitted themselves to his mercy, and their submission was followed by that of the Campanians. A forfeiture of a portion of their territory was exacted from Latium and Capua. The Latine lands, to which the Privernian was added, and also the Falernian, which had belonged to the people of Campania, as far as the river Vulturnus, were distributed to the Roman commons. Of two acres, the portion allotted to each, three-fourths were assigned them in the Latine ground, the complement to be made up out of the Privernian. In the Falernian, three acres were given to each, the addition of one being made in consideration of the distance. Of the Latines, the Laurentians were exempted from punishment, as were the Campanian horsemen, because they had not joined in the revolt. An order was made, that the treaty should be renewed with the Laurentians, and from that time this has been annually done, on the tenth day after the Latine festival. The privileges of citizens were granted to the Campanian horsemen; and, as a monument thereof, they hung up a tablet in the temple of Castor at Rome. The people of Campania were also enjoined to pay them a yearly stipend, of four hundred and fifty denarii* each; their number amounted to one thousand six hundred.
XII. The war being thus brought to a conclusion, Titus Manlius, after distributing rewards and punishments, according to the merits and demerits of each, returned to Rome. On his arrival there, it appeared that none but the aged came out to meet him, and that the young, both then and during the whole of his life, detested and cursed him. The Antians, having made inroads on the territories of Ostia, Ardea, and Solonia, the consul Manlius, unable on account of the ill state of his health to act against them in person, nominated dictator Lucius Papirius Crassus, who happened at the time to be prætor, and he constituted Lucius Papirius Cursor master of the horse. Nothing worth mention was performed against the Antians by the dictator, although he kept his army in a fixed camp, in the territory of Antium, during several months. To this year, which was signalized by conquest over so many, and such powerful nations, and, besides, by the glorious death of one of the consuls, and the other’s unrelenting severity in command,Y.R.416. 336. by which he has been rendered for ever memorable, succeeded as consuls, Tiberius Æmilius Mamercinus, and Quintus Publilius Philo, who found not equal opportunity for the display of abilities; and were, besides, more attentive to their private interests, and the parties which divided the state, than to the public good. The Latines taking arms again, out of resentment for being deprived of their lands, were defeated, and driven out of their camp, in the plains of Ferentinum; and while Publilius, under whose conduct and auspices the battle had been fought, was employed there, in receiving the submissions of the Latine states, who had lost the greater part of their young men in the engagement, Æmilius led the army towards Pedum. The people of this city were supported by the Tiburtine, Prænestine, and Veliternian states: auxiliaries also came to them from Lavinium and Antium. Though the Romans had here the superiority, in several engagements, yet the most difficult part of the business remained still to be attempted, at the city of Pedum itself, and at the camp of the combined states, which lay close to the walls; when the consul, on hearing that a triumph had been decreed to his colleague, hastily left the war unfinished, and repaired to Rome to demand a triumph for himself, before he had obtained a victory. The senate, offended at his ambitious proceeding, refused to grant it, until Pedum should either surrender or be taken. This so alienated Æmilius from their interests, that he acted, during the remainder of his consulate, like a seditious tribune; for, as long as he continued in office, he never ceased criminating the patricians in harangues to the people, which his colleague, who was himself a plebeian, took no pains to prevent. The charges he brought against them were grounded on a scanty distribution of the Latine and Falernian lands: and, when the senate, wishing to put an end to the administration of the consuls, ordered a dictator to be nominated, to conduct the war against the Latines, who were again in arms, Æmilius, who was the acting consul at the time, nominated his colleague dictator, who appointed Junius Brutus master of the horse. The dictatorship of Publius was popular, for his discourses were replete with invectives against the patricians. He, at the same time, passed three laws, highly advantageous to the commons, and injurious to the nobility: one, that the orders of the commons should bind all the Romans; another, that the senate should, previous to the taking of the suffrages, declare their approbation of all laws, which should be passed in the assemblies of the centuries; the third, that one of the censors should, necessarily, be elected out of the commons, as it had been already established that both the consuls might be plebeians. In the judgment of the patricians, the detriment sustained that year, at home, from the behaviour of the consuls and dictator, was more than a counterbalance to the increase of empire, through their conduct and successes in war.
Y.R.417. 335.XIII. At the commencement of the next year, in which Lucius Furius Camillus, and Caius Mænius, were consuls, the senate, in order to render more conspicuous the conduct of Æmilius, in relinquishing the business of the campaign, warmly urged that men, arms, and every kind of force, should be employed to take Pedum, and demolish it. The new consuls were of course obliged to postpone every other business, and to set out thither. In Latium, the state of affairs was such, that the people could ill endure either war or peace; their strength was not equal to the support of a war, and peace they disdained, on the humiliating terms of losing their lands. They resolved, therefore, to steer a middle course; to keep within the walls of their towns, so that no provocation should be offered to the Romans, which might serve them as a pretext for hostilities; and in case they should hear of siege being laid to any of their possessions, then, that every one of the estates should be obliged to bring succour to the besieged. Pedum, however, received aid from few: the Tiburtians and Prænestians, whose territories lay nearest, arrived there; but the Aricians, Lavinians, and Veliternians, while forming a junction with the Volscians of Antium, at the river Astura, were unexpectedly attacked by Mænius, and routed. The Tiburtians, who were much the strongest body, Camillus fought at Pedum; and, though he had greater difficulties to surmount, yet the issue was equally successful. Some confusion happened, occasioned, principally, by a sudden eruption of the townsmen, during the fight: but Camillus, making part of his troops face about, not only drove them within the walls, but, after utterly discomfiting both themselves and their allies, took the city the same day by scalade. It was then resolved, their troops being flushed with victory, that they should proceed until they had made an entire conquest of all Latium. This plan they prosecuted without intermission, making themselves masters of some of the towns by force, and of others by capitulation, reducing the entire country to subjection. Then, leaving garrisons in the conquered places, they returned to Rome, to enjoy the triumph, to which all men allowed they were justly entitled. To a triumph was added the honour of having equestrian statues erected to them in the Forum, a compliment very rare in that age. Before the assembly for electing consuls was called for the ensuing year, Camillus moved the senate to take into consideration the conduct to be observed towards the states of Latium, and proceeded in this manner: “Conscript Fathers, Whatever was to be effected in Latium, by means of arms and military operations, has now, through the favour of the gods, and the valour of your soldiers, been fully accomplished. The armies of our enemies have been cut to pieces at Pedum, and the Astura; all the towns of Latium, and Antium, in the Volscian territory, either taken by storm, or surrendered, are held by your garrisons. It remains then to be considered, since the frequent rebellions of these people are the cause of so much trouble, by what means we may secure their quiet submission, and peaceable behaviour. The attainment of this end, the immortal gods have placed within your reach, insomuch that they have given you the power of determining whether Latium shall longer exist, or not. Ye can therefore ensure to yourselves perpetual peace, as far as regards the Latines, by the means either of severity, or of mercy. Do ye choose to adopt cruel measures against people vanquished, and submitting to your authority? Ye may utterly destroy all Latium, and make a desert of a country, from which, in many and difficult wars, ye have often been supplied with a powerful army of allies. Do ye choose, on the contrary, and in conformity to the practice of your ancestors, to augment the Roman state, by receiving the vanquished into the number of your citizens? Here is a large addition which ye may acquire, by means which will redound most highly to your glory. That government, which the subjects feel happy in obeying, stands certainly on the firmest of all foundations. But, whatever your determination may be, it is necessary that it be speedy: as all those states are, at present, suspended between hope and fear. It is therefore of importance that ye should be discharged as soon as possible, from all solicitude concerning them; and also, that, either by punishment or clemency, an immediate impression be made on their minds, before they recover from the state of insensibility in which the uncertainty of their fate has thrown them. It was our part to bring the business to such an issue, that your deliberations concerning it should be unrestrained in every particular. It is now yours to determine what is most advantageous to yourselves and the commonwealth.”
XIV. The principal members of the senate highly approved of the consul’s statement of the business, on the whole: but said, that “as the states were differently circumstanced, it would conduce to an easy adjustment of the plan, so as that their resolutions should be conformable to the several merits of each, if he put the question, on the case of each state, separately.” The question was accordingly put, and a decree passed with respect to each singly. The Lanuvians were admitted members of the state; the exercise of their public worship was restored to them, with a provision, that the grove and temple of Juno Sospita should be in common, between the burghers* of Lanuvium, and the Roman people. On the same terms with these, the Aricians, Nomentans, and Pedans, were received into the number of citizens. To the Tusculans, the rights of citizens, of which they were already in possession, were continued; and the guilt of the rebellion, instead of being imputed to disaffection in the state, was thrown on a few incendiaries. On the Veliternians, who were Roman citizens of an old standing, in resentment of their having so often arisen in rebellion, severe vengeance was inflicted: their walls were razed, and their senate driven into banishment; they were also enjoined to dwell on the farther side of the Tiber, with a denunciation that if any of them should be caught on the hither side of that river, the fine to be paid for his discharge should be no less than one thousand asses*, and that the person apprehending him should not release him from confinement, until the money should be paid. Into the lands, which had belonged to their senators, colonists were sent, from the addition of whose numbers Velitræ recovered the appearance of its former populousness. To Antium, also, a new colony was sent, permission being granted, at the same time, to the Antians, of having themselves enrolled therein if they chose it. The ships of war were taken from them, and the people wholly interdicted from meddling with maritime affairs; but the rights of citizens were granted to them. The Tiburtians and Prænestines were amerced in a portion of their lands; not merely on account of their recent crime of rebellion, common to them with the rest of the Latines, but because they had formerly, in disgust at the Roman government, associated in arms with the Gauls, a nation of savages. From the other states they took away the privileges of intermarriage, commerce, and holding assemblies. To the Campanians, in compliment to their horsemen, who had refused to join in rebellion with the Latines, as likewise to the Fundans and Formians, because the troops had always found a safe and quiet passage through their territories, the freedom of the state was granted, without right of suffrage. The states of Cumæ and Suessula, it was decreed, should be placed on the same footing, and enjoy the same privileges, as Capua. Of the ships of the Antians, some were drawn up into the docks at Rome; the rest were burned, and with the prows of these a pulpit, built in the Forum, was ordered to be decorated, hence called Rostra.*
Y.R.418. 334.XV. During the succeeding consulate of Caius Sulpicius Longus, and Publius Ælius Pætus, whilst all the neighbouring states were sincerely disposed, not more through consideration of the power of the Romans, than grateful sentiments inspired by their generous conduct, to cultivate peace with them, a quarrel broke out between the Sidicinians and the Auruncians. The latter, having been formerly, on their submission, admitted into alliance, by Titus Manlius, in his consulate, had ever since demeaned themselves peaceably, for which reason they were more justly entitled to expect assistance from the Romans. But, before the consuls led out the army, (for the senate had ordered the Auruncians to be supported,) intelligence was brought that these, through fear, had deserted their city, and, removing with their wives and children, had fortified Suessa, which is now called Aurunca, and that their former dwellings and fortifications were demolished by the Sidicinians. The senate, highly displeased with the consuls, in consequence of whose dilatory proceedings their allies had been disappointed of support, ordered a dictator to be nominated. Caius Claudius Regillensis, being accordingly appointed, chose Caius Claudius Hortator master of the horse. A scruple afterwards arose concerning the dictator, and the augurs having declared his creation informal, both he and the master of the horse abdicated their offices. This year, Minucia, a vestal, falling at first under suspicion of incontinence, because of her dressing in a style of elegance beyond what became her situation, and being afterwards prosecuted before the pontiffs, on the testimony of a slave, was, by their decree, ordered to refrain from meddling in sacred rites, and to retain her slaves under her own power.* Being afterwards brought to trial, she was buried alive, at the Colline gate, on the right hand of the causeway in the field of wickedness, which was so denominated, I suppose, from her crime. The same year Quintus Publilius Philo was the first plebeian elected prætor. He was opposed by the consul Sulpicius, who refused to admit him as a candidate; but the senate, having failed of carrying their point, with respect to the highest offices, showed the less earnestness about the prætorship.
Y.R.419. 333.XVI. The following year, wherein Lucius Papirius Crassus, and Cæso Duilius were consuls, was distinguished by a war with the Ausonians, which deserves notice, rather as they were a new enemy, than on account of its importance. This people inhabited the city Cales: they had united their arms with their neighbours, the Sidicinians, yet the forces of the two nations were defeated, in a single battle, without any great difficulty. Their cities being near at hand, induced them to quit the field the earlier, and also afforded them shelter after their flight. However, the senate did not, on this, desist from the prosecution of the war, being provoked at the Sidicinians having so often taken arms against them, either as principals or auxiliaries.Y.R.420. 332. They therefore exerted their utmost endeavours to raise to the consulship, the fourth time, Marcus Valerius Corvus, the greatest general of that age. The colleague joined with him was Marcus Atilius Regulus; and, lest chance might frustrate their wishes, a request was made to the consuls, that, without casting lots, that province might be assigned to Corvus. Receiving the victorious army from the former consuls, he marched directly to Cales, where the war had its rise: and having, at the first onset, routed the enemy, who were disheartened by the recollection of the former engagement, he directed his operations against the town itself. Such was the ardour of the soldiers, that they wanted to proceed directly up to the walls with ladders, asserting, that they would quickly scale them; but that being a hazardous attempt, Corvus chose to effect his purpose by the labour of his men, rather than at the expense of so much danger to them; he therefore formed a rampart, prepared machines, and advanced towers up to the walls. But an opportunity, which accidentally presented itself, prevented his having occasion to use them: for Marcus Fabius, a Roman, who was prisoner there, having broken his chains, while his guards were inattentive on a festival day, by fastening a rope to one of the battlements, let himself down among the Roman works, and persuaded the general to make an assault on the enemy, while, in consequence of feasting and drinking, they were disqualified for action. And thus the Ausonians, together with their city, were captured with as little difficulty as they had been defeated in the field. The booty found there was immense, and the legions, leaving a garrison at Cales, returned to Rome. The consul triumphed in pursuance of a decree of the senate; and, in order that Atilius should not be without a share of honour, both the consuls were ordered to lead the troops against the Sidicinians. But first, in obedience to the senate, they nominated dictator, for the purpose of holding the elections, Lucius Æmilius Hamercinus, who named Quintus Publilius Philo master of the horse.Y.R.421. 331. The dictator presiding at the election, Titus Veturius and Spurius Postumius were created consuls. Notwithstanding the war with the Sidicinians remained unfinished, yet being desirous to prevent, by an act of generosity, the wishes of the commons, they proposed to the senate the sending a colony to Cales; and a decree being passed that two thousand five hundred men should be enrolled for that purpose, they constituted Cæso Duilius, Titus Quintius, and Marcus Fabius, commissioners for conducting the colony, and distributing the lands.
XVII. The new consuls, receiving from their predecessors the command of the army, marched into the enemy’s country, and carried devastation even to the walls of their capital. There, because it was expected that the Sidicinians, who had collected a vast body of forces, would make a vigorous struggle in support of their last hope, and a report also prevailing that Samnium was preparing for hostilities, the consuls, by direction of the senate, nominated dictator, Publius Cornelius Rufinus, who appointed Marcus Antonius his master of the horse. A doubt afterwards arose, with respect to the regularity of their creation, on which they abdicated their offices, and a pestilence ensuing, recourse was had to an interregnum, as if the auspices of every office had been infected by that irregularity. Under Marcus Valerius Corvus, the fifteenth interrex from the commencement of the interregnum,Y.R.422. 330. consuls were at last elected, Aulus Cornelius a second time, and Cneius Domitius. While things were in a state of tranquillity, a report, which was spread, that the Gauls were in arms, produced the same effect which a war with that people usually did, a resolution to create a dictator: Marcus Papirius Crassus was nominated to that office, and Publius Valerius Publicola to that of master of the horse; and, while they were busy in levying troops, with greater diligence than would have been deemed requisite in the case of war with any neighbouring state, intelligence was brought, by scouts dispatched for the purpose, that all was quiet among the Gauls. Suspicions were also entertained that Samnium still continued, during this year, in a disposition to raise new disturbances; for which reason, the Roman troops were not withdrawn from the country of the Sidicinians. An attack made by Alexander king of Epirus, on the Lucanians, drew the Samnites to that quarter, where those two nations fought a pitched battle with the king, as he was making a descent on the side of the country adjoining Pæstum. Alexander, having gained the victory, concluded a treaty of amity with the Romans; with what degree of faith he would have observed it, had the rest of his enterprises proved successful, it is hard to say. The census, or general survey, was performed this year, and the new citizens rated; on whose account, two additional tribes were constituted, the Mæcian and Scaptian, by the censors Quintus Publilius Philo, and Spurius Postumius. The Acerrans were enrolled as Romans, in pursuance of a law introduced by the prætor, Lucius Papirius, which granted them the privileges of citizens, excepting the right of suffrage. Such were the transactions, foreign and domestic, of this year.
Y.R.423. 329.XVIII. The following year exhibited a shocking scene, whether occasioned by the intemperature of the air, or by the wickedness of the people. The consuls were Marcus Claudius Marcellus, and Caius Valerius, either Flaccus or Potitus, for I find these different surnames of the consul in the annals; it is, however, a matter of little consequence, which of them be the true one. There is another account, which I could heartily wish were false: that those persons, whose deaths distinguished this year as disastrous, on account of the extraordinary mortality, were cut off by poison. Although this particular be not mentioned by all the historians of this period, yet, that I may not detract from the credit of any writer, I shall relate the matter as it has been handed down to us. While the principal persons of the state died, by disorders of the same kind, and which were attended with the same issue in every case, a certain maid-servant undertook, before Quintus Fabius Maximus, curule ædile, to discover the cause of the general malady, provided security were given her on the public faith, that she should not be a sufferer in consequence. Fabius immediately reported the affair to the consuls, and the consuls to the senate, and, by order of that body, the public faith was pledged to the informer. She then stated to them, that the calamity, which afflicted the nation, was caused by the wicked contrivances of certain women; that some matrons were, at the time, preparing drugs for the purpose; and that, if they would be pleased to go along with her without delay, they might detect them in the fact. Accordingly, they followed the informant, and found several women preparing drugs, and also quantities of the same laid up, which being brought into the Forum, and the matrons, in whose custody they were found, to the number of twenty, being summoned by a beadle, two of them, Cornelia and Sergia, both of patrician families, asserted that those drugs were wholesome; while the informant maintained the contrary; and insisted on their drinking them, in order to convict her of having invented a falsehood. On this, having taken time to confer together, and in the open view of all, a space being cleared for them, they drank off the preparation, and all perished by means of their own wicked device. Their attendants, being instantly seized, gave information against a great number of matrons, of whom no less than one hundred and seventy were condemned. Until that day, no person had ever been tried at Rome for poisoning: the affair was deemed a prodigy, and seemed more the result of madness, than of vicious depravity. Wherefore, mention being found in the annals, that formerly, on occasion of the secessions of the commons, (a disastrous time,) the ceremony of driving the nail had been performed by a dictator, and that, by that expiation, the minds of men, which were distracted by discord, had been restored to their proper state, it was resolved that a dictator should be nominated for the purpose.Y.R.424. 328. Cneius Quintius being accordingly created, appointed Lucius Valerius master of the horse, and, as soon as the nail was driven, they abdicated their offices.
Y.R.425. 327.XIX. Lucius Papirius Crassus, and Lucius Plautius Venno were the consuls for the next year; in the beginning of which, ambassadors came to Rome from Fabrateria and Polusca, two Volscian states, praying to be admitted into alliance; and promising, that if they were protected against the arms of the Samnites, they would ever continue faithful and obedient subjects to the government of the Roman people. On this, ambassadors were sent by the senate, to require of the Samnites, that they should offer no violence to the territories of those states; and this embassy produced the desired effect, rather because the Samnites were not yet prepared for war, than that they were desirous of peace. This year, war broke out with the people of Privernum: these were supported by inhabitants of Fundi, of which country was also the commander in chief, Vitruvius Vaccus, a man of considerable note, not only at home, but at Rome also. He had a house on the Palatine hill, on the spot which, after the buildings were razed, and the ground thrown open, was called Vacciprata* . He was committing great depredations in the districts of Setia, Norba, and Cora; to oppose him, therefore, Lucius Papirius began his march, and took post a small distance from his camp. Vitruvius neither took the prudent resolution of remaining within his trenches, in the presence of an enemy, his superior in strength, nor had he the courage to fight at any great distance from them. Without either judgment in forming, or boldness in executing his plan, he entered on an engagement, while the last of his troops had scarcely got out of the gate of the camp, and his men were in a disposition rather to fly back thither, than to face the enemy. After some slight efforts, he was compelled to give up the contest entirely; but, by reason of the shortness of the distance, and the ease with which he could regain his camp, he saved his army, without much difficulty from any great loss, few falling either in the action or in the retreat. As soon as it grew dark, they removed in haste and disorder to Privernum, choosing to entrust their safety to walls, rather than to a rampart. The other consul, Plautius, after wasting the country on every side, and driving off the spoil, led his army from Privernum into the territory of Fundi. On entering the borders, he was met by the senate of that state, who declared, that “they came not to intercede for Vitruvius, and those who had followed his faction, but for the people of Fundi, who, in the judgment of Vitruvius himself, were clear from all blame of the war, as he showed by repairing for safety, after his defeat, to Privernum, and not to Fundi, his native city. At Privernum, therefore, the enemies of the Roman people were to be sought, and punished; who, regardless of their duty to both countries, had revolted at once from Fundi and from Rome. The Fundians were in a state of peace, their minds were Roman, and impressed with a grateful remembrance of the privilege of citizens imparted to them: they besought the consul that he would not treat as enemies an unoffending people; assuring him, that their lands, their city, and their persons, were, and ever should be, in the disposal of the Roman people.” The consul commended their conduct; and, dispatching letters to Rome, that the Fundians had preserved their allegiance, turned his march to Privernum. Claudius writes, that he first inflicted punishment on those who had been the principal abettors of the conspiracy; that three hundred and fifty were sent in chains to Rome; but that the senate did not accept their submission, because they thought that the people of Fundi meant, by consigning to punishment these men, who were mean and indigent, to secure impunity to themselves.
XX. While the two consular armies were employed in the siege of Privernum, one of the consuls was recalled to Rome, to preside at the elections. This year goals were first erected in the circus. While the attention of the public was still occupied by the Privernian war, it was forcibly attracted by an alarming report of the Gauls being in arms, a matter at no time slighted by the senate.Y.R.426. 326. The new consuls, therefore, Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus, and Caius Plautius, on the calends of July, the very day on which they entered into office, received orders to settle the provinces immediately between themselves. Mamercinus, to whom the Gallic war fell, was directed to levy troops, without admitting any plea of immunity; nay, it is said, that even the rabble of handicrafts, and those of sedentary trades, of all the worst qualified for military service, were called out; by which means a vast army was collected at Veii, in readiness to meet the Gauls. It was not thought proper to proceed to a greater distance, lest the Gauls might, by some other route, arrive at the city without being observed. In the course of a few days it was found, on a careful inquiry, that every thing on that side was quiet at the time; and the whole force, which was to have opposed the Gauls, was then turned against Privernum. Of the issue of the business, there are two different accounts: some say, that the city was taken by storm; and that Vitruvius fell alive into the hands of the conquerors: others, that the townsmen, to avoid the extremities of a storm, presented the rod of peace, and surrendered to the consul; and that Vitruvius was delivered up by his troops. The senate, being consulted with respect to Vitruvius and the Privernians, sent directions, that the consul Plautius should demolish the walls of Privernum, and, leaving a strong garrison there, come home to enjoy the honour of a triumph; at the same time ordering that Vitruvius should be kept in prison, until the return of the consul, and that he should then be beaten with rods, and put to death. His house, which stood on the Palatine hill, they commanded to be razed to the ground, and his effects to be devoted to Semo Sancus. With the money produced by the sale of them, brazen globes were formed, and placed in the chapel of Sancus, opposite to the temple of Quirinus. As to the senate of Privernum, it was commanded, that every person who had continued to act as a senator of Privernum, after the revolt from the Romans, should reside on the farther side of the Tiber, under the same restrictions as those of Velitræ. After the passing of these decrees, there was no farther mention of the Privernians, until Plautius had triumphed. When that ceremony was over, and Vitruvius, with his accomplices, had been put to death, the consul thought that the people’s resentment being now fully gratified by the sufferings of the guilty, he might safely introduce the business of the Privernian state, which he did in the following manner: “Conscript Fathers, since the authors of the revolt have received, both from the immortal gods and from you, the punishment due to their crime, what do ye judge proper to be done with respect to the guiltless multitude? For my part, although my duty consists rather in collecting the opinions of others, than in offering my own, yet, when I reflect that the Privernians are situated in the neighbourhood of the Samnites, with whom it is exceedingly uncertain how long we shall be at peace, I cannot help wishing, that as little ground of animosity as possible may be left between them and us.”
XXI. The affair naturally admitted of a diversity of opinions, while each, agreeably to his particular temper, recommended either severity or lenity; and the debate was still farther perplexed by the behaviour of one of the Privernian ambassadors, more conformable to the prospects to which he had been born, than to the insuperable exigency of the present juncture: for being asked, by one of the advocates for severity, “what punishment he though the Privernians deserved?” he answered, “such as those deserve, who deem themselves worthy of liberty.” The consul observing, that, by this stubborn answer, the adversaries of the cause of the Privernians were the more exasperated against them, and wishing, by a question of favourable import, to draw from him a more conciliating reply, said to him, “what if we remit the punishment, in what manner may we expect that ye will observe the peace which shall be established between us?” He replied, “if the peace which ye grant us be a good one, inviolably and eternally; if bad, for no long continuance.” On this, several exclaimed, that the Privernian menaced them, and not in ambiguous terms; and that such expressions were calculated to excite rebellion. But the more reasonable part of the senate interpreted his answers more favourably, and said, that “the words which they had heard were those of a man, and of one who knew what it was to be free. Could it be believed that any people, or even any individual, would remain, longer than necessity constrained, in a situation which he felt painful? That the terms of a peace were faithfully observed, only when they were voluntarily accepted; but that it was absurd to expect fidelity, when attempts were made to establish slavery.” In this opinion they were led to concur, principally, by the consul himself, who frequently observed to the consulars, who had proposed the different resolutions, in such a manner as to be heard by the rest, that, “surely those men who thought of nothing but liberty, were worthy of being made Romans.” They consequently carried their cause in the senate: and, moreover, by direction of that body, a proposal was laid before the people, that the freedom of the state should be granted to the Privernians. This year a colony of three hundred was sent to Anxur, and received two acres of land each.
XXII. The year following, in which the consuls were Publius Plautius Proculus,Y.R.427. 325. and Publius Cornelius Scapula, was remarkable for no one transaction, civil or military, except the sending of a colony to Fregellæ, a district which had belonged to the Sidicinians, and afterwards to the Volscians; and a distribution of meat to the people, made by Marcus Flavius, on occasion of the funeral of his mother. There were many who represented, that, under the appearance of doing honour to his parent, he was making recompence to the people, for having acquitted him, when prosecuted by the ædiles on a charge of having debauched a married woman. This donative, intended as a return for favours shewn on the trial, proved also the means of procuring him the honour of a public office; for, at the next election of plebeian tribunes, though absent, he was preferred before the candidates who solicited in person. The city Palæpolis was situated at no great distance from the spot where Neapolis now stands. The two cities were inhabited by one people: these came from Cumæ, and the Cumans derive their origin from Chalcis in Eubœa. By means of the fleet, in which they had been conveyed hither, they possessed great power on the coast of the sea, near which they dwelt. Their first landing was on the islands of Ænaria, and the Pithacusæ: afterwards they ventured to transfer their settlement to the continent. This state, relying on their own strength, and also on the disposition of the Samnites, to come to a rupture with the Romans; or, encouraged by the report of a pestilence, having attacked the city of Rome, committed various acts of hostility against the Romans settled in the Campanian and Falernian territories. Wherefore, in the succeeding consulate of Lucius Cornelius, and Quintus Publilius Philo a second time,Y.R.428. 324. heralds being sent to Palæpolis to demand satisfaction, and a haughty answer being returned by these Greeks, a race more magnanimous in words than in action, the people, in pursuance of the direction of the senate, ordered war to be declared against them. On settling the provinces between the consuls, the war against the Greeks fell to Publilius. Cornelius, with another army, was appointed to watch the motions of the Samnites: and a report prevailing, of an expected revolt in Campania, in which case they intended to march their troops thither, that was judged the properest station for him.
XXIII. The senate received information, from both the consuls, that there was very little hope of peace with the Samnites. Publilius informed them, that two thousand soldiers from Nolæ, and four thousand of the Samnites, had been received into Palæpolis, a measure rather forced on the Greeks by the Nolans, than agreeable to their inclination. Cornelius wrote, that a levy of troops had been ordered, that all Samnium was in motion, and that the neighbouring states of Privernum, Fundi, and Formiæ, were openly solicited to join them. It was thought proper, that, before hostilities were commenced, ambassadors should be sent to expostulate on these subjects with the Samnites, who answered in a haughty manner; they even went so far as to accuse the Romans of behaving injuriously towards them; but, nevertheless, they took pains to acquit themselves of the charges made against them, asserting, that “their state had not given either counsel or aid to the Greeks, nor used any solicitations, on their behalf, to the Fundans, or Formians: for, if they were disposed to war, they had not the least reason to be diffident of their own strength. However, they could not dissemble, that it gave great offence to the state of the Samnites, that Fregellæ, a town which they had taken from the Volscians, and demolished, should have been rebuilt by the Romans; and that they should have established a colony within the territory of the Samnites, to which their colonists gave the name of Fregellæ. This injury and affront, if not done away by the authors, they were determined themselves to remove, by the most effectual means in their power.” One of the Roman ambassadors proposed to discuss the matter, before their common allies and friends; on which their magistrate said, “Why do we disguise our sentiments? Romans, no conferences of ambassadors, nor arbitration of any person whatever, can terminate our differences; but the plains of Campania, in which we must fight: let our armies, therefore, meet between Capua and Suessula; and there let us decide, whether the Samnite, or the Roman, shall hold the sovereignty of Italy.” To this the ambassadors of the Romans replied, that “they would go, not whither their enemy called, but whither their commanders should lead.” In the mean time, Publilius, by seizing an advantageous post between Palæpolis and Neapolis, had cut off the confederates from that interchange of mutual aid, which they had hitherto afforded each other, when either place was pressed. The day of the elections approached; and, as it was highly inexpedient that Publilius should be recalled, when on the point of assailing the enemy’s walls, and in daily expectation of gaining possession of their city, application was made to the tribunes, to recommend to the people the passing of an order, that Publilius Philo, when his year of office should expire, might continue in command, as pro-consul, until the war with the Greeks should be finished. A letter was dispatched to Lucius Cornelius, with orders to name a dictator; for it was not thought proper that the consul should be recalled, while he was employed in vigorously prosecuting the business of the campaign, and had already carried the war into Samnium. He nominated Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who appointed Spurius Postumius master of the horse. The elections, however, were not held by the dictator, because the regularity of his appointment was called in question; and the augurs, being consulted, pronounced that it appeared defective. The tribunes inveighed against this proceeding, as dangerous and dishonourable; “for it was not probable,” they said, “that a fault in the appointment could have been discovered, as the consul, rising in the night, had nominated the dictator in private, and while every thing was still*; nor had the said consul, in any of his letters, either public or private, made any mention of such a thing; nor did any person whatever appear, who said that he saw or heard any thing which could vitiate the auspices. Neither could the augurs, sitting at Rome, divine what inauspicious circumstance had occurred to the consul in the camp. Who did not plainly perceive, that the dictator’s being a plebeian, was the defect which the augurs had discovered?” These, and other arguments, were urged, in vain, by the tribunes: the affair ended in an interregnum. At last, after the elections had been adjourned repeatedly, on one pretext or another, the fourteenth interrex,Y.R.429. 323. Lucius Æmilius, elected consuls Caius Pætelius, and Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, or Cursor, as I find him named, in some annals.
XXIV. Historians relate, that, in this year, Alexandria, in Egypt, was founded; and that Alexander, king of Epirus, being slain by a Lucanian exile, verified, in the circumstances of his death, the prediction of Jupiter of Dodona. At the time when he was invited into Italy by the Tarentines, he received a caution, from that oracle, to beware of the Acherusian waters, and the city Pandosia, for there were fixed the limits of his destiny. For that reason he made the greater haste to pass over to Italy, in order to be at as great a distance as possible from the city Pandosia, in Epirus, and the river Acheron, which, after flowing through Molossis, runs into the lakes called infernal, and is received into the Thesprotian gulf. But, as it frequently happens, that men, by endeavouring to shun their fate, run directly upon it, after having often defeated the armies of Bruttium and Lucania, and taken Heraclea, a colony of the Tarentines, Potentia and Metapontum from the Lucanians, Terina from the Bruttians, and several other cities of the Messapians and Lucanians; and, having sent into Epirus three hundred illustrious families, whom he intended to keep as hostages, he posted his troops on three hills, which stood at a small distance from each other, not far from the city Pandosia, and close to the frontiers of the Bruttians and Lucanians, in order that he might thence make incursions into every part of the enemy’s country. At that time, he kept about his person two hundred Lucanian exiles, whom he considered as faithful attendants, but whose fidelity, according to the general disposition of people of that description, was ever ready to follow the changes of fortune. A continual fall of rain spread such an inundation over all the plains, as cut off, from the three separate divisions of the army, all communication. In this state, the two parties, in neither of which the king was present, were suddenly attacked and overpowered by the enemy, who, after putting them to the sword, employed their whole force in blockading the post, where Alexander commanded in person. From this place the Lucanian exiles sent emissaries to their countrymen, and, stipulating a safe return for themselves, promised to deliver the king, either alive or dead, into their power. But he, bravely resolving to make an extraordinary effort, at the head of a chosen band, broke through the midst of their forces; engaged singly, and slew, the general of the Lucanians, and, collecting together his men, who had been scattered in the retreat, arrived at a river, where the ruins of a bridge, which had been recently broken by the violence of the flood, pointed out his road. Here, while the soldiers were fording the river on a very uneven bottom, one of them, almost spent with fatigue and apprehension, cried out, as a reflection on the odious name of it — “You are justly named Acheros (dismal:)” which expression reached the King’s ears, and instantly recalling to his mind the fate denounced on him, he halted, hesitating whether he should cross over or not. Then Sotimus, one of the royal band of youths which attended him, asked why he delayed in such a critical moment; and showed him, that the Lucanians were watching an opportunity to perpetrate some act of treachery: whereupon the king, looking back, and seeing them coming towards him in a body, drew his sword, and pushed on his horse, through the middle of the river. He had now reached the shallow, when a Lucanian exile, from a distance, transfixed him with a javelin: after his fall, the current carried down his lifeless body, with the weapon sticking in it, to the posts of the enemy: there it was mangled, in a manner shocking to relate; for, dividing it in the middle, they sent one half to Consentia, and kept the other, as a subject of mockery, to themselves. While they were throwing darts and stones at it, a woman, mixing with the crowd, (who expressed a degree of barbarous rage which could scarce be conceived to exist in human breasts,) prevailed on them to stop for a moment. She then told them, with tears in her eyes, that she had a husband and children, prisoners among the enemy; and that she hoped to be able, with the King’s body, (if they would grant it to her,) however disfigured, to ransom her friends: this put an end to their outrages. The remnants of his limbs were buried at Consentia, entirely through the care of the woman; and his bones were sent to Metapontum, to the enemy, from whence they were conveyed to Epirus, to his wife Cleopatra, and his sister Olympias; the latter of whom was the mother, the former the sister, of Alexander the Great. Such was the melancholy end of Alexander of Epirus; of which, although fortune did not allow him to engage in hostilities with the Romans, yet, as he waged war in Italy, I have thought it proper to give this brief account. This year, the fifth time since the building of the city, the Lectisternium was performed at Rome, for procuring the favour of the same deities, to whom it was addressed before.
XXV. The new consuls having, by order of the people, declared war against the Samnites, exerted themselves in more formidable preparations of every kind, than had been made against the Greeks; and, about the same time, received a new accession of strength, from a quarter where they had no such expectation. The Lucanians and Apulians, nations who, until that time, had no kind of intercourse with the Roman people, proposed an alliance with them, promising a supply of men and arms for the war: a treaty of friendship was accordingly concluded. At the same time their affairs went on successfully in Samnium. Three towns fell into their hands, Allifæ, Callifæ, and Ruffrium; and the adjoining country, to a great extent, was, on the first arrival of the consuls, laid entirely waste. As the commencement of their operations, on this side, was attended with so much success, so the war, in the other quarter, where the Greeks were held besieged, now drew towards a conclusion. For, besides the communication between the two posts of the enemy being cut off, by the besiegers having possession of part of the works through which it had been carried on, they now suffered, within the walls, hardships far more grievous than those with which they were threatened, being insulted in the persons of their wives and children, and feeling all the extremities usual in the sacking of cities. When, therefore, intelligence arrived, that reinforcements were to come from Tarentum, and from the Samnites, all agreed that there were more of the latter already within the walls than they wished; but the young men of Tarentum, who were Greeks as well as themselves, they earnestly longed for, as they hoped to be enabled, by their means, to oppose the Samnites and Nolans, which they deemed no less necessary than resisting their Roman enemies. At last a surrender to the Romans appeared to be the lightest evil. Charilaus and Nymphius, the two principal men in the state, consulting together on the subject, settled the part which each was to act; it was, that one should desert to the Roman general, and the other stay behind to manage affairs in the city, so as to facilitate the execution of their plan. Charilaus was the person who came to Publilius Philo; he told him, that “he had taken a resolution, which he hoped would prove advantageous, fortunate, and happy to the Palæpolitans, and to the Roman people, of delivering the fortifications into his hands. Whether he should appear, by that deed, to have betrayed, or preserved his country, depended on the honour of the Romans. That, for himself, in particular, he neither stipulated nor requested any thing; but, in behalf of the state, he requested, rather than stipulated, that, in case the design should succeed, the Roman people would consider, more especially, the zeal and hazard with which it sought a renewal of their friendship, than its folly and rashness in deviating from its duty.” He was commended by the general, and received a body of three thousand soldiers, with which he was to seize on that part of the city which was possessed by the Samnites, which detachment was commanded by Lucius Quintius, military tribune.
XXVI. In the mean time, Nymphius, on his part, artfully addressing himself to the commander of the Samnites, prevailed upon him, as all the troops of the Romans were employed either about Palæpolis, or in Samnium, to allow him to sail round with the fleet, to the territory of Rome, where he undertook to ravage, not only the sea coast, but the country adjoining the very city. But, in order to avoid observation, it was necessary, he told him, to set out by night, and to launch the ships immediately. To effect this with the greater dispatch, all the young Samnites, except the necessary guards of the city, were sent to the shore. While Nymphius wasted the time there, giving contradictory orders, designedly to create confusion, which was increased by the darkness, and by the crowd, which was so numerous as to obstruct each other’s operations, Charilaus, according to the plan concerted, was admitted, by his associates, into the city; and, having filled the higher parts of it with Roman soldiers, he ordered them to raise a shout; on which the Greeks, who had received previous directions from their leaders, kept themselves quiet. The Nolans fled through the opposite part of the town, by the road leading to Nola. The flight of the Samnites, who were shut out from the city, was easier, but had a more disgraceful appearance; for they returned to their homes without arms, stripped of their baggage, and destitute of every thing; all, in short, belonging to them being left with their enemies; so that they were objects of ridicule, not only to foreigners, but even to their own countrymen. I know that there is another account of this matter, which represents the town to have been betrayed by the Samnites; but I have chosen to follow the writers most worthy of credit: besides, the treaty of Neapolis, for to that place the seat of government of the Greeks was then transferred, renders it more probable, that the renewal of friendship was voluntary on their side. Publilius had a triumph decreed him, because people were well convinced, that it was his conduct of the siege which reduced the enemy to submission. This man was distinguished by two extraordinary incidents, of which he afforded the first instance: a prolongation of command, never before granted to any one: and a triumph after the expiration of his office.
XXVII. Another war, soon after, arose with the Greeks of the other coast. The Tarentines having, for a considerable time, buoyed up the state of Palæpolis with delusive hopes of assistance, when they understood that the Romans had gotten possession of that city, as if they were the persons who had suffered the disappointment, and not the authors of it, they inveighed against the Palæpolitans, and became furious in their anger and malice towards the Romans; to which they were farther incited by receiving information that the Lucanians and Apulians had joined them; for a treaty of alliance had been this year concluded with both these nations: “The business,” they observed, “was now brought almost to their doors; and such would soon be the state of affairs, that they must deal with the Romans as enemies, or receive them as masters: that, in fact, their interests were at stake, on the issue of the war of the Samnites, the only nation which continued to make opposition; and that with power very inadequate, since they were deserted by the Lucanians: these however might yet be brought back, and induced to renounce the Roman alliance, if proper skill were used, in sowing dissension between them.” These reasonings being readily adopted, by people who wished for a change, they procured, for money, some young Lucanians of considerable note in their country, but devoid of honour, to bring about their design; these, having lacerated each other’s bodies with stripes, came naked into a public meeting of their countrymen, exclaiming that, because they had ventured to go into the Roman camp, they had been thus beaten with rods, by order of the consul, and had hardly escaped the loss of their heads. Circumstances, so shocking in their nature, carrying strong proofs of the ill-treatment, none of artifice, the people were so irritated, that, by their clamours, they compelled the magistrates to call together the senate; and whilst some stood round that assembly, insisting on a declaration of war against the Romans, others ran different ways to rouse to arms the multitude residing in the country. Thus the minds, even of rational men, being hurried into imprudence by the general uproar, a decree was passed, that the alliance with the Samnites should be renewed, and ambassadors sent for that purpose. This hasty proceeding surprised the Samnites, who, however, insisted, that they should not only give hostages, but also receive garrisons into their fortified places; and they, blinded by resentment, refused no terms. In a little time after, on the authors of the imposition removing to Tarentum, the whole came to light. But, as they had given all power out of their own hands, nothing was left them but unavailing repentance.
XXVIII. This year proved, as it were, a new æra of liberty to the Roman commons; a stop being put to the practice of confining debtors. This alteration of the law was effected in consequence of the behaviour of a usurer, in which lust and cruelty were equally conspicuous. His name was Lucius Papirius. To him, one Caius Publilius having surrendered his person to be confined for a debt due by his father, his youth and beauty, which ought to have excited commiseration, operated on the other’s mind as incentives to barbarity. He first attempted to seduce the young man by impure discourses; but finding that his ears were shocked at their infamous tendency, he then endeavoured to terrify him by threats, and reminded him frequently of his situation. At last convinced of his resolution to act conformably to his honourable birth, rather than to his present condition, he ordered him to be stripped and scourged. With the marks of the rods imprinted in his flesh, the youth rushed out into the public street, uttering loud complaints of the depravedness and inhumanity of the usurer. On which a vast number of people, moved by compassion for his early age, and indignation at his barbarous treatment, reflecting at the same time what might be the lot of themselves, and of their children, flocked together into the Forum, and from thence, in a body, to the senate-house. When the consuls were obliged, by the sudden tumult, to call a meeting of the senate, the people, falling at the feet of each of the senators, as they were going into the senate-house, presented to their view the back of Caius torn with stripes. On that day, in consequence of the outrageous conduct of an individual, one of the strongest bonds of credit was broken; and the consuls were commanded to propose to the people, that no person should be held in fetters or stocks, except convicted of a crime, and in order to punishment; but that, for money due, the goods of the debtor, not his person, should be answerable. Thus the confined debtors were released; and provision made, for the time to come, that they should not be liable to confinement.
XXIX. In the course of this year, while the war with the Samnites was sufficient in itself to give full employment to the senate, besides the sudden defection of the Lucanians, and the intrigues of the Tarentines, by which it had been effected, they found another source of uneasiness in an union formed by the state of the Vestinians with the Samnites. Which event, though it continued, during the present year, to be the general subject of conversation, without coming under any public discussion, appeared so important to the consuls of the year following, Lucius Furius Camillus a second time, and Decius Junius,Y.R.430. 322. that it was the first business which they proposed to the consideration of the state. Notwithstanding it had yet produced no effects, it threw the senate into great perplexity, as they dreaded equally the consequences, either of passing it over, or of taking it up; lest on the one hand, if that people’s conduct passed with impunity, wantonness and arrogance might excite other states in their neighbourhood to follow their example; and, on the other, if an attempt should be made to punish them by force of arms, resentment and dread of immediate danger might produce the same effect. And the whole body of Vestinians, too, was at least equal in strength to the Samnites, being composed of the Marsians, the Pelignians, and the Marrusinians; against all of whom they would have to contend, if any steps were taken against that nation. However, that opinion prevailed, which might, at the time, seem to have more spirit than prudence; but the event afforded a proof that fortune assists the brave. The people, in pursuance of the direction of the senate, ordered war against the Vestinians, which province fell by lot to Junius; Samnium to Camillus. Armies were led to both places, which, by carefully guarding the frontiers, prevented a junction of the forces of their enemies. But Lucius Furius, on whom the principal weight of the business rested, was deprived of his share in the management of it, being seized with a severe sickness. He was, therefore, ordered to nominate a dictator to conduct the war, and he nominated Lucius Papirius Cursor, the most celebrated general, by far, of any in that age, who appointed Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus master of the horse. These commanders were remarkable for their exploits in war; but more so, for a quarrel which arose between themselves, and which proceeded almost to violence. The other consul, in the territory of the Vestinians, carried on operations of various kinds; and, in all, was uniformly successful. He utterly laid waste their lands; and, by spoiling and burning their houses and corn, compelled them to come to an engagement; when, in one battle, he reduced the strength of the Vestinians to such a degree, though not without loss on his own side, that they not only fled to their camp; but, fearing even to trust to the rampart and trench, dispersed from thence into the several towns, in hopes of finding security in the situation and fortifications of their cities. At last he undertook to reduce their towns by force; and so ardent were the soldiers, and such their resentment for the wounds which they had received, (hardly one of them having come out of the battle unhurt,) that he took Cutina by scalade, and afterwards Cingilia. The spoil of both cities he gave to the soldiers, in consideration of their having bravely surmounted the obstruction both of gates and walls.
XXX. The commanders entered Samnium without having obtained any particularly favourable indications in the auspices; an ominous circumstance, which pointed, not at the event of war, for that was prosperous, but at the furious passions and the quarrels which broke out between the leaders. For Papirius the dictator, returning to Rome in order to take the auspices anew, in consequence of a caution received from the aruspex, left strict orders with the master of the horse to remain in his post, and not to engage in battle during his absence. After the departure of the dictator, Fabius having discovered by his scouts, that the enemy were in as unguarded a state as if there was not a single Roman in their neighbourhood, the high-spirited youth, (either conceiving indignation at the sole authority in every point appearing to be lodged in the hands of the dictator, or induced by the opportunity of striking an important blow,) having made the necessary preparations and dispositions, marched to a place called Imbrinium, and there fought a battle with the Samnites. His success in the fight was such, that there was no one circumstance which could have been improved to more advantage, if the dictator had been present. The leader was not wanting to the soldiers, nor the soldiers to their leader. The cavalry too, (finding, after repeated charges, that they could not break the ranks,) by the advice of Lucius Cominius, a military tribune, pulled off the bridles from their horses and spurred them on so furiously, that no power could withstand them; forcing their way through the thickest of the enemy, they bore down every thing before them; and the infantry, seconding the charge, the whole body was thrown into confusion. Of these, twenty thousand are said to have fallen on that day. Some accounts say that there were two battles fought during the dictator’s absence, and two victories obtained; but the most ancient writers mention only this one, and in some histories the whole transaction is omitted. The master of the horse getting possession of abundance of spoils, in consequence of the great numbers slain, collected the arms into a huge heap, and burned them; either in pursuance of a vow to some of the gods, or, if we choose to credit Fabius, in order to prevent the dictator from reaping the fruits of that renown, to which he alone was entitled. He feared, too, that Papirius might inscribe his name on the spoils, or carry them in triumph. His letters also, containing an account of the success, being sent to the senate, showed plainly that he wished not to impart to the dictator any share of the honour; who certainly viewed the proceeding in this light, for, while others rejoiced at the victory obtained, he showed only surliness and anger: insomuch that, immediately dismissing the senate, he hastened out of the senate-house, and frequently repeated with warmth, that the legions of the Samnites were not more effectually vanquished and overthrown by the master of the horse, than were the dictatorial dignity and military discipline, if such contempt of orders escaped with impunity. Thus, breathing resentment and menaces, he set out for the camp; but, though he travelled with all possible expedition, intelligence arrived before him, that the dictator was coming, eager for vengeance, and in every second sentence applauding the conduct of Titus Manlius.
XXXI. Fabius instantly called an assembly, and intreated the soldiers to “show the same courage in protecting him, under whose conduct and auspices they had conquered, from the outrageous cruelty of the dictator, which they had so lately displayed in defending the commonwealth from its most inveterate enemies. He was now coming,” he told them, “frantic with envy; enraged at another’s bravery, raving like a madman, because, in his absence, the business of the public had been executed with remarkable success; and, if he could change the fortune of the engagement, would wish the Samnites in possession of victory rather than the Romans. He talked much of contempt of orders; as if his prohibition of fighting were not dictated by the same motive, which caused his vexation at the fight having taken place. He wished to shackle the valour of others, and meant to take away the soldiers’ arms when they were most eager for action, and that no use might be made of them in his absence: he was farther enraged too, because Quintus Fabius considered himself as master of the horse, not as a beadle to the dictator. How would he have behaved, had the issue of the fight been unfortunate; which, through the chances of war and the uncertainty of military operations, might have been the case; since now, when the enemy has been vanquished, (as completely, indeed, as if that leader’s own singular talents had been employed in the matter,) he yet threatens the master of the horse with punishment? Nor is his rancour greater towards the master of the horse than towards the military tribunes, towards the centurions, towards the soldiers. On all he would vent his rage; and, because that is not in his power, he vents it on one. Envy, like flame, soars upwards; aims at the summit, and makes its attack on the head of the business, on the leader. If he could put him out of the way, together with the glory of the service performed, he would then triumph, like a conqueror over vanquished troops; and, without scruple, practise against the soldiers, what he had been allowed to act against their commander. It behoved them, therefore, in his cause, to support the general liberty of all. If the dictator perceived among the troops the same unanimity in justifying their victory, that they had displayed in gaining it, and that all interested themselves in the safety of one, it would bend his temper to milder counsels. In fine,” he told them that “he committed his life, and all his interests, to their honour and to their courage.”
XXXII. His speech was received with the loudest acclamations from every part of the assembly, bidding him “have courage; for, while the Roman legions were in being, no man should offer him violence.” Not long after, the dictator arrived, and instantly summoned an assembly by sound of trumpet. Then, silence being made, a crier cited Quintus Fabius master of the horse, and, as soon as, on the lower ground, he had approached the tribunal, the dictator said, “Quintus Fabius, I demand of you, when the authority of dictator is acknowledged to be supreme, and is submitted to by the consuls, officers endowed with regal power; and likewise by the prætors, created under the same auspices with consuls; whether or no you think it reasonable that it should not meet obedience from a master of the horse? I also ask you whether, when I knew that I set out from home under uncertain auspices, it was for me, under that consideration, to hazard the safety of the commonwealth, or whether my duty did not require me to have the auspices newly taken, so that nothing might be done while the will of the gods remained doubtful? And, further, when a religious scruple was of such a nature, as to hinder the dictator from acting, whether the master of the horse could be exempt from it, and at liberty? But why do I ask these questions, when, supposing that I had gone without leaving any orders, your own judgment ought to have been regulated according to what you could discover of my intention. Why do you not answer? Did I not forbid you to act, in any respect, during my absence? Did I not forbid you to engage the enemy? Yet, in contempt of these my orders, while the auspices were uncertain, while the omens were confused, contrary to the practice of war, contrary to the discipline of our ancestors, and contrary to the authority of the gods, you dared to enter on the fight. Answer to these questions, proposed to you. On any other matter utter not a word. Lictor, draw near him.” To each of these particulars, Fabius, finding it no easy matter to answer, at one time remonstrated against the same person acting as accuser and judge, in a cause which affected his very existence; at another, he asserted that his life should sooner be forced from him, than the glory of his past services; clearing himself, and accusing the other by turns, so that the dictator’s anger blazed out with fresh fury; and he ordered the matter of the horse to be stripped, and the rods and axes to be got ready. Fabius, imploring the protection of the soldiers, while the lictors were tearing his garments, retired to the quarters of the veterans, who were already raising a commotion in the assembly: from them the uproar spread through the whole body; in one place the voice of supplication was heard; in another, menaces. Those who happened to stand nearest to the tribunal, because, being under the eyes of the general, they could easily be known, applied to him with entreaties to spare the master of the horse, and not in him to condemn the whole army. The remoter parts of the assembly, and the crowd collected round Fabius, railed at the unrelenting spirit of the dictator, and were not far from mutiny: nor was even the tribunal perfectly quiet. The lieutenants-general standing round the general’s seat, besought him to adjourn the business to the next day, and to allow time to his anger, and room for consideration; representing, that “the indiscretion of Fabius had been sufficiently rebuked; his victory sufficiently disgraced; and they begged him not to proceed to the extreme of severity; not to brand with ignominy a youth of extraordinary merit, or his father, a man of most illustrious character, together with the whole family of the Fabii.” When neither their prayers nor arguments made any impression, they desired him to observe the violent ferment of the assembly, and told him, that, “while the soldiers’ tempers were heated to such a degree, it became not either his age or his wisdom to kindle them into a flame, and afford matter for a mutiny: that no one would lay the blame of such an event on Quintus Fabius, who only deprecated punishment; but on the dictator, if, blinded by resentment, he should, by an ill-judged contest, draw on himself the fury of the multitude: and, lest he should think that they acted from motives of regard to Quintus Fabius, they were ready to make oath that, in their judgment, it was not for the interest of the commonwealth that Quintus Fabius should be punished at that time.”
XXXIII. Their expostulations irritating the dictator against themselves, instead of appeasing his anger against the master of the horse, the lieutenants-general were ordered to go down from the tribunal; and, after several vain attempts were made to procure silence by means of a crier, the noise and tumult being so great that neither the voice of the dictator himself, nor that of his apparitors, could be heard; night, as in the case of a battle, put an end to the contest. The master of the horse was ordered to attend on the day following; but, being assured by every one that Papirius, being agitated and exasperated in the course of the present convention, would proceed against him with greater violence, he fled privately from the camp to Rome; where, by the advice of his father, Marcus Fabius, who had been three times consul, and likewise dictator, he immediately called a meeting of the senate. While he was laying his complaints before the fathers, of the rage and injustice of the dictator, on a sudden was heard the noise of lictors before the senate-house, clearing the way, and Papirius himself arrived, full of resentment, having followed, with a guard of light horse, as soon as he heard that the other had quitted the camp. The contention then began anew, and the dictator ordered Fabius to be seized. As he persisted in his purpose with inflexible obstinacy, notwithstanding the united intercessions of the principal patricians, and of the whole senate, Fabius, the father, then said, “since neither the authority of the senate has any weight with you; nor my age, which you wish to render childless; nor the noble birth and merit of a master of the horse, nominated by yourself; nor prayers, which have often mitigated the rage of an enemy, and which appease the the wrath of the gods; I call upon the tribunes of the commons for support, and appeal to the people: and, since you decline the judgment of your own army, as well of the senate, I call you before a judge who must certainly be allowed, though no other should, to possess more power and authority than yourself, though dictator. It shall be seen whether you will submit to an appeal, to which Tullus Hostilius, a Roman King, submitted.” They proceeded directly from the senate-house to the assembly; where, being arrived, the dictator attended by few, the master of the horse by all the people of the first rank in a body, Papirius commanded him to be taken from the rostrum to the lower ground; on which, his father, following him, said, “You do well in ordering us to be brought down to a place where even as private persons we have liberty of speech.” At first, instead of regular speeches, nothing but altercation was heard: at length, the indignation of old Fabius, and the strength of his voice, got the better of noise, while he reproached Papirius with arrogance and cruelty. “He himself,” he said, “had been dictator at Rome: and no man, not even the lowest plebeian, or centurion, or soldier, had suffered in any way through his means. But Papirius sought for victory and triumph over a Roman commander with as much zeal as over the generals of the enemy. What an immense difference between the moderation of the ancients, and the oppression of the moderns? Quintius Cincinnatus, when dictator, shewed no farther mark of resentment to Lucius Minucius the consul, (although from his ill conduct he had fallen into the power of the enemy, and from which he rescued him,) than leaving him at the head of the army, in the quality of lieutenant-general, instead of consul. Marcus Furius Camillus, in the case of Lucius Furius, who, in contempt of his great age and authority, had fought a battle, the issue of which was dishonourable in the last degree, not only restrained his anger at the time, so as to write no unfavourable representation of his conduct to the people or the senate; but, after returning home, when the patricians gave him a power of electing from among his colleagues whoever he might approve as an associate with himself in the command, chose that very man in preference to all the other consular tribunes. Nay, the body of the people themselves, whose power is supreme in every case, never suffered their passions to carry them to greater severity, even towards those, who, through rashness and ignorance, had occasioned the loss of armies, than the fining them in a sum of money. Until that day, a capital prosecution for ill conduct in war had never been instituted against any commander, but now, generals of the Roman people, after gaining the most splendid victories, and meriting the most honourable triumphs, are threatened with rods and axes; a treatment which would not have been deemed allowable, even towards those who had been defeated by an enemy. What degree of punishment would his son have been liable to, if he had occasioned the loss of the army? if he had been put to flight, and driven out of his camp? Could the dictator stretch his resentment and violence to any greater length than to scourge him, and put him to death? How was it consistent with reason, that, through the means of Quintus Fabius, the state should be filled with joy, exulting in victory, and occupied in thanksgivings and congratulations; while, at the same time, he who had given occasion to the temples of the gods being thrown open, their altars yet smoking with sacrifices, and loaded with honours and offerings, should be stripped naked, and torn with stripes in the sight of the Roman people; within view of the Capitol and citadel, and of those gods, whose aid he had so successfully invoked in two different battles? With what temper would such proceedings be borne by the army which had conquered under his conduct and auspices? What mourning would there be in the Roman camp; what joy among their enemies?” This speech he accompanied with an abundant flow of tears; uniting reproaches and complaints, imploring the aid both of gods and men, and warmly embracing his son.
XXXIV. On his side stood the majesty of the senate, the favour of the people, the support of the tribunes, and regard for the absent army. On the other side were urged the inviolable authority of the Roman government and military discipline; the edict of the dictator, always observed as the mandate of a deity; nor was the severity of Manlius forgot, and his postponing even parental affection to public utility. “The same also,” said the dictator, “was the conduct of Lucius Brutus, the founder of Roman liberty, in the case of his two sons. But now, such is the indulgence of fathers, and the easiness of temper in the aged, that, in this case of contempt of the dictatorial authority, they indulge the young in the subversion of military order, as if it were a matter of trifling consequence. For his part, however, he would persevere in his purpose, and would not remit the smallest part of the punishment justly due to a person who fought contrary to his orders, while the rites of religion were imperfectly executed, and the auspices uncertain. Whether the majesty of the supreme authority was to be perpetual, or not, depended not on him; but Lucius Papirius would not diminish aught of its rights. He wished that the tribunitian office, inviolate itself, would not, by its interposition, violate the authority of the Roman government; nor the Roman people, in his case particularly, annihilate the dictator, and the rights of the dictatorship, together. But, if this should be the case, not Lucius Papirius, but the tribunes and the people, would be blamed by posterity; though then too late, when military discipline being once dissolved, the soldier would no longer obey the orders of the centurion, the centurion those of the tribune, the tribune those of the lieutenant-general, the lieutenant-general those of the consul, nor the master of the horse those of the dictator. No one would then pay any deference to men, no, nor even to the gods. Neither edicts of generals, nor auspices, would be observed. The soldiers, without leave of absence, would straggle at random through the lands of friends and of foes; and, regardless of their oath, would, merely to gratify a wanton humour, quit the service whenever they might choose. The standards would be forsaken; the men would neither assemble in pursuance of orders, nor attend to the difference of fighting by night or by day, on favourable or unfavourable ground. In a word, military operations, instead of the regularity established under the sanction of a sacred solemnity, would become like those of free-booters, directed by chance and accident. Render yourselves, then, tribunes of the commons, accountable for all these evils, to all future ages. Expose your own persons to these heavy imputations in defence of the licentious conduct of Quintus Fabius.”
XXXV. The tribunes stood confounded, and were now more anxiously concerned at their own situation than at his who sought their support, when they were freed from this embarrassment by the Roman people unanimously having recourse to prayers and entreaties, that the dictator would, for their sakes, remit the punishment of the master of the horse. The tribunes likewise, seeing the business take this turn, followed the example, earnestly beseeching the dictator to pardon human error, to consider the immaturity of the offender’s age, who had suffered sufficiently: and now the youth himself, now his father, Marcus Fabius, disclaiming farther contest, fell at the dictator’s knees, and deprecated his wrath. Then the dictator, after causing silence, said, “Romans, it is well. Military discipline has prevailed; the majesty of government has prevailed; both which were in danger of ceasing this day to exist. Quintus Fabius, who fought contrary to the order of his commander, is not acquitted of guilt; but, after being condemned as guilty, is granted as a boon to the Roman people; is granted to the college of tribunes, supporting him with their prayers, not with the regular power of their office. Live, Quintus Fabius, more happy in this union of all parts of the state for your preservation than in the victory in which you lately exulted. Live, after having ventured on such an act, as your father himself, had he been in the place of Lucius Papirius, would not have pardoned. With me you shall be reconciled, whenever you wish it. To the Roman people, to whom you owe your life, you can perform no greater service, than to let this day teach you the important lesson of submission to lawful commands, both in war and peace.” He then declared, that the master of the horse was at liberty to depart: and, as he retired from the rostrum, the senate, being greatly rejoiced, and the people still more so, gathered round him, and escorted him, on one hand commending the dictator, on the other congratulating the master of the horse; while all agreed in opinion, that the authority of military command was confirmed no less effectually in the instance of Quintus Fabius than in that of young Manlius. It so happened, that, through the course of that year, as often as the dictator left the army, the Samnites were in motion: but Marcus Valerius, the lieutenant-general, who commanded in the camp, had Quintus Fabius before his eyes for an example, not to fear any violence of the enemy, so much as the unrelenting anger of the dictator. So that when a body of his foragers fell into an ambuscade, and were cut to pieces in disadvantageous ground, it was generally believed that the lieutenant-general could have given them assistance, if he had not been held in dread by his rigorous orders. The resentment which this excited helped to alienate the affections of the soldiery from the dictator; against whom they had been before incensed by his implacable behaviour towards Quintus Fabius, and from having granted him pardon at the intercession of the Roman people, after he had refused it to their entreaties.
XXXVI. The dictator prohibited Quintus Fabius from acting in any case as a magistrate, conferred the command in the city on Lucius Papirius Crassus, as master of the horse, and then returned to the camp; where his arrival brought neither any great joy to his countrymen, nor any degree of terror to the enemy: for, on the day following, either not knowing the dictator’s arrival, or little regarding whether he were present or absent, they marched out in order of battle. Of such importance, however, was that single man, Lucius Papirius, that, had the zeal of the soldiers seconded the dispositions of the commander, no doubt was entertained that an end might have been put, that day, to the war with the Samnites. He chose the best possible position for his troops, posted his body of reserve most judiciously, and strengthened them with every advantage which military skill could devise: but the soldiers exerted no vigour; and designedly kept from conquering, in order to injure the reputation of their leader. Of the Samnites, however, very many were slain; and great numbers of the Romans wounded. The experienced commander quickly perceived the circumstance which prevented his success, and that it would be necessary to moderate his temper, and to mingle mildness with austerity. Accordingly, attended by the lieutenants-general, he went round to the tents of the wounded soldiers, enquiring of each the state of his health; then, mentioning them by name, he gave them in charge to the officers, tribunes, and præfects, recommending them to their particular care. This behaviour, popular in itself, he maintained with such dexterity, that by his attention to their recovery, he gradually gained their affection; nor did any thing so much contribute towards their recovery as the gratitude excited by this humane condescension. As soon as the men were restored to health, he came to an engagement with the enemy; and both himself and the troops, being possessed with full confidence of success, he so entirely defeated and dispersed the Samnites, that they never, after that day, met the dictator in the field. The victorious army, afterwards, directed its march wherever a prospect of booty invited, and traversed their territories without a weapon being raised against them, or any opposition given, either openly or by stratagem. It added to their alacrity, that the dictator had, by proclamation, given the whole spoil to the soldiers; so that they were animated not only by the public quarrel, but by their private emolument. Thus reduced, the Samnites sued to the dictator for peace, and, after they had engaged to supply each of his soldiers with a suit of clothes, and a year’s pay, being ordered to apply to the senate, they answered, that they would follow the dictator, committing their cause wholly to his integrity and honour. On this the troops were withdrawn out of Samnium.
XXXVII. The dictator entered the city in triumph; and, though desirous of resigning his office immediately, yet, by order of the senate,Y.R.431. 321. he held it until the consuls were elected: these were Caius Sulpicius Longus, a second time, and Quintus Æmilius Cerretanus. The Samnites, without finishing the treaty of peace, the terms being still in negociation, departed, after concluding a truce for a year. Nor was even that faithfully observed; so strongly was their inclination for war excited, on hearing that Papirius was gone out of office. In this consulate of Caius Sulpicius and Quintus Æmilius, (some histories have Aulius,) to the revolt of the Samnites was added a new war with the Apulians. Armies were sent against both. The Samnites fell by lot to Sulpicius, the Apulians to Æmilius. Some writers say, that this war was not waged with the Apulians, but in defence of the allied states of that nation, against the violence and injustice of the Samnites. But the circumstances of the Samnites at that period, when they were themselves engaged in a war, which they could with difficulty support, render it more probable that they did not make war on the Apulians, but that both nations were in arms against the Romans at the same time. However, no memorable event occurred. The lands of the Apulians and Samnium were utterly laid waste; but in neither quarter did the enemy show themselves. At Rome, an alarm, which happened in the night, suddenly roused the people from their sleep, in such a fright, that the Capitol and citadel, the walls and gates, were all filled with men in arms. But, after they had called all to their posts, and run together, in bodies, in every quarter, when day appeared, neither the author nor cause of the alarm could be discovered. This year, in pursuance of the advice of Flavius, a tribune of the commons, the Tusculans were brought to a trial before the people. He proposed, that punishment should be inflicted on those of the Tusculans, “by whose advice and assistance the Veliternians and Privernians had made war on the Roman people.” The Tusculans, with their wives and children, came to Rome, and, in mourning habits, like persons under accusation, went round the tribes, throwing themselves at the feet of the citizens with humble supplications. This excited a degree of compassion which operated more effectually towards procuring them pardon, than all the arguments they could urge, did towards clearing themselves of guilt. Every one of the tribes, except the Pollian, negatived the proposition. The sentence of the Pollian tribe was, that the grown-up males should be beaten, and put to death, and their wives and children sold by auction according to the rules of war. It appears, that the resentment which arose against the advisers of so rigorous a measure, was retained in memory by the Tusculans down to the age of our fathers; and that hardly any candidate of the Pollian tribe could, ever since, gain the votes of the Papirian.
XXXVIII. In the following year, which was the consulate of Quintus Fabius and Lucius Fulvius,Y.R.432. 320. Aulus Cornelius Arvina being made dictator, and Marcus Fabius Ambustus master of the horse, troops were levied with greater exertion than ordinary, under the apprehension of having a more powerful opposition than usual to encounter, in the war with the Samnites, who, it was reported, had procured, from their neighbours, a number of young men for hire: an army, therefore, of extraordinary force, was sent against them. Although in a hostile country, their camp was pitched in as careless a manner, as if the foe were at a great distance; when, suddenly, the legions of the Samnites approached with so much boldness as to advance their rampart close to an out-post of the Romans. Night coming on, prevented their assaulting the works; but they did not conceal their intention of doing so next day, as soon as the light should appear. The dictator found that there would be a necessity for fighting sooner than he had expected, and, lest the situation should be an obstruction to the bravery of the troops, he led away the legions in silence, leaving a great number of fires the better to deceive the enemy. The camps, however, lay so close together, that he could not escape their observation: their cavalry instantly pursued, and pressed closely on his troops, yet refrained from attacking them until the day appeared. Their infantry did not even quit their camp before day-light. As soon as it was dawn, the cavalry ventured to begin skirmishing; and, by harassing the Roman rear, and pressing them in places of difficult passage, considerably delayed their march. Meanwhile their infantry overtook the cavalry; and now the Samnites pursued close with their entire force. The dictator then, finding that he could no longer go forward without great inconvenience, ordered the spot where he stood to be measured out for a camp. But it was impossible, while the enemy’s horse were spread about on every side, that palisades could be brought, and the work be begun: seeing it, therefore, impracticable, either to march forward, or to settle himself there, he drew up his troops for battle, removing the baggage out of the line. The enemy likewise formed their line opposite to his; no wise inferior, either in spirit or in strength. Their courage was chiefly improved from not knowing that the motive of the Romans’ retreat was the incommodiousness of the ground, so that they imagined themselves objects of terror, and supposed that they were pursuing men who fled through fear. This kept the balance of the fight equal for a considerable time; though, of late, it had been unusual with the Samnites to stand even the shout of a Roman army. Certain it is, that the contest, on this day, continued so very doubtful from the third hour to the eighth, that neither was the shout repeated, after being raised at the first onset, nor the standards moved either forward or backward; nor any ground lost on either side. They fought without taking breath, every man in his post, and pushing against their opponents with their shields. The noise continuing equal, and the terror of the fight the same, seemed to denote, that the decision would be effected either by fatigue or by the night. The men had now exhausted their strength, the sword its power, and the leaders their skill; when, on a sudden, the Samnite cavalry, having learned from a single troop which had advanced beyond the rest, that the baggage of the Romans lay at a distance from their army, without any guard or defence; eager for booty, they hastened to attack it: of which, the dictator being informed by a hasty messenger, said, “Let them alone, let them encumber themselves with spoils.” Afterwards came several, one after another, crying out, that they were plundering and carrying off all the effects of the soldiers: he then called to him the master of the horse, and said, “Do you see, Marcus Fabius, that the enemy’s cavalry have forsaken the fight? they are entangled and encumbered with our baggage. Attack them: you will find them, as is the case of every multitude employed in plundering, scattered about; few mounted on horseback, few with swords in their hands; and, while they are loading their horses with spoil, and unarmed, put them to the sword, and make it bloody spoil for them. I will take care of the legions, and the fight of the infantry: your’s be the honour which the horse shall acquire.”
XXXIX. The body of cavalry, in the most exact order possible, charging the enemy, who were straggling and embarrassed, filled every place with slaughter: for the packages which they hastily threw down, and which lay in the way of their feet, and of the affrighted horses, as they endeavoured to escape, made them unable either to fight or fly. Then Fabius, after he had almost entirely cut off the enemy’s horse, led round his squadrons in a small circuit, and attacked the infantry in the rear. The new shout, raised in that quarter, terrified the Samnites on the one hand; and when, on the other, the dictator saw their troops in the van looking behind them, their battalions in confusion, and their line wavering, he earnestly exhorted and animated his men, calling on the tribunes and chief centurions, by name, to join him in renewing the fight. Raising the shout anew, they pressed forward, and, as they advanced, perceived the enemy more and more confused. The cavalry now could be seen by those in front, and Cornelius, turning about to the several companies, made them understand, by raising his voice and hands, that he saw the standards and bucklers of his own horsemen. On hearing which, and at the same time seeing them, they, at once, so far forgot the fatigue which they had endured, through almost the whole day, and even their wounds, that they rushed to the fray with as much vigour and alacrity, as if they were coming fresh out of camp on receiving the signal for battle. The Samnites could no longer sustain the charge of horse and foot together: part of them, inclosed on both sides, were cut off; the rest separated, and fled different ways. The infantry slew those who were surrounded and made resistance; and the cavalry made great havoc of the fugitives, among whom fell their general. This battle crushed, at length, the power of the Samnites so effectually, that, in all their meetings, they expressed much discontent, and said, “it was not at all to be wondered at, if, in an impious war, commenced in violation of a treaty, when the gods were, with justice, more incensed against them than men, none of their undertakings prospered. They were not to expect the crime (for so such an infraction of treaties must be held) to be expiated and atoned for without a heavy penalty. The only alternative they had, was, whether the penalty should be the guilty blood of a few, or the innocent blood of all.” Some now ventured to name the authors of the war, among whom was particularly mentioned, Brutulus Papius: he was a man of power and noble birth, and undoubtedly the cause of the late rupture. The prætors being compelled to take the opinion of the assembly concerning him, a decree was made, “that Brutulus Papius should be delivered into the hands of the Romans; and that, together with him, all the spoil taken from the Romans, and the prisoners, should be sent to Rome, and that the restitution demanded by the heralds, in conformity to treaty, should be made, as was agreeable to justice and equity.” In pursuance of this determination, heralds were sent to Rome, and also the dead body of Brutulus; for, by a voluntary death, he avoided the punishment and ignominy intended for him. It was thought proper that his goods also should be delivered up along with the body. But none of all those things were accepted, except the prisoners, and such articles of the spoil as were recognized by the owners. The dictator obtained a triumph by a decree of the senate.
XL. Some writers affirm, that the consuls had the conduct of this war, and that they triumphed over the Samnites; and also, that Fabius advanced into Apulia, and carried off from thence abundance of spoil. But that Aulus Cornelius was dictator that year is an undisputed fact. The question then is, whether he was appointed for the purpose of conducting the war, or on occasion of the illness of Lucius Plautius, the prætor; in order that there might be a magistrate to give the signal for the starting of the chariots at the Roman games. This latter is asserted of him; and that, after performing the business, which, in truth, reflected no great lustre on his office, he resigned the dictatorship. It is not easy to determine between either the facts or the writers, which of them deserves the preference: I am persuaded that history has been much corrupted by means of funeral panegyrics, and false inscriptions on monuments; each family striving by false representations to appropriate to itself the fame of warlike exploits, and public honours. From this cause, certainly, much confusion has taken place, both in the memoirs of individuals, and in the public records of events. Nor is there extant any writer, contemporary with those events, on whose authority we can with certainty rely.
* Otherwise called Ops, Rhea, and Terra, the earth.
* The Novensiles were nine deities brought to Rome by the Sabines, Lara, Vesta, Minerva, Feronia, Concord, Faith, Fortune, Chance, Health.
* 14l. 10s. 7½d.
* Municipes, from munus, a right, and capere, to possess. Of the conquered countries the Romans constituted some, Municipia, where the people retained their own laws and magistrates, and even honoured with the title, and, some of them, with all the rights and privileges of Roman citizens. The people of Cære were the first who were thus indulged with full rights; but, afterwards, having joined some neighbouring states, in a war against Rome, all the privileges of citizens were taken from them, and the title only left. In other countries they planted colonies of their own citizens; by which means they disburthened the city of numbers of useless and poor inhabitants, and, at the same time, formed barriers against the adjoining states. Colonists retained all the rights of citizens, chose their own magistrates, and formed a kind of petty republics, under that of Rome. Other countries were made præfectures, deprived of their own laws and magistrates, and governed by a præfect sent annually from Rome.
* 31. 4s. 7d.
* From Rostrum, the beak or prow of a ship.
* For, if she had made them free, they could not have been examined by the torture.
* Or the field of Vaccus, from pratum, a field.
* Any noise happening, during the taking of the auspices, was reckoned inauspicious; hence silentium signified, among the augurs, every circumstance being favourable.
Titus Veturius and Spurius Postumius, with their army, surrounded by the Samnites at the Caudine forks; enter into a treaty, give six hundred hostages, and are sent under the yoke. The treaty declared invalid; the two generals and the other sureties sent back to the Samnites, but are not accepted. Not long after, Papirius Cursor obliterates this disgrace, by vanquishing the Samnites, sending them under the yoke, and recovering the hostages. Two tribes added. Appius Claudius, censor, constructs the Claudian aqueduct, and the Appian road; admits the sons of freedom into the senate. Successes against the Apulians, Etruscans, Umbrians, Marsians, Pelignians, Æquans, and Samnites. Mention made of Alexander the Great, who flourished at this time; a comparative estimate of his strength, and that of the Roman people, tending to show, that, if he had carried his arms into Italy, he would not have been as successful there as he had been in the Eastern countries.
Y.R.433. 319.I. THE year following was distinguished by the convention of Caudium, so memorable on account of the misfortune of the Romans. The consuls of the year were Titus Veturius Calvinus, and Spurius Postumius. The Samnites were that year commanded by Caius Pontius, son to Herennius, born of a father most highly renowned for wisdom, and himself a consummate warrior and commander. When the ambassadors, who had been sent to offer restitution, returned, without concluding a peace, he said, in an assembly, “that ye may not think that no purpose has been effected by this embassy, be assured, that whatever degree of anger the deities of heaven had conceived against us, on account of the infraction of the treaty, has been hereby expiated. I am very confident, that whatever deities they were, whose will it was, that you should be reduced to the necessity of making restitution, it was not agreeable to them, that our atonement for the breach of treaty should be so haughtily spurned by the Romans. For what more could possibly be done towards appeasing the gods, and softening the anger of men, than we have done? The effects of the enemy, taken among the spoils, which appeared to be our own by the right of war, we restored: the authors of the war, as we could not deliver them up alive, we delivered to them dead: their goods we carried to Rome, lest, by retaining them, any degree of guilt should remain among us. What more, Roman, do I owe to thee? what to the treaty? what to the gods, the guarantees of the treaty? What umpire shall I call in to judge of your resentment, and of my punishment? I decline none; neither nation nor private person. But, if the weak is not to find protection against a stronger in human laws, I will appeal to the gods, the avengers of intolerable arrogance, and will beseech them to turn their wrath against those who are not satisfied by the restoration of their own, nor by additional heaps of other men’s property; whose inhuman rage is not satiated by the death of the guilty, by the surrender of their lifeless bodies, and by their goods accompanying the surrender of the owner; who cannot be appeased otherwise than by giving them our blood to drink, and our entrails to be torn. Samnites, war is just, when it becomes necessary, and arms are clear of impiety, when men have no hope left but in arms. Wherefore, as the issue of every human undertaking depends chiefly on men’s acting either with or without the favour of the gods, be assured that the former wars ye waged in opposition to the gods more than to men; in this, which we are now to undertake, ye will act under the immediate guidance of the gods themselves.”
II. After uttering these predictions, not more favourable than true, he led out the troops, and placed his camp about Caudium, as much out of view as possible. From thence he sent to Calatia, where he heard that the Roman consuls were encamped, ten soldiers, in the habit of shepherds, and ordered them to keep some cattle feeding in several different places, at a small distance from the Roman posts; and that, when they fell in with any of their foragers, they should all agree in the same story, that the legions of the Samnites were then in Apulia, besieging Luceria with their whole force, and very near becoming masters of it. Such a rumour had been industriously spread before, and had already reached the Romans; but these prisoners caused them to give it greater credit, especially as they all concurred in the same report. The Romans did not hesitate to resolve on carrying succour to the Lucerians, because they were good and faithful allies; and, for this farther reason, lest all Apulia, through apprehension of the impending danger, might go over to the enemy. The only point which came under deliberation was, by what road they should go. There were two roads leading to Luceria, one along the coast of the upper sea, wide and open; but, as it was the safer, so it was proportionably longer; the other, which was shorter, through the Caudine forks. The nature of the place is this: there are two deep glens, narrow and covered with wood, connected together by mountains ranging on both sides, from one to the other; between these lies a plain of considerable extent, abounding in grass and water, and through the middle of which the passage runs: but before this is arrived at, the first defile must be passed, while the only way back is through the road by which it was entered; or if in case of resolving to proceed forward, it must be by the other glen, which is still more narrow and difficult. Into this plain the Romans marched down their troops, by one of those passes, through the cleft of a rock; and, when they advanced to the other defile, found it blocked up by trees thrown across, with a mound of huge stones. The stratagem of the enemy now became apparent; and at the same time a body of troops was seen on the eminence over the glen. Hastening back, then, to the road by which they had entered, they found that also shut up by such another fence, and men in arms. Then, without orders, they halted; amazement took possession of their minds, and a strange kind of numbness of their limbs: they then remained a long time motionless and silent, with their eyes fixed on each other, as if each thought the other more capable of judging and advising than himself. After some time, the consul’s pavilions were erected, and they got ready the implements for throwing up works, although they were sensible that it must appear ridiculous to attempt raising a fortification in their present desperate condition, and when almost every hope was lost. Yet, not to add a fault to their misfortunes, they all, without being advised or ordered by any one, set earnestly to work, and enclosed a camp with a rampart, close to the water, while themselves, besides enduring the haughty taunts of their enemies, seemed with melancholy to acknowledge the apparent fruitlessness of their labour. The lieutenants-general and tribunes, without being summoned to consultation, (for there was no room for either consultation or remedy,) assembled round the dejected consul; while the soldiers, crowding to the general’s quarters, demanded from their leaders that succour, which it was hardly in the power of the immortal gods themselves to afford them.
III. Night came on while they were employed in lamenting their situation, all urging, with warmth, whatever their several tempers prompted. Some crying out, “Let us go over those fences which obstruct the roads;” others, “over the steeps; through the woods; any way, where arms can be carried. Let us be but permitted to come to the enemy, whom we have been used to conquer now near thirty years. All places will be level and plain to a Roman, fighting against the perfidious Samnite.” Another would say, “Whither or by what way can we go? do we expect to remove the mountains from their foundations? while these cliffs hang over us, how can we proceed? whether armed or unarmed, brave or dastardly, we are all, without distinction, captured and vanquished. The enemy will not even show us a weapon, by which we might die with honour. He will finish the war, without moving from his seat.” In such discourse, thinking of neither food nor rest, they passed the whole night. Nor could the Samnites, though in circumstances so accordant to their wishes, instantly determine how to act: it was therefore universally agreed, that Herennius Pontius, father of the general, should be consulted by letter. He was now grown feeble through age, and had withdrawn himself, not only from all military, but also from all civil occupations; yet, notwithstanding the decline of his bodily strength, his mind retained its full vigour. When he was informed that the Roman armies were shut up at the Caudine forks, between the two glens, and was asked for advice by his son’s messenger, he gave his opinion, that they should all be immediately dismissed from thence unhurt. On this counsel being rejected, and the same messenger returning to advise with him a second time, he recommended that they should all, to a man, be put to death. On receiving these answers, so opposite to each other, like the ambiguous responses of an oracle, his son, although, as well as others, persuaded that the powers of his father’s mind, together with those of his body, had been impaired by age, was yet prevailed on, by the general desire of all, to send for him and consult him in person. The old man, we are told, complied without reluctance, and was carried in a wagon to the camp, where, when he came to speak, he made no alterations in the opinions which he had given, only added the reasons on which he founded them. That “by his first plan, which he esteemed the best, he meant, by an act of extraordinary kindness, to establish perpetual peace and friendship with a most powerful nation: by the other, to put off the return of war to the distance of many ages, during which the Roman state, after the loss of those two armies, could not easily recover its strength. A third plan there was not.” His son, and the other chiefs, then asking him if “a plan of a middle kind might not be adopted; of dismissing them unhurt; and, at the same time, by the right of war, imposing terms on them as vanquished?” “That, indeed,” said he, “is a plan of such a nature, as neither procures friends nor removes enemies. Only consider who they are, whom ye would irritate by ignominious treatment. The Romans are a race who know not how to sit down quiet under defeat; any scar, which the present necessity shall imprint in their breasts, will rankle there for ever, and will not suffer them to rest, until they have wreaked manifold vengeance on your heads.” Neither of these plans was approved, and Herennius was carried home.
IV. In the other camp, the Romans, having tried many fruitless efforts to force a passage, and being now destitute of every means of subsistence, were reduced by necessity to send ambassadors, who were first to ask peace on equal terms; which, if they did not obtain, they were to challenge the enemy to battle. To this Pontius answered, that “the war was at an end; and since, even in their present vanquished and captive state, they were not willing to make acknowledgment of their situation, he would send them under the yoke unarmed, and only partly clothed; that the other conditions of peace should be such as were just and proper between the conquerors and the conquered. Their troops must depart, and their colonies be withdrawn out of the territories of the Samnites; and, for the future, the Romans and Samnites, under a treaty of equality, shall live according to their own respective laws. On these terms he was ready to negociate with the consuls: and if any of these should not be accepted, he forbade the ambassadors to come to him again.” When the result of this embassy was made known, such general lamentation suddenly arose, and such melancholy took possession of every mind, that, had they been told that all were to die on the spot, they could not have felt deeper affliction. Silence continued a long time; the consuls not being able to utter a word either in favour of a treaty so disgraceful, or against a treaty so necessary; at length, Lucius Lentulus, who was the first among the lieutenant-generals, both in respect of bravery, and of the public honours which he had attained, addressed them thus: “Consuls, I have often beard my father say, that he was the only person in the Capitol, who did not advise the senate to ransom the state from the Gauls with gold; and this he would not concur in, because they had not been enclosed with a trench and rampart by the enemy, (who were remarkably slothful with respect to works, and raising fortifications,) and because they might sally forth, if not without great danger, yet without certain destruction. Now if, in like manner as they had it in their power to run down from the Capitol in arms against their foe, as men besieged have often sallied out on the besiegers, it were possible for us to come to blows, either on equal or unequal ground, the advice which I should give would not be devoid of the same spirit which animated my father. I acknowledge, indeed, that death, in defence of our country, is highly glorious; and I am ready, either to devote myself for the Roman people and the legions, or to plunge into the midst of the enemy. But in this spot I behold my country; in this spot, the whole of the Roman legions: and, unless these choose to rush on death for their own gratification, what is there which can be preserved by their death? the houses of the city, some may say, and the walls of it, and the crowd who dwell in it. But, in fact, in case of the destruction of this army, all these are given up to ruin, instead of being saved from it. For who will protect them? an unwarlike and unarmed multitude, shall I suppose? yes, just as they defended them against the attack of the Gauls. Will they call to their succour an army from Veii, with Camillus at its head? here, on the spot, I repeat, are all our hopes and strength; by preserving which, we preserve our country; by delivering them up to death, we abandon and betray it. But a surrender is shameful and ignominious. True: but such ought to be our affection for our country, that we should save it by our own disgrace, if necessity required, as freely as by our death. Let us therefore undergo that indignity, how great soever, and submit to that necessity to which even the gods themselves are seen to yield. Go, consuls, ransom the state for arms, which your ancestors ransomed with gold.”
V. The consuls accordingly went to Pontius to confer with him; and when he talked, in the strain of a conqueror, of a treaty, they declared that such could not be concluded without an order of the people, nor without the ministry of the heralds, and the other customary rites. So that the Caudine peace was not ratified by settled treaty, as is commonly believed, and even asserted by Claudius in his history, but by convention, wherein the parties became sureties. For what occasion would there be either for sureties or hostages in the former case, where the ratification is performed by the imprecation, “that whichever nation shall give occasion to the said terms being violated, may Jupiter strike that nation in like manner as the swine is struck by the heralds.” The consuls, lieutenant-generals, quæstors, and military tribunes, became sureties; and the names of all these are extant in the convention; where, had the business been transacted by treaty, none would have appeared but those of the two heralds. On account of the necessary delay, before a peace could be concluded, it was also insisted on, that six hundred horsemen should be given as hostages, who were to suffer death if the compact were not fulfilled; a time was then fixed for delivering up the hostages, and sending away the troops disarmed. The return of the consuls renewed the general grief in the camp, insomuch that the men hardly refrained from offering violence to them, “by whose rashness, they said, they had been brought into such a situation; and through whose cowardice they were likely to depart with greater disgrace than they came. They had employed no guide, who knew the country, nor scouts to explore it; but went on blindly, like beasts into a pitfall.” They cast looks of distraction on each other, viewed earnestly the arms which they must presently surrender; while their persons would be subject to the will of the enemy: figured to themselves the hostile yoke, the scoffs of the conquerors, their haughty looks, and, finally, thus disarmed, their march through the midst of an armed foe. In a word, they saw with horror the miserable journey of their dishonoured band, through the cities of the allies; and their return into their own country, to their parents, whither themselves, and their ancestors, had so often come in triumph. Observing, that “they alone had been conquered without a fight, without a weapon thrown, without a wound; that they had not been permitted to draw their swords against the enemy. In vain had arms, in vain had strength, in vain had courage, been given them.” While they were giving vent to such grievous reflections, the fatal hour of their disgrace arrived, which was to render every circumstance still more shocking, in fact, than they had preconceived it, in their imaginations. First, they were ordered to go out, beyond the rampart, unarmed, and with single garments; then the hostages were surrendered, and carried into custody. The lictors were next commanded to depart from the consuls, and the robes of the latter were stripped off. This excited such a degree of commiseration, in the breasts of those very men, who a little before were pouring execrations upon them, that every one, forgetting his own condition, turned away his eyes from that disgraceful insult on so high a dignity, as from a spectacle too horrid to behold.
VI. First, the consuls, nearly half naked, were sent under the yoke; then each officer, according to his rank, was exposed to disgrace, and the same of the legions successively. The enemy stood on each side under arms, reviling and mocking them; swords were pointed at most of them, several were wounded and some even slain, when their looks, rendered too fierce by the indignity to which they were subjected, gave offence to the conquerors. Thus were they led under the yoke; and, what was still more intolerable, under the eyes of the enemy. When they had got clear of the defile, they seemed as if they had been drawn up from the infernal regions, and then for the first time beheld the light; yet, when they viewed the ignominious appearance, to which the army was reduced, the light itself was more painful to them, than any kind of death could have been; so that, although they might have arrived at Capua before night, yet, doubting the fidelity of the allies, and embarrassed by shame, they halted at a small distance from that city. They stood in need of every kind of refreshment, yet threw themselves carelessly on the ground, on each side of the road: which being told at Capua, compassion for the situation of their allies, took place of the arrogance natural to the Campanians. They immediately sent to the consuls their ensigns of office, the fasces and lictors; to the soldiers, arms, horses, clothes, and provisions in abundance: and, on their approach, the whole senate and people went out to meet them, and performed every proper office of hospitality, both public and private. But the looks and address of the allies, joined with all their kindness, could not draw a word from them; nor even prevail on them to raise their eyes: so deeply were they affected by shame and grief, that they shunned the conversation of these their friends. Next day, when some young nobles, who had been sent from Capua, to escort them on their road to the frontiers of Campania, returned, they were called into the senate-house, and, in answer to the enquiries of the elder members, said, that “to them they seemed deeply sunk in melancholy and dejection; that the whole body moved on in silence, almost as if they were dumb; the former genius of the Romans was struck mute, and that their spirit had been taken from them, together with their arms. Not one gave answer to those who saluted them; as if, through fear, they were unable to utter a word; and that their necks still carried the yoke under which they had been sent. That the Samnites had obtained a victory, not only glorious, but lasting; for they had subdued, not Rome, merely, as the Gauls had formerly done; but, what was a much more warlike achievement, the Roman courage.” These discourses were attentively listened to, and lamentations made in this assembly of faithful allies, as if the Roman name were almost extinct. We are told that Ofilius Calavius, son of Ovius, a man highly distinguished, both by his birth and conduct, and at this time farther respectable on account of his age, declared that he entertained a very different opinion in the case. “This obstinate silence,” said he, “— those eyes fixed on the earth — those ears deaf to all comfort — with the shame of beholding the light — are indications of a mind calling forth, from its inmost recesses, the utmost exertions of resentment. Either he was ignorant of the temper of the Romans, or that silence would shortly excite, among the Samnites, lamentable cries and groans; for that the remembrance of the Caudine peace would be much more sorrowful to the Samnites than to the Romans. Each side would have their own native spirit, wherever they should happen to engage, but the Samnites would not, every where, have the glens of Caudium.”
VII. People at Rome were, by this time, informed of the disaster which had befallen them. At first, they heard that the troops were shut up; afterwards, the news of the ignominious peace arrived; and this caused greater affliction than had been felt for their danger. On the report of their being surrounded, a levy of men was begun; but when it was understood that the army had surrendered in so disgraceful a manner, the preparations were laid aside; and immediately, without any public directions, a general mourning took place, with all the various demonstrations of grief. The shops were shut; and all business ceased in the Forum, by common consent, without any order for that purpose being issued. Ornamented dresses* were laid aside: and the public were in greater tribulation, if possible, than the vanquished themselves; they were not only enraged against the commanders, the advisers and sureties of the peace, but were filled with detestation, even of the unoffending soldiers, and asserted, that they ought not to be admitted into the city. But these transports of passion were allayed by the arrival of the troops, in a state so deplorable, as was sufficient to convert even anger into compassion; for they came into the city, not like men, returning into their country with unexpected safety; but in the habit, and with the looks of captives, late in the evening; and they hid themselves so closely in their houses, that, for the next, and several following days, not one of them could bear to come in sight of the Forum, or of the public. The consuls, shut up in private, transacted no official business, except that they were compelled, by a decree of the senate, to nominate a dictator to preside at the elections. They nominated Quintus Fabius Ambustus, and as master of the horse Publius Ælius Pætus. But some irregularity being discovered in their appointment, there were substituted in their room, Marcus Æmilius Papus dictator, and Lucius Valerius Flaccus master of the horse. But neither did these hold the elections: and the people being dissatisfied with all the magistrates of that year, an interregnum ensued. The office of interrex was held by Quintus Fabius Maximus; afterwards by Marcus Valerius Corvus,Y.R.434. 318. who elected consuls Quintus Publilius Philo, and Lucius Papirius Cursor a second time; a choice universally approved, for there were no commanders at that time of higher reputation.
VIII. They entered into office immediately on being elected, for so it had been determined by the Fathers. When the customary decrees of the senate were passed, they proposed the consideration of the Caudine peace; and Publilius, whose duty it was to open the business, said, “Spurius Postumius, speak:” he arose with just the same countenance with which he had passed under the yoke, and delivered himself to this effect: “Consuls, doubtless I am to be called up first with marked ignominy, not with honour; and am ordered to speak, not as being a senator, but as a person who has to answer for an unsuccessful war, and disgraceful peace. However, the question propounded by you is not concerning our guilt, or our punishment; waving, therefore, a defence, which would not be very difficult, before men who are not unacquainted with the casualties to which mankind are subject, I shall briefly state my opinion on the matter in question; which opinion will testify, whether I was actuated by tenderness to myself, or to your legions, when I engaged as surety to the convention, be it of what kind it may, whether dishonourable or necessary: by which, however, the Roman people are not bound, inasmuch as it was concluded without their order; nor is any thing liable to be forfeited to the Samnites, in consequence of it, except our persons. Let us then be delivered up to them by the heralds, naked, and in chains. Let us free the people of the religious obligation, if we have bound them under any such; so that there may be no restriction, divine or human, to prevent your entering on the war anew, without violating the maxims of religion and justice. I am also of opinion, that the consuls, in the mean time, enlist, arm, and lead out an army; but that they should not enter the enemy’s territories, before every particular, respecting the surrender of us, be regularly executed. And, O Immortal Gods! I pray and beseech you, that, although it has not been your will, that Spurius Postumius, and Titus Veturius, in the office of consuls, should wage war with success against the Samnites, ye may yet deem it sufficient to have seen us sent under the yoke; to have seen us bound under an infamous convention; to have seen us shackled, and delivered into the hands of our foes, taking on our own heads the whole weight of the enemy’s resentment. And grant, that the consuls and legions of Rome may meet the same fortune in war, against the Samnites, which has attended them in every war before we became consuls.” On his concluding this speech, men’s minds were so impressed with admiration and compassion, that they could scarce believe him to be the same Spurius Postumius, who had been the author of so shameful a peace; lamenting, at the same time, that such a man was likely to undergo, among the enemy, a punishment even beyond that of others, through the desire of annulling the peace. All the members, showing tenderness towards him, expressed their approbation of his sentiments, when Lucius Livius and Quintus Mælius, being tribunes of the commons, attempted, for a time, to stop the proceeding by a protest; insisting, that “the people could not be acquitted of the religious obligation, from the consuls being given up, unless all things were restored to the same state in which they had been at Caudium; nor had they themselves deserved any punishment, for having, by becoming sureties to the peace, preserved the army of the Roman people; nor, finally, could they, being sacred and inviolable, be surrendered to the enemy, or treated with violence.”
IX. To this Postumius replied, “In the mean time surrender us as unsanctified persons, which ye may do, without offence to religion; those sacred and inviolable personages, the tribunes, ye will deliver up as soon as they go out of office: but, if ye listen to me, they will be first scourged with rods, here in the Comitium, by way of interest for their punishment, on account of the delay of payment. For, as to their denying that the people are acquitted of the religious obligation, by our being given up, who is there, so ignorant of the laws of the heralds, as not to know, that those men speak in that manner, to prevent themselves from being surrendered, rather than because the case is really so? still I do not deny, Conscript Fathers, that compacts, on sureties given, are as sacred as treaties, in the eyes of all who regard faith between men, with the same reverence which is paid to duties respecting the gods: but I insist, that without the order of the people, nothing can be ratified, that is to bind the people. Suppose that, out of the same arrogance, with which the Samnites forced from us the convention in question, they had compelled us to repeat the established form of words for the surrendering of cities; would ye, tribunes, say, that the Roman people was surrendered? and, that this city, these temples, and consecrated grounds, these lands and waters, were become the property of the Samnites? I say no more of the surrender; because, our having become sureties, is the point insisted on. Now, suppose we had become sureties that the Roman people should quit this city; that they should set it on fire; that they should have no magistrates, no senate, no laws; that they should, in future, be ruled by kings: the gods forbid, you say. But the enormity of the articles lessens not the obligation of a compact. If the people can be bound, in any one instance, it can, in all. Nor is there any importance in another circumstance, which weighs, perhaps, with some: whether a consul, a dictator, or a prætor, be the surety. And this, indeed, was the judgment, even of the Samnites themselves, who were not satisfied with the security of the consuls, but compelled the lieutenant-generals, quæstors, and military tribunes to join them. Let it not then be demanded of me, why I entered into such a compact, when no such power was lodged in a consul, and when I could not, either to them, insure a peace, of which I could not command the ratification; or in behalf of you, who had given me no powers. Conscript Fathers, none of the transactions at Caudium were directed by human wisdom. The immortal gods deprived of understanding, both your generals, and those of the enemy. On the one side, we acted not with sufficient caution; on the other, they threw away a victory, which through our folly they had obtained, while they hardly confided in the places, by means of which they had conquered; but were in haste, on any terms, to take arms out of the hands of men who were born to arms. Had their reason been sound, would it have been difficult, during the time which they spent in sending for old men from home to give them advice, to send ambassadors to Rome, and to negociate a peace and treaty with the senate, and with the people? it would have been a journey of only three days to expeditious travellers. In the interim, matters might have rested under a truce, that is, until their ambassadors should have brought from Rome, either certain victory, or peace. That would have been really a compact, on the faith of sureties, for we should have become sureties by order of the people. But, neither would ye have passed such an order, nor should we have pledged our faith; nor was it the will of fate, that the affair should have any other issue, than, that they should be vainly mocked with a dream, as it were, of greater prosperity than their minds were capable of comprehending, and that the same fortune, which had entangled our army, should effectuate its deliverance; that an ineffectual victory should be succeeded by a more ineffectual peace; and that a convention, on the faith of surety, should be introduced, which bound no other person beside the surety. For what part had ye, Conscript Fathers; what part had the people, in this affair? who can call upon you? who can say, that he has been deceived by you? can the enemy? can a citizen? to the enemy ye engaged nothing. Ye ordered no citizen to engage on your behalf. Ye are therefore no way concerned either with us, to whom ye gave no commission; nor with the Samnites, with whom ye transacted no business. We are sureties to the Samnites; debtors, whose abilities are sufficiently extensive over that which is our own, over that which we can offer — our bodies and our minds. On these, let them exercise their cruelty; against these, let them whet their resentment and their swords. As to what relates to the tribunes, you will consider whether the delivering them up can be immediately effected, or if it must be deferred to another day. Meanwhile let us, Titus Veturius, and the rest concerned, offer our worthless persons, as atonements for the non-performance of our engagements, and, by our sufferings, liberate the Roman armies.”
X. These arguments, and, still more, the person by whom they were delivered, powerfully affected the senators; as they did likewise every one, not excepting even the tribunes of the commons, who declared, that they would be directed by the senate. They then instantly resigned their office, and were delivered, together with the rest, to the heralds, to be conducted to Caudium. On passing this decree of the senate, it seemed as if some new light had shone upon the state: Postumius was in every mouth: they extolled him to heaven; and pronounced him to have equalled in glory even the consul Publius Decius, who devoted himself. “Through his counsel, and exertions,” they said “the republic had raised up its head, after being sunk in an ignominious peace. He now offered himself to the enemy’s rage, and to torments; and was suffering, in atonement for the Roman people.” All turned their thoughts towards arms and war, and the general cry was, “when shall we be permitted, with arms in our hands, to meet the Samnites.” While the state glowed with resentment and rancour, the levies were composed almost entirely of volunteers. Legions, composed of the former soldiers, were quickly formed, and an army marched to Caudium. The heralds, who went before, on coming to the gate, ordered the sureties of the peace to be stripped of their clothes, and their hands to be tied behind their backs. As the apparitor, out of respect to his dignity, was binding Postumius in a loose manner, “nay,” said he, “draw the cord tight, that the surrender may be regularly performed.” Then, when they came into the assembly of the Samnites, and to the tribunal of Pontius, Aulus Cornelius Arvina, a herald, pronounced these words; “Forasmuch as these men, here present, without order from the Roman people, the Quirites, entered into surety, that a treaty should be made, whereby they have rendered themselves criminal; now, in order that the Roman people may be freed from the crime of impiety, I here surrender these men into your hands.” On the herald saying thus, Postumius gave him a stroke on the thigh with his knee, as forcibly as he could, and said with a loud voice, that “he was now a citizen of Samnium, the other a Roman ambassador; that the herald had been, by him, violently ill-treated, contrary to the law of nations; and that the people he represented would therefore have the more justice on their side, in the war which they were about to wage.”
XI. Pontius then said, “Neither will I accept such a surrender, nor will the Samnites deem it valid. Spurius Postumius, if you believe that there are gods, why do ye not undo all that has been done, or fulfil your agreement? The Samnite nation is entitled, either to all the men whom it had in its power, or, instead of them, to a peace. But why do I make a demand on you, who, with as much regard to faith as you are able to show, return yourself a prisoner into the hands of the conqueror? I make the demand on the Roman people. If they are dissatisfied with the convention made at the Caddine forks, let them replace the legions within the defile where they were pent up. Let there be no deception on either side. Let all that has been done pass us nothing. Let them receive again the arms which they surrendered by the convention; let them return into their camp. Whatever they were in possession of, the day before the conference, let them possess again. Then let war and resolute counsels be adopted. Then let the convention, and peace, be rejected. Let us carry on the war in the same circumstances, and situations, in which we were, before peace was mentioned. Let neither the Roman people blame the convention of the consuls, nor us the faith of the Roman people. Will ye never want an excuse for violating the compacts which ye make on being defeated? Ye gave hostages to Porsena: ye clandestinely got them back. Ye ransomed your state from the Gauls, for gold: while they were receiving the gold, they were put to the sword. Ye concluded a peace with us, on condition of our restoring your captured legions: that peace ye now annul; in fine, ye always spread over your fraudulent conduct some show of right. Do the Roman people disapprove of their legions being saved by an ignominious peace? Let them take back their peace, and return the captured legions to the conqueror. This would be conduct consistent with faith, with treaties, and with the laws of the heralds. But that you should, in consequence of the convention, obtain what you desired, the safety of so many of your countrymen, while I obtain not, what I stipulated for, on sending you back those men, a peace; is this the law which you, Aulus Cornelius, which ye, heralds, prescribe to nations? But for my part, I neither accept those men whom ye pretend to surrender, nor consider them as surrendered; nor do I hinder them from returning into their own country, which stands bound under an actual convention, carrying with them the wrath of all the gods, whose authority is thus despised. Wage war, since Spurius Postumius has just now struck with his knee the herald, in character of ambassador. The gods are to believe that Postumius is a citizen of Samnium, not of Rome; and that a Roman ambassador has been violated by a Samnite; and that therefore ye have just grounds for a war against us. That men of years, and of consular dignity, should not be ashamed to exhibit such mockery of religion in the face of day! And should have recourse to such shallow artifices to palliate their breach of faith, as not even children would allow themselves! Go, lictor, take off the bonds from those Romans. Let no one hinder them to depart, when they think proper.” Accordingly they returned unhurt from Caudium, to the Roman camp, having acquitted, certainly, their own faith, and, perhaps, that of the public.
XII. The Samnites finding that, instead of a peace which flattered their pride, the war was revived, and with the utmost inveteracy, not only felt, in their minds, a foreboding of all the consequences which ensued, but saw them, in a manner, before their eyes. They now, too late, and in vain, applauded the plans of old Pontius, by blundering between which, they had exchanged a certainty of victory, for an uncertain peace; and were now to fight against men, whom they might have either put out of the way, for ever, as enemies; or engaged, for ever, as friends. And such was the change which had taken place in men’s minds, since the Caudine peace, even before any trial of strength had shown an advantage on either side, that Postumius, by surrendering himself, had acquired greater renown among the Romans, than Pontius among the Samnites, by his bloodless victory. The Romans considered their being at liberty to make war, as certain victory; while the Samnites supposed the Romans victorious, the moment they resumed their arms. Meanwhile, the Satricans revolted to the Samnites, who attacked the colony of Fregellæ, by a sudden surprise in the night, accompanied, as it appears, by the Satricans. From that time until day, their mutual fears kept both parties quiet: the daylight was the signal for battle, which the Fregellans contrived to maintain, for a considerable time, without loss of ground; for they fought for their religion and liberty; and the multitude, who were unfit to bear arms, assisted them, from the tops of the houses. At length, a stratagem gave the advantage to the assailants; a crier was heard proclaiming, that “whoever laid down his arms might retire in safety.” This relaxed their eagerness in the fight, and they began almost every where to avail themselves of it. A part, more determined, however, retaining their arms, rushed out by the opposite gate, and found greater safety in their boldness, than the others from the credulity inspired by their fears: for the Samnites surrounded the latter with fires, and burned them all to death, while they made vain appeals to the faith of gods and men. The consuls having settled the provinces between them, Papirius proceeded into Apulia to Luceria, where the Roman horsemen, given as hostages to Caudium, were kept in custody: Publilius remained in Samnium, to oppose the Caudine legions. This proceeding perplexed the minds of the Samnites: they could not safely determine either to go to Luceria, lest the enemy should press on their rear; or to remain where they were, lest, in the mean time, Luceria should be lost. They concluded, therefore, that it would be most advisable to trust to the decision of fortune, and to try the issue of a battle with Publilius: accordingly, they drew out their forces into the field.
XIII. When Publilius was about to engage, he thought it proper to address his soldiers; and, accordingly, he ordered an assembly to be summoned. But, though they ran together to the general’s quarters with the greatest alacrity, yet, so loud were their clamours, demanding the fight, that none of the general’s exhortations were heard: each man’s own reflections on the late disgrace were sufficient to determine them. They advanced, therefore, to battle, urging the standard-bearers to hasten; and lest, in beginning the conflict, there should be any delay, by reason that javelins were less easily wielded than swords, they threw away the former, as if a signal to that purpose had been given, and, drawing the latter, rushed in full speed upon the foe. The general had little opportunity of showing his skill in forming ranks or reserves; the ungoverned troops performed all, with a degree of fury little inferior to madness. The enemy, therefore, were completely routed, not even daring to retreat to their camp, but dispersing, made the best of their way towards Apulia: afterwards, however, they collected their forces into one body, and came to Luceria. The same exasperation which had carried the Romans through the midst of the enemy’s line, carried them forward also into their camp, where greater carnage was made, and more blood spilt, than even in the field, while the greater part of the spoil was destroyed in their rage. The other army, with the consul Papirius, had now arrived at Arpi, on the sea-coast, having passed without molestation through all the countries in their way; which was owing to the ill treatment received by those people from the Samnites, and their hatred towards them, rather than to any favour received from the Roman people. For such of the Samnites as dwelt on the mountains, used to ravage the lowlands, and the places on the coast; and, being savage themselves, despised the husbandmen, who were of a gentler kind. Now, the people of this tract, had they been favourably affected towards the Samnites, could either have prevented the Roman army from coming to Arpi; or, as they lay between Rome and Arpi, could, by intercepting the convoys of provisions, have caused such scarcity of every necessary, as would have been fatal. Even as it was, when they went from thence to Luceria, both the besiegers and the besieged were distressed equally by want. Every kind of supplies was brought to the Romans from Arpi; but in a very scanty proportion, the horsemen carrying corn from thence to the camp, in little bags, for the foot, who were employed in the out-posts, watches, and works, and these sometimes falling in with parties of the enemy, when they were obliged to throw the corn from off their horses, in order to fight. With respect to the Samnites, before the arrival of the other consul and his victorious army, provisions and reinforcements had been brought in to them from the mountains; but the coming of Publilius strengthened the Romans in every part; for, committing the siege to the care of his colleague, and keeping himself disengaged, he threw every difficulty in the way of the enemy’s convoys. There being, therefore, little hope for the besieged, or that they would be able much longer to endure want, the Samnites, encamped at Luceria, were obliged to collect their forces from every side, and come to an engagement with Papirius.
XIV. At this juncture, while both parties were preparing for an action, ambassadors from the Tarentines interposed, requiring both Samnites and Romans to desist from war; with menaces, that, “if either refused to agree to a cessation of hostilities, they would join their arms with the other party, against them.” Papirius, on hearing the purport of their embassy, as if their words had made some impression on him, answered, that he would consult his colleague: he then sent for him, employing the intermediate time in the necessary preparations; and, when he had conferred with him on a matter, on which they were at no loss how to determine, he made the signal for battle. While the consuls were employed in performing the religious rites, and the other usual business preparatory to an engagement, the Tarentine ambassadors put themselves in their way, expecting an answer: to whom Papirius said, Tarentines, the priest reports that the auspices are favourable, and that our sacrifices have been attended with excellent omens: under the direction of the gods, we are proceeding, as you see, to action.” He then ordered the standards to move, and led out the troops; thus rebuking the exorbitant arrogance of that nation, which, at a time when, through intestine discord and sedition, it was unequal to the management of its own affairs, yet presumed to prescribe the bounds of peace and war to others. On the other side, the Samnites, who had neglected every preparation for fighting, either because they were really desirous of peace, or found it their interest to pretend to be so, in order to conciliate the favour of the Tarentines, when they saw, on a sudden, the Romans drawn up for battle, cried out, that “they would continue to be directed by the Tarentines, and would neither march out, nor carry their arms beyond the rampart. That they would rather endure any consequence which might ensue, than show contempt to the recommendation of the Tarentines.” The consuls said, that “they embraced the omen, and prayed that the enemy might continue in the resolution of not even defending their rampart.” Then, dividing the forces between them, they advanced to the works; and, making an assault on every side at once, while some filled up the trenches, others tore down the rampart, and tumbled it into the trench. All were stimulated, not only by their native courage, but by the resentment, which, since their disgrace, had been festering in their breasts. They made their way into the camp; where, every one repeating, that here was not Caudium, nor the forks, nor the impassable glens, where cunning haughtily triumphed over error; but Roman valour, which no rampart nor trench could ward off; — they slew, without distinction, those who resisted and those who fled, the armed and unarmed, freemen and slaves, young and old, men and cattle. Nor would any one have escaped, had not the consuls given the signal for retreat; and, partly by commands, partly by threats, forced the soldiers out of the camp, where they were greedily indulging themselves in slaughter. As they were highly incensed at being thus interrupted, a speech was immediately addressed to them, assuring the soldiers, that “the consuls neither did, nor would, fall short of any one of the soldiers in hatred toward the enemy; on the contrary, as they led the way in battle, so would they have done the same in executing unbounded vengeance, had not their inclinations been restrained by the consideration of the six hundred horsemen, who were confined, as hostages, in Luceria, for it was feared that the Samnites, through despair, might be hurried on blindly to take cruel revenge on them, before they perished themselves.” The soldiers highly applauded the consul’s conduct, rejoiced that their resentment had been checked, and acknowledged, that every thing ought to be endured, rather than that so many Roman youths of the first distinction should be brought into danger.
XV. The assembly being then dismissed, a consultation was held, whether they should press forward the siege of Luceria, with all their forces; or, whether one of the commanders, and his army, should make trial of the dispositions of the rest of the Apulians, which were still doubtful. The consul Publilius set out to make a circuit through Apulia, and in the one expedition either reduced by force, or received into alliance, on conditions, a considerable number of the states. Papirius likewise, who had remained to prosecute the siege of Luceria, soon found the event agreeable to his hopes: for all the roads being blocked up, through which provisions used to be conveyed from Samnium, the Samnites, in garrison, were reduced so low by famine, that they sent ambassadors to the Roman consul, proposing that he should raise the siege, on receiving the horsemen who were the cause of the war. To whom Papirius returned this answer, that “they ought to have consulted Pontius, son of Herrennius, by whose advice they had sent the Romans under the yoke, what treatment he thought fitting for the conquered to undergo. But since, instead of offering fair terms themselves, they chose rather that they should be imposed on them by their enemies, he desired them to carry back orders to the troops in Luceria, that they should leave within the walls their arms, baggage, beasts of burthen, and all persons unfit for war. The soldiers he would send under the yoke with single garments, retaliating the disgrace formerly inflicted, not setting the example.” All this they submitted to. Seven thousand soldiers were sent under the yoke, and an immense booty was seized in the town, where the Romans retook all the standards and arms which they had lost at Caudium; and, what greatly increased their joy, recovered the horsemen whom the Samnites had sent to Luceria to be kept as pledges of the peace. Hardly ever did the Romans gain a victory more remarkable for the sudden reverse produced in the state of their affairs: especially if it be true, as I find in some annals, that Pontius, son of Herrennius, the Samnite general, was sent under the yoke along with the rest, to atone for the disgrace of the consuls. I think it indeed less strange to find uncertainty, with respect to the treatment of the Samnite general, than that there should be a doubt whether it was Lucius Cornelius, in quality of dictator, (Lucius Papirius Cursor being master of the horse, who acted at Caudium, and afterwards at Luceria, as the single avenger of the disgrace of the Romans, enjoying the best deserved triumph, perhaps next to that of Furius Camillus, which had ever yet been obtained;) or whether that honour belongs to the consuls, and particularly to Papirius.Y.R.435. 317. This uncertainty is followed by another, whether, at the next election, Papirius Cursor was chosen consul, a third time, with Quintus Aulus Cerretanus a second time, being re-elected in requital of his services at Luceria; or whether it was Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, the surname being mistaken.
XVI. From henceforth, the accounts are clear, that the other wars were conducted to a conclusion by the consuls. Aulius, by one successful battle, entirely conquered the Ferentans. The city, to which their army had retreated after its defeat, surrendered on terms, and was ordered to give hostages. Similar fortune attended the other consul, in his operations against the Satricans; who, though Roman citizens, had, after the misfortune at Caudium, revolted to the Samnites, and received a garrison into their city. The Satricans, however, when the Roman army approached their walls, sent deputies to sue for peace, with humble entreaties, to whom the consul answered, harshly, that “they must not come again to him, unless they either put to death, or delivered up, the Samnite garrison:” which words struck greater terror into the colonists, than the arms with which they were threatened. The deputies, on this, several times asking the consul, how he thought that they, who were few and weak, could attempt to use force against a garrison so strong and well armed, he desired them to “seek counsel from those, by whose advice they had received that garrison into the city.” They then departed, and returned to their countrymen, having obtained from the consul, with much difficulty, permission to consult their senate, and bring back their answer to him. Two factions divided the senate: the leaders of one had been the authors of the defection from the Roman people, the other consisted of the citizens who retained their loyalty; both, however, showed an earnest desire, that every means should be used towards effecting an accommodation with the consul for the restoration of peace. As the Samnite garrison, being in no respect prepared for holding out a siege, intended to retire the next night out of the town, one party thought it sufficient to discover to the consul, at what hour, through what gate, and by what road, his enemy was to march out. The other, who had opposed the going over to the Samnites, went farther, and opened one of the gates for the consul in the night, secretly admitting him into the town. In consequence of this two-fold treachery, the Samnite garrison was surprized and overpowered by an ambush, placed in the woody places, near the road; and, at the same time, a shout was raised in the city, which was now filled with the besiegers. Thus, in the short space of one hour, the Samnites were put to the sword, the Satricans made prisoners, and all things reduced under the power of the consul; who, taking proper measures to discover who were the instigators of the revolt, scourged with rods, and beheaded, such as he found to be guilty; and then, disarming the Satricans, he placed a strong garrison in the place. On this, Papirius Cursor proceeded to Rome to celebrate his triumph, according to the relation of those authors, who say, that he was the general who retook Luceria, and sent the Samnites under the yoke. Undoubtedly, as a warrior, he was deserving of every praise, excelling not only in vigour of mind, but likewise in strength of body. He possessed extraordinary swiftness of foot, surpassing every one of his age in running, from whence came the surname into his family; and he is said, either from the robustnesss of his frame, or from much practice, to have been able to digest a very large quantity of food and wine. Never did either the foot soldier, or horseman, feel military service more laborious, under any general, because he was of a constitution not to be overcome by fatigue. The cavalry, on some occasion, venturing to request that, in consideration of their good behaviour, he would excuse them some part of their business, he told them, “ye should not say, that no indulgence has been granted you, I excuse you from rubbing your horses backs when ye dismount.” He supported also the authority of command, in all its vigour, both among the allies and his countrymen. The prætor of Præneste, through fear, had been tardy in bringing forward his men from the reserve to the front: the general walking before his tent, ordered him to be called, and then bade the lictor to make ready his axe, on which the Prænestine, standing frighted almost to death, he said, “here, lictor, cut away this stump, it is troublesome to people as they walk;” and, after thus alarming him with the dread of the severest punishment, fined and dismissed him. It is beyond doubt, that during that age, than which none was ever more productive of virtuous characters, there was no man in whom the Roman affairs found a more effectual support: nay, people even marked him out, in their minds, as a match for Alexander the Great, in case that, having completed the conquest of Asia, he should have turned his arms on Europe.
XVII. Nothing has ever been farther from my intention, since the commencement of this history, than to digress, more than necessity required, from the course of narration; and, by embellishing my work with variety, to seek pleasing resting-places, as it were, for my readers, and relaxation for my own mind: nevertheless, the mention of so great a king and commander, as it has often set my thoughts at work, in silent disquisitions, now calls forth a few reflections to public view; and disposes me to enquire, what would have been the consequence, respecting the affairs of the Romans, if they had happened to have been engaged in a war with Alexander. The circumstances of greatest moment seem to be, the number and bravery of the soldiers, the abilities of the commanders, and fortune, which exerts a powerful sway over all human concerns, and especially over those of war. Now these particulars, considered both separately and collectively, must clearly convince an observer, that not only other kings and nations, but that even Alexander himself, would have found the Roman empire invincible. And first, to begin with comparing the commanders. I do not, indeed, deny, that Alexander was a captain of consummate merit; but still his fame owes part of its lustre to his having been single in command, and to his dying young, while his affairs were advancing in improvement, and while he had not yet experienced a reverse of fortune. For, to pass by other illustrious kings and leaders, who afford exemplary instances of the decline of human greatness, what was it, but length of life, which subjected Cyrus (whom the Greeks, in their panegyrics, exalt so far beyond all others) to the caprice of fortune? and the same was, lately, the case of Pompey the Great. I shall enumerate the Roman chiefs: not every one of every age, but those only with whom, either as consuls or dictators, Alexander might have been engaged. Marcus Valerius Corvus, Caius Marcius Rutilus, Caius Sulpicius, Titus Manlius Torquatus, Quintus Publilius Philo, Lucius Papirius Cursor, Quintus Fabius Maximus, the two Decii, Lucius Volumnius, Manius Curius. Then follow a number of very extraordinary men, had it so happened, that he had first engaged in war with Carthage, and had come into Italy at a more advanced period of life. Every one of these possessed powers of mind and a capacity equal with Alexander; add to this, that a regular system of military discipline had been transmitted from one to another, from the first rise of the city of Rome; a system now reduced into the form of an art, completely digested in a train of fixed and settled principles, deduced from the practice of the Kings; and afterwards, of the expellers of those Kings, the Junii and Valerii; with all the improvements made in it by the Fabii, the Quintii, the Cornelii, and particularly Furius Camillus, who was an old man in the earlier years of those with whom Alexander must have fought. Manlius Torquatus might, perhaps, have yielded to Alexander, had he met him in the field: and so might Valerius Corvus; men who were distinguished soldiers, before they became commanders. The same, too, might have been the case with the Decii, who, after devoting their persons, rushed upon the enemy, or of Papirius Cursor, though possessed of such powers, both of body and mind. The councils of one youth, it is possible, might have baffled the wisdom of a whole senate, composed of such members, that he alone, who said it was an assembly of kings, conceived a just idea of it. But then there was little probability that he should, with more judgment than any one of those whom I have named, choose ground for an encampment, provide supplies, guard against stratagems, distinguish the season for fighting, form his line of battle, or strengthen it properly with reserves. He would have owned, that he was not dealing with Darius, who drew after him a train of women and eunuchs; saw nothing about him but gold and purple; was encumbered with the burthensome trappings of his state, and should be called his prey, rather than his antagonist; whom therefore he vanquished without loss of blood, and had no other merit, on the occasion, than that of showing a proper spirit in despising empty show. Italy would have appeared, to him, a country of a quite different nature from Asia, which he traversed in the guise of a reveller, at the head of a crew of drunkards, if he had seen the forests of Apulia, and the mountains of Lucania, with the vestiges of the disasters of his house, and where his uncle Alexander, king of Epirus, had been lately cut off.
XVIII. I am here speaking of Alexander, not yet intoxicated by prosperity, the seductions of which no man was less capable of withstanding. But, if a judgment is to be formed of him, from the tenour of his conduct, in the new state of his fortune, and from the new disposition, as I may say, which he put on after his successes, he would have entered Italy more like Darius, than Alexander; and would have brought thither an army who had forgotten Macedonia, and were degenerating into the manners of the Persians. It is painful, in speaking of so great a king, to recite his ostentatious pride in the frequent changes of his dress; his requiring that people should address him with adulation, prostrating themselves on the ground; a practice insupportable to the Macedonians, had they even been conquered, much more so when they were victorious; the shocking cruelty of his punishments; his murdering his friends in the midst of feasting and wine; with the folly of his fiction respecting his birth. What must have been the consequence, if his love of wine had daily increased? if his fierce and uncontroulable anger? and, as I mention not any one circumstance of which there is a doubt among writers, do we consider these as no disparagements to the qualifications of a commander? but then, as is frequently repeated by the silliest of the Greeks, who are fond of exalting the reputation, even of the Parthians, at the expence of the Roman name, it was to be apprehended that the Roman people would not have had resolution to face the splendour of Alexander’s name, who, however, in my opinion, was not known to them even by common fame; and while, in Athens, a state reduced to weakness by the Macedonian arms, which at the very time saw the ruins of Thebes smoking in its neighbourhood, men had spirit enough to declaim with freedom against him, as is manifest from the copies of their speeches, which have been preserved; is it to be supposed that out of such a number of Roman chiefs, no one would have freely uttered his sentiments. How large soever the scale may be, on which our idea of this man’s greatness is formed, still it is the greatness of an individual, constituted by the successes of a little more than ten years; and those who give it pre-eminence on account, that the Roman people have been defeated, though not in any entire war, yet in several battles, whereas Alexander was never once unsuccessful in fight, do not consider, that they are comparing the actions of one man, and that a young man, with the course of action of a nation, which has been waging wars, now eight hundred years. Can we wonder then, if fortune has varied more in such a long space, than in the short term of thirteen years? but why not compare the success of one man, with that of another? how many Roman commanders might I name, who never were beaten? in the annals of the magistrates, and the records, we may run over whole pages of consuls, and dictators, with whose bravery, and successes also, the Roman people never once had reason to be dissatisfied. And, what renders them more deserving of admiration than Alexander, or any king, is, that some of these acted in the office of dictator, which lasted only ten, or it might be twenty days; none in a charge of longer duration than the consulship of a year; their levies obstructed by plebeian tribunes; often late in taking the field; recalled, before the time, to attend elections; amidst the very busiest efforts of the campaign, overtaken by the close of their official year: sometimes by the rashness, sometimes the perverseness of a colleague, involved in difficulties or losses; and finally succeeding to the unfortunate administration of a predecessor, with an army of raw or ill-disciplined men. But, on the other hand, kings, being not only free from every kind of impediment, but masters of circumstances and seasons, controul all things in subserviency to their designs, themselves uncontrouled by any. So that Alexander, unconquered, would have encountered unconquered commanders; and would have had stakes of equal consequence pledged on the issue. Nay, the hazard had been greater on his side; because the Macedonians would have had but one Alexander, who was not only liable, but fond of exposing himself, to casualties; the Romans would have had many equal to Alexander, both in renown, and in the greatness of their exploits; the life, or death, of any of whom would have affected only his own concerns, without any material consequence to the public.
XIX. It remains to compare the forces together, with respect to their numbers, the different kinds of troops, and their resources for procuring auxiliaries. Now, in the general surveys of that age, there were rated two hundred and fifty thousand men: so that, on every revolt of the Latine confederates, ten legions were enlisted, almost entirely in the city. It often happened during those years, that four or five armies were employed at a time, in Etruria, in Umbria, the Gauls also being at war, in Samnium, in Lucania. Then as to all Latium, with the Sabines, and Volscians, the Æquans, and all Campania; half of Umbria, Etruria, and the Picentians, the Maraians, Pelignians, Vestinians, and Apulians; to whom, we may add, the whole coast of the lower sea, possessed by the Greeks from Thurii, to Neapolis and Cumæ; and the Samnites from thence as far as Antium and Ostia: all these he would have found either powerful allies to the Romans, or deprived of power by their arms. He would have crossed the sea with his veteran Macedonians, amounting to no more than thirty thousand infantry, and four thousand horse, these mostly Thessalians. This was the whole of his strength. Had he brought with him Persians and Indians, and those other nations, it would be dragging after him an incumbrance, rather than a support. Add to this, that the Romans being at home, would have had recruits at hand: Alexander waging war in a foreign country, would have found his army worn out with long service, as happened afterwards to Hannibal. As to arms, theirs were a buckler and long spears: those of the Romans, a shield, which covered the body more effectually, and a javelin, a much more forcible weapon than the spear, either in throwing or striking. The soldiers, on both sides, were used to steady combat, and to preserve their ranks. But the Macedonian phalanx was unapt for motion, and composed of similar parts throughout: the Roman line less compact, consisting of several various parts, was easily divided, as occasion required, and as easily conjoined. Then, what soldier is comparable to the Roman, in the throwing up of works? who better calculated to endure fatigue? Alexander, if overcome in one battle, could make no other effort. The Roman, whom Caudium, whom Cannæ, did not crush, what fight could crush? In truth, even should events have been favourable to him at first, he would have often wished for the Persians, the Indians, and the effeminate tribes of Asia, as opponents; and would have acknowledged, that his wars had been waged with women, as we are told was said by Alexander, king of Epirus, after receiving his mortal wound, in relation to the battles fought in Asia by this very youth, and when compared with those in which himself had been engaged. Indeed, when I reflect, that, in the first Punic war, a contest was maintained by the Romans with the Carthaginians, at sea, for twenty-four years, I can scarcely suppose that the life of Alexander would have been long enough for the finishing of one war with either of those nations. And perhaps, as the Punic state was united to the Roman, by ancient treaties, and as similar apprehensions might arm against a common foe those two nations, the most potent of the time, he might have been overwhelmed in a Punic, and a Roman war, at once. The Romans have had experience of the boasted prowess of the Macedonians in arms, not indeed when they were led by Alexander, or when their power was at the height, but in the wars against Antiochus, Philip, and Perseus; and so far were they from sustaining any losses, that they incurred not even danger. Let not the truth give offence to any, nor our civil wars be brought into mention; never were we worsted by an enemy’s cavalry, never by their infantry, never in open fight, never on equal ground, much less when the ground was favourable. Our soldiers, heavy laden with arms, may reasonably fear a body of cavalry, or arrows; defiles of difficult passage, and places impassable to convoys. But they have defeated, and will defeat a thousand armies, more formidable than those of Alexander, and the Macedonians, provided that the same love of peace, and zeal to promote domestic harmony, which at present subsist among us, shall continue to prevail.
XX. Marcus Foslius Flaccinator and Lucius Plautius Venno were the next raised to the consulship.Y.R.436. 316. In this year ambassadors came from most of the states of the Samnites to procure a renewal of the treaty; and, having moved the compassion of the senate, by the humility with which they prostrated themselves before them, were referred to the people, with whom they found not their prayers so efficacious. Their petition, therefore, with regard to the treaty, was rejected; but, after a supplication of several days, they obtained a truce for two years. The Teaneans likewise, and Canusians of Apulia, worn out by the devastations of their country, surrendered themselves to the consul, Lucius Plautius, and gave hostages. This year præfects first began to be created for Capua, and a code of laws was given to that nation, by Lucius Furius the prætor; both in compliance with their own request, as a remedy for the disorder of their affairs, occasioned by intestine dissensions. At Rome, two additional tribes were constituted, the Ufentine and Falerine.Y.R.437. 315. On the affairs of Apulia falling into decline, the Teatians of that country came to the new consuls, Caius Junius Bubulcus, and Quintus Æmilius Barbula, suing for an alliance; and engaging, that peace should be observed towards the Romans through every part of Apulia. By pledging themselves boldly for this, they obtained the grant of an alliance, not however on terms of equality, but of their submitting to the dominion of the Roman people. Apulia being entirely reduced, (for Junius had also gained possession of Forentum, a town of great strength,) the consuls advanced into Lucania; there Nerulum was surprised and stormed by the consul Æmilius. When fame had spread abroad among the allies, how firmly the affairs of Capua were settled by the introduction of the Roman institutions, the Antians, imitating the example, presented a complaint of their being without laws, and without magistrates; on which the patrons of the colony itself were appointed by the senate to form a body of laws for it. Thus not only the arms, but the laws, of Rome, widely extended their sway.
XXI. The consuls, Caius Junius Bubulcus, and Quintus Æmilius Barbula, at the conclusion of the year, delivered over the legions, not to the consuls elected by themselves, who were Spurius Nautius, and Marcus Popillius, but to a dictator, Lucius Æmilius.Y.R.438. 314. He, with Lucius Fulvius, master of the horse, laying siege to Saticula, gave occasion to the Samnites of reviving hostilities, and this produced a two-fold alarm to the Roman army. On one side, the Samnites having collected a numerous force with intent to relieve their allies from the siege, pitched their camp at a small distance from that of the Romans: on the other side, the Santiculans, opening suddenly their gates, ran up with violent tumult to their posts. Afterwards, each party, relying on support from the other, more than on its own strength, formed a regular attack, and pressed on the Romans. The dictator, on his part, though obliged to oppose two enemies at once, yet had his line secure on both sides; for he chose a position in which he could not easily be surrounded, and also formed two different fronts. However, he directed his first efforts against those who had sallied from the town, and, without meeting much resistance, drove them back within the walls. He then turned his whole force against the Samnites: there he found greater difficulty. But the victory, though long delayed, was neither doubtful nor alloyed by losses. The Samnites, being forced to fly into their camp, extinguished their fires at night, and marched away in silence; and renouncing all hopes of relieving Saticula, sat themselves down before Plistia, which was in alliance with the Romans, that they might, if possible, retort equal vexation on their enemy.
XXII. The year coming to a conclusion, the war was thenceforward conducted by a dictator, Quintus Fabius.Y.R.439. 313. The new consuls, Lucius Papirius Cursor and Quintus Publilius Philo, both a fourth time, as the former had done, remained at Rome. Fabius came with a reinforcement to Saticula, to receive the command of the army from Æmilius. The Samnites had not continued before Plistia; but, having sent for a new supply of men from home, and, relying on their numbers, had encamped in the same spot as before; and, by provoking the Romans to battle, endeavoured to divert them from the siege. The dictator, so much the more intently, pushed forward his operations against the fortifications of the enemy; considering the taking of the city as the only object of the war, and showing an indifference with respect to the Samnites, except that he placed guards in proper places, to prevent any attempt on his camp. This encouraged the Samnites, so that they rode up to the rampart, and allowed him no quiet. These now coming up close to the gates of the camp, Quintus Aulius Cerretanus, master of the horse, without consulting the dictator, sallied out furiously at the head of all the troops of cavalry, and drove them back. In this desultory kind of fight, fortune exerted her power in such a manner, as to occasion an extraordinary loss on both sides, and the remarkable deaths of the commanders themselves. First, the general of the Samnites, filled with indignation at being repulsed, and compelled to fly from a place to which he had advanced with such confidence, prevailed on his horsemen, by entreaties and exhortations, to renew the battle. As he was easily distinguished among the horsemen, while he urged on the fight, the Roman master of the horse galloped up against him in such a furious career, that, with one stroke of his spear, he tumbled him lifeless from his horse. The multitude, however, were not, as is generally the case, dismayed by the fall of their leader, but rather roused to fury. All who were within reach, darted their weapons at Aulius, who incautiously pushed forward among the enemy’s troops; but the chief share of the honour of revenging the death of the Samnite general was reserved for his brother, who, urged by rage and grief, dragged down the victorious master of the horse from his seat, and slew him. As he fell in the midst of their troops, the Samnites were also near keeping possession of his body: but the Romans instantly dismounting, the Samnites were obliged to do the same; and thus were lines formed suddenly, and a battle began on foot, round the bodies of the generals, in which the Romans had manifestly the advantage; and, recovering the body of Aulius, carried it back in triumph to the camp, with hearts filled with a mixture of joy and grief. The Samnites having lost their commander, and made a trial of their strength in this contest between the cavalry, left Saticula, which they despaired of relieving, and returned to the siege of Plistia: within a few days after which, the Romans got possession of Saticula by capitulation, and the Samnites of Plistia by force.
XXIII. The seat of the war was then changed. The legions were led away from Samnium and Apulia to Sora. This city had revolted to the Samnites, and put to death the Roman colonists. The Roman army having arrived here first, by forced marches, with the purpose of revenging the murder of their countrymen, and recovering possession of the colony, and the scouts who were scattered about the roads bringing intelligence, one after another, that the Samnites were followed at no great distance, they marched to meet the enemy, and at Lautulæ fought them with doubtful success. Neither loss nor flight on either side, but the night, separated the combatants, uncertain whether they were victorious or defeated. I find in some historians, that the Romans were worsted in this battle, and that here Quintus Aulius, the master of the horse, fell. Caius Fabius, substituted master of the horse in the room of Quintus Aulius, came hither with a new army from Rome; and having, by messengers whom he sent forward, consulted the dictator, where he should halt, at what time, and on what side, he should fall upon the enemy, and, being sufficiently apprized of his designs in every particular, he rested in a place where he was safe from observation. The dictator, after having kept his men within the rampart for several days after the engagement, like one besieged, rather than a besieger, suddenly displayed the signal for battle; and, judging it the more efficacious method of inflaming the courage of brave men, to let none have any room for hope but in himself, he kept secret from the troops the arrival of the master of the horse, and the new army; and, as if there were no safety but in forcing their way thence, he said, “Soldiers, caught as we are in a confined situation, we have no passage through which we can extricate ourselves, unless we open one by a victory. Our post is sufficiently secured by works; but, at the same time, untenable through scarcity of necessaries: for all the country round, from which provisions could be supplied, has revolted; and, besides, even were the inhabitants disposed to aid us, the nature of the ground is unfavourable. I will not, therefore, mislead you, by leaving a camp here, into which ye may retreat, as on a former day, without completing the victory. Works ought to be secured by arms, not arms by works. Let those keep a camp, and repair to it, whose interest it is to protract the war; but let us cut off from ourselves every other prospect but that of conquering. Advance the standards against the enemy; as soon as the troops shall have marched beyond the rampart, let those who have it in orders, burn the camp. Your losses, soldiers, shall be compensated with the spoil of all the nations round who have revolted.” The soldiers advanced against the enemy with spirits inflamed by the dictator’s discourse, which seemed to indicate an extreme necessity; and, at the same time, the very sight of the camp burning behind them, though the nearest part only was set on fire, (for so the dictator had ordered,) was no small incitement: rushing on, therefore, like madmen, they disordered the enemy’s battalions at the very first onset; and the master of the horse, when he saw at a distance the fire of the camp, which was the signal agreed on, made a seasonable attack on their rear. The Samnites, thus assailed on every side, fled different ways. A vast number, who had gathered into a body through fear, yet from confusion, incapable of acting, were surrounded and cut to pieces. The enemy’s camp was taken and plundered; and the soldiers, being laden with the spoil, the dictator led them back to the Roman camp, highly rejoiced at the success, but still more at finding, contrary to their expectation, every thing there safe, except a small part only, which was injured or destroyed by the fire.
XXIV. They then marched back to Sora; and the new consuls, Marcus Pœtelius and Caius Sulpicius,Y.R.440. 312. receiving the army from the dictator Fabius, discharged a great part of the veteran soldiers, having brought with them new cohorts to supply their place. Now while, on account of the difficulties presented by the situation of the city, no mode of attack could be devised, which promised any certainty of success, and the taking of it must either be done at the expense of a great deal of time, or at a desperate risk; a townsman deserting, came out of the town privately by night, and when he had got as far as the Roman watches, desired to be conducted instantly to the consuls: which being complied with, he made them an offer of delivering the place into their hands. From his answers to their questions, respecting the means by which he intended to accomplish his design, it appeared to be not ill formed; and he persuaded them to remove the Roman camp, which was almost close to the walls, to the distance of six miles, alleging, that this would render the guards by day, and the watches by night, the less vigilant. He then desired that some cohorts should post themselves the following night in the woody places under the town, and took with himself ten chosen soldiers, through steep and almost impassable ways, into the citadel, where a quantity of missive weapons had been collected, larger then bore proportion to the number of men. There were stones besides, some lying at random, as in all craggy places, and others heaped up by the townsmen, to add to the security of the place. Having posted the Romans here, and shown them a steep and narrow path leading up from the town to the citadel —“From this ascent,” said he, “even three armed men would keep off any multitude whatever. Now ye are ten in number; and, what is more, Romans, and the bravest among the Romans. The night is in your favour, which, by concealing the real state of things, magnifies every object to people, when once alarmed. I will immediately fill every place with terror: be ye alert, in defending the citadel.” He then ran down in haste, crying aloud, “To arms, citizens, we are undone, the citadel is taken by the enemy; run, defend it.” This he repeated, as he passed the doors of the principal men, the same to all whom he met, and also to those who ran out, in a fright, into the streets. The alarm, communicated first by one, was soon spread by numbers through all the city. The magistrates, dismayed on hearing from scouts that the citadel was full of arms and armed men, whose number they multiplied, laid aside all hopes of recovering it. Flight began on every side, and the townsmen, half asleep, and for the most part unarmed, broke open the gates, through one of which the body of Roman troops, roused by the noise, burst in, and slew the terrified inhabitants who attempted to skirmish in the streets. Sora was now taken, when, at the first light, the consuls arrived, and accepted the surrender of those, whom fortune had left remaining, after the flight and slaughter of the night. Of these, they conveyed in chains to Rome two hundred and twenty-five, whom all men agreed in pointing out as the authors, both of the revolt, and also of the horrid massacre of the colonists. The rest were left in safety at Sora, where they placed a garrison. All those who were brought to Rome were beaten with rods in the Forum, and beheaded, to the great joy of the commons, whose interest it most highly concerned, that the multitudes, sent to various places in colonies, should be in safety.
XXV. The consuls leaving Sora, turned their operations against the lands and cities of the Ausonians; for all places had been set in commotion by the coming of the Samnites, when the battle was fought at Lautulæ: conspiracies likewise had been formed in several parts of Campania; nor was Capua itself clear of the charge: nay, the business spread even to Rome, and occasioned inquiries to be instituted respecting some of the principal men there. However, the Ausonian nation fell into the Roman power, in the same manner as Sora, by their cities being betrayed: these were Ausona, Minturnæ, and Vescia. Certain young men of the principal families, twelve in number, having conspired to betray their respective cities, came to the consuls, and informed them, that their countrymen, who had, for a long time before, earnestly wished for the coming of the Samnites, on hearing of the battle at Lautulæ, had looked on the Romans as defeated, and had assisted the Samnites with supplies of men and arms; but that, since the Samnites had been beaten out of the country, they were wavering between peace and war, not shutting their gates against the Romans, lest they should thereby invite an attack; yet determined to shut them if any troops should approach, and that, while their minds were in that fluctuating state, they might easily be overpowered by surprise. By these men’s advice the camp was moved nearer; and soldiers were sent, at the same time, to each of the three towns; some armed, who were to lie concealed in places near the walls; others, in the garb of peace, with swords hidden under their clothes, who, on the opening of the gates at the approach of day, were to enter into the cities. These latter began with killing the guards, and, at the same time, made the signal to the men in arms, to hasten up from the ambuscades. Thus the gates were seized, and the three towns taken in the same hour and by the same device. But, as the generals were not present when the attacks were made, there were no bounds to the carnage which ensued; and the nation of the Ausonians, when there was scarcely any clear proof of the charge of its having revolted, was utterly destroyed, as if it had supported a contest through a deadly war.
XXVI. During this year, Luceria fell into the hands of the Samnites, the Roman garrison being betrayed to them. The actors in this treachery did not long go unpunished: the Roman army was not far off, by whom the city, which lay in a plain, was taken at the first onset. The Lucerians and Samnites were to a man put to the sword; and to such a length was resentment carried, that at Rome, on the senate being consulted about sending a colony to Luceria, many voted for the demolition of it. Their hatred was of the bitterest kind, against a people whom they had been obliged twice to subdue by arms; the great distance, also, made them averse from sending their citizens as colonists among nations so ill-affected towards them. However the resolution was carried, that such should be sent; and accordingly two thousand five hundred were transported thither. This year, disaffection to the Romans becoming general, conspiracies were formed among the leading men at Capua, as well as at other places; which being reported to the senate, they deemed it an affair by no means to be neglected. They decreed that inquiries should be made, and resolved that a dictator should be appointed to enforce these inquiries. Caius Mænius was accordingly nominated, and he appointed Marcus Foslius master of the horse. People’s dread of that office was very great, insomuch that the Calavii, Ovius, and Novius, who were the heads of the conspiracy, either through fear of the dictator’s power, or the consciousness of guilt, previous to the charge against them being laid in form before him, chose, as appeared beyond doubt, to avoid trial by a voluntary death. As the subject of the inquiry in Campania was thus removed, the proceedings were then directed towards Rome: by construing the order of the senate to have meant, that enquiry should be made, not specially who at Capua, but generally, who at any place had formed cabals or conspiracies; for that cabals, for the attaining of honours, were contrary to the edicts of the state. The enquiry was extended to a greater latitude, with respect both to the matter, and to the kind of persons concerned. The dictator scrupled not to avow, that his power of research was unlimited: in consequence, some of the nobility were called to account; and though they applied to the tribunes for protection, no one interposed in their behalf, or to prevent the charges from being received. On this the nobles, not those only against whom the charge was levelled, but the whole body, jointly insisted that such an imputation lay not against themselves, or their order, to whom the way to honours lay open if not obstructed by fraud, but against the new men: so that even the dictator and master of the horse, with respect to that question, would appear more properly as culprits than inquisitors; and this they should know as soon as they went out of office. This so deeply affected Mænius, who was more solicitous about his character than his office, that he advanced into the assembly and spoke to this effect: “Romans, of my past life ye are all witnesses; and this honourable office, which ye conferred on me, is, in itself, a testimony of my innocence. For the dictator, proper to be chosen for holding these enquiries, was not, as on many other occasions, where the exigencies of the state so required, the man who was most renowned in war; but him whose course of life was most remote from such cabals. But certain of the nobility (for what reason it is more proper that ye should judge, than that I, as a magistrate, should, without proof, insinuate,) have laboured to stifle entirely the enquiries; and then, finding their strength unequal to it, rather than stand a trial, have fled for refuge to the strong hold of their adversaries, an appeal, and the support of the tribunes; and, on being there also repulsed, (so fully were they persuaded, that every other measure was safer than the attempt to clear themselves,) have made an attack upon us; and, though in private characters, have not been restrained by a sense of decency from instituting a criminal process against a dictator. Now, that gods and men may perceive that they, to avoid a scrutiny as to their own conduct, attempt even impossibilities; and that I willingly meet the charge, and face the accusations of my enemies, I divest myself of the dictatorship. And, consuls, I beseech you, that, if this business is put into your hands by the senate, ye will make me and Marcus Foslius the first objects of your examinations; it shall be manifested, that we owe our safety from such imputations to our own innocence, not to the dignity of office.” He then abdicated the dictatorship, as did Marcus Foslius, immediately after, his office of master of the horse; and being the first brought to trial before the consuls, for to them the senate had committed the business, they were most honourably acquitted of all the charges brought by the nobles. Even Publilius Philo, who had so often been invested with the highest honours, and had performed so many eminent services, both at home and abroad, being disagreeable to the nobility, was brought to trial, and acquitted. Nor did the inquiry continue respectable on account of the illustrious names of the accused, longer than while it was new, which is usually the case: it then began to descend to persons of inferior rank; and at length was suppressed, by means of those factions and cabals, against which it had been instituted.
XXVII. The accounts received of these matters, but more especially the hope of a revolt in Campania, for which a conspiracy had been formed, recalled the Samnites from their intended march towards Apulia, back to Caudium; where, being near, they might, if any commotion should open them an opportunity, snatch Capua out of the bands of the Romans. To the same place the consuls repaired with a powerful army. They both held back for some time, on the different sides of the defiles, the road being dangerous to either party. Then the Samnites, making a short circuit through an open tract, marched down their troops into level ground in the Campanian plains, and there the hostile camps first came within view of each other. Both armies then made trial of their strength in slight skirmishes, more frequently between the horse than the foot; and the Romans were no way displeased either at the issue of these, or at the protraction of the war. The Samnite generals, on the contrary, were uneasy that their battalions should be weakened daily by small losses, and the general vigour abated by inaction. They therefore marched into the field, disposing their cavalry on both wings, with orders to give more heedful attention to the camp behind, than to the battle; for that the line of infantry would be able to provide for their own safety. The consuls took post, Sulpicius in the right wing, Pœtelius in the left. The right wing was stretched out wider than usual; the Samnites also on that side being formed in thin ranks, either with design of turning the flank of the enemy, or to avoid being themselves surrounded. On the left, besides that they were formed in more compact order, an addition was made to their strength, by a sudden act of the consul Pœtelius: for the subsidiary cohorts, which were usually reserved for the exigencies of a tedious fight, he brought up immediately to the front, and, in the first onset, pushed the enemy with the whole of his force. The Samnite line of infantry giving way, their cavalry advanced to support them; and, as they were charging in an oblique direction between the two lines, the Roman horse coming up at full speed, disordered their battalions and ranks of infantry, and cavalry, so as to oblige the whole line on that side to give ground. The left wing had not only the presence of Pœtelius to animate them, but that of Sulpicius likewise; who, on the shout being first raised in that quarter, rode thither from his own division, which had not yet engaged. When he saw victory no longer doubtful there, he returned to his own post with twelve hundred men, but found affairs on that side in a very different posture; the Romans driven from their ground, and the victorious enemy pressing on their disordered battalions. However, the arrival of the consul effected a speedy change in every particular; for, on the sight of their leader, the spirit of the soldiers was revived, and the bravery of the men, who came with him, rendered them a more powerful reinforcement than even their number; while the news of success in the other wing, of which they soon had visible proof, restored the vigour of the fight. From this time, the Romans became victorious through the whole extent of the line, and the Samnites, giving up the contest, were slain or taken prisoners, except such as made their escape to Maleventum, the town which is now called Beneventum. Thirty thousand of the Samnites were slain or taken, according to the accounts of historians.
XXVIII. The consuls, after this important victory, led forward the legions to lay siege to Bovianum; and there they continued, during part of the winter, until Caius Pœtelius being nominated dictator,Y.R.441. 311. with Marcus Foslius master of the horse, received the command of the army from the new consuls, Lucius Papirius Cursor a fifth, and Caius Junius Bubulcus a second time. On hearing that the citadel of Fregellæ was taken by the Samnites, he left Bovianum, and proceeded to that city, of which he recovered possession without any contest, the Samnites abandoning it in the night: he then placed a strong garrison there, and returned into Campania, directing his operations principally to the recovery of Nola. Within the walls of this place, the whole multitude of the Samnites, and the inhabitants of the country about Nola, shut themselves up, on the approach of the dictator. Having taken a view of the situation of the city, in order to open the approach to the fortifications, he set fire to all the buildings which stood round the walls, which were very numerous; and, in a short time after, Nola was taken, either by dictator Pœtelius, or the consul Caius Junius, but by which of them is uncertain. Those who attribute to the consul the honour of taking Nola, add, that he also took Atina and Calatia, and that Pœtelius was created dictator in consequence of a pestilence breaking out, merely for the purpose of driving the nail. The colonies of Suessa and Pontiæ were established in this year. Suessa had been the property of the Auruncians: the Volscians had occupied Pontiæ, an island lying within sight of their shore. A decree of the senate was also passed for conducting colonies to Interamna and Casinum. But the commissioners were appointed, and the colonists,Y.R.442. 310. to the number of four thousand, sent by the succeeding consuls, Marcus Valerius and Publius Decius.
XXIX. The Samnites were now nearly disabled from continuing the war; but, before the Roman senate was freed from all concern on that side, a report arose of the Etrurians intending to commence hostilities; and there was not, in those times, any nation, excepting the Gauls, whose arms were more dreaded, by reason both of the vicinity of their country, and of the multitude of their men. While, therefore, one of the consuls prosecuted the remains of the war in Samnium, Publius Decius, who, being attacked by a severe illness, remained at Rome, by direction of the senate, nominated Caius Junius Bubulcus dictator. He, as the magnitude of the affair demanded, compelled all the younger citizens to enlist, and, with the utmost diligence, prepared all requisite matters. Yet he was not so elated by the power he had collected, as to think of commencing offensive operations, but prudently determined to remain quiet, unless the Etrurians should become aggressors. The plans of the Etrurians were exactly similar, with respect to preparing for, and abstaining from, war: neither party went beyond their own frontiers. The censorship of Appius Claudius and Caius Plautius, for this year, was remarkable; but the name of Appius has been handed down with more celebrity to posterity on account of his having made the road, called after him, the Appian, and for having conveyed water into the city. These works he performed alone; for his colleague, overwhelmed with shame by reason of the infamous and unworthy choice made of senators, had abdicated his office. Appius, possessing that inflexibility of temper, which, from the earliest times, had been the characteristic of his family, held on the censorship by himself. By direction of the same Appius, the Potitian family, in which the office of priests attendant on the great altar of Hercules, was hereditary, instructed some of the public servants in the rites of that solemnity, with intention to delegate the same to them. The consequence, as related, is wonderful to be told, and sufficient to make people scrupulous of disturbing the established modes of religious solemnities: for, though there were, at that time, twelve branches of the Potitian family, all grown-up persons, and not fewer than thirty, yet they were every one, together with their offspring, cut off within the year; so that the name of the Potitii became extinct, while the censor Appius also was pursued by the wrath of the gods; and, some years after, deprived of sight.
XXX. The consuls of the succeeding year were Caius Junius Bubulcus, a third time, and Quintus Æmilius Barbula a second.Y.R.443. 309. In the commencement of their office, they complained before the people, that, by the improper choice which had been made of members of the senate, that body had been disgraced, several having been passed over who were preferable to the persons chosen in; and they declared, that they would pay no regard to such election, made, without distinction of right or wrong, merely to gratify interest or humour: they then immediately called over the list of she senate, in the same order which had taken place before the censorship of Appius Claudius and Caius Plautius. Two public employments, both relating to military affairs, came this year into the disposal of the people; one being an order, that sixteen of the tribunes, for four legions, should be appointed by the people; whereas, hitherto, they had been generally bestowed by the dictators and consuls, and very few of the places were left to be filled by vote. This order was proposed by Lucius Atilius and Caius Marcius, plebeian tribunes. Another was, that the people likewise should constitute two naval commissioners, for the equipping and refitting of the fleet. The person who introduced this order of the people was Marcus Decius, plebeian tribune. Another transaction of this year I should pass over as trifling, were it not for the relation which it bears to religion. The flute-players, taking offence because they had been prohibited, by the last censors, from holding their repasts in the temple of Jupiter, which had been customary from very early times, went off in a body to Tibur; so that there was not one left in the city to play at the sacrifices. This affair gave uneasiness to the senate, on account of its consequences to religion; and they sent envoys to Tibur with instructions, to endeavour that these men might be sent back to Rome. The Tiburtines readily promised compliance, and, first calling them into the senate-house, warmly recommended to them to return thither; and then, finding that they could not be prevailed on, practised an artifice not ill adapted to the dispositions of that description of people: on a festival day, they invited them separately to their several houses, apparently with the intention of heightening the pleasure of their feasts with music, and there plied them with wine, of which such people are always fond, until they laid them asleep. In this state of insensibility they threw them into wagons, and carried them away to Rome: nor did they know any thing of the matter, until, the wagons having been left in the Forum, the light surprised them, still heavily sick from the debauch. The people then crowded about them, and, on their consenting at length to stay, privilege was granted them to ramble about the city in full dress, with music, during three days in every year. And that license, which we see practised at present, and the right of being fed in the temple, was restored to those who played at the sacrifices. These incidents occurred while the public attention was deeply engaged by two most important wars.
XXXI. The consuls adjusting the provinces between them, the Samnites fell by lot to Junius, the new war of Etruria to Æmilius. In the country of the former, the Samnites, finding themselves unable to take Cluvia, a Roman garrison, by force, had formed a blockade, and reduced it, by famine, to capitulate: and, after torturing with stripes, in a shocking manner, the townsmen who surrendered, had put them to death. Enraged at this cruelty, Junius determined to postpone every thing else to the attacking of Cluvia; and, on the first day that he assaulted the walls, took it by storm, and slew all who were grown to man’s estate. The victorious troops were led from thence to Bovianum; this was the capital of the Pentrian Samnites, by far the most opulent of their cities, and the most powerful both in men and arms. The soldiers, stimulated by the hope of plunder, soon made themselves masters of the town; where, their resentment being less violent, there was less severity exercised on the enemy; but a quantity of spoil was carried off, greater almost than had ever been collected out of all Samnium, and the whole was liberally bestowed on the assailers. The Samnites now perceiving that the Romans possessed such a superiority in arms, that no force in the field, no camp, no cities, could withstand them, bent their whole attention to find out an opportunity of acting by stratagem. They conceived that the enemy, proceeding with incautious eagerness in pursuit of plunder, might, on such occasion, be caught in a snare and overpowered. Some peasants who deserted, and some prisoners who were taken, (part of them being purposely thrown in the way, while others were met by accident,) concurred in their report to the consul, which at the same time was true, that a vast quantity of cattle had been driven together into a certain defile of difficult access, and by which he was induced to lead thither the legions lightly accoutered, in order to seize the prey. Here, a very numerous army of the enemy had posted themselves, secretly, at all the passes; and, as soon as they saw that the Romans had got into the defile, they rose up suddenly, with great clamour and tumult, and attacked them unawares. At first, an event so unexpected, caused some confusion, while they were taking their arms, and throwing the baggage into the centre; but, as fast as each had freed himself from his burden, and fitted himself with arms, they assembled about the standards, from every side; and all, from the long course of their service, knowing their particular ranks, they formed the line without any directions. The consul riding up to the place where the fight was most warm, leaped from his horse, and called “Jupiter, Mars, and the other gods to witness, that he had come into that place, not in pursuit of any glory to himself, but of booty for his soldiers; nor could any other fault be charged on him, than too great a solicitude to enrich them at the expense of the enemy. From the impending disgrace nothing could extricate him but the valour of the troops: let them only join unanimously in a vigorous attack against a foe, whom they had already vanquished in the field, beaten out of their camps, and stripped of their towns, and who were now trying their last resource, in an attempt to over-reach them, by the contrivance of an ambuscade, placing their reliance on the ground they occupied, not on their arms. But what ground, what station, was now unsurmountable to Roman valour?” The citadel of Fregellæ, and that of Sora, were called to their remembrance, with many other places where difficulties from situation had been surmounted. Animated by these exhortations, the soldiers, regardless of all obstacles, advanced against the enemy, posted above them; and here they underwent a good deal of fatige in climbing the steep. But as soon as the first battalions got footing in the plain, on the summit, and the troops perceived that they now stood on equal ground, the dismay was instantly turned on the plotters; who, dispersing and casting away their arms, attempted, by flight, to recover the same lurking places, in which they had lately concealed themselves. But the difficulties of the ground, which had been their inducement to make choice of it, now entangled them in the snares of their own contrivance: very few found means to escape; twenty thousand men were slain, and the victorious Romans hastened in several parties to secure the booty of cattle, which the enemy had so unwisely thrown in their way.
XXXII. While such was the situation of affairs in Samnium, all the states of Etruria, except the Arretians, had taken arms, and vigorously commenced hostilities, by laying siege to Sutrium; which city, being in alliance with the Romans, served as a barrier against Etruria. Thither the other consul, Æmilius, came with an army to deliver the allies from the siege. The Romans, on their arrival, were plentifully supplied, by the Sutrians, with provisions carried into their camp, which was pitched before the city. The Etrurians spent the first day in deliberating, whether they should expedite, or protract the war. On the day following, their leaders, having determined on the speedier plan, in preference to the safer, as soon as the sun rose, displayed the signal for battle, and the troops marched out to the field: which being reported to the consul, he instantly commanded notice to be given, that they should take refreshment, and then appear under arms. The order was obeyed: and the consul, seeing them armed and in readiness, ordered the standards to he carried forth beyond the rampart, and drew up his men at a small distance from the enemy. Both parties stood a long time with fixed attention, each waiting for the shout and fight to begin on the opposite side; and the sun had passed the meridian before a weapon was thrown by either. At length, rather than leave the place without something being done, the shout was given by the Etrurians, the trumpets sounded, and the battalions advanced. Nor were the Romans less alert: both rushed to the fight with violent animosity, the Etrurians superior in numbers, the Romans in valour. The battle continued a long time doubtful, and great numbers fell on both sides, particularly the men of greatest courage; nor did victory declare itself, until the second line of the Romans came up fresh to the front, in the place of the first, who were much fatigued. The Etrurian line not being supported by any fresh reserves, all before and round the standards were slain, and in no battle whatever would have been seen a nobler stand, or a greater effusion of human blood, had not the night sheltered the Etrurians, who were resolutely determined to resist to death; so that the victors, not the vanquished, were the first who desisted from fighting. After sun-set the signal for retreat was given, and both parties retired in the night to their camps. During the remainder of the year, nothing memorable was effected at Sutrium: for, of the enemy’s army, the whole first line had been cut off, the reserves only being left, who were scarce sufficient to guard the camp; and, among the Romans, a greater number died of their wounds, than had fallen in the field.
Y.R.444. 308.XXXIII. Quintus Fabius, consul for the ensuing year, succeeded to the command of the army at Sutrium: the colleague given to him was Caius Marcius Rutilus. On the one side, Fabius brought with him a reinforcement from Rome, and, on the other, a new army had been sent for, and came from home, to the Etrurians. Many years had now passed without any disputes between the patrician magistrates and plebeian tribunes, when a contest took its rise from that family, which seemed raised by fate as antagonists to the tribunes and commons of those times; Appius Claudius, being censor, when the eighteen months had expired, which was the time limited by the Æmilian law for the duration of the censorship, although his colleague Caius Plautius had already resigned his office, could not be prevailed on, by any means, to give up his. There was a tribune of the commons, Publius Sempronius, who undertook to enforce the termination of the censorship, within the lawful time, by means of a legal process, which was not more popular than just, nor more pleasing to the people generally, than to every man of character in the city. After frequently appealing to the Æmilian law, and bestowing commendations on Mamercus Æmilius, who, in his dictatorship, had been the author of it, for having contracted, within the space of a year and six months, the censorship, which formerly had lasted five years, and was a power which, in consequence of its long continuance, often became tyrannical, he proceeded thus; “Tell me, Appius Claudius, in what manner you would have acted, had you been censor at the time when Caius Furius and Marcus Geganius were in that office?” Appius insisted, that “the tribune’s question was irrelevant to his case. For, although the Æmilian law might bind those censors, during whose magistracy it was passed — because the people made that law after they had become censors; and whatever order is the last passed by the people, that is held to be law, and valid:— yet neither he, nor any of those, who had been created censors subsequent to the passing of that law, could be bound by it.”
XXXIV. While Appius urged such frivolous arguments as these, which carried no conviction whatever, the other said, “Behold, Romans, the offspring of that Appius, who, being created decemvir for one year, created himself for a second; and who, during a third, without being created even by himself or by any other, held on the fasces and the government; nor ceased to continue in office, until the government itself, ill acquired, ill administered, and ill retained, overwhelmed him in ruin. This is the same family, citizens, by whose violence and injustice ye were compelled to banish yourselves from your native city, and seize on the sacred mount; the same, against which ye provided for yourselves the protection of tribunes; the same, which occasioned you to form two armies, and to take post on the Aventine; the same, which violently opposed the laws against usury, and always the agrarian laws; the same, which broke through the right of intermarriage between the patricians and the commons; the same, which shut up the road to curule offices against the latter: this is a name, more hostile to your liberty by far, than that of the Tarquinii. I pray you, Appius Claudius, this being now the hundredth year since the dictatorship of Mamercus Æmilius, during which period so many men of the highest characters and abilities have filled that office; did none of these ever read the twelve tables? None of them know, that, whatever was the last order of the people, that was law? Nay, certainly, they all knew it; and they therefore obeyed the Æmilian law, rather than the old one, under which the censors had been at first created; because it was the last order; and, because, when two laws are contradictory, the new always repeals the old. Do you mean to say, Appius, that the people are not bound by the Æmilian law? Or, that the people are bound, and you alone exempted? The Æmilian law bound those violent censors, Caius Furius and Marcus Geganius, who showed what mischief that office might do in the state; when, out of resentment for the limitation of their power, they disfranchised Mamercus Æmilius, the first man of the age, either in war or peace. It bound all the censors thenceforward, during the space of a hundred years. It binds Caius Plautius, your colleague, created under the same auspices, with the same privileges. Did not the people create him with the fullest privileges with which any censor ever was created? Or is yours an excepted case, in which this singularity peculiarly takes place? Shall the person, whom you create king of the sacrifices, laying hold of the style of sovereignty, say, that he was created with the fullest privileges with which any king was ever created at Rome? Who, then, do you think, would be content with a dictatorship of six months? Who, with the office of interrex for five days? Whom would you, with confidence, create dictator, for the purpose of driving the nail, or of exhibiting games? How foolish, how stupid, do ye think those must appear in this man’s eyes, who, after performing most important services, abdicated the dictatorship within the twentieth day; or who, being irregularly created, resigned their office? Why should I bring instances from antiquity? Lately, within these last ten years, Caius Mænius, dictator, having enforced inquiries with more strictness than consisted with the safety of some powerful men, a charge was thrown out by his enemies, that he himself was infected with the very crime against which his inquiries were directed:— now Mænius, I say, in order that he might, in a private capacity, meet the imputation, abdicated the dictatorship. I expect not such moderation in you; you will not degenerate from your family, of all others the most imperious and assuming; nor resign your office a day, nor even an hour, before you are forced to it. Be it so: but then let no one exceed the time limited. It is enough to add a day, or a month, to the censorship. But Appius says, I will hold the censorship, and hold it alone, three years and six months longer than is allowed by the Æmilian law. Surely, this is like absolute power. Or will you fill up the vacancy with another colleague, a proceeding not allowable, even in the case of the death of a censor? You are not satisfied with having, as if you were a religious censor, hindered the most ancient solemnity, and the only one instituted by the very deity, to whom it is performed, from being attended by priests of the highest rank, but degraded it to the ministration of servants. You are not satisfied that a family, more ancient than the origin of this city, and sanctified by an intercourse of hospitality with the immortal gods, has, by means of you and your censorship, been utterly extirpated, with all its branches, within the space of a year, but would involve the whole commonwealth in guilt so horrid, that I dread even to mention it. This city was taken in that lustrum in which Caius Julius and Lucius Papirius were censors. On the death of Julius, Papirius, rather than resign his office, substituted Marcus Cornelius Maluginensis as his colleague. Yet, how much more moderate was his ambition, Appius, than yours? Lucius Papirius neither held the censorship alone, nor beyond the time prescribed by law. But still, no one has since been found who would follow his example: all censors having, in case of the death of a colleague, abdicated the office. As for you, neither the expiration of the time of your censorship, nor the resignation of your colleague, nor law, nor shame, restrains you. Your fortitude is arrogance; your boldness, a contempt of gods and men. Appius Claudius, in consideration of the dignity of that office, which you have borne, and of the respect due to it, I should be sorry, not only to offer you personal violence, but even to address you in language too severe. With respect to what I have hitherto said, your pride and obstinacy forced me to speak. And now, unless you pay obedience to the Æmilian law, I shall order you to be led to prison. Nor, since a rule has been established by our ancestors, that, in the election of censors, unless two shall obtain the legal number of suffrages, neither shall be returned, but the election deferred — will I suffer you, who could not singly be created censor, to hold the censorship without a colleague.” Having spoken to this effect, he ordered the censor to be seized, and borne to prison. But, although six of the tribunes approved of the proceeding of their colleague, three gave their support to Appius, on his appealing to them, and he held the censorship alone, to the great disgust of all ranks of men.
XXXV. While such was the state of affairs at Rome, the Etrurians had laid siege to Sutrium, and the consul Fabius, as he was marching along the foot of the mountains, with design to succour the allies, and attempt the enemy’s works, if he should see it practicable, was met by their army prepared for battle. The wide extended plain below, showing the greatness of their force, the consul, in order to remedy his deficiency in point of number, by advantage of the ground, changed the direction of his route, a little towards the hills, where the way was rugged and covered with stones, and then formed his troops, facing the enemy. The Etrurians, thinking of nothing but the multitude of their men, on which alone they depended, advanced with such haste and eagerness, that, in order to come the sooner to a close engagement, they threw away their javelins, drew their swords, and rushed on. On the other side, the Romans poured down on them, sometimes javelins, and sometimes stones, which the place abundantly supplied; so that the blows on their shields and helmets, confusing even those whom they did not wound, kept them from closing with their foe; and they had no missive weapons, with which to act at a distance. While they stood still, exposed to blows against which they had no sufficient defence, some even giving way, and the line growing unsteady and wavering, the Roman spearmen, and the first rank, renewing the shout, poured down on them with drawn swords. This attack the Etrurians could not withstand, but, facing about, fled precipitately towards their camp; when the Roman cavalry getting before them, by galloping obliquely across the plain, threw themselves in the way of their flight, on which they quitted the road, and bent their course to the mountains. From thence, in a body, almost without arms, and debilitated with wounds, they made their way into the Ciminian forest. The Romans, having slain many thousands of the Etrurians, and taken thirty-eight military standards, took also possession of their camp, together with a vast quantity of spoil. They then began to consider of pursuing the enemy.
XXXVI. The Ciminian forest was in those days deemed as impassable and frightful as the German forests have been in latter times; not even any trader having ever attempted to pass it. Hardly any, besides the general himself, showed boldness enough to enter it; so fresh was the remembrance of the disaster at Caudium in every one’s mind. On this, Marcus Fabius, the consul’s brother, (some say Cæso, others Caius Claudius, born of the same mother with the consul,) undertook to explore the country, and to bring them in a short time an account of every particular. Being educated at Cære, where he had friends, he was perfectly acquainted with the Etrurian language. I have seen it affirmed, that, in those times, the Roman youth were commonly instructed in the Etrurian learning, as they are now in the Greek: but it is more probable, that there was something very extraordinary in the person who acted so daringly a counterfeit part, and mixed among the enemy. It is said, that his only attendant was a slave, who had been bred up with him, and who was therefore not ignorant of the same language. They received no further instructions at their departure, than a summary description of the country through which they were to pass; to this was added the names of the principal men, in the several states, to prevent their being at a loss in conversation, and from being discovered by making some mistake. They set out in the dress of shepherds, armed with rustic weapons, bills, and two short javelins each. But though their speaking the language of the country, with the fashion of their dress and arms, be supposed to have concealed them, it was more effectually done by the incredible circumstance of a stranger’s passing the Ciminian forest. They are said to have penetrated as far as the Camertian district of the Umbrians: there the Romans ventured to own who they were, and, being introduced to the senate, treated with them, in the name of the consul, about an alliance and friendship; and, after being entertained with courteous hospitality, were desired to acquaint the Romans, that, if they came into those countries, there should be provisions in readiness for the troops sufficient for thirty days, and that they should find the youth of the Camertian Umbrians prepared in arms, to obey their commands. When this information was brought to the consul, he sent forward the beggage at the first watch, ordering the legions to march in the rear of it. He himself staid behind with the cavalry, and next day, as soon as light appeared, rode up in a threatening manner to the posts of the enemy, which had been stationed on the outside of the forest; and, when he had detained them there for a sufficient length of time, he retired to his camp, and marching out by the opposite gate, overtook the main body of the army before night. At the first light, on the following day, he had gained the summit of Mount Ciminius, from whence, having a view of the opulent plains of Etruria, he let loose his soldiers upon them. When a vast body had been driven off, some tumultuary cohorts of Etrurian peasants, hastily collected by the principal inhabitants of the district, met the Romans; but in such disorderly array, that these rescuars of the prey were near becoming wholly a prey themselves. These being slain or put to flight, and the country laid waste to a great extent, the Romans returned to their camp victorious, and enriched with plenty of every kind. It happened, that, in the mean time, five deputies, with two plebeian tribunes, had come hither, to charge Fabius in the name of the senate, not to attempt to pass the Ciminian forest. These, rejoicing that they had arrived too late to prevent the expedition, returned to Rome with the news of its success.
XXXVII. The consul, by this expedition, instead of bringing the war nearer to a conclusion, only spread it to a wider extent: for all the tract, adjacent to the foot of Mount Ciminius, had felt his devastations; and, out of the indignation conceived thereat, had roused to arms, not only the states of Etruria, but the neighbouring parts of Umbria. They came therefore to Sutrium, with such a numerous army as they had never before brought into the field; and not only ventured to encamp, on the outside of the wood, but, earnestly desirous of coming to an engagement as soon as possible, marched down to the plains to offer battle. The troops being marshalled, stood, at first, for some time, on their own ground, having left a space sufficient for the Romans to draw up, opposite to them; but perceiving that these declined fighting, they advanced to the rampart; where, observing that even the advanced guards had retired within the works, they at once began to insist clamorously on their general’s ordering provisions for that day to be brought down to them; for “they were resolved to remain there under arms; and, either in the night, or, at all events, at the dawn of day, to attack the enemy’s camp.” The Roman troops, though not less eager for action, were restrained by the commands of the general. About the tenth hour, the consul ordered his men a repast; and gave directions that they should be ready in arms, at whatever time of the day or night he should give the signal. He then addressed a few words to them; spoke in high terms of the wars of the Samnites, and contemptuously of the Etrurians, who “were not,” he said, “to be compared with other nations, either in respect of abilities as soldiers, or in point of numbers. Besides, he had an engine at work, as they should find in due time: at present it was of importance to keep it secret.” This he intimated, in order to raise the courage of his men, damped by the superiority of the enemy’s force; and, from their not having fortified the post where they lay, the insinuation of a stratagem formed against them seemed the more credible. After refreshing themselves, they went to rest, and being roused without noise, about the fourth watch, took arms. The servants following the army, had axes put into their hands, to tear down the rampart and fill up the trench. The line was formed within the works, and some chosen cohorts posted close to the gates. Then, a little before day, which in summer nights is the time of the profoundest sleep, the signal being given, the rampart was levelled, and the troops, rushing forth, fell upon the enemy, who were every where stretched at their length. Some were put to death before they could stir; others half asleep, in their beds; the greatest part while they ran in confusion to arms; few, in short, had time to defend themselves; and these, who followed no particular leader, nor orders, were quickly routed and pursued by the Roman horse. They fled different ways; to the camp and to the woods. The latter afforded the safer refuge; for the former, being situated in a plain, was taken the same day. The gold and silver was ordered to be brought to the consul; the rest of the spoil was given to the soldiers. On that day, sixty thousand of the enemy were slain or taken. Some affirm, that this famous battle was fought on the farther side of the Ciminian forest, at Perusia; and that the public had been under great dread, lest the army might be inclosed in such a dangerous pass, and overpowered by a general combination of the Etrurians and Umbrians. But on whatever spot it was fought, it is certain that the Roman power prevailed; and, in consequence thereof, ambassadors came from Perusia, Cortona, and Arretium, which were then among the principal states of Etruria, to solicit a peace and alliance with the Romans; and they obtained a truce for thirty years.
XXXVIII. During these transactions in Etruria, the other consul, Caius Marcius Rutilus, took Allifæ by storm from the Samnites; and many of their forts, and smaller towns, were either destroyed by his arms, or surrendered intire. About the same time also, the Roman fleet, having sailed to Campania, under Publius Cornelius, to whom the senate had given the command on the sea-coast, put into Pompeii. Immediately on landing, the marine soldiers set out to ravage the country about Nuceria: and after they had quickly laid waste the parts which lay nearest, and whence they could have returned to the ships with safety, they were allured by the temptation of plunder, as it often happens, to advance too far, and thereby roused the enemy against them. While they rambled about the country, they met no opposition, though they might have been cut off to a man; but as they were returning, in a careless manner, the peasants overtook them, not far from the ships, stripped them of the booty, and even slew a great part of them. Those who escaped were driven in confusion to the ships. As the news of Fabius having marched through the Ciminian forest had occasioned violent apprehensions at Rome, so it had excited joy in proportion among the enemy in Samnium: they talked of the Roman army being pent up, and surrounded; and of the Caudine forks, as a model of what they were to undergo. “Those people,” they said, “ever greedy after further acquisitions, were now brought into inextricable difficulties, hemmed in, not more effectually by the arms of their enemy, than by the disadvantage of the ground.” Their joy was even mingled with a degree of envy, because fortune, as they thought, had transferred the glory of finishing the Roman war, from the Samnites to the Etrurians: they hastened therefore, with their whole collected force, to crush the consul Caius Marcius; resolving, if he did not give them an opportunity of fighting, to proceed, through the territories of the Marsians and Sabines, into Etruria. The consul met them, and a battle was fought with great fury on both sides, but without a decisive issue. Although both parties suffered severely, yet the discredit of losing the day fell on the Romans, because several of equestrian rank, some military tribunes, with one lieutenant-general, had fallen; and, what was more remarkable than all, the consul himself was wounded. This event, exaggerated by report, as is usual, greatly alarmed the senate, so that they resolved on having a dictator nominated. No one entertained a doubt that the nomination would light on Papirius Cursor, who was then universally deemed to possess the greatest abilities as a commander: but they could not be certain, either that a message might be conveyed with safety into Samnium, where all was in a state of hostility, or that the consul Marcius was alive. The other consul, Fabius, was at enmity with Papirius on his own account; and, lest this resentment might prove an obstacle to the public good, the senate voted that deputies of consular rank should be sent to him, who, uniting their own influence to that of government, might prevail on him to drop, for the sake of his country, all remembrance of private animosities. When the deputies came to Fabius, and delivered to him the decree of senate, adding such arguments as were suitable to their instructions, the consul, casting his eyes towards the ground, retired in silence, leaving them in uncertainty what part he intended to act. Then, in the silent time of the night, according to the established custom, he nominated Lucius Papirius dictator. When the deputies returned him thanks, for so very meritoriously subduing his passion, he still persevered in obstinate silence, and dismissed them without any answer, or mention of what he had done: a proof that he felt an extraordinary degree of resentment, which it cost him a violent struggle to suppress. Papirius appointed Caius Junius Bubulcus master of the horse; and, as he was proceeding, in an assembly of the Curiæ*, to get an order passed, respecting the command of the army, an unlucky omen obliged him to adjourn it; for the Curia, which was to vote first, happened to be the Faucian, remarkably distinguished by two disasters, the taking of the city, and the Caudine peace; the same Curia having voted first in those years in which the said events are found. Licinius Macer supposes this Curia ominous, also on account of a third misfortune, that which was experienced at the Cremera.
XXXIX. Next day the dictator, taking the auspices anew, obtained the order, and, marching out at the head of the legions, lately raised, on the alarm occasioned by the army passing the Ciminian forest, came to Longula; where, having received the troops of the consul Marcius, he led on his forces to battle; nor did the enemy seem to decline the combat. However, they stood under arms, until night came on; neither side choosing to begin the fray. After this, they continued a considerable time encamped near each other, without coming to action; neither diffident of their own strength, nor despising the adversary. Meanwhile the army in Etruria was fully employed: for a decisive battle was fought with the Umbrians, in which the enemy was routed, but lost not many men, for they did not maintain the fight with the vigour with which they began it. Besides this, the Etrurians having made a levy of troops, enforced by the sanctions of the devoting law, each man choosing another, came to an engagement at the Cape of Vadimon, with more numerous forces, and, at the same time, with greater spirit than they had ever shown before. The battle was fought with such animosity, that no javelins were thrown by either party: swords alone were made use of; and the fury of the combatants was still higher inflamed by the long continued contest; so that it appeared to the Romans as if they were disputing, not with Etrurians, whom they had so often conquered, but with a new race. Not the least intention of giving ground appeared in any part: the first lines fell: and, lest the standards should be exposed, without defence, the second lines were formed in their place. At length, even the last reserves were called into action; and such was the extremity of the difficulty and danger, that the Roman cavalry dismounted, and pressed forward, through heaps of arms and bodies, to the front ranks of the infantry. A new army, as it were, thus starting up, disordered the battalions of the Etrurians; and the rest, weak as their condition was, seconding this attack, broke at last through the enemy’s ranks. Their obstinacy then began to give way; some companies quitted their posts, and, as soon as they once turned their backs, betook themselves to open flight. That day first broke the strength of the Etrurians, now grown exuberant through a long course of prosperity; all the flower of their men were cut off, and the Romans, without halting, seized and sacked their camp.
XL. Equal danger, and an issue equally glorious, soon after attended the war with the Samnites; who, besides their many preparations for the field, made no little glitter with new decorations of their armour. Their troops were in two divisions, one of which had their shields embossed with gold, the other with silver. The shape of the shield was this; broad at the middle to cover the breast and shoulders, and flat at top, sloping off gradually so as to become pointed below, that it might be wielded with ease; a loose coat of mail also helped to defend the breast, and the left leg was covered with a greave; their helmets were adorned with plumes, to add to the appearance of their stature. The golden-armed soldiers wore tunicks of various colours; the silver-armed, of white linen. To the latter, the right wing was assigned; the former took post on the left. The Romans had been apprised of these splendid accoutrements, and had been taught by their commanders, that “a soldier ought to be rough; not decorated with gold and silver, but placing his confidence in his sword. That matters of this kind were in reality spoil rather than armour; glittering before action, but soon losing their brilliancy when besmeared with blood. That the brightest ornament of a soldier was valour; that all those trinkets would follow victory, and that those rich enemies would be valuable prizes to the poorer conquerors.” Cursor, having animated his men with these observations, led them on to battle. He took post himself on the right wing, giving the command of the left to the master of the horse. At the first onset, the conflict between the two armies became desperate, while the dictator and the master of the horse were eagerly contending on which wing victory should first show itself. It happened that Junius first, with the left wing, made the right of the enemy give way; this consisted of men devoted after the custom of the Samnites, and on that account distinguished by white garments and armour of equal whiteness. Junius, saying “he would sacrifice these to Pluto,” pressed forward, disordered their ranks, and made an evident impression: which being perceived by the dictator, he exclaimed, “Shall the battle begin on the left wing, and shall the right, the dictator’s own troops, only second the arms of others, and not claim the greatest share of the victory?” This spurred on the soldiers: nor did the cavalry yield to the infantry in bravery, nor the ardour of lieutenant-generals to that of the commanders. Marcius Valerius from the right wing, and Publius Decius from the left, both men of consular rank, rode off to the cavalry, posted on the extremities of the line, and, exhorting them to join in putting in for a share of the honour, charged the enemy on the flanks. The Roman legions, on observing the confusion of the Samnites, by being thus assailed on both sides, renewed the shout, and rushing forcibly on them, they began to fly. And now the plains were quickly filled with heaps of bodies and splendid armour. At first, their camp received the dismayed Samnites; but they did not long retain even the possession of that: before night it was taken, plundered, and burnt. The dictator triumphed, in pursuance of a decree of the senate; and the most splendid spectacle by far, of any in his procession, was the captured arms: so magnificent were they deemed, that the shields, adorned with gold, were distributed among the owners of the silver shops to serve as embellishments to the Forum. Hence, it is said, arose the custom of the Forum being decorated by the Ædiles, when the grand processions are made, on occasion of the great games. The Romans, indeed, converted these extraordinary arms to the honour of the gods: but the Campanians, out of pride, and in hatred of the foe, gave them as ornaments to their gladiators, who used to be exhibited as a show at their feasts, and whom they distinguished by the name of Samnites. During this year, the consul Fabius fought with the remnants of the Etrurians at Perusia, which city also had violated the truce, and gained an easy and decisive victory. After this, he marched up to the walls of the town, and would have taken it, had not deputies come out and capitulated. Having placed a garrison at Perusia, and sent on before him to the Roman senate, the embassies of Etruria, who solicited friendship, the consul rode into the city in triumph, for successes more important than those of the dictator. Besides, a great share of the honour of reducing the Samnites was attributed to the lieutenant-generals, Publius Decius and Marcus Valerius; whom, at the next election, the people, with universal consent, declared the one consul, the other prætor.
XLI. Fabius, in consideration of his extraordinary merit in the conquest of Etruria, was re-elected into the consulship.Y.R.445. 307. Decius was appointed his colleague. Valerius was created prætor a fourth time. The consuls divided the provinces between them. Etruria fell to Decius, Samnium to Fabius. The latter, having marched to Nuceria, rejected the application of the people of Alfaterna, who then sued for peace, because they had not accepted it when offered, and by force of arms compelled them to surrender. A battle was fought with the Samnites, who were overcome without much difficulty: nor would the memory of that engagement have been preserved, except that in it the Marsians first appeared in arms against the Romans. The defection of the Marsians was followed by that of the Pelignians, who met the same fate. The other consul, Decius, was likewise very successful in his operations: through the terror with which he inspired the Tarquinians, he compelled them to supply his army with corn, and to sue for a truce of forty years. He took several forts from the Volsinians by assault, some of which he demolished, that they might not serve as receptacles to the enemy, and, by extending his operations through every quarter, diffused such a dread of his arms, that the whole Etrurian nation sued to him for an alliance: this they did not obtain; but a truce for a year was granted them. The pay of the Roman army for that year was furnished by the enemy; and two tunicks for each soldier were exacted from them: this was the purchase of the truce. The tranquillity now established in Etruria was interrupted by a sudden insurrection of the Umbrians, a nation which had suffered no injury from the war, except what inconvenience the country had felt in the passing of the army. These, by calling into the field all their own young men, and forcing a great part of the Etrurians to resume their arms, made up such a numerous force, that, speaking of themselves with ostentatious vanity, and of the Romans with contempt, they boasted that they would leave Decius behind in Etruria, and march away to besiege Rome; which design of theirs being reported to the consul Decius, he removed by long marches from Etruria towards their city, and sat down in the district of Pupinia, in readiness to act according to the intelligence which he might receive of the enemy’s motions. Nor was the insurrection of the Umbrians slighted at Rome: their very threats excited fears among the people, who had experienced, in the calamities suffered from the Gauls, the insecurity of the city wherein they resided. Deputies were therefore dispatched to the consul Fabius, with directions, that, if he had any respite from the war of the Samnites, he should, with all haste, lead his army into Umbria. The consul obeyed the order, and, by forced marches, proceeded to Mevania, where the forces of the Umbrians then lay. The unexpected arrival of the consul, whom they had believed to be sufficiently employed in Samnium, far distant from their country, so thoroughly affrighted the Umbrians, that several advised retiring to their fortified towns; others, the laying aside their arms. However, one district, called by themselves Materina, prevailed on the rest, not only to retain their arms, but to come to an immediate engagement. They fell upon Fabius while he was fortifying his camp. When the consul saw them rushing impetuously towards his rampart, he called off his men from the work, and drew them up in the best manner which the nature of the place and the time allowed; encouraged them by displaying, in honourable and just terms, the glory which they had acquired, as well in Etruria as in Samnium, and bade them finish this insignificant appendage to the Etrurian war, and take vengeance for the impious expressions in which these people had threatened to attack the city of Rome. Such was the alacrity of the soldiers on hearing this, that, raising the about spontaneously, they interrupted the general’s discourse, and, without waiting for orders, advanced, with the sound of all the trumpets and cornets, in full speed against the enemy. They made their attack, not as on men, or, at least, men in arms, but, what must appear wonderful in the relation, began by snatching the standards out of the hands which held them; and then, the standard-bearers themselves were dragged to the consul, and the armed soldiers hauled from the one line to the other; little resistance was any where made, and the business was performed, not so much with swords, as with their shields, with the bosses of which, and thrusts of their elbows, they bore down the foe. The prisoners were more numerous than the slain, and through the whole line the Umbrians called on each other, with one voice, to lay down their arms. Thus a surrender was made in the midst of action, by the first promoters of the war; and, on the next and following days, the other states of this people also surrendered. The Ocriculans were admitted to a treaty of friendship on giving security.
XLII. Fabius, after reaping laurels in a war allotted to another, led back his army into his own province. And as, in the preceding year, the people had, in consideration of his services so successfully performed, re-elected him to the consulship, so now the senate, from the same motive, notwithstanding a warm opposition made by Appius, prolonged his command for the year following, in which AppiusY.R.446. 306. Claudius and Lucius Volumnius were consuls. In some annals I find, that Appius, still holding the office of censor, declared himself a candidate for the consulship, and that his election was stopped by a protest of Lucius Furius, plebeian tribune, until he resigned the censorship. After his election to the consulship, the new war with the Sallentines, who had taken arms, being decreed to his colleague, he remained at Rome, with design to increase his interest by popular intrigues, since the means of procuring honour in war were placed in the hands of others. Volumnius had no reason to be dissatisfied with his province: he fought many battles with good success, and took several cities by assault. He was liberal in his donations of the spoil; and this munificence, engaging in itself, he enhanced by his courteous demeanour, by which conduct he inspired his soldiers with ardour to meet both toil and danger. Quintus Fabius, proconsul, fought a pitched battle with the armies of the Samnites, near the city of Allifæ. The victory was complete. The enemy were driven from the field, and pursued to their camp; nor would they have kept possession of that, had not the day been almost spent. It was invested, however, before night, and guarded until day, lest any should slip away. Next morning, while it was scarcely clear day, they proposed to capitulate, and it was agreed, that such as were natives of Samnium sheuld be dismissed with single garments. All these were sent under the yoke. No precaution was taken in favour of the allies of the Samnites: they were sold by auction, to the number of seven thousand. Those who declared themselves subjects of the Hernicians, were kept by themselves under a guard. All these Fabius sent to Rome to the senate; and, after being examined, whether it was in consequence of a public order, or as volunteers, that they had carried arms on the side of the Samnites against the Romans, they were distributed among the states of the Latines, to be held in custody; and it was ordered, that the new consuls, Publius Cornelius Arvina,Y.R.447. 305. and Quintus Marcius Tremulus, who by this time had been elected, should lay that affair entire before the senate: this gave such offence to the Hernicians, that, at a meeting of all the states, assembled by the Anagnians, in the circus called the Maritime, the whole nation of the Hernicians, excepting the Alatrians, Ferentines, and Verulans, declared war against the Roman people.
XLIII. In Samnium also, in consequence of the departure of Fabius, new commotions arose. Calatia and Sora, and the Roman garrisons stationed there, were taken, and the prisoners treated with extreme cruelty: Publius Cornelius was therefore sent thither with an army. The command against the new enemy (for by this time an order had passed for declaring war against the Anagnians, and the rest of the Hernicians) was decreed to Marcius. These, in the beginning, secured all the passes between the camps of the consuls, in such a manner, that no messenger; however expert, could make his way from one to the other; and each consul spent several days in absolute uncertainty and in anxious suspense concerning the state of the other. Apprehensions for their safety spread even to Rome; so that all the younger citizens were compelled to enlist, and two regular armies were raised, to answer sudden emergencies. The conduct of the Hernicians, during the progress of the war afterwards, showed nothing suitable to the present alarm, or to the ancient renown of that nation. Without ever making any effort worth mentioning, being beaten out of three different camps within a few days, they stipulated for a truce of thirty days, during which they might send to Rome, to the senate, on the terms of furnishing two months’ pay, and corn, and a tunic to every soldier. The senate referred them back to Marcius, whom they empowered to determine on the affair, and he accepted their submission. Meanwhile, in Samnium, the other consul, though superior in strength, was very much embarrassed by the nature of his situation: the enemy had blocked up all the roads, and seized on the passable defites, so as to stop all supplies of provisions; nor could the consul, though he daily drew our his troops, and offered battle, allure them to an engagement. It was evident, that neither could the Samnite support an immediate contest, nor the Roman a delay of action. The approach of Marcius, who, after he had subdued the Hernicians, hastened to the succour of his colleague, put it out of the enemy’s power any longer to avoid fighting: for they, who had not deemed themselves a match in the field, even for one of the armies, could surely not suppose that, if they should allow the two consular armies to unite, they could have any hope remaining: they made an attack, therefore, on Marcius, as he was approaching in the irregular order of march. The baggage was hastily thrown together in the centre, and the line formed as well as the time permitted. The shout, which reached the post of Cornelius, with the dust observed at a distance, excited a bustle and hurry in his camp. Ordering his men, instantly, to arms, and leading them out to the field with the utmost haste, he charged the flank of the enemy’s line, which had enough to do in the other dispute, at the same time exclaiming, that “it would be the height of infamy, if they suffered Marcius’s army to monopolize the honour of both victories, and did not assert their claim to the glory of their own war.” He bore down all before him, and pushed forward, through the midst of the enemy’s line, to their camp, which, being left without a guard, he took and set on fire; and the flames of it being seen by the soldiers of Marcius, and likewise by the enemy on their looking about, a general flight immediately took place among the Samnites. But they could not effect an escape in any direction; in every quarter they met death. After a slaughter of thirty thousand men, the consuls had now given the signal for retreat; and were collecting, into one body, their several forces, who were employed in mutual congratulations, when some new cohorts of the enemy, which had been levied for a reinforcement, being seen at a distance, occasioned a renewal of the carnage. On these the conquerors rushed, without any order of the consuls, or signal received, crying out, that they would give these Samnites an introduction to service, which they would not like. The consuls indulged the ardour of the legions, well knowing that raw troops mixed with veterans dispirited by defeat, would be incapable even of attempting a contest. Nor were they wrong in their judgment: all the forces of the Samnites, old and new, fled to the nearest mountains. These the Roman army also ascended, so that no situation afforded safety to the vanquished: they were beaten off, even from the summits which they had seized. And now, they all, with one voice, supplicated for a suspension of arms. On which, being ordered to furnish corn for three months, pay for a year, and a tunic to each of the soldiers, they sent deputies to the senate to sue for peace. Cornelius was left in Samnium. Marcius returned into the city, in triumph over the Hernicians; and a decree was passed for erecting to him, in the Forum, an equestrian statue, which was placed before the temple of Castor. To three states of the Hernicians (the Alatrians, Verulans, and Ferentines,) their own laws were restored, because they preferred these, to the being made citizens of Rome; and they were permitted to intermarry with each other, a privilege which they alone of the Hernicians, for a long time after, enjoyed. To the Anagnians and the others who had made war on the Romans, was granted the freedom of the state, without the right of voting; public assemblies, and intermarriages, were not allowed them, and their magistrates were prohibited from acting, except in the ministration of public worship. During this year, Caius Junius Bubulcus, censor, contracted for the building of a temple to Health, which he had vowed during his consulate in the war with the Samnites. By the same person, and his colleague, Marcus Valerius Maximus, roads were made through the fields at the public expense. During the same year the treaty with the Carthaginians was renewed a third time, and ample presents made to their ambassadors who came on that business.
XLIV. This year had a dictator in office, Publius Cornelius Scipio, with Publius Decius Mus, master of the horse. By these the election of consuls was held, being the purpose for which they had been created, because neither of the consuls could be absent from the armies.Y.R.448. 304. The consuls elected were Lucius Postumius and Titus Minucius; whom Piso places next after Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius, omitting the two years in which I have set down Claudius with Volumnius, and Cornelius with Marcius, as consuls. Whether this happened through a lapse of memory in digesting his annals, or whether he purposely passed over those two consulates as deeming the accounts of them false, cannot be ascertained. During this year the Samnites made incursions into the district of Stellæ in the Campanian territory. Both the consuls were therefore sent into Samnium, and proceeded to different regions, Postumius to Tifernum, Minucius to Bovianum. The first engagement happened at Tifernum, where Postumius commanded. Some say, that the Samnites were completely defeated, and twenty thousand of them made prisoners. Others, that the armies separated without victory on either side; and that Postumius, counterfeiting fear, withdrew his forces privately by night, and marched away to the mountains; whither the enemy also followed, and took possession of a strong hold two miles distant. The consul, having created a belief that he had come thither for the sake of a safe post, and a fruitful spot, (and such it really was,) secured his camp with strong works. Furnishing it with magazines of every thing useful, he left a strong guard to defend it; and, at the third watch, led away the legions, lightly accoutred, by the shortest road which he could take, to join his colleague, who lay opposite to his foe. There, by advice of Postumius, Minucius came to an engagement; and when the fight had continued doubtful through a great part of the day, Postumius, with his fresh legions, made an unexpected attack on the enemy’s line, spent by this time with fatigue: thus, weariness and wounds having rendered them incapable even of flying, they were cut off to a man, and twenty-one standards taken. The Romans then proceeded to Postumius’s station, where the two victorious armies falling upon the enemy, already dismayed by the news of what had passed, routed and dispersed them: twenty-six military standards were taken here, and the Samnite general, Statius Gellius, with a great number of other prisoners, and both the camps, fell into the hands of the conquerors. Next day Bovianum was besieged, and soon after taken. Both the consuls were honoured with a triumph, and with high applause of their excellent conduct. Some writers say, that the consul Minucius was brought back to the camp grievously wounded, and that he died there; that Marcus Fulvius was substituted consul in his place, and that it was he, who, being sent to command Minucius’s army, took Bovianum. During the same year, Sora, Arpinum, and Censennia were recovered from the Samnites. The statue of Hercules the Great was erected in the Capitol, and dedicated.
Y.R.449. 303.XLV. In the succeeding consulate of Publius Sulpicius Saverrio and Publius Sempronius Sophus, the Samnites, desirous either of a termination or a cessation of hostilities, sent ambassadors to Rome to treat of peace; to whose submissive solicitations this answer was returned, that “had not the Samnites frequently solicited peace, at times when they were actually preparing for war, their present application might, perhaps, in the course of negociating, have produced the desired effect. But now, since words had hitherto proved vain, people’s conduct might be guided by facts: that Publius Sempronius the consul would shortly be in Samnium with an army: that he could not be deceived in judging whether their dispositions inclined to peace or war. He would bring the senate certain information respecting every particular, and their ambassadors might follow the consul on his return from Samnium.” The Roman army accordingly marched through all parts of Samnium, found every thing in a state of peace, and was liberally supplied with provisions; on which, a renewal of the old treaty was, this year, granted to the Samnites. The Roman arms were then turned against the Æquans, their old enemies, but who had, for many years past, remained quiet, under a fallacious appearance of friendship. The reason of making war on them was, that while the Hernicians were in a state of prosperity, these had, in conjunction with them, frequently sent aid to the Samnites; and after the Hernicians were subdued, almost the whole nation, without dissembling that they acted by public authority, had revolted to the enemy; and when, after the conclusion of the treaty with the Samnites at Rome, ambassadors were sent to demand satisfaction, they said, that “this was only a trial made of them, on the expectation that they would through fear suffer themselves to be made Roman citizens. But how much that condition was to be wished for, they had been taught by the Hernicians; who, when they had the option, preferred their own laws to the freedom of the Roman state. To people who wished for liberty to choose what they judged preferable, the necessity of becoming Roman citizens would have the nature of a punishment.” In resentment of these declarations, uttered publicly in their assemblies, the Roman people ordered war to be made on the Æquans; and, in prosecution of this new undertaking, both the consuls marched from the city, and sat down at the distance of four miles from the camp of the enemy. The troops of the Æquans, like tumultuary recruits, in consequence of their having passed such a number of years without waging war on their own account, were all in disorder and confusion, without established officers and without command. Some advised to give battle, others to defend the camp; the greater part were influenced by concern for the devastation of their lands, likely to take place, and the consequent destruction of their cities, left with weak garrisons. Among a variety of propositions, they however heard one which tended to transfer every man’s attention from the public interests to the care of his private concerns. It recommended that, at the first watch, they should depart from the camp by different roads, and carry all their effects into the cities, where they might be secured by the strength of the fortifications; this they all approved and warmly celebrated. When the enemy were now dispersed through the country, the Romans, at the first dawn, marched out to the field, and drew up in order of battle, but no one coming to oppose them, they advanced in a brisk pace to the camp. Perceiving neither guards before the gates, nor soldiers on the ramparts, nor the usual bustle of a camp — surprised at the extraordinary silence, they halted in apprehension of some stratagem. At length, passing over the rampart, and finding the whole deserted, they proceeded to search out the tracks of the enemy. But these, as they scattered themselves to every quarter, occasioned perplexity at first. Afterwards discovering their design by means of scouts, they attacked their cities, one after another, and, within the space of fifty days, took, entirely by force, forty-one towns, most of which were razed and burnt, and the race of the Æquans almost extirpated. A triumph was granted over the Æquans. The Marrucinians, Marsians, Pelignians, and Ferentans, warned by the example of their disasters, sent deputies to Rome to solicit peace and friendship; and these states, on their submissive applications, were admitted into alliance.
XLVI. In the same year, Caius Flavius, son of Cneius, grandson of a freed man, a notary, in low circumstances originally, but artful and eloquent, was appointed curule ædile. I find in some annals, that, being in attendance on the ædiles, and seeing that he was voted ædile by the prerogative tribe, but that his name would not be received, because he acted as a notary, he threw down his tablet, and took an oath, that he would not, for the future, follow that business. But Licinius Macer contends, that he had dropped the employment of notary a considerable time before, having already been a tribune, and twice a triumvir, once for regulating the nightly watch, and another time for conducting a colony. However, of this there is no dispute, that to the contempt thrown by the nobles on the meanness of his condition, he opposed much firmness. He made public the rules of proceeding in judicial causes, hitherto shut up in the closets of the pontiffs; and hung up to public view, round the Forum, the calendar on white tablets, that all might know when business could be transacted in the courts. To the great displeasure of the nobles, he performed the dedication of the temple of Concord, in the area of Vulcan’s temple; and the chief pontiff, Cornelius Barbatus, was compelled by the united instances of the people, to dictate to him the form of words, although he affirmed, that, consistently with the practice of antiquity, no other than a consul, or commander-in-chief, could dedicate a temple. This occasioned a law to be proposed to the people, by direction of the senate, that no person should dedicate a temple, or an altar, without an order from the senate, or from a majority of the plebeian tribunes. The incident which I am about to mention would be trivial in itself, were it not an instance of the freedom assumed by plebeians in opposition to the pride of the nobles: Flavius coming to make a visit to his colleague, who was sick, some young nobles who were sitting there agreed among themselves not to pay him the compliment of rising at his entrance; on which he ordered his curule chair to be brought thither, and from his honourable seat of office enjoyed the sight of his enemies tortured with envy. However, Flavius owed his appointment to the ædileship to a faction composed of the lowest class of people, which had gathered strength during the censorship of Appius Claudius: for he was the first who degraded the senate, by electing into it the immediate descendants of freed men; and when he found that no one allowed that election as valid, and that his conduct, in the senate-house, had not procured him the influence in the city which it had been his principal object to attain, he distributed men of the meanest order among all the several tribes, and thus corrupted the assemblies both of the Forum and of the field of Mars. With respect to the election of Flavius, it excited great indignation in the breasts of most of the nobles, who laid aside their gold rings and bracelets in conseqence of it. From that time the state was split into two parties. The uncorrupted part of the people, who favoured and supported the good, held one side; the faction of the rabble, the other. Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius were then made censors; and Fabius, both for the sake of concord, and at the same time to prevent the elections remaining in the hands of the lowest of the people, purged the rest of the tribes of all the rabble of the Forum, and threw it into four, which he ordered to be called city tribes. And this procedure, we are told, gave such universal satisfaction, that, by this regulation in the orders of the state, he obtained the surname of Maximus, which he had not been honoured with by his many victories. The annual review of the knights, on the ides of July, is also said to have been projected and instituted by him.
* In the original, lati clavi. The latus clavus was a tunic, or vest, ornamented with a broad stripe of purple, on the fore part, worn by the senators: the knight wore a similar one, only ornamented with a narrower stripe. Gold rings were also used as badges of distinction, the common people wore iron ones.
* The comitia curiata, or assemblies of the curiæ, alone had the power of conferring military command; no magistrate therefore could assume the command without the previous order of their assembly. In time, this came to be a mere matter of form; yet the practice always continued to be observed.
Submission of the Marcians accepted. The college of Augurs augmented from four to nine. The law of appeal to the people carried by Valerius the consul. Two more tribes added. War declared against the Samnites. Several successful actions. In an engagement against the combined forces of the Etruscans, Umbrians, Samnites, and Gauls, Publius Decius, after the example of his father, devotes himself for the army. Dies, and, by his death, procures the victory to the Romans. Defeat of the Samnites by Papirius Cursor. The census held. The lustrum closed. The number of the citizens two hundred and sixty-two thousand, three hundred and twenty-two.
I. UNDER the succeeding consuls, Lucius Genucius, and Servius Cornelius, the state enjoyed almost uninterrupted rest from foreign wars.Y.R.450. 302. Colonies were led out to Sora and Alba. For the latter, situated in the country of the Æquans, six thousand colonists were enrolled. Sora had formerly belonged to the Volscian territory, but had fallen into the possession of the Samnites: thither were sent four thousand settlers. This year the freedom of the state was granted to the Arpinians and Trebulans. The Frusinonians were fined a third part of their lands, because it was discovered, that they had endeavoured to stir up the Hernicians to rebellion; and the heads of that conspiracy, after a trial before the consuls, held in pursuance of a decree of the senate, were beaten with rods and beheaded. However, that the Romans might not pass the year entirely exempt from war, a little expedition was made into Umbria; intelligence being received from thence, that numbers of men, in arms, had, from a certain cave, made excursions into the adjacent country. Into this cave the troops penetrated with their standards, and, the place being dark, they received many wounds, chiefly from stones thrown. At length the other mouth of the cave being found, for it was pervious, both the openings were filled up with wood, which being set on fire, there perished by means of the smoke and heat, no less than two thousand men; many of whom, at the last, in attempting to make their way out, rushed into the very flames.Y.R.451. 301. The two Marci, Livius Denter, and Æmilius, succeeding to the consulship, war broke out again with the Æquans; who, being highly displeased at the colony established within their territory, as if it were a fortress to keep them in awe, made an attempt, with their whole force, to seize it, but were repulsed by the colonists themselves. They caused, however, such an alarm at Rome, that, to quell this insurrection, Caius Junius Bubulcus was nominated dictator: for it was scarcely credible that the Æquans, after being reduced to such a degree of weakness, should by themselves alone have ventured to engage in a war. The dictator, taking the field, with Marcus Titinius, master of the horse, in the first engagement, reduced the Æquans to submission; and, returning into the city in triumph, on the eighth day, dedicated, in the character of dictator, the temple of Health, which he had vowed when consul, and contracted for when censor.
II. During this year a fleet of Grecians, under the command of Cleonymus, a Lacedæmonian, arrived on the coast of Italy, and took Thuriæ, a city in the territory of the Sallentines. Against this enemy, the consul Æmilius was sent, who, in one battle, completely defeated them, and without farther opposition drove them on board their ships. Thuriæ was then restored to its old inhabitants, and peace re-established in the country of the Sallentines. In some annals, I find, that Junius Bubulcus was sent dictator into that country, and that Cleonymus, without hazarding an engagement with the Romans, retired out of Italy. He then sailed round the promontory of Brundusium, and, steering down the middle of the Adriatic gulf, because he dreaded, on the left hand, the coasts of Italy destitute of harbours, and, on the right, the Illyrians, Liburnians, and Istrians, nations of savages, and noted in general for piracy, he passed on to the coasts of the Venetians. Here, having landed a small party to explore the country, and, being informed that a narrow beach stretched along the shore, beyond which were marahes, overflowed by the tides; that dry land was seen at no great distance, level in the nearest part, and rising behind into hills, beyond which was the mouth of a very deep river, into which they had seen ships brought round and moored in safety, (this was the river Meduacus,) he ordered his fleet to sail into it and go up against the stream. As the channel would not admit the heavy ships, the troops, removing into the lighter vessels, arrived at a part of the country, occupied by three maritime cantons of the Patavians, settled on that coast. Here they made a descent, leaving a small guard with the ships, made themselves masters of these cantons, set fire to the houses, drove off a considerable booty of men and cattle, and, allured by the sweets of plunder, proceeded still farther from the shore. When news of this was brought to Patavium, where the contiguity of the Gauls kept the inhabitants constantly in arms, they divided their young men into two bands, one of which was led towards the quarter where the marauders were said to be busy; the other by a different route, to avoid meeting any of the pirates, towards the station of the ships, fifteen miles distant from the town. There attacked the small craft, and, killing the guards, compelled the affrighted mariners to remove their ships to the other bank of the river. By land also, the attack on the dispersed plunderers was equally successful; and the Grecians, flying back towards their ships, were opposed in their way by the Venetians. Thus enclosed, on both sides, they were out to pieces; and some, who were made prisoners, gave information, that the fleet with their king Cleonymus, was but three miles distant. Sending the captives into the nearest canton, to be kept under a guard, some soldiers got on board the flat-bottomed vessels, so constructed for the purpose of passing the shoals with case; others threw themselves into those which had been lately taken from the enemy, and proceeding down the river, surrounded their unwieldy ships, which dreaded the unknown sands and flats, more than they did the Romans, and which showed a greater eagerness to escape into the deep, than to make resistance. The soldiers pursued them as far as the mouth of the river; and having taken and burned a part of the fleet, which, in the hurry and confusion, had been stranded, returned victorious. Cleonymus, having met success in no part of the Adriatic sea, departed with scarce a fifth part of his navy remaining. Many, now alive, have seen the beaks of his ships, and the spoils of the Lacedæmonians, hanging in the old temple of Juno. In commemoration of this event, there is exhibited at Patavium, every year, on its anniversary day, a naval combat on the river in the middle of the town.
III. A treaty was this year concluded at Rome with the Vestinians who solicited friendship. Various causes of apprehension afterwards sprung up. News arrived, that Etruria was in rebellion; the insurrection having arisen from the dissensions of the Arretians; for the Cilnian family having grown exorbitantly powerful, a party, out of envy of their wealth, had attempted to expel them by force of arms. Accounts were also received that the Maraians held forcible possession of the lands to which the colony of Carseoli, consisting of four thousand men, had been sent. By reason, therefore, of these commotions, Marcus Valerius Maximus was nominated dictator, and chose for his master of the horse Marcus Æmilius Paullus. This I am inclined to believe, rather than that Quintus Fabius, at such an age as he then was, and after enjoying many honours, was placed in a station subordinate to Valerius: but I think it not unlikely that the mistake arose from the surname Maximus. The dictator, taking the field at the head of an army, in one battle utterly defeated the Marsians, drove them into their fortified towns, and afterwards, in the course of a few days, took Milionia, Plestina, and Fresilia; and then, fining this people in a part of their lands, granted them a renewal of the treaty. The force of the war was then directed against the Etrurians; and, the dictator having gone to Rome, for the purpose of renewing the auspices, the master of the horse, going out to forage, was taken at disadvantage, by means of an ambuscade, and obliged to fly shamefully into his camp, after losing several standards, and many of his men. Now, that such a discomfiture happened to Fabius is exceedingly improbable; not only because, if in any particular, certainly above all, in the qualifications of a commander, he fully merited his surname; but, besides, impressed with the recollection of Papirius’s severity, he never could have been tempted to fight, without the dictator’s order.
IV. The news of this disaster excited at Rome an alarm greater than the importance of the affair should seem to justify; for, as if the army had been destroyed, the courts were ordered to be shut, guards mounted at the gates, and watches act in every street: and armour and weapons were heaped on the walls. All the younger citizens were compelled to enlist, and the dictator was ordered to join the army. There he found every thing in a more tranquil state than he expected, and regularity established, through the care of the master of the horse; the camp removed to a place of greater safety; the cohorts, which had lost their standards, left without tents on the outside of the ramparts; and the troops ardently impatient for battle, that their disgrace might be the sooner obliterated. He therefore immediately decamped, and advanced into the territory of Rusella. Thither the enemy also followed; and, although, since their late success, they entertained the most sanguine hopes from an open trial of strength, yet they endeavoured to gain also an advantage by a stratagem which they had before practised with success. There were, at a small distance from the Roman camp, the half-ruined houses of a town which had been burnt in the devastation of the country. Among these they concealed a body of troops, and then drove on some cattle, within view of a Roman post, commanded by a lieutenant-general, Cneius Fulvius. This temptation not inducing any one to stir from his station, one of the herdsmen, advancing close to the works, called out, that others were driving out those cattle at their leisure from the ruins of the town, why did they remain idle, when they might safely drive them through the middle of the Roman camp? This being interpreted to the lieutenant-general, by some natives of Cære, and great impatience prevailing through every company of the soldiers, who, nevertheless, dared not to move without orders, he commanded some who were skilled in the language to observe attentively, whether the dialect of the herdsmen resembled that of rustics or of citizens: these reported, that their accent in speaking, their manner and appearance, were all of a more polished cast than suited such description of persons. “Go then,” said he, “tell them that they may uncover the ambush which they vainly conceal; that the Romans understand all their devices, and can now be no more taken by stratagem than they can be conquered by arms.” When these words were heard, and carried to those who lay in ambush, they immediately arose from their lurking-place, and marched, out in order into the plain which was open to view on every side. The lieutenant-general, thinking their force too powerful for his small band to cope with, sent, in haste, to Valerius for support, and, in the mean time, by himself, sustained the enemy’s onset.
V. On receiving his message, the dictator ordered the standards to move, and the troops to follow in arms. But every thing was executed more quickly, almost, than ordered. The men in an instant snatched up their standards, and were with difficulty restrained from running impetuously on, being stimulated both by indignation at their late defeat, and by the shouts striking their ears with increasing vehemence, as the contest grew hotter. They therefore urged each other, and pressed the standard-bearers to quicken their pace. The dictator, the more eagerly he saw them push forward, took the more pains to repress their haste, and ordered them to march at a slower rate. On the other side, the Etrurians, putting themselves in motion, on the first beginning of the fray, had come up with their whole force; and several expresses came to the dictator, one after another, that all the legions of the Etrurians had joined in the fight, and that his men could not any longer withstand them: at the same time, he himself saw, from the higher ground, the perilous situation of the party. Confident, however, that the lieutenant-general was able, even yet, to support the dispute, and considering that he himself was at hand to rescue him from defeat, he wished to let the enemy be fatigued, as much as might be, in order that when in that state, he might fall on them with his fresh troops. Slowly as these marched, the distance was now just sufficient for the cavalry to begin their career for a charge. The battalions of the legions marched in front, lest the enemy might suspect any secret or sudden movement, but intervals had been left in the ranks of the infantry, affording room for the horses to gallop through. At the same instant the line raised the shout, and the cavalry, charging at full speed, poured on the enemy; and spread at once a general panic. After this, as succour had arrived almost too late to the party surrounded, so now they were allowed entire rest, the fresh troops taking on themselves the whole business of the fight. Nor was that either long or dubious. The enemy were routed, and fled to their camp, which the Romans advancing to attack, they crowded all together in the remotest part of it. Their flight being obstructed by the narrowness of the gates, the greater number climbed up on the mounds and ramparts, to try if they could either defend themselves with the aid of the advantageous ground, or get over, by any means, and escape. One part of the rampart happening to be badly compacted, sunk under the weight of the multitude, who stood on it, and fell into the trench. On which, crying out that the gods had opened that pass to give them safety, they made their way out, most of them leaving their arms behind. By this battle the power of the Etrurians was, a second time, effectually crushed, so that, engaging to furnish a year’s pay, and corn for two months, with the dictator’s permission, they sent ambassadors to Rome to treat of peace. This was refused, but a truce for two years was granted to them. The dictator returned into the city in triumph. I have seen it asserted, that tranquillity was restored in Etruria by the dictator, without any memorable battle, only by composing the dissensions of the Arretians, and effecting a reconciliation between the Cilnian family and the commons. Marcus Valerius was elected consul, before the expiration of his dictatorship, many have believed, without his soliciting the office, and even while he was absent; and that the election was held by an interrex. In one point all agree, that he held the consulship with Quintus Appuleius Pansa.
VI. During this consulate of Marcus Valerius and Quintus Appuleius, affairs abroad wore a very peaceable aspect.Y.R.452. 300. Their losses sustained in war, together with the truce, kept the Etrurians quiet. The Samnites, depressed by the misfortunes of many years, had not yet become dissatisfied with their new alliance. At Rome also, the carrying away of such multitudes to colonies, rendered the commons tranquil, and lightened their burthens. But, that all things might not stagnate in a dead calm, a contention was excited between the principal persons in the commonwealth, patricians on one hand, and plebeians on the other, by the two Ogulnii, Quintus and Cneius, plebeian tribunes, who, seeking every where occasions of criminating the patricians in the hearing of the people, and having found other attempts fruitless, engaged in a scheme calculated to inflame, not the lowest class of the commons, but their chief men, the plebeians of consular and triumphal rank, to the completion of whose honours nothing was now wanting but the offices of the priesthood, which were not yet laid open to them. They therefore published a proposal for a law, that, whereas there were then four augurs and four pontiffs, and it had been determined that the number of priests should be augmented, the four additional pontiffs and five augurs should all be chosen out of the commons. How the college of augurs could be reduced to the number of four, except by the death of two, I do not understand: for it is a rule among the augurs, that their number should be composed of threes, so that the three ancient tribes, the Ramnes, Titienses, and Luceres, should have each its own augur; or, in case there should be occasion for more, that each should increase its number of augurs, in equal proportion with the rest, in like manner as when, by the addition of five to four, they made up the number nine, so that there were three to each tribe. However, as it was proposed that they should be chosen out of the commons, the patricians were as highly offended at the proceeding, as when they saw the consulship made common; yet they pretended that the business concerned not them so much as it did the gods, who would “take care that their own worship should not be contaminated; that, for their parts, they only wished that no misfortune might ensue to the commonwealth.” But the true reason of their not making a vigorous opposition was, that they were now accustomed to suffer defeat in such kind of diputes; and they saw their adversaries, not as formerly, grasping at objects which they could scarcely hope to reach, the higher honours; but already in possession of all those advantages, on the uncertain prospect of which, they had maintained the contest, manifold consulships, censorships, and triumphs.
VII. There was, however, a struggle between the supporters and the opponents of the law, maintained principally by Appius Claudius and Publius Decius Mus. After these had urged nearly the same topics, respecting the privileges of patricians and plebeians, which had been formerly employed for and against the Licinian law, when the proposition was brought forward, of opening the consulship to plebeians, Decius is said to have drawn a lively description of his own father, such as many then present in the assembly had seen him, girt in the Gabine dress, standing on a spear, in the attitude in which he had devoted himself for the people and the legions, and to have added, that “the consul Publius Decius was then deemed by the immortal gods an offering equally pure and pious, as if his colleague, Titus Manlius, had been devoted. And might not the same Publius Decius have been, with propriety, chosen to perform the public worship of the Roman people? Was there any reason to apprehend that the gods would give less attention to his prayers than to those of Appius Claudius? Did the latter perform his private acts of adoration with a purer mind, or worship the gods more religiously than he? Who had any reason to complain of the vows offered in behalf of the commonwealth, by so many plebeian consuls and dictators, either on the commencement of their campaigns, or in the heat of battle? Were the number of commanders reckoned, during those years, since business began to be transacted under the conduct and auspices of plebeians, the same number of triumphs might be found. The commons had now no reason to be dissatisfied with the behaviour of such of their body as had attained nobility. On the contrary, they were fully convinced, that, in case of a sudden war breaking out, the senate and people of Rome would not repose greater confidence in patrician than in plebeian commanders. Which, being the case,” said he, “what god or man can deem it an impropriety, if those whom ye have honoured with curule chairs, with the purple bordered gown, with the palmvest, and embroidered robe, with the triumphal crown and laurel; whose houses ye have rendered conspicuous above others, by affixing to them the spoils of conquered enemies, should add to these the badges of augurs or pontiffs? If a person, who has rode through the city in a gilt chariot; and, decorated with the ensigns of Jupiter, supremely good and great, has mounted the Capitol, should be seen with a chalice and wand; what impropriety, I say, that he should, with his head veiled, slay a victim, or take an augury in the citadel? When, in the inscription on a person’s statue, the consulship, censorship, and triumph, shall be read with patience, will the eyes of the readers be unable to endure the addition of the office of augur or pontiff? In truth (with deference to the gods I say it) I trust that we are, through the kindness of the Roman people, qualified in such a manner, that we should, by the dignity of our characters, reflect back, on the priesthood, as much lustre as we should receive; and may demand, rather on behalf of the gods, than for our own sakes, that those, whom we worship in our private, we may also worship in a public capacity.
VIII. “But why do I argue thus, as if the cause of the patricians, respecting the priesthood, stood on untouched ground? and as if we were not already in possession of one sacerdotal office, of the highest class? We see plebeian Decemvirs, for performing sacrifices, interpreters of the Sibylline prophecies, and of the fates of the nation; we also see them presidents of Apollo’s festival, and of other religious performances. Neither was any injustice done to the patricians, when, to the two commissioners for performing sacrifices, an additional number was joined, in favour of the plebeians; nor is there now, when a tribune, a man of courage and activity, wishes to add five places of augurs, and four of pontiffs, to which plebeians may be nominated; not, Appius, with intent to expel you from your places; but, that men of plebeian rank may assist you, in the management of divine affairs, with the same zeal with which they assist you in matters of human concernment. Blush not, Appius, at having a man, your colleague, in the priesthood, whom you might have a colleague in the censorship or consulship, whose master of the horse you yourself may be, when he is dictator, as well as dictator when he is master of the horse. A Sabine adventurer, the first origin of your nobility, either Attus Clausus, or Appius Claudius, which you will, was admitted, by the ancient patricians of those days, into their number: do not then, on your part, disdain to admit us into the number of priests. We bring with us numerous honours; all those honours, indeed, which have rendered your party so proud. Lucius Sextius was the first consul, chosen out of the plebeians; Caius Licinius Stolo, the first master of the horse; Caius Marcius Rutilus, the first dictator, and likewise censor; Quintus Publilius Philo, the first prætor. On every one of these occasions was heard a repetition of the same arguments; that the right of auspices was vested in you; that ye alone had the rights of ancestry; that ye alone were legally entitled to the supreme command, and the auspices both in peace and war. The supreme command has hitherto been, and will continue to be, equally prosperous in plebeian hands, as in patrician. Have ye never heard it said, that the first created patricians, were not men sent down from heaven, but such as could cite their fathers, that is, nothing more than free born. I can now cite my father, a consul; and my son will be able to cite a grandfather. Citizens, their opposition means nothing else, than that we should never obtain any thing, without a previous refusal. The patricians wish only for a dispute; nor do they care what issue their disputes may have. For my part, be it advantageous, happy, and prosperous to you and to the commonwealth, I am of opinion that this law should receive your sanction.”
IX. The people ordered that the tribes should be instantly called; and there was every appearance that the law would be accepted. It was deferred, however, for that day, by a protest, from which on the day following the tribunes were deterred; and it passed with the approbation of a vast majority. The pontiffs created were Publius Decius Mus, the advocate for the law; Publius Sempronius Sophus, Caius Marcius Rutilus, and Marcus Livius Denter. The five augurs, who were also plebeians, were Caius Genucius, Publius Ælius Pætus, Marcus Minucius Fessus, Caius Marcius, and Titus Publilius. Thus the number of the pontiffs was made eight; that of the augurs nine. In the same year Marcus Valerius, consul, procured a law to be passed concerning appeals; more carefully enforcing the observance of it, by additional sanctions. This was the third time, since the expulsion of the kings, of this law being introduced, and always by the same family. The reason for renewing it so open, was, I believe, no other, than that the influence of a few was apt to prove too powerful for the liberty of the commons. However, the Porcian law seems intended, solely, for the security of the persons of the citizens; a severe penalty being thereby enacted against beating with stripes, or putting to death, a Roman citizen. The Valerian law, after forbidding a person, who had appealed, to be beaten with rods and beheaded, added, in case of any one acting contrary thereto, that it shall yet be only deemed a wicked act. This, I suppose, was judged of sufficient strength to enforce obedience to the law in those days; so powerful was then men’s sense of shame: at present one would scarcely make use of such a threat seriously, even on any ordinary occasion. The Æquans rebelling, the same consul conducted the war against them; in which no memorable event occurred; for, except ferocity, they retained nothing of their ancient condition. The other consul Appuleius, invested the town of Nequinum in Umbria. The ground, the same whereon Narnia now stands, was so steep, (on one side even perpendicular,) as to render the town impregnable either by asault, or works.Y.R.453. 299. That business, therefore, came unfinished, into the hands of the succeeding consuls, Marcus Fulvius Pætinus, and Titus Manlius Torquatus. We are told by Licinius Macer and Tubero, that all the centuries named Quintus Fabius, though not a candidate, consul for that year; but that he himself recommended to them, to postpone the conferring the consulship on him until a year wherein there might be more employment for their arms; adding, that, during the present year, he might be more useful in the management of a city magistracy; and thus, neither dissembling what he aimed at, nor yet making direct application for it, he was appointed curule ædile with Lucius Papirius Cursor. This I cannot aver as certain; because Piso, a more ancient writer of annals, asserts, that the curule ædiles of that year were Caius Domitius Calvinus, son of Cneius, and Spurius Carvilius Maximus, son of Caius. I am of opinion, that this latter surname caused a mistake, concerning the ædiles; and that thence followed a story, conformable to this mistake, patched up, out of the two elections, of the ædiles, and of the consuls. The general survey was performed, this year, by Publius Sempronius Sophus, and Publius Sulpicius Saverrio, censors; and two tribes were added, the Aniensian and Terentine. Such were the occurrences at Rome.
X. Meanwhile, after much time had been lost in the tedious siege of Nequinum, two of the townsmen, whose houses were contiguous to the wall, having formed a subterraneous passage, came by that private way to the Roman advanced guards; and being conducted thence to the consul, offered to give admittance to a body of armed men within the works and walls. The proposal was thought to be such as ought neither to be rejected, nor yet assented to without caution. With one of these men, the other being detained as a hostage, two spies were sent through the mine, and certain information being received from them of the practicability of the design, three hundred men in arms guided by the deserter entered the city, and seized by night the nearest gate, which being broke open, the Roman consul and his army took possession of the city without any opposition. In this manner came Nequinum under the dominion of the Roman people. A colony was sent thither as a barrier against the Umbrians, and called Narnia from the river Nar. The troops returned to Rome with abundance of spoil. This year the Etrurians made preparations for war, in violation of the truce. But a vast army of the Gauls, making an irruption into their territories, while their attention was directed to another quarter, suspended for a time the execution of their design. They then, relying on the abundance of money which they possessed, laid themselves out to make friends of the Gauls, instead of enemies; in order that, with their armies combined, they might attack the Romans. The barbarians made no objection to the alliance, and a negociation was opened for settling the price; which being adjusted and paid, the Etrurians, having every thing else in readiness for commencing their operations, desired them to accompany them in their march. But this they refused, alleging, that “they had stipulated a price for their assistance against the Romans: that the payment already made, they had received in consideration of their not wasting the Etrurian territory, or using their arms against the inhabitants. That notwithstanding, if it was the wish of the Etrurians, they were still willing to engage in the war, but on no other condition than that of being allowed a share of their lands, and obtaining at length some permanent settlement.” Many assemblies of the states of Etruria were held on this subject, without being able to come to any conclusion; not so much by reason of their aversion from the dismemberment of their territory, as of the dread, which every one felt of the consequences, if they should fix in so close vicinity to themselves people of such a savage race. The Gauls were therefore dismissed, and carried home an immense sum of money, acquired without toil or danger. The report of a Gallic tumult, in addition to an Etrurian war, had caused serious apprehensions at Rome; and, with the less hesitation on that account, an alliance was concluded with the state of the Picentians.
XI. The province of Etruria fell by lot to the consul Titus Manlius; who, when he had but just entered the enemy’s country, as he was exercising the cavalry, in wheeling about at full speed, was thrown from his horse, and almost killed on the spot; three days after he died. The Etrurians, embracing this omen, as it were, of the future progress of the war, and observing that the gods had commenced hostilities on their behalf, assumed new courage. At Rome the news caused great affliction, on account both of the loss of such a man and of the unseasonableness of the juncture; insomuch that the senate would have proceeded to order a dictator to be created, but that an assembly, held for the purpose of substituting a new consul, was conducted agreeably to the wishes of people of the first consequence. All the votes and centuries concurred unanimously in appointing Marcus Valerius consul, the same whom the senate would have ordered to be made dictator. They then commanded him to proceed immediately into Etruria, to the legions. His coming gave such a check to the Etrurians, that not one of them dared thenceforward to appear on the outside of their trenches; their own fears operating as a blockade. Nor could the new consul, by wasting their lands, and burning their houses, draw them out to an engagement; for not only country-houses, but numbers of their towns, were seen smoking, and in ashes, on every side. While this war proceeded more slowly than had been expected, an account was received of the breaking out of another; which was, not without reason, regarded as terrible, in consequence of the heavy losses formerly sustained by both parties. This account, given by their new allies, the Picentians, was, that the Samnites were taking measures for a renewal of hostilities, and that they themselves had been solicited to join therein. The Picentians received the thanks of the state; and a large share of the attention of the senate was turned, from Etruria, towards Samnium. The public suffered also much distress from the dearness of provisions, and would have felt the extremity of want, according to the relation of those who make Fabius Maximus curule ædile that year, had not the vigilant activity of that man, such as he had on many occasions displayed in the field, been exerted now with equal zeal at home, in the management of the market, and in procuring and forming magazines of corn. An interregnum took place this year, the reason of which is not mentioned.Y.R.454. 298. Appius Claudius, and, after him, Publius Sulpicius, were interreges. The latter held an election of consuls, and chose Lucius Cornelius Scipio and Cneius Fulvius. In the beginning of this year, ambassadors came from the Lucanians to the new consuls, with complaints that “the Samnites, finding that they could not, by any offers, tempt them to take part in the war, had marched an army in a hostile manner into their country, which they were now laying waste; intending by these violent measures, to force them into a compliance. They declared, that the nation of the Lucanians thought their former errors too many, and were so firmly fixed in their resolution, that they would rather undergo every kind of suffering and hardship than ever again violate the reverence due to the Roman name: besought the senate to take the people of Lucania into their protection, and defend them from the injustice and outrage of the Samnites; and that, on their part, though the undertaking a war with the Samnites imposed on them a necessity of being faithful to the Romans, they were, nevertheless, willing to give hostages.”
XII. The deliberation of the senate was short. They all, to a man, concurred in opinion, that a compact should be entered into with the Lucanians, and satisfaction demanded from the Samnites: accordingly, a favourable answer was returned to the Lucanians, and the alliance concluded. Heralds were then sent, to require of the Samnites, that they should depart from the country of the allies, and withdraw their troops from the Lucanian territory. These were met by persons despatched for the purpose by the Samnites, who gave them warning, that “if they appeared at any assembly in Samnium, they must not expect to depart in safety.” As soon as this was heard at Rome, the senate voted, and the people ordered, that war should be declared against the Samnites. The consuls, then, dividing the provinces between them, Etruria fell to Scipio, the Samnites to Fulvius; and they set out by different routes, each against the enemy allotted to him. Scipio, while he expected a tedious campaign, like that of the preceding year, was met near Volaterra by the Etrurians, in order of battle. The fight lasted through the greater part of the day, while very many fell on both sides, and night came on before it could be discovered to which side victory inclined. But the following dawn showed the conqueror and the vanquished; for the Etrurians had decamped in the dead of the night. The Romans, marching out with intent to renew the engagement, and seeing their superiority acknowledged by the departure of the enemy, advanced to their camp; and, finding even this fortified post deserted, took possession of it, together with a vast quantity of spoil. The consul then, leading back his forces into the Faliscian territory, and leaving his baggage with a small guard at Falerii, set out with his troops, lightly accoutered, to ravage the enemy’s country: and not only was the ground laid waste, but their forts also and smaller towns were destroyed by fire. He did not, however, lay siege to the cities, into which the Etrurians had been hurried by their fears. The other consul, Fulvius, fought the Samnites at Bovianum, where he gained great honour, and a complete victory. Then attacking the town, and soon after Aufidena, he took both by assault. This year a colony was carried out to Carseoli, in the territory of the Æquicolæ. The consul Fulvius triumphed on his defeat of the Samnites.
XIII. Shortly before the election of consuls, a report prevailed, that the Etrurians and Samnites were raising vast armies; that the leaders of the Etrurians were, in all their assemblies, openly censured for not having procured the aid of the Gauls on any terms; and the magistrates of the Samnites arraigned, for having opposed to the Romans an army destined to act against the Lucanians. That, in consequence, the people were rising up in arms, with all their own strength and that of their allies combined; and that this affair seemed not likely to be terminated without a contest of much greater difficulty than the former. Although the candidates for the consulship were men of illustrious characters, yet this alarming intelligence turned the thoughts of all on Quintus Fabius Maximus, who sought not the employment at first, and afterwards, when he discovered their wishes, even declined it. “Why,” said he, “should they impose such a difficult task on him, who was now in the decline of life, and had passed through a full course of labours, and of the rewards of labour? Neither the vigour of his body, nor of his mind, remained the same; and he dreaded fortune herself, lest some god should think her too bountiful to him, and more constant than the course of human affairs allowed. He had himself succeeded, in gradual succession, to the dignities of his predecessors; and he beheld, with great satisfaction, others rising up to succeed to his. There was no scarcity at Rome, either of honours suited to men of the highest merit, or of men of eminent merit suited to the highest honours.” This disinterested conduct, instead of repressing, increased, while in fact it justified, their zeal. But thinking that this ought to be checked by respect for the laws, he ordered that clause to be read aloud, by which it is forbidden that the same person shall be re-elected consul within ten years. Such a clamour now arose, that the law was scarcely heard; and the tribunes of the commons declared, that this “decree should be no impediment; for they would propose an order to the people, that he should be exempted from the obligation of the laws.” Still he persisted in his opposition, asking, “To what purpose were laws enacted, if they were eluded by the very persons who procured them? The laws now,” he said, “instead of being rulers, were over-ruled.” The people, nevertheless, proceeded to vote; and, as soon as each century was called in, it immediately named Fabius consul. Then, at length, overcome by the universal wish of the state, he said, “Romans, may the gods approve your present, and all your future proceedings. But since, with respect to me, ye intend to act according to your own wills, let my interest find room with you, with respect to my colleague. I earnestly request, that ye will place in the consulship with me, Publius Decius; a man with whom I have already experienced the utmost harmony in our joint administration of that office; a man worthy of you, worthy of his father.” The recommendation was deemed well founded, and all the remaining centuries voted Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius consuls. This year, great numbers were prosecuted by the ædiles, for having in possession larger quantities of land than the state allowed; and hardly any were acquitted: by which means, a very great restraint was laid on exorbitant covetousness.
XIV. Whilst the new consuls, Quintus Fabius Maximus,Y.R.455. 297. a fourth, and Publius Decius Mus, a third time, were settling between themselves as to which should command against the Samnites, and which against the Etrurians; and what number of forces would be sufficient for this, and for that province; and which would be the fitter commander in each war; ambassadors arrived from Sutrium, Nepete, and Falerii, with intelligence, that the states of Etruria were holding assemblies on the subject of suing for peace. In consequence of this information, the whole force of their arms was directed against Samnium. The consuls took different routes, in order to secure the more ready supply of provisions, and to leave the enemy in the greater uncertainty on what quarter the war would fall. Fabius led his legions towards Samnium through the territory of Sora, and Decius his through that of Sidicinum. As soon as they arrived at the frontiers, both advanced briskly, spreading devastation wherever they came; but still took care to explore the country, to a distance beyond where the troops were employed in plundering. The enemy had posted themselves in readiness for battle, in a retired valley near Tifernum; intending, as soon as the Romans should enter it, to fall upon them with advantage of the ground; but they escaped the snare. Fabius, sending away his baggage to a place of safety, and setting a small guard over it, gave notice to his soldiers that a battle was at hand, and advanced to the place where he had been told the enemy lay in ambush. The Samnites, disappointed in the hope of making an unexpected attack, determined on a regular engagement. They therefore marched out into the plain; and, with a greater share of spirit than of hopes, committed themselves to the disposal of fortune. However, whether in consequence of their having drawn together, from every state, the whole of the force which it possessed, or that the consideration of their all being at stake, heightened their courage, they maintained, even in open fight, a formidable struggle. Fabius, when he saw that the enemy in no place gave way, ordered his son Maximus, and Marcus Valerius, military tribunes, with whom he had hastened to the front, to seek the cavalry, and to exhort them, that “if they remembered any instance wherein the public had received advantage from the service of the horsemen, they would, on that day, exert themselves to preserve inviolate the renown of that body; telling them that the enemy stood immoveable against the efforts of the infantry, and the only hope remaining was in the charge of horse.” He addressed particularly both these youths, and with the same cordiality, loading them with praises and promises. At the same time, considering that, in case that effort should also fail, it would be necessary to accomplish, by stratagem, what his strength could not effect; he ordered Scipio, one of his lieutenants-general, to draw off the spearmen of the first legion out of the line; to lead them round as secretly as possible to the nearest mountains; and, in such direction as he could ascend without being seen, to gain the heights, and show himself suddenly on the rear of the enemy, while their attention should be employed on the front. The cavalry, led on by the tribunes, rushing forward unexpectedly before the van, caused scarcely more confusion among the enemy than among their friends. The line of the Samnites stood firm against the furious onset of the squadrons; it neither could be driven from its ground, nor broken in any part. The cavalry, finding their attempts fruitless, withdrew from the fight, and retired behind the line of infantry. On this the enemy assumed new spirits, with increasing confidence in their own prowess: so that the Roman troops in the van would not have been able to support the contest, had not the second line, by the consul’s order, come up into the place of the first. These fresh troops checked the progress of the Samnites, who had now began to gain ground; and, at this seasonable juncture, their comrades appearing suddenly on the mountains, and raising a shout, occasioned in the Samnites a fear of greater danger than really threatened them: Fabius called out aloud that his colleague Decius was approaching; on which all the soldiers, elated with joy, repeated eagerly, that the other consul was come, the legions were arrived! This artifice, while it produced a happy effect on the Romans, filled the Samnites with such dismay, that they thought of nothing but flight: for they dreaded above all things, lest, fatigued as they were, they should be overpowered by another army, fresh and unhurt. As they dispersed themselves on every side, there was less effusion of blood than might have been expected, considering the completeness of the victory. There were three thousand four hundred slain; about three hundred and thirty made prisoners, and twenty-three military standards taken.
XV. The Apulians would have joined their forces to the Samnites before this battle, had not the consul, Publius Decius, encamped in their neighbourhood at Maleventum; and, finding means to bring them to an engagement, put them to the rout. Here, likewise, there was more of flight than of bloodshed. Two thousand of the Apulians were slain; but Decius, despising such an enemy, led his legions into Samnium. There, the two consular armies, overrunning every part of the country during the space of five months, laid it entirely waste. There were in Samnium forty-five places where Decius, and eighty-six where the other consul, encamped. Nor did they leave traces only of having been there, as ramparts and trenches, but other dreadful mementos of it — general desolation and regions depopulated. Fabius also took the city of Cimetra, where he made prisoners two thousand four hundred soldiers; and there were slain in the assault about four hundred and thirty. Going thence to Rome to preside at the elections, he used all expedition in despatching that business. All the first-called centuries voted Quintus Fabius consul. Appius Claudius was a candidate, a man of consular rank, daring and ambitious; and, as he wished not more ardently for the attainment of that honour for himself, than he did that the patricians might recover the possession of both places in the consulship, he laboured, with all his own power, supported by that of the whole body of the nobility, to prevail on them to appoint him consul along with Quintus Fabius. To this Fabius objected, giving, at first, the same reasons which he had advanced the year before. The nobles then all gathered round his seat, and besought him to raise up the consulship out of the plebeian mire, and to restore both to the office itself, and to the patrician rank, their original dignity. Fabius then, procuring silence, allayed their warmth by a qualifying speech, declaring, that, “he would have so managed, as to have received the names of two patricians, if he had seen an intention of appointing any other than himself to the consulship. As things now stood, he would not set so bad a precedent as to admit his own name among the candidates; such a proceeding being contrary to the laws.”Y.R.456. 296. Whereupon Appius Claudius, and Lucius Volumnius, a plebeian, who had likewise been colleagues in that office before, were elected consuls. The nobility reproached Fabius for declining to act in conjunction with Appius Claudius, because he evidently excelled him in eloquence and political abilities.
XVI. When the election was finished, the former consuls were continued in command for six months, and ordered to prosecute the war in Samnium. Accordingly, during this next year, in the consulate of Lucius Volumnius and Appius Claudius, Publius Decius, who had been left consul in Samnium by his colleague, continued in the character of proconsul, to spread devastation, in like manner as in the preceding year, through all parts of that country; until, at last, he drove the army of the Samnites, which never dared to face him in the field, entirely out of the country. Thus expelled from home, they bent their route to Etruria; and, supposing that the business, which they had often in vain endeavoured to accomplish by embassies, might now be negotiated with more effect, when they were backed by such a powerful armed force, and could intermix terror with their entreaties, they demanded a meeting of the chiefs of Etruria: which being assembled, they set forth the great number of years, during which they had waged war with the Romans, in the cause of liberty; “they had,” they said, “endeavoured, with their own strength, to sustain the weight of so great a war: they had also made trial of the support of the adjoining nations, which proved of little avail. Unable longer to maintain the conflict, they had sued to the Roman people for peace; and had again taken up arms, because they felt peace, attended with servitude, more grievous than war with liberty. They had one only hope remaining, which was the support which they expected from the Etrurians. They knew that nation to be the most powerful in Italy, in respect of arms, men, and money; to have the Gauls their closest neighbours, born in the midst of war and arms, of furious courage, both from their natural temper, and particularly against the people of Rome, whom they boasted, without infringing the truth, of having made their prisoners and of having ransomed for gold. If the Etrurians possessed the same spirit, which formerly animated Porsena and their ancestors, there was nothing to prevent their expelling the Romans from all the lands on this side of the Tiber, and compelling them to fight for their own existence, and not for the intolerable dominion which they assumed over Italy. The Samnite army had come to them, in readiness for action, furnished with arms and subsistence, and were willing to follow that instant, even should they lead to the attack of the city of Rome itself.”
XVII. While they were engaged in these representations, and intriguing at Etruria, the operations of the Romans in their own territories distressed them severely. For Publius Decius, when informed by his scouts of the departure of the Samnite army, called a council, and there said, “Why do we ramble through the country, carrying the war from one village to another? Why not attack the cities and fortified places? No army now guards Samnium. They have fled: they are gone into voluntary exile.” The proposal being universally approved, he marched to attack Murgantia, a city of considerable strength; and so great was the ardour of the soldiers, resulting from their affection to their commander, and from their hopes of richer treasure than could be found in pillaging the country-places, that, in one day, they took it by assault. Here, two thousand one hundred of the Samnites, making resistance, were surrounded and taken prisoners; and abundance of other spoil fell into the hands of the victors. Decius not choosing that the troops should be incumbered in their march with such heavy baggage, ordered them to be called together, and said to them, “Do ye intend to rest satisfied with this single victory, and this booty? or do ye choose to cherish hopes proportioned to your bravery? All the cities of the Samnites, and the property left in them, are your own; since, after so often defeating their legions, ye have finally driven them out of the country. Sell those effects in your hands; and allure traders, by a prospect of profit, to follow you on your march. I will from time to time, supply you with goods for sale. Let us go hence to the city of Romulea, where no great labour, but greater gain, awaits you.” They accordingly sold off the spoil; and, warmly adopting the general’s plan, proceeded to Romulea. This town likewise was taken without works or engines, and plundered: for, as soon as the battalions approached it, nothing could hinder the soldiers from mounting the walls; but, hastily applying ladders, they forced their way over the fortifications. Two thousand three hundred men were slain, six thousand taken prisoners, and abundance of spoil fell into the hands of the soldiers. This they were obliged to sell in like manner as the former; and, though no rest was allowed them, they proceeded, nevertheless, with the utmost alacrity, to Ferentinum. But here they met a greater share both of difficulty and danger: the garrison made a vigorous defence, and the place was strongly fortified both by nature and art. However, the soldiers, now inured to plunder, overcame every obstacle. Three thousand of the enemy were killed round the walls, and the spoil was given to the troops. In some annals, the principal share of the honour of taking these cities is attributed to Maximus. They say that Murgantia was taken by Decius; Romulea and Ferentinum by Fabius. Some ascribe this honour to the new consuls: others not to both, but to one of these, Lucius Volumnius whose province, they say, Samnium was.
XVIII. While things went on thus in Samnium, and whoever it was that had the command and auspices, another powerful combination, composed of many states, was formed in Etruria against the Romans; the chief promoter of which was, Gellius Egnatius, a Samnite. Almost all the Etrurians had united in this hostile design. The neighbouring states of Umbria were drawn in, as it were, by contagion; and auxiliaries were procured from the Gauls for hire: all their several numbers assembled at the camp of the Samnites. When intelligence of this sudden commotion was received at Rome, the consul, Lucius Volumnius, had already set out for Samnium, with the second and third legions, and fifteen thousand of the allies; it was therefore resolved, that Appius Claudius should, without loss of time, go into Etruria. He took with him two Roman legions, the first and fourth, and twelve thousand allies, and encamped at a small distance from the enemy. However, his early arrival, though productive of one good effect, the restraining, by dread of the Roman name, several states of Etruria who were inclined to war, yet was not followed by any very judicious or successful enterprise. Several battles were fought, at times and places unfavourable, and increasing confidence rendered the enemy daily more formidable; so that matters came nearly to such a state, as that neither could the soldiers rely much on their leader, nor the leader on his soldiers. It appears in three several histories, that a letter was sent by the consul to call his colleague from Samnium. But I will not affirm what requires stronger proof, that point having been disputed between these two consuls, a second time associated in the same office; Appius denying that he sent any such, and Volumnius affirming that he was called thither by a letter from him. Volumnius had, by this time, taken three forts in Samnium, in which three thousand of the enemy had been slain, and about half that number made prisoners; and, a sedition having been raised among the Lucanians by the plebeians, and the more indigent of the people, he had, to the great satisfaction of the nobles, quelled it by sending thither Quintus Fabius, proconsul, with his own veteran army. He left to Decius the ravaging of the country; and proceeded with his troops into Etruria to his colleague; where, on his arrival, the army in general received him with joy. Appius, if he did not write the letter, being conscious of this, had, in my opinion, just ground of displeasure: but if he had actually sent for assistance, his disowning it, as he did, arose from an illiberal and ungrateful mind. For, on going out to receive him, when they had scarcely exchanged salutations, he said, “Is all well, Lucius Volumnius? How stand affairs in Samnium? What motive induced you to remove out of your province?” Volumnius answered, that “affairs in Samnium were in a prosperous state; and that he had come thither in compliance with the request in his letter. But, if that were a forged letter, and that there was no occasion for him in Etruria, he would instantly face about, and depart.” “You may depart,” replied the other; “no one detains you: for it is a perfect inconsistency, that when, perhaps, you are scarcely equal to the management of the war allotted to yourself, you should vaunt of coming hither to succour others.” To this Volumnius rejoined, “May Hercules direct all for the best; for his part, he was better pleased that he had taken useless trouble, than that any conjuncture should have arisen which had made one consular army insufficient for Etruria.”
XIX. As the consuls were parting, the lieutenants-general and tribunes of Appius’s army gathered round them. Some entreated their own general that he would not reject the voluntary offer of his colleague’s assistance, which he ought to have solicited: the greater number used their endeavours to stop Volumnius, beseeching him “not, through a peevish dispute with his colleague, to abandon the interest of the commonwealth; and represented to him, that in case any misfortune should happen, the blame would fall on the person who forsook the other, not on the one forsaken; that the state of affairs was such, that the credit and discredit of every success and failure in Etruria, would be attributed to Lucius Volumnius: for no one would enquire, what were the words of Appius, but what the situation of the army. Appius indeed had dismissed him, but the commonwealth, and the army, required his stay. Let him only make trial of the inclinations of the soldiers.” By such admonitions and entreaties, they, in a manner, dragged the consuls to an assembly. There, longer discourses were made to the same purport, as had passed before in the presence of a few. As Volumnius had the advantage of the argument, so did he show himself not deficient in oratory, in despite of the extraordinary eloquence of his colleague. On which Appius observed with a sneer, that “they ought to acknowledge themselves indebted to him, in having a consul, who, among his other qualifications, possessed eloquence also, instead of being dumb and speechless, as he was in their former consulate; when, particularly during the first months, he was not able so much as to open his lips; but now, in his harangues, even aspired after popularity.” Volumnius replied, “how much more earnestly do I wish, that you had learned from me to act with spirit; than I from you to speak with elegance! I now make you a final proposal, which will demonstrate, not which is the better orator, for that is not what the public wants, but which is the better commander. The provinces are Etruria and Samnium: make your choice; I, with my own army, will undertake to manage the business of either.” The soldiers then, with loud clamours, requested that they would, in conjunction, carry on the war in Etruria; when Volumnius, perceiving that it was the general wish, said, “Since I have been mistaken in apprehending my colleague’s meaning, I will take care that there shall be no room for mistake with respect to the purport of your wishes. Signify by a shout, whether you choose that I should stay or depart.” On this, a shout was raised, so loud, that it brought the enemy out of their camp: they snatched up their arms, and marched forward in order of battle. Volumnius likewise ordered the signal to be sounded, and his troops to take the field. It is said that Appius hesitated, perceiving that, whether he fought or remained inactive, his colleague would enjoy the honour of the victory; and that, afterwards, dreading lest his own legions should follow Volumnius with the rest, he gave the signal, at the earnest desire of his men. On neither side were the forces drawn up to advantage: for, on the one, Gellius Egnatius, the Samnite general, had gone out to forage with a few cohorts, and his men entered on the fight, as the violence of their passions prompted, rather than under any directions, or orders. On the other, the Roman armies, neither marched out together, nor had time sufficient to form: Volumnius began to engage, before Appius came up, consequently their front in the battle was uneven; and by some accidental interchange of their usual opponents, the Etrurians fought against Volumnius; and the Samnites, after delaying some time on account of the absence of their general, against Appius. We are told that Appius, during the heat of the fight, raising his hands towards heaven, so as to be seen in the foremost ranks, prayed thus, “Bellona, if thou grantest us the victory this day, I vow to thee a temple.” And that after this vow, as if inspirited by the goddess, he displayed a degree of courage equal to that of his colleague, and of the troops. The generals performed every duty, and each of their armies exerted, with emulation, its utmost vigour, lest the other should be first victorious. They therefore quickly broke and defeated the enemy, who were ill able to withstand a force so much superior to any with which they had been accustomed to contend; then pressing them as they gave ground, and pursuing them closely as they fled, they drove them into their camp. There Gellius and his Samnite cohorts, interposing, the fight was renewed for a time with some warmth. But these being likewise soon dispersed, the conquerors advanced to storm the camp; and Volumnius, in person, leading his troops against one of the gates, while Appius, frequently invoking Bellona the victorious, inflamed the courage of his men, neither rampart nor trenches could prevent their breaking in. The camp was taken and plundered, and the spoil, of which great abundance was found, was given up to the soldiers. Of the enemy seven thousand three hundred were slain; and two thousand one hundred and twenty taken.
XX. While both the consuls, with the whole force of the Romans, pointed their exertions principally against their enemies in Etruria, a new army was set on foot in Samnium; and, with design to ravage the frontiers of the Roman empire, passed over through the country of the Vescians, into the Campanian and Falernian territories, where they committed great depredations. Volumnius, as he was hastening back to Samnium, by forced marches, because the term for which Fabius and Decius had been continued in command was nearly expired, heard of this army of Samnites, and of the mischief which they had done in Campania; determining, therefore, to afford protection to the allies, he altered his route towards that quarter. When he arrived in the district of Cales, he found marks of their recent ravages; and the people of that town informed him that the enemy carried with them such a quantity of spoil, that they could scarcely observe any order in their march: and that the commanders then directed publicly, that the troops should go immediately to Samnium, deposit the booty there, and return to the business of the expedition, as an engagement must not be hazarded while they were so heavily laden. Notwithstanding that this account carried every appearance of truth, he yet thought it necessary to obtain more certain information; accordingly he despatched some horsemen, to seize on some of the straggling marauders; from these he learned, on enquiry, that the enemy lay at the river Vulturnus; that they intended to remove thence at the third watch; and that their route was towards Samnium. On receiving this intelligence, which could be depended upon, he put his troops in motion, and sat down at such a distance from the enemy, as was sufficient to prevent their discovering his approach, and, at the same time, left it in his power to surprise them, as they should be coming out of their camp. A long time before day, he drew nigh to their post, and sent persons, who understood the Oscan language, to discover how they were employed: these, mixing with the enemy, which they could easily do during the confusion in the night, found that the standards had gone out thinly attended; that the booty, and those appointed to guard it, were then setting out, a contemptible train; each busied about his own affairs, without any concert with the rest, or much regard to orders. This the consul judged the fittest time for the attack; and, day-light now approaching, he gave orders to sound the charge, and fell on the enemy as they were marching out. The Samnites being embarrassed with the spoil, and very few armed, were at a loss how to act. Some quickened their pace, and drove the prey before them; others halted, deliberating whether it would be safer to advance, or to return again to the camp; and, while they hesitated, they were overtaken and cut off. The Romans had by this time passed over the rampart, and filled the camp with slaughter and confusion: the Samnite army had their disorder increased by a sudden insurrection of their prisoners; some of whom, getting loose, set the rest at liberty, while others snatched the arms which were tied up among the baggage, and, being intermixed with the troops, raised a tumult more terrible than the battle itself. They then performed a memorable exploit: for, making an attack on Statius Minacius, the general, as he was passing between the ranks and encouraging his men, they dispersed the horsemen who attended him, gathered round himself, and dragged him, sitting on his horse, a prisoner to the Roman consul. This brought back the foremost battalions of the Samnites, and the battle, which seemed to have been already decided, was renewed: but they could not support it long. Six thousand of them were slain, and two thousand five hundred taken, among whom were four military tribunes, together with thirty standards, and, what gave the conquerors greater joy than all, seven thousand four hundred prisoners were recovered. The spoil which had been taken from the allies was immense, and the owners were summoned, by a proclamation, to claim and receive their property. On the day appointed, all the effects, the owners of which did not appear, were given to the soldiers, who were obliged to sell them, in order that they might have nothing to think of but their duty.
XXI. The depredations, committed on the lands of Campania had occasioned a violent alarm at Rome; and it happened, that about the same time, intelligence was brought from Etruria, that, after the departure of Volumnius’s army, all that country had risen up in arms, together with Gellius Egnatius, the leader of the Samnites; that the Umbrians were invited to join in the insurrection, and the Gauls tempted with high offers. Terrified at this news, the senate ordered the courts of justice to be shut, and a levy to be made of men of every description. Accordingly not only free-born men, and the younger sort were obliged to enlist, but cohorts were formed of the elder citizens, and the sons of freed men were incorporated in the centuries. Plans were formed for the defence of the city, and the chief command committed to the prætor, Publius Sempronius. However, the senate was exonerated of one half of their anxiety, by a letter from the consul, Lucius Volumnius, informing them that the army, which had ravaged Campania, had been defeated and dispersed: whereupon, they decreed a public thanksgiving for this success, in the name of the victors. The courts were opened, after having been shut eighteen days, and the thanksgiving was performed with much joy. They then turned their thoughts to devising measures for the future security of the country, depopulated by the Samnites; and, with this view, resolved that two colonies should be settled on the frontiers of the Vescian and Falernian territories; one at the mouth of the river Liris, which has received the name of Minturnæ; the other in the Vescian forest, which borders on the Falernian territory; where, it is said, stood Sinope, a city of Grecians, called thenceforth by the Roman colonists Sinuessa. The plebeian tribunes were charged to procure an order of the commons, enjoining Publius Sempronius, the prætor, to create triumvirs for conducting the colonies to those places. But it was not easy to find people to give in their names; because, a settlement in those places was considered, nearly, as a perpetual advanced guard in a hostile country, not as a provision of land. From these employments, the attention of the senate was drawn away, by the Etrurian war growing daily more formidable; and by frequent letters from Appius, warning them not to neglect the disturbances in that quarter. Four nations, he told them, were uniting their arms; the Etrurians, the Samnites, the Umbrians, and the Gauls; and they had already formed two separate camps, one spot being insufficient to contain so great a multitude. In consequence, the time of the elections drawing nigh, the consul, Lucius Volumnius, was recalled to Rome, to hold them. Having summoned an assembly of the people, before the centuries were called to give their votes, he spoke at length on the great importance of the Etrurian war, and said, that “even at the time when he himself acted there, in conjunction with his colleague, the war was too weighty to be managed by one general, or one army; and that it was now reported that the enemy had, since that time, gained an accession of the Umbrians, and a numerous body of Gauls.” He desired them to “bear in mind, that they were, on that day, to choose consuls, who were to command in a war against four nations. For his own part, were he not confident that the Roman people would concur, in appointing to the consulship, the man who was allowed, beyond dispute, to be the first commander at present in the world, he would have immediately nominated a dictator.”
XXII. No doubt was entertained but that the universal choice would light on Quintus Fabius; and, accordingly, the prerogative, and all the first called centuries, named him consul with Lucius Volumnius. Fabius spoke to the same purpose as he had done two years before; but, afterwards, yielding to the general wish, he applied himself to procure Decius to be appointed his confederate: “that,” he said, “would be a prop to his declining age. In the censorship, and two consulships, in which they had been associated, he had experienced, that there could be no firmer support, in promoting the interest of the commonwealth, than harmony with a colleague. At his advanced stage of life, his mind could hardly conform itself to a new associate in command; and he could more easily act in concert with a temper to which he had been familiarized.” Volumnius subscribed to these sentiments, bestowing due praises on Publius Decius, and enumerating “the advantages resulting from concord between consuls, and the evils arising from their disagreement in the conduct of military affairs;” at the same time remarking, “how near the extremity of danger matters had been brought, by the late dispute between Appius and himself.” He warmly recommended to Decius and Fabius to “live together with one mind and one spirit.” Observed that “they were men qualified by nature for military command: great in action, but unpractised in the strife of words, their talents were such as eminently became consuls. As to the artful and the ingenious, lawyers and orators, such as Appius Claudius, they ought to be kept at home to preside in the city and the forum; and to be appointed prætors for the administration of justice.” In these proceedings that day was spent, and, on the following, the elections both of consuls and prætor were held, and were guided by the recommendations suggested by the consul. Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius were chosen consuls; Appius Claudius, prætor; all of them absent; and, by a decree of the senate, followed by an order of the commons, Lucius Volumnius was continued in the command for another year.
XXIII. During that year many prodigies happened. To avert the evils which they might portend, the senate decreed a supplication for two days: the wine and frankincense for the sacrifices were furnished at the expense of the public; and numerous crowds of men and women attended the performance. This supplication was rendered remarkable by a quarrel, which broke out among the matrons in the chapel of patrician chastity, which stands in the cattle market, near the round temple of Hercules. Virginia, daughter of Aulus, a patrician, but married to Volumnius the consul, a plebeian, was on that account excluded by the matrons from sharing in the sacred rites: a short altercation ensued, which was afterwards, through the intemperance of passion incident to the sex, kindled into a flame of contention. Virginia boasted, with truth, that she had a right to enter the temple of patrician chastity, as being of patrician birth and chaste in her character, and, besides, the wife of one to whom she was betrothed a virgin, and had no reason to be ashamed either of her husband, or of his exploits or honours: to her high-spirited words she added importance by an extraordinary act. In the long street, where she resided, she inclosed, with a partition, a part of the house, of a size sufficient for a small chapel, and there erected an altar. Then, calling together the plebeian matrons, and complaining of the injurious behaviour of the patricians, she said, “this altar I dedicate to plebeian chastity, and exhort you, that the same degree of emulation, which prevails among the men of this state, on the point of valour, may be maintained by the women on the point of chastity; and that you contribute your best care, that this altar may have the credit of being attended with a greater degree of sanctity, and by chaster women than the other.” Solemn rites were performed at this altar under the same regulations, nearly, with those at the more ancient one; no person being allowed the privilege of taking part in the sacrifices, except a woman of approved chastity, and who was the wife of one husband. This institution, being afterwards debased by the admission of vicious characters, and not only by matrons, but women of every description, sunk at last into oblivion. During this year the Ogulnii, Cneius and Quintus, being curule ædiles, carried on prosecutions against several usurers; and these being condemned to pay fines out of the produce and for the use of the public, the ædiles made brazen thresholds in the Capitol; utensils of plate for three tables, which were deposited in the chapel of Jupiter; a statue of Jupiter in a chariot, drawn by four horses, placed on the roof; and images of the founders of the city, in their infant state under the teats of the wolf, at the Ruminal fig-tree. They also paved with square stones, the road from the Capuan gate to the temple of Mars. The plebeian ædiles likewise, Lucius Ælius Pætus, and Caius Fulvius Corvus, out of money levied as fines on farmers of the public pastures, whom they had convicted of mal-practices exhibited games, and consecrated golden bowls in the temple of Ceres.
XXIV. Then came into the consulship Quintus Fabius, a fifth time, and Publius Decius, a fourth.Y.R.457. 295. They had been colleagues in the censorship, and twice in the consulship, and were celebrated, not more for their glorious achievements, splendid as these were, than for the unanimity which had ever subsisted between them. The interruption, which this afterwards suffered, was, in my opinion, owing to a jarring between the opposite parties, rather than between themselves; the patricians endeavouring that Fabius should have Etruria for his province, without casting lots, and the plebeians insisting that Decius should bring the matter to the decision of lots. There was certainly a contention in the senate, and the interest of Fabius, being superior there, the business was brought before the people. Here, between military men who laid greater stress on deeds than on words, the debate was short. Fabius said, “that it was unreasonable, that, after he had planted a tree, another should gather the fruit of it. He had opened the Ciminian forest, and made a way for the Roman arms, through passes until then impracticable. Why had they disturbed his repose, at that time of his life, if they intended to give the management of the war to another?” Then, in the way of a gentle reproof, he observed, that “instead of an associate in command, he had chosen an adversary; and that Decius thought it too much that their unanimity should last through three consulates.” Declaring, in fine, that “he desired nothing farther, than that, if they thought him qualified for the command in the province, they should send him thither. He had submitted to the judgment of the senate, and would now be governed by the authority of the people.” Publius Decius complained of injustice in the senate; and asserted, that “the patricians had laboured, as long as possible, to exclude the plebeians from all access to the higher honours; and, since merit, by its own intrinsic power, had prevailed so far, as that it should not, in any rank of men, be precluded from the attainment of them, they sought every expedient to render ineffectual, not only the suffrages of the people, but even the decisions of fortune; converting all things to the aggrandizement of a few. Former consuls had disposed of the provinces by lots; now, the senate bestowed a province on Fabius at their pleasure. If this was meant as a mark of honour, the merits of Fabius were so great towards the commonwealth, and towards himself in particular, that he would gladly contribute to the advancement of his reputation in every instance where its splendour could be increased without reflecting dishonour on himself. But who did not see, that, when a war of difficulty and danger, and out of the ordinary course, was committed to only that one consul, the other would be considered as useless and insignificant? Fabius gloried in his exploits performed in Etruria: Publius Decius wished for a like subject of glory, and, perhaps, would utterly extinguish that fire, which the other left smothered, in such a manner, that it often broke out anew, in sudden conflagrations. In fine, honours and rewards he would concede to his colleague, out of respect to his age and dignified character: but when danger, when a vigorous struggle with an enemy was before them, he never did, nor ever would, willingly, give place. With respect to the present dispute, this much he would gain, at all events, that a business, appertaining to the jurisdiction of the people, should be determined by an order of that people, and not complimented away by the senate. He prayed Jupiter, supremely good and great, and all the immortal gods, not to grant him an equal chance with his colleague, unless they intended to grant him equal ability and success, in the management of the war. It was certainly in its nature reasonable, in the example salutary, and concerned the reputation of the Roman people, that the consuls should be men of such abilities, that either of them was fully equal to the command in a war with Etruria.” Fabius, after just requesting of the people, that, before the tribes were called in to give their votes, they would hear the letters of the prætor Appius Claudius, written from Etruria, withdrew from the Comitium, and the people, not less unanimously than the senate, decreed to him the province of Etruria, without having recourse to lots.
XXV. Immediately almost all the younger citizens flocked together to the consul, and cheerfully gave in their names, earnestly desirous of serving under such a commander. Seeing so great a multitude collected round him, he said, “My intention is to enlist only four thousand foot, and six hundred horse: such of you as give in your names to-day and to-morrow, I will carry with me. I am more solicitous to bring home all my soldiers rich, than to employ a great multitude.” Accordingly, with a competent number of men, who possessed greater hopes and confidence, because a numerous army had not been required, he marched to the town of Aharna, from which the enemy were not far distant, and proceeded to the camp of the prætor Appius. When he came within a few miles of it, he was met by some soldiers, sent to cut wood, attended by a guard. Observing the lictors preceding him, and learning that he was Fabius the consul, they were filled with joy; and expressed warm thanks to the gods, and to the Roman people, for having sent them such a commander. Then, as they gathered round, to pay their respects, Fabius enquired whither they were going, and on their answering that they were going to provide wood, “what do you tell me,” said he, “have you not a rampart raised about your camp?” “They had,” they replied, “a double rampart, and a trench; and, notwithstanding, were in great apprehension.” “Well then,” said he, “you have abundance of wood, go back and level the rampart.” They accordingly returned to the camp, and there levelling the rampart, threw the soldiers who had remained in it, and Appius himself, into the greatest fright, until with eager joy each called out to the rest, that, “they acted by order of the consul, Quintus Fabius.” Next day, they decamped, and the prætor Appius was dismissed to Rome. From that time, the Romans had no fixed post; the consul affirming, that it was prejudicial to an army to lie in one spot; and that by frequent marches, and changing places, it was rendered more healthy, and more capable of brisk exertions: and this he practised as long as the season permitted, the winter being not yet ended. Then, in the beginning of spring, leaving the second legion near Clusium, which they formerly called the Camertian, and giving the command of the camp to Lucius Scipio, as pro-prætor, he returned to Rome, in order to adjust measures for carrying on the war; either led thereto by his own judgment, on finding it attended with greater difficulty than he had believed, from report; or, being summoned by a decree of senate; for both accounts are given. Some choose to have it believed, that he was forced to return by the practices of the prætor, Appius Claudius; who, both in the senate, and before the people, exaggerated, as he was wont in all his letters, the danger of the Etrurian war; contending, that “one general, or one army, would not be sufficient to oppose four nations. That whether these directed the whole of their combined force against him alone, or acted separately in different parts, there was reason to fear, that he would be unable to provide, effectually, against every emergency. That he had left there but two Roman legions; and that the foot and horse, who came with Fabius, did not amount to five thousand. It was therefore his opinion, that the consul Publius Decius, should, without delay, join his colleague in Etruria; and that the province of Samnium should be given to Lucius Volumnius. But, if the consul preferred going to his own province, that then Volumnius should march a full consular army into Etruria, to join the other commander.” The advice of the prætor was approved by a great part of the members; but Publius Decius recommended that every thing should be kept undetermined, and open for Quintus Fabius; until he should either come to Rome, if he could do so without prejudice to the public, or send some of his lieutenants, from whom the senate might learn the real state of the war in Etruria; and what number of troops, and how many generals, would be requisite for carrying it on.
XXVI. Fabius, on his return to Rome, qualified his discourses, both in the senate and before the people, in such a manner as to appear neither to exaggerate, or lessen, any particular relating to the war; and to show, that, in agreeing to another general being joined with him, he rather indulged the apprehensions of others, than guarded against any danger to himself, or the public. “But if they chose,” he said, “to give him an assistant, and associate in command, how could he overlook Publius Decius the consul; with whom he was perfectly acquainted, as a colleague, on so many occasions? There was no man living whom he would rather wish to be joined in commission with him: with Publius Decius he should have forces sufficient, and never too many enemies. If, however, his colleague preferred any other employment, let them then give him Lucius Volumnius as an assistant.” The disposal of every particular was left entirely to Fabius by the people and the senate, and even by his colleague; while Decius, having declared that he was ready to go either to Etruria, or Samnium, such general congratulation and satisfaction took place, that all men anticipated victory, and felt as if a triumph, not a war, had been decreed to the consuls. I find in some writers, that Fabius and Decius, immediately on their entering into office, set out together for Etruria; and no mention is made of the casting of lots, or of the disputes which I have related. Others, not satisfied with relating those disputes, have added charges of misconduct, laid by Appius before the people against Fabius, when absent; and a stubborn opposition, maintained by the prætor against the consul, when present; and also another contention between the colleagues, Decius insisting that each consul should attend to the care of his own separate province. Certainty however begins to appear, from the time when both consuls set out for the campaign. Now, before these arrived in Etruria, the Senonian Gauls came in a vast body to Clusium, to attack the Roman legion encamped there. Scipio, who commanded in that post, wishing to remedy the deficiency of his numbers, by an advantage in the ground, led his men up a hill, which stood between the camp and the city: but having, in his haste, neglected to examine the place, when he came near the summit, he found it already possessed by the enemy, who had ascended on the other side. The legion was, consequently, attacked on the rear, and surrounded by several battalions, who pressed it on all sides. Some writers say, that the whole were cut off, so that not one survived to give an account of the disaster; and that no information of the misfortune reached the consuls, who were, at the time, not far from Clusium, until the Gallic horsemen came within sight, carrying the heads of the slain, some hanging before their horses’ breasts, others on the points of their spears, and expressing their triumph in songs, according to their custom. Others affirm, that the defeat was by Umbrians, not Gauls, and that the loss sustained was not so great. That a party of foragers, under Lucius Manlius Torquatus, lieutenant-general, being surrounded, Scipio, the proprætor, brought up relief from the camp, and, renewing the battle, defeated the Umbrians lately victorious, and retook the prisoners and spoil. But it is more probable, that this blow was suffered from a Gallic, than an Umbrian enemy; because during that year, as was often the case at other times, the danger principally apprehended by the public, was that of a Gallic tumult; for which reason, notwithstanding that both the consuls had marched against the enemy, with four legions, and a large body of Roman cavalry, joined by a thousand chosen horsemen of Campania, supplied on the occasion, and a body of the allies and Latine confederates, superior in number to the Romans, two other armies were posted near the city, on the side facing Etruria; one, in the Faliscian, the other in the Vatican territory, Cneius Fulvius, and Lucius Postumius Megellus, both proprætors, being ordered to keep the troops stationed in those places.
XXVII. The consuls, having crossed the Appennines, came up with the combined forces in the territory of Sentinum, and pitched their camp, distant from them about four miles. Several councils were then held by the enemy, and their plan of operations was thus settled; that they should not encamp together, nor go out together to battle: the Gauls were united to the Samnites, the Umbrians to the Etrurians. The day of battle was fixed. The part of maintaining the fight was committed to the Samnites and Gauls; and the Etrurians and Umbrians were ordered to attack the Roman camp during the heat of the engagement. This plan was frustrated by three Clusian deserters, who came over by night to Fabius, and after disclosing the above designs, were sent back with presents, in order that they might discover, and bring intelligence of, any new scheme which should be formed. The consuls then wrote to Flavius and Postumius to move their armies, the one from the Faliscian, the other from the Vatican country, towards Clusium; and to ruin the enemy’s territory by every means in their power. The news of these depredations drew the Etrurians from Sentinum to protect their own region. The consuls, in their absence, practised every means to bring on an engagement. For two days, they endeavoured, by several attacks, to provoke the enemy to fight; in which time, however, nothing worth mention was performed. A few fell on each side, but still the minds of the Romans were so irritated as to wish for a general engagement, yet nothing decisive was hazarded. On the third day, both parties marched out their whole force to the field: here, while the armies stood in order of battle, a hind, chased by a wolf from the mountains, ran through the plain between the two lines: there the animals turned their courses to different sides; the hind towards the Gauls, the wolf towards the Romans: way was made between the ranks for the wolf, the Gauls slew the hind with their javelins; on which one of the Roman soldiers in the van said, “To that side, where you see an animal, sacred to Diana, lying prostrate, flight and slaughter are directed; on this side the victorious wolf of Mars, safe and untouched, reminds us of our founder, and of our descent from that deity.” The Gauls were posted on the right wing, the Samnites on the left: against the latter, Fabius drew up, as his right wing, the first and third legions; against the Gauls, Decius formed the left wing of the fifth and sixth. The second and fourth were employed in the war in Samnium, under the pro-consul Lucius Volumnius. The first encounter was supported with strength so equal on both sides, that had the Etrurians and Umbrians been present at the action, either in the field or at the camp, in whichever place they might have employed their force, the Romans must have been defeated.
XXVIII. However, although the victory was still undecided, fortune not having declared in favour of either party, yet the course of the fight was by no means similar on both right and left wings. The Romans, under Fabius, rather repelled than offered assault; and the contest was protracted until very late in the day: for their general knew very well, that both Samnites and Gauls were furious in the first onset; so that, to prevent their progress, was as much as could well be effected. It was known, too, that in a longer dispute, the spirits of the Samnites gradually flagged, and even the bodies of the Gauls, remarkably ill able to bear labour and heat, became quite relaxed; and although, in their first efforts, they were more than men, yet in their last they were less than women. He, therefore, reserved the strength of his men for the aforesaid reasons, until the time when the enemy were the more likely to be worsted. Decius, more impetuous, as being in the prime of life, and full flow of spirits, exerted his whole force to the utmost in the first encounter; and thinking the infantry not sufficiently powerful, brought up the cavalry to their aid. Putting himself at the head of a troop of young horsemen, of distinguished bravery, he besought those youths, the flower of the army, to follow him, and charge the enemy; telling them, “they would reap a double share of glory, if the victory should commence on the left wing, and through their means.” Twice they compelled the Gallic cavalry to gave way. At the second charge they advanced nearer, and were briskly engaged in the midst of the enemy’s squadrons, when, by a method of fighting, to which they were utter strangers, they were thrown into dismay. A number of the enemy, mounted on chariots and cars, made towards them with such a prodigious clatter from the trampling of the cattle and rolling of wheels, as affrighted the horses of the Romans, unaccustomed to such tumultuous operations. By this means the victorious cavalry were dispersed, through a panic, and men and horses, in their headlong flight, were tumbled promiscuously on the ground. The same cause produced disorder even in the battalions of the legions: through the impetuosity of the horses, and of the carriages which they dragged through the ranks, many of the soldiers in the van were trodden or bruised to death; while the Gallic line, as soon as they saw their enemy in confusion, pursued the advantage, nor allowed them time to take breath. Decius, calling aloud, “whither were they flying, or what hope could they have in running away?” strove to stop them as they turned their backs, but finding that he could not, by any efforts, prevail on them to keep their posts, so thoroughly were they dismayed, he called on the name of his father Publius Decius, and said, “Why do I any longer defer the fate entailed on my family? It is the appointment of destiny to our race, that we should serve as expiatory victims to avert the public danger. I will now offer the legions of the enemy, together with myself, a bloody sacrifice to Earth, and the infernal gods.” Having thus said, he commanded Marcus Livius, a pontiff, whom, at his coming out to the field, he had charged not to stir from him, to dictate the form of words in which he was to devote himself, and the legions of the enemy, for the army of the Roman people, the Quirites. He was accordingly devoted with the same imprecations, and in the same habit, in which his father Publius Decius had ordered himself to be devoted at the Veseris in the Latine war. After this, he added, that “he carried along with him dismay and flight, slaughter and blood, and the wrath of the gods celestial and infernal; that, with the contagious influence of the furies, the ministers of death, whose victim he was, he would infect the standards, the weapons, and the armour of the enemy; and on the same spot, should be accomplished his perdition, and that of the Gauls and Samnites.” After uttering these execrations on himself and the foe, he spurred forward his horse, where he saw the line of the Gauls thickest, and, rushing upon the enemy’s weapons, met his death.
XXIX. Thenceforward the battle seemed to be fought with a degree of force which could scarcely be deemed human. The Romans, on the loss of their general, a circumstance which, on other occasions, is wont to inspire terror, stopped their flight, and re-assumed spirit to begin the combat afresh. The Gauls, and especially those who encircled the consul’s body, as if deprived of reason, cast their javelins at random without execution; some became so stupid as not to think of either fighting or flying: while, on the other side, Livius the pontiff, to whom Decius had transferred his lictors, with orders to act as pro-prætor, cried out aloud, that “the Romans were victorious, being exempted from misfortune by the death of their consul. That the Gauls and Samnites were now the victims of mother Earth, and the infernal gods. That Decius was summoning and dragging to himself, the army devoted along with him: and that, among the enemy, all was full of dismay, and the vengeance of the fulries.” While the soldiers were busy in restoring the fight, they were joined by Lucius Cornelius Scipio and Caius Marcius, with some reserved troops from the rear, who had been sent by Quintus Fabius, the consul, to the support of his colleague. These, on being made acquainted with the fate of Decius, were powerfully excited to brave every danger in the cause of the public; but, as the Gauls stood in close order, with their shields formed into a fence before them, little prospect of success appeared from a close fight. The javelins, which lay scattered between the two lines were, therefore, by order of the lieutenants-general, gathered up from the ground, and thrown against the enemy’s shields, and as most of them pierced the fence, the long-pointed ones even into their bodies, their compact band was overthrown in such a manner, that a great many, who were unhurt, yet fell as if thunderstruck. Such were the changes of fortune on the left wing of the Romans: on the right, Fabius had at first protracted the time, as we mentioned above, in slow operations: then, as soon as he perceived that neither the shout, nor the efforts of the enemy, nor the weapons which they threw, retained their former force, ordered the commanders of the cavalry to lead round their squadrons to the wing of the Samnites, and, on receiving the signal, to charge them in flank, with all possible violence, he commanding, at the same time, his infantry to advance leisurely, and drive the enemy from their ground. When he saw that they were unable to maintain their posts, and manifestly spent with fatigue, drawing together all his reserves, whom he had kept fresh for that occasion, he made a brisk push with the legions, giving the cavalry the signal to charge. The Samnites could not support the shock, but fled precipitately to their camp, passing by the line of the Gauls, and leaving their allies to fight by themselves. These stood in close order under cover of their shields: Fabius, therefore, having heard of the death of his colleague, ordered the squadron of Campanian cavalry, in number about five hundred, to fall back from the ranks, ride round, and attack the rear of the Gallic line, sending the chief strength of the third legion after these, with directions that wherever they should see the enemy’s troops disordered by the charge, to follow the blow, and cut them to pieces, before they recovered from their consternation. After vowing a temple, and the spoils which might fall into his hands, to Jupiter the victorious, he proceeded to the camp of the Samnites, whither all their forces were hurrying in confusion. The gates not affording entrance to such very great numbers, those who were necessarily excluded, attempted resistance just at the foot of the rampart, and here fell Gellius Egnatius the Samnite general. These, however, were soon driven within the rampart; the camp was taken after a slight dispute; and at the same time the Gauls were attacked on the rear, and overpowered. There were slain of the enemy on that day twenty-five thousand; eight thousand were taken prisoners. Nor was the victory gained without loss of blood; for, of the army of Publius Decius, the killed amounted to seven thousand; of the army of Fabius, to one thousand two hundred. Fabius, after sending persons to search for the body of his colleague, had the spoils of the enemy collected into a heap, and burned them as an offering to Jupiter the victorious. The consul’s body could not be found that day, being hid under a heap of slaughtered Gauls: on the following, it was discovered and brought to the camp, amidst abundance of tears shed by the soldiers. Fabius, discarding all concern about any other business, solemnized the obsequies of his colleague in the most honourable manner, passing on him the high encomiums which he had justly merited.
XXX. During the same period, Cneius Fulvius, pro-prætor, made a progress in Etruria equal to his wishes; having, besides the immense losses occasioned to the enemy by the devastation of their lands, fought a battle with extraordinary success, in which there were above three thousand of the Perusians and Clusians slain, and twenty military standards taken. The Samnites in their flight, passing through the Pelignian territory, were attacked on all sides by the Pelignians; and, out of five thousand, one thousand were killed. The glory of the day in the affair at Sentinum was great, when represented with a strict adherence to truth: but some have carried their exaggerations of it beyond the bounds of credibility, asserting in their writings, that there were in the army of the enemy forty thousand three hundred and thirty foot, six thousand horse, and one thousand chariots, that is, including the Etrurians and Umbrians, who they affirm were present in the engagement: and, to magnify, likewise, the number of Roman forces, they add to the consuls another general, Lucius Volumnius, pro-consul and his army to their legions. In the greater number of annals, that victory is ascribed entirely to the two consuls; and it is mentioned that Volumnius was employed at the time in Samnium; that he compelled the army of the Samnites to retreat to mount Tifernus, and, not retarded by the difficulty of the ground, routed and dispersed them. Quintus Fabius, leaving Decius’s army in Etruria, and leading off his own legions to the city, triumphed over the Gauls, Etrurians, and Samnites; the soldiers attending his triumph. These, in their coarse military verses, celebrated not more highly the conduct of Quintus Fabius, than the illustrious death of Publius Decius; recalling to memory his self-immolated father, of whom the son might be considered as a glorious counterpart, in respect of the issue which resulted both to himself and to the public. Out of the spoil, donations were made to the soldiers of eighty-two asses* to each, with cloaks and vests; rewards for service, which in that age were far from contemptible.
XXXI. Notwithstanding these successes, peace was not yet established, either among the Samnites or Etrurians: for the latter, at the instigation of the Perusians, resumed their arms, as soon as the consul had withdrawn his troops; and the Samnites made predatory incursions on the territories of Vescia and Formiæ; and also on the other side, on those of Æsernia, and the parts adjacent to the river Vulturnus. Against these was sent the prætor Appius Claudius, with the army formerly commanded by Decius. In Etruria, Fabius, on the revival of hostilities, slew four thousand five hundred of the Perusians, and took prisoners one thousand seven hundred and forty, who were ransomed at the rate of three hundred and ten asses* each. All the rest of the spoil was bestowed on the soldiers. The legions of the Samnites, though pursued, some by the prætor Appius Claudius, the others by Lucius Volumnius, pro-consul, formed a junction in the country of the Stellatians. Here sat down, on one side, the whole body of the Samnites; and, on the other, Appius and Volumnius, with their forces united in one camp. A battle ensued, fought with the most rancorous animosity, one party being spurred on by rage against men who had so often renewed their attacks on them, and the other, now fighting in support of their last remaining hope. The consequence was, that there were slain, of the Samnites, sixteen thousand three hundred, and two thousand and seven hundred made prisoners: of the Roman army fell two thousand and seven hundred. This year, so successful in the operations of war, was filled with distress at home, arising from a pestilence; and with anxiety, occasioned by prodigies: for accounts were received that, in many places, showers of earth had fallen; and that very many persons, in the army of Appius Claudius, had been struck by lightning; in consequence of which, the books were consulted. At this time, Quintus Fabius Gurges, the consul’s son, having prosecuted some matrons before the people on a charge of adultery, built, with the money accruing from the fines which they were condemned to pay, the temple of Venus, which stands near the Circus. Still we have the wars of the Samnites on our hands, notwithstanding that the relation of them has already extended, in one continued course, through four volumes of our history, and through a period of forty-six years, from the consulate of Marcus Valerius and Aulus Cornelius, who first carried the Roman arms into Samnium. And, not to recite the long train of disasters sustained by both nations, and the toils which they underwent, which, however, were not sufficient to subdue their stubborn fortitude; even in the course of the last year, the Samnites, with their own forces separately, and also in conjunction with those of other nations, had been defeated by four several armies, and four generals of the Romans, in the territory of Sentinum, in that of the Pelignians, at Tifernum, and in the plains of the Stellatians; had lost the general of the highest character in their nation; and, now, saw their allies in the war, the Etrurians, the Umbrians, and the Gauls, in the same situation with themselves; but, although destitute of support, either in their own or in foreign resources, yet did they not desist from the prosecution of hostilities. So indefatigably, though unsuccessfully, did they struggle in defence of liberty; and, rather than not aspire after victory, chose to subject themselves to repeated defeats. Who does not find his patience tired, either in writing, or reading, of wars of such continuance; and which yet exhausted not the resolution of the parties concerned?
Y.R.458. 294.XXXII. Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius were succeeded in the consulship by Lucius Postumius Megellus and Marcus Atilius Regulus. The province of Samnium was decreed to both in conjunction; because intelligence had been received that the enemy had embodied three armies; one for the recovery of Etruria; another to repeat their ravages in Campania; and the third, intended for the defence of their frontiers. Sickness detained Postumius at Rome, but Atilius set out immediately, with design to surprise the enemy in Samnium, before they should have advanced beyond their own borders; for such had been the directions of the senate. The Romans met the enemy, as if by mutual appointment, at a spot, where, while they could be hindered, not only from ravaging, but even from entering the Samnite territory, they could likewise hinder the Samnites from continuing their progress into the countries which were quiet, and the lands of the allies of the Roman people. While they lay opposite to each other, the Samnites attempted an enterprize, which the Romans, so often their conquerors, would scarcely have ventured to undertake; such is the rashness inspired by extreme despair: this was an assault on the Roman camp. And although this attempt, so daring, succeeded not in its full extent, yet it was not without considerable effect. There was a fog, which continued through a great part of the day, so thick as to exclude the light of the sun, and to prevent not only the view of any thing beyond the rampart, but scarcely the sight of each other, when they should meet. Depending on this, as a covering to the design, when the sun was but just risen, and the light, which he did afford, was obscured by the fog, the Samnites came up to an advanced guard of the Romans, at one of the gates, who were standing carelessly on their post. In the sudden surprise, these had neither courage nor strength to make resistance: an assault was then made, through the Decuman gate, in the rear of the camp: the quæstor’s quarters, in consequence, fell into the hands of the enemy, and the quæstor, Lucius Opimius Pansa, was there slain, on which a general alarm was given.
XXXIII. The consul, being roused by the tumult, ordered two cohorts of the allies, a Lucanian and Suessanian, which happened to be nearest, to defend the head-quarters, and led the companies of the legions down the principal street. These ran into the ranks, scarcely taking time to furnish themselves with arms; and, as they distinguished the enemy by their shout, rather than by sight, could form no judgment how great their number might be: thus, ignorant of the circumstances of their situation, they at first drew back, and suffered them to penetrate into the heart of the camp. The consul, asking them aloud, whether they intended to let themselves be beaten out beyond the rampart, and then to return again to storm their own camp; they raised the shout, and uniting their efforts, stood their ground; then made advances, pushed closely on the enemy, and having forced them to give way, drove them back, without suffering their first terror to abate. They soon beat them out beyond the gate and the rampart, but not daring to pursue them, because the darkness of the weather made them apprehend an ambush, and content with having cleared the camp, they retired within the rampart, having killed about three hundred of the enemy. Of the Romans, including the first advanced guard and the watchmen, and those who were surprised at the quæstor’s quarters, two hundred and thirty perished. This not unsuccessful piece of boldness raised the spirits of the Samnites so high, that they not only prevented the Romans from marching forward into their country, but even from procuring forage from their lands; and the foragers were obliged to go back into the quiet country of Sora. News of these events being conveyed to Rome, with circumstances of alarm magnified beyond the truth, Lucius Postumius, the consul, though scarcely recovered from his illness, was obliged to set out for the army. However, before his departure, having issued a proclamation that his troops should assemble at Sora, he dedicated the temple of Victory, for the building of which he had provided, when curule ædile, out of the money arising from fines; and, joining the army, he advanced from Sora towards Samnium, to the camp of his colleague. The Samnites, despairing of being able to make head against the two armies, retreated from thence, on which the consuls, separating, proceeded by different routes to lay waste the enemy’s lands, and besiege their towns.
XXXIV. Postumius attempted to make himself master of Milionia by storm; but not succeeding with regular works, he carried his approaches to the walls, and thus gained an entrance into the place. The fight was continued in all parts of the city from the fourth hour until near the eighth, and for a great part of the time without any decisive advantage: the Romans, at last, gained possession of it. Three thousand two hundred of the Samnites were killed, four thousand two hundred taken, besides the other booty. From thence, the legions were conducted to Ferentinum, out of which the inhabitants had, during the night, retired in silence through the opposite gate, with all their effects which could be either carried or driven. The consul, on his arrival, approached the walls with the same order and circumspection, as if he were to meet an opposition here, equal to what he had experienced at Milionia. The troops, perceiving a dead silence in the city, and neither arms nor men on the towers and ramparts, were eager to mount the deserted fortifications, but he restrained them, lest they might fall into a snare. He ordered two divisions of the confederate Latine horse to ride round the walls, and explore every particular. These horsemen observed one gate, and at a little distance, another on the same side, standing wide open, and on the roads leading from these, every mark of the enemy having fled by night. They then rode up leisurely to the gates, from whence, with perfect safety, they took a clear view through straight streets quite across the city. Returning to the consul, they told him that the city was abandoned by the enemy, as was plain from the solitude, the tracks on their retreat, and the things which, in the confusion of the night, they had left scattered up and down. On hearing this, the consul led round the army to that side of the city which had been examined, and making the troops halt, at a little distance from the gate, gave orders that five horsemen should ride into the city; and, when they should have advanced a good way into it, then, if they saw all things safe, three should remain there, and the other two return to him with intelligence. These returned and said, that they had proceeded to a part of the town from which they had a view on every side, and that nothing but silence and solitude reigned through the whole extent of it. The consul immediately led some light-armed cohorts into the city; ordering the rest to fortify a camp in the mean time. The soldiers, who entered the town, breaking open the doors, found only a few persons, disabled by age or sickness; and such effects remaining as could not, without difficulty, be removed. These were seized as plunder: and it was discovered from the prisoners, that several cities in that quarter had, in pursuance of a concerted plan, resolved on flight; that their towns-people had gone off at the first watch, and they believed that the same solitude would be found in the other places. The accounts of the prisoners proved well-founded, and the consul took possession of the forsaken towns.
XXXV. The other consul, Marcus Atilius, met much greater difficulties in the war wherein he was engaged. As he was marching his legions towards Luceria, to which he was informed that the Samnites had laid siege, the enemy met him on the border of the Lucerian territory. Rage supplied them, on this occasion, with strength to equal his: the battle was stubbornly contested, and the victory doubtful: the issue, however, proved more calamitous on the side of the Romans, both because they were unaccustomed to defeat, and that, on leaving the field, they felt more sensibly, than during the heat of the action, the number of their wounds, and the loss of men which they had sustained. In consequence of this, such dismay spread through the camp, as, had it seized them during the engagement, must have occasioned their overthrow. Even as the matter stood, they spent the night in great anxiety; expecting, every instant, that the camp would be assaulted by the Samnites; or that, at the first light, they should be obliged to stand a battle with an apparently powerful foe. On the side of the enemy, however, although there was less loss, yet there was not greater courage. As soon as day appeared, they wished to retire without any more fighting; but there was only one road, and that leading close by the post of their enemy; so that, on their march, it seemed as if they were advancing directly to attack the camp. The consul, therefore, ordered his men to take arms, and to follow him to the field, giving directions to the lieutenants-general, tribunes, and the præfects of the allies, in what manner he would have each of them act. They all assured him, that “they would do every thing in their power, but that the soldiers were quite dejected; that, from their own wounds, and the groans of the dying, they had passed the whole night without sleep; that if the enemy had approached the camp before day, so great were the fears of the troops, that they would certainly have deserted their standards. Even at present they were restrained from flight, merely by shame; and, in other respects, were little better than vanquished men.” This account made the consul judge it necessary to go himself among the soldiers, and speak to them; and, as he came up to each, he rebuked them for their backwardness in taking arms, asking, “why they loitered, and declined the fight? If they did not choose to go out of the camp, the enemy would come into it; and they must fight in defence of their tents, if they would not in defence of the rampart. Men who have arms in their hands, and contend with their foe, have always a chance for victory; but the man who waits naked and unarmed for his enemy, must suffer either death or slavery.” To these reprimands and rebukes they answered, that “they were exhausted by the fatigue of the battle of yesterday; and had no strength, nor even blood remaining; and besides, the enemy appeared more numerous than they were the day before.” The hostile army, in the mean time, drew near: so that, seeing every thing more distinctly as the distance grew less, they asserted that the Samnites carried with them palisades for a rampart, and evidently intended to draw lines of circumvallation round the camp. On this the consul exclaimed, with great earnestness, against submitting to such an ignominious insult, and from so dastardly a foe. “Shall we even be blockaded,” said he, “in our camp, and die, like cowards, by famine, rather than like men, if death must be our lot by the sword? May the gods be propitious! and let every one act in the manner which he thinks becomes him. The consul Marcus Atilius, should no other accompany him, will go out, even alone, to face the enemy; and will fall in the middle of the Samnite battalions, rather than see the Roman camp enclosed by their trenches.” The lieutenants-general, tribunes, every troop of the cavalry, and the principal centurions, expressed their approbation of what the consul said: and the soldiers, at length, overcome by shame, took up their arms, but in a spiritless manner: and, in the same spiritless manner, marched out of the camp. In a long train, and that not every where connected, melancholy, and seemingly subdued, they proceeded towards the enemy, whose hopes and courage were not more steady than theirs. As soon therefore as these beheld the Roman standards, a murmur spread from front to rear of the Samnites, that, as they had feared, “the Romans were coming out to oppose their march; that there was no road open, through which they could even fly thence: in that spot they must fall, or else cut down the enemy’s ranks, and make their way over their bodies.”
XXXVI. They then threw the baggage in a heap, in the centre, and, with their arms, prepared for battle, formed their line, each falling into his own post. There was now but a small interval between the two armies, and both stood, waiting, until the shout and onset should be begun by their adversary. Neither party had any inclination to fight, and they would have separated, and taken different roads, without coming to action, but that each had a dread of being harassed in retreat by the other. Notwithstanding this reluctance, an engagement unavoidably began, but without any vigour, and with a shout, which discovered neither resolution nor steadiness; nor did any move a foot from his post. The Roman consul, then, in order to infuse life into the action, ordered a few troops of cavalry to advance out of the line, and charge: most of whom being thrown from their horses, and the rest put into disorder, several parties ran forward, both from the Samnite line, to cut off those who had fallen, and from the Roman, to protect their friends: this roused some little spirit in the combatants; but the Samnites had come forward, with more briskness, and also in greater numbers, and the disordered cavalry, with their affrighted horses, trod down their own party who came to their relief. These were, consequently, the first who fled; and their example was followed by the whole Roman line. And now the Samnites had no employment for their arms but against the rear of a flying enemy, when the consul, galloping on before his men, to the gate of the camp, posted there a body of cavalry, with orders to treat as an enemy, any person who should make towards the rampart, whether Roman or Samnite; and, placing himself in the way of his men, as they pressed in disorder towards the camp, denounced threats to the same purport: “whither are you going, soldiers?” said he, “here also you will find both men and arms; nor, while your consul lives, shall you pass the rampart, unless you bring victory along with you. Choose, therefore, which you will prefer, fighting against your own countrymen, or the enemy.” While the consul was thus speaking, the cavalry gathered round, with the points of their spears presented, and ordered the infantry to return to the fight. Not only his own brave spirit, but fortune likewise aided the consul, for the Samnites did not push their advantage; so that he had time to wheel round his battalions, and to change his front from the camp, towards the enemy. The men then began to encourage each other to return to the battle, while the centurions snatched the ensigns from the standard-bearers, and bore them forward, pointing out to the soldiers the enemy, coming on in a hurry, few in number, and with their ranks disordered. At the same time the consul, with his hands lifted up towards heaven, and raising his voice so as to be heard at a distance, vowed a temple to Jupiter Stator, if the Roman army should rally from flight, and renewing the battle, defeat the Samnites. All divisions of the army now united their efforts to restore the fight; officers, soldiers, in short, the whole force, both of cavalry and infantry, even the gods seemed to have looked with favour on the Roman cause; so speedily was a thorough change effected in the fortune of the day, the enemy being repulsed from the camp, and, in a short time, driven back to the spot where the battle had commenced. Here they stopped, being obstructed by the heap of baggage, lying in their way, where they had thrown it together; and then to prevent the plundering of their effects, formed round them a circle of troops. On this, the infantry assailed them vigorously in front, while the cavalry, wheeling, fell on their rear: and, being thus inclosed between the two, they were all either slain or taken prisoners. The number of the prisoners was seven thousand three hundred, who were all sent under the yoke; the killed amounted to four thousand eight hundred. The victory was not obtained without loss of blood, on the side of the Romans: when the consul took an account of the loss sustained in the two days, the number returned, of soldiers lost, was seven thousand three hundred. During these transactions in Apulia, the Samnites attempted to seize on Interamna, a Roman colony situated on the Latine road, but, being disappointed in their design on the town, employed their troops in ravaging the country; whence, as they were driving off spoil, consisting of men and cattle, together with the colonists, who fell into their hands, they met the consul returning victorious from Luceria, and not only lost their booty, but marching in disorder, in a long train, and heavily encumbered, were themselves cut to pieces. The consul, by proclamation summoned the owners to Interamna, to claim, and receive again their property, and leaving his army there, went to Rome to hold the elections. On his applying for a triumph, that honour was refused him, because he had lost so many thousands of his soldiers; and also, because he had sent the prisoners under the yoke, without imposing any conditions.
XXXVII. The other consul, Postumius, finding no employment for his arms in Samnium, led over his forces into Etruria, where he first laid waste the lands of the Volsinians: and, afterwards, on their marching out to protect their country, gained a decisive victory over them, at a small distance from their own walls. Two thousand two hundred of the Etrurians were slain; the rest owed their safety to the city being so near. The army was then led into the territory of Rusella, and there, not only were the lands wasted, but the town itself taken. More than two thousand men were made prisoners, and somewhat less than that number killed on the walls. But a peace, effected that year in Etruria, was still more important and honourable than the war had been. Three very powerful cities of Etruria, (Volsinii, Perusia, and Arretium,) made overtures of peace; and having stipulated with the consul to furnish clothing and corn for his army, on condition of being permitted to send deputies to Rome, they obtained a truce for forty years, and a fine was imposed on each state of five hundred thousand asses,* to be immediately paid. Postumius having demanded a triumph from the senate, in consideration of these services, rather in compliance with the general practice, than in hope of succeeding; and finding a strong opposition made to his request; by one party, out of enmity to himself; by another, out of friendship to his colleague, whose disappointment they wished to console by a similar refusal: some objecting that he had been too dilatory in setting out from the city, others, that he had removed from Samnium into Etruria without orders from the senate; he addressed them thus: “Conscript Fathers, I shall not carry my deference to your high dignity to such a length, as to forget that I am consul. The same authority of my office, by which I carried on those wars, shall now, when the wars have been brought to a happy conclusion, Samnium and Etruria being subdued, and victory and peace procured, give me the recompense of a triumph.” With these words he left the senate. On this arose a contention between the plebeian tribunes; some of them declaring that they would protest against his assuming a triumph, in a method unprecedented; others, that they would support his pretensions in opposition to their colleagues. The affair came at length to be discussed before the people, and the consul being summoned to attend, he first represented, that Marcus Horatius and Lucius Valerius, when consuls, and lately Caius Marcius Rutilus, father of the present censor, had triumphed, not by direction of the senate, but by that of the people; and then added, that “he would, in like manner, have laid his request before the public, had he not known that some plebeian tribunes, the abject slaves of the nobles, would have obstructed their passing an order on it. But he did, and ever should, consider the universal approbation, and will of the people, as equivalent to any order whatsoever.” Accordingly, on the day following, being supported by three plebeian tribunes, in opposition to the protest of the other seven, and the declared judgment of the senate, he triumphed; and the people paid every honour to the day. In the historical accounts which have been transmitted to us, of this year, there is some confusion; Claudius asserts, that Postumius, after having taken several cities in Samnium, was defeated and put to flight in Apulia; and that, being wounded himself, he was obliged to take refuge with a few attendants in Luceria. That the war in Etruria was conducted by Allius, and that it was he who triumphed. Fabius writes, that the two consuls acted in conjunction, both in Samnium and at Luceria; that an army was led over into Etruria, but by which of the consuls he has not mentioned; that at Luceria, great numbers were slain on both sides: and that in that battle, the temple of Jupiter Stator was vowed, the same vow having been formerly made by Romulus, but the fane only, that is, the area appropriated for the temple, had been yet consecrated. However, in this year, the state having been twice bound by the same vow, the senate, to avoid the guilt of neglect in the case of a religious obligation, ordered the fane to be erected.
XXXVIII. In the next year we find a consul, of a character eminently illustrious, distinguished by the united splendour of his own and his father’s glory, Lucius Papirius Cursor.Y.R.459. 293. We find likewise a war of the utmost importance, and a victory of such consequence, as no man, excepting Lucius Papirius, the consul’s father, had ever before obtained over the Samnites. It happened too that these had, with the same care and pains as on the former occasion, decorated their soldiers with the richest suits of splendid armour; and they had, likewise, called in to their aid the power of the gods, having, as it were, initiated the soldiers, by administering the military oath, with the solemn ceremonies practised in ancient times, and levied troops in every part of Samnium, under an ordinance entirely new, that “if any of the younger inhabitants should not attend the meeting, according to the general’s proclamation, or shall depart without permission, his head should be devoted to Jupiter.” Orders being then issued, for all to assemble at Aquilonia, the whole strength of Samnium came together, amounting to forty thousand men. There a piece of ground, in the middle of the camp, was enclosed with hurdles and boards, and covered overhead with linen cloth, the sides being all of an equal length, about two hundred feet. In this place sacrifices were performed, according to directions read out of an old linen book, the function of priest being discharged by a very old man, called Ovius Paccius, who affirmed that he took these ceremonials from the ancient ritual of the Samnites, being the same which their ancestors used, when they had formed the secret design of wresting Capua from the Etrurians. When the sacrifices were finished, the general ordered a beadle to summon every one of those who were most highly distinguished by their birth, or conduct: these were introduced singly. Besides the other exhibitions of the solemnity, calculated to impress the mind with religious awe, there were, in the middle of the covered enclosure, altars erected, about which lay the victims slain, and the centurions stood around with their swords drawn. The soldier was led up to the altars, rather like a victim, than a performer in the ceremony, and was bound by an oath not to divulge what he should see and hear in that place. He was then compelled to swear, in a dreadful kind of form, containing execrations on his own person, on his family and race, if he did not go to battle, whithersoever the commanders should lead; and, if either he himself fled from the field; or, in case he should see any other flying, did not immediately kill him. At first some, refusing to take the oath, were put to death round the altars, and lying among the carcases of the victims, served afterwards as a warning to others not to refuse it. When those of the first rank in the Samnite nation had been bound under these solemnities, the general nominated ten, whom he desired to choose each a man, and so to proceed until they should have filled up the number of sixteen thousand. This body, from the covering of the enclosure wherein the nobility had been thus devoted, was called the linen legion. They were furnished with splendid armour, and plumed helmets, to distinguish them above the rest. They had another body of forces, amounting to somewhat more than twenty thousand, not inferior to the linen legion, either in personal appearance, or renown in war, or their equipment for service. This number, composing the main strength of the nation, sat down at Aquilonia.
XXXIX. On the other side, the consuls set out from the city. First, Spurius Carvilius, to whom had been decreed the veteran legions, which Marcus Atilius, the consul of the preceding year, had left in the territory of Interamna, marched at their head into Samnium; and, while the enemy were busied in their superstitious rites, and holding their secret meeting, he took by storm the town of Amiternum. Here were slain about two thousand eight hundred men, and four thousand two hundred and seventy were made prisoners. Papirius, with a new army, which he raised in pursuance of a decree of the senate, made himself master of the city of Duronia. He took fewer prisoners than his colleague; but slew much greater numbers. Rich booty was acquired in both places. The consuls then, overrunning Samnium, and wasting the province of Atinum with particular severity, arrived, Carvilius at Cominium, and Papirius at Aquilonia, where the main force of the Samnites was posted. Here, for some time, there was neither a cessation of action, nor any vigorous effort. The day was generally spent in provoking the enemy when quiet, and retiring when they offered resistance; in menacing, rather than making an attack. By which practice of beginning, and then desisting, even those trifling skirmishes were continually left without a decision. The other Roman camp was twenty miles distant, and Papirius constantly consulted his absent colleague, on every thing which he undertook, while Carvilius, on his part, directed a greater share of his attention to Aquilonia, where the state of affairs was more critical and important, than to Cominium, which he himself was besieging. When Papirius had fully adjusted every measure, preparatory to an engagement, he despatched a message to his colleague, that “he intended, if the auspices permitted, to fight the enemy on the day following; and that it would be necessary that he (Carvilius) should at the same time make an assault on Cominium, with his utmost force, that the Samnites there might have no leisure to send any succour to Aquilonia.” The messenger had the day for the performance of his journey, and he returned in the night, with an answer to the consul, that his colleague approved of the plan. Papirius, on sending off the messenger, had instantly called an assembly, where he descanted, at large, on the nature of the war in general, and on the mode at present adopted by the enemy, in the equipment of their troops, which certainly served for empty parade, but could have no kind of efficacy towards ensuring success: for “plumes,” he said, “made no wounds; that a Roman javelin would make its way through shields, however painted and gilt; and that the dazzling whiteness of their tunics would soon be besmeared with blood, when the sword began its work. His father had formerly cut off, to a man, a gold and silver army of the Samnites; and such accoutrements had made a more respectable figure, as spoils, in the hands of the conquering foe, than as arms in those of the wearers. Perhaps it was allotted, by destiny, to his name and family, that they should be opposed in command against the most powerful efforts of the Samnites; and should bring home spoils, of such beauty, as to serve for ornaments to the public places. The immortal gods were certainly on his side, on account of the leagues so often solicited, and so often broken. Besides, if a judgment might be formed of the sentiments of the deities, they never were more hostile to any army, than to that, which, in its abominable sacrifice, was polluted with human blood, mingled with that of cattle; which was in all events devoted to the wrath of the gods, dreading, on the one hand, the deities, who were witnesses to the treaties concluded with the Romans; on the other, the imprecations comprised in the oath which they took, in contradiction to those treaties, which they had before sworn to observe: an oath, which, taken through compulsion, they no doubt abhorred; while they as certainly feared, at once the gods, their countrymen, and their enemies.”
XL. The rage of the soldiers was inflamed to a high degree before; but, when the consul had recounted to them all these circumstances, which he had learned from deserters, they then, filled with confidence in both divine and human aid, with one universal shout, demanded the battle; were vexed at the action being deferred; impatient under the intended delay of a day and a night. Papirius, at the third watch, having received his colleague’s letter, arose in silence, and sent the keeper of the chickens to take the auspices. There was no one description of men in the camp, who felt not earnest wishes for the fight: the highest, and the lowest, were equally eager; the general watching the ardour of the soldiers, and the soldiers that of the general. This universal zeal spread even to those employed in taking the auspices; for the chickens having refused to feed, the auspex ventured to misrepresent the omen, and reported to the consul, that they had fed voraciously* . The consul, highly pleased, and giving notice that the auspices were excellent, and that they were to act under the direction of the gods, displayed the signal for battle. Just as he was going out to the field, he happened to receive intelligence from a deserter, that twenty cohorts of Samnites, consisting of about four hundred each, had marched towards Cominium. Lest his colleague should be ignorant of this, he instantly despatched a messenger to him, and then ordered the troops to advance with speed, having already assigned to each division of the army its proper post, and appointed general officers to command them. The command of the right wing he gave to Lucius Volumnius, that of the left to Lucius Scipio, that of the cavalry, to the other lieutenant-generals, Caius Cædicius and Caius Trebonius. He ordered Spurius Nautius to take off the panniers from the mules, and to lead them round quickly, together with his auxiliary cohorts, to a rising ground in view; and there to shew himself during the heat of the engagement, and to raise as much dust as possible. While the general was employed in making these dispositions, a dispute arose among the keepers of the chickens, about the auspices of the day, which was overheard by some Roman horsemen, who, deeming it a matter too important to be slighted, informed Spurius Papirius, the consul’s nephew, that there was a doubt about the auspices. The youth, born in an age when that sort of learning, which inculcates contempt of the gods, was yet unknown, examined into the affair, that he might not carry an uncertain report to the consul; and then acquainted him with it. His answer was, “I very much applaud your conduct and zeal. However, the person who officiates, in taking the auspices, if he makes a false report, draws on his own head the evil portened: but to the Roman people and their army, the favourable omen reported to me is an excellent auspice.” He then commanded the centurions to place the keepers of the chickens in the front of the line. The Samnites likewise brought forward their standards, followed by their main body, armed and decorated in such a manner as to afford a magnificent show. Before the shout was raised, or the battle begun, the auspex, wounded by a random cast of a javelin, fell before the standards; which being told to the consul, he said, “the gods are present in the battle; the guilty has met his punishment.” While the consul uttered these words, a crow, in front of him, cawed with a clear voice; at which augury, the consul being rejoiced, and affirming, that never had the gods displayed more evident demonstrations of their interposition in human affairs, ordered the charge to be sounded and the shout to be raised.
XLI. A furious conflict now ensued, but with very unequal spirit in the combatants. The Romans, actuated by anger, hope, and ardour for conquest, rushed to battle, like men thirsting for their enemy’s blood; while the Samnites, for the most part reluctantly, as if compelled by necessity and religious dread, rather stood on their defence, than made an attack. Nor would they, familiarized as they were to defeats, through a course of so many years, have withstood the first shout and shock of the Romans, had not another fear, operating still more powerfully in their breasts, restrained them from flying. For they had before their eyes the whole scene exhibited at the secret sacrifice, the armed priests, the promiscuous carnage of men and cattle, the altars besmeared with blood of victims, and of their murdered countrymen, the dreadful curses, and the direful form of imprecation, in which they had called down perdition on their family and race. Thus shackled, they stood in their posts, more afraid of their countrymen, than of the enemy. The Romans, pushing the attack with vigour on both the wings, and in the centre, made great havoc among them, deprived, as they were, of the use of their faculties, through their fears of the gods and of men, and making but a faint opposition. The slaughter had now almost reached to their standards, when, on one side, appeared a cloud of dust, as if raised by the marching of a numerous army: this was caused by Spurius Nautius, (some say Octavius Metius,) commander of the auxiliary cohorts: for these took pains to raise a great quantity of dust, the servants of the camp mounted on the mules, dragging boughs of trees, full of leaves, along the ground. Through this obscuration, arms and standards were seen in front, with cavalry closing the rear. This effectually deceived, not only the Samnites, but the Romans themselves: and the consul confirmed the mistake, by calling out among the foremost battalions, so that his voice reached also the enemy, that “Cominium was taken; and that his victorious colleague was approaching;” bidding his men “now make haste to complete the defeat of the enemy, before the other army should come in for a share of the glory.” This he said as he sat on horseback, and then ordered the tribunes and centurions to open passages for the horse. He had given previous directions to Trebonius, and Cædicius, that, when they should see him waving the point of his spear aloft, they should cause the cavalry to charge the enemy with all possible violence. Every particular, as previously concerted, was executed with the utmost exactness. The passages were opened between the ranks, the cavalry darted through, and, with the points of their spears presented, rushed into the midst of the enemy’s battalions, breaking down the ranks wherever they charged. Volumnius and Scipio seconded the blow, and taking advantage of the enemy’s disorder, made a terrible slaughter. Thus attacked, the linen, regardless of all restraints from either gods or men, quitted their posts in confusion; the sworn, and the unsworn all fled alike, no longer dreading aught but the Romans. The remains of their infantry were driven into the camp at Aquilonia. The nobility and cavalry directed their flight to Bovianum. The horse were pursued by the Roman horse, the infantry by their infantry, while the wings proceeded by different roads; the right, to the camp of the Samnites; the left, to the city. Volumnius succeeded first in gaining possession of the camp. At the city, Scipio met a stouter resistance; not because the conquered troops there had gained courage, but because walls are a better defence against armed men, than a rampart. From these, they repelled the enemy with stones. Scipio considering, that unless the business were effected, during their first panic, and before they could recover their spirits, the attack of so strong a town would be very tedious, asked his soldiers “if they could endure, without shame, that the other wing should already have taken the camp, and that they, after all their success, should be repulsed from the gates of the city?” Then, all of them loudly declaring their determination to the contrary, he himself advanced, the foremost, to the gate, with his shield raised over his head: the rest, following under the like cover of their shields conjoined, burst into the city, and dispersing the Samnites, who were near the gate, took possession of the walls, but were deterred from pushing forward, by the smallness of their number.
XLII. Of these transactions, the consul was for some time ignorant; and was busily employed in calling home his troops, for the sun was now hastening to set, and the approach of night rendered every place suspicious and dangerous, even to victorious troops. Having rode forward, a considerable way, he saw on the right, the camp taken, and heard on the left, a shouting in the city, with a confused noise of fighting, and cries of terror. This happened while the fight was going on at the gate. When, on riding up nearer, he saw his own men on the walls, and so much progress already made in the business, pleased at having gained, through the precipitate conduct of a few, an opportunity of striking an important blow, he ordered the troops, whom he had sent back to the camp, to be called out, and to march to the attack of the city: these, having made good their entrance, on the nearest side, proceeded no farther, because night approached. Before morning, however, the town was abandoned by the enemy. There were slain of the Samnites on that day, at Aquilonia, thirty thousand three hundred and forty; taken three thousand eight hundred and seventy, with ninety-seven military standards. One circumstance, respecting Papirius, is particularly mentioned by historians: that, hardly ever was any general seen in the field with a more cheerful countenance; whether this was owing to his natural temper, or to his confidence of success. From the same firmness of mind it proceeded, that he did not suffer himself to be diverted from the war by the dispute about the auspices; and that, in the heat of the battle, when it was customary to vow temples to the immortal gods, he vowed to Jupiter the victorious, that if he should defeat the legions of the enemy, he would, before he tasted of any generous liquor, make a libation to him of a cup of wine and honey. This kind of vow proved acceptacle to the gods, and they conducted the auspices to a fortunate issue.
XLIII. Like success attended the operations of the other consul at Cominium: leading up his forces to the walls, at the first dawn, he invested the city on every side, and posted strong guards opposite to the gates to prevent any sally being made. Just as he was giving the signal, the alarming message from his colleague, touching the march of the twenty Samnite cohorts, not only caused him to delay the assault, but obliged him to call off a part of his troops, when they were formed and ready to begin the attack. He ordered Decius Brutus Scæva, a lieutenant-general, with the first legion, twenty auxiliary cohorts, and the cavalry, to go and oppose the said detachment; and in whatever place he should meet the foe, there to stop and detain them, and even to engage in battle, should opportunity offer for it; at all events not to suffer those troops to approach Cominium. He then commanded the scaling ladders to be brought up to the walls, on every side of the city; and, under a fence of closed shields, advanced to the gates. Thus, at the same moment, the gates were broke open, and the assault made on every part of the rampart. Though the Samnites, before they saw the assailants on the works, had possessed courage enough to oppose their approaches to the city, yet now, when the action was no longer carried on at a distance, nor with missile weapons, but in close fight; and when those, who had with difficulty gained the walls, the most formidable obstruction in their way, fought with ease on equal ground, against an enemy inferior in strength, they all forsook the towers and strong holds, and were driven to the Forum. There, for a short time they tried, as a last effort, to retrieve the fortune of the fight; but soon, throwing down their arms, surrendered to the consul, to the number of fifteen thousand four hundred; four thousand three hundred and eighty being slain. Such was the course of events at Cominium, such at Aquilonia. In the middle space between the two cities, where a third battle had been expected, the enemy were not found: for, when they were within seven miles of Cominium, they were recalled by their countrymen, and had no part in either battle. At night-fall, when they were now within sight of their camp, and also of Aquilonia, shouts from both places reaching them with equal violence induced them to halt; then, on the side of the camp, which had been set on fire by the Romans, the wide-spreading flames discovered with more certainty the disaster which had happened, and prevented their proceeding any farther. In that same spot, stretched on the ground at random, under their arms, they passed the whole night in great inquietude, at one time wishing for, at another dreading the light. At the first dawn, while they were still undetermined to what quarter they should direct their march, they were obliged (unprotected as they were, either by a rampart or advanced guard,) to betake themselves hastily to flight, being descried by the cavalry, who had gone in pursuit of the Samnites that left the town in the night. These had likewise been perceived from the walls of Aquilonia, and the legionary cohorts now joined in the pursuit. The foot were unable to overtake them, but the cavalry cut off about two hundred and eighty of their rear guard. The rest, with less loss than might have been expected in such a disorderly rout, effected their escape to Bovianum, leaving behind, in their consternation, a great quantity of arms, and eighteen military standards.
XLIV. The joy of one Roman army was enhanced by the success of the other. Each consul, with the approbation of his colleague, gave to his soldiers the plunder of the town which he had taken; and, when the houses were cleared, set them on fire. Thus, on the same day, Aquilonia and Cominium were both reduced to ashes. The consuls then united their camps, where mutual congratulations took place between them, and between their soldiers. Here, in the view of the two armies, Carvilius bestowed on his men commendations and presents according to the desert of each; and Papirius likewise, whose troops had been engaged in a variety of actions, in the field, in the assault of the camp, and in that of the city, presented Spurius Nautius, Spurius Papirius, his nephew, four centurions, and a company of the spearmen, with bracelets and crowns of gold — to Nautius, on account of his behaviour at the head of his detachment, when he had terrified the enemy with the appearance as of a numerous army; to young Papirius, on account of his zealous exertions with the cavalry, both in the battle and in harassing the Samnites in their flight by night, when they withdrew privately from Aquilonia; and to the centurions and company of soldiers, because they were the first who gained possession of the gate and wall of that town. All the horsemen he presented with gorgets and bracelets of silver, on account of their distinguished conduct on many occasions. A council was then held to consider of the propriety either of removing both armies, or one at least, out of Samnium; in which it was concluded, that the lower the strength of the Samnites was reduced, the greater perseverance and vigour ought to be used in prosecuting the war, until they should be effectually crushed, that Samnium might be given up to the succeeding consuls in a state of perfect subjection. As there was now no army of the enemy which could be supposed capable of disputing the field, they had only one mode of operations to pursue, the besieging of the cities; by the destruction of which, they might be enabled to enrich their soldiers with the spoil; and, at the same time, utterly to destroy the enemy, reduced to the necessity of fighting, their all being at stake. The consuls, therefore, after despatching letters to the senate and people of Rome, containing accounts of the services which they had performed, led away their legions to different quarters; Papirius going to attack Sepinum, Carvilius to Volana.
XLV. The letters of the consuls were heard with extraordinary exultation, both in the senate-house and in the assembly of the people; and, in a public thanksgiving of four days continuance, individuals concurred with hearty zeal in celebrating the public rejoicings. These successes were not only important in themselves, but peculiarly seasonable; for it happened, that, at the same time, intelligence was brought of the Etrurians being again in arms. The reflection naturally occurred, how it would have been possible, in case any misfortune had happened in Samnium, to have withstood the power of Etruria; which, being encouraged by the conspiracy of the Samnites, and seeing both the consuls, and the whole force of the Romans, employed against them, had made use of that juncture, in which the Romans had so much business on their hands, for reviving hostilities. Ambassadors from the allies being introduced to the senate by the prætor Marcus Atilius, complained that their countries were wasted with fire and sword by the neighbouring Etrurians, because they had refused to revolt from the Romans; and they besought the Conscript Fathers to protect them from the violence and injustice of their common enemy. The ambassadors were answered, that “the senate would take care that the allies should not repent their fidelity. That the Etrurians should shortly be in the same situation with the Samnites.” Notwithstanding which, the business respecting Etruria would have been prosecuted with less vigour, had not information been received, that the Faliscians likewise, who had for many years lived in friendship with Rome, had united their arms with those of the Etrurians. The consideration of the near vicinity of that nation quickened the attention of the senate; insomuch that they passed a decree that heralds should be sent to demand satisfaction: which being refused, war was declared against the Faliscians by direction of the senate, and order of the people; and the consuls were desired to determine, by lots, which of them should lead an army from Samnium into Etruria. Carvilius had, in the mean time, taken from the Samnites Volana, Palumbinum, and Herculaneum: Volana after a siege of a few days, Palumbinum the same day on which he approached the walls. At Herculaneum, it is true, the consul had two regular engagements without any decisive advantage on either side, and with greater loss than was suffered by the enemy: but afterwards, encamping on the spot, he shut them up within their works, besieged and took the town. In these three towns were taken or slain ten thousand men, of whom the prisoners composed somewhat the greater part. On the consuls casting lots for the provinces, Etruria fell to Carvilius, to the great satisfaction of the soldiers, who now found the cold too severe in Samnium. Papirius was opposed at Sepinum with a more powerful force: he was obliged to fight often in pitched battles; often, on a march; and often, under the walls of the city, against the irruptions of the enemy; and could neither besiege, nor engage them on equal terms: for the Samnites had not only the advantage of walls, but likewise of numbers of men and arms to protect their walls. At length, after a great deal of fighting, he forced them to submit to a regular siege. This he carried on with vigour, and made himself master of the city by means of his works, and by storm. The rage of the soldiers on this occasion caused the greatest slaughter in the taking of the town; seven thousand four hundred fell by the sword; the number of the prisoners did not amount to three thousand. The spoil, of which the quantity was very great, the whole substance of the Samnites being collected in a few cities, was given up to the soldiers.
XLVI. The snow had now entirely covered the face of the country, and rendered the shelter of houses absolutely necessary: the consul therefore led home his troops from Samnium. While he was on his way to Rome, a triumph was decreed him with universal consent: and accordingly he triumphed while in office, and with extraordinary splendour, considering the circumstances of those times. The cavalry and infantry marched in the procession, adorned with the honourable presents which they had received. Great numbers of crowns were seen, which had been bestowed as marks of honour, for having saved the lives of citizens, or for having first mounted walls or ramparts. People’s curiosity was highly gratified in viewing the spoils of the Samnites, and comparing them, in respect of magnificence and beauty, with those taken by his father, which were well known, from being frequently exhibited as ornaments of the public places. Several prisoners of distinction, renowned for their own exploits, and those of their ancestors, were led in the cavalcade. There were carried in the train two millions and thirty-three thousand asses in weight*, said to be produced by the sale of the prisoners; and of silver, taken in the cities, one thousand three hundred and thirty pounds. All the silver and brass were lodged in the treasury, no share of this part of the spoil being given to the soldiers. The ill humour which this excited in the commons, was farther exasperated by their being obliged to contribute, by a tax, to the payment of the army; whereas, said they, if the vain parade of conveying the produce of the spoil to the treasury had been disregarded, donations might have been made to the soldiers, and the pay of the army also supplied out of that fund. The temple of Quirinus, vowed by his father when dictator, (for that he himself had vowed it in the heat of battle, I do not find in any ancient writer, nor indeed could he in so short a time have finished the building of it,) the son in the office of consul dedicated, and adorned with military spoils. And of these, so great was the abundance, that not only that temple and the Forum were decorated with them, but quantities were also distributed among the allies and colonies in the neighbourhood, to serve as ornaments to their temples and public places. Immediately after his triumph, he led his army into winter-quarters in the territory of Vescia; that country being exposed to the inroads of the Samnites. Meanwhile, in Etruria, the consul Carvilius first laid siege to Troilium, when four hundred and seventy of the richest inhabitants, offering a large sum of money for permission to leave the place, he suffered them to depart: the town, with the remaining multitude, he took by storm. He afterwards reduced, by force, five forts strongly situated, wherein were slain two thousand four hundred of the enemy, and not quite two thousand made prisoners. To the Faliscians, who sued for peace, he granted a truce for a year, on condition of their furnishing a hundred thousand asses in weight*, and a year’s pay for his army. This business completed, he returned home to a triumph, which, though it was less illustrious than that of his colleague, in respect of his share in the defeat of the Samnites, was yet raised to an equality with it; the whole honour of the campaign in Etruria belonging solely to him. He carried into the treasury three hundred and ninety thousand asses in weight.† Out of the remainder of the money accruing to the public from the spoils, he contracted for the building of a temple to Fors Fortuna, near to that dedicated to the same goddess by King Servius Tullius; and gave to the soldiers, out of the spoil, one hundred and two asses‡ each, and double that sum to the centurions and horsemen: this donative was received the more gratefully, on account of the parsimony of his colleague.
XLVII. The favour of the consul saved from a trial, before the people, Postumius; who, on a prosecution being commenced against him by Marcus Scantius, plebeian tribune, evaded, as was said, the jurisdiction of the people, by procuring the commission of lieutenant-general, so that he could only be threatened with it. The year having now elapsed, new plebeian tribunes had come into office; and even these, in consequence of some irregularity in their appointments, had, within five days after, others substituted in their room. The lustrum was closed this year by the censors Publius Cornelius Arvina and Caius Marcius Rutilus. The number of citizens rated was two hundred and sixty-two thousand three hundred and twenty-two. These were the twenty-sixth pair of censors since the first institution of that office; and this the nineteenth lustrum. In this year, persons who had been presented with crowns, in consideration of meritorious behaviour in war, first began to wear them at the exhibition of the Roman games. At the same time was first introduced from Greece, the practice of bestowing palms on the victors in the games. In the same year the curule ædiles, who exhibited those games, completed the paving of the road from the temple of Mars to Bovillæ, out of fines levied on the farmers of the public pastures. Lucius Papirius presided at the consular election, and returned consuls Quintus Fabius Gurges, son of Maximus, and Decius Junius Brutus Scæva. Papirius himself was made prætor. The many prosperous events of this year were scarcely sufficient to afford consolation for one calamity, a pestilence, which afflicted both the city and country, and caused a prodigious mortality. To discover what end, or what remedy, was appointed by the gods for that calamity, the books were consulted, and there it was found that Æsculapius must be brought to Rome from Epidaurus. However, as the consuls had full employment in the wars, no farther steps were taken in that business during this year, except the performing a supplication to Æsculapius, of one day’s continuance.
* 5s. 3¼d.
* £1.
* 1,614l. 11s. 8d.
* When the auspices were to be taken from the chickens, the keeper threw some of their food upon the ground, in their sight, and opened the door of their coop. If they did not come out; if they came out slowly; if they refused to feed, or eat in a careless manner, the omen was considered as bad. On the contrary, if they rushed out hastily, and eat greedily, so that some of the food fell from their mouths on the ground, this was considered as an omen of the best import; it was called tripudium solistimum, originally, terripavium, from terra, and pavire, to strike.
* 4,940l. 13s. 6d.
* 322l. 18s. 4d.
† 1,259l. 7s. 6d.
‡ 6s. 7d.
HERE ten books of the original are lost, making a chasm of seventy-five years. The Translator’s object being to publish the work of Livy only, he has not thought it his duty to attempt to supply this deficiency, either by a compilation of his own, or by transcribing or translating those of others. The reader, however, who may be desirous of knowing the events which took place during this interval, will find as complete a detail of them as can now be given, in Hooke’s or Rollin’s Roman History.
The contents of the lost books have been preserved, and are as follows:—
Y.R. 460. 292. — Fabius Gurges, consul, having fought an unsuccessful battle with the Samnites, the senate deliberate about dimissing him from the command of the army; are prevailed upon not to inflict that disgrace upon him, principally by the entreaties of his father, Fabius Maximus, and by his promising to join the army, and serve, in quality of lieutenant-general, under his son: which promise he performs, and the consul, aided by his counsel and co-operation, obtains a victory over the Samnites, and a triumph in consequence. C. Pontius, the general of the Samnites, led in triumph before the victor’s carriage, and afterwards beheaded. A plague at Rome. Y.R. 461. 291. — Ambassadors sent to Epidaurus, to bring from thence to Rome the statue of Æsculapius; a serpent, of itself, goes on board their ship; supposing it to be the abode of the deity, they bring it with them; and, upon its quitting their vessel, and swimming to the island in the Tyber, they consecrate there a temple to Æsculapius. L. Postumius, a man of consular rank, condemned for employing the soldiers under his command in working upon his farm. Y.R. 462. 290. — Curius Dentatus, consul, having subdued the Samnites, and the rebellious Sabines, triumphs twice during his year of office. Y.R. 463. 289. — The colonies of Castrum, Sena, and Adria, established. Three judges of capital crimes now first appointed. A census and lustrum: the number of citizens found to be two hundred and seventy-three thousand. After a long continued sedition, on account of debts, the commons secede to the Janiculum: Y.R. 466. 286. — are brought back by Q. Hortensius, dictator, who dies in office. Successful operations against the Volsinians and Lucanians, against whom it was thought expedient to send succour to the Thuringians. Y.R. 468. 284.
Y.R. 469. 283. — The Senonian Gauls having slain the Roman ambassadors, war is declared against them: they cut off L. Cæcilius, prætor, with the legions under his command. Y.R. 470. 282. — The Roman fleet plundered by the Tarentines, and the commander slain: ambassadors, sent to complain of this outrage, are ill-treated and sent back; whereupon war is declared against them. The Samnites revolt; against whom, together with the Lucanians, Bruttians, and Etruscans, several unsuccessful battles are fought by different generals. Y.R. 471. 281. — Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, comes into Italy, to succour the Tarentines. A Campanian legion sent, under the command of Decius Jubellius, to garrison Rhegium, murder the inhabitants, and seize the city.
Y.R. 472. 280. — Valerius Lævinus, consul, engages with Pyrrhus, and is beaten, his soldiers being terrified at the unusual appearance of elephants. After the battle, Pyrrhus, viewing the bodies of the Romans who were slain, remarks, that they all of them lay with their faces turned towards their enemy. He proceeds towards Rome, ravaging the country as he goes along. C. Fabricius is sent by the senate to treat for the redemption of the prisoners: the King, in vain, attempts to bribe him to desert his country. The prisoners restored without ransom. Cineas, ambassador from Pyrrhus, to the senate, demands, as a condition of peace, that the King be admitted into the city of Rome: the consideration of which being deferred to a fuller meeting, Appius Claudius, who, on account of a disorder in his eyes, had not, for a long time, attended in the senate, comes there; moves, and carries his motion, that the demand of the King be refused. Cneius Domitius, the first plebeian censor, holds a lustrum; the number of the citizens found to be two hundred and seventy-eight thousand two hundred and twenty-two. A second, but undecided battle with Pyrrhus. Y.R. 473. 279. — The treaty with the Carthaginians renewed a fourth time. Y.R. 474. 278. — An offer made to Fabricius, the consul, by a traitor, to poison Pyrrhus; he sends him to the King, and discovers to him the treasonable offer. Successful operations against the Etruscans, Lucanians, Bruttians, and Samnites.
Y.R. 475. 277. — Pyrrhus crosses over into Sicily. Many prodigies, among which, the statue of Jupiter in the Capitol is struck by lightning, and thrown down. Y.R. 476. 276. The head of it afterwards found by the priests. Curius Dentatus, holding a levy, puts up to sale the goods of a person who refuses to answer to his name when called upon. Y.R. 477. 275. — Pyrrhus, after his return from Sicily, is defeated, and compelled to quit Italy. The censors hold a lustrum, and find the number of the citizens to be two hundred and seventy-one thousand two hundred and twenty-four. Y.R. 479. 273. — A treaty of alliance formed with Ptolemy, king of Ægypt. Sextilia, a vestal, found guilty of incest, and buried alive. Two colonies sent forth, to Posidonium and Cossa. Y.R. 480. 272. — A Carthaginian fleet sails in aid of the Tarentines, by which act the treaty is violated. Successful operations against the Lucanians, Samnites, and Bruttians. Death of King Pyrrhus.
The Tarentines overcome; peace and freedom granted to them. Y.R. 481. 271. — The Campanian legion, which had forcibly taken possession of Rhegium, besieged there; lay down their arms, and are punished with death. Some young men, who had ill-treated the ambassadors from the Apollonians to the senate of Rome, are delivered up to them. Peace granted to the Picentians. Y.R. 484. 268. — Two colonies established; one at Ariminum in Picenum, another at Beneventum in Samnium. Silver coin now, for the first time, used by the Roman people. Y.R. 485. 267. — The Umbrians and Sallentines subdued. The number of quæstors increased to eight.
Y.R. 488. 264. — Origin and progress of the Carthaginian state. After much debate, the senate resolves to succour the Mammertines against the Carthaginians, and against Hiero, King of Syracuse. Roman cavalry, then, for the first time, cross the sea, and engage, successfully, in battle with Hiero; who solicits and obtains peace. Y.R. 489. 263. — A lustrum: the number of the citizens amounts to two hundred and ninety-two thousand two hundred and twenty-four. D. Junius Brutus exhibits the first show of gladiators, in honour of his deceased father. Y.R. 490. 262. — The Æsernian colony established. Y.R. 491. 261. — Successful operations against the Carthaginians and Vulsinians.
Y.R. 492. 260. — Cneius Cornelius, consul, surrounded by the Carthaginian fleet; and, being drawn into a conference by a stratagem, is taken. Y.R. 493. 259. — C. Duillius, consul, engages with, and vanquishes the Carthaginian fleet: is the first commander to whom a triumph was decreed for a naval victory; in honour of which, he is allowed, when returning to his habitation at night, to be attended with torches and music. L. Cornelius, consul, fights and subdues the Sardinians and Corsicans, together with Hanno, the Carthaginian general, in the island of Sardinia. Y.R. 494. 258. — Atilius Calatinus, consul, drawn into an ambuscade by the Carthaginians, is rescued by the skill and valour of M. Calpurnius, a military tribune, who, making a sudden attack upon the enemy, with a body of only three hundred men, turns their whole force against himself. Y.R. 495. 257. — Hannibal, the commander of the Carthaginian fleet which was beaten, is put to death by his soldiers.
Y.R. 496. 256. — Attilius Regulus, consul, having overcome the Carthaginians in a sea-fight, passes over into Africa: kills a serpent of prodigious magnitude, with great loss of his own men. Y.R. 497. 255:— The senate, on account of his successful conduct of the war, not appointing him a successor, he writes to them, complaining; and, among other reasons for desiring to be recalled, alleges, that his little farm, being all his subsistence, was going to ruin, owing to the mismanagement of hired stewards. Y.R. 498. 254. — A memorable instance of the instability of fortune exhibited in the person of Regulus, who is overcome in battle, and taken prisoner, by Xanthippus, a Lacedæmonian general. Y.R. 499. 253. — The Roman fleet shipwrecked; which disaster entirely reverses the good fortune which had hitherto attended their affairs. Y.R. 500. 252. — Titus Coruncanius, the first high priest chosen from among the commons. Y.R. 501. 251. — P. Sempronius Sophus, and M. Valerius Maximus, censors, examine into the state of the senate, and expel thirteen of the members of that body. They hold a lustrum, and find the number of citizens to be two hundred and ninety-seven thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven. Y.R. 502. 250. — Regulus, being sent by the Carthaginians to Rome to treat for peace, and an exchange of prisoners, binds himself by oath to return, if these objects be not attained; dissuades the senate from agreeing to the propositions; and then, in observance of his oath, returning to Carthage, is put to death by torture.
Y.R. 502. 250. — C. Cæcilius Metellus, having been successful in several engagements with the Carthaginians, triumphs with more splendour than had ever yet been seen; thirteen generals of the enemy, and one hundred and twenty elephants, being exhibited in the procession. Y.R. 503. 249. — Claudius Pulcher, consul, obstinately persisting, notwithstanding the omens were inauspicious, engages the enemy’s fleet, and is beaten; drowns the sacred chickens which would not feed: recalled by the senate, and ordered to nominate a dictator; he appoints Claudius Glicia, one of the lowest of the people, who, notwithstanding his being ordered to abdicate the office, yet attends the celebration of the public games in his dictator’s robe. Y.R. 504. 248. — Atilius Calatinus, the first dictator who marches with an army out of Italy. An exchange of prisoners with the Carthaginians. Two colonies established at Fregenæ and Brundusium, in the Sallentine territories. Y.R. 505. 247. — A lustrum: the citizens numbered amount to two hundred and fifty-one thousand two hundred and twenty-two. Y.R. 506. 246. — Claudia, the sister of Claudius, who had fought unsuccessfully, in contempt of the auspices, being pressed by the crowd, as she was returning from the game, cries out, I wish my brother were alive, and had again the command of the fleet: for which offence she is tried and fined. Y.R. 507. 245. — Two prætors now first created. Y.R. 508. 244. — Aulus Postumius, consul, being priest of Mars, forcibly detained in the city by Cæcilius Metellus, the high-priest, and not suffered to go forth to war, being obliged by law to attend to the sacred duties of his office. Y.R. 509. 243. — After several successful engagements with the Carthaginians, Caius Lutatius, consul, puts an end to the war, by gaining a complete victory over their fleet, at the island of Ægate. Y.R.510. 242. — The Carthaginians sue for peace, which is granted to them. Y.R. 511. 241. — The temple of Vesta being on fire, the high priest, Cæcilius Metellus, saves the sacred utensils from the flames. Two new tribes added, the Veline and Quirine. The Falisci rebel; are subdued in six days.
Y.R. 512. 240. — A colony settled at Spoletum. An army sent against the Ligurians; being the first war with that state. The Sardinians and Corsicans rebel, and are subdued. Y.R. 514. 238. — Tuccia, a vestal, found guilty of incest. War declared against the Illyrians, who had slain an ambassador: they are subdued and brought to submission. Y.R. 515. 237. — The number of prætors increased to four The Transalpine Gauls make an irruption into Italy: are conquered and put to the sword. Y.R. 516. 236. — The Roman army, in conjunction with the Latines, is said to have amounted to no less than three hundred thousand men. Y.R. 517. 235. — The Roman army for the first time, crosses the Po; fights with and subdues the Insubrian Gauls. Y.R. 530. 222. — Claudius Marcellus, consul, having slain Viridomarus, the general of the Insubrian Gauls, carries off the spolia opima. Y.R. 531. 221. — The Istrians subdued; also the Illyrians, who had rebelled. Y.R. 532. 220. — The censors hold a lustrum, in which the number of the citizens is found to be two hundred and seventy thousand two hundred and thirteen. The sons of freedmen formed into four tribes: the Esquiline, Palatine, Suburran and Colline. Y.R. 533. 219. — Caius Flaminius, censor, constructs the Flaminian road, and builds the Flaminian circus.
Rise of the second Punic war. Hannibal, contrary to treaty, passes the Iberus: besieges, and, after eight months, takes Saguntum. The Romans send an embassy to Carthage; declare war. Hannibal crosses the Pyrennees; makes his way through Gaul; with great fatigue passes the Alps; defeats the Romans at the river Ticinus, in a fight between the cavalry, in which P. Cornelius Scipio, being wounded, is saved by his son, afterwards Africanus. The Romans again defeated at the Trebia. Cneius Cornelius Scipio defeats the Carthaginian army in Spain, and makes Hanno, their general, prisoner.
I. To this division of my work, I may be allowed to prefix a remark, which most writers of history make in the beginning of their performance: that I am going to write of a war, the most memorable of all that were ever waged; that which the Carthaginians, under the conduct of Hannibal, maintained with the Roman people. For never did any other states and nations, of more potent strength and resources, engage in a contest of arms; nor did these same nations at any other period, possess so great a degree of power and strength. The arts of war also, practised by each party, were not unknown to the other; for they had already gained experience of them in the first Punic war; and so various was the fortune of this war, so great its vicissitudes, that the party, which proved in the end victorious, was, at times, brought the nearest to the brink of ruin. Besides, they exerted, in the dispute, almost a greater degree of rancour than of strength; the Romans being fired with indignation at a vanquished people presuming to take up arms against their conquerors: the Carthaginians, at the haughtiness and avarice, which they thought the others showed in their imperious exercise of the superiority which they had acquired. We are told that, when Hamilcar was about to march at the head of an army into Spain, after the conclusion of the war in Africa, and was offering sacrifices on the occasion, his son Hannibal, then about nine years of age, solicited him, with boyish fondness, to take him with him, whereupon, he brought him up to the altars, and compelled him to lay his hand on the consecrated victims, and swear, that as soon as it should be in his power, he would show himself an enemy to the Roman people. Being a man of high spirit, he was deeply chagrined at the loss of Sicily and Sardinia: for he considered Sicily as given up by his countrymen through too hasty despair of their affairs; and Sardinia as fraudulently snatched out of their hands by the Romans, during the commotions in Africa, with the additional insult of a farther tribute imposed on them.
II. His mind was filled with these vexatious reflections; and during the five years that he was employed in Africa, which followed soon after the late pacification with Rome; and likewise during nine years which he spent in extending the Carthaginian empire in Spain; his conduct was such, as afforded a demonstration that he meditated a more important war than any in which he was then engaged; and that, if he had lived some time longer, the Carthaginians would have carried their arms into Italy under the command of Hamilcar, instead of under that of Hannibal. The death of Hamilcar, which happened most seasonably for Rome, and the unripe age of Hannibal, occasioned the delay. During an interval of about eight years, between the demise of the father, and the succession of the son, the command was held by Hasdrubal; whom, it was said, Hamilcar had first chosen as a favourite, on account of his youthful beauty, and afterwards made him his son-in-law, on account of his eminent abilities; in consequence of which connection, being supported by the interest of the Barcine faction, which, among the army and the commons, was exceedingly powerful, he was invested with the command in chief, in opposition to the wishes of the nobles. He prosecuted his designs, more frequently by means of policy than of force; and augmented the Carthaginian power considerably, by forming connections with the petty princes; and through the friendship of their leaders, conciliating the regard of nations hitherto strangers. But peace proved no security to himself. One of the barbarians, in resentment of his master having been put to death, openly assassinated him, and being seized by the persons present, showed no kind of concern; nay, even while racked with tortures, as if his exultation, at having effected his purpose, had got the better of the pains, the expression of his countenance was such as carried the appearance of a smile. With this Hasdrubal, who possessed a surprising degree of skill in negotiation, and in attaching foreign nations to his government, the Romans renewed the treaty, on the terms, that the river Iberus should be the boundary of the two empires, and that the Saguntines, who lay between them, should retain their liberty.
III. There was no room to doubt that the suffrages of the commons, in appointing a successor to Hasdrubal, would follow the direction pointed out by the leading voice of the army, who had instantly carried young Hannibal to the head-quarters, and with one consent, and universal acclamations, saluted him general. This youth, when scarcely arrived at the age of manhood, Hasdrubal had invited by letter to come to him; and that affair had even been taken into deliberation in the senate, where the Barcine faction showed a desire, that Hannibal should be accustomed to military service, and succeed to the power of his father. Hanno, the leader of the other faction, said, “although what Hasdrubal demands, seems reasonable; nevertheless, I do not think that his request ought to be granted;” and when all turned their eyes on him, with surprise at this ambiguous declaration, he proceeded, “Hasdrubal thinks that he is justly entitled to demand, from the son, the bloom of youth, which he himself dedicated to the pleasures of Hannibal’s father. It would however be exceedingly improper in us, instead of a military education, to initiate our young men in the lewd practices of generals. Are we afraid lest too much time should pass, before the son of Hamilcar acquires notions of the unlimited authority, and the parade of his father’s sovereignty: or that after he had, like a king, bequeathed our armies, as hereditary property to his son-in-law, we should not soon enough become slaves to his son? I am of opinion that this youth should be kept at home, where he will be amenable to the laws, and to the magistrates; and that he should be taught to live on an equal footing with the rest of his countrymen; otherwise this spark, small as it is, may hereafter kindle a terrible conflagration.”
IV. A few, particularly those of the best understanding, concurred in opinion with Hanno; but, as it generally happens, the more numerous party prevailed over the more judicious. Hannibal was sent into Spain, and on his first arrival attracted the notice of the whole army. The veteran soldiers imagined that Hamilcar was restored to them from the dead, observing in him the same animated look, and penetrating eye; the same expression of countenance, and the same features. Then, such was his behaviour, and so conciliating, that, in a short time, the memory of his father was the least among their inducements to esteem him. Never man possessed a genius so admirably fitted to the discharge of offices so very opposite in their nature as obeying and commanding: so that it was not easy to discern whether he were more beloved by the general or by the soldiers. There was none to whom Hasdrubal rather wished to intrust the command in any case where courage and activity were required; nor did the soldiers ever feel a greater degree of confidence and boldness, under any other commander. With perfect intrepidity in facing danger, he possessed, in the midst of the greatest, perfect presence of mind. No degree of labour could either fatigue his body or break his spirit: heat and cold he endured with equal firmness: the quantity of his food and drink was limited by natural appetite, not by the pleasure of the palate. His seasons for sleeping and waking were not distinguished by the day, or by the night; whatever time he had to spare, after business was finished, that he gave to repose, which, however, he never courted, either by a soft bed, or a quiet retirement: he was often seen, covered with a cloak, lying on the ground in the midst of the soldiers on guard, and on the advanced posts. His dress had nothing particular in it, beyond that of others of the same rank; his horses, and his armour, he was always remarkably attentive to: and whether he acted among the horsemen, or the infantry, he was eminently the first of either, the foremost in advancing to the fight, the last who quitted the field of battle. These great virtues were counterbalanced in him by vices of equal magnitude; inhuman cruelty; perfidy beyond that of a Carthaginian; a total disregard of truth, and of every obligation deemed sacred; utterly devoid of all reverence for the gods, he paid no regard to an oath, no respect to religion. Endowed with such a disposition, a compound of virtues and vices, he served under the command of Hasdrubal for three years, during which he omitted no opportunity of improving himself in every particular, both of theory and practice, that could contribute to the forming of an accomplished general.
V. But, from the day on which he was declared chief, he acted as if Italy had been decreed to him as his province, and he had been commissioned to wage war with Rome. Thinking every kind of delay imprudent; lest, while he procrastinated, some unforeseen event might disconcert his design, as had been the case of his father Hamilcar, and afterwards of Hasdrubal, he determined to make war on the Saguntines. And, as an attack on them would certainly call forth the Roman arms, he first led his army into the territory of the Olcadians, a nation beyond the Iberus; which, though within the boundaries of the Carthaginians, was not under their dominion, in order that he might not seem to have aimed directly at the Saguntines, but to be drawn on into a war with them by a series of events, and by advancing progressively, after the conquest of the adjoining nations, from one place to the next contiguous. Here he took and plundered Althea, the capital of the nation, abounding in wealth; and this struck such terror into the smaller cities, that they submitted to his authority, and to the imposition of a tribute. He then led his army, flushed with a victory, and enriched with spoil, into winter-quarters, at New Carthage. Here, by a liberal distribution of the booty, and by discharging punctually the arrears of pay, he firmly secured the attachment, both of his own countrymen, and of the allies; and, at the opening of the spring, carried forward his arms against the Vaccæans, from whom he took, by storm, the cities Hermandica and Arbacala. Arbacala, by the bravery and number of its inhabitants, was enabled to make a long defence. Those who escaped from Hermandica, joining the exiles of the Olcadians, the nation subdued in the preceding summer, roused up the Carpetans to arms, and attacking Hannibal, as he was returning from the country of the Vaccæans, not far from the river Tagus, caused a good deal of disorder among his troops, encumbered, as they were, with spoil. Hannibal avoided fighting, and encamped on the bank; then, as soon as the enemy afforded him an opportunity, he crossed the river by a ford, and carried his rampart to such a distance from its edge, as to leave room for the enemy to pass over, resolving to attack them in their passage. He gave orders to his cavalry, that, as soon as they should see the troops advance into the water, they should fall upon them: his infantry he formed on the bank, with forty elephants in their front. The Carpetans, with the addition of the Olcadians and Vaccæans, were one hundred thousand in number, an army not to be overcome, if a fight were to take place in an open plain. These being naturally of an impetuous temper, and confiding in their numbers, believing also that the enemy’s retreat was owing to fear, and thinking that there was no obstruction to their gaining an immediate victory, but the river lying in their way, they raised the shout, and without orders, rushed from all parts into it, every one by the shortest way. At the same time a vast body of cavalry pushed from the opposite bank into the river, and the conflict began in the middle of the channel, where they fought upon very unequal terms: for in such a situation the infantry, not being secure of footing, and scarcely able to bear up against the stream, were liable to be borne down by any shock from the horse, though the rider were unarmed, and took no trouble; whereas a horseman, having his limbs at liberty, and his horse moving steadily, even through the midst of the eddies, could act either in close fight, or at a distance. Great numbers were swallowed up in the current; while several, whom the eddies of the river carried to the Carthaginian side, were trodden to death by the elephants. The hindmost, who could more safely retreat to their own bank, attempting to collect themselves into one body, from the various parts to which their terror and confusion had dispersed them, Hannibal, not to give them time to recover from their consternation, marched into the river with his infantry in close order, and obliged them to fly from the bank. Then, by ravaging their country, he reduced the Carpetans also, in a few days, to submission. And now, all parts of the country beyond the Iberus, except the territory of Saguntum, was under subjection to the Carthaginians.
Y.R.534. 218.VI. As yet there was no war with the Saguntines; but disputes, which seemed likely to be productive of war, were industriously fomented between them and their neighbours, particularly the Turdetans: and the cause of these latter being espoused by the same person, who first sowed the seeds of the contention, and plain proofs appearing, that not an amicable discussion of rights, but open force was the means intended to be used, the Saguntines despatched ambassadors to Rome, to implore assistance in the war, which evidently threatened them with immediate danger. The consuls at Rome, at that time were Publius Cornelius Scipio and Tiberius Sempronius Longus; who after having introduced the ambassadors to the senate, proposed, that the state of the public affairs should be taken into consideration. It was resolved, that ambassadors should be sent into Spain, to inspect the affairs of the allies; instructed, if they saw sufficient reason, to warn Hannibal not to molest the Saguntines, the confederates of the Roman people; and also to pass over into Africa, to represent, at Carthage, the complaints of these to the Romans. After this embassy had been decreed, and before it was despatched, news arrived, which no one had expected so soon, that Saguntum was besieged. The business was then laid entire before the senate, as if no resolution had yet passed. Some were of opinion, that the affair should be prosecuted with vigorous exertions, both by sea and land, and proposed, that Spain and Africa should be decreed as the provinces of the consuls: others wished to direct the whole force of their arms against Spain and Hannibal; while many thought that it would be imprudent to engage hastily in a matter of so great importance, and that they ought to wait for the return of the ambassadors from Spain. This opinion being deemed the safest, was adopted; and the ambassadors, Publius Valerius Flaccus and Quintus Bæbius Tamphilus, were on that account despatched, with the greater speed, to Saguntum, to Hannibal; and, in case of his refusing to desist from hostilities, from thence to Carthage, to insist on that general being delivered up, to atone for the infraction of the treaty.
VII. While the Romans were employed in these deliberations and preparatory measures, the siege of Saguntum was prosecuted with the utmost vigour. This city, by far the most wealthy of any beyond the Iberus, stood at the distance of about a mile from the sea; the inhabitants are said to have come originally from the island Zacynthus, and to have been joined by some of the Rutulian race from Ardea. They had grown up, in a very short time, to this high degree of opulence, by means of a profitable commerce, both by sea and land, aided by the increase of their numbers, and their religious observance of compacts, which they carried so far as to maintain the faith of all engagements inviolate, even should they tend to their own destruction. Hannibal marched into their territory in a hostile manner, and, after laying all the country waste, attacked their city on three different sides. There was an angle of the wall which stretched down into a vale, more level and open than the rest of the ground round the place: against this he resolved to carry on his approaches, by means of which the battering ram might be advanced up to the walls. But although the ground, at some distance, was commodious enough for the management of his machines, yet, when the works came to be applied to the purpose intended, it was found to be no way favourable to the design: for it was overlooked by a very large tower; and, as in that part danger was apprehended, the wall had been raised to a height beyond that of the rest. Besides, as the greatest share of fatigue and danger was expected there, it was defended with the greater vigour, by a band of chosen young men. These, at first with missile weapons, kept the enemy at a distance, nor suffered them to carry on any of their works in safety. In a little time, they not only annoyed them from the tower and the walls, but had the courage to sally out on the works and posts of the enemy; in which tumultuary engagements the Saguntines generally suffered not a greater loss of men than the Carthaginians. But Hannibal himself happening, as he approached the wall with too little caution, to be wounded severely in the forepart of the thigh with a heavy javelin, and falling in consequence of it, such consternation and dismay spread through all the troops around him, that they were very near deserting their posts.
VIII. For some days following, while the general’s wound was under cure, there was rather a blockade, than a siege. But although, during this time, there was a cessation of arms, there was no intermission of the preparations, either for attack or defence. Hostilities therefore commenced anew, with a greater degree of fury, and the machines began to be advanced, and the battering rams to be brought up, in a greater number of places, so that in some parts there was scarcely room for the works. The Carthaginian had great abundance of men, for it is credibly asserted that the number of his troops was not less than one hundred and fifty thousand: the townsmen were obliged to have recourse to various shifts, in order, with their small numbers, to execute every necessary measure, and to make defence in so many different places; nor were they equal to the task: for now the walls began to be battered with the rams; many parts of them were shattered; in one place, a large breach left the city quite exposed: Three towers, in one range, together with the whole extent of wall between them, tumbled down with a prodigious crash, and so great was the breach, that the Carthaginians looked on the town as already taken. On which, as if the wall had served equally for a covering to both parties, the two armies rushed to battle. Here was nothing like the disorderly kind of fight, which usually happens in the assault of towns, each party acting as opportunity offers advantage, but regular lines were formed, as if in the open plain, on the ground between the ruins of the walls and the buildings of the city, which stood at no great distance. Their courage was animated to the greatest height, on one side by hope; on the other by despair; the Carthaginian believing, that only a few more efforts were necessary to render him master of the place; the Saguntines forming, with their bodies, a bulwark to their native city, instead of its wall, of which it had been stripped; not one of them giving ground, lest he should make room for the enemy to enter by the space. The greater therefore the eagerness of the combatants, and the closer their ranks, the more wounds consequently were received, no weapon falling without taking place, either in their bodies or armour.
IX. The Saguntines had a missile weapon called Falarica, with a shaft of fir, round, except towards the end, to which the iron was fastened: this part, which was square, as in a javelin, they bound about with tow and daubed with pitch; it had an iron head three feet long, so that it could pierce both armour and body together: but what rendered it most formidable, was, that being discharged with the middle part on fire, and the motion itself increasing greatly the violence of the flame, though it struck in the shield without penetrating to the body, it compelled the soldier to throw away his arms, and left him, without defence, against succeeding blows. Thus the contest long continued doubtful, and the Saguntines, finding that they succeeded in their defence beyond expectation, assumed new courage; while the Carthaginian, because he had not obtained a victory, deemed himself vanquished. On this, the townsmen suddenly raised a shout, pushed back the enemy among the ruins of the wall, drove them off from that ground, where they were embarrassed and confused, and, in fine, compelled them to fly in disorder to their camp.
X. In the mean time, an account was received, that ambassadors had arrived from Rome; on which Hannibal sent messengers to the sea-shore, to meet them, and to acquaint them, that it would not be safe for them to come to him, through the armed bands of so many savage nations; and, besides, that, in the present critical state of affairs, he had not leisure to listen to embassies. He saw clearly, that on being refused audience, they would proceed immediately to Carthage: he therefore despatched messengers and letters beforehand, to the leaders of the Barcine faction, charging them to prepare their friends to act with spirit, so that the other party should not be able to carry any point in favour of the Romans. Thus the embassy there proved equally vain and fruitless, excepting that the ambassadors were received and admitted to audience. Hanno alone, in opposition to the sentiments of the senate, argued for their complying with the terms of the treaty, and was heard with great attention, rather out of the respect paid to the dignity of his character, than from the approbation of the hearers. He said, that “he had formerly charged and forewarned them, as they regarded the gods, who were guarantees and witnesses of the treaties, not to send the son of Hamilcar to the army. That man’s shade,” said he, “cannot be quiet, nor any one descended from him; nor will treaties with Rome subsist, as long as one person of the Barcine blood and name exists. As if with intent to supply fuel to fire, ye sent to your armies a young man, burning with ambition for absolute power, to which he could see but one road, the exciting of wars, one after another, in order that he might live surrounded with arms and legions. You yourselves therefore have kindled this fire, with which ye are now scorched: your armies now invest Saguntum, a place which they are bound by treaty not to molest. In a short time the Roman legions will invest Carthage, under the guidance of those same deities, who enabled them, in the former war, to take vengeance for the breach of treaties. Are you strangers to that enemy, or to yourselves, or to the fortune attending both nations? When ambassadors came from allies, in favour of allies, your worthy general, disregarding the law of nations, refused them admittance into his camp. Nevertheless, after meeting a repulse, where ambassadors, even from enemies, are not refused access, they have come to you, requiring satisfaction in conformity to treaty. They charge no crime on the public, but demand the author of the transgression, the person answerable for the offence. The more moderation there appears in their proceedings, and the slower they are in beginning a warfare, so much the more unrelenting, I fear, will prove the fury of their resentment, when they do begin. Place before your eyes the islands Ægates and Eryx, the calamities which you underwent, on land and sea, during the space of twenty-four years; nor were your troops then led by this boy, but by his father Hamilcar, another Mars, as those men choose to call him. But at that time we had not, as we were bound by treaty, avoided interfering with Tarentum in Italy, as, at present, we do not avoid interfering with Saguntum. Wherefore gods and men united to conquer us, and the question which words could not determine, ‘ which of the nations had infringed the treaty?’ the issue of the war made known, as an equitable judge, giving victory to that side on which justice stood. Hannibal is now raising works and towers against Carthage; with his battering rams he is shaking the walls of Carthage. The ruins of Saguntum (oh! that I may prove a false prophet!) will fall on our heads: and the war commenced against the Saguntines must be maintained against the Romans. Some will say, shall we then deliver up Hannibal? I am sensible that, with respect to him, my authority is of little weight, on account of the enmity between me and his father. But as I rejoiced at the death of Hamilcar, for this reason, that had he lived, we should now have been embroiled in a war with the Romans, so do I hate and detest this youth as a fury and a firebrand kindling the like troubles at present. Nor is it my opinion, merely, that he ought to be delivered up, as an expiation for the infraction of the treaty, but that, if no one demanded him, he ought to be conveyed away to the remotest coasts, whence no accounts of him, nor even his name, should ever reach us, and where he would not be able to disturb the tranquillity of our state. I therefore move you to resolve, that ambassadors be sent instantly to Rome, to make apologies to the senate; others, to order Hannibal to withdraw the troops from Saguntum, and to deliver up Hannibal himself to the Romans, in conformity to the treaty; and that a third embassy be sent, to make restitution to the Saguntines.” When Hanno had ended his discourse, there was no occasion for any one to enter into a debate with him, so entirely were almost the whole body of the senate in the interest of Hannibal, and they blamed him as having spoken with greater acrimony than even Valerius Flaccus, the Roman ambassador. They then answered the Roman ambassadors, that “the war had been begun by the Saguntines, not by Hannibal; and that the Roman people acted unjustly and unwisely, if they preferred the interest of the Saguntines to that of the Carthaginians, their earliest allies.”
XI. While the Romans wasted time in sending embassies, Hannibal, finding his soldiers fatigued with fighting and labour, gave them a few days to rest, appointing parties to guard the machines and works. This interval he employed in reanimating his men, stimulating them at one time with resentment against the enemy, at another, with hope of rewards; but a declaration which he made in open assembly, that, on the capture of the city, the spoil should be given to the soldiers, inflamed them with such ardour, that, to all appearance, if the signal had been given immediately, no force could have withstood them. The Saguntines, as they had for some days enjoyed a respite from fighting, neither offering nor sustaining an attack, so they had never ceased, either by day or night, to labour hard in raising a new wall, in that part where the city had been left exposed by the fall of the old one. After this, the operations of the besiegers were carried on with much greater briskness than before; nor could the besieged well judge, whilst all places resounded with clamours of various kinds, to what side they should first send succour, or where it was most necessary. Hannibal attended in person, to encourage a party of his men who were bringing forward a moveable tower, which exceeded in height all the fortifications of the city. As soon as this had reached the proper distance, and had, by means of the engines for throwing darts and stones,* disposed in all its stories, cleared the ramparts of all who were to defend it, then Hannibal, seizing the opportunity, sent about five hundred Africans, with pick-axes, to undermine the wall at the bottom: which was not a difficult work, because the cement was not strengthened with lime, but the interstices filled up with clay, according to the ancient method of building: other parts of it, therefore, fell down, together with those to which the strokes were applied, and through these breaches several bands of soldiers made their way into the city. They, likewise, there took possession of an eminence, and collecting thither a number of engines for throwing darts and stones, surrounded it with a wall, in order that they might have a fortress within the city itself, a citadel, as it were, to command it. The Saguntines, on their part, raised an inner wall between that and the division of the city not yet taken. Both sides exerted themselves to the utmost, as well in forming their works as in fighting. But the Saguntines, while they raised defences for the inner parts, contracted, daily, the dimensions of the city. At the same time the scarcity of all things increased, in consequence of the long continuance of the siege, while their expectations of foreign aid diminished; the Romans, their only hope, being at so great a distance, and all the countries round being in the hands of the enemy. However, their sinking spirits were for a short time revived, by Hannibal setting out suddenly on an expedition against the Oretans and Carpetans. For these two nations, being exasperated by the severity used in lovying soldiers, had, by detaining the commissaries, afforded room to apprehend a revolt; but receiving an unexpected check, from the quick exertions of Hannibal, they laid aside the design of insurrection.
XII. In the mean time the vigour of the proceedings against Saguntum was not lessened; Maharbal, son of Himilco, whom Hannibal had left in the command, pushing forward the operations with such activity, that neither his countrymen, nor the enemy, perceived that the general was absent. He not only engaged the Saguntines several times with success, but, with three battering rams, demolished a considerable extent of the wall; and when Hannibal arrived, he showed him the whole ground covered with fresh ruins. The troops were therefore led instantly against the citadel, and after a furious engagement, in which great loss was suffered on both sides, part of the citadel was taken. Small as were the hopes of an accommodation, attempts were now made to bring it about by two persons, Alcon a Saguntine, and Alorcus a Spaniard. Alcon, thinking that he might effect something by submissive entreaties, went over to Hannibal by night, without the knowledge of the Saguntines; but, his piteous supplications making no impression, and the terms offered by his enemy being full of rigour, and such as might be expected from an enraged and not unsuccessful assailant, instead of an advocate, he became a deserter, affirming, that if any man were to mention to the Saguntines an accommodation on such conditions, it would cost him his life; — for it was required that they should make restitution to the Turdetans; should deliver up all their gold and silver; and, departing from the city with single garments, should fix their residence in whatever place the Carthaginian should order. When Alcon declared that his countrymen would never accept these conditions of peace, Alorcus, insisting, that when men’s bodily powers are subdued, their spirits are subdued along with them, undertook the office of mediator in the negociation. Now he was at this time a soldier in the service of Hannibal, but connected with the state of Saguntum in friendship and hospitality. Delivering up his sword to the enemy’s guards, he passed openly through the fortifications, and was conducted at his own desire to the prætor. A concourse of people of every kind having immediately assembled about the place, the senate, ordering the rest of the multitude to retire, give audience to Alorcus, who addressed them in this manner:
XIII. “If your countryman Alcon, after coming to the general to sue for peace, had returned to you with the offered terms, it would have been needless for me to have presented myself before you, as I would not appear in the character either of a deputy from Hannibal, or of a deserter. But since he has remained with your enemy, either through his own fault, or yours: through his own, if he counterfeited fear; through yours, if he who tells you truth, is to be punished: I have come to you, out of my regard to the ties of hospitality so long subsisting between us, in order that you should not be ignorant that there are certain conditions on which you may obtain both peace and safety. Now, that what I say is merely out of regard to your interest, and not from any other motive, this alone is sufficient proof: that, so long as you were able to maintain a defence by your own strength, or so long as you had hopes of succour from the Romans, I never once mentioned peace to you. Now, when you neither have any hopes from the Romans, nor can rely for defence either on your arms or walls, I bring you terms of peace, rather unavoidable than favourable. And there may be some chance of carrying these into effect, on this condition, that, as Hannibal dictates them, in the spirit of a conqueror, so you should listen to them with the spirit of men conquered; that you consider not what you part with as loss, for all things are the property of the victor, but whatever is left to you as a gift. The city, a great part of which is already demolished, and almost the whole of which he has in his possession, he takes from you: your lands he leaves to you, intending to assign a place where you may build a new town: all your gold and silver, both public and private property, he orders to be brought to him: your persons, with those of your wives and children he preserves inviolate, provided you are satisfied to quit Saguntum, without arms, and with single garments. These are the terms, which, as a victorious enemy, he enjoins: with these, grievous and afflicting as they are, your present circumstances counsel you to comply. I do not indeed despair but that, when the entire disposal of every thing is given up to him, he may remit somewhat of the severity of these articles. But even these, I think it advisable to endure, rather than to suffer yourselves to be slaughtered, and your wives and children seized, and dragged into slavery, before your eyes, according to the practice of war.”
XIV. The surrounding crowd, gradually approaching to hear this discourse, had formed an assembly of the people conjoined with the senate, when the men of principal distinction, withdrawing suddenly before any answer was given, collected all the gold and silver both from their private and public stores, into the Forum, threw it into a fire hastily kindled for the purpose, and then most of them cast themselves in headlong after it. While the dismay and confusion, which this occasioned, filled every part of the city, another uproar was heard from the citadel. A tower, after being battered for a long time, had fallen down, and a cohort of the Carthaginians, having forced their way through the breach, gave notice to their general, that the place was destitute of the usual guards and watches. Hannibal, judging that such an opportunity admitted no delay, assaulted the city with his whole force, and, instantly making himself master of it, gave orders that every person of adult age should be put to the sword: which cruel order was proved however, by the event, to have been in a manner induced by the conduct of the people; for how could mercy have been extended to any of those who, shutting themselves up with their wives and children, burned their houses over their heads; or who, bein arms, continued fighting, until stopped by death?
XV. In the town was found a vast quantity of spoil, notwithstanding that the greater part of the effects had been purposely injured by the owners; and that, during the carnage, the rage of the assailants had made hardly any distinction of age, although the prisoners were the property of the soldiers. Nevertheless it appears, that a large sum of money was brought into the treasury, out of the price of the goods exposed to sale, and likewise that a great deal of valuable furniture and apparel was sent to Carthage. Some writers have asserted, that Saguntum was taken in the eighth month from the beginning of the siege; that Hannibal then retired into winter quarters to New Carthage; and that, in the fifth month, after leaving Carthage, he arrived again in Italy. But if these accounts were true, it is impossible that Publius Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius could have been the consuls, to whom, in the beginning of the siege, the ambassadors were sent from Saguntum; and who, during their office, fought with Hannibal; the one at the river Ticinus, and both, a considerable time after, at the Trebia. Either all these matters must have been transacted in less time, or Saguntum must have been taken, not first invested, in the beginning of that year wherein Publius Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius were consuls. For the battle at the Trebia could not have happened so late as the year of Cn. Servilius and Caius Flaminius; because Caius Flaminius entered on the office of consul at Arimimum, having been elected thereto by Tiberius Sempronius, who, after the engagement at the Trebia, had gone home to Rome for the purpose of electing consuls; and, when the election was finished, returned into winter quarters to the army.
XVI. The ambassador’s returning from Carthage, brought information to Rome, that every thing tended to war; and, nearly at the same time, news was received of the destruction of Saguntum. Grief seized the senate, for the deplorable catastrophe of their allies, and shame for not having afforded them succour; rage against the Carthaginians, and such apprehensions for the public safety, as if the enemy were already at their gates; so that their minds being agitated by so many passions at once, their meetings were scenes of confusion and disorder, rather than of deliberation. For, “never,” they observed, “had an enemy, more enterprising and warlike, entered the field with them; and, at no other period had the Roman power been so unfit for great exertions, or so deficient in practice. As to the Sardinians, Corsicans, Istrians, and Illyrians, they had only roused the Roman arms, without affording them exercise; and with the Gauls the affair was really a tumult, rather than a war. The Carthaginians, another kind of foe, were crossing the Iberus; trained to arms during twenty-three years, in the most laborious service, among the nations of Spain; accustomed to conquer on every occasion; habituated to the command of a most able general; flushed with their late conquest of a very opulent city, and bringing with them many Spanish states; while the Gauls, ever glad of an opportunity of fighting, would doubtless be engaged in the expedition. War must then be waged against all the world, in the heart of Italy, and under the walls of Rome.”
XVII. The provinces had been already named for the consuls, but now they were ordered to cast lots. Spain fell to Cornelius; Africa, with Sicily, to Sempronius. For the service of the year, six legions were decreed, with such a number of the troops of the allies as the consuls should deem requisite, and a fleet as great as could be fitted out. Of Romans were enlisted twenty-four thousand foot, and one thousand eight hundred horse; of the allies, forty thousand foot, and four thousand four hundred horse. The fleet consisted of two hundred and twenty ships of five banks of oars, and twenty light gallies. The question was then proposed to the people, whether “they chose and ordered, that war should be declared against the people of Carthage?” This being determined on, a general supplication was performed in the city, and prayers offered to the gods, that the war which the Roman people had ordered might have a prosperous and happy issue. The forces were divided between the consuls in this manner: to Sempronius were assigned two legions, containing each four thousand foot and three hundred horse and of the allies sixteen thousand foot, and one thousand eight hundred horse, with one hundred and sixty ships of war, and twelve light gallies. With these land and sea forces, Tiberius Sempronius was sent to Sicily, with intention that he should cross over to Africa, in case the other consul should be able to prevent the Carthaginians from entering Italy. The army assigned to Cornelius was less numerous, because Lucius Manlius, a prætor, was also sent into Gaul with a considerable force. Of ships, particularly, Cornelius’s share was small: sixty quinqueremes only were given him, for it was not supposed either that the enemy would come by sea, or that he would exert himself on that element. Two Roman legions, with their regular proportion of cavalry, and, of the allies, fourteen thousand foot, and sixteen hundred horse were assigned to him. In this year, the province of Gaul, though not yet threatened with a Carthaginian war, had posted in it two Roman legions, and ten thousand confederate infantry, with one thousand confederate horsemen and six hundred Roman.
XVIII. These adjustments being made, they yet determined, previous to the taking up arms, to send Quintus Fabius, Marcus Livius, Lucius Amilius, Caius Licinius, and Quintus Bæbius, men venerable on account of their age, into Africa, as ambassadors, to require an explanation from the Carthaginians, whether Hannibal’s attack on Saguntum had been authorized by the state; and, in case they should acknowledge it, as it was expected they would, and defend that proceeding, then to declare war against the people of Carthage. When the Romans arrived at Carthage, and were introduced to an audience of the senate, Quintus Fabius, without enlarging on the subject, simply proposed the question, as stated in their instructions; on which one of the Carthaginians replied, “Romans, in your former embassy, ye were too precipitate, when you demanded that Hannibal should be delivered up, as attacking Saguntum of his own authority. But your present proceeding, though hitherto milder in words, is, in effect, more unreasonably severe. A charge was made against Hannibal, only when you required him to be delivered up: now, you endeavour to extort from us a confession of wrong committed, and at the same instant, as if we had already pleaded guilty, insist on reparation. For myself, I am of opinion that the question proper to be asked is, not whether Saguntum was attacked by public authority, or private, but whether justly or unjustly? For with respect to a subject of our government, whether acting under direction of the public, or not, the right of enquiry, and of punishing, is exclusively our own. The only point, then, that comes into discussion with you, is, whether the act was allowable according to treaty? Wherefore, since you chose that a distinction should be made, between what commanders do by public authority, and what of their own will, there is a treaty subsisting between us, concluded by your consul Lutatius, in which provision is made for the interest of the allies of both nations. But there is no clause in favour of the Saguntines; for they were not at the time in alliance with you. But then, in the treaty entered into with Hasdrubal, the Saguntines are expressly exempted from hostilities. In answer to which, I shall urge nothing but what I have learned from yourselves. For you asserted, that the treaty which your consul Caius Lutatius at first concluded with us, inasmuch as it had been concluded without either the approbation of the senate, or an order of the people, was not binding on you; and that for that reason, another treaty was ratified anew, under the sanction of public authority. Now, if your treaties do not bind you, unless sanctioned by your approbation and order, surely the treaty of Hasdrubal, under the same circumstances, cannot be binding on us. Cease therefore to talk of Saguntum, and the Iberus; and let your minds at length give birth to the burthen of which they are long in labour.” The Roman then, folding up a corner of his robe, said, “here we bring you peace, and war; take which you choose.” Which proposal they answered with an equal degree of peremptory heat, calling out, that “he should give whichever he chose.” He then threw open the fold again, and said that “he gave war;” they with one voice replied, that “they accepted it; and, with the same spirit with which they accepted it, would prosecute it.”
XIX. This mode of a direct demand, and declaration of war, was deemed suitable to the dignity of the Roman people, even before this time; but more particularly after the destruction of Saguntum, than to enter into a verbal disquisition concerning the construction of treaties. For, if the business were to be decided by argument, what similitude was there between the treaty of Hasdrubal, and the former treaty of Lutatius, which was altered? Since in the latter, there was an express clause inserted, that “it should be valid, provided the people should ratify it;” but in that of Hasdrubal, there was no such provision. Besides, this treaty was confirmed, in such a manner, by the silent approbation of so many years, during the remainder of his life, that even after the death of its author, no alteration was made in it; although, even were the former treaty adhered to, there was sufficient security provided for the Saguntines, by the exempting from hostilities the allies of both nations; there being no distinction made of those who then were, or of those who should afterwards become such. And, as it was evidently allowable to form new alliances, who could think it reasonable, either that persons should not be received into friendship on account of any degree of merit whatever; or, that people, once taken under protection, should not be defended? The only restriction implied was, that the allies of the Carthaginians should not be solicited to revolt, nor, revolting of their own accord, should be received. The Roman ambassadors, in pursuance of their instructions received at Rome, passed over from Carthage into Spain, in order to make application to the several states of that country, and either to engage their alliance, or at least dissuade them from joining the Carthaginians. They came, first, to the Bargusian, by whom being favourably received, because that people were dissatisfied with the Carthaginian government, they roused the spirits of many powers on the farther side of the Iberus, by the flattering prospect of a change in their circumstances. Thence they came to the Volscians, whose answer, which was reported with applause through every part of Spain, deterred the other states from joining in alliance with Rome. For thus the oldest member of their assembly replied, “Where is your sense of shame, Romans, when you require of us, that we should prefer your friendship to that of the Carthaginians? The Saguntines, who embraced it, have been abandoned by you: in which abandonment you, their allies, have shown greater cruelty, than the Carthaginians, their enemy, showed in destroying them. What I recommend is, that you seek connections where the fatal disaster of Saguntum is unknown. To the states of Spain, the ruins of that city will be both a melancholy, and a forcible warning, not to confide in the faith or alliance of Rome.” They were then ordered to depart immediately from the territories of the Volscians; nor did they afterwards meet, from any assembly in Spain, a more favourable reception; therefore, after making a circuit through all parts of that country, without effecting any thing, they passed over into Gaul.
XX. At Ruscino they encountered a new and terrifying spectacle; the people coming in arms to the assembly, for such is the custom of that country. After displaying, in magnificent terms, the renown and the valour of the Roman people, and the greatness of their empire, they requested that the Gauls would not grant a passage through their cities and territories to the Carthaginian, who was preparing to invade Italy. On which, we are told, such a laugh was raised, accompanied by a general outcry of displeasure, that the magistrates and the elder members of the assembly could, with difficulty, bring the younger men into order, so unreasonable, and so absurd did it appear, to require that the Gauls should not suffer the war to pass into Italy, but should draw it on themselves, and expose their own lands to devastation, instead of those of strangers. When the uproar was at length appeased, an answer was given to the ambassadors, that “the Gauls had never received either any kindness from the Romans, or ill treatment from the Carthaginians, that should induce them to take arms either in favour of the former, or in opposition to the latter. On the contrary, they had been informed, that their countrymen were expelled by the Roman people from the lands, and out of the limits of Italy, compelled to pay tribute, and subjected to indignities of every kind.” To the same application, they received the same answer, from the other assemblies in Gaul; nor did they meet any very friendly or peaceable reception until they arrived at Marseilles. There, in consequence of the diligent inquiries made by those faithful allies, they learned, that “the minds of the Gauls had been already prepossessed in favour of Hannibal. But that even he would find that nation not very tractable, so ferocious and ungovernable were their tempers, unless he frequently revived the attachment of their chiefs with gold, of which that people were remarkably greedy.” Having thus finished their progress through the states of Spain and Gaul, the ambassadors returned to Rome, shortly after the consuls had set out for their provinces, and found the passions of every man warmly excited by the prospect of the approaching war, for all accounts now agreed that the Carthaginians had passed the Iberus.
XXI. Hannibal, after taking Saguntum, had retired into winter quarters, at New Carthage; where, receiving information of all the transactions and resolutions which had passed at Rome, and at Carthage, and that he was not only the leader, but likewise the cause of the war, he determined no longer to defer his measures, and having distributed and sold off the remains of the plunder, he called together his Spanish troops, and spoke to this effect: “Fellow soldiers, as we have already established peace through all the states of Spain, we must either lay aside our arms, and disband our forces, or transfer the seat of war to other countries. For the way to make these nations flourish, with the blessings not only of peace, but of victory, is, for us to seek glory and spoil from others. Wherefore as we shall soon be called to service, at a distance from home, and as it is uncertain when you may see your families, and whatever is dear to you, if any choose to visit your friends, I now give you leave of absence. At the beginning of spring, I charge you to attend here, in order that, with the aid of the Gods, we may enter on a war, from which we shall reap abundance both of honour and riches.” This voluntary offer, of leave to revisit their homes, was highly pleasing to almost every one of them; for they already longed to see their friends, and foresaw a longer absence from them, likely to happen. This interval of rest renewed the powers of their minds and bodies, enabling them to encounter every hardship anew; for the fatigues they had already sustained, and those they were soon to undergo, appeared to be little thought of. At the beginning of spring they therefore assembled according to orders. Hannibal, after reviewing the auxiliaries of the several nations, went to Gades, where he fulfilled his vows to Hercules, and bound himself in new ones, in case his future operations should be crowned with success. Then dividing his attention, between the measures requisite for annoying the enemy, and those necessary for defence, lest, while he should be making his way to Italy by land, through Spain and Gaul, Africa should be naked and open to an attack of the Romans from Sicily, he resolved to provide for its security by sending thither a strong body of forces. In the room of these, he required a reinforcement to be sent to him from Africa, consisting chiefly of light armed spearmen. This he did with the view, that the Africans serving in Spain, and the Spaniards in Africa, where each would be better soldiers at a distance from home, they might be, as it were, mutual hostages for the good behaviour of each other. He sent into Africa, of infantry, thirteen thousand eight hundred and fifty targeteers, with eight hundred and seventy Balearick slingers; of cavalry, collected from many nations, one thousand two hundred. Part of these forces he ordered to garrison Carthage, the rest to be distributed through Africa. At the same time he ordered four thousand chosen young men, whom he had enlisted by means of commissaries sent among the several states, to be conducted to Carthage, both as an addition of strength and as hostages.
XXII. Judging also, that Spain ought not to be neglected, in which opinion he was not the less confirmed by having been acquainted with the tour made through it by the Roman ambassadors, for the purpose of engaging the friendship of the chiefs, he allotted that province to Hasdrubal his brother, a man of talents and activity; and he formed his strength mostly of the troops from Africa, giving him eleven thousand eight hundred and fifty African foot, with three hundred Ligurians, and five hundred Balearians. To these bodies of infantry, were added four hundred and fifty horsemen of the Liby-Phœnicians, a race composed of a mixture of Phœnicians with Africans; of Numidians and Mauritanians, who inhabit the coast of the ocean, to the number of one thousand eight hundred; a small band of the Hergetans, a Spanish nation, amounting to two hundred horsemen; and, that he might not be destitute of any kind of force, which might be useful in operations on land,from ten elephants. Also for the defence of the sea coast, because, as the Romans had been formerly victorious at sea, it was probable that they would now likewise exert themselves in the same line, a fleet was assigned him of fifty quinqueremes, two quadriremes, and five triremes; but, of these, only thirty-two quinqueremes, and the five triremes, were fully equipped and manned with rowers. From Gades he returned to Carthage, the winter quarters of the army. Then putting his troops in motion, he led them by the city of Etovissa to the Iberus, and the sea coast. Here, as is said, he saw, in his sleep, a youth of divine figure, who told him that he was sent by Jupiter to guide him into Italy, and bade him therefore to follow, and not turn his eyes to any side. Filled with terror, he followed at first without looking to either side, or behind; but afterwards, out of the curiosity natural to mankind, considering what that could be at which he was forbidden to look back, he could no longer restrain his eyes: he then saw behind him a serpent of immense size, moving along and felling all the bushes and trees in its way: and after it, followed a dark cloud with loud thundering in the air. On which, asking what was the nature of this great commotion, or what it portended, he was told that it meant the devastation of Italy; he was then ordered to proceed in his course, and not to enquire farther, but let the decrees of the destinies remain in obscurity.
XXIII. Overjoyed at this vision, he led his forces in three divisions over the Iberus, having sent forward emissaries to conciliate by presents the friendship of the Gauls, through whose country the army was to pass, and to explore the passes of the Alps. The number of forces, which he brought across the Iberus, was ninety thousand foot, and twelve thousand horse. He then reduced the Ilergetans, the Bargusians, the Ausetanians, and the province of Lacetania, which lay at the foot of the Pyrenean mountains. The government of all this tract he gave to Hanno, with intention to retain the command of the narrow passes, which lead from Spain into Gaul: and, to enable him to secure the possession of it, assigned him a body of forces, consisting of ten thousand foot and one thousand horse. When the army began to pass the defiles of the Pyrenees, and a rumour spread with greater certainty among the barbarians, that the war was intended against the Romans, three thousand of the Carpetan foot left him, and marched away, actuated, as clearly appeared, not so much by dread of the enemy, as of the great length of the march, and the insuperable difficulty of crossing the Alps. Hannibal, considering that to recall or detain them by force, might be attended with dangerous consequences, and wishing to avoid every thing that might irritate the ferocious tempers of the rest, sent home above ten thousand men, in whom he had discovered an equal aversion from the service, pretending that he had, in like manner, dismissed the Carpetans.
XXIV. Then, lest delay and idleness should inspire them with improper notions, he crossed the Pyrenees with the rest of his forces, and pitched his camp near the town of Illiberis. The Gauls had been told that his operations were directed against Italy; nevertheless, having been informed that the Spaniards on the other side of the Pyrenees had been reduced by force, and that a powerful guard was stationed in their country, they were so much alarmed for their liberty, that they hastily took arms, and several states formed a general meeting at Ruscino. When Hannibal was informed of this, dreading delay more than the power of the enemy, he despatched envoys to their petty princes, acquainting them, that he wished to confer with them in person, and proposing, that either they should come nearer to Illiberis, or that he would advance to Ruscino; that he would, with great pleasure, receive them in his camp, or, without hesitation, go himself to theirs: for he came into Gaul as a friend, not as an enemy; and meant not to draw a sword, if the Gauls would allow him to hold his resolution, until he arrived in Italy. This passed through messengers: but the Gauls immediately removed their camp to Illiberis, came without reluctance to the Carthaginian, and were so highly captivated by his presents, that, with great cheerfulness, they conducted his army, by the town of Ruscino, through their territories.
XXV. In Italy, at this time, nothing farther was known, than that Hannibal had passed the Iberus, intelligence of which had been brought to Rome by ambassadors from Marseilles; yet, as if he had already passed the Alps, the Boians engaging the concurrence of the Insubrians, began a revolt, their motive for which was not their ancient enmity towards the Roman people, but the offence which they lately conceived, at the establishment of the colonies on the Po, at Cremona, and Placentia, within the limits of the Gallic territories. For this reason, they hastily took arms, and, making an irruption into those very soils, caused such terror and confusion, that not only the country people, but even the Roman commissioners, who had come thither to distribute the lands, doubting their safety within the walls of Placentia, fled to Mutina. These were Caius Lutatius, Caius Servilius, and Titus Annius. There is no doubt about the name of Lutatius; but some annals, instead of Caius Servilius and Titus Annius, have Quintus Acilius, and Caius Herrennius; others, Publius Cornelius Asina, and Caius Papirius Maso. There is also an uncertainty, whether ambassadors, sent to expostulate with the Boians, suffered violence, or whether the ill treatment was offered to the commissioners who were measuring out the lands. While they were shut up in Mutina, and the besiegers, a people quite unskilled in the arts of attacking towns, and remarkably lazy with respect to all military operations, lay inactive round the walls, which they could not injure, a pretended treaty for an accommodation was set on foot, and the ambassadors being invited out to a conference by the chiefs of the Gauls, were, in violation, not only of the laws of nations, but of the faith pledged on the occasion, seized and put into confinement, the Gauls declaring, that they would not set them at liberty, unless their own hostages were returned to them. On hearing of this treatment of the ambassadors, and the danger which threatened Mutina and the garrison, Lucius Manlius the prætor, inflamed with resentment, led his army in a rapid march towards that city. The ground, on both sides of the road, was, at that time, covered with woods, and mostly uninhabited. Advancing into these places, without having examined the country, he fell into an ambush, and with much difficulty, after losing a great number of men, made his way into the open plains. Here he fortified a camp, which the Gauls not having resolution to attack, the soldiers recovered their spirits, though it was evident that their strength was greatly diminished: they then began their march anew, and, as long as their road lay through open grounds, the enemy never appeared; but falling on their rear, when the Romans again entered the woods, they threw all into fright and disorder, slew eight hundred soldiers, and carried off six standards. As soon as the troops had got clear of that difficult and troublesome pass, the Gauls ceased from their attempts, and the Romans from their fears, and the latter, afterwards, easily securing the safety of their march through the open country, proceeded to Tanetum, a small town on the Po. Here, by means of a temporary fortification, which they raised, the supply of provisions conveyed by the river, and the aid of the Brescian Gauls, they maintained their ground against the numerous forces of the enemy, though daily augmented.
XXVI. When news of this sudden insurrection arrived at Rome, and the senate understood, that, besides the Carthaginian war, they had another to maintain with the Gauls, they ordered Caius Atilius, a prætor, to march to the relief of Manlius with one Roman legion, and five thousand allied troops, inlisted by the consul in the late levy; with these he arrived at Tanetum without any interruption, for the enemy through fear, had retired at his approach. At the same time Publius Cornelius, having raised a new legion, in the room of that which had been sent with the prætor, set out from the city with sixty ships of war; and coasting along Etruria, Liguria, and the Salyan mountains, he arrived at Marseilles, and pitched his camp on the nearest mouth of the Rhone, for that river, dividing itself, flows into the sea through several channels scarcely believing, yet, that Hannibal had passed the Pyrenean mountains. But when he learned that he was, even then, employed in preparations for passing the Rhone, being unable to determine in what place he might meet him, and his men being not yet sufficiently recovered from the fatigue of the voyage, he despatched three hundred chosen horsemen, guided by some Massilians and auxiliary Gauls, to gain information of every particular, and to take a view of the enemy, without danger. Hannibal procuring, either by threats or presents, an unmolested passage through the other provinces, had arrived at the country of the Volcæ, a powerful state. These possessed territories on both sides of the Rhone, but, doubting their ability to repel the Carthaginian from the country on the hither side, in order to avail themselves of the river as a defence, they had transported almost all their effects beyond it, and were ready in arms to defend the opposite bank. Hannibal, by means of presents, prevailed on the inhabitants of the other districts contiguous to the river, and even on those of that very state, who staid in their own habitations, to collect ships from every quarter, and to build others; themselves being desirous that his army should be transported, and their country freed, as speedily as might be, from the burthen of such a multitude of men. A vast number of vessels therefore were brought together, and of boats rudely constructed for the purpose of short passages. Others were formed by hollowing single trees, the Gauls first showing the way; and afterwards the soldiers themselves, encouraged by the plenty of timber, and likewise by the easiness of the work, hastily formed clumsy hulks to transport themselves and their effects, regardless of every other circumstance, provided they would but float, and contain a burthen.
XXVII. And now, when all preparatory measures for effecting their passage were completed, the enemy, on the farther side, threatened them with a violent opposition, covering the whole bank with horse and foot. But, in order to remove these out of his way, Hannibal ordered Hanno, son of Bomilcar, to set out by night, at the first watch, with a body of forces composed mostly of Spaniards, to march up the river to the distance of one day’s journey, and then crossing it, as secretly as possible, to lead round his detachment with all expedition, that he might fall on the rear of the enemy when so required. The Gauls, who were given him as guides on the occasion, informed him that, at the distance of about twenty-five miles above that place, the river spreading round a small island, showed the passage, where it divided itself, broader, and the channel consequently shallower. At this place, felling timber with the utmost haste, they formed rafts for carrying over the men, horses, and other weighty matters. As to the Spaniards, they took no trouble about any means of conveyance, but thrusting their clothes into leathern bags, and resting their bodies on their bucklers placed under them, swam over the river. The rest of the troops, having also passed over on the rafts joined together, they encamped near the river, and being fatigued by the march during the night, and by the labour of the work, refreshed themselves with rest for one day, while their leader was earnestly studying how to execute the design in proper season. Next day, having marched from thence, they made a signal, by raising a smoke, that they had effected their passage, and were not far distant; which being perceived by Hannibal, he gave the signal for his troops to pass the river. The infantry had the boats equipped and in readiness, and a line of larger vessels, with the horsemen, most of whom had their horses smimming near them, crossed higher up the river, in order to break the force of the current, and thereby render the water smooth for the boats passing below. The horses, for the most part, were led after the sterns by collars, those only excepted which had been put on board the ships bridled and accoutred, in order that the riders, on their landing, might have them ready for instant use.
XXVIII. The Gauls ran down to the bank to meet them, with various kinds of cries and songs, according to their custom, tossing their shields above their heads, and with their right hands brandishing their javelins, notwithstanding the terrible appearance of such a vast number of ships, together with the loud roaring of the river, and the confused clamours of the mariners and soldiers, both of those who were struggling to force their way through the violent current, and of those who from the opposite bank encouraged their friends on their passage. While they saw sufficient cause of terror on their front, a more terrifying shout assailed them from behind, where their camp was taken by Hanno. Presently he came up; so that they were encompassed by dangers; such a vast number of soldiers being brought by the ships, and another army quite unexpectedly pressing on their rear. The Gauls finding that, instead of being the assailants as they had intended, they were even driven from their own ground, made off hastily through the clearest opening that they could find, and in the utmost confusion dispersed to their several towns. Hannibal now looked with contempt on the boisterous menaces of this people, and bringing over the rest of his forces at leisure, encamped on the spot. Various plans, I should suppose, were projected for conveying the elephants across the river, at least the accounts transmitted of the manner in which it was performed are various. Some relate, that being brought all together to the river side, the fiercest among them was provoked to anger by his keeper, who pursued him by swimming as he fled into the water: that this drew down the rest of the herd; and that each, as soon as he lost the bottom, was by the mere force of the stream hurried to the opposite bank. But it is more generally agreed, that they were carried over on rafts; and as this must have appeared the safer method, it is now more easy to believe, that the business was so effected. One raft, of two hundred feet in length and fifty in breadth, was extended from the bank into the river, the upper part of it being firmly fastened to the shore with several strong cables, to prevent its being carried down with the stream, and this was covered with a layer of earth, like a bridge, in order that the beasts might, without fear, walk on it as on solid ground. Another raft of equal breadth, and one hundred feet long, was fastened to this, and when the elephants, being driven over the fixed raft as on a road, the females going foremost, passed over to the smaller one which was joined to it, then the ropes with which this latter had been slightly tied were instantly loosed, and it was towed away by several light vessels to the other bank. When the first were thus landed, it was brought back for the rest. As long as they were driven, as it were, on a bridge connected with the land, they showed no signs of fear: they first began to be frightened when, the raft being set loose, they were separated from the rest, and dragged into the deep: then pressing close on one another, as those on the outside drew back from the water, they occasioned a good deal of disorder; but terrified by seeing the water on every side of them, they soon became quiet. Some, indeed, becoming outrageous, tumbled into the river, but their own weight rendering them steady, though their riders were thrown off, they cautiously searched out the shallow parts, and came safe to land.
XXIX. While thus employed in transporting the elephants, Hannibal had despatched five hundred Numidian horsemen towards the camp of the Romans, to discover where they lay, what were their numbers, and, if possible, what their designs. This detachment of cavalry was met by the three hundred Roman horse, sent, as mentioned above, from the mouth of the Rhone. A battle ensued, more furious than common, between such small numbers: for, besides many wounds, there was a great loss of lives, nearly equal on both sides, and it was not until the Romans were thoroughly fatigued, that the dismay and flight of the Numidians yielded them the victory. On the side of the conquerors fell one hundred and sixty, not all Romans however, some of them being Gauls; and of the vanquished more than two hundred. As this prelude, and omen likewise, of the war, portended to the Romans a favourable issue on the whole, so did it a victory not unbloody, nor to be purchased without a dangerous struggle. After this action, the parties returned to their respective commanders. On the one hand, Scipio could form no determination, farther than to regulate his measures by the designs and proceedings of the enemy; and, on the other, Hannibal was in doubt, whether he should continue his march into Italy without intermission, or come to an engagement with the first Roman army that threw itself in his way. However, from the thoughts of an immediate engagement he was diverted by the arrival of ambassadors from the Boians, and of a chieftain called Magalus, who, assuring him that they would be his guides on the march, and companions in the dangers, recommended him to reserve the first essay of his entire force for the attack of Italy, and not, previously, to hazard any diminution of his strength. His troops feared indeed, the enemy, for the memory of the former war was not yet obliterated; but much more did they dread the extreme difficulty of the march, and the passage of the Alps, a matter exceedingly formidable, at least by report, and to people unacquainted with those mountains.
XXX. Hannibal, therefore, as soon as he had determined to proceed forward, and direct his operations against Italy, called an assembly of the soldiers, and endeavoured, by the different methods of reproof and exhortation, to mould their minds to his purpose. “He wondered,” he said, “what sudden terror could have taken possession of breasts hitherto always undaunted. During such a number of years in which they carried arms, they were constantly victorious; nor had left Spain until all the nations and countries comprehended between the two opposite seas were under subjection to Carthage. Then, seized with indignation at the Roman people demanding that every person, concerned in the siege of Saguntum, should be delivered into their hands as criminals, they had passed the Iberus, resolved to exterminate the Roman race, and to set the world at liberty. No one, at that time, thought the march too long, though they were to continue it from the setting place of the sun to that of its rising. Now, when they saw by far the greater part of the journey accomplished, after conquering the obstructions of the Pyrenean forests, in the midst of the fiercest nations; after effecting their passage over so great a river as the Rhone, in the face of so many thousands of Gauls opposing them; nay, when they had the Alps within view, the other side of which was a part of Italy, just in the gates of their enemy’s country, they grew weary and halted. — Was it that they conceived the Alps to be any thing more than high mountains? Suppose them higher than the summits of the Pyrenees: surely no part of the earth reached to the heaven, nor was of a height insuperable by mankind. These eminences in reality were inhabited, cultivated, produced and supported animals. Were they passable by small parties, and impassable by armies? Those very ambassadors, before their eyes, had not been carried aloft on wings over the Alps. Neither had their ancestors been natives of the soil, but settlers, who came from other countries into Italy, and who crossed with safety those same hills, often in vast bodies, with their wives and children, as other colonies emigrate. To a soldier carrying nothing with him but the implements of war, what could be impassable or insuperable? In order to gain possession of Saguntum, what toils, what dangers, did they not undergo, for the space of eight months? Now, when their object was Rome, the capital of the world, what difficulty or danger should be deemed capable of retarding the enterprize? The Gauls formerly made themselves masters of those very places which the Carthaginians despaired of approaching. Either, therefore, they must yield the superiority in spirit and courage to that nation, which, during a short time past, they had so frequently overcome; or they must look for the termination of their march, in the field lying between the Tiber and the walls of Rome.”
XXXI. When, by these exhortations, he had reanimated their courage, he ordered them to take refreshment, and prepare for a march. On the following day, he proceeded upwards along the bank of the Rhone, directing his route towards the interior parts of Gaul; not because that was the more direct road to the Alps, but because he thought that the farther he withdrew from the sea, the less probability there would be of his meeting with the Romans, with whom he did not intend to come to battle, until he should have arrived in Italy. After a march of four days, he came to the Island. Here the rivers Isara and Rhone, which run down from different parts of the Alps, after encompassing a pretty large tract of ground, unite their streams, and the plain enclosed between them is called the Island. The adjacent country is inhabited by the Allobroges, a nation, even in those times, inferior to none in Gaul in power and reputation, but at that juncture weakened by discord. Two brothers disputed the sovereignty. The elder, who had been invested with the government, by name Brancus, was dispossessed by the younger brother, and a combination of the younger men; on which side, though there was less justice, there was more strength. Most opportunely, the parties in this dissension referred their pretensions to the judgment of Hannibal, who being appointed arbitrator of the disputed sovereignty, gave a decision agreeable to the sense of the senate, and of the principal men of the state: that the government should be restored to the elder. In requital of which favour, he was assisted with a supply of provisions, and plenty of all kind of necessaries, particularly of clothing, which the terrible accounts of the cold of the higher regions made it necessary to provide. After settling the disputes of the Allobroges, though now bent on proceeding to the Alps, he took not the direct road thither, but turned to the left into the country of the Tricastines; thence, through the extreme boundaries of the Vocontian territory, he advanced into that of the Tricorians, meeting no obstruction until he came to the river Druentia. This also, deriving its source from the Alps, is, of all the rivers in Gaul, the most difficult to pass; for, though conveying a vast body of water, it admits not the use of ships; because, being confined by no banks, it flows in several, and not always the same channels, continually forming new shallows, and new whirlpools, so that a person is in danger of missing his way; and besides, rolling down loose gritty stones, the footing is unsteady. Happening too, at that time, to be swelled by rains, it caused the utmost disorder among the troops on their passage, and which was much increased by their own hurry and confused clamours.
XXXII. In about three days after Hannibal’s moving from the bank of the Rhone, the consul Publius Cornelius had come with his forces, in order of battle, to the camp of the enemy, intending to fight them without delay. But finding the fortifications abandoned, and concluding that, as they had got the start of him so far, it would be difficult to overtake them, he marched back to the sea, where his ships lay; for he judged that he might thus with greater ease and safety meet Hannibal on his descent from the Alps. However, not to leave Spain, the province which the lots had assigned to his care, destitute of the aid of Roman troops, he sent his brother Cneius Scipio, with the greater part of his forces, against Hasdrubal, with the expectation not merely of protecting old allies, and acquiring new, but of driving him out of Spain. He himself, with a very small force, repaired to Genoa, proposing, with the army which was stationed on the Po, to provide for the security of Italy. From the Druentia, Hannibal, passing through a tract in general level, without any molestation from the Gauls inhabiting those regions, arrived at the Alps. And now, notwithstanding that the men had already conceived notions of the scene from report, which, in cases capable of misrepresentation, generally goes beyond the truth, yet the present view exhibited such objects as renewed all their terrors; the height of the mountains, the snows almost touching the sky, the wretched huts standing on the cliffs, the cattle and beasts shivering with the cold, the people squalid and in uncouth dress, all things, in short, animate and inanimate, stiffened with frost, besides other circumstances more shocking to the sight than can be represented in words. As they marched up the first acclivities, they beheld the eminences which hung over them covered with parties of the mountaineers, who, if they had posted themselves in the vallies out of view, and, rushing out suddenly, had made an unexpected attack, must have occasioned the most terrible havoc and dismay. Hannibal commanded the troops to halt, and having discovered from some Gauls, whom he sent forward to examine the ground, that there was no passage on that side, encamped in the widest valley which he could find, where the whole circuit around consisted of rocks and precipices. Then, having gained intelligence by means of the same Gauls, (who differed not much from the others in language or manners, and who had entered into conversation with them,) that the pass was blocked up only by day, and that, at night, they separated to their several dwellings, he advanced at the first dawn to the eminences, as if with the design of forcing his way through the pass. This feint he carried on through the whole day, his men at the same time fortifying a camp in the spot where they were drawn up. As soon as he understood that the mountaineers had retired from the heights, and withdrawn their guards, he made, for a show, a greater number of fires than was proportioned to the troops who remained in the camp, and, leaving behind the baggage, with the cavalry and the greatest part of the infantry, he himself with a light-armed band, composed of the most daring men in the army, pushed rapidly through the pass, and took post on those very eminences of which the enemy had been in possession.
XXXIII. At the first dawn of the next day, the rest of the army began to march forward. By this time the mountaineers, on a signal given, were coming together out of their fortresses to their usual station; when, on a sudden, they perceived a part of the enemy over their heads in possession of their own strong post, and the rest passing along the road. Both these circumstances striking them at once, they were for some time incapable of thought, or of turning their eyes to any other object. Afterwards, when they observed the confusion in the pass, and that the body of the enemy was disordered on their march, by the hurry among themselves, and particularly by the unruliness of the affrighted horses, it was imagined that, to augment in any degree the terror under which they already laboured, were effectually to destroy them: they therefore ran down the rocks in an oblique direction through pathless and circuitous ways, which habitual practice rendered easy to them: and now the Carthaginians had to contend, at once, with the Gauls and the disadvantage of the ground; and there was a greater struggle among themselves than with the enemy, for every one strove to get first out of danger. But the greatest disorder was occasioned by the horses, which, affrighted at the dissonant clamours, multiplied by the echoes from the woods and vallies, became nearly unmanageable; and when they happened to receive a stroke or a wound, grew so unruly as to overthrow numbers of men, and heaps of baggage of all sorts; and as there were abrupt precipices on each side of the pass, their violence cast down many to an immense depth, so that the fall of such great masses produced a dreadful effect. Although these were shocking sights to Hannibal, yet he kept his place for a while, and restrained the troops that were with him, lest he should encrease the tumult and confusion. Afterwards, seeing the line of the army broken, and that there was danger of their being wholly deprived of their baggage, in which case the effecting of their passage would answer no purpose, he hastened down from the higher ground; and while, by the mere rapidity of his motion, he dispersed the forces of the enemy, he at the same time increased the confusion among his own. But this, when the roads were cleared by the flight of the mountaineers, was instantly remedied, and the whole army was soon brought through the pass not only without disturbance, but almost without noise. He then seized a fort, which was the capital of that district, and several villages that lay round it, and fed his army for three days with cattle taken from the fugitives. During these three days, as he was not incommoded by the mountaineers, nor much by the nature of the ground, he made a considerable progress in his march.
XXXIV. He then reached the territory of another state, which was thickly inhabited for a mountainous country: there, he was very near suffering a defeat, not by open force, but by his own arts, treachery and ambush. Some men of advanced age, governors of their forts, came to the Carthaginian as ambassadors, with humble representations, that “as the calamities of others had afforded them a profitable lesson, they wished to make trial of the friendship, rather than of the strength, of the Carthaginians. That they were, therefore, resolved to yield obedience to all his commands, and requested him to accept of provisions and guides on his march, and hostages to ensure the performance of their engagements.” Hannibal neither hastily crediting, nor yet slighting their offers, lest, if rejected, they might declare openly against him, after returning a favourable answer, accepted the hostages, and made use of the provision which they had, of their own accord, brought to the road; but followed the guides, not as through a friendly country, but with the strictest order in his march. The elephants and cavalry composed the van, and he himself followed with the main body of the infantry, carefully inspecting every particular. On their coming into a road narrower than the rest, confined, on one side, by an impending hill, the barbarians rising upon all sides from places where they had lain concealed, assailed them in front and rear, in close and in distant fight, rolling down also huge rocks on the troops. The most numerous body pressed on the rear. There, the main force of infantry was ready to oppose them; but had not that been very strong, it must undoubtedly, in such a difficult pass, have suffered very great loss; even as the case stood, it was brought to the extremity of danger, and almost to destruction. For whilst Hannibal hesitated to lead down his horsemen into the narrow road, though he had left no kind of support at the back of the infantry, the mountaineers, rushing across and breaking through between the two divisions of the army, took possession of the pass, and Hannibal spent one night separated from his cavalry and baggage.
XXXV. Next day, the barbarians having relaxed the violence of their attacks in the centre, the troops were re-united, and carried through the defile, but not without loss; the destruction, however, was greater among the beasts of burthen than among the men. Thenceforward, the mountaineers made their attacks in smaller parties, more like robbers than an army; at one time, on the van; at another, on the rear; just as the ground happened to afford them an advantage, or as stragglers advancing before the rest, or staying behind, gave them an opportunity. As the driving the elephants through the narrow roads, even with all the haste that could be made, occasioned much loss of time, so wherever they went, they effectually secured the troops from the enemy, who being unaccustomed to such creatures, dared not to come near them. On the ninth day the army completed the ascent to the summit of the Alps, mostly through pathless tracts and wrong roads, into which they had been led, either by the treachery of their guides, or, when these were not trusted, rashly, on the strength of their own conjectures, following the courses of the vallies. On the summit they remained encamped two days, in order to refresh the soldiers, who were spent with toil and fighting; and, in this time, several of the beasts, which had fallen among the rocks, following the tracts of the army, came into the camp. Tired as the troops were, of straggling so long with hardships, they found their terrors very much increased by a fall of snow, this being the season of the setting of the constellation of the Pleiades* . The troops were put in motion with the first light; and as they marched slowly over ground which was entirely covered with snow, dejection and despair being strongly marked in every face, Hannibal went forward before the standards, and ordering the soldiers to halt on a projecting eminence from which there was a wide-extended prospect, made them take a view of Italy, and of the plains about the Po, stretching along the foot of the mountains; then told them, that “they were now sealing the walls, not only of Italy, but of the city of Rome. That all the rest would be plain and smooth, and after one, or, at most, a second battle, they would have the bulwark and capital of Italy in their power and disposal.” The army then began to advance, the enemy now desisting from any farther attempts on them, except by trifling parties for pillaging, as opportunity offered. But the way was much more difficult than it had been in the ascent; the declivity, on the Italian side of the Alps, being, in most places, shorter, and consequently more perpendicular; while the whole way was narrow and slippery, so that the soldiers could not prevent their feet from sliding, nor if they made the least false step, could they, on falling, stop themselves in the place; and thus men and beasts tumbled promiscuously over one another.
XXXVI. They then came to a ridge much narrower than the others, and composed of rock so upright, that a light-armed soldier, making the trial, could with much difficulty, by laying hold of bushes and roots, which appeared here and there, accomplish the descent. In this place the precipice, originally great, had, by a late falling away of the earth, been increased to the depth of at least one thousand feet. Here the cavalry stopped, as if at the end of their journey, and Hannibal, wondering what could be the cause of the troops halting, was told that the cliff was impassable. Then going up himself to view the place, it seemed clear to him that he must lead his army in a circuit, though ever so great, and through tracts never trodden before. That way, however, was found to be impracticable. The old snow, indeed, had become hard, and being covered with the new of a moderate depth, the men found good footing as they walked through it; but when that was dissolved by the treading of so many men and beasts, they then trod on the naked ice below. Here they were much impeded, because the foot could take no hold on the smooth ice, and was besides the more apt to slip, on account of the declivity of the ground; and whether they attempted to rise, either by the aid of hands or knees, these slipping, they fell again; add to this, that there were neither stumps nor roots within reach, on which they could lean for support; so that they wallowed in the melted snow on one entire surface of slippery ice. This the cattle sometimes penetrated as soon as their feet reached the lower bed, and sometimes, when they lost their footing, by striking more strongly with their hoofs in striving to keep themselves up, they broke it entirely through; so that the greatest part of them, as if caught in traps, stuck fast in the hard and deep ice.
XXXVII. At length, after men and beasts were heartily fatigued to no purpose, they fixed a camp on the summit, having with very great difficulty cleared even the ground which that required, so great was the quantity of snow to be dug and carried off. The soldiers were then employed to make a way down the steep, through which alone it was possible to effect a passage; and, as it was necessary to break the mass, they felled and lopped a number of huge trees which stood near, which they raised into a vast pile, and as soon as a smart wind arose, to forward the kindling of it, set it on fire, and then, when the stone was violently heated, made it crumble to pieces by pouring on vinegar. When the rock was thus disjointed, by the power of the heat, they opened a way through it with iron instruments, and inclined the descents in such a manner, that not only the beasts of burthen, but even the elephants, could be brought down. Four days were spent about this rock, during which the cattle were nearly destroyed by hunger, for the summits are, for the most part, bare, and whatever little pasture there might have been, was covered by the snow. In the lower parts are vallies and some hills, which enjoying the benefit of the sun, with rivulets at the side of the woods, are better suited to become the residence of human beings. There the horses were sent out to pasture, and the men, fatigued with their labour on the road, allowed to rest for three days. They then descended into the plains, where the climate, and likewise the temper of the inhabitants, were of a still milder cast.
XXXVIII. In this manner, as nearly as can be ascertained, they accomplished their passage into Italy, in the fifth month, according to some authors, after leaving New Carthage, having spent fifteen days in crossing the Alps. As to what number of forces Hannibal had when he arrived in Italy, writers by no means agree. Those who state them at the highest, make them amount to one hundred thousand foot, and twenty thousand horse; while those who state them at the lowest, say twenty thousand foot, and six of horse. The authority of Lucius Cincius Alimentus, who writes that he was taken prisoner by Hannibal, would have the greatest weight with me, did he not confound the number, by adding the Gauls and Ligurians. He says that, including these, (who it is more probable however flocked to him afterwards, and so some writers assert,) there were brought into Italy eighty thousand foot, and ten thousand horse; and that he heard from Hannibal himself, that from the time of his passing the Rhone, he had lost thirty-six thousand men, together with a vast number of horses, and other beasts of burthen, before he left the country of the Taurinians, the next nation to the Gauls, as he went down into Italy. That he came through this state, is agreed on by all; I am therefore the more surprised at its remaining doubtful by what road he crossed the Alps; and that the opinion should commonly prevail, that he passed over the Pennine hill, and that from thence that summit of these mountains got its name. Cœlius says, that he passed over the hill of Cremo. Either of these passes would have led him not into the territory of the Taurinians, but through that of the mountaineers, called Salassians, to the Libuan Gauls. Nor is it probable, that those roads into hither Gaul should, at that time, have been open; those, especially, which lead to the Pennine hill, would have been blocked up by nations half German. And besides, if the assertions of the inhabitants be admitted as an argument of any weight, it must be allowed, that the Veragrians, the inhabitants of that very hill, deny that the name was given to these mountains from any passage of the Carthaginians, and allege that it was so named from a person, called by the mountaineers Penninus, worshipped as a divinity on the highest top.
XXXIX. Hannibal had now a favourable opportunity for commencing his operations; the Taurinians, the nation lying nearest in his way, being at war with the Insubrians. But he could not put his forces under arms to assist either party, because they now felt most sensibly, while endeavouring to remedy them, the maladies which they had before contracted. For rest after toil, plenty after scarcity, and care of their persons after a course of filth and nastiness, produced little effect in the various disorders of those whose bodies were grown squalid and filthy to a degree of brutality. This consideration induced the consul Publius Cornelius, as soon as he arrived with the fleet at Pisæ, though the army which he received from Manlius and Atilius was composed of raw troops, and dispirited by their late disgraces, to hasten to the Po, in order that he might engage the enemy before he should recover his vigour. But by the time the consul came to Placentia, Hannibal had moved from his post, and had taken by storm a city of the Taurinians, the metropolis of the nation, because it had refused an offer of his friendship; and he would have drawn over to his side, either by their fears or inclinations, all the Gauls dwelling near the Po, had not the sudden arrival of Cornelius, when they were watching for an occasion of revolting, put a stop to their measures. Hannibal likewise advanced towards them from the country of the Taurinians, in expectation that, as they had not yet resolved what party they would join, his presence might determine them in his favour. The armies were now almost within view of each other, and the leaders, though not yet thoroughly acquainted, brought with them a degree of mutual admiration: for the name of Hannibal, even before the destruction of Saguntum, was highly famed among the Romans; and the very circumstance of Scipio having been particularly chosen for the command, supposed him a person of extraordinary merit. They were exalted still higher in each other’s opinion; Scipio, by the celerity with which, though left behind in Gaul, he had met Hannibal at his coming down into Italy: Hannibal, by having not only formed, but executed, the daring design of passing over the Alps. Scipio, however, first crossed the Po, and removed his camp to the river Ticinus; where, wishing to encourage his soldiers before he led them out to battle, he addressed them in a speech to this effect.
XL. “Soldiers, if I were marching to battle at the head of the army which I had with me in Gaul, I should have thought it needless to use any words to you: for why exhort either those horsemen, who, without difficulty, defeated the enemy’s cavalry at the river Rhone; or those legions, with whom I pursued this same enemy, and obtained, by their refusing to fight, and actually flying before us, an acknowledgment of victory? in the present state of things, as that army, which was enlisted for the province of Spain, is employed with my brother Cneius Scipio, under my auspices, in the place where it was the will of the senate and people of Rome, that it should be employed; and that I, in order that you might have a consul to lead you against Hannibal and the Carthaginians, have taken a voluntary part in this contest; as a new commander, I think it requisite to speak a few words to soldiers who are new to me. Now, that you should not be unacquainted either with the nature of the war, or with the enemy, know, soldiers, that you are to fight against men whom, in the former war, you conquered both on land and sea; from whom you have exacted tribute, for twenty years past; from whom you took, and still hold, Sicily and Sardinia, the prizes of your victory. In the present dispute, consequently, the spirit of the parties will be — yours, that of conquerors; theirs, that of men conquered. Nor is it confidence, but necessity, which now prompts them to fight: unless you suppose, that those who avoided fighting, when their force was entire, have acquired greater confidence after the loss of two-thirds of their infantry and cavalry, in the passage over the Alps; after greater numbers have perished than survive. But it may be said, they are few indeed, but vigorous in mind and body, having a power and strength no force can withstand. On the contrary, they are but the resemblance, mere shadows of men, rendered lifeless by hunger, cold, filth, and nastiness; battered and disabled among the rocks and precipices. Add to this, their joints benumbed, their sinews stiffened, their limbs shrivelled by the frost, their armour shattered and broken, their horses lamed and enfeebled. Such is the infantry, such the cavalry, with whom you are to fight. You will have to deal, not with enemies, but the remains of enemies. And nothing do I fear more, than, lest, before you come to a battle, the Alps may appear to have conquered Hannibal. But perhaps it was right that it should be so; that, against a nation and commander, guilty of a breach of treaties, the Gods themselves should commence the war, and break the force of the enemy; and that we who, next to the gods, were the party injured, should then take it up, and carry it on to a conclusion.
XLI. “In what I say on this head, I am not afraid of being suspected of ostentatious boasting, for the purpose of encouraging you, while my real sentiments are different. I might have proceeded with my army into Spain, my own province, to which I had gone part of the way; where I should have had my brother to assist me in council, and to share the danger; and, instead of Hannibal, I should have had Hasdrubal to contend with; and, certainly, a less difficult war to manage. Nevertheless, as I sailed along the coast of Gaul, having heard of the approach of this enemy, I landed, sent forward my cavalry, and moved my camp to the Rhone. In a battle, fought by the cavalry, the only part of my forces which had an opportunity of fighting, the enemy was routed; and because I could not, on land, overtake their body of infantry, which was carried away with all the rapidity of flight, I returned to my ships, and with the utmost expedition that I could make, through such a long circuit by sea and land, I have met him at the foot of the Alps. Now, whether do I appear to have fallen in unawares with this formidable foe, while I wished to decline a contest with him, or to have designedly thrown myself in the way of his route, to challenge and force him to a trial of strength? I feel a strong desire to try whether, in these twenty years past, the earth has all at once produced a new breed of Carthaginians; or whether they are the same with those who fought at the islands Ægates, whom you ransomed at Eryx at a valuation of eighteen denari* a head; and whether this Hannibal be, as he represents himself, another Hercules, equally renowned for his expeditions; or one left by his father, a subject, a tributary, and slave to the Roman people; who, if he were not struck with madness, as a punishment for the guilt of his behaviour at Saguntum, would reflect, if not on the conquest of his country, at least on the acts of his own family; on his father, on the treaties written by the hand of Hamilcar; who, in obedience to the commands of our consul, withdrew his forces from Eryx; who, agitated with extreme sorrow, accepted the burthensome conditions imposed on the conquered Carthaginians, and signed an engagement to evacuate Sicily, and to pay tribute to the Roman people. Wherefore, soldiers, I wish that you may fight, not only with the same spirit which you usually show against other foes, but with a degree of resentment and indignation, as if you saw your own slaves suddenly taking arms against you. We might have kept them shut up at Eryx, until they perished with hunger, the severest suffering that man can undergo; we might have carried over our victorious fleet to Africa; and, in the space of a few days, without opposition, have demolished Carthage. At their supplications, we granted pardon: we gave them liberty to depart from the place where we held them confined; after conquering them, we made peace with them; afterwards, when they were distressed by a war in Africa, we considered them as entitled to our protection. In return for these favours, they follow the lead of a hot-brained youth, and come to invade our country. I wish, that on our side, this contest was merely for glory, and not for safety. We are not to fight about the possession of Sicily and Sardinia, the subjects of the former dispute, but in defence of Italy; neither is there another army behind us, which, if we fail to conquer, might withstand the enemy; nor are there other Alps, during his passage over which new forces might be procured. Here, soldiers, we must make a stand, as if we were fighting under the walls of Rome. Let every one persuade himself that he is protecting, with his arms, not only his own person, but his wife, and his infant children. Nor let him consider, solely, his own domestic concerns, but frequently reflect, that the senate and people of Rome look for safety at our hands; that our strength and our courage are now to determine, what will henceforth be the condition of that city and of the Roman empire.”
XLII. Thus, on the side of the Romans, was the consul employed. Hannibal, choosing to rouse the courage of his soldiers by the exhibition of facts before he made use of words, formed his troops in a circle, and then placed in the middle the prisoners taken on the mountains, bound in fetters; when, such arms as are used by the Gauls being thrown at their feet, he ordered an interpreter to ask, whether any of them were willing, on the condition of being released from bonds — and, in case of proving victorious, of receiving each a horse and armour — to hazard his life in a combat? They all, to a man, called for arms and the combat; and when lots were cast, to single out the parties, every one wished himself to be the fortunate person who should be chosen for the trial: while he on whom it had fallen, dancing according to their custom, eagerly snatched up the arms, full of spirit, and exulting with joy, his companions congratulating him on his good fortune. While they were fighting, such were the sensations excited in the breasts, not only of their comrades, but of the spectators in general, that the fate of those who died bravely, was deemed not less happy than that of the successful combatants.
XLIII. The minds of his men being thus affected by the sight of several pairs of combatants, he dismissed the remainder; and then, summoning an assembly, addressed them, it is said, in the following manner: “If, soldiers, you form a judgment of your own circumstances, on the same principles which actuated you just now, on the exhibition of a case wherein others were concerned, we are conquerors. For that spectacle was not intended as a gratification to you, but a picture, in some sort, of your own situation. Indeed, I know not whether fortune has not imposed on you still stronger bonds, and a more powerful necessity, for using arms than on your prisoners. You are inclosed, on the right and left, by two seas, without so much as even a single ship to aid an escape: hemmed in on the front by the Po, a river larger and more violent than the Rhone; and behind by the Alps, which in your full strength and vigour you passed, not without the utmost difficulty. Here, soldiers, where you have first met the enemy, you must conquer or die: and the same fortune which compels you to fight, holds out to you prizes of victory; greater than which, men seldom wish for at the hands of the immortal gods. Were we, by our bravery, to recover only Sicily and Sardinia, ravished from our fathers, these would be a very ample recompense. But whatever the Romans have acquired and amassed, in consequence of their numerous triumphs, the whole of this, together with the owners, is to become your property. Animated then, by the prospect of so rich a spoil, take arms, with the favour of the gods. You have been, hitherto, employed in the pursuit of cattle, through the waste mountains of Lusitania and Celtiberia, without any prospect of emolument from so many toils and dangers. It is now time to make profitable and rich campaigns; and that, after measuring such a length of way, through so many mountains and rivers, and so many armed nations, you be at last abundantly rewarded for your labour. Here fortune has fixed the period of your toils; here, on your finishing your course of service, will she give you ample retribution. And do not imagine the victory to be as difficult, as the character of the war is important. Often has a despised enemy maintained a bloody contest, and renowned nations and kings been vanquished by exertions of very moderate force. For, setting aside singly the present splendour of the Roman name, in what one particular are they to be compared with you? Not to mention your service, for the last twenty years, performed with so great bravery, and so great success, you have effected a march to this place from the pillars of Hercules, from the ocean, and the remotest limits of the world; opening your way, with your victorious arms, through so many of the fiercest nations of Spain and Gaul. You will now fight with an army of raw troops, who, during this very summer, were beaten, routed, and besieged by the Gauls; who, as yet, neither know, nor are known by, their commanders. Ought I, if not born, at least educated, in the very tent of that most illustrious general my father; I who have subdued both Spain and Gaul; the conqueror, likewise, not only of the Alpine tribes, but what is much more, of the Alps themselves; ought I to put myself in comparison with such a commander as theirs? a general of six months standing, who ran away from his own army; to whom, if any one, taking away the ensigns from both, should show this day the Carthaginians, and the Romans, I am confident that he would not know of which army he was consul. On my part, soldiers, I esteem it a circumstance of no trivial import, that there is not one of you who has not often been an eye-witness of my performing some military exploit; and to whom, on the other hand, I cannot, as having been a spectator and witness of his bravery, recount his own honourable acts, with the marks of time and place. At the head of troops whom I have a thousand times honoured with praises and presents, I, who have been a pupil to you all, before I became your commander, shall enter the field against men unknowing and unknown to each other.
XLIV. “On whatever side I turn my eyes, I see spirit and firmness; a veteran body of infantry, cavalry composed of the most gallant nations; you our most brave and faithful allies, and you, Carthaginians, ready to fight in the cause of your country, and at the same time with the justest resentment. We are the assailants in the war, and are carrying an invasion into Italy; we shall fight therefore with so much the greater boldness and courage, as he who makes the attack has ever more confidence and spirit, than he who stands on the defensive. Besides, we are inflamed and stimulated by reflections on past sufferings, by injuries and indignities: for, first, they insisted, that I, your leader, should be delivered up to punishment, with every one concerned in the siege of Saguntum. Had we been put into their hands, there is no degree of torture which they would not have made us suffer. That nation, so unbounded are its cruelty and arrogance, would have the whole world at its disposal; thinks it has a right to impose regulations on us, and to prescribe with whom we are to have peace, with whom war; circumscribes, and shuts us up within boundaries of mountains and rivers, which we must not pass; yet observes not itself the limits which it establishes. You must not pass the Iberus; you must not meddle with the Saguntines: Saguntum is on our side of the Iberus; you must not stir a foot. Is it not enough that you take Sicily and Sardinia, provinces which have been mine from the earliest times? Will you take Spain also? when I shall have retired thence, you will pass over into Africa. Will pass, did I say! of the two consuls of the present year they have sent one to Africa, the other to Spain. There is nothing left to us any where, unless we make good our claim by arms. They may be timid and dastardly, who can look for refuge behind them, who can fly through safe and quiet roads, and be received into their own territories and their own lands. For your part, necessity obliges you to be brave; and, since every mean between victory and death is sunk out of reach, you must resolve to conquer, or should fortune be unfavourable, to meet death in battle rather than in flight. If this determination be firmly fixed in every one of your breasts, I affirm again, you are conquerors. The immortal gods never gave to man a more invigorating incentive to conquest.”
XLV. The courage of the soldiers on both sides being animated to the contest by these exhortations, the Romans threw a bridge over the Ticinus, and erected a fort on it for its security. While they were employed in this work, the Carthaginian sent Maharbal, with a squadron of five hundred Numidian horse, to ravage the lands of the allies of the Roman people. He ordered him to spare the Gauls, as much as possible, and to endeavour, by persuasion, to bring over their chiefs to his side. When the bridge was finished, the Roman army marched over into the country of the Insubrians, and sat down at the distance of five miles from Victumviæ. At this place lay Hannibal’s camp, who, perceiving the approach of a battle, hastily recalled Maharbal and the horsemen, and thinking that he could never apply too many arguments and encouragements to inspirit his soldiers, called them to an assembly, with promises of several kinds of rewards to be conferred on them, that the certain hope of these might animate their exertions in the fight. “He would give them land,” he told them, “in Italy, Africa, or Spain, wherever they should choose; exempt from all charges, to the person who should receive it, and to his children. Should any prefer money to land, he would give him an equivalent in silver. To such of the allies, as wished to become citizens of Carthage, that privilege should be granted. With regard to those who chose rather to return to their native homes, he would take care that they should not have cause to wish for an exchange of situation with any one of their countrymen.” To the slaves also who attended their masters he promised liberty, engaging to give the owners two slaves, in the room of each of these. Then, to give them full security for the performance of all this, holding in his left hand a lamb, and in his right a flint stone, he prayed to Jupiter and the rest of the gods, that if he did not fulfil these engagements, they would slay him, in like manner as he slew that lamb; and after this imprecation, he broke the animal’s head with the stone. This had such an effect, that all the soldiers, as if they had now received the surety of the gods for the ratification of their hopes, and thinking that nothing delayed the enjoyment of their wishes, but the battle not being begun, with one mind, and one voice, demanded the fight.
XLVI. Nothing like the same alacrity appeared among the Romans, who, besides other matters, were dispirited by some late prodigies. A wolf had entered the camp, and after tearing such as he met, made his escape unhurt. A swarm of bees also had pitched on a tree, which hung over the general’s tent. After expiating these prodigies, Scipio, at the head of his cavalry, and light spearmen, set out toward the camp of the enemy, in order to discover, by a near view of their forces, how great and of what kind they were; and was met by Hannibal, who had likewise advanced with his cavalry to reconnoitre the adjacent grounds. For some time neither party descried the other. Afterwards the dust, being raised in thicker clouds by the moving of so many men and horses, gave notice of approaching enemies, both detachments halted, and made ready for battle. Scipio placed his spearmen and Gallic cavalry in front, keeping the Romans and the body of allies which accompanied him, as a reserve. Hannibal drew the bridled cavalry into the centre, strengthening his wings with the Numidians. The shout was scarcely raised, before the spearmen fled to the second line; then the battle was maintained by the cavalry, for a considerable time with doubtful success, but afterwards, in consequence of the confusion caused among the horses, by the footmen being intermixed with them, many of the riders fell from their seats, and others, on seeing their friends surrounded and distressed, dismounted to assist them; so that the fight was now carried on mostly on foot, until the Numidians, posted on the wings, taking a small compass, showed themselves on the rear. This terrified and dismayed the Romans, whose fears were augmented by a wound received by the consul, who was rescued from farther danger by the speedy intervention of his son, just arrived at the age of maturity. This is the same youth, who is afterwards to enjoy the renown of terminating this war, and to receive the title of Africanus, on account of his glorious victory over Hannibal and the Carthaginians. However, very few fled precipitately, except the spearmen, on whom the Numidians made the first charge. The rest formed a compact body of cavalry; who, taking the consul into their centre, and covering him, not only with arms, but with their bodies, without any disorder or precipitation in their retreat, brought him back to the camp. Cœlius attributes the honour of saving the consul to a slave, by nation a Ligurian: but I rather wish the account to be true which gives it to his son; and so the fact is represented by most authors, and generally believed.
XLVII. Such was the first battle with Hannibal, in which it manifestly appeared that the Carthaginian was superior in cavalry; and, consequently, that open plains, such as those between the Po and the Alps, were unfavourable to the Romans in their operations. Wherefore the consul, on the night following, ordering his men to prepare in silence for a march, decamped from the Ticinus, and hastened to the Po, in order that, before the rafts should be loosened, of which he had formed the bridge over that river, he might carry over his forces without tumult or interruption from the enemy’s pursuit. They got as far as Placentia, before Hannibal received any certain information of their departure from the Ticinus. Nevertheless, he made prisoners six hundred men, who delayed on the hither bank, spending too much time in unbinding the raft. He could not pass over the bridge, because, as soon as the extremities were untied, the whole collection of rafts floated down with the current. Cœlius relates, that Mago, with the cavalry, and the Spanish infantry, immediately swam over the river; and that Hannibal himself led over the rest of the army, through fords somewhat higher up, forming the elephants in a line, above them, to break the force of the current. These accounts can hardly gain credit with people acquainted with the river Po: for it is not credible, that the cavalry could stem such a violent current, without losing their arms and horses, even allowing that all the Spaniards were conveyed over on leathern bags inflated; besides, that it would have cost a circuit of many days march to find fords in the Po, through which an army, heavily encumbered with baggage, could make a passage. Those authors seem to me more worthy of credit, who relate, that, with difficulty, after two days search, a place was found where a bridge of rafts could be constructed; and that, over this, the cavalry and light-armed Spaniards were sent forwards under Mago. While Hannibal, who waited on the same side of the river to give audience to embassies from the Gauls, was bringing over the heavy troops, Mago and his horsemen, in one day’s march after passing the river, came up with the enemy at Placentia. In a few days after, Hannibal fortified a camp within six miles of Placentia, and next day, drawing up his forces in the enemy’s view, offered them battle.
XLVIII. On the night following, there was a violent outrage committed in the Roman camp, by the auxiliary Gauls; which, however, was attended with greater tumult, than loss of lives. A number of them, amounting to two thousand foot and two hundred horse, killing the guards at the gates, deserted to Hannibal. The Carthaginian received them with expressions of much kindness, and after animating their zeal by prospects of vast rewards, dismissed them to their respective states, to engage the rest of their countrymen in his interest. Scipio, apprehending that this outrage was a signal for a general revolt of the Gauls; and that, infected with the same treacherous spirit, they would run like madmen to arms, though still very ill of his wound, marched away in silence, at the fourth watch of the following night, toward the river Trebia, and removed his camp to higher grounds, and hills less advantageous to the operations of cavalry. His departure was not so secret as at the Ticinus; Hannibal, therefore, sending on first the Numidians, afterwards all his cavalry, would have caused great disorder, at least in the rear of the army, had not the Numidians, out of their greediness for plunder, turned aside into the forsaken camp of the Romans. While searching narrowly every part of it, without finding any prize to compensate for the loss of time, they let the enemy slip out of their hands. Afterwards, coming within sight of the Romans, when they had already passed the Trebia, and were pitching their camp, they cut off a few, who loitered behind the rest on that side of the river. Scipio, unable to endure any longer the pain of his wound, which was exasperated by the rough motion in travelling, and at the same time judging it prudent to wait for his colleague, (for he had by this time heard that he was recalled from Sicily,) chose a spot near the river, which seemed the safest for a fixed station, and there fortified his camp. Hannibal took post at a small distance; and though he felt much joy at the success of his cavalry, yet finding no less cause of anxiety in the scarcity of necessaries, daily increasing as he marched through an enemy’s country without magazines prepared, he sent a detachment to the small town of Clastidium, where the Romans had collected a large store of corn. Here, while the troops were preparing for an assault, a prospect offered of the town being betrayed to them, and accordingly the commander of the garrison, one Dasius, a Brundusian, for a bribe of no great amount, only four hundred pieces of gold*, surrendered Clastidium to Hannibal. This served the Carthaginians as a granary, while they lay encamped on the Trebia. The prisoners, who fell into his hands on the surrender of the garrison, he treated without severity, being desirous that, at the commencement of his proceedings, a good opinion should be conceived of his clemency.
XLIX. While the operations of the land-forces on the Trebia were at a stand, much was effected by land and sea, in and round Sicily, and the other islands adjacent to Italy, both by Sempronius the consul, and before his arrival. Of twenty quinqueremes, sent by the Carthaginians with one thousand soldiers, to ravage the coast of Italy, nine arrived at Liparæ, eight at the island of Vulcan, and three were driven by the current into the streight. As soon as these were seen from Messana, twelve ships were despatched by Hiero, King of Syracuse, who happened to be then in that city waiting for the Roman consul, and these took them without opposition, and brought them into port to Messana. From the prisoners it was discovered that, besides the fleet of twenty ships to which they belonged, and which had been sent against Italy, another of thirty-five quinqueremes was on its way to Sicily, to rouse their ancient allies in their cause; that their principal object was the getting possession of Lilybæum, and it was the opinion of the prisoners that the same storm by which they had been dispersed, had driven the other fleet to the islands Ægates. This intelligence, just as he received it, the King despatched in a letter to Marcus Æmilius, the prætor, whose province Sicily was, and cautioned him to secure Lilybæum with a strong garrison. Immediately the lieutenants-general and tribunes, who were with the prætor, were sent off to the several states, with orders to keep their men attentive and alert in guarding their posts; and that, above all things, Lilybæum should be effectually secured. A proclamation was also published, that besides every warlike preparation, the mariners* should bring on board the ships provisions for ten days ready dressed, so that no one should have any delay to prevent his embarking the moment the signal should be given; and that, through the whole extent of the coast, those stationed at the watch-towers should be vigilant in looking out for the approach of the enemy’s fleet. In consequence of these precautions, notwithstanding that the Carthaginians purposely slackened the course of their ships, designing to reach Lilybæum a little before day, they were observed on their approach; for the moon shone through the whole night, and they came with their sails aloft: in the same instant the signal was made on the watch-towers, the alarm given in the town, and the men embarked in the ships; one-half of the soldiers mounted guard on the walls and at the gates, the other were on board the fleet. On the other hand, the Carthaginians perceiving that preparations were made for their reception, remained until day-break at the mouth of their harbour, employing the intermediate time in taking down their rigging, and fitting their ships for action. When day appeared, they drew back their fleet into the open sea, in order that they might have room for fighting, and give the enemy’s ships free egress from the harbour. Nor did the Romans decline an engagement, being emboldened by the recollection of their former successes near that very spot, and by confidence in the number and bravery of their men.
L. When they got into the open sea, the Romans showed a desire of coming up with the enemy, and trying their strength with them in close fight. The Carthaginians, on the contrary, wished to elude their attacks, to effect the business by skill, not by force, and to make it a contest of ships, not of men or arms: for there was on board their fleet an abundance of mariners, but a scarcity of soldiers, and when a ship was grappled, their number of fighting men to defend it was by no means equal to that of the enemy. This circumstance being discovered, the Romans assumed additional courage from the fulness of their numbers; and while the others were dispirited by their deficiency in that respect, seven Carthaginian ships were quickly surrounded, and the rest betook themselves to flight. In the captured ships, there were of soldiers and mariners one thousand seven hundred, among whom were three Carthaginian nobles. The Roman fleet without loss returned into the harbour, one ship only being bulged, and even that brought into port. Very soon after this battle, before those who were at Messana had heard of it, Tiberius Sempronius, the consul, came to that city. On his entering the streight, King Hiero, with a fleet completely equipped, sailed to meet him, and going from the royal galley on board that of the consul, congratulated him on his safe arrival with his ships and army. After praying for a successful and happy issue to his expedition into Sicily, he represented to him the state of the island and the attempt lately made by the Carthaginians, assuring him that, as he had, in the early part of his life, supported the Roman people in the former war, so would he now, advanced as he was in years, support them still with the same degree of spirit; that he would, at his own expense, furnish the consul’s legions, and the crews of his ships, with corn and clothing; and then, acquainting him that Lilybæum and all the maritime states were exposed to imminent danger, he informed him that there were many to whom a revolution would be highly agreeable. For these reasons the consul judged that he ought, without making any delay, to sail on directly to Lilybæum, whither he was accompanied by the King and his fleet. On their passage, they received the news of the fight of Lilybæum, of the discomfiture of the enemy, and the capture of their ships.
LI. From Lilybæum, the consul, after dismissing King Hiero with his fleet, and leaving the prætor to defend the coast of Sicily, sailed over to the island of Melita, which was in the possession of the Carthaginians. Immediately on his arrival, Hamilcar, son of Gisgo, commander of the garrison, and somewhat less than two thousand soldiers, together with the town and the island, were surrendered into his hands. From thence he returned in a few days to Lilybæum, where all the prisoners taken by the consul, and by the prætor, except those who were of distinguished birth, were sold by public auction. When the consul thought that side of Sicily sufficiently secured, he sailed over to the islands of Vulcan, because there was a report that the Carthaginian fleet lay there; but he met with none at those islands, for it happened that they had already passed over to ravage the coast of Italy, and, after laying waste the territory of Vibo, were now threatening that city. When he was on his return to Sicily, he was informed of the descent made by the enemy on the territory of Vibo. Letters were, at the same time, delivered to him from the senate, containing an account of Hannibal’s having entered Italy, and, also, orders to come to the support of his colleague with all possible expedition. So many objects demanding his attention at once, he instantly embarked his troops, and sent them by the upper sea to Ariminum; appointed Sextus Pomponius lieutenant-general, with twenty ships of war, to defend the territory of Vibo and the sea-coast of Italy; made up a fleet of fifty sail for the prætor Marcus Æmilius; and, after settling the affairs of Sicily, sailed himself with ten ships along the coast of Italy to Ariminum, from whence he marched his army to the river Trebia, and formed a junction with his colleague.
LII. And now, both the consuls and the whole of the Roman strength being opposed to Hannibal, afforded sufficient reason to suppose either that the Roman empire would be effectually protected by that force, or that there would be no room for any farther hopes. Nevertheless, Scipio, dispirited by the event of the battle between the cavalry, and by his own wound, wished to defer coming to action; while Sempronius, whose spirit had vet met no check, and who, therefore, possessed the greater confidence, was impatient of any delay. The lands between the Trebia and the Po were at that time inhabited by Gauls, who, during this struggle between two such potent nations, showed no partiality to either party, evidently intending to court the favour of the conqueror. With this conduct the Romans were well satisfied, provided they kept themselves entirely quiet; but the Carthaginian was highly displeased, giving out that he had come thither on an invitation from the Gauls, to set them at liberty. In order to gratify his resentment on that account, and at the same time to maintain his troops with plunder, he ordered two thousand foot and one thousand horse, mostly Numidians, with some Gauls intermixed, to ravage the whole country, from thence onward to the banks of the Po. The Gauls, destitute of support, though they had hitherto kept their inclinations doubtful, being now compelled by necessity, declared against the authors of their sufferings in favour of those who were to avenge them; and sent ambassadors to the consul to implore the aid of the Romans for a country which was suffering severely, in consequence of the too faithful attachment of its inhabitants to the people of Rome. Scipio approved not either of the cause or of the season for undertaking it; for he doubted the sincerity of that people, both on account of many instances of treacherous behaviour, and particularly, though the others through length of time might have been forgotten, on account of the recent perfidy of the Boians. Sempronius, on the contrary, was of opinion, that it would be the strongest tie on the fidelity of the allies, to let them see that the first who stood in need of aid had found protection. He then, while his colleague hesitated, despatched his own cavalry, joined by one thousand foot, mostly light spearmen, over the Trebia, to protect the lands of the Gauls. These falling unexpectedly on the enemy, while they were straggling in disorder, and most of them loaded with spoil, caused great consternation, slew many, and drove the rest flying before them to their camp. Though repulsed by the multitude which sallied out, yet, as soon as the rest of their party came up, they again renewed the fight. Success afterwards remained doubtful; sometimes they retreated, sometimes pursued; but though, at last, the advantages were equal on both sides, yet the honour of the victory was more generally attributed to the Romans.
LIII. But to no one did it appear more important and complete, than to the consul himself. He was transported with joy, at having obtained a victory with that part of the troops, which, under his associate, had been defeated. “The spirits of the soldiers,” he said, “were now revived; nor was there any one, except his colleague, who wished a delay of action. He, more disordered in mind than in body, and reflecting on his wound, shuddered at the thoughts of fighting and of arms. But others ought not to sink into feebleness along with a sick man. For to what purpose was farther delay, or waste of time? What third consul or what other army was to be waited for? The Carthaginians were encamped in Italy, almost within sight of the city. Their designs did not aim at Sicily and Sardinia, which were taken from them, nor at the parts of Spain on this side of the Iberus, but at the expulsion of the Romans from the land of their fathers, from the soil in which they were born. What sighs would it draw from these,” said he, “who were accustomed to carry war to the very walls of Carthage, if they were to see us, their offspring, at the head of consular armies, skulking within our camp in the heart of Italy; and a Carthaginian possessed of the dominion over the whole extent of country between the Alps and the Apennine?” In this manner did he argue, sitting with his colleague, and also at the head quarters, as if he were haranguing an assembly. He was, besides, incited to expeditious measures by the approach of the time of the elections, for he feared lest the war should be protracted until the new consuls came into office; wishing, likewise, to secure the present opportunity, and while his colleague was indisposed, of engrossing to himself the whole of the glory. For these reasons, while Scipio remonstrated in vain, he issued orders to the soldiers to be ready for battle at a short warning. Hannibal, plainly perceiving what line of conduct would be more advantageous to the enemy, scarcely entertained any distant hope that the consuls would enter on any action without caution and foresight: but understanding, first from report, and afterwards from experience, that the temper of one of them was fiery and presumptuous, and supposing his presumption augmented by the success of the battle with the plundering party, he then made little doubt but that he should soon have an opportunity of coming to action — an occasion which he was earnestly solicitous to improve, while the troops of the enemy were raw, while the more able of their commanders was, by his wound, rendered incapable of exertion, and while the Gauls were disposed to act with vigour; for he well knew that these, whose number was very great, would follow him with the less zeal, in proportion as they were drawn away to a greater distance from home. Thus wishing for a speedy engagement, he intended, should any delay be given, to use every means to bring it about. The Gauls, whom he employed as spies, (because they were the better fitted for it, especially as men of that nation served in both camps,) brought intelligence that the Romans were prepared for battle; on which, the Carthaginian began to look about for a place where he might form an ambuscade.
LIV. In the middle, between the camps, ran a rivulet, whose banks were uncommonly steep; the adjacent ground was covered with such herbs as grow in marshes, with bushes and brambles, which usually overspread uncultivated ground. On examining the place himself, and finding it to be capable of concealing even horsemen, he said to Mago, his brother, “This is the spot which you must occupy. Choose out from the whole number of horse and foot a hundred men of each, and come with them to me at the first watch. It is now time to take refreshment.” Thus, the attending officers were dismissed. In some little time Mago came with his chosen band, and Hannibal said, “I see you are very able men; but that you may be strong, not only in spirit, but in number, let each of you choose nine like yourselves out of the troops and companies; Mago will shew you the place where you are to lie in wait. You will have to deal with an enemy who is blind with respect to these stratagems of war.” Having thus sent off this detachment of one thousand horse and one thousand foot under Mago, Hannibal ordered the Numidian cavalry to cross the river Trebia at the first light; to ride up to the enemy’s gates, and, discharging their weapons against their men on guard, to draw them out to battle, and then, as soon as the fight should be commenced, to retreat leisurely, and by that means draw them on to the other side of the river. These were his orders to the Numidians. To the other officers, both of cavalry and infantry, he gave directions to cause their men to take refreshment; and then, under arms, and with their horses accoutered, to wait the signal. On the alarm first given by the Numidians, Sempronius, eager for action, led out, first, all the cavalry, being full of confidence in that part of his force; then six thousand foot, and at last the whole body of infantry, to the ground previously fixed upon in the plan which he had adopted. It was then winter, and the weather snowy, in those places which lie between the Alps and the Apennine, and the cold was rendered exceedingly intense by the proximity of rivers and marshes. Besides this, both men and horses being drawn out in a hurry, without having first taken food, or used any precaution to guard against the intemperature of the air, were quite chilled, and as they approached the river, the more piercing were the blasts which assailed them. But having, in pursuit of the flying Numidians, entered the river, which by rain in the night was swelled so high as to reach their breasts, their bodies, on coming out, were all so perfectly benumbed, that they were scarcely capable of holding their arms, and, as the day advanced, they also grew faint through hunger.
LV. Meanwhile Hannibal’s soldiers had fires made before their tents; oil was distributed to every company to lubricate their joints, and they had at leisure refreshed themselves with food. As soon, therefore, as intelligence was brought, that the enemy had passed the river, they took arms with sprightly vigour both of mind and body, and thus advanced to battle. Hannibal placed in the van the Balearians and light-armed troops, amounting to about eight thousand; and, in a second line, his heavier-armed infantry, the main power and strength of his army. The flanks he covered with ten thousand cavalry, and dividing the elephants, placed half of them on the extremity of each wing. The consul seeing his cavalry, who pressed the pursuit with disorderly haste, taken at a disadvantage by the Numidians, suddenly turning upon them, recalled them by the signal for retreat, and posted them on the flanks of the foot. His army consisted of eighteen thousand Romans, twenty thousand of the allies and Latine confederates, beside the auxiliary troops of the Cenomanians, the only Gallic state that continued faithful to their cause. This was the force employed in that engagement. The battle was begun by the Balearians, who being too powerfully opposed by the legions, the light-armed troops were hastily drawn off to the wings; which circumstance proved the cause of the Roman cavalry being quickly overpowered: for being in number but four thousand, they had before been hardly able to maintain their ground against ten thousand; especially as they were fatigued, and the others mostly fresh; but now they were overwhelmed under a cloud as it were of javelins thrown by the Balearians. Besides this, the elephants advancing on the extremities of the wings, so terrified the horses, as to occasion a general rout. The fight between the infantry was maintained by an equality of spirit rather than of strength: for, with respect to the latter, the Carthaginians had brought theirs fresh into the battle, invigorated by food; the Romans, on the contrary, were enfeebled by fasting and fatigue, and their limbs stiffened and benumbed with cold. They would, notwithstanding, have maintained their ground by dint of courage, had the conflict rested solely between them and the infantry. But the Balearians, after the discomfiture of the cavalry, poured darts on their flanks, and the elephants had now made their way to the centre of the line of the infantry; while Mago, with his Numidians, as soon as the army had passed by their lurking place without observing them, started up at once, and caused dreadful confusion and terror in the rear.
LVI. Encompassed by so many perils, the line, notwithstanding, stood for a long time unbroken, even (which was most surprising to all) by the attack of the elephants. The light infantry, stationed for that purpose, plying these briskly with iron javelins, made them turn back; and then, following them behind, darted their weapons into them, under the tails, in which part, the skin being softest, it is easy to wound them. When they were by these means put into disorder, and ready to vent their fury on their own party, Hannibal ordered them to be driven away from the centre towards the extremity of the left wing, against the auxiliary Gauls. These they instantly put to open flight, which spread new terror among the Romans. They were now obliged to fight in the form of a circle; when about ten thousand of them, having no other means of escape, forced their way, with great slaughter, through the centre of the African line, which was composed of the Gallic auxiliaries; and, as they could neither return to their camp, from which they were shut out by the river, nor, by reason of the heavy rain, discover in what part they could assist their friends, they proceeded straight to Placentia. After this, several similar irruptions were made from all quarters, and those who pushed towards the river were either drowned in the eddies, or, hesitating to enter the water, were cut off. Some, who, in their flight, dispersed themselves over the country, falling in with the tracks of the body of troops which had retreated, followed them to Placentia; others, from their fears of the enemy, assumed boldness to attempt the stream, and, accomplishing their passage, arrived at the camp. The rain, mixed with snow, and the intolerable severity of the cold, destroyed great numbers of men and horses, and almost all the elephants. The Carthaginians continued the pursuit no farther than the river Trebia, and returned to their camp so benumbed with the cold, as to be scarcely capable of feeling joy for the victory; insomuch that though, during the following night, the guard of the Roman camp, and a great part at least of their soldiers, passed the Trebia on rafts, the Carthaginians either perceived nothing of the matter through the noise made by the rain, or being, by weariness and wounds, disabled to move, pretended that they did not perceive it; and the enemy lying quiet, the consul Scipio led the troops in silence to Placentia, and thence across the Po to Cremona, lest the two armies, wintering in one colony, should be too great a burthen.
LVII. The news of this disaster caused such consternation in Rome, that people supposed the enemy would come directly to attack the city; and they could see no hope nor aid to enable them to repel an assault from the walls and gates. One consul had been defeated at the Ticinus, the other recalled from Sicily; and now that both the consuls, and two consular armies, had been defeated, what other commanders, what other legions were there whom they could call to their support? While they were possessed by such desponding fears, the consul Sempronius arrived; for though the enemy’s cavalry were scattered over the whole face of the country in search of plunder, yet he had passed through the midst of them with the utmost hazard, and with a greater degree of boldness than of prudence, or of hope, either of escaping notice, or of being able to make resistance in case he were discovered. After holding the election of consuls, the only business which rendered his presence particularly necessary at the time, he returned to his winter-quarters. The consuls elected were Cneius Servilius and Caius Flaminius. Even in their winter-quarters the Romans were not allowed to rest, the Numidian cavalry spreading themselves round on every side; the Celtiberians and Lusitanians doing the same, where the ground was too difficult for the horse; so that no provisions of any kind could be brought in, except what were conveyed on the Po in ships. There was, near Placentia, a magazine fortified with strong works, and supplied with a numerous garrison. In hopes of gaining possession of this strong hold, Hannibal marched at the head of his cavalry and light infantry; and judging that the success of the enterprize would depend, principally, on the design being kept secret, made the attack by night; but he did not escape the vigilance of the guards, as a shout was instantly raised so loud that it was heard even at Placentia. In consequence of this, the consul came to the spot before day with his cavalry, having ordered the legions to follow in order of battle.* Meanwhile, the action began between the cavalry, in which Hannibal, being wounded, and retiring from the fight, his men became dispirited; and the defence of the fortress was effectually maintained. After this, taking but a few days to rest, and scarcely allowing time for his wound to be thoroughly healed, he set out to lay siege to Victumviæ. This had been fortified by the Romans for a magazine, in the time of the Gallic war. Afterward, numbers of people, from all the neighbouring states, fixing their residence round it, made it a populous place, and at this juncture, fear of the enemy’s depredations had driven into it the greater part of the country people. The multitude, thus composed, being excited to a warmth of courage by the report of the gallant defence made by the garrison near Placentia, snatched up arms, and marched out to meet Hannibal. The parties engaged on the road, in the order of march rather than of battle, and as there was, on one side, nothing more than a disorderly crowd, on the other a leader confident of his soldiers, and a soldiery confident of their leader, a number, not less than thirty-five thousand, was routed by a small party. Next day they capitulated, and received a garrison within their walls. They were then ordered to deliver up their arms, with which they had no sooner complied, than a signal was suddenly given to the conquerors to sack the city, as if taken by storm. Nor have writers, in cases of the like nature, mentioned any one calamity which was not suffered on this occasion: every outrage, which lust, cruelty, and inhuman insolence could dictate, being practised on those wretched people. Such were Hannibal’s enterprizes during the winter.
LVIII. After this he gave rest to his troops, but not for any great length of time, only while the cold was intolerable. Upon the first, and even uncertain appearances of spring, he left his winter-quarters, and marched towards Etruria, determined, either by force or persuasion, to prevail on that nation to join him, as he had already managed the Gauls and Ligurians. As he was attempting to cross the Apennine, he was encountered by a storm so furious, that its effects almost equalled in severity the disasters of the Alps. The rain, which was attended with a high wind, being driven directly into the men’s faces, they at first halted, because they must either have cast away their arms, or, if they persisted to struggle forward, would be whirled round by the hurricane, and thrown on the ground. Afterwards, scarcely able to respire, they turned their backs to the wind, and for awhile sat down. But now, the whole atmosphere resounded with loud thunder, and lightnings flashed between the tremendous peals, by which all were stunned, and reduced, by terror, nearly to a state of insensibility. At length the violence of the rain abating, and the fury of the wind increasing, the more necessary it was judged to pitch their camp on the very spot, where they had been surprised by the tempest. But this was, in a manner, beginning their toils anew. For neither could they well spread their canvass, nor fix the poles; and such tents as they did get raised, they could not keep standing, the wind tearing and sweeping off every thing in its way. And soon after, the water, being raised aloft by the force of the wind, and congealed by the cold which prevailed above the summits of the mountains, came down in such a torrent of snowy hail, that the men, giving over all their endeavours, threw themselves flat on their faces, buried under, rather than protected by, their coverings. This was followed by cold so intense, that when they wished to rise from among the wretched crowd of prostrated men and cattle, they were for a long time unable to effect it, their sinews being so stiffly frozen that they were scarcely able to bend their joints. In some time, when, after many efforts, they at length regained the power of motion, and recovered some degree of spirits, and when fires began to be kindled in a few places, every one who was unable to assist himself had recourse to the aid of others. Two days they remained in that spot, as if pent up by an enemy. Great numbers of men and cattle perished, and likewise seven of the elephants, which had survived the battle at the Trebia.
LIX. Descending therefore from the Apennine, he directed his route back towards Placentia; and, having marched ten miles, pitched his camp. Next day he led out against the enemy twelve thousand foot, and five thousand horse. Nor did the consul Sempronius (for he had by this time returned from Rome) decline a battle; and, during that day, the armies lay encamped within three miles of each other. On the following, they fought with the greatest bravery, and with variable success. At the first onset, the superiority was so great on the side of the Romans, that they not only had the better in the fight, but drove the enemy from their ground, pursued them to their camp, and presently attacked the camp itself. Hannibal, after posting a few to defend the rampart and gates, collected the rest in close order, in the middle of the camp, ordering them to watch attentively the signal for sallying forth. It was now near the ninth hour of the day, when the Roman, having fatigued his troops without effect, and seeing no prospect of success, gave the signal for retreat. As soon as Hannibal perceived that they slackened their efforts, and were retiring from the camp, he instantly sent out his cavalry against them, on the right and left; and he himself, at the head of the main body of infantry, rushed out in the middle. Seldom has there been a fight more desperate, and never, perhaps, one more remarkable for the loss on both sides than this would have been, had the day-light allowed it to continue; but night put a stop to the battle, while its fury was at the highest. The numbers slain, therefore, were not great, in proportion to the violence of the conflict; and as both parties had met nearly equal success, so they separated with equal loss. On neither side fell more than six hundred foot, and half that number of horse. But the loss of the Romans was more considerable in regard of the quality, than of the number of their slain; for among the killed were several of equestrain rank, five military tribunes, and three præfects of the allies. Immediately after this battle, Hannibal removed into Liguria; Sempronius, to Luca. On Hannibal’s arrival among the Ligurians, that people, in order to convince him of their sincerity in the treaty of peace and alliance which they had concluded, delivered into his hands two Roman quæstors, Caius Fulvius and Lucius Lucretius, with two military tribunes, and five persons of equestrian rank, mostly the sons of senators, all of whom they had seized in a treacherous manner.
LX. While these transactions passed in Italy, Cneius Cornelius Scipio, who was sent with the fleet and army into Spain, after his departure from the mouth of the Rhone, sailing round the Pyrenean mountains, put into Emporiæ, where he disembarked his army; and beginning with the Lacetans, partly by renewing old treaties, partly by forming new ones, he brought under the dominion of the Romans the whole coast, as far as the river Iberus. The reputation of clemency, which he acquired by these means, had the most powerful effect, not only on the maritime states, but on the more barbarous nations in the interior and mountainous parts; insomuch that, besides agreeing to terms of peace, they concluded also an alliance with him, and several strong cohorts of auxiliaries were raised among them. The country on this side the Iberus was the province of Hanno, whom Hannibal had left behind for the defence of that tract. Seeing, therefore, a necessity, before the whole country should join the enemy, of exerting himself to obviate that evil, he encamped his forces within sight of them, and offered them battle; this offer the Roman did not hesitate to accept; for, knowing that he must fight Hanno and Hasdrubal, he was better pleased to engage each of them separately, than to have to deal with both together. Nor was the dispute very strongly contested. Six thousand of the enemy were slain, and two thousand taken, besides the guard of the camp, for that also was stormed, and the general himself, and many principal officers, made prisoners. The town of Scissis too, which stood not far from the camp, fell into the hands of the conquerors. The spoil of this town consisted of articles of trifling value; the furniture was mean, suiting barbarians, and the slaves of little price. But the camp amply enriched the soldiers with the effects, not only of the army just now conquerors, but likewise with those of the army serving under Hannibal, who, to avoid being encumbered on their march with heavy baggage, had left almost all their valuable substance on that side of the Pyrenees.
LXI. Hasdrubal, before any certain account of this disaster reached him, had crossed the Iberus with eight thousand foot and one thousand horse, intending to meet the Romans at their first arrival; as soon as he was informed of the ruin of affairs at Scissis, and the loss of the camp, he turned his route towards the sea. Not far from Tarraco, meeting the soldiers belonging to the fleet, and the mariners scattered and straggling through the country, among whom success, as is usual, had begotten negligence, he detached his cavalry in several parties against them, and with great slaughter and greater affright drove them to their ships. But not daring to continue longer in that quarter, lest he might be surprised by Scipio, he withdrew to the other side of the Iberus. On the other hand, Scipio, on hearing of this new enemy, hastened to the spot with all expedition, and, after punishing a few of the commanders of ships, and leaving a small garrison at Tarraco, returned with the fleet to Emporiæ. Scarcely had he departed, when Hasdrubal arrived, and having prevailed on the state of the Ilergetans, which had given hostages to Scipio to change sides, he, with the young men of that state, ravaged the lands of those who adhered with fidelity to their alliance with the Romans. Afterwards, on finding that Scipio was roused thereby from his winter-quarters, he again entirely evacuated the country on this side of the Iberus. Scipio, leading his army to take vengeance on the Ilergetans, thus abandoned by the author of their revolt, and driving them all into Athanagia, invested the city, which was the capital of the state. In the space of a few days he reduced them to entire submission and obedience, compelled them to give a greater number of hostages than before, and also to pay a sum of money as a fine. From thence he proceeded against the Ausetanians near the Iberus, who had likewise joined in a league with the Carthaginians. After he had invested their city, the Lacetans attempted by night to bring succour to their neighbours; but he surprised them by an ambuscade, when they were close to the city and just about to enter; twelve thousand of them were slain, and the rest, mostly without their arms, dispersing up and down through the country, fled to their homes by different ways. Neither would the besieged have been able to make a defence, but for the severity of the winter, which obstructed the operations of the besiegers. The siege lasted thirty days, during which the snow lay seldom less than four feet deep, and it had covered over the machines and engines of the Romans, in such a manner, as that of itself alone it proved a sufficient defence against the fires which were often thrown on them by the enemy. At last, Hamusitus their chieftain, having fled away to Hasdrubal, they capitulated on the terms of paying twenty talents of silver.* The army then returned into winter-quarters at Tarraco.
LXII. During this winter, at Rome, and in its vicinity, many prodigies either happened, or, as is not unusual when people’s minds have once taken a turn towards superstition, many were reported and credulously admitted. Among others, it was said, that an infant of a reputable family, and only six months old, had, in the herb-market, called out, “Io, Triumphe;” that, in the cattle-market, an ox had, of his own accord, mounted up to the third story of a house, whence, being affrighted by the noise and bustle of the inhabitants, he threw himself down; that a light had appeared in the sky in the form of ships; that the temple of Hope, in the herb-market, was struck by lightning; that, at Lanuvium, the spear of Juno had shaken of itself; and that a crow had flown into the temple of Juno and pitched on the very couch; that, in the district of Amiternum, in many places, apparitions of men in white garments had been seen at a distance, but had not come close to any body; that in Picenum, a shower of stones had fallen; at Cære, the divining tickets were diminished in size; in Gaul, a wolf snatched the sword of a soldier on guard out of the scabbard, and ran away with it. With respect to the other prodigies, the decemvirs were commanded to consult the books: but on account of the shower of stones in Picenum, the nine days’ festival was ordered to be celebrated, and the expiating of the rest, one after another, was almost the sole occupation of the state. In the first place was performed a purification of the city; victims, of the greater kinds, were offered to such gods as were pointed out by directions. An offering of forty pounds weight of gold was carried to the temple of Juno at Lanuvium, and the matrons dedicated a brazen statue to Juno on the Aventine. A Lectisternium was ordered at Cære, where the divining tickets were diminished; also a supplication to Fortune at Algidum. At Rome, likewise, a Lectisternium was ordered in honour of the goddess Youth, and a supplication to be performed, by individuals, at the temple of Hercules, and then, by the whole body of the people, at all the several shrines. To Genius five of the greater victims were offered; and the prætor Caius Atilius Serranus was ordered to vow certain performances, in case the commonwealth should continue for ten years in its present state. These expiations and vows being performed, in conformity to the directions of the Sibylline books, people’s minds were, in a good measure, relieved from the burthen of religious apprehensions.
LXIII. Flaminius, one of the consuls elect, to whom had fallen by lot the legions which wintered at Placentia, sent an edict and letter to the consul, desiring that those troops should be ready in camp at Ariminum on the ides of March. His design was to enter on the office of consul in his province: for he remembered his old disputes with the patricians, the contests in which he had engaged with them when tribune of the commons, and afterwards, when consul, first about the consulship, his election to which they wanted to annul, and then about a triumph. He was besides hated by the patricians on account of a new law, prejudicial to the senators, introduced by Caius Claudius a plebeian tribune, to which Caius Flaminius alone, of all the patricians, had given his support — that no senator, or son of a senator, should be owner of a ship fit for sea-voyages, which contained more than three hundred amphoras* . This size was thought sufficient for conveying the produce of their farms, and every kind of traffic was deemed unbecoming a senator. This business had been contested with the utmost degree of heat, and had procured to Flaminius, the advocate for the law, great hatred among the nobility, but as great popularity among the commons, and, in consequence of this, a second consulship. For these reasons, suspecting that they would, by falsifying the auspices, by the delay of celebrating the Latine festival, and other impediments to which a consul was liable, detain him in the city, he pretended a journey, and, while yet in a private capacity, went secretly into the province. This step, when it became known, added fresh resentment to the animosity which, before this, possessed the breasts of the senators; they exclaimed, that “Caius Flaminius now waged war, not only with the senate, but with the immortal gods. That formerly having been made consul under propitious auspices, though gods and men united in recalling him when ready to give battle, he had refused obedience; and now, conscious of having treated them with disrespect, had fled to avoid the Capitol, and the customary offering of vows; unwilling, on the day of his entering into office, to approach the temple of Jupiter supremely good and great; to see and consult the senate, to whom he knew that he was odious; and that he was the only person by whom they were hated; that he had failed to proclaim the Latine festival, and to perform on the Alban mount the customary sacrifices to Jupiter Latiaris; to go up to the Capitol, under the direction of auspices, in order to offer vows, and thence to proceed to his province in the habit of a commander, and attended by lictors. Instead of which, he had gone off, without badges of authority, without lictors, like a soldier’s servant, privately and by stealth: just as if he were quitting his country to go into exile; supposing, no doubt, that he might assume his office in a manner more suitable to the dignity of supreme magistrate at Ariminum, than at Rome, and put on the consular robe in a public inn better than in his own dwelling.” They resolved, unanimously, that he should be recalled; that his return should be insisted upon; and that he should be compelled to perform, in person, all duties both to gods and men, before he went to his province. On this embassy (for it was resolved that ambassadors should be sent) went Quintus Terentius and Marcus Antistius, whose arguments had no more weight with him than had the letter sent to him by the senate in his former consulate. In a few days after, he entered on his office, and as he was offering a sacrifice on the occasion, a calf, after receiving a stroke, made its escape out of the hands of those who officiated at the sacrifice, and sprinkled many of the by-standers with its blood. The confusion and disorder was great, but still greater among those at a distance, who knew not the cause of the disturbance. This was generally interpreted as an omen of dreadful import. Then, after receiving two legions from Sempronius, the consul of the former year, and two from the prætor, Caius Atilius began his march towards Etruria, through the passes of the Apennines.
* The ballista was an engine for throwing large stones; catapulta, a smaller one for throwing the falarica, and other large kinds of javelins, the scorpio was a still smaller one, for throwing darts of lesser size.
* The beginning of November.
* 11s. 7d.
* 25l. 16s. 8d.
* Socii navales. These words sometimes, as here, mean merely the mariners, such as the rowers, and others whose business it is to navigate the ship: at other times, they mean the soldiers, who served regularly on board the fleet, as those corps who, with us, are distinguished by the name of ‘ Marines.’
* Agmen quadratum, signifies not a regular line of battle, but the troops marching in the same order in which they were formed in the field of battle, the Velites in front, and then the Hastati, Principes, and Triarii, in their order.
* 3,875l.
* About ten tons.
Hannibal, after a laborious march of four days and three nights, without repose, through the marshes, in which he lost an eye, arrives in Etruria. Caius Flaminius, consul, a man of rash and inconsiderate conduct, is involved, by the artifice of Hannibal, in a dangerous defile, and cut of, with the greatest part of his army Fabius Maximus created dictator, and sent against Hannibal; avoids fighting and baffles Hannibal’s efforts. The master of the horse, Marcus Minucius, excites general dissatisfaction against the dictator’s dilatory conduct; is made equal to him in authority; engages the enemy with his half of the forces, and is saved from utter destruction by Fabius coming opportunely to his relief, with the other half of the Roman army; acknowledges his misconduct, and puts himself again under the command of the dictator. Hannibal, shut up by Fabius, in a valley at Cassilinum, extricates himself by a stratagem of tying fire-brands to the horns of oxen. Æmilius Paullus and Terentius Varro utterly defeated at Cannæ, the former being slain, with forty-five thousand men, of whom were eighty senators, and thirty who had served the office of consul, prætor, or ædile. A project of abandoning Italy quashed by Publius Cornelius Scipio, a military tribune, who afterwards acquired the surname of Africanus. Prosperous events in Spain. The Romans enlist slaves; refuse to ransom the prisoners; go out, in a body, to meet Varro, and thank him for not despairing of the commonwealth.
Y. R. 535. 217.I. AT the first approach of spring, Hannibal quitted his winter station. He had been foiled before, in his attempt to pass over the Appennine, by the intolerable severity of the cold; for he would gladly have effected it, exposed as he was, during his stay in quarters, to the utmost degree of apprehension and danger. For, when the Gauls, whom the hopes of spoil and pillage had allured to his standard, perceived, that, instead of carrying off booty from the lands of others, their own had become the seat of war, and that they were burthened with the winter residence of both the contending armies, they turned upon Hannibal the enmity which they had harboured against the Romans. Many plots were formed against him, by their chiefs, from the effects of which he was preserved, by their treacherously betraying one another, and discovering their designs, through the same inconstancy which led them to conspire against him. But still he was careful to guard himself against their plots, by frequent disguises; changing sometimes his dress, sometimes the covering of his head. However, his fears, on this account, were his principal motives for leaving his winter quarters earlier than usual. In the mean time at Rome, Cneius Servilius entered on the office of consul, on the ides of March. He proposed to the senate to take under consideration the state of the commonwealth; whereupon the clamour against Caius Flaminius was renewed. “They created,” they said, “two consuls, yet had but one. For what legal authority, what auspices did the other possess? These the magistrates carried with them from home, from their own tutelar gods; and also those of the public, the Latine festival being celebrated, the sacrifices on the Alban mount performed, and vows duly offered in the Capitol. Setting out in a private capacity, he could not carry the auspices with him, neither could he take them new, and for the first time, in a foreign soil.” Their apprehensions were increased by reports of prodigies, brought from various places at once. In Sicily, a number of arrows, and in Sardinia, the truncheon of a horseman, as he was going the rounds of the watch on the walls of Sulci, took fire, as was said; many fires were seen blazing on the shore; two shields sweated blood; several soldiers were struck by lightning; and the sun’s orb appeared to be contracted. At Præneste, red-hot stones fell from the sky. At Arpi, bucklers were seen in the air, and the sun fighting with the moon. At Capena, two moons appeared in the day-time. At Cære, the streams of water were mixed with blood; and even the fountain of Hercules was tinged with bloody spots. In the district of Antium, while people were reaping, bloody ears of corn fell into a basket. At Falerii, the sky seemed to be rent asunder with a very wide cleft, and through the opening a strong light burst forth; the divining tickets, without any apparent cause, were diminished in size, and one fell out, which had this inscription, ‘Mars brandishes his spear.’ About the same time, at Rome, the statue of Mars, on the Appian road, and the images of the wolves, sweated. At Capua, the sky appeared as if on fire, and the moon as falling amongst rain. Afterwards, prodigies of lesser note were heard of: some asserted that goats were converted into sheep; that a hen was turned into a male, and a cock into a female. The consul, laying before the senate all these matters, as reported, and bringing the authors of the reports into the senate-house, proposed to their consideration the affairs of religion. They decreed, that those prodigies should be expiated, some with the greater, some with the lesser victims; and that a supplication for three days should be performed at all the shrines; that, when the decemvirs should have inspected the books, all other particulars should be conducted in such manner as the gods should declare, in their oracles, to be agreeable to them. By the direction of the decemvirs, it was decreed, that, first, a golden thunderbolt, of fifty pounds weight, should be made as an offering to Jupiter; and that offerings of silver should be presented to Juno and Minerva; that sacrifices of the greater victims should be offered to Juno Regina, on the Aventine, and to Juno Sospita, at Lanuvium; that the matrons, contributing such sums of money as might be convenient to each, should carry an offering to Juno Regina, to the Aventine, and celebrate a lectisternium to her: and that even the descendants of freed women should make a contribution, in proportion to their abilities, out of which an offering should be made to Feronia. When these orders were fulfilled, the decemvirs sacrificed, with the greater victims, in the Forum at Ardea: and, lastly, so late as the month of December, sacrifices were offered at the temple of Saturn, in Rome, and a lectisternium was ordered: on which occasion the couches were laid out by senators, and also a public banquet. Proclamation was likewise made through the city, of a feast of Saturn, to be celebrated during a day and a night, and the people were commanded to keep that day as a festival, and to observe it for ever.
II. While the consul was employed at Rome in endeavouring to procure the favour of the gods, and in levying troops, Hannibal, set out from his winter quarters, and hearing that the consul Flaminius had already arrived at Arretium, he chose — notwithstanding that another road, less difficult, but longer, was pointed out to him, — the shorter one through marshes, which, at that time, were overflowed by the river Arnus, to an unusual height. He ordered the Spaniards and Africans, the main strength of his veteran troops, to march in the van, with their baggage between their divisions; that, in case they should be obliged to halt, they might not be at a loss for a supply of necessaries; then the Gauls to follow, so that they should compose the centre of the line, the cavalry in the rear; and after them Mago, with the light-armed Numidians, as a rear guard, to prevent the troops from straggling; particularly to hinder the Gauls, if weary of the labour, or of the length of the journey, from attempting either to slip away, or to stay behind: for that people, it had been found, want firmness to support fatigue. The troops in the van, though almost swallowed in mud, and frequently plunging entirely under water, yet followed the standards wherever their guides led the way, but the Gauls could neither keep their feet, nor, when they fell, raise themselves out of the gulfs, which were formed by the river from the steepness of its banks. They were destitute of spirits and almost hope; and while some, with difficulty, dragged on their enfeebled limbs, others, exhausted by the length of way, having once fallen, lay there, and died among the cattle, of which great numbers also perished. But what utterly overpowered them, was the want of sleep, which they had now endured for four days and three nights; for no dry spot could be found on which they might stretch their wearied limbs, so that they could only throw their baggage into the water in heaps, on the top of which they laid themselves down. Even the cattle, which lay dead in abundance along the whole course of their march, afforded them a temporary bed, as they looked for no further accommodation for sleeping, than something raised above the water. Hannibal himself, having a complaint in his eyes, occasioned, at first, by the unwholesome air of the spring, when changes are frequent from heat to cold, rode on the only elephant which he had remaining, in order to keep himself as high as possible above the water; but, at length, the want of sleep, the damps of the night, with those of the marshes, so disordered his head, that, as he had neither place nor time to make use of remedies, he lost one of his eyes.
III. At length, after great numbers of men and cattle had perished miserably, he got clear of the marshes; and, on the first dry ground at which he arrived, pitched his camp. Here, from scouts, whom he had sent forward, he learned with certainty, that the Roman army lay round the walls of Arretium. He then employed the utmost diligence in inquiring into the disposition and designs of the consul, the nature of the several parts of the country, the roads, and the sources from which provisions might be procured, with every other circumstance requisite to be known. As to the country, it was one of the most fertile in Italy: the Etrurian plains, which lie between Fæsulæ and Arretium, abounding with corn and cattle, and plenty of every thing useful. The consul was inflated with presumption since his former consulate, and too regardless, not only of the laws and the dignity of the senate, but even of the gods. This head-strong self-sufficiency, natural to his disposition, Fortune had cherished, by the prosperous course of success which she had granted him, in his administration of affairs, both civil and military. There was, therefore, sufficient reason to suppose, that without regarding the sentiments of gods or men, he would act on all occasions with presumption and precipitancy; and the Carthaginian, in order the more effectually to dispose him to follow the bias of his natural imperfections, resolved to irritate and exasperate him. With this view, leaving the enemy on his left, and pointing his route towards Fæsulæ, he marched through the heart of Etruria, ravaging the country, and exhibiting to the consul, at a distance, a view of the greatest devastations that could be effected by fire and sword. Flaminius, even had the enemy lain quiet, would not have been content to remain inactive; but now, seeing the property of the allies plundered and destroyed before his eyes, he thought that on him must fall the disgrace of Hannibal’s overrunning the middle of Italy, and even marching, without opposition, to attack the very walls of Rome. Notwithstanding that every member of his council recommended safe, rather than specious measures; that he should wait the arrival of his colleague, when they might enter on the business with joint forces, and with united spirit and judgment; and that, in the mean time, the enemy should be restrained from his unbounded license in plundering, by means of the cavalry and light auxiliaries; he burst away in a rage, and displayed, at once, the signals both for marching and fighting. “We must lie, then,” said he, “under the walls of Arretium, because here is our native city, and our household gods; let Hannibal slip out of our hands, ravage Italy, and, after wasting and burning all the rest, sit down before Rome; not stir from hence, in short, until the senate summons Caius Flaminius from Arretium, as formerly Camillus from Veii.” While he upbraided them in this manner, he ordered the standards to be raised with speed; and having mounted on horseback, the animal, by a sudden plunge, displaced him from his seat, and threw him over his head. All present were greatly dismayed by such an inauspicious omen, at the opening of the campaign; and, to add to their uneasiness, an account was brought, that one of the standards could not be pulled out of the ground, though the standard-bearer endeavoured it with his utmost strength. The consul, turning to the messenger, said, “Do you also bring a letter from the senate, forbidding me to act? Go, bid them dig up the standard, if fear has so benumbed their hands, that they cannot pull it out.” The army then began to march, while the principal officers, besides being averse from the design, were terrified at the two prodigies; but the generality of the soldiers rejoiced at the presumptuous conduct of the general; for they looked no farther than the confidence which he displayed, and never examined the grounds on which it was founded.
IV. Hannibal, the more to exasperate the enemy, and provoke him to seek revenge for the sufferings of his allies, desolated, with every calamity of war, the whole tract of country between the city of Cortona and the lake Trasimenus. And now the army had arrived at a spot, formed by nature for an ambuscade, where the Trasimenus approaches closest to the Crotonian mountains. Between them is only a very narrow road, as if room had been designedly left for that purpose; farther on, the ground opens to somewhat a greater width, and, beyond that, rises a range of hills. On these, he formed a camp in open view, where himself, with the African and Spanish infantry only, was to take post. The Balearians, and other light-armed troops, he drew round behind the mountains, and posted the cavalry near the entrance of the defile, where they were effectually concealed by some rising grounds; with design, that as soon as the Romans entered the pass, the cavalry should take possession of the road, and thus the whole space be shut up, between the lake and the mountains. Flaminius, though he arrived at the lake about sunset, took no care to examine the ground, but next morning, before it was clear day, passed through the narrow way, and when the troops began to spread into the wider ground, they saw only that party of the enemy which fronted them; those in ambush on their rear, and over their heads, quite escaped their notice. The Carthaginian, having now gained the point at which he aimed, the Roman being pent up between the mountains and the lake, and surrounded by his troops, immediately gave the signal for the whole to charge at once. They accordingly poured down, every one by the shortest way he could find, and the surprize was the more sudden and alarming, because a mist, rising from the lake, lay thicker on the low grounds, than on the mountains; while the parties of the enemy, seeing each other distinctly enough from the several eminences, were the better able to run down together. The Romans, before they could discover their foe, learned, from the shouts raised on all sides, that they were surrounded; and the attack began on their front and flank, before they could properly form a line, or get ready their arms, and draw their swords.
V. In the midst of the general consternation, the consul, perilous as the conjucture was, showed abundance of intrepidity; he restored, as well as the time and place would allow, the ranks, which were disordered by the men turning themselves about at all the various shouts, and wherever he could come or be heard, encouraged, and charged them to stand steady, and to fight; telling them, that “they must not expect to get clear of their present situation, by vows and prayers to the gods, but by strength and courage. By the sword, men opened a way through the midst of embattled foes; and, in general, the less fear the less danger.” But such was the noise and tumult, that neither his counsel nor commands could be heard with distinctness; and so far were the soldiers from knowing each his own standard, his rank, and post, that scarcely had they sufficient presence of mind to take up their arms, and get ready for fighting; so that many, while they were rather encumbered than defended by them, were overpowered by the enemy. Besides, the darkness was so great, that they had more use of their ears than of their eyes. The groans of the wounded, the sound of blows on the men’s bodies or armour, with the confused cries of threatening and terror, drew attention from one side to another. Some, attempting to fly, were stopped by running against a party engaged in fight; others, returning to the fight, were driven back by a body of runaways. At length, after they had made many fruitless essays in every quarter, and inclosed, as they were, by the mountains and lake on the sides, by the enemy’s forces on the front and rear, they evidently perceived that there was no hope of safety but in their valour and their weapons. Every one’s own thoughts then supplied the place of command and exhortation to exertion, and the action began anew, with fresh vigour; but the troops were not marshalled according to the distinct bodies of the different orders of soldiers, nor so disposed, that the van-guard should fight before the standards, and the rest of the troops behind them; or that each soldier was in his own legion, or cohort, or company: chance formed their bands, and every man’s post in the battle, either before or behind the standards, was fixed by his own choice. So intense was the ardour of the engagement, so eagerly was their attention occupied by the fight, that not one of the combatants perceived a great earthquake, which, at the time, overthrew large portions of many of the cities of Italy, turned rapid rivers out of their courses, carried up the sea into the rivers, and by the violence of the convulsion, levelled mountains.
VI. They fought for near three hours, and furiously in every part: but round the consul the battle was particularly hot and bloody. The ablest of the men attended him, and he was himself surprisingly active in supporting his troops, wherever he saw them pressed, or in need of assistance; and, as he was distinguished above others by his armour, the enemy pointed their utmost efforts against him, while his own men defended him with equal vigour. At length, an Insubrian horseman, (his name Decario,) knowing his face, called out to his countrymen, “Behold, this is the consul, who cut to pieces our legions, and depopulated our country and city. I will now offer this victim to the shades of my countrymen, who lost their lives in that miserable manner;” then, giving spurs to his horse, he darted through the thickest of the enemy; and, after first killing his armour-bearer, who threw himself in the way of the attack, ran the consul through with his lance. He then attempted to spoil him of his arms, but the veterans, covering the body with their shields drove him back. This event first caused a great number of the troops to fly; and now, so great was their panic, that neither lake nor mountain stopped them; through every place, however narrow or steep, they ran with blind haste, and arms, and men, were tumbled together in promiscuous disorder. Great numbers, finding no room for farther flight, pushed into the lake, and plunged themselves in such a manner, that only their heads and shoulders were above water. The violence of their fears impelled some to make the desperate attempt of escaping by swimming: but this proving impracticable, on account of the great extent of the lake, they either exhausted their strength, and were drowned in the deep, or, after fatiguing themselves to no purpose, made their way back, with the utmost difficulty, to the shallows, and were there slain, wherever they appeared, by the enemy’s horsemen wading into the same. About six thousand of the van-guard, bravely forcing their way through the opposite enemy, got clear of the defile, and knowing nothing of what was passing behind them, halted on a rising ground, where they could only hear the shouting, and the din of arms, but could not see, by reason of the darkness, nor judge with any certainty, as to the fortunes of the day: At length, after the victory was decided, the increasing heat of the sun dispelling the mist, the prospect was opened. The mountains and plains showed the desperate condition of their affairs, and the shocking carnage of the Roman army: wherefore, lest, on their being seen at a distance, the cavalry should be sent against them, they hastily raised their standards, and hurried away with all possible speed. Next day, when, besides their other distresses, they were threatened with the extremity of hunger, Maharbal, who, with the whole body of cavalry, had overtaken them during the night, pledging his faith, that if they surrendered their arms, he would suffer them to depart with single garments, they delivered themselves into his hands. But this capitulation Hannibal observed with Punic sincerity, and threw them into chains.
VII. Such was the memorable fight at the Thrasimenus, and the severe blow there received by the Romans, remarkable among the few disasters of the kind, which the nation has ever undergone. Of the Romans, fifteen thousand were slain in the field; ten thousand, who fled, and dispersed themselves through every part of Etruria, made their way afterwards, by different roads, home to the city. Of the enemy, one thousand five hundred perished in the fight, and a great many afterwards of their wounds. By some writers, the loss of men on both sides is represented as vastly greater: for my part, besides that I wish to avoid the magnifying any particular whatever, an error to which writers are in general too prone, I think it reasonable to give the preference to the authority of Fabius, who lived in the very time of this war. Hannibal dismissed, without ransom, such of the prisoners as were natives of Latium, the Romans he loaded with chains. He then ordered that the bodies of his own men should be collected, from among the heaps of the enemy, and buried; directing, at the same time, that the body of Flaminius should be sought for, with intention to honour him with a funeral; but after a most diligent search, it could not be found. As soon as the first news of this disaster arrived at Rome, the people, in great terror and tumult, crowded together into the Forum. The matrons, running up and down the streets, asked every one who came in their way, what sudden calamity was said to have happened; in what state was the army? At length, after a crowd, not less numerous than that of a full assembly of the people, had collected in the Comitium, and about the senate-house, calling on the magistrates for information, a little before sun-set, Marcus Pomponius, the prætor, told them, “We have been defeated in a great battle.” Though nothing more particular was heard from him, yet the people, catching up rumours, one from another, returned to their houses with accounts, that, “the consul was slain, together with a great part of his army; that few survived, and that these were either dispersed through Etruria, or taken by the enemy.” Every kind of misfortune, which had ever befallen vanquished troops, was now pictured in the anxious minds of those, whose relations had served under the consul Caius Flaminius, having no positive information on which they could found either hope or fear. During the next, and several succeeding days, a multitude, composed of rather more women than men, stood round the gates, watching for the arrival, either of their friends, or of some who might give intelligence concerning them; and whenever any person came up, they crowded about him with eager inquiries; nor could they be prevailed on to retire, especially from such as were of their acquaintance, until they had examined minutely into every particular. Then, when they did separate from about the informants, might be seen their countenances expressive of various emotions, according as the intelligence, which each received, was pleasing or unfavourable; and numbers, surrounding them, returned to their houses offering either congratulations or comfort. Among the women, particularly, the effects both of joy and grief were very conspicuous; one, as we are told, meeting, unexpectedly, at the very gate, her son returning safe, expired at the sight of him: another, who sat in her house, overwhelmed with grief, in consequence of a false report of her son’s death, on seeing that son returning, died immediately, through excess of joy. The prætors, during several days, kept the senate assembled in their house, from the rising to the setting of the sun, deliberating by what commander, or with what forces, opposition could be made to the victorious Carthaginians.
VIII. Before they had fully determined on the plans to be pursued, they received an account of another unexpected disaster: four thousand horsemen, who had been sent by Servilius, the consul, to the aid of his colleague, under the command of Caius Centenius, pro-prætor, were cut off by Hannibal, in Umbria, whither, on hearing of the fight at the Thrasimenus, they had marched to avoid him. The news of this event affected people differently: some, having their minds occupied by grief, for misfortunes of a momentous kind, certainly deemed the recent loss of the cavalry light, in comparison: others judged not of the accident by its own intrinsic importance; but considered, that, as in a sickly constitution, a slight cause is attended with more sensible effects, than a more powerful one in a constitution possessed of vigour; so any kind of misfortune, happening to the commonwealth in its present debilitated condition, ought to be estimated, not by the magnitude of the affair itself, but by the enfeebled state of the same, which could not endure any degree of aggravation to its distresses. Accordingly, the state had recourse to a remedy, which for a long time past had neither been used nor wanted, the nomination of a dictator: and because the consul, who alone was supposed to possess the power of nominating that officer, was abroad, and it was difficult to send either messenger or letter, through those parts of Italy, occupied, as they were, by the Carthaginian arms; and as the people could not create a dictator, no precedent having yet existed for it, they therefore, in an assembly, created a prodictator, Quintus Fabius Maximus, and a master of the horse, Marcus Minucius Rufus. These received a charge from the senate, to strengthen the walls and towers of the city; to post troops in proper places, and to break down the bridges on the rivers; since, having proved unequal to the defence of Italy, they must fight at their own doors in defence of the city.
IX. Hannibal marched straight forward, through Umbria, as far as Spoletum; which town, after he had utterly wasted all the adjoining country, he attempted to take by storm, but, being repulsed, with the loss of a great number of men, and judging, from the strength of that single colony, his attempt on which had ended so little to his advantage, what great difficulties he had to surmount, before he could master the city of Rome, he changed the direction of his route toward the territory of Picenum, which not only abounded with provisions of all sorts, but was, besides, well stored with booty, which his needy and rapacious soldiers greedily seized. There he remained, during several days, in one fixed post, and refreshed his men, who had been severely fatigued by their long marches in the winter season, and through the marshes, as well as by the battle, which, though favourable in the issue, was not gained without danger and fatigue. After allowing sufficient rest to his troops, who, however, delighted more in plundering and ravaging, than in ease and repose, he put them in motion, and spread devastation through the territories of Prætulia and Adria, the country of the Marsians, Manucinians, and Pelegnians, and the neighbouring tract of Apulia, round Arpi and Luceria. The consul, Cneius Servilius, had fought some slight battles with the Gauls, and taken one town of no great consequence; when, hearing of the disaster of his colleague, and the troops under his command, and being filled with apprehensions for the capital of his country, he resolved not to be out of the way, in a conjuncture of such extreme danger; he therefore marched directly towards Rome. Quintus Fabius Maximus, dictator, a second time, on the day wherein he entered into office, assembled the senate, when he commenced his administration with attention to the gods. Having proved, to the conviction of the assembly, that the faults committed by Caius Flaminius, the consul, through his neglect of the established sacred rites, and the auspices, were even greater than those which arose from his rashness and want of judgment; and that it was necessary to learn from the gods themselves, what atonements would appease their wrath, he prevailed on them to pass an order, which was not usual, except when some terrible prodigies were announced, that the decemvirs should consult the Sibylline leaves. These, after inspecting those books of the fates, reported to the senate, that, “the vow made to Mars, on occasion of the present war, had not been duly fulfilled; that it must be performed anew, and that in a more ample manner; that the great games must be vowed to Jupiter; and temples to Venus Erycina and Mens; that a supplication and lectisternium must be performed, and a sacred spring vowed, in case success attended their arms, and that the commonwealth remained in the same state in which it had been when the war began.” The senate, considering that Fabius would have full employment in the management of the war, ordered that Marcus Æmilius, the prætor, should take care, that all these matters might be performed in due time, according to the directions of the college of pontiffs.
X. On the passing of these decrees of the senate, the chief pontiff, Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, being advised with by the college of prætors, gave his opinion, that before any other steps were taken, the people should be consulted with respect to the sacred spring; for that a vow of that import could not be made without their order. Accordingly, the question was proposed to the people in these words: “Do ye choose and order, that what I am going to propose, shall be performed in this manner: that, in case the commonwealth of the Roman people, the Quirites, shall (as I wish it may) be preserved in safety, during the next five years, from these wars, namely, the war which subsists between the Roman people and the Carthaginians; and the wars subsisting with the Gauls, who dwell on this side of the Alps; then the Roman people, the Quirites, shall present, as an offering, whatever the spring shall produce, from the herds of swine, sheep, goats, or oxen; of which produce, accruing from the day when the senate and people shall appoint, whatever shall not have been appropriated by consecration, shall be sacrificed to Jupiter. Let him who makes the offering, make it at what time, and in what form he shall choose: in whatsoever manner he does it, let the offering be deemed proper: if that which ought to be sacrificed die, let it be deemed as unconsecrated; and let no guilt ensue. If any person undesignedly shall break, or kill it, let him incur no penalty. If any shall steal it, let not guilt be imputed to the people, nor to him from whom it is stolen. If any, unknowingly, offer the sacrifice on a forbidden day, let the offering be deemed good. Whether the offering shall be made by night or by day, whether by a freeman or a slave, let it be deemed good. If the senate and people shall order it to be made on an earlier day than a person shall make it, let the people be acquitted, and free from the guilt thereof.” On the same account, a vow was made to celebrate the great games, at the expense of three hundred and thirty-three thousand three hundred and thirty-three asses and one third;* besides three hundred oxen to be offered to Jupiter; and white oxen, and other victims, to many other deities. The vows being duly made, a proclamation was issued for a supplication, in the performance of which joined, not only the inhabitants of the city, with their wives and children, but also those of the country, who, having any property of their own, were interested in the welfare of the public. Then was performed the lectisternium, during the space of three days, under the direction of the decemvirs of religious rites. There were six couches exhibited to view, one for Jupiter and Juno, another for Neptune and Minerva, a third for Mars and Venus, a fourth for Apollo and Diana, a fifth for Vulcan and Vesta, and the sixth for Mercury and Ceres. The temples were then vowed; that to Venus Erycina, by Quintus Fabius Maximus, dictator; for such was the direction found in the books of the fates, that the person who held the highest authority in the state should vow it. Titus Otacilius, the prætor, vowed the temple to Mens.
XI. The business relating to religion being thus concluded, the dictator then proposed to the senate, to take into consideration the state of the commonwealth and the war; and to determine how many, and what legions, should be employed to stop the progress of the victorious enemy. They passed a decree, that “he should receive the army from the consul, Cneius Servilius; in addition to which, he should levy, among the citizens and allies, such numbers of horse and foot as he should judge requisite; and, in every other particular, should act and manage in such a manner as he should see conducive to the public good.” Fabius declared his intention to make an addition of two legions to the army of Servilius; these he ordered to be levied by the master of the horse, and appointed a day on which they were to assemble at Tibur. Then, having published a proclamation, that those who dwelt in towns or forts which were incapable of defence, should remove into places of safety; and that all the inhabitants of that tract, through which Hannibal was to march, should likewise remove out of the country, after first burning the houses, and destroying the fruits of the earth, to prevent his meeting any kind of supply; he himself set out, by the Flaminian road, to meet the consul and the army. Coming within sight of the troops, on their march on the bank of the Tiber, near Ocriculum, and observing the consul, with some horsemen, advancing, he sent a beadle to acquaint him, that he must approach the dictator without lictors. This order he obeyed; and their meeting raised an exalted idea of the dictatorship in the minds both of citizens and allies; who had now, in consequence of the long disuse, almost forgotten that office. Here he received a letter from the city, with intelligence, that the transport ships, carrying supplies from Ostia to the army in Spain, had been captured by a fleet of the enemy near the port of Cossa: in consequence of which, the consul was ordered to proceed immediately to Ostia, to man all the ships which were at the city of Rome, or at Ostia, with soldiers and mariners, to pursue the enemy, and guard the coasts of Italy. Great numbers of men had been levied at Rome; even the sons of freedmen, who had children, and were of military age, had enlisted. Of these troops, such as were under thirty-five years of age were put on board the ships; the rest were left to guard the city.
XII. The dictator, receiving the consul’s army from Fulvius Flaccus, his lieutenant-general, came through the Sabine territory to Tibur, on the day which he had appointed for the assembling of the new-raised troops; thence he went back to Præneste, and, crossing the country to the Latine road, led forward his army; examining, with the utmost care, the country through which he was to pass, being determined in no case, to subject himself to the disposal of fortune, except so far as necessity might constrain him. When he first pitched his camp within the enemy’s view, not far from Arpi, the Carthaginian on the same day, without delaying an hour, led out his forces, and offered battle; but, seeing every thing quiet, and no hurry or bustle in the Roman camp, he returned within his lines, observing, with a sneer, that the spirit which the Romans boasted to have inherited from Mars, was at length subdued; that they had given over fighting, and made open acknowledgment of their abatement in courage and love of glory. His mind, however, was sensibly affected, on finding that he had now to deal with a commander very unlike Flaminius and Sempronius; and that the Romans, instructed by misfortunes, had at length chosen a leader which was a match for Hannibal; and he quickly perceived that, in the dictator, he had to dread provident skill more than vigorous exertion. Having, however, not yet fully experienced his steadiness, he attempted to rouse and provoke his temper by frequently removing his camp, and ravaging under his eyes the lands of the allies, at one time withdrawing out of sight by a hasty march; at another, halting in a place of concealment at a turn of the road, in hopes of taking him at a disadvantage on his coming down into the plain. Fabius led his forces along the high grounds at a moderate distance from the enemy; so as not to let him be out of reach, nor yet to come to an engagement. His men were confined within their camp, except when called forth by some necessary occasion; and his parties, sent for forage and wood, were neither small in number, nor were they allowed to ramble. An advanced guard of cavalry and light infantry, properly equipped, and formed for the purpose of repressing sudden alarms, rendered every place safe to those of their own side, and dangerous to such of the enemy as straggled in search of plunder. Thus, a decisive trial in a general engagement was avoided. At the same time slight skirmishes of no great importance commenced on safe ground and where a place of retreat was at hand, which accustomed the soldiers, dispirited by former misfortunes, to place more confidence both in their own courage and their fortune. But he found not Hannibal more inclined to disconcert such wise plans than his own master of the horse, whom nothing but being subordinate in command, prevented from plunging the commonwealth into ruin. Confident and precipitate in his measures, and allowing his tongue an exorbitant license, he used, at first in small circles, afterwards openly in public, to call the dictator sluggish instead of cool; timid instead of cautious; imputing to him as faults what had the nearest affinity to virtues. Thus, by the practice of depressing the merit of his superior — a practice of the basest nature, and which has become too general, in consequence of the favourable success so often attending it — he exalted himself.
XIII. Hannibal led away his forces from the territory of Arpi into Samnium, ravaged the lands of Beneventum, took the city of Telesia, and used every means to irritate the Roman general; in hopes that by so many indignities, and the sufferings of his allies, he might be provoked to hazard an engagement on equal ground. Among the multitude of the allies of Italian birth, who had been made prisoners by the Carthaginian at Trasimenus, and set at liberty, were three Campanian horsemen. Hannibal on that occasion, by many presents and promises, engaged them to conciliate the affections of their countrymen in his favour. These now informed him, that if he brought his army into Campania, he would have an opportunity of getting possession of Capua. The affair was of much moment, and seemed to demand more weighty authority. Hannibal hesitated, inclining at one time to confide in their assurances, at another to distrust them, yet they brought him to a resolution of marching from Samnium into Campania; and he dismissed them, with repeated charges to fulfil their promises by deeds, and with orders to return to him with a greater number, and with some of their principal men. He then commanded his guide to conduct him into the territory of Casinum; having learned from persons acquainted with the country, that if he seized on the pass there, the Romans would be shut out, so as to prevent their bringing succour to their allies. But speaking with the Carthaginian accent, and mis-pronouncing the Latin words, the guide mis-apprehended him as having said Casilinum instead of Casinum; so that, turning from the right road, he led him through the territories of Allifæ, Calatia, and Cales, down into the plain of Stella. Here Hannibal looking round, and perceiving the place enclosed between mountains and rivers, called the guide, and asked him where he was; and the other answering, that he would lodge that night at Casilinum, he at last discovered the mistake, and that Casinum lay at a very great distance, in a quite different direction. On this, having scourged and crucified the guide, in order to strike terror into others, he pitched and fortified his camp, and despatched Maharbal, with the cavalry, to ravage the territory of Falerii. Here the depredations were carried as far as the waters of Sinuessa, the Numidians committing dreadful devastations, and spreading fear and consternation to a still wider extent. Yet did not this terror, great as it was, and though their whole country was involved in the flames of war, induce the allies to swerve from their allegiance. They had no desire to change their rulers, for they lived under a mild and equitable government; and there is no bond of loyalty so strong.
XIV. The Carthaginians encamped at the river Vulturnus, and the most delightful tract in Italy was seen wasted with fire, the country-seats on every side smoking in ruins. While Fabius led his army along the tops of the Massic mountains, the discontent in it was inflamed anew, and to such a degree, as to fall little short of a mutiny. During a few days past, as their march had been conducted with more expedition than usual, they had been in good temper, because they had supposed that this haste was owing to an intention to protect Campania from further ravages. But when they had gained the heights, and the enemy appeared under their eyes, setting fire to the houses of the Falernian district, with the colony of Sinuessa, and that still no mention was made of fighting, Minucius exclaimed, “Are we come hither to view the burning and slaughter of our allies, as to a spectacle grateful to the sight? If no other circumstance strikes us with shame, do we feel none with regard to these our countrymen, whom our fathers sent as colonists to Sinuessa, to secure this frontier from the inroads of the Samnites? And now the frontier is wasted with fire, not by the Samnites, a neighbouring state, but by Carthaginians, a foreign race, who, from the remotest limits of the world, have effected their progress hither, in consequence of our dilatory and slothful proceedings. Shamefully are we degenerated from our ancestors, who considered it as an affront to their government, if a Carthaginian fleet happened to sail along this coast; for we now behold the same coast filled with the enemy’s troops, and possessed by Moors and Numidians. We, who lately felt such indignation at siege being laid to Saguntum that we appealed, not only to mankind, but to treaties and to the gods, now look on without emotion, while Hannibal is scaling the walls of a Roman colony. The smoke from the burning houses and lands is carried into our eyes and mouths; our ears ring with the cries and lamentations of our allies, invoking our aid oftener than that of the immortal gods; yet, hiding ourselves here in woods and clouds, we lead about our army like a herd of cattle, through shady forests and desert paths. If Marcus Furius had adopted the design of rescuing the city from the Gauls, by the same means by which this new Camillus, this dictator of such singular abilities, selected for us in our distresses, intends to recover Italy from Hannibal, (that is, by traversing mountains and forests,) Rome would now be the property of the Gauls; and great reason do I see to dread, if we persevere in this dilatory mode of acting, that our ancestors have so often preserved it for Hannibal and the Carthaginians: But he, who had the spirit of a man, and of a true Roman, during the very day on which the account was brought to Veii, of his being nominated dictator, by direction of the senate, and order of the people, though the Janiculum was of sufficient height, where he might sit and take a prospect of the enemy, came down to the plain; and, on that same day, in the middle of the city, where now are the Gallic piles, and on the day following, on the road to Gabii, cut to pieces the legions of the Gauls. What! when many years after this, at the Caudine forks, we were sent under the yoke by the Samnites; was it by traversing the mountains of Samnium, or was it by pressing briskly the siege of Luceria, and compelling the enemy to fight, that Lucius Papirius Cursor removed the yoke from the necks of the Romans, and imposed it on the haughty Samnites? In a late case, what but quick dispatch gave victory to Caius Lutatius? For on the next day after he came in view of the enemy, he overpowered their fleet, heavily laden with provisions, and encumbered with their own implements and cargoes. To imagine that, by sitting still, and offering up prayers, the war can be brought to a conclusion, is folly in the extreme. Forces must be armed, must be led out to the open field, that you may encounter, man with man. By boldness and activity, the Roman power has been raised to its present height, and not by these sluggish measures, which cowards term cautious.” While Minucius harangued in this manner, as if to a general assembly, he was surrounded by a multitude of tribunes and Roman horsemen; and his presumptuous expressions reached even the ears of the common men, who gave evident demonstrations, that if the matter were submitted to the votes of the soldiery, they would prefer Minucius, as a commander, to Fabius.
XV. Fabius watched the conduct of his own men with no less attention than that of the enemy; determined to show, with respect to them, in the first place, that his resolution was unalterable by any thing which they could say or do. He well knew that his dilatory measures were severely censured, not only in his own camp, but likewise at Rome, yet he persisted, with inflexible steadiness, in the same mode of conduct during the remainder of the summer; in consequence of which, Hannibal, finding himself disappointed in his hopes of an engagement, after having tried his utmost endeavours to bring it about, began to look round for a convenient place for his winter-quarters: for the country where he then was, though it afforded plenty for the present, was incapable of furnishing a lasting supply, because it abounded in trees and vineyards, and other plantations of such kinds as minister rather to pleasure than to men’s necessary demands. Of this his intention, Fabius received information from scouts; and knowing, with a degree of certainty, that he would return through the same pass by which he had entered the Falernian territory, he detached parties of moderate force to take possession of Mount Callicula, and Casilinum, which city, being intersected by the river Vulturnus, is the boundary between the Falernian and Campanian territories. He himself led back his army along the same eminences over which he had come, sending out Lucius Hostilius Mancinus, with four hundred horsemen of the allies, to procure intelligence. This young man, who had often made one of the crowd of listeners to the presumptuous harangues of the master of the horse, proceeded, at first, as the commander of a party of observation ought, watching, from safe ground, the motions of the enemy: afterwards, seeing the Numidians scattered about through the villages, and having, on an opportunity that offered, slain some of them, his whole mind was instantly occupied by the thoughts of fighting, and he lost all recollection of the orders of the dictator, who had charged him to advance only so far as he might with safety, and to retreat before he should come within the enemy’s sight. Several different parties of the Numidians, by skirmishing and retreating, drew him on almost to their camp, by which time both his men and horses were greatly fatigued. Here Cartalo, commander-in-chief of the cavalry, advancing in full career, obliged his party to fly before he came within a dart’s throw, and, almost without relaxing in speed, pursued them in their flight through the length of five miles. Mancinus, when he saw that the enemy did not desist from their pursuit, and that there was no prospect of escaping, exhorted his men to act with courage, and faced about on the foe, though superior to him in every particular. The consequence was, that he, and the bravest of his party, were surrounded, and cut to pieces: the rest, betaking themselves to a precipitate flight, made their escape, first to Cales, and thence, by ways almost impassable, to the dictator. It happened that, on the same day, Minucius rejoined Fabius, having been sent to secure, by a body of troops, a woody hill, which, above Tarracina, forms a narrow defile, and hangs over the sea; because it was apprehended, that, if that barrier of the Appian way were left unguarded, the Carthaginian might penetrate into the territory of Rome. The dictator and master of the horse, having re-united their forces, marched down into the road, through which Hannibal was to pass. At this time the enemy were two miles distant.
XVI. Next day the Carthaginians, marching forward, filled the whole road which lay between the two camps; and though the Romans had taken post close to their own rampart, with an evident advantage of situation, yet the Carthaginian advanced with his light horsemen, and, in order to provoke the enemy, made several skirmishing attacks, charging, and then retreating. The Romans kept their position, and the fight proceeded without vigour, more agreeably to the wish of the dictator than to that of Hannibal. Two hundred Romans, and eight hundred of the enemy fell. There was now reason to think, that by the road to Casilinum being thus blockaded, Hannibal was effectually pent up; and that while Capua and Samnium, and such a number of wealthy allies at their back, should furnish the Romans with supplies, the Carthaginian, on the other hand, would be obliged to winter between the rocks of Formiæ, the sands of Linternum, and horrid stagnated marshes. Nor was Hannibal insensible that his own arts were now played off against himself. Wherefore, seeing it impracticable to make his way through Casilinum, and that he must direct his course to the mountains, and climb over the summit of the Callicula, lest the Romans should fall on his troops in their march, when entangled in the vallies, he devised a stratagem for baffling the enemy by a deception calculated to inspire terror, resolving to set out secretly in the beginning of the night, and proceed toward the mountains. The means which he contrived for the execution of his plan were these: collecting combustible matter from all the country round, he caused bundles of rods and dry twigs to be tied fast on the horns of oxen, great numbers of which, trained and untrained, he drove along with him, among the other spoil taken in the country, and he made up the number of almost two thousand. He then gave in charge to Hasdrubal, that as soon as the darkness of the night came on, he should drive this numerous herd, after first setting fire to their horns, up the mountains, and particularly, if he found it practicable, over the passes where the enemy kept guard.
XVII. As soon as it grew dark the army decamped in silence, driving the oxen at some distance before the van. When they arrived at the foot of the mountains and the narrow roads, the signal was instantly given that fire should be set to the horns of the oxen, and that they should be driven violently up the mountains in front; when their own fright, occasioned by the flame blazing on their heads, together with the heat, which soon penetrated to the quick, and to the roots of their horns, drove them on as if goaded by madness. By their spreading about in this manner all the bushes were quickly in a blaze, just as if fire had been set to the woods and mountains, and the fruitless tossing of their heads serving to increase the flames, they afforded an appearance as of men running up and down on every side. The troops stationed to guard the passage of the defiles, seeing several fires on the tops of the mountains, concluded they were surrounded, and quitted their post, taking their way, as the safest course, towards the summits, where they saw fewest fires blazing. Here they fell in with several of the oxen, which had scattered from the herds to which they belonged. At first, when they saw them at a distance, imagining that they breathed out flames, they halted in utter astonishment at the miraculous appearance; but afterwards, when they discovered that it was an imposition of human contrivance, and believing that they were in danger of being ensnared, they hastily, and with redoubled terror, betook themselves to flight. They met also the enemy’s light infantry, but night inspiring equal fears, prevented either from beginning a fight until day-light. In the mean time Hannibal led his whole army through the defile, where he surprised some Romans in the very pass, and pitched his camp in the territory of Allifæ.
XVIII. Fabius perceived the tumult; but, suspecting some snare, and being utterly averse from fighting, in the night particularly, he kept his men within their trenches. As soon as day appeared, a fight commenced near the summit of the mountain, in which the Romans, who had considerably the advantage in numbers, would have easily overpowered the light infantry of the enemy, separated as they were from their friends, had not a cohort of Spaniards, sent back by Hannibal for the purpose, come up to the spot. These, both by reason of the agility of their limbs, and the nature of their arms, being lighter and better qualified for skirmishing among rocks and cliffs (to which they were accustomed), by their manner of fighting, easily baffled the enemy, who were used to act on plain ground in steady fight, and who carried weighty arms. After a contest therefore, by no means equal, they both withdrew to their respective camps; the Spaniards with almost all their men safe, the Romans with the loss of many. Fabius likewise decamped, and passing through the defile, seated himself in a high and strong post above Allifæ. Hannibal, now counterfeiting an intention to proceed to Rome through Samnium, marched back as far as the country of the Pelignians, spreading devastation every where as he went. Fabius led his army along the heights, between the route of the enemy and the city of Rome, constantly attending his motions, but never giving him a meeting. From the territory of Pelignum, Hannibal altered his route; and, directing his march back towards Apulia, came to Gerunium, a city whose inhabitants had abandoned it, being terrified by a part of the walls having fallen in ruins. The dictator formed a strong camp in the territory of Larinum; and, being recalled thence to Rome, on account of some religious ceremonies, he pressed the master of the horse, not only with orders, but with earnest advice, and almost with prayers, to “confide more in prudence than in fortune; and to imitate his conduct in command rather than that of Sempronius and Flaminius. Not to think there had been no advantage gained, in having foiled the designs of the Carthaginian through almost the whole length of the summer; observing, that even physicians sometimes effect their purpose better by rest than by motion and action; that it was a matter of no small importance, to have ceased to be defeated by an enemy so inured to victory; and, after a long course of disasters, to have gained time to breathe.” After urging these cautions, which were thrown away on the master of the horse, he set out for Rome.
XIX. In the beginning of the summer wherein these transactions passed, the operations of the war commenced in Spain also, both by land and sea. Hasdrubal, to the number of ships which he had received from his brother, manned and in readiness for service, added ten; and giving the command of this fleet of forty ships to Himilco, set out from New Carthage, marching his army along the shore, while the fleet sailed on, at a small distance from the land; so that he was prepared to fight on either element, as the foe should come in his way. Cneius Scipio, on hearing that the enemy had moved from their winter-quarters, at first designed to pursue the same plan of operations; but, afterwards, on hearing that they had been joined by vast numbers of new auxiliaries, he judged it not so prudent to meet them on land; sending, therefore, on board his ships, an additional number of chosen soldiers, he put to sea, with a fleet of thirty-five sail. On the next day after his leaving Tarraco, he arrived at an harbour within ten miles of the mouth of the river Iberus, and dispatching thence two Massilian scout-boats, learned from them, that the Carthaginian fleet lay in the mouth of that river, and that their camp was pitched on the bank. Intending therefore, by a general attack with his whole force, at once to overpower the enemy, while unprovided and off their guard, he weighed anchor, and advanced towards them. They have, in Spain, a great many towers built in lofty situations, which are used both as watch-towers, and as places of defence against pirates. From these the Roman fleet was first descried, and notice given of it to Hasdrubal. This caused much confusion in the camp on land, and somewhat earlier than the alarm reached the ships, where they had not heard the dashing of oars, nor any other noise usually accompanying a fleet. The capes, likewise, shut out the enemy from their view, when on a sudden, while they were rambling about the shore, or sitting quietly in their tents, expecting nothing less than the approach of an enemy, or a fight on that day, several horsemen, dispatched by Hasdrubal, came one after another, with orders for them to go on board instantly, and get ready their arms, for that the Roman fleet was just at the mouth of the harbour. These orders the horsemen, sent for the purpose, conveyed to every part; and presently Hasdrubal himself arrived with the main body of the army. Every place was now filled with noise and tumult: the rowers and soldiers hurrying to their ships, like men making their escape from land rather than going to battle. Scarcely had all got on board when some of the vessels, having untied the hawsers at the sterns, were carried foul of their anchors. Every thing was done with too much hurry and precipitation, so that the business of the mariners was impeded by the preparations of the soldiers, and the soldiers were prevented from taking and preparing their arms by the bustle and confusion of the mariners. The Romans, by this time, were not only drawing nigh, but had already formed their ships in order of battle. The Carthaginians, therefore, falling into the utmost disorder, to which the enemy’s attack contributed not more than the confusion prevailing among themselves, tacked about, and fled; and as the mouth of the river, to which they steered their course, did not afford an entrance to such an extensive line, and as such numbers crowded in together, their ships were driven on shore; many striking on banks, others on the dry strand. The soldiers made their escape, some with their arms, others without them, to their friends, who were drawn up on the shore. However, in the first encounter, two Carthaginian ships were taken, and four sunk.
XX. The Romans, without hesitation, pursued their dismayed fleet, notwithstanding that the land was possessed by the enemy, and that they saw a line of their troops under arms, stretched along the whole shore; and all the ships which had either shattered their prows by striking against the shore, or stuck their keels fast in the sand banks, they tied to their sterns and towed out into the deep. Out of the forty ships they took twenty-five. The most brilliant circumstance attending their victory was, that by this one battle, which cost them so little, they were rendered masters of the sea along the whole extent of that coast. Sailing forward, therefore, to Honosca, they there made a descent, took the city by storm, and sacked it. Thence they proceeded to Carthage, and, after wasting all the country round, at last set fire to the houses contiguous to the very walls and gates. The ships, now heavily laden with booty, went on to Longuntica, where a great quantity of okum,* for cordage, had been collected by Hasdrubal for the use of the fleet. Of this they carried off as much as they had occasion for, and burned the rest. Nor did they carry their operations along the open coasts of the continent only, but passed over to the island of Ebusa, where they in vain attempted, during two days, and with their utmost efforts, to gain possession of the capital city. Perceiving, however, that they were wasting time to no purpose, and in pursuit of a hopeless design, they applied themselves to the ravaging of the country; and after plundering and burning several towns, and collecting a greater quantity of booty than they had acquired on the continent, they retired on board their ships; at which time ambassadors came to Scipio, from the Balearick Isles, suing for peace. From this place the fleet sailed back, and returned to the hither parts of the province, whither ambassadors hastily flocked from all the nations adjacent to the Iberus, and from many even of the remotest parts of Spain. The whole number of states, which submitted to the dominion and government of Rome, and gave hostages, amounted to more than one hundred and twenty. Wherefore the Roman general, relying now with sufficient confidence on his land forces also, advanced as far as the pass of Castulo; on which Hasdrubal withdrew toward the ocean into Lusitania.
XXI. It was now supposed that the remainder of the summer would pass without farther action; and this would have been the case, had it depended on the Carthaginians; but, besides that the native Spaniards are in their temper restless and fond of change, Mandonius and Indibilis, (the latter of whom had formerly been chieftain of the Ilergetans,) as soon as the Romans retired from the pass toward the sea-coast, roused their countrymen to arms, and made predatory irruptions into the peaceful territories of the Roman allies. Against these Scipio sent some military tribunes, with a body of lightarmed auxiliaries; and these, without much difficulty, routed all their tumultuary bands, slaying and taking many, and disarming the greater part of them. This commotion, however, drew back Hasdrubal, from his march toward the ocean, to the hither side of the Iberus, for the purpose of supporting his confederates. The Carthaginians lay encamped in the territory of Ilercao, the Romans at a place called Newfleet, when a sudden piece of intelligence diverted the war to another quarter: the Celtiberians, who of all the states in that tract were the first who sent ambassadors, and gave hostages to the Romans, had, in consequence of instructions sent by Scipio, taken up arms, and invaded the province of the Carthaginians with a powerful army, had reduced three towns by assault, and had afterwards fought two battles against Hasdrubal himself with excellent success, killing fifteen thousand of his men, and taking four thousand, with many military ensigns.
XXII. While affairs in Spain were in this state, Publius Scipio, having been, on the expiration of his consulate, continued in command, and sent thither by the senate, arrived in the province with thirty ships of war, eight thousand soldiers, and a large supply of provisions. His fleet, which, when seen at a distance, made a grand appearance, by reason of the long train of transport vessels, put into the harbour of Tarraco, causing great joy among his countrymen and allies. Here Scipio disembarked his troops, and then marched to join his brother; and they thenceforth conducted the war jointly, with perfect harmony of temper, and unanimity in their counsels. The Carthaginians were now busily employed in making head against the Celtiberians; they therefore without delay passed the Iberus, and not seeing any enemy, proceeded to Saguntum, having received information that the hostages from every part of Spain had been placed there, under custody, by Hannibal, and were guarded in the citadel by a small garrison. This pledge was the only thing which hindered all the states from manifesting their inclinations to an alliance with Rome; as they dreaded lest, in case of their defection, the blood of their children should be made the expiation of their offence. From this restraint, one man, by a device more artful than honourable, set Spain at liberty. There was at Saguntum a Spaniard of noble birth, called Abelox, who had hitherto behaved with fidelity to the Carthaginians, but had now, out of a disposition very general among barbarians, on a change of fortune, altered his attachment. But considering that a deserter coming to an enemy without bringing into their hands any advantage of consequence, is no more than an infamous and contemptible individual, he studied how he might procure the most important emolument to his new allies. Wherefore, after reviewing every expedient within the reach of his power to effect, he determined upon a plan of delivering up the hostages into their hands; judging that this alone would prove of all means the most effectual towards conciliating to the Romans the friendship of the Spanish chieftains. But as he well knew that, without an order from Bostar the commander, the guards of the hostages would do nothing, he artfully addressed Bostar himself; the latter lying at the time encamped at some distance from the city, on the very shore, with intention to hinder the approach of the Romans from the harbour. Here the other, taking him aside to a place of secrecy, represented, as if it were unknown to him, the present state of affairs; that “fear had hitherto restrained the inclinations of the Spaniards, because the Romans had been at a great distance; at present the Roman camp was on their side of the Iberus, serving as a fortress and place of refuge to all who wished a change; wherefore it was necessary that those who could no longer be bound by fear, should be bound by kindness and favour.” Bostar showing surprise, and asking what was this unthought-of kindness of such great moment, he answered, “Send home the hostages to their respective provinces: this will engage the gratitude of their parents in particular, who are men of the first consequence in their several states, and likewise of the communities in general. Every man wishes to find trust reposed in him, and trust reposed generally proves a bond of fidelity. The office of restoring the hostages to their families I demand for myself; that, as I have been the proposer of the plan, I may likewise be its promoter, by the pains which I shall take in the execution of it; and may, as far as lies in my power, render a proceeding, which is acceptable in its own nature, still more acceptable.” Having gained the approbation of Bostar, who possessed not the same degree of crafty sagacity as other Carthaginians, he went out secretly by night to the advanced guards of the enemy, where, meeting some of the Spanish auxiliaries, and being by them conducted to Scipio, he disclosed the business on which he came. Then mutual engagements being entered into, and time and place appointed for delivering up the hostages, he returned to Saguntum. The next day he spent with Bostar, in receiving instructions for the execution of his commission; and, before he left him, settled the plan so, that he was to go by night, in order to escape the observation of the enemy’s watch. At an hour concerted, he called up the guards of the boys; and setting out, he led them, as if unknowingly, into the snare prepared by his own treachery. They were then conducted into the Roman camp. In every other respect the restoration of the hostages was performed as had been settled with Bostar, and in the same mode of procedure, as if the affair were transacted in the name of the Carthaginians. But, though the act was the same, the Romans acquired a much higher degree of reputation from it than it would have produced to the Carthaginians; because the latter, having shown themselves oppressive and haughty in prosperity, it might be supposed, that the abatement of their rigour was owing to the change in their fortune, and to their fears; whereas the Roman, on his first arrival, while his character was yet unknown, commenced his administration with an act of clemency and liberality; and it was believed that Abelox would hardly have voluntarily changed sides without some good reason for such a proceeding. All the states, therefore, with general consent, began to meditate a revolt; and they would have proceeded instantly to hostilities, had they not been prevented by the winter, which obliged even the Romans and Carthaginians to take shelter in houses.
XXIII. These were the occurrences of the second campaign of the Punic war, on the side of Spain; while, in Italy, the wise delays of Fabius had afforded the Romans some respite from calamities. However, though his conduct kept Hannibal in a constant state of no little anxiety, (since he perceived that the Romans had at length chosen such a master of the military science, who made war to depend on wisdom, not on fortune,) yet it excited in the minds of his countrymen, both in the camp and in the city, only sentiments of contempt; especially when, during his absence, the master of the horse had been rash enough to hazard a battle, the issue of which (though it afforded matter for some present rejoicing) was productive of no real advantage. Two incidents occurred which served to increase the general disapprobation of the dictator’s conduct; one was an artful contrivance employed by Hannibal to mislead the public opinion; for, on the dictator’s farm being shown to him by deserters, he gave orders, that, while every other place in the neighbourhood was levelled to the ground, that alone should be left safe from fire and sword, and every kind of hostile violence; in order that this might be construed as a favour shown to him, in consideration of some secret compact. The other was an act of his own, respecting the ransoming of the prisoners; the merit of which was, at first, perhaps doubtful, because he had not waited for the direction of the senate in that case; but, in the end, it evidently redounded to his honour in the highest degree. For, as had been practised in the first Punic war, a regulation was established between the Roman and Carthaginian generals, that whichever party should receive a greater number than he returned, should pay for the surplus, at the rate of two pounds and a half of silver* for each soldier. Now the Roman had received a greater number than the Carthaginian, by two hundred and forty-seven; and, though the business was frequently agitated in the senate, yet, because he had not consulted that body on the regulation, the issuing of the money due on this account was too long delayed. Sending, therefore, his son Quintus to Rome for the purpose, he sold off the farm which had been spared by the enemy, and, at his own private expense, acquitted the public faith. Hannibal lay in an established post under the walls of Geronium, in which city, when he took and burned it, he had left a few houses to serve as granaries. From hence he generally detached two-thirds of his army to forage, and the other part he kept with himself on guard and in readiness for action, providing for the security of the camp, and, at the same time, watching on all sides, lest any attack might be made on the foragers.
XXIV. The Roman army was, at that time, in the territory of Larinum, and the command was held by Minucius the master of the horse, in consequence, as mentioned before, of the dictator’s departure to the city. But the camp, which had been pitched on a high mountain in a secure post, was now brought down to the plains; and more spirited designs, conformable to the genius of the commander, were meditated: either an attack on the dispersed foragers, or on their camp when left with a slight guard. It did not escape Hannibal’s observation that the plan of conduct was changed, together with the commander, and that the enemy were likely to act with more boldness than prudence. He sent (which would have been scarcely expected, as the foe was so near,) a third part of his troops to forage, retaining the other two; and afterwards removed his camp to a hill about two miles from Geronium, and within view of that of the enemy, to show that he was in readiness to protect his foragers, should any attempt be made on them. From hence he saw a hill nearer to and overhanging the Roman works, and knowing that, if he went openly in the day to sieze on this, the enemy would certainly get before him by a shorter road, he despatched secretly, in the night, a body of Numidians, who took possession of it: next day, however, the Romans, despising their small number, dislodged them, and removed their own camp thither. There was now, therefore, but a small space between the ramparts of the two camps, and this the Romans almost entirely filled with their troops in order of battle. At the same time, their cavalry and light infantry, sent out from the rear against the foragers, caused great slaughter and consternation among the scattered troops of the enemy. Yet Hannibal dared not to hazard a general engagement, for with his small numbers (one-third of his army being absent) he was scarcely able to defend his camp, if it were attacked. And now he conducted his measures almost on the plans of Fabius, lying still and avoiding action, while he drew back his troops to his former situation under the walls of Geronium. According to some writers, they fought a regular pitched battle: in the first encounter the Carthaginian was repulsed, and driven to his camp; from which a sally being suddenly made, the Romans were worsted in turn, and the fight was afterwards restored by the coming up of Numerius Decimus, a Samnite. This man, the first, with respect both to family and fortune, not only at Bovianum, of which he was a native, but in all Samnium, was conducting to the army, by order of the dictator, a body of eight thousand foot and five hundred horse, which, appearing on Hannibal’s rear, was supposed, by both parties to be a new reinforcement coming from Rome with Fabius. On which Hannibal, dreading likewise some stratagem retired within his works. The Romans pursued, and, with the assistance of the Samnite, took two forts by storm before night. Six thousand of the enemy were slain, and about five thousand of the Romans. Yet though the losses were so equal, an account was sent to Rome as of a most important victory, and letters, from the master of the horse, still more ostentatious.
XXV. These matters were very often canvassed, both in the senate and in assemblies of the people. The dictator alone, amidst the general joy, gave no credit either to the news or the letters; and declared, that though all were true, he should yet apprehend more evil from success than from disappointment; whereupon Marcus Metilius, a plebeian tribune, insisted, that “such behaviour was not to be endured; the dictator, not only when present with the army, obstructed its acting with success, but also, at this distance, when it had performed good service, impeded the good consequences likely to ensue; protracting the war, in order that he might continue the longer in office, and hold the sole command both at Rome and in the army. One of the consuls had fallen in the field, and the other, under pretext of pursuing a Carthaginian fleet, had been sent away far from Italy: the two prætors were employed in Sicily and Sardinia, neither of which provinces had, at that time, any occasion for the presence of a prætor. Marcus Minucius, the master of the horse, was kept, as it were, in custody, lest he should come within sight of the enemy, or perform any military service. So that, in fact, not only Samnium, the possession of which had been yielded up to the Carthaginians, as well as that of the country beyond the Iberus, but also the Campanian, Calenian, and Falernian territories had been ravaged and destroyed; while the dictator remained inactive at Casilinum, and, with the Roman legions, protected his own estate. The army and the master of the horse, who were eager to fight, had been kept, in a manner, shut up within the trenches, and deprived of arms, like captured forces: but when, at last, the dictator left them, when they were freed from their confinement, they passed the trenches, defeated the enemy, and put him to flight. For all which reasons, if the Roman commons were possessed of their ancient spirit, he would have boldly proposed to depose Quintus Fabius from his office: as matters stood at the present, however, he would offer a moderate proposition, that the master of the horse should be invested with authority equal to that of the dictator; and still, when that should be done, that Quintus Fabius should not be sent to the army, until he should first substitute a consul in the room of Caius Flaminius.” The dictator shunned the assemblies, knowing the people’s prejudices against any thing he could say; nor even in the senate was he very favourably heard, particularly when he spoke in high terms of the enemy, and imputed to the rashness and unskilfulness of the commanders the disasters of the two preceding years, and declared, that “the master of horse should be called to account for having fought contrary to his orders. If the entire command and direction were in him, he would soon give people reason to be convinced, that to a good commander fortune is a matter of slight consideration; and that wisdom and prudence control and govern all things. For his part, he deemed it more glorious to have saved the army at a critical juncture, and without suffering disgrace, than to have slain many thousands of the enemy.”
XXVI. Having frequently discoursed in this manner without effect, and having created Marcus Atilius Regulus consul, the dictator, unwilling to be present at a contest concerning the authority of his office, set out, during the night preceding the day on which the affair of the proposition was to be decided, and went to the army. As soon as day arose, the commons met in assembly, their minds filled with tacit displeasure against the dictator, and favour towards the master of the horse; yet were not people very forward to stand forth in praise of the measure, however generally agreeable; so that while the proposition had an abundant majority, still it wanted support. The only person found to second it was Caius Terentius Varro, who had been prætor the year before; a man not only of humble, but of sordid birth. We are told that his father was a butcher, who attended in person the sale of his meat, and that he employed this very son in the servile offices of that trade. This young man having, by the money thus acquired and left to him by his father, conceived hopes of attaining a more respectable situation in life, turned his thoughts to the bar and the Forum, where, by the vehemence of his harangues in favour of men and causes of the basest sort, in opposition to the worthy citizens of fortune and character, he at first attracted the notice of the people, and afterwards obtained honourable employments. Having passed through the quæstorship, two ædileships, the plebeian and curule, and lastly, the prætorship, he now raised his views to the consulship; and artfully contriving to make the general displeasure against the dictator the means of procuring popularity to himself, he alone gained the whole credit of the order passed by the commons. Excepting the dictator himself, all men, whether his friends or foes, in the city or in the camp, considered that order as passed with the intention of affronting him. But he, with the same steadiness of mind which he had displayed in bearing the charges made against him by his enemies before the multitude, bore likewise this ill-treatment thrown on him by the people in the violence of passion; and though he received on his journey, a letter containing a decree of the senate, giving equal authority to the master of the horse; yet being fully confident that, together with the authority in command, the skill of the commanders had not been made equal, he proceeded to the army, with a spirit unsubdued either by his countrymen or the enemy.
XXVII. But Minucius, whose arrogance was scarcely tolerable before, on this flow of success and of favour with the populace, threw of all restraints of modesty and moderation, and openly boasted no less of his victory over Quintus Fabius than of that over Hannibal: “He was the only commander,” he said, “who, in the desperate situation of their affairs, had been found a match for Hannibal; and he was now, by order of the people, set on a level with Fabius. A superior magistrate, with an inferior; a dictator, with the master of the horse; of which, no instance was to be found in the records of history; and this in a state where the masters of the horse used to dread and tremble at the rods and axes of dictators; with such a high degree of lustre had his good fortune and successful bravery shone forth. He was resolved, therefore, to pursue his own good fortune, should his colleague persist in dilatory and slothful plans, condemned by the judgment both of gods and men.” Accordingly, on the first day of his meeting Fabius, he told him, that “they ought, in the first place, to determine in what manner they should exercise the command, with which they were now equally invested; that, in his judgment, the best method would be, that each should hold the supreme authority and command alternately, either for a day, or for some longer fixed portion of time, if that were more agreeable; to the end, that if he should meet any favourable opportunity of acting, he might be a match for the enemy, not only in conduct, but likewise in strength.” This Quintus Fabius by no means approved; for “fortune,” he said, “would have the disposal of every thing which should be under the direction of his colleague’s rashness. The command had been shared between them, not taken away from him: he would never, therefore, voluntarily divest himself of the power of keeping such part of the business as he could, under the guidance of prudence. He would not divide times, or days of command, with him; but he would divide the troops, and, by his own counsels, would preserve as much as he could, since he was not allowed to preserve the whole.” He accordingly prevailed to have the legions divided between them, as was the practice with consuls. The first and fourth fell to Minucius, the second and third to Fabius. They likewise divided, in equal numbers, the cavalry, and the allied and Latine auxiliaries. The master of the horse chose also that they should encamp separately.
XXVIII. Hannibal was not ignorant of any thing that passed among the enemy; for, besides the intelligence procured through his spies, he derived ample information from deserters. In these proceedings he found a twofold cause of rejoicing; for the temerity of Minucius, now free from control, he could entrap at his will; and the wisdom of Fabius was reduced to act with but half his former strength. Between the camp of Minucius, and that of the Carthaginians, stood a hill, of which, whoever took possession, would evidently render the other’s situation more inconvenient. This Hannibal wished to seize; but he was not so desirous of gaining it without a dispute, (even though it were worth his while,) as of bringing on, thereby, an engagement with Minucius; who, he well knew, would be always ready to meet him in order to thwart his designs. The whole intervening ground seemed, at first view, incapable of admitting any stratagem, having on it no kind of wood, nor being even covered with brambles; but, in reality, it was by nature formed most commodiously for an ambush, especially as, in a naked vale, no snare of that sort could be apprehended; and there were, besides, at the skirts of it, hollow rocks, several of which were capable of containing two hundred armed men. In these concealments were lodged five thousand horse and foot, distributed in such numbers as could find convenient room in each place. Nevertheless, lest the motion of any of them, coming out inconsiderately, or the glittering of their arms, might betray the stratagem in such an open valley, he diverted the enemy’s attention to another quarter, by sending, at the first dawn, a small detachment to seize on the hill above-mentioned. Immediately on the appearance of these, the Romans, despising the smallness of their numbers, demanded, each for himself, the task of dislodging them, and securing the hill; while the general himself, among the most foolish and presumptuous, called to arms, and with vain parade and empty menaces expressed his contempt of the enemy. First, he sent out his light infantry; then, the cavalry, in close order; at last, seeing reinforcements sent by the Carthaginian, he advanced with the legions in order of battle. On the other side, Hannibal, by sending up, as the contest grew hotter, several bodies of troops, one after another, to the support of his men when distressed, had now almost completed a regular line; and the contest was maintained with the whole force of both parties. The Roman light infantry in the van, marching up from the lower ground to the hill already occupied by the enemy, were repulsed; and, being forced to retreat, carried terror among the cavalry, who were advancing in their rear, and fled back to the front of the legions. The line of infantry alone remained undismayed, amidst the general panic of the rest; and there was reason to think, that in a fair and regular battle they would have proved themselves not inferior to their antagonists, so great spirits had they assumed from their late success. But the troops in ambush rising on a sudden, and making brisk attacks both on their flanks and their rear, caused such dread and confusion, that no one retained either courage to fight, or hope of escape.
XXIX. Fabius, who had first heard their cries of dismay, and afterwards saw, at a distance, their line in disorder, then said, “it is so; fortune has found out rashness, but not sooner than I feared. He, who was made in command equal to Fabius, sees Hannibal his superior both in bravery and success. But there will be time enough for reproof and resentment; march now out of your trenches. Let us extort the victory from the enemy, and from our countrymen, an acknowledgment of their error.” When a great number were now slain, and others looking about for a way to escape, on a sudden Fabius’ army showed itself, as if sent down from heaven to their relief, and, by its appearance, before the troops came within a weapon’s throw, or struck a stroke, put a stop both to the precipitate flight of their friends, and the extravagant fury of the enemy. Those who had broken their ranks, and dispersed themselves in different ways, flocked together, from all sides, to the fresh army; such as had fled in great numbers together, faced about, and forming in lines, now retreated leisurely; then, several bodies uniting, stood on their defence. And now the two armies, the vanquished and the fresh, had almost formed one front, and were advancing against the foe, when the Carthaginians sounded a retreat; Hannibal openly acknowledging, that as he had defeated Minucius, so he had been himself defeated by Fabius. The greatest part of the day being spent in these various changes of fortune, when the troops returned into their camps, Minucius calling his men together, said, “Soldiers, I have often heard, that he is the first man, in point of abilities, who, of himself, forms good counsels; that the next, is he, who submits to good advice; and that he who neither can himself form good counsels, nor knows how to comply with those of another, is of the very lowest capacity. Now, since our lot has denied us the first rank in genius and capacity, let us maintain the second, the middle one; and, until we learn to command, be satisfied to be ruled by the skilful. Let us join camps with Fabius; and, when we shall have carried our standards to his quarters; when I shall have saluted him by the title of Father; for nothing less has his kindness towards us, as well as his high dignity deserved; then, soldiers, ye will salute, as your patrons, those men, whose arms and whose prowess have just now protected you; and then this day will have procured for us, if nothing else, at least the honour of possessing grateful minds.”
XXX. The signal was displayed, and notice given to get ready to march. They then set out; and, as they proceeded in a body to the camp of the dictator, they threw him, and all around, into great surprise. When they had planted their standards before his tribunal, the master of the horse, advancing before the rest, saluted him by the title of Father; and the whole body of his men, with one voice, saluted those who stood round as their patrons. Minucius then expressed himself thus: “Dictator, to my parents, to whom I have just now compared you, in the most respectful appellation by which I could address myself, I am indebted for life only; to you, both for my own preservation, and that of all these present. That order of the people, therefore, by which I have been oppressed rather than honoured, I am the first to cancel and annul; and, so may it be happy to you, to me, and to these your armies, the preserved and the preserver, I replace myself and them, these standards, and these legions, under your command and auspices; and entreat you, that, re-admitting us to your favour, you will order me to hold the post of master of the horse, and these their several ranks.” On this they cordially embraced; and, on the meeting being dismissed, the soldiers accompanying Minucius were hospitably and kindly invited to refreshment, both by their acquaintance and those to whom they were unknown. Thus was converted into a day of rejoicing, from a day of sorrow, one which but a little before had nearly proved fatal. When an account of these events arrived at Rome, and was afterwards confirmed by letters, not only from the generals themselves, but from great numbers of the soldiers, in both the armies, all men warmly praised Maximus, and extolled him to the sky. Nor were the sentiments felt by the Carthaginians, his enemies, and by Hannibal, less honourable to him. They then at length perceived, that they were waging war against Romans and in Italy. For during the two preceding years, they had entertained such contemptuous notions, both of the Roman generals and soldiers, as scarcely to believe that they were fighting against the same nation, of which they had received from their fathers such a terrible character. We are told likewise, that Hannibal, as he returned from the field, observed, that “the cloud which hung over the mountains, had at last discharged its rain in a storm.”
XXXI. During the course of these transactions in Italy, Cneius Servilius Geminus, consul, with a fleet of one hundred and twenty ships, sailed round the coasts of Sardinia and Corsica. Having received hostages in both places, he steered his course towards Africa, and, before he made any descent on the continent, ravaged the island of Meninx, and received from the inhabitants of Cercia ten talents of silver* as a contribution, to prevent the like devastation and burning of their country: he then drew near the coast of Africa, and disembarked his forces. Here the soldiers and mariners were led out to ravage the country, in as careless a manner as if they were plundering the islands where there were very few inhabitants; in consequence of which rashness they fell unawares into a snare. Being assailed on all sides, and while they were in loose disorder, by compact bodies of men acquainted with the country of which themselves were utterly ignorant, they were driven back to their ships in a disgraceful flight, and with severe loss. There fell no less than a thousand men, among whom was Sempronius Blæsus, the quæstor. The fleet hastily setting sail from the shore, which was covered with the enemy, passed over to Sicily, and at Lilybæum was delivered to the prætor Titus Otacilius, to be conducted home to Rome, by his lieutenant-general Publius Sura. The consul himself, travelling by land through Sicily, crossed the streight into Italy, having been summoned, as was likewise his colleague, Marcus Atilius, by a letter from Qintus Fabius, in order that they might receive the command of the army from him, as the six months, the term of his office, were nearly expired. Almost all the historians affirm, that Fabius acted against Hannibal in the capacity of dictator. Cœlius even remarks, that he was the first dictator created by the people. But it escaped the notice of Cœlius and the rest, that the privilege of nominating that officer belonged solely to Cneius Servilius, the only consul in being, who was at the time, far distant from home, in the province of Gaul; and so much time must necessarily elapse before it could be done by him, that the state, terrified by the late disaster, could not endure the delay, and therefore had recourse to the expedient of creating, by a vote of the people, a prodictator; and that the services which he afterwards performed, his distinguished renown as a commander, and the exaggerations of his descendants, in the inscription of his statue, may easily account for his being called dictator instead of prodictator.
XXXII. The consuls, having taken the command of the armies, Marcus Atilius of that of Fabius, and Geminus Servilius of that of Minucius, and having erected huts for the winter, as the season required (for it was now near the close of autumn), conducted their operations conformably to the plan of Fabius, and with the utmost harmony between themselves. Whenever Hannibal went out to forage, they came upon him in different places, as opportunity served, harrassing him on his march, and cutting off stragglers; but never hazarded a general engagement, which the enemy endeavoured to bring on by every means he could contrive: so that Hannibal was reduced, by scarcity, to such distress, that had he not feared that a retreat would have carried the appearance of flight, he would have returned back into Gaul; not having the least hope of supporting his army in those places; if the succeeding consuls should adopt the same plan of operations with these. While, in the neighbourhood of Geronium, hostilities were suspended by the coming on of winter, ambassadors came to Rome from Neapolis, who brought into the senate-house forty golden bowls of great weight, and spoke to this effect: “They knew that the treasury of the Roman people was exhausted by the present war, which was carried on no less in defence of the cities and lands of the allies, than the empire and city of Rome, the metropolis and bulwark of Italy; that the Neapolitans had therefore thought it reasonable, that whatever gold had been left to them by their ancestors for the decoration of their temples, or support in time of need, should now be applied to the aid of the Roman people. That if they had thought their personal service of any use, they would with the same zeal have offered it. That the Roman senate and people would act in a manner highly grateful to them, if they would reckon every thing in possession of the Neapolitans as their own, and vouchsafe to accept from them a present, of which the principal value and importance consisted in the disposition and wishes of those who cheerfully offered it rather than in its own intrinsic worth.” Thanks were given to the ambassadors for their attention and generosity, and one bowl, which was the least in weight, was accepted.
XXXIII. About the same time a Carthaginian spy, who had lurked undiscovered for two years, was detected at Rome: his hands were cut off, and he was sent away. Twenty-five slaves, for having formed a conspiracy in the field of Mars, were crucified, and the informer was rewarded with his freedom, and twenty-thousand asses in weight.* Ambassadors were sent to Philip King of Macedonia, to insist on his delivering up Demetrius of Pharia, who, being defeated in war, had fled to him; others also were sent, at the same time, to the Ligurians, to expostulate on their having assisted the Carthaginian with men and supplies, and to observe what was doing in the neighbourhood among the Boians and Insubrians. Delegates were also sent to Illyrium, to Pineus the King, to demand the tribute, of which the day of payment had elapsed; or to receive hostages, if he wished to be allowed longer time. Thus the Romans, though pressed at home by a war immensely grievous, yet relaxed not their attention to the business of the state in any part of the world, however distant. Their care was also excited by a matter of religious concernment. The temple of Concord, vowed two years before by the prætor Lucius Manlius, on occasion of the mutiny of the soldiers in Gaul, not having been yet set about, Marcus Emilius prætor of the city, constituted duumvirs for that purpose, Cneius Pupius and Cæso Quintus Flamininus, who contracted for the building of it in the citadel. By the same prætor, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, a letter was sent to the consuls, that if they thought proper, one of them should come to Rome to elect successors, and that a proclamation should be issued for holding the election, on whatever day they might name. In answer to this, the consuls wrote back, that, “without detriment to the business of the public, they could not go to any distance from the enemy. That it would be better, therefore, that the election should be held by an interrex, than that either of them should be called away from the war.” The senate judged it more adviseable that a dictator should be nominated by a consul, for the purpose of holding the election, and Lucius Veturius Philo being accordingly nominated, appointed Manius Pomponius Matho master of the horse. But some defect being discovered in their appointment, they were ordered, on the fourteenth day, to abdicate their offices, and an interregnum took place.
Y.R. 536. 216.XXXIV. The consuls were continued in command for another year. The patricians declared interrex Caius Claudius Centho, son of Appius, and afterwards Publius Cornelius Asina, under whose direction the election was held; which was attended with a warm contention between the patricians and plebeians. The populace struggled hard to raise to the consulship, Caius Terentius Varro, a person of their own rank, who, as before observed, by railing against the patricians, and by other popular arts, had acquired their affection; and who, by undermining the interest of Fabius and the dictatorial authority, had made the public displeasure against him the means of adding a lustre to his own character. The patricians opposed him with their utmost efforts, lest a power should be given to those men of raising themselves to the level of nobles, by means of malignant aspersions on their characters. Quintus Bæbius Herennius, a plebeian tribune, a relation of Caius Terentius, censured not only the senate, but likewise the augurs, for having hindered the dictator from holding the election, and thought, by rendering them odious, to increase the popularity of his favourite candidate. He asserted, that, “by certain of the nobility, who, for many years, had been wishing for a war, Hannibal was induced to enter Italy; that by the same men the war was treacherously prolonged, though it might have been brought to a conclusion; further, that an army, consisting of four entire legions, was sufficiently able to cope with the enemy, was evident from this, that Marcus Minucius, in the absence of Fabius, had fought with success. That two legions had been exposed in the field, with intent that they should be defeated, and then were rescued from the brink of destruction, in order that the man should be saluted as father and patron, who had hindered the Romans from conquering, though he had afterwards prevented their defeat. That the consuls had, on the plan of Fabius, protracted the war, when they had it in their power to bring it to an end. That a confederacy to this purpose had been entered into by all the nobles, nor would the people know peace, until they elected to the consulship a real plebeian, a new man: for as to the plebeians, who had attained nobility, they were now initiated into the mysteries of their order; and, from the moment when they ceased to be despised by the patricians, looked with contempt on the commons. Who did not see, that the end and intention of appointing an interregnum was to put the election into the power of the patricians? It was with a view to this that both the consuls had remained with the army; with the same view afterwards, when, contrary to their wishes, a dictator had been nominated to hold the election, they arbitrarily carried the point, that the appointment should be pronounced defective by the augurs. They had in their hands, therefore, the office of interrex; but certainly one consul’s place was the right of the Roman commons, which the people would dispose of with impartiality, and would bestow on such a person as rather wished to conquer effectually, than to continue long in command.”
XXXV. These inflammatory speeches had such an effect on the commons, that though there stood candidates three patricians, Publius Cornelius Merenda, Lucius Manlius Volso, and Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, and two of plebeian extraction, whose families were now ennobled, Caius Atilius Serranus, and Quintus Ælius Pætus, one of whom was pontiff, the other augur; yet Caius Terentius Varro, alone, was elected consul, in order that he might have the direction of the assembly for choosing his colleague. On which the nobles, having found that his competitors possessed not sufficient strength, prevailed, by violent importunity, on a new candidate to stand forth, after he had long and earnestly refused; this was Lucius Æmilius Paullus, a determined enemy of the commons, who had been consul before with Marcus Livius, and had very narrowly escaped being sentenced to punishment, as was his colleague. On the next day of assembly, all those who had opposed Varro, having declined the contest, he was appointed rather as an antagonist than as a colleague. The election of prætors* was then held, and Manius Pomponius Matho, and Publius Furius Philus were chosen. The lot of administering justice to the citizens of Rome fell to Pomponius, that of deciding causes between Roman citizens and foreigners, to Publius Furius Philus. Two additional prætors were appointed, Marcus Claudius Marcellus for Sicily, Lucius Postumius Albinus for Gaul. All these were appointed in their absence; nor, excepting the consul Terentius, was any of them invested with an office which he had not administered before; several men of bravery and activity being passed by, because, at such a juncture, it was not judged expedient to intrust any person with a new employment.
XXXVI. Augmentations were also made to the armies; but as to the number of additional forces of foot and horse which were raised, writers vary so much, as well as in the kind of troops, that I can scarcely venture to affirm any thing certain on that head. Some authors assert, that ten thousand new soldiers were levied; others four new legions; so that there were eight legions employed: and that the legions were also augmented, both horse and foot; one thousand foot and one hundred horse being added to each, so as to make it contain five thousand foot, and four hundred horse; and that the allies furnished an equal number of foot, and double the number of horse. Some writers affirm, that, at the time of the battle at Cannæ, there were in the Roman camp eighty-seven thousand two hundred soldiers. All agree in this, that greater force, and more vigorous efforts, were now employed than in former years, in consequence of the dictator having afforded them room to hope that the enemy might be vanquished. However, before the new legions began their march from the city, the decemvirs were ordered to go and inspect the books, because people in general were terrified by prodigies of extraordinary kinds: for accounts were received, that, at Rome, on the Aventine, and, at the same time, at Aricia, a shower of stones had fallen; that, in the country of the Sabines, statues had sweated abundance of blood, and that the warm waters at Cære had flowed bloody from the spring; and this circumstance, having happened frequently, excited therefore the greater terror. In a street, near the field of Mars, several persons had been struck with lightning, and killed. These portents were expiated according to the directions of the books. Ambassadors from Pæstum brought some golden vessels to Rome, and to these, as to the Neapolitans, thanks were returned, but the gold was not accepted.
XXXVII. About the same time arrived at Ostia a fleet, sent by Hiero, with a large supply of provisions. The Syracusan ambassadors, being introduced to the senate, acquainted them, that “King Hiero had been as sincerely afflicted, on hearing of the loss of the consul Caius Flaminius, and his army, as he could have been by any disaster happening to himself, or his own kingdom. Wherefore, though he was fully sensible that the grandeur of the Roman people had shone forth, in times of adversity, with a still more admirable degree of lustre than even in prosperity, yet he had sent such supplies of every sort, for the support of the war, as are usually furnished by good and faithful allies; and he earnestly besought the conscript Fathers not to refuse them. That, in the first place, for the sake of the omen, they had brought a golden statue of Victory, of three hundred and twenty pounds weight, which they prayed them to accept, hold, and possess, as appropriated to them for ever. That they had likewise, in order to guard against any want of provisions, brought three hundred thousand pecks of wheat, and two hundred thousand of barley; and that whatever further supplies might be necessary, should be conveyed to such places as the senate should order. That he knew that the Roman people employed not in the main body of their army, or in the cavalry, any other than Roman citizens, or Latine confederates; yet as he had seen, in a Roman camp, foreign bands of light-armed auxiliaries, he had therefore sent a thousand archers and slingers, a body well qualified to oppose the Balearians, Moors, and other nations remarkable for fighting with missile weapons.” To these presents he added likewise advice: that “the prætor, to whose lot the province of Sicily might fall, should cross over with a fleet to Africa, in order to give the enemy employment for their arms in their own country, and to allow them the less leisure to supply Hannibal with reinforcements.” The senate returned an answer to the King in these terms; that “Hiero had ever acted as a man of honour, and an excellent ally; that from the time, when he first united in friendship with the Roman people, he had, through the whole course of his conduct, manifested an invariable fidelity in his attachment to them; and in all times, and in all places, had, with great liberality, supported the interest of Rome. Of this the Roman people entertained, as they ought, a grateful sense. That gold had likewise been offered by some other states, which, though thankful for the intention, the Roman people had not accepted: the statue of Victory, however, and the omen, they accepted, and had offered, and dedicated to that divinity, a mansion in the Capitol, in the temple of Jupiter supremely good and great; hoping that, consecrated in that fortress of the city of Rome, she would be pleased to remain firm and immoveable, kind and propitious to the Roman people.” The slingers, archers, and the corn were delivered to the consuls. To the fleet of ships, already in Sicily with the prætor Titus Otacilius, were added twenty-five quinqueremes, and he received permission, if he judged it conducive to the public good, to pass over to Africa.
XXXVIII. After the levies were completed, the consuls waited a few days for the arrival of the confederates from Latium. At this time the soldiers were obliged to take an oath dictated by the tribunes, which had never before been practised. For, until now, there had been no public oath taken, only that they would assemble on the orders of the consuls, and, without their orders, would not depart; and then, when they joined their decury or century, the horsemen, on being placed in their decuries, and the footmen on being placed in their centuries, used to swear voluntarily, among themselves, that they would not depart through fear or in flight; nor quit their ranks, except for the purpose of taking up or bringing a weapon, of striking an enemy, or saving a countryman. This, from having been a voluntary compact between themselves, was now put under the jurisdiction of the tribunes, who were invested with legal authority to administer this oath. Before the troops began their march from the city, the harangues of the consul Varro were frequent and full of presumption; in these he openly asserted, that the war had been purposely drawn into Italy by the nobles, and would continue fixed in the very centre of the commonwealth, if men like Fabius were to have the command; but that he, on the very first day, wherein he should get sight of the enemy, would bring it to a conclusion. The only speech made by his colleague Paullus, on the day before that on which they set out from the city, contained more truth than flattery, addressed to the people; nevertheless he used no harsh expressions against Varro, excepting thus much; that “it was a matter of surprise to him, how any man, before he was acquainted with either his own or the enemy’s forces, the situation of posts, or the nature of the country, while he remained in the city, in short, and in the garb of peace, could yet know what he should have to do when he came to take the field; and could even foretell the day on which he was to come to a general engagement. For his part, as men’s plans must be regulated by circumstances, and not circumstances by their plans, he would not be in haste to adopt prematurely any one, before the season showed its expediency. He wished that even those measures, which had been taken under the guidance of caution and prudence, might be attended with prosperous issue; since rashness, besides the folly which it involved, had been hitherto constantly unsuccessful.” Without any farther declaration, it was hence apparent, that he preferred safe to hasty counsels; and to induce him to adhere the more firmly to this resolution, Quintus Fabius Maximus is said to have addressed him, just before his departure, in this manner:—
XXXIX. “If, Lucius Æmilius, you had a colleague like yourself, (which I earnestly wish,) or, if yourself were like your colleague, any address from me would be superfluous; because, in the first place, two good consuls would, without advice from me, out of their own honourable zeal, act, in every particular, to the advantage of the public; and, in the other, two bad ones would neither admit my words into their ears, nor my counsels into their breasts. At present, when I consider, on the one hand, your colleague, and, on the other, yourself and your character, I address myself solely to you, whose endeavours, as a worthy man and citizen, I perceive, will be without effect, if the administration be defective on the other side. Evil counsels will have equal privilege and authority with good. For, Lucius Paullus, you are much mistaken if you suppose that you will have a less difficult struggle to maintain with Caius Terentius than with Hannibal. I know not whether the former may not prove more dangerous than the latter. With the one, you will contend in the field only; with the other, in all places and times; against Hannibal and his legions, you will be supported in fight, by your troops of infantry and cavalry; Varro will oppose you at the head of your own soldiers. May the mention of Caius Flaminius not prove ominous to you! But he became mad, after he became consul, when in his province, and at the head of the army: in a word, this man, before he professed himself a candidate for the consulship, afterwards, while he canvassed for it, and now, since his appointment, before he has seen the camp or the enemy, has proceeded, all along, in one continued paroxysm of insanity. And when, by raving of fights and fields of battle, he now excites such storms among the peaceful citizens in their gowns, what do you suppose he will do among the young men, who have arms in their hands, and with whom acts instantly follow words? If he shall immediately fight the enemy, as he boasts that he will, either I am ignorant of military affairs, of the nature of the present war, and of the enemy with whom we have to deal, or some other place will be rendered still more remarkable by our disasters, than was the Trasimenus. It is no time for me to boast, talking as I am to a single man; and if I have gone too far on either side, it was in contemning, not in seeking applause: but the truth is this; the only rational method of conducting the war against Hannibal, is that in which I conducted it; nor does the event alone confirm this, (for fools only judge by events,) but the reasons which did and must subsist, as long as circumstances shall remain the same and unchangeable. We are carrying on war in Italy, in our own country, and on our own soil, where all the places round are full of our countrymen and allies, who do, and will assist us with men, arms, horses, and provisions. That we may so far rely on their faithful attachment, they have given sufficient proofs in the times of our distress. Time will daily improve us, will render us more prudent, more steady. Hannibal, on the contrary, is in a foreign, an hostile territory, surrounded on all sides by enemies and dangers, far from home, far from his native country; both land and sea are possessed by his foes; no cities receive him within their walls; he nowhere sees aught which he can call his own; he lives on the plunder of the day; he has scarcely a third part of that army which he brought over the river Iberus; nor has he a supply of food for the few who remain. Do you doubt then, that by avoiding action we shall overcome him, whose strength is of itself declining every day, who has no resource of provisions, no reinforcements, no money? How long under the walls of Geronium, a wretched fort of Apulia, as if under those of Carthage, did I— But I will not vaunt even before you. See how the last consuls, Cneius Servilius and Marcus Atilius, baffled him. Believe me, Lucius Paullus, this is the only way of safety; yet this will be thwarted by your countrymen, rather than by the enemy. For the same thing will be desired by both parties; the wish of Varro, the Roman consul, will be the same with that of Hannibal, the Carthaginian. You alone will have two generals to withstand. However you will withstand them, provided you maintain a proper degree of firmness; so as not to be shaken by common fame, or by the rumours which will be spread among the people; by neither the empty applause bestowed on your colleague, nor the false imputations thrown on yourself. It is commonly said that truth is often eclipsed, but never extinguished. He who slights fame, shall enjoy it in its purity. Let them call you timid, instead of cautious; dilatory instead of considerate; an unenterprising instead of a consummate commander. I rather wish that a wise enemy may fear, than that the foolish part of your own countrymen should applaud you. Attempting every thing, you will be despised by Hannibal; doing nothing rashly, you will be feared by him. Yet I by no means recommend that nothing should be done, but that in all your proceedings you be guided by reason, not by fortune; that you keep every matter always within your own power, and under your own direction; that you be always armed and on your guard; and that you neither fail to improve a favourable opportunity, nor afford such an opportunity to the foe. Acting with deliberation, you will see every thing clearly and distinctly; haste is improvident and blind.”
XL. The consul answered rather in a desponding style: he acknowledged the truth of what had been said, but showed little hope of being able to put the advice into execution. “If Fabius,” he said, “when dictator, had been unable to withstand the arrogance of his master of the horse, what power or influence could a consul have; to oppose a seditious and hot-headed colleague? As to himself, he had in his former consulate, escaped the flames of popular rage, not without being scorched. He wished that all might end happily: but should any misfortune occur, he would expose his life to the weapons of the enemy, rather than to the votes of his incensed countrymen.” Immediately after this conversation, as we are told, Paullus set out, escorted by the principal patricians, while the plebeians attended their own consul in a crowd more numerous than respectable. When they came into the field, and the old and new troops were intermixed, they formed two separate camps; the new one, which was likewise the smaller, was nearer to Hannibal; the old one contained the greater number, and the main strength of the army. Then Marcus Atilius, one of the consuls of the former year, wishing to be dismissed, on account of the state of his health was sent to Rome; and the other, Geminus Servilius, was charged with the command of a Roman legion, and two thousand of the confederate infantry and cavalry, stationed in the smaller camp. Hannibal, though he saw the force of the enemy doubled, yet rejoiced exceedingly at the arrival of the consuls. For, besides that he had no part remaining of the provisions acquired by plunder from day to day, there was nothing now left within his reach, of which he could make prey: all the corn in every quarter, when it was found unsafe to keep it in the country, having been collected together into the fortified towns; so that, as was afterwards discovered, he had scarcely a quantity sufficient for ten days; and, in consequence of the scarcity, a design had been formed, among the Spaniards, of going over to the enemy, had time been allowed them to bring it to maturity.
XLI. But fortune herself concurred in administering fuel to the impatient temper and rashness of the consul; for, an attack having been made on their plundering parties, and a tumultuary kind of engagement ensuing, occasioned rather by the voluntary exertions of the soldiers running up to the spot, than by any preconcerted design, or order, of the commanders, the Carthaginians were considerably worsted, losing a thousand seven hundred men, while there fell, of the Romans and their confederates, not more than an hundred. However, while the victors pursued with eagerness, the consul Paullus, who held the command on that day, (for they commanded alternately,) dreading an ambuscade, obliged them to halt, though Varro expressed great indignation at it, exclaiming, that the enemy had been allowed to slip out of their hands; and that the war might have been finished, had not a stop been put to the action. Hannibal grieved not much for this loss; on the contrary, he rather believed that it would serve as a bait to ensnare the more presumptuous consul, and the soldiers, particularly the raw ones. All the circumstances of the enemy were as well known to him as his own; that the commanders were of dissimilar characters, and disunited in opinion; and that almost two-thirds of their army were raw recruits. Thinking, therefore, that he had now found both time and place convenient for a stratagem, on the following night, he led away his men, with no other encumbrance than their arms, the camp being full of their effects of all kinds, public and private: then, making them halt out of sight, behind the nearest mountains, he formed the foot in order of battle on the left, and the cavalry on the right, and conducted the baggage, as a centre line, through the interjacent valley; intending, while the enemy should be busy and encumbered in the pillaging of the camp, as if deserted by the owners, to fall upon them by surprise. Numerous fires were left in the camp, to create a belief that his intention was, by such appearances, to detain the consuls in their posts, while he should gain the advantage of time, to retreat to the greater distance, in like manner as he had deceived Fabius the year before.
XLII. When day arrived, the Romans, on observing, first, that the advanced guards had been withdrawn, and afterwards, on a nearer approach, the extraordinary silence, were filled with surprise. Then, when they discovered plainly that the camp was deserted, they ran together in crowds to the pavilions of the consuls, informing them that the enemy had fled in such haste, as to leave the tents standing; and in order to conceal their flight, had left also a number of fires. They then, with loud clamours demanded, that orders should be given for the troops to march in pursuit; and, that they should plunder the camp in their way. Varro acted the same part as the common soldiers. Paullus repeatedly represented, that they ought to proceed with care and circumspection; and, at last, when he could no otherwise restrain their mutinous proceedings, or the leader of them, he despatched Marius Statilius, a præfect of the allies, with a troop of Lucanian horse, to procure intelligence. He rode up to the gates, and, ordering the rest to halt at the outside of the trenches, he went himself with two horsemen into the camp; and, having carefully examined every circumstance, returned and reported that there was without doubt an ambush intended; for the fires were left in that quarter which faced the enemy, the tents were open, and every thing of value left in view; and that he had seen silver thrown at random in the passages, as if to invite a pillage. The very circumstances, mentioned with the intent of repressing their ardour for booty, served to inflame it; and the soldiers, shouting aloud, that if the signal were not given, they would proceed without their leaders; they did not long want one, for Varro instantly gave the signal for marching. Paullus was desirous of checking this precipitancy, and being informed that the chickens had not given a favourable auspice, ordered that the ill omen should be reported to his colleague when he was just leading the troops out of the gate; whereupon Varro, though heartily vexed at this, yet from the recollection of the recent disaster of Flaminius, and of the memorable overthrow of the consul Claudius at sea, in the first Punic war, was sensibly struck with religious scruples. The gods themselves on that day postponed, in a manner, rather than averted the calamity which hung over the Romans: for it luckily happened, that, while the troops refused to obey the consul’s orders to return into the camp, two slaves, one belonging to a horseman of Formiæ, the other to one of Sidicinum, who had been taken prisoners by the Numidians, among a party of foragers, in the consulate of Servilius and Atilius, made their escape on that very day to their owners; and, being brought before the consuls, informed them, that Hannibal’s whole army lay in ambush behind the nearest mountains. The seasonable arrival of these men procured obedience to the authority of the consuls, when one of them, by his immoderate pursuit of popular applause, had, through improper indulgence, forfeited people’s respect for their dignity, particularly with regard to himself.
XLIII. When Hannibal perceived that the Romans, though they took some inconsiderate steps, had not carried their rashness to the full extent, the stratagem being now discovered, he returned with disappointment to his camp. In this place he could not remain, many days, by reason of the scarcity of corn, and new measures were daily in contemplation, not only among the soldiery, a multitude compounded of the refuse of all nations, but even in the mind of the general himself; for the men begun to murmur, and afterwards proceeded with open clamours to demand the arrears of their pay, and to complain at first of the dearness of provisions, at last of famine. A report too prevailed, that the mercenary soldiers, particularly those from Spain, had formed a scheme of going over to the enemy, so that Hannibal himself is said to have sometimes entertained thoughts of flying into Gaul; intending to have left all the infantry behind, and, with the cavalry, to have made a hasty retreat. While these matters were in agitation, and this the disposition in the camp, he formed a resolution of removing into Apulia, where the weather was warmer, and consequently more favourable to the ripening of the harvest; and where, in proportion as he was placed at a greater distance from the enemy, the discontented would find desertion the more difficult. Accordingly he set out by night, after kindling fires as before, and leaving a few tents to keep up the appearance of a camp, in the expectation that fears of an ambush, as on the former occasion, would keep the Romans within their works. But Statilius, the Lucanian, having examined all the ground beyond the camp, and on the other side of the mountains, and bringing back an account that he had seen the enemy marching at a great distance, a consultation was held about pursuing him. Here each consul maintained the same opinion which he had ever held; but almost all the officers siding with Varro, and no one except Servilius, the consul of the former year, with Paullus, they, pursuant to the determination of the majority, set forward, under the impulse of unhappy fate, to render Cannæ for ever memorable, as a scene of disaster to the Romans. Near that town Hannibal had pitched his camp, turning the rear towards the wind called Vulturnus, which, in those plains, parched with heat, carries along with it clouds of dust. As this choice of situation was highly commodius to the men, while in camp, so was it particularly advantageous, when they were drawn up for battle; because, while the wind only blew on their backs, it would nearly blind the enemy with whom they were to fight, by carrying great quantities of dust into their faces.
XLIV. The consuls pursued the Carthaginians, taking proper care to examine the roads; when they arrived near Cannæ, and had the foe in sight, they divided their forces, as before, and fortified two camps at nearly the same distance from each other as they had been at Geronium. As the river Aufidus ran by the camps of both, the watering parties of both had access to it, as opportunity served, but not without encountering opposition. The Romans, however, in the smaller camp, which was pitched on the other side of the Aufidus, had greater liberty of supplying themselves with water, because there were none of the enemy posted on the farther bank. Hannibal, now, conceiving hopes that the consuls might be brought to an engagement in this tract, where the nature of the ground was advantageous to cavalry, in which kind of forces he had a manifest superiority, drew out his army in order of battle, and endeavoured to provoke them by skirmishes of the Numidians. On this the Roman camp was again thrown into disturbance, by mutinous behabiour in the soldiers, and dissension between the consuls; Paullus representing to Varro the fatal rashness of Sempronius and Flaminius; and Varro to him the example of Fabius, as a specious precedent for timid and inactive commanders. The one calling gods and men to witness, that none of the blame was to be imputed to him, of Hannibal’s now holding Italy as if by prescriptive right of possession; for that he was chained down by his colleague, while the soldiers, full of rage and ardour for the fight, were kept unarmed. To which the other replied, that, if any misfortune should happen to the legions, from their being hurried into an inconsiderate and rash engagement, he himself, although entirely free from all reproach, must yet bear a share of the consequences, be they what they might. Let him take care, that those, whose tongues were now so ready and impetuous, showed the same alertness during the fight.
XLV. While, instead of deliberating on proper measures, they thus wasted time in altercation, Hannibal, who had kept his forces drawn up in order of battle during a great part of the day, led back the rest towards the camp, and despatched the Numidian horse to the other side of the river, to attack a watering party, which had come from the smaller camp of the Romans. They had scarcely reached the opposite bank, when, merely by their shout, and the rapidity of their motions, they dispersed this disorderly crowd; and then pushed forward against an advanced guard, stationed before the rampart, and almost up to the very gates. The Romans, in having their camp threatened by a band of irregular auxiliaries, felt an intolerable affront, so that nothing could have restrained them from drawing out their forces and passing the river, but from the chief command being then in the hands of Paullus. On the next day, therefore, Varro, whose turn it was to command, without conferring with his colleague, displayed the signal for battle*, and marshalling his forces, led them over the river, while Paullus followed; because, though he did not approve of his design, yet he could not avoid giving him his support. Having crossed the river, they were joined by the troops from the smaller camp, and formed their line in this manner: in the right wing, next the river, they placed the Roman cavalry, and adjoining them the Roman infantry; the extremity of the left wing was composed of the confederate cavalry; and, inclosed by these, the confederate infantry stretched to the centre, so as to unite with the Roman legions. The archers, and other light-armed auxiliaries formed the van. The consuls commanded the wings, Terentius the left, Æmilius the right; the charge of the centre was committed to Geminus Servilius.
XLVI. Hannibal, at the first light, sending before him the Balearians, and other light-armed troops, crossed the river, and posted each company in his line of battle, in the same order in which he had led them over. The Gallic and Spanish cavalry occupied the left wing, near the bank, opposite the Roman cavalry, and the Numidian horse the right; the infantry forming the centre, in such a manner, that both ends of their line were composed of Africans, and between these were placed the Gauls and Spaniards. The Africans, for the most part, resembled a body of Roman troops, being furnished, in great abundance, with the arms taken partly at the Trebia, but the greater part at the Trasimenus. The shields of the Gauls and Spaniards were nearly of the same make; their swords were different, both in length and form; those of the Gauls being very long, and without points, those of the Spaniards, whose practice was rather to thrust at their enemy, than to strike, light and handy, and sharp at the point. The troops of these nations made a more terrible appearance than any of the rest, on account of the size of their bodies, and also of their figure. The Gauls were naked from their middle upward; the Spaniards clad in linen vests, of a surprising and dazzling whiteness, and bordered with purple. The whole number of infantry, drawn up in the field on this occasion, was forty thousand, of cavalry ten thousand. The generals, who commanded the wings, were, Hasdrubal on the left, and Maharbal on the right. Hannibal himself, with his brother Mago, took the command of the centre. The sun, very conveniently for both parties, shone on their flanks, whether this position was chosen designedly, or that it fell out by accident; for the Romans faced the south, the Carthaginians the north. The wind, which the natives of the country call Vulturnus, blew briskly against the Romans, and, by driving great quantities of sand into their faces, prevented them from seeing clearly.
XLVII. The shout being raised, the auxiliaries advanced, and the fight commenced, first, between the light-armed troops; then the left wing, consisting of Gallic and Spanish cavalry, engaged with the right wing of the Romans; but not in the usual method of fighting between horsemen, for they were obliged to engage front to front, no room having been left for any evolutions, the river on one side, and the line of infantry on the other, confining them, so that they could only push directly forward; at last, the horses being pressed together in a crowd, and stopped from advancing, the riders, grappling man to man, dragged each other to the ground. The contest was now maintained chiefly on foot, but was more furious than lasting; for the Roman horsemen, unable to keep their stand, turned their backs. When the fight between the cavalry was almost decided, the infantry began to engage. At first, the Gauls and Spaniards maintained their ranks, without betraying any inferiority either in strength or courage. At length the Romans, by frequent and persevering efforts, with their front regular and in compact order, drove back a body which projected before the rest of their line in form of a wedge, and which, being too thin, consequently wanted strength: as these gave ground, and retreated hastily and in disorder, they pursued, and without slackening their charge, broke through their dismayed and flying battalions; at first, to their centre line; and, at length, meeting with no resistance, they arrived at the reserved troops of the Africans, which latter had been posted on both flanks of the others, inclining backward towards the rear, while the centre, composed of the Gauls and Spaniards, jutted considerably forward. By the retreat of this prominent part, the front was thus rendered even; then, by their proceeding still in the same direction, a bending inward was at length formed in the middle, on each side of which the Africans now formed wings; and the Romans, incautiously rushing into the centre, these flanked them on each side, and, by extending themselves from the extremities, surrounded them on the rear also. In consequence of this, the Romans, who had already finished one battle, quitting the Gauls and Spaniards, whom they had pursued with much slaughter, entered now on a new one against the Africans, in which they had not only the disadvantage of being hemmed in, and, in that position, obliged to fight, but, also, that of being fatigued, while their antagonists were fresh and vigorous.
XLVIII. By this time, the battle had begun on the left wing also of the Romans, where the confederate cavalry had been posted against the Numidians: it was languid at first, and commenced with a piece of Carthaginian treachery. About five hundred Numidians, carrying, besides their usual armour and weapons, swords concealed under their coats of mail, rode up under the appearance of deserters, with their bucklers behind their backs, and having hastily alighted from their horses, and thrown their bucklers and javelins at the feet of their enemies, were received into the centre line, and conducted thence to the hindmost ranks, where they were ordered to sit down in the rear. There they remained quiet, until the fight was begun in every quarter: when, however, the thoughts and eyes of all were deeply intent on the dispute, snatching up the shields which lay in great numbers among the heaps of the slain, they fell on the rear of the Romans, and stabbing the men in the backs, and cutting their hams, made great slaughter, and caused still greater terror and confusion. While, in one part, prevailed dismay and flight, in another, obstinate fighting in spite of despair, Hasdrubal, who commanded on the left wing, after entirely routing the Roman cavalry, went off to the right, and, joining the Numidians, put to flight the cavalry of the allies. Then, leaving the Numidians to pursue them, with his Gallic and Spanish horse, he made a charge on the rear of the Roman infantry, while they were busily engaged with the Africans.*
XLIX. On the other side of the field, Paullus had, in the very beginning of the action, received a grievous wound from a sling; nevertheless, at the head of a compact band, he frequently opposed himself in Hannibal’s way; and, in several places, he restored the fight, being protected by the Roman horsemen, who, in the end, dismounted, because the consul’s strength declined so far, that he was not able even to manage his horse. Some person, on this, telling Hannibal that the consul had ordered the cavalry to dismount, he answered, as we are told, “I should have been much better pleased if he delivered them to me in chains.” The fight maintained by the dismounted cavalry was such as might be expected, when the enemy had gained undoubted possession of the victory: and as the vanquished chose to die on the spot, rather than fly, the victors, enraged at them for retarding their success, put to death those whom they could not drive from their ground. They did, however, at length oblige them to quit the field, their numbers being reduced to a few, and those quite spent with toil and wounds. They were all entirely dispersed, and such as were able repaired to their horses, in order to make their escape. Cneius Lentulus, a military tribune, seeing, as he rode by, the consul sitting on a stone, and covered with blood, said to him, “Lucius Æmilius, whom the gods ought to favour, as the only person free from the blame of this day’s disaster, take this horse, while you have any remains of strength; I will accompany you, and am able to raise you up and protect you. Add not to the fatality of the fight the death of a consul: without that, there will be abundant cause of tears and mourning.” The consul replied, “Your spirit, Cneius Cornelius, I commend; but do not waste, in unavailing commisseration, the short time allowed you for escaping out of the hands of the enemy. Go, carry a public message from me to the senate, that they fortify the city of Rome; and, before the victorious Carthaginian arrives, secure it with a powerful garrison. Carry also a private message to Quintus Fabius; tell him that Lucius Æmilius has lived, and now dies, in a careful observance of his directions. As to myself, let me expire here, in the midst of my slaughtered soldiers, that I may not either be brought, a second time, to a trial, on the expiration of my consulship, or stand forth an accuser of my colleague; or as if my own innocence were to be proved by the impeachment of another.” While they were thus discoursing, first, a crowd of their flying countrymen, and afterwards the enemy, came upon them; and these, not knowing the consul, overwhelmed him with their weapons. Lentulus, during the confusion, escaped through the swiftness of his horse. A general route now took place; seven thousand men fled into the smaller camp, ten thousand into the greater, and about two thousand into the village of Cannæ; but the town not being defended by any fortifications, these were instantly surrounded by Carthalo and the cavalry. The other consul, without joining any party of his routed troops, gained Venusia, with about seventy horsemen. The number of the slain is computed at forty thousand foot, and two thousand seven hundred horse: the loss of natives and of the confederates being nearly equal. Among these were the quæstors belonging to both consuls, Lucius Atilius, and Lucius Furius Bibaculus; twenty-one military tribunes; several who had passed through the offices of consul, prætor, or ædile, among whom are reckoned Cneius Servilius Geminus, and Marcus Minucius, who had been master of the horse in the preceding year, and consul some years before; likewise eighty who were members of the senate, or had borne those offices which qualified them to be chosen into that body, and who had voluntarily enlisted as soldiers in the legions. The prisoners taken in this battle are reckoned at three thousand foot, and three hundred horse.
L. Such was the battle of Cannæ; equally memorable with the defeat at the Allia: but as it was less fatal in its consequences, because the enemy were remiss in pursuing the blow, so, with respect to the destruction of the troops, it was more grievous and lamentable. For the flight at the Allia, while it proved the ruin of the city, preserved the men; but at Cannæ, scarcely seventy accompanied the consul who fled; almost the whole army perished with the other. Those who had collected together in the two camps, were a half-armed multitude, without leaders: from the larger was sent a message to the others, that while the enemy were sunk, during the night, in profound sleep, in consequence of their fatigue in the battle, and of their feasting for joy, they should come over to them, and they would go off in one body to Canusium. This advice some totally rejected; for they said, “Why did not these men come to them, when a junction might as well have been effected by that means? Why, but because the ground between them was full of the enemy’s troops, and that they chose to expose to such danger the persons of others, rather than their own?” The remainder, though they did not disapprove of the advice, were yet afraid to follow it. On this, Publius Sempronius Tuditanus, a military tribune, addressed them thus: “Do ye choose, then, to be taken prisoners by a most rapacious and cruel enemy, to have a price set upon your heads, by men who will examine, whether you are a citizen of Rome, or a Latine confederate, in order to pay a compliment to others, by heaping indignity and misery upon yourselves? Surely not, if ye be really fellow-citizens of the consul Æmilius, who preferred an honourable death to a life of dishonour, and of such a number of brave men, who lie in heaps around him. But, before the light overtakes us, and more numerous bodies of the enemy stop up the way, let us sally forth through those, who, without any order or regularity, make this noise before our gates; courage and the sword find a passage through the closest battalion; this open and loose band we will penetrate in the form of a wedge. Come on, then, ye who wish the preservation of yourselves and the commonwealth, follow me.” So saying, he drew his sword, and, with the troops who chose to follow him, formed as he had proposed, made his way through the midst of the enemy. Here the Numidian javelins being thrown against their right sides, which were uncovered, they removed their shields to their right hands, and thus, to the number of six hundred, effected a passage into the larger camp; proceeding thence, in conjunction with the other greater body, they arrived safe at Canusium. Such were the proceedings of the vanquished, dictated rather by accident, or each man’s particular feeling, than by deliberation among themselves, or the orders of any.
LI. When the Carthaginians, flocking round Hannibal, congratulated him on the victory, and recommended, that, after going through the fatiguing business of so great a battle, he should take himself, and allow the wearied soldiers, repose during the remainder of that day and the ensuing night; Maharbal, general of cavalry, who was of opinion that no time should be lost, said to him, “that you may be convinced how much has been accomplished by this engagement, on the fifth day following you shall feast, victorious, in the Capitol. Follow me: I will advance with the horse, that the enemy may see me arrived, before they are apprised of my being on the way.” To Hannibal these hopes appeared too sanguine, and the prospect too vast for his mind to comprehend at first view. He therefore replied, that “he applauded Maharbal’s zeal; but the affair required time for consideration.” On which Maharbal observed, “I perceive that the gods do not bestow on the same person all kinds of talents. You, Hannibal, know how to acquire victory, but you know not how to use it.” There is good reason to believe that the delay of that day proved the preservation of the city, and of the empire. On the day following, as soon as light appeared, his troops applied themselves to the collecting of the spoils, and in viewing the carnage made, which was such as shocked even enemies; so many thousand Romans, horsemen and footmen, lay promiscuously on the field, as chance had thrown them together, either in the battle, or flight. Some, whom their wounds, being pinched by the morning cold, had roused from their posture, were put to death, by the enemy, as they were rising up, covered with blood, from the midst of the heaps of carcases. Some they found lying alive, with their thighs and hams cut, who, stripping their necks and throats, desired them to spill what remained of their blood. Some were found, with their heads buried in the earth, in holes which it appeared they had made for themselves, and covering their faces with earth thrown over them, had thus been suffocated. The attention of all was particularly attracted by a living Numidian with his nose and ears strangely mangled, stretched under a dead Roman; and who, when his hands had been rendered unable to hold a weapon, being exasperated to madness, had expired in the act of tearing his antagonist with his teeth.
LII. After a great part of the day had been spent in gathering the spoils, Hannibal led his troops to attack the smaller camp; and first, by drawing a trench across, excluded the garrison from the river: but the men, being spent with labour, watching, and wounds, capitulated sooner than he had expected. It was agreed, that, besides surrendering their arms and horses, there should be paid for each Roman citizen three hundred denarii,* for an ally two hundred,† for a slave an hundred;‡ and that, on laying down this ransom, they should depart with single garments. On this, they received the enemy into the camp, and were all put into custody, but separately; that is, the citizens and allies, each by themselves. During the time spent here, such part of the troops, in the greater camp, as had sufficient strength and courage, amounting to four thousand footmen, and two hundred horse, had made their escape to Canusium; some in bodies, others straggling different ways through the country, a method equally safe. The camp was surrendered to the enemy by the wounded, and those who had staid through want of courage, and on the same terms as for the others. Abundance of spoil was found; and the whole, (except the men and horses, and whatever silver there was, most of which was on the trappings of the latter, for there was then very little used at the table, particularly in the field,) was given up to be plundered. Hannibal then ordered the bodies of his men to be collected and buried: they are said to have amounted to eight thousand of the bravest of his troops. Some writers say, that he also searched for, and interred the Roman consul. Those who escaped to Canusium, and who received from the inhabitants no farther relief than admittance within their walls and houses, were supplied with corn, clothes, and subsistence, by a woman of Apulia, named Busa, eminent for her birth and riches; in requital of which munificence, high honours were afterwards paid to her, by the senate, at the conclusion of the war.
LIII. Now, although there were four military tribunes present at Canusium; of the first legion, Fabius Maximus, whose father had been dictator the year before; of the second, Lucius Publicius Bibulus, and Publius Cornelius Scipio; and of the third, Appius Claudius Pulcher, who had been ædile the last year; yet the command in chief was, with universal consent, conferred on Publius Scipio; then very young, in conjunction with Appius Claudius. While these, with a few others, were consulting on the measures requisite in this emergency, they were told by Publius Furius Philus, son to a man of consular dignity, that “it was vain for them to cherish hopes in a case past retrieving; for the commonwealth was despaired of, and lamented as lost. That several young men of the nobility, at whose head was Lucius Cæcilius Metellus, were meditating a scheme of putting to sea, with intent to abandon Italy, and go over to the king of some other country.” This distressing incident, besides having in itself the most fatal tendency, coming unexpectedly, and immediately after so many disasters, surprised and astonished them to such a degree, that they lost for a time all thought and motion; those who were present then, advising that a council should be called on the subject; Scipio, a youth destined by fate to conduct the war to a conclusion, said, that “this was not a subject for council; the business required not deliberation, but fortitude and action. He bade those come with him, that moment, in arms, who wished the preservation of the commonwealth; for no place,” said he, “can you more truly call an enemy’s camp, than that wherein such designs are agitated.” Immediately he proceeded, attended by a few, to the lodging of Metellus; and finding there the youths, who had been mentioned, assembled in consultation, he held his drawn sword over their heads as they sat, and said, “with sincerity of heart I swear, that I will not desert the commonwealth of the Roman people; neither will I suffer any other Roman citizen to desert it. If, knowingly, I break this oath, then do thou, Jupiter, supremely good and great, overwhelm, in the severest ruin, myself, my house, my family, and my fortune. Lucius Cæcilius, and the rest of you, here present, I insist upon your taking the same oath: he that will not swear, be it known, that against him this sword is drawn.” Terrified no less than if they had seen the victorious Hannibal, they all took the oath, and surrendered themselves to Scipio, to be kept in custody.
LIV. While these things passed at Canusium, about four thousand horse and foot, who, in the flight, had been dispersed through the country, came to the consul at Venusia. These were all distributed by the Venusians through their several families, where they were received and treated with kindness. They also gave to each horseman a gown and tunic, and twenty-five denarii*; and to each footman ten denarii†, and such arms as were wanted; and every other hospitable attention was shown them, both by the public and by private persons; all exerting themselves, that the Venusian state might not be out-done, in kindness, by a woman of Canusium. However, the great number of her guests, which amounted now to ten thousand, made the burthen heavier on Busa. Appius and Scipio, as soon as they learned that one of the consuls was alive, instantly despatched to him an account of the number of horse and foot which were with them; at the same time desiring his orders, whether the troops should be brought to him in Venusia, or remain at Canusium. Varro led over his forces to Canusium. And now, there was some appearance of a consular army, and they seemed capable of defending themselves, though not with their arms alone, yet certainly with the help of walls. At Rome accounts were received, that not even these relics of the citizens and allies had survived, but that both armies, with the consuls, were utterly cut off. Never, while the city itself was in safety, did such a degree of dismay and confusion prevail within the walls of Rome. I therefore shrink from the task; and will not undertake to describe a scene, of which any representation that I could give, would fall short of the reality. The report was; not of such another wound being received, as when a consul and an army were lost, the year before, at the Trasimenus, but of a multiplicity of disasters; of both armies, together with both consuls, being lost; that the Romans had now neither camp, nor general, nor soldier existing; that Hannibal was in possession of Apulia, Samnium, and of almost all Italy. Certainly we know no other nation whose spirit would not have been wholly crushed under such an immense load of misfortunes. Can I compare with it the disaster, suffered by the Carthaginians, in the sea-fight at the Ægatian islands, by which they were so dispirited that they gave up Sicily and Sardinia, and were content thenceforth to pay tribute and taxes? Or, the loss of the battle in Africa, under which this same Hannibal afterwards sunk? In no particular are they to be compared, except in this, that the latter, under their calamities, displayed nothing like an equal degree of magnanimity.
LV. The prætors, Publius Furius Philus, and Marcus Pomponius, convened the senate in the Curia Hostilia, to consult on the means of providing for the security of the city. They took it for granted that, the armies being destroyed, the enemy would come directly to attack Rome, the only object which remained to be accomplished in order to finish the war. As, in a case of such extreme danger, the extent of which was not thoroughly known, they found it difficult to resolve on any plan, and were, at the same time, stunned with the cries and lamentations of the women; for no positive information being yet received, the living and dead were, all together, lamented as lost, in almost every house. Quintus Fabius Maximus gave his opinion, that “swift horsemen should be sent along the Appian and Latine roads, who, inquiring from any whom they should meet, straggling in their flight from the field, might perhaps bring back information as to the real situation of the consuls and the armies; and, if the immortal gods, in compassion to the empire, had left any remnant of the Roman name; where these forces were; to what quarter Hannibal directed his route, after the battle; what were his intentions; what he was doing and preparing to do. These particulars ought to be inquired into, and ascertained, by active young men; and the senators themselves, as there was not a sufficient number of magistrates, ought to undertake the part of quieting the tumult and disorder of the city; to remove the women from the public places, and oblige them to confine themselves within their own doors; to restrain the lamentations of the several families; to cause silence in the city; to take care that expresses arriving with any intelligence, be conducted to the prætors; and to make every person wait, in his own house, for information respecting his own concerns. That they should moreover place guards at the gates, to binder any from going out, and force men to place their only hope of preservation in the strength of their walls and works. That when the tumult should be appeased, then the senators might properly be called back into the house to deliberate on measures for the defence of the city.”
LVI. This opinion being unanimously approved, and the crowd being removed out of the Forum by the magistrates, the senators dispersed themselves on all sides to quiet the commotions; and then, at length, a letter was brought from the consul Terentius, informing them, that “the consul Lucius Æmilius, and the army, were cut off; that he himself was at Canusium, collecting, as from a shipwreck, the relics of such a dreadful misfortune; that there were, with him, about ten thousand men, belonging to many different corps, and not yet formed into regular bodies. That the Carthaginian, showing neither the spirit of a conqueror, nor the conduct of a great general, lay still at Cannæ, bargaining about the prisoners and other booty.” Then the losses of private families also were made known through their several houses; and so entirely was the whole city filled with grief, that the anniversary festival of Ceres was omitted, because it is not allowable for persons in mourning to celebrate it, and there was not, at the time, one matron who was not so habited. Lest, therefore, for the same reason, other festivals, public or private, might be left uncelebrated, the wearing of that dress was, by a decree of senate, limited to thirty days. Now, when the tumult in the city was composed, and the senators re-assembled in their house, another letter was brought from Sicily, from the pro-prætor Titus Otacilius, stating, that “a Carthaginian fleet was ravaging the dominions of Hiero; and that, when he was preparing to carry assistance to him, in compliance with his earnest request, he had received intelligence that another fleet lay at the Ægatian islands, prepared for battle, and intending, as soon as they learned that he had gone away to guard the coast of Syracuse, to fall immediately on Lilybæum, and other parts of the Roman province. If, therefore, they wished to protect Sicily, and the king their ally, a re-inforcement of ships must be sent.”
LVII. When the letters of the consul and pro-prætor were read, it was resolved that Marcus Claudius, who commanded the fleet lying at Ostia, should be sent to take the command of the forces at Canusium; and that a letter should be written to the consul, directing, that as soon as he had delivered the army to the prætor, he should, with all the expedition consisting with the public good, come to Rome. In addition to all their misfortunes, people were also terrified by several prodigies; and, particularly, by two vestals, Opimia and Floronia, being, in that year, convicted of incontinence; one of them was, according to custom, buried alive, near the Colline gate; the other voluntarily put an end to her own life. Lucius Cantilius, secretary to one of those, whom we now call the lesser pontiffs, who had debauched Floronia, was, by order of the chief pontiff, scourged in the Forum, with such severity, that he expired under the punishment. This enormity, happening in the midst of so many calamities, as usual in such cases, converted into a prodigy, and the decemvirs were ordered to consult the books. Quintus Fabius Pictor was sent also to Delphi, to consult the oracle, and discover by what supplications, and worship, they might be able to appease the gods; and by what means a stop might be put to such a heavy train of misfortunes. Meanwhile, according to the directions of the books of the fates, several extraordinary sacrifices were performed; among which a male and female Gaul, and a male and female Greek, were buried alive in the cattle market, in a vault built round with stone; a place which had already, by a practice abhorrent from the temper of the religion of Rome, been polluted with human victims. When it was thought that sufficient atonement had been made to the wrath of the gods, Marcus Claudius Marcellus despatched from Ostia to Rome, for the security of the city, one thousand five hundred men, whom he had there, and who had been raised for the service of the fleet. He also sent on before him the marine legion, which was the third, under command of the military tribunes, to Teanum, in the territory of Sidicinum; and then, having delivered the command of the fleet to his colleague, Publius Furius Philus, he repaired himself, in a few days, by forced marches to Canusium. Pursuant to directions of the senate, Marcus Junius was nominated dictator, and Tiberius Sempronius master of the horse. They proclaimed a levy, and enlisted all the youth of seventeen years and upwards, and even some under that age, of whom they completed four legions, and a thousand horse. Envoys were also sent to the allies, and Latine confederates, with a requisition of their contingents of troops, as specified by treaty. Orders were issued for preparing armour, weapons, and other necessaries; and they even took down from the temples and porticoes the old spoils taken from enemies. The urgent necessity, and the scarcity of men of free condition, occasioned their adopting a new mode of raising soldiers, and in an extraordinary manner. They purchased, with the public money, eight thousand stout young slaves; asking each, whether he was willing to serve in the wars; and then gave them arms. They preferred employing this kind of soldiers, though they had it in their power to have ransomed the prisoners at a less expense.
LVIII. Hannibal, intoxicated with his great success at Cannæ, conducted himself as if, instead of having a war to prosecute, he had already brought it to a conclusion. Ordering the prisoners to be brought forth, he separated the allies from the rest; and, with expressions of kindness, dismissed them without ransom, as he had done formerly at the Trebia, and the lake Trasimenus. Even the Romans he called before him; and, contrary to his former practice, addressed them in very mild terms, telling them, that “he meant not to carry the war to the extinction of the Romans, but fought for glory and empire. That, as his predecessors had yielded to the Roman bravery, so he, on his part, was now endeavouring to make others yield, in turn, to his valour and good fortune. Wherefore he would give them permission to ransom themselves; and the terms should be, five hundred denarii* for each horseman, three hundred† for a footman, and a hundred for a slave‡ .” Though the ransom of the horseman was hereby raised beyond the rate stipulated on their surrendering, yet they joyfully embraced any terms. It was determined, that they should choose, by their own suffrages, ten of their number, who should go to Rome to the senate; and of their faith, no other security was required than their oath, that they would return. With these was sent Carthalo, a noble Carthaginian, who, if he perceived an inclination towards peace, was to propose the terms. After they had set out from the camp, one of them, a man devoid of Roman principles, pretending to have forgotten something, with a view of evading his oath, returned into the camp, and afterwards, before night, overtook his companions. When it was reported at Rome, that they were coming, a lictor was sent to meet Carthalo, with orders, in the name of the dictator, that he should quit the Roman territories before night.
LIX. The deputies of the prisoners, being by the dictator admitted to an audience of the senate, the principal of them, Marcus Junius, spoke to this effect: “Conscript Fathers, none of us is ignorant, that no other state ever considers prisoners in a lower light than ours does. However, unless we are too partial to our own cause, none, who ever fell into the power of an enemy, less deserved to be neglected than we do. For we did not, through cowardice, surrender our arms in the field; but, after having protracted the battle until near night, standing on the heaped bodies of the slain, we retreated within our works. During the remainder of that day, and the ensuing night, spent as we were with toil and wounds, we yet defended our camp. Next day, being entirely surrounded by the army of the conquerors, and debarred from access to water, having no hope of forcing a way through their numerous bands, and not conceiving it criminal, that, after the slaughter of fifty thousand of our army, any Roman soldier should survive the battle of Cannæ, we, at length, agreed to terms of ransom, on which our liberty should be purchased; and we delivered to the enemy our weapons, when they could no longer serve to defend us. We had heard that our ancestors ransomed themselves with gold from the Gauls; and that our fathers, notwithstanding their utter dislike to the acceptance of the terms of peace, yet sent ambassadors to Tarentum, for the purpose of ransoming prisoners. Yet, both the fight at the Allia with the Gauls, and that at Heraclea with Pyrrhus, may be called disgraceful, on account of the panic and flight. Whereas the plains of Cannæ are overspread with heaps of slaughtered Romans; and, that we survive, is owing to no other cause, than from the enemy having, in killing, exhausted their strength. There are, besides, some of our number who are not even chargeable with flying the field: having been left to guard the camp, when that was surrendered, they fell into the hands of the enemy. I envy not the good fortune, or the situation, of any fellow citizen or fellow soldier, nor do I wish, by depressing another, to exalt myself; but surely, unless there is some prize due to swiftness of foot, those men who fled, leaving most of their arms behind, and never halted until they came to Venusia, or Canusium, cannot justly claim a preference before us, or boast of themselves as more capable of affording defence to the commonwealth. However, ye will find them on trial good and valiant soldiers, and will find us also the more heartily zealous in our country’s cause, from the consideration of having been, in kindness, redeemed and reinstated by you. Ye are enlisting men of every age and condition. I hear that eight thousand slaves are to be armed. Our number is not inferior to that, and we may be ransomed at less expense than they are purchased. A comparison between ourselves and them would be an insult on the name of Roman. I think, Conscript Fathers, that, in such a case, this circumstance also deserves consideration, (if ye choose to act toward us with a degree of rigour, which we have, by no means, merited,) the nature of the enemy, in whose hands ye would leave us, whether he is such as Pyrrhus, who treated us, when his prisoners, as if we were his guests; or a barbarian, and a Carthaginian; of whom it can scarcely be determined, whether his avarice or cruelty be greater. If ye were to behold the chains, the squalid dress, and the miserable looks of your countrymen, the sight, I am convinced, would affect you not less deeply, than if ye saw your legions prostrate on the plains of Cannæ. Ye can here observe the solitude, and the tears of our relations, who stand in the porch of your senate house, waiting for your determination: when they suffer such suspence and anxiety for us, and for those who are absent, what do ye suppose must be the state of those men’s minds whose liberty and life are at stake? Believe me, that, even should Hannibal, contrary to his nature, behave with lenity towards us, yet life would be no gratification, after having been adjudged by you, unworthy of being ransomed. Formerly, prisoners, dismissed by Pyrrhus without ransom, returned home to Rome. But they returned with ambassadors, the principal men in the state, who had been sent for the purpose of ransoming them. Should I return to my country, whom my fellow citizens have not valued, as worth three hundred denarii; Conscript Fathers, every man has his own way of thinking; I know that my person and life are in hazard: but I am more deeply affected by the danger to our reputation, lest we should appear to be rejected and condemned by you. For the world will never believe that ye were actuated by the motive of saving money.”
LX. When he ceased speaking, the multitude, who stood in the Comitium, instantly raised a lamentable cry, and stretching their hands towards the senate house, besought the members to restore to them their children, their brethren, and relations. Their fears, and the urgency of the case, had brought a number of women also among the crowd of men in the Forum. The senate, as soon as the house was cleared, took the matter into consideration. Opinions were different; some recommended that the prisoners should be ransomed at the expense of the public; others, that the public money should not be expended, but that they should not be hindered from ransoming themselves, with their own private property; and that, to such as wanted money at present, it should be lent out of the treasury, on their indemnifying the nation by sureties and mortgages. Titus Manlius Torquatus, a man who carried primitive strictness, as many thought, to too great a degree of rigour, on being asked his opinion, spoke to this effect: “Had the demands of the deputies, in favour of those who are in the hands of the enemy, gone no farther than to their being ransomed, I should, without offering censure on any of them, have delivered my judgment in few words; for what else would be requisite than to admonish you, to maintain the practice transmitted from your forefathers, and to adhere to a precedent essential to military discipline? But now, since they have, in a manner, made a merit of having surrendered themselves to the foe, and claimed a preference, not only over those who were made prisoners in the field, but even over those who made their way to Venusia and Canusium, and over the consul Caius Terentius himself, I will not let you remain ignorant, Conscript Fathers, of any of the circumstances which occurred on the occasion. And I wish that the representations, which I am going to lay before you, were made in the presence of the troops themselves at Canusium, the most competent witnesses of every man’s cowardice and bravery; or, at least, that one particular person were present here, Publius Sempronius, the counsel and example of which officer, had those soldiers thought proper to follow, they would to-day be Romans in their own camp, not prisoners in that of the enemy. But as the Carthaginians were fatigued with fighting, or totally occupied in rejoicing for their success, in which state indeed most of them had even retired into their camp — they had it in their power during the whole night to extricate themselves by sallying forth; and though seven thousand soldiers had been able to force their way, even through close battalions, yet they, neither of themselves, offered to attempt the same, nor were willing to follow the lead of another. Publius Sempronius Tuditanus never ceased advising and exhorting them, that while the numbers of the enemy round the camp were few, while quiet and silence prevailed, while the night covered their design, they would follow where he should lead; assuring them that, before day light, they might arrive in places of safety in the cities of their allies. If he had said in like manner, as in the time of our grand-fathers, Publius Decius, military tribune in Samnium, spoke, or, as in our own time, and in the former Punic war, Calphurnius Flamma said to the three hundred volunteers, when he was leading them to sieze on an eminence situated in the midst of the enemy, Soldiers, let us die, and by our deaths extricate the surrounded legions from the ambuscade.— If Publius Sempronius had spoken thus, I say, he could not surely deem you either Romans or men, if no one appeared ready to accompany him in so brave an enterprise. But still he points out the way which leads not to glory only but to safety. He shows how ye may return to your country, your parents, wives, and children. Do ye want spirit for your own preservation? What would ye do if the cause of your country required your death? Fifty thousand of your countrymen and allies lie around you slain on that same day. If so many examples of bravery do not rouse you, nothing will ever rouse you; if such a carnage has not inspired contempt of life, no other will. While in freedom and safety, wish for your country: do this as long as it is your country. It is now too late for you to wish for it, when ye are divested of its privileges, disfranchised of the rights of citizens, and become slaves of the Carthaginians. Will ye return, on terms of purchase, to that condition, which ye relinquished through pusillanimity and cowardice? To Publius Sempronius, your countryman, ordering you to take arms and follow him, ye would not listen; ye listened soon after to Hannibal, ordering you to betray your camp to him, and surrender your arms. Why do I charge them with cowardice, when I may charge them with actions highly criminal? for they not only refused to follow the person who gave them the best advice, but attempted to hinder and to stop him, had not his gallant companions with their drawn swords cleared the way of those dastards. I affirm, that Publius Sempronius was obliged to force his passage through a body of his countrymen, before he broke through that of the enemy. Has our country any reason to wish for such citizens as these; to whom, if the rest had been like, we should not have had this day one citizen of those who fought at Cannæ. Out of seven thousand men, six hundred were found, who had spirit to force their way, who returned home with freedom and their arms, forty thousand of the enemy not being able to stop them. How safely then do ye suppose might a band of near two legions have passed? In that case, Conscript Fathers, ye would have had this day, at Canusium, twenty thousand soldiers, brave and faithful. But how can these men be good and faithful citizens, (for to bravery they do not themselves lay claim,) after having attempted to stop the sally of those that wished to trust all to their swords? Or who can suppose, that they do not look with envy on the safety and glory, which the others have acquired by their valour, while they see themselves reduced by their fear and cowardice, to ignominious slavery. The entire band chose to remain in their tents, and wait the approach of day, and of the enemy, at the same time; though during the silence of the night they had a fair opportunity of effecting their escape. But though they wanted confidence to sally out of the camp, they had courage valiantly to defend it. Being besieged for several days and nights, they protected their rampart by arms: at length, after the utmost efforts and sufferings, when every support of life failed, when their strength was wasted through hunger, and they could no longer bear up under their arms, they were overcome by necessities too powerful for human nature to sustain, and a part with Sempronius gained the greater camp. Now, at sun rise, the enemy approached the rampart, and before the second hour these men who had refused to accompany him, without trying the issue of any dispute, surrendered their arms and themselves. Here, then, is the amount of their martial performances during two days; when they ought to have stood in their posts in the battle, and fought, they then fled to their camp; which, instead of defending, they surrendered; showing themselves equally useless there, and in the field. Shall I then ransom such as you? When ye ought to sally forth from your camp, ye hesitate and stay there; and when staying, there is a necessity for defending it, ye make surrender of your arms, and yourselves. Conscript Fathers, I would no more vote for ransoming those men, than I would for delivering up to Hannibal the others, who forced their way out of the camp, through the midst of the enemy, and by the highest exertions of valour restored themselves to their country.”
LXI. After this discourse of Manlius, notwithstanding that most of the senators had relations among the prisoners, yet, besides the maxim generally observed by the state, which, from the earliest times, had ever showed very little tenderness towards such, the consideration of the money requisite for the ransom operated with them as a powerful argument; indeed they were unwilling either that the treasury should be exhausted, from which a great sum had already been issued for purchasing and arming the slaves for service, or that Hannibal should receive so considerable a supply, and of which he was said to stand in the greatest need. A harsh answer then being given, that the prisoners should not be ransomed, and this new cause of grief, in the loss of so many citizens, being added to the former, the people escorted the deputies to the gate with abundance of tears and lamentations. One of the deputies left the rest, and went home, as if he had fulfilled his oath, by fallaciously returning into the camp. But, as soon as this became known, and was reported to the senate, they unanimously voted, that he should be seized, and conveyed to Hannibal, under a guard appointed by the government. This affair of the prisoners is related in another manner: that ten deputies came at first; and that the senate were for some time in doubt whether they should be admitted into the city or not; but that at length permission was granted them to enter it: but still they were refused an audience of the senate: and that afterwards, on their staying longer than the rest expected, three others were sent, Lucius Scribonius, Caius Calpurnius, and Lucius Manlius. Then, at last, the business of ransoming the prisoners was proposed to the senate by a plebian tribune, a relation of Scribonius, and their determination was, that they should not be ransomed. On this the three deputies, who came last, returned to Hannibal, but the ten former remained at Rome; as if, by having returned to Hannibal, after setting out on their journey, under pretext of getting a complete list of the prisoners, they had fulfilled their oath. The question, whether they should be delivered up to the enemy, was warmly debated in the senate, and the party who voted in the affirmative were overcome by a small majority. However, they were by the next censors so severely branded with every mark of ignominy, that some of them laid violent hands on themselves, and the rest, during all the remainder of their lives, shunned not only the Forum, but almost the public street, and the light. While such difference, in the representations given by historians, may be wondered at, still there are no means of distinguishing the truth. The greatness of the present misfortune, beyond any hitherto sustained, is demonstrated by this circumstance: that the allies, who, until this time, had stood firm in their attachment, now began to waver; for no other reason, certainly, than that they despaired of the commonwealth. The following states actually revolted to the Carthaginians, during the war: the Atellans, the Calatians, the Hirpinians, a part of the Apulians, the Samnites, excepting the Pentrians, all the Bruttians, the Lucanians, and, besides these, the Surrentinians; almost the whole coast possessed by the Greeks, the Tarentines, Metapontines, Crotonians, Locrians, and all the Cisalpine Gauls. Yet did not all these losses and revolts of their allies shake the firmness of the Romans so far as to induce them ever once to make mention of peace, either before the consul’s return to Rome, or when his arrival renewed the memory of their misfortune. But at that very time, such magnanimity was shown by the state, that, on the consul’s approaching the city, after such a heavy disaster, of which he, in particular, had been the principle cause, all ranks of people not only went out in crowds to meet him, but even returned him thanks for not having despaired of the commonwealth; whereas, had he been a general of the Carthaginians, there is no degree of punishment beyond what he must have suffered.
* 1,076l. 1s. 6d.
* A kind of broom
* 8l. 1s. 5½d.
* 1,937l. 10s.
* Æris gravis, 64l. 11s, 8d. About this time, in consequence of the scarcity of money, the comparative value of brass to silver was changed, and a denarius made to pass for twelve and afterwards for sixteen asses. The words æs grave were thenceforward employed to signify not any particular piece, or weight, of money, but the old comparative standard of ten asses, as we say pounds sterling.
* At first the name of prætor, derived from præire, to preside, was applied to any magistrate who was the chief in any line, whether civil, military, or religious; as dictator, consul, commander of an army, &c. But it was afterwards appropriated to a magistrate, appointed to relieve the consuls from the burthen of superintending the administration of justice. His proper office, therefore, was the direction of judicial proceedings; but, in the absence of the consuls, he acted in their stead, with power nearly equal to theirs. The great influx of foreigners soon made it necessary to create a second prætor, who was called prætor peregrinus, the foreign prætor, because his business was to decide controversies between citizens and foreigners, while the city prætor, prætor urbanus, who was superior in dignity, took cognizance of suits between citizens. When the Romans gained possession of foreign provinces, they appointed a prætor to the government of each, and his power within his province was almost unlimited, for he was accountable to none but the people of Rome.
* A purple cloak raised on a spear over the Prætorium.
* Here the text of the original is so corrupted, as to be absolutely unintelligible. The fact, as represented in the supplemental lines, is so related by Polybius.
* 9l. 7s. 7d.
† 6l. 5s. 2d.
‡ 3l. 2s. 7d
* 16s. 1 3/4 d.
† 6s. 5½d.
* 16l. 2s. 11d.
† 9l. 13s. 9d.
‡ 3l. 4s. 7d.
The Campanians revolt to Hannibal. Hanno moves in the senate of Carthage to propose terms of peace to the Romans; his proposition strenuously opposed, and over-ruled by the Barcine faction. Marcellus defeats Hannibal, in a battle at Nola. Hannibal’s army encrvated by luxurious living at Capua. Cassilinum besieged by the Carthaginians, is reduced to such extremity by famine, that the people eat the leathern covers of their shields, and even mice. One hundred and ninety-seven new members, from the equestrian order, added to the senate. Lucius Postumius, prætor, with his army, defeated by the Gauls, and slain. Cneius Scipio, and Publius, overcome Hasdrubal in Spain, and conquer that country. The remaining troops of the army vanquished at Cannæ, sent to Sicily, there to remain during the continuance of the war. An alliance formed between Philip, king of Macedonia, and Hannibal. Sempronius Gracchus, consul, defeats the Campanians. Successes of Titus Manlius in Sardinia; he takes prisoners, Hasdrubal, the general, Mago, and Hanno. Claudius Marcellus gives Hannibal’s army a second defeat at Nola; and, at length, gives the Romans hopes of a favourable termination of the war.
Y.R. 536. 216.I. AFTER the battle of Cannæ, Hannibal, as soon as he had taken and sacked the Roman camps, removed hastily from Apulia into Samnium, being invited into the territory of Arpi by Statius Trebius, who promised to deliver the city of Compsa into his hands. Trebius was a native of Compsa, of considerable note among his countrymen, but thwarted in his ambitious views by a faction of the Mopsian family, which, through the favour of the Romans, had acquired the principal direction of affairs. When an account was received of the battle of Cannæ, and Trebius openly announced the approach of Hannibal, the Mopsian party withdrew from the city; on which it was, without a contest, surrendered to the Carthaginian, and a garrison of his troops received into it. Hannibal, leaving here all the booty, together with his baggage, and dividing his army into two parts, ordered Mago, with one division, to receive such cities of that country as were willing to revolt from the Romans, and if any should refuse, to compel them by force; while he himself, at the head of the other, marched through the country of Campania, towards the lower sea, intending to lay siege to Neapolis, in order to gain possession of a seaport town. On entering the frontiers of the Neapolitans, he placed one half of his Numidians in ambush, in places suited to the purpose; and, in general, the roads run through deep vallies, and form windings commodious for concealment: the rest he ordered to drive before them, in open view of the enemy, the prey collected in the country; and to ride up, in a menacing manner, to the gates. Against this party, which appeared to be neither regular nor numerous, a sally was made by a squadron of horse, which, by the others retreating on purpose, was drawn into the ambuscade, surrounded, and cut to pieces. Nor would one of them have escaped, had not the sea been so near, and some vessels, mostly fishing smacks, which were in view at a small distance from shore, afforded shelter to such as were able to swim. Several young men of distinction, however, were slain and taken in this action, among whom fell Hegeas, the general of the cavalry, too eagerly pursuing the enemy in their retreat. The Carthaginian was deterred from undertaking the siege of the city, by the sight of the fortifications, which showed that the enterprise would be attended with considerable difficulty.
II. From hence he marched to Capua; where, in consequence of a long course of prosperity, and the kind indulgence of fortune, the manners of the people were become extremely dissolute and licentious; and amidst the universal corruption, the commons particularly distinguished themselves, by the extravagancy of their conduct, carrying their notions of liberty to the most unbounded excess. A person, named Pacuvius Calavius, of noble birth, and, at the same time, a great favourite of the plebeians, but indebted for his popularity to intrigues of no very honourable kind, had rendered the senate dependent on his will, and that of the commons. He happened to be invested with the chief magistracy during that year, wherein the Romans were defeated at the Trasimenus; and suspected that, on an opportunity so favourable, for effecting a revolution, the commons, who had so long harboured a bitter animosity against the senate, would attempt some important enterprise; and that, if Hannibal should come into those parts with his victorious army, they would even go so far as to murder the senate, and deliver Capua into the hands of the Carthaginians. Though a man of profligate manners, yet, not being utterly abandoned, he preferred ruling the commonwealth in its present settled state to any power which he could hope for, in case of its subversion; and knowing the impossibility of any state remaining settled, if destitute of counsel to direct its affairs, he set about the execution of a plan whereby he might preserve the senate, and, at the same time, keep it in awe of himself and his party. Having convened that body, he began, by telling them, “that the design of revolting from the Romans, unless such a measure should be found absolutely necessary, could not by any means be agreeable to him, who had children by the daughter of Appius Claudius, and had disposed of a daughter of his own in marriage, at Rome, to Livius; but that, however, an affair of much greater moment, and more alarming tendency, required their attention: for, the purpose of the commons was not, by changing sides, to abolish the authority of the senate; but, by massacreing the members to leave the commonwealth without a head, and in that state to deliver it up to Hannibal and the Carthaginians. From this imminent danger, it was in his power, (he said,) to deliver them, if they would entrust themselves to his management, and, forgetting party animosities, place entire confidence in him.” Overcome by the violence of their fears, they all consented to be directed by him; on which he said, “I will shut you up in the senate house, appearing as an accomplice in their wicked plot, and while I seem to approve of designs which I should in vain oppose, I will find out a way for your safety. For the performance of this I am willing to give you any security which you may demand.” Having solemnly pledged his faith, he went out, and ordered the senate-house to be shut, leaving a guard in the porch, with orders; that no one should go in or out without his directions.
III. He then convened the people, to whom, he said, “Campanians, the opportunity for which you have so often prayed, of taking vengeance on a wicked and detestable senate, now presents itself in such a manner, that you may accomplish your wishes, without any hazard of danger to yourselves, in storming, by force of arms, their several houses which they keep secured by garrisons of their dependents and slaves. I am ready to deliver into your hands, the whole body of them shut up together in the senate-house, unattended, unarmed. Nor need you do any thing in a hurry, or without consideration. I will take care that you shall have full power of passing sentence of life or death on every one of them: so that each may suffer the punishment which he has deserved. Above all things, however, it behoves you, while you indulge the gratification of your resentment, to make even that give place to the care of your own interest and welfare. For, the object of your hatred is, as I apprehend, the present body of senators; you do not wish that the commonwealth should be entirely without a senate: for you must have either a king, an office universally detested; or a senate, the only kind of government compatible with freedom in a state. You must therefore do two things at the same time, remove the old senate, and elect a new one. I will order each of the senators to be summoned before you; concerning whose life or death I will require your judgment: whatever your sentence is, it shall be executed. But first, before punishment is inflicted on the guilty, you will elect, into his place, as a new senator, some porson of ability and spirit.” He then took his seat; and the names of the senators being thrown together into an urn, he ordered the first that happened to come out, on shaking the lots, to be proclaimed, and the person himself to be brought out from the senate-house. On hearing the name, every one eagerly cried out, that he was a worthless character, and a wicked man; and that he deserved punishment. Pacuvius then said, “I perceive what judgment has been passed on this man. He is expelled. In the room of this worthless and wicked senator, elect one endowed with probity and justice.” A general silence at first took place, from the difficulty of finding a better substitute in his room; and afterwards, some one breaking through reserve, and proposing a certain person, a clamour was instantly raised louder than against the other; some declaring, that they did not know him; others exclaiming, at one time, against his scandalous behaviour, at another, against his meanness, his sordid poverty, and the disreputable trade or occupation which he followed. The same consequences ensued, and the difficulty still increased, on the second and third senator being summoned; all which clearly proved that the people disliked the men in question, but were totally at a loss for one whom they could set in his place; for it would answer no purpose to propose the same persons a second time, whose nomination had produced nothing but a recital of their disgraces, and the rest were still more mean and obscure than those who first occurred to people’s thoughts. The consequence was, that the people withdrew from the assembly, affirming, that the evil with which men were best acquainted was the most tolerable, and ordering the senate to be discharged from custody.
IV. Pacuvius, by this obligation conferred on the senate, in thus preserving their lives, so effectually gained their affections, that they were much more earnestly disposed to support his interest, than that of the commons; and now, all ranks yielding a ready compliance with his designs, without having recourse to force of arms, he ruled with unlimited authority. Henceforward the senators, casting off all regard to their independence and their dignity, paid court to the commons, and saluted them in courteous terms; invited them, with every expression of kindness, to their houses, and then entertained them sumptuously; always undertook that side of a controversy, supported that cause, and appointed judges agreeable to that party, which was most popular, and seemed best calculated to conciliate the favour of the populace. No business was transacted in the senate in any other manner, than just as if it had consisted of a set of plebeians. The people had ever been prone to luxurious extravagance; not only from an evil propensity in their nature, but likewise through the profusion of voluptuous enjoyments that lay within their reach, and the temptations to which they were exposed in the midst of every means of gratification which land or sea could afford. But now, in consequence of the condescension and indulgence shown by persons of the first consequence, they ran into such exorbitant excess as set no limits either to their desires or expenses. They had long cast off all respect for their own magistrates, senate, and laws; and now, since the unfortunate battle of Cannæ, they began to look with contempt on the government of Rome also, which alone they had, until then, regarded with some degree of awe. The only considerations that withheld them from an immediate revolt, were, that by means of intermarriages contracted in a long course of time, many of their most illustrious and powerful families were connected with the Romans; and, besides that many of their countrymen served in the Roman armies, their strongest motive for restraining their inclination, was, concern for three hundred horsemen of the noblest families in Campania, who had been selected by the Romans, and sent into several garrisons in the cities of Sicily.
V. The parents and relations of these, with great difficulty, prevailed on the people to send ambassadors to the Roman consul. They found him at Venusia, attended by a very small number of half-armed troops, and in such a condition as could not fail to excite compassion in good and faithful allies, and contempt in the faithless and proud, such as were the Campanians. And this contempt of himself, and of his situation, the consul also increased by too unguardedly exposing and displaying the disastrous state of his affairs. For, on the ambassador’s telling him that the senate and people of Campania were much grieved that any misfortune should have happened to the Romans, and promising supplies of every kind, towards carrying on the war, he answered, “Campanians, in desiring us to call on you for supplies towards maintaining the war, you have observed the usual manner of speaking practised between allies, rather than accommodated your discourse to the present state of our fortune. For what has been left us at Cannæ, that, as if we had something of our own, we should wish to have its deficiencies made up by our allies? Should we call on you for infantry, as if we had cavalry? Should we tell you that we want money, as if that were the only thing wanted? Fortune has left us nothing; not so much as a remnant to which additions might be made. Our legions, our cavalry, arms, standards, men and horses, money, provisions, have all perished, either in the field, or in the loss of the two camps, on the following day. Wherefore, Campanians, your part is, not to aid us in the war, but, in a manner, to undertake the war in our stead. Call to mind how, formerly, when your forefathers were driven, in dismay, within the walls, terrified at the approach of the armies of their enemies, both Samnites and Sidicinians, we took them under our protection, stood up in their defence at Saticula; and this war against the Samnites, undertaken on your account, we maintained, through various vicissitudes of fortune, during a space of near one hundred years. Add to this that, though we possessed the right of sovereignty over you, we granted you an alliance on terms of equality; allowed you your own laws, and, in fine, what was to be considered (at least before the defeat at Cannæ) as the highest honour in our power to confer, we admitted a great number among you to the freedom of our city, and shared its privileges with you. For these reasons, Campanians, you ought to consider our late defeat as a common misfortune, and to deem it your duty to defend our common country. The dispute is not with the Etrurian, or the Samnite; in which case the sovereignty, though taken from us, would still remain in Italy; a Carthaginian foe draws after him, from the remotest limits of the world, from the streights of the ocean and the pillars of Hercules, an host of men who are not even natives of Africa, and who are utter strangers to all laws, to all the rules and rights of society, and almost to the language of men. This horde, cruel and savage from nature and habit, their leader has taken pains to render still more savage; making them form bridges and ramparts of human bodies heaped together, and, what is shocking even to mention, teaching them to feed on human flesh. Who, that was but born in any part of Italy, could think, without horror and detestation, of seeing, and acknowledging as sovereigns, such creatures as these, who live on such abominable food, whose very touch would convey pollution; of receiving laws from Africa and Carthage, and of suffering Italy to become a province to Moors and Numidians? It will be highly honourable to you, Campanians, that the Roman empire, tottering under so severe a blow, should be upheld and restored by your faithful zeal and strength. I suppose that there may be raised in Campania thirty thousand foot, and four thousand horse. Of money and corn you already have abundance. If your zeal in our favour be but equal to your abilities, neither shall Hannibal perceive that he has been victorious, nor the Romans that they have been defeated.”
VI. After the consul had spoken thus, the ambassadors were dismissed; and, as they were returning home, one of them, whose name was Vibius Virius, observed to the rest, that “the time had now arrived when the Campanians might not only recover from the Romans the lands of which they had been unjustly deprived, but also gain possession of the sovereignty of Italy. For they might form an alliance with Hannibal, on whatever terms they themselves should choose; and when Hannibal, after completing his success, and putting an end to the war, should depart into Africa, and withdraw his army, the sovereign power over Italy, without any dispute, would be left in the possession of the Campanians.” In these sentiments of Vibius all the rest concurred, and they accordingly made such a report of the issue of their embassy, as persuaded every one that the Roman power was utterly annihilated. The plebeians, and the greater part of the senate, began instantly to take measures for a revolt. However, by the earnest persuasions of the elder citizens, their proceedings were deferred for a few days; but, at last, the opinion of the majority prevailed, that the same ambassadors, who had gone to the Roman consul, should be sent to Hannibal. In some histories, I have read, that, before this embassy was despatched, or the design of revolting finally determined upon, ambassadors were sent by the Campanians to Rome, requiring that, if the Roman people expected succours from them, they should elect one of the consuls out of Campania; that this excited so great indignation, that they were ordered to be turned out of the senate-house; and that a lictor was sent to conduct them out of the city, and to warn them to retire, before night, out of the Roman territory. But this, bearing too great a similarity to the demand formerly made by the Latines, and Cœlius and other writers having, not without reason, omitted the mention of it, I cannot take upon me to affirm the truth of the account.
VII. The ambassadors came to Hannibal, and concluded with him an alliance, on conditions, that “no general, or magistrate of the Carthaginians, should have any authority over a citizen of Campania; nor should any native of Campania be compelled to serve in the army, or to act in any other employment. That Capua should retain its own laws and magistrates. That the Carthaginian should deliver into the hands of the Campanians, three hundred of the Roman prisoners, whom they should pitch on, in order that they might make an exchange of these for the Campanian horsemen serving in Sicily.” Such were the articles stipulated; but, to the performances to which they were bound by treaty, the Campanians added deeds of a heinous nature: for the præfects of the allies,* and other Roman citizens, part engaged in some military employment, others busied in their private concerns, the plebeians suddenly seized, and ordered them to be shut up in the baths, as if with intent to keep them there in custody; instead of which, suffocated with heat and vapour, they died in a shocking manner. These proceedings, and likewise the sending of an embassy to the Carthaginian, had been most strenuously opposed by Decius Magius; a man who wanted no qualifications that could entitle him to the chief direction of affairs, which, had not his countrymen wanted sound judgment, would certainly have been placed in his hands. When he heard that a body of troops was sent by Hannibal to garrison the city, he, at first, openly and loudly protested against giving them admittance, urging as a caution, the haughty tyranny of Pyrrhus, and the wretched slavery of the Tarentines; and afterwards, when they had been admitted, laboured to persuade the people either to expel them; or, if they wished to atone, by a brave and memorable act, for the baseness of their behaviour, in revolting from their oldest confederates and near relations, to put to death the Carthaginian garrison, and re-unite themselves to the Romans. These his proceedings being reported to Hannibal, (for all passed in public,) he first sent to summon Magius to attend him in his camp; then, on his positively refusing to come, and insisting that Hannibal had no authority over a citizen of Campania, the Carthaginian, provoked to a high degree of passion, ordered his person to be seized and dragged to him into the camp in chains; but afterwards, apprehending lest, in case of force being used, some tumult, and then, people’s minds being irritated, some imprudent scuffle might ensue, he sent forward a message to Marius Blosius, prætor of Capua, that he would come himself to that city on the next day; and accordingly, he set out, with a small body of troops. Marius, calling the people together, published orders that they should all, in a body, with their wives and children, go out to meet Hannibal: these orders were universally obeyed, not only without reluctance, but with cheerful readiness; being agreeable to the inclinations of the populace, who were impatient to behold a general who was now renowned for so many victories. Decius Magius neither went out to meet him, nor did he confine himself within doors, lest he should betray some apprehension from consciousness of misbehaviour; but, while the whole city was in hurry and confusion, through an eagerness to see and to compliment the Carthaginian, he walked carelessly in the Forum with his son, and a few of his attendants. Hannibal, immediately on entering the city, demanded an audience of the senate; but the principal Campanians then besought him not, at that time, to attend to any serious business, but, with chearfulness and freedom, to celebrate a day which his arrival had consecrated to festivity. Although furiously passionate, yet, unwilling to refuse them any thing on the commencement of their connexion, he spent a great part of that day in taking a view of the city. He was lodged at the house of the two Minii Celeres, Stenius and Pacuvius, men highly distinguished by the nobility of their birth, and the greatness of their wealth. Hither Pacuvius Calavius, whom we mentioned before, the leader of that faction, whose violence had effected the present union, brought his son, a young man, after having, with difficulty, drawn him away from the side of Decius Magius; for the youth had joined him, with the warmest zeal, in supporting the Roman alliance, and opposing the treaty with the Carthaginians; nor had the public determination, on the other side, or his respect for his father, been able to produce a change in his sentiments. Calavius, by entreaties rather than excuses, procured a pardon for him, from Hannibal, who, overcome by the father’s prayers and tears, even desired that he should be invited, together with his father, to supper, though he had intended to admit no Campanian to the entertainment, except his hosts, and Jubellius Taurea, a man celebrated for his abilities in war. The entertainment began early in the day, and the feast, as might be expected in a city remarkable for luxury, and in a house particularly so, was not conformable to the Carthaginian customs, or to military discipline, but furnished with every incentive to convivial enjoyment. Calavius’s son, Perolla, alone maintained a degree of reserve, which neither the attentions of the masters of the house, nor those sometimes added by Hannibal himself could overcome. For this he apologized by imputing it to indisposition, and his father alleged also the disturbed state of his mind, which could not then be wondered at. About sun-set, the elder Calavius, going out of the room, was followed by his son, who, when they came into a private place (a garden at the rear of the house), said to him; “Father, I have a plan to mention to you, by which we may not only procure from the Romans pardon of our misconduct, in going over to Hannibal, but also acquire to the people of Campania a much larger share of their esteem and favour than we have ever yet enjoyed.” The father, with surprise, inquiring what sort of a plan this was, he threw back his gown from his shoulder, and showed him a sword girt to his side; then said, “I will presently, with Hannibal’s blood, ratify our alliance with Rome. Of this I thought it proper to apprize you, because you may, perhaps, wish to be absent, when the deed is performed.”
IX. On this sight, and hearing these words, the old man, distracted with apprehension, as if he were then present at the perpetrating of the act which had been mentioned, exclaimed; “By all the ties, my son, which unite children to their parents, I entreat, I beseech you, do not, before the eyes of your father, commit a deed of such transcendant horror, and draw on yourself extremity of ruin. But few hours have elapsed, since, swearing by all the gods existing, and joining our right hands to his, we bound ourselves to be faithful to him; was it that immediately, on quitting the conference, we should arm against him those very hands, which we had given as sacred pledges of our faith? You are just risen from a hospitable table, to which, of only three Campanians favoured with an invitation by Hannibal, you were one; was it that you should stain that very table with the blood of your host? My entreaties, as a father, have prevailed over Hannibal’s resentment in favour of my son; shall they have less power with my son in favour of Hannibal? But suppose there were no sacred obligations in the case, no faith, no religion, no filial duty, let the most abominable deeds be perpetrated, if they do not, along with the guilt, bring ruin on ourselves. Do you mean to assault Hannibal with your single arm? What will that numerous crowd, both of freemen and slaves, be doing? What the eyes of all, intent on him alone? What so many right hands? Will they all be benumbed, during such a mad attempt? How will you be able to support the looks of Hannibal himself, which armed hosts are unable to withstand; which the Roman people behold with horror? Besides, will you be hardy enough to strike me, when, should other assistance be wanting, I shall oppose my person to the danger in defence of Hannibal’s? Now, be assured, that, if you strike and pierce his body, it must be through my breast. Suffer yourself, then, to be dissuaded here, rather than overpowered there. Let my prayers have as much weight with you, as they had to-day with him in your behalf.” Observing the youth now softened into tears, he threw his arms round him, and, embracing him, with kisses, persevered in his entreaties, until he prevailed on him to lay aside the sword, and give him his honour that he would make no such attempt. The son then said, “I, for my part, will pay to my father the debt of duty which I owe to my country. But I am grieved at the circumstances in which you stand, who have to answer for the crime of having thrice betrayed your country; once, when you advised the revolt from the Romans; a second time, when you promoted an alliance with Hannibal; and a third time, this day, when you obstruct and prevent the reunion of Capua with Rome. Do thou, my country, receive this weapon, which I wished to use with effect, in defence of this thy capital; and which I resign, not through any tenderness to the enemy, but because my father extorts it from me.” So saying, he threw the sword over the garden-wall into the street, and, to avoid suspicion, returned to the company.
X. Next day, Hannibal had audience in a full meeting of the senate, where the first part of his discourse contained nothing but expressions of affection and kindness; thanking the Campanians for having preferred his friendship to their former alliance; and, among other magnificent promises, assuring them, that Capua should, in a short time, be the metropolis of Italy; and that the Romans, as well as the other nations, should receive laws from it. He then took notice, that “there was one person who had no title to a share in the friendship of the Carthaginians, and in the terms of the treaty now concluded; who ought not to be considered, or even named, as a Campanian: this was Decius Magius. Him he demanded to be delivered into his custody, and required that the senate should, in his presence, take Magius’s conduct into consideration, and determine concerning him.” This proposition was unanimously assented to, notwithstanding that a great part of the senate thought that he had not deserved such severe treatment; and, likewise, that this first step was no small encroachment on their independence. He then, leaving the senate-house, placed himself on the judgment-seat of the chief magistrate, and gave orders that Decius Magius should be seized, brought to his feet, and there, unsupported, stand his trial. The other, retaining his undaunted spirit, insisted that, according to the terms of the treaty, he was not liable to such compulsion; on which he was loaded with chains, and ordered to be led by a lictor into the camp. As long as he was conducted with his head uncovered, he continually harangued the multitude, which every where gathered round him, calling out to them —“You have now, Campanians, the independence that you aimed at. In the middle of your Forum, in the light of day, before your eyes, I, who am inferior to no one of the Campanians, am chained and dragged to execution. What more violent outrage could have happened, were Capua taken by storm? Go out, then, to meet Hannibal, decorate the city, consecrate the day of his arrival, that you may behold such a triumph as this, over one of your own countrymen.” While he was exclaiming in this manner, the populace appearing to be moved by his remonstrances, his head was covered, and an order given, that he should be dragged more speedily out of the gate. Being brought in this manner to the camp, he was instantly put on board a ship, and sent away for Carthage: for Hannibal was apprehensive lest, in consequence of the harsh treatment shown him, some commotion might arise in the city, that even the senate might repent of having given up one of their principal members, and that, should an embassy be sent to reclaim him, he must either, by refusing their first request, give offence to his new allies, or, if he complied, must expect to find him a constant fomenter of sedition and disturbance in Capua. A storm drove the ship to Cyrene, which was at that time under the dominion of the Egyptian kings. Here Magius, having fled to the statue of King Ptolemy as a sanctuary, was carried under a guard to Alexandria, to Ptolemy; and having represented to him, that he had been put in chains by Hannibal, contrary to the terms of the treaty, he was set at liberty, and received permission to return either to Rome or Capua, whichever he pleased. Magius answered, that “at Capua he could not expect safety; that his residence at Rome, at that time, when war subsisted between the Romans and Campanians, would give him the appearance of a deserter, rather than of a guest; and that there was no place where he so much wished to live, as in the territory of the king, in whom he had found a protector, and deliverer from bondage.
XI. During these transactions, Quintus Fabius Pictor, who had been sent ambassador to Delphi, returned to Rome, and read, from a written copy, the answer which he had received. This contained instructions to what deities, and in what manner, supplications should be made; and then proceeded thus: “Romans, if you follow these directions, your affairs will improve and prosper; the business of your state will advance more agreeably to your wishes, and the Roman people will be finally victorious in the war: when your commonwealth shall be settled in safety and prosperity, then, out of the acquisitions made by your arms, send an offering to the Pythian Apollo, and dedicate to his honour a part of the booty, of the captives, and of the spoils. Banish licentiousness from among you.” After repeating these words, translated from the Greek verses, he added, that “when he retired from the oracle, he immediately performed worship to all these divinities, with offerings of wine and incense; and was ordered by the chief priest of the temple, that as he had approached the oracle, and had performed worship with a crown of laurel on his head, so he should go on board his ship, wearing the same crown, and not lay it aside until he should arrive at Rome. That he had, with the utmost diligence and reverence, executed all the commands given him, and had deposited the crown on the altar of Apollo at Rome.” The senate then decreed that those supplications, and other acts of worship, should be performed as soon as possible.
XII. While these things were passing in Rome and Italy, Mago, son of Hamilcar, had arrived at Carthage with the news of the victory at Cannæ. He had not been despatched by his brother immediately after the battle, but delayed for several days, in receiving the submissions of the cities of Bruttium which revolted. Being introduced to an audience of the senate, he gave a full account of his brother’s exploits in Italy; that “he had fought pitched battles with six consular armies, and six several commanders; of whom four were consuls, one dictator, and the other master of the horse; had slain above two hundred thousand of the enemy, and had taken above fifty thousand. Of the four consuls, he had slain two; one had escaped wounded; and the other, with scarce fifty of his men, after having lost the rest of his army. The master of the horse, an officer of equal power with a consul, had been defeated and driven off the field; and the dictator, because he always cautiously avoided an engagement, was esteemed as a commander of singular abilities. The Bruttians and Apulians, with part of the Samnites and Lucanians, had come over to the Carthaginians. Capua, which was the metropolis not only of Campania, but since the ruin of the Roman power in the battle of Cannæ, of Italy, had been surrendered to him. For these so great and so numerous successes, it was proper that the public should be grateful, and should offer thanksgivings to the immortal gods.” He then, in confirmation of this joyful intelligence, ordered the gold rings taken from the Romans to be poured down in the porch of the senate-house; and of these there was so great a heap, that, according to some writers, on being measured, they filled three pecks and a half; but the more general account, and likewise the more probable is, that they amounted to no more than one peck. He also explained to them, in order to show the greater extent of the slaughter, that none but those of equestrian rank, and of these only the principal, wore this ornament. The main purport of his discourse was, that “the nearer their prospect was of finishing the war, the more vigorous support, of every kind, ought to be afforded to Hannibal; for that it was carried on at a great distance from home, in the heart of the enemy’s country. The consumption of money and corn was great; and so many engagements, while they ruined the Roman armies, had diminished, in some degree, those of the conqueror. It was therefore necessary to send a reinforcement, and likewise to send money for the pay, and corn for the maintenance of the troops, who had merited so highly of the Carthaginian nation.”
XIII. At the conclusion of Mago’s discourse, while all were filled with joy, Himilco, one of the Barcine faction, thinking this a favourable opportunity for sarcastic reflections on Hanno, said to him, “Hanno, what is your opinion now? Are you still sorry for our entering into the war against the Romans? Advise now the delivering up Hannibal, oppose the offering thanks to the immortal gods, on occasion of these happy events. Let us hear a Roman senator in the senate-house of the Carthaginians.” To this Hanno replied; “Conscript Fathers, I should have remained silent this day, lest, in a time of general joy, I might utter some expression tending to damp it. But now, called upon, as I am, by a member of this body, to declare whether I am still sorry for our having entered into the war against the Romans, if I refuse to answer, I may incur the imputation either of superciliousness or servility; the former indicating a want of due regard to the independent rights of others, the latter to a man’s own. Let me, therefore, answer Himilco, that I have not ceased to lament the war; nor will I cease to censure that invincible commander of yours, until I shall see the war concluded on some tolerable terms; nor will any thing, except a new treaty of peace, put an end to my regret for the loss of the old. Those matters, then, which Mago just now so pompously blazoned out, afford present joy to Himilco, and the other partisans of Hannibal. To me, too, they may eventually prove matter of joy; because successes in war, if we are willing to make the proper use of fortune’s favours, will gain us a peace on the more honourable terms. For should we neglect to improve the present season, when we can possibly dictate, instead of receiving propositions for the same, even now our exultation may lead us into delusive expectations, and prove, in the end, destitute of solid advantage. For, let us see on what footing it stands at this moment. I have cut off the armies of the enemy: send me soldiers. What else would you ask, if you had been defeated? I have taken two camps, full, doubtless, of booty and provisions: give me money and corn. What other demand could you make, if your stores had been plundered, if you were beaten out of your camp? But that I may not be the only person to perceive the unaccountableness of those proceedings, I wish that either Himilco or Mago would inform me (for since I have answered Himilco, it is but reasonable and fair that I likewise, in turn, should ask a question), as the fight at Cannæ has completed the ruin of the Roman empire, and all Italy is evidently coming over to our side; in the first place, has any state of the Latine nation revolted to us? And next, has any one man, out of the thirty-five tribes, deserted?” To both these questions, Mago answering in the negative; “We have still, then,” said he, “more than enough of enemies remaining. But, be their number what it may, I should be glad to know what degree of spirit or of hope they possess?” The other declaring that he knew not that: “Nothing,” said he, “is easier to be known. Have the Romans sent any ambassadors to Hannibal to treat of peace? Have you even received any intelligence of any mention of it being made at Rome?” Both being denied, he proceeded: “Since that is the case, we have not brought the war any nearer to a conclusion than it was on the day when Hannibal first entered Italy. Most of us are old enough to remember how often victory changed sides in the former Punic war. At no time did our affairs wear a more prosperous aspect, both by land and sea, than just before the consulship of Caius Lutatius and Aulus Postumius. In the consulship of Lutatius and Postumius, we suffered a total overthrow at the Ægatian islands. Now, if, in the course of fortune, our affairs should undergo any such alteration, (may the gods avert the omen!) do you hope, that, after we shall be vanquished, we may obtain peace; whereas now, when we are victorious, there is no one disposed to offer it? For my part, were it proposed, either to offer terms of peace to the enemy, or to receive overtures from them, I know what vote I should give. But if the question before you be concerning the supplies demanded by Mago, I do not see any necessity of sending them to troops already victorious: much less can I vote for their being sent to men who delude us with false and groundless hopes.” But few were affected by this discourse of Hanno; for his known enmity to the Barcine family detracted from the weight of his arguments: and besides, men’s minds were so fully occupied by joy for the present success, that they were unwilling to listen to any thing which tended to invalidate the grounds of their triumph; and firmly believed, that, by a little farther exertion, the war would be speedily terminated. A decree of the senate was therefore passed, by a very great majority, that a reinforcement should be sent to Hannibal of four thousand Numidians, and forty elephants, with many talents of silver. At the same time the dictator was sent with Mago into Spain, to hire twenty thousand foot and four thousand horse, which were to complete the numbers of the armies both in Spain and Italy. However, this business, as is often the case in a time of prosperity, was not executed either with spirit or despatch.
XIV. The Romans, prompted by their natural activity of spirit, and also by the present situation of their affairs, omitted no kind of exertion. The consul applied, with diligence, to every business which lay within his department; and the dictator, Marcus Junius Pera, after finishing all matters respecting religion, demanded, as usual, the leave of the people to mount his horse; and then, in addition to the two city legions, levied by the consuls in the beginning of the year, and a body of slaves whom he had enlisted, and the cohorts collected out of the Picenian and Gallic territories, he had recourse to an expedient used only in times of extreme danger, when propriety gives place to utility: he published a proclamation, that “such persons as had been guilty of capital crimes, or had been ordered into confinement on account of debt, should be discharged from prosecution, and from their debts provided they enlisted with him as soldiers:” these, amounting to six thousand men, he armed with the spoils of the Gauls, which had been carried in triumph by Caius Flaminius. By these means he was enabled to set out from the city at the head of twenty-five thousand effective men. Hannibal, after gaining possession of Capua, made a second trial of the temper of the Neapolitans, by applications both to their hopes and fears; but, being disappointed therein, he removed his army into the territory of Nola: where, though he did not immediately commence hostilities, because he did not despair of the people’s voluntary submission, yet he showed a determination, in case of their delaying compliance with his expectations, to make them feel every kind of evil. The senate, and especially the leading members of it, faithfully adhered to the alliance with Rome; while the commons were, as usual, universally inclined to the party of Hannibal; so great were their fears of the devastation of their lands, and on the heavy sufferings and indignities to be endured in a siege; nor were leaders wanting to urge them to a revolt. The senate, dreading lest, if they made open profession of their intentions, they should find it impossible to withstand the violent temper of the populace, concealed them under a counterfeit appearance, and thereby found means to defer the evil. They pretended that they approved the design of revolting to Hannibal; but that they could not immediately determine on the conditions, on which it might be proper to contract this new alliance. Having thus gained time, they hastily despatched ambassadors to Claudius Marcellus, the Roman prætor, then at Casilinum with his army, informing him of the precarious situation of the state of Nola; that the country was already possessed by Hannibal, as the city would shortly be, unless it received succour: that the senate, by pretending, in compliance with the humour of the commons, that they were ready to change sides whenever the latter chose, had hitherto allayed their violent haste to revolt. Marcellus, after applauding the conduct of the Nolans, charged them to protract the business under the same pretexts, until he should arrive; and to conceal in the mean time what had passed between him and them, and every expectation of an assistance from the Romans. He himself advanced from Casilinum to Calatia; and from thence, after crossing the river Vulturnus, he proceeded through the territories of Saticula and Trebia, and passing above Suessula, came through the mountains to Nola.
XV. On the approach of the Roman prætor, the Carthaginian retired out of the territory of Nola, and marched down to the sea-coast adjacent to Neapolis, being earnestly desirous to get possession of a sea-port town to which ships might come over with safety from Africa. But having learned that Neapolis was held by a Roman general, Marcus Junius Silanus, who had been invited thither by the Neapolitans, he gave up all hopes of Neapolis, as well as of Nola, and directed his route to Nuceria. After carrying on the siege of this town for a considerable time, and making frequent attempts to reduce it by force, and also endeavouring in vain to gain over, sometimes the commons, at others the nobility, he at length starved it into a surrender; when he allowed the garrison no other terms than to retire without arms, and with single garments. Afterwards, as he had, from the beginning, wished to appear inclined to act with clemency towards all the Italians, except the Romans, he offered rewards and honours to such of the garrison as should stay and enlist with him: but he did not by these prospects prevail on one man to join him. They all departed, by different roads, to the several cities of Campania, wherever each man’s connexions, or casual impulse of inclination, directed him; but most of them to Nola and Neapolis. About thirty of the principal senators, having directed their course to Capua, and being refused admittence there, on account of their having shut their gates against Hannibal, retired to Cumæ. The plunder of Nuceria was given to the soldiers, and the city, after being sacked, was burned. Marcellus held possession of Nola; for the continuance of which he relied, not more on his own troops, than on the favourable disposition of the principal inhabitants. But strong apprehensions were entertained of the commons, and above all of Lucius [Editor: illegible word] being conscious of having fomented the design of a revolt, and dreading the resentment of the Roman prætor, he was stimulated, first, to betray his native city, and then, should that attempt miscarry, to go over to the enemy. He was a young man of an active spirit, and distinguished among the cavalry of the allies almost beyond every other: he had been found at Cannæ, half dead, among a heap of lifeless bodies, and Hannibal had, with much kindness, taken care of him, until he recovered, and even sent him home, loaded with presents. Out of gratitude for these favours, he now wished to bring the state of Nola under the power and dominion of the Carthaginians. It did not escape the observation of the prætor, that he was perplexed in mind, and anxiously employed in devising the means of effecting a revolution. However, as it was necessary to check him by punishment, or to conciliate his good will by kind treatment, he judged it more prudent to attach to himself a brave and vigorous associate, than merely to deprive the enemy of him: sending, therefore, for him, he observed, in a kind manner, that, he “must certainly be envied by many of his countrymen, as was easily known from this circumstance, that no citizen of Nola ever informed him of his many extraordinary exploits in war; but when any man served in a Roman camp, his merit could not continue in obscurity. That many of those, who had acted with him, however, had reported well of his conduct; how often, and to what great dangers, he had exposed himself, in defence of the welfare and dignity of the Roman people; particularly that, in the battle of Cannæ, he had not ceased fighting, until, being almost entirely exhausted, he was buried under a heap of men, horses, and arms. Proceed, therefore,” said he, “in your meritorious course; from me you shall meet with every distinction, every reward; in fine, and that you may give me your company the oftener, you shall find that such conduct, as it will redound to your honour, so shall it to your emolument too.” While the young man was overjoyed at such promises, he presented him with a horse of uncommon beauty, ordered the quæstor to give him five hundred silver denarii*, and commanded his lictors to admit him to his presence, whenever he chose to come. By this courteous behaviour of Marcellus, the violent temper of the youth was soothed to such a degree, that, from that time forward, no one among the allies exerted more bravery and zeal in support of the Roman cause.
XVI. As Hannibal was now at the gates, (for he had led his forces back from Nuceria to Nola,) and as the commons of the latter began anew to meditate a revolt, Marcellus retired within the walls; not that he was under any apprehension for the safety of his camp, but that he might not allow an opportunity of betraying the city, for which too many impatiently wished. From this time, it was the practice to draw up the forces on both sides in order of battle; the Romans, under the walls of Nola, the Carthaginians, before their own camp; in consequence of which, many skirmishes happened between the camp and the city, with various success; the generals being unwilling either to restrain the small parties, who, inconsiderately challenged the foe, or to give the signal for a general engagement. While the two armies continued to post themselves in this manner, the men of the first rank in Nola gave information daily to Marcellus, that “conferences were held by night between the commons and the Carthaginians; wherein it had been determined, that, when the Roman army went out of the gates on its march, the populace should make plunder of their baggage and packages; then shut the gates, and possess themselves of the walls; with intent, that, having thus taken into their own hands the disposal of their own affairs, and of the city, they should give admittance to the Carthaginians instead of the Romans.” On receiving this intelligence, Marcellus, highly commending the Nolan senators, resolved to try the fortune of a battle before any commotion should arise within. He then formed his forces in three divisions, at the three gates which faced the enemy, ordering the baggage to follow in the rear, and the invalids, servants, and sutler’s boys to carry palisades. At the gate in the centre, he placed the chief strength of the legions and the Roman cavalry; at the other two gates, on the right and left, the new-raised soldiers, light infantry, and the cavalry of the allies. The Nolans were forbidden to come near the walls or gates; and the troops, intended as a reserve, were appointed to guard the baggage, lest any attack might be made on it, while the legions should be engaged. Marshalled in this manner, they stood within the gates. Hannibal, after standing as he had done for several days past, with his troops under arms and in order of battle, until the day was far advanced, began to wonder, that neither the Roman army came out of the gates, nor one of their soldiers was to be seen on the walls. Concluding that the conferences had been discovered, and that fear had rendered the Romans unwilling to stir, he sent back part of his soldiers to the camp, with orders to bring up to the front with haste, every thing requisite for assaulting the city; for he was persuaded, that if he pressed them vigorously, while they declined action, the populace would rise in his favour. While his men in the van ran up and down, each intent upon the business assigned him, and the line drew nigh to the walls, Marcellus, on a sudden, throwing open the gate, ordered the charge to be sounded, the shout to be raised, and the infantry first, then the cavalry, to rush forth with all possible fury. These had now spread abundance of terror and confusion through the centre of the enemy’s line, when from the two gates, on the right and left, the lieutenant-general Publius Valerius Flaccus, and Caius Aurelius, burst out against the wings. The servants, sutler’s boys, and the whole of those who were left to guard the baggage, joined to increase the shout; so that to the Carthaginians, who had been led to despise them, chiefly by an opinion of the smallness of their numbers, they suddenly exhibited an appearance of a very considerable army. I can scarcely indeed take upon me to assert, as some writers have done, that two thousand three hundred of the enemy were slain, and that the loss of the Romans was no more than five hundred: but, whether the advantage was so great or not, the success of that day was highly important; I know not, whether it was not the most so of any obtained during that war: for, to avoid being conquered by Hannibal was, to the troops who were victorious on that day, a matter of greater difficulty than to conquer him afterwards.
XVII. Hannibal, thus precluded from all hope of getting possession of Nola, marched away to Acerræ; and then Marcellus, immediately shutting the gates, and posting guards to prevent any person from going out of the city, held a judicial inquiry in the Forum concerning those who had entered into a private correspondence with the enemy. Above seventy were convicted of treasonable practices. These he beheaded, and adjudged their effects to be confiscated to the use of the Roman people; and then, having lodged the government in the hands of the senate, he marched thence with all his forces, and taking post above Suessula, pitched his camp there. The Carthaginian first endeavoured to entice the people of Acerræ to a voluntary surrender, and afterwards, on finding them obstinate, prepared to invest and assault the town. However, the Acerrans possessed more courage than strength. When, therefore, they perceived the enemy drawing lines of circumvallation round their walls, despairing of being able to defend the city, they seized the opportunity, before the works were drawn completely round, and stealing away in the dead of night, through the space unoccupied by the lines, which was negligently guarded, effected their escape, some through the roads, others through pathless ways, as each was led by design or mistake, into those cities of Campania, which they knew had not deserted the alliance with Rome. Hannibal, having sacked and burned Acerræ, and hearing that the Roman dictator, with his legions, were seen from Casilinum at some distance, began to apprehend, lest, in consequence of the enemy being encamped in the neighbourhood, some disturbance might arise even at Capua, and therefore led his forces to Casilinum. That town was held at this time by five hundred Prænestines, with a small number of Romans and Latines, whom the news of the disaster at Cannæ had brought thither. The former, because the levies at Præneste were not completed at the appointed day, had set out from home too late; and, having arrived at Casilinum before the account of the defeat, and being there joined by several others, both Romans and allies, were marching forwards in a very considerable body, when the news of the fight at Cannæ induced them to turn back. Here being feared by, and fearing the Campanians, they spent several days in guarding against plots, and forming them in turn; when, receiving certain information of the revolt intended at Capua, and of Hannibal’s being received into the town, they put to death the obnoxious inhabitants by night, and seized on that part of the city which stands on this side of the Vulturnus, for it is divided by that river. And this was all the garrison the Romans had at Casilinum. To these was added a cohort of Perusians, consisting of four hundred and sixty men, driven hither by the same bad news which had brought the Prænestincs a few days before. The number of soldiers was now nearly sufficient for the defence of a place of such small extent, and which had one side inclosed by the river. A scarcity of corn made them even think the number of men too great.
XVIII. When Hannibal came within a small distance of the place, he sent forward a body of Gætulians, under an officer named Isalca, with orders, that if an opportunity could be found of conferring with the garrison, he should first endeavour to allure them, by expressions of kindness, to open the gates and receive his troops; but, if they persisted in obstinate opposition, that he should then put his forces in action, and try if he could on any side break into the city. When they came near the walls, all being silent, it was believed that the town was evacuated, and the barbarian, supposing that the garrison had retired through fear, was preparing to break down the gates; but these flying suddenly open, two cohorts, drawn up within for the purpose, rushed out with great impetuosity, and made a considerable slaughter. The first body of assailants being thus repulsed, Maharbal was sent up with a more powerful force; but neither could he withstand the sally of the cohorts. At last, Hannibal, pitching his camp close under the walls, prepared to assault this small town and garrison with the whole of his troops; completely encompassing it, and while urging on the attack with briskness in every part at once, he lost a great number of his soldiers, particularly of those who were most forward in action, by weapons thrown from the walls and towers. At one time, the besieged having had the courage to sally out, Hannibal, by placing a line of elephants in their way, was very near cutting off their retreat. He drove them, however, in confusion into the town, after they had lost a great many men in proportion to the smallness of their number; and more would have fallen, had not night put an end to the engagement. On the following day, the besiegers were animated with extraordinary ardour to carry on the assault, especially as a mural crown of gold was proposed as a prize, and as the general himself upbraided the conquerors of Saguntum with their tardy advances in the siege of a trifling fortress, situate on a level ground; reminding each in particular, as well as the whole army in general, of Trebia, Trasimenus, and Cannæ. They then began to work their machines, and to sink mines; nor were those allies of the Romans deficient either in vigour or skill, to counteract the attempts of the enemy. Against the machines they erected bulwarks, by countermines intercepted the mines, baffling all the efforts of the Carthaginian both open and concealed, until even shame compelled him to abandon the enterprise: but, lest he should appear to have entirely given up the design, he fortified a camp, where he posted a small body of troops, and then, withdrew into winter-quarters at Capua. Here, during the greater part of the winter, he kept his forces lodged in houses, men who had frequently and long endured with firmness every hardship to which human nature is liable; and had never been accustomed to, nor ever had experienced the comforts of prosperity. These men, therefore, whom no power of adversity had been able to subdue, were ruined by an excess of good fortune and by immoderate pleasures. These produced effects the more pernicious; because, being hitherto unaccustomed, as I have said, to such indulgences, they plunged into them with the greater avidity. Sleep, and wine, and feasting, and harlots, and baths, and idleness, with which, through habit, they became daily more and more delighted, enervated both their minds and bodies to such a degree, that they owed their preservation, rather to the name they had acquired by their past victories, than to their present strength. In the opinion of persons skilled in the art of war, the general was guilty of a greater fault in this instance, than in not leading forward his army directly to the city of Rome, after the battle of Cannæ: for that dilatory conduct might be supposed only to have deferred the conquest for a time, whereas this latter error left him destitute of the strength to effect it. Accordingly he marched out of Capua as if with a different army, for it retained not, in any particular, the least remains of the former discipline. Most of the men returned to the field encumbered with harlots; and, as soon as they began to live in tents, and were obliged to undergo the fatigue of marches, and other military labours; like raw recruits, their strength both of body and mind failed them: and from that time, during the whole course of the summer campaign, great numbers used to steal away from their standards, without leave, and the only lurking place of all these deserters was Capua.
XIX. However, when the rigour of the season began to abate, he drew his troops out of their winter-quarters, and returned to Casilinum; where, notwithstanding there had been a cessation from attacks, yet the continued blockade had reduced the townsmen and garrison to the extremity of want. The Roman camp was commanded by Titus Sempronius, the dictator having gone to Rome to take the auspices anew. Marcellus, who, on his part, earnestly wished to bring relief to the besieged, was prevented by the overflowing of the river Vulturnus, and by the earnest entreaties of the people of Nola and Acerræ, who dreaded the Campanians, in case of the departure of the Roman troops. Gracchus, having received injunctions from the dictator not to engage in any enterprize during his absence, but to maintain his post near Casilinum, did not venture to stir, although he received such accounts from that town, as were sufficient to overcome every degree of patience. It appeared that several, unable longer to endure hunger, had thrown themselves down precipices, and that others stood unarmed on the walls, exposing their naked bodies to the blows of the missive weapons. Gracchus felt great concern for their distresses; but he neither dared to engage in fight, contrary to the dictator’s order, (and fight he plainly must, if he attempted openly to throw in provisions,) nor had he any hope of getting them conveyed in clandestinely by his men. He therefore collected corn from all parts of the country round; and having filled therewith a great number of casks, sent a messenger to Casilinum to the magistrate, desiring that the people should catch the casks which the river would bring down. The following night was passed in attentively watching for the completion of the hopes raised by the Roman messenger, when the casks, being sent along the middle of the stream, floated down to the town, and the corn was divided equally among them all. The same stratagem was practised with success on the following night, and on the third. The casks were put into the river, and conveyed to the place of their destination in the course of the same night, by which means they escaped the notice of the enemy’s guards: but the river being afterwards rendered more rapid by continued rains, a whirling eddy drove them across to the side where the enemy’s guards were posted, and there they were discovered sticking among osiers which grew on the banks. This being reported to Hannibal, care was taken for the future to guard the Vulturnus with greater vigilance, so that no supply, sent down by it to the city, should pass without discovery. Notwithstanding which, quantities of nuts being poured into the river at the Roman camp, and floating down in the middle of the stream to Casilinum, were stopped there with hurdles. The scarcity, however, at last became so excessive, that tearing off the straps and the leathern covers of their shields, and softening them in boiling water, they endeavoured to chew them, nor did they abstain from mice or any other kind of animal. They even dug up every sort of herb and root that grew at the foot of the ramparts of the town, and when the enemy had ploughed up all the ground round the wall, that produced any herbs, they sowed it with turnip seed, which made Hannibal exclaim, “Am I to sit here before Casilinum until these grow?” Although he had hitherto refused to listen to any terms of capitulation, yet he now allowed overtures to be made to him, respecting the redeeming of the men of free condition. An agreement was made, that for each of these a ransom should be paid of seven ounces of gold; and then, having received the ratification of the same, the garrison surrendered. They were detained in custody until all the gold was paid, and afterwards honourably escorted to Cumæ. This is a more probable account than that which relates that they were slain by a body of cavalry, ordered to attack them on their departure. The greatest part of them were Prænestines; out of five hundred and seventy of these, (the number who were in the garrison,) almost one half perished by the sword or by famine, the rest returned in safety to Præneste with their commander Manicius, who had formerly been a notary there. The truth of this relation is attested by a statue of him erected in the Forum at Præneste, clad in a coat of mail, and dressed in a gown, with the head covered; and by three images, with an inscription engraved on a plate of brass, importing that “Manicius vowed these in behalf of the soldiers, who were in the garrison at Casilinum.” The same inscription was placed under the three images in the temple of Fortune.
XX. The town of Casilinum was restored to the Companians, and strengthened by a reinforcement of seven hundred men from Hannibal’s army, lest, on the departure of the Carthaginian, the Romans should attack it. To the Prænestine soldiers, the Roman senate decreed two years’ pay, and immunity from military service for five years. Being offered the rights of Roman citizens, in consideration of their bravery, they chose to remain in their own community. With regard to the fate of the Perusians, our information is not so clear; for we receive no light either from any monument of their own, or any decree of the Romans. About the same time, the Petellians, who alone of all the Bruttians had persevered in maintaining friendship with Rome, were attacked not only by the Carthaginians, who were in possession of the adjacent country, but also by the other Bruttians, who resented their following separate counsels. Unable to withstand such a multitude of foes, the Petellians sent ambassadors to Rome to solicit succour. The utmost compassion was excited in the breasts both of the senate and people by these men’s prayers and tears; for on being told that they must depend on themselves for safety, they burst out into piteous lamentations in the porch of the senate-house. The affair being proposed a second time to the consideration of the senators, by Manius Pomponius the prætor, after examining into the resources of the commonwealth in every quarter, they were obliged to acknowledge that they were not now in a capacity of assisting their distant allies; they therefore desired the ambassadors to return home, and after doing their utmost to fulfil the duty of faithful confederates, to provide for their own safety in the best manner the present circumstances would permit. When the result of this embassy was reported to the Petellians, their senate was suddenly seized with such grief and terror, that many of them advised to abandon the city, and seek refuge wherever each could find it; others, that since they were forsaken by their old connexions, they should unite with the rest of the Bruttians, and through their mediation surrender themselves to Hannibal. However, the majority were of opinion that no step should be taken rashly, or in a hurry; but that the matter should be considered anew. Accordingly it was taken under deliberation on the following day, when their fears had in some measure subsided, the more considerable persons prevailing on them to bring in all their effects from the country, and to fortify the walls and the city.
XXI. About this time letters were brought to Rome from Sicily and Sardinia. Those written from Sicily by Titus Otacilius, pro-prætor, were first read in the senate; the contents were, that “Publius Furius, the prætor, had come from Africa to Lilybæum with his fleet, and that he himself was grievously wounded, so that his life was in imminent danger, that neither pay nor corn was furnished to the soldiers and marines at the regular times, nor were there any funds from which they could be obtained; that he earnestly recommended that supplies of these articles might be sent as soon as possible, and also, that, if it seemed proper, one of the new prætors might be appointed to succeed him in his employment.” The letters of Aulus Cornelius Mammula, pro-prætor, from Sardinia, were nearly of the same purport respecting hay and corn. To both the same answer was given, that there were no means of forwarding supplies, and that they themselves must take measures for providing for their fleets and armies. Titus Otacilius, however, sending ambassadors to Hiero, the only resource of the Roman people in that quarter, received from him as much money as was necessary for the pay of the troops, and corn sufficient for six months. In Sardinia, the allied states gave a liberal contribution to Cornelius. At Rome there was such a scarcity of money, that it was judged requisite, on a proposal made to that purpose, by Marcus Minucius, plebeian tribune, to constitute three public bankers; these were Lucius Æmilius Papus, who had been consul and censor, Marcus Atilius Regulus, who had been twice consul, and Lucius Scribonius Libo, who was then plebeian tribune. Two Atilii, Marcus and Caius, being appointed commissioners for the purpose, dedicated the temple of Concord, which Lucius Manlius had vowed in his prætorship. Three pontiffs were also elected, Quintus Cæcelius Metellus, Quintus Fabius Maximus, and Quintus Fulvius Fiaccus, in the room of Publius Scantinius, deceased, and of Lucius Æmilius Paullus, the consul, and Quintus Ælius Pætus, who had fallen in the battle of Cannæ.
XXII. When the senate had repaired, as far as could be effected by human wisdom, the losses sustained by other parts of the state, through the uninterrupted course of disasters in which fortune had involved them, they at length turned their thoughts on themselves, on the solitude that appeared in the senate house, and the small number of those who assembled in the great council of the nation: for the council had not been filled up since the censorship of Lucius Æmilius, and Caius Flaminius, although, during these five years, the unfortunate battles, besides the casualties to which every man is subject, had swept off such a number of its members. As the dictator was now gone, after the loss of Casilinum, to join the army, this business was, at the earnest request of all, proposed to the consideration of the senate by Manius Pomponius, a prætor. On which Spurius Carvilius, after having, in a long speech, lamented not only the fewness, but even the total want of citizens, who might be chosen into their body, said, that “for the purpose of filling up the senate, and of forming a closer connexion with the Latine nation, he recommended, with all the earnestness which a matter of that importance demanded, that, if the Roman fathers thought proper so to order, two senators out of each of the Latine states should be invested with the rights of citizens, and adopted in the room of the members deceased.” This proposition the senators heard with no less disgust than had been excited by a demand of the same purport, formerly made by the Latines themselves. A murmur of indignation, indeed, spread through every part of the assembly, Titus Manlius in particular, saying, that “there still existed one of the same race with that consul, who formerly declared in the Capitol, that he would with his own hand put to death any Latine whom he should see in the senate-house.” Quintus Fabius Maximus said, that “never was the mention of any business in that house more perfectly unseasonable than was (when the minds of the allies were in suspense, and their fidelity doubtful,) the touching on a subject which might create farther disquiet among them. That all present were bound to bury in universal forgetfulness those inconsiderate words of one individual; for that if ever any matter occurred in that house that demanded secrecy, and induced a solemn obligation to silence, it was this proposition, which, beyond every other, ought to be covered, concealed, and consigned to oblivion, and to pass as if it never had been uttered.” This prevented any farther discussion. They then came to a resolution, that a dictator should be created, to elect members into the senate; and that he should be a person who had formerly been censor, and was the first in seniority living, of those who had held that office. They likewise ordered, that the consul Caius Terentius should be sent for, in order to nominate the dictator. Leaving his troops in Apulia, he came thence by long journies to Rome, and pursuant to the decree of the senate, on the following night, according to the custom, nominated Marcus Fabius Buteo dictator, for six months, without a master of the horse.
XXIII. Buteo mounted the rostrum, attended by his lictors, and declared, that “he did not approve of two dictators at one time, of which there had hitherto been no precedent; neither was he content with his own appointment to the dictatorship, without a master of the horse; nor of the censorial power being entrusted to a single person, and to that person a second time: nor yet of authority being granted to a dictator for six months, unless he were to command in war. But those particulars, in which accident, the exigencies of the times, and necessity, had caused such irregularities, he would reduce into regular order. For, in the first place, he would not displace any of those senators whom Caius Flaminius and Lucius Æmilius had elected, in their censorship; he would only order the list of them to be transcribed, and read over; for no single person ought to have authority to judge and determine on the character and morals of a senator; and that, in substituting others in the room of those deceased, he would regulate his choice in such a manner, that the preference should be seen to lie between one rank and another, not between one man and another.” When the list of the old senate had been read, he then elected, first, in room of the deceased members, those who, since the censorship of Lucius Æmilius and Caius Flaminius, had obtained any curule magistracy, and had not yet been elected senators, and these in order, according to the priority of their appointments to office. Next, he made choice of those who had been ædiles, plebeian tribunes, or quæstors. Then, out of such as had never held a public office, he selected those who had spoils taken from an enemy hanging in their houses, or had received the prize of a civic crown. Having, in this manner, and with the entire approbation of all ranks of men, elected into the senate one hundred and seventy-seven members, he instantly abdicated his office, ordered the lictors to depart, and came down from the rostrum a private citizen. He then mixed with the crowd employed in their private concerns, or who were loitering in the Forum, and this he did to prevent them from quitting the place to escort him. However, the warmth of their zeal was not cooled by that delay, and they conducted him [Editor: illegible word] in vast numbers.
XXIV. On the following night, the consul set out on his return to the army, without acquainting the senate, lest he should be detained in the city on account of the elections: who next day, on the business being proposed by the prætor Manius Pomponius, decreed that a letter should be written to the dictator, with directions that, if he judged it consistent with the public good, he should come home to hold the election of consuls and should bring the master of the horse, and the prætor Marcus Marcellus, in order that government might learn from them in person, the state of the public affairs, and adopt such measures as circumstances required. All those came whose presence was desired, leaving lieutenant-generals to command the legions. The dictator, speaking briefly and modestly of his own services, attributed a great share of the honour acquired to the master of the horse, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. He then published a proclamation for an assembly of election, in which were created consuls, Lucius Postumius, the third time, being absent, employed in the government of the province of Gaul; and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, then master of the horse, and curule ædile. Then followed the choosing of prætors: these were Marcus Valerius Lævinus, Appius Claudius Pulcher, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, and Quintus Mucius Scævola. As soon as the appointment of magistrates was finished, the dictator returned to Teanum, the winter-quarters of his army, leaving the master of the horse at Rome; in order that, as he was to enter into office in a few days, he might take the judgment of the senate concerning the levying and procuring troops for the service of the year. While the public attention was employed principally on this business, an account was brought of a new disaster, fortune crowding into this year events of that nature in constant succession; this was, that Lucius Postumius, consul elect, together with his army, had been cut off in Gaul. On the road through which he was to lead his army, there was a wood of vast extent, the Gauls called it Latina: the trees of this wood, adjoining the road on the right and left, the Gauls had cut in such a manner, that as long as they were untouched they stood, but on being pushed, even with the slightest force, they fell. Postumius had with him two Roman legions, and had enlisted such numbers from among the allies on the coast of the upper sea, that he led an army of twenty-five thousand men into the enemy’s country. The Gauls posted themselves round the outer skirts of the wood, and, when the army on its march entered the pass, they then pushed the outermost trees of those which they had cut; these fell against the next, and those likewise against others unsteady before, until, overwhelming the Romans on all sides, they crushed in one universal ruin, men, horses, and arms; so that scarcely ten of them made their escape; the greater part were bruised to death by the trunks of the trees, or entangled in the fragments of branches, while the remainder, dismayed by this sudden and strange disaster, were slain by the Gauls, who, in arms, enclosed every part of the wood. Out of so great a number, a very few were taken prisoners; these pushing for a bridge which lay over a river, were intercepted by the enemy, who had taken possession of it before. Here Postumius fell, fighting with the utmost bravery to avoid being taken. This general’s head the Boians cut off, and, together with the spoils taken from his body, carried it in triumph into a temple, which they held in the highest reverence. Afterwards emptying the head, as their custom is, they enchased the skull with gold, and this they used as a consecrated vessel, out of which they made libations on high festivals; and as a cup to be drank out of by the officiating priest, and the other priests of the place. The booty also, which fell into the hands of the Gauls, was as abundant, as their victory was complete: for although hardly any escaped destruction from the falling of the wood, yet every thing else was found spread regularly along the line of the lifeless troops; because there had been no flight, and consequently no removal of any thing.
XXV. On the news of this calamity, such dismay possessed the public during several days, that the shops were shut, and solitude, like that of midnight, prevailed through the whole city, until the government charged the ædiles to go round through all the streets, to order the shops to be opened, and this appearance of public mourning to be laid aside. Then Tiberius Sempronius, assembling the senate, endeavoured to console them by saying, that “they who had not sunk under the ruinous disaster at Cannæ, should not let their courage be depressed by misfortunes of less moment.” He observed, that “provided their operations against Hannibal, and their Carthaginian enemies, were attended with success, (as he hoped they would,) the prosecution of the war against the Gauls might, without danger, be suspended; and that it would be always in the power of the gods and of the Roman people to take ample vengeance for their treachery. It was their business, therefore, to consult and deliberate on the measures to be taken against the Carthaginian, and on the strength with which that war was to be conducted.” He gave them a detail of the numbers of infantry and cavalry, of Romans, and of allies, in the dictator’s army: then Marcellus laid before them the amount of his own troops, while inquiry was made as to the force in Apulia, with the consul Caius Terentius. But no plan could be devised, of forming consular armies sufficiently powerful to cope with such formidable enemies. Wherefore, though strongly stimulated by just resentment, they determined to suspend all proceedings against Gaul for that year. The dictator’s army was decreed to the consul. It was resolved that those soldiers in Marcellus’s army, who had fled from Cannæ, should be transported into Sicily, and serve there as long as the war should continue in Italy; and that to the same place should be sent the least able in the dictator’s legions, but there was no order that these should be detained during any particular term, but only for the number of campaigns directed by law. The two city legions were assigned to the other consul, who should be substituted in the room of Lucius Postumius; who, it was determined, should be elected as soon as it could be done with permission of the auspices: that two legions should be brought home, with all expedition, from Sicily; out of which, the consul appointed to the charge of those of the city, should take as many soldiers as should be necessary; that the consul Caius Terentius should be continued in command for a year, and that no diminution should be made in the force employed under him for the defence of Apulia.
XXVI. During the period in which those events took place, and these preparations were making in Italy, the war was prosecuted with no less vigour in Spain, but success had hitherto inclined to the Romans. The two Scipios, Publius and Cneius, divided the forces between them, that Cneius might conduct the operations on land, and Publius those at sea; while Hasdrubal, who commanded the Carthaginians, having little confidence in any strength that he could muster against either, kept aloof, relying for safety on the distance and on the nature of the ground, until, after long and frequent solicitations, a reinforcement was sent him from Africa, of four thousand foot and five hundred horse. At length resuming hopes, he removed his camp nearer to the enemy, and gave orders, in person, for preparing and fitting out a fleet, for the protection of the islands, and the sea-coast. In the midst of the hurry of his preparations for recommencing the war anew, he was greatly alarmed by the desertion of the commanders of his ships, who, having been severely reprimanded for abandoning the fleet at the Iberus, in a cowardly manner, had never since been very faithfully disposed, either to the general, or the interest of the Carthaginians. These deserters had excited an insurrection in the country of the Tartessians, where, at their instigation, several cities had revolted, and one they had even taken by storm. Instead, therefore, of directing his operations against the Romans, he turned them against his own nation; and, having entered their territory in an hostile manner, resolved to attack Galbus, a general of high reputation, commander of that people, who, with a powerful force, kept close within his camp, under the walls of the city, which had been taken a few days before. Accordingly, sending forward his light-armed troops to draw out the revolters to battle, he despatced part of his infantry to ravage the lands, on all sides, and pick up stragglers: thus, at the same time, the camp was alarmed, and the country filled with flight and slaughter. At length, when by different roads, the fugitives had escaped within their works, they so entirely got rid of their panic, that they had courage sufficient, not only to defend them, but even to challenge Hasdrubal to battle. They sallied out therefore in a body from the camp, dancing according to their custom; and their unexpected boldness struck terror into those who, a little before, took pains to provoke them. Hasdrubal, therefore, drew back his forces to an eminence of considerable height, and farther secured by a river running at the foot of it, ordering the advanced party of light troops, and the scattered horsemen, to retreat to the same place; but still not thinking himself sufficiently secured by the hill or the river, he fortified his camp completely with a rampart. While they thus terrified each other alternately, several skirmishes took place, in which the Numidian cavalry proved not a match for the Spanish, nor the Mauritanian javelin bearer for the targeteer; the latter possessing, together with equal activity, much greater strength and much more courage.
XXVII. The Tartessians, finding, that they could not, by advancing to his camp, entice the Carthaginian to an engagement; and that, on the other hand, an assault on it would be attended with much difficulty, stormed the city of Asena, where Hasdrubal, on entering their territory, had stored up his corn and other provisions: and this gave them the command of all the adjacent country. And now they could no longer, either on a march, or in a camp, be kept in order by any command. As soon, therefore, as Hasdrubal perceived that success had, as usual, begotten such disorder, he exhorted his men to attack them while they straggled without their standards; and descending from the hill, proceeded, in order of battle, towards their camp. His approach being announced by messengers, flying back in consternation from the watch posts and advanced guards, the general alarm was given; on which, as fast as each could take up his arms, without command, without signal, without regard to any regular disposition, or even to ranks, they rushed out to battle. The foremost had already engaged in fight, while some ran up, in small parties, and others had not yet come out of the camp. However, at the beginning, merely through their daring boldness, they struck terror into the Carthaginians; but afterwards, as their thin ranks closed with the compact bands of these, the danger, from the smallness of their numbers, becoming apparent, each began to look about for support, and, being repulsed in all parts, they collected themselves in a circle. Here, crowding together, they were driven into such a narrow compass, that they had scarcely room to move their arms, and, in this situation, were entirely surrounded, so that the slaughter of them continued through the greater part of the day. A small number, having forced a passage, made off to the woods and mountains; with like consternation, the camp was abandoned, and the whole nation, the day following, submitted to the conqueror. But it did not continue long in a state of peace: for orders were brought at several times from Carthage that Hasdrubal should, with all speed, lead his army into Italy. The report of this intended procedure, spreading through Spain, wrought a change in the disposition of almost every state, in favour of the Romans. Hasdrubal, therefore, immediately despatched a letter to Carthage, representing what mischief the said report of his departure had occasioned. That “if he were really to remove thence, the Romans would be masters of Spain, before he should cross the Iberus. For, besides that he had neither forces, nor commander, whom he could leave in his place, the Roman generals were such, that, with strength equal to theirs, it was scarcely possible to withstand them; wherefore, if they had any regard for the country in question, they ought to send a successor in his room, with a powerful army; who, though all events should prove prosperous, would find in the province but little time for repose.”
XXVIII. Although this letter made a considerable impression on the senate, yet deeming Italy of superior importance, and entitled to the first attention, they made no change in the orders respecting Hasdrubal and his forces. Himilco was sent with a complete army and an extraordinary number of ships, in order to maintain a superiority in Spain, both by land and sea, and to defend it from all attacks. After transporting his land and sea forces, he fortified a camp, drew up the ships on land, and surrounded them with a rampart; and then, attended by a body of chosen horsemen, with all possible expedition, and with the same precautions in passing through nations whose attachment was doubtful, as through those who were professed enemies, he came to Hasdrubal. As soon as he had communicated to him the decrees and orders of the senate, and learned from him, in turn, the method in which the war in Spain was to be conducted, he returned without delay to his own camp, being indebted for safety to the celerity of his motions; for, before a plot could be concerted, any where, against him, he had always left the place. Hasdrubal, previously to his march, imposed contributions on all the states under his authority; for he well knew that Hannibal had, on several occasions, purchased a passage; that no consideration, but that of pay, made his Gallic auxiliaries remain with him; and that, if he had undertaken such an expedition, unprovided with money, he could scarcely have penetrated so far as to the Alps. Having therefore, with violent haste, exacted the same, he marched down to the Iberus. When the Romans were informed of the decrees of the Carthaginians, and of Hasdrubal’s movement, the two commanders, renouncing every other business, determined with their united forces to obstruct and put a stop to his enterprise. For they considered, that, if Hannibal, whose single force Italy could hardly withstand, should be joined by the Spanish army with Hasdrubal at its head, there would be an end of the Roman empire. Anxiously intent on effecting this purpose, they made a junction of their forces on the bank of the Iberus, and, crossing the river, held a long consultation whether they should directly face the enemy, or be content with detaining him, by attacking his allies. The result was, that they determined to lay siege to the city called Ibera, from the river near which it stood, at that time the most opulent in all that part of the country. When Hasdrubal understood this, instead of bringing succour to his allies, he likewise proceeded to besiege a town, lately put under the protection of the Romans: in consequence of which, the siege already formed by the latter was raised, and their force directed against Hasdrubal himself.
XXIX. For a few days, they remained encamped at the distance, from each other, of five miles, not without skirmishes, but neither party offering battle. At length, on one and the same day, both, as if by concert, displayed the signal for fighting, and brought their whole force into the field. The Romans were formed in three lines; one half of the light troops were posted among the battalions in the front, the other half were sent back to the rear; the cavalry covered the wings. Hasdrubal composed the centre of his line of Spaniards; on the right wing, he posted his Carthaginians; on the left, the Africans and hired auxiliaries; his cavalry he placed on the wings, annexing the Numidians to the Carthaginian infantry, the others to the Africans. However, all the Numidians were not placed on the right wing, but those only, whose practice it was, to bring two horses each into the field, and often in the very hottest of the fight to spring, notwithstanding the weight of their armour, from the wearied horse upon the fresh one, like those who exhibit feats of activity as a show; so great is the agility of the men, and so docile their breed of horses. While they stood, ranged in this manner, the hopes entertained by the commanders were pretty nearly equal on both sides: for neither one party nor the other had any very great advantage, either in the number, or qualifications of their men. But the sentiments of the soldiery were widely different: for the Romans had been easily brought by their commanders to believe, that though they fought at a great distance from their country, yet their efforts were to decide the fate of Italy, and of the city of Rome. Therefore, as their return to their native soil depended on the issue of that battle, they had come to a determined resolution, either to conquer or die. The men who composed the opposite army were not possessed of such inflexible firmness; for the greatest part of them were Spaniards, who wished rather to be defeated in Spain, than, after gaining the victory, to be dragged into Italy. No sooner therefore was the first onset made, than almost, before the javelins were thrown, the centre of their line began to give way; and, on being vigorously pressed by the Romans, turned their backs. On the wings, however, the fight was maintained with spirit; the Carthaginians on the one, and the Africans on the other, charging with briskness, and, as they had their enemy in a manner inclosed between them, attacking them on both sides. But as soon as the whole of the Roman troops had once come together into the centre, its strength was sufficient to compel the wings to retire in opposite directions. Thus there were two distinct battles; and, in both, the Romans, who, after the defeat of the enemy’s centre, had the superiority both in the number and strength of their men, were completely victorious. In this engagement, vast numbers of the enemy were slain; and, had not the Spaniards fled so precipitately before the battle was well begun, very few of their whole army would have survived. The cavalry had no share in the engagement: for, as soon as the Moors and Numidians saw the centre giving way, they instantly betook themselves to a precipitate flight, leaving the wings uncovered, and driving the elephants before them. Hasdrubal, after staying until the fortune of the day was finally decided, made his escape from the midst of the carnage, accompanied by a few. His camp was taken and plundered by the Romans. If the inclinations of any people in Spain were hitherto doubtful, this battle fixed them in the interest of the Romans, and deprived Hasdrubal of every hope, not only of leading an army into Italy, but even of remaining in Spain with any degree of safety. These events being made known at Rome, by letters from the Scipios, caused universal rejoicing, not so much in consideration of the victory itself, as of Hasdrubal’s being thereby prevented from bringing his army into Italy.
XXX. While affairs in Spain proceeded in this manner, the city of Petellia in Bruttium was, after a siege of several months, taken by Himilco, an officer of Hannibal’s. This conquest cost the Carthaginians abundance of blood; but it was not force, so much as famine. that overcame the besieged: for, after having consumed all kinds of eatable fruits, and the flesh of every kind of four-footed beast, they lived at last on the leather of their shields, on herbs and roots, and the tender bark of trees, with berries gathered from the brambles. Nor were they prevailed on to surrender, until their strength was so entirely exhausted, that they were unable to stand on the walls, or to carry their arms. After getting possession of Petellia, the Carthaginian led his forces against Consentia, which was not defended with equal obstinacy, but capitulated in a few days. About the same time, an army of Bruttians invested Croton, a Greek city, formerly powerful in men and arms, but now reduced so low, by many and heavy misfortunes, that the number of its citizens of every age amounted to not quite twenty thousand. The place, therefore, being destitute of men for its defence, was easily mastered. The citadel alone held out, into which, during the confusion consequent to the storming of the city, and while the other inhabitants were put to the sword, some had made their escape. The Locrians too revolted to the Bruttians and Carthaginians, through the treachery of the nobles, who betrayed the populace. The Rhegians alone, in all that tract, maintained to the last their alliance with Rome, and their own independence. The same disposition to change spread also into Sicily, and even the family of Hiero was not entirely uninfected with the spirit of revolt: for Gelo, his eldest son, having conceived a contempt of his father’s declining age, and also, since the defeat at Cannæ, of the Roman connexion, joined the Carthaginians, and would have caused much disturbance in Sicily, had not a death so seasonable, that it threw some stain of suspicion even on his father, carried him off, while he was busy in arming the populace, and courting alliances. Such were the transactions of this year, prosperous and otherwise in Italy, Africa, Sicily, and Spain. Towards the close of the year, Quintus Fabius Maximus demanded of the senate, that he might be allowed to dedicate the temple of Venus Erycina, which he had vowed in his dictatorship; and the senate decreed, that Tiberius Sempronius, consul elect, should, as soon as he entered into office, propose to the people the creation of Quintus Fabius, duumvir, for performing the dedication of that temple. In honour of Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, who had been twice consul, and an augur, his three sons, Lucius, Marcus, and Quintus, celebrated funeral games, which lasted three days; in the course of which, they exhibited, in the Forum, twenty-two pairs of gladiators. The curule ædiles, Caius Lætorius and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, consul elect, who, during his ædileship, had likewise been master of the horse, performed the Roman games, which were also repeated during three days. The plebeian games of the ædiles, Marcus Aurelius Cotta and Marcus Claudius Marcellus, were thrice repeated.Y.R. 537. 215. At the conclusion of this third year of the Punic war, Tiberius Sempronius, consul, assumed the administration of his office on the ides of March. Of the prætors, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, who had formerly been twice consul, and likewise censor, held the city jurisdiction, and Marcus Valerius Lævinus that respecting foreigners. The lots gave to Appius Claudius Pulcher the province of Sicily; to Quintus Mucius Scævola that of Sardinia. The people ordained, that Marcus Marcellus should have authority as proconsul, in consideration of his being the only one of the Roman commanders, who, since the disaster at Cannæ, had fought with success.
XXXI. The senate, on the first day of their meeting upon business in the Capitol, passed a decree, that double taxes should be imposed for that year, of which, one half should be levied without delay, for the purpose of giving immediate pay to all the troops, excepting those who had been at Cannæ. With respect to the several armies they ordered, that the consul Tiberius Sempronius should appoint a day for the two city legions to repair to Cale, from whence these legions should be conducted to the Claudian camp, above Suessula. As to the legions which were there, consisting mostly of the troops who had been at Cannæ, it was ordered, that Appius Claudius Pulcher, the prætor, should transport them into Sicily, and that those then in Sicily should be brought home to Rome. To the army appointed to assemble at Cale, Marcus Claudius Marcellus was sent with orders, to lead off those city legions to the Claudian camp. Appius Claudius sent Titus Metellius Croto, lieutenant general, to take the command of the old army, and transport it into Sicily. People had at first expected in silence, that the consul would call an assembly for the election of a colleague in his office: afterwards, when they saw that Marcus Marcellus, whom above all others they wished to be appointed consul for that year, on account of his extraordinary successful conduct in his prætorship, was, as it were purposely, sent out of the way, a murmur arose in the senate-house; on observing which, the consul said, “Conscript Fathers, the public service required, that Marcus Claudius should go into Campania, to make the exchange of the armies; and that a day of election should not be proclaimed until his return, after finishing the business given him in charge, that you may have the consul whom the exigencies of the state require, and who is most agreeable to your wishes.” After this, there was no mention of an election until Marcellus returned. In the mean time, Quintus Fabius Maximus, and Titus Otacilius Crassus, were created duumvirs for the dedication of temples, the latter to dedicate one to Mens, the former, that to Venus Erycina. Both stand in the Capitol, separated by a channel running between them. A proposition was then offered to the people respecting the three hundred Campanian horsemen, who, after faithfully serving out their legal term in Sicily, had returned to Rome, that they should be admitted Roman citizens; and moreover, that they should be deemed to have been citizens of Cumæ, from the day preceding that on which the people of Campania revolted from the Romans. The passing of this law was expedited by the representation of the men themselves, that they knew not to what people they belonged, having renounced their original country, and being not yet adopted into that to which they had returned from abroad. As soon as Marcellus came home from the army, an assembly was summoned for the choice of a consul, in the room of Lucius Postumius. Marcellus was unanimously elected, and ordered to enter immediately into office; but just as he was about to assume the administration, thunder was heard, and the augurs being called, pronounced, that there must have been a defect in the election; whereupon the patricians openly asserted that the appointment of two plebeians to the consulship, of which there had never before been an instance, was what gave displeasure to the gods. On this, Marcellus abdicated the office, in the place of whom was substituted Fabius Maximus, who had twice before been honoured with it. This year the sea appeared on fire; a cow at Sinuessa brought forth a foal; the statues in the temple of Juno Sospita at Lanuvium sweated blood; and a shower of stones fell round the same temple. On account of this shower the nine days’ worship, usual on like occasions, was performed, and the prodigies were carefully expiated.
XXXII. The consuls then made division of the forces assigned them. The army which had been with Marcus Junius, the dictator, fell to the share of Fabius; and that which had been composed of volunteer* slaves, together with twenty-five thousand of the allies, was given to Sempronius. The legions, to be brought home from Sicily, were decreed to Marcus Valerius, the prætor; and Marcus Claudius, proconsul, was sent to command the army, encamped above Suessula, for the protection of Nola. The prætors set out for Sicily and Sardinia. The consuls gave public orders, that whenever they should summon a meeting of the senate, the senators and persons entitled to the privilege of speaking in council,† should assemble at the Capuan gate. The prætors, presiding in the courts of justice, fixed their tribunals in the public fish-market; where they ordered all parties concerned to attend, and there justice was administered during that year. In the mean time, when Mago, Hannibal’s brother, was just ready at Carthage to carry over into Italy twelve thousand foot, and one thousand five hundred horse, twenty elephants, and one thousand talents of silver*, under the convoy of sixty ships of war, news arrived, that the army in Spain had been defeated, and that almost every state of that province had gone over to the Romans. Several were now of opinion that they ought, for the present, to lay aside all concern for Italy, and send Mago, with the fleet and army under his command, into Spain. And at this very juncture, a flattering prospect suddenly presented itself, of recovering the possession of Sardinia: for they were told, that “the Roman army there was small, and that Aulus Cornelius, the present prætor, who was well acquainted with the province, was preparing to leave it, and that a new one was expected. They were informed also that the minds of the Sardinians were become dissatisfied, under the burden of a foreign government of so long continuance; which had, during the last year, been marked with cruelty and avarice; that the people were oppressed with grievous taxes, and an unreasonable contribution of corn, and that nothing was wanting, but a head to whom they might transfer their allegiance.” This intelligence was conveyed by a secret embassy from the principal inhabitants, at the instigation chiefly of Hampsicora, who at that time possessed a share of interest and influence, far exceeding that of any other man in the island. These accounts arriving together almost at the same moment, stunned and revived them. They sent Mago with his fleet and army into Spain, and appointed Hasdrubal, surnamed the Bald, their general for Sardinia, assigning him a number of forces, nearly equal to what they had given Mago. At Rome, the consuls, after finishing every business that was to be performed in the city, were now actively employed in preparations for the campaign. Tiberius Sempronius published a proclamation, that his soldiers should assemble at Sinuessa on an appointed day; and Quintus Fabius, with the approbation of the senate, issued another, that all persons should carry in their corn, of all kinds, from the fields to the fortified towns, before the calends of June next ensuing; and that if any disobeyed this order, his farm should be laid waste, his slaves sold by auction, and his farm-houses burnt. Even the prætors appointed to preside in the courts of justice were not allowed an exemption from military employments: it was determined that the prætor Valerius should go into Apulia, to receive the command of the army from Terentius, and that when the legions from Sicily should arrive, he should employ them principally in the defence of the country, and send in their stead Terentius’s army under some lieutenant-general. Twenty-five ships were also put under the command of Publius Valerius, the city prætor, that with them he might protect the sea-coast between Brundusium and Tarentum. An equal number were assigned to Quintus Fulvius, for securing the coasts nearest to the city. Caius Terentius, proconsul, was ordered to press soldiers in the territory of Picenum, and to provide for the security of that part of the country; and Titus Otacilius Crassus, when he had dedicated the temple of Mens, was sent into Sicily, and invested with the command of the fleet.
XXXIII. On this contest, between the two most powerful nations in the world, all kings and nations kept their attention earnestly fixed; but more particularly, Philip, king of Macedonia, because he was nearer to Italy than any other, being separated from it only by the Ionian sea. When he first received information of Hannibal having passed the Alps, as he was overjoyed at the breaking out of war between the Romans and Carthaginians, so, as long as there was no important trial of their strength, his judgment remained equally balanced between the parties, uncertain to which he should wish success. But, when he saw that the Carthaginians had fought three battles, and in each of the three had proved victorious, the scale turned to the side favoured by fortune, and he despatched ambassadors to Hannibal. These, shunning the harbours of Brundusium and Tarentum, because they were guarded by the Roman squadrons, landed at the temple of Juno Lacinia; taking their way thence through Apulia, towards Capua, they fell in with the Roman posts, and were by them conducted to the prætor, Marcus Valerius Lævinus, then encamped near Luceria. Here Xenophanes, who was at the head of the embassy, with perfect composure declared, that he had been sent by king Philip to conclude a treaty of alliance and friendship with the Roman people, and was charged with despatches for the consuls, and for the senate and people of Rome. Valerius, highly delighted with the prospect of a new alliance with a king of such distinguished reputation, at a time when the defection of the old allies had become so general, received these enemies with every degree of courtesy as guests, and gave them an escort, who were ordered to point out carefully the roads, and what places, and what passes, were held by the Romans, or by the enemy. Xenophanes, after passing through the Roman posts into Campania, came thence, by the shortest road, into the camp of Hannibal, and concluded a treaty of alliance and friendship with him on these terms: that “king Philip, with the largest fleet that he could fit out, (and it was supposed that he would be able to make up the number of two hundred ships,) should come over into Italy, lay waste the sea-coast, and annoy the enemy by sea and land, as far as lay in his power. On the conclusion of the war, all Italy, with the city of Rome itself, should be the property of Hannibal and the Carthaginians, and all the booty should be at the disposal of Hannibal. As soon as the conquest of Italy should be completed, the Carthaginians should sail into Greece, and wage war against such nations as the king should direct, and all conquests to be made on the continent, and all the islands on the coast of Macedonia, should be the property of Philip, and united to his dominions.”
XXXIV. On these conditions, principally, was a treaty concluded between the Carthaginian general and the Macedonian ambassadors; and with the latter were sent Gisco, Bostar, and Mago, in quality of ambassadors to receive the ratification of it from the king in person. They arrived at the same spot near the temple of Juno Lacinia, where a ship lay waiting for them in a secret creek. Having set sail from thence, and got into the open sea, they were descried by the Roman fleet which guarded the coasts of Calabria: and Publius Valerius Flaccus despatched some Corcyran fly-boats to pursue and bring back the ship. On which the king’s party endeavoured, at first, to escape; but, afterwards, finding that they were inferior in swiftness of sail, they surrendered themselves to the Romans, and were brought to the commander of the fleet. When he inquired who they were, whence, and whither they were bound, Xenophanes, at first, repeated the feigned story, which had once already succeeded very well, “that he had been sent by Philip to the Romans, and had proceeded as far as the quarters of Marcus Valerius, but could go no farther with safety, as it was not in his power to make his way through Campania, every pass there being guarded by the enemy.” Afterwards, the Carthaginian dress and manners raised some suspicion of Hannibal’s ambassadors; and, some questions being put to them, their language betrayed them; on which, their attendants were removed into separate places, and terrified with menaces, by which means Hannibal’s letter to Philip was discovered, and also the articles of the convention between the Macedonian king and the Carthaginian general. Their designs being thus fully detected, it was judged most adviseable, that the prisoners, and their accompaniers, should with all speed be conveyed to the senate at Rome, or to the consuls, wherever they were. For this service five of the quickest sailing vessels were chosen, and the command of them given to Lucius Valerius Antias, who received orders to distribute the ambassadors through all the ships, to be kept separate under guards, and to take care that there should be no conversation or communication between them. About this time, Aulus Cornelius Mammula, returning from the province of Sardinia to Rome, gave a representation of the state of affairs in that island; that all the people were inclined to revolt; that Quintus Mucius, his successor in the government, had on his coming been so affected by the grossness and moisture of the air, that he fell into a disorder, not so dangerous, as tedious, and consequently would, for a long time, be incapable of military service; and that the army there, though strong enough for the maintenance of order in the province, during a time of peace, was yet very unequal to the support of the war, which appeared ready to break out. On this the senate decreed, that Quintus Fulvius Flaccus should enlist five thousand foot, and four hundred horse; that he should take care to have this legion conveyed to Sardinia without any delay; and that he should send some proper person, commissioned to conduct the business of the war, until Mucius’s health should be re-established. In this employment was sent Titus Manlius Torquatus, who had been twice consul, and likewise consor, and who had, in one of his consulates, subdued Sardinia. About the same time the fleet from Carthage for Sardinia, under Hasdrubal, surnamed the Bald, after suffering severely in a violent storm, was driven out of its course to the Balearick isles, where a great deal of time was lost in docking and repairing the ships, for not only their rigging, but even their hulls, had been damaged.
XXXV. On the side of Italy, the prosecution of the war, since the battle of Cannæ, had been less vigorous than usual, the strength of one party being broken, and the courage of the other enervated. The Campanians, therefore, undertook to bring the state of Cumæ into subjection to themselves. At first, they tried to prevail on that people to renounce the alliance of Rome; but not succeeding in that method, contrived a stratagem to circumvent them. There was a stated festival at Hamæ, at which all the Campanians used to attend. They told the Cumans, that the Campanian senate would come thither, and requested that the senate of Cumæ might likewise come, in order that they might consult together, and, with common consent, adopt such measures as that both states might have the same friends and the same foes; they themsleves, they said, would bring an armed force for their protection, so that there would be no danger either from the Romans or Carthaginians. The Cumans, though they suspected treachery, yet offered no objection, thinking this the best way to cover the deception, which they meditated. In the mean-time Tiberius Sempronius, the Roman consul, after performing the purification of his army at Sinuessa, where he had appointed them to assemble, crossed the river Vulturnus, and encamped at Liternum. As he had in this post no employment for his arms, he obliged the soldiers frequently to go through their exercise, that the recruits, of whom the greatest part were volunteer-slaves, might learn from practice to follow the standards, and to know their own centuries in the field. In the midst of these employments, the general’s principal care was, and he accordingly gave charges to the lieutenants-general and tribunes, that “no reproach, cast on any one on account of his former condition, should sow discord among the troops; that the veteran soldier should be satisfied at being put on a level with the recruit, the freeman with the volunteer-slave; that they should account every one sufficiently honourable and well-born, to whom the Roman people entrusted their arms and standards; observing that, whatever measures fortune made it necessary to adopt, it was equally necessary to support these when adopted.” These directions were not more carefully inculcated by the officers than observed by the soldiers; insomuch that, in a short time, they all became united in such a perfect harmony of sentiment, that it was almost forgotten what each man had been before he became a soldier. While Gracchus was thus employed, ambassadors from Cumæ brought him information of the embassy which had come to them, a few days before, from the Campanians, and the answer which they had returned, and told him, that the festival would begin on the third day following, and that not only the whole senate, but the camp and army of the Campanians would be present. Having ordered the Cumans to convey all their effects out of the fields into the city, and to keep close within the walls, Gracchus himself removed to Cumæ, on the day previous to that which the Campanians had fixed for the commencement of their sacrifices. From hence Hamæ was three miles distant. The Campanians, as had been concerted, had assembled here in great numbers, and at a small distance, Marius Alfius, who was Medixtuticus, that is, the chief magistrate of the Campanians, with fourteen thousand soldiers, was secretly encamped, and was much more busily employed in preparations for the festival, and in the measures requisite for the execution of the treacherous project, than in fortifying his camp, or any other military work. The festival at Hamæ was to last three days, and the rites began after night-fall, so as to be finished at midnight. This hour Gracchus judged the most proper for a surprise, and accordingly, posting guards at the gates to prevent any one carrying intelligence of his design, he obliged the soldiers to spend the time from the tenth hour in taking refreshment and getting some sleep, that they might assemble on a signal as soon as it grew dark; then, about the first watch, he ordered the standards to be raised, and marching out in silence arrived at Hamæ at midnight. Here, finding the Campanian camp in a neglected state, as might be expected from the soldiers having spent the night without sleep, he assaulted it through all the gates at once, and put the men to the sword, some as they lay stretched on the ground, others as they returned unarmed after finishing the sacrifices. In the tumultuous action of this night, there were more than two thousand men slain, together with their general Marius Alfius, and thirty-four military standards taken.
XXXVI. Gracchus, after making himself master of the enemy’s camp with the loss of less than one hundred men, returned quickly to Cumæ, being afraid of Hannibal, who had his camp on the Tifata over Capua. Nor was his judgment mistaken in dictating this provident step; for no sooner had the news of the overthrow reached Hannibal, than he marched by Capua with the utmost rapidity, expecting to find at Hamæ an army, which consisted for the most part of raw recruits and slaves, indulging extravagant joy in consequence of success, and employed in gathering the spoils of the vanquished, and driving off their booty. He ordered such of the Campanians as he met in their flight, to be conducted to Capua, under an escort, and the wounded to be conveyed in carriages. At Hamæ he found nothing but the traces of the recent carnage, and the ground covered with the bodies of his allies. Several now advised him to proceed directly to Cumæ, and attack that city: but, though it accorded with his anxious wishes to have Cumæ at least as a sea port, since he could not get possession of Neapolis, nevertheless, as his soldiers, on their hasty march, had brought nothing but their arms, he retired back to his camp on the Tifata. Being afterwards earnestly urged to the attack by the Campanians, he returned next day to Cumæ with every thing requisite for a siege, and after utterly wasting the country, pitched his camp at the distance of a mile from the city, in which Gracchus had determined to stay, rather through the shame of abandoning, at such a perilous juncture, allies imploring protection from him and the Roman people, than from any great confidence in his troops. Neither could the other consul, Fabius, who had his camp at Cales, venture to cross the river Vulturnus, being engaged at first in taking new auspices, afterwards in attending to prodigies, which were reported one after another; beside, while expiating these, he was told by the aruspices, that it would not be easy to obtain favour of the gods.
XXXVII. While Fabius was prevented from stirring by these causes, Sempronius was held besieged, and now was even exposed to the attacks of machines. Against a huge wooden tower, which was brought up near to the town, the Roman consul raised another tower, much more elevated, by fixing strong piles contiguous to the wall, which in itself was very high. This the besieged formed into a platform, whence, throwing stones, javelins, and other missile weapons, they maintained the defence of their works and city. At last, when the machine had approached close to the wall, and with blazing firebrands, they threw on it all at once an immense quantity of combustibles; while the soldiers within, terrified by the flames, cast themselves down headlong from the same. The garrison, sallying out from two gates at the very time, overthrew the enemy’s advanced guards, and drove them back to their camp; so that the Carthaginian was, on that day, more like a person besieged than besieging. One thousand three hundred of the Carthaginians were slain, and fifty-nine taken prisoners, who, standing careless and negligently near the walls, and on the advanced posts, and fearing nothing less than a sally, were surprised unawares. Gracchus sounded a retreat before the enemy should recover from their sudden fright, and drew back his men within the walls. Next day Hannibal, supposing that the consul, elated with success, would be willing to try the issue of a regular engagement, drew up his forces in order of battle between his camp and the city: but when he saw that not a man stirred, except in the customary guard of the town, and that nothing would be hazarded on inconsiderate hopes, he returned with disappointment to the Tifata. At the very time of the raising the siege of Cumæ, Tiberius Sempronius, surnamed Longus, fought with success against Hanno at Grumentum in Lucania, killed above two thousand of the enemy, and took forty-one military standards, losing two hundred and eighty of his own men. Hanno, expelled from the Lucanian territories, retreated backward into Bruttium. In another quarter, three towns of the Hirpinians, which had revolted from the Roman people, were attacked and retaken by the prætor, Marcus Valerius. Vercellius and Sicilius, the instigators of the revolt, were beheaded, and above one thousand of the prisoners exposed to sale: the rest of the booty was bestowed on the soldiers, and then the troops were led back to Luceria.
XXXVIII. While affairs proceeded thus in Lucania and Hirpinia, the five ships carrying the captive ambassadors of the Macedonians and Carthaginians to Rome, after making a circuit from the upper sea to the lower, round the greater part of the coast of Italy, were sailing by Cumæ, when they were observed by Gracchus, who, not knowing whether they belonged to friends or enemies, sent a part of his fleet to meet them. Here mutual inquiries discovering that the consul was at Cumæ, the ships put into that harbour, the prisoners were conducted to the consul, and the packet they had in charge delivered to him. Having read the letters of Philip and Hannibal, he inclosed, and sent them to the senate by land, ordering the ambassadors to be conveyed thither by sea. These, with the inclosures, arrived at Rome on the same day, or nearly; and the answers of the former on their examination being conformable to the contents of the letters, the senate were at first grievously perplexed at the prospect of such a formidable war impending from Macedonia, when they were scarcely able to support that with the Carthaginians. Yet, so far were they from suffering their courage to be depressed, that they instantly began to deliberate how they might, by offensive operations, divert the enemy from Italy. After ordering the prisoners to be kept in close confinement, and their attendants to be exposed to public sale, they decreed, that, besides the twenty ships, under the command of Publius Valerius Flaccus, twenty-five others should be got ready for sea. These being equipped and launched, and joined by the five which had brought the captive ambassadors, set sail from Ostia for Tarentum, and orders were sent to Publius Valerius to take on board them the soldiers, formerly commanded by Varro, and who were then at Tarentum under Lucius Apustius, lieutenant-general; and, with his fleet, which would then consist of fifty ships, not only to protect the coast of Italy, but to procure intelligence concerning the hostile designs of the Macedonians. If Philip’s intentions were found to correspond with the letters, and the informations of the ambassadors, he was then to forward intelligence of this to the prætor, Marcus Valerius, who, leaving the command of the army to his lieutenant-general, Lucius Apustius, and hastening to Tarentum to the fleet, was to cross over into Macedonia with all expedition, and use his best endeavours to detain Philip in his own dominions. For the maintenance of the fleet, and the support of the war with Macedonia, that money was ordered to be applied, which had been sent into Sicily to Appius Claudius to be returned to King Hiero, and this was conveyed to Tarentum by the lieutenant-general, Lucius Apustius. Together with it, were sent by Hiero two hundred thousand pecks of wheat, and one hundred thousand of barley.
XXXIX. While the Romans were employed in this manner, and making such preparations, the captured ship, which had been sent with the others to Rome, made its escape on the voyage, and returned to Philip; by which means he learned, that his ambassadors, with the letters, had fallen into the hands of the Romans. Wherefore, as he knew not what terms of agreement had been settled between them and Hannibal, nor what accounts they would have brought him, he despatched another embassy with the same instructions. The persons employed in this commission to Hannibal were Heraclitus, surnamed Scotinus, Crito Berræus, and Sositheus Magnes: these effected the business with which they were charged, without meeting any obstruction, either in going or returning. But the summer had passed away before Philip could put himself in motion, or enter on any enterprise: so important were the consequences attending the capture of that single vessel with the ambassadors, as to defer the war with which the Romans were threatened. With regard to the campaign in the neighbourhood of Capua, Fabius, after expiating the prodigies, passed the Vulturnus, and then both the consuls entered on action. Fabius took by assault Combulteria, Trebula, and Saticula, (cities which had revolted to the Carthaginian,) and in them were made prisoners Hannibal’s garrisons, and vast numbers of Campanians. At Nola, as was the case the year before, the senate being inclined to the side of the Romans, and the populace to that of the Carthaginians, the latter held secret cabals, in which schemes were formed for massacreing the nobility and delivering up the city: but to prevent their designs taking effect, Fabius, marching his army across between Capua and Hannibal’s camp on the Tifata, took post over Suessula in the Claudian camp, and thence detached Marcus Marcellus, proconsul, with the troops under his command, to secure the possession of Nola.
XL. In Sardinia the business of the campaign, which had been suspended ever since the prætor Quintus Mucius had been seized with a severe disorder, began to be prosecuted by Titus Manlius, who, drawing the ships of war into dock at Carale, and arming the marines to act on land, made up, with the army which he received from Mucius, the number of twenty-two thousand foot, and twelve hundred horse. With this force he marched into the enemy’s country, and pitched his camp at a small distance from that of Hampsicora. It happened that at this time the latter had gone into the country of those Sardinians, called Pelliti, with design to procure a reinforcement to his army by enlisting their young men: his son, named Hiostus, commanded in the camp, and he, with the presumption of youth, inconsiderately hazarding an engagement, was defeated, and put to flight; three thousand of the Sardinians being slain in the battle, and about eight hundred taken. The rest of the troops, at first, ran struggling through the fields and woods; but, afterwards, all directed their flight to Cornus, the principal city in that country, into which they heard that their commander had fled. This battle would have put an end to the war in Sardinia, had not the Carthaginian fleet under Hasdrubal, which had been driven out of its course to the Balearick isles, arrived just in time to revive the hopes of the revolters. Manlius, on hearing of the arrival of the Carthaginian fleet, marched back to Carale; and this afforded an opportunity to Hampsicora of effecting a junction with the Carthaginian. Hasdrubal, when he had disembarked his troops, sent back the fleet to Carthage; and then, using Hampsicora as a guide, he marched, with fire and sword, into the lands belonging to the allies of the Roman people, and would have proceeded even to Carale, had not Manlius, by throwing his army in the way, checked the violence of his depredations. For some time, they lay encamped opposite to each other, at a small distance; then followed skirmishes and encounters between small parties, in which success was various. At last they marched out to battle, and, meeting in regular array, maintained a general engagement for the space of four hours. That the victory remained so long in suspense was owing to the Carthaginians, for the Sardinians had now been accustomed to yield an easy conquest. At last, when nothing was to be seen on any side of them but the light and slaughter of the Sardinians, they also gave way. But just as they were turning their backs, the Roman general, wheeling round with that wing of his army which had, beaten the Sardinians, inclosed their rear, and then followed a carnage rather than a fight. Of the Sardinians and Carthaginians together, there fell twelve thousand; about three thousand six hundred, with twenty-seven military standards, were taken.
XLI. But what contributed, above all, to render this success brilliant and memorable, was, the taking of the general Hasdrubal, and two other Carthaginians of high distinction, Hanno and Mago; Mago being of the Barcine family, and nearly related to Hannibal, and Hanno the person who instigated the Sardinians to a revolt, and unquestionably the author of the present war. Nor was the fortune of the Sardinian commanders, on this occasion, less remarkable; for Hiostus, son of Hampsicora, fell in the fight; and the father, after having fled with a few horsemen, when, in addition to his other misfortunes, he heard also of his son’s death, put an end to his own life in the night-time, lest some interruption might prevent his design: to the rest, the city of Cornus, as on the former occasion, afforded a refuge; but Manlius attacking it with his victorious troops, made himself master of it in a few days. On this, the rest of those states, which had joined Hampsicora and the Carthaginians, made their submission, and gave hostages. Having imposed on these, in proportion to the power or delinquency of each, contributions of corn, and pay for the troops, he led back his army to Carale; and there, launching the ships of war, and embarking the troops which he had brought to the island, he sailed to Rome, and informed the senate of the total reduction of Sardinia, delivered the money raised by the contributions to the quæstors, the corn to the ædiles, and the prisoners to the prætor Quintus Fulvius. About the same time Titus Otacilius, proprætor, sailing over from Lilybæum to Africa, with a fleet of fifty ships, ravaged the Carthaginian territories. As he was returning to Sardinia, on hearing that Hasdrubal had lately crossed over thither from the Baleares, he met his fleet on its way from Africa; and, after a slight engagement in the open sea, took seven of the ships, with their crews. Their fears dispersed the rest not less effectually than a storm would have done. It happened that, at the same time, Bomilcar, with supplies of men and provisions, and forty elephants sent from Carthage, put into the harbour of Locri. On which Appius Claudius, intending to surprise him, drew all his forces hastily to Messana, under a pretext of making a circuit round the island, and with the favour of the tide crossed over to Locri; but Bomilcar had already left the place, and gone to join Hanno in Bruttium, and the Locrians shut their gates against the Romans. Without effecting any thing by such a powerful effort, Appius returned to Messana.
XLII. During this summer Marcellus made frequent excursions from Nola, where he was stationed in garrison, into the lands of the Hirpinians and Caudine Samnites, and with fire and sword caused such utter devastation through every part of the country, as renewed in Samnium the memory of those calamities which they had suffered of old. Both nations therefore immediately joined in sending ambassadors to Hannibal, who addressed him in this manner: “Hannibal, we, by ourselves, waged war against the Roman people, as long as our own arms, and our own strength, were sufficient for our defence: when we found that we could no longer trust to these, we united ourselves to king Pyrrhus; by whom being deserted, we submitted to a peace, which our circumstances made necessary, and which we continued to observe, through a space of almost sixty years, to the time when you came into Italy. Your kind demeanour and singular generosity to our countrymen, whom, when prisoners in your hands, you restored to us, as well as your bravery and success, inspired us with such esteem and admiration, that having you in health and safety to befriend us, we feared not the resentment of the Roman people, nor (if it is allowable so to speak) even that of the gods. But now, indeed, while you are not only in safety, and possessed of victory, but while you are present, and can, in a manner, hear the lamentations of our wives and children, and see our houses in flames; still, we say, we have experienced, in the course of this summer, such depredations, that it seems as if Marcus Marcellus, not Hannibal, were the conqueror at Cannæ; the Romans boasting, that you had just vigour enough for that one stroke, and having as it were lost your sting, are now become a drone. For near one hundred years, we maintained a war against the Roman people, without the assistance of any foreign leader or army, since in the two years that Pyrrhus was joined with us, he rather augmented his own forces with our strength, than defended us with his. I shall not make a display of our successes, except in sending under the yoke two consuls and two consular armies; though it is certain that other events have contributed to our glory. As to the difficulties and misfortunes which we then underwent, we can recount them with less indignation, than those which fall upon us this day. Renowned dictators, with their masters of horse; two consuls, with two consular armies at a time, were used to enter our territories; and, with every precaution of first exploring the country, and posting rear guards, proceeded in order of battle to commit depredations; at present we are in a manner the prey of one little garrison, which is scarcely sufficient to man the walls of Nola. They scour every quarter of our country; not in companies, but like common robbers, with less precaution than they would use in rambling through the province of Rome. Now the cause of this is, that you do not afford us protection, and that at the same time our youth, who, if at home, would defend us, are all employed under your standards. As we are not unacquainted with you or your forces; as we know that you have defeated and cut off so many armies of Romans; surely we must judge it an easy matter for you to overpower those marauders amongst us, who straggle about without order, and ramble wherever allured by the slightest hope of gain. They may be instantly subdued by a handful of Numidians; and while you send supporters to us, you will, by the same means, strip the Nolans of theirs. In fine, it is hoped that after having taken us under your protection, and deemed us worthy of alliance, you do not now judge us undeserving your interference in our defence.”
XLIII. To this Hannibal answered, that “the Hirpinians and Samnites did too many things at once; they represented their sufferings, petitioned for protection, and at the same time complained of being undefended and neglected. Whereas, they ought first to make the representation; then to request protection; and, in the last place, if their request were not complied with, then, and not before, to complain of having implored aid in vain. That he would lead his army not into the territories of the Hirpinians or Samnites, lest he should prove an additional burthen, but into the nearest places belonging to the allies of the Roman people; by the plunder of which, he would enrich his soldiers, and, at the same time, by the terror of his arms, drive far away the enemy from them. As to what concerned the war between him and Rome, if the fight at the Trasimenus was more honourable than that at the Trebia, and the one at Cannæ than that at the Trasimenus, he was resolved, by a still more complete and more splendid victory, to eclipse the lustre of the battle of Cannæ.” With this answer, and with ample presents, he dismissed the ambassadors; and leaving a small body of troops on the Tifata, began his march with the rest of his army, and proceeded to Nola. Thither also came Hanno from Bruttium, with the supplies and the elephants brought from Carthage. Having encamped at no great distance from the town, he found, on inquiry, every circumstance widely different from the representations made by the ambassadors of his allies. For no part of Marcellus’s conduct was such, as could be said to leave an unguarded opening either to fortune or to an enemy. When going to a plundering expedition, his practice had been to procure a knowledge of the country; to provide strong supports and a safe retreat; and to use every care and caution just as if Hannibal were present. At this time, when he perceived the Carthaginian approaching, he kept his troops within the walls, and ordered the senators of Nola to walk round on the ramparts, and take a view on every side of what passed among the enemy. From the other side, Hanno, coming up to the wall, invited Herennius Bassus and Herius Pettius to a conference; and when, with the permission of Marcellus, they came out, he addressed them by an interpreter, extolled Hannibal’s courage and success, and in the most contemptuous terms vilified the majesty of the Roman people, as mouldering into decay, together with their strength. “But,” said he, “supposing all matters were on the same footing as before, yet as it is found by experience how burthensome the government of Rome is to its confederates, and how great the generosity of Hannibal has been, even to every one of his prisoners, who bore the name of an Italian, an alliance of friendship with the Carthaginians was surely to be wished in preference to one with the Romans. If both the consuls, with their armies, were at Nola, they would no more be able to cope with Hannibal, than they had been at Cannæ; much less would a single prætor, with a handful of men, and these raw recruits, be equal to the defence of Nola. Whether Hannibal was to gain possession of that town by storm, or by capitulation, was a matter which concerned themselves more than him, for gain it he would, as he had gained Capua and Nuceria; and how different the fate of Capua was from that of Nuceria, the Nolans themselves, situated about midway between the two places, could not but know. He refrained from mentioning the consequences which necessarily followed the taking of a city by assault; and with more pleasure took upon him to engage, that, if they would deliver up Nola, together with Marcellus and the garrison, they should themselves dictate the terms on which they were to be received into friendship and alliance with Hannibal.”
XLIV. To this Herennius Bassus replied, that “for many years past, a friendship had subsisted between the states of Rome and Nola, with which neither party had, to that day, seen reason to be dissatisfied; and that though people’s attachments were to follow the changes of fortune, it was now too late for them to change theirs. Men who were afterwards to surrender to Hannibal ought not to have sent for a Roman garrison. Their destiny was now, and would continue to be, to the last, connected, in every particular, with that of the person who came to their support.” This conference took away from Hannibal all hope of gaining Nola by treachery; he therefore invested the city quite round, intending to attack the walls in all parts at once. When Marcellus saw him approach the works, having formed his troops within the gate, he sallied forth with great impetuosity. At the first push, several were beaten down and slain; then others running up to those who were engaged, and their power being brought to an equality, the battle became furious, and would have been memorable among the few which are most celebrated, had not violent rain, attended by a desperate storm, separated the combatants. After this small trial of strength, which served only to irritate their passions, they retired for that day, the Romans into the city, the Carthaginians into their camp. However, on the first irruption, some of the Carthaginians, not above thirty, fell under the shock, and not one of the Romans. The rain continued without intermission through the whole night, and lasted until the third hour of the following day. Wherefore, notwithstanding that both parties eagerly longed for battle, yet they remained during that day within their works. On the third day, Hannibal sent a part of his forces to ravage the lands of the Nolans; which, when Marcellus observed, he instantly drew out his forces and offered battle, nor did Hannibal decline the challenge. The distance between the city and the camp was about a mile: in this space, which was level, as is all the ground about Nola, the armies met. The shout raised, on both sides, called back the nearest of those cohorts which had gone into the country for plunder, to the battle, which had begun when they arrived. The Nolans joined themselves to the Roman forces; and Marcellus, after commending their zeal, ordered them to take post in reserve, and to carry off the wounded from the line; but, by no means to engage in the fight, unless they received a signal from him.
XLV. The battle was long doubtful, every one exerting himself to the utmost, the officers in encouraging the men, and the men in fighting. Marcellus urged his soldiers to press briskly on those whom they had defeated but three days before; who had been put to flight from Cumæ not many days since, and who, in the last year, had been repulsed from Nola by himself, then likewise in command, though with other troops. “All the enemy’s forces,” he told them, “were not in the field; some of them were rambling through the country in search of prey; and those who were in the fight were debilitated by Campanian luxury, having exhausted their vigour in the practice of every kind of intemperance and debauchery, through the whole course of the winter. Their former strength was gone, they were no longer possessed of that firmness, either of body or mind, which had enabled them to surmount the Pyrenean and the Alpine heights. Those they had now to engage with, might be called the shadows of those armies: men scarcely able to support their limbs and armour. Capua to Hannibal had not proved a Cannæ. There, warlike courage; there, military discipline; there, the glory of the past, and the hope of future times, were all extinguished.” While Marcellus raised the courage of his men by such contemptuous representations of the enemy, Hannibal upbraided his in terms of reproach far more bitter: “He knew these,” he said, “to be the same arms and standards, which he had seen and used at the Trebia, at the Trasimenus, and at Cannæ; but as to the men, he had certainly led one army into winter-quarters to Capua, and brought out thence another of a different kind. Do you, whom two consular armies united have never withstood, find it difficult, with all your efforts, to stand against a Roman lieutenant-general, against the exertions of one legion, and a band of auxiliaries? Does Marcellus, with his raw recruits and Nolan auxiliaries, attack us a second time with impunity? Where is that soldier of mine who dragged the consul Caius Flaminius from his horse, and took off his head? Where is he who slew Lucius Paullus at Cannæ? Has the sword lost its edge? Are your right hands benumbed; or what other prodigy is this? You, who used to conquer, when the advantage in number was against you, now, when that advantage is in your favour, scarcely maintain your ground. With great bravery in your tongues, you were used to declare, that you would take Rome if any one would lead you to it; the present is a much less difficult business. I wish to have a trial of your strength and courage here. Take Nola, a town standing in a plain, and not fenced by either sea or river; and then, when you are laden with the plunder and spoils of that opulent city, I will either lead or follow you whithersoever you choose.”
XLVI. Neither soothing nor reproaches wrought any effect towards confirming their courage. They lost ground in every quarter, while the Romans assumed fresh spirits, not only from the exhortations of their commander, but from the animating shouts raised by the Nolans, in testimony of their good wishes. The Carthaginians, at length, gave up the contest, and were driven into their camp; and even this the Roman soldiers were eager to attack; but Marcellus drew them back into Nola, where they were received with great joy, and congratulations, even by the populace, who till then had been more inclined to the Carthaginians. On that day were slain more than five thousand of the enemy; taken, six hundred, with nineteen military standards, and two elephants; four of the latter were killed in the battle. Of the Romans there fell not quite one thousand. Both, as if by a tacit convention, spent the next day in burying their dead, and Marcellus, in pursuance of a vow to Vulcan, burned the spoils. On the third day after, one thousand two hundred and seventy-two horsemen, partly Numidians, and partly Spaniards, through some resentment, I suppose, or hopes of better treatment, deserted to Marcellus; and these, during the remainder of the war, served the Romans, on many occasions, with much bravery and fidelity. After the conclusion of it, ample portions of land were assigned to them in acknowledgment of their valour; to the Spaniards, in Spain, and to the Numidians, in Africa. Hannibal, sending back Hanno from Nola to Bruttium, with the forces which he had brought thence, went himself into winter-quarters in Apulia, and cantoned his troops in the neighbourhood of Arpi. When Quintus Fabius heard that the foe was gone into Apulia, he collected stores of corn from Nola, and Neapolis, in the camp above Suessula, the fortifications of which he strengthened; and, leaving there a garrison, sufficient for the security of the post, during the winter, removed nearer to Capua, laying waste the country of Campania, with fire and sword, to such a degree, that the people were compelled, though with no great confidence in their own strength, to go out of their gates, and fortify a camp near the city in the open plain. Their force amounted to six thousand men. The infantry being very indifferent soldiers, their principal reliance was on the cavalry: these, therefore, they employed in annoying the enemy.
XLVII. Among a great number of Campanian horsemen, of high reputation, was Cerrinus Jubellius, surnamed Taurea. He was a native there, and celebrated for his abilities as a horseman far beyond all the others of that country, insomuch that while he acted in the service of Rome, there was but one Roman, Claudius Asellus, who had an equal reputation in that line. For this man, Taurea long searched as he rode before the squadrons of the enemy. At last, demanding attention, he inquired where was Claudius Asellus, and why, since he had been accustomed to assert himself to be his equal, did he not decide the point with the sword; and either by suffering a defeat give glorious spoils, or by victory acquire them? When this was reported, in the camp, to Asellus, he only waited to ask the consul’s leave to engage, though out of rule, with the challenger. Having obtained permission, he instantly armed himself, and riding out beyond the advanced guards, called on Taurea by name, and dared him to the field. The Romans had now come in crowds to behold the fight; and the Campanians, to gain a view of it, had filled not only the rampart of the camp, but likewise the walls of the city. After a prelude of furious expressions, to give the business an air of the greater consequence, they spurred on their horses, with their spears prepared for action. Having free space, wherein they parried each other’s assaults, the fight lasted for some time without a wound on either side. At length the Campanian said to the Roman, “this will be but a trial of skill between our horses, not between their riders, unless we descend into yon hollow way. There, as there will be no room for wheeling to one side or another, we may meet hand to hand.” Scarcely were the words uttered, when Claudius leaped his horse down into the road, on which Taurea, more daring in words than in action, said, “Never be an ass in a dyke,” which expression became afterwards proverbial among rustics. Claudius, riding up again into the plain, traversed the ground to a considerable distance from the road, without meeting any antagonist; and then, exclaiming against the cowardice of his foe, returned victorious to the camp, amidst general rejoicing and congratulations. To this encounter, some histories add a wonderful circumstance, (how far worthy of belief, the reader may judge for himself,) that Claudius, pursuing Taurea, as he fled back to the city, rode in at one of the enemy’s gates which stood open, and escaped unhurt through another, while the soldiers stood motionless through astonishment.
XLVIII. From this time the troops remained without employment, and the consul even drew back his camp to a distance, that the Campanians might till their grounds; nor did he offer any injury to the lands, until the blades in the corn fields were sufficiently grown to serve as forage. He then conveyed the corn in this state into the Claudian camp over Suessula, where he erected huts against the winter. He gave orders to Marcus Claudius, pro-consul, that, retaining at Nola a garrison sufficient for the defence of the place, he should send the rest of his force to Rome, lest they should be a burden to the allies, and an expense to the state. In another quarter, Tiberius Gracchus having led his legions from Cumæ to Luceria in Apulia, detached thence the prætor, Marcus Valerius, to Brundusium, with the troops which he had commanded at Luceria, ordering him to guard the coast of the Sallentine territory, and carefully pursue all such measures as should be found requisite with respect to Philip, and the Macedonian war. Towards the close of that summer, in which happened those events which we have related, letters arrived from the Scipios, Publius and Cneius, setting forth the great importance and successful issue of their operations in Spain; but that they were in want of every thing, pay, clothing, and corn for the army, and the crews of the ships. With regard to the pay, they observed, that, if the treasury were low, they would themselves devise some method of procuring it from the Spaniards; but that the other articles must, at all events, be sent from Rome, otherwise, neither the army, nor the province, could be preserved. When the letters were read, both the truth of the facts represented, and the reasonableness of the demands, were universally acknowledged; but they were struck by the following considerations: “What numerous forces on land and sea they were obliged to maintain; and, what a large additional fleet must soon be provided, in case of a war with Macedonia breaking out. That Sicily and Sardinia, which, before, had yielded a revenue, now scarcely maintained the troops employed in their own defence. That the public expenses were supplied by a tax; but as the number of those who contributed to this tax, had been diminished by the great slaughter of the troops at Trasimenus, and at Cannæ; so the surviving few, if loaded with multiplied impositions, must perish likewise, only by a different malady. It was therefore concluded, that, if the state did not find support in credit, it could find none in money; and it was judged proper, that the prætor, Fulvius, should go out to the assembly of the commons, and lay before the people the necessitous situation of the country; exhorting them, that such as had increased their estates by farming the public revenues, should now assist that government, to which they owed their prosperity, with indulgence in respect of time; and that they should engage to furnish, by contract, the supplies necessary for the army in Spain, on condition, when money should come into the treasury, of being the first paid.” These matters the prætor explained in the assembly, and gave public notice of the day, on which he would contract for the supplying of clothing, and corn, for the army in Spain, and such other things as were necessary for the men on board the fleet.
XLIX. When the time came, three companies, consisting of nineteen men, attended, in order to engage in the contract. Their demands were twofold: first, that they should be exempted from military service as long as they might be concerned in this business of the state; the other, that when they had sent goods on ship-board, any damage afterwards sustained either through the means of storms, or of the enemy, should be at the public loss. Both being complied with, they concluded the contract, and with the money of private persons: such were the habits of thinking, such the love of their country, which, with uniform influence, pervaded all ranks of men. As all engagements were entered into with great spirit, so were they fulfilled with the most faithful punctuality, and exactly in the same manner, as if the supplies were drawn, as formerly, out of an opulent treasury. At this time, the town of Illiturgi, having revolted to the Romans, was besieged by Hasdrubal, Mago, and Hamilcar son of Bomilcar. Between these three camps, the Scipios, after a difficult struggle, and a great slaughter of their opponents, forced their way into the place, introducing a quantity of corn, of which there had been a scarcity. Then, after exhorting the townsmen to defend their walls, with the same courage with which they had seen the Roman troops fight in their behalf, they marched to attack the largest of the camps, where Hasdrubal had the command. Thither also came up the two other Carthaginian generals, with their two armies, who perceived that on the issue of that attack the fate of all depended: the troops in camp therefore sallied out to the fight. There were in the engagement, of the enemy, sixty thousand; of the Romans about sixteen thousand; yet so far was the victory from being doubtful, that the Romans slew a greater number of the Carthaginians than they themselves had in the field; took above three thousand prisoners; somewhat less than one thousand horses; fifty-nine military standards; killed five elephants in the battle; and took possession of the three camps on one and the same day. When the siege of Illiturgi was thus raised, the Carthaginian armies marched to lay siege to Intibili; recruiting their forces out of that province, which was, above all others, fond of war, provided either plunder or hire was in view, and which, at that time, abounded with young men. A second general engagement took place, attended with the same event on both sides: upwards of thirteen thousand of the enemy were killed, and more than two thousand taken, with forty-two standards and nine elephants. On this, almost every state in Spain joined the party of the Romans; and, during this campaign, the events of the war there were much more important than those in Italy.
* Roman officers appointed to command the troops furnished by the allies, with the same rank and authority which the tribunes held in the Roman legions.
* 16l. 2s. 11d.
* Called volones, from volo, I am willing, the answer given by each when he was asked whether he was willing to enlist.
† All those who had held curule offices had a right to a seat in the senate, and to give their opinions, but they could not vote until they were regularly admitted by the censors, and registered.
* 193, 750l.
Hieronymus, king of Syracuse, takes part with the Carthaginians; is put to death by his subjects, on account of his tyranny and cruelty. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, pro-consul, with an army composed mostly of slaves, defeats the Carthaginian army under Hanno, at Beneventum; gives the slaves liberty. Most of the States in Sicily go over to the side of the Carthaginians. Claudius Marcellus consul besieges Syracuse. War declared against Philip king of Macedonia, who is surprised by night, and routed at Apollonia. Operations of the Scipios, against the Carthaginians, in Spain. Treaty of friendship with Syphax king of Numidia; he is defeated by Massinissa king of the Massylians. The Celtiberians join the Romans, and their troops are taken into pay: the first instance of mercenaries serving in a Roman army.
Y.R. 537. 215.I. ON his return from Campania into Bruttium, Hanno, assisted by the Bruttians, who served him also as guides, endeavoured to gain possession of the Greek cities, which were the more inclined to adhere to their alliance with Rome, for the very reason that they saw the Bruttians, whom they both hated and feared, taking part with the Carthaginians. The first attempt was made on Rhegium, and several days were spent there to no purpose. Meanwhile the Locrians hastily conveyed from the country into the city, corn, timber, and other necessaries, for which they might have occasion, wishing at the same time to leave nothing which the enemy could seize; while the multitude, which poured out of the gates, became every day more and more numerous. At last, those only were left in the place, who were obliged to prepare the works, and to carry weapons to the posts of defence. Against this mixed multitude, consisting of persons of all ages and ranks, and straggling through the fields, mostly unarmed, Hamilcar, the Carthaginian, sent out his cavalry, who, having received orders not to hurt any of them, only threw their squadrons in the way to cut off their retreat to the city, towards which they directed their scattered flight. The general himself, having taken his station on an eminence, which commanded a view both of that and the adjacent country, ordered a cohort of Bruttians to approach the walls, and invite the leaders of the Locrians to a conference, and, with assurances of Hannibal’s friendship, to persuade them to a surrender. At the beginning of the conference, the Bruttians had no credit given to any of their representations. Afterwards, when the Carthaginians appeared on the hills, and the few citizens, who had effected an escape, had informed the townsmen that the rest of the multitude were in the enemy’s power, then, overcome by fear, they answered, that they would consult the people. Accordingly, they instantly summoned an assembly, in which appeared all of the most unsettled who wished for a change of measures and of allies, with those, whose relations had been intercepted by the enemy, and who had their judgments influenced by those pledges, as if so many hostages had been given for their conduct; while a few rather approving in silence, than venturing openly to maintain the cause which they would have espoused, it was concluded, with every appearance of perfect unanimity, to surrender to the Carthaginians. Lucius Atilius, the commander of the garrison, and the Roman soldiers who were with him, were privately conveyed to the harbour, and put on board ships, to be carried off to Rhegium, and then the townsmen received Hasdrubal and his Carthaginians into the city, on the condition of an alliance being immediately entered into on terms of equality. When they had surrendered, they were very near losing the benefit of this stipulation; for the Carthaginian general accused them of having covertly sent away the Roman commander, while they alleged that he had escaped without their privity. A body of cavalry was now sent in pursuit, in case, by any accident, the current might detain him in the streight, or drive the ships to land: these did not overtake him; but they saw other ships crossing from Messana to Rhegium, which carried Roman soldiers, sent by the prætor, Claudius, as a garrison for the security of that city: in consequence of this, the enemy withdrew immediately from Rhegium. In pursuance of orders from Hannibal, a treaty of peace was concluded with the Locrians, on these terms, that “they should live in freedom under their own laws; that the city should be open always to the Carthaginians, but that the harbour should remain in their possession, as at first; and that, as the fundamental principle of the treaty, the Carthaginians should, on all occasions, assist the Locrians, and the Locrians the Carthaginians.”
II. The Carthaginians, after this, marched back from the streight, while the Bruttians expressed great dissatisfaction at their having left Rhegium and Locri in safety, for they had destined to themselves the plunder of those places. Wherefore, having formed into bodies, and armed fifteen thousand of their own young men, they set out to lay siege to Croto, another Grecian city and a sea-port; thinking that it would prove a very great accession to their power, if they should gain possession of an harbour on the coast, and of a strongly fortified town. They were embarrassed by the considerations, that they could not well venture to proceed without calling in the Carthaginians to their assistance, lest they should appear to conduct themselves, in any case, inconsistently with the character of confederates; and that, on the contrary, should the Carthaginian general again act rather as an umpire of peace, than an auxiliary in war, the attack on the independence of Croto, like the former one on Locri, would be productive, to them, of no advantage. For these reasons it was judged most adviseable to send ambassadors to Hannibal, to procure from him beforehand an engagement, that Croto, when reduced, should be the property of the Bruttians. Hannibal, remarking that persons on the spot were the fittest to determine in such a case, referred them to Hanno, from whom they could obtain no decisive answer: for these commanders did not wish that a city, so celebrated and so opulent, should be plundered; and, at the same time, they entertained hopes, that, as the Bruttians were to be the assailants, the Carthaginians not appearing either to countenance or aid the attack, the inhabitants might, the more readily, come over to their side. But the Crotonians were not united in their designs, or in their wishes. The same distemper, as it were, had seized every one of the states of Italy; the nobility and commons embracing opposite parties, the former favouring the Romans, the latter violently endeavouring to bring about an union with the Carthaginians. A deserter informed the Bruttians, that a dissension of this sort prevailed in Croto, that one Aristomachus headed the party of the commons, and pressed them to surrender to the Carthaginians; that the city, being very extensive, and the works stretching to a great extent on all sides, the watches were divided separately between the senators and commons; and that, in every quarter, where the latter had the guard, the assailants would find a ready entrance. Under the direction and guidance of this deserter, the Bruttians encircled the town, and being received into it by the plebeians, carried, at the first assault, every post except the citadel; of this the nobles held the possession, having beforehand secured a refuge there, in case of such an event as now happened. Aristomachus also fled thither, pretending that he had advised surrendering the city to the Carthaginians, not to the Bruttians.
III. Before the coming of Pyrrhus into Italy, the wall encompassing Croto was twelve miles in circumference; since the devastation, caused by the war which then took place, scarcely one half of the inclosed space was inhabited; the river which formerly flowed through the middle of the town, now ran on the outside of the part occupied by buildings, and the citadel was at a great distance from these. Six miles from the city stood the famous temple of Juno Lacinia, more universally celebrated than the city itself, and held in high veneration by all the surrounding nations. Here, a consecrated grove, encompassed on the extremities by close-ranged trees and tall firs, comprehended in the middle a tract of rich pasture ground, in which cattle of every kind, sacred to the goddess, fed, without any keeper, the herds of each particular kind going out separately, and returning at night to their stalls, without ever receiving injury, either from wild beasts, or men. The profits, therefore, accruing from these cattle were great, out of which, a pillar of solid gold was erected and consecrated, so that the same fane became as remarkable for riches as for sanctity. Several miracles are also attributed to it, as they generally are to such remarkable places: it is said, that there is an altar in the porch of the temple, the ashes on which are never moved by any wind. The citadel of Croto, hanging over the sea on one side, and on the other facing the country, had originally no other defence than its natural situation; afterwards a wall was added, inclosing a place, through which Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily, effecting a passage over some rocks, at the back part, had taken it by surprise. The fort thus situate, and deemed sufficiently secure, was held by the nobles, while the plebeians of Croto, in conjunction with the Bruttians, carried on the siege against them. After a considerable time, perceiving that the place was too strong to be reduced by their own force, they yielded to necessity, and implored the assistance of Hanno. Hanno endeavoured to prevail on the Crotonians to surrender, allowing a colony of Bruttians to be settled among them; so that their city, wasted and depopulated by wars, might recover its former populous state; but not one of the whole number, excepting Aristomachus, would listen to the proposal; they declared warmly, that “they would rather die, than, by admitting Bruttians into their society, be obliged to adopt foreign rites, manners, laws, and, in time, even a foreign language.” Aristomachus, unable by persuasions to bring about a surrender, and finding no opportunity of betraying the citadel, as he had betrayed the town, left the place and went over to Hanno. Soon after this, ambassadors from Locri going, with Hanno’s permission, into the citadel, used many arguments to prevail on them to suffer themselves to be removed to Locri, and not to resolve on hazarding the last extremities. This design they had already got leave to execute from Hannibal himself, having sent deputies to treat with him in person. Accordingly Croto was evacuated, and the inhabitants, being conducted to the sea, went on board ships. The whole body of the people removed to Locri. In Apulia, even the winter did not produce a suspension of hostilities between the Romans and Hannibal. The consul Sempronius had his winter-quarters at Luceria; Hannibal his near Arpi. Several slight engagements passed between their troops, in consequence of opportunities offering, or of one or the other party gaining an occasional advantage; and by these, the Roman soldiery were improved, and rendered daily more cautious and guarded against the enemy’s stratagems.
IV. In Sicily, the whole course of affairs took a turn unfavourable to the Romans, in consequence of the death of Hiero, and of the kingdom devolving on his grandson Hieronymus, a boy in whom, there was originally no room to expect moderation of conduct, much less, on his being invested with absolute power. His guardians and friends were happy in finding him of such a disposition, as they could hurry, at once, into every kind of vice. It is said that Hiero, foreseeing that this would be the case, had, in the last stage of his life, formed an intention of leaving Syracuse free, lest the sovereignty, which had been acquired and established by honourable means, should, under the tyrannical administration of a boy, be destroyed through folly and extravagance. This design his daughters opposed strenuously, because they expected, that, while Hieronymus enjoyed the title of king, the whole administration of affairs would rest in them and their husbands, Andranodorus and Zoippus, for these were left the principal among his guardians. It was no easy matter for a man, now in his ninetieth year, and beset night and day, by the insinuating wiles of women, to keep his judgment at liberty, and to regulate his domestic concerns by the standard of public utility. He, therefore, only took the precaution of setting fifteen guardians over his grandson; and these he entreated, in his dying moments, to maintain inviolate the alliance with the Roman people, which he had religiously observed through a course of fifty years; to direct their endeavours principally to the making the boy tread in his steps, and pursue the maxims inculcated in his education: after giving these charges, he expired, and the governors quitted him. The will was then produced, and the prince, now about fifteen years old, was brought before the people in assembly, on which a few, who had been placed in different parts of the crowd for the purpose of raising acclamations, signified their approbation of the will; while the rest, affected as if they had lost their parent, dreaded all things, in a state thus bereft of its protector. The King’s funeral was next performed, and, more through the love and affection of his subjects, than any care of his relations, was numerously attended. In a little time after, Andranodorus displaced the other guardians, asserting that Hieronymus had attained to the years of manhood, and was capable of holding the government; and, by thus resigning the guardianship, which he held in common with many, he collected in himself singly the power of them all.
V. Scarcely would even a good and moderate prince, succeeding one so highly beloved as Hiero, have found it easy to acquire the affections of the Syracusans. But Hieronymus, as if he meant, by his own faults, to excite grief for the loss of his grandfather, demonstrated, immediately on his first appearance, how great an alteration had taken place in every particular. For the people, who had for so many years seen Hiero, and his son Gilon, no way differing from the rest of the citizens, either in the fashion of their dress or any other mark of distinction, now beheld purple and a diadem; armed guards, and the king sometimes issuing from his palace, as the tyrant Dionysius used to do, in a chariot drawn by four white horses. This assuming pride in equipage and show naturally exposed him to universal contempt; besides which, he showed a disdainful carriage when addressed, and rudeness in answering; generally refused access, not only to strangers, but even to his guardians, and debased himself by lusts of uncommon kinds, and inhuman cruelty. Such great terror therefore possessed all men, that, of his household, some had recourse to flight, others to a voluntary death, to avoid the sufferings which they apprehended. Two of the former, Andranodorus and Zoippus, the sons-in-law of Hiero, and a man named Thraso, were the only persons permitted to enter his house with any degree of familiarity; and though not much listened to on other subjects, yet when they argued, Andranodorus and Zoippus for taking part with the Carthaginians, and Thraso for maintaining the alliance with the Romans, they sometimes, by the warmth and earnestness of their disputes, attracted the young man’s attention. While matters were in this situation, a servant who was of the same age with Hieronymus, and had, from childhood, enjoyed the privileges of perfect familiarity with him, brought information of a plot formed against his life. The informer could name only one of the conspirators, Theodotus, by whom himself had been sounded on the subject. This man being instantly seized, and delivered to Andranodorus to be put to the torture, without hesitation confessed himself guilty, but still concealed his accomplices. At last, being racked, beyond what human patience could endure, he pretended to be overcome by his sufferings; but, instead of making discovery of the plotters, he pointed his informations against persons who had no concern in the business, telling a feigned story, that Thraso was the author of the conspiracy, and that the others would never have entered on any attempt of such importance, had they not been induced to it by their trust in so powerful a leader; naming, at the same time, those who, while he framed his account in the intervals between his agonies and groans, occurred to him as the most worthless among Hieronymus’s intimates. The mention of Thraso, beyond every other circumstance, made the tyrant think the information deserving of belief. He was therefore instantly consigned to punishment, and the rest, who had been named equally guiltless of the crime, underwent the like fate. Not one of the conspirators, though their associate in the plot was kept for a long time under the torture, either concealed himself or fled: so great was their confidence in the fortitude and fidelity of Theodotus; and which, indeed, were fully approved in him.
VI. The only bond which preserved the connexion with Rome being now dissolved by the removal of Thraso, immediately there appeared a manifest intention of siding with the opposite party. Ambassadors were despatched to Hannibal, who sent back a young man of noble birth, called Hannibal, and with him Hippocrates and Epicydes, who were born at Carthage, but derived their extraction originally from Syracuse, whence their grandfather had been banished; by the mother’s side, they were Carthaginians. By their means, a treaty was formed between Hannibal and the tyrant of Syracuse; and, with the approbation of the Carthaginian, they remained with the latter. The prætor, Appius Claudius, whose province Sicily was, on being acquainted with these transactions, sent, immediately, ambassadors to Hieronymus, who, telling him that they were come to renew the alliance which had subsisted with his grandfather, were heard and dismissed with derision; Hieronymus asking them, with a sneer, “what had been the event of the battle of Cannæ? for Hannibal’s ambassador’s told things scarcely credible. He wished,” he said, “to know the truth, that he might thereby determine which side offered the fairest prospect to his choice.” The Romans told him, that, when he began to listen to embassies with seriousness, they would return to Syracuse; and, after admonishing, rather than requesting him, not to violate faith rashly, they departed. Hieronymus despatched commissioners to Carthage, to conclude an alliance conformable to the treaty with Hannibal; and it was finally agreed, that when they should have expelled the Romans from Sicily, which, he said, would speedily be effected if they sent ships and an army, the river Himera, which nearly divides the island into two parts, should be the boundary between the dominions of Syracuse and those of Carthage. Afterwards, puffed up by the flatteries of people who desired him to remember, not only Hiero, but also his grandfather on his mother’s side, king Pyrrhus, he sent another embassy, representing that he thought it reasonable that Sicily should be entirely ceded to him, and that the dominion of Italy should be acquired for the people of Carthage, as an empire of their own. This fickleness and unsteadiness of mind, they, considering him as a hot-brained youth, did not wonder at; nor did they enter into any dispute on it, content with detaching him from the party of the Romans.
VII. But, on his side, every circumstance concurred to precipitate his ruin; for, after sending before him Hippocrates and Epicydes with two thousand soldiers, to endeavour to get possession of those cities which were held by Roman garrisons, he himself, with all rest of his forces, amounting to fifteen thousand horse and foot, marched to Leontini. Here the conspirators, every one of whom happened to be in the army, posted themselves in an uninhabited house, standing in a narrow lane, through which Hieronymus used to pass to the Forum. While the rest stood here, armed and prepared for action, waiting for his coming up, one of their number, whose name was Dinomenes, and being of the body-guards, had it in charge, that, as soon as the king drew near the door, he should, on some pretence, in the narrow pass, stop the crowd behind from advancing. All was executed as had been concerted. Dinomenes, by stretching out his foot, as if to loosen a knot which was too tight, arrested the people, and occasioned such an opening, that the king, being attacked as he was passing by without his armed followers, was pierced with several wounds, before assistance could be given him. Some, on hearing the shout and tumult, discharged their weapons at Dinomenes, who now openly opposed their passing; notwithstanding which, he escaped with only two wounds. However, seeing the king stretched on the ground, they betook themselves to flight. Of the conspirators, some repaired to the Forum to the populace, who were overjoyed at the recovery of liberty; others proceeded to Syracuse, to take the requisite precautions against the purposes of Andranodorus and other partisans of the king. Affairs being in this unsettled state, Appius Claudius, when he observed the storm gathering in his neighbourhood, informed the senate by letter, that all Sicily favoured the people of Carthage and Hannibal. On his part, in order to counteract the designs of the Syracusans, he drew all his troops to the frontiers between that kingdom and his own province. Towards the close of this year, Quintus Fabius, by direction of the senate, fortified, Puteoli, which, during the war, began to be much frequented as a place of trade, and placed a garrison in it. Going thence to Rome to hold the elections, he issued a proclamation for the assembly, on the first day on which it could properly meet; and, passing by the city without stopping, went down to the field of Mars. On this day, the lot of giving the first vote fell to a younger century of the Anien tribe, and this having nominated Titus Otacilius and Marcus Æmilius Regillus consuls, Quintus Fabius commanded silence, and spoke to this effect:
VIII. “If either we had peace in Italy, or had to deal with such an enemy as would allow of any remissness on our side, I should deem that man deficient in proper respect to your independent rights, who attempted to throw any obstacle in the way of those inclinations, which you bring with you into the field of election, with the purpose of conferring the high offices of the state on persons of your own choice. But when you consider that the present war is of such a nature, and the conduct of our present enemy such, that none of our commanders has ever committed an error which has not been followed by most disastrous consequences, it behoves you to come hither to give your suffrages with the same careful circumspection with which you go out in arms to the field of battle; and every one ought thus to say to himself: ‘I am to nominate a consul qualified to vie with Hannibal in the art of war.’ In the present year, at Capua, on the challenge of Jubellius Taurea, the completest horseman among the Campanians, we sent against him Claudius Asellus, the completest horseman among the Romans. Against a Gaul, who at a former time pronounced a challenge on the bridge of the Anio, our ancestors sent Titus Manlius, a man abundantly furnished both with strength and courage. I cannot deny that there was the same reason for placing every degree of confidence a few years after, in Marcus Valerius, when he took arms for the combat against a Gaul, who gave a similar defiance. Now, as, in selecting foot soldiers and horsemen, we endeavour to find such as are superior, or, if that cannot be effected, equal in strength to their antagonists; let us, in like manner, look out for a commander equal to the general of the enemy. When we shall have chosen the man of the most consummate abilities in the nation, yet still, being elected at the moment, and appointed but for one year, he will be matched against another invested with a command of long and uninterrupted continuance, not confined by any narrow limitations either of time or of authority, or which might hinder him to conduct and execute every measure according to the exigencies of the war; whereas with us, before we have well completed our preparatory operations, and when we are just entering on business, our year expires. I need say no more concerning the qualifications of the persons whom you ought to elect consul; I shall therefore only add a few observations respecting those whom the prerogative century has made the objects of its favour. Marcus Æmilius Regillus is flamen of Quirinus, consequently we could neither send him abroad from his sacred employment, nor keep him at home, without neglecting, in one case, the business of the war, or in the other, that of religion. Otacilius is married to a daughter of my sister, and has children by her. Nevertheless, I am too sensible of the obligations which I and my ancestors owe to your kindness, not to prefer the interest of the public to that of any private connexions. In a calm sea, any mariner, even a passenger, can steer the vessel; but when a furious storm arises, putting the sea into violent agitation, and the ship is hurried away by the tempest, then a pilot of skill and resolution becomes necessary. We sail not in a calm, but have already been very near foundering in several storms; you must, therefore, be careful to use the utmost prudence and caution with respect to the person whom you place at the helm. Titus Otacilius, we have had a trial of you in a less important business: you gave us no proof that we ought to confide in you for the management of affairs of greater moment. We fitted out, this year, a fleet, of which you had the command, for three purposes; to ravage the coast of Africa, to secure our own coasts of Italy, and, principally, to prevent reinforcements with money and provisions being transmitted from Carthage to Hannibal. If he has performed for the public, I do not say all, but any one of these services, create Titus Otacilius consul. But if, on the contrary, while you held the command of the fleet, every thing came to Hannibal safe and untouched, as if he had no enemy on the sea; if the coast of Italy has been more infested this year than that of Africa, what reason can you offer, why people should pitch on you in particular to oppose such a commander as Hannibal? If you were consul, we should judge it requisite to have a dictator nominated according to the practice of our forefathers. Nor could you take offence at its being thought that there was, in the Roman nation, some one superior to you in the art of war. It concerns no man’s interest more than your own, Titus Otacilius, that there be not laid on your shoulders a burthen, under which you would sink. I earnestly recommend, then, Romans, that, guided by the same sentiments which would influence you, if while you stood armed for battle you were suddenly called on to choose two commanders, under whose conduct and auspices you were to fight, you would proceed this day in the election of consuls, to whom your children are to swear obedience, at whose order they are to join the colours, and under whose care and direction they are to wage war. The lake Trasimenus and Cannæ, examples melancholy in the recollection, are, nevertheless, useful warnings to guard against the like. Crier, call back the younger Anien century to vote.”
IX. Otacilius now exclaiming with great heat, that the design of Fabius was to be continued in the consulship, and becoming very obstreperous, the consul ordered his lictors to advance to him; and, as he had not entered the city, but had gone directly, without halting, into the field of Mars, he put him in mind that the axes were carried in his fasces. The prerogative century proceeded a second time to vote, and chose consuls, Quintus Fabius Maximus, a fourth time, and Marcus Marcellus, a third time. The other centuries, without any variation, named the same. One prætor was likewise re-elected, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus. The other three chosen were new ones, Titus Otacilius Crassus, a second time, Quintus Fabius, the consul’s son, who was at the time curule ædile, and Publius Cornelius Lentullus. The election of prætors being over, a decree of the senate was passed, that “Rome should, out of course, be the province of Quintus Fulvius; and that he in particular should hold the command in the city, when the consuls should go abroad to the campaign.” Twice in this year happened great floods, and the Tiber overflowed the country, with great demolition of houses and destruction of men and cattle.Y.R. 538. 214. In the fifth year of the second Punic war, Quintus Fabius Maximus, a fourth, and Marcus Marcellus, a third time entering together into the consulship, attracted the notice of the public in an unusual degree; for, during many years, there had not been two such consuls. The old men observed, that thus had Maximus Rullus and Publius Decius been declared consuls, in the time of the Gallic war; and thus, afterwards, Papirius and Carvilius, against the Samnites, Bruttians, Lucanians, and Tarentines. Marcellus was chosen consul in his absence, being at the time with the army, and the office was continued to Fabius, who was on the spot, and presided in person at the election. The state of the times, the exigencies of the war, and the danger threatening the very being of the state, hindered the people from examining the precedent strictly, neither did they suspect the consul of ambition for command; on the contrary, they rather applauded his greatness of soul, because, knowing that the state stood in need of a general of the highest abilities, and that he himself was unquestionably the person so qualified, he had made light of any public censure which he might incur on the occasion, in comparison with the interest of the commonwealth.
X. On the day of the consuls entering on their office, a meeting of the senate was held in the Capitol, in which it was decreed, first, that the consuls should cast lots, or settle between themselves, which of them should, before his setting out for the army, hold the assembly for the appointment of censors. Then all those who were at the head of armies were continued in authority, and ordered to remain in the provinces: Tiberius Gracchus at Luceria, where he was with an army of volunteer slaves; Caius Terentius Varro in the Picenian, and Manius Pomponius in the Gallic territories. Of the prætors of the preceding year, Quintus Mucius was ordered, in quality of pro-prætor, to hold the government of Sardinia, and Marcus Valerius to command on the sea-coast near Brundusium, watching attentively, and guarding against any motion which might be made by Philip King of Macedonia. To Publius Cornelius Lentullus, the province of Sicily was decreed, and to Titus Otacilius the same fleet which he had commanded the year before against the Carthaginians. Numerous prodigies were reported to have happened this year; and the more these were credited by simple and superstitious people, the more such stories multiplied: that at Lanuvium crows had built their nest in the inside of the temple of Juno Sospita; in Apulia, a green palm-tree took fire; at Mantua, a stagnating piece of water, caused by the overflowing of the river Mincius, appeared as of blood; at Cales, a shower of chalk; and, in the cattle-market at Rome, one of blood fell in the Istrian street; a fountain under ground burst out in such an impetuous stream, as to roll and carry off jars and casks which were in the place, like a violent flood; lightning fell on the public court-house, in the Capitol, the temple of Vulcan in the field of Mars, a nut-tree in the country of the Sabines, and a public road, a wall and a gate at Gabii. Other stories of miracles were already spread about; that the spear of Mars at Præneste moved forward of its own accord; that an ox spoke in Sicily; that an infant in the mother’s womb, in the country of the Marucinians, had called out, “Io, Triumphe!” at Spoletum a woman was transformed into a man, and at Adria an altar was seen in the sky, and round it figures of men in white garments. Nay, even in the city of Rome itself, besides a swarm of bees being seen in the Forum, several persons, affirming that they saw armed legions on the Janiculum, roused the citizens to arms; when those who were at the time on the Janiculum asserted, that no person had appeared there except the usual inhabitants of that hill. These prodigies were expiated, conformably to the answers of the Aruspices, by victims of the greater kinds, and supplication was ordered to be performed to all the deities who had shrines at Rome.
XI. Having finished the ceremonies enjoined for conciliating the favour of the gods, the consuls proposed to the senate, to take into consideration the state of the nation, the management of the war, the number of forces to be employed, and the places where the several divisions were to act. It was resolved that eighteen legions should be employed against the enemy; that each of the consuls should take two to himself; that two should be employed in the defence of the provinces of Gaul, Sicily, and Sardinia; that Quintus Fabius, prætor, should have two under his command in Apulia, and Tiberius Gracchus two of volunteer slaves in the country about Luceria; that one should be left to Caius Terentius, proconsul, for Picenum, one to Marcus Valerius for the fleet at Brundusium, and that two should garrison the city. In order to fill up this number of legions, it was necessary to levy six new ones, which the consuls were ordered to raise as soon as possible; and, at the same time, to fit out an additional number of ships; so that, including those which were stationed on the coasts of Calabria, the fleet should, this year, consist of an hundred and fifty ships of war. The levy being finished, and the new vessels launched, Quintus Fabius held an assembly for the appointment of censors, when Marcus Atilius Regulus and Publius Furius Philus were elected. A rumour spreading, that war had broke out in Sicily, Titus Otacilius was ordered to proceed thither with his fleet; and there being a scarcity of seamen, the consuls, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, published a proclamation, that every person, who in the censorship of Lucius Æmilius and Caius Flaminius had been rated, or whose father had been rated at fifty thousand asses of brass*, or from that sum, up to one hundred thousand†, or had since acquired such a property, should furnish one seaman with pay for six months; every one rated from an hundred thousand, up to three hundred thousand‡, three seamen, with pay for a year; every one rated from three hundred thousand, up to one million§, five seamen; every one rated higher, seven; and that senators should provide eight seamen each, with pay for a year. The seamen furnished in obedience to this ordinance, being armed and equipped by their owners, went on board the ships, with provisions ready dressed for thirty days. This was the first instance of a Roman fleet being manned at the expense of private persons.
XII. These preparations, so unusually great, raised fears among the Campanians in particular, lest the Romans should begin the campaign with the siege of Capua. They sent ambassadors, therefore, to Hannibal, entreating him to march his army to that place: acquainting him, that “the Romans were raising new armies for the purpose of laying siege to it, for there was no city against which they were more highly incensed, for having deserted their party.” As this message, and the manner in which it was delivered, intimated such strong apprehensions, Hannibal thought it adviseable to proceed with despatch, lest the Romans might be beforehand with him; whereupon, leaving Arpi, he took possession of his old camp on the Tifata over Capua. Then leaving the Numidians and Spaniards for the defence both of the camp and the city, he marched away with the rest of his forces to the lake of Avernus, under the pretence of performing sacrifice, but in reality with a design to make an attempt on Puteoli and the garrison there. As soon as Maximus received intelligence that Hannibal had departed from Arpi and was returning into Campania, he hastened back to his army, without halting either night or day, sending orders to Tiberius Gracchus, to bring forward his forces from Luceria to Beneventum, and to the prætor Quintus Fabius, son to the consul, to hasten to Luceria, in the place of Gracchus. At the same time, the two prætors set out for Sicily, Publius Cornelius to command the army, Otacilius the fleet on the sea-coast. The rest also departed to their respective provinces, and those who were continued in command remained in the same districts where they had been in the former year.
XIII. While Hannibal was at the lake Avernus, there came to him, from Tarentum, five young men of quality, who had been made prisoners, some at the lake Trasimenus, some at Cannæ, and who had been sent home with that generosity which the Carthaginian showed towards all the allies of the Romans: these told him, that “out of gratitude for his kind treatment, they had persuaded a great number of the Tarentine youth to prefer his alliance and friendship to that of the Romans; and that they had been sent as deputies by their countrymen, to request that Hannibal would draw his army nearer to Tarentum; that if his standards and his camp were once seen from that place, the city would, without any delay, be delivered into his hands; for the commons were under the influence of the younger men, and the management of public affairs was with the commons.” Hannibal, after highly commending and loading them with a profusion of promises, desired them to return home in order to bring the scheme to maturity, saying, that he would be there in due time. With these hopes the Tarentines were dismissed. Hannibal had, before their application, conceived an ardent wish to gain possession of Tarentum; he saw that it was a city not only opulent and of great note, but likewise a seaport, commodiously situated, opposite Macedonia; and that King Philip, should he pass over into Italy, would steer his course to that harbour, because the Romans were in possession of Brundusium. Having performed the sacrifice which he had proposed at his coming, and having, during his stay, utterly laid waste the lands of Cumæ, as far as to the promontory of Misenum, he changed his route suddenly to Puteoli, with design to surprise the Roman garrison. This consisted of six thousand men, and the place was secured, not only by the nature of its situation, but by strong works. Here Hannibal delayed three days, and attempted the garrison on every quarter; but, finding no prospect of success, he marched forward to ravage the territory of Neapolis, rather for the sake of gratifying his resentment, than with any hope of becoming master of the town. By his arrival in the neighbourhood, the commons of Nola were encouraged to stir, having for a long time been disaffected to the cause of the Romans, and harbouring, at the same time, resentment against their own senate. Deputies, therefore, came to invite Hannibal, with a positive promise to deliver the city into his hands: but the consul Marcellus, whom the nobles solicited, by his expeditious measures prevented the design from taking place. In one day he made a march from Cales to Suessula, though he met with some delay in passing the river Vulturnus; and from thence, on the ensuing night, introduced into Nola six thousand foot and three hundred horse, to support the senate. While every precaution requisite for securing the possession of Nola was thus used by the consul with vigorous despatch, Hannibal, on the other side, was dilatory in his proceedings; for, after having twice before been baffled in a project of the same kind, he was now the less inclined to credit the professions of the Nolans.
XIV. Meanwhile the consul, Quintus Fabius, set out to attempt the recovery of Casilinum, which was held by a Carthaginian garrison; and, at the same time, as if by concert, there arrived at Beneventum, on one side, Hanno from Bruttium, with a large body of infantry and cavalry; and, on another, Tiberius Gracchus, from Luceria. The latter came first into the town; then, hearing that Hanno was encamped at the river Calor, about three miles distant, and that, by detachments from thence, devastations were committed on the country, he marched out his troops, pitched his camp about a mile from the enemy, and there held an assembly of his soldiers. The legions which he had with him consisted mostly of volunteer slaves, who had chosen rather to merit their liberty in silence, by the service of a second year, than to request it openly. He had observed, however, as he was leaving his winter-quarters, that the troops, on their march, began to murmur, asking, whether “they were ever to serve as free citizens?” He had, however, written to the senate, insisting, not so much on their wishes, as on their merits; declaring that “he had ever found them faithful and brave in the service; and that, excepting a free condition, they wanted no qualification of complete soldiers.” Authority was given him to act in that business, as he himself should judge conducive to the good of the public. Before he resolved upon coming to an engagement, therefore, he gave public notice, that “the time was now come, when they might obtain the liberty which they had so long wished for. That he intended, next day, to engage the enemy in regular battle, in a clear and open plain, where, without any fear of stratagems, the business might be decided by the mere dint of valour. Every man then, who should bring home the head of an enemy, he would, instantly, by his own authority, set free; and every one, who should retreat from his post, he would punish in the same manner as a slave. Every man’s lot now depended on his own exertion; and, as security for their obtaining their freedom, not only he himself stood pledged, but the consul Marcellus, and even the whole senate, who, having been consulted by him on the subject of their freedom, had authorized him to determine in the case.” He then read the consul’s letter and the decree of the senate, on which an universal shout of joy was raised. They eagerly demanded the fight, and ardently pressed him to give the signal instantly. Gracchus gave notice that they should be gratified on the following day, and then dismissed the assembly. The soldiers, exulting with joy, especially those who were to receive liberty as the price of their active efforts for one day, spent the rest of their time until night in getting their arms in readiness.
XV. Next day, as soon as the trumpets began to sound to battle, the above-mentioned men, the first of all, assembled round the general’s quarters, ready and marshalled for the fight. At sun-rise Gracchus led out his troops to the field, nor did the enemy hesitate to meet him. Their force consisted of seventeen thousand foot, mostly Bruttians and Lucanians, and twelve thousand horse, among whom were very few Italians, almost all the rest were Numidians and Moors. The conflict was fierce and long; during four hours neither side gained any advantage, and no circumstance proved a greater impediment to the success of the Romans, than from the heads of the enemy being made the price of liberty; for when any had valiantly slain an opponent, he lost time, first, in cutting off the head, which could not be readily effected in the midst of the crowd and tumult, and then his right hand being employed in securing it, the bravest ceased to take a part in the fight, and the contest devolved on the inactive and dastardly. The military tribunes now represented to Gracchus, that the soldiers were not employed in wounding any of the enemy who stood on their legs, but in maiming those who had fallen, and instead of their own swords in their right hands, they carried the heads of the slain. On which he commanded them to give orders with all haste, that “they should throw away the heads, and attack the enemy: that their courage was sufficiently evident and conspicuous, and that such brave men need not doubt of liberty.” The fight was then revived, and the cavalry also were ordered to charge: these were briskly encountered by the Numidians, and the battle of the horse was maintained with no less vigour than that of the foot; so that the event of the day again became doubtful, while the commanders, on both sides, vilified their adversaries in the most contemptuous terms, the Roman speaking to his soldiers of the Lucanians and Bruttians, as men so often defeated and subdued by their ancestors; and the Carthaginian, of the Romans, as slaves, soldiers taken out of the workhouse. At last Gracchus proclaimed, that his men had no room to hope for liberty, unless the enemy were routed that day, and driven off the field.
XVI. These words so effectually inflamed their courage, that, as if they had been suddenly transformed into other men, they renewed the shout, and bore down on the enemy with an impetuosity, which it was impossible longer to withstand. First the Carthaginian vanguard, then the battalions were thrown into confusion; at last the whole line was forced to give way; they then plainly turned their backs, and fled precipitately into their camp, in such terror and dismay, that none of them made a stand, even at the gates or on the rampart; and the Romans following close, so as to form almost one body with them, began anew a second battle within their works. Here, as the fight was more impeded by the narrowness of the place, so was the slaughter more dreadful, the prisoners also lending assistance, who, during the confusion, snatched up weapons, and forming in a body, cut off numbers in the rear. So great, therefore, was the carnage, that out of so large an army, scarcely two thousand men, most of whom were horsemen, escaped with their commander; all the rest were either slain or made prisoners; thirty-eight standards were taken. Of the victorious party, there fell about two thousand. All the booty was given up to the soldiers, except the prisoners, and such cattle as should be claimed by the owners within thirty days. When they returned into the camp, laden with spoil, about four thousand of the volunteer soldiers, who had fought with less spirit than the rest, and had not broken into the Carthaginian camp along with them, dreading punishment, withdrew to an eminence at a small distance. Next day they were brought down from thence by a military tribune, and arrived just as Gracchus was holding an assembly, which he had summoned. Here the proconsul, having, in the first place, honoured with military presents the veteran soldiers, according to the degree of courage and activity shown by each in the fight, said, that “as to what concerned the volunteers, he rather wished that all in general, worthy and unworthy, should receive commendations from him, than that any should be reprimanded on such a day as that;” and then, praying that “it might prove advantageous, happy, and fortunate to the commonwealth and to themselves;” he pronounced them all free. On which declaration, in transports of joy, they raised a general shout, and while they now embraced and congratulated each other, raising their hands towards heaven, and praying for every blessing on the Roman people, and on Gracchus in particular, the proconsul addressed them thus: “Before I had set all on an equal footing of freedom, I was unwilling to distinguish any by a mark, either of bravery or of cowardice. But now, since I have acquitted the honour of government, lest every distinction between them be lost, I will order the names of those who, conscious of being remiss in the action, have lately made a secession, to be laid before me; and, summoning each, will bind them by an oath, that, as long as they shall serve me in the army, they will never, except obliged by sickness, take food or drink in any other posture than standing. This penalty you will undergo with patience, if you consider, that your cowardice could not be more slightly branded.” He then gave the signal of preparation for a march, and the soldiers, carrying and driving on their booty, returned to Beneventum so cheerful and so gay, that they seemed to have come home from a feast, given on some remarkable occasion, rather than from a field of battle. All the Beneventans poured out in crowds to meet them at the gates, embraced the soldiers, congratulated them, and pressed them to come to their houses. They had already prepared entertainments in their inner courts, and entreated Gracchus to permit his soldiers to partake of the same. Gracchus gave them leave, on condition that they should all dine in the public street: every thing was accordingly brought out before each person’s door, where the volunteers dined with the caps of liberty, or white woollen fillets in their hands, some reclining, others standing, who, at the same time, attended the rest. This afforded a sight so pleasing, that Gracchus, on his return to Rome, ordered a representation of that day’s festival to be painted in the Temple of Liberty, which his father caused to be built on the Aventine, out of money accruing from fines, and which he afterwards dedicated.
XVII. While these transactions passed at Beneventum, Hannibal, after ravaging the lands of Neapolis, marched his army to Nola. The consul, as sooh as he was apprised of his approach, sent for the proprætor Pomponius, and the army which lay in the camp over Suessula; being determined to go out, and not to decline an engagement with him. He sent Caius Claudius Nero with the main strength of the cavalry, in the dead of the night, through the gate which was most distant from the enemy, ordering him to ride round so as not to be observed, until he came behind their army, to follow them leisurely as they moved, and as soon as he should perceive that the battle was begun, to advance on their rear. What prevented Nero from executing these orders, whether mistake of the road, or the shortness of the time, is uncertain. Although the battle was fought while he was absent, yet the Romans had evidently the advantage; but by the cavalry not coming up in time, the plan of operations was disconcerted. Marcellus, not daring to follow the retiring foe, gave the signal for retreat, while his men were pursuing their success. However, more than two thousand of the enemy are said to have fallen that day; of the Romans less than four hundred. About sunset, Nero returned, after having to no purpose fatigued the men and horses through the whole day and night, without even getting a sight of the Carthaginian; he was very severely reprimanded by the consul, who went so far as to affirm, that he was the cause of their not having retorted on the enemy the disaster suffered at Cannæ. Next day the Roman army marched out to the field, but Hannibal, tacitly acknowledging his defeat, kept within his trenches. In the dead of the night of the third day, giving up all hope of getting possession of Nola, a project never attempted without loss, he marched away towards Tarentum, where he had a greater prospect of success.
XVIII. Nor did less spirit appear in the administration of the Roman affairs at home, than in the field. The censors being, by the emptiness of the treasury, discharged from the care of erecting public works, turned their attention to the regulating of men’s morals, and checking the growth of vices, which, like distempered bodies, ever apt to generate other maladies, had sprung up during the war. First, they summoned before them those, who, after the battle of Cannæ, were said to have formed the design of deserting the commonwealth, and abandoning Italy. At the head of these was Lucius Cæcilius Metellus, who happened to be quæstor at the time. They then ordered him, and the others accused of the same criminal conduct, to plead to the charge; and as these could not clear themselves, they pronounced judgment, that those persons had made use of words and discourses, tending to the detriment of the commonwealth, inasmuch as they purported the forming of a conspiracy for the purpose of abandoning Italy. Next to these were summoned the over ingenious casuists, with respect to the means of dissolving the obligation of an oath, who supposed, that by returning privately into Hannibal’s camp, after having begun their journey with the rest of the prisoners, they should fulfil the oath which they had taken. Of these, and the others above-mentioned, such as had horses at the public expense, were deprived of them, and they were all degraded from their tribes and disfranchised. Nor was the care of the censors confined merely to the regulating of the senate and the equestrian order. They erased from the lists of the younger centuries, the names of all those who had not served as soldiers during the last four years, not having been regularly exempted from service, or prevented by sickness. These, in number above two thousand, were disfranchised, and all were degraded from their tribes. To this simple censorial sentence was added a severe decree of the senate, that all those whom the censors had degraded should serve as foot soldiers, and be sent into Sicily, to join the remains of the army of Cannæ; the time limited for the service of soldiers of this description being, until the enemy should be driven out of Italy. While the censors now, on account of the impoverished treasury, declined contracting for the repairs of the sacred edifices, the furnishing of horses to the curule magistrates, and other matters of like nature, a great number of those, who had been accustomed to engage in contracts of the kind, waited on them, and recommended that they “transact every kind of business, and engage in contracts, in the same manner as if there were money in the coffers; assuring them, that no one would call on the treasury for payment, until the conclusion of the war.” Afterwards came the former owners of those whom Tiberius Sempronius had made free at Beneventum; who said, that they had been sent for by the public bankers, in order that they might receive the price of their slaves; but that they did not desire it until the war should be at an end. When this disposition to support the credit of the treasury appeared among the plebeian class, the property belonging to minors, and of widows, began to be brought in; the people believing that they could not deposit it any where in greater security, or with more religious regard to their trust, than under the public faith: and when any thing was bought, or laid in for the use of the said minors or widows, a bill was given for it on the quæstor. This generous zeal of the private ranks spread from the city into the camp, where no horseman, no centurion, would take his pay; and should any have received it, the others would have censured them as mercenary.
XIX. The consul, Quintus Fabius, lay encamped before Casilinum, which was defended by a garrison of two thousand Campanians, and seven hundred of Hannibal’s soldiers. The commander was Statius Metius, sent thither by Cneius Magius Atellanus, who was chief magistrate that year, and was now employed in arming the populace and the slaves promiscuously, intending to attack the Roman camp while the consul was laying siege to the place. None of his designs escaped the knowledge of Fabius, who therefore sent a message to his colleague at Nola, that, “while the siege of Casilinum was carried on, there was a necessity for another army to oppose the Campanians; that either he himself should come, leaving a moderate garrison at Nola, or, if affairs there required his stay, from not yet being in a state of security against the attempts of Hannibal, he should in that case send for the proconsul, Tiberius Gracchus, from Beneventum.” On receiving this message, Marcellus, leaving two thousand men to garrison Nola, came with the rest of his army to Casilinum, and, by his arrival, the Campanians, who were on the point of breaking out into action, were kept quiet. And now the two consuls, with united forces, pushed on the siege. But the Roman soldiers, in their rash approaches to the walls, receiving many wounds, and meeting little success in any of their attempts, Quintus Fabius gave his opinion, that they ought to abandon an enterprise which, though of slight importance, was attended with as much difficulty as one of great consequence; and that they should retire from the place, especially as more momentous business called for their attention. Marcellus prevented their quitting the siege with disappointment, urging, that there were many enterprises of such a nature, that, as they ought not to be undertaken by great generals, so when once engaged in they ought not to be relinquished, because the reputation either of success or of failure, must be productive of weighty consequences. All kinds of works were then constructed, and machines of every description pushed forward to the walls. On this, the Campanians requested of Fabius that they might be allowed to retire in safety to Capua, when, a few having come out of the town, Marcellus seized on the pass by which they came, and immediately a promiscuous slaughter began near the gate, and soon after, on the troops rushing in, it spread through the city. About fifty of the Campanians, who first left the place, ran for refuge to Fabius, aud under his protection escaped to Capua. Thus was Casilinum taken by surprise, during the conferences and delays of those who went to negociate terms of capitulation. The prisoners, both Campanians and Hannibal’s soldiers, were sent to Rome, and there shut up in prison, and the multitude of the townspeople were dispersed among the neighbouring states, to be kept in custody.
XX. At the same time, when the army, after effecting their purpose, removed from Casilinum, Gracchus, who was in Lucania, detached, under a præfect of the allies, several cohorts, which had been raised in that country, to ravage the lands of the enemy. These Hanno attacked while they straggled in a careless manner, and retaliated a blow almost as severe as that which he had received at Beneventum; then, to avoid being overtaken by Gracchus, he retired with the utmost speed into Bruttium. As to the consuls, Marcellus returned to Nola, whence he had come; Fabius proceeded into Samnium, in order to overrun the country, and recover, by force, the cities which had revolted. The Samnites of Caudium suffered the most grievous devastations; their territory was laid waste with fire to a great extent, and men and cattle were carried off as spoil. The following towns were taken from them by assault: Combulteria, Telesia, Compsa, Melæ, Fulfulæ, and Orbitanium; from the Lucanians, Blandæ, Æcæ, belonging to the Apulians, was taken after a siege. In these towns twenty-five thousand were taken or slain, and three hundred and seventy deserters retaken; these, being sent by the consul to Rome, were all beaten with rods in the Comitium, and cast down from the rock. All this was performed by Fabius in the course of a few days. Bad health confined Marcellus at Nola, and prevented his taking the field. At the same time the prætor, Quintus Fabius, whose province was the country round Luceria, took by storm a town called Accua, and fortified a strong camp near Ardonea. While the Romans were thus employed in various places, Hannibal had arrived at Tarentum, after utterly destroying every thing in his way. At last, when he entered the territory of Tarentum, his troops began to march in a peaceable manner: nothing was injured there, nor did any ever go out of the road; this proceeding flowed manifestly not from the moderation either of the soldiers or their commander, but from a wish to acquire the esteem of the Tarentines. However, after he had advanced almost close to the walls, finding no commotion raised in his favour, an event which he expected to happen on the sight of his van-guard, he encamped about the distance of a mile from the town. Three days before Hannibal’s approach, Marcus Livius being sent by the proprætor. Marcus Valerius, commander of the fleet at Brundusium, had formed the young nobility of Tarentum into bodies; and, posting guards at every gate, and along the walls, wherever there was occasion, by his unremitting vigilance both by day, and more particularly by night, left no room for any attempt, either of the enemy or of the wavering allies. Wherefore, after many days were spent there to no purpose, Hannibal, finding that none of those who had attended him at the lake Avernus either came themselves or sent any message or letter, and perceiving that he inconsiderately suffered himself to be led by delusive promises, decamped and withdrew. He did not even then do any injury to their country, for though his counterfeited tenderness had brought him no advantage, yet he still entertained hopes of prevailing on them to renounce their present engagements. When he came to Salapia he collected there stores of corn from the lands of Metapontum and Heraclea, for midsummer was now past, and the place appeared commodious for winter-quarters. From hence he sent out the Moors and Numidians to plunder the territory of Sallentum, and the nearest woody parts of Apulia, where not much booty was found of any other kind than horses, several studs of which made the principal part of their acquisitions; of these, four thousand were distributed among the horsemen to be trained.
XXI. The Romans, seeing that a war of no slight moment was ready to break out in Sicily, and that the death of the tyrant had only given the Syracusans enterprising leaders, without working any change in their principles or tempers, decreed that province to the consul Marcus Marcellus. Immediately after the murder of Hieronymus, the soldiers in Leotini had raised a tumult, furiously exclaiming, that the death of the king should be expiated by the blood of the conspirators. Afterwards, the words LIBERTY RESTORED, a sound ever delightful to the ear, being frequently repeated, and hopes being held out of largesses from the royal treasure, of serving under better generals, mention at the same time being made of the tyrant’s shocking crimes, and more shocking lusts; all these together produced such an alteration in their sentiments, that they suffered the body of the king, whom just now they had so violently lamented, to lie without burial. The rest of the conspirators remained in the place in order to secure the army on their side; but Theodotus and Sosis, getting on horseback, galloped with all possible speed to Syracuse, wishing to surprise the king’s party, while ignorant of every thing that had happened. But not only report, than which nothing is quicker on such occasions, but likewise an express, by one of Hieronymus’s servants, had arrived before them. Wherefore Andranodorus had strengthened with garrisons both the island* and the citadel, and also every other post which was convenient for his purpose. After sunset, in the dusk of the evening, Theodotus and Sosis rode into the Hexapylum, and having shown the king’s garment dyed with blood, and the ornament which he wore on his head, passed on through the Tycha, calling the people at once to liberty and to arms, and desiring them to come all together into the Achradina. As to the populace, some ran out into the streets, some stood in the porches of their houses, some looked on from the roofs and windows, all inquiring into the cause of the commotion. Every place blazed with lights, and was filled with various confused noises. Such as had arms assembled in the open places; such as had none, pulled down from the temple of Olympian Jove the spoils of the Gauls and Illyrians, presented to Hiero by the Roman people, and hung up there by him; beseeching the god to lend, with good will, those consecrated weapons to men taking them up in defence of their country, of the temples of their deities, and of their liberty. This multitude was also joined to the watch, stationed in the several principal quarters of the city. In the island Andranodorus had, among other places, occupied the public granary with a guard; this place, which was inclosed with hewn stone, and built up to a great height, like a citadel, was seized by the band of youths appointed by Andranodorus to garrison it, and they despatched a message to the Achradina, that the corn therein was at the disposal of the senate.
XXII. At the first dawn the whole body of the people, armed and unarmed, came together into the Achradina to the senate-house; and there, from an altar of Concord, which stood in the place, one of the principal nobles, by name Polyænus, made a speech fraught with sentiments both of liberty and moderation. He said that “men who had experienced the hardships of servitude and insult, knew the extent of the evil against which they vented their resentment; but what calamities civil discord introduces, the Syracusans could have learned only from the relations of their fathers, not from their own experience. He applauded them for the readiness with which they had taken arms, and would applaud them yet more if they did not make use of them unless constrained by the last necessity. At present he thought it adviseable that they should send deputies to Andranodorus, to require of him to be amenable to the direction of the senate and people, to open the gates of the island, and withdraw the garrison. If he meant, under the pretext of being guardian of the sovereignty for another, to usurp it into his own hands, he recommended it to them to recover their liberty by much keener exertions than had been shown against Hieronymus.” Accordingly, on the breaking up of the assembly, deputies were sent. The meetings of the senate were now revived; for though it had, during the reign of Hiero, continued to act as the public council of the state, yet since his death, until now, it had never been convened, or consulted on any business. When the commissioners came to Andranodorus, he was much moved by the united voice of his countrymen, by their being in possession of the other quarters of the city, and moreover by that division of the island, which was the strongest, being lost to him, and in the hands of the other party. But his wife, Demarata, daughter of Hiero, still swelling with royal arrogance and female pride, reminded him of an expression frequently uttered by Dionysius the Tyrant, who used to say, that “a man ought to relinquish sovereign power when he was dragged by the feet, not while he sat on horseback. It was easy,” she said, “at any moment, to resign the possession of a high station; to arrive at, and acquire it, was difficult and arduous.” Desired him to “ask from the ambassadors a little time for consideration, and to employ it in sending for the soldiers from Leontini, to whom, if he promised some of the royal treasure, he might dispose of every thing at his pleasure.” These counsels, suited to the character of the woman, Andranodorus neither totally rejected nor immediately adopted; judging it the safer way to the acquisition of power, to yield to the times for the present. He therefore desired the deputies to carry back for answer, that “he would be obedient to the directions of the senate and people.” Next day, at the first light, he opened the gates of the island, and went into the Forum in the Achradina. There he ascended the altar of Concord, from whence Polyænus had addressed the people the day before, and first, at the beginning of his discourse, spent some time in entreating their pardon for the delay which he had made, for “he had kept the gates shut,” he said, “not with intention to separate his own interest from that of the public, but through fearful uncertainty, the sword being once drawn, when, and in what way, an end might be put to the shedding of blood; whether they would be content with the death of the tyrant, which was all that the cause of liberty required, or whether all who had any connexion with the court, either by consanguinity, affinity, or employments of any kind, were to be put to death, as accomplices in another’s guilt. As soon as he perceived that those who had freed their country, meant also, together with liberty, to grant it safety, and that the designs of all aimed at the promotion of the public happiness, he had not hesitated to replace, under the direction of the people, both his own person, and every thing else committed to his charge and guardianship, since the prince who had entrusted him therewith had perished through his own madness.” Then, turning to those who had killed the tyrant, and addressing Theodotus and Sosis by name, “you have performed,” said he, “a memorable exploit: but believe me, the career of your glory is only begun, not finished; and there yet subsists the utmost danger, that unless you exert yourselves immediately to secure peace and harmony, the nation may carry liberty to licentiousness.”
XXIII. After this discourse, he laid the keys of the gates and of the royal treasure at their feet. Being dismissed, full of joy, the people, with their wives and children, spent that day in offering thanksgivings in all the temples of the gods, and on the day following an assembly was held for the election of prætors. Among the first was chosen Andranodorus; the greater number of the rest were elected from the band of conspirators against the king. Two of these were absent at the time, Sopater and Dinomenes; who, on hearing what had passed at Syracuse, conveyed thither the money belonging to the king, which was at Leontini, and delivered it to quæstors appointed for the purpose: to whom was also delivered the treasure which was in the island and in the Achradina. That part of the wall, which formed too strong a fence between the island and the city, was, with universal approbation, abolished. The other events which took place corresponded with the general zeal for liberty, which now actuated men’s minds: Hippocrates and Epicydes, when intelligence was received of the tyrant’s death, which the former had wished to conceal even by the murder of the messenger, were deserted by the soldiers; and, as the safest step in their present circumstances, returned to Syracuse. Lest their stay there should subject them to suspicion, as if they were watching some opportunity for effecting a revolution, they addressed first the prætors, and afterwards, through them, the senate; represented, that, “being sent by Hannibal to Hieronymus, as to a friend and ally, they had obeyed his orders, in conformity to the will of their own commander. That they wished to return to Hannibal, but as they could not travel with safety while every part of Sicily was overspread with the Roman arms, they requested that a guard might be granted to escort them to Locri in Italy, and that thus, with very little trouble, the senate would confer a great obligation on Hannibal.” The request was easily obtained, for the senate wished the departure of those generals of the late king, men well skilled in war, and at the same time needy and daring. But this measure, so agreeable to their wishes, they did not execute with the care and expedition requisite. Meanwhile those young men, accustomed to a military life, employed themselves sometimes among the soldiery; at others, among the deserters, the greatest number of whom were Roman seamen; at others, among the very lowest class of plebeians, in propagating insinuations against the senate and nobility; hinting to them, that “in the appearance of reviving the former alliance, they were secretly forming and preparing to execute a scheme of bringing Syracuse under the dominion of the Romans; and that then their faction, and the few advocates for the renewal of the treaty, would domineer without control.”
XXIV. Crowds of people, disposed to listen to and believe such reports, flocked into Syracuse in great numbers every day, and afforded, not only to Epicydes, but to Andranodorus likewise, some hopes of effecting a revolution. The latter, wearied by the importunities of his wife, who urged that “now was the time to possess himself of the sovereignty, while all was in a state of disorder, in consequence of liberty being lately recovered, but not yet established on a regular footing; while the soldiers, who owed their livelihood to the pay received from the late king, were yet at hand, and while the commanders sent by Hannibal, who were well acquainted with those soldiers, could aid the enterprise,” took, as an associate in his design, Themistus, to whom Gelon’s daughter was married; and, in a few days after, incautiously disclosed the affair to one Ariston, an actor on the stage, whom he was accustomed to entrust with other secrets; a man whose birth and circumstances were both reputable; nor did his employment disgrace them, because, among the Greeks, that profession is not considered as dishonourable. This man, resolving to be guided by the duty which he owed to his country, discovered the matter to the prætors; who, having learned by unquestionable proofs that the information was well founded, first consulted the elder senators, by whose advice he placed a guard at the door of the senate-house, and, as soon as Themistus and Andranodorus entered, put them to death. This fact, in appearance uncommonly atrocious, the cause of which was unknown to the rest, occasioned a violent uproar; but, having at length procured silence, they brought the informer into the senate-house. He then gave a regular detail of every circumstance, showing that the conspiracy owed its origin to the marriage of Gelon’s daughter, Harmonia, with Themistus; that the auxiliary troops of Africans and Spaniards had been engaged for the purpose of massacreing the prætors and others of the nobility, whose property, according to orders given, was to be the booty of their murderers; that a band of mercenaries, accustomed to the command of Andranodorus, had been procured, with the design of seizing again on the island. He afterwards laid before them every particular; what things were to be done, and by whom, together with the whole plan of the conspiracy, supported by men with arms, ready to execute it. On which the senate gave judgment, that they had suffered death as justly as Hieronymus. The crowd round the senate-house being variously disposed, and unacquainted with the real state of the case, became clamorous: but, while they were uttering furious threats, the sight of the conspirators’ bodies in the porch of the senate-house impressed them with such terror, that they silently followed the well-judging part of the plebians to an assembly which was summoned. Sopater was commissioned by the senate and his colleagues to explain the matter to the people.
XXV. He brought his charges against the deceased as if they were then on trial: after taking a review of their former lives, he insisted that whatever wicked and impious acts had been perpetrated since the death of Hiero, Andranodorus and Themistus were the authors of them. “For what,” said he, “did the boy Hieronymus ever do by the direction of his own will? What, indeed, could he do who had scarcely exceeded the years of childoood? His guardians and teachers exercised the sovereign power, screened from the public hatred which fell on him; and therefore ought to have died either before Hieronymus or with him. Nevertheless, those men who had merited and been doomed to die, have, since the death of the tyrant, attempted new crimes; at first openly, when Andranodorus, shutting the gates of the island, assumed the throne as his by inheritance, and kept as proprietor what he had held as trustee: afterwards, being abandoned by those who were in the island, and blockaded by all the rest of the citizens who held the Achradina, and finding his open and avowed attempts on the crown ineffectual, he endeavoured to attain it by secret machinations and treachery: nor could he be induced to alter his measures even by kindness and the honour conferred on him; for it should be remembered that among the deliverers of their country, this treacherous conspirator against its liberty was chosen a prætor. But the spirit of royalty has been infused into these men by their royal consorts, Hiero’s daughter married to one, Gelon’s to the other.” At these words a shout was heard from every part of the assembly, that “none of the race of the tyrants ought to live.” Such is the nature of the populace; they are either abject slaves or tyrannic masters. Liberty, which consists in a mean between these, they either undervalue, or know not how to enjoy with moderation; and in general, there are not wanting agents disposed to foment their passions, who, working on minds which delight in cruelty, and know no restraint in the practice of it, exasperate them to acts of blood and slaughter. Thus, on the present occasion, the prætors instantly proposed the passing of an order, and it was hardly proposed before it was passed, that all the royal family should be put to death; whereupon persons sent by these magistrates, executed the sentence on Demarata, daughter of Hiero, and Harmonia, daughter of Gelon, the wives of Andranodorus and Themistus.
XXVI. There was another daughter of Hiero, called Heraclea, wife to Zoippus; who having been sent by Hieronymus ambassador to King Ptolemy, had continued abroad in voluntary exile. On getting notice that the executioners were coming to her also, she fled for refuge into the chapel of her household gods, taking with her two maiden daughters, with their hair dishevelled, and their appearance in every other particular calculated to excite compassion: to this she added prayers, beseeching the executioners, “by the memory of her father Hiero, and of her brother Gelon, not to suffer her, an innocent woman, to be involved in ruin under the hatred incurred by Hieronymus. To her nothing had accrued, from his being on the throne, but the exile of her husband; neither, during the life of Hieronymus, was her situation the same with that of her sister, nor since his death was her cause the same. Must it not be allowed, that if Andranodorus had succeeded in his projects, her sister would have reigned with him, whereas she must have been in servitude with the rest? If any one should tell Zoippus, that Hieronymus was killed and Syracuse free, who could doubt but he would instantly get on board a ship and return to his country? How deceitful were the hopes of men! Could he imagine, that in his native soil, restored to liberty, his wife and children were struggling to preserve their lives; and in what respect did they obstruct the cause of liberty or the laws? What danger could arise from them, a solitary, and, in a manner, widowed woman, and her poor orphan children? But though no danger was apprehended from them, yet the whole royal race was detested. Let herself and children be banished far from Syracuse and from Sicily; let them be conveyed to Alexandria; a wife to her husband, the daughters to their father.” Finding them still inexorable, and wishing to make the best use of the time, (for she saw some even drawing their swords,) she desisted from farther entreaties for herself, and continued to beseech them to “spare, at least, her daughters, who were children of an age which even enraged enemies refrain from injuring; and not, while they pursued their revenge against tyrants, to imitate themselves the crimes which had raised their hatred.” While she was speaking, they dragged her from the sanctuary, and slew her; and then turned their weapons against the children, who were sprinkled with the blood of their mother. But they, deprived of reason by grief and fear together, rushed out of the chapel with such quickness, that, had a passage been open to the public street, they would have filled the whole city with tumult: even as it was, though the extent of the house was not great, they several times made their way through the midst of many armed men, without receiving a wound, and extricated themselves from those that took hold of them, notwithstanding the number and strength of the hands with which they had to struggle; but at length, being reduced to the last weakness by wounds, after covering every place with their blood, they fell and expired. This scene, piteous in itself, was rendered yet more so by an incident that ensued; for shortly after, arrived a message, countermanding their execution, the sentiments of the people having suddenly turned to the side of compassion: and this compassion was soon converted into anger, on account of the precipitancy with which the sentence had been hurried on, so as to leave no time for re-consideration or the subsiding of passion. The populace, therefore, expressed much discontent, and insisted on an assembly of election to fill up the places of Andranodorus and Themistus, for both had been prætors; and this election was not at all likely to terminate in a manner agreeable to the present prætors.
XXVII. A day was appointed for the election, when, to the surprise of all, some person in the remotest part of the crowd named Epicydes; then another, in the same quarter, Hippocrates; which names were afterwards the most frequently repeated, with the manifest approbation of the multitude. The assembly itself was an irregular one; for, not the commons alone, but also great numbers of the soldiery, and even of deserters, who wished to overturn every present establishment, composed the disorderly crowd. The magistrates, at first, pretended ignorance of what was going forward, thinking to protract the business; but, at last, overcome by the united voice of so very many, and dreading an insurrection, they declared those men prætors: who, however, did not immediately unveil their sentiments, though greatly chagrined — first, at ambassadors having gone to Appius Claudius to conclude a truce of ten days, and then, when that was obtained, on others being sent to negociate a renewal of the old alliance. At this time the Romans had a fleet of an hundred sail at Murgantia, watching what might be the result of the commotions of Syracuse, in consequence of the deaths of the tyrants, and to what points the view of the people might be directed by the late acquisition of liberty, to which they had so long been strangers. Meanwhile, the Syracusan ambassadors had been sent by Appius to Marcellus on his arriving in Sicily; who, when he heard the terms on which they proposed the alliance, conceiving expectations that the business might be adjusted to mutual satisfaction, sent ambassadors on his part to Syracuse, to treat with the prætors in person. Here was no longer the same quiet and tranquillity: on news being received that a Carthaginian fleet had arrived at Pachynum, Hippocrates and Epicydes, freed from apprehension, now began, sometimes among the mercenary soldiers, at others among the deserters, to spread insinuations, that there was a design of betraying Syracuse to the Romans. And when Appius came and kept his fleet stationed at the mouth of the harbour, with intention to raise the spirits of the other party, this gave the utmost appearance of credibility to their ill-grounded suggestions, insomuch that the populace at the first ran down in a tumultuous manner, to oppose the landing of his men, if such an attempt should be made.
XXVIII. In this troubled state of affairs, it was judged necessary to call a general assembly. Here, while opposite parties drew contrary ways, and a civil war was on the point of breaking out, one of the leading nobles, named Apollonides, addressed them in a discourse of very salutary tendency at such a juncture; telling them that “no state ever had a nearer prospect either of safety or of ruin. If all would unanimously incline either on the side of the Romans or to that of the Carthaginians, their prosperity and happiness would equal that of any other nation whatever. If separate parties laboured to counteract each other, the war between the Carthaginians and the Romans was not more furious, than would be that which must follow between the Syracusans themselves, when each party should have its own troops, its own arms, its own leaders within the same walls. The most effectual endeavours ought to be used to bring all to unanimity in opinion. Which of the alliances might be the more profitable, was a question of a very inferior nature, and of much less moment. Nevertheless, on the choice of allies, they ought rather to follow the judgment of Hiero than that of Hieronymus, and give the preference to a friendship, of which they had an happy experience for fifty years, before one which would be at the present new to them, and was formerly found deceitful. Another consideration ought to be allowed some weight in their resolves; that it was in their power to decline a treaty of friendship with the Carthaginians; and yet not to enter, immediately at least, into a war with them; whereas with the Romans, they must instantly have either peace or war,” The less of party spirit and warmth this speech contained, the greater was its influence on the hearers. To the prætors, and a select number of senators, a military council was joined, and even the commanders of companies, and the præfects of the allies, were ordered to share in their consultations. After the affair had been frequently debated with great heat, they at last resolved, because they could discover no plan on which war could be maintained against the Romans, that a treaty of peace should be formed with them, and that ambassadors should be sent with those of that nation, then in Syracuse, to ratify it.
XXIX. Not many days had passed, when deputies from the Leontines arrived, requesting aid for the defence of their country; and this application was considered as coming most seasonably for ridding the city of a disorderly turbulent rabble, and removing their leaders out of the way. The prætor, Hippocrates, was ordered to conduct the deserters thither; and these were accompanied by great numbers of mercenary auxiliaries, so that the whole amounted to four thousand soldiers. This expedition was highly pleasing, both to the persons employed, and to their employers; the former gaining, what they had long wished for, an opportunity for disturbing the government; the latter rejoicing at such a nuisance being removed; the sink, as it were, of the city. However, this proved only like giving a sick person present ease, that he might relapse with an aggravation of his disorder. For Hippocrates began at first, by secret excursions, to ravage the nearest parts of the Roman province; but afterwards, when Appius had sent a body of troops to protect the territories of the allies, he attacked, with his entire force, a detachment posted in his way, and killed a great number. When Marcellus was informed of these transactions, he instantly despatched ambassadors to Syracuse, to complain of this infraction of the treaty, and to represent, that occasions of quarrel would never be wanting, unless Hippocrates and Epicydes were banished, not only from Syracuse, but far from every part of Sicily. Epicydes not choosing, by remaining where he was, either to face the charge of being a confederate in his absent brother’s crime, or to omit contributing his share towards effecting a rupture, went off to his seceding countrymen at Leontini, where, finding the inhabitants filled with a sufficient degree of animosity against the Roman people, he undertook to detach them from the Syracusans also. For “the latter,” he said, “had stipulated in their treaty with Rome, that every state which had been subject to their kings, should for the future be subject to them; and they were not now content with liberty, unless they possessed along with it regal and arbitrary power over other nations. The proper answer, therefore, to be given to any requisition from them was, that the Leontines deemed themselves entitled to freedom no less than themselves, if it were only because their city was the spot where the tyrant fell; that there liberty was first proclaimed, where the troops had abandoned the king’s generals, and flocked to Syracuse. Wherefore that article must be expunged from the treaty, or a treaty containing such an article should not be admitted.” The multitude were easily persuaded; and when ambassadors from Syracuse complained of their cutting off the Roman detachment, and delivered an order, that Hippocrates and Epicydes should depart either to Locri, or to any other place which they chose, provided they retired out of Sicily, the Leontines roughly answered, that they had not commissioned the Syracusans to make a treaty of peace with the Romans for them, neither were they bound by other people’s treaties.” This answer the Syracusans laid before the Romans, declaring that “the Leontines were not under their direction; that, therefore, the Romans might make war on that people without any violation of the treaty with Syracuse, and that they would not fail to give their assistance in it, on condition that the others, when reduced to submission, should be again subjected to their government.”
XXX. Marcellus marched against Leontini with his whole force, sending also for Appius, that he might attack it on another quarter; and so great was the ardour of the soldiers on that occasion, inspired by their resentment for the detachment being cut off while a treaty of peace was depending, that at the first sssault, they carried the town. Hippocrates and Epicydes, when they saw the enemy in possession of the walls, and breaking open the gates, retired, with a few others, into the citadel, from whence they made their escape secretly, during the night, to Herbessus. The Syracusans having marched from home in a body, eight thousand in number, were met at the river Myla by a messenger, who acquainted them, that Leontini was taken, and who mixed several falsehoods with the truth, saying, that both soldiers and townsmen had been put to the sword without distinction; nor did he believe that any one above the age of childhood, was left alive; that the city was sacked, and the effects of the wealthy bestowed on the soldiers. On hearing such a shocking account, the army halted; and, every one being highly exasperated, the commanders, who were Sosis and Dinomenes, entered into consultation how they should act. The false report had received a colour of truth sufficient to justify apprehension, from the circumstance of a number of deserters, amounting to two thousand, having been beaten with rods and beheaded. But not one of the Leontines, or the other soldiers, had been hurt after the capture of the city was completed; and every kind of property had been restored to the owners, except what was destroyed in the first confusion of the assault. The troops, who complained grievously of their fellow-soldiers being treacherously put to death, could not be prevailed on, either to proceed to Leontini, or to wait in their present post for more certain intelligence. On which the prætors, perceiving that they were inclined to mutiny, but that this ferment would not be of long duration if their ringleaders in this foolish conduct were removed, led the army to Megara, whence they themselves, with a small body of horse, proceeded to Herbessus, with hopes that, in consequence of the general consternation, the city might be surrendered into their hands; but, being disappointed in their expectations, they next day decamped from Megara, in order to lay siege to it with the whole of their force. Hippocrates and Epicydes now adopted a plan, which, though at first sight not free from danger, yet, every hope being cut off, was the only one which they could pursue; this was to put themselves into the hands of the soldiery, of whom a great part were well acquainted with them, and all were incensed on account of the supposed slaughter of their fellow-soldiers; and they accordingly went out to meet the army on its approach. It happened that the corps which led the van was a battalion of six hundred Cretans, who in the reign of Hieronymus, had served under their command, and were also under an obligation to Hannibal, having been taken prisoners at the Trasimenus, with other auxiliaries to the Romans, and dismissed. Hippocrates and Epycides knowing them by their standards, and the fashion of their armour, advanced to them, holding out olive branches and other emblems of suppliants, and besought them to receive them into their ranks, to protect them there, and not to betray them into the hands of the Syracusans, by whom they themselves would soon be delivered up to the Romans, to be murdered. The Cretans immediately, with one voice, bade them keep up their courage, for they should share every fortune with them.
XXXI. During this conversation the standards had halted, nor had the cause of the delay yet reached the general. But soon a rumour spread, that it was occasioned by Hippocrates and Epicydes, and a murmur ran along the whole line, evidently demonstrating that the troops were pleased at their coming. On this, the prætors instantly rode forward, at full speed, to the van, asking, “What sort of behaviour was this? What did the Cretans mean by such disorderly conduct, maintaining conversation with an enemy, and allowing them to mix in their ranks?” They then ordered Hippocrates to be seized, and put in chains. On which words such a clamour ensued, begun by the Cretans, and continued by the rest, as clearly showed that if they proceeded farther in the matter, they would have cause to be apprehensive for their own safety. Alarmed and perplexed by their situation, they ordered the army to march back to Megara, and sent expresses to Syracuse, with accounts of their present state. While the men were disposed to entertain every kind of suspicion, Hippocrates, to increase their apprehensions, employed an artifice: having sent out some of the Cretans to watch the roads, he afterwards read publicly a letter composed by himself, but which he pretended had been intercepted. The address was, “The prætors of Syracuse to the consul Marcellus.” After the usual salutations, it mentioned, that “he had acted rightly and properly in not sparing any in Leontini. That all the mercenary soldiers were to be considered in the same light, and never would Syracuse enjoy tranquillity as long as one of the foreign auxiliaries remained, either in the city, or in their army:” they therefore requested him to use his endeavours to reduce under his power those who were encamped with their prætors at Megara, and, by putting them to death, effectuate, at length, the delivery of Syracuse.” As soon as this was read to the soldiers, they ran on all sides to arms with such clamours, that the prætors, in a fright, rode away, during the confusion, to Syracuse. But even their flight did not serve to quell the mutiny, and several attacks were made on the Syracusan troops: nor would one of them have found mercy, had not Epicydes and Hippocrates opposed the rage of the multitude, not through compassion, or any humane intention, but through fear of forfeiting all hope of ever returning to the city; and from this further consideration, that, while they should find these men themselves both faithful soldiers and hostages, they would, at the same time, engage also the favour of their relations and friends; in the first place, by so great an obligation conferred, and then, by having such a pledge in their hands. As they knew, too, from experience, how slight and insignificant an impulse is sufficient to set the populace in motion, they procured a soldier, who had been one of the number besieged in Leontini, and suborned him to carry to Syracuse, a story corresponding with the feigned tale told at Myla; and, by avowing himself the author, and asserting as facts, of which he had been an eye-witness, those particulars, of which doubts were harboured, to irritate the passions of the people.
XXXII. This man not only gained credit with the populace, but, being brought before the senate, had address enough to influence even their judgment; and several, not apt to be over credulous, openly observed, that “it was happy that the avarice and cruelty of the Romans had been unmasked at Leontini. Had they come into Syracuse, their behaviour would have been the same, or probably more barbarous, as the incitements to avarice were greater there.” Wherefore all agreed in opinion, that the gates ought to be shut, and guards posted for the defence of the city. But they did not so generally agree in the object either of their fears or their aversions. Among the military of all descriptions, and a great part of the plebeians, their hatred fell on the Roman nation; while the prætors, and a few of the nobility, notwithstanding that their judgment had been infected by the false intelligence, yet took more pains to guard against a nearer and more immediate danger: for Hippocrates and Epicydes were already at the Hexapylum; and the relations of the native soldiers then in the army, were using many arguments to persuade the people to open the gates, and to let their common country be defended against the Romans. And now one of the gates of the Hexapylum had been opened, and the troops had begun to march in, when the prætors arrived at the spot; they endeavoured, at first by commands and menaces, then by counsel and advice, to deter the inhabitants from their purpose; and, at last, finding all these ineffectual, they descended from their dignity, and had recourse to entreaties, beseeching them not to betray their country to men who were lately instruments of a tyrant, and who now imprisoned the soldiers minds. But, in the heat of the present ferment, the ears of the multitude were deaf to all such arguments, and efforts were made to break open the gates on the inside, no less violent than those from without. They were all soon forced, and the whole army received into the Hexapylum. The prætors, with the youth of the city, fled for safety into the Achradina. The mercenaries, deserters, and all the soldiers of the late King, then in Syracuse, augmented the force of the enemy. In consequence, the Achradina was taken at the first assault, and the prætors, except such as could make their escape in the confusion, were all put to death. Night put an end to the shedding of blood. Next day the slaves were invited to freedom; all the prisoners were discharged from confinement, and the motley rabble, composed of all these different sorts, elected Hippocrates and Epicydes prætors: thus Syracuse, after a short enjoyment of the sunshine of liberty, sunk back into its former state of servitude.
XXXIII. As soon as the Romans were informed of these events, they immediately decamped from Leontini, and marched to Syracuse. At the same time it happened that ambassadors, sent by Appius, and who were approaching the place in a quinquereme, with difficulty escaped being taken: which, however, was the fate of a quadrireme, ordered to advance some distance before their galley, on its entering the harbour. And now not only the laws of peace, but even those of war, had been all thrown aside, when the Roman army pitched their camp at Olympium, a temple of Jupiter so called, distant a mile and a half from the city. From hence also it was judged proper to send ambassadors, who were prevented entering the city by Hippocrates and Epicydes, with their adherents, coming out from the gate to meet them. The Roman, whose part it was to speak, said, that “the Romans came not with the intention of making war on the Syracusans, but of giving succour and support both to such as, after extricating themselves from the midst of carnage, fled to them for refuge; and also to those, who, overpowered by fear, endured a bondage more shocking, not only than exile, but even than death. Nor would the Romans suffer such an abominable massacre of their allies to pass unpunished. Wherefore if those, who had taken refuge with them, were allowed to return to their country with safety, and the authors of the massacre were delivered up, and liberty and their laws restored to the Syracusans, there would be no occasion for quarrel. If these requisitions were not complied with, whoever was the cause of the refusal should undergo the severest vengeance which their arms could inflict.” To this Epicydes replied, that “if they had been charged with any message to him, and his friends, they would have returned an answer. That when the government of Syracuse should be in the hands of those to whom they came, they might then return to Sicily. If they began hostilities, they should learn, on trial, that the siege of Syracuse was a very different kind of business from that of Leontini.” So saying, he turned his back on the ambassadors, and shut the gates. The Romans then, immediately, began to form the siege of Syracuse, both by land and sea; by land, on the side of the Hexapylum; by sea, on that of the Achradina, the wall of which is washed by its waves. Having mastered Leontini by the terror which their assault inspired, and that at the first attack, they doubted not but they should be able, in some quarter or other, to make their way into a city of such wide extent, and whose defended parts lay at such a distance from each other; they pushed forward therefore to the walls every kind of machine used in sieges.
XXXIV. This enterprize, from the spirit and vigour with which it was undertaken, must have met the expected success, had it not been for one single person then in Syracuse: this was Archimedes, a man singularly skilled in the science of astronomy, and a great geometrician, eminently distinguished in the invention and construction of warlike engines, by means of which, with very slight exertions, he baffled the efforts of the enemy, made with immense labour. The wall, which, being drawn along unequal eminences, was in some parts high and difficult of access, in others low and liable to be approached through the level vales, he furnished with machines of all kinds, adapted to the nature of each particular place. That of the Achradina, which, as before observed, is washed by the sea, Marcellus attacked from his largest ships; while from the small vessels, the archers, slingers, and light-infantry, (whose weapon is of such a kind that it cannot well be thrown back, except by experienced hands,) wounded almost every one defending the works. These, requiring room for the discharge of their missiles, kept at a distance: but the other and larger ships, eight in number, were fastened together in pairs, by the removal of one tier of oars; while those on the exterior sides moved them both as if a single ship. These carried turrets of several stories in height, with instruments for demolishing the rampart. Against this naval armament, Archimedes disposed, on the walls, engines of various sizes. On the ships, which lay at a distance, he discharged rocks of immense weight; and those which lay nearer, lighter and therefore more numerous annoyances. And lastly, he opened in the wall from top to bottom a great number of spike-holes, a cubit in diameter, through which without being seen, or in danger of being hurt, they poured arrows and darts from scorpions. Some ships having come up closer, in order that the weapons from the engines might fly over them, he used an engine called Tolleno, composed of a long lever supported at the middle, and fixed in such a manner that one arm of it projected beyond the wall; from the extremity of this hung, by a strong chain, an iron grapple, which, taking hold of the fore part of the ship, while the other extremity of the lever was weighed down to the ground by a heavy counterpoise of lead, lifted up the prow and set the vessel on its stern; the grappel then was suddenly disengaged, and the ship was, to the utter consternation of the seamen, dashed into the water with such force, that even if it had fallen in an erect position, it would have taken in a great deal of water. By these means the assailants were foiled in every attempt by sea; abandoning therefore that part of the plan, they bent all their efforts to the pushing forward the operations by land, and with their whole force. But on this side, too, the place was furnished with a similar train of engines of every description, procured in a course of many years by the direction and at the expense of Hiero, and through the singular skill of Archimedes. The nature of the ground also was favourable to the defendants, because the rock on which the foundations of the wall were laid, is in most places so steep, that not only bodies thrown from an engine, but such as rolled down by their own weight, fell with great power on the enemy: the same cause rendered the ascent difficult to be climbed, and the footing unsteady. Wherefore a council being held, it was resolved, since every attempt ended in disappointment and disgrace, to desist from farther attacks, and only to blockade the place so closely as to cut off all supplies of provisions, either by land or sea.
XXXV. Meanwhile, Marcellus marched, with about a third part of the forces, to recover those cities which, during the general disturbances, had revolted to the Carthaginians. Helorus and Herbessus he received by voluntary surrender. Having taken Megara by storm, he sacked and demolished it, in order to strike terror into others, particularly the Syracusans. About the same time Himilco, who had for a long time kept his fleet at the promontory of Pachynum, landed at Heraclea, which is also called Minoa, twenty-five thousand infantry, three thousand horses, and twelve elephants; a much greater force than he had before on board his ships at Pachynum. When Syracuse was seized by Hippocrates, he had gone to Carthage, and there, being encouraged by ambassadors from him as chief, and by letters from Hannibal, who affirmed that the time was now come for recovering possession of Sicily with the highest honour; and as his own advice given on the spot had no small degree of influence, he easily procured an order, that the greatest force possible of infantry and cavalry should be transported into that island Immediately on his arrival he reduced Heraclea, and within a few days after, Agrigentum; raising at the same time in all the other states, who sided with the Carthaginians, such warm hopes of expelling the Romans from Sicily, that at last even the Syracusans, besieged as they were, assumed new courage. Judging that a part of their forces would be sufficient for defence alone, they divided the business in such a manner, that Epicydes should command the troops so appointed for guarding the city, and Hippocrates, in conjunction with Himilco, conduct the war against the Roman consul. The latter accordingly, with ten thousand foot and five hundred horse, having passed by night through some intervals between the Roman posts, began to pitch his camp near the city Acrillæ: while they were raising their fortifications, Marcellus came upon them, for he was now returning from Agrigentum, to which place he had in vain hastened by quick marches, in hope of reaching it before the enemy, but he found it already in their possession, and expected nothing less at that time than to meet a Syracusan army in his way. However, through fear of Himilco and the Carthaginians, for whom he was by no means a match with the force which he then had, he was marching with all possible caution, and with his troops prepared for every occurrence.
XXXVI. This precaution adopted against the Carthaginians, happened to prove useful in respect of the Syracusans. Finding them scattered, separately employed in forming their camp, and mostly unarmed, he surrounded and cut off the whole of their infantry; the cavalry, after a slight opposition, fied with Hippocrates to Acræ. This stroke having effectually checked the designs of those states, which were disposed to revolt from the Romans, Marcellus returned to Syracuse; and, after a few days, Himilco, being joined by Hippocrates, came and encamped at the river Anapus, about eight miles distant. About the same time fifty-five Carthaginian ships of battle, commanded by Bomilcar, as admiral, put into the great harbour at Syracuse, and a Roman fleet of thirty quinqueremes landed the first legion at Panormus; it seemed, indeed, as if the theatre of war was removed hither from Italy, so intent were both nations on the affairs of Sicily. Himilco expected that the Roman legion, landed at Panormus, would fall a prey to him on its way to Syracuse; but he missed it by taking the road which led through the inland parts of the country, while the legion, keeping close to the sea-coast, and being attended by the fleet, effected a junction with Appius Claudius, who, with a part of his forces, came as far as Pachynum to meet it. Nor did the Carthaginians delay longer at Syracuse. On the one hand, Bomilcar was diffident of his own strength at sea, as the Romans had a fleet, of at least double his number; and, at the same time, as he perceived that the only effect of his forces remaining there, where they could do no service, would be, the aggravating the distress of his allies in the article of provisions, he sailed out into the main, and passed over to Africa. On the other hand, Himilco had in vain followed Marcellus to Syracuse, in hopes of finding an opportunity of engaging him before he should join the larger division of his army; but being disappointed in this, and seeing likewise that the enemy’s post at Syracuse was secured from every attempt, both by the fortifications and the number of their forces, he did not choose to waste time to no purpose in sitting there as a spectator of the siege carried on against his allies, and therefore decamped and marched away his army, with intention to carry it wherever a prospect of a revolt from the Romans should invite him, that he might invigorate by his presence the resolution of those who favoured his interest. And first, through the treachery of the inhabitants, who betrayed the Roman garrison, he got possession of Murgantia, where the Romans had large magazines of corn and every kind of provisions.
XXXVII. By this revolt, other states were encouraged to imitate the example; and the Roman garrisons were either driven out of the fortresses, or betrayed and overpowered. Enna, standing on a lofty eminence, which was steep and craggy on every side, was not only impregnable by reason of its situation, but had moreover a strong force in its citadel, with a governor who could not be easily overreached by treachery. This was Lucius Pinarius, a man of spirit and activity, who relied more on his own precaution, to render every scheme of perfidy impracticable, than on the fidelity of the Sicilians; and his solicitude to be prepared for every emergency was now increased by the intelligence he had received of so many cities revolting, or being betrayed, and the garrisons put to death. Wherefore, every thing was kept in a state of readiness, with guards and watches constantly on duty, as well by night as by day, nor did the soldier ever quit his arms or his post. When the leading men in Enna, who had already bargained with Himilco for the betraying of the garrison, understood that the Roman commander had left no room for the practice of any deception, they resolved to act openly, and represented to him, that the city and the citadel ought to be under their care, since they had been connected with “the Romans as free men in alliance, not as slaves in custody.” They therefore required that the keys of the gates should be returned to them, observing, that “on good allies honour was the strongest tie, and that then only would the senate and people of Rome think them deserving of thanks, when they should continue in friendship out of their own free will, not through compulsion.” To this the Roman answered, that “he was placed there by his general, and from him had received the keys of the gates and the custody of the citadel, which he held not at his own disposal, or that of the inhabitants of Enna, but at his who had committed them to his charge. That to relinquish a man’s post in a garrison, was, among the Romans, a capital crime, and that parents had confirmed that law even by the death of their own children. That the consul Marcellus was not far distant; let them send ambassadors to him, who had the right and authority to determine.” They declared positively, that they would not send, and gave him notice, that, since words were of no avail, they would seek some other means of asserting their liberty. Pinarius then desired, “that if they did not choose to take the trouble of sending to the consul, they would, at least, allow him to meet the people in assembly, that it might be known whether these were the denunciations of a party only, or of the whole state;” which being agreed to, an assembly was proclaimed for the following day.
XXXVIII. After this conversation, he went back immediately into the citadel, and calling the troops together, spoke thus: “Soldiers, you must have heard in what manner the Roman garrisons have, of late, been betrayed and cut off by the Sicilians. The same treachery you have escaped, principally through the kindness of the gods, and next through your own resolution, in keeping continual guard and watch under arms, without intermission by day or by night. I wish it were in our power to pass the rest of our time without either enduring or offering cruel treatment. But this caution, which we have hitherto used, guards only against their secret machinations; which, not having succeeded to their wish, they now openly and plainly demand the keys of the gates. The moment these are delivered to them, Enna will be made over to the Carthaginians, and we shall be massacred here in a more shocking manner than were those of Murgantia. This one night’s time, I have, with difficulty, procured for consultation, that I might apprize you of the imminent danger to which you are exposed. At sunrise they intend to hold an assembly for the purpose of criminating me, and incensing the populace against you: before to-morrow night, therefore, Enna will be deluged either with your blood, or with that of its inhabitants. If they anticipate your measures, you will have no resource; if you anticipate theirs, you will have no danger: whoever first draws the sword, his will be the victory. Do you, therefore, in arms, and with all your attention awake, wait for the signal. I will be in the assembly, and, by talking and disputing, will prolong the time until every thing shall be ready. As soon as I give the signal with my gown, then let me see that you raise a shout on every quarter, attack the multitude, and mow down all with the sword; take care that no one be left alive from whom either force or fraud can be feared. O! Mother Ceres and Proserpine, and you other gods whether of the superior or inferior regions, who patronise this city and these consecrated lakes and groves, so prosper us, I beseech you, with your favour and assistance, as we undertake such an enterprise with a view of averting, not of afflicting injury. I would use more words in exhorting you, soldiers, if you were to have a contest with men in arms: that unarmed and unguarded crowd you will kill until you shall be satisfied with killing: besides, the consul’s camp is at hand, so that nothing can be feared from Himilco and the Carthaginians.”
XXXIX. Being dismissed with this exhortation, they went to take refreshment. Next day they posted themselves in different places, to block up the streets, and shut the passes against the townsmen going out; the greatest part of them, on and round the theatre, as they had been before accustomed to stand spectators of the assemblies. The Roman commander was conducted by the magistrates into the presence of the people, where he represented, that the power and authority of determining the business in question lay in the consul, not in him, urging mostly the same arguments, which he had used the day before; on which a few at first, then greater numbers, at last all, with one voice, insisted on his delivering the keys; and when he hesitated and demurred, began to threaten him furiously, showing evidently that they would no longer refrain from the utmost violence. The governor then gave the concerted signal with his gown. The soldiers were prepared, having a long time expected it with earnest attention; and now, while some of them, with loud shouts, ran down from the higher places against the rear of the assembly, others, in close array, blocked up the passages from the theatre. Thus, pent up in the inclosure, the inhabitants of Enna were put to the sword. Yet did they perish, not only by the weapons of their enemy, but by their own hasty flight, for many tumbled over the others, and the whole falling on the wounded, the living on the dead were all promiscuously heaped together. From thence, the soldiers spread themselves over the city, and, as if it had been taken by storm, filled every part of it with terror and carnage, their rage venting itself with no less fury on the unarmed crowd, than if their passions had been exasperated by an equality of danger in the heat of battle. Thus, by an act either wholly unjustifiable, or excuseable only on the ground of necessity, the possession of Enna was retained. Marcellus showed no disapprobation of the deed; on the contrary, he granted the plunder of that place to the soldiers; thinking that the Sicilians, deterred by fear of like treatment, would desist from the practice of betraying the Roman fortresses. The history of the sad catastrophe of this city, which stood in the middle of Sicily, and was so conspicuous, both on account of the extraordinary natural strength of its situation, as also on account of every part of it being rendered sacred by the monuments of the rape of Proserpine of old, reached every part of the island almost in one day. People considered that horrid carnage as a violation of the mansions of the gods, as well as of those of men; and now even those who had hesitated until this time, openly declared in favour of the Carthaginians. Hippocrates then retired to Murgantia, and Himilco to Agrigentum; for they had, on an invitation from the treacherous inhabitants, brought their armies to Enna to no purpose. Marcellus returned into the territory of Leoutini, where, having stored his camp with magazines of corn and other provisions, and left a small body of troops to defend it, he went to carry on the siege of Syracuse. Appius Claudius having obtained his leave to go to Rome to canvass for the consulship, he appointed in his room Titus Quintus Crispinus to the command of the fleet and of the old camp. He fortified a camp for himself, in which he erected huts for the winter, at a place called Leon, five miles distant from the Hexapylum. These were the transactions in Sicily previous to the commencement of winter.
XL. During that summer, the war with king Philip, which had been apprehended for some time, broke out into action. Deputies came from Oricum to the proprætor Marcus Valerius, who commanded the fleet at Brundusium and on the neighbouring coasts of Calabria, informing him, that Philip had first attempted Appollonia, sailing up the river with a hundred and twenty barks of two banks of oars; and, not succeeding there as speedily as he expected, had afterwards marched his army secretly by night to Oricum, which city, being situated in a plain, and being but weakly defended, either by fortifications or by men and arms, was overpowered at the first assault. To this information they joined entreaties, that he would bring them succour, and repel the attacks of that avowed enemy to the Romans from the maritime cities, which were assailed for no other reason, than because they lay contiguous to Italy. Marcus Valerius, leaving a lieutenant-general, Titus Valerius, to maintain his present post, and putting on board the ships of burthen a number of soldiers, for whom there was not room in the ships of war, set sail with his fleet fully equipped and prepared, and arrived on the second day at Oricum, and without much difficulty retook that city, which had for its defence but a weak garrison, left by Philip at his departure. Hither came deputies from the Appollonians, with information, that they were besieged, because they refused to take part against the Romans, and that they were unable longer to withstand the force of the Macedonians, unless a Roman garrison were sent to their aid. Valerius promised to comply with their wishes, and sent two thousand chosen men in ships of war to the mouth of the river, under the command of Quintus Nævius Crista, præfect of the allies, a man of an enterprising spirit and experienced in service. He, as soon as his men were landed, sent back the ships to join the rest of the fleet at Oricum, whence he came; and leading his troops at a distance from the river, through a road where he was least likely to meet any of the king’s party, got into town by night, without being discovered by them. During the following day all remained quiet, while the præfect reviewed the forces of the Appollonians, their arms, and the defences of the city. On examining all those matters, he found sufficient ground for confidence; at the same time learning from scouts, that a great degree of negligence and inattention prevailed among the enemy. In consequence of this intelligence, he marched out of the city in the dead of the night, without any noise, and, on entering their camp, found it so neglected and exposed, that a thousand of his men had gotten within the rampart, as we are well assured, before any one perceived them, and had they refrained from killing the soldiers, might have reached the pavilion of the king. The destroying of those who were nearest to the gate roused the others from sleep: and immediately such terror and dismay took possession of all, that not one of them offered to take arms, or to attempt expelling the assailants: nay, instead of that, even the king himself fled in the same condition as he had started out of bed; half naked in a manner, and in a dress which would scarcely be decent for a private soldier, much less a monarch, he effected his escape to his ships in the river. Thither also the rest of the multitude directed their precipitate flight. Somewhat less than three thousand men were either killed or taken, but the number of prisoners considerably exceeded that of the killed. The camp was then sacked, and the Appollonians carried into their city, for the defence of their walls on any future occasion, the catapultas, balistas, and other engines, which had been provided for the purpose of demolishing them; all the rest of the booty found in the camp was consigned to the Romans. As soon as the news of this event reached Oricum, Marcus Valerius instantly drew his fleet to the mouth of the river, lest the King should attempt to escape by water. Philip, therefore, despairing of being able to cope with his adversaries, either by land or sea, drew up some of his ships into dock, burned the rest, and with his troops, mostly unarmed and despoiled of their baggage, returned by land into Macedonia. Marcus Valerius, with the Roman fleet, wintered at Oricum.
XLI. In Spain the contending parties met with various success during this campaign. For, before the Romans passed the river Iberus, Mago and Hasdrubal defeated a very numerous army of Spaniards, and all farther Spain would have revolted from the Romans, had not Publius Cornelius, by a rapid march, arrived in time to confirm the wavering resolutions of his allies. The Romans encamped, first at a place called the High Fort, remarkable for the death of the great Hamilcar. The fortress was strong, and they had already provided a store of corn. Nevertheless, because all the country round was full of the enemy’s troops, and as the Roman army, on its march, had been harassed by their cavalry, without being able to take revenge, and had lost two thousand men, who either loitered behind or straggled through the country, they removed thence to the neighbourhood of a friendly people, and fortified a camp at the mount of Victory. Hither came Cneius Scipio with all his forces; while on the other side, Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, with a complete army, joined the other two Carthaginian generals, and their whole combined forces sat down opposite to the Roman with a river between them. Publius Scipio, going out privately with some light-armed troops to take a view of the adjacent country, passed not unobserved by the enemy, who would have cut him off in an open plain, had he not seized an eminence, which was nigh. Even there he was closely invested, but his brother coming up, relieved him from that dangerous situation. Castulo, a strong city, reckoned among the most remarkable in Spain, and so closely connected with the Carthaginians, that Hannibal had married a native of it, revolted to the Romans. The Carthaginians laid siege to Illiturgi, because it was held by a Roman garrison, and they had reason to expect that it would soon fall into their hands, chiefly in consequence of a scarcity of provisions. Cneius Scipio, with a legion lightly equipped, marched to the relief of the allies and the garrison, and forced his way into the city, between the two camps of the enemy with great slaughter of their men. On the day following he made a sally, and fought with the same success. In the two battles, he killed above twelve thousand men, and took more than ten thousand, with thirty-six military standards: in consequence of which losses, the Carthaginians raised the siege. They then sat down before the city of Bigerra, which also was in alliance with the Romans, but on the approach of Cneius Scipio raised the siege without a battle.
XLII. The Carthaginians then removed their camp to Munda, whither the Romans quickly followed them. Here a general engagement took place, which lasted near four hours: the Romans had decidedly the advantage; but, while they were pursuing the victory with the utmost ardour, the signal of retreat was given, in consequence of Cneius Scipio’s thigh being pierced through with a javelin; the soldiers round him being seized with a panic, in the supposition that the wound was mortal. There was no doubt, but that, if they had not been thus stopped, they would, on that day, have taken the enemy’s camp. Not only their soldiers, but elephants also, had already been driven up to the rampart, and, on the top of it, thirty-nine elephants had been killed with spears. Twelve thousand men are said to have fallen in this battle, and near three thousand to have been taken, with fifty-seven military ensigns. From thence the Carthaginians retreated to the city of Aurinæ, and the Romans, not to allow them time to recover from their defeat, followed them closely. Here Scipio, though carried into the field in a litter, engaged them again, and obtained a decided victory: though fewer of the enemy, by half, were slain in this battle than in the former; because, after their loss on that occasion, they could only bring a smaller number into the field. But as they are a race fitted by nature for the reviving of wars and the recruiting of armies, they soon, through the diligence of Mago, who was sent by his brother to levy soldiers, filled up the complement of their troops, and resumed courage to risk a-fresh the issue of a battle. Though their battallions were now composed mostly of foreign soldiers, yet fighting on a side which had suffered so many discomfitures within a few days, they showed the same spirit as before, and the same consequence ensued. More than eight thousand men were slain, not many short of a thousand taken prisoners, together with fifty-eight military standards. The greater part of the spoils had belonged to the Gauls, among which were golden chains and bracelets in great numbers; there were also two remarkable chieftains of the Gauls killed in that battle, Mœnicaptus and Civismarus: eight elephants were taken, and three killed. During this current of success in Spain, the Romans began to feel ashamed of having suffered the town of Saguntum, the original object of dispute, to continue five years in the possession of the enemy. Wherefore, dislodging the Carthaginian garrison, they retook possession of the town, and restored it to such of the inhabitants as had survived the violence of the conflict. As to the Turdetanians, who had been the instigators of the war between the Carthaginians and the people, they totally subdued them, sold them as slaves, and rased their city to the ground. Such were the occurrences in Spain during the consulate of Quintus Fabius and Marcus Claudius.
XLIII. At Rome, no sooner had the new plebeian tribunes entered into office, than one of them, Lucius Metellus, summoned the censors, Publius Furius and Marcus Ætilius, to trial before the people. In the preceding year, when he was quæstor, they had degraded him from the equestrian rank and from his tribe, and had disfranchised him on account of his having formed a conspiracy at Cannæ, to abandon Italy: but they were supported by the other nine tribunes, who protested against their being brought to trial, and were consequently discharged. The death of Publius Furius prevented their closing the Lustrum; and Marcus Ætilius abdicated his office. The election of consuls was held by the consul Quintus Fabius Maximus, and two were chosen who were both absent at the time, Quintus Fabius Maximus, the present consul’s son, and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, a second time. The prætors appointed were Marcus Atilius, and two who were then curule ædiles, Publius Sempronius Tuditanus and Cneius Fulvius Centumalus, and lastly, Marcus Æmilius Lepidus. It is recorded, that stage plays were now, for the first time, exhibited four days successively, by direction of the curule ædiles. This Tuditanus, now ædile, was the person who, at Cannæ, while the rest were stupified by fear, in consequence of such a dreadful disaster, made his way through the middle of the enemy.
Y.R. 539. 213.XLIV. As soon as the elections were finished, the consuls elect were called home to Rome, by the advice of the present consul Quintus Fabius, and assumed the administration. They then called a meeting of the senate, to determine concerning their own provinces and those of the prætors, the armies to be employed, and the commanders to whom each was to be allotted. These were distributed in the following manner: To the consuls was assigned the province of making head against Hannibal; and of the armies, the one which Sempronius himself had already under his command, and another commanded by the late consul Fabius. These consisted of two legions each. Marcus Æmilius, the prætor, to whose lot the foreign jurisdiction had fallen, (his share in the administration of justice being consigned to his colleague, Marcus Atilius, city prætor,) was to hold the province of Luceria, and the two legions which Quintus Fabius, the present consul, had commanded as prætor; to Publius Sempronius fell the province of Ariminium; to Cneius Fulvius, Suessula, with two legions likewise to each; Fulvius to take with him the city legions; Tuditanus to receive his from Marcus Pomponius. The following commanders and provinces were continued: to Marcus Claudius, Sicily, so far as the limits of Hiero’s dominions had extended; to Lentullus, proprætor, the old Roman province in that island; to Titus Otacilius, the fleet. No additions were made to their armies. Greece and Macedonia were allotted to Marcus Valerius, with the legion and fleet which he had there; to Quintus Mucius, Sardinia, with his old army, which consisted of two legions, and to Caius Terentius, Picenum, with the one legion at the present under his command. It was ordered, that, besides those mentioned, two city legions should be levied, and twenty thousand troops of the allies. These were the leaders, these the forces, provided for the defence of the Roman empire, against a multitude of enemies, either declared or suspected. The consuls, after raising the two city legions, and filling up the numbers of the others, before they quitted Rome, expiated several prodigies, which had been reported. A wall and a gate had been struck by lightning, and also the temple of Jupiter at Aricia. Besides which, several deceptions of the eyes and ears were credited as facts; that the figures of ships of war had appeared in the river at Tarracina, where no such ships were; that in the temple of Jupiter, at Vicilinum in the district of Compsa, a clashing of arms was heard, and that the river at Amiturnum flowed in streams of blood. When the expiation of these was performed, according to the direction of the pontiffs, the consuls set out, Sempronius to Lucania, Fabius to Apulia. The father of the latter coming into the camp at Suessula, as lieutenant-general under his son, the son went out to meet him, and the lictors, out of reverence to his dignity, went on in silence, until the old man rode past eleven of the fasces, when the consul ordering his next lictor to take care, he called to him to dismount, and the father then, at length, alighting, said, “I had a mind, my son, to try whether you were properly sensible of being consul.”
XLV. Into this camp Darius Altinius of Arpi came privately by night, with three slaves, promising that if he were properly rewarded, he would betray Arpi to them. Fabius held a council to consider of the matter, when some were of opinion, that “he ought to be scourged and put to death as a deserter, being a common foe to both parties, ever ready to change sides; who, after the misfortune at Cannæ, as if faith ought to follow the changes of fortune, had gone over to the Carthaginians, and drawn Arpi into a revolt; and now, when the Roman affairs were, contrary to his hopes and wishes, recovering from that disaster, it must appear doubly base to offer to serve, by an act of treachery, the party on whom he had practised his treachery before. Such a wretch, who always appeared to act on one side, while his wishes were on the other, such a perfidious ally and fickle enemy, ought to be made a third lesson to deserters along with the Falerian and Pyrrhus’s traitors.” On the other hand Fabius, the consul’s father, said, that “people did not attend to the state of the times; but, in the very heat of war, as in a time of tranquillity, pronounced their decisions on every case without any allowance for circumstances. Thus, at a time when they should rather contrive and labour to prevent, if possible, any of the allies revolting from the Roman cause, or become wavering in their inclinations, they were of opinion, that a person who repented and showed an inclination to return to his former connexions, ought to be punished for an example. But if those who had once forsaken the part of the Romans, were at no time allowed to return to it, who could doubt, but that their nation would be deserted by its allies, and that they would shortly see every state in Italy combined under Carthaginian treaties? Nevertheless, he was not disposed to think that any confidence should be reposed in Altinius: but he would strike out a middle way of proceeding, and recommend that, at present, he should not be treated either as an enemy or an ally, but should, during the continuance of the war, be kept in custody, at a small distance from the camp, in some city, whose fidelity could be relied on; and that, in the event of peace, it should be considered whether his former defection pleaded stronger for punishment, or his present return for pardon.” This advice of Fabius was adopted. Altinius was bound in chains, and, together with his attendants, delivered into custody; and a large quantity of gold which he had brought with him, was ordered to be kept for his use. He was sent to Cales, where he was allowed to go out by day, attended by guards, who confined and watched him by night. When he was missed at his house in Arpi, search was made for him at first, then the report of what had happened spreading through the city, occasioned a tumult among the citizens, as if they had lost their leader; so that, dreading an alteration of their present system, they despatched, instantly, to Hannibal, an account of the affair. This was not at all displeasing to the Carthaginian, because he had long harboured suspicions of him, knowing the duplicity of his character; and besides, he had now gained an excuse for seizing and confiscating his great property. However, in order to make people believe that he was actuated rather by anger than rapaciousness, he exhibited a scene of uncommon barbarity; for, having ordered his wife and children to be brought into the camp, he made a strict inquiry concerning the flight of Altinius, and likewise concerning the quantities of gold and silver which he had left at home; and, when he had got sufficient information of every particular, he burned them alive.
XLVI. Fabius set out from Suessula, intending to open the campaign with the siege of Arpi, and having pitched his camp about half a mile from the place, and taken a near view of the situation and fortifications of the town, he resolved to make his principal attack on a quarter where the works were the strongest, and the guard the most negligently kept. After providing every thing requisite for an assault, he selected out of the whole army the ablest centurions, and placed over them tribunes of known bravery, giving them six hundred soldiers, which number was deemed sufficient, with orders, that, on the sounding of the signal of the fourth watch, they should advance with scaling ladders to the chosen spot. The gate on that side was low and narrow, the corresponding street being little frequented, as leading through a deserted part of the town. He ordered them, after first scaling the wall, to proceed to this gate, and break down the bars on the inside; then, as soon as they had got possession of that quarter of the city, to give the signal with a cornet, that the rest of the forces might join them, saying, that he would have every thing in readiness. His orders were executed with vigour and spirit; while a circumstance, which seemed likely to obstruct the undertaking, proved the most favourable for concealing their operations. A heavy rain at midnight obliged the guards and watches in the town to slip away from their posts, and run for shelter into the houses, while the loudness of the storm, which was most violent at the beginning, prevented their hearing the noise made by those who were breaking the postern, and the sound, becoming afterwards more soft and regular, lulled most of the men to sleep. As soon as the assailants had secured possession of the gate, they placed the cornet players in the street, at equal distances, and ordered them to sound as a summons to the consul; who, finding this part of the plan executed, immediately ordered his troops to march, and, a little before day, entered the city through the broken gate.
XLVII. At length the enemy were roused, the rain too abating with the approach of day. There was in the city a garrison of Hannibal’s troops, amounting to five thousand effective men, and the armed people of Arpi themselves were three thousand more. These latter, the Carthaginians, to guard against any treachery on their rear, opposed in front to the enemy. The fight was maintained for some time in the dark, and in narrow streets, the Romans having seized not only all the passes, but the houses likewise next to the gate, lest they might be struck or wounded by any thing thrown down from them. Some of the Arpians and Romans recognising each other, began to enter into conversation; the latter asking what had been the demerit of their countrymen, or what the merit of the Carthaginians, that could induce Italians to wage war in their favour — in favour of foreigners and barbarians; in fine, against their ancient allies, and striving to reduce Italy to a state of vassalage, and to make it a tributary province to Africa? The Arpians, in excuse for themselves, declared, that, without knowing any thing of the matter, they had been sold to the Carthaginians by those who had the management of their affairs, and that they were kept in a state of subjection and oppression by a faction of a few. In consequence of this declaration, greater numbers on both sides joined in the conversation. At last the prætor of Arpi was brought by his countrymen to the consul, and mutual assurances being given, in the midst of the standards and troops, the Arpians on a sudden turned their arms against the Carthaginians in favour of the Romans. A body of Spaniards, also, nearly a thousand in number, came over to the consul, without stipulating any other condition than that the Carthaginian garrison should be allowed to depart unhurt; which article was punctually fulfilled: the gates were thrown open: they were dismissed in safety, and joined Hannibal at Salapia. Thus was Arpi restored to the Romans, without any other loss than that of the life of one man, long since branded with treason, and lately with desertion. To the Spaniards a double allowance of provisions was ordered; and, on very many occasions afterwards, the goverment found them brave and faithful soldiers. While one of the consuls was in Apulia, and the other in Lucania, an hundred and twelve Campanian horsemen, all men of noble birth, having, under pretence of ravaging the enemy’s country, obtained leave from the magistrates to go out of Capua, came to the Roman camp above Suessula, told the advanced guard who they were, and that they wished to speak with the prætor. Cneius Fulvius, who commanded there, on receiving their message, ordered ten of their number, unarmed, to be conducted into his presence; and having heard their demands, which amounted to no more than that, on Capua being recovered, their property might be restored to them, he received them all into protection. At the same time the other prætor, Sempronius Tuditanus, reduced, by force, the town of Aternum, took above seven thousand prisoners, and a considerable quantity of brass and silver coin. At Rome a dreadful fire raged during two nights and one day: every thing between the Salinæ and the Carmental gate was levelled to the ground, as were the Æquimælium and the Jugarian street. The fire, catching the temples of Fortune, of Mother Matuta, and of Hope, on the outside of the gate, and spreading to a vast extent, consumed a great number of buildings, both religious and private.
XLVIII. During this year, the two Cornelii Publius and Cneius, by the prosperous course of affairs in Spain, and from their having recovered many old, and acquired many new allies, were encouraged to extend their views to Africa itself. Syphax, at this time king of a part of Numidia, had suddenly commenced a war with the Carthaginians: to him they sent three centurions as ambassadors, to form a treaty of frendship and alliance, and to assure him, that, if he continued to prosecute the war against the Carthaginians, the Roman senate and people would be thankful for the service, and would use their best endeavours to repay the kindness afterwards to his entire satisfaction. This embassy was very acceptable to the barbarian: he entered into conversation with the ambassadors on the art of war; and when he heard the discourses of those experienced veterans, and compared his own practice with such a regular system of discipline, he became sensible of his ignorance in many particulars. Then he requested, as the first instance of that favour, which he might expect from good and faithful allies, that “two of them might carry back to their commanders the result of their embassy, and the other remain with him as his instructor in military knowledge; adding that the people of Numidia were quite unacquainted with the method of fighting on foot, and were useful only on horseback: that this was the mode practiced by their ancestors since their first existence as a nation, and to the same had the present generation been accustomed since their childhood. That he had to deal with an enemy whose chief confidence lay in the power of their infantry; and that, therefore, if he expected to put himself on an equality with them in point of firm strength, he must procure a body of foot soldiers to oppose theirs. That his dominions abounded with numbers of men fit for the purpose, but that he was totally ignorant of the proper method of arming, training, and marshalling them; and they were in every respect awkward and unmanageable, like a mere mob collected by chance.” The ambassadors answered, that they would, at the present, comply with his desire, provided he gave them an assurance that he would send the person back, in case their commanders should disapprove of what they had done. The name of him who remained with the king was Quintus Statorius. With the two centurions, the Numidian sent into Spain ambassadors on his part, to receive the ratification of the convention from the Roman generals; and he charged them, after they should have executed this commission, to persuade the Numidians, who acted as auxiliaries in the Carthaginian garrisons, to come over to the other side. Satorius, finding abundance of young men, raised an army of infantry for the king, and forming them into distinct bodies, according to the Roman method, taught them, in taking their posts and performing their several evolutions, to follow their standards and keep their ranks; and he so inured them to the practice of military works, and other duties of soldiers, that, in a short time, the king placed not more confidence in his cavalry than in his infantry, and, even in a pitched battle, on a level plain, he defeated an army of Carthaginians. The arrival of the king’s ambassadors was productive of great advantages to the Romans in Spain, for, as soon as it was known, the Numidians began to come over in great numbers from the enemy. In this manner did friendship commence between the Romans and Syphax. Of which transaction, as soon as the Carthaginians got notice, they instantly despatched ambassadors to Gala, who reigned in the other part of Numidia, over the nation called Massylians.
XLIX. Gala had a son named Masinissa, at that time only seventeen years old, but endowed with such talents as, even then, afforded strong presumption that he would leave the kingdom more extensive and opulent than when he received it. The ambassadors represented, that, “since Syphax had united himself with the Romans, for the purpose of being enabled, by their assistance, to exert greater force against the other kings and natives of Africa, it would be the interest of Gala to enter into alliance, as soon as possible, with the Carthaginians, on the other side; that, before Syphax passed over into Spain, or the Romans into Africa, it would be very practicable to overpower the former, who had, as yet, gained no advantage from his connexion with Rome, except the name of it. Gala was easily persuaded to take part in the war, especially as his son earnestly solicited the command of the armies; and, in conjunction with the legions of the Carthaginians, he totally defeated Syphax in a great battle, in which, as we are told, thirty thousand men were slain. Syphax fled from the field with a few horsemen, and took refuge among the Maurusian Numidians, who inhabit the remotest coast of the ocean, opposite to Gades. Here the barbarians, attracted by his fame, flocked to him from all sides, in such numbers, that he was soon at the head of a very great army. In order to prevent his carrying this force into Spain, from which he was separated only by a narrow streight, Masinissa, with his victorious troops, came up with him; and there, by his own strength, without any aid from the Carthaginians, he maintained the war against Syphax with great glory. In Spain nothing memorable was performed, except that the Roman generals brought over to their side the youth of Celtiberia, granting them the same pay which they had stipulated with the Carthaginians, and sending above three hundred Spaniards of the highest distinction into Italy, to endeavour to draw off their countrymen, who served as auxiliaries in Hannibal’s army. The only incident which occurred in Spain remarkable enough to deserve being recorded, was, that the Celtiberians, in this year, were the first mercenary troops ever entertained in the Roman armies.
* 161l. 9s. 2d.
† 322l. 18s. 4d.
‡ 1,866l. 14s.
§ 3,229l. 3s. 4d.
* Syracuse was founded by a colony of Athenians, and rose gradually to the very first rank of greatness and splendour At the time of these transactions it consisted of four parts, each of which deserved the name of a city. 1. The island, called also Ortygia, was joined to the main land by a bridge, and stretching out into the bay, formed two harbours, a large one to the south-east, and a smaller one on the north-west. Here stood the royal palace and the treasury, and, at the remotest point, the fountain Arethusa arises. 2. The Achradina. This was the largest and strongest division of the city, it stretched along the bottom of the lesser harbour, whose waters washed it, and was divided from the other parts by a strong wall. 3. The Tycha, so named from a remarkable temple of Fortune, ’τυχή, formed the southeastern part of the city. 4 Neapolis, or the New Town; this was the latest built, and lay westward of the Tycha. The principal entrance into this part was guarded by a fort called Hexapylum, from its having six gates. To this part belonged Epipolæ, an eminence commanding a view of the whole city.
Of this once famous city the only part now inhabited is the island. The ruins of the rest are about twenty two miles in circumference, and are covered with vineyards, orchards, and corn fields.
Publius Cornelius Scipio, afterwards called Africanus, elected ædile before he had attained the age required by the law. The citadel of Tarentum, in which the Roman garrison had taken refuge, betrayed to Hannibal. Games instituted in honour of Apollo, called Apollinarian. Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius, consuls, defeat Hanno the Carthaginian general. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus betrayed by a Lucanian to Mago, and slain. Centenius Penula, who had been a centurion, asks the senate for the command of an army, promising to engage and vanquish Hannibal; is cut off with eight thousand men. Cneius Fulvius engages Hannibal, and is beaten, with the loss of sixteen thousand men slain; he himself escapes with only two hundred horsemen. Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius, consuls, lay siege to Capua. Syracuse taken by Claudius Marcellus, after a siege of three years. In the tumult occasioned by taking the city, Archimedes is killed, while intently occupied upon some figures which he had drawn in the sand. Publius and Cornelius Scipio, after having performed many eminent services in Spain, are slain, together with nearly the whole of their armies, eight years after their arrival in that country; and the possession of that province would have been entirely lost, but for the valour and activity of Lucius Marcius, a Roman knight, who, collecting the scattered remains of the vanquished armies, utterly defeats the enemy, storming their two camps, killing thirty-seven thousand of them, and taking eighteen hundred, together with an immense booty.
Y.R. 539. 213.I. HANNIBAL passed the summer, during which these events took place in Africa and Spain, in the territory of Tarentum, in continual expectation of having that city betrayed into his hands. Meanwhile some inconsiderable towns of that district, with others belonging to the Sallentines, revolted to him. At the same time, of the twelve Bruttian States which had, a year or two before, gone over to the Carthaginians, the Consentians and Thurians put themselves again under the protection of the Roman people, and more of them would have done the same, had not Lucius Pomponius Veientanus, præfect of the allies, who, in consequence of several predatory expeditions in the territory of Bruttium, had acquired an appearance of a regular commander, assembled a tumultuary army, and fought a battle with Hanno. A vast number of his men were killed or taken on the occasion, but they were only an undisciplined rabble of peasants and slaves; and the least part of the loss was the præfect himself being taken among the rest; for, besides his inconsiderate rashnesss in bringing on this engagement, having been formerly a farmer of the revenue, he had, by every iniquitous practice, proved faithless and detrimental, both to the state and to the companies concerned in that business. The consul Sempronius had many slight skirmishes in Lucania, none worthy of mention, but reducing several inconsiderable towns. In proportion as the war was protracted to a greater length, and successes and disappointments produced various alterations, not only in the situations, but in the sentiments of men, superstitious observances, and these mostly introduced from abroad, gained such ground among the people in general, that it seemed as if either mankind or the deities had undergone a sudden change. And now the customed rites were disused, not only in private, and within doors, but even in the public streets, the Forum, and the Capitol. These were frequented by crowds of women sacrificing, and offering prayers to their gods, in modes hitherto unknown at Rome. A low sort of sacrificers, and soothsayers, had enslaved the people’s understandings, and the number of these were increased in consequence of the great influx of the peasantry from the country, who, as their lands lay long untilled by reason of the continuance of the war, and the inroads of the enemy, were driven into the city through want and fear. These found an easy means of profit, in working on the deluded minds of the multitude, which practice they carried on as if it were a lawful occupation. At first, every well-judging person expressed indignation at such proceedings; afterwards, the matter came to be noticed by the senators, and attracted public censure from the government. The ædiles, and the judges of criminal causes*, were sharply rebuked by the senate, for not having prevented these practices, although, when they had attempted to disperse from the Forum the crowd assembled on such an occasion, and to remove the implements of their rites, they were in imminent danger of personal injury. The evil now appearing too powerful to be checked by the efforts of the inferior magistrates, the senate gave a charge to Marcus Atilius, prætor of the city, to free the public from those superstitious nuisances. For this purpose, he read their decree in a general assembly; and, at the same time, gave notice, that “whosoever had any books of divination, and forms of prayer used on such occasions, or the art of sacrificing in writing, should bring all such books and writings to him before the calends of April, and that no person should in any place, either public or consecrated, perform sacrifice in any new or foreign mode.”
II. Several of the priests established by law died this year, Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, chief pontiff, Caius Papirius Maso, son of Caius, a pontiff, Publius Furius Philus, an augur, and Caius Papirius Maso, son of Furius, a decemvir for the direction of religious rites. In the room of Lentulus was substituted, in the college of pontiffs, Marcus Cornelius Cethegus; in that of Papirius, Cneius Servilius Cœpio: Lucius Quintius Flaminius was created augur, and Lucius Cornelius Lentulus decemvir for the direction of religious rites. The time of the consular election now drew nigh; but, as it was not judged expedient to call away the consuls from the war, which they were prosecuting with vigour, Tiberius Sempronius, consul, nominated Caius Claudius Centho dictator, to hold the elections, and he appointed Quintus Fulvius Flaccus his master of the horse. The dictator, on the first day whereon the assembly could meet, elected consuls Quintus Fulvius Flaccus the master of the horse, and Appius Claudius Pulcher, who had held the government of Sicily, as prætor. Then were elected prætors, Cneius Fulvius Flaccus, Caius Claudius Nero, Marcus Junius Silanus, Publius Cornelius Sulla. As soon as the elections were finished, the dictator resigned his office. This year, with Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, Publius Cornelius Scipio, afterwards surnamed Africanus was curule ædile. The plebeian tribunes opposed the pretensions of the latter to the ædileship, and insisted that he ought not to be admitted as a candidate, because he was not of the age required by law*, on which he answered, “If it is the will of all the citizens to make me ædile, I am old enough:” on this, the people hastened into their respective tribes, to give their votes in his favour, and with such a degree of zeal, that the tribunes at once relinquished their design. The compliments paid to the public by those ædiles were these: the Roman games were exhibited with magnificence, considering the circumstances of the times, and repeated during one day; with a donation of a gallon of oil to each street. The plebeian ædiles, Lucius Villius Tappulus, and Marcus Fundanius Fundulus, brought before the people a charge of incontinency against a considerable number of matrons, and several who were convicted were driven into exile. The plebeian games were repeated during two days; and, on occasion of these games, a banquet in honour of Jupiter was celebrated.
Y.R. 540. 212.III. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, a third time, and Appius Claudius, entered upon the administration of the consulship. The provinces were assigned to the prætors by lot; the administration of justice, both to citizens and foreigners, formerly divided between two, now fell to Publius Cornelius Sulla; Apulia was allotted to Cneius Fulvius Flaccus, Suessula to Caius Claudius Nero, and Etruria to Marcus Junius Silanus. It was decreed, that the consuls should conduct the war against Hannibal, and that each should receive two legions, one from Quintus Fabius consul of the former year, the other from Fulvius Centumalus; that, of the prætors, Fulvius Flaccus should command those legions which were at Luceria, under the prætor Æmilius, and Claudius Nero those which were in Picenum under Caius Terentius, and that they themselves should raise recruits to fill up the numbers of their respective armies. To Marcus Junius, for the service in Etruria, were given the two city legions of the preceding year. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Publius Sempronius Tuditanus were continued in command of their provinces, Lucania and Gaul, with the same forces as before; as was Publius Lentulus in the old Roman province in Sicily; Marcus Marcellus in Syracuse, and the late dominions of Hiero; Titus Otacilius in the command of the fleet, Marcus Valerius in that of Greece, Quintus Mucius Scævola in that of Sardinia, and the two Cornelii, Publius and Cneius, in that of Spain. In addition to the troops already on foot, two city legions were levied by the consuls, the number of these this year being raised to twenty-three. The behaviour of Marcus Postumius Pyrgensis impeded these levies of the consuls, and went very near exciting a great and general commotion. This man was a farmer of the revenue, and for many years had not, in the whole empire, any equal in fraud and avarice, excepting Lucius Pomponius Veientanus, who was made prisoner by the Carthaginians under Hanno, while he was inconsiderately ravaging the lands of Lucania. As the public were to undergo any loss of the supplies sent for the use of the armies, which should be occasioned by storm, these two had fabricated accounts of pretended shipwreck; and even such as they reported with a degree of truth, had happened through their own fraudulent contrivance, not through accident. Having put a few goods, of little worth, on board of old shattered vessels, they sunk these in the deep, after taking out the sailors into boats prepared for the purpose, and then made a false return of the cargoes, as of much more considerable value than they really were. A discovery of this fraud had been made the year before to Marcus Atilius the prætor, and by him communicated to the senate; but still no vote of censure had passed on it, because the senators were unwilling to disoblige, at such a time as that, the body of revenue farmers. The assembly of the people, however, proved a more strict avenger of it; and two plebian tribunes, Spurius and Lucius Carvilius, exerting themselves at last, when they saw that such conduct was become generally odious and scandalous, proposed a fine on Marcus Postumius of two hundred thousand asses in weight.* When the day arrived on which the cause was to be argued, such vast numbers of the commons attended the assembly, that the area of the Capitol could scarcely contain them; and when the pleadings were finished, the only hope which the defendant seemed to have, was, that Caius Servilius Casca, a plebian tribune, his near relation and intimate friend, should interpose a protest, before the tribes were called on for their opinions. After the witnesses had been examined, the tribunes desired the people to withdraw, and the urn was brought, in order that the tribes should draw lots, and then proceed to determine the matter. Meanwhile the revenue farmers urged Casca to stop the proceedings for that day, at which the commons loudly declared their displeasure, and Casca happening to sit foremost at a front corner of the Rostrum, his mind was highly agitated at once by fear and shame. Finding no support in him, the revenue farmers, for the purpose of obstructing the business, rushed, in a compact body, into the space which had been cleared by the withdrawing of some, wrangling at the same time with the remaining people and with the tribunes. The dispute now seemed likely to proceed to violence, when the consul Fulvius said to the tribunes, “Do you not see that your authority is annihilated, and that an insurrection will probably be the consequence, unless you quickly dismiss the assembly of the commons?”
IV. The commons were accordingly dismissed; and the consuls, having assembled the senate, required their judgment concerning the interruption given to the assembly of the people, and the audacious violence of the revenue farmers, representing at the same time, that “Marcus Furius Camilus, whose banishment was followed by the downfall of the city, had submitted to a sentence of condemnation, passed on him by his angry countrymen. That before him, the decemvirs, whose laws were the public rule of conduct to the present day, and, afterwards, many of the most distinguished personages in the state, had yielded themselves to the public judgment. But Postumius, an obscure individual of Pyrgi, had wrested from the Roman people their right of suffrage; had dissolved an assembly of the commons, annihilated the authority of the tribunes, arrayed a band of men, and seized on a post, with design to cut off all communication between the commons and their tribunes, and to prevent the tribes being called to vote. That nothing had restrained the people from riot and bloodshed, but the calmness and moderation of the magistrates, in giving way for the time to the desperate audaciousness of a few, in suffering themselves and the Roman people to be overcome, and rather than an occasion should be given to those, who wished for a riot, dissolving, according to the defendant’s desire, the assembly, whose proceedings he intended to hinder by force of arms.” Every man of character reprobatd such conduct as its heinousness deserved, and a decree of the senate was passed, declaring such violent outrage treason against the state, and of pernicious example; on which the Carvilii, plebeian tribunes, desisting from the prosecution of the fine, immediately brought forward a capital accusation against Postumius, and ordered, that unless he gave bail, he should be taken into custody by the beadle, and carried to prison. Postumius, after giving bail, did not appear. The tribunes then proposed to the commons, and the commons passed this order, that “if Marcus Postumius did not appear before the calends of May, and, being summoned on that day, did not answer to the charge, or show sufficient cause for his non-appearance, he should be adjudged an exile, his goods should be confiscated, and himself interdicted from fire and water* .” They then proceeded to prosecute on capital charges, and compelled to give bail, each of those who had fomented the tumult and disorder. At first, they threw into prison such as could not find security, and afterwards, even such as could; to avoid the danger of which treatment, most of those concerned went into exile. Such were the consequences of the fraud of the revenue farmers, and of their daring attempt to screen themselves from punishment.
V. An assembly was then held for the election of a chief pontiff, at which Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, the new pontiff, presided. Three candidates maintained a very obstinate contest, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, now a third time consul, who had formerly served the office of censor; Titus Manlius Torquatus, distinguished likewise by two consulships and the censorship; and Publius Licinius Crassus, who was also to solicit for the office of curule ædile. The latter, young as he was, gained a complete victory over his competitors in this dispute, notwithstanding their advantages in respect of years, and the honours with which they were decorated. Before him there had not occurred, in the course of an hundred and twenty years, an instance of any person who had not sat in a curule chair, being created chief pontiff, excepting Publius Cornelus Calussa. Although the consuls found it very difficult to complete the levies of young men for the purposes of filling up vacancies in the old legions and raising new ones for the city, yet the senate forbade them to cease their endeavours, and ordered two sets of triumvirs to be appointed, one of which within, and the other beyond, the distance of fifty miles, should inspect into the number of free-born men in all the market-towns and villages, and enlist such for soldiers as had strength enough to carry arms, though they should not yet have attained the regular age for service; and that “the plebian tribunes would be pleased to propose to the people the passing of an order, That all persons under the age of seventeen years, who should take the military oath, should be allowed their years of service, in like manner as if they had been of the age of seventeen, or older, when enlisted.” In pursuance of this decree of the senate, two sets of triumvirs were appointed, who enlisted free-born youths in every part of the country.
VI. At this time a letter was read in the senate, written from Sicily by Marcus Marcellus, relative to a request of the troops serving under Publius Lentulus. This army consisted of those who had been in the battle of Cannæ; they had been sent abroad into Sicily, as mentioned before, under a rule, that they should not be brought home to Italy before the conclusion of the Carthaginian war. With the permission of Lentulus, they sent the most respectable among the horsemen and centurions, and a chosen number of the legionary infantry as deputies to Marcus Marcellus, to his winter-quarters; and, when they were admitted to an audience, one of them addressed him in this manner: “Marcus Marcellus, we would have carried our remonstrances into Italy to you, while you were consul, immediately after the passing of that severe, if we may not call it unjust, decree of the senate concerning us, had we not entertained the hope, that being sent into a province full of disturbance, in consequence of the death of their kings, to maintain a war of difficulty against the united forces of the Sicilians and Carthaginians, we might, by our wounds and blood, have made satisfaction to the anger of the senate, as, in the memory of our fathers, our countrymen, taken by Pyrrhus at Heraclea, made atonement by their exertions in arms against the same Pyrrhus. Yet, Conscript Fathers, for what demerit on our part did you then conceive, or do you now retain, displeasure against us? Addressing you, Marcus Marcellus, I consider myself as addressing both the consuls and the whole senate; for had you been our consul at Cannæ, both our affairs and those of the public would have been in a happier state. Suffer me then, I beseech you, before I complain of the hardship of our situation, to clear ourselves of the guilt which is laid to our charge. If the cause of our ruin at Cannæ was not the wrath of the gods, nor the decree of fate, under whose laws the immutable series of human events is carried on in a regular chain, but misconduct in some, to whom, I pray you, is that misconduct to be imputed? To the soldiers, or to the commanders? As a soldier, I shall certainly never say anything of my commander, especially since I know that thanks have been given him by the senate, for not having despaired of the commonwealth, and that, since his flight from Cannæ, he has been continued in command through every succeeding year. We have heard, moreover, that others who saved their lives on that melancholy occasion, and who were then our military tribunes, sue for, and administer offices of honour, and hold the command of provinces: Is it, Conscript Fathers, that you easily grant pardon to yourselves, and to your offspring, while you inexorably pour vengeance on our worthless heads? Was it no disgrace for a consul, and other chiefs of the state, to fly, when no other hope was left; and did you send your soldiers into the field, under a particular obligation to die there? At the Allia, almost the whole army fled; at the Caudine Forks, the troops, without even attempting opposition, surrendered to the enemy; not to mention other and shameful defeats. Nevertheless, so far were these armies from having any mark of ignominy contrived for them, that the city of Rome was recovered by means of those very troops who had fled from the Allia to Veii; and the Caudine legions, who had returned without arms to Rome, being sent back armed into Samnium, sent under the yoke, that very enemy who had so lately exulted in their disgrace. But can any one make a charge of cowardice, or running away, on the troops who fought in the battle of Cannæ, in which more than fifty thousand men fell; from which the consul made his escape with only seventy horsemen; and from which no one brought away his life, who does not owe it to the enemy’s being fatigued with killing? At the time when the proposal of ransoming the prisoners was rejected, people, in general, bestowed praises on us, for having reserved ourselves for the use of the commonwealth, for having gone back to the consul to Venusia, and formed an appearance of a regular army. Now, we are in a worse condition than were those taken by an enemy in the time of our fathers: for, in their case, there was only an alteration made in their arms, in their station in the army, and in the place where they were to pitch their tents in camp; all which, however, they reversed, at once, by a strenuous exertion in the service of the public, by one successful battle. None of them were sent into banishment; not one was precluded from the hope of serving out his legal term, and gaining a discharge; in short, they were brought face to face with an enemy, in fighting whom they might at once put an end either to their life or their dishonour. We, to whom nothing can be imputed, except that our conduct was the cause that any one Roman soldier survived the battle of Cannæ, are driven away to a distance, not only from our native country, and from Italy, but even from an enemy, to a place where we may grow old in exile, shut out from all hope, all opportunity of obliterating our disgrace, or of appeasing the wrath of our countrymen, or, in fine, of dying with honour. However, we seek not either an end of our ignominy, or the rewards of valour; we desire only permission to give a proof of our spirit, and to exercise our courage; we seek labour and danger, that we may discharge the duties of men, and of soldiers. This is now the second year, during which war is maintained in Sicily with great vigour on both sides; the Carthaginians conquer some cities, the Romans others; armies of infantry, and of cavalry, engage in battle; the operations are carried on at Syracuse by land and by sea; we plainly hear the shouts of the combatants, and the din of their arms, while we lie inactive and torpid, as if we had neither hands nor armour. With legions composed of slaves, the consul Tiberius Sempronius fought many pitched battles: they enjoy the fruits of their labour, freedom, and the rights of citizens. Let us be considered at least as slaves, purchased for the purpose of the present war. Let us be allowed to face the enemy, and to acquire freedom in battle. Do you choose to try our courage on sea, or on land; in the field, or in assaulting towns? Our petition is for the most arduous enterprizes, the greatest labour, and the utmost danger: that what ought to have happened at Cannæ, may happen as soon as possible, since the whole remainder of our lives, from that day, has been doomed to shame.”
VII. At the conclusion of this speech they prostrated themselves at Marcellus’s feet. Marcellus told them, that a business of that sort lay not within his authority, or his power; that he would write to the senate, and govern himself, in every particular, by the judgment of that body. His letter on the subject was brought to the new consuls, and read by them in the senate, when the matter being taken into consideration, a decree was passed to this purpose, that “the senate saw no reason why the interests of the commonwealth should be entrusted to men who had deserted their fellow-soldiers in battle at Cannæ. That if Marcus Claudius, the proconsul, was of a different opinion, he should act as he might judge consistent with the public good, and his own honour; provided that none of those persons should be excused from labour, or receive any military present in reward of courage, or be brought home to Italy while the enemy had any footing there.” After this, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, and an order of the people, an assembly of election was held by the city prætor, in which were created five commissioners for repairing the walls and towers, and two sets of triumvirs; one, to search for the effects belonging to the temples, and register the offerings; the other, to repair the temples of Fortune, and Mother Matuta, within the Carmental gate, and likewise that of Hope, on the outside of the gate, which had been consumed by fire the year before. There were dreadful storms at this time: on the Alban mount, a shower of stones lasted, without intermission, for two days; many places were struck with lightning; two buildings in the Capitol, the rampart of the camp above Suessula, in many places, and two of the men on guard were killed. A wall and some towers at Cumæ were not only struck, but demolished by lightning. At Reate, a huge rock was seen to fly about, and the sun appeared more red than usual, and of a colour like blood. On account of these prodigies there was a supplication for one day, the consuls employing themselves, for several others, in the performance of religious rites; at the same time solemn worship was performed, during nine days. The revolt of the Tarentines, after having been long hoped for by Hannibal, and apprehended by the Romans, happened to be accelerated by a cause which originated at a distance: a Tarentine, named Phileas, had been a long time at Rome under the pretext of political business. Being a man of a restless disposition, and conceiving that he was losing his active powers during his stay in that city, he contrived to gain access to the hostages from Tarentum, who were kept in the court of the Temple of Liberty, and guarded with the less care, because it was not the interest either of themselves or of their state to impose upon the Romans. Having, after frequent conversations, procured their concurrence in his scheme, and bribed two of their keepers, he brought them out of their confinement in the beginning of the night, and fled in company with them. As soon as day arrived, the news of their escape spread through the city, and a party, sent in pursuit of them, seized them all at Tarracina, and brought them back. They were led into the Comitium, and with the approbation of the people scourged with rods, and thrown down from the rock.
VIII. The cruelty of this punisment exasperated the inhabitants of the two most considerable Grecian cities in Italy, both as communities, and as individuals connected in relation, or friendship, with the persons thus put to death. A conspiracy was formed in consequence, by about thirteen of the young nobility at Tarentum, at the head of whom were Nico and Philemenus. Judging it necessary, before they took any step, to confer with Hannibal, they went out of the city by night, under pretence of hunting, and repaired to the place where he lay. When they came within a small distance of his camp, the rest concealed themselves in a wood near the road, while Nico and Philemenus, proceeding to the advanced guard, were taken into custody, and, at their own request, conducted into the presence of Hannibal. When they had laid before him the reasons for their undertaking, and what they intended to perform, they received high commendations, and a profusion of promises; and were desired, in order to make their countrymen believe that they came out of the city in search of plunder, to drive home before them some cattle belonging to the Carthaginians, which had been turned into pasture; at the same time, assurance was given them, that they might do it with safety, and without a dispute. Such a booty acquired by the young men was much noticed, and people wondered the less at their frequently repeating the same kind of enterprize. At another meeting with Hannibal, a covenant was solemnly ratified, that the Tarentines should, together with freedom, retain their own laws, and all their rights; that they should neither pay any kind of tribute to the Carthaginians, nor, without their own consent, receive a garrison from them; but that the present garrisons, when overpowered, should be put into the hands of the Carthaginians. After the terms were thus settled, Philemenus continued his practice of going out, and returning into the city, by night, with still greater frequency, attended by dogs and other requisites for hunting, of which he was remarkably fond; then, bringing home something, which he either took himself in the chase, or carried off from the enemy, who laid it purposely in his way, he generally presented it to the commander, or to the watchmen at the gates, who supposed that he chose to pass particularly by night, through fear of surprize. When this practice had now become so customary, that, at whatever time of night he gave the signal by a whistle, the gate would be opened, Hannibal thought it was time to put their design into execution. He lay at the distance of three days’ journey, and, in order that his keeping his camp fixed in one and the same spot, for such a length of time, might create the less wonder, feigned himself sick. Even the Romans in garrison at Tarentum had now ceased to look with suspicion on his remaining so long inactive.
IX. But when he determined to go on to Tarentum, choosing out of the infantry and cavalry ten thousand men, who, in activity of body, and lightness of their armour, seemed best qualified for expedition, he began his march at the fourth watch of the night; having first detached about eighty Numidian horsemen, with orders to scour the country on each side of the road, examining every place carefully, least any of the people who might observe his approach from a distance should escape: to bring back such as were before them on the way, and to kill all whom they met, in order that the neighbouring inhabitants might have reason to suppose it a plundering party, rather than an army. Hannibal, after marching with rapid speed, pitched his camp at the distance of about fifteen miles from Tarentum: nor did he, even there, discover to the soldiers their destination, only giving it in charge not to suffer any one to turn aside, or quit the line; and, above all, to keep their attention alert to receive orders, and to do nothing without the command of their officers; adding, that in due time he would let them know what he wished to be done. About the same hour, a report had reached Tarentum, that a small number of Numidian horsemen were ravaging the lands, and had spread terror among the inhabitants through a great part of the country: but the Roman commander paid no farther regard to this intelligence, than to order a party of cavalry to go out very early next morning, to stop these depredations; and, so far was he from increasing his vigilance in other respects, that, on the contrary, he considered this inroad of the Numidians as a proof, that Hannibal and his army had not stirred from their camp. Early in the night, the Carthaginian put his troops in motion, and Philemenus, with his usual burthen, taken in hunting, served him as a guide, while the rest of the conspirators waited for the concerted signals. It had been settled among them, that Philemenus, bringing in his game through the gate where he was accustomed to pass, should introduce some men in arms, while Hannibal should, on another side, approach the gate called Temenis, which, being about the middle of the land side, faced towards the east and near which, within the walls, stood some tombs, where Nico waited his arrival. On approaching the place, Hannibal, according to agreement, raised up a fire, and made it blaze. The same signal was returned by Nico, and then the fires were extinguished on both sides. Hannibal led on his men in silence to the gate. Nico, falling suddenly on the guards, who were fast asleep, slew them in their beds, and threw the gate open. Hannibal then entered with his infantry, but ordered the cavalry to halt without, in order that if occasion should require, they might have open ground to act in. At the same time, Philemenus, on the other side, drew nigh the postern through which he had usally passed, and his signal, which had now become familiar, with his well known voice, saying that he was hardly able to bear the weight of a huge beast he had killed, soon brought out a watchman, and the gate was opened. While two young men carried in a boar, he himself followed with a huntsman unincumbered, and while the watchman, astonished at the size of the animal, turned incautiously to those who carried it, he ran him through with a hunting spear. About thirty armed men then pushed in, slew the rest of the watchmen, and broke open the next gate, through which a band of soldiers in array immediately burst in. These were conducted thence, in silence, to the Forum, and there joined Hannibal. The Carthaginian now sent the Tarentines of his party, with two thousand Gauls, formed in three divisions, through the several parts of the city with orders to take possession of the most frequented streets, and, on a tumult arising, to kill the Romans every where, and spare the townsmen. But to render this practicable, he gave direction to the young Tarentines, that whenever they saw any of their countrymen at a distance, they should bid them be quiet and silent, and fear nothing.
X. Now all was tumult and uproar as usual in a city newly taken, but how occasioned, no one knew with certainty. The Tarentines supposed, that the Romans had risen in arms to sack the city; the Romans, that an insurrection, with some treacherous intent, had taken place among the townsmen. The commander, being roused at the beginning of the disturbance, fled away to the port, and getting into a boat was carried round to the citadel. The consternation was increased by the sound of a trumpet heard from the theatre: it was a Roman one, procured before hand by the conspirators for this purpose, and being unskilfully blown by a Greek, it was impossible to discover who gave that signal, or to whom it was given. When day appeared, the sight of the Carthaginian and Gallic arms removed all doubt from the minds of the Romans; and, on the other side, the Greeks seeing these lie slaughtered in every quarter, perceived that the city was taken by Hannibal. When the light became more clear, and the Romans, who survived the carnage, had fled into the citadel, the tumult began gradually to subside, then Hannibal ordered the Tarentines to be called together without their arms. They all attended, some few excepted, who had accompanied the Romans in their retreat into the citadel, resolved to share every fortune with them. Here Hannibal addressed the Tarentines in terms of much kindness; reminded them of his behaviour to their countrymen, whom he had taken at the Trasimenus or Cannæ, inveighing, at the same time, against the overbearing tyranny of the Romans. He then ordered each to retire to his own house, and to write his name on the door; because, on a signal shortly to be given, he would order every house, not so inscribed, to be plundered; adding, that if any should write his name on the habitation of a citizen of Rome, (for the Romans lived in houses of their own,) he should be treated as an enemy. The assembly was then dismissed, and as soon as the doors were marked with inscriptions, so as to distinguish the houses of friends from those of enemies, the signal was given, and the troops spread themselves through all parts of the town to plunder the quarters of the Romans, in which a considerable booty was found.
XI. On the following day, he led on his forces to attack the citadel; but found, that on the side towards the sea, which flows almost round it, forming it into a peninsula, it was defended by very high rocks, and, on the side towards the town, by a wall, and a very large ditch; and that consequently it was impregnable, either in the way of assault, or by regular approaches. Not choosing either to be detained from more important business, by taking on himself the care of defending the Tarentines, or in case he left them without a strong garrison, to put it in the power of the Romans to attack them from the citadel whenever they pleased, he determined to cut off the communication between the citadel and the city by a rampart. Besides, he entertained some hopes, that the Romans, attempting to hinder this, might be brought to an engagement, and that, should they sally forth with more than ordinary eagerness, great numbers of them might be cut off, and the strength of the garrison thereby reduced to such a degree, that the Tarentines could alone defend the city against them. As soon as the work was begun, the garrison, suddenly throwing open one of the gates, made an attack on the workmen. The guard there stationed suffered themselves to beaten off, in order that the others might grow bolder on success, and that great numbers of them might join the pursuit, and advance to a greater distance. This they did: when on a signal given, the Carthaginians, whom Hannibal had kept in readiness for this purpose, rushed forward on all sides. The Romans were unable to withstand their onset; while the narrowness of the ground, and the difficulties caused by the part of the work already begun, and the implements collected for carrying it on, obstructed their hasty flight, so that most of them tumbled headlong into the ditch, and more lives were thus lost than in the battle. The work was then carried on without any farther obstruction. A ditch of vast dimensions was dug, and on the inner side of that a rampart thrown up. It was resolved likewise to add at a small distance behind, and in the same direction, a wall, so that even without a garrison the townsmen might be able to secure themselves against any attack of the Romans. Hannibal, however, left a company to serve as such, and at the same time to assist in completing the wall; and then marching out with the rest of his forces, he encamped at the river Galesus, about five miles distant from the city. From this post he returned to inspect the work, and finding that it had advanced much more briskly than he had expected, conceived hopes of being able even to make himself master of the citadel, which is not secured, like other fortresses of the kind, by height of situation, but built on level ground, and divided from the city only by a wall and a trench. The approaches were now pushed forward with every kind of machinery, when a reinforcement, sent from Metapontum, inspired the Romans with courage to assail the works of the enemy, by surprize, in the night. Some of them they levelled, others they destroyed by fire, this put an end to Hannibal’s attacks on the citadel in that quarter. His only prospect of success was now in a blockade, and that not very flattering, because the citadel, being seated on a peninsula, commanded the entrance of the harbour, and had the sea open; while the city was of course debarred from the importation of provisions, and the besiegers were in more danger of want, than the besieged. Hannibal, calling together the chiefs of the Tarentines, enumerated all the present difficulties, and added, that “he could neither see any way of storming so strong a fortress, nor place any hope in a blockade, as long as the enemy had the command of the sea. But if he were possessed of ships, by means of which he could prevent the introduction of supplies, the garrison would speedily either abandon the place, or surrender.” In this the Tarentines agreed with him, but they were of opinion, that “he who offered the counsel ought likewise to offer aid to put it in execution: for, if the Carthaginian ships were called over from Sicily, they would be able to effect the purpose; as to their own, which were shut up in a narrow creek, how could they, while the enemy commanded the harbour’s mouth, ever make their way into the open sea?”—“They shall make their way,” said Hannibal: “many things, difficult in their nature, are made easy by good management. Your city lies in a plain; very wide and level roads stretch out to every side; by that which runs across the middle of the city, from the harbour to the sea, I will, without much labour, carry over your ships on waggons. The sea, now in possession of the foe, will then be ours; we will invest the citadel on that side, and on this by land; or rather, we will shortly take possession of it, for the garrison will either abandon it, or surrender themselves with it.” This discourse excited not only hopes of the design being accomplished, but the highest admiration of the general’s skill. Immediately waggons were collected from all parts, and fastened together; machines were applied to haul up the ships, and the road was repaired, in order that the vehicles might meet the less obstruction in passing. Beasts for drawing, with a number of men, were then procured; the work was commenced with briskness, so that, in a few days, the fleet, equipped and manned, sailed round the citadel, and cast anchor just before the mouth of the harbour. In this state Hannibal left affairs at Tarentum, and returned to his winter-quarters. Whether the defection of the Tarentines took place in this, or the preceding year, authors are not agreed: the greater number, and those who lived nearest to the time of these transactions, represent it as having happened as here stated.
XII. At Rome, the Latine festival detained the consuls and prætors until the fifth of the calends of May: on that day, having completed the solemnities on the mount, they set out for their respective provinces. A new perplexity, respecting religious matters, afterwards occurred, arising from the divinations of Marcius. This Marcius had been a celebrated soothsayer, and when, in the preceding year, an inquiry after such books as regarded them was made, according to the decree of the senate, his had come into the hands of Marcus Atilius, the city prætor, who was employed in that business, and he had handed them over to the new prætor Sulla. Of two predictions of this Marcius, one, on account of its verity, for it was actually fulfilled, procured credit to the other, the time of whose completion had not yet arrived. In the former of these, the defeat at Cannæ was foretold, nearly in these words: “Roman of Trojan race, fly the river Cannæ, lest foreigners compel thee to fight in the plain of Diomede. But thou wilt not believe me until thou fillest the plain with blood, and the river carry many of thy thousands slain from the fruitful land into the great sea. To fishes, and birds, and beasts of prey inhabiting the earth, to these, thy flesh be food. For so has Jupiter said to me.” Those who had served in the army in those parts recollected the plains of the Argive Diomede and the river Cannæ, as well as the defeat itself. The other prophecy was then read: it was more obscure; and the expression more perplexed:—“Romans, if you wish to expel the enemy, and the ulcer which has come from afar, I direct, that games be vowed to Apollo, and that they be performed in honour of that deity, every year, with cheerfulness. When the people shall have granted a particular sum out of the public fund, let private persons contribute, each according to his ability. At the performance of these games, that prætor will preside who shall hold the supreme administration of justice in respect to the people and commons. Let the decemvirs sacrifice victims after the Grecian mode. If you do these things properly you shall ever rejoice, and your state will improve; for Apollo will extirpate your foes who quietly feed on your plains.” They took one day to explain this prophecy, and on the following, a decree of the senate was passed, that the decemvirs should examine the books concerning the performance of games and sacrifices to Apollo. When the examination was made, and the result reported to the senate, they voted, that games should be vowed to Apollo, and that when these should be finished, ten thousand asses in weight* should be given to the prætor to defray the expenses of the public worship, and also two victims of the larger sort.” By another decree they ordered, that “the decemvirs should sacrifice according to the Grecian rites, and with the following victims: to Apollo, with a gilded steer; to Diana, with two white gilded goats; and to Latona, with a gilded heifer.” The prætor, when about to exhibit the games in the great circus, published a proclamation, that the people should, during those games, pay in their contributions, proportioned to their ability, for the service of Apollo. This was the origin of the Apollinarian games, which were vowed and performed for the attaining of success, and not of health, as is generally supposed. At the exhibition of the games all wore garlands, the matrons made supplications, and people in general feasted in the courts of their houses, with their doors open; and the day was solemnized with every kind of religious ceremony.
XIII. While Hannibal was in the neighbourhood of Tarentum, both the consuls continued in Samnium, showing every appearance of an intention to besiege Capua. The inhabitants of that city began already to feel a calamity, usually attendant on long sieges, a famine, the consequence of their having been hindered by the Roman armies from tilling their lands. They therefore sent deputies to Hannibal, entreating that, before the consuls should march the legions into their country, and all the roads should be occupied by their parties, he would order corn to be conveyed into Capua from the neighbouring places. On this, Hannibal immediately commanded Hanno to march away with his army from Bruttium into Campania, and to take care that the Capuans should be well supplied with corn. Hanno, on leaving Bruttium, was careful to avoid the camps of the enemy, and the consuls who were in Samnium; and coming near Beneventum, encamped on an elevated spot, three miles from that town. From thence he issued orders that the corn collected in the summer should be brought in from the states of that country, who were of his party, to his camp, and appointed troops to escort the convoys. He then sent an express to the Capuans, fixing a day on which they should attend, to receive the corn, with the carriages of all kinds, and beasts of burthen, which they could collect. This business the Campanians conducted with their usual carelessness and indolence; little more than forty carriages were sent, and with them a few beasts of burthen: for which they were sharply rebuked by Hanno, who observed, that even hunger, which kindled a spirit in dumb beasts, could not stimulate those people to active diligence; however, he appointed another day, when they were to come for the corn with more sufficient means of conveyance. The people of Beneventum being informed of every particular of these transactions, instantly despatched ten deputies to the consuls encamped near Bovianum, who, as soon as they heard what was going on at Capua, agreed between themselves, that one of them should lead his army into Campania; and, accordingly, Fulvius, to whose lot that province had fallen, setting out by night, marched into the town of Beneventum. Here, the distance being short, he quickly learned, that Hanno had gone out with a division of his army to forage; that the business of delivering the corn to the Capuans was managed by a quæstor; that two thousand carts had arrived, attended by a disorderly unarmed rabble; that every thing was done with hurry and confusion, and that the regularity of a camp, and military subordination were entirely banished by the intermixture of such a number of peasants. This intelligence being sufficiently authenticated, the consul issued orders that the soldiers should get in readiness, against the next night, their standards and arms, as he intended to attack the Carthaginian camp. Leaving all their knapsacks and baggage at Beneventum, they began their march at the fourth watch; and arriving, a little before day, at the camp, struck such terror there, that if it had stood on level ground, they might undoubtedly have taken it at the first assault: it was protected by the height of its situation, and its fortifications, which could not be approached on any side, except by a steep and difficult ascent.
XIV. At the dawn of day a furious battle commenced: the Carthaginians not only maintained their rampart, but, having the advantage of the ground, tumbled down the enemy as they climbed up the steeps; nevertheless, the obstinate courage of the latter overcame all obstacles, and they made their way in several parts at once up to the rampart and trenches, but at the expense of many wounds, and a great loss of men. The consul, therefore, calling together the military tribunes, told them, that “this inconsiderate attempt must be given up, and that he judged it the safer course to carry back the army, immediately, to Beneventum, and then, on the day following, to pitch his camp so close to that of the enemy, as to put it out of the power, either of the Campanians to go out, or of Hanno to return into it; and that, in order to effect this with the greater ease, he should send for his colleague, and the army under his command; and that they should direct their whole force to that point.” This plan of the general was disconcerted, after the retreat began to sound, by the shouts of the soldiers, expressing their scorn of such pusilanimous orders. Close to one of the enemy’s gates was a Pelignian cohort, whose commander, Vibius Accuæus, snatched the standard, and threw it over the rampart; uttering imprecations on himself and the cohort, if they left their ensign in the hands of the enemy. He then rushed forwards, across the ditch and rampart, into the camp. The Pelignians now fought within the rampart, when Valerius Flaccus, a military tribune of the third legion, began upbraiding the Romans with dastardly behaviour, in yielding up to the allies the honour of taking the camp. On this, Titus Pedanius, first centurion, and who commanded the first century, snatching the ensign from the standard-bearer, cried out, “this standard too, and I your centurion, will instantly be within the rampart; let those follow who wish to save the same from falling into the enemy’s hands.” Then crossing the ditch, he was followed, first, by the men of his century, and, afterwards, by the whole legion. The consul now, seeing them mount the rampart, altered his design, and instead of calling off the troops, exerted himself to incite and animate them; representing the imminent hazard and danger to which that very gallant cohort of their allies, and a legion of their own countrymen, were exposed. On which they, one and all, with the utmost ardour, regardless whether the ground was easy or difficult, pushed onwards through every obstacle; and, in spite of the showers of weapons, which fell on every side, and of all the opposition which the enemy with their arms and bodies could give them, forced their way in. Many even of the wounded, and of those whose blood and strength began to fail them, struggled forward, that they might fall in the camp of the enemy. It was entered therefore in as short a space as if it had stood in a plain, and had no fortification to protect it. Both armies being now shut up together within the rampart, the sequel was a carnage, not a fight: upwards of six thousand of the enemy were slain, and above seven thousand taken, together with the Campanians who came for the corn, and all their train of waggons and beasts of burthen. There was also great abundance of other booty, which Hanno and his plunderers had collected out of the lands of the states in alliance with the Roman people. After demolishing the enemy’s camp, the army returned to Beneventum, and there the consuls (for Appius Claudius came thither in a few days after), divided and sold the spoil. Those who were chiefly instrumental in this affair, particularly Accuæus the Pelignian, and Titus Pedanius first centurion of the third legion, received honorary presents. Hanno, who was then at Caminium, in the territory of Cæres, on being informed of the loss of his camp, returned with the small party of foragers which he had with him, into Bruttium, in a manner more like a flight than a march.
XV. The Campanians, when informed of the disaster which had fallen on them and their allies, despatched deputies to Hannibal, to acquaint him, that “the two consuls were at Beneventum, within one day’s march of Capua; so that the war might almost be said to be close to their gates and walls. That unless he afforded them speedy succour, Capua would fall into the enemy’s power in a shorter time than Arpi had done. That even Tarentum, taken in its whole extent, not to speak of its citadel, ought not to be deemed of such consequence, as to induce him to neglect the defence of Capua, (a city which he used to compare to Carthage,) and to throw it into the hands of the Roman people.” Hannibal promised to pay due attention to the affairs of the Campanians; and, for the present, sent with their deputies a body of two thousand horsemen, to assist them in protecting their lands from depredations. Meanwhile, the Romans, among the variety of their other concerns, were not disregardful of the citadel of Tarentum, and the garrison besieged in it. By direction of the senate, Caius Servilius, lieutenant general, was sent by Publius Cornelius, prætor, into Etruria, to purchase corn; with which having loaded several vessels, he passed through the guardships of the enemy, and arrived in the port of Tarentum. His coming produced such a change in their disposition, that they who, a little before, when their hopes of relief were small, had frequently, in conferences, been solicited by the Carthaginian to desert the Roman cause, began now to solicit him to come over to them. The garrison was abundantly strong, for the troops stationed at Metapontum had been brought hither for the defence of the citadel. The Metapontines being hereby freed from the restraint under which they had been held, instantly revolted to Hannibal; as did the Thurians, on the same coast, induced, not only by the example of the Tarentines and Metapontines, with whom they were connected by consanguinity, being originally descended from natives of the same country of Achaia, but principally by resentment against the Romans, for the late execution of the hostages. The friends and relations of these sent letters and messages to Hanno and Mago, who were at no great distance in Bruttium, that if they brought their army near the walls, they would deliver the city into their hands. There was a small garrison at Thurium commanded by Marcus Atinius, and they supposed that he might be easily tempted to engage rashly in a battle; not from any confidence in his own troops, (for they were very few,) but from relying on the support of the young men of the place, whom he had purposely formed into companies and armed, that he might have them ready to aid him in exigencies of the kind. The Carthaginian commanders, dividing their forces, entered the territory of Thurium; and then Hanno, at the head of the infantry, in hostile array, advanced towards the city; while Mago, with the cavalry, halted under the cover of some hills, which stood conveniently for concealing the stratagem. Atinius learning nothing from his scouts but the march of the infantry, and ignorant both of the treachery within the city, and of the enemy’s ambush, led out his forces to battle. The infantry engaged without any degree of vigour, the only exertions being made by the few Romans in front, the Thurians rather waiting for the issue, than taking any part in the action, while the Carthaginian line retreated on purpose to draw the incautious enemy to the back of the hill, where their horse was posted. No sooner did they arrive here, than the cavalry, rushing on with loud shouts, instantly put to flight the crowd of Thurians, who were almost ignorant of discipline, and not very faithfully attached to the party on whose side they appeared. The Romans, notwithstanding their being surrounded, and hard pressed, by the infantry on one side, and the cavalry on the other, maintained the fight for a considerable time: at last, they also turned their backs, and fled towards the city. Here the conspirators were collected together in a body, and received with open gates the multitude of their countrymen; but when they saw the routed Romans making towards them, they cried out, that the Carthaginians were close at hand, and if the gates were not speedily closed, the enemy, and all together, would pour in. In this manner they shut out the Romans, and left them to perish by the sword. Atinius, however, with a few others, gained admittance. A dispute now arose, and lasted for some time, one party maintained that they ought to defend the city, another, that they ought to yield to fortune, and surrender it to the conquerors. But, as is too often the case, bad counsels prevailed. They conveyed Atinius, with a few attendants, to the ships near the shore, which they did out of personal regard to himself, and on account of the justice and mildness of his conduct in command, rather than out of good will to the Romans, and then opened their gates to the Carthaginians. The consuls led their legions from Beneventum into the territory of Campania, with the intention not only of destroying the corn, which was now in the blade, but of laying siege to Capua; hoping to signalize their consulate by the destruction of so opulent a city, and, at the same time, to free their government from the great shame of suffering a revolt so near home to pass unpunished during the space of three years. But, that Beneventum should not be without a garrison, and that, in case of sudden emergencies, if Hannibal should come to Capua to succour his allies, as they had no doubt but he would, there might be a body of cavalry to oppose his, they ordered Tiberius Gracchus to come from Lucania to Beneventum, with his horse and light infantry, and to appoint some officer to command the legions in camp, in order to preserve peace in Lucania.
XVI. While Gracchus was performing sacrifices, preparatory to his departure from Lucania, a prodigy of disastrous import occurred: when a victim was killed, two snakes, creeping up from some hiding-place to the entrails, eat the liver, and after being seen by all present, suddenly vanished. It is even said, that when, by advice of the aruspices, the same sacrifice was repeated, and the pots containing the entrails were more carefully watched, the snakes came a second, and a third time; and after eating the liver, went away unhurt. Though the diviners gave warning, that this portent concered the general, and that he ought to be on his guard against secret enemies, and plots, yet his impending fate could not be averted by any effort of prudence. There was a Lucanian, called Flavius, the head of that division of his countrymen who adhered to the Romans when the other went over to Hannibal; and he was, that year, in the chief magistracy, having been elected prætor by his party. This man, changing his mind on a sudden, and seeking some means of ingratiating himself with the Carthaginian, did not think it enough to draw his countrymen into a revolt, unless he ratified the league between him and the enemy with the head and blood of his commander, to whom he was also bound by ties of hospitality, and whom, notwithstanding, he determined to betray. He held a private conference with Mago, who commanded in Bruttium, and having received from him a solemn promise, that if he would deliver the Roman general into the hands of the Carthaginians, the Lucanians should be received into friendship, and retain their own laws and their liberty, he conducted the Carthaginian to a spot, whither, he said, he would bring Gracchus with a few attendants. He then desired Mago to arm both horsemen and footmen, and to take possession of that retired place, where a very large number might be concealed. After thoroughly examining the same on all sides, they appointed a day for the execution of the plan. Flavius then went to the Roman general, and told him, that “he had made some progress in an affair of great consequence, to the completion of which the assistance of Gracchus himself was necessary. That he had persuaded all the prætors of those states in Lucania, who, during the general defection in Italy, had revolted to the Carthaginians, to return into friendship with the Romans, alleging that the power of Rome, which, by the defeat at Cannæ, had been brought to the brink of ruin, was every day improving and increasing, while Hannibal’s strength was declining, and had sunk almost to nothing. That with regard to their former transgression, the Romans would not be implacable; for never was there a nation more easily appeased, and more ready to grant pardon; and asking, how often had their own ancestors received pardon of rebellion? These things,” he said, “he had represented to them; but that it would be more pleasing to them to hear the same from Gracchus himself, to be admitted into his presence, and to touch his right-hand, that they might carry with them that pledge of faith. He had fixed a place,” he said, “for the parties to meet, remote from observation, and at a small distance from the Roman camp; there the business might be finished in a few words, and the alliance and obedience of the whole nation of Lucania secured to the Romans.” Gracchus, not perceiving, either in this discourse, or in the proposition itself, any reason to suspect perfidy, and being imposed on by the plausibility of the tale, left the camp with his lictors and one troop of horse, and following the guidance of his guest, fell precipitately into the snare. The enemy at once rose from their ambush, and, what removed all doubt of treachery, Flavius joined himself to them. Weapons were now poured from all sides on Gracchus and his horsemen. He immediately leaped down from his horse, ordered the rest to do the same, and exhorted them, “as fortune had left them but one part to act, to dignify that part by their bravery. To a handful of men, surrounded by a multitude in a valley hemmed in by woods and mountains, what else was left than to die? The only alternative they had was, either tamely waiting their blows, to be massacred, like cattle, without the pleasure of revenge, or with minds totally abstracted from the thoughts of pain or of what the issue might be, and actuated solely by resentment and rage, to exert every vigorous and daring effort, and to fall covered with the blood of their expiring foes.” He desired that “all should aim at the Lucanian traitor, and deserter;” adding that “whoever should send that victim before him to the infernal regions, would acquire distinguished glory, and the greatest consolation for his own loss of life.” While he spoke thus, he wrapped his robe about his left arm, (for they had not even brought bucklers with them,) and then rushed on the murderers. The fight was maintained with greater vigour than could have been expected, considering the smallness of their number. The Romans, whose bodies were uncovered and exposed, on all sides, to weapons thrown from the higher grounds into a deep valley, were mostly pierced through with javelins. Gracchus being now left without support, the Carthaginians endeavoured to take him alive; but, observing his Lucanian guest among them, he rushed with such fury into the thickest of the band, that they could not sieze him without the loss of many lives. Mago immediately sent his body to Hannibal, desiring that it should be laid, with the fasces taken at the same time, before the general’s tribunal. This is the true account of the matter: Gracchus was cut off in Lucania, near the place called the Old Plains.
XVII. Some lay the scene of this disaster in the territory of Beneventum, at the river Calor, where they say, he went from the camp to bathe, attended by his lictors and three servants; that he was slain by a party of the enemy, who happened to be lurking in the oziers which grew on the bank, while he was naked and unarmed, attempting, however to defend himself with the stones brought down by the river. Others write, that, by direction of the aruspices, he went out a half a mile from the camp, that he might expiate the prodigies before-mentioned in a place free from defilement, and that he was surrounded by two troops of Numidians, who were lying in wait there. So far are writers from agreeing with regard either to the place or the manner of the death of a man so renowned and illustrious. There are also various accounts of his funeral: some say that he was burried by his own men in the Roman camp; others, whose account is more generally received, that a funeral pile was erected for him by Hannibal, at the entrance of the Carthaginian camp, and that the troops under arms marched in procession round it, with the dances of the Spaniards, and the several motions of their arms and bodies peculiar to each nation; while Hannibal himself joined in solemnizing his obsequies with every mark of respect, both in the terms in which he spoke of him, and in the manner of performing the rites. Such is the relation of those who state the affair as having happened in Lucania. If those are to be believed who affirm that he was killed at the river Calor, the enemy kept possession of Gracchus’s head only, which being brought to Hannibal, he immediately sent Carthalo to convey it into the Roman camp to Cneius Cornelius, the quæstor; solomnizing the funeral of the general in his camp; in, the performance of which the Beneventans joined with the soldiers.
XVIII. The consuls, having entered the Campanian territories, spread devastation on all sides, but were soon alarmed by the townsmen, in conjunction with Mago and his cavalry, marching hastily out against them. They called in the troops to their standards, from the several parts where they were dispersed; but, before they had completed the forming of their line of battle, they were put to the rout, and lost above fifteen hundred men. On this success, that people, naturally disposed to arrogance, assumed the highest degree of confidence, and endeavoured to provoke the Romans by frequent skirmishes: but the battle, into which they had been incautiously drawn, had rendered the consuls more circumspect. However, the spirit of their party was revived, and the boldness of the other diminished, by an occurrence, in itself, of a trivial nature, but that, in war, scarcely any incident is so insignificant, that it may not, on some occasion, give cause to an event of much importance. A Campanian, called Badius, had been a guest of Titus Quintius Crispinus, and lived on terms of the closest friendship and hospitality with him, and their intimacy had increased in consequence of Crispinus having, in his own house at Rome, given very kind and affectionate attendance to Badius in a fit of sickness which he had there before the defection of Campania. This Badius, now, advancing in front of the guards posted before one of the gates desired that Crispinus might be called: on being told of it, Crispinus, retaining a sense of private duties even after the dissolution of the public treaties, imagined that his old acquaintance wished for an amicable interview, and went out to some distance. As soon as they came within sight of each other, Badius cried out, “Crispinus, I challenge you to combat: let us mount our horses, and, making the rest keep back, determine which of us is superior in arms.” To which Crispinus answered, that “they were neither of them at a loss for enemies, on whom they might display their valour: that, for his part, should he even meet him in the field of battle, he would turn aside, to avoid imbruing his hands in the blood of a guest;” he then attempted to go away. Whereupon, the Campanian, with greater passion, upbraided him as a coward; casting on him undeserved reproaches, which might with greater propriety have been applied to himself, at the same time charging him as being an enemy to the laws of hospitality, and as pretending to be moved by concern for a person to whom he knew himself unequal; he said, that “if not sufficiently convinced, that by the rupture of the public treaties, private obligations were at the same time dissolved, Badius, the Campanian, now, in presence of all, in the hearing of the two armies, renounced all connections of hospitality with Titus Quintius Crispinus, the Roman. He was under no bond of society with him; an enemy had no claim of alliance on an enemy, whose country and whose tutelary deities, both public and private, he had come to invade: if he were a man, he would meet him. Crispinus hesitated long, but, at last, the men of his troop persuaded him not to suffer the Campanian to insult him with impunity. Wherefore, waiting only to ask leave of the generals to fight, out of rule, with one who gave him a challenge, with their permission he took arms, mounted his horse, and calling Badius by name, summoned him to the combat. The Campanian made no delay, and they encountered in full career. Crispinus passing his spear over Badius’s buckler, ran it through his left shoulder, and, on his falling in consequence of the wound, dismounted in order to despatch him as he lay, but Badius, to avoid impending death, left his horse and his buckler, and ran off to his own party. Crispinus seized the horse and arms, and with these glorious badges of victory, and with his bloody weapon held up to view, was conducted by the soldiers, amidst praises and congratulations, to the consuls, from whom he received ample commendations, and honourable presents.
XIX. Hannibal marched from the territory of Beneventum to Capua, and, on the third day after his arrival there, drew out his forces to face the enemy, confident that after the Campanians had a few days before, without his assistance, fought them with success, the Romans would be much less able to withstand him and his army, which had so often defeated them. When the battle began, the Roman army was in danger of being worsted, in consequence, principally, of a charge made by the enemy’s cavalry, who overwhelmed them with darts, until the signal was given to their own cavalry to charge; and now the contest lay between the horse, when Sempronius’s army, commanded by the quæstor Cneius Cornelius, being descried at a distance, gave an equal alarm, each party fearing that it was a reinforcement coming to his antagonist. The signal of retreat was therefore given on both sides, as if by concert; and quitting the field on almost equal terms, they retired to their several camps: the Romans, however, had lost the greater number of men by the first onset of the horse. Next night, the consuls, in order to draw Hannibal from Capua, marched away by different routes, Fulvius to the territory of Cumæ, Appius Claudius into Lucania. On the day following, when Hannibal was informed that the Romans had forsaken their camp, and gone off in two divisions, by different roads, he hesitated at first, considering which of them he should pursue; and at length determined to follow Appius, who, after leading him about through whatever track he chose, returned by another road to Capua. Hannibal met, in that part of the country, an unlooked for opportunity of striking an important blow: there was one Marcus Centenius, surnamed Penula, distinguished among the centurions of the first rank both by the size of his body, and by his courage: this man, who had served his time in the army, being introduced to the senate by the prætor, Publius Cornelius Sulla, requested of the senators to grant him the command of five thousand men, assuring them, that “being thoroughly acquainted both with the enemy and the country, he would speedily perform something that should give them satisfaction; and that the same wiles, by which hitherto the Roman commanders used to be entrapped, he would practise against the inventor of them.” The folly of this proposal was equalled by the folly with which it was assented to; as if the qualifications of a centurion and a general were the same. Instead of five, eight thousand men were granted him, half citizens and half allies; besides these, he collected in his march through the country a considerable number of volunteers; and, having almost doubled the number of his army, he arrived in Lucania, where Hannibal, after a vain pursuit of Appius, had halted. There was no room for doubt about the result of a contest between such a captain as Hannibal, and a sabaltern; in short, between armies, of which one was become veteran in a course of conquest, the other entirely new raised, for the most part undisciplined and but half armed. As soon as the parties came within view of each other, neither declining an engagement, the lines were instantly formed. Notwithstanding the disparity of the forces, the battle was maintained in a manner unprecedented under such circumstances, the Roman soldiers, for more than two hours, making the most strenuous efforts, as long as their commander stood: but he, anxious to support his former reputation, and dreading moreover the disgrace which would afterwards fall on him, if he survived a defeat occasioned by his own temerity, exposed himself rashly to the weapons of the enemy, and was slain; on which the Roman line immediately fell into confusion, and gave way. But even flight was now out of their power, for so effectually had the enemy’s cavalry shut up every pass, that, out of so great a multitude, scarcely a thousand made their escape; the rest, meeting destruction on every side, were all cut off in various ways.
XX. The consuls resumed the siege of Capua with the utmost vigour, and took measures for procuring and collecting every thing requisite for carrying it on. A magazine of corn was formed at Casilinum; a strong post was fortified at the mouth of the Vulturnus, where now stands a city: and a garrison was put into Puteoli: formerly fortified by Fabius Maximus, in order to secure the command both of the river, and of the sea adjoining. The corn lately sent from Sardinia, and that which the prætor, Marcus Junius, had bought up in Etruria, was conveyed from Ostia into these two maritime fortresses, to supply the army during the winter. Meanwhile, in addition to the misfortune sustained in Lucania, the army of volunteer slaves, who, during the life of Gracchus, had performed their duty with the strictest fidelity, supposing themselves at liberty by the death of their commander, forsook their standards, and disbanded. Hannibal, though not inclined to neglect Capua, or to abandon his allies at such a dangerous crisis, yet, having reaped such signal advantage from the inconsiderate conduct of one Roman commander, was induced to turn his attention to an opportunity which offered of crushing another. Some deputies from Apulia informed him, that Cneius Fulvius, the prætor, had at first, while engaged in the sieges of several cities of that country, which had revolted to Hannibal, acted with care and circumspection; but that afterwards, in consequence of an overflow of success, both himself and his men being glutted with booty, had so entirely given themselves up to licentiousness, that they neglected all military discipline. Wherefore, having on many other occasions, and particularly a few days before, learned from experience how little formidable an army was when under an unskilful commander, he marched away into Apulia.
XXI. Fulvius and the Roman legions lay near Herdonia, where intelligence no sooner arrived that the enemy was approaching, than the troops were very near snatching up their standards, and marching out to battle without the prætor’s orders; and the suffering themselves to be restrained was owing to the opinion entertained by them, that they might act as they chose. During the following night, Hannibal, who had learned the disorder in their camp, and that most of them, calling the whole to arms, had presumptuously insisted on their commander’s giving the signal, concluded with certainty, that he should now have an opportunity of fighting with advantage. He posted in the houses all around, and in the woods and thickets, three thousand light-armed soldiers, who, on notice given, were suddenly to quit their concealments; at the same time ordering Mago, with about two thousand horsemen, to secure all the passes on that side, to which he supposed the enemy would direct their flight. Having made these preparatory dispositions during the night, at the first dawn of day he led out his forces to the field: nor did Fulvius decline the challenge, though not so much led by any hope conceived by himself, as forcibly drawn by the blind impetuosity of his men. The line was therefore formed with the same inconsiderate hurry with which they came out of the camp, just as the humour of the soldiers directed; for each, as he happened to come up, took whatever post he liked, and afterwards, either as whim or fear directed, forsook that post. The first legion, and the left wing, were drawn up in front, extending the line in length; and, notwithstanding the loud remonstrances of the tribunes, that it was not deep enough to have any strength or firmness, and that the enemy would break through wherever they attacked, so far were they from paying attention, that they would not even listen to any wholesome advice. Hannibal now came up, a commander of a very different character, and with an army neither of a like kind, nor marshalled in like manner. The Romans consequently withstood not their first attack. Their commander, in folly and rashness equal to Centenius, but far his inferior in spirit, as soon as he saw the matter going against him, and his men in confusion, hastily mounted his horse, and fled with about two hundred horsemen. The rest of the troops, vanquished in front, and surrounded on the flanks and rear, were put to the sword, in such a manner, that out of eighteen thousand men, not more than two thousand escaped. The camp fell into the enemy’s hands.
XXII. The news of these defeats, happening so quickly after one another, being brought to Rome, filled the minds of the public with much grief and consternation. However, as the consuls were hitherto successful in their operations in the quarter where the principal stress of the war lay, the alarm occasioned by these misfortunes was the less. The senate despatched Caius Lætorius and Marcus Metilius deputies to the consuls, with directions, that they should carefully collect the remains of the two armies, and use their endeavours to prevent them from surrendering to the enemy, through fear and despair, as had been the case after the defeat at Cannæ; and that they should make search for the deserters from the army of the volunteer slaves. The same charge was given to Publius Cornelius, who was also employed to raise recruits; and he caused proclamation to be made at all the fairs and markets, that the slaves in question should be searched for, and brought back to their standards. All this was executed with the strictest care. Appius Claudius, the consul, after fixing Decius Junius in the command at the mouth of the Vulturnus, and Marcus Aurelius Cotta at Puteoli, with orders that when any ships should arrive from Etruria and Sardinia, to send off the corn directly to the camp, went back himself to Capua, where he found his colleague Quintus Fulvius busy in bringing in supplies of all kinds from Casilinum, and making every preparation for prosecuting the siege of Capua. They then joined in forming the siege, and also sent for Claudius Nero, the prætor, from the Claudian camp at Suessula; who, leaving behind a small garrison to keep possession of the post, marched down with all the rest of his forces to Capua. Thus there were three prætorian pavilions erected round that city, and the three armies, commencing their operations in different quarters, proceeded to inclose it with a rampart and trench, erecting forts at moderate distances; so that when the Campanians attempted to obstruct their works, they fought them, in several places at once, with such success, that, at last, the besieged confined themselves within their walls and gates. However, before these works were carried quite round, the townsmen sent deputies to Hannibal, to complain of his abandoning Capua, and delivering it, in a manner, into the hands of the Romans; and to beseech him, now at least, when they were not only invested, but even pent up, to bring them relief. The consuls received a letter from Publius Cornelius the prætor, that “before they completed the circumvallation of Capua, they should give leave to such of the Campanians as chose it, to retire from the town, and carry away their effects with them. That as many as withdrew before the Ides of March should enjoy their liberty and their property entire: but that both those who withdrew after that day, and those who remained in the place should be treated as enemies.” This notice was accordingly given to the Campanians, who received it with such scorn, that they answered with reproaches, and even menaces. Hannibal had led his legions from Herdonia to Tarentum, in hopes that, either by force or stratagem, he might gain possession of the citadel of that town; but, being disappointed therein, he turned his route toward Brundusium, which he expected would be betrayed to him. While he was wasting time here, also, to no purpose, the deputies from Capua came to him, bringing at the same time, their complaints, and intreaties for succour. To these Hannibal answered in an arrogant style, that he had before raised the siege of their town; and that the consuls would not now wait his coming. With this encouragement the deputies were dismissed, and with difficulty made their way back into the city, which was by this time surrounded with a double trench and a rampart.
XXIII. At the very time when the circumvallation of Capua was going on, the siege of Syracuse came to a conclusion, having been forwarded not only by the vigour and spirit of the besieging general and his army, but also by treachery within. For in the beginning of the spring, Marcellus had deliberated some time, whether he should turn his arms against Himilco and Hippocrates, who were at Agrigentum, or stay and press forward the siege of Syracuse, though he saw that the city could neither be reduced by force, as being from its situation impregnable by land or sea, nor by famine, as supplies from Carthage had almost open access. Nevertheless, that he might leave no expedient untried, he had enjoined some deserters from Syracuse — many of whom of the highest rank were then in the Roman camp, having been banished when the defection from the Romans took place, on account of their disapprobation of the design of changing sides — to confer with persons of their own way of thinking, to sound the temper of the people, and to give them solemn assurances, that if the city were delivered into his hands, they should live free under their own laws. There was no opportunity of conversing on the subject, because the great number of persons suspected of disaffection had made every one attentive and vigilant to prevent any such attempt passing unobserved. A single slave, belonging to some of the exiles, was sent as a deserter into the city, and he, communicating the business to a few, opened a way for a negotiation of the kind. After this, some few getting into a fishing boat, and concealing themselves under the nets, were carried round in this manner to the Roman camp, where they held conferences with the deserters, and the same was done frequently, in the same manner, by several other parties; at last, the number amounted to eighty, and their plot was now ripe for execution, when a person called Attalus, offended that some part of the business had been concealed from him, discovered their design to Epicydes, and they were all put to death with torture. This project, thus rendered abortive, was soon succeeded by another: one Damippus, a Lacedæmonian, being sent from Syracuse to king Philip, had been taken prisoner by the Roman fleet; Epicydes earnestly wished to ransom him in particular, and from this Marcellus was not averse; for the Romans, even at that time, were desirous of procuring the friendship of the Ætolians, with which nation the Lacedæmonians were in alliance. Some persons were accordingly deputed to treat for his release, and the place judged the most central and convenient to both parties was at the Trogilian port, adjoining the tower called Galeagra. As they came several times to this spot, one of the Romans, having a near view of the wall, by reckoning the stones, and estimating, as far as he was able, the measure of each in the face of the work, conjectured nearly as to its height, and finding it considerably lower than he or any of the rest had hitherto supposed, so that it might be scaled with ladders of even a moderate length, he represented the matter to Marcellus. The information was deemed not unworthy of attention, but as that spot could not be openly approached, being, for the very reason mentioned, guarded with particular care, it was determined to watch for a favourable opportunity: this was soon found, through the means of a deserter, who brought intelligence that the besieged were celebrating the festival of Diana, which was to last three days; and as, in consequence of the siege, most kinds of provisions were scarce, they indulged themselves in greater quantities of wine, which Epicydes supplied to the whole body of the plebeians, and which was distributed among the tribes by the people of distinction. Marcellus, on hearing this, communicated his design to a few military tribunes; and having, by their means, selected centurions and soldiers properly qualified for an enterprise at once important and daring, he privately procured scaling ladders, and ordered directions to be conveyed to the rest of the troops, that they should take their suppers early, and go to rest, because they were to be employed on an expedition in the night. Then, at the hour when he judged that the people, who had begun to feast early in the day, would be surfeited with wine, and begin to sleep, he ordered the men of one company to proceed with their ladders, while about a thousand men in arms were with silence conducted in a slender column to the spot. The foremost having, without noise or tumult, mounted the wall, the rest followed in order, the boldness of the former giving courage even to the timorous.
XXIV. This body of a thousand men had now gained possession of a part of the city, when the rest, bringing up greater numbers of ladders, scaled the wall; the first party having given them a signal from the Hexapylos, to which they had penetrated without meeting a single person in the streets: for the greater part of the townsmen having feasted together in the towers, were now either overpowered by wine, and sunk in sleep, or, being half inebriated, still continued their debauch. A few of them, however, who were surprised in their beds, were put to death. Vigorous efforts were then made to force open a postern gate near the Hexapylos, and at the same time, the signal agreed on was returned from the wall by a trumpet. And now the attack was carried on in all quarters, not secretly, but with open force; for they had reached the Epipolæ, where there were great numbers of the guards stationed, and it became requisite not to elude the notice of the enemy, but to terrify them; and terrified they were: for as soon as the sound of the trumpet was heard, and the shouts of the troops who had mastered part of the city, the guards thought that the whole was taken, and some of them fled along the wall, others leaped down from the ramparts, and crowds flying in dismay, were tumbled headlong. A great part of the townsmen, however, were still ignorant of the misfortune which had befallen them, being all of them overpowered with wine and sleep; and in a city of such vast extent, what happened in any one quarter, could not be very readily known in all the rest. A little before day, a gate of the Hexapylos being forced, Marcellus, with all his troops, entered the city. This roused the townsmen, who betook themselves to arms, endeavouring, if possible, to preserve the place. Epicides hastily led out some troops from the island called Nasos, not doubting but he should be able to drive out what he conjectured to be a small party, and which he supposed had found entrance through the negligence of the guards, telling the affrighted fugitives whom he met, that they were adding to the tumult, and that they represented matters greater and more terrible than they were. But when he saw every place round the Epipolæ filled with armed men, he waited only to discharge a few missive weapons, and marched back into the Achradina, dreading not so much the number and strength of the enemy, as that some treachery might, on such an opportunity, take place within, and that he might find the gates of the Achridina and the island shut against him. When Marcellus entered the gate, and had from the high grounds a full view of the city, the most beautiful perhaps of any in those times, he is said to have shed tears partly out of joy at having accomplished an enterprise of such importance, and partly from the sensations excited by reflecting on the high degree of renown which the place had enjoyed through a long series of years. Memory represented to him the Athenian fleet sunk there; two vast armies cut off with two generals of the highest reputation: the many wars maintained against the Carthaginians with such equality of success; the great number of powerful tyrants and kings, especially Hiero, whom all remembered very lately reigning, and who besides all the distinctions which his own merit and good fortune conferred on him, was highly remarkable for his zealous friendship to the Roman people: when all these reflections occurred to his mind, and were followed by the consideration, that every object then under his view would quickly be in flames, and reduced to ashes — thus reflecting, before he advanced to attack the Achridina, he sent forward some Syracusans, who, as has been mentioned, were within the Roman quarters, to try if they could, by mild persuasions, prevail on the Syracusans to surrender the town.
XXV. The fortifications of the Achradina were occupied by deserters, who could have no hope of a pardon in case of a capitulation; these, therefore, would not suffer the others to come nigh the walls, nor to hold conversation with any one. Marcellus, finding that no opportunity could offer of effecting any thing by persuasion, ordered his troops to move back to the Euryalus. This is an eminence at the verge of the city, on the side most remote from the sea, commanding the road which leads into the country and the interior parts of the island, and therefore very commodiously situate for securing admittance to convoys of provisions. The commander of this fortress was Philodemus, an Argive, stationed here by Epicydes. To him Sosis, one of the regicides, was sent by Marcellus with certain propositions; who, after a long conversation, being put off with evasions, brought back an account that the Argive required time for deliberation. He deferred giving any positive answer from day to day, in expectation that Hippocrates and Himilco, with their legions, would come up; and he doubted not that if he could once receive them into the fortress, the Roman army hemmed in as it was within walls, might be effectually cut off. Marcellus, therefore, seeing no probability of the Euryalus being either surrendered or taken, encamped between Neapolis and Tycha, parts of the city so named, and in themselves equal to cities; for he feared, lest, if he went into the more populous parts, the greedy soldiers might not, by any means, be restrained from pillaging. Hither came deputies from the Neapolis and the Tycha, with fillets and other badges of supplicants, praying him to spare the lives of the inhabitants, and to refrain from burning their houses. On the subject of these petitions, offered in the form of prayers rather than of demands, Marcellus held a council; and according to the unanimous determination of all present, published orders to the soldiers, to “offer no violence to any person of free condition, but that they might seize every thing else as spoil.” The walls of the houses surrounding his camp served it as a fortification, and, at the gates facing the wide streets, he posted guards and detachments of troops, to prevent any attack on it while the soldiers should be in search of plunder. On a signal given the men dispersed themselves for that purpose: and, though they broke open doors, and filled every place with terror and tumult, yet they refrained from bloodshed, but put no stop to their ravages, until they had removed all the valuable effects which had been amassed there in a long course of prosperous fortune. Meanwhile Philodemus, seeing no prospect of relief, and receiving assurances that he might return to Epicydes in safety, withdrew the garrison, and delivered up the fortress to the Romans. While the attention of all was turned to the commotion in that part of the city which was taken, Bomilcar, taking advantage of a stormy night, when the violence of the weather would not allow the Roman fleet to ride at anchor in the deep, slipped out of the harbour of Syracuse with thirty-five ships, and finding the sea open, sailed forth into the main, leaving fifty-five ships to Epicydes and the Syracusans. After informing the Carthaginians of the perilous state of affairs in Syracuse, he returned thither, in a few days, with an hundred ships, when he received, as is said, many valuable presents from Epicydes out of the treasure of Hiero.
XXVI. Marcellus by gaining possession of the Euryalus, and putting a garrison into it, was freed from one cause of anxiety; for he had apprehended that a body of the enemy’s forces might get into that fortress on his rear, and thence annoy his troops, pent up as they were, and entangled among walls. He then invested the Achradina, forming three camps in proper situations, in hopes, by a close blockade, of reducing it by a want of necessaries. The out-guards on both sides, had been quiet for several days, when Hippocrates and Hamilco suddenly arrived; and the consequence was an attack on the Romans in different quarters at once. For Hippocrates, having fortified a camp at the great harbour, and given a signal to the garrison in the Achradina, fell on the old camp of the Romans, where Crispinus commanded; and, at the same time, Epicydes sallied out against the posts of Marcellus, while the Carthaginian fleet warped in close to the shore, which lay between the city and the Roman station, in order to prevent any succour being sent by Marcellus to Crispinus. Their attacks, however, caused more alarm than real injury; for Crispinus, on his part, not only repulsed Hippocrates from his works, but made him fly with precipitation, and pursued him to some distance; and, in the other quarter, Marcellus beat back Epicydes into the town. It was even supposed that enough was now done to prevent any danger in future, from their making sudden sallies. To other evils attendant on the siege, was added a pestilence; a calamity felt by both parties, and fully sufficient to divert their thoughts from plans of military operations. It was now autumn; the places, where they lay, were in their nature unwholesome, but much more so on the outside of the city than within; and the heat was so intense, as to impair the health of almost every person in both the camps. At first, the insalubrity of the season and the soil produced both sicknesses and deaths: afterwards the attendance on the diseased, and the handling of them, spread the contagion wide; insomuch, that all who were seized by it either died neglected and forsaken, or, also infecting such as ventured to take care of them, these were carried off also. Scarcely any thing was seen but funerals; and both day and night, lamentations from every side rang in their ears. At last, habituated to these scenes of woe, they contracted such savageness, that so far from attending the deceased with tears and sorrowings, they would not even carry them out and inter them, so that they lay scattered over the ground in the view of all, and who were in constant expectation of a similar fate. Thus the dead contributed to the destruction of the sick, and the sick to that of the healthy, both by the apprehensions which they excited, and by the contagion and noisome stench of their bodies; while some, wishing rather to die by the sword, singly assailed the enemy’s posts. But the distemper raged with much greater fury in the Carthaginian camp than in that of the Romans: for the latter, by lying so long before Syracuse, were become more hardened against the air and the rains. Of the enemy’s troops, the Sicilians, as soon as they saw that the spreading of the distemper was owing to an unhealthy situation, left it, and retired to the several cities in the neighbourhood, which were of their party: but the Carthaginians, who had no place of retreat, perished (together with their commanders, Hippocrates and Himilco,) to a man. Marcellus, when he perceived the violence of the disorder increasing, had removed his troops into the city, where being comfortably lodged, and sheltered from the inclemency of the air, their impaired constitutions were soon restored: nevertheless great numbers of the Roman soldiers were swept away by this pestilence.
XXVII. The land forces of the Carthaginians being thus entirely destroyed, the Sicilians, who had served under Hippocrates, collected from their several states stores of provisions, which they deposited in two towns, of no great size, but well secured by strong situations and fortifications; one three miles distant from Syracuse, the other five; and, at the same time, they solicited succours. Meanwhile Bomilcar, going back again to Carthage with his fleet, gave such a representation of the condition of the allies, as afforded hopes that it might be practicable, not only to succour them in such a manner as would ensure their safety, but also to make prisoners of the Romans in the very city which they had, in a manner, reduced; and by this means he prevailed on the government to send with him as many transport vessels as could be procured laden with stores of every kind, and to make an addition to his own fleet. Accordingly he set sail with an hundred and thirty ships of war, and seven hundred transports, and met with a wind very favourable for his passage to Sicily, but the same wind prevented his doubling Cape Pachynum. The news of Bomilcar’s arrival first, and afterwards his unexpected delay, gave joy and grief alternately both to the Romans and Syracusans. But Epicydes, dreading lest, if the same easterly wind which then prevailed should continue to blow for some days longer, the Carthaginian fleet might sail back to Africa, delivered the command of the Achradina to the generals of the Mercenaries, and sailed away to Bomilcar. Him he found lying to, with the heads of his vessels turned towards Africa, being fearful of an engagement with the enemy, not on account of any superiority in their strength or number of ships (for his own was the greater,) but because the wind was the more advantageous to the Roman fleet. With difficulty, then, he prevailed on him to consent to try the issue of a naval engagement. On the other side, Marcellus, seeing that an army of Sicilians was assembling from all quarters of the island, and that the Carthaginian fleet was approaching with abundance of supplies, began to fear, lest, if he should be shut up in an hostile city, and that every passage being barred both by land and sea, he should be reduced to great distress. Although unequal to the enemy in number of ships, he yet determined to oppose Bomilcar’s passage to Syracuse. The two hostile fleets lay off the promontory of Pachynum, ready to engage as soon as moderate weather should allow them to sail out into the main. On the subsiding of the easterly wind, which had blown furiously for several days, Bomilcar first put his fleet in motion, and his van seemed to make out to sea with intent to clear the cape; but, when he saw the Roman bearing down on him, and being suddenly alarmed, from what circumstance is not known, he bore away to sea, and sending messengers to Heraclea, ordering the transports to return to Africa, he sailed along the coast of Sicily to Tarentum. Epicydes, thus disappointed in a measure from which he had conceived very sanguine hopes, and unwilling to go back into the besieged city, whereof a great part was already in possession of the enemy, sailed to Agrigentum, where he proposed rather to wait the issue of affairs than to attempt any new enterprise.
XXVIII. When the Sicilians in camp were informed of all these events, (that Epicydes had withdrawn from Syracuse, that the Carthaginians had abandoned the island, and in a manner, surrendered it a second time to the Romans,) they demanded a conference with those who were shut up in the town, and learning their inclinations, they sent deputies to Marcellus, to treat about terms of capitulation. There was scarcely any debate about the conditions, which were — that whatever parts of the country had been under the dominion of the kings should be ceded to the Romans; and the rest, together with independence, and their own laws, should be guaranteed to the Sicilians. Then the deputies invited the persons entrusted with the command by Epicydes to a meeting, and told them, that they had been sent by the Sicilian army to them as well as to Marcellus, in order that those within the city, as well as those without, should all share one fortune, and that neither should stipulate any article, separately, for themselves. From these they obtained permission to enter the place, and converse with their relations and friends, to whom they recited the terms which they had already adjusted with Marcellus; and, by the prospect of safety which they held out to their view, prevailed on them to unite in an attack on Epicydes’s generals, Polyclitus, Philistio, and Epicydes, surnamed Syndos. These they put to death, and then calling the multitude to an assembly, and lamenting the famine they had undergone, insisted, that “notwithstanding they were pressed by so many calamities, yet they had no reason to complain of fortune, because it was in their power to determine how long they would endure their sufferings. The reason which induced the Romans to besiege Syracuse was, affection to its inhabitants, not enmity. For when they heard that the government was seized on by the partizans of Hannibal, and afterwards by those of Hieronymus, Hippocrates, and Epicydes; they then took arms, and laid siege to the city, with the purpose of subduing, not the city itself, but those who cruelly tyrannised over it. But after Hippocrates had been carried off, Epicydes excluded from Syracuse, his generals put to death, and the Carthaginians expelled, and unable to maintain any kind of footing in Sicily, either by fleets or armies, what reason could the Romans then have for not wishing the safety of Syracuse, as much as if Hiero himself, so singularly attached to the Roman interest, were still alive? Neither the city, therefore, nor the inhabitants, stood in any other danger than what they might bring on themselves, by neglecting an opportunity of reconciliation with the Romans: but such another opportunity they never could have, as that which presented itself at that instant, on its being once known that they were delivered from their insolent tyrants.”
XXIX. This discourse was listened to with universal approbation; but it was resolved that, before any deputies should be appointed, prætors should be elected: and then some of the prætors themselves were sent deputies to Marcellus. The person at the head of the commission addressed him to this effect “Neither was the revolt, at the beginning, the act of us Syracusans, but of Hieronymus, whose conduct towards you, was not near so wicked as his treatment of us; nor, afterwards, was it any Syracusan, but Hippocrates and Epicydes, two instruments of the late king, who while we were distracted between fear on one side and treachery on the other, broke through the peace established on the death of the tyrant; nor can any period be named, in which we were at liberty, and were not at the same time in friendship with you. At present it is manifest, that as soon as ever, by the death of those who held Syracuse in bondage, we became our own masters, we have come, without a moment’s hesitation, to deliver up our arms, to surrender ourselves, our city, and fortifications, and to refuse no conditions which you shall think fit to impose. Marcellus, the gods have given you the glory of taking the most renowned and most beautiful of all the Grecian cities; whatever memorable exploits we have at any time performed, either on land or sea, all will go to augment the splendour of your triumph. Let it not be your wish, that men shall learn, from tradition, how great a city you have reduced, but rather, that the city itself may stand a monument to posterity, exhibiting to the view of every one who shall approach it, by land or by sea, our trophies over the Athenians and Carthaginians; then, yours over us; and that you may transmit Syracuse, unimpaired, to your family, to be kept under the patronage and guardianship of the race of the Marcelli. Let not the memory of Hieronymus weigh more with you, than that of Hiero. The latter was much longer your friend, than the former your enemy; and, besides, you have felt many effects of the kindness of the one, while the other’s madness tended only to his own ruin.” From the Romans all their requests were easily obtained, and their safety ran no hazard from that quarter: there was more danger from an hostile disposition among themselves, for the deserters, apprehending that they were to be delivered up to the Romans, brought the auxiliary troops of mercenaries to entertain the same fears. Hastily taking arms, they first slew the prætors; then spreading themselves over the city, put to death in their rage every person whom chance threw in their way, pillaging every thing on which they could lay hands. Afterwards, that they might not be without leaders, they created six præfects three to command in the Achradina, and three in the island. The tumult at length subsiding, the mercenaries discovered, on inquiry, the purport of the articles concluded on with Marcellus, and then began to see clearly, what was really the case, that their situation was widely different from that of the deserters. Very seasonably the deputies returned at this time from Marcellus, and assured them, that the suspicion which had provoked their fury was groundless, and that the Romans had no kind of reason to demand their punishment.
XXX. One of the three commanders in the Achradina was a Spaniard, by name Mericus. To sound him, a Spanish auxiliary in the camp of the Romans was purposely sent in the train of the deputies, who, taking an opportunity when he found Mericus alone, first informed him in what state he had left the affairs of Spain, from whence he had lately come; that “every thing there was under subjection to the Roman arms;” and added, “that it was in his power, by some service of importance, to become distinguished among his countrymen; whether it were that he chose to accept a commission in the Roman army, or to return to his native country. On the other hand, if he persisted in attempting to hold out the siege, what hope could he entertain when he was so closely invested both by sea and land?” Mericus was so much affected by these arguments, that, when it was determined to send deputies to Marcellus, he appointed, as one of them, his own brother, who being conducted by the same Spaniard to a secret interview with Marcellus, and having received satisfactory assurances from him, and concerted the method of conducting the business they had planned, returned to the Achradina. Then Mericus, with design to prevent all suspicion of treachery, declared, that “he did not approve of deputies thus going backwards and forwards; that none such ought to be received or sent; and, that the guard might be kept with the stricter care, the proper posts ought to be divided among the præfects, so that each should be answerable for the safety of his own quarter.” Every one approved of this division of the posts; and the tract which fell to his own lot, was that from the fountain Arethusa, to the mouth of the great harbour: of this he apprised the Romans. Marcellus therefore gave orders, that a transport ship, full of soldiers, should be towed in the night, by the barge of a quadrireme, to the Achradina; and that they should be landed opposite to the gate which is near the said fountain. This being executed at the fourth watch, and Mericus having, according to concert, admitted the soldiers into the gate, Marcellus, at the first light, assaulted the walls of the Achradina with all his forces, by which means he not only engaged the attention of those who guarded it, but caused several battalions to flock thither from the island, quitting their own posts to repel the furious assault of the Romans. While this alarm was at the height, some light gallies, prepared beforehand, sailed round, and landed a body of troops on the island; and these, making an unexpected attack on the half-manned posts, and the open gate, without much difficulty made themselves masters of the island; for it was abandoned to them by the garrison, who fled in consternation. The deserters maintained their ground with no more steadiness than these; for, being diffident in some degree even of each other, they betook themselves to flight during the heat of the conflict. When Marcellus learned that the island was taken, that one quarter of the Achradina was in possession of his troops, and that Mericus had joined them with the party under his command, he sounded a retreat, lest the royal treasure, which fame represented much larger than it was, should be rifled by the soldiers.
XXXI. The impetuosity of the soldiers being restrained, the deserters in the Achradina found time and opportunity to escape. The Syracusans, at length delivered from their fears, opened the gates of the fortress, and sent an humble deputation to Marcellus, asking nothing more than their own lives, and those of their children. Marcellus summoned a council, to which he likewise invited those Syracusans who, having been driven from home in consequence of the disturbances in the city, had remained in the Roman quarters; and he gave the deputies this answer, that “the friendly acts of Hiero, through a space of fifty years, were not more in number than the injuries committed against the Roman people within a few years past, by those who were in possession of Syracuse. But most of these had recoiled on the heads where they ought to fall; and those people had inflicted on each other much more severe punishments for their infraction of treaties, than the Romans would have wished. That he had, indeed, laid siege to Syracuse, and prosecuted it through the three last years, not with design that the Roman people might keep that state in servitude to themselves, but that the leaders of the deserters might not hold it under captivity and oppression. What part the Syracusans might have acted for the promoting of this design, was manifest from those of their countrymen who were within the Roman quarters; from the conduct of the Spanish general Mericus, who surrendered the quarter under his command; and from the late, indeed, but resolute measure adopted by themselves. That the advantages accruing to him, from all the toils and dangers by sea and land, which he had undergone through such a length of time under the Syracusan walls, were by no means equal to what Syracuse might have procured to itself.” The quæstor was then sent with a guard to the island, to receive and secure the royal treasure; and the city was given up to the troops to be plundered, centinels being first placed at the several houses of those who had staid in the Roman quarters. While numberless horrid acts of rage and of avarice were perpetrated, it is related that, in the violence of the tumult, which was as great as greedy soldiers ever caused in sacking a captured city, Archimedes, while intent on some geometrical figures which he had drawn in the sand, was slain by a soldier, who knew not who he was; that Marcellus lamented his death, and gave him an honourable funeral, and that inquiry was also made for his relations, to whom his name and memory proved a protection and an honour. In this manner nearly, was Syracuse taken, and in it such a quantity of booty, as Carthage, which waged an equal contest with Rome, would scarcely have afforded at that time. A few days before the conquest of Syracuse, Titus Otacilius, with eighty quinqueremes, sailed over from Lilybæum to Utica, and, entering the harbour before day, seized a number of transports laden with corn; he then landed his troops, ravaged a great part of the country round the city, and brought back to his fleet much booty of all kinds. On the third day from his departure, he returned to Lilybæum, with an hundred and thirty vessels filled with corn and spoil. He sent off their cargoes immediately to Syracuse, where, if this supply had not arrived so seasonably, both the conquerors and the vanquished were threatened alike with a destructive famine.
XXXII. As to the affairs of Spain, near two years had passed without any thing very material being done, and the business of the war consisted rather in scheming than in acting; but now, the Roman generals, quitting their winter-quarters, united their forces, and a council being held, all concurred in opinion that, since their sole object had hitherto been to detain Hasdrubal from the prosecution of his intended march into Italy, it was now time to think of an end to the war in Spain; and they trusted that their strength was rendered adequate to the undertaking, by the addition of thirty thousand Celtiberians, whom they had, during the preceding winter, engaged to join their arms. There were three armies of the enemy; one under Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, and another under Mago, were encamped together at the distance of about five days march. The third lay nearer, and was commanded by Hasdrubal, son of Hamilcar, the oldest general in Spain, who was posted near a city named Anitorgis. Him the Roman generals wished to overpower first, and they were confident that their strength was abundantly sufficient to effect it: their only concern was, lest Hasdrubal and Mago, dispirited by his retreat, might retire into the inaccessible forests and mountains, and thus protract the war. They therefore concluded, that it would be most advisable by separating their forces, to extend the compass of their operations, so as to comprehend the whole war at once. Accordingly, they divided them in such a manner that Publius Cornelius was to lead two-thirds of the Romans and allies against Mago and Hasdrubal; and Cneius Cornelius, with the other third of the veteran troops, and the Celtiberian auxiliaries, was to act against the Barcine Hasdrubal. The commanders began their march together, the Celtiberians advancing before them, and pitched their camp near the city of Anitorgis, within view of the enemy, from whom they were separated by a river. There Cneius Scipio, with the forces before-mentioned, halted, and Publius Scipio proceeded, according to his allotment, to the scene of action.
XXXIII. When Hasdrubal observed that there were but few Roman soldiers in the camp, and that all their dependance was on the Celtiberian auxiliaries, being well acquainted with the perfidious disposition of every barbarous nation, and particularly of these, among whom he had waged war for so many years, he contrived secret conferences with their leaders; for as both camps were full of Spaniards, an intercourse was easy; and with whom he concluded a bargain, that, for a valuable consideration, they should carry away their troops. Nor did this appear to them a heinous crime: for it was not required that they should turn their arms against the Romans, and the hire given for not fighting was as great as could be expected for fighting; besides, rest from fatigue, the returning to their homes, and the pleasure of seeing their friends and families, all these were matters highly agreeable to them, so that the chiefs were not more easily persuaded than were their followers. It was farther considered, that they need not fear the Romans, whose number was small, even if they should attempt to detain them by force. It will ever, indeed, be incumbent on Roman generals to avoid carefully such kind of mistakes, and to consider instances like this as powerful warnings, never to confide so far in foreign auxiliaries, as not to keep in their camps a superior force of their native troops, and of their own proper strength. The Celtiberians, on a sudden, took up their standards and marched off, giving no other answer to the Romans (who besought them to stay), than that they were called away by a war at home. When Scipio saw that it was impossible to detain the auxiliaries either by intreaties or force; that, without them, he was unable either to cope with the enemy, or effect a re-union with his brother; and that there was no other resource at hand, from which he could hope for safety, he resolved to retreat as far back as possible, avoiding, with the utmost caution, any encounter with the enemy on equal ground; — for they had crossed the river, and followed almost at the heels of his retreating troops.
XXXIV. At the same time Publius Scipio was surrounded with equal fears and greater danger, occasioned by a new enemy: this was young Masinissa, at that time an ally of the Carthaginians, afterwards rendered illustrious and powerful by the friendship of the Romans. He, with his Numidian cavalry, met Publius Scipio as he approached, harrassing him incessantly night and day. Not only were strangglers, who went to a distance from the camp for wood and forage, intercepted by him, but he would even ride up to the very intrenchments; and often, charging into the midst of the advance guards, fill every quarter with the utmost confusion. In the night-time also, by sudden attacks, he frequently caused terror and alarm at the gates, and on the rampart; nor did any place, or any time, afford the Romans respite from fear and anxiety, confined as they were within their trenches, and debarred from procuring every kind of necessary, suffering almost a regular blockade; and which they knew would be still more close, if Indibilis, who was said to be approaching, with seven thousand five hundred Suessetanians, should join the Carthaginians. Impelled by the inextricable difficulties of his situation, Scipio, heretofore a commander of known caution and prudence, adopted the rash resolution of going out by night to meet Indibilis, and to fight him. Accordingly, leaving a small guard in the camp, under the command of Titus Fonteius, lieutenant-general, he marched out at midnight, and falling in with the enemy, began an engagement. The troops encountered each other in the order of march rather than of battle; however, irregular as the manner of fighting was, the Romans had the advantage. But on a sudden the Numidian cavalry, whose observation the general thought he had escaped, falling on his flanks, struck great terror into the troops, and, while they had this new contest to maintain, a third enemy fell upon them, the Carthaginian generals coming up with their rear during the heat of the battle. Thus the Romans were assailed on every side, unable to judge against which enemy they might best direct their united strength, in order to force a passage. While their commander fought, and encouraged his men, exposing himself to every danger, he was run through the right side with a lance. The party who made the attack on the band collected about the general, when they saw Scipio fall lifeless from his horse, being elated with joy, ran shouting up and down through the whole line, crying out, that the Roman commander was killed; which words clearly determined the battle in favour of the enemy. The latter, immediately on losing their general, began to fly from the field; but though they might have found no great difficulty in forcing their way through the Numidians, and the other light-armed auxiliaries, yet it was scarcely possible that they should escape from such a multitude of cavalry, and of footmen who were nearly equal to the horses in speed. Accordingly, almost as many fell in the flight as in the battle, nor probably would one have survived, had not the night stopped the pursuit, it being by this time late in the evening.
XXXV. The Carthaginian generals were not remiss in making advantage of their good fortune: without losing time after the battle, and scarcely allowing the soldiers necessary rest, they marched away, with rapid haste to Hasdrubal, son of Hamilcar, confidently assured, that after uniting their forces with his, they should be able to bring the war to a speedy conclusion. On their arrival at his camp, the warmest congratulations passed between the commanders and the armies, overjoyed at their late successes, in which so great a general, with his whole army, had been cut off; and they expected, as a matter of certainty, another victory equally important. Not even a rumour of this great misfortune had yet reached the Romans; but there prevailed among them a melancholy kind of silence, and a tacit foreboding; such a presage of impending evil as the mind is apt to feel when looking forward with anxiety. Cornelius, after the desertion of the auxiliaries, had nothing to dispirit him except the augmentation which he observed in the enemy’s force, yet was he led by conjectures and reasoning, rather to entertain a suspicion of some disaster, than any favourable hopes. “For how,” said he, “could Hasdrubal and Mago, unless decisively victorious in their own province, bring hither their army without oppositions? And how could it happen, that Publius had neither opposed their march, nor followed on their rear, in order that, if he found it impracticable to prevent the junction of the enemy’s armies, he might, in any case, unite his forces with those of his brother.” Distracted with these perplexing thoughts, he could see no other means of safety at present, than by retreating as fast as possible. Accordingly, in the night, and while the enemy, ignorant of his departure, remained quiet, he performed a march of considerable length. On the return of day, the enemy, perceiving that his army had decamped, sent forward the Numidians, and set out on the pursuit with all the expedition in their power. Before night, the Numidians overtook them, and harrassed them with attacks, sometimes on the flanks, sometimes on the rear. They then began to halt, and defend themselves: but Scipio earnestly exhorted them to fight and advance at the same time, lest the enemy’s infantry should overtake them.
XXXVI. But as by this method of advancing at one time, and halting at another, they made but little progress on their way, and as the night now approached, Scipio called in his men, and collecting them in a body, drew them off to a rising ground, not very safe indeed, especially for dispirited troops, yet higher than any of the surrounding grounds. Here the infantry, receiving the baggage and the cavalry into the centre, and forming a circle round them, at first repelled, without difficulty, the attacks of the Numidian skirmishers. Afterwards, the three regular armies of the enemy approached with their entire force; when the general saw that without some fortification his men would never be able to maintain their post; he therefore began to look about, and consider whether he could by any means raise a rampart round it. But the hill was so bare, and the surface so rocky, that not so much as a bush was to be found which could be cut for palisadoes, nor earth with which to raise a mound, nor any means of forming a trench, or any other work; nor was any part of it such as to render it of difficult approach or ascent, every side rising with a gentle acclivity. However, that they might place in the way of the enemy some resemblance of a rampart, they tied the panniers together, and building them as it were on one another, formed a mound about their post, throwing on bundles of every kind of baggage where there was a deficiency of panniers for raising it. When the Carthaginian armies came to the place, they mounted the hill with perfect ease, but were at first so surprised at this strange appearance of a fortification that they halted, notwithstanding their officers every where called out, and asked them, “why did they stop, and not tear down and scatter about that ridiculous work, scarcely strong enough to stop women or children;” adding, that “they now had the enemy shut up as prisoners, and hiding themselves behind their baggage.” Such were their contemptuous reproofs; but it was no easy matter either to climb over, or to remove, the bulky loads which lay in the way, or to cut through the panniers so closely compacted and burried under heaps of baggage. The packages which obstructed them were at length removed, and a passage opened to the troops; and the same being done in several parts, the camp was forced on all sides, while the Romans, inferior in number, and dejected by misfortunes, were every where put to the sword by the more numerous enemy, elated with victory. However, a great number of the soldiers fled into the woods which lay at a small distance behind, and thence made their escape to the camp of Publius Scipio, where Titus Fonteius his lieutenant-general, commanded. Cneius Scipio, according to some accounts, was killed on the hill, in the first assault; according to others, he fled into a castle standing near the camp; this was surrounded with fire, and the doors, which were too strong to be forced, being thus burned, they were taken; and all within, together with the general himself were put to death. Cneius Scipio perished in the seventh year after his coming into Spain, the twenty-ninth day after the fall of his brother. Their deaths caused not greater grief at Rome, than in every part of Spain. Nay, among their countrymen, the loss of the armies, the alienation of the province, the misfortune of the public, challenged a share of their sorrow; whereas Spain lamented and mourned for the commanders themselves, and for Cneius even more than for his brother, because he had been longer in the government of their country, had earlier engaged their affections, and was the first who gave them a specimen of the Roman justice and moderation.
XXXVII. The army was now supposed to be utterly ruined, and Spain to be entirely lost, when one man retrieved the Roman affairs from this desperate condition: this was Lucius Marcius, son of Septimus, a Roman knight, a young man of an enterprising temper, and of a capacity which would do credit to a rank much superior to that in which he was born. These very great talents had been improved by the discipline of Cneius Scipio, under which he had, in a course of many years, acquired a thorough knowledge of all the arts of war. Collecting the soldiers, after their dispersion in the flight and drafting others out of the garrisons, he formed an army far from contemptible, with which he joined Titus Fonteius, the lieutenant-general of Publius Scipio. Such a superior ascendancy was possessed by a Roman knight in the respect and esteem of the soldiery, that, after fortifying a camp on the hither side of the Iberus, they determined that a commander should be chosen for the two armies by the suffrages of the soldiers. On this, relieving each other successively in the guard of the rampart and other posts, until every one had given his vote, they all concurred in conferring the chief command on Lucius Marcius. The remaining time of their stay there, which was but short, was employed in strengthening the camp, and collecting provisions; the soldiers executing every order not only with diligence, but without betraying any dejection whatever. But when intelligence was brought that Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, was coming to crush the last remains of opposition; that he had passed the Iberus and was drawing near; and when they saw the signal of battle displayed by a new commander — then, recollecting what captains and what forces had used to support their confidence when going out to fight, they all on a sudden burst into tears, and beat their heads. Some raised their hands towards heaven, taxing the gods with cruelty; others prostrate on the ground, invoked by name each his own former commander: nor could their lamentations be restrained by all the efforts of the centurions, or by the soothings and expostulations of Marcius himself, who asked them, “why they abandoned themselves to womanly and unavailing tears, and did not rather summon up their fiercest courage, for the common defence of themselves and the commonwealth, and for avenging their slaughtered generals?” Meanwhile, on a sudden, the shout and the sound of trumpets were heard, for the enemy were by this time near the rampart; and now their grief being instantly converted into rage, they hastily snatched up their arms, and, as if instigated by madness, ran to the gates, and made a furious attack on the forces, who were advancing in a careless and irregular manner. This unexpected reception immediately struck the Carthaginians with dismay: they wondered whence such a number of enemies could have started up, since the almost total extinction of their force; whence the vanquished and routed derived such boldness, such confidence in themselves; what chief had arisen since the death of the two Scipios; who should command in their camp; who could have given the signal for battle? Perplexed and astonished at so many incidents, so unaccountable, they first gave way; and then, on being pushed with a vigorous onset, turned their backs: and now, either a dreadful havoc would have been made among the flying party, or the pursuers would have found their impetuosity turn out inconsiderate and dangerous to themselves, had not Marcius quickly sounded a retreat, and by stopping them in the front, and even holding back some with his own hands, repressed the fury of the troops. He then led them into the camp, with their rage for blood and slaughter still unabated. The Carthaginians at first retreated precipitately from the rampart; but when they saw that there was no pursuit, they imagined that the others had halted through fear; and then, as if holding them in contempt, they returned to their camp at an easy pace. Conformable to the same notion was their careless manner of guarding their works; for although the Romans were at hand, yet they considered them merely as the remains of the two armies vanquished a few days before: and, in consequence of this error, negligence prevailed among the Carthaginians in every particular. Marcius, having discovered this, resolved on an enterprise, at first view rather rash than bold; which was, to go and attack the enemy’s post; for, he considered that it would be easier to storm the camp of Hasdrubal while he stood single, than to defend his own, in case the three generals and three armies should again unite; and besides, that, on one hand should he succeed in his attempt, he would gain relief from the distresses that encompassed him; and on the other, should he be repulsed, yet his daring to make the attack would rescue him from contempt.
XXXVIII. However, lest the suddenness of the affair, and the apprehensions incident to men acting by night, might disconcert an undertaking which, at best, seemed but ill suitable to his present condition, he judged it advisable to communicate his design to the soldiers, and to animate their spirits. Accordingly, being assembled, he addressed them in a speech to this effect: “Soldiers, either my dutiful affection to our late commanders, both during their lives and since their death, or the present situation of us all, might be sufficient to convince every one of you, that the command with which I am invested, though highly honourable, as the gift of your judgment, is still in reality full of labour and anxiety. For at the time when (only that fear benumbs the sense of grief) I should not be so far master of myself as to be able to find any consolation for our losses, I am compelled singly to study the safety of you all; a task most difficult to a mind immersed in sorrow; so much so, that while I am devising the means of preserving to our country these remnants of the two armies, I cannot, even in those moments, be wholly abstracted from it. For bitter remembrance haunts me; and the two Scipios, by day and by night, disquiet me with anxious cares and dreams, and often awake me out of sleep. They charge me, not to let them, or their men, (your fellow-soldiers, who for eight years maintained in this country a superiority in arms,) or our commonwealth, remain unrevenged; to follow their discipline, and their maxims; and that as, during their lives, no one was more obedient to their commands than I was, so I should, after their death, ever deem that conduct the best, which I have most reason to think that they would have pursued on any emergency. I could wish, soldiers, that you, on your part, would not pay them the tribute of tears and lamentations, as if they were no longer in existence; they who live and flourish in the fame of their achievements; but that, whenever the memory of them recurs, you would go into battle, as if you saw them encouraging you, and giving you the signal. Most certainly it must have been their image presenting itself to your eyes and minds that animated you yesterday to that memorable action, in which you gave the enemies a proof that the Roman race had not become extinct with the Scipios, and that the strength and valour of that nation, which was not crushed by the disaster at Cannæ, will ever rise superior to the severest inflictions of fortune. Now, after you have, from the suggestions of your own courage, braved danger with such intrepidity, I wish to try how much of the same bravery you will exert under the direction of your commander: for yesterday, when I gave the signal of retreat, on seeing, you pursue the routed Carthaginians with precipitation, I did not mean to break your spirit, but to reserve it for a more glorious and more advantageous opportunity; that you might afterwards, in short, and at a more favourable juncture, with full preparation, and well armed, assail your enemy unprepared, unarmed, and even buried in sleep. Nor, soldiers, did I conceive the hope of such an occasion offering, inconsiderately, and without reason, but founded it on the real state of things. Suppose any one should ask you, by what means, with your small numbers, and after suffering a defeat, you defended your camp against numerous forces elated with victory; you would surely give no other answer than that, being from these very circumstances apprehensive of danger, you had strengthened your quarters on every side with works, and kept yourselves ready and prepared for action. And this is always the case: men are least secure on that side, where their situation removes the apprehension of danger: because wherever they think care unnecessary, they will be there unguarded and open. There is no one thing which the enemy at present less apprehend, than that we, so lately blockaded and assaulted, should have the confidence to assault their camp. Let us dare then to do what no one will believe we dare to undertake: the very persuasion of its difficulty will make it easy to us. At the third watch of the night I will lead you thither in silence. I know, certainly, that they have not a course of watches, nor regular guards. The noise of our shout at their gates, and the first attack, will carry the camp. Then, while they are torpid with sleep, dismayed by the sudden tumult, and surprised, unarmed in their beds, let that carnage be made, from which you were vexed at your being recalled yesterday. I am aware that the enterprise must appear presumptuous; but in cases of difficulty, and when hopes are small, the most spirited counsels are the safest; because, if in the moment of opportunity, which quickly fleets away, you hesitate, even but a little, you will in vain wish for it afterwards, when it is no more. They have one army in our neighbourhood, and two others at no great distance. From an immediate attack we have reason to expect success; you have already made trial of your own strength, and of theirs; but if we defer the matter, and they, on being informed of our behaviour in yesterday’s irruption, cease to look on us with contempt, it is probable that all their commanders, and all their forces, will unite in one body. In that case, can we hope to be able to withstand the enemy’s three generals, and three armies, whom Cneius Scipio, with his army entire, could not withstand? As our generals were ruined by the dividing of their forces, so may the enemy, while separate and divided, be overpowered. There is no other way in which we can act with effect: let us therefore wait for nothing beyond the opportunity which the next night will afford us. Retire now, with the favour of the gods; refresh yourselves with food and rest, that you may, strong and vigorous, break into the camp of the enemy with the same spirit with which you defended your own.” They heard with joy this new plan proposed by their new general, which pleased them the more, on account of its daring boldness. The remainder of the day was employed in preparing their arms, and taking their victuals, and the greater part of the night was given to rest. At the fourth watch they were in motion.
XXXIX. At the distance of six miles beyond the nearest camp lay another body of Carthaginians. Between the two was a deep valley, thick set with trees. About the middle of this wood, by a stratagem worthy the genius of a Carthaginian, a Roman cohort and some cavalry were placed in concealment. The communication being thus cut off, the rest of the troops were led in silence to the nearest body of the enemy, and finding no advanced guard before the gates, or watches on the rampart, they marched in, without meeting an opposer, as they would into their own camp. The charge was then sounded, and the shout raised; some kill the assailed before they are quite awake, some throw fire on the huts which were covered with dry straw, some seize the gates to cut off their flight. The fire, the shouting, and the slaughter, all together, so stunned and confounded the enemy’s senses, that they neither could hear each other, nor think of what they should do. Unarmed, they every where fell in among troops of armed foes: some hastened to the gates; others, finding the passes shut, leaped over the rampart: and every one as soon as he got out, fled directly towards the other camp. These were intercepted by the cohort and cavalry rushing out from their ambush, and were all slain to a man, and even had any escaped, the Romans, having taken the nearer camp, ran forward to the other with such rapid haste, that no one could have arrived before them with the news of the disaster. At this camp, as it lay at a greater distance from an enemy, and as many had gone out before day in quest of forage, wood, and booty, they found every thing in a still more neglected and careless state; the weapons only standing at the outposts, the men unarmed, sitting or lying on the ground, or walking about before the gates and rampart. In this unguarded situation they were attacked by the Romans, yet warm from the late fight, and flushed with victory. No opposition therefore could be given them at the entrances; within, indeed, the first shout and the tumult having brought many together from all parts of the camp, a fierce conflict arose, which would have lasted long, had not the sight of the blood on the shields of the Romans, discovered to the Carthaginians the defeat of their other party, and struck them with dismay. This panic occasioned a general flight; every one, except such as the sword overtook, rushing out wherever a passage could be found. Thus, in one night and day, through the successful conduct of Lucius Marcius, were two of the Carthaginian camps taken by storm. Claudius, who translated the annals of Acilius from the Greek language into the Latin, affirms, that there were thirty-seven thousand of the enemy killed, one thousand eight hundred and thirty taken, and a vast booty acquired; among which was a silver shield of an hundred and thirty-eight pounds weight, embossed with the image of the Barcine Hasdrubal. Valerius Antias says, that Mago’s camp only was taken, where seven thousand were killed; and that, in the other battle, when the Romans sallied out and fought Hasdrubal, ten thousand fell, and that four thousand three hundred and thirty were taken. Piso writes, that Mago, having hastily pursued our troops who were retreating, five thousand of his men were killed in an ambuscade. All mention the name of the commander, Marcius, with great honour; and to his real glory they added also miraculous incidents; among others, that while he was haranguing his men, a flame was seen at the top of his head, without being felt by him, to the great fright of the surrounding soldiers. It is said, that, as a monument of his victory over the Carthaginians, the shield with the image of Hasdrubal, styled the Marcian, remained in the Capitol until the burning of that temple.* After this, hostilities were suspended in Spain for a long time, both parties being unwilling, after such severe shocks given and received, to risk an action which might be wholly destructive to one or both.
XL. During the time of these transactions in Spain, Marcellus having, after the taking of Syracuse, adjusted the other affairs of Sicily with such integrity and good faith as augmented not only his own glory, but likewise the majesty of the Roman people carried off to Rome the ornaments of the city, the statues and pictures with which it abounded. These were no doubt the spoils of enemies, and acquired by the right of war, yet they first gave rise to a taste for the works of Grecian artists, and to the consequent unbounded rapacity with which all places, indiscriminately, both sacred and profane, have been plundered; and which, at last, has been exercised even against the deities of Rome, and that very temple itself, in the first instance, which was decorated by Marcellus with peculiar elegance: for formerly, those which he dedicated near the Capuan gate were visited by foreigners on account of their exquisite ornaments, of which a very small portion remains. Supplicatory embassies came to Marcellus from almost every state in Sicily; as their cases were dissimilar, so were the terms granted them. Such as either had not revolted, or had returned into amity, before the reduction of Syracuse, were received as faithful allies, and treated with kindness; while such as, after that event, had submitted through fear, being considered as conquered, had terms dictated to them by the victor. Still, however, the Romans had remaining, at Agrigentum, some enemies far from contemptible — Epicydes and Hanno, who had been commanders in the late war, with a third and new one, sent by Hannibal in the room of Hippocrates, of a Lybophœnician race, a native of Hippo, called by his countrymen Mutines, an enterprising man, and instructed under no less a master than Hannibal himself in all the arts of war. To him Epicydes and Hanno assigned the auxiliary Numidians; with these he overran the lands of their enemies in such a manner, and was so active in visiting their allies for the purpose of securing their fidelity, and of giving them succour as occasion required, that, in a short time, he filled all Sicily with his fame, and was considered as one of the principal supports of the Carthaginian party. The Carthaginian general therefore, and the Syracusan, who had hitherto remained shut up within the walls of Agrigentum, were induced, not only by the advice of Mutines, but by confidence in their strength, to venture out of the town, and they pitched their camp on the bank of the river Himera. When Marcellus was informed of this, he instantly put his troops in motion, and sat down, at the distance of about four miles from them, to observe their motions and intentions. But Mutines left him neither room nor time for deliberation, for he crossed the river, and charged his advanced guards with such fury as to cause great terror and disorder. Next day, in a kind of regular engagement, he drove the Romans back into their fortifications. He was then called away by a mutiny of the Numidians which broke out in the camp, and as about three hundred of them had retired to a town called Heraclea of Minos, he went thither, in order to pacify and bring them back. At his departure he is said to have recommended earnestly to the other generals not to come to an engagement with the enemy during his absence. This gave much offence to both, particularly to Hanno, who was already jealous of his reputation: “that Mutines should dictate to him; a mongrel African to a Carthaginian general, commissioned by the senate and people.” He prevailed on Epicydes, who was disinclined to the measure, to consent that they should cross the river, and offer battle; alleging, that if they waited for Mutines, and the issue of the battle should prove fortunate, the honour would all be ascribed to him.
XLI. Marcellus, fired with indignation at the thought that he, who had beaten off from Nola, Hannibal, when elated with his victory at Cannæ, should give way to such adversaries as these, and whom he had repeatedly defeated on land and sea, ordered his men to take arms hastily, and march out to meet them. While he was arranging his troops, ten Numidians from the enemy’s line came to him at full gallop, and told him, that their countrymen, influenced first by the same motive which caused the mutiny, in which three hundred of their number had retired to Heraclea, and secondly, by seeing their own commander, at the very eve of a battle, sent out of the way, by officers who wished to derogate from his merit, had resolved to remain inactive during the fight. Contrary to the insidious character of their nation, they fulfilled their promise. This added new spirits to the Romans, for the intelligence was quickly conveyed along the ranks, that the enemy were forsaken by their horse, which had been considered as the most formidable part of their force. At the same time, it damped the courage of the Carthaginians, who, besides seeing themselves deprived of the support of the principal part of their strength, became even apprehensive of being attacked by their own cavalry. There was therefore no great contest: the first onset decided the affair. The Numidians stood quiet, on the wings, during the action, and when they saw their confederates turning their backs, accompanied them only a short way on their flight; for, observing that all in confusion made towards Agrigentum, in order to avoid the hardships of a siege, they withdrew themselves into several of the neighbouring cities. Many thousands were killed, and many taken, together with eight elephants. This was the last battle fought by Marcellus in Sicily, after which he returned in triumph to Syracuse. The year was now near to a close. The Roman senate therefore decreed that Publius Cornelius, prætor, should write to the consuls at Capua, that while Hannibal was at a great distance, and no business of moment was going on there, one of them should, if they thought proper, come to Rome to elect new magistrates. On receiving the letter, the consuls settled between themselves, that Claudius should hold the elections, and Fulvius remain at Capua. Claudius elected consuls, Cneius Fulvius Centumalus, and Publius Sulpicius Galba, son of Servius, who had not before held any curule office. Then Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, Caius Sulpicius, and Caius Calpurnius Piso were elected prætors. The city jurisdiction fell to Piso, Sicily to Sulpicius, Apulia to Cethegus, and Sardinia to Lentulus. The present consuls were continued in command for the ensuing year.
* These were three. They were elected by the people to judge in criminal causes, superintend the prisons, and the execution of the condemned.
* No person could obtain a curule office until he had served ten campaigns; and, as the military age commenced at seventeen, a man must be at least twenty-seven before he was qualified to sue for the quæstorship. It seems that by this law the requisite ages were settled thus:
| For the quæstorship | 31 years. |
| curule ædileship | 37 |
| prætorship | 40 |
| consulship | 46 |
* 645l. 16s. 8d.
* There was no law which authorised the sentencing a Roman citizen, directly, to banishment: but by the interdiction above mentioned, the criminal was deprived of every right of a citizen; and, it being declared unlawful to supply him with any necessary, he was compelled to go into exile.
* 32l. 5s. 10d.
* In the year of Rome 669.
Hannibal encamps upon the banks of the Anio, within three miles of Rome. Attended by two thousand horsemen, he advances close to the Colline gate, to take a view of the walls and situation of the city. On two successive days the hostile armies are hindered from engaging by the severity of the weather. Capua taken by Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius: the chief nobles die, voluntarily, by poison. Quintus Fulvius, having condemned the principal senators to death, at the moment they are actually tied to the stakes, receives dispatches from Rome, commanding him to spare their lives, which he postpones reading, until the sentence is executed. Publius Scipio, offering himself for the service, is sent to command in Spain: takes New Carthage in one day. Successes in Sicily. Treaty of friendship with the Ætolians War with Philip, king of Macedonia, and the Acarnanians.
Y. R. 541 211I.The consuls Cneius Fulvius Centumalus and Publius Sulpicius Galba, as soon as they came into office, on the ides of March, convened the senate in the capitol, and proposed to their consideration the state of the commonwealth, the method of conducting the war, and the disposition of the provinces and armies. Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius, the consuls of the preceding year, were continued in command; the legions which they had at present, were decreed to them, and an injunction was added, that they should not quit the siege of Capua, until they had reduced the place. This was a point on which the Romans kept their attention fixed with particular solicitude, not only from resentment, for which no state ever gave juster cause, but from the consideration, that a city so eminent and powerful, as it had, by its revolt, drawn several states into the same measure, would probably, if recovered, dispose their minds to wish for a reconciliation with the government under which they had formerly lived. Two prætors also, of the preceding year, were continued in command, Marcus Junius in Etruria, and Publius Sempronius in Gaul, each with the two legions which he then had. Marcus Marcellus was also continued, that he might, in quality of proconsul, finish the remainder of the war in Sicily, with the army then under his command. Directions were given him, that he should take the complement requisite for completing the numbers of his troops, if that should be necessary, out of the legions which Publius Cornelius, proprætor, commanded in Sicily; conditionally, however, that he should not choose any soldier from among those who had been prohibited by the senate from receiving a discharge, or returning home before the conclusion of the war. To Caius Sulpicius, whose lot was the province of Sicily, were decreed the two legions formerly commanded by Publius Cornelius, and a supply of men from the army of Cneius Fulvius, which had been shamefully defeated and put to flight, the year before, in Apulia. For the soldiers of this description the senate had fixed the same term of service as for those concerned at Cannæ; and, as a farther mark of ignominy to both, it was ordered, that they should not reside during the winter in towns, nor build their winter huts nearer to any town than ten miles. To Lucius Cornelius, in Sardinia, the two legions were given which Quintus Murius had commanded; a supply of men, if requisite, the consuls were ordered to enlist. Titus Otacilius and Marcus Valerius were ordered, with the fleets and legions then under their command, to guard the coasts of Greece and Sicily. On the former station were employed fifty ships and one legion; on the latter, one hundred ships and two legions. Twenty-three Roman legions were, this year, employed in the war on land and sea.
II. In the beginning of the year, on a letter from Lucius Marcius being laid before the senate that assembly declared his services highly meritorious; but his assuming a title of honour (for, unauthorised either by order of the people or direction of the senate, he had, in addressing the senate, styled himself proprætor,) gave general offence. They deemed it “a precedent of pernicious tendency, that commanders should be chosen by the troops; and that the established privileges of assemblies, held under auspices, should be transferred to a giddy soldiery, in camps and provinces remote from the magistrates and laws.” Several were of opinion, that the senate should take the matter into consideration; but it was judged more expedient to defer any notice of it until after the departure of the messengers who brought the letter from Marcius. It was agreed, that an answer should be sent to him, respecting provisions and clothing for the army, saying that the senate would take care of both those matters: but it was resolved that it should not be addressed to Lucius Marcius, proprætor, lest he should consider, as determined, a question which they had reserved for future discussion. After the couriers were dismissed, the first business proposed by the consuls, and which was unanimously agreed upon, was, that application should be made to the plebeian tribunes, to take the sense of the commons with all convenient speed, as to what person they would choose to be sent into Spain with a commission to command the army lately under Cneius Scipio. The tribunes were advised with accordingly, and the question was published for consideration: but people’s thoughts were wholly engrossed by a contest on another subject: Caius Sempronius Blæsus, having instituted a prosecution against Cneius Fulvius, on account of the loss of the army in Apulia, inveighed against him continually in public harangues, affirming that “although many commanders had, through rashness and unskilfulness, brought their armies into situations of extreme danger, yet never had any one, except Cneius Fulvius, corrupted his legions with every kind of vice before he exposed them to destruction: so that it might be said, with truth, that their ruin was effected before they had even seen an enemy; and that they were vanquished, not by Hannibal, but by their own commander. No elector could too carefully scrutinize the character of the person to whom he was entrusting an army. What a difference between this man and Tiberius Sempronius! The latter, though the army committed to him consisted of slaves, yet by proper discipline and wise regulations, had quickly improved them to such a degree, that, in the field of battle, not one of them evinced by his conduct either his condition or his birth; and they became a safeguard to the allies, a terror to the enemy. They snatched, as it were, out of Hannibal’s grasp, and restored to the Roman people, the cities of Cumæ, Beneventum, and several others; whereas Cneius Fulvius, having received an army of Roman citizens, honourably born and liberally educated, had debauched them by all the low vices of slaves, and sunk them into such a state of degeneracy, that they were insolent and turbulent among the allies, spiritless and dastardly among foes; and so far from withstanding the attack of the Carthaginians, they withstood not even their shout. Nor, indeed, was it wonderful that the soldiers did not stand their ground in battle, when their commander was the first who fled. For his part, he rather wondered that any of them had fallen in their posts, and that they did not, one and all, accompany Cneius Fulvius in his panic and flight. Caius Flaminius, Lucius Paullus, Lucius Postumius, Cneius and Publius Scipio, had chosen rather to fall in fight, than to abandon their troops in a desperate situation. But Cneius Fulvius was almost the only messenger who brought to Rome the news of his army being cut off. It was contrary,” he said, “to every rule of honour and equity, that the troops engaged at Cannæ, because they fled out of the field, should be transported into Sicily, and prohibited from returning thence before the termination of the war in Italy, and that a decree, to the same purport, should have been lately passed in the case of the legions under the command of Cneius Fulvius, while Cneius Fulvius himself, after running away from a battle brought on by his own temerity, should escape all punishment; that he should spend his old age where he had spent his youth, in the stews and brothels, while his soldiers, who were no otherwise culpable than in resembling their commander, were cast out, in a manner, into exile, condemned to a service of ignominy. So unequal was the dispensation of liberty at Rome to the rich and to the poor; to the man who had arrived at honours, and to those who still continued in obscurity.”
III. Fulvius endeavoured to transfer the guilt from himself to the soldiers; asserting, that “in consequence of their insisting violently on fighting, they were led out to the field, not on the same day on which they desired it, because it was then evening, but on the day following, when both the time and the ground were favourable to them; but that they were so overawed, either by the reputation or the strength of the enemy, that they did not make a stand. That, in the hurry of the general flight, he was carried away by the crowd, as had been the case of Varro, at the battle of Cannæ, and of many other generals. And how could he, by his single resistance, serve the cause of the commonwealth; unless, indeed, his death were considered as a remedy for the public misfortunes? He had not been brought into any dangerous situation by want of provisions, or by want of caution; neither was he, in consequence of marching unguardedly, surprised by an ambuscade, but defeated by open force, by dint of arms, in a fair engagement, nor had he the power of determining the degree of courage to be exerted either by his own men, or by the enemy: every man’s own disposition supplied either courage or cowardice.” The matter came twice to a hearing, and, at both times, the penalty was laid at a fine. At the third hearing, witnesses were produced; and, besides his being loaded with charges of the most scandalous nature, great numbers deposed on oath, that the prætor was the first who showed any symptoms of fear, and began the flight; and that the soldiers, being abandoned by him, and supposing that the general’s fears were not without grounds, fled likewise; on which, the anger of the people was inflamed to such a pitch, that the whole assembly cried out that the prosecution ought to be capital. On this point a new contest arose; for, as the tribune had, on two former occasions, prosecuted the offence as finable, and at a third, proposed to prosecute it as a capital, an appeal was made to the tribunes of the commons. They declared, that “they could not debar their colleague from prosecuting, as, by the practice of former times, he had a right to do, either on the written laws, or the general practice, until he should obtain judgment, either of capital punishment, or a fine, against the defendant a private person.” Then Sempronius gave notice, that he demanded judgment of treason against Cneius Fulvius; and he made a requisition to the city prætor, Caius Calpurnius, to appoint a day for the assembly. The accused then rested his hopes on another expedient, the procuring at his trial the support of his brother, Quintus Fulvius, who, at this time, stood high in the public esteem, both on account of the merit of his past services, and the expectation of his speedily reducing Capua. But Fulvius having sent a petition to this purpose, couched in terms calculated to excite compassion, as in a case where a brother’s life was concerned, and the senate answering, that his quitting Capua would be injurious to the public interest, Cneius Fulvius, at the approach of the day appointed for the assembly, withdrew into exile to Tarquinii. The commons passed an order confirming his banishment as legal.
IV. In the mean-time the grand operations of the campaign were directed against Capua, where, however, the siege was carried on, rather by a close blockade than by vigorous assaults. This caused so great a famine, that the populace and the slaves could no longer endure it, and yet there was no way of sending messengers to Hannibal, the approaches were all so strictly guarded. At length a Numidian was found, who, taking a letter, engaged to make his way with it; and, going out by night, he passed through the middle of the Roman camp. This encouraged the Campanians to try, while they had any remains of vigour, what might be done by sallies from all sides of the town. In many engagements which followed, their cavalry were generally successful, their infantry worsted: but the besiegers were not nearly so much pleased by the advantages which they had gained, as mortified at being overcome, in any particular, by an enemy besieged, and on the point of being taken. At last the Romans adopted a method of supplying by art their deficiency in strength. Out of all the legions were selected young men, who from the power and lightness of their bodies, possessed the greatest agility: to these were given bucklers, shorter than those of the cavalry, and to each seven javelins four feet long, pointed with iron, in the same manner as the missile javelins now used by the light infantry. The cavalry, each taking one of these behind him on his horse, taught them, by frequent exercise, so to ride, and to dismount quickly, when the signal was given. As soon as, from daily practice, they seemed to perform this with sufficient expertness, they were led out into a plain, between the camp and the walls, against the cavalry of the Campanians, who stood there in order of battle. When they came within a weapon’s cast, these light footmen dismounted, and, forming in a moment, instead of cavalry, a line of infantry ran forward against the enemy’s horse; and, as they advanced, discharged their javelins, one after another, with great fury; by the vast number of which, thrown against men and horses indiscriminately, very many were wounded. But the novelty and unexpectedness of such a proceeding caused still greater fright, and, while they were in this disorder, the cavalry made their charge, and drove them back even to their gates with great slaughter. Henceforward the Romans had the superiority in the field in respect of both horse and foot. It was then made an established regulation, that in all the legions there should be light infantry of this sort, who are called velites. We are told, that the person who had advised the mixing of footmen with the cavalry was Quintus Navius, a centurion; and that he was, on that account, highly honoured by the general.
V. While affairs at Capua were in this state, Hannibal’s judgment was long suspended between his wishes, on one hand, to acquire possession of the citadel of Tarentum, and, on the other, to retain Capua. At length, however, he determined in favour of the latter; because on that object he saw that the attention of all men, both friends and enemies, was fixed; as the fate of that city would demonstrate what kind of consequences were to be expected from revolting from the Romans. Leaving, therefore, in Bruttium, the greatest part of his baggage, and all his heavier armed troops, and selecting such of the infantry and cavalry as were best qualified for an expeditious march, he took the route to Campania. Notwithstanding he went with much speed, yet he was followed by thirty-three elephants. In a retired valley behind Mount Tifata, which overhangs Capua, he halted; and, having, at his coming, taken the fort of Galatia, from which he dislodged the garrison by force, he prepared to act against the besiegers. He sent forward to the besieged information of the time when he intended to assault the Roman camp, in order that they might be in readiness, and pour out at once from all the gates. This gave the besiegers a most violent alarm: for, while he carried on his attack on one side, all the Campanians, both horse and foot, and with them the Carthaginian garrison, commanded by Bostar, and Hanno, sallied out on the other. In this dangerous situation the Romans, lest by running together to one part they should leave any other unguarded, divided their forces in this manner. Appius Claudius was opposed to the Campanians; Fulvius to Hannibal; Caius Nero, proprætor, with the cavalry of the sixth legion, took post on the road leading to Suessula, and Caius Fulvius Flaccus, lieutenant-general, with the cavalry of the confederates, on the side opposite the river Vulturnus. The fight began with the usual shouting and tumult. But, besides the other noises of men, horses, and weapons, the multitude of Campanians, unable to bear arms, being spread along the walls, raised so loud a shout, accompanied with the clangor of brazen instruments, such as is commonly made in the dead of night on occasion of eclipses of the moon, that it drew the attention even of the combatants. Appius easily repulsed the Campanians from the rampart. Hannibal and his Carthaginians, a more powerful force, pressed hard on Fulvius. There the sixth legion gave way to the enemy, and, on its being broken, a cohort of Spaniards, with three elephants pushed through to the very rampart. It had made an effectual breach in the Roman line; but while flattered, on the one hand, with the hope of forcing into the camp, it was threatened on the other with being cut off from the main body of the army. When Fulvius saw the dastardly behaviour of the legion, and the danger of the camp, he exhorted Quintus Navius, and the other principal centurions, to fall on that cohort that was fighting close to the rampart, and to cut it in pieces; he observed to them, that “the juncture was critical in the last degree; that these men must either be allowed a passage — and then they would break into the camp with less labour than they had exerted in forcing their way through a thick line of troops — or they must be despatched at the foot of the rampart. This would not be a matter of much contest; they were few in number, and shut out from their friends, and the very breach, which, while the Romans were dispirited, was seen in their line, would, if they faced about upon the foe, prove the means of inclosing and attacking them on all sides at once.” Navius, on hearing these words of the general, took, from the standard-bearer, the standard of the second company of spearmen, and advanced with it against the enemy, threatening to throw it into the midst of them if the soldiers did not instantly follow him, and take a share in the fight. His person was very large, and the standard, raised aloft, attracted the eyes of all. When he came up to the front of the Spaniards, showers of javelins were poured on him from all sides, almost the whole body directing their attacks against him alone; but neither the multitude of the enemies, nor the force of their weapons, could repel the onset of this single combatant.
VI. At the same time, Marcus Atilius, a lieutenant-general, caused the standard of the first company of principes belonging to the same legion to be brought forward against the enemy. The officers commanding in the camp, Lucius Porcius Licinus and Titus Popilius, lieutenants-general, fought with vigour in defence of their trenches, and killed on the very rampart some elephants in the act of attempting to cross it. The bodies of these filling up the ditch, as by a mound or a bridge, afforded a passage to the assailants, and a desperate slaughter was made here, fighting on the bodies of the dead elephants. On the other side of the camp, the Campanians, and the Carthaginian garrison had been repulsed, and the fight was now maintained close to the gate of Capua, which opens toward the city of Vulturnus. The Romans were hindered from forcing their way in, not so much by the arms of the soldiers, as by the ballistæ and scorpions with which the gate was furnished; and which, by the missile weapons they threw, kept the assailants at a great distance. The ardour of the Romans was, besides, checked by their commander, Appius Claudius, being wounded; for while he was encouraging his men in the van, he received a thrust from a javelin in the upper part of his breast below the left shoulder. Nevertheless a vast number of the enemy was killed before the gate, and the rest were driven in disorder into the city. When Hannibal saw that the Spanish cohort was slain to a man, and that the Romans maintained the defence of their camp with the utmost degree of vigour, he gave over the assault, and began to retreat; making his line of infantry face about, and the cavalry cover their rear against any attack. The legions were ardently intent on pursuing the enemy; but Flaccus ordered a retreat to be sounded, supposing that enough had been done to make the Campanian, and Hannibal himself, sensible, how little able he was to protect them. Some who have written accounts of this battle inform us, that there were slain on that day, of Hannibal’s army, eight thousand men, and three thousand of the Campanians; and that fifteen standards were taken from the Carthaginians, eighteen from the Campanians. In other accounts I find that the importance of the battle was not by any means so great, and that there was more of alarm in the case, than of fighting; that a party of Numidians and Spaniards, with some elephants, having, by surprise, broken into the Roman camp, the elephants going through the middle of it overthrew the tents with great noise, so that the beasts of burden broke their collars and ran about frightened; that to increase the disorder a stratagem was used. Hannibal sending in some persons who could speak the Latin language, of whom he had many, giving orders, in the name of the consuls, that, as the camp was lost, every man should fly, as he was able, to the nearest mountains; but that the imposition was quickly detected; and its progress stopped by a great slaughter of the enemy, and that the elephants were driven out of the camp with firebrands. This battle, in whatsoever manner begun and ended, was the last that was fought, previous to the surrender of Capua. The medixtuticus, or chief magistrate of the Campanians, for this year, was Seppius Lesius, a man of obscure birth and small property. There is a story, that, at a former time, when his mother was, in his behalf (he being under age,) expiating a prodigy which happened in the family, the aruspex answered her, that the supreme power at Capua, would come to that boy: on which knowing no circumstance that could countenance such an expectation, she replied, “What you say supposes the affairs of the Campanians in a truly desperate state, when the supreme magistracy is to come to my son.” This expression, meant in derision of a true prediction, proved itself true in the event; for the people being distressed by the sword and by famine, and destitute of every kind of hope, those who were entitled by birth to expect the posts of honour, declining to accept them, Lesius, who exclaimed that Capua was deserted and betrayed by the nobility, obtained the post of supreme magistrate, and was the last Campanian who held it.
VII. Hannibal, seeing that he could neither bring the enemy to another engagement, nor force a passage through their camp into Capua, and fearing, lest the new consuls might cut off his supplies of provisions, determined to drop a design in which he had no prospect of success, and to remove from the place. To what quarter he should next direct his route was then to be resolved; and, while he was earnestly deliberating on this head, he felt his mind strongly impelled to make an attempt on Rome itself, the grand source of the war: a measure always ardently wished for, and the omission of which, on the favourable occasion after the battle of Cannæ, was generally censured by others, and not defended by himself. He thought that he need not despair of gaining possession of some part of the city during the panic and tumult which his unexpected approach would occasion; and that when Rome should be in danger, either both the commanders or at least one of them, would leave Capua; and that, should they divide their forces, this, by weakening both, would afford either him or the Campanians a chance of acting with success. One consideration made him uneasy, that, on his departure, the Capuans might perhaps immediately surrender. He therefore by rewards, engaged a Numidian, who was of a disposition to undertake any thing for pay, to be the bearer of a letter to the people, and, going into the Roman camp in character of a deserter, to pass out privately on the other side to Capua. This letter was full of encouragements to hold out: “his departure,” he told them, “would prove the means of their safety, as it would draw away the Roman generals and armies from before Capua to the defence of Rome.” He exhorted them “not to let their spirits sink; for by patient resolution, for a few days, they would free themselves entirely from the siege.” He then ordered all the vessels on the river Vulturnus to be siezed, and brought up to a fort which he had before erected for the security of his camp. As soon as he was informed that a sufficient number of these had been procured to carry over his troops, he led them down by night to the river, provided with victuals for ten days, and, before morning they gained the other side.
VIII. That this step was intended, Fulvius Flaccus had discovered, from deserters, before it was put in execution; and had apprised the senate of it by a letter sent to Rome, where men’s minds were variously affected by the intelligence. At a meeting of the senate, which was immediately convened on this alarming emergency, Publius Cornelius, surnamed Asina, recommended, that all concern about Capua, with every other matter, should be laid aside, and all the generals and armies called home, from every part of Italy, for the defence of the capital. Fabius Maximus represented it as utterly disgraceful to retire from Capua, and to let their fears excited, and their motions directed, by every nod and menace of Hannibal. “Was it credible,” he said, “that he who after gaining the victory of Cannæ had not dared to approach the city, should now, after being repulsed from Capua, conceive an expectation of taking Rome? His purpose in coming was not to attack Rome, but to raise the siege of Capua. As to Rome, Jupiter and the rest of the gods, witnesses of the treaties broken by Hannibal, would, with the troops then in the city defend it.” These opposite opinions were both rejected, and that of Publius Valerius Flaccus, which pointed out a middle course, was adopted. He advised, that due attention should be paid to both the affairs in question, and that a letter should be sent to the generals commanding at Capua, informing them of the force then in that city, mentioning that “they themselves knew what number of troops Hannibal brought with him, and how many were necessary for carrying on the siege of Capua;” and directing, that “if one of the generals and a part of the army could be sent to Rome, and, at the same time, the siege be properly carried on by the remaining troops, and the other general; then, that Claudius and Fulvius should settle between themselves which should conduct the siege of Capua, and which should come home to defend their native city in any attack.” A decree of the senate, to this effect having been passed and carried to Capua, Quintus Fulvius, proconsul, whose part it was to go to Rome, his colleague being indisposed in consequence of his wound, having selected out of the three armies fifteen thousand foot and one thousand horse, conveyed them over the Vulturnus. Having learned with certainty that Hannibal intended to go by the Latine road, he despatched couriers before him to the corporate towns on and near the Appian road, Setia, Cora, and Lanuvium, with orders that the people of those places should not only have provisions prepared for their use, but also bring them down to the road from the lands which lay out of the way; and that they should draw together bodies of soldiers into their towns, that every man might stand forth in defence of his own state.
IX. Hannibal, after passing the Vulturnus, encamped for that day at a small distance from the river. On the day following, he passed by Cales, and came into the Sidicinian territory where he halted one day to lay it waste; and then marched along the Latine way through the territories of Suessa, Allifæ and Casinum. Under the walls of Casinum he remained encamped two days, ravaging the country round. Proceeding thence by Interamna and Aquinum, he came into the Fregellan region, to the River Lyris, where he found the bridge broken down by the people with design to check his progress. On the other hand, Fulvius had met a delay at the Vulturnus, for Hannibal had burned the ships, and he found great difficulty, in a place where timber was exceedingly scarce, to procure rafts for transporting his army. But this being at length effected, the rest of his march was easy and expeditious; for not only in the towns, but on both sides of the road, he was accommodated with plenty of provisions; while the soldiers cheerfully exhorted each other to quicken their pace, in the consideration that they were going to defend their native city. At Rome, a messenger from Fregella who had, without stopping, travelled a day and a night caused a most violent alarm; which, being augmented by people running up and down, and adding groundless circumstances to what they had heard, put the whole city into a tumultuous ferment. The lamentations of the women were not only heard from the private houses; but the matrons in all quarters, rushing out into the public streets, ran to all the temples, where they swept the altars with their dishevelled hair, fell on their knees, and with hands raised up towards the heavens and the gods, prayed that they would rescue the city of Rome from the attempts of its enemies and preserve from hostile violence the Roman mothers, and their little children. The senate remained assembled at the Forum, that the magistrates there might, on any occasion consult them readily. Some accepted commands of parties, and repaired to the several posts to execute their duties; others offered their services wherever they might be requisite. Guards were posted in the citadel, in the capitol, on the walls, on the outside of the city, and likewise on the Alban mount, and in the fort of Æsula. In the midst of this confusion, news arrived that Quintus Fulvius, proconsul, had set out with an army from Capua; and lest his authority should be diminished by his coming into the city,* the senate passed a decree that Quintus Fulvius should have equal power with the consuls. Hannibal after ravaging the lands of Fregella with particular severity, in resentment for the breaking down the bridges, came through the territories of Frusino, Ferentinum, and Anagnia, into that of Lavici, thence pursuing his route through Algidum to Tusculum, where, being refused admittance into the town he marched towards the right, to Gabii, and bringing down his army from thence into the lands of the Pupinian tribe pitched his camp eight miles from Rome. In proportion as he came nearer to the city, the greater was the number of its fugitives slain by the Numidians, who advanced before him, and very many prisoners of all ranks and ages were taken.
X. During this general commotion Fulvius Flaccus, with his army, entered Rome through the Capuan gate, and proceeded along the middle of the city, and through the Carinæ, to the Esquiliæ; where, passing out, he pitched his tents between the Esquiline and Colline gates. The plebeian ædiles brought thither provisions for the troops: the consuls and senate came into the camp, and there held their consultations on the measures requisite in the present state of affairs. It was then resolved, that the consuls should encamp before the Colline and Esquiline gates; that Caius Calpurnius, city prætor, should command in the capitol and citadel; and that the senate should be kept assembled, in full numbers, in the Forum, as sudden exigencies might probably require their consideration. Meanwhile, Hannibal moved his camp forward to the river Anio, three miles from the city, and posting there his troops, he himself, with two thousand horsemen, proceeded from the Colline gate as far as the temple of Hercules, riding about, and taking as near a view as he could of the fortifications and situation of the city. Flaccus, ashamed of his being suffered to do this, and so much at his ease, sent out a party of cavalry against him, with orders to make those of the enemy retire into their camp. When the fight began, the consuls ordered a body of Numidian deserters, who were then on the Aventine (to the number of twelve hundred,) to march across the middle of the city to the Esquiliæ, judging that none would be better qualified to act among the hollows, and garden walls, and tombs, and inclosed roads in that quarter. Some persons, seeing from the capitol and citadel these men filing off on horseback, on the brow of the Publician hill, cried out, that the Aventine was taken; and this incident caused such confusion and terror, that, if the Carthaginian camp had not been just at the outside of the walls, the whole multitude would, in their consternation, have rushed out there. As it was, they ran back into the houses, and up to the roofs, from whence they poured down stones and weapons on their own soldiers passing the streets, whom they took for enemies: Nor could the commotion be suppressed, or the mistake rectified, so thronged were the streets with crowds of peasants and cattle, which the sudden alarm had driven into the city. The party of Numidian cavalry were successful against the enemy, and drove them away. As it was necessary to suppress in various different places the many disturbances which were continually arising on every slight occasion, a decree was passed, that all who had been dictators, consuls, or censors, should have the authority of magistrates, until the foe should retire from the walls. By this means a great many tumults, which were raised without foundation, during the remainder of that day, and the following night, were entirely crushed.
XI. Next day, Hannibal, crossing the Anio, drew up his forces in order of battle; nor did Flaccus and the consuls decline the challenge. When the armies on both sides stood nearly marshalied for the decision of a contest of such magnitude, where the city of Rome was to be the prize of the conqueror, a prodigious shower of rain, mixed with hail, so grievously annoyed both parties, that, scarcely able to hold their arms, they retired to their respective camps, not moved in the slightest degree, by any fear of their adversaries. On the next day, likewise, when the armies were formed on the same ground, the same kind of storm separated them; and, as soon as they had retired, the weather became wonderfully serene and calm. This was considered by the Carthaginians as portentous; and, we are told, that Hannibal was heard to say, that “sometimes the will, sometimes the power of taking the city of Rome, was denied him.” His hopes were also damped by two other incidents; one of some weight, the other trivial. The more important was, that, while he lay with his army under the walls of the city of Rome, he understood that a reinforcement of soldiers for Spain had marched out, with standards borne before them. The one of less importance was, and which he learned from a prisoner, that, at this very time, the ground, whereon his camp stood, happened to be sold, and the price was not in the least lowered on that account. It appeared to him so great an insult, that a purchaser should be found at Rome for that ground which he actually held and possessed by right of conquest, that he immediately called a crier, and ordered him to set up to sale the silversmith’s shops, which at that time stood round the Roman Forum. Discouraged by all these circumstances, he moved his camp to the river Tutia, six miles from the city, and proceeded thence to the grove of Feronia, where was a temple at that time, much celebrated for its riches; the Capenatians and other neighbouring states being accustomed to bring hither the first fruits of their lands, and other offerings, according to their abilities, by which means it was decorated with abundance of gold and silver: of all these offerings the temple was then despoiled. After Hannibal’s departure, large heaps of brass were found in it, the soldiers having through remorse for this impious proceeding, thrown in pieces of uncoined metal. That this temple was pillaged, all writers agree. But Cœlius asserts, that Hannibal, in his march towards Rome, turned aside thither from Eretum; and he traces his route through Amiternum, Cutilii, and Reate; alleging, that, from Campania, he came into Samnium, thence into Pelignia; then, passing near the town of Sulmo, proceeded into the territory of the Marrucinians, thence through the lands of Alba into Marsia, and so on to Amiternum, and the village of Foruli. Nor is this diversity of opinion owing to people’s having lost within so short a period, a distinct remembrance of the traces of so great an army: for, that he went in that track, is certain; the only matter in doubt is, whether he took this route in advancing towards Rome, or in his return thence to Campania.
XII. But Hannibal showed not such obstinate perseverance in his endeavours to raise the siege of Capua, as the Romans did in pushing it forward: for, from Lucania, he hastened away into Bruttium, and all the way to the very strait and the city of Rhegium, with such speed, that in consequence of his sudden arrival he was very near taking that place by surprise. Capua, though the vigour of the siege had not in the mean-time been at all relaxed, yet felt the return of Flaccus; and it was matter of great wonder to the besieged, that Hannibal had not come back at the same time. But, in discoursing with some of the besiegers, they soon learned, that they were left to themselves and abandoned; and that the Carthaginians considered the hope of maintaining possession of Capua as desperate. This afflicting intelligence was followed by an edict of the proconsul, published by direction of the senate, and spread among the enemy, that “any native of Campania who should come over before a certain day should be indemnified for all that was past.” But not one embraced the offer, though they were not restrained by fidelity to their associates, so much as by their fears, because at the time of their revolting they had committed crimes too enormous, as they supposed, to be forgiven. However, though none of them were led to desert by a regard to private interest, yet neither was any proper care taken to promote the interest of the public. The nobility had renounced all public business, and could not be compelled to meet in the senate; and he who was in the office of chief magistrate, was a man who had not, from thence, derived any honour on himself, but had, from his own worthlessness, stripped the office of its weight and authority. Not one of the nobles even appeared in the Forum, or in any public place; but kept themselves shut up in their houses, in daily expectation of the downfall of their city, and the ruin of their country, together with their own destruction. The administration of all business had devolved on Bostar and Hanno, the commanders of the Carthaginian garrison, the chief object of whose concern was, their own danger, not that of their allies. These men wrote to Hannibal in terms not only free, but harsh, charging him, that “besides surrendering Capua into the hands of the enemy, he had abandoned them and their garrison to the hazard of all kinds of torture: that he had gone off to Bruttium as if on purpose to be out of the way, lest the city should be taken in his sight. This was not like the conduct of the Romans, whom not even an attack on the city of Rome could draw away from the siege of Capua: so much more steady were Romans in enmity, than Carthaginians in friendship.” They told him, that “if he would return to Capua, and bring his whole force thither, both they and the Campanians would be ready to sally forth to his assistance. They had not crossed the Alps for the purpose of waging war with the people of Rhegium, or of Tarentum: wherever the Roman legions were, there ought likewise to be Carthaginian armies. In this manner success had been obtained at Cannæ; in this manner at the Trasimenus; by uniting, by keeping their camp close to that of the enemy, by making trial of fortune.” Having written a letter to this effect, they gave it to some Numidians, who had before promised their service for a reward agreed on. After these had come into the camp to Flaccus as deserters, intending to watch for an opportunity, of proceeding thence, (the famine which had raged so long in Capua affording any one a colourable pretence for deserting,) a Campanian woman, who had been mistress to one of these, came unexpectedly into the camp, and informed the Roman general that the Numidians had came over with a treacherous design, and were carrying a letter to Hannibal; and that of this she was ready to convict one of them, who had disclosed the matter to her. On being brought to an examination, he at first maintained firmly that he did not know the woman; but afterwards, yielding reluctantly to the force of truth, on seeing that the racks were called for and brought out, he confessed the fact. The letter was produced, and a farther discovery made of a matter not hitherto mentioned, that several other Numidians, under the appearance of deserters, were strolling about in the Roman camp. These, in number about seventy, were apprehended, and, together with the late deserters, beaten with rods; their hands were then cut off, and they were driven back to Capua.
XIII. The sight of a punishment so grievous quite broke the spirits of the Campanians. The populace, crowding about the senate-house, compelled Lesius to call a meeting of the senate, and openly threatened the nobles, who, for a long time past, had absented themselves from public assemblies, that, if they did not attend the meeting, they would go round to each of their houses, and drag them out by force. The fear of this procured the magistrate a full senate. At this meeting, while the rest proposed sending ambassadors to the Roman generals, Vibius Virius, who had been the principal promoter of the revolt from the Romans, on being asked his opinion, said, that “those who spoke of sending ambassadors, and of peace, and a surrender, did not consider either what they themselves would do, if they had the Romans in their power, or what they must expect to suffer from them. What!” said he, “do you imagine that your surrender now will be of the same kind with that, whereby, in order to obtain support against the Samnites, we delivered ourselves and all belonging to us into the hands of the Romans? Have you already forgotten at what season and in what circumstances, we revolted from the Romans? Have you already forgotten how, at the time of this revolt, we put to death, with indignity and torture, their garrison, which might have been dismissed? How often, and with what bitter animosity, we have sallied out against them, since they began the siege; and even attacked their camp? That we invited Hannibal, in hopes of crushing them; and that we lately sent him hence to attack the city of Rome? Recollect, on the other hand, the instances of their animosity against us; that you may, from thence, be able to estimate what room there is for hope. When there was a foreign enemy in Italy, and that enemy was Hannibal; when war blazed in every quarter, they, neglecting every other concern, neglecting Hannibal himself, sent both their consuls with two consular armies to attack Capua. These two years they have kept us shut up, surrounded with trenches, and consuming us by famine; although they themselves, together with us, undergo the extremest dangers, and the severest labours; often losing many at their rampart and trenches, and, at last, being nearly beaten out of their camp. But I will not enlarge upon these matters. To endure toils and hardships in attacking an enemy’s city, is no new thing; it is usual. What I am going to mention, affords a proof of resentment and implacable hatred. Hannibal, with a powerful army of horse and foot, assaulted their camp, and got possession of a part of it. The greatness of their danger did not, in the least, dispose them to drop the siege. Crossing the Vulturnus, he laid waste the territory of Cales with fire: such a severe calamity of their allies called them not away. He ordered his troops to march in hostile array to the city of Rome itself: this storm, ready to burst on their heads, they likewise slighted. Passing the Anio, he encamped within three miles of Rome, and at last advanced to the very walls and gates, showing a determination to deprive them of their city, unless they quitted Capua. They did not quit it. Wild beasts inflamed with blind fury and rage, you may draw away to the assistance of their young, if you go up to their dens and cubs. As to the Romans, not the blockade of Rome, nor their wives and children, whose lamentations might almost be heard even here, not their altars, their houses, the temples of their gods, and the sepulchres of their ancestors profaned and violated, could draw them away from Capua; so keen are their wishes to bring us to punishment, so eager their thirst for our blood. And, perhaps, not without reason: for we, on our parts, would have done the same, had fortune given us the power. Wherefore, since the immortal gods have determined otherwise, and though I ought not to decline death; yet while I am free, while I am master of myself, I can, by a death-both honourable and easy, avoid the tortures and indignities which the enemy hopes to inflict on me. Never will I see Appius Claudius and Quintus Fulvius puffed up with the insolence of victory; nor will I be dragged in chains through the city of Rome, as a spectacle in their triumph, that I may afterwards, either in a dungeon or tied to a stake, have my back mangled with stripes, and submit my neck to a Roman axe; never will I see my native city demolished, and reduced to ashes, nor the Campanian matrons and virgins dragged to violation. Alba, from whence they themselves sprung, they rased from the foundation, that no monument of their extraction or origin might exist. Can I believe that they will spare Capua, against which they are more violently incensed than against Carthage? Whosoever of you, then, are disposed to yield to destiny, before they become spectators of so many scenes of such horrid kinds, for these a banquet is prepared and ready, this day, at my house. When you have indulged plentifully in food and wine, the same cup that will be given to me shall go round. That cup will save our bodies from torture, our minds from insult, our eyes and ears from the sight and hearing of all the cruelties and indignities that await the conquered. There will be persons in readiness to throw our lifeless bodies on a large pile kindled in the court-yard of the house. This way alone conducts us to death with honour and freedom. Our enemies themselves will admire our courage, and Hannibal will be convinced, that the allies, whom he deserted and betrayed, were men of determined valour.”
XIV. More approved of the proposal contained in this speech of Vibius, than had resolution to adopt it. The greater part of the senate, conceiving hopes that the clemency of the Roman people, often experienced in former disputes, might be extended even to their case, after passing a decree for that purpose, sent ambassadors to surrender Capua to the Romans. About twenty-seven senators followed Vibius Virius to his house; where, after feasting with him, and, as far as they could, banishing from their minds, by wine, all feeling of the impending evil, they every one took the poison. They then broke up the meeting, gave their hands, took the last embrace, condoling with one another on their own fall, and that of their country. Some remained there, in order to be burned together on one pile, and the rest retired to their several houses. Their veins were filled by the victuals and wine; which circumstance retarded the efficacy of the poison in hastening death, so that most of them lingered through that whole night, and part of the next day; however, they all expired before the gates were opened to the enemy. On the day following, the gate of Jupiter which was opposite to the Roman camp, was opened by order of the proconsul, and through it marched in one legion, and two confederate squadrons, under the command of Caius Fulvius, lieutenant-general. His first care was, to have all the arms and weapons in the city brought to him; then, placing guards at all the gates, to prevent any one going or being conveyed out, he secured the Carthaginian garrison, and ordered the Campanian senators to go into the camp to the Roman generals. On their arrival there, they were all immediately thrown into chains, and ordered to furnish the quæstors with an account of what gold and silver they possessed. The gold amounted to seventy pounds weight, the silver to three thousand two hundred. Of the senators, twenty-five were sent to Cales, and twenty-eight to Teanum, to be kept in custody. These were the persons who appeared to have been chiefly instrumental in bringing about the revolt from the Romans.
XV. With respect to the punishment of the Campanian senate, Fulvius and Claudius could by no means agree. Claudius was inclined to favour their suit for pardon; the opinion of Fulvius was more severe. Appius, therefore proposed, that the entire determination of that matter, should be removed to Rome; observing, that it was highly reasonable that the senate should have an opportunity of inquiring, whether they had brought any of the Latine confederates, or of the municipal towns, to take part in their designs, and whether they had been assisted by them in the war. Fulvius insisted, that “it would be to the last degree improper, that faithful allies should have their minds disturbed by dubious imputations, and be subjected to informers, who never scruple either what they say or do. Any inquiry of that kind, therefore he was resolved to suppress and stifle.” After this conversation they parted; and Appius made no doubt that his colleague, though he spoke in this determined manner, would yet, in a case of such importance, wait for letters from Rome. But Fulvius, apprehensive that his intention might be frustrated by that very means, dismissed the officers attending at his pavilion, and ordered the military tribunes and præfects of the allies to give notice to two thousand chosen horsemen, to be in readiness at the third trumpet. With this body of horse he set out in the night for Teanum, and entering the gate at the first light, proceeded straight to the Forum. The arrival of the horsemen having caused immediately a concourse of the people, he ordered the Sidicinian magistrate to be summoned, and commanded him to bring forth the Campanians whom he had in his custody. Accordingly they were all brought forth, beaten with rods and beheaded. From thence, he rode away at full speed to Cales; where, when he had taken his seat on the tribunal, and the lictors were binding the Campanians to the stakes, a courier, arriving in haste from Rome, delivered him a letter from Caius Calpurnius, the prætor, and a decree of the senate in their favour. A murmur immediately spread from the tribunal through the whole assembly, that the case of the Campanians was reserved for the cognizance of the senate. Fulvius, suspecting this to be so, when he received the letter, thrust it unopened into his bosom, and commanded the crier to order the lictor to proceed in his duty according to law. Thus those also who were at Cales suffered punishment. He then read the letter and the decree, when it could not obstruct the business already finished, and which had been hurried on lest it might be obstructed. When Fulvius was rising from his seat, Taurea Jubellius, a Campanian, making his way through the middle of the city and of the crowd, called on him by name. Fulvius, wondering what his business with him might be, resumed his seat; on which the other said, “Order me also to be put to death, that you may boast of having killed a braver man than yourself.” Fulvius said, that “the man had certainly lost his reason,’ and observed besides, that “if he were inclined to comply with his desire, he was now restrained by a decree of the senate.” Jubellius on this exclaimed: “Since, after seeing my country reduced to captivity, after losing my friends and relations, after having killed, with my own hand, my wife and children, to prevent their suffering any indignity, I am denied even the means of dying in the same manner with these my countrymen; let me seek from my own resolution a deliverance from this detested life;” and then stabbing himself through the breast, with a sword which he had concealed under his garment, he fell lifeless at the general’s feet.
XVI. Because not only the whole business relative to the punishment of the Campanians, but, also, most of the other transactions, in that quarter, were conducted agreeably to the single judgment of Flaccus, some writers affirm, that Appius Claudius died before the surrender of Capua. They say, too, that this same Taurea neither came voluntarily to Cales, nor died by his own hand; but that, while he was among the rest, tied to a stake, and because the expressions which he loudly vociferated could not be well heard, amidst the noise of the crowd, Flaccus had ordered silence to be made, and that then Taurea uttered the words before-mentioned: that “he, a man of consummate valour, was to be put to death by one his inferior in courage!” that, on his saying this, the crier, by order of the proconsul, pronounced aloud this order, “Lictor, apply the rods to this man of valour, and on him first execute the law.” Some writers assert also, that he read the decree of the senate before he beheaded the prisoners; but because there was an expression annexed, that “if he judged proper, he should refer the business entire to the senate,” he interpreted this as giving him authority to determine what he judged most conducive to the public good. From Cales he returned to Capua, and received the submission of Attella and Calatia. In these towns also, the persons who had been in the managements of affairs, were punished. Upon the whole, eighty of the principal members of the senate were put to death; and about three hundred Campanian nobles were thrown into prison. The rest, being sent into several of the cities of the Latine confederates to be kept in custody, perished by various means. The whole remaining multitude of Campanian citizens were ordered to be sold. How to dispose of the town and its territory remained to be considered: and here, many were of opinion, that a city, so hostile in disposition, so near the Roman borders, and so formidably powerful, ought to be demolished. However, the consideration of immediate utility prevailed; and, on account of the soil, which was well known to be endued with a fertility qualifying it for every kind of cultivation, and beyond any other in Italy, the city was preserved, to be a kind of settlement of husbandmen. For the purpose of peopling the same, all those of its former inhabitants, who had not become citizens, together with the freedmen, dealers and tradesmen, were ordered to remain; the land and public buildings became the property of the Roman people. It was however, determined, that Capua should have no other privilege of a city, than the being inhabited; no system of civil polity, no assembly of a senate or commons, no magistrates. For it was supposed that a multitude, without a public council, without a ruling head, participating in no common rights, would be incapable of forming designs in concert. It was further ordained, that the administration of justice should be conducted by a præfect, to be sent yearly from Rome. In this manner were the affairs of Capua adjusted, with a policy in every particular commendable. Severe and speedy punishment was inflicted on the most guilty; the populace were dispersed beyond all hope of return; but no passionate resentment was vented, in fire and devastation on the unoffending houses and walls. There was impressed on the minds of all the allies, an advantageous opinion of Roman clemency in the sparing of this very celebrated and opulent city, the demolition of which would have deeply afflicted, not only all Campania, but every state in its neighbourhood. This conduct extorted also from the enemy a full acknowledgment of the power of the Romans to punish faithless allies while they were convinced how utterly inadequate the ability of Hannibal was to afford them the protection engaged for.
XVII. The attention of the senate being no longer necessary to the business of Capua, they decreed to Claudius Nero six thousand foot and three hundred horse, to be chosen by himself out of those two legions which he had commanded at that place, with a like number of foot, and eight hundred horse of the confederate Latines. This army he embarked at Puteoli, and carried over to Spain. When the fleet arrived at Tarraco, he disembarked the troops, hauled the ships on shore, and, to augment his numbers, armed the marines; then, marching to the river Iberus, and receiving the forces then with Titus Fonteius and Lucius Marcius he proceeded towards the enemy. Hasdrubal, son of Hamilcar, was at this time encamped in Ausetania, at a place called the Black Stones, between the towns of Illeturge and Metissa — a valley surrounded by hills and woods, the entrances to which were seized by Nero. In order to extricate himself, Hasdrubal sent a messenger with the wand of peace, engaging that, if he were allowed to depart, he would entirely evacuate Spain. This proposal the Roman received with joy. The Carthaginians then requested, that a conference might be held in order to settle, in writing, the rules to be observed respecting the surrender of the citadels of the several towns, and the appointment of a day whereon the garrisons were to be withdrawn, removing, without obstruction, every thing that belonged to them. This request being complied with, Hasdrubal gave orders, that as soon as it should begin to grow dark, the part of his army least calculated for expeditious movements should get out of the defile as they were able: particular care, however, was taken that great numbers should not leave it at once, because a few were more likely both to pass in silence, and unobserved by the enemy, and also to make their way through the narrow and difficult paths. Next day the commanders of it met; but the whole of it was purposely wasted by Hasdrubal in speaking and writing abundance of things perfectly immaterial; and, consequently the conference was postponed to the next. He thus gained the space of the following night also, to send out more of his troops, and even the next day, did not conclude the business. In this manner several days were passed in openly debating on the conditions, and the nights in privately sending off the Carthaginians; so that, when the greater part of his troops had got clear, his sincerity decreasing along with his fears, he refused to abide by what he himself had proposed. And now, almost the whole of the infantry had made their way out of the defile, when, at the dawn of day, a thick fog overspread both that and all the adjacent plains; which Hasdrubal perceiving, sent to Nero to defer the conference until the next morning, alleging, that this was a day on which the Carthaginians were prohibited by their religion from transacting any serious business. Even this raised no suspicion of deceit. Hasdrubal, having obtained the indulgence he had demanded, instantly quitted the camp with his cavalry and elephants; and, without causing any alarm, gained a place of safety. About the fourth hour, the fog being dispersed by the sun, the day cleared up, and showed to the Romans the enemy’s deserted camp. Then, at last, Nero became acquainted with Carthaginian perfidy, and was so provoked at having thus been duped, that he set out directly in pursuit of the retreating enemy, determined to bring him to an engagement; but the other eluded all his endeavours. Some skirmishes however took place between the rear of the Carthaginians and the advanced guard of the Romans.
XVIII. Meanwhile those Spanish states, which, after the late disaster, had abandoned the cause of the Romans, did not return to their alliance, but no others had lately deserted them. At Rome, since the recovery of Capua, the senate and people gave not more earnest attention to the affairs of Italy, than to those of Spain; they therefore determined to augment the army there, and to send a general to command it. But it was not so easy to agree on the person to be sent, as it was to perceive that extraordinary care ought to be employed in the choice of one to be commissioned to such a charge, in which two most eminent commanders had fallen within the space of thirty days, and where he was to supply the place of the two. Some named one, some another, until the resolution was at last adopted, of leaving it to the people in assembly, to elect a proconsul for Spain; and the consuls accordingly proclaimed a day for the election. It had been expected, at first, that those who believed themselves qualified for such an important command, would become candidates; and the failure of this expectation renewed the affliction of the public, for the severe blow which they had sustained, and for the generals whom they had lost. Under this dejection of mind, almost incapable of forming a judgment on the state of things, the people, nevertheless, on the day of election, repaired to the field of Mars, where they fixed their eyes on the magistrates, watching the countenances of the several men of the greatest eminence, who only cast looks of perplexity one on another. And now, every one began with added sorrow to remark, that their affairs were hopeless, and the cause of the public so desperate that no one dared to accept the command in Spain, when on a sudden, Publius Cornelius Scipio, a son of Publius, who was killed in Spain, being then about the age of twenty-four, went up to an eminence, from whence he could be seen, and declared himself a candidate. The eyes of the whole assembly were instantly turned on him, and universal acclamations testified hopes and presages of prosperity and success to his commission. Orders were given, that they should immediately proceed to give their suffrages, when not only every century, without exception, but every individual, voted, that Publius Scipio should have the command in Spain. When the business was finished, and the vehemence and ardour of their emotions had subsided, a sudden silence ensued; and they now began to reflect on the strange manner in which they had acted, governing themselves rather by partial inclination, than by judgment. His early age was the principal cause of their uneasiness: while some at the same time conceived terrible apprehensions from the fortune attending his house, and even from his name. The two families he belonged to were then in mourning; and he was to set out for a province where he must carry on his operations between the tombs of his father and of his uncle.
XIX. When he perceived that, after going through the business with such great alacrity of zeal, the people were yet impressed with solicitude and anxiety, he summoned an assembly; and there enlarged on the subject of his years, on the command entrusted to him, and the war to be carried on; and this he did with such magnanimity and elevation of sentiment, as to rekindle and renew the ardour which had subsided, and to fill the people with greater confidence than either the faith reposed in any human professions, or than reason, judging from the most promising state of affairs, usually supplies. For Scipio was deserving of admiration, not only for real virtues, but also for a certain judicious method of displaying them to advantage, to which he had been trained from his youth. He generally represented any matter, which he wished to carry with the multitude, as recommended either by a vision in the night, or by an admonition impressed on his mind by the gods; whether owing to the influence of some kind of superstition in him, or with the design of bringing men to execute his orders and schemes without hesitation, as if they were directed by the responses of an oracle. To prepare their minds for this, he never transacted any business, public or private (from the very moment of assuming the manly gown,) without first going to the Capitol, walking into the temple, and sitting there for some time; generally alone, and in some retired spot. This custom, which was observed by him through the whole course of his life, made several people give credit to a notion which was then propagated either by his own contrivance or by some unknown author, that he was of divine extraction; like to the fable formerly told of Alexander the Great. The fiction went, that he was begotten by a huge serpent; in which form the prodigy, it was said, had been very often seen in his mother’s chamber, and on people’s coming in, glided away suddenly, and disappeared. These miraculous stories he himself never discouraged, but rather artfully countenanced, neither contradicting any thing of the kind, nor absolutely affirming it. Many other remarkable incidents in respect of this youth (some real and others fictitious,) had procured for him a degree of admiration surpassing what was due to any human being; and these were the motives which then induced the public to intrust him, at so unripe an age, with the conduct of so momentous a business as that to which he had aspired. To the remains of the whole army, still in Spain, and the forces carried thither from Puteoli with Claudius Nero, were added ten thousand foot and one thousand horse; and Marcus Junius Silanus, proprætor, was sent with him, to assist in the management of affairs. Thus setting sail from Ostia, on the Tiber, with a fleet of thirty ships, which were all quinqueremes, and coasting along the shore of the Tuscan sea, the Alps, and the Gallic gulf, and then doubling the promontory of Pyrene, he disembarked his forces at Emporium, a city of Greeks, who came originally from Phocæa. Thence, having ordered the fleet to follow, he marched by land to Tarraco, and there held a convention of all the allies; for, on the news of his arrival, embassies had poured in from every state in the province. Here he ordered the ships to be laid up on shore, after sending back four triremes of the Massilians, which had, out of respect, accompanied him from home. He then applied himself to giving answers to the embassies of the several states, whose minds had been held in suspense by the succession of so many various events; and this he performed with much dignity of spirit, resulting from a thorough confidence in his own abilities; but at the same time, not one presumptuous word fell from him, and in every thing which he said, there appeared at once the greatest elevation of sentiment, and the greatest candour.
XX. Leaving Tarraco, he visited the several states of the allies, and the winter-quarters of the army. Here he bestowed much praise on the soldiers, for having, after all their sufferings, in two such dreadful disasters succeeding one another, still retained possession of the province, not allowing the enemy to derive any advantage from their success, but excluding them entirely from the country on the hither side of the Iberus, and honourably securing the safety of the allies. Marcius he kept near himself, and treated with him upon terms so highly honourable as plainly demonstrated, that he feared nothing less, than that any one might eclipse his own glory. Silanus then succeeded in the room of Nero, and the troops lately arrived went into winter quarters. Scipio having, without loss of time, repaired to the places where his presence was requisite, and finished the business there to to be done, returned to Tarraco. The enemy were, by this time, possessed with an opinion of Scipio not inferior to that entertained by his own countrymen and the allies; and they felt, moreover, a kind of foreboding of what was to come, which (the less able they were to account for apprehensions of which no cause appeared) impressed the greater dread upon their minds. They had gone into winter quarters in different parts of the country: Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, at Gades, on the ocean; Mago in the inland parts, the greatest part of his troops being stationed above the pass of Castulo; and Hasdrubal, son of Hamilcar, in the neighbourhood of Saguntum, on the banks of the Iberus. Towards the end of that summer wherein Capua was taken, and Scipio came into Spain, a Carthaginian fleet, which was called over from Sicily to Tarentum to cut off the supplies of the Roman garrison in the citadel, shut up indeed, every access to it by sea; but, by lying there too long, caused a greater scarcity among their friends than among the enemy: for the quantity of corn that could be brought into the town along the coasts, which were kept in awe, and through the ports, which were kept open by the power of the Carthaginian fleet, was not equal to the consumption of the fleet itself, crowded as it was with a mixed multitude of people of every description; and while the garrison of the citadel, being few in number, could support themselves out of the magazines previously formed without any importation, all that could be brought in was too little to answer the demands of the Tarentines and the fleet. At last the fleet was sent away, which gave greater satisfaction than its coming had done, but produced very little relief to the scarcity; for when the naval force was removed, no more corn could be brought in.
XXI. Towards the close of this summer, Marcus Marcellus having returned to Rome from his province of Sicily the prætor, Caius Calpurnius, assembled the senate in the temple of Bellona, to give him audience. Here, after expatiating on the services which he had performed, and complaining in mild terms, not more on his own account than on that of his soldiers, that though he had completed all the business of the province, he had not been allowed to bring home the army, he requested permission to enter the city in triumph. This occasioned a long debate, wherein it was urged on one side, that after they had in his absence decreed a supplication and a thanksgiving to the immortal gods in his behalf, and for services happily accomplished, the refusing him a triumph when he appeared to demand it, would imply an inconsistency; and, on the other, that, as they had decreed that he should give up the command of the army to a successor (which kind of decree was never passed, unless when war still subsisted in the province,) there would be no less inconsistency in voting him a triumph, as if the war were concluded, and while the troops, who could best testify whether he merited that honour or not, were in a distant country. The matter was at length compromised, with a decree that he should enter the city in ovation. The plebeian tribunes, by direction of the senate, proposed to the people the issuing of an order, that Marcus Marcellus should enjoy the authority of a general during the day on which he should pass through Rome in ovation. On the day preceding that of his entrance, he triumphed on the Alban mount; and, in his ovation had great abundance of spoils borne before him into the city. Together with a model, representing the captured city of Syracuse, were carried in procession the catapultas, balistas, and every other kind of engine used in war. Likewise, the valuable ornaments collected by their kings, at vast expense, during a long continuance of peace; abundance of wrought silver and brass furniture of various kinds, precious garments, and a great number of remarkably fine statues, with which kind of ornaments Syracuse had abounded as much as any of the Grecian cities. Eight elephants were also led in his train, as an emblem of his victory over the Carthaginians; and what formed not the least attractive part of the show, he was preceded by Sosis the Syracusan, and Mericus the Spaniard, with crowns of gold on their heads, the former of whom had guided the Romans into Syracuse by night, the other had delivered the island and its garrison into their hands. To both of these the freedom of the state was granted, and to each five hundred acres of land. The portion intended for Sosis was ordered to be given to him in the territory of Syracuse, out of the estates which had belonged either to the kings or to the enemies of the Roman people, with any house that he should choose of those which had belonged to persons punished according to the laws of war. Mericus, and the Spaniards who came over with him, were to have a city and lands allotted to them, in some of those parts of Sicily which had revolted from the Romans: and Marcus Cornelius was commissioned to assign these to them wherever he should judge proper. Four hundred acres of land in the same country were decreed to Belligenes, by whose persuasions Mericus had been prevailed on to secede from the Carthaginians over to the Romans. After the departure of Marcellus from Sicily, a Carthaginian fleet landed eight thousand foot and three thousand Numidian horse, who were soon joined by the Murgantians, and their revolt was followed by that of Hybla, and several other cities of less note. The Numidians; headed by Mutines, making excursions through every part of the island, wasted with fire and sword the lands of those who were in alliance with Rome. Besides these untoward circumstances, the Roman troops, being incensed partly because they had not been carried home with their commander, and partly because they had been forbidden to winter in towns, became very remiss in their duty, and wanted rather a leader than inclination for a mutiny. In the midst of these difficulties, the prætor, Marcus Cornelius, by sometimes soothing, sometimes reproving the soldiers, brought them to a calmer temper, and also reduced to submission all the states which had revolted; out of which he assigned Murgantia to those Spaniards who were entitled to a city and lands by the senate’s decree.
XXII. Asb oth the consuls were employed in the one province of Apulia, and as the danger to be apprehended from Hannibal and the Carthaginians was not diminished, they were ordered to cast lots for Apulia and Macedonia as their provinces. Macedonia fell to Sulpicius, and he succeeded in the room of Lævinus. Fulvius was called to Rome to preside at the elections; and, holding an assembly, the younger Veturian century, being the first to vote, named Titus Manlius Torquatus, and Titus Otacilius, consuls. Manlius being present, a crowd gathered around him to offer their congratulations, there being no doubt of the concurrence of the people. Surrounded as he was by a vast multitude, he went up to the consul’s tribunal, requesting permission to say a few words, and that the century which had voted might be called back. After the assembly had waited some time with impatience, to know what he intended to require, he excused himself from accepting the office, on account of the weakness of his eyes, observing, that “it would be shameless presumption in a pilot, or a general, who was obliged to transact his own proper business by the help of other people’s eyes, to expect that the lives and fortunes of men should be committed to his charge. Wherefore, he requested the consul to order the younger Veturian century to be called back to vote anew, and to recollect, while they were electing consuls, the war that subsisted in Italy, with the present exigences of the commonwealth; and that people’s ears were scarcely yet relieved from the noise and tumult raised by the enemy, when a few months ago they lay close to the walls of Rome.” Here he was interrupted by the century, who one and all cried out that they would not alter their vote. Torquatus then replied, “should I become consul, neither shall I be able to endure your behaviour, nor you my government; go back, then, and vote again, and consider that there is a Carthaginian war subsisting in Italy, and that the leader of your enemies is Hannibal.” The century then, moved by the authority of the man, and the murmurs of admiration expressed by all around, besought Titus to summon the elder Veturian century, as they wished to confer with persons older than themselves, and to be directed by them in their choice of consuls. The elder Veturian century was accordingly summoned, and time was allowed for the others to confer with them, apart from the crowd, in the inclosure of the voters. The elders said, that there were three proper objects for their consideration, two of whom had already passed through a full course of public honours, Quintus Fabius, and Marcus Marcellus; that if they had a particular wish to elect a consul, yet untried, against the Carthaginians, there was Marcus Valerius Lævinus, who had conducted the war against king Philip, both on land and sea, with extraordina-success. They accordingly consulted together, respecting those three, and the elders being dismissed, the younger century proceeded to vote. They named as consuls Marcus Claudius Marcellus, whose character then shone in full splendour, in consequence of his glorious conquest of Sicily, and Marcus Valerius, both absent; — and were followed by all the rest of the centuries. Men may ridicule the admirers of ancient times, but I shall ever remain persuaded, that even though there should exist a republic of philosophers, such as speculative men are fond of forming in imagination, but which never was known, yet there could not be produced either a nobility of more solid judgment, and of more unambitious tempers, nor a populace guided by sounder moral principles, than were these of whom I speak. That a century of young men should wish to consult their elders on the choice of a person to whom they were to entrust the government by their vote, appears indeed at present scarcely credible; but it is because, in the fashion of this age, even sons slight and disregard the counsel of their parents.
XXIII. They then proceeded to the election of prætors, and Publius Manlius Volso, Lucius Manlius Acidinus, Caius Lætorius, and Lucius Cincius Alimentus, were chosen. It happened that, just as the elections were finished, an account arrived that Titus Otacilius, whom the people would probably have appointed consul, in his absence, together with Titus Manlius, if the course of the election had not been interrupted, had died in Sicily. The games of Apollo had been celebrated the year before, and, on the proposal of the prætor, Calpurnius, that they should be performed this year also, a decree was made by the senate, that they should be celebrated annually for ever. This year several prodigies were seen and reported. At the temple of Concord, a statue of Victory, which stood on the summit of the roof, being struck by lightning, and shaken at its base, fell and stuck among the ensigns of the goddess which were on the pediment. From Anagnia and Fregella reports were brought, that a wall and some gates were by the like means thrown down; that, in the forum of Sudertum, streams of blood ran for a whole day; that a shower of stones fell at Eretum, and that at Reate a mule had produced a foal. These prodigies were expiated with the greater victims; the people were ordered to perform a supplication, of one day’s continuance, to avert the wrath of the gods, and the nine days festival was solemnized. Several of the public priests died this year, and new ones were appointed in their places. In the room of Marcus Æmilius Numida, decemvir of religious affairs, was substituted Marcus Æmilius Lepidus; in the room of Marcus Pomponius Matho, pontiff, Caius Livius; and in the room of Spurius Carvilius Maximus, augur, Marcus Servilius. Because Titus Otacilius Crassus, who was a pontiff, died after the conclusion of the year, there was no nomination of any person to his place. Caius Claudius, flamen of Jupiter, because he had committed some irregularity in the distribution of the entrails, resigned the office.
XXIV. About this time Marcus Valerius Lævinus, after having first sounded the dispositions of the principal men in secret conferences, came with some light ships to a council of the Ætolians, which had been previously summoned for this purpose. Here, to convince them of the flourishing state of the affairs of Italy and Sicily, he expatiated in high terms on the reduction of Capua, and of Syracuse, adding, that “the Romans inherited, even from their earliest ancestors, a constant disposition to study the interest of their allies; some of whom they had admitted into their state to equal privileges with themselves, and others were supported by them in such situations, that they chose rather to be allies, than fellow-citizens. That the Ætolians would be held by them in the higher degree of estimation, on account that they would be the first, of all the nations separated from them by the sea, who united with them in friendship. That Philip and the Macedonians were troublesome neighbours; but that he had already broken their strength and spirits, and was determined to reduce them so low, that they should not only evacuate those cities, of which they had forcibly deprived the Ætolians, but should find Macedonia itself an uneasy residence. As to the Acarnanians, whose dismemberment from their body gave the Ætolians much concern, he engaged to replace them under the former charter of obedience to their authority and jurisdiction.” These assertions and promises of the Roman general, Scopas, who was then prætor of the nation, and Dorimachus, a principal man among the Ætolians, confirmed by their own authority; and therefore, with the less reserve, and greater assurance of gaining belief, extolled the power and exalted reputation of the Roman people. However, that which had the greatest influence was the hope of recovering Acarnania. The particulars were accordingly reduced to writing, on which they were to join in a treaty of alliance and friendship with the Roman people, and a clause was added, that “if it was agreeable to their own wish, the Eleans, and Lacedæmonians should be included on the same terms of friendship, and also Attalus, Pleuratus, and Scerdilædus.” Attalus was king of Asia, the others of Thrace and Illyria. The terms of the treaty were. that “the Ætolians should immediately commence war against Philip on land: that the Romans should assist them with not less than twenty ships of five banks of oars: that, of all the cities that should be taken as far as Corcyra, beginning from Ætolia, the buildings of every description, together with the lands thereunto belonging, should be the property of the Ætolians; all other booty of what kind soever to be given up to the Romans: that the Romans should use their endeavours to secure to the Ætolians the possession of Acarnania: that, if the Ætolians should make peace with Philip, an article should be inserted in the treaty, declaring it valid, only on condition that Philip should refrain from committing hostilities on the Romans, their allies, or any under their dominion: in like manner if the Roman people should form an alliance with the king, that they should take care not to allow him a right of making war on the Ætolians and their allies.” Such was the purport of the negociation entered into by the above-named powers, two copies of which were made two years after, and deposited, one, by the Romans, in the capitol, and the other by the Ætolians, at Olympia, that these consecrated records might bear evidence of its contents. This delay arose from the Ætolian ambassadors having been too long detained at Rome, which however was no impediment to the business of the war; for the Ætolians immediately commenced hostilities against Philip, while Lævinus attacked Zacynthus, a small island near the coast of Ætolia, which has one city of the same name with itself. This, excepting the citadel, he reduced by storm, and taking from the Acarnanians Æniadæ and Nasus, put them into the hands of the Ætolians. Judging that Philip was now sufficiently embroiled in war with his neighbours to prevent his thinking of Italy, the Carthaginians, and his compact with Hannibal, he retired to Corcyra.
XXV. Philip received the account of the defection of the Ætolians at Pella, where he had fixed his residence for the winter. As he was to move his army into Greece in the beginning of the next spring, he determined to strike terror into the Illyrians, and the cities in that quarter, in return for the alarms which they had caused to him, so that they should leave Macedonia unmolested during his absence; accordingly, he undertook a sudden expedition against the territories of Oricum and Apollonia. The Apollonians who came out to meet him he compelled to fly with dismay into their city; then, after ravaging the frontiers of Illyricum, he pursued his route with the same degree of expedition into Pelagonia, where he took Sintia, a town belonging to the Dardanians, and which would have afforded them a passage into Macedonia. Having finished this business with all possible speed, he turned his thoughts to the war which he had to maintain against the Ætolians and the Romans in conjunction, and marched down through Pelagonia, Lyncus, and Bottæa into Thessaly, in hopes that many of these states might be prevailed upon to join him in support of the war with the Ætolians. Leaving therefore at the narrow entrance of Thessaly, one of his generals, named Perseus, with four thousand soldiers, to secure the pass against the Ætolians, he went himself at the head of his army, before he should be engaged by more important business, into Macedonia, and thence into Thrace and Mædica. This nation had been accustomed, whenever they saw the king employed in a foreign war, and the kingdom left unguarded, to make incursions into Macedonia: he therefore set about wasting the country about Phragandæ, and laid siege to the city of Jamphorina, the capital and principal fortress of Mædica. Scopas, when he learned that the king had gone into Thrace, and was employed in carrying on war there, armed all the young men of the Ætolians, and prepared to carry hostilities into Acarnania. This nation, conscious of their inability to oppose him, seeing too that the cities of Æniadæ and Nasus were already lost, and that they were besides threatened with an invasion by the Romans, formed a plan of action dictated by passion rather than by prudence. Their wives, children, and all persons above the age of sixty years, they sent away into the neighbouring states of Epirus: while all from fifteen to sixty bound themselves to each other by an oath, to march against the enemy, and not to return home unless victorious; framing a dreadful execration on such of their countrymen as should receive into their city or house, or admit to their table or fire-side, any one who had given way to the foe, or quitted his post in battle. They addressed also a most solemn obtestation, of the same purport, to the states with whom they had an intercourse; beseeching, at the same time, the Epirotes to inter in one common tomb such of their men as should fall in battle, and to fix this epitaph over their graves: here lie the acarnanians, who died fighting in defence of their country, against the violence and injustice of the ætolians. With minds highly inflamed by these and such like means, they encamped in the extreme border of their country, on the side where they expected the enemy; and, by the despatches which they sent to Philip, representing the great danger that threatened them, obliged him to drop the prosecution of the designs in which he was engaged, although Jamphorina had already capitulated, and all his affairs were in a prosperous train. The enterprise intended by the Ætolians was postponed, first, on their hearing of the association entered into by the Acarnanians; and, afterwards, on the news of Philip’s approach, which made them even draw back into the interior parts of their own country. Philip, however, though he had hastened by long marches to prevent the Acarnanians being overwhelmed, yet did not advance farther than Dios, whence on hearing that the Ætolians had retired from Acarnania, he also removed to Pella.
XXVI. Early in the spring Lævinus set sail from Corcyra, and, doubling the cape of Leucate, came to Naupactum, whence he sent notice, that he was proceeding to Anticyra in order that Scopas and the Ætolians might be there to join him. Antyra stands in Locris, on the left hand on entering the Corinthian Gulf, and the march thither by land is short, as is the passage by sea, from Naupactum. In about three days after this, the siege of that town was commenced by the combined forces; but the attack on the side next the sea was the more difficult to be withstood, because there were on board the fleet engines and machines of every sort; and besides, the assailants were Romans. In a few days, therefore, the city capitulated, and was given up to the Ætolians. The spoil, according to compact, fell to the Romans. Here Lævinus received a letter, acquainting him that he had been declared consul in his absence, and that Publius Sulpicius was coming to succeed him in the command of the fleet. But he was siezed by a tedious sickness, which delayed his return to Rome longer than any one wished.Y. R. 542. 210. Marcus Marcellus, entering on the consulship on the ides of March, held, on the same day, a meeting of the senate, merely for form’s sake, for he declared, that “he would introduce nothing respecting the state of the commonwealth, or the distribution of the provinces, in the absence of his colleague. That he understood that there were great numbers of Sicilians in the neighbourhood of the city, at the country houses of persons who wished to depreciate his character; and so far was he from hindering an open publication of the charges fabricated and circulated by his enemies, that he would have given them instantly an opportunity of laying such charges before the senate; were it not that they pretended some kind of fear to speak of a consul in the absence of his colleague. That, however, when Lævinus arrived, he would certainly suffer no business to be transacted before the Sicilians were introduced to an audience of the senate. That Marcus Cornelius had made a kind of levy through all Sicily, for the purpose of sending to Rome the greater number of complaints against him; and that the same person with a view to injure his reputation, had, by his letters, filled the city with false representations of war still subsisting in Sicily.” The consul’s behaviour on that day made people conceive a good opinion of the moderation of his temper. He then adjourned the senate, and it was expected that there would be almost a total suspension of every kind of business until the return of the other consul. Want of employment, as usual, gave occasion to various murmurs against the populace: they made great complaint of “the length of the war; of the devastation of the country by Hannibal on all sides of the city; of Italy being exhausted by levies of men, and of the loss of armies happening almost every year; of consuls being now elected, who, both of them, had a passion for war; men too enterprising and daring, who, in a time of profound peace, were capable of exciting quarrels, and therefore there was the less reason to expect that, during the actual existence of hostilities, they would allow the public time to breathe.”
XXVII. These discourses were interrupted by a fire which broke out near the Forum, in the night preceding the festival of Minerva. Seven shops, where five were afterwards built, and the banking-houses, which are now called the New Banks, were in flames in several places at once. Next the private buildings were consumed (for the public halls were not then there,) with the prison, called the Quarry, and the fish-market, also the old palace of king Numa. With difficulty the temple of Vesta was saved, principally by the activity of thirteen slaves, who were afterwards purchased for the public, and discharged from servitude. The fire raged during a night and a day. There was no doubt of its being caused by human means, the flames blazing out at the same moment, and at considerable distances. The consul therefore, by direction of the senate, published a proclamation, that whoever discovered the persons that had occasioned the same, such discoverer should receive as a reward, if a freeman, a sum of money, if a slave, his liberty. Induced by this, a slave belonging to the Campanian family of the Calivii, by name Mannus, gave information, that “his masters, and five other young Campanian noblemen, whose parents had been beheaded by Quintus Fulvius, were the perpetrators of the deed, and that they would effect the like destruction in various places, if they were not put into confinement.” On this they were taken into custody, as were also their slaves. At first they spoke with scorn of the informer and his discovery: they said “he had run away from his masters, in consequence of having been chastised the day before with a whipping; and, in a fit of resentment and folly, had forged this charge, on the ground of an event merely accidental.” But, when they were brought face to face with their accuser, and the instruments of their villany began to be examined by torture in the middle of the Forum, they all confessed their guilt; and the masters and their slaves who were privy to the design were punished as they deserved. The informer received his liberty and twenty thousand asses.* The consul Lævinus, as he passed by Capua, was surrounded by a multitude of the Campanians, who besought him, with tears, to give them permission to go to Rome, there to entreat the senate to suffer themselves to be moved, at length, with compassion; and not to carry resentment so far as to their utter ruin, nor to let the whole race of Campanians, be extirpated by Quintus Flaccus. Flaccus declared, that “he had no personal quarrel whatsoever with the Campanians; a public and hostile enmity towards them he certainly had, and should retain as long as he knew them to harbour the same sentiments towards the Roman people. There was not on earth,” he said, “any race, or any state, that bore a more inveterate hatred to the Roman name. The reason of his keeping them confined within the walls was, that when any of them contrived to get out they roamed about the country like wild beasts, tearing and slaying whatever fell in their way. Some had fled to join Hannibal, others had gone to set Rome on fire, and the consul would find, in the half-burnt Forum, the traces of Campanian villany. An attempt had been made even on the temple of Vesta, on the sacred fire, and the fatal pledge* of the Roman empire deposited in her shrine. For his part, he could by no means think it safe to allow the Campanians to enter the walls of Rome.” Lævinus, however, ordered the Campanians to follow him thither; having first made them bind themselves by an oath to Flaccus, to return to Capua on the fifth day after receiving an answer from the senate. Surrounded by this train, and followed also by the Sicilians and Ætolians, who came out to meet him he proceeded to Rome, bringing into the city, as accusers of two men, whose characters had been rendered illustrious by the conquest of two very celebrated cities, the parties whom they had vanquished in war. However both the consuls proposed, first, to the consideration of the senate, the state of the commonwealth, and the disposal of the provinces.
XXVIII. Lævinus then made a report of the state of Macedonia and Greece, of the Ætolians, Acarnanians, and Locrians; and of the services which he himself had performed there, on land and sea; acquainting them, that “Philip, who came with an army against the Ætolians, had been driven back by him into Macedonia, and had retired into the interior parts of his kingdom; and that the legion might be brought home from thence, the fleet being sufficient to prevent any attempt of the king upon Italy.” This part of the business which respected himself, and the province where he had commanded, he went through alone: the questions relative to the distribution of the provinces were put by both consuls jointly. The senate decreed, that “Italy, and the war with Hannibal, should be the province of one of the consuls; that the other should have the command of the fleet lately under that of Titus Otacilius; and, in conjunction with the prætor, Lucius Cincius the government of Sicily.” The two armies decreed to them were those then in Etruria and Gaul, consisting of four legions. The two city legions of the former year were ordered to be sent into Etruria; the two lately under the command of the consul Sulpicius into Gaul; and Gaul, with these legions, to be governed by such person as the consul who had the province of Italy should appoint. Caius Calpurnius, being continued in command for a year after the expiration of his prætorship, was sent into Etruria. Capua was appointed the province of Quintus Fulvius, whose command was also prolonged for a year. An order was made, that the numbers both of the native and allied troops should be reduced, so that out of two legions should be formed one, containing five thousand foot and three hundred horse, and that those men should be discharged who had served the greatest number of campaigns; but that, in each legion of the allies, there should be left seven thousand foot and three hundred horse; and that, in discharging the old soldiers, the same rule should be observed respecting the length of their services. With regard to Cneius Fulvius, consul of the last year, no alteration was made, either in his province Apulia, or in the army under his command; only he was continued another year in authority. Publius Sulpicius his colleague, was ordered to disband his whole force, excepting the marines; as was Marcus Cornelius, as soon as the consul should arrive in the province. To the prætor, Lucius Cincius, for the defence of Sicily, were assigned the troops of Cannæ, equivalent to two legions. To the prætor Publius Manlius Volso, were allotted, for the service of Sardinia, the same number of legions which Lucius Cornelius had commanded in the same province the year before. The consuls were ordered to raise legions for the city, but not to oblige any man to enlist who had served in the armies of Marcus Claudius, Marcus Valerius, or Quintus Fulvius, and the number of Roman legions to be employed during that year was fixed at twenty-one.
XXIX. When the senate had passed these decrees, the consuls cast lots for the provinces. Sicily, and the fleet, fell to Marcellus; Italy, with the war against Hannibal, to Lævinus. This decision, as if Syracuse were now a second time taken, struck the Sicilians, who stood within sight of the consuls, waiting till the lots were drawn, with such dismay, that their bitter lamentations, and mournful expressions of grief attracted the eyes of all present, and afforded afterwards much matter of discourse. For they went round to each of the senators, dressed in mourning, and affirming, that “they were resolved to abandon, not only each his native state, but all Sicily, if Marcellus should come thither again as governor. Formerly, when they had deserved no harsh treatment at his hands, he had been implacable in his resentment towards them; to what lengths, then, might not his anger now carry him, when he knew that they had come to Rome with complaints against him? Better would it be for that island to be buried under the fires of Ætna, or sunk in the sea, than to be delivered over as it were to execution at the will of an enemy.”— These complaints of the Sicilians, after being at first carried about to the houses of the nobility, and canvassed in frequent conversations, which took rise either from compassion to the Sicilians, or ill-will to Marcellus, made their way even into the senate. A requisition was there made to the consuls, that the senate should be consulted on an exchange of provinces. To this Marcellus answered, that “though the Sicilians had been already heard by the senate, his opinion might still be different; but in order that no one should be able to say that these people were curbed by fear, or restrained from uttering their complaints with freedom against a man to whose power they were soon to be subject; in the present state of things, if his colleague had no objection, he was ready to change his province.” He warmly intreated them “not to prejudge the depending cause by the interposition of any decree. For since it would be unjust to give his colleague his choice of a province without putting it to the lot, how much greater would be the injustice, nay, the indignity, if that which he had obtained by lot were transferred to the other?” Accordingly the senate, after declaring what was their wish, without passing a decree, adjourned, and the consuls, between themselves, made an exchange of provinces. Thus did fate, impending over Marcellus, drag him, as it were, within the sphere of Hannibal; that he who had been the first Roman commander who ravished from that general a large portion of his glory, by defeating him in battle, might be the last who contributed, by his fall, to the aggrandizement of the same man’s reputation; and this at a time when the events of the war, in general, were particularly favourable, to the side of the Romans.
XXX. When the provinces were exchanged, the Sicilians were introduced into the senate, where they expatiated, in many words, on the unalterable attachment of king Hiero to the Roman people, assuming merit from thence to themselves and their nation. “As to the tyrants, Hieronymus, and, after him, Hippocrates and Epicydes, they themselves had ever detested them,” they said, “for many reasons, but particularly for taking part with Hannibal against the Romans. For this cause Hieronymus was put to death by the principal young men of the nation, authorised, in a manner, by the public voice. Seventy of their youths, of the highest distinction, had conspired, on the same account, to kill Hippocrates and Epicydes, but were disappointed of the support which they expected from Marcellus, by a delay in the bringing up of his army to Syracuse at the time agreed on; so that, their design being discovered, they were all put to death by the tyrants. Even the tyrannical usurpation of Hippocrates and Epycides owed its beginning to the cruelty practised by Marcellus in the sacking of Leontini. The principal Syracusans, alarmed at this, never ceased afterwards imploring Marcellus, and promising to deliver the city into his ands, at any time that he chose to appoint: but his wish was to take it by assault. Finding, however, after every effort which could be made on land or sea, that this was impracticable, he chose to depend on Sosis, a brazier, and Mericus, a Spaniard, for putting him in possession of Syracuse, rather than on the first men of the city, who had so often, to no purpose, voluntarily made the same offer; in order, no doubt, that he might have the more plausible excuse for plundering and massacring the oldest allies of the Roman people. If the defection to Hannibal had been the act, not of Hieronymus, but of the senate and people of Syracuse; if the body of the Syracusans, and not their tyrants, Hippocrates and Epicydes, who held them in subservience to their will, had shut the gates against Marcellus; if they had waged war against the Roman people with the animosity of Carthaginians, to what greater length could Marcellus have carried hostilities than he did; unless he were to demolish the city? He certainly left nothing at Syracuse except the walls and empty houses, while the temples were broken open and pillaged, and from which the ornaments of the gods, and even the gods themselves, had been carried away. Many were stripped of their whole possessions, so as not to have remaining, from the wreck of their fortunes, even the naked soil, out of which they might support themselves and their families. Wherefore they besought the Conscript Fathers to order restoration to be made to the owners, if not of all their property, at least of such part of it as could be found and claimed on proof.” When they had uttered their complaints in this manner, and were ordered by Lævinus to withdraw from the senate-house, that the members might deliberate on the subject of their demands; “No,” said Marcellus, “let them stay, that I may answer in their hearing, since, Conscript Fathers, such are the terms on which we serve in your wars, that the parties, whom we conquer by our arms, are to become our prosecutors, and two cities, taken this year, are to prosecute their captors, Capua Fulvius, and Syracuse Marcellus.”
XXXI. The deputies being brought back into the senate-house, the consul then said; “Conscript Fathers, I am not so unmindful of the majesty of the Roman people, and of the high office with which I am invested, as that I should, while bearing the dignity of a consul, appear as a defendant to answer charges made by Greeks, if the subject of the present inquiry were merely respecting misconduct on my part. But the question is, not what I have done, but rather what those men deserved at my hands. For, if they were not our enemies, I should be equally blameable for injuring Syracuse now, as when Hiero was alive. But, if they renounced our alliance, attacked our ambassadors with violence and arms, shut the gates of their city and called in an army of Carthaginians to defend it against us; who can think it unreasonable that men who committed hostilities should have suffered them in turn? I rejected the offers of the principal Syracusans to give me possession of the city, it is true; I chose rather to confide, in a case so important, solely in Sosis, and the Spaniard Mericus. You are not the meanest of the Syracusans, since you object meanness to others. Now, is there one among you, who ever promised to open the gates to me, or to admit my armed troops into the city? You execrate and abhor those who did; and do not, even here, abstain from reviling them; so far is it from being fact, that yourselves would have done the same. The low condition of the persons employed, which these men make a matter of reproach, shows, Conscript Fathers, how ready I was to listen to the offers of any man who was willing to exert himself in the service of our state. Before I commenced the siege of Syracuse, I tried to effect a restoration of tranquillity, at one time by sending ambassadors, at another time, by going myself to treat on the subject; and, afterwards, when they neither scrupled to offer violence to my ambassadors, nor would give any answer to myself in a personal interview with their leaders at the gates, I then, after surmounting many difficulties on land and sea, at length took Syracuse by force of arms. Of the consequences which befel them on the capture of their city, they might, with more propriety, complain to Hannibal and the Carthaginians, and to their companions in defeat, than to the senate of the nation which conquered them. Conscript Fathers, if I had intended to deny that Syracuse was plundered, I would never have decorated the city of Rome with its spoils. As to what I, in capacity of a conqueror, either took from individuals, or bestowed on any, I am fully confident that I acted, in those respects, agreeably both to the laws of war and to the deserts of each. That you ratify these proceedings, Conscript Fathers, concerns the interest of the republic more than that of mine. My duty has been discharged with honour; but it is of importance to the commonwealth that you do not, by rescinding my acts, render other commanders in future remiss. And now, Conscript Fathers, as you have heard both the Sicilians and me face to face, we will retire together from your house, that the senators may, in my absence, deliberate with the greater freedom.” The Sicilians were accordingly dismissed, and he went away to the Capitol to enlist soldiers.
XXXII. The other consul then required the determination of the fathers respecting the demands of the Sicilians; on which a long and warm debate ensued. A great part of the senate, adopting an opinion introduced by Titus Manlius Torquatus, declared, that “in their judgment the war ought to have been waged against the tyrants, who were equal enemies to the Syracusans and to the Roman people; that the city ought to have been recovered by treaty, not taken by force; and, when recovered, should have been re-established in freedom under its ancient laws, and not subjected to the calamities of war, after having been long harassed under a wretched slavery. In the contests between the tyrants and the Roman general, the prize proposed to the conqueror had been utterly destroyed, a city of the greatest beauty and fame, formerly the granary and treasury of the Roman people; one by whose generosity and munificence the republic had, on many occasions of difficulty, and lately, in the present Carthaginian war, been assisted, honoured, and adorned. If King Hiero, that most faithful friend to the interests of the Roman empire, were to rise from the shades, with what face, could either Syracuse or Rome be shown to him? When, after beholding his native city in its plundered and half-demolished state, he should, on coming into Rome, see, at the entrance of it, almost in the very gates, the spoils of his own country?” Although these, and many such warm expressions, tending to disparage the character of Marcellus, and excite compassion for the Sicilians, were uttered by the members, yet the senate, through their regard for Marcellus, pursued a milder course in forming their decree; the purport of which was, that “all acts done by him in his administration of the war, and after his final success therein, should be deemed valid. In respect of the time to come, the senate would take care of the concerns of Syracuse, and would give a charge to the consul Lævinus, to promote the prosperity of that city, as far as could be done without detriment to the commonwealth.” Two senators were sent to the Capitol to desire the consul to come back to the senate-house; and, the Sicilians also being called in, the decree was read. The deputies, after receiving assurances of kindness, were dismissed; and they then threw themselves at the feet of the consul Marcellus, beseeching him to pardon the expressions which they had used, for the purpose of procuring pity and relief of their misfortunes, and to receive them and the city of Syracuse into his protection and patronage. The consul returned a mild answer, and dismissed them.
XXXIII. The senate next gave audience to the Campanians, who spoke in a more piteous strain, but had a more difficult cause to plead; for neither could they deny that they had deserved the punishments inflicted, nor were there tyrants in the case, on whom they could transfer the guilt. They only alleged, that they had suffered enough of punishment, in so many senators being taken off by poison, and so many by the executioner. That, “of their nobles, only a few remained alive, whom neither consciousness of crime had driven to acts of despair, nor the resentment of their conqueror condemned to death: who, in behalf of themselves and their families, prayed for liberty, and some portion of their property; being citizens of Rome, and most of them closely connected there in affinities and near relationships, in consequence of the frequent intermarriages which took place during a long series of years.” They were then ordered to withdraw, and the senators were for some time in doubt whether Quintus Fulvius should not be called home from Capua, (for the other proconsul, Claudius, had died after the taking of the place,) in order that the matter might be discussed in the presence of the commander, as had been done in the case of Marcellus and the Sicilians. But afterwards, seeing in the house Marcus Atilius, and Flaccus’s brother, Caius Fulvius, who had been lieutenant-generals under him; also Quintus Minucius, and Lucius Veturius Philo, who had held the same commission under Claudius — men who had been present at every transaction; and being unwilling either to recall Fulvius from Capua, or to delay the Campanians by an adjournment, they desired to hear the sentiments of Marcus Atilius Regulus, whom they deemed superior in judgment to any of the rest who had been at Capua; and he spoke to this effect: “I recollect attending the consuls, in council, after the reduction of Capua, when inquiry was made whether any of the Campanians had deserved well of our state; when it was discovered that two women had done so, Vestia Oppia, a native of Atilla, resident in Capua, and Fancula Cluvia, formerly a courtesan; the former having daily offered sacrifice for the safety and success of the Roman people, the latter having secretly conveyed food to the starving prisoners. But it was at the same time found, that the disposition of all the rest of the Campanians towards us was precisely that of the Carthaginians; yet those beheaded by Fulvius were not the most criminal among them, but the most eminent in rank. How the senate can determine on the case of the Campanians, who are Roman citizens, without an order of the people, I do not see. This rule was observed by our ancestors, in respect of the revolted Satricans, and measures were taken that Marcus Antistius, plebeian tribune, should first propose, and the commons pass, an order empowering the senate to decide finally in the affair of that people. My opinion, therefore, is, that application be made to the tribunes of the commons, that one or more of them may propose to the people an order authorising us to determine concerning the Campanians.” By direction of the senate, Lucius Atilius, a plebeian tribune, made the proposition accordingly in these words: “Concerning all the Campanians, Atellans, Calatians, Sabatians, who have surrendered themselves to Fulvius, proconsul, and submitted to the power and dominion of the Roman people; also concerning whatsoever they may have given up, whether land, city, divine, or human property; with respect to all these things, I ask you, Roman citizens, what you choose should be done?” The commons passed this order:—“Whatsoever the senate, being first sworn, or the majority of its members, then present, may determine, that we will and order.”
XXXIV. In pursuance of this order of the people, the senate took the business into consideration; and, in the first place, restored to Oppia and Cluvia their liberty and effects, with directions, that “if they wished to ask any other reward from the senate, they should come to Rome.” Separate decrees were passed respecting the several families of the Campanians, all of which it would be useless to enumerate. The properties of some were ordered to be confiscated; themselves, their wives, and children to be sold, excepting such of their daughters as had been placed in marriage before they came into the power of the Roman people. Others were ordered to be kept in close confinement, and their cases to be considered at a future time. They also made distinct estimates of the possessions of others, in order to determine whether they should be forfeited or not. They voted, that all the cattle seized, except the horses; all the slaves, except grown-up males; and every thing which did not appertain to the soil, should be restored to the owners. They ordered, that all the Campanians, Atellans, Calatians, and Sabatians, exclusive of those who, themselves or their parents, were then among the enemy, should be free; with the restriction, that none of them should be capable of becoming a Roman citizen, or a Latine confederate; and that none of those who had been in Capua while the gates were shut, should remain beyond a certain day in the city or territory thereof. They voted, that a place of habitation should be assigned to those people beyond the Tiber, and not contiguous to it: that such as had neither been in Capua during the war, nor in any Campanian city which had revolted from the Roman people, should be removed to the other side of the river Liris, next to Rome; and those who had come over to the Romans before Hannibal came to Capua, to the hither side of the Vulturnus: that none of them should have land or house nearer to the sea than fifteen miles: that, as to those who should be transplanted to the farther side of the Tiber, neither themselves nor their posterity should purchase or possess property in any other place than in the Veientian, Sutrian, or Nepetian territories; nor should any possess a greater extent of ground than fifty acres: that the property of all the senators, and of those who had held public employments at Capua, Atella, or Calatia, should be sold at Capua; but that the men of free condition, who, according to the order passed, were likewise to be set up for sale, should be sent to Rome. The images and brazen statues, which were said to have been taken from the enemy, whether they were sacred or private property, they left to the disposal of the college of pontiffs. They then dismissed the Campanians, whose distress and affliction were increased by these determinations beyond what they had felt at their coming to Rome, and who exclaimed no longer against Fulvius’s cruelty towards them, but against the rigorous severity of the gods, and their own accursed fortune.
XXXV. After the Sicilians and Campanians were dismissed, a levy of troops was made; and, as soon as that was finished, the business of procuring a supply of rowers for the fleet came under consideration. As there was neither a sufficiency of men for this purpose, nor any money, at that time, in the treasury to purchase or pay them, the consuls published an edict, that private persons should, as on former occasions, in proportion to their fortunes and stations, supply rowers with pay and subsistence for thirty days. This edict caused such loud murmurs and such ill-humour among the people, that a leader, rather than matter, was wanting to produce an open insurrection. It was said, that “the consuls, after they had done with the Sicilians and Campanians, had taken the Roman commons in hand, to harass and ruin them: that, after being exhausted by paying taxes for so many years, they had nothing left but land, and that naked and waste. Their houses the enemy had burned; the slaves, who ought to till the ground, the state had taken away, sometimes purchasing them for soldiers at a trifling price, at others ordering them to serve as rowers. If any one had a little silver or brass, he was obliged to part with it to pay rowers and the yearly duties. As to themselves, no authority, no force, could compel them to give what they had not. The consuls might sell their goods, and vent their cruelty on their persons, which were all that remained: nor had they any thing wherewith they could even redeem or save themselves from such treatment.” These discontented expressions were uttered not in private, but openly in the Forum, and in the presence of the consuls themselves, by immense multitudes that stood around them; nor were the consuls able, either by reproof or consolation, to pacify them. It was at length determined to give them three days, to consider of these matters; and this time they themselves employed in procuring information, and contriving the best mode of proceeding. On the following day, they held a meeting of the senate on the subject of a supply of rowers, and after using many arguments to show that the remonstrances of the commons were but reasonable, they changed the tenor of their discourse so far as to say, that “this burthen, whether reasonable or unreasonable, must be imposed on the private citizens. How could the fleets be otherwise manned, as there was no money in the treasury; and, without fleets, how could Sicily be kept in obedience, Philip be kept out of Italy, or the coasts of Italy protected?”
XXXVI. In circumstances of such extreme perplexity, deliberation was of little avail, and a kind of torpor possessed men’s faculties, until the consul Lævinus addressed them thus: “As the magistrates in point of dignity precede the senate, and the senate the people, so ought they to take the lead in undergoing every thing burthensome and difficult. When you wish to enjoin any task on inferiors; if you impose the same duty on yourself and your connexions, you will find those inferiors the more ready to obey. Nor is an expense deemed heavy, when people see those of the highest ranks take on themselves more than their proportion of it. Do we wish, then, that the Roman people should have a fleet, and the means of equipping it? That private citizens should, without murmuring, supply rowers? Let us enforce the edict first on ourselves. Let us, senators, lodge to-morrow in the public treasury all our gold, silver, and coined brass; each reserving of the gold, rings for himself, his wife, and children, and a bulla for his son; and he who has a wife and daughters, an ounce weight for each, out of the silver; and for those who have sat in a curule chair, let them have the ornaments of a horse, and a pound weight of silver, that they may not be without a salt-cellar and a dish to be used in the worship of the gods. To the other senators, only a pound of silver and five thousand asses* of brass coin should be allowed, that is, for every father of a family. All the rest of our gold, silver, and coined brass, let us at once convey to the receivers of the public money, before we pass any decree, that our voluntary contribution, and the ardour of our zeal in aiding the republic, may excite a spirit of emulation in the equestrian order first, and then in the people in general. This is the only equitable way which my colleague and myself, after much conversation on the subject, have been able to discover; adopt it, then, and may the gods be propitious to you. The safety of the commonwealth effectually ensures the safety of private property; if you abandon the interest of the republic, you will in vain attempt to preserve your own.” This scheme was received with warm and unanimous approbation, insomuch that the thanks of the body were returned to the consuls. The senate was then adjourned, and all the members immediately hastened to bring in their gold, silver, and brass to the treasury, and this with such ardour and emulation, that while each pressed to have his name among the first in the public registers, the commissioners were not able to receive, nor the clerks to enter, the contributions. The zeal and unanimity displayed by the senate were copied by the equestrian order, and, after them, by the commons. Thus, without any edict, without any authoritative act of magistracy, the state was provided with a sufficient supply of rowers, and also with a fund for their support; and every preparation for the campaign being finished, the consuls set out for their respective provinces.
XXXVII. At no period of the war did both the Romans and the Carthaginians feel a greater vicissitude of hopes and fears; such an intermixture of events, of opposite natures, taking place alike on both sides. For on that of the Romans, with regard to the provinces, the misfortunes in Spain on the one hand, and the successes in Sicily on the other, produced a mixture of sorrow and rejoicing; and in Italy, as the loss of Tarentum was injurious and grievous, so the citadel and garrison being preserved, beyond expectation, was matter of joy: while in like manner, the sudden terror and panic, caused by the investiture and attack of the city of Rome, were in a few days converted into triumph by the reduction of Capua. Affairs beyond sea were, also, balanced in a kind of counterpoise. Philip became their enemy at a juncture very far from seasonable; but then they acquired new allies in the Ætolians, and in Attalus, king of Asia; fortune thus early pledging her promise, as it were, to the Romans, for the empire of the east. On the side of the Carthaginians, likewise, the loss of Capua was counterbalanced by the acquisition of Tarentum; and, as they valued themselves highly on the honour of having advanced to the walls of the city of Rome without opposition, so they were grieved at the failure of their design, and felt ashamed at being slighted to such a degree, as that, while they lay under the walls of Rome, a Roman army should have marched out, from another quarter of the city, for Spain. With regard also to Spain itself, as they thought they had good reason to hope, that, in consequence of the destruction of two renowned generals and powerful armies, the war there would be at an end, and the Romans expelled the country, so their mortification was the greater in proportion, on finding that Lucius Marcius, a leader who owed his post to the irregular voice of the multitude, had rendered their victory insignificant and fruitless. Thus, Fortune holding the scales even, every thing on both sides hung in suspense, and the parties retained their hopes unabated, and their fears unallayed, just as if they were now first commencing the war.
XXXVIII. One circumstance, above all, filled Hannibal’s mind with the most painful reflections; it was, that in consequence of the Romans having prosecuted the siege of Capua with so much more determined resolution than he had exerted for its relief, many of the states of Italy had conceived sentiments very unfavourable to his cause. He found it impossible to maintain his authority over all of these by force, unless he were to break down his army into a great number of small detachments, which would very ill suit his condition at the time; nor could he leave the fidelity of allies open to the solicitations of hope, or the threatenings of fear. Wherefore, as his mind had from nature a strong bias to avarice and cruelty, he determined to plunder the places which he could not keep, and so leave them to the enemy in a state of desolation. This scheme, so dishonourable in its purpose, proved equally so in its consequences: for it alienated from him the affections not only of the persons so greatly aggrieved, but likewise of all the rest; this specimen of his character extending its influence far beyond the numbers involved in the calamity. The Roman consul at the same time was not remiss in making trials of the disposition of every city where any prospect of success appeared. In Salapia there were two leading men, Dasius and Blasius: the former was a friend to Hannibal; the latter, as far as he could with safety, favoured the interest of the Romans, and, by means of secret emissaries, had given Marcellus hopes of having the place betrayed to him; but this was a measure, which, without the concurrence of Dasius, could not be effected. After long and anxious deliberation, and then, rather from want of a more promising plan, than hope of succeeding, he opened the proposition to Dasius. But he, being both averse from the design, and glad also of an opportunity of injuring his competitor for power, disclosed the affair to Hannibal, who summoned them both before him; and, while he was employed on his tribunal in despatching some other business, intending presently to attend to that of Blasus, the accuser and accused both standing together in a spot cleared for them by the people, Blasius began to urge Dasius on the subject of surrendering the town. On which the latter, as if the matter now proved itself, exclaimed, that the other was attempting to seduce him to treachery, even in Hannibal’s immediate presence. To Hannibal, and to those who were present, the more audacious the fact charged on Blasius was, the less credible it appeared. They knew that there was an emulation and hatred subsisting between the two, and supposed that an imputation of this kind was alleged, because, as from its nature, it could not be supported by the testimony of witnesses, it was the more likely to be false. The parties were therefore dismissed; but Blasius, notwithstanding what had passed, never desisted from this bold undertaking, until by incessant teasing on the same subject, and proving how advantageous such a measure would be to themselves and their country, he extorted the other’s consent that Salapia, and the Carthaginian garrison, which consisted of five hundred Numidians, should be delivered up to Marcellus. This, however, could not be effected without considerable bloodshed; for these Numidians were much the bravest body of Cavalry in the whole Carthaginian army, and this was an occurrence which it was impossible for them to foresee. But though they could not, in the city, make use of their horses, yet, on the tumult arising, they hastily took arms, and attempted to make their way out; when, finding an escape impracticable, they sold their lives dear, fighting to the last; nor did more than fifty of their whole number fall alive into the hands of the Salapians. The loss of this body of cavalry was a much severer blow to Hannibal than that of the place, for thenceforward the Carthaginians were never superior in cavalry, which they had, hitherto, always been.
XXXIX. At this time the scarcity in the citadel of Tarentum became almost intolerable. Marcus Livius, commander of the Roman garrison there, relied entirely for supplies, on Sicily; and to secure to these a safe passage along the coast of Italy, a fleet of twenty ships had been stationed at Rhegium. The charge of the fleet and provisions was entrusted to Decius Quintius, a man of obscure birth, but who, by many brave actions, had acquired a large share of military fame. At first, he had only five ships, the largest of which were two triremes, given him by Marcellus; afterwards, when he was known to have behaved, on many occasions, with much spirit and bravery, he received a reinforcement of three quinqueremes; at last, he himself, by exacting from the confederate states of Rhegium, Velia, and Pæstum, the ships due by treaty, had made up a fleet of twenty sail, as abovementioned. Having, with this fleet, set sail from Rhegium, he was met at Sacriportus, about fifteen miles from the city, by Democrates, with an equal number of Tarentine ships. The Roman was coming to the relief of the garrison, not supposing it probable that he should meet an enemy; from Croton and Sybaris, however, he had furnished his ships with their full complement of rowers, and besides, considering the size of his vessels, they were exceedingly well equipped and armed. It so happened, that, just when the Tarentine came in sight, the wind entirely died away, a circumstance which gave him full time to adjust the rigging, and put the rowers and soldiers in readiness for the battle that was to follow. They engaged with a degree of ardour seldom shown by complete fleets, because the objects for which they contended were of more importance than the fleets themselves. The Tarentines, having recovered their city from the Romans, at the end of almost one hundred years, struggled now to diliver the city also from subjection; knowing that if, by the exertions of their fleet, they should take from the enemy the dominion of the sea, they would be thereby effectually excluded from even a distant hope of provisions: the Romans, on the other hand, laboured, by retaining possession of the citadel, to show the world, that the loss of the city was owing, not to the strength or valour of the assailants, but to artifice and treachery. The signal, then, being given on both sides, they charged each other with the beaks of their vessels, and none, during the conflict, either drew back his own ship, or suffered his adversary to get clear of him, but held it by throwing in an iron grapple; and thus the engagement became so close, that they fought, not only with missile weapons, but with swords, and almost hand to hand. The prows, being lashed together, remained unmoved, while the sterns were turned round by the force of their adversaries oars. The ships were crowded so close together, and within so narrow a place, that scarcely any weapon fell without effect into the sea. They pressed front against front, like lines of land forces, and the combatants could pass from one ship to another. But there was one conflict remarkable above the rest, between two which engaged in the van: in the Roman ship was Quintius himself; in the Tarentine, Nico, surnamed Perco, who bitterly hated, and was hated, by the Romans, not only in consequence of the public quarrel, but also of personal resentment, for he was one of that faction which had betrayed Tarentum to Hannibal. This man, while Quintius was encouraging his men, and, at the same time, fighting, and off his guard, darted a spear through his body, and he fell headlong, with his armour, into the sea: then the victorious Tarentine boldly leaped into the ship, where the loss of the commander had thrown all into confusion, and they quickly retired before him. The forepart of the ship was now in possession of the Tarentines, while the Romans, in a compact body, with difficulty defended the poop; when another trireme of the enemy suddenly appeared at the stern, and the Roman ship, thus inclosed between the two, was taken. The rest, on seeing this, were struck with dismay, and fled in different directions. Some were sunk in the deep, and others, being run aground by the rowers, soon became a prey to the Thurians and Metapontines. Of the store-ships, which followed with the provisions, a few fell into the enemy’s hands; the remainder stood away into the main, and escaped by shifting their sails with every change of the wind. In the meantime, the fortune of affairs at Tarentum was not at all the same: for a party, amounting to four thousand men, having gone out to forage, spreading themselves up and down the country, Livius, the commander of the Roman garrison, who carefully watched every opportunity of acting to advantage, sent out, from the citadel, Caius Persius, an active and brave officer, with two thousand soldiers. He fell upon the enemy while they were scattered widely, and in small parties; and, after continuing for a long time to cut them off, drove the small remainder of this large detachment to the city, where they were admitted through the gates half opened, lest the Romans should enter along with them, and become masters of it. Thus the affairs of Tarentum were equally balanced, the Romans being victorious on land, the Tarentines by sea. Both were disappointed alike in their hopes of provisions, even after they had actually come within their sight.
XL. About this time, after a great part of the year had elapsed, and he had been long wished for by both the old and new allies, the consul Lævinus arrived in Sicily, where he judged that the first and most material business to be done, was, the regulating the affairs of Syracuse, which had not yet been reduced into order in the short space since the late pacification. He then led his legions to Agrigentum, which was the only place still in arms, and held by a strong garrison of Carthaginians; and here fortune favoured his enterprize. The Carthaginians were commanded by Hanno, but placed their whole dependence on Mutines and the Numidians. The latter, making frequent excursions through every part of Sicily, carried off spoil from the allies of the Romans, and neither force nor art could shut him out from Agrigentum, nor hinder him from sallying forth whenever he thought proper. The high reputation which he thus acquired, as it obscured the fame of the commander in chief, excited his envy; so that even success, because obtained by his means, afforded but little pleasure to Hanno, who at last took from him his commission, and gave it to his own son, thinking that, by divesting him of the command, he should deprive him of his popularity among the Numidians. But the effect was widely different, for, by this discovery of his jealousy, he increased their attachment to Mutines, who did not tamely submit to the indignity of this undeserved ill-treatment, but quickly despatched secret emissaries to Lævinus, to treat about the surrender of the town. Through these, mutual assurances were given, and the method of accomplishing the business concerted; and then the Numidians, dislodging or killing the guards, seized a gate which opened towards the sea, and received a party of Romans sent thither for the purpose. When these were already marching into the heart of the city and the Forum, with much noise and tumult, Hanno, thinking that it was nothing more than such a disturbance and secession of the Numidians as had happened before, came out to quell the mutiny: but observing, at a distance, that the number was greater than that of those forces, and hearing the Roman shout, with which he was not unacquainted, he resolved, before he came within reach of their weapons, to betake himself to flight. Getting out of the town at an opposite gate, he took Epicydes with him, and came with a small number to the sea side. There they luckily found a bark, and abandoning to the enemy the island of Sicily, about which a contest had been maintained through so many years, passed over to Africa. The rest of the Carthaginians and Sicilians attempted to fly with blind precipitation, but the gates being closed, they were cut to pieces. Lævinus, on gaining possession of the town, scourged and beheaded those who had been in the management of the affairs of Agrigentum: the rest he sold, together with the spoil, and remitted all the money to Rome. Accounts of the sufferings of the Agrigentines spreading through all Sicily, produced at once a general revolution in favour of the Romans. In a short time, twenty towns were betrayed to them, six taken by storm, and forty put themselves under their protection by voluntary surrender. To the leading men in these states the consul dispensed rewards and punishments according to the merits and demerits of each; and having compelled the Sicilians at length to lay aside arms, and turn their thoughts to agriculture, that the island might, from its fertile soil, not only afford plenty of subsistence to the inhabitants, but, as it had done on many occasions formerly, contribute supplies of provisions to Rome, and even to all Italy, he left Sicily, carrying with him a large multitude from Agathyrna. This was a motley rabble, four thousand in number, composed of vagabonds of every description, exiles, and bankrupts, the greater part guilty of capital crimes, who, even when they lived in their native countries under the government of laws, and afterwards, when a similarity of condition, arising from various causes, had drawn them together to Agathyrna, always supported themselves by robberies and rapines. Such men as these, so likly to excite new disturbances, the consul thought it unsafe to leave behind, in an island which had but just then obtained rest from intestine wars, and where the people were but beginning to unite on the terms of concord established by the late pacification: besides, they might prove useful to the people of Rhegeum, who wanted a band trained to robberies, for the purpose of ravaging the territories of Bruttium. Thus, so far as concerned Sicily, this year put an end to hostilities.
XLI. In Spain, Publius Scipio, as soon as the spring appeared, launched his ships; summoned to Tarraco, by an edict, the auxiliary troops of the allies, and then directed the fleets and transports to proceed to the mouth of the river Iberus. This place he also appointed for the meeting of the legions whom he ordered out of winter quarters; and he himself, attended by five thousand men of the allied troops, set out from Tarraco to join the army. When he arrived at the camp, thinking it proper to say something encouraging to the soldiers, particularly those who had been longest in the province, and had survived so many and so great disasters, he called them together, and addressed them in this manner: “Never has there been a new commander, except myself, who could, with justice and propriety, give thanks to his soldiers before he had employed them. Fortune laid me under obligations to you ere I saw your camp, or knew my province; first, because you showed such dutiful respect to my father and uncle during their lives, and since their deaths; and next, because, when the possession of the province had been lost by a dreadful calamity, you recovered it by your bravery, and have preserved it entire for the Roman people, and for me who succeed to the command. But as, through the bounty of the gods, the design of our present proceedings is not to maintain our own footing in Spain, but to deprive the Carthaginians of all footing in it; not to stand on the bank of the Iberus, and hinder the enemy from passing it, but to pass over ourselves, and carry the war to the other side, I fear lest, to some of you, the undertaking may seem too great and too bold, considering the remembrance of our late misfortunes, and my early time of life. There is no person living, from whose memory the defeats in Spain can less be obliterated than from mine; for there my father and uncle lost their lives within the space of thirty days; so that funerals in our family followed one another in quick succession. But while the disaster which bereft our house of parents: and left me almost the only surviving member of it, depresses my mind with grief, still the fortunes of our nation, and its courageous spirit, forbid me to despair of the public welfare. It is the lot assigned to us, by some kind of fatality, that, in all important wars, we should pass through defeat to victory. Omitting instances in ancient times, the case of Porsena, the Gauls, and the Samnites, I shall begin with the Punic wars. In the last, how many fleets, how many generals, how many armies, were lost? Need I mention the like events during the present war? At all the defeats I was either present in person, or lamented more deeply than any other, those from which I was absent. The Trebia, the Trasimenus, Cannæ, what are they but monuments of Roman consuls and armies slain? Then the defection of Italy, of the greater part of Sicily, of Sardinia; the extreme terror and affright, when Hannibal’s camp was pitched between the Anio and the walls of Rome, and that victorious commander was seen at our very gates. But amidst this general ruin of affairs, the courage of the Roman people alone stood unshaken and immoveable. This, when all our hopes lay prostrate on the ground, raised and supported them. And first of all, you, soldiers, under the conduct and auspices of my father, withstood Hasdrubal, when, after the defeat at Cannæ, he was on his way to the Alps and to Italy; where, if he had effected a junction with his brother, the Roman name would not now have been in existence: but the successes obtained here have counterbalanced the losses sustained in other places. At present, through the good favour of the gods, affairs in Italy and Sicily are in a prosperous train, daily improving, and wearing a more favourable aspect. In Sicily, Syracuse and Agrigentum have been taken; the enemy entirely expelled the island, and the province restored to the dominion of the Roman people. In Italy, Arpi has been recovered, Capua taken; Hannibal, after a disorderly flight, through his whole route from the city of Rome, has been obliged to retreat into the remotest corner of Bruttium, where he prays to the gods for nothing more than that he may be permitted to withdraw in safety, and quit the land of his enemy. Could there then, soldiers, be a greater inconsistency, than that, when disasters were thus crowded one upon another, and the gods themselves seemed, in a manner, to take part with Hannibal, you, with my parents, (for I will mention both under the same revered name,) supported here the tottering fortune of the Roman people; and that now when, in other quarters, every event is prosperous and joyful, you should let your courage sink? As to the events which have lately happened, I wish they had passed without giving me more cause of mourning than they have given you. Now, however, the immortal gods, the guardians of the Roman empire, who inspired all the centuries with the resolution of offering the command to be given to me, by their auguries and auspices, and by visions in the night, portend all prosperity and joy. My own mind, likewise, which has hitherto been my surest prophet, presages that Spain is to be ours; that the whole Carthaginian race will soon be banished hence, and spread themselves over the lands and seas in their ignominious flight. What my mind prognosticates from its own feelings, the same is suggested by reason, and supported by arguments of no delusive nature. Their allies, disgusted by their ill-treatment, send ambassadors to implore our protection; their three commanders, having quarrelled to such a degree as almost to come to open hostilities, have divided their army into three parts, and drawn these asunder into countries the most remote from each other. The same fortune now impends over them which formerly crushed us; for they are deserted by their confederates, as we were formerly by the Celtiberians; and they have divided their forces, which was the cause of destruction to my father and uncle. Intestine discord will hinder them from acting together again; nor will they, separately, be able to resist us. Only do you, soldiers, preserve your attachment to the name of Scipio, to the offspring of your own commanders; a branch, as it were, shooting forth from the trunks which have been felled. You, veteran soldiers, lead your new commander, and your young associates, over the Iberus; lead us into those lands where you have often marked your route with many deeds of valour. Trust me, you shall soon find, that the resemblance which you suppose you see in me to my father and uncle, is not confined to figure, countenance, and features; but that I inherit no small portion of their capacity, their honour, and their courage; these you shall find so faithfully copied from the original, that every man of you shall say, that his own commander, Scipio, has either returned to life, or has been born again.”
XLII. Having, by this discourse, animated the courage of his men, and leaving three thousand foot and three hundred horse, under Marcus Silanus, for the defence of the province, he marched the rest of his forces, which amounted to twenty-five thousand foot, and two thousand five hundred horse, over the Iberus. Although many now advised, that, as the Carthaginian armies were separated at so great distances, he should attack the one that lay nearest; yet, apprehending that such a step would probably make them all reunite, and that he should not, alone, be able to cope with the three armies, he determined, for the present, to employ his forces in an attack on New Carthage, a city which possessed great wealth of its own, and was besides, at that time, filled with the enemy’s magazines of every kind for the use of the war; there were lodged their arms, their money, and the hostages from all the states of Spain. It was, also, most conveniently situated for a passage into Africa, having a harbour sufficiently capacious for any fleet whatever, and, there is reason to think, the only one in all that tract of the Spanish coast that joins our sea. No one in the whole army knew the destination of its march except Caius Lælius. He was sent round with the fleet, and ordered so to regulate the sailing of it, that the army should come within view, and the ships enter the harbour, at the same point of time. On the seventh day after leaving the Iberus, the fleet and army arrived, as had been concerted, at Carthage; the camp was pitched on the northern side of the city, and a rampart was thrown up on the rear of it, the front being secured by the nature of the ground. The situation of Carthage is this: about the middle of the coast of Spain is a bay, which is open to the south-west wind more than to any other, and stretches inland two thousand five hundred paces, spreading in breadth to an extent somewhat greater. In the mouth of this bay lies a small island, which breaks the force of the sea, and renders the harbour secure from all winds except the south-west: from the bottom of the bay there runs out a peninsula, consisting of high land, on which the city is built, and this is surrounded on the east and south by the sea; on the west it is inclosed by a morass, which spreads a little way towards the north, and whose depth is variable according as the sea overflows or ebbs. The city is connected with the continent by an isthmus, about two hundred and fifty paces broad; on which, though a fortification would have cost but little labour, the Roman general did not raise any, choosing either to mortify the enemy by this display of confidence, or, as he would often have occasion to advance to the walls, to have a retreat open.
XLIII. When he had completed his works in those parts which required defence, he drew up the ships in the harbour in order of battle, with intent to dispirit the enemy with the sight of a marine force also to be employed against the town; then going round the fleet in a boat, he charged the commanders to keep the night-watches with great care, because an enemy, when he is first besieged, is apt to make every effort in every quarter. He then went back to the camp, and wishing to explain to the soldiers his reason for preferring this plan of opening the campaign with the siege of a town, and by exhortations to inspire them with hopes of reducing it, he called them to an assembly, and spoke to this effect: “Soldiers, if any man among you shall suppose that you have been brought hither for the sole purpose of attacking a single city, he will judge merely from the work in which you are employed, without taking into calculation the advantages to accrue from it. For you will, in fact, attack the walls of one city: but, in that one city, you will capture all Spain. Here are the hostages of all her illustrious kings and states; and, as soon as these shall be in your power, they will instantly deliver up to our disposal every thing which is now under subjection to the Carthaginians. Here is deposited the enemy’s treasure, without which they cannot proceed in the war, having mercenary troops to maintain; and which, at the same time, will be most serviceable to us, as the means of conciliating the friendship of the barbarians. Here are their engines, arms, accoutrements, and all their warlike stores, which, while they answer our purposes, will leave the enemy destitute. Besides, we shall gain possession of a city of distinguished beauty and opulence, and highly convenient to us on account of its excellent harbour, by means of which we can have constant supplies, both from sea and land, of every thing requisite for the maintenance of the war. And while we acquire to ourselves these great advantages, we shall at the same time strip the enemy of much greater. This is their grand fortress; this their granary, their treasury, their armory; this is the repository of all their wealth. Hence there is a direct passage into Africa; this is the only station for a fleet between the Pyrenees and Gades, and from hence Africa spreads its terror over all Spain. But as I perceive that you are arrayed and marshalled for action, let us pass on, and assault New Carthage with our whole strength, with confidence and courage.” To this they all replied with a loud voice, “that they would do so;” and he immediately led them to the city, giving orders for the assault both by sea and land.
XLIV. On the other side Mago, the commander of the Carthaginians, when he saw the preparations for an assault going forward both on land and sea, disposed his forces in the following manner: opposite to the Roman camp he drew up two thousand of the townsmen; the citadel he garrisoned with five hundred soldiers, and five hundred others he placed on a high part of the city, towards the east; the rest of the troops he ordered to watch carefully every occurrence, and to hasten to whatever spot the shout, or sudden exigencies, might call them. Then, opening the gate, he sent out those whom he had formed in the street leading towards the Roman camp. The Romans, by direction of the general himself, drew back a little, that by being near their camp they might the more easily receive reinforcements during the engagement. At the beginning, both parties stood their ground, with little advantage on either side; but, after some time, the reinforcements continually sent from the camp not only drove back the enemy, but pressed them so close, while they fled in disorder, that had not a retreat been sounded, they would probably have rushed into the city intermixed with the fugitives. Nor was the consternation greater in the field than in every part of the city; in many places the troops in a panic abandoned their posts and fled, and the walls were left defenceless, those who ought to guard them having leaped down wherever they found a way. Scipio, going up on an eminence called Mercury’s Hill, observed this their state, on which he ordered all his men to be called out from the camp, to bring scaling-ladders, and advance to the assault. He himself, covered by the shields of three able young men, because weapons of all kinds were now cast from the place in vast numbers, came up close to the works, encouraged his men and gave the necessary orders. But what contributed above all to inflame the courage of the soldiers, was his being thus an immediate spectator and witness of the bravery or cowardice of every one of them. They rushed forward, therefore, regardless of the enemy, or of the wounds inflicted by them; nor could the walls, or the armed troops with which they were now lined, deter them from mounting with eager emulation. At the same time an assault commenced from the ships on that quarter of the town which is washed by the sea. But here, though a great alarm was raised, little effectual exertion could be made; because, while the men brought in the boats to the shore, while they hastily landed the soldiers and scaling-ladders, and while every one pressed forward to the land by the speediest way, through their own hurry and impatience they obstructed one another.
XLV. In the mean time the Carthaginian general had again filled the walls with numerous troops, and great abundance of weapons, brought out from their immense magazines, lay in heaps ready for use. But neither men nor weapons, nor any thing else, proved such an effectual defence as the walls themselves: for they were of such a height, that few of the ladders could reach the summit, and the longer any of these were, the weaker they were in proportion: as those, then, who had mounted to the top could not advance, and others nevertheless climbed up after them, the ladders were broken by their weight. In several cases, where the the ladders stood upright, the men, on rising to so great a height, were seized with giddiness, and fell to the ground. While men and ladders were every where falling in this manner, and the enemy, from success, assumed more boldness and alacrity, the signal for retreat was given. This afforded hopes to the besieged, not only of present rest after such a laborious contest, but also of future safety; as it made them imagine that their city was impregnable by scalade and assault, and that their works were so difficult to be surmounted, that they would always give time to their commanders to bring up forces to their relief. Scarcely had the noise of the first tumult subsided, when Scipio ordered other men, who were fresh and unfatigued, to take the ladders from the weary and wounded, and to renew the assault with additional vigour. Being told at this juncture that the tide was ebbing, and having before learned from some fishermen of Tarraco, (who used to pass through the morass in light boats, and, when these ran aground, by wading,) that footmen might easily find a passage to the wall, he in person led five hundred soldiers thither. It was now about mid-day, and, besides the water being naturally drawn off into the sea by the reflux of the tide, a brisk northerly wind arising, carried the water along, in the same direction with the tide, and had rendered it so shallow, that in some places it reached only to the navel, in others scarcely to the knees. This circumstance, discovered in reality by his own diligence and sagacity, Scipio attributed, as a prodigy, to the interposition of the gods, who, to give a passage to the Romans, changed the course of the sea, and removed morasses, opening ways never before trodden by human foot. Impressing this on his men, he bade them follow Neptune, who acted as their guide, and make their way to the wall through the middle of the swamp.
XLVI. On the land part, the assailants had a most laborious task. The height of the walls was not the only obstruction that they met, for, as the enemy had the Romans below them, they could aim their blows against either of their sides as they came up; so that, while they were climbing, these were more endangered than the fronts of their bodies. But, in the other quarter, the five hundred found no difficulty either in crossing the morass, or mounting the rampart: for neither was that side strengthened by any work, being deemed sufficiently secure by the nature of the ground and the marsh, nor was there any party of soldiers or guard stationed at it, because all were intent on bringing succour to the place where the danger appeared. Entering the city, therefore, without opposition, they proceeded with the utmost speed to the gate; at which the whole contest was maintained; and so intent on this dispute were, not only the minds of all, but likewise the eyes and ears of the combatants, and of the people who looked on and encouraged them, that no one perceived that the enemy had entered the place, until their weapons came pouring on their backs, and they found themselves between the two forces. The garrison were so affrighted and confounded, that they were no longer capable of making a defence. The walls were seized by the Romans, who, both within and without, applied themselves to the breaking open the gate, and this being soon cut to pieces, so as to leave a clear passage, the troops marched in to the attack. By this time, great numbers had got in by scaling the walls, and these employed themselves every where in killing the townsmen. Those who had entered by the opening, composing a regular body, under their officers, and maintaining their ranks, proceeded through the heart of the city into the Forum. Scipio, perceiving that the enemy fled hence by two different ways; some towards the hill, which lay eastward, and was defended by a garrison of five hundred men, others to the citadel, into which Mago himself had retired, with almost all the soldiers who had been beaten off from the walls, sent one half of his forces to storm the hill, and led himself the other half against the citadel. The hill was taken at the first attack. Mago attempted at first to defend the citadel, but soon seeing every place filled with the enemy, and that no hope remained, surrendered himself, the citadel, and garrison. Until the citadel was surrendered, the soldiers had continued to put the townsmen to the sword in every quarter, nor did they spare any adult who fell in their way; but then, on a signal given, they desisted from shedding blood, and, being now completely victorious, they turned themselves to the collecting of the plunder, the quantity of which, of all sorts, was immense.
XLVII. The males of free condition taken prisoners amounted to ten thousand; of these, such as were citizens of New Carthage he discharged, and restored to them the city, and all their effects, which the war had not consumed. There were two thousand artisans, whom he adjudged to be the public property of the Roman people, giving them hopes of speedily regaining their liberty, provided they worked industriously in the service of the army. Of the rest of the multitude, all the younger inhabitants, and the able-bodied slaves, he sent to fill up the numbers of rowers in his fleet, which he augmented with eight ships captured here. Besides all these, were found the hostages of the Spanish states, who were treated with as much care and attention, as if they had been the children of allies. The quantity of military stores taken was exceedingly great; catapultas, of the larger size, one hundred and twenty, of the smaller, two hundred and eighty-one; ballistas, large, twenty-three, small, fifty-two; of scorpions, large and small, and of arms and missive weapons, a vast number; military standards, seventy-four. Of gold and silver also, a prodigious mass was brought in to the general; there were two hundred and seventy-six golden bowls, every one of them almost of a pound weight; of silver, wrought and coined, eighteen thousand three hundred pounds weight, and of silver utensils a prodigious number. All these articles were weighed and reckoned to the quæstor Caius Flaminius; besides forty thousand pecks of wheat, and two hundred and seventy thousand of barley. One hundred and thirteen storeships were boarded and taken in the harbour, several of them with their cargoes, consisting of corn and arms: likewise brass, iron, canvass, hemp, and other materials proper for equipping a fleet: so that, among such vast stores of every thing useful in war, Carthage itself was the least valuable acquisition.
XLVIII. Scipio, ordering Caius Lælius, with the marines, to guard the city, led back the legions into their camp. As the soldiers were much fatigued by having gone through, in one day, every different kind of fight; for they had engaged the enemy in the field, had undergone great labour and danger in storming the city, and, after it was taken, had fought on disadvantageous ground with those who had taken refuge in the citadel; he directed them to employ the remainder of that day in taking refreshment and rest. On the day following, having called together both the land and the naval forces, he began with returning praise and thanks to the immortal gods, who had “not only, in the space of one day, given him possession of the most opulent city in all Spain, but had previously amassed in it the greatest part of the wealth of that country, and of Africa also, so that no resources were now left to the enemy, while he and his army had a superfluity of all things.” He then highly commended the courageous behaviour of the soldiers, observing, that “neither the force sent out against them, nor the height of the walls, nor the unexplored fords of the morass, nor a fort seated on a steep hill, nor the citadel, though most strongly fortified, had deterred them from surmounting and breaking through every obstacle. Wherefore, though he owed every acknowledgment to them all, nevertheless the person who first mounted the wall was entitled to the peculiar honour of a mural crown;” and he desired that he who thought himself deserving of that present should claim it. Two claimants appeared, Quintus Trebellius, a centurion of the fourth legion, and Sextus Digitius, one of the marines: but the warmth with which they themselves supported their pretensions was far inferior to the eager zeal which each excited in his favour among the corps to which he belonged. Caius Lælius, commander of the fleet, favoured the marines, Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus the legionaries. This contention threatening at length to end in a mutiny, Scipio published notice, that he appoint three delegates, who, after examining the merits of the case, and hearing witnesses, should determine which had made his way first into the town. Accordingly, he named Caius Lælius and Marcus Sempronius advocates for the contending parties, with Publius Cornelius Caudinus, a person uninterested in the cause, as umpire: and ordered these three delegates to sit and determine in it. But the dispute was now maintained with greater violence than ever, in consequence of those men of high rank, who had acted, not as advocates, but as moderators in the case, being thus excluded. Wherefore Caius Lælius, quitting the court, went up to the tribunal to Scipio, and told him, that “the proceedings of parties surpassed all bounds of temperance and moderation, insomuch that they hardly refrained from blows. But, though no violence should ensue, nevertheless such conduct afforded an ill example; as, in this case, the honour due to merit was sought by one or other through the means of fraud and falsehood. On this side stood the legionary soldiers, on that the marines, both ready to swear, by all the gods, rather what they wished, than what they knew to be true; and to involve in the crime of perjury not only themselves in their own persons, but the military standards and eagles, and the sacred word of a soldier:” he added, that “he brought him this information at the desire of Publius Cornelius and Marcus Sempronius.” Scipio, highly approving of Lælius’s conduct, summoned a general assembly, and there pronounced judgment, that “having received sufficient proof that Quintus Trebellius and Sextus Digitius gained the top of the wall at the same time, in acknowledgment of their bravery he bestowed mural crowns on both.” He then bestowed gifts on the rest, in proportion to their courage and merit: above all, he honoured Caius Lælius, commander of the fleet, with every encomium of the highest kind that could have been paid to himself, and presented him besides, with a golden crown and thirty oxen.
XLIX. He then ordered the hostages of the Spanish states to be called. What the number of these was, I will not presume to affirm; for I find, in some writers, that they were about three hundred, in others, seven hundred and twenty-five. Authors differ as much in respect of other particulars; the Carthaginian garrison, one writer says, amounted to ten thousand men; another to seven, another to no more than two thousand. In some accounts ten thousand prisoners are said to have been taken, in others above twenty-five thousand. I should set down the scorpions, great and small, that were taken at sixty, if I were to follow the Greek historian Silenus; if Valerius Antias, at six thousand greater, and thirteen thousand smaller; so contradictory are the several accounts. Nay, they do not even agree as to the commanding officer. The greater number affirm that Caius Lælius had charge of the fleet, while there are some who assign it to Marcus Junius Silanus. Valerius Antias tells us, that it was Armes who commanded the Carthaginian garrison, and who surrendered to the Romans; other writers assert that it was Mago. They vary in the number of the ships taken, in the weight of the gold and silver, and of the money brought into the public treasury. If we are not to remain in a state of doubt, but must believe some or other of their accounts, those which hold the mean, between the highest and the lowest, are most likely to be true. Scipio, however, when the hostages were called before him, first desired them not to be dispirited; for “they had come into the power of the Roman people, whose wish it always was to bind all to them by kindness, rather than by fear; and to have foreign nations united to them in good faith and amicable alliance, and not in a state of oppression and gloomy servitude.” He then took an account of the prisoners, distinguishing the number belonging to the several states, to each of which he sent expresses, desiring them to come and receive their respective hostages: some of whom, however, as their ambassadors happened to be present, he restored on the spot; ordering the quæstor, Caius Flaminius, to take care that the rest should be kindly treated. There now came forward from among the crowd of hostages, a woman far advanced in years, the wife of Mandonius, brother to Indibilis, the chieftain of the Illergetians: she threw herself at the general’s feet, and with tears besought him to give the guards more strict injunctions respecting the care and treatment to be shown to the women. Scipio assuring her that they should not want any kind of accommodation, she replied, “Those are not matters about which we are much solicitous: for what accommodation can be considered as insufficient for persons in our situation? Anxiety of a very different kind rends my heart, when I consider the age of these young persons; for as to myself, I am now beyond any danger of those injuries to which our sex is liable.” On each side of her stood the daughters of Indibilis, in the bloom of youth and beauty, and several others of equal distinction, by all of whom she was revered as a parent. Scipio answered, “Out of regard to myself, and out of regard to the Roman discipline, I should take care that no right, any where deemed sacred, should suffer violation from us. In the present case, the virtue and merit of women of such distinction as you are, who, in the midst of misfortunes, forget not the delicacy of character becoming the most respectable of your sex, demand from me an extraordinary degree of attention.” He then gave them in charge to a person on whose strict regularity of conduct he could entirely rely, and gave him a particular charge that they should be treated with all the respect and decency due to the wives and mothers of guests.
L. The soldiers afterwards brought to him, as a prisoner, a damsel of such exquisite beauty, that she attracted the eyes of all. Scipio, on making inquiries concerning her country and parents, discovered, among other particulars, that she was betrothed to a young prince of the Celtiberians, named Allucius. He therefore immediately summoned from home her parents, and affianced husband; and when the latter arrived, having, in the mean time, heard that he was most passionately enamoured of his intended bride, he addressed his discourse to him more particularly than to the lady’s parents: “A young man myself,” said he, “I address myself to a young man, that there may be the less reserve in our conversation on this occasion. When your mistress, being taken by our soldiers, was brought to me, and I was told of the very great affection you have for her, which indeed her beauty made me readily believe, I considered that, in my own case, if my thoughts were not totally engrossed by the affairs of the public, and I were at liberty to indulge the pleasurable pursuits adapted to my time of life, especially in a lawful and honourable love, I should wish that my affection for my intended bride, though warm even to a degree of extravagance, should yet be viewed with an indulgent eye; and I therefore resolved, in your case, where no tie of duty confines me, to do all in my power in favour of your passion. Your beloved, while in my care, has been treated with as respectful an attention as she could have met with, had she been in the house of your father and mother-in-law, her own parents. She has been preserved in perfect safety, that I might be able to present her to you, her purity unspotted, a gift worthy of me to bestow, and of you to receive. The only return I require for a present of such value, is, that you be a friend to the Roman people; and that, if you believe me to be a man of worth, such as these nations have heretofore known my father and my uncle, you be assured that there are, in the Roman state, great numbers of men like themselves; and that no nation at this day on earth can be named, which you ought less to choose as an enemy to you and yours, or whose friendship you ought more ardently to desire.” The youth, overwhelmed at once with joy and diffidence, and holding Scipio’s right hand, invoked all the gods to recompense on his behalf, such exalted goodness; since his own ability was utterly disproportioned, either to his own wishes, or his benefactor’s generosity. Scipio then accosted, in friendly terms, the parents and relations of the young woman, who, having brought with them a very large weight of gold to purchase her liberty, on her being restored to them without ransom, earnestly besought him to accept it from them, assuring him, that they should deem themselves as much obliged by his compliance, as by the restoration of their child in safety. Unwilling to reject such pressing solicitations, he ordered it to be laid at his feet; then, calling, Allucius to him, he said, “Besides the dowry which you are to receive from your father-in-law, you must take also this marriage-present from me,” bidding him carry away the gold, and keep it to himself. Overjoyed by these honours and presents, the young man was dismissed to his home, where he filled the ears of his countrymen with the well-merited praises of Scipio. “A god-like youth,” he said, “had come among them; subduing all, not by the power of his arms only, but by his goodness and magnanimity.” Full of such sentiments, he made a levy among his dependents, and, within a few days, returned to Scipio with one thousand four hundred chosen horsemen.
LI. Scipio kept Lælius with him to assist with his advice in disposing of the prisoners, hostages, and booty; and when all these matters were properly adjusted, he gave him a quinquereme, and, ordering him to take on board Mago and fifteen senators of Old Carthage, who had been made prisoners at the same time, sent him to Rome with the news of his success. The few days which he had resolved to pass at Carthage he employed in exercising both his land and naval forces. On the first day, the legions made excursions, and evolutions under arms, through a space of four miles; on the second, he ordered them to review and scour their arms before their respective tents; on the third, forming opposite parties, they engaged each other, in a manner representing a regular battle, but with blunted weapons, and throwing the like kind of darts. On the fourth they were allowed to rest, and, on the fifth, the rovings commenced again. This regular succession of labour and rest, they kept up as long as they remained at Carthage. In calm weather, the rowers and marines pushing out to sea, made trial, in mock sea-fights, of the activity of their ships. Such was their employment on the outside of the walls, and these exercises on land and sea qualified both their minds and bodies for real action. Within, all parts of the city resounded with warlike preparations, workmen of every kind being collected together in a public arsenal. The general attended to every particular with equal care: at one time he was busy in the fleet and dock-yard; at another, he headed the legions in their excursions; again, he employed his time in overseeing the works, which were carried on, with great diligence and emulation, by a multitude of workmen in the arsenals, armory, and dock-yards, and great numbers of necessary articles finished every day. Having thus set on foot these preparations, repaired the breaches in the walls, and established posts for the guard of the city, he set out for Tarraco, and, on his way thither, received as he went along a great number of embassies. Some of these he answered on the road, and dismissed; others he adjourned to Tarraco, where he had appointed a general meeting of all the allies both new and old. Accordingly, this meeting was attended by almost every state on the hither-side of the Iberus, and also by many from the farther Spain. The Carthaginian generals, at first, carefully suppressed the intelligence of Carthage being taken; afterwards, when that event became too notorious to be any longer concealed or dissembled, they affected to speak of it with little concern. They said, that “by an unexpected attack, and the efforts of one day, one city in Spain had been surprized and taken in a manner by stealth: that an inexperienced youth, elated by the acquisition of a prize of but little consequence, had, by his immoderate joy, imposed on it the appearance of an important victory; but as soon as he should hear that three generals, and three armies of his enemies, all flushed with victory, were marching towards him, he would quickly be struck with the recollection of the deaths which had happened in his family.” Such was their language in public, while they themselves were fully sensible how great a diminution their strength had suffered in every particular by the loss of Carthage.
* He would have lost all authority on coming into the city: for within the walls, a proconsul had no jurisdiction. Whenever, therefore, a proconsul obtained a triumph or an ovation it was necessary to procure an order of the people, investing him with the authority of a magistrate during that day.
* 61l. 11s. 8d.
* This was the famous Palladium, said to have been brought by Æneas from Troy, and preserved, with most religious care, in the temple of Vesta. What it was, (so sacredly was it kept from the public eye,) no one ever certainly knew: supposing it however, to have resembled the one stolen by Diomede and Ulysses, as mentioned by Sinon in the Ænead, then it must have been an image of Minerva, armed.
* 16l. 2s. 12d.
Cneius Fulvius, proconsul, defeated by Hannibal, and slain: the consul Claudius Marcellus, engages him, with better success. Hannibal, raising his camp, retires; Marcellus pursues, and forces him to an engagement. They fight twice: in the first battle Hannibal gains the advantage; in the second, Marcellus. Tarentum betrayed to Fabius Maximus, the consul. Scipio engages with Hasdrubal, the son of Hamilcar, at Bætula, in Spain, and defeats him. Among other prisoners, a youth of royal race, and exquisite beauty, is taken; Scipio sets him free, and sends him, enriched with magnificent presents, to his uncle Masinissa. Marcellus and Quintus Crispinus, consuls, drawn into an ambuscade by Hannibal: Marcellus is slain; Crispinus escapes. Operations by Publius Sulpicius, prætor, against Philip and the Achæans. A census held: the number of citizens found to amount to one hundred and thirty-seven thousand one hundred and eight: from which it appears how great a loss they had sustained by the number of unsuccessful battles they had of late been engaged in. Hasdrubal, who had crossed the Alps with a reinforcement for Hannibal, defeated by the consuls Marcus Livius and Claudius Nero, and slain; with him fell fifty-six thousand men.
Y.R. 542. 210.I. SUCH was the state of affairs in Spain. In Italy, the consul Marcellus, after regaining possession of Salapia, which was betrayed into his hands, took, by storm, Maronea and Meles, cities belonging to the Samnites. He made prisoners three thousand of Hannibal’s soldiers, left in garrison; the booty, which was considerable, was given up to the soldiers. Here were found, also, two hundred and forty thousand pecks of wheat, and one hundred and ten thousand of barley. But the joy occasioned hereby was much less than the grief felt for an overthrow a few days after, near the city of Herdonea. Cneius Fulvius, proconsul, lay there encamped, in hopes of recovering that city, which, after the defeat at Cannæ, had revolted from the Romans; but his post was neither strong by nature, nor secured by proper guards. The negligence natural to that commander’s disposition was increased by perceiving that the inhabitants, as soon as they heard that Hannibal, after the loss of Salapia, had withdrawn from that part of the country into Bruttium, began to waver in their attachment to the Carthaginians. Intelligence of all these particulars was conveyed to Hannibal by private messengers from Herdonea; and, while it made him anxious to preserve an allied city, at the same time inspired hopes of attacking the enemy unprepared. With his troops, therefore, lightly equipped for expedition, he hastened to Herdonea by such long marches, that he almost anticipated the report of his approach; and, to strike the greater terror, he advanced in order of battle. The Roman commander, fully equal to him in boldness, but inferior in judgment and strength, hastily led out his forces, and engaged him. The fifth legion, and the left wing of allied infantry, commenced the fight with vigour. But Hannibal gave directions to his cavalry, that, as soon as the lines of infantry should have their thoughts and eyes entirely occupied on the contest between themselves, they should ride round; that one half of them should fall on the enemy’s camp, and the other on the rear of their troops that were engaged. With a sneer on the name of Fulvius, he assured them, that, as he had utterly defeated him in the same country two years before, the present battle would have a similar issue. Nor was this expectation ill-grounded: for, after many of the Romans had fallen, in the close conflict between the lines of infantry (the companies and battalions nevertheless still maintaining their ground), the tumult raised by the cavalry in the rear, and the enemy’s shout from the camp, which was heard at the same time, put to flight the sixth legion, which, being posted in the second line, was thrown into disorder by the Numidians; as were afterwards the fifth, and those in the van. Some fled in hurry and confusion, the rest were surrounded and slain; among whom fell Cneius Fulvius himself, with eleven military tribunes. How many thousands of the Romans and allies were slain in that battle, who can positively affirm, when I find in some historians thirteen thousand? The conqueror possessed himself of the camp and the spoil. Having discovered that Herdonea was disposed to revolt to the Romans, and would not continue faithful to him after his departure, he removed the inhabitants to Metapontum and Thurium, and burned the city to the ground. The leaders of the party, who were found to have held secret conference with Fulvius, he put to death. The Romans who escaped the slaughter of this disastrous day, fled, half-armed, by different roads into Samnium, to the consul Marcellus.
II. Marcellus, not too much dismayed by so great a disaster, wrote to Rome to the senate an account of the general and army being lost at Herdonea; adding, that, notwithstanding this misfortune, “he, who had quelled the haughty spirit of Hannibal, when his confidence was at the highest, in consequence of his victory at Cannæ, was now going against him, with the same degree of resolution, and would take effectual care that his present joy and exultation should be short.” At Rome, as people’s grief for the past was great, so were their fears of the future. The consul, passing over from Samnium into Lucania, pitched his camp at Numistro, on level ground, within view of Hannibal, who was posted on a hill. He gave, besides, another proof of confidence in his own strength, for he was the first to offer battle. Nor did Hannibal, on seeing the standards advance through the gates, decline the challenge. However, they drew up their forces in such a manner, that the right wing of the Carthaginians stretched up the hill, and the left wing of the Romans was brought close to the town. From the third hour, the action had lasted until night, and the fatigue of fighting for such a length of time had overpowered the foremost lines, consisting, on the side of the Romans, of the first legion and the right wing of allies; on Hannibal’s side, of the Spanish infantry, Balearick slingers, and the elephants, which, at the beginning of the engagement, had been brought into the field. And now the fight flagged for a considerable time, neither party having gained any advantage, when the third legion advanced into the place of the first, and the left wing of the allies into that of the right; on the side of the enemy, likewise, the wearied were relieved by fresh troops. On this, both parties being in full spirits and vigour, instead of the former languid efforts, a furious conflict at once arose; but night separated the combatants before the victory could be decided. Next morning, the Romans stood, in order of battle, from sunrise, during a great part of the day, and none of the enemy coming out to face them, gathered the spoils at their leisure, and collecting the bodies of the slain into one spot, burned them on a funeral pile. In the following night, Hannibal decamped in silence, and marched off towards Apulia; but, as soon as day-light discovered the enemy’s flight, Marcellus, leaving his wounded at Numistro, with a small garrison, the command of which he gave to Lucius Furius Purpureo, a military tribune, set out immediately in close pursuit, and overtook him at Venusia. Here, during several days, many skirmishes happened between parties sallying from the outposts, in which infantry and cavalry were intermixed, and which produced more noise and tumult than real advantage to either side; but which, in general, terminated in favour of the Romans. From thence the two armies marched through Apulia without any engagement of consequence; for Hannibal seeking opportunities for stratagems, removed always by night, Marcellus never following but in clear day-light, and after having carefully examined the country through which he was to pass.
III. Meanwhile, as Flaccus was spending much time at Capua, in selling the property of the nobility, and setting to farm the forfeited estates, all of which he let for a rent of corn, he was furnished with a fresh occasion for practising severity on the Campanians; for he received certain information of a wicked scheme, of an extraordinary nature, which had for some time been hatching in secret. Having removed the soldiers out of the houses, for two reasons, first, because he chose that the houses of the city should be held along with the lands; and, next, because he feared lest excessive luxury might enervate his army, as it had that of Hannibal, he had made them build huts for themselves, in the military manner, near the gates and walls. Now most of these were formed of hurdles, or boards, some of reeds interwoven, and all of them covered with straw, as if purposely intended for combustion. One hundred and seventy Campanians, at the head of whom were two brothers, of the name of Blosius had conspired to set fire to all these, at one hour of the night. But the design was discovered by some slaves belonging to the Blosii, whereupon, the gates being instantly shut by order of the proconsul, and the soldiers having, on the signal being given, assembled under arms, all who were concerned in the conspiracy were seized, and after undergoing a severe examination by torture, condemned and put to death. The informers were rewarded with their freedom, and ten thousand asses* each. The Nucerians and Acerrans, having complained that they had no place of habitation, as Acerra was partly burned, Nuceria demolished, Fulvius sent them to Rome to the senate. Permission was granted to the Acerrans to rebuild what had been thus destroyed; and the Nucerians, agreeably to their own choice, were transplanted to Atella, the inhabitants of the latter being ordered to remove to Calatia. Among the multiplicity of important affairs, (some prosperous, others adverse,) which occupied the thoughts of the public, even the citadel of Tarentum was not forgotten: Marcus Ogulnius and Publius Aquilius, being commissioned for the purpose, went into Etruria to purchase corn, which was to be conveyed to Tarentum; and, together with the corn, were sent thither, as a reinforcement to the garrison, one thousand men out of the city troops, consisting of equal numbers of Romans and allies.
IV. The summer was now nearly elapsed, and the time of the consular election drew nigh: but a letter received from Marcellus, affirming that it would be injurious to the public interest, if he were to depart a step from Hannibal, who was retreating before him, while he, by a close pursuit, distressed him materially, threw the senate into some perplexity, as they were unwilling either to call home the consul, at a time when he was most actively employed against the enemy, or to let the year pass without consuls. It was judged most advisable, though the other consul Valerius was abroad, that he should rather be recalled, and even from Sicily. Accordingly, in pursuance of an order of the senate, a letter was sent to him by Lucius Manlius, prætor of the city, and, together with it, that of the consul Marcellus, that from them he might perceive the reason, which induced the senate to recall him from his province, rather than his colleague. About this time ambassadors came to Rome from King Syphax, with a recital of all the successful battles which he had fought against the Carthaginians, and assurances that “their King entertained not a more inveterate enmity to any nation than to the Carthaginian, nor a more warm friendship for any than for the Roman;” adding, that “he had before sent embassies into Spain, to the Roman generals, Cneius and Publius Cornelius; and that he now wished to seek, as it were at the fountain head, the friendship of the Romans.” The senate not only answered his ambassadors with kindness, but sent others in return, charged with presents to the King; these were Lucius Genucius, Publius Pœtelius, and Publius Popilius. The presents which they carried were, a purple gown and vest, an ivory chair, and a golden bowl of five pounds weight. They received orders also to proceed to visit other chieftains of Africa, carying with them donatives of gowns with purple borders, and golden bowls weighing three pounds each. To Alexandria, also, were sent Marcus Atilius and Manius Acilius, in embassy to Kind Ptolemy Philopater and Queen Cleopatra, to revive and renew the former treaty of friendship; bearing with them a purple gown and vest, with an ivory chair, for the King; an embroidered gown and a purple robe for the Queen. During this summer, many prodigies were reported from the neighbouring cities and country; that at Tusculum, a lamb was yeaned with its udder full of milk; and that the temple of Jupiter was struck on the roof by lightning, and almost entirely stripped of its covering: that at Anagnia, about the same time, the ground before one of the gates was fired, and without the aid of any combustible matter continued burning a day and a night; that at Compitum, in the district of Anagnia, the birds forsook their nests on the trees in the grove of Diana; that near the mouth of the harbour of Tarracini, snakes of wonderful size were seen in the sea, and sporting like fishes; that at Tarquinii, a pig was littered which had a human face; and that, in the district of Capena, at the grove of Feronia, four statues sweated blood profusely for a day and a night. These evil omens were expiated with victims of the greater kind, in conformity to the order of the pontiffs; and a supplication was ordered to be performed at all the shrines, one day at Rome, and another in the district of Capena, at the grove of Feronia.
V. The consul Marcus Valerius, on receipt of the letters by which he was summoned home, gave up the command of the province and the army to the prætor Cincius; sent Marcus Valerius Messala, commander of the fleet, with half of the ships to Africa, to plunder the country, and, at the same time, to gain intelligence of the motions and intentions of the Carthaginians: then he set out himself with ten ships, and arriving at Rome, after a prosperous voyage, immediately convened the senate. Here he recited the services which he had performed; that “after hostilities had been carried on in Sicily, and many severe losses sustained on land and sea during almost sixty years, he had brought the war to a final termination. That there was not one Carthaginian in Sicily, nor one Sicilian, of those who had been compelled by fear to fly and live abroad, who was not then at home; that all had been reinstated in the possession of their own cities and estates, and were employed in ploughing and sowing; that the land, after having been long deserted, was at length filled again with inhabitants, and in a condition both to afford plenty to its occupiers, and the most certain supplies of provisions to the Roman people either in peace or war.” After this, Mutines, and such others as had deserved well of of the Roman people, were introduced to the senate; who, to fulfil the engagements of the consul, bestowed rewards on them all. Mutines was even made a Roman citizen, an order for that purpose being proposed to the commons by a plebeian tribune, in pusuance of directions from the senate. While these matters passed at Rome, Marcus Valerius Messala, with fifty ships, arriving on the coast of Africa before day, made an unexpected descent on the lands of Utica, which he ravaged to a great extent; and, after taking many prisoners, and other booty of every kind, reimbarked, set sail for Sicily, and returned to Lilybæum, on the thirteenth day after he had left it. On examining the prisoners, the following particulars were discovered, and all, in order, communicated by letter to the consul Lævinus, that he might know the real state of affairs in Africa. That “there were at Carthage five thousand Numidians, commanded by Masinissa, son of Gala, a young man of a very enterprizing spirit; and that people were employed in all parts of Africa, in hiring other troops, which were to be sent to Spain, to Hasdrubal, in order that, with the most numerous army which he could muster, and with all possible expedition, he might pass over into Italy and join Hannibal. That on this measure the Carthaginians placed all their hopes of success. That, besides this, they were fitting out a very great fleet for the recovery of Sicily, and that the prisoners believed it would sail thither in a very short time.” When the letter containing this information was read, it made so great an impression on the senate, that they all concurred in opinion, that the consul ought not to wait for the elections, but to nominate a dictator to hold them, and return without delay to his province. This plan was obstructed by a dispute which arose; for the consul declared that he would nominate dictator Marcus Valerius Messala, who was then in Sicily, commanding the fleet; but the senate insisted, that a dictator could not be nominated who was in any place out of the Roman territory, which extended not beyond the limits of Italy. Marcus Lucretius, plebeian tribune, proposing the question hereupon, the senate decreed thus; “that the consul, before he left the city, should consult the people as to who they wished to be appointed dictator, and should nominate to that office whomsoever they should order. That, if he refused this, the prætor should hold the meeting, and if he also were unwilling to do it, that then the tribunes should propose the question.” Valerius declared, that he would not ask the judgment of the people on a matter properly belonging to his own jurisdiction, and he forbade it in the prætor; on which the plebeian tribunes proposed the question, and the commons ordered, that Quintus Fulvius, then at Capua, should be created dictator. But in the night preceding the day on which the assembly of the people was to be held, the consul went off privately to Sicily; and the senate, left thus unsupported, took the resolution of ordering a letter to be sent to Marcus Claudius, desiring him to give assistance to the commonwealth, which his colleague had deserted, and to nominate the dictator fixed on by the people. Accordingly, Quintus Fulvius was nominated dictator by the consul Claudius; and, in compliance with the same order of the people, the dictator, Quintus Fulvius, named Publius Licinius Crassus, then chief pontiff, master of the horse.
VI. The dictator, on coming to Rome, sent Cneius Sempronius Blæsus, who had been a lieutenant-general under him at Capua, into the province of Etruria, to take the command of the army there, in the room of the prætor, Caius Calpurnius, whom he called away by letter, to command his own army at Capua. He appointed for the elections the earliest day on which they could be held; but a dispute arising between the dictator and the tribunes, they could not be finished on that day. The younger Galerian century having obtained by lot the privilege of voting first, named as consuls, Quintus Fulvius and Quintus Fabius; and the centuries, voting in their course, would have followed them, had not two plebeian tribunes, Caius and Lucius Arennius, interposed. They asserted that “the re-electing of the same person to the supreme magistracy was not easily reconcileable to the principles of a republic; and much more pernicious would the precedent be, if the very person who presided at the election were himself to be chosen. If therefore the dictator admitted his own name in the list of candidates, they would protest against the election; but, if he received on the list any other except himself, they would give no obstruction to the business.” The dictator maintained the propriety of the proceedings of the assembly, on the grounds of a vote of the senate, an order of the people, and several precedents. For “in the consulate of Cneius Servilius, when the other consul Caius Flaminius had fallen at the Trasimenus, the question was, by direction of the senate, proposed to the people, and the people ordered that, so long as the war continued in Italy, it should be lawful for them to re-elect to the consulship, and that as often as they should see proper, any of those who had already held that office. As to precedents in point, he had one of ancient date, in the case of Lucius Postumius Megellus, who, while he was interrex, was, in the assembly where he himself presided, created consul, with Caius Junius Bubulcus; and a recent one, in the case of Quintus Fabius, who certainly would never have suffered himself to be re-elected, if it were inconsistent with the public good.” After long dispute, maintained by these and such arguments, an agreement at last took place between the dictator and the tribunes to abide by the determination of the senate. The senators were of opinion, that the present state of the commonwealth was such as required that the administration of its affairs should be in the hands of experienced commanders, skilled in all the arts of war; and they therefore disapproved of any opposition to the proceedings of the assembly of election. The tribunes then acquiesced, and the election proceeded. Quintus Fabius Maximus a fifth time, and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus a fourth, were declared consuls. The following persons were then elected prætors: Lucius Veturius Philo, Titus Quintus Crispinus, Caius Hostilius Tubulus, Caius Arunculeius. As soon as the appointment of magistrates for the year was finished, Quintus Fulvius resigned the dictatorship. Towards the end of this summer, a Carthaginian fleet of forty ships, under the command of Hamilcar, sailed over to Sardinia, and committed great depredations in the district of Olbia. Afterwards, on the prætor, Publius Manlius Vulso, appearing there with an army, they proceeded to the other side of the island, and ravaged the lands of Caralita, from whence they returned with booty of all kinds to Africa. Several Roman priests died this year, and others were substituted in their places. Caius Servilius was made a pontiff, in the room of Titus Otacilius Crassus; Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son of Tiberius, an augur, in the room of Otacilius Crassus; and the same Tiberius Sempronius, a decemvir for directing religious rites, in the room of Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son of Caius. Marcus Marcius, king in religious matters, and Marcus Æmilius Papus, chief curio, died, but their places were not filled up during this year. Lucius Veturius Philo, and Publius Licinius Crassus, chief pontiff, were created censors for the year. Licinius Crassus had not, before this appointment, been either consul or prætor, but was advanced at one step, from the ædileship to the censorship. However, these censors neither chose a senate, nor transacted any public business, being prevented by the death of Lucius Veturius, on which Licinius abdicated the office. The curule ædiles, Lucius Veturius and Publius Licinius Varus, repeated the exhibition of the Roman games once. The plebeian ædiles, Quintus Catius and Lucius Porcius Licinius, out of the money accruing from fines, erected brazen statues in the temple of Ceres, and exhibited games with much magnificence and splendour, considering the circumstances of those times.
VII. At the end of the year, Caius Lælius, Scipio’s lieutenant-general, on the thirty-fourth day after he set sail from Tarraco, arrived at Rome, and passing through the streets, with the train of prisoners whom he brought, attracted a vast concourse of people. Next day, being introduced to the senate, he delivered the advices with which he was charged, that Carthage, the metropolis of Spain, had been reduced in one day, several revolted cities brought back to obedience, and new alliances formed with others. From the prisoners, information was gained, corresponding, in general, with that contained in the letter of Marcus Valerius Messala. What gave the greatest uneasiness to the senate, was Hasdrubal’s intended march into Italy, which was scarcely able to withstand Hannibal, and the force which he had already with him Lælius also, coming out into the general assembly, gave a similar account. The senate, in consideration of the services performed by Publius Scipio, decreed a supplication for one day; and then ordered Caius Lælius to return with all expedition to Spain, with the ships which he had brought thence. On the authority of a great many historians, I have fixed the taking of Carthage in this year, although I am not ignorant that several have placed it in the year following; but it appeared to me very improbable, that Scipio should have passed a whole year in Spain without doing any thing.Y.R. 543. 209. The consulate of Quintus Fabius Maximus, a fifth time, and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, a fourth, commencing on the ides of March, a decree was passed on the same day, appointing Italy the province of both, but they were to command separately in different quarters; Fabius to conduct the operations of the war at Tarentum, Fulvius in Lucania and Bruttium. Marcus Claudius was continued in command for a year. The prætors then cast lots for their provinces: Caius Hostilius Tibullus obtained the city jurisdiction; Lucius Veturius Philo, the foreign, with Gaul; Titus Quintus Crispinus, Capua; and Caius Arunculeius, Sardinia. The troops were distributed among the provinces in this manner: to Fulvius, were decreed the two legions which Marcus Valerius Lævinus had in Sicily; to Quintus Fabius, those which Caius Calpurnius had commanded in Etruria; the city troops were to replace those in Etruria, and Caius Calpurnius was to command the same province, with the army; Titus Quintius was to have the government of Capua, with the army which had served there under Quintus Fulvius; Lucius Veturius was to receive, from Caius Lætorius proprætor, the province of Ariminum, with the army then on the spot; to Marcus Marcellus were assigned the legions, with which he had in his consulate acted successfully; to Marcus Valerius, in conjunction with Lucius Cincius, (for they also were continued in command in Sicily,) the troops of Cannæ were given, with orders to complete their full complement out of the surviving soldiers of Cneius Fulvius’s legions. These were collected together, and sent by the consuls into Sicily, being stigmatized by the same ignominious order under which the troops of Cannæ served, and those of the army of the prætor Cneius Fulvius, whom the senate, through resentment at the like cowardice, had formerly ordered thither. To Caius Arunculeius were assigned, for Sardinia, the same legions which had served in that province under Publius Manlius Vulso. Publius Sulpicius was continued in command for a year, to hold the province of Macedonia, and with the same legion and the same fleet which he then had. Thirty quinqueremes were ordered to be sent from Sicily to Tarentum, to Quintus Fabius the consul; and, with the rest of the fleet, Marcus Valerius Lævinus was either to sail over to Africa himself, to ravage the country, or to send thither Lucius Cincius, or Marcus Valerius Messala. With respect to Spain no change was made, only that Scipio and Silanus were continued in command, not for a year, but until they should be recalled by the senate. Such was the distribution made of the provinces, and of the commands of the armies for that year.
VIII. Among other business of more serious importance, the assembly, convened for the purpose of electing to the priesthood a chief curio, in the room of Marcus Æmilius, revived an old dispute; for the patricians insisted, that Caius Mamilius Vitulus, the only plebeian candidate, ought not to be allowed to stand, because none but a patrician had ever held that office of the priesthood. The tribunes, being appealed to, referred the business to the senate. The senate voted, that the people might act therein as they should think proper. Thus Caius Mamilius Vitulus was elected chief curio, being the first plebeian admitted into that office. Publius Licinius, chief pontiff, compelled Caius Valerius Flaccus, against his will, to be inaugurated flamen of Jupiter. Caius Lætorius was created decemvir for the performance of religious rites, in the room of Quintus Mucius Scævola deceased. I should willingly pass over in silence the reason of the flamen being forced into the office, labouring, as he then did, under a bad character, had he not afterwards acquired a very good one. Caius Flaccus had spent his youth in idleness and debauchery, and his vicious courses had drawn on him the displeasure of his own brother Lucius Flaccus, and of his other relations: and Publius Lucius was in hope of reclaiming him. Indeed, when his thoughts became engaged in the care of the sacrifices and religious performances, he quickly made such a complete alteration in his conduct, from what it had hitherto been, that, among all the young men of the time, no one was held in higher esteem, or more entirely approved by the principal patricians, by his own family, and by all. This universal good character inspiring him with a proper sense of his own worth, he asserted a privilege which had for many years been laid aside, on account of the unworthiness of former flamens, that of having a seat in the senate. On his coming into the senate-house, the prætor, Lucius Licinius, led him out; on which he appealed to the tribunes of the commons, alleging that he only claimed an ancient privilege of his priesthood, which was conferred on the office of flamen, together with the purple-bordered robe and the curule chair. The prætor argued that such a right depended not on the copies of annals, rendered obsolete by their antiquity, but on the customary practice of more recent times; and that in the memory of their fathers and even grandfathers no flamen of Jupiter had been allowed it. The tribunes thought it reasonable, that, as the right had been suffered to fall into disuse through the inattention of former flamens, the injury ensuing should affect only themselves, and not the office; and accordingly, without any opposition from the prætor himself, and with the universal approbation of the senate and commons, they introduced the flamen to a seat in the senate, though all men were of opinion that his having attained his object, was owing to the strict integrity of his conduct rather than to any privilege of the priesthood. The consuls, before they departed for their provinces, raised two city legions, and such a number of soldiers as was necessary to make up the complement of the other armies. The force which hitherto had served in the city, the consul Fulvius gave to his brother Caius Fulvius Flaccus, lieutenant-general, with orders to march it into Etruria, and to bring home to Rome the legions then in that province. The other consul, Fabius, having collected the relics of Fulvius’s army, which amounted to three thousand three hundred and thirty-six men, ordered his son Quintus Maximus to conduct them into Sicily, to the proconsul Marcus Valerius, and to receive from him the two legions and thirty quinqueremes. The removal of these legions out of the island made no diminution, in respect either of strength or appearance, in the force stationed in that province. For, besides two veteran legions, completely recruited to their full complement, the proconsul had a great multitude of Numidian deserters, both horse and foot, and he also enlisted in his service those Sicilians who had served in the army of Epicydes, and that of the Carthaginians, men well experienced in war. By annexing a part of these foreign auxiliaries to each of the Roman legions, he preserved the appearance of two armies; with one of which he ordered Lucius Cincius to guard that part of the island which was formerly the kingdom of Hiero; and, with the other, he himself took charge of the rest of it, separated formerly by the boundaries of the Roman and Carthaginian dominions. He likewise made division of the fleet, which consisted of seventy sail, in order that they might extend their protection of the coasts round the whole circumference of the island. Attended by the cavalry of Mutines, he went in person through every part of the province, to view the lands, observe what parts were cultivated, and what were not, commending or reproving the owners accordingly. In consequence of his care in this particular, such an abundance of corn was produced, that, besides sending a quantity to Rome, he conveyed to Catana a sufficient supply for the army, which was to be employed during the summer at Tarentum.
IX. But the transportation of those soldiers into Sicily, the greater part of whom were Latines and allies, was very near proving the cause of formidable disturbances; so true it is, that the issues of great affairs often depend on trival circumstances. For the Latines and allies, in their meetings, began to murmer, that “they had now for ten years been drained by levies and contributions. That, generally every year, they suffered great losses in the war. Many were slain in the field, many were cut off by sickness; and that every one of their countrymen, enlisted as a soldier by the Romans, was more effectually lost to them, than if he were taken prisoner by the Carthaginians; because the latter was sent back, without ransom, to his country, whereas the other was ordered by the Romans out of Italy, into banishment indeed, rather than to military service. The troops of Cannæ were now growing old in that situation, having been in it nearly eight years, and would end their lives before the enemy, whose strength was at the present in a state particularly flourishing, would retire out of Italy. If veteran soldiers were not to return home, and still new ones to be enlisted, there would not, in a short time, be one of that description remaining. Wherefore it was become necessary, before they should be reduced to the last degree of desolation and want, to deny to the Romans that which particular circumstances alone would shortly render it impossible to grant. If that people saw the allies cordially uniting in such a measure, they certainly would think of making peace with the Carthaginians: otherwise, as long as Hannibal lived, Italy would never be free from war.” Thus did they argue in their assemblies. The Roman colonies were, at this time, thirty in number; all of whom had ambassadors at Rome; and twelve of them presented a remonstrance to the consuls, stating that they had not the means of furnishing the supplies of men and money. These were Ardea, Nepete, Sutrium, Alba, Carseoli, Cora, Suessa, Circeii, Setia, Cales, Narnia, and Interamna. The consuls, surprised at such an extraordinary declaration, and wishing to deter them from the meditated secession, to which end they supposed that censure and reproof would be more effectual than gentle measures, answered, that “the expressions which they had dared to use were such as the consuls could not prevail on themselves to repeat in the senate. For they contained not a refusal of military duty, but an open defection from the Roman people. They advised them, therefore, to return home instantly to consult with their respective countrymen, as if no step had yet been taken; since their infamous design, though disclosed in words, had not proceeded to action; and to remind them that they were not natives of Campania, or of Tarentum, but of Rome. That from thence they derived their origin, and from thence were sent out into colonies, into lands taken from enemies, for the purpose of increasing population; and that, consequently, whatever duties children owe to parents, these they owed to the Romans, if they had any remains of natural affection, or any regard for their mother country. They desired them, therefore, to confer on the matter anew; for that, as to the measures which they had inconsiderately mentioned, their tendency was to betray the Roman empire, and to give up the conquest of it to Hannibal.” Though the consuls, one after the other, reasoned with them in this manner for a long time, yet the ambassadors were not in the least moved, but replied, that “they had nothing new to represent to the senate at home, neither had that assembly grounds for new deliberation, when they neither had men to be enlisted, nor money to pay them.” The consuls, finding them inflexible, laid the affair before the senate: and here it excited such serious apprehensions in every mind, that great numbers cried out, that “the ruin of the empire was at hand; that the other colonies would act in the same manner; so would the allies; that all had conspired to betray the city of Rome to Hannibal.”
X. The consuls endeavoured to console and encourage the the senate, telling them, that “the other colonies would maintain their allegiance and duty as heretofore; and that even these which had swerved from their duty, if ambassadors were sent round among them, instructed to apply reproofs, and not intreaties, would be impressed with respect for the sovereign authority.” Having received power from the senate to act and manage as they should see most conducive to the public good, they began by sounding the dispositions of the other colonies; and then, summoning their ambassadors, demanded of them in public, whether they had their contingents of soldiers ready according to the regulation? To this Marcus Sextilius, of Fregellæ, in behalf of the eighteen colonies, made answer, that “the soldiers were ready according to the regulation; that if a greater number should be required, they would bring them; and, that whatever else the Roman people should command or wish, they would perform with zeal and diligence. That they wanted not sufficiency of means, and had more than a sufficiency of inclination.” On this the consuls, after premising that all the praises which themselves could bestow would be inadequate to their merits, unless they were joined by the thanks of the whole body of the senate in full assembly, desired them to accompany them into the senate-house. The senate complimented them by a decree conceived in the most honourable terms possible, and then charged the consuls to conduct them into an assembly of the people also, and there, among the many other important services which those colonies had performed to them and their ancestors, to make proper mention of this recent instance of their meritorious conduct towards the commonwealth. Even now, after so many ages, their names should not be lost in silence, nor should they be defrauded of their due praise: they were these — Signia, Norba, Saticulum, Brundusium, Fregellæ, Luceria, Venusia, Adria, Firma, Ariminum; on the coast of the other sea, Pontia, Pæstum, and Cosa; and in the inland parts, Beneventum, Æsernia, Spoletum, Placentia, and Cremona. Supported by these, the Roman empire was enabled to stand; and they received every mark of gratitude both in the senate, and in the assembly of the people. The former ordered, that no mention should be made of the other twelve dependencies, which had refused to furnish their quota for the war, and that the consuls should neither dismiss nor detain their ambassadors, nor hold any communication with them: such a tacit proof of displeasure was judged the most suitable to the dignity of the Roman people. While the consuls were busy in expediting the other necessary preparations for the campaign, it was resolved to draw out of the treasury the vicesimary gold, (that is to say, a fund formed of the twentieth part of the value of slaves enfranchised,) which was reserved for exigencies of the utmost necessity. There was drawn out accordingly to the amount of four thousand pounds weight of gold. Of this were given to the consuls, to Marcus Marcellus and Publius Sulpicius, proconsuls, and to Lucius Veturius, the prætor, to whom the lots had given the province of Gaul, five hundred pounds each: and besides this, there were given, in particular charge, to the consul Fabius, one hundred pounds of gold to be carried into the citadel of Tarentum. The remainder they employed in making contracts, with ready money, for clothing the army, who were then serving in Spain, with so much honour to themselves and to their commander.
XI. It was also resolved, that, before the consuls set out from the city, they should expiate several prodigies which had happened. On the Alban mount, a statue of Jupiter, and a tree, standing near the temple; at Ostia, a grove; at Capua, a wall, and the temple of Fortune; and, at Sinuessa, a wall and gate, were struck by lightning. Farther it was reported, that the Alban water flowed in a bloody stream; that, at Rome, in the cell of the temple of Fors Fortuna, an image, which was in the crown of the goddess, fell from her head into her hands: that an ox spoke at Privernum; that a vulture, while the Forum was crowded, flew down into one of the shops; and that, at Sinuessa, an infant was born whose sex was doubtful, such as are commonly called in Greek (a language more manageable than ours, particularly in the compounding of words), Androgynes; that a shower of milk fell, and that a boy was born with the head of an elephant. These prodigies were expiated with the larger kinds of victims. Orders were given for a supplication to be performed at all the shrines, and prayers to be offered during one day, for the averting of misfortunes; and a decree passed, that the prætor Caius Hostilius should vow and celebrate the games of Apollo, in like manner as they had, of late years, been vowed and celebrated. At the same time, the consul Quintus Fulvius held an assembly for the election of censors. The censors chosen were men who had never yet been consuls, Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, and Publius Sempronius Tuditanus. By direction of the senate the question was proposed to the people, and the people ordered, that these, by their censorial authority, should let to farm the lands of Campania. The choosing of the senate was delayed by a dispute between the censors about the nomination of the prince of it: the making the choice had fallen, by lot, to Sempronius; but Cornelius alleged that he ought to observe the practice handed down from their ancestors, which was to appoint as prince, the person who, in the list of censors stood the first of any then living, and this was Titus Manlius Torquatus. Sempronius maintained, that when the gods gave a person the lot of appointing, they gave him at the same time full freedom of choice: that he would act in this case agreeably to his own judgment, and would name to the honour contended for, Quintus Fabius Maximus, whom he could prove to be the first of the whole Roman state, even in Hannibal’s opinion. After a long dispute, his colleague gave up the point, and Sempronius chose the consul, Quintus Fabius Maximus, prince of the senate. Then the list of the new senate was read, in which eight were left out, among whom was Lucius Cæcilius Metellus, infamous for having, after the defeat at Cannæ, advised the abandonment of Italy. In their review of the equestrian order also, they censured every one concerned with him; but the number disgraced on that account was very small. From all the cavalry of the legions of Cannæ then in Sicily, and their number was great, their horses were taken away. To this they added another punishment in point of time, ordering that the campaigns which those men had served on horses given by the public, should not entitle them to release, but that they should serve during ten others on horses of their own. They also searched for, and discovered, a great number, who ought to be ranked in the cavalry, and all of these who had been seventeen years old at the beginning of the war, and had not served, they disfranchised. They then contracted for the repairs of the buildings round the Forum, which had been destroyed by the fire — seven shops, the shambles, and the royal palace.
XII. Having finished the necessary business at Rome, the consuls set out for the campaign. Fulvius, first, went forward to Capua; in a few days after, Fabius followed, and he earnestly entreated his colleague in person, and Marcellus by letter, to make the most vigorous efforts to keep Hannibal employed, while he should carry on the siege of Tarentum; observing that, when that city should be taken from the enemy, who was already repulsed in every quarter, and would then have no place where he could rest, or to which he could retreat for safety, he would not have even a pretence for staying longer in Italy. He likewise sent an express to Rhegium, to the commander of the body of troops, which the consul Lævinus had placed there, to act against the Bruttians, and which consisted of eight thousand men, all accustomed to live by plunder, the greater part of whom had been brought out of Sicily from Agathyrna, as was mentioned above. To these were joined many natives of the country, who deserted from the Bruttians, equally daring, and under equal necessity to dare every thing. He ordered this band to be led, first, to ravage the lands of Bruttium, and afterwards to besiege the city of Caulon. These orders they executed, not only with diligence, but with avidity; and after plundering the country, and dispersing the inhabitants, attacked the city with their utmost vigour. Marcellus, incited by his colleague’s letter, and also by an opinion which he had himself conceived, that he was the only Roman general able to cope with Hannibal, quitted his winter-quarters as soon as forage could be found, and met him at Canusium. The Carthaginian was, at this time, employed in endeavouring to entice the Canusians to a revolt, but, on hearing of Marcellus’s approach, he decamped and retired. The country was open, affording no cover for an ambuscade, for which reason he resolved to draw back into more woody tracts. Marcellus pressed close on his steps, encamped within view of him, and, as soon as the trenches were finished, drew out his legions and offered battle. Hannibal sent out single troops of cavalry, and the light spearmen from his infantry, to skirmish with the enemy, but did not think it adviseable to risk the issue of a general engagement. He was, however, drawn into a contest of that sort which he wished to avoid: for although, by marching away in the night, he gained some ground of the enemy, yet Marcellus overtook him in an open country, and, as he was forming his camp, put a stop to his works, by attacking the workmen on all sides. In consequence of this, a pitched battle ensued, in which all the forces, on both sides, were engaged; but night coming on, they separated, without any advantage being gained on either side. They then hastily, before it grew dark, fortified their camps, at a very little distance from each other. Next day, as soon as light appeared, Marcellus led out his forces to the field; nor did Hannibal decline the contest, but in a long speech exhorted his men to “remember Trasimenus and Cannæ, and to crush the presumption of the foe, who pressed so closely on their steps; not suffering them either to march or encamp in quiet, or even to breathe, or look about them. Every day, the rising sun, and the Roman army, appeared together on the plains. But if the enemy should once be compelled to quit the field, especially with some loss of blood, they would afterwards conduct their operations with less turbulence and violence.” Irritated by such expressions, and at the same time vexed at being continually harrassed on quitting their camp, they began the fight with great fury. The battle was maintained for more than two hours; then, on the Roman side, the right wing and the chosen band, called extraordinaries, began to give ground; on observing which, Marcellus brought up the eighteenth legion to the front. But, while the others were retiring in confusion, and these advancing, with but little alacrity, into their place, the whole line was disordered and in a little time totally broken: at last, fear getting the better of their shame, they fairly turned their backs. In this battle, and the flight which followed, there fell no less than two thousand seven hundred of the Romans and allies; among these four Roman centurions, and two military tribunes, Marcus Licinius and Marcus Fulvius. Four military standards were lost by the wing which first fled, and two by the legions which advanced in the place of the flying allies.
XIII. After the army had retired into the camp, Marcellus reprimanded them in terms so harsh and bitter, that they felt more from the discourse of their incensed commander, than from all they had suffered, in the unsuccessful fight, through the whole day. He said to them; “as matters have turned out, I praise and thank the immortal gods, that the victorious enemy did not assault our camp itself, while you were hurrying into the gates, and over the rampart, in such utter dismay. You would certainly have abandoned that, through the same panic that made you give up the battle. What fright is this? What terror, what forgetfulness both of your own character and that of your adversaries, has at once seized your minds? Surely they are the same enemies, in defeating and pursuing of whom you spent the whole of the last summer; who, for some days past, have fled before you night and day, while you pressed on their rear; whom, yesterday, you did not allow either to continue their march, or to form their camp. I say nothing of the advantages on which you ought to pride yourselves; but will mention what, of itself, ought to fill you with shame and remorse: yesterday you fought it out to the end on equal terms. What alteration has last night, what has this day made? Have your forces been diminished; have theirs been augmented? I cannot persuade myself that I am speaking to my own army, or to Roman soldiers. The arms and appearances of the men are such as usual. But, if you had possessed the usual spirit, would the enemy have seen your backs? Would he have carried off a standard from any one company or cohort? Hitherto, he has boasted of putting our legions to the sword; you, this day, have been the first who have conferred on him the glory of putting a Roman army to flight.” On this the troops, universally, besought him to pardon their behaviour of that day; and entreated him, whenever he pleased, to make another trial of the courage of his soldiers. “I will try you, soldiers,” said he, “and to-morrow will lead you into the field; that in the character of conquerors, not of vanquished men, you may obtain the pardon which you desire.” He then ordered, that the cohorts which had lost their standards should receive barley for their allowance, and the centurions of the companies whose standards had been lost, he deprived of their swords; commanding that all, both infantry and cavalry, should be ready under arms on the following day. The assembly was now dismissed, all acknowledging that the reproofs which they had received were not more severe than they deserved; for that no person in the Roman army had, that day, behaved like a man, except the general alone, to whom they ought to make atonement, either by their death or by a glorious victory. On the day following they attended according to orders, armed and accountred. The general then commended them, and said, that “he would bring forward, into the first line, those who had fled first the day before, and the cohorts which had lost their standards; that he now gave notice, that it was incumbent on them to fight and to conquer, and to exert themselves vigorously, one and all, to prevent the news of yesterday’s flight reaching Rome, before that of the present day’s triumph.” They were then ordered to refresh themselves with food, that, in case the fight should last longer than usual, they might have strength to go through it. After every thing had been said and done to rouse the courage of the soldiers, they marched out to the field.
XIV. When this was told to Hannibal, he said, “we have to deal with an enemy who can neither bear good fortune nor bad: if he gets the better, he pursues the vanquished with presumption and vehemence; if he is worsted, he renews the contest with the victors.” He then ordered the signal to be sounded, and led out his forces. Both parties fought now with much more vigour than the day before; the Carthaginians struggling to maintain the glory acquired yesterday, the Romans to remove their disgrace. On the side of the Romans, the left wing, and the cohorts which had lost their standards, fought in the front line; while the twentieth legion was drawn up on the right wing. Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, and Caius Claudius Nero, lieutenant-generals, commanded the wings; Marcellus himself took the charge of the centre, that he might animate the men by his presence, and be an immediate witness of their behaviour. On Hannibal’s side, the front line was composed of the Spanish troops, who were the main strength of his army. When the fight had long continued doubtful, Hannibal ordered the elephants to be brought up to the van, hoping by their means, to occasion fear and disorder. At first, they broke the ranks, and by treading down some, and terrifying others, on either side, so as to put them to flight, made an opening in the line in one part: and the alarm would probably have spread farther, had not Caius Decimius Flavus, a military tribune, snatching the standard of the first band of spearmen, ordered that company to follow him. He then led them to the spot where the elephants were throwing all into confusion, with directions to discharge their javelins at them. Every weapon took place, for there was no difficulty in hitting, at a small distance, bodies of such huge bulk, especially as they were crowded close together. But though they were not all of them wounded, yet those, in whose flesh the javelins stuck, as they are creatures whose motions cannot be depended on, betaking themselves to flight, drove back even those that were unhurt. And now, not any particular company alone, but every soldier who could come up with the retreating elephants, with all his might hurled javelins at them. Thus attacked, the more violently did the animals rush upon their owners, and made so much the greater carnage of them, than they had made of the enemy, as one of them, when frightened or hurt, is hurried on more forcibly than he could be driven by the manager sitting on his back. While the enemy’s line was in this great disorder, in consequence of those beasts breaking through it, the Romans made a brisk onset, and without much opposition from troops so scattered and confused, drove them off the ground. Marcellus ordered his cavalry to charge them as they fled, and the pursuit did not cease, until they were driven, in consternation, into their camp: for, besides other circumstances which caused terror and tumult, two elephants had fallen in the very entrance of the gate, so that the men were obliged to make their way over the trench and rampart. Here the slaughter of the enemy was the greatest. There were killed no less than eight thousand men, and five elephants. Nor did the Romans gain the victory without loss of blood: of the two legions, about one thousand seven hundred were killed, and of the allies above one thousand three hundred. Great numbers, both of Romans and allies, were wounded. In the following night Hannibal decamped, and though Marcellus wished to pursue him, he was prevented by his wounded, which were in great number. Scouts, who were sent to observe his march, brought intelligence, next day, that Hannibal had taken the road towards Bruttium.
XV. About the same time, the Hirpinians, Lucanians, and Volscians surrendered themselves to the consul Quintus Fulvius, delivering up Hannibal’s garrisons which they had in their cities, and were mildly received by the consul, with only a verbal reproof for their past errors. Hopes of similar gentle treatment were held out to the Bruttians also, through two brothers, Vibius and Pactius, of the most illustrious family of any in that nation, who came to request the same terms of capitulation which were granted to the Lucanians. The other consul, Quintus Fabius, took by assault, Manduria, a town in the territory of Sallentum. Here he made four thousand prisoners, and gained much booty of other kinds. Proceeding thence to Tarentum, he pitched his camp at the very mouth of the harbour. Of the ships, which Livius had kept here for the purpose of protecting convoys, he loaded part with machines and implements fit for assailing walls, the rest he furnished with engines, stones, and missile weapons of every kind; the store-ships also, not confining himself to such only as were moved by oars, he fitted out in the same manner, in order that some might bring out the machines and ladders to the walls, while the others, from their ships at some distance, should annoy, with missile weapons, the men employed in defending them. These ships were thus fitted up and prepared, for the purpose of an attack on that side of the city which is washed by the open sea, which was now clear of the enemy; for the Carthaginian fleet had sailed over to Corcyra, at the time when Philip was preparing to attack the Ætolians. Meanwhile, the party which carried on the siege of Caulon in Bruttium, hearing of Hannibal’s approach, and fearful of being overpowered, retired to an eminence, which, though it secured them from an immediate attack, was destitute of every other convenience. In the prosecution of the siege of Tarentum, Fabius received very great assistance towards the accomplishment of that important business, from an incident, trivial in appearance: the Tarentines had in the city a party of Bruttians, given to them by Hannibal, and the commander of this party was desperately in love with a young woman, whose brother was in the army of the consul Fabius. This man, being informed, by a letter from his sister, of her new acquaintance with a stranger of so great wealth, and so highly honoured among his countrymen, conceived hopes that by means of his sister, her lover might be wrought into any scheme; and this project he communicated to the consul: his reasoning appeared not ill-founded, and he was ordered to go as a deserter into Tarentum. Here being introduced by his sister to the notice of the commander, he began by artfully sounding his disposition, and having satisfied himself that his temper was as fickle as he could wish, by the aid of female blandishments he prevailed on him to betray the post, of which he commanded the guard. When both the method and the time for the execution of this design were settled, the soldier was let out of the town privately, through the intervals between the guards, and related to the consul what had been done, and what was further intended. At the first watch, Fabius, after giving proper directions to the troops in the citadel, and to those who had the guard of the harbour, went himself quite round the harbour, and sat down, in concealment, on the side of the city facing the east. The trumpets then began to sound, at once, from the citadel, from the port, and from the ships which had been brought to the shore, on the side next to the open sea. At the same time a shout was raised, and a prodigious tumult purposely made, on every side where there was very little danger. Meanwhile the consul kept his men quiet and silent. Democrates, therefore, who had formerly commanded the fleet, and who happened now to command there, perceiving every thing near him quiet, while other parts resounded with tumult and shouting like that of a city stormed, fearful lest, while he hesitated, the consul might force a passage, and march in his troops, carried off his party to the citadel, because the most alarming noise proceeded from that quarter. Fabius, from the length of time, and likewise from the silence which prevailed, (for, where, a little before, there was an uproar among the men rousing each other, and calling to arms, now not a word was heard,) imagined that the guard was withdrawn; he therefore ordered the ladders to be brought up to that part of the wall, where, according to the information of the contriver of the plot, the cohort of Bruttians held the guard. In this place, favoured and assisted by the Bruttians, the Romans first gained possession of the wall, over which they climbed into the city; and then the nearest gate was broken open, that the troops might march through in a body. These entering the town a little before day, raised a shout, and, without meeting any one in arms, proceeded to the Forum, having drawn on themselves the attention of the combatants in every quarter, whether at the citadel or the harbour.
XVI. At the entrance of the Forum, a vigorous opposition was made, but it was not persevered in. A Tarentine was no match for a Roman, either in spirit, in arms, in warlike skill, nor yet in vigour or bodily strength. They only discharged their javelins, and then scarcely waiting till the fight began, turned their backs; and, as they were acquainted with the streets of the city, ran different ways to their own houses, or those of their friends. Two of their commanders, Nico and Democrates, fell, fighting courageously. Philonus, who had been the author of the plot for betraying the city to Hannibal, rode away from the fight at full speed; his horse was not long after seen, straying through the city without a rider, but his body was never found, and the general opinion was, that he fell from his horse into an open well. Carthalo, as he was coming to the consul unarmed, to remind him of their fathers being connected by an intercourse of hospitality, was slain by a soldier who met him in the way. The rest were put to the sword without distinction, armed and unarmed, Carthaginians and Tarentines alike. Many even of the Bruttians were killed, either through mistake, or through the inveterate hatred borne towards them by the Romans, or with design to discountenance the report of the place being betrayed, and that it might rather appear to have been taken by force of arms. After this carnage, the victors proceeded, in several parties, to plunder the city. We are told that there were taken here thirty thousand persons in a state of servitude, a vast quantity of silver wrought and coined, eighty-seven thousand pounds weight of gold, together with statues and pictures in such numbers, as almost to rival the decorations of Syracuse. But Fabius, with more greatness of mind than was shown by Marcellus, refrained from meddling with booty of that sort; and when his secretary asked him what he would have done with the statues of their gods, which were of gigantic size, and habited like warriors, he ordered him to “let the Tarentines keep their angry gods to themselves.” Then the wall, which separated the citadel from the town, was demolished and rased. Amid these transactions, Hannibal, having made prisoners the party employed in the siege of Caulon, who capitulated, hearing of the siege of Tarentum, marched night and day with all expedition to relieve it: but while he was hastening thither, he received the news of its being taken. On this he observed, “the Romans, too, have their Hannibal; we have lost Tarentum through the same arts by which we acquired it.” That he might not, however, seem to have turned back as in flight, he encamped on the spot where he had halted, about five miles from the city; and, after staying there a few days, retreated to Metapontum. From hence he sent to Tarentum two Metapontines, with letters from the principal men in that state to Fabius, to receive his promise of impunity for what was past, on condition of their delivering Metapontum and the Carthaginian garrison into his hands. Fabius, supposing the offer to be made with sincerity, appointed a day on which he would come to Metapontum, and gave letters in answer, which were delivered to Hannibal, who, overjoyed at the success of his stratagem, and at finding that even Fabius was not proof against artifice, formed an ambuscade at a small distance from Metapontum. As Fabius was taking the auspices, previous to his departure for Tarentum, the birds repeatedly refused the favourable signs; also, when he consulted the gods by sacrifice, the aruspex warned him to beware of treachery and plots. As he did not come on the appointed day, the two Metapontines were sent back, to remove any scruple that retarded him, but being suddenly seized, and dreading an examination by torture, they disclosed the whole plot.
XVII. In Spain, in the beginning of the summer, there came over to Scipio, who had spent all the preceding winter in conciliating the affections of the barbarians, partly by presents, and partly by sending home their hostages and prisoners, a person named Edesco, a distinguished commander among the Spaniards. This man’s wife and children were in the hands of the Romans; but, besides this motive, he was also actuated by that almost unaccountable propension which had brought over all Spain from the Carthaginian interest to that of the Romans. Led by the same motive, Indibilis and Mandonius; unquestionably the two first men in Spain, with the whole body of their countrymen, deserted Hasdrubal, and withdrew to an eminence overlooking his camp, from whence, along a continued ridge of hills, they could retire with safety to the Romans. When Hasdrubal saw the enemy’s strength increasing by such large accessions, while his own was daily diminished, and would probably, unless by a bold effort he effected something, continue to decay, in the same manner as it had begun, he resolved to bring on a battle as soon as possible. Scipio was even more desirous of an engagement; as well because his hopes were strong, in consequence of the success which had hitherto attended his affairs, as because he wished to engage with a single general and his forces, rather than with all together, which he would perhaps be forced to do, were they to unite. However, should he be under a necessity of fighting more than one army at once, he had taken a judicious method to augment his strength: for, perceiving that there would be no employment for his marine, as the coast of Spain was entirely clear of any Carthaginian fleet, he hauled up the ships on land at Tarraco, and joined the marines to his land forces. As to arms for them, he had abundance, between those taken in Carthage, and those which had been afterwards made by the great number of workmen whom he employed. With this force, Scipio, in the beginning of spring, by which time he was rejoined by Lælius, who had returned from Rome, and without whom he undertook no enterprize of any extraordinary moment, set out from Terraco, and advanced towards the enemy. On his march, during which he found every place well affected, the allies showing him all respect, and escorting him as he passed through each of their states, he was met by Indibilis and Mandonius, with their armies. Indibilis spoke for both, not with the ignorance and temerity of a barbarian, but with a modest gravity, appearing rather to apologise for their changing sides, as a measure of necessity, than to boast of it, as if it had been greedily embraced on the first opportunity; for “he knew,” he said, “that the term deserter was deemed dishonourable by a man’s old associates, and held in suspicion by the new. Nor did he blame men for this manner of thinking; provided only, that the merits of the case, and not the mere name, were made the grounds of this double aversion.” He then enumerated his services to the Carthaginian generals; and, on the other hand, their avarice, tyranny, and ill-treatment of every kind heaped on him and his countrymen. “For these reasons,” he said, “his body only had, hitherto, been on their side; his mind had long been on that side where, he believed, that respect was paid to laws divine and human. To the gods themselves, people have recourse with supplications for redress, when they can no longer endure the violence and injustice of men. He entreated Scipio not to consider their conduct as deserving either punishment or reward; but to form his judgment on a trial of them from that day forward, and by that standard to estimate the recompense which they might hereafter be thought to deserve.” The Roman answered, that he would comply with their desire in every particular; and would not consider them in the light of deserters, because they had not thought themselves bound to adhere to such an alliance, when the other party scrupled not to violate every obligation divine and human. Then their wives and children, being brought into the assembly, were restored to them, and received with tears of joy. That day they were entertained in lodgings prepared for them; and, on the next, the terms of association were ratified, and they were dismissed to bring up their forces; afterwards they encamped in conjunction with the Romans, until they conducted them to the spot where the enemy lay.
XVIII. The nearest army of Carthaginians was that commanded by Hasdrubal, which lay near the city of Bæcula. In the front of this camp he had posted advanced guards of cavalry. On these, the Roman light infantry, the front rank, and those who composed the van guard, instantly, as they arrived, and without waiting to choose ground for a camp, made an attack, and with such apparent contempt, as plainly demonstrated what degree of spirit each party possessed. The cavalry were driven within their works, whither they fled in confusion, pressed almost to the very gates. The action of that day having only whetted their ardour for a contest, the Romans pitched their camp. Hasdrubal, during the night, drew back his army to a hill, the summit of which was spread out into a level plain; on the rear of the hill was a river, and on the front and on either side it was encircled by a kind of steep bank: at some distance below this, lay another plain, sloping downwards, the circumference of which was likewise bounded by another bank of equally difficult ascent. Into this lower plain, Hasdrubal, next day, on seeing the enemy’s line formed in front of their camp, sent down his Numidian cavalry, and the light-armed Balearians and Africans. Scipio, riding round the companies and battalions, desired them to observe, that “the enemy, renouncing at once all hope of being able to oppose them on plain ground, endeavoured to secure themselves on hills; waiting within sight, and confiding in the strength of their posts, not in their valour and their arms. But Roman soldiers had mounted the higher defences of Carthage. Neither hills, nor a citadel, nor the sea itself had stopped the progress of their arms. Those heights, which the enemy had seized, would answer no other purpose than that of compelling them, in their flight, to leap down craggs and precipices: but he would prevent their escaping, even in that way.” Accordingly, he gave orders to two cohorts, that one of them should secure the entrance of the valley, through which the river ran; and that the other should block up the road, which led from the city into the country, across the declivity of the hill. He then put himself at the head of the light troops, which had, the day before, beaten the enemy’s advanced guards, and led them against the light-armed forces posted on the brink of the lower descent. For some time they proceeded over rough ground, without meeting any other obstacle than the difficulty of the way; afterwards, when they came within reach, vast quantities of weapons of every sort were poured down upon them; while, on their side, not only the soldiers, but a multitude of servants mixed among the troops, assailed the enemy with stones, which they found every where scattered, and which, in general, were of such a size as that they could be thrown by the hand. But, though the ascent was difficult, and they were almost overwhelmed with darts and stones, yet, through the skill which they had acquired by practice in climbing walls, and the obstinacy of their courage, the foremost gained the summit. When they got upon ground that was any way level, and where they could stand with firm footing, they soon beat back the enemy; who, though light and fit for skirmishing, and able enough to defend themselves at a distance, while an uncertain kind of fight was waged with missive weapons, yet, when the matter came to close fighting, were quite deficient in steadiness; so that they were driven with great slaughter into the line of troops posted on the higher eminence. On this, Scipio, ordering the conquerors to press forward against their centre, divided the rest of the forces with Lælius, whom he ordered to go round the hill to the right, until he should find a gentler ascent, while he himself, making a small circuit to the left, charged the enemy in flank. This, at once, threw their line into disorder, though they attempted to change the position of their wings, and face about their ranks towards the several shouts, which assailed their ears from every quarter. During this confusion, Lælius also came up, and the enemy, by retreating, through fear of being wounded from behind, broke their front line, and left an opening for the Roman centre, who never could have made their way up against ground so disadvantageous, had the ranks remained entire, and the elephants kept their posts in the front of the battalions. While numbers were slain in every quarter, Scipio, who with his left wing had charged the right of the enemy, continued the attack with the greatest fury against their naked flank. And now the Carthaginians had not even a passage open for flight; for the Roman detachments had taken possession of the roads both on the right and left; add to this, that their commander and principal officers, in endeavouring to make their escape, filled up the gate of the camp, while the disorderly route of the frightened elephants were as terrible to them as were the enemy. There were slain therefore not less than eight thousand men.
XIX. Hasdrubal had, before the battle, hastily sent off his treasure; and now, forwarding the elephants, he collected the flying troops, directing his course along the river Tagus, toward the Pyrenees. Scipio took possession of the Carthaginian camp, and having bestowed on the soldiers all the booty, except the persons of free condition, he found, on taking an account of the prisoners, ten thousand foot, and two thousand horse. Of these, he sent home all the Spaniards without ransom, the Africans he ordered the quæstor to sell. On this, the multitude of Spaniards who stood around, both those who had formerly surrendered, and those taken the day before, unanimously saluted him by the title of king. But Scipio, ordering the crier to command silence, told them, that “to him the highest title was that of general, which his soldiers had conferred upon him. That the title of king, in other places highly respected, was, at Rome, deemed odious. They might, indeed, within their own breasts, judge of him as possessing the spirit of a king, if they deemed that the most honourable perfection in a human mind, but they must refrain from the application of the name.” Even these barbarians were sensibly effected by the greatness of his mind, that could look down contemptuously on a title, which from the rest of mankind attracts wonder and admiration. He then distributed presents among the petty princes and chieftains of the Spaniards, desiring Indibilis to choose, out of the great number of horses taken, three hundred, such as he liked. While the quæstor, in pursuance of the general’s order, was selling off the Africans, he observed among them a boy of extraordinary beauty; and, hearing that he was of royal blood, he sent him to Scipio. Scipio, asking him, “who, and of what country he was; and why, at that early age, he had been found in a camp?” He told him, that “he was a Numidian, called by his countrymen Massiva; that being left an orphan by the death of his father, he was educated in the family of his maternal grandfather, Gala, King of Numidia. That he had come over into Spain with his uncle Masinissa, who had lately brought a body of cavalry to the assistance of the Carthaginians. That he had never before been in a battle, having been prohibited by Masinissa on account of his youth; but that, on the day of the engagement with the Romans, he had privately taken a horse and arms, and, unknown to his uncle, gone out into the field, where, by his horse falling, he was thrown to the ground, and made a prisoner by the Romans.” Scipio, ordering the boy to be taken care of, finished what business was to be done at the tribunal; then, retiring into his pavilion, he called the youth, and asked him, whether he wished to return to Masinissa? To which the other, his eyes suffused with tears of joy, replied, that above all things it was what he wished. He then gave as presents to him, a gold ring, a vest with a broad purple border, a Spanish cloak with a golden clasp, likewise a horse fully accoutred; and, ordering a party of horsemen to escort him as far as he chose, sent him away.
XX. He then held a council, to settle a plan of operations; when many advised him, without delay, to go in pursuit of Hasdrubal: but such a step he thought too hazardous, lest Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, and Mago should unite their forces with those of that commander. Contenting himself, therefore, with sending some troops to occupy the passes of the Pyrenees, he passed the remainder of the summer in receiving the submissions of the Spanish states. Not many days after the battle fought at Bæcula, when Scipio, on his return to Tarraco, had just got clear of the pass of Castulo, the two generals, from the Farther Spain, Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, and Mago, joined Hasdruba — a reinforcement too late, the battle being lost: but their coming was very seasonable in another respect, as it gave him the assistance of their counsel, respecting the measures to be taken for the farther prosecution of the war. On this occasion, when they compared accounts of the dispositions of the Spaniards in each of their several provinces, Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, alone, made a favourable report; giving his opinion, that the remote tract of Spain, which lies on the ocean and about Gades, was, as yet, unacquainted with the Romans, and therefore sufficiently well affected to the Carthaginians. The other Hasdrubal and Mago agreed in pronouncing, that “the affections of all, both in their public and private capacities, were attached to Scipio by the kind treatment which he gave them; and that there would be no end of desertions, until all the Spanish soldiers were either removed into the remotest parts of Spain, or carried away into Gaul. Therefore, though the Carthaginian senate had passed no order for the purpose, yet it was necessary that Hasdrubal should go into Italy, where the principal stress of the war lay, and where the final decision of it must be expected; in order, at the same time, to carry away all the Spanish soldiers out of Spain, and out of the way of hearing the name of Scipio: that the Carthaginian army, being greatly reduced, as well by desertions as by the late unfortunate battle, should be filled up with Spanish recruits: that Mago, giving up his forces to Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, should go over in person to the Balearick islands, with a large sum of money, to hire auxiliaries: that Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, should, with the remainder, retire into Lusitania, and by no means come to an engagement with the Romans: that out of all their effective horsemen, a body of three thousand cavalry should be made up for Masinissa, to make excursions through what they called Hither Spain, succour their allies, and carry depredations through the towns and lands of the enemy.” Having determined on these measures, the commanders separated, to put their resolves in execution. Such were the transactions of this year in Spain. At Rome, the reputation of Scipio rose higher every day. The taking of Tarentum, though effected by artifice rather than by courage, yet gave some degree of glory to Fabius. The lustre of Fulvius’s character began to fade. Marcellus was even spoken of with displeasure, because, besides the failure in his first battle, he had in the middle of summer, while Hannibal was carrying his excursion through various parts of Italy, drawn off his army to Venusia, to lodge them in houses. He had a bitter enemy in Caius Publius Bibulus, a plebeian tribune: this man, ever since the battle which proved unfortunate, had, in frequent harangues, represented Claudius in a dishonourable light, endeavouring to render him odius to the commons; and he now proposed to deprive him of the command. The friends of Claudius nevertheless procured an order, that Marcellus, leaving at Venusia a lieutenant-general, should come home to Rome, to clear himself of those charges, on which his enemies founded the resolutions which they proposed; and that, during his absence, no step should be taken towards divesting him of the command. It so happened that Marcellus came to Rome, to rescue his character from disgrace, and the consul Quintus Fulvius to hold the elections, at the same time.
XXI. The business respecting Marcellus’s commission was debated in the Flaminian circus, amidst a vast concourse of plebeians, and people of all ranks. The tribune of the commons brought forward heavy charges, not only against Marcellus, but against the whole body of the nobles. “To their treacherous and dilatory conduct,” he said, it was owing, that Hannibal now held possession of Italy, as his province, for the tenth year, and passed more of his life there than in Carthage. The Roman people now enjoyed the fruits of continuing Marcellus in command: his army, after being twice routed, was spending the summer at Venusia, and dwelling in houses instead of the camp.” These, and such like invectives of the tribune, Marcellus so thoroughly refuted, by a recital of the services which he had performed, that not only the question concerning the annulling of his commission was negatived, but, on the day following, every one of the centuries, with the greatest unanimity, concurred in electing him consul. The colleague joined with him, was Titus Quintius Crispinus, then a prætor. Next day were elected prætors, Publius Licinius Crassus Dives, then chief pontiff, Publius Licinius Varus, Sextus Julius Cæsar, Quintus Claudius, flamen. During the very time of the elections, the public were much disturbed with apprehensions of a revolt in Etruria. That some scheme of that kind had been set on foot by the Arretians was asserted in a letter of Caius Calpurnius, who, in the character of proprætor, held the government of that province. Wherefore Marcellus, consul elect, was immediately despatched thither, with orders to inquire into the affair, and, if he should see occasion, to send for his army, and remove the war from Apulia to Etruria. The fear of this gave the Etrurians such a check, as kept them quiet. Ambassadors from the Tarentines came to solicit a treaty of peace, requesting that they might be allowed to live in freedom under their own laws; but the senate desired them to come again, when the consul Fabius would have returned to Rome. Both the Roman and plebeian games were this year repeated for one day. The curule ædiles were Lucius Cornelius Caudinus, and Servius Sulpicius Galba; the plebeian, Caius Servilius and Quintus Cæcilius Metellus. Many people insisted that Servilius could not legally have held the office of tribune, nor could now hold that of ædile, because it was well known that his father, who, for ten years, was supposed to have been killed by the Boians near Mutina, when Triumvir for the distribution of lands, was still living, and in the hands of the enemy.
Y.R. 544. 208.XXII. In the eleventh year of the Punic war commenced the consulate of Marcus Marcellus, a fifth time, (reckoning the consulship, which, because of an irregularity in the election, he did not hold,) and Titus Quintus Crispinus. It was decreed, that both the consuls should be employed in Italy, as their province; and that out of the two consular armies of the preceding year, with a third, which was at Venusia, and had been under the command of Marcellus, the consuls were to choose whatever two they liked; and the third was to be assigned to the commander, to whose lot the province of Tarentum and Sallentum should fall. The other provinces were distributed in this manner: with regard to the prætors, the city jurisdiction was assigned to Publius Licinius Varus; the foreign, with such other employment as the senate should direct, to Publius Licinius Crassus, chief pontiff; Sicily to Sextus Julius Cæsar, and Tarentum to Quintus Claudius, flamen. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus was continued in command for the year, and ordered, with one legion, to hold the government of the province of Capua, which had been held by Titus Quintus when prætor. Caius Hostilius Tubulus was likewise continued, that, as proprætor, he might succeed Caius Calpurnius in the command of the two legions in Etruria; and Lucius Veturius Philo was continued, that he might, in quality of proprætor, retain the government of his present province of Gaul, with the same two legions which he had there when prætor. With regard to Caius Aurunculeius, who, in his prætorship, had, with two legions, held the government of the province of Sardinia, the senate passed a decree in the same terms with that respecting Lucius Veturius, but, for the defence of that province, an additional force was assigned him of fifty ships of war, which Scipio was to send from Spain. The business of continuing all these officers in command was laid before an assembly of the people. To Publius Scipio and Marcus Silanus, their present province of Spain, and the armies at present with them, were decreed for the year. An order was sent to Scipio, that, out of eighty ships which he then had — some brought with him from Italy, some taken at Carthage — he should send fifty over to Sardinia; because a report prevailed that great naval preparations were going on at Carthage, where the intention was to overspread the whole coasts of Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia with a fleet of two hundred sail. The business of Sicily was divided thus: the troops of Cannæ were given to Sextus Cæsar: Marcus Valerius Lævinus (for he also was continued in authority) was to have the fleet of seventy ships, which lay on the coast of that island. To these were joined the thirty ships which had been at Tarentum the year before; and with this fleet of one hundred sail, if he thought proper, he was to pass over and make depredations on Africa. Publius Sulpicius, also, was continued in command for the year, that he might hold the province of Macedonia and Greece, with the same fleet which he had before. With respect to the two legions which remained in the city of Rome, no alteration was made. Leave was given for the consuls to raise recruits, to complete the troops wherein there was any deficiency of numbers. Twenty-one legions were employed this year in the service of the Roman empire. A charge was given to Publius Licinius Varus, city prætor, to repair thirty old ships of war, which lay at Ostia, and to furnish twenty new ones, with their full complement of men, that he might have a fleet of fifty sail to guard the sea coasts in the neighbourhood of Rome. Caius Calpurnius was forbidden to remove his army from Arretium, before the arrival of his successor. Both he and Tubero were ordered to be particularly watchful on that side, lest any new schemes might be formed.
XXIII. The prætors went to the provinces, but the consuls were detained by business respecting religion; for they could not readily effect the expiation of several prodigies which had been reported. From Campania, accounts were brought, that two temples at Capua, those of Fortune and Mars, and several tombs, were struck by lightning; and at Cumæ, mice gnawed some gold in the temple of Jupiter, so apt is superstitious weakness to introduce the deities into the most trivial occurrences; that at Casinum, a very large swarm of bees settled in the Forum; at Ostia, a wall and gate were struck by lightning; at Cære, a vulture flew into the temple of Jupiter; and that at Vulsinii blood flowed from a lake. On account of these portents, there was a supplication performed of one day’s continuance. During many successive ones, sacrifices were offered of victims of the larger kinds, and yet no favourable omens appeared, nor, for a long time, was there any indication of the gods becoming propitious. The baneful events, thus forboded, affected not immediately the safety of the state, but fell on the persons of the consuls. The Apollinarian games had been first celebrated by the city prætor, Cornelius Sulla, in the consulate of Quintus Fulvius, and Appius Claudius; and, thenceforward, all the city prætors, in succession, had performed them; but they vowed them only for one year, and fixed no particularly day for their observance. This year, a grievous epidemic disorder fell both on the city and country; however, the sickness was rather tedious than mortal. On account of this malady, a supplication was performed in all the streets of Rome, the city prætor, Publius Licinius Varus, being at the same time ordered to propose to the people to enact a law, that a vow should be made for the perpetual celebration of those games on a stated day. Accordingly he himself first engaged for it, holding the games on the third day of the nones of July, which day has ever since been observed as an anniversary festival.
XXIV. The rumours concerning the Arretians grew every day more and more alarming, and greatly increased the anxiety of the senate; wherefore orders were despatched to Caius Hostilius, not to defer taking hostages from that people; and Caius Terentius Varro was sent with a commission to receive them from him, and conduct them to Rome. On his arrival, Hostilius immediately ordered one legion, which was encamped before the gates, to march into the city; and then, having posted guards in proper places, he summoned the senate to attend him in the Forum, and made a demand of hostages. The senate requested two days time to consider of the matter; but he insisted that they should, give them instantly, or he would, next day, take all the children of the senators. He then directed all the military tribunes, præfects of the allies, and centurions, to guard the gates carefully, that no one might go out of the city in the night. This was not performed with proper care and diligence; for, before the guards were posted at the gates, or night came on, seven principal senators made their escape with their children. At the first light, on the day following, the senate being summoned into the Forum, they were missed, and their property was sold. From the rest of the senators, one hundred and twenty hostages were received, who were their own children, and they were delivered to Caius Terentius to be conducted to Rome. He represented every thing to the senate, in such a light as greatly increased their suspicions: wherefore, as if the hostile intentions of the Etrurians were no longer to be doubted, an order was given to Caius Terentius himself, to lead one of the city legions to Aretium, and keep it there, as a garrison to the city. It was at the same time determined that Caius Hostilius, with the rest of the troops, should make a circuit through the whole province; that those who wished to excite disturbances might have no opportunity of putting their designs in execution. When Caius Terentius, with the legion, arrived at Arretium, and demanded from the magistrates the keys of the gates, they told him that they were not to be found; but he, believing rather that they had been put out of the way through some evil design, than lost through negligence, put on new locks, making use of every precaution to keep all things fully under his own power. He earnestly cautioned Hostilius not to expect to retain the Etrurians in quiet by any other means than by putting it out of their power to stir.
XXV. About this time, the business of the Tarentines occasioned a warm debate in the senate, where Fabius was present, exerting himself in favour of those whom he had subdued by arms, while others spoke of them with much asperity, charging them as equal in guilt and deserving equal punishment with the Campanians. The senate resolved, conformably to the opinion of Manius Acilius, that the town should be secured by a garrison, and all the Tarentines confined within the walls, and that the business should be taken under consideration at a future time, and when Italy should be in a state of greater tranquility. The case of Marcus Livius, governor of the citadel of Tarentum, was also debated with no less warmth: some advised to pass a vote of censure on him, because that, in consequence of his indolence, Tarentum had been betrayed to the enemy; while others thought him deserving of reward, for having defended the citadel for five years, and for having, singly, been the principal cause of the recovery of Tarentum. Moderate people affirmed, that the cognizance of his conduct belonged to the censors, not to the senate; and of this opinion was Fabius; nevertheless adding —“Livius was, no doubt, the cause of Tarentum being recovered, as his friends have so often boasted in the senate; but it should be borne in mind that it could not have been recovered, if it had not been lost.” The consul, Titus Quintus Crispinus, marched with a reinforcement into Lucania, to join the army formerly commanded by Quintus Fulvius Flaccus. Marcellus was detained by several obstacles respecting religion, which occurred, in quick succession, to disturb his mind: one of which was, that, having in the battle with the Gauls at Clastidium vowed a temple to Honour and Virtue, he had been hindered, by the pontiffs, from dedicating it; for they insisted, that one shrine could not, with propriety, be consecrated to more than one deity: because, if it should be struck with lightning, or any kind of prodigy happen in it, the expiation would be difficult, as it could not be determined to which of the deities sacrifice ought to be made; for one victim could not, properly, be offered to two divinities, unless they were known to be two to whom such victim must be acceptable. Wherefore a separate temple was erected to Virtue, and the work pushed forward with haste; nevertheless these temples were not dedicated by him. At length he set out, with a number of recruits, to join the army, which he had left the year before at Venusia. Crispinus, observing the great degree of fame which the taking of Tarentum had procured to Marcellus, prepared to lay siege to Locri in Bruttium, sending to Sicily for engines and machines of all sorts, and calling over a fleet from thence, to attack that quarter of the city which stretched down to the sea. But he laid aside his design of the siege, because Hannibal had advanced to Licinium; he heard, too, that his colleague had led out his army from Venusia, which made him wish to unite their forces. Crispinus therefore withdrew from Bruttium into Apulia, and the two consuls sat down in separate camps, distant from each other less than three miles, between Venusia and Bantia. Hannibal also returned into the same country, as soon as he had saved Locri from a siege. And now the consuls, being both impatient for action, offered battle almost every day; not doubting but that, if the enemy would hazard an engagement with the two consular armies united, they might effectually put an end to the war.
XXVI. As Hannibal, of the two battles which he had fought with Marcellus the year before, had gained one and lost the other, he might now, in case of an engagement with the same antagonist, find reasonable grounds both of hope and fear; but he could, by no means, believe himself equal to a contest with the two consuls together. Applying himself, therefore, wholly to his old artifices, he watched an opportunity for an ambuscade. However, several skirmishes were fought between the camps with various success, and the consuls began to think that the summer might be spun out in this manner. They were of opinion, however, that the siege of Locri might, nevertheless, be prosecuted; and they wrote to Lucius Cincius to come over, with the fleet, from Sicily to that place; and, to carry on the siege on the land side, they ordered half the troops in garrison at Tarentum to march thither. Hannibal, having received previous intimation from some Thurians of these intended measures, sent a party to lie in ambush on the road from Tarentum. There under the hill of Petellia, three thousand horsemen and two thousand foot were placed in concealment; and the Romans, marching carelessly, without having examined the road, fell into the snare, where no less than two thousand soldiers were killed, and about twelve hundred taken prisoners: the rest flying different ways, through the fields and woods, returned to Tarentum. Between the Roman and Carthaginian camps, stood a hill, interspersed with trees, which neither party at first had occupied, because the Romans knew not the nature of the ground on the side which faced the camp of the enemy, and Hannibal had judged it to be better fitted for an ambush than for a camp: accordingly he sent thither, for the purpose, a strong detachment of Numidians, whom he concealed in the middle of a thicket; not one of whom stirred from his post in the day, lest either their arms or themselves might be observed from a distance. There ran a general murmer through the Roman camp, that this hill ought to be seized, and secured by a fort, lest, if Hannibal should get possession of it, they should have the enemy, as it were, over their heads. The observation struck Marcellus, and he said to his colleague, “Why not go ourselves with a few horsemen, and take a view of the place? After examining the matter with our own eyes, we shall be able to judge with more certainty.” Crispinus assenting, they proceeded to the spot, attended by two hundred and twenty horsemen, of whom forty were Fregellans, the rest Etrurians: they were accompanied by two military tribunes, Marcus Marcellus, the consul’s son, and Aulus Manlius, and by two præfects of the allies, Lucius Arennius and Marcus Aulius. Some writers have recorded, that the consul Marcellus offered sacrifice on that day, and that, on the first victim being slain, the liver was found without its head: in the second, all the usual parts appeared, but there was a swelling observed on the head of the liver; the aruspex also observing, that, in the second case, the entrails, being imperfect and foul, afforded no very happy presages.
XXVII. But the consel Marcellus was possessed with such a passionate desire for a trial of strength with Hannibal, that he never thought his own camp close enough to his; and on this occasion, as he was passing the rampart, he left directions that every soldier should be ready in his place, in order that, if the hill which they were going to examine, should be approved of, the whole might strike their tents, and follow them thither. In front of the camp was a small plain, and the road, leading thence to the hill, was open on all sides, and exposed to view. A watchman whom the Numidians had posted, not in expectation of an opportunity so important as this, but with the hope of cutting off any party that might straggle too far in search of wood or forage, gave them the signal to rise at once from their concealments. Those who were to come forth from the summit and meet the enemy in front did not show themselves, until the others, who were to enclose them on the rear, had got round. Then all sprung forward from every side, and, raising a shout, made a furious onset. Though the consuls were so situated in the valley that they could neither force their way up the hill, which was occupied by the enemy, nor, surrounded as they were, effect a retreat, the dispute might nevertheless have been protracted for a longer time, had not the Etrurians begun to fly, and thereby filled the rest with dismay. However, the Fregellans, though abandoned by the Etrurians, did not give up the contest, as long as the consuls remained unhurt; who, by their exhortations, and their own personal exertions, supported the spirit of the fight: but, afterwards, seeing both the consuls wounded, and Marcellus pierced through with a lance, and falling lifeless from his horse, then the few betook themselves to flight, carrying with them Crispinus, who had received two wounds from javelins, and young Marcellus, who was also hurt. One of the military tribunes, Aulus Manlius, was slain: of the two præfects of the allies, Marcus Aulius was killed, and Lucius Arennius taken: of the lictors of the consuls, five fell alive into the enemy’s hands; of the rest, some were slain, the others fled with the consul. Forty-three horsemen fell in the fight and pursuit, and eighteen were made prisoners. The troops in camp had taken the alarm, and were going to succour the consuls, when they saw one consul, and the other consul’s son, both wounded, and the small remains of the unfortunate party on their return. The death of Marcellus, unhappy in other respects, was no less so in this, that by a conduct, ill-becoming either his age (for he was now above sixty years old), or the prudence of a veteran commander, he had so improvidently precipitated himself, his colleague, and, in some measure, the whole commonwealth into such desperate hazard. I should engage in too many and too long discussions on a single event, if I were to recite all the various relations given by different writers of the death of Marcellus. To omit other authors, Lucius Cælius presents us with three different narratives of that occurrence: one received by tradition; another written, and contained in the funeral panegyric, delivered by his son, who was present in the action; and a third, which he produces as the real state of the fact, discovered by his own inquiries. But how much soever reports vary, most of them, notwithstanding, concur in stating, that he went out of his camp to view the ground, and all, that he was slain in an ambuscade.
XXVIII. Hannibal, supposing that the enemy must be greatly dismayed by the death of one of their consuls, and the wounds of the other, and wishing not to lose any advantage which a juncture so favourable might afford, removed his camp immediately to the hill on which the battle had been fought. Here he found the body of Marcellus, and interred it. Crispinus, disheartened by his colleague’s death and his own wounds, decamped in the silence of the following night, and, on the nearest mountains that he could reach, pitched his camp in an elevated spot, secure on all sides. On this occasion, the two commanders displayed great sagacity in their proceedings, while one endeavoured to effect, the other to guard against deception. Hannibal had, with Marcellus’s body, gotten possession of his ring, and Crispinus, fearing lest mistakes occasioned by means of this signet might give room to the Carthaginian for practising some of his wiles, sent expresses round to all the neighbouring states to inform them, that “his colleague had been slain, that the enemy was in possession of his ring, and that they should, therefore, give no credit to any letters written in the name of Marcellus.” This message from the consul had but just arrived at Salapia, when a letter was brought thither from Hannibal, written in the name of Marcellus, intimating, that “he would come to Salapia on the night which was to follow that day; and directing that the soldiers of the garrison should be ready in case he should have occasion to employ them.” The Salapians were aware of the fraud; and judging that Hannibal, whom they had incensed, not only by their defection from his party, but by killing his horsemen, was seeking an opportunity for revenge, sent back his messenger, who was a Roman deserter, in order that the soldiers might act, as should be thought proper, without being watched by him; they then placed parties of the townsmen on guard along the walls, and in the convenient parts of the city, forming the guards and watches for that night with more than ordinary care. On each side of the gate, through which they expected the enemy to come, they placed the main strength of the garrison. About the fourth watch Hannibal approached the city: his van-guard was composed of Roman deserters, armed also in the Roman fashion. These, when they came to the gate, as they all spoke the Latin language, called up the watchmen, and ordered them to open the gate, for the consul was at hand. The watchmen, as if awakened by their call, were all in a hurry and bustle, striving to open the gate, which had been shut by letting down the portcullice: some raised this with levers, others pulled it up with ropes to such an height, that men might come in without stooping. Scarcely was the passage sufficiently opened, when the deserters rushed in eagerly through the gate; and, when about six hundred had entered, the rope, by which it was kept suspended, being loosened, the portcullice fell down with a great noise. Part of the Salapians now attacked the deserters, who, as if among friends carried their arms carelessly on their shoulders, as on a march; while the rest, from the tower adjoining the gate and from the walls, beat off the enemy with stones, and pikes, and javelins. Thus Hannibal, ensnared by an artifice worthy of himself, was obliged to retire, and went thence to raise the siege of Locri, which Cincius was pushing forward with the utmost vigour, having constructed various works, and being supplied with engines of every kind from Sicily. Mago, who almost despaired of being able to hold out and maintain the defence of the city, received the first gleam of returning hope from the news of Marcellus’s death. This was soon followed by an express, acquainting him that Hannibal, having sent forward the Numidian cavalry, was hastening after, at the head of the main body of infantry, with all the speed he could make. As soon, therefore, as he understood, by signals made from the watch-towers, that the Numidians were drawing nigh, he, with his own forces, suddenly throwing open a gate, rushed out furiously on the besiegers. The suddenness of his attack, rather than inequality of strength, at first made the dispute doubtful; but afterwards, when the Numidians came up, the Romans were struck with such dismay, that they fled in confusion towards the sea and their ships, leaving behind their works and machines which they used in battering the walls. In this manner did the approach of Hannibal raise the siege of Locri.
XXIX. When Crispinus learned that Hannibal had gone into Bruttium, he ordered Marcus Marcellus, military tribune, to lead away to Venusia the army which had been under the command of his colleage; and he himself, with his own legions, set out for Capua, being scarcely able to endure the motion of a litter, his wounds were so very painful. But he first despatched a letter to Rome, with an account of Marcellus’s death, and of his own dangerous situation. “It was not in his power,” he said, “to go to Rome to attend the elections, because he was sure he should not be able to bear the fatigue of the journey; and besides, that he was uneasy about Tarentum, lest Hannibal might march thither from Bruttium. It was therefore necessary that some persons should be commissioned to come to him in his quarters, men of prudence, to whom he could with freedom speak his thoughts on the present state of affairs.” The reading of this letter caused great sorrow for the death of one consul, and apprehensions for the safety of the other. The senate, therefore, sent Quintus Fabius the younger to Venusia, to take the command of the army there; and deputed three persons to wait on the consul, Sextus Julius Cæsar, Lucius Licinius Pollio, and Lucius Cincius Alimentus, who had a few days before come home from Sicily. These were ordered to deliver a message to the consul, that if he could not come himself to Rome, to hold the elections, he would, within the Roman territories, nominate a dictator for that purpose; and directions were given, that in case the consul should have gone to Tarentum, then Quintus Claudius, the prætor, should lead the army from its present quarters into that part of the country where he could afford protection to the greatest number of the cities of the allies. In the course of this summer Marcus Valerius passed from Sicily to Africa with a fleet of one hundred sail, and making a descent near the city of Clupea, ravaged the country to a great extent, meeting scarcely any one in arms. After which, the troops employed in these depredations made a hasty retreat to their ships, in consequence of a sudden report that the Carthaginian fleet was approaching. This fleet consisted of eighty-three ships, with which the Roman commander came to an engagement not far from Clupea, and gained a complete victory. After taking eighteen ships, and dispersing the rest, he returned to Lilybæum with abundance of booty, acquired both on land and sea.
XXX. Philip, during this summer, brought assistance to the Achæans, in compliance with their earnest entreaties; for, on one side, Machanidas, tyrant of the Lacedæmonians, harassed them continually by irruptions from his territories, which lay contiguous to theirs; and on another, the Ætolians, transporting an army, in ships, through the streight which runs between Naupactus and Patræ, called by the neighbouring inhabitants Rhios, had spread devastations through the country. A report also prevailed, that Attalus, king of Asia, intended to come over into Europe, because the Ætolians, in their last general council, had constituted him chief magistrate of their state. While Philip was, for all these reasons, marching down into Greece, he was met at the city of Lamia by the Ætolians, under the command of Pyrrhias, who had been created prætor for that year, conjointly with Attalus, on account of the latter’s absence. Besides their own forces, they had a body of auxiliaries sent by Attalus, and about one thousand men from the Roman fleet of Publius Sulpicius. Against this commander, and these forces, Philip fought twice with success; and, in each battle, slew at least one thousand. The Ætolians, being so greatly dismayed, as to keep themselves close under the walls of Lamia, Philip led back his army to Phalara. This place, being situated on the Malian bay, was formerly thickly inhabited, on account of its excellent harbour, the safe anchorage on either side, with other commodious circumstances, to which both the sea and the land contributed. Hither came ambassadors from Ptolemy king of Egypt, the Rhodians, Athenians, and Chians, with intent to compose the differences between Philip and the Ætolians. The Ætolians also invited a mediator from among their neighbours, Amynander, king of Athamania. But the concern of all was engaged, not so much by their regard for the Ætolians, who were remarkable for an arrogance unbecoming a Grecian state, as by their wishes to prevent Philip from interfering in any of the affairs of Greece; an interference which would be highly dangerous to the general liberty. The deliberations concerning a pacification were adjourned to the meeting of the council of the Achæans, and a certain time and place were fixed for that assembly. In the mean time, a truce for thirty days was obtained. The king, proceeding thence through Thessaly and Bœotia, came to Chalcis in Eubœa, with design to exclude Attalus from the harbours and coasts, for intelligence had been received that he intended to come to Eubœa with a fleet. Afterwards, leaving there a body of troops to oppose Attalus, in case he should happen to arrive in the mean time; and setting out himself with a few horsemen and light infantry, he came to Argos. Here the superintendance of the games of Hærean Juno and Nemæan Hercules being conferred on him by the suffrages of the people, because the kings of the Macedonians affect to derive the origin of their family from that city, he performed those in honour of Juno; and, as soon as they were finished, went off instantly to Ægium, to the council summoned some time before. In this assembly several schemes were proposed for putting an end to the Ætolian war, that neither the Romans nor Attalus might have any pretence for entering Greece. But every measure of the kind was defeated at once by the Ætolians, when the time of the truce had scarcely expired, on their hearing that Attalus was arrived at Ægina, and that the Roman fleet lay at Naupactus. For being called into the council of the Achæans, where were likewise present the same ambassadors who had treated of a pacification at Phalara, they at first complained of some trifling acts committed during the truce, contrary to the faith of the convention, at last declaring that the war could not be terminated on any other terms than by the Achæans giving back Pylus to the Messenians, Atintania to the Romans, and Ardyæa to Scerdilædus and Pleuratus. Philip, conceiving the utmost indignation at the vanquished party presuming to prescribe terms to their conqueror, said, that “in listening before to proposals of peace, or in agreeing to a truce, he had not been led by any expectation that the Ætolians would remain quiet, but by his wish to have all the confederates witnesses that the object of his pursuits was peace; of theirs, war.” Thus, without any thing being effected towards an accommodation, he dismissed the assembly, left five thousand soldiers to protect the Achæans, receiving from them five ships of war, with which, added to a fleet lately sent to him from Carthage, and some vessels then on their way from Bithynia, sent by king Prusias, he had resolved, if he could effect the junction, to try his strength in a naval engagement with the Romans, who had long been masters of the sea in that part of the world. After dissolving the council, he went back to Argos, because the time of the Nemæan games was approaching, and he wished to give them, by his presence, an additional degree of splendour.
XXXI. While the king was employed in the celebration of the games, and, during that season of festivity, indulging his mind in relaxation from military operations, Publius Sulpicius setting sail from Naupactus, arrived on the coast between Sicyon and Corinth, making violent depredations on that fine and fertile country. The news of this event called away Philip from the exhibition. He marched off with rapidity at the head of his cavalry, leaving orders for the infantry to follow; and, while the Romans were straggling at random, and heavily laden with booty, not apprehending any danger of the kind, he attacked and drove them to their ships. Thus the Roman fleet returned to Naupactus with little cause of triumph for the booty which they had taken. On the other side, Philip, by the fame of a victory, whatever might be its real importance, gained however over Romans, added greatly to the lustre of the remaining part of the games; and the festival was celebrated with extraordinary rejoicings, to which he contributed also by his popular behaviour: for, laying aside his diadem, purple robe, and other royal apparel, he set himself, with respect to appearance, on a level with the rest; than which nothing can be more grateful to the people of free states. This conduct would have afforded very strong hopes of general liberty, had he not debased and dishonoured all by intolerable debauchery: for, night and day, with one or two attendants, he ranged through the houses of married people. He had lowered his dignity to the common level, consequently the less conspicuous he appeared, the less restraint he was under; and thus the liberty of which he had given others an empty prospect, he stretched to the utmost in the gratification of his own libidinous desires. Money and seductive discourses were not always sufficient for his purposes; he even employed violence in aid of them, and dangerous was it for husbands and parents to show inflexible strictness in obstructing the lustful passions of the king. He took from Aratus (a man of distinction among the Achæans) his wife, named Polycratia, and deluding her with the hope of being married to a sovereign prince, carried her into Macedonia. After spending the time of the celebration of the games, and several days after they were finished, in this scandalous manner, he marched to Dymæ, with design to dislodge a garrison of the Ætolians, who had been invited by the Eleans, and received into that city. At Dymæ he was joined by the Achæans, under Cycliades their chief magistrate, who were inflamed with hatred against the Eleans, because they refused to unite with the other states of Achaia, and highly incensed against the Ætolians, whom they believed to be the authors of the war carried on against them by the Romans. Leaving Dymæ, and uniting their forces, they passed the river Larissus, which separates the territory of Elis from that of Dymæ.
XXXII. The first day on which they entered the enemy’s borders, they spent in plundering. On the next, they advanced to the city in order of battle, having sent forward the cavalry, to ride up to the gates, and provoke the Ætolians, who were ever well inclined to embrace an opportunity of sallying out from their works. They did not know that Sulpicius, with fifteen ships, had come over from Naupactus to Cyllene, and landing four thousand soldiers, had, in the dead of night, lest his march should be observed, thrown himself into Elis. When therefore they perceived, among the Ætolians and Eleans, the Roman standards and arms, an appearance so unexpected filled them with the greatest terror. At first, the king had a mind to order a retreat, but the Ætolians being already engaged with the Trallians, a tribe of Illyrians so called, and his party appearing to have the worst of the contest, he himself, at the head of his cavalry, made a charge on a Roman cohort. Here the horse of Philip, being pierced through with a spear, threw him forward, over his head, to the ground, which gave rise to a furious conflict between the contending parties; the Romans pressing hard on the king, and his own men protecting him. His own behaviour on the occasion was remarkably brave, although he was obliged to fight on foot, among squadrons of cavalry. In a short time, the dispute becoming unequal, great numbers being killed and wounded near him, he was forced away by his soldiers, and, mounting another horse, fled from the field. He pitched his camp that day at the distance of five miles from the city of Elis; and, on the next, led all his forces to a fort called Pyrgus, where, as he had heard, a multitude of the country people, with their cattle, had run together through fear of being plundered. This irregular and unarmed crowd were so utterly dismayed at his approach, that he at once made himself master of the whole, and by this seizure gained compensation for whatever disgrace he had sustained at Elis. While he was distributing the spoil and prisoners, the latter amounting to four thousand men, and the cattle of all kinds to twenty thousand, news arrived from Macedonia, that a person called Eropus, had, by bribing the commander of the garrison and citadel, gained possession of Lychnidus; that he had also got into his hands some towns of the Dassaretians, and was, besides, endeavouring to persuade the Dardanians to take arms. In consequence of this intelligence, dropping the prosecution of the war between the Achæans and Ætolians, but leaving, however, two thousand five hundred soldiers, of one sort or other, under the command of Menippus and Polyphantas, to assist his allies, he marched away from Dymæ, through Achaia, Bœotia, and Ebœa, and on the tenth day arrived at Demetrias in Thessaly. Here he was met by other couriers, with accounts of still more dangerous commotions; that the Dardanians, pouring into Macedonia, had already seized on Orestis, and marched down into the plain of Argestæ, and that a report prevailed among the barbarians, that Philip had been slain. This rumour was occasioned by the following circumstance. In his expedition against the plundering parties near Sicyon, being carried by the impetuosity of his horse against a tree, a projecting branch broke off one of the side ornaments of his helmet, which being found by an Ætolian, and carried into Ætolia to Scerdilædus, who knew it to be the cognizance of the king, it was supposed that he was killed. After Philip’s departure from Achæa, Sulpicius, sailing to Ægina, joined his fleet to that of Attalus. The Achæans gained the victory in a battle with the Ætolians and Eleans, fought near Messene. King Attalus and Publius Sulpicius wintered at Ægina.
XXXIII. Towards the close of this year, the consul Titus Quintius Crispinus, after having nominated Titus Manlius Torquatus dictator, to preside at the elections, and solemnize the games, died of his wounds, according to some writers, at Tarentum; according to others, in Campania. Thus was there a concurrence of events, such as had never been experienced in any former war, while the two consuls being slain, without having fought any memorable battle, left the commonwealth, as it were, fatherless. The dictator Manlius appointed Caius Servilius, then curule ædile, his master of the horse. The senate, on the first day of its meeting, ordered the dictator to celebrate the great games, which Marcus Æmilius, city prætor, had exhibited in the consulate of Caius Flaminius and Cneius Servilius, and had vowed to be repeated at the end of five years. Accordingly, he not only performed them now, but vowed them for the next lustrum. But as the two consular armies, without commanders, were so near the enemy, both the senate and people, laying aside all other concerns, made it their chief and only care to have consuls elected as soon as possible, and especially that they should be men whose courage was so tempered by prudence as to guard them sufficiently against Carthaginian wiles: for it was considered, that, as through the whole course of the present war, the too warm and precipitate tempers of their generals had been productive of great losses, so, in that very year, the consuls, through excessive eagerness to engage the enemy, had fallen unguardedly into their snares; that the gods, however, compassionating the Roman nation, had spared the troops, who were guiltless of the fault, and had decreed that the penalty incurred by the rashness of the commanders should fall on their own heads. When the senate looked round for proper persons to be appointed to the consulship, Caius Claudius Nero at once met their view as eminently qualified beyond all others. They then sought a colleague for him. They well knew him to be a man of extraordinary abilities, but, at the same time, of a temper more sanguine and enterprising than was expedient in the present exigencies of the war, or against such an opponent as Hannibal; and, therefore, they thought it necessary to qualify his disposition by joining with him a man of moderation and prudence.
XXXIV. Many years before this, Marcus Livius, on the expiration of his consulship, had been judged guilty of misconduct by the sentence of the people; and he was so deeply affected by this disgrace, that he retired into the country, and, for a long time, avoided not only the city, but all intercourse with mankind. About eight years afterwards, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, and Marcus Valerius Lævinus, then consuls, brought him back into Rome; but still he appeared in a squalid dress, and suffered his hair and beard to grow, displaying in his countenance and garb a more than ordinary sensibility of the censure passed on him. When Lucius Veturius and Publius Licinius were censors, they compelled him to be shaved, to lay aside his sordid apparel, to attend the meetings of the senate, and perform other public duties. But, after all this, he used to give his vote either by a single word, or by going to the side of the house which he approved, until a trial came on in the cause of Marcus Livius Macatus, a man to whom he was related, and whose character was at stake; and this obliged him to deliver his sentiments at large in the senate. The speech which he made, after so long an interval of silence, drew on him all eyes, and became the subject of much conversation: it was asserted, that “the people had treated him with great injustice, and that the consequences of this undeserved ill-treatment had been highly injurious to that very people; as, during a war of such importance and danger, the state had been deprived both of the services and counsels of so great a man. With Caius Nero, neither Quintus Fabius, nor Marcus Valerius Lævinus could be joined in office; because the law did not allow the election of two patricians. The same objection lay against Titus Manlius, besides that he had before refused the offer of the consulship, and would again refuse it. But if the election of Marcus Livius, in conjunction with Caius Nero, could be effected, then they would have such consuls as could scarcely be equalled.” Nor where the commons disinclined to the proposal, although it took its rise from the patricians. One only person in the state, the person to whom the honour was offered, objected to the measure; charging the people with levity and inconstancy, he said, that “when he appeared before them in the situation of a defendant, in a mourning habit, they refused him their compassion; yet now they forced upon him the white gown against his will, heaping punishments and honours on the same object. If they deemed him an honest man, why had they condemned him as wicked and guilty? If they had discovered proofs of his guilt, after seeing such reason to repent of having trusted him with the consulship once, why entrust him with it a second time?” While he uttered these, and such like reproaches and complaints, he was checked by the senators, who bade him recollect, that “Camillus, though exiled by his country, yet returned at its call, and re-established it, when shaken from the very foundations; that it was the duty of a man to mollify by patience, and to bear with resignation, the severity of his country, like that of a parent.” By the united exertions of all, Marcus Livius was elected consul with Caius Claudius Nero.
XXXV. Three days after, the election of prætors was held, and there were chosen into that office, Lucius Porcius Licinus, Caius Mamilius Aulus, and Caius Hostilius Cato. As soon as the elections were concluded, and the games celebrated, the dictator and master of the horse resigned their offices. Caius Tarentius Varro was sent, as proprætor, into Etruria, in order that Caius Hostilius might go from that province to Tarentum, to take the command of the army which had acted under the late consul, Titus Quintius; and that Titus Manlius might go beyond sea, in the character of ambassador, to observe what business was going on abroad; and also, as, during that summer, the Olympic games were to be exhibited, which were always attended by the greatest concourse of the people of Greece, that he might go to that assembly, if not prevented by the enemy, and inform any Sicilians whom he should find driven there, and any citizens of Tarentum, banished by Hannibal, that they might return to their homes, and might be assured that the Roman people meant to restore to them the whole of the property which they possessed before the war began. As the approaching year seemed to threaten the greatest dangers, and there were, as yet, no magistrates for the administration of public affairs, all men directed their attention to the consuls elect, and wished them, as speedily as possible, to cast lots for their provinces, that each of them might know beforehand what province and what antagonist he was to have. Measures were also taken in the senate, on a motion made by Quintus Fabius Maximus, to reconcile them to each other; for there subsisted between them an avowed enmity, which on the side of Livius, was the more inveterate, as, during his misfortunes, he had felt himself treated with contempt by the other. He was therefore the more obstinately implacable, and insisted, that “there was no need of any reconciliation: for they would conduct all business with the greater diligence and activity, while each should be afraid, lest a colleague, who was his enemy, might find means of exalting his own character at the other’s expence.” Nevertheless the influence of the senate prevailed on them to lay aside their animosity, and to act with harmony and unanimity in the administration of the government. The provinces allotted to them were not, as in former years, a joint command in the same districts, but quite separate, in the remotest extremities of Italy: to one, Bruttium and Lucania, where he was to act against Hannibal; to the other, Gaul, where he was to oppose Hasdrubal, who was now said to be approaching to the Alps. It was ordered that the consul to whose lot Gaul fell, should, of the two armies, (one of which was in Gaul, and the other in Etruria,) choose whichever he thought proper, and join to it the city legions; and that he to whom the province of Bruttium fell, should, after enlisting new legions for the city, take his choice of the armies commanded by the consuls of the preceding year; and that the army left by the consul should be given to Quintus Fulvius, proconsul, and that he should continue in command for a year. To Caius Hostilius, to whom they had assigned the province of Tarentum, in exchange for Etruria, they now gave Capua instead. One legion was ordered for him — that which Fulvius had commanded the year before.
XXXVI. The public anxiety respecting Hasdrubal’s march into Italy increased daily. At first, envoys from the Massilians brought information, that he had passed into Gaul, and that the inhabitants of that country were in high spirits on the occasion; because it was reported, that he had brought a vast quantity of gold for the purpose of hiring auxiliaries. In company with these envoys, on their return, were sent from Rome, Sextus Antistius and Marcus Retius, to inquire into the matter; who brought back an account, that they had sent persons with Massilian guides, who, by means of some Gallic chieftains, connected in friendship with the Massilians, might procure exact intelligence of every particular; and that they had discovered, with certainty, that Hasdrubal, having already collected a very numerous army, intended to pass the Alps in the following spring, and that nothing prevented his doing it immediately, but the passes of those mountains being shut up by the winter. Publius Ælius Pætus was elected and inaugurated into the office of augur, in the room of Marcus Marcellus; and Cneius Cornelius Dolabella into that of king in religious matters, in the room of Marcus Marcius, who had died two years before. In this year, the first time since Hannibal’s coming into Italy, the lustrum was closed by the censors, Publius Sempronius Tuditanus and Marcus Cornelius Cethegus. The number of citizens rated was one hundred and thirty-seven thousand one hundred and eight, a number much smaller than it had been before the war. It is recorded that, in this same year, the Comitium was covered, and the Roman games once repeated by the curule ædiles, Quintus Metellus and Caius Servilius; and the plebeian games twice, by the plebeian ædiles, Quintus Mamilius and Marcus Cæcilius Metellus. These also erected three statues in the temple of Ceres, and there was a feast of Jupiter on occasion of the games.Y.R. 545. 207. Then entered on the consulship Caius Claudius Nero and Marcus Livius, a second time; and as they had already, when consuls elect, cast lots for their provinces, they now ordered the prætors to do the same. To Caius Hostilius fell the city jurisdiction, to which the foreign was added, in order that three prætors might go abroad to the provinces. To Aulus Hostilius fell Sardinia; to Caius Mamilius, Sicily; and and to Lucius Porcius, Gaul. The whole of the legions, amounting to twenty-three, were distributed in such manner, that each of the consuls should have two, Spain four, the three prætors, in Sicily, Sardinia, and Gaul, two each; Caius Terentius, in Etruria, two; Quintus Fulvius, in Bruttium, two; Quintus Claudius, about Tarentum and Sallentum, two; Caius Hostilius Tubulus, at Capua, one; and two were ordered to be raised for the city. For the first four legions, the people elected tribunes; for the rest, they were appointed by the consuls.
XXXVII. Before the consuls left home, the nine days solemnity was performed, on account of a shower of stones having fallen from the sky at Veii. The mention of one prodigy was, as usual, followed by reports of others: that the temple of Jupiter at Minturnæ, a grove at Marica, a wall and a gate of Atella, had been struck by lightning. The people of Minturnæ added, what was still more terrifying, that a stream of blood had flowed in at one of their gates: at Capua, too, a wolf came into one of the gates, and tore the centinel. These prodigies were expiated with victims of the greater kinds; and a supplication, of one day’s continuance, was ordered by the pontiffs. The nine days solemnity was afterwards performed a second time, on account of a shower of stones seen to fall during the armilustrum. The people’s minds were no sooner freed from religious apprehensions, than they were again disturbed by an account, that, at Frusino, an infant was born of a size equal to that of a child four years old, and wonderful, not only for its bulk, but for its sex being doubtful; as had been the case of the one born, two years before, at Sinuessa. Aruspices, sent for from Etruria, denounced this to be a portent particularly horrid, that ought to be exterminated from the Roman territories, and without being suffered to touch the earth, drowned in the sea. Accordingly, they shut it up alive in a chest, and threw it into the deep. The pontiffs likewise issued a mandate, that thrice nine virgins should go in procession through the city, singing a hymn. While they were employed, in the temple of Jupiter Stator, learning this hymn, which was composed by the poet Livius, the temple of Imperial Juno, on the Aventine, was struck by lightning. The aruspices, having delivered their judgment that this prodigy had respect to the matrons, and that the goddess ought to be appeased by an offering, the curule ædiles, by an edict, summoned together into the Capitol all those matrons who had houses in the city of Rome, or within ten miles of it; and from this number they chose twenty-five, to whom they paid in a contribution out of their own effects. With this money a golden bason was made, and carried to the Aventine, where the matrons, with every demonstration of purity and sanctity, immolated to the goddess. Immediately after, the decemvirs, by proclamation, appointed a day for another sacrifice to the same divinity, which was conducted in the following order:— From the temple of Apollo, two white heifers were led into the city, through the Carmental gate; after them were carried two cypress images of Imperial Juno; then followed the twenty-seven virgins, clad in long robes, singing the hymn in honour of that deity. This hymn might perhaps, to the uninformed judgments of those times, appear to have merit, but, if repeated at present, it would seem barbarous and uncouth. The train of virgins was followed by the decemvirs, crowned with laurel, and dressed in purple-bordered robes. From the gate they proceeded through the Jugarian street into the Forum: here the procession halted, and a cord was given to the virgins, of which they all took hold, and then advanced, beating time with their feet to the music of their voices. Thus they proceeded through the Tuscan street, the Velabrum, the cattle-market, and up the Publician hill, until they arrived at the temple of Imperial Juno. There, two victims were offered in sacrifice by the decemvirs, and the cypress images were placed in the temple.
XXXVIII. After due expiations were offered to the gods, the consuls began to enlist soldiers; and this business they enforced with more strictness and severity than had been formerly practised within the memory of any then living; for the new enemy, advancing towards Italy, made the war doubly formidable. As the number of young men capable of serving, was considerably diminished, they resolved to compel even the maritime colonies to furnish soldiers, although they were said to enjoy, under a solemn grant, an immunity from service. At first, they refused compliance; on which the consuls published orders, that each state should, on a certain day, produce before the senate the title on which it claimed such exemption. On the day appointed, the following states appeared before the senate; Ostia, Alsia, Antium, Anxur, Minturnæ, Sinuessa; and, from the coast of the upper sea, Sena. These recited their several claims; but none of them were allowed, except those of Antium and Ostia; and even in these two colonies the young men were obliged to swear, that, while the enemy remained in Italy, they would not lodge out of the walls of their colonies longer than thirty days. Although it was the opinion of all, that the consuls ought to open the campaign as early as possible, as it would be necessary to oppose Hasdrubal immediately on his decent from the Alps, lest he might seduce the Cisalpine Gauls and Etruria, which latter already entertained sanguine hopes of effecting a revolt; also, that it would be necessary to give Hannibal full employ in his own quarters, lest he might extricate himself from Bruttium, and advance to meet his brother: yet Livius delayed, not being satisfied with the forces destined for his provinces, while his colleague had a choice of two excellent consular armies, and a third which Quintus Claudius commanded at Tarentum; he therefore introduced a proposal of recalling the volunteer slaves to the standards. The senate gave the consuls unlimited power to fill up their companies with any men whom they approved; to choose out of all the armies such ss they liked, and to exchange them, and remove them from one province to another, as they should judge best for the public service. In the management of all these matters, the greatest harmony prevailed between the consuls; and the volunteer slaves were enrolled in the nineteenth and twentieth legions. Some writers say, that on this occasion powerful reinforcements were also sent from Spain by Publius Scipio to Marcus Livius; eight thousand Spaniards and Gauls, two thousand legionary soldiers, and a body of cavalry composed of Numidians and Spaniards, in number one thousand eight hundred; that Marcus Lucretius brought these forces by sea, and that Caius Mamilius sent from Sicily four thousand archers and slingers.
XXXIX. The disquietude at Rome was increased by a letter brought out of Gaul from the prætor Lucius Porcius; the contents of which were, that Hasdrubal had moved out of winter-quarters, and was now on his passage over the Alps; that eight thousand of the Ligurians were embodied and armed, and would join him as soon as he arrived in Italy, unless an army were sent into Liguria to attack them beforehand: as to himself, he would advance as far as he should think it safe with his small force.” This letter obliged the consuls to finish the levies with haste, and to set out for their respective provinces earlier than they had intended; for their purpose was, that each should keep his antagonist employed in his own province, so as not to suffer the two to combine their forces into one body. An opinion, formed by Hannibal, helped to further their design: for though he believed that his brother would make good his way into Italy during the course of that summer, yet, when he reflected on the difficulties with which he had himself struggled, first in the passage of the Rhone, then in that of the Alps, fighting against men, and against the nature of the places, for five successive months, he had not the least expectation that the other would be able to effect his purpose with so much more ease and expedition; and, for this reason, he was the later in quitting his winter-quarters. But Hasdrubal found every thing to proceed more easily and expeditiously than either himself or others had even ventured to hope: for the Arvernians, and afterwards the other Gallic and Alpine tribes, not only gave him a friendly reception, but even accompanied him to the war. Then, in most parts of the country through which he marched, roads had been made by his brother in places until then impassable; besides which, as the Alps had, for twelve years, been a constant route for divers people, he found the disposition of the inhabitants much improved. For in former times, being never visited by foreigners, or accustomed to see a stranger in their country, they were unsociable towards all the human race. Being ignorant at first of the destination of the Carthaginian, they had imagined that his object was their rocks and forts, and to make prey of their men and cattle: but the accounts which they heard of the Punic war, and by which Italy had so long been harassed, by this time fully convinced them, that the Alps were only used as a passage, and that two overgrown states, separated by vast tracts of sea and land, were contending for power and empire. These causes opened the Alps to Hasdrubal. But whatever advantage he gained from the celerity of his march, he lost it all by delaying at Placentia, where he carried on a fruitless blockade, rather than an attack. He had supposed that the reduction of a town, standing in a plain, would be easily accomplished; and being a colony of great note, he was persuaded that, by destroying this city, he should fill the rest with terror. That siege, however, not only impeded his own progress, but also stopped Hannibal when he was just setting out from his winter-quarters, in consequence of hearing that his brother had reached Italy so much more quickly than he had expected. For he considered not only how tedious the siege of a city is, but also how ineffectually he himself, going back victorious from the Trebia, had attempted that same colony.
XL. The consuls, taking different routes, when setting out to open the campaign, drew the anxiety of the public in opposite directions, as if to two distinct wars at once: for, besides their recollection of the heavy calamities which Hannibal’s first coming had brought upon Italy, people were farther distressed by doubts of the issue. “What gods,” said they to themselves, “would be so propitious to the city, and to the empire, as to grant success to their arms in both quarters at the same time? Hitherto, the business had been protracted by a counterpoise of successes and misfortunes. When in Italy, at the Trasimenus and Cannæ, the Roman power had been crushed to the earth, a number of successful efforts in Spain had raised it up from its fallen state: when afterwards, in Spain, a succession of defeats, in which two excellent commanders were lost, had, in a great measure, ruined the two armies, the many advantages gained by the Roman arms in Italy and Sicily, had afforded shelter to the shattered vessel of the state. Besides, even the distance of place, one war being then carried on in the remotest extremity of the world, allowed room to breathe: but now, two wars had penetrated into the very heart of Italy; two commanders, of the most distinguished reputation, stood on the opposite sides of the city of Rome; and the whole mass of danger, the entire burthen, pressed upon one spot. Whichever of these commanders should first gain a battle, he would, in a few days after, join his camp with the other.” The preceding year, also, having been saddened by the deaths of the two consuls, served to augment the general apprehensions. Such were the melancholy forebodings which perplexed the minds of the people, as they escorted the commanders on their departure to their provinces. Historians have mentioned, that Marcus Livius, when setting out for the campaign, being still full of resentment against his countrymen, and warned by Quintus Fabius “not to come to a battle hastily, or before he was well acquainted with the kind of enemy whom he had to encounter;” answered that “the first moment that he should get a sight of that enemy, he would fight him;” being asked the reason of such eagerness, he replied, “I will acquire either extraordinary glory from the defeat of the foe, or joy from that of my countrymen; and though the latter might not perhaps redound to my honour, yet it is certainly what they have deserved at my hands.” Before the consul Claudius arrived in his province, as Hannibal was leading his army towards Sallentum, through the very borders of the Larinatian frontiers, Caius Hostilius Tubulus, with some lightly accoutred cohorts, attacked him, and caused dreadful confusion among his unmarshalled troops, killing four thousand men, and taking nine military standards. Quintus Claudius, who had his forces cantoned through the towns in the territory of Sallentum, on being apprised of the enemy’s motions, marched out of his winter quarters: wherefore, Hannibal, Iest he should be obliged to encounter the two armies at once, decamped in the night, and withdrew from the Tarentine territory into Bruttium. Claudius fell back to the country adjoining Sallentum. Hostilius, on his march towards Capua, met the consul Claudius at Venusia; and here were selected, out of both armies, forty thousand foot, and two thousand five hundred horse, with which the consul was to act against Hannibal. The rest of the forces, Hostilius was ordered to lead to Capua, that he might deliver them up to Quintus Fulvius, proconsul.
XLI. Hannibal, having drawn together his forces from all quarters, both those which he had hitherto kept in winter quarters, and those which were in garrison in the Bruttian territory, came into Lucania, to Grumentum, in hope of regaining the towns, which through fear, had joined the Romans. To the same place came the Roman consul, from Venusia, carefully examining the roads as he went, and pitched his camp at the distance of about fifteen hundred paces from the enemy. From hence the rampart of the Carthaginians seemed to be almost close to the wall of Grumentum; the actual distance, however, was five hundred paces. Between the Carthaginian and Roman camps the ground was level: and on the left-hand side of the Carthaginians, and right of the Romans, stood some naked hills, from which neither party apprehended any mischief, because there were no woods, nor any covering for an ambuscade. Parties, sallying from the advanced posts, fought several skirmishes of little consequence. It appeared plainly that the Roman general had no other object in view than to hinder the enemy from quitting the place; while, Hannibal, wishing to get away, frequently drew out his whole strength, and offered battle. On this occasion, the consul adopted the crafty genius of his adversary; and, as there could be little apprehension of a surprize, the hills being open, and having been examined by his scouts, he ordered five cohorts, with five additional companies, to pass over their summit in the night, and conceal themselves in the valleys on the other side. The time when they were to rise from their ambush he settled with Tiberius Claudius Asellus, military tribune, and Publius Claudius, præfect of the allies, whom he sent at their head. He himself, at the dawn of day, drew out all his forces, both foot and horse, into the field. In a short time after, Hannibal also, on his side, displayed the signal for battle, and a great noise ensued in his camp, while the men ran hastily to arms. Then all, both horse and foot, rushed eagerly out of the gates, and scattering themselves over the plain, advanced hastily to attack the enemy. The consul, observing them in this disorder, commanded Caius Aurunculeius, tribune of the third legion, to make his cavalry charge them with all possible fury, remarking, that “they had spread themselves like cattle over the plain, and in such confusion that, before they could be formed, they might be rode down, and trodden under foot.”
XLII. Hannibal had not yet come out of his camp, when he heard the shouts of the troops engaged: alarmed at this, he led his forces with all speed towards the enemy. The charge of the Roman cavalry had already distressed his van, and, of their infantry, the first legion and the right wing were coming into action, while the Carthaginians, without any regular order, began the fight just as chance threw each in the way of either horseman or footman. The combatants, on both sides, were sustained by reinforcements; and Hannibal, in the midst of the terror and tumult, would have formed his line while fighting, which is no easy matter, unless to a veteran commander, and in the case of veteran troops, but that the shout of the cohorts and companies, running down from the hills, and which was heard on their rear, struck them with the fear of being cut off from their camp: and had it not been near, (seized as they were with a panic, and flying in every part,) very great numbers would have been slain: for the cavalry stuck close to their rear, and the cohorts, running down the declivity of the hills, over clear and level ground, assailed them in flank. However, upwards of eight thousand men were killed, more than seven hundred men made prisoners, and nine military standards were taken. Even of the elephants, which in such a sudden and irregular action had been of no use, four were killed, and two taken. Of the Romans, and their allies, there fell about five hundred. Next day the Carthaginian kept himself quiet. The Roman brought his army into the field, and when he saw that none came out to meet him, he ordered the spoils of the slain to be collected, and the bodies of his own men to be brought together, and buried. After this, for several successive days, he pushed up so close to the enemy’s gates, that he seemed to intend an assault; but, at length, Hannibal decamped, at the third watch of the night, and made towards Apulia, leaving a great number of fires and tents on the side of the camp which faced the enemy, and a few Numidians, who were to show themselves on the ramparts and at the gates. As soon as day appeared, the Roman army came up to the trenches, the Numidians, as directed, showing themselves for some time on the ramparts; having imposed on the enemy as long as possible, they rode off at full speed, until they overtook the body of their army. The consul, perceiving the camp perfectly silent, and no longer seeing any where even the small number who had paraded in view, at the dawn of day despatched two horsemen to examine the state of the works; and when he learned, with certainty, that all was safe, he ordered his army to march in. Here he delayed no longer than while his men collected the plunder; then, sounding a retreat, long before night, he brought back his forces into their tents. Next day, at the first light, he set out, and following by long marches the tracks of the Carthaginians, by such intelligence as he could procure, overtook them not far from Venusia. Here likewise an irregular kind of battle was fought, in which above two thousand of the fugitives fell. From thence, Hannibal, marching in the night, and taking his way through mountains, that he might not be forced to an engagement, proceeded towards Metapontum: from which place Hanno, who commanded the garrison of the town, was sent, with a small party, into Bruttium, to raise fresh forces; while Hannibal, with the addition of the garrison to his own troops, went back to Venusia by the same roads through which he had come, and thence to Canusium. Nero had never quitted the enemy’s steps, and when he was going himself to Metapontum, had sent orders to Quintus Fulvius to come into Lucania, lest that country should be left without defence.
XLIII. In the mean time, Hasdrubal, having raised the siege of Placentia, sent four Gallic horsemen, and two Numidians, with a letter for Hannibal; these, after traversing almost the whole length of Italy, through the midst of enemies, in order to follow him on his retreat to Metapontum, mistook the road, and went towards Tarentum, where they were seized by some Roman foragers, roving through the country, and conducted to the proprætor Quintus Claudius. At first they eluded his inquiries by evasive answers; but, on being threatened with torture, fear compelled them to own the truth, and they confessed that they were charged with a letter from Hasdrubal to Hannibal. With this letter, sealed as it was, the prisoners were given in charge to Lucius Virginius, military tribune, to be conducted to the consul Claudius, and two troops of Samnite horse were sent to escort them. Claudius caused the letter to be read to him by an interpreter, and having examined the prisoners, he concluded that the present conjuncture of affairs was not of such a nature as to require that the consuls should carry on the war according to regular plans, each within the limits of his own province, by means of his own troops, and against an antagonist pointed out by the senate; but that some extraordinary and daring stroke should be struck, such as could not be foreseen or thought of, which, at its commencement, might cause no less dread among their countrymen than among the enemy; but, when accomplished, would convert their great fears into as great exultation. Wherefore, sending Hasdrubal’s letter to Rome, to the senate, he at the same time acquainted the Conscript Fathers with his intentions, advising that, as Hasdrubal had written to his brother that he would meet him in Umbria, they should immediately call home the legion then at Capua, raise new levies, and post the city army at Narnia, to intercept the enemy. Such were the contents of his letter to the senate: for himself, he sent on messengers, through the districts of Larina, Marrucia, Frentana, and Prætutia, along the road which he intended to take with his army; giving directions, that all the inhabitants should bring down from their towns and farms, victuals ready-dressed for the soldiers, and that they should furnish horses and other beasts of burthen, so that the weary might be accommodated with easy transports. He then selected from the Romans and allies the flower of their armies, consisting of six thousand foot and one thousand horse; and giving out that he meant to seize on the nearest town in Lucania and the Carthaginian garrison therein, he ordered them all to be ready for a remove. Having set out in the night, he turned off towards Picenum, and, making the longest possible marches, proceeded directly towards his colleague, having left the command of the camp to Quintus Catius, lieutenant-general.
XLIV. At Rome there was no less fright and consternation than had been felt two years before, when the Carthaginian camp was brought close to the walls and gates of the city: nor could people well determine whether they should commend or blame the consul for his boldness in undertaking such an adventurous march. It was evident that his reputation would depend upon the issue, though there is not perhaps a more unfair method of judging. People considered, with alarming apprehensions, that “the camp, in the neighbourhood of such a foe as Hannibal, had been left without a general, and under the guard of an army, the strength of which had been carried away; that the consul, pretending an expedition into Lucania, when in fact he was going to Picenum and Gaul, had left his camp destitute of any other means of safety than merely the enemy’s want of information, as to the general and a part of his army having quitted it. What would be the consequence if this should be discovered, and if Hannibal should resolve, either with his whole army to pursue Nero, whose entire force was but six thousand men, or to assault the camp, which was left as a prey, without strength, without command, without auspices?” The past disasters of this war, and the deaths of the two consuls in the last year, served also to increase these terrible fears. Besides, they reflected, that “all those misfortunes had happened while there was but one general and one army of the enemy in Italy; whereas, at present, there were two Punic wars there, two numerous armies, and, in a manner, two Hannibals. For Hasdrubal was a son of the same father; Hamilcar was a commander equally enterprizing, trained to making war against the Romans during many campaigns in Spain, and rendered famous by a double victory over them, by the destruction of two of their armies, and two of their ablest commanders. With respect to the speedy accomplishment of his march from Spain, and his address in rousing the Gallic clans to arms, he had much more reason to boast than Hannibal himself; because he had collected a body of auxiliaries in those very places where the other had lost the greater part of his soldiers by hunger and cold, the two most miserable ways in which men can perish.” To all this, people, acquainted with the transactions in Spain, added, that “in Nero he would meet an antagonist with whom he was not unacquainted, one whom, formerly, when caught accidentally in a dangerous defile, he had baffled, just as he would a child, by fallacious terms of peace.” Seeing every thing through the medium of fear, which always represents objects in the worst light, they judged all the resources of the enemy greater, and their own less, than they were in reality.
XLV. When Nero had attained to such a distance from the enemy that his design might be disclosed with safety, he addressed his soldiers in a few words, telling them, that “no general had ever formed a design more daring in appearance, and yet more safe in the execution than his. That he was leading them to certain victory. For as his colleague had not marched against that enemy until the senate had given him such a force, both of infantry and cavalry, as fully satisfied his utmost wishes, and those troops more numerous and better provided than if he were to go against Hannibal himself, the addition thus made to it, whatever might be its intrinsic weight, would certainly turn the scale in their favour. As soon as the foe should hear, in the field of battle, (and he would take care that they should not hear sooner,) that another consul, and another army, had arrived, this single circumstance would insure success. A war was, sometimes, happily concluded by the spreading of a report; and incidents, of light moment, frequently impelled men’s minds to hope or fear. That themselves would reap almost the whole fruits of the glory acquired by success: for, in all cases, the last addition made to the acting force, is supposed to be most decisive of the business. That they saw by the concourse of people attending, with what admiration, and with what warm attachment of all ranks, their march was honoured.” And, in fact, all the roads through which they passed were lined with men and women, who crowded thither from all parts of the country, uttering vows and prayers for their success; intermixing praises of their glorious enterprize, calling them the safeguard of the commonwealth, the champions of the city, and of the empire of Rome; on whose arms, and on whose valour, were reposed the safety and liberty of themselves and of their children. They prayed to all the gods and goddesses to grant them a prosperous march, a successful battle, and speedy victory: that they themselves might be bound, by the event, to pay the vows they offered in their behalf, and that, as they now, with minds full of solicitude, accompanied them on their way, so they might, in a few days, go out with hearts overflowing with joy, to meet them in triumph. Every one gave them warm invitations, offered them every accommodation, and pressed them, with the most earnest entreaties, to take from him rather than from another, whatever was requisite for themselves, or their cattle; in a word, every thing that was wanted, they with cheerfulness supplied in abundance. Their kindness was equalled by the moderation of the soldiers, who would not accept of any matter whatever beyond their necessary occasions. They never halted on any account, nor quitted their ranks to take their victuals, but marched day and night, scarcely allowing themselves rest enough to answer the calls of nature. Couriers were sent forward to the other consul, to give notice of their coming; and to know from him, whether he chose that they should approach secretly, or openly, by night, or by day; whether they should lodge in the same camp with him, or in another. It was judged best, that they should join him secretly in the night.
XLVI. Orders were previously given by the consul Livius, that, on their arrival, each tribune should be accommodated with lodging by a tribune, each centurion by a centurion, each horseman by a horseman, and each footman by a footman. He considered that it would not be prudent to enlarge the camp, lest the enemy might discover the coming of the second consul, while the crowding together of additional numbers, into lodgings in a narrow space, would be attended with the less inconvenience, as the troops of Claudius had brought with them, hardly any thing, except their arms. Claudius had augmented his army with a number of volunteers: for many, both veteran soldiers discharged from service, and young men, offered themselves on his march; and, as they eagerly pressed to be employed, he enlisted such of them as, from their personal appearance, seemed fit for the service. The camp of Livius was near Sena, and Hasdrubal lay about five hundred paces beyond it. Wherefore, Nero, to avoid entering it before night, halted when he came nigh, and where he was concealed behind mountains. As darkness came on, his men, marching silently, were conducted into tents, each by a person of his own rank, where they were hospitably entertained, amid mutual congratulations, and unbounded joy. Next day a council was held, at which was also present, the prætor, Lucius Porcius Licinus. At this time, his camp was joined to that of the consuls. It should, however, be noticed, that before their coming, he had often baffled and perplexed the enemy, leading his troops along the high grounds; sometimes seizing narrow defiles to arrest his march, sometimes harassing him by attacks on his rear or flanks; and putting in practice, indeed, every art of war. He now assisted at the council. Many were of opinion, that an engagement should be deferred until Nero might refresh his men, who were fatigued by their long march, and want of sleep; and also, that he should take a few days to himself, to gain some knowledge of the enemy. Nero, with the utmost earnestness, entreated them not, “by delays, to render his enterprize rash in effect, when despatch would ensure its success. In consequence of a deception, which could not last long, Hannibal lay yet, in a manner, motionless; he neither assailed his camp, left, as it was, without its commander, nor moved a step in pursuit of him. Before he should stir, Hasdrubal’s army might be cut off, and he himself might return into Apulia. Whoever, by procrastination, allowed time to the enemy, would thereby betray the other camp to Hannibal, and open for him a road into Gaul, so as to enable him, at his leisure, to effect a junction with Hasdrubal, and whenever he pleased. They ought to give the signal, instantly; march out to battle, and take every advantage of the delusion under which the enemy lay; both the party in their neighbourhood, and the other at a distance, while the latter knew not that their opponents were decreased in number, nor the former, that their’s were become more numerous and powerful.” Accordingly the council was dismissed, the signal of battle was displayed, and the troops immediately marched out to the field.
XLVII. The Carthaginians were already drawn up in order of battle before their camp. The only thing that prevented an immediate engagement was, that Hasdrubal having, with a few horsemen, advanced before the line, remarked among the enemy some old shields, which he had not seen before, and horses leaner than any he had hitherto observed: their number also seemed greater than usual. On which, suspecting what was the case, he hastily sounded a retreat; sent a party to the watering-place at the river, with orders to pick up, if possible, some prisoners, also to observe attentively, whether there were any whose complexions were more sun-burned than usual, as from a journey lately made; at the same time, ordering another party to ride round the camp, at a distance, to mark whether the rampart had been extended on any side, and to watch whether the signal was sounded a second time. Though he received accounts of all these particulars, yet the circumstance of the camps not being enlarged, led to a false conclusion: they were two, as before the arrival of the second consul; one belonging to Marcus Livius, the other to Lucius Porcius, and no addition had been made to the trenches of either, to make more room for tents within. One thing particularly struck that veteran commander, long accustomed to act against Roman armies, which was, that according to the information of his scouts, the signal was sounded once in the prætor’s camp, and twice in the consul’s. Hence he concluded, that the two consuls must be there; but how to account for Nero’s having left Hannibal behind, perplexed him extremely. Of all things he could the least suspect what had really happened, that Hannibal could be so blinded, and in a business of such magnitude, as not to know where the general was, and where the army, whose camp stood facing his own. He supposed that some disaster, of no ordinary kind, must have hindered him from following; and he began to fear greatly, that he himself had come too late with succour, that his affairs were too desperate to be retrieved, and that the same fortune which the Romans had met in Spain, awaited them now in Italy. He even conjectured, that his letter had not reached his brother, and that, in consequence of its being intercepted, the consul had hastened thither to overpower him. Distracted by these doubts and fears, he extinguished all his fires, and, at the first watch, ordered his troops to strike their tents in silence, and to march. In the hurry and confusion of a movement by night, the guides were not watched with the necessary care and attention, one of them, therefore, stopped in a place of concealment, which he had before fixed upon in his mind, and the other swam across the river Metaurus, at a pass with which he was acquainted. The troops, thus left destitute of conductors, strayed for some time through the country; and many, overcome by drowsiness and fatigue, stretched themselves on the ground in various places, leaving the standards thinly attended. Hasdrubal, until day-light should discover a road, ordered the army to proceed along the bank of the river; and, as he wandered along the turnings and windings, with which that river remarkably abounds, he made but little progress, still intending, however, to cross it, as soon as the day enabled him to find a convenient passage. But the farther he removed from the sea, the higher did he find the banks, so that not meeting with a ford, and wasting the day in the search, he gave the enemy time to overtake him.
XLVIII. First, Nero, with all the cavalry, came up; then Porcius, with the light infantry. While they harassed his wearied army by frequent assaults on every side, and while the Carthaginian, now stopping his march, or rather flight, had a mind to encamp on a high spot of ground, on the bank of the river, Livius arrived with the main body of infantry, armed and marshalled for immediate action. When the Romans had united all their forces, and the line was drawn out in array, Claudius took the command of the right wing, Livius of the left; that of the centre was given to the prætor. Hasdrubal, laying aside the design of fortifying a camp, when he saw the necessity of fighting, placed his elephants in front, before the battalions, and, beside them, on the left wing, he opposed the Gauls to Claudius; not that he had much confidence in them, but thinking that they were much dreaded by the enemy. The right wing, which was to oppose Livius, he took to himself, together with the Spaniards, on whom, as being veteran troops, he placed his principal reliance. The Ligurians were posted in the centre, behind the elephants; but the line was too long in proportion to its depth. A rising ground, in their front, protected the Gauls; and while that part of the line, which was composed of the Spaniards, engaged the left wing of the Romans, their right wing, stretching out beyond the extent of the fight, stood idle, for the eminence between them and the enemy prevented their making an attack, either on their front or flank. Between Livius and Hasdrubal, a furious conflict began, and dreadful slaughter was made on both sides: for here were both the generals, here the greater part of the Roman infantry and cavalry, here the Spaniards, veteran troops, and acquainted with the Roman manner of fighting, and the Ligurians, a race of hardy warriors. To the same part the elephants were driven, which, at the first onset, disordered the van, and made even the battalions give ground; but afterwards, the contest growing hotter, and the shouts louder, they soon became disobedient to the directions of their riders, rambling up and down, between the two lines, without distinguishing their own party, and ranging to and fro, not unlike ships without rudders. Claudius in vain attempted to advance up the hill, often calling out thus to his men — “To what purpose, then, have we, with so much speed, marched over such a length of way?” However, seeing it impracticable to reach the enemy’s line in that quarter, he drew away some cohorts from his right wing, where the troops would not be able to act, and led them round behind the line. Then, to the surprise, not only of the enemy, but of his friends also, he made a brisk attack on their right flank; and, so quick were his motions, that almost at the same instant when his men appeared on the flank, they likewise attacked the rear. Thus the Spaniards and Ligurians were cut to pieces on all sides, in front, and flank, and rear, and the havoc in a short time reached the Gauls. These made very little opposition: for great numbers of them were absent from their posts, having slipped away in the night, and lain down in the fields; while those who were present, being exhausted by fatigue and want of sleep, and being naturally ill qualified to endure toil, had scarcely strength remaining sufficient to support their armour. By this time it was mid-day; and while they were panting with heat and thirst, they were slain or taken at the will of the Romans.
XLIX. Of the elephants, more were killed by their guides, than by the enemy. These carried a knife, like that used by shoemakers, with a mallet: and when the animals began to grow furious, and to rush on their own party, the manager of each, fixing this instrument between its ears, on the joint which connects the head with the neck, drove it in with the strongest blow that he could give. This had been found the speediest method of killing animals of that great size, when they become so unruly as to leave no hope of managing them; and it had been first brought into practice by Hasdrubal, whose conduct in the command of an army, as on many other occasions, so particularly in this battle, merited very high encomiums. By his exhortations, and by taking an equal share in the dangers, he supported the spirits of his men; and at one time, by entreaties, at another by reproofs, he reanimated the wearied, when from the length and labour of the action, they were disposed to lay down their arms. He called back the flying, and restored the battle in many places, where it had been given up. At last, when fortune evidently declared for the Romans, unwilling to survive so great an army, which had followed his standard on the credit of his reputation, he set spurs to his horse, and plunged himself into the midst of a Roman cohort; where, as became the son of Hamilcar, and the brother of Hannibal, he fell fighting. In no one action, during that war, were so great numbers of the enemy slain; so much so, indeed, that the damage retorted on him, was deemed equivalent to that sustained at Cannæ. Fifty-six thousand of them were killed, five thousand four hundred taken. The other booty was great of every kind, as well as of gold and silver. Besides which, there were recovered above four thousand Roman citizens, prisoners, which was some consolation for the soldiers lost in the battle; for the victory was far from a bloodless one, nearly eight thousand of the Romans and allies being killed. And so far were even the victors satiated with blood and slaughter, that next day, when the consul Livius was told, that the Cisalpine Gauls and Ligurians, who had either not been present in the battle, or had made their escape from the general carnage, were marching off in a body, without any certain leader, without standards, without order or subordination, and that they might all be cut off, if one squadron of horse were sent against them, he answered, “let some be left alive, to carry home accounts of the enemy’s losses, and of our valour.”
L. On the night which followed the battle, Nero set out on his return, and, by marches even speedier than he had made in coming, on the sixth day after, reached his former post, opposite the enemy. The crowds of people attending him were less than before, because no messenger had preceded him; but these exhibited such demonstrations of joy, as to seem transported almost beyond their reason. It is impossible to express or describe the emotions that agitated the minds of all persons at Rome, either while waiting in doubtful expectation of the event, or when they received the news of the victory. The senators never quitted the senate-house, nor the magistrates, nor the people, the Forum, from the rising to the setting sun, during the whole of Claudius’s march; so eager were they to greet him. The matrons, incapable themselves of contributing aid, had recourse to prayers and supplications; and going about from one temple to another, wearied the gods with their entreaties and their vows. While the public were in this painful suspense, first an unauthenticated rumour spread, that two Narnian horsemen had come from the field of battle to the camp, which stood on the frontiers of Umbria, with intelligence, that the enemy were utterly defeated. For some time, this news, though listened to, was but little credited, as being too great, and too joyful, for people’s minds to admit, or readily believe; and even the quickness of the conveyance was urged as an objection to the truth of it: as the account said, that the battle was fought only two days before. Soon after this a letter was brought from the camp by Lucius Manlius Acidinus, confirming the arrival of the Narnian horsemen. This letter being carried through the Forum to the prætor’s tribunal, brought out the senate from their house, and the people thronged together with such impatience and tumult to the door, that the messenger could not approach, but was dragged about amid a multitude of questions, and all demanding, with much vociferation, that the letter should be read from the rostrum even before it was submitted to the senate. At length they were reduced to order by the magistrates and obliged to make room, that the joyful tidings might be regularly imparted to the public, who were unable to govern their transports. The despatch was accordingly read, first in the senate, then in the assembly of the people; some embracing the joyful news as certain, while others refused to credit any thing until they should hear it from the deputies, or the letters of the consuls.
LI. After some time an account was brought, that deputies were really coming, and not far off. On this, people of all ages ran out eagerly to meet them, each coveting to receive, from his own eyes and ears, convincing proofs of the reality of such a happy event. One continued train reached all the way to the Mulvian bridge: the deputies were, Lucius Veturius Philo, Publius Licinius Varus, and Quintus Cæcilius Metellus. Surrounded by a vast multitude of every sort they went on to the Forum, while some inquired of them, others of their attendants, concerning what had been done; and as soon as any one heard that the enemy’s general and army had been cut off, that the Roman legions were safe, and the consuls unhurt, he immediately communicated his own joy to others. When the deputies had with much difficulty, reached the senate-house, and the crowd was with much greater difficulty, obliged to retire, that they might not mix with the senators, the letters were read in the senate; and then the deputies were brought out into the general assembly. Lucius Veturius, after reading the despatches, gave in his own words, a fuller detail of all that had passed, which was heard with the greatest delight, and was at last followed by an universal shout from the whole assembly, who were unable to restrain the effusions of their joy. They then separated; some hastening to the temples of the gods to return thanks, some to their own houses, to impart the happy news to their wives and children. The senate, in consideration of the consuls, Marcus Livius and Caius Claudius, having cut off the general and the legions of the enemy, decreed a supplication for three days; which supplication the prætor, Caius Hostilius, proclaimed in the assembly, and it was performed with great devotion by all, both men and women. During the whole three days, all the temples were equally filled with crowds, whose numbers never diminished; whilst the matrons, dressed in the most splendid manner, and accompanied by their children, being now delivered from every apprehension, just as if the war were at an end, offered thanksgivings to the immortal gods. This victory produced also a powerful effect on the internal business of the state, insomuch that people immediately took courage to hold commerce with each other as in time of peace, buying, selling, lending, and paying money due. The consul Claudius, on returning to his camp, ordered the head of Hasdrubal, which he had carefully kept and brought with him, to be thrown before the advanced guards of the enemy: and the African prisoners, chained as they were, to be exposed to their view. Two of these he also unbound, and sent to Hannibal, with orders to inform him of what had happened. We are told that Hannibal, deeply struck by a disaster so fatal to his country, and his house, said that he felt now the fortune of Carthage. He then decamped, and retired thence, designing to draw together, into Bruttium, the remotest corner of Italy, all those confederates, whom, while scattered at wide distances, he could not protect; and he removed from their own habitations, and carried away into Bruttium, all the Metapontines, and such of the Lucanians as acknowledged his authority.
* 32l. 5s. 10d.
Successful operations against the Carthaginians, in Spain, under Silanus, Scipio’s lieutenant, and L. Scipio, his brother; of Sulpicius and Attalus, against Philip King of Macedonia. Scipio finally vanquishes the Carthaginians in Spain, and reduces that whole country; passes over into Africa; forms an alliance with Syphax King of Numidia; represses and punishes a mutiny of a part of his army; concludes a treaty of friendship with Masinissa; returns to Rome, and is elected consul; solicits Africa for his province, which is opposed by Quintus Fabius Maximus; is appointed governor of Sicily, with permission to pass over into Africa.
Y.R.545. 207.I. AT the time when, in consequence of Hasdrubal’s removing his forces, Spain seemed to be relieved of so much of the burden of the war as had been thrown upon Italy, hostilities suddenly revived there with the same violence as before. The possessions of the Romans and Carthaginians in Spain, at that time, were thus situated: Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, had withdrawn quite to the ocean and Gades; the coast of our sea, and almost all that part of Spain which lies to the eastward, was under the power of Scipio, and the dominion of the Romans. Hanno, on the tenth day to Hasdrubal in the province of Gades: the Celtiberian soldiers, being newly levied, dispersed into the neighbouring woods, and thence escaped to their respective homes. By this seasonable victory, was suppressed a war, which was not of so much importance on account of its present magnitude, as of its being a foundation from which one much more considerable might have arisen, had the enemy been allowed, after having roused the Celtiberians to arms, to persuade the other states to join in the same cause. Scipio, therefore, having bestowed liberal commendations on Silanus, and seeing reason to hope that he might be able to finish the dispute at once, by exerting himself with proper activity, advanced into Farther Spain against Hasdrubal. The Carthaginian, (who happened at that time to have his army in Bætica, for the purpose of securing the fidelity of his allies in that country,) decamping hastily, led it away, in a manner much more resembling a flight than a march, quite to the ocean and Gades. He was fearful, however, that as long as he kept his forces together, he should be considered as the primary object of the enemy’s operations. Before he passed over the streight to Gades, he therefore dispersed them into the different cities; in the view, likewise, that they might provide for their own safety by help of walls, and for that of the towns by their arms.
III. When Scipio found that the enemy’s troops were thus widely scattered, and that the carrying about his own to each of the several cities would be a very tedious if not difficult work, he marched back his army. Unwilling, however, to leave the possession of all that country to the Carthaginians, he sent his brother, Lucius Scipio, with ten thousand foot and one thousand horse, to lay siege to the most considerable city in those parts, called by the barbarians Orinx, situate on the borders of the Milesians, a Spanish nation so called — a desirable spot, the adjacent parts affording mines of silver, and the soil being fruitful. This place served Hasdrubal as a fortress, whence he used to make incursions on the states around. Scipio encamped near to it. Before raising his works of circumvallation, however, he sent some persons to the gates to try the disposition of the inhabitants in a conference, and to recommend to them rather to make trial of the friendship than the power of the Romans. As their answers showed no inclination to peace, he surrounded the city with a trench and a double rampart; breaking his army into three parts, in order that one division might always carry on the attack while the other two rested. When the first of these began the assault, the contest was furious and desperate: it was with the greatest difficulty that they could approach, or bring up the ladders to the walls, on account of the showers of weapons which fell upon them; and even of those who had raised them, some were tumbled down with forks made for the purpose, others found themselves in danger of being caught by iron grapples, and of being dragged up on the wall. When Scipio saw that his men were too few to make an impression, and that the enemy, from the advantage of their works, had even the better of the dispute, he called off the first division, and attacked with the two others at once. This struck such terror into the besieged, already fatigued, that not only the townsmen quickly forsook the walls, but the Carthaginian garrison, fearing that the town had been betrayed, likewise left their posts and collected themselves into a body. The inhabitants, upon this, were seized with apprehensions lest the enemy, if they broke into the town, should put to the sword every one they met without distinction, whether Carthaginian or Spaniard. They instantly, therefore, threw open one of the gates, and rushed out of the town in crowds, holding their shields before them, lest any weapons should be cast at them, and stretching out their right hands expanded, to show that they had thrown away their swords. Whether this latter circumstance was unobserved on account of the distance, or whether some stratagem was suspected, is uncertain; but the deserters were attacked as enemies, and put to death. Through this gate the troops marched into the city in hostile array. The other gates were broke open with axes and sledges, and as soon as the horsemen entered, they galloped forward to secure the Forum, for such were the orders; the veterans also were joined to the horse to support them. The legionary soldiers spread themselves all over the city, but, neither slew nor plundered any, except those who stood on their defence. All the Carthaginians were put into confinement, with above three hundred of the inhabitants who had shut the gates; the rest had the town delivered up to them, and their effects restored. There fell in the assault, of the enemy, about two thousand; of the Romans, not more than ninety.
IV. As the capture of this city afforded matter of much exultation to those engaged in it, so it rendered their approach to the camp a magnificent spectacle to the general and the rest of the army, on account of the immense crowd of prisoners which they drove before them. Scipio, having declared his approbation of his brother’s conduct, and in the highest strains extolled his taking of Orinx as equal to his own taking of Carthage, led back his forces into Hither Spain. The approach of winter put it out of his power either to make an attempt on Gades, or to pursue the army of Hasdrubal, now dispersed in all parts of the province. Dismissing, therefore, the legions to their winter quarters, and sending his brother, Lucius Scipio, with Hanno, the enemy’s general, and other prisoners of distinction, to Rome, he himself retired to Tarraco. During the same year, the Roman fleet, under Marcus Valerius Lævinus, proconsul, sailing over from Sicily to Africa, made extensive devastations in the territories of Utica and Carthage, carrying off plunder from the remotest bounds of the Carthaginian territory, even from under the very walls of Utica. On their return to Sicily, they were met by a Carthaginian fleet, consisting of seventy ships of war; seventeen of these they took, and sunk four; the rest were beaten and dispersed. The Romans, victorious by land and sea, returned to Lilybæum, with immense booty of every kind. The sea being thus cleared of the enemy, abundance of provision was brought to Rome.
V. In the beginning of the summer, during which these transactions passed, Publius Sulpicius, pro-consul, and King Attalus, after having wintered at Ægina as mentioned above, united their fleets, consisting of twenty-three Roman five-banked gallies, and thirty-five belonging to the King, and sailed from thence to Lemnos. Philip also, that he might be prepared for every sort of exertion, whether he should have occasion to oppose the enemy on land or sea, came down to the coast of Demetrias, and appointed a day for his army to assemble at Larissa. On the news of the King’s arrival, embassies from his allies came to Demetrias from all sides: for the Ætolians, elated both by their alliance with the Romans, and by the approach of Attalus, were ravaging the neighbouring states. Not only the Acarnanians, Bœotians, and Eubœans, were under violent apprehensions, but the Achæans also were kept in terror, as well by the hostilities of the Ætolians, as by Machanidas, tyrant of Lacedæmon, who had pitched his camp at a small distance from the borders of the Argives. All these, representing the dangers both on land and sea, with which their several possessions were threatened, implored the King’s assistance. Philip, even from his own kingdom, received accounts that affairs there were not in a state of tranquillity; that both Scerdilædus and Pleuratus were in motion; and that some of the Thracians, particularly the Mædians, would certainly make incursions into the adjoining provinces of Macedonia, if the King should be employed in a distant war. The Bœotians, indeed, and the people of the inland parts of Greece, informing him that, in order to prevent them from passing to the assistance of the allied states, the streights of Thermopylæ, where the road is confined, and contracted to a very narrow breadth, had been shut up by the Ætolians with a ditch and a rampart. Such a number of disturbances on all sides were sufficient to rouse even an indolent leader: he dismissed the ambassadors with promises of assisting them all, as time and circumstances would permit. He sent to Peparethus a garrison for the city, a business which required the utmost despatch, accounts having been received from thence, that Attalus had sailed over from Lemnos, and was ravaging all the country round. He despatched Polyphantas, with a small number of forces to Bœotia; and likewise Menippus, one of the officers of his guards, with one thousand targeteers, (the target is not unlike the common buckler,) to Calchis. Agrianum was reinforced with five hundred men, that all parts of the island might be secured. He himself went to Scotussa, ordering the Macedonian troops to be brought over thither from Larissa. He was there informed that the Ætolians had been summoned to an assembly at Heraclea, and that King Attalus was to come to consult with them on the conduct of the war. Resolving to disturb this meeting by his sudden approach, he led his army by forced marches to Heraclea, and arrived there just after the assembly had been dismissed. However, he destroyed the crops, which were almost ripe, particularly round the Ænian bay. He then led back his forces to Scotussa, and leaving there the body of his army, retired with the royal guards to Demetrias. That he might be in readiness to meet every effort of the enemy, he sent people from hence to Phocis, and Eubœa, and Peparethus, to choose out elevated situations, where fires being lighted, might be seen from afar. He fixed a beacon on Tisæum, a mountain whose summit is of an immense height, that by means of lights on these eminences, whenever the enemy made any attempt, he might, though distant, receive instant intelligence of it. The Roman general and King Attalus passed over from Peparethus to Nicæa, and from thence sailed to the city of Orcus, which is the first city of Eubœa, on the left, on the way from the bay of Demetrias to Chalcis and the Euripus.
VI. It was concerted between Attalus and Sulpicius, that the Romans should assault the town on the side next the sea, and at the same time make an attack on the King’s forces on the land side. Four days after the arrival of the fleet, the operations began. The intermediate time had been spent in private conferences with Plator, who had been appointed by Philip to the command of the place. There are two citadels, one hanging over the coast, the other in the middle of the town, and from this there is a subterraneous passage to the ocean, the entrance of which, next to the sea, is covered with a strong fortification, a tower five stories in height. Here the contest first commenced, and that with the utmost violence, the tower being well stored with all kinds of weapons; these, with engines and machines for the assault, having been landed from the ships. While the attention and eyes of all were drawn to that side, Plator, opening one of the gates, received the Romans into the citadel next the sea, of which they became masters in a moment. The inhabitants, driven thence, fled to the other citadel in the middle of the city; but troops had been posted there, to keep the gates shut against them, so that, being thus excluded and surrounded, they were all either slain or taken prisoners. In the mean time the Macedonian garrison, making no resistance, stood in a compact body under the walls. These men Plator (having obtained leave from Sulpicius) embarked in some ships, and landed them at Demetrias in Phthiotis; he himself withdrew to Attalus. Sulpicius, elated by his success at Oreum, so easily obtained, proceeded with his victorious fleet to Chalcis, where the issue by no means answered his expectations. The sea, from being pretty wide at each side, is here contracted into a streight so very narrow, that at first view the whole appears like two harbours facing the two entrances of the Euripus. A more dangerous station for a fleet can hardly be found; for besides that the winds rush down suddenly, and with great fury, from the high mountains on each side, the streight itself of the Euripus does not ebb and flow seven times a day at stated hours, as report says; but the current, changing irregularly, like the wind, from one point to another, is hurried along like a torrent tumbling from a steep mountain; so that, night or day, ships can never lie quiet. But, besides the perilous situation in which his fleet lay, he found that the town was firm and impregnable; surrounded on one side by the sea, extremely well fortified by land on the other; secured by a strong garrison, and, above all, by the fidelity of the commanders and principal inhabitants; which character those at Oreum had not supported with honour or steadiness. The Roman, in a business rashly undertaken, acted so far prudently, that, when he had seen all the difficulties attending it, not to waste time, he quickly desisted from the attempt, removing with his fleet from thence to Cynus in Locris, the landing-place for the city of Opus, which lies at a distance of a mile from the sea.
VII. Philip had received notice from Oreum by the signal fires; but, through the treachery of Plator, it was too late when they were raised on the beacons, and, as he was not a match for the enemy at sea, it was difficult for him to approach the island; he hesitated, therefore, and took no part in that business. To the relief of Chalcis he flew with alacrity, as soon as he perceived the signal. For though Chalcis stands on the same island, yet the streight which separates it from the continent is so narrow, that there is a communication between them by a bridge, and the approach to it is easier by land than by water. Philip, therefore, having gone from Demetrias to Scotussa, and setting out thence at the third watch, dislodged the guard, routed the Ætolians who kept possession of the pass of Thermopylæ, and drove the dismayed enemy to Heraclea, accomplishing in one day a march of above sixty miles to Elatia in Phocis. About the same time the city of Opus was taken and plundered by Attalus. Sulpicius had given it up to the King, because Oreum had been sacked a few days before by the Roman soldiers, and his men had received no share. After the Roman fleet had retired to Oreum, Attalus, not apprised of Philip’s approach, wasted time in levying contributions from the principal inhabitants; and so unexpected was his coming, that, had not some Cretans, who happened to go in quest of forage farther from the town than usual, espied the enemy, he might have been surprised. Without arms, and in the utmost confusion, he fled precipitately to his ships. Just as they were putting off from the land, Philip came up, and though he did not advance from the shore, yet his arrival caused a good deal of confusion among the mariners. From thence he returned to Opus, inveighing against gods and men for his disappointment in having the opportunity of striking so important a blow thus snatched from him, and when almost within reach of his arm. The Opuntians, also, he rebuked in angry terms, because, although they might have prolonged the siege until he arrived, yet they had immediately, on sight of the enemy, made almost a voluntary surrender. Having put affairs at Opus in order, he proceeded thence to Thronium. On the other side, Attalus at first retired to Oreum, but having heard there, that Prusias, King of Bithynia, had invaded his kingdom, he laid aside all attention to the affairs of the Romans and the Ætolian war, and passed over into Asia. Sulpicius, too, withdrew his fleet to Ægina, from whence he had set out in the beginning of spring. Philip found as little difficulty in possessing himself of Thronium, as Attalus had met at Opus. This city was inhabited by foreigners, natives of Thebes in Phthiotis, who, when their own was taken by the Macedonian, had fled for protection to the Ætolians, and had obtained from them a settlement in this place, which had been laid waste and deserted in the former war with the same Philip. After recovering Thronium in the manner related, he continued his route; and having taken Tritonos and Drymæ, inconsiderable towns of Doris, he came thence to Elatia, where he had ordered the ambassadors of Ptolemy and the Rhodians to wait for him. While they were deliberating there, on the method of putting an end to the Ætolian war, (for the ambassadors had been present at the late assembly of the Romans and Ætolians at Heraclea,) news was brought that Machanidas intended to attack the people of Elis while they were busied in preparations for solemnizing the Olympic games. Judging it incumbent on him to prevent such an attempt, he dismissed the ambassadors with a favourable answer, that “he had neither given cause for the war, nor would give any obstruction to a peace, provided it could be procured on just and honourable terms:” then, proceeding through Bœotia by quick marches, he came down to Megara, and from thence to Corinth; and, receiving there supplies of provision, repaired to Phlius and Pheneus. When he had advanced as far as Heræa, intelligence was brought him that Machanidas, terrified at the account of his approach, had retreated to Lacedæmon; on which he withdrew to Ægium, where the Achæans were assembled in council, expecting at the same time to meet there a Carthaginian fleet which he had sent for, in order that he might be able to undertake some enterprise by sea. But the Carthaginians had left that place a few days before, and were gone to the Oxean islands; and from thence, (on hearing that the Romans and Attalus had left Oreum,) to the harbours of the Acarnanians; for they apprehended that an attack was intended against themselves, and that they might be overpowered while within the streights of Rhios (so the entrance of the Corinthian bay is called.)
VIII. Philip was filled with grief and vexation when he found that, although he had on all occasions made the most spirited and speedy exertions, yet fortune had baffled his activity, by snatching away every advantage when he had it within his view. In the assembly, however, concealing his chagrin, he spoke with great confidence, appealing to gods and men, that “at no time or place had he ever been remiss; that wherever the sound of the enemy’s arms was heard, thither he had instantly repaired; but that it could hardly be determined, whether, in the management of the war, his forwardness or the enemy’s cowardice was more conspicuous; in such a dastardly manner had Attalus slipped out of his hands from Opus; Sulpicius from Chalcis; and in the same way, within these few days, Machanidas. That flight, however, did not always succeed; and that a war should not be accounted difficult, in which victory would be certain if the foe could be brought to a regular engagement. One advantage, however, and that of the first magnitude, he had already acquired; the confession of the enemy themselves, that they were not a match for him; in a short time,” he said, “he should have to boast of undoubted conquest; for whenever the enemy would meet him in the field, they should find the issue no better than they seemed to expect.” This discourse of the King was received by the allies with great pleasure. He then gave up to the Achæans Heræa and Triphylia. Aliphera he restored to the Megalopolitans, they having produced sufficient evidence that it belonged to their territories. Having received some vessels from the Achæans, three gallies of four, and three of two banks of oars, he sailed to Anticyra; from thence, with seven ships of five banks, and above twenty barks, which he had sent to the bay of Corinth to join the Carthaginian fleet, he proceeded to Erythræ, a town of the Ætolians near Eupalium, and there made a descent. He was not unobserved by the Ætolians; for all who were either in the fields, or in the neighbouring forts of Apollonia and Potidania, fled to the woods and mountains. The cattle, which they could not drive off in their hurry, were seized and put on board. With these, and the other booty, he sent Nicias, prætor of the Achæans, to Ægium; and, going to Corinth, he ordered his army to march by land through Bœotia, while he himself, sailing from Cenchrea, along the coast of Attica, round the promontory of Sunium, reached Chalcis, after passing almost through the middle of the enemy’s fleet. Having highly commended the fidelity and bravery of the inhabitants, in not suffering either fear or hope to influence their minds, and having exhorted them to persevere in maintaining the alliance with the same constancy, if they preferred their present situation to that of the inhabitants of Oreum and Opus, he sailed to Oreum; and having there conferred the direction of affairs, and the command of the city, on such of the chief inhabitants as had chosen to fly rather than surrender to the Romans, he sailed over from Eubœa to Demetrias, from whence he had at first set out to assist his allies. Soon after, he laid the keels of one hundred ships of war at Cassandria, collecting a great number of ship-carpenters to finish the work; and, as the seasonable assistance which he had afforded his allies in their distress, and the departure of Attalus, had restored tranquillity in the affairs of Greece, he withdrew into his own kingdom, with an intention of making war on the Dardanians.
IX. Towards the end of the summer, during which these transactions passed in Greece, Quintus Fabius, son of Maximus, who served as lieutenant-general, brought a message from Marcus Livius, the consul, to the senate at Rome, in which he gave it as his opinion, that Lucius Porcius with his legions was sufficient to secure the province of Gaul, and that he himself might depart thence, and the consular army be withdrawn. On which the senate ordered not only Marcus Livius, but his colleague also, Caius Claudius, to return to the city. In their decree, they made only this difference — that Marcus Livius’s army be withdrawn, but that Nero’s legions remain in the province to oppose Hannibal. It had been concerted between the consuls, by letter, that as they had been of one mind in the management of affairs, so they should arrive together at one time in the city, though they were to come from different quarters; whichever came first to Præneste being directed to wait there for his colleague. It so happened that they both arrived at that town on the same day; and then, having sent forward a proclamation, requiring a full meeting of the senate in the temple of Bellona, on the third day after, they advanced towards the city, from whence the whole multitude poured out to meet them. The surrounding crowds were not satisfied with saluting them, though but at a little distance; each pressed eagerly forward to touch the victorious hands of the consuls; some congratulating, others giving them thanks for having, by their valour, procured safety to the state. In the senate, having given a recital of their exploits, according to the usual practice of commanders of armies, they demanded that, “on account of their bravery and success in the conduct of affairs, due honours might be paid to the immortal gods; and they themselves allowed to enter the city in triumph.” To which the senate answered, that “they decreed with pleasure the matters contained in their demand, as a proper return, due, first to the gods, and after the gods, to the consuls.” A thanksgiving in the name of both, and a triumph to each, had been decreed; the consuls, however, wishing that, as their sentiments had been united during the course of the war, their triumphs should not be separated, came to this agreement between themselves — that, “inasmuch as the business had been accomplished within the province of Marcus Livius, and as, on the day whereon the battle was fought, it happened to be his turn to command, and as the army of Livius had been withdrawn, and was now at Rome, while Nero’s could not be withdrawn from the province; it should on all these accounts be ordered that Marcus Livius make his entry in a chariot, drawn by four horses, attended by the troops; Caius Claudius Nero, on horseback, without troops.” As the uniting of their triumphs in this manner enhanced the glory of both the consuls, so it reflected peculiar honour on him who condescended to appear in the procession, as much inferior to his colleague in magnificence, as he was superior to him in merit. People said, that “the commander on horseback had, in the space of six days, traversed the extent of Italy, and had fought a pitched battle with Hasdrubal in Gaul, on the very day when Hannibal imagined he was lying in his camp opposite to him in Apulia; that thus this single consul (equal to the defence of both extremities of Italy against two armies and two generals) had opposed against one, his skill; against the other, his person. That the very name of Nero had been sufficient to confine Hannibal to his camp; and as to Hasdrubal, by what other means than by the arrival of Nero had he been overwhelmed and cut off? The other consul, therefore, might proceed in his stately chariot; he was drawn, indeed, by a number of horses, but the real triumph belonged to him who had only one; and that Nero, though he should go on foot, deserved to be for ever celebrated, both for having acquired so much glory in the war, and shown so much indifference to the pompous display of it in the present procession.” With such encomiums did the spectators attend Nero through his whole progress to the Capitol. The consuls carried to the treasury three hundred thousand sesterces* in money, and eighty thousand asses† of brass; to the soldiers, Marcus Livius distributed fifty-six asses‡ each. Caius Claudius promised the same sum to his absent troops, as soon as he should return to the army. It was remarked, that the soldiers, on that day, directed more of their military songs and verses to Caius Claudius than to their own commander; that the horsemen distinguished Lucius Veturius and Quintus Cæcilius, lieutenant-generals, by extraordinary praises, exhorting the commons to appoint them consuls for the next year; and that both Livius and Nero added their authority to this recommendation, respresenting next day in the assembly the bravery and fidelity which the said lieutenant-generals had manifested in the service.
X. When the time of the elections arrived, as it had been determined that they should be held by a dictator, the consul Caius Claudius nominated his colleague Marcus Livius to that office. Livius appointed Quintus Cæcilius master of the horse. By Marcus Livius were elected consuls, Lucius Veturius and Quintus Cæcilius, who was then master of the horse. The election of prætors was next held; there were appointed Caius Servilius, Marcus Cæcilius Metellus, Tiberius Claudius Asellus, and Quintus Mamilius Turinus, at that time plebeian ædile. When the elections were finished, the dictator, having laid down his office, and dismissed his army, set out for his province of Etruria, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, in order to make inquiries, what states of the Tuscans or Umbrians had, on the approach of Hasdrubal, formed schemes of revolting to him from the Romans; or who had afforded him men, provisions, or any kind of aid. Such were the transactions of that year at home and abroad. The Roman games were thrice repeated by the curule ædiles, Cneius Servilius Cæpio and Servius Cornelius Lentulus. The plebeian games also were once repeated entire by the plebeian ædiles, Manius Pomponius Matho, and Quintus Mamilius Thurinus.Y.R.546. 206. In the thirteenth year of the Punic war, when Lucius Veturius Philo, and Quintus Cæcilius Metellus, were consuls, they were both appointed to the province of Bruttium, to conduct the war against Hannibal. The prætors then cast lots for their provinces; the business of the city fell to Marcus Cæcilius Metellus; the jurisdiction in relation to foreigners, to Quintus Mamilius; Sicily, to Caius Servilius; and Sardinia, to Tiberius Claudius. The armies were thus distributed: to one of the consuls, that which had been under Caius Claudius, the consul of the former year; to the other, that which had been under Quintus Claudius, proprætor; they consisted each of two legions. It was decreed that Marcus Livius, proconsul, whose command had been prolonged for a year, should receive two legions of volunteer slaves from Caius Terentius, proprætor in Etruria; and that Quintus Mamilius should transfer his judicial employment to his colleague, and take the command in Gaul with the army which had belonged to Lucius Porcius, proprætor; orders at the same time being given him to lay waste the lands of the Gauls, who had revolted on the approach of Hasdrubal. The protection of Sicily was given in charge to Caius Servilius, with the two legions of Cannæ, as Caius Mamilius had held it. From Sardinia, the old army which had served under Aulus Hostilius, was brought home; and the consuls levied a new legion, which Tiberius Claudius was to carry with him. Quintus Claudius and Caius Hostilius Tubulus were continued in command for a year, that the former might hold Tarentum as his province, the latter Capua. Marcus Valerius, proconsul, who had been entrusted with the defence of the sea coasts round Sicily, was ordered to deliver thirty ships to Caius Servilius, and to return home with all the rest of the fleet.
XI. While the public was under much anxiety, on account of the great danger and importance of the war, and ever apt to refer to the gods the causes of all their successes and disappointments, accounts were propagated of a number of prodigies: that, at Tarracina, the temple of Jupiter; at Satricum, that of Mother Matuta, had been struck by lightning; the people being also greatly terrified by two snakes creeping into the former unperceived through the very door. From Antium it was reported, that ears of corn had appeared bloody to the reapers. At Cære, a pig had been littered with two heads, and a lamb yeaned which was of both sexes. It was said also, that two suns had been seen at Alba, and that light had burst forth on a sudden during the night time at Fregellæ. An ox, it was asserted, had spoken in the neighbourhood of Rome; and a profuse sweat had flowed from the altar of Neptune, in the Flaminian Circus; and also, that the temples of Ceres, Safety, and Romulus, were struck by lightning. These prodigies the consuls were ordered to expiate with the greater victims, and to perform a solemn supplication to the gods during one day; all which was strictly observed in pursuance of a decree of the senate. But what struck more terror into men’s minds than all these ominous and preternatural appearances, at home or abroad, was the extinction of the fire in the temple of Vesta, and for which the vestal who had the watch for that night was whipped to death, by order of the pontiff Publius Licinius. Although this extinction was occasioned, not by the gods directing it as a portent, but by the negligence of a human being, yet it was thought proper that it should be expiated by the greater victims, and that a supplication should be solemnized at the temple of Vesta. Before the consuls set out to the campaign, they received directions from the senate, to “take measures to make the common people return to their lands in the country, where they might now reside in safety, as, by the favour of the gods, the war had been removed to a distance from the city of Rome, and from Latium; for it was quite inconsistent to pay more attention to the cultivation of Sicily than to that of Italy.” It was, however, no easy matter to obtain a compliance with this injunction: the labourers of free condition were most of them lost in the war, slaves were scarce, the cattle had been carried off in booty, and their dwellings thrown down or burnt. Nevertheless a great number, compelled by the authority of the consuls, returned as directed. The mention of this affair had been occasioned by deputies from Placentia and Cremona, who complained that incursions were made on them by the neighbouring Gauls; that a great part of their settlers had dispersed; that their cities were thinly inhabited, and their territory waste and deserted. A charge was given to the prætor Mamilius, to protect the colonies from the enemy. The consuls, in pursuance of the decree of the senate, issued an edict, that all the citizens of Cremona and Placentia should return before a certain day to those colonies; and then, in the beginning of the spring, they set out to carry on the war. Quintus Cæcilius, consul, received his army from Caius Nero; Lucius Veturius, his from Quintus Claudius, proprætor, he filling it up with the new levies which himself had raised. They led their forces into the territory of Consentia. Here, having made great ravages, the troops, now loaded with spoil, were thrown into such confusion, in a narrow pass, by some Bruttians and Numidian spearmen, that not only that spoil, but themselves were in extreme danger. However, there was more tumult than fighting: the booty was sent forward, and the legions without loss made their way to places of safety. From thence they advanced against the Lucanians, which whole nation returned, without a contest, into subjection to the Roman people.
XII. No action took place during that year between them and Hannibal; for the Carthaginian, after the deep wound so lately given both to his own private, and to the public welfare, cautiously avoided throwing himself in their way; and the Romans did not choose to rouse him from his inactivity: such powers did they suppose that leader possessed of, in his single person, though all things round him were falling into ruin. In truth, I know not whether he was more deserving of admiration in adversity or in prosperity; considering, that, though he carried on war for thirteen years, and that in an enemy’s territory so far from home, with various success, with an army, not composed of his own countrymen, but made up of the refuse of all nations, who had neither law, nor custom, nor language in common; who were of different stature, had different garb, different arms, different rites, and almost different gods; yet he so bound them together by some common tie, that neither among themselves nor against their commander, did any sedition ever appear, although, in a hostile country, he often wanted both money to pay them, and provisions also — wants which, in the former Punic war, had occasioned many distressful scenes between the generals and their men. But, after the destruction of Hasdrubal and his army, on whom he had reposed all his hopes of victory; and when he had given up the possession of all the rest of Italy, and withdrawn into a corner of Bruttium, must it not appear wonderful to all, that no disturbance arose in his camp? For there was this afflicting circumstance in addition to all his other difficulties, that he had no hope of being able even to procure food for his soldiers, except from the lands of Bruttium; which, if they were entirely under tillage, were too small for the support of so large an army. Besides, the war had employed a great part of the young men, and carried them away from the cultivation of the grounds; a base practice likewise prevailing through the whole nation, of making plundering excursions on every side; nor were there any remittances made him from home, where the whole attention of the public was engaged in endeavouring to keep possession of Spain, as if affairs in Italy were all in a state of prosperity. In the former, the fortune of the parties was, in one respect, the same; in another, widely different: the same so far, that the Carthaginians, being defeated in battle, and having lost their general, had been driven to the remotest coast of the country, even to the ocean; but different in this, that Spain, in the nature both of the ground and of the inhabitants, affords greater conveniences for reviving a war, not only than Italy, but than any other part of the world; and that was the reason, that although this was the first of all the provinces on the continent in which the Romans got footing, yet it was the last subdued; and that not until the present age, under the conduct and auspices of Augustus Cæsar. In this country Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, a general of the greatest abilities and character next to the Barcine family, returning now from Gades, and being encouraged to a renewal of the war by Mago, the son of Hamilcar, armed to the number of fifty thousand foot, and four thousand five hundred horse, by levies made in the Farther Spain. In the number of his cavalry authors are pretty well agreed; of the infantry, according to some, there were seventy thousand led to the city of Silpia. There the two Carthaginian generals sat down in an extensive plain, determined not to avoid a battle.
XIII. When Scipio received the account of this army being assembled, he saw plainly, that, with the Roman legions alone, he could not oppose so great a multitude; nor without using the auxiliary troops of the barbarians, at least for the purpose of making a show of strength; but that, at the same time, it was highly improper that they should compose such a proportion of his force as might enable them, by changing sides, to produce consequences of importance — an event which had caused the destruction of his father and uncle. Sending forward, therefore, Silanus to Colca, who was sovereign of twenty-eight towns, to receive from him the horse and foot which he had engaged to raise during the winter; he set out himself from Tarraco, and collecting small bodies of auxiliaries from the allies who lay near his road, proceeded to Castulo. Hither Silanus brought three thousand auxiliary foot, and five hundred horse. From thence he advanced to the city of Bæcula, his army amounting, in the whole of his countrymen and allies, horse and foot, to forty-five thousand. While they were forming their camp, Mago and Masinissa, with the whole of their cavalry, made an attack on them, and would have dispersed the workmen, had not some horsemen whom Scipio had concealed behind a hill, conveniently situated for the purpose, suddenly rushed out as they advanced to the charge. These, at the first onset, routed all who had pushed on foremost against the men employed in the fortification. The contest with the rest, who advanced on their march drawn up in regular order, was longer and for some time doubtful. But the light cohorts from the outposts, the soldiers called off from the works, and afterwards greater numbers, who were ordered to take arms, came up fresh, and engaged the wearied enemy. At the same time, a large body rushed in arms from the camp to battle. The Carthaginians and Numidians then fairly turned their backs; and though at first they retreated in troops, and without breaking their ranks, yet when the Romans fell furiously on their rear, they thought no more of order, but fled precipitately, and dispersed into such places as each found convenient. Although by this battle the spirits of the Romans were somewhat raised, and those of the enemy depressed, yet for several following days the horsemen and light troops were continually engaged in skirmishes.
XIV. After making trial of their strength in these slight engagements, Hasdrubal led his forces to the field; then the Romans marched out. Both armies stood in order of battle under their respective ramparts, neither party choosing to begin the attack; when it was near sunset, the Carthaginians first, and then the Romans, marched back into camp. They acted in the same manner for several days, the Carthaginian always drawing out his troops first, and first giving the signal of retreat, when they were fatigued with standing. Neither side advanced in the least, nor was a weapon discharged, nor a word uttered. The centre divisions of their lines were composed, on one side, of Romans; on the other, of Carthaginians and African auxiliaries: the wings were formed by the allies, who on both sides were Spaniards. In front of the Carthaginian line, the elephants at a distance appeared like castles. It was now generally said in both camps, that they were to engage in the same order in which they had stood before; and that their centres, consisting of Romans and Carthaginians, who were principals in the war, would no doubt encounter each other with equal courage and strength of arms. When Scipio understood that this opinion was firmly entertained, he took care to alter the whole plan against the day on which he intended to fight. On the preceding evening, therefore, he gave out orders through the camp, that the men and horses should be refreshed and accoutred before day; and that the horsemen, ready armed, should keep their horses bridled and saddled. Before it was clear day, he despatched all the cavalry and light infantry, with orders to charge the Carthaginian outposts; and immediately advanced himself with the heavy body of the legions, having, contrary to the expectation both of his own men and the enemy, strengthened the wings with his Roman troops, and drawn the allies into the centre. Hasdrubal was alarmed by the shout of the cavalry, and, springing out from his tent, saw a bustle before the rampart, his men in hurry and confusion, the glittering standards of the legions at a distance, and the plain filled with troops. He immediately despatched all his cavalry against that of the enemy, marching himself from out the camp with the body of infantry; but, in drawing up his line, he made no alteration in the original disposition. The contest between the horse had continued a long time doubtful, nor could they decide it by their own efforts, because, when either were repulsed, which happened to both in turn, they found a safe refuge among the infantry. But, when the armies had approached within five hundred paces of each other, Scipio, giving the signal for retreat, and opening his files, received all the cavalry and light troops through them; and, forming them in two divisions, placed them in reserve behind the wings. When he saw that it was time to begin the engagement, he ordered the Spaniards, who composed the centre, to advance with a slow pace, and sent directions from the right wing, where he commanded in person, to Silanus and Marcius, to extend their wing on the left, in the same manner as they should see him stretching on the right, and attack the enemy with the light-armed forces of horse and foot before the centres could close. The wings extending in this manner, three cohorts of foot, and three troops of horse from each, together with the light infantry, advanced briskly against the enemy, while the rest followed them in an oblique direction. There was a bending in the centre, because the battalions of Spaniards advanced slower than the wings, and the wings had already encountered, while the principal strength of the enemy’s line, the Carthaginian veterans and Africans, were still at such a distance, that they could not throw their javelins with effect, nor did they dare to make detachments to the wings, to support those who were engaged, for fear of opening the centre to the forces advancing against it. The Carthaginian wings were hard pressed, being attacked on all sides; for the horse and foot, together with the light infantry, wheeling round, fell in upon their flanks, while the cohorts pressed on them in front, in order to separate the wings from the rest of the line.
XV. The battle was now very unequal in all parts; not only because an irregular multitude of Balearians and undisciplined Spanish recruits were opposed to the Roman and Latine troops, but, as the day advanced, Hasdrubal’s troops began to grow faint, having been surprised by the alarm in the morning, and obliged to hasten out to the field before they could take food to support their strength. With a view to this, Scipio had taken care to create delay, for it was not until the seventh hour that the battalions of foot fell upon the wings, and the battle reached the centre somewhat later; so that, before the enemy began regularly to engage, they were enfeebled by the heat of the meridian sun, the labour of standing under arms, and by hunger and thirst, distressing them at once. They stood, therefore, leaning on their shields; for, in addition to their other misfortunes, the elephants, terrified at the desultory manner of fighting used by the horse and the light infantry, had thrown themselves from the wings upon the centre. Harassed thus greatly, both in body and mind, they began to give way, but still preserved their ranks, as if the whole army were retreating by order of the general. The victors, perceiving the superiority which they had gained, redoubled the fury of their assault on all sides, so that the shock could hardly be sustained. Hasdrubal, however, endeavoured to stop his men, crying out that “the hills in the rear would afford a safe refuge, if they would but retreat without hurry;” yet fear overcame their shame, and although such as were nearest the enemy still continued to fight, they quickly turned their backs, and all betook themselves to a hasty flight. They halted, however, for a time, at the foot of the hills, endeavouring to restore order, while the Romans hesitated to advance their line against the opposite steep. But, when they saw the battalions pressing forward briskly, they renewed their flight, and were driven in a panic within their works. The Romans were not far from the rampart; and, continuing their efforts, had nearly surmounted it, when such a quantity of rain poured suddenly down, that it was with difficulty they regained their camp. The sun too, had been excessively hot, as is usually the case when shining forth from among clouds surcharged with water; which added greatly to the fatigues of the day. Some were even seized with a religious scruple against attempting any thing farther at that time. Though both night and the rain invited the Carthaginians to take the repose so necessary to them, yet fear and the impending danger would not admit of it; and as they had reason to expect an assault from the enemy at the first light, they raised the height of the rampart with stones collected from the adjacent vallies, endeavouring to secure themselves by fortifications, since they found no protection in their arms. But the desertion of their allies soon gave them reason to think, that it was the safer way to fly. The beginning of this revolt arose from Attanes, prince of the Turdetans, who deserted with a great number of his countrymen; and afterwards, two fortified towns, with their garrisons, were delivered to the Romans by their commanders. Hasdrubal, dreading, since a disposition to throw off the Carthaginian yoke had once seized their minds, that the evil might spread farther, decamped during the silence of the ensuing night.
XVI. At the first light, the outguards having brought intelligence of the enemy’s departure, Scipio, sending forward the cavalry, gave orders to the army to march; and these were executed with such expedition, that, had they directly pursued the track of the fugitives, they had certainly overtaken them; but they were persuaded by their guides, that there was another and a shorter road to the river Bætis, and where, it was said, they might attack them in their passage. Hasdrubal, finding the ford in possession of the enemy, changed his course, directing it towards the ocean; his army now retreating with precipitancy, so that the Roman legions were left at some distance behind. However, the horse and the light infantry harassed and delayed them, by attacking sometimes their rear, sometimes their flanks; and as they were obliged to halt frequently, on occasion of these interruptions, and to support the attacks, at one time of the horse, at another of the infantry and auxiliary foot, they were overtaken by the legions. The consequence was, not a fight, but a carnage, as of cattle; until at length the general himself, setting the example of a flight, made his escape to the adjacent hills with about six thousand men half armed: the rest were either slain or taken prisoners. The Carthaginians hastily fortified an irregular camp on the highest part of the ground, and defended themselves there without difficulty, the enemy in vain attempting to climb so difficult an ascent. But a blockade, in a place naked and destitute, was hardly to be supported, even for a few days: desertions to the Roman, therefore, were frequent. Hasdrubal having at length procured some ships, and the sea being not far distant, left his army in the night, and fled to Gades. When Scipio was informed of the flight of the general, leaving ten thousand foot and one thousand horse with Silanus for the blockade of the camp, he returned himself with the rest of the forces to Tarraco, where he arrived after a march of seventy days; during which he was employed in examining into the conduct of the petty princes and states, in order that their rewards might be proportioned according to a just estimate of their merits. After his departure, Masinissa having held a private conference with Silanus, passed over with a few of his countrymen into Africa, in order to bring his own nation to participate in the design which he had newly formed. The cause of his sudden change was not at that time well known; but the inviolable fidelity which he ever afterwards preserved towards Rome, through the whole course of a very long life, is sufficient proof that he did not, even then, act without a reasonable motive. Mago went to Gades in the ships which had been sent back by Hasdrubal. Of the rest (thus abandoned by their generals,) some deserted, others fled and dispersed through the neighbouring states; no detachment remaining, considerable either for number or strength. These were the principal events, in consequence of which, under the conduct and auspices of Publius Scipio, the Carthaginians were compelled to relinquish all footing in Spain, in the thirteenth year from the commencement of hostilities, the fifth from Scipio’s having received the command of the province and of the army. Not long after, Silanus returned to Scipio at Tarraco, with information that the war was at an end.
XVII. Lucius Scipio was employed in conveying to Rome a great many prisoners of distinction, and in carrying the news of the reduction of Spain. While this was considered by all others as a most joyful and glorious event, he alone, by whose means it had been accomplished, insatiable in his pursuit of glory, considered it as a trifle in comparison with those designs which his aspiring mind and sanguine hopes prompted him to conceive. He now directed his views to Africa, regarding the subjugation of Carthage, in all her grandeur, as the consummation of his renown. Deeming it necessary, therefore, to conciliate the friendship of the several African kings and people, he resolved to make the first trial of Syphax, King of the Massæsylians — a nation bordering on Mauritania, and lying opposite to that part of Spain, particularly, where New Carthage stands. There was an alliance at that time subsisting between this monarch and the Carthaginians. Supposing him, however, not more firmly attached than barbarians usually are, whose fidelity always depends on fortune, Scipio despatched Lælius to him as envoy, with proper presents. Syphax, highly delighted with these, and considering that the Romans were, at that time, every where successful, the Carthaginians unfortunate in Italy, and quite excluded from Spain, consented to embrace the friendship of the Romans, but refused to exchange the ratification of the treaty except with the Roman general in person. Lælius then returned to Scipio, having obtained from the King an engagement merely of safe conduct for him. To him, who aimed at conquests in Africa, the friendship of Syphax was, in every respect, of the utmost importance; he was the most powerful prince in that part of the world, had already opposed even the Carthaginians in war, while his dominions lay very conveniently with respect to Spain, from which they are separated by a narrow streight. Scipio thought the affair of such moment as to warrant the attempt, though attended with considerable danger; since otherwise it could not be accomplished. Leaving, therefore, for the security of Spain, Lucius Marcius at Tarraco, and Marcus Silanus at New Carthage (to which place he himself had made a hasty journey by land,) and setting sail from Carthage with Caius Lælius, in two gallies of five banks, he passed over to Africa, while the sea was so calm, that they generally used their oars, though sometimes they were assisted by a gentle breeze. It happened, that Hasdrubal, at the very same time, after having been driven out of Spain, had entered the harbour with seven gallies of three banks, and having cast anchor, was mooring his ships. On sight of these two five-banked ships, although no one doubted that they belonged to the Romans, and might be overpowered by superior numbers before they entered the harbour, yet nothing ensued except tumult and confusion among the soldiers and sailors, endeavouring to no purpose to get their arms and ships in readiness; for the quinqueremes, having their sails filled by a brisk gale from the sea, were carried into the harbour before the Carthaginians could weigh their anchors, and afterwards, they dared not to raise a disturbance in the King’s port. Having landed, therefore, they proceeded, (Hasdrubal first, then Scipio and Lælius,) on their way to the King.
XVIII. Syphax considered this as a very honourable circumstance (as it really was), that the generals of the two most powerful states of the age, should come, on the same day, to solicit peace and friendship with him. He invited them both to his palace, and as chance had so ordered that they were under the same roof, and in the protection of the same household gods, he endeavoured to bring them to a conference, for the purpose of putting an end to the enmity subsisting between them. Scipio declared, that, in his private capacity, he had not the least ill will to the Carthaginian, which might require a conference to remove it; and with regard to public affairs, he could not enter into any negociation with an enemy without orders from the senate. However, the King showing an earnest desire that he should come to the same table, so that neither of his guests might seem to be excluded, he did not refuse; and they there supped together. Scipio and Hasdrubal, perceiving that it would be agreeable to their entertainer, even reclined upon the same couch during the repast; and so pleasing were the manners of the former, such his pliability on every occasion, and such his engaging conversation, that he acquired the esteem not only of Syphax, a barbarian unacquainted with Roman habits, but even of his inveterate enemy, who, declared publicly, that “he appeared, on acquaintance, more worthy of admiration for his powers in conversation, than for his exploits in war; that he made no doubt, but Syphax and his kingdom would soon be under the direction of the Romans. Such address was that man possessed of, in acquiring an ascendancy over people’s minds, that the Carthaginians were not more intent, at present, in inquiring how Spain had been lost, than how they were to retain possession of Africa. That it was not for the sake of travelling, or in the pursuit of pleasure, that so great a general, quitting a province but lately subdued, and leaving his armies, had passed over into Africa with only two ships, entrusting himself, in an enemy’s country, to the power of the King, and to his fidelity, as yet untried. Scipio had formed the scheme of subduing their people, had long entertained this design, and had openly expressed his regret, that he was not carrying on war in Africa, as Hannibal was in Italy.” The league, however, being ratified with Syphax, Scipio set sail; and after being tossed a good deal during the voyage, by variable and generally boisterous winds, he made the harbour of New Carthage on the fourth day.
XIX. As Spain had now rest from the Carthaginian war, so it was manifest that some states remained quiet rather through fear, arising from the consciousness of misbehaviour, than through sincere attachment. The most remarkable of these, both in greatness and in guilt, were Illiturgi and Castulo. The inhabitants of Castulo, allies of the Romans while they were successful, had, on the destruction of the first Scipio’s and their armies, revolted to the Carthaginians. Those of Illiturgi, by betraying and killing such as had fled to them after that calamity, had added barbarity to revolt. To have executed severe vengeance on those states, at Scipio’s first coming, when affairs in Spain were in a precarious state, would have been more suited to their demerits than agreeable to principles of sound policy; but now, when affairs were in a state of tranquillity, the proper time for inflicting punishment seemed to have arrived. He therefore sent for Lucius Marcius from Tarraco, and despatching him with a third part of the forces to besiege Castulo, he went himself with the rest of the army against Illiturgi, where he arrived on the fifth day. The gates there had been already shut, and every precaution taken, and preparation made for repelling an attack. So far had their consciousness of what they merited served them instead of a declaration of war. Hence Scipio took occasion to represent, in an exhortation to his soldiers, that “the Spaniards themselves, by shutting their gates, had shown what, in justice, they had reason to apprehend; that they ought, therefore, to entertain a much greater animosity against them than against the Carthaginians: for, with the latter, the contest was for empire and glory, almost without resentment, but the former they were called upon to punish both for perfidy and cruelty. That the time was now come when they were to take vengeance for the horrid murder of their fellow-soldiers, and for the treachery ready to be executed on themselves also, had they happened to fly to the same place; and, by a severe example, to establish it as a maxim to all future ages, that no Roman citizen or soldier, in any state of fortune, should be injured with impunity.” Their rage being excited by this harangue, they distributed the scaling-ladders to chosen men in each company; and the army being divided into two parts, one of which Lælius, lieutenant-general, was to command, they assaulted the city in two places at once, striking terror into the assailed by the two-fold danger to which they were exposed. It was not one leader, or a number of chiefs, but their own violent apprehensions, in consequence of their guilt, that induced the inhabitants to make a vigorous defence: they were fully sensible, and they reminded each other, that “their punishment, not a victory, was the object aimed at; that the matter for present consideration was, where they should choose to meet death, whether in the field and in fight, where the chance of war, equal to both parties, often raises the vanquished, and pulls down the conqueror; or whether, after seeing their city burned and demolished, and after suffering every indignity and disgrace, they should expire among chains and stripes, in the presence of their captive wives and children.” Therefore, not only those who were of an age to bear arms, or the men alone, but women and boys added exertions beyond the strength of their minds or bodies, supplying with weapons those who were engaged in the fight, and carrying stones to the walls for others who were strengthening the works; for beside that their liberty was at stake, and by which the brave are powerfully excited, the extreme severity of punishment which they must all expect, with a disgraceful death, were before their eyes. Further, their courage was inflamed by mutual emulation in toil and danger, and even by the sight of each other. Thus animated, they opposed the enemy with such determined bravery, that the army which had subdued all Spain was often repulsed from the walls; and began, in a contest with the youth of a single town, not much to their honour, to abate of their ardour. Scipio perceiving this, and dreading lest, by these unsuccessful attempts, the courage of the enemy should be raised, and his own men dispirited, thought it necessary to exert himself in person, and take a share in the danger. Whereupon, reprimanding the troops for their want of spirit, he ordered ladders to be brought to him, threatening to mount the wall himself, since the rest were backward: and, accordingly, he had already advanced near it, and not without danger, when a shout was raised on all sides by the soldiers, alarmed at the situation of the general, and the scalade was attempted at once. Lælius, too, pressed on at the other side. The inhabitants were then no longer able to make opposition, and those who defended the walls being beaten off, the Romans took possession of them.
XX. The citadel, too, during the tumult, being attacked on that side where it was thought impregnable, was taken. While the inhabitants were engaged in defence of those places where the danger appeared, and the Romans in making greater approaches where they found it practicable, some African deserters, who were then among the Roman auxiliaries, observed, that the most elevated part of the town, though protected by a very high rock, was neither secured by any works nor provided with men for its defence. As they were light of body, and very active from constant exercise, carrying iron spears along with them, they climbed up, by means of the irregular prominences of the rock, and when they met with a cliff too high and smooth, by driving in the spikes at moderate distances, they formed a kind of steps. In this manner, the foremost drawing up by the hand those who followed, and the hindmost lifting up those before them, they made their way to the summit: and from thence, with loud shouts, poured down into the city, which had been already taken by the Romans. Then it plainly appeared, that resentment and hatred had been the motives of the assault: no one thought of taking prisoners, no one thought of booty, though the objects lay before their eyes. The armed and unarmed were slain without distinction, women and men promiscuously; the cruel rage of the soldiers proceeded even to slaying of infants. They then set fire to the houses, and what could not be thus destroyed, they levelled to the ground; so earnest were they to erase every trace of the city, and to abolish every mark of the enemy’s residence. Scipio from thence led his army to Castulo, which was defended by a great concourse of Spaniards, and also by the remains of the Carthaginian army, collected from the places whither they had dispersed in their flight. But the news of the calamities of the Illiturgians had preceded the arrival of Scipio, and thrown the garrison into fright and despair; and as they were differently circumstanced, while each party wished to provide for their own safety, without regard to the rest, at first silent suspicion, afterwards open discord, ensued, and caused a separation between the Carthaginians and Spaniards. Cerdubellus openly advised the latter to surrender. Himilco commanded the Carthaginian garrison auxiliaries, who, together with the city, were delivered up to the Romans by Cerdubellus, after he had privately made terms for himself. This victory was not followed with so much severity; the guilt of this people not having been so great as that of the former, and their voluntary surrender mitigating, in some degree, the resentment against them.
XXI. Marcius proceeded from thence, in order to reduce to obedience such of the barbarians as had not been completely subdued. Scipio returned to New Carthage, in order to pay his vows to the gods, and to exhibit a show of gladiators, which he had prepared in commemoration of the death of his father and uncle. The combatants exhibited on this occasion were not of that sort which the Lanistæ are wont to procure, a collection of slaves, or such free men as are base enough to set their blood to sale. Every champion here gave his service voluntarily, and without reward; for some were sent by the princes of the country, to show a specimen of the bravery natural to their nation; some declared that they would fight to oblige the general; some were led by emulation, and a desire of superiority to send challenges; and those who were challenged, from the same motive, did not decline them; some decided, by the sword, controversies which they could not, or would not, determine by arbitration, having agreed between themselves that the matter in dispute should be the property of the conqueror. Not only people of obscure condition, but men of character and distinction; Corbis and Orsua for instance, cousin-germans, having a dispute about the sovereignty of a city called Ibis, determined to decide it with the sword. Corbis had the advantage in regard to years. The father of Orsua, however, had been last on the throne, having succeeded to it on the death of his elder brother. Scipio endeavoured to accommodate the matter by calm discussion, and to assuage their resentment; but they both affirmed that they had refused to submit it to their common relations, and that they would have no other judge, either god or man, but Mars. They severally preferred death in fight to a submission to the other’s authority, the elder confident in his strength, the younger in his activity; and so determined was their rage, that it was impossible to reconcile them. They afforded an extraordinary spectacle to the army, and a striking example of the evils occasioned by ambition. The elder, by experience in arms and superior skill, easily vanquished the ill-managed valour of the younger. To this exhibition of gladiators were added funeral games, conducted with as much magnificence as the province and the camp could supply.
XXII. While Scipio was thus employed, operations were carried on by his lieutenant Marcius, who, having passed the river Bætis, which the natives call Certis, got possession of two wealthy cities, by surrender, without a contest. There was another called Astapa, which had always taken part with the Carthaginians; but that circumstance did not so much call for resentment, as from their having acted towards the Romans with an extraordinary degree of animosity, beyond what the exigencies of the war could warrant. This was the more surprising, as they had no city so secured, either by situation or fortification, as that it might encourage such fierceness of temper; but the disposition of the inhabitants delighting in plunder, led them to make incursions into the neighbouring lands belonging to the allies of the Roman people, and even to seize on small parties of soldiers, together with the sutlers and traders. A large detachment, also, which was attempting to pass through their territory, was surrounded by an ambuscade, and put to death in a place where they could not defend themselves. As soon as the army approached to besiege the city, the inhabitants, conscious of their crimes, saw no prospect of safety in surrendering to a people so highly provoked; and as their fortifications were in such a state that they could not greatly hope to defend themselves by arms, they contrived a plan of the most shocking and savage nature, which they agreed to execute on themselves and their families. They fixed on a part of the Forum, into which they brought together all their most valuable effects, and having made their wives and children seat themselves on this heap, they piled up timber all round it, and threw on it abundance of faggots. They then gave a charge to fifty young men in arms, that “as long as the issue of the fight should be uncertain, they should carefully guard in that spot the fortunes of all, and the persons of those who were dearer to them than their fortunes. Should they perceive that their friends were worsted, and that the city was likely to be taken, that then they might be assured, that every one whom they saw going out to battle would meet death in the engagement. They then besought them, by the deities celestial and infernal, that mindful of their liberty, which must terminate on that day either in an honourable death or disgraceful slavery, they would leave no object on which the enraged enemy could vent their fury. That they had fire and swords at their command; and that it were better that their friendly and faithful hands should consume those things which must necessarily perish, than that the foe should insult over them with haughty scorn.” To these exhortations they added dreadful imprecations against any one who should be diverted from their purpose, either by hope or tenderness; and then with rapid speed and violent impetuosity, they rushed out through the open gates. There was none of the outposts strong enough to withstand them, because nothing could have been less apprehended than that they should dare to come out of the fortifications; a very few troops of horse, and the light infantry, despatched in haste from the camp, threw themselves in their way. The encounter was furious, owing more to their impetuosity and resolution, than to any regular disposition. The horse, therefore, which had first engaged, being discomfited, communicated the terror to the light infantry; and the battle would have reached to the very rampart, had not the main body of the legions drawn out their line, though there was very little time allowed them for forming. Even among their battalions there was some confusion; while the Astapans, blinded with fury, rushed on against men and weapons with the most daring insensibility of danger. But in a short time the veteran soldiers, too steady to be disturbed by such rash attacks, by killing the foremost, stopped the advance of the next. Afterwards, when they endeavoured to gain upon them, finding that not a man gave way, but that they were obstinately determined to die, they extended their line, which their numbers enabled them to do with ease; they then surrounded the flanks of these desperates, who, forming into a circle, and continuing the fight, were slain to a man.
XXIII. This severity, executed by an enraged enemy on those who opposed them in arms, especially as they were at the time engaged in hostilities with another people, was not inconsistent with the laws of war. But the more shocking havock was in the city, where a weak unarmed crowd of women and children were assailed by their own countrymen, who tossed their almost lifeless bodies on the burning pile, while streams of blood kept down the rising flames, and who at last, wearied with the wretched slaughter of their friends, cast themselves with their arms into the midst of the fire. Just as the carnage was completed, the victorious Romans arrived. On the first sight of such a horrid transaction, they were for a time struck motionless with astonishment; but afterwards, on seeing the gold and silver glittering between the heaps of other matters, with the greediness natural to mankind, they wished to snatch them out of the burning heap. In attempting this, some were caught by the flames, others scorched by blasts of the heat, the foremost finding it impracticable to make a retreat against the press of so great a crowd. Thus was Astapa utterly destroyed by fire and sword, and without enriching the soldiers with booty. All the other inhabitants of that district, terrified at this event, made their submissions. Marcius led back his victorious army to join Scipio at Carthage. Just at the same time, some deserters arrived from Gades, who promised to deliver up the city, the Carthaginian garrison, and the commander of the garrison, together with the fleet. Mago had halted there after his flight; and having collected a few ships from the ocean adjoining, and, with the assistance of Hanno his lieutenant, assembled others from the nearest parts of Spain, had brought some supplies from the coast of Africa. Terms being adjusted with the deserters, and ratified on both sides, Marcius was despatched thither, with some cohorts equipped for expedition, and Lælius also, with seven three-banked and one five-banked galley, that they might act in concert both by land and sea, in the execution of the business.
XXIV. Scipio was seized with a severe fit of sickness; and the danger being magnified by report, (every one, through the natural propensity to exaggeration, adding something to what he had heard,) the whole province, more especially the distant parts of it, were thrown into disorder: which showed what important consequences must have attended the real loss of him, when the rumour of his illness alone could excite such storms. Neither the allies continued faithful, nor the army obedient to command. Mandonius and Indibilis, who had entertained confident expectations that, on the expulsion of the Carthaginians, the dominion of Spain would fall into their hands, being entirely disappointed in all their hopes, called together their countrymen of Laceta and Illiturgi; sent for the young men of Celtiberia to assist them, and carried hostilities and devastation into the territories of the Suessetanians and Sedetanians, allies of the Roman people. Another commotion arose in the camp at Sucro, where there were eight thousand Romans stationed to secure the obedience of the nations bordering on the Iberus. Their disposition to mutiny did not take its rise from the uncertain accounts of the general’s life being in danger; it had sprung up some time before, from the licentiousness incident to a long state of inaction, and partly from their circumstances being straitened during peace, having been accustomed during the war to live more plentifully on plunder. At first, they only expressed their dissatisfaction in private discourses; “if there was a war in the province, what business had they there, among people who were at peace? If the war was already ended, why were they not carried back to Italy?” They also demanded their pay with a peremptoriness unbecoming the condition of soldiers, while those on guard used to throw out abuse on the tribunes, as they went their nightly rounds. Favoured by the darkness, some had even gone out and plundered the peaceable country round: and at length they used to quit their standards without leave, openly, and in the day-time. In a word, every thing was directed by the licentious humour of the soldiery, nothing by the rules and discipline of war, or the commands of the officers. The form, however, of a Roman camp was preserved, merely on account of the hope which they entertained, that the tribunes would be infected with their madness, and become sharers in their mutiny and revolt. They therefore permitted them to hold their courts at the tribunals; they applied to them for the watchword, and mounted guards and watches in their turn; and as they had taken away all the power of command, so, by submitting from choice to the usual duties, they kept up the appearance of obedience to orders. But when they found that the tribunes disapproved and blamed their proceedings, that they endeavoured to put a stop to them, and openly refused to assist in their designs, the mutiny then burst out; and having, by violence, driven the tribunals from their stands, and soon after, from the camp, with the unanimous approbation of the whole body they bestowed the supreme command on Caius Albius of Cales, and Caius Atrius of Umbria, common soldiers, who were the principal movers of the sedition. These men, not satisfied with the ornaments used by tribunes, had the assurance to lay hold of the badges of supreme command, the rods and axes; never considering that their own backs and necks were in danger from those very rods and axes, which they carried before them to strike terror into others. Their groundless belief of Scipio’s death blinded their understandings; and they entertained not a doubt that, on the news of that event, which would soon be generally known, the flames of war would break out in every part of Spain: that during this confusion money might be exacted from the allies, and the neighbouring cities plundered; and that the disturbances being general, and all men acting without restraint, their own behaviour would be the less liable to observation.
XXV. No accounts of the death of Scipio being received, the rumour which had been inconsiderately propagated, began to die away. They then began to enquire for the first authors of it; but every one threw it off from himself, that he might appear rather to have believed rashly, than to have been the contriver of the fiction. The leaders, now forsaken, began to dread even their own badges of office, and considered with terror the real and just authority which was about to take place of the empty show of command which they possessed, and which would doubtless be exerted to their destruction. While the mutiny was at a stand through the amazement of the soldiers, on receiving undoubted intelligence, first that Scipio was alive, and afterwards that he was in good health, seven military tribunes, despatched by himself, arrived in the camp. On their coming, the mutineers were at first exasperated, but they were soon softened by the mild and soothing language in which these addressed such of their acquaintances as they met. For, at first going round the tents, and then in the public tribunals, and in the prætorium, wherever they observed circles of soldiers engaged in conversation, they accosted them in such a manner, as carried the appearance rather of an enquiry into the cause of their resentment and sudden disorder, than of throwing any blame on what had passed. The reasons generally alleged were, that “they had not received their pay regularly; although at the time of the horrid transaction at Illiturgi, and after the utter destruction of the two generals and their two armies, it was by their bravery that the Roman name had been supported, and the province secured. That the people of Illiturgi had indeed met with the punishment due to their guilt, but their meritorious conduct had remained unrewarded.” The tribunes answered, that “in these remonstrances their requests were founded in justice, and should be laid before the general; that they were highly pleased to find that there was nothing in their case more grievous or incurable; and that, by the favour of the gods, they had both Publius Scipio and the state to reward their merit.” Scipio, well practised in wars, but utterly unacquainted with the storms of intestine commotions, was filled with anxiety on the occasion; fearing lest the army should exceed all bounds in transgressing, or himself in punishing. For the present, he resolved to proceed as he had begun, by gentle measures; having, therefore, despatched collectors through the tributary states, he received reason to hope to be soon able to discharge the arrears. An order was then published, that the troops should come to Carthage to receive their pay, either in separate divisions or in one body, as they should choose. The mutiny, of itself abating in violence among the Romans, was reduced to a state of perfect tranquillity by the measures which the rebellious Spaniards suddenly adopted. Mandonius and Indibilis, on receiving information that Scipio was alive, desisted from their undertaking, and returned into their own country, as there was now remaining neither countrymen nor foreigner, to whom they could look up for a concurrence in their desperate scheme. The soldiers, after revolving every plan, were of opinion that they had nothing left, except (what is not always the safest retreat from bad counsels) the submitting themselves either to the just anger of the general, or to his clemency, of which it was thought they need not despair. “He had pardoned even enemies, with whom he had been engaged in battle: their mutiny had not been attended with any serious consequences; no lives had been lost, nor had any blood been shed: therefore, as it had not in itself been violent, it merited not a violent punishment.” Men’s minds are generally ingenious in palliating guilt in themselves. They only hesitated then, whether they should go and demand their pay in single cohorts, or in a body. The majority voted, that, as the safer way, they should proceed in a body.
XXVI. Whilst they were employed in these deliberations, a council was held at Carthage concerning them; the members of which were divided in opinion, whether the authors only of the mutiny, who were not more than thirty-five, should be punished; or whether it was not necessary, that what ought to be called a revolt rather than a mutiny, and afforded such a dangerous example, should be expiated by the punishment of a greater number. The milder opinion prevailed, that the punishment should be confined to those who were the instigators to it, and that, for the multitude, a reprimand was sufficient. As soon as the council was dismissed, orders were issued to the army which was in Cartharge, to prepare for an expedition against Mandonius and Indibilis, and to get ready provisions for several days; in order that people might think that this had been the business of the meeting. Then, the seven tribunes, who had before gone to Sucro to quell the disturbance, were again sent out to gather further information on the matter, when each of them made a return of five names of the leaders of it; with the intent that proper persons, appointed for the purpose, should invite these, with friendly countenance and discourse, to their lodgings, and that there, when stupified with wine, they might be secured in chains. When they came near Carthage, they heard, from some persons on the road, that the whole army was to set out, next day, with Marcus Silanus, against the Lacetanians, which not only freed the disaffected from the apprehensions which, though concealed, lay heavy on their minds, but occasioned great joy amongst them; as they supposed that the general would be left alone, in their power, instead of their being in his. A little before sunset, they entered the city, and saw the other army busy in preparations for a march: they were received with discourses framed for the purpose, that “their coming was highly agreeable and convenient to the general, as it had happened just before the departure of the other army;” after which they retired to refresh themselves. The authors of the mutiny, having been conducted to lodgings by the persons appointed, were, without any tumult, apprehended by the tribunes, and thrown into chains. At the fourth watch, the baggage of that army which, as pretended, was to march, began to set out. A little before day the troops moved also, but stopped in a body at the gate, whence guards were sent round to all the other avenues, to prevent any one going out of the city. Those who had arrived the day before, were then summoned to an assembly, and they ran together into the Forum to the general’s tribunal in the most turbulent manner, intending to excite terror by their tumultuous shouts. Just as the general was taking his seat, the troops, who had been recalled from the gates, spread themselves round, under arms, behind the unarmed assembly. On this, all the arrogance of the latter sunk at once, and, as they afterwards confessed, nothing terrified them so much as the unexpected vigour and complexion of the general, whom they had expected to see in a sickly state — his countenance showing more sternness, they said, than they had ever remembered to have seen, even in battle. He sat silent for a short time, until he was told that the authors of the mutiny were brought into the Forum, and that all things were prepared.
XXVII. Then, a herald having commanded silence, he began thus: “Never did I imagine that I should be in want of language to address my own army: not that I ever gave more attention to words than to business; for, having lived in camps almost from my childhood, I was ever well acquainted with the soldier’s way of thinking. But, with what sentiments, or in what terms, I should speak to you, I am entirely at a loss. I know not even what appellation I ought to give you. Can I call you countrymen, who have revolted from your country; or soldiers, who have renounced obedience to command, and broke through the obligation of your oath; or enemies? I behold, indeed, the persons, faces, habit, mien of my fellow-citizens; but I perceive the actions, words, schemes, dispositions of foes. For what other object did your hopes and wishes aim at, than the same which was proposed by the Illergetians and Lacetans? They, however, chose for leaders in their mad enterprise, Mandonius and Indibilis, men of royal distinction; you conferred supreme authority and command on the Umbrian, Atrius, and the Calenian, Albus. Soldiers, deny that it was the act of you all, or that you all approved of it: assert that it was the madness and folly of a few. I shall willingly give credit to your disavowal; for the crimes committed are of such a nature, that did the guilt of them extend to the whole army, it could not be expiated without very extraordinary atonements. I unwillingly touch those matters, as I should wounds; but unless such are touched and handled, they cannot be cured. After the Carthaginians were expelled from Spain, I really believed that there was not, in the whole province, any one place, or any description of men, to whom my life was not a matter of concern: such had been my conduct, not only towards the allies, but even towards the enemy. And yet, even in my own camp, so much was I deceived in my opinion, the report of my death was not only readily believed, but longed for. Not that I wish this behaviour should be imputed to you all: I assure you, if I could believe that my whole army wished my death, I would here, this instant, die before your eyes; nor could life afford me any pleasure if it were displeasing to my countrymen and soldiers. But every multitude, like the sea, is incapable of moving itself; the winds and gales put it in motion: thus, when either calms or storms appear in you, all the madness lies in the first advisers. This you have caught by infection: and even this day, you do not seem to me to be sensible to what a pitch of folly you have proceeded, or how heinous your attempts have been with respect to me, how heinous with respect to your country, your parents and your children; how heinous with respect to the gods, who were witnesses of your oath; how heinous against the auspices under which you serve; how heinous against the practice of the service, the discipline of your ancestors, and the majesty of the supreme authority and rule! With regard to myself, I say nothing. Be it, that ye believed the report rather through want of thought, than through a wish that it should be true; and let me even be supposed such a person, that it were no wonder if the army were weary of my command: yet, what had your country deserved of you, that, by uniting your counsels with Mandonius and Indibilis, you were going to betray it? What had the Roman people merited, when you took away the power from tribunes appointed by their common suffrage, and conferred it on private men? when, not even content with having them for magistrates, you, a Roman army, bestowed the badges of your generals on men who never had been possessed of so much as a single slave? Albius and Atrius dwelt in the general’s pavilion, the trumpets sounded by their orders, the word was taken from them, they sat on the tribunal of Publius Scipio, they were attended by lictors, the way was cleared for them, the rods and axes were carried before them. That it should rain stones, that lightnings should be darted from heaven, and that animals should produce monstrous births, you look upon as prodigies. This is a prodigy that can be expiated by no victims, by no supplications, without the blood of those who dared to commit such enormous crimes.
XXVIII. “Now, although no wickedness proceeds on any grounds of reason, yet, in a transaction of such atrocity as this, I should be glad to know what was your intention, what your scheme. Formerly, a legion, which had been sent as a garrison to Rhegium, wickedly put to death the principal inhabitants, and kept possession of that opulent city for ten years; for which offence the whole legion, four thousand men, were beheaded in the Forum at Rome. These, however, did not put themselves under the command of an Atrius, a man no better than a scullion, whose very name was ominous; but of Decius Jubellius, a military tribune: nor did they join themselves to the enemies of the Roman people, either to the Samnites or Lucanians. You united in counsels with Mandonius and Indibilis, with whom you intended to have united also your arms. Besides, those men expected to hold Rhegium as a lasting settlement, as the Campanians held Capua, after taking it from the ancient Tuscan inhabitants; and as the Mamertines held Messana in Sicily — never entertaining a thought of making war on the Roman people or their allies. Did you intend to settle your habitations at Sucro? a place in which, if I your general at my departure, after finishing the business of the province, had left you, and there to remain, you ought to have appealed to gods and men, on not being allowed to return to your wives and children. But supposing that you had banished out of your minds all recollection of them, as you did of your country and of me, let us examine what could be your design, and whether it can be accounted for on the supposition of a depravity of principle, without including also the utmost degree of folly. While I was alive, and the other part of the army safe, with which I took Carthage in one day, with which I vanquished, put to flight, and drove out of Spain, four generals, with four armies of the Carthaginians; could you expect that you, who were but eight thousand men, (all of you of course inferior in worth to Albius and Atrius, since to their command you submitted yourselves,)— could you imagine, I say, that you should be able to wrest the province of Spain out of the hands of the Roman people? I lay no stress upon my own name, I put it out of the question, supposing myself no farther ill treated, than in your easily and joyfully giving credit to the report of my death: What! if I were dead; was the state to expire along with me; was the empire of the Roman people to fall with Scipio? Jove, supremely great and good, forbid that the city built for eternity, under the favour and direction of the gods, should last no longer than this frail and mortal body. Although so many illustrious commanders, Flaminius, Paullus, Gracchus, Posthumius, Albinus, Marcus Marcellus, Titus Quintus Crispinus, Cneius Fulvius, my relations the Scipios, have all been lost in one war, yet the Roman people still survive, and will survive, whilst a thousand others perish, some by the sword, some by disease: and must the Roman state have been carried out to burial along with my single body? You yourselves, here in Spain, when my father and uncle, your two generals, were slain, chose Septimus Marcius your leader against the Carthaginians, exulting in their late victory. I mention this as if Spain would have been without a leader; but would Marcus Silanus, who was sent into the province, invested with the same privileges, the same command with myself; would my brother Lucius Scipio, and Caius Lælius, lieutenant-generals, be wanting to avenge the majesty of the empire? Could either the armies, or the leaders, or their dignity, or their cause, admit of a comparison? And even if you were superior to all these, would you bear arms on the side of the Carthaginians, against your country, against your countrymen? Would you wish that Africa should rule over Italy. Carthage over the city of Rome? And for what fault, I would ask, of your nation?
XXIX. “Coriolanus, provoked by a grievous and undeserved banishment to take up arms against his oppressors, yielded, however, to the call of duty to a parent, and refrained from committing parricide on his country. What grief, what anger had incited you? Was the delay of your pay for a few days, and while your general was sick, sufficient reason for declaring war against your native land? to revolt from the Roman people to the Illergetians? to leave no obligation, divine or human, unviolated? Soldiers, the truth is, you have been mad; nor was the disorder which seized my body more violent than that which seized your minds. It shocks me to mention what such men believed, what they hoped, what they wished. But let all those matters be buried in oblivion, if possible; if not, let them however be covered in silence. I doubt not but my language may appear to you severe and harsh; yet how much more harsh your actions than my words! Do you think it reasonable, that I should bear the facts which you have committed, and that you should not have patience to hear them mentioned? But even with these things you shall be reproached no farther: I wish you may as easily forget them as I shall. Therefore, as to what concerns you all in general, if you are sorry for your error, I am fully satisfied with the expiation. The Calenian, Albius, the Umbrian, Atrius, and the other authors of that abominable mutiny, shall atone with their blood for the crime of which they have been guilty; and if you have recovered your sound judgment, the sight of their punishment will not only be not disagreeable, but even pleasing to you, for the tendency of their schemes was as pernicious and destructive to yourselves as to any other persons whatsoever.” Scarcely had he finished his speech, when, according to a plan preconcerted, their eyes and ears were at once assailed by every object of terror. The troops, which had formed a circle round the assembly, clashed their swords against their shields; the herald’s voice was heard citing by name those who had been condemned in the council: they were dragged naked into the midst, and at the same time, all the apparatus for death was produced; they were chained to the stake, beaten with rods, and beheaded; the spectators all the while standing so benumbed with fear, that not only no violent expression against the severity of the punishment, but not even a groan, was heard. They were then all dragged out, the place was cleared, and their fellows being summoned by their names, took the oath of obedience to Scipio before the tribunes of the soldiers, as the same time receiving their pay. Such was the end and issue of the rising which began at Sucro.
XXX. About the same time Hanno, Mago’s lieutenant, having been sent from Gades with a small body of Africans, had, by tempting the Spaniards with money, collected four thousand young men in arms, near the river Bætis: but being afterwards beaten out of his camp by Lucius Marcius, and having lost the greatest part of his forces in the tumult, and others also in the flight, (his disordered troops having been pursued by the cavalry,) he made his escape with very few attendants. During these transactions on the Bætis, Lælius, sailing through the streight, came with the fleet to Carteja, a city situated on the coast, and where the sea begins to expand itself. There had been hopes of gaining possession of Gades without a contest, by means of a conspiracy of the inhabitants, some of whom came of their own accord to the Roman camp with promises to that effect, as has been mentioned before; but the plot was discovered before it was ripe; and Mago having seized all the conspirators, gave them in charge to Adherbal, the prætor, to be conducted to Carthage. Adherbal put them on board a ship of five banks, and sending it off before him, because it sailed slower than any one of three banks, followed himself at a small distance with eight three-banked vessels. The quinquereme was just entering the streight, when Lælius, who had sailed in a quinquereme also from the harbour of Carteja, attended by seven triremes, bore down on Adherbal and the triremes; taking for granted that the quinquereme, once caught in the rapid current of the narrow pass, would not be able to tack about. The Carthaginian, alarmed by this unexpected affair, hesitated for some time whether he should follow the quinquereme, or face the enemy. This delay put it out of his power to avoid an engagement, for they were already within a weapon’s cast, and the Roman pressing him closely on all sides. The force of the stream, too, had rendered it impossible to manage their ships; nor was the fight like a naval engagement, for nothing was effected either by skill or prudence. The tide, indeed, might be said to have the entire command, for it bore them down, sometimes on their own, sometimes on the Roman vessels, while they were endeavouring in vain to row in a contrary direction; so that a ship which was flying might be seen whirled round by an eddy, and carried full against the conqueror; while another, engaged in pursuit, if it happened to fall into a contrary current, would be turned about as if for flight. Thus one ship aiming a violent stroke of its beak against the hull of the enemy, being carried itself in an oblique direction, received a blow from the beak of that it had strove to pierce; while that which lay with its side exposed to the assailant, was suddenly whirled round, so as to present its prow to them. While the battle between the triremes was thus doubtful and irregular, being governed entirely by chance, the Roman quinquereme, more manageable, either from being steadier on account of its great weight, or from making its way through the eddies by its superior number of rowers, sunk two triremes, and brushing along close by a third, swept off the oars on one side, handling roughly some others which it had overtaken: but Adherbal crowded sail, and with the five remaining ships escaped to Africa.
XXXI. Lælius returning victorious to Carteja, and having learned there what had passed at Gades, (that the plot had been discovered, the conspirators sent to Carthage, and the hopes which had invited them thither entirely frustrated,) he sent to acquaint Lucius Marcius, that he was of opinion that they ought to return to the general, unless they chose to waste time to no purpose lying before Gades. Marcius assenting, they both returned to Carthage a few days after. By their departure, Mago not only gained a respite from the dangers which had environed him both by sea and land, but on hearing of the rebellion of the Illergetians, he even conceived hopes of recovering Spain. He sent messengers to the senate at Carthage, with instructions to exaggerate both the intestine dissension in the Roman camp, and the defection of the allies; and to exhort them to send such supplies as should enable him to recover the empire of Spain, which had been transmitted to them by their ancestors. Mandonius and Indibilis, returning into their own territories, kept themselves quiet for some time, not knowing what to determine, until they could learn what measures were taken with regard to the mutiny; for if pardon were granted by Scipio to his countrymen, they did not doubt but that it would extend to themselves. But when the punishment of the offenders came to be known, supposing that their own crime would be thought to demand an equal atonement, they called their countrymen to arms, and re-assembling the auxiliaries which had joined them before, they marched out with twenty thousand foot and two thousand five hundred horse, into the territory of Sedeta, where, at the beginning of the revolt, they had established a camp.
XXXII. Scipio quickly conciliated the affections of his men by his punctuality in discharging all arrears, to the guilty as well as to the innocent, and which was strengthened by the mildness of his discourse, and the benignity of his countenance towards all without distinction. Summoning an assembly on his departure from Carthage, after copious invectives against the perfidy of the petty princes then in rebellion, he declared, that “he was setting out to take vengeance for their crimes, with feelings very different from those which he had lately experienced, while he was applying a remedy to the error of his countrymen; that then he had, with grief and tears, as if cutting his own bowels, expiated either the imprudence or the guilt of eight thousand men by the death of thirty; but now he was proceeding with cheerfulness and confidence to the destruction of the Illergetians: for these were neither born in the same land, nor connected with him by any bond of society; and for the only connection which had subsisted, that of good faith and friendship, they had wickedly rent it asunder. That there was one circumstance respecting his army, which gave him great satisfaction, which was, their being all either of his own country, allies, or of the Latine confederacy; that there was scarcely a single soldier in it who had not been brought thither from Italy, either by his uncle, Cneius Scipio, the first of the Roman name who entered that province, or by his father in his consulate, or by himself. That they were all accustomed to the name and authority of the Scipios: that he wished to carry them home with him to a well-deserved triumph; and that he entertained confident hopes that they would support his claim to the consulship, as if they were, every one of them, to share the honour of it. That as to the expedition before them, that man must have forgotten his own exploits, who could consider it as a war. For his part, he was really more concerned about Mago, who had fled with a few ships, beyond the limits of the world, into a spot surrounded by the ocean, than about the Illergetians; for on that spot, there was a Carthaginian general; and whatever forces might be there, they were Carthaginians. Here was only a band of robbers, and leaders of robbers; who, though they might have courage sufficient for ravaging their neighbours’ grounds, burning their houses, and seizing their cattle, would show none in the field, or in regular battle; and who, whenever they should see an enemy, would rely more on their activity for flight, than on their arms. It was not, therefore, because he apprehended any danger from thence, that he had determined to suppress the Illergetians before he left the province, but principally that such a heinous revolt should not escape without punishment: and, also, that it might not be said, that there was one enemy left in a country which had been overrun with such bravery and success. He desired them, therefore, with the favour of the gods, to follow him, not to what could properly be called a war, for the contest was not with a people on an equality with them, but to inflict punishment on a set of criminals.”
XXXIII. After this discourse he dismissed them, with orders to prepare for a decampment on the following morning. After a march of ten days, he arrived at the river Iberus, which he passed, and on the fourth day he pitched his camp within sight of the enemy. There was a plain before him, encircled by mountains; into this valley Scipio ordered some cattle, taken mostly from the surrounding lands, to be driven forward, in order to provoke the savage greediness of the barbarians; sending with them some light-armed troops as a guard, and giving orders to Lælius, that as soon as these should be engaged in skirmishing, he should charge with the cavalry from a place of concealment. A conveniently projecting mountain covered the ambush of the cavalry, and the battle began without delay; for the Spaniards rushed on the cattle, as soon as they saw them at a distance, and the light infantry attacked them, occupied with their booty. At first, they endeavoured to terrify each other with missive weapons; afterwards, having discharged their light darts, which were fitter to provoke than to decide the fight, they drew their swords, and began to engage foot to foot. The contest between the infantry was doubtful; but the cavalry came up, who, charging straight forward, not only trod down all before them, but some also, wheeling round along the foot of the steep, fell on the enemy’s rear, inclosing the greater part of them: so that the number slain was far more considerable than is usual in such kind of engagements. This discomfiture served rather to inflame the rage of the barbarians than depress them. In order, therefore, to show that they were not dispirited, at the first light on the day following, they led out their troops to battle. The valley being narrow, as has been mentioned, could not contain all their forces; so that only about two-thirds of the infantry and all their cavalry came down to the engagement. The remainder of the foot they posted on a hill on one side. Scipio, judging that the narrowness of the ground was a favourable circumstance to him, both because fighting in a confined space seemed better suited to the Roman than the Spanish soldier, and also because the enemy could not completely form their line, turned his thoughts to a new scheme. Finding that he could not extend his cavalry on the wings, and that those of the enemy, whom they had brought out with the infantry, would be useless, he ordered Lælius to lead the cavalry round the hills by the most concealed roads, and to keep separate as much as possible the fight of the cavalry from that between the infantry. He himself led forward the battalions of infantry, placing four cohorts in front, for he could not greatly extend his line, and without delay began the engagement, in order to divert the enemy’s attention, by the hurry of the conflict, from Lælius’s detachment, who were advancing from among the hills. In this they succeeded, for the Spaniards were unconscious of their coming, until they heard the tumult of the fight between them and their own cavalry on the rear. Thus there were two different battles; two lines of foot, and two bodies of horse, were engaged along the extent of the plain, the circumscribed ground not allowing them to be composed of both together. On the side of the Spaniards, as neither their foot could assist the horse, nor the horse the foot, the latter, who had rashly ventured into the plain, relying on the support of their cavalry, were cut to pieces; and the cavalry, being surrounded, could neither withstand the Roman infantry in front, (for by this time their own was entirely cut off,) nor the cavalry on their rear; but, having formed in a circle, and defended themselves a long time without changing their position, they were all slain to a man. Thus, not one of those who were engaged in the valley, either horse or foot, survived the fight. The third company, which had stood on the hill, rather to view the engagement securely, than to take any part in it, had both room and time to make their escape. The two princes also fled with them during the tumult, and before the army was entirely surrounded.
XXXIV. The same day, the camp of the Spaniards was taken, together with about three thousand men, beside other booty. Of the Romans and their allies, there fell one thousand two hundred; above three thousand were wounded. The victory would have been less bloody, if the battle had happened in a more extensive plain, so as to have allowed the enemy an easy flight. Indibilis, renouncing his project of proceeding farther in the war, and seeing no better prospect of safety in this desperate state of his affairs than in the honour and clemency of Scipio, which he had already experienced, sent his brother Mandonius to him; who, prostrating himself at his feet, lamented “the fatal frenzy of the times, wherein, as it were, through some pestilent contagion, not only the Illergetians and Lacetanians, but even the Roman camp had been infected: that the present state of himself, his brother, and the rest of his countrymen, was such, that, if it was required, they would surrender up to Scipio the life which he had spared to them; or, if they might be still preserved, they would ever devote it to his service; for in such case they should be actually twice indebted to him alone for existence. That, in the former case, they had confidence in their cause, before they had made trial of his clemency; but now, on the contrary, they could have none in their cause, and their only hope lay in the mercy of their conqueror.” It was the practice of the Romans, observed from very early times with respect to persons with whom they had formed no treaty of friendship or alliance, never to exercise any act of authority over them: for they were not held as subjects, until they had surrendered all their property, both sacred and common, had given hostages, delivered up their arms, and received garrisons in their towns. On the present occasion, Scipio, after severely reproaching Mandonius, who was present, and Indibilis, who was absent, said, that “they had deservedly been brought to ruin by their own wicked practices; that they should owe their lives to the generosity of himself and the Roman people. Further, he would not even deprive them of their arms; those were only to be taken, as pledges, by such as feared a renewal of war; they should, therefore, be freely left them; nor should their minds be shackled with fear. Should they again revolt, he would not take vengeance on guiltless hostages, but on themselves; he would inflict no punishment on defenceless enemies, but on those who carried arms. That he left it to themselves, who had experienced both, to choose the favour or the resentment of the Romans.” On these terms Mandonius was dismissed, and they were only fined a sum of money for the pay of the troops. Scipio, having sent on his lieutenant into Farther Spain, and Silanus back to Tarraco, delayed only a few days, until the Illergetians had paid the fine demanded of them. Then, with some troops lightly equipped, he followed Marcius, whom he overtook at a small distance from the ocean.
XXXV. The negociation, some time before commenced with Masinissa, had been delayed by various causes; the Numidian choosing to confer only with Scipio himself, and from his hand to receive the ratification of the compact. This was Scipio’s reason for undertaking at that time so long a journey, and to places so distant from his quarters. When Masinissa received notice at Gades from Marcius, that he was drawing nigh, complaining that his horses were injured by being pent up in the island; that they not only caused a scarcity of every thing among the men, but felt it themselves; and besides, that the horsemen were losing their spirits through want of exercise; he prevailed on Mago to allow him to pass over to the continent, to plunder the adjacent country of the Spaniards. On landing, he sent forward three chiefs of the Numidians, to fix a time and place for a conference, desiring that two of them might be detained by Scipio as hostages, and the third sent back to conduct him to the place appointed. They came to the conference with but few attendants; the Numidian had long been possessed with admiration of the man he was about to meet, from the fame of his exploits, and had formed a perfect idea of the grandeur and dignity of his person. But on seeing him, his veneration increased; for the elegance of his appearance, naturally majestic, was added to by his flowing hair, and by his becoming dress, not decorated with ornaments, but in a style truly manly and military; by his age also, as he was in full vigour, aided by the bloom of youth, renewed as it were after his late illness. At their meeting, the Numidian, struck with a degree of astonishment, first “thanked him for having sent home his brother’s son; assured him, that ever since that transaction he had sought for the present opportunity, which being at length offered by the favour of the immortal gods, he had not neglected: that he wished to exert himself in his service and that of the Roman people, with more zeal and effect than had ever been shown by any foreigner, in support of the Roman interest: that although this had long been his wish, yet he was less able to effect it in Spain — a territory with which he was little acquainted; but in his own country, in Africa, where he had been born, and educated with the hopes of enjoying the kingdom of his father, it would be more easily in his power to serve them: that if the Romans thought proper to send the same commander, Scipio, into Africa, he had good reason to hope that the existence of Carthage would be of very short duration.” Scipio received and heard him with much satisfaction; he knew that Masinissa was the main support of the enemy with respect to cavalry, and the young man himself had given considerable proofs of spirit. After they had mutually pledged their faith, he returned to Tarraco; and Masinissa having, with permission of the Romans, ravaged the neighbouring soil, that he might not appear to have passed over to the continent for nothing, returned to Gades.
XXXVI. While Mago was preparing to pass into Africa, despairing of success in Spain, (of which he had been encouraged to entertain hopes, first, by the mutiny of the soldiers, and afterwards by the revolt of Indibilis,) information was brought from Carthage, that the senate ordered him to carry over to Italy the fleet which he had at Gades, and having there hired as many of the Gallic and Ligurian youth as he could find, to form a junction with Hannibal, and not to suffer the war to sink into languor, after the very great exertions and greater successes which had signalized its beginning. Money, to answer this purpose, was brought to Mago from Carthage, in addition to which he extorted much from the people of Gades, plundering not only their treasury but their temples, and compelling them to bring in their private properties of gold and silver to the public stock. As he sailed along the coast of Spain, he landed his men not far from New Carthage; and having ravaged the lands adjoining, brought up his fleet from thence to the city; where, having kept his soldiers on board the ships during the day, he disembarked them in the night, and led them on to that part of the wall over which the Romans had entered when they took the place; for he had a notion that the garrison was not strong, and that, on seeing a hope of changing masters, some of the townsmen would raise a commotion. But those, who had fled in a panic from the fields, had already brought an account of the dispersion of the country-people, and the approach of the enemy; the fleet also had been observed during the day, and it was sufficiently evident that its station before the city had not been chosen without some reason. The garrison were therefore drawn up, and kept under arms, within side the gate which looks towards the bason and the sea. The enemy, rushing on in a tumultuous manner, with crowds of seamen mixed among the soldiers, advanced to the walls with more noise than strength, when the Romans, suddenly throwing open the gate, rushed forth with a shout, and having disordered and repulsed the motley band at the first onset and discharge of their darts, pursued them with great slaughter to the coast, nor would one of them have survived the battle and the pursuit, had not the vessels, warping close to the shore, received them as they fled in dismay. Those on shipboard also were not without their share of the confusion, occasioned by the drawing up of the ladders, lest the enemy should force in along with their own men, and in cutting away their cables and anchors to avoid the delay of weighing them. Many, in attempting to swim to the ships, as they could not in the declining light distinguish whither they ought to direct their course, or what to avoid, met a miserable death. Next day, when the fleet had fled back to the midocean, there were found between the wall and the shore eight hundred men slain, and two thousand stands of arms.
XXXVII. Mago, returning to Gades, was not permitted to enter the place, on which he put with his fleet into Cimbis, at a little distance, and from thence sent ambassadors, complaining of their having shut their gates against an ally and friend. While they apologized for this act, alleging that it had been done by a part of the multitude, who were offended because some of their effects had been carried off by the soldiers when they were embarking, he enticed their suffetes* (which is the name of the chief magistracy among the Carthaginians) and their treasurer to a conference; and then ordered them to be crucified, after they had been mangled with stripes. From thence he sailed to the island Pityusa,† about one hundred miles from the continent, inhabited at that time by Carthaginians, where the fleet was received in a friendly manner, and supplied not only with abundance of provisions, but with a reinforcement of young men and arms. Emboldened by these succours, the Carthaginian proceeded to the Balearick islands, about fifty miles distant. There are two of the Baleares,‡ one larger and more powerful in men and arms than the other, and which has also a harbour, where he believed he might pass the winter commodiously, as it was now the latter end of autumn. But here he met with an opposition, as violent as if the inhabitants of that island had been Romans. As they now mostly use slings, so at that time these were their only weapons, in the skilful use of which the Baleareans universally excel all others. Such a quantity, therefore, of stones was poured, like the thickest hail, on the fleet as it approached the land, that, not daring to enter the harbour, the Carthaginians tacked about to the main. They then passed over to the smaller of the Baleares, which is equally fertile in soil, though, as already noted, of lesser strength. Here they landed, and pitched their camp in a strong post, over the harbour, taking possession of the city and country without a contest. Then, having enlisted two thousand auxiliaries, and sent them to Carthage for the winter, they hauled their ships on shore. After Mago had departed from the coast, the people of Gades surrendered to the Romans.
XXXVIII. Such were the transactions in Spain under the conduct and command of Publius Scipio; who, having committed the charge of the province to Lucius Lentulus and Lucius Manlius Audinus, returned to Rome with ten ships; and having obtained an audience of the senate in the temple of Bellona without the city, made a recital of his services in Spain, how often he had engaged the enemy in pitched battles, how many towns he had taken, and what nations he had reduced under the dominion of the Roman people; that “he had gone into Spain against four generals, and four armies, who were elated with victory; and that he had not left a Carthaginian in all that country.” On account of these exploits, he rather made trial how far he might hope for a triumph, than pushed for it with any earnestness, because it was well known that no one had ever been honoured with it for achievements performed, unless invested with a public office. When the senate was dismissed, he proceeded into the city, and carried before him to the treasury fourteen thousand three hundred and forty-two pounds weight of silver, and of coined silver a great sum. Lucius Veturius Philo then held the assembly for electing consuls; and all the centuries with extraordinary marks of attachment named Publius Scipio consul. The colleague joined with him was Publius Licinius Crassus, chief pontiff. We are told that this election was attended by a greater concourse of people than any during that war. They had come together from all parts, not only for the purpose of giving their votes, but of getting a sight of Scipio; and ran in crowds, both to his house and to the Capitol, while he was performing sacrifice, by offering to Jupiter a hundred oxen, which he had vowed on occasion of the mutiny of the soldiers in Spain. Strong expectations were at the same time entertained, that, as Caius Lutatius had finished the former Punic war, so Publius Cornelius Scipio would finish the present; and that, as he had already expelled the Carthaginians from every part of Spain, he would in like manner expel them from Italy. They therefore destined Africa to him as a province, as if the war in Italy were at an end. The election of the prætors was then held: two were appointed, who were, at the time, plebeian ædiles, Spurius Lucretius and Cneius Octavius; and, of private rank, Cneius Servilius Cæpio, and Lucius Æmilius Popus.Y.R.547. 205. In the fourteenth year of the Punic war, as soon as Publius Cornelius Scipio, and Publius Licinius Crassus entered on the consulship, the provinces for the consuls were named; for Scipio, Sicily, without drawing lots, with the consent of his colleague, because the necessary attendance on religious matters required the presence of the chief pontiff in Italy; for Crassus, Bruttium. The provinces of the prætors were then disposed of by lot; that of the city fell to Cneius Servilius; Ariminum (so they called Gaul,) to Spurius Lucretius; Sicily to Lucius Æmilius; and Sardinia to Cneius Octavius. The senate was held in the Capitol; there, on the matter being proposed by Publius Scipio, a decree was made, that the games, which he had vowed during the mutiny of the soldiers in Spain, should be exhibited, and the expense defrayed out of the money which himself had conveyed to the treasury.
XXXIX. He then introduced to the senate ambassadors from Saguntum, the eldest of whom addressed them in this manner: “Conscript Fathers, although there is no degree of evil beyond what we have endured, in order that we might preserve our faith towards you inviolate to the last; yet so highly has your behaviour, and that of your commanders, merited at our hands, that we do not repent of having exposed ourselves to sufferings. On our account you undertook the war, and although it is now the fourteenth year since it began, yet you still maintain it with such persevering spirit, as to endanger yourselves, while having often brought the Carthaginians to the very brink of ruin. At a time when you had so grievous a contest to maintain, and with such an antagonist as Hannibal, you sent your consul, with an army, into Spain, to collect as it were what remained of us after a shipwreck. Publius and Cneius Cornelius, from the moment of their arrival in the province, never ceased to pursue measures favourable to us, and destructive to our enemies. They, first of all, regained and gave back to us our city; and, sending persons to search for our countrymen who had been sold and dispersed through every part of Spain, they restored them from slavery to liberty. When, after experiencing the utmost wretchedness, we were near being happily settled, your commanders, Publius and Cneius Cornelius, fell, more to be lamented in some measure by us, even than by you. Then, indeed, it appeared as if we had been called from distant places to our original residence, only that we might be a second time ruined; only that we might see a second destruction of our country. That, to accomplish this, there was no occasion for an army of Carthaginians; we might be utterly destroyed by our oldest and most inveterate enemies, the Turdulans, who had also been the cause of our former calamity. In which conjuncture, you speedily, and beyond our expectations, sent to us this Publius Scipio, the author of our well-being, the supporter of all our hopes; of whose election to the consulship, our having been eye-witnesses, and our being able to carry home the joyful news to our countrymen, renders us the happiest of the Saguntines. He, having taken a great number of the towns of your enemies in Spain, always separated the Saguntines from the rest of the prisoners, and sent them home to their own country; and, lastly, by his arms, so humbled Turdetania — a state so inveterate in its animosity against us, that, if its power had continued, Saguntum must have fallen — that not only we, but (let me say it without presumption) even our posterity, need have no apprehensions from it. We now see their city destroyed — the city of a people for whose gratification Hannibal ruined Saguntum. We now receive tribute from their country — a circumstance not more gratifying to us, in the profit we derive from it, than in the satisfying of our revenge. In gratitude for these blessings, greater than which we could not either hope or implore from the immortal gods, the senate and people of Saguntum have sent us, their ten ambassadors, to present their thanks; and, at the same time, to congratulate you on the success which has of late years attended your arms in Spain and Italy. You hold the possession of Spain, so acquired, not only as far as the city Iberus, but to the utmost limits and boundaries by the ocean; while in Italy you have left nothing to the Carthaginian, but what the rampart of his camp encloses. To Jove, supremely great and good, who presides over the fortress of the Capitol, we have been ordered, not only to make acknowledgments for these blessings, but, with your permission, to bear thither this offering, a golden crown, in token of victory. We request that you will permit us this act of reverence; and, also, that you will ratify by your authority, and fix on a permanent footing, the advantages bestowed on us by your commanders.” The senate answered the Saguntine ambassadors, that “the destruction and restoration of Saguntum would be an example to all nations, of social faith fulfilled on both sides; that their commanders, in restoring that city, and delivering its inhabitants from slavery, had acted properly, regularly, and agreeably to the intentions of the senate: that all other acts of kindness shown them had likewise their approbation, and that they gave them permission to deposit their charge in the Capitol.” Orders were then given that apartments and entertainment should be provided for the ambassadors, and a present made to each of them, of not less than ten thousand asses.* Other embassies were then introduced and heard. On the Saguntines requesting that they might be allowed to take a view of Italy, as far as they could go with safety, guides were given them, and letters despatched to all the towns, requiring them to entertain these Spaniards in a friendly manner. The senate then took into consideration the state of public affairs, the levying troops, and the distribution of the provinces.
XL. People in general expressed a desire that Africa should be constituted a new province, and assigned to Publius Scipio without casting lots; and he, not content with a moderate share of glory, affirmed that he had been appointed consul, not for the purpose only of carrying on the war, but of finishing it; that this could be accomplished by no other means than by transporting an army into Africa; declaring openly, that if the senate should oppose him in that point, he would carry it by the votes of the people. The principal senators by no means approved of the design; and whilst the rest, either through fear, or a desire of ingratiating themselves with him, declined uttering their sentiments, Quintus Fabius Maximus, being asked his opinion, expressed himself to this effect: “I know, Conscript Fathers, that many among you are of opinion, that we are this day deliberating on an affair already determined: and that he will expend words to little purpose who shall deliver his sentiments on the subject of Africa being constituted a province, as on a matter open to discussion. Yet, in the first place, I do not understand how Africa can be a province, already secured to that brave and active commander, our consul; when neither the senate have voted, nor the people ordered, that it should at all be considered as such; and again, if it were, in my judgment it is the consul who acts amiss; for it is a mockery of the senate to pretend to consult them on a question if already decided, and not the senator, who in his place would speak to the business which he supposed in hand. Now I am well aware, that, by disapproving this violent haste to pass over into Africa, I expose myself to two imputations; one, the caution natural to my temper, which young men have my free consent to call cowardice and sloth; while I have no reason to be sorry, that, although the schemes of others always carried at first view a more specious appearance, yet mine were on experience found to be more useful. The other imputation to which I shall be liable, is that of detraction and envy towards the rising glory of the valiant consul:— from a suspicion of which kind, if neither my past life and morals can free me, nor a dictatorship and five consulships, together with a store of glory acquired in the transactions both of war and peace, that it is more likely I should be satiated, than desirous of more; let my age at least acquit me. For what emulation can I have with him, who is not equal in age even to my son? When I was dictator, when I was in full vigour, and proceeding in a course of the greatest achievements, no one heard me, either in the senate or before the people, make opposition to the proposed measure, (although such as had never before been heard of, even in conversation,) of conferring power equal to mine on the master of the horse, and who, at the very time, was endeavouring to injure my character. I chose to effect my purpose by actions rather than words; and that he who was set on a level with me in the judgment of others, should at length, by his own confession, allow me a superiority over him. Much less would I now, after having passed through every dignity of the state, propose to myself contests and emulations with a man blooming in youth. Is it that Africa, if refused to him, might be decreed as a province to me — to me, already wearied, not only with the toils of business, but even with length of years? No: with that glory which I have already acquired, I am to live and die. I stopped the career of Hannibal’s conquests, that you, whose powers are now in vigour, might be able to gain conquests over him.
XLI. “As I never, in my own case, regarded the opinion of the world when set in competition with the advantage of the state, it will be but reasonable that you pardon me, Publius Cornelius, if I do not consider even your fame in preference to the public good. If either there were no war in Italy, or the enemy here were such, that a victory over him would be productive of no glory, he who should attempt to retain you in Italy, notwithstanding that he consulted therein the general welfare, might seem to intend, while he restrained you from removing the war, to deprive you of a subject of future glory. Yet Hannibal, a powerful enemy, with an army unimpaired, maintains a footing in Italy, for the fourteenth year. Would you then have reason to be dissatisfied, Publius Cornelius, with your share of fame, if you should in your consulate expel such a foe from out of Italy; a foe, who has been the cause of so much mourning, of so many calamities to us? In fine, should you not be content to enjoy the reputation of having finished the present Punic war, as Caius Lutatius did that of finishing the former? Unless, indeed, you will say, that Hamilcar is a general more formidable than Hannibal; or that a war in Africa is of greater importance than it would be in Italy; that a victory there, (supposing it should be our good fortune to obtain such while you are consul,) would be more profitable and illustrious than one here. Would you choose to draw away Hamilcar from Drepanum or Eryx, rather than to expel the Carthaginians and Hannibal out of Italy? Although you should look with a more partial regard on the renown which you have acquired, than on that which you have in prospect, yet surely you would not pride yourself so much in having freed Spain, as in freeing Italy. Hannibal is not yet in such a condition, that he who prefers engaging with another general, must not evidently appear to be actuated by fear of him, rather than by contempt. Why, then, do you not direct your efforts to this point, and carry the strength of the war immediately to the place where Hannibal is, and not by that circuition, presuming that, when you shall have passed into Africa, Hannibal will follow you thither? Do you wish to be crowned with the distinguished honour of having finished the Punic war? In the very nature of things, you are to defend your own property, before you attack another’s. Let peace be restored in Italy, before hostilities commence in Africa. Let us be delivered from fear ourselves, before we attempt to make others afraid of us. If both can be accomplished under your conduct and auspices, it will be well. After you have vanquished Hannibal at home, then go and lay siege to Carthage. If one or the other of these conquests must be left to succeeding consuls, the former, as it will be the more important and the more glorious, will be also the cause of the subsequent one. For in the present state of affairs, besides that the treasury cannot maintain two different armies, one in Italy, and another in Africa; besides that we have nothing left us wherewith we could equip fleets, or be able to supply provisions, who does not see what danger must be incurred? Publius Licinius will wage war in Italy, Publius Scipio in Africa. What if Hannibal, having gained a superiority, should advance to the city, (may all the gods avert the omen! my mind is shocked even at mentioning it; but what has happened, may happen again,) will that be a time for us to be obliged to send for you, the consul, from Africa, as we sent for Quintus Fulvius from Capua? Besides, are we to suppose that in Africa the chances of war will not be the same with both parties? Let your father and your uncle be a warning to you — cut off, together with their armies, in the space of thirty days; and after having, during a course of several years, by their great services, as well on land as at sea, rendered the name of the Roman people, and of your family, in the highest degree illustrious among foreign states. The whole day would not be sufficient, were I to recount to you all the kings and generals, who, by passing rashly into an enemy’s country, have brought the greatest calamities on themselves and their armies. The Athenians, for instance, a state remarkable for prudence, having, at the instigation of a youth who was distinguished as much by his active spirit as by his nobility, neglected a war at home, and sent over a large fleet to Sicily, (their commonwealth at that time in a most flourishing condition,) suffered, in one naval engagement, such a blow as could never be retrieved.
XLII. “But, not to bring examples from distant countries, and times of such remote antiquity, Africa itself, and Marcus Atilius, (a remarkable instance of both extremes of fortune,) may serve as a warning to us. Be assured, Publius Cornelius, that, when you shall have a view of Africa from the sea, all your exploits in Spain will appear to you to have been only matter of sport and play. For, in what circumstance can they be compared? After sailing along the coasts of Italy and Gaul, where there was nothing to oppose you, you carried your fleet into the harbour of Emporiæ, a city belonging to our allies; and, having landed your men, you led them through countries entirely free from danger, to Tarraco, to the friends and allies of the Roman people. From Tarraco, you passed amid Roman garrisons. It was on the Iberus, indeed, that the armies of your father and uncle were exasperated by the loss of their generals, their new commander being Lucius Marcus, irregularly appointed, it is true, and chosen, for the time, by the suffrages of the soldiers; but, except that he wanted a noble birth, and a regular course of promotion, equal to many celebrated captains in every military accomplishment. The siege of New Carthage you carried on quite at your leisure, while neither of the three Carthaginian armies attempted to relieve the place. As to the rest of your exploits, I am far from wishing to lessen their merit, but they are certainly, by no means, to be compared with a war in Africa; where there is not a single harbour open to our fleet; no part of the country at peace with us; no state our ally; no king our friend; no room, any where, either to stand or advance. On whatever side you turn your eyes, all things are hostile and threatening. Will you depend on Syphax and the Numidians? Suffice it to say, that they were once trusted. Rashness is not always successful; and hypocrisy, by acquiring a foundation of credit in smaller matters, prepares for itself the opportunity of deceiving with greater advantage. The foe did not get the better of your father and uncle by arms, until their Celtiberian allies had first got the better of them by treachery. Nor were you yourself brought into so much danger by Mago and Hasdrubal, the enemy’s generals, as by Indibilis and Mandonius, whom you had received into your protection. Can you, who have experienced a defection of your own soldiers, place any confidence in Numidians? Both Syphax and Masinissa are desirous of becoming the greatest powers in Africa, to the exclusion of the Carthaginians; but still they prefer the interest of those people to that of any other state. At present, mutual emulation embitter them against each other, and which arises from their feeling no immediate apprehensions from any foreign force. The moment they behold the Roman arms, they will instantly unite, as if to extinguish a fire equally threatening them both. The efforts which these same Carthaginians made in support of Spain, were widely different from what they will exert, in defence of the walls of their native city, of the temples of their gods, their altars, and their dwellings; when their wives, distracted with fear, shall accompany them as they go to battle, and their helpless children gather round them. Besides, what if the Carthaginians, thinking themselves sufficiently secured by the harmony subsisting in Africa, by the faith of the kings their allies, and by their own fortifications, should, on seeing Italy deprived of your protection, either send over a new army from Africa into Italy, or order Mago, (who, we know, has sailed over from the Baleares, and is now cruising on the coast of the Alpine Ligurians,) to join his forces to those of Hannibal? We should then be seized with the same terror which we felt lately, on hearing of the approach of Hasdrubal; and whom you, (who are to shut up with your army, not only Carthage, but all Africa,) allowed to slip through your hands into Italy. You will say, that he was defeated by you: the less, for that very reason, can I wish that he should be permitted, after being defeated, to march into this country; and that, not only upon the account of the public, but your own also. Allow us to ascribe to your good conduct all those events in your province which were favourable to you and to the state; and to impute such as were unfavourable to fortune, and to the chances of war. The more merit and bravery you possess, the more is your country and all Italy concerned to keep at home so powerful a protector. You cannot but acknowledge, that wherever Hannibal is, there the main stress and head of the present war must be looked for: yet the reason you give for passing over into Africa is, that you may draw Hannibal thither. Whether the Carthaginians, therefore, be in this country or in that, your business is to oppose him. Now, I pray you, whether will you be better able to cope with him in Africa, where you are to stand alone; or here, with the army of your colleague joined to your own? Is not the importance of this consideration sufficiently evinced by the recent fate of the consuls Claudius and Livius? What! is Hannibal to be feared here, as receiving an augmentation of men and arms from the remotest corner of the country of Bruttium, (and which he in vain solicits from home;) or with Carthage at his back, and all Africa confederated with him? What is this plan of choosing to fight there, where your forces must be less by half, and those of the enemy considerably greater, rather than here, at the head of two armies against one, and that one impaired in strength by so many battles, and by such long and laborious service? Consider well how far this plan of yours resembles that of your father. He, in his consulship, after having gone to Spain, came back from his province to Italy, in order to meet Hannibal as he was descending from the Alps: you, when Hannibal is in Italy, intend to quit the country, not because you judge that measure useful to the state, but because you expect from it splendour and glory to yourself. Just as when, without an order of the commons, without a decree of the senate, you left your province and your army; — yes, you, a commander employed by the Roman people, entrusted to two ships the fortune of the public, and the majesty of the empire, which were then exposed to hazard in your person. In my judgment, Conscript Fathers, Publius Cornelius Scipio was elected consul for the purpose of serving us and the people; not for his own private schemes of ambition. In my opinion, the armies were enlisted for the protection of the city and of Italy, and not to be carried about by the consuls with king-like ostentation, in gratification of their own vanity, and to any part of the world they may think proper.”
XLIII. By this speech, formed for the occasion, by his authority and his established character for prudence, Fabius influenced a great part of the senate, especially those advanced in years; and a greater number approving of the wariness of the sage than of the spirit of the youth, Scipio is said to have spoken thus: “Conscript Fathers, even Quintus Fabius himself, in the beginning of his speech, has acknowledged that, in the declaration which he has made of his sentiments, he might possibly be suspected of detraction; and although I will not presume to bring a charge of such a nature against so great a man, yet certainly, whether through a defect in his discourse, or in the subject, the suspicion has not been removed. For, in order to avoid the imputation of envy, he has extolled his own honours, and the fame of his exploits, in very magnificent terms; tending to show, that whatever competition I may enter into with others; however I may fear that some person, now in obscurity, may one day be equal with me; yet, from him I have no kind of rivalry to apprehend: for he has attained to such a height of eminence, that he will not suffer me at any time to be placed on a level with him, however anxiously I may wish it; and that I do wish it, I will by no means dissemble. He has, therefore, represented himself as a man of gravity and wisdom, who has passed through every degree of public honours; and me, as below the age even of his son; as if ambition extended not his views beyond the present life, and did not look forward to posterity and future remembrance as the greatest possible reward. I well know, that it is usual with persons of exalted merit to compare themselves with the illustrious men, not only of the present, but of every age; and I do not deny, Quintus Fabius, that I wish not only to overtake you in the race of glory, but (pardon the expression) to outrun you, if I can. That disposition of mind will not, I hope, affect you towards me, nor me towards my juniors, that we should be displeased if any of our countrymen became distinguished like ourselves; for that would be an injury not only to those who were the objects of our envy, but to the state, and in some measure to all mankind. Fabius has descanted on the danger which I must incur if I pass into Africa, so as to appear anxious, not only about the safety of the nation and the army, but about mine. Whence has this concern for me so suddenly arisen? When my father and uncle were slain; when their two armies were cut off almost to a man; when Spain was lost; when four armies and four generals of the Carthaginians, by terror and by arms, kept possession of every thing; when the public were at a loss for a general to conduct that war, and no one stepped forward except myself; when no one dared to declare himself a candidate; when the Roman people had conferred the command on me, though but twenty-four years old — how happened it that no mention was then made of my age, of the power of the enemy, of the difficulties of opposing him, or of the recent calamity of my relatives? Has any greater misfortune befallen us in Africa, than had at that time been experienced in Spain? Are there now on that continent more numerous armies or better generals, than there were then in Spain? Was I fitter at that time of life for conducting a war than I am now? Is a contest with a Carthaginian enemy less difficult in Spain than in Africa? It is an easy matter, after four Carthaginian armies routed and entirely dispersed; after so many cities taken by force, or terrified into a surrender; while all places, even as far as the ocean, have been brought under entire subjection; while so many princes, so many savage nations have been wholly reduced; in a word, after all Spain has been re-conquered, and in such a manner as that no trace of war remains; — it is easy, I say, to depreciate the value of my services, just as easy, in truth, as it will be, if I shall return victorious from Africa, to make light of those very circumstances which are now so greatly aggravated, and painted in such terrible colours, for the purpose of detaining me here. It is affirmed that no entrance can be found into Africa; that there are no harbours open to us; that Marcus Atilius was taken prisoner there, as if Marcus Atilius had miscarried on approaching that coast. But Fabius does not recollect that this commander (afterwards, indeed, unfortunate) found the harbours of Africa open, and during the first year performed extraordinary services; and, as far as concerned the Carthaginian generals, remained unconquered to the last. The example which you produce, therefore, does not in the least deter me. If that loss had even been sustained in the present war, and not in the former; if lately, and not forty years ago; yet why should I not as well pass into Africa after Regulus was made prisoner, as into Spain after the Scipios were slain; nor suffer it to be said, that the birth of Xantippus, a Lacedæmonian, was, by the defeat of our consul, more fortunate to Carthage, than mine to my own country? and why might I not assume additional confidence from that very circumstance, that it was possible for the bravery of one man, a Spartan, to produce such important consequences? But we are also told of the Athenians neglecting a war at home, and passing inconsiderately into Sicily. Why do you not rather (since you have leisure to recount Grecian fables) mention Agathocles King of Syracuse, who, when Sicily was for a long time wasted by a Punic war, by passing over into this same Africa, averted that war to the place from whence it came?
XLIV. “But what need is there either of ancient or foreign examples to remind us how useful it is to spread terror among the enemy by a sudden attack; and after removing the danger to a distance from ourselves, to make him abide the hazard? Can there be any greater or more striking instance than is found in Hannibal? Between wasting the territories of others, and seeing our own destroyed with fire and sword, the difference is immense. The assailant has ever more spirit than the defendant; and people’s apprehensions are the greater in the latter case. When you have entered an enemy’s territories, you can then see more distinctly the advantages and disadvantages which pertain to the same. Hannibal never entertained a hope that so many nations in Italy would revolt to him as did, and which was induced by our misfortune at Cannæ. How much less can any firm and steady support in Africa be expected by the Carthaginians, who are themselves faithless allies, severe and haughty masters? As to ourselves, even when deserted by confederates, we stood firm in our own natural strength, the soldiery of Rome. This the Carthaginians do not possess; beside, their soldiers are procured for hire — Africans, with Numidians, of all men the most unsteady in their attachments. If no obstruction be thrown in my way at home, you shall shortly hear, that I have made good my descent, and that Africa is in a blaze of war; that Hannibal, in returning thither, comes but to experience a defeat, and that Carthage is besieged: in fine, expect confidently more frequent and more joyful despatches from that continent than you received from Spain. These hopes are suggested to me by the fortune of the Roman people, the gods who witnessed the treaty which the enemy have violated, and the friendship of the Kings, Syphax and Masinissa, to whom I shall look for aid while securing myself against perfidy. The war will disclose many things which do not appear now; and it is the business of a general, not to fail of improving the overtures of fortune, and to convert casual occurrences to the accomplishment of his designs. I shall, Quintus Fabius, have the antagonist whom you assign me, Hannibal: I shall compel him to fight in his own country, and Carthage rather shall be the prize than the half-ruined forts of the Bruttians. With respect to the security of the state, and that it should suffer no injury while I am on my passage; while I am landing my army in Africa; while I am marching forwards to Carthage; be careful in any assertion as to what you, Quintus Fabius, were able to accomplish, at a time when Hannibal was pursuing a rapid career of victory through all parts of Italy; be mindful, I say, lest it be considered as an insult, that you do not too freely affirm of him, that, shaken and almost broken in pieces, his overthrow by Publius Licinius the consul were easy — a man by the way of the most consummate valour, and who declined the lot of so distant a province as Africa, only because, being chief pontiff, he must not be absent from his religious duties. In fact, even though the war were not to be brought to a speedier conclusion by the method which I propose, still it would concern the dignity of the Roman people, and their reputation among foreign kings and nations, that we should appear to have spirit, not only to defend Italy, but to carry our arms into Africa; and that it should not be spread abroad, and believed, that no Roman general dared what Hannibal had dared; and that, in the former Punic war, when the contest was about Sicily, Africa had been often attacked by our fleets and armies; but that now, when the contest is about Italy, Africa should enjoy peace. Let Italy, so long harassed, enjoy at length some repose: let Africa, in its turn, feel fire and sword. Let the Roman camp press on the very gates of Carthage, rather than that we, a second time, should behold from our walls the rampart of that of the enemy. Let Africa, in short, be the seat of the remainder of the war: thither be removed terror and flight, devastation of lands, revolt of allies, and all the other calamities with which, for fourteen years, we have been afflicted. It is sufficient that I have delivered my sentiments on those matters which affect the state, the dispute in which we are involved, and the provinces under consideration: my discourse would be tedious, and unsuitable to this audience, if, as Quintus Fabius has depreciated my services in Spain, I should, on the other hand, endeavour in like manner to disparage his glory, and extol my own. I shall do neither, Conscript Fathers; but, young as I am, I will show that I excel that sage, if in nothing else, yet certainly in modesty and temperance of language. Such has been my life and conduct, that I can, in silence, rest perfectly satisfied with that character which your own judgments have formed of me.”
XLV. Scipio was heard the less favourably on account of a rumour which prevailed, that if he did not carry the point in the senate, of having Africa decreed to him as his province, he was determined immediately to submit the business to public decision. Therefore Quintus Fulvius, who had been consul four times, and censor, demanded of the consul, that he should declare openly in the senate, whether “he meant to abide by the determination of the Fathers in regard to the provinces, or whether he intended to bring the matter before the people?” Scipio having answered, that he would act in such a manner as he should deem most advantageous to the state, Fulvius replied, “I did not ask the question through ignorance of what you would answer, and what you intended to do. It is thus plainly seen, that you are rather sounding the senate, than consulting them; and have an order ready to be proposed to the people, if we do not immediately decree to you the province that you desire. I therefore call upon you, tribunes, to support me in refusing to give my opinion, and for this reason, that, although a majority should concur with me, yet the consul would appeal from their judgment.” On this an altercation arose, Scipio insisting, that it was unfair for the tribunes to interpose, so as to prevent any senator from giving his opinion, on being asked it in his place. The tribunes determined thus: “If the consul submits the regulation of the provinces to the senate, we are satisfied that their decision shall be final, and we will not suffer that matter to be carried before the people; if he does not so submit it, we will support such as shall refuse to give their opinion on the subject.” The consul desired time until the next day, that he might confer with his colleague, and the affair was then submitted to the senate, who decreed the provinces in this manner: to one consul, Sicily, and the thirty ships of war, which Caius Servilius had commanded the preceding year, with permission to pass over into Africa, if he should judge it for the advantage of the state; to the other, Bruttium, and the war against Hannibal, with the army which Lucius Veturius, or that which Quintus Cæcilius, commanded; that these latter should cast lots, or settle between themselves, which of them should command in Bruttium, with the two legions which would be left by the consul; and that he, to whose lot that province fell; should be continued in it for another year. The others also who were to have the charge of armies, besides the consuls and prætors, had their commission prolonged. It fell by lot to Quintus Cæcilius, that, in conjunction with the consul, he should manage the war against Hannibal in Bruttium. Scipio’s games were then exhibited to a vast concourse of spectators, who expressed the highest approbation. Marcus Pomponius Matho, and Quintus Catius, being sent ambassadors to Delphi, with a present out of the spoils of Hasdrubal, carried a golden crown of two hundred pounds weight, and representations of the prizes, formed of one thousand pounds weight of silver. Although Scipio had not obtained, nor earnestly solicited, authority to levy soldiers, he yet was permitted to enrol volunteers; and as he had declared that the fleet should be no expense to the public, so he might receive such contributions as should be offered by the allies for building new ships. The states of Etruria first promised to give assistance to the consul, proportioned to the respective abilities of each; the people of Cære engaged to bring corn, and provisions of all kinds, for the seamen; the Populonians, iron; the Tarquinians, canvass for sails; the Volaterrans, tackling and corn; the Arretians, thirty thousand shields, the same number of helmets; of javelins, short pikes, and long spears, each an equal number, amounting in the whole to fifty thousand; to supply axes, mattocks, bills, buckets, and millstones, sufficient for forty ships of war, with one hundred and twenty thousand pecks of wheat; they also promised to contribute to the expense of the decurions* and rowers. The people of Perusium, Clusium, and Rusella gave assurance of fir for building ships, and a large quantity of corn. The states of Umbria, with the people of Nursia, Reate, and Amiternum, and the whole country of the Sabines, engaged to furnish soldiers. Fir, however, he took out of the woods belonging to the state. Great numbers of the Marsians, Pelignians, and Marrusinians, voluntarily gave in their names to serve in the fleet. The Cameritans, though confederated with the Romans on equal terms, sent a cohort of six hundred men and arms. Having laid the keels of thirty ships, twenty quinqueremes, and ten quadriremes, Scipio pressed forward the work by his personal attendance, in such a manner, that on the forty-fifth day after the timber had been brought from the woods, the ships were rigged, armed, and launched.
XLVI. The consul proceeded to Sicily with thirty ships of war, having embarked about seven thousand volunteers. Publius Licinius came into Bruttium to the two consular armies, of which he chose for himself that which had been commanded by the late consul, Lucius Veturius; he placed Metellus at the head of the same legions as before, because he thought it would be the easier for him to transact business with those who were accustomed to his command: the prætors also repaired to their different provinces. Money for the war being wanting, the quæstors were ordered to sell a district of the Campanian territory, extending from the Grecian trench to the sea: they were also empowered to make inquiry what lands had been the property of any native, in order that they might be transferred to the Roman people; with a reward to any informer of the tenth part of the value of the lands so discovered. It was also given in charge to Cneius Servilius, prætor of the city, that the natives of Campania should be obliged to remain in those places which had been decreed for their residence by the senate, and that such as removed to any other should be punished. During the same summer, Mago, son of Hamilcar, after having spent the winter in the smaller of the Baleares, and having there embarked a chosen body of young men on board his fleet, which consisted of near thirty ships of war, and a great number of transports, carried into Italy twelve thousand foot, and about two thousand horse; and, by his unexpected arrival, surprised Genoa, there being no forces stationed to protect the coast. From thence he sailed to the coast of the Alpine Ligurians, to try if he could raise any commotions there. The Ingaunians, a tribe of the Ligurians, were at that time engaged in war with the Epanterians, who inhabited the mountains: the Carthaginian, therefore, having deposited his plunder at Savo, a town of the Alps, and left a squadron of ten ships of war to protect it, sent the rest to Carthage, to guard the sea-coast, a report being spread that Scipio intended to pass over thither. He then formed an alliance with the Ingaunians, whose friendship he esteemed, resolving in person to attack the mountaineers. His army increased daily, the Gauls, induced by the greatness of his character, pouring in from all sides. When the senate were informed of these proceedings, by letters from Spurius Lucretius, they were filled with much anxiety, apprehending that the joy which they had conceived, on the destruction of Hasdrubal and his army, two years before, would prove ill-founded, if another war, equal to the former, only under a different general, were to arise from the same quarter. They therefore commanded Marcus Livius, proconsul, to march an army of volunteer slaves from Etruria to Ariminum, at the same time charging the prætor, Cneius Servilius, if he judged it advantageous to the state, to order the city legions to be led into the field, by such commander as he should think proper. Marcus Valerius Lævinus conducted those legions to Arretium. About this time eighty transport ships of the Carthaginians were taken on the coast of Sardinia by Cneius Octavius, who held the government of that province. Cælius relates that these were laden with corn and provisions for Hannibal; Valerius, that they were carrying to Carthage the plunder of Etruria, and the Ligurian mountaineers, who had been made prisoners. In Bruttium, hardly any thing memorable happened during that year. A pestilence had attacked both Romans and Carthaginians with equal violence, except that the Carthaginians, besides the disorder, were distressed by famine. Hannibal spent the summer near the temple of Juno Lacinea, where he built and dedicated an altar, with an inscription in the Carthaginian and Greek characters, containing a pompous recital of his exploits.
* 24,218l. 15s. 0d.
† 258l. 6s. 8d.
‡ 3s. 7½d.
* These were two magistrates chosen annually, and invested with powers similar to those of the Roman consuls. The Carthaginians had a senate also like that of the Romans. There was one peculiarity in their proceedings which deserves notice: when the members were unanimous, there was no appeal from their decision; but when opinions were divided, the business devolved to the community at large. For a very long time the people interfered but little with the administration of public affairs; but afterwards, by means of factions and cabals, they almost entirely engrossed it to themselves, which proved a principal cause of their ruin. They had a council consisting of 104 members, called the tribunal of the hundred, to which the commanders of armies were responsible for their conduct.
† Yvica.
‡ Majorca and Minorca.
* 32l. 5s. 10d.
* Officers who had the command of the rowers.
In Spain, Mandonius and Indibilis, reviving hostilities, are finally subdued. Scipio goes over from Syracuse to Locri; dislodges the Carthaginian general; repulses Hannibal, and recovers that city. Peace made with Philip. The Idæan Mother brought to Rome from Phrygia; received by Publius Scipio Nasica, judged by the senate, the best man in the state. Scipio passes over into Africa. Syphax, having married a daughter of Hasdrubal, renounces his alliance with Scipio. Masinissa, who had been expelled his kingdom by Syphax, joins Scipio with two hundred horsemen; they defeat a large army commanded by Hanno. Hasdrubal and Syphax approach with a most numerous force. Scipio raises the siege of Utica, and fortifies a post for the winter. The consul Sempronius gets the better of Hannibal in a battle near Croton. Dispute between Marcus Livius and Claudius Nero, censors.
Y.R. 547. 205.WHEN Scipio arrived in Sicily, he formed his volunteers into cohorts and centuries; of which forces he kept three hundred about him, all of them vigorous young men, and ignorant of the purpose for which they were reserved, being neither enrolled in the centuries, nor supplied with arms. Then, out of the whole number of youths in Sicily, he chose also three hundred of distinguished birth and fortune as horsemen, who were to pass over with him into Africa, appointing a day on which they were to attend, equipped and furnished with horses and arms. This service appeared to them very severe, being so far from home, and attended with great fatigues and great dangers, both by sea and land; so much so, that not only themselves, but their parents and relations, were distressed with anxiety on their account. At the time appointed, they brought their horses and arms to be inspected; Scipio then told them, that “he was informed that some of the Sicilian horsemen dreaded the service on which they were going, as laborious and severe; that if any were thus affected, he wished them to acknowledge it then to him, rather than to complain afterwards, and prove inactive and useless soldiers to the state: he desired them to express their sentiments freely, assuring them they should be listened to without displeasure.” On which one of them ventured to say, that, if he had a free option, he certainly would wish to decline the service. Scipio replied; “Since then, young man, you have not dissembled your sentiments, I will provide a substitute for you, to whom you must deliver your horse, your arms, and other implements of war: take him hence directly to your house; exercise him, and take care that he be instructed in the management of his horse and arms.” These terms the other embraced with joy, on which Scipio put into his hands one of the three hundred whom he kept unarmed. When the others saw the horseman discharged in this manner, with the approbation of the general, each began to excuse himself, and receive a substitute. Thus were Roman horsemen substituted in the place of the three hundred Sicilians, without any expense to the public. The Sicilians had the trouble of instructing and exercising them; the general having ordered, that any who did not perform this, should continue in the service. We are told that this proved an excellent body of horse, and did good service to the state in many battles. Afterwards reviewing the legions, he chose out of them those soldiers who had been the longest time in the army, especially those who had served with Marcellus; believing that they were not only formed under the best discipline, but, in consequence of the long siege of Syracuse, were best skilled in the method of attacking towns; for the object to which his views were now directed, was no small matter, being nothing less than the uter destruction of Carthage. He then cantoned his army in the different towns; ordered in a supply of corn from the Sicilian states, sparing what he had brought from Italy; repaired the old ships, and sent Caius Lælius with them to Africa, to plunder the country; then hauled up the new ones on land at Panormus, that they might lie dry during the winter, because they had been hastily built of green timber; and having completed the preparations for the war, he came to Syracuse, where tranquillity was not yet entirely re-established, after the late violent commotion. The Greeks, in pursuance of a grant of the senate, demanding a restoration of their effects from some Italians, who kept possession of them with the same force with which they had seized them, Scipio, reckoning it essentially requisite to support the public faith, procured a restitution of the same; partly by a proclamation issued, and partly by sentences passed against those who persisted in retaining their unjust acquisitions. This proceeding was highly acceptable not only to the persons aggrieved, but to all the states of Sicily, and added to their alacrity in forwarding the preparations for war.
II. A formidable war was raised this summer in Spain by the instigation of Indibilis, the Illergetian, on no other grounds than the contempt which, through his great admiration of Scipio, he entertained of all other generals. He was of opinion, that “this commander was the only one whom the Romans had remaining; the others of any note, having, as he conceived, been slain by Hannibal. For, when the Scipios were cut off in Spain, they had none whom they could send thither; and, afterwards, when the war pressed too heavily on them in Italy, the present one had been recalled to act against Hannibal. That, besides, the Romans having only nominal generals in Spain, their veteran army had been withdrawn from thence: that, among the troops which remained, there was neither spirit nor firmness, as they consisted of an undisciplined multitude of new recruits: that there would never again be such an opportunity of asserting the liberty of Spain: that until that day, they had been slaves either to the Carthaginians or Romans; and that, not to one or the other by turns, but sometimes to both together: that the Carthaginians had been expelled by the Romans; and that the Romans might now be expelled by the Spaniards, if these would act with unanimity, so that being for ever freed from the dominion of foreigners, they might return to their own native manners and rites.” By these, and other the like discourses, he roused to arms, not only his own countrymen, but the Ausetanians also, a neighbouring state, with other nations that bordered on his and their country; so that, within a few days, thirty thousand foot and about four thousand horse assembled in the territory of Sedeta, according to his directions. On the other side, the Roman generals, Lucius Lentulus and Lucius Manlius Acidinus, lest the war, being neglected in the beginning, should spread with increasing violence, united their armies; and conducting them through the country of the Ausetanians in as peaceable a manner as if they were among friends, they arrived at the place where the enemy lay; and pitched their tents at three miles distance from the Spanish camp. By sending ambassadors, they endeavoured to prevail on them to lay aside their arms, but in vain. Afterwards, the Spanish horsemen having made a sudden attack on the foragers of the Romans, and the latter sending some troops to support them from one of their outposts, there ensued a battle between the cavalry, in which neither side gained any considerable advantage.
III. At sunrise next day, the whole force of the enemy appeared in arms, and drawn up in order of battle, at the distance of about a mile from the Roman camp. The Ausetanians were in the centre, the Illergetians formed the right wing, and people of several inconsiderable Spanish states the left: between the wings and the main body, they had left very wide intervals, through which the horse might charge upon occasion. The Romans drew up their army in the usual manner, yet so far following the example of the enemy as to leave passages open for the cavalry between the legions. Lentulus, however, considering that the horse could be of use only to that party which should first make an attack on the enemy’s line, divided by the intervals, commanded Servius Cornelius, tribune of the soldiers, to order them to charge through the same. The fight between the infantry being rather unfavourable to the Romans at the beginning, he was obliged to delay for a time, while the thirteenth legion from the reserve was brought up to the first line, so as to support the twelfth, which had been posted in the left wing against the Illergetians, and which began to give ground. The fight being restored, Scipio hastened to Lucius Manlius, who was exerting himself among the foremost battalions, encouraging and supporting his men by a supply of fresh troops wherever occasion required, and acquainted him that matters were safe on the left wing, and that Cornelius Servius, whom he had despatched for the purpose, would quickly assail the enemy on all sides with his cavalry. Scarcely had he uttered these words, when the Roman horse, pushing forwards into the midst of their ranks, threw the line of infantry into confusion; and at the same time closed up the passes by which the Spanish horse were to have advanced to a charge. The Spaniards, therefore, quitting all thoughts of fighting on horseback, dismounted, in order to engage on foot. When the Roman generals perceived the enemy’s disorder, that they were confused and terrified, and their battalions wavering, they encouraged, they entreated, their men, to “push them briskly while they were dismayed, and not to suffer their line to be formed again.” The barbarians could not have withstood so furious an onset, had not their prince, Indibilis, dismounting with the cavalry, thrown himself into the front of the foremost battalions of infantry. There the contest was supported for some time with great fury. At length, those who fought round the King, fell, overwhelmed with darts, and he himself, continuing to make resistance, though ready to expire, was pinned to the earth with a javelin; on which their troops betook themselves to flight in all parts. The number of the slain was the greater, because the horsemen had not time to remount their horses, being vigorously pressed by the Romans, who did not relax in the least until they had driven them from their camp. There fell on that day of the Spaniards thirteen thousand, and about eight hundred were taken. Of the Romans, and their allies, little more than two hundred were killed, most of them in the left wing. The Spaniards, who were beaten out of the camp, or who had escaped from the battle, at first dispersed about the country, and afterwards returned to their respective homes. They were soon after summoned thence to an assembly by Mandonius, where, after complaining heavily of their losses, and severely censuring the advisers of the war, they came to a resolution, that ambassadors should be sent to Scipio, with proposals to make surrender of themselves. These laid the blame on Indibilis and the other chiefs, most of whom had fallen in battle, offering to deliver up their arms. They received for answer, that “their surrender would be accepted; provided they delivered up alive Mandonius and the other promoters of the war; that if this condition was not complied with, the Romans would lead their armies into the lands of the Illegertians and Ausetanians; and afterwards into those of the other states.” This answer the ambassadors carried back to the assembly; and there Mandonius and the other chiefs were seized and delivered up to punishment. Terms of peace were then settled with the states of Spain, who were ordered to pay double taxes for that year, and to supply corn for six months, together with cloaks and vests for the army, hostages being received from about thirty states. This tumultuary rebellion in Spain having been thus suppressed, without any great difficulty, within the space of a few days after its commencement, every warlike operation was directed against Africa.
IV. Caius Lælius, having arrived in the night at Hippo Royal, led out his soldiers and marines in regular bodies, at the first light, in order to ravage the country; and, as the inhabitants had taken no precautions more than if it had been a time of peace, great damage was done, and affrighted messengers filled Carthage with the most violent alarms; affirming, that the Roman fleet had arrived, and that it was commanded by Scipio, of whose passing into Sicily they had already heard. Nor could they tell, with any degree of exactness, while their fears aggravated every circumstance, how many ships they had seen, or what number of men they had landed. At first, therefore, consternation and terror, afterwards melancholy dejection, seized the people’s minds, reflecting on the reverse of fortune which had taken place, and lamenting that “they who lately, flushed with success, had their forces lying at the gates of Rome, and after cutting off so many armies of the enemy, had made almost every state in Italy submit to them, either through fear or choice, were now, from the current of success having turned against them, to behold the devastation of Africa, and the siege of Carthage; and when they possessed not by any means such a degree of strength as the Romans had enjoyed to support them under those calamities. The latter had received, from the commonalty of Rome, and from Latium, continually increasing supplies of young men in the room of so many legions destroyed: but the citizens of Carthage were unwarlike, and equally so in the country. Auxiliaries, indeed, they had procured for pay from among the Africans; but they were a faithless race, and veering about with every blast of fortune. Then, as to the kings: Syphax, since his conference with Scipio, was apparently estranged from them: Masinissa had openly renounced their alliance, and was become their most inveterate enemy; so that they had no hope, no support on any side. Neither did Mago raise any commotions on the side of Gaul, nor join his forces to Hannibal’s: and Hannibal himself was now declining both in reputation and strength.” Their minds, which, in consequence of the late news, had sunk into these desponding reflections, were again recalled, by dread of the impending evils, to consult how they might oppose the present dangers. They resolved to levy soldiers with all haste, both in the city and the country; to hire auxiliaries from the Africans; to strengthen the forts; to collect corn; to prepare weapons and armour; to fit out ships, and send them to Hippo against the Roman fleet. While they were thus employed, news at length arrived, that it was Lælius, and not Scipio, who had come over; that his forces were no more than what were sufficient to make plundering incursions; and that the main force of the enemy was still in Sicily. Thus they got time to breathe, and began to despatch embassies to Syphax and the other princes, to endeavour to strengthen their alliances. They also sent to Philip, with a promise of two hundred talents of silver*, on condition that he invaded Sicily or Italy. Others were sent to Italy, to their two generals there, with orders to use every effort to raise the apprehensions of the enemy, so that Scipio might be induced to return home. To Mago they sent not only deputies, but twenty-five ships of war, six thousand foot, eight hundred horse, seven elephants, and also a large sum of money to hire auxiliaries, whose support might encourage him to advance his army nearer to the city of Rome, and effect a junction with Hannibal. Such were the preparations and plans at Carthage. Whilst Lælius was employed in carrying off immense booty from the country, which he found destitute of arms and protection, Masinissa, roused by the report of the arrival of a Roman fleet, came to him attended by a few horsemen. He complained, that “Scipio was dilatory in the business; otherwise before that time he would have brought over his army into Africa, while the Carthaginians were dismayed, and Syphax engaged in wars with his neighbours. That the latter was irresolute and undetermined; and that if time were allowed him to settle his own affairs as he liked, it would be seen that he had no sincere attachment to the Romans.” He desired him to “exhort and stimulate Scipio to activity;” assuring him, that “himself, though driven from his kingdom, would join him with no contemptible force, both of horse and foot.” He said, that “Lælius ought not to make any stay in Africa: that he believed a fleet had sailed from Carthage, which it would not be very safe to encounter in the absence of Scipio.” After this discourse, Masinissa departed; and next day Lælius set sail from Hippo, having his ships laden with spoil; and, returning to Sicily, delivered Masinissa’s message to Scipio.
V. About the same time, the ships which had been sent from Carthage to Mago, arrived on the coast between the country of the Albingaunian Ligurians and Genoa, near which place the Carthaginian happened at that time to lie with his fleet. On receiving orders from the deputies to collect as great a number of troops as possible, he immediately held a council of the Gauls and Ligurians, (for there was a vast multitude of both nations present,) and told them that “he had been sent for the purpose of restoring them to liberty, and, as they themselves saw, aid was now afforded him from home. But with what force, with how great an army the war was to be carried on, was a matter that depended entirely upon them. That there were two Roman armies, one in Gaul, another in Etruria; and he was well assured that Spurius Lucretius would join his forces to those of Marcus Livius; wherefore they on their side must arm many thousands, to enable them to oppose two Roman generals and two armies.” The Gauls answered, that “they had the strongest inclination to act as he advised; but as they had one Roman army in the heart of their country, and another in the next adjoining province of Etruria, almost within their sight, if it should be publicly known that they gave aid to the Carthaginians, those two armies would immediately commence hostilities against them on both sides.” They requested him to “demand such assistance only as the Gauls could supply in secret. The Ligurians,” they said, “were at liberty to determine as they thought fit, the Roman camps being far distant from their lands and cities; beside, it was reasonable that they should arm their youth, and take their part in the war.” This the Ligurians did not decline; they only required two months time to make their levies. Mago, having sent home the Gauls, hired soldiers privately in their country; provisions also of all kinds were sent to him secretly by their several states. Marcus Livius led his army of volunteer slaves from Etruria into Gaul, and having joined Lucretius, kept himself in readiness to oppose Mago, if he should move from Liguria towards the city; intending, if the Carthaginian should keep himself quiet under that corner of the Alps, to continue in the same district, near Ariminum, for the protection of Italy.
VI. After the return of Caius Lælius from Africa, although Scipio was urged to expedition by the representations of Masinissa, and the soldiers, on seeing the spoil which was landed from the ships, were inflamed with a desire of passing over immediately; yet this more important business was interrupted by one of smaller consideration, the recovery of Locri; which, at the time of the general defection of Italy, had revolted to the Carthaginians. The hope of accomplishing this was kindled by a very trifling circumstance: The operations in Bruttium were rather predatory excursions than a regular war; the Numidians having begun the practice, and the Bruttians readily joining in it, not more from their connection with the Carthaginians, than from their own natural disposition. At length the Romans themselves, by a kind of contagion, became equally fond of plunder; and, when not prevented by their officers, made excursions into the enemy’s country. By these, some Locrensians, who had come out of the city, had been surrounded, and carried off to Rhegium; and among whom were some artizans, who happened to have been often hired by the Carthaginians, to work in the citadel of Locri. They were known by the chiefs of the Locrensians, who, having been banished by the opposite faction which had given up the city to Hannibal, had retired to Rhegium. The prisoners, after answering many of their enquiries concerning affairs at home, gave them hopes, that if they were ransomed and sent back, they might be able to put the citadel into their hands; telling them that they had their residence in it, and were entirely trusted by the Carthaginians. In consequence of this, the said chiefs, who anxiously longed to return to Locri, inflamed at the same time with a desire of revenge, immediately ransomed and sent home these men: having first settled the plan for the execution of their project, with the signals which were to be given and observed between them at a distance. They then went themselves to Scipio, to Syracuse, where some of the exiles were, and informing him of the promises made by the prisoners, inspired probable hopes of success. On this, the consul despatched Marcus Sergius and Publius Matienus, military tribunes, (the exiles accompanying them,) with orders to lead three thousand men from Rhegium to Locri, and for Quintus Pleminius, proprætor, to give assistance in the business. These set out as commanded, carrying scaling ladders fitted to the height of the citadel, according to their information, and about midnight they gave the signal from the place appointed, to those who were to betray that fortress. These were prepared, and on the watch; and, letting down from their side, machines made for the purpose, received the Romans as they climbed up in several places at once. They then fell on the Carthaginian centinels, who, not apprehending any danger, were fast asleep; their dying groans were the first sound heard. A sudden consternation followed as the remainder awoke, with a general confusion from being wholly ignorant of the cause of alarm. At length, the greater part of them being roused from sleep, the truth was discovered. And now every one called loudly to arms; that the enemy were in the citadel; that the centinels were slain. The Romans being much inferior in number, would certainly have been overpowered, had not a shout, raised by those who were at the outside of the citadel, prevented the garrison from discerning on what side the danger threatened, while the darkness of the night aggravated every fear. The Carthaginians, supposing that the citadel had been surprised and taken, without attempting a contest, fled to another fortress not far distant from this. The inhabitants held the city which lay between these strong holds, as a prize for the conquerors, slight engagements happening every day. Quintus Pleminius commanded the Roman, Hamilcar the Carthaginian garrison, both of whom increased their forces daily, by calling in aid from the neighboring places. At length Hannibal prepared to come thither, so that the Romans could not have kept their ground, had not the principal part of the Locrensians, exasperated by the pride and avarice of the Carthaginians, inclined to their side.
VII. As soon as Scipio was informed that the danger increased at Locri, and that Hannibal was approaching, he began to fear, lest even the garrison might be endangered, as it was not easy to retreat from it; he therefore left the command at Messana to his brother, Lucius Scipio, and going on board as soon as the tide turned, he let his ships drive with the current. On the other hand, Hannibal sent forward directions from the river Aleces, which is not far from Locri, that his party, at dawn of day, should attack the Romans and Locrensians with their whole force; in order that, while the attention of all should be turned to the tumult occasioned thereby, he might make an unexpected assault on the opposite side of the city. When, at the first appearance of daylight, he found that the battle was begun, he did not choose to attempt the citadel, in which there was not room, had he even gained it, for such numbers to act, nor had he brought ladders to effect a scalade. Ordering, therefore, the baggage to be thrown together in a heap, he drew up his army at a little distance from the walls, to terrify the enemy; and while all things necessary for the assault were getting ready, he rode round the city with some Numidian horsemen to find out the properest place at which it might be made. As he advanced near the rampart, the person next to him happening to be struck by a dart from a scorpion, he was so terrified at the danger to which he had been exposed, that he ordered a retreat to be sounded, and fortified his camp far beyond the reach of a weapon. The Roman fleet arrived from Messana at Locri, while some hours of day remained, so that the troops were all landed and brought into the city before sunset. Next day, the Carthaginians, from the citadel, began the fight. Hannibal, now furnished with scaling ladders, and every thing proper for an assault, was coming up to the walls, when, on a sudden, a gate flying open, the Romans rushed out upon him, when he apprehended nothing less than such an encounter, and, as the attack was unexpected, two hundred of his men were slain. The rest Hannibal carried back to the camp, as soon as he understood that the consul was there in person; and sending directions to those who were in the lesser citadel, to take care of themselves, he decamped by night. On which, setting fire to the houses there, in order to obstruct any operations of the enemy, they hastened away, as if flying from a pursuit, and overtook the main body of their army at the close of day.
VIII. When Scipio saw both citadel and camp deserted by the enemy, he summoned the Locrensians to an assembly, rebuked them severely for their revolt, inflicted punishment on the chief promoters of it, and bestowed their effects on the leaders of the opposite faction, as a reward for their extraordinary fidelity towards the Romans. As to the community of the Locrensians, he said, “he would neither make any grant to them, nor take any thing from them. Let them send ambassadors to Rome, where they would obtain such a settlement of their affairs as the senate should judge reasonable. Of this he was confident, that, though they had deserved harsh treatment from the greatly provoked Romans, they would yet enjoy a better state in subjection to them than under their professed friends the Carthaginians.” Then, leaving Quintus Pleminius, lieutenant-general, with the troops which had taken the citadel, to defend the city, he returned to Messana with the forces which he had brought from thence. The Locrensians, after their revolt from the Romans, had been treated by the Carthaginians with such haughtiness and cruelty, that they could now have endured a lesser degree of severity not only with patience, but almost with content. But in all excesses, so much did Pleminius surpass Hamilcar, who had commanded their garrison, and the Roman soldiers the Carthaginians, that there seemed to be a greater emulation between them in vices than in arms. Not one of those acts, which render the power of a superior odious to the helpless, was left unpractised on the inhabitants by the commander or his troops: the most shocking insults were offered to their persons, to their children, and to their wives. Nor did their avarice refrain even from the plundering of things sacred; insomuch, that not only the temples were violated, but even the treasure of Proserpine was seized, which through all ages had remained untouched, except by Pyrrhus, who made restitution of the spoil, together with a large atonement for his sacrilege. Therefore, as at that time the King’s ships, after being wrecked and shattered, had brought nothing safe to land, except the sacred money of the goddess, so now, that same money, by a different kind of vengeance, inspired with madness all those who were polluted by the robbery of the temple, and turned them against each other with hostile fury, general against general, soldier against soldier.
IX. Pleminius was governor in chief; that part of the soldiers which he had brought with him from Rhegium were under his own immediate command; the rest under military tribunes. These tribunes, Sergius and Matienus, happened to meet one of Pleminius’s soldiers running away with a silver cup, which he had taken by force out of the house of a citizen, the owners pursuing him: on the cup being taken from him, by order of the tribunes, at first ill language was used, then ensued clamour; and at length a scuffle between the soldiers of Pleminius and those of the tribunes. The disturbance increasing, as any happened to come up to assist their party, Pleminius’s men, being worsted, ran to him in crowds, showing their blood and wounds, with violent outcries and expressions of resentment, and recounting the reproaches that had been thrown on himself; which so inflamed him, that, rushing out of his house, and calling the tribunes before him, he ordered them to be stripped, and the rods to be prepared. As some time was spent in stripping them, (for they made resistance, and implored aid,) on a sudden their own soldiers, rendered bold by their late success, ran together from all parts, as if they had been called to arms against an enemy. On seeing the persons of the tribunes already injured by the rods, they were suddenly seized with such ungovernable rage, that without regard either to his dignity, or even to humanity, after having cruelly abused his lictors, they assaulted the general himself; and having surrounded and separated him from his party, they dreadfully mangled him, cuting off his nose and ears, and leaving him almost without life. Accounts of these transactions being carried to Messana, Scipio, a few days after, sailed over to Locri in a ship of six banks of oars: and having brought Pleminius and the tribunes to trial before him, he acquitted Pleminius, and continued him in the command of the place; adjudged the tribunes guilty, and threw them into chains, that they might be sent to Rome to the senate: he then returned to Messana, and went from thence to Syracuse. Pleminius, giving a loose to his rage, because he thought that the injury done him had been treated too lightly by Scipio, and that no other person was qualified to rate the penalty in such a case but he who had suffered the wrong, ordered the tribunes to be dragged before him. After having made them undergo the utmost degree of torture which the human body is capable of enduring, he put them to death; and not satisfied with the punishment thus inflicted, he cast them out without burial. The like cruelty he used towards the chiefs of the Locrensians, who, as he heard, had complained to Scipio of the treatment they had received at his hands. But the extreme severities which he had formerly practised on those allies through lust and avarice, he now multiplied through rage and resentment, bringing infamy and detestation not only on himself, but on the general also.
X. The time of the elections was now drawing near, when a letter was brought to Rome from Publius Licinius the consul, stating, that “he and his army were afflicted with a grievous sickness, and that they could not have stood their ground, had not the disorder attacked the enemy with the same, or even greater, violence. As therefore he could not come to the elections, he would, if the Fathers approved of it, nominate Quintus Cæcilius Metellus, dictator, for the purpose of holding them. That it was for the interest of the state, that the army of Quintus Cæcilius should be disbanded, as it could be of no use at present. Hannibal having already retired into winter-quarters; and besides, so powerful was the distemper in that camp, that unless they were speedily separated, not one of them probably would survive.” The senate left it with the consul to determine concerning those matters, in such manner as he should judge best for the good of the nation, and his own honour. The city was at that time suddenly engaged in a consideration respecting religion. Frequent showers of stones having fallen, the Sibylline books were on that occasion inspected; in which were found certain verses, importing, that “whensoever a foreign enemy shall have carried war into the land of Italy, he may be expelled and conquered, if the Idæan Mother be brought from Pessinus to Rome.” These verses, discovered by the decemvirs, affected the senate the more, because the ambassadors who had carried the offering to Delphi, affirmed also, that they had performed sacrifice, and consulted the Pythian Apollo; and that the oracle had answered, that the Romans would soon obtain a much greater victory than that which gave them the spoils of which their offering was composed. They considered as a confirmation of the same, that Scipio’s mind was impelled, as it were, by some presages of an end to the war, when he had so earnestly insisted on having Africa for his province. In order, therefore, that they might the sooner acquire the enjoyment of this triumph, portended to them by the fates, omens, and oracles, they set about considering how the goddess might be transported to Rome.
XI. The Romans were not in alliance with any of the states of Asia. However, recollecting that Æsculapius had formerly, on occasion of a pestilence, been brought from Greece before any connexion with that country; that they had already commenced a friendship with King Attalus, on account of their being united in the war against Philip, and that he would probably do any thing in his power to oblige the Roman people, they came to a resolution of sending as ambassadors to him, Marcus Valerius Lævinus, who had been twice consul, and had commanded in Greece; Marcus Cæcilius Metellus, who had been prætor; Servius Sulpicius Galba, who had been ædile; and two who had been quæstors, Caius Tremellius Flaccus and Marcus Valerius Falto. A convoy of five quinqueremes was ordered for them, that they might appear with suitable grandeur in those countries where they wished to procure a respect for the Roman name. The ambassadors in their way to Asia, having landed and gone to Delphi to the oracle, enquired what hopes might be entertained of accomplishing the business on which they had been sent: they were answered, it is said, that “they would obtain what they were in search of by means of King Attalus; and that, when they should have carried the Goddess to Rome, they were to take care that the best man in the city was the exerciser of the laws of hospitality towards her.” On coming to the King at Pergamus, he received them kindly, conducted them to Pessinus in Phrygia, delivered to them the sacred stone, which the natives said was the mother of the gods, and desired them to convey it to Rome. Marcus Valerius Falto, being sent homeward before the rest, brought an account that they were returning with the goddess; and that the best man in Rome must be sought out to pay her the due rites of hospitality. Quintus Cæcilius Metellus was, by the consul in Bruttium, nominated dictator, for the purpose of holding the elections, and his army was disbanded. Lucius Veturius Philo was made master of the horse. The elections were held by the dictator; the consuls elected were Marcus Cornelius Cethegus and Publius Sempronius Tuditanus, the latter absent, being employed in the province of Greece. The prætors were then elected: Tiberius Claudius Nero, Marcus Marcius Ralla, Lucius Scribonius Libo, and Marcus Pomponius Matho. As soon as the elections were finished, the dictator resigned his office. The Roman games were repeated thrice, the plebeian seven times. The curule ædiles were Cneius and Lucius Cornelius Lentulus; Lucius held the province of Spain, and being elected while there, continued absent during the whole time of his office. Tiberius Claudius Asellus and Marcus Junius Pennus were plebeian ædiles. In that year Marcus Marcellus dedicated the temple of Virtue, at the Capuan gate, seventeen years after it had been vowed by his father at Clastidium in Gaul, during his first consulate. Marcus Æmilius Regillus, flamen of Mars, died that year.
XII. During the two last years, the affairs of Greece had been neglected: a circumstance which enabled Philip to reduce the Ætoliaus, thus forsaken by the Romans, on whose aid alone they relied. They were therefore obliged to sue for, and agree to a peace on such terms as the King should impose: but had he not used every effort to hasten the conclusion of it, Publius Sempronius, proconsul, who succeeded Sulpicius in the command, would have fallen upon him (while engaged in settling the treaty) with ten thousand foot, one thousand horse, and thirty-five ships of war; no small force in support of an ally. The peace was scarcely concluded, when news was brought to Philip that the Romans had come to Dyrrachium; that the Parthinians, and other neighbouring nations, seeing a prospect of changing their situation, were in motion, and that Dimallum was besieged. The Romans had turned their operations to that side, instead of going forward to the assistance of the Ætolians, whither they had been sent, provoked at the peace thus made with the King without their concurrence, and contrary to the treaty. On the receipt of this news, Philip, fearing lest some greater commotions might arise among the neighbouring nations and states, proceeded by long marches to Apollonia, to which place Sempronius had retired, after sending his lieutenant-general, Lætorius, with part of the forces and fifteen ships, to Ætolia, that he might take a view of the situation of affairs, and, if possible, annihilate the compact of that people with the Macedonian. Philip laid waste the lands of the Apollonians, and, marching his forces up to the city, offered the Romans battle; they, however, remained quiet, only defending the walls, while his force was insufficient for laying siege to the place. He was yet desirous of concluding a peace with the Romans, as with the Ætolians; or, if that could not be accomplished, of obtaining a truce; and, not choosing to provoke their resentment farther by a new contest, he withdrew into his own kingdom. At the same time the Epirots, wearied by the length of the war, having first tried the disposition of the Romans, sent ambassadors to Philip concerning a general peace; affirming that they were very confident it might be brought about, if he would come to a conference with Publius Sempronius, the Roman general. They easily prevailed on him to pass into Epirus, for the King himself was not averse from the measure. There is a city in Epirus called Phœnice; there Philip, having conferred with Eropus, and Dardas, and Philip, prætors of the Epirots, had afterwards a meeting with Publius Sempronius. Amynander also, King of the Athamanians, was present at the conference, together with other magistrates of the Epirots and Acarnanians. Philip the prætor spoke first, and entreated both the King and the Roman general to put an end to hostilities; and to consider, in a favourable light, the liberty which the Epirots took in mediating between them. Publius Sempronius dictated the terms of peace; — That the Parthinians, and Dimallum, and Bargulum, and Eugenium, should be under the dominion of the Romans; that Atintania should be ceded to the Macedonian, if, on sending ambassadors, he should obtain it from the senate. Peace being agreed to on these terms, the King included in the treaty Prusias King of Bithynia, the Achæans, Bœotians, Thessalians, Acarnanians, and Epirots. On the side of the Romans, were included the Ilians, King Attalus, Pleuratus, Nabis, tyrant of the Lacedæmonians, the Eleans, Messenians, and Athenians. The conditions were committed to writing, and signed by both parties, a truce being made for two months, to allow time for ambassadors to be sent to Rome, in order that the people might ratify the whole. Every one of the tribes assented to it, because, having turned their efforts against Africa, they wished to be eased for the present from every other enemy. When all was settled, Publius Sempronius went home to Rome, to attend to the duties of his consulship.
Y.R.548. 204.XIII. In the consulate of Marcus Cornelius and Publius Sempronius, which was the fifteenth year of the Punic war, the provinces were thus decreed:— to Cornelius, Etruria, with the old army; to Sempronius, Bruttium, with power to levy new legions. Of the prætors, to Marcus Marcius fell the city jurisdiction; to Lucius Scribonius Libo, the foreign, and to the same person, Gaul; to Marcus Pomponius Matho, Sicily; and to Tiberius Claudius Nero, Sardinia. Publius Scipio’s command was prolonged for a year, with the same army and the same fleet he then had: as was also that of Publius Licinius, who was ordered to hold Bruttium, with two legions, as long as the consul should judge it to be for the interest of the state that he should continue in that province. Marcus Livius, and Spurius Lucretius, also held on their commissions, with the two legions with which they had protected Gaul against Mago; and likewise Cneius Octavius, who, after delivering up Sardinia and the legion to Tiberius Claudius, was, with forty ships of war, to defend the sea-coast, within such limits as the senate should appoint. To Marcus Pomponius, prætor in Sicily, two legions of the forces that had been at Cannæ were decreed; and it was ordered that, of the proprætors Titus Quintius and Caius Hostilius Tubulus), the former should hold Tarentum, the latter Capua, as in the former year, each with the old garrison. With respect to Spain, it was referred to the people to determine on the two proconsuls who should be sent thither; when all the tribes agreed in ordering Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, and Lucius Manlius Acidinus, in quality of proconsuls, to hold the command of that province in the same manner as they had held it the year before. The consuls gave directions for a levy of soldiers, out of whom they might at once form the new legions for Bruttium, and fill up the numbers of the other armies; for such were the orders of the senate.
XIV. Africa had not yet been publicly declared a province — the senate, I suppose, keeping the matter secret, lest the Carthaginians should get intelligence of it. The city, however, was filled with sanguine hopes that a decisive blow would soon be struck on that shore, and that there would be an end to the Punic war. From this cause arose abundance of superstitious notions; and the minds of the people became disposed both to believe and to propagate accounts of prodigies, of which a very great number were reported: “that two suns had been seen, and that in the night-time light had suddenly appeared: that, at Setia, a blaze like that of a torch had been observed, extending from east to west: that, at Tarracina, a gate, and, at Anagnia, both a gate, and several parts of the wall, had been struck by lightning: that in the temple of Juno Sospita, at Lanuvium, a great noise had been heard, succeeded by a dreadful crash.” For the expiation of these there was a supplication of one day’s continuance; and nine days were set apart for religious offices, on account of a shower of stones that had fallen. In addition to these matters, they had to consult on the reception to be given to the Idæan Mother. For, besides the account brought by Marcus Valerius, (one of the ambassadors, who had come before the rest,) that the goddess would soon be in Italy, a late account had been received, that she was at Tarracina. The senate also was engaged in the decision of a question of no trifling importance — who was the best man in the city. A well-grounded preference in that point, every one would certainly value, much more highly than any honours which could be conferred by the votes either of the senate or the people. They gave their judgment, that Publius Scipio, son of Cneius who had fallen in Spain, (a youth who had not yet attained a quæstorship,) was the best of all the good men in Rome. If the authors who wrote in the times nearest to this transaction, and when the memory of it was fresh, had mentioned the particular merits which induced them to make this determination, I should gladly have handed down the information to posterity: but I will not obtrude any opinion of my own, formed, as it must be, on conjecture, when relative to a matter buried in the obscurity of remote antiquity. Publius Cornelius was accordingly ordered to repair to Ostia, to meet the goddess, attended by all the matrons; to receive her himself from the ship, and then to deliver her to the said matrons, to be transported to the city. Scipio, falling down the river Tiber, as had been ordered, received the goddess from the priests, and conveyed her to the land. She was there received by the above-mentioned women, and who were the principal of the city, among whom the name of Claudia Quinta alone has been distinguished; for her character, as is said, having at one time been dubious, the share which she had in this solemn act of religion rendered her chastity no longer questionable, and she became illustrious among posterity. These, relieving each other in succession, carried this saving divinity into the temple of Victory, on the Palatine hill, whilst all the city poured out to meet her, censers being placed before the doors, wherever the procession passed, and incense burned in them; all praying that she would enter the city with good will, and a favourable disposition. This happened on the day preceding the ides of April; and which was appointed a festival. The people in crowds carried presents to the goddess, and there was a religious feast ordained, with games called Megalesian.
XV. When they came to consider of the supplies for the legions that were in the provinces, it was suggested by certain of the senators, that there were some things, which, however they might have been tolerated in times of distress, ought not to be any longer endured; since, by the favour of the gods, they had been delivered from the apprehension of danger. The attention of the fathers being roused, they proceeded to mention, that the twelve Latine colonies, which had refused a supply of soldiers to Quintus Fabius, and Quintus Fulvius, when consuls, enjoyed now, for almost the sixth year, an immunity from serving in war; as if it had been a privilege granted to do them honour, and on account of their good conduct, while the worthy and dutiful allies, in return for their fidelity and obedience, had been exhausted by continual levies through the course of many years. These words at once recalled to the recollection of the senate, a matter which had been almost forgotten, and at the same time roused their resentment; so that, before they suffered the consuls to proceed on any other business, they decreed, that “the consuls should summon to Rome the magistrates, and ten principal inhabitants from each of the following colonies, so privileged: Nepete, Sutrium, Ardæa, Gales, Alba, Carseoli, Sara, Suessa, Setia, Circæa, Narnia, and Interamna; and should give them orders, that whatever was the greatest number of soldiers, which they had separately furnished to the Roman people, at any time, since the enemy came into Italy, they should now provide to the amount of twice that number of footmen, and one hundred and twenty horsemen: and if any of them were unable to produce so many horsemen, that then they should be allowed to bring three footmen, instead of each horseman. That both horsemen and footmen should be chosen from among the wealthiest orders, and should be sent wherever there was occasion for a supply out of Italy. That if any of them should refuse to comply with this requisition, it was their pleasure, that the magistrates and deputies of that colony should be detained; and if they demanded an audience of the senate, that it should not be granted them, until they had obeyed those injunctions; and farther, that an annual tax of one as on every thousand which they possessed, should be imposed on them. That a survey of persons and estates should be made in those colonies, according to a regulation of the Roman censors, which should be the same that was directed for the Roman people, and a return of this made at Rome by the censors of the said colonies on their oaths, and before they went out of office.” The magistrates and principal inhabitants of the places in question being summoned to Rome, in pursuance of this decree of the senate, and receiving the commands of the consuls respecting the soldiers and the tax, they all declared violently against them, exclaiming, “that it was impossible for them to raise such a number of soldiers; that they could scarcely accomplish it if their whole property were to be estreated by the regulation. They begged and entreated that they might be allowed to appear before the senate, and implore a mitigation of their sentence. They had been guilty of no crime, that deserved to be punished by their ruin; but, even if they were to be ruined, neither their own guilt, nor the resentment of the Roman people, could make them furnish a greater number of soldiers than they actually had.” The consuls, unmoved, ordered the deputies to remain at Rome, and the magistrates to go home, to make the levies, assuring them, that “they should have no audience of the senate, until they had strictly fulfilled its orders.” Their hopes of obtaining an audience being thus cut off, the levies were completed without difficulty; the number of young men in those colonies being much increased, by their having been so long exempt from service.
XVI. Another affair also, and which had been almost as long passed over in silence, was proposed for consideration by Marcus Valerius Lævinus; who said, “it was highly reasonable that the several sums of money, which had been contributed by private persons, when Marcus Claudius and himself were consuls, should now be repaid. That no one ought to be surprised, at his thus appearing in an affair wherein the public faith was pledged; for, besides that, in some respect it peculiarly concerned the consul of that year in which the money had been advanced; he had also been the first adviser of the same, on account of the emptiness of the treasury, and the inability of the people to pay taxes.” The senate were well pleased at being reminded of this matter, and the consuls being ordered to propose the question, decreed, that “money should be discharged in three payments: that the present consuls should make the first payment immediately; and that the other two instalments should be made by the third and fifth consuls from that time.” All their cares soon after gave place to one alone, when, on the arrival of ambassadors, they were made acquainted with the grievances of the Locrensians, of which, until that day, they had been ignorant; grievances which greatly disturbed the people, who were, however, less provoked at the villany of Quintus Pleminius, than at the partiality or negligence shown in the business by Scipio. As the consuls were sitting in the comitium, ten ambassadors of the Locrensians in squalid mourning apparel, holding out branches of olive (the badges of suppliants) according to the Grecian custom, prostrated themselves on the ground before the tribunal with lamentable cries. On inquiring who they were, they answered, that “they were Locrensians, who had experienced such treatment from Quintus Pleminius, the lieutenant-general, and his soldiers, as the Roman people would not wish even the Carthaginians to suffer; and that they requested the favour of being admitted to an audience of the senate, that they might represent to them their deplorable situation.”
XVII. An audience being granted, the eldest of them spoke to this effect: “Conscript Fathers, I know that it would tend exceedingly to increase the regard which you may think proper to afford to our complaints, if you were fully informed of the manner in which Locri was betrayed to Hannibal, and also by what means the Carthaginian garrison was expelled, and the town re-established under your dominion. For if the people, generally taken, were entirely clear of the guilt of the revolt, and if it also appeared, that our return to obedience, and to acknowledgment of your authority, was not only voluntary, but effected by our own co-operation and courage, you would feel the greater indignation at such grievous and unmerited injuries being inflicted on good and faithful allies, by your lieutenant-general and his soldiers. But I think it better to defer the subject of our changes of party to another time; and that for two reasons: first, that it may be discussed in the presence of Publius Scipio, who regained possession of Locri, and was a witness of our behaviour, whether good or bad; and secondly, that, let our conduct have been what it may, we ought not to have suffered the evils which have been poured on us. We cannot, Conscript Fathers, disown, that, while we had a Carthaginian garrison, we suffered many cruelties and indignities, as well from Hamilcar the commander there, as from the Numidians and Africans. But what are these, when compared with what we this day endure? I request, Conscript Fathers, that you will hear without being offended, what I unwillingly mention. All mankind are in suspense whether they are to see you or the Carthaginians sovereigns of the world. Now, if an estimation were to be formed of the Roman and Carthaginian governments, from the treatment which we of Locri have borne on the one hand, and from that which on the other we at this present time bear, without remission, from your garrison, there is no one who would not rather choose Africans than Romans for his masters. Yet, observe what dispositions the Locrensians have, notwithstanding, shown towards you. When we were ill-treated by the Carthaginians in a much less degree, we had recourse to your general for redress. Now, when we suffer from your garrison worse than hostile cruelty, we have carried our complaints to no other but to you. Conscript Fathers, you will consider our desperate situation, or we are left without any resource, for which we can even pray to the immortal gods. Quintus Pleminius, lieutenant-general, was sent with a body of troops to recover Locri from the Carthaginians, and was left with those troops to garrison the town. In this your officer, Conscript Fathers, (the extremity of our miseries gives me spirit to speak freely,) there is nothing of a man but the figure and appearance; nor of a Roman citizen, but the features, the dress, and the sound of the Latine language. He is a pestilent and savage monster; such, as fables tell us, formerly lay on each side of the streight which divides us from Sicily, causing the destruction of mariners. If, however, he had been content with practising his own atrocities alone against us your allies, that one gulf, however deep, we should patiently have filled up. As the case at present stands, he has made every one of your centurions and soldiers a Pleminius: so much does he wish to render licentiousness and wickedness universal. All rob, spoil, beat, wound, slay; ravish both matrons and virgins; while free-born children are torn from the embraces of their parents. Our city is every day stormed, every day plundered; all parts of it resound with the lamentations of women and children, who are seized and dragged away. Whoever knows our sufferings cannot but be surprised that we still subsist under them, and that our persecutors are not yet wearied. It is neither in my power to recapitulate, nor ought you to be troubled with hearing, the particulars of our calamities; I shall comprise them in general terms. I affirm that there is not one house, that there is not one man in Locri, exempt from injury; I affirm that there is no instance of cruelty, lust, or avarice, which has not been put in practice against every one capable of being the object of it. It is scarcely possible to estimate which was the more lamentable disaster to the city, its being taken in war by the enemy, or its being crushed under the violence and arms of a tyrant sent to protect it, yet bent on its destruction. Every evil, Conscript Fathers, which cities taken by storm suffer, we have suffered, and still continue to suffer, without remission. Every kind of barbarity which the most merciless and unreasonable tyrants practise against their oppressed countrymen, has Pleminius practised against us, our children, and our wives.
XVIII. “There is one thing, Conscript Fathers, concerning which we are obliged, by the regard to religion impressed on our minds, both to make a particular complaint, and to express our wish that you may think proper so to attend to the same, as to free your state from any guilt resulting from it: for we have seen with what due solemnity you not only worship your own, but even receive foreign deities. We have a temple of Proserpine, of extraordinary sanctity, of which probably some account may have reached you during the war with Pyrrhus: for in his return from Sicily, sailing near Locri with his fleet, among other violent outrages against our city, on account of our fidelity to you, he plundered the treasures of Proserpine, which, to that day, had ever remained untouched; and then putting the money on board his ships, he left the land. What was then the result, Conscript Fathers? His fleet was next day shattered by a most furious tempest, and all the vessels which carried the sacred treasure were thrown on our coasts. By the greatness of this calamity, that haughty King being at length convinced that there were gods, ordered all the money to be searched for, collected, and carried back to the treasury of Proserpine. Never afterwards was he successful in any one instance; but after being driven out of Italy, and having entered Argos inconsiderately by night, he fell by an ignoble hand; he met a dishonourable death. Although your lieutenant-general and military tribunes had heard these and many other such things, (which were not contrived for the purpose of increasing respect to the deity, but presented to the observation of our ancestors and selves, through the immediate influence of the goddess:) yet, notwithstanding this, I say, they dared to lay their impious hands on the treasures, till then untouched, except in the instance of Pyrrhus, and with the sacrilegious spoil to pollute themselves, their families, and your armies; whose service, we beseech you, Conscript Fathers, for your own sakes, for your honour’s sake, not to employ in any business, either in Italy or in Africa, until you have first expiated their guilt, lest they atone for the crimes which they have committed, not by their own blood merely, but by some public disaster: although, even at present, the anger of the goddess does not fail to show itself against both your officers and men. They have already, more than once, engaged each other in pitched battles: Pleminius was leader of one party, the two military tribunes of the other: never did they use their weapons with more eagerness against the Carthaginians, than on this occasion; and, by their mad proceedings, they would have afforded Hannibal an opportunity of recovering the possession of Locri, had not Scipio, whom we sent for, arrived in time to prevent it. It may be said, perhaps, that the subalterns who had been polluted by the sacrilege, were alone agitated with phrenzy, and that no influence of the goddess appeared in punishing the officers; whereas, in fact, it has been here most conspicuous. The tribunes were scourged with rods by the lieutenant-general; afterwards, the lieutenant-general was treacherously seized by the tribunes; and, his whole body being mangled, and his nose and ears cut off, he was left apparently lifeless. Recovering from his wounds, he threw the military tribunes into chains, scourged them, made them suffer every kind of torture usually inflicted only on slaves, put them to a cruel death, and then prohibited them the rites of burial. Such penalties has the goddess exacted from the plunderers of her temple; nor will she desist from harassing them with every kind of phrenzy, until the sacred money shall be replaced in the treasury. Our ancestors, being engaged in a grievous war with the Crotonians, intended, because this temple lies without the walls, to remove the money therein deposited into the city; when a voice was heard by night from the shrine, commanding them to desist; for that the goddess would defend her own treasures. This admonition arrested their hands; yet, when intending to surround the temple with a wall, and which they had raised to some height, it suddenly fell down in ruins. Thus, it is seen that not only now, but at several other times, the goddess has either secured her own habitation, her sacred fane; or has exacted heavy atonements from those who dared to violate it. Our injuries she cannot avenge; Conscript Fathers, it can alone be done by you. To you, and to your honour, we fly, and, as suppliants, implore relief. For whether you suffer Locri to continue under the present lieutenant-general and garrison, or deliver our countrymen up to Hannibal and the Carthaginians, to be punished as their anger may direct, it will be equally fatal to them. We do not require that you should, at once, give credit to us, and to charges made in the general’s absence, or without allowing him to make his defence: let him come, let him hear them in person; let him clear himself of them, if he can. In fine, if there be any act of iniquity which one man can commit against others, that he has not committed against us, we consent, if it be possible, again to endure our griefs, and that he shall be acquitted of all guilt towards both gods and men.”
XIX. When the ambassadors had concluded their discourse, being asked by Quintus Fabius, whether they had laid those complaints before Publius Scipio, they answered, that “an embassy had been sent to him; but that he was taken up with the preparations for the war: and that, either before this time, he had passed over into Africa, or would do so in a very few days. That they had experienced what great interest the lieutenant-general had with the commander, when, after hearing the cause between him and the tribunes, he threw the tribunes into chains, and left the lieutenant-general, who was equally guilty, or rather more so, in possession of the same power as before.” The ambassadors being ordered to withdraw, the principal senators inveighed severely not only against Pleminius, but against Scipio also; but, above all, Quintus Fabius, who asserted, that “he was born for the corruption of military discipline; that, through such conduct, he had lost, in Spain, nearly as many men by mutiny as in war; that he both indulged the licentiousness of the soldiers, and let his own passions loose against them, in a manner customary only among foreigners and kings.” To this speech he added a resolution equally harsh: that “they should pass a vote, that Quintus Pleminius, lieutenant-general, be brought to Rome, and stand his trial in chains: and that, if the complaints of the Locrensians should appear to be well founded, he should be put to death in prison, and his effects confiscated. That Publius Scipio, on account of his having gone out of his province without an order of the senate, should be recalled; and that application should be made to the tribunes of the commons, to take the sense of the people on the abrogating of his commission. That the Locrensians should be called in, and receive this answer from the senate: that, as to the injuries stated to have been done to them, neither the senate nor the people of Rome approved of their being done; that they should be complimented with the appellations of worthy men, allies, and friends; that their children, their wives, and whatever else had been taken from them by violence, should be restored; that a search should be made for the entire money which had been carried off from the temple of Proserpine, and that double the sum should be replaced in the treasury. That a solemn expiation should be performed, the college of pontiffs being first consulted on this question: inasmuch as the sacred treasures had been removed and violated, what atonements, to what gods, and with what victims, should they be made? That the soldiers who were at Locri should be all transported into Sicily; and that four cohorts of allies, of the Latine confederacy, should be brought to Locri for a garrison.” The collecting of the votes could not be finished that day, the zeal of the parties for and against Scipio rising to a great degree of warmth; for, besides the crime of Pleminius, and the calamities of the Locrensians, the general’s own manner of living was represented as so far from being Roman, that it was not even military: that “he walked in the public place, having a cloak and slippers; that he gave much of his time to books of entertainment, and the schools of exercise; and that his whole corps of officers, with equal indolence and effeminacy, indulged in all the pleasures of Syracuse; that Carthage was quite forgotten among them; that the whole army, (debauched and licentious, like that at Sucro in Spain, or that now at Locri,) was more formidable to the allies than to the enemy.”
XX. These representations were compounded of a mixture of truth and falsehood, yet carrying an appearance of the former. The opinion of Quintus Metellus, however, prevailed, who, concurring with Maximus in the other points, dissented from him in that concerning Scipio; affirming, that “it would be the height of inconsistency, if the person whom, when but a youth, the state had some time since made choice of as the only commander capable of recovering Spain; whom, after he had actually recovered it, they had elected consul for the purpose of putting an end to the Punic war, and whom they conceived able to draw away Hannibal from Italy, and even to subdue Africa:— that this man, as if he were Quintus Pleminius, should be, in a manner, condemned without a trial, and suddenly recalled from his province, he repeated, were highly inconsistent. The abominable facts which the Locrensians complain of, are not alleged to have been committed when Scipio was present; nor can any thing else be laid to his charge than the having been tender of the lieutenant-general, either through good nature or respect. That it was his opinion, that Marcus Pomponius, the prætor, to whose lot Sicily had fallen, should, within the next three days, repair to his province. That the consuls should choose out of the senate ten deputies, whom they should send along with the prætor, together with two tribunes of the people and an ædile; and that, with the assistance of this council, the prætor should make an inquiry into the affair. If it should be found that the oppressions of the Locrensians arose from the orders or with the approbation of Publius Scipio, that they should then command him to quit the province. If Publius Scipio should have already passed over into Africa, that in such case the tribunes of the commons and the ædile, with two of the deputies, whom the prætor should judge fittest, should immediately proceed thither: the tribunes and the ædile to bring back Scipio from thence; the deputies to command the forces until a new general should be appointed. But if Marcus Pomponius and the ten deputies should discover that those severities had not been committed, either by the order or with the approbation of Publius Scipio, that then Scipio should remain with the army, and carry on the war as he had proposed.” A decree of the senate having passed to this effect, application was made to the tribunes of the commons, to settle among themselves, or choose by lot, which two were to go with the prætor and deputies. The college of pontiffs were consulted about the expiations to be performed on account of the spoliation in the temple of Proserpine at Locri. Marcus Claudius Marcellus, and Marcus Cincius Alimentus, tribunes of the commons, accompanied the prætor and the ten deputies; with whom an ædile of the commons was also sent. The instructions were, that should Scipio (whether in Sicily or Africa) refuse to obey the orders of the prætor, the tribunes were to give directions to the ædile to apprehend and bring him home, under the authority of their inviolable office. It was intended that they should proceed first to Locri, and then to Messana.
XXI. Concerning Pleminius, there are two different accounts: some say, that, on hearing what had passed at Rome, he was going to Naples into exile, when he happened to meet Quintus Metellus, one of the deputies, and was by him forcibly carried back to Rhegium; others, that Scipio himself had sent a lieutenant-general, with thirty of the most distinguished among the cavalry, to throw Pleminius into chains, and also the principals in the mutiny. All these, however, either by the orders of Scipio before, or of the prætor now, were given in charge to the inhabitants of Rhegium, to be kept in custody. The prætor and deputies proceeding to Locri, applied their first care, as they had been directed, to the business respecting religion; and causing search to be made for all the sacred money, appropriated both by Pleminius and the soldiers, they replaced it in the treasury, together with the sum which they had brought with them, performing a solemn expiation. This done, the prætor calling the soldiers together, ordered them to carry the standards out of the city, and to form a camp in the plain; denouncing, by proclamation, severe penalties against any one who should either stay behind, or carry out with him any thing that was not his own property; at the same time authorising the Locrensians to seize whatever belonged to themselves, and to search for such of their effects as were concealed; above all insisting, that the freedom of their persons should be instantly admitted, with threats of heavy punishment against any one who should disobey this injunction. He then held an assembly of the Locrensians, and told them, that “the Roman people, and the senate, restored to them their liberty and their laws. That if any one meant to bring a charge against Pleminius, or any other person, he must follow them to Rhegium: or if their state had to prefer a complaint against Publius Scipio, as being the author of those crimes which had been perpetrated at Locri against gods and men, that they should then send deputies to Rhegium also, and that he, with the council, would there hear their cause.” The Locrensians returned thanks to the prætor, to the deputies, and to the senate and people of Rome; declaring “that they would prosecute Pleminius. That, as to Scipio, although he had shown but little feeling for the injuries done them, yet he was such a man as they would much rather have for their friend than their enemy. That they firmly believed, the many shocking cruelties which had been practised were neither by the orders or with the approbation of Publius Scipio, who had only given too much credit to Pleminius, too little to them: that some men’s natural disposition was such, that they showed rather a dislike to the commission of faults, than sufficient resolution to punish them, when committed.” This relieved the prætor and council from a heavy burthen, that of enquiring into the conduct of Scipio. They condemned Pleminius, with thirty-two others, whom they sent in chains to Rome; and then proceeded to Scipio, that, witnessing all matters, they might carry certain information to Rome as to the truth of those reports which had been propagated concerning his manner of living, inactivity, and total relaxation of military discipline.
XXII. While they were on their way to Syracuse, Scipio prepared, not words, but facts, to clear himself of any charges in the remission of duty. He ordered all the troops to assemble in that city, and the fleet to be got in readiness, as if, on that day, there was to be an engagement with the Carthaginians both on land and sea. On the arrival of the commissioners, he gave them a kind reception and entertainment, and next day showed them both the land and naval forces, not only marshalled in exact order, but the former performing their evolutions, and the fleet in the harbour exhibiting a representation of a naval combat. The prætor and deputies were then led round to take a view of the armories, granaries, and other warlike preparations; and with such admiration were they struck, of each in particular, and of the whole together, as to become thoroughly persuaded, that the Carthaginians would be vanquished by that general and that army, or by no other. They desired him to set out on his voyage, with the blessing of the gods; and to fulfil, as soon as possible, the hopes of the Roman people — those hopes which they had conceived on that day, when all the centuries concurred in naming him first consul: saying this, they left the place, and with as much joy as if they were to carry to Rome the news of a victory, not of a grand preparation for war. Pleminius, and those who were in the same circumstances with him, were, on their arrival at Rome, immediately thrown into prison. When first produced by the tribunes, the people found no room for mercy, prepossessed as they were by the calamities of the Locrensians. However, after having been repeatedly brought forward, and the odium abating through length of time, the public resentment was softened; while the maimed condition of Pleminius, and the respect they had for Scipio, even in his absence, conciliated for them some degree of favour. Nevertheless, Pleminius died in confinement, and before his trial was finished. Clodius Licinius, in the third book of his Roman history, relates, indeed, that this Pleminius, during the votive games which Africanus, in his second consulate, exhibited at Rome, made an attempt, by means of some persons whom he had bribed, to set fire to the city in several places, that he might have an opportunity of breaking the prison, and making his escape; and that on the discovery of his wicked design, he was committed to the dungeon by order of the senate. Concerning Scipio, there were no proceedings but in the senate; where the encomiums made by all the deputies and the tribunes on that general, his fleet, and army, induced them to vote, that he should pass over into Africa as soon as possible; with liberty to make his own choice, from out the forces then in Sicily, which to carry with him, and which to leave for the defence of the province.
XXIII. During these transactions at Rome, the Carthaginians, on their side, passed the winter in extreme anxiety. They fixed beacons on every promontory; kept scouts in incessant motion, every messenger filling them with terror. They had acquired, however, an advantage of no small moment towards the defence of Africa — an alliance with King Syphax; an assistance, on which they supposed the Romans to have relied, and as being their great inducement to set foot on Africa. Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, was not only connected with the King in hospitality, (as has been mentioned above, when he and Scipio happened to come to him at the same time from Spain,) but mention had been also made of an affinity to be contracted between them, by the King marrying Hasdrubal’s daughter. Hasdrubal had gone with a design of completing this business, and fixing a time for the nuptials, the damsel being now marriageable; and finding him inflamed with desire, (for the Numidians are, beyond all other barbarians, inclined to amorous pleasures,) he sent for her from Carthage, and hastened the wedding. Among other instances of mutual regard and affection, (and in order that their private connection might be cemented by a public one,) an alliance between the King and the people of Carthage was ratified by oath, and their faith reciprocally pledged that they would have the same friends and enemies. But Hasdrubal remembered that the King had previously entered into a league with Scipio, and knowing how unsteady and changeable were the minds of the barbarians, he dreaded lest, if Scipio once came into Africa, that match might prove a slender tie: he therefore seized the opportunity while the warmth of the Numidian’s new passion was at the highest; and calling to his aid the blandishments of his daughter, prevailed on him to send ambassadors into Sicily to Scipio, and by them to warn him, “not to be induced, by a reliance on his former promises, to pass over to Africa, for that he was now united to the people of Carthage, both by his marriage with a citizen of that state, daughter of Hasdrubal, whom he had seen entertained in his house, and also by a public treaty. He recommended it strongly to the Romans, to carry on the war against the Carthaginians, at a distance from Africa, as they had hitherto done; lest he might be under a necessity of interfering in their disputes, and of joining one or the other, while he wished to decline taking part with either. If Scipio should enter Africa, and advance his army towards Carthage, he must then of necessity fight, as well in defence of the country wherein he himself was born, as in support of the native city of his spouse, her parent, and household gods.”
XXIV. The ambassadors, charged with these despatches from the King to Scipio, had an interview with him at Syracuse. Scipio, though disappointed in a matter of the utmost consequence to the success of his affairs in Africa, and in the high expectations which he had entertained from that quarter, sent back the ambassadors speedily, before their business should become publicly known, and gave them a letter for the King, in which he conjured him, in the most forcible terms, not “to violate the laws of hospitality; nor the alliance which he had concluded with the Roman people; nor justice, nor faith, (their right hands pledged,) nor act in any thing offensive to the gods, the witnesses and guarantees of compacts.” The coming of the Numidians was generally known, for they had walked about the city, and had been frequently at the prætorium; so that it was feared, should the subject of their embassy transpire, that the troops might become alarmed at the prospect of being to fight against Syphax and the Carthaginians. Scipio judged it prudent, therefore, to divert their thoughts from the truth, by prepossessing them with false informations. Calling them to an assembly, he said, “that there was no room for longer delay; that the Kings, their allies, pressed him to pass over to Africa immediately. That Masinissa had before come in person to Lælius, complaining of time being wasted in inactivity; and that Syphax now sent despatches to the like effect; requiring, that either the troops should at length be carried over to Africa; or, if the plan was changed, that he should be made acquainted with it, in order that he might adopt such measures as would be convenient to himself and beneficial to his kingdom. Since, therefore, every preparation had been made, and as the business admitted no longer hesitation, it was his intention, after bringing over the fleet to Lilybæum, and assembling at that place all the forces of horse and foot, to pass into Africa, with the favour of the gods, the first day on which the ships could sail.” He sent a letter to Marcus Pomponius, to come to that port, in order that they might consult together as to what particular legions, and what number of men he should carry to Africa; with orders also to all the sea-coast, that the ships of burthen should be all seized, and brought thither. When the troops and vessels had assembled at Lilybæum, neither could the city contain the men, nor the barbour the ships; and such an ardent desire to pass into Africa possessed them all, that they appeared, not as if going to be employed in war, but in receiving the rewards of victory already secured; especially those of the army of Cannæ, for they expected, by exerting themselves on the present occasion, and under the then general, to put an end to their ignominious service. Scipio showed not the least inclination to reject soldiers of that description, knowing that the misfortune at Cannæ had not arisen from their want of spirit, and that, besides, there were none in the Roman army who had served so long, or who had acquired so much experience, both in a variety of battles, and in attacking towns. The legions of Cannæ were the fifth and sixth. After giving notice that he would carry these to Africa, he reviewed them man by man, and leaving behind such as he thought unfit for the service, he substituted in their places those whom he had brought from Italy, and filled up those legions in such a manner, that each contained six thousand two hundred foot and three hundred horse; the horse and foot of the allies, of the Latine confederacy, he chose also out of the army of Cannæ.
XXV. Authors differ widely with regard to the number of men carried over to Africa. In one I find ten thousand foot, and two thousand two hundred horse; in another, sixteen thousand foot, and one thousand six hundred horse: while others augment them more than half, and assert, that thirty-five thousand horse and foot were put on board the ships. Some have not stated the numbers; and among these, as the matter is uncertain, I choose to place myself. Cœlius, indeed, avoids specifying the same; but he magnifies to an immense extent the idea that he gives of their multitude; he tells us, that birds fell to the ground, stunned by the shouts of the soldiers; and that it might have been well imagined, that there was not a man left behind either in Italy or in Sicily. Scipio took upon himself the charge of embarking the men in a regular manner. The seamen were kept in order on board the ships by Caius Lælius, who had the command of the fleet. The care of shipping the stores was allotted to Marcus Pomponius, the prætor. A quantity of food sufficient for forty-five days was put on board: as much of it ready dressed as would serve for fifteen days. When all were embarked, the general sent round boats to bring the pilots and masters, with two soldiers out of each ship, to the Forum, to receive orders. Being there assembled, he first inquired whether they had put water on board for men and cattle, and for as many days as they had corn; they answered, that there was water on board for forty-five days. He then charged the soldiers, that attentive to their duty, they should behave themselves quietly, so that the seamen might perform their business without interruption; informed them, that he and Lucius Scipio, with twenty ships of war, would protect the transports on the right division; and Caius Lælius commander of the fleet, and Marcus Porcius Cato the quæstor, with the same number, those on the left: that the ships of war would carry each a single light, the transports two; that the signal by night, on board the ship of the commander in chief, would consist of three lights. The pilots had orders to steer to Emporium, where the land is remarkably fertile; consequently the country abounds with plenty of all things. The inhabitants are unwarlike, as is generally the case where the soil is rich; and Scipio supposed that they might be overpowered before succour could arrive from Carthage. Having issued these orders he commanded them to return to their ships, and on the signal being given next day, with the favour of the gods, to set sail.
XXVI. Many Roman fleets had sailed from Sicily, and from that same harbour; but never did any equipment afford so grand a spectacle, either in the present war, (which was not surprising, as most of those fleets had only gone in quest of plunder,) or even in any former one. And yet his force could not be fully estimated from a view of the present armament, for not only two consuls with their armies had passed from thence before, but there had been almost as many warvessels in their fleets, as there were transports attending Scipio. These, it is true, were not less than four hundred, but of ships of battle he had only fifty. But the Romans had more alarming apprehensions from one war than from the other; from the second than from the former; as well by reason of its being waged in Italy, as of the dreadful destruction of so many armies, together with their commanders. Scipio, however, had attracted an extraordinary degree of attention. He had acquired a high degree of renown, partly by his bravery, partly by the happy success which had attended it, and which gave room to expect from him the most glorious atchievements. Besides, the very object proposed of passing into the enemy’s country, which had not been attempted by any general during that war, strongly roused men’s feelings; for he had on all occasions publicly declared, that his intention was to draw Hannibal away from Italy, to transfer the war to Africa, and to finish it there. Not only the whole of the inhabitants of Lilybæum crowded together to the harbour to get a view of them, but also deputies from all parts of Sicily; who came for the purpose of showing that mark of respect, not only to Scipio, but to Marcus Pomponius, prætor of the province. The legions likewise, which were to be left on the island, quitted their quarters in compliment to their fellow-soldiers. In a word, the fleet exhibited a grand prospect to those on land, and the land to those on shipboard, it being covered all around with the admiring multitude.
XXVII. As soon as day appeared, a herald having commanded silence, Scipio, in the admiral’s ship, spoke thus: “Ye gods and goddesses, who preside over the seas and lands, I pray and beseech you, that whatever affairs have been carried on, or shall hereafter be carried on, during my command, may all conduce to the happiness of myself, the state, and people of Rome; of the allies, and the Latine confederates, who follow my party, command, and auspices, and those of the Roman people on sea, on land, and on rivers. Lend your favourable aid to all those measures, and further them by happy advancements; bring us all home, unhurt and victorious, decorated with spoils, laden with booty, and exulting in triumph. Grant us the opportunity of taking vengeance on our foes; and whatever attempts the Carthaginian people have made to injure our state, grant to me, and to the Roman people, power to retaliate the same evils on the state of Carthage.” After these prayers, he threw into the sea, according to custom, the raw entrails of a victim which had been slain: and gave by a trumpet the signal for sailing. The wind being favourable and blowing fresh, when they set sail, they were soon carried out of sight of land; but about noon a fog arose, which made it difficult to keep the ships from running foul of each other. As they advanced into the open sea, the wind abated: during the following night the haziness continued, but at the rising of the sun it was dispersed, and the wind freshened. The pilot soon after told Scipio, that “Africa was not above five miles distant; that he saw the promontory of Mercury; and that if he gave orders to steer thither, the whole fleet would be immediately in harbour.” As soon as Scipio came within sight of land, he prayed to the gods that his seeing Africa might be happy for the state, and for himself: he then gave orders to make sail for another landing place. They proceeded with the same wind; but a fog arising, as on the day before, hid the land from their sight; and increasing as the night came on, involved every object in obscurity. They therefore cast anchor, lest the ships should run foul of each other, or be driven on shore. At day-break, however, the wind sprung up, dispersed the fog, and discovered the coast of Africa. Scipio, inquiring the name of the nearest promontory, and being told that it was called Cape Fair, said, “the omen is pleasing; steer your ships thither.” The fleet ran down accordingly, and all the forces were disembarked. I am inclined to follow the accounts of very many Greek and Latin authors; which are, that the voyage was prosperous, and without danger or confusion. Cælius alone, (except that he does not represent the ships as being lost,) gives a narration of every other dreadful occurrence, which could be occasioned by wind or waves; that, at last, the fleet was driven from Africa to the island Ægimurus; that, from thence, with difficulty, they recovered their course; and that the men had, without orders from the general, escaped to land in boats from the almost foundering vessels, just in short as from a shipwreck, without arms and in the utmost disorder.
XXVIII. The troops being landed, formed their camp on the nearest rising grounds. The sight of the fleet, with the bustle of landing, spread consternation and terror, not only through the parts adjoining the sea, but even among the cities. For not only crowds of women and children, mixing with the bands of men, had filled up all the roads, but the country-people also drove their cattle before them, so that it seemed as if they were all at once forsaking Africa. Those caused much greater terror in the cities than they had felt themselves, particularly at Carthage, where the tumult was almost as great as though the enemy were at its gates; for, since the consulate of Marcus Attilius Regulus, and Lucius Manlius, a space of nearly fifty years, they had seen no Roman army, except those predatory squadrons, from which some troops had made descents on the adjoining coast, seizing whatever chance threw in their way, but who had always made a hasty retreat to their ships, and before the peasantry had taken the alarm. For this reason, the consternation and panic was now the greater; and, in fact, they had neither a powerful army at home, nor a general whom they could oppose to the invaders. Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, was by far the first person in the city, not only in character and wealth, but also by reason of his affinity with the King. They considered, however, that he had been vanquished, and put to flight in several battles, in Spain, by this same Scipio; and that as a commander, he was no more to be equalled with the Roman general, than their tumultuary forces were with the Roman army. The people were therefore called to arms, as though Scipio were ready to attack the city; the gates were hastily shut, armed men placed on the walls, and watches and outposts fixed, together with a regular guard, during the following night. Next day, five hundred horsemen, who were despatched to gain intelligence, and to disturb the enemy on their landing, fell in with the advanced guards of the Romans: for Scipio, having sent his fleet to Utica, had proceeded to some distance from the coast, and had seized on the next high grounds, placing outposts of cavalry in proper places, and sending others into the country to plunder.
XXIX. These, having met with the Carthaginian horsemen, slew a small number of them in fight, and the greater part of the remainder, as they pursued them, flying; among whom was Hanno their commander, a young man of distinction. Scipio not only laid waste the country round, but captured also a very wealthy city which lay near him; in which, besides other things which were immediately put on board the transports and sent to Sicily, there were taken of freemen and slaves, not less than eight thousand. But what gave the Romans the greatest joy on the commencement of their operations was, the arrival of Massinissa, who came, according to some, with no more than two hundred horsemen; but most authors say, with two thousand. Now, as he was by far the greatest of all the kings of that age, and performed the most important services to the Roman state, it appears worth while to digress a little, in order to relate the great vicissitudes of fortune which he experienced in the loss and recovery of his father’s kingdom. While he was fighting on the side of the Carthaginians, in Spain, his father, whose name was Gala, died: the kingdom, according to the custom of the Numidians, came to the king’s brother Æsalces, who was far advanced in years. In a short time after, Æsalces also dying, Capusa, the elder of his two sons, the other of whom was very young, got possession of his father’s dominions: but his title being supported, more by the regard paid to the right of descent, than from any respect to his character, or any strength which he possessed, there stood forth a person called Mezetulus, related by blood in some degree to the royal family. His progenitors, however, had always opposed their interests, and their issue had, with various success, disputed the throne with the branch then in possession. This man, having roused his countrymen to arms, among whom his influence was great, by reason of their dislike to the reigning dynasty, levied open war; so that the King was obliged to take the field, and fight for the crown. In that battle Capusa fell, together with a great number of the principal men of the kingdom; while the whole nation of the Massylians submitted to the dominion and government of Mezetulus. He did not, however, assume the regal title; but, satisfied with the modest one of Protector, gave the name of king to the boy Lacumaces, the surviving son of him whom he had slain. In hopes of procuring an alliance with the Carthaginians, he took to wife a Carthaginian woman of distinction, daughter of Hannibal’s sister, formerly married to King Æsalces; and sending ambassadors to Syphax, renewed with him an old connection of hospitality, endeavouring, by all these measures, to secure a support against Masinissa.
XXX. On the other hand, Masinissa, hearing that his uncle was dead, and afterwards that his cousin-german was slain, came over from Spain into Mauritania. The King of the Moors, at that time, was Bocchar: applying to him as a suppliant, he obtained, by the humblest entreaties, four thousand Moors to escort him on his journey, not being able to prevail for any aid in the war. When he arrived with these on the frontiers of the kingdom, as he had before despatched messengers to his own and his father’s friends, about five hundred Numidians assembled about him. He then sent back the Moors according to his engagement: and although the numbers that joined him were short of his expectations, and not such as might encourage him to undertake an affair of moment; yet, believing that by entering upon action, and making some effort, he should gather strength for a more important enterprise, he threw himself in the way of the young King Lacumaces, as he was going to Syphax at Thapsus. The attendants of Lacumaces flying back in consternation, Masinissa took the city at the first assault, received the submission of some of the King’s party who surrendered, and slew others who attempted to resist; but the greatest part of them, with the boy himself, escaped during the tumult to Thapsus, whither they had at first intended to go. The success of Masinissa in this small exploit, and on the first commencement of his operations, drew the regards of the Numidians towards him, while the old soldiers of Gala flocked from all parts of the country and the towns, inviting the young prince to proceed to the recovery of his father’s kingdom. Mezetulus was superior in number of men: for, besides the army with which he had conquered Capusa, he was strengthened by some troops who had submitted after the King was slain; the boy Lacumaces having likewise brought succours from Syphax. Mezetulus had fifteen thousand foot, ten thousand horse, with whom Masinissa engaged in battle, though much inferior in number. The valour, however, of the veteran soldiers prevailed, aided by the skill of their leader, who had gained experience in the war between the Romans and Carthaginians. The young King, with his guardian and a small body of Massylians, escaped into the territories of the Carthaginians. Masinissa thus recovered his father’s throne, yet, foreseeing that he should have a much more severe struggle to maintain against Syphax, he thought it best to come to a reconciliation with his cousin-german. Proper persons were accordingly sent to give Lacumaces hopes, that if he put himself under the protection of Masinissa, he should enjoy the same honourable provision which Æsalces had formerly known under Gala; and to assure Mezetulus not only of impunity, but of an entire restitution of all his property. As they both preferred a moderate share of fortune at home to exile, he brought them over to his side, notwithstanding the Carthaginians used every means to prevent it.
XXXI. During these transactions Hasdrubal happened to be with Syphax: and when the Numidian seemed to think that it was of little consequence to him whether the government of the Massylians were in the hands of Lacumaces or of Masinissa, he told him that “he would be greatly mistaken in supposing that Masinissa would be content with the acquisitions which had satisfied his father Gala, or his uncle Æsalces. That he was possessed of much greater spirit and understanding than had ever appeared in any of his race; that he had often in Spain exhibited, both to his allies and enemies, instances of such courage as is very rarely seen; that both Syphax and the Carthaginians, unless they smothered that rising flame, would soon be enveloped in a general conflagration, when it would not be in their power to help themselves; that as yet his strength was infirm, and might be easily broken, while he was endeavouring to heal the divisions of his kingdom.” By such kind of arguments Syphax was induced to lead an army to the frontiers of the Massylians, into a district about which there had often been not only verbal disputes, but battles fought, with Gala; and there to pitch his camp, as if it were his acknowledged property; alleging that “if any opposition were made, which was what was most to be wished, he would have an opportunity of fighting: but if the district were abandoned through fear, he should then proceed into the heart of the kingdom: that the Massylians would either submit to his authority without a contest, or, at all events, would be unable to contend with him.” Stimulated by such discourses, Syphax made war on Masinissa, and, in the first encounter, routed and dispersed the Massylians. Masinissa fled from the field, attended only by a few horsemen, to a mountain which the natives call Balbus. A number of families with their tents and cattle, which is all their wealth, followed their King: the rest of the Massylians submitted to Syphax. The mountain, of which the fugitive took possession, abounds with grass and water; and as it was thus well adapted to the grazing of cattle, it supplied abundance of food, to feed men living on flesh and milk. Excursions from hence were made through all the neighbouring parts; at first secretly, and by night; afterwards openly. The lands of the Carthaginians suffered most, because there was greater plenty of spoil there, than among the Numidians, and it was carried off with less danger. At length they became so bold as to carry down their booty to the sea, and sell it to merchants, who brought their ships thither for the purpose; and on these occasions, greater numbers of the Carthaginians were slain and made prisoners, than often happens in a regular engagement. On this subject, the Carthaginians made heavy complaints to Syphax, earnestly pressing him to crush this remnant of the foe. To this he was himself well inclined, but thought it rather beneath the dignity of a king to pursue a vagrant robber, as he styled him, through the mountains.
XXXII. Bocchar, a spirited and enterprising general, was chosen by the Numidian for that employment. Four thousand foot, and two thousand horse were given him; with a promise of immense reward if he should bring back the head of Masinissa; or rather if he should take him alive, for that the latter would be to him a matter of inexpressible joy. Falling unexpectedly on Masinissa’s men, when they were scattered about, and off their guard, and who were in considerable numbers, he shut them out, together with their cattle, from the protection of those who were in arms, driving Masinissa himself, with his few followers, to the summit of the mountain. On this, considering the war as nearly finished, he sent to the King both the booty of cattle and the prisoners, and also a part of his forces, which were more numerous than the remainder of the business required. Then, with no more than five hundred foot and two hundred horse pursuing Masinissa, who had gone down from the top of the mountain, he shut him up in a narrow valley, securing the entrances at each end. Great slaughter was there made of the Massylians: Masinissa, with not more than fifty horsemen, effected a retreat through the intricate passes of the mountains, with which the pursuers were unacquainted. Bocchar, however, closely followed his steps, and overtaking him in an open plain, near the city Clupea, surrounded him in such a manner, that he slew every one of his followers except four horsemen; Masinissa, with these, and after receiving a wound, slipped out of his hands, as it were, during the tumult. Their flight was in full view, a body of horse being spread over the whole plain, some of whom pursued these five remaining enemies, while others, in order to meet them, pushed across their route. A large river lay in the way of the fugitives, into which they plunged their horses without hesitation, being pressed by greater danger from behind. Hurried away by the current, they were carried down obliquely; and two of them being swallowed by its violent rapidity in sight of the enemy, they believed that Masinissa himself had perished: but, with the two other horsemen, he landed among some bushes on the farther bank. This put an end to Bocchar’s pursuit, for he durst not venture into the river; and besides, he was persuaded that the object of it no longer existed: he therefore returned to the King, with the ill-grounded report of Masinissa’s death. Messengers were despatched with the joyful news to Carthage; though in its spread over Africa, men’s minds were variously affected by it. Masinissa, while healing his wound by the application of herbs, and in a secret cave, lived for several days on what the two horsemen procured by pillage. As soon as it was cicatrised, and he thought himself able to bear the motion, he set out again with wonderful resolution, to make another effort for the recovery of his kingdom. He collected in his way not more than forty horsemen; but, as soon as he arrived among the Massylians, and made himself known to them, they were so powerfully actuated both by their former affection and the unhoped-for joy at seeing him, in safety, whom they believed to have perished, that in a few days six thousand armed foot and four thousand horse repaired to his standard; and he not only got possession of his father’s kingdom, but laid waste the countries in alliance with the Carthaginians, and the frontiers of the Masæsylians, the dominion of Syphax. Having thus provoked the Numidian to war, he took post between Cirtha and Hippo, on the tops of mountains, in a situation convenient for all his purposes.
XXXIII. Syphax, thinking this an affair of too much importance to be entrusted to the management of his generals, sent a part of his army with his son Vermina, then a youth; with orders to march round in a circuit, and fall upon the enemy’s rear, when he himself should have attracted their attention to his side. Vermina set out by night, so as to be concealed until he should begin the attack: but Syphax decamped in the day, and marched openly, as he was to engage in a regular pitched battle. When he thought that sufficient time had been allowed for those who had been sent round to have arrived at their station, he led his forces, by a gentle acclivity, directly up the mountain, for he relied both on his numbers, and the ambuscade whichh he had prepared on his enemy’s rear. Masinissa, on the other side, drew up his men, depending chiefly on the advantage of the ground; although, had it been much less in his favour, he would not have declined the fight. The battle was furious, and for a long time doubtful: Masinissa being favoured by his situation and the bravery of his men; Syphax by his numbers, which were more than abundant. This great multitude being divided, one part pressed on in front, while the other part surrounded the rear; which gave a decided victory to Syphax; nor was there even room for the enemy to escape, inclosed as they were on both sides: the rest, therefore, horse and foot, were either slain or taken. Masinissa collected round himself, in close order, about two hundred horsemen, whom he divided into three squadrons, with orders to break through the enemy, having appointed a place where they should re-assemble, after being separated in their flight. He himself made his way through the midst of their weapons, as he had proposed; the other two squadrons failed in the attempt; one surrendering through fear, the other, after a more obstinate resistance, being overwhelmed with darts, and cut to pieces. Vermina followed close on the steps of Masinissa, who baffled him by frequently turning out of one road into another; and whom he at length obliged, harassed with extreme fatigue, to desist from the pursuit, and arrived himself with sixty horsemen at the lesser Syrtis. There, with the honourable consciousness of having often attempted the recovery of his father’s kingdom, he rested until the coming of Caius Lælius and the Roman fleet to Africa, between the Carthaginian Emporia and the nation of the Garamantians. From these circumstances, I am inclined to believe, that Masinissa came afterwards to Scipio, rather with a small body of forces than a large one: for the very great number which has been mentioned by some, suits the condition of a king on the throne; the smaller that of an exile.
XXXIV. The Carthaginians, having lost a large party of horse, together with their commander, made up another body of cavalry, by a new levy, and gave the command of it to Hanno, son of Hamilcar. They sent frequently for Hasdrubal and Syphax by letters and messengers, and at length by ambassadors. Hasdrubal was ordered to come to the aid of his native city, which was threatened with a siege, while Syphax was entreated to bring relief to Carthage, and to all Africa. Scipio was at that time near Utica, about five miles from the city; having removed from the sea-coast, where, for a few days, he had a camp adjoining the fleet. Hanno, having received the newly-raised body of cavalry, (which, so far from being strong enough to make any attempt on the enemy, was not even sufficient to protect the country from devastation,) made it his first care to increase their number by pressing. Those of other nations were not rejected; but he collected mostly Numidians, who are by far the best horsemen in Africa. Having got together four thousand horse, he took up his quarters in a city called Salera, fifteen miles from the Roman camp. When this was told to Scipio, he said, with surprise, “What! cavalry lodging in houses during the summer! Let them be even more in number, while they have such a commander.” The less they showed of activity, the less time he thought should be lost by himself; he therefore sent forward Masinissa with the cavalry, giving them directions to ride up to the gates, and entice the enemy out to battle. That when their multitudes should pour out, and become too powerful in the contest, he should give way by degrees; and that he would himself come up in time to support the fight. When the advanced party had, as he supposed, effected his purpose, he followed with the Roman horse, and proceeded, without being observed, under cover of some rising grounds which lay very conveniently round the windings of the road. Masinissa, according to the plan laid down, acted at one time, as if threatening an assault, at another, as if seized with fear; now riding up to the very gates, and now retreating with dissembled haste, which gave such boldness to the enemy, that they were at length tempted to come out of the town, and pursue him, with disorder, in his counterfeited flight. All, however, had not come forth; and with these remaining numbers the commander was not a little perplexed. Some, overpowered with wine and sleep, he had to compel to the taking of arms, others he had to stop who were running out by the gates without their standards, and in scattered parties, wholly regardless of order or ranks. Masinissa withstood them at first, while they rushed rashly to the charge; but soon after, greater numbers pouring out, and their whole force of cavalry joining in the conflict, they could no longer be resisted. Yet Masinissa did not betake himself to a hasty flight; but retired leisurely, until he drew them on to the hills which concealed the Roman cavalry. These immediately rising up, their strength unimpaired, and their horses fresh, spread themselves round Hanno and the Africans, who were fatigued in the fight and the pursuit; and Masinissa, suddenly wheeling about, returned to the charge. About one thousand, who composed the first division, and who could not easily retreat, were, together with Hanno the commander, surrounded and slain: the rest, terrified principally by the death of their general, fled in confusion, and were pursued, for thirty miles, by the conquerors, who took or slew two thousand more of the cavalry. It appeared, that there were among these not less than two hundred Carthaginian horsemen; several of them of the richest and most distinguished families.
XXXV. It happened that the same day on which this battle was fought, the ships, which had carried the booty to Sicily, returned with stores, as if they had foreseen that they were to bear away another cargo as before. All writers do not mention two generals of the Carthaginians, of the same name, being slain, in two battles of the cavalry; apprehending, I suppose, that there was a mistake, occasioned by the same fact being related twice. Nay, Cælius and Valerius even assert, that Hanno was taken prisoner. Scipio made presents to the officers and horsemen, according to the behaviour of each; and, above all, he paid extraordinary honours to Masinissa. Having placed a strong garrison in Salera, he set out with the rest of the army; and not only laid waste the country wherever he marched, but also took some cities and towns, and thereby widely diffused the terror of his arms. Scipio returned to the camp on the seventh day after he had left it, bringing with him a great number of men and cattle, and a vast quantity of plunder. He then dismissed the ships, heavily laden, a second time, with all kinds of spoil. From that time, laying aside small expeditions, and predatory excursions, he turned the whole force of the war to the siege of Utica; intending, if he should take it, to establish his headquarters there for the future, in order to the better execution of the rest of his designs. While the marine forces made their approaches on that side of the city which is washed by the sea, those of the land advanced from a rising ground hanging almost over the walls. Engines and machines had been sent from Sicily, with the stores; and many were made in the armory, where a number of artificers, skilled in such works, were retained for the purpose. The people of Utica, attacked on all sides by such a powerful force, had no hopes but from the Carthaginians; nor the Carthaginians any but from Hasdrubal, and from him only, as he should be able to influence Syphax. But all measures proceeded too slowly for their anxious desire of aid, of which they stood so much in need. Hasdrubal, though he had, by the most diligent press, made up the number of thirty thousand foot, and three thousand horse, yet durst not move towards the camp of the enemy before the arrival of Syphax. Syphax soon came, with fifty thousand foot, and ten thousand horse; and immediately decamping from Carthage, sat down at a small distance from Utica, and the intrenchments of the Romans. Their approach produced at least this consequence, that Scipio, after having besieged Utica for near forty days, and tried every expedient for its reduction in vain, was obliged to retire from it, as the winter was now at hand. He fortified his winter camp on a promontory, joined to the continent by a narrow isthmus, and which stretches out to some length into the sea; and included the naval camp within the same intrenchment. The legions were stationed on the middle of the isthmus; the ships were hauled on shore, and the seamen occupied the coast which faces the north; the cavalry a valley on the south. Such were the transactions in Africa to the latter end of autumn.
XXXVI. Various stores were imported from Sicily and Italy; and besides the corn collected from all quarters of the adjacent country, Cneius Octavius, proprætor, brought a vast quantity out of Sardinia, from Tiberius Claudius, the prætor: in consequence of which, not only the granaries already built were filled, but new ones were erected. Clothing was wanted for the troops: that matter was given in charge to Octavius, with directions to apply to the prætor, and to try if any could be procured by him; a business which he carefully attended to, for in a short time twelve hundred gowns and twelve thousand jackets were sent. During the same summer in which these things passed in Africa, Publius Sempronius, consul, who had the province of Bruttium, on his march in the district of Croton, engaged Hannibal in a tumultuary battle, or rather a kind of skirmishing. The Romans were worsted; and one thousand two hundred of the consul’s army slain. The rest returned in confusion to the camp, which, however, the enemy did not dare to assault. During the silence of the following night, Sempronius marched away, and, having sent directions to Publius Licinius, proconsul, to bring up his legions, he made a junction of their forces; thus, two commanders and two armies returned upon Hannibal. Neither party declined an engagement: the consul deriving confidence from his forces being doubled; the Carthaginian, from his late victory. Sempronius led up his own legions into the first line, those of Licinius were placed in reserve. In the beginning of the battle the consul vowed a temple to Fortuna Primigenia, if he should defeat the enemy on that day; and the object of his vow was accomplished. The Carthaginians were routed, and put to flight: above four thousand fell, somewhat less than three hundred were made prisoners, with whom were taken forty horses, and eleven military standards. Hannibal, dismayed by this overthrow, drew off his army to Croton. At the same time Marcus Cornelius, consul, not so much by force of his arms as by the terror of his judicial proceedings, kept Etruria in obedience; though it was almost entirely devoted to Mago, and to the hope of obtaining, by his means, a change of government. The inquisitions, directed by the senate, he executed with the utmost impartiality; and many of the Tuscan nobles, who had either gone themselves, or sent deputies to Mago, about the revolt of their states, stood trial, and were found guilty. Others, from a consciousness of guilt, went into voluntary exile; and by thus withdrawing, though condemned in their absence, could suffer only in a confiscation of their effects.
XXXVII. While the consuls were thus employed in different parts, the censors at Rome, (Marcus Livius and Caius Claudius,) called over the list of the senate. Quintus Fabius Maximus was again chosen principal; seven were disgraced, not one, however, of those who had sat in the curule chair. The orders for repairing public buildings were enforced with the greatest strictness. A road was contracted for, to be made from the ox market to the temple of Venus, with public seats; and a temple to be built, for the Great Mother, on the Palatine hill. A new tax, from the sale of salt, was established. This article had been sold at the sixth part of an as, both at Rome, and in all parts of Italy: and it was now directed to be supplied at the same rate at Rome, at a higher in the country towns and markets, and at various prices in different places. People were firmly persuaded, that Livius had contrived this tax in resentment, and on account of a sentence having been formerly passed on him, which he had considered as unjust; and that, in fixing the price of salt, the greatest burthen had been laid on those tribes by whose influence he had been condemned: hence the surname of Salinator was given to him. The lustrum was closed later than usual; because the censors sent persons through all the provinces, to bring them a return of the number of Roman citizens in each of the armies. Including these, there were rated, in the survey, two hundred and fourteen thousand men. Caius Claudius Nero had the honour of closing the lustrum. The senate then received a survey of twelve colonies, presented by the censors of those colonies, which had never been done before, in order that records might appear in the public archives of their proportion of strength both in men and money. The review of the knights then began; and it so happened that both the censors had a horse at the public expense. When they came to the Pollian tribe, in which was enrolled the name of Marcus Livius, and whom the herald hesitated to cite, Nero called to him, “Cite Marcus Livius:” and being actuated either by some remains of their old enmity, or by an unseasonable affectation of strictness, he ordered Livius to sell his horse, because he had been condemned by a sentence of the people. In like manner Marcus Livius, when they came to the Narnian tribe, in which the name of his colleague appeared, he ordered him to dispose of his horse, for two reasons: one, that he had given false evidence; the other, that he had not been sincere in his reconciliation with him. Thus they became engaged in a scandalous contest, each aspersing the character of the other, though at the same time he injured his own. On going out of their office of censor, when Caius Claudius had taken the oath respecting the observance of the laws, and had gone up to the treasury, among the names of those whom he left disfranchised in the treasury list, he gave in the name of his associate. Marcus Livius also came thither, and, except the Metian tribe, which had neither concurred in his condemnation, nor in appointing him consul or censor, he left the whole Roman people, thirty-four tribes, disfranchised in the treasury list; and this (he said) he did, because they had not only condemned him when innocent, but had elected him, while under the said sentence, both consul and censor; so that they could not deny that they had been guilty, either of one great fault in giving their sentence, or of two in the elections. He added, that Caius Claudius would be included in the list among the thirty-four tribes; but that if there had been any precedent of inserting any person twice in the treasury list, he would have inserted his name particularly. The contest between the censors, thus mutually reproaching each other, was shameful; while the rebuke given to the giddiness of the people was highly becoming a censor, and the strict principles of that age. The censors having fallen into disrepute, Cneius Bæbius, tribune of the people, thinking that their situation afforded him an opportunity of gaining notice, summoned them both to a trial before the people: but the senate interfered, and stopped any farther proceedings, lest the office of censor should, in future, be subjected to the humour of the populace.
XXXVIII. During the same summer the consul took Clampetia in Bruttium, by storm. Consentia and Pandosia, with other towns of small consequence, surrendered voluntarily; and, as the time of the elections drew near, it was thought more expedient to call home Cornelius from Etruria, where there was no employment for his arms. He elected Cneius Servilius Cæpio, and Cneius Servilius Geminus. The election of the prætors was then held: there were chosen Cneius Cornelius Lentulus, Publius Quintilius Varus, Publius Ælius Pætus, and Publius Villius Tappulus; although the two latter were ædiles of the commons. The consul, as soon as the elections were over, returned into Etruria to his army. The priests who died that year, and those who were substituted in the places of others, were Tiberius Veturius Philo, flamen of Mars, elected and inaugurated in the room of Marcus Æmilius Regillus, deceased the year before. In the room of Marcus Pomponius Matho, augur and decemvir, were elected, as decemvir, Marcus Aurelius Cotta; as augur, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, who was then very young; an instance in those times extremely rare in the disposal of a priest’s office. Golden chariots, with four horses, were that year placed in the Capitol by the curule ædiles, Caius Livius and Marcus Servilius Geminus. The Roman games were repeatedly exhibited for two days. In like manner the Plebeian, for two days, by the ædiles Publius Ælius and Publius Villius. There was also a feast of Jove on occasion of the games.
* 38,750l.
Scipio, aided by Masinissa, defeats the Carthaginians, Syphax and Hasdrubal, in several battles. Syphax taken by Lælius and Masinissa. Masinissa espouses Sophonisba, the wife of Syphax, Hasdrubal’s daughter; being reproved by Scipio, he sends her poison, with which she puts an end to her life. The Carthaginians, reduced to great extremity, by Scipio’s repeated victories, call Hannibal home from Italy; he holds a conference with Scipio on the subject of peace, and is again defeated by him in battle. The Carthaginians sue for peace, which is granted them. Masinissa reinstated in his kingdom. Scipio returns to Rome; his splendid triumph; is surnamed Africanus.
Y.R.549. 203.I. CNEIUS SERVILIUS CÆPIO and Caius Servilius Geminus, being consuls, in the sixteenth year of the Punic war, consulted the senate on the state of public affairs, the war, and the provinces. The senate decreed, that the consuls should settle between themselves, or determine by lot, which of them should hold the province of Bruttium, and act against Hannibal; and which that of Etruria and Liguria. That he to whose lot Bruttium fell, should receive the army from Publius Sempronius, late consul. That Publius Sempronius, to whom the command was continued, as proconsul, for a year, should succeed Publius Licinius, who was to come home to Rome. This commander had now acquired a high reputation for military skill, in addition to his other excellent qualifications, of which no citizen, at that time, possessed such an abundance; nature and fortune conspiring to confer on him every thing valuable in man. He was of a noble race, and possessed great wealth; he excelled in personal beauty and strength of body; he was esteemed the most eloquent of his time, whether he pleaded in the courts of justice, or enforced or opposed any measure, either in the senate, or before the people; and was, besides, remarkably skilled in the pontifical law. In addition to all these, the consulship enabled him to acquire fame in the field. The same method of proceeding, which the senate had decreed in regard to the province of Bruttium, was ordered to be followed in respect of Etruria and Liguria. Marcus Cornelius was ordered to deliver the army to the new consul; and, his command being continued, to hold the province of Gaul, with those legions which Lucius Scribonius, prætor, had commanded the year before. The consuls then cast lots for the provinces: Bruttium fell to Cæpio, Etruria to Servilius Geminus. The provinces of the prætors were next put to the lot: Pætus Ælius obtained the city jurisdiction; Cneius Lentulus, Sardinia; Publius Villius, Sicily; Quintilius Varus, Ariminum, with two legions, which had been under Lucretius Spurius. Lucretius remained on his station, in order that he might rebuild the city of Genoa, which had been demolished by Mago the Carthaginian. Publius Scipio’s command was continued, not for a period limited by time, but by the business, until an end should be put to the war in Africa; and it was decreed, that a supplication should be performed, to obtain from the gods, that his having passed into Africa might prove happy to the people, to the general himself, and to the army.
II. Three thousand men were raised for Sicily; and, because whatever strength it had possessed was carried over to Carthage, it was resolved that the coast of that island should be guarded by forty ships, lest any fleet should come thither from Africa. Villius carried with him to Sicily thirteen new ships, the rest were old ones repaired there. Marcus Pomponius, prætor of the former year, (his command of this fleet being continued,) took on board the new soldiers. An equal number of ships were decreed by the senate to Cneius Octavius, prætor likewise of the former year, with the same right of command, in order to protect the coast of Sardinia. Lentulus, prætor, was ordered to supply the fleet with two thousand soldiers. The defence of the coast of Italy was intrusted to Marcus Marcius, prætor of the former year, with the same number of ships; because it was uncertain to what place the Carthaginians might direct their attack, which would probably be against whatever part was destitute of forces for its defence. For that fleet, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, the consuls enlisted three thousand men, and also two city legions, for the exigencies of the war. Spain, with the armies there, and the command, was decreed to the former generals, Lucius Lentulus, and Lucius Manlius Acidinus. The Romans employed in their service, for that year, in all, twenty legions, and a hundred and sixty ships of war. The prætors were directed to repair to their provinces; and orders were given to the consuls, that, before their departure from the city, they should celebrate the great games, which Titus Manlius Torquatus, in his dictatorship, had vowed to be exhibited in the fifth year, if the condition of the state remained unaltered. Religious apprehensions were raised in men’s minds, by relations of prodigies brought from several places. It was believed that crows had not only torn with their beaks some gold in the Capitol, but had even eaten it. At Antium, mice gnawed a golden crown. A vast quantity of locusts filled all the country round Capua, though it could not be discovered from whence they came. At Reate, a foal was produced with five feet. At Anagnia, there appeared in the sky, at first, scattered fire, and afterwards a prodigious blaze. At Frusino, a circle encompassed the sun with a narrow line; then the orb of the sun, increasing in size, extended its circumference beyond the circle. At Arpinum, in a level plain, the earth sunk into a vast gulph. When one of the consuls sacrificed the first victims, the head of the liver was wanting. These prodigies were expiated by the greater victims, the college of pontiffs directing to what gods the sacrifices should be made.
III. As soon as this business was finished, the consuls and prætors set out for their respective provinces. They directed their chief attention to Africa, as if it were allotted to them, either because they saw that the grand interests of their country, and of the war, depended on the proceedings there, or from a desire to gratify Scipio, who was then the object of universal favour among all the members of the state. Therefore, thither were sent not only from Sardinia, as was mentioned before, but from Sicily also, and Spain, clothing, corn, and arms, with every other kind of stores: while Scipio relaxed not his diligence during any part of the winter in the operations of war, for which he found abundant occasion on every side. He was engaged in the siege of Utica; Hasdrubal’s camp was within sight; the Carthaginians had launched their ships, and kept their fleet equipped, and in readiness to intercept his convoys. Amidst so many objects which required his attention, he did not neglect endeavouring to recover the friendship of Syphax; hoping that he might now perhaps be cloyed with love, in the full enjoyment of his bride. The answers of Syphax contained, chiefly, proposals for an accommodation with the Carthaginians, on the terms of the Romans retiring from Africa, and the Carthaginians from Italy; but afforded scarcely any hopes, that he would relinquish his present engagements. I am more inclined to believe, that this business was transacted by messengers, as most authors affirm, than that Syphax came in person to the Roman camp to a conference, as Antias Valerius writes. At first, the Roman general hardly permitted those terms to be mentioned by his people; but afterwards, in order that they might have a plausible pretext for going frequently into the enemy’s camp, he softened his refusals, even seemingly inclining to a negociation. The winter-huts of the Carthaginians were composed almost entirely of timber, which they had hastily collected from the fields: those of the Numidians were formed of reeds interwoven, and most of them covered with mats, and dispersed up and down without any regularity, some of them even on the outside of the trench and rampart, for they were left to choose their own ground. These circumstances being related to Scipio, gave him hopes that he might find an opportunity of burning the enemy’s camp.
IV. In the retinue of the embassy to Syphax, he sent, instead of common attendants, centurions of the first rank, of approved courage and prudence, dressed as servants; who, while the ambassadors were engaged in conference, might ramble through the camp, and observe all the approaches and outlets; the situation and form, both of the whole and of the several parts of it; where the Carthaginians lay, where the Numidians; what distance there was between Hasdrubal’s station and the King’s; and, at the same time, discover their method of fixing outposts and watches, and whether they were more open to surprise by night, or by day. Many conferences being held, care was taken to send different persons at different times, in order that the greater number might be acquainted with every circumstance. These frequent conversations had led Syphax, and, through him the Carthaginians, to entertain daily more confident expectations of a peace, when the Roman ambassadors told him, that “they were ordered not to return to the general without a definitive answer: therefore, if his own determination was fixed, he should declare it; or, if Hasdrubal and the Carthaginians were to be consulted, he should do it without delay. It was time that either the terms of peace should be adjusted, or the war carried on with vigour.” While Syphax was consulting Hasdrubal, and Hasdrubal the Carthaginians, the spies had time to take a view of every thing, and Scipio also to make the preparations necessary to his design. From the mention of accommodation, and their expectation of it, the Carthaginians and Numidians took not the necessary precautions against any attempt which the enemy might make. At length an answer was returned, in which, as the Romans appeared exceedingly anxious for peace, the Carthaginians took the opportunity of adding some unreasonable conditions, which afforded a plausible pretence to Scipio, who now wished to break the truce. Accordingly, telling the King’s messenger, that “he would take the opinion of his council on the affair,” he answered him next day, that “he alone had laboured to put an end to the war, none of the other parties, in fact, showing any disposition towards it: that Syphax must entertain no hopes of entering into any treaty with the Romans, unless he renounced the party of the Carthaginians.” Thus he dissolved the truce, in order to mature his plans. Launching his ships, (for it was now the beginning of spring,) he put on board engines and machines, as if an attack on Utica were intended by sea; at the same time sending two thousand men to take possession of the hill which commanded that place, and which he had formerly occupied; with a view, at once to divert the attention of the enemy from his real design, and to prevent any sally being made from the city, while he should be employed at a distance against Syphax and Hasdrubal. He likewise feared an attack, should his camp be left with only a small force to defend it.
V. Having taken these preparatory steps, he summoned a council, ordering the spies to give an account of the discoveries which they had made; at the same time requesting Masinissa, who was well acquainted with every circumstance of the enemy, to deliver his opinion; and, lastly, he informed them of a plan, which he intended to execute on the following night. He gave orders to the tribunes, that, as soon as the trumpets had sounded on the breaking up of the meeting at the prætorium, they should march the legions out of the camp. In pursuance of these orders, the troops began to move a little before sunset: about the first watch, they formed their line of march; and about midnight, (for the way was seven miles,) proceeding in a moderate pace, they arrived at the enemy’s camp. He there gave Lælius the command of a part of the forces, to whom were joined Masinissa and the Numidians, with orders to fall upon the camp of Syphax, and set it on fire. Then, taking Lælius and Masinissa apart, he entreated each separately, that “as the night would be apt to impede the best-concerted measures, they should make up for the difficulties by their diligence and care;” telling them, also, that “he meant to attack Hasdrubal and the Carthaginian camp; but would not begin his operations until he should see the fire in that of the King.” The business was not long delayed; and as the huts all stood contiguously, the flames spread rapidly through every part of the camp. The alarm was great, by reason of its being night, and from the widely-extended blaze; but the King’s troops, thinking it an accidental calamity, rushed out, unarmed, in order to extinguish the flames, and met the enemy in arms, particularly the Numidians, whom Masinissa, being well acquainted with the King’s station, had posted at the openings of the passes. Many perished in their beds while half asleep; while many in their precipitate flight, crowding upon one another, were trodden to death in the narrow passages of the gates.
VI. When the Carthaginian centinels, awakened by the tumult of the night, beheld the fire, they also supposed it to be accidental; while the shout, raised amidst the slaughter and wounds, was so confused, (the alarm, too, being in the dark,) that they were unable to discover the cause or extent of the evil which assailed them. Running out, therefore, in the utmost hurry, by all the gates, without arms, as not suspecting an enemy to be near, and carrying nothing with them but what might serve to extinguish the flames, they rushed against the body of Romans. All of these were slain, not merely to gratify hostile animosity, but in order to prevent any one escaping with intelligence as to the truth of the affair. Scipio, immediately after, attacked the gates, which were neglected, as may be supposed, during such confusion, and set fire to the nearest huts; which, soon communicating to the others, the whole was enveloped in one general conflagration. Half-burned men and cattle stopped up the passages, first by the hurry of their flight, and afterwards with their carcases. Those who had escaped the flames were cut off by the sword; and the two camps were, by one fatal blow, involved in utter ruin. However, the two commanders, with two thousand foot and five hundred horse, half armed, and a great part wounded or scorched, got away. There were destroyed by fire or sword, forty thousand men; taken, above five thousand; many Carthaginian nobles, eleven senators, military standards a hundred and seventy-four, Numidian horses above two thousand seven hundred; six elephants were taken, and eight destroyed. A great quantity of arms was taken, all which the general dedicated to Vulcan, and committed to the flames.
VII. Hasdrubal, with a small number of Africans, had directed his flight to the nearest city; and thither, all who survived, following the steps of their general, had assembled; but, dreading lest he should be delivered into the hands of Scipio, he soon after quitted it. The Romans, who were, immediately after, received there, committed no act of hostility, because the surrender was voluntary. Two other cities were taken and plundered; and the booty found in them, together with what had been saved when the camps were burned, was given up to the soldiers. Syphax halted, in a fortified post, at about eight miles distance. Hasdrubal, lest any timorous measures should be adopted through the violent apprehensions occasioned by the late disaster, proceeded to Carthage, where such consternation had seized the people, that they made no doubt but Scipio would leave Utica, and instantly lay siege to Carthage. The senate was therefore assembled by the suffetes, who are invested with the same authority as our consuls. Three different opinions were offered on the occasion: one proposed sending ambassadors to Scipio, with proposals of peace; another, the recalling of Hannibal, to defend his country; the third showed Roman firmness in adversity, recommending to recruit the army, and to entreat Syphax not to abandon the war. This latter opinion prevailed, because Hasdrubal, who was present, and all of the Barcine faction, were disposed to fight to the last. On this they began to levy troops in the city and the country, and sent ambassadors to Syphax, who was himself most vigorously employed in making preparations for the renewal of hostilities. His queen had prevailed, not on this occasion as formerly, by her allurements, which were sufficiently powerful over the mind of her lover, but by prayers and appeals to his compassion; with tears having beseeched him, not to forsake her father and her country, nor suffer Carthage to be burned as the camps had been. Add to this, some new ground of hope which offered itself very seasonably, the ambassadors acquainting him, that they had met, near the city called Abba, four thousand Celtiberians, able young men, who had been inlisted by their recruiting parties in Spain; and that Hasdrubal would speedily arrive with a body of troops far from contemptible. Syphax not only gave a favourable answer to the Carthaginians, but showed them a multitude of Numidian peasants, to whom he had, within a few days, given arms and horses; and assured them also, that he would call out all the youth in his kingdom, observing that “their loss had been occasioned by fire, not by battle, and that he only who was defeated by arms, ought to be deemed inferior to his enemy.” Such was his reply; and, a few days after, he and Hasdrubal again joined their forces; when their whole army amounted to about thirty thousand fighting men.
VIII. While Scipio gave his whole attention to the siege of Utica, as if no farther hostilities were to be apprehended from Syphax and the Carthaginians, and was employed in bringing up his machines to the walls, he was called away by the news of the war being revived. Leaving, therefore, only a small number of men on sea and land, to keep up the appearance of a siege, he set out himself with the main body of the army to meet the enemy. At first, he took post on a hill, distant about four miles from the King’s camp. On the day following, descending into the great plains, as they are called, which lie under that hill, with a body of cavalry, he spent the day in advancing frequently to the enemy’s posts, and provoking them by slight skirmishes. For the two succeeding days, however, though irregular excursions were made by both parties in turn, nothing worth notice was performed. On the fourth day, both armies came out to battle. The Romans placed their first-rank men behind the front battalions, consisting of the spearmen, and the veterans in reserve; posting the Italian cavalry on the right wing, the Numidians and Masinissa on the left. Syphax and Hasdrubal, having placed their Numidians opposite to the Italian cavalry, and the Carthaginians opposite to Masinissa, drew the Celtiberians into the centre of the line, facing the battalions of the legions: in this order they began the engagement. On the first encounter, both wings (Numidians and Carthaginians) were forced to give way. For neither could the Numidians, most of whom were undisciplined peasants, withstand the Roman cavalry; nor the Carthaginians, who were also raw soldiers, withstand Masinissa, who, besides other circumstances, was rendered terrible by his late victory. The line of Celtiberians, (although, having lost the cover of the wings, they were exposed on both flanks,) yet resolutely kept their ground; for neither could they see any safety in flight, being unacquainted with the country, nor had they any hope of pardon from Scipio, having come into Africa to fight against him for the sake of hire, notwithstanding the favours which he had conferred on them and their nation. Surrounded, therefore, on all sides, they died with determined obstinacy, falling in heaps one over another; and, while the attention of all was turned on them, Syphax and Hasdrubal availed themselves of this opportunity, and gained a considerable space of time to effect their escape. Night came upon the conquerors, who were fatigued more with killing, than from the length of the contest.
IX. Next day Scipio sent Lælius and Masinissa, with all the Roman and Numidian cavalry, and the light infantry, in pursuit of Syphax and Hasdrubal. He himself, with the main body of the army, reduced all the cities in that part of the country which belonged to the Carthaginians, some by offering them hopes, others by threats, others by force. At Carthage, the consternation was excessive: they expected nothing less than that Scipio, who was extending his operations on every side, should quickly subdue all the neighbouring places, and then immediately invest their city. They therefore repaired the walls, and strengthened them with outworks; every one exerting himself, in bringing in from the country such things as were requisite for sustaining a long and powerful siege. Little mention was made of peace; very many advised that a deputation should be sent to recall Hannibal: but the greater number were earnest for despatching the fleet, (which had been equipped for the purpose of intercepting the convoys,) to surprise the ships stationed at Utica, where no attack was expected; alleging the probability, that they might, at the same time, make themselves masters of the naval camp, which had been left with a slight guard. This latter scheme met general approbation; but, at the same time, they determined to call Hannibal home, because, should the fleet meet with all possible success, Utica would, indeed, be relieved from some part of the pressure of the siege; but, for the defence of Carthage itself, there was now no general remaining but Hannibal, and no army but his. The ships were therefore launched on the following day; at the same time the deputies set out for Italy, and, the juncture being critical, every measure was executed with the utmost despatch; each man thinking, that if he were in any degree remiss, he was so far a betrayer of the public safety. Scipio led on his forces by slow marches, as they were heavily loaded with the spoils of many cities. After sending the prisoners, and other booty, to his old camp at Utica, directing his views to Carthage, he seized on Tunes, which was defenceless, the garrison having fled. This city was very strong both by nature and art; it may be seen from Carthage, from which it is distant about fifteen miles, and at the same time affords a prospect of that city, and the adjacent sea.
X. The Romans, while busily employed in raising a rampart at Tunes, descried the fleet which was steering to Utica. On this, the work was instantly dropped, and orders to march were issued. The troops set out with the utmost speed, lest the Roman fleet should be surprised, while attentive only to the siege, and in no condition for a naval fight. For how could any resistance have been made to a fleet of active ships, furnished with every kind of arms, by vessels loaded with engines and machines; and which were either converted to the purpose of transports, or pushed so close to the walls, that they served instead of mounds and bridges for the men to mount by? Scipio therefore, contrary to the usual practice in sea-engagements, drawing back the ships of war, which might be a protection to the others into the rear, near the land, opposed to the enemy a line of transports consisting of four in depth, to serve as a wall; and lest this line should be broken during the confusion of the fight, he fastened the vessels together by means of masts and yards, passed from one to another, with strong ropes, in such a manner as to form, as it might be called, one entire tier. Over these he laid planks, which formed a passage from ship to ship through the whole line; and under those bridges of communication he left openings, through which the scout boats might run out towards the enemy, and retreat with safety. Having completed these sea-works, as well as the time allowed, he put on board the transports about a thousand chosen men to defend them; with a vast quantity of weapons, chiefly missive, sufficient to serve for a battle of any continuance. Thus prepared, they waited attentively the coming of the enemy. Had the Carthaginians been expeditious, they might at the first onset have overpowered the Romans, every thing being in hurry and confusion; but dispirited by their losses on land, and losing thereby their confidence at sea also, where their strength, however, was superior, they spent the whole day in approaching slowly, and about sunset put into a harbour, which the Africans call Ruscino. On the following day, about sunrise, they formed their ships in a line towards the open sea, as if for a regular sea-fight, and as if the Romans were to come out to meet them. When they had stood thus for a long time, and saw that no motion was made by the enemy, they attacked the transports. The affair bore no resemblance to a naval engagement: it was more like an attack made by ships against walls. The transports had some advantage in their height; for the Carthaginians, being obliged to throw their weapons upward, discharged most of them to no purpose against the higher places; whereas those from the transports fell with greater force, at the same time gaining additional power from their own weight. The scouts and lighter Roman vessels, which pushed out through the openings under the bridges of communication between their ships, were at first run down by the weight and bulk of the Carthaginian ships of war; and afterwards they became an obstruction to those who defended the line, because, as they were mixed among the enemy’s ships, they often obliged them to stop the discharge of their weapons, lest, missing their aim, they should hit their friends. At length the Carthaginians threw among the Romans, beams furnished at the ends with iron hooks, which the soldiers call harpoons. They could neither cut the beams nor the chains by which they were raised in order to be thrown, so that as soon as any of the ships of war, hauling back, dragged a transport entangled by the hook, the fastenings of these vessels broke, and in some places several were dragged away together. By this means chiefly were all the bridges torn asunder, and scarcely had the defenders time to make their escape into the second row of ships. About six were towed away to Carthage; where the joy of the people was greater than the occasion merited. But they were the more sensibly affected, because this gleam of good fortune, however small, had unexpectedly shone on them, in the midst of a continued course of losses and lamentations. It appeared that the Roman fleet would hardly have escaped destruction, had not their own commanders been dilatory, so that Scipio had time to bring in relief.
XI. Lælius and Masinissa having, about the fifteenth day, arrived in Numidia, Massylia, Masinissa’s hereditary kingdom, submitted to him with joy, as to a prince whom they had long and earnestly wished to hail. Syphax, seeing all his commanders and garrisons expelled from thence, retired within his own original dominions, but in no disposition to remain quiet. In his ambitious views, he was spurred on by his queen and father-in-law; and indeed he possessed such abundance of men and horses, that a mind less barbarous and violent than his might well assume confidence; and when reflecting on the great strength of a kingdom, which had enjoyed prosperity for a long course of years. Wherefore, collecting together all who were able to bear arms, he distributed among them horses and weapons: he divided the horsemen into troops, and the footmen into cohorts, as he had formerly learned from the Roman centurions; and thus, with an army not less numerous than that which he had before, but composed almost entirely of raw undisciplined men, he advanced towards the enemy, and pitched his camp at a small distance from theirs. At first, a few horsemen advanced from the outposts, to make observations; these, being attacked with javelins, retreated to their friends. Skirmishing parties then came forth from both sides; and whichever of these were repulsed, their fellows, being inflamed with indignation, came up in greater numbers to their support. This is generally the prelude to engagements between the cavalry; hope encouraging the party which prevails, and rage exasperating that which is worsted. Thus, on the present occasion, the fight having commenced between small divisions, the eagerness of the dispute drew out at length the whole force of cavalry on both sides. While the contest lay entirely between these, the Masæsylians, whom Syphax sent out in immense bodies, could hardly be withstood. Afterwards the Roman infantry, rushing in suddenly between their own cavalry, who opened passages for them, gave firmness to their line, and terrified the enemy, who were advancing furiously to the charge. The barbarians at first pushed on their horses with less briskness; then halted, disconcerted somewhat by this new manner of fighting; at last, they not only gave way to the infantry, but did not dare to withstand even the horse, emboldened as they were by the support of the foot. And now, the battalions also of the legions approached, when the Masæsylians, so far from daring to meet their first attack, could not support even the sight of their ensigns and arms: so strongly were they affected, either by the recollection of their former calamities, or by the present danger. At this juncture Syphax, galloping up to try if, either by shame, or by the danger to which he was exposed, he could stop the flight of his men, being thrown from his horse, which was grievously wounded, was overpowered and taken, and dragged alive to Lælius; — a sight grateful to Masinissa above all others. To Cirtha, the capital of Syphax’s kingdom, a vast multitude fled. The number of slain in that battle was less than in proportion to the greatness of the victory, because the cavalry only had been engaged. Not more than five thousand were killed; less than half that number taken, in an attack on their camp, to which the multitude had retired in dismay at the loss of their King.
XII. Masinissa declared, that “nothing could be more highly gratifying to him, now that he was victorious, after so long a struggle, than to revisit his paternal kingdom: but that the present happy situation of his affairs required activity, as much as his former misfortunes. If Lælius would permit him to go on, before him, to Cirtha, with the cavalry, and Syphax as his prisoner, he would strike such terror, while the enemy were in confusion and dismay, as would crush all opposition; and that Lælius might follow, with the infantry, by easy marches.” Lælius assenting, he went forward to Cirtha, and ordered the principal inhabitants to be invited to a conference. But, as they were ignorant of their King’s misfortune, neither his relation of what had passed, nor his threats, nor persuasions, wrought any effect, until Syphax was produced to their view in chains. This shocking sight excited a general lamentation; some, in a panic, deserted the walls, others hastily agreed to endeavour to gain the favour of the conqueror, and opened the gates: whereupon Masinissa, having despatched guards to these and other parts of the fortifications, to prevent any person going out of the town, galloped on in full speed to take possession of the palace. As he entered the porch, Sophonisba, Syphax’s queen, daughter of Hasdrubal the Carthaginian, met him at the door; where, seeing Masinissa in the midst of a band of armed men, distinguished by his arms and apparel, and judging rightly that he was the King, she fell at his knees, and thus addressed him: “The favour of the gods, added to your own valour and good fortune, has given you absolute power to dispose of us. But if, in the presence of the sovereign disposer of her life and death, a captive may be allowed to utter the words of a suppliant, to touch his knees, or victorious right hand, I entreat and beseech you, by the majesty of a King, of which we also were just now possessed; by the name of the Numidian race, which is common to you and Syphax; by the guardian gods of this palace, who, I hope, will receive you with better omens than they sent Syphax hence, grant so much favour to your suppliant, as that you will, yourself, determine whatever you may think proper concerning your captive, and not suffer me to fall under the haughty and cruel disposal of any Roman. Were I nothing more than the wife of Syphax, I had much rather trust to the honour of a Numidian, one born in the same country with me, than to a foreigner, and from a distant part of the world: but what a Carthaginian, what the daughter of Hasdrubal, has reason to dread from a Roman, is manifest to you. If you cannot by any other means, I implore and beseech you, that you will, by my death, secure me from the power of the Romans.” She was remarkably beautiful, and in the full bloom of youth: so that, while she pressed his right hand, and implored his protection only so far, as that she should not be delivered up to any Roman, her discourse was more like caresses than entreaty; and the conqueror’s mind was not only subdued to pity, but, as all the Numidians are extremely amorous, the victorious King became the slave of his captive*: and, giving his right hand, as a pledge for the performance of what she had requested, he went into the palace. Immediately, he began to consider within himself, by what means he might fulfil his engagement; and not being able to devise any, he adopted a rash and shameful resolution, suggested by his love. He gave orders that every thing should be instantly prepared for a marriage on that same day, in order that he might leave no room for Lælius, or Scipio himself, to proceed against her as a captive, since she would then be his wife. After the marriage was concluded, Lælius arrived; and so far was he from dissembling his disapprobation of the proceeding, that at first he even resolved to drag her from the nuptial bed, and send her with Syphax to Scipio: but he was afterwards prevailed on by the entreaties of Masinissa, who besought him to leave it to the Romans to determine, which of the two kings should have Sophonisba a sharer of his fortune. Sending away, therefore, Syphax and the other prisoners, he reduced, with the assistance of Masinissa, all the cities of Numidia, which were held by the King’s garrisons.
XIII. When it was announced, that the detachment was bringing Syphax to the camp, the whole multitude poured out, as if to the sight of a triumph. He preceded the rest in chains, and was followed by a number of noble Numidians. On this occasion, every one spoke in the most exalted terms of the greatness of Syphax, and the fame of his nation; thus exaggerating the renown of their victory. “That was the King,” they said, “to whose dignity the two most powerful states in the world, the Roman and Carthaginian, had paid such deference; that for the sake of procuring his friendship, their own general, Scipio, leaving his province and his army, sailed with only two quinqueremes to Africa; and the Carthaginian general, Hasdrubal, not only visited his kingdom, but also gave him his daughter in marriage. That the Roman and Carthaginian generals had been within his grasp at one and the same time. That as both parties had, by the offer of sacrifices, solicited the favour of the immortal gods, so his friendship had been equally sought for by both. That he lately possessed power so great as to enable him to expel Masinissa from his kingdom; and to reduce him to such a state, that his life was preserved by a report of his death, and by lurking in concealment, while he was obliged, like a wild beast, to live in the woods on prey.” Such were the discourses of the throng, through which the King was led to the general’s quarters. Scipio was moved on comparing the former situation of the man with the present; and also by the recollection of their connection in hospitality, of their right hands pledged, and the treaty concluded between themselves and their states. These circumstances gave Syphax courage in addressing his conqueror. For, when Scipio asked him, “what had been his views in not only renouncing his alliance with the Romans, but even making war on them?” he answered, that “he had indeed erred, or rather acted under an impulse of insanity; but not at that time, principally, when he took up arms against the Romans: that was the consequence of his madness, not the actual beginning of it. That he was indeed mad, when he banished from his thoughts all the ties of private friendship and public leagues; and when he received a Carthaginian wife into his house. By those nuptial torches, his palace had been set in flames; that mischievous fury had, by every kind of allurement, perverted his judgment, and led it astray; nor ever desisted, until with her own hands she clad him in detestable arms against his guest and his friend. Yet, ruined and hopeless as he was, he felt some comfort in his misfortunes, from seeing that pestilent woman removed into the house and family of his bitterest enemy. Adding, that Masinissa possessed neither more prudence nor firmness than himself. His youth, indeed, had made him incautious; but there was evidently more folly and rashness in the latter marriage than in his.”
XIV. These words, dictated not merely by animosity towards his enemy, but by anguish on seeing the woman whom he had loved in the possession of his rival, impressed the mind of Scipio with no small degree of solicitude. He was, however, the more induced to listen to Syphax, from the marriage having been hurried forward, in the midst of arms, without either consulting or waiting for Lælius; and from Masinissa’s haste, for on the very day in which he had seen Sophonisba made prisoner, he had contracted matrimony with her, and performed the nuptial sacrifice, in presence of the household gods of his enemy. These proceedings appeared to Scipio the more heinous, because he himself, when in Spain, and when a very young man, had not allowed himself to be moved by the beauty of any captive whatever. While he was revolving these circumstances in his mind, Lælius and Masinissa arrived, to both of whom he gave the same kind reception; and afterwards made known their conduct, with the highest praises, in a full assembly. Then retiring with Masinissa to a private place, he thus addressed him: “I suppose, Masinissa, that in first coming to Spain for the purpose of contracting a friendship with me; and afterwards in Africa, submitting yourself, and all your concerns, to my protection; you must have been influenced by some good qualities which I was said to possess. Now, of those virtues which made you think my favour worth soliciting, there is not one, on which I value myself so much, as temperance and the government of my passions. I wish, Masinissa, that to your other excellent qualifications, you had added this one also. There is not so much danger, believe me there is not, to persons of our time of life, from armed foes, as from the pleasures which every where surround us. He who has curbed and reduced his passions to subjection, has really acquired to himself much greater glory, and a far more honourable victory, than that which we now enjoy in our conquest of Syphax. The instances of courage and conduct, which you displayed while I was not present, I have mentioned with pleasure, and I retain a proper sense of them. As to other matters, I rather wish that you would review them in your own mind, than that you should blush at my recital of them. Syphax has been subdued and taken under the auspices of the Roman people: therefore he, his wife, his kingdom, his territories, his towns, and the inhabitants of them; in short, whatever was the property of Syphax, is now the prize of that people. Both the King and his wife, even though she were not a citizen of Carthage, and we had not seen her father heading the enemy’s army, ought to have been sent to Rome, where the Roman state should have had the power of judging and determining, concerning her — a woman who is said to have seduced a king in alliance with us, and to have precipitated him into the war. Restrain your feelings. Beware, lest by one vice you disparage a number of good qualities, and destroy the credit of so many meritorious deeds by a fault, too great to be palliated, even by the occasion of it.”
XV. On hearing this discourse, not only Masinissa’s countenance was suffused with blushes, but he even burst into tears; and after declaring, that “in future he would be directed entirely by Scipio,” and entreating him, “as far as the affair would permit, to consider the obligation into which he had rashly entered, not to give the Queen into the power of any one,” he retired in confusion from the general’s tent to his own. There, dismissing his attendants, he spent some time in sighs and moans, which could be heard distinctly by those who stood without. At last, having uttered a deep groan, he called one of his servants, in whom he confided, and who had the charge of the poison, which, according to the custom of kings, is kept against the uncertainties of fortune, and ordered him to mix some in a cup; to carry it to Sophonisba; and to tell her at the same time, that “Masinissa would gladly have fulfilled the first obligation which he owed her — that due from a husband to his wife: but that, since those, who had the power, had not left that in his option, he now performed his second engagement, that she should not come alive into the hands of the Romans. He, therefore, requested her to remember her father, the general, her country, and the two kings to whom she had been married; and to take such steps as she should judge proper.” When the servant, carrying this message and the poison, came to Sophonisba — “I receive” said she, “this nuptial present, by no means an unacceptable one, if my husband has not the power to perform more for his wife. Tell him, however, that I should have died better, had I not married in the very moment of my funeral.” The firmness with which she spoke, was not greater than the resolution with which she received, and drank off, the contents of the cup. When Scipio was informed of this event, dreading, lest the young man, whose passions were violent, might, in the present disorder of his mind, take some desperate measure, he sent for him instantly; and at one time consoled, at another gently chid him, for having atoned one act of rashness by another, and for having rendered the affair more horrid than was necessary. Next day, in order to divert his thoughts from the object which, at the present, distressed him, he mounted his tribunal, and ordered an assembly to be summoned. There, after he had first honoured Masinissa with the title of King, and passed high encomiums on his merit, he presented to him a golden crown, a golden goblet, a curule chair, an ivory sceptre, an embroidered robe, and a vest striped with purple; enhancing the honour by saying, that “among the Romans there was nothing more magnificent than a triumph, and that those, who were so distinguished, had not a more splendid dress than that of which Masinissa alone, of all foreigners, was esteemed worthy by the Roman people.” Lælius also he highly commended, and presented with a golden crown; and on others of the military he conferred gifts suitable to the services which they had performed. By these honours conferred on him, the King’s mind was soothed, and encouraged to hope that he should soon be in possession of the whole extent of Numidia, now that Syphax was removed out of his way.
XVI. Scipio, sending Caius Lælius, with Syphax and the other prisoners, to Rome, with whom went also ambassadors from Masinissa, led back his troops to Tunes, and completed the fortifications which he had begun some time before. The Carthaginians, who had been filled with a short-lived joy, on account of their success in the attack on the Roman fleet, (and which in their then circumstances they had considered as important,) on hearing of the capture of Syphax, in whom they had placed more of their hopes than in Hasdrubal and their own army, were struck with dismay, and would listen no longer to any who advised to continue the war; but sent, as their agents to sue for peace, thirty of the principal elders. These compose the assembly of the highest dignity among them, having the principal control over the senate itself. Arriving at the general’s tent, they prostrated themselves, like those who humbly fawn on kings, having learned that mode, I suppose, from the country whence they derived their origin. Their discourse was suitable to such servile adulation, not attempting to apologize for their conduct, but transferring the blame on Hannibal, and the favourers of his violent measures. They implored pardon for their state, which had been twice ruined by the rashness of its citizens, and would a second time be indebted for its restoration to the generosity of an enemy: they observed, that “the Roman people sought dominion over the conquered, not their destruction; and declared themselves ready to pay implicit obedience to any commands which their subjugators should be pleased to impose.” Scipio told them, that “he had come into Africa with the expectation, which had been farther encouraged by the happy fortune of his army, of carrying home conquest, not peace. That, however, although he had conquest within his reach, yet he did not reject peace; that all nations might know, that the Roman people were guided by the principles of justice, both in undertaking and concluding wars. That these were the terms of peace which he prescribed:— That they should give up the prisoners, deserters, and fugitives; withdraw their armies from Italy and Gaul; renounce all pretensions to Spain; retire from all the islands which lie between Italy and Africa, deliver up all their ships of war, except twenty, and furnish five hundred thousand measures of wheat, and three hundred thousand of barley.” What sum of money he demanded, authors are not agreed. In some, I find five thousand talents*; in others, five thousand pounds weight of silver; while it is also said, that double pay of the troops was imposed. “Three days,” said he, “shall be allowed you to consider whether you approve of peace on these conditions. If you do approve of it, then make a truce with me, and send ambassadors to Rome to the senate.” The Carthaginians, thus dismissed, thought it advisable to submit to any terms, as the only object they had in view was to gain time, until Hannibal should come over to Africa; and therefore they sent ambassadors to Scipio, to conclude a truce, and others to Rome to solicit peace. These carried with them a few prisoners, deserters, and fugitives, to make a show of obedience, and that they might attain their object with the less difficulty.
XVII. Lælius, with Syphax and the principal Numidian prisoners, arrived at Rome several days before them, and related, in order, to the senate the several transactions which had passed in Africa. Great was the rejoicing, on account of the present state of affairs, and the most sanguine hopes were entertained with respect to the future. The senate then, on the business being proposed, ordered that the King should be sent prisoner to Alba, and that Lælius should be detained until the arrival of the Carthaginian ambassadors. A supplication for four days was decreed. Publius Ælius, prætor, when the senate broke up, called an assembly of the people, and ascended the rostrum, with Caius Lælius. There on hearing that the Carthaginian armies had been routed; so renowned a monarch as Syphax vanquished and made prisoner; and conquest extended, with extraordinary success, over every part of Numidia, the people could not contain their joy, but by shouts, and other methods usually practised by the multitude, expressed immoderate transports. The prætor, therefore immediately issued orders, that the keepers should open the temples in every part of the city; and that all should be allowed, during the whole day, to go round them, and pay their worship and thanks to the gods. On the day following, he introduced Masinissa’s ambassadors, who first congratulated the senate on the success of Publius Scipio in Africa; then gave thanks for his having “not only honoured Masinissa with the title of King, but made him one, by reinstating him on the throne of his father; where (now that Syphax was removed) he had, if it so pleased the senate, a prospect of reigning without contest or apprehension; they likewise made their acknowledgments for praises he had bestowed on him in the assembly, and for the very magnificent presents with which he had loaded him.” They added, “that Masinissa had exerted his best endeavours to appear not unworthy of those favours, and would continue so to do. They then requested the senate to confirm by their decree the title of King, and the other distinguished marks conferred on him by Scipio; telling them that their monarch further entreated, that, if it so pleased them, the Numidian prisoners then at Rome might be sent home — a circumstance which would do him high honour among his countrymen.” The senate made answer, “that congratulations on the successes in Africa ought in the confederates to be mutual; that Scipio appeared to have acted properly and regularly, in giving to their Numidian ally the title of King; and that whatever else he should do grateful to Masinissa, the senate ratified and approved it.” They then ordered the prætor to prepare the following presents for the King:— two purple robes with a golden clasp and vests, with broad purple borders; two horses with trappings; two suits of horseman’s armour, with coats of mail; with tents and camp furniture, such as is customary to provide for a consul. Donatives were also voted for the ambassadors, not less than five thousand asses* to each; for their attendants a thousand asses†; two suits of apparel to each of the ambassadors, one to each of their attendants, and the same to the Numidians, who were to be freed from imprisonment, and sent back to the King. Besides which, they ordered entire suits of apartments and entertainment for the embassy.
XVIII. In the course of the summer, during which those transactions passed in Africa, and these decrees at Rome, Publius Quintilius Varus, prætor, and Marcus Cornelius, proconsul, fought a pitched battle with Mago the Carthaginian in the country of the Insubrian Gauls. The prætor’s legions were in the first line; Cornelius kept his in reserve, placing himself in the front. The prætor and proconsul exhorted the soldiers to make the attack with the utmost vigour. Finding that they made no impression on the Carthaginian line, Quintilius said to Cornelius, “The battle flags, as you may perceive; and the enemy, finding themselves able to make resistance beyond what they had hoped, are hardened against fear, and it is well if they do not assume boldness; we must bear down with the cavalry, if we expect to disorder or drive them from their ground. Do you, therefore, support the battle in front, and I will bring up the horse; or I will take care of matters here, while you charge with the cavalry of the four legions.” The proconsul offering to undertake either part of the business, as the prætor should direct, Quintilius the prætor, with his son Marcus, a youth of a high and ardent spirit, took the command of the cavalry, and having ordered them to mount their horses, led them on instantly to the charge. The confusion occasioned by these was increased by the shouts of the legions; nor would the Carthaginian line have stood their ground, had not Mago immediately brought up the elephants to the fight, having kept them in readiness against the first motion which the horse should make. By the snorting and sight of these animals, the horses were frightened to such a degree, as rendered the aid of the cavalry of no effect. As the Roman horseman had the advantage in point of strength, when in close fight, and when he could use his javelin and sword hand to hand; so the Numidian had the better in darting javelins at him from a distance, and when his horse’s fright would not suffer him to advance. Among the infantry, the twelfth legion having lost the greater part of their number, kept their ground, rather through shame, than that they had strength to maintain it. They must soon, however, have fallen back, had not the thirteenth legion, led up from the reserve to the front, supported the doubtful conflict. Mago, at the same time, brought up to oppose this fresh legion, the Gauls, drawn also from his reserve. These being routed without much difficulty, the spearmen of the eleventh legion formed themselves into a circular body, and attacked the elephants, which were now throwing the line of infantry into confusion; and, by discharging their spears at them, hardly any of which were thrown in vain, as the heasts were close together, they turned them all upon the line of their own party. Four of them, overpowered with wounds, fell. On this, the first line of the enemy began to give way; when all the infantry, seeing the elephants turning about, rushed on in order to increase the terror and confusion. As long, however, as Mago stood at the head of the troops, the ranks, retreating leisurely, kept up the spirit of the battle; but when they saw him fall on receiving a wound through his thigh, and carried lifeless out of the field, instantly all betook themselves to flight. There were five thousand Carthaginians slain on that day, and twenty-two military ensigns taken. Nor was the victory bloodless on the side of the Romans two thousand three hundred men of the prætor’s army were lost, by far the greater part of whom were of the twelfth legion; of which legion also fell two military tribunes, Marcus Cosconius and Marcus Mænius. Of the thirteenth legion, likewise, which had shared the latter part of the engagement, Cneius Helvius, military tribune, was slain while employed in restoring the fight. There perished, besides, thirty-two horsemen of some distinction, who were trodden down by the elephants, together with some centurions. Probably the contest would not have been so soon ended, had not the wound of their general made the enemy retire from the field.
XIX. Mago, setting out during the silence of the next night, and making as long journeys as his wound allowed him to bear, arrived at the sea-coast, in the country of the Ingaunian Ligurians. There the deputies from Carthage, who had a few days before arrived with the ships in the Gallic bay, waited on him, and delivered orders to him, to pass over to Africa as soon as possible; informing him, that his brother Hannibal, to whom messengers had been also sent, would do the same, for the affairs of the Carthaginians were not in a condition to hold possession of Gaul and Italy by arms. Mago was not only moved by the commands of the senate, and the danger that threatened his country, but dreaded lest, if he delayed, he might be hard pressed by the victorious enemy; and, also, lest the Ligurians themselves, seeing that the Carthaginians were about to relinquish Italy, might revolt to those under whose power they must speedily fall. He, at the same time, entertained hopes, that his wound might be less irritated on board a ship than on land, and that he might there be able to attend to the cure of it with more convenience. Embarking, therefore, his troops, he set sail, and had scarcely passed Sardinia when he died: on the coast of which island, several Carthaginian ships, which had been dispersed, were taken by the Roman fleet. Such were the occurrences by land and sea, on that side of Italy nearest to the Alps. The consul Cneius Servilius performed nothing memorable in Etruria, or in Gaul (for he had advanced into that country,) except that he rescued from slavery, which they had endured for sixteen years, his father Caius Servilius, and his uncle Caius Lutatius, who had been taken by the Boians at the village of Tanetum. He returned to Rome, accompanied by these on each side of him, distinguished rather by family-badges than public services. It was proposed to the people, that “Cneius Servilius should not be subject to penalty, for having, contrary to the laws, during the life of his father (a circumstance of which he was at that time ignorant,) and who sat in the curule chair, accepted the offices of tribune of the commons, and plebeian ædile;” this being admitted, he returned to his province. Consentia, Uffugum, Vergæ, Besidiæ, Hetriculum, Sypheum, Argentanum, Clampetia, and many other small states, perceiving that the Carthaginians grew languid in their operations, came over to Cneius Servilius, the consul, then in Bruttium; and who had fought a battle with Hannibal in the district of Croton, of which we have no clear account. Valerius Antias says, that five thousand of the enemy were slain. This is a circumstance of such importance, that either it must be an impudent fiction, or they were guilty of great negligence who omitted mentioning it. It is certain, that Hannibal made no farther efforts in Italy, for deputies came to him from Carthage, recalling him to Africa, nearly at the same time with Mago.
XX. Hannibal is said to have been thrown into the most violent agitation, and scarcely to have refrained from shedding tears, on hearing the words of the deputies. When they had delivered the orders, which they had in charge, he said — “Now, indeed, they recall me, not in ambiguous terms, but openly, who have, for a long time past, been dragging me home, by refusing me supplies both of men and money. It is not the Roman people, so often discomfited and routed, that has conquered Hannibal, but the Carthaginian senate, through the malicious suggestions of envy; nor will Scipio exult, and pride himself, so much in this my disgraceful retreat, as will Hanno; who, unable to do it by any other means, has crushed our family under the ruins of Carthage.” As he had, for some time, foreseen this event, he had ships already prepared: dismissing, therefore, a useless crowd of soldiers, under the appearance of garrisons, into the towns of Bruttium, a few of which adhered to him rather through fear than affection, he carried over to Africa such of the troops as were fit for service. A great number of natives of Italy, refusing to follow him to Africa, and flying to the sanctuary of Juno Lacinia, which, till that day, had never been violated, were barbarously put to death within the walls of the temple. We are told, that hardly any person ever showed more grief on leaving his native soil, to go into exile, than Hannibal on his departure from the country of his enemy; that he often looked back on the coasts of Italy, inveighing against gods and men, uttering curses on his own head, for not having led his men to Rome, yet reeking with blood from the slaughter at Cannæ: reflecting, with the bitterest vexation, that Scipio, who, since his appointment to the consulship, had not looked in the face of the Carthaginian enemy in Italy, had yet spirit to go and attack Carthage; while he, who had slain a hundred thousand fighting men at Thrasimenus and Cannæ, had suffered his strength to moulder away about Casilinum, Cumæ, and Nola. In the midst of such self-reproaches and complaints, he was forced away from Italy, in which he had so long maintained a divided power with the Romans.
XXI. News was brought to Rome at the same time, that both Mago and Hannibal had departed for Africa. But the exultation of the people was diminished by the reflection, that the Roman commanders had shown a want either of spirit or of strength, in not preventing such departure, though they had received orders to that purpose from the senate. They had also much anxiety concerning the final issue of affairs, now that the whole weight of the war fell upon one general and his army. About the same time, ambassadors arrived from Saguntum, bringing with them some Carthaginians who had come over to Spain to hire auxiliaries, and whom they had seized, together with their money. They laid down, in the porch of the senate-house, two hundred and fifty pounds weight of gold, and eighty of silver. The agents were thrown into prison; the gold and silver were returned, and thanks given to the Saguntines; presents were made to them besides, and ships provided to convey them home to Spain. Some of the older senators then observed, that “men had less lively sensations of good than of evil. Did they remember what terror and consternation Hannibal’s coming into Italy had excited? What losses they had sustained, and what lamentations had followed? When the Carthaginian camp was seen from the walls of the city, what vows were then offered up by each particular person, and by the whole body of the people! How often, in their assemblies, were their hands stretched out towards heaven, and exclamations heard — O! will that day ever arrive, when we shall see Italy cleared of the enemy, and blessed once more with the enjoyment of peace? That now, at length, in the sixteenth year, the gods had granted their wish, and yet not the slightest proposal had been made, of returning thanks to the gods. So deficient are men in gratitude, even at the time when a favour is received; and much less are they apt to retain a proper sense of it afterwards.” Immediately, a general exclamation broke forth from every part of the senate-house, that Publius Ælius, the prætor, should take the sense of the senate on the subject; and a decree passed, that a supplication should be solemnized in all the temples for five days, and a hundred and twenty of the greater victims offered in sacrifice.
XXII. After Lælius and Masinissa’s ambassadors were dismissed, accounts were brought, that the Carthaginian ambassadors, who were coming to treat of peace, had been seen at Puteoli, and would proceed from thence by land: on which the senate resolved, that Caius Lælius should be recalled, in order that he might be present at the proceedings. Quintus Fulvius Gillo, a lieutenant-general under Scipio, conducted the Carthaginians to Rome, but they were forbidden to enter the city. Apartments were provided for them in the Villa Publica, and an audience of the senate was granted them in the temple of Bellona. Their discourse was nearly the same with that which they had made to Scipio, throwing off all the blame of the war from the community, and laying it on Hannibal. They affirmed, that “he had acted contrary to the orders of the senate, not only in passing the Alps, but even in crossing the Iberus; and that he had, without any authority from them, made war, not only upon the Romans, but, before that, on the Saguntines: that, if the facts were duly considered, the senate and people of Carthage had, to that day, inviolably observed the treaty with the Romans. Therefore they had nothing farther in charge, than to request, that they might be allowed to abide by the terms of the peace which had been lately concluded with the consul Lutatius.” The prætor, according to the established custom, giving permission to the senators to make such inquiries of the ambassadors as any of them thought proper; the older members, who had been present at the concluding of the treaties, asked various questions relative to them. The Carthaginians replied, that they were not of an age to remember particulars (for almost all of them were young): on which, the house resounded with exclamations, that Punic faith was evident, in appointing such men as these to solicit the renewal of a former peace, with the terms of which they were themselves unacquainted.
XXIII. The ambassadors being ordered to withdraw, the senators proceeded to give their opinions. Marcus Livius recommended, that “Cneius Servilius, the consul who was the nearer home, should be sent for, to be present at the proceedings; for, as no subject of greater importance than the present could ever come under their consideration, so he did not think it consistent with the dignity of the Roman people, that an affair of such magnitude should be transacted in the absence of both the consuls.” Quintus Metellus, who three years before had been consul, and had also been dictator, proposed, that “whereas Publius Scipio, by destroying the armies of the enemy, and wasting their country, had reduced them to such necessity, that they sued for peace. No person whatever could be a more competent judge of their intention in making the application, and therefore they should be wholly directed by the advice of that general, who was carrying on the war under the walls of Carthage.” Marcus Valerius Lævinus, who had been twice consul, charged those men with being come as spies, and not as ambassadors; and advised, that “they should be ordered to depart from Italy; that guards should be sent with them to their ships; and that orders should be sent to Scipio, not to intermit his operations.” Lælius and Fulvius added, that “Scipio had grounded his hopes of success on Hannibal and Mago not being recalled from Italy. That the Carthaginians would feign a compliance with any measures, while they waited for the arrival of those generals and their armies; and would, afterwards, forgetting all gods, and all treaties, however recent, pursue the war.” This observation made them more readily concur in the opinion of Lævinus. The ambassadors were therefore dismissed, and almost without an answer.
XXIV. About the same time, the consul Cneius Servilius, not doubting but that he should enjoy the glory of having restored peace to Italy, passed over into Sicily in pursuit of Hannibal, (as if he himself had compelled him to retreat,) intending to proceed from thence to Africa. As soon as this became known at Rome, the senate at first voted, that the prætor should write to the consul, that they required him to return to Italy. Afterwards, on the prætor’s assuring them that Servilius would pay no regard to his letter, Publius Sulpicius, being created dictator for the purpose, recalled the consul by virtue of his superior authority; and then, with Marcus Servilius, master of the horse, he spent the remainder of the year in going round to the cities which had forfeited their allegiance during the war, and examining into the conduct of each. During the continuance of the truce, a hundred transports, with stores, under the convoy of twenty ships of war, sent from Sardinia by Lentulus the prætor, arrived safe in Africa, without meeting any obstruction, either from the enemy or bad weather. Cneius Octavius, who sailed from Sicily with two hundred transports, and thirty ships of war, had not the same good fortune. His voyage was prosperous, until he came almost within sight of Africa, when the wind at first subsided into a calm; then, springing up heavily from the south-west, his ships were dispersed on all sides. He himself, with the ships of war, struggling through the opposing waves, with excessive toil to the rowers, made the promontory of Apollo: the transports were most of them driven to Ægimurus, an island stretching across the mouth of the bay on which Carthage stands, distant from the city about thirty miles; the rest towards that part of it where the hot baths are found. All this happened within view of Carthage, and occasioned a concourse of people from all parts, in the Forum. The magistrates assembled the senate; the multitude in the porch of the senate-house expressed aloud their uneasiness, lest so great a booty should be allowed to escape out of their hands. Although some objected, that their faith was pledged in having sued for peace, others in their having agreed to a truce, and which had not yet expired, yet the assembly, being composed of nearly an equal number of the populace as of senators, came to a resolution, that Hasdrubal should go to Ægimurus with a fleet of fifty sail, and proceed from thence to pick up the scattered ships of the Romans, in the several harbours, and along the coasts. First, the transports from Ægimurus, abandoned by the mariners, who effected their escape, were towed to Carthage; afterwards those from the baths.
XXV. The ambassadors had not yet returned from Rome, nor was it known what were the sentiments of the Roman senate concerning war or peace; neither was the term of the truce expired. Scipio, on this account, more highly resented the injury offered by those who had petitioned for peace, and the truce; and, considering it as breaking off the negociations, and an infraction of the truce, he instantly sent Marcus Bæbius, Lucius Sergius, and Lucius Fabius, ambassadors to Carthage. These, having narrowly escaped suffering violence from the populace, and still apprehending themselves exposed to danger, applied to the magistrates, who had protected them from ill-treatment, for a guard of ships on their return. Two triremes were assigned them; which, as soon as they came to the river Bagrada, from whence there was a view of the Roman camp, returned to Carthage. There was a Carthaginian fleet stationed at Utica, from which two quadriremes were sent, either in consequence of private orders from Carthage, or Hasdrubal, who commanded that fleet, (for the infraction was unauthorized by the public,) and which suddenly attacked the Roman quinquereme, as it came round the promontory. The Carthaginian vessels attempted to strike the Roman with their prows, but which they could not effect by reason of its activity, nor could the fighting men leap from those lower ships into the higher ones. The quinquereme was gallantly defended, as long as weapons lasted. These, however, spent, there was nothing that could save them, but the land being near, and the multitude which poured out from the camp to the coast. They, therefore, pressed forward, using their utmost efforts with their oars; and running on shore, the men escaped, but the ship was entirely lost. After the truce had been thus broken, by outrage after outrage, Lælius and Fulvius arrived from Rome, with the Carthaginian ambassadors. To these Scipio declared, that “although the Carthaginians had violated not only their faith pledged in the truce, but also the laws of nations respecting ambassadors, yet they should meet no treatment from him unbecoming the maxims of the Roman people, and his own principles;” and thus dismissing them, he prepared for war. Hannibal now drew nigh the land, when one of the sailors was ordered to climb the mast, and discover what part of the country they were arrived at; and on his saying that their course pointed to a ruined sepulchre, the Carthaginian, struck with the ill omen, ordered the pilot to steer past that place, put in his fleet at Leptis, and there disembarked his forces.
XXVI. These were the transactions in Africa during that year; those which follow belong to the period in which Marcus Servilius Geminus, who was then master of the horse, and Tiberius Claudius Nero, were consuls. However, towards the end of the former year deputies arrived from the allied cities of Greece. They complained, that their lands were ravaged by Philip’s garrisons; and that their ambassadors, who had gone into Macedonia to solicit reparation of their injuries, had not been admitted to the presence of the King. At the same time, they gave information, that four thousand soldiers, under the command of Sopater, had gone over to Africa, and were marching to the assistance of the Carthaginians; and that some money also had been sent with them; whereupon the senate ordered, that an embassy should be sent to the King, to acquaint him, that the senate considered those proceedings as contrary to the treaty subsisting between them. Caius Terentius Varro, Caius Mamilius, and Marcus Aurelius, were despatched on this business, with an escort of three quinqueremes. That year was remarkable for a great fire, by which the buildings on the Publician hill were burned to the ground; and also for an uncommon overflowing of the rivers: but provisions were plentiful, because, in consequence of peace, all parts of Italy were open for importation; and besides, a great quantity of corn, which had been sent from Spain, was delivered out to the inhabitants, at the easy rate of four asses a bushel, by the curule ædiles, Marcus Valerius Falto, and Marcus Fabius Buteo. In the same year died Quintus Fabius Maximus, in extreme old age, if it be true, as some writers affirm, that he had been augur for sixty-two years. He was certainly a man worthy of the great surname which he bore, even if he were the first to whom it was applied. He surpassed his father, and was equal to his grandfather, in the honourable posts which he filled. His grandfather, Rullus, was distinguished by a greater number of victories, and greater battles; but the actions of Fabius, having such an antagonist as Hannibal, may be considered as equivalent to them all. He was deemed to possess more caution than spirit: but though it may be doubted, whether the dilatoriness of his conduct arose from his natural disposition, or from a conviction that it was best suited to the war in which he was engaged; yet nothing is more certain, than that this man alone, as the poet Ennis says, by his delays retrieved our affairs. Quintus Fabius Maximus, his son, was consecrated augur in his place, and Servius Sulpicius Galba pontiff, in his place also; for he held two offices in the college of priests. The Roman games were repeated for one day; the plebeian thrice repeated entire, by the curule ædiles, Marcus Sextius Sabinus, and Caius Tremellius Flaccus. Both of these were elected prætors, and, with them, Caius Livius Salinator, and Caius Aurelius Cotta. The different accounts given by writers render it uncertain whether Caius Servilius, consul, presided at the elections that year, or Publius Sulpicius, nominated dictator by him, because he himself was detained in Etruria, being employed, pursuant to a decree of the senate, in holding inquisitions relative to the conspiracies of the principal inhabitants.
Y.R. 550. 202.XXVII. In the beginning of the following year, Marcus Servilius and Tiberius Claudius, summoning the senate to the Capitol, consulted them concerning the provinces. Both were desirous of obtaining Africa; they therefore wished that Italy and Africa should be disposed of by lot: but this was opposed, though by Quintus Metellus chiefly. The consuls were ordered to apply to the tribunes, to take the sense of the people, as to who should conduct the war in Africa. All the tribes concurred in appointing Publius Scipio. Nevertheless the consuls put the province of Africa to the lot, for so the senate had decreed, and it fell to Tiberius Claudius, who was to carry to Africa a fleet of fifty ships, all quinqueremes, with authority equal to that of Scipio. Marcus Servilius obtained Etruria; and in the same province, the command was continued to Caius Servilius, if the senate thought proper that the consul should remain in the city. Of the prætors, Marcus Sextius obtained Gaul, where Publius Quintilius Varus was to deliver to him two legions with the province; Caius Livius, Bruttium, with the two legions which Publius Sempronius, proconsul, had commanded the year before; Cneius Tremellius, Sicily, with directions to receive from Publius Villius Tappulus, prætor of the former year, the province and two legions; Villius, as proprætor, was appointed to protect the coast of Sicily with twenty ships of war and one thousand troops; Marcus Pomponius to convey from thence to Rome, with the remaining twenty ships, one thousand five hundred soldiers. The city jurisdiction fell to Caius Aurelius Cotta: the rest were continued in their provinces, and with the armies to which they were first appointed. Not more than sixteen legions were employed that year in the service of the empire. In order to conciliate the favour of the gods to all their undertakings and proceedings, it was ordered that the consuls should, before they set out to the campaign, celebrate those games, and with the greater victims, which Titus Manlius, dictator, in the consulate of Marcus Claudius Marcellus, and Titus Quintus had vowed, provided the commonwealth should for the next five years continue in the same state. The games were exhibited in the Circus during four days, and the victims sacrificed to the gods to whom they had been vowed.
XXVIII. Meanwhile, both hope and anxiety daily increased in equal proportion; nor could people judge with certainty, whether it was a proper subject of rejoicing, that Hannibal had, at the end of sixteen years, departed from Italy, and thereby left the possession of it open to the Roman people, or whether they had not rather cause of fear, in his having carried his army safe into Africa. They considered, that although the place was “changed, the danger was still the same. That Quintus Fabius, lately deceased, who foretold the violence of this struggle, had grounds for what he further presaged, namely, that Hannibal would prove a more formidable enemy in his own country than he had been in a foreign one. Scipio, he said, would not have to deal with Syphax, a King of undisciplined barbarians, whose army had been sometimes commanded by Statorius, a man but little elevated above the condition of a slave; nor with such a dastardly general as his father-in-law, Hasdrubal; nor with tumultuary armies, hastily collected out of a crowd of armed rustics; but with Hannibal, a general of the greatest bravery; brought up from his infancy in the midst of arms; in his childhood a soldier; when scarcely arrived at the age of youth, a general: who had advanced to an old age, through a course of victories; had filled Spain, Gaul, and Italy, from the Alps to the streight, with monuments of his mighty atchievements; who was at the head of an army equally experienced in service with himself, hardened by having gone through every kind of difficulty, even beyond what men could be supposed to endure; which had been stained numberless times, with Roman blood, and had carried with them the spoils, not only of Roman soldiers, but of Roman commanders. That many would meet Scipio in battle, who with their own hands had slain prætors, generals, and consuls; who, in fine, were decorated with the highest military honours, accustomed as they were to ravage camps, and the cities of Italy; and that the magistrates of the Roman people were not in possession of such a number of fasces, as Hannibal could have carried before him, of those which had been taken from the generals who had fallen by his arms.” While their thoughts were employed in these discouraging considerations, their anxiety and fears were farther aggravated by other circumstances: for after being accustomed during several years to wage war in different parts of Italy, without any sanguine hopes or prospect of its speedy conclusion; Scipio and Hannibal, champions matched as it were for the final decision, had now raised their eagerest attention. Even those who had the greatest confidence in Scipio, and the strongest hopes of victory, the nearer they saw the completion of their wishes, the more was their solicitude heightened. In a similar manner were the minds of the Carthaginians affected; who, when they turned their eyes on Hannibal, and the greatness of his exploits, repented that they had sued for peace. Then recollecting that they had been twice vanquished in battle; that Syphax had been made prisoner; that they had been expelled from Spain; and finally, that they had been obliged to quit Italy for the defence of their own shores; and that all this had been effected by the valour and conduct of Scipio alone, they looked on him with terror, as a leader whose birth the fates had ordained for their destruction.
XXIX. Hannibal, in the mean time, arrived at Hadrumetum, and spent a few days there in refreshing his soldiers after the fatigues of the voyage; when, roused by the alarming accounts, that all the country round Carthage was possessed by the enemy’s troops, he advanced by long marches to Zama, which lies at the distance of five days’ journey from that city. Some spies whom he sent out, being intercepted by the Roman guards, and brought to Scipio, he gave them in charge to the military tribunes, with orders to conduct them through the camp, wherever they chose; he encouraged them to lay aside fear, and view every thing; and then, inquiring whether they had taken a satisfactory view of every particular, he gave them an escort back to Hannibal. Hannibal received no pleasure from any of their accounts. They informed him that Masinissa happened to arrive that very day with six thousand foot, and four thousand horse; and he was particularly struck by the confidence of the enemy, which, he well knew, was not conceived without reason. Wherefore, although he was himself the cause of the war, and had, by his coming, occasioned the violation of the truce, and the breaking off the negociations; yet, thinking that he might obtain more reasonable terms, by suing for peace while his strength was entire, than after being discomfited, he sent a message to Scipio, requesting a conference. Whether he took this step on his own judgment or by the order of the government, I cannot take upon me to affirm. Valerius Antias says, that after he had been defeated by Scipio in the first engagement, in which twelve thousand fighting men were slain, and one thousand seven hundred taken, he came as ambassador, with ten others, into the camp to Scipio. Scipio did not decline the conference; and the two generals, by concert, moved forward their camps, in order that they might the more conveniently meet. Scipio sat down at a small distance from the city Nedagara, in a spot every way commodious, besides having water within a javelin’s cast: Hannibal took possession of a hill, four miles distant; safe and convenient in all respects, except that there was no water near. In the space between them a spot was chosen, open to view on all sides, that there might be no room for treachery.
XXX. Their armed attendants having retired to an equal distance on both sides, here met (each attended by a signal interpreter) the two greatest generals, not only of the age they lived in, but of all who have been recorded in any former time, and equal to any of the kings or commanders of any nations whatever. On sight of each other they both stood, for some time, silent, struck dumb as it were by mutual admiration. At length, Hannibal began thus: “Since it has been so ordered by fate, that I, who first commenced hostilities against the Roman people, and have so often been on the point of making a conquest of them, should voluntarily come to sue for peace, I am glad that it is to you, rather than to any other person, that I am to apply. On your part too, among the many illustrious events of your life, it ought not to be reckoned the least glorious, that Hannibal, to whom the gods granted victory over so many Roman generals, has yielded to you; and that you put an end to this war, which was first rendered remarkable by the calamities of your country, before it was so by those of ours. Here also we may observe, the sport of fortune in the disposal of events, that, in the consulate of your father, I took up arms. He was the first Roman general with whom I engaged in battle, and to his son I now come unarmed to solicit peace. It were indeed above all things to be wished, that the gods had so disposed the minds of our fathers, that your countrymen had been contented with the dominion of Italy, and ours with that of Africa; for, even on your side, Sicily and Sardinia are not an adequate compensation for the loss of so many fleets, so many armies, so many excellent generals. But what is past, however it may be blamed, cannot be retrieved. Our attempts on the possessions of others have ended in our being necessitated to fight in defence of our own. Thus we not only brought war home to you in Italy, but to ourselves in Africa. You beheld the arms and ensigns of an enemy almost within your gates and on your walls; and we now, from the ramparts of Carthage, hear the din of a Roman camp. The event, therefore, for which we ought most earnestly to pray, and you to wish, above all things, now comes in view: you are negociating a peace in the midst of a successful career. We who negociate are the persons most interested in its establishment, and whose stipulations, whatever they may be, will certainly be ratified by our respective states. We want nothing but a disposition not averse from pacific counsels. For my part, so much instruction have I received from age, returning now an old man to my country, which I left a boy, and also both from prosperity and adversity, that I wish to follow reason rather than fortune. But your early time of life and uninterrupted flow of prosperity, both apt to inspire a degree of warmth ill suited to peaceful plans, excite in my mind very serious apprehensions. He whom fortune has never deceived, rarely considers the uncertainty of future events. What I was at Thrasimenus and at Cannæ, that you are at present. Appointed to a command at an age scarcely fit for service, though your enterprises were of the boldest nature, you were ever successful. By avenging the death of your father and uncle, you acquired a distinguished character of uncommon bravery and filial duty. You recovered Spain which had been lost, and drove out of it four Carthaginian armies. On being elected consul, when others wanted spirit sufficient to defend Italy, you passed into Africa; and, by there destroying two armies, by taking and burning two camps in one hour, by making a captive of Syphax, a most powerful king, and by seizing on so many of his cities, and so many of ours, you compelled me to relinquish the possession of Italy, which I had continued to hold for sixteen years. Perhaps your wishes tend rather to conquest, than to peace. I know the spirit of you Romans, that it ever aims at grand rather than useful objects. Fortune once shone on me with the same benign countenance. But if, along with prosperity, the gods would grant us a sound judgment, we should consider not only what had already happened, but what may possibly happen hereafter. Although you should forget all other instances, I am a sufficient example of every kind of fortune. Me, whom you formerly saw pitching my camp between the Anio and your city, and on the point of scaling the walls of Rome, you now behold here, under the walls of my native city, which is threatened with a siege; deprived of my two brothers, generals of consummate skill and valour; deprecating, in behalf of my own city, those calamities, by which formerly I struck terror into yours. The most exalted state of fortune is ever the least to be relied on. A peace concluded at a juncture wherein your affairs flourish, and ours are distressed, reflects splendour and dignity on you who grant it: to us, who request it, it is rather necessary, that honourable. A certain peace is better and safer than a victory in expectation: the former is in your own disposal, the latter in that of the gods. Risk not, on the chance of one hour, the happy successes of so many years. When you consider your own strength, recollect, at the same time, the chances of war. Arms there will be on both sides; but, on both sides, the bodies that contend will be but human. Events less correspond to men’s expectations in war, than in any other case whatever. Even supposing that you should gain the victory in battle, the proportion of glory which you would thereby acquire, in addition to what you may now securely enjoy on granting peace, would be, by no means, commensurate to that which you must lose, should any misfortune happen to you. The chance of but a single hour may destroy, at once, both the honours which you have attained, and those for which you hope. In the adjusting of matters, every thing, Publius Scipio, will be in your own power; in the other case, you must abide by the pleasure of the gods. Formerly, Marcus Atilius, in this same land, would have been celebrated among the few most extraordinary examples of bravery and success, had he, when possessed of victory, granted peace to the request of our fathers; but by setting no bounds to his ambition, by laying no restraint on his passions; in proportion to the height of glory to which he had attained, was his fall dishonourable. Certainly it is his right who grants peace, not his who sues for it, to prescribe the terms; yet, perhaps, we might not be deemed altogether inadequate to the estimation of what degree of punishment should be inflicted on us. We are ready to give up to you the possession of all those places, on account of which the war was begun: Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, with all the islands that lie in any part of the sea between Africa and Italy. Let us, Carthaginians, confined within the shores of Africa, behold you (since such is the will of the gods) extending your sovereignty, both by land and sea, over foreign realms. I am far from denying that you have some reason to distrust the faith of the Carthaginians, on account of the insincerity which they showed in their solicitations, and in not waiting the issue of the negotiation. Scipio, the security of a peace being observed depends much on the character of those who sue for it. Your senate, I hear, refused to grant it, partly from the consideration that the persons employed in the embassy were not sufficiently respectable. Hannibal sues for peace, who would not sue for it unless he thought it expedient; and who, on account of the same expediency which induces him to sue for it, will also maintain it. And as because the war was begun by me, I took effectual care, until the gods themselves declared against me, that my countrymen should have no reason to complain of it, so will I exert my utmost endeavours to make them satisfied with a peace procured by my means.”
XXXI. The Roman general answered to this effect: “Hannibal, it was not unknown to me that their expectation of your arrival was what urged the Carthaginians to violate the truce subsisting, and to break off the treaty of peace. Nor do you dissemble it; as you deduct, from the former conditions, every particular, except those which are, for some time past, in our own power. But as you are solicitous that your countrymen should understand how great a burden they are relieved from by your means, so it is my business to endeavour that they shall not now retract the concessions which they then agreed to make, and enjoy what they then ceded, as a reward of their perfidy. Unworthy of being allowed the same terms, you require additional advantages in consequence of your treachery. Neither were our fathers the aggressors in the war of Sicily, nor we in that of Spain. In the former case, the danger of their allies the Mamertines; in the latter, the destruction of Saguntum, armed us in the cause of justice and in duty. That you were the aggressors, you yourself acknowledge; and the gods bear witness to it, who directed the issue of the former war according to equity, and who are now directing, and will bring the present to the same issue. As to myself, I am sensible of the instability of human affairs; I am mindful of the power of fortune; and I know that all our undertakings are subject to a thousand casualties. But as on the one hand, if you were retiring from Italy of your own accord, and, after embarking your troops, were come to solicit peace, if in that case I refused to listen to you, I should acknowledge that I behaved with pride and arrogance: so, on the other hand, now that I have dragged you into Africa, in spite of every effort which you used to prevent it, I am not bound to show you any particular respect. If, therefore, in addition to the terms on which it was then intended to conclude a peace (and with which you are acquainted,) a full compensation be proposed for having seized our ships and stores, during the subsistence of a truce, and for the insult offered to my ambassadors, I shall then have matter to lay before my council. But if this also seem severe, prepare for war, since you must be insincere in proposing peace.” Thus, without coming to any accommodation, they retired to their respective armies, and informed them that words had been tried to no purpose, that the business must be decided by arms, and they must abide the fortune which the gods should allot them.
XXXII. Arrived at their camps, both gave orders to their soldiers to “get ready their arms, and call forth their courage, for a decisive contest; in which, if success attended them, they would secure a superiority, not for a day, but for ever. That it would be seen before to-morrow night, whether Rome or Carthage was to give laws to all nations: for not Africa, nor Italy, but the world, was to be the prize of victory; while the calamities to those who should be overcome, were proportionate to the prize;” for as, on the one hand, the Romans had no chance of escaping, in a foreign, and to them unknown, country; so, on the other, Carthage, having exhausted her last resources, seemed to be threatened with immediate ruin. Next day, advanced two by far the most illustrious generals, and two most puissant armies, of the two most powerful states, to complete the splendid fabric of glory which they had erected, and which each were desirous of securing to himself. The minds of all were anxiously suspended between hope and fear; and whilst they viewed, at one time, their own, at another, the enemy’s army, estimating their powers either by the eye or judgment, they met with objects both of encouragement and of dread. Such as did not occur to their own thoughts, were suggested by the generals in their admonitions and exhortations. The Carthaginian recounted the exploits of sixteen years in the heart of Italy; so many Roman generals, so many armies utterly destroyed; and when he came to any soldier, who had been distinguished for his behaviour in a former battle, he reminded him of the honours which he had received. Scipio called to his men’s recollection Spain, the late engagements in Africa, and the acknowledgment of the enemy, that they had been compelled by their fears to sue for peace; which, yet, the natural perfidy of their disposition would not allow them to establish. He related also his conference with Hannibal; which, as it had passed in secret, he might have misrepresented at his pleasure. He mentioned, as an encouraging omen, that, as they were coming out to battle, the gods had shown them the same portents, under the auspices of which their fathers had fought at the islands Ægates. “The end of the war, and of all their toils,” he said, “was now at hand; they had, within their reach, the plunder of Carthage: and might speedily return home to their country, to their parents, their children, their wives and their household gods.” These words he uttered in an erect attitude, and with a countenance so animated with joy, that he seemed as if he had already obtained the victory.
XXXIII. He then drew up the spearmen in the van, behind them the first-rank men, and closed the rear with the veterans. He did not, as usual, form the cohorts in close order, each before their own colours, but placed the companies at some distance from each other, that there might be room to admit the elephants of the enemy, without disturbing the ranks. Lælius, who formerly served under him as lieutenant-general, but that year as quæstor, by particular appointment, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, he posted with the Italian cavalry on the left wing; Masinissa and the Numidians on the right. The openings between the companies of the cohorts he filled up with light-armed troops, and gave them directions, on the attack of the elephants, either to retire to the rear of the files, or, opening to right and left, to form along with the cohorts, so as to leave a passage for those beasts, through which they might advance, exposed on both sides to their weapons. Hannibal, in order to strike terror, placed his elephants in the front: of these there were eighty (a number greater than he had ever before brought into the field;) next to them, the auxiliary Ligurians and Gauls, with the Balearians and Moors intermixed. In the second line, he placed the Carthaginians, Africans, and the legion of Macedonians; and then, (leaving a moderate interval,) he formed the line of reserve, consisting of Italian soldiers, chiefly Bruttians, a greater number of whom followed him on his departure from Italy, by compulsion and through necessity, rather than from inclination. He also covered the flanks with cavalry, the Carthaginians being posted on the right, the Numidians on the left. Various were the methods of encouragement made use of among such a number of men, differing from each other in language, in manners, in laws, in arms, in garb, in temper, and in their motives for engaging in the service. To the auxiliaries was held out present gain; and that to be greatly increased by future plunder. The Gauls were inflamed by rousing their peculiar and natural hatred to the Romans. To the Ligurians, who had been brought down from craggy mountains, the fertile plains of Italy were pointed out as the reward of success. The Moors and Numidians he terrified with the prospect of cruel tyranny under Masinissa. Different objects of hope and fear were proposed to each; but to the Carthaginians, nothing but extremes, either on the side of hope or of fear, was presented to view; the walls of their native city, their household gods, the sepulchres of their ancestors, their children, parents, and wives distracted with terror; in a word, utter ruin and abject slavery, or the empire of the world. While the general was thus employed among the Carthaginians, and the commanders of the several nations among their respective countrymen, (many of them speaking by interpreters, being intermixed with foreigners,) the trumpets and cornets sounded on the side of the Romans; and such a shout was raised, that the elephants, particularly in the left wing, turned about against their own men, the Moors and Numidians. Masinissa, charging them while in disorder, easily drove them in, and stripped their line on that flank of the cover of the cavalry. However, a few of these beasts, unaffrighted, being driven forward on the Romans, made great slaughter among the light troops, but not without receiving many wounds; for, springing back to the companies, and, to avoid being trodden under foot, opening a passage for the elephants, they discharged their spears at them from both sides, being entirely exposed as they passed through; nor did the javelins from the first line of troops cease, until, being driven away from the Roman line by the weapons showered on them, they put to flight even the Carthaginian cavalry, in their own right wing. Lælius, seeing the enemy in this confusion, charged their disordered troops, and put them to flight.
XXXIV. The Carthaginian line was exposed on both flanks, not having cavalry to cover them, when the infantry began to engage; but no longer on an equality with the Roman, either in hope or in strength. There was another circumstance which, though trifling in appearance, is yet of great consequence in action. The shout on the side of the Romans was composed of the same sounds uttered by every one; consequently it was the stronger, and more terrible: on the other side, the sounds were dissonant, uttered in the discordant languages of many different nations. Besides, the Roman manner of fighting was steady, being accustomed to press against the enemy with their own weight, and that of their arms. That of the Carthaginian was more loose, with greater agility than strength. Immediately, therefore, at the first onset, the Romans made the line of the enemy give way; and then, thrusting against them with their elbows and the bosses of their shields, and stepping forward into the place from which they had pushed them, they rapidly gained ground. The rear ranks also, on perceiving the enemy’s line shrink, pushed forward those who were before them, which greatly encreased their force in repelling the enemy. On the other side, the Africans and Carthaginians, so far from supporting the auxiliaries, who were giving way, drew back; fearing lest, if that first line made an obstinate resistance, the enemy, in cutting through those, might close with them. The auxiliaries, therefore, quickly turned their backs, and facing about to their own party, some of them retreated into the second line; others, who were not received there, made use of their arms against them, enraged at not having been supported before, and at being now excluded. So that there were, in a manner, two battles carried on together; the Carthaginians being obliged to engage in fight, and at the same time, both with their mercenaries and with the Romans. They did not, however, admit those craven soldiers into their line, which was still firm and fresh; but, closing the ranks, drove them off to the wings, and to the open plains round the field of battle. The place where the auxiliaries had lately stood was filled up with such a number of slain, and such a quantity of arms, that it was rather more difficult to make way through them, than it had been through the body of troops; the spearmen, however, who were in the van, pursuing the enemy, as each could find a passage through the heaps of carcases and weapons and streams of blood, disordered both their battalions and ranks. The battalions of the first-rank men also, seeing the line before them in confusion, began to waver; which, as soon as Scipio observed, he instantly ordered a retreat to be sounded for the spearmen, and carrying off the wounded to the rear, brought up the first-rank men and veterans to the wings, in order that the line of the spearmen, in the centre, might be the more secure and firm. Thus was a new battle begun, for they had now come up to their real antagonists, who were upon an equality with them, both in respect to the kind of arms which they used, of their experience in war, the fame of their exploits, and the greatness both of their hopes and dangers. But the Romans had the advantage in number, and also in spirit, as having already routed the cavalry and the elephants, and, after having defeated the first line, engaging now with the second.
XXXV. Lælius and Masinissa, who had pursued the flying cavalry to some distance, returning at this critical juncture, fell upon the rear of the enemy; and by this charge effectually routed them. Many were surrounded in the field and slain; many, being dispersed in flight through the open country adjoining, where the cavalry were entirely masters, perished in various places. Of the Carthaginians and their allies there were slain, on that day, above twenty thousand; about the same number were taken, with an hundred and thirty-three military standards, and eleven elephants. Of the conquerors there fell two thousand. Hannibal, escaping during the confusion with a few horsemen, fled to Hadrumetum, having left no effort untried to rally his troops before he left the field. Scipio himself, and all who were skilled in the military art, allowed him the merit of having made the disposition of his forces with singular judgment; placing the elephants in the front, in order that their ungoverned onset and insupportable violence might put it out of the power of the Romans to follow their ensigns, and preserve their ranks, in which they placed their chief confidence; then the auxiliaries, before the line of Carthaginians, in order that these men, made up of the refuse of all nations, who were retained in their duty, not by any sense of honour, but by gain, should have no prospect of safety in flight, and at the same time should stand the first brunt and fury of the foe, that, if they did no other service, they might at least be as shields to blunt their swords: next, the Carthaginian and African soldiers, in whom lay all his hopes, in order that they, being equal in all respects with the Romans, might have the advantage of engaging fresh, against men fatigued and wounded; separating the Italians at some distance from the rest, and placing them in the rear, as he knew not, with certainty, whether they were friends or foes. Hannibal, after exerting this last effort of bravery, having fled to Hadrumetum, on receiving a summons, returned to Carthage, in the thirty-sixth year after he had left it, and when a boy. He acknowledged, in the senate-house, that he was vanquished, not only in the recent battle, but in the whole of the war; and that there was no other hope of avoiding ruin, but in obtaining peace.
XXXVI. Immediately after the battle, Scipio having taken and plundered the enemy’s camp, returned with immense booty to the sea-coast, to his fleet, having received an account that Publius Lentulus was arrived at Utica with fifty ships of war, a hundred transports, and stores of all kinds. With a view, therefore, of increasing the consternation at Carthage, by showing them objects of terror on every side, after despatching Lælius to Rome with news of the victory, he ordered Cneius Octavius to conduct the legions to that city by land; and, joining the fleet of Lentulus, lately arrived, with his own which he had before, he himself, setting sail from Utica, steered for the harbour of Carthage. When he had arrived within a small distance, he was met by a Carthaginian ship, dressed with fillets and branches of olive, on board of which were ten ambassadors, the chief men of the state, sent, by the advice of Hannibal, to sue for peace. These coming under the stern of the general’s ship, holding out the badges of supplicants, besought and implored the favour and compassion of Scipio: but they received no other answer, than that they should come to Tunes, to which place he intended to remove his camp. Then, after taking a view of the situation of Carthage, not so much for the sake of any present use which he intended to make of his knowledge of it, as of dispiriting the enemy, he returned to Utica, and at the same time recalled Octavius thither. As they advanced towards Tunes, an account was brought that Vermina, son of Syphax, with a greater number of horse than of foot, was coming to the aid of the Carthaginians. A detachment of the army, with all the cavalry, attacking this body of Numidians on their march, on the first day of the Saturnalia, routed them without much difficulty; and every possibility of flight being cut off by the surrounding cavalry, fifteen thousand men were slain, one thousand two hundred taken, together with fifteen hundred horses, and seventy-two military standards. The prince himself, with very few attendants, made his escape during the tumult. The camp was then pitched near Tunes, in the same place as before, whither thirty ambassadors came from Carthage to Scipio, and the behaviour of these was much more calculated to excite compassion than that of the former, as their distress was still encreasing. But, from the recollection of their late perfidy, they were heard with the less pity. In the council, though all were stimulated by just resentment to pursue Carthage to destruction, yet, when they considered how great an undertaking it was, and what a length of time the siege of a city, so strong and so well fortified, would require, (Scipio himself also being uneasy, under the apprehension of a successor being appointed in his place, who might claim the glory of having terminated the war, though it had been actually brought to an issue by the labours and dangers of another,) they all became inclined to peace.
XXXVII. The next day, the ambassadors being again called, and, with severe rebukes for their perfidy, admonished, that, instructed by so many calamities, they should at length be convinced of the regard due to the gods, and to an oath, these terms of peace were prescribed to them; —“That they should live free under their own laws, should enjoy the possession of whatever cities, whatever territories, and whatever boundaries, they possessed before the war; and that the Roman general would, on that day, put an end to the devastation of their country. That they should deliver up to the Romans all deserters, fugitives, and prisoners; and should surrender their ships of war, except ten, together with all their trained elephants, and should not train any more. That they should wage no war, either in or out of, Africa, without the permission of the Roman people; should make restitution to Masinissa, and conclude a treaty with him; should supply corn and pay to the auxiliaries, until their ambassadors should return from Rome. That they should pay, within fifty years, ten thousand talents of silver,* by equal payments, according to a mode laid down in writing, and should give a hundred hostages to be approved of by Scipio, none younger than fourteen years, or older than thirty. That he would grant them a truce on this condition: that the transports which had been captured during the former truce, together with their cargoes, be restored; if this were not complied with, they were not to expect either truce or peace.” When the ambassadors, who were sent home with these conditions, reported them in an assembly of the people, Gisgo having stood forth to dissuade them from accepting the terms, and being listened to by the multitude, who were as impatient of quiet, as unfit for war, Hannibal, filled with indignation on finding objections made, and listened to, at such a juncture, laid hold of Gisgo with his hand, and pulled him down from the place on which he stood. When this sight, unusual in a free state, raised a murmur among the citizens, he, being accustomed to military manners, and disconcerted by their reception of him, said to them: “At nine years of age I left this city, at the end of the thirty-sixth I have returned. The rules of war, I think, I perfectly understand, having, from my childhood, been continually supplied with opportunities of learning them, at some times by the state of my own affairs, at others by that of the public. The privileges, laws, and manners of the city and of the Forum, you ought to teach me.” Having thus apologized for his imprudence, he spoke at large concerning the peace, showing how necessary it was, and that the terms were not unreasonable. The greatest difficulty of all was that of the fleet, which had been captured during the truce; nothing was to be found but the ships themselves, nor was it easy to collect the effects, those who were charged with having them in their possession, making opposition to all that was proposed. It was at length resolved, that the ships should be restored, that the men at all events should be collected, and that the other matters which could not be produced, should be left to the valuation of Scipio, according to which the Carthaginians should make compensation in money. Some say, that Hannibal, having gone from the field to the sea-coast, sailed immediately in a ship which had been prepared, and went to King Antiochus; and that when Scipio made it a principal demand, that Hannibal should be given up to him, he was told that Hannibal had quitted Africa.
XXXVIII. On the return of the ambassadors to Scipio, the quæstors were ordered to give in a return, extracted from the public accounts, of the public property which had been on board the ships; and the owners to make a return of the private property. For the amount of the value, twenty-five thousand pounds weight of silver were required to be immediately paid, and a truce for three months was granted to the Carthaginians. A clause was added, that, during the truce, they should not send ambassadors to any other place than to Rome; and that if any such should come to Carthage, they should not dismiss them until the Roman general was made acquainted with their business. With the Carthaginian ambassadors were sent to Rome, Lucius Veturius Philo, Marcius Ralla, and Lucius Scipio, the general’s brother. From that time, the great supplies from Sicily and Sardinia caused such cheapness of provisions, that the merchant often furnished corn to the mariners for the freight. At Rome there had been some uneasiness on the first account of the Carthaginians having recommenced hostilities, and Tiberius Claudius had been ordered to conduct the fleet to Sicily with all expedition, and to pass over from thence to Carthage; and the other consul, Marcus Servilius, to remain in the city, until the state of affairs in Africa should be known. Tiberius Claudius proceeded slowly in every step towards the equipment and sailing of the fleet, being offended at the senate having voted, that Scipio, in preference to the consul, should have the honour of prescribing the terms of peace. Accounts of prodigies also, arriving a little before the news of the revival of hostilities, had raised people’s apprehensions. At Cumæ, the orb of the sun seemed to be diminished, and a shower of stones fell; and in the district of Veliturnum, the earth sunk in great chasms, in which trees were swallowed. At Aricia, the Forum, and the shops round it; at Frusino, several parts of the wall and a gate, were struck by lightning. On the Palatine hill, too, a shower of stones fell. This prodigy, according to the method handed down by tradition, was expiated by a nine day’s solemnity; the others by the greater victims. Among the rest, an unusual overflowing of the rivers was also considered as a prodigy: for there was such an inundation of the Tiber, that, the Circus being filled with water, preparations for the games of Apollo were made on the outside of the Colline gate, near the temple of Venus Erycina. But on the very day of the games, the weather suddenly clearing up, the procession, which had begun to advance toward the Colline gate, was recalled, and conducted to the Circus, on its being known that the water had retired from thence. Its own proper place being thus restored to this solemn exhibition, gave much joy to the people, and added considerably to the splendour of the games.
XXXIX. The consul Claudius, having at last set out from the city, was overtaken by a violent storm between the ports of Cosa and Laureta, and brought into imminent danger: however, having got as far as Populonii, where he continued until a change of weather, he proceeded to the island Ilva; from Ilva to Corsica, and from thence to Sardinia. There, as he was sailing by the Mad Mountains, a still more furious tempest surprised him, and dispersed his fleet. Many ships were damaged, and lost their rigging, and several were wrecked. In this harassed and shattered condition, the fleet arrived at Carales, where the winter came upon them while they were employed in docking and repairing the ships. Meanwhile the year coming to a conclusion, and it not being proposed to continue him in command, Tiberius Claudius, after he had ceased to hold any public office, brought home the fleet. Marcus Servilius, having nominated Caius Servilius Geminus dictator, lest he might be recalled on account of the elections, set out for his province. The dictator named Publius Ælius Pætus master of the horse. The elections, though many days were appointed for the purpose, were still prevented by storms; so that the magistrates of the former year going out of office, on the day preceding the ides of March, and no successors being appointed, the state was without curule magistrates. Lucius Manlius Torquatus, a pontiff, died that year: in his place was substituted Caius Sulpicius Galba. The Roman games were thrice repeated, entire, by the curule ædiles, Lucius Licinius Lucullus and Quintus Fulvius. Some of the inferior officers belonging to the ædiles, being convicted, on the testimony of a discoverer, of having secretly conveyed money out of the treasury, were condemned, not without reflecting dishonour on the ædile Lucullus. Publius Ælius Tubero and Lucius Lætorius, plebeian ædiles, on some irregularity being discovered in their election, abdicated their office, after they had celebrated the games, and, on occasion thereof, a feast to Jupiter; having also erected in the Capitol three images, formed out of silver raised by fines. The dictator and master of the horse, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, celebrated the games of Ceres.
XL. When the Roman deputies, together with the Carthaginian ambassadors, were come to Rome from Africa, the senate assembled in the temple of Bellona. Lucius Veturius Philo acquainted them (to the great joy of the Fathers), that a battle had been fought with Hannibal, in which the Carthaginians were finally overpowered, and an end put at last to that disastrous war: he added, as a small accession to that great and happy event, that Vermina, son of Syphax, had also been vanquished. He was then ordered to go out to the general assembly, and to communicate the joyful news to the people. On this, after mutual congratulations, a public thanksgiving being ordered, all the temples in the city were thrown open, and a supplication for three days decreed. The ambassadors of the Carthaginians, and of King Philip, for they also had arrived, requesting an audience of the senate, the dictator answered, by order of the Fathers, that the new consuls would procure them an audience.Y.R.551. 201. The elections were then held. The consuls elected were, Cneius Cornelius Lentulus, and Publius Ælius Pætus: the prætors, Marcus Junius Pennus, to whom the city jurisdiction fell; Marcus Valerius Falto acquired, by lot, Bruttium; Marcus Fabius Buteo, Sardinia; Publius Ælius Tubero, Sicily. With respect to the provinces of the consuls, it was determined that nothing should be done until the ambassadors of King Philip and the Carthaginians were heard: for it was plainly foreseen, that the conclusion of the one war would be quickly followed by the commencement of another. The consul Cneius Lentulus was inflamed with a strong desire of obtaining the province of Africa; having in view either an easy conquest, or, if it were now to be concluded, the glory of terminating so great a war in his consulate. He declared, therefore, that he would not suffer any business to be done until Africa were decreed to him; for his colleague declined putting in his claim for it, being a moderate, prudent man, who perceived, that a contest with Scipio for that honour, besides being unjust, would be also unequal. Quintus Minucius Thermus, and Manius Acilius Glabrio, tribunes of the people, said, that “Cneius Cornelius was endeavouring to carry a point which had been attempted in vain, the year before, by the consul Tiberius Claudius: that, by the direction of the senate, the question had been proposed to the people respecting the command in Africa, and that the thirty-five tribes unanimously decreed that command to Publius Scipio.” The affair, after being canvassed with much heat both in the senate and in the assembly of the people, was at last brought to this conclusion — that it should be left to the determination of the former. The Fathers, therefore, on oath, for so it had been agreed, voted that the consuls should settle between themselves, or cast lots for their provinces, which of them should have Italy, and which a fleet of fifty ships. That he to whose lot it fell to command the fleet, should sail to Sicily; and if peace could not be concluded with the Carthaginians, should pass over from thence to Africa, where he the said consul should command at sea, and Scipio on land, with the same extent of authority as heretofore. If the terms of peace should be agitated, that then the tribunes should take the opinion of the people, whether they would order the consul or Publius Scipio to settle those terms, and if the victorious army was to be conducted home, whom they would order to do it. If they should order the peace to be granted by Publius Scipio, and the army also to be brought home by him, that then the consul should not cross over from Sicily to Africa. That the other consul, to whose lot Italy fell, should receive two legions from Marcus Sextius, prætor.
XLI. Publius Scipio’s command in the province of Africa was prolonged, with the armies which he then had. To Marcus Valerius Falto, prætor, were decreed the two legions in Bruttium, which Caius Livius had commanded the preceding year. Publius Ælius, prætor, was to receive two legions in Sicily from Cneius Tremellius. One legion, which had been under Publius Lentulus, proprætor, was decreed to Marcus Fabius, for Sardinia. The command in Etruria was continued to Marcus Servilius, consul of the former year, with his own two legions. With regard to Spain, the senate ordered, that whereas Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, and Lucius Manlius Acidinus, had now remained in that country for several years, the consuls should therefore make application to the tribunes, that, if they thought proper, they should ask the people, whom they would order to have charge in Spain; and that the person so ordered should collect such a number of Romans out of the two armies, as would make up one legion, and as many of the allies of the Latine confederacy as would form fifteen cohorts; with which he should conduct the business of the province; and that Lucius Cornelius and Lucius Manlius shall lead home the veteran soldiers to Italy. To the consul Cornelius was decreed a squadron of fifty ships out of the two fleets, one of which was under Cneius Octavius in Africa, the other under Publius Vellius, guarding the coast of Sicily; with liberty to take such of those vessels as he might please. It was also decreed, that Publius Scipio should keep the fifty ships of war on his station as before; and that if Cneius Octavius chose to continue in the command of these as heretofore, he should have it for that year as proprætor: that if Lælius should be set at the head of the fleet, then Octavius should return to Rome, and bring home such ships as the proconsul had not occasion for. Ten ships of war were also decreed to Marcus Fabius for Sardinia; and the consuls were ordered to inlist two legions for the city, so that the state should have in its service, for that year, fourteen legions, and one hundred and ten ships of war.
XLII. The next business attended to was that of the envoys of Philip and the Carthaginians. It was thought proper that the Macedonians should be first introduced. Their discourse comprehended a variety of subjects: they first endeavoured to clear themselves of those matters, of which the ambassadors sent from Rome to the King had complained, relative to the depredations committed on the allies. Then, on their part, they remonstrated on the conduct of the allies of the Romans, and particularly on that of Marcus Aurelius, who, they said, being one of the three ambassadors sent to them, had staid behind the rest, levied soldiers, committed hostilities against them, and fought several pitched battles with their commanders. They afterwards demanded, that the Macedonians, and their captain, Sopater, who had served for pay under Hannibal, and having been made prisoners were still detained, might be restored to them. In opposition to this, Marcus Furius, who had been sent from Macedonia to Aurelius for the purpose, asserted, that “Aurelius had been directed to take care, lest the allies, wearied out by insults and depredations, should go over to the King: that he had not gone beyond the boundaries of the confederated states, but had endeavoured to prevent devastations being committed with impunity within their territories: that Sopater was one of the King’s particular favourites, one of those distinguished with the purple, and that he had been lately sent with four thousand men and a sum of money into Africa, to the assistance of Hannibal and the Carthaginians.” The Macedonians being interrogated on these points, and not giving any clear answers, the senate, without farther discussion, told them, that “the King was seeking war, and, if he persisted, would quickly find it. That the treaty had been doubly violated by him: first, in offering injury to the allies of the Roman people, assaulting them in open hostilities; secondly, in assisting their enemies with troops and money. That Publius Scipio had acted and was acting properly, and regularly, in treating as foes, and throwing into confinement, those who were taken in arms against the Roman people; and that Marcus Aurelius did his duty to the state, and in a manner agreeable to the senate, in protecting the allies of the Roman people by arms, since he could not do it by the authority of the treaty.” The Macedonians being dismissed with this severe answer, the Carthaginian ambassadors were called; on sight of whose ages and dignities, every one was ready to observe, that they were now in earnest in their application for peace, for that these were by far the most respectable persons of their nation. Hasdrubal, (by his countrymen surnamed Hædus,) was distinguished above the rest, having always recommended peace, and opposed the Barcine faction. On that account, great attention was paid to him, when he transferred the blame of the war from the state on the ambition of a few. After discoursing on various heads, at one time refuting charges which had been made against them; at another, acknowledging some, lest, by denying what was manifestly true, he might render forgiveness more difficult; and then going so far as to admonish the Conscript Fathers to show mildness and moderation in prosperity, he added, that “if the Carthaginians had listened to him and Hanno, and made a proper use of occurrences as they happened, they would have been in a condition of prescribing terms, instead of begging a peace, as they now did: but men were seldom blessed with good fortune and a good understanding at the same time. That the Roman people were therefore invincible, because, when successful, they never lost sight of the maxims of wisdom and prudence; and, indeed, it would have been surprising, had they acted otherwise: while those who are unaccustomed to success, unable to restrain their transports, run into extravagance. To the Roman people the joy of victory was now habitual, and almost a matter of course; and they had enlarged their empire more by their lenity to the vanquished, than by their victories.” The discourse of the others was more calculated to excite compassion; they represented, “to what a low state, from an exalted height, the affairs of the Carthaginians had fallen. That they who had lately extended the power of their arms over almost the whole world, had now little left them except the walls of Carthage. Shut up within these, they could see nothing, either on land or sea, that they could call their own. Even of the city itself, and of their habitatations, they had no other tenure, than the Romans not choosing to wreak their vengeance on those also, when no other object for it now remained.” When it appeared, that the Fathers were moved by compassion, one of the senators, it is said, incensed at the perfidy of the Carthaginians, called out to them, and asked, “What gods they would now invoke as witnesses in the pending treaty, having broken faith with those in whose name the former one was concluded.” “The same,” said Hasdrubal, “who now show such resentment against the violators of treaties.”
XLIII. The minds of all inclining to peace, Cneius Lentulus, consul, whose province was the fleet, protested against the senate passing a decree. On which the tribunes, Manius Acilius and Quintus Minucius, put the question to the people, “Whether they would choose and order the senate to decree that peace should be made with the Carthaginians; whom they would order to grant peace, and whom to conduct the armies home from Africa?” All the tribes unanimously passed the question as it was put, and ordered Publius Scipio to grant the peace, and also to conduct the armies home. In consequence of this order of the people, the senate decreed, that Publius Scipio, in concert with the ten ambassadors, should conclude a peace with the people of Carthage, on such terms as he should judge proper. The Carthaginians then, after returning thanks to the senate, requested that they might be permitted to enter the city, and to converse with their countrymen, who, having been made prisoners, were still kept so: among whom some of them had relations and friends, men of distinction, and to others they had messages from their relations. After a meeting with their friends, on making a second request, that liberty might be allowed them to ransom such of them as they chose, they were ordered to give in a list of their names; and when they had given in about two hundred, a decree of the senate was passed, that “the Roman ambassadors should carry two hundred of the prisoners, such as the Carthaginians should select, into Africa, to Publius Cornelius Scipio, and give him directions, that, if peace were concluded, he should restore them, without ransom, to the Carthaginians.” The heralds being ordered to go to Africa to ratify the treaty, at their desire the senate passed a decree in these words: that “they should carry with them flint stones of their own, and vervain of their own: that the Roman commander should give them the order to strike the treaty, and that they should call on him for the herbs.” This was a kind of herb brought from the Capitol, and given to the heralds on such occasions. The deputies being dismissed from Rome in this manner, as soon as they came to Scipio in Africa, concluded a peace on the terms beforementioned. The Carthaginians delivered up the ships of war, elephants, deserters, fugitives, and four thousand prisoners, among whom was Quintus Terentius Culleo, a senator. The ships Scipio ordered to be carried out into the deep, and burned. Some say that they amounted to five hundred, of all sorts, which were worked with oars; and that the sudden sight of these in flames was as great a shock to the Carthaginians, as if Carthage itself had been set on fire. The deserters were treated with more severity than the fugitives: those who were of the Latine confederacy were beheaded, the Romans were crucified.
XLIV. The last peace with the Carthaginians had been made forty years before this, in the consulate of Quintus Lutatius and Aulus Manlius. The late war began twenty-three years after, in the consulate of Publius Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius, and ended in the seventeenth year, when Cneius Cornelius and Publius Ælius Pætus were consuls. We are told that Scipio often said afterwards, that the ambition, first of Tiberius Claudius, and then of Cneius Cornelius, was what prevented that war from ending in the utter destruction of Carthage.
The Carthaginians having been exhausted by the long continuance of the late struggles, found it difficult to raise the first contribution money, so that the senate-house was filled with grief and lamentations; on which occasion, it is said, that Hannibal was observed to laugh; and that being observed by Hasdrubal Hædus, for laughing in a moment of public sorrowing, and when he himself was the cause of their tears, he said — “If the inward thoughts could be perceived, in the same manner as the look of the countenance is perceived by the eye, you would be immediately convinced that the laughter which you blame, proceeds not from a heart elated with joy, but from one driven almost to madness by misfortunes; and yet it is not, by any means, so unseasonable as those absurd and inconsistent tears of yours. Then ought you to have wept, when our arms were taken from us, our ships burned, and we ourselves forbidden to engage in foreign wars: that was the wound by which we fell. And do not imagine that the measures taken against you by the Romans, were dictated merely by animosity. No great state can remain long at rest. If it has no enemies abroad, it finds them at home; as overgrown bodies seem safe from external injuries, but suffer grievous inconveniences from their own strength. We feel, it seems, for the public misfortunes, only in proportion as our private affairs are affected by them; and none of them stings more deeply than the loss of money. Thus, when the spoils were stripped off from vanquished Carthage, and you saw her left naked among so many armed states of Africa, not one of you uttered a groan; now, because a contribution must be made to the tribute out of your private properties, you lament as if the existence of the state were terminated. Much I dread lest you quickly feel that the subject of your tears this day is the lightest of your misfortunes.” Such were Hannibal’s sentiments which he delivered to the Carthaginians. Scipio, having called an assembly, bestowed on Masinissa, in addition to his paternal kingdom, the city of Cirtha, and the other cities and lands belonging to the territories of Syphax, which had fallen into the hands of the Roman people. He ordered Cneius Octavius to conduct the fleet to Sicily, and deliver it to the consul Cneius Cornelius; and the ambassadors of the Carthaginians to go to Rome, in order that the terms stipulated for by him, might be ratified by the authority of the senate and the order of the people.
XLV. Peace being established by sea and land, he embarked his army, and carried it over to Lilybæum in Sicily, and from thence, sending a great part of his troops round by sea, he himself landed in Italy. As he proceeded through the country, he found it no less delighted at finding there was an end to the war, than at his success in it; not only the inhabitants of the cities pouring out to show their respect to him, but crowds of the country people also filling up the roads; and thus he arrived at Rome, where he entered the city in the most splendid triumph which had ever been beheld. He carried into the treasury a hundred and twenty-three thousand pounds weight of silver, and out of the spoil distributed to each of his soldiers four hundred asses* . The death of Syphax caused some diminution in the splendour of the show, but none in the glory of the general who triumphed. He died a short time before at Tibur, to which place he had been removed from Alba. His death, however, made some noise, for he was honoured with a public funeral. Polybius, a writer of no contemptible authority, asserts, that this King was led in triumph. Quintus Terentius Culleo followed Scipio in his triumph, with a cap on his head†; and through his whole life after, as became him, he respected him as the author of his liberty. I have not been able to discover whether it was the affection of the soldiers, or the attachment of the people, which honoured Scipio with the surname of Africanus; nor whether it was first brought into use by the flattery of his friends, as that of Felix given to Sylla, and of Magnus to Pompey, in the memory of our fathers. He was certainly the first general distinguished by the title of a nation which he had subdued. Others, afterwards, following his example, though far inferior in the greatness of their atchievements, assumed pompous inscriptions for their statues, and splendid surnames for their families.
* Sophonisba had been formerly betrothed to Masinissa, and being afterwards given to Syphax, was one reason of his quarrelling with the Carthaginians, and joining the Romans. Another was, that in the contest between him and Mezetulus for the throne, his rival had been aided by the Carthaginians.
* 968,750l.
* 16l. 2s. 11d.
† 3l. 4s. 7d.
* 1,437,500l
* 1l. 5s. 10d.
† The symbol of liberty.
Renewal of the war with Philip, King of Macedon. Successes of Publius Sulpicius, consul, who had the conduct of that war. The Abydenians, besieged by Philip, put themselves to death, together with their wives and children. Lucius Furius, prætor, defeats the Insubrian Gauls who had revolted, and Hamilcar who stirred up the insurrection is slain, with thirty-five thousand men. Farther operations of Sulpicius, Attalus, and the Rhodians, against Philip.
Y.R.551. 201.I. I FEEL a degree of pleasure in having come to the end of the Punic war, as if myself had borne a share of the toil and danger. For though it ill becomes a person who has ventured to promise an entire history of all the Roman affairs, to be fatigued by any particular parts of so extensible a work; yet when I reflect that sixty-three years, (for so many there are from the first Punic war to the end of the second,) have filled up as many volumes for me, as the four hundred and eighty-seven years, from the building of the city to the consulates of Appius Claudius, who first made war on the Carthaginians; I plainly perceive that, like those who are tempted by the shallows near the shore, to walk into the sea, the farther I advance, I am carried into the greater depth and abyss as it were; and that my work rather increases on my hands, than diminishes, as I expected it would, by the first parts being completed. The peace with Carthage was quickly followed by a war with Macedonia; a war, not to be compared to the former, indeed, either in danger, or in the abilities of the commander, or the valour of the soldiers; but rather more remarkable with regard to the renown of their former Kings, the ancient fame of that nation, and the vast extent of their empire, which formerly comprehended a large part of Europe, and the greater part of Asia. The contest with Philip, which had begun about ten years before, had been intermitted for the three last years; the Ætolians having been the occasion both of the commencement and of the cessation of hostilities. The Romans being now disengaged from all employment, and being incensed against Philip, on account both of his infringing the peace with regard to the Ætolians, and the other allies in those parts, and also on account of his having lately sent aid of men and money into Africa, to Hannibal and the Carthaginians, were excited to a renewal of the war by the entreaties of the Athenians, whose country he had ravaged, and shut up the inhabitants within the walls of the city.
II. About the same time, ambassadors arrived both from King Attalus, and from the Rhodians, with information that the Macedonian was tampering with the states of Asia. To these embassies an answer was given, that the senate would give attention to the affairs of Asia. The determination with regard to the making war on him, was left open to the consuls, who were then in their provinces. In the mean time, three ambassadors were sent to Ptolemy, King of Egypt, namely, Caius Claudius Nero, Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, and Publius Sempronius Tuditanus, to announce their conquest of Hannibal and the Carthaginians, to give thanks to the King for his faithful adherence to his engagements in the time of their distress, when even the nearest allies of the Romans abandoned them, and to request, that, if they should be compelled by ill-treatment to break with Philip, he would preserve the same disposition towards the Roman people. In Gaul, about this time, the consul Publius Ælius, having heard, that, before his arrival, the Boians had made inroads on the territories of the allies, levied two occasional legions on account of this disturbance; and adding to them four cohorts from his own army, ordered Caius Oppius, the præfect, to march with this tumultuary band through Umbria (which is called the Sappinian district), and to invade the territories of the Boians; leading his own troops thither openly, over the mountains which lay in the way. Oppius, on entering the same, for some time committed depredations with good success and safety. But afterwards, having pitched on a place near a fort called Mutilum, convenient enough for cutting down the corn which was now ripe, and setting out, without having acquired a knowledge of the country, and without establishing armed posts, of sufficient strength to protect those who were unarmed and intent on their work, he was suddenly surrounded, together with his foragers, and attacked by the Gauls. On this, even those who were furnished with weapons, struck with dismay, betook themselves to flight. Seven thousand men, dispersed through the cornfields, were put to the sword, among whom was the commander himself, Caius Oppius. The rest were driven in confusion into the camp, from whence, in consequence of a resolution there formed, they set out on the following night, without any particular commander; and, leaving behind a great part of their baggage, made their way through woods almost impassable, to the consul, who returned to Rome without having performed any thing in his province worth notice, except that he ravaged the lands of the Boians, and made a treaty with the Ingaunian Ligurians.
III. The first time he assembled the senate, it was unanimously ordered that he should propose no other business before that which related to Philip, and the complaints of the allies; it was of course immediately taken into consideration, and in full meeting decreed, that Publius Ælius, consul, should send such person as he might think proper, vested with command, to receive the fleet which Cneius Octavius was bringing home from Sicily, and pass over to Macedonia. Accordingly, Marcus Valerius Lævinus, proprætor, was sent; and, receiving thirty-eight ships from Cneius Octavius near Vibo, he sailed to Macedonia, where, being met by Marcus Aurelius, the ambassador, and informed what numerous forces and what large fleets the King had prepared, and how busily he was employed in prevailing on divers states to join him, applying to some in person, to others by agents, not only through all the cities of the continent, but even in the islands, Lævinus was convinced from this, that the war required vigorous exertions on the side of the Romans; for, should they be dilatory, Philip might be encouraged to attempt an enterprise like to that which had been formerly undertaken by Pyrrhus, who possessed not such large dominions. He therefore desired Aurelius to convey this intelligence, by letter, to the consuls and to the senate.
IV. Towards the end of this year the senate, taking into consideration the lands to be given to the veteran soldiers, who, under the conduct and auspices of Publius Scipio, had finished the war in Africa, decreed, that Marcus Tunius, prætor of the city, should, if he thought proper, appoint ten commissioners to survey, and distribute among them, that part of the Samnite and Apulian lands which was the property of the Roman people. For this purpose were appointed, Publius Servilius, Quintus Cæcilius Metellus, Caius and Marcus Servilius, both surnamed Geminus, Lucius and Aulus Hostilius Cato, Publius Villius Tappulus, Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, Publius Ælius Pætus, and Quintus Flaminius. At the same time, Publius Ælius presiding at the election of consuls, Publius Sulpicius Galba, and Caius Aurelius Cotta, were elected. Then were chosen prætors, Quintus Minucius Rufus, Lucius Furius Purpureo, Quintus Fulvius Gillo, Cneius Sergius Plancus. The Roman stage-games were exhibited, in a sumptuous and elegant manner, by the curule ædiles, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, and Lucius Quintius Flamininus, and repeated for two days; and a vast quantity of corn, which Scipio had sent from Africa, was distributed by them to the people, with strict impartiality, and general satisfaction, at the rate of four asses a peck. The plebeian games were thrice repeated entire by the plebeian ædiles, Lucius Apustius Fullo, and Quintus Minucius Rufus; the latter of whom was, from the ædileship, elected prætor. There was also a feast of Jove on occasion of the games.
Y.R. 552. 200.V. In the year five hundred and fifty-two from the building of the city, Publius Sulpicius Galba, and Caius Aurelius, being consuls, within a few months after the conclusion of the peace with the Carthaginians, war began against King Philip. This was the first business introduced by the consul, Publius Sulpicius, on the ides of March, the day on which, in those times, the consuls entered into office; and the senate decreed, that the consuls should perform sacrifices with the greater victims, to such gods as they should judge proper, with prayers to this purpose — that “the business which the senate and people of Rome had then under deliberation, concerning the state, and the entering on a new war, might be attended with success and prosperity to the Roman people, the allies, and the Latine confederacy;” and that, after the sacrifices and prayers, they should consult the senate on the state of public affairs, and the provinces. At this time, very opportunely for promoting a war, the letters were brought from Marcus Aurelius the ambassador, and Marcus Valerius Lævinus, proprætor. An embassy, likewise, arrived from the Athenians, to acquaint them, that the King was approaching their frontiers, and that in a short time, not only their lands, but their city also, must fall into his hands, unless they received aid from the Romans. When the consuls had made their report, that the sacrifices had been duly performed, and that the gods had accepted their prayers; that the aruspices had declared that the entrails showed good omens, and that enlargement of territory, victory and triumph were portended; the letters of Valerius and Aurelius were read, and audience given to the ambassadors of the Athenians. After which, a decree of the senate was passed, that thanks should be given to their allies, because, though long solicited, they had not been prevailed upon, even by dread of a siege, to depart from their engagements. With regard to sending assistance to them, they resolved, that an answer should be given as soon as the consuls should have cast lots for the provinces; and when the consul, to whose lot Macedonia fell, should have proposed to the people, to declare war against Philip, King of the Macedonians.
VI. The province of Macedonia fell by lot to Publius Sulpicius: and he proposed to the people to declare, “that they chose and ordered, that on account of the injuries and hostilities committed against the allies of the Roman people, war should be proclaimed against King Philip, and the Macedonians under his government.” The province of Italy fell to the lot of the other consul, Aurelius. The prætors then cast lots: to Cneius Sergius Plancus fell the city jurisdiction; to Quintus Fulvius Gillo, Sicily: to Quintus Minucius Rufus, Bruttium; and to Lucius Furius Purpureo, Gaul. At the first meeting of the people, the proposal concerning the Macedonian war was rejected by almost all the tribes. This was occasioned partly by the people’s own inclinations, who, wearied by the length and severity of the late war, longed to be freed from toils and dangers, and partly by Quintus Bæbius, tribune of the people, who, pursuing the old practice of criminating the patricians, charged them with multiplying wars one after another, so that the people could never enjoy peace. This proceeding gave great offence to the patricians, and the tribune was severely reprehended in the senate, where all earnestly recommended it to the consul, to call a new assembly for passing the proposal; to rebuke the backwardness of the people, and to prove to them how highly detrimental and dishonourable it would be to decline engaging in that war.
VII. The consul having assembled the people in the field of Mars, before he called upon the centuries to give their votes, required their attention, and addressed them thus: “Citizens, you seem to me not to understand that the question before you is not, whether you choose to have peace or war; for Philip, having already commenced hostilities with a formidable force, both on land and sea, allows you not that option. The question is, whether you choose to transport your legions to Macedonia, or to suffer the enemy to come into Italy? How important the difference is between these two cases, if you knew it not before, you have sufficiently learned in the late Punic war. For who entertains a doubt, but if, when the Saguntines were besieged and implored our protection, we had assisted them with vigour, as our fathers did the Mamertines, we should have averted the whole weight of the war upon Spain, which, by our dilatory proceedings, we suffered to our extreme loss to fall upon Italy? Nor does it admit a doubt, that what confined this same Philip in Macedonia, (after he had entered into an engagement with Hannibal, by ambassadors and letters, to cross over into Italy,) was our sending Lævinus with a fleet to carry the war home to him. And what we did at that time, when we had Hannibal to contend with in Italy, do we hesitate to do now, after Hannibal has been expelled Italy, and the Carthaginians subdued. Suppose for an instant, that we allow the King to experience the same inactivity on our part, while he is taking Athens, as Hannibal found while he was taking Saguntum: it will not be in the fifth month, as the Carthaginian came from Saguntum, but on the fifth day after the Macedonian sets sail from Corinth, that he will arrive in Italy. Perhaps you may not consider Philip as equal to Hannibal; or the Macedonians to the Carthaginians: certainly, however, you will allow him equal to Pyrrhus. Equal, do I say? what a vast superiority has the one man over the other; the one nation over the other? Epirus ever was, and is at this day, deemed but an inconsiderable accession to the kingdom of Macedonia. Philip has the entire Peloponnesus under his dominion, even Argos itself, not more celebrated for its ancient glory, than for the death of Pyrrhus. Now compare our situation. How much more flourishing was Italy when Pyrrhus attacked it? how much greater its strength, possessing so many commanders, so many armies, which the Punic war afterwards consumed? yet was he able to give it a violent shock, and advanced victorious almost to the gates of Rome: and not the Tarentines only, and the inhabitants of that tract of Italy which they call the greater Greece, whom you may suppose to have been led by the similarity of language and name, but the Lucanian, the Bruttian, and the Samnite, revolted from us. Do you believe that these would continue quiet and faithful, if Philip should come over to Italy, because they continued faithful afterwards, and during the Punic war? Be assured those states will never fail to revolt from us, except when there is no one to whom they can go over. If you had disapproved of a Roman army passing into Africa, you would this day have had Hannibal and the Carthaginians to contend with in Italy. Let Macedonia rather than Italy, be the seat of war. Let the cities and lands of the enemy be wasted with fire and sword. We have already found by experience, that our arms are more powerful and more successful abroad than at home. Go, and give your voices, with the blessing of the gods; and what the senate have voted, do you ratify by your order. This resolution is recommended to you, not only by your consul, but even by the immortal gods themselves; who, when I offered sacrifice, and prayed that the issue of this war might be happy and prosperous to me and to the senate, to you and the allies and Latine confederates, granted every omen of success and happiness.”
VIII. After this speech of Sulpicius, being sent to give their votes, they declared for the war as he had proposed. On which, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, a supplication for three days was proclaimed by the consuls; and prayers were offered to the gods at all the shrines, that the war which the people had ordered against Philip might be attended with success and prosperity. The consul Sulpicius, enquiring of the heralds, whether they would direct the declaration of the war against King Philip to be made to himself in person; or whether it would be sufficient to publish it in the nearest garrison, within the frontiers of his kingdom, they answered, that either would do. The consul received authority from the senate to send any person whom he thought proper, not being a senator, as ambassador, to denounce war against the King. They then proceeded to arrange the armies for the consuls and prætors. The consuls were ordered to levy two legions, and to disband the veteran troops. Sulpicius, to whom the management of this new and highly important war had been decreed, was allowed permission to carry with him as many volunteers as he could procure out of the army which Publius Scipio had brought home from Africa; but he was not empowered to compel any veteran soldier to attend him. They ordered that the consul should give to the prætors, Lucius Furius Purpureo, and Quintus Minucius Rufus, five thousand of the allies of the Latine confederacy; with which forces they should hold, one, the province of Gaul, the other, Bruttium. Quintus Fulvius Gillo was ordered, in like manner, to select out of the army which Publius Ælius, late consul, had commanded, such as had been the shortest time in the service, until he also made up five thousand of the allies and Latine confederates, for guarding his province of Sicily. To Marcus Valerius Falto, who, during the former year, had held the province of Campania, as prætor, the command was continued for a year; in order that he might go over, in quality of proprætor, to Sardinia, and choose out of the army there five thousand of the allies of the Latine confederacy, who also had been the shortest time in the service. The consuls were at the same time ordered to levy two legions for the city, which might be sent wherever occasion should require; as there were many states in Italy infected with an attachment to the Carthaginians, which they had formed during the war, and, in consequence, swelling with resentment. The state was to employ during that year six Roman legions.
IX. In the midst of the preparations for war, ambassadors came from King Ptolemy, with the following message:— that “the Athenians had petitioned the King for aid against Philip; but that although they were their common allies, yet the King would not, without the direction of the Roman people, send either fleet or army into Greece, for the purpose of defending or attacking any person. That he would remain quiet in his kingdom, if the Romans were at leisure to protect their allies; or, if more agreeable to them to be at rest, would himself send such aid as should effectually secure Athens against Philip.” Thanks were returned to the King by the senate, and this answer: that “it was the intention of the Roman people to protect their allies; that if they should have occasion for any assistance towards carrying on the war, they would acquaint the King; and that they were fully sensible, that, in the power of his kingdom, their state had a sure and faithful resource.” Presents were then, by order of the senate, sent to the ambassadors, of five thousand asses* to each. While the consuls were employed in levying troops, and making other necessary preparations, the people, prone to religious observances, especially at the beginning of new wars, after supplications had been already performed, and prayers offered up at all the shrines, lest any thing should be omitted that had ever been practised, ordered, that the consul who was to have the province of Macedonia, should vow games, and a present to Jove. Licinius, the chief pontiff, occasioned some delay in the performance of it, alleging, that “he could not properly frame the vow, unless the money to discharge it were specified. For as the sum to be named could not be applied to the uses of the war, it should be immediately set apart, and not to be intermixed with other money; and that, unless this were done, the vow could not be fulfilled.” Although the objection, and the person who proposed it, were both of weight, yet the consul was ordered to consult the college of pontiffs, whether a vow could not be undertaken without specifying the amount to discharge it? The pontiffs determined, that it could; and that it would be even more in order, to do it in that way. The consul, therefore, repeating after the chief pontiff, made the vow in the same words in which those made for five years of safety used to be expressed; only that he engaged to perform the games, and make the offerings, at such expense as the senate should direct by their vote, at the time when the vow was to be put in act. Before this, the great games, so often vowed, were constantly rated at a certain expense: this was the first time that the sum was not specified.
X. While every one’s attention was turned to the Macedonian war, and at a time when people apprehended nothing less, a sudden account was brought of an inroad made by the Gauls. The Insubrians, Cænomanians and Boians, having been joined by the Salyans, Ilvatians, and other Ligurian states, and putting themselves under the command of Hamilcar, a Carthaginian, who, having been in the army of Hasdrubal, had remained in those parts, had fallen upon Placentia; and, after plundering the city, and, in their rage, burning a great part of it, leaving scarcely two thousand men among the flames and ruins, passed the Po, and advanced to plunder Cremona. The news of the calamity, which had fallen on a city in their neighbourhood, having reached thither, the inhabitants had time to shut their gates, and place guards on the walls, that they might, at least, try the event of a siege, and send messengers to the Roman prætor. Lucius Furius Purpureo, who had then the command of the province, had, in pursuance of the decree of the senate, disbanded the army, excepting five thousand of the allies and Latine confederates; and had halted, with these troops, in the nearest district of the province about Ariminum. He immediately informed the senate, by letter, of the subsisting tumult. That, “of the two colonies which had escaped the general wreck in the dreadful storm of the Punic war, one was taken and sacked by the present enemy, and the other besieged. Nor was his army capable of affording sufficient protection to the distressed colonists, unless he chose to expose five thousand allies to be slaughtered by forty thousand invaders (for so many there were in arms); and by such a loss, on his side, to augment their courage, already elated on having destroyed one Roman colony.”
XI. On reading this letter it was decreed, that the consul Aurelius should order the army which he had appointed to assemble on a certain day in Etruria, to attend him on the same day at Ariminum; and should either go in person, if the public business would permit, to suppress the tumult of the Gauls, or write to the prætor Lucius Furius, that, as soon as the legions from Etruria came to him, he should send five thousand of the allies to guard that place in the mean time, and should himself proceed to relieve the colony from the siege. It was also decreed, that ambassadors should be sent to Carthage, and also into Numidia to Masinissa: to Carthage, to tell that people that “their countryman, Hamilcar, having been left in Gaul, (either with a part of the army formerly commanded by Hasdrubal, or with that of Mago — they did not with certainty know which,) was waging war, contrary to the treaty. That he had raised forces from among the Gauls and Ligurians, and persuaded them to take arms against Rome. That, if they chose a continuance of peace, they must recall him, and give him up to the Roman people.” They were ordered at the same time to tell them, that “all the deserters had not been produced; that a great part of them were said to appear openly in Carthage, who ought to be sought after, and surrendered according to the treaty.” This was the message they were to deliver to the Carthaginians. To Masinissa, they were charged with congratulations, on his “having not only recovered the kingdom of his father, but enlarged it by the acquisition of the most flourishing part of Syphax’s territories.” They were ordered also to acquaint him, that “the Romans had entered into a war against Philip, because he had given aid to the Carthaginians, while, by the injuries which he offered to the allies of the Roman people, he had obliged them to send fleets and armies into Greece, at a time when the flames of war spread over all Italy; and that by thus making them separate their forces, had been the principal cause of their being so late in passing over to Africa: and to request him to send some Numidian horsemen to assist in that war.” Ample presents were given them to be carried to the King: vases of gold and silver, a purple robe, and a tunic adorned with palms of purple, an ivory sceptre, and a robe of state, with a curule chair. They were also directed to assure him, that if he deemed any thing farther requisite to confirm and enlarge his kingdom, the Roman people, in return for his good services, would exert their utmost zeal to effect it. At this time, too, the senate was addressed by ambassadors from Vermina, son of Syphax, apologizing for his mistaken conduct, on account of his youth and want of judgment, and throwing all the blame on the deceitful policy of the Carthaginians: adding, that “as Masinissa had from an enemy become a friend to the Romans, so Vermina would also use his best endeavours that he should not be outdone in offices of friendship to the Roman people, either by Masinissa, or by any other; and requesting that he might receive from the senate, the title of king, friend and ally.” The answer given to these ambassadors was, that “not only his father Syphax, from a friend and ally, had on a sudden, without any reason, become an enemy to the Roman people, but that he himself had made his first essay of manhood in bearing arms against them. He must, therefore, sue to the Roman people for peace, before he could expect to be acknowledged king, ally, and friend; that it was the practice of that people to bestow the honour of such title, in return for great services performed by kings towards them; that the Roman ambassadors would soon be in Africa, to whom the senate would give instructions to regulate conditions of peace with Vermina, as he should submit the terms entirely to the will of the Roman people; and that, if he wished that any thing should be added, left out, or altered, he must make a second application to the senate.” The ambassadors sent to Africa on those affairs were Caius Terentius Varro, Publius Lucretius, and Cneius Octavius, each of whom had a quinquereme assigned him.
XII. A letter was then read in the senate, from Quintus Minucius, the prætor, who held the province of Bruttium, that “the money had been privately carried off by night out of the treasury of Proserpine at Locri; and that there were no traces which could direct to the discovery of the guilty persons.” The senate was highly incensed at finding that the practice of sacrilege continued, and that even the fate of Pleminius, an example so recent and so conspicuous both of the guilt and of the punishment, did not deter from it. They ordered the consul, Cneius Aurelius, to signify to the prætor in Bruttium, that “it was the pleasure of the senate, that an inquiry be made concerning the robbery of the treasury, according to the method used by Marcus Pomponius, prætor, three years before; that the money which could be discovered should be restored, and any deficiency be made up; and that, if he thought proper, atonements should be made for the purpose of expiating the violation of the temple, in the manner formerly prescribed by the pontiffs.” At the same time, also, accounts were brought of many prodigies happening in several places. It was said, that in Lucania the sky had been seen in a blaze; that at Privernum, in clear weather, the sun had been of a red colour during a whole day; that at Lanuvium, in the temple of Juno Sospita, a very loud bustling noise had been heard in the night. Besides, monstrous births of animals were related to have occurred in many places: in the country of the Sabines, an infant was born whose sex could not be distinguished; and another was found sixteen years old, whose sex also was doubtful. At Frusino a lamb was born with a swine’s head; at Sinuessa, a pig with a human head; and in Lucania, in the land belonging to the state, a foal with five feet. All these were considered as horrid and abominable, and as if nature were straying from her course in confounding the different species. Above all, the people were particularly shocked at the hermaphrodites, which were ordered to be immediately thrown into the sea, as had been lately done with a production of the same monstrous kind, in the consulate of Caius Claudius and Marcus Livius. Not satisfied with this, they ordered the decemvirs to inspect the books in regard to that progidy; and the decemvirs, from the books, directed the same religious ceremonies which had been performed on an occasion of the same kind. They ordered, besides, an hymn to be sung through the city by thrice nine virgins, and an offering to be made to Imperial Juno. The consul, Caius Aurelius, took care that all these matters were performed according to the direction of the decemvirs. The hymn was composed by Publius Licinius Tegula, as a similar one had been, in the memory of their fathers, by Livius.
XIII. All religious scruples were fully removed by expiations; at Locri, too, the affair of the sacrilege had been thoroughly investigated by Quintus Minucius, and the money replaced in the treasury out of the effects of the guilty. When the consuls wished to set out to their provinces, a number of private persons, to whom the third payment became due, that year, of the money which they had lent to the public in the consulate of Marcus Valerius and Marcus Claudius, applied to the senate. The consuls, however, having declared that the treasury being scarcely sufficient for the exigencies of a new war, in which a great fleet and great armies must be employed, there were no means of paying them at present. The senate could not avoid being affected by their complaints, in which they alleged that “if the state intended to use, for the purposes of the Macedonian war, the money which had been lent for the Punic war, as one war constantly arose after another, what would be the issue, but that, in return for their kind assistance to the public, their property would be confiscated, as if they had been guilty of some crime?” The demands of the private creditors being equitable, and the state being in no capacity of discharging the debt, they determined to pursue a middle course between equity and convenience; and accordingly they decreed, that “whereas many of them mentioned that lands were frequently exposed to sale, and that they themselves wished to become purchasers: they should, therefore, have liberty to purchase any belonging to the public, and which lay within fifty miles of the city. That the consuls should make a valuation of these, and impose on each acre a quit-rent of one as, as an acknowledgment that the land was the property of the public, in order that when the people should become able to pay, if any one chose rather to have the money than the land, he might restore it.” The private creditors accepted the terms with joy; and that land was called Trientius and Tabulius, because it was given in lieu of the third part of their money.
XIV. Publius Sulpicius, after making his vows in the Capitol, set out from the city in his robes of war, attended by his lictors, and arrived at Brundusium; where, having formed into legions the veteran soldiers of the African army who were willing to follow him, and chosen his number of ships out of the fleet of the late consul, Cornelius, he set sail, and next day arrived in Macedonia. There he was met by ambassadors from the Athenians, entreating him to relieve their city from the siege. Immediately, Caius Claudius Centho was despatched to Athens, with twenty ships of war, and a small body of land forces. For it was not the King himself who carried on the siege of Athens; he was at that time intently occupied in besieging Abydus, after having tried his strength at sea against Attalus, and against the Rhodians, without meeting success in either engagement. But, besides the natural presumptuousness of his temper, he acquired confidence from a treaty which he had formed with Antiochus, King of Syria, in which they had divided the wealth of Egypt between them; an object which, on hearing of the death of Ptolemy, they were both eager to secure. As to the Athenians, they had entangled themselves in a war with Philip on too trifling an occasion, and at a time when they retained nothing of their ancient dignity but pride. During the celebration of the mysteries, two young men of Acarnania, who were not initiated, unapprised of its being an offence against religion, entered the temple of Ceres along with the rest of the crowd: their discourse quickly betrayed them, by their asking questions which discovered their ignorance; whereupon, being carried before the presidents of the temple, although it was evident that they went in through mistake, yet they were put to death, as if for a heinous crime. The Acarnanian nation made complaint to Philip of this barbarous and hostile act, and prevailed on him to grant them some aid of Macedonian soldiers, and to allow them to make war on the Athenians. At first this army, after ravaging the lands of Attica with fire and sword, retired to Acarnania with booty of all kinds. This was the first provocation to hostilities. The Athenians afterwards, on their side, entered into a regular war, and proclaimed it by order of the state. For King Attalus and the Rhodians, having come to Ægina in pursuit of Philip, who was retiring to Macedonia, the King crossed over to Piræeus, for the purpose of renewing and strengthening the alliance between him and the Athenians. On entering the city, he was received by the whole inhabitants, who poured forth with their wives and children to meet him; by the priests, with their emblems of religion; and in a manner by the gods themselves, called forth from their abodes.
XV. Immediately the people were summoned to an assembly, that the King might treat with them in person on such subjects as he chose; but afterwards it was judged more suitable to his dignity to explain his sentiments in writing, than, being present, to be forced to blush, either at the recital of his extraordinary favours to the state, or at the immoderate applause of the multitude, which would overwhelm his modesty with acclamations, and other signs of approbation. In the letter which he sent, and which was read to the assembly, was contained, first, a recapitulation of the several acts of kindness which he had shown to the Athenian state, as his ally; then, of the actions which he had performed against Philip; and lastly, an exhortation to “enter immediately on the war; while they had him (Attalus), the Rhodians, and the Romans also to assist them;” not omitting to warn them, that “if they were backward now, they would hereafter wish, in vain, for the opportunity which they neglected.” They then gave audience to the ambassadors of the Rhodians, to whom they were under a recent obligation for having retaken, and sent home, four of their ships of war, which had been lately seized by the Macedonians. War was determined upon against Philip with universal consent. Unbounded honours were conferred on King Attalus, and then on the Rhodians. At that time, mention was made of adding a tribe, which they were to call Attalis, to the ten ancient tribes; the Rhodian state was presented with a golden crown, as an acknowledgment of its bravery, and the inhabitants with the freedom of Athens, in like manner as Rhodes had formerly honoured that people. After this, King Attalus returned to Ægina, where his fleet lay. From Ægina, the Rhodians sailed to Cia, and thence to Rhodes, steering their course among the islands, all of which they brought to join in the alliance, except Andros, Paros, and Cythnus, which were held by Macedonian garrisons. Attalus, having sent messengers to Ætolia, and expecting ambassadors from thence, was detained at Ægina, for some time, in a state of inaction; failing also in his endeavours to excite the Ætolians to arms, for they were rejoiced at having made peace with Macedon on any terms. Had Attalus and the Rhodians pressed Philip vigorously, they might have acquired the illustrious title of the deliverers of Greece, but by suffering him to pass over again into Hellespontus, and to strengthen himself by seizing the advantageous posts in Greece, they increased the difficulties of the war, and yielded up to the Romans the glory of having conducted and finished it.
XVI. Philip acted with a spirit more becoming a king; for, though he had found himself unequal to the forces of Attalus and the Rhodians, yet he was not dismayed, even by the prospect of an approaching war with the Romans. Sending Philocles, one of his generals, with two thousand foot and two hundred horse, to ravage the lands of the Athenians, he gave the command of his fleet to Heraclides, with orders to sail to Maronea, and marched thither himself by land, with two thousand foot, lightly equipped, and two hundred horse. Maronea he took at the first assault; and, afterwards, with a good deal of trouble, got possession of Ænus, which was at last betrayed to him by Ganymede, who commanded there for Ptolemy. He then seized on other forts, Cypselus, Doriscos, and Serrheus; and, advancing from thence to the Chersonesus, received Elæus and Allopeconnesus, which were surrendered by the inhabitants. Callipolis also, and Madytos, were given up to him, with several forts of but little consequence. The people of Abydus shut their gates against him, not suffering even his ambassadors to enter the place. The siege of this city detained Philip a long time; and it might have been relieved, if Attalus and the Rhodians had acted with any vigour. The King sent only three hundred men for a garrison, and the Rhodians one quadrireme from their fleet, although it was lying idle at Tenedos: and, afterwards, when the besieged could with difficulty hold out any longer, Attalus, going over in person, did nothing more than show them some hope of relief being near, giving not any real assistance to these his allies either by land or sea.
XVII. At first the people of Abydus, by means of engines placed along the walls, not only prevented the approaches by land, but annoyed the enemy’s ships in their station. Afterwards a part of the wall being thrown down, and the assailants having penetrated, by mines, to an inner wall, which had been hastily raised to oppose their entrance, the besieged sent ambassadors to the King to treat of terms of capitulation. They demanded permission to send away the Rhodian quadrireme, with the crew, and the troops of Attalus in the garrison; and that they themselves might depart from the city, each with one suit of apparel; but Philip’s answer afforded no hopes of accommodation, unless they surrendered at discretion. When this was reported by their ambassadors, it so exasperated them, rousing at the same time their indignation and despair, that, seized with the same kind of fury which had possessed the Saguntines, they ordered all the matrons to be shut up in the temple of Diana, and the free-born youths and virgins, and even the infants with their nurses, in the place of exercise; the gold and silver to be carried into the Forum; their valuable garments to be put on board the Rhodian ship, and another from Cyzicum, which lay in the harbour; the priests and victims to be brought, and altars to be erected in the midst. There they appointed a select number, who, as soon as they should see the army of their friends cut off in defending the breach, were instantly to slay their wives and children; to throw into the sea the gold, silver, and apparel that was on board the ships, and to set fire to the buildings, public and private: and to the performance of this deed they were bound by an oath, the priests repeating before them the verses of execration. Those who were of an age capable of fighting then swore to continue the battle till they fell, unless victorious. These, regardful of the gods by whom they had sworn, maintained their ground with such obstinacy, that although the night would soon have put a stop to the fight, yet the King, terrified by their fury, first drew off his forces. The chief inhabitants, to whom the more shocking part of the plan had been given in charge, seeing that few survived the battle, and that these were exhausted by fatigue and wounds, sent the priests (having their heads bound with the fillets of suppliants,) at the dawn of the next day, to surrender the city to Philip.
XVIII. Before the surrender, one of the Roman ambassadors who had been sent to Alexandria, Marcus Æmilius, being the youngest of them, in pursuance of a resolution which the three had jointly formed, on hearing of the present siege, came to Philip, and complained of his having made war on Attalus and the Rhodians; and particularly of the attack on Abydus, in which he was then employed: and on Philip’s saying that he had been forced into the war by Attalus and the Rhodians commencing hostilities against him — “Did the people of Abydus, too,” said he, “commence hostilities against you?” To him, who was unaccustomed to hear truth, this language seemed too arrogant to be used to a king, and he answered — “Your youth, the beauty of your form, and, above all, the name of Roman, render you too presumptuous. However, my first desire is, that you would observe the treaties, and continue in peace with me; but if you begin an attack, I am, on my part, determined to prove that the kingdom, and name, of the Macedonians is not less formidable in war than that of the Romans.” Having dismissed the ambassadors in this manner, Philip got possession of the gold and silver which had been thrown together in a heap, but was disappointed of his booty with respect to prisoners: for such violent frenzy had seized the multitude, that, on a sudden, taking up a persuasion that they were guilty of treachery towards those who had fallen in the battle, and upbraiding one another with perjury, especially the priests, who would surrender alive to the enemy those persons whom they themselves had devoted, they all at once ran different ways to put their wives and children to death; and then they put an end to their own lives by every possible method. The King, astonished at their madness, restrained the violence of his soldiers, and said, that “he would allow the people of Abydus three days to die in;” and, during this space, the vanquished perpetrated more deeds of cruelty on themselves, than the enraged conquerors would have committed; nor did any one of them come into the enemy’s hands alive, except such as were in chains, or under some other insuperable restraint. Philip, leaving a garrison in Abydus, returned to his kingdom; and, just when he had been encouraged by the destruction of the people of Abydus, to proceed in the war against Rome, as Hannibal had been by the destruction of Saguntum, he was met by couriers with intelligence, that the consul was already in Epyrus, and had drawn his land forces to Apollonia, and his fleet to Corcyra, into winter-quarters.
XIX. In the mean time, the ambassadors who had been sent into Africa, on the affair of Hamilcar, the leader of the Gallic army, received from the Carthaginians this answer: that “it was not in their power to do more than to inflict on him the punishment of exile, and to confiscate his effects: that they had delivered up all the deserters and fugitives, whom, on a diligent inquiry, they had been able to discover, and would send ambassadors to Rome, to satisfy the senate on that head.” They sent two hundred thousand measures of wheat to Rome, and the same quantity to the army in Macedonia. From thence the ambassadors proceeded into Numidia, to the kings; delivered to Masinissa the presents and the message according to their instructions, and out of two thousand Numidian horsemen, which he offered, accepted one thousand. Masinissa superintended in person the embarkation of these, and sent them, with two hundred thousand measures of wheat, and the same quantity of barley, into Macedonia. The third commission which they had to execute was with Vermina. He advanced to meet them, as far as the utmost limits of his kingdom, and left it to themselves to prescribe such conditions of peace as they thought proper, declaring, that “he should consider any peace with the Roman people as just and advantageous.” The terms were then settled, and he was ordered to send ambassadors to Rome to procure a ratification of the treaty.
XX. About the same time, Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, proconsul, came home from Spain; and having laid before the senate an account of his brave and successful conduct, during the course of many years, demanded that he might be allowed to enter the city in triumph. The senate, on this, gave their opinion, that “his services were, indeed, deserving of a triumph; but that they had no precedent left them by their ancestors, of any person enjoying a triumph, who was not, at the time of performing the service, on account of which he claimed that honour, either dictator, consul, or prætor; that he had held the province of Spain in quality of proconsul, and not of consul, or prætor.” They determined, however, that he might enter the city in ovation. Against this, Tiberius Sempronius Longus, tribune of the people, protested, alleging, that such proceedings would be no less unprecedented, and contrary to the practice of their ancestors, than the other; but, overcome at length by the unanimous desire of the senate, the tribune withdrew his opposition, and Lucius Lentulus entered the city in ovation. He carried to the treasury, forty-four thousand pounds weight of silver, and two thousand four hundred pounds weight of gold. To each of the soldiers he distributed, of the spoil, one hundred and twenty asses.*
XXI. The consular army had, by this time, removed from Arretium to Ariminum, and the five thousand Latine confederates had gone from Gaul into Etruria. Lucius Furius, therefore, advanced from Ariminum, by forced marches, against the Gauls, who were then besieging Cremona, and pitched his camp at the distance of one mile and a half from the enemy. Furius had an excellent opportunity of striking an important blow, had he, without halting, led his troops directly to attack their camp; they were scattered and dispersed through the country; and the guard, which they had left, was very insufficient; but he was apprehensive that his men were too much fatigued by their hasty march. The Gauls recalled from the fields by the shouts of their party, returned to the camp without seizing the booty within their reach, and, next day, marched out to offer battle; the Roman did not decline the combat, but had scarcely time to make the necessary dispositions, so rapidly did the enemy advance to the fight. The right brigade (for he had the troops of the allies divided into brigades) was placed in the first line, the two Roman legions in reserve. Marcus Furius was at the head of the right brigade, Marcus Cæcilius of the legions, and Lucius Valerius Flaccus of the cavalry: these were all lieutenant-generals. Two other lieutenant-generals, Cneius Lætorius and Publius Titinnius, the prætor kept near himself, that, with their assistance, he might observe, and take proper measures against any sudden attack. At first, the Gauls, bending their whole force to one point, were in hopes of being able to overwhelm, and trample under foot, the right brigade, which was in the van; but not succeeding, they endeavoured to turn round the flanks, and to surround their enemy’s line, which, considering the multitude of their forces, and the small number of the others, seemed easy to be done. On observing this, the prætor, in order to extend his own line, brought up the two legions from the reserve, and placed them on the right and left of the brigade which was engaged in the van; vowing a temple to Jupiter, if he should on that day prove victorious. To Lucius Valerius he gave orders, to make the horsemen of the two legions on one flank, and the cavalry of the allies on the other, charge the wings of the enemy, and not suffer them to come round to his rear. At the same time, observing that the centre of their line was weakened, from having extended the wings, he directed his men to make an attack there in close order, and to break through their ranks. The wings were routed by the cavalry, and, at the same time, the centre by the foot. Being worsted in all parts with great slaughter, the Gauls quickly turned their backs, and fled to their camp in hurry and confusion. The cavalry pursued them; and the legions, coming up in a short time after, assaulted the camp, from whence there did not escape so many as six thousand men. There were slain and taken above thirty-five thousand, with eighty standards, and above two hundred Gallic wagons laden with booty of all kinds. Hamilcar, the Carthaginian general, fell that day, and three distinguished generals of the Gauls. The prisoners taken at Placentia, to the number of two thousand free-men, were restored to the colony.
XXII. This was an important victory, and caused great joy at Rome. On receipt of the prætor’s letter, a supplication for three days was decreed. In that battle, there fell of the Romans and allies two thousand, most of them in the right brigade, against which, in the first onset, the most violent efforts of the enemy had been directed. Although the prætor had brought the war almost to a conclusion, yet the consul, Cneius Aurelius, having finished the business which required his attendance at Rome, set out for Gaul, and received the victorious army from the prætor. The other consul arriving in his province towards the end of autumn, passed the winter in the neighbourhood of Apollonia. Caius Claudius, and the Roman triremes which had been sent to Athens from the fleet that was laid up at Corcyra, as was mentioned above, arriving at Piræeus, greatly revived the hopes of their allies, who were beginning to give way to despair. Their arrival not only put a stop to the inroads by land, which used to be made from Corinth through Megara, but so terrified the pirates from Chalcis, who had been accustomed to infest both the Athenian sea and coast, that they dared not venture round the promontory of Sunium, nor even trust themselves out of the streights of the Euripus. In addition to these came three quadriremes from Rhodes, the Athenians having three open ships, which they had equipped for the protection of their lands on the coast. While Claudius thought, that if he were able with his fleet to give security to the Athenians, it was as much as could be expected at present, Fortune threw in his way an opportunity of accomplishing an enterprise of greater moment.
XXIII. Some exiles driven from Chalcis, by ill-treatment received from the King’s party, brought intelligence, that the place might be taken without even a contest; for the Macedonians, being under no immediate apprehension from an enemy, were straying idly about the country; and the townsmen, depending on the Macedonian garrison, neglected the guard of the city. Claudius, in consequence of this, set out, and though he arrived at Sunium early enough to have sailed forward to the entrance of the streight of Eubœa, yet fearing that, on doubling the promontory, he might be descried by the enemy, he lay by with the fleet until night. As soon as it grew dark he began to move, and, favoured by a calm, arrived at Chalcis a little before day; and then, approaching the city, on a side where it was thinly inhabited, with a small party of soldiers, and by means of scaling ladders, he got possession of the nearest tower, and the wall on each side. Finding in some places the guards asleep, and other parts left without any watch, they advanced to the more populous parts of the town, and having slain the sentinels, and broken open a gate, they gave an entrance to the main body of the troops. These immediately spread themselves through all parts of the city, and increased the tumult by setting fire to the buildings round the Forum, by which means both the granaries belonging to the King, and his armory, with a vast store of machines and engines, were reduced to ashes. Then commenced a general slaughter of those who fled, as well as of those who made resistance; and after having either put to the sword or driven out every one who was of an age fit to bear arms, (Sopater also, the Acarnanian, who commanded the garrison, being slain,) they first collected all the spoil in the Forum, and then carried it on board the ships. The prison, too, was forced open by the Rhodians, and those whom Philip had shut up there, were set at liberty. They next pulled down and mutilated the statues of the King; and then, on a signal being given for a retreat, reimbarked and returned to Piræeus, from whence they had set out. If there had been a sufficient number of Roman soldiers to have kept possession of Chalcis, without stripping Athens of a proper garrison, that city and the command of the Euripus would have been a most important advantage at the commencement of the war: for as the pass of Thermopylæ is the principal barrier of Greece by land, so is the streight of the Euripus by sea.
XXIV. Philip was then at Demetrias, and as soon as the news arrived there of the calamity which had befallen the city of his allies, although it was too late to carry assistance to those who were already ruined, yet anxious to accomplish what was next to assistance, revenge, he set out instantly with five thousand foot lightly equipped, and three hundred horse. With a speed almost equal to that of racing, he hastened to Chalcis, not doubting but that he should be able to surprise the Romans. Finding himself disappointed, and that his coming answered no other end than to give him a melancholy view of the smoking ruins of that friendly city, (so few being left, that they were scarcely sufficient to bury those who had fallen by the sword of the enemy,) with the same rapid haste which he had used in coming, he crossed the Euripus by the bridge, and led his troops through Bœotia to Athens, in hopes that a similar attempt might be attended by a similar issue. And he would have succeeded, had not a scout (one of those whom the Greeks call day-runners,* because they run through a journey of great length in one day,) descrying from his post of observation the King’s army in its march, set out at midnight, and arrived before them at Athens. The same sleep, and the same negligence, prevailed there which had proved the ruin of Chalcis a few days before. Roused, however, by the alarming intelligence, the prætor of the Athenians, and Dioxippus, commander of a cohort of mercenary auxiliaries, called the soldiers together in the Forum, and ordered the trumpets to sound an alarm from the citadel, that all might be informed of the approach of the enemy. On which the people ran from all quarters to the gates, and afterwards to the walls. In a few hours after, and still some time before day, Philip approached the city, and observing a great number of lights, and hearing the noise of the men hurrying to and fro, as usual on such an alarm, he halted his troops, and ordered them to sit down and take some rest; resolving to use open force, since his design of surprise had not succeeded. Accordingly he advanced on the side of Dipylos, or the double gate, which being the principal entrance of the city is somewhat larger and wider than the rest. Both within and without the streets are wide, so that the townsmen could form their troops from the Forum to the gate, while on the outside, a road of about a mile in length, leading to the school of the academy, afforded open room to the foot and horse of the enemy. The Athenians, who had formed their troops within the gate, marched out with Attalus’s garrison, and the cohort of Dioxippus, along that road. This Philip observed, and thinking that he had the enemy in his power, and might now satisfy his revenge in their destruction, and which he had long wished for, (being more incensed against them than any of the Grecian states,) he exhorted his men to keep their eyes on him during the fight, and to take notice, that wherever the King was, there the standards and the army ought to be. He then spurred on his horse, animated not only with resentment, but with a desire of gaining honour, reckoning it a glorious opportunity of displaying his prowess, in the view of an immense crowd which covered the walls, many of them for the purpose of beholding the engagement. Advancing far before the line, and, with a small body of horse, rushing into the midst of the enemy, he inspired his men with great ardour, and the Athenians with terror. Having wounded many with his own hand, both in close fight and with missive weapons, and driven them back within the gate, he still pursued them closely; and having made greater slaughter among them while embarrassed in the narrow pass, rash as the attempt was, he yet retired unmolested: because those who were in the towers withheld their weapons lest they should hit their friends, who were mingled in confusion among their enemies. The Athenians, after this, confining their troops within the walls, Philip sounded a retreat, and pitched his camp at Cynosarges, a temple of Hercules, and a school surrounded by a grove. But Cynosarges, and Lycæum, and whatever was sacred or pleasant in the neighbourhood of the city, he burned to the ground, and levelled, not only the houses, but sepulchres, paying no regard, in the violence of his rage, to any privilege either of men or gods.
XXV. Next day, the gates having at first been shut, and afterwards suddenly thrown open, in consequence of a body of Attalus’s troops from Ægina, and the Romans from Piræeus, having entered the city, the King removed his camp to the distance of about three miles. From thence he proceeded to Eleusis, in hopes of suprising the temple, and a fort which overlooks and surrounds it; but, finding that the guards were attentive, and that the fleet was coming from Piræeus to support them, he laid aside the design, and led his troops, first to Megara, and then to Corinth; where, on hearing that the council of the Achæans was then sitting at Argos, he went and joined the assembly, to the surprise of that people. They were at the time employed in forming measures for a war against Nabis, tyrant of the Lacedæmonians; who (observing, on the command being transferred from Philopæmen to Cycliadas, a general much inferior to him, that the confederates of the Achæans were falling off,) had renewed the war, and besides ravaging the territories of his neighbours, was become formidable even to the cities. While they were deliberating what number of men should be raised out of each of the states to oppose this enemy, Philip promised that he would relieve them from all anxiety, as far as concerned Nabis and the Lacedæmonians; and that he would not only secure the lands of their allies from devastation, but transfer the whole terror of the war on Laconia itself, by leading his army thither instantly. This discourse being received with general approbation, he added — “It is but reasonable, however, that while I am employed in protecting your property by my arms, my own should not be exposed without defence; therefore, if you think proper, provide such a number of troops as will be sufficient to secure Orcus, Chalcis, and Corinth; that my affairs, being in a state of safety behind me, I may proceed, without distraction, to attack Nabis and the Lacedæmonians.” The Achæans were not ignorant of the tendency of these kind promises, and his offer of assistance against the Lacedæmonians, and that his view was to draw the Achæan youth out of Peloponnesus as hostages, that he might have it in his power to embroil the nation in a war with the Romans. Cycliades, prætor, thinking that it would answer no purpose to expose his scheme by argument, said nothing more than that it was not allowable, according to the laws of the Achæans, to take any matter into consideration except that on which they had been called together: and the decree for levying an army against Nabis being passed, he dismissed the assembly, after having presided in it with much resolution and public spirit, although, until that day, he had been reckoned a partizan of the King. Philip, grievously disappointed, after having collected a few voluntary soldiers, returned to Corinth, and from thence into the territories of Athens.
XXVI. While Philip was in Achaia, Philocles, one of the generals, marching from Eubœa with two thousand Thracians and Macedonians, intending to lay waste the territories of the Athenians, crossed the forest of Cithæron, opposite to Eleusis. Despatching half of his troops, to make depredations in all parts of the country, he lay concealed with the remainder in a place convenient for an ambush; in order that if any attack should be made from the fort at Eleusis on his men employed in plundering, he might suddenly fall upon the enemy unawares, and while they were in disorder. His stratagem did not escape discovery: wherefore, calling back the soldiers, who had gone different ways in pursuit of booty, and drawing them up in order, he advanced to assault the fort at Eleusis; but being repulsed from thence with many wounds, he joined Philip on his return from Achaia, who was also induced to a similar attempt: but the Roman ships coming from Piræeus, and a body of forces being thrown into the fort, he was compelled to relinquish the design. On this the King, dividing his army, sent Philocles with one part to Athens, and went himself with the other to Piræeus; that, while his general, by advancing to the walls and threatening an assault, should keep the Athenians within the city, he might be able to make himself master of the harbour, which he supposed would be left with only a slight garrison. But he found the attack of Piræeus no less difficult than that of Eleusis, the same persons acting in its defence. He therefore hastily led his troops to Athens, and being repulsed by a sudden sally of both foot and horse, who engaged him in the narrow ground, inclosed by the half-ruined wall, which, with two arms, joins Piræeus to Athens, he laid aside the scheme of attacking the city, and, dividing his forces again with Philocles, set out to complete the devastation of the country. As, in his former ravages, he had employed himself in levelling the sepulchres round the city, so now, not to leave any thing unviolated, he ordered the temples of the gods, of which they had one consecrated in every village, to be demolished and burned. The country of Attica afforded ample matter for the exercise of this barbarous rage: for it was highly embellished with works of that kind, having plenty of marble, and abounding with artists of exquisite ingenuity. Nor was he satisfied with merely destroying the temples themselves, and overthrowing the images, but he ordered even the stones to be broken, lest, remaining whole, they should give a degree of grandeur to the ruins; and then, his rage not being satiated, but no object remaining on which it could be exercised, he retired from Bœotia, without having performed in Greece any thing else worth mention.
XXVII. The consul, Sulpicius, who was at that time encamped on the river Apsus, between Apollonia and Dyrrachium, having ordered Lucius Apustius, lieutenant-general, thither, sent him with part of the forces to lay waste the enemy’s country. Apustius, after ravaging the frontiers of Macedonia, and having, at the first assault, taken the forts of Corragos, Gerrunios, and Orgessos, came to Antipatria, a city situated in a narrow vale; where, at first inviting the leading men to a conference, he endeavoured to prevail on them to put themselves under the protection of the Romans; but finding that from confidence in the size, fortifications and situation of their city, they paid no regard to his discourse, he attacked the place by force of arms, and took it by assault: then, putting all the young men to the sword, and giving up the entire spoil to his soldiers, he razed the walls, and burned the buildings. This proceeding spread such terror, that Codrion, a strong and well-fortified town, surrendered to the Romans without a struggle. Leaving a garrison there, he took Ilion by force, a name better known than the town, on account of that of the same denomination in Asia. As the lieutenant-general was returning to the consul with a great quantity of spoil, Athenagoras, one of the King’s generals, falling on his rear, in its passage over a river, threw it into disorder. On hearing the shouting and tumult, Apustius rode back in full speed, ordered the troops to face about, and drew them up in order, with the baggage in the centre. The King’s troops could not support the onset of the Roman soldiers: so that many of them were slain, and more made prisoners. The lieutenant-general having brought back the army without loss, to the consul, was ordered to return immediately to the fleet.
XXVIII. The war commencing thus brilliantly with this successful expedition, several petty kings and princes, whose dominions bordered on Macedonia, came to the Roman camp: Pleuratus, son of Scerdilædus, and Amynander, King of the Athamanians; and from the Dardanians, Bato, son of Longarus. This Longarus had, in his own quarrel, supported a war against Demetrius, father of Philip. To their offers of aid, the consul answered, that he would make use of the assistance of the Dardanians, and of Pleuratus, when he should lead his troops into Macedonia. To Amynander he allotted the part of exciting the Ætolians to war. To the ambassadors of Attalus, (for they also had come at the same time,) he gave directions that the King should wait at Ægina, where he wintered, for the arrival of the Roman fleet; and when joined by that, he should, as before, harass Philip by such enterprises as he could undertake by sea. To the Rhodians, also, an embassy was sent, to engage them to contribute their share towards carrying on the war. Nor was Philip, who had by this time arrived in Macedonia, remiss in his preparations for the campaign. He sent his son Perseus, then very young, with part of his forces to block up the pass near Pelagonia; appointing persons out of the number of his friends to attend him, and direct his unexperienced age. Sciathus and Peparethus, no inconsiderable cities, he demolished, fearing they might fall a prey to the enemy’s fleet; despatching at the same time ambassadors to the Ætolians, lest that restless nation might change sides on the arrival of the Romans.
XXIX. The assembly of the Ætolians, which they call Panætolium, was to meet on a certain day. In order to be present at this, the King’s ambassadors hastened their journey, and Lucius Furius Purpureo also arrived, being sent in like capacity by the consul. Ambassadors from Athens, likewise, came to this assembly. The Macedonians were first heard, as with them the latest treaty had been made; and they declared, that “as no change of circumstances had occurred, they had nothing new to introduce; for the same reasons which had induced the Ætolians to make peace with Philip, after experiencing the unprofitableness of an alliance with the Romans, should engage them to deserve it, now that it was established. Do you rather choose,” said one of the ambassadors, “to imitate the inconsistency, or levity, shall I call it, of the Romans, who ordered this answer to be given to your ambassadors at Rome: ‘Why, Ætolians, do you apply to us, when without our approbation you have made peace with Philip?’ Yet these same people now require, that you should, in conjunction with them, wage war against Philip. Formerly, too, it was pretended that they took arms on your account, and in your defence against Philip: now they do not allow you to continue at peace with him. To assist Messana, they first embarked for Sicily; and a second time, to vindicate the liberty of Syracuse, oppressed by the Carthaginians. Both Messana and Syracuse, and all Sicily, they hold in their own possession, and have reduced it into a tributary province under their axes and rods. You imagine, perhaps, that in the same manner as you hold an assembly at Naupactus, according to your own laws, under magistrates of your own appointment, at liberty to choose allies and enemies, and to have peace or war at your own option, so the assembly of the states of Sicily is summoned to Syracuse, or Messana, or Lilybæum. No, a Roman prætor presides at the meeting; at his command they assemble; they behold him, attended by his lictors, seated on a lofty throne, issuing his haughty edicts. His rods are ready for their backs, his axes for their necks, and every year they are allotted a different master. Neither ought they, nor can they, wonder at this, when they see all the cities of Italy, bending under the same yoke — Rhegium, Tarentum, Capua, not to mention those in their own neighbourhood, out of the ruins of which their city of Rome grew into power. Capua indeed subsists, the grave and monument of the Campanian people, who were either cut off, or driven into banishment; the mutilated carcase of a city, without senate, without commons, without magistrates; a sort of prodigy, the leaving which to be inhabited in this manner, showed more cruelty than if it had been razed to the ground. If foreigners, who are separated from us to a greater distance by their language, manners, and laws, than by the length of sea and land, are allowed to get footing here, it is madness to hope that any thing will continue in its present state. Does your liberty appear to be in any degree of danger from the government of Philip, who, at a time when he was justly incensed, demanded nothing more of you than peace; and at present requires no more than the observance of the peace which ye agreed to? Accustom foreign legions to these countries, and receive the yoke; too late and in vain, will you look for an alliance with Philip, when you will have become a property of the Romans. Trifling causes occasionally unite and disunite the Ætolians, Acarnanians, and Macedonians, men speaking the same language. With foreigners, with barbarians, all Greeks have, and ever will have, eternal war: because they are enemies by nature, which is always the same, and not from causes which change with the times. I conclude my discourse with the same argument with which I began. Three years since, the same persons, assembled in this same place, determined on peace with the same Philip, contrary to the inclinations of the same Romans, who now wish that the peace should be broken, after it has been adjusted and ratified. In the subject of your deliberation, fortune has made no change; why you should make any, I do not see.”
XXX. Next, after the Macedonians, with the consent and at the desire of the Romans, the Athenians were introduced; who, having suffered grievously, could, with the greater justice, inveigh against the cruelty and inhumanity of the King. They represented, in a deplorable light, the miserable devastation and ruin of their country; adding, that, “they did not complain on account of having, from an enemy, suffered hostile treatment; for there were certain rights of war, according to which, as it was just to act, so it was just to endue. Their crops being burned, their houses demolished, their men and cattle carried off as spoil, were to be considered, rather as misfortunes to the sufferer, than as ill-treatment. But of this they had good reason to complain, that he who called the Romans foreigners and barbarians, had so atrociously violated, himself, all rights both divine and human, as, in his former inroad, to have waged an impious war against the infernal gods, in the latter against those above. That every sepulchre and monument within their country was demolished, the graves torn open, and the bones left uncovered. There had been several temples, which in former times, when their ancestors dwelt in the country in their separate districts, had been consecrated in each of their little forts and villages, and which, even after they were incorporated into one city, they did not neglect or forsake. Every one of these sacred edifices had Philip destroyed by fire, and left the images of the gods lying scorched and mutilated among the prostrated pillars of the temples. Such as he had rendered the country of Attica, formerly opulent, and adorned with improvements, such, if he were suffered, would he render Ætolia and every part of Greece. That Athens, also, would have been reduced to the same ruinous state, if the Romans had not come to its relief: for he had shewn the same wicked rage against the gods, who are the guardians of the city, and Minerva who presides over the citadel; the same against the temple of Ceres at Eleusis; the same against Jupiter and Minerva at Piræeus. In a word, having been repelled by force of arms, not only from their temples, but even from their walls, he had vented his fury on those sacred edifices, which had no defence but in the respect due to religion. They therefore entreated and besought the Ætolians, that, compassionating the Athenians, and following the guidance of the gods, and, under them, of the Romans, who, next to the gods, possessed the greatest power, they would take part in the war.”
XXXI. The Roman ambassador then addressed them to this purport: “The Macedonians, first, and, afterwards, the Athenians, have obliged me to change entirely the method of my discourse. For, on the one hand, the Macedonians, by introducing charges against the Romans, when I had come prepared to make complaint of the injuries committed by Philip against so many cities in alliance with us, have obliged me to think of defence rather than accusation; and, on the other hand, after the relation given by the Athenians, of his inhuman and impious crimes against the gods both celestial and infernal, what room is there left for me, or any other, to make any addition to the charge? You are to suppose, that the same complaints are made by the Cianians, Abydenians, Æneans, Maronites, Thasians, Parians, Samians, Larissenians, Messenians, on the side of Achaia; and complaints, still heavier and more grievous, by those whom he had it more in his power to injure. For as to those proceedings which he censures in us, if they are not found highly meritorious, let them not be defended. He has objected to us, Rhegium, and Capua, and Syracuse. As to Rhegium, during the war with Pyrrhus, a legion which, at the earnest request of the Rhegians themselves, we had sent thither as a garrison, wickedly possessed themselves of the city which they had been sent to defend. Did we then approve of that deed? or did we exert the force of our arms against that guilty legion, until we reduced them under our power; and then, after making them give satisfaction to the allies, by their stripes and the loss of their heads, restore to the Rhegians their city, their lands, and all their effects, together with their liberty and laws? To the Syracusans, when oppressed (and, to add to the indignity, by foreign tyrants), we lent assistance; and after enduring great fatigues in carrying on the siege of so strong a city, both by land and sea, for almost three years, (although the Syracusans themselves chose to continue in slavery to the tyrants, rather than to trust to us,) yet, becoming masters of the place, and by exertion of the same force setting it at liberty, we restored it to the inhabitants. At the same time, we do not deny that Sicily is our province, and that the states which sided with the Carthaginians, and, in conjunction with them, waged war against us, pay us tribute and taxes; on the contrary, we wish that you and all nations should know, that the condition of each is such as it has deserved at our hands: and ought we to repent of the punishment inflicted on the Campanians, of which even they themselves cannot complain? These men, after we had on their account carried on war against the Samnites for near seventy years, with great losses on our side; had united them to ourselves, first by treaty, and then by intermarriages, and the consequent affinities; and lastly, by admitting them to a participation of the rights of our state, yet in the time of our adversity, were the first of all the states of Italy which revolted to Hannibal, after basely putting our garrison to death, and afterwards, through resentment at being besieged by us, sent Hannibal to attack Rome. If neither their city nor one man of them had been left remaining, who could take offence, or consider them as treated with more severity than they had deserved? From consciousness of guilt, greater numbers of them perished by their own hands, than by the punishments inflicted by us. And while from the rest we took away the town and the lands, still we left them a place to dwell in, we suffered the city which partook not of the guilt to stand uninjured; so that there is not visible this day, any trace of its having been besieged or taken. But why do I speak of Capua, when even to vanquished Carthage we granted peace and liberty. The greatest danger is, that by our too great readiness to pardon such, we may encourage others to try the fortune of war against us. Let so much suffice in our defence, and against Philip, whose domestic crimes, whose parricides and murders of his relations and friends, and whose lust, more disgraceful to human nature, if possible, than his cruelty, you, as being nearer to Macedonia, are better acquainted with. As to what concerns you, Ætolians, we entered into a war with Philip on your account: you made peace with him without consulting us. Perhaps you will say, that while we were occupied in the Punic war, you were constrained by fear to accept terms of pacification, from him who possessed superior power; and that on our side, pressed by more urgent affairs, we suspended our operations in a war which you had laid aside. At present, as we, having, by the favour of the gods, brought the Punic war to a conclusion, have fallen on Macedonia with the whole weight of our power, so you have an opportunity offered you of regaining a place in our friendship and alliance, unless you choose to perish with Philip, rather than to conquer with the Romans.”
XXXII. After this discourse of the ambassador, the inclinations of all leaning towards the Romans, Damocritus, prætor of the Ætolians, (who, it was reported, had received money from the King,) without seeming to favour either party, said — that, “in consultations wherein the public safety was deeply interested, nothing was so injurious as haste. That repentance, indeed, generally followed, and that quickly, but yet too late and unavailing; because designs carried on with precipitation could not be recalled, nor matters brought back to their original state. The time, however, for determining the point under consideration, which, for his part, he thought should not be too early, might yet immediately be fixed in this manner. As it had been provided by the laws, that no determination should be made concerning peace or war, except in the Panætolic or Pylaic councils; let them immediately pass a decree, that the prætor, when he chooses to treat of either, may have full authority to summon a council; and that whatever shall be then debated and decreed, shall be, to all intents and purposes, legal and valid, as if it had been transacted in the Panætolic or Pylaic assembly.” And thus dismissing the ambassadors, without coming to any resolution, he said, that therein he acted most prudently for the interest of the state; for the Ætolians would have it in their power to join in alliance with whichever of the parties should be more successful in the war. Nothing further was done in the assembly.
XXXIII. Meanwhile Philip was making vigorous preparations for carrying on the war both by sea and land. His naval forces he drew together at Demetrias in Thessaly; supposing that Attalus, and the Roman fleet, would move from Ægina in the beginning of the spring. He gave the command of the fleet and of the sea-coast to Heraclides, to whom he had formerly intrusted it. The equipment of the land forces he took care of in person; and thought that he had deprived the Romans of two powerful auxiliaries, the Ætolians on the one side, and the Dardanians on the other, by making his son Perseus block up the pass at Pelagonia. The consul was employed, not in preparations, but in the operations of war. He led his army through the country of the Dassaretians, leaving the corn untouched, which he had brought from his winter quarters, for the fields afforded supplies sufficient for the consumption of the troops. The towns and villages surrendered to him, some through inclination, others through fear; some were taken by assault, others were found deserted, the barbarians flying to the neighbouring mountains. He fixed a standing camp at Lycus near the river Beous, and from thence sent to bring in corn from the magazines of the Dassaretians. Philip saw the whole country filled with consternation, and not knowing the designs of the consul, he sent a party of horse to discover his route. Sulpicius was in the same state of uncertainty; he knew that the King had moved from his winter quarters, but in what direction he had proceeded, he knew not: he also had sent horsemen to gain intelligence. These two parties having set out from opposite quarters, after wandering a long time among the Dassaretians, through unknown roads, fell at length into the same road. Neither doubted, as soon as the noise of men and horses was heard at a distance, that an enemy approached: therefore, before they came within sight of each other, they got their arms in readiness, and the moment they met, both hastened eagerly to engage. As they happened to be nearly equal in number and valour, being picked men on both sides, they fought during several hours with vigour, until fatigue, both of men and horses, put an end to the fight, without deciding the victory. Of the Macedonians, there fell forty horsemen; of the Romans, thirty-five. Still, however, neither party was able to carry back any certain information in what quarter the camp of his enemy lay. But this was soon made known to them by deserters; of whom, either through restlessness, or the prospect of reward, a sufficient number are found, in every war, to discover the affairs of the contending parties.
XXXIV. Philip, judging that it would tend considerably towards conciliating the affections of his men, and induce them to face danger more readily on his account, if he bestowed some pains on the burial of the horsemen, who fell in that expedition, ordered them to be conveyed into the camp, in order that all might be spectators of the honours paid them at their funeral. Nothing is so uncertain, or so difficult to form a judgment of, as the minds of the multitude. The very measures which seem calculated to increase their alacrity, in exertions of every sort, often inspire them with fear and timidity. Accordingly those, who, being always accustomed to fight with Greeks and Illyrians, had only seen wounds made with javelins and arrows, seldom even by lances, came to behold bodies dismembered by the Spanish sword, some with their arms lopped off, or, the neck entirely cut through, heads severed from the trunk, and the bowels laid open, with other shocking circumstances which the present warfare had wrought: they therefore perceived, with horror, against what weapons and what men they were to fight. Even the King himself was seized with apprehensions, having never yet engaged the Romans in a regular battle. Wherefore, recalling his son, and the guard posted at the pass of Pelagonia, in order to strengthen his army by the addition of those troops, he thereby opened a passage into Macedonia for Pleuratus and the Dardanians. Then, taking deserters for guides, he marched towards the enemy with twenty thousand foot and four thousand horse, and, at the distance of somewhat more than two hundred paces from the Roman camp, and near Ithacus, he fortified a hill with a trench and rampart. From this place, taking a view of the Roman station, in the valley beneath, he is said to have been struck with admiration, both at the general appearance of the camp, and the regular disposition of each particular part, distinguished by the order of the tents, and the intervals of the passages, and to have declared, that, certainly, that was not a camp of barbarians. For two days, the consul and the King, each waiting for the other’s making some attempt, kept their troops within the ramparts. On the third day, the Roman led out all his forces, and offered battle.
XXXV. But the King, not daring to risk so hastily a general engagement, sent four hundred Trallians, who are a tribe of the Illyrians, as we have said in another place, and three hundred Cretans; adding to this body of infantry an equal number of horse, under the command of Athenagoras, one of his nobles honoured with the purple, to make an attack on the enemy’s cavalry. When these troops arrived within a little more than five hundred paces, the Romans sent out the light-infantry, and two cohorts of horse, that both cavalry and infantry might be equal in number to the Macedonians. The King’s troops expected that the method of fighting would be such as they had been accustomed to; that the horsemen, pursuing and retreating alternately, would at one time use their weapons, at another turn their backs; that the agility of the Illyrians would be serviceable for excursions and sudden attacks, and the Cretans might discharge their arrows as they advanced eagerly to the charge. But this plan of fighting was entirely disconcerted by the manner in which the Romans made their onset, which was not more brisk than it was obstinate: for the light-infantry, as if in a general line of battle, after discharging their javelins, carried on a close fight with their swords; and the horsemen, when they had once made a charge, stopping their horses, fought, some on horseback, while others dismounted and intermixed themselves with the foot. By this means neither were the King’s cavalry, who were unaccustomed to a steady fight, a match for the others; nor were the infantry, who were unacquainted with any other mode of fighting but that of skirmishing and irregular attacks, and were besides but half covered with the kind of harness which they used, at all equal to the Roman infantry, who carried a sword and buckler, and were furnished with proper armour, both to defend themselves, and to annoy the enemy: nor did they sustain the combat, but fled to their camp, trusting entirely to their speed for safety.
XXXVI. After an interval of one day, the King, resolving to make an attack with all his cavalry and light-armed infantry, had, during the night, placed in ambush, in a convenient place between the two camps, a body of targeteers, whom they call Peltastæ, and given orders to Athenagoras and the cavalry, if they found they had the advantage in the open fight, to pursue success; if not, that they should retreat leisurely, and by that means draw on the enemy to the place where the ambush lay. The cavalry accordingly did retreat; but the officers of the body of targeteers, by bringing forward their men before the time, and not waiting for the signal, as they ought, lost an opportunity of performing considerable service. The Romans, having gained the victory in open fight, and also escaped the danger of the ambuscade, retired to their camp. Next day the consul marched out with all his forces, and offered battle, placing his elephants (which had been taken in the Punic war) in the front of the foremost battalions, and which was the first time that the Romans made use of those creatures in the field. Finding that the King kept himself quiet behind his entrenchments, he advanced close up to them, upbraiding him with cowardice; and as, notwithstanding, he still declined an engagement, the consul, considering how dangerous foraging must be while the camps lay so near each other, where the soldiers, dispersed through the country, were liable to be suddenly attacked by the horse, removed his camp to a place called Octolophus, distant about eight miles, where he could forage with more safety. While the Romans were collecting corn in the adjacent fields, the King kept his men within the trenches, in order to increase both the negligence and confidence of the enemy. But, when he saw them scattered, he set out with all his cavalry, and the auxiliary Cretans, and marching with such speed that the swiftest footmen could, by running, but just keep up with the horse, he took post between the camp of the Romans and their foragers. Then, dividing the forces, he sent one part of them in quest of the marauders, with orders to give no quarter; with the other, he himself halted, and placed guards on the roads through which he supposed the enemy would fly back to their camp. The slaughter and flight of the provisioning party had continued for some time on all sides, and no intelligence of the misfortune had yet reached the Roman camp, because those who fled towards the camp, fell in with the guards, which the King had stationed to intercept them, and greater numbers were slain by those who were placed in the roads, than by those who had been sent out to attack them. At length, a few effected their escape, through the midst of the enemy’s posts, but were so filled with terror, that they excited a general consternation in the camp, without being able to give any certain account of what was going on.
XXXVII. The consul, ordering the cavalry to carry aid to those who were in danger, in the best manner they could, drew out the legions from the camp, and led them in order of battle towards the enemy. The cavalry, taking different ways through the fields, missed the road, being deceived by the various shouts raised in several quarters. Some of them met with the enemy, and battles began in many places at once. The hottest part of the action was at the station where the King commanded; for the guard there was, in numbers both of horse and foot, almost a complete army; and, as they were posted on the middle road, the greatest number of the Romans fell in with them. The Macedonians had also the advantage in this, that the King himself was present to encourage them; and the Cretan auxiliaries, fighting in good order, and in a state of preparation, against troops disordered and irregular, wounded many at a distance, where no such danger was apprehended. If they had acted with prudence in the pursuit, they would have secured an advantage of great importance, not only in regard to the glory of the present contest, but to the general interest of the war; but, greedy of slaughter, and following with too much eagerness, they fell in with the advanced cohorts of the Romans under the military tribunes. The horsemen who were flying, as soon as they saw the ensigns of their friends, faced about against the enemy, now in disorder; so that in a moment’s time the fortune of the battle was changed, those now turning their backs, who had lately been the pursuers. Many were slain in close fight, many in the pursuit: nor was it by the sword alone that they perished; several being driven into morasses were, together with their horses, swallowed up in the deep mud. The King himself was in danger; for his horse falling, in consequence of a wound, threw him headlong to the ground, and he very narrowly escaped being overpowered before he could recover his feet. He owed his safety to a trooper, who instantly leaped from his horse, on which he mounted the affrighted King; himself, as he could not run so fast as to keep up with the horsemen, was slain by the enemy, who had collected about the place where Philip fell. The King, in his desperate flight, rode about among the morasses, some of which were easily passed, and others not; at length, when most men despaired of his ever returning, he arrived in safety at his camp. Two hundred Macedonian horsemen perished in that action; about one hundred were taken: eighty horses, richly caparisoned, were led off the field; at the same time the spoils of arms were also carried off.
XXXVIII. Some have found fault with the King, as guilty of rashness on that day; and with the consul, as not having pushed with spirit the advantage which he had gained. For Philip, they say, on his part, ought to have avoided coming to action, knowing that in a few days, the enemy, having exhausted all the adjacent country, must be reduced to the extremity of want; and that the consul, after having routed the Macedonian cavalry and light-infantry, and nearly taken the King himself, ought to have led on his troops directly to the enemy’s camp, where, dismayed as they were, they could have made no stand, and that he might have finished the war in a moment’s time. This, like most other matters, was easier in speculation than in practice. For, if the King had brought his infantry into the engagement, then, indeed, during the tumult, and while vanquished and struck with dismay, they fled from the field into their entrenchments, (and even continued their flight from thence on seeing the victorious enemy mounting the ramparts,) the King’s camp might have fallen into the Romans’ possession. But as the infantry had remained in the camp, fresh and free from fatigue, with outposts before the gates, and guards properly disposed, what would he have gained in having imitated the rashness of which the King had just now been guilty, by pursuing the routed horse? On the other side, the King’s first plan of an attack on the foragers, while dispersed through the fields, was not injudicious, could he have satisfied himself with a moderate degree of success: and it is the less surprising, that he should have made a trial of fortune, as there was a report, that Pleuratus and the Dardaniaus had marched with very numerous forces, and had already passed into Macedonia; so that if he should be surrounded on all sides, there was reason to think that the Roman might put an end to the war without stirring from his seat. Philip, however, considered, that after his cavalry had been defeated in two engagements, he could with much less safety continue in the same post; accordingly, wishing to remove from thence, and, at the same time, to keep the enemy in ignorance of his design, he sent a herald to the consul a little before sunset, to demand a truce for the purpose of burying the horsemen; and thus imposing on him, he began his march in silence, about the second watch, leaving a number of fires in all parts of his camp.
XXXIX. The consul had already retired to take refreshment, when he was told that the herald had arrived, and on what business; he gave him no other answer, than that he should be admitted to an audience early the next morning: by which means, Philip gained what he wanted — the length of that night, and part of the following day, during which he might march his troops beyond the enemy’s reach. He directed his route towards the mountains, a road which he knew the Romans with their heavy baggage would not attempt. The consul, having at the first light, dismissed the herald, with a grant of a truce, in a short time after discovered that the enemy had gone off; but not knowing what course to take in pursuit of them, he remained in the same camp for several days, which he employed in collecting forage. He then marched to Stubera, and brought thither, from Pelagonia, the corn that was in the fields. From thence he advanced to Pellina, not having yet discovered to what quarter the Macedonian had bent his course. Philip having at first fixed his camp at Bryanium, marched thence through cross-roads, and gave a sudden alarm to the enemy. The Romans, on this, removed from Pellina, and pitched their camp near the river Osphagus. The King also sat down at a small distance, forming his entrenchment on the bank of the river Erigonus. Having there received certain information, that the Romans intended to proceed to Eordæa, he marched away before them, in order to take possession of the defiles, and prevent the enemy from making their way, where the roads are confined in narrow streights. There, with much labour, he fortified some places with a rampart, others with a trench, others with stones heaped up, instead of walls, others with trees laid across, according as the situation required, or as materials lay convenient; and thus a road, in its own nature difficult, he rendered, as he imagined, impregnable by the works which he drew across every pass. The adjoining ground being mostly covered with woods, was exceedingly incommodious to the phalanx of the Macedonians, which is of no manner of use, except when they extend their very long spears before their shields, forming as it were a palisade; to perform which, they require an open plain. The Thracians, too, were embarrassed by their lances, which also are of a great length, and were entangled among the branches that stood in their way on every side. The body of Cretans alone was not unserviceable; and yet even these, though in case of an attack made on them, they could to good purpose discharge their arrows against the horses or riders, where they were open to a wound, yet against the Roman shields they could do nothing, because they had neither strength sufficient to pierce through them, nor was there any part exposed at which they could aim. Perceiving, therefore, that kind of weapon to be useless, they annoyed the enemy with stones, which lay in plenty in all parts of the valley: the strokes made by these on their shields, with greater noise than injury, for a short time retarded the advance of the Romans; but quickly learning to despise these weapons also, some closing their shields in form of a tortoise, forced their way through the enemy in front; others having, by a short circuit, gained the summit of the hill, dislodged the dismayed Macedonians from their guards and posts, and even slew the greater part of them, the difficulties of the ground preventing their escape.
XL. Thus, with less opposition than they had expected to meet, they passed the defiles, and came to Eordæa; then, having laid waste the whole country, the consul withdrew into Elimea. From thence he made an irruption into Orestis, and laid siege to the city Celetrum, situated in a peninsula: a lake surrounds the walls; and there is but one entrance from the main land along a narrow isthmus. Relying on their situation, the townsmen at first shut the gates, and refused to submit; but afterwards, when they saw the troops in motion, and advancing under cover of their closed shields, and the isthmus covered by the enemy marching in, their courage failed them, and they surrendered without hazarding a struggle. From Celetrum he advanced into the country of the Dassaretians, took the city Pelium by storm, carried off the slaves with the rest of the spoil, and discharging the freemen without ransom, restored the city to them, after placing a strong garrison in it, for it lay very conveniently for making inroads into Macedonia. Having thus carried devastation through the enemy’s country, the consul led back his forces into those parts, which were already reduced to obedience near Apollonia, from whence, at the beginning of the campaign, he had set out to begin his operations. Philip’s attention had been drawn to other quarters by the Ætolians, Athamanians, and Dardanians: so many were the wars that started up on different sides of him. Against the Dardanians, who were now retiring out of Macedonia, he sent Athenagoras with the light-infantry and the greater part of the cavalry, and ordered him to hang on their rear as they retreated; and, by cutting off their hindmost troops, make them more cautious for the future of leading out their armies from home. As to the Ætolians, Damocritus, their prætor, the same who at Naupactum had persuaded them to defer passing a decree concerning the war, had in the next meeting roused them to arms, after hearing of the battle between the cavalry at Octolophus; the irruption of the Dardanians and of Pleuratus, with the Illyrians, into Macedonia; of the arrival of the Roman fleet, too, at Oreus; and that Macedonia, besides being beset on all sides by so many nations, was in danger of being invested by sea also.
XLI. These reasons had brought back Damocritus and the Ætolians to the interest of the Romans. Marching out, therefore, in conjunction wiih Amynander, King of the Athamanians, they laid siege to Cercinium. The inhabitants here had shut their gates, whether of their own choice or by compulsion is unknown, as they had a garrison of the King’s troops. However, in a few days, Cercinium was taken and burned; and after great slaughter had been made, those who survived, both free men and slaves, were carried off amongst other spoil. This caused such terror, as made all those who dwelt round the lake Bæbis, abandon their cities and fly to the mountains; and the Ætolians not finding booty, turned away from thence, and proceeded into Perrhæbia. There they took Cyretiæ by storm, and sacked it without mercy. The inhabitants of Mallœa making a voluntary submission, were received into alliance. From Perrhæbia, Amynander advised to march to Gomphi, because that city lies close to Athamania, and there was reason to think that it might be reduced without any great difficulty. But the Ætolians, for the sake of plunder, directed their march to the rich plains of Thessaly, Amynander following, though he did not approve either of their careless method of carrying on their depredations, or of their pitching their camp in any place where chance directed, without choice, and without taking any care to fortify it. Therefore, lest their rashness and negligence might be the cause of some misfortune to himself and his troops, when he saw them forming their camp in low grounds, under the city Phecadus, he took possession, with his own troops, of an eminence about five hundred paces distant, which could be rendered secure by a slight fortification. The Ætolians seemed to have forgotton that they were in an enemy’s country, excepting that they continued to plunder, some straggling in small parties without arms, others spending whole days and nights in drinking and sleeping in the camp, neglecting even to fix guards, when Philip unexpectedly came upon them. His approach being announced by those who had fled out of the fields in a fright, threw Damocritus and the rest of the officers into great confusion. It happened to be mid-day, and when most of the men after a hearty meal lay fast asleep. Their officers roused them, however, as fast as possible; ordered them to take arms; despatched some to recall those who were straggling through the fields in search of plunder, and so violent was their hurry, that many of the horsemen went out without their swords, and but few of them put on their corslets. After marching out in this precipitate manner, (the whole horse and foot not amounting to six hundred,) they met the King’s cavalry, superior in number, in spirit, and in arms. They were, therefore, routed at the first charge; and having scarcely attempted resistance, returned to the camp in shameful flight. Several were slain; and some taken, having been cut off from the main body of the runaways.
XLII. Philip, when his troops had advanced almost to the rampart, ordered a retreat to be sounded, because both men and horses were fatigued, not so much by the action, as by the length of their march, and the extraordinary celerity with which they had made it. He therefore despatched the horsemen by troops, and the companies of light-infantry in turn, for water; after which they took refreshment. The rest he kept on guard, under arms, waiting for the main body of the infantry, which had marched with less expedition, on account of the weight of their armour. As soon as these arrived, they also were ordered to fix their standards, and, laying down their arms before them, to take food in haste; sending two, or at most three, out of each company, to provide water. In the mean time, the cavalry and light infantry stood in order, and ready, in case the enemy should make any motion. The Ætolians, as if resolved to defend their fortifications, (the multitude which had been scattered about the fields having, by this time, returned to the camp,) posted bodies of armed men at the gates, and on the rampart, and from this safe situation looked with a degree of confidence on the enemy, as long as they continued quiet. But, as soon as the troops of the Macedonians began to move, and to advance to the rampart, in order of battle, and ready for an assault, they all quickly abandoned their posts, and fled through the opposite part of the camp, to the eminence where the Athamanians were stationed. During their flight in this confusion, many of the Ætolians were slain, and many made prisoners. Philip doubted not, that, had there been day-light enough remaining, he should have been able to make himself master of the camp of the Athamanians also; but the day being spent in the fight, and in plundering the camp afterwards, he sat down under the eminence, in the adjacent plain, determined to attack the enemy at the first dawn. But the Ætolians, under the same apprehensions which had made them desert their camp, dispersed, and fled during the following night. Amynander was of the greatest service; for, by his directions, the Athamanians, who were acquainted with the roads, conducted them into Ætolia, whilst the Macedonians pursued them over the highest mountains, through unknown paths. In this disorderly flight, a few, missing their way, fell into the hands of the Macedonian horsemen, whom Philip, at the first light, on seeing the eminence abandoned, had sent to infest on their march.
XLIII. About the same time, also, Athenagoras, one of the King’s generals, overtaking the Dardanians in their retreat homeward, at first threw their rear into disorder: but these unexpectedly facing about, and forming their line, the fight became like a regular engagement. When the Dardanians began again to advance, the Macedonian cavalry and light-infantry harassed those who had no troops of that kind to aid them, and were, besides, burdened with unwieldy arms. The ground, too, favoured the assailants; very few were slain, but many wounded; none were taken, because they rarely quit their ranks, but both fight and retreat in a close body. Thus Philip, having checked the proceedings of those two nations by these well-timed expeditions, gained reparation for the damages sustained from the operations of the Romans; the enterprise being as spirited as the issue was successful. An accidental occurrence lessened the number of his enemies on the side of Ætolia. Scopas, a man of considerable influence in his own country, having been sent from Alexandria by King Ptolemy, with a great sum of gold, hired, and carried away to Egypt, six thousand foot, and some horse; nor would he have suffered one of the young Ætolians to remain at home, had not Damocritus, (it is not easy to say, whether out of zeal for the good of the nation, or out of opposition to Scopas, for not having secured his interest by presents,) by sometimes reminding them of the war with which they were threatened, at other times, of the solitary state in which their country would be left, detained some of them. Such were the actions of the Romans, and of Philip, during that summer.
XLIV. In the beginning of the same summer, the fleet under Lucius Apustius, lieutenant-general, setting sail from Corcyra, and passing by Malea, formed a junction with King Attalus, off Scyllæum, which lies in the district of Hermione. The Athenian state, which had for a long time, through fear, restrained their animosity against Philip within some bounds, assuming confidence from the support now afforded them, gave full scope to it without any reserve. There are never wanting in that city, orators, who are ready on every occasion to inflame the people; a kind of men, who, in all free states, and more particularly in that of Athens, where eloquence flourishes in the highest degree, are maintained by the favour of the multitude. These immediately proposed a decree, and the commons passed it, that “all the statues and images of Philip, with their inscriptions, and likewise those of all his ancestors of both sexes, should be removed and defaced; that the festival days, solemnities, and priests, which had been instituted in honour of him or them, should all be abolished; and that even the ground where any such statue had been set up, and inscribed with his name, should be held abominable.” And it was resolved, that, “for the future, nothing which ought to be erected or dedicated in a place of purity, should be there erected; that the public priests, as often as they should pray for the people of Athens, for their allies, armies, and fleets, so often should they utter curses and execrations against Philip, his offspring, his kingdom, his forces by sea and land, and the whole race and name of the Macedonians.” It was added to the decree, that, “if any person in future should make any proposal tending to throw disgrace and ignominy on Philip, the people of Athens would ratify it in its fullest extent: if, on the contrary, any one should, by word or deed, endeavour to lessen his ignominy, or to do him honour, that whoever slew such person should be justified in so doing.” Lastly, a clause was annexed, that “all the decrees, formerly passed against the Pisistratidæ, should be in full force against Philip.” Thus the Athenians waged war against Philip with writings and with words, in which alone their power consists.
XLV. Attalus and the Romans, having, from Hermione, proceeded first to Piræeus, and staid there a few days, after being loaded with decrees of the Athenians, (in which the honours paid to their allies were as extravagant as the expressions of their resentment against their enemy had been,) sailed to Andros, and, coming to an anchor in the harbour called Gaureleos, sent persons to sound the inclinations of the townsmen, whether they chose voluntarily to surrender, rather than run the hazard of an assault. On their answering, that they were not at their own disposal, the citadel being possessed by the King’s troops, Attalus and the Roman lieutenant-general, landing their forces, with every thing requisite for attacking towns, made their approaches to the city on different sides. The Roman ensigns and arms, which they had never seen before, together with the spirit of the soldiers, so briskly approaching the walls, were particularly terrifying to the Greeks, insomuch that they immediately fled into the citadel, leaving the city in the power of the enemy. After holding out for two days in the citadel, relying more on the strength of the place than on their arms, on the third both they and the garrison capitulated, on condition of their being transported to Delium in Bœotia, and being each of them allowed a single suit of apparel. The island was yielded up by the Romans to King Attalus; the spoil, and the ornaments of the city, they themselves carried off. Attalus, desirous that the island, of which he had got possession, might not be quite deserted, persuaded almost all the Macedonians, and several of the Andrians, to remain there: and, in some time after, those who, according to the capitulation, had been transported to Delium, were induced to return from thence by the promises made them by the King, in which they were disposed the more readily to confide, by the ardent affection which they felt for their native country. From Andros the combined army passed over to Cythnus: there they spent several days, to no purpose, in attempting to get possession of the city; when, at length, finding it scarcely worth the trouble, they departed. At Prasiæ, a place on the main land of Attica, twenty barks of the Issæans joined the Roman fleet. These were sent to ravage the lands of the Carystians, the rest of the fleet lying at Geræstus, a noted harbour in Eubœa, until their return from Carystus: on which, setting sail altogether, and steering their course through the open sea, until they passed by Scyrus, they arrived at the island Icus. Being detained there for a few days by a violent northerly wind, as soon as it abated, they passed over to Sciathus, a city which had been lately plundered and desolated by Philip. The soldiers, spreading themselves over the country, brought back to the ships corn and many other kinds of provisions. Plunder there was none, nor had the Greeks deserved to be plundered. Directing their course to Cassandrea, they first came to Mendis, a village on the coast of that state; and, intending from thence to double the promontory, and bring round the fleet to the very walls of the city, they were near being buried in the waves by a furious storm. However, after being dispersed, and a great part of the ships having lost their rigging, they escaped on shore. This storm at sea was an omen of the kind of success which they were to meet on land: for, after collecting their vessels together, and landing their forces, having made an assault on the city, they were repulsed with considerable loss, there being a strong garrison of the King’s troops in the place. Being thus obliged to retreat without accomplishing their design, they passed over to Canastrum in Pallene, and from thence, doubling the promontory of Torona, conducted the fleet to Acanthus. There they first laid waste the country, then stormed the city itself, and plundered it. They proceeded no farther, for their ships were now heavily laden with booty, but went back to Sciathus, and from Sciathus to Eubœa, whence they had first set out.
XLVI. Leaving the fleet there, they entered the Malian bay with ten light ships, in order to confer with the Ætolians on the method of conducting the war. Sipyrrhicas, the Ætolian, was at the head of the embassy that came to Heraclea, to hold a consultation with the King and the Roman lieutenant-general. They demanded of Attalus, that, in pursuance of the treaty, he should supply them with one thousand soldiers, which number he had engaged for on condition of their taking part in the war against Philip. This was refused to the Ætolians, because, on their part, they had formerly showed themselves unwilling to march out to ravage Macedonia, at a time when Philip, being employed near Pergamus in destroying by fire every thing sacred and profane, they might have compelled him to retire from thence, in order to preserve his own territories. Thus, instead of aid, the Ætolians were dismissed with hopes, the Romans making them large promises. Apustius and Attalus returned to their ships, where they began to concert measures for the siege of Oreus. This city was well secured by fortifications; and also, since the attempt formerly made on it, by a strong garrison. After the taking of Andros, the combined fleet had been joined by twenty Rhodian ships, all decked vessels, under the command of Agesimbrotus. This squadron they sent to cruise off Zelasium, a promontory of Isthmia, very conveniently situate beyond Demetrias, in order that, if the ships of the Macedonians should attempt to come out, they might be at hand to oppose them. Heraclides, the King’s admiral, kept his fleet there, rather with a view of laying hold of any advantage which the negligence of the enemy might afford him, than with a design of employing open force. The Romans and King Attalus carried on their attacks against Oreus on different sides; the Romans against the citadel next to the sea, the King’s troops against the lower part of the town, lying between the two citadels, where the city is also divided by a wall. As their posts were different, so were their methods of attack: the Romans made their approaches by means of covered galleries, some carried by men, others moving on wheels, applying also the ram to the walls; the King’s troops, by throwing in weapons with the balista, catapulta, and every other kind of engine. They cast stones also of immense weight, formed mines, and made use of every expedient, which, on trial, had been found useful in the former siege. On the other side, the Macedonian garrison, in the town and the citadels, was not only more numerous than on the former occasion, but exerted themselves with greater spirit, in consequence of the reprimands which they had received from the King for their former misconduct, and also from remembrance both of his threats and promises with regard to their future behaviour; so that there was very little hope of its being speedily taken. The lieutenant-general thought, that, in the mean time, some other business might be accomplished; wherefore, leaving such a number of men as seemed sufficient to finish the works, he passed over to the nearest part of the continent, and, arriving unexpectedly, made himself master of Larissa, except the citadel — not that celebrated city in Thessaly, but another, which they call Cremaste. Attalus also surprised Ægeleos, where nothing was less apprehended than such an enterprise during the siege of another city. The works at Oreus had now began to take effect, while the garrison within were almost spent with unremitted toil (keeping watch both by day and night), and also with wounds. Part of the wall being loosened by the strokes of the ram, had fallen down in many places; and the Romans, during the night, broke into the citadel through the breach which lay over the harbour. Attalus, likewise, at the first light, on a signal given from the citadel by the Romans, assaulted the city on his side, where a great part of the walls had been levelled: on which the garrison and townsmen fled into the other citadel, and even that they surrendered in two days after. The city fell to the King, the prisoners to the Romans.
XLVII. The autumnal equinox now approached, and the Eubœan gulf, called Cœla, is reckoned dangerous by mariners. Choosing, therefore, to remove thence before the winter storms came on, they returned to Piræeus, from whence they had set out for the campaign. Apustius, leaving there thirty ships, sailed by Malea to Corcyra. The King was delayed during the celebration of the mysteries of Ceres, immediately after which he also retired into Asia, sending home Agesimbrotus and the Rhodians. Such, during that summer, were the proceedings, by sea and land, of the Roman consul and lieutenant-general, aided by Attalus and the Rhodians, against Philip and his allies. The other consul, Caius Aurelius, on coming into his province, and finding the war there already brought to a conclusion, did not dissemble his resentment against the prætor, for having proceeded to action in his absence: wherefore, sending him away to Etruria, he led on the legions into the enemy’s country, where their operations, having no other object than booty, produced more of it than glory. Lucius Furius, finding nothing in Etruria that could give him employment, and at the same time fired with ambition of obtaining a triumph for his success against the Gauls, which he knew would be more easily accomplished in the absence of the consul, who envied and was enraged against him, came to Rome unexpectedly, and called a meeting of the senate in the temple of Bellona; where, after making a recital of the services which he had performed, he demanded to be allowed to enter the city in triumph.
XLVIII. A great part of the senate, induced by their regard for him, and the importance of his services, showed an inclination to grant his request. The elder part refused to agree to such grant, both “because the army, with which he had acted, belonged to another; and because he had left his province through an ambitious desire of snatching that opportunity of procuring a triumph — a conduct altogether unprecedented.” The senators of consular rank particularly insisted, that “he ought to have waited for the consul; for that he might, by pitching his camp near the city, and thereby securing the colony without coming to an engagement, have protracted the affair until his arrival; and that what the prætor had not done, the senate ought to do: they should wait for the consul. After hearing the business discussed by the consul and prætor in their presence, they would be able, on better grounds, to form a judgment on the case.” Great part were of opinion, that they ought to consider nothing but the service performed, and whether he had performed it while in office, and under his own auspices. For, “when of two colonies, which had been opposed, as barriers, to restrain the tumultuous inroads of the Gauls, one had been already sacked and burned, the flames being ready to spread (as if from an adjoining house) to the other, which lay so near, what ought the prætor to have done? If it was improper to enter on any action without the consul, then the senate had acted wrong in giving the army to the prætor; because, if they chose that the business should be performed, not under the prætor’s auspices, but the consul’s, they might have limited the decree in such a manner, that not the prætor, but the consul, should have the management of it: or else the consul had acted wrong, who, after ordering the army to remove from Etruria into Gaul, did not meet it at Ariminum, in order to be present at operations, which were not allowed to be performed without him. But the exigencies of war do not wait for the delays and procrastinations of commanders; and battles must be sometimes fought, not because commanders choose it, but because the enemy compels it. The fight itself, and the issue of the fight, is what ought to be regarded now. The enemy were routed and slain, their camp taken and plundered, the colony relieved from a siege, the prisoners taken from the other colony recovered and restored to their friends, and an end put to the war in one battle. And not only men rejoiced at this victory, but the immortal gods also had supplications paid to them, for the space of three days, on account of the business of the state having been wisely and successfully, not rashly and unfortunately, conducted by Lucius Furius, prætor. Besides the Gallic wars were, by some fatality, destined to the Furian family.”
XLIX. By means of discourses of this kind, made by him and his friends, the interest of the prætor, who was present, prevailed over the respect due to the dignity of the absent consul, and the majority decreed a triumph to Lucius Furius. Lucius Furius, prætor, during his office, triumphed over the Gauls. He carried into the treasury three hundred and twenty thousand asses,* and one hundred and seventy thousand pounds weight of silver. There were neither any prisoners led before his chariot, nor spoils carried before him, nor did any soldiers follow him. It appeared that every thing, except the victory, belonged to the consul. Publius Scipio then celebrated, in a magnificent manner, the games which he had vowed when consul in Africa; and with respect to the lands for his soldiers, it was decreed, that whatever number of years each of them had served in Spain or in Africa, he should, for every year, receive two acres; and that ten commissioners should make the distribution. Three commissioners were then appointed to fill up the number of colonists at Venusia, because the strength of that colony had been reduced in the war with Hannibal: Caius Terentius Varro, Titus Quintius Flamininus, Publius Cornelius, son of Cneius Scipio, were the commissioners who enrolled the colonists for Venusia. During the same year, Caius Cornelius Cethegus, who, in the quality of proconsul, commanded in Spain, routed a numerous army of the enemy in the territory of Sedeta; in which battle, it is said, that fifteen thousand Spaniards were slain, and seventy-eight military standards taken. The consul, Caius Aurelius, on returning from his province to Rome, to hold the elections, made heavy complaints, not on the subject on which they had supposed he would, that the senate had not waited for his coming, nor allowed him an opportunity of arguing the matter with the prætor; but, that “the senate had decreed a triumph in such a manner, without hearing the report of any one of those who were present at the operations of the war, except the person who was to enjoy the triumph: that their ancestors had made it a rule that the lieutenant-generals, the military tribunes, the centurions, and even the soldiers, should be present at the same, for this reason, that the reality of his exploits, to whom so high an honour was paid, might be publicly ascertained. Now, of that army which fought with the Gauls, had any one soldier, or even a soldier’s servant, been present, of whom the senate could inquire concerning the truth or falsehood of the prætor’s narrative?” He then appointed a day for the elections, at which were chosen consuls, Lucius Cornelius Lentulus and Publius Villius Tappulus. The prætors were then appointed, Lucius Quintius Flamininus, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, Lucius Villius Tappulus, and Cneius Bæbius Tamphilus.
L. During that year, provisions were remarkably cheap. The curule ædiles, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, and Sextus Ælius Pætus, distributed among the people a vast quantity of corn, brought from Africa, at the rate of two asses a peck. They also celebrated the Roman games in a magnificent manner, repeating them a second day; and erected in the treasury five brazen statues out of the money paid as fines. The plebeian games were thrice repeated entire, by the ædiles, Lucius Terentius Massa, and Cneius Bæbius Tamphilus, who was elected prætor. There were also funeral games exhibited that year in the Forum, for the space of four days, on occasion of the death of Marcus Valerius Lævinus, by his sons Publius and Marcus, who gave also a show of gladiators, in which twenty-five pairs fought. Marcus Aurelius Cotta, one of the ten commissioners for keeping the books of the Sibyl, died, and Manius Acilius Glabrio was substituted in his room. It happened that both the curule ædiles, lately chosen, were persons who could not immediately undertake the office: for Caius Cornelius Cethegus was absent when he was elected, being then commander in Spain; and Caius Valerius Flaccus, who was present, being flamen Dialis, could not take the oath of observing the laws; and no person was allowed to hold any office longer than five days without taking the oath. Flaccus petitioned to be excused from complying with the law, on which the senate decreed, that if the ædile produced a person approved of by the connuls, who would take the oath for him, the consuls, if they thought proper, should make application to the tribunes, that it might be proposed to the people. Lucius Valerius Flaccus, prætor elect, was produced to swear for his brother. The tribunes proposed to the commons, and the commons ordered, that this should be as effectual as if the ædile himself had sworn. With regard to the other ædile, likewise, an order of the commons was made. On the tribunes putting the question, what two persons they chose should go and take the command of the armies in Spain, in order that Caius Cornelius, curule ædile, might come home to execute his office, and that Lucius Manlius Acidinus might leave that province, where he had continued many years; the commons ordered Cneius Cornelius Lentulus, and Lucius Stertinius, proconsuls, to command in Spain.
Successes of Titus Quintius Flamininus against Philip: and of his brother Lucius, with the fleet, assisted by Attalus and the Rhodians. Treaty of friendship with the Achæans. Conspiracy of the slaves discovered, and suppressed. The number of the prætors augmented to six. Defeat of the Insubrian Gauls by Cornelius Cethegus. Treaty of friendship with Nabis, tyrant of Lacedæmon. Capture of several cities in Macedonia.
Y.R.553. 199.I. The consuls and prætors entering into office on the ides of March cast lots for the provinces. Italy fell to Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, Macedonia to Publius Villius. Of the prætors, the city jurisdiction fell to Lucius Quinctius, Ariminum to Cneius Bæbius, Sicily to Lucius Valerius, Sardinia to Lucius Villius. The consul, Lentulus, was ordered to levy new legions; Villius to receive the army from Publius Sulpicius; and, to complete its number, power was given him to raise as many men as he thought proper. To the prætor Bæbius were decreed the legions, which Caius Aurelius, late consul, had commanded, with directions that he should keep them in their present situation, until the consul should come with the new army to supply their place; and that, on his arriving in Gaul, all the soldiers who had served out their time should be sent home, except five thousand of the allies, which would be sufficient to protect the province round Ariminum. The command was continued to the prætors of the former year; to Cneius Sergius, that he might superintend the distribution of land to the soldiers, who had served for many years in Spain, Sicily and Sardinia; to Quintus Minucius, that he might finish the inquiries concerning the conspiracies in Bruttium, which, while prætor, he had managed with care and fidelity. That he should also send to Locri, to suffer punishment, those who had been convicted of sacrilege, and who were then in chains at Rome; taking care, at the same time, that whatever had been carried away from the temple of Proserpine should be replaced, and proper atonement made. The Latine festival was repeated in pursuance of a decree of the pontiffs, because ambassadors from Ardea had complained to the senate, that, during the said solemnity they had not been supplied with meat as usual. From Suessa an account was brought, that two of the gates, and the wall between them, were struck with lightning. Messengers from Formiæ related, that the temple of Jupiter was also struck by lightning; from Ostia, likewise, news came of the like accident having happened to the temple of Jupiter there; it was said, too, that the temples of Apollo and Sancus, at Veliternum, were struck in like manner, and that in the temple of Hercules, hair grew on the statue. A letter was received from Quintus Minucius, proprætor, from Bruttium, that a foal had been born with five feet, and three chickens with three feet each. Afterwards a letter was brought from Macedonia, from Publius Sulpicius, proconsul, in which, among other matters, it was mentioned, that a laurel tree had sprung up on the poop of a ship of war. On occasion of the former prodigies, the senate had voted, that the consuls should offer sacrifices, with the greater victims, to such gods as they thought proper. On account of the last prodigy, alone, the aruspices were called before the senate, and, in pursuance of their answer, the people were ordered by proclamation to perform a supplication for one day, and worship was solemnized at all the shrines.
II. This year, the Carthaginians brought to Rome the first payment of the silver, imposed on them as a tribute; and the quæstors having reported, that it was not of the proper standard, and that, on the assay, it wanted a fourth part, they borrowed money at Rome, and made up the deficiency. On their requesting that the senate would be pleased to order their hostages to be restored to them, a hundred were given up, with assurances in regard to the rest, if they continued to observe the treaty. They then farther requested, that the remaining hostages might be removed from Norba, where they were ill accommodated, to some other place, and they were permitted to remove to Signia and Terentinum. The request of the people of Gades was likewise complied with: that a governor should not be sent to their city; being contrary to their stipulation with Lucius Marcius Septimus, when they came under the protection of the Roman people. Deputies from Narnia complaining, that they had not their due number of settlers, and that several who were not of their community, had crept in among them, and assumed the privileges of colonists, Lucius Cornelius, consul, was ordere to appoint three commissioners to adjust those matters. The three appointed were Publius and Sextus Ælius, both surnamed Pætus; and Gaius Cornelius Lentulus. The favour granted to the Narnians, of filling up their number of colonists, was refused to the people of Cossa, who applied for it.
III. The consuls, having finished the business that was to be done at Rome, set out for their provinces. Publius Villius, on coming into Macedonia, found the soldiers in a violent mutiny, signs of which had appeared some time before. There were two thousand concerned in it. These troops, after Hannibal was vanquished, had been transported from Africa to Sicily, and in about a year after, into Macedonia, as volunteers; they denied, however, that this was done with their consent, affirming, that “they had been put on board the ships, by the tribunes, contrary to their remonstrances; but, in what manner soever they had become engaged in that service, whether by compulsion or not, the time of it was now expired, and it was reasonable that some end should be put to their toils. For many years they had not seen Italy, but had grown old under arms in Sicily, Africa, and Macedonia; they were now, in short, worn out with labour and fatigue, and had lost the best part of their blood by the many wounds which they had received.” The consul told them, that “the grounds on which they demanded their discharge, appeared to him to be reasonable, if the demand had been made in a moderate manner; but that neither on that, nor on any other grounds, could mutiny ever be justified. Wherefore, if they were contented to adhere to their standards, and obey orders, he would write to the senate concerning their release; and that what they desired would more easily be obtained by modest behaviour than by turbulence.”
IV. At this time, Philip was pushing on the siege of Thaumaci, with the utmost vigour, by means of mounds and engines, and was ready to bring up the ram to the walls, when he was obliged to relinquish the undertaking by the sudden arrival of the Ætolians, who, under the command of Archidamus, having made their way into the town between the posts of the Macedonians, never ceased, day or night, making continual sallies, sometimes against the guards, sometimes against the works. They were at the same time favoured by the nature of the place: for Thaumaci stands near the road from Thermopylæ, and the Malian bay, through Lamia, on a lofty eminence, hanging immediately over the narrow pass called Cæle.* After passing through the craggy grounds of Thessaly, the roads are rendered intricate by the windings of the valleys, and on the near approach to the city, such an immense plain opens at once to view, like a vast sea, that the eye can scarcely reach the bounds of the expanse beneath. From this surprising prospect it was called Thaumaci.† The city itself is secured, not only by the height of its situation, but by its standing on a rock, from the sides of which, all round, the projecting parts had been pared off. In consequence of these difficulties, and the prize not appearing sufficient to recompense so much toil and danger, Philip desisted from the attempt. The winter also was approaching; he therefore retired from thence, and led back his troops into winter-quarters, in Macedonia.
V. There, whilst others, glad of any interval of rest, consigned both body and mind to repose, Philip, in proportion as the season of the year had relieved him from the incessant fatigues of marching and fighting, found his care and anxiety increase the more, when he turned his thoughts towards the general issue of the war. He dreaded, not only his enemies, who pressed him hard by land and sea, but also the dispositions, sometimes of his allies, at others of his own subjects. The former, he thought, might be induced, by hopes of friendship with the Romans, to change sides, and the Macedonians themselves be seized with a desire of innovation. Wherefore, he despatched ambassadors to the Achæans, both to require their oath, (for it had been made an article of their agreement that they should take an oath of fidelity to Philip every year,) and at the same time to restore to them Orchomenos, Heræa, and Triphylia. To the Megalopolitans, he delivered up Aliphera; which city, they insisted, had never belonged to Triphylia, but ought to be restored to them, having been one of those that were incorporated by the council of the Arcadians for the founding of Megalopolis. These measures had the desired effect of strengthening his connection with the Achæans. The affections of the Macedonians he conciliated by his treatment of Heraclides: for finding that, from having countenanced this man, he had incurred the general displeasure of his subjects, he charged him with a number of crimes, and threw him into chains, to the great joy of the people. In his preparations for war, he exerted the most vigorous efforts; exercised both the Macedonian and mercenary troops in arms, and, in the beginning of spring, sent Athenagoras, with all the foreign auxiliaries and light troops, through Epirus into Chaonia, to seize the pass at Antigonia, which the Greeks call Stena. He followed, in a few days, with the heavy troops; and, having viewed every situation in the country, he judged that the most advantageous post for fortifying himself was on the river Aous. This river runs in a narrow vale, between two mountains, one of which the natives call the river Asnaus, affording a passage of very little breadth along the bank. He ordered Athenagoras, with the light infantry, to take possession of Asnaus, and to fortify it. His own camp he pitched on Æropus. Those places, where the rocks were steep, were defended by guards of a few soldiers only; the less secure he strengthened, some with trenches, some with ramparts, and others with towers. A great number of engines, also, were disposed in proper places, that, by means of weapons thrown from these, they might keep the enemy at a distance. The royal pavilion was pitched on the outside of the rampart, on the most conspicuous eminence, in order, by this show of confidence, to dishearten the foe, and raise the hopes of his own men.
VI. The consul received intelligence from Charopus of Epirus, that the King, with his army, had posted himself in this pass. As soon, therefore, as the spring began to open, he left Corcyra, where he had passed the winter, and, sailing over to the continent, led on his army. When he came within about five miles of the King’s camp, leaving the legions in a strong post, he went forward in person with some light troops, to view the nature of the country; and on the day following, held a council, in order to determine whether he should, notwithstanding the great labour and danger to be encountered, attempt a passage through the defiles occupied by the enemy, or lead round his forces by the same road through which Sulpicius had penetrated into Macedonia the year before. The deliberations on this question had lasted several days, when news arrived, that Titus Quintius had been elected consul; that he had obtained, by lot, Macedonia, as his province; and that, hastening his journey, he had already come over to Corcyra. Valerius Antias says, that Villius marched into the defile, and that, as he could not proceed straight forward, because every pass was occupied by the King, he followed the course of a valley, through the middle of which the river Aous flows, and having hastily constructed a bridge, passed over to the bank, where the King lay, and fought a battle with him: that the King was routed and driven out of his camp; that twelve thousand Macedonians were killed, and two thousand two hundred taken, together with a hundred and thirty-two military standards, and two hundred and thirty horses. He adds, that, during the battle, a temple was vowed to Jupiter in case of success. The other historians, both Greek and Latin, (all those at least whose accounts I have read,) affirm, that nothing memorable was done by Villius, and that Titus Quintius the consul, who succeeded him, found that no progress whatever had been made in the business of the war.
VII. During the time of these transactions in Macedonia, the other consul, Lucius Lentulus, who had staid at Rome, held an assembly for the election of censors. Out of many illustrious men who stood candidates, were chosen Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus and Publius Ælius Pætus. These, acting together with the most perfect harmony, read the list of the senate, without passing a censure on any one member; they also let to farm the port-duties at Capua, and those at the fort of Puteoli, situate where the city now stands; enrolling for this latter place three hundred colonists, that being the number fixed by the senate; they also sold the lands of Capua, which lie at the foot of Mount Tifata. About the same time, Lucius Manlius Acidinus, on his return from Spain, was hindered from entering the city in ovation by Marcus Portius Læca, plebeian tribune, notwithstanding he had obtained permission of the senate: coming, then, into the city, in a private character, he conveyed to the treasury one thousand two hundred pounds weight of silver, and about thirty pounds weight of gold. During this year, Cneius Bæbius Tamphilus, who had succeeded to the government of the province of Gaul, in the room of Caius Aurelius, consul of the year preceding, having, without proper caution, entered the territories of the Insubrian Gauls, was, with almost the whole of his army, attacked at disadvantage and overthrown. He lost above six thousand six hundred men — a severe blow from an enemy who had for some time ceased to be considered as being formidable. This event called away the consul, Lucius Lentulus, from the city; who, arriving in the province, which was in general confusion, and taking the command of the army, which he found dispirited by its defeat, severely reprimanded the prætor, and ordered him to quit the province, and return to Rome. Neither did the consul himself perform any considerable service, being called home to preside at the elections, which were obstructed by Marcus Fulvius and Manius Curius, plebeian tribunes, who wished to hinder Titus Quintius Flamininus from standing candidate for the consulship, after passing through the office of quæstor. They alleged, that “the ædileship and prætorship were now held in contempt, and that the nobility did not make their way to the consulship through the regular gradations of offices; but, passing over the intermediate steps, pushed at once from the lowest to the highest.” From a dispute in the Field of Mars, the affair was brought before the senate, where it was voted, “that when a person sued for any post, which by the laws he was permitted to hold, the people had the right of choosing whoever they thought proper.” To this decision of the senate, the tribunes submitted, and thereupon Sextus Ælius Pætus and Titus Quintius Flamininus were elected. Then was held the election of prætors. The persons chosen were Lucius Cornelius Merula, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Marcus Porcius Cato, and Caius Helvius, who had been plebeian ædiles. These repeated the plebeian games, and, on occasion of the games, celebrated a feast of Jupiter. The curule ædiles also, Caius Valerius Flaccus, who was flamen of Jupiter, and Caius Cornelius Cethegus, celebrated the Roman games with great magnificence. Servius and Caius Sulpicius Galba, pontiffs, died this year; in their room, in the college, were substituted Marcus Æmilius Lepidus and Cneius Cornelius Scipio.
Y.R.554. 198.VIII. The new consuls, Sextus Ælius Pætus and Titus Quintius Flamininus, on assuming the administration, convened the senate in the Capitol and the Fathers decreed, that “the consuls should settle between themselves, or cast lots for the provinces, Macedonia and Italy. That he to whom Macedonia fell should enlist, as a supplement to the legions, three thousand Roman footmen, and three hundred horse, and also five thousand footmen, and five hundred horsemen of the Latine confederates.” The army assigned to the other consul, was to consist entirely of new-raised men. Lucius Lentulus, consul of the preceding year, was continued in command, and was ordered not to depart from the province, nor to remove the old army, until the consul should arrive with the new legions. The consuls cast lots for the provinces, and Italy fell to Ælius, Macedonia to Quintius. Of the prætors, the lots gave to Lucius Cornelius Merula the city jurisdiction; to Marcus Claudius, Sicily; to Marcus Porcius, Sardinia; and to Caius Helvius, Gaul. The levying of troops was then begun, for, besides the consular armies, they had been ordered also to enlist men for the prætors: for Marcellus, in Sicily, four thousand foot and three hundred horse of the Latine confederates; for Cato, in Sardinia, three thousand foot and two hundred horse of the same country; with directions, that both these prætors, on their arrival in their provinces, should disband the veterans, both foot and horse. The consuls then introduced to the senate ambassadors from King Attalus. These, after representing that their King gave every assistance to the Roman arms on land and sea, with his fleet and all his forces, and had hitherto executed, with zeal and alacrity, every order of the consuls, added, that “they feared it would not be in his power to continue so to do, as he was much embarrassed by Antiochus, who had invaded his kingdom, when the sea and land forces, which might have defended it, were removed to a distance. That Attalus, therefore, entreated the Conscript Fathers, if they chose to employ his army and navy in the Macedonian war, then to send a body of forces to protect his territories; or if that were not agreeable, to allow him to go home for that purpose, with his fleet and troops.” The following answer was ordered to be given to the ambassadors: that “the senate retained a due sense of Attalus’s friendship in aiding the Roman commanders with his fleet and other forces. That they would neither send succours to Attalus, against Antiochus, the ally and friend of the Roman people; nor would they detain the troops, which he had sent to their assistance, to his inconvenience. That it was ever a constant rule with the Roman people, to use the aid of others, so far only, as was agreeable to the will of those who gave it; and even to leave those who were so inclined, at full liberty to determine, when that assistance should commence, and when it should cease. That they would send ambassadors to Antiochus; to represent to him, that Attalus, with his fleet and army, were, at the present, employed by the Roman people, against Philip their common enemy; and that they would request Antiochus, to leave the dominions of Attalus unmolested, and to refrain from all hostilities; for that it was much to be wished, that kings, who were allies and friends to the Roman people, should maintain friendship between themselves also.”
IX. When the consul Titus Quintius had finished the levies, in making which he chose principally such as had served in Spain or Africa, that is, soldiers of approved courage, and when hastening to set forward to his province, he was delayed by reports of prodigies, and the expiations of them necessary to be performed. There had been struck by lightning the public road at Veii, a temple of Jupiter at Lanuvium, a temple of Hercules at Ardea, with a wall and towers at Capua, also the edifice which is called Alba. At Arretium, the sky appeared as on fire; at Velitræ, the earth, to the extent of three acres, sunk down, so as to form a vast chasm. From Suessa Aurunca, an account was brought of a lamb born with two heads; from Sinuessa, of a swine with a human head. On occasion of these ill omens, a supplication of one day’s continuance was performed; the consuls employed themselves diligently in the worship of the gods, and as soon as these were appeased, set out for their provinces. Ælius, accompanied by Caius Helvius, prætor, went into Gaul, where he put under the command of the prætor the army which he received from Lucius Lentulus and which he ought to have disbanded, intending to carry on his own operations with the new troops, which he had brought with him; but he effected nothing worth recording. The other consul, Titus Quintius, setting sail from Brundusium earlier than had been usual with former consuls, reached Corcyra, with eight thousand foot and eight hundred horse. From this place, he passed over, in a quinquereme, to the nearest part of Epirus, and proceeded, by long journies, to the Roman camp. Here he dismissed Villius; and waiting a few days, until the forces from Corcyra should come up and join him, held a council, to determine whether he should endeavour to force his way straight forward through the camp of the enemy; or whether, without attempting an enterprise of so great difficulty and danger, he should not rather take a circuitous and safe road, so as to penetrate into Macedonia by the country of the Dassaretians and Lycus. The latter plan would have been adopted, had he not feared that, in removing to a greater distance from the sea, the enemy might slip out of his hands; and that if the King should resolve to secure himself in the woods and wilds, as he had done before, the summer might be spun out without any thing being effected. It was therefore determined, be the event what it might, to attack the enemy in their present post, disadvantageous as it would seem to an assailant. But it was easier to resolve on this measure, than to devise any safe or certain method of accomplishing it.
X. Forty days were passed in view of the enemy, without making any kind of effort. Hence Philip conceived hopes of bringing about a treaty of peace, through the mediation of the people of Epirus; and a council, which was held for the purpose, having appointed Pausanias the prætor, and Alexander the master of the horse, as negotiators, they brought the consul and the King to a conference, on the banks of the river Aous, where the channel was narrowest. The sum of the consul’s demands was, that the King should withdraw his troops from the territories of the several states; that to those, whose lands and cities he had plundered, he should restore such of their effects as could be found; and that the value of the rest should be estimated by a fair arbitration. Philip answered, that “the cases of the several states differed widely from each other. That such as he himself had seized on, he would set at liberty; but he would not divest himself of the hereditary and just possessions which had been conveyed down to him from his ancestors. If those, with whom hostilities had been carried on, complained of any losses in the war, he was ready to submit the matter to the arbitration of any state with whom both parties were at peace.” To this the consul replied, that “the business required neither judge nor arbitrator: for who did not see clearly that every injurious consequence of the war was to be imputed to the first aggressor? And in this case Philip, unprovoked by any, had first commenced hostilities against all.” When they next began to treat of those nations which were to be set at liberty, the consul named, first, the Thessalians: on which the King indignantly exclaimed — “What harsher terms, Titus Quintius, could you impose on me, if I were vanquished?” With these words he retired hastily from the conference, and they were prevented only by the river which separated them, from assaulting each other with missile weapons. On the following day many skirmishes took place between parties sallying from the outposts, in a plain sufficiently wide for the purpose. Afterwards the King’s troops drew back into narrow and rocky places, whither the Romans, keenly eager for fighting, penetrated also. These had in their favour order and military discipline, while their arms were of a kind well calculated for pressing close on the Macedonians, who had, indeed, the advantage of ground, with balistas and catapultas disposed on almost every rock as on walls. After many wounds given and received on both sides, and numbers being slain, as in a regular engagement, darkness put an end to the fight.
XL. While matters were in this state, a herdsman, sent by Charopus, prince of the Epirots, was brought to the consul. He said, that “being accustomed to feed his herd in the forest, then occupied by the King’s camp, he knew every winding and path in the neighbouring mountains; and that, if the consul thought proper to send some troops with him, he would lead them by a road, neither dangerous nor difficult, to a spot over the enemy’s head.” Charopus sent a message to the Roman, to give just so much credit to this man’s account, as should still leave every thing in his own power, and as little as possible in that of the other. Though the consul rather wished than dared to give the intelligence full belief, and though his emotions of joy were strongly checked by fear, yet being moved by the confidence due to Charopus, he resolved to put to trial the favourable offer. In order to prevent all suspicion of the matter, during the two following days he carried on attacks against the enemy without intermission, drawing out troops against them in every quarter, and sending up fresh men to relieve the wearied. Then, selecting four thousand foot and three hundred horse, he put them under the command of a military tribune, with directions to advance the horse as far as the nature of the ground allowed; and when they came to places impassable to cavalry, then to post them in some plain; that the infantry should proceed by the road which the guide would show, and that when, according to his promise, they arrived on the height over the enemy’s head, then they should give a signal by smoke, but raise no shout, until the tribune should have reason to think that, in consequence of the signal received from him, the battle was begun. He ordered that the troops should march by night (the moon shining through the whole of it), and employ the day in taking food and rest. The most liberal promises were made to the guide, provided he fulfilled his engagement; he bound him nevertheless, and delivered him to the tribune. Having thus sent off this detachment, the Roman general exerted redoubled vigour in every part to make himself master of the posts of the enemy.
XII. On the third day, the Roman party made the signal by smoke, to notify that they had gained possession of the eminence to which they had been directed; and then the consul, dividing his forces into three parts, marched up with the main strength of his army, through a valley in the middle, and made the wings on right and left advance to the camp of the enemy. Nor did these betray any want of spirit, but came out briskly to meet him. The Roman soldiers, in the ardour of their courage, long maintained the fight on the outside of their works, for they had no small superiority in bravery, in skill, and in the nature of their arms: but when the King’s troops, after many of them were wounded and slain, retreated into places secured either by intrenchments or situation, the danger reverted on the Romans, who pushed forward, inconsiderately, into disadvantageous grounds and defiles, out of which a retreat was difficult. Nor would they have extricated themselves without suffering for their rashness, had not the Macedonians, first, by a shout heard on their rear, and then by an attack begun on that quarter, been utterly dismayed and confounded at the unthought-of danger. Some betook themselves to a hasty flight: some keeping their stand, rather because they could find no way for flight, than that they possessed spirit to support the engagement, were cut off by the Romans, who pressed them hard both on front and rear. Their army might have been entirely destroyed, had the victors continued their pursuit of the fugitives; but the cavalry were obstructed by the narrowness of the passes and the ruggedness of the ground; and the infantry, by the weight of their armour. The King at first fled with precipitation, without looking behind him; but afterwards when he had proceeded as far as five miles, he began from recollecting the unevenness of the road, to suspect, (what was really the case,) that the enemy could not follow him; and halting, he despatched his attendants through all the hills and valleys to collect the stragglers together. His loss was not more than two thousand men. The rest of his army coming to one spot, as if they had followed some signal, marched off, in a compact body, toward Thessaly. The Romans, after having pursued the enemy as far as they could with safety, killing such as they overtook, and despoiling the slain, seized and plundered the King’s camp; to which, even when there were no troops to oppose them, they could not easily make their way. The following night they were lodged within their own trenches.
XIII. Next day, the consul pursued the enemy through the same defiles, following the course of the river as it winds through the valleys. The King came first to the Camp of Pyrrhus, a place so called in Triphylia, a district of Melotis; and on the following day, by a very long march, his fears urging him on, he reached Mount Lingos. This ridge of mountains belongs to Epirus, and stretches along between Macedonia and Thessaly; the side next to Thessaly faces the east, that next to Macedonia the north. These hills are thickly clad with woods, and on their summits have open plains and springs of water. Here Philip remained encamped for several days, being unable to determine whether he should continue his retreat, until he arrived in his own dominions, or whether he might venture back into Thessaly. At length, he resolved to direct his route into Thessaly; and, going by the shortest roads to Tricca, he made hasty excursions from thence, to all the cities within his reach. The inhabitants who were able to accompany him, he carried away from their habitations, and burned the towns, allowing the owners to take with them such of their effects as they were able to carry; the rest became the prey of the soldiers; nor was there any kind of cruelty which they could have suffered from an enemy, that they did not suffer from these their confederates. The infliction of such hardships was irksome to Philip, even while he authorised it; but as the country was soon to become the property of the foe, he wished to rescue out of it their persons at least. In this manner were ravaged the towns of Phacium, Iresia, Euhydrium, Eretria, and Palæphatus. On his coming to Pheræ, the gates were shut against him, and as it would necessarily occasion a considerable delay, if he attempted to take it by force, and as he could not spare time, he dropped the design, and crossed over the mountains into Macedonia: for he had received intelligence, that the Ætolians too were marching towards him. These, on hearing of the battle fought on the banks of the river Aous, first laid waste the nearest tracts round Sperchia, and Long Come, as it is called, and then, passing over into Thessaly, got possession of Cymine and Angea at the first assault. From Metropolis, they were repulsed by the inhabitants, who, while a part of their army was plundering the country, assembled in a body to defend the city. Afterwards, making an attempt on Callithere, they were attacked by the townsmen in a like manner; but withstood their onset with more steadiness, drove back into the town the party which had sallied, and content with that success, as they had scarcely any prospect of taking the place by storm, retired. They then took by assault and sacked the towns of Theuma and Calathas. Achorræ, they gained by surrender. Xyniæ, through similar apprehensions, was abandoned by the inhabitants. These, having forsaken their homes, and going together in a body, fell in with a party of Athamanians employed in protecting their foragers; all of whom, an irregular and unarmed multitude, incapable of any resistance, were put to the sword by the troops. The deserted town of Xyniæ was plundered. The Ætolians then took Cyphara, a fort conveniently situated on the confines of Dolopia. All this the Ætolians performed within the space of a few days.
XIV. Amynander and the Athamanians, when they heard of the victory obtained by the Romans, continued not inactive. Amynander, having little confidence in his own troops, requested aid from the consul; and then advancing towards Gomphi, he stormed on his march a place called Pheca, situate between that town and the narrow pass which separates Thessaly from Athamania. He then attacked Gomphi, and though the inhabitants defended it for several days with the utmost vigour, yet, as soon as he had raised the scaling-laders to the walls, the same apprehensions which had operated on others, made them capitulate. This capture of Gomphi spread the greatest consternation among the Thessalians: their fortresses of Argenta, Pherinus, Thimarus, Lisinæ, Stimon, and Lampsus, surrendered, one after another, with several other garrisons equally inconsiderable. While the Athamanians and Ætolians, delivered from fear of the Macedonians, converted to their own profit the fruits of another’s victory; and Thessaly, ravaged by three armies at once, knew not which to believe its foe or its friend; the consul marched on, through the pass which the enemy’s flight had left open, into the country of Epirus. Though he well knew which party the Epirots, excepting their prince Charopus, were disposed to favour, yet as he saw, that even from the motive of atoning for past behaviour, they obeyed his orders with diligence, he regulated his treatment of them by the standard of their present rather than of their former temper, and by this readiness to pardon, conciliated their affection for the future. Then, sending orders to Corcyra, for the transport ships to come into the Ambracian bay, he advanced by moderate marches, and on the fourth day pitched his camp on Mount Cercetius. Hither he ordered Amynander to come with his auxiliary troops; not so much because he wanted such addition of his forces, as with design to use them as guides into Thessaly. With the same purpose, many volunteers of the Epirots, also, were admitted into the corps of auxiliaries.
XV. Of the cities of Thessaly, the first which he attacked, was Phaleria. The garrison here consisted of two thousand Macedonians, who made at first a most vigorous resistance, availing themselves, to the utmost, of every advantage that their arms and works could afford. The assault was carried on, without intermission or relaxation, either by day or by night, because the consul thought that it would have a powerful effect on the spirits of the rest of the Thessalians, if the first who made trial of the Roman strength were unable to withstand it; and this at the same time subdued the obstinacy of the Macedonians. On the reduction of Phaleria, deputies came from Metropolis and Piera, surrendering those cities. To them, on their petition, pardon was granted: Phaleria was sacked, and burned. He then proceeded to Æginium; but finding this place so circumstanced, that, even with a moderate garrison, it was safe; after discharging a few weapons against the nearest advanced guard, he directed his march towards the territory of Gomphi; and thence, into the plains of Thessaly. His army was now in want of every thing, because he had spared the lands of the Epirots; he therefore despatched messengers to learn whether the transports had reached Leucas and the Ambracian bay; sending the cohorts, in turn, to Ambracia for corn. Now the road from Gomphi to Ambracia, although difficult and embarrassed, is very short: so that in a few days provisions were brought up from the sea in abundance. He then marched to Atrax, which is about ten miles from Larissa, on the river Peneus. The inhabitants came originally from Perrhæbia. The Thessalians, here, were not in the least alarmed at the first coming of the Romans; and Philip, although he durst not himself advance into Thessaly, yet, keeping his station in the vale of Tempe, whenever any place was attempted by the enemy, he sent up reinforcements as occasioned required.
XVI. About the time that Quintius first pitched his camp opposite to Philip’s, and at the entrance of Epirus; Lucius, the consul’s brother, whom the senate had commissioned both to the naval command and to the government of the coast, sailed over with two quinqueremes to Corcyra; and when he learned that the fleet had departed thence, thinking any delay improper, he followed, and overtook it at the island of Zama. Here he dismissed Lucius Apustius, in whose room he had been appointed, and then proceeded to Malea, but at a slow rate, being obliged, for the most part, to tow the vessels which accompanied him with provisions. From Malea, after ordering the rest to follow with all possible expedition, himself, with three light quinqueremes, hastened forward to the Piræeus, and took under his command the ships left there by Lucius Apustius, lieutenant-general, for the protection of Athens. At the same time, two fleets set sail from Asia; one of twenty-four quinqueremes, under King Attalus; the other belonging to the Rhodians, consisting of twenty decked ships, and commanded by Agesimbrotus. These fleets, joining near the island of Andros, sailed for Eubœa, to reach which place they had only to cross a narrow channel. They first ravaged the lands belonging to Carystus; but, judging that city too strong, in consequence of a reinforcement hastily sent from Chalcis, they bent their course to Eretria. Lucius Quintius also, on hearing of the arrival of King Attalus, came thither with the ships which had lain at the Piræeus; having left orders, that his own ships should, as they arrived, follow him to Eubœa. The siege of Eretria was now pushed forward with the utmost vigour; for the three combined fleets carried machines and engines, of all sorts, for the demolition of towns, and the adjacent country offered abundance of timber for the construction of new works. At the beginning the townsmen defended themselves with a good degree of spirit; afterwards, when they felt the effects of fatigue, a great many being likewise wounded, and a part of the wall demolished by the enemy’s works, they became disposed to capitulate. But they had a garrison of Macedonians, of whom they stood in no less dread than of the Romans; and Philocles, the King’s general, sent frequent messages from Chalcis, that he would bring them succour in due time, if they could hold out the siege. The hope of this, in conjunction with their fears, obliged them to protract the time longer than was consistent either with their wishes or their strength. However, having learned soon after, that Philocles had been repulsed in the attempt, and forced to fly back, in disorder, to Chalcis, they instantly sent deputies to Attalus, to beg pardon and protection. While intent on the prospect of peace, they remitted their diligence in the duties of war, and kept armed guards in that quarter only, where the breach had been made in the wall, neglecting all the rest; Quintius made an assault by night on the side where it was least apprehended, and carried the town by scalade. The townsmen, with their wives and children, fled into the citadel, but soon after surrendered themselves prisoners. The quantity of money, of gold, and silver, taken, was not great. Of statues and pictures, the works of ancient artists, and other ornaments of that kind, a greater number was found than could be expected, either from the size of the city, or its opulence in other particulars.
XVII. The design on Carystus was then resumed, and the fleets sailed thither; on which the whole body of the inhabitants, before the troops were disembarked, deserted the city, and fled into the citadel, whence they sent deputies to beg protection from the Roman general. To the townspeople life and liberty were immediately granted; and it was ordered, that the Macedonians should pay a ransom of three hundred drachmas* a head, deliver up their arms, and quit the country. After being thus ransomed, they were transported, unarmed, to Bœotia. The combined fleets having, in the space of a few days, taken these two important cities of Eubœa, sailed round Sunium, a promontory of Attica, and steered their course to Cenchreæ, the grand mart of the Corinthians. In the mean time, the consul found the siege of Atrax more tedious than he had imagined, the enemy making an unexpected resistance. He had supposed that the whole of the trouble would be in demolishing the wall, and that if he could once open a passage for his soldiers into the city, the consequence would then be, the flight and slaughter of the enemy, as usually happens on the capture of towns. But when, on a breach being made in the wall by the rams, and when the soldiers, by mounting over the ruins, had entered the place, this proved only the beginning, as it were, of an unusual and fresh labour. For the Macedonians in garrison, who were both chosen men and many in number, supposing that they would be entitled to extraordinary honour if they should maintain the defence of the city by means of arms and courage, rather than by the help of walls, formed themselves in a compact body, strengthening their line by an uncommon number of files in depth. These, when they saw the Romans entering by the breaches, drove them back, so that they were entangled among the rubbish, and with difficulty could effect a retreat. This gave the consul great uneasiness; for he considered such a disgrace, not merely as it retarded the reduction of a single city, but as likely to affect materially the whole process of the war, which in general depends much on the influence of events in themselves unimportant. Having therefore cleared the ground about the half ruined wall, he brought up a tower of extraordinary height, consisting of many stories, and which carried a great number of soldiers. He likewise sent up the cohorts in strong bodies, one after another, to force their way, if possible, through the wedge of the Macedonians, which is called a phalanx. But in such a confined space, (for the wall was thrown down to no great extent,) the enemy had the advantage, both in the kind of weapons which they used, and in the manner of fighting. When the Macedonians, in close array, stretched out before them their long spears against the target fence, and which was formed by the close position of their antagonists’ shields, and when the Romans, after discharging their javelins without effect, drew their swords, these could neither press on to a closer combat, nor cut off the heads of the spears; and if they did cut or break off any, the shaft being sharp at the part where it was broken, filled up its place among the points of those which were unbroken, in a kind of palisade. Besides this, the parts of the wall still standing covered safely the flanks of the Macedonians, who were not obliged, either in retreating or in advancing to an attack, to pass through a long space, which generally occasions disorder in the ranks. An accidental circumstance also helped to confirm their courage: for as the tower was moved along a bank not sufficiently compacted, one of the wheels sinking into a rut, made the tower lean in such a manner that it appeared to the enemy as if falling, and threw the soldiers posted on it into consternation and affright.
XVIII. As none of his attempts met any success, the consul was very unwilling to allow the difference between the two kinds of soldiery and their weapons to be manifested in such trials; at the same time, he could neither see any prospect of reducing the place speedily, nor any means of subsisting in winter, at such a distance from the sea, and in a country desolated by the calamities of war. He therefore raised the siege; and as, along the whole coast of Acarnania and Ætolia, there was no port capable of containing all the transports that brought supplies to the army, nor any place which afforded lodgings to the legions, he pitched on Anticyra, in Phocis, on the Corinthian gulf, as most commodiously situated for his purpose. There the legions would be at no great distance from Thessaly, and the places belonging to the enemy; while they would have in front Peloponnesus separated from them by a narrow sea; on their rear, Ætolia and Acarnania; and on their sides, Locris and Bœotia. Phanotea and Phocis he took without difficulty, at the first assault. The siege of Anticyra gave him not much delay. Then Ambrysus and Hyampolis were taken. Daulis, being situated on a lofty eminence, could not be reduced either by scalade or works: he therefore provoked the garrison, by missile weapons, to make sallies from out the town. Then by flying at one time, pursuing at another, and engaging in slight skirmishes, he led them into such a degree of carelessness, and such a contempt of him, that at length the Romans, mixing with them as they ran back, entered by the gates, and stormed the town. Six other fortresses in Phocis, of little consequence, came into his hands, through fear rather than by force of arms. Elatia shut its gates, and the inhabitants seemed determined not to admit within their walls either the army or general of the Romans, unless compelled by force.
XIX. While the consul was employed in the siege of Elatia, a prospect opened to him of effecting a business of much more importance: of being able to prevail on the Achæans to renounce their alliance with Philip, and attach themselves to the Romans. Cycliades, the head of the faction that favoured the interest of Philip, they had now banished; and Aristænus, who wished for a union between his countrymen and the Romans, was prætor. The Roman fleet, with Attalus and the Rhodians, lay at Cenchreæ, and were preparing to lay siege to Corinth with their whole combined force. The consul therefore judged it prudent, that, before they entered on that affair, ambassadors should be sent to the Achæan state, with assurances, that, if they came over from the King to the side of the Romans, the latter would consign Corinth to them, and annex it to the old confederacy of their nation. Accordingly, by the consul’s direction, ambassadors were sent to the Achæans, by his brother Lucius Quintius, by Attalus, and by the Rhodians and Athenians — a general assembly being summoned to meet at Sicyon to give them audience. Now the minds of the Achæans laboured with a complication of difficulties. They feared the Lacedæmonians, their constant and inveterate enemies; they dreaded the arms of the Romans; they were under obligations to the Macedonians, for services both of ancient and of recent date; but the King himself, on account of his perfidy and cruelty, they looked upon with jealous fear, and, not judging from the behaviour which he then assumed for the time, they knew that, on the conclusion of the war, they should find him a more tyrannic master. So that every one of them was not only at a loss what opinion he should support in the senate of his own particular state, or in the general diets of the nation; but, even when they deliberated within themselves, they could not, with any certainty, determine what they ought to wish, or what to prefer. Such was the unsettled state of mind of the members of the assembly, when the ambassadors were introduced to audience. The Roman ambassador, Lucius Calpurnius, spoke first; next the ambassadors of King Attalus; after them, those of the Rhodians; and then Philip’s. The Athenians were heard the last, that they might refute the discourses of the Macedonians. These inveighed against the King with the greatest acrimony of any, for no others had suffered from him so many and so severe hardships. So great a number of speeches succeeding each other, took up the whole of the day; and about sunset, the council was adjourned.
XX. Next day the council met again; and when the magistrates, according to the custom of the Greeks, gave leave, by their herald, to any person who chose to deliver his sentiments, not one stood forth; but they sat a long time, looking on each other in silence. It was no wonder, that men, revolving in their minds matters of such contradictory natures, and who found themselves puzzled and confounded, should be involved in additional perplexity by the speeches continued through the whole preceding day; in which the difficulties, on all sides, were brought into view, and stated in their full force. At length Aristænus, the prætor of the Achæans, not to dismiss the council without any business being introduced, said; —“Achæans, where are now those violent disputes, in which, at your feasts and meetings, whenever mention was made of Philip and the Romans, you scarcely refrained from blows? Now, in a general assembly, summoned on that single business, when you have heard the arguments of the ambassadors on both sides; when the magistrates demand your opinions; when the herald calls you to declare your sentiments, you are struck dumb. Although your concern for the common safety be insufficient for determining the matter, cannot the party zeal which has attached you to one side or the other, extort a word from any one of you? especially when none is so blind as not to perceive, that the time for declaring and recommending what each either wishes or thinks most adviseable, must be at the present moment; that is, before we make any decree. When a decree shall be once passed, every man, even such as at first may have disapproved the measure, must then support it as good and salutary.” These persuasions of the prætor, so far from prevailing on any one person to declare his opinion, did not excite, in all that numerous assembly, collected out of so many states, so much as a murmur or a whisper.
XXI. Then the prætor, Aristænus, proceeded thus:—“Chiefs of Achæa, you are not more at a loss what advice to give, than you are for words to deliver it in; but every one is unwilling to promote the interest of the public at the risk of danger to himself. Were I in a private character, perhaps I too should be silent; but, as prætor, it is my duty to declare, that I see evidently, either that the ambassadors ought to have been refused an audience of the council, or that they ought not to be dismissed from it without an answer. Yet, how can I give them an answer, unless by a decree of yours? And, since not one of you who have been called to this assembly either chooses or dares to make known his sentiments, let us examine (as if they were opinions proposed to our consideration) the speeches of the ambassadors delivered yesterday; supposing, for a moment, the speakers not to have required what was useful to themselves, but to have recommended what they thought most conducive to our advantage. The Romans, the Rhodians, and Attalus, request an alliance and friendship with us; and they demand to be assisted in the war which they are now engaged in against Philip. Philip reminds us of our league with him, and of the obligation of our oath; he requires, only, that we declare ourselves on his side; and says, he will be satisfied if we do not intermeddle in the operations of the war. Who is there so short-sighted as not to perceive the reason why those who are not yet our allies, require more than he who is? This arises not from modesty in Philip, nor from the want of it in the Romans. The Achæan harbours show what it is, which, while it bestows confidence to requisitions on one side, precludes it on the other. We see nothing belonging to Philip but his ambassador: the Roman fleet lies at Cenchreæ, exhibiting to our view the spoils of the cities of Eubœa. We behold the consul and his legions, at the distance of a small tract of sea, over-running Phocis and Locris. You were surprised at Philip’s ambassador, Cleomedon, showing such diffidence yesterday in his application to us to take arms on the side of the King against the Romans. But if we, in pursuance of the same treaty and oath, the obligation of which he inculcated on us, were to ask of him, that Philip should protect us, both from Nabis and his Lacedæmonians, and also from the Romans, he would be utterly unable to find, not only a force for the purpose, but even an answer to return. As much so in truth as was Philip himself, who endeavoured, by promises of waging war against Nabis, to draw away our youth into Eubœa: but finding that we would neither decree such assistance to him, nor choose to be embroiled with Rome, forgot that alliance, on which he now lays such stress, and left us to the Lacedæmonians, to be spoiled and plundered. Besides, to me the arguments of Cleomedon appeared utterly inconsistent. He made light of the war with the Romans; and asserted, that the issue of it would be similar to that of the former, which they waged against Philip. If such be the case, why does he, at a distance, solicit our assistance; rather than come hither in person, and defend us, his old allies, both from Nabis and from the Romans? Us, do I say? Why, then, has he suffered Eretria and Carystus to be taken? Why, so many cities of Thessaly? Why Locris and Phocis? Why does he at present suffer Elatia to be besieged? Did he, either through compulsion, or fear, or choice, quit the streights of Epirus, and those impregnable fastnesses on the river Aous; and why, abandoning the possession of the pass, did he retire into his own kingdom? If, of his own will, he gave up so many allies to the ravages of the enemy, what objection can he make to these allies, after his example, taking care of themselves? If through fear, he ought to pardon the like fear in us. If his retreat was in consequence of a defeat, let me ask you, Cleomedon, shall we, Achæans, be able to withstand the Roman arms, which you, Macedonians, have not withstood? Are we to give credit to your assertion, that the Romans do not employ, in the present war, greater forces or greater strength than they did in the former, or are we to regard the real facts? In the first instance, they aided the Ætolians with a fleet; they sent not to the war either a consul as commander, or a consular army. The maritime cities of Philip’s allies were in terror and confusion; but the inland places so secure against the Roman arms, that Philip ravaged the country of the Ætolians, while they in vain implored succour from those arms. Whereas, in the present case, the Romans, after bringing to a final conclusion the Punic war, which, raging for sixteen years in the bowels, as it were, of Italy, had given them abundance of trouble, sent not auxiliaries to the Ætolians in their quarrels, but, being themselves principals, made a hostile invasion on Macedonia with land and sea forces at once. Their third consul is now pushing forward the war with the utmost vigour. Sulpicius, engaging the King within the territory of Macedonia itself, routed and utterly defeated him; and afterwards despoiled the most opulent part of his kingdom. Then, again, when he was in possession of the streight of Epirus, where, from the nature of the ground, his fortifications, and the strength of his army, he thought himself secure, Quintius drove him out of his camp; pursued him, as he fled into Thessaly; and, almost in the view of Philip himself, stormed the royal garrisons, and the cities of his allies. Supposing that there were no truth in what the Athenian ambassadors mentioned yesterday, respecting the cruelty, avarice, and lust of the King; supposing the crimes committed, in the country of Attica, against the gods, celestial and infernal, concerned us not at all; that we had less to complain of than what the people of Cyus and Abydus, who are far distant from us, have endured: let us then, if you please, forget even our own wounds; let the murders and ravages committed at Messena, and in the heart of Peloponnesus, the killing of his host Garitenes, at Cyparissia, in the midst of a feast, in contempt of all laws divine and human; the murder of the two Aratuses, of Sicyon, father and son, though he was wont to call the unfortunate old man his parent; his carrying away the son’s wife into Macedonia for the gratification of his vicious appetites, and all his violations of virgins and matrons; — let all these, I say, be forgotten; let all be consigned to oblivion. Let us suppose our business were not with Philip, through dread of whose cruelty you are all thus struck dumb; for what other cause could keep you silent, when you have been summoned to a council? Let us imagine that we are treating with Antigonus, a prince of the greatest mildness and equity, to whose kindness we have all been highly indebted; would he require us to perform, what at the time was impossible? Peloponnesus is a peninsula, united to the continent by a narrow isthmus, particularly exposed and open to the attacks of naval armaments. Now, if a hundred decked ships, and fifty lighter open ones, and thirty Issean barks, shall begin to lay waste our coasts, and attack the cities which stand exposed, almost on the very shore; shall we then retreat into the inland towns, as if we were not afflicted with an intestine war, though in truth it is rankling in our very bowels? When Nabis and the Lacedæmonians by land, and the Roman fleet by sea, shall press us, where must I implore the support due from the King’s alliance; where the succours of the Macedonians? Shall we ourselves, with our own arms, defend, again the Roman forces, the cities that will be attacked? Truly, in the former war, we defended Dymæ excellently well! The calamities of others afford us abundant examples; let us not seek to render ourselves an example to the rest. Do not, because the Romans voluntarily desire your friendship, contemn that which you ought to have prayed for, nay, laboured with all your might to obtain. But, it is insinuated, that they are impelled by fear, in a country to which they are strangers; and that, wishing to shelter themselves under your assistance, they have recourse to your alliance in the hope of being admitted into your harbours, and of there finding supplies of provisions. Now, at sea, they are absolute masters; and instantly reduce to subjection every place at which they land. What they request, they have power to enforce. Because they wish to treat you with tenderness, they do not allow you take steps that must lead you to ruin. Cleomedon lately pointed out, as the middle and safest way, to maintain a neutrality; but that is not a middle way; it is no way. For, besides the necessity of either embracing or rejecting the Roman alliance, what other consequence can ensue from such conduct, than that, while we show no steady attachment to either side, as if we waited the event with design to adapt our counsels to fortune, we shall become the prey of the conqueror? Contemn not, then, when it is offered to your acceptance, what you ought to have solicited with your warmest prayers. The free option between the two, which you have this day, you will not always have. The same opportunity will not last long, nor will it frequently recur. You have long wished to deliver yourselves out of the hands of Philip, although you have not dared to make the attempt. Those have now crossed the sea, with large fleets and armies, who are able to set you at liberty, without any trouble or danger to yourselves. If you reject such allies, the soundness of your understandings may be called in question; but you must unavoidably have to deal with them, either as friends or foes.”
XXII. This speech of the prætor was followed by a general murmur; some declaring their approbation, and others sharply rebuking those who did so. And now, not only individuals, but whole states engaged in altercation; and at length the magistrates, called Demiurguses,* who are ten in number, took up the dispute with as much warmth as the multitude. Five of them declared, that they would propose the question concerning an alliance with Rome, and would take the votes on it; while five insisted, that there was a law, by which the magistrates were prohibited from proposing, and the council from decreeing, any thing injurious to the alliance with Philip. This day, also, was spent in contention, and there remained now but one day more of the regular time of sitting; for, according to the rule, the decree must be passed on the third day: and, as that approached, the zeal of the parties was kindled into such a flame, that scarcely did parents refrain from offering violence to their own sons. There was present a man of Pellene, named Rhisiasus, whose son, Memnon, was a demiurgus, and was of that party which opposed the reading of the decree, and taking the votes. This man, for a long time, entreated his son to allow the Achæans to take proper measures for their common safety, and not, by his obstinacy, to bring ruin on the whole nation; but, finding that his entreaties had no effect, he swore that he would treat him, not as a son, but as an enemy, and would put him to death with his own hand. By these threats he forced him, next day, to join the party that voted for the question being proposed. These, having now become the majority, proposed the question accordingly, while almost every one of the states, openly approving the measure, showed plainly on which side they would vote. Whereupon the Dymæans, Megalopolitans, with several of the Argives, rose up, and withdrew from the council; which step excited neither wonder nor disapprobation. For when, in the memory of their grandfathers, the Megalopolitans had been expelled their country by the Lacedæmonians, Antigonus had reinstated them in their native residence; and, at a later period, when Dymæ was taken and sacked by the Roman troops, Philip ordered that the inhabitants, wherever they were in servitude, should be ransomed, and not only restored them to their liberty, but their country. As to the Argives, besides believing that the royal family of Macedonia derived its origin from them, the greater part were attached to Philip by personal acts of kindness and familiar friendship. For these reasons, when the council appeared disposed to order an alliance to be concluded with Rome, they withdrew; and their secession was readily excused, in consideration of the many and recent obligations by which they were bound to the King of Macedon.
XXIII. The rest of the Achæan states, on their opinions being demanded, ratified, by an immediate decree, the alliance with Attalus and the Rhodians. That with the Romans, as it could not be perfected without an order of the people, they deferred until such time as they could hear from Rome. For the present, it was resolved, that three ambassadors should be sent to Lucius Quintius; and that the whole force of the Achæans should be brought up to Corinth, which city Quintius, after taking Cenchreæ, was then besieging. The Achæans accordingly pitched their camp opposite to the gate that leads to Sicyon. The Romans made their approaches on the side of the city which faces Cenchreæ; Attalus having drawn his army across the isthmus, towards Lechæum, the port on the opposite sea. At first, they did not push forward their operations with any great degree of vigour, because they had hopes of a dissension breaking out between the townsmen and the King’s troops. But afterwards, learning that they all co-operated with unanimity; that the Macedonians exerted themselves as if in defence of their native country; and that the Corinthians submitted to the orders of Androsthenes, commander of the garrison, as if he were their contryman, elected by their own suffrages, and invested with legal authority: the assailants had no other hopes but in force, arms, and their works. They therefore brought up their mounds to the walls, though by very difficult approaches. On that side where the Romans attacked, their ram demolished a considerable part of the wall; and the Macedonians, having run together to defend the place thus stripped of its works, a furious conflict ensued. At first, by reason of the enemy’s superiority in number, the Romans were quickly repulsed; but being joined by the auxiliary troops of Attalus and the Achæans, they restored the fight to an equality; so that there was no doubt of their easily driving the Macedonians and Greeks from their ground, but that there were in the town a great multitude of Italian deserters; some of whom having been in Hannibal’s army, had, through fear of being punished by the Romans, followed Philip; others, having been sailors, had lately quitted the fleets, in hopes of more honourable employment: despair of safety, therefore, in case of the Romans getting the better, inflamed these to a degree, which might rather be called madness than courage. Opposite to Sicyon is the promontory of Juno Acræa, as she is called, stretching out into the main, the passage to Corinth being about seven miles. To this place Philocles, one of the King’s generals, led, through Bœotia, fifteen hundred soldiers; and there were barks from Corinth ready to take these troops on board, and carry them over to Lechæum. Attalus, on this, advised to burn the works, and raise the siege immediately: Quintius was inclined to persevere in the attempt. However, when he saw the King’s troops posted at all the gates, and that the sallies of the besieged could not easily be withstood, he came over to the opinion of Attalus. Thus baffled in their design, they dismissed the Achæans, and returned to their ships. Attalus steered to Piræeus, the Romans to Corcyra.
XXIV. While the naval forces were thus employed, the consul, having encamped before Elatia, in Phocis, first endeavoured, by conferring with the principal inhabitants, to bring them over, and by their means to effect his purpose; but on their answering that they had nothing in their power, because the King’s troops were more numerous and stronger than the townsmen, he assaulted the city on all sides at once with arms and engines. A battering ram shattered a part of the wall that reached from one tower to another, and this falling with a prodigious noise and crash, left much of the town exposed. On this a Roman cohort made an assault through the breach, while at the same time the townsmen, quitting their several posts, ran together from all parts to the endangered place. Others of the Romans climbed over the ruins of the wall, and brought up scaling-ladders to the parts that were standing. As the conflict attracted the eyes and attention of the enemy to one particular spot, the walls were scaled in several places, by which means the soldiers easily entered the town. The noise and tumult which ensued so terrified the enemy, that, quitting the place, which they had crowded together to defend, they all fled in a panic to the citadel, accompanied by the unarmed multitude. The consul, having thus become master of the town, gave it up to be plundered, and then sent a message into the citadel, offering the King’s troops their lives, on condition of their laying down their arms, and departing. To the Elatians he offered their liberty; which terms being agreed to, in a few days after he got possession of the citadel.
XXV. In consequence of Philocles, the King’s general, coming into Achaia, not only Corinth was delivered from the siege, but the city of Argos was betrayed into his hands by some of the principal inhabitants, after they had first sounded the minds of the populace. They had a custom, that, on the first day of assembly, their prætors, for the omen’s sake, should pronounce the names Jupiter, Apollo, and Hercules; in addition to which, a rule had been made, that, along with these, they should join the name of King Philip. After the conclusion of the alliance with the Romans, the herald omitted so to honour him; on which a murmur spread through the multitude, and they soon became clamorous, calling out for the name of Philip, and insisting that the respect, due by law, should be paid as before; which at length being complied with, universal approbation ensued. On the encouragement afforded by this favourable disposition, Philocles was invited, who seized in the night a strong post called Larissa, seated on a hill which overhangs the city, and in which he placed a garrison. At the dawn of day, however, and as he was proceeding in order of battle to the Forum, at the foot of the hill he was met by a line of troops, drawn up to oppose him. This was a body of Achæans, lately posted there, consisting of about five hundred young men, selected out of all the states. Their commander was Ænesidemus, of Dymæ. The King’s general sent a person to recommend to them to evacuate the city, because they were not a match for the townsmen alone, who favoured the cause of Philip; much less when these were joined by the Macedonians, whom even the Romans had not withstood at Corinth. This at first had no effect, either on the commander, or his men; and when they, soon after, perceived the Argives also in arms, coming, in a great body, from the opposite side, and threatening them with destruction, they yet seemed determined to run every hazard, if their leader would persevere. But Ænesidemus, unwilling that the flower of the Achæan youth should be lost, together with the city, made terms with Philocles, that they should have liberty to retire, while himself remained armed with a few of his dependents, and without even stirring from his station. To a person, sent by Philocles to enquire what he meant, he only answered, standing with his shield held out before him, that he meant to die in arms in defence of the city intrusted to his charge. Philocles then ordered some Thracians to throw their javelins at him and his attendants; and they were, every man of them, slain. Thus, notwithstanding the alliance concluded by the Achæans with the Romans, two of their cities, and those of the greatest consequence, Argos and Corinth, were still in the hands of Philip. Such were the services performed in that campaign by the land and sea forces of Rome employed in Greece.
XXVI. In Gaul, the consul Sextus Ælius did nothing worth mention, though he had two armies in the province: one, which he had retained under their standards, although it ought to have been disbanded; and of this, which had served under Lucius Cornelius, proconsul, he had given the command to Caius Helvius, the prætor: the other he had brought with him. He spent nearly the whole summer in compelling the people of Cremona and Placentia to return to their colonies, from whence they had been driven to various places by the calamities of war. While Gaul, beyond expectation, remained quiet through the whole year, an insurrection of the slaves was very near taking place in the neighbourhood of the city. The hostages, given by the Carthaginians, were kept in custody at Setia: as they were the children of the principal families, they were attended by a great multitude of slaves; to this number, many were added, in consequence of the late African war, and by the Setians themselves having bought, from among the spoil, several of those which had been captured. Having conspired together, they sent some of their number to engage in the cause their fellows of the country round Setia, with those at Norba and Circeii. When every thing was fully prepared, they determined, during the games which were soon to be solemnized at the first-mentioned place, to attack the people while intent on the show, and, putting them to death, to make themselves masters of the city in the sudden confusion; and then to seize on Norba and Circeii. Information of this atrocious plot was brought to Rome, to Lucius Cornelius Merula, the city prætor. Two slaves came to him before day, and disclosed the whole proceedings and intentions of the conspirators. The prætor, ordering them to be guarded in his own house, summoned a meeting of the senate; and having laid before them the information of the discoverers, he was ordered to go himself to the spot, and examine into, and crush, the conspiracy. Setting out, accordingly, with five lieutenant-generals, he compelled such as he found in the country, to take the military oath, to arm, and follow him. Having by this tumultuary kind of levy armed about two thousand men, before it was possible to guess his destination, he came to Setia. There the leaders of the conspiracy were instantly apprehended; on which, the remainder fled from the city; but parties were sent through the country to search them out. The services of the two who made the discovery, and of one free person employed, were highly meritorious. The senate ordered a present to the latter of a hundred thousand asses;* to the slaves, twenty-five thousand asses† each, and their freedom. The price was paid to their owners out of the treasury. Not long after, intelligence was received, that others, out of the remaining spirit of the conspiracy, had formed a design of seizing Præneste. The prætor, Lucius Cornelius, went thither, and inflicted punishment on near five hundred persons concerned in that wicked scheme. The public were under apprehensions, that the Carthaginian hostages and prisoners fomented these plots: watches were, therefore, kept at Rome in all the streets, which the inferior magistrates were ordered to go round and inspect; while the triumvirs of the prison, called the Quarry, were to keep a stricter guard than usual. Circular letters were also sent, by the prætor, to all the Latine states, directing that the hostages should be confined within doors, and not at any time allowed the liberty of going into public; and that the prisoners should be kept bound with fetters, of not less than ten pounds weight, and confined in the common jail.
XXVII. In this year, ambassadors from King Attalus made an offering, in the Capitol, of a golden crown of two hundred and fifty-six pounds weight, and returned thanks to the senate, because Antiochus, complying with the requisitions of the Romans, had withdrawn his troops out of Attalus’s territories. During this summer, two hundred horsemen, ten elephants, and two hundred thousand pecks of wheat, were furnished by King Masinissa to the army in Greece. From Sicily also, and Sardinia, large supplies of provisions were sent, with clothing for the troops. Sicily was then governed by Marcus Marcellus, Sardinia by Marcus Porcius Cato, a man of acknowledged integrity and purity of conduct, but deemed too severe in punishing usury. He drove the usurers entirely out of the island; and restricted or abolished the contributions, usually paid by the allies, for maintaining the dignity of the prætors. The consul, Sextus Ælius, coming home from Gaul to Rome to hold the elections, elected consuls, Caius Cornelius Cethegus, and Quintus Minucius Rufus. Two days after, was held the election of prætors; and this year, for the first time, six prætors were appointed, in consequence of the increase of the provinces, and the extension of the bounds of the empire. The persons elected were Lucius Manlius Vulso, Caius Sempronius Tuditanus, Marcus Sergius Silus, Marcus Helvius, Marcus Minucius Rufus, and Lucius Atilius. Of these Sempronius and Helvius were, at the time, plebeian ædiles. The curule ædiles were, Quintus Minucius Thermus, and Tiberius Sempronius Longus. The Roman games were four times repeated during this year.
XXVIII. When the new consuls, Caius Cornelius and Quintus Minucius, entered into office, the chief busines was, the adjusting of the provinces of the consuls and prætors.Y.R.555. 197. Those of the prætors were the first settled, because that could be done by the lots. The city jurisdiction fell to Sergius; the foreign to Minucius; Atilius obtained Sardinia; Manlius, Sicily; Sempronius the Hither Spain, and Helvius the Farther. When the consuls were preparing to cast lots for Italy and Macedonia, Lucius Oppius and Quintus Fulvius, plebeian tribunes, objected to their proceeding, alleging, that, “Macedonia was a very distant province, and that the principal cause which had hitherto retarded the progress of the war, was, that when it was scarcely entered upon, and just at the commencement of operations, the former consul was always recalled. This was the fourth year, since the declaration of war against Macedonia. The greater part of one year, Sulpicius spent in seeking the King and his army; Villius, on the point of engaging the enemy, was recalled. Quintius was detained at Rome, for the greater part of his year, by business respecting religion; nevertheless, he had so conducted affairs, that had he come earlier into the province, or had the cold season been at a greater distance, he might have put an end to hostilities. He was then just going into winter-quarters; but, by all accounts, he had brought the war into such a state, that if he were not prevented by a successor, there was a reasonable prospect of being able to put an end to it, in the course of the ensuing summer.” By such arguments the tribunes so far prevailed, that the consuls declared, that they would abide by the directions of the senate, if the cavillers would agree to do the same. Both parties having, accordingly, referred the determination entirely to those magistrates, a decree was passed, appointing the two consuls to the government of the province of Italy. Titus Quintius was continued in command, until a successor should be found. To each, two legions were decreed; and they were ordered, with these, to carry on the war with the Cisalpine Gauls, who had revolted from the Romans. A reinforcement of five thousand foot and three hundred horse was ordered to be sent into Macedonia to Quintius, together with three thousand seamen. Lucius Quintius Flamininus was continued in the command of the fleet. To each of the prætors, for the two Spains, were granted eight thousand foot, of the allies and Latines, and four hundred horse; and they were ordered to discharge the veteran troops in their provinces, and also to fix the bounds which should divide the hither from the farther province. Two additional lieutenant-generals were sent to the army in Macedonia, Publius Sulpicius and Publius Villius, who had-been consuls in that province.
XXIX. It was thought necessary, that before the consuls and prætors went abroad, some prodigies should be expiated. For the temples of Vulcan and Summanus*; at Rome, and a wall and a gate at Fregellæ, had been struck by lightning. At Frusino, during the night, a light like day shone out. At Asculum, a lamb was born with two heads and five feet. At Formiæ, two wolves entering the town tore several persons who fell in their way; and, at Rome, a wolf made its way, not only into the city, but into the Capitol. Caius Acilius, plebeian tribune, caused an order to be passed, that five colonies should be led out to the sea-coast; two to the mouths of the rivers Vulturnus and Liternus; one to Puteoli, and one to the fort of Salernum. To these was added Buxentum. To each colony three hundred families were ordered to be sent. The commissioners appointed to make the settlements, who were to hold the office for three years, were Marcus Servilius Geminus, Quintus Minucius Thermus, and Tiberius Sempronius Longus. As soon as the levies, and such other business, religious and civil, as required their personal attendance, was finished, the consuls set out for Gaul. Cornelius took the direct road towards the Insubrians, who were then in arms, and had been joined by the Cænomanians. Quintus Minucius turned his route to the left side of Italy, and leading away his army to the lower sea, to Genoa, opened the campaign with an invasion of Liguria. Two towns, Clastidium and Litubium, both belonging to the Ligurians, and two states of the same nation, Celela and Cerdicium, surrendered to him. And now, all the states on this side of the Po, except the Boians among the Gauls, and the Ilvatians among the Ligurians, were reduced to submission: no less, it is said, than fifteen towns and twenty thousand men. He then led his legions into the territory of the Boians.
XXX. The Boian army had, not very long before, crossed the Po, and joined the Insubrians and Cænomanians; for, having heard that the consuls intended to act with their forces united, they wished to increase their own strength by this junction. But when information reached them, that one of the consuls was ravaging the country of the Boians, a dispute instantly arose. The Boians demanded, that all, in conjunction, should carry succour to those who were attacked; while the Isubrians positively refused to leave their country defenceless. In consequence of this dissension, the armies separated; the Boians went to defend their own territory, and the Insubrians, with the Cænomanians, encamped on the banks of the river Mincius. About five miles below this spot, the consul Cornelius pitched his camp close to the same river. Sending emissaries hence into the villages of the Cænomanians, and Brixia, the capital of their tribe, he learned with certainty that their young men had taken arms without the approbation of the elders; and that the Cænomanians had not joined in the revolt of the Insubrians, by any authority from the state. On which he invited to him the principal of the natives, and endeavoured to contrive and concert with them the means of inducing the younger Cænomanians to forsake the party of the Insubrians; and either to march away and return home, or to come over to the side of the Romans. This he was not able to effect; but so far, he received solemn assurances that, in case of a battle, they would either stand inactive, or, should any occasion offer, would even assist the Romans. The Insubrians knew not that such an agreement had been concluded, but they harboured in their minds some kind of suspicion, that the fidelity of their confederates was wavering. Wherefore, in forming their troops for battle, not daring to intrust either wing to them, lest, if they should treacherously give ground, they might cause a total defeat, they placed them in reserve behind the line. At the beginning of the fight, the consul vowed a temple to Juno Sospita, provided the enemy should, on that day, be routed and driven from the field; on which the soldiers raised a shout, declaring, that they would ensure to their commander the completion of his vow, and at the same time attacked the enemy. The Insubrians did not stand even the first onset. Some writers affirm, that the Cænomanians, falling on their rear, during the heat of the engagement, caused as much disorder there as prevailed in their front; and that, thus assailed on both sides, thirty-five thousand of them were slain, five thousand seven hundred taken prisoners, among whom was Hamilcar, a Carthaginian general, the original cause of the war; and that a hundred and thirty military standards, and above two hundred wagons were taken. On this, the towns, which had joined in the revolt, surrendered to the Romans.
XXXI. The other consul, Minucius, had at first spread his troops through the territory of the Boians, committing violent depredations everywhere; but afterwards, when that people left the Insubrians, and came home to defend their own property, he kept his men within their camp, expecting to come to an engagement with the enemy. Nor would the Boians have declined a battle, if their spirits had not been depressed, by hearing of the defeat of the Insubrians. This so deeply affected them, that, deserting their commander and their camp, they dispersed themselves through the several towns, each wishing to take care of his own effects. Thus they obliged the enemy to alter their mode of carrying on the war: for, no longer hoping to decide the matter by a single battle, he began again to lay waste the lands, burn the houses, and storm the villages. At this time, Clastidium was burned, and the legions were led thence against the Ilvatian Ligurians, who alone refused to submit. That state, also, on learning that the Insubrians had been defeated in battle, and the Boians so terrified that they had not dared to risk an engagement, made a submission. Letters from the consuls, containing accounts of their successes, came from Gaul to Rome at the same time. Marcus Sergius, city prætor, read them in the senate, and afterwards, by direction of the Fathers, in an assembly of the people; on which a supplication, of four days continuance, was decreed. — By this time the winter had begun.
XXXII. During the winter, while Titus Quintius, after the reduction of Elatia, had his troops cantoned in Phocis and Locris, a violent dissension broke out at Opus. One faction invited to their assistance the Ætolians, who were nearest at hand: the other the Romans. The Ætolians arrived first; but the other party, which was the more powerful, refused them admittance, and, despatching a courier to the Roman general, held the citadel until he arrived. The citadel was possessed by a garrison belonging to the King, and they could not be prevailed on to give it up, either by the threats of the people of Opus, or by the commands of the Roman consul. What prevented their being immediately attacked, was, the arrival of an envoy from the King, to solicit the appointing of a time and place for a conference. This request was readily complied with; not that Quintius did not wish to see war concluded under his own auspices, partly by arms, and partly by negotiation: for he knew not, yet, whether one of the new consuls would be sent to take the government in his room, or whether he should be continued in the command; a point which he had charged his friends and relations to labour with all their might. But he thought that a conference would answer this purpose: that it would put it in his power to give matters a turn towards war, in case he remained in the province, or towards peace, if he were to be removed. They chose for the meeting a part of the sea-shore, in the Malian gulph, near Nicæa. Thither Philip came from Demetrias, with five barks and one ship of war: he was accompanied by some principal Macedonians, and an Achæan exile, named Cycliades, a man of considerable note. With the Roman general, were King Amynander, Dionysidorus, ambassador from King Attalus, Agesimbrotus, commander of the Rhodian fleet, Phæneas, prætor of the Ætolians, and two Achæans, Aristenus and Xenophon. Attended by these, the Roman general advanced to the brink of the shore, and the King came forward to the prow of his vessel, as it lay at anchor; when the former said, “If you will come on the shore, we shall converse with greater ease.” This the King refused; and on Quintius asking him, “Whom do you fear?” With the haughty spirit of royalty, he replied, “Fear I have none, but of the immortal gods; but I have no confidence in the faith of those whom I see about you, and least of all in the Ætolians.” “That danger,” said the Roman, “is equal in all cases; when men confer with an enemy, no confidence subsists.” “But, Titus Quintius,” replied the King, “if treachery be intended, the prizes of perfidy are not equal: Philip and Phæneas. For it will not be so difficult for the Ætolians to find another prætor, as for the Macedonians to find another King in my place.”— Silence then ensued.
XXXIII. The Roman expected that he, who solicited the conference, should open it; and the King thought, that he who was to prescribe, not he who received, terms of peace, ought to begin the conference. At length the Roman said, that “his discourse should be very simple; for he would only mention those articles, without which no pacification could be admitted. These were, that the King should withdraw his garrisons from all the cities of Greece. That he should deliver up to the allies of the Roman people the prisoners and deserters; should restore to the Romans those places in Illyricum of which he had possessed himself by force, since the peace concluded in Epirus; and to Ptolemy, King of Egypt, the cities which he had seized since the death of Ptolemy Philopator. These were the terms which he required, on behalf of himself and the Roman people: but it was proper that the demands of the allies, also, should be heard.” The ambassador of King Attalus demanded “restitution of the ships and prisoners, taken in the sea-fight at Cius; and that Nicephorium, and the temple of Venus, which Philip had pillaged and defaced, should be put in a state of thorough repair.” The Rhodians laid claim to Peræa, a tract on the continent, lying opposite to their island, which from early times had been under their jurisdiction; and they required, that “the garrison should be withdrawn from Tassus, Bargylii, and Euroma, and from Sestus and Abydus on the Hellespont; that Perinthus should be restored to the Byzantians, in right of their ancient title, and that all the sea-port towns and harbours of Asia should be free.” The Achæans asserted their right to Corinth and Argos. Phæneas nearly repeated the demands made by the Romans, that the troops should withdraw out of Greece, and the Ætolians be put in possession of the cities which had formerly been under their dominion. He was followed by Alexander, a man of eminence among this people, and, considering his country, not uneloquent. He said, that “he had long kept silence, not because he expected that any business would be effected in that conference, but because he was unwilling to interrupt any of the allies in their discourse.” He asserted, that “Philip had neither treated of peace with sincerity; nor waged war with courage, at any time: that in negotiating, he was insidious and fraudulent: while in war he never fought on equal ground, nor engaged in regular battles; but, skulking about, burned and pillaged towns, and, when likely to be vanquished, destroyed the prizes of victory. But not in that manner did the ancient kings of Macedon behave; they decided the fate of the war in the field, and spared the towns as far as they were able, in order to possess the more opulent empire. For what sort of conduct was it to destroy the objects, for the possession of which the contest was waged, and thereby leave nothing to himself but fighting? Philip had, in the last year, desolated more cities of his allies in Thessaly, than all the enemies that Thessaly ever had. On the Ætolians themselves, he had made greater depredations, when he was in alliance with them, than since he became their enemy. He had seized on Lysimachia, after dislodging the prætor and garrison of the Ætolians. Cius also, a city belonging to their government, he razed from the foundation. With the same injustice, he held possession of Thebes in Pthiotis, of Echinus, Larissa, and Pharsalus.”
XXXIV. Philip, provoked by this discourse of Alexander, pushed his ship nearer to the land, that he might be the better heard, and began to speak with much violence, particularly against the Ætolians. But Phæneas, interrupting him, said that “the business depended not upon words; he must either conquer in war, or submit to his superiors.” “That, indeed, is evident,” said Philip, “even to the blind,” sneering at Phæneas, who had a disorder in his eyes: for he was naturally fonder of such pleasantries than became a king; and, even in the midst of serious business, he indulged a turn to ridicule farther than was decent. He then expressed great indignation at the “Ætolians assuming as much importance as the Romans, and insisting on his evacuating Greece; people who knew not even its boundaries. For, of Ætolia itself, a large proportion, consisting of the Agræans, Apodeotians, and Amphilochians, was no part of Greece. — Have they just ground of complaint against me, for not refraining from war with their allies, when themselves, from the earliest period, follow, as an established rule, the practice of suffering their young men to carry arms against those allies, withholding only the public authority of the state: while very frequently contending armies have Ætolian auxiliaries on both sides. I did not seize on Cius by force, but assisted my friend and ally, Prussias, who was besieging it, and Lysimachia I rescued from the Thracians. But since necessity diverted my attention from the guarding of it to this present war, the Thracians have possession of it. So much for the Ætolians. To Attalus, and the Rhodians, I in justice owe nothing; for not to me, but to themselves, is the commencement of hostilities to be attributed. However, out of respect to the Romans, I will restore Peræa to the Rhodians, and to Attalus his ships, and such prisoners as can be found. As to what concerns Nicephorum, and the temple of Venus, what other answer can I make to those who require their restoration, than what I should make in case of woods and groves cut down: that, as the only way of restoring them, I will take on myself the trouble and expense of planting, since it is thought fit that, between kings, such kinds of demands should be made and answered.” The last part of his speech was directed to the Achæans, wherein he enumerated, first, the kindnesses of Antigonus; then, his own towards their nation, desiring them to consider the decrees themselves had passed concerning him, which comprehended every kind of honour, divine and human; and to these he added their late decree, by which they had confirmed the resolution of deserting him. He inveighed bitterly against their perfidy, but told them, that nevertheless he would give them back Argos. “With regard to Corinth, he would consult with the Roman general; and would, at the same time, inquire from him, whether he demanded, only, that he (Philip) should evacuate those cities, which, being captured by himself, were held by the right of war; or those, also, which he had received from his ancestors.”
XXXV. The Achæans and Ætolians were preparing to answer, but as the sun was near setting, the conference was adjourned to the next day; and Philip returned to his station whence he came, the Romans and allies to their camp. On the following day, Quintius repaired to Nicæa, which was the place agreed on, at the appointed time; but neither Philip, nor any message from him, came for several hours. At length, when they began to despair of his coming, his ships suddenly appeared. He said, that “the terms enjoined were so severe and humiliating, that, not knowing what to determine, he had spent the day in deliberation.” But the general opinion was, that he had purposely delayed the business, that the Achæans and Ætolians might not have time to answer him: and this opinion he himself confirmed, by desiring, in order to avoid altercation, and to bring the affair to some conclusion, that the others should retire, and leave him to converse with the Roman general. For some time, this was not admitted, lest the allies should appear to be excluded from the conference. Afterwards, on his persisting in his desire, the Roman general, with the consent of all, taking with him Appius Claudius, a military tribune, advanced to the brink of the coast, and the rest retired. The King, with the two persons whom he had brought the day before, came on shore, where they conversed a considerable time in private. What account of their proceedings Philip gave to his people is not well known: what Quintius told the allies was, that “Philip was willing to cede to the Romans the whole coast of Illyricum, and to give up the deserters and prisoners, if there were any. That he consented to restore to Attalus his ships, and the seamen taken with them; and to the Rhodians the tract which they call Peræa. That he refused to evacuate Iassus and Bargylii. To the Ætolians he was ready to restore Pharsalus and Larissa; Thebes he would keep: and that he would give back to the Achæans the possession, not only of Argos, but of Corinth also.” This arrangement pleased none of the parties; neither those to whom the concessions were to be made, nor those to whom they were refused; “for on that plan,” they said, “more would be lost than gained; nor could the grounds of contention ever be removed, but by his utterly evacuating every part of Greece.”
XXXVI. These expressions, delivered with eagerness and vehemence by every one in the assembly, reached the ears of Philip, though he stood at a distance. He therefore requested of Quintius, that the whole business might be deferred until the next day; and then he would, positively, either prevail on the allies to accede to his proposals, or suffer himself to be prevailed on to accede to theirs. The shore at Thronium was appointed for their meeting, and all the parties assembled there early. Philip began with entreating Quintius, and all who were present, not to harbour such sentiments as must tend to obstruct a pacification; and then desired time, while he could send ambassadors to Rome, to the senate, declaring, that “he would either obtain a peace on the terms mentioned, or would accept whatever terms the senate should prescribe.” None approved of this; they said, he only sought a delay, and leisure to collect his strength. But Quintius observed, “that such an objection would have been well founded, if it were then summer, and a season fit for action; as matters stood, and the winter being just at hand, nothing would be lost by allowing him time to send ambassadors. For, without the authority of the senate, no agreement which they might conclude with the King would be valid; and besides, they would by this means have an opportunity, while the winter itself would necessarily cause a suspension of arms, to learn what terms were likely to be approved by the senate.” The other chiefs of the allies came over to this opinion: and a cessation of hostilities for two months being granted, they resolved that each of their states should send an ambassador with the necessary information to the senate, and in order that it should not be deceived by the misrepresentations of Philip. To the above convention was added an article, that all the King’s troops should be immediately withdrawn from Phocis and Locris. With the ambassadors of the allies, Quintius sent Amynander, King of Athamania; and, to add a degree of splendour to the embassy, a deputation from himself, composed of Quintius Fabius, the son of his wife’s sister, Quintus Fulvius, and Appius Claudius.
XXXVII. On their arrival at Rome, the ambassadors of the allies were admitted to audience before those of the King. Their discourse, in general, was filled up with invectives against Philip. What produced the greatest effect on the minds of the senate, was, that, by pointing out the relative situations of the lands and seas, in that part of the world, they made it manifest to every one, that if the King held Demetrias in Thessaly, Chalcis in Eubœa, and Corinth in Achaia, Greece could not be free; and they added, that Philip himself, with not more insolence than truth, used to call these the fetters of Greece. The King’s ambassadors were then introduced, and, when they were beginning a long harangue, they were stopped by a short question, Whether he was willing to yield up the three above mentioned cities? They answered, that they had received no specific instructions on that head: on which they were dismissed, without having made any progress towards a peace. Full authority was given to Quintius to determine every thing relative to war and peace. As this demonstrated, clearly, that the senate were not weary of the war, so he who was more earnestly desirous of conquest than of peace, never afterwards consented to a conference with Philip; and even gave him notice, that he would not admit any embassy from him, unless it came with information that his troops were retiring from Greece.
XXXVIII. Philip now perceived that he must decide the matter by arms, and collect his strength about him from all quarters. Being particularly uneasy in respect to the cities of Achaia, a country so distant from him, and also of Argos, even more, indeed, than of Corinth, he resolved, as the most adviseable method, to put the former into the hands of Nabis, tyrant of Lacedæmon, in trust as it were, on the terms, that if he should prove successful in the war, Nabis should redeliver it to him; if any misfortune should happen, he should keep it himself. Accordingly, he wrote to Philocles, who had the command in Corinth and Argos, to have a meeting with the tyrant. Philocles, besides coming with a valuable present, added to that pledge of future friendship between the King and the tyrant, that it was Philip’s wish to unite his daughters in marriage to the sons of Nabis. The tyrant, at first, refused to receive the city on any other terms, than that of being invited by a decree of the Argives themselves: but afterwards, hearing that in a full assembly they had treated his name not only with scorn, but even with abhorrence, he thought he had now a sufficient excuse for plundering them, and he accordingly desired Philip to give him possession of the place. Nabis was admitted into the city in the night, without the privity of any of the inhabitants, and, at the first light, seized on the higher parts of it, and shut the gates. A few of the principal people having made their escape, during the first confusion, the properties of all who were absent were seized as booty: those who were present, were stripped of their gold and silver, and loaded with exorbitant contributions. Such as paid these readily were discharged, without personal insult and laceration of their bodies; but such as were suspected of hiding or reserving any of their effects, were mangled and tortured like slaves. He then summoned an assembly, in which he proposed the passing of two laws; one for an abolition of debts, the other for a distribution of the land, in shares, to each man — two firebrands in the hands of the enemies of government, for inflaming the populace against the higher ranks.
XXXIX. The tyrant, when he had the city of Argos in his power, never considering from whom, or on what conditions he had received it, sent ambassadors to Elatia, to Quintius, and to Attalus, in his winter-quarters at Ægina, to tell them, that “he was in possession of Argos; and that if Quintius would come hither, and consult with him, he had no doubt but that every thing might be adjusted between them.” Quintius, glad of an opportunity of depriving Philip of that strong hold, along with the rest, consented to come; accordingly, sending a message to Attalus, to leave Ægina, and meet him at Sicyon, he set sail from Anticyra with ten quinqueremes, which his brother Lucius Quintius happened to bring a little before from his winter station at Corcyra, and passed over to Sicyon. Attalus was there before him, who, representing that the tyrant ought to come to the Roman general, not the general to the tyrant, brought Quintius over to his opinion, which was, that he should not enter the city of Argos. Not far from it, however, was a place called Mycenica; and there the parties agreed to meet. Quintius came, with his brother and a few military tribunes; Attalus, with his royal retinue; and Nicostratus, the prætor of the Achæans, with a few of the auxiliary officers: and they there found Nabis waiting with his whole army. He advanced, armed and attended by his guards, almost to the middle of the interjacent plain; Quintius, unarmed, with his brother and two military tribunes; the King was accompanied by one of his nobles, and the prætor of the Achæans unarmed likewise. The tyrant, when he saw the King and the Roman general unarmed, opened the conference, with apologizing for having come to the meeting armed himself, and surrounded with armed men. “He had no apprehensions,” he said, “from them; but only from the Argive exiles.” When they then began to treat of the terms, on which friendship was to be established between them, the Roman made two demands: one, that the Lacedæmonian should conclude a peace with the Achæans; the other, that he should send him aid against Philip. He promised the aid required; but, instead of a peace with the Achæans, a cessation of hostilities was obtained, to last until the war with Philip should be ended.
XL. A debate, concerning the Argives also, was set on foot by King Attalus, who charged Nabis with holding their city by force, which was put into his hands by the treachery of Philocles; while Nabis insisted, that he had been invited by the Argives themselves to afford them protection. The King required a general assembly of the Argives to be convened, that the truth of that matter might be known. To this the tyrant did not object; but the King alleged, that the Lacedæmonian troops ought to be withdrawn from the city, in order to render the assembly free; and that the people should be left at liberty to declare their real sentiments. This was refused, and the debate produced no effect. To the Roman general, six hundred Cretans were given by Nabis, who agreed with the prætor of the Achæans to a cessation of arms for four months, and then the conference broke up. Quintius proceeded to Corinth, advancing to the gates with the cohort of Cretans, in order to shew Philocles, the governor of the city, that the tyrant had deserted the cause of Philip. Philocles, came out to confer with the Roman general; and, on the latter exhorting him to change sides immediately, and surrender the city, he answered in such a manner, as showed an inclination rather to defer, than to refuse the matter. From Corinth, Quintius sailed over to Anticyra, and sent his brother thence, to sound the disposition of the people of Acarnania. Attalus went from Argos to Sicyon. Here, on one side, the state added new honours to those formerly paid to the King; and, on the other, the King, besides having on a former occasion redeemed for them, at a vast expence, a piece of land sacred to Apollo, unwilling to pass by the city of his friends and allies without a token of munificence, made them a present of ten talents of silver*, and ten thousand bushels of corn, and then returned to Cenchreæ to his fleet. Nabis, leaving a strong garrison at Argos, returned to Lacedæmon; and, as he himself had pillaged the men, he sent his wife to Argos to pillage the women. She invited to her house, sometimes singly, and sometimes in numbers, all the females of distinction who were related to each other: and partly by fair speeches, partly by threats, stripped them, not only of their gold, but, at last, even of their garments, and every article of dress.
Titus Quintus Flamininus, proconsul, gains a decisive victory over Philip at Cynoscephalæ. Caius Sempronius Tuditanus, prætor, cut off by the Celtiberians. Death of Attalus, at Pergamus. Peace granted to Philip, and liberty to Greece. Lucius Furius Purpureo and Marcus Claudius Marcellus, consuls, subdue the Boian and Insubrian Gauls. Triumph of Marcellus. Hannibal, alarmed at an embassy from Rome concerning him, flies to Antiochus, King of Syria, who was preparing to make war on the Romans.
Y.R. 555. 197.I. SUCH were the occurrences of the winter. In the beginning of spring, Quintius urged Attalus to join him, which he did, at Elatia; and being anxious to bring under his authority the nation of the Bœotians, who had hitherto been wavering and irresolute, he marched through Phocis, and pitched his camp at the distance of five miles from Thebes, the capital of Bœotia. Next day, attended by one company of soldiers, and by Attalus, together with the ambassadors, who had come to him in great numbers, from all quarters, he proceeded towards the city, having ordered the spearmen of two legions, being two thousand men, to follow him at the distance of a mile. About midway, Antiphilus, prætor of the Bœotians, met him: the rest of the people stood on the walls, watching the arrival of the King and the Roman general. Few arms and few soldiers appeared — the hollow roads, and the vallies, concealing from view the spearmen, who followed at a distance. When Quintius drew near the city, he slackened his pace, as if with intention to salute the multitude, who came out to meet him: but the real motive of his delaying was, that the spearmen might come up. The townsmen pushed forward, in a crowd, before the lictors, not perceiving the band of soldiers who were following them close, until they arrived at the general’s quarters. Then, supposing the city betrayed and taken, through the treachery of Antiphilus, their prætor, they were all struck with astonishment and dismay. It was now evident that no room was left to the Bœotians for a free discussion of measures in the assembly, which was summoned for the following day. However they concealed their grief, which it would have been both vain and unsafe to have discovered.
II. When the assembly met, Attalus, first, rose to speak, and he began his discourse with a recital of the kindnesses conferred by his ancestors and himself on the Greeks in general, and on the Bœotians in particular. But, being now too old and infirm to bear the exertion of speaking in public, he lost his voice, and fell; and for some time, while they were carrying him to his apartments, (for he was deprived of the use of one half of his limbs,) the proceedings of the assembly were stopped. Then, Aristænus spoke on the part of the Achæans, and was listened to with the greater attention, because he recommended to the Bœotians no other measures than those which he had recommended to the Achæans. A few words were added by Quintius, extolling the good faith rather than the arms and power of the Romans. A resolution was then proposed, by Dicæarchus of Platæa, for forming a treaty of friendship with the Roman people, which was read; and no one daring to offer any opposition, it passed by the suffrages of all the states of Bœotia. When the assembly broke up, Quintius made no longer stay at Thebes than the sudden misfortune of Attalus made necessary. When he found that the force of the disorder had not brought the King’s life into any immediate danger, but had only occasioned a weakness in his limbs, he left him there, to use the necessary means for recovery, and went back to Elatia. Having now brought the Bœotians, as formerly the Achæans, to join in the confederacy, while all places were in a state of tranquillity and safety, he bent his thought and attention towards Philip, and the remaining business of the war.
III. Philip, on his part, as his ambassadors had brought no hopes of peace from Rome, resolved, as soon as spring began, to levy soldiers through every town in his dominions: but he found a great scarcity of young men; for successive wars, through several generations, had very much exhausted the Macedonians, and, even in the course of his own reign, great numbers had fallen, in the naval engagements with the Rhodians and Attalus, and in those on land with the Romans. Mere youths, therefore, from the age of sixteen, were enlisted; and even those who had served out their time, provided they had any remains of strength, were recalled to their standards. Having, by these means, filled up the numbers of his army about the vernal equinox, he drew together all his forces to Dius; he encamped them there in a fixed post; and, exercising the soldiers every day, waited for the enemy. About the same time Quintius left Elatia, and came by Thronium and Scarphea to Thermopylæ. There he held an assembly of the Ætolians, which had been summoned to meet at Heraclea, to determine what number of men they should send to assist the Romans. On the third day, having learned the determination of the allies, he proceeded from Heraclea to Xyniæ; and, pitching his camp on the confines between the Ænians and Thessalians, waited for the Ætolian auxiliaries. The Ætolians occasioned no delay. Two thousand foot, and four hundred horse, under the command of Phæneas, speedily joined him; and then Quintius, to show plainly what he had waited for, immediately decamped. On passing into the country of Phthiotis, he was joined by five hundred Cretans of Gortynium, whose commander was Cydates, with three hundred Apollonians, armed nearly in the same manner; and not long after, by Amynander, with one thousand two hundred Athamanian foot,
IV. Philip, being informed of the departure of the Romans from Elatia, and considering that, on the approaching contest, his kingdom was at hazard, thought it adviseable to make an encouraging speech to his soldiers; in which, after he had expatiated on many topics often insisted on before, respecting the virtues of their ancestors, and the military fame of the Macedonians, he touched particularly on two things, which at the time threw the greatest damp on their spirits, laying great stress upon such as might revive their courage, and give them some degree of confidence. To the defeat suffered at the river Aous, where the phalanx of the Macedonians was thrown into consternation and disorder, he opposed the repulse given by main force to the Romans at Atrax: and even with respect to the former case, when they had not maintained possession of the pass leading into Epirus, he said, “the first fault was to be imputed to those who had been negligent in keeping the guards; and the second, to the light-infantry and mercenaries in the time of the engagement; but that, as to the phalanx of the Macedonians, it had stood firm on that occasion; and would for ever remain invincible, on equal ground, and in regular fight.” This body consisted of sixteen thousand men, the prime strength of the army, and of the kingdom. Besides these, he had two thousand targeteers, called Peltastæ; of Thracians and Illyrians, of the tribe called Trallians, the like number of two thousand; and of hired auxiliaries, collected out of various nations, about one thousand; and two thousand horse. With this force the King waited for the enemy. The Romans had nearly an equal number; in cavalry they had a superiority, by the addition of the Ætolians.
V. Quintius, marching to Thebes in Phthiotis, sat down before it; and having received encouragement to hope, that the city would be betrayed to him by Timon, a leading man in the state, he came up close to the walls, with only a small number of cavalry and some light-infantry. So entirely were his expectations disappointed, that he was not only obliged to maintain a fight with the enemy, who sallied out against him, but would have been in extreme danger, had not both infantry and cavalry been called out hastily from the camp, and come up in time. Not meeting with that success which his too sanguine hopes had led him to expect, he desisted from any farther attempt on the city at present. He had received certain information of the King being in Thessaly; but as he had not yet discovered into what part of it he had come, he sent his soldiers round the country, with orders to cut timber and prepare palisades. Both Macedonians and Greeks had palisades; but the latter had not adopted the most convenient mode of using them, either with respect to carriage, or for the purpose of strengthening their posts. They cut trees, both too large, and too full of branches for a soldier to carry easily along with his arms: and after they had fenced their camp with a line of these, to demolish them was no difficult matter; for the trunks appearing to view, with great intervals between them, and the numerous and strong shoots affording the hand a good hold, two, or at most, three young men, uniting their efforts, used to pull out one tree, which being removed, left a breach as wide as a gate, and there was nothing at hand with which it could be stopped up. But the Romans cut light stakes, mostly of one fork, with three or, at the most, four branches; so that a soldier, with his arms slung at his back, can carry several of them together; and then they stick them down so closely, and interweave the branches in such a manner, that it cannot be seen to what extent any branch belongs; besides which, the boughs are so sharp, and wrought so intimately with each other, as to leave no room for a hand to be thrust between, consequently an enemy cannot lay hold of any thing, or, if that could be done, could he draw out the branches thus intertwined, and which mutually bind each other. Nay, even if, by accident, one should be pulled out, it leaves but a small opening, which is very easily filled up.
VI. Next day Quintius, causing his men to carry palisades with them, that they might be ready to encamp on any spot, marched a short way, and took post about six miles from Pheræ; whence he sent scouts, to discover in what part of Thessaly the King was, and what appeared to be his intention. Philip was then near Larissa, and as soon as he learned that the Roman general had removed from Thebes, being equally impatient for a decisive engagement, he proceeded towards the enemy, and pitched his camp about four miles from Pheræ. On the day following, some light troops went out from both camps, to seize on certain hills which overlooked the city. When, nearly at equal distances from the summit which was intended to be seized, they came within sight of each other, they halted; and sending messengers to their respective camps for directions, how they were to proceed on this unexpected meeting, waited their return in quiet. For that day, they were recalled to their camps, without having come to action. On the following day there was an engagement between the cavalry, near the same hills, in which the Ætolians bore no small part; and in which the King’s troops were defeated, and driven within their trenches. Both parties were greatly impeded in the action, by the ground being thickly planted with trees; by the gardens, of which there were many in a place so near the city; and by the roads being inclosed between walls, and in some places shut up. The commanders, therefore, were equally desirous of removing out of that quarter; and, as if they had preconcerted the matter, they both directed their route to Scotussa: Philip hoping to find there a supply of corn; the Roman intending to get before him, and destroy the crops. The armies marched the whole day without having sight of each other in any place, the view being intercepted by a continued range of hills between them. The Romans encamped at Eretria, in Phthiotis; Philip, on the river Onchestus. But though Philip, lay at Melambrius, in the territory of Scotussa, and Quintius near Thetidium, in Pharsalia, neither party knew with any certainty, where his antagonist was. On the third day, there fell a violent rain, which was succeeded by darkness equal to that of night, and this confined the Romans to their camp, through fear of an ambuscade.
VII. Philip, intent on hastening his march, suffered not himself to be delayed by the clouds, which, after the rain, covered the face of the country, but ordered his troops to march: and yet so thick a fog had obscured the day, that neither the standard bearers could see the road, nor the soldiers the standards; so that all, led blindly by the shouts of uncertain guides, fell into disorder, like men wandering by night. When they had passed over the hills called Cynoscephalæ, where they left a strong guard of foot and horse, they pitched their camp. Although the Roman general staid at Thetidium, yet he detached ten troops of horse, and one thousand foot, to find out where the enemy lay; warning them, however, against ambuscades, which the darkness of the day would cover, even in an open country. When these arrived at the hills, where the enemy’s guard was posted, struck with mutual fear, both parties stood, as if deprived of the power of motion. They then sent back messengers to their respective commanders; and when the first surprise subsided, they proceeded to action without more delay. The fight was begun by small advanced parties; and afterwards the number of the combatants were increased by reinforcements sent to support those who gave way. But the Romans, far inferior to their adversaries, sent message after message to the general, that they were in danger of being overpowered: on which he hastily sent five hundred horse, and two thousand foot, mostly Ætolians, under the command of two military tribunes, who relieved them, and restored the fight. The Macedonians, distressed in turn by this change of fortune, sent to beg succour from their King: but as, on account of the general darkness from the fog, he had expected nothing less, on that day, than a battle, and had therefore sent a great number of men, of every kind, to forage, he was, for a considerable time in great perplexity, and unable to form a resolution. The messengers still continued to urge him; the covering of clouds was now removed from the tops of the mountains, and the Macedonian party was in view, having been driven up to the highest summit, and trusting for safety rather to the nature of the ground, than to their arms. He therefore thought it necessary, at all events, to hazard the whole, in order to prevent the loss of a part, for want of support; and, accordingly, he sent up Athenagoras, general of the mercenaries, with all the auxiliaries, except the Thracians, joined by the Macedonian and Thessalian cavalry. On their arrival the Romans were forced from the top of the hill, and did not face about until they came to the level plain. The principal support which saved them from being driven down in disorderly flight, was the Ætolian horsemen. The Ætolians were then by far the best cavalry in Greece; in infantry, they were surpassed by some of their neighbours.
VIII. The accounts of this affair, which were brought to the King, represented it in a more flattering light than the advantage gained could warrant; for people came, one after another, and calling out, that the Romans were flying in a panic: so that, notwithstanding it was against his judgment, and he demurred, declaring it a rash proceeding, and that he liked not either the place or the time, yet he was prevailed upon to draw out his whole force to battle. The Roman general did the same, induced by necessity, rather than by the favourableness of the occasion. Leaving the right wing as a reserve, having the elephants posted in front, he, with the left, and all the light infantry, advanced against the enemy; at the same time reminding his men, that “they were going to fight the same Macedonians whom they had fought in the passes of Epirus, fenced, as they were, with mountains and rivers, and whom, after conquering the natural difficulties of the ground, they had dislodged and vanquished; the same, in short, whom they had before defeated under the command of Publius Sulpicius, when they opposed their passage to Eordæa. That the kingdom of Macedonia had been hitherto supported by its reputation, not by real strength. Even that reputation had, at length, vanished.” Quintius soon reached his troops, who stood in the bottom of the valley; and they, on the arrival of their general and the army, renewed the fight, and, making a vigorous onset, compelled the enemy again to turn their backs. Philip, with the targeteers, and the right wing of infantry (the main strength of the Macedonian army, called by them the phalanx), advanced in a quick pace, having ordered Nicanor, one of his courtiers, to bring up the rest of his forces with all speed. On reaching the top of the hill, from a few arms and bodies lying there, he perceived that there had been an engagement on the spot, and that the Romans had been repulsed from it. When he likewise saw the fight now going on close to the enemy’s works, he was elated beyond measure: but presently, observing his men flying back, and the danger his own, he was much embarrassed, and hesitated for some time, whether he should cause his troops to retire into the camp. He was sensible that his party, besides the losses which they suffered as they fled, must be entirely lost, if not speedily succoured; and as, by this time, a retreat would be unsafe, he found himself compelled to put all to hazard, before he was joined by the other division of his forces. He placed the cavalry and light-infantry that had been engaged, on the right wing; and ordered the targeteers, and the phalanx of Macedonians, to lay aside their spears, which their great length rendered unserviceable, and to manage the business with their swords: at the same time, that his line might not be easily broken, he lessened the extent of the front one half, and doubled the files in depth. He ordered them also to close their files, so that men and arms should touch each other.
IX. Quintius, having received among the standards and ranks those who had been engaged with the enemy, gave the signal by sound of trumpet. It is said, that such a shout was raised, as was seldom heard at the beginning of any battle; for it happened, that both armies shouted at once; not only the troops then engaged, but also the reserves, and those who were just then coming into the field. The King, fighting from the higher ground, had the better on the right wing, by means chiefly of the advantage of situation. On the left, all was disorder and confusion; particularly when that division of the phalanx, which had marched in the rear, was coming up. The centre stood spectators of the fight, as if it no way concerned them. The phalanx, just arrived, (a column rather than a line of battle, and fitter for a march than for a fight,) had scarcely mounted the top of the hill: before these could form, Quintius, though he saw his men in the left wing giving way, charged the enemy furiously, first driving on the elephants against them, for he judged that one part being routed would draw the rest after. There was no dispute. The Macedonians, unable to stand the first shock of the elephants, instantly turned their backs; and the rest, as had been foreseen, followed them in their retreat. Then, one of the military tribunes, forming his design in the instant, took with him twenty companies of men; left that part of the army which was evidently victorious; and making a small circuit, fell on the rear of the enemy’s right wing. Any army whatever must have been disordered by his charge. Such charge and disorder is, indeed, incident to all armies in general, but there was in this case a circumstance particularly aggravating. The phalanx of the Macedonians being heavy, could not readily face about; nor would they have been suffered to do it by their adversaries in front, who, although they gave way to them a little before, on this new occasion pressed them vigorously. Besides, they lay under another inconvenience in respect of the ground; for, by pursuing the retreating enemy down the face of the hill, they had left the top to the party who came round on their rear. Thus attacked on both sides, they were exposed for some time to great slaughter, and then betook themselves to flight, most of them throwing away their arms.
X. Philip, with a small party of horse and foot, ascended a hill somewhat higher than the rest, to take a view of the situation of his troops on the left. Then, when he saw them flying in confusion, and all the hills around glittering with Roman standards and arms, he withdrew from the field. Quintius, as he was pressing on the retreating enemy, observed the Macedonians suddenly raising up their spears, and not knowing what they meant thereby, he ordered the troops to halt. Then, on being told that this was the practice of the Macedonians, intimating an intention of surrendering themselves prisoners, he was disposed to spare the vanquished; but the troops, not being apprised, either of the enemy having ceased fighting, or of the general’s intention, made a charge on them, and the foremost being soon cut down, the rest dispersed themselves and fled. Philip hastened with all possible speed to Tempe, and there halted one day at Gonni, to pick up those who might have survived the battle. The victorious Romans rushed into the Macedonian camp with hopes of spoil, but found it, for the most part, plundered already by the Ætolians. Eight thousand of the enemy were killed on that day, five thousand taken. Of the victors, about seven hundred fell. Valerius Antias, who on every occasion exaggerates numbers enormously, says that the killed of the enemy on that day amounted to forty thousand; the prisoners taken (in which article the deviation from truth is less extravagant), to five thousand seven hundred, with two hundred and forty-one military standards. Claudius also asserts, that thirty-two thousand of the enemy were slain, and four thousand three hundred taken. We have not given entire credit, even to the smallest of those numbers, but have followed Polybius, a writer whose testimony may be depended on with respect to all the Roman affairs, but especially those which were transacted in Greece.
XI. Philip having collected, after the flight, such as, having been scattered by the various chances of the battle, had followed his steps, and having sent people to Larissa to burn the records of the kingdom, lest they should fall into the hands of the enemy, retired into Macedonia. Quintius set up to sale a part of the prisoners and booty, and part he bestowed on the soldiers; and then proceeded to Larissa, without having yet received any certain intelligence to what quarter Philip had betaken himself, or what were his designs. To this place came a herald from the King, apparently to obtain a truce, until those who had fallen in battle should be removed and buried, but in reality to request permission to send ambassadors. Both were obtained from the Roman general; who, besides, desired the messenger to tell the King, “not to be too much dejected.” This expression gave much offence, particularly to the Ætolians, who were become very assuming, and who complained, that “the general was quite altered by success. Before the battle, he was accustomed to transact all business, whether great or small, in concert with the allies; but they had, now, no share in any of his counsels; he conducted all affairs entirely by his own judgment; and was even seeking an occasion of ingratiating himself personally with Philip, in order that, after the Ætolians had laboured through all hardships and difficulties of the war, the Roman might assume to himself all the merit and all the fruits of a peace.” Certain it is, that he had treated them with less respect than formerly, but they were ignorant of his motives for slighting them. They imagined that he was actuated by an expectation of presents from the King, though he was of a spirit incapable of yielding to a passion of that kind; but he was, with good reason, displeased at the Ætolians, on account of their insatiable greediness for plunder, and of their arrogance in assuming to themselves the honour of the victory — a claim so ill founded, as to offend the ears of all who heard it. Besides he foresaw, that, if Philip were removed out of the way, and the strength of the kingdom of Macedonia entirely broken, the Ætolians would hold the place of masters of Greece. For these reasons, on many occasions, he took pains to lessen their importance and reputation in the judgment of the other states.
XII. A truce for fifteen days was granted to the Macedonians, and a conference with the King appointed. Before the day arrived on which this was to be held, the Roman general called a council of the allies, and desired their opinions respecting the terms of peace, proper to be prescribed. Amynander, King of Athamania, delivered his opinion in a few words; that “the conditions of peace ought to be adjusted in such a manner, as that Greece might have sufficient power, even without the interference of the Romans, to maintain the peace, and also its own liberty.” The sentiments delivered by the Ætolians were more harsh; for, after a few introductory observations on the justice and propriety of the Roman general’s conduct, in communicating his plans of peace to those who had acted with him as allies in the war, they insisted, that “he was utterly mistaken, if he supposed that he could leave the peace with the Romans, or the liberty of Greece, on a permanent footing, unless he deprived Philip, either of his life, or of the throne; both which he could easily accomplish, if he chose to pursue his present success.” Quintius, in reply, said, that “the Ætolians, in giving such advice, attended not either to the maxims of the Roman policy, or to the consistency of their own conduct. For, in all the former councils and conferences, wherein the conditions of peace were discussed, they never once urged the pushing of the war to the utter ruin of the Macedonian: and, as to the Romans, besides that they had, from the earliest periods, observed the maxim of sparing the vanquished, they had lately given a signal proof of their clemency in the peace granted to Hannibal and the Carthaginians. But, not to insist on the case of the Carthaginians, how often had the confederates met Philip himself in conference, yet no mention was ever made of his resigning his kingdom: and, because he had been defeated in battle, was that a reason that their animosity should become implacable? Against an armed foe, men ought to engage with hostile resentment; towards the vanquished, he that showed most clemency, showed the greatest spirit. The Kings of Macedonia were thought to be dangerous to the liberty of Greece. Suppose that kingdom and nation extirpated, the Thracians, Illyrians, and, in time, the Gauls, (nations uncivilized and savage,) would pour themselves into Macedonia first, and then into Greece. He therefore warned them, not, by removing inconveniencies which lay nearest, to open a passage to others greater and more grievous.” Here he was interrupted by Phæneas, prætor of the Ætolians, who called on the assembly to remember the warning he gave them: that “if Philip escaped now, he would soon raise a new and more dangerous war.” On which Quintius said — “Cease wrangling, when you ought to deliberate. The peace shall not be incumbered with such conditions as will leave it in his power to raise a war.”
XIII. The convention was then adjourned; and, next day, the King came to the pass at the entrance of Tempè, the appointed place of meeting; and the third day following was fixed for introducing him to a full assembly of the Romans and allies. On this occasion Philip, with great prudence, avoided the mention of any of those particulars, without which peace could not be obtained; and he declared, that he was ready to comply with all the articles which, in the former conference, were either prescribed by the Romans or demanded by the allies; and to leave all other matters to the determination of the senate. Although he seemed to have hereby precluded every objection, even from the most inveterate of his enemies, yet, all the rest remaining silent, Phæneas, the Ætolian, said to him — “What! Philip, do you at last restore to us Pharsalus and Larissa, with Cremaste, Echinus, and Thebes in Phthiotis?” Philip answered, that “he would give no obstruction to their retaking the possession of them.” On which a dispute arose between the Roman general and the Ætolians about Thebes; for Quintius affirmed, that it became the property of the Roman people by the laws of war: because, when, before the commencement of hostilities, he marched his army thither, and invited the inhabitants to friendship; they, although at full liberty to renounce the King’s party, yet preferred an alliance with Philip to one with Rome. Phæneas alleged, that, in consideration of their being confederates in the war, it was reasonable, that whatever the Ætolians possessed before it began, should be restored; and that, besides, there was, in the first treaty, a provisional clause of that purport, by which the spoils of war, of every kind that could be carried or driven, were to belong to the Romans; the lands and captured cities to the Ætolians: “Yourselves,” replied Quintius, “annulled the conditions of that treaty, when ye deserted us, and made peace with Philip; but, supposing it still remained in force, yet that clause could affect only captured cities. Now, the states of Thessaly submitted to us by a voluntary act of their own.”— These words were heard by the allies with universal approbation; but to the Ætolians they were highly displeasing at the present, and proved afterwards the cause of a war, and of many great disasters attending it. The terms settled with Philip were, that he should give his son Demetrius, and some of his friends, as hostages; should pay two hundred talents*; and send ambassadors to Rome, to adjust the other articles; for which purpose there should be a cessation of arms for four months. An engagement was entered into, that, in case the senate should refuse to conclude a treaty, his money and hostages should be returned to him. We are told, that one of the principal reasons which made the Roman general wish to expedite the conclusion of a peace, was, that he had received certain information of Antiochus intending to commence hostilities, and to pass over into Europe.
XIV. About the same time, and, as some writers say, on the same day, the Achæans defeated Androsthenes, the King’s commander, in a general engagement near Corinth. Philip, intending to use this city as a citadel, to awe the states of Greece, had invited the principal inhabitants to a conference, under pretence of settling with them the number of horsemen which the Corinthians could supply towards the war, and these he detained as hostages. Besides the force already there, consisting of five hundred Macedonians, and eight hundred auxiliaries of various kinds, he had sent thither one thousand Macedonians, one thousand two hundred Illyrians, and of Thracians and Cretans (for these served in both the opposite armies), eight hundred. To these were added Bœotians, Thessalians, and Acarnanians, to the amount of one thousand, all carrying bucklers; with as many of the young Corinthians themselves, as filled up the number of six thousand effective men — a force which inspired Androsthenes with such confidence, as to wish for a meeting with the enemy in the field. Nicostratus, prætor of the Achæans, was at Sicyon, with two thousand foot and one hundred horse; but, seeing himself so inferior, both in the number and kind of troops, he did not go outside the walls: the King’s forces, in various excursions, ravaged the lands of Pellene, Phliasus, and Cleone. At last, reproaching the enemy with cowardice, they passed over into the territory of Sicyon, and, sailing round Achaia, wasted the whole coast. As the enemy, while thus employed, spread themselves about too widely, and too carelessly (the usual consequence of too much confidence), Nicostratus conceived hopes of attacking them by surprise. He therefore sent secret directions to all the neighbouring states, as to what day, and what number from each state, should assemble in arms at Apelaurus, a place in the territory of Stymphalia. All being in readiness at the time appointed, he marched thence immediately: and, without communicating his intentions to any one, came by night through the territory of the Phliasians to Cleone. He had with him five thousand foot, of whom [. . . .]† were light-armed, and three hundred horse; with this force he waited there, having despatched scouts to watch on what quarter the enemy should make their irregular inroads.
XV. Androsthenes, utterly ignorant of all these proceedings, left Corinth, and encamped on the Nemea, a river running between the confines of Corinth and Sicyon. Here, dismissing one half of his troops, he divided the remainder into three parts, and ordered all the cavalry of each part to march in separate divisions, and ravage, at the same time, the territories of Pellene, Sicyon, and Phliasus. Accordingly, the three divisions set out by different roads. As soon as Nicostratus received intelligence of this at Cleone, he instantly sent forward a numerous detachment of mercenaries, to seize a strong pass at the entrance into the territory of Corinth; and he himself quickly followed, with his troops in two columns, the cavalry proceeding before the head of each, as advanced guards. In one column, marched the mercenary soldiers and light-infantry; in the other, the shield-bearers of the Achæans, and other states, who composed the principal strength of the army. Both infantry and cavalry were now within a small distance of the camp, and some of the Thracians attacked parties of the enemy, who were straggling and scattered over the country, when the sudden alarm reached their tents. The commander, there, was thrown into the utmost perplexity; for, having never had a sight of the Achæans, except once or twice on the hills before Sicyon, when they did not venture down into the plains, he had never imagined that they would come so far as Cleone. He ordered the stragglers to be recalled by sound of trumpet; commanded the soldiers to take arms with all haste; and, marching out at the head of thin battalions, drew up his line on the bank of the river. His other troops, having scarcely had time to be collected and formed, did not withstand the enemy’s first onset: but the Macedonians had attended their standards in greater numbers, and now kept the battle a long time doubtful. At length, being left exposed by the flight of the rest, and pressed by two bodies of the enemy on different sides, by the light-infantry on their flank, and by the shield-bearers and targeteers in front, and seeing victory declare against them, they at first gave ground; soon after, being vigorously pushed, they turned their backs; and, most of them throwing away their arms, and having lost all hope of defending their camp, made the best of their way to Corinth. Nicostratus sent the mercenaries in pursuit; and the auxiliary Thracians against the party employed in ravaging the lands of Sicyon: both of which detachments slew great numbers, greater almost than were slain in the battle itself. Of those who had been ravaging Pellene and Phthius, some, returning to their camp, ignorant of all that had happened, and without any regular order, fell in with the advanced guards of the enemy, where they expected their own. Others, from the bustle which they perceived, suspecting the cause, fled and dispersed themselves in such a manner, that, as they wandered up and down, they were cut off by the very peasants. There fell, on that day, one thousand five hundred: three hundred were made prisoners. The great fears, under which all Achaia had hitherto laboured, were thus removed.
XVI. Before the battle at Cynoscephalæ, Lucius Quintius had invited to Corcyra some chiefs of the Acarnanians, the only state in Greece which had continued to maintain its alliance with the Macedonians; and in concert with them, laid some kind of scheme for a change of measures. Two causes principally, had retained them in friendship with the King: one was a principle of honour, natural to that nation; the other, their fear and hatred of the Ætolians. A general assembly was summoned to meet at Leucas; but neither did all the states of Acarnania come thither, nor were those who did attend, agreed in opinion. However, the magistrates and leading men prevailed so far, as to get a decree passed, on the authority of a majority of those present, for joining in alliance with the Romans. This gave great offence to those who had not been present; and, in this ferment of the nation, Androcles and Echedemus, two men of distinction among the Acarnanians, being employed by Philip, gained so much influence as to prevail on the assembly, not only to repeal the decree for an alliance with Rome, but also to condemn, as guilty of treason, Archesilaus and Bianor, both men of the first rank in Acarnania, who had been the advisers of that measure; and to deprive Zeuxidas, the prætor, of his office, for having put it to the vote. The persons condemned took a course apparently desperate, but successful in the issue: for, while their friends advised them to yield to the times, and withdraw to Corcyra, to the Romans, they resolved to present themselves to the multitude; and either, by that act, to mollify their resentment, or endure whatever might befall them. They came, accordingly, into a full assembly; on which, at first, a murmur arose, expressive of surprise; but presently silence took place, partly from respect to their former dignity, partly from commiseration of their present situation. They were even indulged with the liberty of speaking. At first, they addressed the assembly in a suppliant manner; but, in the progress of their discourse, when they came to refute the charges made against them, they spoke with that degree of confidence which innocence inspires. At last, they even ventured to utter some complaints, and to charge the proceedings against them with injustice and cruelty; this had such an effect on the minds of all present, that, with one consent, they annulled all the decrees passed against them. Nevertheless, they came to a resolution, to renounce the friendship of the Romans, and return to the alliance with Philip.
XVII. These decrees were passed at Leucas, the capital of Acarnania, the place where all the states usually met in council. As soon, therefore, as the news of this sudden change reached the lieutenant-general Flamininus, in Corcyra, he instantly set sail with the fleet for Leucas; and coming to an anchor at Heræas, advanced thence towards the walls with every kind of machine used in the attacking of cities; supposing that the first appearance of danger might bend the minds of the inhabitants to submission. But seeing no prospect of effecting any thing, except by force, he began to erect towers, and to bring up the battering rams and other engines to the walls. The whole of Acarnania, being situated between Ætolia and Epirus, faces towards the west and the Sicilian sea. Leucadia, now an island, separated from Acarnania by a shallow streight, and which is the work of art, was then a peninsula, united on its eastern side to Acarnania by a narrow isthmus: this isthmus was about five hundred paces in length, and in breadth not above one hundred and twenty. At the entrance of this narrow neck stands Leucas, stretching up part of a hill which faces the east and Acarnania: the lower part of the town is level, lying along the sea, which divides Leucadia from Acarnania. Thus it lies open to attacks, both from the sea and from the land; for the channel is more like a marsh than a sea, and all the adjacent ground has a depth which renders the construction of works easy. In many places, therefore, at once, the walls were either undermined, or demolished by the ram. But all the advantages which the nature of the place afforded to the besiegers, were amply counterbalanced by the invincible spirit of the besieged: night and day they employed themselves busily in repairing the shattered parts of the wall; and, stopping up the breaches that were made, fought the enemy with great spirit, and showed a wish to defend the walls by their arms rather than themselves by the walls. And they would certainly have protracted the siege to a length unexpected by the Romans, had not some exiles of Italian birth, who resided in Leucas, admitted a band of soldiers into the citadel: notwithstanding which, when those troops ran down from the higher ground with great tumult and uproar, the Leucadians, drawing up in a body in the Forum, withstood them for a considerable time in regular fight. Meanwhile, the walls were scaled in many places; and the besiegers, climbing over the rubbish, entered the town through the breaches. And now the lieutenant-general himself surrounded the combatants with a powerful force. Being thus hemmed in, many were slain, the rest laid down their arms, and surrendered to the conqueror. In a few days after, on hearing of the battle at Cynoscephalæ, all the states of Acarnania made their submission to the lieutenant-general.
XVIII. About this time, fortune depressing the same party in every quarter at once, the Rhodians, in order to recover from Philip the tract on the continent called Piræa, which had been in possession of their ancestors, sent thither their prætor, Pausistratus, with eight hundred Achæan foot, and about one thousand nine hundred men, made up of auxiliaries of various nations. These were Gauls, Nisuetans, Pisuetans, Tamians, Areans from Africa, and Laodicenians from Asia. With this force Pausistratus seized by surprise Tendeba, in the territory of Stratonice, a place exceedingly convenient for his purpose. A reinforcement of one thousand Achæan foot, and one hundred horse, called out for the same expedition, came up at the very time, under a commander called Theoxenus. Dinocrates, the King’s general, with design to recover the fort, marched his army first to Tendeba, and then to another fort called Astragon, which also stood in the territory of Stratonice. Then, calling in all the garrisons, which were scattered in many different places, and the Thessalian auxiliaries from Stratonice itself, he proceeded to Alabanda, where the enemy lay. The Rhodians were no way averse from a battle, and the camps being pitched near each other, both parties immediately came into the field. Dinocrates placed five hundred Macedonians on his right wing, and the Agrians on his left; the centre he formed of the troops which he had drawn together out of the garrisons of the forts; these were mostly Carians; and he covered the flanks with the cavalry, and the Cretan and Thracian auxiliaries. The Rhodians had on the right wing the Achæans; on the left mercenary soldiers; and in the centre a chosen band of infantry, a body of auxiliaries composed of troops of various nations. The cavalry, and what light-infantry they had, were posted on the wings. During that day both armies remained on the banks of a rivulet, which ran between them, and, after discharging a few javelins, they retired into their camps. Next day, being drawn up in the same order, they fought a more obstinate battle than could have been expected, considering the numbers engaged; for there were not more than three thousand infantry on each side, and about one hundred horse: but they were not only on an equality with respect to numbers, and the kind of arms which they used, but they also fought with equal spirit, and equal hopes. First, the Achæans, crossing the rivulet, made an attack on the Agrians; then the whole line passed the river, almost at full speed. The fight continued doubtful a long time: the Achæans, one thousand in number, drove back the one thousand eight hundred Agrians. Then the whole centre gave way. On their right wing, composed of Macedonians, no impression could be made, so long as their phalanx preserved its order, each man clinging as it were to another: but when, in consequence of their flank being left exposed, they endeavoured to turn their spears against the enemy, who were advancing upon that side, they immediately broke their ranks. This first caused disorder among themselves; they then turned their backs, and at last, throwing away their arms, and flying with precipitation, made the best of their way to Bargylii. To the same place Dinocrates also made his escape. The Rhodians continued the pursuit as long as the day lasted, and then retired to their camp. There is every reason to believe, that, if the victors had proceeded with speed to Stratonice, that city would have been gained without a contest; but the opportunity for effecting this was neglected, and the time wasted, in taking possession of the forts and villages in Peræa. In the mean time, the courage of the troops in garrison, at Stratonice revived, and, shortly after, Dinocrates, with the troops which had escaped from the battle, came into the town, which, after that, was besieged and assaulted without effect; nor could it be reduced until a long time after that, when Antiochus took it. Such were the events that took place in Thessaly, in Achaia, and in Asia, all about the same time.
XIX. Philip was informed that the Dardanians, expecting to make an easy prey of his kingdom, after the many shocks it had suffered, had passed the frontiers, and were spreading devastation through the upper parts; on which, though he was hard pressed in almost every quarter of the globe, Fortune on all occasions defeating his measures, and those of his friends, yet, thinking it more intolerable than death to be expelled from the possession of Macedonia, he made hasy levies through the cities of his dominions; and, with six thousand foot and five hundred horse, surprised and defeated the enemy near Stobi in Pæonia. Great numbers were killed in the fight, and greater numbers of those who were scattered about in quest of plunder. As to such as found a road open for flight, they never thought of trying the chance of an engagement, but hastened back to their own country. After this enterprise, executed with a degree of success beyond what he met in the rest of his attempts, and which raised the drooping courage of his people, he retired to Thessalonica. Seasonable as was the termination of the Punic war, in extricating the Romans from the danger of a quarrel with Philip, the recent triumph over Philip happened still more opportunely, when Antiochus, in Syria, was almost ready to commence hostilities. For besides that it was easier to wage war against them separately than against their combined strength, a violent insurrection had, a little before this time, broke out in Spain. Antiochus, though he had in the preceding summer reduced under his power all the states in Cœlesyria belonging to Ptolemy, and retired into winter-quarters at Antioch, yet allowed himself no rest. For resolving to exert the whole strength of his kingdom, he collected a most powerful force, both naval and military; and in the beginning of spring, sending forward by land his two sons, Ardues and Mithridates, at the head of the army, with orders to wait for him at Sardis, he himself set out by sea with a fleet of one hundred decked ships, besides two hundred lighter vessels, barks and fly-boats, designing to attempt the reduction of all the cities under the dominion of Ptolemy along the whole coast of Caria and Cilicia; and, at the same time, to send troops and ships to the assistance of Philip, in the then subsisting war.
XX. The Rhodians have signalized their faithful attachment to the Roman people, and their affection for the whole race of the Greeks, by many honourable exertions, both on land and sea; but never was their gallantry more eminently conspicuous than on this occasion, when, nowise dismayed at the formidable magnitude of the impending war, they sent ambassadors to tell the King, that if he attempted to bring his forces beyond Nephelis, which is a promontory of Cilicia, remarkable for being a boundary mentioned in an old treaty with the Athenians, they would meet him there and oppose him, not out of any ill-will, but because they would not suffer him to join Philip and obstruct the Romans, who were restoring liberty to Greece. At this time Antiochus was pushing on the siege of Coracesium by regular approaches; for, after he had got possession of Zephyrium, Solæ, Aphrodisias, and Corycus, and, doubling Anemurium, another promontory of Cilicia, had taken Selinus; when all these, and the other fortresses on that coast, had, either through fear or inclination, submitted without resistance, Coracesium shut its gates, and gave him a delay which he did not expect. Here he gave audience to the Rhodians, and although the purport of their embassy was such as might kindle passion in the breast of a King, yet he stifled his resentment, and answered, that “he would send ambassadors to Rhodes, and would give them instructions to renew the old treaties, made by him and his predecessors, with that state; and to assure them, that they need not be alarmed at his approach; that it would be in no respect detrimental or injurious either to them or their allies; for he was determined not to violate the friendship subsisting between himself and the Romans: and of this, his own late embassy to that people, and the senate’s answers and decrees, so honourable to him, ought to be deemed sufficient proof.” Just at that time his ambassadors happened to return from Rome, where they had been heard and dismissed with courtesy, as the juncture required; the event of the war with Philip being yet uncertain. While the King’s ambassadors were haranguing to the above purpose, in an assembly of the people at Rhodes, a courier arrived with an account of the battle of Cynoscephalæ having finally decided the fate of the war. In consequence of this intelligence, the Rhodians, now freed from all apprehensions of danger from Philip, resolved to oppose Antiochus with their fleet. Nor did they neglect another object that required their attention; the protection of the freedom of the cities in alliance with Ptolemy, which were threatened with war by Antiochus. For, some they assisted with men, others by forewarning them of the enemy’s designs; by which means, they enabled the Cauneans, Mindians, Halicarnassians, and Samians, to preserve their liberty. It were needless to attempt enumerating all the transactions, as they occurred in that quarter, when I am scarcely equal to the task of recounting those which immediately concern the war in which Rome was engaged.
XXI. At this time King Attalus, having fallen sick at Thebes, and been carried thence to Pergamus, died at the age of seventy-one, after he had reigned forty-four years. To this man Fortune had given nothing which could lead him to form pretensions to a throne, except riches. By a prudent, and, at the same time, a splendid use of these, he begat, in himself first, and then in others, an opinion, that he was not undeserving of a crown. Afterwards, having, in one battle, utterly defeated the Gauls, which nation was then the more terrible to Asia, as having but lately made its appearance there, he assumed the title of King, and ever after supported a spirit equal to the dignity of the station. He governed his subjects with the most perfect justice, and was singularly faithful to his engagements with his allies, gentle and bountiful to his friends; his wife and four sons survived him; and he left his government established on such solid and firm foundations, that the possession of it descended to the third generation. While this was the posture of affairs in Asia, Greece, and Macedonia, the war with Philip being scarcely ended, and the peace certainly not yet perfected, a desperate insurrection took place in the Farther Spain. Marcus Helvius was governor of that province. He informed the senate by letter, that “two chieftains, Colca and Luscinus, were in arms; that Colca was joined by seventeen towns, and Luscinus by the powerful cities of Cardo and Bardo; and that the people of the whole sea-coast, who had not yet manifested their disposition, were ready to rise on the first motion of their neighbours.” On this letter being read by Marcus Sergius, city prætor, the senate decreed, that, as soon as the election of prætors should be finished, the one to whose lot the government of Spain fell, should, without delay, consult the senate respecting the commotions in that province.
XXII. About the same time the consuls came home to Rome, and, on their holding a meeting of the senate in the temple of Bellona, and demanding a triumph, in consideration of their successes against the enemy, Caius Atinius Labeo, and Caius Ursanius, plebeian tribunes, insisted, that “they should propose their claims of a triumph separately, for they would not suffer the question to be put on both jointly, lest equal honours might be conferred where the merits were unequal.” Minucius urged, that they had been both appointed to the government of one province, Italy; and that, through the course of their administration, his colleague and himself had been united in sentiments and in counsels; to which Cornelius added, that, when the Boians were passing the Po, to assist the Insubrians and Cænomanians against him, they were forced to return to defend their own country, from Minucius ravaging their towns and lands. In reply the tribunes acknowledged, that the services performed in the war by Cornelius were so great, that “no more doubt could be entertained respecting his triumph, than respecting the praise to be given to the immortal gods.” Nevertheless they insisted, that “neither he nor any other member of the community should possess such power and influence as to be able, after obtaining such honour for himself, to bestow the same on a colleague, who, in claiming it, had betrayed an entire want of modesty. The exploits of Quintus Minucius in Liguria were trifling skirmishes, scarcely deserving mention; and in Gaul he had lost great numbers of soldiers.” They mentioned even military tribunes, Titus Juvencius and Cneius Labeo, the plebeian tribune’s brother, who had fallen, together with many other brave men, both citizens and allies: and they asserted, that “pretended surrenders of a few towns and villages, fabricated for the occasion, had been made, without any pledge of fidelity being taken.” These altercations between the consuls and tribunes lasted two days: at last the consults, overcome by the obstinacy of the tribunes, proposed their claims separately.
XXIII. To Cneius Cornelius a triumph was unanimously decreed: and the inhabitants of Placentia and Cremona added to the applause bestowed on the consul, by returning him thanks, and mentioning, to his honour, that they had been delivered by him from a siege; and that very many of them, when in the hands of the enemy, had been rescued from captivity. Quintus Minucius just tried how the proposal of his claim would be received, and finding the whole senate averse from it, declared, that by the authority of his office of consul, and pursuant to the example of many illustrious men, he would triumph on the Alban mount. Caius Cornelius, being yet in office, triumphed over the Insubrian and Cænomanian Gauls. He produced a great number of military standards, and carried in the procession abundance of Gallic spoils in captured chariots. Many Gauls of distinction were led before his chariot, and along with them, some writers say, Hamilcar, the Carthaginian general. But what, more than all, attracted the eyes of the public, was, a crowd of Cremonians and Placentians, with caps of liberty on their heads, following his chariot. He carried in his triumph two hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred asses*, and of silver denariuses, stamped with a chariot, seventy-nine thousand* . He distributed to each of his soldiers seventy asses†, to a horseman double that sum, to a centurion triple. Quintus Minucius, consul, triumphed on the Alban mount, over the Ligurian and Boian Gauls. Although this triumph was less respectable, in regard to the place, and the fame of his exploits, and because all knew the expense was not issued from the treasury; yet, in regard of the number of standards, chariots, and spoils, it was nearly equal to the other. The amount of the money also was nearly equal. Two hundred and fifty-four thousand asses‡ were conveyed to the treasury, and of silver denariuses, stamped with a chariot, fifty-three thousand two hundred§ . He likewise gave to the soldiers, horsemen, and centurions, the same sums that his colleague had given.
XXIV. After the triumph, the election of consuls came on. The persons chosen were Lucius Furius Purpureo, and Marcus Claudius Marcellus. Next day, the following were elected prætors: Quintus Fabius Buteo, Tiberius Sempronius Longus, Quintus Minucius Thermus, Manius Acilius Glabrio, Lucius Apustius Fullo, and Caius Lælius. Toward the close of this year, a letter came from Titus Quintius, with information that he had fought a pitched battle with Philip in Thessaly, and had totally defeated him. This letter was read by Sergius, the prætor, first in the senate, and then, by their direction, in a general assembly; and supplications of five days continuance were decreed on account of those successes. Soon after, arrived the ambassadors, both from Titus Quintius, and from the King. The Macedonians were conducted out of the city to the Villa Publica, where lodgings and every other accommodation were provided for them, and the senate met in the temple of Bellona. Not many words passed; for the Macedonians declared, that whatever terms the senate should prescribe, the King was ready to comply with them. It was decreed, that, conformably to ancient practice, ten ambassadors should be appointed, and that, in council with them, the general, Titus Quintius, should grant terms of peace to Philip; and a clause was added, that, in the number of these ambassadors, should be Publius Sulpicius and Publius Villius, who, in their consulships, had held the province of Macedonia. On the same day the inhabitants of Cossa presented a petition, praying, that the number of their colonists might be enlarged; and an order was accordingly passed, that one thousand should be added to the list, with a provision, that no person should be admitted into that number, who, at any time since the consulate of Publius Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius, had acted as an enemy to the state.
XXV. This year the Roman games were exhibited in the Circus, and on the stage, by the curule ædiles, Publius Cornelius Scipio, and Cneius Manlius Vulso, with an unusual degree of splendour, and were beheld with the greater delight, in consequence of the late successes in war. They were thrice repeated entire, and the plebeian games seven times. These were exhibited by Acilius Glabrio and Caius Lælius, who also, out of the money arising from fines, erected three brazen statues, to Ceres, Liber, and Libera.Y.R.556. 196. Lucius Furius and Marcus Claudius Marcellus, having entered on the consulship, when the distribution of the provinces came to be agitated, and the senate appeared disposed to vote Italy the province of both, petitioned for liberty to put that of Macedonia to the lot along with Italy. Marcellus, who of the two was the more eager for that province; by assertions, that the peace was merely a feigned one, and that if the army were withdrawn thence, the King would renew the war, caused some perplexity in the minds of the senate. The consuls would probably have carried the point, had not Quintus Marcius Rex, and Caius Atinius Labeo, plebeian tribunes, declared, that they would enter their protest, unless they were allowed, before any farther proceeding, to take the sense of the people, whether it was their will and order that peace be concluded with Philip. The question was put to the people in the Capitol, and every one of the thirty-five tribes voted on the affirmative side. The public found the greater reason to rejoice at the ratification of the peace with Macedonia, as melancholy news was brought from Spain; and a letter was made public, announcing that “the prætor, Caius Sempronius Tuditanus, had been defeated in battle in the Hither Spain; that his army had been utterly routed and dispersed, and several men of distinction slain in the fight. That Tuditanus, having been grievously wounded, and carried out of the field, expired soon after.” Italy was decreed the province of both consuls, in which they were to employ the same legions which the preceding consuls had; and they were to raise four new legions, that two might be in readiness to go wherever the senate should direct. Titus Quintius Flamininus was ordered to continue in the government of his province, with the army of two legions, then on the spot. The former prolongation of his command was deemed sufficient.
XXVI. The prætors then cast lots for their provinces. Lucius Apustius Fullo obtained the city jurisdiction; Manius Acilius Glabrio, that between natives and foreigners; Quintus Fabius Buteo, Farther Spain; Quintius Minucius Thermus, Hither Spain; Caius Lælius, Sicily; Tiberius Sempronius Longus, Sardinia. To Quintus Fabius Buteo and Quintus Minucius, to whom the government of the two Spains had fallen, it was decreed, that the consuls, out of the four legions raised by them, should give one each, together with four thousand foot and three hundred horse of the allies and Latine confederates; and those prætors were ordered to repair to their provinces forthwith. This war in Spain broke out in the fifth year after the former had been ended, together with the Punic war. The Spaniards, now, for the first time, had taken arms in their own name, unconnected with any Carthaginian commander. Before the consuls stirred from the city, however, they were ordered, as usual, to expiate the reported prodigies. Lucius Julius Sequestris, on the road to Sabinia, was killed by lightning, together with his horse. The temple of Feronia, in the Capenatian district, was struck by lightning. At the temple of Moneta, the shafts of two spears took fire and burned. A wolf, coming in through the Esquiline gate, and running through the most frequented part of the city, down into the Forum, passed thence through the Tuscan and Mælian streets; and scarcely receiving a stroke, made its escape out of the Capenian gate. These prodigies were expiated with victims of the larger kinds.
XXVII. About the same time Cneius Cornelius Lentulus, who had held the government of Hither Spain before Sempronius Tuditanus, entered the city in ovation, pursuant to a decree of the senate, and carried in the procession one thousand five hundred and fifteen pounds weight of gold, twenty thousand of silver; and in coin, thirty-four thousand five hundred and fifty denariuses.* Lucius Stretinius, from the Farther Spain, without making any pretensions to a triumph, carried into the treasury fifty thousand pounds weight of silver: and out of the spoils taken, built two arches in the cattle-market, at the fronts of the temple of Fortune and Mother Matuta, and one in the great Circus; and on these arches placed gilded statues. These were the principal occurrences during the winter. At this time Quintius was in quarters at Elatia. Among many requests, made to him by the allies, was that of the Bœotians, namely that their countrymen, who had served in the army with Philip, might be restored to them. With this Quintius readily complied; not because he thought them very deserving, but, at a time when there was reason to be apprehensive of the designs of Antiochus, he judged it adviseable to conciliate every state in favour of the Roman interest. It quickly appeared how very little gratitude the Bœotians felt on the occasion: for they not only sent persons to give thanks to Philip, for the restoration of their fellows, as if that compliment had been paid to him by Quintius and the Romans; but, at the next election, raised to the office of Bœotarch a man named Brachyllas, for no other reason than because he had been commander of the Bœotians serving in the army of Philip; passing by Zeuxippus, Pisistratus and the others, who had promoted the alliance with Rome. These men were both offended at the present, and alarmed about the future consequences: for if such things were done when a Roman army lay almost at their gates, what would become of them when the Romans should have gone away to Italy, and Philip, from a situation so near, should support his own associates, and vent his resentment on those of the opposite party.
XXVIII. It was resolved, while they had the Roman army near at hand, to take off Brachyllas, who was the principal leader of the faction which favoured the King; and they chose an opportunity for the deed, when, after having been at a public feast, he was returning to his house, inebriated, and accompanied by some of his debauched companions, who, for the sake of merriment, had been admitted to the crowded entertainment. He was surrounded and assassinated by six men, of whom three were Italians and three Ætolians. His companions fled, crying out for help; and a great uproar ensued among the people, who ran up and down, through all parts of the city, with lights: but the assassins made their escape through the nearest gate. At the first dawn, a full assembly was called together in the theatre, by the voice of a crier, as if some discovery had been made. Many openly clamoured that Brachyllas was killed by those detestable wretches who accompanied him; but their private conjectures pointed to Zeuxippus, as author of the murder. It was resolved, however, that those who had been in company with him should be seized, and examined. While they were under examination, Zeuxippus, with his usual composure, came into the assembly, for the purpose of averting the charge from himself; yet said, that people were mistaken in supposing that so daring a murder was the act of such effeminate wretches as those who were charged with it, urging many plausible arguments to the same purpose. By which behaviour he led several to believe, that, if he were conscious of guilt, he would never have presented himself before the multitude, or, uncalled upon, have made any mention of the murder. Others were convinced that he intended, by thus pushing impudently forward, to throw off all suspicion from himself. Soon after, those men who were innocent were put to the torture; and, as they knew the universal opinion, they gave information conformable to it, naming Zeuxippus and Pistratus; but they produced no proof to show that they knew any thing of the matter. Zeuxippus, however, accompanied by a man named Stratonidas, fled by night to Tanagra; alarmed by his own conscience rather than by the assertions of men who were privy to no one circumstance of the affair. Pisistratus, despising the informers, remained at Thebes. A slave of Zeuxippus had carried messages backwards and forwards, and had been intrusted in the management of the whole business. From this man Pisistratus dreaded a discovery; and, by that very dread, forced him, against his will, to make one. He sent a letter to Zeuxippus, desiring him to “put out of the way the slave who was privy to their crime; for he did not believe him as well qualified for the concealment of the fact as he was for the perpetration of it.” He ordered the bearer of this letter to deliver it to Zeuxippus as soon as possible; but he, not finding an opportunity of meeting him, put it into the hands of the very slave in question, whom he believed to be the most faithful to his master of any; and added, that it came from Pisistratus about business of the utmost consequence to Zeuxippus. Struck by consciousness of guilt, the slave, after promising to deliver the letter, immediately opened it; and, on reading the contents, fled in a fright to Thebes. Zeuxippus, alarmed by this his flight, withdrew to Athens, where he thought he might live in exile with greater safety. Pisistratus, after being examined several times by torture, was put to death.
XXIX. The murder, and particularly the circumstance of Zeuxippus, one of the first men of the nation, having suborned such a deed, exasperated the Thebans, and all the Bœotians, to the most rancorous animosity against the Romans. To recommence a war, they had neither strength nor a leader; but they had recourse to private massacres, and cut off many of the soldiers, some as they came to lodge in their houses, others as they travelled from one cantonment to another on various business. Some were killed on the roads by parties lying in wait in lurking places; others were seduced and carried away to inns, which were left uninhabited, and there put to death. At last they committed these crimes, not merely out of hatred, but likewise from a desire of booty; for the soldiers, on furlough, generally carried money in their purses for the purpose of trading. At first, a few at a time; afterwards, greater numbers used to be missed, until all Bœotia became notorious for those practices, and a soldier was more afraid to go beyond the bounds of the camp than into an enemy’s country. Quintius then sent deputies round the states, to make inquiry concerning the murders committed. The greatest number of foot soldiers were found about the lake called Copias; there the bodies were dug out of the mud, and drawn up out of the marsh, having had earthen jars or stones tied to them, so as to sink by the weight. Many deeds, of this sort, were discovered to have been perpetrated at Acrophia and Coronea. Quintius at first insisted that the persons guilty should be given up to him, and that for five hundred soldiers (for so many had been cut off,) the Bœotians should pay five hundred talents.* Neither of these requisitions being complied with, and the states only making verbal apologies, declaring, that none of those acts had been authorized by the public; Quintius first sent ambassadors to Athens and Achair, to satisfy the allies, that the war which he was about to make on the Bœotians, was conformable to justice and piety; and then, ordering Publius Claudius to march with one-half of the troops to Acrophia, he himself, with the remainder, invested Coronea; and these two bodies, marching by different roads from Elatia, laid waste all the country through which they passed. The Bœotions, dismayed by these losses, while every place was filled with fugitives, and while the terror became universal, sent ambassadors to the camp, who were refused admittance; and, just at this juncture, arrived the Achæans and Athenians. The Achæans had the greater influence as intercessors; and they were resolved, in case they could not procure peace for the Bœotians, to join them in the war. Through the mediation of the Achæans, however, the Bœotians obtained an audience of the Roman general; who, ordering them to deliver up the guilty, and to pay thirty talents† as a fine, granted them peace, and raised the siege.
XXX. A few days after this, the ten ambassadors arrived from Rome, in pursuance of whose counsel, peace was granted to Philip on the following conditions: “That all the Grecian states, as well those in Asia, as those in Europe, should enjoy liberty, and their own laws: That from such of them as were in the possession of Philip, he should withdraw his garrisons, particularly from the following places in Asia; Euromus, Pedasi, Bargylii, Iassus, Myrina, Abydus; and from Thassus and Perinthus, for it was determined that these likewise should be free: That, with respect to the freedom of Cius, Quintius would write to Prusias, King of Bithynia, the resolutions of the senate, and of the ten ambassadors: That Philip should return to the Romans the prisoners and deserters, and deliver up all his decked ships, not excepting even the royal galley — of a size almost unmanageable, being moved by sixteen banks of oars: That he should not keep more than five hundred soldiers, nor any elephant: That he should not wage war beyond the bounds of Macedonia without permission from the senate: That he should pay to the Roman people one thousand talents:* one half at present, the other by instalments, within ten years.” Valerius Antias writes, that there was imposed on him an annual tribute of four thousand pounds weight of silver, for ten years, and an immediate payment of twenty thousand pounds weight. The same author says, that an article was expressly inserted, that he should not make war on Eumenes, Attalus’s son, who had lately come to the throne. For the performance of these conditions hostages were received, among whom was Demetrius, Philip’s son. Valerius Antias adds, that the island of Ægina, and the elephants, were given as a present to Attalus, who was absent; to the Rhodians, Stratonice in Caria, and other cities which had been in the possession of Philip; and to the Athenians, the islands of Paros, Imbrus, Delos, and Scyros.
XXXI. While all the other states of Greece expressed their approbation of these terms of peace, the Ætolians, alone, in private murmurs, made severe strictures on the determination of the ten ambassadors. They said, “it consisted merely of an empty piece of writing, varnished over with a fallacious appearance of liberty. For why should some cities be put into the hands of the Romans without being named, while others were particularized, and ordered to be enfranchised without such consignment: unless the intent was, that those in Asia, which, from their distant situation, were more secure from danger, should be free; but those in Greece, not being specified, should be made their property: Corinth, Chalcis, and Oreum: with Eretria, and Demetrias.” Nor was this charge entirely without foundation: for there was some hesitation with respect to Corinth, Chalcis, and Demetrias; because, in the decree of the senate, in pursuance of which the ten ambassadors had been sent from Rome, all Greece and Asia, except these three, were expressly ordered to be set at liberty; but, with regard to these, ambassadors were instructed, that, whatever other measures the exigencies of the state might render expedient, the present they should determine to pursue in conformity to the public good and their own honour. Now, they had every reason to believe, that Antiochus intended, as soon as he should be able to arrange his affairs at home, to pass into Europe; and they were unwilling to let these cities, the possession of which would be so advantageous to him, lie open to his attacks. Quintius, with the ten ambassadors, sailed from Elatia to Anticyra, and thence to Corinth. Here the plans they had laid down, were discussed. Quintius frequently urged, that “every part of Greece ought to be set at liberty, if they wished to refute the cavils of the Ætolians; if they wished, that sincere affection and respect for the Roman nation should be universally entertained; or if they wished to convince the world that they had crossed the sea, with the design of liberating Greece, not of transferring the sovereignty of it from Philip to themselves.” The Macedonians alleged nothing in opposition to the arguments made use of in favour of the freedom of the cities; but “they thought it safer for those cities to remain, for a time, under the protection of Roman garrisons, than to be obliged to receive Antiochus for a master in the room of Philip.” Their final determination was, that “Corinth be restored to the Achæans, but that the Roman force should continue in the citadel; and that Chalcis and Demetrias be retained, until their apprehensions respecting Antiochus should cease.”
XXXII. The stated solemnity of the Isthmian games was at hand. These have ever been attended by very numerous meetings, for two reasons: first, out of the universal fondness entertained by the Corinthians for shows, wherein are seen trials of skill in arts of every kind, besides contests in strength and swiftness of foot; and secondly, because people can come thither from every quarter of Greece by the means of one, or other, of the two opposite seas. But on this occasion, all were led, by an eager curiosity, to learn what was, thenceforward, to be the state of Greece, and what their own condition; while many at the same time not only formed opinions within themselves, but uttered their conjectures in conversation. The Romans took their seats, as spectators; and a herald, preceded by a trumpeter, according to custom, advanced into the centre of the theatre, where notice of the commencement of the games is usually made, in a set form of words. Silence being commanded by sound of trumpet, he uttered aloud the following proclamation: the senate and people of rome, and titus quintius, their general, having subdued philip and the macedonians,do hereby order that the following states be free, independent, and ruled by their own laws: the corinthians, phocians, and all the locrians; the island of eubœa, and the magnesians; the thessalians, perrhæbians, and the achæans of phthiotis. He then read a list of all the states which had been under subjection to King Philip. The joy occasioned by hearing these words of the herald was so great, that the people’s minds were unable to conceive the matter at once. Scarcely could they believe, that they had heard them; and they looked at each other with amazement, as if all were the illusion of a dream. Each inquired of others about what immediately concerned himself. Every one being desirous, not only of hearing, but of seeing, the messenger of liberty, the herald was called out again; and he again repeated the proclamation. When they were thus assured of the reality of the joyful tidings, they raised such a shout, and clapping of hands, and repeated them so often, as clearly demonstrated, that of all earthly blessings none is more grateful to the multitude than liberty. The games were then proceeded through, with hurry; for neither the thoughts nor eyes of any attended to the exhibitions, so entirely had the single passion of joy preoccupied their minds, as to exclude the sense of all other pleasures.
XXXIII. But, when the games were finished, every one eagerly pressed towards the Roman general; so that by the crowd rushing to one spot, all wishing to come near him, and to touch his right hand, and throwing garlands and ribbands, he was in some degree of danger. He was then about thirty-three years of age; and besides the vigour of youth, the grateful sensations, excited by acknowledgments so eminently glorious to him, increased his strength. Nor did the general exultation last, only, for that day; but, through the space of many days, was continually revived by sentiments and expressions of gratitude. “There was a nation in the world,” they said, “which, at its own expense, with its own labour, and at its own risk, waged wars for the liberty of others. And this it performed, not merely for contiguous states, or near neighbours, or for countries that made parts of the same continent; but even crossed the seas for the purpose, that no unlawful power should subsist on the face of the whole earth; but that justice, right, and law, should every where have sovereign sway. By one sentence, pronounced by a herald, all the cities of Greece and Asia had been set at liberty. To have conceived hopes of this, argued a daring spirit; to have carried it into effect, was a proof of the most consummate bravery and good fortune.”
XXXIV. Quintius and the ten ambassadors then gave audience to the embassies of the several kings, nations, and states. First of all, the ambassadors of King Antiochus were called. Their proceedings, here, were nearly the same as at Rome; a mere display of words unsupported by facts. But the answer given them was not ambiguous as formerly, during the uncertainty of affairs, and before the conquest of Philip; for the King was required, in express terms, to evacuate the cities of Asia, which had been in possession either of Philip or Ptolemy; not to meddle with the free cities, or any belonging to the Greeks. Above all it was insisted on, that he should neither come himself into Europe, nor transport an army thither. The King’s ambassadors being dismissed, a general convention of the nations and states was immediately held; and the business was despatched with the greater expedition, because the resolutions of the ten ambassadors mentioned the several states by name. To the people of Orestis, a district of Macedonia, in consideration of their having been the first who came over from the side of the King, their own laws were granted. The Magnetians, Perrhæbians, and Dolopians, were likewise declared free. To the nation of the Thessalians, besides the enjoyment of liberty, the Achæan part of Phthiotis was granted, excepting Phthiotian Thebes and Pharsalus. The Ætolians, demanding that Pharsalus and Leucas should be restored to them in conformity to the treaty, were referred to the senate: but the council united to these, by authority of a decree, Phocis and Locris, places which had formerly been annexed to them. Corinth, Triphylia, and Heræa, another city of Peloponnesus, were restored to the Achæans. The ten ambassadors were inclined to give Oreum and Eretria to King Eumenes, son of Attalus; but Quintius dissenting, the matter came under the determination of the senate, and the senate declared those cities free; adding to them Carystus. Lycus and Parthinia, Illyrian states, which had been under subjection to Philip, were given to Pleuratus. Amynander was ordered to retain possession of the forts, which he had taken from Philip during the war.
XXXV. When the convention broke up, the ten ambassadors, dividing the business among them, set out by different routes to give liberty to the several cities within their respective districts. Publius Lentulus went to Bargylii; Lucius Stertinius, to Hephæstia, Thassus, and the cities of Thrace; Publius Villius and Lucius Terentius, to King Antiochus; and Cneius Cornelius to Philip. The last of these, after executing his commission with respect to smaller matters, asked Philip, whether he was disposed to listen to advice, not only useful but highly salutary. To which the king answered that he was, and would give him thanks besides, if he mentioned any thing conducive to his advantage. He then earnestly recommended to him, since he had obtained peace with the Romans, to send ambassadors to Rome to solicit their alliance and friendship; lest, in case of Antiochus pursuing any hostile measures, he might be suspected of lying in wait, and watching the opportunity of the times for reviving hostilities. This meeting with Philip was at Tempè in Thessaly; and on his answering that he would send ambassadors without delay, Cornelius proceeded to Thermopylæ, where all the states of Greece are accustomed to meet in general assembly on certain stated days. This is called the Pylaick assembly. Here he admonished the Ætolians, in particular, constantly and firmly to maintain the friendship established between them and the Romans; but some of the principal of these interrupted him with complaints, that the disposition of the Romans towards their nation was not the same since the victory, that it had been during the war; while others censured them with greater boldness, and in a reproachful manner asserted, that, “without the aid of the Ætolians, the Romans could neither have conquered Philip, nor even have made good their passage into Greece.” To such discourses the Roman forbore giving an answer, lest the matter might end in an altercation, and only said, that if they sent ambassadors to Rome, every thing that was reasonable would be granted to them. Accordingly, they passed a decree for such mission, agreeable to his direction. In this manner was the war with Philip concluded.
XXXVI. While these transactions passed in Greece, Macedonia, and Asia, Etruria was near being converted into a scene of hostilities by a conspiracy among the slaves. To examine into and suppress this, Manius Acilius the prætor, whose province was the administration of justice between natives and foreigners, was sent at the head of one of the two city legions. A number of them, who were by this time formed in a body, he reduced by force of arms, killing and taking many. Some, who had been the ringleaders of the conspiracy, he scourged with rods, and then crucified; some he returned to their masters. The consuls repaired to their provinces. Just as Marcellus entered the frontiers of the Boians, and while his men were fatigued with marching the whole length of the day, and as he was pitching his camp on a rising ground, Corolam, a chieftain of the Boians, attacked him with a very numerous force, and slew three thousand of his men; several persons of distinction fell in that tumultuary engagement: amongst others, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Marcus Junius Silanus, præfects of the allies; and Aulus Ogulnius and Publius Claudius, military tribunes in the second legion. The Romans, notwithstanding, had courage enough to finish the fortification of their camp, and to defend it, in spite of an assault made on it by the enemy, after their success in the field. Marcellus remained for some time in the same post, until the wounded were cured, and the spirits of his men revived, after such a disheartening blow. The Boians, a nation remarkably impatient of delay, and quickly disgusted at a state of inaction, separated, and withdrew to their several forts and villages. Marcellus then, suddenly crossing the Po, led his legions into the territory of Comum, where the Insubrians, after rousing the people of the country to arms, lay encamped. They attacked him on his march, and their first onset was so vigorous, as to make a considerable impression on his van. On perceiving which, and fearing lest, if his men should once give ground, they would be obliged to quit the field, he brought up a cohort of Marsians against the enemy, and ordered every troop of the Latine cavalry to charge them. The first and second charge of these having checked the fierceness of the assault, the other troops in the Roman line, resuming courage, advanced briskly on the foe. The Gauls no longer maintained the contest, but turned their backs and fled in confusion. Valerius Antias relates, that in that battle above forty thousand men were killed, five hundred and seven military standards taken, with four hundred and thirty-two chariots, and a great number of gold chains, one of which, of great weight, Claudius says, was deposited as an offering to Jupiter, in his temple in the Capitol. The camp of the Gauls was taken and plundered the same day; and the town of Comum was reduced in a few days after. In a little time, twenty-eight forts came over to the consul. There is a doubt among writers, whether the consul led his legions, first, against the Boians, or against the Insubrians; so as to determine, whether the victory obtained at Comum obliterated the disgrace of the defeat by the Boians, or if that obliterated the honour arising from the present success.
XXXVII. Soon after those matters had passed, with such variety of fortune, Lucius Furius Purpureo, the other consul, came into the country of the Boians, through the Sappinian tribe. He proceeded almost to the fort of Mutilus, when, beginning to apprehend that he might be inclosed between the Boians and Ligurians, he marched back by the road he came; and, making a long circuit, through an open and safe country, arrived at the camp of his colleague. After this junction of their forces, they over-ran the territory of the Boians, spreading devastation as far as the city of Felsina. This city, with the other fortresses, and almost all the Boians, excepting only the young men who kept arms in their hands for the sake of plunder, and were at that time skulking in remote woods, made submission. The army was then led away against the Ligurians. The Boians thought that the Romans, as supposing them at a great distance, would be the more careless in guarding their rear, and thereby afford an opportunity of attacking them unawares: with this expectation, they followed them by secret paths through the forests. They did not overtake them: and therefore, passing the Po suddenly in ships, they ravaged all the country of the Lævans and Libuans; whence, as they were returning with the spoil of the country, they fell in with the Roman army on the borders of Liguria. A battle was begun with more speed, and with greater fury, than if the parties had met with their minds prepared, and at an appointed time and place. This occurrence showed to what degree of violence anger can stimulate men: for the Romans were so intent on slaughter, that they scarcely left one of the enemy to carry the news of their defeat. On account of these successes, when the letters of the consuls were brought to Rome, a supplication for three days was decreed. Soon after, Marcellus came to Rome, and had a triumph decreed him by an unanimous vote of the senate. He triumphed, while in office, over the Insubrians and Comans. The claim of a triumph over the Boians he left to his colleague, because his own arms had been unfortunate in that country; those of his colleague successful. Large quantities of spoils, taken from the enemy, were carried in the procession, in captured chariots, and many military standards; also, three hundred and twenty thousand asses of brass*, two hundred and thirty-four thousand of silver denariuses†, stamped with a chariot. Eighty asses‡ were bestowed on each foot soldier, and thrice that value on each horseman and centurion.
XXXVIII. During that year, King Antiochus, after having spent the winter at Ephesus, took measures for reducing, under his dominion, all the cities of Asia, which had formerly been members of the empire. As to the rest, being either situated in plains, or having neither walls, arms, nor men in whom they could confide, he supposed they would, without difficulty, receive the yoke. But Smyrna and Lampsacus openly asserted their independence; yet if he complied with the claims of these, whom he feared; there would be reason to apprehend, that the rest of the cities in Ætolia and Ionia would follow the example of Smyrna; and those on the Hellespont, that of Lampsacus. Wherefore he sent an army from Ephesus to invest Smyrna; and ordered the troops, which were at Abydus, to leave there only a small garrison, and to go and lay siege to Lampsacus. Nor was force the only means that he used to bring them to submission. By sending ambassadors, to make gentle remonstrances, and reprove the rashness and obstinacy of their conduct, he endeavoured to give them hopes, that they might soon obtain the object of their wishes; but not until it should appear clearly, both to themselves and to all the world, that they had gained their liberty through the kindness of the King, and not by any violent efforts of their own. In answer to which, they said, that “Antiochus ought neither to be surprised nor displeased, if they did not very patiently suffer the establishment of their liberty to be deferred to a distant period.” He himself, with his fleet, set sail from Ephesus in the beginning of spring, and steered towards the Hellespont. His army he transported to Madytus, a city in the Chersonese, and there joined his land and sea forces together. The inhabitants having shut their gates, he invested the town; and when he was just bringing up his machines to the walls, it capitulated. This diffused such fear through the inhabitants of the other cities of the Chersonese, as induced them to submit. He then came, with the whole of his united forces, to Lysimachia; which finding deserted, and almost buried in ruins, (for the Thracians had, a few years before, taken, sacked, and burned it,) he conceived a wish to rebuild a city so celebrated, and so commodiously situated. Accordingly, extending his care to every object at once, he set about repairing the walls and houses, ransomed some of the Lysimachians who were in captivity, sought out and brought home others, who had fled and dispersed themselves through the Chersonese and Hellespontus, enrolled new colonists, whom he invited by prospects of advantages, and used every means to repeople it fully. At the same time, to remove all fear of the Thracians, he went, in person, with one half of the land forces, to lay waste the nearest provinces of Thrace; leaving the other half, and all the crews of the ships, employed in the repairs of the place.
XXXIX. About this time, Lucius Cornelius, who had been commissioned by the senate to accommodate the differences between the Kings Antiochus and Ptolemy, stopped at Selymbria; and, of the ten ambassadors, Publius Lentulus from Bargylii, and Publius Villius and Lucius Terentius, from Thassus, came to Lysimachia. Hither came, likewise, Lucius Cornelius, from Selymbria, and, a few days after, Antiochus, from Thrace. His first meeting with the ambassadors, and an invitation which he afterwards gave them, were friendly and hospitable; but, when the business of their embassy, and the present state of Asia, came to be treated of, the minds of both parties were exasperated. The Romans did not scruple to declare, that every one of his proceedings, from the time when he set sail from Syria, was displeasing to the senate; and they required restitution to be made, to Ptolemy, of all the cities which had been under his dominion. “For, as to what related to the cities, which had been in the possession of Philip, and which Antiochus, taking advantage of a season when Philip’s attention was turned to the war with Rome, had seized into his own hands, it would surely be an intolerable hardship, if the Romans were to have undergone such toils and dangers, on land and sea, for so many years, and Antiochus to appropriate to himself the prizes in dispute. But, though his coming into Asia might be passed over unnoticed by the Romans, as a matter not pertaining to them, yet when he proceeded so far, as to pass over into Europe with all his land and naval forces, how much was this short of open war with the Romans? Doubtless, had he even passed into Italy, he would deny that intention.”
XL. To this the King replied, that “for some time past he plainly perceived, that the Romans made it their business to inquire what ought to be done by King Antiochus; but how far they themselves ought to advance on land or sea they never considered. Asia was no concernment of the Romans, in any shape; nor had they any more right to inquire, what Antiochus did in Asia, than Antiochus had to inquire, what the Roman people did in Italy. With respect to Ptolemy, from whom, they said, cities had been taken, there was a friendly connection subsisting between him and Ptolemy, and he was taking measures to effect speedily a connection of affinity also; neither had he sought to acquire any spoils from the misfortunes of Philip, nor had he come into Europe against the Romans, but to recover the cities and lands of the Chersonese, which, having been the property of Lysimachus*, he considered as part of his own dominions; because, when Lysimachus was subdued, all things belonging to him became, by the right of conquest, the property of Seleucus. That, at times, when his predecessors were occupied by various cares of different kinds, Ptolemy first, and afterwards Philip, usurping the rights of others, possessed themselves of several of these places, as likewise of some of the nearest parts of Thrace, which were indubitably belonging to Lysimachus. To restore these to their ancient state, was the intent of his coming, and to build Lysimachia anew, (it having been destroyed by an inroad of the Thracians,) in order that his son, Seleucus, might have it for the seat of his empire.”
XLI. These disputes had been carried on for several days, when a rumour reached them, but without any authority, that Ptolemy was dead; which prevented the conferences coming to any issue: for both parties made a secret of their having heard it; and Lucius Cornelius, who was charged with the embassy to the two kings, Antiochus and Ptolemy, requested to be allowed a short space of time, in which he could have a meeting with the latter; because he wished to arrive in Egypt before any change of measures should take place, in consequence of the new succession to the crown: while Antiochus believed, that if such an event had really happened, Egypt would be his own. Wherefore, having dismissed the Romans, and left his son Seleucus, with the land forces, to finish the rebuilding of Lysimachia; he sailed, with his whole fleet, to Ephesus; sent ambassadors to Quintius to treat with him about an alliance; and then, coasting along the shore of Asia, proceeded to Lycia. Having learned at Pataræ, that Ptolemy was living, he dropped the design of sailing to Egypt, but nevertheless steered towards Cyprus; and, when he had passed the promontory of Chelidonium, was detained some little time in Pamphylia, near the river Eurymedon, by a mutiny among his rowers. When he had sailed thence as far as the head-lands, as they are called, of Sarus, such a dreadful storm arose as almost buried him and his whole fleet in the deep. Many ships were cast on shore; many swallowed so entirely in the sea, that not one man of their crews escaped to land. Great numbers of his men perished on this occasion; not only persons of mean rank, rowers and soldiers, but even of his particular friends in high stations. When he had collected the relics of the general wreck, being in no capacity of making an attempt on Cyprus, he returned to Seleucia, with his force greatly diminished since his departure. Here he ordered the ships to be hauled ashore, for the winter was now at hand, and proceeded to Antioch, where he intended to pass the winter. — In this posture stood the affairs of the kings.
XLII. At Rome, in this year, for the first time, were created officers called triumviri epulones;* these were Caius Licinius Lucullus, who, as tribune, had proposed the law for their creation; Publius Manlius, and Publius Porcius Læca. These triumvirs, as well as the pontiffs, were allowed by law the privilege of wearing the purple-bordered gown. The body of the pontiffs had, this year, a warm dispute with the city quæstors, Quintus Fabius Labeo and Lucius Aurelius. Money was wanted; an order having been passed for making the last payment to private persons of that which had been raised for the support of the war: and the quæstors demanded it from the augurs and pontiffs, because they had not contributed their share while the war subsisted. The priests in vain appealed to the tribunes; and the contribution was exacted for every year in which they had not paid. During the same year two pontiffs died, and others were substituted in their room: Marcus Marcellus, the consul, in the room of Caius Sempronius Tuditanus, who died a prætor in Spain; and Lucius Valerius, in the room of Marcus Cornelius Cethegus. An augur also, Quintius Fabius Maximus, died very young, before he had attained to any public office; but no augur was appointed in his place during that year. The consular election was then held, by the consul Marcellus. The persons chosen were, Lucius Valerius Flaccus and Marcus Porcius Cato. Then were elected prætors, Caius Fabricius Luscinus, Caius Atinius Labeo, Cneius Manlius Vulso, Appius Claudius Nero, Publius Manlius, and Publius Porcius Læca. The curule ædiles, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior and Caius Flaminius, made a distribution to the people of one million pecks of wheat, at the price of two asses. This corn the Sicilians had brought to Rome, out of respect to Caius Flaminius and his father; and he gave share of the credit to his colleague. The Roman games were solemnized with magnificence, and exhibited thrice entire. The plebeian ædiles, Cneius Domitius Ænobarbus and Caius Scribonius, chief curio, brought many farmers of the public pastures to trial before the people. Three of these were convicted of misbehaviour; and out of the money accruing from fines imposed on them, they built a temple of Faunus in the island. The plebeian games were exhibited for two days, and there was a feast on occasion of the games.
Y.R.557. 195.XLIII. Lucius Valerius Flaccus and Marcus Porcius, on the day of their entering into office, consulted the senate respecting the provinces; who resolved, that “whereas the war in Spain was grown so formidable, as to require a consular army and commander; it was their opinion, therefore, that the consuls should either settle between themselves, or cast lots, for Hither Spain and Italy, as their provinces. That he, to whom Spain fell, should carry with him two legions, five thousand of the Latine confederates, and five hundred horse; together with a fleet of twenty ships of war. That the other consul should raise two legions; for these would be sufficient to maintain tranquillity in the province of Gaul, as the spirits of the Insubrians and Boians had been broken the year before.” The lots gave Spain to Cato, and Italy to Valerius. The prætors then cast lots for their provinces: to Caius Fabricius Luscinus fell the city jurisdiction; Caius Atinius Labeo obtained the foreign; Cneius Manlius Vulso, Sicily; Appius Claudius Nero, Farther Spain; Publius Porcius Læca, Pisa, in order that he might be at the back of the Ligurians; and Publius Manlius was sent into Hither Spain, as an assistant to the consul. Quintius was continued in command for the year, as apprehensions were entertained, not only of Antiochus and the Ætolians, but likewise of Nabis, tyrant of Lacedæmon; and it was ordered, that he should have two legions, for which, if there was any deficiency in their numbers, the consuls were ordered to raise recruits, and send them into Macedonia. Appius Claudius was permitted to raise, in addition to the legion which Quintius Fabius had commanded, two thousand foot, and two hundred horse. The like number of new raised foot and horse was assigned to Publius Manlius, for Hither Spain; and the legion was given to him, which had been under the command of Minucius, prætor. To Publius Porcius Læca, for Etruria, near Pisa, were decreed two thousand foot, and five hundred horse, out of the army in Gaul. Sempronius Longus was continued in command in Sardinia.
XLIV. The provinces being thus distributed, the consuls, before their departure from the city, proclaimed a sacred spring, which Aulus Cornelius Mammula, prætor, had vowed in pursuance of a vote of the senate, and an order of the people, in the consulate of Cneius Servilius and Caius Flaminius. It was celebrated twenty-one years after the vow had been made. About the same time, Caius Claudius Pulcher, son of Appius, was chosen and inaugurated into the office of augur, in the room of Quintus Fabius Maximus, who died the year before. While people, in general, wondered that so little notice was taken of Spain being in arms, a letter was brought from Quintus Minucius, announcing, that “he had fought a pitched battle with the Spanish generals, Budar and Besasis, near the town of Tura, and had gained the victory: that twelve thousand of the enemy were slain; their general, Budar, taken; and the rest routed and dispersed.” The reading of this letter allayed people’s fears with respect to Spain, where a very formidable war had been apprehended. The whole anxiety of the public was directed towards King Antiochus, especially after the arrival of the ten ambassadors. These, after relating the proceedings with Philip, and the conditions on which peace had been granted him, gave information, that “there still subsisted a war of no less magnitude to be waged with Antiochus: that he had come over into Europe with a very numerous fleet, and a powerful army; that, had not a delusive prospect, of an opportunity of invading Egypt, raised by a more delusive rumour, diverted him to another quarter, all Greece would have quickly been involved in the flames of war. Nor would even the Ætolians remain quiet, a race by nature restless, and at that time full of anger against the Romans. That, besides, there was another evil, of a most dangerous nature, lurking in the bowels of Greece: Nabis, tyrant at present of Lacedæmon, but who would soon, if suffered, become tyrant of all Greece, equalling in avarice and cruelty all the tyrants most remarkable in history. For, if he were allowed to keep possession of Argos, which served as a citadel to awe the Peloponnesus, when the Roman armies should be brought home to Italy, Greece would reap no advantage from being delivered out of bondage to Philip; because, instead of that king, who, supposing no other difference, resided at a distance, she would have for a master, a tyrant close to her side.”
XLV. On this intelligence being received, from men of such respectable authority, and who had, besides, examined into all the matters which were reported, the senate, although they deemed the business relating to Antiochus the more important, yet, as the King had, for some reason or other, gone home into Syria, they thought that the affair respecting the tyrant required more immediate consideration. After debating, for a long time, whether they should judge the grounds, which they had at present, sufficient whereon to found a decree for a declaration of war, or whether they should empower Titus Quintius to act, in the case respecting Nabis the Lacedæmonian, in such manner as he should judge conducive to the public interest; they at length invested him with full powers. For they thought the business of such a nature, that, whether expedited or delayed, it could not very materially affect the general interest of the Roman people. It was deemed more important to endeavour to discover, what line of conduct Hannibal and the Carthaginians would pursue, in case of a war breaking out with Antiochus. Persons, of the faction which opposed Hannibal, wrote continually to their several friends, among the principal men in Rome, that “messages and letters were sent by Hannibal to Antiochus, and that envoys came secretly from the King to him. That, as some wild beasts can never be tamed, so the Carthaginian’s temper was irreclaimable and implacable. That he sometimes complained, that the state was debilitated by ease and indolence, and lulled by sloth into a lethargy, from which nothing could rouse it, but the sound of arms.” These accounts were deemed probable, when people recollected the former war being not only continued, but first set on foot, by the efforts of that single man. Besides, he had, by a recent act, provoked the resentment of many men in power.
XLVI. The order of judges possessed, at that time, absolute power in Carthage; and this was owing chiefly to their holding the office during life. The property, character, and life, of every man was in their disposal. He who incurred the displeasure of one of that order, found an enemy in all of them; nor were accusers wanting, in a court where the justices were disposed to condemn. While they were in possession of this despotism, (for they did not exercise their exorbitant power with due regard to the rights of others,) Hannibal was elected prætor; and he summoned the quæstor before him. The quæstor disregarded the summons, for he was of the opposite faction; and besides, as the practice was, that, after the quæstorship, men were advanced into the order of judges, the most powerful of all, he already assumed a spirit suited to the authority which he was shortly to obtain. Hannibal, highly offended hereat, sent an officer to apprehend the quæstor; and, bringing him forth into an assembly of the people, he made heavy charges, not against him alone, but on the whole order of judges; who, in the fulness of their arrogance and power, set at nought both the magistracy and the laws. Then, perceiving that his discourse was favourably attended to, and that the conduct of those men was offensive to the interest and freedom of the lowest classes, he proposed a law, and procured it to be enacted, that “the judges should be elected annually; and that no person should hold the office two years successively.” But, whatever degree of favour he acquired among the commons, by this proceeding he roused, in a great part of the nobility, an equal degree of resentment. This was followed by another act, by which, while he served the people, he provoked personal enmity against himself. The public revenues were partly wasted through neglect, partly embezzled, and divided among some leading men and magistrates; insomuch, that there was not money sufficient for the regular annual payment of the tribute to the Romans, so that private persons seemed to be threatened with a heavy tax.
XLVII. When Hannibal had informed himself of the amount of the revenues arising from taxes and port duties, for what purposes they were issued from the treasury, how much was consumed by the ordinary expenses of the state, and how much lost by embezzlement, he asserted in an assembly of the people, that if payment were enforced of the money unapplied to public uses, the taxes might be remitted to the subjects; and that the state would be still rich enough to pay the tribute to the Romans: which assertion he proved to be true. But now those persons, who, for several years past, had maintained themselves by plundering the public, were greatly enraged; as if this were ravishing from them their own property, and not as dragging out of their hands their ill-gotten spoil. Accordingly, they laboured to draw down on Hannibal the vengeance of the Romans, who were seeking a pretext for indulging their hatred against him. A strenuous opposition was, however, for a long time made to this by Scipio Africanus, who thought it highly unbecoming the dignity of the Roman people to make themselves a party in the animosities and charges against Hannibal; to interpose the public authority among factions of the Carthaginians, not remaining content with having conquered that commander in the field, but to become as it were his prosecutors* in a judicial process, and preferring an action against him. Yet at length the point was carried, that an embassy should be sent to Carthage to represent to the senate there, that Hannibal, in concert with King Antiochus, was forming plans for kindling a war. Three ambassadors were sent, Caius Servilius, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, and Quintus Terentius Culleo. These, on their arrival, by the advice of Hannibal’s enemies, ordered, that any who inquired the cause of their coming should be told, that they came to determine the disputes subsisting between the Carthaginians and Masinissa, King of Numidia; and this was generally believed. But Hannibal was not ignorant that he was the sole object aimed at by the Romans; and that, though they had granted peace to the Carthaginians, their war against him, individually, would ever subsist with unabated rancour. He therefore determined to give way to fortune and the times; and, having already made every preparation for flight, he showed himself that day in the Forum, in order to guard against suspicion; and, as soon as it grew dark, went in his common dress to one of the gates with two attendants, who knew nothing of his intention.
XLVIII. Finding horses in readiness at a spot where he had ordered, he made a hasty journey by night through a district of the territory of Voca, and arrived, in the morning of the following day, at a castle of his own between Acholla and Thapsus. There a ship, ready fitted out and furnished with rowers, took him on board. In this manner did Hannibal leave Africa, lamenting the misfortunes of his country oftener than his own. He sailed over, the same day, to the island of Cercina, where he found in the port a number of merchant ships with their cargoes; and on landing was surrounded by a concourse of people, who came to pay their respects to him: on which he gave orders, that, in answer to any inquiries, it should be said that he was going ambassador to Tyre. Fearing, however, lest some of these ships might sail in the night to Thapsus or Acholla, and carry information of his being seen at Cercina, he ordered a sacrifice to be prepared, and the masters of the ships, with the merchants, to be invited to the entertainment, and that the sails and yards should be collected out of the ships to form a shade on shore for the company at supper, as it happened to be the middle of summer. The feast of the day was as sumptuous, and the guests as numerous, as the time and circumstances allowed, and the entertainment was prolonged, with plenty of wine, until late in the night. As soon as Hannibal saw an opportunity of escaping the notice of those who were in the harbour, he set sail. The rest were fast asleep, nor was it early, next day, when they arose, heavily sick from the preceding day’s excess; and then, when it was too late, they set about replacing the sails in the ships, and fitting up the rigging, which employed several hours. At Carthage, those who were accustomed to visit Hannibal, met, in a crowd, at the porch of his house; and, when it was publicly known, that he was not to be found, the whole multitude assembled in the Forum, eager to gain intelligence of the man who was considered as the first in the state. Some surmised that he had fled, as the case was; others, that he had been put to death through the treachery of the Romans; and there was visible in the expression of their countenances, that variety which might naturally be expected in a state divided into factions, whereof each supported a different interest. At length an account was brought, that he had been seen at Cercina.
XLIX. The Roman ambassadors represented to the council, that “proof had been laid before the senate of Rome, that formerly King Philip had been moved, principally by the instigation of Hannibal, to make war on the Roman people; and that lately, Hannibal had, besides, sent letters and messages to King Antiochus. That he was a man who would never be content, until he had excited war in every part of the globe. That such conduct ought not to be suffered to pass with impunity, if the Carthaginians wished to convince the Roman people, that none of those things were done with their consent, or with the approbation of the state.” The Carthaginians answered, that they were ready to do whatever the Romans required of them.
Hannibal, after a prosperous voyage, arrived at Tyre, where, in consideration of his illustrious character, he was received by those founders of Carthage with every demonstration of respect, as if he were a native of their country, and here he staid a few days. He then sailed to Antioch; where, hearing that the King had already left the place, he procured an interview with his son, who was celebrating the anniversary games at Daphne, and who treated him with much kindness; after which, he set sail without delay. At Ephesus he overtook the King, whose judgment was still wavering and undetermined respecting a war with Rome: but the arrival of Hannibal proved an incentive of no small efficacy to the prosecution of that design. At the same time the inclinations of the Ætolians also became unfavourable to the continuance of their alliance with Rome, in consequence of the senate having referred to Quintius their ambassadors, who demanded Pharsalus and Leucas, and some other cities, in conformity to the first treaty.
* 38,750l.
† In the original the number is omitted or lost.
* 766l. 18s. 6½d.
* 2,551l. 0s. 10d.
† 4s. 6½d.
‡ 820l. 4s. 2d.
§ 1,717l. 18s. 4d.
* 1,115l. 13s. 3½d.
* 95,875l.
† 5,812l. 10s.
* 193,750l.
* 1,033l. 6s. 8d.
† 2,331l. 2s. 6d.
‡ 5s. 2¼d.
* Here is a chasm in the original, which is supplied from Polybius.
* It was their office to regulate the feasts of the gods.
* Subscribere actioni is to join the prosecutor as an assistant; and the prosecutors were obliged calumniam jurare, to swear that they did not carry on the prosecution through malice, or a vexatious design. Scipio, therefore, means to reprobate the interference of the Roman state, which would bring it into the situation of a common prosecutor in a court of justice.
The Oppian law, respecting the dress of the women, after much debate, repealed, notwithstanding it was strenuously supported by Marcus Porcius Cato, consul. The consul’s successes in Spain. Titus Quintius Flamininus finishes the war with the Lacedæmonians and the tyrant Nabis; makes peace with them, and restores liberty to Argos. Separate seats at the public games, for the first time, appointed for the senators. Colonies sent forth. Marcus Porcius Cato triumphs on account of his successes in Spain. Farther successes in Spain against the Boians and Insubrian Gauls. Titus Quintius Flamininus having subdued Philip, King of Macedonia, and Nabis the Lacedæmonian tyrant, and restored all Greece to freedom, triumphs for three days. Carthaginian ambassadors bring intelligence of the hostile designs of Antiochus and Hannibal.
Y.R.557. 195.I. AMID the serious concerns of so many important wars, some scarcely ended, and others impending, an incident intervened, which may seem too trivial to be mentioned; but which, through the zeal of the parties concerned, occasioned a violent contest. Marcus Fundanius and Lucius Valerius, plebeian tribunes, proposed to the people the repealing of the Oppian law. This law, which had been introduced by Caius Oppius, plebeian tribune, in the consulate of Quintus Fabius and Tiberius Sempronius, during the heat of the Punic war, enacted, that “no woman should possess more than half an ounce of gold, or wear a garment of various colours, or ride in a carriage drawn by horses, in a city, or any town, or any place, nearer thereto than one mile; except on occasion of some public religious solemnity.” Marcus and Publius Junius Brutus, plebeian tribunes, supported the Oppian law, and declared, that they would never suffer it to be repealed; while many of the nobility stood forth to argue for and against the motion proposed. The Capitol was filled with crowds, who favoured or opposed the law; nor could the matrons be kept at home, either by advice or shame, nor even by the commands of their husbands; but beset every street and pass in the city; beseeching the men as they went down to the Forum, that in the present flourishing state of the commonwealth, when the public prosperity was daily increasing, they would suffer the women so far to partake of it, as to have their former ornaments of dress restored. This throng of women increased daily, for they arrived even from the country towns and villages; and had at length the boldness to come up to the consuls, prætors, and other magistrates, to urge their request. One of the consuls, however, they found inexorable — Marcus Porcius Cato, who, in support of the law proposed to be repealed, spoke to this effect:—
II. “If, Romans, every individual among us had made it a rule to maintain the prerogative and authority of a husband with respect to his own wife, we should have less trouble with the whole sex. But now, our privileges, overpowered at home by female contumacy, are, even here in the Forum, spurned and trodden under foot; and because we are unable to withstand each separately, we now dread their collective body. I was accustomed to think it a fabulous and fictitious tale, that, in a certain island, the whole race of males was utterly extirpated by a conspiracy of the women. But the utmost danger may be apprehended equally from either sex, if you suffer cabals and secret consultations to be held: scarcely, indeed, can I determine, in my own mind, whether the act itself, or the precedent that it affords, is of more pernicious tendency. The latter of these more particularly concerns us consuls, and the other magistrates; the former, you, my fellow-citizens. For, whether the measure, proposed to your consideration, be profitable to the state or not, is to be determined by you, who are to vote on the occasion. As to the outrageous behaviour of these women, whether it be merely an act of their own, or owing to your instigations, Marcus Fundanius and Lucius Valerius, it unquestionably implies culpable conduct in magistrates. I know not whether it reflects greater disgrace on you, tribunes, or on the consuls: on you certainly, if you have brought these women hither for the purpose of raising tribunitian seditions; on us, if we suffer laws to be imposed on us by a secession of women, as was done formerly by that of the common people. It was not without painful emotion of shame, that I, just now, made my way into the Forum, through the midst of a band of women. Had I not been restrained by respect for the modesty and dignity of some individuals among them, rather than of the whole number; and been unwilling that they should be seen rebuked by a consul, I should not have refrained from saying to them, ‘What sort of practice is this, of running out into public, besetting the streets, and addressing other women’s husbands? Could not each have made the same request to her husband at home? Are your blandishments more seducing in public than in private; and with other women’s husbands than with your own? Although if females would let their modesty confine them within the limits of their own rights, it did not become you, even at home, to concern yourselves about any laws that might be passed or repealed here.’ Our ancestors thought it not proper that women should perform any, even private business, without a director; but that they should be ever under the control of parents, brothers, or husbands. We, it seems, suffer them, now, to interfere in the management of state affairs, and to thrust themselves into the Forum, into general assemblies, and into assemblies of election. For, what are they doing, at this moment, in your streets and lanes? What but arguing, some in support of the motion of tribunes; others, contending for the repeal of the law? Will you give the reins to their intractable nature, and then expect that themselves should set bounds to their licentiousness, and without your interference! This is the smallest of the injunctions laid on them by usage or the laws, all which, women bear with impatience: they long for entire liberty; nay, to speak the truth, not for liberty, but for unbounded freedom in every particular. For what will they not attempt, if they now come off victorious? Recollect all the institutions respecting the sex, by which our forefathers restrained their profligacy, and subjected them to their husbands; and yet, even with the help of all these restrictions, they can scarcely be kept within bounds. If, then, you suffer them to throw these off one by one, to tear them all asunder, and, at last, to be set on an equal footing with yourselves; can you imagine that they will be any longer tolerable? Suffer them once to arrive at an equality with you, and they will from that moment become your superiors.
III. “But, indeed, they only object to any new law being made against them: they mean to deprecate, not justice, but severity. Nay, their wish is, that a law which you have admitted, established by your suffrages, and found in the practice and experience of so many years to be beneficial, should now be repealed; and that by abolishing one law, you should weaken all the rest. No law perfectly suits the convenience of every member of the community: the only consideration is, whether, upon the whole, it be profitable to the greater part. If, because a law proves obnoxious to a private individual, it must therefore be cancelled and annulled, to what purpose is it for the community to enact laws, which those, whom they were particularly intended to comprehend, could presently repeal? Let us, however, inquire what this important affair is which has induced the matrons thus to run out into public in this indecorous manner, scarcely restraining from pushing into the Forum and the assembly of the people. Is it to solicit that their parents, their husbands, children, and brothers, may be ransomed from captivity under Hannibal? By no means: and far be ever from the commonwealth so unfortunate a situation. Yet, when such was the case, you refused this to the prayers which, upon that occasion, their duty dictated. But it is not duty, nor solicitude for their friends; it is religion that has collected them together. They are about to receive the Idæan Mother, coming out of Phrygia from Pessinus. What motive, that even common decency will allow to be mentioned, is pretended for this female insurrection? Hear the answer: That we may shine in gold and purple; that, both on festival and common days, we may ride through the city in our chariots, triumphing over vanquished and abrogated law, after having captured and wrested from you your suffrages; and that there may be no bounds to our expenses and our luxury. Often have you heard me complain of the profuse expenses of the women — often of those of the men; and that not only of men in private stations, but of the magistrates: and that the state was endangered by two opposite vices, luxury and avarice: those pests, which have ever been the ruin of every great state. These I dread the more, as the circumstances of the commonwealth grow daily more prosperous and happy: as the empire increases; as we have passed over into Greece and Asia, places abounding with every kind of temptation that can inflame the passions; and as we have begun to handle even royal treasures: for I greatly fear that these matters will rather bring us into captivity, than we them. Believe me, those statues from Syracuse made their way into this city with hostile effect. I already hear too many commending and admiring the decorations of Athens and Corinth, and ridiculing the earthen images of our Roman gods that stand on the fronts of their temples. For my part I prefer these gods — propitious as they are, and I hope will continue, if we allow them to remain in their own mansions. In the memory of our fathers, Pyrrhus, by his ambassador Cineas, made trial of the dispositions, not only of our men, but of our women also, by offers of presents: at that time the Oppian law, for restraining female luxury, had not been made: and yet not one woman accepted a present. What, think you, was the reason? That for which our ancestors made no provision by law on this subject: there was no luxury existing which might be restrained. As diseases must necessarily be known before their remedies, so passions come into being before the laws, which prescribe limits to them. What called forth the Licinian law, restricting estates to five hundred acres, but the unbounded desire for enlarging estates? What the Cincian law, concerning gifts and presents, but that the plebeians* had become vassals and tributaries to the senate? It is not therefore in any degree surprising, that no want of the Oppian law, or of any other, to limit the expenses of the women, was felt at that time, when they refused to receive gold and purple that was thrown in their way, and offered to their acceptance. If Cineas were now to go round the city with his presents, he would find numbers of women standing in the public streets to receive them.
IV. “There are some passions, the causes or motives of which I can no way account for. To be debarred of a liberty in which another is indulged, may perhaps naturally excite some degree of shame or indignation; yet, when the dress of all is alike, what inferiority in appearance can any one be ashamed of? Of all kinds of shame, the worst, surely, is the being ashamed of frugality or of poverty; but the law relieves you with regard to both; you want only that which it is unlawful for you to have. This equalization, says the rich matron, is the very thing that I cannot endure. Why do not I make a figure, distinguished with gold and purple? Why is the poverty of others concealed under this cover of a law, so that it should be thought, that, if the law permitted, they would have such things as they are not now able to procure. Romans, do you wish to excite among your wives an emulation of this sort, that the rich should wish to have, what no other can have; and that the poor, lest they should be despised as such, should extend their expenses beyond their abilities? Be assured that when a woman once begins to be ashamed of what she ought not to be ashamed of, she will not be ashamed of what she ought. She who can, will purchase out of her own purse; she who cannot, will ask her husband. Unhappy is the husband, both he who complies with the request, and he who does not; for what he will not give himself, another will. Now, they openly solicit favours from other women’s husbands; and, what is more, solicit a law and votes. From some they obtain them; although, with regard to you, your property, or your children, you would find it hard to obtain any thing from them. If the law ceases to limit the expenses of your wife, you yourself will never be able to limit them. Do not suppose that the matter will hereafter be in the same state in which it was before the law was made on the subject. It is safer that a wicked man should never be accused, than that he should be acquitted; and luxury, if it had never been meddled with, would be more tolerable than it will be, now, like a wild beast, irritated by having been chained, and then let loose. My opinion is, that the Oppian law ought, on no account, to be repealed. Whatever determination you may come to, I pray all the gods to prosper it.”
V. After him the plebeian tribunes, who had declared their intention of protesting, added a few words to the same purport. Then Lucius Valerius, who made the motion, spoke thus in support of it:—“If private persons only had stood forth to argue for and against the proposition which we have submitted to your consideration, I, for my part, thinking enough to have been said on both sides, would have waited in silence for your determination. But since a person of most respectable judgment, the consul, Marcus Porcius, has reprobated our motion, not only by the influence of his opinion, which, had he said nothing, would carry very great weight, but also in a long and laboured discourse, it becomes necessary to say a few words in answer. He has spent more words in rebuking the matrons, than in arguing against the measure proposed; and even went so far as to mention a doubt, whether the conduct which he censured in them, arose from themselves, or from our instigation. I shall defend the measure, not ourselves: for the consul threw out those insinuations against us, rather for argument’s sake, than as a serious charge. He has made use of the terms cabal and sedition; and, sometimes, secession of the women: because the matrons had requested of you, in the public street, that, in this time of peace, when the commonwealth is flourishing and happy, you would repeal a law that was made against them during a war, and in times of distress. I know that to declaim is an easy task: that strong expressions, for the purpose of exaggeration, are easily found; and that, mild as Marcus Cato is in his disposition, and gentle in his manners, yet in his speeches he is not only vehement, but sometimes even austere. What new thing, let me ask, have the matrons done in coming out into public in a body? Have they never before appeared in public? I will turn over your own Antiquities*, and quote them against you. Hear now, how often they have done the same, and always to the advantage of the public. In the earliest period of our history, even in the reign of Romulus, when the Capitol had been taken by the Sabines, and a pitched battle was fought in the Forum, was not the fight stopped by the matrons running in between the two armies? When, after the expulsion of the Kings, the legions of the Volscians, under the command of Marcius Coriolanus, were encamped at the fifth stone, did not the matrons turn away that army, which would have overwhelmed this city? Again, when the city was taken by the Gauls, whence was the gold procured for the ransom of it? Did not the matrons, by unanimous agreement, bring it into the public treasury? In the late war, not to go back to remote antiquity, when there was a want of money, did not the widows supply the treasury? And when new gods were invited hither to the relief of our distressed affairs, did not the matrons go out in a body to the sea-shore to receive the Idæan Mother? The cases, he says, are dissimilar. It is not my purpose to produce similar instances; it is sufficient that I clear these women of having done any thing new. Now, what nobody wondered at their doing, in cases which concerned all in common, both men and women, can we wonder at their doing, in a case peculiarly affecting themselves? But what have they done? We have proud ears, truly, if, though masters disdain not the prayers of slaves, we are offended at being asked a favour by honourable women.
VI. “I come now to the question in debate, with respect to which the consul’s argument is two-fold: for, first, he is displeased at the thought of any law whatever being repealed; and then, particularly, of that law which was made to restrain female luxury. His mode of arguing, on the former head, in support of the laws in general, appeared highly becoming of a consul; and that, on the latter, against luxury, was quite conformable to the rigid strictness of his morals. Unless, therefore, I shall be able to point out to you which of his arguments, on both heads, are destitute of foundation, you may, probably, be led away by error. For while I acknowledge, that of those laws which are instituted, not for any particular time, but for eternity, on account of their perpetual utility, not one ought to be repealed; unless either experience evince it to be useless, or some state of the public affairs render it such; I see, at the same time, that those laws which particular seasons have required, are mortal (if I may use the term), and changeable with the times. Those made in peace, are generally repealed by war; those made in war, by peace; as in the management of a ship, some implements are useful in good weather, others in bad. As these two kinds are thus distinct in their nature, of which kind, do you think, is that law, which we now propose to repeal? Is it an ancient law of the kings, coeval with the city itself? Or, what is next to that, was it written in the twelve tables by the decemvirs, appointed to form a code of laws? Is it one, without which our ancestors thought that the honour of the female sex could not be preserved; and, therefore, we also have reason to fear, that, together with it, we should repeal the modesty and chastity of our females? Now, is there a man among you who does not know that this is a new law, passed more than twenty years ago, in the consulate of Quintus Fabius and Tiberius Sempronius? And as, without it, our matrons sustained, for such a number of years, the most virtuous characters, what danger is there of their abandoning themselves to luxury on its being repealed? For, if the design of passing that law was to check the passions of the sex, there would be reason to fear lest the repeal of it might operate as an incitement to them. But the real reason of its being passed, the time itself will show. Hannibal was then in Italy, victorious at Cannæ, possessed of Tarentum, of Arpi, of Capua, and seemed ready to bring up his army to the city of Rome. Our allies had deserted us. We had neither soldiers to fill up the legions, nor seamen to man the fleet, nor money in the treasury. Slaves, who were to be employed as soldiers, were purchased on condition of their price being paid to the owners, at the end of the war. The farmers of the revenues declared, that they would contract to supply corn and other matters, which the exigencies of the war required, to be paid for at the same time. We gave up our slaves to the oar, in numbers proportioned to our properties, and paid them out of our own pockets. All our gold and silver, in imitation of the example given by the senators, we dedicated to the use of the public. Widows and minors lodged their money in the treasury. We were prohibited from keeping in our houses more than a certain quantity of wrought gold or silver, or more than a certain sum of coined silver or brass. At such a time as this, were the matrons so eagerly engaged in luxury and dress, that the Oppian law was requisite to repress such practices? When the senate, because the sacrifice of Ceres had been omitted, in consequence of all the matrons being in mourning, ordered the mourning to end in thirty days. Who does not clearly see, that the poverty and distress of the state requiring that every private person’s money should be converted to the use of the public, enacted that law, with intent that it should remain in force so long only as the cause of enacting it should remain? For, if all the decrees of the senate, and orders of the people, which were then made to answer the necessities of the times, are to be of perpetual obligation, why do we refund their money to private persons? Why do we pay ready money to contractors for public services? Why are not slaves brought to serve in the army? Why do we not, private subjects, supply rowers as we did then?
VII. “Shall, then, every other class of people, every individual, feel the improvement in the state; and shall our wives alone reap none of the fruits of the public peace and tranquillity? Shall we men have the use of purple, wearing the purple-bordered gown in magistracies and priests’ offices? Shall our children wear gowns bordered with purple? Shall we allow the privilege of such a dress to the magistrates of the colonies and borough towns, and to the very lowest of them here at Rome, the superintendants of the streets; and not only of wearing such an ornament of distinction while alive, but of being buried with it when dead; and shall we interdict the use of purple to women alone? And when you, the husband, may wear purple in your great coat, will you not suffer your wife to have a purple cloak? Shall the furniture of your house be finer than your wife’s clothes? But with respect to purple, which will be worn out and consumed, I can see an unjust, indeed, but still some sort of reason, for parsimony: but with respect to gold, in which, excepting the price of the workmanship, there is no waste, what motive can there be for denying it to them? It rather serves as a useful fund for both public and private exigencies, as you have already experienced. He says there will be no emulation between individuals, when no one is possessed of it. But, in truth, it will be a source of grief and indignation to all, when they see those ornaments allowed to the wives of the Latine confederates which have been forbidden to themselves; when they see those riding through the city in their carriages, and decorated with gold and purple, while they are obliged to follow on foot, as if empire were seated in the country of the others, not in their own. This would hurt the feelings even of men, and what do you think must be its effect on those of weak women, whom even trifles can disturb? Neither offices of state, not of the priesthood, nor triumphs, nor badges of distinction, nor military presents, nor spoils, can fall to their share. Elegance of appearance, and ornaments, and dress, these are the women’s badges of distinction; in these they delight and glory; these our ancestors called the women’s world. What other change in their apparel do they make, when in mourning, except the laying aside their gold and purple? And what, when the mourning is over, except resuming them? How do they distinguish themselves on occasion of public thanksgivings and supplications, but by adding unusual splendour to their dress? But then, if you repeal the Oppian law, should you choose to prohibit any of those particulars which the law at present prohibits, you will not have it in your power; your daughters, wives, and even the sisters of some, will be less under your control. The bondage of women is never shaken off, without the loss of their friends; and they themselves look with horror on that freedom which is purchased with the loss of a husband or parent. Their wish is, that their dress should be under your regulation, not under that of the law; and it ought to be your wish to hold them in control and guardianship, not in bondage; and to prefer the title of father or husband, to that of master. The consul just now made use of some invidious terms, calling it a female sedition and secession; because, I suppose, there is danger of their seizing the sacred mount, as formerly the angry plebeians did; or the Aventine. Their feeble nature must submit to whatever you think proper to enjoin; and, the greater power you possess, the more moderate ought you to be in the exercise of your authority.”
VIII. Notwithstanding all these arguments against the motion, the women next day poured out into public in much greater numbers, and, in a body, beset the doors of the protesting tribunes; nor did they retire until the tribunes withdrew their protest. There was then no farther demur, but every one of the tribes voted for the repeal. Thus was this law annulled, in the twentieth year after it had been made. The consul, Marcus Porcius, as soon as the business of the Oppian law was over, sailed immediately, with twenty-five ships of war, of which five belonged to the allies, to the port of Luna, where he ordered the troops to assemble; and having sent an edict along the sea-coast, to collect ships of every description, at his departure from Luna he left orders, that they should follow him to the harbour of Pyrenæus, as he intended to proceed thence against the enemy with all the force that he could muster. They accordingly, after sailing by the Ligurian mountains and the Gallic bay, joined him there on the day appointed. From thence they went to Rhoda, and dislodged a garrison of Spaniards that were in that fortress. From Rhoda they proceeded with a favourable wind to Emporiæ, and there landed all the forces, excepting the crews of the ships.
IX. At that time, as at present, Emporiæ consisted of two towns, separated by a wall. One was inhabited by Greeks, from Phocæa, whence the Massilians also derive their origin; the other by Spaniards. The Greek town, being open towards the sea, had but a small extent of wall, not above four hundred paces in circuit; but the Spanish town, being farther back from the sea, had a wall three thousand paces in circumference. A third kind of inhabitants was added by the deified Cæsar settling a Roman colony there, after the final defeat of the sons of Pompey. At present they are all incorporated in one mass; the Spaniards first, and, at length, the Greeks; having been admitted to the privilege of Roman citizens. Whoever had, at that period, observed the Greeks exposed on one side to the open sea, and on the other to the Spaniards, a fierce and warlike race, would have wondered by what cause they were preserved. Deficient in strength, they guarded against danger by regular discipline; of which, among even more powerful people, the best preservative is fear. That part of the wall which faced the country, they kept strongly fortified, having but one gate, at which some of the magistrates was continually on guard. During the night, a third part of the citizens kept watch on the walls, posting their watches, and going their rounds, not merely from the force of custom, or in compliance with the law, but with as much vigilance as if an enemy were at their gates. They never admitted any Spaniard into the city, nor did they go outside the walls without precaution. The passage to the sea was open to every one; but, through the gate, next to the Spanish town, none ever passed, but in a large body; these were generally the third division, which had watched on the walls the preceding night. The cause of their going out was this: the Spaniards, ignorant of maritime affairs, were fond of trafficking with them, and glad of an opportunity of purchasing, for their own use, the foreign goods, which the others imported in their ships; and, at the same time, of finding a market for the produce of their lands. Sensible of the advantages resulting from a mutual intercourse, the Spaniards gave the Greeks free admittance into their city. Another thing, which contributed to their safety, was, being sheltered under the friendship of the Romans, which they cultivated with as much cordial zeal, though not possessed of equal abilities, as the Massilians. On this account they received the consul, and his army, with every demonstration of courtesy and kindness. Cato staid there a few days, until he could learn what force the enemy had, and where they lay; and, not to be idle during even that short delay, he spent the whole time in exercising his men. It happened to be the season of the year when people have the corn in their barns. He therefore ordered the purveyors not to purchase any corn, and sent them home to Rome, saying, that the war would maintain itself. Then, setting out from Emporiæ, he laid waste the lands of the enemy with fire and sword, spreading terror and desolation over the whole country.
X. At the same time, as Marcus Helvius was going home from Farther Spain, with an escort of six thousand men, given him by the prætor, Appius Claudius, the Celtiberians, with a very numerous army, met him near the city of Illiturgi. Valerius says, that they had twenty thousand effective men; that twelve thousand of them were killed, the town of Illiturgi taken, and all the adult males put to the sword. Helvius, soon after, arrived at the camp of Cato; and as he had now no danger to apprehend from the enemy, in the country through which he was to pass, he sent back the escort to Farther Spain, and proceeded to Rome, where, on account of his successful services, he received the honour of an ovation. He carried into the treasury, of silver bullion, fourteen thousand pounds weight; of coined, seventeen thousand and twenty-three denariuses;* and Oscan† denariuses, twenty thousand four hundred and thirty-eight.‡ The reason for which the senate refused him a triumph was, because he fought under the auspices, and in the province, of another. As he had not come home until the second year after the expiration of his office, because, after he had resigned the government of the province to Quintius Minucius, he was detained there, during the succeeding year, by a severe and tedious sickness, he entered the city in ovation, only two months before the triumph of his successor. The latter brought into the treasury thirty-four thousand eight hundred pounds weight of silver, seventy-eight thousand denariuses,* and of Oscan denariuses two hundred and seventy-eight thousand.†
XI. Meanwhile, in Spain, the consul lay encamped at a small distance from Emporiæ. Thither came three ambassadors from Bilistages, chieftain of the Ilergetians, one of whom was his son, representing, that “their fortresses were besieged, and that they had no hopes of being able to hold out, unless the Romans sent them succour. Five thousand men,” they said, “would be sufficient;” and they added, that, “if such a force came to their aid, the enemy would evacuate the country.” To this the consul answered, that “he was truly concerned for their danger and their fears; but that his army was far from being so numerous, as that, while there lay in his neighbourhood such a powerful force of the enemy, with whom he daily expected a general engagement, he could safely diminish his strength by dividing his forces.” The ambassadors, on hearing this, threw themselves at the consul’s feet, and with tears conjured him not to forsake them at such a perilous juncture. For, if rejected by the Romans, to whom could they apply? They had no other allies, no other hope on earth. They might have escaped the present hazard, if they had consented to forfeit their faith, and to conspire with the rest; but no menaces, no appearances of danger had been able to shake their constancy; because they hoped to find in the Romans abundant succour and support. If there was no farther prospect of this; if it was refused them by the consul, they called gods and men to witness, that it was contrary to their inclination, and in compliance with necessity, that they should change sides, to avoid such sufferings as the Saguntines had undergone; and that they would perish together with the other states of Spain, rather than alone.”
XII. They were, that day, dismissed without any positive answer. During the following night, the consul’s thoughts were greatly perplexed and divided. He was unwilling to abandon these allies, yet equally so to diminish his army, which might either oblige him to decline a battle, or render an engagement too hazardous. At length, he determined not to lessen his forces, lest he should suffer some disgrace from the enemy; and therefore he judged it expedient, instead of real succour, to hold out hopes to the allies. For he considered that, in many cases, but especially in war, mere appearances have had all the effect of realities; and that a person, under a firm persuasion that he can command resources, virtually has them; that very prospect inspiring him with hope and boldness in his exertions. Next day he told the ambassadors, that “although he had many objections to lending a part of his forces to others, yet he considered their circumstances and danger more than his own.” He then gave orders to the third part of the soldiers of every cohort, to make haste and prepare victuals, which they were to carry with them on board ships, which he ordered to be got in readiness against the third day. He desired two of the ambassadors to carry an account of these proceedings to Bilistages and the Ilergetians; but, by kind treatment and presents, he prevailed on the chieftain’s son to remain with him. The ambassadors did not leave the place until they saw the troops embarked on board the ships; then reporting this at home, they spread, not only among their own people, but likewise among the enemy, a confident assurance of the approach of Roman succours.
XIII. The consul, when he had carried appearances as far as he thought sufficient, to create a belief of his intending to send aid, ordered the soldiers to be landed again from the ships; and, as the season of the year now approached, when it would be proper to enter on action, he pitched a winter camp at the distance of a mile from Emporiæ. From this post he frequently led out his troops to ravage the enemy’s country; sometimes to one quarter, sometimes to another, as opportunity offered, leaving only a small guard in the camp. They generally began their march in the night, that they might proceed as far as possible, and surprise the enemy unawares; by which practice, the new-raised soldiers gained a knowledge of discipline, and great numbers of the enemy were cut off; so that they no longer dared to venture beyond the walls of their forts. When he had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the temper of the enemy, and of his own men, he ordered the tribunes and the præfects, with all the horsemen and centurions, to be called together, and addressed them thus: “The time is arrived, which you have often wished for, when you might have an opportunity of displaying your valour. Hitherto you have waged war, rather as marauders than as regular troops; you shall now meet your enemies face to face, in regular fight. Henceforward you will have it in your power, instead of pillaging country places, to rifle the treasures of cities. Our fathers, at a time when the Carthaginians had in Spain both commanders and armies, and they themselves had neither commander nor soldier there, nevertheless insisted on its being an article of treaty, that the river Iberus should be the boundary of their empire. Now, when two prætors of the Romans, one of their consuls, and three armies are employed in Spain, and, for near ten years past, no Carthaginian has been in either of its provinces, yet we have lost that empire on the hither side of the Iberus. This it is your duty to recover by your valour and arms; and to compel this nation, which is in a state rather of giddy insurrection than of steady warfare, to receive again the yoke which it has shaken off.” After thus exhorting them, he gave notice, that he intended to march by night to the enemy’s camp; and then dismissed them to take refreshment.
XIV. At midnight, after having duly performed what related to the auspices, he began his march, that he might take possession of such ground as he chose, before the enemy should observe him. Having led his troops beyond their camp, he formed them in order of battle, and at the first light sent three cohorts close to their very ramparts. The barbarians, surprised at the Romans appearing on their rear, ran hastily to arms. In the mean time, the consul observed to his men, “Soldiers, you have no room for hope, but in your own courage; and I have, purposely, taken care that it should be so. The enemy are between us and our tents; behind us is an enemy’s country. What is most honourable, is likewise safest: to place all our hopes in our own valour.” He then ordered the cohorts to retreat, in order to draw out the barbarians by the appearance of flight. Every thing happened, as he had expected. The enemy, thinking that the Romans retired through fear, rushed out of the gate, and filled the whole space between their own camp and the line of their adversaries. While they were hastily marshalling their troops, the consul, who had all his in readiness, and in regular array, attacked them before they could be properly formed. He caused the cavalry from both wings to advance first to the charge: but those on the right were immediately repulsed, and, retiring in disorder, spread confusion among the infantry also. On seeing this, the consul ordered two chosen cohorts to march round the right flank of the enemy, and show themselves on their rear, before the two lines of infantry should close. The alarm, which this gave the enemy, remedied the disadvantage occasioned by the cowardice of the cavalry, and restored the fight to an equality. But such a panick had taken possession of both the cavalry and infantry of the right wing, that the consul was obliged to lay hold of several with his own hand, and turn them about, with their faces to the enemy. As long as the fight was carried on with missile weapons, success was doubtful; and, on the right wing, where the disorder and flight had first begun, the Romans with difficulty kept their ground. On their left wing, the barbarians were hard pressed in front; and looked back, with dread, at the cohorts that threatened their rear. But when, after discharging their iron darts and large javelins, they drew their swords, the battle, in a manner, began anew. They were no longer wounded by random blows from a distance, but closing foot to foot, placed all their hope in courage and strength.
XV. When the consul’s men were now spent with fatigue, he reanimated their courage, by bringing up into the fight some subsidiary cohorts from the second line. These formed a new front, and being fresh themselves, and with fresh weapons attacking the wearied enemy in the form of a wedge, by a furious onset they first made them give ground: and then, when they were once broken, put them completely to flight, and compelled them to seek their camp with all the speed they could make. When Cato saw the rout become general, he rode back to the second legion, which had been posted in reserve, and ordered it to advance in quick motion, and attack the camp of the enemy. If any of them, through too much eagerness, pushed forward beyond his rank, he himself rose up and struck them with his javelin, and also ordered the tribunes and centurions to chastise them. By this time the camp was attacked, though the Romans were kept off from the works by stones, poles, and weapons of every sort. But, on the arrival of the fresh legion, the assailants assumed new courage, and the enemy fought with redoubled fury in defence of their rampart. The consul attentively examined every place himself, that he might make his push where he saw the weakest resistance. At a gate on the left, he observed that the guard was thin, and thither he led the first-rank men and spearmen of the second legion. The party posted at the gate were not able to withstand their assault; while the rest, seeing the enemy within the rampart, abandoned the defence of the camp, and threw away their standards and arms. Great numbers were killed at the gates, being stopped in the narrow passages by the throng; and the soldiers of the second legion cut off the hindmost, while the rest were in search of plunder. According to the account of Valerius Antias, there were above forty thousand of the enemy killed on that day. Cato himself, who was not apt to be too sparing in his own praise, says that a great many were killed, but he specifies no number.
XVI. The conduct of Cato on that day is judged deserving of commendation in three particulars. First, in leading round his army so far from his camp and fleet, as to put the enemy between it and them, when he engaged, that his men might look for no safety but in their courage. Secondly, in throwing the cohorts on the enemy’s rear. Thirdly, in ordering the second legion, when all the rest were disordered by the eagerness of their pursuit, to advance at a full pace to the gate of the camp, in compact and regular order under their standards. He delayed not to improve his victory; but having sounded a retreat, and brought back his men laden with spoil, he allowed them a few hours of the night for rest; and then led them out to ravage the country. They spread their depredations the wider, as the enemy were dispersed in their flight; and this disaster, operating not less forcibly than the defeat of the preceding day, obliged the Spaniards of Emporiæ, and those of their neighbourhood, to make a submission. Many also, belonging to other states, who had made their escape to Emporiæ, surrendered; all of whom the consul received with kindness, and after refreshing them with victuals and wine, dismissed to their several homes. He quickly decamped thence, and wherever the army proceeded on its march, he was met by ambassadors, surrendering their respective states; so that, by the time when he arrived at Tarraco, all Spain on this side of the Iberus was in a state of perfect subjection; and the Roman prisoners, and those of their allies and the Latine confederates, who, by various chances, had fallen into the hands of the enemies in Spain, were brought back by the barbarians, and presented to the consul. A rumour afterwards spread abroad, that Cato intended to lead his army into Turdetania; and it was given out with equal falsehood, that he meant to proceed to the remote inhabitants of the mountains. On this groundless, unauthenticated report, seven forts of the Bergistans revolted; but the Roman, marching thither, reduced them to subjection without much fighting. In a short time after, when the consul returned to Tarraco, and before he removed to any other place, the same persons revolted again. They were again subdued; but, on this second reduction, met not the same mild treatment; they were all sold by auction, to put an end to their continual rebellions.
XVII. In the mean time, the prætor, Publius Manlius, having received the army from Quintus Minucius, whom he had succeeded, and joined to it the old army of Appius Claudius Nero, from farther Spain, marched into Turdetania. Of all the Spaniards, the Turdetanians are reckoned the least warlike; nevertheless, relying on their great numbers, they went to oppose the march of the Roman. One charge of the cavalry immediately broke their line; and, with the infantry, there was hardly any dispute. The veteran soldiers, well acquainted with the enemy, and their manner of fighting, effectually decided the battle. This engagement, however, did not terminate the war. The Turdulans hired ten thousand Celtiberians, and prepared to carry on the war with foreign troops. The consul, meanwhile, alarmed at the rebellion of the Bergistans, and suspecting that the other states would act in like manner, when occasion offered, took away their arms from all the Spaniards, on this side of the Iberus; which proceeding affected them so deeply, that many laid violent hands on themselves, thinking, according to the notions of that fierce race, that, without arms, life was nothing. When this was reported to the consul, he summoned before him the senators of every one of the states, to whom he spoke thus: “It is not more our interest, than it is your own, that you should not rebel; since your insurrections have, hitherto, always drawn more misfortune on the Spaniards, than labour on the Roman armies. To prevent such things happening in future, I know but one method, which is, to put it out of your power to rebel. I wish to effect this in the gentlest way, and that you would assist me therein with your advice. I will follow none with greater pleasure, than what yourselves shall offer. They all remained silent; and then he told them that he would give them a few days time to consider the matter. They were again called together; but, even in the second meeting, they uttered not a word. On which, in one day, he razed the walls of all their fortresses; and, marching against those who had not yet submitted, he received, in every country as he passed through, the submission of all the neighbouring states. Segestica alone, a strong and opulent city, he reduced by a regular siege.
XVIII. Cato had greater difficulties to surmount, in subduing the enemy, than had those commanders who came first into Spain; for this reason, that the Spaniards, through disgust at the Carthaginian government, came over to their side; whereas, he had the task of enforcing their submission to slavery, in a manner, after they had been in full enjoyment of liberty. Beside, he found the whole province in a state of commotion, insomuch, that some were in arms, and others, because they refused to join in the revolt, were held besieged, and would not have been able to hold out, if they had not received timely succour. But so vigorous was the spirit and capacity of the consul, that there was no kind of business, whether great or small, which he did not himself attend to and perform; and he not only planned and ordered, but generally executed in person, such measures as were expedient; nor did he practice greater strictness and severity over any one than over himself. In spare diet, watching and labour, he vied with the meanest of his soldiers; nor, excepting the honour of his post, and the command, had he any peculiar distinction above the rest of the army.
XIX. The Celtiberians, hired by the enemy as abovementioned, rendered the war in Turdetania difficult to the prætor, Publius Manlius. The consul, therefore, in compliance with a letter from the prætor, led his legions thither. The Celtiberians and Turdetanians were lying in separate camps at the approach of the Romans, who began immediately to skirmish with the Turdetanians, making attacks on their advanced guards; and they constantly came off victorious, though sometimes they engaged too rashly: The consul ordered some military tribunes to enter into a conference with the Celtiberians, and to offer them their choice of three proposals: first, to come over to the Romans, and receive double the pay for which they had agreed with the Turdetanians: the second, to depart to their own homes, on receiving assurance under the sanction of the public faith, that no resentment should be shown of their behaviour in joining the enemies of the Romans: the third was, that, if they were absolutely determined on war, they should appoint a day and place to decide the matter with him by arms. The Celtiberians desired a day’s time for consideration; but numbers of the Turdetanians mixing in their assembly, caused so great a confusion, as to prevent them from forming any resolution. Although it was uncertain whether there was to be war or peace with the Celtiberians, the Romans nevertheless, just as though the latter were determined on, brought provisions from the lands and forts of the enemy, and soon ventured to go within their fortifications, relying on private truces, as they would on a common intercourse established by authority. When the consul found that he could not entice the enemy to a battle, he first led out a number of cohorts, lightly accoutred, in regular order, to ravage a part of the country, which was yet unhurt; then hearing that all the baggage of the Celtiberians was deposited at Saguntia, he proceeded thither to attack that town, but was unable, notwithstanding, to provoke them to stir. Paying, therefore, his own troops, and those of Minucius, he left the bulk of his army in the prætor’s camp, and, with seven cohorts, returned to the Iberus.
XX. With that small force he took several towns. The Sidetonians, Ausetanians, and Suessetanians came over to his side. The Lacetanians, a remote and wild nation, still remained in arms; partly through their natural ferocity, and partly through consciousness of guilt, in having laid waste, by sudden incursions, the country of the allies, while the consul and his army were employed in the war with the Turdetanians. He therefore marched to attack their capital, not only with the Roman cohorts, but also with the troops of the allies, who were justly incensed against them. The town was stretched out into considerable length, but had not proportionable breadth. At the distance of about four hundred paces from it, he halted; and leaving there a party composed of chosen cohorts, he charged them not to stir from that spot until he himself should come to them; and then he led round the rest of the men to the farther side of the town. The greater part of his auxiliary troops were Suessetanians, and these he ordered to advance and assault the wall. The Lacetanians knowing their arms and standards, and remembering how often they had, themselves, with impunity, committed every kind of outrage and insult in their territory, how often defeated and routed them in pitched battles, hastily threw open a gate, and all, in one body, rushed out against them. The Suessetanians scarcely stood their shout, much less their onset; and the consul, on seeing this happen just as he had foreseen, galloped back under the enemy’s wall to his cohorts, brought them up quickly to that side, where all was silence and solitude, in consequence of the Lacetanians having sallied out on the Suessetanians, led them into the town, and took possession of every part of it before the return of its people, who, having nothing now left but their arms, soon surrendered themselves also.
XXI. The conqueror marched thence, without delay, to the fort of Vergium, which being now converted, almost entirely, into a receptacle of robbers and plunderers, incursions were made on the peaceable parts of the province. One of the principal inhabitants deserted out of the place to the consul, and endeavoured to excuse himself and his countrymen; alleging, that “the management of affairs was not in their hands; for the robbers, having gained admittance, had reduced the fort entirely under their own power.” The consul ordered him to return home, and pretend some plausible reason for having been absent; and then, “when he should see him advancing to the walls, and the robbers intent on making a defence, to seize the citadel with such men as favoured his party.” This was executed according to his directions. The double alarm, from the Romans scaling the walls in front, and the citadel being seized on their rear, at once entirely confounded the barbarians. The consul, having taken possession of the place, ordered, that those who had secured the citadel, should, with their relations, be set at liberty, and enjoy their property; the rest of the natives, he commanded the quæstor to sell; and he put the robbers to death. Having restored quiet, he settled the iron and silver mines on such a footing, that they produced a large revenue; and, in consequence of the regulations then made, the province daily increased in riches. On account of these services performed in Spain, the senate decreed a supplication for three days. During this summer, the other consul, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, fought a pitched battle with a body of the Boians in Gaul, near the forest of Litinæ, and gained a complete victory. We are told, that eight thousand of the Gauls were killed, the rest, desisting from farther opposition, retired to their several villages and lands. During the remainder of the season, the consul kept his army near the Po, at Placentia and Cremona, and repaired the buildings in these cities, which had been ruined in the war.
XXII. While the affairs of Italy and Spain were in this posture, Titus Quintius had spent the winter in Greece, in such a manner, that, excepting the Ætolians, who neither had gained rewards of victory adequate to their hopes, nor were capable of being long contented with a state of quiet, all Greece, being in full enjoyment of the blessings of peace and liberty, were highly pleased with their present state; and they admired not more the Roman general’s bravery in arms, than his temperance, justice, and moderation in success. And now, a decree of the senate was brought to him, containing a denunciation of war against Nabis, the Lacedæmonian. On reading it, Quintius summoned a convention of deputies from all the allied states, to be held, on a certain day, at Corinth. Accordingly, many persons of the first rank came together, from all quarters, forming a very full assembly, from which even the Ætolians were not absent. He then addressed them in this manner:—“Although the Romans and Greeks, in the war which they waged against Philip, were united in affections and counsels, yet they had each their separate reasons for entering into it. He had violated friendship with the Romans; first, by aiding our enemies, the Carthaginians; and then, by attacking our allies here: and, towards you, his conduct was such, that even if we were willing to forget our own injuries, those offered by him to you would be reason sufficient to make us declare war against him. But the business to be considered this day, rests wholly on yourselves: for the subject which I propose to your consideration is, whether you choose to suffer Argos, which, as you know, has been seized by Nabis, to remain under his dominion; or whether you judge it reasonable, that a city of such high reputation and antiquity, seated in the centre of Greece, should be restored to liberty, and placed in the same state with the rest of the cities of Peloponnesus and of Greece. This question, as you see, merely respects yourselves; it concerns not the Romans in any degree, excepting so far as the one city being left in subjection to tyranny, hinders their glory, in having liberated Greece, from being full and complete. If, however, you are not moved by regard for that city, nor by the example, nor by the danger of the contagion of that evil spreading wider, we, for our parts, shall rest content. On this subject I desire your opinions, resolved to abide by whatever the majority of you shall determine.”
XXIII. When the Roman general had ended his discourse, the several deputies proceeded to give their opinions. The ambassador of the Athenians extolled, to the utmost of his power, and expressed the greatest gratitude for the kindness of the Romans towards Greece, “in having, when applied to for assistance, brought them succours against Philip; and now, without being applied to, voluntarily offering assistance against the tyrant Nabis.” He at the same time severely censured the conduct of some, who, in their discourses, “depreciated those kindnesses, and propagated evil surmises of the future, when it would better become them rather to return thanks for the past.” It was evident that this was pointed at the Ætolians: wherefore Alexander, deputy of that nation, began with inveighing against the Athenians, who, having formerly been the most strenuous supporters of liberty, now betrayed the general cause, for the sake of recommending themselves by flattery. He then complained that “the Achæans, formerly soldiers of Philip, and lately, on the decline of his fortune, deserters from him, had regained possession of Corinth, and were aiming at the possession of Argos; while the Ætolians, who had first opposed their arms to Philip, who had always been allies of the Romans, and who had stipulated by treaty, that, on the Macedonian being conquered, the lands and cities should be theirs, were defrauded by Echinus and Pharsalus.” He charged the Romans with insincerity, because “while they made empty professions of establishing universal liberty, they held forcible possession of Demetrias and Chalcis; though, when Philip hesitated to withdraw his garrisons from those places, they always urged against him, that the Grecians would never be free, while Demetrias, Chalcis, and Corinth were in the hands of others. And lastly, that they named Argos and Nabis merely as a pretext for remaining in Greece, and keeping their armies there. Let them carry home their legions; and the Ætolians were ready to undertake, either that Nabis should voluntarily evacuate Argos, on terms; or they would compel him, by force of arms, to comply with the unanimous judgment of Greece.”
XXIV. This arrogant speech called up, first, Aristænus, prætor of the Achæans, who said; —“Forbid, it Jupiter, supremely good and great, and imperial Juno, the tutelar deity of Argos, that that city should lie as a prize between the Lacedæmonian tyrant, and the Ætolian plunderers, under such unhappy circumstances, that its being retaken by us should be productive of more calamitous consequences than its capture by him. Titus Quintius, the sea lying between us, does not secure us from those robbers; what then will become of us, should they procure themselves a strong hold in the centre of Peloponnesus? They have nothing Grecian but the language, as they have nothing human but the shape. They live like beasts of prey, and are, in their manners and rites, more brutally savage than any barbarians. Wherefore, Romans, we beseech you, not only to recover Argos from Nabis, but also to establish the affairs of Greece on such a footing, as to leave these countries in a state of security from the robberies of the Ætolians.” The rest concurring in these censures on the Ætolians, the Roman general said, that “he had, himself, intended to have answered them, but that he perceived all so highly incensed against those people, that the general resentment required rather to be appeased than irritated. Satisfied, therefore, with the sentiments entertained of the Romans, and of the Ætolians, he would simply put this question: What was the general opinion concerning war with Nabis, in case of his refusing to restore Argos to the Achæans?” Every one voted for war; whereupon, he recommended to them, to send in their shares of auxiliary troops, each state in proportion to its ability. He even sent an ambassador to the Ætolians; rather to make them disclose their sentiments, in which he succeeded, than with any hope of obtaining their concurrence. He gave orders to the military tribunes, to bring up the army from Elatia. To the ambassadors of Antiochus, who at this time, proposed to treat of an alliance, he answered, that “he could say nothing on the subject in the absence of the ten ambassadors. They must go to Rome, and apply to the senate.”
XXV. As soon as the troops arrived from Elatia, Quintius put himself at their head, and began his march toward Argos. Near Cleone he was met by the prætor, Aristænus, with ten thousand Achæan foot, and one thousand horse; and having joined forces, they pitched their camp at a small distance from thence. Next day they marched down into the plains of Argos, and fixed their post about four miles from that city. The commander of the Lacedæmonian garrison was Pythagoras, the tyrant’s son-in-law, and his wife’s brother; who, on the approach of the Romans, posted strong guards in both the citadels, for Argos has two, and in every other place that was commodious for defence, or exposed to danger. But, while thus employed, he could by no means dissemble the dread inspired by the approach of the Romans; and, to the alarm from abroad, was added, an insurrection within. There was an Argive, named Damocles, a youth of more spirit than prudence, who held conversations, with proper persons, on a design of expelling the garrison, at first with the precaution of imposing an oath, but afterwards, through his eager desire to add strength to the conspiracy, he trusted to people’s sincerity with too little reserve. While he was in conference with his accomplices, an officer, sent by the commander of the garrison summoned him to appear before him, and this convinced him that his plot was betrayed; on which, exhorting the conspirators, who were present, to take arms with him, rather than be tortured to death, he went on with a few companions towards the Forum, crying out to all who wished the preservation of the state, to follow him: he would lead them to liberty, and assert its cause. He could prevail on none to join him; for they saw no prospect of any attainable advantage, and much less any support on which they could rely. While he exclaimed in this manner, the Lacedæmonians surrounded him and his party, and put them to death. Many others were afterwards seized, the greater part of whom were executed, and the remaining few thrown into prison. During the following night, great numbers, letting themselves down from the walls by ropes, came over to the Romans.
XXVI. These men affirmed, that if the Roman army had been at the gates, the commotion would not have ended without effect; and that, if the camp was brought nearer, the townsmen would not remain inactive. Quintius, therefore, sent some horsemen and infantry lightly accoutered, who, meeting at the Cylarabis, a place of exercise, less than three hundred paces from the city, a party of Lacedæmonians, who sallied out of a gate, engaged them, and without much difficulty drove them back into the town; and the Roman general encamped on the very spot where the battle was fought. There he passed one day, watching if any new commotion might arise; but perceiving that the inhabitants were quite disheartened, he called a council to determine whether he should lay siege to Argos. All the deputies of Greece, except Aristænus, were of one opinion, that, as that city was the sole object of the war, with it the war should commence. This was by no means agreeable to Quintius, but he listened, with evident marks of approbation, to Aristænus, arguing in opposition to the joint opinion of all the rest; while he himself added, that “as the war was undertaken in favour of the Argives, against the tyrant, what could be less proper than to leave the enemy in quiet, and lay siege to Argos? For his part, he was resolved to point his arms against the main object of the war, Lacedæmon and Nabis.” He then dismissed the meeting, and sent out light armed cohorts to collect forage. Whatever was ripe in the adjacent country, they reaped, and brought together; and what was green they trod down and destroyed, to prevent its being of use to the enemy. He then proceeded over Mount Parthenius, and, passing by Tygæa, encamped on the third day at Caryæ, where he waited for the auxiliary troops of the allies, before he entered the enemy’s territory. Fifteen hundred Macedonians came from Philip, and four hundred horsemen from Thessaly; and now the Roman general had no occasion to wait for more auxiliaries, having abundance; but he was obliged to stop for supplies of provisions, which he had ordered the neighbouring cities to furnish. He was joined also by a powerful naval force: Lucius Quintius came from Leucas, with forty ships, as did eighteen ships of war from the Rhodians; and King Eumenes was cruising among the Cyclades, with ten decked ships, thirty barks, and smaller vessels of various sorts. Of the Lacedæmonians themselves, also, a great many, who had been driven from home by the cruelty of the tyrants, came into the Roman camp, in hopes of being reinstated in their country; for the number was very great of those who had been banished by the several despots, during many generations, since they first got Lacedæmon into their power. The principal person among the exiles was Agesipolis, to whom the crown of Lacedæmon belonged in right of his birth; but who had been driven out when an infant by Lycurgus, after the death of Cleomenes, the first tyrant of Lacedæmon.
XXVII. Although Nabis was inclosed between such powerful armaments on land and sea, and who, on a comparative view of his own and his enemy’s strength, could scarcely conceive any degree of hope; yet neglected not preparing for a defence, but brought, from Crete, a thousand chosen young men of that country, in addition to a thousand whom he had before; he had, besides, under arms, three thousand mercenary soldiers, and ten thousand of his countrymen, with the peasants, who were vassals to the proprietors of land.* He fortified the city with a ditch and rampart; and, to prevent any intestine commotion, curbed the people’s spirits by fear, punishing them with extreme severity. As he could not hope for good wishes towards a tyrant, and had reason to suspect some designs against his person, he drew out all his forces to a field called Dromos (the course), and ordered the Lacedæmonians to be called to an assembly without their arms. He then formed a line of armed men round the place where they were assembled, observing briefly, “that he ought to be excused, if, at such a juncture, he feared, and guarded against every thing that might happen; and that, if the present state of affairs subjected any to suspicion, it was their advantage to be prevented from attempting any design, rather than to be punished for the attempt: he therefore intended,” he said, “to keep certain persons in custody, until the storm, which then threatened, should blow over; and would discharge them as soon as the country should be clear of the enemy, from whom the danger would be less, when proper precaution was taken against internal treachery.” He then ordered the names of about eighty of the principal young men to be called over, and as each answered to his name, he put them in custody. On the night following they were all put to death. Some of the Ilotans, or Helotes a race of rustics, who have been vassals even from the earliest times, being charged with an intention to desert, they were driven with stripes through all the streets, and put to death. The terror which this excited so enervated the multitude, that they gave up all thoughts of any attempt to effect a revolution. He kept his forces within the fortifications, knowing that he was not a match for the enemy in the field, and, besides, he was afraid to leave the city, while all men’s minds were in a state of such suspense and uncertainty.
XXVIII. Quintius, having finished every necessary preparation, decamped, and, on the second day, came to Sellasia, on the river Œnus, on the spot where it is said Antigonus, King of Macedonia, fought a pitched battle with Cleomenes, tyrant of Lacedæmon. Being told, that the ascent from thence was through a difficult and narrow pass, he made a short circuit by the mountains, sending forward a party to make a road, and came, by a broad and open passage, to the river Eurotas, where it flows almost immediately under the walls of the city. Here, the tyrant’s auxiliary troops attacked the Romans, while they were forming their camp; together with Quintius himself, (who, with a division of cavalry and light troops, had advanced beyond the rest,) and threw all into fright and confusion; for they had not expected any impediment on their whole march, they had met no kind of molestation; passing, as it were, through the territory of friends. The disorder lasted a considerable time, the infantry calling for aid on the cavalry, and the cavalry on the infantry, each relying on the others more than on themselves. At length, the foremost ranks of the legions came up; and no sooner had the cohorts of the vanguard taken part in the fight, than those, who had lately spread terror round them, were driven back into the city. The Romans, retiring so far from the wall as to be out of the reach of weapons, stood there for some time, in battle array, and then, none of the enemy coming out against them, retired to their camp. Next day Quintius led on his army in regular order along the bank of the river, passed the city, to the foot of the mountain of Menelaus, the legionary cohorts marching in front, and the cavalry and light-infantry bringing up the rear. Nabis kept his mercenary troops, on whom he placed his whole reliance, in readiness, and drawn up in a body, within the walls, intending to attack the rear of the enemy; and, as soon as the last of their troops passed by, these rushed out of the town, from several places at once, with as great fury as the day before. The rear was commanded by Appius Claudius, who having, beforehand, prepared his men to expect such an event, that they might not be disconcerted when it happened, instantly made his troops face about, and presented an entire front to the enemy. A regular engagement, therefore, took place, as if two complete lines had encountered, and it lasted a considerable time; but, at length, Nabis’s troops betook themselves to flight, which would have been attended with less dismay and danger, if they had not been closely pressed by the Achæans, who were well acquainted with the ground. These made dreadful havock, and dispersing them entirely, obliged the greater part to throw away their arms. Quintius encamped near Amyclæ, and, afterwards, when he had utterly laid waste all the pleasant and thickly inhabited country round the city, the enemy not venturing out of the gates, he removed his camp to the river Eurotas. From thence, he sent out parties that ravaged the valley lying under Taygetus, and the country reaching as far as the sea.
XXIX. About the same time, Lucius Quintius got possession of the towns on the sea-coast; of some by their voluntary surrender, of others, by fear or force. Then, learning that the Lacedæmonians made Gythium the repository of all their naval stores, and that the Roman camp was at no great distance from the sea, he resolved to attack that town with his whole force. It was, at that time, a place of considerable strength; well furnished with great numbers of native inhabitants and settlers from other parts, and with every kind of warlike stores. Very seasonably for Quintius, at the commencement of an enterprise of no easy nature, King Eumenes and the Rhodian fleet joined him. The vast multitude of seamen, collected out of the three fleets, finished in a few days all the works requisite for the siege of a city so strongly fortified, both on the land side and on that next the sea. Covered galleries were soon brought up; the wall was undermined, and, at the same time, shaken with battering rams. By the frequent shocks given with these, one of the towers was thrown down, and, by its fall, the adjoining wall on each side was laid flat. The Romans, on this, attempted to force in, both on the side next the port, to which the approach was more level than to the rest, hoping to divert the enemy’s attention from the more open passage, and, at the same time, to enter the breach caused by the falling of the wall. They were near effecting their design, of penetrating into the town, when the assault was suspended by a proposal of a capitulation; which, however, came to nothing. Dexagoridas and Gorgopas commanded there, with equal authority. Dexagoridas had sent to the Roman general the proposal of surrendering, and, after the time and the mode of proceeding had been agreed on, he was slain as a traitor by Gorgopas, and the defence of the city was maintained with redoubled vigour by this single commander. The farther prosecution of the siege would have been much more difficult, had not Titus Quintius arrived with a body of four thousand chosen men. He showed his army in order of battle, on the brow of a hill at a small distance from the city; and, on the other side, Lucius Quintius plied the enemy hard with his engines, both on the quarter of the sea, and of the land; on which Gorgopas was compelled to follow the plan, which, in the case of another, he had punished with death. After stipulating for liberty to carry away the soldiers whom he had there as a garrison, he surrendered the city to Quintius. Previous to the surrender of Gythium, Pythagoras, who commanded at Argos, left that place, intrusting the defence of the city to Timocrates of Pellene; and, with a thousand mercenary soldiers, and two thousand Argives, came to Lacedæmon and joined Nabis.
XXX. Although Nabis had been greatly alarmed at the first arrival of the Roman fleet, and the loss of the towns on the sea-coast, yet, as long as Gythium was held by his troops, the small degree of hope, which that afforded, had helped to quiet his apprehensions; but, when he heard that Gythium too was given up to the Romans, and saw that he had no room for any kind of hope on the land, where every place round was in the hands of the enemy, and that he was totally excluded from the sea, he found himself under the necessity of yielding to fortune. He first sent an officer, with a wand of parley, into the Roman camp, to learn whether permission would be given to send ambassadors. This being consented to, Pythagoras came to the general, with no other commission than to propose a conference between that commander and the tyrant. A council was summoned on the proposal, and every one present agreeing in opinion, that a conference should be granted, a time and place were appointed. They came, with moderate escorts, to some hills in the interjacent ground; and leaving their cohorts there, in posts open to the view of both parties, they went down to the place of meeting; Nabis attended by a select party of his life-guards; Quintius by his brother, King Eumenes; Sosilaus, the Rhodian; Aristænus, prætor of the Achæans, and a few military tribunes.
XXXI. Then the tyrant, having the choice given him to speak either before or after the Roman, began thus: “Titus Quintius, and you who are present; if I could collect, from my own reflections, the reason of your having either declared, or actually made war against me, I should have waited in silence the issue of my destiny. But in the present state of things, I could not repress my desire of knowing, before I am ruined, the cause for which my ruin is resolved on. And in truth, if you were such men as the Carthaginians are represented — men who considered the obligation of faith, pledged in alliances, as in no degree sacred, I should not wonder, if you were the less scrupulous with respect to your conduct towards me. But, instead of that, when I look at you, I perceive that you are Romans: men who allow treaties to be the most solemn of religious acts, and faith, pledged therein, the strongest of human ties. Then, when I look back at myself, I am confident I am one who, as a member of the community, am, in common with the rest of the Lacedæmonians, included in a treaty subsisting with you, of very ancient date; and likewise have, lately, during the war with Philip, concluded anew, in my own name, a personal friendship and alliance with you. But I have violated and cancelled that treaty, by holding possession of the city of Argos. In what manner shall I defend this? By the consideration of the fact, or of the time? The consideration of the fact furnishes me with a twofold defence: for, in the first place, in consequence of an invitation from the inhabitants themselves, and of their voluntary act of surrender, I accepted the possession of that city, and did not seize it by force. In the next place, I accepted it, when the city was in league with Philip, not in alliance with you. Then the consideration of the time acquits me, for this reason: that when I was in actual possession of Argos, you entered into an alliance with me, and stipulated that I should send you aid against Philip, not that I should withdraw my garrison from that city. In this dispute, therefore, so far as it relates to Argos, I have unquestionably the advantage, both from the equity of the proceeding, as I gained possession of a city which belonged not to you, but to your enemy; and as I gained it by its own voluntary act, and not by forcible compulsion; and also from your own acknowledgment: since, in the articles of our alliance, you left Argos to me. But then, the name of tyrant, and my conduct, are strong objections against me: that I call forth slaves to a state of freedom; that I carry out the indigent part of the populace, and give them settlements in lands. With respect to the title by which I am styled, I can answer thus: That, let me be what I may, I am the same now, that I was, at the time when you yourself, Titus Quintius, concluded an alliance with me. I remember, that I was then styled King by you; now, I see, I am called tyrant. If, therefore, I had since altered the style of my office, I might be chargeable with fickleness: as you chose to alter it, the charge falls on you. As to what relates to the augmenting the number of the populace, by giving liberty to slaves, and the distribution of lands to the needy: on this head too, I might defend myself on the ground of a reference to the time of the facts charged. These measures, of what complexion soever they are, I had practised before you formed friendship with me, and received my aid in the war against Philip. But, if I did the same things, at this moment, I would not say to you, how did I thereby injure you, or violate the friendship subsisting between us? but, I would insist, that in so doing, I acted agreeably to the practice and institutions of my ancestors. Do not estimate what is done at Lacedæmon, by the standard of your own laws and constitution. I need not compare every particular: you are guided in your choice of a horseman, by the quantity of his property; in your choice of a foot soldier, by the quantity of his property; and your plan is, that a few should abound in wealth, and that the body of the people should be in subjection to them. Our law-giver did not choose that the administration of government should be in the hands of a few, such as you call a senate; or that this or that order of citizens should have a superiority over the rest: but he proposed, by equalizing the property and dignity of all, to multiply the number of those who were to bear arms for their country. I acknowledge that I have enlarged on these matters, beyond what consists with the conciseness customary with my countrymen, and that the sum of the whole might be comprised in few words: that, since I first commenced a friendship with you, I have given you no just cause of displeasure.”
XXXII. The Roman general answered: “We never contracted any friendship or alliance with you, but with Pelops, the right and lawful King of Lacedæmon; whose authority, while the Carthaginian, Gallic, and other wars, succeeding one another, kept us constantly employed, the tyrants, who after him held Lacedæmon under forced subjection, usurped into their own hands, as did you also during the late war with Macedonia. For what could be less consistent with propriety, than that we, who were waging war against Philip, in favour of the liberty of Greece, should contract friendship with a tyrant, and a tyrant who carried his violence and cruelty towards his subjects to as great an excess as any that ever existed. But, even supposing that you had not either seized or held Argos by iniquitous means, it would be incumbent on us, when we are giving liberty to all Greece, to reinstate Lacedæmon also in its ancient freedom, and the enjoyment of its own laws, which you just now spoke of, as if you were another Lycurgus. Shall we take pains to make Philip’s garrisons evacuate Tassus and Bargylii; and shall we leave Lacedæmon and Argos, those two most illustrious cities, formerly the lights of Greece, under your feet, that their continuance in bondage may tarnish our title of deliverers of Greece? But the Argives took part with Philip: we excuse you from taking any concern in that cause, so that you need not be angry with them on our behalf. We have received sufficient proof, that the guilt of that proceeding is chargeable on two only, or, at most, three persons, and not on the state; just, indeed, as in the case of the invitation given to you and to your army, and your reception in the town, not one step was taken by public authority. We know that the Thessalians, Phocians, and Locrians, to a man, unanimously joined in espousing the cause of Philip; and when, notwithstanding this, we have given liberty to all the rest of Greece, how, I ask you, can you suppose we shall conduct ourselves towards the Argives, who are acquitted of having publicly authorised your misconduct? You said, that your inviting slaves to liberty, and the distribution of lands among the indigent, were objected to you as crimes; and crimes, surely, they are, of no small magnitude. But what are they, in comparison with those atrocious deeds, that are daily perpetrated by you and your adherents, in continual succession? Show us a free assembly of the people, either at Argos or Lacedæmon, if you wish to hear a true recital of the crimes of the most abandoned tyranny. To omit all other instances of older date, what a massacre did your son-in-law, Pythagoras, make at Argos, almost before my eyes? What another did you yourself perpetrate, when I was on the borders of Laconia? Now, give orders, that the persons whom you took out of the midst of an assembly, and committed to prison, after declaring, in the hearing of all your countrymen, that you would keep them in custody, be produced in their chains, that their wretched parents may know that they are alive, and have no cause for their mourning. Well, but you say, though all these things were so, Romans, how do they concern you? Can you say this to the deliverers of Greece? to people who crossed the sea in order to deliver it, and have maintained a war, on sea and land, to effect its deliverance? Still you tell us, you have not directly violated the alliance, or the friendship established between us. How many instances must I produce of your having done so? But I will not go into a long detail: I will bring the matter to a short issue. By what acts is friendship violated? Most effectually by these two: by treating our friends as foes, and by uniting yourself with our enemies. Now, which of these has not been done by you? For Messene, which had been united to us in friendship, by one and the same bond of alliance with Lacedæmon, you, while professing yourself our ally, reduced to subjection by force of arms, though you knew it was in alliance with us; and you contracted with Philp, our professed enemy, not only an alliance, but even an affinity, through the intervention of his general, Philocles; and waging actual war against us, with your piratical ships, you made the sea round Malea unsafe, and you captured and slew more Roman citizens almost, than Philip himself; and it was less dangerous for our ships to bring supplies for our armies, by the coast of Macedonia, than by the promontory of Malea. Cease, therefore, to vaunt your good faith, and the obligations of treaties; and, dropping your affectation of popular sentiments, speak as a tyrant, and as an enemy.”
XXXIII. Aristænus then began, at first, to advise, and afterwards even to beseech Nabis, while it was yet in his power, and while the state of affairs permitted, to consider what was best for himself and his interests. He then mentioned the names of several tyrants in the neighbouring states who had resigned their authority, and restored liberty to their people, and afterwards lived to old age, not only in safety, but with the respect of their countrymen. After this conversation had passed, the approach of night broke up the conference. Next day Nabis said, that he was willing to cede Argos, and withdraw his garrison, since such was the desire of the Romans, and to deliver up the prisoners and deserters; and if they demanded any thing farther, he requested that they would set it down in writing, that he might deliberate on it with his friends. Thus the tyrant gained time for consultation, and Quintius also, on his part, called a council, to which he summoned the chiefs of the allies. The greatest part were of opinion, that “they ought to persevere in the war until the tyrant should be stripped of all power; otherwise the liberty of Greece would never be secure. That it would have been much better never to have entered on the war, than to drop it after it was begun; for this would be a kind of approbation of his tyrannical usurpation, and which would establish him more firmly, as giving the countenance of the Roman people to his ill-acquired authority; while the example would quickly spirit up many in other states to plot against the liberty of their countrymen.” The wishes of the general himself tended rather to peace, for he saw, that, as the enemy was shut up in the town, nothing remained but a siege, and that must be very tedious. For it was not Gythium, that they must besiege, though even that place had been gained by capitulation, not by assault; but Lacedæmon, a city most powerful in men and arms. The only hope which they could have formed, was, that, on the first approach of their army, dissensions and insurrections might have been raised within, but, though the standards had been seen to advance almost to the gates, not one person had stirred. To this he added, that “Villius the ambassador, returning from Antiochus, brought intelligence, that nothing but war was to be expected from that quarter; and that the King had come over into Europe with a much more powerful armament by sea and land than before. Now, if the army should be engaged in the siege of Lacedæmon, with what other forces could the war be maintained against a king of his great power and strength?” These arguments he urged openly; but he was influenced by another motive, which he did not avow, his anxiety, lest one of the new consuls should be appointed to the province of Greece; and then the honour of terminating the war, in which he had proceeded so far, must be yielded to a successor.
XXXIV. Finding that he could not, by opposition make any alteration in the sentiments of the allies, by pretending to go over to their opinion, he led them all into a concurrence in his scheme. “Be it so,” said he, “and may success attend us: let us lay siege to Lacedæmon, since that is your choice. However, as a business so slow in its progress, as you know the besieging of cities to be, very often wears out the patience of the besiegers, sooner than that of the besieged, you ought, before you proceed a step farther, to consider, that we must pass the winter under the walls of Lacedæmon. If this tedious enterprize brought only toil and danger, I would recommend to you, to prepare your minds and bodies to support these. But in the present case, vast expenses also will be requisite for the construction of works, for machines and engines, sufficient for the siege of so great a city, and for procuring stores of provisions for the winter to serve you and us: therefore, to prevent your being suddenly disconcerted, or shamefully deserting an enterprize which you had engaged in, I think it will be necessary for you to write home to your respective states, and learn what degree of spirit and of strength each possesses. Of auxiliary troops I have sufficient number, and to spare; but the more numerous we are, the more numerous will be our wants. The country of the enemy has nothing left but the naked soil. Besides, the winter is at hand, which will render it difficult to convey what we may stand in need of from distant places.” This speech first turned their thoughts to the domestic evils prevailing in their several states; the indolence of those who remained at home; the envy and misrepresentations to which those who served abroad were liable; the difficulty of procuring unanimity among men in a state of freedom; the emptiness of the public treasury, and people’s backwardness to contribute out of their private property. These considerations wrought such a sudden change in their inclinations, that they gave full power to the general, to do whatever he judged conducive to the general interest of the Roman people and their allies.
XXXV. Then Quintius, consulting only his lieutenant-generals and military tribunes, drew up the following conditions on which peace should be made with Nabis: “That there should be a suspension of arms for six months, between Nabis on one part, and the Romans, King Eumenes, and the Rhodians on the other. That Titus Quintius and Nabis should immediately send ambassadors to Rome, in order that the peace might be ratified by authority of the senate. That, whatever day a written copy of these conditions should be delivered to Nabis, on that day should the armistice commence; and, within ten days after, his garrisons should be withdrawn from Argos, and all other towns in the territory of the Argives; all which towns should be entirely evacuated, restored to freedom, and in that state delivered to the Romans. That no slave, whether belonging to the King, the public, or a private person, be removed out of any of them; and if any had been removed before, that they be faithfully restored to their owners. That he should give up the ships, which he had taken from the maritime states; and should not have any other than two barks; and these to be navigated with no more than sixteen oars. That he should restore to all the states, in alliance with the Roman people, the prisoners and deserters in his hands; and to the Messenians, all the effects that could be discovered, and which the owners could prove to be their property. That he should, likewise, restore to the exiled Lacedæmonians their children, and their wives, who chose to follow their husbands; provided that no woman should be obliged, against her will, to go with her husband into exile. That such of the mercenary soldiers of Nabis as had deserted him, and gone either to their own countries, or to the Romans, should have all their effects faithfully returned to them. That he should hold possession of no city in the island of Crete; and that such as were then in his possession, should be given up to the Romans. That he should not form any alliance, or wage war, with any of the Cretan states, or with any other. That he should withdraw all his garrisons from those cities which he should give up, and which had put themselves, and their country, under the dominion and protection of the Roman people; and should take care that, in future, neither he, nor any of his subjects, should give them any disturbance. That he should not build any town or fort in his own, or any other territory. That, to secure the performance of these conditions, he should give five hostages, such as the Roman general should choose, and among them his own son; and should pay, at present, one hundred talents of silver; and fifty talents, annually, for eight years.”
XXXVI. These articles were put into writing, and sent into Lacedæmon, the camp having been removed, and brought nearer to the town. The tyrant saw nothing in them that gave him much satisfaction, excepting that, beyond his hopes, no mention had been made of reinstating the exiles. But what mortified him most of all, was, the depriving him of his shipping, and of the maritime towns: for the sea had been a source of great profit to him; his piratical vessels having continually infested the whole coast from the promontory of Malea. Besides, he found in the young men of those towns, recruits for his army, who made by far the best of his soldiers. Though he discussed those conditions in private with his confidential friends, yet, as the ministers in the courts of kings, faithless in other respects, are particularly so with respect to the concealing of secrets, they soon became the subject of common conversation. The public, in general, expressed not so great a disapprobation of the whole of the terms, as did individuals, of the articles particularly affecting themselves. Those who had the wives of the exiles in marriage, or had possessed themselves of any of their property, were provoked, as if they were to lose what was their own, and not to make restitution of what belonged to others. The slaves, who had been set at liberty by the tyrant, perceived plainly, not only that their enfranchisement would be annulled, but that their servitude would be much more severe than it had been before, when they should be again put under the power of their incensed masters. The mercenary soldiers saw, with uneasiness, that, in consequence of a peace, their pay would cease; and they knew also, that they could not return among their own countrymen, who detested not tyrants more than they did their abettors.
XXXVII. They at first spoke of these matters, in their circles, with murmurs of discontent; and afterwards, suddenly ran to arms. From which tumultuous proceeding, the tyrant perceived that the passions of the multitude were of themselves inflamed as highly as he could wish; he, therefore, immediately ordered a general assembly to be summoned. Here he explained to them the terms which the Romans strove to impose, to which he falsely added others, more severe and humiliating. While, on the mention of each particular, sometimes the whole assembly, sometimes different parties raised a shout of disapprobation, he asked them, “What answer they wished him to give; or what they would have him do?” On which all, as it were with one voice, cried out, “To give no answer, to continue the war;” and they began, as is common with a multitude, every one to encourage the rest, to keep up their spirits, and cherish good hopes, observing, that “fortune favours the brave.” Animated by these expressions, the tyrant assured them, that Antiochus, and the Ætolians, would come to their assistance; and that he had, in the mean time, a force abundantly sufficient for the maintenance of a siege. Every thought of peace vanished from their minds, and, unable to contain themselves longer in quiet, they ran out in parties against the advanced guards of the enemy. The sally of these few skirmishers, and the weapons which they threw, immediately demonstrated to the Romans, beyond a doubt, that the war was to continue. During the four following days, several slight encounters took place, without any certain advantage; but, on the fifth day after, in a kind of regular engagement, the Lacedæmonians were beaten back into the town, in such a panick, that several Roman soldiers, pressing close on their rear, entered the city through open spaces, not secured with a wall, of which, at that time, there were several.
XXXVIII. Then Quintius, having, by this repulse, effectually checked the sallies of the enemy, and being fully convinced that he had now no alternative, but must besiege the city, sent persons to bring up all the marine forces from Gythium; and, in the mean time, rode himself, with some military tribunes, round the walls, to take a view of the situation of the place. In former times, Sparta had no wall; of late, the tyrants had built walls, in the places where the ground was open and level; but the higher places, and those more difficult of access, they secured by placingg guards of soldiers instead of fortifications. When he had sufficiently examined every circumstance, he resolved on making a general assault; and, for that purpose, surrounded the city with all his forces, the number of which, Romans and allies, horse and foot, naval and land forces, all together, amounted to fifty thousand men. Some brought scaling-ladders, some firebrands, some other matters, wherewith they might either assail the enemy, or strike terror. The orders were, that on raising the shout, all should advance at once, in order that the Lacedæmonians, being alarmed at the same time in every quarter, might be at a loss where, first, to make head, or whither to bring aid. The main force of his army he formed in three divisions, and ordered one to attack, on the side of the Phœbeum, another on that of the Dictynneum, and the third near a place called Heptagoniæ, all which are open places without walls. Though surrounded on all sides by such a violent alarm, the tyrant, at first, attentive to every sudden shout, and hasty message, either ran up himself, or sent others, wherever the greatest danger pressed; but afterwards, he was so stunned by the horror and confusion that prevailed all around, as to become incapable either of giving proper directions, or of hearing what was said, and to lose, not only his judgment, but almost his reason.
XXXIX. For some time the Lacedæmonians maintained their ground, against the Romans, in the narrow passes; and three armies, on each side, fought, at one time, in different places. Afterwards, when the heat of the contest increased, the combatants were, by no means, on an equal footing: for the Lacedæmonians fought with missile arms, against which, the Roman soldiers, by means of their large shields, easily defended themselves, and many of their blows either missed, or were very weak; for, the narrowness of the place causing them to be closely crowded together, they neither had room to discharge their weapons, with a previous run, which gives great force to them, nor clear and steady footing while they made their throw. Of those therefore, discharged against the front of the Romans, none pierced their bodies, few even their shields: but several were wounded, by those who stood on higher places, on each side of them; and presently, when they advanced a little, they were hurt unawares, both with javelins, and tiles also thrown from the tops of the houses. On this they raised their shields over their heads, and joining them so close together as to leave no room for injury from such random casts, or even for the insertion of a javelin, by a hand within reach, they pressed forward under cover of this tortoise fence. For some time the narrow streets, being thronged with the soldiers of both parties, considerably retarded the progress of the Romans; but when once, by gradually pushing back the enemy, they gained the wider passes, the impetuosity of their attack could no longer be withstood. While the Lacedæmonians, having turned their backs, fled precipitately to the higher places, Nabis, being utterly confounded, as if the town were already taken, began to look about for a way to make his escape. Pythagoras, through the whole affair, displayed the spirit and conduct of a general, and was now the sole means of saving the city from being taken. For he ordered the buildings nearest to the wall to be set on fire; and these being instantly in a blaze, those who, on another occasion, would have brought help to extinguish the fire, now helping to increase it, the roofs tumbled on the Romans; and not only fragments of the tiles, but also the half-burned timber reached the soldiers: the flames spread wide, and the smoke caused a degree of terror even greater than the danger. In consequence, the Romans who were without the city, and were just then advancing to the assault, retired from the wall; and those who were within, fearing lest the fire, rising behind them, should put it out of their power to rejoin the rest of the army, began to retreat. Whereupon Quintius, seeing how matters stood, ordered a general retreat to be sounded. — Thus, after they had almost mastered the city, they were obliged to quit it, and return to their camp.
XL. Quintius, conceiving greater hopes from the fears of the enemy, than from the immediate effect of his operations, kept them in a continual alarm during the three succeeding days; sometimes harassing them with assaults, sometimes inclosing several places with works, so as to leave no passage open for flight. These menaces had such an effect on the tyrant that he again sent Pythagoras to solicit peace. Quintius, at first, rejected him with disdain, ordering him to quit the camp; but afterwards, on his suppliant entreaties, and throwing himself at his feet, he admitted him to an audience in form. The purport of his discourse, at first, was, an offer of implicit submission to the will of the Romans; but this availed nothing, being considered as nugatory and indecisive. The business was, at length, brought to this issue, that a truce should be made on the conditions delivered in writing a few days before, and the money and hostages were accordingly received. While the tyrant was kept shut up by the siege, the Argives, receiving frequent accounts, one after another, that Lacedæmon was on the point of being taken, and having themselves resumed courage on the departure of Pythagoras, with the strongest part of his garrison, looked now with contempt on the small number remaining in the citadel; and, being headed by a person named Archippus, drove the garrison out. They gave Timocrates, of Pellene, leave to retire, with solemn assurances of sparing his life, in consideration of the mildness which he had shown in his government. In the midst of their rejoicing for this eyent, Quintius arrived, after having granted peace to the tyrant, dismissed Eumenes and the Rhodians from Lacedæmon, and sent back his brother, Lucius Quintius, to the fleet.
XLI. The Nemæan games, the most celebrated of all the Roman festivals, and their most splendid public spectacle, had been omitted, at the regular time, on account of the disasters of the war: the state, now, in the fullness of their joy, ordered them to be celebrated on the arrival of the Roman general and his army; and appointed the general himself, president of the games. Many circumstances concurred to render their happiness complete: their countrymen, whom Pythagoras, lately, and, before that, Nabis, had carried away, were brought home from Lacedæmon; those who, on the discovery of the conspiracy by Pythagoras, and when the massacre was already begun, had fled from home, now returned; they saw their liberty restored, after a long interval, and beheld, in their city, the Romans, the authors of its restoration, whose only view, in making war on the tyrant, was, the support of their interest. The freedom of the Argives was, also, solemnly announced, by the voice of a herald, on the very day of the Nemæn games. Whatever pleasure the Achæans felt on Argos being reinstated in the general council of Achaia, it was, in a great measure, allayed by Lacedæmon being left in slavery, and the tyrant close at their side. As to the Ætolians, they loudly railed at that measure in every meeting. They remarked, that “the war with Philip was not ended until he evacuated all the cities of Greece. But Lacedæmon was left to the tyrant, while the lawful king, who had been, at the time, in the Roman camp, and others, the noblest of the citizens, must live in exile: so that the Roman nation was become a partizan of Nabis’s tyranny.” Quintius led back his army to Elatia, whence he had set out to the Spartan war. Some writers say, that the tyrant’s method of carrying on hostilities was not by sallies from the city, but that he encamped in the face of the Romans; and that, after he had declined fighting a long time, waiting for succours from the Ætolians, he was forced to come to an engagement, by an attack which the Romans made on his foragers, when, being defeated in that battle, and beaten out of his camp, he sued for peace, after fifteen thousand of his men had been killed, and more than four thousand made prisoners.
XLII. Nearly at the same time, arrived at Rome a letter from Titus Quintius, with an account of his proceedings at Lacedæmon; and another, out of Spain, from Marcus Porcius, the consul; whereupon the senate decreed a supplication, for three days, in the name of each. The other consul, Lucius Valerius, as his province had remained quiet since the defeat of the Boians at the wood of Litana, came home to Rome to hold the elections. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, a second time, and Tiberius Sempronius Longus, were elected consuls. The fathers of these two had been consuls in the first year of the second Punic war. The election of prætors was then held, and the choice fell on Publius Cornelius Scipio, two Cneius Corneliuses, Merenda, and Blasio, Cneius Domitius Ænobarbus, Sextus Digitius, and Titus Juvencius Thalna. As soon as the elections were finished, the consul returned to his province. The inhabitants of Ferentinum, this year, laid claim to a privilege unheard of before: that Latines, giving in their names for a Roman colony, should be deemed citizens of Rome. Some colonists, who had given in their names for Puteoli, Salernum, and Buxentum, assumed, on that ground, the character of Roman citizens; but the senate determined that they were not.
Y.R.558. 194.XLIII. In the beginning of the year, wherein Publius Scipio Africanus, a second time, and Tiberius Sempronius Longus were consuls, two ambassadors from the tyrant Nabis came to Rome. The senate gave them audience in the temple of Apollo, outside the city. They entreated, that a peace might be concluded on the terms settled with Quintius, which was granted. When the question was put concerning the provinces, the majority of the senate were of opinion, that, as the wars in Spain and Macedonia were at an end, Italy should be the province of both the consuls: but Scipio contended that one consul was sufficient for Italy, and that Macedonia ought to be decreed to the other; that “there was every reason to apprehend a dangerous war with Antiochus, for he had already, of his own accord, come into Europe; and how did they suppose he would act in future, when he should be encouraged to a war, on one hand, by the Ætolians, avowed enemies of their state, and stimulated, on the other, by Hannibal, a general famous for his victories over the Romans?” While the consular provinces were in dispute, the prætors cast lots for theirs. The city jurisdiction fell to Cneius Domitius; the foreign, to Titus Juvencius; Farther Spain, to Publius Cornelius; Hither Spain, to Sextus Digitius; Sicily, to Cneius Cornelius Blasio; Sardinia, to Cneius Cornelius Merenda. It was resolved, that no new army should be sent into Macedonia, but that the one which was there should be brought home to Italy by Quintius, and disbanded; that the army which was in Spain, under Marcus Porcius Cato, should likewise be disbanded; that Italy should be the province of both the consuls, for the defence of which they should raise two city legions; so that, after the disbanding of the armies, mentioned in the resolution of the senate, the whole military establishment should consist of eight Roman legions.
XLIV. A sacred spring had been celebrated, in the preceding year, during the consulate of Marcus Porcius and Lucius Valerius; but Publius Licinius, one of the pontiffs, having made a report, first, to the college of pontiffs, and afterwards, by their direction, to the senate, that it had not been duly performed, a vote was passed, that it should be celebrated anew, under the direction of the pontiffs; and that the great games, vowed together with it, should be exhibited at the usual expense: that the sacred spring should be deemed to comprehend all the cattle born between the calends of March, and the day preceding the calends of May, in the year of the consulate of Publius Cornelius Scipio and Tiberius Sempronius Longus. Then followed the election of censors. Sextus Ælius Pætus, and Caius Cornelius Cethegus, being created censors, named as prince of the senate, the consul Publius Scipio, whom the former censors likewise had appointed. They passed by only three senators in the whole, none of whom had enjoyed the honour of a curule office. They obtained, on another account, the highest degree of credit with that body; for, at the celebration of the Roman games, they ordered the curule ædiles to set apart places for the senators, distinct from those of the people, whereas, hitherto, all the spectators used to sit promiscuously. Of the knights, also, very few were deprived of their horses; nor was severity shown towards any rank of men. The gallery of the temple of Liberty, and the Villa Publica, were repaired and enlarged by the same censors. The sacred spring, and the votive games, were celebrated, pursuant to the vow of Servius Sulpicius Galba, when consul. While every one’s thoughts were engaged by the shows then exhibited, Quintus Pleminius, who, for the many crimes, against gods and men, committed by him at Locri, had been thrown into prison, procured men who were to set fire, by night, to several parts of the city at once; in order that, during the general consternation, which such a disturbance would occasion, the prison might be broken open. But some of the accomplices discovered the design, and the affair was laid before the senate. Pleminius was thrown into the dungeon, and there put to death.
XLV. In this year, colonies of Roman citizens were settled at Puteoli, Vulturnum, and Liturnum; three hundred men in each place. The lands allotted to them had formerly belonged to the Campanians. Colonies of Roman citizens were likewise established at Salernum and Buxentum. The commissioners for conducting these settlements were, Tiberius Sempronius Longus, then consul, Marcus Servilius, and Quintus Minucius Thermus. Other commissioners, also, Decius Junius Brutus, Marcus Bæbius Tamphilus, and Marcus Helvius, led a colony of Roman citizens to Sipontum, into a district which had belonged to the Arpinians. To Tempsa, likewise, and to Croto, colonies of Roman citizens were led out. The lands of Tempsa had been taken from the Bruttians, who had formerly expelled the Greeks from them. Croto was possessed by Greeks. In ordering these establishments, there were named, for Croto — Cneius Octavius, Lucius Æmilius Paullus, and Caius Pletorius; for Tempsa — Lucius Cornelius Merula, and Caius Salonius. Several prodigies were observed at Rome that year, and others reported, from other places. In the Forum, Comitium, and Capitol, drops of blood were seen, and several showers of earth fell, and the head of Vulcan was surrounded with a blaze of fire. It was reported, that a stream of milk ran in the river at Interamna; that, in some reputable families at Ariminum, children were born without eyes and nose; and one, in the territory of Picenum, that had neither hands nor feet. These prodigies were expiated, according to an order of the pontiffs; and the nine days festival was celebrated, in consequence of a report from Adria, that a shower of stones had fallen in that neighbourhood.
XLVI. In Gaul, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, proconsul, in a pitched battle near Mediolanum, completely overthrew the Insubrian Gauls, and the Boians; who, under the command of Dorulacus, had crossed the Po, to rouse the Insubrians to arms. Ten thousand of the enemy were slain. About this time his colleague, Marcus Porcius Cato, triumphed over Spain. He carried in the procession twenty-five thousand pounds weight of unwrought silver, one hundred and three thousand silver denariuses,* five hundred and forty of Oscan silver,† and one thousand four hundred pounds weight of gold. Out of the booty, he distributed to each of his soldiers two hundred and seventy asses;‡ double that sum to each centurion, and triple to each horseman. Tiberius Sempronius, consul, proceeding to his province, led his legions, first, into the territory of the Boians. At this time Boiorix, their chieftain, with his two brothers, after having drawn out the whole nation into the field to renew the war, pitched his camp on level ground, with an evident intention to fight the enemy, in case they should pass the frontiers. When the consul understood what a numerous force, and what a degree of resolution the enemy had, he sent an express to his colleague, requesting him, “if he thought proper, to hasten to join him;” adding, that “he would act on the defensive, and defer engaging in battle, until his arrival.” The same reason which made the consul wish to decline an action, induced the Gauls, whose spirits were raised by the backwardness of their antagonists, to bring it on as soon as possible, that they might finish the affair before the two consuls should unite their forces. However, during two days, they did nothing more than stand in readiness for battle, if any should come out against them. On the third, they advanced furiously to the rampart, and assaulted the camp on every side at once. The consul, immediately, ordered his men to take arms, and kept them quiet, under arms, for some time; both to add to the foolish confidence of the enemy, and to arrange his troops at the gates, through which each party was to sally out. The two legions were ordered to march by the two principal gates; but, in the very pass of the gates, the Gauls opposed them in such close bodies as to stop up the way. The fight was maintained a long time in these narrow passes; nor were their hands or swords much employed in the business, but pushing with their shields and bodies, they pressed against each other, the Romans struggling to force their way out, the Gauls to break into the camp, or, at least, to hinder the Romans from issuing forth. However, neither party could make the least impression on the other, until Quintus Victorius, a first centurion, and Caius Atinius, a military tribune, the former of the second, the latter of the fourth legion, had recourse to an expedient often tried in desperate cases; snatching the standards from the officers who carried them, and throwing them among the enemy. In the struggle to recover the standards, the men of the second legion, first, made their way out of the gate.
XLVII. These were now fighting on the outside of the rampart, the fourth legion still entangled in the gate, when a new alarm arose on the opposite side of the camp. The Gauls had broke in by the Quæstorian Gate, and had slain the quæstor, Lucius Postumius, surnamed Tympanus, with Marcus Atinius and Publius Sempronius, præfects of the allies, who made an obstinate resistance; and also, near two hundred soldiers. The enemy were masters of that part of the camp, until a cohort of those which are called Extraordinaries, sent by the consul to defend the Quæstorian Gate, killed some who had got within the rampart, drove out the rest, and opposed others who were attempting to break in. About the same time, the fourth legion, and two cohorts of Extraordinaries, burst out of the gate; and thus there were three battles, in different places, round the camp; while the various kinds of shouts raised by them, called off the attention of the combatants from the fight in which they themselves were immediately engaged, to the dangers which threatened their friends. The battle was maintained until mid-day with equal strength, and with nearly equal hopes. At length, the fatigue and heat so far got the better of the soft relaxed bodies of the Gauls, who are incapable of enduring thirst, as to make most of them give up the fight; and the few who stood their ground were attacked by the Romans, routed, and driven to their camp. The consul then gave the signal for retreat, which the greater part obeyed; but some, eager to continue the fight, and hoping to get possession of the camp, pressed forward to the rampart, on which the Gauls, despising their small number, rushed out in a body. The Romans were then routed in turn, and compelled, by their own fear and dismay, to retreat to their camp, which they had refused to do at the command of their general. Thus both parties experienced, in turn, the vicissitudes of flight and victory. The Gauls, however, had eleven thousand killed, the Romans but five thousand. The Gauls retreated into the heart of their country, and the consul led his legions to Placentia. Some writers say, that Scipio, after joining his forces to those of his colleague, overran and plundered the country of the Boians and Ligurians, as far as the woods and marshes suffered him to proceed; others that, without having effected any thing material, he returned to Rome to hold the elections.
XLVIII. Titus Quintius passed the entire winter season of this year at Elatia, where he had established the winterquarters of his army, in adjusting political arrangements, and reversing the measures which had been introduced in the several states under the arbitrary domination of Philip and his deputies, while they crushed the rights and liberties of others, in order to augment the power of those who formed a faction in their favour. Early in the spring he came to Corinth, where he had summoned a general convention. Ambassadors having attended from every one of the states, so as to form a numerous assembly, he addressed them in a long speech, in which, beginning from the first commencement of friendship between the Romans and the nation of the Greeks, he enumerated the proceedings of the commanders who had been in Macedonia before him, and likewise his own. His whole narration was heard with the warmest approbation, until he came to make mention of Nabis; and then they expressed their opinion, that it was utterly inconsistent with the character of the deliverer of Greece, to have left seated, in the centre of one of its most respectable states, a tyrant, who was not only insupportable to his own country, but a terror to all the states in his neighbourhood. Whereupon Quintius, who well knew their sentiments on the occasion, freely acknowledged, that “if the business could have been accomplished without the entire destruction of Lacedæmon, no mention of peace with the tyrant ought ever to have been listened to; but that, as the case stood, when it was not possible to crush him without involving the city in utter ruin, it was judged more eligible to leave Nabis in a state of debility, stripped of almost every kind of power to do injury, than to suffer the city, which must have perished in the very process of its delivery being effectuated, to sink under remedies too violent for it to support.”
XLIX. To the recital of matters past, he subjoined, that “his intention was to depart shortly for Italy, and to carry with him all his troops; that they should hear, within ten days, of the garrisons having evacuated Demetrias; and that Chalcis, the citadel of Corinth, should instantly be delivered up to the Achæans: that all the world might know which deserved better the character of deceivers, the Romans or the Ætolians, who had spread insinuations, that when the cause of liberty was intrusted to the Romans it was put into dangerous hands, and that they had only changed masters, being subjugated now to the Romans, as formerly to the Macedonians. But they were men who never scrupled what they either said or did. The rest of the nations, he advised, to form their estimate of friends from deeds, not from words; and to satisfy themselves whom they ought to trust, and against whom they ought to be on their guard; to use liberty with moderation: for, when regulated by prudence, it was productive of happiness both to individuals and to states; but, when pushed to excess, it became not only obnoxious to others, but precipitated the possessors of it themselves into dangerous rashness and extravagance. He recommended, that those at the head of affairs, and all the several ranks of men in each particular state, should cultivate harmony between themselves; and that all should direct their views to the general interest of the whole. For, while they acted in concert, no king or tyrant would ever be able to overpower them: but discord and dissension gave every advantage to the arts of an adversary; as the party worsted in a domestic dispute, generally chose to unite with foreigners, rather than submit to a countryman of their own. He then exhorted them, as the arms of others had procured their liberty, and the good faith of foreigners had returned it safe into their hands, to apply now their own diligent care to the watching and guarding of it; that the Roman people might perceive, that those on whom they had bestowed liberty were deserving of it, and that their kindness was not ill placed.”
L. On hearing these admonitions, such as parental tenderness might dictate, every one present shed tears of joy; and so great were their transports, that they affected his feelings to such a degree as to interrupt his discourse. For some time a confused noise prevailed, all together expressing their approbation, and charging each other to treasure up those expressions in their minds and hearts, as if they had been uttered by an oracle. Then silence ensuing, he requested of them to make diligent search for such Roman citizens as were in servitude among them, and to send them into Thessaly to him, within two months; observing, that “it would not redound to their honour, if, in a land restored to liberty, its deliverers should remain in servitude.” This was answered with a shout of applause; and they acknowledged, as an obligation added to the rest, his reminding them of the discharge of a duty so indispensably incumbent on their gratitude. There was a vast number of these who had been made prisoners in the Punic war, and sold by Hannibal when their countrymen refused to ransom them. That they were very numerous, is proved by what Polybius says, that this business cost the Achæans one hundred talents*, though they had fixed the price to be paid for each captive, to the owner, so low as five hundred denariuses† . For, at that rate, there were one thousand two hundred in Achaia. Calculate now, in proportion to this, how many were probably in all Greece.
LI. Before the convention broke up, they saw the garrison march down from the citadel of Corinth, proceed forward to the gate, and depart. The general followed them, accompanied by the whole assembly, who, with loud acclamations, blessed him as their preserver and deliverer. At length taking leave of these, and dismissing them he returned to Elatia by the same road through which he came. He thence sent Appius Claudius, lieutenant-general, with all the troops, ordering him to march through Thessaly and Epirus, and to wait for him at Oricum, where he intended to embark the army for Italy. He also wrote to his brother, Lucius Quintius, lieutenant-general, and commander of the fleet, to collect thither transport ships from all the coasts of Greece. He himself proceeded to Chalcis; and, after sending away the garrisons, not only from that city, but likewise from Oreum and Eretria, he held there a congress of the Eubœan states, whom he reminded of the condition in which he had found their affairs, and of that in which he was leaving them; and then dismissed the assembly. He then proceeded to Demetrias, and removed the garrison. Accompanied by all the citizens, as at Corinth and Chalcis, he pursued his route into Thessaly, where the states were not only to be set at liberty, but also to be reduced, from a state of utter anarchy and confusion, into some tolerable form: for they had been thrown into disorder, not only through the faults of the times, and the arbitrary acts of the king and his adherents, but also through the restless disposition of the nation, who, from the earliest times, even to our days, have never conducted any election, or assembly, or council, without dissensions and tumult. He chose both senators and judges, with regard, principally, to their property, and vested the chief share of power in that part of the state which was more particularly interested in its safety and tranquillity.
LII. When he had completed these regulations in Thessaly, he went on, through Epirus, to Oricum, whence he intended to take his passage; all the troops being transported thence to Brundusium. From this place to the city, they passed the whole length of Italy, in a manner, like a triumph; the captured effects, which they brought with them, forming a train as large as that of the troops themselves. When they arrived at Rome, the senate assembled outside the city, to receive from Quintius a recital of his services; and, with high satisfaction, voted him a triumph, which he had so justly merited. His triumph lasted three days. On the first day were carried in procession, armour, weapons, brazen and marble statues, of which he had taken greater numbers from Philip, than from the states of Greece. On the second, gold and silver wrought, unwrought, and coined. Of unwrought silver, there were eighteen thousand pounds weight; and, of wrought, two hundred and seventy thousand; consisting of many vessels of various sorts, most of them engraved, and several of exquisite workmanship; also a great many others made of brass, and, besides these, ten shields of silver. The coined silver amounted to eighty-four thousand of the Attic coin, called Tetradrachmus, containing each, of silver, about the weight of four denariuses* . Of gold there were three thousand seven hundred and fourteen pounds, and one shield of massy gold; and of the gold coin, called Philippics, fourteen thousand five hundred and fourteen† . On the third day were carried golden crowns, presented by the several states, in number one hundred and fourteen; then the victims. Before his chariot went many illustrious captives, with the hostages, among whom were Demetrius, son of King Philip, and Armenes, a Lacedæmonian, son of the tyrant Nabis. Then Quintius himself rode into the city, followed by a numerous body of soldiers, as the whole army had been brought home from the province. Among these he distributed two hundred and fifty asses‡ to each footman, double to a centurion, triple to a horseman. Those who had been redeemed from captivity, added to the grandeur of the procession, walking after him with their heads shaven.
LIII. In the latter part of this year, Quintus Ælius Tubero, plebeian tribune, in pursuance of a decree of senate, proposed to the people, and the people ordered, that “two Latine colonies should be settled, one in Bruttium, the other in the territory of Thurium.” For making these settlements, commissioners were appointed, who were to hold the office for three years: for Bruttium, Quintus Nævius, Marcus Minucius Rufus, and Marcus Furius Crassipes; and for the district of Thurium, Cneius Manlius, Quintus Ælius, and Lucius Apustius. The assemblies of election to these two appointments were held in the Capitol by Cneius Domitius, city prætor. Several temples were dedicated this year: one of Juno Sospita, in the herb-market, vowed and contracted for four years before, in the time of the Gallic war, by Cneius Cornelius, consul; and the same person, now censor, performed the dedication. Another of Faunus, the building of which had been agreed for two years before, and a fund formed for it, out of fines estreated by the ædiles, Caius Scribonius and Cneius Domitius; the latter of whom, now city prætor, dedicated it. Quintus Marcius Ralla, constituted commissioner for the purpose, dedicated the temple of Fortuna Primigenia, on the Quirinal Hill. Publius Sempronius Sophus had vowed this temple ten years before, in the Punic war; and, being afterwards censor, had employed persons to build it. Caius Servilius, duumvir, also dedicated a temple of Jupiter, in the island. This had been vowed in the Gallic war, six years before, by Lucius Furius Purpureo, who afterwards, when consul, contracted for the building. Such were the transactions of that year.
LIV. Publius Scipio came home from his province of Gaul to choose new consuls; and the people, in assembly, elected Lucius Cornelius Merula, and Quintus Minucius Thermus. Next day, were chosen prætors, Lucius Cornelius Scipio, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, Cains Scribonius, Marcus Valerius Messala, Lucius Porcius Licinus, and Caius Flaminius. The curule ædiles of this year, Caius Atilius Serranus and Lucius Scribonius, first exhibited the Megalesian games, in which were introduced performances on the stage. At the Roman games, celebrated by these ædiles, the senators, for the first time, sat separate from the people, which, as every innovation usually does, gave occasion to various observations. Some considered this as “an honour, shown at length to that most respectable body, and which ought to have been done long before;” while others contended, that “every addition, made to the grandeur of the senate, was a diminution of the dignity of the people; and that all such distinctions, as tended to set the orders of the state at a distance from each other, were equally subversive of liberty and concord. During five hundred and fifty-eight years,” they asserted, “all the spectators had sat promiscuously: what reason then, had now occurred, on a sudden that should make the senators disdain to have the commons intermixed with them, or make the rich scorn to sit in company with the poor? It was an unprecedented gratification of pride, and overbearing vanity, never even desired, or certainly not assumed, by the senate of any other nation.” It is said, that even Africanus himself, at last, became sorry for having proposed that matter in his consulship: so difficult is it to bring people to approve of any alteration of ancient customs; they are always naturally disposed to adhere to old practices, unless experience evidently proves their inexpediency.
LV. In the beginning of the year, which was the consulate of Lucius Cornelius and Quintus Minucius, such frequent reports of earthquakes were brought, that people grew weary, not only of the matter itself, but of the religious rites enjoined in consequence; for neither could the senate be convened, nor the business of the public be transacted, the consuls were so constantly employed in sacrifices and expiations. At last, the decemvirs were ordered to consult the books, and, in pursuance of their answer, a supplication was performed, during three days. People offered prayers at all the shrines, with garlands on their heads. An order was published, that all the persons belonging to one family should pay their worship together; and the consuls, by direction of the senate, published an edict, that, on any day, whereon religious rites should be ordered, in consequence of the report of an earthquake, no person should report another earthquake on that day. Then the consuls first, afterwards the prætors, cast lots for their provinces. Cornelius obtained Gaul; Minucius, Liguria; Caius Scribonius, the city jurisdiction; Marcus Valerius, the foreign; Lucius Cornelius, Sicily; Lucius Porcius, Sardinia; Caius Flaminius, Hither Spain; and Marcus Fulvius, Farther Spain.
LVI. While the consuls supposed, that, for that year, they should have no employment in the military line, a letter was brought from Marcus Cincius, who was commander at Pisæ, announcing, that twenty thousand armed Ligurians, in consequence of a conspiracy of that whole nation, formed in the meetings of their several districts, had, first, wasted the lands of Luna, and then passing through the territory of Pisæ, had overrun the whole sea coast.” In consequence of this intelligence, the consul, Minucius, whose province Liguria was, by direction of the senate, mounted the rostrum, and published orders, that, “the two legions, enlisted the year before, should, on the tenth day from that, attend him at Arretium; and mentioned his intention of levying two legions, for the city, in their stead.Y.R. 559. 193. He likewise gave notice to the magistrates and ambassadors of such of the allies*, and of the Latine confederates, as were bound to furnish soldiers, to attend him in the Capitol. Or these the wrote out a list, amounting to fifteen thousand foot, and five hundred horse, proportioning the contingent of each state to the number of its young men, and ordered those present to go directly from the spot to the gate of the city; and, in order to expedite the business, to proceed to their homes to raise the men. To Fulvius and Flaminius were assigned equal numbers of men, to each three thousand Roman foot, and a reinforcement of one hundred horse, with five thousand foot of the Latine allies, and two hundred horse; and orders were given to those prætors, to disband the old troops immediately on their arrival in their provinces. Although great numbers of the soldiers belonging to the city legions had made application to the plebeian tribunes, to take cognizance of the cases of such men as claimed exemption from the service, on account either of having served out their time, or of bad health; yet a letter from Tiberius Sempronius banished all thoughts of such proceeding; for he sent an account, that “fifteen thousand of the Ligurians had come into the lands of Placentia, and wasted them with fire and sword, to the very walls of that city and the bank of the Po; and that the Boian nation also appeared disposed to renew hostilities.” In consequence of this information, the senate passed a vote, that “there was a Gallic tumult subsisting,” and that “it would be improper for the plebeian tribunes to take cognizance of the claims of the soldiers, so as to prevent their attending, pursuant to the proclamation; and they added an order, that the Latine confederates, who had served in the army of Publius Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius, and had been discharged by those consuls, should reassemble, on whatever day and in whatever place of Etruria the consul Lucius Cornelius should appoint; and that the consul Lucius Cornelius, on his way to his province, should enlist, arm, and carry with him all such persons as he should think fit, in the several towns and countries through which he was to pass, and should have authority to discharge such of them, and at such times, as he might judge proper.
LVII. After the consuls had finished the levies, and were gone to their provinces, Titus Quintius demanded, that “the senate should receive an account of the regulations which he in concert with the ten ambassadors, had settled; and, if they thought proper, ratify them by their authority.” He told them, that “it would facilitate this business, if they were first to give audience to the ambassadors, who had come from all parts of Greece, and a great part of Asia, and to those from the two Kings.” These embassies were introduced to the senate, by the city prætor Caius Scribonius, and all received kind answers. As the discussion of the affair with Antiochus required too much time, it was referred to the ten ambassadors, some of whom had conferred with the King in Asia, or at Lysimachia. Directions were given to Titus Quintius, that, in conjunction with these, he should hear what the King’s ambassadors had to say, and should give them such answer as comported with the dignity and interest of the Roman people. At the head of the embassy were Menippus and Hegesianax; the former of whom said, that “he could not conceive what intricacy there was in the business of their embassy, as they came simply to ask friendship, and conclude an alliance. Now, there were three kinds of treaties, by which kings and states formed friendships with each other: one, when terms were dictated to a people vanquished in war; for after every thing has been surrendered to him who has proved superior in war, he has the sole power of judging and determining what share shall remain to the vanquished, and what they shall forfeit. The second, when parties, equally matched in war, conclude a treaty of peace and friendship on terms of equality; for then demands are proposed and restitution made, reciprocally, in a convention; and if, in consequence of the war, confusion has arisen with respect to any parts of their properties, the matter is adjusted on the footing either of ancient right or of the mutual convenience of the parties. The third kind was, when parties who had never been foes, met to form a friendly union by a social treaty: these neither dictate nor receive terms, for that is the case between a victor and a party vanquished. As Antiochus came under this last description, he wondered, he said, at the Romans taking upon them to dictate terms to him; and to prescribe, which of the cities of Asia they chose should be free and independent, which tributary, and which of them the King’s troops and the King himself should be prohibited to enter. This might be a proper method of concluding a peace with Philip, who was their enemy, but not of making a treaty of alliance with Antiochus, their friend.”
LVIII. To this Quintius answered: “Since you choose to deal methodically, and enumerate the several modes of contracting amity, I also will lay down two conditions, without which, you may tell your King, that he must not expect to contract any friendship with the Romans. One, that, if he does not choose that we should concern ourselves in the affairs of the cities of Asia, he must refrain from interfering, in any particular, with the affairs of Europe. The other, that if he does not confine himself within the limits of Asia, but passes over into Europe, the Romans will think themselves at full liberty to maintain the friendships which they have already formed with the states of Asia, and also to contract new ones.” On this Hegesianax exclaimed, that “such propositions were highly improper to be listened to, as their tendency was to exclude Antiochus from the cities of Thrace and the Chersonese — places which his great-grandfather, Seleucus, had acquired with great honour, after vanquishing Lysimachus in war, and killing him in battle, and had left to his successors; and part of which, after they had been seized by the Thracians, Antiochus had, with equal honour, recovered by force of arms; as well as others which had been deserted — as Lysimachia, for instance, he had repeopled, by calling home the inhabitants; — and several, which had been destroyed by fire, and buried in ruins, he had rebuilt at a vast expense. What kind of resemblance was there, then, in the cases of Antiochus being ejected from possessions so acquired, so recovered; and of the Romans refraining from intermeddling with Asia, to which they never had any claim? Antiochus wished to obtain the friendship of the Romans; but he wished it on terms that would redound to his honour, not to his shame.” In reply to this, Quintius said — “Since honour is the point on which our disquisitions turn, and which, indeed, with a people who held the first rank among the nations of the world, and with so great a King, ought to be the sole, or at least the primary object of regard; tell me, I pray you, which do you think more honourable, to wish to give liberty to all the Grecian cities in every part of the world; or to make them slaves and vassals? Since Antiochus thinks it conducive to his glory, to reduce to slavery those cities, which his great-grandfather held by the right of arms, but which his grandfather or father never occupied as their property; while the Roman people, having undertaken the patronage of the liberty of the Greeks, deem it incumbent on their faith and constancy not to abandon it. As they have delivered Greece from Philip, so they intend to deliver, from Antiochus, all the states of Asia which are of the Grecian race. For colonies were not sent into Æolia and Ionia to be enslaved to kings; but with design to increase the population, and to propagate that ancient race in every part of the globe.”
LIX. Hegesianax hesitating, as he could not deny, that the cause, which professed the bestowing of liberty, carried a more honourable semblance than one that pointed to slavery, Publius Sulpicius, who was the eldest of the ten ambassadors, said — “Let us cut the matter short. Choose one of the two conditions clearly propounded just now by Quintius; or cease to speak of friendship.” But Menippus replied: “We neither will, nor can, accede to any proposition, which tends to lessen the dominions of Antiochus.” Next day, Quintius brought into the senate-house all the ambassadors of Greece and Asia, in order that they might learn the dispositions entertained by the Roman people, and by Antiochus, towards the Grecian states. He then acquainted them with his own demands, and those of the King; and desired them to “assure their respective states, that the same disinterested zeal and courage, which the Roman people had displayed in defence of their liberty against the encroachments of Philip, they would, likewise, exert against those of Antiochus, if he should refuse to retire out of Europe.” On this, Menippus earnestly besought Quintius and the senate, “not to be hasty in forming their determination, which, in its effects, might disturb the peace of the whole world; to take time to themselves, and allow the King time for consideration; that, when informed of the conditions proposed, he would consider them, and either obtain some relaxation in the terms, or accede to them.” Accordingly, the business was deferred entire; and a resolution passed, that the same ambassadors should be sent to the King, who had attended him at Lysimachia — Publius Sulpicius, Publius Villius, and Publius Ælius.
LX. Scarcely had these begun their journey, when ambassadors from Carthage brought information, that Antiochus was evidently preparing for war, and that Hannibal was employed in his service; which gave reason to fear, that the Carthaginians might take arms at the same time. Hannibal, on leaving his own country, had gone to Antiochus, as was mentioned before, and was held by the King in high estimation, not so much for his other qualification, as because, to a person who had long been revolving schemes for a war with Rome, there could not be any fitter counsellor to confer with on such a subject. His opinion was always one and the same: that Italy should be made the seat of the war; because “Italy would supply a foreign enemy both with men and provisions; but, if it were left in quiet, and the Roman people were allowed to employ the strength and forces of Italy, in making war in any other country, no king or nation would be able to cope with them.” He demanded, for himself, one hundred decked ships, ten thousand foot, and one thousand horse. “With this force,” he said, “he would first repair to Africa; and he had confident hopes, that he should be able to prevail on the Carthaginians to revive hostilities. If they should hesitate, he would raise a war against the Romans in some part of Italy. That the King ought to cross over into Europe with all the rest of his force, and keep his army in some part of Greece; not to pass over immediately into Italy, but to be in readiness to do so; which would be sufficient to give the war a formidable appearance, and impress a terrifying notion of its magnitude.”
LXI. When he had brought the King to agree in his opinion, he judged it necessary to predispose the minds of his countrymen in favour of the design; but he durst not send a letter, lest it might, by some accident, be intercepted, and his plans by that means be discovered. He had found at Ephesus a Tyrian called Aristo, and, in several less important commissions, had discovered him to possess a good degree of ingenuity. This man he now loaded with presents and promises of rewards, which were confirmed by the King himself, and sent him to Carthage with messages to his friends. He told him the names of the persons to whom they were to be delivered, and furnished him with secret tokens, by which they would know, with certainty, that the messages came from him. On this Aristo’s appearing at Carthage, the reason of his coming was not discovered by Hannibal’s friends sooner than by his enemies. At first, they spoke of the matter publicly, in their circles and at their tables; and at last some persons declared in the senate, that “the banishment of Hannibal answered no purpose, if, while resident in another country, he was still able to propagate designs for changing the administration, and disturb the quiet of the state by his intrigues. That a Tyrian stranger, named Aristo, had come with a commission from Hannibal and King Antiochus; that certain men daily held secret conferences with him, and caballed in private, the consequences of which would soon break out, to the ruin of the public.” This produced a general outcry, “that Aristo ought to be summoned, and examined respecting the reason of his coming; and if he did not disclose it, to be sent to Rome, with ambassadors accompanying him; that they had already suffered enough of punishment in atonement of the headstrong rashness of one individual; that the faults of private citizens should be at their own risk, and the state should be preserved free, not only from guilt, but even from the suspicion of it.” Aristo, being summoned, contended for his innocence; and urged, as his strongest defence, that he had brought no letter to any person whatever: but he gave no satisfactory reason for his coming, and was chiefly embarrassed to obviate the charge of conversing solely with men of the Barcine faction. A warm debate ensued; some earnestly pressing, that he should be immediately seized as a spy, and kept in custody; while others insisted, that there were not sufficient grounds for such violent measures; that “putting strangers into confinement, without reason, was a step that afforded a bad precedent; for doubtless the same treatment would be retaliated on the Carthaginians at Tyre, and other marts, where they frequently traded.” They came to no determination that day. Aristo practised on the Carthaginians an artifice suited to their own genius; for, having early in the evening hung up a written tablet, in the most frequented place of the city, over the tribunal where the magistrates daily sat, he went on board his ship at the third watch, and fled. Next day, when the suffetes had taken their seats to administer justice, the tablet was observed, taken down, and read. Its contents were, that “Aristo came not with a private commission to any person, but with a public one to the elders;” by this name they called the senate. The imputation being thus thrown on the state, less pains were taken in searching into the suspicions harboured of a few individuals: however, it was determined, that ambassadors should be sent to Rome, to represent the affair to the consuls and the senate, and, at the same time, to complain of injuries received from Masinissa.
LXII. When Masinissa observed, that the Carthaginians were looked on with jealousy by others, and were full of dissensions among themselves; the nobles being suspected by the senate, on account of their conferences with Aristo, and the senate by the people, in consequence of the information given by the same Aristo, he thought that, at such a conjuncture, he might successfully encroach on their rights; and accordingly he laid waste their country, along the seacoast, and compelled several cities, which were tributary to the Carthaginians, to pay their taxes to him. This tract they call Emporia; it forms the shore of the lesser Syrtis, and has a fertile soil; one of its cities is Leptis, which paid a tribute to the Carthaginians of a talent a day. At this time, Masinissa not only ravaged that whole tract, but, with respect to a considerable part of it, disputed the right of possession with the Carthaginians; and when he learned that they were sending to Rome, both to justify their conduct, and, at the same time, to make complaints of him, he likewise sent ambassadors to Rome, to aggravate the suspicions entertained of them, and to manage the dispute about the right to the taxes. The Carthaginians were heard first, and their account of the Tyrian stranger gave the senate no small uneasiness, as they dreaded being involved in war with Antiochus and the Carthaginians at the same time. What contributed chiefly to strengthen a suspicion of evil designs, was, that though they had resolved to seize Aristo, and send him to Rome, they had not placed a guard either on himself, or his ship. Then began the controversy with the King’s ambassadors, on the claims of the territory in dispute. The Carthaginians supported their cause, by insisting, that “it must belong to them, as being within the limits which Scipio, after conquering the country, had fixed as the boundaries of the Carthaginian territory; and also, by the acknowledgment of the King, who when he was going in pursuit of Aphir, a fugitive from his kingdom, then hovering about Cyrene, with a party of Numidians, had solicited as a favour, a passage through that very district, as being confessedly a part of the Carthaginian dominions.” The Numidians insisted, “that they were guilty of misrepresentation, with respect to the limits fixed by Scipio; and if a person chose to recur to the real origin of their property, what title had the Carthaginians to call any land in Africa their own: foreigners and strangers, to whom had been granted as a gift, for the purpose of building a city, as much ground as they could encompass with the cuttings of a bull’s hide? Whatever acquisitions they had made beyond Byrsa, their original settlement, they held by fraud and violence: for, in relation to the land in question, so far were they from being able to prove uninterrupted possession, from the time when it was first acquired, that they cannot even prove that they ever possessed it for any considerable time. As occasions offered, sometimes they, sometimes the kings of Numidia, had held the dominion of it; and the possession of it always fell to the party which had the stronger army. They requested the senate to suffer the matter to remain on the same footing, on which it stood, before the Carthaginians became enemies to the Romans, or the King of Numidia their friend and ally; and to interfere, so as to hinder whichever party was able, from keeping possession.” The senate resolved to tell the ambassadors of both parties, that they would send persons into Africa to determine, on the spot, the controversy between the people of Carthage and the King. They accordingly sent Publius Scipio Africanus, Caius Cornelius Cethegus, and Marcus Minucius Rufus; who, after viewing the ground, and hearing what could be said on both sides, left every thing as they found it, without giving any opinion. Whether they acted in this manner from their own judgment, or in pursuance of directions received at home, is, by no means certain; but, thus much is most certain, that, as affairs were circumstanced, it was highly expedient to leave the dispute undecided: for, had the case been otherwise, Scipio alone, either from his own knowledge of the business, or the influence which he possessed, and to which he had a just claim, on both parties, could, with a nod, have ended the controversy.
* Previous to the passing of the Cincian law, about ten years before this time, the advocates who pleaded in the courts received fees and presents; and as all or most of these were senators, the plebeians are here represented as tributary to the senate. By the above law they were forbidden to receive either fees or presents.
* Alluding to a treatise by Cato, upon the antiquities of Italy, entitled “Origenes,” which is the word used here by Valerius.
* 549l. 14s.
† Osca, now Huesca, was a city in Spain, remarkable for silver mines near it.
‡ 659l. 11s. 9½d.
* 2,430l. 11s. 3d.
† 8,889l. 6s. 9d.
* These were the Helotes, kept in a state of slavery.
* 3,971l. 17s. 6d.
† 17l. 8s. 9d.
‡ 17s. 5½d.
* 19,375l.
† 16l. 2s. 11d.
* 10,849l. 18s.
† 936l. 10s.
‡ 16s. 1¼d.
* It was not customary to levy recruits from all the states of the allies at once, but from a certain number of them at a time: so that they all furnished supplies in their turn, except when a pressing exigency demanded an extraordinary force.
Publius Scipio Africanus sent ambassador to Antiochus; has a conversation with Hannibal at Ephesus. Preparations of the Romans for war with Antiochus. Nabis, the tyrant of Lacedæmon, instigated by the Ætolians, makes war on the Achæans; is put to death by a party of the Ætolians. The Ætolians, violating the treaty of friendship with the Romans, invite Antiochus, who comes, with a small force, into Greece, and, in conjunction with them, takes several towns, and the whole island of Èubœa. The Achæans declare war against Antiochus and the Ætolians.
Y. R. 559
193.I.In the beginning of the same year, Sextus Digitius, prætor in the
hither Spain, fought with those states, which, after the departure of Marcus Cato, had recommenced hostilities, a great
number of battles, but none deserving of particular mention; and all so unfavourable to him, that he scarcely delivered
to his successor half the number of men that he had received. In consequence of this, every state in Spain would
certainly have resumed new courage, and have taken up arms, had not the other prætor, Publius Cornelius Scipio, son of
Cneius, been successful in several engagements on the other side of the Iberus; and, by these means, diffused such a
general terror, that no less than fifty towns came over to his side. These exploits Scipio performed in his prætorship.
Afterwards, when proprætor, as the Lusitanians, after ravaging the farther province, were returning home, with an
immense booty, he attacked them on their march, and continued the engagement from the third hour of the day to the
eighth, before any advantage was gained on either side. He was inferior to the enemy in number of men, but he had the
advantage of them in other respects: with his troops formed in a compact body, he attacked a long train, encumbered
with multitudes of cattle; and with his soldiers fresh, engaged men fatigued by a long march; for the enemy had set out
at the third watch, and, besides travelling the remainder of the night, had continued their route to the third hour of
the day, nor had they been allowed any rest, as the battle immediately succeeded the march. Wherefore, though at the
beginning they retained some vigour of body and mind, and, at first, threw the Romans into disorder, yet, after some
time, the fight became equal. In this critical situation the proprætor made a vow to celebrate games in honour of
Jupiter, in case he should defeat and cut off the enemy. The Romans then made a more vigorous push, which the
Lusitanians could not withstand, but, in a little time turned their backs. The victors pursued them briskly, killed no
less than twelve thousand of them, and took five hundred and forty prisoners, most of whom were horsemen. There were
taken, besides, an hundred and thirty-four military standards. Of the Roman army, but seventy-three men were lost. The
battle was fought at a small distance from the city of Ilipa. Thither Publius Cornelius led back his victorious army,
amply enriched with spoil; all which was exposed to view under the walls of the town, and permission given to the
owners to claim their effects. The remainder was put into the hands of the quæstor to be sold, and the money produced
by the sale was distributed among the soldiers.
II. At the time when these occurrences happened in Spain, Caius Flaminius, the prætor, had not yet set out from Rome: therefore, he and his friends took pains to represent, in the strongest colours, both the successes and the misfortunes experienced there; and he laboured to persuade the senate, that, as a very formidable war had blazed out in his province, and he was likely to receive from Sextus Digitius a very small remnant of an army, and that, too, terrified and disheartened, they ought to decree one of the city legions to him, in order that, when he should have united to it the soldiers levied by himself, pursuant to decree, he might select from the whole number three thousand five hundred foot, and three hundred horse. He said, that “with such a legion as that (for very little confidence could be placed on the troops of Sextus Digitius), he should be able to manage the war.” But the elder part of the senate insisted, that “decrees of the senate ought not to be passed on every groundless rumour, fabricated by private persons for the purpose of humouring magistrates; and that no intelligence should be deemed authentic, except it were either written by the prætors, from their provinces, or brought by their deputies. If there was a tumultuous commotion in Spain, they advised a vote, that tumultuary soldiers should be levied by the prætor in some other country than Italy.” The senate’s intention was, that such description of men should be raised in Spain. Valerius Antias says, that Caius Flaminius sailed to Sicily for the purpose of levying troops, and that, on his voyage thence to Spain, being driven by a storm to Africa, he enlisted there many stragglers who had belonged to the army of Publius Africanus; and that, to the levies made in those two provinces, he added a third in Spain.
III. In Italy the war, commenced by the Ligurians, grew daily more formidable. They now invested Pisæ, with an army of forty thousand men; for multitudes flocked to them continually, led by the favourable reports of their proceedings, and the expectation of booty. The consul, Minucius, came to Aretium, on the day which he had fixed for the assembling of the troops. Thence he led them, in order of battle, towards Pisæ; and though the enemy had removed their camp to the other side of the river at the distance of no more than three miles from the place, the consul marched into the city, which evidently owed its preservation to his coming. Next day, he also encamped on the opposite shore, about a mile from the enemy; and by sending out parties from that post, to attack those of the enemy, protected the lands of the allies from their depredations. He did not think it prudent to hazard a general engagement, because his troops were raw, composed of many different kinds of men, and not yet sufficiently acquainted with each other, to act together with confidence. The Ligurians depended so much on their numbers, that they not only came out and offered battle, willing to risk every thing on the issue of it; while from their superfluity of men, they sent out many parties along the frontiers, to plunder; and whenever a large quantity of cattle, and other prey was collected, there was an escort, always in readiness, to convey it into their forts and towns.
IV. While the operations remained at a stand, at Pisæ, the other consul, Lucius Cornelius Merula, led his army through the extreme borders of the Ligurians, into the territory of the Boians, where the mode of proceeding was quite the reverse of that which took place in the war of Liguria. The consul offered battle, the enemy refused to fight; and the Romans, when they could not urge them to it, went out in parties to plunder, while the Boians chose to let their country be utterly wasted with fire and sword, without opposition, rather than venture an engagement in defence of it. When the ravage was completed, the consul quitted the enemy’s lands, and marched towards Mutina, in a careless manner, as through a tract where no hostility was to be apprehended. The Boians, when they learned that the Roman had withdrawn beyond their frontiers, followed him as secretly as possible, watching an opportunity for an ambuscade; and having gone by his camp in the night, took possession of a defile through which the Romans were to pass. But they were not able to effect this without being discovered; and the consul, who usually began his march late in the night, now waited until day, lest, in the disorderly fight likely to ensue, darkness might increase the confusion; and, though he did not stir before it was light, yet he sent forward a troop of horse to explore the country. On receiving intelligence from them of the number and situation of the enemy, he ordered the baggage to be heaped together in the centre, and the veterans to throw up a rampart round it; and then, with the rest of the army in order of battle, he advanced towards the enemy. The Gauls did the same, when they found that their stratagem was detected, and that they were to engage in a fair and regular battle, where success must depend on valour alone.
V. The battle began about the second hour. The left brigade of the allies, and the extraordinaries, formed the first line, and were commanded by two lieutenants-general, of consular dignity, Marcus Marcellus, and Tiberius Sempronius, who had been consul the year before. The present consul was sometimes employed in the front of the line, sometimes in keeping back the legions in reserve, that they might not, through eagerness for fighting, come up to the attack, until they received the signal. He ordered the two Minuciuses, Quintus and Publius, military tribunes, to lead off the cavalry of the legions into open ground, at some distance from the line; and “when he should give them the signal, to charge the enemy through the clear space.” While he was thus employed, a message came from Tiberius Sempronius Longus, that the extraordinaries could not support the onset of the Gauls; that great numbers had already fallen; and that partly through weariness, partly through fear, the ardour of the survivors was much abated. He recommended it, therefore, to the consul, if he thought proper, to send up one or other of the two legions, before the army suffered disgrace. The second legion was accordingly sent, and the extraordinaries were ordered to retire. By the legion coming up, with its men fresh, and the ranks complete in their numbers, the fight was renewed with vigour. The left wing was withdrawn out of the action, and the right took its place, in the van. The intense heat of the sun discomposed the Gauls, whose bodies were very ill qualified to endure it: nevertheless, keeping their ranks close, and leaning sometimes on each other, sometimes on their bucklers, they withstood the attack of the Romans; which, when the consul observed, in order to break their ranks, he ordered Caius Livius Salinator, commander of the allied cavalry, to charge them at full speed, and the legionary cavalry to remain in reserve. This shock of the cavalry first confused and disordered, and at length entirely broke the line of the Gauls; yet it did not make them fly. That was prevented by their officers, who, when they quitted their posts, struck them on the back with their spears, and compelled them to return to their ranks: but the allied cavalry, riding in among them, did not suffer them to recover their order. The consul exhorted his soldiers to “continue their efforts a little longer for victory was within their reach; to press the enemy, while they saw them disordered and dismayed; for, if they were suffered to recover their ranks, they would enter on a fresh battle, the success of which must be uncertain.” He ordered the standard-bearers to advance with the standards, and then, all exerting themselves at once, they at length forced the enemy to give way. As soon as they turned their backs, and fled precipitately on every side, the legionary cavalry was sent in pursuit of them. On that day, fourteen thousand of the Boians were slain; one thousand and ninety-two taken; as were seven hundred and twenty-one horsemen, and three of their commanders, with two hundred and twelve military standards, and sixty-three chariots. Nor did the Romans gain the victory without loss of blood: of themselves, or their allies, were lost above five thousand men, twenty-three centurions, four præfects of the allies, and two military tribunes of the second legion, Marcus Genucius and Marcus Marcius.
VI. Letters from both the consuls arrived at Rome, nearly at the same time. That of Lucius Cornelius gave an account of the battle fought with the Boians, at Mutina; that of Quintus Minucius, from Pisæ, mentioned, that “the holding of the elections had fallen to his lot, but that affairs in Liguria were in such a critical posture, that he could not leave that country without bringing ruin on the allies, and material injury on the commonwealth. He therefore advised, that if the senate thought proper, they should direct his colleague, (as in his province the fate of the war was determined,) to repair to Rome to hold the elections. He said, if Cornelius should object to this, because that employment had not fallen to his lot, he would certainly do whatever the senate should order; but he begged them to consider carefully, whether it would not be less injurious to the public, that an interregnum should take place, than that the province should be left by him in such a state.” The senate gave directions to Caius Scribonius to send two deputies, of senatorian rank, to the consul, Lucius Cornelius, to communicate to him the letter, sent by his colleague to the senate, and to acquaint him, that if he did not come to Rome to elect new magistrates, the senate were resolved, rather than Quintius Minucius should be called away from a war, in which no progress had been made, to suffer an interregnum to take place. The deputies sent, brought back his answer, that he would come to Rome, to elect new magistrates. The letter of Lucius Cornelius, which contained an account of the battle with the Boians, occasioned a debate in the senate; for Marcus Claudius, lieutenant-general, in private letters to many of the members, had written, “that they might thank the fortune of the Roman people, and the bravery of the soldiers, for the success of their arms. That the conduct of the consul had been the cause of a great many men being lost, and of the enemy’s army, which might have been entirely cut off, making its escape. That what made the loss of men the greater, was, the reinforcements, necessary to support them when distressed, coming up too late from the reserve; and that, what enabled the enemy to slip out of their hands, was, the signal being given too tardily to the legionary cavalry, and their not being allowed to pursue the fugitives.” It was agreed, that no resolution should be hastily passed on the subject; and the business was accordingly adjourned until there should be a fuller meeting.
VII. Another concern demanded their attention. The public was heavily distressed by usurious practices; and although avarice had been restricted by many laws, respecting usury, yet these had been evaded by a fraudulent artifice, of transferring the securities to subjects of some of the allied states, who were not bound by those laws, by which means usurers, freed from all restraint, overwhelmed their debtors under accumulated loads. On considering of the best method for putting a stop to this evil, the senate decreed, that a certain day should be fixed on for it: the next approaching festival of the infernal deities; and that any of the allies who should, from that day, lend money to the Roman citizens, should register the transaction; and that all proceedings respecting such money, lent after that day, should be regulated by the laws of whichever of the two states the debtor should choose. In some time after, when the great amount of debt, contracted through this kind of fraud, was discovered, by means of the registries, Marcus Sempronius, plebeian tribune, by direction of the senate, proposed to the people, and the people ordered, that all proceedings relative to money lent, between Roman citizens and subjects of any of the allied states, or Latine confederacy, should be regulated by the same laws as those wherein both parties were Roman citizens. Such were the transactions in Italy, civil and military. In Spain, the war was far from being so formidable, as the exaggerations of report had represented it. In hither Spain, Caius Flaminius took the town of Ilucia, in the country of the Oretanians, and then marched his army into winter-quarters. Several engagements took place during the winter, but none deserving of particular mention, the adversaries being rather bands of robbers, than regular soldiers; and yet the success was various, and some men were lost. More important services were performed by Marcus Fulvius. He fought a pitched battle, near the town of Toletum, against the Vaccæans, Vectonians, and Celtiberians; routed and dispersed their combined forces, and took prisoner their king, Hilermus.
VIII. While this passed in Spain, the day of election drawing near, Lucius Cornelius, consul, left Marcus Claudius, lieutenant-general, in command of the army, and came to Rome. After representing in the senate the services which he had performed, and the present state of the province, he expostulated with the Conscript Fathers on their not having ordered a thanksgiving to the immortal gods, when so great a war was so happily terminated by one successful battle: and then demanded, that the same might be decreed, and also a triumph to himself. But, before the question was put, Quintus Metellus, who had been consul and dictator, said, that “letters had been brought, at the same time from the consul, Lucius Cornelius, to the senate, and from Marcus Marcellus, to a great part of the senators; which letters contradicted each other, and for that reason the consideration of the business had been adjourned, in order that it might be debated when the writers of those letters should be present. He had expected, therefore, that the consul, who knew that the lieutenant-general had written something to his disadvantage, would, when he was coming home, have brought him to Rome; especially, as the command of the army would, with more propriety, have been committed to Tiberius Sempronius, who was already invested with authority, than to the lieutenant-general. As the case stood at present, it appeared as if the latter was kept out of the way, designedly, lest he might assert, in person, the same things which he had written in his letters; and, face to face, either substantiate his charges, or if his allegations were ill founded, be convicted of misrepresentation, so that the truth would be clearly discovered. For this reason he was of opinion, that the senate should not, at present, assent to either of the decrees demanded by the consul.” The latter, nevertheless, persisted in putting the question, on a thanksgiving being ordered, and himself allowed to ride into the city in triumph; but two plebeian tribunes, Marcus and Caius Titinius, declared, that they would enter their protest, if the senate passed any decree on the subject.
IX. In the preceding year, Sextus Ælius Pætus, and Caius Cornelius Cethegus, were created censors. Cornelius now closed the lustrum. The number of citizens rated, was an hundred and forty-three thousand seven hundred and four. Extraordinary quantities of rain fell in this year, and the Tiber overflowed the lower parts of the city; by which inundation some buildings near the Flumentan gate were laid in ruins. The Cœlimontan gate was struck by lightning, as was the wall on each side of it, in several places. At Aricia, Lanuvium, and on the Aventine, showers of stones fell. From Capua, a report was brought that a very large swarm of wasps flew into the Forum, and pitched on the temple of Mars; that they had been carefully collected and burnt. On account of these prodigies, the duumvirs were ordered to consult the books; the nine days’ festival was celebrated, a supplication proclaimed, and the city purified. At the same time. Marcus Portius Cato dedicated a chapel to Maiden Victory, near the temple of Victory, two years after he had vowed it. During this year, a Latine colony was established in the Thurian territory, by commissioners appointed for the purpose, Cneius Manlius Vulso, Lucius Apustius Fullo, and Quintus Ælius Tubero, who had proposed the order for its settlement. There went out thither, three thousand foot and three hundred horsemen; a very small number in proportion to the quantity of land lying waste. Thirty acres might have been given to each footman, and sixty to a horseman; but, by the advice of Apustius, a third part was reserved, that they might afterwards, when they should judge proper, send out thither a new colony. The footmen received twenty acres each, the horsemen forty.
X. The year was now near a close, and with regard to the election of consuls, the heat of competition was kindled to a degree beyond what was ever known before. The candidates, both patrician and plebeian, were many and powerful: Publius Cornelius Scipio, son to Cneius, and who had lately come home from Spain, where he had gained great honour by his exploits; Lucius Quintius Flamininus, who had commanded the fleet in Greece, and Cneius Manlius Vulso: these were the patricians. Then there were, of plebeian rank, Caius Lælius, Cneius Domitius, Caius Livius Salinator, and Manius Acilius. The eyes of all men were turned on Quintius and Cornelius; for, being both patricians, they sued for one place; and they were both of them recommended by high and recent renown in war. Above every thing else, the brothers of the candidates, the two most illustrious generals of the age, increased the violence of the struggle. Scipio’s fame was the more splendid, and in proportion to its greater splendour, the more obnoxious to envy. Quintius’s was the more recent, as he had triumphed in the course of that very same year. Besides, the former had now, for almost ten years, been continually in people’s sight; which circumstance, by the mere satiety which it creates, diminishes the reverence felt for great characters. He had been a second time consul, after the final defeat of Hannibal, and also censor. All Quintius’s claims to the favour of the public were fresh and new; since his triumph, he had neither asked nor received any thing from the people; “he solicited,” he said, “in favour of his own brother, not of a half brother; in favour of his lieutenant-general, and partner in the administration of the war; his brother having conducted the operations by sea, while he did the same on land.” Such were the arguments by which he carried his point. His brother was preferred to the brother of Africanus, though supported by the whole Cornelian family, and while one of the same family presided at the election, and notwithstanding the very honourable testimony given by the senate, in his favour, when they judged him to be the best man in the state; and as such, appointed him to receive the Idæan Mother into the city, when she was brought from Pessinus. Lucius Quintius and Cneius Domitius Ahenobarbus were elected consuls; so that, not even with respect to the plebeian consul, could Africanus prevail; for he employed his interest in favour of Caius Lælius. Next day were elected prætors, Lucius Scribonius Libo, Marcus Fulvius Centumalus, Aulus Atilius Serranus, Marcus Bæbius Tamphilus, Lucius Valerius Tappus, and Quintus Salonius Sarra. The ædiles of this year, Marcus Æmilius Lepidus and Lucius Æmilius Paulus, distinguished themselves highly: they prosecuted to conviction many of the farmers of the public pastures, and with the money accruing from the fines, placed gilded shields in the upper part of the temple of Jupiter. They built one colonnade on the outside of the gate Tergemina, to which they added a wharf on the Tiber; and another, reaching from the Frontinal gate to the altar of Mars, to serve as a passage into the field of Mars.
XI. For a long time, nothing worth recording had occurred in Liguria; but, towards the end of this year, the Roman affairs there were twice brought into great peril; for the consul’s camp being assaulted, was, with difficulty, saved from falling into the enemy’s hands; and a short time after, as the Roman army was marching through a defile, the Ligurians seized on the opening through which they were to pass. The consul, when he found that passage stopped up, faced about, resolved to return by the way he came: but the entrance behind, also, was occupied by a party of the enemy, and the disaster of Caudium not only occurred to the memory of the Romans, but was, in a manner, represented to their eyes. The consul had, among his auxiliary troops, about eight hundred Numidian horsemen, whose commanding officer undertook to force a passage with his troops, on whichever side the consul should choose. He only desired to be told on which part the greater number of villages lay; for, on them he meant to make an attack; and the first thing he intended doing, was to set fire to the houses, in order that the alarm which this should occasion, might induce the Ligurians to quit their posts in the defile, and hasten to different quarters to the relief of their friends. The consul highly commended his zeal, and gave him assurance of ample rewards. The Numidians mounted their horses, and began to ride up to the advanced posts of the enemy, but without making any attack. Nothing could appear, on the first view, more contemptible. Both men and horses were of a small size, and thin make, the riders unaccoutred, and unarmed, excepting that they carried javelins in their hands; and the horses without bridles, and awkward in their gait, running with their necks stiff, and their heads stretched out. The contempt, conceived from their appearance, they took pains to increase; sometimes falling from their horses, and making themselves objects of derision and ridicule. The consequence was, that the enemy, who at first had been alert, and ready on their posts, in case of an attack, now, for the most part, laid aside their arms, and sitting down, amused themselves with looking at them. The Numidians often rode up, then gallopped back, but still contrived to get nearer to the pass, as if they were unable to manage their horses, and were carried away against their will. At last, setting spurs to them, they broke out through the midst of the enemy’s posts, and, getting into the open country, set fire to all the houses near the road. The nearest village was soon in flames, while they ravaged all around with fire and sword. At first, the sight of the smoke, then the shouts of the affrighted inhabitants, at last the old people and children, who fled for shelter, created great disorder in the camp. In consequence of which the whole of their army, without plan, and without command, ran off, each to take care of his own; the camp was in a moment deserted; and the consul, delivered from the blockade, made good his march to the place whither he intended to go.
XII. But neither the Boians nor the Spaniards, though professed enemies at that time, were such bitter and inveterate foes to the Romans as the nation of the Ætolians. These, after the departure of the Roman armies from Greece, had, for some time, entertained hopes, that Antiochus would come and take possession of Europe, without opposition; and that neither Philip nor Nabis would continue quiet. But, seeing no active measures, begun, in any quarter, they resolved, lest their designs might be damped by delay, to set on foot some plan of disturbance; and, with this view, they summoned a general assembly at Naupactum. Here Thoas, their prætor, after complaining of the injurious behaviour of the Romans, and the present state of Ætolia, and asserting, that, “of all the nations and states of Greece, they were treated with the greatest indifference, after the victory which they themselves had been the means of obtaining,” moved, that ambassadors should be sent to each of the kings; not only to sound their dispositions, but, by such incentives as suited the temper of each, to urge them to a war with Rome. Damocritus was sent to Nabis, Nicander to Philip, and Dicæarchus, the prætor’s brother, to Antiochus. To the Lacedæmonian tyrant, Damocritus represented that, “by the maritime cities being taken from him, his government was left quite destitude of strength; for from them he used to draw supplies of soldiers, as well as of ships and seamen. He was now pent up, almost within the walls of his capital, while he saw the Achæans domineering over the whole Peloponnesus. Never would he have another opportunity of recovering his rights, if he neglected to improve the one that now offered. There was no Roman army in Greece, nor would the Romans deem Gythium, or the other towns on the coast of Laconia, sufficient cause for transporting their legions a second time into that country.” These arguments were used for the purpose of provoking the passions of Nabis; in order that, when Antiochus should come into Greece, the other, conscious of having infringed the treaty of amity with Rome, by injuries offered to its allies, might unite himself with him. Nicander endeavoured to rouse Philip, by arguments somewhat similar; and he had more copious matter for discourse, as the king had been degraded from a more elevated state than the tyrant, and had sustained greater losses. Besides these topics, he introduced the ancient renown of the Macedonian kings, and the victorious arms of that nation, displayed through every quarter of the globe. “The plan which he proposed,” he said, “was free from any danger, either in the commencement, or in the issue. For he did not advise that Philip should stir, until Antiochus should have come into Greece, with an army; and, considering that, without the aid of Antiochus, he had maintained a war so long against the combined forces of the Romans and Ætolians, with what possible force could the Romans withstand him, when joined by Antiochus, and supported by the aid of the Ætolians, who, on the former occasion, were more dangerous enemies than the Romans?” He added the circumstance of Hannibal being general; “a man born a foe to the Romans, who had slain greater numbers, both of their commanders and soldiers, than were left surviving.” Such were the incitements held out to Philip by Nicander. Dicæarchus addressed other arguments to Antiochus. In the first place, he told him, that “although the Romans reaped the spoils of Philip, the honour of the victory over him was due to the Ætolians; that, to the Ætolians alone, the Romans were obliged, for having gained admittance into Greece, and that the same people supplied them with the strength which enabled them to conquer.” He next set forth the numerous forces, both horse and foot, which they were willing to furnish to Antiochus, for the purpose of the war; what quarters they would assign to his land-forces, what harbours for his ships. He then asserted whatever falsehoods he pleased, respecting Philip and Nabis; that “both were ready to recommence hostilities, and would greedily lay hold on the first opportunity of recovering what they had lost in war.” Thus did the Ætolians labour, in every part of the world, to stir up war against the Romans. Of the kings, however, one refused to engage in the business, and the other engaged in it too late.
XIII. Nabis immediately despatched emissaries, through all the towns on the coast, to sow dissensions among the inhabitants: some of the men in power he brought over to his party, by presents; others, who more firmly adhered to the alliance with Rome he put to death. The charge of protecting all the Lacedæmonians, on the coast, had been committed by Titus Quintius to the Achæans; they, therefore instantly sent ambassadors to the tyrant, to remind him of his treaty with the Romans, and to warn him against violating a peace which he had so earnestly sued for. They also sent succours to Gythium, which he had already besieged, and ambassadors to Rome, to make known these transactions. King Antiochus having, this winter, solemnized the nuptials of his daughter, with Ptolemy, king of Egypt, at Raphia, in Phœnicia, returned thence to Antioch, and came, towards the end of the season, through Cilicia; after passing mount Taurus, to the city of Ephesus. Early in the spring, he sent his son Antiochus thence into Syria, to guard the remote frontiers of his dominions, lest, during his absence, any commotion might arise behind him; and then, he marched himself, with all his land-forces, to attack the Pisidians, inhabiting the country near Sida. At this time, Publius Sulpicius and Publius Villius, the Roman ambassadors, who were sent to Antiochus, as above mentioned, having received orders to wait on Eumenes, first came to Elæa, and thence went up to Pergamus, where that monarch kept his court. Eumenes was very desirous of war being undertaken against Antiochus, for he thought, that if peace continued, a king, so much superior in power, would be a troublesome neighbour; but that, in case of hostilities, he would prove no more a match for the Romans, than Philip had been; and that either he would be entirely removed out of the way, or, should peace be granted to him, after a defeat, he (Eumenes) might reasonably expect, that a great deal of what should be taken from Antiochus, would fall to his own share; so that, in future, he might be very well able to defend himself against him, without any aid from his ally; and even if any misfortune were to happen, it would be better for him, in conjunction with the Romans, to undergo any turn of fortune, than, standing alone, either suffer himself to be ruled by Antiochus, or, on refusal, be compelled to submission by force of arms. Therefore, with all his influence, and every argument which he could devise, he urged the Romans to a war.
XIV. Sulpicius, falling sick, staid at Pergamus. Villius, on hearing that the king was carrying on war in Pisidia, went on to Ephesus, and during a few days, that he halted in that city, took pains to procure frequent interviews with Hannibal, who happened to be there at the time. His design was, merely, to discover his intentions, if possible, and to remove his apprehensions of danger threatening him from the Romans. No other business, of any kind, was mentioned at these meetings; yet they, accidentally, produced an important consequence, as effectually, as if it had been intentionally sought; the lowering Hannibal in the esteem of the king, and rendering him more obnoxious to suspicion, in every matter. Claudius, following the history, written in Greek by Acilius, says, that Publius Africanus was employed in this embassy, and that it was he who conversed with Hannibal at Ephesus. He even relates one of their conversations, in which Scipio asked Hannibal “what man it was, whom he thought the greatest captain?” who answered, “Alexander, king of Macedonia; because, with a small band, he defeated armies whose numbers were beyond reckoning; and because he carried his victorious arms through the remotest boundaries of the world, the merely visiting of which would be a task which no other man could hope to accomplish.” Scipio then asked, “to whom he gave the second place?” and he replied, “to Pyrrhus; for he first taught the method of encamping; and besides, no one ever showed more exquisite judgment, in choosing his ground, and disposing his posts; while he also possessed the art of conciliating esteem to such a degree, that the nations of Italy wished him, though a foreign prince, to hold the sovereignty among them, rather than the Romans, who had so long possessed the dominion of that part of the world.” On his proceeding to ask, “the name of him whom he esteemed the third?” Hannibal replied, “myself, beyond doubt.” On this Scipio, smiling, said “What would you have said if you had conquered me?” “Then,” replied the other, “I would have placed Hannibal, not only before Alexander and Pyrrhus, but before every other commander that ever lived.” This answer, conveying, with a turn of Punic artifice, an indirect compliment, and an unexpected kind of flattery, was highly grateful to Scipio, as it set him apart from the crowd of commanders, beyond competition, as if his abilities were not to be estimated.
XV. From Ephesus, Villius proceeded to Apamea, whither Antiochus, on hearing of the coming of the Roman delegates, came to meet him. In this congress, at Apamea, the debates were similar to those which passed at Rome, between Quintius and the king’s ambassadors; and the conferences were broken off, by news arriving of the death of Antiochus the king’s son, who, as just now mentioned, had been sent into Syria. This youth was greatly lamented and regretted at court; for he had given such specimens of his character, as afforded evident proof, that, had a longer life been allotted him, he would have displayed the talents of a great and just prince. The more he was beloved and esteemed by all, the stronger were the suspicions excited by his death; that his father, thinking that his heir shared too largely of the public favour, while he himself was declining in old age, had him taken off by poison, by some eunuchs, a kind of people, who recommend themselves to kings, by the perpetration of such foul deeds. People mentioned also, as another motive for that clandestine act of villainy, that, as he had given Lysimachia to his son Seleucus, he had no establishment of the like kind, which he could give to Antiochus, for the purpose of banishing him also to a distance, under pretext of doing him honour. Nevertheless, an appearance of deep mourning was maintained in the court for several days; and the Roman ambassador, lest his presence at that time might be troublesome, retired to Pergamus. The king, dropping the prosecution of the war which he had begun, went back to Ephesus; and there keeping himself shut up in the palace, under colour of grief, held secret consultations with a person called Minio, who was his principal favourite. Minio was utterly ignorant of the state of all foreign nations; and, accordingly, estimating the strength of the king from his successes in Syria or Asia, he was confident that Antiochus had superiority from the merits of his cause, and that the demands of the Romans were highly unreasonable; imagining also, that he would prove the more powerful in war. As the king wished to avoid farther debate with the envoys, either because he had found no advantage to result from the former conference, or because he was too much discomposed by recent grief, Minio undertook to say whatever was requisite for his interest, and persuaded him to invite for the purpose the ambassadors from Pergamus.
XVI. By this time Sulpicius had recovered his health; both himself and Villius, therefore, came to Ephesus. Minio apologized for the king not being present, and the business was entered upon. Then Minio in a studied speech, said, “I find, Romans, that you profess very specious intentions, (the liberating of the Grecian states,) but your actions do not accord with your words. You lay down one rule for Antiochus, and follow another yourselves. For, how are the inhabitants of Smyrna and Lampsacus better entitled to the character of Greeks, than the Neapolitans, Rhegians, and Tarentines, from whom you exact tribute, and ships, in pursuance of a treaty? Why do you send yearly to Syracuse, and other Grecian cities of Sicily, a prætor, vested with sovereign power, and attended by his rods and axes? You can, certainly, allege no other reason than this, that, having conquered them in war, you imposed these terms on them. Admit, then, on the part of Antiochus, the same reason with respect to Smyrna and Lampsacus, and the cities belonging to Ionia and Æolia. Conquered by his ancestors, they were subjected to tribute and taxes, and he only reclaims an ancient right. Answer him on these heads, if you mean a fair discussion and do not merely seek a pretence for war.” Sulpicius answered, “Antiochus has shown some modesty in choosing, that, since no other arguments could be produced in his favour, any other person should utter these rather than himself. For, what similarity is there in the cases of those states which you have brought into comparison? From the Rhegians, Neapolitans, and Tarentines, we require what they owe us by treaty, in virtue of a right invariably exercised, in one uniform course, since they first came under our power; a right always asserted, and never intermitted. Now can you assert, that as these states have, neither of themselves, or through any other, ever refused conforming to the treaty, so the Asiatic states, since they once came under the power of Antiochus’s ancestors, have been held in uninterrupted possession by your reigning kings; and that some of them have not been subject to the dominion of Philip, some to that of Ptolemy; and that others have not for many years maintained themselves in a state of independence; their title to which was not called in question? For, if the circumstance of their having been once subject to a foreigner, when crushed under the severity of the times, conveys a right to enforce that subjection again, after a lapse of so many generations, what can be said of our having delivered Greece from Philip, but that we have laboured in vain; and that his successors may reclaim Corinth, Chalcis, Demetrias, and the whole nation of Thessaly? But why do I plead the cause of those states, which it would be fitter that both we and the king should hear pleaded by themselves?”
XVII. He then desired, that the deputies of those states should be called, for they had been prepared beforehand, and kept in readiness, by Eumenes, who reckoned, that every share of strength that should be taken away from Antiochus, would become an accession to his own kingdom. Many of them were introduced; and, while each enforced his own complaints, and sometimes demands, some reasonable, many unreasonable, they changed the debate into a mere altercation. The ambassadors, therefore, without conceding or carrying any one point, returned to Rome, and left every thing in the same unsettled state, in which they found it. On their departure the king held a council, on the subject of a war with Rome, in which all the members vied with each other in the violence of their harangues; for every one thought, that the greater acrimony he showed toward the Romans, the greater share of favour he might expect to obtain. One inveighed against the insolence of their demands, in which they presume to impose terms on Antiochus, the greatest king in Asia, as they would on the vanquished Nabis. “Although to Nabis they left absolute power over his own country, and its capital, Lacedæmon, yet they insist on the impropriety of Smyrna and Lampsacus yielding obedience to Antiochus.”— Others said, that “to so great a monarch, those cities were but a trivial ground of war, scarcely worth mention; but unjust pretensions to authority were always urged, at first, in matters of little consequence, unless indeed, it could be supposed, that the Persians, when they demanded earth and water from the Lacedæmonians, stood in need of a morsel of the one or a draught of the other. The proceedings of the Romans, respecting the two cities, were meant as a trial of the same sort. The rest of the states, when they saw that two had shaken off the yoke, would go over to the party of that nation which professed the patronage of liberty. If freedom was not actually preferable to servitude, yet the hope of bettering their circumstances by a change, was more flattering to every one than any present situation.”
XVIII. There was, in the council, an Acarnanian named Alexander, who had formerly been a friend of Philip, but had lately left him to follow the more opulent court of Antiochus. This man, being well skilled in the affairs of Greece, and not unacquainted with the Romans, was admitted by the king into such a degree of intimacy, that he shared even in his secret counsels. As if the question to be considered were not, whether there should be war or not, but where, and in what manner, it should be carried on, he affirmed, that “he saw an assured prospect of victory, provided the king would pass into Europe, and choose some part of Greece for the seat of war. In the first place, the Ætolians, who lived in the centre of Greece, would be found in arms, ready to take the lead in the most perilous operations. Then, in the two extremities of Greece, Nabis, on the side of Peloponnesus, would put every thing in motion, to recover the city of Argos, and the maritime cities, from which he had been expelled by the Romans, and pent up within the walls of Lacedæmon: while on the side of Macedonia, Philip would be ready for the field the moment he heard the alarm sounded. He knew,” he said, “his spirit, he knew his temper; he knew that, (as is the case with wild beasts, confined by bars or chains,) for a long time past, the most violent rage had been boiling in his breast. He remembered also, how often, during the war, that prince had prayed to all the gods to grant him Antiochus as an assistant; and, if that prayer were now heard with favour, he would not hesitate an instant to resume his arms. It was only requisite that there should be no delay, no procrastination; for success depended chiefly on securing beforehand, commodious posts and proper allies: besides, Hannibal ought to be sent immediately into Africa, in order to distract the attention of the Romans.”
XIX. Hannibal was not called to this consultation, because the king had harboured suspicions of him on account of his conferences with Villius, and had not since shown him any mark of regard. This affront, at first, he bore in silence; but afterwards thought it better to take some proper opportunity to inquire the reason of the king’s suddenly withdrawing his favour, and to clear himself of blame. Without any preface, he asked the cause of the king’s displeasure; and on being told it, said, “Antiochus, when I was yet an infant, my father Hamilcar, at a time when he was offering sacrifice, brought me up to the altars, and made me take an oath, that I never would be a friend to the Roman people. Under the obligation of this oath, I carried arms against them for thirty-six years; this oath, on peace being made, drove me out of my country, and brought me an exile to your court: and this oath shall guide me, should you disappoint my hopes, until I traverse every quarter of the globe, where I can understand that there is either strength or arms, to find out enemies to the Romans. If, therefore, your courtiers have conceived the idea of ingratiating themselves with you, by insinuating suspicions of me, let them seek some other means of advancing their own reputation, rather than the depressing of mine. I hate, and am hated by, the Romans. That I speak the truth in this, my father Hamilcar, and the gods are witnesses. Whenever, therefore, you shall employ your thoughts on a plan of waging war with Rome, consider Hannibal as one of your firmest friends. If circumstances force you to adopt peaceful measures, on such a subject employ some other counsellor.” This discourse affected the king much, and even reconciled him to Hannibal. The resolution of the council, at their breaking up, was, that the war should be undertaken.
Y. R. 560.
192.XX. At Rome, people talked, indeed, of a breach with Antiochus as an event very likely to
happen, but, except talking of it, they had hitherto made no preparation. Italy was decreed the province of both the
consuls, who received directions to settle between themselves, or draw lots which of them should preside at the
elections of the year; and it was ordered, that he who should be disengaged from that business, should hold himself in
readiness, in case there should be occasion, to lead the legions any where out of that country. The consul, so
commissioned, had leave given him to levy two new legions, and twenty thousand foot, and nine hundred horse, among the
allies and Latine confederates. To the other consul were decreed the two legions which had been commanded by Lucius
Cornelius, consul of the preceding year; and from the same army, a body of allies and Latines, amounting to fifteen
thousand foot, and five hundred horse. Quintus Minucius was continued in command, and had assigned to him the forces
which he then had in Liguria; as a supplement to which, four thousand Roman foot, and five hundred horse, were ordered
to be enlisted, and five thousand foot, and two hundred and fifty horse to be demanded from the allies. The province of
going out of Italy, wherever the senate should order, fell to Cneius Domitius; Gaul, and the holding the elections, to
Lucius Quintius. The prætors then cast lots for their provinces: to Marcus Fulvius Centumalus fell the city
jurisdiction; to Lucius Scribonius Libo, the foreign; Lucius Valerius Tappus obtained Sicily; Quintus Salonius Sarra,
Sardinia; Marcus Bæbius Tamphilus, hither Spain; and Marcus Atilius Serranus, farther Spain. But the provinces of the
two last were changed, first, by a decree of senate, which was afterwards confirmed by an order of the people. The
fleet, and Macedonia, were assigned to Atilius; Bruttium to Bæbius. Flaminius and Fulvius were continued in command in
both the hither and farther Spain. To Bæbius Tamphilus, for the business of Bruttium, were decreed the two legions
which had served in the city the year before; and he was ordered to demand from the allies, for the same service,
fifteen thousand foot and five hundred horse. Atilius was ordered to build thirty ships of five banks of oars: to bring
out, from the docks, any old ones that were fit for service, and to raise seamen. An order was also given to the
consul, to supply him with two thousand of the allied and Latine footmen, and a thousand Roman. The destination of
these two prætors, and their two armaments, one on land, and the other on sea, was declared to be intended against
Nabis, who was now carrying on open hostilities against the allies of the Roman people. But it was thought proper to
wait the return of the ambassadors sent to Antiochus, and the senate ordered the consul Cneius Domitius not to leave
the city until they arrived.
XXI. The prætors, Fulvius and Scribonius, whose province was the administration of justice, at Rome, were charged to provide an hundred quinqueremes, besides the fleet which Atilius was to command. Before the consul and prætors set out for their provinces a supplication was performed on account of some prodigies. A report was brought from Picenum, that a goat had produced six kids at a birth. It was said that a boy was born at Arretium who had but one hand; that, at Amiternum, a shower of earth fell; a gate and wall at Formiæ were struck by lightning; and, what was more alarming than all, an ox, belonging to the consul Cneius Domitius, spoke these words — “Rome, take care of thyself.” To expiate the other prodigies, a supplication was performed; the ox was ordered by the aruspices to be carefully preserved and fed. The Tiber, pouring into the city with more destructive violence than last year, swept away two bridges, and many buildings, particularly about the Flumentan gate. A huge rock, loosened from its seat, either by the rains, or by an earthquake, so slight that no other effect of it was perceived, tumbled down from the capitol into the Jugarian street, and buried many people under it. In the country, many parts of which were overflowed, much cattle was carried away, and many houses thrown down. Previous to the arrival of the consul, Lucius Quintius, in his province, Quintus Minucius fought a pitched battle with the Ligurians, in the territory of Pisæ, slew nine thousand of the enemy, and, putting the rest to flight, drove them within their works, which were assaulted and defended with obstinate valour until night came on. During the night, the Ligurians stole away unobserved; and, at the first dawn, the Romans took possession of their deserted camp, where the quantity of booty was the less, because it was a frequent practice with the enemy to send home the spoil taken in the country. Minucius, after this, allowed them no respite. From the territory of Pisæ, he marched into that of the Ligurians, and, with fire and sword, utterly destroyed their forts and towns, where the Roman soldiers were abundantly enriched with the spoils which the enemy had collected in Etruria and sent home.
XXII. About this time, the ambassadors, who had been sent to the kings, returned to Rome. As they brought no information of such a nature as called for any immediate declaration of war, (except against the Lacedæmonian tyrant, whom the Achæan ambassadors also represented as ravaging the sea-coast of Laconia, in breach of treaty,) Atilius, the prætor, was sent with the fleet to Greece, for the protection of the allies. It was resolved, that, as there was nothing to be apprehended from Antiochus at present, both the consuls should go to their provinces; and, accordingly, Domitius marched into the country of the Boians, by the shorter road, through Arminum, and Quintius through Liguria. The two armies of the consuls, proceeding by these different routes, spread devastation wide over the enemy’s country. In consequence of which, first, a few of their horsemen, with their commanders, then their whole senate, and, at last, all who possessed either property or dignity, to the number of one thousand five hundred, came over, and joined the consuls. In both Spains, likewise, success attended the Roman arms during this year. For, in one, Caius Flaminius, after a seige, took Litabrum, a strong and opulent city, and made prisoner Corribilo, a powerful chieftain; and, in the other, Marcus Fulvius, proconsul, fought two battles, with two armies of the enemy, and was victorious in both. He captured Vescelia and Holo, towns belonging to the Spaniards, with many of their forts, and others voluntarily submitted to him. Then, advancing into the territory of Oretum, and having, there also, taken two cities, Noliba and Cusibis, he proceeded to the river Tagus. Here stood Toletum, a small city, but strong from its situation. While he was besieging this place, a numerous army of Vectonians came to relieve their friends in the town, but he overthrew them in a general engagement, and, after their defeat, took Toletum by means of his works.
XXIII. At this juncture, the wars, in which they were actually engaged, caused not so great anxiety in the minds of the senate, as the expectation of one with Antiochus. For although, through their ambassadors, they had, from time to time, made careful inquiries into every particular, yet rumours, rashly propagated, without authentic foundation, intermixed many falsehoods with the truth. Among the rest, a report was spread, that Antiochus intended, as soon as he should come into Ætolia, to send a fleet immediately to Sicily. The senate, therefore, though they had already despatched the prætor, Atilius, with a squadron to the Ionian sea, yet, considering that not only a military force, but also the influence of characters entitled to respect, would be necessary towards securing the attachment of the allies, they sent into Greece, in quality of ambassadors, Titus Quintius, Caius Octavius, Cneius Servilius, and Publius Villius; at the same time ordering, in their decree, that Marcus Bæbius should lead forward his legions from Bruttium to Tarentum and Brundusium, so that, if occasion required, he might transport them thence into Macedonia. They also ordered, that Marcus Fulvius, prætor, should send a fleet of thirty ships to protect the coast of Sicily; and that, whoever had the direction of that fleet, should be invested with the authority of a commander in chief. To this commission was appointed Lucius Oppius Salinator, who had been plebeian ædile the year before. They likewise determined, that the same prætor should write to his colleague, Lucius Valerius, that “there was reason to apprehend that the ships of king Antiochus would pass over from Ætolia to Sicily; for which reason the senate judged it proper, that in addition to the army, which he then had, he should enlist tumultuary soldiers, to the number of twelve thousand foot, and four hundred horse, which might enable him to defend that coast of his province which lay next to Greece.” These troops the prætor collected, not only out of Sicily, but from the circumjacent islands; placing strong garrisons in all the towns on the coast opposite to Greece. The rumours already current, were, in some degree, confirmed by the arrival of Attalus, the brother of Eumenes; for he brought intelligence, that king Antiochus had crossed the Hellespont with his army, and that the Ætolians were putting themselves into such a posture, that, when he arrived, he expected to find them in arms. Thanks were given to Eumenes, in his absence, and to Attalus, who was present; and an order was passed, that the latter should be furnished with a house, and every accommodation; that he should be presented with two horses, two suits of horseman’s armour, vases of silver to an hundred pounds weight, and of gold to twenty pounds.
XXIV. As accounts were continually arriving, that the war was on the point of breaking out, it was judged expedient that consuls should be elected as soon as possible. Wherefore the senate passed a decree, that the prætor, Marcus Fulvius, should instantly despatch a letter to the consul, informing him, that it was the will of the senate that he should leave the command of the province and army to his lieutenants-general, and return to Rome; and that, when on the road, he should send on before him an edict appointing the day for the election of consuls. The consul complied with the letter; and, having sent forward the edict, arrived at Rome. There was, this year also, a warm competition, three patricians suing for one place: Publius Cornelius Scipio, son to Cneius, who had suffered a disappointment the year before: Lucius Cornelius Scipio, and Cneius Manlius Vulso. The consulship was conferred on Publius Scipio, that it might appear that the honour had only been delayed, and not refused, to a person of such character. The plebeian colleague, joined with him, was Manius Acilius Glabrio. Next day were created prætors, Lucius Æmilius Paulus, Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, Marcus Junius Brutus, Aulus Cornelius Mammula, Caius Livius, and Lucius Oppius; the two last, both of them, surnamed Salinator. This was the same Oppius who had conducted the fleet of thirty ships to Sicily. While the new magistrates were settling the distribution of their provinces, orders were despatched to Marcus Bæbius, to pass over, with all his forces, from Brundusium to Epirus, and to keep the army stationed near Apollonia; and Marcus Fulvius, city prætor, was commissioned to build fifty new quinqueremes.
XXV. Such were the precautions taken by the Roman people to guard against every attempt of Antiochus. At this time, Nabis did not disavow his hostile intentions, but, with his utmost force, carried on the siege of Gythium; and, being incensed against the Achæans, for having sent succours to the besieged, he ravaged their lands. The Achæans would not presume to engage in war, until their ambassadors should come back from Rome, and acquaint them with the sentiments of the senate; but as soon as these returned, they summoned a council at Sicyon, and also sent deputies to Titus Quintius to ask his advice. In the council, all the members were inclined to vote for an immediate declaration of war; but a letter from Titus Quintius, in which he recommended waiting for the Roman prætor, and fleet, caused some hesitation. While many of the members persisted in their first opinion, and others arguing that they ought to follow the counsel of the person to whom they of themselves had applied for advice, the generality waited to hear the sentiments of Philopæmen. He was prætor of Achæa at the time, and surpassed all his contemporaries both in wisdom and influence. He first observed, that “it was a wise rule, established among the Achæans, that their prætor, when he proposed a question concerning war, should not himself have a vote:” and then he desired them to “fix their determination among themselves as soon as possible;” assuring them, that “their prætor would faithfully and carefully carry their decrees into execution; and would use his best endeavours, that, as far as depended on human prudence, they should not repent of them, whether they were for peace or war.” These words conveyed a more efficacious incitement to war, than if, by openly arguing in favour of it, he had betrayed an ambition to distinguish himself in command. War was therefore unanimously resolved on: the time and mode of conducting it, were left entirely to the prætor. Philopæmen’s own judgment, indeed, besides its being the opinion of Quintius, pointed it out as best to wait for the Roman fleet, which might succour Gythium by sea; but he feared that the business would not endure delay, and that not only Gythium, but the party which had been sent to its aid, would fall into the hands of the enemy, and therefore he drew out what ships the Achæans had.
XXVI. The tyrant also, with the view of cutting off any supplies that might be brought to the besieged by sea, had fitted out a small squadron, consisting of only three ships of war, with some barks and cutters, as his former fleet had been given up to the Romans, according to the treaty. In order to try the activity of these vessels, as they were then new, and to have every thing in fit condition for a battle, he put out to sea every day, and exercised both the rowers and marines in mock fights; for he thought that all his hopes of succeeding in the siege depended on his preventing any succours being brought to them by ships. The prætor of the Achæans, in respect of skill for conducting operations on land, was equal to any of the most celebrated commanders both in capacity and experience, yet with naval affairs he was quite unacquainted. Being an inhabitant of Arcadia, an inland country, he was even ignorant in foreign affairs, excepting that he had once served in Crete as commander of a body of auxiliaries. There was an old ship of four banks of oars, which had been taken eighty years before, as it was conveying Nicæa, the wife of Craterus, from Naupactum to Corinth. Led by the reputation of this ship, for it had been reckoned a remarkably fine vessel when in the king’s fleet, he ordered it, though now quite rotten, and falling asunder through age, to be brought out from Ægium. The fleet sailed with this ship at its head, Tiso of Patræ, the commander, being on board it, when the ships of the Lacedæmonians from Gythium came within view. At the first shock, against a new and firm vessel, that old one, which before admitted the water through every joint, was shattered to pieces, and the whole crew were made prisoners. On the loss of the commander’s ship, the rest of the fleet fled as fast as their oars could carry them. Philopæmen himself made his escape in a light advice-boat, nor did he stop his flight until he arrived at Patræ. This untoward event did not in the least damp the spirit of a man so well versed in military affairs, and who had experienced so many vicissitudes of fortune. On the contrary, as he had failed of success in the naval line, in which he had no experience, he even conceived, thence, the greater hopes of succeeding in another, wherein he had acquired knowledge; and he affirmed, that he would quickly put an end to the tyrant’s rejoicing.
XXVII. Nabis, elated by this adventure, and confident that he had not now any danger to apprehend from the sea, resolved to shut up the passages on the land also, by parties stationed in proper posts. With this view, he drew off a third part of his forces from the siege of Gythium, and encamped them at Bææ, a place which commands both Leucæ and Acriæ, on the road by which he supposed the enemy’s army would advance. While he lay on this station, where very few of his men had tents, (the generality of them having formed huts of reeds interwoven, and which they covered with leaves of trees, to serve as a defence from the weather,) Philopæmen, before he came within sight, resolved to surprise him by an attack of such a kind as he did not expect. He drew together a number of small ships in a remote creek, on the coast of the territory of Argos, and embarked on board them a body of soldiers, mostly targeteers, furnished with slings, javelins, and other light kinds of weapons. He then coasted along the shore, until he came to a promontory near Nabis’s post. Here he landed; and made his way, by night, through paths with which he was well acquainted, to Bææ. He found the sentinels fast asleep, for they had not conceived the least apprehension of an enemy being near, and he immediately set fire to the huts in every part of the camp. Great numbers perished in the flames, before they could discover the enemy’s arrival, and those who did discover it could give no assistance; so that nearly the whole was destroyed by fire and sword. From both these means of destruction, however, a very small number made their escape, and fled to the principal camp before Gythium. Philopæmen having, by this blow, given a severe check to the presumption of the enemy, led on his forces to ravage the district of Tripolis, a part of the Lacedæmonian territory, lying next to the frontiers of Megalopolis; and, carrying off thence a vast number of men and cattle, withdrew, before the tyrant could send a force from Gythium to protect the country. He then collected his whole force at Tegea, to which place he summoned a council of the Achæans and their allies; at which were present, also, deputies from the Epirots and Acarnanians. Here it was resolved, that, as the minds of his men were now sufficiently recovered from the shame of the disgrace suffered at sea, and those of the enemy dispirited, he should march directly to Lacedæmon; for that was judged to be the only effectual means to draw off the enemy from the siege of Gythium. On entering their country, he encamped the first day at Caryæ, and on that very day, Gythium was taken. Ignorant of that event, Philopæmen advanced to the Barbosthenes, a mountain ten miles from Lacedæmon. On the other side, Nabis, after taking possession of Gythium, set out at the head of a body of light troops; marched hastily by Lacedæmon; and seized on a place called the Camp of Pyrrhus, which post he believed the Achæans intended to occupy. From thence, he proceeded to meet the enemy. The latter, being obliged, by the narrowness of the road, to extend their train to a great length, occupied a space of almost five miles. The cavalry, and the greatest part of the auxiliaries, covered the rear, Philopæmen expecting that the tyrant would attack him, on that quarter, with his mercenary troops, in whom he placed his principal confidence. Two unforeseen circumstances at once filled him with uneasiness: one, the post at which he aimed being preoccupied; the other, the enemy having met him in front, where, as the road lay through very uneven ground, he did not see how the battalions could advance without the support of the light troops.
XXVIII. Philopæmen was possessed of an admirable degree of skill and experience in conducting a march, and choosing his station; having made these points his principal study, not only in times of war, but likewise during peace. Whenever, in travelling, he came to a defile where the passage was difficult, it was his practice, first, to examine the nature of the ground on every side. When journeying alone, he meditated within himself; if he had company, he asked them, “if an enemy should appear in that place, what would be the proper method of proceeding; what, if they should attack him in front; what, if on this flank or on that; what, if on the rear? For he might happen to meet them while his men were formed with a regular front; or when they were in the loose order of march, fit only for the road.” He would proceed to examine, either in his own mind, or by asking questions, “what ground he ought to choose; what number of soldiers; or what kind of arms (which was a very material point) he ought to employ; where he should deposit the baggage, where the soldiers’ necessaries, where the unarmed multitude; what number and what kind of troops he should appoint to guard them, and whether it would be better to prosecute his march as intended, or to return back by the way he came; what spot, also, he should choose for his camp; what space he should inclose within the lines; where he could be conveniently supplied with water; where a sufficiency of forage and wood could be had; which would be his safest road on decamping next day, and in what form the army should march.” In such studies and inquiries he had, from his early years, so frequently exercised his thoughts, that on any emergency of the kind occurring, no expedient that could be devised was new to him. On this occasion, he first ordered the army to halt; then sent forward, to the van, the auxiliary Cretans, and the horsemen called Tarentines, each leading two spare horses; and, ordering the rest of the cavalry to follow, he seized on a rock which stood over a rivulet, from which he might be supplied with water. Here he collected together all the baggage, with all the suttlers and followers of the army, placing a guard of soldiers round them; and then he fortified his camp, as the nature of the place required. The pitching of tents in such rugged and uneven ground was a difficult task. The enemy were distant not more than five hundred paces. Both drew water from the same rivulet, under escorts of light troops; but, before any skirmish took place, as usual, between men encamped so near to each other, night came on. It was evident, however, that they must, unavoidably, fight next day at the rivulet, in support of the watering parties. Wherefore, during the night, Philopæmen concealed, in a valley remote from the view of the enemy, as great a number of targeteers as could conveniently lie in the place.
XXIX. At break of day, the Cretan light infantry, and the Tarentine horse, began an engagement on the bank of the rivulet. Latemnastus, a Cretan, commanded his countrymen; Lycortas, of Megalopolis, the cavalry. The enemy’s watering party, also, was guarded by Cretan auxiliaries, and Tarentine horsemen. The fight was, for a considerable time, doubtful, as the troops on both sides were of the same kind, and armed alike; but, as the contest advanced, the tyrant’s auxiliaries gained an advantage, both by their superiority of numbers, and because Philopæmen had given directions to his officers, that, after maintaining the contest for a short time, they should betake themselves to flight, and draw the enemy on to the place of the ambuscade. The latter, pursuing the runaways in disorderly haste, through the valley, were most of them wounded and slain, before they discovered their concealed foe. The targeteers had posted themselves in such order, as far as the breadth of the valley allowed, that they easily gave a passage to their flying friends, through openings in their ranks; then starting up themselves, hale, fresh, and in regular order, they briskly attacked the enemy, whose ranks were broken, who were scattered in confusion, and were, besides, exhausted with fatigue and wounds. This decided the victory: the tyrant’s troops instantly turned their backs, and flying with much more precipitation than they had pursued, were driven into their camp. Great numbers were killed and taken in the pursuit; and the consternation would have spread through the camp also, had not Philopæmen ordered a retreat to be sounded: for he dreaded the ground, (which was rough, and dangerous to advance on without caution,) more than he did the enemy. Judging, both from the issue of the battle, and from the disposition of the enemy’s leader, that he was not a little dismayed, he sent to him one of the auxiliary soldiers in the character of a deserter, to assure him positively, that the Achæans had resolved to advance, next day, to the river Eurotas, which runs almost close to the walls, in order to cut off the tyrant’s retreat to the city, and to prevent any provisions being brought thence to the camp; and that they intended, at the same time, to try whether any could be prevailed on to desert his cause. Although the deserter did not gain implicit credit, yet he afforded Nabis’s captain, who was full of apprehensions, a plausible pretext for leaving his camp. On the day following, he ordered Pythagoras, with the auxiliaries and cavalry, to mount guard before the rampart; and then, marching out himself with the main body of the army, as if intending to offer battle, he ordered them to return with all haste to the city.
XXX. When Philopæmen saw their army marching precipitately through a narrow and steep road, he sent all his cavalry, together with the Cretan auxiliaries, against the guard of the enemy, stationed in the front of their camp. These, seeing their adversaries approach, and perceiving that their friends had abandoned them, at first attempted to retreat within their works; but then, observing the whole force of the Achæans advancing in order of battle, they were seized with fear, lest together with the camp itself, they might be taken; they resolved therefore to follow the body of their army, which, by this time, had proceeded to a considerable distance. Immediately the targeteers of the Achæans assailed the camp, and the rest set out in pursuit of the enemy. The road was such, that a body of men, even when undisturbed by any fear of a foe, could not without difficulty, make its way through it. But when an attack was made on their rear, and the shouts of terror, raised by the affrighted troops behind, reached to the van, they threw down their arms, and fled different ways into the adjacent woods. In an instant of time, the way was stopped up with heaps of weapons, particularly spears, which falling mostly with their points toward the pursuers, formed a kind of palisade across the road. Philopæmen ordered the auxiliaries to push forward in pursuit of the enemy, who would find it a difficult matter, the horsemen particularly, to continue their flight; while he himself led away the heavy troops through more open ground to the river Eurotas. There he pitched his camp a little before sunset, and waited for the light troops, which he had sent in chase of the enemy. These arrived at the first watch, and brought intelligence, that Nabis, with a few attendants, had made his way into the city, and that the rest of his army, unarmed and dispersed, were straggling through all parts of the woods; whereupon, he ordered them to refresh themselves, while he himself chose out a party of men, who having come earlier into camp, were, by this time, both recruited by food and rest; and, ordering them to carry nothing with them but their swords, he marched them out directly, and posted them in the roads which led from two of the gates, one towards Pheræ, the other towards the Barbosthenes: for he supposed, that through these the flying enemy would endeavour to make their retreat. Nor was he disappointed therein; for the Lacedæmonians, as long as any light remained, retreated through the centre of the woods in the most retired paths. As soon as it grew dusk, and they saw lights in the enemy’s camp, they kept themselves concealed from view; but, having passed it by, they then thought that all was safe, and came down into the open roads, where they were intercepted by the parties lying in wait; and such numbers of them were killed and taken, that, of the whole army, scarcely a fourth part effected their escape. As Nabis was now pent up within the city, Philopæmen employed the greatest part of thirty succeeding days in ravaging the lands of the Lacedæmonians; and then, after greatly reducing, and almost annihilating, the strength of the tyrant, he returned home, while the Achæans extolled him as equal in the merit of his services, to the Roman general, or, so far as regarded the war with Lacedæmon, even superior.
XXXI. While the Achæans and the tyrant were carrying on the war in this manner, the Roman ambassadors made a circuit through the cities of the allies; for they feared, lest the Ætolians might seduce some of them to join the party of Antiochus. They took but little pains, in their applications to the Achæans; because, knowing their animosity against Nabis, they thought that they might be safely relied on with regard to other matters. They went first to Athens, thence to Chalcis, thence to Thessaly; and, after addressing proper exhortations to the Thessalians, in a full assembly, they directed their route to Demetrias, to which place a council of the Magnetians was summoned. Their negotiation here required more address; for a great many of the leading men were disaffected to the Romans, and entirely devoted to the interests of Antiochus and the Ætolians; because, at the time when accounts were received that Philip’s son, who was an hostage, would be restored to him, and the tribute imposed on him remitted, among other groundless reports it had been given out, that the Romans intended to put him again in possession of Demetrias. Rather than that should take place, Eurylochus, a deputy of the Magnetians, and others of that faction, wished for a total change of measures to be effected by the coming of Antiochus and the Ætolians. In opposition to those it was necessary to reason in such a manner, that, in dispelling their mistaken fear, the ambassadors should not, by cutting off his hopes at once, give any disgust to Philip, whose friendship was of greater moment, on any occasion, than that of the Magnetians. They only observed to the assembly. that, “as Greece in general was under an obligation to the Romans for their kindness in restoring its liberty, so was their state in particular. For there had not only been a garrison of Macedonians in their capital, but a palace had been built in it, that they might have a master continually before their eyes. But all that had been done would be of no effect if the Ætolians should bring thither Antiochus, and settle him in the abode of Philip, so that a new and unknown king should be set over them, in the place of an old one, with whom they were long acquainted.” Their chief magistrate is styled Magnetarch. This office was then held by Eurylochus, who, assuming confidence from his high station, openly declared, that he, and the Magnetians, saw no reason to dissemble their having heard the common report about the restoration of Demetrias to Philip; to prevent which, the Magnetians were bound to use every effort, however hazardous; and, in the eagerness of discourse, he was carried to such an inconsiderate length, as to throw out, that “at that very time, Demetrias was only free in appearance; and that, in reality, all things were directed by the will of the Romans.” These words excited a general murmur in the assembly, some of whom showed their approbation, others expressed indignation at his presumption, in uttering such an expression. As to Quintius, he was so inflamed with anger, that, raising his hands towards heaven, he invoked the gods to witness the ungrateful and perfidious disposition of the Magnetians. This struck terror into the whole assembly; and one of the deputies, named Zeno, who had acquired a great degree of influence, by his judicious course of conduct in life, and by having been always an avowed supporter of the interest of the Romans, with tears besought Quintius, and the other ambassadors, “not to impute to the state the madness of an individual. Every man,” he said, “was answerable for his own absurdities. As to the Magnetians, they were indebted to Titus Quintius and the Roman people, not only for liberty but for every thing that mankind hold valuable, or sacred. By their kindness, they were in the enjoyment of every blessing for which they could ever petition the immortal gods; and if struck with phrenzy, they would sooner vent their fury on their own persons, than violate the friendship with Rome.”
XXXII. His entreaties were seconded by the prayers of the whole assembly: on which Eurylochus retired hastily from the council, and, passing through private streets, fled away into Ætolia. As to the Ætolians, they now gave plain indications of their intention to revolt, which became more evident every day; and it happened, that, at this very time, Thoas, one of their leading men, whom they had sent to Antiochus, returned, and brought back with him an ambassador from the king, named Menippus. These two, before the council met to give them audience, filled every one’s ears with pompous accounts of the naval and land forces that were coming; “a vast army,” they said, “of horse and foot was on its march, accompanied by elephants from India; and besides, they were bringing such a quantity of gold and silver, as was sufficient to purchase the Romans themselves:” which latter circumstance, they knew, would influence the multitude, more than any thing else. It was easy to foresee, what effects these reports would produce in the council; for the Roman ambassadors received information of the arrival of those men, and of all their proceedings. A rupture, indeed, was almost unavoidable, yet Quintius thought it advisable, that some ambassadors of the allies should be present in that council, who might remind the Ætolians of their alliance with Rome, and who might have the courage to speak with freedom in opposition to the king’s ambassador. The Athenians seemed to be the best qualified for this purpose, by reason of the high reputation of their state, and also from an amity long subsisting between them and the Ætolians. Quintius, therefore, requested of them to send ambassadors to the Panætolic council. At the first meeting, Thoas made a report of the business of his embassy. After him, Menippus was introduced, who said, that “it would have been happy for all the Greeks, residing both in Greece and Asia, if Antiochus could have taken a part in their affairs, while the power of Philip was yet unbroken; for then every one would have had what of right belonged to him, and the whole would not have come under the dominion and absolute disposal of the Romans. But even as matters stand at present,” said he, “provided you have constancy enough to carry into effect the measures which you have adopted, Antiochus will be able, with the assistance of the gods, and the alliance of the Ætolians, to reinstate the affairs of Greece in their former rank of dignity, notwithstanding the low condition to which they have been reduced. But this dignity consists in a state of freedom supported by its own strength, and not dependent on the will of another.” The Athenians, who were permitted to deliver their sentiments next after the king’s ambassadors, avoiding all mention of Antiochus, reminded the Ætolians of their alliance with Rome, and the benefits conferred by Titus Quintius on the whole body of Greece; and recommended to them, “not inconsiderately, to break off that connection by too hasty counsels; observing, that passionate and adventurous schemes, however flattering at first view, prove difficult in the execution, and disastrous in the issue: that, as the Roman ambassadors, and, among them, Titus Quintius, were within a small distance, it would be better, before any violent step was taken, to discuss, in amicable conference, any matters in dispute, than to rouse Europe and Asia to a dreadful war.”
XXXIII. The multitude, ever fond of novelty, warmly espoused the cause of Antiochus, and gave their opinion, that the Romans should not even be admitted into the council; but by the influence chiefly of the elder members, a vote was passed, that the council should give audience to the Romans. On being acquainted, by the Athenians, with this determination, Quintius resolved on going into Ætolia; for he thought that, “either he should be able to effect some change in their designs; or that it would be manifest to all mankind, that the blame of the war would lie on the Ætolians, and that the Romans would be warranted to take arms by justice, and, in a manner, by necessity.” On arriving there, Quintius, in his discourse to the council, began with the first formation of the alliance between the Romans and the Ætolians, and enumerated the many transgressions of the terms of the treaty, of which the latter had been guilty. He then enlarged a little on the rights of the states concerned in the dispute, and added, that, “notwithstanding, if they thought that they had any reasonable demand to make, it would surely be infinitely better to send ambassadors to Rome, whether they chose to argue the case, or to make a request to the senate, than that the Roman people should enter the lists with Antiochus, while the Ætolians acted as marshals of the field, an event which would cause a great convulsion in the affairs of the world, and the utter ruin of Greece.” He concluded with asserting, that “no people would feel the fatal consequences of such a war sooner than the first promoters of it.” This prediction of the Roman was disregarded. Thoas, and others of the same faction, were then heard, with general approbation; and they prevailed so far, that, without adjourning the meeting, or waiting for the absence of the Romans, the assembly passed a decree, that Antiochus should be invited to vindicate the liberty of Greece, and decide the dispute between the Ætolians and the Romans. To the insolence of this decree, their prætor, Damocratus, added a personal affront: for, on Quintius asking him for a copy of the decree, without any respect to the dignity of the person to whom he spoke, he told him, that “he had, at present, more pressing business to despatch; but he would shortly give him the decree, and an answer, in Italy, from his camp on the banks of the Tiber.” Such was the degree of madness which possessed, at that time, both the nation of the Ætolians, and their magistrates.
XXXIV. Quintius, and the ambassadors, returned to Corinth. The Ætolians, that they might not appear to depend merely on Antiochus, and to sit inactive, waiting for his arrival, though they did not, after the departure of the Romans, hold a general diet of the nation, yet endeavoured, by their Apocleti, (a more confidential council, composed of persons selected from the rest) to devise schemes for setting Greece in commotion. They were sensible, that in the several states the principal people, particularly those of the best characters, were disposed to maintain the Roman alliance, and well pleased with the present state of affairs; but that the populace, and especially such as were in needy circumstances, wished for a general revolution. The Ætolians, at one day’s sitting, formed a scheme, the very conception of which argued, not only boldness, but impudence — being no less than the making themselves masters of Demetrias, Chalcis, and Lacedæmon. One of their principal men was sent to each of these places; Thoas to Chalcis, Alexamenus to Lacedæmon, Diocles to Demetrias. This last was assisted by the exile Eurylochus, whose flight, and the cause of it, have been mentioned above, and who had no other prospect of being restored to his country. Eurylochus, by letter, instructed his friends and relations, and those of his own faction, to order his wife and children to assume a mourning dress; and, holding the badges of supplicants, to go into a full assembly, and to beseech each individual, and the whole body, not to suffer a man, who was innocent and uncondemned, to grow old in exile. The simple and unsuspecting were moved by compassion; the ill-disposed and seditious, by the hope of seeing all things thrown into confusion, in consequence of the tumults which the Ætolians would excite; and every one voted for his being recalled. These preparatory measures being effected, Diocles, at that time general of the horse, with all the cavalry, set out, under pretext of escorting to his home the exile, who was his guest. Having, during that day and the following night, marched an extraordinary length of way, and arrived within six miles of the city at the first dawn, he chose out three troops, at the head of which he went on, before the rest of the cavalry, whom he ordered to follow. When he came near the gate, he made all his men dismount, and lead their horses by the reins, without keeping their ranks, but like travellers on a journey, in order that they might appear to be the retinue of the general, rather than a military force. Here he left one troop at the gate, lest the cavalry, who were coming up, might be shut out: and then holding Eurylochus by the hand, conducted him to his house through the middle of the city and the Forum, and through crowds who met and congratulated him. In a little time the city was filled with horsemen, and convenient posts were seized; and then parties were sent to the houses of persons of the opposite faction, to put them to death. In this manner Demetrias fell into the hands of the Ætolians.
XXXV. The plan to be executed at Lacedæmon was, not to attempt the city by force, but to entrap the tyrant by stratagem. For though he had been stripped of the maritime towns by the Romans, and afterwards shut up within the walls of his city by the Achæans, they supposed that whoever took the first opportunity of killing him, would engross the whole thanks of the Lacedæmonians. The pretence which they had for sending to him, was, that he had long solicited assistance from them, since, by their advice, he had renewed the war. A thousand foot were put under the command of Alexamenus, with thirty horsemen, chosen from among the youth. These received a charge from Damocritus, the prætor, in the select council of the nation, mentioned above, “not to suppose that they were sent to act against the Achæans; or even on other business, which any might think he had discovered from his own conjectures. Whatever sudden enterprise circumstances might direct Alexamenus to undertake, that (however unexpected, rash, or daring) they were to hold themselves in readiness to execute with implicit obedience; and should understand that to be the matter, for the sole purpose of effecting which they had been sent abroad.” With these men, thus pre-instructed, Alexamenus came to the tyrant, and at his first arrival filled him with very flattering hopes; telling him, that “Antiochus had already come over into Europe; that he would shortly be in Greece, and would cover the lands and seas with men and arms: that the Romans would find that they had not Philip to deal with: that the numbers of the horsemen, footmen, and ships, could not be reckoned; and that the train of elephants, by their mere appearance, would effectually daunt the enemy; that the Ætolians were resolved to come to Lacedæmon with their entire force, whenever occasion required; but that they wished to show the king, on his arrival, a numerous body of troops: that Nabis himself, likewise, ought to take care not to suffer his soldiers to be enervated by inaction, and by spending their time in houses; but to lead them out, and make them perform their evolutions under arms, which, while it exercised their bodies, would also rouse their courage: that the labour would become lighter by practice, and might even be rendered not unpleasing by the affability and kindness of their commander.” Thenceforward, the troops used frequently to be drawn out under the walls of the city, in a plain near the river Eurotas. The tyrant’s life-guards were generally posted in the centre. He himself, attended by three horsemen at the most, of whom Alexamenus was commonly one, rode about in front, and went to view both wings to their extremities. On the right wing were the Ætolians; both those who had been before in his army as auxiliaries, and the thousand who came with Alexamenus. Alexamenus made it his custom to ride about with Nabis through a few of the ranks, making such remarks as he thought proper; then to join his own troops in the right wing, and presently after, as if having given the necessary orders, to return to the tyrant. But, on the day which he had fixed for the perpetration of the deed of death, after accompanying the tyrant for a little time, he withdrew to his own soldiers, and addressed the horsemen, sent from home with him, in these words: “Young men, you are now to perform, and that with boldness and resolution, the business which you were ordered to execute at my command. Have your courage and your hands ready, that none may fail to second me in whatever he sees me attempt. If any one shall hesitate, and let any scheme of his own interfere with mine, that man most certainly shall never return to his home.” Horror seized them all, and they well remembered the charge which they had received at setting out. Nabis was now coming from the left wing. Alexamenus ordered his horsemen to rest their lances, and keep their eyes fixed on him; and in the meantime he himself re-collected his spirits from the hurry into which they had been thrown by the thoughts of such a desperate attempt. As soon as the tyrant came near, he charged him; and driving his spear through his horse, brought the rider to the ground. All the horsemen aimed their lances at him as he lay, and after many ineffectual strokes against his coat of mail, their points at length penetrated his body, so that, before relief could be sent from the centre, he expired.
XXXVI. Alexamenus, with all the Ætolians, hastened away to seize on the palace. Nabis’s life-guards were at first struck with horror and dismay, the act being perpetrated before their eyes; then, when they observed the Ætolian troops leaving the place, they gathered round the tyrant’s body, where it was left, forming, instead of avengers of his death, a mere groupe of spectators. Nor would any one have stirred, if Alexamenus had immediately called the people to an assembly, there made a speech suitable to the occasion, and afterwards kept a good number of Ætolians in arms, without offering to commit any act of violence. Instead of which, by a fatality which ought to attend all designs founded in treachery, every step was taken that could tend to hasten the destruction of the actors in this villainous enterprise. The commander, shut up in the palace, wasted a day and a night in searching out the tyrant’s treasures; and the Ætolians, as if they had stormed the city, of which they wished to be thought the deliverers, betook themselves to plunder. The insolence of their behaviour, and, at the same time, contempt of their numbers, gave the Lacedæmonians courage to assemble in a body, when some said, that they ought to drive out the Ætolians, and resume their liberty which had been ravished from them at the very time when it seemed to be restored; others, that, for the sake of appearance, they ought to associate with them some one of the royal family, to give authority to their proceedings. There was a very young boy, of that family, named Laconicus, who had been educated with the tyrant’s children; him they mounted on a horse, and taking arms, slew all the Ætolians whom they met straggling through the city. They then assaulted the palace, where they killed Alexamenus, who, with a small party attempted resistance. Others of the Ætolians, who had collected together round the Chalciæcon, that is, the brazen temple of Minerva, were cut to pieces. A few, throwing away their arms, fled, some to Tegea, others to Megalopolis where they were seized by the magistrates, and sold as slaves. Philopæmen, as soon as he heard of the murder of the tyrant, went to Lacedæmon, where, finding all in confusion and consternation, he called together the principal inhabitants, to whom he addressed a discourse, (such as ought to have been made by Alexamenus,) which had so great an effect, that the Lacedæmonians joined the confederacy of the Achæans. To this they were the more easily persuaded, because, at that very juncture, Aulus Atilius happened to arrive at Gythium with twenty-four quinqueremes.
XXXVII. Meanwhile, Thoas, in his attempt on Chalcis, was not near so fortunate as Eurylochus had been in getting possession of Demetrias; although (by the intervention of Euthymidas, a man of considerable consequence, who, after the arrival of Titus Quintius and the ambassadors, had been banished by those who adhered to the Roman alliance; and also of Herodorus, who was a merchant of Cios, and who, by means of his wealth, possessed a powerful influence at Chalcis,) he had engaged a party, composed of Euthymidas’s faction, to betray the city into his hands. Euthymidas went from Athens, where he had fixed his residence, first to Thebes, and thence to Salganea; Herodorus to Thronium. At a small distance, on the Malian bay, Thoas had two thousand foot and two hundred horse, with thirty light transport ships. With these vessels, carrying six hundred footmen, Herodorus was ordered to sail to the island of Atalanta, that, as soon as he should perceive the land-forces approaching Aulis and the Euripus, he might pass over to Chalcis; to which place Thoas himself led the rest of his forces, marching mostly by night, and with all possible expedition.
XXXVIII. Mictio and Xenoclides, who were now, since the banishment of Euthymidas, at the head of affairs in that city, either of themselves suspected the matter, or received some information of it, and were at first so greatly terrified, that they saw no prospect of safety but in flight; but afterwards, when their fright subsided, and they considered that, by such a step, they would betray and desert not only their country, but the Roman alliance, they struck out the following plan. It happened that, at that very time, there was a solemn anniversary festival, celebrated at Eretria, in honour of Diana Amarynthis, which was always attended by great numbers, not only of the natives but also of the Carystians: thither they sent envoys to beseech the Eretrians and Carystians, “as having been born in the same isle, to compassionate their situation; and, at the same time, to show their regard to the friendship of Rome: not to suffer Chalcis to become the property of the Ætolians, who, if they once got that city into their power would soon possess themselves of all Eubœa: and to remind them, that they had found the Macedonians grievous masters, but that the Ætolians would be much more intolerable.” Those states were influenced chiefly by motives respecting the Romans, as they had lately experienced both the bravery in war, and the justice and liberality in success, which characterised that people. Both states, therefore, armed, and sent the main strength of their young men. To these the people of Chalcis entrusted the defence of the walls, and they themselves, with their whole force crossed the Euripes, and encamped at Salganea. From that place they despatched first a herald, and afterwards, ambassadors, to ask the Ætolians, for what word or act of theirs, friends and allies came thus to attack them. Thoas, commander of the Ætolians, answered, that “he came not to attack them, but to deliver them from the Romans: that they were fettered at present with a brighter chain indeed, but a much heavier one, than when they had a Macedonian garrison in their citadel.” The men of Chalcis replied, that “they were neither under bondage, nor in need of protection.” The ambassadors then withdrew from the meeting, and returned to their countrymen. Thoas and the Ætolians, (who had no other hopes than in a sudden surprise, and were by no means in a capacity to undertake a regular war, and the siege of a city so well secured against any attack from the land or the sea,) returned home. Euthymidas, on hearing that his countrymen were encamped at Salganea, and that the Ætolians had retired, went back from Thebes to Athens. Herodorus, after waiting several days at Atalanta, attentively watching for the concerted signal in vain, sent an advice-boat to learn the cause of the delay; and, understanding that the enterprise was abandoned by his associates, returned to Thronium.
XXXIX. Quintius, being informed of these proceedings, came with the fleet from Corinth, and met Eumenes, in the Euripus of Chalcis. It was agreed between them, that king Eumenes should leave there five hundred of his soldiers, as a garrison to the city, and should go himself to Athens. Quintius proceeded to Demetrias, as he had purposed from the first, hoping that the relief of Chalcis would prove a strong inducement to the Magnetians to renew the alliance with Rome. And, in order that such of them as favoured his views might have some support at hand, he wrote to Eunomus, prætor of the Thessalians, to arm the youth of his nation; sending Villius forward to Demetrias, to sound the inclinations of the people: for he was determined not to take any step in the business, unless a considerable number of them were disposed to revive the former treaty of amity. Villius, in a ship of five banks of oars, came to the mouth of the harbour, and the whole multitude of the Magnetians hastened out thither. Villius then asked, whether they chose that he should consider himself as having come to friends, or to enemies? Eurylochus, the Magnetarch, answered, that “he had come to friends: but desired him not to enter the harbour, but to suffer the Magnetians to live in freedom and harmony; and not to attempt, under the show of friendly converse, to seduce the minds of the populace.” Then followed an altercation, not a conference, the Roman upbraiding the Magnetians with ingratitude, and forewarning them of the calamities impending over them; the multitude, on the other side, clamorously reproaching him, and reviling, sometimes the senate, sometimes Quintius. Villius, therefore, unable to effect any part of his business, went back to Quintius, who despatched orders to the Thessalian prætor, to lead his troops home, while himself returned by sea to Corinth.
XL. I have let the affairs of Greece, blended with those of Rome, carry me away, as it were, out of the course; not that they were in themselves deserving of a recital, but because they gave rise to a war with Antiochus. After the consular election, for thence I digressed, the consuls, Lucius Quintius and Cneius Domitius repaired to their provinces, Quintius to Liguria, Domitius against the Boians. These latter kept themselves quiet; nay, the senators with their children, and the commanding officers of the cavalry, with their troops, amounting in all to one thousand five hundred, surrendered to the consul. The other consul laid waste the country of the Ligurians to a wide extent, and took some forts; in which expeditions he not only acquired booty of all sorts, together with many prisoners, but he also recovered several of his countrymen, and of the allies, who had been in the hands of the enemy. In this year a colony was settled at Vibo, in pursuance of a decree of the senate and an order of the people; three thousand seven hundred footmen, and three hundred horsemen, went out thither, conducted by the commissioners Quintus Nævius, Marcus Minucius, and Marcus Furius Crassipes. Fifteen acres of ground were assigned to each footman, double that quantity to a horseman. This land had been last in possession of the Bruttians, who had taken it from the Greeks. About this time two dreadful alarms happened at Rome, one of which continued long, but produced less mischief than the other. An earthquake lasted through thirty-eight days; during all which time there was a total cessation of business, so strong were people’s anxiety and fears. On account of this event, a supplication was performed of three days continuance. The other was not a mere fright, but attended with the loss of many lives. In consequence of a fire breaking out in the cattle market, the conflagration, among the houses near to the Tiber, continued through all that day and the following night, and all the shops with wares of very great value, were reduced to ashes.
XLI. The year was now almost at an end, while the rumours of impending hostility, and consequently, the anxiety of the senate, daily increased. They therefore set about adjusting the provinces of the magistrates elect, in order that they might all be the more attentive in their several departments. They decreed, that those of the consuls should be Italy, and whatever other place the senate should vote, for every one knew that a war against Antiochus was now a settled point. That he, to whose lot the latter province fell, should have under his command — of Roman citizens, four thousand foot and three hundred horse; and of the Latine confederates, six thousand foot and four hundred horse. The consul, Lucius Quintius, was ordered to levy these troops, that the new consul might have nothing to prevent his proceeding immediately to any place which the senate should appoint. Concerning the provinces of the prætors, also, it was decreed, that the first lot should comprehend the two jurisdictions, both that between natives, and that between them and foreigners; the second should be Bruttium; the third, the fleet; to sail wherever the senate should direct; the fourth Sicily, the fifth Sardinia; the sixth farther Spain. An order was also given to the consul Lucius Quintius, to levy two new legions of Roman citizens, and of the allies and Latines twenty thousand foot and eight hundred horse. This army they assigned to the prætor to whom should fall the province of Bruttium. Two temples were dedicated this year to Jupiter in the capitol; one of which had been vowed by Lucius Furius Purpureo, when prætor, during the Gallic war; the other by the same, when consul. Quintus Marcius Ralla, duumvir, dedicated both. Many severe sentences were passed this year on usurers, who were prosecuted by the curule ædiles, Marcus Tuccius and Publius Junius Brutus. Out of the fines imposed on those who were convicted, gilded chariots, with four horses, were placed in the recess of Jupiter’s temple in the capitol, over the canopy of the shrine, and also twelve gilded bucklers. The same ædiles built a portico on the outside of the Triple Gate, in the Carpenters-Square.
XLII. While the Romans were busily employed in preparing for a new war, Antiochus, on his part, was not idle. He was detained some time by three cities, Smyrna, Alexandria in Troas, and Lampsacus, which hitherto he had not been able either to reduce by force, or to persuade into a treaty of amity; and he was unwilling, on going into Europe, to leave these as enemies. The difficulty of forming a fixed determination respecting Hannibal occasioned him further delay. First, the open ships, which the king was to have sent with him to Africa, were not readily fitted out; and, afterwards doubts were raised, whether he ought to be sent at all. This was owing chiefly to Thoas, the Ætolian; who, after setting all Greece in commotion, came with the account of Demetrias being in the hands of his countrymen; and as he had, by false representations concerning the king, and multiplying in his assertions, the numbers of his forces, exalted the expectations of many in Greece; so now, by the same artifices, he puffed up the hopes of the king; telling him, that “every one, with earnest wishes, longed for his coming; and, that, wherever they got a view of the royal fleet, they would all run down to the shore to welcome him.” He even had the audacity to attempt altering the king’s judgment respecting Hannibal, when it was nearly settled. For he alleged, that, “the flect ought not to be weakened by sending away any part of it, but that, if ships must be sent, no person was less fit for the command than Hannibal; for he was an exile, and a Carthaginian; to whom his own circumstances, or his disposition, might daily suggest a thousand new schemes. Then, as to his military fame, which, like a large dowry, recommended him to notice, it was too splendid for an officer acting under Antiochus. The king ought to be the grand object of view; the king ought to appear the sole leader, the sole commander. If Hannibal should lose a fleet or an army, the amount of the damage would be the same as if the loss were incurred by any other general; but should success be obtained, all the honour would be ascribed to Hannibal. Besides, if the war should prove so fortunate as to terminate finally in the defeat of the Romans, could it be expected that Hannibal would live under a king; subject, in short, to an individual: he who could not brook subjection to the government of his own country? His conduct, from early youth, had been of a very different cast: for he was a man who grasped at nothing less than the dominion of the world. It was therefore not likely that, in his maturer age he would be able to endure a master. The king wanted not Hannibal as a general: as an attendant and a counsellor in the business of the war, he might properly employ him. A moderate use of such abilities would be neither unprofitable nor dangerous: but, if advantages of the highest nature were sought through him, the probable consequences would be the destruction both of the agent and the employer.”
XLIII. There are no dispositions more prone to envy than those of persons whose mental qualifications are inferior to their birth and rank in life; such always harbour an antipathy to merit, as a treasure in which they cannot share. The design of the expedition, to be commanded by Hannibal, the only one thought of that could be of use, in the beginning of the war, was immediately laid aside. The king, highly flattered by the defection of Demetrias from the Romans to the Ætolians, resolved to pass into Greece without farther delay. Before the fleet weighed anchor, he went up from the shore to Ilium, to offer sacrifice to Minerva. Immediately on his return, he set sail with forty decked ships and sixty open ones, followed by two hundred transports, laden with provisions and warlike stores. He first touched at the island of Imbrus; thence he passed over to Sciathus; whence, after collecting the ships which had been separated during the voyage, he proceeded to Pteleum, the nearest part of the continent. Here, Eurylochus the Magnetarch, and other principal Magnetians from Demetrias, met him. Being greatly gratified by their numerous appearance, he carried his fleet the next day into the harbour of their city. At a small distance from the town he landed his forces, which consisted of ten thousand foot, five hundred horse, and six elephants; a force scarcely sufficient to take possession of Greece if there were to be no foreign opposition, much less to withstand the armies of Rome. The Ætolians, as soon as they were informed of Antiochus’s arrival at Demetrias, convened a general council, and passed a decree, inviting him into their country. The king had already left Demetrias, (for he knew that such a decree was to be passed,) and had advanced as far as Phalera on the Malian bay. Here the decree was presented to him, and then he proceeded to Lamia, where he was received by the populace with marks of the warmest attachment, with clapping of hands and shouting, and other signs by which the vulgar express extravagant joy.
XLIV. When he came to the place where the council sat, he was introduced by Phæneas, the prætor, and other persons of eminence, who, with difficulty, made way for him through the crowd. Then, silence being ordered, the king addressed himself to the assembly. He began with accounting for his having come with a force, so much smaller than every one had hoped and expected. “That,” he said, “ought to be deemed the strongest proof of the warmth of his good will towards them; because, though he was not sufficiently prepared in any particular, and though the season was yet too early for sailing, he had, without hesitation, complied with the call of their ambassadors, and had believed, that, when the Ætolians should see him among them, they would be satisfied, that in him, even if he were unattended, they might be sure of every kind of support. But he would also abundantly fulfil the hopes of those, whose expectations seemed at present to be disappointed. For, as soon as the season of the year rendered navigation safe, he would cover all Greece with arms, men, and horses, and all its coasts with fleets. He would spare neither expense, nor labour, nor danger, until he should remove the Roman yoke from their necks, and render Greece really free, and the Ætolians the first among its states. That, together with the armies, stores of all kinds were to come from Asia. For the present, the Ætolians ought to take care that his men might be properly supplied with corn, and other accommodations, at reasonable rates.”
XLV. Such was the purport of the king’s discourse, which was received with universal approbation, and he then withdrew. After his departure, a warm debate ensued between two of the Ætolian chiefs, Phæneas and Thoas. Phæneas declared his opinion, that it would be better to employ Antiochus, as a mediator of peace, and an umpire respecting the matters in dispute with the Roman people, than as leader in a war. That “his presence, and his dignified station, would impress the Romans with awe, more powerfully than his arms. That in many cases, men, for the sake of avoiding war, remit pretensions, which force and arms would never compel them to forego.” Thoas, on the other hand, insisted, that “Phæneas’s motive was not a love of peace, but a wish to embarrass them in their preparations for war, with the view that, through the tediousness of the proceedings, the king’s vigour might be relaxed, and the Romans gain time to put themselves in readiness. That they had abundant proof from experience, after so many embassies sent to Rome, and so many conferences with Quintius in person, that nothing reasonable could ever be obtained from the Romans in the way of negotiation; and that they would not, until every hope of that sort was out of sight, have implored the aid of Antiochus. That, as he had appeared among them sooner than any had expected, they ought not to sink into indolence, but rather to petition the king, that, since he had come in person, which was the great point of all, to support the rights of Greece, he would also send for his fleets and armies. For the king, at the head of an army, might obtain something; but, without that, could have very little influence with the Romans, either in the cause of the Ætolians, or even in his own.” This opinion was adopted, and the council voted, that the title of general should be conferred on the king. They also nominated thirty of their number, as a council, with whom he might deliberate on business, when he should think proper. The council was then broken up, and all went home to their respective states.
XLVI. Next day, the king held a consultation with their select council, respecting the most eligible place for beginning his operations. They judged it best to make the first trial on Chalcis, which had lately been attempted, in vain, by the Ætolians; and they thought that the business required rather expedition than any great exertion or preparation. Accordingly the king, with a thousand foot, who had followed him from Demetrias, took his route through Phocis; and the Ætolian chiefs, going by another road, met, at Cheronæa, a small number of their young men, whom they had called to arms, and thence, in ten decked ships, proceeded after him. Antiochus pitched his camp at Salganea, while himself, with the Ætolian chiefs, crossed the Euripus in the ships. When he had advanced a little way from the harbour, the magistrates, and other chief men of Chalcis, came out before their gate. A small number, from each side, met to confer together. The Ætolians warmly recommended to the others, “without violating the friendship subsisting between them and the Romans, to receive the king also, as a friend and ally. For his coming into Europe was not for the purpose of making war, but of vindicating the liberty of Greece; and of vindicating it in reality, not in words and pretence merely, as the Romans had done. Nothing could be more advantageous to the states of Greece, than to possess the friendship of both those powers; as they would then be always secure against ill-treatment from either, under the guaranty and protection of the other. If they refused to receive the king, they ought to consider the immediate difficulties which they must encounter: the aid of the Romans being far distant, and Antiochus, whom with their own strength they could not possibly resist in character of an enemy at their gates.” To this Mictio, one of the Chalcian deputies, answered, that “he wondered who those people were, for the vindicating of whose liberty Antiochus had left his own kingdom, and come over into Europe. For his part, he knew not any state in Greece which either was awed by a garrison, or paid tribute to the Romans, or was bound by a disadvantageous treaty, and obliged to submit to terms which it did not like. The people of Chalcis, therefore, stood not in need, either of any assertor of their liberty, which they already enjoyed, or of any armed protector; since, through the kindness of the Roman people, they were in possession of both liberty and peace. They did not slight the friendship of the king, nor that of the Ætolians themselves. The first instance of friendship, therefore, that they could give, would be to quit the island and go home; for, as to themselves, they were fully determined, not only not to admit them within their walls, but not even to agree to any alliance, but with the approbation of the Romans.”
XLVII. When an account of this conference was brought to the king, at the ships, where he had staid, he resolved for the present to return to Demetrias; for he had not with him a sufficient number of men to attempt any thing by force. At Demetrias, he held another consulation with the Ætolians, to determine what was next to be done, as their first effort had proved fruitless. It was agreed that they should make trial of the Bœotians, Achæans, and Amynander, king of Athamania. The Bœotian nation they believed to be disaffected to the Romans, ever since the death of Brachyllas, and the consequences which attend it. Philopæmen, chief of the Achæans, they supposed to hate, and be hated by, Quintius, in consequence of a rivalship for fame in the war of Laconia. Amynander had married Apamia, daughter of a Megalopolitan, called Alexander, who, pretending to be descended from Alexander the Great, had given the names of Philip and Alexander to his two sons, and that of Apamia to his daughter; and when she was raised to distinction, by her marriage to the king, Philip, the elder of her brothers, followed her into Athamania. This man, who was naturally vain, the Ætolians and Antiochus persuaded to hope, that, as he was really of the royal family, he should be put in possession of the kingdom of Macedonia, on condition of his prevailing on Amynander and the Athamanians to join Antiochus; and these empty promises produced the intended effect, not only on Philip, but likewise on Amynander.
XLVIII. In Achaia, the ambassadors of Antiochus, and the Ætolians, were admitted to an audience of the council at Ægium, in the presence of Titus Quintius. The ambassador of Antiochus was heard prior to the Ætolians. He, with all that pomp and parade, which is common among those who are maintained in the courts of kings, covered, as far as the empty sound of words could go, both lands and seas with forces. He said, that “an innumerable body of cavalry was coming over the Hellespont into Europe; some of them cased in coats of mail, whom they call Cataphracti, others discharging arrows on horseback; and, what rendered it impossible to guard against them, shooting with the surest aim even when their backs were turned, and their horses in full gallop. To this army of cavalry, sufficient to crush the forces of all Europe, collected into one body,” he added another of infantry of many times its number; and to terrify them, repeated the names of nations scarcely ever heard of before: talking of Dahans, Medes, Elymæans, and Cadusians. “As to the naval forces, no harbours in Greece were capable of containing them; the right squadron was composed of Sidonians and Tyrians; the left of Aradians and Sidetians, from Pamphylia — nations which none others had ever equalled, either in courage, or skill in sea affairs. Then, as to money, and other requisites for the support of war, it was needless for him to speak. They themselves knew, that the kingdoms of Asia had always abounded in gold. The Romans, therefore, had not now to deal with Philip, or with Hannibal; the one a principal member of a commonwealth, the other confined merely to the limits of the kingdom of Macedonia: but with the great monarch of all Asia, and part of Europe. Nevertheless, though he had come to the remotest bounds of the East to give freedom to Greece, he did not demand any thing from the Achæans, that could injure the fidelity of their engagements with the Romans, their former friends and allies. For he did not require them to take arms on his side against them; but only, that they should not join themselves to either party. That, as became common friends, they should wish for peace to both parties, and not intermeddle in the war.” Archidamus, ambassador of the Ætolians, made nearly the same request: that, as was their easiest and safest way, they should stand neuter; and, as mere spectators of the war, wait for the issue, which would affect only the interest of others, while their own affairs were exposed to no manner of hazard. He afterwards allowed himself to be transported into such intemperance of language, as to utter invectives, sometimes against the Romans in general, sometimes against Quintius himself in particular; charging them with ingratitude, and upbraiding them, as being indebted to the valour of the Ætolians, not only for the victory over Philip, but even for their preservation; for, “by their exertions, both Quintius himself and his army had been saved. What duty of a commander had he ever discharged? He used to see him, indeed, in the field, taking auspices; sacrificing and offering vows, like an insignificant soothsaying priest; while he himself was, in his defence, exposing his person to the weapons of the enemy.”
XLIX. To this Quintius replied, that “Archidamus had calculated his discourse for the numerous auditors, rather than for the persons to whom it was particularly addressed. For the Achæans very well knew, that the bold spirit of the Ætolians consisted entirely in words, not in deeds; and was more displayed in their councils and assemblies than in the field He had therefore been indifferent concerning the sentiments of the Achæans, to whom he and his countrymen were conscious that they were thoroughly known; and studied to recommend himself to the king’s ambassadors, and, through them, to their absent master. But, if any person had been hitherto ignorant of the cause which had effected a junction between Antiochus and the Ætolians, it was easy to discover it from the language of their ambassadors. By the false representations made by both parties, and boasts of strength which neither possessed, they mutually puffed up each other, and were themselves puffed up with vain expectations: one party talking of Philip being vanquished by them, the Romans being protected by their valour, and the rest of what you have just heard; and that you, and the other states and nations, would follow their lead. The king, on the other side, boasting of clouds of horsemen and footmen, and covering the seas with his fleets. Their representations,” he added, “are exceedingly like a supper that I remember at the house of my host at Chalcis, who is both a man of worth, and an excellent conductor of a feast. He gave a cheerful entertainment to a party of us at midsummer; and on our wondering how he could, at that time of the year, procure such plenty and variety of game, he, not being so vain-glorious as these men, told us, with a pleasant smile, that the variety was owing to the dressing, and that what appeared to be the flesh of many different wild animals, was entirely of tame swine. This may be aptly applied to the forces of the king, so ostentatiously displayed a while ago; that those men, in various kinds of armour, and nations, whose names were never mentioned before, Dahans and Medes, and Cadusians, and Elymæans, are nothing more than Syrians, a race possessed of such grovelling souls, as to be much fitter for slaves than for soldiers. I wish, Achæans, that I could exhibit to your view the rapid excursions of this mighty monarch from Demetrias; first, to Lamia, to the council of the Ætolians: then to Chalcis. I would show you, in the royal camp, about the number of two small legions, and these incomplete. You should see the king, now, in a manner begging corn from the Ætolians, to be measured out to his soldiers; then, striving to borrow money at interest to pay them; again, standing at the gates of Chalcis; and presently, on being refused admittance, returning thence into Ætolia, without having effected any thing, except indeed the taking a peep at Aulis and the Euripus. Both have been duped: Antiochus by the Ætolians, and the Ætolians by the king’s vain and empty boastings. For which reason, you ought to be the more on your guard against their deceptions, and rather to confide in the tried and approved fidelity of the Romans. For, with respect to a neutrality, which they recommend as your wisest plan, nothing, in fact, can be more contrary to your interest: for the inevitable consequence must be, that, without gaining thanks or esteem from either, you will become a prey to the conqueror.”
L. His arguments, in opposition to both, were deemed conclusive; and there was no difficulty in bringing an audience, prepossessed in his favour, to give their approbation to his discourse. In fact, there was no debate or doubt started, but all concurred in voting, that the nation of the Achæans would treat, as their friends or foes, those who were judged to be such by the Roman people, and in ordering war to be declared against both Antiochus and the Ætolians. They also, by the direction of Quintius, sent immediate succours of five hundred men to Chalcis, and five hundred to the Piræus; for affairs at Athens were in a state, not far from a civil war, in consequence of the endeavours, used by some, to seduce the venal populace, by hopes of largesses, to take part with Antiochus. But at length Quintius was called thither by those who were of the Roman party; and Apollodorus, the principal adviser of a revolt, being publicly charged therewith by one Leon, was condemned and driven into exile. Thus, from the Achæans also, the king’s embassy returned with a discouraging answer. The Bœotians made no explicit declaration; they only said, that “when Antiochus should come into Bœotia, they would then deliberate on the measures proper to be pursued.” When Antiochus heard, that both the Achæans and king Eumenes had sent reinforcements to Chalcis, he resolved to act with the utmost expedition, that his troops might get the start of them, and, if possible, intercept the others as they came; and he sent thither Menippus, with about three thousand soldiers, and Polyxenidas with the whole fleet. In a few days after, he marched himself, at the head of six thousand of his own soldiers, and a smaller number of Ætolians, as many as could be collected in haste, out of those who were at Lamia. The five hundred Achæans, and a small party sent by king Eumenes, being guided by Xenoclides, of Chalcis, (the roads being yet open,) crossed the Euripus, and arrived at Chalcis in safety. The Roman soldiers, who were likewise about five hundred, came, after Menippus had fixed his camp under Salganea, at Hermæus, the place of passage from Bœotia to the island of Eubœa. They had with them Mictio, who had been sent express from Chalcis to Quintius, to solicit the reinforcement; and when he perceived that the passes were blocked up by the enemy, he quitted the road to Aulis, and turned away to Delium, with intent to pass over thence to Eubœa.
LI. Delium is a temple of Apollo, standing over the sea, five miles distant from Tanagra; and the passage thence, to the nearest part of Eubœa, is less than four miles. As they were in this sacred building and grove, sanctified with all that religious awe and those privileges which belong to temples, called by the Greeks asylums, (war not being yet either proclaimed, or so far commenced as that they had heard of swords being drawn, or blood shed any where,) the soldiers, in perfect tranquillity, amused themselves, some with viewing the temple and groves; others with walking about, unarmed, on the strand; and a great part had gone different ways in quest of wood and forage; when on a sudden, Menippus attacked them in that scattered condition, slew many, and took fifty of them prisoners. Very few made their escape, among whom was Mictio, who was received on board a small trading vessel. Though this event caused much grief to Quintius and the Romans, on account of the loss of their men, yet it tended greatly to the justification of their cause in making war on Antiochus. Antiochus, when arrived with his army so near as Aulis, sent again to Chalcis a deputation, composed partly of his own people, and partly of Ætolians, to treat on the same grounds as before, but with heavier denunciations of vengeance: and, notwithstanding all the efforts of Mictio and Xenoclides to the contrary, he carried his point, and the gates were opened to him. Those who adhered to the Roman interest, on the approach of the king, withdrew from the city. The soldiers of the Achæans, and Eumenes, held Salganea; and the few Romans who had escaped, raised, for the security of the place, a little fort on the Euripus. Menippus laid siege to Salganea, and the king himself to the fort. The Achæans and Eumenes’ soldiers first surrendered, on the terms of being allowed to retire in safety. The Romans defended their fortress with more obstinacy. But even these, when they found themselves completely invested both by land and sea, and saw the machines and engines prepared for an assault, could hold out no longer. The king, having thus got possession of the capital of Eubœa, the other cities of the island did not even attempt resistance; and he seemed to himself to have signalized the commencement of the war by an important acquisition, in having brought under his power so great an island, and so many cities so conveniently situated.
Manius Acilius Glabrio, consul, aided by King Philip, defeats Antiochus at Thermopylæ, and drives him out of Greece; reduces the Ætolians to sue for peace. Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica reduces the Boian Gauls to submission. Sea-fight between the Roman fleet and that of Antiochus, in which the Romans are victorious.
Y. R. 561.
191.I.Publius Cornelius Scipio, son of Cneius, and Manius Acilius Glabrio,
consuls on their assuming the administration, were ordered by the senate, before they settled any thing respecting
their provinces, to perform sacrifices, with victims of the greater kinds, at all the shrines where the lectisternium
was usually celebrated for the greater part of the year; and to offer prayers, that the business which the state had in
contemplation, concerning a new war, might terminate prosperously and happily for the senate and people of Rome. At
every one of those sacrifices, appearances were favourable, and the propitious omens were found in the first victims.
Accordingly, the haruspices gave this answer:— That, by this war, the boundaries of the Roman empire would be enlarged;
and that victory and triumph were portended. When this answer was reported, the senate, having their minds now freed
from every religious scruple, ordered this question to be proposed to the people: “Was it their will, and did they
order, that war should be undertaken against king Antiochus, and all who should join his party?” And that, if that
order passed, then the consuls were, if they thought proper, to lay the business entire before the senate. Publius
Cornelius got the order passed; and then the senate decreed, that the consuls should cast lots for the provinces of
Italy and Greece; that he, to whose lot Greece fell, should, in addition to the number of soldiers enlisted and raised
from the allies by Quintius for that province, pursuant to a decree of the senate, take under his command that army,
which, in the preceding year, Marcus Bæbius, prætor, had, by order of the senate, carried over to Macedonia. Permission
was also granted him, to receive succours from the allies, out of Italy, if circumstances should so require, provided
their number did not exceed five thousand. It was resolved, that Lucius Quintius, consul of the former year, should be
commissioned as lieutenant-general in that war. The other consul, to whom Italy fell, was ordered to carry on the war
with the Boians, with whichever he should choose of the two armies commanded by the consuls of the last year; and to
send the other to Rome; and these were ordered to be the city legions, and ready to march to whatever place the senate
should direct.
II. Things being thus adjusted in the senate, excepting the assignment of his particular province to each of the magistrates, the consuls were ordered to cast lots. Greece fell to Acilius, Italy to Cornelius. The lot of each being now determined, the senate passed a decree, that “inasmuch as the Roman people had ordered war to be declared against king Antiochus, and those who were under his government, the consuls should command a supplication to be performed, on account of that business; and that Manius Acilius, consul, should vow the great games to Jupiter, and offerings at all the shrines.” This vow was made by the consul in these words, which were dictated by Publius Licinius, chief pontiff: “If the war, which the people has ordered to be undertaken against king Antiochus, shall be concluded agreeably to the wishes of the senate and people of Rome, then, O Jupiter, the Roman people will, through ten successive days, exhibit the great games in honour of thee, and offerings shall be presented at all the shrines, of such value as the senate shall direct. Whatever magistrate shall celebrate those games, and at whatever time and place, let the celebration be deemed proper, and the offerings rightly and duly made.” The two consuls then proclaimed a supplication for two days. When the consuls had determined their provinces by lots, the prætors, likewise, immediately cast lots for theirs. The two civil jurisdictions fell to Marcus Junius Brutus; Bruttium, to Aulus Cornelius Mammula; Sicily, to Marcus Æmilius Lepidus; Sardinia, to Lucius Oppius Salinator: the fleet, to Caius Livius Salinator; and farther Spain, to Lucius Æmilius Paullus. The troops for these were settled thus:— to Aulus Cornelius were assigned the new soldiers, raised last year by Lucius Quintius, consul, pursuant to the senate’s decree; and he was ordered to defend the whole coast near Tarentum and Brundusium. Lucius Æmilius Paullus was directed to take with him into farther Spain, (to fill up the numbers of the army, which he was to receive from Marcus Fulvius, pro-prætor,) three thousand new raised foot, and three hundred horse, of whom two-thirds should be Latine allies, and the other third Roman citizens. An equal reinforcement was sent to hither Spain, to Caius Flaminius, who was continued in command. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus was ordered to receive both the province and army from Lucius Valerius, whom he was to succeed, and, if he thought proper, to retain Lucius Valerius, as proprætor, in the province, which he was to divide with him in such a manner, that one division should reach from Agrigentum to Pachynum, and the other from Pachynum to Tyndarium, the sea-coasts whereof Lucius Valerius was to protect with a fleet of twenty ships of war. The same prætor received a charge to levy two tenths of corn, and to take care that it should be carried to the coast, and thence conveyed into Greece. Lucius Oppius was likewise commanded to levy a second tenth in Sardinia; but with directions that it should be transported, not into Greece, but to Rome. Caius Livius, the prætor, whose lot was the command of the fleet, was ordered to sail directly to Greece with thirty ships, which were ready, and to receive the other fleet from Atilius. The prætor Marcus Junius was commissioned to refit and arm the old ships which were in the dock-yards; and, for the manning of these, to enlist the sons of freemen as seamen.
III. Commissaries were sent into Africa, three to Carthage, and a like number to Numidia, to procure corn to be carried into Greece; for which the Roman people were to pay the value. And so particularly attentive was the state to the making of every preparation and provision necessary for the carrying on of this war, that the consul, Publius Cornelius, published an edict, that “no senator, nor any who had the privilege of giving an opinion in the senate, nor any of the inferior magistrates, should go so far from the city of Rome as that they could not return the same day; and that not more than five of the senators should be absent at the same time.” The exertions of the prætor, Caius Livius, in fitting out the fleet, were for some time retarded by a dispute which arose with the maritime colonies. For, when he insisted on their manning the ships, they appealed to the tribunes of the people, by whom the cause was referred to the senate. The senate, without one dissenting voice, resolved, that those colonies were not entitled to exemption from the sea-service. The colonies which disputed this point with the prætor were, Ostia, Fregenæ, Castrumnovum, Pyrgi, Antium, Tarracina, Minturnæ, and Sinuessa. The consul, Manius Acilius, then, by direction of the senate, consulted the college of heralds, “whether a declaration of war should be made to Antiochus in person, or whether it would be sufficient to declare it at some of his garrison towns; whether they directed a separate declaration against the Ætolians, and whether their alliance and friendship ought not to be renounced before war was declared.” The heralds answered, that “they had given their judgment before, when they were consulted respecting Philip, that it was of no consequence whether the declaration were made to himself in person, or at one of his garrisons. That, in their opinion, friendship had been already renounced; because, after their ambassadors had so often demanded restitution, the Ætolians had not thought proper to make either restitution or apology. That these, by their own act, had made a declaration of war against themselves, when they seized, by force, Demetrias, a city in alliance with Rome; when they laid siege to Chalcis by land and sea; and brought king Antiochus into Europe, to make war on the Romans.” Every preparatory measure being now completed, the consul Manius Acilius issued an edict, that “the soldiers enlisted or raised from among the allies by Titus Quintius, and who were under orders to go with him to his province; as, likewise, the military tribunes of the first and third legions, should assemble at Brundusium, on the ides of May.”* He himself, on the fifth before the nones of May,† set out from the city in his military robe of command. The prætors, likewise, departed for their respective provinces.
IV. A little before this time, ambassadors came to Rome from the two kings, Philip of Macedonia, and Ptolemy of Egypt, offering aid of men, money, and corn, towards the support of the war. From Ptolemy was brought a thousand pounds weight of gold, and twenty thousand pounds weight of silver. None of this was accepted. Thanks were returned to the kings. Both of them offered to come, with their whole force, into Ætolia. Ptolemy was excused from that trouble; and Philip’s ambassadors were answered, that the senate and people of Rome would consider it as a kindness if he lent his assistance to the consul Manius Acilius. Ambassadors came, likewise, from the Carthaginians, and from king Masinissa. The Carthaginians made an offer of sending a thousand pecks* of wheat, and five hundred thousand of barley to the army, and half that quantity to Rome, which they requested the Romans to accept from them as a present. They also offered to fit out a fleet at their own expense, and to give in, immediately, the whole amount of the annual tribute-money which they were bound to pay for many years to come. The ambassadors of Masinissa promised, that their king should send five hundred thousand pecks of wheat, and three hundred thousand of barley, to the army in Greece, and three hundred thousand of wheat, and two hundred and fifty thousand of barley, to Rome; also five hundred horse, and twenty elephants, to the consul Acilius. The answer given to both, with regard to the corn, was, that the Roman people would make use of it, provided they would receive payment for the same. With regard to the fleet offered by the Carthaginians, no more was accepted than such ships as they owed by treaty; and, as to the money, they were told, that none would be taken before the regular days of payment.
V. While affairs at Rome proceeded in this manner, Antiochus, during the winter season at Chalcis, endeavoured to bring over several of the states by ambassadors sent among them; while many of their own accord sent deputies to him; as the Epirots, by the general voice of the nation, and the Eleans from Peloponnesus. The Eleans requested aid against the Achæans; for they supposed, that, since the war had been declared against Antiochus contrary to their judgment, the Achæans would first turn their arms against them. One thousand foot were sent to them, under the command of Euphanes, a Cretan. The embassy of the Epirots showed no mark whatever of a liberal or candid disposition. They wished to ingratiate themselves with the king; but, at the same time, to avoid giving cause of displeasure to the Romans. They requested him, “not hastily, to make them a party in the dispute, exposed, as they were, opposite to Italy, and in the front of Greece, where they must necessarily undergo the first assaults of the Romans. If he himself, with his land and sea-forces, could take charge of Epirus, the inhabitants would joyfully receive him in all their ports and cities. But if circumstances allowed him not to do that, then they earnestly entreated him not to subject them, naked and defenceless, to the arms of the Romans.” Their intention in sending him this message evidently was, that if he declined going into Epirus, which they rather supposed would be the case, they stood clear of all blame with regard to the Romans, while they sufficiently recommended themselves to the king by their willingness to receive him on his coming; and that, on the other hand, if he should come, even then they were not without hopes of being pardoned by the Romans, for having yielded to the strength of a prince who was in the heart of their country, without waiting for succour from them, who were so far distant. To this evasive embassy, as he did not readily think of a proper answer, he replied, that he would send ambassadors to confer upon such matters as were of common concernment both to him and them.
VI. Antiochus went himself into Bœotia, where the ostensible causes held out, for the public resentment to the Romans were those already mentioned: the death of Brachyllas, and the attack made by Quintius on Coronea, on account of the massacre of the Roman soldiers; while the real ones were, that the former excellent policy of that nation, with respect both to public and private concerns, had, for several geerations, been on the decline; and that great numbers were in such circumstances, that they could not long subsist without some change in affairs. Through multitudes of the principal Bœotians, who every where flocked out to meet him, he arrived at Thebes. There, notwithstanding that he had (both at Delium, by the attack made on the Roman troops, and also at Chalcis) already commenced hostilities, by enterprises of neither a trifling nor of a dubious nature, yet in a general council of the nation, he delivered a speech of the same import with that which he delivered in the first conference at Chalcis, and that used by his ambassadors in the council of the Achæans; that “what he required of them was, to form a league of friendship with him, not to declare war against the Romans.” But not a man among them was ignorant of his meaning. However, a decree, disguised under a slight covering of words, was passed in his favour against the Romans. After securing this nation also on his side, he returned to Chalcis; and, having despatched letters summoning the chief Ætolians to meet him at Demetrias, that he might deliberate with them on the general plan of operations, he went thither by sea. Amynander, likewise, was called from Athamania to the consultation; and Hannibal, who for a long time before, had not been asked to attend, was present at this assembly. The subject of their deliberation was, the mode of conduct proper to be pursued towards the Thessalian nation; and every one present was of opinion, that it was necessary to obtain their concurrence. The only points on which opinions differed were, that some thought the attempt ought to be made immediately; while others judged it better to defer it for the winter season, which was then about half spent, until the beginning of spring. Some advised to send ambassadors; others, that the king should go at the head of all his forces, and, if they hesitated, terrify them into compliance.
VII. Although the present debate turned chiefly on these points, Hannibal, being called on by name to give his opinion, led the king, and those who were present, into the consideration of the general conduct of the war, by a speech to this effect:—“If I had been employed in your councils since we came first into Greece, when you were consulting about Eubœa, the Achæans, and Bœotia, I would have offered the same advice which I shall offer you this day, when your thoughts are employed about the Thessalians. My opinion is, that, above all things, Philip and the Macedonians should, by some means or other, be engaged to act as confederates in this war. For, as to Eubœa, as well as the Bœotians and Thessalians, is it not perfectly clear, that, having no strength of their own, they will ever court the power that is present; and will make use of the same fear, which governs their councils, as an argument for obtaining pardon? That, as soon as they shall see a Roman army in Greece they will change sides, and attach themselves to that government, to which they have been accustomed? Nor are they to blame, if, when the Romans were at so great a distance, they did not choose to try your force, and that of your army, who were on the spot. How much more advisable, therefore, and more advantageous would it be, to unite Philip to us, than these; as, if he once embarks in the cause, he will have no room for retreat, and as he will bring with him such a force, as will not only be an accession to a power at war with Rome, but was able, lately, of itself, to withstand the Romans? With such an ally, (I wish to speak without offence,) how could I harbour a doubt about the issue? When I should see the very persons who enabled the Romans to overcome Philip, now ready to act against them? The Ætolians, who, as all agree, conquered Philip, will fight in conjunction with Philip against the Romans. Amynander and the Athamanian nation, who, next to the Ætolians, performed the greatest services in that war, will stand on our side. The Macedonian, at the time when you remained inactive, sustained the whole burden of the war. Now, you and he, two of the greatest kings, will, with the force of Asia and Europe, wage war against one state; which, to say nothing of my own contests with them, either prosperous or adverse, was certainly, in the memory of our fathers, unequal to a dispute with a single king of Epirus; what then, I say, must it be in competition with you two? But it may be asked, what circumstances, induce me to believe that Philip may be brought to an union with us? First, common utility; which is the strongest cement of union; and next, my reliance, Ætolians, on your veracity. For Thoas, your ambassador, among the other arguments which he used to urge, for the purpose of drawing Antiochus into Greece, always laid particular stress on this assertion; that Philip expressed extreme indignation at being reduced to the condition of a slave under the appearance of conditions of peace; comparing the king’s anger to that of a wild beast chained, or shut up, and wishing to break the bars that confined it. Now, if his temper of mind is such, let us loose his chains, let us break these bars, that he may vent, upon the common foe, this anger so long pent up. But should our embassy fail of producing any effect on him, let us then take care, that if we cannot unite him to ourselves, he may not be united to our enemies. Your son, Seleucus, is at Lysimachia; and if, with the army which he has there, he shall pass through Thrace, and once begin to make depredations on the nearest parts of Macedonia, he will effectually divert Philip from carrying aid to the Romans, and will oblige him to endeavour, in the first place, to protect his own dominions. Thus much respecting Philip. With regard to the general plan of the war, you have, from the beginning, been acquainted with my sentiments; and if my advice had been listened to, the Romans would not now hear that Chalcis in Eubœa was taken, and a fort on the Euripus reduced; but that Etruria, and the whole coast of Liguria and Cisalpine Gaul, were in a blaze of war; and, what would strike more terror into them thau all, that Hannibal was in Italy. Even as matters stand at present, I recommend it to you, to call home all your land and sea forces; let store-ships with provisions follow the fleet: for, as we are here too few for the exigences of the war, so are we too many for the scanty supplies of necessaries. When you shall have collected together the whole of your force, you will divide the fleet, and keep one division stationed at Corcyra, that the Romans may not have a clear and safe passage; and the other you will send to the coast of Italy, opposite Sardinia and Africa; while you yourself, with all the land forces, will proceed to the territory of Byllium. In this position you will hold the command of all Greece; you will give the Romans reason to think, that you intend to sail over to Italy; and you will be in readiness so to do, if occasion require. This is my advice: and though I may not be the most skilful in every kind of wartare, yet surely I must be allowed to have learned, in a long series of both good and bad fortune, how to wage war against the Romans. For the execution of the measures which I have advised, I offer you my most faithful and zealous endeavours. Whatever plan you shall prefer, may the gods grant it their approbation.”
VIII. Such, nearly, was the counsel given by Hannibal, which the hearers commended indeed at the time, but never carried into effect. For not one article of it was executed, except the sending Polyxenidas to bring over the fleet and army from Asia. Ambassadors were sent to Larissa, to the diet of the Thessalians. The Ætolians and Amynander appointed a day for the assembling of their troops at Pheræ, and the king, with his forces, came thither immediately. While he waited there for Amynander and the Ætolians, he sent Philip, the Megalopolitan, with two thousand men, to collect the bones of the Macedonians round Cynoscephalæ, where had been fought the battle which decided the war with king Philip; being advised to this, either in order to gain favour with the Macedonians, and draw their displeasure on the king for having left his soldiers unburied: or having of himself, through the spirit of vain-glory incident to kings, conceived such a design — splendid, indeed, in appearance, but really insignificant. There is a mount there formed of the bones which had been scattered about, and were then collected into one heap. Although this step procured him no thanks from the Macedonians, yet it excited the heaviest displeasure of Philip; in consequence of which, he, who had hitherto intended to regulate his counsels by the fortune of events, now sent instantly a messenger to the proprætor, Marcus Bæbius, to inform him that “Antiochus had made an irruption into Thessaly; and to request of Bæbius, if he thought proper, to move out of his winter-quarters; which if he did, he himself would advance to meet him, that they might consider together what was proper to be done.”
IX. While Antiochus lay encamped near Pheræ, where the Ætolians and Amynander had joined him, ambassadors came to him from Larissa, desiring to know on account of what acts or words of theirs, he had made war on the Thessalians; at the same time requesting him to withdraw his army; and, if he had conceived any reason of disagreement, to discuss it amicably by commissioners. In the mean time, they sent five hundred soldiers, under the command of Hippolochus, to re-inforce Pheræ; but these, being debarred of access by the king’s troops, who blocked up all the roads, retired to Scotussa. The king answered the Larissan ambassadors in mild terms, that “he came into their country, not with a design of making war, but of protecting and establishing the liberty of the Thessalians.” He sent a person to make a similar declaration to the people of Pheræ, who, without giving him any answer, sent to the king, in quality of ambassador, Pausanias, the first magistrate of their state. He offered remonstrances of a similar kind with those which had been urged in behalf of the people of Chalcis, at the first conference, on the streight of the Euripus, as the cases were similar, and he even proceeded to a greater degree of boldness; on which the king desired that they would consider seriously, before they adopted a resolution, which, while they were over-cautious and provident of futurity, would give them immediate cause of repentance; and then dismissed him. When the Pheræans were acquainted with the result of this embassy, without the smallest hesitation, they determined to endure whatever the fortune of war might bring on them, rather than violate their engagements with the Romans. They accordingly exerted their utmost efforts to provide for the defence of the place, while the king, on his part, resolved to assail the walls on every side at once; and considering, what was evidently the case, that it depended on the fate of this city, the first which he had besieged, whether he should for the future be despised, or dreaded, by the whole nation of the Thessalians, he put in practice, every where, all possible means of striking them with terror. The first fury of the assault they supported with great firmness; but in some time, great numbers of their men being either slain or wounded, their resolution began to fail. However, they were soon so far reanimated by the rebukes of their leaders, as to resolve on persevering in their resistance; and having abandoned the exterior circle of the wall, for the defence of which their numbers were now insufficient, they withdrew to the interior part of the city, round which had been raised a fortification of less extent. At last, being overcome by distresses of every kind, and fearing that, if they were taken by storm, they might meet no mercy from the conqueror, they capitulated. The king then lost no time; but, while the alarm was fresh, sent four thousand men against Scotussa, which surrendered without delay, the garrison taking warning from the recent example of those in Pheræ; who, notwithstanding their obstinate refusal at first, were at length compelled by sufferings to submit. Together with the town, Hippolochus and the Larissan garrison were yielded to him, all of whom he dismissed unhurt; hoping that such behaviour would operate powerfully towards conciliating the esteem of the Larissans.
X. Having accomplished all this within the space of ten days after his arrival at Pheræ, he marched, with his whole force, to Cranon, which submitted on his first approach. He then took Cypæra and Metropolis, and the forts in their neighbourhood; and now every town, in all that tract, was in his power, except Atrax and Gyrton. He next resolved to lay siege to Larissa, for he hoped that (either through dread inspired by the storming of the other towns, or in consideration of his kindness in dismissing the troops of their garrison, or being led by the example of so many cities surrendering themselves,) they would now lay aside their obstinacy. Having ordered the elephants to advance in front of the battalions, for the purpose of striking terror, he approached the city with his army in order of battle; which had such an effect on a great number of the Larissans, that they became irresolute and perplexed, between their fears of the enemy at their gates, and their respect for their distant allies. Meantime, Amynander, with the Athamanian troops, seized on Pellinæus, while Menippus, with three thousand Ætolian foot and two hundred horse, marched into Perrhæbia, where he took Mallæa and Cyretia by assault, and ravaged the lands of Tripolis. After executing these enterprises with despatch, they marched back to Larissa, where they joined the king, just when he was holding a council on the method of proceeding with regard to that place. On this occasion there were opposite opinions: for some thought that force should be applied; that there was no time to be lost, but that the walls should be immediately attacked with works and machines on all sides at once; especially as the city stood in a plain, the entrances open, and the approaches every where level. While others represented at one time the strength of the city, greater beyond comparison than that of Pheræ; at another, the approach of the winter season, unfit for any operation of war, much more so for besieging and assaulting cities. While the king’s judgment hung in suspense between hope and fear, his courage was raised by ambassadors happening to arrive just at the time from Pharsalus, to make surrender of the same. In the meantime Marcus Bæbius had a meeting with Philip in Dassaretia, and, in conformity to their joint opinion, sent Appius Claudius to re-inforce Larissa, who, making long marches through Macedonia, arrived at that summit of the mountains which overhang Gonni. The town of Gonni is twenty miles distant from Larissa, standing at the opening of the valley called Tempe. Here, by enlarging the extent of his camp beyond what his numbers required, and kindling more fires than were necessary, he imposed on the enemy the opinion which he wished, that the whole Roman army was there, and king Philip along with them. Antiochus, therefore, pretending the near approach of winter as his motive, staid but one day longer, then withdrew from Larissa, and returned to Demetrias. The Ætolians and Athamanians retired to their respective countries. Appius, although he saw that, by the siege being raised, the purpose of his commission was fulfilled, yet resolved to go down to Larissa, to strengthen the resolution of the allies against future contingences. Thus the Larissans enjoyed a twofold happiness, from the departure of the enemy out of their country, and from seeing a Roman garrison in their city.
XI. Antiochus went from Demetrias to Chalcis; where he became captivated with a young woman, daughter of Cleoptolemus. Her father was unwilling to enter into a connexion which might probably involve him in difficulties, until at length, by messages, and afterwards by personal importunities, he gained his consent; and then he celebrated his nuptials in the same manner as if it were a time of profound peace. Forgetting the two important undertakings in which he was engaged — the war with Rome, and the liberating of Greece — he banished every thought of business from his mind, and spent the remainder of winter in feasting and carousals; and when fatigued, rather than cloyed, with these, in sleep. The same spirit of dissipation seized all his officers, who commanded in the several winter-quarters, particularly those stationed in Bœotia, and even the common men abandoned themselves to the same indulgences; not one of whom ever put on his armour, or kept watch or guard, or did any part of the duty or business of a soldier. This was carried to such a length, that when, in the beginning of spring, the king came through Phocis to Cheronæa, where he had appointed the general assembly of all the troops, he perceived at once that the discipline of the army during the winter had not been more rigid than that of their commander. He ordered Alexander, an Acarnanian, and Menippus, a Macedonian, to lead his forces thence to Stratum, in Ætolia; and he himself, after offering sacrifice to Apollo at Delphi, proceeded to Naupactum. After holding a council of the chiefs of Ætolia; he went by the road which leads by Chalcis and Lysimachia to Stratum, to meet his army which was coming along the Malian bay. Mnesilochus, a man of distinction among the Acarnanians, being bribed by many presents, not only laboured himself to dispose that nation in favour of the king, but had brought to a concurrence in the design, their prætor, Clytus, who was at the time invested with the highest authority. This latter, finding that the people of Leucas, the capital of Acarnania, could not be easily prevailed on to violate their former engagements, because they were afraid of the Roman fleets, one under Atilius, and another at Cephallenia, practised an artifice against them. He observed in the council, that the inland parts of Acarnania should be guarded from danger, and that all who were able to bear arms ought to march out to Medio and Thurium, to prevent those places from being seized by Antiochus, or the Ætolians; on which some said, that there was no occasion to call out all the people in that hasty manner, for a body of five hundred men would be sufficient for the purpose. Having got this number of soldiers at his disposal, he placed three hundred in garrison at Medio, and two hundred at Thurium, with the design that they should fall into the hands of the king, and serve hereafter as hostages.
XII. At this time, ambassadors from the king came to Medio, whose proposal being heard, the assembly began to consider what answer to give: when some advised to adhere to the alliance with Rome, and others, not to reject the friendship of the king; but Clitus offered an opinion, which seemed to take a middle course between the other two, and which was therefore adopted. It was, that ambassadors would be sent to the king, to request of him to allow the people of Medio to deliberate on a subject of such great importance in a general assembly of the Acarnanians. Care was taken that this embassy should be composed of Mnesilochus, and some others of his faction, who, sending a private message to the king to bring up his army, wasted time on purpose, so that they had scarcely set out, when Antiochus appeared in the territory, and presently at the gates of the city; and, while those who were not concerned in the plot, were all in hurry and confusion, and hastily called the young men to arms, he was conducted into the place by Clitus and Mnesilochus. One party of the citizens now joined him through inclination, and those who were of different sentiments were compelled by fear to attend him. He then calmed their apprehensions by a discourse full of mildness; and his clemency being reported abroad, several of the states of Acarnania, in hopes of meeting the same treatment, went over to his side. From Medio he went to Thurium, whither he had sent on before him the same Mnesilochus, and his colleagues in the embassy. But the detection of the treachery practised at Medio rendered the Thurians more cautious, not more timid. They answered him explicitly, that they would form no new alliance without the approbation of the Romans; they then shut their gates, and posted soldiers on the walls. Most seasonably for confirming the resolution of the Acarnanians, Cneius Octavius, being sent by Quintus, and having received a party of men and a few ships from Aulus Postumius, whom Atilius had appointed his lieutenant to command at Cephallenia, arrived at Leucas, and filled the allies with the strongest hopes; assuring them, that the consul Manius Acilius had already crossed the sea with his legions, and that the Roman forces were encamped in Thessaly. As the season of the year, which was by this time favourable for sailing, strengthened the credibility of this report, the king, after placing a garrison in Medio, and some other towns of Acarnania, retired from Thurium, and taking his route through the cities of Ætolia and Phocis, returned to Chalcis.
XIII. Marcus Bæbius and king Philip, after the meeting which they had in the winter in Dassaretia, when they sent Appius Claudius into Thessaly to raise the siege of Larissa, had returned to winter quarters, the season not being sufficiently advanced for entering on action, but now, in the beginning of spring, they united their forces, and marched into Thessaly. Antiochus was then in Acarnania. As soon as they entered that country, Philip laid siege to Mallæa, in the territory of Perrhæbia, and Bæbius, to Phacium. This town of Phacium he took almost at the first attempt, and then reduced Phæstus with as little delay. After this, he retired to Atrax; and having seized on Cyretiæ and Phricium, and placed garrisons in the places which he had reduced, he again joined Philip, who was carrying on the siege of Mallæa. On the arrival of the Roman army, the garrison, either awed by its strength, or hoping for pardon, surrendered themselves, and the combined forces marched, in one body, to recover the towns which had been seized by the Athamanians. These were Æginium, Ericinum, Gomphi, Silana, Tricca, Melibæa, and Phaloria. Then they invested Pellinæum, where Philip of Megalopolis was in garrison, with five hundred foot and forty horse; but before they made an assault, they sent a person to warn Philip, not to expose himself to the last extremities; to which he answered, with much confidence, that he could entrust himself either to the Romans or the Thessalians, but never would put himself in the power of the Macedonian. The confederate commanders now saw that they must have recourse to force, and thought that Limnæa might be attacked at the same time; it was therefore agreed, that the king should go against Limnæa, while Bæbius staid to carry on the siege of Pellinæum.
XIV. It happened that, just at this time, the consul, Manius Acilius, having crossed the sea with twenty thousand foot, two thousand horse, and fifteen elephants, ordered some military tribunes, chosen for the purpose, to lead the infantry to Larissa, and he himself with the cavalry came to Limnæa, to Philip. Immediately on the consul’s arrival, the town capitulated, and the king’s garrison, together with the Athamanians, were delivered up. From Limnæa the consul went to Pellinæum. Here the Athamanians surrendered first, and afterwards Philip of Megalopolis. King Philip, happening to meet the latter as he was coming out from the town, ordered his attendants, in derision, to salute him with the title of king; and he himself, coming up to him, with a sneer, highly unbecoming his own exalted station, accosted him by the name of brother. He was brought before the consul, who ordered him to be kept in confinement, and soon after sent him to Rome in chains. All the rest of the Athamanians, together with the soldiers of king Antiochus, who had been in garrison in the towns which surrendered about that time, were delivered over to Philip. They amounted to three thousand men. The consul went thence to Larissa, in order to hold a consultation on the general plan of operations; and, on his way, was met by ambassadors from Pieria and Metropolis, with the surrender of those cities. Philip treated the captured, particularly the Athamanians, with great kindness, in expectation of gaining, through them, the favour of their countrymen; and having hence conceived hopes of getting Athamania into his possession, he first sent forward the prisoners to their respective states, and then marched his army thither. The representations given by these of the king’s clemency and generosity towards them, operated strongly on the minds of the people; and Amynander, who, by his presence, had retained many in obedience, through the respect paid to his dignity, began now to dread that he might be delivered up to Philip, who had been long his professed enemy, or to the Romans, who were justly incensed against him for his late defection. He therefore, with his wife and children, quitted the kingdom, and retired to Ambracia. Thus all Athamania came under the authority and dominion of Philip. The consul delayed a few days at Larissa, for the purpose chiefly of refreshing the horses, which, by the voyage first, and marching afterwards, had been much harassed and fatigued; and when he had renewed the vigour of his army by a moderate share of rest, he marched to Cranon. On his way, Pharsalus, Scotussa, and Pheræ were surrendered to him, together with the garrisons placed in them by Antiochus. He asked these men, whether any of them chose to remain with him; and one thousand having declared themselves willing, he gave them to Philip; the rest he sent back, unarmed, to Demetrias. After this he took Proerna, and the forts adjacent; and then marched forwards toward the Malian bay. When he drew near to the pass on which Thaumaci is situated, all the young men of that place took arms, and, quitting the town, placed themselves in ambush in the woods adjoining the roads, and thence, with the advantage of higher ground, made attacks on the Roman troops as they marched. The consul first sent people to talk with them, and warn them to desist from such a mad proceeding; but, finding that they persisted in their undertaking, he sent round a tribune, with two companies of soldiers, to cut off the retreat of the men in arms, and took possession of the defenceless city. On this, the parties in ambush, hearing from behind the shouts occasioned by that event, fled homeward from all parts of the woods, but were intercepted and cut to pieces. From Thaumaci the consul came, on the second day, to the riven Sperchius, and, sending out parties, laid waste the country of the Hypatæans.
XV. During these transactions, Antiochus was at Chalcis, and now, perceiving that he had gained nothing from Greece to recompense his trouble, except pleasing winter-quarters and a disgraceful marriage, he warmly blamed Thoas, and the fallacious promises of the Ætolians, while he admired Hannibal as a man endowed not only with wisdom, but with a kind of prophetic skill, which had enabled him to foretel all that had come to pass. However, that he might not contribute to the failure of his inconsiderate enterprise by his own inactivity, he sent requisitions to the Ætolians, to arm all their young men, and assemble in a body. He went himself immediately into their country, at the head of about ten thousand foot, (the number having been filled up out of the troops which had come after him from Asia,) and five hundred horse. Their assembly on this occasion was far less numerous than ever before, none attending but the chiefs with a few of their vassals. These affirmed that they had, with the utmost diligence, tried every method to bring into the field as great a number as possible out of their respective states, but had not been able, either by argument, persuasion, or authority, to overcome the general aversion to the service. Being disappointed thus on all sides, both by his own people, who delayed in Asia, and by his allies, who did not fulfil those engagements by which they had prevailed on him to comply with their invitation, the king retired beyond the pass of Thermopylæ. A range of mountains here divides Greece in the same manner as Italy is divided by the ridge of the Appennines. Outside the streight of Thermopylæ, towards the north, lie Epirus, Perrhæbia, Magnesia, Thessaly, the Achæan Phthiothis, and the Malian bay; on the inside, towards the south, the greater part of Ætolia, Acarnania, Phocis, Locris, Bœotia, and the adjacent island of Eubœa, the territory of Attica, which stretches out like a promontory into the sea, and behind that, the Peloponnesus. This range of mountains, which extends from Leucas and the sea on the west, through Ætolia, to the opposite sea on the east, is so closely covered with thickets and craggy rocks, that, not to speak of an army, even persons lightly equipped for travelling, can with difficulty find paths through which they can pass. The hills at the eastern extremity are called Œta, and the highest of them Callidromus, in a valley, at the foot of which, reaching to the Malian bay, is a passage not broader than sixty paces. This is the only military road, by which an army can be led, even supposing no opposition. The place is, therefore, called Pylæ, the gate; and by some, on account of a warm spring, rising just at the entrance of it, Thermopylæ. It is rendered famous by the glorious stand made there by a party of Lacedæmonians against the Persians, and by their still more glorious death.
XVI. With a very inferior portion of spirit, Antiochus now pitched his camp within the inclosures of this pass, the difficulties of which he increased by raising fortifications, and when he had completely strengthened every part with a double rampart and trench, and, wherever it seemed requisite, with a wall formed of the stones which lay scattered about in abundance, being very confident that the Roman army would never attempt to force a passage there, he sent away one-half of the four thousand Ætolians, the number that had joined him, to garrison Heraclea, which stood opposite the entrance of the defile, and the other half to Hypata; for he concluded, that the consul would undoubtedly attack Heraclea, and he received accounts from many hands, of depredations committed on the country round Hypata. The consul, after ravaging the lands of Hypata first, and then those of Heraclea, in both which places the Ætolian detachments proved useless, encamped opposite to the king, in the very entrance of the pass, near the warm springs; both parties of the Ætolians shutting themselves up in Heraclea. Antiochus, who, before he saw the enemy, thought every spot perfectly well fortified, and secured by guards, now began to apprehend, that the Romans might discover some paths among the hills above, through which they could make their way; for he had heard that the Lacedæmonians formerly had been surrounded in that manner by the Persians, and Philip lately by the Romans themselves. He therefore despatched a messenger to the Ætolians at Heraclea, desiring them to afford him so much assistance, at least in the war, as to seize and secure the tops of the hills, so as to put it out of the power of the Romans to pass them. The delivery of this message raised a dissension among the Ætolians: some insisted that they ought to obey the king’s orders, and go where he desired; others that they ought to lie still at Heraclea, and wait the issue, be it what it might; for if the king should be defeated by the consul, their forces would be fresh, and in readiness to carry succour to their own states in the neighbourhood; and if he were victorious, they could pursue the Romans, while scattered in their flight. Each party not only adhered positively to its own plan, but even carried it into execution; two thousand lay still at Heraclea; and two thousand, divided into three parties, took possession of the summits called Callidromus, Rhoduntia, and Tichiuns.
XVII. When the consul saw that the heights were possessed by the Ætolians, he sent against those posts two men of consular rank, who acted as lieutenants-general, with two thousand chosen troops; — Lucius Valerius Flaccus against Rhoduntia and Tichiuns, and Marcus Porcius Cato against Callidromus. Then, before he led on his forces against the enemy, he called them to an assembly, employing a short exhortation to this effect: “Soldiers, I see that the greater part of you, who are present, of all ranks, are men who served in this same province, under the conduct and auspices of Titus Quintius. I therefore wish to remind you, that, in the Macedonian war, the pass at the river Aous was much more difficult than this before us. For this is only a gate, a single passage, formed as it were by nature; every other in the whole tract, between the two seas, being utterly impracticable. In the former case, there were stronger fortifications, and more advantageously situated. The enemy’s army was both more numerous, and composed of very superior men: for they were Macedonians, Thracians and Illyrians — people remarkable for the ferocity of their courage; your present opponents are Syrians, and Asiatic Greeks, the most unsteady of men, and born slaves. The commander, there, was a king of extraordinary warlike abilities, improved by practice from his early youth, in wars against his neighbours, the Thracians and Illyrians, and all the adjoining nations. The king, with whom we have now to deal, is one, who, (to say nothing of his former life, after coming over from Asia into Europe to make war on the Roman people,) has, during the whole length of the winter, accomplished no more memorable exploit, than the taking a wife, to gratify his amorous inclinations, out of a private house, and a family obscure even among its neighbours: and now, this newly-married man. after indulging in the luxury of nuptial feasts, comes out to fight. His chief reliance was on the strength of the Ætolians — a nation of all others, the most faithless and ungrateful, as you have formerly experienced, and as Antiochus now experiences. For they neither joined him with the great numbers that were promised, nor could they be kept in the field; and besides, they are now in a state of dissension among themselves. Although they demanded to be intrusted with the defence of Hypata and Heraclea, yet they defended neither; but one half of them fled to the tops of the mountains, while the others shut themselves up in Heraclea. The king himself, plainly confessing, that so far from daring to meet us in battle on the level plain, he durst not even encamp in open ground, has abandoned all that tract in front, which he boasted of having taken from us and Philip, and has hid himself behind the rocks, not even appearing in the opening of the pass, as it is said the Lacedæmonians did formerly, but drawing back his camp within the streight. Does not this demonstrate just the same degree of fear as if he had shut himself up within the walls of a city to stand a siege? But neither shall the streights protect Antiochus, nor the hills which they have seized, the Ætolians. Sufficient care and precaution has been used on every quarter, that you shall have nothing to contend with in the fight, but the enemy himself. On your parts, you have to consider, that you are not fighting merely for the liberty of Greece; although, were that all, it would be an achievement highly meritorious to deliver that country now from Antiochus and the Ætolians, which you formerly delivered from Philip; and that the wealth in the king’s camp will not be the whole prize of your labour; but that the great collection of stores, daily expected from Ephesus, will likewise become your prey; and also, that you will open a way for the Roman power into Asia, and Syria, and all the most opulent realms to the extremity of the East. What then must be the consequence, but that, from Gades to the Red Sea,* we shall have no limit but the ocean, which encircles the whole orb of the earth; and that all mankind shall regard the Roman name with a degree of veneration next to that which they pay to the divinities? For the attainment of prizes of such magnitude, be ready to exert a spirit adequate to the occasion, that, to-morrow, with the aid of the gods, we may decide the matter in the field.”
XVIII. After this discourse he dismissed the soldiers, who, before they went to their repast, got ready their armour and weapons. At the first dawn, the signal of battle being displayed, the consul formed his troops with a narrow front, adapted to the nature and the straitness of the ground. When the king saw the enemy’s standards in motion, he likewise drew out his forces. He placed in the van, before the rampart, a part of his light-infantry; and behind them, as a support, close to the fortifications, the main strength of his Macedonians, whom they call Sarissophori, spearmen. On the left wing of these, at the foot of the mountain, he posted a body of javelin-bearers, archers, and slingers; that from the higher ground they might annoy the naked flank of the enemy: and on the right of the Macedonians, to the extremity of the works, where the deep morasses and quicksands, stretching thence to the sea, render the place impassable, the elephants with their usual guard in the rear of them, the cavalry; and then, with a moderate interval between, the rest of his forces as a second line. The Macedonians, posted before the rampart, for some time easily withstood the efforts which the Romans made every where to force a passage; for they received great assistance from those who poured down from the higher ground a shower of leaden balls from their slings, and of arrows, and javelins, all together. But afterwards, the enemy pressing on with greater and now irresistible force, they were obliged to give ground, and, filing off from the rear, retire within the fortification. Here, by extending their spears before them, they formed as it were a second rampart, for the rampart itself was of such a moderate height, that while its defenders enjoyed the advantage of the higher ground, they, at the same time, by the length of their spears, had the enemy within reach underneath. Many of the assailants, inconsiderately approaching the work, were run through the body; and they must either have abandoned the attempt and retreated, or have lost very great numbers, had not Marcus Porcius come from the summit of Callidromus, whence he had dislodged the Ætolians, after killing the greater part of them. These he had surprised, quite unprepared, and mostly asleep, and now he appeared on the hill which overlooked the camp. Flaccus had not met the same good fortune at Tichiuns and Rhoduntia; having failed in his attempts to approach those fastnesses.
XIX. The Macedonians, and others, in the king’s camp, as long as, on account of the distance, they could distinguish nothing more than a body of men in motion, thought they were the Ætolians, who, on seeing the fight, were coming to their aid. But when, on a nearer view, they knew the standards and arms, and thence discovered their mistake, they were all instantly seized with such a panic, that they threw down their arms and fled. The pursuit was somewhat retarded by the fortifications, and by the narrowness of the valley, through which the troops had to pass, and, above all, by the elephants being on the rear of the flying enemy, so that it was with difficulty that the infantry could make their way. This, indeed, the cavalry could by no means do, their horses being so frightened, that they threw one another into greater confusion than would be occasioned by a battle. The plundering of the camp, also, caused a considerable delay. But, notwithstanding all this, the Romans pursued the enemy that day as far as Scarphia, killing and taking on the way great numbers both of men and horses, and also killing such of the elephants as they could not secure; and then they returned to their post. This had been attacked, during the time of the action, by the Ætolians quartered at Heraclea; but the enterprise, which certainly showed no want of boldness, was not attended with any success. The consul, at the third watch of the following night, sent forward his cavalry in pursuit of the enemy; and, as soon as day appeared, set out at the head of the legions. The king had got far before him, for he fled with the utmost speed, and never halted until he came to Elatia. There he first endeavoured to collect the scattered remains of his army; and then with a very small body of half-armed men, he continued his retreat to Chalcis. The Roman cavalry did not overtake the king himself at Elatia; but they cut off a great part of his soldiers, who either halted through weariness, or wandered out of the way through mistake, as they fled without guides through unknown roads, so that, out of the whole army, not one escaped, except five hundred, who kept close about the king; and even of the ten thousand men, whom, on the authority of Polybius, we have mentioned as brought over by the king from Asia, a very trifling number got off. But what shall we say to the account given by Valerius Antias, that there were in the king’s army sixty thousand men, of whom forty thousand fell, and above five thousand were taken, with two hundred and thirty military standards? Of the Romans were slain in the action itself an hundred and fifty; and of the party that defended the camp against the assault of the Ætolians, not more than fifty.
XX. As the consul marched through Phocis and Bœotia, the revolted states, conscious of their demerits, and dreading lest they should be exposed as enemics to the ravages of the soldiers, presented themselves at the gates of their cities, with the badges of suppliants; but the army proceeded, during the whole time, just as if they were in the country of friends, without offering violence of any sort, until they reached the territory of Coronea. Here a statue of king Antiochus, standing in the temple of Minerva Itonia, kindled such violent resentment, that permission was given to the soldiers to plunder the surrounding lands. But the reflection quickly occurred, that, as the statue had been erected by a general vote of all the Bœotian states, it was unreasonable to resent it on the single district of Coronea. The soldiers were therefore immediately recalled, and the depredations stopped. The Bœotians were only reprimanded for their ungrateful behaviour to the Romans in return for great obligations, so recently conferred. At the very time when the battle was fought, ten ships belonging to the king, with their commander Isidorus, lay at anchor near Thronium, in the Malian bay. To them Alexander of Acarnania, being grievously wounded, made his escape, and gave an account of the unfortunate issue of the battle; on which the fleet, alarmed at the immediate danger, sailed away in haste to Cenæus in Eubœa. There Alexander died, and was buried. Three other ships, which came from Asia to the same port, on hearing the disaster which had befallen the army, returned to Ephesus. Isidorus sailed over from Cæneus to Demetrias, supposing that the king might perhaps have directed his flight thither. About this time, Aulus Atilius, commander of the Roman fleet, intercepted a large convoy of provisions going to the king, just as they had passed the streight at the island of Andros; some of the ships he sunk, and took many others. Those who were in the rear tacked about and steered back to Asia. Atilius, with the captured vessels in his train, sailed back to Piræeus, his former station, and distributed a vast quantity of corn among the Athenians, and the other allies in that quarter.
XXI. Antiochus, quitting Chalcis before the consul arrived there, first sailed to Tenus, and thence passed over to Ephesus. When the consul came to Chalcis, the gates were open to receive him; for Aristoteles, who commanded for the king, on hearing of his approach, had withdrawn from the city. The rest of the cities of Eubœa also submitted without opposition; and peace being restored all over the island, within the space of a few days, without inflicting punishment on any; the army, which had acquired much higher praise for moderation after victory, than even for the attainment of it, marched back to Thermopylæ. From this place, the consul despatched Marcus Cato to Rome, that the senate and people might learn what had passed from unquestionable authority. He set sail from Creusa, a sea-port belonging to the Thespians, seated at the bottom of the Corinthian gulf, and steered to Petræ in Achaia. From Petræ, he coasted along the shores of Ætolia and Acarnania, as far as Corcyra, and thence he passed over to Hydruntum in Italy. Proceeding hence, with rapid expedition, by land, he arrived on the fifth day at Rome. Having come into the city before day, he went on, directly from the gate, to Marcus Junius, the prætor, who, at the first dawn, assembled the senate. Here, Lucius Cornelius Scipio, who had been despatched by the consul several days before Cato, and on his arrival had heard that the latter had outstripped him, and was then in the senate, came in, just as he was giving a recital of the transactions. The two lieutenants-general were then, by order of the senate, conducted to the assembly of the people, where they gave the same account, as in the senate, of the services performed in Ætolia. Hereupon a decree was passed, that a supplication, of three days’ continuance, should be performed; and that the prætor should offer sacrifice to such of the gods as his judgment should direct, with forty victims of the larger kinds. About the same time, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, who, two years before, had gone into farther Spain, in the office of prætor, went through the city in ovation. He carried in the procession an hundred and thirty thousand silver denariuses,* and, besides the coin, twelve thousand pounds weight of silver, and an hundred and twenty-seven pounds weight of gold.
XXII. The consul Acilius sent on, from Thermopylæ, a message to the Ætolians in Heraclea, warning them, “then at least, after the experience which they had of the emptiness of the king’s professions, to return to a proper way of thinking; and, by surrendering Heraclea, to endeavour to procure, from the senate, a pardon for their past madness, or error, if they rather chose so to call it;” and he observed that “other Grecian states also had, during the present war, revolted from the Romans, to whom they were under the highest obligations, but that, inasmuch as, after the flight of the king, whose presence had inspired that confidence which led them astray from their duty, they had not added obstinacy to their other crimes, they were re-admitted into friendship. In like manner, although the Ætolians had not followed the king’s lead, but had invited him, and had been principals in the war, not auxiliaries; nevertheless, if they could prevail on themselves to show a proper sense of their misconduct, they might still ensure their safety.” Their answer showed nothing like a pacific disposition; wherefore, seeing that the business must be determined by force of arms, and that, notwithstanding the defeat of the king, the war of Ætolia was as far from a conclusion as ever, Acilius led up his army from Thermopylæ to Heraclea, and, on the same day, rode on horseback entirely round the walls, in order to discover the strength of the city. Heraclea is situated at the foot of mount Oeta; the town itself is in the plain, but has a citadel overlooking it, which stands on an eminence of considerable height, terminated on all sides by precipices. Having examined every part which he wished to see, the consul determined to make the assault in four places at once. On the side next the river Asophus, where is also the Gymnasium, he gave the direction of the works to Lucius Valerius. He assigned to Tiberius Sempronius Longus, the attack of a part of the suburbs, which was as thickly inhabited as the city itself. He appointed Marcus Bæbius to act on the side opposite the Malian bay, where the access was far from easy; and Appius Claudius, on the side next to another rivulet, called Melas, the black, opposite to the temple of Diana. These exerted themselves with such vigorous emulation, that within a few days the towers, rams, and other machines used in the besieging of towns, were all completed. The lands round Heraclea, naturally marshy, and abounding with tall trees, furnished timber in abundance for every kind of work; and then, as the Ætolians had fled into the city, the deserted suburbs supplied not only beams and boards, but also bricks and mortar, and stones of every size for all their various occasions.
XXIII. The Romans carried on their approaches by means of works more than of personal exertions; the Ætolians maintained their defence by dint of arms. For when the walls were shaken by the ram, they did not, as is usual, intercept and turn aside the strokes by the help of nooses formed on ropes, but sallied out in large armed bodies, with parties carrying fire, in order to burn the machines. They had likewise arched passages through the parapet, for the purpose of making sallies; and when they built up the wall anew, in the room of any part that was demolished, they left a great number of these sally ports, that they might rush out in many places at once. In several days, at the beginning, while their strength was unimpaired, they carried on this practice in numerous parties, and with much spirit; but then, both their numbers and spirit daily decreased. For though they had a multiplicity of difficulties to struggle with, what above all things utterly consumed their vigour, was the want of sleep, as the Romans, having plenty of men, relieved each other regularly in their posts; while among the Ætolians, their numbers being small, the same persons were obliged to toil on without intermission. During a space of twenty-four days, they were kept day and night in one continued course of unremitting exertion, against the attacks carried on by the enemy in four different quarters at once; so that they never had an hour’s respite from action. When the consul, from computing the time, and from the reports of deserters, judged that the Ætolians were thoroughly fatigued, he adopted the following plan. At midnight he gave the signal of retreat, and drawing off all his men at once from the assault, kept them quiet in the camp until the third hour of the next day. The attacks were then renewed, and continued until midnight, when they ceased, until the third hour of the day following. The Ætolians imagined that the Romans suspended the attack from the same cause by which they felt themselves distressed — excessive fatigue. As soon, therefore, as the signal of retreat was given to the Romans, as if themselves were thereby recalled from duty, every one gladly retired from his post, nor did they again appear in arms on the walls before the third hour of the day.
XXIV. The consul having put a stop to the assault at midnight, renewed it on three of the sides, at the fourth watch, with the utmost vigour; ordering Tiberius Sempronius, on the fourth, to keep his party alert, and ready to obey his signal; for he concluded assuredly, that, in the tumult by night, the enemy would all run to those quarters where they heard the shouts. Of the Ætolians, such as had gone to rest, with difficulty roused their bodies from sleep, exhausted, as they were, with fatigue and watching; and such as were still awake, ran, in the dark, to the places where they heard the noise of fighting. Meanwhile the Romans endeavoured to climb over the ruins of the walls, through the breaches; in others, strove to scale the walls with ladders; while the Ætolians hastened to defend the parts attacked. In one quarter, where the buildings stood outside the city, there was neither attack nor defence; but a party stood ready, waiting for the signal to make an attack, but there was none within to oppose them. The day now began to dawn, and the consul gave the signal; on which the party, without any opposition, made their way into the town; some through breaches, others scaling the walls where they were entire. As soon as the Ætolians heard them raise the shout, which denoted the place being taken, they every where forsook their posts, and fled into the citadel. The victors sacked the city; the consul having given permission, not for the sake of gratifying resentment or animosity, but that the soldiers, after having been restrained from plunder in so many captured cities, might at last, in some one place, enjoy the fruits of victory. About mid-day he recalled the troops; and, dividing them into two parts, ordered one to be led round by the foot of the mountain to a rock, which was of equal height with the citadel, and seemed as if it had been broken off from it, leaving a hollow between; but the summits of these eminences are so nearly contiguous, that weapons may be thrown into the citadel from their tops. With the other half of the troops the consul intended to march up from the city to the citadel, as soon as he should receive a signal from those who were to mount the rock on the farther side. The Ætolians in the citadel could not support the shout of the party which had seized the rock, and the consequent attack of the Romans from the city; for their courage was now broken, and the place was by no means in a condition to hold out a siege of any continuance; the women, children, and great numbers of other helpless people, being crowded together in a fort, which was scarce capable of containing, much less of affording protection to, such a multitude. On the first assault, therefore, they laid down their arms, and submitted. Among the rest was delivered up Damocritus, chief magistrate of the Ætolians, who at the beginning of the war, when Titus Quintius asked for a copy of the decree, passed by the Ætolians for inviting Antiochus, told him, that “in Italy, when the Ætolians were encamped there, it should be delivered to him.” This presumptuous insolence of his enhanced the satisfaction which the victors felt at his being put into their hands.
XXV. At the same time, while the Romans were employed in the reduction of Heraclea, Philip, by concert, besieged Lamia. He had had an interview with the consul, as he was returning from Bœotia, at Thermopylæ, whither he came to congratulate him and the Roman people on their successes, and to apologize for his not having taken an active part in the war, being prevented by sickness; and then they went from thence, by different routes, to lay siege to the two cities at once. The distance between these places is about seven miles; and as Lamia stands on high ground, and has an open prospect on that side particularly, the distance seems very short, and every thing that passes can be seen from thence. The Romans and Macedonians, with all the emulation of competitors for a prize, employed the utmost exertions, both night and day, either in the works or in fighting; but the Macedonians encountered greater difficulty, on this account, that the Romans made their approaches by mounds, covered galleries, and other works, which were all above ground; whereas the Macedonians worked under ground by mines, and, in that stony soil, often met a flinty rock, which iron could not penetrate. The king, seeing that little progress could be made in that way, endeavoured, by reasoning with the principal inhabitants, to prevail on them to surrender the place; for he was fully persuaded, that if Heraclea should be taken first, the Lamians would then choose to surrender to the Romans rather than to him; and that the consul would take to himself the merit of relieving them from a siege Nor was he mistaken in that opinion; for no sooner was Heraclea reduced, than a message came to him to raise the siege; because “it was more reasonable that the Roman soldiers, who had fought the Ætolians in the field, should reap the fruits of the victory.” Thus was Lamia relieved, and the misfortune of a neighbouring city proved the means of its escaping a like disaster.
XXVI. A few days before the capture of Heraclea, the Ætolians, having assembled a council at Hypata, sent ambassadors to Antiochus, among whom was Thoas, who had visited him before in the same capacity. Their instructions were, in the first place, to request the king again to assemble his land and marine forces, and come into Greece; and, in the next place, if it should be inconvenient to him to leave home, then to send them supplies of men and money. They were to remind him, that “it concerned his dignity and his honour, not to abandon his allies; and it likewise concerned the safety of his kingdom not to leave the Romans at full leisure, after ruining the nation of the Ætolians, to carry their whole force into Asia.” Their remonstrances were well founded, and therefore made the deeper impression on the king; in consequence of which, he immediately supplied the ambassadors with the money requisite for the exigences of the war, and assured them that he would send them succours both of troops and ships. He kept with him Thoas, who was not unwilling to stay, as he hoped that his presence might accelerate the performance of the king’s promises.
XXVII. But the loss of Heraclea entirely broke the spirits of the Ætolians; insomuch, that within a few days after they had sent ambassadors into Asia for the purpose of renewing the war, and inviting the king, they threw aside all thoughts of fighting, and despatched deputies to the consul to sue for peace. When these began to speak, the consul, interrupting them, said, that he had other business to attend to at present; and, ordering them to return to Hypata, granted them a truce for ten days, sending with them Lucius Valerius Flaccus, to whom, he desired, whatever business they intended to have proposed to himself might be communicated, with any other that they thought proper. On their arrival at Hypata, the chiefs of the Ætolians held a consultation, at which Flaccus was present, on the method to be used in treating with the consul. They showed an inclination to begin with setting forth the ancient treaties, and the services which they had performed to the Roman people; on which Flaccus desired them to “speak no more of treaties, which they themselves had violated and annulled.” He told them, that “they might expect more advantage from an acknowledgment of their fault, and submissive entreaty. For their hopes of safety rested not on the merits of their cause, but on the clemency of the Roman people. That, if they acted in a suppliant manner, he would himself be a solicitor in their favour, both with the consul and with the senate at Rome; for thither also they must send ambassadors.” This appeared to all the only way to safety: “to submit themselves entirely to the faith of the Romans. For, in that case, the latter would be ashamed to do injury to suppliants; while themselves would, nevertheless, retain the power of consulting their own interest, should fortune offer any thing more advantageous.”
XXVIII. When they came into the consul’s presence, Phæneas, who was at the head of the embassy, made a long speech, in which he endeavoured, by a variety of pathetic representations, to mitigate the wrath of the conqueror; and he concluded with saying, that “the Ætolians surrendered themselves, and all belonging to them, to the faith of the Roman people.” The consul, on hearing this, said, “Ætolians, consider well whether you will yield on these terms:” and then Phæneas produced the decree, in which the conditions were expressly mentioned. “Since then,” said the consul, “you submit in this manner, I demand that, without delay, you deliver up to me Dicæarchus your countryman, Menetas the Epirot,” who had with an armed force, entered Naupactum, and compelled the inhabitants to abandon the cause of Rome, “and also Amynander, with the Athamanian chiefs, by whose advice you revolted from us.” Phæneas, scarcely waiting until the Roman had done speaking, answered — “We surrendered ourselves, not into slavery, but to your faith; and I take it for granted, that, from not being sufficiently acquainted with us, you fall into the mistake of commanding what is inconsistent with the practice of the Greeks.” “Nor, in truth,” replied the consul, “do I much concern myself, at present, what the Ætolians may think conformable to the practice of the Greeks; while I, conformably to the practice of the Romans, exercise authority over men, who just now surrendered themselves by a decree of their own, and were, before that, conquered by my arms. Wherefore, unless my commands are quickly complied with, I order that you be put in chains!” At the same time he ordered chains to be brought forth, and the lictors to surround the ambassadors. This effectually subdued the arrogance of Phæneas, and the other Ætolians; and, at length, they became sensible of their situation. Phæneas then said, that “as to himself and his countrymen there present, they knew that his commands must be obeyed: but it was necessary that a council of the Ætolians should meet, to pass decrees accordingly; and that, for that purpose, he requested a suspension of arms for ten days.” At the intercession of Flaccus this was granted, and the Ætolians returned to Hypata. When Phæneas related here, in the select council, called Apocleti, the orders which they had received, and the treatment which they had narrowly escaped; although the melancholy condition to which they were reduced, drew forth the deepest lamentations from the members present, nevertheless they were of opinion, that the conqueror must be obeyed, and that the Ætolians should be summoned, from all their towns, to a general assembly.
XXIX. But when the assembled multitude heard the same account, they were so highly exasperated, both by the harshness of the order, and the indignity offered, that, even if they had been in a pacific temper before, the violent impulse of anger which they then felt, would have been sufficient to rouse them to war. There occurred, beside, the difficulty of executing the orders, for, “how was it possible for them, for instance, to deliver up king Amynander?” It happened also, that a favourable prospect seemed to open to them; for Nicander, returning from king Antiochus at that juncture, filled the minds of the people with unfounded assurances, that immense preparations for war were going on both by land and sea. This man, after finishing the business of his embassy, set out on his return to Ætolia; and, on the twelfth day after he embarked, reached Phalara, on the Malian bay. Having conveyed thence, to Lamia, the money that he had brought, he, with a few light troops, directed, in the evening, his course towards Hypata, by known paths, through the country which lay between the Roman and Macedonian camps. Here he fell in with an advanced guard of the Macedonians, and was conducted to the king, who had not yet risen from dinner. Philip, being told of his coming, received him as a guest, not an enemy; desired him to take a seat, and a share of the entertainment; and afterwards, when he dismissed the rest, detained him alone, and told him, that he had nothing to fear for himself. He censured severely the conduct of the Ætolians, in bringing, first the Romans, and afterwards Antiochus, into Greece; designs which originated in a want of judgment, and always fell heavy on their own heads. But “he would forget,” he said, “all past transactions, which it was easier to blame than to amend; nor would he act in such a manner as to appear to insult their misfortunes. On the other hand, it would become the Ætolians to lay aside, at length, their animosity towards him; and it would become Nicander himself, in his private capacity, to remember that day, on which he was to be indebted to him for his preservation.” He then gave him an escort to a place of safety; and Nicander arrived at Hypata, while his countrymen were consulting about the peace with Rome.
XXX. Manius Acilius having sold, or given to the soldiers, the booty found near Heraclea, and having learned that the councils adopted at Hypata were not of a pacific nature, but that the Ætolians had hastily assembled at Naupactum, with intention to make a stand there against all their adversaries, sent forward Appius Claudius, with four thousand men, to seize the tops of the hills, where the passes were difficult; and he himself, ascending mount Oeta, offered sacrifice to Hercules in the spot called Pyra,* because there the mortal part of that demi-god was burned. He then set out with the main body of the army, and marched all the rest of the way with tolerable ease and expedition. But when they came to Corax, a very high mountain between Callipolis and Naupactum, great numbers of the beasts of burden, together with their loads, tumbled down the precipices, by which many of the men were hurt. This clearly showed an extraordinary degree of negligence in the enemy, who had not secured the pass by a guard, and which must have greatly incommoded the Romans; for, even as the case was, the army suffered considerably. Hence he marched down to Naupactum; and having erected a fort against the citadel, he invested the other parts of the city, dividing his forces according to the situation of the walls. Nor was this siege likely to prove less difficult and laborious than that of Heraclea.
XXXI. At the same time, the Achæans laid siege to Messene, in Peloponnesus, because it refused to become a member of their body: for the two states of Messene and Elis were unconnected with the Achæan confederacy, and favoured the designs of the Ætolians. However the Eleans, after Antiochus had been driven out of Greece, answered the deputies, sent by the Achæans, with more moderation: that “when the king’s troops were removed, they would consider what part they should take.” But the Messenians had dismissed the deputies without an answer, and prepared for war. Alarmed, afterwards, at the danger of their situation, when they saw the enemy ravaging their country without control, and pitching their camp almost at their gates, they sent deputies to Chalcis, to Titus Quintius, the author of their liberty, to acquaint him, that “the Messenians were willing, both to open their gates, and surrender their city to the Romans, but not to the Achæans.” On hearing this, Quintius immediately set out, and despatched from Megalopolis a messenger to Diophanes, prætor of the Achæans, requiring him to draw off his army instantly from Messene, and to come to him. Diophanes obeyed the order; raising the siege, he hastened forward himself before the army and met Quintius near Andania, a small town between Megalopolis and Messene. When he began to explain the reasons for commencing the siege, Quintius, gently reproving him for undertaking a business of that importance without consulting him, ordered him to disband his forces, and not to disturb a peace which had been established on terms highly beneficial to all. He commanded the Messenians to recal the exiles, and to unite themselves to the confederacy of the Achæans; and if there were any particulars to which they chose to object, or any precautions judged requisite against future contingencies, they might apply to him at Corinth. He then gave directions to Diophanes, to convene immediately a general council of the Achæans, that he might settle some business with them.
XXXII. In this assembly, he complained of their having acquired possession of the Island of Zacynthus by unfair means, and demanded that it should be restored to the Romans. Zacynthus had formerly belonged to Philip, king of Macedonia, and he had made it over to Amynander, in requital of his having given him leave to march an army, through Athamania, into the upper part of Ætolia, on that expedition wherein he reduced the Ætolians to despair, and compelled them to sue for peace. Amynander gave the government of the island to Philip, the Megalopolitan; and afterwards, during the war in which he acted in conjunction with Antiochus against the Romans, having called out Philip to a command in the field, he sent as his successor, Hierocles, of Agrigentum. This man, after the defeat of Antiochus at Thermopylæ, and the expulsion of Amynander from Athamania by Philip, sent emissaries of his own accord to Diophanes, prætor of the Achæans; and having bargained for a sum money, put the Achæans in possession of the island. This acquisition, made during the war, the Romans claimed as their own; for they said, that “it was not for Diphanes and the Achæans, that the consul Manius Acilius, and the Roman legions, fought at Thermopylæ.” Diophanes, in answer, sometimes apologized for himself and his nation; sometimes insisted on the justice of the proceeding. But several of the Achæans testified that they had, from the beginning, disapproved of that business, and they now blamed the obstinacy of the prætor. Pursuant to their advice, a decree was made, that the affair should be left entirely to the disposal of Titus Quintius. As Quintius was severe to such as made opposition, so, when complied with, he was easily appeased. Laying aside, therefore, every thing stern in his voice and looks, he said — “If, Achæans, I thought the possession of that island advantageous to you, I would be the first to advise the senate and people of Rome to leave it in your hands. But as I see that a tortoise, when collected within its natural covering, is safe against blows of any kind, and whenever it thrusts out any of its members, it feels whatever it has thus uncovered, weak and liable to every injury, so you, Achæans, being inclosed on all sides by the sea, can easily unite among yourselves, and maintain by that union all that is comprehended within the limits of Peloponnesus; but whenever, through ambition of enlarging your possessions, you overstep these limits, then all that you hold beyond them is naked, and exposed to every attack.” The whole assembly declaring their assent, and Diophanes not daring to give farther opposition, Zacynthus was ceded to the Romans.
XXXIII. When the consul was on his march to Naupactum, king Philip proposed, that if it was agreeable to him, he would, in the mean time, retake those cities that had revolted from their alliance with Rome. Having obtained permission so to do, he, about this time, marched his army to Demetrias, where he knew that great distraction prevailed: for the garrison, being destitute of all hope of succour since they were abandoned by Antiochus, and having no reliance on the Ætolians, daily and nightly expected the arrival of Philip or the Romans, whom they had most reason to dread, as these were more justly incensed against them. There was, in the place, an irregular multitude of the king’s soldiers, a few of whom had been at first stationed there as a garrison, but the greater part had fled thither after the defeat of his army, most of them without arms, and without either strength or courage sufficient to sustain a siege. Wherefore, on Philip’s sending on messengers, to offer them hopes of favourable terms, they answered, that their gates were open for the king. On his first entrance, several of the chiefs left the city; Eurylochus killed himself. The soldiers of Antiochus, in conformity to a stipulation, were escorted, through Macedonia and Thrace, by a body of Macedonians, and conducted to Lysimachia. There were, also, a few ships at Demetrias, under the command of Isidorus, which, together with their commander, were dismissed. Philip then reduced Dolopia, Aperantia, and several cities of Perrhæbia.
XXXIV. While Philip was thus employed, Titus Quintius, after receiving from the Achæan council the cession of Zacynthus, crossed over to Naupactum, which had stood a siege of near two months, but was now reduced to a desperate condition: and it was supposed, that if it should be taken by storm, the whole nation of the Ætolians would be sunk thereby in utter destruction. But, although he had good reason to be angry with the Ætolians, from the recollection, that they alone had attempted to depreciate his merits, when he was giving liberty to Greece; and had refused to pay any regard to his advice, when he endeavoured, by forewarning them of the events which had since occurred, to deter them from their mad undertaking: nevertheless, thinking it particularly incumbent on him, who had asserted the freedom of the country, to prevent any of its states from being entirely subverted, he first walked about near the walls, that he might be easily known by the Ætolians. He was quickly distinguished by the first advanced guards, and the news spread from rank to rank, that Quintius was there. On this, the people from all sides ran to the walls, and eagerly stretching out their hands, all in one joint cry, besought Quintius, by name, to assist and save them. Although he was much affected by these entreaties, yet for that time he made signs with his hand, that they were to expect no assistance from him. However, when he met the consul, he accosted him thus:—“Manius Acilius, are you unapprised of what is passing; or do you know it, and think it immaterial to the interest of the commonwealth?” These words raising the consul’s curiosity, he requested him to explain what he meant. Quintius then said — “Do you not see that, since the defeat of Antiochus, you have been wasting time in besieging two cities, though the year of your command is near expiring; but that Philip, who never faced the enemy, or even saw their standards, has annexed to his dominions such a number, not only of cities, but of nations — Athamania, Perrhæbia, Aperantia, Dolopia? But, surely, we are not so deeply interested in diminishing the strength and resources of the Ætolians, as in hindering those of Philip from being augmented beyond measure; and in you, and your soldiers, not having yet gained, to reward your victory, as many towns as Philip has gained Grecian states.”
XXXV. The consul assented to the justness of his remarks, but was ashamed to let himself be foiled in his attempt, and to raise the siege. At length, the matter was left entirely to the management of Quintius. He went again to that part of the wall, whence the Ætolians had called to him a little before, and on their entreating him now, with still greater earnestness, to take compassion on the nation of the Ætolians, he desired that some of them might come out to him. Accordingly, Phæneas himself, with some others of the principal men, instantly came, and threw themselves at his feet. He then said — “Your condition causes me to restrain my resentment and my reproofs. The events which I foretold, have come to pass, and you have not even so much consolation left, as the reflection, that you have not deserved what has fallen upon you. Nevertheless, since fate has, in some manner, destined me to the office of cherishing the interests of Greece, I will not cease to show kindness, even to the unthankful. Send a suppliant embassy to the consul, and let them petition him for a suspension of hostilities, for so long a time as will allow you to send ambassadors to Rome, to surrender yourselves to the will of the senate. I will intercede, and plead in your favour with the consul.” They did as Quintius directed; nor did the consul reject their application. He granted them a truce for a certain time, until an account might be brought from Rome of the result of their embassy; and then, raising the siege, he sent his army into Phocis. The consul, with Titus Quintius, crossed over thence to Ægium, to confer with the council of the Achæans, where the business of the Eleans was introduced, and also a proposal of restoring the Lacedæmonian exiles. But neither was carried into execution, because the Achæans chose to reserve to themselves the merit of effecting the latter; and the Eleans preferred being united to the Achæan confederacy by a voluntary act of their own, rather than through the mediation of the Romans. Ambassadors came hither to the consul from the Epirots, who, it was well known, had not fulfilled with sincerity the engagements to which they were bound by the treaty of alliance. Although they had not furnished Antiochus with any soldiers, yet they were charged with having assisted him with money; and they did not disavow the having sent ambassadors to him. They requested that they might be permitted to continue on the former footing of friendship. To which the consul answered, that “he did not yet know whether he was to consider them as friends or foes. The senate must be the judge of that matter. He would therefore take no step in the business, but leave it to be determined at Rome; and for that purpose he granted them a truce of ninety days.” When the Epirots, who were sent to Rome, addressed the senate, they rather enumerated hostile acts which they had not committed, than cleared themselves of those laid to their charge; and they received an answer of such a kind, as showed that they had rather obtained pardon than proved their innocence. About the same time ambassadors from king Philip were introduced to the senate, and presented his congratulations on their late successes. They asked leave to sacrifice in the capitol, and to deposit an offering of gold in the temple of Jupiter supremely good and great. This was granted by the senate, and they presented a golden crown of an hundred pounds weight. The senate not only answered the ambassadors with kindness, but gave them Demetrius, Philip’s son, who was at Rome as an hostage, to be conducted home to his father. — Such was the conclusion of the war waged in Greece by the consul Manius Acilius against Antiochus.
XXXVI. The other consul, Publius Cornclius Scipio, to whose lot the province of Gaul had fallen, before he set out to take the field against the Boians, demanded of the senate, by a decree, to order him money for the exhibition of games which, when acting as proprætor in Spain, he had vowed at a critical time of a battle. His demand was deemed unprecedented and unreasonable, and they therefore voted, that “whatever games he had vowed, on his own single judgment, without consulting the senate, he should celebrate out of the spoils, if he had reserved any for the purpose; otherwise, at his own expense.” Accordingly, Publius Cornelius exhibited those games through the space of ten days. About this time, the temple of the great Idæan Mother was dedicated; which deity, on her being brought from Asia, in the consulate of Publius Cornelius Scipio, afterwards surnamed Africanus, and Publius Licinius, the above-mentioned Publius Cornelius had conducted from the sea-side to the Palatine. In pursuance of a decree of the senate, Marcus Livius and Caius Claudius, censors, in the consulate of Marcus Cornelius and Publius Sempronius, had contracted with builders to erect the goddess’s temple; and, thirteen years after that, it was dedicated by Marcus Junius Brutus, and games were celebrated on occasion of its dedication: in which, according to the account of Valerius Antias, dramatic entertainments were, for the first time, introduced into the Megalesian games. Likewise, Caius Licinius Lucullus, being appointed duumvir, dedicated the temple of Youth in the great Circus. This temple had been vowed sixteen years before by Marcus Livius, consul, on the day whereon he cut off Hasdrubal and his army; and the same person, when censor, in the consulate of Marcus Cornelius and Publius Sempronius, had contracted for the building of it. Games were also exhibited on occasion of this consecration, and every thing was performed with the greater degree of religious zeal, on account of the impending war with Antiochus.
XXXVII. At the beginning of the year in which those transactions passed, after Manius Acilius had gone to open the campaign, and while the other consul, Publius Cornelius, yet remained in Rome, two tame oxen, it is said, climbed up by ladders on the titles of a house in the Carinæ. The haruspices ordered them to be burned alive, and their ashes to be thrown into the Tiber. It was reported, that several showers of stones had fallen at Tarracina and Amiternum; that, at Minturnæ, the temple of Jupiter, and the shops round the Forum, were struck by lightning; that, at Vulturnum, in the mouth of the river, two ships were struck by lightning, and burnt to ashes. On occasion of these prodigies, the decemvirs, being ordered by a decree of the senate to consult the Sibylline books, declared, that “a fast ought to be instituted in honour of Ceres, and the same observed every fifth year; that the nine days’ worship ought to be solemnized, and a supplication for one day; and that, when employed in the supplication, the people should wear garlands on their heads; also, that the consul Publius Cornelius should sacrifice to such deities, and with such victims, as the decemvirs should direct.” When he had used every means to avert the wrath of the gods, by duly fulfilling vows, and expiating prodigies, the consul went to his province; and, ordering the proconsul Cneius Domitius to disband his army, and go home to Rome, he marched his own legions into the territory of the Boians.
XXXVIII. Nearly at the same time, the Ligurians, having collected an army under the sanction of their devoting law, made an unexpected attack, in the night, on the camp of the proconsul Quintus Minucius. Minucius kept his troops, until daylight, drawn up within the rampart, and watchful to prevent the enemy from scaling any part of the fortifications. At the first light, he made a sally by two gates at once: but the Ligurians did not, as he had expected, give way to his first onset; on the contrary, they maintained a dubious contest for more than two hours. At last, as supplies of troops continually came out from the camp, and fresh men took the places of those who were wearied in the fight, the Ligurians, who besides other hardships, felt a great loss of strength from the want of sleep, after a severe struggle betook themselves to flight. Above four thousand of the enemy were killed; the Romans and allies lost not quite three hundred. About two months after this, the consul Publius Cornelius fought a pitched battle with the army of the Boians with extraordinary success. Valerius Antias affirms, that twenty-eight thousand of the enemy were slain, and three thousand four hundred taken, with an hundred and twenty-four military standards, one thousand two hundred and thirty horses, and two hundred and forty seven wagons; and that of the conquerors, there fell one thousand four hundred and eighty-four. Though we may not entirely credit this writer with respect to the numbers, as he always exaggerates most extravagantly, yet it is certain that the victory on this occasion was very complete; because the enemy’s camp was taken, while immediately after the battle, the Boians surrendered themselves; and because a supplication was decreed by the senate on account of it, and victims of the greater kinds were sacrificed.
XXXIX. The consul Publius Cornelius, having received hostages from the Boians, punished them so far as to appropriate almost one half of their lands for the use of the Roman people, and into which they might afterwards, if they chose, send colonies. Then, returning home in full confidence of a triumph, he dismissed his troops, and ordered them to attend on the day of his rejoicing at Rome. The next day after his arrival, he held a meeting of the senate, in the temple of Bellona; and, after recounting his services, demanded permission to ride through the city in triumph. Publius Sempronius Blæsus, tribune of the people, advised, that “the honour of a triumph should not be refused to Scipio, but postponed. Wars of the Ligurians,” he said, “were always united with wars of the Gauls; for these nations lying so near, sent mutual assistance to each other. If Publius Scipio, after subduing the Boians in battle, had either gone himself, with his victorious army, into the country of the Ligurians, or sent a part of his forces to Quintus Minucius, who was detained there, now the third year, by a war, of which the issue was still uncertain, that with the Ligurians might have been brought to an end: instead of which, he had, in order to procure a full attendance on his triumph, brought home the troops, who might have performed most material services to the state; and might do so still, if the senate thought proper, by deferring this token of victory, to redeem the omission occasioned by haste to obtain distinction. If they would order the consul to return with his legions into his province, and to give his assistance towards subduing the Ligurians, (for, unless these were reduced under the dominion and jurisdiction of the Roman people, neither would the Boians ever remain quiet,) there must be either peace or war with both. When the Ligurians should be subdued, Publius Cornelius, in quality of proconsul, might triumph, a few months later, as had been the case of many, who did not attain that honour until the expiration of their office.”
XL. To this the consul answered, that “neither had the province of Liguria fallen to his lot, nor had he waged war with the Ligurians, nor did he demand a triumph over them. He confidently hoped, that in a short time, Quintus Minucius, after completing their reduction, would demand and obtain a well deserved triumph. For his part, he demanded that note of celebrity from having vanquished the Boian Gauls, whom he had driven out of their camp; of whose whole nation he had received an absolute submission within two days after the fight; and from whom he had brought home hostages to secure peace in future. But there was another circumstance, of much greater magnitude: he had slain in battle so great a number of Gauls, that no commander, before him, could say that he ever met in the field so many thousands, at least of the Boians. Out of fifty thousand men, more than one half were killed; and many thousands made prisoners; so that the Boians had now remaining only old men and boys. Could it, then, be a matter of surprise to any one, that a victorious army, which had not left one enemy in the province, should come to Rome to attend the triumph of their consul? And if the senate should choose to employ the services of these troops in another province also — of the two kinds of treatment, which, could it be supposed, would make them enter on a new course of danger and fatigue with the greater alacrity; the paying them the reward of their former toils and dangers without defalcation; or, the sending them away, with the shadow instead of the substance, after their first hopes had terminated in disappointment? As to what concerned himself personally, he had acquired a stock of glory sufficient for his whole life, on that day, when the senate adjudged him to be the best man in the state, and commissioned him to give a reception to the Idæan Mother. With this inscription, (though neither consulship nor triumph were added,) the statue of Publius Scipio Nasica would be sufficiently honoured and dignified.” The senate not only gave their unanimous vote for the solicited honour, but by their influence prevailed on the tribune to desist from his intention of protesting against it. Publius Cornelius, consul, triumphed over the Boians. In this procession he carried, on Gallic wagons, arms, standards, and spoils of all sorts; the brazen utensils of the Gauls; and, together with the prisoners of distinction, he led a train of captured horses. He deposited in the treasury a thousand four hundred and seventy golden chains; and besides these, two hundred and forty-five pounds weight of gold; two thousand three hundred and forty pounds weight of silver, some unwrought, and some formed in vessels of the Gallic fashion, not without beauty; and two hundred and thirty-three thousand denariuses.* To the soldiers, who followed his chariot, he distributed three hundred and twenty-five asses† each, double to a centurion, triple to a horseman. Next day, he summoned an assembly, and after expatiating on his own services and the ill-treatment shown him by the tribune, who wanted to entangle him in a war which did not belong to him, in order to defraud him of the fruits of his success, he absolved the soldiers of their oath, and discharged them.
XLI. While this passed in Italy, Antiochus was at Ephesus, devested of all concern respecting the war with Rome, as supposing that the Romans had no intention of coming into Asia; into which state of security he was lulled by the erroneous opinions or the flattering representations of the greater part of his friends. Hannibal alone, whose judgment was, at that time, the most highly respected by the king, declared, that “he rather wondered the Romans were not already in Asia, than entertained a doubt of their coming. The passage was easier from Greece to Asia, than from Italy to Greece, and Antiochus was a much more inviting object than the Ætolians. For the Roman wars were not less powerful on sea, than on land. Their fleet had long been at Malea, and he had heard that a reinforcement of ships and a new commander had lately come from Italy, with intent to enter on action. He therefore advised Antiochus not to form to himself vain hopes of peace. He must necessarily in a short time maintain a contest with the Romans both by sea and land; in Asia, and for Asia itself; and must either wrest the power out of hands that grasped at the empire of the world, or lose his own dominions.” Hannibal seemed to be the only person who had judgment to foresee, and sincerity to foretel, what was to happen. The king, therefore, with the ships which were in readiness, sailed to the Chersonesus, in order to secure the places there with garrisons, lest the Romans should happen to come by land. He left orders with Polyxenidas to fit out the rest of the fleet, and put to sea; and sent out advice-boats among the islands to procure intelligence of every thing that was passing.
XLII. When Caius Livius, commander of the Roman fleet, sailed with fifty decked ships from Rome, he went to Neapolis, where he had appointed the rendezvous of the undecked ships, which were due by treaty from the allies on that coast; and thence he proceeded to Sicily, where, as he sailed through the streight beyond Messana, he was joined by six Carthaginian ships, sent to his assistance; and then, having collected the vessels due from the Rhegians, Locrians, and other allies, who were bound by the same conditions, he purified the fleet at Lacinium, and put forth into the open sea. On his arrival at Corcyra, which was the first Grecian country where he touched, inquiring about the state of the war, (for the commotions in Greece were not yet entirely composed,) and about the Roman fleet, he was told, that the consul and the king were posted at the pass of Thermopylæ, and that the fleet lay at Pyræeus: on which, judging expedition necessary on every account, he sailed directly forward to Peloponnesus. Having on his passage ravaged Samos and Zacynthus, because they favoured the party of the Ætolians, he bent his course to Malea: and, meeting very favourable weather, arrived in a few days at Pyræeus, where he joined the old fleet. At Scyllæum he was met by king Eumenes, with three ships, who had long hesitated at Ægina whether he should go home to defend his own kingdom, on hearing that Antiochus was preparing both marine and land forces at Ephesus; or whether he should unite himself inseparably to the Romans, on whose destiny his own depended. Aulus Atilius, having delivered to his successor twenty-five decked ships, left Pyræeus, and sailed for Rome. Livius, with eighty-one beaked ships, beside many others of inferior rates, some of which were open and furnished with beaks, others without beaks, fit for advice boats, crossed over to Delos.
XLIII. At this time, the consul Acilius was engaged in the siege of Naupactum. Livius was detained several days at Delos by contrary winds, for that tract among the Cyclades, which are separated in some places by larger streights, in others by smaller, is remarkably subject to storms. Polyxenidas, receiving intelligence from his scout-ships, which he had stationed in various places, that the Roman fleet lay at Delos, sent off an express to the king, who, quitting the business in which he was employed in Hellespontus, and taking with him all the ships of war, returned to Ephesus with all possible speed, and instantly called a council, to determine whether he should risk an engagement at sea. Polyxenidas affirmed, that “it was particularly requisite so to do, before the fleet of Eumenes and the Rhodian ships should join the Romans; in which case, even, they would scarcely be inferior in number, and in every other particular would have a great superiority, by reason of the agility of their vessels, and a variety of favourable circumstances. For the Roman ships, being unskilfully constructed, were slow in their motions, and, besides that, as they were coming to an enemy’s coast, they would be heavily laden with provisions: whereas their own, leaving none but friends in all the countries round, would have nothing on board but men and arms. They would, also, have a great advantage in their knowledge of the sea, of the adjacent lands, and of the winds; of all which the Romans, being ignorant, would find themselves much distressed.” Every one was convinced by his arguments, especially as the same person who gave the advice, was also to carry it into execution. Two days only were passed in making preparations: and on the third, setting sail with an hundred ships, of which seventy had decks, and the rest were open, but all of the smaller rates, they steered their course to Phocæa. The king, as he did not intend to be present in the naval combat, on hearing that the Roman fleet was approaching, withdrew to Magnesia, near Sipylus, to collect his land-forces, while his ships proceeded to Cyssus, a port of Erythræa, where it was supposed they might with more convenience wait for the enemy. The Romans, as soon as the north wind, which had held for several days, ceased, sailed from Delos to Phanæ, a port in Chios, opposite the Ægian sea. They afterwards brought round the fleet to the city of Chios, and having taken in provisions there, sailed over to Phocæa. Eumenes, who had gone to join his fleet at Elæa, returned a few days after, with twenty-four decked ships, and a greater number of open ones, to Phocæa, where he found the Romans, who were fitting and preparing themselves for a sea-fight. The fleet, which now consisted of an hundred and five decked ships, and about fifty open ones, on setting sail, was for some time driven forcibly towards the land, by a north wind blowing across its course. The ships were thereby obliged to go, for the most part singly, one after another, in a thin line; afterwards, when the violence of the wind abated, they endeavoured to stretch over to the harbour of Corycus, beyond Cyssus.
XLIV. When Polyxenidas heard that the enemy were approaching, rejoiced at an opportunity of engaging them, he drew out the left squadron towards the open sea; at the same time ordering the commanders of the ships to extend the right division towards the land; and then advanced to the fight, with his fleet in a regular line of battle a-head. The Roman commander, on seeing this, furled his sails, lowered his masts, and, at the same time adjusting his rigging, waited for the ships which were coming up. There were now about thirty in the line; and in order that his left squadron might form a front in like direction, he hoisted his top-sails, and stretched out into the deep, ordering the others to push forward, between him and the land, against the right squadron of the enemy. Eumenes brought up the rear; who, as soon as he saw the bustle of taking down the rigging begin, likewise led on his division with all possible speed. All their ships were by this time in sight; two Carthaginians, however, which advanced before the Romans, were attacked by three belonging to the king. As the numbers were unequal, two of the king’s ships fell upon one, and, in the first place, swept away the oars from both its sides; the armed mariners then boarded, and killing some of the crew, and driving others into the sea, took the ship. The one which had engaged in an equal contest, on seeing her companion taken, lest she should be surrounded by the three, fled back to the fleet. Livius, fired with indignation, bore down against the enemy. The two which had overpowered the Carthaginian ship, in hopes of the same success against this one, advanced to the attack, on which he ordered the rowers on both sides to plunge their oars in the water, in order to hold the ship steady, and to throw grappling irons into the enemy’s vessels as they came up. Having, by these means, rendered the business something like a fight on land, he desired his men to act with the courage of Romans, and to consider that their adversaries were the slaves of a king. Accordingly, this single ship now defeated and captured the two, with more ease than the two had before taken one. By this time the entire fleets were engaged and intermixed with each other. Eumenes, who had come up last, and after the battle was begun, when he saw the left squadron of the enemy thrown into disorder by Livius, directed his own attack against their right, where the contest was yet equal.
XLV. In a short time, the left squadron began to fly: for Polyxenidas, perceiving that he was evidently overmatched with respect to the bravery of the men, hoisted his top-sails, and got away; and, quickly after those who were engaged with Eumenes near the land, did the same. The Romans and Eumenes pursued with much perseverance, as long as the rowers were able to hold out, and they had any prospect of annoying the rear of the enemy: but, finding that the latter, by reason of the lightness and fleetness of their ships, baffled every effort that could be made by their’s loaded as they were with provisions, they at length desisted, having taken thirteen ships, together with the soldiers and rowers, and sunk ten. Of the Roman fleet, only the one Carthaginian ship, which, at the beginning of the action, had been attacked by two, was lost Polyxenidas continued his flight, until he got into the harbour of Ephesus. The Romans staid, during the remainder of that day, in the port from which the king’s fleet had sailed out, and, on the day following, proceeded in the pursuit. About midway, they were met by twenty-five Rhodian decked ships, commanded by Pausistratus; and, in conjunction with these, followed the runaways to Ephesus, where they stood for some time, in order of battle, before the mouth of the harbour. Having thus extorted from the enemy a full confession of their being defeated, the Romans sent home the Rhodians and Eumenes, and steered their course to Chios. When they had passed Phænicus, a port of Erythræa, they cast anchor for the night; and, proceeding next day to the island, came up to the city itself. After halting here a few days, for the purpose chiefly of refreshing the rowers, they sailed over to Phocæa. Here they left four quinqueremes for the defence of the city, while the rest of the fleet proceeded to Canæ, where, as the winter now approached, the ships were hauled on shore, and surrounded with a trench and rampart. At the close of the year, the elections were held at Rome, in which were chosen consuls, Lucius Cornelius Scipio and Caius Lælius, from whom all men expected the conclusion of the war with Antiochus. Next day were elected prætors, Marcus Tuccius, Lucius Aurunculeius; Cneius Fulvius, Lucius Æmilius, Publius Junius, and Caius Atinius Labeo.
* 15th May
† 3d May
* Here is, doubtless, some word dropped in the original, so small a quantity could never have been deemed an object for one powerful state to offer to another Commentators suppose it to have been one hundred thousand.
* The ancients supposed the earth to have a flat circular surface, round the extremity of which flowed a body of water, called by them the Ocean. The eastern quarter of the ocean they called the Red Sea, from the ruddy colour of the rising sun.
* 4.097 l. 16s. 4d
* The funeral pile.
* 7.523l. 16s. 2d.
† 1l. 4s. 2d 1-2
Lucius Cornelius Scipio, consul, accompanied by his brother. Publius Scipio Africanus, sent into Asia against Antiochus, the first Roman who ever led an army thither Æmilius Regillus, aided by the Rhodians defeats Antiochus’s fleet at Myonnesus. The son of Scipio Africanus, taken prisoner by Antiochus is sent back to his father. Marcus Acilius Glabrio, having driven Antiochus out of Greece, triumphs over him and the Ætolians. Lucius Cornelius Scipio, assisted by Eumenes, king of Pergamus. vanquishes Antiochus; grants him peace, on condition of his evacuating all the countries on the hither side of Mount Taurus Lands and cities given to Eumenes, to reqite his assistance in the conquest of Antiochus also to the Rhodians, on the like account. A new colony established, called the Bononian. Æmilius Regillus triumphs on account of his naval victory. Lucius Cornelius Scipio obtains the surname of Asiaticus.
Y. R 562 B. C 190.I.On the commencement of the consulship of Lucius Cornelius Scipio and Caius Lælius, the first business introduced in the senate, after the concerns of religion, was that of the Ætolians, whose ambassadors were importunate to have it brought on, because the period of the truce granted them was short; and they were seconded by Titus Quintius, who had, by this time, come home from Greece to Rome. The Ætolians, as they rested their hopes on the compassion of the senate, more than on the merits of their cause, acted the parts of suppliants, humbly representing their former services, as a counterbalance to their late misbehaviour. While present, they were teazed by all the senators with questions tending to draw from them a confession of guilt rather than information; and, after they were ordered to withdraw, they became the subject of a warm dispute. Resentment had more power in their case than compassion; for the senate were incensed against them, not merely as enemies, but as an uncivilized and unsocial race. After a debate, which lasted several days, it was at last resolved, that peace should neither be granted nor refused. The option was given them of two conditions; either to submit themselves absolutely to the disposal of the senate, or to pay one thousand talents,* and have no other allies or enemies than those who were such to Rome. They wished to have the extent of that power defined, which the senate was to exercise over them, but received no positive answer. They were, therefore, dismissed, without having concluded any treaty of peace, and were ordered to quit the city that very day, and Italy within fifteen days. The next business proceeded on was, the appointing the provinces of the consuls. Both of these wished for Greece. Lælius had a powerful interest in the senate; and when an order was passed there, that the consuls should either cast lots for the provinces, or settle them between themselves, he observed, that they would act more judiciously in leaving that matter to the wisdom of the senators, than to the decision of lots. To this Scipio answered, that he would take advice how he ought to act. He consulted his brother only, who desired him to leave it, with confidence, to the senate: and then he answered his colleague that he would do as was recommended. This mode of proceeding was either perfectly new; or, if there had been any precedent, it was of so old a date, that all memory of it was lost; a warm debate was therefore expected, on its being proposed to the senate. But Publius Scipio Africanus offering, that “if they decreed that province to his brother, Lucius Scipio, he would go along with him, as his lieutenant-general;” his proposal was received with universal approbation, and put an end to all dispute. The senate were well pleased to make the trial, whether king Antiochus should receive more effectual aid from the vanquished Hannibal, or the Roman consul and legions from his conqueror Africanus; and they almost unanimously voted Greece to Scipio, and Italy to Lælius. The prætors then cast lots for their provinces: Lucius Aurunculeius obtained the city jurisdiction, Cneius Fulvius the foreign; Lucius Æmilius Regillus, the fleet; Publius Junius Brutus, Tuscany, Marcus Tuccius, Apulia and Bruttium; and Caius Atinius, Sicily.
II. Orders were then issued, that the consul to whom the province of Greece had been decreed, should, in addition to the army which he was to receive from Manius Acilius, and which consisted of two legions, have a reinforcement of three thousand Roman foot, and one hundred horse; and of the Latine confederates, five thousand foot, and two hundred horse: and it was farther ordered, that if, when he arrived in his province, he should judge it conducive to the public interest, he should be at liberty to carry over the army into Asia. To the other consul was decreed an army entirely new; two Roman legions, and of the Latine confederates fifteen thousand foot, and six hundred horse. Quintus Minucius was ordered to remove his forces out of Liguria, (which province, according to his letters, was entirely reduced, the whole nation having submitted,) into the country of the Boians, and to give up the command to Publius Cornelius, proconsul. The two city legions, enlisted the year before, were brought home from the country taken from the Boians, and assigned to Marcus Tuccius, prætor, together with fifteen thousand foot, and six hundred horse, of the Latine confederates, for the defence of Apulia and Bruttium. Aulus Cornelius, a prætor of the preceding year, who had the command of an army in Bruttium, received an order, that, if the consul judged it proper, he should transport his legions into Ætolia, and give them to Manius Acilius, provided the latter was inclined to remain there; but if Acilius wished to come to Rome, that then Aulus Cornelius should stay in Ætolia with that army. It was resolved that Caius Atinius Labeo should receive from Marcus Æmilius the province of Sicily, and the army there; and should if he deemed it proper, enlist in the province itself two thousand foot and one hundred horse, to fill up deficiencies. Publius Junius Brutus was ordered to raise a new army for Tuscany, consisting of one Roman legion, and ten thousand Latine foot, and four hundred horse. Lucius Æmilius was ordered to receive from Marcus Junius, prætor of the former year, twenty ships of war, with their crews, and himself to enlist one thousand marines and two thousand foot soldiers, with which ships and soldiers he was to sail to Asia; and receive the command of the fleet from Caius Livius. The present governors of the two Spains, and of Sardinia, were continued in command, and ordered to keep the same armies. Sicily and Sardinia were, this year, assessed in two-tenths of their corn. All the corn from Sicily was ordered to be carried into Ætolia, to the army there; of that to be collected from Sardinia, one half to Rome, and the other half into Ætolia, for the same use as the corn from Sicily.
III. It was judged proper, that, previous to the departure of the consuls for their provinces, the prodigies which had occurred should be expiated under the direction of the pontiffs. The temple of Juno Lucina at Rome was struck by lightning in such a manner, that the ceiling and the folding-doors were much damaged. At Puteoli, several parts of the wall, and a gate, were struck by lightning, and two men killed. It was clearly proved, that, at Nursia, in the midst of a calm, a tempest suddenly burst forth; and there also two men of free condition were killed. The Tusculans reported, that a shower of earth fell in their country; and the Reatines, that a mule brought forth young in their’s. Expiations were performed for all these, and the Latine festival was celebrated a second time, because the flesh-meat due to the Laurentians had not been given them. There was also a supplication made on account of those portents, the decemvirs giving directions from the books to which of the gods it should be performed. Ten free-born youths, and ten virgins, all of whom had their fathers and mothers living, were employed in that ceremony; and the decemvirs sacrificed in the night young cattle not weaned from the dam. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, before he left the city, erected an arch on the hill of the capitol, facing the road that leads up to the temple, adorned it with seven gilded statues, and two horses, and placed two marble cisterns in the front of the arch. About this time forty-three of the principal Ætolians, among whom were Damocritus and his brother, were brought to Rome by two cohorts, sent by Manius Acilius, and were thrown into the prison called Lautumiæ, or the quarry; the cohorts were ordered, by the consul Lucius Cornelius, to return to the army. Ambassadors came from Ptolemy and Cleopatra, king and queen of Egypt, congratulating the Romans on their consul Manius Acilius having driven king Antiochus out of Greece, and advising that he should carry over his army into Asia. For “all places, not only in Asia, but also in Syria, were filled with consternation; and that the king and queen of Egypt would hold themselves in readiness to act as the senate should direct.” Thanks were returned to the king and queen, and presents were ordered to be made to the ambassadors, four thousand asses* to each.
IV. The consul Lucius Cornelius, having finished what was necessary to be done at Rome, gave public notice, in an assembly of the people, that the soldiers, whom himself had enlisted for supplying deficiencies, and those who were in Bruttium with Aulus Cornelius, proprætor, should all meet him at Brundusium on the Ides of July. He likewise appointed three lieutenants-general; Sextus Digitius, Lucius Apustius, and Caius Fabricius Luscinus; who were to bring together ships from all parts of the sea-coast to Brundusium: and now every thing being ready, he set out from the city in his military robe of state. No less than five thousand volunteers of the Romans and allies, who had served out the legal term, under the command of Publius Africanus, attended Cornelius at his departure, and offered their services. Lucius Æmilius Regillus, who commanded the fleet, set out likewise at the same time. Just at the time when the consul went to join the army, during the celebration of the Apollinarian games, on the fifth of the Ides of July, though the sky was serene, the light was obscured in the middle of the day by the moon passing over the orb of the sun. Lucius Aurunculeius was commissioned by the senate to build thirty quinqueremes and twenty triremes, in consequence of a report prevailing, that Antiochus, since the engagement at sea, was fitting out a much larger fleet. When the Ætolians learned from their ambassadors, who returned from Rome, that there was no prospect of peace, notwithstanding that their whole sea-coast, opposite to Peloponnesus, was ravaged by the Achæans, yet, regarding the danger impending more than their losses, they seized on mount Corax, in order to shut up the pass against the Romans; for they had no doubt of their returning in the beginning of spring, and renewing the siege of Naupactum. Acilius, who knew that this was expected, judged it more advisable to undertake an enterprise that was not foreseen, and to lay siege to Lamia; for the garrison had been reduced by Philip almost to a state of desperation; and at present, from the very circumstance of their not apprehending any such attempt, they might probably be surprised and overpowered. Marching from Elatia, he formed his first encampment in the enemy’s country on the banks of the river Sperchius, and decamping thence in the night, he at break of day made a general assault on the town.
V. In consequence of the unexpectedness of the affair, great consternation and tumult ensued; yet the besieged fought with greater resolution than any one could suppose them capable of under such a sudden alarm, and the women brought weapons of every kind, and stones to the walls; so that, although scaling-ladders were raised in various places, yet, for that day, they maintained the defence of the place. About mid-day Acilius gave the signal of retreat, and drew off his men to their camp. After their strength was repaired by food and rest, before he dismissed the meeting in the Prætorium, he gave them notice, “to be ready, under arms, before day; and that they were not to return to their tents until the city should be taken.” Next day, at the same hour as before he began the assault again, in a greater number of places; and, as not only the strength, but also the weapons, and above all, the courage of the garrison began to fail, he made himself master of the town in the space of a few hours. One-half of the spoil found there, he sold; the other he gave to the soldiers; and then he held a council, to determine what he should next undertake. No one approved of going against Naupactum, while the pass at Corax was occupied by the Ætolians. But, not to lie in idleness, or, by his supineness, to allow the Ætolians that state of peace which they could not obtain from the senate, Acilius resolved to besiege Amphissa; and he led his army thither from Heraclea by Oeta. Having encamped under the walls, he proceeded against the place, not by general assault, as at Lamia, but by regular approaches. The ram was brought up to the walls in many places at once; and though these were shaken by it, yet the townsmen never endeavoured to provide or contrive any sort of defence against attacks of that kind; but placing all their hopes in their arms and daring courage, by frequent sallies they much annoyed not only the advanced guards of the Romans, but even those who were employed at the works and machines.
VI. There were now many breaches made, when the consul received intelligence that his successor, having landed his army at Apollonia, was coming at the head of thirteen thousand foot and five hundred horse. He had lately arrived at the Malian bay, and sent a message to Hypata, demanding the surrender of the city; but the inhabitants answered, that they would do nothing without a decree of the general council of Ætolia: on which, unwilling to be detained in the siege of Hypata, while that of Amphissa was still unfinished, he sent on his brother Africanus before him, and marched himself towards Amphissa. A little before their arrival, the townspeople abandoned the city, for it was now for the most part stripped of its walls; and they, one and all, armed and unarmed, retired into the citadel which they deemed an impregnable fortress. The consul pitched his camp at the distance of about six miles from the town; and thither came ambassadors from the Athenians, addressing, first, Publius Scipio, who preceded the main body as before mentioned, and afterwards the consul with earnest supplications in favour of the Ætolians. They received a milder answer from Africanus, who wished for an honourable pretext for relinquishing the Ætolian war, than they had from Rome. He was desirous of directing his views towards Asia and king Antiochus, and had recommended to the Athenians to persuade, not the Romans only, but the Ætolians likewise, to prefer peace to war. Pursuant to the advice of the Athenians, a numerous embassy of the Ætolians came speedily from Hypata, and the discourse of Africanus, whom they addressed first, augmented their hopes of peace; for he mentioned, that “many nations and states, first in Spain, and afterwards in Africa, had surrendered themselves to him; and that, in all of them he had left greater monuments of clemency and kindness than of military prowess.” The business seemed to be concluded, when the consul, on being applied to, repeated the very same answer with which they had been so much dismayed by the senate. The Ætolians, thunderstruck at this, as if they had never heard it before, (for they now perceived that no good was likely to arise, either from the Athenian embassy, or the favourable reply of Africanus,) observed, that they wished to consult their countrymen on the affair.
VII. They then returned to Hypata, where the council was utterly at a loss what course to take; for they had no means of paying the thousand talents: and, in case of an unconditional submission, they dreaded being subjected to bodily severities. They, therefore, ordered the same ambassadors to return to the consul and Africanus, and to request, that if they meant, in reality, to grant them peace, and not merely to amuse them with a prospect of it, frustrating the hopes of the wretched, they would either remit some part of the money required to be paid, or order that their persons might be exempted in the terms of the surrender. The consul could not be prevailed on to make any change; and that embassy, also, was dismissed without effect. The Athenian ambassadors accompanied them, with Echedemus, their principal. These — while the Ætolians, after so many repulses, were sunk into total dejection, and deplored with unavailing lamentations, the hard fate of their nation — revived once more their hopes, by advising them to request a suspension of arms for six months, in order that they might send an embassy to Rome. He urged, that “the delay could add nothing to their present calamities, which were already severe in the extreme; but that, if time were gained, many fortuitous events might occur, and lighten the distresses they then laboured under.” Agreeably to this advice of Echedemus, the same ambassadors were sent again; who, making their first application to Publius Scipio, obtained, through him, from the consul, a suspension of arms for the time they desired. The siege of Amphissa was then raised; Marcus Acilius gave up the command of the army to the consul, and left the province; and the consul returned from Amphissa into Thessaly, with intention to pass through Macedonia and Thrace into Asia. Here Africanus said to his brother, Lucius Scipio, “I agree with you in approving the rout, which you have chosen. But the whole matter rests on the inclinations of Philip; for if he is faithful to our government he will afford us a passage, and provisions and every thing requisite to the maintenance and convenience of an army on a long march. But if he should fail in this, you will find no safety in any part of Thrace. In my opinion, therefore, the king’s disposition ought in the first place to be discovered: and the best method to discover it, will be, to let the person sent approach him suddenly, and see how he is employed when not expecting any such visit.” They chose for this purpose, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, a young man, remarkable for his activity beyond all the youth of the time; by means of relays of horses, and travelling with almost incredible expedition, he made good the journey from Amphissa, whence he was despatched, to Pella, on the third day. The king was sitting at a banquet, and had drank freely of wine; which circumstance of his indulging such relaxation of mind, removed all suspicion of any intention of changing his measures. His guest was, for the present, kindly entertained; and next day, he saw plenty of provisions, already prepared for the army, bridges made over rivers, and roads formed where the ground was difficult to be passed. As he was bringing back this intelligence, with the same speed which he had used in coming, he met the consul at Thaumaci. The army, in high spirits at finding their hopes thus confirmed and augmented, advanced into Macedonia, where every thing was ready for their accommodation. On their arrival, the king received them with royal magnificence, and accompanied them on their march. He showed a great deal of pleasantry and good humour, which recommended him much to Africanus, who, with all the extraordinary endowments that he possessed, was not averse from mirth when confined within the bounds of decency. Philip then escorted them, not only through Macedonia, but through Thrace also; furnishing them with every accommodation, until they arrived at the Hellespont.
VIII. Antiochus, after the sea-fight at Corycus, being left at liberty during the whole winter, to carry on his preparations by land and water, employed his principal attention on the refitting of his ships, lest he should be entirely excluded from the sea. He reflected that “he had been defeated, when the Rhodian fleet was absent, but if that fleet were present in an engagement, (and the Rhodians would certainly take care not to be dilatory a second time,) he required a vast number of ships, to set him on an equality with the fleet of the enemy, considering the strength and size of their vessels.” For this reason, he sent Hannibal into Syria, to bring in the Phœnician navy, and gave orders to Polyxenidas, that, the more unsuccessful he had been before, the more diligence he should now exert, in repairing the ships which he had, and procuring others. He himself passed the winter in Phrygia, calling in auxiliaries from every quarter. He even sent for that purpose to Gallogræcia. The people of that country were then more warlike, than at present, retaining the Gallic spirit, as the generation which had emigrated thither was not yet extinct. He left his son Seleucus with an army in Ætolia, to keep in obedience the maritime cities, which were solicited to revolt, on one side, by Eumenes, from Pergamus, on the other, by the Romans from Phocœa and Erythræ. The Roman fleet, as mentioned before, wintered at Canæ: thither, about the middle of the season, came king Eumenes, with two thousand foot and one hundred horse. He affirmed, that vast quantities of spoil might be brought off from the enemy’s country round Thyatira; and, by his persuasions, prevailed on Livius to send with him five thousand soldiers. This party within a few days carried off an immense booty.
IX. Meanwhile, a sedition broke out at Phocæa, in consequence of the endeavours used by some, to bring over the multitude to the party of Antiochus. The people were distressed by the ships wintering there: they were distressed by a tax imposed, for they were ordered to furnish five hundred gowns and five hundred tunicks; and they were further distressed by a scarcity of corn, which obliged the Roman garrison and ships to leave the place. The faction, which laboured in their assemblies to draw the commonalty over to Antiochus, was now freed from all apprehension: the senate, and higher ranks, were disposed to adhere to the alliance with Rome, but the advisers of a revolt had greater influence with the multitude. The Rhodians, sensible of having been too tardy the year before, were therefore the earlier in their proceedings now; and, at the vernal æquinox, they sent the same Pausistratus, commander of the fleet with thirty-six ships. At this time, Livius with thirty ships, and seven quadriremes, which king Eumenes had brought with him, was on his passage from Canæ to the Hellespont, in order to prepare every thing necessary for the transportation of the army, which he expected to come by land. He first put into the harbour, called the Achæan; whence, going up to Ilium, he offered sacrifice to Minerva, and gave a kind reception to several embassies from the states in the neighbourhood; from Eælus, Dardanus, and Rhetæum, who came to surrender their respective states to him. Then he sailed to the entrance of the Hellespont; and, leaving ten ships stationed opposite to Abydus, he crossed over to Europe, with the rest of the fleet, to attack Sestos. As the troops were advancing up to the walls, they were met, first, by a number of the priests of Cybele,* using extravagant gestures, and clad in the dress worn on their solemn processions. These said, that, “by order of the Mother of the gods, they, the immediate servants of the goddess, were come to pray the Roman commander to spare the walls and the city.” No violence was offered to any of them, and, presently, the whole senate, and the magistrates, came out to surrender the place. The fleet then sailed over to Abydus; where, on sounding the temper of the inhabitants, in conferences, and finding no disposition to peaceful measures, they prepared themselves for a siege.
X. While these transactions passed at the Hellespont, Polyxenidas, the commander of the king’s fleet, an exile from Rhodes, having heard that the ships of his countrymen had sailed from home, and that Pausistratus, who commanded them had, in a public speech, uttered several haughty and contemptuous expressions respecting him, conceived the most violent jealousy against him in particular, and studied nothing else, night or day, but how, by deeds, to refute his arrogant words. He sent a person, who was known to him, to say, that, “if allowed, he was ready to perform an eminent service to Pausistratus, and to his native country: and that Pausistratus might restore him to the same.” Pausistratus, in surprise, asked by what means such things could be effected; and, at the other’s request, pledged his faith, that he would either concur in the execution of the design, or bury it in silence. The emissary then told him, that “Polxyenidas would deliver into his hands, either the whole of the king’s fleet, or the greater part of it; and that in return for so great a service, he stipulated for nothing more, than being allowed to return to his native country.” The proposal was of such magnitude, as made him neither implicitly credit, nor at once reject it. He sailed to Panormus, in the Samian territory, and halted there, in order to examine thoroughly the business proposed to him. Several messengers passed between them, nor was Pausistratus satisfied of the other’s sincerity, until, in the presence of his messenger, Polxyenidas wrote, with his own hand an engagement, that he would perform all that he had promised, and sent the tablets sealed with his own seal. By such a pledge as this, he thought he had acquired a kind of absolute dominion over the plotter; for that “he who lived under a king would never act so absurdly, as to give evidence of guilt against himself, attested by his own signature.” The method of conducting the pretended plot was then settled: Polyxenidas said, that “he would neglect every kind of preparation; that he would not keep any considerable numbers on board, either of rowers or mariners; that he would haul up, on land, some of the ships, under pretence of refitting them; would send away others into the neighbouring ports, and keep a few at sea before the harbour of Ephesus, which, if circumstances made it necessary to come out, he would expose to a battle.” The negligence, which Pausistratus was told Polyxenidas would use in his fleet, he himself immediately practised. Part of his ships he sent to Halicarnassus to bring provisions, another part to the city of Samos, while he himself waited at Panormus, that he might be ready to make an attack, when he should receive the signal from the traitor. Polyxenidas continued to encourage his mistake by counterfeiting neglect; hauled up some ships, and, as if he intended to haul up others, put the docks in repair; he did not call the rowers from their winterquarters to Ephesus, but assembled them secretly at Magnesia.
XI. It happened, that one of Antiochus’s soldiers, having come to Samos on some business of his own, was seized as a spy, and brought to Panormus to Pausistratus. This man, moved either by fear or treachery towards his countrymen, on being asked, what was doing at Ephesus, laid open every particular: that the fleet lay in harbour fully equipped, and ready for sea; that all the rowers had been sent to Magnesia; that very few of the ships had been hauled on land; that the docks were shut, and that never was greater diligence employed in conducting the business of the fleet. But the mind of Pausistratus was so prepossessed, by misplaced confidence, and vain hopes, that he gave no credit to this account. Polyxenidas, having fully adjusted all his measures, called in the rowers from Magnesia, launched hastily the ships that were in dock, and letting the next day pass, not so much because he had any preparations to make, as because he was unwilling that the fleet should be seen going to sea, set sail after sun-set, with seventy decked ships, but, the wind being contrary, put into the harbour of Pygela before day appeared. After lying by there, during the day, for the same reason as before, he passed over, in the night, to the nearest part of the Samian territory. From this place, he detached one Nicander, an archpirate, at the head of a squadron of five decked ships, with orders to sail to Palinurus, and thence to lead his armed men, by the shortest road, through the fields toward Panormus, and so to come behind the enemy. In the meantime, himself, with his fleet in two divisions, in order that it might command the mouth of the harbour on both sides, proceeded to Panormus. This event, so utterly unexpected, at first, confounded Pausistratus; but, being an experienced warrior, he quickly recollected his spirits, and judging that it would be easier to repel the enemy from the land than on sea, he marched his armed forces, in two bodies, to the promontories, which, by their heads projecting into the deep, formed the harbour; for he thought that he should be able, with ease, to effect his purpose, by the discharges of weapons from both sides. The sight of Nicander on the land quite disconcerted this design; he, therefore, suddenly changed his plan, and ordered all to go on board the ships. This produced the greatest dismay and confusion, among both soldiers and sailors, who, seeing themselves inclosed by the enemy, on land and sea at once, hurried on board like men running away. The only method of saving the fleet, that occurred to Pausistratus, was, to force through the narrow entrance of the port, and push out into the open sea. As soon, therefore, as he saw his men embarked, ordering the rest to follow, he himself led the way, and, with the utmost exertions of his oars, pressed to the mouth of the harbour. Just as his ship was clearing the entrance, Polyxenidas, with three quinqueremes, surrounded it. The vessel, shattered by their beaks, sunk; the crew were overwhelmed with weapons, and, among them, Pausistratus, fighting gallantly, was slain. Of the rest of the ships, some were taken outside of the harbour, some within, and others by Nicander, while they were putting off from the shore. Only five Rhodian, and two Coan ships, effected an escape; making a passage for themselves through the thick of the enemy, by the terror of blazing flames; for they carried before them, on two poles projecting from their prows, a great quantity of fire contained in iron vessels. Some Erythræan triremes, which were coming to their assistance, met the Rhodian ships flying, not far from Samos, and therefore steered away to the Hellespont to join the Romans. About the same time, Seleucus got possession of Phocæ, which was betrayed by the guards admitting him by one of the gates. Cyme, with the other cities on that coast, were induced by their fears to join him.
XII. During these transactions in Ætolia, Abydus endured a siege of several days, a garrison of the king’s troops defending the walls; but then, all growing weary, and Philotas himself, the commander of the garrison, giving his permission, the magistrates entered into a treaty with Livius, about the terms of a capitulation. The business was protracted for some time, as they could not agree whether the king’s troops should march out with their arms, or without them. While this negociation was depending, news arrived of the defeat of the Rhodians; in consequence of which, the whole matter was dropped, when on the point of being concluded. For Livius, fearing lest Polyxenidas, elated by his recent success in such an important enterprise, might surprise the fleet which lay at Canæ, instantly abandoned the siege of Abydus, and the guard of the Hellespont, and drew out the ships that were in dock at Canæ. Eumenes came, at this time, to Elea. Livius, with the whole fleet, which had been joined by two triremes of Mitylene, sailed to Phocæa; but, having learned that this place was held by a strong garrison of the king’s troops, and that Seleucus was encamped at no great distance, he ravaged the sea-coast, hastily conveying on board the booty, which consisted chiefly of men, and waiting only until Eumenes, with his fleet, came up, bent his course to Samos. Among the Rhodians, the news of their misfortune excited, at first, both consternation, and the greatest grief, at the same time. For, besides the loss of their ships and soldiers, the whole flower of their youth had perished, many young men of distinction having embarked in the expedition, led, among other motives, principally, by the character of Pausistratus, which was, deservedly, very high among his countrymen. Afterwards, when they reflected, that they had been circumvented by treachery, and that, of all men, a countryman of their own had been the perpetrator, their grief was converted into anger. Immediately they sent out ten ships, and in a few days, ten more, giving the command of the whole to Eudamus; who, though far inferior to Pausistratus, in warlike qualifications, would yet they supposed, prove a more cautious leader, as he was not of so high a spirit. The Romans, and king Eumenes, put in with their fleet, first, at Erythræa; and staying there one night, they, next day reached Corycus, a promontory in Teios. They intended to pass over hence, to the nearest part of the Samian territory; but, not waiting for the rising of the sun, from which the pilots could learn the state of the weather, they exposed themselves to a storm, which deprived them of the power of directing their course. About the middle of the passage, the wind changed from north-east to north, and they found themselves tossed about on the sea, which rolled in very tremendous billows.
XIII. Polyxenidas, taking it for granted that the enemy would go to Samos to join the Rhodian fleet, set sail from Ephesus, and halted, first, at Myonnesus, from whence he crossed over to the island of Macris; in order that, when the enemy’s fleet should sail by, he might attack, with advantage, either any ships that straggled from the main body, or the rear of the fleet itself. When he saw the same dispersed by the storm, he thought this a good opportunity to attack it; but, in a little time, the wind increased, and raised the waves to such a height, that he could not possibly come up with them: he therefore steered to the island of Æthalia, that, from thence, he might, next day, fall on the ships as they made for Samos, from the main sea. A small number of Roman vessels, just as it grew dark, got into a desert harbour on the Samian coast; the rest, after being tossed about all night, ran into the same harbour in the morning. Having learned here, from the country people, that the enemy’s fleet lay at Æthalia, they held a consultation whether they should attack them immediately, or wait for that of the Rhodians. Their determination was to postpone the attack, and they sailed away to Corycus, whence they had come. Polyxenidas, also, having kept his station for some time, without effecting any thing, sailed home to Ephesus. On this, the Roman ships, having the sea now clear of the enemy, sailed to Samos; where, a few days after, they were joined by the fleet from Rhodes, and, to show that they had only waited for this, they immediately sailed away to Ephesus, resolved either to fight the enemy, or, in case they should decline a battle, to extort from them a confession of fear, which would have the best effect on the minds of the states of Asia. They lay for some time opposite the entrance of the harbour, with the fleet formed in a line abreast, but none came out against them; on which they divided: and while one part lay at anchor, before the mouth of the harbour, the other landed a body of soldiers. These made depredations over a great extent of the country, and, as they were conveying to the ships the great booty which they had seized, Andronichus, a Macedonian, who was in garrison at Ephesus, sallied out on them, when they came near the walls, stripped them of the greatest part of their plunder, and drove them down to the shore to their ships. On the day following, the Romans laid an ambuscade about the middle of the way, and marched in a body to the city, in order to entice the Macedonians out of the gates; but these were deterred from coming out, and the Romans returned to their ships. As the enemy thus avoided fighting, either on land or sea, the fleet sailed back to Samos, whence it came. The prætor then detached two Rhodian triremes, and two belonging to the Italian allies, under the command of Epicrates, a Rhodian, to guard the streight of Cephallenia, which was infested with piracies by Hybristas, a Lacedæmonian, at the head of a band of young Cephallenians, so that the passage was shut against the convoys from Italy.
XIV. Epicratus met, at Piræeus, Lucius Æmilius Regillus, who was on his way to take the command of the fleet. On hearing of the defeat of the Rhodians, as he had only two quinqueremes, he carried back with him, to Asia, Epicrates and his four ships. He was attended also by some undecked vessels of the Athenians. He crossed the Ægean sea to Chios, to which place came, in the middle of the night, Timasicrates, a Rhodian, with two quadriremes from Samos, and, being presented to Æmilius, he told him, that he was despatched for the purpose of convoying him in safety, because the king’s ships, by frequent excursions from the Hellespont, and Abydus, rendered the sea on that coast dangerous to transports. In his passage from Chios to Samos, Æmilius was met by two Rhodian quadriremes, sent by Livius to attend him, and by king Eumenes with two quinqueremes. On his arrival at Samos, as soon as he had received the command of the fleet from Livius, and duly performed the usual sacrifices, he called a council. Here, Caius Livius, whose opinion was first asked, said, that “no one could give advice, with more sincerity than he, who recommended to another, what himself would do, in the same case. That his intention had been, to have sailed with the whole fleet to Ephesus; to have taken with him ships of burden, heavily laden with ballast, and to have sunk them in the entrance of the harbour. That the passage might be shut up, in this manner, with little difficulty; because the mouth of it was like a river, long and narrow, and full of shoals. By this expedient, he would have cut off the enemy’s communication with the sea, and rendered their fleet useless.”
XV. This plan was not approved of by any of the council. King Eumenes asked, “Whether, when, by sinking the ships, they should have barred the pass to the sea, their own fleet would be at liberty to go away and succour their allies, and infuse terror in their enemies; or whether they might not, nevertheless, be obliged to block up the port with their whole force? For, if they should withdraw, who could doubt that the enemy would weigh up the hulks that were sunk, and open the port with less labour than it had cost to shut it? But if, after all, they were to remain there, what advantage would accrue from the harbour being closed? Nay, on the contrary, the enemy enjoying a safe haven, and an opulent city, furnished, at the same time, with every thing from Asia, would pass the summer at their ease, while the Romans, exposed in the open sea to winds and waves, and in want of every accommodation, must continue on guard, without intermission; and might more properly be said to be, themselves, tied down, and hindered from doing any thing that ought to be done, than to keep the enemy shut up.” Eudamus, commander of the Rhodian fleet, rather showed his disapprobation of the plan proposed, than recommended any himself. Epicrates, the Rhodian, advised, “not to think of Ephesus for the present, but to send a part of the fleet to Lycia, and bring Patara, the metropolis of that nation, into a treaty of alliance. This would conduce to two important purposes: first, the Rhodians, by peace being established in the countries opposite to their island, would be at liberty to apply the whole of their strength to the war against Antiochus; and then the fleet which the enemy were fitting out in Lycia, would be blocked up, and prevented from joining Polyxenidas.” This plan was the most approved of. Nevertheless, it was determined that Regillus should sail, with the entire fleet, to the harbour of Ephesus, to strike terror into the enemy.
XVI. Caius Livius was sent to Lycia, with two Roman quinqueremes, four Rhodian quadriremes, and two open vessels of Smyrna; being ordered to proceed, first, to Rhodes, and to communicate all his designs to the government there. The states, which he passed in his way, Miletus, Myndus, Halicarnassus, Cnidus, and Cous, cheerfully obeyed his orders. When he came to Rhodes, he explained to the persons in authority, the business on which he was sent, and, at the same time, desired their opinion. They all approved the design; and gave him three quadriremes, in addition to his squadron; and with these he set sail for Patara. The wind, being favourable at first, carried them very near the city, and they were in hopes of effecting something by surprise; but this suddenly veering, they had to labour in a very heavy sea. However, by dint of rowing, they reached the land, but there was no safe anchorage there, nor could they ride in the road, as the sea was rough, and night was coming on. They therefore sailed past the city, to the port of Phellus, which was not quite two miles distant, and which afforded shelter from the violence of the waves, but was overlooked by high cliffs; and these the townspeople, joined by the king’s troops in garrison there, immediately seized. Livius, though the landing-place was rugged and difficult, sent against them a party of the auxiliaries, composed of Issæans, and light infantry of Smyrna. These, (as long as the business was carried on with missile weapons, and in slight attacks on the few who were there at first, and which was rather a skirmish than a battle,) supported the contest sufficiently well. But greater numbers flocking thither from the city, and, at length, the whole multitude poured out, which made Livius fear, not only that the auxiliaries might be cut off, but that the ships would be in danger lying so near the land. In consequence he led out to the engagement, not only the soldiers, but the marines, and even the crowd of rowers, armed with such weapons as each could find. After all, however, the fight was doubtful; and, besides a considerable number of soldiers, Lucius Apustius fell in this disorderly combat. At last the Lycians were routed, and driven within their gates; and the Romans, victorious, but not without loss of blood, returned to their ships. They then proceeded to the gulf of Telonessus, which washes Caria on one side, and Lycia on the other, where all thoughts of any farther attempt on Patara were laid aside, the Rhodians were sent home, and Livius, sailing along the coast of Asia, crossed over to Greece, that he might have a meeting with the Scipios, who were at that time in Thessaly, and then take his passage to Italy.
XVII. Æmilius, although himself had been driven off from Ephesus by a storm, and had returned to Samos, without effecting any thing, yet hearing that the expedition to Lycia was dropped, and that Livius had gone to Italy, he thought the miscarriage of the attempt on Patra disgraceful, and accordingly resolved to go thither, and attack the city with his utmost force. Having sailed past Miletus, and the rest of the coast of the allies, he made a descent in the bay of Bargyllæ, with design to reduce Jassus. The city was held by a garrison of the king’s troops, and the Romans made hostile depredations on all the country round. He then sent persons to confer with the magistrates, and principal inhabitants, and sound their dispositions; but, being told by them, that nothing was in their power, he advanced to lay siege to the city. There were, with the Romans, some exiles from Jassus, who, in a body earnestly importuned the Rhodians “not to suffer an unoffending city, which was both their neighbour, and connected with them in consanguinity, to be ruined. They themselves, were banished for no other cause than their faithful attachment to the Romans; and those, who remained in the place, were held in subjection by the same force by which they had been expelled. The people of Jassus had all but one wish, to escape from a state of slavery under the king.” The Rhodians, moved by their entreaties, and calling in the assistance of king Eumenes, represented, at the same time, their own connexions with them, and also the unfortunate condition of the city, which was kept in bondage by the king’s garrison; and by these means prevailed on Æmilius to drop the siege. Departing hence, and coasting along the shore of Asia, where every other place was favourably disposed, he arrived at Loryma, a port opposite to Rhodes. Here, the military tribunes, in their meeting at the Prætorium, began, at first, in private conversation, to make observations, which afterwards reached the ears of Æmilius, that the fleet was going off to a distance from Ephesus, from the war which concerned themselves; so that the enemy, being left behind, without control, might safely make whatever attempts they pleased, against so many states of the allies, in their neighbourhood. Æmilius felt the justness of these remarks, and calling the Rhodians to him, asked them, whether the whole fleet could lie in the harbour of Patara; to which they answered in the negative. Furnished with this excuse for laying aside the design, he sailed back to Samos.
XVIII. In the mean time Seleucus, son of Antiochus, who had kept his army in Ætolia, through the whole of the winter, employing it, partly, in succouring his allies, partly in ravaging the lands of those whom he could not seduce to his side, resolved to make an incursion on the territory of king Eumenes, while he, at a great distance from home, was assisting the Romans and Rhodians, in attacks on the maritime parts of Lycia. He advanced, as an enemy, first, to Elæa, but soon laid aside the design of besieging it; and, having wasted the country, in a hostile manner, he led his army to lay siege to Pergamus, the capital, and the principal fortress of the kingdom. Attalus, at first, placing advanced guards outside the city, and sending out parties of cavalry and light infantry, acted an offensive, rather than a defensive part. But, after some time, having discovered, in slight skirmishes, that he was not a match for the enemy, in any respect, he drew back his men within the fortifications, and then the siege was formed. About this time, Antiochus leaving Apamea, with a vast army compounded of various nations, encamped, first, at Sardis, and afterwards took post at a small distance from the camp of Seleucus, at the head of the river Caicus. The most formidable part of his force was a body of four thousand Gauls, whom he had procured for hire: these, with a few others intermixed, he detached, with orders to waste utterly the country about Pergamus. When news of these transactions arrived at Samos, Eumenes, being thus recalled by a war in his own dominions, sailed with his fleet to Elæa; and finding there, in readiness, some light troops of horse and foot, he took them for an escort, and proceeded directly to Pergamus, before the enemy could be apprised of his arrival, or take any steps to intercept him. The garrison now began again to sally out, and skirmish; but Eumenes, evidently avoided risking a decisive engagement. In a few days after, the combined fleet of the Romans and Rhodians came from Samos to Elæa, to support the king. When Antiochus was informed that these had landed troops at Elæa, and that so many fleets were assembled in one harbour, and at the same time, heard that the consul, with his army, was already in Macedonia, and was making the necessary preparations for his passage over the Hellespont, he judged that now was the time for negociation, before he should be pressed on sea and land at once; and with this view he chose for his camp a rising ground opposite to Elæa. Leaving there all the infantry, with his cavalry, amounting to six thousand, he went down into the plains which lay under the walls of the town, having despatched a herald to Æmilius, to acquaint him that he wished to treat of peace.
XIX. Æmilius sent to Pergamus for Eumenes, and, desiring the Rhodians to be present, held a council on the message. The Rhodians were not averse from a pacification; but Eumenes affirmed, that “they could not treat of peace, at such a juncture; nor could a business of the kind be concluded. For,” said he “how can we, shut up as we are, within our walls, and besieged, with honour accept terms of peace? Or who will deem such treaty valid, which we shall conclude, without the presence of the consul, without a vote of the senate, and without an order of the Roman people? For, let me ask, supposing the matter concluded by you, would you immediately go home to Italy, and carry away your fleet and army, or would you wait to know the consul’s determination on the case; what the senate should decree, or the people order? It is plain then, that you must stay in Asia, that your troops must be led back to the quarters, where they wintered, and, without having any thing to do against the enemy, exhaust the allies by their consumption of provisions; and then, if it seem fit to those, who have the power of determining, we must begin the whole war anew. Whereas, if the present vigorous proceedings suffer no obstruction from delay, we may, with the will of the gods, bring it to a conclusion before the winter.” His opinion was approved; and the answer given to Antiochus was, that no treaty of peace could be admitted before the arrival of the consul. Antiochus, frustrated in this scheme for putting an end to the war, ravaged, first, the territory of Elæa, then that of Pergamus; and, leaving there his son Seleucus, marched in a hostile manner, to Adramytteum, whence he proceeded to an opulent tract of country called the Plain of Thebes, a city celebrated in one of Homer’s poems; and in no other place in Asia did the king’s soldiers find such a plenty of booty. Æmilius and Eumenes also, sailing round with the fleet, came to Adramytteum, to protect the city.
XX. It happened, just at this time, that ten thousand foot and one hundred horse, all under the command of Diophanes, arrived from Achaia at Elæa, who, on landing, were conducted in the night into Pergamus, by persons sent for the purpose, by Attalus. They were all veterans, well skilled in war; and their commander was a disciple of Philopæmen’s the most consummate general among the Greeks, in that age. They set apart two days to give rest to the men and horses, and, at the same time, to view the posts of the enemy, and to learn at what places, and what times, they advanced and retired. The king’s troops, generally, approached to the foot of the hill, on which the town stands, so that their detachments could plunder all the country behind, at will, for not a man ever sallied out, even to throw darts, from a distance against their guards. When the garrison once became so dispirited as to confine themselves within the walls, the king’s troops conceived a great contempt of them, and thence, fell into a carelessness on their part. The greater number did not keep their horses either saddled or bridled, while few remained under arms, and in the ranks; the rest slipping away, were scattered all over the plain, some diverting themselves with youthful sports and tricks, others eating in the shade, and some even stretched on the ground asleep. When Diophanes observed all these particulars, which the high situation of Pergamus enabled him to do fully; he ordered his men to take arms and to be ready at a particular gate. He himself went to Attalus, and told him that he had a mind to try his fortune against the enemy’s advanced guards. Attalus gave consent, but not without reluctance, as he saw that one hundred horse must fight against three hundred, one thousand foot against four thousand. Diophanes then marched by the gate, and took post at a small distance from the enemy’s guard, waiting his opportunity. On one side, the people in Pergamus thought that he was actuated by madness rather than by courage; and, on the other, the enemy, after observing his party for a short time, and seeing no movement among them, were not in any degree roused from their supineness, but even ridiculed the smallness of the number. Diophanes, for a long time, kept his men quiet, as if they had been brought out merely for the purpose of looking about them; but, as soon as he perceived that the enemy had quitted their ranks, ordering the infantry to follow, as fast as they could, he himself, with his own troop led the way at the head of the cavalry, and pushing on, with all possible speed, made a sudden charge on the enemy’s party, while a shout was raised by every horseman and footman at once. Not the men only so attacked, were terrified, but the horses also; insomuch that they broke their collars, and caused great confusion and tumult throughout. A few of the horses, indeed, stood unaffrighted; but even these the troopers could not easily saddle, or bridle, or mount; for the Achæans struck much greater terror than would be supposed from so small a party of horse. But now the infantry, in due order and preparation, assailed the enemy, dispersed through their own negligence, and almost half asleep: and slaughter and flight ensued in every part of the plain. Diophanes pursued the runaways as far as he could with safety, and then returned into garrison, after acquiring very great honour to the Achæan nation; for the whole affair had been seen from the walls of Pergamus, by the men, and even by the women.
XXI. Next day, the enemy’s guard, in more regular and orderly condition, pitched their camp five hundred paces farther from the city, and the Achæans marched out at nearly the same time as before, and to the same place. During many hours, both parties stood, attentively watching each other, in continual expectation of an immediate attack. At the approach of sunset, the usual time of their returning to the main camp, the king’s troops, forming together in a body, began to retire. Diophanes did not stir until they were out of sight; and then he rushed on their rear guard with the same vehemence as before, and again excited such dismay and confusion, that, though the hindmost were put to the sword, not one of them halted, or thought of fighting; so that they were driven into their camp in confusion, and scarcely observing any order in their march. These daring exertions of the Achæans obliged Seleucus to decamp, and quit the territory of Pergamus. Antiochus, having learned that the Romans and Eumenes were come to protect Adramytteum, made no attempt on that city, but ravaged the country adjoining. He afterwards reduced Peræa, a colony of Mityleneans; while Cotton, Corylenus, Aphrodisias, and Crene, were all taken at the first assault. He then returned through Thyatira to Sardis. Seleucus remained on the sea-coast, keeping the favourers of one party in fear, and protecting those of the other. The Roman fleet, with Eumenes and the Rhodians, retired, first to Mitylene, and then to Elæa, whence they had set out. On their way to Phocæa they put in at an island called Bachius, near the city of Phocæa; and, though they had formerly spared the temples and statues, with which kind of decorations the island abounded in an extraordinary degree, yet they now pillaged them all, and then passed over to the city. They commenced the attack of it on three different sides, according to a plan concerted; but soon perceiving that it could not be taken by scalade and assault, without regular works, and learning that a reinforcement of three thousand soldiers, sent by Antiochus, had got into the city, they immediately broke up the siege, and the fleet retired to the island, without having effected any thing more than the devastation of the enemy’s country in the neighbourhood.
XXII. Here it was resolved that Eumenes should return home, and make every necessary preparation for the passage of the consul, and his army, over the Hellespont; and that the Roman and Rhodian fleets should sail back to Samos, and remain stationed there, to prevent any attempt being made by Polyxenidas. Accordingly the king returned to Elæa, the Romans and Rhodians to Samos. There, Marcus Æmilius, brother to the prætor, died. When his obsequies were performed, the Rhodians, on a report that a fleet was on its way from Syria, sailed away, with thirteen of their own ships, one Coan, and one Cnidian quinquereme, to Rhodes, where they were to lie. Two days before the arrival of Eudamus, and the fleet from Samos, another fleet of thirteen ships, under the command of Pamhiladas, had been sent out against the same Syrian fleet, and taking with them four ships, which had been left to protect Caria, they relieved Dædala, and several other fortresses of Peræa, which were besieged by the king’s troops. It was determined that Eudamus should put to sea directly, and an addition of six undecked ships was made to his fleet. He accordingly set sail; and, using all possible expedition, overtook the first squadron at a port called Megiste, from whence they proceeded in one body, to Phaselis, resolving to wait there for the enemy.
XXIII. Phaselis stands on the confines of Lycia and Pamphylia; it projects far into the sea, and is the first land seen by persons coming from Cilicia to Rhodes, and, from hence, ships can be seen at a great distance. For this reason, chiefly, this place was made choice of, that they might lie directly in the way of the enemy’s fleet. But an event took place, which they did not foresee; for, in consequence of the unwholesomeness of the place, and of the season of the year, it being now the middle of summer, diseases began to spread with violence, particularly among the rowers. The fear of this pestilential malady made them quit the place; and, sailing by the Pamphylian bay, they put into port at the river Eurymedon, where they learned, from the people of Aspendæ, that the enemy were then at Sida. The king’s fleet had been the slower in its passage, by reason of the unfavourable wind, called the Etesian; that being the time when it blows periodically from the north-west. The Rhodians had thirty-two quadriremes, and four triremes. In the king’s fleet were thirty-seven ships of the larger rates; among which were three of seven, and four of six banks of oars; and besides these, ten triremes. Both fleets, at the dawn of the next day, moved out of port, as resolved to come to an immediate engagement; and, as soon as the Rhodians passed the promontory, that stretches into the deep from Sida, they descried the enemy, and were descried by them. The left squadron of the king’s fleet, which was on the outside next the main sea, was commanded by Hannibal, the right by Apollonius, one of the nobles, and they had their ships already formed in a line, ahead. The Rhodians approached in a long line ahead, also. Eudamus, in the commander’s ship, led the van; Chariclitus brought up the rear; and Pamphilidas commanded the centre division. When Eudamis saw the enemy’s line formed, and ready for battle, he pushed out towards the main, ordering the ships that followed, to form, regularly, as they came up, in a line of battle. This caused some confusion, at first; for he had not stretched out to the main far enough to give room for all the ships to come into a line between him and the land, while himself was so impatient, as, with only five ships, to engage with Hannibal; the rest, having received orders to form their line, did not come up. The rear division had no room left for it, next to the land, and while they were in disorder the fight was already begun, on the right, against Hannibal.
XXIV. But the goodness of their ships, and the expertness of their men in nautical business, quickly freed the Rhodians from all embarrasment. They pushed out, hastily towards the main; by which means each made room, next the land, for the one immediately behind; and when any made a stroke with its beak against a ship of the enemy, it either shattered its prow, or swept off its oars; or, passing by it, in the clear space between the vessels, made an attack on its stern. One of the king’s seven-banked ships, being sunk, with one stroke, by a Rhodian vessel of much smaller size, dispirited his fleet in a very great degree, insomuch that their right squadron gave evident indications of an intention to fly. Hannibal, in the open sea, pressed Eudamus hard, by means, chiefly, of his superior number of ships; for, in every other respect, Eudamus had greatly the advantage; and he would have surrounded and overpowered him, had not the signal, for a dispersed fleet collecting together again, been displayed from the commander’s ship. On which, all the ships which had been victorious in the left squadron, hastened up to succour their friends. This made Hannibal himself, with all his division, betake themselves to flight, while the Rhodians could not pursue, because their rowers, being most of them sick, were, therefore, the sooner wearied. While lying to, to take refreshment, Eudamus, observing the enemy towing, by means of their open vessels, several damaged and crippled ships, with more than twenty that were going off unhurt, commanded silence, from the castle of the commander’s ship, and then called out, “Arise, and feast your eyes with an extraordinary sight.” They all started up, and perceiving the disorderly flight of the enemy, cried out, almost with one voice, that they ought to pursue. Eudamus’s ship was bulged in many places; he, therefore, ordered Pamphilidas and Chariclitus to pursue as far as they should think it safe. They, accordingly, pursued for a considerable time; but, seeing Hannibal make-in close to the land, fearing to be wind-bound on an enemy’s coast, they steered back to Eudamus, and with difficulty towed to Phaselis, a captured seven-banked ship, which had been damaged in the beginning of the engagement. They then sailed home to Rhodes, not so much exulting in their victory, as blaming one another, for not, when it was in their power, having sunk or taken the whole of the enemy’s fleet. Hannibal was so disheartened by the loss of this one battle, that, notwithstanding their departure, he durst not sail along the coast of Lycia, though he wished to join the king’s main fleet, as soon as possible. That he might not effect this junction without opposition, the Rhodians sent Chariclitus, with twenty ships, to Patara, and the harbour of Megiste. They, then, ordered Eudamus, with seven of the largest vessels, belonging to the fleet which he had commanded, to rejoin the Romans at Samos, and to endeavour, by every argument, and by all his influence, to prevail on the Romans to besiege Patara.
XXV. Great was the joy felt by the Romans; first, on receiving the news of the victory, and, afterwards, on the arrival of the Rhodians: and, there was abundant reason to believe, that, if these were freed from care, they would render the seas in that part of the world safe. But, as Antiochus had marched out of Sardis, they could not allow them to quit the guard of Ionia and Æolia, lest the maritime cities should be crushed by his arms. However, they sent Pamphilidas, with four decked ships, to join the fleet which was at Patara. Antiochus not only collected aids from the circumjacent states, but also, sent ambassadors to Prusias, king of Bithynia, with a letter, in which he represented, in strong colours, the evil designs of the Romans in coming into Asia. “Their intentions were,” he said, “to abolish all kingly governments; so that there should be no empire in any part of the world. They had already reduced Philip and Nabis; and they were now falling on him. Thus the conflagration would spread, without interruption, from one to another, as each lay nearest to the one last ruined, until it envoloped them all. From him there was but one step to Bithynia, now that Eumenes had submitted to voluntary servitude.” This letter made a strong impression on Prusias; but he was convinced of such a suspicion being groundless, by a letter from the consul, Scipio; and still more so, by one from his brother Africanus, who, besides urging the invariable practice of the Roman people, of augmenting by every honourable addition, the grandeur of kings in alliance with them, demonstrated, by instances taken from his own family, that it was the interest of Prusias to court their friendship. “The petty chieftains in Spain,” he said, “and who had been received into alliance, he had left kings. Masinissa he had not only reestablished in his father’s kingdom, but had put him in possession of that of Syphax, by whom he had been formerly dethroned: so that he was, at the present, not only by far the most powerful of all the kings in Africa, but equal, both in dignity and strength, to any monarch in any part of the world. Philip and Nabis, avowed enemies, were conquered in war by Titus Quintius; nevertheless, they were left in possession of their kingdoms. Philip even had the tribute remitted to him last year, and his son, who was an hostage, restored. Through the indulgence of the Roman commanders, he had also got possession of several states beyond the boundaries of Macedonia. As to Nabis, he might have remained in the same honourable rank, had not, first, his own madness, and, afterwards, the treachery of the Ætolians, brought him to ruin.” But what contributed, more than all, to fix the king’s resolution, was, that Caius Livius, who had commanded the fleet as prætor, came to him ambassador from Rome. Livius showed him, how much better reason the Romans had to expect success than Antiochus; and how much more scrupulously, and constantly, they would maintain a friendship once formed.
XXVI. Antiochus, having lost all prospect of an alliance with Prusias, went from Sardis to Ephesus, to review the fleet, which was fitted out, and lay there ready, for several months past; to which he now gave attention, rather because he saw it impossible, with his land forces, to make any stand against the Roman army, and the two Scipios, its commanders, than that his naval force, by itself, had ever been successful, in any trial that he had made of it, or afforded at this juncture, any great or well-grounded expectation. Yet there were at the time some circumstances which flattered his hopes; for he had heard, that a large portion of the Rhodian fleet was at Patara, and that king Eumenes had gone to the Hellespont, with all his ships, to meet the consul. Besides — the destruction of the Rhodian fleet at Samos, under circumstances in which it had been artfully entangled, helped to inspire some degree of confidence. Buoyed up by these considerations, he sent Polyxenidas with orders to try, at all events, the fortune of a naval engagement; while he himself marched his land forces to Notium. This town, which belongs to Colophon, stands close to the sea, at the distance of about two miles from Old Colophon. He wished to get this city into his power, because it was so near to Ephesus that nothing could be done there, on sea or land, that was not open to the view of the Colophonians, and through them, instantly known to the Romans; and he had no doubt that the latter, on hearing of the siege, would bring their fleet from Samos to the relief of an ally, which would give Polyxenidas an opportunity of coming to action. He therefore laid regular siege to the city, making his approaches at the same time on the two sides next the sea; in both places, advancing his engines and mounds to the wall, and bringing up the rams under covered galleries. The Colophonians, terrified at the dangers threatening them, sent envoys to Lucius Æmilius, at Samos, imploring the protection of the prætor and people of Rome. Æmilius, thinking nothing more improbable, than that Polyxenidas, whom he had twice challenged, in vain, to fight, should ever offer him battle, was, for some time past uneasy at lying so long inactive at Samos; and he considered it as dishonourable, that the fleet of Eumenes should assist the consul in conveying the legions into Asia, while himself should be confined to one particular spot, and assisting Colophon under a siege, without knowing what would be the issue. Eudamus, the Rhodian, (who had before prevailed upon him to stay at Samos, when he wished to go to the Hellespont,) with all the other officers, pressed him to comply, representing “how much more eligible it would be, either to relieve confederates from a siege, or to vanquish that fleet which he had vanquished before; in a word, to drive the enemy entirely away, than to abandon allies to destruction, leave Antiochus master of Asia, by sea and land, and, deserting that share of the war which properly belonged to him, to sail for the Hellespont, when the fleet of Eumenes was sufficient for that station.”
XXVII. They, accordingly, set sail from Samos in quest of provisions, their stock being consumed, with an intention to pass over to Chios. Samos served as a granary to the Romans, and thither all the storeships, sent from Rome, directed their course. When they had sailed round from the city, to the back of the island, which looks northward towards Chios and Erythræ, and were preparing to cross over, the prætor received a letter informing him, that a vast quantity of corn had arrived at Chios, from Italy; but that the vessels, laden with wine, were detained by storms. At the same time accounts were received, that the people of Teios had furnished large supplies of provisions to the king’s fleet, and had promised five thousand vessels of wine. On this the prætor, immediately, changed his course, and steered away to Teios, resolved either to make use of the provisions prepared for the enemy, with the consent of the inhabitants, or to treat them as foes. As the ships were making up to the land, about fifteen vessels appeared in sight near Myonnesus. The prætor, at first, thought that these belonged to the king’s fleet, and sailed in pursuit of them; but it appeared afterwards, that they were a squadron of pirates. They had ravaged the sea-coast of Chios, and were returning with booty of every kind, when, on seeing the fleet approaching from the main sea, they betook themselves to flight. They had much the advantage, both in point of swiftness, as being lighter, and constructed for the purpose, and also in being nearer the land; so that before Æmilius could overtake them, they made their escape to Myonnesus; while he, unacquainted with the place, followed in expectation of forcing their ships out of the harbour. Myonnesus is a promontory between Teios and Samos. It consists of a hill rising from a pretty large base to a sharp top, in shape of an obelisk. From the land, the access to it is by a narrow path; towards the sea it is terminated by cliffs, undermined by the waves, so that in some places, the superimpending rocks project beyond the vessels that lie at anchor. The ships not daring to approach lest they should be exposed to the weapons of the pirates, who stood above on the cliffs, wasted the day to no purpose. At length, a little before nightfall, they gave over the attempt, and retired, and next day, reached Teios. Here, the prætor, after mooring in the port, at the back of the city, called by the inhabitants Geræsticum, sent out the soldiers to ravage the adjacent ports.
XXVIII. The Teians, as these ravages passed under their eyes, sent deputies to the Roman commander, carrying fillets, and other badges of suppliants, who assured him, that their state was innocent of any hostile word or deed against the Romans. But he strongly charged them with “having assisted the enemy’s fleet with provisions, and with having promised a supply of wine to Polyxenidas.” He farther told them, that “if they would furnish the same supplies to the Roman fleet, he would recal his troops from plundering; otherwise, they should be treated as enemies.” When the deputies carried back this distressing answer, the people were summoned to an assembly, by the magistrates, to consult on the measures proper to be taken. It happened that Polyxenidas, who had sailed with the king’s fleet from Colophon, having heard that the Romans had left Samos and pursued the pirates to Myonnesus; that they were ravaging the lands of the Teians, and that their fleet lay in the harbour of Geræsticum, cast anchor, just at this time, in a retired harbour of an island called Macris, opposite to Myonnesus. Lying so near, he easily discovered the motions of the enemy; and, at first, entertained strong hopes of vanquishing the Roman fleet here, in like manner as he had vanquished the Rhodian at Samos; by securing, with a proper force, both sides of the harbour’s mouth. Nor was the place in its nature unlike to that at Samos: by the promontories advancing their points towards each other, the harbour is inclosed in such a manner, that two ships can scarcely go out together. Polyxenidas intended to seize this narrow pass in the night; and, while ten ships stood at each of the promontories, to attack, from the right and left, both sides of the enemy’s fleet sailing out; to land the armed men out of the rest of the fleet, as he had done at Panormus, and by that means to overpower the Roman, on land and sea, at once. His plan would probably have succeeded to his wish, had not the Romans, on the Teians promising to comply with their demands, judged it more convenient for receiving the provisions, to remove the fleet into the inner port in front of the city. It is said, also, that Eudamus, the Rhodian, had pointed out the fault of the outer harbour, on occasion of two ships happening to entangle their oars together, so as to break them, in the narrow entrance. Among other motives, the consideration of the danger to be apprehended from the land, as Antiochus lay encamped at no great distance, inclined the prætor to change his station.
XXIX. When the fleet was brought round to the city, as they had not the least notion of the enemy being so near, both soldiers and sailors went on shore to divide the provisions, and the wine particularly, among the ships; when, about mid-day, a peasant happened to be brought before the prætor, who told him, that the enemy’s fleet was lying at the island of Macris these two days; and that, a little while ago, some of them were observed to be in motion, as if preparing to sail. Greatly alarmed at this unexpected event, the prætor ordered the trumpets to sound, to call in such as might have straggled into the country, and sent the tribunes into the city, to hasten the soldiers and sailors on board. The confusion was not less than if the place were on fire, or taken by an enemy; some running to call out the men; others hurrying to the ships, while the orders of the officers were confounded by irregular shouts, intermixed and heightened by the clangor of the trumpets, until at length the crowd collected at the ships. Here scarcely could each know his own ship, or make his way through the tumult; and the disorder would probably have been productive of much mischief, on land and sea, if the commanders had not exerted themselves quickly. Æmilius, in the commander’s ship, sailed out, first, into the main; where receiving the rest; he put each into its own place, so as to form a line abreast: and Eudamus with the Rhodian fleet, waited at the shore, that the men might be embarked without confusion, and that every ship, as soon as ready, might leave the harbour. By these means, the foremost division formed under the eye of the prætor, while the rear was brought up by the Rhodians; and then, the whole line, in as regular order as if within sight of the foe, advanced into the open sea. They were between Myonnesus and the promontory of Corycus when they first got sight of the enemy. The king’s fleet, which was coming in a long line, with only two vessels abreast, then formed themselves in order of battle, stretching out their left division so far, as that it might inclose the right of the Romans. When Eudamus, who commanded in the rear, perceived that the Romans could not form an equal front, but were just on the point of being surrounded, he pushed up his ships. They were Rhodians, by far the fastest sailers of any in the fleet; and, having filled up the deficiency in the extent of the line, he opposed his own ship to the commander’s, on board of which was Polyxenidas.
XXX. The fleets were, by this time, engaged in every part. The Romans fought eighty ships, of which twenty-two were Rhodian. The enemy’s fleet consisted of eighty-eight ships, and they had of the largest rates, three of six, and two of seven banks. In the strength of the vessels, and valour of the soldiers, the Romans had, greatly, the advantage of the king’s party; as had the Rhodians in the activity of their vessels, the skill of the pilots, and the dexterity of the rowers: yet the enemy was chiefly terrified by those that carried fires before them; and what was the sole cause of their preservation when they were surrounded at Panormus, proved here the principal means of victory to the Romans. For the king’s ships, through fear of the fire, turned aside, and to avoid at the same time encountering the enemy’s prow with their own; so that they could not strike their antagonist with the beaks, but exposed the side of their ships to his strokes; and, if any did venture an encounter, it was immediately overspread with the fire that was poured in; while the men were more hurried and disordered by their efforts to quench the flames, than by fighting. However, the bravery of the soldiers, as is generally the case, was what chiefly availed in deciding the fate of the battle. For the Romans, having broke through the centre of the enemy’s line, tacked about and fell upon the rear of the division which was engaged with the Rhodians; and, in an instant of time, both Antiochus’s centre division, and the ships on the left, were sunk. The squadron on the right, which was still entire, was terrified rather by the disaster of their friends, than any immediate danger threatening themselves; but, when they saw the others surrounded, and Polyxenidas’s ship deserting its associates, and sailing away, they quickly hoisted their top-sails, and betook themselves to flight, having a favourable wind for making Ephesus. They lost, in that battle, forty-two ships; of which thirteen struck, and fell into the hands of the Romans; the rest were burned or sunk. Two Roman ships were so shattered that they foundered, and several were much damaged. One Rhodian vessel was taken by an extraordinary casualty; for, on its striking a Sidonian ship with its beak, its anchor, thrown out by the force of the shock, caught fast hold of the other’s prow with its fluke, as if it were a grappling iron thrown in. Great confusion ensuing, the Rhodians, who wished to disengage themselves, pulled back, by which means its cable being dragged forcibly, and at the same time entangled with the oars, swept off the whole set on one side. The vessel, thus crippled, became the prize of the very ship which it had wounded with its beak and grappled. Such was the issue of the sea-fight at Myonnesus.
XXXI. Antiochus was much dismayed at this defeat, and on finding himself driven from the sea; despairing therefore of being able to defend distant posts, he commanded the garrison to be withdrawn from Lysimachia, lest it should be overpowered by the Romans. This was ill-judged, as events afterwards proved. For it would have been easy for him, not only to defend Lysimachia from the first attack of the Romans, but to have protracted the siege through the whole winter, and, by thus prolonging the time, to have reduced the besiegers to the extremity of want; while he might, in the mean time have tried every opportunity that offered for effecting an accommodation. But, after the defeat at sea, he not only gave up Lysimachia, but even raised the siege of Colophon, and retired to Sardis. Here, bending all his thoughts to one single object, that of meeting the enemy in the field, he sent into Cappadocia, to Ariarathes, to request assistance, and to every other place within his power, to collect forces. Æmilius Regillus after his victory at sea, proceeded to Ephesus, drew up his ships before the harbour, and, having extorted from the enemy a final acknowledgment of their having surrendered the dominion of the sea, sailed to Chios, whither he intended to have gone, before the sea-fight happened. As soon as he had refitted the ships that had been damaged in the battle, he sent off Lucius Æmilius Scaurus, with thirty others, to the Hellespont, to carry over the army; and decorating the Rhodian vessels with naval spoils, and allowing them a part of the booty, he ordered them to return home. The Rhodians spiritedly resolved to do business first. They therefore proceeded to assist in transporting the consul’s forces, and when they had completed that service, they returned to Rhodes. The Roman fleet sailed from Chios to Phocæa. This city stands at the bottom of a bay, and is of an oblong shape. The wall encompasses a space of two miles and a half in length, and then contracts on both sides into a narrow wedge-like form, which place they call Lampter, or the light-house. The breadth, here, is one thousand two hundred paces, and a tongue of land stretching out about a mile toward the sea, divides the bay nearly in the middle, as if with a line, and, where it is connected with the main land, by a narrow isthmus; so as to form two very safe harbours, one on each side. The one that fronts the south is called Naustathmos, the station for ships, from the circumstance of its being capable of containing a vast number; the other is close to Lampter.
XXXII. The Roman fleet, having taken possession of these harbours, where they rode in perfect safety, the prætor thought proper, before he attempted the fortifications, either by scalade or works, to send persons to sound the disposition of the magistrates and principal people in the place; but finding them obstinate, he formed two attacks, which he carried on at the same time. In the part against which one attack was directed, the houses were few, the temples of the gods occupying a great deal of the ground. In this place he first brought up his rams, and began to batter the wall and towers; and when the multitude, within, ran thither to defend that spot, the battering rams were applied in the other quarter. The walls now began to fall in both places; on which the Romans made an assault, scrambling over the ruins as they fell, while others of them attempted to scale the parts that were standing; but the townsmen made such an obstinate resistance, as plainly showed, that they had a firmer dependence on their arms and courage, than on their fortifications. The prætor, therefore, seeing the danger which awaited his men, was obliged to sound a retreat; the more especially as they were now become so furious through rage and despair, as to expose themselves rashly. Although the fighting ceased, yet the besieged did not, even then, think of rest; but all hastened, from every quarter, to strengthen the walls, and to raise new ones in the place of those that had been demolished. While they were busily employed in this manner, Quintus Antonius came to them, with a message from the prætor. After blaming them for their obstinacy, he assured them, that “the Romans were more anxious than they were themselves to prevent the siege being carried to the ruin of the city. If they would desist from their madness, Æmilius would allow them to capitulate on the same terms on which they formerly surrendered to Caius Livius.” On hearing this, they desired five days’ time to deliberate; during which they sent to learn whether they might hope for succour from Antiochus; and having received an answer, by their deputies, that it was not in his power to relieve them, they opened their gates on the single condition of not being ill-treated. When the troops were marching into the city, and the prætor had proclaimed that it was his pleasure that the surrendered townsmen should be spared, there arose an universal clamour, that it was shameful “to suffer the Phocæans, who had never been faithful to any alliance, and had always been bitter in enmity, to escape with impunity.” After which words, as if a signal had been given by the prætor, they ran, in parties, every way, to plunder the city. Æmilius, at first, endeavoured to stop them; calling them back, and telling them, that “towns taken by storm, and not such as surrendered, were to be plundered; and that, even with regard to the former, the determination lay with the commander, not with the soldiers.” But rage and avarice were too strong for his authority; wherefore, despatching heralds, through all parts of the city, he ordered, that all persons of free conditions should come to him in the Forum, to avoid ill-treatment; and in every particular, as far as he was able, he fulfilled his promise to them. He restored to them their city, their lands, and their laws; and, as the winter now approached, he chose the harbour of Phocæa for the station of his fleet until spring.
XXXIII. About the same time, as the consul was marching along the frontiers of the Ænians and Maronites, he received the news of the victory over the king’s fleet at Myonnesus; and of Lysimachia being evacuated by the garrison. This latter event gave much more satisfaction than even the success at sea; especially, when, arriving at that city, which was replenished with stores of every kind, as if purposely laid in for the reception of the army, the troops found comfortable accommodation; a place in the besieging of which they had expected to meet with extreme want and hardship. There they halted a few days, to give time for the coming up of the baggage, and of the sick; for many, overcome by diseases, or the length of the way, had been left behind in all the forts of Thrace. When all had joined, they began again their march through the Chersonese, and arrived at the Hellespont; where, every thing requisite for their passage having been previously got ready, by the care of king Eumenes, they crossed over, without opposition or confusion, as if to friendly shores, and the ships put in at several different places. This raised, to a high degree, the spirits of the Romans, who saw the passage into Asia left open to them; for they had always supposed that they could not accomplish it without a violent contest. They afterwards remained encamped, a considerable time at the Hellespont; this happening to be the time of the festival wherein the sacred bucklers are carried about, during which it is not allowed to march. The same festival had occasioned Publius Scipio’s being separated from the army; for he was bound by a duty more particularly incumbent on him, as being one of the Salian priests; himself therefore caused some further delay.
XXXIV. In the mean time an ambassador came from Antiochus to the camp — Heraclides, a Byzantian, with a commission to treat of peace. His hopes of obtaining it were greatly encouraged by the dilatory proceeding of the Romans; for he had imagined, that, as soon as they set foot in Asia, they would have advanced rapidly against the king. He resolved, however, not to address himself to the consul until he had first applied to Publius Scipio, having received instructions to that purpose, from the king. Indeed his highest expectations were from Scipio, because his greatness of soul, and the fullness of his glory, naturally tended to produce a placable temper. Beside, all the world knew how he had behaved during a flow of success, both in Spain and afterwards in Africa, and also, and more especially, because his son was then a prisoner with Antiochus. Where, and when, and by what accident, he became a prisoner, are points, like very many others, not ascertained among writers. Some say, that in the beginning of the war, as he was going from Chalcis to Oreum, he was intercepted by some of the king’s ships; others, that after the army came into Asia, he was sent with a troop of Fregellans, to Antiochus’s camp, to gain intelligence; that, on the cavalry sallying out against him, he retreated, and having fallen from his horse, in the confusion, he was, together with two horsemen, overpowered, and thus conducted to the king. In one particular all are agreed; that, if peace had still subsisted with the Romans, and likewise a personal friendship between the king and the Scipios, the young man could not have been treated and distinguished with greater generosity and kindness than he met with. The ambassador, for these reasons, waited the arrival of Publius Scipio; and, as soon as he came, applied to the consul, requesting his permission to lay before him the business with which he was charged.
XXXV. A full council being assembled, audience was given to the ambassador, who said, that “notwithstanding many embassies about peace had already been sent, backwards and forwards, without producing any effect, yet he conceived strong hopes of obtaining it from the very circumstance of the former delegates having obtained nothing. For the objects of contention in those discussions were Smyrna and Lampsacus, the Trojan Alexandria, and Lysimachia in Europe. Of these, the king had already ceded Lysimachia, that it might not be said that he possessed any thing in Europe; and those cities which lay in Asia he was now ready to deliver up, as well as any others, which the Romans, in consideration of having joined their party, might wish to render independent of the king’s government. The king was also willing to pay to the Roman people half of the charges of the war.” These were the conditions proposed. In the rest of his discourse he exhorted them to “consider the instability of human affairs; to use with moderation the advantages afforded by their own situation, and not to bear too hard on that of others; to be content with the empire of Europe; that in itself was immense. It was an easier matter to make acquisitions, one after another, than to retain them when acquired. But, if their wishes were so unbounded as not to be satisfied, without taking away part of Asia also, if they would define it by indisputable limits, the king, for the sake of peace and harmony, would willingly suffer his own moderate temper to be overcome by the insatiableness of the Romans.” These concessions, which appeared to the ambassador of great moment towards obtaining a peace, the Romans deemed trifling. They thought it reasonable, that “the king should defray the whole expense occasioned by the war; because it was, through his fault, that it was begun. And that, not only Iona, and Æolia, ought to be evacuated by the king’s troops; but as all Greece had been set free, so all the cities of that nation, in Asia, should also be free, which could no other way be effected, than by Antiochus relinquishing the possession of that part of Asia, on the hither side of Mount Taurus.”
XXXVI. The ambassador, perceiving that no reasonable terms were to be obtained from the council, made a separate application to Publius Scipio, as he had been ordered: and, to prevail on him to favour his cause, told him, first, that the king would restore him his son, without a ransom; and then, as ignorant of the disposition of Scipio, as he was of the Roman manners, he promised an immense weight of gold, and, excepting the title of king, an absolute partnership in the sovereignty, if, through his means, he should obtain a peace. To which Scipio answered, “I am the less surprised at your ignorance of the Roman character in general, and of mine, to whom you have been sent, when I see that you are unacquainted with the situation, even of the person from whom you come. You ought to have kept Lysimachia, to prevent our entering the Chersonese, or to have opposed us at the Hellespont, to hinder our passing into Asia, if you meant to ask peace from us, as from people solicitous about the issue of the war. But, after leaving the passage into Asia open, and receiving not only a bridle, but also a yoke, how can you pretend to negociate on a footing of equality, and when you know that you must submit to orders? I shall consider my son as the greatest gift that the king’s munificence can confer; any other instances of it, I trust in the gods, my circumstances will never need, my mind certainly never will. For such an act of generosity to me, he shall find me grateful if, for a personal favour, he will accept a personal return of gratitude. In my public capacity, I will neither accept from him, nor give him any thing. All that is in my power at present, to give him, is sincere advice. Go then, and desire him, in my name, to cease hostilities, and to refuse no terms of peace.” This counsel had no effect on the king, who thought that no chance of war could make his condition worse, since terms were dictated to him already, as if he were totally vanquished. Laying aside, therefore, for the present, all farther mention of peace, he turned his whole attention to the preparations for war.
XXXVII. The consul, having made the necessary preparations for the execution of his designs, quitted the post where he lay, and marched, first, to Dardanus, and then, to Rhæteum; from both which places the people came out in crowds to meet him. He then advanced to Troy, and having pitched his camp in the plain, under the walls, went up to the city, and into the citadel, where he offered sacrifice to Minerva, the tutelar deity of the place. The Trojans, by every act and expression of respect, showed themselves proud of the Romans being descended from them, while the Romans testified their happiness in having sprung from that origin. The army, marching thence, arrived, on the sixth day, at the source of the river Caicus. Here they were joined by king Eumenes. He had, at first, endeavoured to bring back his fleet, from the Hellespont, to Elæa, for the winter; but, being prevented, during many days, by contrary winds from passing the promontory of Lectos, and unwilling to be absent at the commencement of operations, he landed, and came, with a small body of men, by the shortest road to the Roman camp. From the camp he was sent home to Pergamus, to hasten supplies of provisions; and, as soon as he had delivered the corn, to the persons appointed by the consul, he returned to the camp, which remained on the same spot. The plan now adopted was, to have provision prepared sufficient for a great many days, and to march, directly, against the enemy before the winter should come on to stop them. The king’s camp was near Thyatira, and Antiochus hearing there that Publius Scipio had fallen sick, and was conveyed to Elæa, sent ambassadors to conduct his son to him. As this present was highly grateful to the mind of the father, so was the satisfaction which it gave no less salutary to his body. After long indulging his rapture, in the embraces of his son, at length he said to the ambassadors, “Tell the king, that I return him thanks; that, at present, I can make him no other requital, than my advice; which is not to come to an engagement until he shall have heard that I have rejoined the army.” Although an army of seventy thousand foot and more than twelve thousand horse, inspired Antiochus at times with confidence, to hope for a favourable issue of a battle; yet, moved by the advice of so great a man as Scipio, in whom, when he considered the uncertainty of the events of war, he placed his greatest hope for safety, in any kind of fortune that might befall him, he retired beyond the river Phrigius, and pitched his camp near Magnesia of Sipylus. However, and lest, while he wished to prolong the time, the Romans might attempt his works, he drew round it a fosse six cubits deep and twelve broad; and on the outside, a double rampart, raising, on the inside bank, a wall flanked with towers at small distances, by means of which it was easy to hinder the enemy from passing the moat.
XXXVIII. The consul, thinking that the king was still in the neighbourhood of Thyatira, marched five days without halting, until he came down into the Hyrcanian plains. Then hearing of his departure, he followed his tracts, and encamped on the hither side of the river Phrigius, at the distance of four miles from his post. Here, a body of about one thousand horse, the greatest part of whom were Gallogrecians, the rest Dahans, and archers on horseback, of other nations intermixed, passing the river with great fury, made an attack on the advanced Roman guards, who, being unprepared, were at first, thrown into disorder. But, as the dispute was maintained, notwithstanding, and as the Romans, (who could easily be reinforced from their camp lying so near,) increased in strength, the king’s troops becoming weary, and unable to withstand superior numbers, endeavoured to retreat; but, before they could reach the river, very many were killed, on the bank, by the enemy pressing on their rear. For two days after, all remained quiet, neither party passing the river. On the third, the Romans passed it with their whole force, and encamped at the distance of about two miles and a half from the enemy. While they were laying out and fortifying the camp, a body of the king’s troops, consisting of three thousand chosen horse and foot approached with great rapidity and violence. The party on guard, though much inferior in number, (being only two thousand,) without calling off any of the soldiers from the fortifying of the camp, sustained the combat with equal success at first, and, in the progress of it, repulsed the enemy, killing one hundred, and taking about the same number. For the four ensuing days, both armies stood in order of battle, before their respective camps. On the fifth, the Romans advanced into the middle of the plain, but Antiochus did not stir; so that his rear was not so far as one thousand feet from his rampart.
XXXIX. Æmilius, seeing him unwilling to fight, called a council next day, and asked their opinion, “how he ought to act if Antiochus would not give him an opportunity of engaging. For the winter was at hand, and he must either keep the soldiers in camp, or, if they chose to retire to winter quarters, defer the business of the war until summer.” The Romans never entertained a more contemptuous opinion of any people. The whole assembly therefore, called on him to lead on immediately, and make use of the present ardour of the troops, who, as if the business were not to fight against so many thousands but to slaughter an equal number of cattle, were ready to force their way, through trenches and ramparts, into the camp, if the enemy would not come out to battle. Cneius Domitius was then sent to discover the nature of the ground, by which they were to march, and on what side they could best approach the enemy’s rampart. On his returning, with a full account of every particular, it was resolved that the camp should next day be moved nearer to the enemy. On the third day, the standards were carried forward into the middle of the plain, and the troops began to form their line. Antiochus now thought it would be wrong to defer matters longer lest, by declining a battle, he should damp the courage of his men, and add to the confidence of the enemy. He, therefore, drew out his forces, advancing only so far as to show that he was willing to come to an engagement. The Roman line was nearly uniform throughout in respect both of men and armour. There were two Roman legions, and two brigades of allies and Latines each containing five thousand four hundred men. The Romans formed the centre, the Latines the wings. The spearmen composed the first line, the first-rank men the second, and the veterans closed the rear. Besides this regular body, the consul formed, on the right of it, and in a straight line with it, the auxiliary troops of Eumenes, intermixed with Achæan targeteers, making about three thousand foot; beyond these he posted somewhat less than three thousand horse, of which, eight hundred belonged to Eumenes; all the rest of the cavalry was Roman: and, in the extremity of the line, he placed bodies of Trallians and Cretans, equal in number, each making up five hundred men. His left wing did not need such supports, because it was flanked by a river with steep banks. However, four troops of horse were posted there. This was the whole amount of the Roman force. Two thousand Macedonians and Thracians, who had, of their own accord, accompanied the army, were left to guard the camp. Sixteen elephants were placed behind the veterans in reserve; for besides, that they were not supposed capable of withstanding the great number of the king’s elephants, no less than fifty-four, the African elephants are not able to cope with an equal number of Indians, being inferior to them both in size, and in steadiness of courage.
XL. The king’s line was more chequered with troops of many nations, dissimilar both in their persons, and armour. There was a body of sixteen thousand men armed after the manner of the Macedonians, which they called a phalanx. This formed the centre, had five hundred men in front, and was divided into ten parts, which parts were separated by two elephants placed between each two; its depth, from the front, was thirty-two ranks. This was the main strength of the king’s army, and it exhibited a formidable sight, both in the other particulars of its appearance, and in the elephants, towering so high above the heads of the soldiers. They were of huge bulk, and were rendered more terrific by the caparisons of their foreheads and crests, and the towers fixed on their backs; four armed men stood on each tower, besides the managers of the beasts. On the right of the phalanx, were placed five hundred Gallogrecian horsemen, to whom were joined three thousand horsemen, clad in complete armour, whom they call cataphracti, or mailed. To these were added a brigade of near a thousand horse, which body they called agema. They were Medes, all picked men, with a mixture of horsemen from many other nations in that part of the world. Adjoining these, a body of sixteen elephants was placed in reserve. On the same side, a little farther on towards the wing, was the royal cohort; these were called Argyraspides,* from the kind of armour which they wore. Next to these, stood one thousand two hundred Dahan bowmen on horseback; then, three thousand light-infantry, nearly half Cretans and half Trallians; adjoining these, two thousand five hundred Mysian archers, and the flank of the whole was covered by four thousand Cyrtæan slingers, and Elymæan archers, intermixed. Next to the left flank of the phalanx, stood one thousand five hundred Gallogrecian horse, and two thousand Cappadocian sent by king Ariarathes, wearing the same kind of armour; then, auxiliaries of all kinds, mixed together, two thousand seven hundred; then, three thousand mailed horsemen: then, one thousand other horsemen, being a royal cohort, equipped, with lighter coverings, for themselves and their horses, but, in other respects, not unlike the rest: they were mostly Syrians, with a mixture of Phrygians and Lydians. In the front of this body of cavalry, were the chariots, armed with scythes, and a kind of camels, called dromedaries. These were rode by Arabian archers, who carried thin swords four cubits long, that they might be able to reach the enemy from so great a height. Then followed another multitude, like that in the right wing — first, Tarentines; then, two thousand five hundred Gallogrecian horsemen; then, one thousand new Cretans, and one thousand five hundred Carians and Cilicians, armed in the same manner; then, an equal number of Trallians, with three thousand targeteers, Pisidians, Pamphylians and Lycians; then came brigades of Cyrtæans and Elymæans, equal to those posted in the right wing, and sixteen, elephants, standing at a small distance. The king himself took post in the right wing, the command of the left he gave to his son Seleucus, and Antipater, the son of his brother; that of the centre to Minio, Zeuxis, and Philip, the master of the elephants.
XLI. A morning fog, which, as the day advanced, rose up in clouds, spread a general darkness; and the moisture, issuing from it, and coming from the southward, wetted every thing. This circumstance, which was scarcely any inconvenience to the Romans, was of extreme prejudice to the king’s troops. For the line of the Romans was of a moderate length, and the obscuring of the light did not hinder their seeing every part of it; they were, besides, mostly heavy armed troops, so that the fog had no tendency to blunt their swords and javelins. But the king’s line was so very extensive, that, from the centre of it, the wings could not be seen, much less could those at the extremities see one another; and then, the moisture relaxed the strings of their bows, their slings, and the thongs of their javelins. Besides, the armed chariots, by means of which Antiochus had trusted utterly to disorder the enemy’s line, turned the terror of their operations on their owners. The manner in which they were armed was this; from the yoke, on both sides of the pole, they had tenscythes, each of a cubit in length, standing out like horns, to transfix any thing that they met; at each extremity of the yoke, two scythes projected, one on a line with the yoke, the other on its lower side, pointing to the ground; the former to cut through any thing that might come within its reach on the side, the other to catch such as fell, or endeavoured to go under it. At each extremity of the axle of the wheels, two knives were fastened, in the same manner The chariots, thus armed, if they had been placed in the rear, or between the ranks, must have been driven through his own ranks; the king, therefore, as already mentioned, placed them in front. Eumenes, seeing this, and being not unexperienced in such kind of fight; knowing, likewise, that those machines might prove as dangerous to their employers, as to their antagonists, if means were used to frighten the horses, rather than a regular attack, ordered the Cretan bowmen, and slingers, and javelin-bearers, with some troops of horse, not in a body, but scattering themselves as widely as possible, to rush forwards, and pour weapons on them from all sides at once. This storm, as it were, partly, by the wounds made by the missile weapons, thrown from every quarter, and, partly, by the discordant shouts raised, so terrified the horses, that, immediately, as if unbridled, they galloped about at random. The light infantry, the lightly accoutred slingers, and the active Cretans, quickly evaded their encounter. The horsemen, following them, increased the tumult and the terror of the horses and camels at the same time, while the crowd of followers redoubled their shouts. By these means, the chariots were driven out of the ground between the two lines. When this empty piece of parade was removed, both parties gave the signal, and advanced to a regular engagement.
XLII. But these chariots, thus ineffective against the enemy, soon proved the cause of great mischief to the army of the king. For the troops posted next behind, being terrified at the wild disorder of the horses, betook themselves to flight, leaving all exposed, as far as to the post of the mailed horsemen: and even these, when the Romans, after dispersing the reserves, approached, did not sustain their first onset. Some fled, and others, being delayed by the weight of their coverings and armour, were put to the sword. The whole left wing then gave way, and the auxiliaries, posted between the cavalry and the phalanx, being thrown into confusion, the terror spread even to the centre. Here the ranks were broken, by the flying soldiers rushing in between them, while the same cause deprived the men of the use of their long spears, called by the Macedonians, sarissas. While they were in this disorder, the Roman legions, advancing, discharged their javelins among them. Even the elephants, standing in the way, did not deter the Roman soldiers, who had learned, by experience in the African wars, both to evade the onset of the animal, and, getting at one side of it, either to ply it with darts, or, if they could come near enough, to wound its sinews with their swords. The front of the centre was now almost cut to pieces, and the reserve being surrounded, was attacked on the rear, when the Romans perceived their troops in another quarter flying, and heard shouts of dismay almost close to their camp. For Antiochus, who commanded on the right wing, having observed that the enemy, relying on the river for security, had placed no reserve there, except four troops of horse, and that these, keeping close to the infantry, left an open space on the bank of the river, made a charge on them, with a body of auxiliaries and mailed horsemen. He not only attacked them in front, but, going round the extremity of their line, near the river, pressed them in flank also; until, having routed the cavalry first and then the infantry, he made them fly with precipitation to their camp.
XLIII. The camp was commanded by Marcus Æmilius, a military tribune, son of Marcus Lepidus, who, in a few years after, became chief pontiff. On seeing the troops flying, he went out with his whole guard, to meet them. He ordered them, first, to halt, and then to return to the fight; at the same time upbraiding them with cowardice. He then proceeded to threats — that if they did not obey his orders, they would rush blindly on their own destruction. At last, he gave orders to his own men, to kill the foremost of the runaways, and with their swords to drive the crowd, that followed, back to their station. The greater fear now overcame the less. Compelled by the danger on either side, they first halted, and then marched, as commanded to meet the enemy. Æmilius, with his guard, consisting of two thousand men of distinguished valour, gave a vigorous check to the furious pursuit of Antiochus. At the same time, Attalus, the brother of Eumenes, having, from the right wing, where the left of the enemy had been routed, at the beginning of the engagement, observed the flight of his friends on the left, and the tumult near the camp, came up seasonably with two hundred horse. When Antiochus saw those men renewing the fight, whom, but just before, he had seen running away, and another large body advancing from the camp, with a third from the line, he turned about his horse and fled. The Romans, thus victorious in both wings, advanced over heaps of slain, which were most numerous in the centre, where the strength of the bravest men and the heavy armour had prevented flight, and proceeded to rifle the camp. The horsemen of Eumenes, first, and then the rest of the cavalry, pursued the enemy through all parts of the plain, and killed the hindmost as they overtook them. But the fugitives were exposed to more severe distress by the chariots, elephants and camels intermixed, and by their own disorderly haste; for, after they once broke their ranks, they rushed, as if blind, one upon another, and were trodden to death by their numerous beasts. In the camp also there was great slaughter committed, rather greater than even in the field: for the first that quitted it, in general, directed their flight to the camp. The guard, encouraged by the great number of these, defended their works with the more obstinacy. The Romans having been stopped at the gates and rampart, which they had expected to master at the first push, when they did, at length, break through, were led by rage to make the more dreadful carnage.
XLIV. According to the accounts given by historians, there were killed, on that day, fifty thousand foot and four thousand horse; taken one thousand four hundred, with fifteen elephants and their managers. Of the Romans, many were wounded, but no more than three hundred foot and twenty-four horsemen killed; and of the troops of Eumenes twenty-five. That day the victors, after plundering the enemy’s camp, returned with great store of booty to their own On the day following, they stripped the bodies of the slain, and collected the prisoners. Ambassadors came from Thyatira and Magnesia, near Sipylus, with a surrender of those cities. Antiochus fled, with very few attendants, but greater numbers, collecting about him on the road, he arrived at Sardis, with a numerous body of soldiers, about the middle of the night, and hearing there that his son Seleucus, and several of his friends, had gone on to Apamea, he likewise, at the fourth watch, set out for that city, with his wife and daughter, having committed to Zeno the command of the city, and the government of Lydia to Timon; but the townspeople disregarding both these, and the soldiers who were in the citadel, agreed to send deputies to the consul.
XLV. About this time deputies came from Tralles, from Magnesia on the Mæander, and from Ephesus, to surrender those cities. Polyxenidas had quitted Ephesus, as soon as he heard of the battle; and, sailing with the fleet as far as Patara, in Lycia, where, through fear of the Rhodian fleet stationed at Megiste, he landed, and, with a small retinue, pursued his journey, by land, into Syria. The several states of Asia submitted themselves to the disposal of the consul, and to the dominion of the Roman people. He was now at Sardis, whither Publius Scipio came from Elæa, as soon as he was able to endure the fatigue of travelling. Shortly after, arrived a herald from Antiochus, who solicited, through Publius Scipio, and obtained from the consul, permission for the king to send ambassadors. In a few days time, Zeuxis, who had been governor of Lydia, and Antipater the king’s nephew, arrived in that character. These, having first had a meeting with Eumenes, whom they expected to find most averse from peace, on account of old disputes, and seeing him better disposed to a reconciliation than either they or the king had hoped, addressed themselves then to Publius Scipio, and, through him, to the consul. At their request, a full council was assembled to hear the business of their commission, when Zeuxis spoke to this effect: “Romans, we are not prepared to make any proposal from ourselves; but rather desire to know, from you, by what atonements we can expiate the error of our king, and obtain pardon and peace from our conquerors. You have ever displayed the greatest magnanimity, in pardoning vanquished kings and nations, and ought you not to show a much greater, and more placable spirit, after your late victory, which has made you masters of the whole world? You ought, now, like deities, laying aside all disputes with mortal beings, to protect and spare the human race.” It had been determined, before the ambassadors came, what answer should be given them; and it was agreed that Africanus should deliver it. He is said to have spoken thus: “Of those things that are in the gift of the immortal gods, we Romans possess as much as the gods have been pleased to bestow. Our spirit, which is in the direction of our own mind, is the same to-day, that it has always been, in every state of fortune; prosperity has never elated, nor adversity depressed it. Of the truth of this, (to omit other instances,) I might produce your friend Hannibal as a convincing proof; but I can appeal to yourselves. After we had passed the Hellespont; before we saw the king’s camp or his army; when the chance of war was open to both, and the issue uncertain; on your proposing to treat of peace we offered you terms, at a time when we were, both of us, on a footing of equality; and the very same terms we offer you now, when we are victorious and you vanquished. Resign all pretensions in Europe, and cede that part of Asia, which lies on this side of Mount Taurus. Then, towards the expenses of the war, ye shall pay fifteen thousand talents of Eubæa;* five hundred immediately, two thousand five hundred when the senate and people of Rome shall have ratified the peace, and one thousand, annually, for twelve years after. It is likewise thought fit, that four hundred talents be paid to Eumenes, and the quantity of corn remaining unpaid, of what was due to his father. When we shall have settled these articles, it will be a kind of assurance to us of your performance of them, if you give twenty hostages, such as we shall choose. But never can we be properly satisfied, that the Roman people will enjoy peace on the side of that country in which Hannibal shall be. Him, therefore, we demand, above all. Ye shall also deliver up Thoas, the Ætolian, the fomenter of the Ætolian war, who armed you against us by the assurances of their support, and them by assurances of yours; and, together with him, Mnesilochus, the Acarnanian, and Philo, and Eubulidas, of Chalcis. The king will now make peace under worse circumstances, on his side, because he makes it later than he might have done. If he now causes any delay, let him consider, that it is more difficult to pull down the majesty of kings, from the highest to the middle stage, than it is to precipitate it from the middle to the lowest.” The king’s instructions to his ambassadors were, to accede to any terms of peace. It was settled, therefore, that ambassadors should be sent to Rome. The consul distributed his army in winter quarters at Magnesia on the Mæander, Tralles, and Ephesus. In a few days after, the king brought the hostages to Ephesus to the consul; and also the ambassadors who were to go to Rome, arrived. Eumenes set out for Rome at the same time with the king’s ambassadors, and they were followed by embassies from all the states of Asia.
XLVI. During the time of these transactions in Asia, two proconsuls arrived, almost together, at Rome, from their provinces, with hopes of triumphing: Quintus Minucius, from Liguria, and Manius Acilius, from Ætolia. After hearing recitals of their services, the senate refused a triumph to Minucius, but, with great cheerfulness, decreed one to Acilius, and he rode through the city in triumph over king Antiochus and the Ætolians. In the procession were carried, two hundred and thirty military ensigns; of unwrought silver, three thousand pounds weight; of coin, one hundred and thirteen thousand Attic tetradrachms;* and two hundred and forty-eight thousand† cistophoruses;‡ of chased silver vessels, a great number, and of great weight. He bore also, the king’s plate, furniture, and splendid wardrobe; golden crowns, presents from the allied states, forty-five, with spoils of all kinds. He led thirty-six prisoners of distinction, officers in the armies of the king, and of Ætolians. Damocritus, the Ætolian general, a short time before, escaped out of prison in the night; but, being overtaken by the guards on the bank of the Tiber, he stabbed himself with a sword before he was seized. Nothing was wanted but the soldiers, to follow the general’s chariot; in every other respect the triumph was magnificent, both in the grandeur of the procession, and the splendour of his exploits. The joy, however, was much damped by melancholy news from Spain:— that the army, under the command of Lucius Æmilius, proconsul, had been defeated in a battle with the Lacitanians, at the town of Lycon, in the country of the Vastitans; that six thousand of the Romans were killed; and that the rest, being driven in a panic within their rampart, found it difficult to defend the camp, and had retreated, by long marches, as if flying, into a friendly country. Such were the accounts from Spain. From Gaul, Lucius Aurunculeius, prætor, introduced to the senate deputies from Placentia and Cremona, who represented those colonies as distressed by the want of inhabitants; some having been carried off by the casualties of war, others by sickness; and several weary of the neighbourhood of the Gauls, having removed from them. On this, the senate decreed, that “Caius Lælius, the consul, if he thought proper, should enrol six thousand families, to be distributed and settled at the before mentioned places; and that Lucius Aurunculeius, prætor, should appoint commissioners to conduct them.” Accordingly, Marcus Atilius Serranus, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, son of Publius, and Lucius Valerius Tappus, son of Caius, were named to that office.
XLVII. Not long after, as the time of the consular elections drew nigh, the consul, Caius Lælius, came home to Rome, from Gaul. He not only enrolled the colonists, ordered by the decree of senate, passed in his absence, as a supplement to Cremona and Placentia, but proposed — and, on his recommendation, the senate voted — that two new colonies should be established in the lands which had belonged to the Boians. At the same time arrived a letter from the prætor, Lucius Æmilius, containing an account of the sea fight at Myonnesus, and of the consul, Lucius Scipio, having transported his army into Asia. A supplication for one day was decreed, on account of the naval victory, and another, for a second day, to implore the gods, that, as the Roman army had then, for the first time, pitched a camp in Asia, that event might, in the issue, prove prosperous and happy. The consul was ordered to sacrifice twenty of the greater victims, on occasion of each supplication. The election of consuls was then held, and was attended with a strong contest. One of the candidates, Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, lay under general censure, for having, in order to sue for the office, left his province of Sicily without asking leave of the senate. The other candidates were Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, Cneius Manlius Vulso, and Marcus Valerius Messala. Fulvius alone was elected consul, the rest not having gained a majority of the centuries; and, the next day, rejecting Lepidus (for Messala had declined) he declared Cneius Manlius his colleague. Then were chosen prætors, two of the name of Quintus Fabius Labeo, and Pictor; the latter of whom had, in that year, been inaugurated flamen quirinalis, Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus, Spurius Postumius Albinus, Lucius Plautius Hypsæus, and Lucius Bæbius Dives.
Y. R. 563.
189.XLVIII. Valerius Antias says, that at the time when Marcus Fulvius Nobilior and Cneius Manlius
Vulso came into the consulship, a rumour prevailed strongly at Rome, and was received, as almost certain, that the
consul, Lucius Scipio, and, with him, Publius Africanus, had been invited by the king to a conference, under pretence
of restoring young Scipio; that they were both seized, and that, when their leaders were thus made prisoners, the
enemy’s army was immediately led up to the Roman camp; that this was stormed, and the forces entirely cut off; that, in
consequence of this, the Ætolians had taken courage, and refused to obey orders; and that several of their principal
men had gone into Macedonia, Dardania, and Thrace, to hire auxiliaries, that Aulus Terentius Varro, and Marcus Claudius
Lepidus, had been sent by Aulus Cornelius, proprætor, from Ætolia, to carry this intelligence to Rome. To this story he
adds, that the Ætolian ambassadors being asked in the senate, among other questions, from whom they had received the
account of the Roman generals being made prisoners in Asia by king Antiochus, and the army being cut off, answered,
that they had the information from their own ambassadors who were with the consul. As I do not find that any other
writer mentions this rumour, I neither take upon myself to affirm the account as true, nor yet to pass it by as
groundless.
XLIX. When the Ætolian ambassadors were brought to an audience of the senate, although their cause and their circumstances, rather required that they should confess, and humbly seek pardon for their crime, or error, yet they began with enumerating their services to the Roman people; and, in an upbraiding kind of manner, talked of their own bravery, in the war with Philip, so as to give very general offence by the insolence of their discourse. The effect of their thus recalling to people’s minds old matters which had been forgotten, was, that the senators recollected many more injuries than services done by the Ætolians; and that, when they stood in need of compassion, they provoked anger and hatred. They were asked by one senator, whether they submitted themselves to the disposal of the Roman people; then, by another, whether they would have the same allies and enemies as the Roman people: but they gave no answer; on which they were ordered to withdraw. The whole senate, then, almost with one voice, cried out, that “the Ætolians were still entirely devoted to Antiochus; and that they were supported solely by their expectations from him. Wherefore the war ought to be carried on against such open enemies, and their haughty spirits tamed.” Another circumstance which helped to inflame the resentment of the senate, was that in the very moment of soliciting peace from the Romans, they were making war on Dolopia and Athamania. A decree of the senate was made, on the motion of Manius Acilius, who had defeated Antiochus and the Ætolians, that, “the Ætolian ambassadors should be ordered to leave the city that day, and to quit Italy within fifteen days.” Aulus Terentius Varro was appointed to escort them on the road, and notice was given to them, that, “if any ambassadors from the Ætolians should thence forward come to Rome, without the permission of the general commanding in that province, and without being accompanied by a Roman deputy, all such would be treated as enemies.”— In this manner were the Ætolians dismissed.
L. The consuls then consulted the senate on the distribution of the provinces; and it was resolved, that they should cast lots for Ætolia and Asia. To him, to whose lot Asia should fall, was assigned the army, then under Lucius Scipio; and, to recruit its numbers, four thousand Roman foot, and two hundred horse, and, of the allies and Latines, eight thousand foot, and four hundred horse: with which force he was to carry on the war with Antiochus. To the other consul was decreed, the army in Ætolia; and he was allowed to raise, for a reinforcement, the same number of natives and allies, allotted to his colleague. He was, likewise, ordered to equip, and take with him, the ships that had been fitted out the year before; and not only to wage war with the Ætolians, but also to pass over into the island of Cephallenia. He was farther directed, if he could do it without injury to the public service, to come home to Rome to hold the elections; for, besides replacing the annual magistrates, it was resolved, that censors also should be created; and if any particular business should detain him, he was, then, to acquaint the senate, that he could not attend at the time of the elections. Ætolia fell, by lot, to Marcus Fulvius; Asia to Cneius Manlius. The prætors then cast lots, and Spurius Postumius Albinus obtained the city, and foreign jurisdiction. Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus, Sicily; Quintus Fabius Pictor, the flamen quirinalis, Sardinia; Quintus Fabius Labeo, the fleet; Lucius Plautius Hypsæus, hither Spain; Lucius Bæbius Dives, farther Spain. For Sicily, was allotted one legion, with the squadron then in the province; and the prætor was ordered to levy, on the Sicilians, two-tenths of the corn; one of which he was to send into Asia, the other into Ætolia. It was also ordered, that the same impost should be collected in Sardinia, and the corn sent to the same armies as the Sicilian corn. A reinforcement was given to Lucius Bæbius, for Spain, of one thousand Roman foot and fifty horse, with six thousand Latine foot and two hundred horse. To Plautius Hypsæus, for the hither Spain, were assigned one thousand Roman foot, and two thousand Latines, with two hundred horse; so that, with these supplies, each of the two Spains should have a legion. Of the magistrates of the preceding year, Caius Lælius was continued in command, for a year, with his present army, as was Publius Junius, proprætor in Etruria, with the forces then in the province, and Marcus Tuccius, prætor in Bruttium and Apulia.
LI. Before the prætors went into their provinces, a dispute arose between Publius Licinius, chief pontiff, and Quintus Fabius Pictor, flamen quirinalis; such as had happened, in the time of their fathers, between Lucius Metellus, and Postumius Albinus. Metellus, who was chief pontiff at the time, had detained, for the performance of the business of religion, Albinus, who was consul, and was setting out, with his colleague, Caius Lutatius, to the fleet at Sicily; and now, Publius Licinius detained the prætor Fabius, from going to Sardinia. The matter was agitated in very warm debates, both in the senate and before the commons: authoritative commands were issued on both sides; pledges seized to secure appearance, fines imposed, applications made to the tribunes, and appeals to the people. At last, considerations of religion prevailed, and the flamen obeyed the order of the pontiff; whereupon, the fines were remitted, by order of the people. The prætor, thus bereft of his province, resolved to abdicate his office, but was deterred by the authority of the senate, who decreed, that he should hold the civil jurisdiction between natives and foreigners. The levies being finished in a few days, (for the soldiers to be enlisted were not many,) the consuls and prætors repaired to their provinces. There was spread, at this time, an unauthenticated report, the author of which, no one knew, of the transactions that had passed in Asia; and, in a few days after, certain information, and a letter from the general, arrived at Rome. The satisfaction which this occasioned was great, not so much because of any apprehensions, entertained of late — (for Antiochus, since his defeat at Ætolia, was no longer an object of dread,) as because of the opinion which had been formerly conceived; for when this war was first begun, he was considered as a very formidable enemy, both on account of his own strength, and of his having Hannibal to direct the business of the war. The senate, however, made no change in the plan of sending the consul into Asia; nor did they lessen the force intended for that province, because they feared that they might be engaged in a war with the Gauls settled in that country.
LII. In a short time after, Marcus Aurelius Cotta, deputy from Lucius Scipio, also ambassadors from king Eumenes, Antiochus, with others from Rhodes, arrived at Rome. Cotta, first, in the senate, and then, by their order, in the assembly of the people, gave a narrative of the services performed in Asia. On which a decree was passed, ordering a supplication, of three days continuance, and that forty victims of the greater kinds should be offered on the occasion. Then audience was given, first, to Eumenes. After briefly returning thanks to the senate, for having relieved him and his brother from a siege, and protecting his kingdom from the unjust attacks of Antiochus; and then, congratulating them on the success of their arms, by sea and land, whereby they had utterly routed Antiochus, driven him out of his camp, and expelled him, first, from Europe, and then from all Asia, on this side of Mount Taurus; he added, that with respect to his services, he wished them to be learned from their own generals and their own deputies, rather than from his mouth. All were pleased with his discourse, and desired him to lay aside his modesty so far, as to tell frankly what recompense he thought himself deserving of from the senate and people of Rome: assuring him, that “the senate were inclined to act with greater zeal, and more abundant liberality, if possible, than even his deserts demanded.” To this the king answered, that “had others offered him a choice of rewards, and allowed him the privilege of consulting the Roman senate, he would have applied to that most august body for their advice; that he might not appear to have wanted either moderation in his wishes, or modesty in his requests. But now, when they themselves were the donors, it was much more proper that their munificence, towards him and his brothers, should be regulated by their own judgment.” The senate, not discouraged by this answer, still urged him to speak; and, after a long contest, of kindness on one side, and reservation on the other, Eumenes, with a degree of complaisance as insuperable as it was equal in both parties, withdrew from the senate-house. The senate persisted in their resolution, and said, that “it was idle to suppose that the king was unable to inform them of the objects of his hopes, and of his views in coming. He best knew what would be suitable to his own dominions. He was much better acquainted with Asia than were the senate. They ought, therefore, to call him back, and insist on his explaining his wishes and sentiments.”
LIII. The king being brought back, by the prætor, and desired to speak freely, began thus: “Conscript Fathers, I should have persevered in declining to speak, but that I knew you would presently call in the Rhodian ambassadors, and that when they had been heard, I must, of necessity, have spoken. And my task therein will be the more difficult as their demands will be of such a nature, that, so far from appearing to contain any thing detrimental to me, they will not even seem to have any immediate connection with their own interest. For they will plead the cause of the Grecian states, and allege, that they ought to be set free; which point being gained, is it not plain to every one, that they will alienate from us not only those states which shall be liberated, but likewise those that have been tributary to us since the earliest times; and that, after having bound them under so great an obligation, they will keep them under the denomination of allies, in reality subject to their government, and entirely at their disposal. Now while they are aspiring to such a height of power, they will pretend that the business no ways concerns themselves; they will only say, that it is becoming of you, and conformable to your past conduct. It will be proper, therefore, to be on your guard, lest you be deceived by such specious arguments, and lest by an unfair distribution, you not only depress some of your allies too much, while you exalt others beyond measure, but, also, put those, who bore arms against you, in a better state than your friends. As to what regards myself, in other cases, I should rather wish it to be thought I had yielded somewhat of the full extent of my right, than that I had kept up too obstinate a struggle to maintain it; but, in a contest of friendship and good-will towards you, and of the respect to be paid to you, I cannot, with any patience, bear to be outdone. Friendship with you was the principal inheritance that I received from my father; who, of all the inhabitants of Asia and Greece, was the first who formed a league of amity with you; and this he maintained, with constant and invariable fidelity, to the last hour of his life. Nor did he demonstrate, merely, a faithful and kind inclination towards you, but took an active part in all the wars which you waged in Greece, whether on land or sea; he supplied you with all kinds of provisions in such a manner, that not one of your allies could vie with him in any respect; and, finally, while he was exhorting the Bœotians to alliance with you, in the middle of his discourse, he was struck by a fit, and expired soon after. In his steps I have trod; and though I could not surpass the warmth of his wishes, and the zeal with which he cultivated your friendship — for these could not be exceeded, yet — fortune, the times, Antiochus, and the war waged in Asia, afforded me occasions of outdoing him in real acts, in meritorious and expensive services. Antiochus, king of Asia, and of a part of Europe, offered me his daughter in marriage; offered to restore immediately the states that had revolted from us, and gave great hopes of enlarging my dominions, if I would have joined him in the war against Rome. I will not boast, as of a matter of merit, that I was guilty of no trespass against you; but I will rather mention those instances of conduct which are worthy of the very early friendship between our house and you. I gave your commanders such succours of land and sea forces, that not one of your allies can stand in competition with me. I supplied them with provisions for both services: in all the naval engagements, fought in various places, I took my share, and I never was sparing of my labour or danger. What, among all the calamities of war, is the most grievous, I underwent a siege; being shut up in Pergamus, in the utmost danger both of my kingdom and of my life. When this was raised, notwithstanding that Antiochus was encamped on one side of the capital of my dominions, and Seleucus on another, regardless of my own affairs, I went with my whole fleet to the Hellespont, to meet your consul, Lucius Scipio, and to assist in transporting his army. From the time that the army came over into Asia, I never quitted the consul; no Roman soldier was more regular in his attendance in your camp than I and my brothers. No expedition, no battle of cavalry was undertaken without me. In the field. I took that post, and I maintained that ground, which the consul’s pleasure allotted to me. I do not intend, Conscript Fathers, to say who can compare his services, during that war, to mine. There is not one of all those nations, or kings, you hold in high esteem, with whom I do not set myself on a level. Masinissa was your enemy before he became your ally; nor did he, while his kingdom flourished, come to your aid at the head of his troops; but dethroned, exiled, and stripped of all his forces, he fled for refuge to your camp with one troop of horse. Nevertheless, because he faithfully and diligently adhered to your cause in Africa, against Syphax and the Carthaginians, you not only restored him to the throne of his father, but, by adding to his own domain, the most opulent part of the kingdom of Syphax, rendered him the most potent of all the kings in Africa. What reward then, and what honour do we deserve at your hands, who have never been foes, but always allies? My father, myself, my brothers, have carried arms in your cause by sea and land, not only in Asia, but in countries remote from our home; in Peloponnesus, in Bœotia, in Ætolia, during the wars with Philip, and Antiochus, and the Ætolians. It may be asked me, What then are your demands? Conscript Fathers, since I must comply with what I perceive is your desire, and explain my wishes: if you have removed Antiochus beyond the mountains of Taurus with the intention of holding those countries yourselves, I wish for no other people to settle near me, no other neighbours than you; nor do I expect that any other event could give greater safety and stability to my government. But, if your purpose is to retire hence, and withdraw your armies, I may venture to affirm, that not one of you allies is more deserving than I am of possessing what you have acquired. But then it will be a glorious act to liberate states from bondage. I agree that it will, provided they have committed nothing hostile against you. But, if they took part with Antiochus, is it not much more becoming your wisdom and equity, to consult the interest of your well-deserving friends, than that of your enemies.”
LIV. The senate was well pleased with the king’s discourse, and plainly manifested a disposition to act, in every particular, with liberality, and an earnest desire to gratify him. An embassy from Smyrna was next introduced, because some of the Rhodian ambassadors were not present, but this was quickly despatched. The Smyrnæans were very highly commended for having resolved to endure the last extremities rather than surrender to the king. The Rhodians were next introduced. The chief of their embassy, after taking a view of the early periods of their friendship with the Roman people, and displaying the merits of the Rhodians in the war with Philip, and, afterwards, in that with Antiochus, proceeded thus: “Conscript Fathers, there is nothing in the whole course of our business that gives us more trouble and uneasiness than having a debate with Eumenes; with whom alone, of all the kings in the world, each of us, as individuals, and what weighs more with us, our state, as a community, is closely connected in friendship. But, Conscript Fathers, not our own inclinations disunite us, but the nature of things, whose sway is all-powerful, according to which, we being free ourselves, plead the cause of other men’s freedom; while kings wish to have all things subservient, and subject to their will. Yet, however that matter may be, we are more embarrassed by our respect towards the king, than either by any intricacy in the subject of debate, or any perplexity which it seems likely to occasion in your deliberations. For if you could make no honourable requital to the king, your friend and ally, who has merited highly in this very war, and the rewarding of whose services is now under your consideration, by any other means than by delivering free states into his power, you might, then indeed, find it hard to determine between the sending away your friend, the king, without an honourable requital, and the departing from your own established practice; tarnishing, now, by the servitude of so many states, the glory which you acquired in the war with Philip. But, from this necessity of retrenching, either from your grateful intentions towards your friend, or from your own glory, fortune completely frees you. For through the bounty of the gods, your victory is not more glorious than it is rich, so that it can easily acquit you of that debt. Lycaonia, and both the Phrygias, with Pisidia, the Chersonese, and the adjoining parts of Europe, are all in your power; and any one of these, added to Eumenes’ possessions, would more than double his dominions; but, if they were all conferred upon him, they would set him on a level with the greatest of kings. You have it, therefore, in your power to enrich your allies with the prizes of the war; and, at the same time to adhere to your established mode of conduct, by keeping in mind what motive you assigned as your cause of war, first against Philip, now against Antiochus; what line of conduct you pursued after your conquest of Philip; what is now desired and expected from you, not so much because you have done it before, as because it is suitable to your character to do it. For, what to some is both a specious and an honourable incitement for taking arms, is not so to others. Some go to war to get possession of land, some of villages, some of towns, some of ports, and some of the sea-coast. Such things you never coveted, when you had them not; and you cannot covet them now, when the whole world is under your dominion. You ever fought for the exaltation of your dignity and glory, in the sight of the whole human race, who, for a long time past, have revered your name and empire next to that of the immortal gods. What was arduous in the pursuit and acquisition, may, perhaps, prove more difficult to be maintained. You have undertaken to deliver out of bondage under kings, a nation the most ancient and most highly distinguished, both by the fame of its exploits, and by universal praise for politeness and learning; and the whole of it, having been received under your care and protection, has a claim on you for your patronage for ever. The cities, standing on the original soil, are not more Grecian than their colonies, which formerly migrated thence into Asia; nor has change of country changed either their race or manners. Every state among us has ventured to maintain a dutiful contest with its parents and founders, vying with them in every virtue and valuable qualification. Most of you have visited the cities in Greece, and those in Asia. We acknowledge an inferiority in no other respect, than in our being farther distant from you. The Massilians, (whom, if the nature implanted, as it were, in the disposition of their country, could have been overcome, the many barbarous tribes, surrounding them, would, by this time, have rendered as savage as themselves,) are, as we hear, deservedly held in as high esteem by you as if they were inhabitants of the very heart of Greece. For they have preserved not only the sound of the language, the mode of dress, and the habit; but, what is more material than any thing else, the manners, the laws, and a mind pure and untainted by contagion from their neighbours. The boundary of your empire, at present, is Mount Taurus. Nothing within that line ought to be thought remote. To whatever extent your arms have reached, let the emanations of your justice, from this centre, reach to the same length. Let barbarians, with whom the commands of masters have always served instead of laws, have kings, as it is their wish; but Greeks, in whatever condition fortune assigns them, carry spirits like your own. They too, in former times supported empire by their internal strength. They now pray that empire may remain to eternity, where it is lodged at present. They are well pleased at their liberty being protected by your arms, since they are unable to protect it by their own. But it is objected, that some of their states sided with Antiochus. So did others, before, with Philip; so did the Tarentines with Pyrrhus. Not to enumerate other nations, Carthage enjoys liberty and its own laws. Consider, Conscript Fathers, how much you owe to this precedent set by yourselves. You will surely be disposed to refuse to the ambition of Eumenes, what you refused to your own most just resentment. With what brave and faithful exertions, we, Rhodians, have assisted you, both in this late war, and in all the wars that you have waged in that part of the world, we leave to your own judgment. We, now, in peace, offer you such advice, that if you conform to it, all the world will judge, that your use of the victory redounds more to the splendour of your glory than the victory itself.” Their arguments seemed well adapted to the Roman grandeur.
LV. After the Rhodians, the ambassadors of Antiochus were called. These, after the common practice of petitioners for pardon, ackowledged the king’s error, and besought the Conscript Fathers to “let their deliberations be directed rather by their own clemency, than by the misconduct of the king, who had suffered punishment fully sufficient; in fine, to ratify, by their authority, the terms of the peace granted by their general Lucius Scipio.” The senate voted, that the peace should be observed; and the people, a few days after, passed an order to the same purpose. The treaty was concluded in the capitol with Antipater, chief of the embassy, and nephew of king Antiochus. Then audience was given to the other embassies from Asia, to all of whom was returned the same answer, that “the senate, in conformity to the usage of their ancestors, would send ten ambassadors to examine and adjust the affairs of Asia. That the outline of the arrangement was to be this: that the places on the hither side of Mount Taurus, which had been within the limits of the realm of Antiochus, should be assigned to Eumenes, expecting Lycia and Caria, as far as the river Mæander; and that these last mentioned should become the property of the Rhodians. The other states of Asia, which had been tributary to Attalus, should likewise pay tribute to Eumenes; and such as had been tributary to Antiochus, should be free and independent.” The ten ambassadors appointed were Quintus Minucius Rufus, Lucius Furius Purpureo, Quintus Minucius Thermus, Appius Claudius Nero, Cneius Cornelius Merula, Marcus Junius Brutus, Lucius Aurunculeius, Lucius Æmilius Paulus, Publius Cornelius Lentulus, and Publius Ælius Tubero.
LVI. These were commissioned, with full powers, to determine all points, that required investigation on the spot. The general plan the senate settled thus: That “all Lycaonia, both the Phrygias, and Mysia, the royal forests, and Lydia, and Ionia, excepting those towns which had been free on the day whereon the battle was fought with Antiochus, and excepting, by name, Magnesia at Sipylus; then the city of Caria, called also Hydrela, and the territory of Hydrela, stretching towards Phrygia, and the forts and villages on the river Mæander, and likewise the towns, excepting such as had been free before the war, and excepting, by name, Telmissus, and the fort of Telmissium, and the lands which had belonged to Ptolemy of Telmissus; all these should be given to king Eumenes. Lycia was assigned to the Rhodians, excepting the same Telmissus, and the fort of Telmissium, with the lands which had belonged to Ptolemy of Telmissus; these were withheld from both Eumenes and the Rhodians. To the latter was given also that part of Caria which lies beyond the river Mæander nearest to the island of Rhodes, with its towns, villages, forts, and lands, extending to Pisidia, excepting those towns which had been in a state of freedom on the day before that of the battle with Antiochus.” The Rhodians, after returning thanks for these favours, mentioned the city of Soli in Cilicia, “the inhabitants of which,” they said, “as well as themselves, derived their origin from Argos; and, in consequences of this relation, a brotherly affection subsisted between the two states. They, therefore, requested the senate, as an extraordinary favour, to exempt that city from subjection to the king.” The ambassadors of Antiochus were called in, and the matter was proposed to them, but their consent could not be obtained; Antipater appealing to the treaty, in opposition to which, the Rhodians were striving to become masters, not only of the city of Soli, but of all Cilicia, and to pass beyond the summits of Taurus. The Rhodians were called again before the senate, and the Fathers, after acquainting them how earnestly the king’s ambassadors opposed the measure, added, that “if the Rhodians were of opinion that the affair was particularly interesting to the dignity of their state, they would use every means to overcome the obstinacy of the ambassadors.” Hereupon the Rhodians, with greater warmth than before, testified their gratitude, and declared, that they would rather give way to the arrogance of Antipater, than afford any reason for disturbing the peace. So no change was made with respect to Soli.
LVII. During the time of these transactions, intelligence was brought, by messengers from Marseilles, that Lucius Bæbius, the prætor, on his way into his province of Spain, had been surrounded by the Ligurians, great part of his retinue slain, and himself wounded; that he had made his escape, without his lictors, and with but few attendants, to Marseilles, and in three days after expired. The senate, on hearing of this misfortune, decreed, that Publius Junius Brutus, who was proprætor in Etruria, should leave the command of the province and army to a lieutenant-general, and go himself into farther Spain, which must be his province. This decree, accompanied with a letter, the prætor, Spurius Postumius, sent into Etruria, and Publius Junius Brutus, the proprætor, set out accordingty. But long before the new governor’s arrival in that province, Lucius Æmilius Paulus, who afterwards, with great glory, conquered king Perseus, though his efforts had been unsuccessful the year before, hastily collected a body of troops, and fought a pitched battle with the Lusitanians. The enemy were routed, and put to flight; eighteen thousand were killed, three thousand three hundred taken, and their camp stormed. This victory contributed much to tranquillize affairs in Spain. During the same year, on the third day before the calends of January, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, Marcus Atilius Serranus, and Lucius Valerius Tappus, triumvirs, pursuant to a decree of senate, settled a Latine colony at Bononia. The number of the settlers was three thousand men. Seventy acres were given to each horseman, fifty to each of the other colonists. The land had been taken from the Boian Gauls, who had formerly expelled the Tuscans.
LVIII. There were many candidates for the censorship this year, all of them men of illustrious characters; and this business, as if it were not in itself sufficient to excite dispute, gave rise to another contest of a much more violent nature. The candidates were Titus Quintius Flamininus, Publius Cornelius Scipio, son of Cneius, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, Marcus Porcius Cato, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, and Manius Acilius Glabrio, who had defeated Antiochus and the Ætolians at Thermopylæ. The general favour inclined chiefly to this last; because he had been liberal of his largesses, and had thereby attached great numbers to his interest. As it was a severe mortification to so many of the nobility to see a new man preferred so far before them, Publius Sempronius Gracchus, and Caius Sempronius Rutilus, plebeian tribunes, commenced a prosecution against him, on a charge, that he had neither exhibited in his triumph, nor lodged in the treasury, a large part of the royal treasure, and of the booty taken in the camp of Antiochus. The depositions of the lieutenants-general and military tribunes varied. Beyond all the other witnesses Marcus Cato was remarkable; but the deference due to his assertions, from the constant tenor of his life, was greatly impaired by the circumstance of his being himself a candidate. On being examined, he affirmed, that he had not observed, in the triumph, the gold and silver vessels which on the taking of the camp, he had seen among the other spoils of the king. At last, Glabrio declared, that he declined the election, and that chiefly with the view of reflecting discredit on Cato. Men of noble families resented the matter in silence, but he, a competitor, (whose pretensions to nobility were no higher than his own,) endeavoured to counterwork him by perjury, so atrocious, that no fine could be adequate to its guilt. The penalty which his prosecutors proposed to have inflicted was an hundred thousand asses;* and this point was twice argued, but, at a third hearing, as the accused had declined the election, and the people were unwilling to vote about the fine, the tribunes, also dropped the business. The censors elected were, Titus Quintius Flamininus and Marcus Claudius Marcellus.
LIX. At the same time, Lucius Æmilius Regillus, who: at the head of the Roman fleet, had defeated that of king Antiochus, had audience of the senate in the temple of Apollo, outside the city; and, after hearing the recital of his services; his numerous engagements with the enemy; how many of their ships he had sunk and taken, they unanimously voted him a naval triumph. He triumphed on the calends of February. In this procession were carried forty-nine golden crowns; but the quantity of money was not near so great as might be expected in a triumph over a king, being only thirty-four thousand seven hundred Attic tetradrachms,* and one hundred and thirty-one thousand three hundred cistophoruses† . Supplications were then performed, by order of the senate, in consideration of the successful services to the state, achieved in Spain by Lucius Æmilius Paulus. Not long after, Lucius Scipio arrived at the city; and, that he might be equal to his brother in point of a surname, he chose to be called Asiaticus. He recited his services before both the senate and a general assembly. There were some who imagained that the war he had conducted was magnified in the representation beyond its real importance; for it was terminated entirely by one memorable engagement; and that, of the glory acquired there, a share was due to those who conquered before at Thermopylæ. But, to any person judging impartially, it must appear that the fight at Thermopylæ was with the Ætolians, rather than with the king. For how small a portion of his own strength did Antiochus employ in that battle? whereas, in the other, in Asia, the strength of the whole Asiatic continent stood combined; for he had collected auxiliaries of all nations from the remotest quarters of the east. With good reason, therefore, the greatest possible honours were paid to the immortal gods, for having rendered a most important victory easy in the acquisition; and a triumph was decreed to the commander. He triumphed in the intercalary month, the day before the calends of March; but his triumph, though in the magnificence of the procession, superior to that of his brother Africanus, yet when we recollect the exploits on which they were grounded, and estimate the dangers and difficulties surmounted, it was no more to be compared to it, than one general to the other, or Antiochus, as a captain, to Hannibal. He carried, in his triumph, military standards two hundred and thirty-four; models of towns, one hundred and thirty-four; elephants’ teeth one thousand two hundred and twenty; crowns of gold, two hundred and twenty-four; pounds weight of silver, one hundred and thirty-seven thousand four hundred and twenty; Attic tetradrachms, two hundred and twenty-four thousand;* cistophoruses, three hundred and thirty-one thousand and seventy;† gold pieces called Philippics, one hundred and forty thousand;‡ silver vases, all engraved, to the amount of one thousand four hundred and twenty-four pounds weight; of golden vases, one thousand and twenty-four pounds weight; and of the king’s generals, governors, and principal courtiers, thirty-two, were led before his chariot. He gave to his soldiers twenty-five denariuses§ each; double to a centurion, triple to a horseman: and after the triumph, their pay and allowance of corn were doubled. He had already doubled them after the battle in Asia. His triumph was celebrated about a year after the expiration of his consulship.
LX. Cneius Manlius, consul, arrived in Asia, and Quintus Fabius Labeo, prætor, at the fleet, nearly at the same time. The consul did not want reasons for employing his arms against the Gauls; but, at sea, since the final defeat of Antiochus, all was quiet. Fabius, therefore, turned his thoughts to consider what employment he should undertake, that he might not appear to have held a province where nothing was to be done; and he could discover no better plan than to sail over to the island of Crete. The Cydonians were engaged in war against the Gortynians and Gnossians, and it was reported, that there were a great number of Roman and other Italian captives, in slavery, in various parts of the island. Having sailed with the fleet from Ephesus, as soon as he touched the shore of Crete, he despatched orders to all the states to cease from hostilities, and each of them to search for the captives in its own cities and territory, and bring them to him; also, to send ambassadors to him, to treat of matters which equally concerned the Romans and Cretans. The Cretans took little notice of his message. Excepting the Gortynians, none of them restored the captives. Valerius Antias writes, that there were restored out of the whole island, no less than four thousand captives, in consequence of the fears excited by his threats of a war; and that this was deemed a sufficient reason for Fabius obtaining from the senate a naval triumph, although he performed no other business. From Crete he returned to Ephesus, and despatched thence three ships to the coast of Thrace, with orders to remove the garrisons of Antiochus from Ænos and Maronea, that these cities might be left at liberty.
* 193.750l.
* 12l 19s. 4d
* Called Galli, and Corybantes.
* Silver shield-bearers.
* About 2,900,000l.
* 14,596l. 16s. 8d.
† 4,270l. 19s. 9d.
‡ A coin so called, from its bearing the image of a priest carrying in a box (cistus) the consecrated things, used in the mysteries of Ceres, and of other deities. In value 7½d. were equal to four drachmas.
* 322l. 18s. 4d
* 4482l. 1s. 8d.
† About 2260l
* 28,934l. 6s. 8d.
† 5699l. 8s. 5d.
‡ 77,629l. 3s. 4d.
§ 16s. 1 1-2d
Marcus Fulvius, consul, receives the surrender of Ambracia, in Epirus, subdues Cephallenia; grants peace to the Ætolians. His colleague, Manlius, subdues the Gallogrecians, Tolistoboians, Tectosagians, and Trocmians. A census held, in which the number of Roman citizens is found to amount to two hundred and fifty-eight thousand three hundred and twenty-eight. Treaty of friendship with Ariarathes, King of Cappadocia. Manlius triumphs over the Gallogrecians. Scipio Africanus, prosecuted by the plebeian tribunes, on a charge of embezzling the public money, goes into voluntary exile at Liternum. Whether he died there, or at Rome, is uncertain, monuments to his memory being erected in both places. Scipio Asiaticus, charged with the like crime, convicted, and ordered to prison, is enlarged by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, hitherto at enmity with him. His property being found unequal to the discharge of his fine, his friends raise it by contribution amongst themselves, which he refuses.
Y. R. 563.
189.I.While the war raged in Asia, Ætolia was not free from commotions,
which took their rise from the nation of the Athamanians. At that period, since the expulsion of Amynander, Athamania
was kept in subjection by royal garrisons, under governors appointed by Philip, who, by their haughty and overbearing
conduct in command, had made the people regret the loss of Amynander. Amynander, then in exile in Ætolia, from the
letters of his friends, which discovered the condition of Athamania, conceived hopes of recovering his throne, and sent
persons to Argithea, the metropolis, to inform the principal men, that, if they were sufficiently assured of the
inclinations of their countrymen, he would obtain succours from the Ætolians, and come into Athamania with the select
council of that nation, and their prætor, Nicandor. Finding that they were ready for any undertaking, he gave them
notice, from time to time, of the day on which he would enter Athamania at the head of an army. Four persons, at first,
conspired against the Macedonian garrison; then each of these associated with himself six assistants, for the execution
of the business; but, afterwards, thinking it unsafe to rely upon so small a number, which was rather calculated for
the concealment, than for the execution of the design, they took in a number of associates, equal to the former. Being
thus increased to fifty-two, they divided themselves into four parties, one of which repaired to Heraclea, another to
Tetraphylia, where the royal treasure used to be kept, a third to Theudoria, and the fourth to Argithea. It was agreed,
that they should at first appear in the Forum publicly, without any bustle, as if they had come about their own
ordinary concerns; and then, on a certain day, raise the whole populace, so as to dislodge the Macedonian garrisons
from the citadels. At the appointed time, Amynander appeared on the frontiers with a thousand Ætolians, when, as had
been concerted, the Macedonian garrisons were driven from the four places at once: while letters were despatched to the
other cities, calling on them to rescue themselves from the exorbitant tyranny of Philip, and to reinstate their
hereditary and lawful prince. Accordingly, the Macedonians were, every where, expelled. The town of Theium, (in
consequence of the letters being intercepted by Teno, commander of the garrison, and of the citadel being occupied by
the king’s troops,) stood a siege of a few days, and then surrendered, as the rest had done, to Amynander, who had now
all Athamania in his power, except the fort of Athenæum, on the borders of Macedonia.
II. When Philip heard of the defection of Athamania, he set out, at the head of six thousand men, and proceded, with the utmost speed, to Gomphi. There he left the greater part of his force, as they would not have been equal to such long marches, and went forward, with two thousand, to Athenæum, the only place of which his troops had kept the possession. From some trials, which he made on the nearest places, he clearly perceived, that all the rest of the country was hostile to him; returning, therefore, to Gomphi, he brought the whole of his army into Athamania. He then sent Zeno, at the head of one thousand foot, with orders to seize on Ethopia, which stands advantageously for commanding Argithea; and, as soon as he understood that his party were in possession of that post, he himself followed, and encamped near the temple of Acræan Jupiter. Here he was detained one whole day, by a tremendous storm; and, on the next, marched on towards Argithea. The troops had but just begun to move, when they immediately descried the Athamanians, hastening to the hills which overlooked the road. On the sight of these, the foremost battalions halted, fear and confusion spread through the whole army, and every one began to consider what might have been the consequence, if the troops had gone down into the vallies commanded by those cliffs. The king, who wished, if his men would follow him, to push on rapidly through the defile, was obliged, by the confusion that prevailed among them, to call back the foremost, and return by the same road by which he came. The Athamanians, for some time, followed at a distance, without making any attempt; but, being joined by the Ætolians, they left these to harass the rear, while themselves pressed forward on both flanks. Some of them, by taking a shorter way, through known paths, got before the enemy, and seized the passes; and with such dismay were the Macedonians struck, that they repassed the river in a manner more like a hasty flight, than a regular march, leaving behind many of their men and arms. Here the pursuit ended, and the Macedonians, without farther injury, returned to Gomphi, and from thence into Macedonia. The Athamanians and Ætolians ran together, from all sides, to Ethopia, to crush Zeno and his thousand Macedonians; who having little dependence on that post, removed to a hill, which was higher and steeper on all sides. But the Athamanians, making their way up, in several places, soon dislodged them; and, while they were dispersed, and unable to find the road, through a pathless and unknown country, covered with rocks, slew many, and made many prisoners. Great numbers, in their panic, tumbled down the precipices; and a very few, with Zeno, effected their escape to the king. They were afterwards allowed liberty to bury the dead; for which purpose a suspension of arms was agreed to.
III. Amynander, on recovering possession of his kingdom, sent ambassadors, both to the senate at Rome, and to the Scipios in Asia, who, since the grand battle with Antiochus, resided at Ephesus. He requested a treaty of amity, apologized for having had recourse to the Ætolians, for the recovery of his hereditary dominions, and made many charges against Philip. The Ætolians from Athamania proceeded into Amphilochia, and, with the consent of the greater part of the inhabitants, reduced that nation under their power and dominion. After the recovery of Amphilochia, for it had formerly belonged to the Ætolians, they passed on, with hopes of equal success, into Aperantia, which for the most part, surrendered likewise to the Ætolians without a contest. The Dolopians had never been subject to the Ætolians, but they were to Philip. These, at first, ran to arms; but when they where informed of the Amphilochians taking part with the Ætolians, of Philip’s flight out of Athamania, and the destruction of his detachment, they also revolted from Philip to the Ætolians. While these latter flattered themselves with being sufficiently secured against the Macedonians, as being screened on all sides by those states, they received the news of Antiochus being defeated in Asia, by the Romans; and, in a short time after their ambassadors came home from Rome; not only without any prospect of peace, but also with intelligence, that the consul, Fulvius, with his army, had already crossed the sea. Dismayed at these accounts, they first sent ambassadors to solicit Rhodes and Athens, hoping, through the influence of those states, that their petitions, lately rejected, might meet with a more favourable reception from the senate. They then despatched some of the chief men of their nation to Rome, to try the issue of their last hope, as they had taken no kind of precaution, to avert the war, until the enemy was almost within sight. Marcus Fulvius, having brought over his army to Apollonia, was, at this time, consulting with the Epirot chiefs, where he should commence his operations. These recommended it to him to attack Ambracia, which had lately united itself to Ætolia; alleging, that, “in case the Ætolians should come to its relief, there were open plains around it, to fight in; and that if they should avoid a battle, there would be no great difficulty in the siege, as there were at hand abundant materials for raising mounds and other works, while the Aretho, a navigable river, affording an easy conveyance of every thing requisite, flowed by the walls; besides, the summer was just approaching, the fittest season for the enterprise.” By these arguments they persuaded him to march on, through Epirus.
IV. When the consul came to Ambracia, he perceived that the siege would be a work of no small difficulty. Ambracia stands at the foot of a rocky hill, called by the natives Perranthe: the city, where the wall faces the plain and the river, is situated towards the west; the citadel, which is seated on the hill, towards the east. The river Aretho, which rises in Acarnania, falls here into a gulf of the sea, called the Ambracian, from the name of the adjacent city. Besides the place being strengthened, on one side, by the river, and on another by hills, it was defended by a firm wall, extending in circuit somewhat more than three miles, on the side opposite the plain. Fulvius formed two camps, at a short distance from each other, with one fort on the high ground opposite to the citadel; all which he intended to join together by a rampart and trench, in such a manner as to leave no passage for the besieged to go out of the city; or for any reinforcement to get in. The Ætolians, on the report of Ambracia being besieged, were, by this time assembled at Stratum, in obedience to an edict of their prætor, Nicander. At first they intended to have marched hence, with their whole force, to raise the siege; but when they heard that the place was already, in a great measure, surrounded with works, and that the Epirots were encamped on level ground, on the other side of the river, they resolved to divide their forces. Eupolemus, with one thousand light troops, marching to Ambracia, made his way into the city, through openings, where the works were not yet joined. Nicander’s first plan was, to have attacked the camp of the Epirots, in the night, with the rest of the troops, as it would not be easy for them to receive succour from the Romans, the river running between. This enterprise he, afterwards, judged too hazardous, lest the Romans might happen to discover it, and cut off his retreat. Being deterred by these considerations from the prosecution of that design, he marched away to ravage the country of Acarnania.
V. The consul, having completed his works for the circumvallation of the city, and likewise those which were to be brought forward to the walls, formed five attacks, at once, against the place; three, at equal distances from each other, he directed against the quarter which they called Pyrrheum; to which, as it lay next the plain, the approach was the easier; one opposite to the temple of Æsculapius, and one against the citadel. The battlements were at one post battered with rams, and at another tore down with poles, armed at the end with hooks. At first, the formidable appearance of the works, and the shocks given to the walls, attended with a dreadful noise, filled the townsmen with terror and dismay: but as, beyond their hopes, these still stood, they again resumed courage, and, by means of cranes, threw down upon the battering rams weighty masses of lead, or stone, or beams of timber. Catching, likewise, the armed poles with iron grapples, they drew them within the walls, and broke off the hooks; while, by sallies, both in the night against the watchguards, and, in the day, against the advanced posts, they kept the besiegers in a state of continual alarm. While affairs at Ambracia were in this state, the Ætolians, having returned from ravaging Acarnania, to Stratum, their prætor, Nicander, conceived hopes of raising the siege, by a bold effort. He sent a person, called Nicodamus, accompanied by five hundred Ætolians, with orders to get into Ambracia, having fixed on a certain night, and even on the hour, when, from within the city, they were to assault the works of the enemy, opposite to the Pyrrheum, while himself should alrm the Roman camp. His opinion was, that, in consequence of the tumult in both places at once, and of darkness augmenting the enemy’s fears, he might be able to effect something of importance. Nicodamus, during the dead of the night, (having escaped the notice of some of the parties on watch, and broken through others,) without halting, passed the intrenchment, and made his way into the city; which gave the besieged new hopes, and courage for any enterprise. As soon as the appointed time arrived, according to concert, he made a sudden assault on the works; but the attempt, though formidable at first, produced no great effect, there being no attack made from without: for the prætor of the Ætolians had either been deterred by fear, or had judged it more advisable to carry succours to Amphilochia, which had been lately reduced, and was now very vigorously besieged by Philip’s son Perseus, sent by his father to recover both that and Dolopia.
VI. The Romans, as has been mentioned, carried on their works against the Pyrrheum in three different places, all which works the Ætolians assaulted at once, but not with like weapons, or like force. Some advanced with burning torches, others carrying tow and pitch, and firebrands, so that their whole band appeared in a blaze of fire. Their first assault cut off many of the men on guard; but when the shout and uproar reached the camp, and the signal was given by the consul, the troops took arms, and poured out of all the gates to succour their friends. In one place, the contest was carried on with fire and sword; from the other two, the Ætolians retired with disappointment, after essaying, rather than supporting a fight; while the whole brunt of the battle fell on the one quarter with great fury. Here the two commanders, Eupolemus and Nicodamus, in their different posts, encouraged their men, and animated them with hope nearly certain, that Nicander would, according to his agreement, come up speedily and attack the enemy’s rear. This expectation, for some time, supported their courage in the fight; but, at last, as they did not receive the concerted signal from their friends, and saw the number of their enemies continually increasing, they slackened their efforts, considering themselves as deserted; and, in a short time, finally abandoned the attempt, when they could scarcely retreat with safety. They were obliged to fly into the city, after having burned a part of the works, however, and killed a much greater number than they lost. If the affair had been conducted according to the plan concerted, there was no reason to doubt, but one part, at least, of the works might have been stormed with great havoc of the Romans. The Ambracians, and the Ætolians who were within, not only renounced the enterprise of that night, but, supposing themselves betrayed by their friends, became much less spirited. None of them any longer sallied out, as before, against the enemy’s posts, but standing on the walls and towers, fought without danger.
VII. Perseus, on hearing of the approach of the Ætolians, raised the siege of the city in which he was employed; and, having done nothing more than ravage the country, quitted Amphilochia, and returned into Macedonia. The Ætolians, too, were called away by devastations committed on their coasts. Pleuratus, king of the Illyrians, entered the Corinthian gulf with sixty barks, and being joined by the ships of the Achæans lying at Patræ, wasted the maritime parts of Ætolia. Against these were sent one thousand Ætolians, who, to whatever place the fleet steered round, by taking shorter roads, across the winding of the coasts, were ready there to oppose them. The Romans at Ambracia, by the battering of their rams in many places at once, laid open a great part of the city; but, nevertheless, were unable to penetrate into the heart of it. For no sooner was a part of the wall demolished, than a new one was raised in its place, while the armed men, standing on the ruins, formed a kind of bulwark. The consul, therefore, finding that he made no progress by open force, resolved to form a secret mine, covering the ground first with his machines. For a long time his workmen, though employed both night and day, not only in digging but also in carrying away the earth, escaped the observation of the enemy. A heap of it, however, rising suddenly, gave the townsmen the first intimation of what was going on, and, terrified, lest the wall should be already undermined, and a passage opened into the city, they drew a trench within, opposite to the work that was covered with machines. This they sunk as deep as the bottom of the mine could well be; then, keeping profound silence, they applied their ears to several different places, to catch the sound of the miners employed. No sooner was this heard, than they opened a way directly towards them, which did not require much labour, for they came in a short time to where the wall was supported with props by the enemy. The works joining here, and the passage being open, from the trench to the mine, the parties began to fight in the dark under ground; the miners with the tools which they had used in the works, but they were soon supported by armed men. The warmth, however, of this contest soon abated; for the besieged had it in their power, whenever they pleased, to stop the passage, sometimes by stretching strong hair-cloths across it, sometimes by hastily placing doors in the way of their antagonists. They also played off against those in the mine a contrivance of an unusual kind, which required no great labour. They took a large vessel, and bored a hole in its bottom of a moderate size; in this they fixed an iron pipe, and put over the vessel a cover also of iron, perforated in many places: this vessel they filled with small feathers; and, turning the mouth of it towards the mine, through the holes in the covering, projected those long spears, which they call sarissas, to keep off the enemy. Then they put a small spark of fire among the feathers, which they kindled by blowing with a smith’s bellows, inserted into the end of the pipe, and by this means filled the whole mine with smoke, which was not only thick, but so offensive, from the nauseous stench of the burnt feathers, that it was scarcely possible for any one to remain in the way of it.
VIII. While such was the situation of affairs at Ambracia — Phæneas and Damoteles came to the consul, as ambassadors from the Ætolians, invested with full powers by a decree of the general assembly of that nation. For when their prætor saw, on one side, Ambracia besieged; on another, the sea-coast infested by the enemy’s ships; on a third, Amphilocia and Dolopia ravaged by the Macedonians, and that the Ætolians were incapable of resisting the three enemies at once, he summoned a council, and demanded the judgment of the chiefs on the measures to be pursued. The opinions of all tended to one point: that “peace must be obtained on as easy terms as possible. Having undertaken the war, relying on the support of Antiochus, now that Antiochus had been vanquished on land and sea, and driven beyond the mountains of Taurus, indeed, almost out of the world, what hope remained of their being able to support it? Let Phæneas and Damoteles act to the best of their judgment, for the service of the Ætolians, in their present circumstances. But what room for counsel, what option had fortune left them?” The ambassadors, despatched with these instructions, besought the consul to “have mercy on the city, and to take compassion on a nation, once acknowledged as an ally; and, since, driven to desperation, they would not say, by ill-treatment, but undoubtedly by their sufferings The Ætolians,” they said, “had not in Antiochus’ war, deserved a larger share of punishment, than they had of reward, in that against Philip; and as, in the last-mentioned case, the compensation made to them was not very liberal, neither ought their penalties now to be excessive.” To this the consul answered, that “the Ætolians had often, indeed, sued for peace, but never with sincere intentions. Let them, in soliciting peace, imitate Antiochus, whom they had drawn into the war. He had ceded, not the few cities, whose liberty was the ground of the dispute, but an opulent kingdom, all Asia, on this side Mount Taurus. That he (the consul) would not listen to any overtures whatever from the Ætolians, until they laid down their arms. They must, in the first place, deliver up these, and all their horses; and then pay one thousand talents* to the Roman people; half of which sum must be laid down immediately, if they wished for peace. To these articles he would add, in the treaty, that they must have the same allies, and the same enemies, as the Roman people.”
IX. The ambassadors, considering these terms as very unreasonable, and knowing the changeful tempers of their countrymen, made no reply, but returned home, that they might again, before any thing was concluded, receive the instructions of the prætor and council. They were received with clamour, and reproaches, for protracting the business; and commanded to bring with them a peace of some kind or other. But as they were going back to Ambracia, they were caught in an ambuscade, laid, near the road, by the Acarnanians, with whom they were at war, and carried to Tyrrheum, into confinement. This accident delayed the conclusion of a peace. The ambassadors of the Athenians and Rhodians, who had come to mediate in their favour, were now with the consul; and Amynander also, king of Athamania, having obtained a safe conduct, came into the Roman camp, being more concerned for the city of Ambracia, where he had spent the greatest part of his exile, than for the nation of the Ætolians. When the consul was informed by them of the accident which had befallen the ambassadors, he ordered them to be brought from Tyrrheum; and, on their arrival, the negociations for peace were opened. Amynander, as that was his principal object, laboured assiduously to persuade the Ambracians to a capitulation. But, finding that he could not accomplish this, by coming under the walls, and conferring with their chiefs, he, at last, with the consul’s permission, went into the city; where, partly by arguments, partly by entreaties, he prevailed on them to surrender themselves to the Romans. The Ætolians received also great assistance from the consul’s uterine brother, Caius Valerius, the son of Lævinus, the first who had made a treaty of alliance with that nation. The Ambracians, having first stipulated that they might send away the auxiliary Ætolians in safety, opened their gates. The conditions then prescribed to the Ætolians were, that “they should pay five hundred Euboic talents,* two hundred at present, and three hundred at six equal annual payments; that they should deliver up to the Romans the prisoners and deserters; that they should not claim jurisdiction over any city, which, since the first coming of Titus Quintius into Greece, had either been taken by the arms of the Romans, or voluntarily entered into alliance with them; and that the island of Cephallenia should not be included in the treaty.” Although these terms were more moderate than they themselves had expected, yet the Ætolians begged permission to lay them before the council, and their request was granted. The council spent some time in debating about the cities, which, having been once members of their state, they could not, without pain, bear to have torn off, as it were, from their body. However, they unanimously voted that the terms of peace should be accepted. The Ambracians presented the consul with a golden crown of one hundred and fifty pounds weight. The brazen and marble statues with which Ambracia was more richly decorated than any other city in that country, as having been the royal residence of Pyrrhus, were all removed and carried away; but nothing else was injured, or even touched.
X. The consul, marching into the interior parts of Ætolia, encamped at Amphilochian Argos, twenty-two miles from Ambracia. Here, at length, the Ætolian ambassadors, whose delay had surprised the consul, arrived. When they informed him that the council had approved the terms of peace, he ordered them to go to Rome to the senate; gave permission for the Athenian and Rhodian mediators to go with them; appointed his brother, Caius Valerius, to accompany them, and then himself passed over to Cephallenia. The ambassadors found the ears and minds of all the principal people at Rome prepossessed by charges made against them by Philip, who had complained, both by ambassadors, and by letters, that Dolopia, Amphilocia, and Athamania, had been forcibly taken from him; that his garrison, and at last, even his son Perseus, had been driven out of Amphilochia; and these accusations had predisposed the senate to refuse to listen to their entreaties. The Athamanians and Rhodians were, nevertheless, heard with attention. One of the Athenian ambassadors, Leon, son of Icesias, is said to have even affected them much by his eloquence. Making use of a common simile, and comparing the multitude of the Ætolians to a calm sea, when it comes to be ruffled by the winds, he said, that “as long as they faithfully adhered to the alliance with Rome, they rested in the calm state natural to the nation; but that, when Thoas and Dicæarchus began to blow from Asia, Menetas and Damocritus from Europe, then was raised that storm which dashed them on Antiochus as on a rock.”
XI. The Ætolians, after long suspense and uncertainty, at length prevailed to have articles of peace concluded. They were these:—“The Ætolian nation, without fraud or deceit, shall maintain the empire and majesty of the Roman people: they shall not suffer to pass through their territories, nor, in any manner whatever, aid nor assist any army that shall march against the allies and friends of the Romans: they shall have the same enemies as the Roman people; and they shall bear arms against them, and take a share in their wars: they shall deliver up the deserters, fugitives, and prisoners, to the Romans and their allies, excepting such as, having been prisoners before, and returned home, were afterwards captured; and also such as at the time of their being taken, were enemies to Rome, while the Ætolians acted in conjunction with the Romans. The others shall be delivered up without reserve, to the magistrates of Corcyra, within one hundred days; and such as cannot now be found, as soon as they shall be discovered. They shall give forty hostages to be chosen by the Roman consul, none younger than twelve years nor older than forty: neither the prætor, nor the general of the horse, nor the public secretary, shall be an hostage; nor any person who has before been an hostage in the hands of the Romans. Cephallenia not to be included in these articles.” With respect to the sum of money which they were to pay, and the mode of payment, no alteration was made in the arrangement settled by the consul. If they chose to give gold instead of silver, it was agreed that they might do so, provided that one piece of gold should be deemed equivalent to ten of silver of the same weight. “Whatever cities, whatever lands, whatever men have been formerly under the jurisdiction of the Ætolians, and have, either in the consulate of Titus Quintius and Publius Ælius, or since their consulate, either been subdued by the arms of the Roman people, or that made a voluntary submission to them, the Ætolians are not to reclaim. The Œnians, with their city and lands, are to belong to the Acarnanians.” On these conditions was the treaty concluded with the Ætolians.
XII. During the same summer, and even at the very time, when the consul Marcus Fulvius was thus employed in Ætolia, the other consul, Cneius Manlius, carried on war in Gallogræcia; the progress of which I shall now relate. At the first opening of spring he came to Ephesus, and having received the command of the army from Lucius Scipio, and purified the troops, he made an harangue to the soldiers, in which he praised their bravery in having completely conquered Antiochus in a single battle. He then encouraged them to undertake, with spirit, a new war against the Gauls, who had supported him as auxiliaries; and were, besides, of such untractable tempers, that the removing of that monarch beyond the mountains of Taurus would answer no purpose, unless the power of the Gauls were reduced. He then spoke briefly of himself in terms neither ill-grounded nor extravagant. They listened to his discourse with much satisfaction, and universally applauded it; for, considering the Gauls as having been a part of the strength of Antiochus, they thought, that, since that king had been vanquished, the forces of that people, by themselves, would be an easy conquest. The absence of Eumenes, who was then at Rome, seemed, to the consul, an unseasonable circumstance, as he was well acquainted with the nature of the country and of the inhabitants; and also, as his own interest must make him wish to crush the power of the Gauls. He therefore sent for his brother Attalus, from Pergamus, whom he persuaded to join in undertaking the war; and who, having promised his assistance, and that of his countrymen, was sent home to make the necessary preparations. A few days after, the consul began his march from Ephesus, and at Magnesia, Attalus met him, with one thousand foot and two hundred horse, having ordered his brother Athenæus to follow with the rest of the troops, committing the care of Pergamus to persons whom he knew to be faithful to his brother, and to his government. The consul highly commended the young prince, and advancing with all his forces, encamped on the bank of the Mæander; for that river not being fordable, it was necessary to collect shipping for carrying over the army.
XIII. Having passed the Mæander, they came to Hiera Come.* In this place there is a magnificent temple, and oracle of Apollo, where responses are said to be given in not inelegant verses. From hence, in two days march, they reached the river Harpasus; whither came ambassadors from the Alabandians, intreating the consul, either by his authority or his arms, to compel a fort, which had lately revolted from them, to return to its former allegiance. At the same place he was joined by Athenæus, the brother of Eumenes, and Attalus, with Leusus, a Cretan, and Corragos, a Macedonian commander. They brought with them, of various nations, one thousand foot and three hundred horse. The consul detached a military tribune, with a small party, who retook the fort by assault, and restored it to the Alabandians. He did not himself quit his route, but went on to Antiochia, on the Mæander, where he pitched his camp. The source of this river rises in Celænæ, which city was formerly the metropolis of Phrygia. The inhabitants, afterwards, removed to a spot not far distant from old Celænæ, which new city they called Apamea, the name of the wife of king Seleucus. The river Marsyas, also, rising at a little distance from the head of the Mæander, falls into the latter river, and the general opinion is, that at Celænæ happened the contest between Marsyas and Apollo in playing on the flute. The Mæander, springing up in the highest part of the citadel of Celænæ, runs down through the middle of the city, then through Caria, afterwards through Ionia, and empties itself into a bay which lies between Priene and Miletus. Seleucus, son of Antiochus, came into the consul’s camp, at Antiochia, to furnish corn for the troops, in conformity to the treaty with Scipio. Here a small dispute arose, concerning the auxiliary troops of Attalus; for Seleucus affirmed, that the engagement of Antiochus went no farther than the supplying of corn to the Roman soldiers. This difference was soon terminated by the firmness of the consul, who sent a tribune, with orders that the Roman soldiers should receive none, until the auxiliaries, under Attalus, should have received their share. From hence the army advanced to Gordiutichos,* as it is called; from which place it marched, in three days, to Tabæ. This city stands on the confines of Pisidia, on the side opposite the Pamphylian sea. Before the strength of that country was reduced, its inhabitants had been remarkable, as valiant warriors; and even on this occasion, their horsemen, sallying out on the Roman troops, caused, by their first onset, no small confusion; but soon finding themselves overmatched both in number and bravery, they fled into the city, on which the townsmen, begging pardon for their transgressions, offered to surrender the place. They were ordered to pay twenty-five talents of silver,* and ten thousand bushels of wheat; and on these terms their surrender was accepted.
XIV. On the third day after their leaving this place, the army reached the river Chaos, and proceeding thence, took the city of Eriza at the first assault. They then came to Thabusios, a fort standing on the bank of the river Indus, so called from an Indian thrown into it from an elephant. They were now not far from Cibyra, yet no embassy appeared from Moagetes, the tyrant of that state; a man, whose conduct, in every circumstance, was branded with infidelity and injustice. The consul, in order to learn his intentions, sent forward Caius Helvius, with four thousand foot and five hundred horse. When this party entered his frontiers, they were met by ambassadors, who declared that Moagetes was willing to submit to their orders; intreated Helvius to pass through the country without hostilities, and to restrain his soldiers from plundering it; bringing with them, in lieu of a golden crown, fifteen talents. Helvius promised to protect their territory, and ordered the ambassadors to go on to the consul, who, on the same message being delivered by them, answered, “We, Romans, see no sign of the tyrant having any good will towards us; and we are decidedly of opinion, that such is his character, that we ought rather to think of punishing than of contracting friendship with him.” Struck with astonishment at such a reception, the ambassadors confined their request to his acceptance of the fifteen talents, with permission for their master to come before him, and vindicate his conduct. Having obtained the consul’s leave, the tyrant came, next day, into the camp. His dress and retinue were in a style scarcely becoming a private person of moderate fortune; while his discourse was humble and incoherent, tending to diminish the idea of his wealth, being filled with complaints of his own poverty, and that of the cities in his state. He had under his dominion, (beside Cibyra,) Syleum, and the city called Alimne. Out of these he promised, (but in such a manner as if he were diffident of his ability to accomplish it, by stripping himself and his subjects,) to raise twenty-five talents.* “This,” said the consul, “is not to be endured. Was it not enough that you should endeavour to impose upon us by your ambassadors, but you must now come in person to persist in the falsehood. What! twenty-five talents will exhaust your dominions! If, within three days, you do not pay down five hundred talents,† expect to see your lands wasted, and your city besieged.” Although terrified by this menace, yet he persisted obstinately in his plea of poverty; gradually advancing, however, with sordid reluctance, (sometimes cavilling, sometimes recurring to prayers and counterfeit tears,) he was brought to agree to the payment of one hundred talents,‡ to which were added ten thousand bushels of corn. All this was done within six days.
XV. From Cibyra the army was led through the territory of the Sendians, and, after crossing the river Caular encamped. Next day they marched along the side of the lake of Caralis, and passed the night at Mandropolis. As they advanced to the next city, Lagos, the inhabitants fled through fear. The place being deserted, yet filled with abundance of every thing, was pillaged by the soldiers. They next day proceeded by the head of the river Lysis, to the river Cobulatus. At this time the Termessians were besieging the citadel of the Isiondians, after having taken the city. The besieged, destitute of every other hope of relief, sent ambassadors to the consul, imploring succour; adding, that, “being shut up in the citadel, with their wives and children, they were in daily expectation of perishing, either by the sword or famine.” The consul was well pleased at an occasion offering for turning aside to Pamphylia. His approach raised the siege of Isionda. He granted peace to Termessus on receiving fifty talents;* and, likewise, to the Aspendians, and other states of Pamphylia. In his return out of that country he pitched his camp, the first day, at the river Taurus, and the second at Come Xyline,† as they call it. Departing from which, he proceeded, by uninterrupted marches to the city of Cormasa. The next city was Darsa, which he found abandoned by the inhabitants through fear, but plentifully stored with every thing useful. As he marched thence along the morasses, he was met by ambassadors from Lysinoe, with the surrender of that state. He then came into the Sagalassenian territory, rich and abounding in every kind of production. The inhabitants are Pisidians, the best soldiers, by far, of any in that part of the world. This circumstance, together with the fertility of their soil, the multitude of their people, and the situation of their city, which is stronger than most others, gave them boldness. Manlius, as no embassy attended him on the frontiers, sent a party to ravage the country; which overcame their obstinacy, as they saw their effects carried and driven away. They then sent ambassadors: and on their agreeing to pay fifty talents, with twenty thousand bushels of wheat and twenty thousand of barley, they obtained peace. The consul then marched to the source of the Obrima, and encamped at a village called Comi Aporidos. Hither Seleucus came, next day, from Apamea; to which place the sick, and the useless baggage, were sent; and the army being furnished with guides by Seleucus, and marching that day into the plain of Metropolis, advanced on the day following, to Diniæ in Phrygia, and thence to Synnas; all the towns on every side being deserted by the inhabitants through fear. The spoil of these overloaded the army, and retarded its motion so much that it scarcely marched five miles in a whole day; when it reached the town called Old Beudi. Next day it encamped at Anabura; on the following, at the source of the Alander, and on the third at Abassus, where it lay for several days, being now arrived at the borders of the Tolistoboians.
XVI. These Gauls, in a very numerous body, quitting their native country, under the conduct of Brennus, either through hopes of plunder, or in consequence of a scarcity of land; and, thinking that no nation through which they were to pass would be a match for them in arms; made their way into Dardania. There a dissension arose, and twenty thousand of them under the chieftains Leonorius and Lutarius, separating from Brennus, turned their route to Thrace. As they went along, they fought with such as resisted them, imposed a tribute on such as sued for peace, and, arriving at Byzantium, held possession for a long time, of the cities in that quarter, laying the coast of the Propontis under contribution. They were afterwards seized by a desire of passing over into Asia, from the accounts which they heard, in its neighbourhood, of the great fruitfulness of its lands; and, having taken Lysimachia by treachery, and possessed themselves of the whole Chersonesus by force of arms, they went down to the Hellespont. When they there beheld Asia on the other side of a narrow streight, their wishes to pass into it were much more highly inflamed, and they despatched envoys to Antipater, governor of that coast, to adjust matters relating to their passage. But this business being protracted to a greater length than they expected, a new quarrel broke out between their chieftains; in consequence of which, Leonorius, with the greater part of the people, went back to Byzantium, whence they came; and Lutarius, having taken from some Macedonians, (sent by Antipater as spies, under the pretext of an embassy,) two decked ships and three barks, employed these in carrying over one division after another, by day or by night, until, within a few days, he had transported his whole army. Not long after, Leonorius, with the assistance of Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, passed over from Byzantium. The Gauls then reunited their forces, and assisted Nicomedes in a war which he was carrying on against Zybæa, who held possession of a part of Bithynia. By their assistance chiefly, Zybœa was subdued, and the whole of Bithynia reduced under the dominion of Nicomedes. Then leaving Bithynia, they advanced into Asia; and although, of their twenty thousand men, not more than ten carried arms, yet such a degree of terror did they strike into all the natives, dwelling on this side of Taurus, that those which they visited, and those which they did not visit, the remotest as well as the nearest, submitted to their authority. At length, as there were three tribes of them, the Tolistoboians, the Trocmians, and the Tectosagians, they made a division of Asia into three provinces, according to which the contributions imposed upon them were to be paid to each of their states respectively. The coast of the Hellespont was assigned to the Trocmians; Ionia and Æolia were allotted to the Tolistoboians, and the inland parts of Asia to the Tectosagians. They levied tribute throughout every part of Asia, but chose their own residence on the banks of the river Halys; and so great was the terror of their name, their numbers, too, increasing by a rapid population, that at last even the kings of Syria did not refuse to pay them tribute. The first of all the inhabitants of Asia, who ventured a refusal, was Attalus, the father of king Eumenes; and, beyond the expectation of all, fortune favoured his bold resolution. He defeated them in a pitched battle: yet he did not so effectually break their spirits, as to make them give up their pretensions to empire. Their power continued the same until the war between Antiochus and the Romans, and, even then, after Antiochus was expelled the country, they still entertained a hope, that, as they lived remote from the sea, the Roman army would not come so far.
XVII. As the troops were about to act against this enemy, so terrible to all in that part of the world, the consul, calling them to an assembly, spoke to this effect: “It is not unknown to me, that, of all the nations inhabiting Asia, the Gauls have the highest reputation as soldiers. A fierce nation, after overrunning the face of the earth with its arms, has fixed its abode in the midst of a race of men the gentlest in the world. Their tall persons, their long red hair, their vast shields, and swords of enormous length, their songs also, when they are advancing to action, their yells and dances, and the horrid clashing of their armour, while they brandish their shields in a peculiar manner, practised in their original country; all these are circumstances calculated to strike terror. But let Greeks and Phrygians, and Carians, who are unaccustomed to, and unacquainted with these things, be frightened by such; the Romans, long acquainted with Gallic tumults, have learned the emptiness of their parade. Once, indeed, in an early period, they defeated our ancestors at the Allia. Ever since that time, for, now, two hundred years, the Romans drive them before them in dismay, and kill them like cattle; there have, indeed, been more triumphs celebrated over the Gauls, than over almost all the rest of the world. It is now well known by experience, that if you sustain their first onset, which they make with fiery eagerness and blind fury, their limbs are unnerved with sweat and fatigue; their arms flag; and, though you should not employ a weapon on them, the sun, dust, and thirst, sink their inervate bodies, and their no less inervate minds. We have tried them, not only with our legions against theirs, but in single combat, man to man. Titus Manlius and Marcus Valerius have demonstrated how far Roman valour surpasses Gallic fury. Marcus Manlius singly, thrust back the Gauls who were mounting the capitol in a body. Our forefathers had to deal with genuine native Gauls; but they are now degenerate, a mongrel race, and, in reality, what they are named, Gallogrecians; just as is the case of vegetables; the seeds not being so efficacious for preserving their original constitution, as the properties of the soil and climate in which they may be reared, when changed, are towards altering it. The Macedonians who settled at Alexandria in Egypt, or in Seleucia, or Babylonia, or in any other of their colonies scattered over the world, have sunk into Syrians, Parthians, or Egyptians. Marseilles, by being situated in the midst of Gauls, has contracted somewhat of the disposition of its adjoining neighbours. What trace do the Tarentines retain of the hardy rugged discipline of Sparta? Every thing that grows in its own natural soil attains the greater perfection; whatever is planted in a foreign land, by a gradual change in its nature, degenerates into a similitude to that which affords it nurture. You will therefore fight with men of the like description as those whom you have already vanquished and cut to pieces; those Phrygians encumbered with Gallic armour, in the battle with Antiochus. I fear that they will not oppose us sufficiently so as that we may acquire honour from our victory. King Attalus often routed and put them to flight. Brutes retain for a time, when taken, their natural ferocity; but, after being long fed by the hands of men, they grow tame. Think ye, then, that Nature does not act in the same manner, in softening the savage tempers of men? Do you believe these to be of the same kind that their fathers and grandfathers were? Driven from home by want of land, they marched along the craggy coast of Illyricum; then fought their way, against the fiercest nations, through the whole length of Pæonia and Thrace, and took possession of these countries. After being hardened, yet soured, by so great hardships, they gained admittance here; a territory capable of glutting them with an abundance of every thing desirable. By the very great fertility of the soil, the very great mildness of the climate, and the gentle dispositions of the neighbouring nations, all that barbarous fierceness, which they brought with them, has been quite molified. As for you, who are sons of Mars, believe me, you ought, from the very beginning, to guard against, and shun, above all things, the enticing delights of Asia; so great is the power of those foreign pleasures in extinguishing the vigour of the mind, so strong the contagion from the relaxed discipline and manners of the people about you. One thing has happened fortunately; that though they will not bring against you a degree of strength by any means equal to what they formerly possessed; yet they still retain a character among the Greeks equal to what they had at their first coming: consequently, you will acquire by subduing them, as high renown among the allies for military prowess, as if they had kept up to their ancient standard of courage.”
XVIII. He then dismissed the assembly; and, having despatched ambassadors to Epossognatus, (who alone, of all the petty princes, had remained in friendship with Eumenes, and refused to assist Antiochus against the Romans,) proceeded on his march. He came, the first day, to the river Alander, and the next, to a village called Tyscos. Here he was met by ambassadors from the Oroandians, begging to be admitted into friendship. He ordered them to pay two hundred talents;* and, on their requesting liberty to report that matter at home, gave them permission. He then led the army to Plitendos, and, proceeding thence, encamped at Alyatti. The persons sent to Epossognatus returned to him here, and with them ambassadors from that chieftain, who intreated him not to make war on the Tolistoboians, for that Epossognatus himself would go among that people and persuade them to submission. This request of the prince was complied with. The army then marched through the country called Axylos,* which name was given from the nature of the place, being entirely destitute not only of timber, but even of brambles, or any species of fire-wood. The inhabitants, instead of wood, use cow-dung. While the Romans were encamped at Cuballum, a fort of Gallogræcia, a party of the enemy’s cavalry appeared, advancing with great fury. And they not only disordered, by their sudden charge, the advanced guards of the Romans, but killed several of the men. No sooner, however, did the uproar reach the camp, than the Roman cavalry, pouring out hastily by all the gates, routed and dispersed the Gauls, killing many as they fled. The consul, now perceiving that he had reached the enemy’s country, took care, for the future, to explore the ground through which his route led, and to keep a proper guard on his rear. Having, by continued marches, arrived at the river Sangarius, he set about constructing a bridge, no passable ford being any where found. The Sangarius, running from the mountain of Adoreos, through Phrygia, joins the river Thymbris at the confines of Bithynia. After doubling its quantity of water by this junction, it proceeds, in a more copious stream, through Bithynia, and empties itself into the Euxine sea. Yet it is not so remarkable for the size of its current, as for the vast quantity of fish which it supplies to the people in its vicinity. When the bridge was finished, and the army had passed the river, as they were marching along the bank, they were met by the Gallic priests of the Great Mother, from Pessinus with the symbols of their office; who, in rhymes, which they chaunted as if they were inspired, foretold, that the goddess would grant the Romans a safe passage, success in the war, and the empire over that country. The consul, saying that he embraced the omen, pitched his camp on that very spot. On the following day, he arrived at Gordium. This town, though not very large, is a celebrated and well-frequented mart, exceeding, in that respect, most other inland places. It has the advantage of three seas, nearly equidistant from it; that at Hellespontus, that at Sinope, and that on the opposite coast of Cilicia. It is also contiguous to the borders of many and great nations, the commerce of which, mutual convenience caused to centre, principally, in this place. The Romans found the town deserted by the inhabitants through fear, yet at the same time filled with plenty of every thing. While they halted here, ambassadors came from Epossognatus, with information, that “he had applied to the petty princes of the Gauls, but could not bring them to reason; that they were removing in crowds from the villages and lands in the open country; and, with their wives and children, carrying and driving whatever could be carried or driven, were going to mount Olympus, where they hoped to defend themselves by their arms and the nature of the ground.”
XIX. Deputies from the Oroandians brought, afterwards, more particular intelligence: that “the state of the Tolistoboians had seized mount Olympus, but that the Tectosagians, taking a different route, were gone to another mountain, called Magaba; and that the Trocmians, leaving their wives and children in charge with the Tectosagians, had resolved to carry their armed force to the assistance of the Tolistoboians.” The chieftains of the three states, at that time, were Ortiagon, Combolomarus, and Gaulotus; and their principal reason for choosing this mode of conducting the war, was, that, as they had possession of the highest mountains in that part of the world, and had conveyed thither stores of every kind, sufficient for their consumption during a long time, they thought that the enemy would be wearied out by the tediousness of the enterprise: being fully persuaded, “that they would never venture to climb over places so steep and uneven: that if such an attempt should be made, a small number would be able to repulse and drive them down, and that they never could bring themselves to sit inactive, at the foot of bleak mountains, exposed to cold and hunger.” Although the height of their posts was, in itself, a strong defence, yet they drew, besides, a trench and other fortifications round the summits which they occupied. The least part of their care was employed in providing a stock of missile weapons; for they trusted that the rocky ground itself would furnish stones in abundance.
XX. The consul, having foreseen that his men could not come to a close engagement, in the attack of the enemy’s posts, had prepared an immense quantity of javelins, light-infantry spears, arrows, balls of lead, and small stones, fit to be thrown with slings. Furnished with this stock of missile weapons, he marched towards mount Olympus, and encamped within five miles of it. Next day, accompanied by Attalus, he advanced, with an escort of four hundred horse, to examine the nature of the mountain, and situation of the camp of the Gauls; but a party of the enemy’s cavalry, double in number to his, sallying out, obliged them to retire. He even lost some men in the retreat, and had more wounded. On the third day he went to make his observations, at the head of all his cavalry; and none of the enemy coming out beyond their fortifications, he rode round the mountain with safety. He saw that, on the south side, the hills were composed of earth, and rose to a certain height, with a gentle slope, but that, on the north, there was nothing but steep and almost perpendicular cliffs. He found, too, that there were but three ways by which the troops could ascend; one at the middle of the mountain, where the ground was earthy, and two others, both very difficult, one on the southeast, and the other on the northwest. After taking a full view of all these places, he pitched his camp, that day, close to the foot of the mountain. On the day following, after offering sacrifice, in which the first victims afforded the desired omens, he advanced against the enemy with his army in three divisions. He himself, with the greatest part of the forces, marched up where the mountain afforded the easiest ascent. He ordered his brother, Lucius Manlius, to mount on the southeast side, as far as the ground allowed him to ascend with safety; but, if he should meet such precipices as he could not surmount without danger, then, not to contend with the unfavourable nature of the place, or attempt to conquer obstacles insuperable, but to come sloping across the mountain towards him, and join the body under his command; and he directed Caius Helvius, with the third division, to march round, leisurely, by the foot of the mountain, and to climb the hill on the northeast. The auxiliary troops of Attalus he distributed equally among the three divisions, ordering the young prince to accompany them himself. The cavalry and elephants he left in the plain, at the foot of the hills, charging the commanding officers, to watch attentively every thing that should happen, and to be expeditious in bringing succour wherever circumstances should require.
XXI. The Gauls, (thoroughly satisfied that the ground on their two flanks was impassable,) in order to secure, by arms, the ascent on the south side, sent about four thousand soldiers to keep possession of a hill which hung over the road, at the distance of near a mile from their camp; hoping that this would serve as a fortress, to stop the enemy’s progress. On seeing this, the Romans prepared for the fight. The light-infantry advanced, at a small distance, in the front of the line; and, of Attalus’s troops, the Cretan archers and slingers, the Trallians and Thracians. The battalions of infantry, as the ground was steep, marched at a slow pace, holding their shields before them, merely to ward off missile weapons, for there was no likelihood of a close engagement. As soon as they came within reach, the fight commenced with the missile weapons, and continued for a short time equal; the Gauls having the advantage in situation, the Romans in variety and plenty of weapons. But, as the contest advanced, this equality was soon lost: the Gauls carried long shields but too narrow for the breadth of their bodies; and even these were flat, and therefore afforded but a bad defence. Besides, in a little time they had nothing left but swords, which, as the enemy did not come close, were useless. They had only stones to throw, and those not of a proper size, as they had laid in no store of such, but used whatever each, in his hurry and confusion, found next at hand; and then, being unused to this manner of fighting, they did not know how to aid the blow with either skill or strength. At the same time every part was assailed with arrows, leaden balls, and darts; the approach of which they could not perceive, and scarcely conscious, indeed, of what they were doing, so blinded were they by rage and fear together; while they found themselves engaged in a kind of fight, for which they were utterly unqualified. When closed with an enemy, and where they can receive and give wounds in turn, rage inflames their courage; but when they are wounded at a distance, with light weapons from unknown hands, and have no object on which they can vent their intemperate fury, like wounded wild beasts, they rush forward at random, and often upon their own party. Their wounds made the greater show, because they always fight naked. Their bodies are plump — consequently the blood flowed in the greater quantity — and their skins white, being never stripped except in battle. Thus the cuts appeared the more shocking, while the whiteness of their skins made the black stains of the blood more conspicuous. But they were not much affected by open wounds. Sometimes they even cut the skin, when the wound was more broad than deep, thinking that in this condition they fought with the greater glory. But when the point of an arrow, or a ball, sinking deep in the flesh tormented them, and while, notwithstanding all their endeavours to extract it, the weapon could not be got out, then they fell into fits of phrenzy and shame, at being destroyed by so small a hurt; and dashing themselves on the ground, lay scattered over the place. Some rushing against the enemy were overwhelmed with darts; and, when any of them came near, they were cut to pieces by the light-infantry. A soldier of this description carries a shield three feet long, and, in his right hand, javelins, which he throws at a distance. He has at his side a Spanish sword, which, when he has occasion to fight close, he draws, and shifts the spears into his left hand. There were few of the Gauls now left; and these, seeing themselves overpowered by the light-infantry, and the battalions of the legions advancing, fled in confusion to the camp; which, by this time, was full of tumult and dismay, as the women, children, and others, unfit to bear arms, were all crowded together there. The hills, thus abandoned by the enemy, were seized by the victorious Romans.
XXII. At this juncture, Lucius Manlius and Caius Helvius, having marched up as high as the sloping hills allowed them to do, and, indeed, to insuperable steeps, turned towards that side of the mountain, where, only, the ascent was practicable; and began, as if by concert, to follow the consul’s party at moderate distances, being driven by necessity to adopt the plan, now, which would have been the best at the beginning. For in such disadvantageous ground reserves have often been of the utmost use; as, should the first line happen to be repulsed, the second may both cover their retreat, and succeed to their place in the fight. The consul, as soon as the vanguard of the legions reached the hills taken by the light infantry, ordered the troops to halt, and take breath; at the same time he showed them the bodies of the Gauls spread about the hills, asking them, “Since the light troops had fought such a battle, what might be expected from the legions, from a regular army, and from the spirit of the bravest soldiers? They ought certainly to take the camp into which the enemy had been driven, especially, now, that they were in dismay.” He then sent forward the light-infantry, who, while the army halted, had employed even that time to good purpose in collecting missiles from about the hills, that they might have a sufficient stock for the occasion. They now approached the camp. The Gauls, not confiding in the strength of their works, had posted themselves, in arms, on the outside of the rampart. The Romans assailed them with a shower of weapons of every sort; and, as they stood thick, the less apt was any to fall without effect. They were driven in an instant within their trenches, leaving only strong guards at the entrances of the gates. Against the crowd that fled into the camp a vast quantity of missile weapons were discharged, and the shouts, intermixed with lamentations of the women and children, showed that great numbers were wounded. The first line of the legions hurled their javelins against the guards posted at the gates; however, these, in general, were not wounded, but most of them, having their shields pierced through, were entangled and fastened together, nor did they longer withstand the attack.
XXIII. The gates being now open, the Gauls, in order to escape the conquerors, fled out of the camp to all quarters. They rushed on, without looking before them, where there were roads, and where there were none: no craggy cliffs, nor even perpendicular rocks, stopped them, for they now feared nothing but the enemy. Great numbers, therefore, falling down precipices of vast height, were either maimed or killed. The consul, taking possession of the camp, restrained the soldiers from plundering it; ordering all to pursue with their utmost speed, to press on the enemy, and to increase their present panic. The other party, under Lucius Manlius, now came up. These he did not suffer to enter the camp, but sent them forward in the pursuit, and whom he followed shortly after, committing the guard of the prisoners to some military tribunes: for he hoped, from their present consternation, that he might by exertion put an entire end to the war. After the consul’s departure, Caius Helvius arrived, with the third division. It was not in his power to prevent their sacking the camp; and, by one of fortune’s most unjust dispensations, the booty fell into the hands of men who had not had any concern in the action. The cavalry stood for a long time ignorant of the fight, and of the success of their army. At last, they also, as far as their horses could climb up the hills, pursued the Gauls, (who were now dispersed round the foot of the mountain, killing and taking many. The number of the slain could not easily be ascertained, on account of the windings of the hills, among which they were pursued. Many likewise fell from impassable cliffs, into cavities of prodigious depth; others were killed in the woods and thickets. Claudius, who mentions two battles on Mount Olympus, asserts, that forty thousand fell in them; yet Valerius Antias, who is generally addicted to great exaggeration in point of numbers, says, not more than ten thousand. That the number of prisoners amounted to forty thousand there is no doubt, because the Gauls had dragged along with them a crowd of people of all descriptions and of all ages, like men removing to another country, rather than going out to war. The consul collected in one heap, and burned, the arms of the enemy: he then ordered all to bring together the rest of the booty, and selling that portion which was to be applied to the use of the public, distributed the remainder among the soldiers, taking care that the shares should be as just as possible. He likewise commended them in public assemblies, and conferred presents according to the deserts of each; distinguishing Attalus above all others, with the general approbation of all. For not only by his courage and activity in undergoing dangers and fatigue, but also by the modesty of his deportment, that young prince had rendered himself eminently conspicuous.
XXIV. The war with the Tectosagians remained still to be begun. The consul, marching against them, arrived, on the third day, at Ancyra, a city remarkable in those parts, from which the enemy were but a little more than ten miles distant. While he lay encamped here, a memorable action was performed by a female. Among many other captives, was the wife of the Gallic chieftain, Ortiagon, a woman of exquisite beauty. The commander of the guards was a centurion, avaricious and lustful, as soldiers often are. He, first, endeavoured to learn her sentiments; but, finding that she abhorred the thought of voluntary prostitution, he employed violence. Afterwards, in order to make some atonement for the injury and insult, he gave her hopes of liberty to return to her friends; but even this he would not grant, without a compensation. He stipulated for a certain weight of gold, but, being unwilling that his countrymen should be privy to the business, gave her leave to send away any one of the prisoners, whom she chose, with a message to her friends. He appointed a spot near the river, to which two of this woman’s friends, and not more were to come with the gold in the night following, and to receive her from his hands. It happened that, among the prisoners, under the same guard, was a servant of her own: he was employed as the messenger, and the centurion, as soon as it grew dark, conveyed him beyond the advanced posts. Her friends came to the place at the appointed time, as did the centurion with his prisoner. Here, on their producing the gold, which amounted to an Attic talent, for that was the sum demanded, in her own language, she ordered them to draw their swords, and kill the centurion, while he was weighing the gold. After he was slain, she caused his head to be cut off, and wrapping it up in her garment, carried it to her husband Ortiagon, who had fled home from Olympus. Before she would embrace him, she threw down the centurion’s head at his feet; and, on his asking, with astonishment, whose head it was, and what was the meaning of such a proceeding, so unaccountable in a female, she acknowledged to her husband the injury committed on her person, and the vengeance she had taken for the forcible violation of her chastity. It is said, that, she maintained to the last, by the purity and strictness of her life, the glory of this achievement, so honourable to her sex.
XXV. The Tectosagians sent envoys to the consul at Ancyra, intreating him not to decamp, until he had held a conference with their kings; adding, that they preferred peace, on any conditions, to war. The time was fixed for the next day and the place, a spot which seemed the most central between the camp of the Gauls and Ancyra. The consul came thither, at the appointed hour, with a guard of five hundred horse, but, seeing none of the Gauls there, he returned into his camp: after which the same envoys came again, with an apology, that their kings could not come, being prevented by religious considerations; but, that the principal men of the nation would attend, and that the business might be as well transacted by them. To which the consul answered, that he would send Attalus on his part. To this meeting both parties came, Attalus, attended by an escort of three hundred horse, when a conversation ensued respecting the terms of peace; but, as this could not be finally concluded without the presence of the commanders in chief, it was agreed, that the consul and the kings should meet in the same place on the following day. The intention of the Gauls in postponing matters, was, first, to waste time, that they might remove their effects, so as not to be encumbered in case of danger, and also their wives and children, to the other side of the river Halys; and, secondly, to favour a plot which they were forming against the consul, while he should harbour no suspicion of treachery during the conference. They chose for this purpose, one thousand horsemen of approved intrepidity: and their plan would have taken effect, had not fortune exerted herself in favour of the law of nations, which they plotted to violate. The Roman parties, who went out for forage and wood, were led towards that quarter where the conference was to be held; for the tribunes judged that to be the safest course, as they would have the consul’s escort, and himself, as a guard between them and the enemy. However, they posted another guard of their own, of six hundred horse, nearer to the camp. The consul, being assured by Attalus that the kings would come, and that the business might be concluded, set out from his camp with the same attendants as before. When he had advanced about five miles, and was near the place appointed, he saw, on a sudden, the Gauls coming on with hostile fury, as fast as their horses could gallop. He halted, and ordering his horsemen to make ready their arms, and their courage, received the enemy’s first charge with firmness, and kept his ground. At length, overpowered by numbers, he began to retreat leisurely, without disturbing the order of the troops, but, at last, the danger of delay appearing greater than any advantage to be derived from keeping their ranks, they all fled in hurry and disorder. The Gauls, seeing them disperse, pursued eagerly, and killed several, and a great part of them would have been cut off, had not the six hundred horse, the guard of the foragers, come up to meet them. These, on hearing, at a distance, the shout of dismay, raised by their friends, made ready their weapons and horses, and, with their vigour fresh, renewed the fight after it had become desperate. The fortune of the battle, therefore, was instantly reversed, and dismay retorted on the victors. At the first charge the Gauls were routed; at the same time the foragers from the fields ran together towards the spot, so that wherever the fugitives turned they met an enemy. Thus, they could not retreat with either ease or safety, especially as the Romans pursued on fresh horses, while theirs were fatigued. Few therefore escaped; yet not one was taken; the far greater part paid their lives as a forfeit for having violated the faith of a conference. The whole army of the Romans, with minds burning with rage, marched up next day, close to the enemy.
XXVI. The consul, resolved that no particular should escape his knowledge, spent two days in examining the nature of the mountain with his own eyes. On the third day, after taking the auspices, and then offering sacrifice, he formed his troops in four divisions, that two might go with him up the middle of the mountain, while the other two should march, one on each side, against the wings of the Gauls. The main strength of the enemy, the Tectosagians and Trocmians, amounting to fifty thousand men, formed the centre of their line. The cavalry, about ten thousand men, being dismounted, (their horses being useless among the uneven rocks,) were placed on the right wing, and the Cappadocians of Ariarathes, with the auxiliary troops of Morzes, making up near four thousand, on the left. The consul, as he had done before, at Mount Olympus, placed his light troops in the van, taking care that they should have ready at hand the same abundance of weapons of every sort. When they approached the enemy, all circumstances, on both sides, were the same as in the former battle, excepting that the spirits of the Romans were elated by their success, and those of the Gauls depressed; because, though themselves had not been defeated, yet they considered, as their own, the overthrow of people of their own race. The battle, therefore, commencing under like circumstances, had the same issue. The cloud, as it were, of light weapons that were thrown, overwhelmed the army of the enemy; and, as none of them dared to come forward, for fear of exposing all parts of their bodies open to the blows, so while they stood still, the closer they were together the more wounds they received, as the assailants had the better mark to aim at. The consul now judged, that, as they were already disordered, if he should once let them see the standards of the legions, they would all instantly turn about and fly; receiving, therefore, the light-infantry, and the rest of the irregulars, between the ranks he ordered the line to advance.
XXVII. The Gauls, discouraged by reflecting on the defeat of the Tolistoboians, and distressed by carrying weapons sticking in their flesh, fatigued also by long standing, were not able to support even the first shout and onset of the Romans. Their flight was directed towards their camp; but few of them entered within the trenches; the greater part, passing by on the right and left, fled whichever way each man’s giddy haste carried him. The conquerors followed, cutting off the hindmost; but then, through greediness for booty, they stopped in the camp, and not one of them continued the pursuit. The Gauls in the wings stood some time longer, because it was later when the Romans reached them; but fled at the first discharge of weapons. The consul, as he could not draw off the men who had got into the camp for plunder, sent forward those who had been in the wings to pursue the enemy. They, accordingly, followed them a considerable way; yet, in the pursuit, for there was no fight, they killed not more than eight thousand men: the rest crossed the river Halys. A great part of the Romans lodged that night in the enemy’s camp; the rest the consul led back to his own. Next day, he took a review of the prisoners, and of the booty, the quantity of which was as great as might be expected to have been heaped together by a nation most greedy of rapine, after holding possession by force of arms, of all the country on this side Mount Taurus, during a space of many years. The Gauls, after this dispersion, re-assembled in one place, a great part of them being wounded or unarmed; and as all were destitute of every kind of property, they sent deputies to the consul, to supplicate for peace. Manlius ordered them to attend him at Ephesus; and, being in haste to quit those cold regions, in the vicinity of Mount Taurus, it being now the middle of autumn, he led back his victorious army into winter-quarters on the sea coast.
XXVIII. During the time of those transactions in Asia, the other provinces were in a state of tranquillity. At Rome, the censors, Titus Quintius Flamininus, and Marcus Claudius Marcellus, read over the roll of the senate; Publius Scipio Africanus was, a third time, declared prince of the senate, and only four members were struck out, none of whom had held any curule office. In their review of the knights, also, the censors acted with great mildness. They contracted for the erection of a building in the Æquimælium, on the Capitoline mount, and for paving, with flint, a road from the Capuan gate to the temple of Mars. The Campanians, having requested the directions of the senate, respecting the place where their census should be held, an order passed, that it should be performed at Rome. Extraordinary quantities of rain fell this year; twelve times the Tiber overflowed the field of Mars, and the lower parts of the city. The war with the Gauls in Asia, having been brought to a conclusion by the consul, Cneius Manlius, the other consul, Marcus Fulvius, as the Ætolians were now completely reduced, passed over to Cephallenia, and sent messengers round the states of the island, to inquire whether they chose to submit to the Romans, or to try the fortune of war. Fear operated so strongly on them all, that they did not refuse to surrender. They gave the number of hostages demanded, which was proportioned to the abilities of a weak people; the Nesians, Cranians, Pallenians, and Samæans, giving twenty each. Peace had, now, beyond what could have been hoped for, begun to diffuse its benign influence through Cephallenia, when one state, the Samæans, from what motive is uncertain, suddenly broke out in opposition. They said, that as their city was commodiously situated, they were afraid that the Romans would compel them to remove from it. But whether they conceived this in their own minds, and under the impulse of a groundless fear, disturbed the general quiet, or whether such a project had been mentioned in conversation among the Romans, and reported to them, has not been discovered; thus much is certain, that after having given hostages, they suddenly shut their gates, and could not be prevailed upon to relinquish their design, even by the prayers of their friends, whom the consul sent to the walls, to try how far they might be influenced by compassion for their parents and countrymen. As their answers showed nothing of a pacific disposition, siege was laid to the city. The consul had a sufficient store of engines and machines, which had been brought over from Ambracia; and the works necessary to be formed were executed by the soldiers with great diligence. The rams were therefore brought forward in two places, and began to batter the walls.
XXIX. The townsmen omitted nothing that could serve to obstruct the works, or the motions of the besiegers. But the two methods of defence, which they found most effectual, were, first the raising always, instead of a part of the wall that was demolished, a new wall of equal strength on the inside; and the other, making sudden sallies, at one time, against the enemy’s works, at another, against his advanced guards; and in those attacks, they generally got the better. The only means of confining them, that could be contrived, seems of no great consequence; it was, however, this — the bringing one hundred slingers from Ægium, Pacræ, and Dymæ. These men, according to the customary practice of that nation, were exercised from their childhood, in throwing with a sling, into the open sea, the round pebbles which, mixed with sand, generally cover the shores; and by this means they acquired such a degree of dexterity, as to cast weapons of that sort to a greater distance, with surer aim, and more powerful effect, than even the Balearian slingers. Besides, their sling does not consist merely of a single strap, like the Balearic, and that of other nations, but the receptacle of the bullet is three-fold, and made firm by several seams, that it may not, by the yielding of the strap in the act of throwing, be let fly at random, but that, lying here steady, while whirled about, it may be discharged as if sent from the string of a bow. Being accustomed to drive their bullets through circular marks of small circumference, placed at a great distance, they not only hit the enemy’s heads, but any part of their face that they aimed at. These slings checked the Samæans from sallying either so frequently, or so boldly; insomuch that they would, sometimes, from the walls, beseech the Achæans to retire for a while, and be quiet spectators of their fight with the Roman guards. Samæ supported a siege of four months. At last, as some of their small number were daily killed or wounded, and the survivors were, through continual fatigues, greatly reduced both in strength and spirits, the Romans, one night, scaling the wall of the citadel, which they call Cyatides, made their way into the Forum. The Samæans, on discovering that a part of the city was taken, fled, with their wives and children into the greater citadel; but submitting next day, they were all sold as slaves, and their city was plundered.
XXX. As soon as he had settled the affairs of Cephallenia, the consul, leaving a garrison in Samæ, sailed over to Peloponnesus, where his presence had been often solicited for a long time past, chiefly by the Ægians and Lacedæmonians. From the first institution of the Achæan council, the assemblies of the nation had been held at Ægium, whether out of respect to the dignity of the city, or on account of the commodiousness of its situation. This usage Philopœmen first attempted to subvert in that year, and determined to introduce an ordinance, that these should be held in every one of the cities, which were members of the Achæan union, in rotation; and a little before the arrival of the consul, when the Demiurguses, who are the chief magistrates in the states, summoned the representatives to Ægium, Philopœmen, then prætor, by proclamation, appointed their meeting at Argos. As it was apparent that, in general, all would repair to the latter place, the consul likewise, though he favoured the cause of the Ægians, went thither, but after the matter had been debated, seeing that the opposite party was likely to succeed, he declined being farther concerned. The Lacedæmonians, then, drew his attention to their disputes. Their state was kept in constant uneasiness, principally by the exiles, of whom great numbers resided in the maritime forts, on the coast of Laconia, all which had been taken from the Lacedæmonians. At this the latter were deeply chagrined, as they wished to enjoy free access to the sea, if they should have occasion to send ambassadors to Rome, or any other place: and, at the same time, to possess some mart and repository for foreign merchandise, for their necessary demands. They, therefore, attacked in the night, a maritime village, called Las, and seized it by surprise. The inhabitants, and the exiles residing in the place, were terrified, at first, by the sudden assault; but, afterwards, collecting in a body, before day, after a slight contest, they drove back the Lacedæmonians. A general alarm, nevertheless, spread over the whole coast, and all the forts and villages, with the exiles resident there, united in sending a common embassy to the Achæans.
XXXI. The prætor, Philopœmen — (who, from the beginning, had ever been a friend to the cause of the exiles, and had always advised the Achæans to reduce the power and influence of the Lacedæmonians,)— on the request of the ambassadors, gave them an audience of the council. There, on a motion made by him, a decree was passed, that, “whereas Titus Quintius and the Romans had committed their forts and villages, on the coast of Laconia, to the protection and guardianship of the Achæans; and whereas, according to treaty, the Lacedæmonians ought to leave them unmolested; notwithstanding which, the village of Las had been attacked by them, and bloodshed committed therein; therefore, unless the authors and abettors of this outrage were delivered up to the Achæans, they would consider it as a violation of the treaty.” To demand those persons, ambassadors were instantly despatched to Lacedæmon. This authoritative injunction appeared to the Lacedæmonians so haughty and insolent, that, if their state had been in its ancient condition, they would undoubtedly have flown to arms. What distracted them most of all was, the fear, lest, if by obeying the first mandates they once received the yoke, Philopœmen, pursuant to a scheme which he had long had in contemplation, should put the exiles in possession of Lacedæmon. Enraged, therefore, to madness, they put to death thirty men of the faction which had held some correspondence with Philopœmen and the exiles, passed a decree, renouncing all alliance with the Achæans, ordering ambassadors to be sent immediately to Cephallenia to surrender Lacedæmon to the consul, Marcus Fulvius, beseeching him to come into Peloponnesus and to receive Lacedæmon under the protection and dominion of the Roman people.
XXXII. When the Achæan ambassadors returned with an account of these proceedings, war was declared against the Lacedæmonians, by an unanimous vote of all the states of the confederacy; and nothing, but the winter, prevented its being commenced immediately. However, they detached several small parties, not only by land, but by sea, which, making incursions more like freebooters than regular troops, laid waste the Lacedæmonian frontiers. This commotion brought the consul into Peloponnesus, and, by his order, a council was summoned at Elis; the Lacedæmonians being called on to attend, and to plead their own cause. The debates there were violent, and proceeded even to altercation. But the consul, who, in other respects acted in a very conciliatory manner, and who gave no explicit opinion, put an end to the dispute by one decisive order, that they should desist from hostilities, until they sent ambassadors to Rome, to the senate. Both parties sent ambassadors accordingly. The Lacedæmonian exiles, also, authorised the Achæans to act in their cause, and negociate on their behalf. Diophanes and Lycortas, both of them Megalopolitans, were at the head of the Achæan embassy; and, as they were of different sentiments with regard to public affairs at home, so their discourses on the occasion were of quite different tendencies. Diophanes proposed to leave the determination of every point entirely to the senate, “who,” he said, “would best decide the controversies between the Achæans and Lacedæmonians;” while Lycortas, according to the instructions of Philopœmen, required, that the senate should permit the Achæans to execute their own decrees, made conformable to treaty, and their own laws; and to possess, uninfringed, the liberty which themselves had bestowed. The Achæan nation was, at that time, in high esteem with the Romans; yet it was resolved, that no alteration should be made respecting the Lacedæmonians; but the answer given was so obscure, that, while the Achæans understood that they were left at liberty to act as they pleased toward Lacedæmon, the Lacedæmonians construed it, as not conveying any such licence.
XXXIII. The use which the Achæans made of this power was immoderate and tyrannical. They continued Philopœmen in office, who, in the beginning of spring, collecting an army, encamped in the territory of the Lacedæmonians, and thence sent ambassadors to insist on their delivering up the authors of the insurrection; promising, that if they complied, their state should remain in peace, and that those persons should not suffer any punishment, without a previous trial. The rest were held silent by their fears; but the persons demanded by name, declared, that they would voluntarily go, provided they received assurance from the ambassadors, that they should be safe from violence until their cause were heard. Several other men, of illustrious characters, went along with them; both from a wish to aid those private individuals, and because they thought their cause concerned the public interest. The Achæans had never before brought the Lacedæmonian exiles into the country, because they knew that nothing would so much disgust the people: but now, the vanguard of almost their whole army was composed of them. When the Lacedæmonians came to the gate of the camp, these met them in a body, and, first, began to provoke them with ill language; a wrangle then ensuing, and their passions being inflamed, the most furious of the exiles made an attack on the Lacedæmonians. While these appealed to the gods, and the faith of the ambassadors; and while the ambassadors and the prætor, driving back the crowd, protected the Lacedæmonians, and kept off some who were already binding them in chains — the multitude, roused by the tumult, gathered about them in prodigious numbers. The Achæans, at first, ran thither to see what was doing; but then, the exiles, with loud clamours, complained of the sufferings that they had undergone, implored assistance, and at the same time insisted, that “such another opportunity, if they neglected this, could never be hoped for; that these men had been the means of rendering useless the treaties, solemnly ratified in the capitol, at Olympia; and in the citadel of Athens; and that before their hands should be tied up by a new treaty, they ought to punish the guilty.” By these expressions, all were inflamed, so that on one man calling out, to fall on, the whole crowd attacked them with stones; and seventeen persons, who, during the disturbance, had been put in chains, were killed. The next day, sixty-three, whom the prætor had protected from violence, not because he wished them safe, but because he was unwilling that they should perish, before they were tried, were taken into custody, brought before an enraged multitude, and after addressing a few words to such prejudiced ears, they were all condemned and executed.
XXXIV. After this terrible example had been made, to humble the Lacedæmonians, orders were sent to them, first that they should demolish their walls: then, that all the foreign auxiliaries, who had served for pay under the tyrants, should quit the Laconian territories; then, that the slaves, whom the tyrants had set free, who amounted to a great multitude, should depart, before a certain day, after which, should any remain in the country, the Achæans were authorised to seize, sell, and carry them away. That they should abrogate the laws and institutions of Lycurgus, and adopt those of the Achæans, by which, all would become one body, and concord would be established among them. They obeyed none of these injunctions more willingly, than that of demolishing the walls; nor suffered any with more reluctance, than the giving up of the exiles. A decree for their restoration was made at Tegea, in a general council of the Achæans; where, an account being brought, that the foreign auxiliaries had been sent away, and that the newly-registered Lacedæmonians, (so they called the slaves enfranchised by the tyrants) had left the city and dispersed through the country, it was resolved, that, before the army was disbanded, the prætor should go with some light troops, and, seizing that description of people, sell them as spoil. Great numbers were accordingly seized, and sold; and with the money, arising from the sale, a portico at Megalopolis, which the Lacedæmonians had demolished, was rebuilt, with the approbation of the Achæans. The lands of Belbinis, of which the Lacedæmonian tyrants had unjustly kept possession, were also restored to that state, according to an old decree of the Achæans, made in the reign of Philip, son of Amyntas. The state of Lacedæmon having, by these means, lost the sinews of its strength, remained long in subjection to the Achæans; but nothing hurt it so materially as the abolition of the discipline of Lycurgus, in the practice of which they had continued during seven hundred years.
XXXV. After the sitting of the council, wherein the debate between the Achæans and Lacedæmonians was held in presence of the consul, as the year was near expiring, Marcus Fulvius went home to Rome to hold the elections. The consuls elected were, Marcus Valerius Messala, and Caius Livius Salinator, having, this year, procured the rejection of his enemy, Marcus Æmilius Lepidus. Then were elected prætors, Quintus Marcius Philippus, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Caius Stertinius, Caius Atinius, Publius Claudius Pulcher, and Lucius Manlius Acidinus. When the elections were finished, it was resolved that the consul, Marcus Fulvius, should return into his province to the army, and that he, and his colleague, Cneius Manlius, should be continued in command for a year. In this year, in pursuance of directions from the decemvirs, a statue of Hercules was set up in his temple, and a gilded chariot with six horses, in the capitol, by Publius Cornelius. The inscription mentioned, that Publius Cornelius, consul,* made the offering. The curule ædiles, also, Publius Claudius and Servius Sulpicius Galba, dedicated twelve gilded shields, out of money raised by fines on corn merchants, for raising the market by hoarding the grain. And Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, plebeian ædile, having prosecuted to conviction one malefactor, (for the ædiles prosecuted separately) dedicated two gilded statues. His colleague, Aulus Cæcilius, did not convict any one. The Roman games were exhibited entire, thrice; the plebeian, five times. Marcus Valerius Messala, and Caius Livius Salinator, entering into office on the ides of March, proposed to the senate’s consideration the state of the commonwealth, the provinces, and the armies. With respect to Ætolia and Asia no alteration was made. The provinces assigned to the consuls, were, to one, Pisæ, where he was to act against the Ligurians; to the other, Gaul. They were ordered to cast lots, for these, or to settle the matter between themselves, to levy new armies two legions for each; and to raise, of the Latine allies, fifteen thousand foot, and twelve hundred horse. Liguria fell, by lot, to Messala; Gaul, to Salinator. The prætors then cast lots, and the city jurisdiction fell to Marcus Claudius; the foreign to Publius Claudius; Sicily to Quintus Marcius; Sardinia, to Caius Stertinius; hither Spain, to Lucius Manlius; farther Spain, to Caius Antinius.
XXXVI. The dispositions made, respecting the armies, were these. It was ordered, that the legions, which had served under Caius Lælius, should be removed out of Gaul into Bruttium, and put under the command of Marcus Tuccius, proprætor; that the army, which was in Sicily, should be disbanded, and the fleet, which was there, brought home to Rome, by Marcus Sempronius, proprætor. For the Spains, were decreed the legions then in those provinces, one for each; with orders, that each of the two prætors should levy, from among the allies, to recruit their numbers, three thousand foot and two hundred horse, which they were to carry with them. Before the new magistrates set out for their provinces, a supplication, of three days’ continuance, was ordered by the college of decemvirs, to be performed in every street, on account of a darkness having overspread the sky, between the third and fourth hours of the day; and the nine days’ solemnity was proclaimed, on account of a shower of stones having fallen on the Aventine. As the censors obliged the Campanians, pursuant to the decree of the senate, made last year, to pass the general survey at Rome, (for, before that, it had not been fixed where they should be surveyed,) they petitioned, that they might be allowed to take in marriage, women who were citizens of Rome, and that any who had, heretofore, married such, might retain them; and, likewise, that children born of such marriages, before that day, might be deemed legitimate, and entitled to inherit; both which requests were complied with. Caius Valerius Tappus, a plebeian tribune, proposed an order of the people concerning the towns of Formiæ, Fundi, and Arpinum, that they should be invested with the right of voting, for, hitherto, they had been members of the state without that right. Against this proposal four plebeian tribunes entered a protest, because it was not made under the direction of the senate; but, being informed, that the power of imparting that privilege to any persons belonged to the people, and not to the senate, they desisted from their opposition. An order was passed, that the Formians and Fundans should vote in the Æmilian tribe, and the Arpinians in the Cornelian; and in these tribes they were then, for the first time, rated in the census, in pursuance of the order of the people proposed by Valerius. Marcus Claudius Marcellus, censor, having got the better of Titus Quintius, in the lots, closed the lustrum. The number of citizens rated, was two hundred fifty-eight thousand, three hundred and eight. When the survey was finished, the consuls set out for their provinces.
XXXVII. During the winter wherein this passed at Rome, Cneius Manlius, at first, while consul, and afterwards, when proconsul, was attended, in his winter quarters in Asia, by embassies from all the nations and states on this side of mount Taurus; and although the conquest of Antiochus was more splendid and glorious to the Romans, than that of the Gauls, yet the latter gave greater joy to the allies than the former. Subjection to the king had been more tolerable to them, than the neighbourhood of these fierce and savage barbarians; of whom they were in daily apprehension, added to the uncertainty, where the storm of their depredations might fall. Having, therefore, obtained liberty, by the expulsion of Antiochus, and permanent peace by the conquest of the Gauls, they brought, not only, congratulations, but also golden crowns, in proportion to the ability of each. Ambassadors, also, came from Antiochus, and from the Gauls themselves, to receive the conditions of peace; and from Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, to solicit pardon, and make atonement, by money, for his crime, in assisting Antiochus with troops. He was fined two hundred talents.* The Gauls were answered, that when king Eumenes arrived, he would settle the conditions. The embassies of the several states were dismissed with kind answers, and with their minds much more at ease than when they arrived. The ambassadors of Antiochus were ordered to bring the money and the corn, due by the treaty concluded with Lucius Scipio, into Pamphilia, whither the consul intended to go with his forces. In the beginning of the next spring, after performing the ceremony of purifying the army, he began his march, and on the eighth day, arrived at Apamea. There he rested three days; and, on the third day, after his departure from that place, arrived in Pamphilia, whither he had ordered the king’s ambassadors to repair with stipulated supplies. Here he received two thousand five hundred talents† of silver, which he sent to Apamea, the corn he distributed to the army. Thence he marched to Perga, the only place in the country still held by a garrison of the king’s troops. On his approach, the governor of the town went out to meet him, and requested thirty days time, that he might consult Antiochus about the surrender of the city. The time was granted, and on the expiration of it, the city was surrendered. From Perga, he detached his brother, Lucius Manlius, with four thousand men, to exact from the Oroandians the remainder of the money which they had promised; and, ordering the ambassadors of Antiochus to follow, he led back his army to Apamea, having heard that king Eumenes, and the ten ambassadors from Rome, were arrived at Ephesus.
XXXVIII. Here, with the concurrence, of the ten ambassadors, a treaty was concluded with Antiochus, and written in nearly the following words: “There shall be friendship between king Antiochus and the Roman people, on these terms and conditions. He shall not suffer any army, intended to act against the Roman people, or their allies, to pass through his own kingdom, or the territory of any state under his dominion, nor supply it with provisions, nor give any other assistance. The Romans and their allies, are to observe the same conduct toward Antiochus, and those under his government. It shall not be lawful for Antiochus to wage war with the inhabitants of the islands, or to pass over into Europe. He shall evacuate the cities, lands, villages and forts, on this side of mount Taurus, as far as the river Halys; and from the foot of Taurus to the summit, where are the confines of Lycaonia. He shall not remove any arms out of any of the evacuated towns, lands or forts; and if any have been removed, he shall replace them, as before. He shall not receive any soldier, or other person, from king Eumenes. If any natives of those cities, which are hereby separated from his kingdom, are now with Antiochus, or within the bounds of his realms, they shall all return to Apamea, before a certain day, hereafter to be appointed. Such of the natives of Antiochus’s kingdom, as are now with the Romans and their allies, shall have liberty to depart, or to stay. All their slaves, whether fugitives or taken in war, likewise all free-born persons, whether prisoners or deserters, he shall redeliver to the Romans and their allies. He shall give up all his elephants, and not procure others. He shall also surrender his ships of war, and their stores; and shall not keep more than ten light trading vessels, none of which are to be worked with more than thirty oars, nor a galley of one tier of oars, for the purpose of an offensive war; nor shall any ship of his come on this side of the promontories, Calycadnus and Sarpedon, except it shall be a ship carrying money, tribute, ambassadors, or hostages. King Antiochus shall not hire soldiers out of those nations which are under the dominion of the Roman people, nor even receive volunteers. All houses and buildings, within the limits of Antiochus’s kingdom, and which were belonging to the Rhodians and their allies, the Rhodians and their allies shall hold, on the same footing as they did before the war. If any sums of money are due to them, they shall have a right to enforce payment; likewise, if any of their property has been taken away, they shall have a right to search for, discover, and reclaim it. If any of the cities, which ought to be surrendered, are held by people to whom Antiochus gave them, he shall remove the garrisons, and take care that the surrender be properly executed. He shall pay, within twelve years, by equal annual payments, twelve thousand talents of silver,* of the proper Attic standard, the talent to weigh not less than eighty Roman pounds; and five hundred and forty thousand pecks of wheat. He shall pay to king Eumenes, within five years three hundred and fifty talents;† and, for the corn due, according to his own valuation, one hundred and twenty-seven talents‡ He shall deliver to the Romans twenty hostages, and change them every third year; none of which are to be younger than eighteen, or older than forty-five years. If any of the allies of the Roman people shall make war on Antiochus, he shall be at liberty to repel force by force, provided he does not keep possession of any city, either by right of arms, or by admitting it into a treaty of amity. Whatever controversies may arise between him and them, shall be decided by arbitration, according to the rules of equity; or, if it shall be the choice of both parties, by arms.” A clause was added to this treaty, about delivering up Hannibal, the Carthaginian; Thoas, the Ætolian; Mnasimachus, the Acananian; and the Chalcidians, Eubolis and Philo; and another, that if the parties should, afterwards, agree to add, to expunge, or alter any of the above articles, it might be done without impeachment to the validity of the treaty.
XXXIX. The consul swore to the observance of this treaty, and sent Quintus Minucius Thermus, and Lucius Manlius, who happened to return just at that time from Oroanda, to require the oath of the king. At the same time he wrote to Quintus Fabius Labeo, commander of the fleet, to sail, without delay, to Patara, to burn and destroy the king’s ships that lay there. Sailing, accordingly, from Ephesus, he burned, or otherwise destroyed, fifty decked ships; and, in the same voyage, took Telmessus, the inhabitants being terrified by his sudden appearance. Then, having ordered those whom he left at Ephesus to follow him, he passed on from Lycia, through the islands, to Greece. At Athens he waited a few days, until the ships from Ephesus came to Piræus, and then he brought home the whole fleet to Italy. Cneius Manlius having, among other matters to be given up by Antiochus, received his elephants, gave them all as a present to Eumenes. He then admitted to a hearing the representations of the several states, many of which were in an unsettled condition, in consequence of the changes that had taken place. King Ariarathes, through the mediation of Eumenes, to whom he had lately betrothed his daughter, obtained a remission of half the fine imposed upon him, and was received into friendship. After hearing what the respective nations had to say in their own behalf, the ten ambassadors made different arrangements, with respect to the difference of their cases. Such as had been tributary to king Antiochus, and had sided with the Romans, they rendered independent; and such as had taken part with Antiochus, or had been tributary to king Attalus, all these they ordered to pay tribute to Eumenes. To the Colophonians, living in Notium, the Cymæans, and Milasenians, whom they specified by name, they granted independence; to the Clazomenians the same, besides bestowing on them the island of Drymusa. To the Milesians, they restored what was called the sacred lands. They added to the territory of the Trojans, Rhœteum and Gergithus, not so much in consideration of any recent merits of theirs, as out of respect to their own origin. The same motive procured liberty to Dardanus. To the Chians, also, the Smyrnæans and Erythræans, they granted lands, in consideration of the singular fidelity which they had shown during the war, treating them, in every instance, with particular distinction. To the Phocæans they restored the territory which they had enjoyed before the war, and the privilege of being governed by their own ancient laws. They confirmed to the Rhodians, the grants mentioned in the former decree. Lycia and Caria were assigned to them, as far as the river Mæander, excepting Telmissus. To king Eumenes they gave, in Europe, the Chersonese and Lysimachia, with the forts, towns, and lands thereof, bounded as when held by Antiochus; and, in Asia, both the Phrygias, the one on the Hellespont, and the other called the Greater, restoring to him Mysia, which had been taken by king Prusias, and also Lycaonia, and Milyas, and Lydia, and, by express mention, the cities of Tralles and Ephesus, and Telmissus. A dispute arising between Eumenes and Antiochus’s ambassadors, concerning Pamphylia, because part of it lay on the hither side, and part beyond Taurus, the matter was referred wholly to the senate.
XL. When these treaties and grants were concluded, Manlius, with the ten ambassadors, and all his army, marched to the Hellespont, whither he had ordered the petty princes of the Gauls to come: and, there he prescribed the terms on which they should maintain peace with Eumenes, and warned them to put an end to the practice of rambling in arms, and to confine themselves within the bounds of their own territories. Then, having collected ships from all parts of the coast, and Eumenes’s fleet also being brought thither from Elæ by Athenæus, that king’s brother, he transported all his forces into Europe. Proceeding through the Chersonese, by short marches, the army being heavily encumbered with booty of every sort, he halted at Lysimachia, in order that he might have the beasts of burthen as fresh and vigorous * as might be, when he should enter Thrace, the march through which was generally considered with terror. On the day of his leaving Lysimachia, he came to the river called Melas, and thence, next day, to Cypsela. The road, about ten miles from Cypsela, he found obstructed by woods, narrow, and broken. On account of these difficulties he divided the army into two parts; and, ordering one to advance in front, and the other at a considerable distance, to cover the rear, he placed between them the baggage, consisting of wagons with the public money, and other booty of great value. As they marched in this order through the defile, a body of Thracians, not more in number than ten thousand, composed of four states, the Astians, Cænians, Maduatians, and Cœleans, posted themselves on both sides of the road at the narrowest part. Many were of opinion, that this was done at the treacherous instigation of Philip, king of Macedonia, as he knew that the Romans were to return through Thrace, and that they carried with them a large quantity of money. The general himself was in the van, anxious about the disadvantages to which his men were exposed from the nature of the place. The Thracians did not stir until the troops passed by; but, when they saw that the foremost division had got clear of the narrow pass, and that the rear division was not yet drawing near, they rushed upon the baggage, and, having killed the guards, some rifled the wagons, while others led off the horses under their loads. When the shout reached those on the rear, who just then entered the pass, and, afterwards, those in the van, they ran together from both extremities to the centre, and an irregular sort of fight commenced, in many different places at once. The booty was the great occasion of slaughter to the Thracians; for, besides, being encumbered with burthens, most of them had thrown away their arms, that they might be at liberty to seize the prey; while on the other side, the Romans laboured under great disadvantages from the nature of the place, as the barbarians, acquainted with every path, made their attacks with advantage, and, sometimes came, unperceived through the hollow glens. The loads too, and the wagons, lying incommodiously for one party or the other, as chance directed, were great obstructions to their movements; and, here, the plunderer, there, the defender of the booty, fell. The fortune of the fight was variable, according as the ground was favourable to this party or that, and according to the spirit of the combatants, and their numbers; on both sides, however, great numbers fell. The night, at length approaching, the Thracians retired from the fight, not for the purpose of avoiding wounds or death, but because they had gotten enough of booty.
XLI. The first division of the Romans encamped beyond the pass, in open ground, round the temple of Bendis;* the other division remained in the middle of the defile, to guard the baggage, which they surrounded with a double rampart. Next day having carefully examined the ground, they rejoined the first. In that battle, although part of the baggage was lost, while a great part of the attendants, and many of the soldiers perished, (the fight having been carried on through almost the whole extent of the defile,) yet the heaviest loss sustained was in the death of Quintus Minucius Thermus, a brave and gallant officer. The army arrived, that day, at the Hebrus, and thence passed through the country of the Ænians, by the temple of Apollo, which the natives call Zerynthium. At a place called Tempyra, they came to another defile as rugged and uneven, as the former, but, as there were no woods near, it afforded no means for an ambuscade. Hither assembled another tribe of Thracians, called Thrausians, with the same hope of plunder; but, as the Romans were enabled by the nakedness of the vallies, to descry them at a distance, posted on each side of the road, they were less alarmed and confused; for, although they were obliged to fight on disadvantageous ground, yet it was in a regular battle, in the open field, and a fair encounter. Advancing in close order, with the war shout, and falling on the enemy, they soon drove them off the ground, and the sequel was flight and slaughter; for the narrow passes, in which the enemy had trusted for safety, actually impeded their escape. The Romans, after this success, encamped at a village of the Maronites, called Sare. Next day marching through an open country, they reached the plain of Priate, where they halted three days, to receive supplies of corn, partly from the country of the Maronites, who made a voluntary contribution, and, partly, from their own ships, which attended them with stores of every kind. From this post, they had one day’s march to Apollonia, whence they proceeded through the territory of Abdera to Neapolis. This march through the Grecian colonies, the troops performed in security. During the remainder, and in the midst of the Thracians, they were all free from attacks, yet never free from apprehensions, night or day, until they arrived in Macedonia. This same army, when it proceeded by the same route under Scipio, had found the Thracians more peaceable, for no other reason, than because it had not then such a quantity of booty to tempt them: although Claudius writes, that, even on that occasion, a body of fifteen thousand Thracians opposed Mutines, the Numidian, who had advanced to explore the country. He had with him four hundred Numidian horsemen, and a few elephants. Mutines’s son, with one hundred and fifty chosen horsemen broke through the middle of the enemy; and, presently, when Mutines, placing his elephants in the centre, and the horse on the wings, had begun to engage the enemy, he fell furiously on their rear, which attack of the cavalry so disordered the Thracians, that they did not come near the main body of infantry. Cneius Manlius conducted his army, through Macedonia, into Thessaly; and, having proceeded through Epirus to Apollonia, passed the winter there, for people had not yet learned so far to despise the sea of that season, as to venture on the passage.
XLII. The year had almost expired, when the consul, Marcus Valerius, came from Liguria to Rome to elect
new magistrates; although he had not performed in his province any important business, that could afford a reasonable
excuse for coming later than usual to the elections. The assembly for choosing consuls was held on the twelfth day
before the calends of March, and the two elected were, Marcus Æmilius Lepidus and Caius Flaminius. The following day,
were elected prætors. Appius Claudius Pulcher, Servius Sulpicius Galba, Quintus Terentius Culleo, Lucius Terentius
Massa, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, and Marcus Furius Crassipes. When the elections were concluded, the consul proposed to
the senate, the appointment of the provinces for the prætors: two were decreed to the administration of justice in
Rome; two out of Italy — Sicily and Sardinia: and two in Italy — Tarentum and Gaul; with orders that the prætors should
immediately cast lots, and before their commencement in office. To Servius Sulpicius, fell the city jurisdiction; to
Quintus Terentius, the foreign; Lucius Terentius obtained Sicily; Quintus Fulvius, Sardinia; Appius Claudius, Tarentum;
and Marcus Furius, Gaul. In that year, Lucius Minucius Myrtilus, and Lucius Manlius, being charged with having beaten
the Carthaginian ambassadors, were, by order of Marcus Claudius, city prætor, delivered up by heralds to the
ambassadors, and carried to Carthage.Y. R. 565.
187. Reports prevailed of great preparations for war being made in Liguria, and of their growing every day more
formidable. When therefore, the new consuls proposed to the consideration of the senate, the state of the commonwealth,
and the appointing of their provinces, the senate voted that Liguria should be the province of both the consuls. To
this vote the consul, Lepidus, objected, asserting that “it would be highly indecorous to shut up the consuls among the
vallies of Liguria, while Marcus Fulvius and Cneius Manlius reigned, a second year, one in Europe, the other in Asia,
as if substituted in the room of Philip and Antiochus. If it was resolved to keep armies in those countries, it was
more fitting that they should be commanded by consuls, than by private persons, who made their circuits, with all the
terrors of war, among nations against whom war had not been declared; trafficking peace for money. If armies were
necessary for the security of those provinces, in the same manner as Lucius Scipio, consul, had succeeded Marcus
Acilius, consul; and as Marcus Fulvius and Cneius Manlius succeeded Lucius Scipio, so ought Caius Livius and Marcus
Valerius, consuls, to have succeeded Fulvius and Manlius. But, unquestionably, at this time, after the Ætolian war had
been concluded, Asia taken from Antiochus, and the Gauls subdued — either the consuls ought to be sent to the consular
armies, or the legions ought to be brought home, and restored to the commonwealth.” Notwithstanding these arguments,
the senate persisted in their vote, that Liguria should be the province of both the consuls; but they ordered, that
Manlius and Fulvius should leave their provinces, withdraw the troops, and come home to Rome.
XLIII. There subsisted a quarrel between Marcus Fulvius and the consul Æmilius; the latter complaining particularly, that, through the intrigues of Fulvius, he had been kept back from obtaining the consulship two years. In order, therefore, to exasperate the minds of the public against him, he introduced to the senate ambassadors from Ambracia, whom he had previously instructed in the charges they were to make against him. These complained, that “when they were in a state of peace, after they had obeyed the commands of former consuls, and were ready to show the same obedience to Marcus Fulvius, war had been made on them. That, first their lands were ravaged; and then, their city terrified by denunciations of plundering and slaughter, that their fears might compel them to shut their gates. They were then besieged and assaulted, while all the severities, ever practised in war, were inflicted on them, in murders, burnings, the sacking and demolishing of their city. Their wives and children were dragged away into slavery; their goods taken from them; and what shocked them more than all, their temples were despoiled of their ornaments, the images of their gods, nay, the gods themselves, were torn from their mansions, and carried away; so that the Ambracians had no object of worship left, nothing to which they could address their prayers and supplications, but naked walls and pillars.” While they were making these complaints, the consul, as had been agreed, by asking questions leading to farther charges, drew them on as if against their inclination, to the mention of other matters. Their representations moved the senators; but the other consul, Caius Flaminius, took up the cause of Marcus Fulvius. “The Ambracians,” he said, “had set out in an old course, now long out of use. In this manner Marcus Marcellus had been accused by the Syracusans; and Quintus Fulvius by the Campanians. Why might not the senate as well allow accusations to be so brought, against Titus Quintius by king Philip; against Manius Acilius and Lucius Scipio, by Antiochus; against Cneius Manlius, by the Gauls; and against Fulvius himself by the Ætolians and the states of Cephallenia? Do you think, Conscript fathers, that the besieging and taking Ambracia, the removing thence the statues and ornaments, and the other proceedings, usual on the capture of cities will be denied, either by me, on behalf of Marcus Fulvius, or by Marcus Fulvius himself, who intends to demand a triumph from you for those very services, and to carry before his chariot, those statues, the removal of which is charged as criminal, together with the other spoils of that city, at the same time inscribing on the pillars of his house, Ambracia captured? There is no kind of pretence for their separating themselves from the Ætolians; the cause of the Ambracians, and of the Ætolians is the same. Let, therefore, my colleague either vent his malice in some other case; or, if he is determined to proceed in this, let him detain his Ambracians until Fulvius comes home. I will not suffer any determination, concerning either the Ambracians or Ætolians, to pass in the absence of Marcus Fulvius.”
XLIV. Æmilius, inveighing against the artful malignity of his adversary as being notorious to all, affirmed, that he would spin out the time by affected delays, so as not to return to Rome during the present consulate. Two days were wasted in this dispute, and it was apparent that while Flaminius was present, no decision of the cause could be procured. Æmilius, therefore, laid hold of an opportunity, when Flaminius happening to fall sick, was absent, and on his proposing the motion, the senate decreed, that “the Ambracians should have all their effects restored, should enjoy liberty, and the benefit of their own laws, and should levy what duties they might think proper on goods conveyed by land or sea, provided that the Romans and the Latine confederates should be exempted therefrom. That with respect to the statues, and other ornaments, carried away from their sacred buildings, as alleged in their complaint, their order was, that immediately, on the return of Marcus Fulvius to Rome, the business should be laid before the college of pontiffs, and their directions obeyed.” Nor was the consul content with this; but, afterwards, in a thin meeting, he procured a clause to be added to the decree, “that it did not appear that Ambracia was taken by force.” A supplication, of three days’ continuance, was then performed for the health of the people, on account of a grievous pestilence which desolated the city and country. The Latine festival was afterwards celebrated, when the consuls, being acquitted of these religious duties, and having finished their levies, (for both of them chose to employ new soldiers,) set out for their provinces, where they disbanded all the old troops.
XLV. Shortly after the departure of the consuls, Cneius Manlius, proconsul, arrived at Rome. Servius
Sulpicius, prætor, assembled the senate in the temple of Bellona, to give him audience; when, after enumerating the
services which he had performed, he demanded that, in consideration thereof, public thanks should be offered to the
immortal gods, and permission be granted to himself, to ride through the city in triumph. This was opposed by the
greater number of the ten ambassadors, who had been in the province along with him; and particularly by Lucius Furius
Purpureo, and Lucius Æmilius Paulus.Y. R. 567.
183. They represented, that “they had been appointed plenipotentiaries, in conjunction with Manlius, to make
peace with Antiochus, and to conclude a treaty, on the preliminary articles settled with Lucius Scipio. That Cneius
Manlius laboured, to the utmost of his power, to obstruct the conclusion of this peace, and to draw Antiochus into an
ambuscade: but that he (Antiochus,) having discovered the treacherous designs of the consul, though frequently tempted
by proposals of a conference, was so far from consenting to the meeting, that he avoided even the sight of him. So
eager was the wish of Manlius to cross Taurus, that he was with difficulty restrained by the ten ambassadors, who
besought him not to expose himself, voluntarily, to the curse denounced in the Sibylline verses against such as should
pass those fatal limits. Nevertheless, he marched his army thither, and encamped almost on the very summit where the
waters take opposite directions. As he could find no sort of pretence for hostilities, the king’s subjects being
perfectly quiet, he led round his army to the Gallogrecians, and, without any decree of the senate, or order of the
people, commenced a war against that nation. Did ever any general, before, presume to act, in like manner, on his own
judgment? The latest wars were those with Antiochus, with Philip, and with Hannibal and the Carthaginians; concerning
all these the senate had passed its decrees, the people their orders; several embassies were previously sent;
restitution demanded, and, finally, heralds were sent to proclaim war. Now Cneius Manlius,” said they, “has any one of
these proceedings been observed in the present case? Has it been a war of the Roman people, or a predatory expedition
of your own contrivance? But, did even thus much content you? Did you lead your army against those, whom you had chosen
to consider as enemies, by the direct course; or did you ramble through every deflection of the roads; stopping,
wherever they were divided, in order that, to whatever side Eumenes’s brother, Attalus should turn his route, the
consul, as an auxiliary in his pay, might follow with a Roman army? In a word, did you not ransack every recess and
corner of Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Phrygia; levying contributions from the tyrants and peasants in those remote regions?
For what had you to do with the Oroandians, what with other states equally inoffensive?
XLVI. “But to consider, in itself, this war, on the merit of which you ask a triumph: in what manner did you conduct it? Did you fight on equal ground, and at the time of your own choosing? Indeed there is some propriety in your requiring that thanks be returned to the immortal gods; first, because they did not ordain that the army should undergo the penalty deserved by the temerity of its commander, in commencing a war unjustifiable by any law of nations; and next, because they gave us, for antagonists, brutes and not men. Do not suppose that the name only of the Gallogrecians is corrupted: their bodies, and their minds have been long so. Had they been such Gauls as those, whom we have a thousand times encountered in Italy, with various success, do you think it probable, from the conduct of our commander, that one of us would have returned to tell the story? Two battles were fought, twice he advanced against them, by most dangerous paths, bringing his army into a valley beneath, and almost under the feet of the enemy; so that if they had never discharged a weapon, they might, from the advantage of the higher ground, have overwhelmed us. What, then, was the consequence? Great is the fortune of the Roman people; great and terrible its name! By the recent downfal of Hannibal, Philip, and Antiochus, the Gauls were, in a manner, thunder-struck. Bulky as their bodies were, they were dismayed, and put to flight, by slings and arrows; not a sword was blooded in battle during the Gallic war. Like flocks of birds, they flew away at the very sound of our missile weapons. But, indeed, when we, the same army, were on our return, and happened to fall in with a party of Thracian robbers, (as if fortune meant to teach us what the issue would have been, had we been opposed by men,) we, I say, were beaten, routed and stripped of our baggage. Among many brave soldiers fell Quintus Minucius Thermus, whose death was a much greater loss, than if Cneius Manlius, to whose rashness the misfortune was owing, had perished. An army, carrying home the spoils of king Antiochus, being scattered in three places; the vanguard in one, the rear in another, and the baggage in a third, hid itself for a night among bushes, in the retirements of wild beasts. Is a triumph demanded for such exploits as these? Although no disaster and disgrace had been suffered in Thrace, over what enemies would you triumph? Is it over those against whom the Roman senate or people had commissioned you to fight? On this ground, indeed, a triumph was granted to Lucius Scipio; to Manius Acilius, over king Antiochus; to Titus Quintius, over king Philip; and to Publius Africanus, over Hannibal, the Carthaginians, and Syphax. Now, after the senate had voted a declaration of war, the following points, trifling as they appear, were nevertheless attended to:— To whom the declaration ought to be made; whether, to the kings in person; or, whether making it at some of their garrisons, were sufficient. Do you wish, then, that all these rites should be disregarded and profaned? That the laws of the heralds be abrogated? That there should be no heralds? Let religion, (the gods pardon the expression,) be thrown aside; retain not a thought of the gods. Do you, also, judge it fit that the senate should not be consulted concerning war? That the people should not be asked, whether they choose and order war to be made on the Gauls? On a late occasion, the consuls, certainly, wished for the provinces of Greece and Asia; yet, when the senate persisted in assigning Liguria as their province, they obeyed its commands. They will, therefore, if successful in the war, justly demand a triumph from you, Conscript Fathers, under whose authority they carried it on.”
XLVII. Such were the arguments of Furius and Æmilius. Manlius, as we are told, replied in nearly the following manner: “Conscript fathers, formerly the tribunes of the people, were accustomed to oppose generals demanding a triumph. I am thankful to the present tribunes for paying so much regard either to me, or to the greatness of my services, as not only to show, by their silence, their approbation of my pretensions to that honour, but likewise for having declared themselves ready, if there were occasion, to make a motion to that purpose. It is my lot, it seems, to be opposed by some of the ten ambassadors, the actual council which our ancestors assigned to generals for the purpose of arranging their conquests, and proclaiming their victories. They who forbid me to mount the triumphal chariot, who would pluck from my head the crown of glory, are Lucius Furius and Lucius Æmilius, the persons whom, if the tribunes had opposed my triumph, I should have cited as witnesses to bear testimony to my services. Conscript Fathers, be assured, I envy no man’s honours; but, on a late occasion, when the tribunes of the people, brave and active men, objected to the triumph of Quintus Fabius Labeo, you interposed your authority, and forced them to desist. Fabius enjoyed a triumph; although, if his adversaries were to be believed, he never even saw an enemy. Whereas I, who fought so many pitched battles with one hundred thousand of your fiercest enemies; who killed or made prisoners more than forty thousand who stormed two of their camps; who left all the countries on this side of the summits of Taurus, in greater tranquillity than is enjoyed by the country of Italy, am not only defrauded of a triumph, but obliged, like a criminal, to plead my cause before you, Conscript Fathers, against charges advanced by my own council of ambassadors. Conscript Fathers, their charge, as you perceive, is two-fold: for they assert, that I ought not to have waged war with the Gauls; and, that my conduct in the war was rash and imprudent. The Gauls were not enemies; but, though they were peaceable, and obedient to orders, you committed hostilities against them. You are well acquainted with the savage fierceness of the Gallic nation in general, and with their most inveterate hatred to the Roman name, but you are not to apply the same character to that part of them who reside in those countries. Exclude the infamous and odious character of the whole nation, and judge of these Gauls, separately, and by themselves. I wish king Eumenes, I wish all the states of Asia were present, and that you heard their complaints, rather than my charges against them. Send ambassadors round all the cities of Asia, and ask whether they were relieved from more grievous servitude by the removal of Antiochus beyond the summits of Taurus, or by the conquest of the Gauls. Let them tell you how often their territories were ravaged, how often their property, and their people, were carried off as prey; while, scarcely ever allowed to ransom any prisoners, they heard of nothing but human victims slain, and their children offered up in sacrifice. Let me inform you, that your allies paid tribute to these Gauls; and, though delivered now by you, from the yoke of Antiochus, must still have continued to pay it, if I had lain inactive. The farther Antiochus was removed, the more licentiously would the Gauls have domineered in Asia; and all the countries on this side of Taurus you would have annexed to their empire, not to your own.
XLVIII. “But, allowing all this to be true, say they, the Gauls formerly sacked Delphos, the common oracle, to which all mankind resort, and the central point of the globe of the earth; yet the Roman people did not, on that account, make war against them. I really thought, that there was some distinction to be made between that period when Greece and Asia were not yet under your jurisdiction and dominion, and the present, when you have made Mount Taurus the boundary of the Roman empire; when you grant liberty and independence to the states of that country; when you augment the territories of some; amerce others in a part of their lands; impose tribute, add too, diminish, give, and take away, kingdoms, and deem it your business to take care that they enjoy peace both on land and sea. You thought the liberty of Asia incomplete, unless Antiochus withdrew his garrisons, which lay quiet in their citadels; and can you think, that, if the armies of the Gauls roamed about without control, the grants which you made to king Eumenes would be secure, or the liberty of the states entire? But why do I reason thus? as if I had not found the Gauls enemies, but made them such! I appeal to you, Lucius Scipio, whose bravery and good fortune, I prayed to the immortal gods to grant me, when I succeeded you in the command; and I prayed not in vain: and to you, Publius Scipio, who held, both with your brother, the consul, and with the army, the commission of a lieutenant-general, and the dignity of a colleague: were the legions of the Gauls, to your knowledge, in the army of Antiochus? Did you see them in his line of battle, posted in both wings; for there was his main strength? Did you fight them as declared enemies? Did you kill them? Did you carry off their spoils? Yet the senate had decreed, and the people ordered, war against Antiochus, not against the Gauls. But I take for granted, that their decree and order, included, at the same time, all those who should fight under his banner; so that, excepting Antiochus, with whom Scipio had negociated a peace, and with whom, specifying him by name, you had directed a treaty to be concluded, every one who had borne arms, on the side of Antiochus, against us, were our enemies. In this light I was to consider all the Gauls, as well as several petty princes and tyrants; nevertheless, I made peace with the rest, after compelling them to atone for their transgressions, as the dignity of your empire required. I made trial, at the same time, of the temper of the Gauls, whether they could be reclaimed from their natural ferocity; but, perceiving them untractable and implacable, I then judged it necessary to chastise them by force of arms.
XLIX. “Having fully refuted the charge respecting the undertaking of the war, I am now to account for my conduct in the prosecution of it. On this head, indeed, I should perfectly confide in the merits of my cause, though I were pleading, not before a Roman, but before a Carthaginian senate, who are said to crucify their commanders, if they act, even with success, on wrong plans. But in such a state as this, which, in the commencement and progress of every undertaking, makes application to the gods to prompt them rightly, so that malicious calumnies may not prevail; and which, in the established form, when it decrees a supplication or triumph, uses these words:—‘For having conducted the business of the public successfully and fortunately;’. If I should be unwilling, if I should think it presumptuous and arrogant to boast of my own bravery, and if I should demand, in consideration of my own good fortune, and that of my army, in having vanquished so great a nation, without any loss of men, that thanks should be given to the immortal gods, and that I should ascend the capitol in triumph, from whence I took my departure, with vows duly offered; — would you refuse this to me, would you refuse acknowledgments to the immortal gods? Yes; for I fought on unfavourable ground. Tell me, then, on what more favourable ground could I have fought, when the enemy had seized on a mountain, and kept themselves in a strong post. Surely, if I wished to conquer them, I must go where they were, What if they had a town on the same spot, and kept within the walls: surely they must be attacked. Did Manlius Acilius fight Antiochus, at Thermopylæ, on favourable ground? Did not Titus Quintius dislodge Philip when he was posted in the same manner, on the tops of mountains, over the river Aous? Truly I cannot yet discover what idea they have formed to themselves, or wish you to form, of the enemy. If they are considered as being degenerate and softened by the pleasures of Asia, what danger was there in advancing against them, even on unfavourable ground? If formidable, both for fierceness of courage, and strength of body, do you refuse a triumph to victories so honourable? Conscript Fathers, such is the perverted vision of envy, that it is only capable of depreciating merit, and poisoning its honours and rewards. Pardon me, I beseech you, Conscript Fathers, for detaining you with too long a discourse, forced from me, not by any desire of blazoning my own merits, but by the necessity of exculpating myself from the imputations brought against me. Was it, let me ask, in my power to alter the face of the country throughout Thrace, to turn narrow defiles into open ground, steep precipices into level plains, woods into fields; to prevent a band of Thracian robbers from lurking in those concealments which they were acquainted with; that none of our packages should be snatched away, none of our loaded horses, out of so large a train, led off, that not one should be wounded; and that the brave and active Lucius Minucius should not die of his wound? On this mischance, by which we unfortunately lost so valuable a citizen, those men declaim profusely. That the enemy attacked us in a dangerous pass, where every advantage of ground was against us; that our two divisions, the front and the rear, were, at once, surrounding the army of the barbarians, while they were employed about our baggage; that we killed and took prisoners many thousands on that day; and, in a few days after, many more:— Do they imagine that these facts can be kept from your knowledge, by their passing them over in silence, although the whole army can testify the truth of what I assert? If I had never drawn a sword in Asia, if I had never seen an enemy there, yet, by the two battles fought in Thrace, I had merited a triumph. But I shall say no more on the subject; and shall only request, and, I trust, obtain, your pardon, Conscript Fathers, for having trespassed longer upon your patience than I could have wished to do.”
L. The charges would have been judged valid, notwithstanding this defence, had not the dispute been drawn out to a late hour; for the senate, when it adjourned, appeared in a disposition to refuse the triumph. Next day the relations and friends of Cneius Manlius exerted their utmost efforts in his behalf. The votes were led by the opinion of the elder senators, who asserted, that there was no instance on record of a commander who had subdued the enemy, completed the business of his province, and brought home his army, entering the city as a private citizen, without honours, and without the chariot and laurel. The sense of this impropriety got the better of their prejudices against him, and a great majority voted for his triumph. All mention and thought of this matter was soon banished by a greater contest, which was set on foot against a more illustrious personage. The two Petillii, as Valerius Antias writes, instituted a prosecution against Publius Scipio Africanus. This proceeding was variously construed, according to people’s different dispositions; some blamed not the plebeian tribunes, but the public in general, that could suffer such a process to be carried on. They observed, that “the two greatest states in the world proved, nearly at the same time, ungrateful to their chief commanders: but Rome the more ungrateful of the two, because Carthage was subdued when she sent the vanquished Hannibal into exile; whereas Rome, when victorious, was for banishing Africanus, who procured her the victory.” Others asserted, that “no one citizen ought to stand so high above the rest, as not to be made answerable to the laws for his conduct; for nothing contributed so much towards maintaining the equipoise of liberty, as that the most powerful might be brought to trial. For how could any charge, especially the administration of government, be safely intrusted to any man, if he were not liable to be called to an account? If there were any who could not endure an equality of rights, against such, force might justly be employed.” Such were the common topics of conversation, until the day of trial came. Never was either any other person, or Scipio himself, when consul or censor, escorted to the Forum by more numerous multitudes of all kinds, than he was on that day, when he appeared to answer to the charge against him. When ordered to make his defence, without taking any notice of the facts laid to his charge, he delivered a speech, in which he set forth his own exploits in such splendid terms, that it was universally agreed, that no man’s praises had been ever represented either to more advantage, or with more truth. For he spoke with the same ardent spirit, and powerful genius, which had ever animated his conduct in discharging the duties of his office: nor did his speech excite any disgust in the hearers; as it arose from the peril of his situation, not from motives of ostentation.
LI. The plebeian tribunes, in order to procure credit to their present accusations, introduced the old imputations of his luxurious style of living in his winter-quarters at Syracuse, and the tumult raised by Pleminius at Locri. They then brought forward against him the charge of receiving money; which they grounded on suspicions, not on proofs. They alleged, that “his son, being taken prisoner, was restored without ransom; and that, in every other instance Antiochus paid his court to him, as if peace and war with Rome were at his sole disposal. He had acted towards the consul, in his province, as dictator, not as lieutenant-general; nor had he gone thither with any other view than to propagate in Greece and Asia, and among all the kings and nations eastward, the same opinion which, at the same time, prevailed in Spain, Gaul, Sicily, and Africa, that he alone was the head and pillar of the Roman empire; that a state, which was mistress of the world, lay sheltered under the shade of Scipio; and that his nods were equivalent to decrees of the senate, and orders of the people.” Finding him invulnerable against all attacks upon his honour, they assailed him with the shafts of envy. The pleading having lasted till night, the trial was adjourned to another day. When that came, the tribunes took their seat in the rostrum at the dawn of day. The accused being summoned, came, with a numerous train of friends and dependants, through the middle of the assembly, to the rostrum, and silence being made, he said — “Tribunes of the people, and you, Romans: This day is the anniversary, on which I fought a pitched battle, in Africa, with Hannibal and the Carthaginians, and found good fortune and success. As therefore, it is but decent that a stop be put, for this day, to litigation and wrangling, I will immediately go to the capitol, there to return my acknowledgments to Jupiter supremely good and great; to Juno, Minerva, and the other deities presiding over the capitol and citadel, and will give them thanks, for having, on this day, and at many other times, endowed me both with the will and ability to perform extraordinary services to the commonwealth. Such of you, also, Romans, as can conveniently come with me, and beseech the gods that you may have commanders like myself; since, from my seventeenth year to old age, you have always anticipated my years with honours, and I, your honours, with services.” Accordingly, he went up from the rostrum to the capitol; and, at the same time, the whole assembly turned about and followed him, insomuch, that at last even the clerks and messengers left the tribunes, not one remaining, except the slaves who attended them, and the crier, whose office it was to summon those who were under prosecution. Scipio, attended by the whole body of the Roman people, went around all the temples of the gods, not only in the capitol, but throughout the whole city. This day afforded more ample testimony of the favour of the public, and a clearer estimate of his real greatness, than that on which he rode through Rome in triumph over king Syphax and the Carthaginians.
LII. It was, however, the last day that shone with lustre on Publius Scipio. For, as he could foresee nothing but the prosecutions of envy, and continual disputes with the tribunes, before the time to which the hearing of the cause was adjourned, he retired to Liternum, with a fixed determination not to attend the trial. His natural temper and spirit were so lofty, and he had been habituated to such an elevated course of fortune, that he did not know how to act the part of an accused person, or stoop to the humble deportment of such a state. When the day came, on his not appearing, he was called by the crier, and Lucius Scipio offered as an excuse, that his absence was caused by sickness. This excuse, the tribunes, who were the prosecutors, would not admit, but insisted, that his not coming to answer the charges against him, was owing to the same arrogance with which he had left the trial, the tribunes of the people, and the general assembly; and, dragging after him, like prisoners, the very men whom he had robbed of the right of passing sentence on him, together with their freedom of suffrage, had exhibited a triumph over the Roman people, and made a secession, the same day, from the tribunes to the capitol. “You have, therefore,” said they, “the due reward of that thoughtless conduct. You are, yourselves, forsaken by him, under whose lead and direction you forsook us. And so much is the Roman spirit daily on the decline, that although, seventeen years ago, when he was at the head of an army and fleet, we had resolution enough to send plebeian tribunes and an ædile into Sicily to take him into custody, and bring him home to Rome; yet we dare not now, when he is a private citizen, send to compel him to come from his country-seat to stand his trial.” Lucius Scipio appealing to the tribunes of the commons, they came to this determination, that, “as sickness had been pleaded in his excuse, it was their judgment that this excuse should be admitted, and that their colleagues should adjourn the hearing of the cause.”
LIII. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was, at that time, a plebeian tribune, and between him and Publius Scipio there was an enmity subsisting. He had forbidden his name to be subscribed to the determination of his colleague, and every one expected from him a sentence more severe, when he pronounced his judgment thus: that, “Inasmuch as Lucius Scipio had pleaded sickness in excuse for his brother, that plea appeared to him to be sufficient: that he would not suffer any farther proceeding against Publius Scipio until he should return to Rome; and even then, if he appealed to him, he would support him in refusing to abide a trial: that Publius Scipio, by his great achievements, by the honours received from the Roman people, by the joint consent of gods and men, had risen to such a height of dignity, that were he to stand as a criminal, under the rostrum, and be obliged to listen to the opprobrious language of youthful petulence, it would reflect more disgrace on the Romans than on him.” He added, with much indignation, “Shall Scipio, the celebrated conqueror of Africa, stand at the feet of you, tribunes? Was it for this he defeated and routed, in Spain, four of the most distinguished generals of the Carthaginians, and their four armies? Was it for this he took Syphax prisoner, conquered Hannibal, made Carthage tributary to you, and removed Antiochus beyond mount Taurus; (in the glory of which, by the way, Lucius Scipio was associated with his brother as partner,) that he should crouch under two Petillii? that they should gain the palm of victory over Publius Africanus? Will men of illustrious characters, never, through their own merits, or through public honours, arrive at a safe and inviolable sanctuary, where their old age may repose, if not revered, at least secure from injury?” Both his determination, and his subsequent discourse, made a deep impression, not only on the rest of the assembly but even on the prosecutors; who said, that they would consider further what might be consistent with their rights and duties. As soon as the assembly of the people broke up, the senate met, and there the warmest thanks were bestowed by the whole body, especially by the consular and elder members, on Tiberius Gracchus, for having consulted the public good in preference to private animosity; while the severest reproaches were thrown on the Petillii, for having attempted to bring themselves into notice by exciting the displeasure of the public against Africanus, and for seeking to gather spoils from a triumph over him. After that, Africanus was no more mentioned. He passed the remainder of his life at Liternum, without a wish to revisit the city; and it is said, that when he was dying, he ordered his body to be buried at his own country-seat, and his monument to be erected there, that even his funeral should not be performed in his ungrateful country. He was a man of eminent merit; but that merit was more conspicuous in affairs of war, than in those of peace. The former part of his life was more illustrious than the latter; because, in his early years, he was continually employed in military commands; as he advanced to old age, the lustre of his conduct was somewhat faded, as occasions did not occur to call forth the exercise of his talents. His second consulship, even if we add to it the censorship, was far from being equally brilliant with the first. Nor can we compare with it his commission in Asia, rendered useless by want of health, and clouded by the misfortune of his son, and the necessity which it brought him under, after his return, of either undergoing a trial, or withdrawing himself from that and his country together. However, he enjoyed, alone, the distinguished honour of putting an end to the Carthaginian war, by far the most difficult and dangerous one which the Roman state was ever engaged in.
LIV. The death of Africanus increased the courage of his enemies, the chief of whom was Marcus Porcius Cato, who, even during his life, allowed himself to sneer at his splendid character. It was thought, that it was he who instigated the Petillii both to commence the action against Africanus, and to propose an order respecting him after his death. The motion for the order was made in these words: “Romans, is it your will to order, with respect to the money taken, carried off, and collected from king Antiochus, and those under his government, and with respect to such part thereof as has not been accounted for to the public, that Servius Sulpicius, the city prætor, shall ask the senate, which of the present prætors they will appoint to hold an inquiry concerning those matters?” This motion was, at first, objected to by Quintus and Lucius Mummius, who declared, as their opinion, that according to the practice always hitherto observed, the senate should make the inquiry concerning money unaccounted for to the public. The Petillii, in opposition, represented the great influence, the sovereign power, which the Scipios possessed in the senate. Lucius Furius Purpureo, a senator of consular rank, who had been one of the ten ambassadors in Asia, was of opinion that the inquiry ought to be carried to a wider extent; not only as to the money taken from Antiochus, but to what had been taken from other kings and nations. This blow he aimed at his enemy, Cneius Manlius. Lucius Scipio, who, as every one knew, was arguing rather in favour of himself, than against the order, stood forward to oppose it. He complained heavily of such a motion being brought on after the death of his brother, Publius Africanus, the bravest and most illustrious of men. For, “it had not been deemed sufficient that no panegyric was pronounced from the rostrum, on Africanus after his death, but accusations of misconduct were also exhibited against him. The Carthaginians had been content with the banishment of Hannibal, but the Roman people would not be satisfied even with the death of Publius Scipio, unless, after he was laid in his grave, his character were mangled, and his brother also sacrificed, another victim to envy.” Marcus Cato supported the motion in a speech on the money of king Antiochus, which is still extant; and, by his influence, prevailed on the Mummii, the two tribunes, to drop their opposition to the order. On their withdrawing their intended protest, every one of the tribes voted in favour of the motion.
LV. Servius Sulpicius then put the question to the senate, whom they would appoint, according to the Petillian order of the people, to hold the inquiry; and they appointed Quintus Terentius Culleo. This prætor was so warmly attached to the Cornelian family, that according to the account of those writers who say that Publius Scipio died and was buried at Rome, (for that too is asserted,) he had walked at his funeral before the bier with a cap of liberty on his head, as he had done before at his triumph; and that, at the Capuan gate, he gave wine and honey to those who attended the obsequies, to show his gratitude for having been recovered by Scipio, among other captives, out of the hands of the enemy in Africa; while others say, he was so great an enemy to that family, that, on account of his known animosity, the faction that supported the proceedings against the Scipios, singled out him, particularly, to hold the inquiry. However that may be, whether he was too favourable, or too much the contrary, before him, Lucius Scipio was immediately arraigned. At the same time, charges were presented and received, against * his lieutenants-general, the two Hostilius Catos, Aulus, and Lucius; and his quæstor, Caius Furius Aculeo: and, that it might seem as if every one had been infected with the contagion of peculation, against his two secretaries and crier, Lucius Hostilius. The secretaries and the crier were acquitted before Scipio was tried. Scipio, and Aulus Hostilius, lieutenant-general, and Caius Furius, were convicted, and judgment was pronounced, that, “as bribes, for granting more favourable terms of peace to Antiochus, Scipio had received, over and above what he brought into the treasury, six thousand pounds weight of gold, and four hundred and eighty of silver; Aulus Hostilius, eighty pounds of gold, and four hundred and three of silver; and Furius, the quæstor, one hundred and thirty of gold, and two hundred of silver.” These sums of gold and silver I find mentioned by Antias. As to what regards Lucius Scipio, I suspect some mistake of the transcriber, rather than a falsehood of the historian, respecting the amount of the gold and silver. For it is more probable that the weight of silver was greater than that of gold, and that the fine was laid at four millions, than at twenty-four millions of sesterces.† And this I am the more inclined to believe, as it is recorded, that particulars of that sum being demanded from Publius Scipio himself, in the senate, he desired his brother Lucius to bring the book which contained them, and which he took and tore to pieces before their eyes, at the same time expressing indignation at being called to an account for four millions, after he had brought two hundred millions‡ into the treasury. From the same magnanimity of spirit, when the quæstors would not venture to bring money out of the coffers contrary to law, he demanded the keys of the treasury, declaring that he would open it, as he had caused it to be shut.
LVI. There were so many contradictory accounts respecting the latter part, particularly, of Scipio’s life; of his trial, death, funeral, and sepulchre, that I cannot determine which tradition or which writings I ought to credit. Writers do not agree as to his accuser; some affirming that Marcus Nævius, others, that the Petillii instituted the prosecution: neither are they agreed as to the time when it was carried on, nor the year in which he died, nor the place, nor where he was buried. Some assert, that he died and was buried at Rome; others, at Liturnum; and in both places memorials of him are shown. For at Liternum, there was a monument, and on it stood his statue, which was lately seen lying on the ground, where it had been thrown down by a storm. At Rome is likewise a monument of the Scipios, and outside the Capuan gate, are three statues, two of which are said to be those of Publius and Lucius Scipio, and the third that of the poet Quintus Ennius. Nor do these differences subsist between historians only; the speeches attributed to Publius Scipio and Tiberius Gracchus, if they really are theirs, differ widely from one another. In the title of Publius Scipio’s speech is the name of Marcus Nævius, plebeian tribune: but in the speech itself, the prosecutor is not named, it only calls him sometimes a knave, sometimes a trifler. Even the speech of Gracchus makes no mention of the Petilliuses accusing Africanus, or of the prosecution carried on against him. The whole story must be framed after another model, to make it consistent with the speech of Gracchus; and those writers must be followed who affirm, that, at the time when Lucius Scipio was impeached, and convicted of having taken money from the king, Africanus was a lieutenant-general in Etruria; whence, on hearing of this misfortune, throwing up his commission, he hastened to Rome, proceeding straight from the gate to the forum. Being told that Lucius had been ordered into confinement, he drove away the officer from his person; and, on the tribunes attempting to detain him, laid violent hands on them, showing more affection towards his brother than regard for the laws. Of these acts, Gracchus himself complained, saying, that the tribunitian power was illegally annulled; and at last, when he promises support to Lucius Scipio, he adds, that the precedent would be the more tolerable, if both the tribunitian authority and the state appeared to be overpowered by a tribune of the commons, than if by a private citizen. But while he loaded him with reproaches for this single instance of intemperate violence, while he charged him with having degenerated so far from himself, he displayed his long-established praises for moderation, and government of his passions, in such strong terms, as to make ample amends for the present reprehension. For he said, that Scipio formerly rebuked the people severely for their intention of making him perpetual consul and dictator; that he hindered statues to be erected to him in the comitium, in the rostrum, in the senate-house, in the capitol, in the chapel of Jupiter’s temple; and that he prevented a decree being passed, ordering his image, in a triumphal habit, to be brought in procession out of the temple of Jupiter supremely good and great. Such particulars as these, even if inserted in a professed panegyric, would demonstrate an uncommon greatness of mind, in restraining honours conformably to the temper of a constitution founded on an equality of rights; but, here, they are acknowledged by an enemy, and at the very time that he was employed in censuring him.
LVII. It is universally agreed, that the younger of Scipio’s two daughters was married to this Gracchus; for the elder was, undoubtedly, disposed of, by her father, to Publius Cornelius Nasica. But it is not so certain, whether she was both betrothed and married after her father’s death, or whether we are to credit those accounts which say, that when the officers were taking Scipio to prison, and no other of the tribunes interfered to protect him, Gracchus swore, that “the same enmity, which he had entertained against the Scipios, still subsisted; and that he did not, by any act of his, seek to gain their favour. But that having seen Publius Africanus leading the kings and generals of enemies to prison, he would never suffer his brother to be led to the same place.” They add, that the senators, happening to sup that day in the capitol, rose up together, and requested of Africanus, before the company departed, to contract his daughter to Gracchus: that the contract was accordingly executed in due form, in the presence of this assembly; and that Scipio, on his return home, told his wife Æmilia, that he had concluded a match for her younger daughter. That she, feeling her female pride hurt, expressed some resentment on not having been consulted in the disposal of their common child, and added, that, even were he giving her to Tiberius Gracchus, her mother ought not to be kept in ignorance of his intention; to which Scipio, rejoiced at her judgment concurring so entirely with his own, replied, that Gracchus was the man he had betrothed her to. These circumstances respecting so great a captain, though variously represented both in traditionary and written relation, I thought not fit to be passed over in silence.
LVIII. On the proceedings being finished by the prætor Quintus Terentius, Hostilius and Furius were condemned, and gave securities the same day to the city quæstors. Scipio insisted, that all the money received by him, was in the treasury, and that he had not in his possession any thing whatsoever belonging to the public; on which he was ordered to prison. Publius Scipio Nasica then appealed to the tribunes, and made a speech fraught with just encomiums, not only on the Cornelian family in general, but on his own branch of it in particular. “His father,” he said, “and the father of Publius Africanus, and Lucius Scipio who was now ordered to prison, were Cneius and Publius Scipio, men of the most illustrious characters; who by their conduct in war through a long course of years, against many commanders and many armies of the Carthaginians and Spaniards, highly enhanced the reputation of the Roman name in the land of Spain; and that, not only by their military exploits, but also by exhibiting to the nations of that country shining examples of Roman moderation and fidelity; both, at last, meeting their death in the service of the Roman people. Although their descendants might have contented themselves with supporting the glory derived from them, yet Publius Africanus so far surpassed his father’s renown, as to occasion a belief that he was not born of the human race, but was of divine extraction. As to Lucius Scipio, the person then concerned, (to pass over his exploits in Spain and in Africa, while he acted as lieutenant-general to his brother,) on his being elected consul, so high did he stand in the estimation of the senate, that they thought proper to assign to him the province of Asia, and the war with Antiochus, by a special order, without leaving it to the decision of the lots; while, in that of his brother, after having been honoured with two consulships, the censorship, and a triumph, he thought fit to attend him into Asia in quality of lieutenant-general. There, that the great and splendid character of the lieutenant might not eclipse the fame of the consul, it so happened, that, on the day when Lucius Scipio conquered Antiochus in a pitched battle at Magnesia, Publius Scipio was absent, at the distance of several days’ journey, being detained by sickness at Elæa. The army of the enemy, on that occasion, was not inferior to that of Hannibal, when the battle was fought with him in Africa; and the same Hannibal, who was commander-in-chief in the Carthaginian war, was one, among many other generals then present, on the king’s side. The war indeed was so conducted, that no one could throw blame even on fortune. A ground of accusation is sought for in the peace, and people say that it was sold. This charge is as applicable to the ten ambassadors, in pursuance of whose counsel the peace was concluded. Some of the ten ambassadors had even stood forth as accusers of Cneius Manlius, yet their charges were so far from gaining credit, that they did not produce even a delay of his triumph.
LIX. “But, truly, the very articles of the peace afford grounds of suspicion respecting Scipio, as being too favourable to Antiochus. For his entire kingdom has been left to him; although conquered, he retains possession of every thing that belonged to him before the war; and though he had an immense quantity of gold and silver, none of it has been applied to the use of the public: all has been converted to private purposes. Now, was there not a larger quantity of gold and silver carried before the eyes of the public in the triumph of Lucius Scipio, then in ten other triumphs taken together? Why need I speak of the extent of the kingdom of Antiochus, or mention his having been in possession of all Asia, and the adjoining parts of Europe? Every body knows what a large portion of the surface of the earth that is, which stretches from Mount Taurus quite to the Ægean sea; what a number, not only of cities, but of nations, it comprehends, and that this tract, as far as the summit of the said mount, more than thirty days’ journey in length, and ten in breadth, from one sea to the other — has been taken from Antiochus, and who is thereby removed to the most distant corner of the world? Now, if peace had been granted him without any pecuniary consideration, could more have been taken from him? Macedonia was left to Philip, after he was conquered; Lacedæmon to Nabis; yet Quintius was never accused on that account. The reason was, that he had not Africanus for a brother, whose high renown ought to have been serviceable to Lucius Scipio: but instead of that, envy of his merit had done him injury. The sentence mentioned a quantity of gold and silver being conveyed to the house of Lucius Scipio, greater than could be raised from the sale of his whole property. Where, then, was all this royal treasure; where the value of so many estates received? Surely in a house, not exhausted by extravagance, this new accumulation of wealth ought to appear. But what cannot be levied out of his effects, the enemies of Lucius Scipio will exact from his person, and from his very flesh, by vexatious persecution and insult; by shutting up a man of his illustrous character in a prison, among thieves and robbers; forcing him to breathe his last in a dungeon and in darkness, and then throwing his naked corpse before the prison-door. Such proceedings will reflect more disgrace on the city of Rome, than they will on the Cornelian family.”
LX. In answer to this, the prætor, Terentius, read the Petillian order of the people, the decree of the senate, and the judgment pronounced against Lucius Scipio; and declared, that unless the money adjudged were paid into the public treasury, he had no other step to take, than to order the person convicted, to be taken into custody, and carried to prison. The tribunes retired to confer together, and, in a short time after, Caius Fannius, in behalf of himself and all his colleagues, except Gracchus, declared, that the tribunes would not interfere with the prætor, to hinder his making use of his power. Tiberius Gracchus pronounced his determination thus: that “he would not protest against the prætor’s levying the sum adjudged out of the effects of Lucius Scipio: but that Lucius Scipio, who had subdued the most powerful king in the world, had extended the empire of the Roman people to the utmost limits of the earth, had bound under obligations to the Roman people king Eumenes, the Rhodians, and so many other states of Asia, and had led in triumph so many generals of the enemies, should lie in prison, among the enemies of the Roman people, and in chains, he never would suffer; and therefore he ordered him to be discharged.” This decision was heard with such approbation, so happy were the people at seeing Lucius Scipio at liberty, that it could hardly be supposed that the sentence had been passed in the same community. The prætor then sent the quæstors to take possession of Lucius Scipio’s property, for the use of the public. But so far from any trace appearing of money received from the king, the sale did not produce near as much as the sum in which he was fined. So large a contribution was made for Lucius Scipio by his relations, friends and dependants, that, if he had accepted it, he would have been much richer than before this misfortune; but he would receive nothing. Such things as were necessary for his family occasions, were purchased for him at the sale by his nearest relations, and the public hatred, which had been pointed against the Scipios, reverted on the prætor, his assessors, and the accusers.
* 193,750l
* About 96,000l
* Holy Town.
* The Gordian wall
* 4843l. 15s
* 4848l. 15s.
† 96.873l.
‡ 19.375l.
* 9687l. 10s
† The wood town
* 38,750l.
* Woodless.
* This does not prove that he was in the office of consul, at the time of his making it; for it was usual to mention in such inscriptions the highest office that the person had ever held.
* 38.750l
† 484.275l.
* 2.235.000l.
† 67,812l.
‡ 24,609l. 9s.
* Black.
* Diana, so called in the Thracian language.
* 3.229l. 13s. 4d.
† 193,750l.
‡ 1,614,583l. 6s. 8d.
Marcus Æmilius, consul, having subdued the Ligurians, makes a new road from Placentra to Arminium, where it joins the Flaminian way, Luxury introduced by the troops who had served in Asia. All the Ligurians, on the hither side of the Apennine, completely subdued. The Bacchanahan rites, borrowed from the Greeks, and celebrated by night, cause great alarm; are investigated by the consul: suppressed, and many of those concerned in them punished. Lucius Quintius Flaminius expelled the senate, by the censors, for flagitious conduct. Scipio dies at Liternum. Hannibal poisons himself, to avoid being given up to the Romans by Prusias, king of Bithynia. Philopœmen, the famous Achæan general, put to death by the Messemans. Successful operations against the Celtiberians. Another Macedonian war, causes and origin of it
Y. R. 565.
187.I.While these transactions passed at Rome, (if they are to be dated in
this year,) both the consuls were employed in the war with the Ligurians. This people, seemed in some measure, intended
by nature for the purpose of preserving military discipline among the Romans, by its opposition to their arms during
the intervals between important wars; nor was any province better calculated to form a soldier to active valour. For as
to Asia, from the enticing pleasures of its cities, the abundance of every production, both of land and sea, the
unwarlike temper of its inhabitants, and the wealth of its princes, how much soever it might enrich the Roman armies,
it contributed nothing towards the improvement of their courage. Under the command of Cneius Manlius, particularly, the
troops were suffered to run into idleness and licentiousness. The consequence of which was, that, meeting in Thrace a
passage somewhat more difficult, and an enemy of rather more vigour than they had been accustomed to, they suffered a
repulse with severe loss. Whereas in Liguria, there was every circumstance that could invigorate the courage of
soldiers; the face of the country mountainous and rugged, so that even the taking possession of unoccupied posts, and
much more the dislodging of an enemy already in possession, was attended with much labour; the roads hilly, narrow, and
exposed to danger from ambuscades; the enemy light, active, and brisk in their motions, so as to allow no rest or
remissness, at any season, or in any place; a number of strong forts, necessarily to be attacked, with much toil and
danger; and the country so poor, as to constrain the soldier to a sparing mode of living, while it afforded but a small
share of booty. Accordingly, no suttler followed the army, no long train of baggage horses extended its line of march,
nothing was to be seen but arms, and men who had no other hope but in their arms. Nor did those people ever cease to
afford either subject, or cause, for hostilities; for, their own country being infertile, they made frequent incursions
on the territories of their neighbours; ever avoiding, however, an engagement that might effectually disable them.
II. The consul, Caius Flaminius, after frequently defeating the Frinian Ligurians in their own country, received the submission of that tribe, and ordered them to deliver up their arms; but, having acted dishonestly in the delivery of them, and being reproved for their behaviour, they abandoned their villages, and fled to the mountain called Auginus, whither the consul immediately followed them. At his approach a part of the enemy again betook themselves to flight; and, running with precipitate haste, the greatest part without arms, over pathless tracts and rocky precipices, they got away, beyond the Apennine; the rest, who remained in the camp, were surrounded and reduced by assault. The legions were then led over the Apennine, where the enemy, assisted by the height of the mountain, where they had posted themselves, at first, stood on their defence, but, in a little time submitted. A more careful search was now made for their arms, which were all taken from them. The army, next, marched against the Apuan tribe of Ligurians, who, by their inroads, had infested the territories of Pisa and Bononia to such a degree, that the inhabitants could not till their grounds. These the consul entirely subdued, and thereby restored peace to the neighbourhood. Having now secured the province against any disturbance from an enemy, that he might not keep the soldiers in a state of idleness, he made a road from Bononia to Anetium. The other consul, Marcus Æmilius, ravaged with fire and sword the lands of the Ligurians, together with their villages that stood in the plains, while the inhabitants remained posted on two mountains, Ballista and Suismontius. He then attacked these, harassed them for some time, and, at last, compelled them to come to a regular engagement, in which he utterly defeated them. During the fight he vowed a temple to Diana. Having now reduced all on the hither side of the Apennine, he marched against those on the other side of that mountain; among whom were the Brinian tribe; which had not been attacked by Flaminius. Æmilius subdued them all, stripped them of their arms, and obliged the multitude to come down from the mountains into the plains. Peace being thus established in Liguria, he led his army into the Gallic territory, and drew a road from Placentia to Ariminum, to meet that made by Flaminius. During the last engagement, when he fought a pitched battle with the Ligurians, he vowed a temple to imperial Juno. Such were the transactions of this year in Liguria.
III. In Gaul, the prætor, Marcus Furius, seeking a pretext for war in the midst of peace, deprived the Cænomanians of their arms, although no charge of guilt had been proved against them. Of this they complained to the senate at Rome, and were by them referred to the consul Æmilius, whom the senate authorised to examine into and determine the cause. After a strong contest with the prætor it was decided in favour of the Cænomanians; their arms were restored, and the prætor was ordered to quit the province. The senate afterwards gave audience to envoys of the Latine confederates, who had come, in great numbers, from all parts of Latium. They complained, that a great multitude of their citizens had removed to Rome, and had been assessed there in the survey; on which a commission was given to Quintus Terentius Culleo, the prætor, to make inquiry after such persons, and on the allies proving that those persons, themselves, or their fathers, had been rated in the surveys of their states in the censorship of Caius Claudius and Marcus Livius, or at some time subsequent to their censorship, he was ordered to compel all such to return to the several states wherein they had been so rated. In consequence of this inquiry, twelve thousand Latines returned home; so much was the city, even at that early period, burdened by an influx of foreigners.
IV. Before the consuls came home to Rome, Marcus Fulvius, proconsul, returned from Ætolia. He, as usual, recited to the senate, in the temple of Apollo, the services which he had performed in Ætolia and Cephallenia, and then requested of the Fathers, that, in consideration of his having conducted the business of the public with good fortune and success, they would be pleased to order public thanks to be offered to the immortal gods, and to decree a triumph to him. Marcus Abutius, a plebeian tribune, gave notice, that, if any thing were determined on that subject, before the arrival of Marcus Æmilius, he would enter his protest: for “the consul intended to oppose that measure; and, at his setting out for his province, had given him a charge to keep the discussion of it open until he should come home. Fulvius,” he said, “would lose nothing by this, but time; for, notwithstanding the presence of his consul, the senate would determine according to its own judgment.” Fulvius replied, that, “even if people did not know that there was a quarrel subsisting between him and Marcus Æmilius, or with what overbearing, and in some measure, tyrannical rancour, that man prosecuted his enmity; yet it would be insufferable, that the absence of the consul should both obstruct the worship of the immortal gods, and delay a triumph due to merit; that a commander, after performing signal services, and his victorious army with its booty and prisoners, should remain outside the gates, until a consul, who purposely delayed abroad, should be pleased to return to Rome. But, in the present case, when the animosity between him and the consul was most notorious, what fair dealing could be expected from a man who procured clandestinely, in a thin house, and lodged in the treasury, a decree of senate, that ‘it did not appear that Ambracia was taken by force:’ a town which was attacked with mounds and engines; where, after the works were burned, others were constructed anew; where a fight was carried on for fifteen days, both above and under ground; where, from the first dawn, when the soldiers mounted the walls, the battle lasted until night, and was for a great part of the time, doubtful; and where more than three thousand of the enemy were killed? Then again, what a malicious misrepresentation did he make to the pontiffs, of the temples of the immortal gods being plundered in a captured city? If it were allowable that Rome should be decorated with the ornaments of Syracuse, and other conquered places, then must Ambracia be the single instance, of a captured city exempted from the laws of war. For his part, he besought the Conscript Fathers, and requested the tribunes, not to suffer him to become a subject of derision to an enemy who had acted, all along, with the most overbearing arrogance.”
V. Every one present felt the force of what he urged, and some intreated the tribune to desist, while others sharply reproved his conduct. But what affected him most, was a speech of his colleague, Tiberius Gracchus, who said, that “for a man in office to prosecute even his own quarrels, was an example of no good tendency; but, that a tribune of the people should take upon himself to be a solicitor in the quarrel of another, was infamous, and highly unworthy of the power and sacred laws of the order to which he belonged. It was right, that every one should love or hate others, approve or disapprove of measures, according to the dictates of their own judgment; but not that a tribune should depend on the look or nod of another man, veer about at the movements of another’s will, and make himself a tool to his displeasure; remember a private charge, committed to him by Marcus Æmilius, and forget that the tribuneship was a public charge, committed to him by the Roman people, for the aiding and maintaining the liberty of private citizens, not to aggrandize the arbitrary power of a consul. His colleague did not seem to consider, that this circumstance would be recorded and handed down to posterity; that, of two plebeian tribunes of the same college, one sacrificed his own resentment to the public good, the other accepted the employment of prosecuting the resentment of another man.” Overcome by these severe rebukes the tribune withdrew from the meeting, and Servius Sulpicius, the prætor, having put the question, a triumph was voted to Marcus Fulvius. He returned thanks to the Conscript Fathers; and then mentioned, that, “on the day of his taking Ambracia, he had vowed to celebrate the great games in honour of Jupiter supremely good and great; that a contribution for that purpose had been made to him by the several states, amounting to one hundred and ten pounds weight of gold; and he requested them to order that sum to be set apart, out of the money which he was to deposit in the treasury, after his triumph.” The senate ordered the college of pontiffs to be consulted, whether it were necessary that the whole of that sum should be expended on the games; and the pontiffs having answered, that the amount of the expense was a point in which religion was no wise concerned, the senate gave permission to Fulvius to expend as much as he thought proper, provided it did not exceed eighty thousand sesterces.* He, at first, intended to celebrate his triumph in the month of January; but, hearing that the consul Æmilius — in consequence of a letter from the tribune Abutius, acquainting him with his declining to protest, was coming in person to Rome, to hinder his triumph, but had been obliged by sickness to halt on the road, he hastened the time of the celebration, lest he should have more contests about it than he had met in the war. He triumphed over the Ætolians and Cephallenia on the tenth day before the calends of January. There were carried, before his chariot, golden crowns to the amount of one hundred and twelve pounds weight; of silver, eighty-three thousand pounds; of gold, two hundred and forty-three thousand; of Attic tetradrachms, one hundred and eighteen thousand;† of the coin called Philippics, twelve thousand four hundred and twenty-two;‡ brazen statues, two hundred and eighty-five; marble statues, two hundred and thirty; arms, weapons, and other spoils in great quantities: besides these, catapultas, ballistas, and engines of every kind; and in the procession were led twenty-seven commanders, some Ætolian, some Cephallenian, with others belonging to king Antiochus. Before he rode into the city, in the Flaminian circus, he honoured great numbers of tribunes, præfects, horsemen, centurions, both Romans and allies, with military presents; to each of the soldiers he distributed out of the booty twenty-five denariuses,§ double to a centurion, triple to a horseman.
Y. R. 566.
186.VI. The time of the election of consuls now approached; and as Marcus Æmilius, to whose lot
that business had fallen, could not attend, Caius Flaminius came home to Rome. He elected consuls, Spurius Postumius
Albinus, and Quintius Marcus Philippus. Then were chosen prætors — Titus Mænius, Publius Cornelius Sulla, Caius
Calpurnius Piso, Marcus Licinius Lucullus, Caius Aurelius Scaurus, and Lucius Quintius Crispinus. At the close of the
year, after the magistrates were appointed, on the third day before the nones of March, Cneius Manlius Vulso triumphed
over the Gauls inhabiting Asia. The reason of his deferring his triumph so long was, to avoid standing a trial under
the Petillian law, during the prætorship of Quintus Terentius Culleo; and the being involved in the ill consequences of
the sentence passed on Lucius Scipio, especially, as the judges would be more disposed to severity against him than
against Scipio; because the latter had strictly maintained military discipline, whereas he, his successor, had ruined
it, by tolerating licentiousness of every kind. Nor were the facts, which were reported to have happened in the
province, the only things that disgraced his character. The circumstances which his soldiers every day exhibited to the
eyes of the public were even more scandalous: for by this army returning from Asia was the origin of foreign luxury
imported into the city. These men first brought to Rome gilded couches, rich tapestry, with hangings and other works of
the loom; and, what were then deemed magnificent furniture, single-footed tables and buffets. At entertainments,
likewise, were introduced players on the harp and timbrel, with buffoons for the diversion of the guests. Their meats
also began to be prepared with greater care and cost; while the cook, whom the ancients considered as the meanest of
their slaves both in estimation and use, became highly valuable. Nevertheless, these instances of extravagance, as they
were then deemed, were no more than the seeds of that luxury which was afterwards to spring up.
VII. Cneius Manlius carried in the triumph two hundred golden crowns of twelve pounds weight; two hundred and twenty thousand pounds weight of silver; two thousand two hundred and three of gold; one hundred and twenty-seven thousand Attic tetra-drachms;* two hundred and fifty thousand cistophoruses;† sixteen thousand three hundred and twenty golden Philippics;‡ together with abundance of Gallic arms and spoils in chariots. Fifty-two generals of the enemy were led before his car. He distributed to each of his soldiers forty-two denariuses,§ and double to a centurion; to the foot soldiers double pay, the horsemen triple. Great numbers of all ranks, whom he had distinguished by gifts, accompanied him. The verses thrown out by the soldiers were of such a kind, as plainly indicated, that their commander had been indulgent to them, and courted their affections. It was indeed evident that the triumph was beheld with a greater degree of favour by the troops than by the citizens. The friends of Manlius, however, were able to acquire for him the regard of the people also; for they procured the passing of a decree of the senate, ordering, that “such part of the money contributed to the public funds by the people, for the pay of the forces, as was not yet repaid, should be discharged out of that which had been carried in the procession to the treasury.” Accordingly the city prætors, with care and fidelity, paid twenty-five denariuses and a half∥ for each thousand asses.¶ About this time two military tribunes arrived from the two Spains, with letters from Caius Atinius, and Lucius Manlius, who governed those provinces. These letters contained information, that the Celtiberians and Lusitanians were in arms, and ravaging the territories of the allies; the senate, however, deferred all consideration of that business until the new magistrates should come into office. This year, during the celebration of the Roman games exhibited by Publius Cornelius Cethegus and Aulus Postumius Albinus, a pole in the circus, being loosely set in the ground, fell on the statue of Pollentia, and threw it down. The senate moved by such an incident, as it respected religion, voted that one day should be added to the celebration of the games, that two new statues should be set up instead of the one, and that one of them should be gilded. The plebeian games were likewise repeated for one day, by the ædiles Caius Sempronius Blæsus and Marcus Furius Luscus.
VIII. The consuls of the following year, Spurius Postumius Albinus and Quintus Marcius Philippus, were diverted from the care of armies and wars, and provinces, to the punishing of an intestine conspiracy. On the prætors casting lots for their provinces, Titus Mænius obtained the city jurisdiction; Marcus Licinius Lucullus, that between citizens and foreigners; Caius Aurelius Scaurus, Sardinia; Publius Cornelius Sulla, Sicily; Lucius Quintius Crispinus, hither Spain; Caius Calpurnius Piso, farther Spain; the employment decreed to both the consuls was the making inquisition concerning clandestine meetings. A Greek of mean condition, came, first, into Etruria, not with one of the many trades which his nation, of all others the most skilful in embellishing the mind and body, has introduced among us, but a low operator in sacrifices, and a soothsayer: nor was he to be ranked with those who, publicly professing to give instruction for hire, make use of open rites and ceremonies, to imbue men’s minds with religious terrors, but a teacher of secret mysteries. These mysterious rites were, at first imparted to a few, but afterwards communicated to great numbers, both men and women. To their religious performances were added the pleasures of wine and feasting, to allure the greater number of proselytes. When wine, lascivious discourse, night, and the mingling of sexes had extinguished every sentiment of modesty, then debaucheries of every kind began to be practised, as every person found at hand that sort of enjoyment to which he was disposed by the passion most prevalent in his nature. Nor were they confined to one species of vice, the promiscuous intercourse of free-born men and of women; but from this store-house of villiany proceeded false witnesses, counterfeit seals, false evidences, and pretended discoveries. In the same place, too, were perpetrated secret murders; so that, in some cases, even the bodies could not even be found for burial. Many of their audacious deeds were brought about by treachery, but most of them by force, and this force was concealed by loud shouting, and the noise of drums and cymbals, so that none of the cries uttered by the persons suffering violation or murder could be heard abroad.
IX. The infection of this mischief, like that of a pestilence, spread from Etruria to Rome; where, the size of the city affording greater room for such evils, and more means of concealment, it remained some time undiscovered; but information of it was at length brought to the consul, Postumius, in the following manner. One Publius Æbutius, whose father had held equestrian rank in the army, was left an orphan, and, his guardians dying, he was educated under the eye of his mother Duronia, and his stepfather Titus Sempronius Rutilus. Duronia was entirely devoted to her husband; and Sempronius having managed the guardianship in such a manner that he could not give an account of the property, wished that his ward should be either made away with, or bound to compliance with his will by some strong tie. The Bacchanalian rites presented themselves to his view, as the surest way to effect the ruin of the youth. His mother told him, that, “during his sickness, she had made a vow for him, that if he should recover, she would initiate him among the Bacchanalians; that being, through the kindness of the gods, bound by this vow, she wished now to fulfil it; that it was necessary he should preserve chastity for ten days, and on the tenth, after he should have supped and washed himself, she would conduct him into the place of worship.” There was a freedwoman called Hispala Facenia a noted courtezan, but deserving of a better lot than that of the occupation to which she had been accustomed when very young, and a slave, and by which she had maintained herself since her manumission. As they lived in the same neighbourhood, an intimacy subsisted between her and Æbutius, which was far from being injurious either to the young man’s character or property; for she had conceived a passion for him, and had voluntarily sought his acquaintance; and as his supplies from his friends were scanty, he was supported by the generosity of this woman. Nay, to such a length did her affection carry her, that on the death of her patron, being without a protector, she petitioned the tribunes and prætor for a guardian, and, making her will, constituted Æbutius her sole heir.
X. As such pledges of mutual love subsisted, and as neither kept any thing secret from the other, the young man, jokingly, bid her not be surprised if he separated himself from her for a few nights; as, “on account of a religious duty, to discharge a vow made for his health, he intended to be initiated among the Bacchanalians.” On hearing this, the woman, greatly alarmed, cried out, “May the gods forbid!” affirming that “it would be better, both for him and her, to lose their lives, than that he should do such a thing:” she then imprecated curses, vengeance, and destruction, on the head of those that had advised him to such a step. Æbutius, surprised both at her expressions, and at the violence of her alarm, bid her refrain from curses, for “it was his mother who ordered him to do so, with the approbation of his stepfather.” “Then,” said she, “your stepfather (for perhaps it is not allowable to censure your mother) is in haste to destroy, by that act, your chastity, your character, your hopes, and your life.” This increasing his surprise, he begged of her to explain herself. On which, after imploring the favour and pardon of the gods and goddesses, if, compelled by her regard for him, she disclosed what ought not to be revealed, she told him, that “when in service, she had gone into that place of worship as an attendant on her mistress; but that, since she had obtained her liberty, she had never once gone near it: that she knew it to be the receptacle of all kinds of debaucheries; that it was well known, that, for two years past, no one older than twenty had been initiated there. When any person was introduced, he was delivered as a victim to the priests, who led him away to a place resounding with shouts, the sound of music, and the beating of cymbals and drums, lest his cries, while suffering forcible violation, should be heard abroad.” She then intreated and besought him to put an end to that matter in some way or other; and not to plunge himself into a situation, where he must first suffer, and afterwards commit, every thing that was abominable. Nor did she quit him until the young man gave her his promise to keep himself clear of those rites.
XI. When he came home, on his mother’s mention of the ceremonies which were to be performed on that day, and on the several following days, he told her, that he would not perform any of them, nor did he intend to be initiated. His stepfather was present at this discourse. Immediately the woman, with great heat, observed, that “he could not debar himself of the company of Hispala for ten nights; that he was so fascinated by the caresses of that serpent, as to retain no respect for his relatives, or even the gods themselves.” Loading him with reproaches, they drove him out of the house, assisted by four slaves. The youth on this repaired to his aunt Æbutia, told her the reason of his being turned out by his mother, and next day, by her advice, gave information of the affair to the consul Postumius, in private. The consul dismissed him, with an order to come again on the third day following. In the mean time, he inquired of his mother-in-law, Sulpicia, a woman of respectable character, “whether she knew an old matron called Æbutia, who lived on the Aventine hill?” Sulpicia said, “she knew her well, and that Æbutia was a woman of virtue; one whose character was marked with the modesty and simplicity of ancient times.” He then requested she might be summoned thither, as he had a particular reason for desiring some conversation with her. Æbutia, on receiving the message, came to Sulpicia’s house, and the consul, soon after, coming in, as if by accident, introduced a conversation about Æbutius, her brother’s son. On this she burst into tears, and lamented the unhappy lot of the youth; “who, after being defrauded by persons who should the rather have been his protectors, was, at that time, obliged to take up his residence with her, being driven out of doors by his mother, for no other reason but because he had refused to be initiated in certain mysteries of lewdness, as they were said to be.”
XII. The consul, on receiving this information respecting Æbutius, was of opinion that no suspicion could be entertained of his testimony. Taking leave, therefore, of Æbutia, he requested his mother-in-law to send again to the Aventine, for Hispala, a freedwoman, not unknown in that neighbourhood; for that he wanted to question her also. When Hispala received Sulpicia’s message, she was not a little alarmed at being sent for by a woman of such high rank and respectable character, and could not conjecture the cause; but, afterwards, when she saw the lictors in the porch, the multitude of Posthumia’s attendants, and afterwards himself, she was very near fainting. The consul led her into a retired part of the house, and, in the presence of his mother-in law, told her, that “she need not be uneasy, if she could resolve to speak the truth; and of this, either Sulpicia, a matron whose character she must know, or himself, would give her full assurance.” He then desired her to give him an account of all that was done by the Bacchanalians, in their nocturnal orgies, in the grove of Simila. The woman, on hearing this, was seized with such terror, and trembling of all her limbs, that, for a long time, she was unable to speak; but recovering, at length, she said, that “when she was very young, and a slave, she had been initiated, together with her mistress; but for several years past, since she had obtained her liberty, she knew nothing of what was done there.” The consul commended her, so far, as not having denied that she was initiated, but charged her to explain all the rest with the same sincerity; and on her persisting to affirm, that she knew nothing farther, he told her, that “she must not expect to meet the same tenderness, or pardon, if she should be convicted by another person, and one who had made a voluntary confession; that there was such a person, who had heard the whole from her, and had given him a full account of it.” The woman, now convinced that it must certainly be Æbutius who had discovered the secret, threw herself at Sulpicia’s feet, and, at first, began to beseech her, “not to let the private conversation of a freedwoman with her lover be made not only a serious business, but even capital charge;” declaring that, “she had spoken of such things merely to frighten him, and not because she knew any thing of the kind.” On this, Posthumius growing angry, said, “she seemed to imagine that she was wrangling with her gallant Æbutius, and not that she was speaking in the house of a most respectable matron, and to a consul.” Sulpicia endeavoured to dispel her terrors, and while she encouraged her to speak out, at the same time pacified her son-in-law’s anger. At length she took courage, and, after severe remarks on the perfidy of Æbutius, in making such a return for the extraordinary kindness shown to him in that very instance, she declared, that “she stood in great dread of the gods, whose secret mysteries she was to divulge; and also of men, who, should she be seized as an informer, would certainly put her to death. Therefore, she entreated this favour of Sulpicia, and likewise of the consul, that they would send her out of Italy, so that she might pass the remainder of her life in safety.” The consul desired she would fear nothing; assuring her, it should be his care that she might live securely in Rome.
XIII. Hispala then gave a full account of the origin of the mysteries. “At first,” she said, “the rites were performed by women. No man used to be admitted. They had three stated days in the year on which persons were initiated among the Bacchanalians, in the day time. The matrons used to be appointed priestesses, successively in their turn. Paculla Minia, a Campanian, when priestess, made an alteration in every particular, under pretence of having been so directed by the gods. For she first introduced men, who were her own sons, Minucius and Herennius, both surnamed Cerrinius; changed the time of celebration, from day to night; and, instead of three days in the year, appointed five days of initiation, in each month. When the rites were thus made common, and men were intermixed with women, the night encouraging licentious freedom, there was nothing wicked, nothing flagitious, that had not been practised among them. There were more frequent pollutions of men, with each other, than with women. If any showed an uncommon degree of reluctance, in submitting to dishonour, or of disinclination to the commission of vice, they were held as victims, and sacrificed. To think nothing unlawful, was the grand maxim of their religion. The men, as if bereft of reason, uttered predictions, with frantic contortions of their bodies; the women, in the habit of Bacchantes, with their hair dishevelled, and carrying blazing torches, ran down to the Tiber; where, dipping their torches in the water, they drew them up again with the flame unextinguished, being composed of native sulphur and charcoal. They said, that men were carried off by the gods, when, after being fettered, they were dragged into secret caves. These were such as refused to take the oath of the society, or to associate in their crimes. or to submit to defilement. Their number was exceedingly great, enough almost to compose a state in themselves, and among them were many men and women of noble families. During the last two years, it had been a rule, that no person above the age of twenty should be initiated; for they sought for people of such age as made them more liable to suffer deception and personal abuse.” When she had finished this recital, she again fell at the consul’s knees, and repeated the same entreaties, that she might be sent out of the country. Posthumius requested Sulpicia to clear some part of the house, into which Hispala might remove; accordingly, an apartment was assigned her in the upper part of it, of which the stairs, opening into the street, were stopped up, and the entrance made from the inner court. Thither all Fecenia’s effects were immediately removed, and her domestics sent for. Æbutius, also, was ordered to remove to the house of one of the consul’s dependents.
XIV. Having thus secured the informers, Posthumius represented the affair to the senate. When he laid before them the whole, in order, the information offered to him at first, and the discoveries gained by his inquiries afterwards, the senators were struck with great consternation; not only on the public account, lest such conspiracies, and nightly meetings, might be productive of secret treachery and mischief, but, likewise, on account of their own particular families, lest some of their relations might be involved in this infamous affair. They voted, however, that thanks should be given to the consul, for having investigated the matter, with singular diligence, and without exciting any alarm. They then passed an order, out of the common course, that the consuls should hold an inquisition extraordinary, concerning the Bacchanals and their nocturnal orgies; should take care that the informers, Æbutius and Fecenia, might suffer no injury on that account; and that they should invite other informers in the matter, by offering rewards. They ordered, that the officials in those rites, whether men or women, should, wherever found, be delivered over to the power of the consuls; and also that proclamation should be made, in the city of Rome, and published through all Italy, that “no persons initiated in the Bacchanalian rites should presume to come together or assemble on account of those rites, or to perform any such kind of worship;” and, above all, that search should be made for those who had assembled, or conspired, for the above named purpose, or for any other flagitious practices. These were the decrees of the senate. The consuls directed the curule ædiles to make strict inquiry after all the priests of those mysteries, and to keep such as they could apprehend in custody until their trial; they at the same time charged the plebeian ædiles to take care that no religious ceremonies should be performed in private. The capital triumvirs were ordered to post watches in proper places of the city, and to use vigilance to prevent any meetings by night. In order likewise to guard against fires, five assistants were joined to the triumvirs, so that each might have the charge of the buildings in his own separate district, on both sides the Tiber.
XV. After despatching these officers to their several employments, the consuls mounted the rostrum; and, having summoned an assembly of the people, one of the consuls, when he had finished the solemn form of prayer usually pronounced by the magistrates, before they address the people, proceeded thus: “Romans, in no former assembly was this solemn supplication to the gods more proper or even more necessary; as it serves to remind you, that these are the deities whom the wisdom of your forefathers pointed out as the objects of your worship, veneration, and prayers; and not those which, after infatuating men’s minds with corrupt and foreign modes of religion, drive them, as if goaded by the furies, to the indulgence of every lust, and the commission of every vice. I am in doubt as to what I should conceal, or how far I ought to speak out; for I dread, lest, if I leave you ignorant of any particular, I should give room for carelessness, or, if I disclose the whole, that I should too much awaken your fears. Whatever I shall say, be assured, that it is less than the magnitude and atrociousness of the affair would justify; though it may be sufficient to set us properly on our guard. That the Bacchanalian rites have subsisted, for some time past, in every country in Italy, and are, at present, performed in many parts of this city also, I am sure you must have been informed, not only by report, but by the nightly noises, and horrid yells, that resound from every part; but still you are ignorant of the nature of that business. Part of you think it is some kind of worship of the gods; others, some allowable sport and amusement, and that whatever it may be, it concerns but a few. As to what regards the number, if I tell you that there are many thousands, and without order, you must necessarily be terrified to excess, unless I farther acquaint you who and what sort of persons they are. First, then, a great part of them are women, and this was the source of the evil; the rest are males, but nearly resembling women, actors and pathicks, in the vilest lewdness; night revellers, hurried on, by wine, noise of instruments, and clamours, to a degree of mad enthusiasm. The conspiracy, as yet, has no strength; but it has abundant means of acquiring strength, for its numbers increase daily. Your ancestors would not allow that you should ever assemble, without some good reason; that is, either when the standard was erected on the Janiculum, and the army led out on occasion of elections; or when the tribunes proclaimed a meeting of the commons, or some of the magistrates summoned you to it. And they judged it necessary, that, wherever a multitude was, there should be a lawful governor of that multitude present. Of what kind, do you suppose, are the meetings of these people? In the first place, being held in the night, and, in the next, being composed promiscuously of men and women? If you knew at what ages the males are initiated, not only your compassionate feelings, but your modesty, would be shocked. Romans, can you think youths initiated, under such oaths as theirs, are fit to be made soldiers? That wretches, brought out of that temple of obscenity, should be trusted with arms? Shall these, contaminated with their own foul debaucheries, and those of others, be the champions for the chastity of your wives and children?
XVI. “But the mischief were less, if they were only effeminated by their practices; of that the disgrace would chiefly affect themselves; if they refrained their hands from outrage, and their thoughts from fraud. But never was there in the state an evil of so great magnitude, or one that extended to so many persons, and comprehended so many acts of wickedness. Whatever deeds of villainy have, of late, been committed, through lust; whatever, through fraud; whatever, through violence; they have, all, be assured, proceeded from that association alone. They have not yet perpetrated all the crimes for which they combined. The impious assembly, at present, confines itself to outrages on private citizens; because it has not yet acquired force sufficient to crush the commonwealth: but the evil increases and spreads daily; it is already too great to find employment among the private ranks of life, and aims its views at the body of the state. Unless you take timely precautions, Romans, their nightly assembly may become as large as this, held in open day, and legally summoned by a consul. At this present moment, they dread your collected body; but, in a short time, when you shall have separated, and retired to your several dwellings, they will again come together. They will hold a consultation on the means of their own safety, and, at the same time, of your destruction. Thus united, they will cause terror to every one. You, therefore, ought to pray, that all your kindred may have behaved with wisdom and prudence; and if lust, if madness, has dragged any of them into that abyss, to consider such a person as the relation of those with whom he conspired for the perpetration of every wickedness, and not as one of your own. I am not quite free from anxiety, lest some, even of yourselves, may have erred through mistake; for nothing is more apt to deceive, by specious appearances, than false religion. When the authority of the gods is held out, as a pretext, to cover vice, we become fearful, lest, in punishing the crimes of men, we may violate some divine right connected therewith. But from any scruple of that sort, you are entirely freed, by numberless decisions of the pontiffs, decrees of the senate, and answers of the Aruspices. How often, in the ages of our fathers, was it given in charge to the magistrates, to prohibit the performance of any foreign religious rites; to banish strolling sacrificers and soothsayers from the forum, the circus, and the city; to search for, and burn, books of divination; and to abolish every mode of sacrificing that was not conformable to the Roman practice? For they, who had a thorough knowledge of every divine and human law, maintained that nothing tended so strongly to the subversion of religion, as foreign sacrifices. Thus much I thought necessary to mention to you beforehand, that no vain scruple might disturb your minds when you should see us demolishing the places, resorted to by the Bacchanalians, and dispersing their impious assemblies. In doing this, we shall be favoured and approved by the gods; who, being incensed at the profanations offered to their majesty, by those people’s lusts and crimes, have drawn forth their proceedings from hidden darkness, into the open light; and who have directed them to be exposed, not that they may escape with impunity, but in order that they may be punished and suppressed. The senate have commissioned me and my colleague, to hold an inquisition extraordinary, concerning that affair. What is requisite to be done by ourselves, in person, we will do with energy. The charge of posting watches through the city, during the night, we have committed to the inferior magistrates; and, for your parts, it is incumbent on you, according to the several duties assigned you, and in the several places where you will be placed, to execute vigorously whatever orders you shall receive; and to use your best endeavours, that no danger or tumult may arise, from the treachery of the party involved in the guilt.”
XVII. They then ordered the decrees of the senate to be read, and published a reward for any discoverer, who should bring any of the guilty before them, or give information against any of the absent, adding that “if any person accused should fly, they would limit a certain day, upon which, if he did not obey their summons, and appear to answer, they would condemn him without waiting for his return; and if any one should be charged, who was out of Italy, they would allow him a longer time to come and make his defence.” They then issued an edict, that “no person whatever should presume to buy or sell any thing, for the purpose of leaving the country or to receive or conceal any such; nor, by any means, aid or abet any persons about to migrate.” On the assembly being dismissed, great terror spread throughout the city; nor was it confined merely within the walls or to the Roman territory, for in every quarter of Italy, the people, on being informed by letters from their friends of the decree of the senate, of what passed in the assembly, and of the edict of the consuls, began to be much alarmed. During the night, which succeeded the day in which the affair was made public, great numbers, attempting to fly, were seized and brought back, by the triumvirs, who had posted guards at all the gates; and informations were lodged against many, some of whom, both men and women, put themselves to death. It was said, that above seven thousand of both sexes had been sworn into the association; but it appeared, that the heads of the conspiracy, were two Catinii, Marcus and Lucius, citizens of Rome; Lucius Opiturnius, a Faliscian; and Minius Cerrinius, a Campanian: that from these proceeded all their criminal practices, and that these were the chief priests and founders of the sect. Care was taken that they should be apprehended, as soon as possible. They were brought before the consuls, and, confessing their guilt, saved them the trouble of a long and formal trial.
XVIII. But so great were the numbers that fled that many people suffered severely thereby, in their lawsuits and their substance; insomuch that the prætors, Titus Mænius and Marcus Licinius were obliged, under the direction of the senate, to adjourn their courts for thirty days, until the inquiries should be finished by the consuls. As the persons, against whom charges were brought, did not appear to answer, nor could be found in Rome, it became necessary for the consuls to make a circuit of the country towns, and there to make their inquisitions, and hold the trials. Those who, as it appeared, had been only initiated, repeating after the priest, and in the most solemn form, the prescribed imprecations, but who had not, themselves committed, or compelled others to commit, any of those acts, to which they were bound by the oath — all such they left in prison. But those who had forcibly committed personal defilements, or murders, or were stained with the guilt of false evidence, counterfeit seals, forged wills, or other frauds, all these they punished with death. A greater number were executed than thrown into prison; indeed, the multitude of men and women who suffered in both ways, was very considerable. The consuls delivered the women, who were condemned, to their relations, or to those in whose direction they were, that they might inflict the punishment in private; but if there did not appear any proper person of the kind, to execute the sentence, they were punished in public. A charge was then given to demolish all the places where the Bacchanalians had held their meetings; first, in Rome, and then throughout all Italy; excepting those, wherein should be found some ancient altar, or consecrated statue. With regard to the future, the senate passed a decree, “prohibiting the performance of any the like rites in Rome, or in Italy:” and ordering that, “in case any person should believe some such kind of worship incumbent on him, and necessary; and that he could not, without offence to religion, and incurring guilt, omit it, he should represent this to the city prætor, and the prætor should lay the business before the senate. If permission were granted by the senate, when not less than one hundred members were present, then those rites might be performed, provided that no more than five persons should be present, at the sacrifice, and that they should have no common stock of money, nor any president of the ceremonies, nor priest.”
XIX. Another decree, connected with this, was then made, on a motion of the consul, Quintus Marcius, that “the business respecting the persons who had served the consuls as informers should be proposed to the senate, when Spurius Postumius should have finished his inquiries, and returned to Rome.” They voted, that Minius Cerrinius, the Campanian, should be sent to Ardea, to be kept in custody there; and that a caution should be given to the magistrates of that city, to guard him with more than ordinary care, so as to prevent not only his escaping, but his laying violent hands on himself. Spurius Postumius soon came to Rome, and, on his proposing the question, concerning the reward to be given to Publius Æbutius and Hispala Fecenia, for their services in discovering the proceedings of the Bacchanalians, the senate passed a vote, that “the city quæstors should give to each of them, out of the public treasury, one hundred thousand asses;* and that the consuls should desire the plebeian tribunes to propose to the commons, as soon as convenient, that Publius Æbutius should be deemed to have served out his time in the army, that he should not be compelled to military duty, nor should any censor assign him a horse* at the public charge.” They voted also, that “Hispala Fecenia should enjoy the privileges of alienating her property by gift, or deed; of marrying out of her rank, and of choosing a guardian, as if a husband had conferred them by will; that she should be at liberty to wed a man of honourable birth, and that such person, marrying her, should not thereby incur any disgrace or disparagement; and that the consuls, then in office, and their successors, should take care that no injury should be offered to Hispala, but that she might live in safety. That it was the opinion, and desire, of the senate, that all these things should be so ordered.”— All these particulars were proposed to the commons, and executed, according to the vote of the senate; the consuls at the same time being authorised to determine respecting the impunity, and rewards of the other informers.
XX. Quintus Marcius, having completed the inquiries in his district, prepared, at length, to proceed into the province of Liguria, for the service of which he received a supply of three thousand Roman foot and one hundred and fifty horse, with five thousand Latine foot, and two hundred horse. The same province, and the same numbers of horse and foot, had been voted to his colleague, and they received the armies, which, during the preceding year, the consuls, Caius Flaminius and Marcus Æmilius, had commanded. They were, also, ordered by a decree of the senate, to raise two new legions, and they demanded from the allies and Latines twenty thousand foot, and one thousand three hundred horse; besides all which, they levied three thousand Roman foot, and two hundred horse, all which troops, except the legions, were ordered to march into Spain, to re-inforce the army employed there. The consuls, therefore, while themselves were kept busy, in holding the inquisitions, had delegated to Titus Mænius the charge of enlisting the troops. When the trials were finished, Quintus Marcius, first marched against the Apuan Ligurians. While he pursued these into very remote fastnesses, which had always served them as lurking places and receptacles, he was surrounded in a dangerous defile, inclosed by eminences, which were occupied by the enemy. Here four thousand soldiers fell, and three standards of the second legion, with eleven ensigns of the Latine allies, were taken; abundance of arms were likewise lost, being thrown away by the men, because they impeded their flight through the woody paths. The Ligurians ceased to pursue, sooner than the Romans to fly. As soon as the consul had effected his escape out of the enemy’s territories, he disbanded the troops, in the country of their friends, in order to conceal the greatness of the loss sustained. But he could not obliterate all memorial of his misconduct; for the pass, where the Ligurians put him to flight, has gotten the name of the Marcian pass.
XXI. Before the public received an account of this affair from Liguria, a letter from Spain was read to them, which produced a mixture of joy and grief. Caius Atinius, who, two years before, had gone to that province, in quality of prætor, fought, in the territory of Asta, a pitched battle with the Lusitanians, in which six thousand of the enemy were killed, the rest routed, driven from the field, and their camp taken. He then marched, at the head of the legions to attack the town of Asta, which he took, with little more trouble than he met at the camp; but, approaching the wall too carelessly, he received a wound, of which he died a few days after. On reading a letter, acquainting them with the proprætor’s death, the senate voted, that a courier should be sent to overtake the prætor, Caius Calpurnius, at the port of Luna, and inform him, that it was the will of the senate, that he should hasten his journey, lest the province should be without a governor. The courier reached Luna, on the fourth day, but Calpurnius had set out some days before. In hither Spain, Lucius Manlius Acidinus, who had come into that province at the same time when Caius Atinius came into his, fought a battle with the Celtiberians, in which neither party could claim the victory, farther than this, that the Celtiberians retreated, during the following night, and left the Romans at liberty to bury their dead, and collect the spoils. In a few days after, the Celtiberians, with a more numerous force, attacked the Romans, near the town of Calaguris. Writers have not mentioned the cause that rendered them weaker after their numbers were increased, but they were defeated in the battle; twelve thousand of their men were killed, more than two thousand taken, their camp falling into the hands of the Romans; and it is probable, if the conqueror’s career had not been stopped, by the arrival of his successor, he would have reduced Celtiberia to entire subjection. Both the new prætors drew off their armies into winter quarters.
XXII. About the time when the news of these transactions in Spain arrived at Rome, the games called Taurilia* were celebrated, during two days, on a religious account. Then Marcus Fulvius exhibited games, which he had vowed in the Ætolian war, and which lasted ten days. Many artists, out of respect to him, came from Greece on the occasion; and now, for the first time, the Romans were entertained with contests of wrestlers; they were also presented with a hunt of lions and panthers; the shows being exhibited in a manner, that fell but little short of the abundance and variety of the present age. The nine days’ solemnity was then performed, showers of stones having fallen, for three days, in Picenum; and fires from heaven, had, as was said, in various places, slightly burned the clothes of many persons. By order of the pontiffs, a supplication, of one day’s continuance, was added on account of the temple of Ops, in the capitol, being struck by lightning. The consul sacrificed victims, of the larger kinds, and purified the city. At the same time, an account was brought from Umbria, of an hermaphrodite, twelve years old, being found there. This was deemed a prodigy of direful import, and orders were given, that it should be removed instantly out of the Roman territories, and put to death. During this year, a body of transalpine Gauls came into Venetia, without committing depredation or hostility, and pitched on a spot, for building a town, not far from that where Aquileia now stands. Ambassadors were sent from Rome, over the Alps, on this business, who were told, that “the state had given those people no authority to quit it, nor did their countrymen know what they were doing in Italy.” About this time Lucius Scipio celebrated games, which, he said, he had vowed during the war with Antiochus; they lasted ten days, and the expense was defrayed by a contribution made to him, for the purpose, by the kings and states of Asia. Valerius Antias asserts, that, after his condemnation, and the sale of his effects, he was sent into Asia, to adjust disputes between the kings Antiochus and Eumenes; where he received these contributions for those games, and collected artists. Although he had made no mention of them, on the conclusion of the war, in which he said they had been vowed. On his return from this embassy, however, he introduced the subject in the senate.
XXIII. As the year was, now, drawing to a conclusion, Quintus Marcius, then abroad, was soon to go out
of office Spurius Postumius, after having conducted the inquisitions, with the utmost care and propriety, held the
elections.Y. R. 567
185 Appius Claudius Pulcher and Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus were chosen consuls. Next day were elected prætors,
Publius Cornelius Cethegus, Aulus Postumius Albinus, Caius Afranius Stellio, Caius Atilius Serranus, Lucius Postumius
Tempsanus, and Marcus Claudius Marcellus. Towards the close of the year, the consul, Spurius Postumius, reported, that
in travelling along the coasts of Italy, for the purpose of holding the inquisitions, he found two colonies deserted,
Sipontum, on the upper sea, and Buxentum on the lower; on which, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, Titus Mænius,
city prætor, constituted Lucius Scribonus Libo, Marcus Tuccius, and Cneius Bebius Tamphilus, commissioners for
conducting colonists thither. The war, at this time apprehended, with king Perseus and the Macedonians, owed not its
origin either to Perseus himself, nor to the causes to which it has been generally attributed. The original idea of it
was conceived by Philip, and, if he had lived some time longer, he would himself have entered on the prosecution of it.
In the conditions imposed on him, when he was vanquished, there was one particular that chagrined him more than all the
rest: this was, his being deprived, by the senate, of the liberty of wreaking his vengeance on such of the Macedonians
as had revolted from him, in the course of the war; although, from Quintius having left that point undetermined, when
he was adjusting the articles of pacification, he had entertained some hopes of being indulged in it. Afterwards, on
the defeat of Antiochus, at Thermopylæ, the armies separated, and the consul Acilius carried on the siege of Heraclea,
while Philip besieged Lamia. As soon as Heraclea was taken, however, Philip was ordered to retire from the walls of
Lamia, and the town was surrendered to the Romans; this also gave him great offence. The consul, indeed, in some
measure, soothed his resentment; for, when he was hastening to Naupactum, where the Ætolians had re-assembled, after
their flight, he gave Philip permission to make war on Amynander and Athamania; and to annex to his dominions the
cities which the Ætolians had taken from the Thessalians. Without much difficulty, he expelled Amynander from
Athamania, and got possession of several cities. He also reduced under his dominion, the city of Demetrias, a place of
great strength, and convenient in every respect; with the whole of the Magnesian state. Afterwards, finding that
several cities in Thrace, through an abuse of the liberty which they had lately acquired, and to which they had not
been accustomed, were distracted by dissensions among their leading men, he, by uniting himself to the parties that
were worsted in their disputes with their countrymen, made himself master of them all.
XXIV. By these means the king’s displeasure was silenced for the present: but he never abandoned the project of collecting such a force during peace, as would enable him to maintain a war, whenever fortune should offer an occasion. He augmented the revenues of his kingdom, not only out of the produce of the lands, and the port duties, but, also, by setting men to work again in old mines, which had been neglected, and opening new ones in many places. Then, (in order to restore the country to its former degree of population, which had been diminished by the calamities of war, besides compelling every one to marry and educate children, he transplanted a great multitude of Thracians into Macedonia, and, during a long suspension of arms, he employed the utmost assiduity in augmenting, by every possible means, the strength of his kingdom. Causes afterwards occurred, which served to revive his resentment against the Romans. Complaints were made by the Thessalians and Perrhæbians, of his holding possession of their towns, and, by ambassadors from king Eumenes, of his having forcibly seized the cities of Thrace, and transplanted great numbers of their people into Macedonia. These had been received in such a manner as plainly evinced that they were not thought unworthy of attention. What made the greatest impression on the senate, was, their having been informed, that Philip aimed at the possession of Ænus and Maronea; as to the Thessalians, they regarded them less. Ambassadors came, likewise, from the Athamanians, informing — not that their frontiers were encroached on, or part of their territory taken — but that all Athamania had been brought under the dominion and jurisdiction of the king. Exiles from Maronea also appeared, who had been expelled by the king’s troops, for having supported the cause of liberty; who reported, that not only Maronea, but Ænus too, was held in subjection by him. Ambassadors came from Philip to defend his conduct, asserting, that, in all these cases, nothing had been done without permission from the Roman commanders. That “the states of the Thessalians, Perrhæbians, and Magnesians, and the nation of the Athamanians, with Amynander, had all been engaged in the same cause with the Ætolians. That after the expulsion of king Antiochus, the consul, being himself busy in reducing the towns of Ætolia, had named Philip to subdue those states, and they remained subject to him in consequence of their being conquered by his arms.” The senate, unwilling to come to any decision in the king’s absence, sent Quintus Cæcilius Metellus, Marcus Bæbius Tamphilus, and Tiberius Sempronius, ambassadors to adjust those disputes. Previous to their arrival, a convention of all those states, who had disputes with the king, was summoned to meet at Tempe in Thessaly.
XXV. There, when all were seated, (the Roman ambassadors, in the character of arbitrators, the Thessalians, Perrhæbians, and Athamanians, professedly as accusers, and Philip as defendant,) the heads of the embassies, according to their several tempers, their favour, or their hatred towards the king, spoke, some with acrimony, others with mildness. There was a dispute concerning Philippopolis, Trica, Phaloria, Eurymenæ, and the other towns in their neighbourhood. The point in controversy was, whether these towns were the property of the Thessalians, forcibly taken from them, and held by the Ætolians, (for from these it was acknowledged that Philip had received them,) or whether they were originally belonging to the Ætolians: Acilius having granted them to the king, on the condition that “they had been the property of the Ætolians; and that their siding with the Ætolians had been voluntary, and not the effect of compulsion and force.” The question in regard to the towns of the Perrhæbians and Magnesians, turned on the same points; for the Ætolians, by holding possession of them occasionally, had introduced confusion with respect to the real proprietors of them all. To these particulars, which were matter of discussion, the Thessalians added complaints, that, “if these towns were now restored to them, they would come into their hands in a state of desolation, and depopulated; for besides the loss of inhabitants, through the casualties of war, Philip had carried away five hundred of their young men of the first rank into Macedonia, where he employed them in servile offices, unbecoming their birth; and had taken pains to render useless whatever he should be compelled to restore to the Thessalians. That Thebes in Phthiotis was the only sea-port they had, which, formerly, produced much profit and advantage to the inhabitants of Thessaly; but, that Philip, having collected there a number of ships of burthen, made them steer their course past Thebes to Demetrias; by which means, he turned thither the whole commerce by sea. That he did not now scruple to offer violence, even to ambassadors, who, by the law of nations, are every where held inviolable, but had laid an ambush for theirs who were going to Titus Quintius. In consequence of these proceedings, the Thessalians were all seized with such dread, that not one of them, even in their own states, or in the general assemblies of the nation, ventured to open his lips. For the Romans, the defenders of their liberty, were far distant; and a severe master close at their side, debarring them from the kindness of those their allies. If speech were not free, what else could be said to be so: at present, they confided, so far, in the protection of the ambassadors, as to utter their groans, rather than words; but, unless the Romans would apply some remedy to abate both the fears of the Greeks bordering on Macedonia, and the arrogance of Philip, his having been conquered, and their being set at liberty, would prove utterly fruitless. Like a stubborn, unmanageable horse, he required to be checked with a strong bridle.” These bitter expressions were used by the last speakers among them; those who spoke before having endeavoured, by mildness, to mitigate his resentment; requesting him, “to make allowances for people pleading in defence of their liberty; to lay aside the harshness of a master, and in the course of his conduct, show himself a friend and ally; to imitate the Roman people, who wished to unite their allies to them by the ties of affection, rather than of fear.” When the Thessalians had finished, the Perrhæbians pleaded that Gonnocondylos, to which Philip had given the name of Olympias, belonged to Perrhæbia, and ought to be restored to them; and the same demand was made with respect to Malœa, and Ericinium. The Athamanians claimed a restoration of liberty, with the forts Athenæus and Pœtneus.
XXVI. Philip, that he might maintain the appearance of an accuser, rather than of a defendant, began his discourse also with complaints. He alleged, that “the Thessalians had taken by force of arms, Menclais in Dolopia, a town belonging to his dominions; likewise Petra in Pieria, by the same Thessalians, and the Perrhæbians; that they had reduced, under their government, Xyniæ, which unquestionably belonged to Ætolia, and had, without any colour of justice, subjected to the jurisdiction of the Thessalians, Parachelois, in the territory of Athamania. As to the charges brought against him, concerning an ambush laid for ambassadors, and of sea-ports being frequented or deserted, the one was quite ridiculous, (as if he were to account for what harbours merchants or sailors should frequent;) and the other, the constant tenor of his conduct refuted. During a number of years, ambassadors had never ceased carrying complaints against him, sometimes to the Roman generals, at others to Rome to the senate, though none of them had ever been injured, even in words. They said, indeed, that an ambush was once laid for some who were going to Quintius, but they are silent in regard to consequences. It was evident, that the authors sought for groundless imputations, because they had none to offer that were founded in truth.” He said, that “the Thessalians, insolently and wantonly, abused the indulgence of the Roman people, too greedily drinking as it were, strong draughts of liberty after a long thirst; and thus, in the manner of slaves lately set free, made trial of their voices and tongues, and prided themselves in invectives and railings against their masters.” Then, hurried on by passion, he added, that “his sun had not set yet;” which expression, not only the Thessalians, but the Romans also, took as a menace to themselves, and a murmur of displeasure followed his words. When this at length ceased, he proceeded to answer the ambassadors of the Perrhæbians and Athamanians. He observed, “the cases of the cities of which they had spoken were the same. The consul Acilius and the Romans gave them to him, when they were the property of enemies. If the donors chose to resume what they had given, he knew he must submit, but in that case they would, for the gratification of inconstant and unprofitable allies, do injury to a more useful and more faithful friend. For no favour produced less permanent gratitude than the gift of liberty, especially among people who were ready to make a bad use of it.” After hearing all parties, the ambassadors pronounced their judgment, that “the Macedonian garrisons should be withdrawn from the cities in question, and that the kingdom of Macedonia should be limited within its ancient boundaries. That, with regard to the injuries complained of by the several parties, in order to decide the controversies between those states and the Macedonians, it would be requisite to institute a regular judicial inquiry into their several rights.”
XXVII. This determination gave grievous offence to the king, and the ambassadors proceeded thence to Thessalonice, to give a hearing to the business concerning the cities of Thrace. Here the ambassadors of Eumenes said, that “if the Romans wished that Ænus and Maronea, should be independent, the king had nothing more to say, than to recommend it to them to leave those people free in fact, though not in words; nor to suffer their kindness to be intercepted by another. But, if they had not so much concern for the cities in Thrace, it was much more reasonable, that places which had been under the dominion of Antiochus, and were become the prize of victory, should be granted to Eumenes, than to Philip; and that, either an account of his father Attalus’s deserts in the war, waged by the Roman people against Philip himself, or on account of his own, in sharing all the toils and dangers on land and sea, during the war with Antiochus. Besides, he had the previous judgment of the ten ambassadors to that purpose; who, when they granted the Chersonesus and Lysimachia, surely yielded, at the same time, Ænus and Maronea; which even from the proximity of situation were but a sort of appendages to the larger gift. For, as to Philip, what merits towards the Roman people, or what right of dominion could he plead for having put garrisons into those places, which were at so great a distance from the borders of Macedonia? They then desired, that the Romans would order the Maronites to be called, from whom they would receive more positive information of the condition of those cities.” The Maronite ambassadors, being called in, declared, that “not in one spot of the city, as was usually the case, but in every quarter of it, there was a party of the king’s troops, so that Maronea was full of Macedonians; in consequence of which, the party that showed themselves disposed to humour the king, domineered over the rest; they alone had liberty of speaking either in the senate, or assemblies of the people. All posts of eminence they assumed to themselves, or conferred on whom they thought proper. Persons of the best characters, and who had a regard for liberty and for the laws, were either expelled their country; or obliged to sit down in silence, deprived of all share in the public honours, and exposed to insolence.” They added also a few words respecting their right to the frontier places, affirming, that “Quintus Fabius Labeo, when he was in that country, had fixed as a boundary line to Philip, the old royal road leading to Paroreia, in Thrace, which in no place leads towards the sea; and that Philip afterwards drew a new one in another direction, in order to comprehend the cities and lands of the Maronites.”
XXVIII. Philip, in his reply, took quite another course than when answering the Thessalians and Perrhæbians, and spoke to the following effect:—“I dispute not now with the Maronites, or with Eumenes, but with you yourselves, Romans, from whom, as it would seem, I am not to expect any justice. The cities of Macedonia, which had revolted from me during a suspension of arms, I wished to have been restored to me; not that they would have made any great accession to my dominions, because the towns are small in themselves, and, besides, are situated on the extremities of the frontiers; but because the example was of consequence towards retaining the rest of the Macedonians, in their allegiance. This was refused me. In the Ætolian war, I was ordered, by the consul Manius Acilius to lay seige to Lamia, and when I had there undergone a long course of fatigue in fighting and constructing works, and was on the point of mounting the walls, the consul recalled me when the city was almost in my possession, forcing me to draw off my troops. As some consolation for his hard treatment, I received permission to seize on some forts rather than cities, of Thessaly, Perrhæbia, and Athamania. Of these also, Quintus Cæcilius has deprived me. The ambassadors of Eumenes, just now, took for granted, it seems, that whatever belonged to Antiochus would more properly be given to Eumenes than to me. My judgment of the matter is widely different. For, not on the Romans proving victorious, but on their engaging in the war, Eumenes’ continuance on his throne depended. The obligation, therefore, lies on his side, not on yours, whereas, so far were any part of my dominions from being in danger, that, when Antiochus voluntarily offered to purchase my alliance, with three thousand talents and fifty decked ships, guaranteeing to me all the cities of Greece, of which I had heretofore been in possession, I rejected that offer. I avowed myself his enemy, even before Manius Acilius brought over an army into Greece. In conjunction with that consul, I supported whatever share of the war he gave me in charge. To serve the succeeding consul, Lucius Scipio, when he proposed leading his army by land, to the Hellespont, besides giving him a passage through my dominions, I also made roads for him, built bridges, supplied him with provisions, and convoying him, not only through Macedonia, but likewise through Thrace; where, besides other business, I had the task of keeping the barbarians quiet. In requital of this zealous, not to call it meritorious, conduct towards you, whether would it be proper in you, Romans, to grant me some addition to my dominions by acts of generosity, or to ravish from me what I possessed, either in my own right, or through your kindness? The cities of Macedonia, which you acknowledge to have belonged to my kingdom, are not restored. Eumenes comes to plunder me as he would Antiochus, and covers his most shameless and groundless chicanery, under the decree of the ten ambassadors, the very circumstance that completely refutes and convicts him. For is it not expressly and plainly set down in that writing, that the Chersonese and Lysimachia are granted to Eumenes; and is there any mention therein of Ænus, Maronea, and the cities of Thrace? That which he did not dare ever to ask from them, shall he obtain from you, as if under their grant? Much depends on the character in which you choose to consider me. If you are resolved to persecute me as a foe, proceed to act as you have begun: but, if you have any consideration of me, as a king in friendship and alliance with you, I must intreat you not to judge me deserving of such injurious treatment.”
XXXIX. The king’s discourse made a considerable impression on the ambassadors; they therefore left the matter in suspense by this indecisive resolution, that “if the cities in question were granted to Eumenes by the decree of the ten ambassadors, they would make no alteration. If Philip subdued them in war, he should by the laws of war, hold them as the prize of victory. If neither were the case, then their judgment was, that the decision should be referred to the senate; and in order that every particular might be open for deliberation, the garrisons in those cities should be withdrawn.” These causes, among others of less weight, aleniated the regard of Philip from the Romans, so that in all appearance the war was not set on foot by his son Perseus for any fresh causes, but rather was, for these causes, bequeathed by the father to the son. At Rome there was hitherto no suspicion of a war with Macedonia. Lucius Manlius, proconsul, had by this time come home from Spain. He demanded a triumph from the senate assembled in the temple of Bellona, and his demand was justified by the greatness of his exploits, but contradicted by precedent; for it was a rule established by ancient practice, that no commander, who had not brought home his troops, should triumph, unless he had delivered up the province to his successor, in a state of thorough subjection and tranquillity. However, the senate took a middle course, and ordered that Manlius should enter the city in ovation. He carried in the procession fifty-two golden crowns, one hundred and twenty-two pounds weight of gold, with sixteen thousand three hundred pounds of silver; giving public notice, in the senate, that his quæstor, Quintus Fabius, was bringing ten thousand pounds weight of silver, and eighty of gold, which he intended to carry likewise to the treasury. During that year there was a formidable insurrection of the slaves in Apulia. Lucius Postumius, prætor, governed the province of Tarentum, who conducted with much severity, inquiries into a conspiracy of peasants, who had infested the roads and public pastures with robberies. Of these, he passed sentence on no less than seven thousand; many of whom made their escape, and many were punished. The consuls, after being long detained in the city by the levies, set out at length for their provinces.
XXX. This year Caius Calpurnius and Lucius Quintius, the two prætors in Spain, drew their troops out of winter quarters, early in spring, and making a junction of them in Bæturia, for they were resolved to proceed in the operations of the campaign with united zeal and harmony, advanced into Carpetania, where the enemy’s camp lay. At a small distance from the towns of Hippo and Toletum, a fight began between the foraging parties; and as reinforcements came up on both sides, from the camps, the entire armies were, by degrees drawn out into the field. In this irregular kind of battle, the advantage of the ground and the manner of fighting were in favour of the enemy. The two Roman armies were routed, and driven into their camp; but the enemy did not pursue the advantage, which the others fears afforded them. The Roman prætors, lest their camp should be attacked next day, gave orders, without noise for decamping, and led away their army in the dead of the following night. At the first dawn, the Spaniards came up to the rampart in battle array, and finding, beyond their expectation, that the camp was deserted, marched in, and made prey of whatever had in the hurry and confusion been first left behind; and then, returning to their own station, remained quiet for several days. Of the Romans and allies, there were killed in the battle and the pursuit, five thousand men, out of whose spoils the enemy furnished themselves with arms. They then advanced to the river Tagus. All the intermediate time, the Roman prætors employed in collecting aid from the allied Spanish states, and recovering the spirits of their men from the dismay occasioned by their defeat. When they judged their strength sufficient, and found themselves called on by the soldiers, to lead them against the enemy, that they might blot out their former disgrace, they took post at the distance of twelve miles from the river Tagus; but decamping thence at the third watch, and marching in order of battle, reached the bank of the river at the break of day. The enemy’s camp was on a hill at the other side of the river. Having discovered two fords, Calpurnius immediately led his army across through that on the left. All this time, the enemy continued motionless, surprised at the sudden arrival of the Romans, and busy in consultations, when they might have greatly distressed the troops during their hurry and confusion in passing the river. The Romans brought all over even to their baggage, which they threw together in a heap. Seeing the enemy, at length, begin to move, and having no time for fortifying a camp, they formed their line of battle, placing in the centre, the fifth legion, serving under Calpurnius, and the eighth under Quintius, which composed the principal strength of their army. From hence, all the way to the enemy’s camp, they had an open plain, where there could be no danger of ambush.
XXXI. When the Spaniards saw the two bodies of Romans, on their side of the river, they resolved to fall upon them before they should unite and put themselves in order: rushing therefore suddenly out of the camp, they advanced to battle at full speed. The fight in the beginning, was urged with great fury; the Spaniards being elated by their late success, and the Roman soldiery inflamed to rage by a discomfiture to which they were unaccustomed. The centre, consisting of two legions of the greatest bravery, fought with the utmost vigour. The enemy, seeing that they could not be forced from their ground by any other means, resolved to make their attack in form of a wedge; and this body, becoming continually more numerous and more compact, pressed hard on them. When the prætor, Calpurnius, perceived the distress of this part of his line, he hastily despatched two lieutenants-general, Titus Quintilius Varus and Lucius Juventius Thalna, to animate the courage of the two legions, who were ordered to say, that “all hopes of victory, and of retaining possession of Spain depended entirely on them. If they should give ground, not a man in that whole army would ever see Italy, no, nor even the farther bank of the Tagus.” He himself at the head of the cavalry of the two legions, making a small circuit charged the flank of the wedge, which was pressing upon his centre. Quintius, likewise, with his cavalry, charged the enemy on the other flank; but the horsemen of Calpurnius fought with far greater spirit, while the prætor himself exceeded all others. He was the first that struck down one of the enemy, and he pushed in among the troops, in the centre, in such a manner, that it was hard to distinguish to which side he belonged. Thus the horse were animated by the extraordinary valour of the prætor, and the infantry by that of the horse. The foremost centurions, seeing the prætor in the midst of the enemy’s weapons, were struck with shame. They all, therefore, earnestly pressed the standard bearers, urging them to carry forward the ensigns, and the soldiers to follow with speed. All set up the shout a-new, and made an attack as violent as if they were rushing down a hill. Like a flood, therefore, they broke and bore down the enemy in dismay, nor was it possible to withstand them, pouring in one after another. The Spaniards, flying to their camp, were pursued by the cavalry, who, mixing in the crowd of the runaways, penetrated into it. Here the fight was renewed, by the troops left to guard the same, and the Roman horsemen were obliged to dismount. While they were engaged, the fifth legion came up, with the rest of the troops. The Spaniards were cut to pieces, in all parts of the camp; not more than four thousand men making their escape. Of these, about three thousand, who kept their arms, took post on a mountain, at a small distance, and one thousand, who were in general but half armed, dispersed through the country. This army of the enemy had contained thirty-five thousand men, of whom that very small number survived the battle. One hundred and thirty-three standards were taken. Of the Romans and allies, a few more than six hundred fell; and, of the provincial auxiliaries, about one hundred and fifty. The loss of five military tribunes, and a few Roman horsemen, was the only circumstance that made the victory appear to have been dearly earned. The army lodged in the enemy’s camp, as they had not had time to fortify one of their own. Next day, Calpurnius, in an assembly, commended the behaviour of the cavalry, making them presents of horse furniture, and declaring publicly, that through their bravery principally, the enemy had been defeated, and their camp stormed and taken. Quintius, likewise gave chains and clasps to his men. A great many centurions also, of both the armies, received gratuities, especially those who were in the centre.
XXXII. The consuls, as soon as they had finished the levies, and other business necessary to be done at Rome, led the army into their province, Liguria. Sempronius, marching from Pisæ against the Apuan Ligurians, ravaged their lands, and burned their villages and forts, until he opened that difficult country, as far as the river Macra, and the harbour of Luna. The enemy posted themselves on a mountain, which had, from old times, served their forefathers as a retreat; but the difficulty of access, here also, was overcome, and they were dislodged by force. The good conduct and success of Appius Claudius against the Ingaunian tribe, was not inferior to that of his colleague, for he defeated them in several battles. He also stormed six of their towns, in which he made a vast number of prisoners, beheading forty-three of the chief promoters of the war. The time of the elections now drew near; but Claudius came home to Rome sooner than Sempronius, to whom the business of presiding at the elections had been allotted, because his brother, Publius Claudius, stood candidate for the consulship. His competitors, of patrician rank, were Lucius Æmilius, Quintus Fabius Labeo, and Servius Sulpicius Galba, who had been candidates before, and now renewed their suit, for the honour of which they had been disappointed, and which was the more justly due to them, as it had been refused before. Besides, as it was not lawful that more than one patrician should be appointed, this made the competition, being four, still more obstinate. Claudius was the only new one. The plebeian candidates likewise were men in high esteem. Lucius Porcius, Quintus Terentius Culleo, and Cneius Bæbius Tamphilus; these too had been disappointed, but had cherished hopes of attaining the honour at some future time. The general opinion was, that Quintus Fabius Labeo and Lucius Porcius Licinus would be the successful persons; but Claudius, the consul, unattended by his lictors, canvassed with his brother, through all parts of the Forum, notwithstanding the loud remonstrances of his opponents, and the greater part of the senate, who insisted that, “he ought to remember the duty of a consul of the Roman people, in preference to that of the brother of Publius Claudius. To sit on his tribunal, content himself with presiding, and remain a silent spectator of the business.” Yet nothing could restrain his immederate zeal. The election was, also, several times, interrupted by contentions between the plebeian tribunes, some of whom struggled hard in opposition to the consul, and others in support of the cause which he favoured. At last, Appius conquered all opposition, so as to set aside Fabius, and bring in his brother. Thus was Publius Claudius Pulcher elected consul, beyond his own, and indeed the general expectation. Lucius Porcius Licinus carried his election also. The contest, among the plebeian candidates, was decently conducted and not with intemperate violence, like that of Claudius. Then was held the election of prætors, in which were chosen, Caius Decimius Flavus, Publius Sempronius Longus, Publius Cornelius Cethegus, Quintus Nævius Matho, Caius Sempronius Blæsus, and Aulus Terentius Varro. Such were the occurrences at home and abroad, of this year, during the consulate of Appius Claudius and Marcus Sempronius.
Y R. 568.
184.XXXIII. In the beginning of the following year, (Publius Claudius and Lucius Porcius being
consuls,) Quintus Cæcilius, Marcus Bæbius, and Tiberius Sempronius, who had been sent to adjust the matters in dispute
between the kings, Philip and Eumenes, and the states of the Thessalians, came home, and gave an account of the
execution of their commission. They also introduced to the senate ambassadors from those kings and states. On this
occasion, the same arguments were repeated by all parties, which had been urged before the ambassadors in Greece. The
senate then decreed, that a new embassy, with Appius Claudius at its head, should be sent into Macedonia and Greece, to
know whether the several states had been restored to the Rhodians, Thessalians, and Perrhæbians. They were, farther,
instructed to take care, that the garrisons should be withdrawn from Ænus and Maronea, and that all the sea-coast of
Thrace should be made free and independent of Philip and the Macedonians. They were ordered, also, to go to
Peloponnesus, where the former ambassadors had, at their departure, left affairs in a more unsettled state, than they
would have been, if they had not come thither. For, besides other matters, they were even sent away without an answer
by the Achæan council, nor were they allowed an audience. On this subject, Quintus Cæcilius made a heavy complaint. At
the same time the Lacedæmonians deplored the demolition of their walls, the carrying off their poor people into Achaia,
the selling of them there and the depriving them of the laws of Lycurgus, by which the nation had been supported unto
that time. On this the Achaians, endeavouring chiefly to apologize for having refused a meeting of the council, recited
a law which enacted, that a council should not be summoned, except on business of peace or war, or when ambassadors
should come from the senate with letters or written instructions. That this kind of excuse should not be made in
future, the senate observed to them, that they ought in prosperity, to take care that Roman ambassadors should at all
times have an opportunity of applying to their council; in like manner as the senate always gave them audience, at any
time when they wished it.
XXXVI. After those ambassadors had received their answers, Philip, being informed that he must yield up the states, and evacuate the towns in question, was highly enraged against all, yet vented his fury on the Maronites in particular. He gave a charge to Onomastus, who had the command of the sea-coast, to put to death the leaders of the opposite party. This man employed a person called Cassander, a partizan of the king’s who had resided a long time in Maronea, and he, introducing a body of Thracians by night, put the inhabitants to the sword, as if the city had been taken by storm. When the Roman ambassadors complained of his acting with such cruelty towards the innocent Maronites, and with such presumption towards the Roman people, in killing, as enemies, those very persons to whom the senate had adjudged the restoration of liberty, he averred that “none of those matters concerned him, or any one belonging to him; that they had quarrelled among themselves, and fought, because some wished to bring over their state to his side, others to that of Eumenes. That the truth of this might be readily ascertained; and they had only to ask the Maronites themselves.” For he was confident, that, while they were all under the impression of terror, since the late massacre, not one of them would dare to utter a word against him. Appius said, that “this would be looking for obscurity in a case already clear. But if he wished to remove the guilt from himself, let him send Onomastus and Cassander, the actors in that business, to Rome, that the senate might examine them.” At first, these words so entirely disconcerted the king, that neither his colour, nor his looks, remained unchanged; then, after some time, having collected his thoughts, he replied, that “he would send Cassander, who had been in Maronea, if it was their desire: but, as to Onomastus, how could that matter affect him, who so far from being in Maronea, was not even near it?” He was more careful of Onomastus, as a more valued friend, yet he dreaded him much more lest he might make discoveries. He had, in person, however, conversed with him on the subject, and he had confided in him as an agent in many similar transactions. Cassander is supposed to have been taken off, that the truth might not be divulged — being poisoned by persons sent to escort him through Epirus to the sea-coast.
XXXV. The ambassadors quitted the conference in a manner which plainly showed that they were not at all pleased with any thing that had passed; and Philip, with a full resolution to have recourse again to arms. But his strength being, as yet, insufficient for that purpose, he resolved, in order to procure delay, to send his younger son Demetrius to Rome, to clear him from the above-named charges; and, at the same time, to deprecate the wrath of the senate. Philip had strong expectations that the young man himself, having, while an hostage at Rome, exhibited proofs of a princely disposition, would have a good deal of influence now. Meanwhile, under the pretence of carrying succour to the Byzantians, but, in reality, with design to strike terror into the chieftains of the Thracians, he marched into their country, utterly defeated them in an engagement, in which he took their commander, Amadocus, prisoner, and then returned to Macedonia, having first despatched emissaries to persuade the barbarians, living near the Danube, to make an irruption into Italy. The Roman ambassadors, who had been ordered to go from Macedonia into Achaia, were expected daily in Peloponnesus: and, in order that the Achæans might settle their plans of conduct towards them beforehand, their prætor, Lycortas, summoned a general council. Here the affair of the Lacedæmonians was taken into consideration. It was observed, that “from enemies they were turned accusers: and there was reason to fear, lest they should prove more formidable, after having been conquered, than when they had arms in their hands: for, in the war, the Achæans had the Romans as allies in their cause; now, the same Romans were more favourable to the Lacedæmonians than to the Achæans. Even Areus and Alcibiades, both restored from exile, through the kindness of the Achæans, had undertaken an embassy to Rome, in prejudice to a nation to which they were so much obliged; and had spoken against it, with so much animosity, that people might suppose they had been banished from their country, instead of being restored to it.” A general clamour arose, requiring him to put the question on each of them by name; and as every thing was directed by passion, not by reason, they were condemned to die. In a few days after this, the Roman ambassadors arrived, and a council was summoned to meet them at Clitor, in Arcadia.
XXXVI. Before any business was entered on, the Achæans received an alarming proof, how little impartiality they were likely to experience in the proceedings on this cause, when they saw in company with the ambassadors, Areus and Alcibiades, whom, in their last council, they had condemned to death; yet none of them dared to utter a word. Appius acquainted them, that the senate was much displeased at those matters, of which the Lacedæmonians made complaint before them; “first, the massacre at Compasium of those who, in obedience to the summons of Philopœmen, came to stand a trial; then, after such barbarity, the having demolished the walls of that famous city, having abrogated its laws, of the greatest antiquity, and abolished the discipline of Lycurgus, so famed throughout the world.” After Appius had spoken to this effect, Lycortas, both because he was prætor, and because he was of the faction of Philopœmen, the adviser of all that was done at Lacedæmon, answered him thus: “Appius Claudius, it is a harder task on us to plead before you, than we had lately, before the senate at Rome; for then we had to answer the accusations of the Lacedæmonians, but now, we stand accused by yourselves, before whom our cause is to be heard. But to this disadvantage of situation we submit with this hope, that you will hear us with the temper of a judge, laying aside the character of an advocate, in which you, just now, appeared. For my part, at least, though the matters of which the Lacedæmonians complained formerly, in this place, before Quintus Cæcilius, and afterwards at Rome, have been just recapitulated by you, yet I shall consider myself as answering not to you, but before you, to them. You charge us with the murder of those men, who, being called out by the prætor Philopœmen, to trial, were put to death. This I think a charge of such a nature, that it ought not to be advanced against us, either by you, Romans, or by any in your presence; and I will tell you why. One of the articles in the treaty which you signed is, that the Lacedæmonians should not intermeddle with the cities on the coast. At the time, when they took arms, assaulted, in the night, and seized on those towns, with which they had been forbidden to interfere; if, I say, Titus Quintius, if a Roman army had been in Peloponnesus, as formerly the captured and oppressed inhabitants would surely have fled to them for relief. As you were at a great distance, to whom else would they fly, but to us, your allies, whom they had seen at a former time bringing aid to Gythium; whom they had seen, in conjunction with you, besieging Lacedæmon on their account? In your stead, therefore, we undertook a just and rightful war. Other men approve this step, and even the Lacedæmonians cannot censure it; the gods themselves, also, by giving us the victory, have shown their approbation of it; how then, can acts, done under the laws of war, be, by any means, made matter of civil disquisition? Of these acts, however, the greatest part nowise effect us. The summoning to trial, men, who had excited the populace to arms, who had stormed and plundered the towns on the coast, who had murdered the principal inhabitants, was our act; but, the putting them to death, when they were coming into the camp, was yours, Areus and Alcibiades, who now arraign us, and not ours. The Lacedæmonian exiles, and, among the rest, these two men, who were then in our camp, thinking the attack meant against them, as they had chosen the maritime towns for their residence, made an assault on those by whose means they had been banished, and who, they perceived with indignation, would not suffer them even to grow old in exile with safety. Lacedæmonians therefore, not Achæans, slew Lacedæmonians; nor is it of any consequence to dispute, whether they were slain justly or unjustly.
XXXVII. “But then, Achæans, the abolition of the laws and ancient discipline of Lycurgus, with the demolition of the walls — these acts were unquestionably yours: now, how can both these charges be brought forward by the same persons, since the walls of Lacedæmon were built, not by Lycurgus, but a few years ago, for the purpose of subverting the discipline of that very man? The tyrants erected them lately, as a fortress and defence for themselves, not for the state; and, if Lycurgus should rise this day from the dead, he would rejoice at seeing them in ruins, and would say, that he now acknowledged his country, and ancient Sparta. You ought not to have waited for Philopœmen, or the Achæans; you should have removed and razed, with your own hands, every vestige of tyranny; for these were the foul scars, left on you by slavery. And as, during almost eight hundred years, while ye were without walls, ye were free, and, for some time, even chiefs of Greece; so, after being bound with walls, as with fetters, you were slaves for one hundred years. As to what concerns the abrogating their laws, I conceive that the tyrants took away the ancient laws of Lacedæmon, and that we did not deprive them of their own laws, which they did not possess, but gave them ours; nor did we neglect the interests of their state, when we made it a member of our council, and incorporated it with ourselves, so that the whole Peloponnesus should form one body, and one council. If, indeed, we had imposed on them laws, different from those under which we lived ourselves, in that case, I think they might complain of being treated unfairly, and consequently be displeased. I know, Appius Claudius, that the kind of discourse, which I have hitherto used, is not proper either for allies, addressing their allies, or for an independent nation; but, in truth, for slaves pleading before their masters. For, if the herald’s proclamation, in which you ordered the Achæans, in the first place, to be free, was any thing more than empty sound; if the treaty is valid, if the alliance and friendship is maintained on equal terms, why do not I inquire what you, Romans, did, on the taking of Capua, as well as that you demand an account of our conduct towards the Lacedæmonians, when we conquered them in war? Some persons were killed, suppose by us. What! did not you behead the Campanian senators? We demolished their walls: you not only destroyed the walls, but you took the city, and the lands. But you say, the Achæans enjoy, in appearance, a league on equal terms, but, in reality, a precarious state of freedom, while the Romans enjoy supreme power. I am sensible of it, Appius; and if I ought not, I do not remonstrate: but, I beseech you, let the difference between the Romans and Achæans be as great as it may, not to place people, who are foes to both, on an equal footing with us, your allies, or even on a better. For, as to setting them on an equality, that we ourselves have done, when we gave them our own laws, when we made them members of the Achæan council. Vanquished — they are not content with what satisfies their conquerors; foes — they demand more than allies enjoy. What we have ratified, by our oaths, what we have consecrated as inviolable, to eternal remembrance, by records engraved in stone, they want to abolish, and to load us with perjury. Romans, for you we have high respect; and, if such is your wish, dread also; but we more respect and dread the immortal gods.” He was heard with general approbation, and all declared, that he had spoken as became the dignity of his office; so that it was easily seen, that the Romans could not support their ascendancy, by gentle methods. Appius then said, that “he earnestly recommended it to the Achæans, to show a compliant temper, while it was in their power to act voluntarily, lest they might, presently, be obliged, by compulsion, to act against their wills.” These words inspired universal affliction, and effectually deterred them from refusing compliance. They only requested the Romans “to make such alterations, respecting the Lacedæmonians, as they should judge proper; and not involve the Achæans in the guilt of annulling what they had sanctioned with their oaths.” And then, nothing more was done than to reverse the sentence lately passed on Areus and Alcibiades.
XXXVIII. In the beginning of this year, when the business of assigning the provinces to the consuls and prætors was taken under consideration, at Rome, Liguria was decreed to the consuls, there being no war any where else. As to the prætors — Caius Decimius Flavus obtained, by lot, the city jurisdiction; Publius Cornelius Cethegus, that between citizens and foreigners; Caius Sempronius Blæsus, Sicily; Quintus Nævius Matho, Sardinia, he had also the charge of making inquisition concerning poisons; Aulus Terentius Varro, hither Spain, and Publius Sempronius Longus, farther Spain. From the two latter provinces deputies arrived, about this time. — Lucius Juvencius Thalna, and Titus Quintilius Varus. These represented to the senate, that the formidable war of Spain had been brought to a fortunate conclusion: they therefore requested, that in consideration of such happy success, a thanksgiving should be performed to the immortal gods, and permission granted to the prætors to bring home the armies. The senate decreed a thanksgiving for two days, and ordered that the question, respecting the armies, should lie over, and be proposed when those, for the consuls and prætors, should be under consideration. A few days after this, they voted to the consuls, for Liguria, two legions each, which had been commanded by Appius Claudius and Marcus Sempronius. With regard to the armies in Spain, there was a warm contention between the new prætors and the friends of the absent ones, Calpurnius and Quintius. On each side were plebeian tribunes, and, on each, a consul. The former threatened, if the senate voted for bringing home the armies, to protest against their decree; the latter, that, if such a protest were made, they would not suffer any other business to proceed. At last the interest of the absent prætors was overpowered, and a decree of the senate passed, that “the prætors should enlist four thousand Roman foot, and four hundred horse; with five thousand foot, and five hundred horse of the Latine confederates; whom they should carry with them into Spain. That, when they should have divided these, between the legions, whatever number should then be in each legion, above five thousand foot and three hundred horse, should be discharged, beginning with those who had served out their number of campaigns, and proceeding to the rest, according to their respective merits, in the service under Calpurnius and Quintius.”
XXXIX. No sooner was this dispute ended, than another arose, in consequence of the death of a prætor, Caius Decimius. There stood candidates for his place, Cneius Sicinius and Lucius Pupius, who had been ædiles the year before; Caius Valerius, the flamen of Jupiter; and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, who, though he did not appear in the white gown, because he was curule ædile elect, yet pressed his suit with more warmth than any of them. The contest lay between the latter two. Fulvius at the beginning seemed to have an equal chance with the flamen, and afterwards surpassed him; on which, some of the plebeian tribunes insisted, that he ought not to be admitted a candidate, because one person could neither hold, nor administer, two offices, especially curule ones, at the same time; while others of them gave their opinion, that he ought to be exempted from the laws, in order that the people might have the power of electing prætor the person whom they wished. The consul, Lucius Porcius, was, from the beginning, inclined to refuse admitting him a candidate; and, afterwards, wishing to have the countenance of the senate in so doing, he called the members together, and told them, that “he desired their judgment in the case, where a curule ædile elect, without any colour of law, and setting a precedent insufferable in a free state, stood candidate for the prætorship; for his part, unless they determined otherwise, he intended to hold the election according to law.” The senate voted, that the consul, Lucius Porcius, should recommend to Quintus Fulvius, not to obstruct the assembly (soon to be held for substituting a prætor, in the room of Caius Decimius) from proceeding according to law. When the consul, in pursuance of this decree, applied to him on the subject, he answered, that “he would do nothing unworthy of himself,” by which indeterminate answer, he left room for people to interpret his intention, agreeably to their wish, and that he meant to submit to the direction of the senate. But, in the assembly, he urged his pretensions with more eagerness than ever; remonstrating, that the consul and the senate were forcibly depriving him of the kindness intended for him by the Roman people; exciting a clamour against a second post of honour being conferred on him; as if it were not manifest, that, when elected prætor, he must instantly abdicate the ædileship. The consul, seeing the candidate’s obstinacy increase, and the public favour incline to him more and more, dissolved the assembly, and summoned a meeting of the senate; where, in a full house, a vote was passed, that “inasmuch as the directions of the senate had produced no effect on Flaccus, the affair concerning him should be laid before the people.” A general assembly was, accordingly, summoned, and the consul made a full representation of the matter. Fulvius still remained inflexible. He returned thanks to the Roman people “for the great zeal which they had shown in their desire to make him prætor, as often as opportunity had been given them of declaring their sentiments;” and assured them, that “it was his resolution not to disappoint such instances of the attachment of his countrymen” This determined declaration increased the ardour of the people for his cause, to such a degree, that he would undoubtedly have been chosen prætor, if the consul had admitted him to stand. The tribunes maintained a violent altercation, both with their colleagues, and with the consul, until, at length, the senate passed a decree, that “whereas the obstinacy of Quintus Flaccus, and the ill-judged party zeal of many among the people, had prevented the assembly for filling the place of a prætor, from being held according to law. The senate therefore gave their judgment, that the present number of prætors was sufficient, that Publius Cornelius should hold both jurisdictions in the city, and celebrate the games of Apollo.”
XL. No sooner was this election stopped by the prudence and firmness of the senate, than another ensued, with greater heat of contest; both because the subject was of greater importance, and the competitors more numerous, and more powerful. The censorship was contended for by the following candidates, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, Publius Scipio, Lucius Scipio, Cneius Manlius Vulso, and Lucius Furius Purpureo, patricians; Marcus Porcius Cato, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, Tiberius Sempronius Longus, Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus, plebeians But all of them, both plebeians and patricians, of the highest ranks, were left far behind by Marcus Porcius. So great were the powers of this man’s mind, that he seemed able to attain to any situation he aimed at. No one qualification for the management of business, either public or private, was wanting to him: being equally knowing in ordinary matters as in those of the state. Some have been advanced to the highest honours by their knowledge of the law, others by their eloquence, some by military renown; but this man’s genius was so versatile, and so well adapted to all things, that in whatever way engaged, it might be said, that nature formed him for that alone. In war, he was the most courageous, distinguishing himself highly in many remarkable battles; and, when he arrived at the highest posts, was likewise the most consummate commander. Then, in peace, if information were wanted in a case of law, he was the wisest counsellor; if a cause was to be pleaded, the most eloquent advocate. Nor was he one of those whose oratory was striking only during their own lives, without leaving after them any monument of it. On the contrary, his eloquence still lives, and will long live, consecrated to memory by writings of every kind. His orations are many, spoken for himself, for others, and against others, for he harassed his enemies, not only by supporting prosecutions against them, but by maintaining causes in opposition to them. Enmities in abundance gave him plenty of employment; nor was it easy to tell whether the nobility laboured harder to keep him down, or he to oppress the nobility. His temper, no doubt, was austere, his language bitter, and unboundedly free, but he was never ruled by his passions; his integrity was inflexible, and he looked with contempt on popularity and riches. In spare diet, in enduring toil and danger, his body and mind were like steel; so that even old age, which brings all things to dissolution, did not break his vigour. In his eighty sixth year he stood a trial, pleaded his own cause, and published his speech; and, in his ninetieth year, he brought Servius Galba to trial, before the people.
XLI. On this occasion, of standing for the censorship, the nobility, as they had done through the whole course of his life, endeavoured to obstruct his promotion. All the candidates, likewise, except Lucius Flaccus, who had been his colleague in the consulship, combined to disappoint him of the office, not merely with a view to their own success, in preference to him, or because it would grieve them to see a new man in it, but because from one who had received offence from most of them, and who wished to retaliate, they apprehended a harsh severity in his administration, that would endanger the reputations of many. For, even, while soliciting, he uttered frequent menaces, and upbraided them with endeavouring to exclude him, because they dreaded an impartial and courageous execution of the duty of censor; at the same time, giving his interest to Lucius Valerius. He said, that “he was the only colleague, in conjunction with whom he could correct modern profligacy, and re-establish the ancient morals.” People were so inflamed by such discourses, that, in spite of the opposition made by the nobility, they not only made Marcus Porcius censor, but gave him, for his colleague, Lucius Valerius Flaccus. Immediately after the election of censors, the consuls and prætors went abroad to their provinces, except Quintus Nævius, who was detained from going to Sardinia, for no less than four months, by inquisitions concerning poisonings, a great part of which he held out of the city, in the corporate towns and villages; for that method was judged the more eligible. If we are to credit Valerius Antias, he condemned two thousand men. Lucius Postumius, the prætor, to whose lot the province of Tarentum had fallen, made discovery of numerous conspiracies of the peasants, and, with great care, finished the remainder of the inquiries concerning the Bacchanalians. Many of these, who had not appeared on being summoned, or had deserted their bail, were then lurking in that part of Italy; some of them he sentenced to punishment, and others, he sent under a guard to the senate to Rome, where they were all committed to prison by Publius Cornelius.
XLII. In farther Spain, the Lusitanians being weakened by their losses in the late war, matters remained quiet. In hither Spain, Aulus Terentius took the town of Corbia, in Suessetania, after a regular siege, and sold the prisoners; after which, the troops had rest in their winter quarters, in that province also. The former prætors, Caius Calpurnius Piso, and Lucius Quintius came home to Rome, and the senate, with great cheerfulness, voted a triumph to both. Caius Calpurnius triumphed, first, over the Lusitanians and Celtiberians. He carried in procession eighty-three golden crowns, and twelve thousand pounds weight of silver. In a few days after, Lucius Quintius Crispinus triumphed over the same Lusitanians and Celtiberians, bearing in his triumph the same quantity of gold and silver. The censors, Marcus Porcius and Lucius Valerius, while the public were full of anxious curiosity blended with fear, made their survey of the senate; out of which they displaced seven members, one of them a man of consular rank, highly distinguished by nobility of birth and honourable employments — Lucius Quintius Flamininus. It is mentioned, as a practice instituted in early times, that the censors should annex marks of censure to the names of such as they degraded from the senate. There are severe speeches of Cato, against those whom he either expelled the senate, or degraded from the equestrian rank, but by far the most so is that against Lucius Quintius. Had he spoken, in the character of prosecutor, previous to the censure, and not in that of censor after it, not even his brother Titus, if he were his colleague, could have suffered Quintius to remain in the senate. Among other charges, he objected to him, that he had, by hopes of extraordinary presents, prevailed on Philip, a Carthaginian and a catamite, to accompany him into his province of Gaul; that this youth, in order to enhance the merit of his complaisance to the consul, used frequently, in wanton squabbling, to upbraid him for having quitted Rome just before the show of gladiators. It happened, that while they were at a feast, and heated with wine, a message was brought into the place of entertainment, that a Boian, of high rank, had come as a deserter with his children, and wished to see the consul, that he might, in person, receive his assurance of protection. He was accordingly introduced into the tent, and began to address him through an interpreter: but while he was speaking, Quintius said to his catamite, “since you were deprived of the show of gladiators, have you a mind to see this Gaul dying?” The boy giving a sort of assent, between jest and earnest, the consul, drawing a sword that hung over his head, first struck the Gaul as he was speaking, and then, when he was running out, and imploring the faith of the Roman people, and of those present, ran him through the side.
XLIII. Valerius Antias, who never read Cato’s speech, and only gave credit to a tale published without authority, tells the story in another manner, but similar to this in lust and cruelty. He writes, that, at Placentia, the consul invited to an entertainment a woman of ill fame, with whom he was desperately enamoured. There, displaying his importance to this courtezan, he told her, among other matters, with what severity he had conducted the inquisitions, and how many he had then in prison, under sentence of death, whom he intended to behead. Then she, being next him on the couch, said, that having never seen any one beheaded, she was very desirous of seeing an execution; on which the indulgent lover ordered one of those wretches to be dragged to the spot, and there cut off his head. The deed of death, whether committed as the censor or as Valerius reports it, was barbarous and inhuman; that in the midst of feasting and cups, when it is customary to offer libations to the gods, and to pray for happiness, a human victim should be butchered, and the table stained with his blood, and this for the entertainment of an acknowledged wanton. In the latter part of Cato’s speech, he proposes to Quintius, that if he denied this fact, and the others of which he accused him, he should give security to abide a legal trial; but if he confessed them, could he suppose, he asked him, that any one would be sorry for his disgrace; the disgrace of him who, in the midst of a feast, being intoxicated with wine and lust, had sported with the blood of a human being.
XLIV. In the review of the knights, Lucius Scipio Asiaticus was degraded. In fixing the rates of
taxation, also, the censor’s conduct was harsh and severe to all ranks of men. He ordered, that people should give
account, upon oath, of women’s dress, and ornaments, and carriages, exceeding in value fifteen thousand asses;* and that slaves, younger than twenty years, which, since the last survey, had been
bought for ten thousand asses† or more, should be estimated at ten times
their value; and that, on all these articles, a tax should be laid of three denariuses‡ for each thousand asses.§ Water, running or carried into any
private building or field, the censors took away; and all buildings or sheds, in possession of private persons that
projected into public ground, they demolished within thirty days. They then engaged contractors for executing national
works, with the money decreed for that purpose — for paving cisterns with stone, for cleansing the sewers and forming
new ones on the Aventine, and in other quarters where hitherto there had been none. Then, dividing their tasks, Flaccus
built a mole at Nepthunia, on the coast, and made a road through the Formian mountains. Cato purchased for the use of
people two halls, the Mænian, and Titian, in the street Lauturniæ, and four shops, erecting on that ground a court of
justice, which was called the Porcian. They farmed out the several branches of the revenue, at the highest prices;
while they allowed very small profits for the services, on which the money was to be expended. But the senate, overcome
by the prayers and lamentations of the publicans, ordered those bargains to be revoked, and new agreements to be made;
on which the censors, by an edict, prohibited the persons, who had eluded the former contracts, from being concerned in
the new ones, and farmed out all the same branches at prices very little reduced. This censorship was very remarkable,
producing abundance of animosities; and drawing on Marcus Porcius, to whom all the harshness was attributed, much
uneasiness during the remainder of his life. This year, two colonies were established, Potentia in Picenum, and
Pisaurum in the Gallic territory. Six acres were given to each settler. The same commissioners had the ordering of both
colonies, and the division of the lands.Y. R. 569.
183. Quintus Fabius Labeo, Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, and Quintus Fulvius Nobilior, the consuls of that year,
performed nothing memorable, at home or abroad.
XLV. The consuls, elected for the ensuing year, were Marcus Claudius Marcellus, and Quintus Fabius Labeo. These, on the ides of March, the first day of their assuming the administration, proposed to the senate to determine their provinces, and those of the prætors. The prætors appointed, were Caius Valerius, flamen of Jupiter, who had been a candidate the year before, Spurius Posthumius Albinus, Publius Cornelius Sisenna, Lucius Pupius, Lucius Julius, and Cneius Sicinius. Liguria was ordered to be the province of the consuls, and the armies were assigned to them, which had been commanded by Publius Claudius and Marcus Porcius. The two Spains, without being put to the lot, were reserved for the prætors who held them the year before, and also their own armies. The prætors were ordered to regulate their casting lots, in such a manner, that the flamen of Jupiter should have one or other of the judicial employments in the city. The foreign jurisdiction fell to his lot, that between citizens to Cornelius Sisenna. Sicily was assigned to Spurius Posthumius, Apulia to Lucius Pupius, Gaul to Lucius Julius, Sardinia to Cneius Sicinius. Lucius Julius was ordered to hasten to his province, because some transalpine Gauls, as was mentioned before, having made their way through the forests into Italy, by an unknown road, were building a town in the country, now the district of Aquileia. The prætor received a charge to interrupt their proceedings, as far as possible, without having recourse to arms; and, if it should be necessary to stop them by force, to give information to the consuls, one of whom was, in that case, directed to march his legions against those Gauls. Towards the close of the preceding year, an assembly had been held for the purpose of electing an augur, in the room of Cneius Cornelius deceased, when Spurius Posthumius Albinus was chosen.
XLVI. In the beginning of this year, Publius Licinius Crassus, chief pontiff, died, in whose room was appointed Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus, and Caius Servilius Geminus was raised to the place of chief pontiff. On occasion of the funeral of Publius Licinius, a largess of flesh was distributed to the people, and one hundred and twenty pair of gladiators fought. The funeral games lasted three days, and, after the games, a public feast was given. During the feast, and while the couches were spread over the Forum, a storm came on with violent gusts of wind, which compelled most of the people to pitch tents in that place, which, on the weather clearing up, in a short time after, were removed. This occasioned a general remark, that they had fulfilled a prophecy, which soothsayers had pronounced, among the decrees of the fates, that, inevitably, tents would be pitched in the Forum. No sooner were they eased of the apprehensions, caused by this prophecy, than they were struck with new ones, by showers of blood falling for two days, in the area of Vulcan’s temple. The decemvirs, ordered a supplication for the expiation of the prodigy. Before the consuls set out for their provinces, they introduced the foreign embassies to an audience of the senate; and at no time was there in Rome such a number of people from countries beyond sea. For, as soon as it became generally known, through the nations bordering on Macedonia, that accusations and complaints against Philip were listened to by the Romans, with some degree of attention, and that many had profited by having complained; all those states, nations, and even individuals, on their own accounts, (for he was a troublesome neighbour to every one,) flocked to Rome, with hopes of obtaining either redress of their injuries, or, at least, the consolation of expressing their griefs. An embassy came, also, from king Eumenes with his brother Athenæus, to complain of the Macedonian in not withdrawing his garrisons out of Thrace; and, likewise on his sending succours into Bithynia, to Prusias, who was at war with Eumenes.
XLVII. To Demetrius, who was then very young, was assigned the task of speaking to their representations; and it was no easy matter to retain in memory, either all the particulars set forth, or what was proper to be said in reply. For the charges were not only numerous, but most of them exceedingly frivolous: of disputes about boundaries, of men forced away, and cattle driven off; of justice, either partially administered or refused; of sentences respecting property, founded either on force or influence. The senate perceived that Demetrius could not explain any of those matters distinctly, and that the information which they could obtain from him was not sufficiently clear; at the same time, the youth, through inexperience and bashfulness, was much embarrassed. They therefore ordered that he should be asked, whether he had received from his father any written instructions on those points; and on his answering that he had, they thought it the best and properest way to receive the answers of the king himself, on each particular head, and immediately called for the writing; but afterwards they gave him leave to read it to them himself. Here were his apologies on each several subject, concisely stated in a narrow compass, in some cases, that he had acted in conformity to the determinations of the ambassadors; in others, that the fault of not conforming to them, lay not in him, but actually in the persons themselves who accused him. He had interspersed, also, remonstrances on the injustice of those determinations, and the partiality that appeared when those matters were discussed before Quintus Cæcilius; as well as the indecent and unmerited insults thrown on him by all. The senate remarked on these tokens of his temper; nevertheless, on the young man apologizing for some things, and undertaking that others should be performed in the manner most agreeable to the senate, they ordered this answer to be given him, that “in no instance, was his father’s conduct either more proper, or more pleasing to the senate, than in his choosing, whatever the nature of those transactions might be, to send his excuses for them to the Romans, by his son Demetrius. That the senate could leave unnoticed, forget and put up with, many past matters, and believed also that they might place confidence in Demetrius; for, though they restored his person to his father, they still had his mind as an hostage, and were convinced that, as far as was compatible with his duty as a son, he was a friend to the Roman people. That, out of regard to him, they would send ambassadors into Macedonia, in order that if any thing which ought to have been done, was left undone, it might then be effected, but still without any vindictive retrospect to former omissions. That they would be glad if Philip also were sensible that he was indebted to his son Demetrius for the continuance of the good understanding between him and the Romans.
XLVIII. These honourable declarations, intended to add to the dignity of his character, proved to the young man the cause of immediate envy, and not of far distant ruin. The Lacedæmonians were next introduced, when many insignificant disputes were agitated. Those which might be deemed important were — whether the persons condemned by the Achæans, should be reinstated or not; whether others were justly put to death; and whether the Lacedæmonians should continue in the Achæan council, or as had formerly been the case, that a single state in Peloponnesus, should have separate independence. It was determined, that the condemned should be reinstated, and the sentences passed reversed; that Lacedæmon should continue in the Achæan council; and that this decree should be committed to writing, and signed by the Lacedæmonians and Achæans. Quintus Marcius was sent ambassador into Macedonia, with orders, likewise to take a view of the affairs of the allies in Peloponnesus; for there also disturbances still subsisted, in consequence of the old quarrels, and Messene had revolted from the Achæan confederacy. But if I were to trace out the cause and progress of this war, I should deviate from the resolution which I laid down, of not meddling with foreign transactions, farther than they are connected with the affairs of Rome.
XLIX. One event deserves to be mentioned: that, notwithstanding the Achæans had a superiority in the war, Philopœmen, their prætor, was taken prisoner, on his march to secure Corone, which the enemy meant to attack, being, with a small party of horse, surprised and overpowered in a dangerous defile. It is said, that he might have effected his own escape, by the aid of some Thracians and Cretans, who were with him, but was hindered by the shame of deserting his horsemen, the most distinguished youths in the nation, selected by himself, a short time before. In procuring these, an opportunity of getting clear of the narrow defile, while closing the rear, in person, and sustaining the assaults of the enemy — his horse fell. By the shock of his fall, and the weight of his horse, which fell upon him, he was nearly killed on the spot; for he was now seventy years old, and his strength had been greatly impaired by a tedious illness, from which he had been just recovered. Lying thus on the ground, the enemy pouring on, secured him. Out of respect to his character, however, and from regard to his merit, they raised him up with as much care, as if it had been their own commander, took every pains to revive him, and carried him out of that remote valley into the road. Their joy was so great, and so unexpected, that they scarcely believed their own senses; however, some of them sent on messages to Messene, that the war was at end, for they were bringing Philopœmen prisoner. At first this seemed so incredible, that the messenger was deemed either a liar or a madman. Afterwards, when numbers came, one after another, all asserting the same, the matter was at length believed; and, before they well knew whether he was come near the city, every human being, freemen and slaves, with even women and children, poured out to enjoy the sight; insomuch that the multitude quite closed up the gate, all pushing eagerly forward, and seeming as if nothing but the testimony of their own eyes could convince them of so momentous an event. Those who conducted Philopœmen, made their way with difficulty through the crowd, so as to pass into the gate; but the rest of the way was quite shut up by the thick press of people; and, as the greatest part of these were excluded from the sight, they suddenly rushed into a theatre which was contiguous to the street, and all with one voice insisted, that he should be brought thither into the public view. The magistrates and leading men were afraid, that compassion for so great a man, on his being brought before them, would cause some disturbance; as many would be moved by respect for his former dignity, when they compared it with his present condition, and many, by the recollection of his transcendant merits; they therefore placed him, where he could be seen at a distance, and quickly after hurried him away out of the sight of the people, who were told by the prætor, Dinocrates, that the magistrates wanted to ask him some questions, on points that were material to the success of the war. Having carried him thence to the senate house, and called the senate together, they began a consultation on the measures to be pursued.
L. The evening came on while they were still at a loss, not only about other matters, but even about the place where he might be kept, with proper security, during the following night. They were quite confounded when they reflected on the greatness of his former fortune and merit; and they neither dared to undertake the guarding of him at their houses, nor thought it safe to trust the custody of him to any individual. At last, some persons reminded them of a public treasury, under ground, inclosed with hewn stone; into this place he was put down, in chains, and a huge stone was placed over it, with the help of a machine. After having thus determined to trust to the place rather than to any man, for his safe keeping, they waited with impatience for the following day, when the whole populace to a man, mindful of his former services to the state, declared their opinion, that they ought to spare him, and to seek through his means, some remedies for their present misfortunes. But the authors of the revolt, in whose hands was the management of affairs, held a secret consultation, in which it was unanimously resolved to put him to death; but whether they should do it speedily, or defer it, was for some time a matter of doubt. The party that wished his immediate execution at length prevailed, and a person was sent to him with poison. We are told, that on receiving the cup, he only asked if Lycortas, the other commander of the Achæans, and the horsemen, had escaped; and being told that they were safe, he said, “It is well,” and then, intrepidly drinking the contents of the cup, expired shortly after. The actors of this piece of cruelty, however, did not long rejoice at his death; for the Messenians were vanquished in the war, and compelled, by the positive demands of the Achæans, to deliver up the guilty into their hands. The bones of Philopœmen were restored, and his funeral was attended by the whole Achæan council, who heaped on him, not only every human, but even several divine honours. Historians, both Greek and Latine, entertain so high an idea of this man, that several of them have recorded, as a circumstance remarkably distinguishing this year, that three illustrious commanders died in it, Philopœmen, Hannibal, and Publius Scipio, placing him on an equal footing with the most consummate generals of the two most powerful nations.
LI. Titus Quintius Flamininus came ambassador to king Prusias, who had incurred the jealousy of the Romans, by entertaining Hannibal after the flight of Antiochus, and by making war on Eumenes. Soon after his arrival, among other discourse, he remonstrated with Prusias, on his giving protection to a person, who, of all men living, was the most inveterate enemy to the Roman nation; who had incited, first, his own country, and, afterwards, when its power was reduced, king Antiochus, to make war on Rome. In consequence of this, or of Prusias having himself a desire of gratifying Flamininus, and the Roman people, he conceived the design of killing Hannibal, or delivering him into their hands. Immediately after the first conference therefore with Flamininus a party of soldiers was sent to guard Hannibal’s house. The Carthaginian had always foreseen some such end of his life; for he knew the implacable hatred which the Romans bore him, and placed little confidence in the faith of kings. Besides, he had experienced the fickle temper of Prusias, and had, for some time, dreaded the arrival of Flamininus, as an event fatal to him. Surrounded, as he was, by dangers, on all sides, in order to have always some passage open for flight, he had made seven doors to his house, of which some were concealed, lest they might be invested by a guard. But the imperious government of kings suffers nothing to remain secret, which they choose to discover. The troops formed a circle of guards round the house in such a manner, that it was impossible to slip out. Hannibal, on being told, that some of the king’s soldiers were in the porch, endeavoured to escape through a back door, which was the most private, and whence the passage was least likely to be observed; but, perceiving that to be guarded, and every avenue round to be shut by a body of soldiers, he called for poison, which he had long kept in readiness against such an event; and said, “Let us release the Romans from their long anxiety, since they have not patience to wait for the death of an old man. Flamininus will gain no very great or memorable victory, over one unarmed and betrayed. What an alteration has taken place in the behaviour of the Roman people, this day affords abundant proof. Their fathers gave warning to Pyrrhus, their armed foe, then heading an army against them in Italy, to beware of poison. The present generation have sent an ambassador, of consular rank, to persuade Prusias villainously to murder his guest.” Then imprecating curses on the head of Prusias, and on his kingdom, and calling on the gods, the avengers of violated hospitality, to witness his breach of faith, he drank off the contents of the cup. In this manner did Hannibal end his life.
LII. Both Polybius and Rutilius say, that Scipio died in this year; but I do not agree either with them, or Valerius. Not with them, because I find that, in the censorship of Marcus Porcius and Lucius Valerius, the censor himself, Lucius Valerius, was chosen prince of the senate, which place had for the three preceding lustrums been held by Africanus; and, if he were alive, unless he had been displaced from the senate, which disgrace no one has recorded, another prince would not have been chosen in his room. The authority of Antias is refuted by the plebeian tribunate of Marcus Nævius, against whom there is extant a speech, signed by Publius Africanus. Now, this Marcus Nævius, in the register of the magistrates, appears to have been plebeian tribune, in the consulate of Publius Claudius and Lucius Porcius; but he entered on the tribuneship in the consulate of Appius Claudius and Marcus Sempronius, on the fourth day before the ides of December, from which time, to the ides of March, when Publius Claudius and Lucius Porcius become on the consuls, there are three months. Thus it appears that he was living in the tribunate of Marcus Nævius, and might have been prosecuted by him; but that he died, before the censorship of Lucius Valerius and Marcus Porcius. The deaths of the three most illustrious men of their respective nations have a similarity, not only in respect to the concurrence of the times, but in this circumstance also, that no one of them met a death, suitable to the splendour of his life. In the first place, neither of them died or was buried in his native soil. Hannibal and Philopœmen were taken off by poison; Hannibal breathed his last in exile, betrayed by his host; Philopœmen in captivity, in a prison, and in chains. Scipio, though neither banished, nor condemned, yet, under prosecution, and summoned as an absent criminal to a trial, at which he did not appear, passed sentence of voluntary exile, not only on himself, while alive, but, likewise, on his body, after death.
LIII. During these transactions in Peloponnesus, whence I digressed, the return of Demetrius, with the ambassadors, into Macedonia, affected people’s minds in various manners. The generality of the Macedonians, terrified by the apprehension of an impending war with the Romans, looked with the highest esteem on Demetrius, to whom they owed the continuance of peace; and, at the same time, destined him to the throne, after the demise of his father. They argued, that, “although he was younger than Perseus, yet he was born of a wife, and the other of a concubine; that the latter, born of a mother, who did not confine her favours to one man, had no likeness to any particular father, whereas the former had a striking resemblance of Philip. Besides it was probable, that the Romans would place him on the throne of his father, as Perseus had no pretensions to their favour.” Such was the conversation of people in general. As to Perseus, he was tortured with fear, lest his age alone might not sufficiently secure his interest, his brother having the advantage of him in every other particular; while Philip, himself, doubting his own ability of choosing which of them he should leave heir to his dominions, began to think that his younger son, encroached on him, more than he could wish. He was sometimes displeased at the numerous attendance of the Macedonians, round Demetrius, and chagrined at perceiving that there was a second court, during his own lifetime. The young prince, no doubt, came home with more lofty notions of himself, elated with the honours paid him by the senate, and their having conceded to him what they had refused to his father; insomuch that every mention of the Romans, whatever degree of respect it procured him from the rest of the Macedonians, created an equal degree of envy, not only in the breast of his brother, but also in that of his father; especially after the Roman ambassadors arrived, and the king was obliged to evacuate Thrace, to withdraw his garrisons, and to perform the other articles, either according to the decisions of the former ambassadors, or the late regulations made by the senate. But all this he did with great reluctance, and even with anguish of mind. His feelings of this sort were aggravated, by seeing his son more frequently in company with them, than with himself; nevertheless, to avoid giving any pretence for an immediate commencement of hostilities, he paid submissive attention to the Romans, in every thing; and, in order to turn away their thoughts, from a suspicion of any such designs, he led an army into the heart of Thrace, against the Odrysians, Dantheletians, and Bessians. He took the city of Philippopolis, after it was deserted by the inhabitants, who fled with their families to the tops of the nearest mountains; and, by wasting the country, reduced the barbarians living in the plains, to submission. Then, leaving a garrison in Philippopolis, which was soon after expelled by the Odrysians, he set about building a town in Deuriopus. This is a district of Pæonia, near the river Erigonus, which, flowing from Illyricum, through Pæonia falls into the river Axius. Not far from the old city of Stobæ he built his new one, which he ordered to be called Perseis, in honour of his elder son.
LIV. While these things passed in Macedonia, the consuls went to their provinces. Marcellus sent forward an express to Lucius Porcius, the proconsul, to lead up the legions, to the new town of the Gauls; which people, on the arrival of the consul, surrendered themselves. There were of these twelve thousand fighting men, most of whom had arms, which they had forced from the inhabitants: all which, to their great mortification, were taken from them, as was every thing else which they had either acquired by plundering in the country, or had brought along with them. On this, they sent ambassadors to Rome to complain of those proceedings, who being introduced to audience of the senate, by the prætor Caius Valerius, represented, that “in consequence of a redundancy of people in Gaul, they had been compelled, by the want of land, and indeed of every thing, to cross the Alps, in quest of a settlement. That, finding lands lying uncultivated, they had settled in the country without doing injury to any. They had, likewise, begun to build a town, which was a proof that they did not come with ill intentions. That some time ago, Marcus Claudius sent them a message, that unless they surrendered to him, he would march against them, and that preferring a certain though not very honourable, peace, to the uncertainties of war, they had thrown themselves on the protection of Rome, before they submitted to its power. That, in a short time after, being ordered to quit the country, they had intended to remove, without murmuring, to whatever part of the world they were able, and that, notwithstanding, their arms, and finally all the property which they had brought with them, were taken from them. They therefore besought the senate and people of Rome, not to treat harmless people, who had surrendered themselves, with greater severity, than they would enemies.” To this discourse the senate ordered the following answer to be given: That “on one hand, they had not acted properly in coming into Italy, and attempting to build a town, in the territory of others, without permission from any Roman magistrate commanding in that province; yet on the other hand, the senate did not approve of people who had surrendered, being stripped of their property. They would therefore appoint ambassadors, who should go with them to the consuls, and order all their effects to be restored, provided they returned to the place whence they came; and who should also proceed to the other side of the Alps, and give warning to the Gallic states, to keep their people at home. That the two countries were separated by those mountains, to be an almost insuperable barrier, which, whoever should pass in future, should meet no better fate than those who first showed them passable.” The ambassadors sent were, Lucius Furius Purpeureo, Quintus Minucius, Publius Manlius Acidinus. The Gauls on receiving restitution of all the effects, which had been justly their own, withdrew out of Italy.
LV. The transalpine states answered the Roman ambassadors, in terms of friendship and kindness. Their elders even found fault with the excessive lenity of the Roman people, in “suffering men to depart with impunity, who, without an order of their nation, left their home, attempted to seize on lands belonging to the Roman empire, and to build a town on them. They ought,” they said, “to have suffered severely for their inconsiderate conduct; and, as to the restoration of their effects, they expressed a fear, lest, in consequence of this too great tenderness, others might be encouraged to attempts of a like nature.” They not only entertained the ambassadors, but conferred considerable presents on them. The consul Marcus Claudius, when he had sent the Gauls out of his province, began to prepare for a war with the Istrians, and wrote to the senate, for permission to lead the legions into their country. The senate approved of the measure. They formed an intention of establishing a colony at Aquileia; but were some time divided in opinion, whether it should consist of Latines, or Roman citizens; at last however they passed a vote, in favour of a Latine settlement. The commissioners appointed for the purpose, were Publius Scipio Nasica, Caius Flaminius, and Lucius Manlius Acidinus. In the same year, colonies of Roman citizens were led out to Mutina, and Parma. Two thousand men were settled in each colony, on lands which lately belonged to the Boians, and formerly to the Tuscans; they received at Parma eight acres, at Mutina five each. These colonists were conducted by Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, Titus Æbutius Carus, and Lucius Quintius Crispinus. The colony of Saturnia, also, consisting of Roman citizens, was settled on the lands of Caletra, by Quintus Fabius Labeo, Caius Afranius Stellio, and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, who assigned to each man ten acres.
LVI. This year Aulus Terentius Varro, proprætor, fought some successful battles with the Celtiberians,
near the river Iberus, in the territory of Auseta, reducing several towns, which they had fortified in that quarter.
The farther Spain was quiet during the whole year, Publius Sempronius, the propærtor, being seized with a lingering
disorder. In Liguria nothing extraordinary was performed by Quintus Fabius the consul. Marcus Marcellus being recalled
out of Istria, to attend the elections, disbanded his army, and came home to Rome.Y. R. 570
182. He elected consuls Cneius Bæbius Tamphilus, and Lucius Æmilius Paulus. This latter had been curule ædile,
along with Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, who, after two disappointments, was chosen consul, and from the time of whose
consulate, this was the fifth year. Then were elected prætors, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, Marcus Valerius Lævinus,
Publius Manlius a second time, Marcus Ogulnius Gallus, Lucius Cæcilius Denter, and Caius Terentius Istra. Towards the
close of the year, a supplication was performed, on occasion of prodigies, for people were persuaded that it had rained
blood for two days in the court of the temple of Concord; and an account was received, that, near the coast of Sicily,
a new island rose out of the sea. Valerius Antias fixes the death of Hannibal in this year, and says, that besides
Titus Quintius Flamininus, whose name is mentioned in this business, by all writers, Lucius Scipio Asiaticus, and
Publius Scipio Nasica, were sent ambassadors to Prusias on that occasion.
* 645l. 17s. 2d.
† 15,241l. 12s. 4d.
‡ 801l. 3s. 3d.
§ 16s. 1 1-4d
* 16,404l. 3s 4d.
† 4309l. 14s. 9d.
‡ 1054l.
§ 1l 6s. 3d.
∥ 6s. 5d.
¶ 3l 4s. 7d
* 322l. 18s. 4d.
* Those to whom the censor assigned a horse, were bound to serve. But as liberty was granted to Æbutius, to serve or not, as he chose, it became necessary that the censor should be thus restrained by a vote of the senate, from assigning him a horse; otherwise, if one had been assigned him, whether willing or not, he must have served
* Games in honour of the infernal deities, instituted in the reign of Tarquin the Proud, on occasion of a malignant disorder that had attacked pregnant women. Black bulls were sacrificed, whence the name.
* 48l. 8s. 9d.
† 32l. 5s 19d.
‡ 3l 4s. 9d
§ 1s 11 1-4d.
Violent contests between Demetrius and Perseus, the sons of Philip, king of Macedonia In consequence of the intrigues and calumnies of Perseus, and the jealousy excited by Demetrius’s attachment to the Romans, the latter is put to death, by poison; by which means, after the death of Philip, Perseus obtains the crown. Successes of the Romans, under different commanders, against the Ligurians; and, in Spain, against the Celtiberians. The books of Numa Pompilius discovered, buried in a stone chest, under the Janiculum; burned by the prætor, by order of the senate. Philip discovers the villainous machinations of Perseus, determines to bring him to punishment, and to settle the crown upon Antigonus; dies, and is succeeded by Perseus.
Y. R. 570.
182I.At the commencement of the next year, the consuls and prætors settled
the distribution of their provinces. For the consuls, there was no province to be decreed, except Liguria. The city
jurisdiction fell to Marcus Ogulnius Gallus; the foreign, to Marcus Valerius; the hither Spain, to Marcus Fulvius
Flaccus; the farther, to Publius Manlius; Sicily, to Lucius Cæcilius Denter; and Sardinia, to Caius Terentius Istra.
The consuls were ordered to levy troops, for Quintus Fabius had writen from Liguria, that the Apuans seemed inclined to
renew hostilities, and that there was reason to apprehend their making an irruption into the district of Pisæ. From
Spain, also, intelligence was received, that the hither province was in arms; that the war still continued with the
Celtiberians; and that, in the farther province, in consequence of the long sickness of the prætor, the discipline of
the army was greatly relaxed, through inactivity and intemperance. For these reasons, it was decreed, that new armies
should be raised; four legions for Liguria, each containing five thousand two hundred foot, and three hundred horse,
and to these were added, of the Latines, fifteen thousand foot, and eight hundred horse. These were to complete the two
consular armies. They were ordered, also, to enrol seven thousand foot and six hundred horse, of the allies and
Latines, and to send them into Gaul to Marcus Marcellus, who, on the expiration of his consulship, was continued in
command. For the Spains, also, there were raised to be sent into both provinces, four thousand foot and two hundred
horse, of Roman citizens; and, of the allies, seven thousand foot, and three hundred horse. Quintus Fabius Labeo was
continued in command, for the year, with the army that he then had in Liguria.
II. The spring of this year was remarkable for storms. On the day before the feast of Pales, a tremendous hurricane arose, and made shocking havoc in many places, both sacred and common. It threw down brazen statues in the capitol; tore away a gate from the temple of Luna, on the Aventine, and dashed it against the wall of the temple of Ceres: overturned other statues in the great circus, together with the pillars on which they stood; tore off several cupolas from the tops of temples, which it shattered to pieces, and scattered about. This storm was deemed a prodigy, and the aruspices ordered it to be expiated. At the same time, expiation was made for a mule, with three feet, being said to be foaled at Reate; and for a temple of Apollo at Formiæ, and another at Caieta, which were said to be struck by lightning. On account of these prodigies, twenty of the larger victims were sacrificed, and a supplication, of one day’s continuance was performed. About the same time information was brought, by a letter from Aulus Terentius, proprætor, that Publius Sempronius, after struggling with his disorder, for more than a year, died in the farther province: for which reason the prætors were ordered to make the more haste into Spain. The foreign embassies then had audience of the senate: and, first, those of the kings Eumenes and Pharnaces, and of the Rhodians, complaining of the sufferings of the inhabitants of Sinope. There came, also, at this time, ambassadors from Philip, and the Achæans, and Lacedæmonians, to whom the senate gave answers, after having, first, heard the report of Marcius, who had been sent to inspect the affairs of Greece and Macedonia. To the Asiatic kings, and the Rhodians, they answered, that they would send ambassadors to examine into those matters.
III. Marcius had increased their anxiety respecting Philip; for, though he acknowledged that the king had complied with the injunctions of the senate, he had yet done it in such a manner, as demonstrated that his compliance would last no longer than necessity required; nor was it difficult to see, that he intended to make another trial of the fortune of war, all his actions and words at the present having a tendency that way. In the first place, he removed almost the whole body of horsemen, with their families, from the maritime cities, into Emathia, as it is now called, formerly Pæonia, giving up those cities to be inhabited by Thracians and other barbarians: thinking that such kind of people would prove more faithful to him, in case of a war with Rome. This proceeding caused great discontent all over Macedonia; and of those, who, with their wives and children were obliged to leave their dwellings, few concealed their grief in silence; most of them, as they marched in bodies along the roads, letting their hatred get the better of their fears, uttered curses against the king. This disturbed his mind to such a degree, that he conceived suspicions of danger from every man, and from every place and season; and, at last, went so far as to declare openly, that he could not think himself safe, in any respect, without seizing and confining the sons of those whom he had destroyed, and sending them out of the world at different times.
IV. The cruelty of these proceedings, horrible in itself, was rendered still more so by the calamities of one particular family. Philip had, many years before, put to death Herodicus, a Thessalian of distinction; and afterwards his sons-in-law. His daughters, who were thus left widows, had each one son. The names of the women were Theoxena, and Archo. Theoxena, though courted by many, rejected every offer of marriage. Archo married a person called Poris, the first in dignity of the Ænean nation; and, after bearing him many children, died, leaving them all young. Theoxena then, in order that her sister’s children might be educated under her own inspection, married Poris, and, as if she herself had borne them all, treated her sister’s sons, and her own, with the same affectionate care. When she heard of the king’s order for seizing the children of the persons who had fallen by his tyranny, supposing that they would be subjected not only to the king’s lust, but to that of his guards, she formed a horrid project, and had the hardiness to declare, that she would kill them all with her own hand, rather than they should come into the power of Philip. Poris, shocked at the mention of such a dreadful deed, told her that he would carry them away to Athens, to some faithful friends, and would himself accompany them in their flight. They all went from Thessalonica to Æneas, to a stated sacrifice, which is performed there, yearly, with great solemnity, in honour of Æneas, the founder of the nation. After passing the day there, in the anniversary feast, about the third watch, when all were asleep, they embarked in a vessel ready prepared by Poris, as if intending to return to Thessalonica; but their design was to cross over to Eubæa. However, day-light overtook them, at a small distance from the land, where they were struggling in vain against a contrary wind, when the king’s officers, who commanded the garrison of the port, despatched an armed bark to bring back their ship, with a strict injunction not to return without it. When this vessel came near the other, Poris exerted every effort to animate the rowers and sailors, and, raising his hands towards heaven, supplicated the gods for succour. Meanwhile, the woman, with desperate fury recurring to the shocking design, which she had long premeditated, dissolved some poison, and produced swords; then, placing the cup before their eyes, and unsheathing the swords, said, “These are the ways to death — our only refuge. Of these, let each take whichever he prefers; so shall you escape the tyranny of the king. Come, then, dear youths, let those of you who are the elder, first take the sword; or, if a slower death is your choice, the cup.” On one hand, the enemy were approaching fast; on the other, she, who urged them to despatch themselves, was instant; whereupon the young men, putting an end to their lives, some by the sword and some by the poison, were thrown, expiring, into the sea. Then, embracing her husband and companion in death, she plunged into the deep. The king’s people then took possession of the ship, in which they found not one of its owners.
V. The shocking circumstances of this transaction added fresh fuel to the flame of public resentment against the king, insomuch that most people imprecated curses on him and his children; which curses were heard by the gods, who soon after caused him to vent his cruelty on those of his own blood. For Perseus, perceiving that the popularity and high reputation of his brother Demetrius increased daily among the Macedonians; and also his interest with the Romans, saw no hope left to himself of obtaining the crown, except by some wicked device: he therefore bent all his thoughts to that one point. But, not thinking himself, alone, strong enough even for the dastardly project, which he meditated in his effeminate mind, he began to tamper with each of his father’s friends by dark hints and suggestions. At first, several of these showed an appearance of rejecting with aversion any such overtures, because they entertained higher expectations from Demetrius. Philip’s animosity to the Romans, however, increased every day — an animosity which Perseus fomented; but which Demetrius laboured, with all his might, to assuage. They foresaw therefore the fatal end of the youth, who used no precaution against the base designs of his brother; and thinking it prudent not to oppose what they judged must happen, and to support the pretensions of the more powerful, they united themselves to Perseus. Other measures they deferred to be executed each in its season; for the present, they determined to use every means to inflame the king’s anger towards the Romans, and to urge him to resolve on war, to which he was of himself very much inclined. At the same time, in order to aggravate his suspicions of Demetrius, they made it a practice in conversation to speak contemptuously of the Romans; some depreciating their manners and institutions, some their military achievements, some the appearance of the city itself unadorned, without either public or private structures; and others, some particular individuals among their principal men. On these occasions, the unwary young prince, out of affection to the Roman nation, and warmth of opposition to his brother, strongly maintained their cause, and by this means rendered himself more suspected by his father, and more obnoxious to injurious insinuations. Philip, therefore, kept him a stranger to all his designs respecting the Romans; and bestowing his entire confidence on Perseus, held with him, daily and nightly, deliberations on that subject. It happened, that some persons, whom he had sent to the Bastarnians, to solicit aid, came home at this time, and brought with them several young men of distinction, and some of the royal family; one of whom promised his sister in marriage to Philip’s son, and the close connection with that nation greatly raised the king’s spirits. Hereupon, Perseus said, “What does that avail? Foreign aids do not give us security, proportioned to the danger that threatens us from domestic treachery. I am unwilling to call him traitor, but a spy we certainly have in our bosom, and who, since he was a hostage at Rome, though the people returned us his person, has left his heart in their possession. Almost every Macedonian looks up to him, supposing that they are to have no other king than one given by the Romans.” By such discourses, the old man’s mind, distempered in itself, was stimulated to passion, and these imputations sunk deeper in his mind, than appeared from his countenance.
VI. The time of the purification of the army now arrived. The ceremony is thus performed:— A dog being cut asunder in the middle, the head, with the fore part and the entrails, is laid on the right side of the road, and the hind part on the left. Between the parts of the victim, thus divided, the forces march under arms. In the front of the van, are carried the remarkable suits of armour of all the kings of Macedonia, from the remotest origin; next follows the king himself, with his children; then the royal cohort and body guards, and the rest of the national troops close the rear. On this occasion, the king was accompanied by his two sons, one on each side of him; Perseus being now in his thirtieth year, Demetrius five years younger; the former in the full strength of manhood, the latter in its bloom; a ripe progeny, capable of rendering their father happy, if sound wisdom had regulated their conduct. The custom was, that when the purification was finished, the troops performed their exercise; and then, being divided into two equal parties, engaged in representation of a battle. The young princes were appointed commanders in this mock engagement; not indeed mock engagement, as it should have been; for the encounter was, as if they were fighting for the throne: many wounds were given with the foils, nor was any thing but sharp weapons wanting to render it a regular battle. The party under Demetrius had a great superiority; and, while Perseus was vexed thereat, his judicious friends rejoiced; and said, that that very cirsumstance would afford grounds for the heavier charges against his brother.
VII. Each of the princes gave an entertainment that day to the party, who had exercised under his command. Perseus was invited to supper by Demetrius, but refused; however, cheerful hospitality, on such a festival day; and youthful mirth, led both to drink freely of wine. The conversation of either party turned on the incidents of the mock engagement, and jocular remarks were thrown on their antagonists, without sparing even the commanders themselves. To listen and catch such expressions, a spy was sent from among the guests of Perseus; but not conducting himself with sufficient caution, he was detected by some young men who happened to come out of the banqueting-room, and severely beaten. Demetrius, knowing nothing of this matter, said, “Why don’t we go and join in merriment with my brother, assuaging, by our openness and candour, any remains of his anger that may subsist since the fight?” All cried out at once, that they would attend him, except those who were afraid of immediate vengeance for having beaten the spy. These, however, being pressed by Demetrius to go with the rest, concealed swords under their clothes, with which they might defend themselves if any violence should be offered. In the case of domestic discord, nothing can be kept secret. Both houses were full of spies and traitors. An informer ran on before to Perseus and told him, that four armed young men were coming with Demetrius. Though he well knew the reason of their fears, (for he had heard of the beaten given to his guest,) yet, for the purpose of giving the matter a bad colour, he ordered his gate to be locked, and from the windows facing the street he called aloud to the revellers, and as if they were come to murder him, not to approach the house. Demetrius, flushed with wine, exclaimed loudly on being shut out. He then went home to his own feast, entirely ignorant of the meaning of this proceeding.
VIII. Next day, Perseus, as soon as he could be admitted to his father’s presence, went into the palace; and with a countenance expressive of great perturbation, stood silent, at a distance. Philip asked him, “if all was well, and what was the cause of that sadness?” He answered, “I must tell you, that it is but by mere accident, that I am now alive. My brother attacks us, not with secret treachery; he came last night to my house, with men in arms, to take away my life; and it was by shutting the doors, and keeping the walls between me and him, that I saved myself from his fury.” As these words filled his father with horror, mixed with wonder, he added, if you can prevail on yourself to listen to me, I will give you the clearest proof of the matter.” Philip replied that he would certainly listen to him, and ordered Demetrius to be instantly summoned. He then sent for two friends of advanced age, Lysimachus and Onomastus, (who never interfered in the disputes of the brothers, and who of late had but seldom appeared in the palace,) that he might have the assistance of their advice. In the interim, he walked about, by himself, revolving many things in his mind. On being told that his friends were arrived, he retired with them into an inner apartment, attended by two of his lifeguards; at the same time permitting each of his sons to bring in three persons unarmed. Here, having taken his seat, he said, “Surely I am the most unhappy of fathers, sitting here as judge, between my two sons, on a charge of fratricide, made by one of them against the other; so that I must find in my nearest relations, the foul stam either of falsehood, or of wicked violence. This long time, indeed, I have apprehended an impending storm, not only from your countenances, which showed no sign of brotherly affection, but from some expressions which I have overheard. But I sometimes cherished the hope, that the heat of your resentments would cool, and that your mutual suspicions might be cleared up; for I considered, that even enemies lay down their arms and become friends; and I trusted that you would some time or other recal the memory of your fraternal relation to each other, of the open freedom and intimacy that subsisted between you in your boyish days; and finally, of my instructions, which, I fear, I have fruitlessly poured into deaf ears. How often have I, in your hearing, mentioned, with abhorrence, examples of discord between brothers, and recounted the dreadful consequences of them, by which themselves, their offspring, their houses, and their kingdoms, have been utterly ruined. I have represented, on the other hand, more laudable examples; the social intercourse between the two kings of the Lacedæmonians, beneficial to themselves and to their country for many ages; and where the custom of every one arbitrarily seizing on power, was quite overturned. Then, the brothers, Eumenes and Attalus, having raised their dominions (once so low, that they were almost ashamed of the title of king,) to an equality with mine, or with those of Antiochus, or indeed of any monarch of this age, and principally by brotherly concord. Nor did I decline showing you examples even from among the Romans; some that had fallen under my own observation, others that I had heard: as Titus and Lucius Quintius, who carried on the war with me; the two Scipios, Publius and Lucius, who vanquished Antiochus, and their father and uncle, whose sociality, maintained through life, was not broken even by death. But neither could the wickedness of the former, attended by a suitable issue, deter you from your foolish quarrels; nor could the sound judgment and good fortune of the latter, bend you to wisdom. While I am alive, and in health, you have both of you, in your hopes and wishes, laid hold on the succession. You wish me to live just so long as that, surviving one, I should, by my death, make the other king without a competitor. You cannot endure to have either brother or father. You have no sense of affection, or duty; your insatiable passion for rule, alone, has taken up the place of all other feelings. Come, then, contaminate your father’s ears, contend with mutual accusations, as you soon will with the sword; speak out whatever you can with truth, or whatever you may choose to invent. My ears are now open; but, henceforward, will be shut against all secret charges of one against the other.” On his uttering these words, with furious passion, every one present burst into tears, and for a long time kept a sorrowful silence.
IX. At length Perseus spoke to this effect: “I ought then, it seems, to have opened my gate in the night, to have admitted those armed revellers, and held out my throat to their swords; since nothing less than the perpetration of the deed can gain belief, and since I, against whom a murderous plot was levelled, am accosted in the same language as if I were a robber and an assassin. It is not without reason, that people say that you have but one son, Demetrius; and that I am suppositious, and born of a concubine; for if I held in your breast the rank of a son, or the affection due to one, you would wreak your anger not on me, who, on detecting a plot against my life, make my complaint, but on him who was the author of it: nor would myself be, so cheap in your eyes, as that you should neither be moved by the danger which I have already undergone, nor by that to which I must be exposed in future, if the assassins are permitted to go unpunished. If therefore it be our doom to die in silence, let us only pray the gods, that the wicked design aimed at me may end with me; and that you be not wounded through my sides. But if, as nature itself dictates to people, encompassed with perils in a desert place, to implore aid from men whom they had never seen, so I, on finding a sword drawn against me, may be allowed to raise my voice. I beseech you then, by your own person, by the name of father, (and you long know which of us reveres that title most,) that you may hear me in the same manner, as you would if roused by calls and outcries, you had come up, when I was crying for help, and in the dead of night had found Demetrius, with armed men, in the porch of my house. What I should at that time, and in that case, have exclaimed against with terror, I now next day, lay before you in form of a complaint. Brother, it is long since you and I lived together on the terms of mutual hospitality; your chief wish is to be king; your hopes on that head meet obstacles in my age, in the law of nations, in the ancient practice of Macedonia, as well as in my father’s judgment. These you can surmount by no other means than by shedding my blood. To this end, you leave no scheme or effort untried. Hitherto, either my care or fortune has kept me from destruction. Yesterday, on occasion of the purification the military exercise and mock representation of a fight, you brought on almost a bloody battle; nor was I saved from death by any other means than by suffering myself and my party to be overcome. After this pretending brotherly sport, you wanted to drag me to your house to supper. Father, can you suppose I should have met there unarmed guests, when they came, in arms, to my house to drink with me? Do you think there would have been no danger in the night from their swords, when, before, they were near killing me with foils? Why, Demetrius did you come at that time of night; why, an enemy come to a person provoked; why with young men in arms? I did not dare to trust myself with you as a guest, and shall I admit you to drink with me, when you come surrounded with armed men? Father, if the gate had been open, you would at this moment bepreparing my funeral, instead of hearing my complaint. I do not as an accuser urge any thing for the purpose of aggravation; neither do I put together doubtful circumstances, in a train of artful arguments. For what can he say? Does he deny that he came to my gate with a large party, or that there were armed men with him? Send for the persons; I will name them. I know that they who dared to make this attempt, dare to do any thing; nevertheless, they will not dare to contradict what I say. If I brought before you any who had been caught within my doors, in arms, you would consider this as full proof; and you ought to consider those who make confession of what I have charged them with, in the same light, as if actually caught in the fact.
X. “Father! your curses should fall on the ambition for rule. Call up the furies, the avengers of the wrongs of brothers; but let not your curses be undiscriminating. Examine and distinguish between the plotter and the person plotted against, and pour them on the guilty head. Let him, who intended to kill a brother, feel the wrath of the gods, and of his father also; and let him, who was to have perished by a brother’s wickedness, find refuge in his father’s compassion and justice. For where else shall I seek refuge, who cannot find safety in the solemn purification of your army, in the exercise of the troops, in my own house, in a feast, nor in the night, which nature’s bounty granted to mankind for a season of repose. If I go to my brother, according to his invitation, I must die. If I admit my brother to a party of pleasure within my own gates, I must die. Neither by going, nor by staying, can I escape treacherous plots. Whither then shall I betake me? Father, your favour only have I ever courted, and that of the gods. I have not the Romans to fly to. They wish my destruction, because I grieve at the injuries which they have done to you; because I resent your being deprived of so many cities, so many nations, and but the other day, of the coast of Thrace. They have no hope that Macedonia will ever be their property, while either you or I are safe. But, if I should be taken off by the wickedness of my brother, and you by old age; or if even this should not be waited for, they know that both the king and kingdom of Macedonia will become theirs. If the Romans had left you any thing beyond the limits of Macedonia, I would suppose that I might there find shelter. But I have protection enough in the Macedonians. You were an eyewitness yesterday of the attack made on me by the soldiers. What did they want but pointed weapons, to complete the business. And what they wanted, in the day, my brother’s guests took to themselves in the night. Why need I mention the greater part of the nobles, who have placed all their hopes of wealth and preferment in the Romans, and in him, who can do every thing with the Romans? Nor, in truth, do they prefer him merely to me, his elder brother, but, in some measure, to yourself, his king and father. For he is the person, out of regard to whom the senate remitted to you the intended punishment, who now screens you from the Roman arms; who thinks it fit that your advanced age should be under obligation to, and under control of his youth. He is supported by the Romans, by all the cities liberated from your jurisdiction, by the Macedonians who are pleased at the peace with Rome. For me, where is there either hope or support of any kind, except in you, my father.
XI. “What do you suppose to be the intention of the letter sent to you lately by Titus Quintius, in which he not only says, that you acted wisely for your own interest in sending Demetrius to Rome, but also advises you to send him back again, with a greater number of ambassadors, and even the first men of Macedonia? Titus Quintius is now his counsellor, and master, in every thing. You, his father, he has renounced, and has substituted Quintius in your place. Rome is the principal place, where their secret plans are digested. When he desires you to send greater numbers, and the chief men of Macedonia, he is seeking assistance in their schemes. For those, who go thither, pure and uncorrupt, and satisfied that you are really their king, return tainted and infected by Roman poisons. Demetrius alone is every thing with them. They give him the title of king, even in his father’s lifetime. If I express my indignation at these things, I am charged with being ambitious for rule; not only by others, but, father, even by you. But this charge, if made against both, I do not admit; for whom do I disturb from his place, that I may succeed in his room? My father alone is before me; and that he may long be so, I beseech the gods. If I survive him, (and so may I survive him, as I shall deserve that himself may wish it,) I shall receive the crown, if my father devises it to me. He covets rule, and covets it with a criminal passion, who hastily over-leaps the order of age, of nature, of the Macedonian customs, and of the laws of nations. An elder brother stands in his way; to whom by right, and by the choice of his father, the succession belongs. Let us, he cries, put him out of the way. I shall not be the first that acquired a kingdom by killing a brother. My father being old, and left alone by his son’s death, will rather fear for himself, than revenge the death of his son. The Romans will rejoice, they will approve, they will support the act. Father, these prospects are uncertain, but they are not without grounds. For the matter stands thus: it is in your power to ward off danger,by punishing those who took arms to kill me; but should their villainy succeed, it will not then be in your power to take vengeance for my death.”
XII. When Perseus ceased speaking, the eyes of all present were turned on Demetrius, as they expected from him an immediate reply: but he kept silence for a long time. It was evident that, drowned as he was in tears, he had not power to utter a word; but, at last, the necessity that called on him to speak, overcame his grief, and he expressed himself thus: “Father, all the aids of which persons accused could heretofore have availed themselves, my brother has taken from me, and converted to his own purpose. By his tears, counterfeited for the purpose of working another’s ruin, he has caused my real tears to be suspected by you. Although, ever since my return from Rome, he has employed himself night and day in plotting my destruction, and holding, for that end, secret consultations with his confederates, yet he now represents me in the character, not only of a conspirator, but of an open assassin and murderer. He terrifies you with his danger, in order to hasten through your means the ruin of an innocent brother. He asserts, that he has no place of refuge in the world, in order to cut off any remains of hope, which I might have, even in you. Circumvented, unsupported, and helpless as I am, he loads me with injurious imputations, respecting interest with foreigners, which, instead of proving useful, is detrimental to me. Then, with what unfair artifice does he act, in blending the charge of last night with invectives against the rest of my conduct; with design, on the one hand, by his representation of the tenor of my behaviour, in other particulars, to throw a colour of guilt on the former, the true nature of which you shall soon understand; and, on the other hand, to support the other groundless insinuations respecting my views, wishes, and designs by this latter, fictitious, fabricated story. He had, at the same time, a farther design; that his accusation might appear to be sudden and unpremediated, as if occasioned by sudden fright and disturbance in the night. But, Perseus, if I were a traitor against my father and his government; if I had formed connections with the Romans, or with others, enemies of my father, the tale of last night ought not to have been waited for; I ought to have been long ago brought to answer for my treason. And if the other charge were unfounded, and tended to discover your ill will towards me, rather than my guilt, it ought on the present day also, to be either omitted or postponed; in order that it might clearly appear, whether I plotted against you; or you, with indeed a strange and singular kind of hatred, against me. However, I will, as well as I am able, in my present unforeseen perturbation of mind, distinguish those matters, which you have confounded; and I will unveil the plot of the preceding evening, whether mine or yours. Perseus wishes it to be believed, that I had formed a design to take his life, with the view, it seems, that having removed the elder brother, to whom by the law of nations, by the custom of Macedonia, and likewise by your judgment, as he says the kingdom was to devolve, I the younger, should succeed in the room of him whom I had slain. What, then, can be the meaning of that other part of his speech, where he says, that I courted the favour of the Romans, and from my reliance on them, conceived hopes of the crown? For, if I believed that the Romans possessed such influence, that they could impose on Macedonia whatever king they pleased, and if I had such confidence in my interest with them, what need was there of fratricide? Could it be my wish to wear a diadem stained with a brother’s blood, or to become odious and execrable, in the eyes of those very people, with whom, whatever share of interest I might happen to have, was procured by either real, or at least, affected integrity of conduct? Can this be possible, I say, unless you believe that Titus Quintius, by whose counsels and advice you allege I am at present governed, though he lives on a footing of such cordial affection with his own brother, would recommend to me to murder mine? He has assembled together for me, not only the favour of the Romans, but the opinions of the Macedonians, and the concurring sentiments almost of all the gods, and of all mankind, by reason of all which he cannot believe that he would prove equal to me in the competition. Yet the same man accuses me of having, (while sensible of my inferiority to him in every mode of proceeding,) had recourse to an act of wickedness as my only resource. Are you satisfied, that the decision between us shall be made on this principle, that whichever feared lest the other should seem more worthy of the throne, shall be deemed guilty of designing his brother’s destruction?
XIII. “But let us examine the process of this accusation, in whatever manner it has been fabricated. He has arraigned me of attempting his life, in several different methods; and all these modes of attack he has brought within the compass of one day. I intended to kill him in the middle of the day; in the course of the exercises; and, in preference of all other days, on that of the purification. I intended, when I invited him to supper, to take him off by poison. I intended, when some armed persons followed me to join his party in their conviviality, to kill him with the sword. You see what sort of opportunities were chosen for this murder; those of sport, feasting, and revelling, and on what days, or on what sort of a day! On the day, in which the army was purified; in which, after the royal armour of all the former kings in Macedonia was carried in procession between the divided parts of the victim, when he and I, only, rode along with you, father, at your sides, and the body of the Macedonian troops followed. Now, even supposing that I had formerly been guilty of some crime, could I, after being purified and expiated in this sacred solemnity, at the very time when I was looking at the victim laid on each side of our road, revolve in my mind fratricide; could I have poisons and swords prepared against the feast? With what other sacred rights could I afterwards atone for the guilt of a mind thus contaminated with every kind of villainy? But his understanding is so blinded by eagerness to turn every thing into a crime, that he confounds one thing with another. For if, Perseus, I intended to take you off by poison, what could be more incongruous with my design, than to provoke you to rage by an obstinate contest and fight? Ought I to have given you reason to refuse, as you did, my invitation to supper? But when, in your anger, you had refused, whether ought I to have taken pains to pacify you, that I might find another opportunity, since I had got the poison ready, or to fly off at once to another plan of killing you with the sword, and on that same day, under pretence of feasting with you? If I thought that you declined supping with me, through fear for your life, how could I suppose that you would not, through the same fear, have declined admitting me to drink with you.
XIV. “Father, I have no cause to blush, that on a festival day, among companions of my own age, I should have indulged too freely in wine; and I wish you would inquire what cheerfulness and mirth prevailed, in yesterday’s entertainment, at my house, heightened too by our joy, perhaps a blameable one, for our party not having been worsted in the fight. My present misfortune, and my fears, have effectually dissipated the fumes of the liquor; but, if these had not intervened, we, the conspirators, would have been now lying fast asleep. If, Perseus, I designed to storm your house, and after taking it, to kill the owner, ought I not to have refrained from wine for that one day, and to have kept my soldiers sober? That I should not be the only one to defend my cause with excessive candour, my brother himself, not in the least inclined to malice or suspicion, says, I know nothing more, I charge them with nothing more, than that they came in arms to drink with me. If I should ask, how come you acquainted with that circumstance? you must necessarily acknowledge, either that my house was full of your spies, or that my companions took arms so openly, as that every one could know their purpose. Lest he should seem to argue, with an intention to aggravate guilt, he desires you to inquire from the persons, whom he would name, whether they had carried swords, in order that, in such a case, and respecting a fact which themselves confess, I might be deemed convicted. Why, Perseus, do you not rather desire inquiry to be made, whether they carried swords for the purpose of killing you? whether, by my directions and knowledge? for this is what you wish to be believed, and not what they will confess, and what is, indeed, notorious, that they carried them for the purpose of defending themselves. Whether they acted right or wrong, let them account for their own conduct. My cause, which is in no way affected by this act, you ought not to have blended with it; or you ought to have explained, whether we intended to attack you openly or secretly. If openly, why did we not all carry swords, and not those only who had beaten your spy? If privately, what was our plan? Were four to remain, when the banquet broke up, and I, your guest, had departed, in order to fall on you in your sleep? How would they have escaped detection, as being strangers, and belonging to me; and, above all, being liable to suspicion, on account of their having been in a quarrel a little before? And how were they to escape after having killed you? Was your house so weakly defended, as that it could be stormed by the aid of four swords.
XV. “Drop then, that fable of last night; and recur to what really grieves you, what kindles your envy. Say — Why, Demetrius, is mention made any where of your mounting the throne? Why do you appear, to some, more worthy to succeed to your father’s dignity than I? Why do you disturb, with doubt and anxiety, my hopes which would be certain if you were not in being? These are the thoughts of Perseus, though he does not express them; these make him my enemy, these my accuser; these, my father, fill your house, these fill your kingdom with accusations and suspicions. But as I ought not now to hope for the crown, or perhaps ever to think of a competition for it, being, as I am, the younger brother, and it being your will that I should yield to the elder; so neither ought I, at any former time, or at the present, to act in such a manner, as to appear undeserving of having you for my father, and of all the other blessings of my life. That would be the consequence of vicious conduct in me, not of moderation, and of yielding to him, to whom the laws, divine and human, order me to give place. I am upbraided in regard to the Romans; and what ought to be deemed an honour, is turned into a crime. It was not at my request, that I was either delivered a hostage to the Romans, or sent ambassador to Rome. Being commissioned by you, I did not refuse to go. On both occasions, I conducted myself in such a manner, as to be no disgrace to you, to your kingdom, or to the Macedonian nation. You, therefore, father, have been the cause of my friendship with the Romans. As long as peace shall subsist between you and them, so long will I also continue in friendship with them; but, if war should arise, I, who have been there a hostage, and no unprofitable ambassador in my father’s behalf, will be their most determined enemy. Nor do I, this day, require, that the favour of the Romans should be any advantage to me; I only deprecate its being made detrimental. It neither commenced in war, nor is it meant to subsist in war. I was a pledge of peace; and, to procure a continuance of peace, I was sent ambassador. Let neither be esteemed an honour or a crime. Father, if I have been guilty of any undutiful behaviour towards you, or any criminal behaviour towards my brother, there is no punishment to which I will not submit without murmuring. If I am innocent, let me not, I beseech you, be destroyed by envy. My brother’s accusation, this day, is not the first that he has brought against me; but it is the first made openly, and is entirely undeserved by me. If my father were angry with me, it would become the elder brother to intercede for the younger, to obtain pardon for his youth and for his error; but, in the very person, from whom I ought to receive protection, in him I meet my ruin. From a feast, and intemperate drinking, I have been hurried, almost half asleep, to defend myself against a charge of fratricide. Without advocates, without patrons, I am compelled to plead my own cause. If I were to speak for another, I would have taken time to study and compose my discourse; though, in that case, I should run no other hazard than that of my reputation for abilities. But before I knew the reason of being summoned hither, I heard you in a paroxysm of passion, ordering me to account for my conduct and my brother accusing me. He employed, against me, a speech, long before prepared and studied; while I had no longer time for learning the nature of the case, than while the charges against me were recited. During that short space, whether should I listen to my accuser, or study a defence? Thunderstruck by the sudden and unthought-of calamity, I was scarcely capable of understanding what was alleged against me, much less of settling properly, in my mind, what defence I should make. What hope, indeed, could I have, if my judge were not my father; with whom, though my elder brother has the advantage of a larger share in his affection, yet surely, standing thus accused, I ought not to meet a less share of compassion. For my prayer is, that you would save me, for my sake, and for your own; he demands, that for his security, you should put me to death. In what manner, do you think, will he act, when you shall deliver the kingdom into his hands, who, even now, thinks it reasonable that he should be gratified with my blood?” While he was proceeding in this manner, his voice was stopped by a flood of tears. Philip ordered Perseus and Demetrius to withdraw; and after conferring a short time with his friends, declared, that “he could not, from a single hour’s discussion, form a definite judgment on the cause between them. This could only be done by a scrutiny into the conduct and manners of both, and a close observation of their words and actions, on all occasions, great and small.” From which it appeared clearly to every one, that the charge relating to the preceding night, was effectually refuted; but that Demetrius was viewed with jealously, as too closely connected with the Romans. Such were the seeds of a Macedonian war, which were sowed during the life-time of Philip, though they did not ripen into effect until the government fell into the hands of Perseus, with whom it was waged.
XVI. Both the consuls went into Liguria, at that time, the only consular province. Their successes there occasioned a supplication of one day to be decreed. About two thousand Ligurians came to the extreme borders of the Gallic province, where Marcellus lay encamped, and requested him to receive their submission. Marcellus ordered them to wait where they were, and sent a letter to the senate, desiring to know their pleasure. The senate ordered Marcus Ogulnius, prætor, to write back to Marcellus, that “it would have been more proper for the consuls, whose province it was, than for them, to have determined what, in this case, was for the public advantage. That, however, as the matter stood, it was their opinion, that the submission of the Ligurians should be received; that their arms should be taken from them, and sent to the consuls.” The prætors arrived at the same time, in Spain; Publius Manlius, in the farther province, which he had governed in his former prætorship, and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, in the hither one, where he received the command of the army from Terentius; the farther province, by the death of the proprætor, Publius Sempronius, having been left without a governor. While Fulvius Flaccus was besieging a town of the Spaniards, called Urbicua, he was attacked by the Celtiberians. Many severe actions were fought on the occasion, and many of the Romans killed and wounded. Nothing, however, could prevail on Fulvius to raise the siege; and, by perseverance, he carried his point. The Celtiberians, wearied out with so many battles, retired; and the city, having lost their assistance, was, within a few days after, taken and sacked, when the prætor bestowed the booty on the soldiers. Fulvius, after reducing this town, sent his forces into winter quarters; and Publius Manlius did the same, without having performed any thing worth mention: for all that he did was, to collect, into one body, the troops which had been scattered in various places. Such were the transactions of that summer in Spain. Terentius, who had come home from that province, entered the city in ovation. He carried in the procession nine thousand three hundred and twenty pounds weight of silver, eighty pounds weight of gold, and two golden crowns of the weight of sixty-seven pounds.
XVII. This year the Romans were arbitrators in a dispute, subsisting between the people of Carthage and king Masinissa, about a tract of ground. This ground, Gala, father of Masinissa, had taken from the Carthaginians. Syphax had expelled Gala, and, afterwards, from respect to his father-in-law, Hasdrubal, had made a present of it to the Carthaginians. In the present year, Masinissa had expelled the Carthaginians. This matter was debated before the Roman deputies, with no less violent heat than had animated the parties when engaged in the field. The Carthaginians reclaimed the ground, first, as having been the property of their ancestors; and next, on the title which they had derived from Syphax. Masinissa urged, that “he had retaken possession of it as part of his father’s kingdom, and held it under the law of nations; and that he had the advantage, both in the merits of his cause, and, in the present possession. That, in this discussion, he had no other fear, than lest the moderation of the Romans might operate to his loss, making them dread the appearance of any partiality to a king who was their friend and ally, in prejudice to the common enemy of him and them.” The deputies did not alter the right of possession, but remitted the cause entire to the senate at Rome. There was nothing done afterwards, in Liguria. The inhabitants, at first, retired into remote forests; and, afterwards, disbanding their army, separated, and went off to their several forts and villages. The consuls, too, wished to disband their forces, and wrote to the senate for orders; but the senate directed, that one of them should discharge his troops, and come to Rome to elect magistrates for the year; and that the other, with his legions, should pass the winter at Pisæ. A report prevailed, that the transalpine Gauls were arming their young men, and it was not known, on what quarter of Italy, that multitude would pour itself. The consuls settled the matter between them — that Cneius Bæbius should go home to the elections; his brother, Marcus Bæbius, being a candidate for the consulship.
Y. R. 571.
181.XVIII. The assembly for the election of consuls was then held, and Publius Cornelius Cethegus
and Marcus Bæbius Tamphilus were chosen. The prætors afterwards elected were, Quintus Fabius Maximus, Quintus Fabius
Buteo, Caius Claudius Nero, Quintus Petillius Spurinus, Marcus Pinarius Posca, and Lucius Duronius. When the
magistrates entered into office, the lots disposed of the provinces thus: to the consuls, Liguria, to Quintus
Petillius, the city jurisdiction; to Quintus Fabius Maximus, the foreign; to Quintus Fabius Buteo, Gaul; to Caius
Claudius Nero, Sicily; to Marcus Pinarius, Sardinia: and to Lucius Duronius, Apulia, to which was annexed Istria,
information being received, from Tarentum and Brundusium, that the country on the sea-coasts was infested by foreign
pirates. The Massilians made the same complaint, with regard to the ships of the Ligurians. The armies were then voted
to the consuls, four Roman legions, each consisting of five thousand two hundred foot, and three hundred horse; and, of
the allies and Latines, fifteen thousand foot, and eight hundred horse. In the two Spains, the prætors were continued
in command, with the armies which they then had; and an augmentation was voted for them, amounting to three thousand
Roman foot, with two hundred horse, and six thousand foot and three hundred horse, of the Latine confederates. Nor was
the business of the fleet neglected. The consuls were ordered to constitute duumvirs for conducting it; and these were
to man twenty ships, which they launched, with Roman citizens, who had been in servitude, only taking care that the
officers should be men of free birth. The duumvirs, each at the head of ten ships, took separate parts of the sea coast
under their protection, so that the promontory of Minerva formed the point of division between them; one was to defend
the part on the right, as far as Marseilles; the other, that on the left, to the town of Barium.
XIX. Many alarming prodigies were seen at Rome this year, and others reported from abroad. A shower of blood fell in the courts of the temples of Vulcan and Concord, and the priests reported that spears moved in the hands of the statues, and that the image of Juno Sospita at Lanuvium shed tears. There was a pestilence in the country, in the market towns and villages; and so violent was it, in the city, that people could scarcely be found to bury the dead. These prodigies, and the mortality, alarmed the senate so much, that they ordered the consuls to sacrifice to such gods, as their judgment should direct, victims of the larger kinds, and that the decemvirs should consult the books. Pursuant to their direction, a supplication for one day was proclaimed, to be performed at every shrine in Rome; and they advised, besides, and the senate voted, and the consuls proclaimed, that there should be a supplication, and public worship, for three days, throughout all Italy. The pestilence raged with so great fury, that when, in consequence of the revolt of the Corsicans, and a war raised in Sardinia by the Ibians, an order was passed for raising, from among the Latines, eight thousand foot and three hundred horse, to be carried into Sardinia, with Pinarius the prætor; — the consuls returned a representation, that so great a number of men had died and so many were sick, in every place, that such a body of soldiers could not be collected. On this, the prætor was ordered to take from Cneius Bæbius, proconsul, who was in winter quarters at Pisæ, as many soldiers as would make up the deficiency, and then to sail to Sardinia. Lucius Duronius, the prætor, to whose lot Apulia had fallen, received also a charge to make inquiry concerning the Bacchanalians, for some remaining seeds of the evils, formerly excited by those people, had shown themselves there the year before. The inquiries, though commenced under the prætor, Lucius Pupius, had yet been brought to no issue; the senate therefore ordered the new prætor to cut up that evil by the roots, so that it should never spread again. The consuls, also, by direction of the senate, proposed to the people certain laws concerning canvassing for elections.
XX. They next introduced the embassies to audience. And first, those of the kings Eumenes and Ariarathes, the Cappadocian; and Pharnaces, of Pontus. No farther answer was given to these, than that the senate would send persons to examine, and decide, their disputes. Ambassadors from the Lacedæmonian exiles, and from the Achæans, were next brought in. Hopes were given to the exiles, that the senate would write to the Achæans to procure their restoration. The Achæans gave an account, to the satisfaction of the senate, of the recovery of Messene, and the settlement of affairs there. From Philip, king of Macedonia, came two ambassadors also — Philocles and Apelles; not on any business with the senate, but rather to pry into and inquire concerning the correspondence with the Romans, of which Perseus had accused Demetrius, and, particularly, into that with Titus Quintius, concerning the kingdom, to the supposed prejudice of his brother. The king had employed these men, believing them unbiassed in respect of either party; but they were accomplices and agents of Perseus, in his treacherous designs. Demetrius ignorant of all, except the villainous scheme of his brother, which had lately broke out, at first, neither utterly despaired, nor yet entertained much hope, of effecting a reconciliation with his father; but, afterwards, he trusted, less and less, every day, to Philip’s affection, having observed that he was closely beset by Perseus. Wherefore, not to increase the suspicions he laboured under, he used extreme circumspection, in all his words and actions, and carefully avoided all mention of, and communication with, the Romans; refraining even from receiving letters from them, as he knew that charges, of this nature, exasperated his father more than any thing else.
XXI. Philip, in order to prevent his troops from being enervated by inactivity, and, at the same time, to avert all suspicion of his harbouring any design of a war with Rome, ordered his army to assemble at Stobi, in Pæonia; and thence he led it on into Mædica. He had been seized with an earnest desire of ascending to the summit of Mount Hemus, for he gave credit to a vulgar opinion, that from thence could be seen at once the Pontic and Adriatic seas, the river Danube, and the Alps; and he thought that the having a view of all those places, would be of no small consequence towards forming his plans of a war with Rome. On inquiry, from people acquainted with the country, respecting this mount, he was told that there was no way by which an army could go up it; but that a small party, lightly accoutred, might, though with great difficulty, climb to the top. Then, wishing to soothe, with familiar discourse, his younger son, whom he had determined not to take with him, he, first, asked his opinion, “whether, as the difficulty of the journey was represented to be so great, he ought to persist in his design, or not?” He added, that, “if he should resolve to proceed, he could not forget the caution of Antigonus, respecting undertakings of that kind; who, having all his family on board the same ship with him, and being tossed about by a violent storm, was said to have advised his sons, to remember, and hand down to their children, this maxim: never, in cases of danger, to hazard themselves, and their whole family together. He would therefore attend to this warning, and not expose his two sons at once to those perils, which were represented to lie in his way; and as he meant to take his elder son with him, he would send back the younger into Macedonia, as a reserve to his hopes, and as guardian of the kingdom.” Demetrius perceived clearly that he was sent out of the way, that he might not be present at their deliberations, when, with the above mentioned places in their view, they should consult which were the shortest roads to the Adriatic sea and to Italy, and what was the general plan to be pursued in the war. He was obliged however not only to obey his father on the occasion, but to express his approbation of the measure, lest a reluctant obedience might beget suspicion. To secure his safety on the road to Macedonia, Didas, one of the king’s general officers, and governor of Pæonia, was ordered to escort him with a small party of men. This man had united with Perseus, in the conspiracy to ruin his brother, as had likewise most of his father’s friends, as soon as they discovered plainly from the bent of the king’s inclination, which of the two was to inherit the throne; and Perseus charged him on this occasion, to insinuate himself by every kind of obsequiousness into the most familiar communication with Demetrius, so as to draw from him all his secrets, and to pry into his hidden thoughts. The prince, therefore, set out with a guard, which exposed him to greater dangers than he would have had to encounter if he had gone alone.
XXII. Philip marched first into Mædica, then across the deserts, that lie between Mædica and Hemus; and, at length, on the evening of the seventh day, he reached the foot of the mountain. There he halted one day, to make choice of those who were to accompany him, and on the next, proceeded on his journey. At first, while they ascended the lower parts of the hills, the fatigue was moderate; but, as they advanced upwards, they found the ground more thickly covered with woods, and in many places impassable. They then came to a part where the way was shaded by the thickness of the trees, and the branches so interwoven with each other, that they could hardly see the sky; but when they had nearly reached the top, what is rarely seen in other places, the whole tract was covered with a thick fog, so as to render their advancing no less difficult than if it had been night. At last, on the third day, they arrived at the summit. On coming down, they said nothing to discountenance the vulgar opinion, being unwilling, I suppose, to expose the journey to ridicule, and not because it was there possible to see those seas, and mountains, and rivers, so widely distant from each other. They were all greatly fatigued by the difficulty of the way; and chiefly the king himself, whose great age rendered him less qualified for active exertions. After sacrificing to Jupiter and the sun, on two altars which he consecrated on the spot, he descended in two days, though the ascent had cost him three; for he was particularly afraid of the night air, for though the dog star was now risen, the cold was as intense as in winter. After struggling with numerous hardships, he found his camp in a condition not more pleasing, for, as it lay in a country inclosed on all sides by deserts, it laboured under extreme want of every thing. He halted therefore but one day, to refresh those who had attended him, and then hastened away into the country of the Dentheletians, with all the precipitation of flight. These were allies, but the Macedonians, to supply their own necessities, plundered their country, as if it belonged to an enemy, for they first pillaged the country houses, and afterwards several villages, overwhelming the king with shame, when he heard the cries of his allies, calling, in vain, on the gods who witnessed their league, and on himself, by name. Having carried off corn from hence, he marched back into Mædica, and laid siege to a town called Petra. He pitched his camp in a plain, and sent his son Perseus with a small party, to attack the city, from higher ground. The townsmen, pressed by danger on all sides, gave hostages, and, for the present, surrendered themselves; but as soon as the army retired, regardless of the hostages, they deserted the city, and fled into fastnesses and mountains. Philip returned to Macedonia, having exhausted his troops by every kind of fatigue, without effecting any purpose, and with his suspicions of his son augmented through the treachery of the governor Didas.
XXIII. This man being sent, as before mentioned, to escort Demetrius, had, by flattering discourses, and even expressing his own indignation at the treatment shown him, imposed on the open temper of the youth, who was too much off his guard, and justly incensed against his relations; and by a voluntary offer of his assistance in all his measures, and giving a solemn assurance of fidelity, he prevailed on him to disclose his secrets. Demetrius was meditating flight to Rome; and he thought himself indebted to the kindness of the gods for sending him such an assistant in that design as the governor of Pæonia; — through whose province he supposed he might make his escape. This scheme was immediately betrayed to his brother, and, by his direction, discovered to his father. The information was conveyed by letter to the king, while he was besieging Petra; and, in consequence of it, Herodotus, who was the most intimate friend of Demetrius, was taken into custody, and an order was given that Demetrius himself should be guarded, without his perceiving it. These occurrences, added to what had passed before, made the king return into Macedonia with his heart burthened with grief. He thought the present charges required attention; yet he resolved to wait the return of those, whom he had sent to Rome, to procure intelligence of every particular. After he had passed several months under this uneasiness and anxiety, the ambassadors, who had preconcerted, before they left Macedonia, what information they should bring home from Rome, at last arrived. Besides other grounds of accusation, they produced to the king a forged letter, sealed with a counterfeit seal of Titus Quintius. In this letter was a kind of interceding apology, that if the young prince, misled by the ambition of reigning, had offered some propositions to him on the subject, yet he was sure that “Demetrius would never attempt any thing against his relations; and that, for himself, he never could be supposed to recommend undutiful proceedings.” This letter was deemed a full confirmation of the charges made by Perseus; Herodotus was, therefore, immediately put to the rack, which he endured a long time, and died under the torture, without making any kind of discovery.
XXIV. Perseus now brought before his father a second formal accusation against Demetrius. His intention of flying through Pæonia was alleged against him, and his having bribed certain persons to accompany him on the journey; but, what bore hardest on him, was, the forged letter of Titus Quintius. There was, however, no severe sentence pronounced openly, it being rather chosen to take away his life by secret means, in the fear, lest the inflicting punishment on him might be the means of divulging their designs against the Romans. The king himself having occasion to go from Thessalonica to Demetrias, sent Demetrius, with the same attendant Didas, to Asterium in Pæonia, and Perseus to Amphipolis, to receive hostages from the Thracians, and is said, on parting with Didas, to have given him directions to put his son to death. Didas either intended to perform a sacrifice, or made a pretence of doing so, and Demetrius, being invited to be present at the solemnity, came from Asterium to Heraclea. There, as we are told, poison was given him at supper. The moment he had swallowed the draught, he was conscious of its deadly property: and being quickly after seized with violent pains, retired to a chamber, where he continued for some time in agony, complaining of the cruelty of his father, inveighing against the fratricide of Perseus, and the villainy of Didas. Then, one Thyrsis of Stubera, and one Alexander of Berœa, were sent in, who, covering his head and mouth, with blankets, suffocated him. In this manner perished that innocent youth, his enemies not even contenting themselves with a common kind of murder.
XXV. While these matters passed in Macedonia, Lucius Æmilius Paullus, being, on the expiration of his consulate, continued in command, led his army, early in spring, into the country of the Ingaunian Ligurians. He had no sooner pitched his camp in the enemy’s territory, than ambassadors came to him, under pretext of suing for peace, but, in reality, as spies. Paullus declared, that he would enter into no treaty whatever, unless they first surrendered: to this they did not object, but said, that it would require time to procure the consent of such a rude kind of people. For that purpose, a suspension of arms, for ten days, was granted; and then, they farther requested, that his men might not go beyond the mountains, for wood or forage, for that was the part of their lands which they had under tillage. This being complied with, they collected all their forces behind those mountains, which they had prevented the Romans from approaching; and, on a sudden, with a vast multitude, assaulted every gate of this camp at once. During that whole day, they prosecuted the attack with such vigour, that Paullus had not time to march out of the camp, nor room to draw out his troops: so that they were obliged to defend their camp, by standing so thick together, in the gates, as to stop the passage, rather than by fighting. The enemy, retiring a little before sunset, the general despatched two horsemen to Pisæ, to Cneius Bæbius, proconsul, with a letter, requesting him to come, with all speed, to his relief, as the Ligurians had besieged him, in the midst of a truce. Bæbius had given up his army to Marcus Pinarius, the prætor, who was going into Sardinia, but he informed the senate by letter that Lucius Æmilius was besieged by the Ligurians, and also wrote to Marcus Claudius Marcellus, whose province lay the nearest, that, if he thought proper, he should march his army out of Gaul into Liguria, and to the relief of Æmilius. These succours would have come too late. The Ligurians returned, next day, to the attack of the camp. Æmilius, who was aware of this, and who could have drawn out his army to meet them, yet kept his men within the lines, for he wished to protract the business until such time as Bæbius should come with his army from Pisæ.
XXVI. Bæbius’s letter caused a great alarm, and it was increased by this circumstance, that, in a few days after, Marcellus coming to Rome, having given up the command of the army to Fabius, banished all hope of a possibility of the forces, then in Gaul, being removed into Liguria; for hostilities had commenced with the Istrians, who obstructed the settlement of the colony of Aquileia; and, as Fabius had led his army thither, he could not quit that country, now that the war was begun. There was but one thing that could afford any hope of relief, and even that too slow for the exigency of the case — this was, that the consuls might hasten their march into that province, and the senators earnestly pressed them to do so. But the consuls declared that they would not set out until the levies were completed, and that no indolence in them, but the violence of the epidemic sickness, was the cause of their delaying so long. However, they could not withstand the united wishes of the whole senate, in urging them to depart in the military habit, and to publish an order to the troops which they had enlisted, to assemble at Pisæ, on a certain day. Authority was given them to enlist soldiers for the occasion, on the road, and to take them with them. Orders were likewise issued to the prætors, Quintus Petillius, and Quintus Fabius, that Petillius should raise two tumultuary legions of Roman citizens, and compel every person under fifty years of age to enlist; and that Fabius should demand from the Latine allies, fifteen thousand foot, and eight hundred horse. Commanders were appointed to the fleet — Caius Matienus, and Caius Lucretius, and ships were put in readiness for them. Matienus, whose station was at the Gallic bay, was ordered to lead his squadron, with all expedition, to the coast of Liguria, and to try if he could be of any service to Lucius Æmilius and his army.
XXVII. Æmilius, seeing no appearance of succour from any quarter, supposed that his couriers had been intercepted. He resolved, therefore, to wait no longer, but to make a trial of fortune by himself; and for this purpose, before the coming of the enemy, who now made their attacks with less briskness and vigour, he drew up his troops at the four gates, that, on a signal being given, they might sally out from all sides at once. To four independent cohorts of auxiliaries, he added two others, and gave the command to Marcus Valerius, lieutenant-general, with orders to make his sally by the prætorian gate. At the right gate of the first cohort he formed the spearmen of the first legion, placing the first rank men of the same legion in reserve; these bodies were commanded by Marcus Servilius, and Lucius Sulpicius, military tribunes. The third legion was drawn up opposite to the left gate of the first cohort, with this difference only, that here the first-rank men were posted in front, and the spearmen in reserve. Sextus Julius Cæsar, and Lucius Aurelius Cotta, military tribunes, had the command of this legion. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, lieutenant-general, with the right wing of the allies, was posted at the quæstorian gate; and two cohorts, with the veterans of the two legions, were ordered to stay within to guard the camp. The general himself went round by all the gates, haranguing the troops and stimulating the soldiers, by every possible circumstance that he could mention; at one time declaiming against the treachery of the enemy, who after suing for peace, and obtaining a truce, had come during the very time of that truce, in violation of the law of nations, to attack his camp; at another, setting before them what a shame it was, that a Roman army should be besieged by Ligurians, people more properly styled robbers, than a regular enemy. “With what face,” continued he, “if you make your way hence, by the assistance of others, and not by your own valour, will any of you meet, I do not say those soldiers that conquered Hannibal, or Philip, or Antiochus, the greatest kings and generals of the present age, but those who often drove those very Ligurians before them, through pathless forests, and put them to the sword? What the Spaniards, the Gauls, the Macedonians, or Carthaginians, never dared to attempt, a Ligurian enemy dares: he marches up to the trenches of a Roman camp, besieges and assaults it; although, but a little while ago, they were glad to hide themselves, and lurk in the wilds of the forests, so that we were obliged to make diligent search before we could find them.” This was answered by a general clamour, that “the soldiers were not to be blamed, for they had not received any order to march out. Let him but give the order, and he should soon be convinced, that both the Romans and the Ligurians were the same that ever they were.”
XXVIII. There were two camps of the Ligurians on the hither side of the mountains, from which, on the former days, they had marched forward at sun-rise, all in order and regular array. On this day they did not take arms until they had made a full meal of food and wine; and then they came out in loose order, and regardless of their ranks, as expecting, with certainty, that the enemy would not venture out, beyond the rampart. As they were approaching, in this disorderly manner, the shout was raised by every one in the camp, at once, even by the suttlers and servants; and the Romans rushed out by all the gates at the same time. This event was so entirely unexpected by the Ligurians, that it confounded them, no less than if they had been caught in an ambush. For a short time, some appearance of a fight was maintained, and then followed an hasty flight, and a general slaughter of the fugitives. The cavalry, being ordered to mount their horses, and not to suffer any to escape, the enemy were driven, in the utmost confusion, to their camps, and soon beaten out of them also. Above fifteen thousand of the Ligurians were killed, and two thousand five hundred taken. In three days after the whole state of the Inguanian Ligurians gave hostages, and surrendered. The masters and crews of the ships, which had been employed in piracies, were carefully sought for, and thrown into prison; and thirty-two ships of that description were taken by Caius Matienus, on the Ligurian coast. Lucius Aurelius Cotta, and Caius Sulpicius Gallus, were sent to Rome with an account of these transactions, and with letters to the senate; they were ordered, at the same time, to request that, as the business of the province was finished, Lucius Æmilius might have permission to leave it, and to bring away his troops and disband them. The senate granted both, and decreed a supplication, at all the shrines, for three days; giving orders to the prætors that Petillius should discharge the city legions, that Fabius should excuse the allies, and Latines, from the levies, and that the city prætor should write to the consuls, that the senate thought proper that the occasional soldiers, enlisted on account of the sudden alarm, should be immediately discharged.
XXIX. The colony of Gravisca was established this year in a district of Etruria, formerly taken from the Tarquinians, and five acres of land were given to each settler. The commissioners who conducted it were Caius Calpurnius Piso, Publius Claudius Pulcher, and Caius Terentius Istra. The year was rendered remarkable by a drought, and a scarcity of the productions of the earth. Writers mention, that during the space of six months no rain fell. In the same year, some workmen, in the farm of Lucius Petillius, a notary, at the foot of the Janiculum, digging the ground deeper than usual, discovered two stone chests, about eight feet long and four broad, the covers of which were soldered with lead. Both the chests had inscriptions in Greek and Latine letters, one signifying that therein was buried Numa Pompilius, son of Pompo, and king of the Romans; the other, that therein were contained the books of Numa Pompilius. The owner of the ground having, by the advice of his friends, opened these chests, found the one, which according to its inscription contained the body of the king, perfectly empty, without any appearance of a human body or any thing else, having ever been in it; the whole being consumed by the decay of such a number of years. In the other were found two bundles, tied round with waxed cords, and each containing seven books, not only entire, but apparently quite fresh. Seven were in Latine, and related to the pontifical law; and seven in Greek, containing the doctrines of philosophy, such as might have been known in that age. Valerius Antias adds, that they contained the doctrines of Pythagoras, supporting, by this plausible fiction, the credit of the vulgar opinion, that Numa had been a disciple of Pythagoras. The books were read, first, by Petillius’s friends, who were present at the discovery; and, afterwards, by many others, until they came to be publicly spoken of. Then Quintus Petillius, the city prætor, having a desire to read them, borrowed them from Lucius Petillius, with whom he was familiarly acquainted; in consequence of Quintus Petillius having, when quæstor, chosen him, who was a notary, a decurio of horse. On reading the principal heads of the contents, he perceived that most of them had a tendency to undermine the established system of religious doctrines, and, thereupon, he told Lucius Petillius, that “he was determined to throw those books into the fire; but before he did so, he gave him leave, if he thought he had any right or title to demand the restitution of them, to make the trial, which would not give him the least offence.” The notary applied to the plebeian tribunes, and the tribunes referred the matter to the senate. The prætor declared, that he was ready to make oath, that those books ought not to be read or preserved; and the senate decreed, that “the prætor’s having offered his oath ought to be deemed sufficient evidence that those books should, without delay, be burned in the comitium, and that the owner should be paid for them such price as might be judged reasonable by the prætor Quintus Petillius, and the majority of the plebeian tribunes.” This the notary did not assent to. The books, however, were burned in the comitium, in the view of the people, the fire being made by the public servants, whose duty it was to assist at sacrifices.
XXX. A formidable war broke out this summer in the hither Spain, where the Celtiberians assembled such a force as they had hardly ever brought into the field before, amounting to no less than thirty-five thousand men. This province was governed by Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, who, on hearing that the Celtiberians were arming their young men, drew together all the succours he could procure from the allies. But he was still far inferior to the enemy in point of numbers. Early in spring, he marched his army into Carpetania, and fixed his camp close to the town of Æbura, in which he posted a small garrison. In a few days after the Celtiberians pitched their camp at the foot of a hill, about two miles from thence. When the Roman prætor was informed of their coming, he detached his brother, Marcus Fulvius, with two troops of the allied horse, to the enemy’s post, to take a view of them; ordering him to advance as near as possible to their rampart, so as to form a judgment of the size of the camp; and not to engage in fight, but to retreat if he should see the enemy’s cavalry coming out. He acted according to his instructions, and for several days there was nothing farther done than these two troops showing themselves, and then retreating when the enemy’s cavalry sallied from their tents. At length, the Celtiberians came out, with their entire force of horse and foot together, and drawing up in a line, posted themselves about midway between the two camps. The whole plain was level, and convenient for fighting, and here the Spaniards stood waiting for their enemy. The Roman general kept his men within the rampart, during four successive days, while the others constantly drew up theirs, and formed in the same place. The Romans never stirred; and from that time the Celtiberians, finding no opportunity of engaging, remained quiet in their camp; their cavalry only appearing as an advanced guard, to be ready in case of any movement being made by Fulvius. Both parties went for wood and forage behind their own camps, neither interrupting the other.
XXXI. When the Roman prætor thought that, by continuing inactive so many days, he had created in the Celtiberians a firm persuasion that he would not be first in any enterprise, he ordered Lucius Acilius, with the left wing of allies and six thousand provincial auxiliaries, to make the circuit of a mountain, behind the enemy; and as soon as he should hear the shout to pour down from thence on their camp. This party, to avoid being seen, set out in the night. At the dawn of day, Flaccus sent Caius Scribonius, a præfect of the allies, with the select horse of the left wing to the enemy’s rampart; when the Celtiberians, observing that they approached nearer, and were also more numerous than usual, made the whole body of their cavalry sally out against them, and gave orders to the infantry to follow. Scribonius, according to his instructions, nosooner heard the noise of the enemy’s cavalry than he wheeled about and retreated: on which they pursued with the more violence. First the cavalry, and in a short time the line of infantry, came up, confidently expecting that they should be able to assault the camp before night, and they advanced within five hundred paces of the rampart. Flaccus, therefore, thinking that they were now drawn far enough from their camp, to hinder them from giving it any succour, as he had his troops already formed within the works, burst out from three sides at once; and at the same time raised the shout, not only to inspire ardour for the fight, but also that it might be heard by the party on the mountain. Nor did these make any delay, but, according to their orders, poured down on the camp, where the guard consisted of only five hundred men, who were so terrified by the smallness of their numbers, the multitude of the assailants, and the unexpectedness of the affair, that the camp was taken almost without a dispute. Acilius set fire to that part of it which was most exposed to the view of the combatants.
XXXII. The Celtiberians in the rear of their line first observed the flames, and the news spread quickly through the whole army, that the camp was lost, being at that moment in a blaze, which filled them with dismay, while it gave fresh spirits to the Romans: for these now heard the shouts of victory raised by their friends, and saw the enemy’s camp on fire. The Celtiberians hesitated for some time, uncertain how to act; but when they considered that, in case of a defeat, they had no place of refuge, and that their only hope now lay in their arms, they renewed the combat afresh, with greater obstinacy. Their centre was pressed hard by the fifth legion; but their men advanced with more confidence against the left wing, where they saw that the Romans had posted the provincial auxiliaries, troops of their own kind. The left wing of the Romans was now in danger of being defeated, had not the seventh legion come to its support. At the same time, the troops left in garrison at Æbura came up during the heat of the battle, and Acilius closed on the enemy’s rear. Thus surrounded, the Celtiberians were, for a long time, cut off in great numbers, and at last the survivors betook themselves to flight. The cavalry, in two divisions, was sent in pursuit, and made great havoc. There were killed, of the enemy, on that day twenty-three thousand, and four thousand eight hundred were taken, with more than five hundred horses, and ninety-eight military ensigns. The victory was great, but not obtained without loss of blood. There fell of the two Roman legions, a few more than two hundred men; of the Latine confederates, eight hundred and thirty; and of the foreign auxiliaries, about two thousand four hundred. The prætor led back his victorious troops to their tents: but ordered Acilius to lodge in the camp which he had taken. Next day the spoils were collected, and presents bestowed, in public assembly, on such as had distinguished themselves by their bravery.
XXXIII. The wounded were then conveyed into the town of Æbura, and the legions marched through Carpetania, against Contrebia. The garrison there, on being invested, sent for succours to the Celtiberians; but these were long in coming, not because they were unwilling to give assistance but that after they had begun their march the roads were rendered impassable, and the rivers swelled by continued rains, so that their countrymen, despairing of assistance, capitulated. The same severe weather forced Flaccus to bring his whole army into the city. The Celtiberians, who were on their march, having heard nothing of the capitulation, when the rains abated, at last, passed the rivers, and came to Contrebia. When they saw no camp before the town, supposing, either, that it was removed to the other side, or that the enemy had retired, they came up towards the walls, in careless disorder; on which the Romans sallying out from two gates, attacked them before they could recover from their confusion, and effectually routed them. The same circumstance that disabled them from standing their ground and maintaining a fight — their not having come in one body, or in a regular disposition, round their standards — proved favourable to many in making their escape: for they scattered themselves widely over the whole plain, so that the Romans could no where inclose any considerable body of them. However, there were twelve thousand killed, and more than five thousand taken, with four hundred horses, and sixty-two military standards. The stragglers, flying homewards, turned back another body of Celtiberians, whom they met on the road, by informing them of the surrender of Contrebia, and their own defeat; whereupon they all immediately dispersed, and made the best of their way to their several villages and forts. Flaccus, leaving Contrebia, led his legions through Celtiberia, ravaging the country, and reducing a great number of their forts; in consequence of which the greater part of the nation surrendered themselves.
XXXIV. Such were the transactions of that year in the hither Spain. In the farther province, Manlius fought several successful battles with the Lusitanians. In the same year the Latine colony of Aquileia was established in the Gallic territory. Three thousand foot soldiers received each fifty acres, centurions an hundred, horsemen an hundred and forty. The commissioners who conducted the settlement were Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, Caius Flaminius, and Lucius Manlius Acidinus. Two temples were dedicated, this year, one to Venus Erycina, at the Colline gate, the ceremony being performed by Lucius Porcius Licinus, duumvir, son of Lucius. This temple had been vowed, during the Ligurian war, by Lucius Porcius, consul. The other to Piety, in the herb-market. This was dedicated by Manius Acilius Glabrio, duumvir, who erected a gilded statue of his father Glabrio, the first of the kind that ever was seen in Italy. This was the person who vowed the temple, on the day whereon he gained the decisive victory over king Antiochus, at Thermopylæ, and who, likewise, had contracted for its being built, in pursuance of a decree of senate. At the same time, when these temples were consecrated, Lucius Æmilius Paullus, proconsul, triumphed over the Ingaunian Ligurians. He carried in the procession twenty-five golden crowns, but no other article of either gold or silver. Many Ligurian chiefs were led captives before his chariot, and he distributed to each of his soldiers three hundred asses.* The reputation of this triumph was enhanced by the arrival of ambassadors from the Ligurians, begging that a perpetual peace might be established; and averring, that “the Ligurians had come to a resolution never again to take arms, on any occasion, except when commanded by the Roman people.” Quintus Fabius, prætor, by order of the senate, gave the Ligurians this answer; that “such kind of language was not new with the Ligurians; but it concerned chiefly their own interest that their disposition should be new, and conformable to their language. They must go to the consuls, and act as they should command; for the senate would never believe, from any other than the consuls, that the Ligurians were really and sincerely disposed to peace.” Peace however was made with that people. In Corsica, a battle was fought, in which the prætor, Marcus Pinarius, slew in the field two thousand of the islanders: by which loss they were compelled to give hostages, and an hundred thousand pounds of wax. The army was then carried over into Sardinia, and some successful battles were fought with the Illians, a nation, even at the present day, not in every particular friendly to us. In this year, an hundred hostages were restored to the Carthaginians, and the Roman people enabled them to live in peace, not only among themselves, but also with Masinissa, who at that time, with an armed force, held possession of the land in dispute.
Y. R. 572.
180.XXXV. The consuls had nothing to do in their province. Marcus Bæbius, being summoned home to
Rome to preside at the elections, created consuls Aulus Postumius Albinus Luscus, and Caius Calpurnius Piso. Then were
made prætors Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, Lucius Postumius Albinus, Publius Cornelius Mammula, Titus Minucius
Molliculus, Aulus Hostilius Mancinus, and Caius Mænius. All these entered into office on the ides of March. In the
beginning of this year, (the consulate of Aulus Postumius Albinus and Caius Calpurnius Piso,) the consul, Aulus
Postumius, introduced to an audience of the senate, a deputation, sent from the hither Spain, by Quintus Fulvius
Flaccus, and composed of Lucius Minucius, lieutenant-general, and two military tribunes, Titus Mænius, and Lucius
Terentius Massa. These, after informing the senate of the two victories gained, of the submission of Celtiberia, and of
peace being re-established, and that there was no occasion either to send pay, as usual, or corn to the army, for that
year, requested, first, that “on account of these successes a thanksgiving should be performed to the immortal gods,
and, then, that leave should be given to Quintus Fulvius on his quitting the province, to bring home thence the army
which had served under him, and many former prætors, with much bravery. They represented, that this measure, besides
the propriety of it, was in some degree necessary, for the troops were so obstinately bent on it, that it did not seem
possible to keep them longer in the province; but, if they were not called away, they would either leave it, without
orders, or, if compulsory methods were employed to detain them, would break out into a dangerous mutiny.” The senate
ordered, that Liguria should be the province of both the consuls. The prætors then cast lots for theirs. The city
jurisdiction fell to Aulus Hostilius, the foreign, to Titus Minucius, Sicily, to Publius Cornelius; Sardinia, to Caius
Mænius; farther Spain, to Lucius Postumius, and the hither, to Tiberius Sempronius. As this last was to succeed Quintus
Fulvius Flaccus, and wished that the province might not be stripped of the veteran troops, he spoke thus: “Quintus
Minucius, I demand of you, since you assert, in your report, that peace is re-established in the province — is it your
opinion, that the Celtiberians will always faithfully observe the treaty, so that the province may be kept in obedience
without an army? If you cannot give us any assurance of that, or undertake to answer for the fidelity of the
barbarians, but think that, at all events, there must be an army maintained there; I pray you, whether would you
recommend to the senate to send a reinforcement into Spain, in order that those soldiers, only, who have served out
their time, may be discharged, and the recruits mixed with the veterans, or to withdraw the veteran legions, and enlist
new ones, in their place; and this, although the contempt entertained for such soldiers might rouse barbarians of more
pacific tempers to a renewal of war? It would be a matter easier said than done, to reduce to complete subjection a
province naturally fierce, and remarkable for its frequent renewals of hostility. A few states, as I am informed, who
were awed, more than the rest, by the nearness of our winter quarters, have submitted to our authority and dominion;
while those more remote are in arms. This being the case, Conscript Fathers, I now give notice before hand, that, with
the army at present there, I will undertake to execute the business of the public; but, if Flaccus brings those legions
home with him, I will choose some quiet part of the country for winter-quarters, and will not expose undisciplined
soldiers to an enemy so remarkably ferocious.”
XXXVI. To these questions, the lieutenant-general answered, that “neither he nor any other could possibly divine what were the sentiments of the Celtiberians, or what they would be in future; therefore he could not deny that it would be proper to send an army among a barbarous people, who, though reduced to a state of quiet, were not yet sufficiently inured to subjection; but whether a new army or a veteran one might be requisite, was a question which he alone could answer, who knew, with what sincerity the Celtiberians would observe the peace; and who, at the same time, had assurance that the troops would remain quiet, if kept longer in the province. If a conjecture were to be formed of their intentions, either from their conversations with each other, or from the expressions with which they interrupted the general’s harangues, they had openly and loudly declared, that they would either keep their commander in the province, or come home with him to Italy.” This discussion, between the prætor and the lieutenant-general, was suspended, by the consuls introducing other matters; for they demanded, that the business of their own provinces might be adjusted before that of the prætor’s should be proceeded on. An army entirely new was decreed to the consuls: two Roman legions, with their proportion of cavalry; and of the Latine allies, the usual number, of fifteen thousand foot and eight hundred horse. With these forces, they were directed to make war on the Apuan Ligurians. Publius Cornelius and Marcus Bæbius were continued in command, and ordered to hold the government of the provinces until the consuls should arrive. They were then to disband their troops, and return to Rome. Next was taken into consideration the business of the army under Tiberius Sempronius. The consuls were ordered to enlist for him a new legion of five thousand two hundred foot, and four hundred horse; and also a thousand Roman foot and five hundred horse; and to command the allies of Latium to furnish seven thousand foot and three hundred horse. With this army, it was determined that Sempronius should go into the hither Spain. Permission was granted to Quintus Fulvius, with respect to all those soldiers, whether Romans or allies, who had been transported into Spain, previous to the consulate of Spurius Postumius and Quintus Marcius; and likewise to such as, after the junction of the reinforcements, should be found redundant in the two legions, above the number of ten thousand four hundred foot and six hundred horse; and in the Latine auxiliaries above twelve thousand foot and six hundred horse, and who had behaved with courage under Quintus Fulvius in the two battles with the Celtiberians — these, if he thought proper, he might bring home. Thanksgivings for his successes were also decreed; and the rest of the prætors sent into their provinces. Quintus Fabius Buteo was continued in command in Gaul. It was resolved that eight legions should be employed, this year, besides the veteran army then in Liguria, which expected to be speedily disbanded; and even this number of men could with difficulty be made up, in consequence of the pestilence which continued, for the third year, to depopulate the city of Rome, and all Italy.
XXXVII. Tiberius Minucius, the prætor, died of this malady; and soon after Caius Calpurnius the consul, also many illustrious men of all ranks; so that at last it began to be considered as a prodigy. Caius Servilius, chief pontiff, was ordered to find out proper atonements for the wrath of the gods; the decemvirs to inspect the books, and the consul to vow offerings, and to present gilded statues, to Apollo, Æsculapius, and Health; all which he performed. The decemvirs proclaimed, on account of the sickness, a supplication of two days in the city; and in all the market-towns and villages; which supplication, every person, above the age of twelve years, performed, with garlands on their heads, and holding laurel in their hands. There had, also, crept into people’s minds, a suspicion of human villainy in regard to it, whereupon Caius Claudius, prætor, who had been substituted in the room of Tiberius Minucius, was commissioned, by a decree of senate, to make inquisition concerning acts of sorcery committed in the city, or within ten miles of it; and Caius Mænius was ordered to do the same, before he passed over to his province, Sardinia, in the market-towns and villages, beyond the tenth stone. The death of the consul created the strongest suspicions. It was reported, that he had been murdered by his wife Quarta Hostilia; and when her son Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, was proclaimed consul in the room of his step-father, the suspicions of the public, respecting the death of Piso, were greatly augmented: for witnesses appeared, who testified, that, after Albinus and Piso were declared consuls, in which election Flaccus had suffered a disappointment, his mother upbraided him with being refused the consulship, a third time, and then desired him to stand candidate again, saying, “she would take such measures that within two months he should be made consul.” This expression, verified by the event exactly corresponding with it, and, joined to many other evidences of the same tendency, appeared such strong proof, that Hostilia was condemned. In the spring of this year, the levies detained the new consuls at Rome; while the death of one of them, and the holding of the assembly to substitute another in his place, occasioned still farther delays. Publius Cornelius, and Marcus Bæbius, who in their consulate had done nothing worth mention, led their troops into the country of the Apuan Ligurians.
XXXVIII. The Ligurians had no thought of being attacked before the consuls arrived in the province. Being thus surprised, they surrendered to the number of twelve thousand men. Cornelius and Bæbius, having consulted the senate by letter, determined to bring them down from their mountains into a plain country, so far from home, that they should have no hope of a return; for they were convinced, that by no other means could a final end be put to the war in Liguria. There was a tract of land in Samnium, the public property of the Roman people, formerly occupied by the Taurasians, and hither they intended to transplant the Apuan Ligurians. Accordingly, they published an order, that this people should quit the mountains, with their wives and children, and bring all their effects along with them. The Ligurians made, by their ambassadors, many humble supplications that they might not be compelled to relinquish their native home, the soil in which they were born, and the tombs of their forefathers. They promised to give up their arms, and deliver hostages; but failing in all their solicitations, and being destitute of strength for the maintenance of a war they obeyed the order. Forty thousand men, of free condition, with their women and children, were transplanted at the expense of the public, and an hundred and fifty thousand sesterces* were given them, to provide necessaries for their new habitations. Cornelius and Bæbius, who removed them were commissioned to divide and apportion the lands; but at their own request, the senate appointed five other commissioners to assist them with their advice. When they had finished this business, and brought home their veteran soldiers to Rome, the senate decreed them a triumph. These were the first, who ever triumphed, without having fought an enemy. Hostages only were led before their chariots; for there appeared not, in their triumphs, either spoils to be carried, or prisoners to be led captives, or money to be distributed to the soldiers.
XXXIX. With regard to the affairs of Spain; this year Fulvius, proprætor, as his successor did not come to the province at the usual time, drew out the troops from their winter quarters, and proceeded to lay waste the farther part of Celtiberia, whose inhabitants had not come in to make submission. But by this proceeding he rather provoked, than terrified the barbarians; so that, having collected secretly a body of forces, they beset the Manlian pass, through which they knew, with certainty, that the Roman army was to march. Gracchus had commissioned his colleague, Lucius Postumius Albinus, who was going to the farther Spain, to desire Quintus Fulvius to bring his forces to Tarraco, where he intended to discharge the veterans, to fill up the corps with the new supplies, and to put the whole army in complete order. The day also was mentioned to Flaccus, and that not very distant, on which his successor would arrive. On being informed of this new disposition, Flaccus was forced to drop the business which he had undertaken, and to lead away the troops, in haste, out of Celtiberia. The barbarians, unacquainted with the reason, and supposing that he had discovered their revolt, and secret assembling of an army, and that he was retreating through fear, exerted themselves, with greater confidence to secure the pass. The Roman army entered this defile, at the dawn of day, and imediately the enemy starting up, suddenly attacked it on two sides at once, Flaccus seeing this, took pains to quiet the confusion caused by the first alarm, by giving orders through the centurions, that every man should keep his post, in the order of march, and get ready his arms; then, collecting the baggage and beasts of burden, into one spot, partly by himself, partly by the help of the lieutenant-generals, and military tribunes, without any hurry or confusion, he formed his troops, as the time and place required. He put them in mind, that they were to engage with men “who had been twice reduced to submission; who had acquired an addition of wickedness and perfidy, but not of courage or spirit. That these people had put it in their power to make their return to their country glorious and splendid; for they would now carry home their swords reeking with the blood of the enemy, and spoils dropping the same.” The time allowed not more to be said, the enemy advanced upon them; the extemities of the wings were already engaged, and quickly after the entire lines.
XL. The battle was furious in every part, but the success various. The two legions fought with extraordinary bravery, nor were the two cohorts of the allies remiss; but the foreign auxiliaries were hard pressed, by men armed like themselves, and much better qualified for soldiers; nor were they able to maintain their ground. The Celtiberians perceiving, that, in a regular line, and in fair fighting, they were no match for the legions, made a push against them, in the form of a wedge, in which sort of attack they excel so much, that on whatever part they direct their assault, they never fail to make an impression. On this occasion, too, the legions were disordered, and the line was almost broken. When Flaccus observed this disorder, he rode up to the legionary cavalry, asking them, “Have we any support in you? Is the whole army to be lost?” Whereupon they called to him, from all sides, to “tell them what he wished to be done and that it should be instantly attempted.” “Double your troops,” he replied, “and charge the wedge, by which we are attacked; increase the force of your horses, by taking off their bridles; and then spur them on against the foe.” This expedient historians mention to have been often employed by the Roman cavalry with great advantage. They did as directed, pushing in full career, through that body, twice, forward and backward, breaking their spears to pieces, and making great havoc of the enemy. The Celtiberians, on this dispersion of their wedge, on which they had placed their whole reliance, were quite dismayed; and, almost giving over the fight, looked about for ways to escape. And now, when the allied horse saw this brilliant exploit of the Roman cavalry, they were so inflamed, by the example of their bravery, that, without waiting for orders, they made a charge on the enemy, while they were in confusion. The Celtiberians made no longer resistance; all fled in haste, and the Roman general, when he saw their backs, vowed a temple to Equestrian Fortune, and games in honour of Jupiter, supremely good and great. The fugitives, dispersing, were pursued with much slaughter, through the whole length of the pass. According to some historians, seventeen thousand of the enemy were killed on this occasion, and more than three thousand taken, with two hundred and seventy-seven military standards, and near one thousand one hundred horses. The victorious army pitched no camp on that day. This victory, however, was not gained without loss; four hundred and seventy-two Roman soldiers, one thousand and nineteen of the allies and Latines, with three thousand of the auxiliaries, perished. The Roman troops, having thus re-asserted their former renown, finished their march to Tarraco. The prætor, Tiberius Sempronius, who had arrived two days before, came out to meet Fulvius, on the road, and congratulate him on the important services which he had rendered to the commonwealth. They then, with perfect unanimity, settled what soldiers they should discharge, and what they should retain; and Fulvius, embarking the disbanded soldiers in the fleet, set sail for Rome, while Sempronius led the legions into Celtiberia.
XLI. Both the consuls led their armies into Liguria, but on different sides. Postumius, with the first and third legions, invested the mountains of Balista and Suismontium, and by securing the narrow passes leading thereto, with guards, cut off all supplies of provisions; by which means he reduced them to an entire obedience. Fulvius, with the second and fourth legions, marched from Pisæ against the Apuan Ligurians, and having received the submission of that part of them which inhabited the banks of the river Macra, he put them on board ships, to the number of seven thousand men, and sent them along the Etrurian coast to Neapolis, from whence they were conducted into Samnium, and had lands assigned them among their countrymen. Aulus Postumius cut down the vineyards, and burned the corn of the Ligurians of the mountains, until, by making them suffer all the calamities of war, he compelled them to surrender, and deliver up their arms. From thence, Postumius proceeded, by sea, to visit the coast of the Ingaunian, and Intemelian tribes. Before these consuls joined the army at Pisæ, it was under the command of Aulus Postumius, and a brother of Quintus Fulvius, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, who was military tribune of the second legion. The tribune, in his months* of command, disbanded the legion, after obliging the centurions to swear, that they would carry the money in their hands to the treasury, and deliver it to the quæstors. When intelligence of this was brought to Aulus at Placentia, to which place he happened to have made an excursion, he set out with some light horsemen, in quest of the disbanded men; and such as he could overtake, he sharply rebuked, and brought back to Pisæ, and then sent information of the whole matter to the consul. He laid the business before the senate, who passed a decree, that Marcus Fulvius should be banished into that part of Spain, beyond new Carthage, and a letter was given him by the consul, to be carried into the farther part of Spain, to Publius Manlius. The soldiers were ordered to return to their standards; and it was decreed, that, as a mark of disgrace, that legion should, for that year, receive but half a year’s pay. The consul was likewise ordered to sell, as a slave, every soldier who should not return to the army, and to confiscate his goods.
XLII. Lucius Duronius, who had been prætor the year before, returned now, with ten ships, from Illyricum to Brundusium, and leaving the fleet in that harbour, came to Rome. In giving a recital of the services which he had performed in his province, he threw the blame of all the piracies committed by sea, on Gentius, king of Illyricum. “From his kingdom,” he said, “came all the ships that had ravaged the coast; that he had sent ambassadors on the subject, but they were not even allowed an audience of the king.” Some time before this, ambassadors had come to Rome from Gentius, who said, that “when the Romans came and desired audience of the king, he happened to be sick, in a remote part of his dominions; and that Gentius requested of the senate, not to give credit to the forged charges which his enemies made against him.” Duronius added, that many Roman citizens and Latine allies, suffered ill treatment in Gentius’s dominions; some of whom he held in confinement in Corcyra. An order was made, that all these should be brought to Rome; that the prætor, Caius Claudius, should inquire into that business, and that, until this were done, no answer should be given to the king or his ambassadors. Among many who were cut off by the pestilence this year, were several priests. Lucius Valerius Flaccus, a pontiff, died of it, and, in his room, was substituted Quintus Fabius Labeo. Publius Manlius, who had lately come home from the farther Spain, and was triumvir of religious feasts, died also, who was succeeded by Quintus Fulvius, son of Marcus, then a mere youth. The appointing of a king of the sacrifices, in the room of Cneius Cornelius Dolabella, gave rise to a dispute between Caius Servilius, chief pontiff, and Lucius Cornelius Dolabella, naval duumvir. The pontiff required, before he inaugurated him, that he should resign his commission, and, on his refusing this, the pontiff imposed a fine on the duumvir. The latter then appealed, and the affair was brought to trial before the people. After a majority of the tribes were called in to give their votes, and had ordered that the duumvir should comply with the requisition of the pontiff, and that on his resigning his commission the fine should be remitted, an unfavourable omen from the heavens, intervened, and broke off the proceedings of the assembly. After this the pontiffs were prevented, by religious scruples, from inaugurating Dolabella. They consecrated Publius Clælius Siculus as king of the sacrifices, who had been invested pontiff, in the second place. Towards the end of the year, Caius Servilius Geminus, the chief pontiff, also died; he was moreover decemvir of religious affairs. In his room, as pontiff, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus was nominated by the college, but the post of chief pontiff, though sought by many illustrious candidates, was conferred on Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, as was that of decemvir of religious affairs, vacant by the death of the same person, on Quintus Marcius Philipus. Spurius Postumius Albinus, an augur, died; and the augurs filled his place with Publius Scipio, son of Africanus. On the request of the people of Cumæ, leave was granted them to use the Latine language in their public business, and their auctioneers also, in selling goods.
XLIII. The Pisans, making an offer of grounds for the establishment of a Latine colony, received the
thanks of the senate, and commissioners were appointed to conduct that business; these were Quintus Fabius Buteo,
Marcus Pompilius Lænas, and Publius Pompilius Lænas. Caius Mænius, prætor, who, on his appointment to the government of
Sardinia, had also received commission to make inquisition concerning practices of sorcery, in places more than ten
miles distant from the city represented, in a letter, that “he had already passed sentence on three thousand people,
and that still, in consequence of fresh discoveries, the business increased so much on his hands, that he must either
drop the prosecution of the inquiries or give up the province.” Quintus Fulvius Flaccus returned from Spain, with a
high reputation for his military exploits; and, while he waited without the city, in expectation of a triumph, was
elected consul with Lucius Manlius Acidinus.Y. R. 573.
179. A few days after which, with the soldiers whom he had brought home, he rode into the city in triumph. He
carried in the procession an hundred and twenty-four golden crowns, together with thirty-one pounds weight of gold, and
of coined Oscan silver an hundred and seventy-three thousand two hundred pieces.* He gave out of the booty, to each of the soldiers, fifty denariuses; double to a centurion; triple to a
horseman; and the same sums to the Latine allies, with double pay to all. This year, for the first time, a law was
proposed by Lucius Villius, plebeian tribune, ascertaining the ages at which men might sue for, and hold, the several
offices in the state. Hence his family acquired the surname of Annalis.
XLIV. The Bæbian law, which ordered, that every second year the number of prætors elected should be four, and which had been overlooked for many years, was now observed; and the persons appointed were, Cneius Cornelius Scipio, Caius Valerius Lævinus, Quintus Mucius Scævola, and Publius Mucius Scævola, sons of Quintus. To the consuls, Quintus Fulvius and Lucius Manlius, was decreed the same province, as to the preceding ones, and the same number of forces, infantry, cavalry, citizens, and allies. In the two Spains, Tiberius Sempronius and Lucius Postumius were continued in command, with the same armies which they then had; and, to fill up their numbers, the consuls were ordered to enlist, of Romans three thousand foot and three hundred horse, and of the Latine allies five thousand foot and four hundred horse. The lots gave to Publius Mucius Scævola the city jurisdiction, and the business of the inquisitions concerning sorcery, in the city, and within ten miles of it; to Cneius Scipio the foreign jurisdiction; to Quintus Mucius Scævola, Sicily; and to Caius Valerius Lævinus, Sardinia. The consul, Quintus Fulvius before he meddled with the public business, declared, that “he intended to acquit both himself and the state of the obligation of fulfilling the vows which he had made; that, on the day of his last battle with the Celtiberians, he had vowed to perform games in honour of Jupiter supremely good and great, and to build a temple to Equestrian Fortune; and that the Spaniards had made a contribution of money for these purposes. A vote was passed that the games should be performed, and that duumvirs should be appointed to contract for the building of the temple: With regard to the expenses, a limitation was fixed that “no greater sum should be expended on the games than that which had been voted to Fulvius Nobilior, when he exhibited such on the conclusion of the Ætolian war; and that the consul should not, on account of these, send for, collect, or receive any thing, or act in any respect contrary to the decree of senate, passed concerning games in the consulate of Lucius Æmilius and Cneius Bæbius.” The senate qualified their vote in this manner, because Tiberius Sempronius, in his ædileship, had expended, on the like exhibitions, such enormous sums as were burthensome not only to the Latine allies and Italy, but even to the provinces abroad.
XLV. The winter of that year was rendered remarkably severe by great falls of snow, and storms of every kind; those kinds of trees which are susceptible of injury from cold, were entirely blighted; and its duration, also, was unusually long, so that the Latine festival, on the mount, was broken off soon after its commencement, by a hurricane coming on suddenly, and with irresistible fury; but it was celebrated afterwards, pursuant to an order of the pontiffs. The same storm also threw down many statues in the capitol, disfigured many buildings by lightning, as the temple of Jupiter at Tarracina, the white temple, and the Roman gate at Capua; and in many places the battlements of the walls were overthrown. Among the rest of these prodigies, an account was received from Reate, that a mule, with three feet, was foaled there! On account of those portents, the decemvirs were ordered to consult the books. They directed to what gods, and with how many victims, sacrifices should be performed; and that on account of the many places being struck by lightning, a supplication should be performed at the temple of Jupiter, of one day. Then the votive games of the consul Quintus Fulvius were exhibited with great magnificence, during ten days. Soon after, was held the election of censors, when Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, chief pontiff, and Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, who had triumphed over the Ætolians, were chosen. It was universally known, that a strong enmity subsisted between these two; for they had published it often, by many disputes in the senate, and in the assemblies of the people. When the election was ended, according to ancient custom, they seated themselves in curule chairs in the field, near the altar of Mars, when, in a few minutes, came up thither the principal senators, accompanied by the body of the citizens, among whom was Quintus Cæcilius Metellus, who spoke as follows:—
XLVI. “Censors, we are not unmindful that you have been just now invested, by the whole body of the Roman people, with authority to preside over the morals of the state, and that we ought to be admonished and ruled by you, not you by us. Nevertheless, it may not be improper to point out what all good men blame in you, or, at least, somewhat which they wish to see altered. When we look at you separately, Marcus Æmilius, Marcus Fulvius, we know not, in the whole state, any one person whom, if we were called back again to vote, we could wish to be preferred to you; but when we behold you both together, we cannot avoid fearing that you are but ill associated; and that the public may not reap as much advantage from your being exceedingly pleasing to every one of us, as prejudice, from your being displeasing one to another. You have, for many years past, harboured an enmity, violent in its degree, and detrimental to yourselves; and we justly fear, that from this day forward, it may prove more detrimental to us, and to the state, than it has been to you. As to the reasons, on which these our fears are founded, many observations, which might be made, will readily occur to yourselves; unless perhaps your implacable resentments have totally engrossed your minds. These resentments we all beseech you to terminate this day, in that sacred place, and to suffer persons, whom the Roman people have united by their suffrages, to be united through our means; and that you will, with unanimity and harmony, choose the senate, review the knights, perform the survey, and close the lustrum: and that when you utter those words, which make part of almost all your prayers, ‘that such a matter may prove prosperous and happy to me and my colleague,’ you will, truly and sincerely, wish it to prove so; and that you will act in such a manner, as that, whatever you beg from the immortal gods, we mortals also may be convinced, that you really desire it. Titus Tatius and Romulus, after having encountered, as enemies, in the middle of the forum, reigned with concord in the same city. Not only quarrels, but wars, are accommodated, and, from bitter foes, men frequently become faithful allies, nay, sometimes, countrymen. The Albans, after the demolition of Alba, were transplanted to Rome; the Latines, the Sabines, were admitted into the number of citizens. It is a common saying, and, because founded in truth, has become a proverb, that friendships ought to be immortal, but enmities mortal.” A universal roar of approbation was now heard; and presently after, the voices of every one present, all joining in the same request, interrupted his discourse. Then Æmilius, besides other complaints, represented, that through Fulvius’s intrigues, he had been twice disappointed of the consulship, when he had reason to think himself sure of obtaining it. On the other hand, Fulvius complained, that Æmilius sought every opportunity of injuring him; had instituted a prosecution against him, and obliged him to give surety to abide judgment, to his great discredit. Nevertheless, each of them intimated, that, if the other would do the same, he was ready to submit to the direction of such a number of the most respectable members of the state; and all present urgently repeating their request, they mutually pledged their right hands, and their honour, to dismiss and forget all animosity. The whole assembly expressed the highest applause of their behaviour; and then escorted them to the capitol, where both the attention paid to such a matter by the persons of the first consequence, and the compliance of the censors, were most warmly approved, and commended by the senate. The censors, then, demanded, that a sum of money should be assigned to them, which they might employ in public works; and the customs of one year were accordingly decreed to them.
XLVII. Meanwhile, in Spain, the proprætors, Lucius Postumius, and Tiberius Sempronius, settled between them, that Albinus should march through Lusitania, against the Vaccæans, and thence return into Celtiberia. Gracchus penetrated into the remotest parts of that province; because the commotions there were the most dangerous. First, he made an unexpected assault on the city of Munda, by night, and took it by storm; then, having received hostages, and placed a garrison in the town, he proceeded to attack their forts, and ravage the country with fire, until he arrived at another strong town, called by the natives Certima. While he was employed here, in advancing his works to the walls, deputies came out from the town, who spoke with all the simplicity of the earliest times, not dissembling their wishes to continue the war, if they could procure strength to support it. — For they requested permission to go into the camp of the Celtiberians, and solicit assistance from them, and said, that “if they did not obtain it, they would then consult their own interests, separately, without regard to them.” This being granted by Gracchus, they went accordingly, and, in a few days after, came back with ten ambassadors. They arrived about noon; and the first thing that they asked of the prætor was, that he would order some drink to be given them. After drinking off the first cups, they called for more, while all who were present could not refrain from laughing at a people so unpolished, so ignorant of every thing like civilized manners. Then the eldest of them said, “we have been sent by our nation to ask what it is that gives you so much confidence, that you should venture to come and make an attack on them?” To this question Gracchus answered, that “he came relying on an excellent army; which if they chose to see, in order to carry back certain information to their friends, he would give them an opportunity,” and then he ordered the military tribunes to draw up, in array, all the forces both horse and foot, and make them go through their exercise in arms. After this sight, the ambassadors were dismissed; and they gave such accounts, as deterred their people from attempting to succour the besieged city. The townsmen raised fires on the towers, which was the signal agreed on, but receiving no answer, and being thus disappointed in their only hope of relief, they capitulated. A contribution of two million four hundred thousand sesterces* was imposed on them; and they were obliged to furnish forty horsemen, of the highest rank among them, not under the denomination of hostages, for they were ordered to serve as soldiers, but in reality to be pledges for their fidelity.
XLVIII. Gracchus then marched to the city of Alce, where lay the camp of the Celtiberians, from which the ambassadors had lately come. For some days, he harassed them with skirmishes, sending his light troops to charge their advanced guards; and then made more important attacks, in order to draw them from out their entrenchments. As soon as he perceived that his plan took effect, he gave orders to the præfects of the auxiliaries, that, after a short contest, they should suddenly turn their backs, as if overpowered by numbers, and fly, with all haste, to the camp; in the meantime, he himself drew up all his forces in order, within the rampart, at all the gates. It was not long until he saw his detachment flying towards him, as had been previously agreed, and the barbarians following, in a disorderly pursuit. This was exactly what he wanted; and his troops were formed in readiness to lay hold on the occasion. He therefore delayed no longer, than to leave the passage open for his party, which was flying, to get into the camp, and then, raising the shout, he caused them to rush out from all the gates at once. The enemy did not sustain the unexpected shock. They who came to assault his camp, could not even defend their own; for they were instantly routed, put to flight, driven in a panic within their trenches; and, at last, beaten out of them. In this action, nine thousand of the enemy were killed, and three hundred and twenty taken, with an hundred and twelve horses, and thirty-seven military ensigns. Of the Roman army there fell an hundred and nine.
XLIX. After this battle, Gracchus employed the legions in ravaging the country of Celtiberia. After he had spread depredations of every kind, to a vast extent, some states voluntarily, others, through fear, submitted to his yoke; so that within a few days, he received the submission of an hundred and three towns, besides having acquired an immense booty. He then marched to Alce, whence he came, and opened the siege of that city. The townsmen withstood the first assault; but when they afterwards found themselves attacked, not only by arms, but works also, they despaired of being able to defend the place, and retired into the citadel. After some time, they sent envoys, and surrendered themselves, and every thing belonging to them, to the Romans. The plunder here was very great. Many prisoners of distinction fell into the victor’s hands, among whom were two sons and a daughter of Turrus. This chieftain, who governed those tribes, was by far the most powerful of all the Spaniards. On hearing the disasters of his countrymen, he sent for a passport, and coming into the camp to Gracchus, asked him, first, “Whether the lives of himself and his subjects would be spared?” The prætor answered that they would; then he asked again, “Whether it would be allowed him to bear arms on the side of the Romans?” To this too Gracchus assented, on which he said, “I will follow you, then, against my old allies, since they have not thought proper to pay any regard to me.” From that time, he united himself to the Romans, and acted in their service, on many occasions, with great courage and fidelity
L. After this, Ergavia, a city of great power and opulence, terrified by the disasters of the surrounding states, opened its gates to the Romans. Some writers say, that the submissions of these towns were not made with sincerity; but that, whenever the legions were led away from any quarter of the country, the natives resumed their arms; and that the Roman general fought, afterwards, near Mount Caunus, a pitched battle with the Celtiberians, which was warmly contested, from break of day to the sixth hour, that many fell on both sides, and that the Romans had no strong proof of their gaining the victory, excepting that, next day, they offered battle, and the enemy refused to come out of their entrenchments: that they employed that whole day in collecting the spoils, and, on the day following, fought a more desperate battle, in which the Celtiberians were at length completely defeated, and their camp taken and plundered: that twenty-two thousand of the enemy were killed in the action, more than three hundred taken, with almost an equal number of horses, and seventy-two military standards: that this put an end to the war, and that the Celtiberians concluded a peace, with a real intention to keep it, and not with their former insincerity. They say also, that during the same summer Lucius Postumius fought two battles, in the farther Spain, with the Vaccæans, and gained complete victorics, killed thirty-five thousand men, and took their camp. It is, however, more probable, that he came into the province too late to assist greatly in that campaign.
LI. The censors reviewed the senate with cordial harmony. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, the censor, who was likewise chief pontiff, was chosen head of the senate; three were expelled. Lepidus restored some who were struck out by his colleague. They then divided a part of the money assigned to them, and completed therewith the following works:— Lepidus built a mole at Tarracini, an unpopular work, because he had estates there, and brought into the account of the public expenditure, what ought to have been done at his own expense. He agreed with contractors for building a theatre near the temple of Apollo, and for embellishing the temple of Jupiter in the capitol, and the columns around it: he also removed from those columns the statues that stood incommodiously before them, and took down the shields and military ensigns of all sorts, which were hung upon them. Marcus Fulvius made contracts for more numerous and more useful works: a haven on the Tiber, and piers for a bridge across it; on which piers Publius Scipio Africanus and Lucius Mummius, censors, many years after, caused the arches to be erected; a court of justice behind the new bankers’ houses, and a fish-market, surrounded with shops, which he sold to private persons; also a forum and portico, on the outside of the gate Trigemina; another portico behind the dock-yard, and one at the temple of Hercules; also a temple of Apollo Medicus, behind that of Hope, on the bank of the Tiber. They had, besides, some of the money undivided, and out of this they jointly agreed to pay for water being brought to the city, and the raising of the necessary arches; but Marcus Licinius Crassus put a stop to this work, which he would not suffer to be brought through his grounds. They also established many port duties and customs, and took care that several public chapels, which were then occupied by private persons, should again be open to the people. They likewise made an alteration in the mode of voting; for, through all the regions, they divided the tribes* according to the different ranks of men, and their several occupations and callings.
LII. One of the censors, Marcus Æmilius, petitioned the senate, that a sum of money should be voted to him for the celebration of games, on occasion of the dedication of the temples of Imperial Juno and Diana, which he had vowed eight years before, when employed in the Ligurian war. They accordingly voted twenty thousand asses.* He dedicated those temples in the Flaminian circus; in which place he exhibited stage plays for three days, after the dedication of the temple of Juno, and two, after that of Diana, and for one day in the circus of Rome. He also dedicated a temple to the deities† of the sea in the field of Mars. This had been vowed eleven years before, by Lucius Æmilius Regillus, in the sea-fight with the ships of king Antiochus. Over the gate of the temple was hung up a tablet with this inscription: [. . . .]‡ The same was placed over the gate of the temple of Jupiter, on the capitol.
LIII. Two days after the censors had reviewed the senate, the consul Quintus Fulvius marched against the Ligurians; and, making his way amid the mountains and difficult passes, fought a pitched battle with the enemy, and not only defeated them in the field, but took their camp the same day. Three thousand two hundred of the enemy, and all that tract of Liguria, surrendered to the conqueror. The consul brought down all those who surrendered, into the low lands, and posted guards on the mountains. His letters from that province quickly reached Rome; and a thanksgiving, of two days, was voted on account of his successes. The prætors, during this thanksgiving, sacrificed forty victims of the larger kinds. The other consul, Lucius Manlius, did nothing in Liguria worth recording. Some transalpine Gauls, to the number of three thousand, came over into Italy, without offering to commit hostilities of any kind, and petitioned the consul and senate for some land, proposing to live as became peaceable subjects, under the government of the Roman people But the senate ordered them to quit Italy, and enjoined the consul Quintus Fulvius to search after and punish those, who had been their advisers and leaders in passing the Alps.
LIV. This year died Philip, king of Macedonia, being worn out with age, and the grief which had continually preyed on him since the death of his son Demetrius. He spent the winter at Demetrias, in great anguish of mind, occasioned by the loss of his son, and by remorse for his own cruelty. He also received constant cause of disquiet from Perseus, who now considered himself, as did every one else, quite secure of the throne. Philip perceived that the eyes of all were turned from himself; in his old age, forsaken and desolate. Some only waited for his death to show their inclinations, while others did not even wait for that event. All this added to the bitterness of his sorrow; in which the only one who sympathized with him, was Antigonus, son of Echecrates, named after his uncle Antigonus, who had been guardian to Philip. He was a man of royal dignity, and famed for a remarkable battle which he fought against Cleomenes the Lacedæmonian. The Greeks called him the Guardian, to distinguish him from the other princes of that surname.* His nephew Antigonus, of all the friends whom Philip had honoured with his favours, alone, remained uncorrupted; and this faithful attachment was the cause that Perseus, who had never been his friend, became now his open and most inveterate enemy. He plainly foresaw the great dangers which threatened him, in case of the succession of the crown coming to Perseus; and therefore, as soon as he perceived the king’s mind to be softened, and that he sometimes sighed with regret for the loss of Demetrius; that he sometimes listened to people conversing on the subject, and sometimes even introduced the mention of it, as of a proceeding too rashly executed, accompanying the lamentations of Antigonus with his own; — and, as the truth usually affords many traces of itself, he pursued these with the most zealous diligence, in order that the whole might be brought to light as speedily as possible. Of the agents employed in that business, those who were most generally supposed guilty, were Apelles and Philocles, who had gone ambassadors to Rome, and had brought the letter under the name of Flamininus, which had proved so ruinous to Demetrius. The common cry in the palace now was, that it was a forgery, contrived by the secretary, and that the seal was counterfeited.
LV. While this, however, was rather a matter of suspicion, than of certainty, Antigonus accidentally met Xychus, on whom he immediately laid hands, and brought to the palace; then, leaving him in custody of a guard, he went on to the apartment of Philip, to whom he said — “From many conversations, I think I may conclude, that it would be highly satisfactory to you, to be able to learn the truth respecting your sons; which of the two was guilty of treachery, and plotting against the other. The only man in the world who can unravel this mystery is now in your power, Xychus. I met him by accident, and I have brought him to the palace; I entreat you to order him to be called into your presence.” On being brought in, he at first denied every thing, but with such irresolution, as showed that a slight application to his fears would readily extort the truth. Accordingly, he did not withstand the sight of the executioner and the instruments of torture, but disclosed the whole process of the villainy of the ambassadors, and the part which he himself had acted in it. Orders were instantly despatched to seize the ambassadors; and Philocles, who was in the town, was apprehended; but Apelles, who had been sent in pursuit of a person called Chærea, getting notice of the discovery made by Xychus, fled over into Italy. With respect to Philocles, no certain account has been published; some say, that, for a time, he boldly denied all knowledge of the matter; but that, when Xychus was confronted with him, he persisted no longer; others, that he even suffered the rack without confessing. Philip’s grief was hereby renewed and doubled, and he felt his unhappiness, with regard to his children press the heavier on him, because one of them was still alive.
LVI. When Perseus was told that all was discovered, being too powerful to think flight necessary, he only took care to keep out of the way, intending to guard himself, during the remainder of Philip’s life, from the flame, as it were of his burning resentment. His father, having now no hope of bringing him to punishment, resolved to take vengeance in the only way that was left him; and accordingly he employed all his endeavours to prevent his enjoying the prize his villainy aimed at. To this end, he addressed himself to Antigonus, to whom he was obliged for the full discovery of the fratricide; and whom he supposed the Macedonians, considering the fresh renown of his uncle Antigonus, would neither be ashamed nor displeased at having for their king. “Antigonus,” said he, “since I have been brought into such a situation, that the being childless, a state which other parents reckon a curse, would to me be a blessing, I am resolved to transfer to you the kingdom which I received from your uncle, and which his faithful and resolute guardianship not only preserved for me, but even enlarged. You are the only friend I have, whom I can judge worthy of the throne; and, if I had not one such, I should wish the regal dignity to perish and become extinct, rather than be a prize to the treacherous villainy of Perseus. I shall think Demetrius recalled from the dead, and restored to me, if I can leave in this place such a representative as you, who alone have wept for his innocent death, and for my unhappy error.” After this discourse he omitted no opportunity of promoting his interest, by conferring on him honours of every kind; and, as Perseus was absent in Thrace, he made a circuit round the cities of Macedonia, recommending Antigonus to the men of principal consequence: and, had he lived a little longer, he would undoubtedly have left him in possession of the throne. After leaving Demetrias, he staid longest at Thessalonica; and on going thence to Amphipolis, was there seized with a severe sickness. Yet it was evident that the disorder of his mind was greater than that of his body, and that the immediate causes of his death were his troubled thoughts and want of rest; for he was frequently thrown into violent agitation by a supposed apparition of his innocent, murdered son, and drew his last breath in dreadful imprecations on the other. Nevertheless, Antigonus might have been seated on the throne, if either he had been on the spot, or the death of Philip had been immediately divulged. But Caligenes, the physician, who had the care of the king in his sickness, as soon as he observed the first desperate symptoms, despatched the account to Perseus by couriers, who, according to a plan settled, had been previously disposed in convenient places; and until the prince arrived, he concealed the death of the king from all but those who were in the palace.
LVII. Perseus, therefore, by his sudden arrival, as people neither expected it, nor knew what had happened, crushed all thoughts of opposition, and siezed on the throne, the object of his wicked devices. The demise of Philip happened very seasonably for the purpose of gaining time, and collecting strength for the support of a war; for, in a few days after, the nation of the Bastarnians, in consequence of long solicitation, set out from their own country, with a large force of infantry and cavalry, and crossed the Danube. Antigonus and Cotto went forward, to carry intelligence of this to the king. Cotto was a Bastarnian of distinction, and Antigonus had been sent, much against his will, with this same Cotto, as ambassador, to persuade his countrymen to take arms. At a small distance from Amphipolis, common report first, and then authentic information, acquainted them with the king’s death; which event disconcerted the whole of their plan. The scheme had been settled in this manner:— Philip was to procure for the Bastarnians a safe passage through Thrace, and supplies of provisions; in order to be able to effect which, he had gained the confidence of the chieftains in that country by presents, and had pledged his faith, that they should march through it in a peaceable manner. It was proposed to exterminate the nation of the Dardanians, and to give settlements to the Bastarnians in their country: from which measure a double advantage was expected; as, in the first place, the Dardanians, a nation ever hostile to Macedonia, and watchful to take advantage of the misfortunes of its kings, would be removed out of the way; while the invaders might leave their wives and children in Dardania, and be sent to ravage Italy. It was concluded, that the road to the Adriatic sea and Italy was through the country of the Scordiscians, and that the army could not make its passage by any other way; that the Scordiscians would readily grant a passage to the Bastarnians, for they would have no dislike to people resembling themselves in language and manners, and would probably join them in an expedition, when they saw that their object was the plunder of a most opulent nation. The remainder of the plan was accommodated to every kind of event that might take place; for, in case of the Bastarnians being cut off by the Romans, still the removal of the Dardanians, the booty to be gained from the remains of the former, and the full possession of Dardania, would prove a great consolation. But if they should be successful; then, while the force of the Romans would be directed against the Bastarnians, the king might recover what he had lost in Greece. Such had been the designs of Philip.
LVIII. The Bastarnians at first marched through the country, without doing any mischief, according to the engagements of Cotto and Antigonus. But, on hearing the news of Philip’s death, the Thracians soon became troublesome to deal with, and the Bastarnians not content with what they could purchase; nor could they be kept in a body, so as not to go out of the road. In consequence, injuries were committed on both sides; and, from the daily multiplication of these, war at last blazed out. In the end, the Thracians, unable to withstand the great strength and numbers of the enemy, deserted their towns in the plains, and betook themselves to a high mountain, which they call Donuca. The Bastarnians in vain attempted to follow them. We are told that the Gauls, when plundering Delphi, were destroyed by a storm; so a like storm now discomfited the people, when they were approaching the summit of the mountain. They were not only overwhelmed with a deluge of rain, followed by prodigious thick showers of hail, and accompanied with tremendous noises in the sky, peals of thunder, and flashes of lightning, which dazzled their sight; but the thunderbolts, also, fell so thick on all sides, that they seemed to be aimed at their bodies; and not only the soldiers, but their officers also, were struck by them, and fell. They fled, therefore, precipitately; and hurrying along, without looking before them, tumbled down the high precipices of the rocks, while the Thracians, pursuing close, increased their dismay: but they themselves said, that the gods had put them to flight, and that the sky was falling on them. When, after their dispersion by the storm, as after a shipwreck, they returned (most of them half armed) to the camp whence they had set out, they held a consultation about their future proceedings; on which a disagreement ensued, some advising to return home, and others to push forward into Dardania. About thirty thousand men, under the command of Clondicus, proceeded thither; the rest marched back, by the same road through which they came, to the country beyond the Danube. Perscus, as soon as he got possession of the kingdom, ordered Antigonus to be put to death; and, until he could settle his affairs on a firm foundation, sent ambassadors to Rome, to renew the treaty concluded by his father, and to request the senate to give him the title of king. These were the transactions of that year in Macedonia.
LIX. The consul Quintus Fulvius triumphed over the Ligurians; but it was plain that he was indebted for
this triumph to interest, rather than to the greatness of his exploits. He carried in the procession a vast quantity of
arms, taken from the enemy, but no money; yet he distributed to each soldier three hundred asses; double to
centurions, triple to horsemen. There was nothing in this triumph more remarkable, than that it happened to be
celebrated on the same day of the year on which he had triumphed, after his prætorship, the year before.Y. R. 574.
178. After this, he proclaimed the assembly of election, in which were chosen consuls, Marcus Junius Brutus, and
Aulus Manlius Vulso. Afterwards, when three prætors had been appointed, Publius Ælius Ligus, Titus Æbutius Carus, and
Marcus Titinius, a storm interrupted the election; but on the following day, the fourth before the ides of
March,* the other three were elected, Marcus Titinius Curvus, Tiberius
Claudius Nero, and Titus Fonteius Capito. The Roman games were repeated by the curule a diles, Cneius Servilius Cæpio,
and Appius Claudius Cento, on account of the prodigies which had occurred. In the public Forum, during the celebration
of a lectisternium, there was an earthquake. The heads of the gods who lay on the couches, turned away their faces, and
the cloak and coverings placed on Jupiter fell off. It was also construed as a prodigy, that the olives on the table
were gnawed by mice. For the expiation of these, nothing more was done than the re-celebration of the games.
* 19s. 4d.
* 1210l. 19s. 9d
* As there were six tribunes in each legion they took the command of it in turn, each holding it for two months
* 5592l. 17s. 4d
* 19,375l
* In consequence of which regulation, all those of each tribe, who were of the same rank and occupation, voted together
* 64l. 11s 4d.
† Neptune, Thetis and Glacus.
‡ Here are given in the original, some lines, as the inscription, but so corrupted and so defective, as to be utterly unintelligible. Gronovius endeavours, in vain, to explain them: Crevier gives the matter up.
* They called him also Euergetes, and Soter.
* The eleventh of March.
The sacred fire of the temple of Vesta extinguished. Titus Sempronius Gracchus, proconsul, subdues the Celtiberians, receives their submission, and, for a perpetual monument of his exploits, builds a town in Spain, to which he gives the name of Gracchuris. The Vaccæans and Lusitanians subdued by Postumius Albinus, who triumphs over them. Aulus Manlius, consul, marching into Istria, suffers a partial defeat; but afterwards routs the Istrians. Quintus Voconius Saxa proposes a law, that women shall not inherit, which is supported by Cato, and carried. Successful operations, under different commanders, against the Ligurians, Istrians, Sardinians, and Celtiberians. Perseus prepares for war; solicits the assistance of the Carthaginians, of the Grecian states, and of Antiochus Epiphanes. Character of Antiochus.*
* This book is very imperfect: a great part of the beginning of it is lost; and there are, besides, considerable chasms in other parts of it. The supplemental passages which the translator has introduced, to complete the connection, are taken from Crevier. They are printed in a different character.
Y. R.574.
178.I.IN the distribution of the provinces, those assigned to the consuls were — to Manlius,
Gaul; and to Junius, Liguria. As to the prætors, the city jurisdiction fell to Marcus Titinius Curvus; the foreign, to
Tiberius Claudius Nero; Sicily, to Publius Ælius Ligus; Sardinia, to Titus Æbutius: the Hither Spain, to the other
Marcus Titinius; and the Farther Spain, to Titus Fonteius Capito. A fire broke out in the Forum, and destroyed a great
number of buildings. The sacred fire of Vesta was extinguished; the virgin who had the care of it was punished with
stripes, by order of Marcus Æmilius, the chief pontiff, and supplication was performed, as usual in such cases. The
lustrum was closed by Marcus Æmilius Lepidus and Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, censors, in which were rated two hundred and
seventy three thousand two hundred and forty-four citizens. The ambassadors of Perseus arrived, desiring a renewal of
the league, and the title of King; and although the Romans entertained no friendly disposition to Perseus, whom they
had reason to believe disposed, as soon as he should think himself strong enough, to take the first opportunity of
commencing that war, which had been so long projected by his father Philip; yet, not to furnish him with any pretext
for a quarrel, they complied with both his requests. When Perseus received their answer, he thought himself effectually
confirmed on the throne, at the same time hoping to gain the favour and affection of the Greeks, and which, by various
acts of kindness and munificence, he in a great measure effected. Before the new prætors arrived in the Spanish
provinces, very important services were performed there by Postumius and Gracchus; the latter of whom, in particular,
acquired a very high reputation, not only as a military commander, but as a statesman, from his wise adjustment of the
the terms of peace between the Romans and the conquered nations. For he distributed lands, and assigned habitations; to
such as wanted them; and, for all the states in that part of the country, he wrote out accurate copies of the like
conditions of amity and alliance as with the others, and had them ratified by the oaths of all the parties; and the
authority of which treaty was often appealed to, in the following age, on occasion of the wars which then broke out. To
a town hitherto called Illurcis, he gave the name of Gracchuris, as a memorial of his meritorious labours in the
province. Postumius did not obtain an equal share of renown; yet he subdued the Vaccæans and Lusitanians; and both of
them, on their return home, after delivering up the provinces to their successors, were honoured with triumphs. In
Gaul, Manlius, the consul, to whose lot that province had fallen, not finding any employment that could afford him
hopes of a triumph, eagerly embraced an opportunity, which fortune threw in his way, of entering into a war with the
Istrians. This people had formerly sent assistance to the Ætolians, in their quarrel with the Romans, and had lately
shown a disposition to be troublesome. The King at that time on the throne, was called Epulo, and was of a turbulent
temper. His father had kept the nation quiet; but it was now reported, that this prince had compelled them to take
arms, and that this had highly endeared him to the youth of the country, who were eager for plunder. The consul
held a council on the subject of a war with Istria; in which some were of opinion, that it ought to be begun
immediately, before the enemy could collect forces; others, that the senate ought first to be consulted: the former
opinion was adopted. Accordingly, the consul, marching from Aquileia, pitched his camp at the lake Timavus, which lies
very near the sea. Thither came Caius Furius, one of the naval commanders, with ten ships; for two commanders had been
appointed to direct the operations of the fleet against that of the Illyrians; and they were ordered, with twenty
vessels, to protect the coast of the upper sea, making Ancona the common boundary between their stations; so that
Lucius Cornelius had to guard the coasts on the right, from thence to Tarentum; and Caius Furius those on the left, as
far as Aquileia. This squadron was sent to the nearest port in the Istrian territory, with a number of transports, and
a large store of provisions; while the consul, following with the legions, encamped at the distance of about five miles
from the coast. A plentiful market was soon established at the port, and every thing conveyed thence to the camp. That
this might be done with greater safety, outposts were fixed around the camp; with a guard opposite the country of
Istria. A newly-levied cohort of Placentines was posted between the camp and the sea; and that the wateringparties
might likewise have protection at the river, orders were given to Marcus Æbutius, military tribune, to take thither two
companies of the second legion. Titus Ælius, military tribune, led out the third legion, on the road towards Aquileia,
in support of those that went for food and forage. In the same quarter, at the distance of about five miles, a party of
Gauls, not exceeding three thousand in number, lay encamped, under the command of a chieftain, called Carmelus.
[. . . .]
II. When the Roman army first reached the lake Timavus, the Istrians took post behind a hill, where they could not be seen; and on its march thence followed it through by-ways, watching attentively for some opportunity that might give them an advantage; nor did any thing that was done, either on land or sea, escape their observation. When they saw the weakness of the advanced guards of the Romans, and that the market-place was filled with an unarmed crowd, who carried on a traffic with the camp, and that they had not fortified themselves either by works on land, or by the help of ships, they made an assault on two of their posts at once, the Placentine cohort, and the two companies of the second legion. A morning fog concealed their design; and when this began to disperse as the sun grew warm, the light, piercing through it in some degree, yet still being far from clear, and, as usual in such cases, magnifying the appearance of every thing, imposed so far on the Romans, that they thought the force of the enemy much greater than it really was. The troops in both the posts were so terrified, that they ran in the utmost confusion to the camp, where they caused much greater alarm than that which they were under themselves; for they could neither tell what had made them fly, nor answer any question that was asked. Then a shouting was heard at all the gates. There were no guards at them capable of withstanding an attack; and the hurry in which the men crowded and pressed against each other, from the want of light, made it suspected that the enemy were already in the camp. One only cry was heard from all, to hasten to the sea. These words were uttered by one alone, yet the cry quickly resounded in every part. At first, therefore, a few with their arms, and many more without them, as if they had received orders so to do, ran off to the seashore; then followed others in greater numbers, and, at length, almost the whole of the army, with the consul himself, who had endeavoured to call back the runaways by commands, advice, and, at last, by entreaties, but all to no purpose. Marcus Licinius Strabo, a military tribune of the third legion, with three companies alone, remained; the rest of his legion having gone off. The Istrians, breaking into the empty camp, and meeting none other to oppose them, came upon him while he was drawing up and encouraging his men at the general’s quarters; on which a fight ensued, more vigorous than could have been expected from so small a band; nor did it cease until the tribune, and those who stood round him, were all slain. The enemy then, tearing down the general’s tent, and seizing on all they could find, went on to the quæstor’s quarters, and the adjoining Forum, called Quintana. In the quæstor’s tent was plenty of all kinds of food ready dressed and laid out, and the couches being placed in order, their chieftain lay down, and began to feast. Presently all the rest, thinking no more of fighting or of the enemy, did the same; and being unaccustomed to any sort of rich food, they greedily gorged themselves with meat and wine.
III. Affairs among the Romans wore a very different aspect. There was nothing but confusion both on land and sea; the mariners struck their tents, and hastily conveyed on board the provisions which had been sent on shore; the soldiers in a panic pressed into the boats, and even into the water. The seamen were in fear lest their vessels should be overcrowded, so that some of them opposed the entrance of the multitude, while others pushed off into the deep. Hence arose a dispute, and in a short time a fight, not without wounds and loss of lives, both of soldiers and seamen; until, by order of the consul, the fleet was removed to a distance from the shore. He next set about separating the armed from the unarmed; and, out of so large a number, he hardly found twelve hundred who had preserved their arms: very few horsemen who had brought their horses with them; while the rest formed only an irregular ill-looking throng, like servants and sutlers, and would certainly have fallen a prey to the enemy, had they thought of pursuing their advantage. At length an express was dispatched to call in the third legion and the foragers; and at the same time the troops began to march back from all parts, in order to retake the camp, and repair their disgrace. The military tribunes of the third legion ordered their men to throw away the forage and wood, and the centurions to mount two elderly soldiers on horses from which the loads were thrown, each horseman taking a young foot-soldier behind him. He told them, “it would reflect great honour on their legion, if they should recover, by bravery, the camp which had been lost by the cowardice of the second; and that this might be easily effected, if the barbarians were surprised while busied in plundering. In like manner as they had taken it, so might it be retaken.” His exhortation was received by the army with tokens of the utmost alacrity; the standards advanced with speed, nor did the soldiers give any delay to the standard-bearers. The consul, and the troops that went back from the shore, reached the rampart first. Lucius Atius, first tribune of the second legion, not only urged on his men, but told them, that “if the Istrians meant to retain the camp which they had taken by the same arms which gave them possession of it, they would, in the first place, have pursued their enemy to the sea; and, in the next place, they would certainly have stationed guards outside the rampart; and that, in all probability, they were lying in sleep, or drowned in wine.”
IV. Saying this, he ordered his own standard-bearer, Aulus Bæculonius, a man of known bravery, to bear in the standard; who replied, that if the men were willing to follow him, he would throw it in. Then, exerting all his strength, he threw the standard across the entrenchment, and was the first that entered the gate. At this juncture arrived, on the other side, Titus Ælius and Caius Ælius, military tribunes of the third legion, with their cavalry; and, quickly after them, the soldiers whom they had mounted in pairs on the beasts of burden; also the consul, with the main body. As to the Istrians, a few, who were not quite so much intoxicated as the rest, had sense enough left to fly; death perpetuated the sleep of the others; and the Romans recovered all their effects unimpaired, except the victuals and wine which had been consumed. The soldiers, too, who had been left sick in the camp, when they saw their countrymen within the trenches, snatched up arms, and committed great slaughter. Caius Popilius, surnamed Sabellus, a horseman, distinguished himself on this occasion above all the rest. He had been left behind in the camp, on account of a wound in his foot, notwithstanding which he did much greater execution among the enemy than any other. Eight thousand Istrians were killed, but not one prisoner taken; for rage and indignation had made the Romans regardless of booty. The King of the Istrians, though in a state of ebriety, was hastily mounted on a horse by his people, and effected his escape. Of the conquerors there were lost two hundred and thirty-seven men; more of whom fell in the fight in the morning, than in the retaking of the camp.
V. It happened that Cneius and Lucius Cavillius, with recruits lately enlisted at Aquileia, coming with a convoy of provisions, and not knowing what had passed, were very near going into the camp after it was taken by the Istrians. These men then, leaving their baggage, and flying back to Aquileia, caused a general consternation and alarm, not only there, but, in a few days after, at Rome also; for there it was reported, not only that the camp was taken, and that the troops ran away, as was really the case, but that the whole army was entirely cut off. Wherefore, as usual in cases of uncommon danger, extraordinary levies were ordered by proclamation, both in the city and throughout all Italy. Two legions of Roman citizens were raised, and the Latine allies were ordered to furnish ten thousand foot and five hundred horse. The consul Marcus Junius was sent into Gaul, to demand from the several states of that province, whatever number of troops each was able to supply. At the same time it was mentioned in the decree, that Tiberius Claudius, the prætor, should issue orders for the fourth legion, and five thousand foot and two hundred and fifty horse, of the Latines, to assemble at Pisæ; that, with this force, he should guard that province during the consul’s absence: and that Marcus Titinius, prætor, should order the first legion, and an equal number of allied foot and horse, to meet at Ariminum. Nero, habited in general’s robes, set out for Pisæ, the province allotted him. Titinius, sending Caius Cassius, military tribune, to Ariminum, to command the legion there, employed himself in raising soldiers in Rome. The consul Marcus Junius, (passing over from Liguria into the province of Gaul, and, as he went along, collecting auxiliaries from the Gallic states, and recruits from the colonies,) came to Aquileia. There he learned that the army was safe; wherefore, after dispatching a letter to Rome, to put an end to the alarm, he sent home the Gallic auxiliaries, and proceeded himself to join his colleague. The unexpected news caused great joy at Rome; the levies were stopped, the soldiers who had been enlisted and sworn were discharged, and the troops at Ariminum, who were afflicted with a pestilential sickness, were remanded home. The Istrians, who, with a numerous force, were encamped at no great distance from the consul, when they understood that the other consul was arrived with a new army, dispersed and returned to their several states; when the consuls led back their legions into winter-quarters at Aquileia.
VI. The alarm caused by the affairs of Istria being at length composed, the senate passed an order, that the consuls should settle between themselves which of them should come to Rome, to preside at the elections. Two plebeian tribunes, Aulus Licinius Narva and Caius Papirius Turdus, in their harangues to the people, uttered severe reflections on Manlius, then abroad; and proposed the passing of an order, that although the government of their provinces had already been continued to the consuls for a year, yet Manlius should not hold command beyond the ides of March; in order that he might immediately, on the expiration of his office, be brought to trial. Against this proposition, Quintus Ælius, another tribune, protested; and, after violent struggles, prevailed so far, as to prevent its being passed. About this time, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Lucius Postumius Albinus came home from Spain. The prætor Marcus Titinius gave them an audience of the senate, in the temple of Bellona, that they might represent their services; and demand such honours as they merited, together with a thanksgiving to the immortal gods. At the same time arrived a letter from Titus Æbutius, the prætor, brought by his son to the senate, informing them of great commotions in Sardinia; that the Ilians, having procured aid of the Balarians, had made an inroad into the peaceable part of the province; and that it was not possible to make head against them with a feeble army, whose numbers were greatly diminished by an epidemic sickness. Ambassadors from the Sardinians made the same representations, and besought the senate to send relief to their cities; for as to the country, it was already entirely ruined. This embassy, and every thing relative to Sardinia, was referred to the new magistrates. An embassy from the Lycians, no less entitled to commiseration, complained of the cruel treatment which they suffered from the Rhodians, to whose government they had been annexed by Lucius Cornelius Scipio. “They had formerly,” they said, “been under the dominion of Antiochus; and their bondage under that King, compared to their present condition, appeared an honourable state of liberty; that they were not only oppressed by acts of government, but individuals underwent every suffering, as if really slaves. That themselves, their wives, and children, were abused alike by them; cruelties were practised on their persons, while the vilest aspersions and calumnies were cast on their character. They were openly treated with contemptuous insults, merely for the purpose of exercising an usurped prerogative, and to show that no distinction was made between them and purchased slaves.” The senate was highly displeased at such proceedings, and gave the Lycians a letter to the Rhodians, acquainting them, that “it was the will of the senate, that neither the Lycians should be subjected to the Rhodians as slaves, nor any other freeborn people be reduced to such a state; but that the Lycians should be under the government, and, at the same time, the protection of the Rhodians, in like manner as the allied states were subjected to the Roman people.”
VII. Two triumphs for conquests in Spain were then successively celebrated. First, Sempronius Gracchus triumphed over the Celtiberians and their allies; next day, Lucius Postumius, over the Lusitanians, and the other Spaniards in that quarter. Tiberius Gracchus carried in the procession twenty thousand pounds weight of silver, Albinus forty thousand. They distributed to each of their soldiers twenty-five denariuses,* double to a centurion, triple to a horseman; the same sums to the allied troops as to the Roman. The consul Marcus Junius happened to arrive at Rome at this time from Istria, in order to hold the elections. The plebeian tribunes, Papirius and Licinius, after harassing him in the senate, with questions relative to what had passed in Istria, brought him into the assembly of the people. To their inquiries, the consul answered, that “he had been not more than eleven days in that province; and that, as to what had happened when he was not present, his information, like their own, rested on report.” But they still proceeded to ask, “why, then, did not Manlius rather come to Rome, that he might account to the Roman people for his having quitted Gaul, the province allotted to him, and gone into Istria? When had the senate decreed a war with that nation? When had the people ordered it? But he will say, ‘Though the war was indeed undertaken by private authority, yet it was conducted with prudence and courage.’ On the contrary, it is impossible to say, whether the impropriety in undertaking it, or the misconduct in the carrying it on, was greater. Two advanced guards were surprised by the Istrians; a Roman camp was taken, with whatever infantry and cavalry were in it; the rest, in disorder, without arms, and among the foremost the consul himself, fled to the shore and the ships. But he should answer for all these matters when he became a private citizen, since he had avoided it while consul.”
VIII. The elections were then held, in which Caius Claudius Pulcher and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus
were chosen consuls. Next day, the following persons were elected prætors, Publius Ælius Tubero, a second time, Caius
Quintius Flamininus, Caius Numisius, Lucius Mummius, Cneius Cornelius Scipio, and Publius Valerius Lævinus. The city
jurisdiction fell, by lot, to Tubero; the foreign, to Quintius; Sicily, to Numisius; and Sardinia, to Mummius; but this
last, on account of the importance of the war there, was made a consular province, and bestowed on Gracchus. The lots
gave Istria to Claudius; and Gaul, divided into two provinces, to Scipio and Lævinus.Y. R.575.
177. On the ides of March, the day when Sempronius and Claudius assumed the administration, a cursory mention
only was made of the provinces of Sardinia and of Istria, and of those who had commenced hostilities there; but on the
day following, the ambassadors of the Sardinians, who had been referred to the new magistrates, were introduced, and
Lucius Minucius Thermus, lieutenant-general under the consul Manlius in Istria, attended; and from them the senate
learned the real state of the war in those provinces. The attention of the senate was also attracted by ambassadors
from the confederate states of Latium, who, after having ineffectually applied to the former consuls and censors, were
at last introduced to an audience. They came with complaints, the amount of which was, that “their citizens, having
been rated in the general survey at Rome, had, most of them, removed thither; and that, if this practice were allowed,
it would come to pass, in the course of a very few lustrums, that their towns, and even their country, would be so
deserted as to be unable to furnish any soldiers.” The Samnites and the Pelignians also represented, that four thousand
families had emigated to Fregellæ: and that in the levying of soldiers their quota was not lessened, nor that of the
others increased on this account. That there had been practised two species of fraud in the method of an individual
quitting one state to become a member of another: there was a law, which granted liberty to any of the allies or
Latines, who should not leave his offspring at home, to be enrolled a citizen of Rome; yet, by a perversion of this
law, some did injury to the allies, others to the Roman people. For, first, to evade the leaving offspring at home,
they made over their children as slaves to some Roman, under an agreement that they should be again set free, and thus
become citizens by emancipation; and then those men, who had now no children to leave, became Roman citizens.
Afterwards, they neglected even these appearances of conformity to law; and, without any regard either to the
ordinances or to progeny, passed indiscriminately into the Roman state by migration, getting themselves included in the
survey. To prevent such proceedings in future, the ambassadors requested the senate to order the allies to return to
their respective states, and to provide by a law, that “no one should acquire a property in any man’s person, or
alienate such property for the purpose of that man’s enfranchisement, in any other state than his own; and that if any
person should by such means be made a citizen of Rome, he should not enjoy the rights of a citizen.”
IX. The senate granted their petitions; and then proceeded on the business of Sardinia and Istria, the provinces which were in a state of war. It was ordered, that two legions should be raised for Sardinia, each containing five thousand two hundred foot, and three hundred horse; and of the allies and Latines, twelve thousand foot and six hundred horse; and that the consul should take ten ships, of five banks of oars, out of any docks he chose. The same numbers of infantry and cavalry were decreed for Istria as for Sardinia. The consuls were ordered to send into Spain, to Marcus Titinius, one legion, with three hundred horse, and five thousand foot, and three hundred horse of the allies. Before the consuls cast lots for their provinces, several prodigies were reported: that, in the Crustumine territory, a stone fell from the sky into the grove of Mars; that, in the Roman territory, a boy was born defective in his limbs; that a serpent with four feet had been seen; that at Capua, many buildings in the Forum were struck by lightning; and, at Puteoli, two ships were burned by lightning. While these prodigies were reported from abroad, one happened in Rome itself; for a wolf, having come in through the Colline gate in the middle of the day, was, for a long time, driven about through the city, and at length, though pursued by great multitudes, escaped through the Esquiline. On account of these prodigies, the consuls sacrificed victims of the larger kinds, and there was a supplication, for one day, at all the shrines. When the sacrifices were duly performed, they cast lots for their provinces; when Istria fell to Claudius, Sardinia to Sempronius. Then Caius Claudius, by direction of the senate, procured a law to be passed respecting the allies, and issued a proclamation, that “any of the allies and Latine confederates, who, themselves, or whose ancestors, had been surveyed among the associated states of Latium in the censorship of Marcus Claudius and Titus Quintius, or at any time since, should all return, each to his respective state, before the calends of November.” Lucius Mummius, the prætor, was commissioned to make inquiry concerning such as did not obey. To the law, and the proclamation of the consul, was added a decree of the senate, that “the dictator, consul, interrex, censor, or prætor, for the time being, before whom any slave should be brought, to receive manumission, should cause the said slave so to be discharged, to make oath, that the person giving him liberty did not do it for the purpose of his being admitted a citizen of any state, of which he was not already a member;” and any one refusing this oath, the decree ordered, should not be manumitted. The cognizance and jurisdiction in this business, for the future, was assigned to Caius Claudius the consul.
X. While these matters passed at Rome, Marcus Junius and Aulus Manlius, the consuls of the preceding year, after remaining during winter at Aquileia, led their army, early in the spring, into the Istrian territories, and spread their depredations through a great part of the country; on which the Istrians, rather out of grief and indignation at seeing their property plundered, than from any well-grounded hope of being able to make head against these joint forces, flew to arms. They hastily assembled their young men, who ran together from all their cantons; and this raw and tumultuary army made its first onset with more vigour than it was able steadily to support. Four thousand of them were slain in the field; and the rest, renouncing all thoughts of farther opposition, dispersed and fled to their homes. Soon after, they sent ambassadors to the Roman camp to sue for peace, and then delivered up the hostages required of them. When these transactions were made known at Rome, by letters from the proconsul, Caius Claudius, the consul, began to fear that this proceeding might, perhaps, take the province and the army out of his hands; and therefore, without offering vows, without assuming the military habit, and unaccompanied by his lictors, having acquainted his colleague alone with his intention, he set out in the night, and with the utmost speed hastened to the province, where he conducted himself even with less prudence than he had shown in coming. For, in an assembly which he called, after making severe remarks on Manlius’s running away from the camp, which were very offensive to the ears of the soldiers, as they themselves had begun the flight; and, after railing at Marcus Junius, as having made himself a sharer in the disgrace of his colleague, he at last ordered both of them to quit the province. They replied, that when the consul should come, in the regular manner, agreeably to ancient practice; when he should set out from the city, after offering vows in the Capitol, attended by his lictors, and dressed in the military habit, then they would obey his orders. This threw him into such a furious rage, that he called the person who acted as quæstor to Manlius, and ordered him to bring fetters, threatening to send Junius and Manlius to Rome in chains. This man, too, slighted the consul’s command; and the surrounding crowd of soldiers, who favoured the cause of their commanders, and were incensed against Claudius, supplied him with resolution to refuse obedience. At last the consul, overpowered by the reproaches of individuals and the scoffs of the multitude, for they even turned him into ridicule, went back to Aquileia in the ship that had brought him. From thence he wrote to his colleague, desiring him to give notice to that part of the new raised troops, who were enlisted for Istria, to assemble at Aquileia, in order that he should have no delay at Rome, but set out, as soon as the ceremony of offering vows was finished, in the military habit. These directions his colleague punctually executed, and a short day was appointed for the assembling of the troops. Claudius almost overtook his own letter. On his arrival he called an assembly, that he might represent the conduct of Manlius and Junius; and, staying only three days in Rome, he offered his vows in the Capitol, put on the military habit, and, attended by his lictors, set out to his province with the same rapid speed which he had used in the former journey.
XI. A few days before his arrival, Junius and Manlius had laid vigorous siege to the town of Nesartium, in which the principal Istrians, and Epulo their King, had shut themselves up. Claudius, bringing thither the two new legions, dismissed the old army, with its commanders; invested the town himself; and prosecuted the siege with regular works. A river which flowed on the outside of the wall, and greatly impeded the proceedings of the besiegers, while it supplied the besieged with a convenience of water, he, with many days labour, turned out of its course, and conveyed away in another channel. This event, of the water being cut off, terrified the Barbarians, as if effected by some supernatural power; yet still they entertained no thoughts of peace, but set about killing their wives and children; exhibiting a spectacle shocking even to their enemies; and, after putting them to death in open view on the walls, tumbled them down. During this horrid carnage, the soldiers, scaling the walls, effected an entrance into the town. As soon as their King heard the uproar, and understood, from the cries of terror uttered by the flying inhabitants, that the place was captured, he plunged his sword into his breast, that he might not be taken alive: the rest were either killed or made prisoners. After this, two other towns, Mutila and Faveria, were stormed and destroyed. The booty, which exceeded expectation, considering the poverty of the nation, was all given up to the soldiers. Five thousand six hundred and thirty-two persons were sold by auction, and the fomenters of the war were beaten with rods, and beheaded. By the destruction of these three towns, and the death of the King, the whole country of Istria was brought to terms of peace; every one of its states giving hostages, and submitting to the dominion of the Romans.
XII. For some time before the conclusion of the war of Istria, the Ligurians had begun to hold consultations about the renewal of hostilities. Tiberius Claudius, proconsul, who had been consul the year before, at the head of one legion, posted at Pisæ, held the government of that province. He gave information to the senate, by letter, of their proceedings; and they ordered, that “the same letter should be carried to Caius Claudius,” for Gracchus had already crossed over into Sardinia; and they added a decree, that, peace being established in the province of Istria, he should, if he thought proper, lead his army into Liguria. At the same time, a supplication for two days was decreed, in consequence of the account given by the consul, in his letter, of his services performed in Istria. The other consul, Sempronius, likewise, was successful in his operations in Sardinia. He carried his army into the territory of the Ilian tribe of Sardinians, who had received a powerful reinforcement from the Balarians. He fought a pitched battle against the combined forces of the two states, defeated and put them to flight, and made himself master of their camp, having killed twelve thousand of their men. Next day, the consul ordered their arms to be gathered into a heap and burned, as an offering to Vulcan. He then led back his victorious troops into winter-quarters in the allied cities. Caius Claudius, on receipt of the letter of Tiberius Claudius, and the decree of the senate, marched his legions out of Istria into Liguria. The enemy, having advanced into the plains, were encamped on the river Scultenna: here a pitched battle was fought, in which fifteen thousand of the enemy were killed, and about seven hundred captured in the fight, and in the camp, for that too was stormed; and also fifty-one military standards were taken. The Ligurians who survived, fled back into the mountains; the consul ravaged all the low country, but met, nowhere, any appearance of arms. Claudius, having thus in one year subdued two nations, and, what has rarely been achieved in a single consulate, completed the reduction of two provinces, came home to Rome.
XIII. Several prodigies were reported this year: that at Crustuminum; a kind of vulture, which they call the Bloodsucker, cut a sacred stone with its beak; that a cow spoke, in Campania; that, at Syracuse, a brazen statue of a cow was mounted by a farmer’s bull, which had strayed from the herd. A supplication of one day was performed in Crustuminum, on the spot; the cow in Campania was ordered to be maintained at the public expense, and the prodigy at Syracuse was expiated according to directions given by the aruspices, respecting the deities to whom supplications should be offered. This year died, in the office of pontiff, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who had been consul and censor; and his son, Marcus Marcellus, was chosen into the vacant place. The same year a colony of two thousand Roman citizens was settled at Luna, under the care of Publius Ælius, Lucius Egilius, and Cneius Sicinius, who allotted to each fifty-one acres and a half of land. This land had been taken from the Ligurians, and had been the property of the Etrurians, before it fell into their possession. Caius Claudius, consul, arrived at the city, and, after laying before the senate a detail of his successful services in Istria and Liguria, demanded a triumph, which was granted. He triumphed, in office, over the two nations at once. In this procession he carried three hundred and seven thousand denariuses,* and eighty-five thousand seven hundred and two quinariuses.† To each soldier he gave fifteen denariuses,‡ double to a centurion, triple to a horseman. The allied soldiers received less, by half, than the native troops, for which reason they followed his chariot in silence, to show their disgust.
XIV. While this triumphing over the Ligurians was celebrated, that people, perceiving that not only the
consular army returned to Rome, but also that the legion at Pisæ had been disbanded by Tiberius Claudius, laid aside
their fears, and, collecting an army, secretly crossed the mountains by winding paths, and came down into the plains;
where, after ravaging the lands of Mutina, by a sudden assault they gained possession of the city itself. When an
account of this was brought to Rome, the senate ordered Caius Claudius, the consul, to hold the elections as soon as
possible, and (after appointing magistrates for the ensuing year) to go back to his province, and rescue the colony out
of the hands of the enemy. The elections were held as the senate had directed; and Cneius Cornelius Scipio Hispalus,
with Quintus Petillius Spurinus, were chosen consuls. Then were elected prætors, Marcus Popillius Lænas, Publius
Licinius Crassus, Marcus Cornelius Scipio, Lucius Papirius Maso, Marcus Aburius, and Lucius Aquilius Gallus. Caius
Claudius, consul, was continued in command for a year in the province of Gaul; and he was ordered, lest the Istrians
should follow the example of the Ligurians, to send into Istria the allied Latine troops, which he had brought home to
attend his triumph.Y. R.576.
176. When the consuls, Cneius Cornelius and Quintus Petillius, on the day of entering into office, sacrificed
each an ox to Jupiter, according to custom, the head of the liver was not found in the victim sacrificed by Petillius;
which being reported to the senate, he was ordered to sacrifice other oxen, until he should find the omens favourable.
The senate then proceeded to the disposal of the provinces, when Pisæ and Liguria were decreed to the consuls. It was
further decreed, that he to whose lot Pisæ fell, should, at the time of the elections, come home to preside at them;
and that they should severally enlist two new legions, and three hundred horse; and should order the allies, and Latine
confederates, to furnish ten thousand foot and six hundred horse to each. Tiberius Claudius was continued in command
until such time as the consul should arrive in the province.
XV. While the senate was employed in these affairs, Caius Cornelius, being called by a messenger, went out of the senatehouse; and, after a short time, returned with a troubled countenance, and told the Conscript Fathers, that the liver of a fat ox, which he had sacrificed, had melted away; that when this was told to him by the person who dressed the victims, he did not believe it, but went himself and ordered the water to be poured out of the vessel in which the entrails were boiled; when he saw all entire but the liver, which had been unaccountably consumed. While the Fathers were under much terror on account of this prodigy, their alarm was augmented by the other consul, who informed them, that, on account of the first victim having wanted the head of the liver, he had sacrificed three oxen, and had not yet found favourable omens. The senate ordered him to continue sacrificing the larger victims, until he should find the desired tokens. It is said, that the victims offered to the other deities, at length presented good omens; but that in those offered to Health, Petillius could find none such. Then the consuls and prætors cast lots for their provinces, when Pisæ fell to Cneius Cornelius; Liguria to Petillius. Of the prætors, Lucius Papirius Maso obtained the city jurisdiction; Marcus Abutius, the foreign; Marcus Cornelius Scipio Maluginensis, the Farther Spain; Lucius Aquilius Gallus, Sicily. Two of them petitioned to be excused from going into their provinces. First, Marcus Popillius requested he might not be obliged to go to Sardinia, alleging, that, “Gracchus was bringing that province into a state of tranquillity; that the senate had assigned him the prætor Titus Æbutius, as an assistant; and that it was by no means expedient to interrupt the train of business, for the completion of which there was no method so efficacious as the continuing the management in the same hands; for, between the transferring of the command, and the successor coming (a stranger to the business of the province), it often happened, that very favourable opportunities were lost.” The excuse of Popilius was admitted. Then Publius Licinius Bassus alleged, that he was prevented from going into his province by solemn sacrifices, necessary to be performed. That which had fallen to his lot was the Hither Spain. But he was ordered either to proceed thither, or to swear, in the public assembly, that he was hindered by the performance of solemn anniversary sacrifices. When this determination was made in the case of Publius Licinius, Marcus Cornelius demanded that his oath, of the like import, might be admitted as an excuse for his not going into the Farther Spain. Both the prætors accordingly took an oath in the same words. It was ordered, that Marcus Titinius and Titus Fonteius, proconsuls, should remain in Spain, with authority as before; and that a reinforcement should be sent to them, of three thousand Roman foot, with three hundred horse; and five hundred Latine foot, with three hundred horse.
XVI The Latine festival was celebrated on the third day before the nones of May;* and because, on the offering of one of the victims, the magistrate had not prayed for the roman people, the quirites, a scruple arose concerning the validity of the performance. The matter being laid before the senate, and referred by them to the college of pontiffs, the the latter determined, that the Latine festival had not been duly performed, and must be repeated; and that the Lanuvians, who had given cause for the repetition, should furnish the victims. Besides the concern, excited by matters of a religious nature, another incident caused no small degree of uneasiness. The consul Cneius Cornelius, as he was returning from the Alban mount, fell down, and lost the use of one half of his limbs; he was carried to the waters of Cumæ, where, his disorder still increasing, he died. His body was conveyed to Rome to be buried, and the funeral obsequies were performed with great magnificence: he was likewise a pontiff. The other consul, Quintus Petillius, was ordered to hold an assembly, as soon as the auspices could be taken, for the election of a consul in the room of his late colleague, and to proclaim the Latine festival. Accordingly, by proclamation, he fixed the election for the third day before the nones of August,* and the Latine festival for the third before the ideas of the same month.† While people’s minds were much troubled, from the apprehension of the displeasure of the gods; to add thereto, several prodigies were reported to have happened: that a blazing torch was seen in the sky at Tusculum; that the temple of Apollo, and many private buildings, at Gabii, and a wall and gate at Graviscæ, were struck by lightning. The senate ordered these to be expiated as the pontiffs should direct. While the consuls were detained, at first by religious ceremonies, and afterwards, one of them, by the death of the other, and then by the election and the repetition of the Latine festival, Caius Claudius marched the army to Mutina, which the Ligurians had taken the year before. Within three days from the commencement of the siege he retook it, and delivered it back to the colonists: on this occasion eight thousand Ligurians were killed within the walls. He immediately dispatched a letter to Rome, in which he not only represented this success, but likewise boasted, that, through his good conduct and good fortune, there was not one enemy of the Roman people left on this side the Alps; and that a large tract of land had been taken, sufficient, if distributed in shares, for the accommodation of many thousand people.
XVII. During the same period, Tiberius Sempronius, after gaining many victories, and killing fifteen thousand of the enemy, totally subdued the people of Sardinia, and reduced, under the Roman dominion, every state in the island that had revolted. On those which had formerly been tributary, double takes were imposed and levied; the rest paid a contribution in corn. When he had thus restored peace in the province, and received hostages from all parts of the island, to the number of two hundred and thirty, he sent deputies to Rome, to give information of these transactions, and to request of the senate, that in consideration of those services, performed under the conduct and auspices of Tiberius Sempronius, a thanksgiving might be offered to the immortal gods, and permission granted him to quit the province, and bring home the army with him. The senate gave audience to the deputies in the temple of Apollo, ordered a thanksgiving for two days, and that the consuls should sacrifice forty victims of the larger kinds; but commanded the proconsul, Tiberius Sempronius, and his army, to continue in the province for the year. Then the election for filling the vacant place of a consul, which had been fixed by proclamation for the third day before the nones of August,* was finished in one day, and the consul Quintus Petillius declared Caius Valerius Lævinus duly elected his colleague, who was to assume immediately the administration of his office. This man had been long ambitious of the government of a province, and, very seasonably for the gratification of his wishes, a letter now arrived with intelligence, that the Ligurians were again in arms. Wherefore, on the nones of August,† he assumed the military habit; and ordered that, on account of this alarm, the third legion should march into Gaul, and join Caius Claudius, proconsul, and that the commanders of the fleet should sail with their ships to Pisæ, and coast along the Ligurian shore, to terrify that people by the sight of a naval power also. The other consul, Quintus Petillius, had appointed a day for his troops to assemble in the same place. On the other hand, Caius Claudius, proconsul, on hearing of the rebellion in Liguria, hastily collected some soldiers, in addition to those whom he had with him at Parma, and with this force marched to the frontiers of Liguria.
XVIII. On the approach of Caius Claudius, the enemy, reflecting that this was the same commander who
had defeated them at the river Scultenna, resolved to rely on situation, rather than arms, for their defence against a
force with which they had so unsuccessfully struggled. With this design, they took post on two mountains, called Letum
and Balista; and, for greater security, they surrounded their encampment with a wall. Some, who were too slow in
removing from the low grounds, were surprised, and put to the sword — one thousand five hundred in number. The others
kept themselves close on the mountains; and retaining, in the midst of their fears, their native savage disposition,
vented their fury on the prey taken at Mutina. The prisoners they mangled in a shocking manner, and put to death; the
cattle they butchered in the temples, rather than decently sacrificed; and then, (satiated with the destruction of
living creatures,) they turned their fury against things inanimate, dashing against the walls even vessels made for
use, rather than for show. Quintus Petillius, the consul, fearing that the war might be brought to a conclusion before
he arrived in the province, wrote to Caius Claudius to bring the army into Gaul, saying, that he would wait for him at
the Long Plains. Claudius, immediately on receipt of the letter, marched out of Liguria, and at the appointed place
gave up the command of the army to the consul. To these plains came, in a few days after, the other consul Caius
Valerius. Here they agreed on a division of their forces; but before they separated, both together performed a
purification of the troops. They then cast lots for their routes, it having been resolved that they should not assail
the enemy on the same side. Valerius clearly performed his part of the ceremony with propriety; but with regard to
Petillius, as the augurs afterwards pronounced, the procedure was faulty, for he was not in the consecrated place when
he put his lot into the urn, which was afterwards carried in. They then began their march in different directions;
Petillius led his troops against the ridge of Balista and Letum, which joined the two together with one continued
range, and encamped at the foot of it. We are told, that, while he was here encouraging his soldiers, whom he had
assembled for the purpose, without reflecting on the ambiguity of the word, he uttered this ominous expression: “Before
night I will have Letum.”* He made his troops march up the mountain in two
places at the same time. The division, where he commanded in person, advanced briskly; the other was repulsed by the
enemy; and the consul riding up thither, to remedy the disorder, rallied indeed his troops, but exposing himself too
carelessly in the front, was pierced through with a javelin, and fell. The commanders of the enemy did not know that he
was killed; and the few of his own party, who saw the disaster, carefully covered the body from view, knowing that, on
the concealment of what had happened, the victory depended. The rest of the troops, horse and foot, though deprived of
their leader, dislodged the enemy, and took possession of the mountains. Five thousand of the Ligurians were slain, and
of the Roman army only fifty-two were lost. Besides this evident completion of the unhappy omen, the keeper of the
chickens was heard to say, that there had been a defect in the auspices, and that the consul was not ignorant of it.
Caius Valerius, when he was informed of the death of Quintus Petillius, made the army, thus bereft of its
commander, join his own; then, attacking the enemy again, he shed copious streams of their blood, to appease the shade
of his departed colleague. He had the honour of a triumph over the Ligurians. The legion, at whose head the consul was
killed, was severely punished by the senate; their year’s pay was stopped, and that campaign was not allowed in their
number, for not exposing themselves to the enemy’s weapons in defence of their commander. About this time ambassadors
came to Rome from the Dardanians, who were greatly distressed by the numerous army of Bastarnians, under Clondicus,
mentioned above. These ambassadors, after describing the vast multitude of the Bastarnians, their tall and huge bodies,
and their daring intrepidity in facing danger, added, that there was an alliance between them and Perseus, and that the
Dardanians were really more afraid of him than even of the Bastarnians; and therefore begged of the senate to send them
assistance. The senate thereupon agreed, that ambassadors should be sent to examine into the affairs of Macedonia; and
Aulus Postumius was immediately commissioned to go thither. The colleague: joined with him were some young men, that he
might have the principal direction and management of the embassy. The senate then took into consideration the election
of magistrates for the ensuing year, on which subject there was a long debate; for people skilled in the rules of
religion and politics affirmed, that, as the regular consuls of the year had died, one by the sword, the other by
sickness, the substituted consul was not qualified to hold the elections.Y. R.577.
175.Aninterregnum, therefore, took place, and the interrex elected consuls Publius Mucius Scævola, and
Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, a second time. Then were chosen prætors, Caius Popillius Lænas, Titus Annius Luscus, Caius
Memmius Gallus, Caius Cluvius Saxula, Servius Cornelius Sulla, and Appius Claudius Centho. The provinces assigned to
the consuls were Gaul and Liguria. Of the prætorian provinces, Sardinia fell to Cornelius Sulla, and Hither Spain to
Claudius Centho; but how the rest were distributed is not known. There was a great mortality of cattle this year. The
Ligurians, a nation ever vanquished, yet ever rebelling, ravaged the lands of Luna and Pisæ; and at the same time there
were alarming rumours of disturbances in Gaul. Lepidus easily quelled the commotions among the Gauls, and then marched
into Liguria. Several states of this country submitted themselves to his disposal; and he, supposing that the rugged
face of the mountains, which they inhabited, contributed to the ferocity of their tempers, followed the example of some
former consuls, and brought them down into the plains. Of these the Garulians, Lapicinians, and Hercatians, had
lived on the hither side of the Appennine, and the Brincatians on the farther side.
XIX. On the hither side of the river Audena, Quintus Mucius made war on those who had wasted the lands of Luna and Pisæ, reduced them all to subjection, and stripped them of their arms. On account of these services, performed under the conduct and auspices of the two consuls, the senate voted a thanksgiving for three days, and sacrifices of forty victims. The commotions which broke out in Gaul and Liguria, at the beginning of this year, were thus speedily suppressed, without any great difficulty; but the apprehensions of the public, respecting a war with Macedonia, still continued. For Perseus laboured to embroil the Bastarnians with the Dardanians; and the ambassadors, sent to examine into the state of affairs in Macedonia, returned to Rome, and brought certain information, that hostilities had commenced in Dardania. At the same time, came envoys from King Perseus, with assurances, that he had neither invited the Bastarnians, nor countenanced any of their proceedings. The senate neither acquitted the King of the imputation, nor urged it against him; they only ordered warning to be given him, to be very careful to show, that he considered the treaty between him and the Romans as inviolable. The Dardanians, perceiving that the Bastarnians, so far from quitting their country, as they had hoped, became daily more troublesome, as they were supported by the neighbouring Thracians and Scordiscians, thought it necessary to make some effort against them, though without any reasonable prospect of success. Accordingly, they assembled together in arms from all quarters, at the town that was nearest to the camp of the Bastarnians. It was now winter, and they chose that season of the year, as supposing that the Thracians and Scordiscians would return to their own countries. As soon as they heard that these were gone, and the Bastarnians left by themselves, they divided their forces into two parts, that one might march openly along the straight road to attack the enemy; and that the other, going round through a wood, which lay out of sight, might assault them on the rear. But, before these could arrive at the enemy’s post, the fight commenced, and the Dardanians were beaten, and pursued to the town, which was about twelve miles from the Bastarnian camp. The victors immediately invested the place, not doubting that, on the day following, either the enemy would surrender it, or they might take it by storm. Meanwhile, the other body of Dardanians, which had gone round, not having heard of the defeat of their countrymen, easily possessed themselves of the camp of the Bastarnians, which had been left without a guard. The Bastarnians, thus deprived of all their provisions and warlike stores, and having no means of replacing them in a hostile country and at that unfavourable season, resolved to return to their native home. When they arrived at the Danube, they found it, to their great joy, covered with ice so thick as to seem capable of sustaining any weight. But, when it came to be pressed under the immense weight of the whole body of men and cattle, crowding together in their haste, after supporting the burthen for a long time, it suddenly split into numberless pieces, and plunged the entire multitude in the deep. The greatest part were instantly swallowed up; many, striving to swim out, were sunk by the fragments of the ice, and a very few escaped to either bank, none without being severely cut or bruised. About this time, Antiochus, son to Antiochus the Great, who had been for a long time a hostage at Rome, came into possession of the kingdom of Syria, on the death of his brother Seleucus. For Seleucus, whom the Greeks call Philopator, having received the kingdom of Syria greatly debilitated by the misfortunes of his father, during a reign of twelve years never distinguished himself by any memorable enterprise; and, at this time, called home from Rome this his younger brother, sending, in his stead, his own son Demetrius, according to the terms of the treaty, which allowed the changing of the hostages from time to time. Antiochus had but just reached Athens on his way, when Seleucus was murdered, in consequence of a conspiracy formed by Heliodorus, one of the nobles. This man aimed at the crown for himself, but was obliged to fly by Attalus and Eumenes, who put Antiochus in possession of it, expecting great advantages to themselves from having him bound to them in gratitude for a service so important. They now began to harbour some jealousy of the Romans, on account of several trifling causes of disgust. Antiochus was received by the people with such transports of joy, that they gave him the surname of Epiphanes, or Rising Star, because, when aliens to the royal blood were about to seize the throne, he appeared like a propitious star, to assert his hereditary right. He was not deficient in capacity or vigour of mind to make a figure in war; but such perversity and indiscretion prevailed in his whole conduct and behaviour, that they soon changed the surname which they had given him, and instead of Epiphanes, called him Epimanes, or madman; for many were the acts of folly ar madness which he committed. He used frequently to go out, without the knowledge of any of his servants, clad in garments embroidered with gold; at one time to annoy the passengers, by throwing stones at them; at another to amuse himself by flinging handfuls of money among the crowd, to be scrambled for. He allowed himself to commit the most egregious follies and the vilest indecencies in common tippling houses and in the public baths; drinking with strangers, and mingling with the lowest of the people. Among many other instances of his folly, it is mentioned that he used to lay aside his royal robes, and put on a gown, as he had seen the candidates for office do at Rome, and then go about the Forum saluting and embracing each of the plebeians; soliciting at one time for the ædileship, at another for the plebeian tribuneship, until at last he obtained the office by the suffrages of the people, and then, according to the Roman custom, he took his seat in an ivory chair, where he heard causes, and listened to debates on the most trivial matters.
XX. He never thought of adhering to any rule, but rambled incessantly, adopting by turns, every kind of
behaviour, insomuch, that no one could judge with certainty as to his real character. Sometimes he would not speak to
his friends, nor scarcely afford a smile to his acquaintance. By a preposterous kind of liberality, he made himself and
others subjects of ridicule; for to some, in the most elevated stations, and who thought highly of themselves, he would
give childish presents of sweetmeats, cakes, or toys; while on others, who, having no claims, expected nothing, he
would bestow large sums of money. Wherefore to many he appeared not to know what he was doing; some said that he acted
from a silly sportive temper; others, that he was evidently mad. In two great and honourable instances, however, he
showed a spirit truly royal — in the presents which he made to several cities, and the honour he paid to the gods. To
the inhabitants of Megalopolis in Arcadia, he made a promise to build a wall round their city, and he gave them the
greater part of the money requisite for the purpose. At Tegea he began to erect a magnificent theatre of marble. At
Cyzicum, he presented a set of golden utensils for the service of one table in the Prytaneum, the state-room of the
city, where such as are entitled to that honour dine together. To the Rhodians he gave presents of every kind that
their convenience required, but none very remarkable. Of the magnificence of his notions, in every thing respecting the
gods, the temple of Jupiter Olympius at Athens was of itself a sufficient testimony; being the only one in the world,
the plan of which was suitable to the greatness of the deity. He likewise ornamented Delos with altars of extraordinary
beauty, and abundance of statues. A magnificent temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which he promised to build at Antioch,
of which not only the ceilings, but all the walls were to be covered with plates of gold, and many other edifices which
he intended in various places he did not finish, as his reign was short. His magnificence in the exhibition of public
shows, also surpassed that of all former kings, both by their uncommon splendour, usual in his own kingdom, and by the
great number of Grecian performers. He gave a show of gladiators in the Roman manner, which at first, among a people
unaccustomed to such sights, caused more terror than pleasure; but by frequently repeating them, sometimes permitting
the combatants to go no farther than wounds, at other times to proceed to extremities, he rendered such kind of shows
not only familiar to people’s eyes, but even agreeable, and kindled in the young men a passion for arms; insomuch that,
although, at the beginning, he was obliged to entice gladiators from Rome, by high rewards, he soon found a
sufficient number in his own dominions willing to perform for a moderate hire. The shows which he exhibited, formed, in
every respect, a perfect contrast to his own character, which was a compound of every thing that was absurd and
trifling: nothing could be more magnificent than these were: nothing more vile and contemptible than the King himself.
To return, however, to the Roman affairs, from which the mention of this King has caused us to digress too far.
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, after holding the government of Sardinia two years, resigned it to Servius Cornelius
Sulla, the prætor, and, coming home to Rome, triumphed over the Sardinians. We are told that he brought such a
multitude of captives from that island, that from the long continuance of the sale, “Sardinians for sale,” became a
vulgar proverb, to denote things of little price. Both the consuls (Scævola and Lepidus) triumphed over the
Ligurians; Lepidus over the Gauls also. Then were held the elections of magistrates for the ensuing year. Spurius
Postumius Albinus and Quintus Mucius Scævola were chosen consuls.Y. R.578.
174.In the election of prætors, there happened a particular competition between Lucius or Cneius Cornelius
Scipio, son of Publius Africanus, and Caius Cicereius, who had been his father’s secretary. For, after five prætors had
been declared, Caius Cassius Longinus, Publius Furius Philus, Lucius Claudius Asellus, Marcus Atilius Serranus, and
Cneius Servilius Cæpio; although Scipio struggled hard to be admitted even in the last place, yet he was thought to
have degenerated so far from the virtues of his father, that every one of the centuries would have given the preference
to Cicereius, had not the latter, with singular modesty, withdrawn himself. He could not reconcile it to himself, that,
in a disputed election, he should gain the victory over the son of his patron, but, immediately, throwing off the white
gown, he became, from a competitor sure of success, the grateful friend and supporter of the interest of his rival.
Thus, by the help of Cicereius, Scipio obtained a post which he would never have procured from the people, and which
reflected greater honour on Cicereius than on himself.
XXI.The provinces assigned to the consuls were Gaul and Liguria. On the prætors casting lots, the city jurisdiction fell to Caius Cassius Longinus, and the foreign, to Lucius Cornelius Scipio. The province of Sardinia fell to Marcus Atilius, who was ordered to sail over to Corsica, with a new legion, raised by the consuls, consisting of five thousand foot and three hundred horse; and while he was engaged in carrying on the war there, Cornelius was continued in command, that he might hold the government of Sardinia. To Cneius Servilius Cæpio, for the service of the Farther Spain, and to Publius Furius Philus for that of the hither Spain, were assigned — to each, three thousand Roman foot, with one hundred and fifty horse, and five thousand Latine foot with three hundred horse. Sicily was decreed to Lucius Claudius without any reinforcement. The consuls were ordered to levy two more legions, of the regular numbers in foot and horse, and to call on the allies for ten thousand foot and six hundred horse: but they met great difficulty in making the levies; for the pestilence which, the year before, had fallen on the cattle, in the present year attacked the human species. Such as were seized by it, seldom survived the seventh day; those who did survive, lingered under a tedious disorder, which generally turned to a quartan ague. The mortality was greatest among the slaves, of whom heaps lay unburied on all the roads. Nor were there conductors of funerals sufficient to bury even the people of free condition. The bodies were consumed by putrefaction, without being touched by the dogs or vultures; and it was universally observed, that, during that and the preceding year, while the mortality of cattle and men was so great, no vultures were any where seen. Of the public priests, there died, by this contagion, Cneius Servilius Cæpio, father of the prætor, a pontiff; Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son of Tiberius, decemvir of religious rites; Publius Ælius Pætus, and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, augurs; Caius Mamilius Vitulus, chief curio; and Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus, a pontiff. In the vacant places of pontiffs* were chosen Caius Sulpicius Galba, in the room of Tuditanus. New augurs were appointed, Titus Veturius Gracchus Sempronianus, in place of Gracchus; and Quintus Ælius Pætus, in place of Publius Ælius. Caius Sempronius Longus was made decemvir of religious rites, and Caius Scribonius Curio, chief curio. The plague continuing, the senate voted that the decemvirs should consult the Sibylline books; and, by their directions, a supplication of one day was performed; and the people, assembled in the forum, made a vow, in words dictated by Quintus Marcius Philippus, that “if the sickness and pestilence should be removed out of the Roman territory, they would solemnize a festival and thanksgiving of two days’ continuance.” In the district of Veii, a boy was born with two heads; at Sinuessa, one with a single hand; and at Oximum, a girl with teeth; in the middle of the day, the sky being perfectly clear, a rainbow was seen, stretching over the temple of Saturn, in the Roman Forum, and three suns shone at once; and, the following night, many lights were seen, gliding through the air, about Lanuvium. The people of Cære affirmed that there had appeared in their town a snake, with a mane, having its body marked with spots like gold; and it was fully proved, that an ox had spoken in Campania.
XXII. On the nones of June,† the ambassadors returned from Africa. They had first waited on King Masinissa; whence they proceeded to Carthage; but they received much more certain information respecting the proceedings in that city from the King than from the Carthaginians themselves. They said, they had sufficient proof, that ambassadors had come from King Perseus, and that the senate had given them audience, by night, in the temple of Æsculapius; and the King asserted, that the Carthaginians had sent ambassadors to Macedonia, which they themselves did not positively deny. The senate, hereupon, resolved to send an embassy to Macedonia. They made choice of Caius Lælius, Marcus Valerius Messala, and Sextus Digitius, who accordingly proceeded thither. About this time, Perseus, in order to chastise some of the Dolopians, who were refractory, and insisted on the matters in dispute being determined by the Romans, and not by the King, marched an army into their country, and reduced the whole nation under his jurisdiction and dominion. Thence he passed through the mountains of Œta, and, on account of some religious scruples affecting his mind, went up to Delphos, to apply to the oracle. His sudden appearance in the middle of Greece caused a great alarm, not only in the neighbouring states, but even in Asia, whither an account of the disturbance was brought to King Eumenes. He staid only three days at Delphos, and then returned to his own dominions, through Phthiotis, Achaia, and Thessaly, without doing the least injury or damage to those countries. He did not think it sufficient to conciliate the esteem of the several states through which his road lay; but dispatched either ambassadors or letters to every one of the Grecian powers, requesting that they would “think no more of the animosities which had subsisted between them and his father; for that the disputes had not been so violent as that they might not, and ought not, to be dropped. On his part, there was no kind of obstacle to the forming of a cordial friendship.” Above all, he wished, particularly, to find some way of ingratiating himself with the Achæan nation.
XXIII. This nation, and the state of Athens, had carried their resentment to such a length, as to prohibit the Macedonians entering their territories. In consequence of this, Macedonia became a place of refuge for slaves running away out of Achaia; for, as the Achæans had forbidden the inhabitants of Macedonia to set foot in their territories, they could not presume to pass the boundaries of that kingdom. When Perseus observed this, he seized all the fugitives, and wrote a letter to the Achæans, telling them, that, out of good will toward them he had sent home their slaves who had fled into his dominions; but that they ought to consider of the proper means of preventing such elopements for the future. When this letter was read by the prætor Xenarchus, who wished to recommend himself to the notice of the King, the greater part who were present, but especially those who had lost their slaves, commended the moderation and kindness with which it was written; but Callicrates, one who thought that the safety of the nation depended on the treaty with Rome being preserved inviolate, delivered his sentiments to this effect:—“Achæans — some of you seem to consider the business under consideration, as being of little consequence. Now, for my part, I think it of the utmost importance; and that, instead of being under consideration, it is already in a manner decided. We prohibited the kings of Macedonia, and all their subjects, from entering our territories, and made a perpetual decree, not to receive from those sovereigns either ambassadors or messengers, who might attempt to draw us from our duty; yet we, I say, listen to what may, in some measure, be deemed the discourse of the King, though absent, and what is more, approve of his discourse. Although brute beasts generally reject and shun the food laid in their way for their destruction; yet we, blinded by the specious offer of an insignificant favour, swallow the bait, and would, for the sake of recovering a parcel of wretched slaves, of no value worth mentioning, suffer our independence to be undermined and subverted. Is there a man among you who does not see, that the result expected from this business, is an alliance with the King, and consequently a dissolution of the treaty with Rome, the grand support of all our interests? That there must be a war between Perseus and the Romans, is not, I believe, a matter of doubt; it was expected during the life of Philip, and would have taken place, if his death had not interrupted its progress; it will, now, that he is dead, most certainly ensue. Philip, you all know, had two sons, Demetrius and Perseus. Demetrius was far superior in birth, on the mother’s side, in merit, capacity, and in the esteem of the Macedonian nation. But Philip, having set up the crown as the prize of hatred towards the Romans, put Demetrius to death, for no other crime than having contracted a friendship with that people; and raised Perseus to the throne, because he knew that his own antipathy to the Romans would descend to him, with the crown. Accordingly, how has the present king employed himself since his father’s death, but in preparing for the war? In the first place, to the terror of all the surrounding nations he brought the Bastarnians into Dardania; where, if they had made a lasting settlement, they would have proved more troublesome neighbours to Greece, than the Gauls are to Asia. Disappointed in that hope, he did not drop his design of a war; nay, if we choose to speak the truth, he has already commenced hostilities. He subdued Dolopia, by force of arms; and would not listen to their appeal to the arbitration of the Romans. Then, crossing Œta, that he might show himself in the very heart of Greece, he went up to Delphos. What, think you, was his view in taking a journey so uncommon? He next traversed Thessaly; and as to his refraining on his rout from doing injury to the people whom he hated, I dread his machinations the more on that very account. He then sent a letter to us, with show of an act of kindness, and in which it is recommended that we consider of such measures as may prevent our needing the same in future, that is, to repeal the decree by which the Macedonians are excluded from Peloponnesus, to receive again ambassadors from him their king; to renew intimacies contracted with his principal subjects; so if, in a short time, we should see Macedonian armies, himself at their head, crossing over the narrow streight from Delphos into Peloponnesus, and thus be blended with this people, while they are arming themselves against the Romans. My opinion is, that we ought not to resolve on any new proceeding, but to keep every thing in its present state, until the question shall be decided with certainty, whether these our fears be well or ill grounded. If the peace between the Romans and Macedonians shall continue inviolate, then may we also have a friendship and intercourse with Perseus; but to think of such a measure now, appears to me both premature and dangerous.”
XXIV. After him, Arco, brother to the prætor Xenarchus, said:—“Callicrates has laid me, and every one who differs in opinion from him, under a difficulty in delivering our sentiments; for after his pleading in favour of the Roman alliance, alleging designs formed, and meditated attacks on that state, yet (although there be no design formed, or attack meditated,) whoever dissents from him, must seem to argue against the cause of the Romans. In the first place, as if he had just left the senate-house of the Roman people, or had been admitted into the privy councils of kings, he knows and tells us every transaction that passed in secret. Nay more, inspired with a divining faculty, he pronounces what would have happened if Philip had lived, how Perseus became heir of the kingdom; what are the intentions of the Macedonians, and what the thoughts of the Romans. But we, who neither know for what cause, nor in what manner, Demetrius perished, nor what Philip would have done, if he had lived, must accommodate our resolutions to the transactions that have passed in open view. We know that Perseus, on his coming to the throne, sent ambassadors to Rome, and received the title of King from the senate, and we hear that ambassadors came from Rome to the King, and were graciously received by him. As far as I can judge, all these circumstances do not prognosticate hostility; and the Romans cannot be offended, if, as we followed their lead in war, so we follow now their example in peace. For my part, I cannot see, why we alone, of all mankind, wage implacable war against this kingdom. Are we exposed to insult by a close neighbourhood to Macedonia? or are we like the Dolopians, whom Perseus subdued lately, the weakest of all states? No; on the contrary, thanks to the bounty of the gods, we are sufficiently secured, as well by our own strength, as by the remoteness of our situation. But we have as much reason to apprehend ill treatment, as the Thessalians and the Ætolians; we have no more credit or influence with the Romans, though ever their friends and allies, than the Ætolians who, but lately, were their enemies. Whatever reciprocal rights the Ætolians, the Thessalians, the Epirots, in short, every state in Greece, allow to subsist between them and the Macedonians, let us allow the same. Why are we, alone, to carry inveterate rancour so far as to oppose the common claims of mankind? Admitting that Philip’s conduct was such as to justify our passing the decree against him, which we did when he was in arms, and making war on us; yet how has Perseus, a prince just seated on the throne, whom we cannot charge with any kind of injustice toward us, and who endeavours, by his own kindness, to obliterate the memory of his father’s quarrels; — how has he deserved, at our hands, that we should be his only enemies? I may go farther, and affirm, that so great have been our obligations to the former kings of Macedon, that the ill usage, suffered from a single prince of their line, if any has really been suffered from Philip, ought to be forgotten, especially after his death. When a Roman fleet was lying at Cenchræ, and the consul, with his army, was at Elatia, we were three days in council, deliberating whether we should follow the Romans or Philip. Now, granting that the fear of immediate danger from the Romans had no influence on our judgments, yet there was, certainly, something that made our deliberation last so long; and that was, the connection which had long subsisted between us and the Macedonians; the distinguished favours which we had, of old, received from their kings. Let the same considerations prevail at present — not to make us his singular friends, but to hinder us from becoming his singular enemies. Let us not, Callicrates, pretend what is not even thought of. No one advises us to form a new alliance, or sign a new treaty, by which we might inconsiderately entangle ourselves, but merely to open the intercourse of affording and demanding justice; and so as not, by excluding his subjects from our territories, to exclude our slaves from his dominions; nor yet to let the latter have a hiding-place to fly to. How does this operate against the Roman treaty? Why do we give an air of importance and suspicion to a matter which is trifling and open to the world? Why do we raise groundless alarms? Why, for the sake of ingratiating ourselves still more particularly with our allies, render others odious and suspected? If war shall take place, even Perseus himself does not doubt our taking part with the Romans. While peace continues, let animosities, if they are not terminated, be at least suspended.” Those who approved the King’s letter expressed their approbation of this speech; but the chief men in the assembly represented it as so humiliating, on their side, that the King, without deigning even to employ an embassy on the occasion, should compass his end by a letter of a few lines, that it was agreed to postpone coming to any resolution on the subject. Perseus afterward sent ambassadors, when the council was sitting at Megalopolis; but those who dreaded a rupture with Rome, took care to prevent their being admitted to audience.
XXV. Sometime before this, the Ætolians vented their fury on each other, with such violence, and so much blood was shed by the contending parties, that the total extinction of the nation seemed to be at no great distance. Then both parties, being wearied, sent ambassadors to Rome, and also opened a negociation between themselves for the restoration of concord; but this was broken off, by an act of barbarity, which revived their old quarrels. Some exiles from Hypata, who were of the faction of Proxenus, had received a promise of being re-admitted into their native city; and Eupolemus, first magistrate of the state, having pledged the public faith for their security, they returned home, to the number of eighty persons of distinction. Eupolemus went out, among the rest of the multitude, to meet them; they were received and saluted with every expression of kindness, and right hands were reciprocally given. But no sooner did they enter the gate, than they were all put to death, while they, in vain, appealed to the faith pledged to them, and the gods who witnessed the transaction. On this the war blazed out anew, with greater fury than ever. Caius Valerius Lævinus, Appius Claudius Pulcher, Caius Memmius, Marcus Popillius, and Lucius Canuleius, being sent as ambassadors by the senate, arrived in that country. The deputies of both parties debated the business before them at Delphos, with great heat on both sides; but Proxenus particularly distinguished himself, and appeared to have greatly the advantage, both in the merits of his cause, and his talents as an orator. A few days after, he was poisoned by his wife Orthobula, who being convicted of the crime went into banishment. Crete was torn in pieces by the same kind of madness; but, on the arrival of Quintus Minucius, lieutenant-general, who was sent with ten ships, to quiet their contentions, the inhabitants had some prospect of peace; however, they only concluded a suspension of arms for six months, after which the war was again renewed with much greater violence. About this time, the Lycians, too, suffered many hardships from the Rhodians. But the wars of foreign nations, among themselves, or the several methods in which they were conducted, it is not my business to detail; having, in the relation of those affairs, in which the Romans were concerned, a task of more than sufficient weight.
XXVI. In Spain, the Celtiberians, (who, since their reduction by Tiberius Gracchus, and their consequent surrender to him, had remained quiet; Marcus Titinius, prætor, holding the government of the province,) on the arrival of Appius Claudius, resumed their arms, and commenced hostilities, with a sudden attack on the Roman camp. At the first dawn the centinels on the rampart, and the men on guard before the gates, descrying the enemy approaching at a distance, gave the alarm. Appius Claudius instantly displayed the signal of battle; and, after exhorting the troops, in few words, ordered them to rush out by three gates at once. But they were opposed by the Celtiberians in the very passage, and, in consequence, the fight was for some time equal on both sides, as, on account of the narrowness of the same, the Romans could not all come into action. Pressing forwards, however, and following close on each other, they made their way beyond the trenches, so that they were able to stretch out their line, until it extended as far as the wings of the enemy, who were endeavouring to surround them; and now they made their onset with such sudden impetuosity, that the Celtiberians could not support the assault. Before the second hour, they were driven from the field: fifteen thousand were either killed or made prisoners, and thirty-two standards were taken. Their camp, also, was stormed the same day, and a conclusion put to the war; for those who survived the battle fled by different ways to their several towns, and, thenceforward, submitted quietly to the Roman government.
XXVII. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus and Aulus Postumius being created censors, this year, reviewed the senate. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, chief pontiff, was chosen chief of the senate. Nine senators were expelled. The remarkable censures pronounced, were on Marcus Cornelius Maluginensis, who had been prætor in Spain two years before; on Lucius Cornelius Scipio, then prætor and exercising the jurisdiction between natives and foreigners; and on Cneius Fulvius, brother to the censor, and, as Valerius Antias says, partner in property. The consuls, after offering vows in the Capitol, set out for their provinces. Marcus Æmilius was commissioned by the senate to suppress an insurrection of the Patavians in Venetia; for their own ambassadors had given information that the disputes between contending factions had become so violent as to produce a civil war. The ambassadors who had gone into Ætolia, to suppress commotions of a similar kind, reported, on their return, that the outrageous temper of that nation could not be restrained. The consul’s arrival among the Patavians saved them from ruin; and, having no other business in the province, he returned to Rome. The present censors were the first who engaged workmen to pave the streets of Rome with flint stones, to make roads, outside the city, with gravel, and to form raised foot-ways on the sides. They caused bridges to be built in several places, and seats in the theatre to be set apart for the prætors and ædiles; fixed up goals in the Circus, with balls on the goals for marking the number of courses of the chariots; and erected iron grates, through which wild beasts might be let in. They caused the Capitoline hill to be paved with flint, and erected a piazza from the temple of Saturn, in the Capitol, to the senate-house, and over that a public hall. On the outside of the gate Trigemina, they also paved a market-place with stones, and inclosed it with a paling; repaired the Æmilian portico; and formed an ascent, by stairs, from the Tiber to the market-place. They paved, with flint, the portico, from the same gate to the Aventine, and built a courthouse; contracted for walls to be built at Galatia and Oximum, and, selling lots of ground there, which belonged to the public, employed the money arising from the sale in building shops round the Forums of both places. Fulvius Flaccus (for Postumius declared, that, without a decree of the senate, or order of the people, he would not expend any money belonging to them) agreed for building a temple of Jupiter at Pisaurum, and another at Fundi; for bringing water to Pollentia; for paving the street of Pisaurum, and for many various works at Sinuessa; among which were, the drawing round a sewer to fall into the river, the inclosing of the Forum with porticos and shops, and erecting three statues of Janus. These works were all executed under the direction of Fulvius, and gained him a high degree of favour with those colonists. These censors were also very active and strict in their superintendence of the morals of the people. Many knights were deprived of their horses.
XXVIII. At the close of the year, there was a thanksgiving, for one day, on account of the advantages
obtained in Spain under the conduct and auspices of Appius Claudius, proconsul; when twenty victims, of the larger
kinds, were sacrificed. There was also a supplication, for one day, at the temples of Ceres, Liber, and Liberia, on
account of a violent earthquake which had happened in Sabinia, and demolished a great number of buildings. When Appius
Claudius came home from Spain, the senate voted that he should enter the city in ovation. The election of consuls now
came on, and, after a very warm contest, in consequence of the great number of candidates, the choice fell on Lucius
Postumius Albinus and Marcus Popillius Lænas.Y. R.579.
173. Then were chosen prætors, Numerius Fabius Buteo, Marcus Matienus, Caius Cicereius, Marcus Furius Crassipes
a second time, Marcus Atilius Serranus a second time, and Caius Cluvius Saxula a second time. After the elections were
finished, Appius Claudius Centho, entering the city in ovation over the Celtiberians, conveyed to the treasury ten
thousand pounds weight of silver, and five thousand of gold. Cneius Cornelius was inaugurated flamen of Jupiter. In the
same year a tablet was hung up in the temple of Mother Matuta, with this inscription:—under the
command and auspices of tiberius sempronius gracchus, consul, a legion and army of the roman people subdued sardinia;
in which province above eighty thousand of the enemy were killed or taken. having executed the business of the public
with the happiest success; having recovered the revenues, and restored themto the
commonwealth;he brought home the army safe, uninjured, and enriched with spoil, and, a second
time, entered the city of rome in triumph. in commemoration of which event he presented this tablet an offering to
jupiter. A map of the island of Sardinia was engraved on the tablet, and representations of the battles, fought
there, were delineated on it. Several small exhibitions of gladiators were given to the public this year; the only one
particularly remarkable, was that given by Titus Flaminius on occasion of his father’s death, which was accompanied
with a donation of meat, a feast, and stage plays, which lasted four days. Yet, in the whole of this great exhibition,
only seventy-four men fought in three days. The close of this year was rendered memorable by the proposal of a new
and important rule, which was debated with great heat. Hitherto, as the law stood, women were equally capable of taking
inheritances as men. In consequence of this capacity, the wealth of the most illustrious houses was frequently
transferred into other families, to the great detriment, as was supposed, of the state; to which it was no small
advantage that the descendants of distinguished ancestors should, by their wealth and splendour, be an ornament and
defence, rather than, by being reduced to indigence, become a disgrace, and a burden to the public. It was also
thought, that, to the weaker sex, wealth might hold out dangerous temptations to luxurious indulgence; and that, fond,
by nature, of dissipation, dress, and show, they might be induced to depart from that sanctity of manners, and purity
of conduct, which, of old, were deemed the brightest ornaments of the female character. To obviate these evils, Quintus
Voconius Saxa, plebeian tribune, proposed to the people, that “no person whatever should make any woman,
whether married or unmarried, his heir; also, that no woman, whether married or unmarried, should be capable of taking,
by inheritance, goods exceeding the value of one hundred thousand sesterces* .” Voconius, also, thought it proper to provide that estates should not be too much diminished by
legacies; or, which sometimes happened, left away entirely from the right heirs. Accordingly he added a clause to his
law, that “no person should bequeath to any person or persons property exceeding in value what was to go to
the right heirs.” This latter clause readily met the general approbation; it appeared reasonable, and likely
to be very little grievous to any. But the former clause, utterly disqualifying women from taking inheritances, passed
not so easily; there was a strong opposition to it, and a very violent debate, to which, at length, a speech of Marcus
Porcius Cato put an end. His strenuous defence of the Oppian law, and bitter invective against the indecorous behaviour
of the women, we have already related.*On the present occasion he
exerted himself with equal earnestness, nor did he treat the female character with less severity. He declaimed, with
great vehemence, against the extravagance and ostentation of the richer matrons, “who,” he said,
“retain to themselves large sums of money which they do not entrust to the power of their husbands, but only lend
to them; and then upon any quarrel arising between them, they send their own slaves, who importunately demand
repayment, and treat the husbands as if they were entire strangers, happenning to be their debtors.”—The law
passed, as proposed by Voconius.
* 16s. 1½d.
* 9,914l. 0s. 10d.
† 1,325l. 12s. 1d.
‡ 9s. 8d.
* 5th May.
* 3d August.
† 11th August.
* 3d August.
† 5th August.
* Lethum, the name of the place, in the Latin language, signifies death.
* So in the original; the name of the person who was chosen in the room of Cæpio being lost.
† 7th of June.
* 8072l. 18s. 4d.
* Book XXXIV. c. 1.
Eumenes, King of Asia, makes heavy complaints and charges, in the senate, against Perseus, King of Macedonia. War declared against Perseus. Publius Licinius Crassus, the consul, to whom the conduct of the war is committed, leads an army into Macedonia; fights Perseus, unsuccessfully, in several small engagements, in Thessaly; at length, defeats him entirely near Phalanna. The senate appealed to by Masinissa and the Carthaginians, in a dispute concerning the bounds of their territories. A census held; the number of Roman citizens found to be two hundred and fifty-seven thousand two hundred and thirty-one. Successes against the Corsicans and Ligurians.
Y. R.579.
173.I. THE first business which Lucius Postumius Albinus and Marcus Popilius Lænas brought before
the senate, was the distribution of the provinces; when Liguria was assigned the joint province of both, with
directions that they should enlist new legions, each having two assigned him for the service of that province, and also
ten thousand foot and six hundred horse, of the Latine confederates; and, as a supplement to the army in Spain, three
thousand Roman foot and two hundred horse. Besides these, they were ordered to raise one thousand five hundred Roman
foot, and one hundred horse; with which the prætor, to whose lot Sardinia should fall, might cross over to Corsica, and
carry on the war there; and it was farther ordered, that, in the mean time, the former prætor, Marcus Atillius, should
hold the government of that country. The prætors then cast lots for their provinces. Aulus Atillius Serranus obtained
the city jurisdiction; Caius Cluvius Saxula, that between natives and foreigners; Numerius Fabius Buteo, Hither Spain;
Marcus Matienus, Farther Spain; Marcus Furius Crassipes, Sicily; and Caius Cicereius, Sardinia. The senate resolved,
that, before the magistrates went abroad, Licius Postumius should go into Campania, to fix the bounds between the
lands, which were private property, and those which belonged to the public; for it was understood that individuals, by
gradually extending their bounds, had taken possession of a very considerable share of the common lands. The consul had
conceived a great aversion from the people of Præneste, because on his going thither formerly, in a private capacity,
to offer sacrifice in the temple of Fortune, they had paid him no compliment either general or particular; for which
reason, before he set out from Rome, he sent a letter to Præneste, ordering the chief magistrate to meet him, and to
provide him lodging at the public expence; and, that, at his departure, cattle should be ready to carry his baggage. No
consul before him ever put the allies to any trouble or expence whatever. To prevent any such exaction, those
magistrates were furnished with mules, tents, and every other requisite for a campaign. They had private lodgings, in
which they behaved with courtesy and kindness, and their houses at Rome were always open to their hosts with whom they
used to lodge. Ambassadors indeed sent to any place, on a sudden emergeney, demanded each a single horse in the several
towns through which their journey lay, but no other expence was ever imposed on the allies by the Roman magistrates.
The resentment of the consul, which, even if well founded, ought not to have been exerted during his office, and the
too modest, or too timid acquiescence of the Prænestines, gave to his successors, as if by an approved precedent, the
privilege of laying on the confederates other such kinds of burdens, the weight of which was continually increased.
II. In the beginning of this year, the ambassadors, who had been sent to Ætolia and Macedonia, returned and reported, that “they had not been able to obtain an interview with Perseus, some of his court saying that he was abroad, others that he was sick; both of which were false pretences. Nevertheless, they clearly perceived that he would not long defer the commencement of hostilities. That in Ætolia, likewise, the dissensions grew daily more violent; and the leaders of the contending parties were not to be restrained by their authority.” As a war with Macedonia was daily expected, the senate resolved, that, before it broke out, all prodigies should be expiated, and the favour of the gods invoked, in such kind of supplications as should be found directed in the books of the fates. It was said that at Lanuvium the appearance of large fleets was seen in the air; that at Privernum black wool grew out of the ground; that in the territory of Veii, at Remens, a shower of stones fell, and that the whole Pomptine district was covered with clouds of locusts; also that in the Gallic province, where a plough was at work, fishes sprung up from under the earth as it was turned. The books of the fates were accordingly consulted, and the decemvirs directed both to what gods, and with what victims, sacrifices should be offered; that a supplication should be performed, in expiation of the prodigies; and also another, which had been vowed in the preceding year for the health of the people, with a solemn festival. Accordingly, sacrifices were offered agreeably to the written directions of the decemvirs.
III. In the same year, the temple of June Lacinia was uncovered. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, censor, in erecting a temple to Equestrian Fortune, which he had vowed during the Celtiberian war, was anxiously desirous that it should not be surpassed by any other at Rome, either in size or magnificence. Thinking that it would be a very great embellishment to this temple if it were roofed with marble, he went to Bruttium, and stripped off about the half of that of the temple of Juno Lacinia, for he computed that so much would be sufficient to cover the one he was building. Ships were in readiness to take on board the materials, while the allies were deterred by the authority of the censor, from making opposition to the sacrilege. On his return, the marble was landed, and carried to the temple; but, though he made no mention of the place from which it was brought, yet such an affair could not be concealed. Accordingly it occasioned considerable murmuring in the senate; and all the members expressed their desire that the consuls should take the opinion of the Fathers on the subject. When the censor, on being summoned, appeared in the senate-house, they all, both separately and in a body, inveighed against him with much asperity. They cried out, that “he was not content with violating the most venerable temple in all that part of the world, a temple which neither Pyrrhus nor Hannibal had violated; but he had stripped it shamefully, and almost demolished it. Though created censor, for the purpose of regulating men’s manners, and bound in duty, according to long-established rules, to enforce the repairing of edifices for public worship, and the keeping them in due order, he had nevertheless gone about through the cities of the allies, stripping off the roofs of their sacred buildings, and even demolishing them. In a word, and what might be deemed scandalous, if practised on private houses, he committed against the temples of the immortal gods, involving the Roman people in the guilt of impiety; as if the deities were not the same in all places, but that some should be decorated with the spoils of others.” Such evidently appeared to be the sentiments of the senators, before their opinion was asked; and, when the question was put, they unanimously concurred in voting, that proper persons should be employed to carry back the marble in question to the temple, and that atonements should be offered to Juno. What regarded the atonements was carefully executed, but those who undertook to see to the repairing of the building, made a report that they were obliged to leave the marble in the court of it, because no workman could be found who knew how to replace the same.
IV. Of the prætors who set out for the provinces, Numerius Fabius, on his way to Hither Spain, died at Marseilles. Envoys, sent by the Massilians, brought an account of this event, on which the senate resolved that Publius Furius and Cneius Servilius, to whom successors had been sent, should cast lots to determine which of them should hold the government of Hither Spain, with a continuation of authority; and the lot determined, very commodiously, that Publius Furius, the former governor, should continue. During this year, on its appearing that large tracts of land in Gaul and Liguria, which had been taken in war, lay unoccupied, the senate passed a decree, that those lands should be distributed in single shares; and Aulus Atilius, city prætor, in pursuance of the said decree, appointed ten commissioners for that purpose, Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, Caius Cassius, Titus Æbutius Carus, Caius Tremellius, Publius Cornelius Cetheges, Quintus, and Lucius Appuleius, Marcus Cæcilius, Caius Salonius, and Caius Munatius. They appropriated ten acres to each Roman, and three to each Latine colonist. At this time, ambassadors came to Rome from Ætolia with representations of the quarrels and dissensions subsisting in that country; as did others from Thessaly, with accounts of the proceedings in Macedonia.
V. Perseus, applying his thoughts to the war, which had been resolved on during the lifetime of his father, endeavoured, by sending embassies, and by promising a great deal more than he performed, to attach to himself not only the commonwealth of Greece, but also each particular state. The inclinations of that people in general, were much better disposed towards him than towards Eumenes, notwithstanding that most of the leading men were under obligations to Eumenes, for valuable presents, and other acts of kindness; and that, in the administration of government, his conduct was such, that none of the states under his dominion felt any disposition to change situations with those which were free. With regard to Perseus, it was currently reported, that, after his father’s death, he had killed his wife with his own hand; and invited from exile Apelles, who had formerly been his instrument in the villanous destruction of his brother, and who had, on that account, been carefully searched after by Philip, in order to bring him to punishment. Perseus having prevailed on Apelles to return, by promises of the most ample rewards for his services, put him privately to death. Although he had rendered himself infamous by many other murders, both of his own relations, and of others, and possessed not one good quality to recommend him, yet the Grecian states in general gave him the preference to Eumenes — to a prince of such affection towards his relations, such justice towards his subjects, and such liberality towards all mankind; whether they were so prejudiced by the fame and dignity of the Macedonian kings, as to despise a kingdom lately formed, or were led by a wish for a change in affairs, or were desirous of exposing him to the arms of the Romans. The Ætolians were not the only people in a state of distraction, on account of the intolerable burden of their debts: the Thessalians were in the same situation; and the evil, like a pestilence, had spread into Perrhæbia also. As soon as it was known that the Thessalians were in arms, the senate sent Appius Claudius, as ambassador, to examine and adjust their affairs. He severely reprimanded the leaders of both parties; and, after cancelling so much of the debts, as had been accumulated by iniquitous usury, which he did with the consent of the greater part of the creditors themselves, he ordered the remaining just debts to be discharged by annual payments. In the same manner, Appius regulated the business of Perrhæbia. In the mean time, Marcellus, at Delphi, gave a hearing to the disputes of the Ætolians, which they maintained with no less hostile acrimony than they had shown against each other in the heat of their civil war. Perceiving that they vied with each other in inconsiderate violence, he did not choose to make any determination, to lighten or aggravate the grievances of either party, but required of both alike to cease from hostilities, and, forgetting what was past, to put an end to their quarrels. A reconciliation accordingly took place between them, and was confirmed by a reciprocal exchange of hostages.
VI. A meeting was appointed at Corinth, in order that the hostages might be lodged in that city. On the breaking up of the Ætolian council, Marcellus crossed over from Delphi into Peloponnesus, where he had summoned a diet of the Achæans. There, by the praises which he bestowed on that nation, for having resolutely maintained their old decree, which prohibited the admission of the Macedonian kings within the limits of their territories, he manifested the inveterate hatred of the Romans towards Perseus; and this hatred broke out into effect, the sooner, in consequence of King Eumenes coming to Rome, and bringing with him a written state of the preparations made for war, which he had drawn up, after a full inquiry into every particular. Five ambassadors were now sent to the King, in order to take a view of affairs in Macedonia; whence they were to proceed to Alexandria, to renew the treaty of friendship with Ptolemy. These were Caius Valerius, Cneius Lutatius Cerco, Quintus Bæbius Sulca, Marcus Cornelius Mammula, and Marcus Cæcilius Denter. About the same time, came ambassadors from King Antiochus; and the principal of them, called Apollonius, being admitted to audience of the senate, presented, on behalf of his King, many and reasonable apologies for paying the tribute later than the day appointed. “He now brought,” he said, “the whole of it, that the King might not trespass on their indulgence, in any other respect than that of time. He was moreover charged with a present of golden vases, in weight five hundred pounds. Antiochus requested, that the treaty of alliance and amity, which had been made with his father, might be renewed with him; and entreated the Roman people freely to demand from him every service which might be expected from a prince sincerely disposed to prove himself a faithful ally. They would never find him remiss in the performance of any duty towards them. He had, while in Rome, experienced so great kindness from the senate, and so much courtesy from the younger part of the community, that, among all ranks of men, he was treated as a sovereign, not as a hostage.” A gracious answer was returned to the ambassadors, and Aulus Atilius, city prætor, was ordered to renew with Antiochus the alliance formerly made with his father. The city quæstors received the tribute, and the censors the golden vases, which they were directed to deposit in whatever temples they should judge proper. One hundred thousand asses* were presented to the ambassador, and it was ordered, that a house should be given him for his accommodation, and his expenses defrayed, as long as he should remain in Italy. The ambassadors, who had been in Syria, represented him as standing in the highest degree of favour with the King, and a very warm friend to the Romans. Such were the occurrences of this year respecting the provinces.
VII. Caius Cicereius, prætor in Corsica, fought the enemy in a pitched battle, in which seven thousand of the Corsicans were slain, and more than one thousand seven hundred taken. During the engagement, the prætor vowed a temple to Juno Moneta. Peace was then granted to that people, on their petitioning for it, and a contribution was imposed, of two hundred thousand pounds weight of wax. Corsica being thus reduced to subjection, Cicereius sailed back to Sardinia. In Liguria, also, a battle was fought in the territory of Statiella, at the town of Carystas. The Ligurians had assembled there a numerous army, who, for some time after Marcus Popillius’ arrival, kept themselves within the walls; but afterwards, on the Roman general preparing to lay siege to the town, they marched out beyond the gates, and drew up in order of battle. The consul declined not an engagement; it was, indeed, the point he aimed at in threatening a siege. The fight was maintained for more than three hours, in such a manner, that the hope of victory leaned to neither side; but when the consul perceived that the Ligurian battalions no where gave ground, he ordered the cavalry to mount their horses, and charge in three places at once, with all possible violence. A great part of the horse broke through the middle of the enemy’s line, and made their way to the rear of the troops engaged, which struck such terror into their whole army that they fled in confusion on all sides. Very few ran back into the town, because in that quarter, chiefly, the cavalry had thrown themselves in their way. So obstinate a contest swept off great numbers of the Ligurians, and many perished in the flight; ten thousand of them are said to have been killed, and more than seven hundred taken, in various places; besides which, the victors brought off eighty-two of their military standards. Nor was the victory gained without loss of blood; above three thousand of the conquerors fell in the conflict; for neither party giving way, the foremost on both sides were cut off.
VIII. When the Ligurians, after their dispersion in this defeat, re-assembled in one body, they found that a much greater number of their countrymen were lost, than left alive (for there were not above ten thousand men surviving); on which they surrendered. They did not stipulate for any terms, yet entertained hopes that the consul would not treat them with greater severity, than had been practised by former commanders. But he immediately stripped them all of their arms, and razed their town. He then made sale of themselves and their effects; which done, he sent a letter to the senate, relating the services which he had performed. When Aulus Atilius read this letter in the council, (for the other consul, Postumius, was absent, being employed in surveying the lands in Campania,) the proceeding appeared to the senate in a heinous light; “that the people of Statiella, who alone, of all the Ligurian nation, had not borne arms against the Romans, should be attacked, when not offering hostilities, and even after surrendering themselves into the protection of the Roman people, should be abused and exterminated by every instance of the most barbarous cruelty, they held utterly unpardonable; that so many thousands of innocent persons suffering, who had reckoned on the faith of the Roman people, afforded an example of the most mischievous tendency; and was enough to deter any from surrendering to them in future; dragged as they were away into various parts of the country, and made slaves to those who were formerly the avowed enemies of Rome, though now reduced to quiet. For these reasons the senate ordered, that the consul, Marcus Popillius, should re-instate the Ligurians in their liberty, repaying the purchase-money to the buyers, and should likewise use his best endeavours to recover and restore their effects, and also their arms; and that, when these things were done, he should immediately retire out of the province; for they observed, that victory became honourable by subduing opposition, not by cruelty to the vanquished.”
IX. But the same ferocious temper which actuated the consul in his conduct towards the Ligurians, urged him to refuse obedience to the senate. He immediately sent the legions into winter quarters at Pisæ, and, full of resentment against the senators and the prætor, went home to Rome; where, instantly assembling the senate in the temple of Bellona, he poured forth a torrent of invectives against the city magistrate, who, “when he ought to have proposed the offering of a thanksgiving for the happy successes obtained by the Roman arms, had procured a decree of the senate against him, in favour of the enemy; transferring thereby his victory to the Ligurians; and, though only a prætor, he had ordered the consul, in a manner, to be surrendered to them: he therefore gave notice, that he would sue to have him fined. From the senate he demanded a repeal of their decree passed against him; and that the thanksgiving, which they ought to have voted on the authority of his letter, sent from abroad, with an account of the success of the arms of the commonwealth, should, now, when he was present, be voted; first, in consideration of the honour due to the immortal gods, and, next, out of some kind of regard to himself.” Many of the senators censured him to his face, in terms no less severe than they had used in his absence; and, not being able to obtain either of his requests, he returned to his province. The other consul, Postumius, after spending the whole summer in surveying the lands, without even seeing his province, came home to Rome to hold the elections, when Caius Popillius Lænas and Publius Ælius Ligus were chosen consuls. Then were elected prætors, Caius Licinius Crassus, Marcus Junius Pennus, Spurius Lucretius, Spurius Cluvius, Cneius Sicinius, and Caius Memmius, a second time.
X. The lustrum was closed this year. The censors were Quintus Fulvius Flaccus and Lucius Postumius
Albinus, the latter of whom performed the ceremony. In this survey were rated two hundred and sixty-nine thousand and
fifteen Roman citizens. The number would have been much greater had not the consul, Lucius Postumius, given public
orders, in assembly, that none of the Latine allies, (who, according to the edict of the consul Caius Claudius, ought
to have gone home,) should be surveyed at Rome, but all of them in their respective countries. The censors conducted
themselves in the office with perfect harmony, and zeal for the public good. They disfranchised and degraded from their
tribes every one whom they expelled the senate, or from whom they took away his horse; nor did either approve a person
censured by the other. Fulvius, at this time, dedicated the temple of Equestrian Fortune, which he had vowed six years
before, and when proconsul in Spain, during the battle with the Celtiberians; he also exhibited stage-plays, which
lasted four days, in one of which the performance was in the Circus. Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, decemvir in religious
matters, died this year, and Aulus Postumius Albinus was substituted in his room. Such great clouds of locusts were
suddenly brought by the wind over the sea into Apulia, that they covered a great part of the country; in order to
remove this pest, so destructive to the fruits of the earth, Caius Sicinius, prætor elect, was sent in command, with a
vast multitude of people, to gather them up, which took a considerable time.Y. R.580.
172. The beginning of the year, in which Caius Popillius and Publius Ælius were consuls, was employed in the
disputes which had arisen in the last. The senators were desirous that the business respecting the Ligurians should be
reconsidered, and the decree renewed. Ælius, the consul, was willing to propose it, but Popillius warmly interceded for
his brother, both with his colleague and the senate; and, by giving notice, that if any vote should be passed on the
subject he would enter his protest, he deterred him from proceeding in the matter. The senate being hereby equally
incensed against them, persisted the more obstinately in their intention; and, when they took into consideration the
distribution of the provinces, although the consuls wished for Macedonia, because a war with Perseus was daily
expected, they assigned Liguria as the province of both, declaring that they would not vote Macedonia to them, unless
the question were put on the affair of Marcus Popillius. The consuls, afterwards, demanded that they might be
authorised to raise either new armies, or recruits to fill up the old; both were refused. The prætors for Spain, also,
applied for reinforcement; Marcus Junius for Hither Spain, and Spurius Lucretius for the Farther, and were in like
manner refused. Caius Licinius Crassus obtained, by lot, the city jurisdiction; Cneius Sicinius, the foreign; Caius
Memmius, Sicily; and Spurius Cluvius, Sardinia. The consuls, enraged against the senate, appointed an early day for the
Latine festival, at the same time declaring openly, that they would go away to their province, and would not transact
any kind of business, except what belonged to their own government.
XI. Valerius Antias writes, that, in this consulate, Attalus, brother to King Eumenes, came to Rome as ambassador, with heavy charges against Perseus, and an account of his preparations for war. But the greater number of historians, and those deemed most worthy of credit, assert, that Eumenes came in person. Eumenes then, on his arrival, was received with every degree of respect which the Roman people judged suitable, not merely to his deserts, but also to their own former favours, bestowed on him in great abundance. Being introduced to the senate, he said, that “the reason which had induced him to come to Rome, besides his wish to visit those gods and men who had placed him in a situation beyond which he could not presume to form a wish, was, that he might in person forewarn the senate to counteract the designs of Perseus.” Then, beginning with the projects of Philip, he mentioned his murder of Demetrius, because that prince was averse from a war with Rome, and of calling the Bastarnian nation from their several residences, that he might have their support in coming into Italy. “While his thoughts were busied in plans of this sort, he was surprised by the approach of death, and left his kingdom to the person whom he knew to be, of all men, the bitterest foe to the Romans. Perseus, therefore,” said he, “having received this scheme of a war, as a legacy bequeathed by his father, and descending to him along with the crown, advances and improves it, as his primary object, by every means that he can devise. He is powerful, in respect of the number of his young men, a long peace having produced a plentiful progeny; he is powerful, in respect of the resources of his kingdom; and powerful, likewise, in respect of his age. And as, at his time of life, he possesses vigour of body, so his mind has been thoroughly trained, both in the theory and practice of war; for, even from his childhood, he accompanied his father in his campaigns, and thereby became enured to it, not only against the neighbouring states, but also against the Romans, being employed by him, in many and various expeditions. Add to this, that since the government came into his own hands, he has, by a wonderful train of prosperous events, accomplished many things which Philip, after using his best efforts, could never effect, either by force or artifice.
XII. “Besides his strength, he has such a degree of influence, as is usually acquired, in a great length of time, by many and important kindnesses. For, in the several states throughout Greece and Asia, all men revere the dignity of his character; nor do I perceive for what deserts, for what generosity, such uncommon respect is paid him; neither can I, with certainty, say, whether it is the effect of some good fortune attending him, or whether, what I mention with reluctance, a general dislike to the Romans attaches men to his interest. Even among sovereign princes, his influence is exceedingly extensive. He married the daughter of Seleucus, a match which he did not solicit, but to which he was solicited by her friends; and he gave his sister in marriage to Prusias, in compliance with his earnest prayers and entreaties. Both these marriages were solemnized amidst congratulations and presents from innumerable embassies, the royal couples being escorted by the most renowned nations, acting as bridal attendants. The Bœotians could never be brought, by all the intrigues of Philip, to sign a treaty of friendship with him; but now, a treaty with Perseus is engraved at three different places, at Thebes, in Delos, in the most venerable and celebrated temple, and at Delphi. Then, in the diet of Achaia, (only that the proceeding was stopped by a few persons, threatening them with the displeasure of the Roman government,)— the business was nearly effected, of allowing him admission into that country. But, as to the honours, formerly paid to myself, (whose kindnesses to that nation have been such, that it is hard to say, whether my public or private benefactions were the greater,)— they have been lost, partly through neglect, and partly by hostile means. Who does not know that the Ætolians, lately, on occasion of their intestine broils, sought protection, not from the Romans, but from Perseus? For, while he is upheld by these alliances and friendships, he has at home such preparations of every requisite for war, that he wants nothing from abroad. He has thirty thousand foot, and five thousand horse, and is laying up a store of corn for ten years, so that his country is in no kind of danger with respect to provisions. He has amassed money to such an amount, as to have in readiness the pay of ten thousand mercenary soldiers, besides the Macedonian troops, for the same number of years, as well as the annual revenue accruing from the royal mines. He has stored up arms for three times that number of men; and has Thrace under subjection, from which, as a never-failing spring, he can draw supplies of young men.”
XIII. The rest of his discourse contained exhortations to timely exertions: “Conscript Fathers,” said he, “the representations which I have made to you are not founded on uncertain rumours, and too readily believed by me, because I wished such charges against my enemy to be true; but on a clear discovery of the facts, as if I had been sent by you to make it. Nor would I have left my kingdom, which you have rendered ample, and highly respectable, and crossed such a tract of sea, to injure my own credit by offering you unauthenticated reports. I saw the most remarkable states of Asia and Greece, every day, gradually unfolding their sentiments, and ready to proceed, shortly, to such lengths, as would not leave them room for repentance. I saw Perseus, not confining himself within the limits of Macedonia, but seizing some places by force of arms, and seducing, by favour and kindness, those which he could not subdue. I perceived how unfair a footing matters stood on, while his intentions towards you were evidently hostile, and yours towards him perfectly pacific. Although to my judgment, he did not appear to be preparing, but to be rather waging war. Abrupolis, your ally and friend, he dethroned. Artetarus the Illyrian, another ally and friend of yours, he put to death, on hearing of some information which he had afforded you. The Thebans, Eversa and Callicratus, two of the chief men in the state, he procured to be taken off, because, in the council of the Bœotians, they had spoken with more than ordinary freedom against him, and declared, that they would inform the Romans of what was going on. He carried succour to the Byzantians, contrary to the treaty. He made war on Dolopia. He overran Thessaly and Doris, with an army, in order to take advantage of the civil war then raging, and by the help of the party, which had the worse cause, to crush the other, which had more right on its side. He raised universal confusion and disorder in Thessaly and Perrhæbia, by holding out a prospect of an abolition of debts, that, by means of the multitude of debtors thereby attached to his interest, he might overpower the nobles. As you remained inactive and patient during all these transactions, and as he sees Greece yielded up to him by you, he firmly believes that he will not meet with one opponent in arms, until he arrives in Italy. How safe or how honourable this might be for you, yourselves will consider; for my part, I thought it would certainly reflect dishonour on me, if Perseus should come into Italy to make war, before I, your ally, came to warn you to be on your guard. Having discharged this duty, necessarily incumbent on me, and, in some measure, freed and exonerated my faith, what can I do farther, except beseeching the gods and goddesses that you may adopt such measures as will prove salutary to yourselves, to your commonwealth, and to us, your allies and friends, who depend upon you.”
XIV. His discourse made a deep impression on the senate. However, for the present, no one, without doors, could know any thing more than that the King had been in the senate-house, such secrecy was observed by all the members; and it was not until after the conclusion of the war, that the purport of King Eumenes’s speech, and the answer to it, transpired. In a few days after, the senate gave audience to the ambassadors of Perseus. But their minds had been so prepossessed by King Eumenes, that every plea offered in his justification by the ambassadors, and every argument to alleviate the charges against him, was disregarded. They were still farther exasperated by the immoderate presumption of Harpalus, chief of the embassy, who said, that “the King was indeed desirous, and even anxious, that they should give credit to his asseveration, respecting his conduct, that he had neither said nor done any thing hostile; but that, if he saw them obstinately bent on finding out a pretence for war, he would defend himself with courage and resolution. The fortune of war was open to all, and the issue uncertain.” All the states of Greece and Asia were full of curiosity to learn what the ambassadors of Perseus, and what Eumenes, had effected with the senate; and most of them, on hearing of the latter’s journey to Rome, which they supposed might produce material consequences, had sent ambassadors thither, under pretexts of other business. Among the rest came an embassy from Rhodes, at the head of which was a person named Satyrus, who had no kind of doubt, but that Eumenes had included his state in the accusations brought against Perseus. He therefore endeavoured, by every means, through his patrons and friends, to get an opportunity of debating the matter with Eumenes in presence of the senate. When he obtained this, he inveighed against that King with intemperate vehemence, as having instigated the people of Lycia to an attack on the Rhodians, and as being more oppressive to Asia than Antiochus had been. This rendered his discourse flattering indeed, and acceptable to the states of Asia — (for the popularity of Perseus had spread even to them,)— but very displeasing to the senate, and disadvantageous to himself and his nation. This apparent conspiracy against Eumenes increased, indeed, the favour of the Romans towards him, so that every kind of honour was paid, and the most magnificent presents were made him; among which were a curule chair and an ivory sceptre.
XV. After the embassies were dismissed, Harpalus hastened home to Macedonia, and told the King, that he had left the Romans, not indeed making immediate preparations for war, but in such an angry temper, that it was very evident they would not defer it long. Perseus himself, who all along believed that this would be the case, now even wished for it, as he thought himself at the highest pitch of power that he could ever expect to attain. Being more violently incensed against Eumenes than against any other, he resolved to commence the war by shedding his blood; and he suborned Evander, a Cretan, commander of the auxiliaries, and three Macedonians, who were accustomed to the perpetration of such deeds, to murder that King, giving them a letter to a woman called Praxo, an acquaintance of his, the wealthiest and most powerful person at Delphi. It was generally known that Eumenes intended going up to Delphi, to sacrifice to Apollo. Thither the assassins, with Evander, proceeded in search of a convenient place for the execution of their design. On the road from Cirra to the temple, before they came to the places thickly inhabited, there was a wall on the left side, at the foot of which was a narrow path, where single persons could pass; on the right, the ground had sunk, and formed a precipice of considerable depth. Behind this wall they concealed themselves, and raised up steps to it, that from thence, as from that of a fortress, they might discharge their weapons on the King, as he passed by. At first, as he came up from the sea, he was surrounded by a multitude of his friends and attendants; afterwards, the road, growing gradually narrower, consequently made the train thinner about him. When they arrived at the spot where each was to pass singly, the first who advanced on the path was Pantaleon, an Ætolian of distinction, who was at the time in conversation with the King. The assassins now, starting up, rolled down two huge stones, one of which struck Eumenes on the head, and the other on the shoulder, with such force as to deprive him of sensation, and, as he tumbled from the sloping path down the precipice, they poured a multitude of stones upon him. The rest of his friends and attendants, on seeing him fall, fled different ways, but Pantaleon, with great intrepidity and resolution, kept his ground, in order to protect the King.
XVI. The assassins might, by making a short circuit round the wall, have run down and completed their business; they yet fled off towards the top of Parnassus with precipitation. One of them, however, being unable to keep up with the rest through the pathless and steep grounds, and thus retarding their flight, they killed him lest he should be taken, and a discovery ensue. The friends, and then the guards and servants of the King ran together and raised him up, while he was in a swoon, and quite insensible. However, they perceived from the warmth of his body and the breath remaining in his lungs, that he was still alive, but had little or no hopes that he would ever recover. Some of his guards pursued the tracks of the assassins with much fatigue to the summit of the hill, but returned without being able to overtake them. As the Macedonians set about the deed injudiciously, so, after making the attempt with boldness, they abandoned it in a manner both foolish and cowardly. Next day the King, who had by this time come to himself, was conveyed by his friends on ship-board, and sailed thence to Corinth; then, having drawn their vessels across the neck of the isthmus, they crossed over to Agina. Here his cure was conducted with such secrecy, no one being admitted to see him, that a report of his death was carried into Asia, and was believed, even by Attalus, with more readiness than became an affectionate brother: for he talked, both to Eumenes’ consort, and to the governor of the citadel, as if he had actually succeeded to the crown. This, afterwards, came to the knowledge of the King, who, though he had determined to dissemble, and to pass it over in silence, yet could not refrain, at their first meeting, from rallying Attalus, on his premature haste to get a wife. The report of Eumenes’ death spread even to Rome.
XVII. About the same time, Caius Valerius, who had been sent ambassador into Greece, to examine the state of that country, and to observe the movements of King Perseus, returned home; and his reports accorded, in every circumstance, with the representations made by Eumenes. He brought with him, from Delphi, Praxo, the woman whose house had served as a receptacle for the assassins; and Lucius Rammius, a Brundusian, giving information to this effect: that Rammius was a person of the first distinction at Brundusium, accustomed to entertain in his house the Roman commanders, and such ambassadors as came that way from foreign powers, especially those of the Kings. By these means he became known to Perseus, although his dominions were so distant; and, in consequence of a letter from him, which gave hopes of a more intimate friendship, and of great advantages to accrue to him, he went on a visit to the King, and, in a short time, found himself treated with particular familiarity, and drawn oftener than he wished, into private conversations. Perseus, after promises of the highest rewards, pressed him, with the most earnest solicitations, “as all the commanders and ambassadors of the Romans used to lodge at his house, to procure poison to be given to such of them as he should point out by letter;” and told him, that, “as he knew the preparation of poison to be attended with the greatest difficulty and danger, and that ordinarily it could not be administered without the privity of several. Besides, the dose was not always certain in its operation, either as to its power to produce the desired effect, or its safety with respect to concealment; — he would, therefore, give him some which would not afford any sign that could lead to detection.” Rammius dreading, lest, in case of refusal, he should himself be the first on whom the poison would be tried, promised compliance, and departed; but not thinking it prudent to return to Brundusium, without first applying to Caius Valerius, the ambassador, who was said to be at that time in the neighbourhood of Chalcis, he first disclosed the affair to him; and then, by his order, accompanied him to Rome, where, being brought before the senate, he gave them an account of what had passed.
XVIII. These discoveries, added to the representations made before by Eumenes, hastened a declaration of war against Perseus; the senate perceiving that he did not content himself with preparing, with the spirit of a King, for a fair and open war, but pushed his designs by all the base clandestine means of assassination and poison. It was resolved, that the new consuls should have the conduct of the war; but, in the mean time, an order was given, that Cneius Sicinius, the prætor, whose province was the jurisdiction between natives and foreigners, should raise a body of troops, to be led with all expedition to Brundusium, and thence carried over into Apollonia in Epirus, in order to secure the cities on the seacoasts; so as that the consul, who should have Macedonia as his province, might put in his fleet with safety, and land his troops with convenience. Eumenes was detained a long time at Ægina, his wounds proving dangerous, and the cure difficult; but, as soon as he could remove with safety, he went home to Pergamus, and set on foot the most vigorous preparations for war, to which he was now stimulated by the late atrocious villany of Perseus, in addition to the ancient enmity which subsisted between them. Ambassadors soon came from Rome, with congratulations on his escape from so great a danger. The war with Macedonia was deferred to the next year; on this, (when the other prætors had gone away to their provinces,) Marcus Junius and Spurius Lucretius, to whom the Spanish affairs had fallen, by teazing the senate with frequent repetitions of the same request, obtained at last a grant of recruits for their army. They were commanded to raise three thousand foot and one hundred and fifty horse for the Roman legions; and to levy, from the allies, for the confederate troops, five thousand foot and three hundred horse: this number of forces the new prætors carried with them into Spain.
XIX. In consequence of the inquiries, made by the consul Postumius, a large portion of the lands of Campania, which had been usurped by private persons, indiscriminately, in various parts, had been recovered to the public. Wherefore, in this year, Marcus Lucretius, plebeian tribune, published a proposal for an order of the people, that the censors should let those lands to farm; a measure which had been omitted during so many years, since the taking of Capua, that the greediness of individuals might have clear room to work in. After war, though not yet proclaimed, had been resolved on, and while the senate was anxious to know which of the several kings would espouse their cause, and which that of Perseus, ambassadors came to Rome, from Ariarathes, bringing with them his younger son. The purport of their message was, that “the King had sent his son to be educated at Rome, in order that he might, even from childhood, be acquainted with the manners and the persons of the Romans; and he requested, that they would allow him to enjoy, not only the protection of his particular friends, but likewise the care, and in some measure the guardianship, of the public.” This embassy was highly pleasing to the senate; and they ordered, that Cneius Sicinius, the prætor, should hire a furnished house for the accommodation of the young prince and his attendants. Ambassadors from some of the states of Thrace attended the senate, for their decision of a dispute, and requested a treaty of alliance and friendship; and they not only obtained their request, but received, each of them, a present to the amount of two thousand asses;* for the Romans were rejoiced at gaining the friendship of those states, in particular, as they lay at the back of Macedonia. But, in order to acquire a clear knowledge of every thing in Asia and in the islands, they sent ambassadors, Tiberius Claudius Nero and Marcus Decimus, with orders to go to Crete, and Rhodes, to renew the treaties of friendship, and at the same time to observe whether any attempts were made by Perseus to seduce the affections of the allies.
XX. While the minds of the public were in a state of extreme anxiety and suspense, with respect to the impending war, a storm happened in the night, during which the pillar in the Capitol, ornamented with beaks of ships, which had been erected in the first Punic war, by the consul Marcus Æmilius, whose colleague was Servius Fulvius, was shattered to pieces, even to the very foundation, by lightning. This event was deemed a prodigy, and reported to the senate, who ordered, that it should be laid before the aruspices, and that the decemvirs should consult the books. The decemvirs, in answer, directed that the city should be purified; that a supplication, and prayers, for the averting of misfortunes, should be offered, and victims of the larger kinds sacrificed, both in the Capitol at Rome, and at the promontory of Minerva in Campania; and that games should be celebrated, as soon as possible, in honour of Jupiter, supremely good and great, during ten days. All these directions were carefully executed, and the aruspices answered, that the prodigy would prove happy in the issue; that it portended extension of territory and destruction of enemies; for those beaks of ships, which the storm had scattered, were to be held as spoils. There were other occurrences which occasioned religious apprehensions: it was said, that at the town of Saturnia showers of blood fell during three successive days; that an ass, with three feet, was foaled at Calatia; that a bull, with five cows, were killed by one stroke of lightning; and that a shower of earth had fallen at Oximum. On account of these prodigies, also, public worship was performed, and a supplication and festival observed for one day.
XXI. The consuls were not yet gone to their provinces; for they would not comply with the senate, in proposing the business respecting Marcus Popillius, and, on the other hand, the senate was determined to proceed on no other until that was done. The general resentment against Popillius was aggravated by a letter received from him, in which he mentioned that he had, as proconsul, fought a second battle with the Ligurians of Statiella, ten thousand of whom he had killed, and that the rest of the Ligurian states, (no doubt provoked at the injustice of this attack,) had all taken arms. On this the most severe animadversions were uttered in the senate, not only against the absent Popillius, for having, contrary to all laws human and divine, made war on people who had submitted to terms, and stirred up to rebellion states that were disposed to live in peace, but also against the consuls for not having proceeded to that province. Encouraged by the unanimous opinion of the senators, two plebeian tribunes, Marcus Marcius Sermo and Quintus Marcius Scylla, declared publicly, that they would institute a suit for a fine to be laid on the consuls, if they did not repair to their station. They likewise read before the senate a proposal for an order of the people respecting the Ligurians, which they intended to publish. The purport of it was, that “it should be decreed, that, in case any of the surrendered Statiellans should not be restored to liberty, before the calends of August then next ensuing, the senate, on oath, should appoint a magistrate to inquire into the business, and to punish the person through whose wicked practices he had been brought into slavery;” and accordingly, by direction of the senate, they issued the same. Before the departure of the consuls, the senate gave audience, in the temple of Bellona, to Caius Cicereius, prætor of the former year. After recounting his services in Corsica, he demanded a triumph; but this being refused, he rode in state on the Alban mount; a mode of celebration for victory without public authority, which had now become usual. The people, with universal approbation, passed and ratified the order proposed by Marcius, respecting the Ligurians; and, in pursuance thereof, Caius Licinius, prætor, desired the senate to appoint a person to conduct the inquiry, according to the order; whereupon the senate directed that he himself should conduct it.
XXII. The consuls repaired, at last, to their province, and received the command of the army from Marcus Popillius. But the latter did not dare to go home to Rome; for he dreaded the being brought to trial, while the senate were so highly displeased with him, the people still more exasperated, and before a prætor likewise, who had taken the opinion of the senate, on an inquiry pointed against him. Against this design, to evade a trial, the plebeian tribunes employed the menace of another order — that if he did not come into the city of Rome before the ides of November, Caius Licinius should judge and determine respecting him, though absent. This drew him home, in spite of his reluctance; and when he appeared in the senate, he was received with the strongest marks of displeasure and resentment. His conduct was arraigned by many of the members in the bitterest terms; and a decree was passed, that the prætors, Caius Licinius and Cneius Sicinius, should take care that all such of the Ligurians, as had not been in open arms, since the consulate of Quintus Fulvius and Lucius Manlius, should be restored to liberty; and that the consul Caius Popillius should assign them lands on the farther side of the Po. By this decree, many thousands were so restored, led beyond the Po, and received portions of land accordingly. The trial of Marcus Popillius, on the Marcian law, was twice brought to a hearing, before Caius Licinius, but, at a third hearing, the prætor, overcome by his regard for the absent consul, and the prayers of the Popillian family, ordered the defendant to appear on the ides of March, on which day the new magistrates were to enter into office, so that, being then in a private capacity, he could not preside at the trial. Thus was the order of the people, respecting the Ligurians, eluded by artifice.
XXIII. There were, at this time, in Rome, ambassadors from Carthage, and also from Gulussa, son of Masinissa, between whom very warm disputes passed, in presence of the senate. The Carthaginians complained, that “besides the district, about which ambassadors were formerly sent from Rome, to determine the matter on the spot, Masinissa had, within the last two years, by force of arms, possessed himself of more than seventy towns and forts in the Carthaginian territories. This was easy for him, who suffered no consideration to restrain him. But the Carthaginians, being tied down by treaty, were silent; for they were prohibited from carrying arms beyond their own frontiers: and although they knew that, if they forced the Numidians thence, the war would be waged within their own territory, yet they were deterred, by another clause in the treaty, too clear to be mistaken, in which they were expressly forbidden to wage war against the allies of the Roman people. But things were come to such a pass, that the Carthaginians could not longer endure his pride, his cruelty, and his avarice. They were sent,” they said, “to beseech the senate to grant them one of these three things; either that they, as a common ally, should, on a fair discussion, determine what was the right of each; or give permission to the Carthaginians to defend themselves, in a just war, against unjust attacks; or, finally, if favour swayed more with them than the truth, to fix at once how much of the property of others they wished should be bestowed on Masinissa. Their grants would, at all events, be more moderate than his usurpations; and the extent of them would be ascertained: whereas, he would set no limits but the arbitrary dictates of his own ambition. If they could obtain none of these, and if they had, since the peace granted by Publius Scipio, been guilty of any transgression, they begged that the Romans themselves would rather inflict the punishment. They preferred a secure bondage, under Roman masters, to a state of freedom, exposed to the injustice of Masinissa. It was better for them to perish at once, than to continue to breathe, under the will of an executioner.” Having spoken thus, they burst into tears, prostrated themselves on the ground, and, in this posture, excited both compassion for themselves, and no less displeasure against the King.
XXIV. It was then voted, that Gulussa should be asked, what answer he had to make to these charges, or that, if it were more agreeable to him, he should first tell, on what business he had come to Rome. Gulussa said, that “it was hard for him to speak on subjects, concerning which he had no instructions from his father; and that it would have been hard for his father to have given him instructions, when the Carthaginians neither disclosed the business, which they intended to bring forward, nor even their desire of going to Rome. That they had, for several nights, held private consultations, in the temple of Æsculapius, from whence ambassadors were dispatched with secret information to Rome. This was his father’s reason for sending him into Italy, that he might entreat the senate not to give credit to imputations, laid by their common foe, against him, whom they hated for no other cause than his inviolable fidelity to the Roman people.” After hearing both parties, the senate, on the question being put, respecting the demands of the Carthaginians, ordered this answer to be given, that “it was their will, that Gulussa should, without delay, return to Numidia, and desire his father to send ambassadors immediately to the senate, to answer the complaints of the Carthaginians, and to give notice to that people to come, and support their allegations. All the honour in their power they had hitherto paid to Masinissa, and would continue to pay him; but they did not give him a privilege of screening misconduct under their favour. Their wish was, that the lands should, every where, be possessed by the real owners; nor did they intend that new boundaries should be established, but that the old ones should be observed. When they vanquished the Carthaginians, they left them in possession of cities and lands, not with the purpose of stripping them by acts of injustice in time of peace, of what they had not taken from them by the right of war.” With this answer the Carthaginians, and the prince, were dismissed. The customary presents were sent to both parties, and the other attentions, which hospitality required, were performed with all courtesy.
XXV. About this time Cneius Servilius Cæpio, Appius Claudius Centho, and Titus Annius Luscus, who had been sent ambassadors to Macedonia, to demand restitution and renounce the King’s friendship, returned, and inflamed, to a greater height, the resentment already entertained by the senate against Perseus, by relating, in order, all that they had seen and heard. They said, that “through all the cities of Macedonia they saw preparations for war, carried on with the utmost diligence. When they arrived at the residence of the King, they were refused admission to him, for many days; at the end of which, despairing of meeting with him, they left the place, and were then, at last, called back from their journey and introduced to him. The topics on which they insisted in their discourse were, the treaty concluded with Philip, and, after his father’s death, renewed with himself; in which he was expressly prohibited from carrying his arms beyond his own dominions, and, likewise, from making war on the allies of the Roman people. They then laid before him, in order, the true and well-authenticated accounts, which they themselves had lately heard from Eumenes, in the senate. They took notice, besides, of his having held a secret consultation, in Samothracia, with ambassadors from the states of Asia; and told him, that for these injuries, the senate expected satisfaction to be given, as well as restitution, to them, and their allies, of their property, which he held, contrary to the tenor of the treaty. On this, the King spoke at first with great vehemence, frequently upbraiding the Romans with pride and avarice, and with sending ambassadors, one after another, to pry into his words and actions; expecting that, in every case, he should speak, and act, in compliance with their dictates, and obedient to his nod. After speaking a long time with great loudness and violence, he ordered them to return the next day, for he intended to give his answer in writing. This he accordingly delivered to them; of which the purport was, that the treaty concluded with his father in no respect concerned him; that he had suffered it to be renewed, not because he approved of it, but because, being so lately come to the throne, he was obliged to acquiesce in every thing. If they chose to form a new engagement with him, the terms ought, first, to be agreed on; if they were satisfied to treat on an equal footing, he would consider what was to be done, on his part, and he doubted not but they would be careful enough of the interest of their own state. After this, he hastily turned away, and they were desired to quit the palace. They then declared, that they renounced his friendship and alliance, at which he was highly exasperated; halted, and with a loud voice, charged them to quit his dominions within three days. They departed accordingly; and, neither on their coming, nor while they staid, was any kind of attention or hospitality shown them.” The Thessalian and Ætolian ambassadors were then admitted to audience. The senate wishing to know, as soon as possible, what commanders were to be employed in the service of the state, voted, that a letter should be sent to the consuls, directing, that whichever of them was most able should come to Rome to elect magistrates.
XXVI. The consuls, during that year, performed no exploits that deserved much notice. As the Ligurians had been highly exasperated, it was thought the most eligible plan, to pacify and appease them. While the public were looking forward to a Macedonian war, ambassadors from Issa gave them reason to suspect the inclinations of Gentius, King of Illyria; for they complained that “he had, a second time, ravaged their country;” affirming, likewise, that “the Kings of Macedonia and Illyria lived on terms of the closest intimacy; that both were preparing, in concert, for war against the Romans, and that there were then in Rome Illyrian spies, under the appearance of ambassadors, and who were sent thither by the advice of Perseus.” The Illyrians, being called before the senate, said, that they were sent by their King, to justify his conduct, if the Issans should make any complaint against him. They were then asked, why they had not applied to some magistrate, that they might, according to the regular practice, be furnished with lodging and entertainment, that their arrival might be known, and the business on which they came; but, not giving a satisfactory answer, they were ordered to retire out of the senate-house. It was not thought proper to give the many answer, as delegates, because they had not applied for an audience of the senate; but a resolution passed, that “ambassadors should be sent to the King, to acquaint him with the complaints made by the allies, of his having ravaged their country; and to represent to him the impropriety of his conduct.” On this embassy were sent Aulus Terentius Varro, Caius Plætorius, and Caius Cicereius. The ambassadors, who had been sent to the several kings in alliance with the state, came home from Asia, and reported, that “they had conferred there with Eumenes; in Syria, with Antiochus; and at Alexandria with Ptolemy; all of whom, though strongly solicited by embassies from Perseus, remained perfectly faithful to their engagements, and gave assurances of their readiness to execute every order of the Roman people. That they had also visited the allied states; that all were firm in their attachment, except the Rhodians, who seemed to be wavering, and infected by the counsels of Perseus.” Ambassadors had come from the Rhodians, to exculpate them from the imputations, which, they knew, were openly urged against them; but a resolution was made, that “they should have audience of the senate, when the new magistrates came into office.”
XXVII. It was judged necessary to make immediate preparations for war. A commission was accordingly given to Caius Licinius, prætor, to refit as many as could be made serviceable of the old quinqueremes which lay in the docks at Rome, to make up a fleet of fifty ships, and, if he were at a loss for any to complete that number, to write to his colleague, Caius Memmius, in Sicily, directing him to repair and fit out such vessels as were in that province, so as that they might be sent, with all expedition, to Brundusium. Caius Licinius, prætor, was ordered to enlist Roman citizens of the rank of freedmen’s sons, to man twenty-five ships; Caius Sicinius to levy, from the allies, an equal number for the other twenty-five, and likewise to require from the Latine confederates, eight thousand foot and four hundred horse. Aulus Atillius Serranus, who had been prætor the year before, was commissioned to receive these troops at Brundusium, and transport them to Macedonia; and Cneius Sicinius, the prætor, to keep them in readiness for embarkation. By direction of the senate, Caius Licinius, the prætor, wrote to the consul Caius Popillius, to order the second legion, which was the oldest then in Liguria, together with four thousand foot and two hundred horse, of the Latine nation, to be in Brundusium, on the ides of February. With this fleet, and this army, Cneius Sicinius, being continued a year in command for the purpose, was ordered to take care of the province of Macedonia, until a new governor should arrive. All these measures, voted by the senate, were vigorously executed; thirty-eight quinqueremes were drawn out of the docks, and given to Lucius Porcius Licinius, to be conducted to Brundusium, and twelve were sent from Sicily; three commissaries were dispatched into Apulia and Calabria, to buy up corn for the fleet and army; these were Sextus Digitius, Titus Juventius, and Marcus Cæcilius. When all things were in readiness, the prætor, Cneius Sicinius, in his military robes, set out from the city; and went to Brundusium.
XXVIII. The consul, Caius Popillius, came home to Rome, when the year had almost expired, much later than had been directed by the vote of the senate; for he had been ordered, in consideration of such an important war impending, to elect magistrates as soon as possible. For this reason the consul’s recital, in the temple of Bellona, of his services performed in Liguria, was not favourably listened to by the senate. He was frequently interrupted, and asked, why he had not restored to liberty the Ligurians, who had been oppressed by his brother? The election was held on the day appointed by proclamation, the twelfth before the calends of March. The consuls chosen were, Publius Licinius Crassus, and Caius Cassius Longinus. Next day were elected prætors, Caius Sulpicius Galba, Lucius Furius Philus, Lucius Canuleius Dives, Caius Lucretius Gallus, Caius Caninius Rebilus, and Lucius Villius Annalis. The provinces decreed to these prætors were, the two civil jurisdictions in Rome, Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia; and one of them was kept disengaged, that he might be employed wherever the senate should direct. The consuls elect received orders from the senate, to offer a sacrifice, with victims of the larger kinds, on the day of their entering into office; and to pray to the gods, that the war, which the Roman people intended to engage in, might prove fortunate in the issue. On the same day, the senate passed an order, that the consul Caius Popillius should vow games, of ten days’ continuance, to Jupiter supremely good and great, with offerings, in all the temples, if the commonwealth should remain for ten years in its present state. Pursuant to this vote, the consul made a vow in the Capitol, that the games should be celebrated, and the offerings made, at such expence as the senate should direct, and the vow was expressed in terms dictated by Lepidus the chief pontiff, in the presence of not less than one hundred and fifty persons. There died this year, of the public priests, Lucius Æmilius Papus, decemvir of religious rites, and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, a pontiff, who had been censor the year before. The latter ended his life in a shocking manner: he had received an account, that, of his two sons who were in the army in Illyria, one was dead, and the other labouring under a heavy and dangerous malady: his grief and fears, together, overwhelmed his reason, and his servants, on going into his chamber in the morning, found him hanging by a rope. It was generally believed, that, since his censorship, his understanding had not been sound; and it was now said, that the resentment of Juno Lacinia, for the spoil committed on her temple, had caused the derangement of his intellects. Marcus Valerius Messala was substituted decemvir, in the place of Æmilius; and Cneius Domitius Ænobarbus, though a mere youth, was chosen into the priesthood as pontiff, in the room of Fulvius.
Y. R.581.
171.XXIX. In this consulate of Publius Licinius and Caius Cassius, not only the city of Rome, but
the whole of Italy, with all the kings and states, both in Europe and in Asia, had their attention fixed on the
approaching war between Rome and Macedonia. Eumenes was instigated against Perseus, not only by an old hatred, but also
by recent anger, for having been, through his nefarious contrivance, almost slaughtered, like a victim, at Delphi.
Prusias, King of Bithynia, resolved to keep clear of hostilities, and to wait the event; for as he did not think it
proper to carry arms on the side of the Romans, against his wife’s brother, so he trusted, that, in case of Perseus
proving victorious, his favour might be secured through the means of his sister. Ariathes, King of Cappadocia, besides
having, in his own name, promised aid to the Romans, had, ever since his connexion of affinity with Eumenes, united
with him in all his plans, whether of war or peace. Antiochus, indeed, entertained designs on the kingdom of Egypt, and
despising the unripe age of Ptolemy, and the inactive disposition of his guardians, thought he might, by raising a
dispute about Cœlesyria, find sufficient pretext for proceeding to extremities, and carry on a war there, without any
impediment, while the Roman arms were employed against Macedonia: yet, by his ambassadors to the senate, and to their
ambassadors sent to him, he made the fairest promises. The King of Egypt, too young to determine for himself, was
directed by others; and his guardians, at the same time, while they were preparing for war with Antiochus, to secure
possession of Cœlesyria, promised the Romans every support in the war against Macedonia. Masinissa not only furnished
supplies of corn to the Romans, but prepared to send into the field, to their assistance, a body of troops, and a
number of elephants, with his son Misagenes. He so arranged his plans as to answer every event that might take place;
for, if success should attend the Romans, he judged that his own affairs would rest in their present state, and that he
ought to seek for nothing farther; as the Romans would not suffer violence to be offered to the Carthaginians; and if
the power of the Romans, which, at that time, protected the Carthaginians, should be reduced, then all Africa would be
his own. Gentius, King of Illyria, had indeed given cause of suspicion to the Romans; but he had not yet determined
which party to espouse, and it was believed that he would join either one or the other, through some sudden impulse of
passion, rather than from any rational motive. Cotys, the Thracian King of the Odrysians, declared, openly, in favour
of the Macedonians.
XXX. Such were the inclinations of the several kings, while, in the free nations and states, the plebeians, favouring as usual the weaker cause, were almost universally inclined to the Macedonians and their king; but among the nobles might be observed different views. One party were so warmly devoted to the Romans, that, by the excess of their zeal, they diminished their own influence. Of these, a few were actuated by their admiration of the justice of the Roman government; but by far the greater number, by the hope that their distinguished exertions would procure them a large share of power in their several states. A second party wished to court the King’s favour by every compliance, some of them being driven headlong into every scheme of innovation by their debts, and despair of retrieving their circumstances while the public affairs remained in their present state; and others, through a fickleness of temper, following Perseus as the more popular character. A third party, the wisest and the best, wished, in case of being allowed the choice of a master, to live under the Romans, rather than under the King. Yet, could they have had the free disposal of events, it was their wish that power should not be acquired from the ruin of either party, but rather that both, with their strength unimpaired, should continue in peace on an equal footing; for thus, the condition of their states would be the happiest, as they would always be protected by one from any ill treatment intended by the other. Judging thus, without declaring their sentiments, they viewed, in safety, the contest between the partizans of the two contending powers. The consuls, having on the day of their commencement in office, in compliance with the order of the senate, sacrificed victims of the larger kinds, in all the temples where the lectisternium was usually celebrated for the greater part of the year, and having, from them, collected omens that their prayers were accepted by the immortal gods, reported, that the sacrifices had been duly performed, and prayers offered respecting the war. The aruspices declared, that, “if any new undertaking was intended, it ought to be proceeded in without delay; that victory, triumphs, and extension of empire were portended.” The senate then resolved, that “the consuls should, on the first proper day, propose to the people assembled by centuries — that whereas Perseus, son of Philip, and King of Macedonia, contrary to the league struck with his father, and after Philip’s death renewed with himself, had committed hostilities on the allies of Rome, had wasted their lands, and seized their towns, and also had formed a design of making war on the Roman people. That he had, for that purpose, prepared arms, troops, and a fleet; and therefore, unless he gave satisfaction concerning those matters, that war should be proclaimed against him.” The question was passed by the people in the affirmative; on which, the senate decreed, that “the consuls should settle between themselves, or cast lots for the provinces of Italy and Macedonia; that the one to whose lot Macedonia fell, should seek redress, by force of arms, from King Perseus, and all who concurred in his designs; unless they made amends to the Roman people.”
XXXI. It was ordered, that four new legions should be raised, two for each consul. For the service in Macedonia, it was judged proper to exceed the usual standard. Instead, therefore, of five thousand foot, and two hundred horse, assigned to the consul’s legions according to the ancient practice, six thousand foot and three hundred horse were ordered to be enlisted, for each of the legions that were to serve in Macedonia. Of the allied troops, also, the number was augmented in the army ordered into Macedonia — namely, sixteen thousand foot and eight hundred horse, besides the six hundred horsemen carried thither by Cneius Sicinius. For Italy, twelve thousand foot and six hundred horse, of the allies, were deemed sufficient. In another instance, an extraordinary degree of attention was shown to the service in Macedonia; for the consul was authorised to enlist veteran centurions and soldiers, whom he chose as old as fifty years. An unusual mode of proceeding, with regard to the military tribunes, was also introduced on the same occasion; for the consuls, by direction of the senate, recommended to the people, that, for that year, the military tribunes should not be created by their suffrages; but that the consuls and prætors should have full power to choose and appoint them. The prætors had their several commands assigned them, in the following manner: he to whose lot it fell to be employed wherever the senate should direct, had orders to go to Brundusium, to the fleet, to review the crews, and, dismissing such men as appeared unfit for the service, to enlist, in their places, sons of freedmen, taking care that two thirds should be Roman citizens, and the remainder allies. For supplying provisions to the ships and legions, from Sicily and Sardinia, it was resolved, that the prætors, who obtained the government of those provinces, should be enjoined to levy a second tenth on the inhabitants, and to take care to have the corn conveyed into Macedonia, to the army. The lots gave Sicily to Caius Caninius Rebilus; Sardinia, to Lucius Furius Philus; Spain, to Lucius Canuleius; the city jurisdiction, to Caius Sulpicius Galba; and the foreign, to Lucius Villius Annalis. The lot of Caius Lucretius Gallus was, to be employed wherever the senate should direct.
XXXII. The consuls had a slight dispute about their province. Cassius said, that “he would take the command against Macedonia without casting lots, nor could his colleague, without perjury, abide their determination. When he was prætor, to avoid going to his province, he made oath in the public assembly, that he had sacrifices to perform on stated days, in a stated place, and that they could not be duly performed in his absence; and, surely, they could no more be performed duly in his absence, when he was consul, than when he was prætor. If the senate thought proper to pay more regard to what Publius Licinius wished, in his consulship, than to what he had sworn in his prætorship, he himself, for his part, would, at all events, be ruled by that body.” When the question was put, the senators thought it would be a degree of arrogance in them to refuse a province to him, whom the Roman people had not refused to elect to the consulship. They, however, ordered the consuls to cast lots. Macedonia fell to Publius Licinius, Italy to Caius Cassius. They then cast lots for the legions; when it fell to the lot of the first and third to go over into Macedonia; and of the second and fourth, to remain in Italy. In making the levies, the consuls took unusual pains. Licinius enlisted even veteran centurions and soldiers; and many of them offered themselves voluntarily, as they saw that those men who had served in the former Macedonian war, or in Asia, had become rich. When the military tribunes cited the centurions, and especially those of the highest rank, twenty-three of them, and who had held the first posts, appealed to the tribunes of the people. Two of that body, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior and Marcus Claudius Marcellus, wished to refer the matter to the consuls; “the cognizance of it belonging properly to those who had the charge of the levies and of the war;” but the rest declared, that since the appeal had been made to them, they would examine into the affair; and, if there were any injustice in the case, would support their fellow-citizens.
XXXIII. The business, therefore, came into the court of the tribunes. There the consul and the centurions attended, with Marcus Popillius, a man of consular rank, as advocate for the centurions. The consul then required, that the matter might be discussed in a general assembly; and, accordingly, the people were summoned. On the side of the centurions, Marcus Popillius, who had been consul two years before, argued thus: that “as military men, they had served out their regular time, and that their strength was now spent through age and continual hardships. Nevertheless, they did not refuse to give the public the benefit of their services, they only entreated that they might be favoured so far, as not to be appointed to posts inferior to those which they had formerly held in the army.” The consul, Publius Licinius, first ordered the decree of the senate to be read, in which war was determined against Perseus; and then the other, which directed, that as many veteran centurions as could be procured should be enlisted for that war; and that no exemption from the service should be allowed to any who was not upwards of fifty years of age. He then entreated that, “at a time when a new war was breaking out, so near to Italy, and with a most powerful King, they would not either obstruct the military tribunes in making the levies, or prevent the consul from assigning to each person such a post as best suited the convenience of the public; and that, if any doubt should arise in the proceedings, it might be referred to the decision of the senate.”
XXXIV. When the consul had said all that he thought proper, Spurius Ligustinus, one of those who had appealed to the plebeian tribunes, requested permission from the consul and tribunes to speak a few words to the people; and all having consented, he spoke, we are told, to this effect: “Romans, my name is Spurius Ligustinus; I am of the Crustuminian tribe, and of a family originally Sabine. My father left me one acre of land, and a small cottage, in which I was born and educated, and where I now dwell. As soon as I came to man’s estate, my father married me to his brother’s daughter, who brought nothing with her but independence and modesty; except, indeed, a degree of fruitfulness that would have better suited a wealthier family. We have six sons and two daughters; the latter are both married; of our sons, four are grown up to manhood, the other two are yet boys. I became a soldier in the consulate of Publius Sulpicius and Caius Aurelius. In the army which was sent over into Macedonia, I served as a common soldier, against Philip, two years; and in the third year, Titus Quintius Flaminius, in reward of my good conduct, gave me the command of the tenth company of spearmen. When Philip and the Macedonians were subdued, and we were brought back to Italy and discharged, I immediately went a volunteer, with the consul Marcus Porcius, into Spain. That no one commander living was a more accurate observer, and judge of merit, is well known to all who have had experience of him, and of other generals, in a long course of service. This commander judged me deserving of being set at the head of the first company of spearmen. A third time, I entered a volunteer in the army which was sent against the Ætolians and King Antiochus; and Manius Acilius gave me the command of the first company of first-rank men. After Antiochus was driven out of the country, and the Ætolians were reduced, we were brought home to Italy, where I served the two succeeding years in legions that were raised annually. I afterwards made two campaigns in Spain; one under Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, the other under Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, prætors. Flaccus brought me with him, among others, to attend his triumph, out of regard to our good services. It was at the particular request of Tiberius Gracchus that I went with him to his province. Four times within a few years was I first centurion of my corps; thirty-four times I was honoured by my commanders with presents for good behaviour. I have received six civic crowns I have fulfilled twenty-two years of service in the army, and I am upwards of fifty years of age. But, if I had neither served out all my compaigns, nor was entitled to exemption on account of my age, yet, Publius Licinius, as I can supply you with four soldiers instead of myself, I might reasonably expect to be discharged. But what I have said I wish you to consider merely as a state of my case; as to offering any thing as an excuse from service, that is what I will never do, so long as any officer enlisting troops shall believe me fit for it. What rank the military tribunes may think I deserve, they themselves can best determine. That no one in the army may surpass me, in a zealous discharge of duty, I shall use my best endeavours; and that I have always acted on that principle, my commanders and my comrades can testify. And now, fellow-soldiers, you who assert your privilege of appeal, as you have never, in your youthful days, done any act contrary to the directions of the magistrates and the senate, so will it be highly becoming in you to show yourselves obedient to their orders, and to think every post honourable in which you can act for the defence of the commonwealth.”
XXXV. Having finished his speech, he was highly commended by the consul, who led him, from the assembly, into the senate-house, where, by order of the senate, he again received public thanks; and the military tribunes, in consideration of his meritorious behaviour, made him first centurion in the first legion. The rest of the centurions, dropping the appeal, enlisted without further demur. That the magistrates might the sooner go into their provinces, the Latine festival was celebrated on the calends of June; and, as soon as that solemnity was ended, Caius Lucretius, the prætor, after sending forward every thing requisite for the fleet, went to Brundusium. Besides the armies which the consuls were forming, Caius Sulpicius Galba, the prætor, was commissioned to raise four city legions, with the regular number of foot and horse, and to choose, out of the senate, four military tribunes to command them; likewise, to require from the Latine allies fifteen thousand foot, with twelve hundred horse, to be held in readiness to act wherever the senate should order. At the desire of the consul, Publius Licinius, the following auxiliaries were ordered to join the army of natives and allies under his command: two thousand Ligurians; a body of Cretan archers, whose number was not specified, the order only mentioning, whatever succours the Cretans, on being applied to, should send; likewise the Numidian cavalry, and elephants. To settle concerning these last, ambassadors were sent to Masinissa and the Carthaginians — Lucius Postumius Albinus, Quintus Terentius Culleo, and Caius Aburius: also, to Crete — Aulus Postumius Albinus, Caius Decimius, and Aulus Licinius Nerva.
XXXVI. At this time arrived ambassadors from Perseus, who were not suffered to come into the city; as the senate had already decreed, and the people had ordered, a declaration of war against the Macedonians. The senate gave them audience in the temple of Bellona, when they spoke to this purport: that “King Perseus wondered what could be their motive for transporting troops into Macedonia; and that if the senate could be prevailed on to recall them, the King would satisfactorily account for any injuries of which their allies might complain.” Spurius Carvilius had been sent home from Greece, by Cneius Sicinius, for the purpose of attending this business, and was present in the senate. He charged the King with the storming of Perrhæbia, the taking of several cities of Thessaly, and other enterprises, in which he was either actually employed or preparing to engage; and the ambassadors were called on to answer to those points. This they declined, declaring that they had no farther instructions. On which they were ordered to tell their King, that “the consul Publius Licinius would soon be in Macedonia at the head of an army. To him he might send ambassadors, if he were disposed to make satisfaction, but he need send none to Rome; nor would they be suffered to pass through Italy.” After they were thus dismissed, a charge was given to Publius Licinius, to insist on their quitting Italy within eleven days, and to send Spurius Carvilius to guard them, until they embarked. Such were the transactions at Rome, before the departure of the consuls for their provinces. Cneius Sicinius, who, before the expiration of his office, had been sent to Brundusium to the fleet and army, had by this time transported into Epirus, five thousand foot and three hundred horse, and was encamped at Nimphæum, in the territory of Apollonia. From thence he sent tribunes, with two thousand men, to take possession of the forts of the Dassaretians and Illyrians; those people themselves having invited him to establish garrisons, to secure them from the inroads of the Macedonians in their neighbourhood.
XXXVII. A few days after, Quintus Marcius, Aulus Atilius, Publius Cornelius Lentulus, Servius Cornelius Lentulus, and Lucius Decimius, who were appointed ambassadors to Greece, carried with them one thousand soldiers to Corcyra; where they divided the troops among them, and settled what districts they were to visit. Decimius was fixed on to go to Gentius, King of Illyria, with instructions to sound him, as to whether he retained any regard for former friendship; and even to prevail on him to take part in the war. The two Lentuluses were sent to Cephallenia, that from thence they might cross over into Peloponnesus; and, before the winter, make a circuit round the western coast. Marcius and Atilius were appointed to visit Epirus, Ætolia, and Thessaly; they were directed to take a view afterwards of Bœotia and Eubœa, and then to pass over to Peloponnesus, where, by appointment, they were to meet the Lentuluses. Before they set out on their several routes from Corcyra, a letter was brought from Perseus, inquiring the reason of the Romans sending troops into Greece, and taking possession of the cities. They did not think proper to give him any answer in writing; but they told his messenger, who brought the letter, that the motive of the Romans was, the securing the safety of the cities themselves. The Lentuluses, going round the cities of Peloponnesus, exhorted all the states, without distinction, as they had assisted the Romans with fidelity and spirit, first in the war with Philip, and then in that with Antiochus, to assist them now, in like manner, against Perseus. This occasioned some murmuring in the assemblies; for the Achæans were highly offended, that they, who, from the very first rise of the war with Macedonia, had given every instance of friendship to the Romans, and taken an active part against Philip, should be treated on the same footing with the Messenians and Elians, who had borne arms on the side of Antiochus against the Roman people, and who, being lately incorporated in the Achæan union, made heavy complaints, as if they were made over to the victorious Achæans as a prize.
XXXVIII. Marcius and Atilius, going up to Gitanæ, a town of Epirus, about ten miles from the sea, held there a council of the Epirotes, in which they were listened to with universal approbation; and they sent thence four hundred young men of that country to Orestæ, to protect those whom they had freed from the dominion of the Macedonians. From this place they proceeded into Ætolia; where, having waited a few days, until a prætor was chosen, in the room of one who had died, and the election having fallen on Lyciscus, who was well known to be a friend to the interest of the Romans, they passed over into Thessaly. There they were attended by envoys from the exiled Acarnanians and Bœotians. The Acarnanians had orders to represent, that “whatever offences they had been guilty of towards the Romans, first in the war with Philip, and afterwards in that with Antiochus, in consequence of being misled by the professions of those kings, they had found an opportunity to expiate. As, when their demerits were great, they had experienced the clemency of the Roman people, so they would now, by their endeavours to merit favour, make trial of its generosity.” The Bœotians were upbraided with having united themselves in alliance with Perseus; but they threw the blame on Ismeneas, the leader of a party, and alleged, that “several states were drawn into that measure, contrary to their own judgment:” to which Marcius replied, that “this would appear, for it was intended to give to every one of the states the power of judging for itself.” The council of the Thessalians was held at Larissa. At this meeting, both parties had abundant matter for mutual expressions of gratitude: the Thessalians, for the blessing of liberty conferred on them; and the ambassadors, for the vigorous assistance afforded by the Thessalians, in the wars with Philip and Antiochus. Their reciprocal acknowledgments of past favours kindled such zeal in the breasts of the assembly, that they voted every measure desired by the Romans. Soon after this meeting, ambassadors arrived from King Perseus, whose principal inducement to this step was, the hope he derived from a connexion of hospitality subsisting between him and Marcius, which was formed by their fathers. The ambassadors began with reminding him of this bond of amity, and then requested him to give the King an opportunity of conferring with him. Marcius answered, that “he had received from his father the same account of the friendship and hospitable connexion between him and Philip; and the consideration of that connexion induced him to undertake the present embassy. That he had not so long delayed to give the King a meeting, could it have been done without inconvenience; and that now he and his colleague would, as soon as it should be in their power, come to the river Peneus, where the passage was from Omolium to Dium; of which they would send notice to the King.”
XXXIX. Perseus, on this, withdrew from Dium into the heart of the kingdom, having conceived some degree of hope from the expression of Marcius, that he had undertaken the embassy out of regard to him. After a few days they all met at the appointed place. The King came surrounded by a multitude both of friends and guards. The train of the ambassadors was not less numerous, for they were accompanied by a great many from Larissa, and by the delegates of many states, who had met them there, wishing to carry home information on the positive testimony of what themselves should hear. All men felt a strong curiosity to behold a meeting between so powerful a King, and the ambassadors of the first people in the world. After they came wishin sight, on the opposite sides of the river, some time was spent in sending messengers from one to the other, to settle which should cross it; for one party thought the compliment due to royal majesty, the other to the fame of the Roman people, especially as Perseus had requested the conference. A jocular expression of Marcius put an end to the difficulty:—“Let the younger,” said he, “cross over to the elder; the son to the father:” for his own surname was Philip. The King was easily persuaded to comply; but then another perplexity arose, about the number he should bring over with him. He thought it would be proper to be attended by his whole retinue; but the ambassadors required, that he should either come with three attendants only; or, if he brought so great a band, that he should give hostages that no treachery should be used during the conference. He accordingly sent as hostages, Hippias and Pantaucus, two of his particular friends, and whom he had sent as ambassadors. The intent of demanding hostages was, not so much to get a pledge of good faith, as to demonstrate to the allies, that the King did not meet the ambassadors on a footing of equal dignity. Their salutations were not like those between enemies, but kind and friendly; and seats being placed for them, they sat down together.
XL. After a short silence, Marcius began thus: “I suppose you expect us to give an answer to your letter, sent to Corcyra, in which you ask the reason, why we ambassadors come attended by soldiers, and why we send garrisons into the cities? To this question it is painful to me either to refuse an answer, lest I should appear too haughty; or to give a true one, lest, to your ears, it might seem too harsh. But since the person who infringes a treaty must be reproved, either with words or with arms, as I could wish that any other, rather than myself, should be employed in a war against you, so I will undergo the task, however disagreeable, of uttering rough language against my friend, as physicians, for the recovery of health, sometimes apply painful remedies. The senate is of opinion, that, since you came to the throne, you have acted but in one particular as you ought to have done, and that is, in sending ambassadors to Rome to renew the treaty made with your father — which yet it would have been better never to have renewed, they think, than afterwards to violate it. You expelled from his throne Abrupolis, an ally and friend of the Roman people. You gave refuge to the murderers of Artetarus, thereby showing that you were pleased at their act, to say nothing worse; though they put to death a prince, who, of all the Illyrians, was the most faithful to the Roman nation. You marched with an army through Thessaly and the Malian territory to Delphi, contrary to the treaty. You likewise, in violation of it, sent succours to the Byzantians. You concluded and swore to a separate alliance with the Bœotians our confederates, which you had no right to do. As to Eversa and Callicritus, the Theban ambassadors, who were slain in returning from Rome, I wish rather to inquire who were their murderers, than to charge the fact on any one. To whom else than your agents can the civil war in Ætolia, and the deaths of the principal inhabitants, be imputed? The country of the Dolopians was ravaged by you in person. King Eumenes, on his way from Rome to his own dominions, was almost butchered, as a victim, at the altars in consecrated ground, at Delphi, and it grieves me to know the person whom he accuses. With regard to the secret crimes which the host at Brundusium states in his communication, I take for granted that you have received full accounts, both by letter from Rome, and the report of your own ambassadors. There was one way by which you might have avoided hearing of these matters from me, which was, by not inquiring why we brought troops into Macedonia, or sent garrisons into the cities of our allies. When you had asked the question, it would have been more blameable to keep silence, than to answer according to truth. Out of regard to the friendship derived to us from our fathers, I am really disposed to listen favourably to whatever you may say, and shall be happy if you afford me any grounds on which I may plead your cause before the senate.”
XLI. To this the King answered — “A cause which would approve itself good, if tried before impartial judges, I am to submit to the opinion of judges, who are, at the same time, my accusers. Of the facts laid to my charge, some are of such a nature, that I know not whether I ought not to glory in them; others there are, which I shall confess without a blush; and others, which, as they rest on bare assertions, it will be sufficient to deny. Supposing that I were this day to stand a trial, according to your laws, what does either the Brundusian informer, or Eumenes, allege against me that would be deemed a well-founded accusation, and not rather a malicious aspersion? Had Eumenes (although both in his public and private capacity he has done many grievous injuries to so many people) no other enemy than me? Could I not find a better agent for the perpetration of wickedness than Rammius, whom I had never seen before, nor had any probability of ever seeing again? Then, I must give an account of the Thebans, who, it is well known, perished by shipwreck: and of the death of Artetarus; with regard to whom nothing more is alleged against me, than that the persons who killed him lived in exile in my dominions. To such reasoning as this, unfair as it is, I will not object on my part, provided you will admit it on yours; and will acknowledge that, whatever exiles have taken refuge in Rome or in Italy, you are yourselves abettors of the crimes for which they have been condemned. If you admit not this principle, as other nations will not, neither will I. In truth, to what purpose should people be allowed to go into exile, if they are no where to be admitted? As soon, however, as I understood from your representations, that those men were in Macedonia, I ordered that search should be made for them, and that they should quit the kingdom; and I prohibited them for ever from setting foot in my dominions. On these articles, indeed, I stand accused as a criminal; the others affect me as a King, and must be decided by the terms of the treaty subsisting between you and me. For if it is thus expressed in that treaty, that, even in case of war being made on me, I am not permitted to protect my kingdom; I must then confess I have infringed it, by defending myself with arms against Abrupolis, an ally of the Roman people. But, on the other hand, if it is both allowed by the treaty, and is an axiom established by the law of nations, that force may be repelled by force; how, I pray you, ought I have acted, when Abrupolis had spread devastation over the frontiers of my kingdom, as far as Amphipolis, carried-off great numbers of free persons, a vast multitude of slaves, and many thousands of cattle? Ought I to have lain quiet, and let him proceed until he came in arms to Pella, into my very palace? But, allowing the justice of the war waged against him, yet he ought not to have been subdued, and made to suffer the evils incident to the vanquished. Nay, but when I, who was the person attacked, underwent the hazard of all these, how can he, who was the cause of the war, complain, if they happened to fall upon himself? As to my having punished the Dolopians by force of arms, I mean not, Romans, to use the same mode of defence; because, whether they deserved that treatment or not, I acted in right of my own sovereign authority: for they were my subjects, were under my dominion, annexed to my father’s territories by your decree. Nor, if I were to give an account of my conduct, I do not say to you, nor other my confederates, but even to such as disapprove of a severe and unjust exercise of authority, even over slaves, would it appear that I have carried my severity against them beyond the limits of justice and equity; for they slew Euphranor, the governor, whom I had set over them, after using him in such a manner, that death was the slightest of his sufferings.
XLII. “But, it seems, when I proceeded to visit Larissa, Antron, and Pteleos, (that I might be within a convenient distance to pay vows, due long before,) I went up to Delphi in order to offer sacrifice; and here, with the purpose of aggravating the imputed guilt, it is subjoined, that I was attended by an army, with intent to do what I now complain of your doing — to seize the towns, and put garrisons in them. Now, call together, in assembly, the states of Greece, through which I marched; and if any one person complain of ill treatment, offered by a soldier of mine, I will not deny that, under a pretence of sacrificing, I covered other designs. We sent aid to the Ætolians and Byzantians, and made a treaty of friendship with the Bœotians. These proceedings, of whatever nature they may be, have been repeatedly avowed by my ambassadors; and, what is more, excused before your senate, where I had several of my judges not so favourable as you, Quintus Marcius, my paternal friend and guest. But at that time, my accuser, Eumenes, had not come to Rome; one, who, by misrepresenting and distorting every occurrence, rendered it suspicious and odious, and endeavoured to persuade you, that Greece could not be free, nor enjoy the benefit of your kindness, while the kingdom of Macedonia subsisted. The wheel will come round; people will soon be found who will insist, that Antiochus was in vain removed beyond the mountains of Taurus; that Eumenes is more burthensome to Asia than was Antiochus; and that your allies can never enjoy quiet so long as there is a palace at Pergamus: for this was raised as a citadel over the heads of the neighbouring states. Quintus Marcius and Aulus Atilius, I am aware that the charges which you have made against me, and the arguments which I urged in my defence, will have just so much weight, as the ears and the tempers of the hearers are disposed to allow them; and that the question what I have done, or with what intention, is not of so much importance, as what construction you may put on what has been done. I am conscious to myself, that I have not, knowingly, done wrong; and that, if through imprudence I have fallen into any error, the reproofs which I have now received are sufficient to correct and reform me. I have certainly committed no fault that is incurable, or deserving of punishment by war and plunder: for, surely, the fame of your clemency and consistency of conduct, spread over the world, is ill-founded, if, on such causes as scarcely justify complaint or expostulation, you take up arms against kings in alliance with you.”
XLIII. Marcius, for the time, assented to the reasonableness of what he urged; and recommended it to him to send ambassadors to Rome, as he thought it best to try every expedient to the last, and to omit nothing that might afford any prospect of peace. It remained to be considered, how the ambassadors might travel with safety; and although, to this end, it was necessary that the King should ask a truce, which Marcius wished for, and in fact had no other view in consenting to the conference, yet he granted it with apparent reluctance, and as a great favour to the person requesting it. At that juncture, the Romans had made few preparations for war; they had no army, no general: whereas Perseus had every thing prepared and ready: and if a vain hope of peace had not blinded his judgment, he might have commenced hostilities at a time most advantageous to himself, and distressing to his enemies. At the breaking up of this conference, (the truce being ratified by both parties,) the Roman ambassadors bent their route towards Bœotia, where great commotions were now beginning; for several of the states withdrew themselves from the union of the general confederacy of the Bœotians, on being told the answer of the ambassadors, that “it would appear what particular states were displeased at the forming of the alliance with the King.” First, deputies from Chæronea; then, others from Thebes, met the Romans on the road, and assured them, that they were not present in the council, wherein that alliance was resolved on. The ambassadors gave them no answer at the time, but ordered that they should go with them to Chalcis. At Thebes a violent dissension arose out of another contest. The party defeated in the election of prætors of Bœotia, resolving to revenge the affront, collected the multitude, and passed a decree at Thebes, that the new Bœotarchs should not be admitted into the cities. All the persons thus exiled, betook themselves to Thespiæ, where they were received without hesitation; and, the people’s minds changing, they were recalled to Thebes. There they got a decree passed, that the twelve persons, who, without being invested with public authority, had held an assembly and council, should be punished by banishment: and afterwards, the new prætor, Ismenias, a man of distinction and power, procured another, condemning them, although absent, to capital punishment. They had fled to Chalcis; and, from thence, they proceeded to Larissa, to the Romans; to whom they represented, that Ismenias alone was to be blamed for the alliance concluded with Perseus. The contest originated in a party-dispute; yet ambassadors from both sides waited on the Romans, as did the exiles, accusers of Ismenias, and Ismenias himself.
XLIV. When they were all arrived at Chalcis, the chiefs of the other states, each by a particular decree of their own, renounced the alliance of Perseus, and joined themselves to the Romans. Ismenias recommended, that the Bœotian nation should be placed under the orders of Rome; on which so violent a dispute arose, that, if he had not fled for shelter to the tribunal of the ambassadors, he would have been in the most imminent danger of losing his life by the hands of the exiles and their abettors. Thebes itself, the capital of Bœotia, was in a violent ferment, one party struggling hard to bring the state over to the King, the other to the Romans; and multitudes had come together, from Coronæ and Haliartus, to support the decree in favour of Perseus. But the firmness of the chiefs (who desired them to judge, from the defeats of Philip and Antiochus, how great must be the power and fortune of the Roman empire) so far prevailed on the people, that they not only passed a resolution to cancel the alliance of the King; but also, to gratify the ambassadors, sent the promoters of that alliance to Chalcis; and ordered, that the state should be recommended to the protection of the Romans. This deputation from the Thebans gave great joy to Marcius and Atilius, and they advised the states to send separate embassies to Rome to make a renewal of friendship. They required, as an essential point, that the exiles should be restored; and passed a sentence, condemning the advisers of the treaty with the King. Having thus disunited the members of the Bœotian council, which was their grand object, they proceeded to Peloponnesus, first sending for Servius Cornelius to Chalcis. An assembly was summoned to meet them at Argos, where they demanded nothing more from the Achæans, than the furnishing of one thousand soldiers, which were sent to secure Chalcis until a Roman army should come into Greece.
XLV. Marcius and Atilius, having finished the business that was to be done in Greece, returned to Rome in the beginning of winter. An embassy had been dispatched thence, about the same time, into Asia, to the several islands. The ambassadors were three; Tiberius Claudius, Publius Postumius, and Marcus Junius. These, making a circuit among the allies, exhorted them to undertake the war against Perseus, in conjunction with the Romans; and the more powerful any state was, the more zealous were they in their applications, judging that the smaller states would follow the lead of the greater. The Rhodians were esteemed of the utmost consequence on every account; because they could not only countenance the war, but support a great share of it by their own strength, having, pursuant to the advice of Hegesilochus, forty ships ready for sea. This man being chief magistrate, whom they call Prytanis, had, by many arguments, prevailed on the Rhodians to banish those hopes, which they had conceived from courting the favour of Kings, and which they had, in repeated instances, found fallacious; and to cherish carefully the alliance of Rome, the only one at that time in the world that could be relied on for stability, whether power or fidelity were to be considered. He told them, that “a war was upon the point of breaking out with Perseus: that the Romans would expect the same naval armament which they had seen lately in that with Antiochus, and formerly in that with Philip: that they would be hurried, in the hasty equipment of a fleet, at a time when it ought to be at sea, unless they immediately set about the repairing and manning of their ships: and that this they ought to do with the greater diligence, in order to refute, by the evidence of facts, the imputations thrown on them by Eumenes.” Roused by these arguments, they rigged and fitted out a fleet of forty ships, which they showed to the Roman ambassadors on their arrival, to convince them they had not waited to be solicited. This embassy had great effect in conciliating the affections of the states in Asia. Decimius alone returned to Rome without effecting any thing, and under the scandalous suspicion of having received money from the Illyrian kings.
XLVI. Perseus, after the conference on the bank of the Peneus, retired into Macedonia, and sent ambassadors to Rome to carry on the negociation for peace commenced with Marcius, giving them letters, to be delivered at Byzantium and Rhodes. The purport of all the letters was the same; that he had conferred with the Roman ambassadors: what he had heard from them, and what he had said, was, however, represented in such colours, as that he might seem to have had the advantage in the debate. In presence of the Rhodians, the ambassadors added, that “they were confident of a continuance of peace, for it was by the advice of Marcius and Atilius that they were sent to Rome. But if the Romans should commence their hostilities, contrary to treaty, it would then be the business of the Rhodians to labour, with all their power and all their interest, for the re-establishment of peace; and that, if their mediation should prove ineffectual, they ought then to take such measures as would prevent the dominion of the whole world from coming into the hands of one only nation. That, as this was a matter of general concern, so it was peculiarly interesting to the Rhodians, as they surpassed the other states in dignity and power, which must be held on terms of servility and dependence, if there were no other resource for redress than the Romans.” Both the letter and the discourse of the ambassadors were received by the Rhodians with every appearance of kindness; they had, however, but little efficacy towards working a change in their minds, for by this time the best-judging party had the superior influence. By public order this answer was given; — that “the Rhodians wished for peace; but, if war should take place, they hoped that the king would not expect or require from them any thing that might break off their ancient friendship with the Romans, the fruit of many and great services performed on their part both in war and peace.” The Macedonians, on their way home from Rhodes, visited also the states of Bœotia, Thebes, Coronæa, and Haliartus; for it was thought that the measure of abandoning the alliance with the King, and joining the Romans, was extorted from them against their will. The Thebans, though somewhat displeased with the Romans, on account of the sentence passed on their nobles, and the restoration of the exiles, yet suffered not their sentiments to be changed; but the Coronæans and Haliartians, out of a kind of natural attachment to kings, sent ambassadors to Macedonia, requesting the aid of a body of troops to defend them against the insolent tyranny of the Thebans. To this application the King answered, that, “on account of the truce concluded with the Romans, it was not in his power to send troops; but he recommended to them, to guard themselves against ill-treatment from the Thebans, as far as they were able, without affording the Romans a pre-text for venting their resentment on him.”
XLVII. When Marcius and Atilius returned to Rome, and reported in the Capitol the result of their embassy, they assumed no greater merit for any one matter, than for having over-reached the King by the suspension of arms, and the hope of peace given him; for “he was so fully provided,” they said, “with every requisite for the immediate commencement of war, while on their side no one thing was in readiness, that all the convenient posts might be pre-occupied by him before an army could be transported into Greece: but, in consequence of gaining so much time by the truce, the Romans would begin the war in a state of much better preparation; whereas he would come into the field without any advantage beyond what he already possessed.” They mentioned, also, that “they had so effectually disunited the members of the Bœotian council, that they could never again, with any degree of unanimity, connect themselves with the Macedonians.” A great part of the senate approved of these proceedings, as conducted with consummate wisdom; but the older members, who retained the ancient simplicity of manners, declared, that, “in the conduct of that embassy, they could discover nothing of the Roman genius. Their ancestors waged war not by stratagems and attacks in the night, nor by counterfeiting flight, and returning unexpectedly on an unguarded foe, nor so as to glory in cunning more than in real valour. Their practice was, to declare their intentions to the party before they entered on action; nay, they sometimes appointed the spot whereon to fight. Actuated by these principles of honour, they gave information to King Pyrrhus of his physician plotting against his life; and, from the same motive, they delivered, bound, to the Faliscians the betrayer of their children. These were Roman acts, not resulting from the craft of Carthaginians or the subtilty of Greeks, among whom it is reckoned more glorious to deceive an enemy, than to overcome him by force. It sometimes happens that greater present advantages may be acquired by artifice than by bravery. But an adversary’s spirit is finally subdued for ever, when the confession has been extorted from him, that he was vanquished, not by artifice, nor by chance, but in a just and open war, in a fair trial of strength hand to hand.” Such were the sentiments of the elder members, who did not approve of this modern kind of wisdom. But the majority paid more regard to utility than to honour, and passed a vote approving of Marcius’s conduct in his former embassy, at the same time ordering that he should be sent again into Greece with some ships, and with authority to act in other matters as he should judge most conducive to the public good. They also sent Aulus Atilius to keep possession of Larissa in Thessaly; fearing lest, on the expiration of the armistice, Perseus might send troops, and secure to himself that metropolis. For the execution of this design it was ordered, that Atilius should be furnished by Cneius Sicinius with two thousand foot. Publius Lentulus, who had come home from Achaia, was commissioned to take the command of a party of three hundred soldiers, natives of Italy, to fix his quarters with them at Thebes, and to endeavour to keep Bœotia in obedience.
XLVIII. After these preparatory steps were taken, the senate; notwithstanding their determination for war was fixed, yet judged it proper to give audience to the King’s ambassadors. Their discourse was, principally, a repetition of what had been urged by Perseus in the conference. The point which they laboured with the greatest earnestness, was, the exculpating him from the guilt of the ambush laid for Eumenes; but their arguments carried no degree of conviction, the affair was so notorious. The rest consisted of apologies, and wishes for the continuance of amity. But their hearers were not in a temper to be either convinced or persuaded. They were ordered to quit the city of Rome instantly, and Italy within thirty days. Then Publius Licinius, the consul, to whose lot the province of Macedonia had fallen, was charged to appoint the day for assembling the army as early as possible. Caius Lucretius, the prætor, whose province was the fleet, sailed from the city with forty quinqueremes; for it was judged proper to keep at home, for other exigencies, some of the vessels that were repaired. The prætor sent forward his brother, Marcus Lucretius, with one quinquereme; ordering him to collect from the allies the ships due by treaty, and to join the fleet at Cephallenia. He received from the Rhegians one trireme, from the Locrians two, and from the Bruttians four; and then, coasting along the shore of Italy, until he passed the farthest promontory of Calabria, in the Ionian sea, he shaped his course over to Dyrrachium. Finding there ten barks belonging to the Dyrrachians, twelve belonging to the Issæans, and fifty-four to King Gentius, he affected to understand that they had been brought thither for the use of the Romans; and, carrying them all off, sailed in three days to Corcyra, and thence directly to Cephallenia. The prætor Caius Lucretius set sail from Naples, and, passing the streight, arrived on the fifth day at the same place. There the fleet halted until the land forces should be carried over, and until the transport vessels, which had been separated in the voyage, might rejoin it.
XLIX. About this time the consul Publius Licinius, after offering vows in the Capitol, marched out of the city in his military robes. This ceremony, which is always conducted with great dignity and solemnity, on this occasion particularly engaged people’s eyes and thoughts in an unusual degree — and this, by reason that they escorted the consul against an enemy formidable and conspicuous both for abilities and resources. Beside, they were drawn together, not only by their desire to pay him the customary respect, but by an earnest wish to behold the show, and to have a sight of the commander, to whose wisdom and conduct they intrusted the maintenance of the public safety. Then occurred such reflections as these: “How various were the chances of war; how uncertain the issue of the contest; how variable the success of arms; how frequent the vicissitudes of losses and successes; what disasters often happened through the unskilfulness and rashness of commanders; and, on the contary, what advantages accrued from their judgment and valour. What human being could yet know either the capacity or the fortune of the consul whom they were sending against the enemy; whether they were shortly to see him at the head of a victorious army mounting the Capitol, in triumph, to revisit the same gods from whom he now took his departure; or whether they were to give a like cause of exultation to their enemies.” Then King Perseus, against whom he was going, had a high reputation, derived from the great martial character of the Macedonian nation, and from his father Philip; who, besides many prosperous achievements, had gained a large share of renown even in his war with the Romans. Besides, the name of Perseus himself was formidable, having been, ever since his first accession to the throne, the constant subject of conversation and apprehension on account of the expected war. The consul was accompanied by two military tribunes of consular rank, Caius Claudius and Quintus Mucius; and by three illustrious young men, Publius Lentulus, and two Manlius Acidinuses, one the son of Marcus Manlius, the other of Lucius. With these he went to Brundusium to the army; and sailing over thence, with all his forces, pitched his camp at Nymphæum, in the territory of Apollonia.
L. A few days before this, Perseus, having learned from his ambassadors, on their return from Rome, that every hope of peace was cut off, held a council, in which a long debate ensued. Some were of opinion, that he ought to pay a tribute, or even to cede a part of his dominions, if that were insisted on; in short, that he ought not to refuse submitting, for the sake of peace, to any hardship whatsoever; and by no means to pursue measures which would expose himself and his kingdom to such a perilous hazard. For, “if he retained undisputed possession of the throne, time and the revolution of affairs might produce many conjunctures, which would enable him not only to recover his losses, but to become formidable to those whom he now had reason to dread.” A considerable majority, however, expressed sentiments of a bolder nature. They insisted that “the cession of any part would be followed by that of the whole kingdom. The Romans were in want of neither money nor territory: but they considered that all human affairs, even kingdoms and empires, are subject to many casualties. They had themselves broken the power of the Carthaginians, and settled in their neighbourhood an over-powerful King, as a yoke on their necks; while they had removed Antiochus, and his future successors, beyond the mountains of Taurus. There now remained only the kingdom of Macedonia near in situation, and such as might, in case of any shock being given to the power of Rome, inspire its kings with the spirit of their forefathers. Perseus therefore ought, while his affairs were yet in a state of safety, to consider well in his own mind, whether it were more adviseable to give up one part of his dominions after another, until at length, stripped of all power and exiled from his kingdom, he should be reduced to beg from the Romans, either Samothracia or some other island, where he might grow old in poverty and contempt: or, on the other hand, to stand forth armed in vindication of his fortune and his honour; and, as is the part of a brave man, either to endure with patience whatever misfortune the chance of war might bring upon him, or by victory deliver the world from the tyranny of Rome. There would be nothing more wonderful, in the Romans being driven out of Greece, than in Hannibal’s being driven out of Italy; nor, in truth, did they see how it could consist with the character of the prince, who had shown the utmost vigour in resisting the unjust designs of his brother, aspiring to the throne, after he had fairly obtained it himself, to surrender it up to foreigners. That war was the proper means even for procuring peace, was so generally allowed by all the world, that nothing was accounted more shameful than to yield up a dominion without a struggle, and nothing more glorious than for a prince to have experienced every kind of fortune in the defence of his crown and dignity.”
LI. The council was held at Pella, in the old palace of the Macedonian Kings. In conclusion, Perseus said, “Let us then, with the help of the gods, wage war, since that is your opinion;” and, dispatching letters to all the commanders of the troops, he drew together his entire force at Cytium, a town of Macedonia. He himself, after making a royal offering of one hundred victims; which he sacrificed to Minerva, called Alcide, set out for Cytium, attended by a band of nobles and guards. All the forces, both of the Macedonians and foreign auxiliaries, had assembled here before his arrival. He encamped them before the city, and drew them all up, under arms, in order of battle, in a plain. The amount of the whole was forty-three thousand armed men; of whom about one-half composed the phalanx, and were commanded by Hippias of Berœa: there were then two cohorts selected for their superior strength, and the vigour of their age, out of the whole number of their shield-bearers: these they called a legion, and the command of them was given to Leonatus and Thrasippus of Eulyea. Antiphilus of Edessa commanded the rest of the shield-bearers, about three thousand men. About the same number, of three thousand, was made of Pæonians, and men from Parorea and Parstrymonia (places subject to Thrace), with Agrians, and a mixture of some native Thracians. These had been armed and embodied by Didas, the Pæonian, the murderer of young Demetrius. There were two thousand Gallic soldiers, under the command of Asclepiodotus; three thousand independent Thracians, from Heraclea, in the country of the Sintians, had a general of their own. An equal number nearly of Cretans followed their own general, Susus of Phalasarna, and Syllus of Gnossus. Leonides, a Lacedæmonian, commanded a body of five hundred Greeks, of various descriptions; this man was said to be of the royal blood, and had been condemned to exile in a full council of the Achæans on account of a letter to Perseus, which was intercepted. The Ætolians and Bœotians, in all not exceeding the number of five hundred, were commanded by Lycho, an Achæan. These auxiliaries, composed of so many states and so many nations, made up about twelve thousand fighting men. Of cavalry, he had collected from all parts of Macedonia, three thousand; and Cotys, son of Seutha, King of the Odrysian nation, was arrived with one thousand chosen horsemen, and nearly the same number of foot. The total number was thirty-nine thousand foot, and four thousand horse. Most certainly, since the army which Alexander the Great led into Asia, no King of Macedonia had ever been at the head of so powerful a force.
LII. It was now twenty-three years since peace had been granted to the suit of Philip; and Macedonia, having through all that period enjoyed quiet, was become exceedingly populous, and very many were now grown up, and become qualified for the duties of the field; the unimportant wars also, which they had sustained with the neighbouring states of Thrace, had given them exercise rather than fatigue, so that they were in continual practice of military service. Besides, as a war with Rome had been long meditated by Philip, first, and afterwards by Perseus, every requisite preparation was fully completed. The troops performed some few movements, but not the regular course of exercise, only that they might not seem to have stood motionless under arms. He then called them, armed as they were, to an assembly. He himself stood on his tribunal, with his two sons, one on each side of him; the elder of whom, Philip, was by birth his brother, his son by adoption; the younger, named Alexander, was his son by birth. The King endeavoured to animate the troops to a vigorous prosecution of the war. He enumerated the instances of injurious treatment practised by the Romans on Philip and himself; told them, that “his father, having been compelled, by every kind of indignity, to resolve on a renewal of hostilities, was, in the midst of his preparations for war, arrested by fate: that, when the Romans sent ambassadors to himself, they at the same time sent troops to seize the cities of Greece: that then, under the pretext of re-establishing peace, they spun out the winter, by means of a fallacious conference, in order to gain time to put themselves in force; that their consul was now coming, with two Roman legions, containing each six thousand foot and three hundred horse, and nearly the same number of auxiliaries; and that, should they even be joined by the troops of Eumenes and Masinissa, yet these could not amount to more than seven thousand foot and two thousand horse.” He desired them, “after hearing the state of the enemy’s forces, to reflect on their own army, how far it excelled, both in number and in the qualifications of the men, a body of raw recruits, enlisted hastily for the present occasion; whereas themselves had from childhood been instructed in the military art, and had been disciplined and seasoned in a course of many wars. The auxiliaries of the Romans were Lydians, Phrygians, and Numidians; while his were Thracians and Gauls, the fiercest nations in the world. Their troops had such arms as each needy soldier procured for himself: but those of the Macedonians were furnished out of the royal stores, and had been made with much care, at the expence of his father, in a course of many years. Provisions they must bring from a great distance, and subject to all the hazards of the sea; while he, besides his revenue from the mines, had laid up a store, both of money and food, sufficient for the consumption of ten years. Every advantage in point of preparation, that depended on the kindness of the gods, or the care of their sovereign, the Macedonians possessed in abundance: it would, therefore, become them to show the same spirit which animated their forefathers; who, after subduing all Europe, passed over into Asia, and opened by their arms a new world unknown even by report, and never ceased to conquer until they were stopped by the Red Sea, and when nothing remained for them to subdue. But the contest, to which Fortune now called them, was not about the remotest coasts of India, but, in truth, about the possession of Macedonia itself. When the Romans made war on his father, they held out the specious pretence of liberating Greece; now, they avowedly aimed at reducing Macedonia to slavery, that there might be no King in the neighbourhood of the Roman empire, and that no nation renowed in war should have the possession of arms; for these must be delivered up to their imperious masters, together with the King and kingdom, if they chose to decline a war, and submit to obey their orders.”
LIII. During the course of his speech, he was frequently interrupted by the exclamations of the multitude; but, on his uttering the last expression, their vociferations became so loud, expressing indignation and menaces against the foe, and urging him to act with spirit, that he put an end to his discourse. He only ordered them to be ready to march; because it was reported that the Romans were quitting their camp at Nymphæum; and then, dismissing the assembly, he went to give audience to deputies from the several states of Macedonia, who were come with offers of money and corn, in proportion to the abilities of each. He gave thanks to all, but declined their proffers; telling them that the royal stores were sufficient to answer every purpose. He only desired them to provide carriages, for the conveyance of the engines, and the vast quantity of missile weapons that was prepared, with other military implements. He then put his army in motion, directing his route to Eordea; and, after encamping at the lake Begorrites, advanced, next day, into Elimea, to the river Haliacmon. Then, passing the mountains through a narrow defile, called Cambunii, he marched against the inhabitants of the district called Tripolis, consisting of Azoras, Pythios, and Doliche. These three towns hesitated, for a little time, because they had given hostages to the Larissæans; but the view of immediate danger prevailed on them to capitulate. He received them with expressions of favour, not doubting that the Perrhæbians would be induced to follow their example; and accordingly, on his first arrival, he got possession of their city, without any reluctance being shown on the part of the inhabitants. He was obliged to use force against Cyretiæ, and was even repulsed the first day by bodies of armed men, who defended the gates with great bravery; but, on the day following, having assaulted the place with all his forces, he brought them to a surrender, before night.
LIV. Mylæ, the next town, was so strongly fortified, that the inhabitants, from the hope of their works being impregnable, had conceived too great a degree of confidence. Not content with shutting their gates against the King, they assailed him with opprobrious sarcams, on himself and on the Macedonians; which behaviour, while it provoked the enemy to attack them with greater rancour, kindled a greater ardour in themselves to make a vigorous defence, as they had now no hopes of pardon. During three days, therefore, uncommon spirit was displayed both in the assault and in the defence. The great number of Macedonians made it easy for them to relieve each other, and to support the fight by turns; but, on the part of the besieged, as the same persons were employed night and day, they were quite exhausted, not only by wounds, but by watching and incessant labour. On the fourth day, the scaling-ladders being raised on all sides, and one of the gates being attacked with unusual force, the townsmen, who were beaten off the walls, ran together to secure the gate, by which they made a sudden sally. This was the effect rather of inconsiderate rage, than of a well-grounded confidence in their strength: and the consequence was, that, being few in number, and worn down with fatigue, they were routed by men who were fresh; and, having turned their backs, and fled through the open gate, they gave entrance to the enemy. The city, thus taken, was plundered, and even the persons of free condition who survived the carnage, were sold. The King, after dismantling the place, and reducing it to ashes, removed, and encamped at Phalanna; and next day arrived at Gyrton; but, understanding that Titus Minucius Rufus, and Hippias, prætor of the Thessalians, had gone into the town with a body of troops, without even attempting a siege, he passed by, and received the submission of Elatia and Gonni, whose inhabitants were dismayed by his unexpected arrival. Both these towns, particularly Gonni, stand at the entrance of the pass which leads to Tempe; he therefore left the latter under an able guard of horse and foot, and strengthened it, besides, with a triple trench and rampart. Advancing to Sycurium, he determined to wait there the approach of the Romans; at the same time he ordered his troops to collect corn from all parts that owned the enemy’s authority: for Sycurium stands at the foot of Mount Ossa, the southern side of which overlooks the plains of Thessaly, and the opposite side Macedonia and Magnesia. Besides these advantages of situation, the place enjoys a most healthful air, with abundance of water, from numerous and never-failing springs in every quarter.
LV. About the same time the Roman consul, marching towards Thessaly, at first found the roads of Epirus clear and open; but afterwards, when he proceeded into Athamania, where the country is rugged, he encountered such difficulties as to be obliged to make very short marches, and endured much fatigue, before he could reach Gomphi. If, while he was leading his raw troops through such a territory, and while both his men and horses were debilitated by constant toil, the King had opposed him with his army in proper order, and at an advantageous place and time, the Romans themselves do not deny, that the battle must have been attended with very great loss on their side. When they arrived at Gomphi, without opposition, as they felt much joy at having effected their passage through such a dangerous road, so they conceived great contempt of the enemy, who showed such utter ignorance of their own advantages. The consul, after duly offering sacrifice, and distributing corn to the troops, halted a few days, to give rest to the men and horses; and then, hearing that the Macedonians were over-running Thessaly, and wasting the country of the allies, as all were by this time sufficiently refreshed, he marched on to Larissa. Proceeding thence, when he came within about three miles of Tripolis, called Scea, he encamped on the river Peneus. In the mean time, Eumenes arrived by sea at Chalcis, accompanied by his brothers Attalus and Athenæus, (bringing with him two thousand foot, the command of whom he gave to the latter,) having left his other brother Philetærus at Pergamus, to manage the business of his kingdom. From thence, with Attalus and four thousand foot and one thousand horse, he came and joined the consul: whither also arrived parties of auxiliaries from every one of the states of Greece; but most of them so small, that their numbers have not been transmitted to us. The Apollonians sent three hundred horse and one hundred foot. Of the Ætolians came a number equal to one cohort, being the entire cavalry of the nation; those of the Thessalians acted separately. The Romans had not in their camp above three hundred horse of their own. The Achæans furnished one thousand young men, armed mostly in the Cretan manner.
LVI. In the mean time, Caius Lucretius the prætor and naval commander at Cephallenia, ordered his brother Marcus Lucretius to conduct the fleet along the coast of Malea to Chalcis; and going himself on board a trireme, he sailed to the Corinthian gulf, that he might, as early as possible, put the affairs of Bœotia on a proper footing; but the voyage proved tedious to him, particularly from the weak state of his health. Marcus Lucretius, on his arrival at Chalcis, hearing that Haliartus was besieged by Publius Lentulus, sent a messenger to him, with an order, in the prætor’s name, to retire from the place: accordingly, the lieutenant-general, who had undertaken this enterprise with Bœotian troops, raised out of the party that sided with the Romans, abandoned the town. But the raising of this siege only made room for a new one: for Marcus Lucretius immediately invested Haliartus with troops from on board the fleet, amounting to ten thousand effective men, and who were joined by two thousand of the King’s forces under Athenæus. Just when they were preparing for an assault, the prætor came up from Creusa. At the same time, several ships sent by the allies arrived at Chalcis; two Carthaginian quinqueremes, two triremes from Heraclea in Pontus, four from Chalcedon, a like number from Samos, and also five quinqueremes from Rhodes. The prætor, having no enemy to oppose at sea, excused the allies from this service. Quintus Marcius also brought his squadron to Chalcis, having taken Alope, and laid siege to Larissa, called likewise Cremaste. While the affairs of Bœotia were in this state, Perseus, who, as has been mentioned, lay encamped at Sycurium, after drawing in the corn from all the adjacent parts, sent a detachment to ravage the lands of the Pheræans; hoping that the Romans might be drawn away from their camp to succour the cities of their allies, and then be caught at a disadvantage. But seeing that his depredations did not induce them to stir, he distributed all the booty, consisting mostly of cattle of all kinds, among the soldiers, that they might feast themselves with plenty. The prisoners he kept.
LVII. Both the consul and the King held councils nearly at the same time, to determine in what manner they should begin their operations. The King assumed fresh confidence, from the enemy having allowed him, without interruption, to ravage the country of the Pheræans; and, in consequence, resolved to advance directly to their camp, and not to suffer them to lie longer inactive. On the other side, the Romans were convinced that their inactivity had created a mean opinion of them in the minds of their allies, who were exceedingly offended at their having neglected to succour the Pheræans. While they were deliberating how they should act, Eumenes and Attalus being present in the council, a messenger in a violent hurry acquainted them, that the enemy were approaching in a great body. On this the council was dismissed, and an order to take arms instantly issued. It was also resolved, that, in the mean time, a party of Eumenes’ troops, consisting of one hundred horse, and an equal number of javelin-bearers on foot, should go out to observe the enemy. Perseus, about the fourth hour of the day, being nearly one thousand paces from the Roman camp, ordered the body of his infantry to halt, and advanced himself in front, with the cavalry and light infantry, accompanied by Cotys and the other generals of the auxiliaries. They were less than five hundred paces distant, when they descried the enemy’s horse, which consisted of two cohorts, mostly Gauls, commanded by Cassignatus, and attended by about one hundred and fifty light-infantry, Mysians and Cretans. The King halted, as he knew not the force of the enemy. He then sent forward two troops of Thracians, and two of Macedonians, with two cohorts of Cretans and Thracians. The fight, as the parties were equal in number, and no reinforcements were sent upon either side, ended without any decided advantage. About thirty of Eumenes’ men were killed, among whom fell Cassignatus, general of the Gauls. Perseus then led back his forces to Sycurium, and the next day, about the same hour, brought up his army to the same ground, being followed by a number of wagons carrying water; for, in a length of twelve miles of the road, none could be had, and the men were greatly incommoded by the dust: he also considered that, if, on first sight of the enemy, an engagement should take place, they would be greatly distressed in the fight by thirst. The Romans remained quiet, and even called in the advanced guards within the rampart; on which the King’s troops returned to their camp. In this manner they acted for several days, still hoping that the Roman cavalry might attack their rear on their retreat, which would bring on a battle; considering, likewise, that when they had once enticed the Romans to some distance from their camp, they could, being superior in both cavalry and light infantry, easily and in any spot face about upon them.
LVIII. Finding that this scheme did not succeed, the King removed his camp; entrenching himself at the distance of five miles from the enemy. At the first dawn of the next day, having drawn up his line of infantry on the same ground as before, he led up the whole cavalry and light infantry to the enemy’s camp. The sight of the dust rising in greater abundance, and nearer than usual, caused a great alarm, though, for some time, little credit was given to the intelligence that was brought; because, during all the preceding days, the Macedonians had never appeared before the fourth hour, and it was now only sunrise. But the shouts set up by great numbers, and the men running off from the gates, soon removed all doubt of the matter, and great confusion ensued. The tribunes, præfects, and centurions, hastened to the general’s quarters, and the soldiers to their several tents. Perseus formed his troops within less than five hundred paces of the rampart, round a hill, called Callicinus. King Cotys, at the head of his countrymen, had the command of the left wing, the light infantry being placed between the ranks of the cavalry. On the right wing were the Macedonian horse, with whose troops the Cretans were intermixed. Milo of Berœa had the command of these last; Meno, of Antigone, that of the cavalry, and the chief direction of the whole division. Next to the wings were posted the royal horsemen, and a mixed kind of troops, selected out of the auxiliary corps of many nations; the commanders here were Patrocles of Antigone, and Didas the governor of Pæonia. In the centre was the King; and on each side of him the band called Agema, with the consecrated squadrons of horse; in his front the slingers and javelin-bearers, each body amounting to four hundred. The command of these he gave to Ion of Thessalonice, and Timanor, a Dolopian. Such was the disposition of the King’s forces. On the other side, the consul, drawing up his infantry in a line within the trenches, sent out likewise all his cavalry and light infantry, which were marshalled on the outside of the rampart. The command of the right wing, which consisted of all the Italian cavalry, with light infantry intermixed, was given to Caius Licinius Crassus, the consul’s brother. On the left wing, Marcus Valerius Lævinus commanded the cavalry of the allies, sent by the states of Greece, and the light infantry of the same nation; and the centre, under Quintus Mucius, was composed of a chosen body of select horsemen, of the allies. In the front of this body were placed two hundred Gallic horsemen; and of the auxiliaries of Eumenes, three hundred Cyrtians. Four hundred Thessalian horse were posted at a little distance, beyond the left wing. King Eumenes and Attalus, with their whole division, stood on the rear, between the rear rank and the rampart.
LIX. Formed in this manner, and nearly equal in numbers of cavalry and light-infantry, the two parties encountered; the fight being begun by the slingers and javelin-bearers, who preceded the lines. First of all the Thracians, just like wild beasts which had been long pent up, rushing on, with a hideous yell, fell upon the Italian cavalry in the right wing with such fury, that even those men, who were fortified against fear, both by experience in war and by their natural courage, were thrown into disorder. The footmen struck their spears with their swords; sometimes cut the hams of their horse, and sometimes stabbed them in the flanks. Perseus, making a charge on the centre, at the first onset routed the Greeks; and now, the Thessalian cavalry, who had been posted in reserve at a little distance from the left wing, and from their situation had not been engaged, but hitherto mere spectators of the fight, when affairs took this unfortunate turn, were of the utmost service to the Greeks, whose rear was hard pressed by the enemy. For, retreating leisurely, and preserving their order until they joined the auxiliary troops under Eumenes, in concert with him they afforded a safe retreat between their ranks to the confederates, who fled in disorder; and as the enemy did not follow in close bodies, they even had the courage to advance, and by that means saved many of the flying soldiers who made towards them. Nor did the King’s troops, who, in the ardour of the pursuit had fallen into confusion, dare to encounter men regularly formed, and marching with a steady pace. At this moment, the King, after his success in the fight of the cavalry, might, by a small degree of perseverance, have put an end to the war. The phalanx, however, came up seasonably while he was encouraging his troops; for Hippias and Leonatus, as soon as they heard of the victory gained by the horse, without waiting for orders, advanced with all haste, that they might be at hand to second any spirited design. While the King, struck with the great importance of the attempt, hesitated between hope and fear, Evander the Cretan, who had been employed by him to waylay King Eumenes at Delphi, seeing that body somewhat embarrassed as they advanced round their standards, ran up, and warmly recommended to him, “not to suffer himself to be so far elated by success, as rashly to risk his all on a precarious chance, when there was no necessity for it. If he would content himself with the advantage already obtained, and proceed no farther that day, he would have it in his power to make an honourable peace; or, if he chose to continue the war, he would be joined by abundance of allies, who would readily follow fortune.” The King’s own judgment rather inclined to this plan; wherefore, after commending Evander, he ordered the infantry to march back to their camp, and gave the signal of retreat to the cavalry. On the side of the Romans there were slain that day two hundred horsemen, and not less than two thousand footmen; about two hundred horsemen were made prisoners; but of the King’s only twenty horsemen and forty footmen were killed.
LX. When the victors returned to their camp, all were full of joy, but the Thracians particularly distinguished themselves by the intemperance of their transports; for on their way back they chaunted songs, and carried the heads of the enemy fixed on spears. Among the Romans there was not only grief for their misfortune, but the dread of an immediate attack of the enemy on their camp. Eumenes advised the consul to take post on the other side of the Peneus, that he might have the river as a defence, until the dismayed troops should recover their spirits. The consul was deeply struck with the shame which would attend such an acknowledgment of fear; yet he yielded to reason, and, leading over his troops in the dead of the night, fortified a camp on the farther bank. Next day the King advanced with intent to provoke the enemy to battle; and, on seeing their camp pitched in safety on the other side of the river, admitted that he had been guilty of error in not pushing the victory the day before, and of a still greater fault, in lying idle during the night; for, even by calling forth his light-infantry only, he might in a great measure have destroyed the army of the enemy during their confusion in the passage of the river. The Romans were delivered, indeed, from any immediate fears, as they had their camp in a place of safety; but, among many other afflicting circumstances, their loss of reputation affected them most. In a council held in presence of the consul, every one concurred in throwing the blame on the Ætolians, insisting that the panic and flight took place first among them; and that then the other allied troops of the Grecian states followed their cowardly example. It was asserted, that five chiefs of the Ætolians were the first persons seen turning their backs.
LXI. The Thessalians were publicly commended in a general assembly, and their commanders even received presents for their good behaviour. The spoils of the enemies who fell in the engagement, were brought to the King, out of which he made presents — to some, of remarkable armour, to some, of horses, and to others he gave prisoners. There were above one thousand five hundred shields; the coats of mail and breast-plates amounted to more than one thousand, and the number of helmets, swords, and missile weapons of all sorts, was much greater. These spoils, ample in themselves, were much magnified in a speech which the King made to an assembly of the troops: he said, “you have anticipated the issue of the war: you have routed the best part of the enemy’s force, the Roman cavalry, which they used to boast of as invincible. For, with them, the cavalry is the flower of their youth; the cavalry is the seminary of their senate; out of them they choose the members of that body, who afterwards are made their consuls; out of them they elect their commanders. The spoils of these we have just now divided among you. Nor have you a less evident victory over their legions of infantry, who, stealing away in the night, filled the river with all the disorderly confusion of people shipwrecked, swimming here and there. But it will be easier for us to pass the Peneus in pursuit of the vanquished, than it was for them in the hurry of their fears; and, immediately on our passing, we will assault their camp, which we should have taken this morning if they had not run away. If they should choose to meet us in the field, be assured that the event of a battle with the infantry will be similar to that of yesterday’s dispute with the cavalry.” Those troops who had gained the victory, while they bore on their shoulders the spoils of the enemies whom they had killed, were highly animated at hearing their own exploits, and, from what had passed, conceived sanguine hopes of the future; while the infantry, especially those of the Macedonian phalanx, were inflamed with emulation of the glory acquired by the others, wishing impatiently for an opportunity to show their zeal in the King’s service, and to acquire equal glory from the defeat of the enemy. The King then dismissed the assembly; and next day, marching thence, pitched his camp at Mopsius, a hill situate half way between Tempe and Larissa.
LXII. The Romans, without quitting the bank of the Peneus, removed their camp to a place of greater safety, where they were joined by Misagenes, the Numidian, with one thousand horse, and a like number of foot, besides twenty-two elephants. The King soon after held a council, on the general plan to be pursued; and, as the presumption inspired by the late success had by this time subsided, some of his friends ventured to advise him to employ his good fortune, as the means of obtaining an honourable peace, rather than to let himself be so far transported with vain hopes, as to expose himself to the hazard of an irretrievable misfortune. They observed, that “to use moderation in prosperity, and not to confide too much in the calm of present circumstances, was the part of a man of prudence, who deserved success; and they recommended it to him to send to the consul, to renew the treaty, on the same terms which had been granted to his father by Titus Quintius, his conqueror; for the war could never be terminated in a more glorious manner than by such a memorable battle, nor could any conjuncture afford firmer hopes of a lasting peace, as the Romans, dispirited by their defeat, would be more reasonable in a negotiation. But, should they, with their native obstinacy, refuse to accede to reasonable conditions, then gods and men would bear witness both to the moderation of Perseus, and to the stubborn pride of the others.” The King’s inclination was never averse from such measures; and the majority, therefore, approved of the advice. The ambassadors sent to the consul, had audience in a full council, summoned for the purpose. They requested, that “a peace might be concluded; promising, that Perseus should pay the Romans the same tribute which was engaged for by Philip, and should evacuate the same cities, lands, and places, which Philip had evacuated.” Such were the proposals of the ambassadors. When they withdrew, and the council took them under consideration, the Roman firmness prevailed in their determination. The practice of that time was, to assume in adversity the countenance of prosperity, and in prosperity to moderate the temper. They resolved to give this answer: “that peace should be granted on this only condition; that the King should refer himself entirely to the senate, who were to make such terms as they thought proper, and to determine concerning him, and concerning all Macedonia.” When the ambassadors brought back this answer, such as were unacquainted with their usual mode of acting, were astonished at the obstinate perseverance of the Romans, and most people advised the King to make no farther mention of peace, for “the enemy would soon come to solicit that, which they now disdained when offered.” But this haughtiness, as flowing from confidence in their own strength, created no small fears in the breast of Perseus, who continued his endeavours to prevail on the consul, offering a larger sum of money, if a peace might be purchased. The consul adhered inflexibly to his first answer. The King, therefore, at length despairing of success, determined to try again the fortune of war, and marched back to Sycurium.
LXIII. When the news of this battle of the cavalry spread through Greece, it produced a discovery of the wishes of the people. For, not only those who professed an attachment to the Macedonians, but the generality, who were bound to the Romans under the weightiest obligations, and some who had even felt the power and haughty behaviour of the Macedonians — all received the account with joy; and that, for no other cause, than out of an unaccountable passion, which actuates the vulgar, even in contests of sports, of favouring the worse and weaker party. Meanwhile, in Bœotia, the prætor Lucretius pushed the siege of Haliartus with all imaginable vigour. The besieged, though destitute of foreign aid, excepting some young Corinæans, who had come into the town at the beginning of the siege, and without hope of relief, yet maintained the defence with courage beyond their strength. They made frequent irruptions against the works; when the ram was applied, they crushed it to the ground by dropping on it a mass of lead; and whenever those who directed the blows, changed their position, they set all hands to work, and, collecting stones out of the rubbish, quickly erected a new wall in the room of that which had been demolished. The prætor, finding that he made but little progress by means of his machines, ordered scaling-ladders to be distributed among the companies, resolving to make a general assault on the walls. He thought the number of his men sufficient for this; beside, that on one side of the city, which is bounded by a morass, it would neither be useful nor practicable to form an attack. Lucretius himself led two thousand chosen men to a place where two towers, and the wall between them, had been thrown down; hoping that, while he endeavoured to climb over the ruins, and the townsmen crowded thither to oppose him, some part or other might be left defenceless, and open to be mastered by scalade. The besieged were not remiss in preparing to repel his assault; for, on the ground, overspread with the rubbish, they placed faggots of dry bushes, and stood with burning torches in their hands, in order to set them on fire; that, being covered from the enemy by the smoke and flames, they might have time to fence themselves with a wall. But this plan was rendered abortive; for there fell suddenly such a quantity of rain, as hindered the faggots from being kindled; so that it was not difficult to clear a passage, by drawing them aside. Thus, while the besieged were attending to the defence of one particular spot, the walls were mounted by scalade in many places at once. In the first tumult of storming the town, the old men and children, whom chance threw in the way, were put to the sword indiscriminately, while the men who carried arms fled into the citadel. Next day, these, having no remaining hope, surrendered, and were sold by public auction. Their number was about two thousand five hundred. The statues and pictures, with all the valuable booty, were carried off to the ships, and the city was rased to the ground. The prætor then led his army into Thebes, which fell into his hands without a dispute; when he gave the city in possession to the exiles, and the party that sided with the Romans; selling, as slaves, the families of those who were of the opposite faction, and favoured the King and the Macedonians. As soon as he had finished this business in Bœotia, he marched back to the sea-coast to his fleet.
LXIV. During these transactions in Bœotia, Perseus lay a considerable time encamped at Sycurium. Having learned there, that the Romans were busily employed in collecting corn from all the adjacent grounds, and that, when it was brought in, they cut off the ears with sickles, each before his own tent, in order that the grain might be the cleaner when threshed, and had by this means formed large heaps of straw in all quarters of the camp, he conceived that he might set it on fire. Accordingly, he ordered torches, faggots, and bundles of tow, dipped in pitch, to be got ready; and, thus prepared, he began his march at midnight, that he might make the attack at the first dawn, and without discovery. But his stratagem was frustrated: the uproar among the advanced guards, who were surprised, alarmed the rest of the troops: orders were given to take arms with all speed, and the soldiers were instantly drawn up on the rampart and at the gates in readiness to defend the camp. Perseus immediately ordered his army to face about; the baggage to go foremost, and the battalions of foot to follow, while himself, with the cavalry and light infantry, kept behind, in order to cover the rear; for he expected, what indeed happened, that the enemy would pursue, and harass the hindmost of his troops. There was a short scuffle between the light infantry, mostly in skirmishing parties. The infantry and cavalry returned to their camp, without any disturbance. After reaping all the corn in that quarter, the Romans removed into the territory of Cranno, which was yet untouched, While they lay there, without any apprehension of danger, from which they thought themselves secured by the distance between the camps, and by the difficulty of the march, through a country destitute of water, as was that between Sycurium and Cranno, the King’s cavalry and light infantry appeared suddenly, at the dawn of day, on the nearest hills, and caused a violent alarm. They had marched from Sycurium at noon, the preceding day, and had left their body of foot in the next plain. Perseus stood a short time on the hills, in expectation that the Romans might be tempted to come out with their cavalry; but seeing that they did not move, he sent a horseman to order the infantry to return to Sycurium, and he himself soon followed. The Roman horse pursued at a small distance, in expectation of being able to pick up any scattered parties that might separate from the rest; but, seeing them retreat in close order, and attentive to their standards and ranks, they desisted, and returned to their camp.
LXV. The King, disliking such long marches, removed his camp to Mopsium; and the Romans having cut down all the corn about Cranno, marched into the lands of Phalanna. Perseus, being informed by a deserter, that they carried on their reaping there, without any armed guard, straggling at random through the fields, set out with one thousand horsemen and two thousand Thracians and Cretans, and, hastening his march with all possible speed, fell on the Romans while quite unprepared. Nearly a thousand carts, with horses harnessed to them, most of them loaded, were seized, and about six hundred men were taken. The charge of guarding this booty, and conducting it to the camp, he gave to a party of three hundred Cretans, and calling in the rest of his infantry and the cavalry who were spread about, killing the enemy, he led them against the nearest station, where any of their troops were posted, which he supposed might be overpowered without much difficulty. The commanding officer there was Lucius Pompeius, a military tribune; who, while his men were dismayed by the sudden approach of the enemy, led them off to a hill at a little distance, hoping to defend himself by means of the advantage of the ground, as he was inferior in number and strength. There he collected his men in a circular body, that, by closing their shields, they might guard themselves from arrows and javelins; on which, Perseus, surrounding the hill, ordered a party to strive to climb it on all sides, and come to close fighting, and the rest to throw missile weapons against them from a distance. The Romans were environed with dangers, in whatever manner they acted; for they could not fight in a body, on account of the enemy who endeavoured to mount the hill; and, if they broke their ranks in order to skirmish with these, they were exposed to the arrows and javelins. What galled them most severely was, a new kind of weapon invented in that war, and called Cestrophendanon. A dart, two palms in length, was fixed to a shaft, half a cubit long, and of the thickness of a man’s finger, round which, as is commonly done with arrows, three feathers were tied, to balance it. To throw this, they used a sling, which had two beds, unequal in size, and in the length of the strings. When the weapon was balanced in these, and the slinger whirled it round by the longer string and discharged it, it flew with the rapid force of a leaden bullet. When one half of the soldiers had been wounded by these and other weapons of all kinds, and the rest were so fatigued that they could hardly bear the weight of their arms, the King pressed them to surrender, assured them of safety, and sometimes promised them rewards; but not one could be prevailed on to yield. Just at this juncture, when they had determined to hold out till death, they were unexpectedly cheered by the enlivening prospect of relief. For some of the foragers, having made their escape, and got back to the camp, acquainted the consul that the party was surrounded; whereupon, alarmed for the safety of such a number of his countrymen, (for they were near eight hundred, and all Romans,) he set out with the cavalry and light infantry, joined by the newly-arrived Numidian auxiliaries, horse, foot, and elephants, leaving orders with the military tribunes, that the battalions of the legions should follow. He himself, having strengthened the light-armed auxiliaries with his own light infantry, hastened forward at their head to the hill. He was accompanied by Eumenes, Attalus, and the Numidian prince Misagenes.
LXVI. The first sight of the standards of their friends raised the distressed Romans from the lowest depth of despair, and inspired them with fresh spirits. Perseus’s best plan would have been to have contented himself with his accidental good fortune, in having killed and taken so many of the foragers, and not to have wasted time in besieging this detachment of the enemy; or, after he had engaged in the attempt, as he was sensible that he had not a proper force with him, to have gone off, while he might, with safety; instead of which, intoxicated with success, he waited for the arrival of the enemy, and sent people in haste to bring up the phalanx. But it must have come too late for the exigency. From its rapid celerity, too, the men must have engaged in all the disorder of a hurried march, against troops duly formed and prepared. The consul, arriving first, proceeded instantly to action. The Macedonians, for some time, made resistance; but finding themselves overmatched in every respect, and having lost three hundred foot, and twenty-four of the best of their horse, of what they call the sacred cohort, (among whom fell Antimachus, who commanded that body,) they endeavoured to retreat: but this was conducted in a manner more disorderly and confused than the battle itself. As the phalanx, after receiving the hasty order, was marching at full speed, it met first, in a narrow pass, the carts laden with corn, with the mass of prisoners. These they put to the sword, and both parties suffered by this encounter abundance of trouble and perplexity: but none waited till the troops might pass in some sort of order, but the soldiers tumbled the loads down a precipice, which was the only possible way to clear the road, and the horses being goaded, pushed furiously through the crowd. Scarcely had they disentangled themselves from the disorderly throng of the prisoners, when they met the King’s party and the discomfited horsemen. And now the shouts of the men, calling to their comrades to go back, raised a scene of consternation and tumult, not unlike a total rout; insomuch, that if the enemy had ventured to enter the defile, and carry the pursuit a little farther, they might have done them very great damage. But the consul, when he had relieved his party from the hill, content with that moderate share of success, led back his troops to the camp. Some authors affirm, that a general engagement took place that day, in which eight thousand of the enemy were killed, among whom were Sopater and Antipater, two of the King’s generals, and about two thousand eight hundred taken, with twenty-seven military standards; that the victory was not without loss on the side of the Romans, for that above four thousand three hundred fell, and five standards of the left wing of the allies were lost.
LXVII. The event of this day revived the spirits of the Romans, and greatly disheartened Perseus; insomuch that, after staying at Mopsium a few days, which were employed chiefly in burying his dead, he left a very strong garrison at Gonnus, and led back his army into Macedonia. He left Timotheus, one of his generals, with a small party at Phila, ordering him to endeavour to gain the affection of the Magnesians, and other neighbouring states. On his arrival at Pella, he sent his troops to their winter quarters, and proceeded with Cotys to Thessalonica. There an account was received, that Atlesbis, a petty prince of Thrace, and Corragus, an officer belonging to Eumenes, had made an inroad into the dominions of Cotys, and seized on the district called Marene. Seeing, therefore, the necessity of letting Cotys go home to defend his own terrritories, he honoured him, at his departure, with very magnificent presents, and paid to his cavalry two hundred talents,* which was but half a year’s pay, though he had agreed to give them the pay of a whole year. The consul, hearing that Perseus had left the country, marched his army to Gonnus, in hopes of being able to take that town. It stands directly opposite to the pass of Tempe, and close to the entrance of it; so that it serves as the safest barrier to Macedonia, and renders a descent into Thessaly easy. But the city, from the nature of its situation, and the strength of the garrison, was impregnable; he therefore gave up the design, and turning his route to Perrhæbia, took Mallæa at the first assault, and demolished it; and, after reducing Tripolis, and the rest of Perrhæbia, returned to Larissa. From that place he sent home Eumenes and Attalus, and quartered Misagenes and his Numidians, for the winter, in the nearest towns of Thessaly. One half of his army he distributed through Thessaly, in such a manner, that while all had commodious winter quarters, they served, at the same time, as a defence to the cities. He sent Quintus Mucius, lieutenant-general, with two thousand men, to secure Amdracia, and dismissed all the allied troops belonging to the Grecian states, except the Achæans. With the other half of his army he marched into the Achæan Phthiotis; where, finding Pteleum deserted by the inhabitants, he levelled it to the ground. The people of Antron made a voluntary surrender, and he then marched against Larissa: this city was likewise deserted, the whole multitude taking refuge in the citadel, to which he laid siege. First, the Macedonian garrison, belonging to the King, withdrew through fear; and then the townsmen, on being abandoned by them, surrendered immediately. He then hesitated whether he should first attack Demetrius, or take a view of affairs in Bœotia. The Thebans, being harassed by the Coronæans, pressed him to go into Bœotia; wherefore, in compliance with their entreaties, and because that country would afford better winter quarters than Magnesia, he led his army thither.
Several prætors punished for cruelty and avarice in the administration of their provinces. Publius Licinius Crassus, proconsul, takes several cities in Greece, which he plunders, and treats the inhabitants with great cruelty; the captives, which he had sold as slaves, restored to their freedom by a decree of the senate. Successful operations of King Perseus in Thrace and Illyricum. Commotions excited in Spain by Olonicus; suppressed.
Y. R.581.
171.I. DURING that summer, in which the Romans were worsted in Thessaly in one battle of the
cavalry, and successful in another, the lieutenant general, sent by the consul to Illyricum, having reduced, by force
of arms, two opulent cities, gave the inhabitants all their effects, in hopes, by the reputation of his clemency, to
allure to submission the inhabitants of Carnus, a city strongly fortified. But he could neither persuade them to
surrender, nor hope to get the better of them by a siege. That the fatigue, therefore, which his soldiers had undergone
in the two sieges, might not be quite fruitless, he sacked those cities, which he had spared before. The other consul,
Caius Cassius, performed nothing worth mention in Gaul, the province that fell to his lot; but made an ill-judged
attempt to lead his army through Illyricum to Macedonia. His having undertaken that march the senate learned from
deputies of Aquileians, who came to represent, that their colony, which was new, weak, and but indifferently fortified,
lay in the midst of hostile states, Istrians and Illyrians; and to beg the senate to take into consideration some
method of strengthening it. These, being asked whether they wished that matter to be given in charge to the consul,
Caius Cassius, replied, that Cassius, after assembling his forces at Aquileia, had set out on a march through Illyricum
into Macedonia. The fact was at first deemed incredible, and it was generally supposed that he had gone on an
expedition against the Carnians, or perhaps the Istrians. The Aquileians then said, that all that they knew, or could
take upon them to affirm was, that the soldiers had been furnished with corn for thirty days, and that guides, who knew
the roads from Italy to Macedonia, had been sought for, and carried with him. The senate were highly displeased that
the consul should presume to act so improperly, as to leave his own province, and remove into that of another; leading
his army through unknown and dangerous roads, through foreign states, thereby opening, for so many nations, a passage
into Italy. It was unanimously decreed, that the prætor Caius Sulpicius should nominate out of the senate three
deputies, who should set out that very day, make all possible haste to overtake the consul, and charge him not to
engage in any war except that authorized by a vote of the senate. The three deputies accordingly left the city; they
were Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, Marcus Fulvius, and Publius Marcius Rex. The fears entertained for the consul and his
army caused the business of fortifying Aquileia to be postponed for that time.
II. Then were introduced to the senate ambassadors from several states of both the Spains; who, after complaining of the avarice and pride of the Roman magistrates, fell on their knees, and implored the senate not to suffer them, who were their allies, to be more cruelly plundered and ill-treated than their enemies. Among other hardships, it was clearly proved, that considerable sums of money had been extorted from them. A charge was therefore given to Lucius Canuleius, the prætor to whom Spain was allotted, to appoint, out of the body of the senate, five judges delegate, to try each person against whom demands of money might be made by the Spaniards; and that they should give the latter power to choose their patrons. The ambassadors were then called into the house; the decree of the senate was read to them, and they were ordered to select their protectors: on which they named four — Marcus Porcius Cato, Publius Cornelius Scipio, son of Cneius, Lucius Æmilius Paullus, son of Lucius, and Caius Sulpicius Gallus. Their first application to the judges was against Marcus Titinius, who had been prætor in Hither Spain in the consulate of Aulus Manlius and Marcus Junius. The cause was twice adjourned, and on the third hearing the accused was acquitted. A separation took place between the ambassadors of the two provinces; and the states of Hither Spain chose for their patrons, Marcus Cato and Scipio; those of Farther Spain, Lucius Paullus and Sulpicius Gallus. The states of the hither province brought to trial, before the judges, Publius Furius Philus: those of the farther, Marcus Matienus; the former of whom had been prætor, three years before, in the consulate of Spurius Postumius and Quintus Mucius; and the latter, two years before, when Lucius Postumius and Marcus Popillius were consuls. Both were accused of most heinous crimes, and the causes were adjourned; but, upon the re-hearing, it was represented on their behalf, that they had quitted the country, and were gone into voluntary exile — Furius to Præneste; Matienus to Tibur. There was a report, that the complainants were not suffered, by their patrons, to bring charges against people of high birth and power; a suspicion that was strengthened by the behaviour of the prætor Canuleius; for he neglected that business, and applied himself to the enlisting of soldiers; and then suddenly went off to his province, lest more accusations might be brought by the Spaniards. Although past transactions were thus consigned to silence, yet the senate took some care of the interest of the Spaniards in future: they passed an order, that the Roman magistrates should not have the valuation of the corn; nor should they compel the Spaniards to compound for their twentieths, at such prices as they were pleased to impose; and that officers should not be placed in command of their towns for the purpose of exacting money.
III. There came also from Spain, an extraordinary embassy, from a body of men who had never before been heard of. They represented, that they were the offspring of Roman soldiers and Spanish women, who had not been joined in marriage; that their number amounted to more than four thousand; and they petitioned for a grant of some town to be allotted to them for their residence. The senate decreed, that “they should exhibit their pretensions before Lucius Canuleius; and that as many as he should judge deserving of freedom, should be settled as a colony at Carteia, on the ocean. That such of the present inhabitants of Carteia, as wished to remain there, should have the privilege of being considered as colonists, and should have lands assigned them; that this should be deemed a Latine settlement, and be called a colony of freedmen.” At this time arrived from Africa, Gulussa, son of King Masinissa, as ambassador from his father; and likewise ambassadors from Carthage. Gulussa was first introduced to the senate, where he gave a detail of the succours sent by his father to the maintenance of the war in Macedonia, and assured them, that if they chose to lay any farther commands on him, he would cheerfully execute them, in gratitude for the many favours conferred on him by the Roman people. He warned the Conscript Fathers to be on their guard against the treachery of the Carthaginians, who “had formed the design of fitting out a powerful fleet, in favour, as they pretended, of the Romans, and against the Macedonians; but when it should be equipped, and ready for action, they would have it in their power to make their own option which party they would treat as a friend, and which as a foe.” [. . . .]
Y. R.582.
170.IV.During the following year, in which Aulus Hostilius Mancinus and Aulus Atilius Serranus
were consuls, the Celtiberians raised disturbances in Spain, being instigated by a strange kind of leader named
Olonicus. He was a man of great cunning and boldness; and showing himself to the people, brandishing a silver spear,
which he pretended was sent to him from Heaven, with the agitation of a person inspired, he had attracted universal
attention. Having formed the mad design of destroying the Roman general, he came to the camp with a single accomplice
in the dusk of the evening, and was killed by a centinel with a javelin. His attendant met with the same fate. The
prætor immediately ordered both their heads to be cut off and fixed on spears, and to be sent thus to their camp by
some of their prisoners. When these arrived with their charge, such a panic ensued, that if the Romans had
instantly advanced to the camp, they might have taken it: as it was, a general flight took place. Many, on this,
advised to send ambassadors, and supplicate for peace; while a great number of states, on hearing of the affair, made
their submission. These all asserted their innocence, laying the entire blame on the two who had suffered for their
intended crime; on which the prætor granted them pardon, and proceeded immediately to the other states, every one of
which acknowledged his authority; so that in traversing all that tract of country, where, a short time before, the
flames of war had raged with the greatest violence, he had not once occasion to employ his arms, but found every thing
in a state of peace and quietness. This lenity shown by the prætor, was the more pleasing to the senate and people, as
the conduct of the consul Licinius, and the prætor Lucretius, in the war in Greece, had been marked with uncommon
avarice and cruelty. The plebeian tribunes, daily, in their speeches to the people, censured Lucretius for being
absent, though it was alleged in his favour, that he was abroad on the business of the public. But so little was then
known of what passed, even in the vicinity of Rome, that he was, at that very time, at his own estate near Antium; and,
with money amassed in his expedition, was bringing water thither from the river Locrina; for the execution of which
work, it is said, he had agreed to pay one hundred and thirty thousand asses* . He also decorated the temple of Æsculapius with pictures taken from among the spoils. But the current
of the public displeasure, and of disgrace, was diverted from Lucretius and turned on his successor, by ambassadors who
came from Abdera. These stood weeping at the door of the senate-house, and complained, that “their town had been
stormed and plundered by Hortensius. His only reason,” they said, “for destroying their city was, that, on his
demanding from them one hundred thousand denariuses†, and fifty thousand
measures of wheat, they had requested time until they could send ambassadors on the subject, both to the consul
Hostilius, and to Rome; and that they had scarcely reached the consul, when they heard that the town was stormed, their
nobles beheaded, and the rest sold for slaves.” At this the senate expressed much indignation, and passed a decree
respecting the people of Abdera, of the same purport with that which they had passed concerning the Coronæans. They
also ordered Quintus Mænius, the prætor, to publish notice, as had been done the year before, in a general assembly.
Two ambassadors, Caius Sempronius Blæsus and Sextus Julius Cæsar, were sent to restore the Abderites to liberty; and
were likewise commissioned to deliver a message from the senate to the consul Hostilius, and to the prætor Hortensius,
that the senate judged the war made on the Abderites to be unjust, and had directed that all those who were in
servitude should be sought out and restored to liberty.
V. At the same time, complaints were made to the senate, by ambassadors from Cincibilus, a King of the Gauls, against Caius Cassius, who had been consul the year before, and was then a military tribune in Macedonia, under Aulus Hostilius. His brother made a speech to the senate, saying, that Caius Cassius had entirely wasted the country of the Alpine Gauls, their allies, and carried off into slavery many thousands of their people. Ambassadors came likewise from the Carnians, Istrians, and Iapidians, who represented, that “the consul Cassius, at first, after obliging them to furnish him with guides to conduct his army, which he was leading into Macedonia, had gone away in a peaceable manner, as if to carry war elsewhere; but that, when he had proceeded half way, he returned, and overran their country, committing every act of hostility, and spreading depredations and fires through every quarter; nor had they been yet able to discover for what reason the consul treated them as enemies.” The absent prince of the Gauls, and the states present, were answered, that “the senate had no previous knowledge of those acts of which they complained; nor did they approve of them. But that it would still be unjust to condemn, unheard and absent, a man of consular rank, especially as he was employed abroad in the business of the public. That, when Caius Cassius should come home from Macedonia, if they chose then to prosecute their complaints against him, face to face, the senate, after examining the matter, would endeavour to give them satisfaction.” It was farther resolved, that ambassadors should be sent to those nations, (two to the transalpine chieftain, and three to the other states,) to notify to them the determinations of the senate. They voted, that presents, to the amount of two thousand asses,* should be sent to the ambassadors; and to the prince, and his brother, some of extraordinary value: two chains, containing five pounds weight of gold; five silver vases, amounting to twenty pounds; two horses, fully caparisoned, with grooms to attend them, and horsemen’s armour and cloaks, besides suits of apparel to their attendants, both freemen and slaves. These were presented to them; and, on their request, they were indulged with the liberty of purchasing ten horses each, and carrying them out of Italy. Caius Lælius and Marcus Æmilius were sent ambassadors with the Gauls, to the northern side of the Alps; and Caius Sicinius, Publius Cornelius Blasio, and Titus Memmius, to the other states.
VI. Embassies from many states of Greece and Asia arrived at Rome at the same time. The first that had audience of the senate were the Athenians, who represented, that “they had sent what ships and soldiers they had to the consul Publius Licinius, and the prætor Caius Lucretius, who did not think proper to employ their forces, but ordered the state to furnish one hundred thousand measures of corn; and, notwithstanding the sterility of the soil, and that they fed even the husbandmen with imported grain, yet, that they might not appear deficient in their duty, they had made up that quantity, and were ready to perform any other service that might be required of them.” The Milesians pretended not to any past service, but promised readily to afford any assistance in the war which the senate should think proper to demand. The Alabandians said, that they had erected a temple to the city of Rome, and instituted anniversary games to her divinity; that they had brought a golden crown, of fifty pounds weight, to be deposited in the Capitol, as an offering to Jupiter supremely good and great; also three hundred horsemen’s bucklers, which they were ready to deliver to any person appointed to receive them; and they requested permission to lodge the said offering as intended, and to perform sacrifice. The same request was made by ambassadors from Lampsacus, who brought a crown, of eighty pounds weight, and represented to the senate, that “they had renounced the party of Perseus as soon as the Roman army appeared in Macedonia, though they had been under the dominion of that monarch, and formerly of Philip. In return for which, and for their having contributed every assistance in their power to the Roman commanders, they only requested to be admitted into the friendship of the Roman people; and that, if peace should be made with Perseus, there might be a special clause in their favour, to prevent their falling again into his power.” The rest of the ambassadors received gracious answers, and the prætor, Quintus Mænius, was ordered to enrol the people of Lampsacus as allies. Presents were made to all, two thousand asses to each. The Alabandians were desired to carry back the bucklers into Macedonia, to the consul Aulus Hostilius. At the same time came ambassadors from Africa; those of the Carthaginians acquainted the senate, that they had brought down to the sea coast a million of measures of wheat, and five hundred thousand of barley, “to be transported to whatever place the senate should order. They were sensible,” they said, “that this offer, and act of duty, were very inferior to the deserts of the Roman people, and to their own inclinations; but that, on many other occasions, when the affairs of both nations flourished, they had performed the duties of faithful and grateful allies.” In like manner, ambassadors from Masinissa offered the same quantity of wheat, one thousand two hundred horsemen, and twelve elephants; desiring, that if he could be of service in any other particular, the senate would lay their commands on him, which he would execute with as much zeal as what he had proposed himself. Thanks were returned both to the Carthaginians and to the King; and they were requested to send the supplies, which they promised, into Macedonia, to the consul Hostilius. A present of two thousand asses was made to each of the ambassadors.
VII. Ambassadors of the Cretans mentioned, that they had sent into Macedonia the archers demanded by the consul Publius Licinius; but, being interrogated they did not deny, that a greater number of these were in the army of Perseus than in that of the Romans: on which they received this answer; that “if the Cretans were candidly and sincerely resolved to prefer the friendship of the Roman people to that of King Perseus, the Roman senate, on their part, would answer them as allies who could be relied on.” In the mean time, they were desired to tell their countrymen, that “the senate required that the Cretans should endeavour to call home, as soon as possible, all the soldiers who were in the service of King Perseus.” The Cretans being dismissed, the ambassadors from Chalcis were called, the chief of whom, by name Miction, having lost the use of his limbs, was carried on a litter: which demonstrated that their business was a matter of extreme necessity; since, either a man, in that infirm state, had not thought proper to plead ill health in excuse from being employed, or the plea had not been admitted. After premising, that no other part was alive but his tongue, which served him to deplore the calamities of his country, he represented, first, the friendly assistance given by his state to the Roman commanders and armies, both on former occasions, and in the war with Perseus; and then, the instances of pride, avarice, and cruelty, which his countrymen had suffered from the Roman prætor, Caius Lucretius, and were, at that very time, suffering from Lucius Hortensius; notwithstanding which, they were resolved to endure all hardships, should they be even more grievous than they underwent at present, rather than give themselves up to the power of Macedon. “With regard to Lucretius and Hortensius, they knew that it had been safer to have shut their gates against them, than to receive them into the city. For those cities, which had so done, remained in safety, as Emathea, Amphipolis, Maronea, and Ænus; whereas, in Chalcis, the temples were robbed of all their ornaments. Caius Lucretius had carried off in ships, to Antium, the plunder amassed by such sacrilege, and dragged persons of free condition into slavery; the property of the allies of the Roman people was subjected to rapine, and suffered daily depredations. For, pursuing the practice of Caius Lucretius, Hortensius kept the crews of his ships in lodgings both in summer and winter alike; so that their houses were filled with a crowd of seamen, and those men, who showed no regard to propriety, either in their words or actions, lived among the inhabitants, their wives, and children.”
VIII. The senate resolved to call Lucretius before them, that he might argue the matter in person, and exculpate himself. But when he appeared, he heard many more crimes alleged against him than had been mentioned in his absence; and two more weighty and powerful accusers stood forth in support of the charges, Marcus Juventius Thalna and Cneius Aufidius, plebeian tribunes. These not only arraigned him bitterly in the senate, but dragged him out into the assembly of the people; and there, reproaching him with many heinous crimes, they instituted a legal prosecution against him. By order of the senate, the prætor, Quintus Mænius, gave this answer to the ambassadors of Chalcis: that “the senate acknowledged their account of the good offices done by them to the Roman people, both on former occasions and during the present war, to be true; and that they retained a proper sense of their friendly conduct: that, as to the ill treatment, which they complained of having received formerly from Caius Lucretius, and now from Lucius Hortensius, Roman prætors, it could not possibly be supposed that such things were done with the approbation of the senate. It should be considered that the Roman people had made war on Perseus, and, before that, on his father Philip, for the express purpose of asserting the liberties of Greece, and not of subjecting friends and allies to such treatment from their magistrates: that they would give them a letter to the prætor Lucius Hortensius, informing him, that the proceedings, of which the people of Chalcis complained, were highly displeasing to the senate; charging him to take care that all free persons, who had been reduced to slavery, should be sought out as soon as possible, and restored to liberty; and commanding that no seamen, except the masters of vessels, should be permitted to lodge on shore.” Pursuant to the senate’s order, a letter, to this purport, was written to Hortensius. A present of two thousand asses was made to each of the ambassadors, and carriages were hired for Miction, at the public expence, to carry him commodiously to Brundusium. When the day of Caius Lucretius’s trial came, the tribunes pleaded against him before the people, and demanded that he should be fined in the sum of one million of asses;* and the tribes proceeding to vote, every one of the thirty-five pronounced him guilty, and confirmed the fine.
IX. In Liguria, nothing of moment occurred in that year; for the enemy made no hostile attempt, nor did the consul march his legions into their country; on the contrary, seeing a certain prospect of peace, he discharged the soldiers of the two Roman legions within sixty days after his arrival in the province, sent the troops of the Latine confederates early into winter-quarters at Luna and Pisæ, and himself, with the cavalry, visited most of the towns in the Gallic province. Although there was no open war any where but in Macedonia, yet there was reason to suspect the designs of Gentius, King of Illyria. The senate, therefore, voted that eight ships, fully equipped, should be sent from Brundusium to Issa, to Caius Furius, lieutenant-general, who, with only two vessels belonging to the inhabitants, held the government of that island. In this squadron were embarked four thousand soldiers, whom the prætor, Quintus Mænius, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, had raised in the quarter of Italy opposite Illyria; and the consul Hostilius sent Appius Claudius, with four thousand foot, into Illyria, to protect the neighbouring states. But Appius Claudius, not content with the force which he brought with him, collected aid from the allies, until he made up the number of eight thousand men; and, after overrunning all that country, took post at Lychnidus in the territory of the Dassaretians.
X. Not far from hence was Uscana, a town generally deemed part of the dominions of Perseus. It contained ten thousand inhabitants, and a small party of Cretans, who served as a garrison. From this place messengers came, secretly, to Claudius, telling him, that “if he brought his army nearer, there would be people ready to put the town into his hands; and that it would be well worth his while; for he would find booty sufficient to satisfy the utmost wishes, not only of his friends, but of his soldiers.” Such alluring hopes blinded his understanding to that degree, that he neither detained any of those who came, nor required hostages for his security, in a business which was to be transacted clandestinely and treacherously; neither did he send scouts to examine matters, nor require an oath from the messengers; but, on the day appointed, he left Lychnidus, and pitched his camp twelve miles from the city, which was the object of his design. At the fourth watch, he set out, leaving about one thousand men to guard the camp. His forces, extending themselves in a long irregular train, and in loose disorder, were separated, by mistaking their way in the might, and arrived in this state at the city. Their carelessness increased when they saw not a soldier on the walls. But, as soon as they approached within a weapon’s cast, a sally was made from two gates at once. Besides the shout raised by these, a tremendous noise was heard on the walls, composed of the yells of women and the sound of brazen instruments, while the rabble of the place, mixed with a multitude of slaves, made the air resound with various cries. Struck by such a number of terrifying circumstances, the Romans were unable to support the first onset; so that a greater number of them were killed flying than fighting, and scarcely two thousand, with the lieutenant-general himself, effected their escape. The distance from the camp being great, numbers sunk under fatigue, and were overtaken by the enemy. Appius, without even halting in the camp to collect his stragglers, which would have been the means of saving many, led back, directly, to Lychnidus, the remains of his unfortunate army.
XI. These, and other unfavourable occurrences in Macedonia were learned from Sextus Digitius, a military tribune, who came to Rome to perform a sacrifice. These advices having rendered the senate apprehensive of some greater disgrace ensuing, they deputed Marcus Fulvius Flaccus and Marcus Caninius Rebilus to go to Macedonia, and bring certain information of all transactions there; at the same time ordering that the consul Aulus Hostilius should summon the assembly for the election of consuls, so as that it might be held in the month of January, and should come home to the city as soon as possible. In the meantime it was resolved, that the prætor Marcus Recins should call home to Rome, by proclamation, all the senators, from every part of Italy, except such as were absent on public business; and that such as were in Rome should not go farther than one mile from the city. All this was done pursuant to the votes of the senate. The election of consuls was held on the fourth day before the calends of February. The persons chosen were, Quintus Marcius Philippus, a second time, and Cneius Servilius Cæpio. Three days after, were appointed prætors, Caius Decimius, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Caius Sulpicius Gallus, Caius Marcius Figulus, Servius Cornelius Lentulus, and Publius Fonteius Capito. To the prætors elect were assigned, besides the two city provinces, these four: Spain, Sardinia, Sicily, and the fleet. Towards the end of Februrary the deputies returned from Macedonia, and gave an account of the successful enterprises of Perseus during the preceding summer, and of the great fears which had taken possession of the allies of the Roman people, on account of so many cities being reduced under the King’s power. They reported, that “the consul’s troops were very thin, in consequence of leave of absence being granted to great numbers, with the view of gaining the good will of the men; the blame of which the consul laid upon the military tribunes, and they, on the other hand, on the consul. The disgrace sustained through the rashness of Glaudius,” they represented as “not so considerable as was supposed; because, of the men who were lost very few were native of Italy, the greatest part being the soldiers raised in that country by an irregular levy.” The consuls elect received orders, immediately on entering into office, to propose the affairs of Macedonia to the consideration of the senate; and Italy and Macedonia were appointed their provinces. An intercalation was made in the calendar of this year, intercalary calends being reckoned on the third day after the feast of Terminus. There died of the priests during this year, Lucius Flaminius, augur, and two pontiffs, Lucius Furius Philus, and Caius Livius Salinator. In the room of Furius, the pontiffs chose Titus Manlius Torquatus, and in that of Livius, Marcus Servilius.
Y. R.583.
169.XII. In the beginning of the ensuing year, the new consuls, Quintus Marcius and Cneius
Servilius, having proposed the distribution of the provinces for consideration, the senate voted that they should,
without delay, either settle between themselves about Macedonia and Italy, or cast lots for them; and that, before the
lot should decide this matter, and while the destination of each was uncertain, lest interest might have any influence,
the supplies of men, requisite for each province, should be ordered. For Macedonia were voted six thousand Roman foot
and six thousand of the Latine allies, two hundred and fifty Roman horse, and three hundred of the allies. The old
soldiers were to be discharged, so that there should be in each Roman legion no more than six thousand foot and three
hundred horse. The number of Roman citizens, which the other consul was to enlist for a reinforcement, was not
precisely determined; there was only this limitation mentioned, that he should raise two legions, each of them to
contain five thousand two hundred foot, and three hundred horse. Of Latine infantry, a larger number was decreed to him
than to his colleague; no less than ten thousand foot, with six hundred horse. An order was given for raising four
other legions, to serve wherever occasion might require. The consuls were not allowed the appointment of the military
tribunes; they were created by the votes of the people. The Latine confederates were ordered to furnish sixteen
thousand foot and one thousand horse. This force was intended only to be kept in readiness, to march out should any
exigency demand it. Macedonia engrossed the greatest share of the senate’s attention; they ordered, that one thousand
Roman citizens, of the rank of freedmen, should be enlisted in Italy, as seamen, to man the fleet, and the same number
in Sicily; and that the prætor, to whose lot the government of the latter province fell, should take care to carry
these over to Macedonia, to whatever place the fleet should be stationed at. To recruit the army in Spain, three
thousand Roman foot and three hundred horse were voted. With regard to that army, too, the number of men in each legion
was limited to five thousand foot and three hundred and thirty horse. Besides these, the prætor, to whose lot Spain
should fall, was ordered to levy from the allies four thousand foot and three hundred horse.
XIII. I am well aware, that, through the same disregard to religion, which has led men into the present prevailing opinion, of the gods never giving portents of any future events, no prodigies are now either reported to government, or recorded in histories. But for my part, while I am writing the transactions of ancient times, my sentiments, I know not how, become antique; and I feel a kind of religious awe, which compels me to consider that events, which the men of those days, renowned for wisdom, judged deserving of the attention of the state and of public expiation, must certainly be worthy of a place in my history. From Anagnia two prodigies were reported this year: that a blazing torch was seen in the air; and that a cow spoke, and was maintained at the public expence. About the same time, at Minturnæ, the sky appeared as in a blaze of fire. At Reate, a shower of stones fell. At Cumæ, the image of Apollo, in the citadel, shed tears during three days and three nights. In the city of Rome, the keeper of a temple asserted, that in that of Fortune, a snake, with a mane like that of a horse, had been seen by many; and another, that, in the temple of Fortuna Primigenia, on the hill, a palm sprung up in the court, and that a shower of blood fell in the middle of the day. There were two others not attended to: one, because it happened in a place belonging to a private person; Titus Marcius Figulus having reported, that a palm sprung up in the inner court of his house: the other, because it occurred in a foreign place, Fregellæ — where, in the house of Lucius Atreus, a spear, which he had bought for his son, who was a soldier, burned, as was said, for more than two hours, yet no part of it was consumed. The decemvirs, having consulted the books, with regard to the public prodigies, directed, that the consuls should sacrifice forty of the larger victims to the deities, whom they pointed out; that a supplication should be performed; and that all the magistrates should sacrifice victims of the larger kinds, in all the temples, and the people wear garlands. All this was performed accordingly.
XIV. Then was held an assembly, for the creation of censors, which office was canvassed for by several of the first men in the state; Caius Valerius Lævinus, Lucius Postumius Albinus, Publius Mucius Scævola, Marcus Junius Brutus, Caius Claudius Pulcher, and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. The two last were created censors by the Roman people in assembly. As, on account of the Macedonian war, the business of levying troops was deemed of more importance than usual, the consuls made a complaint to the senate against the plebeians, that even the younger men did not obey their summons. But, in opposition to them, Caius Sulpicius and Marcus Claudius, tribunes of the people, pleaded in favour of the plebeians; asserting, that “the levying of soldiers proved difficult, not to the consuls in general, but to such consuls as affected popularity; that these enlisted no man against his inclination; and that, to convince the Conscript Fathers of the truth of this, the prætors, who in their office had less power and authority, would, with their approbation, complete the levies.” That business was accordingly committed to the care of the prætors by an unanimous vote of the senate, not without great murmuring on the part of the consuls. The censors, in order to forward it, published, in a general assembly, the following notice: that “they would make it a rule in conducting the survey, that, besides the common oath taken by all citizens, the younger part should swear, when challenged, in this manner — You are younger than forty-six years, and you shall attend at the levy, pursuant to the edict of Caius Claudius and Tiberius Sempronius, censors; and this, too, as often as there shall be a levy held by any magistrate during the aforesaid censors’ continuance in office, if you shall not have been already enlisted.” Also, as there was a report, that many men, belonging to the legions in Macedonia, were absent from the army, on leave granted by the commanders, without any time limited for their return; — in order to ingratiate themselves with the soldiers, they issued a proclamation concerning all who had been drafted for that country in the consulate of Publius Ælius and Caius Popillius, or since that period; that “such as were in Italy should, after being first registered by them in the survey, repair to Macedonia within thirty days; and that, if any were under the power of a father or grand-father, the names of such should be notified to them. That they would also make inquiry into the cases of the soldiers who had been discharged; and if any discharge should appear to have been obtained through favour, before the regular number of campaigns were served, they would order the persons so discharged to be enlisted again.” In consequence of this proclamation, and letters from the censors being dispersed through the market-towns and villages, such multitudes of young men flocked to Rome, that the extraordinary crowd was even inconvenient to the city. Beside the reinforcements for the armies, four legions were raised by the prætor Caius Sulpicius, and the levies were completed within eleven days.
XV. The consuls then cast lots for their provinces; the prætors, in order to provide for the civil jurisdiction, having determined theirs before. The civil jurisdiction had fallen to Caius Sulpicius; the foreign to Caius Decimius; Spain, to Marcus Claudius Marcellus; Sicily, to Servius Cornelius Lentulus; Sardinia, to Publius Fonteius Capito; and the fleet to Caius Marcius Figulus. Of the consuls, Servius obtained Italy for his province; Quintus Marcius, Macedonia; and, as soon as the Latine festival could be celebrated, the latter set out. Cæpio then desired the senate to direct which two of the new legions he should take with him into Gaul; when they ordered, that the prætors, Caius Sulpicius and Marcus Claudius, should give the consul such of the legions, which they had raised, as they should think fit. The latter, highly offended at a consul being subjected to the will of prætors, adjourned the senate; and, standing at the tribunal of the prætors, demanded, that, pursuant to the decree, they should assign him two legions: but the prætors left the choice of them to the consul. The censors then called over the list of the senate. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus was, now, by the third censors, chosen prince of the senate. Seven were expelled that body. In making the survey of the people, they discovered how many of the soldiers belonging to the army in Macedonia were absent, and obliged them all to return to that province. They inquired into the cases of the men who had been discharged; and, when any of their discharges appeared irregular in respect of time, they put an oath to them to this effect: “Do you sincerely swear, that you will, without deceit or evasion, return into the province of Macedonia, according to the edict of the censors Caius Claudius and Tiberius Sempronius?”
XVI. In the review of the knights they acted with much harshness and severity, depriving many of their horses; and, after giving this offence to the equestrian order, they inflamed the general displeasure to a higher degree by an edict, which ordered, that “no person who had farms of the public revenues or taxes from the censors Quintus Fulvius and Aulus Postumius, should again propose for them, nor should have any partnership or connexion in the farms then to be made.” Although the former farmers made many complaints to the senate, yet they could not prevail on that body to interfere, and check the power of the censors; but at last, they found a patron of their cause in Publius Rutilius, a plebeian tribune, who was incensed against the censors in consequence of a dispute about a private concern. They ordered a client of his, a freed man, to throw down a wall, which stood opposite to a public building in the sacred street, as being built on ground belonging to the public. The citizen appealed to the tribunes; but none of them would interfere except Rutilius; when the censors sent to seize his goods, and imposed a fine on him in a public assembly. When the present dispute broke out, and the old revenue farmers had recourse to the tribunes, a publication suddenly appeared, in the name of one tribune, of a proposed order of the people, that “all leases made of the public revenues and taxes by Caius Claudius and Tiberius Sempronius should be void: that they should all be let anew, and that every person, without distinction, should be at liberty to bid for and take them.” The tribune appointed the day for an assembly to consider this matter. When the day came, and the censors stood forth to argue against the order, Gracchus was heard with silent attention; but when Claudius began to speak, his voice was drowned in noise; on which he directed the crier to cause silence, that he might be heard. This was done; and the tribune, then, complaining that the assembly which he had summoned was taken out of his rule, and that he was stripped of the privilege of his office, retired from the Capitol, where the assembly met. Next day he raised a violent commotion. In the first place, he declared the property of Tiberius Gracchus forfeited to the gods, for having fined and seized the goods of a person who had appealed to a tribune; and for refusing to admit his right of protest. He instituted a criminal process against Caius Claudius for the same, declaring his intention to prosecute both the censors for treason; and he demanded of Caius Sulpicius, the city prætor, that he would fix a day for an assembly to try them. The censors declared, that they had no objection to the people passing their judgment on them as soon as they pleased; and the days for trial of the treason were fixed for the eighth and seventh before the calends of October. The censors went up immediately to the temple of Liberty, where they sealed the books of the public accounts, shut up the office, and dismissed the clerks; affirming, that they would do no kind of public business, until the judgment of the people was passed on them. Claudius was first brought to trial; and, after eight out of the eighteen centuries of knights, and many others of the first class, had given sentence against him, the principal men in the state, immediately taking off their gold rings, in the sight of the people, put on mourning; and, in that suppliant manner, solicited the commons in his favour. Yet, it is said, that Gracchus was the chief means of making a change in their sentiments; for, on the commons crying out, on all sides, that Gracchus was in no danger, he took a formal oath, that, if his colleague were condemned, he would not wait for their sentence on himself, but would accompany him into exile. After all, the case of the accused was so near being desperate, that the votes of eight centuries more would have condemned him. When Claudius was acquitted, the tribune said, that he had nothing to do with Gracchus.
XVII. This year, on the Aquileians petitioning, by their ambassadors, for an addition to the number of their settlers, the senate ordered one thousand five hundred families to be enrolled for the purpose; and Titus Annius Luscus, Publius Decius Subulo, and Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, were appointed commissioners to conduct them. During the same year, Caius Popilius and Cneius Octavius, who had been sent ambassadors into Greece, read, first at Thebes, and afterwards carried about to all the other states of Peloponnesus, a decree, ordering, that “no person should furnish the Roman magistrates with any thing for the use of the war, except what should be directed by a vote of the senate.” This, besides present satisfaction, afforded the allies a pleaing confidence, with regard to the future, of being relieved from the heavy burdens and expences, in consequence of the various demands of those magistrates. In the council of Achaia, held at Argos, the ambassadors spoke, and were heard with sentiments of mutual esteem and affection; and then, leaving that faithful nation in confident assurance of lasting prosperity, they crossed over to Ætolia. No civil war had yet broke out in that country; but mistrust and jealousy universally prevailed, and nothing was heard but reciprocal accusations and recriminations. To put a stop to these, the ambassadors demanded hostages, and, without waiting to cure the evil effectually, passed on to Acarnania. The Acarnanians held a council at Thyrium to give them audience. Here, too, there was a struggle between opposite factions; some of the nobles requiring that garrisons might be placed in their cities, to protect them against the madness of those who laboured to engage the nation in favour of the Macedonians; and others, objecting to the measure, as throwing such an affront on peaceful and allied cities, as was practised only on towns taken in war, or engaged in hostilities. Their objection was reckoned reasonable. From thence the ambassadors returned to Larissa, to Hostilius, for by him they had been sent. He kept Octavius with him, and sent Popillius, with about a thousand soldiers, into winter quarters in Ambracia.
XVIII. Perseus ventured not to go out of Macedonia, lest the Romans might make an irruption into the kingdom by some unguarded quarter; but, on the approach of the winter solstice, when the depth of the snow renders the mountains between that and Thessaly impassable, he thought the season favourable for crushing the hopes and spirits of his neighbours, so as to relieve himself from all apprehension of danger from them, while he was employed elsewhere. As Cotys and Cephalus, by their sudden defection from the Romans, afforded him security on that part of the kingdom which lay next to Thrace and Epirus, and as he had lately subdued the Dardanians by arms, he considered that Macedonia was only exposed on the side next to Illyria, the Illyrians themselves being in motion, and having offered a free passage to the Romans. He hoped, however, that in case of reducing the nearest part of Illyria, Gentius himself, who had long been wavering, might be brought into alliance with him. Setting out, therefore, at the head of ten thousand foot, the greater part of whom were soldiers of the phalanx, two thousand light infantry, and five hundred horse, he proceeded to Stubera. Having there supplied himself with corn, sufficient for many days, and ordered every requisite for besieging towns to be sent after him, he continued his march, and on the third day encamped before Uscana, the largest city in the Penestian country. Before he employed force, he sent emissaries to sound the dispositions, sometimes of the commanders, sometimes of the inhabitants; for, besides some troops of Illyrians, there was a Roman garrison in the place. Perceiving no prospect of succeeding by negociation, he resolved to attack the town, and made an attempt to take it by storm; but though his men, relieving one another, continued without intermission, either by day or night, some to apply ladders to the walls, others to attempt setting fire to the gates, yet the besieged withstood all the fury of the assault; for they had hopes that the Macedonians would not be able to endure long the violence of the winter in the open field; and besides, that the Roman army would not give the King so long a respite as should allow him to stay there. But, when they saw the machines in motion, and towers erected, their resolution failed; for, besides that they were unequal to a contest with his force, they had not a sufficient store of corn, or any other necessary, as they had not expected a siege. Wherefore, despairing of being able to hold out, the Roman garrison sent Caius Carvilius Spoletinus and Caius Afranius to desire Perseus, first, to allow the troops to march out with their arms, and to carry their effects with them; and then, if they could not obtain that, to receive his promise of their lives and liberty. The King promised more generously than he performed; for, after desiring them to march out with their effects, the first thing he did was to take away their arms. As soon as they left the city, both the cohort of Illyrians, five hundred in number, and the inhabitants of Uscana, immediately surrendered themselves and the city.
XIX. Perseus, placing a garrison in Uscana, carried away to Stubera the whole multitude of prisoners, almost equal to his army in number. He then distributed the Romans, who amounted to four thousand, besides officers, among several cities, to be kept in custody; and, having sold the Uscanians and Illyrians, led back his army to Panestia, with design to reduce the city of Oæneus; which, besides other advantages of its situation, affords a passage into the country of the Labeatians, where Gentius was King. As he passed by a fort, named Draudacum, which was full of men, a person, well acquainted with the country, told him, that “there was on use in taking Oæneus unless he had Draudacum in his power; for the latter was situated more advantageously in every respect.” His army no sooner appeared before it, than all the inhabitants agreed to capitulate immediately. Encouraged by the early surrender of this place, and perceiving what terrors his march diffused, by taking advantage of the like fears, he reduced eleven other forts to submission. Against a very few he had occasion to use force; the rest submitted voluntarily; among whom were one thousand five hundred soldiers, who had been stationed there in garrison. Carvilius Spoletinus was very serviceable to him in his conferences with the garrison, by declaring that no severity had been shown to him and his party. At length he arrived at Oæneus, which could not be taken without a regular siege, having a much greater number of men than the others, with strong fortifications. It was inclosed on one side by a river called Artatus, and on another by a very high mountain of difficult access; circumstances, which gave the inhabitants courage to make resistance. Perseus, having drawn lines of circumvallation, began, on the higher ground, to raise a mound, which he intended should exceed the wall in height. By the time that this work was completed, the besieged, in their many actions, when sallying out to defend their works, or to obstruct those of the enemy, had lost great numbers by various chances; while the survivors were rendered useless by wounds, and by continual labour both in the day and night. As soon as the mound was brought close to the wall, the royal cohort (the men of which are called Nicators) rushed from it into the town, while an assault was made by scalade in many places at once. All the males, who had reached the age of puberty, were put to the sword, their wives and children were thrown into confinement, and every thing else was given as booty to the soldiers. Returning thence victorious to Stubera, he sent, as ambassadors to Gentius — Pleuratus, an Illyrian, who lived in exile at his court, and Aputeus, a Macedonian, from Berœa. Their instructions were, to represent his exploits against the Romans and Dardanians during the preceding summer and winter, and to add the recent operations of his winter campaign in Illyria, and to exhort Gentius to unite with him and the Macedonians in a treaty of friendship.
XX. They crossed over the top of Mount Scordus, and through desert tracts of Illyria, which the Macedonians had laid waste, for the purpose of preventing the Dardanians from passing easily into Illyria or Macedonia; and, at length, after undergoing prodigious fatigue, arrived at Scodra. King Gentius was at Lissus, to which place he invited the ambassadors, and lent a favourable car to their representations, but gave them an indecisive answer: that “he wanted not inclination to go to war with the Romans, but was in extreme want of money to enable him to enter on such an undertaking.” This answer they brought to the King, while he was busy at Stubera in selling the prisoners from Illyria. He immediately sent back the same ambassadors, to whom he added Glaucias, one of his body guards, but without any mention of money; the only thing that could induce the needy barbarian to take a part in the war. Then Perseus, after ravaging Ancyra, led back his army, once more, into Penestia; and, having strengthened the garrisons of Uscana, and the other fortresses which he had taken in that quarter, he retired into Macedonia.
XXI. Lucius Cælius, a Roman lieutenant-general, commanded, at that time, in Illyria. While the King was in that country, he did not venture to stir; but, on his departure, he made an attempt to recover Uscana, in Penestia; in which, being repulsed, with great loss, by the Macedonian garrison, he led back his forces to Lychnidus. In a short time after he sent Marcus Trebellius Fregellanus, with a very strong force, into Penestia, to receive hostages from the cities which had faithfully remained in friendship. He ordered him, also, to march on to the Parthinians, who had likewise covenanted to give hostages, and he received them from both nations without any trouble: those of the Penestians were sent to Apollonia; those of the Parthinians to Dyrrachium, then more generally called by the Greeks Epidamnus. Appius Claudius wishing to repair the disgrace which he had suffered in Illyria, made an attack on Phanote, a fortress of Epirus; bringing with him, besides the Roman troops, Athamanian and Thesprotian auxiliaries, to the amount of six thousand men: but he gained no advantage; for Clevas, who had been left there with a strong garrison, effectually defended the place. Perseus marched to Elimea, and, after purifying his army, led it to Stratus, in compliance with an invitation of the Ætolians. Stratus was then the strongest city in Ætolia. It stands on the Ambracian gulph, near the river Achelous. Thither he marched with ten thousand foot and three hundred horse; for he did not choose to bring a larger party of the latter, on account of the narrowness and ruggedness of the roads. On the third day he came to Mount Citium, which he could scarcely climb over, by reason of the depth of the snow; and, afterwards, with difficulty found even a place for his camp. Leaving that spot, rather because he could not conveniently stay, than that either the road, or the weather, was tolerable, the army, after suffering severe hardships, which fell heaviest on the beasts of burden, encamped on the second day at the temple of Jupiter, called Nicæus. After a very long march thence, he arrived at the river Aracthus, where the depth of the water obliged him to halt until a bridge could be made. As soon as this was finished, he led over his army; and, having proceeded one day’s march, met Archidamus, an Ætolian of distinction, who proposed delivering Stratus into his hands.
XXII. On that day Perseus encamped at the bounds of the Ætolian territory; and, on the next, arrived before Stratus, where, pitching his camp near the river Achelous, he expected that the Ætolians would come in crowds, to put themselves under his protection; but, on the contrary, he found the gates shut, and discovered that, the very night before he arrived, a Roman garrison, under Caius Popillius, lieutenant-general, had been received into the town. The nobles, who, while Archidamus was present, had, out of deference to his authority, submitted to invite the King, as soon as he went out for that purpose, had become less zealous, and had given an opportunity to the opposite faction to call in Popillius, with one thousand foot, from Ambracia. At the same juncture came also Dinarchus, general of the Ætolian cavalry, with six hundred foot and one hundred horse. It was well known that he came to Stratus intending to act with Perseus; but that, with the change of fortune, he had changed his mind, and joined the Romans. Nor was Popillius less on his guard than was requisite among people of such fickle tempers. He immediately took into his own keeping the keys of the gates, with the direction of the guard of the walls, removing Dinarchus and the Ætolians, together with the young men of Stratus, into the citadel, under pretence of garrisoning it. Perseus sounded the garrison, by addressing them from the eminences that hung over the upper part of the city, and finding that they were obstinate, and even kept him at a distance with weapons, removed his camp to the other side of the river Petitarus, about five miles from the town: there he held a council, wherein Archidamus and the refugees from Epirus advised, that he should remain there; but the Macedonian nobles argued, that it would be wrong to fight against the severity of the season without having magazines of provisions; in which case the besiegers would feel a scarcity sooner than the besieged; especially, as the winter-quarters of the enemy were at no great distance: which considerations so much discouraged him, that he marched away into Aperantia. The Aperantians, in consequence of the great interest and influence which Archidamus possessed among them, submitted to Perseus, with universal consent; and Archidamus himself was appointed their governor, with a body of eight hundred soldiers.
XXIII. The King then marched into Macedonia, his men and horses suffering, on the way, hardships no less severe than they had encountered on leaving home. However, the report of Perseus’s march to Stratus obliged Appius to raise the siege of Phanote. Clevas, with a body of active young men, pursued him to the foot of a mountain, in a defile almost impassable, killed one thousand men of his disordered troops, and took two hundred prisoners. Appius, when he got clear of the defile, encamped in a plain named Eleon, where he remained for some days. Meanwhile Clevas, being joined by Philostratus, governor of Epirus, proceeded over the mountains into the lands of Antigonea. The Macedonians setting out to plunder, Philostratus, with his party, posted himself in ambush. The troops at Antigonea hastened out against the straggling plunderers, but, on their flying, pursued them with too great eagerness, until they precipitated themselves into the valley which was beset by the enemy, who killed one thousand, and made about one hundred prisoners. Being thus successful every where, they encamped near the post of Appius, in order to prevent the Roman army from offering violence to any of their allies. Appius, finding that he wasted time there to no purpose, dismissed the Chaonian and other Epirotes, and with his Italian soldiers marched back to Illyria; then, sending the troops to their several winter-quarters, in the confederate cities of the Parthinians, he went home to Rome to perform a sacrifice. Perseus recalled from Penestia one thousand foot and two hundred horse, whom he sent to garrison Cassandria. His ambassadors returned from Gentius with the same answer as before. Still he did not give up his design, but sent embassy after embassy, to solicit him; yet, notwithstanding that he was sensible of the powerful support he would find in Gentius, the Macedonian could not prevail on himself to expend money on the business. [. . . .]
Quintus Marcius Philippus, consul, with much difficulty, penetrates into Macedonia, and takes several cities. The Rhodians send an embassy to Rome, threatening to aid Perseus, unless the Romans made peace with him. Lucius Æmilius Paullus, consul, sent against Perseus, defeats him, and reduces all Macedonia to subjection. Before the engagement, Caius Sulpitius Gallus, a military tribune, foretells an eclipse of the moon, and warns the soldiers not to be alarmed at that phenomenon Gentius, King of Illyria, vanquished by Anicius, prætor, and sent prisoner, together with his wife and children, to Rome. Ambassadors from Ptolemy and Cleopatra, King and Queen of Egypt, complain of Antiochus making war upon them. Perseus, not paying Eumenes, King of Pergamus, and Gentius, King of Illyria, the money he had promised them for their assistance, is deserted by them.
Y. R.583.
169.I. EARLY in the following spring, the consul Quintus Marcius Philippus set out from Rome, with
five thousand men, whom he was to carry over to reinforce his legions, and arrived at Brundusium. Marcus Popillius, of
consular rank, and other young men of equal dignity, accompanied him, in quality of military tribunes, for the legions
in Macedonia. Nearly at the same time, Caius Marcius Figulus, the prætor, whose province was the fleet, came to
Brundusium; and, both sailing from Italy, made Corcyra on the second day, and Actium, a port of Acarnania, on the
third. The consul, then, disembarking at Ambracia, proceeded towards Thessaly by land. The prætor, doubling Cape
Leucate, sailed into the gulph of Corinth; then, leaving his ships at Creusa, he went by land also through the middle
of Bæotia, and, by a quick journey of one day, came to the fleet at Chalcis. Aulus Hostilius at that time lay encamped
in Thessaly, near Palæpharsalus; and though he had performed no warlike act of any consequence; yet he had reformed his
troops from a state of dissolute licentiousness, and brought them to exact military discipline; had faithfully
consulted the interest of the allies, and defended them from every kind of injury. On hearing of his successor’s
approach, he carefully inspected the arms, men, and horses; and then, with the army in complete order, he marched out
to greet the consul. The meeting was such as became their own dignity and the Roman character; and, in transacting
business afterwards, they preserved the greatest harmony and propriety. The proconsul, addressing himself to
the troops, exhorted them to behave with courage, and with due respect to the orders of their commander. He then
recommended them, in warm terms, to the consul, and, as soon as he had dispatched the necessary affairs, set off for
Rome. A few days after, the consul made a speech to his soldiers, which began with the unnatural murder which
Perseus had perpetrated on his brother, and meditated against his father; he then mentioned “his acquisition of the
kingdom by the most nefarious practices; his poisonings and murders; his abominable attempt to assassinate Eumenes; the
injuries he had committed against the Roman people; and his plundering the cities of their allies, in violation of the
treaty. How detestable such proceedings were in the sight of the gods, Perseus would feel, he said, in the issue of his
affairs; for the gods always favoured righteous and honourable dealings by means of which the Roman state had risen to
its present exaltation.” He compared the strength of the Roman people, whose authority was now acknowledged throughout
the whole world, with that of Macedonia; and the armies of the one with those of the other; and then he asked, “was not
the power of Philip, and that of Antiochus, much superior?” and yet both of them had been conquered.
II. Having animated his soldiers by such exhortations, he began to consult on a general plan of operations for the campaign; being joined by the prætor Caius Marcius, who, after receiving the command of the fleet, came thither from Chalcis. It was resolved not to waste time, by delaying longer in Thessaly; but to decamp immediately, and advance into Macedonia; and that the prætor should exert himself to the utmost, that the fleet might appear, at the same time, on the enemy’s coasts. The prætor then took his leave; and the consul ordering the soldiers to carry a month’s provisions, struck his tents, on the tenth day after he received the command of the army, and, putting the troops in motion, marched until night. Before he proceeded, he called together his guides, and ordered them to explain, in the presence of the council, by what road each of them proposed to lead him; then, desiring them to withdraw, he asked the opinion of the council, as to what route he should prefer. Some advised the road through Pythium; others, that over the Cambunian mountains, where the consul Hostilius had marched the year before; while others, again, preferred that which passed by the side of the lake Ascuris. There was yet before him a considerable length of way, which led alike towards all of these; the farther consideration of this matter was therefore postponed until they should encamp near the place where the roads diverged. He then marched into Perrhæbia, and posted himself between Azorus and Doliche, in order to consider again which was the preferable road. In the mean-time, Perseus, understanding that the enemy was marching towards him, but unable to guess what route he might take, resolved to secure all the passes. To the top of the Cambunian mountains, called by the natives Volustana, he sent ten thousand light infantry, under the command of Asclepiodotus; ordering Hippias, with a detachment of twelve thousand Macedonians, to guard the pass called Lapathus, near a fort which stood over the lake Ascuris. He himself, with the rest of his forces, lay for some time in camp at Dius; but afterwards, as if he had lost the use of his judgment, and was incapable of forming any plan, he used to gallop along the coast, with a party of light horse, sometimes to Heracleus, sometimes to Phila, and then return with the same speed to Dius.
III. By this time the consul had determined to march through the pass near Octolophus, where, as we have mentioned, the camp of Philip formerly stood. But he deemed it prudent to dispatch before him four thousand men, to secure such places as might be useful: the command of this party was given to Marcus Claudius, and Quintus Marcius, the consul’s son. The main body followed close after, but the road was so steep, rough, and craggy, that the advanced party of light troops, with great difficulty, effected in two days a march of fifteen miles; they then encamped on a spot called the tower of Eudieru. Next day they advanced seven miles; and, having seized on a hill, at a small distance from the enemy’s camp, sent back a message to the consul, that “they had arrived within sight of the enemy; and had taken post in a place which was safe and convenient in every respect; urging him to join them with all possible speed.” This message came to the consul at the lake Ascuris, at a time when he was full of anxiety, on account of the badness of the road into which he had brought the army, and for the fate of the small force he had sent forward among the poats of the enemy. His spirits were therefore greatly revived; and, soon effecting a junction of all his forces, he pitched his camp on the side of the hill that had been seized, where the ground was the most commodious. This hill was so high as to afford a wide-extended prospect, presenting to their eyes, at one view, not only the enemy’s camp, which was little more than a mile distant, but the whole extent of territory to Dius and Phila, together with a large tract of the sea coast; circumstances which greatly enlivened the courage of the soldiers, giving them so near a view of the grand theatre of the war, of all the King’s forces, and of the country of the enemy. So highly were they animated, that they pressed the consul to lead them on directly; but, after the fatigue that they had suffered on the road, one day was set apart for repose. On the third day, the consul, leaving one half of his troops to guard the camp, marched against the enemy.
IV. Hippias had been sent by the King, a short time before, to maintain that pass; and having employed himself, since he first saw the Roman camp on the hill, in preparing his men’s minds for a battle, he now went forth to meet the consul’s army as it advanced. The Romans came out to battle with light armour, as did the Macedonians; light troops being the fittest for the kind of fight in which they were about to engage. As soon as they met, therefore, they instantly discharged their javelins, and many wounds were given and received on both sides in a disorderly kind of conflict; but few of either party were killed. This only roused their courage for the following day, when they would have engaged with more numerous forces, and with greater animosity, had there been room to form a line; but the summit of the mountain was contracted into a ridge so narrow, as scarcely to allow space for three files in front; so that the greater part, especially such as carried heavy arms, stood mere spectators of the fight. The light troops even ran through the hollows of the hill, and attacked the flanks of the enemy; never considering either the advantage or disadvantage of the ground, provided they could but come to action. That day, too, greater numbers were wounded than killed, and night put a stop to the dispute. The Roman general was greatly at a loss how to proceed on the third day; for to remain on that naked hill was impossible, and he could not return without disgrace, and even danger, if the Macedonian, with the advantage of the ground, should press on his troops in their retreat: he had, therefore, no other plan left than to persevere in his bold attempt, which sometimes, in the issue, proves the wisest course. He had, in fact, brought himself into such a situation, that if he had had to deal with an enemy, like the ancient kings of Macedon, he might have suffered a very severe defeat. But while the King, with his horsemen, ran up and down the shore at Dius; and, though almost within hearing of the shout and noise of twelve thousand of his forces, who were engaged, neither sent up fresh men to relieve the weary, nor, what was most material, appeared himself in the action; the Roman general, notwithstanding that he was above sixty years old, and unwieldy through corpulency, performed actively every duty of a commander. He persisted with extraordinary resolution in his bold undertaking; and, leaving Popillius to guard the summit, marched across, through places which would have been impassable, if he had not sent forward a party to open a road. Attalus and Misagenes, with the auxiliary troops of their own nations, were ordered to protect them, while clearing the way through the forests. He himself, keeping the cavalry and baggage before him, closed the rear with the legions.
V. In descending the mountain, the men suffered inexpressible fatigue, besides the frequent falling of the cattle and their loads, so that, before they had advanced quite four miles, they began to think that their most eligible plan would be to return, if possible, by the way they came. The elephants caused almost as much confusion among the troops as an enemy could; for, when they came to impassable steeps, they threw off their riders, and set up such a hideous roar, as spread terror through all, especially among the horses, until a method was contrived for bringing them down. They fastened in the earth, some way from the top, two long strong posts, distant from each other a little more than the breadth of the animal, on which were fastened beams thirty feet long, which stretched across the precipice, by means of which they formed a kind of bridge, and covered it with earth; a little lower, another; then a third bridge, with several others one after another, where steeps were found. The elephant walked forward on solid footing; but, before he came to the end, the posts underneath were cut, and the bridge falling, obliged him to slide down gently to the beginning of the next bridge, which some of them performed standing, others on their haunches. When they arrived at the level of another bridge, they were again carried down, by its falling in like manner; and this operation was repeated until they came to more level ground. The Romans advanced that day scarcely more than seven miles; and even of this journey little was performed on foot. Their method of proceeding in general was rolling themselves down, together with their arms and baggage, by which they were severely hurt; insomuch, that even their commander, who led them such a march, did not deny, but that the whole army might have been cut off by a small party. During the night, they arrived at a small plain; but, as it was hemmed in on every side, they could not immediately discover whether it was a place of danger or not. However, as they had, beyond their expectation, at length found good footing, they judged it necessary to wait, during the next day, in that deep valley for Popillius, and the forces left behind with him; who, though the enemy gave them no disturbance, suffered severely from the difficulties of the ground — almost, indeed, as if they had been harassed by an enemy. These having joined the main body, the whole proceeded, on the third day, through a pass called by the natives Callipeuce. The road before them was not more easy than what they had passed; but experience had taught them to surmount the difficulties, while they were supported by more comfortable hopes, as they saw no enemy any where, and as they were coming nearer to the sea. On the fourth day, they marched down into the plains, where they pitched their camp of infantry between Heracleus and Libethrus, the greater part being posted on hills, the rest occupying a valley and part of the plain where the cavalry encamped.
VI. The King, it is said, was bathing, when he was informed of the enemy’s approach; on hearing which, he started up from his seat, in a fright, crying out, that he was conquered without a battle; he then rushed out, and afterwards continued in a state of such perturbation, that he could neither give any orders, nor form any plan, but what his fears dictated, and even these he frequently altered. Of his two most intimate friends, he sent Nicias to Pella, where his treasure was lodged, with orders to throw all that he found there into the sea, and Andronicus to Thessalonica, to burn the dock-yards. At the same time he recalled Hippias and Asclepiodotus from the places which they had been appointed to guard, and opened every pass to the Romans. He went himself to Dius, where, collecting all the golden statues, that they might not fall a prey to the enemy, he put them on board the fleet, which he ordered to remove with all speed to Pydna. This behaviour of Perseus was the cause, that the conduct of the consul, in venturing into a situation out of which he could not retreat without the enemy’s permission, although it might have been deemed rash and inconsiderate, yet carried, in fact, the appearance of judicious boldness. For there were only two passes through which the Romans could remove from their present situation: one through Tempe into Thessaly, the other by Dius into Macedonia; and both these were occupied by parties of the King’s troops. So that if an intrepid commander had, only for ten days, maintained his ground, without yielding to the first appearance of the Romans’ approach, they could neither have retreated by Tempe, nor have had any road open for the conveyance of provisions from thence. For Tempe is a pass of such a nature, that, supposing no obstruction given by an enemy, it is difficult to get through it; being so narrow, for the length of five miles, that there is barely room for a loaded horse to pass: the precipices, also, on both sides are so abrupt, that is scarcely possible to look down from them, without a degree of dizziness of the eyes and head; while the horror of the scene is increased by the roaring and depth of the river Peneus flowing through the middle of the glen. This defile, in its nature so dangerous, had, for its security, four parties of the King’s troops, stationed in different places: one near Gonnus, at the first entrance; another in an impregnable fortress at Condylos; a third near Lapathus, in a place called Charax: and the fourth on the road itself, about midway, where the valley is narrowest, and which might have been easily defended, even by half a score men. All possibility either of retreating, or of receiving provisions through Tempe, being cut off, the Romans, in order to return, must have crossed over the same mountains from which they came down; but, even though they might have been able to effect this by passing unobserved, they never could have accomplished it openly, and while the enemy kept possession of the heights; and, besides, the difficulties which they had already experienced would have precluded every hope of the kind. In this situation, to which want of caution had brought them, they would have no other plan left than to force their way into Macedonia, through the midst of the enemy posted at Dius; and, if the gods had not deprived the King of his understanding, this would have been extremely difficult. For the space between the foot of Mount Olympus and the sea is not much more than a mile in breadth; one half of which is taken up by the mouth of the river Baphirus, which forms a large morass, and, of the remaining plain, a great share is occupied by the town and the temple of Jupiter; the rest, being a very small space, might have been shut up with a trench and rampart of no great length; or, so great was the plenty of stones and timber on the spot, that a wall might have been drawn across, and towers erected. But the King’s judgment was so entirely blinded by the sudden fright, that he reflected not upon any one of these circumstances; on the contrary he evacuated all his strong posts, leaving them open to the enemy, and fled back to Pydna.
VII. The consul, perceiving that the enemy’s total want of courage and conduct presented him a most favourable prospect, not only of safety, but of success, sent back a messenger to Larissa, with orders to Spurius Lucretius to seize on the deserted forts about Tempe; then, sending forward Popillius, to examine all the passes round Dius, and learning that all was clear, he marched in two days to that town, ordering the camp to be pitched under the walls of the temple, that no violation might be offered to that sacred place. He went himself into the city; and seeing it, though not large, yet highly ornamented with public buildings and abundance of statues, and remarkably well fortified, he could scarcely believe that a place of such importance had been abandoned, without a design to cover some stratagem. He waited, therefore, one day, to examine all the country round; then he decamped; and, supposing that he should find plenty of corn in his way, advanced to a river called the Mitys. On the day following, continuing his march, he received the voluntary surrender of the city of Agassa; whereupon, in order to gain the good opinion of the rest of the Macedonians, he contented himself with receiving hostages, assuring the inhabitants, that he would leave them their city without a garrison, and that they should live free from taxes, and under their own laws. Proceeding thence one day’s march, he encamped at the river Ascordus; but, finding that the farther he removed from Thessaly, the greater was the scarcity of every thing, he returned to Dius; which clearly demonstrated how much he must have suffered if he had been shut out from an intercourse with Thessaly, since he found it unsafe to go to any great distance from it. Perseus, having drawn all his forces into one body, and assembled all his generals, reprimanded severely the commanders of the garrisons, and particularly Hippias, and Asclepiodotus: asserting, that they had betrayed to the Romans the keys of Macedonia; although, in fact, no one deserved more justly to be blamed for it than himself. The consul, on seeing the fleet at sea, conceived hopes that they were coming with provisions, for every article had now become very dear and very scarce: but when the ships came into harbour, he was informed, that the transports had been left behind at Magnesia. He was then under great perplexity to determine what measures to take; so hard did he find it to struggle with the difficulties of his situation, though not aggravated by any effort of the enemy; when, very seasonably, a letter arrived from Lucretius, acquainting him that he was in possession of all the forts about Tempe and Phila, and had found in them great plenty of corn and other necessaries.
VIII. This news highly rejoiced the consul; and he immediately removed his quarters from Dius to Phila, in order to strengthen that post, and, at the same time, to distribute corn to the soldiers, on the spot, as the carriage of it thence would be tedious. That march gave rise to opinions not at all favourable to his reputation: some said that he retired from the enemy through fear; because, if he had staid, he must have risked a battle: others, that, not considering the daily changes produced by fortune in the affairs of war, he had let slip out of his hands, advantages which threw themselves in his way, and which, in all probability, he could never regain. For, by giving up the possession of Dius, he at once roused the enemy to action; who at length saw the necessity of endeavouring to recover what he had lost before, through his own fault. On hearing of the consul’s departure, therefore, Perseus marched back to Dius, repaired whatever had been destroyed by the Romans, rebuilt the battlements which they had thrown down, strengthened the fortifications all around, and then pitched his camp within five miles of the city, on the hither bank of Enipeus, making use of the river, the passage of which was extremely difficult, as a defence to his post. The Enipeus, which rises in a valley of Mount Olympus, is a small stream during the summer, but is raised by the winter rains to a violent torrent, when, as it runs over the rocks, it forms furious eddies, and, by sweeping away the earth at the bottom into the sea, makes very deep gulphs, while the sinking of the middle of the channel renders the banks both high and steep. By the help of this river, Perseus thought that he might impede the march of the enemy, and perhaps prevent his proceeding any farther during the remainder of the summer. In the mean time, the consul sent Popillius, with two thousand men, against Heracleus, about five miles from Phila, midway between Dius and Tempe, and which stands on a steep rock hanging over the river.
IX. Popillius, before he attacked the town, sent to recommend to the magistrates, rather to try the honour and clemency of the Romans than their power; but this advice was totally disregarded, the fires in the King’s camp on the Enipeus being now within their sight. The attack was then commenced by assaults, and with works and machines, as well on the side facing the sea (for the ships had been brought up close to the shore), as on land. A party of Roman youths actually gained possession of the lowest part of the wall, by turning to the purposes of war a kind of sport which they were accustomed to practise in the circus. In those times, when the present extravagant fashion of filling the area with beasts of every kind was yet unknown, it was customary to contrive various kinds of amusements; for when one chariot race and one set of tumblers were exhibited, both the performances scarcely filled up the space of an hour. Among other diversions, the directors of the games used to introduce about sixty young men in arms, sometimes more, whose performances were partly a representation of troops going through the military exercise, and partly a display of more accurate skill than appeared in the practice of soldiers, and which approached nearer to the mode of fighting used by gladiators. After performing various evolutions, they formed in a square body, with their shields raised over their heads, and closed together, the foremost standing upright, the next stooping a little, the third and fourth lines more and more, and so on, until the hindmost rested on their knees, thus composing a covering in the shape of a tortoise-shell, and sloping, like the roof a house. Then two armed men, who stood at the distance of about fifty feet, ran forward, and after some menacing flourishes of their arms, mounted over the closed shields, from the bottom to the top of this roof; and, treading as steadily as if on solid ground, sometimes paraded along the extreme edges of it, as if repelling an enemy, and sometimes engaged each other on the middle of it. On the present occasion they raised the like against a part of the wall, and the soldiers, standing thereon, mounted, until they were as high as the defendants on the battlements; these they soon beat off, and the soldiers of two companies climbed over into the town. The only difference between this and the playful contrivance was, that here the outside men in the front and in the two flanks, did not raise their shields over their heads, lest they should expose their bodies, but held them before them, as in battle; so that the weapons thrown at them, from the walls, as they advanced, did them no injury, while those that were poured in showers on the roof slided down the smooth slope to the bottom, without doing any mischief. When Heracleus was taken, the consul removed his quarters thither, as if he intended to besiege Dius; and, after driving the King thence, to advance to Pieria. But seeing it time to prepare quarters for the winter, he ordered roads to be made for the conveyance of provisions from Thessaly, and proper places to be chosen for storehouses; also huts to be built, where the people employed in bringing the provisions might lodge.
X. Perseus, having at length recovered his spirits, after the panic with which he had been seized, began to wish that obedience had not been paid to the orders which he had given in his fright, to throw the treasures at Pella into the sea, and to burn the naval arsenals at Thessalonica. Andronicus, indeed, whom he had sent to Thessalonica, deferred the execution of his order, leaving him time for repentance, which accordingly took place; but Nicias, less provident, threw into the sea what treasure he found at Pella: his error, however, turned to be not without remedy, inasmuch as the greatest part of that treasure was brought up again by divers. Nevertheless, Perseus was so very much ashamed of his terror on the occasion, that he caused the divers to be privately put to death, together with Andronicus and Nicias, that there might be no living witness of such dastardly conduct. In the mean time, Caius Marcius, with the fleet, sailed from Heracleus to Thessalonica. Landing his men, he made wide depredations on the country; and, when the troops from the city came out against him, he defeated them in several actions, and drove them back in dismay within their walls. He even alarmed the city itself; but the townsmen, erecting engines of every kind, wounded, with stones thrown from them, not only such as straggled carelessly near the walls, but even those who were on board the ships. He therefore re-embarked his troops; and, giving up the design of besieging Thessalonica, proceeded thence to Ænia, fifteen miles distant, situated opposite to Pydna, in a fertile country. After ravaging the lands in that quarter, he coasted along the shore until he arrived at Antigonea. Here his troops landed, and for some time carried their depredations through all the country round, putting a great deal of booty on board the ships; but afterwards, a party of Macedonians, consisting of foot and horse intermixed, fell upon them as they straggled, put them to a precipitate flight, and, pursuing them to the shore, killed near five hundred, and took as many prisoners. Extreme necessity, on finding themselves hindered from regaining their vessels, roused the courage of the Roman soldiers, filling them with despair of any other means of safety than by resistance, and with indignation at their disgrace. They renewed the fight on the shore, assisted by the seamen; and here about two hundred Macedonians were killed, and a like number taken. From Antigonea the fleet sailed on to the district of Pallene, where a descent was made for the purpose of plundering. This district belonged to the territory of Cassandrea, and was by far the most plentiful of any at which they had yet touched on the coast. There they were met by King Eumenes, who came from Elea with twenty decked ships; and King Prusias also sent five of the like kind thither.
XI. Such a large accession of strength encouraged the prætor to lay siege to Cassandrea. This city was built by King Cassander, in the pass which connects the territory of Pallene with the rest of Macedonia. It is washed on one side by the Toronæan, on another by the Macedonian sea; for it stands on a neck of land which stretches into the ocean, and rises in the part opposite Magnesia, to a height equal to that of Mount Athos, forming two unequal promontories, the larger called Posideum, the smaller Canastræum. The besiegers formed their attacks on two different sides: the Roman general, at a place called Clitæ, drew a trench from the Macedonian to the Toronæan sea, to which he added pointed palisades, to cut off the communication; while, on the other side, next to the Euripus, Eumenes carried on his attack. The Romans underwent a vast deal of labour in filling up a trench, which Perseus had dug in the way; and, on the prætor inquiring where the earth that had been taken out of it was thrown, as he saw no heaps of it any where, some arches were shown him that were closed up with it, not of equal thickness with the old wall, but with a single row of brick. On this, he formed the design of opening a way into the city, by breaking through that wall; and he hoped to be able to effect this before it should be discovered, if, by assaulting another part by scalade, and raising a tumult there, he could divert the attention of the besieged to the defence of the place attacked. There were in garrison at Cassandrea, besides the younger inhabitants, who formed no contemptible body, eight hundred Agrians and two thousand Illyrians from Penestia, sent thither by Pleuratus, and the men of both countries were remarkably warlike. While these were busy in defending the walls, and the Romans using their utmost efforts to scale them, in an instant of time the arches were broken down, and the city laid open; and if those who effected this had been armed, they must have immediately become masters of the town. When the soldiers were told that this work was accomplished, they were so elated with joy, that they raised a sudden shout, expecting to force their way in at several different places.
XII. At first the enemy wondered what this sudden shout could mean; but when Pytho and Philip, the commanders of the garrison, were told that the city was laid open, they concluded that every advantage resulting from that event would be in favour of whichever party should make the first charge; and, therefore, they sallied out, with a strong body of Agrians and Illyrians, who, while the Romans were coming together from various parts, and endeavouring to form their battalions to march into the city, attacked them thus disordered and irregular: and, quickly routing them, drove them to the trench, into which they were tumbled, in heaps, one over another. About six hundred were killed in this action, and almost every one that was found between the wall and the trench was wounded. The blow meditated by the prætor, having thus recoiled on himself, damped his spirit for any other attempts; and, as Eumenes made little or no progress, though he carried on his operations both by land and sea, they concurred in a resolution to strengthen their guards, in order to prevent the introduction of any reinforcement from Macedonia; and, since they had not succeeded by assault, to carry on the siege by regular approaches. While they were adjusting matters, according to this plan, ten barks, belonging to Perseus, sent from Thessalonica, with a chosen body of Gallic auxiliaries, observing the enemy’s ships lying at anchor in the road, took advantage of the darkness of the night, and, keeping as close to the shore as possible, in a single line, effected their passage to the city. Intelligence of this new addition of force obliged both the Romans and Eumenes to raise the siege. They then sailed round the promontory, and brought the fleet into the harbour of Toron. This town, also, they intended to besiege; but, perceiving that it had a strong garrison to defend it, they dropped the design, and proceeded to Demetrias. When they approached this place, they saw the fortifications fully manned, they therefore sailed on, and brought the fleet into harbour at Iolcos, intending, after ravaging the country there, to proceed to the siege of Demetrias.
XIII. In the mean time, the consul, not to lie inactive, sent Marcus Popillius, with five thousand men, to reduce the city of Melibœa. This city stands at the foot of Mount Ossa, where it stretches out into Thessaly, and is very advantageously situated for commanding Demetrias. The towns-people were terrified by the approach of the enemy; but, soon recovering from the fright occasioned by the unexpectedness of the event, they ran hastily in arms to the gates and walls, to those parts where they apprehended an attack; so as to cut off from the enemy all hope of taking the place by an immediate assault. The Romans, therefore, made preparations for a siege, and began their works for making the approaches. When Perseus was informed of this, and that the fleet lay at Iolcos, intending to proceed thence to attack Demetrias, he sent Euphranor, one of his generals, with two thousand chosen men, to Melibœa. His orders were, that, if he could compel the Romans to retire from before the place, he should then march secretly into Demetrias, before the enemy should bring up their troops from Iolcos. As soon as the force employed against Melibœa beheld him on the high grounds, they abandoned their works in great consternation, and set them on fire. Thus was Melibœa relieved, and Euphranor marched instantly to Demetrias. His arrival gave the townsmen full confidence that they should be able, not only to defend their walls, but to protect their lands, also, from depredations; and they made several irruptions on the straggling parties of the plunderers, not without success. However, the prætor and the King rode round the walls to view the situation of the city, and try whether they might attempt it on any side, either by storm or works. It was reported, that some overtures of friendship between Eumenes and Perseus were here agitated, through Cydas, a Cretan, and Antimachus, governor of Demetrias. It is certain, that the armies retired from Demetrias. Eumenes sailed to the consul; and, after congratulating him on his success in penetrating into Macedonia, went home to Pergamus. Marcus Figulus, the prætor, sent part of his fleet to winter at Sciathus, and with the remainder repaired to Orenm in Eubœa; judging that the most convenient place for sending supplies to the armies in Macedonia and Thessaly. There are very different accounts given respecting King Eumenes: if Valerius Antias is to be believed, he neither gave any assistance with his fleet to the prætor, though often solicited by letters; nor did he part with the consul in good humour, being offended at not being permitted to lie in the same camp with him; he says, too, that he could not be prevailed on even to leave the Gallic horsemen that he had brought with him. But his brother Attalus remained with the consul, and in the constant tenor of his conduct evinced a sincere attachment and an extraordinary degree of zeal and activity in the service.
XIV. While the war was proceeding thus in Macedonia, ambassadors came to Rome, from a chieftain of the Gauls beyond the Alps, whose name is said to have been Balanos, but of what tribe is not mentioned. They brought an offer of assistance towards the war in Macedonia. The senate returned him thanks, and sent him presents — a golden chain of two pounds weight, golden bowls to the amount of four pounds, a horse completely caparisoned, and a suit of horseman’s armour. Afterwards, the Gauls, ambassadors from Pamphylia, brought into the senate-house a golden crown, of the value of twenty thousand Philippics, and requested permission to deposit it, as an offering, in the shrine of Jupiter supremely good and great, and to offer sacrifice in the Capitol, which was granted. The said ambassadors having expressed a wish to renew the treaty of friendship, a gracious answer was given, and a present was made to each of two thousand asses* . Then audience was given to the ambassadors of King Prusias; and, a little after, to those of the Rhodians. The subject of both these embassies was the same, but their manner of treating it was widely different. The purpose of both was, to effect a peace with King Perseus. The address of Prusias consisted of intreaties rather than demands; for he declared, that “he had hitherto supported the cause of the Romans, and would continue to support it. But, on Perseus sending ambassadors to him, on the subject of putting an end to the war with Rome, he had promised them to become a mediator with the senate:” and he requested that, “if they could prevail on themselves to lay aside their resentment, they would allow him some share of merit in the re-establishment of peace.” Such was the discourse of the King’s ambassadors. The Rhodians, after ostentatiously recounting their many services to the Roman people, and arrogating to themselves rather the greater share of its successes, particularly in the case of King Antiochus, proceeded in this manner; that, “at a time when peace subsisted between the Macedonians and Romans, they likewise commenced a friendship with King Perseus, which they had, since, unwillingly broken, without having any reason to complain of him, but merely because it was the desire of the Romans to draw them into a confederacy in the war. For three years past, they felt many inconveniencies from the war. In consequence of the interruption of commerce, and the loss of their port duties and provisions, their island was distressed by a general scarcity. When their countrymen could no longer suffer this, they had sent other ambassadors into Macedonia, to Perseus, to warn him that it was the wish of the Rhodians that he should conclude a peace with the Romans, and had sent them to Rome with the same message. The Rhodians would afterwards consider what measures they should judge proper to be taken against either party that should obstruct a pacification.” I am convinced that no person, even at the present time, can hear or read such expressions without indignation; we may, then, easily judge what emotions they produced in the minds of the senators.
XV. According to the account of Claudius, no answer was given; and the senate only directed a decree to be read, by which the Roman people ordered that the Carians and Lycians should enjoy independence; and that a letter should be sent immediately to each of those nations, acquainting them therewith. On hearing which, the principal ambassador, whose arrogant demeanour, just before, seemed to hold the senate in contempt, sunk into abject despondency. Other writers say, that an answer was given to this effect: “That, at the commencement of the present war, the Roman people had learned, from unquestionable authority, that the Rhodians, in concert with King Perseus, had formed secret machinations against their commonwealth; and that, if that matter had been doubtful hitherto, the words of their ambassadors, just now, had reduced it to a certainty; as, in general, treachery, though at first sufficiently cautious, yet, in the end, betrays itself. The Rhodians, by their messengers, had acted the part of arbiters of war and peace throughout the world: at their nod the Romans must take up arms and lay them down; and must soon appeal, not to the gods, but to the Rhodians, for their sanction of treaties. And was this indeed the case; that, unless their orders were obeyed, and the armies withdrawn from Macedonia, they would consider what measures they should take? What the Rhodians might determine, they themselves knew best; but the Roman people, as soon as the conquest of Perseus should be completed, an event which they hoped was at no great distance, would most certainly consider how to make due retribution to each state, according to its deserts in the course of the war.” Nevertheless the usual presents of two thousand asses each were sent to the ambassadors, which they did not accept.
XVI. Then were read letters from the consul Quintus Marcius, informing the senate, that “he had passed the mountains, and penetrated into Macedonia; that the prætor had collected there, and procured from other places, stores of provisions for the approaching winter; and that he had bought from the Epirots twenty thousand measures of wheat, ten thousand of barley, the price of which he desired might be paid to their ambassadors in Rome: that clothing for the troops must be sent from Rome; and that he wanted about two hundred horses, which he wished to be Numidian; where he was, he could procure none.” The senate decreed, that every thing should be done as desired in the consul’s letter. The prætor, Caius Sulpicius, agreed with contractors for conveying into Macedonia six thousand gowns, thirty thousand tunics, and the horses, all which were to be approved by the consul; and he paid the Epirot ambassadors the price of the corn. He then introduced to the senate, Onesimus, son of Pytho, a Macedonian of distinction. He had always advised the King to peaceable measures, and recommended to him, that, as his father Philip had, to the last day of his life, made it an established rule to read over, twice every day, the treaty concluded with the Romans, so he should, if not daily, yet frequently, observe the same practice. Finding that he could not dissuade him from war, he at first absented himself on various pretences, that he might not be present at proceedings which he could not approve. But at last, having discovered that suspicions were harboured against him, and hints thrown out of charging him with treason, he went over to the Romans, and was of great service to the consul. When he was introduced into the senate-house, he mentioned these circumstances, and the senate thereupon decreed that he should be enrolled in the number of their allies; that ample accommodations should be provided for him; also, a grant of two hundred acres of land, in that part of the Tarentine territory which was the public property of the Roman people; with a house in Tarentum. The charge of executing all which was committed to Caius Decimius, the prætor. On the ides of December, the censors performed the general survey with more severity than usual. A great many were deprived of their horses, among whom was Publius Rutilius, who, when tribune of the people, had carried on a violent prosecution against them; he was, besides, degraded from his tribe, and disfranchised. In pursuance of a decree of the senate, one half of the taxes of that year was paid by the quæstors into the hands of the censors, to defray the expenses of public works. Tiberius Sempronius, out of the money assigned to him, purchased for the public, the house of Publius Africanus, behind the old house, near the statue of Vertumnus, with the butchers’ stalls and shops adjoining; where he built the public court-house, afterwards called the Sempronian.
XVII. The end of the year now approached, and people’s thoughts were so deeply engaged by the war in Macedonia, that the general topic of their conversation was, what consuls they should choose, to bring that war, at length, to a conclusion. The senate, therefore, passed an order, that Cneius Servilius should come home, to hold the elections. Sulpicius, the prætor, sent the order of the senate to the consul; and, in a few days after, read his answer in public, wherein he promised to be in the city before the [. . . .] day of [. . . .] The consul came in due time, and the election was finished on the day appointed. The consuls chosen were, Lucius Æmilius Paullus, a second time, fourteen years after his first consulship, and Caius Licinius Crassus. Next day, the following were appointed prætors: Cneius Bæbius Tamphilus, Lucius Anicius Gallus, Cneius Octavius, Publius Fonteius Balbus, Marcus Æbutius Elva, and Caius Papirius Carbo. The senate’s anxiety about the Macedonian war stimulated them to more than ordinary expedition in all their proceedings; they therefore ordered, that the magistrates elect should immediately cast lots for their provinces, that it might be known which consul was to have the command in Macedonia, and which prætor that of the fleet; in order that they might, without loss of time, consider and prepare whatever was requisite for the service, and consult the senate on any point where their direction was necessary. They voted, that, “on the magistrates coming into office, the Latine festival should be celebrated as early as the rules of religion permitted; and that the consul, who was to go into Macedonia, should not be detained on account of it.” When these orders were passed, Italy and Macedonia were named as the provinces for the consuls; and for the prætors, besides the two jurisdictions in the city, the fleet, Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia. As to the consuls, Macedonia fell to Æmilius, Italy to Licinius. Of the prætors, Cneius Bæbius got the city jurisdiction; Lucius Anicius the foreign, under a rule to go wherever the senate should direct; Cneius Octavius, the fleet; Publius Fonteius, Spain; Marcus Æbutius, Sicily; and Caius Papirius, Sardinia.
XVIII. It immediately became evident to all, that the conduct of Lucius Æmilius, in the prosecution of the war, would not be deficient in vigour; for, besides the well-known energy of his character, his thoughts were turned, with unremitting attention, solely on the business relative to that war. In the first place, he requested the senate to send commissioners into Macedonia, to review the armies and the fleet, and to bring authentic information respecting the wants both of the land and sea forces; to make what discoveries they could respecting the state of the King’s forces; and to learn how much of the country was in our power, how much in that of the enemy; whether the Romans were still encamped among the woods and mountains, or had got clear of all the difficult passes, and were come down into the plains; who were faithful allies to us, who were doubtful, and ready to join either party that fortune favoured, and who were avowed enemies; what store of provisions was prepared, and whence new supplies might be brought by land carriage, whence by the fleet; and what progress had been made during the last campaign, either on land or sea. For he thought, that, by gaining a thorough knowledge of all these particulars, the plans for future proceedings might be constructed on sure grounds. The senate directed the consul Cneius Servilius to send as commissioners, into Macedonia, such persons as should be approved of by Lucius Æmilius. Cneius Domitius Ahenobarbus, Aulus Licinius Nerva, and Lucius Bæbius, were commissioned accordingly, and they began their journey two days after. Towards the close of this year it was reported that two showers of stones had fallen, one in the territory of Rome, the other in that of Veii; and the nine days solemnity was performed. Of the priests, died this year, Publius Quintilius Varus, flamen of Mars, and Marcus Claudius Marcellus, decemvir, in whose room was substituted Cneius Octavius. It has been remarked, as an instance of the increasing magnificence of the times, that, in the Circensian games, exhibited by Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica and Publius Lentulus, curule ædiles, sixty-three panthers, with forty bears and elephants, made a part of the show.
Y. R.584.
168.XIX. At the beginning of the following year, Lucius Æmilius Paullus and Caius Licinius,
consuls, having commenced their administration on the ides of March, the senators were impatient to hear what
propositions were to be laid before them, particularly with respect to Macedonia, by the consul to whose lot that
province had fallen; but Paullus said, that he had as yet nothing to propose to them, the commissioners not being
returned: that “they were then at Brundusium, after having been twice driven back to Dyrrachium in attempting the
passage: that he intended, shortly, to propose the business of his province to their consideration, when he should have
obtained the information which was previously necessary, and which he expected within very few days.” He added, that,
“in order that nothing should delay his setting out, the day before the calends of April had been fixed for the Latine
festival; after finishing which solemnity, he and Cneius Octavius would begin their journey as soon as the senate
should direct: that, in his absence, his colleague Caius Licinius would take care that every thing necessary to be
provided, or sent to the army, should be provided and sent; and that, in the mean time, audience might be given to the
embassies of foreign nations.” The usual sacrifice being duly offered, the first introduced were ambassadors from
Alexandria, sent by King Ptolemy and Queen Cleopatra. They came into the senate-house dressed in mourning, with their
hair and beard neglected, holding in their hands branches of olive; there they prostrated themselves, and their
discourse was even more piteous than their dress. Antiochus, King of Syria, who had formerly been a hostage at Rome,
had lately, under the honourable pretext of restoring the elder Ptolemy to the throne, made war on his younger brother,
then in possession of Alexandria; and having gained the victory, in a sea-fight off Pelusium, and thrown a temporary
bridge across the Nile, he led over his army, and laid siege to Alexandria itself, to the great terror of the
inhabitants; so that he seemed almost on the point of taking possession of that very opulent kingdom. The ambassadors,
after complaining of these proceedings, besought the senate to succour those princes, the faithful friends of their
empire. They said, that “such had been the kindness of the Roman people to Antiochus, such its influence over all kings
and nations, that, if they only sent ambassadors, to give him notice that the senate were displeased at war being made
with princes in alliance with them, he would instantly retire from the walls of Alexandria, and lead his army home into
Syria. But, if this were not done, Ptolemy and Cleopatra would soon come to Rome in the character of dethroned exiles,
which must excite some degree of shame in the Roman people, for having neglected to succour them in their extreme
distress.” The senate were so much affected by the supplications of the Alexandrians, that they immediately sent Caius
Popillius Lænas, Caius Decimius, and Caius Hostilius, ambassadors, to put an end to the dispute between those kings.
Their instructions were, to go first to Antiochus, then to Ptolemy; and to acquaint them, that, unless hostilities were
stopped, whichever party should give cause to their continuance, must expect to be considered by the senate as neither
a friend nor an ally.
XX. These ambassadors set out, within three days, in company with those of Alexandria; and, on the last day of the feast of Minerva, the commissioners arrived from Macedonia. Their coming had been so impatiently wished for, that, if it had not been very late in the day, the consuls would have assembled the senate immediately. Next day the senate met, and received the report of the commissioners. They stated, that “the army had been led through pathless and difficult wilds into Macedonia, with more risk than advantage: that Pieria, to which its march had been directed, was then possessed by the King; and the two camps so close to each other, as to be separated only by the river Enipeus: that the King was not disposed to fight, nor was our general strong enough to compel him; and, besides, that the severity of the winter had interrupted all military operations: that the soldiers were maintained in idleness, and had not corn sufficient for more than six days: that the force of the Macedonians was said to mount to thirty thousand effective men: that if Appius Claudius had a sufficient force at Lychnidus; the King might be perplexed by his standing between two enemies; but that, as the case stood, both Appius, and the troops under his command, were in the utmost danger, unless either a regular army were speedily sent thither, or they were removed thence. From the camp,” they stated that “they had gone to the fleet; where they learned, that many of the seamen had perished by sickness; that others, particularly such as came from Sicily, had gone off to their own homes; and that the ships were in want of men, while those who were on board had neither pay nor clothing: that Eumenes and his fleet, as if driven thither accidentally, had both come and gone away without any apparent reason; nor did the intentions of that King seem to be thoroughly settled.” While their report stated every particular in the conduct of Eumenes as dubious, it represented Attalus as steady and faithful in the highest degree.
XXI. After the commissioners were heard, Lucius Æmilius said, that he then proposed for consideration the business of the war; and the senate decreed, that “tribunes for eight legions should be appointed, half by the consuls, and half by the people; but that none should be named for that year who had not held some office of magistracy: that, out of all the military tribunes, Lucius Æmilius should select such as he chose for the two legions that were to serve in Macedonia; and that, as soon as the Latine festival should be finished, the said consul, with the prætor Cneius Octavius, to whose lot the fleet had fallen, should repair to that province.” To these was added a third, Lucius Anicius, the prætor who had the foreign jurisdiction; for it was resolved that he should succeed Appius Claudius in the province of Illyria, near Lychnidus. The charge of raising recruits was laid on the consul Caius Licinius, who was ordered to enlist, of Roman citizens, seven thousand foot and two hundred horse, and to demand, from the Latine confederates, seven thousand foot and four hundred horse; and also to write to Cneius Servilius, governor of Gaul, to raise there six hundred horse. This force he was ordered to send, with all expedition, into Macedonia, to his colleague. It was resolved, that there should be no more than two legions in that province, but that their numbers should be filled up so as that each should contain six thousand foot and three hundred horse; and that the rest of the foot and horse should be placed in the different garrisons; that such men as were unfit for service should be discharged, and that the allies should be obliged to raise another body of ten thousand foot, and eight hundred horse. These were assigned as a reinforcement to Anicius, in addition to the two legions which he was ordered to carry into Illyria, consisting each of five thousand two hundred foot, and three hundred horse; and five thousand seamen were raised for the fleet. The consul Licinius was ordered to employ two legions in the service of his province, and to add to them ten thousand foot and six hundred horse of the allies.
XXII. When the senate had passed these decrees, the consul Lucius Æmilius went out from the senate-house into the assembly of the people, whom he addressed in a discourse to this effect: “Romans, I think I have perceived that your congratulations, on my obtaining, by lot, the province of Macedonia, were warmer than either when I was saluted consul, or on the day of my commencement in office; for which I can assign no other reason, than your having conceived an opinion, that I shall be able to bring the war with Perseus, which has been long protracted, to a conclusion becoming the majesty of the Roman people. I trust, that the gods also have favoured this disposal of the lots, and will give me their aid. That some of these consequences will ensue, I have reason to believe; that the rest will, I have grounds to expect. One thing I know, and take upon me to affirm, with certainty; which is, that I will endeavour, by every exertion in my power, that the hope which you have conceived of me may not be frustrated. Every thing necessary for the service, the senate has ordered; and, as it has been resolved, that I am to go abroad immediately, and I do not wish to delay; my colleague, Caius Licinius, whose excellent character you well know, will forward every measure with as much zeal, as if he himself were to carry on that war. I request, that full credit may be given to whatever I shall write to you, or to the senate; but that you will not encourage the propagation of rumours unsupported by authority. For, as the practice is at present, (and I have observed it to be uncommonly frequent, since this year began,) no man can so entirely divest himself of all regard to common fame, as not to let his spirits be damped. In every circle, and, truly, at every table, there are people who lead armies into Macedonia; who know where the camp ought to be placed; what posts ought to be occupied by troops; when and through what pass that territory should be entered; where magazines should be formed; how provisions should be conveyed by land and sea; and when it is proper to engage the enemy, when to lie quiet. And they not only determine what is best to be done, but, if any thing is done, in any other manner than what they have pointed out, they arraign the consul, as if he were on trial before them. These are great impediments to those who have the management of affairs; for every one cannot encounter injurious reports with the same constancy and firmness of mind as Fabius did, who chose to let his own ability be questioned through the folly of the people, rather than to mismanage the public business with a high reputation. I am not one of those who think that commanders ought at no time to receive advice; on the contrary, I should deem that man more proud than wise, who regulated every proceeding by the standard of his own single judgment. What then is my opinion? That commanders should be counselled, chiefly, by persons of known talent; by those who have made the art of war their particular study, and whose knowledge is derived from experience; from those who are present at the scene of action, who see the country, who see the enemy; who see the advantages that occasions offer, and who, like people embarked in the same ship, are sharers of the danger. If, therefore, any one thinks himself qualified to give advice respecting the war which I am to conduct, which may prove advantageous to the public, let him not refuse his assistance to the state, but let him come with me into Macedonia. He shall be furnished with a ship, a horse, a tent; even his travelling charges shall be defrayed. But if he thinks this too much trouble, and prefers the repose of a city life to the toils of war, let him not, on land, assume the office of a pilot. The city, in itself, furnishes abundance of topics for conversation; let it confine its passion for talking within its own precincts, and rest assured, that we shall pay no attention to any councils, but such as shall be framed within our camp.” Soon after this speech, the Latine festival being celebrated on the day before the calends of April, and the sacrifice on the mount affording favourable omens, the consul, and Cneius Octavius, the prætor, set out directly for Macedonia. Some writers mention, that the consul, at his departure, was escorted by multitudes unusually numerous; and that people, with confident hope, presaged a conclusion of the Macedonian war, and the speedy return of the consul, to a glorious triumph.
XXIII. During these occurrences in Italy, Perseus, though he could not, at first, prevail on himself to complete the design which he had projected, of attaching to his party Gentius, King of Illyria, on account of the money which would be demanded for it; yet, when he found, that the Romans had penetrated through the difficult passes, and that the final determination of the war drew near, resolved to defer it no longer, and having, by his ambassador Hippias, consented to pay three thousand talents of silver,* provided hostages were given on both sides; he now sent Pantauchus, one of his most trusty friends, to conclude the business. Pantauchus met the Illyrian King at Medeo, in the province of Labeas, and there received his oath and the hostages. Gentius likewise sent an ambassador, named Olympio, to require an oath and hostages from Perseus. Together with him, came persons to receive the money; and, by the advice of Pantauchus, to go to Rhodes, with ambassadors from Macedonia. For this purpose, Parmenio and Morcus were appointed. Their instructions were, first, to receive the King’s oath, the hostages, and money; and then to proceed to Rhodes; and it was hoped, that, by the joint influence of the two Kings, the Rhodians might be prevailed upon to declare war against Rome, and that, if they were joined by that state, which was acknowledged to hold the first rank as a maritime power, the Romans would be precluded from every prospect of success, either on land or sea. On hearing of the approach of the Illyrians, Perseus marched at the head of all his cavalry, from his camp on the Enipeus, and met them at Dius. There the articles agreed on were executed in the presence of the troops, who were drawn up in a circle for the purpose; for the King chose that they should be witness to the ratification of the treaty with Gentius, supposing that this event would add greatly to their confidence of success. The hostages were given and taken in the sight of all; those who were to receive the money, were sent to Pella, where the King’s treasure lay; and the persons who were to go to Rhodes, with the Illyrian ambassadors, were ordered to take ship at Thessalonica. There was present one Metrodorus, who had lately come from Rhodes, and who, on the authority of Dinon and Polyaratus, two principal members of that state, affirmed, that the Rhodians were ready to join in the war; he was set at the head of the joint embassy.
XXIV. At this time Perseus sent ambassadors to Eumenes and Antiochus, charged with the same message to both, which was such as the state of affairs might seem to suggest: that “a free state, and a king, were, in their natures, hostile to each other. That the practice of the Roman people was, to attack kings, singly, one after another; and, what was more shameful, to work the destruction of them, by the power of other kings. Thus, his father was overpowered by the aid of Attalus; and by the assistance of Eumenes, and of his father Philip, in part, Antiochus was vanquished; and now, both Eumenes and Prusias were armed against himself. If the regal power should be abolished in Macedonia; the next, in their way, would be Asia, which they had already rendered, in part, their own, under the pretence of liberating the states; and next to that lay Syria. Already Prusias was honoured by them far beyond Eumenes; and already Antiochus, in the moment of victory, was forbid to touch Egypt, the prize of his arms.” He desired each of them to “consider these matters seriously; and to guard against future contingencies, either by compelling the Romans to make peace with him, or, if they should persist in such an unjust war, by treating them as common enemies.” The message to Antiochus was sent openly; the ambassador to Eumenes went under the pretence of ransoming prisoners. But some more secret business was transacted between them, which, in addition to the jealousy and distrust already conceived by the Romans against Eumenes, brought on him charges of a heavier nature. For they considered him as a traitor, and nearly as an enemy, while the two Kings laboured to overreach each other in schemes of fraud and avarice. There was a Cretan, Called Cydas, an intimate of Eumenes; this man had formerly conferred, at Amphipolis, with one Chimarus, a countryman of his own, serving in the army of Perseus; and he, afterwards, had one meeting with Menecrates, and another with Archidamus, both officers under the King at Demetrias, close under the wall of the town. Cryphon, too, who was sent on that business, had, before that, executed two embassies to the same Eumenes. These conferences and embassies were notorious; but what the subject of them was, or what agreement had taken place between the Kings, remained a secret.
XXV. Now the truth of the matter was this: Eumenes neither wished success to Perseus, nor intended to employ his arms against him; and his ill-will arose, not so much from the enmity which they inherited from their fathers, as from the personal quarrels which had broken out between themselves. The jealousy of the two Kings was not so moderate, that Eumenes could, with patience, have seen Perseus acquiring so vast a share of power and of fame as must fall to his lot, if he conquered the Romans. Besides which, he saw that Perseus, from the commencement of the war, had tried every means which he could devise to bring about a peace; and every day, as the danger approached nearer, his wishes for it grew stronger; insomuch, that all his thoughts and actions were directed to that alone. He considered too, that as the war had been protracted beyond the expectations of the Romans, their commanders and senate would not be averse from putting an end to it, attended as it was with so great inconvenience and difficulty. Having discovered this inclination in both parties, he concluded, that, from the disgust of the stronger party, and the fears of the weaker, a pacification would probably ensue in the ordinary course of things; and therefore he wished to act in such a manner, as might enable him to assume to himself the merit of having effected a reconciliation. He therefore, sometimes, laboured to stipulate for a consideration for not affording assistance to the Romans, either on sea or land; at other times, for bringing about a peace with them. He demanded, for not interfering in the war, one thousand talents*; for effecting a peace, one thousand five hundred†; and for his sincerity in either case, he professed himself willing, not only to make oath, but to give hostages also. Perseus, stimulated by his fears, showed the greatest readiness in the beginning of the negotiation, and treated on the article respecting the hostages; when it was agreed, that, on their being received, they should be sent to Crete. But when the sum required came to be mentioned, there he hesitated; remarking that, in the case of kings of their high character, one, at least, of the considerations was too mean and sordid, both with respect to the giver, and still more so with respect to the receiver. He was sufficiently inclined to purchase a peace with Rome, but declined paying the money until the business should be concluded; proposing to lodge it, in the mean time, in the temple of Samothrace. As that island was under his own dominion, Eumenes said, that the money might as well be at Pella; and he struggled hard to obtain some part of it at the present. Thus, after all their endeavours to circumvent each other, they gained nothing but disgrace.
XXVI. This was not the only business which Perseus left unfinished from motives of avarice. It is seen that, for a small sum of money, he might have procured, through Eumenes, a secure peace, well purchased even with half of his kingdom; while, if defrauded, he might have exposed him to public view, as an enemy laden with the hire of treachery, and drawn upon him the just resentment of the Romans. It was from the same disposition that the alliance of King Gentius, when just brought to a conclusion, with the assistance of a large army of Gauls, who had penetrated through Illyria, and offered themselves to him, were lost: of these, came ten thousand horsemen, and the same number of footmen. The practice of the latter was to keep pace with the horses in their movements, and when any of the riders fell to mount in their place and carry on the fight. They had stipulated, that each horseman should receive, in immediate payment, ten golden philippicks, each footman five, and their commander one thousand. Perseus went from his camp on the Enipeus with half of his forces to meet them; and issued orders through the towns and villages near the road, to prepare provisions, so that they might have plenty of corn, wine, and cattle. He brought with him some horses, trappings, and cloaks, for presents to the chiefs; and a small quantity of gold to be divided among a few; for the multitude, he supposed, might be amused with hopes. He advanced as far as the city of Almana, and encamped on the bank of the river Axius, at which time the army of the Gauls lay near Desudaba, in Mædica, waiting for the promised hire. Thither he sent Antigonus, one of his nobles, with directions, that the said army should remove their camp to Bylazor, a place in Pæonia, and that their chiefs should come to him. They were at this time seventy-five miles distant from the river Axius, and the King’s camp. Antigonus, in his message, told them what great plenty of every thing was provided on the road by the King’s directions, and what presents of apparel, money, and horses he intended for them on their arrival. They answered, that they would judge of those things when they saw them; at the same time asking him, whether, according to their stipulation for immediate payment, he had brought with him the gold which was to be distributed to each footman and horseman? To this no direct answer was given, on which Clondicus, their prince, said, “Go back, then, and tell your King, that, until they receive the gold and the hostages, the Gauls will never move one step farther.” The King, on receipt of this declaration, called a council: and, as it was very plain what advice all the members would give; he, being a better guardian of his money than of his kingdom, began to descant on the perfidy and savage behaviour of the Gauls. “The disasters,” he said, “of many states demonstrated, that it would be dangerous to admit such a multitude into Macedonia, lest they might feel such allies more troublesome than their Roman enemies. Five thousand horsemen would be enough for them to employ in the war, and that number they need not be afraid to receive.”
XXVII. Every one understood him; but as none had the courage to declare their opinion, when asked, Antigonus was sent again, with a message, that the King chose to employ only five thousand horsemen, and set no value on the rest of their number. When the Barbarians heard this, they began to murmur, and show a great deal of anger at being brought so far from home; but Clondicus again asked him, whether he would pay even the five thousand, the hire agreed on. To this question, too, he received only evasive answers; on which the Gauls, dismissing the insidious envoy unhurt, which was what he himself had scarcely hoped, returned home to the Danube, after utterly wasting such lands of Thrace as lay near their road. Now, had this body of troops, while the King lay quiet on the Enipeus, been led, through the passes of Perrhæbia, into Thessaly, it might not only have stripped that country so bare, that the Romans could not expect supplies from thence; but might even have destroyed the cities themselves, while Perseus, by detaining his enemy at the river, would have put it out of their power to succour their allies. This done, the Romans had even found it difficult enough to take care of themselves, since they could neither stay where they were, after losing Thessaly, whence their army drew sustenance, nor move forward, as the camp of the Macedonians stood in their way. By this error, Perseus enlivened the hopes of the Romans, and damped not a little those of the Macedonians, who had placed much of their dependence on the prospect of that reinforcement. Through the same love of riches, he alienated King Gentius from his interest. When he paid, at Pella, three hundred talents to the persons sent by Gentius, he allowed them to seal up the money. He then ordered the talents to be carried to Pantauchus, and which he desired should be given immediately to the King. His people, who had charge of the money, sealed with the seals of the Illyrians, had directions to proceed by short journies, and when they should come to the bounds of Macedonia to halt there, and wait for a message from him. Gentius, having received this small portion of the money, and being incessantly urged by Pantauchus to commence hostilities against the Romans, threw into custody Marcus Perperna, and Lucius Petillius, who happened to come at that time as ambassadors. As soon as Perseus heard this, thinking that the Illyrian had now laid himself under a necessity of waging war with the Romans at least, he sent to recall his money-carriers, as if to make a saving for the Romans, and that their booty, on his being conquered, might be as great as possible. Cryphon, too, returned from Eumenes, without having succeeded in any of his secret negociations. The parties themselves had mentioned publicly, that the business of the prisoners was concluded, and Eumenes, to elude suspicion, informed the consul that it was so.
XXVIII. Upon the return of Cryphon from Eumenes, Perseus, disappointed in his hopes from that quarter, sent Antenor and Callippus, the commanders of his fleet, with forty barks, to which were added five heavy gallies, to Tenedos, that, spreading among the islands of the Cyclades, they might protect the vessels sailing to Macedonia with corn. This squadron, setting sail from Cassandrea, steered, first, to the harbour at the foot of Mount Athos, and crossing over thence, with mild weather, to Tenedos, found lying in the harbour a number of Rhodian undecked ships, under the command of Eudamus; these they did not offer to molest, but, after conversing with their officers in friendly terms, suffered them to pursue their course. Then, learning that, on the other side of the island, fifty transports of their own were shut up by a squadron of Eumenes, commanded by Damius, which lay in the mouth of the harbour, they sailed round with all haste; and the enemy’s ships retiring, through fear, they sent on the transports to Macedonia, under convoy of ten barks, which had orders to return to Tenedos as soon as they saw them safe. Accordingly, on the ninth day after, they rejoined the fleet, then lying at Sigeum. From thence they sailed over to Subota, an island between Elea and Athos. The next day, after the fleet had reached Subota, it happened that thirty-five vessels, of the kind called horse-transports, sent by Eumenes to Attalus, and which had sailed from Elea, with Gallic horsemen and their horses, were steering towards Phanæ, a promontory of Chios, from whence they intended to cross over to Macedonia. A signal being given to Antenor, from a post of observation, that these ships were passing along the main, he left Subota, and met them between Cape Erythræ and Chios, where the strait is narrowest. Eumenes’ officers could with difficulty believe, that a Macedonian fleet was cruising in that sea; they imagined that they were Romans, or that Attalus, or some people sent home by him from the Roman camp, were on their way to Pergamus. But when, on their nearer approach, the shape of the vessels was plainly perceived, and when the briskness of their rowing, and their prows being directed straight against the others, proved that they were enemies, dismay seized all on board; for they had no hope of being able to make resistance, their ships being of an unwieldy kind, and the Gauls, even when left quiet, ill able to live at sea. Some, who were nearest to the shore of the continent, swam to Erythræ; some, crowding all their sail, ran the ships aground near Chios; and, leaving their horses behind, fled thither in haste. The barks, however, effected a landing nearer to the city, where the access was more convenient, but the Macedonians overtook and put to the sword the flying Gauls, some on the road, and some before the gate, where they were refused entrance; for the people had shut it, not knowing who they were that fled, or who that pursued. About eight hundred Gauls were killed, and two hundred made prisoners. Of the horses, some were lost in the sea, by the ships being wrecked, and others were ham-strung by the Macedonians on the shore. Antenor ordered the same ten barks, which he had employed before, to carry twenty horses of extraordinary beauty, with the prisoners, to Thessalonica, and to return to the fleet as speedily as possible; saying, that he would wait for them at Phanæ. The fleet staid three days at Chios, and then proceeded to Phanæ; where being joined by the ten barks, sooner than was expected, they set sail, and crossed the Ægean sea to Delos.
XXIX. About this time the Roman ambassadors, Caius Popillius, Caius Decimius, and Caius Hostilius, having sailed from Chalcis with three quinqueremes, arrived at Delos, and found there forty Macedonian barks, and five quinqueremes belonging to Eumenes. The sacred character of the island secured all parties from any kind of violence; so that the Roman and Macedonian seamen, and those of Eumenes, used to meet promiscuously in Apollo’s fane. Antenor, the commander of Perseus’s fleet, having learned, by signals from his watch-posts, that several transport ships were passing by at sea, went himself in pursuit with one half of his barks, (sending the other half to cruise among the Cyclades,) and sunk or plundered every ship he met with. Popillius and Eumenes assisted as many as they were able during the day; but, in the night, the Macedonians, sailing out, generally with two or three vessels, passed unseen. About this time, ambassadors from Macedonia and Illyria came together to Rhodes. The attention paid to them was the greater, in consequence of their squadron cruising freely among the Cyclades, and over all the Ægean sea, and likewise on account of the junction of Perseus and Gentius, and of the report of a great body of Gauls, both horse and foot, being on their march, in aid of those Kings. Dinon and Polyaratus, the warm partizans of Perseus, now took fresh courage, and the Rhodians not only gave a favourable answer to the ambassadors, but declared publicly, that “they would put an end to the war by their own influence; and, therefore, desired the Kings to dispose themselves to accede to an accommodation.”
XXX. It was now the beginning of spring, and the new commanders had arrived in their provinces; the consul Æmilius in Macedonia, Octavius at Oreum, where the fleet lay, and Anicius in Illyria, to carry on the war against Gentius. This prince, who was the son of Pleuratus, King of Illyria, and his Queen Eurydice, had two brothers, one called Plator, by both parents, the other Caravantius, by the same mother only. From the latter, as descended of ignoble ancestors, on his father’s side, he apprehended no competition; but, in order to secure himself on the throne, he had put to death Plator, and two of his most active friends, Etritus and Epicadus. It was rumoured, that he was actuated by jealousy towards his surviving brother, who had concluded a treaty of marriage with Etula, the daughter of Honurius, prince of the Dardanians, supposing him to intend, by that match, to engage that nation in his interest; and this supposition was rendered the more probable by Gentius marrying her, after the death of Plator. From this time, when he was delivered from the fear of his brother, his treatment of his subjects became highly oppressive, and the natural violence of his temper was inflamed by an immoderate use of wine. Having been prevailed on, as was mentioned above, to go to war with the Romans, he collected all his forces, amounting to fifteen thousand men, at Lissus. From thence, detaching his brother, with one thousand foot and fifty horse, to reduce, either by force or terror, the province of Cavia, he marched himself to Bassania, a city five miles distant from Lissus. As the inhabitants were in alliance with Rome, he first sent emissaries to sound their intentions, who found them determined rather to endure a siege than surrender. In Caira, the people of the town of Burnium cheerfully opened their gates to Caravantius, on his arrival; but another town, called Caravantis, refused him admittance. He spread depredations over their lands, but many of his straggling soldiers were killed by parties of the peasants. By this time Appius Claudius, having joined to his former force some bodies of auxiliaries, composed of Bulinians, Apollonians, and Dyrrhachians, had left his winter quarters, and was encamped near the river Genusus. Having heard of the treaty between Perseus and Gentius, and being highly provoked at the ill treatment offered by the latter to the ambassadors, he declared his determination to employ his army against him. The prætor Anicius, who was now at Apollonia, being informed of what passed in Illyria, dispatched a letter to Appius, desiring him to wait for him at the Genusus; and, in three days after, he arrived in the camp. Having added to the auxiliary troops, which he then had, two thousand foot and two hundred horse of the Parthinians, (the foot commanded by Epicadus, and the horse by Agalsus,) he prepared to march into Illyria, where his principal object at present was, the raising the siege of Basania. But his enterprise was retarded by an account brought him, of the seacoast being ravaged by a number of the enemy’s barks. These were eighty vessels, which, by the advice of Pantauchus, Gentius had sent to waste the lands of the Dyrrachians and Apollonians. The Roman fleet was then lying near Apollonia. Anicius hastily repaired thither, soon overtook the Illyrian plunderers, brought them to an engagement, and, defeating them with very little trouble, took many of their ships, and compelled the rest to retire to Illyria. Returning thence to the camp at the Genusus, he hastened to the relief of Bassania. Gentius did not wait the prætor’s coming; but, raising the siege, retired to Scodra with such precipitate haste, that he left part of his army behind. This was a large body of forces, which, if their courage had been supported by the presence of their commander, might have given some check to the Romans; but, as he had forsaken them, they surrendered.
XXXI. The cities of that country, one after another, followed the example; their own inclinations being encouraged by the justice and clemency which the Roman prætor showed to all. The army then advanced to Scodra, which was the most important place in the hands of the enemy, not merely because Gentius had chosen it for the metropolis of his kingdom, but because it has by far the strongest fortifications of any in the territory of the Labeatians, and is of very difficult access. Two sides of it are defended by two rivers; the eastern side, by the Clausula; and the western, by the Barbana, which rises out of the lake Labeatus. These two rivers, uniting their streams, fall into the river Oriuns, which, running down from Mount Scodrus, and being augmented by many others, empties itself into the Adriatic sea. Mount Scodrus is much the highest hill in all that country; at its foot, towards the east, lies Dardania; towards the south, Macedonia; and towards the west, Illyria. Notwithstanding that the town was so strong, from the nature of its situation, and was garrisoned by the whole force of the Illyrian nation, with the King himself at their head, yet the Roman prætor, encouraged by the happy success of his first enterprises, and hoping that things would proceed in the same train in which they had hitherto gone, and thinking also that a sudden alarm might have a powerful effect, advanced to the walls with his troops in order of battle. But, if the garrison had kept their gates shut, and manned the walls and the towers of the gates with soldiers, they might have repulsed the Romans, and baffled all their attempts; instead of which they marched out of the town, and, on equal ground, commenced a battle with more courage than they supported it: for, being forced to give way, they crowded on one another in their retreat, and above two hundred having fallen in the very entrance of the gate, the rest were so terrified, that Gentius immediately dispatched Teuticus and Bellus, two of the first men of the nation, to the prætor, to beg a truce, in order to gain time to deliberate on the state of his affairs. He was allowed three days for the purpose, and, as the Roman camp was about five hundred paces from the city, he went on board a ship, and sailed up the river Barbana, into the lake of Labeatus, as if in search of a retired place, where he might hold his councils; but, as afterwards appeared, he was led by a groundless report, that his brother Caravantius was coming, with many thousands of soldiers collected in the country, to which he had been sent. This rumour dying away, on the third day he sailed down the river to Scodra; and, after sending forward messengers, to request an interview with the prætor, and obtaining his consent, came into the camp. He began his discourse with reproaches against himself, for the folly of his conduct; then descended to tears and prayers, and falling at the prætor’s knees, gave himself up into his power. He was at first desired to keep up his spirits, and was even invited to supper? he was allowed to go back into the city to his people, and, for that day, was entertained by the prætor with every mark of respect. On the day following, he was delivered into custody, to Caius Cassius, a military tribune, to which unhappy situation he had let himself be reduced for a consideration of ten talents, scarcely the hire of a party of gladiators.
XXXII. The first thing Anicius did, after taking possession of Scodra, was, to order the ambassadors Petillius and Perperna, to be sought for and brought to him; and he enabled them to appear again with a proper degree of splendour. He then immediately dispatched Perperna to seize the King’s friends and relations; who, hastening to Medeo, a city of Labeatia, conducted to the camp at Scodra, Etleva, the King’s consort; his brother Caravantius; with his two sons, Scerdiletus and Pleuratus. Anicius, having brought the Illyrian war to a conclusion within thirty days, sent Perperna to Rome with the news of his success; and, in a few days after, King Gentius himself, with his mother, queen, children, and brother, and other Illyrians of distinction. It was a singular circumstance respecting this war, that people in Rome received an account of its being finished, before they knew it was begun. Perseus, in the mean time, laboured under dreadful apprehensions, on account of the approach, both of the new consul Æmilius, whose threatenings, as he heard, were highly alarming, and also of the prætor Octavius: for he dreaded the Roman fleet, and the danger which threatened the sea coast, no less than he did the army. Eumenes and Athenagoras commanded at Thessalonica, with a small garrison of two thousand targeteers. Thither he sent Androcles, as governor, and ordered him to keep the troops encamped close by the naval arsenals. He ordered one thousand horse, under Antigonus, to Ænia, to guard the seacoast; directing them, whenever they should hear of the enemy’s fleet approaching the shore in any part, instantly to hasten thither, to protect the country people. Five thousand Macedonians were sent to garrison the mountains Pythium and Petra, commanded by Histiæus, Theogenes, and Milo. After making these detachments, he set about fortifying the bank of the river Enipeus, for the channel being nearly dry, the passage was practicable; and, in order that all the men might apply themselves to this work, the women were obliged to bring provisions from the neighbouring cities into the camp. He ordered the soldiers to fetch timber from the woods which were not far distant, and erected on the bank such formidable works, strengthened with towers and engines, as he trusted would effectually bar the passage against any effort of the Romans. On the other side, the more diligence and caution Paullus saw the Macedonians use, the more assiduously did he study to devise some means of frustrating those hopes, which the enemy had not without reason conceived. But he suffered immediate distress from the scarcity of water, the river furnishing but little, and that putrid, in the part contiguous to the sea.
XXXIII.The consul, after searching in every place in the neighbourhood for water, and being told that none could be found, at last ordered the water-carriers to attend him to the shore, which was not three hundred paces distant, and there to dig holes in several places, not far from each other. The great height of the mountains gave him reason to suppose that they contained in their bowels several bodies of water, the branches of which made their way under ground to the sea, and mixed with its waters; and this appeared the more probable, as they discharged no streams above ground. Scarcely was the surface of the sand removed, when springs began to boil up, small at first and muddy, but in a little time they threw out clear water in great plenty, as if through the favourable interference of the gods. This circumstance added greatly to the reputation and influence of the general in the minds of the soldiers. He then ordered them to get ready their arms; and went himself, with the tribunes and first centurions, to examine the river, in hopes of finding a passage, where the descent would be easy, and where the ascending the other bank would be least difficult. After taking a sufficient view of these matters, he made it his first care to provide, that, in the movements of the army, every thing should be done regularly, and without noise, at the first order and beck of the general. Though notice was proclaimed of what was to be done, every one did not distinctly hear; and, as the orders received were not clear, some did more than was ordered, while others did less; while dissonant shouts were raised in every quarter, insomuch that the enemy knew sooner than the soldiers themselves, what was intended. He therefore directed, that the military tribune should communicate, secretly, to the first centurion of the legion, then he to the next, and that so on, in order that each should tell the next to him in rank, what was requisite to be done, whether the instructions were to be conveyed from front to rear, or from rear to front. According to a practice lately introduced, the centinels carried shields to their posts; this he forbade; for as a centinel did not go to fight, but to watch, he had no occasion for arms; it was his duty, when he perceived an enemy approaching, to retire, and to give the alarm. They used to stand with their helmets on, and their shields erected on the ground before them; when tired, they leaned on their spears; or laying their heads on the edge of their shields, stood dosing in such a manner, that from the glittering of their arms they could be seen afar off by the enemy, while themselves could see nothing. He likewise altered the practice of the advanced guards. Formerly, the guards were kept on duty through the whole day, all under arms, the horsemen with their horses bridled; and when this happened in summer, under a continual scorching sun, both men and horses were so much exhausted by the heat and the languor contracted in so many hours, that very often, when attacked by fresh troops, a small number was able to get the better of a much superior one. He therefore ordered, that the party which mounted guard in the morning, should be relieved at noon by another, which was to do the duty for the rest of the day; by which means they would never be in danger of the like easy defeat.
XXXIV. Æmilius, after publishing, in a general assembly, his orders for these regulations, added observations, of the same purport with those contained in the speech which he had made in the city, that “it was the business of the commander, alone, to consider what was proper to be done, sometimes singly, sometimes in conjunction with those whom he should call to council; and that such as were not called, ought not to pronounce judgment on affairs either in public or in private. That it was a soldier’s business to attend to these three things — his body, that he may keep it in perfect strength and agility; his armour, that it may be always in good order; with his stores of all kinds, so as to be ready in case of a sudden order; and to rest assured, that all other matters relating to him will be directed by the immortal gods and his captain. That in any army, where the soldiers formed plans, and that the chief was called, first one way, then another, by the voice of the idle multitude, nothing could ever succeed. For his part,” he declared, that “he would take care, as was the duty of a general, to afford them occasion of acting with success. On their part, they were to make no inquiries whatever as to his designs; but when the signal was given, to discharge the duty of a soldier.” Having thus admonished them, he dismissed the assembly, while the veterans themselves acknowledged, that on that day, for the first time, they had, like recruits, been taught the business of a soldier. Nor did they, by such expressions only, demonstrate their high approbation of the consul’s discourse; but the effect of it on their behaviour was immediate. In the whole camp, not one person was to be seen idle; some were employed in sharpening their weapons; others in scouring their helmets and cheek-pieces, their shields and breast-plates; some fitted their armour to their bodies, and tried how well they could move their limbs under it; some brandished their spears, others flourished their swords, and tried the points; so that it could be easily perceived that their intention was, whenever they should come to battle, to finish the war at once, either by a glorious victory, or an honourable death. On the other side, when Perseus saw that, in consequence of the arrival of the consul, and of the opening of the spring, all was motion and bustle among the Romans; and that their general had pitched his camp on the opposite bank of the Enipeus, where he employed himself busily, sometimes in going round and examining all his works, with a view of finding some place where he might pass the river; and sometimes in preparing every thing requisite for attack or defence; he exerted himself, no less diligently on his part, to rouse the courage of his soldiers, and add strength to his defences, as if he expected an immediate engagement. However, though both parties were full of ardour, they lay a long time very near each other without any action.
XXXV.In the mean time, news was received that King Gentius had been defeated, in Illyria, by the prætor Anicius; and that himself, his family, and his whole kingdom, were in the hands of the commonwealth; which event greatly raised the spirits of the Romans, and struck no small degree of terror into the Macedonians and their King. At first, Perseus endeavoured to suppress the intelligence, and sent messengers to Pantauchus, who was on his way from that country, forbidding him to come near the camp; but some of his people had already seen certain boys carried away among the Illyrian hostages: and it is certain that the more pains there are used to conceal any circumstances, the more readily they are divulged, through the talkative disposition of people employed in the courts of kings. About this time, ambassadors came to the camp from Rhodes, with the same message which had excited so much resentment in the Roman senate. It was now heard by the council with much greater indignation than at Rome; some even advised that they should be instantly driven out of the camp; but the consul said, that he would give them an answer in fifteen days. But still, to show how little regard was paid to the mediation of the Rhodians, he began to consult on the plan of his future operations. Some, particularly the younger officers, advised to force their way across the Enipeus, and through the enemy’s works. “When they should advance in close order and make an assault, the Macedonians,” they said, “would never be able to withstand them. They had been, last year, beaten out of many fortresses much higher and better fortified, and furnished with much stronger garrisons.” Others recommended, that Octavius, with the fleet, should sail to Thessalonica; and, by committing depredations on the sea-coast, make it necessary for the King to divide his forces; so that, when, on the appearance of another enemy behind him, he should turn about to protect the interior part of the kingdom, he would be forced to leave a passage over the Enipeus open in some place or other. The consul himself was of opinion, that the nature of the bank, and the works erected on it, presented insuperable difficulties; and, besides its being every where furnished with engines, he had been informed, that the enemy were remarkable for using missile weapons with uncommon skill, and that their aim was almost certain. The consul’s judgment leaned quite another way; as soon, therefore, as the council broke up, he sent for Schœnus and Menophilus, Perrhæbian merchants, whom he knew to be men of probity and good sense, and examined them in private about the nature of the passes leading into Perrhæbia. They told him, that the places themselves were not difficult; but that they were occupied by parties of the King’s troops; from which he conceived hopes of being able to beat off those parties, by making a sudden attack with a strong force in the night, when they were off their guard. For he considered that “javelins, and arrows, and other missile weapons, were useless at such a season; since, when combatants closed together in a throng, the business must depend on the sword, in the exercise of which the Romans had a decided superiority.” He resolved to employ those two men as guides; and, sending for the prætor Octavius, explained to him what he intended, ordering him to sail directly with the fleet to Heracleus, and to have in readiness there, ten days’ provisions for one thousand men. He then sent Publius Scipio Nasica, and Quintus Fabius Maximus, his own son, with five thousand chosen men, to Heracleus, as if they were to embark in the fleet, to ravage the coast of the interior parts of Macedonia, as had been proposed in the council. He told them, in private, that there were provisions prepared for them on board, so that they should have no delay. He then ordered the guides to divide the road in such a manner, that they might attack Pythium at the fourth watch on the third day. He himself, on the day following, in order to confine the King’s attention from the view of distant matters, attacked his advanced guards in the middle of the channel of the river, where the fight was maintained by the light infantry on both sides, for the bottom was so uneven, that heavy arms could not be used. The slope of each bank was three hundred paces long, and the breadth of the channel, which was of various depths, somewhat more than a mile. In this middle space the fight was carried on, while the King on one side, and the consul, with his legions on the other, stood spectators on the ramparts of their camps. At a distance, the King’s troops had the advantage in fighting with missile weapons; but in close fight the Roman soldier was more steady, and was better defended, either with a target or a Ligurian buckler. About noon, the consul ordered the signal of retreat to be given, and thus the battle ended for that day, after considerable numbers had fallen on both sides. Next morning at sunrise, the fight was renewed with greater fury, as their passions had been irritated by the former contest; but the Romans were dreadfully annoyed, not only by those with whom they were immediately engaged; but much more by the multitudes that stood posted in the towers, with missiles of every sort, particularly stones; so that whenever they advanced towards the enemy’s bank, the weapons thrown from the engines reached even the hindmost of their men. The consul’s loss on this occasion was much greater than before; and, somewhat later in the day, he called off his men from the fight. On the third day he declined fighting, and moved down to the lowest side of the camp, as if intending to attempt a passage through an intrenchment which stretched down to the sea.
XXXVI. Perseus, who did not extend his cares beyond the objects that lay before his eyes, bent all his thoughts and exertions to stop the progress of the enemy in the quarter where he lay. In the mean time, Publius Nasica, with the detachment under his command, punctually executed the consul’s orders. Arriving at the appointed hour at Pythium, he soon dislodged the guard, which was commanded by Milo, Histiæus, and Theogenes, and pursued them down into the plains. This event threw Perseus into the greatest perplexity, for as the road was now open, he had reason to fear being surrounded. After long deliberation, he determined to give battle; and, drawing back to Pydna, chose a very advantageous position, and made the most prudent dispositions for ensuring success. Æmilius, being rejoined by the party under Nasica, marched directly against the enemy; and, on coming within sight, was not a little surprised at the formidable appearance of their army, in respect of their numbers, and the strength of the men, as well as the judicious order in which it was formed. The season of the year was a little after the summer solstice; the time of the day was approaching towards noon; and his march had been incommoded by great quantities of dust, and the increasing heat of the sun. Lassitude and thirst were already felt, and both would certainly be aggravated by mid-day coming on. He resolved, therefore, not to expose his men in that condition to an enemy, fresh and in full vigour; but so great was the ardour for battle on both sides, that the general had occasion for as much art to elude the wishes of his own men, as those of the enemy. He urged the tribunes to hasten the forming of the troops, went himself round the ranks, and with exhortations inflamed their courage. At first, they called to him for the signal, briskly; but afterwards, as the heat increased, their looks became less lively, and their voices fainter, while many stood resting on their shields, or leaning on their javelins. He then, without farther disguise, ordered the foremost ranks to measure out the front of a camp, and store the baggage; on seeing which, the soldiers openly showed themselves rejoiced at not having been compelled to fight, when they were wearied with marching, and with the scorching heat. Immediately about the general, were the lieutenants-general, and the commanders of the foreign troops; among others Attalus, who when they thought that the consul intended to fight, (for even to them he did not disclose his intention of delaying,) had all approved the measure. On this sudden alteration of his plan, while all the rest were silent, Nasica alone ventured to advise the consul, not to let slip from his hands, by shunning a battle, an enemy, who had baffled former commanders in the same way. “There was reason to fear,” he said, “that he would march off in the night; and then he must be pursued with extreme toil and danger, into the heart of Macedonia; and the troops must be led about, as under former generals, wandering through the glens and forests of the Macedonian mountains. He therefore earnestly recommended to attack the enemy while he had him in an open plain, and not to lose so fair an opportunity, of obtaining a victory, as now presented itself.” The consul, not in the least offended at the liberty, taken by a youth of his distinguished character, in offering his advice, answered: “Nasica, I once thought as you do now; hereafter you will come to think as I do. By long experience in war, I have learned when it is proper to fight, when to abstain from fighting. It would not be right in me, at present, standing at the head of the troops, to explain to you the causes that render it better to rest to-day. Ask my reasons some other time. At present you will acquiesce in the judgment of an old commander.” The youth was silent, concluding that the consul certainly saw some objections to fighting, which did not appear to him.
XXXVII. Paullus, as soon as he saw the camp marked out, and the baggage laid up, drew off, first, the veterans from the rear line, then the first-rank men, while the spear-men stood in the front, lest the enemy might make any attempt; and lastly, the spear-men, beginning at the right wing, and leading them away, gradually, by single companies. Thus were the infantry drawn off without tumult; and, in the mean time, the cavalry and light infantry faced the enemy; nor were the cavalry recalled from their station, until the rampart and trench were finished. The King, though he was disposed to have given battle that day, was yet satisfied; since his men knew, that the delay was owing to the enemy; and he led back his troops to their station. When the fortifications of the Roman camp were finished, Caius Sulpicius Gallus, a military tribune of the second legion, who had been prætor the year before, with the consul’s permission collected the soldiers in assembly, and gave them notice, lest they should any of them consider the matter as a prodigy, that, “on the following night, the moon would be eclipsed, from the second hour to the fourth.” He mentioned that, “as this happened in the course of nature, at stated times, it could be known, and foretold. As, therefore, they did not wonder at the regular rising and setting of the sun and moon, or at the moon’s sometimes shining with a full orb, and sometimes in its wane, showing only small horns, so neither ought they to construe as a portent, its being obscured, when covered with the shadow of the earth.” On the night preceding the day before the nones of September, at the hour mentioned, the eclipse took place. The Roman soldiers thought the wisdom of Gallus almost divine; but the Macedonians were shocked, as at a dismal prodigy, foreboding the fall of their kingdom and the ruin of their nation; nor did their soothsayers explain it otherwise. Their camp was filled with shouting and yelling, until the moon, emerging, sent forth its light. Both armies had been so eager for an engagement, that, next day, both the King and the consul were censured by many of their respective men for having separated without a battle. The King could readily excuse himself, not only as the enemy had led back his troops into camp; but, also, as he had posted his men on ground of such a nature, that the phalanx (which even a small inequality of surface renders useless) could not advance on it. The consul, besides, appearing to have neglected an opportunity of fighting, and to have given the enemy room to go off in the night, if he were so inclined, was thought to waste time at the present, under pretence of offering sacrifice, though the signal had been displayed, at the first light, for going out to the field. At last, about the third hour, the sacrifices being duly performed, he summoned a council, and there, too, he was deemed by several to spin out in talking, and unseasonable consultation, the time that ought to be employed in action; but, after many discourses of this sort had passed, the consul addressed them in a speech of the following purport.
XXXVIII. “Publius Nasica, a youth of uncommon merit, was the only one of those who were for immediate fight, that disclosed his sentiments to me; and even he was afterwards silent, appearing to have come over to my opinion. Some others have thought proper, rather to cavil at their general’s conduct in his absence, than to offer advice in his presence. Now I shall, without the least reluctance, make known to you, Publius Nasica, and to any who, with less openness, entertained the same opinion with you, my reasons for deferring an engagement. For, so far am I from being sorry for having rested yesterday, that I am convinced that by that means I preserved the army. Whoever now thinks otherwise, let him come forward, if he pleases, and take with me a review of the numerous advantages that were on the enemy’s side, and the disadvantages on ours. In the first place, how far they surpass us in numbers, I am sure not one of you was at any time ignorant; and yesterday you had ocular demonstration, when their line was drawn out. Of our small force, a fourth part had been left to guard the baggage; and you know that they are not the worst of the soldiers who are left on that duty. But can we believe it a matter of little moment, that, with the blessing of the gods, we shall this day, if judged proper, or to-morrow at farthest, march to battle out of this our own camp, where we have lodged last night? Is there no difference, whether you order a soldier to take arms in his own tent, when he has not suffered any fatigue, either from a long march or laborious work; after he has enjoyed his natural rest, and is fresh; so as to lead him into the field vigorous both in body and mind; or whether, when he is wearied by such a march, or fatigued with carrying a load; while he is wet with sweat, and while his throat is parched with thirst, and his mouth and eyes filled with dust, you expose him, under a scorching noon-day sun, to an enemy who has had full repose, and who brings into the battle his strength unimpaired by any previous cause? Is there any (I appeal to the gods) so dastardly, that, if matched in this manner, he would not overcome the bravest man? We must consider, that the enemy had, quite at their leisure, formed their line of battle; had recruited their spirits, and were standing in regular order; whereas we must have formed our line in hurry and confusion, and have engaged before the proper dispositions were completed.
XXXIX. “But, to drop the consideration of the unavoidable irregularity and disorder of our line, should we have had a camp fortified, a watering-place provided, and the passage to it secured by troops, with a thorough knowledge of all the country round; or should we have been without any one spot of our own, except the naked field on which we fought? Your fathers considered a fortified camp as a harbour of safety, in all emergencies; out of which they were to march to battle, and in which, after being tossed in the storm of the fight, they had a safe retreat. For that reason, besides inclosing it with works, they strengthened it farther with a numerous guard; for any general who lost his camp, though he should have been victorious in the field, yet was deemed vanquished. A camp is a residence for the victorious, a refuge for the conquered. How many armies, after being worsted in the field, and driven within their ramparts, have, at their own time, and sometimes the next moment, sallied out and defeated their victors? This military settlement is another native country to the soldier: the rampart is as the wall of his city, and his own tent his habitation and his home. Should we have fought, while in that unsettled state, and without quarters prepared; to what place, in case of being beaten, were we to retire? In opposition to these considerations of the difficulties and impediments to the fighting at that time, one argument is urged. What, if the enemy had marched off in the course of last night? What immense fatigue, it is observed, must have been undergone in pursuing him to the remotest parts of Macedonia? But, for my part, I take it as a certainty, that if he had had any intention of retreating, he would neither have waited, nor drawn out his troops to battle. For, how much easier could he have gone off, while we were at a great distance, than now, when we are close at his back? Nor could he go unobserved either by day or by night. What could be more desirable to us, who were obliged to attack their camp, defended as it was by a very high bank of a river, and inclosed likewise with a rampart and a number of towers, than that they should quit their fortifications, and, marching off with haste, give us an opportunity of attacking their rear in an open plain? These were my reasons for deferring a battle from yesterday to this day. For I am myself as much inclined to fight as any; and for that reason, as the way to come at the enemy over the river Enipeus was stopped, I have opened a new way, by dislodging the enemy’s guards from another pass. Nor will I rest until the war is ended.”
XL. When he ceased speaking, all remained silent; for some were convinced by his arguments, and the rest were unwilling to find any fault with the proceeding, since any advantage then overlooked could not now be regained. Even on that day, neither the King nor the consul was desirous of engaging; not the King, because he had not the same prospect as the day before, of fighting men who were fatigued after their march, were hurried in forming their line, and not completely marshalled; nor the consul, because, in his new camp, no collection was yet made of wood or forage, to bring which from the adjacent country a great number of his men had been sent from the camp. But, though it was not the wish of either of the commanders, fortune, whose power is not to be controlled by human schemes, brought about a battle. Somewhat nearer to the Macedonian than the Roman camp was a river, not very large, from which both parties supplied themselves with water; and that this might be done with safety, guards were stationed on each bank. On the Roman side were two cohorts, a Marucinian and a Pelignian, with two troops of Samnite horse, commanded by a lieutenant-general, Marcus Sergius Silus; and in the front of the camp there was posted another guard, under Caius Cluvius, lieutenant-general, composed of three cohorts, a Firmian, a Vestinian, and a Cremonian; besides two troops of horse, a Placentine and an Æsernian. While all was quiet at the river, neither party disturbing the other, about the fourth hour, a horse, breaking loose from those who had the care of him, ran off towards the farther bank, and three Roman soldiers followed him through the water, which reached as high as their knees. At the same time two Thracians endeavoured to bring the horse from the middle of the channel to their own bank; but the Romans slew one of them, and, having recovered the animal, retired to their post. On the enemy’s bank there was a body of eight hundred Thracians, of whom a few, at first enraged at their countryman being killed before their eyes, crossed the river in pursuit of his slayers; in a little time some more, and at last, all of them passed over, and attacked the Roman guard on the other side. Reinforcements hastened to both parties, and the affair soon became so serious, that the commanders were obliged to risk a general engagement. In the army of the Macedonians there were two phalanxes; the men of one were called Leucaspides, those of the other Aglaspides, or Chalcaspides; there was also a body of targeteers, formed in the same manner, and carrying the same kind of long spears, but lighter armed in other respects. These three bodies withstood, for a long time, every effort of the Romans; the targeteers even compelled the Pelignian battalions to retire, which alarmed and provoked Æmilius to such a degree that he tore his robe. At length, observing that the compact order of the phalanx was not every where unbroken, the variation of the ground and of their motions necessarily causing some intervals in their ranks, he ordered his men to watch attentively, and wherever they could discern the least opening in the phalanx, to force themselves in, with all their might, and strive to divide it as much as possible. As soon as he had issued this order, he put himself at the head of one of the legions, and led it on to battle.
XLI. The troops were deeply impressed with sentiments of respect, when they considered the high dignity of his office, his own personal renown, and, above all, his age; for, though more than sixty years old, he discharged every obligation of youth, taking on himself the principal share both of the labour and danger. His legion filled up the space between the targeteers and another phalanx, and thus disunited the enemy’s line. Behind him were the targeteers, and his front faced the shielded phalanx of Aglaspides. Lucius Albinus, a man of consular rank, was ordered to lead on the second legion against the phalanx of the Leucaspides, which formed the centre of the Macedonian line. On the right wing, where the fight began, at the river, the elephants were brought forward, with a cohort of allied cavalry; and these latter were the first who made any of the Macedonians turn their backs. For as new contrivances make an important figure in words, but on being put in practice ofttimes prove vain and ineffectual, so on that occasion the elephants in the line of battle were a mere name, without the least use. Their attack was followed by the Latine allies, who forced the enemy’s left wing to give way. In the centre, the second legion dispersed the phalanx, nor was there any more evident cause of the victory that followed, than there being many distinct fights, which first disordered that body, by throwing it into irregular motions, and at last quite broke it. For, while it preserves its compact order, and presents a front bristled with extended spears, its strength is irresistible; but if, by separate attacks on various parts of it, the men are once forced to turn about their spears, which, on account of their length and weight, are too unwieldy to be easily moved, they are embarrassed; and, if they are alarmed by any assault on the flank or rear, fall into irretrievable disorder. This was the case now, when they were obliged to oppose the Romans, who, in small parties, and with their line broken into numerous divisions, assailed them in many places at once; and, when any opening was made, worked themselves into the vacant spaces. But had they advanced with their entire line, straight against the phalanx, when in its regular order, the fate of the Pelignians would have been theirs, who, in the beginning of the battle, incautiously engaged the targeteers; being run through by the spears, and unable to withstand such a firm body.
XLII. But though the Macedonian infantry were cut to pieces on all sides, except those who threw away their arms and fled, the cavalry quitted the field with scarcely any loss. The King himself was the first in flight. With the sacred squadrons of horse he took the road to Pella, and was quickly followed by Cotys and the Odrysian cavalry. The rest of the cavalry, likewise, went off with full ranks; because, as the line of infantry stood in the way, the enemy remained to put them to the sword, and did not think of pursuing the others. For a long time, the men of the phalanx were cut off, in front, on the flanks, and on the rear; at last, such as could avoid the enemy’s hands, fled unarmed towards the sea; some even ran into the water, and, stretching out their hands to those on board the fleet, humbly begged their lives. Boats coming from all the ships, they supposed that it was meant to take them in; whereupon, advancing farther into the water, so that some of them even swam, they supplicated aid. But they soon found themselves treated as enemies by the boats; on which such as were able regained the land, where they met their death in a more dreadful way; for the elephants, which their riders had driven down to the shore, trod them under foot, and crushed them in pieces. It was generally acknowledged, that the Macedonians never lost so great a number of men in any battle; for their killed amounted to twenty thousand; six thousand, who made their escape from the field to Pydna, fell alive into the hands of the Romans, and five thousand were taken straggling through the country. Of the victorious army there fell not more than one hundred; the greater part of whom were Pelignians; but a much greater number were wounded. If the battle had been begun earlier, so that the conquerors might have had daylight enough for a pursuit, all the troops of the vanquished must have been utterly destroyed. As it happened, the approach of night both screened the fugitives, and made the Romans unwilling to follow them through an unknown country.
XLIII. Perseus, in his flight as far as the Pierian wood, kept up a military appearance, being attended by a numerous body of horse, together with his royal retinue; but, when he came into the thicket, and when darkness came on, he turned out of the main path, with a very few, in whom he placed the greatest confidence. The horsemen, abandoned by their leader, dispersed, and returned to their respective homes; some of whom made their way to Pella, quicker than Perseus himself, because they went by the straight and open road. The King, embarrassed by his fears, and the many difficulties which he met with on the way, did not arrive till near midnight. He was met at the palace by Euctus, governor of Pella, and the royal pages; but of all his friends, who had escaped from the battle by various chances, not one would come near him, though they were repeatedly sent for. Only three persons accompanied him in his flight; Evander, a Cretan; Neon, a Bœotian; and Archidamus, an Ætolian. With these he continued his retreat, at the fourth watch; for he began to fear, lest those who had refused to obey his summons, might, presently, attempt something more audacious. He had an escort of about five hundred Cretans. He took the road to Amphipolis; leaving Pella in the night, and hastening to get over the river Axius before day, as he thought that the difficulty in passing it would deter the Romans from farther pursuit.
XLIV. The consul returned victorious to his camp; but his joy was much allayed by concern for his younger son. This was Publius Scipio, who afterwards acquired the title of Africanus by the destruction of Carthage; he was, by birth, the son of the consul Paullus, and, by adoption, the grandson of the elder Africanus. He was then only in the seventeenth year of his age, which circumstance heightened his father’s anxiety; for, pursuing the enemy with eagerness, he had been carried away by the crowd to a distant part. He returned late in the evening, however; and then, the consul having received him in safety, felt unmixed joy for the very important victory. When the news of the battle reached Amphipolis, the matrons ran together to the temple of Diana, whom they style Tauropolos, to implore her aid. Diodorus, who was governor of the city, fearing lest the Thracians, of whom there were two thousand in garrison, might, during the confusion, plunder the city, contrived to receive in the middle of the Forum a letter, from the hands of a person whom he had employed for the purpose, and instructed to personate a courier. The contents of it were, that “the Romans had put in their fleet at Emathia, and were ravaging the territory round; and that the governors of Emathia besought him to send a reinforcement, which might enable them to repel the ravagers.” After reading this, he desired the Thracians to march to the relief of the coast, telling them, as an encouragement, that the Romans being dispersed through the country, they might easily kill many of them, and gain a large booty. He affected not to believe the report of the defeat, alleging that, if it were true, many would have come from the place of action. Having, on this pretence, sent the Thracians out of the town, he no sooner saw them pass the river Strymon, than he shut the gates.
XLV. On the third day after the battle, Perseus arrived at Amphipolis, and sent thence to Paullus suppliant ambassadors, with the wand of peace. In the mean time, Hippias, Milo, and Pantauchus, whom the King esteemed his best friends, went themselves to the consul, and surrendered to the Romans the city of Berœa, to which they had fled after the battle; and several other cities, struck with fear, prepared to follow the example. The consul dispatched to Rome, with letters and the news of his victory, his son Quintus Fabius, Lucius Lentulus, and Quintus Metellus. He gave to his infantry the spoils of the enemy who were slain, and to his cavalry, the plunder of the circumjacent country, provided, however, that they did not stay out of the camp longer than two nights. He then removed towards Pydna. Berœa, Thessalonica, and Pella, and indeed almost every city in Macedonia, successively surrendered within two days. From Pydna, which was the nearest, no deputation had yet been sent; the confused multitude, made up of many different nations, with the numbers who had been obliged to fly thither from the field, put it out of the power of the inhabitants to form or unite in any design; the gates, too, were not only shut, but closed up with walls. Milo and Pantauchus were sent to confer, under the wall, with Solon, who commanded in the place. By his means the crowd of military people were sent away, the town was surrendered, and given up to the soldiers to be plundered. Perseus, after making a single effort to procure assistance, by sending an embassy to the Bisaltians, but without effect, came forth into a general assembly, bringing with him his son Philip, in order to encourage the Amphipolitans themselves, and to raise the spirits of those horse and foot soldiers who had either constantly accompanied him, or had happened to fly to the same place. But, though he made several attempts to speak, he was always stopped by his tears; so that, finding himself unable to proceed, he told Evander, the Cretan, what he wished to have laid before the people, and came down from the tribunal. Although the multitude, on seeing the King in so melancholy a situation, and observing him weep in that affecting manner, had joined their plaints with his, yet they refused to listen to the discourse of Evander; and some, from the middle of the assembly, had the assurance to interrupt him, exclaiming, “Depart to some other place; that the few of us, who are left alive, may not be destroyed on your account.” Their daring opposition stopped Evander’s mouth. The King retired to his palace; and, causing his treasures to be put on board some barks which lay in the Strymon, went down himself to the river. The Thracians would not venture to trust themselves on board, but went off to their own homes, as did the rest of the soldiers; the Cretans only following the money, in hopes of a share: but, as any distribution of it among them would probably raise more discontent than gratitude, fifty talents* were laid on the bank, for them to seize as each might be able. After this scramble, they went on board; yet in such hurry and disorder, that they sunk one of the barks in the mouth of the river by the weight of the numbers which crowded into it. They arrived that day at Galepsus, and the next at Samothrace, to which they were bound. Thither, it is said, the king carried with him two thousand talents.†
XLVI. Paullus sent officers to hold the government of the several cities which had surrendered; lest, at a time when peace was but newly restored, the conquered might suffer any ill treatment. He detained the ambassadors of Perseus; and, as he had not yet been informed of his flight, detached Publius Nasica, with a small party of horse and foot, to Amphipolis, both that he might lay waste the country of Sintice, and be ready to obstruct every effort of the King. In the mean time, Melibœa was taken and sacked by Cneius Octavius. At Æginium, which Cneius Anicius, a lieutenant-general, had been ordered to attack, two hundred men were lost by a sally made from the town; for it was not known that the war was at an end. The consul, quitting Pydna, arrived, with his whole army, on the second day at Pella; and, pitching his camp at the distance of a mile from it, remained in that station for several days. These he employed in taking a full view of the situation of the city; and he perceived that it was chosen to be the capital of the kingdom, not without good reason. It stands on a hill which faces the south-west, and is surrounded by morasses, formed by stagnant waters from the adjacent lakes, so deep as to be impassable either in winter or summer. In the part of the morass nearest to the city the citadel rises up like an island, being built on a mound of earth formed with immense labour, so as to be capable of supporting the wall, and secure against any injury from the surrounding moisture. At a distance it seems to join the city rampart, but is divided from it by a river, and which has a bridge over it; so that if the King chooses to confine any person within it, there is no way for an escape except by that bridge, which can be guarded with great ease. This was the depository of the royal treasure; but, at that time, there was nothing found there but the three hundred talents which had been sent to King Gentius, and afterwards brought back. While the consul halted at Pella, he gave audience to a great number of embassies, which came with congratulations, especially out of Thessaly. Then, receiving intelligence that Perseus had passed over to Samothrace, he left Pella, and after four days’ march, arrived at Amphipolis. Here the whole multitude poured out of the town to meet him; a plain demonstration that the people considered themselves not as bereft of a good and just king, but as delivered from a haughty overbearing tyrant. The consul, after a short delay, proceeded, in pursuit of Perseus, into the province of Odomantice, and encamped at Siræ.
Perseus taken prisoner in Samothrace, by Æmilius Paullus. Antiochus, on the peremptory requisition of the Roman ambassadors, ceases hostilities against Ægypt. The Rhodians apologize for their conduct during the war, their apologies not deemed satisfactory. Macedonia reduced to the form of a province. Prusias comes to Rome with congratulations, on occasion of the conquest of Macedonia. Recommends his son, Nicomedes, to the protection of the senate; his mean and despicable behaviour.
Y. R.584.
168.I. NOTWITHSTANDING that Quintus Fabius, Lucius Lentulus, and Quintus Metellus, who were sent
with the news of the victory, made all possible haste to Rome, yet they found rejoicings for that event anticipated
there. The fourth day after the discomfiture of Perseus, and while games were exhibiting in the Circus, a faint rumour
spread itself, suddenly, among the people through all the seats, “that a battle had been fought in Macedonia, and that
the King was entirely defeated.” The rumour gathered strength, until at last they shouted and clapped their hands, as
if the same had been confirmed to them. The magistrates, being surprised, caused enquiry to be made for the author of
the account which occasioned this sudden rejoicing? but, none being found, the joy of course vanished. Although the
matter was uncertain, yet the flattering belief still remained impressed on their minds; and when, on the arrival of
Fabius, Lentulus, and Metellus, the fact was established by authentic information, they rejoiced on a twofold account —
on that of the victory, and their happy presage of it. This exultation in the Circus is related in another manner, with
equal appearance of probability: that, on the tenth day before the calends of October, being the second day of the
Roman games, as the consul Licinius was going down to give the signal for the race, a courier, who said he came from
Macedonia, delivered to him a letter, decorated with laurel. As soon as he had started the chariots, he mounted his
own, and, as he rode back to the seats of the magistrates, showed to the people the embellished tablets, at the sight
of which, the multitude, regardless of the games, ran down at once into the middle of the area. The consul held a
meeting of the senate on the spot: and, after reading the letter to them by their direction, he told the people, from
the seats of the magistrates, that “his colleague Lucius Æmilius had fought a general engagement with Perseus; that the
Macedonian army was totally defeated; that the King had fled with few attendants; and that all the cities of Macedonia
had submitted to the Romans.” On hearing this, they testified their joy by an universal shouting and clapping of hands;
and most of them, leaving the sport, hastened home to communicate the joyful tidings to their wives and children. This
was the thirteenth day after the battle.
II. On the following day the senate voted a general supplication, and ordered, that the consul should disband all his troops, excepting the regulars and seamen; and that the disbandment should be taken into consideration as soon as the deputies from the consul Æmilius, who had sent forward the courier, should arrive in town. On the sixth day before the calends of October, about the second hour, the deputies came into the city, and proceeded directly to the tribunal in the Forum, drawing an immense crowd, who went forth to meet and escort them. The senate happened to be then sitting, and the consul introduced the deputies to them. They were detained there no longer than to give an account, “how very numerous the King’s forces of horse and foot had been; how many thousands of them were killed, how many taken; with what a small loss of men the Romans had made such havoc of the enemy, and with how poor an attendance Perseus had fled; that it was supposed he would go to Samothrace, and that the fleet was ready to pursue him; so that he could not escape, either by sea or land.” They were then brought out into the assembly of the people, where they repeated the same particulars, and renewed the general joy in such a degree, that no sooner had the consul published an order, that all the places of worship should be opened, and that they should proceed directly to return thanks to the immortal gods, than every temple in the city was filled with vast crowds, not only of men but of women. The senate, being re-assembled, ordered thanksgivings in all the temples, during five days, for the glorious successes obtained by the consul Lucius Æmilius, with sacrifices of the larger kinds of victims. They also voted, that the ships, which lay in the Tiber fit for sea, and ready to sail for Macedonia, in case the King had been able to maintain the dispute, should be hauled up, and placed in the docks, and the seamen belonging to them paid a year’s wages, and discharged; and, together with these, all who had taken the military oath to the consul; that all the soldiers in Corcyra and Brundusium, on the coast of the upper sea, and in the territory of Larinum, should be disbanded; for in all these places had troops been cantoned, in order that the consul Licinius might, if occasion required, take them over to reinforce his colleague. The thanksgiving was fixed, by proclamation in the assembly, for the fifth day before the ides of October.
III. Two deputies, Caius Licinius Nerva and Publius Decius, likewise arrived at this time, who brought intelligence that the army of the Illyrians was defeated, their King Gentius taken prisoner, and all Illyria reduced under the dominion of the Roman people. On account of these services, under the conduct and auspices of the prætor Lucius Anicius, the senate voted a supplication of three days’ continuance, and it was accordingly appointed, by proclamation, to be performed on the fourth, third, and second days of the ides of November. Some writers tell us, that the Rhodian ambassadors had not yet been admitted to an audience; and that, when the news of the victory was received, they were called before the senate in order to expose their absurdity and arrogance. On this occasion, Agesipolis, their principal, spoke to this effect: that “they had been sent by the Rhodians, with a commission, to effect an accommodation between the Romans and Perseus; the war then subsisting being injurious and burdensome to all Greece, and expensive and detrimental to the Romans themselves; but that the kindness of fortune, terminating the war after another manner, had afforded them an opportunity of congratulating the Romans on a glorious victory.” To this discourse of the Rhodians, the senate returned the following answer; that “the Rhodians, in sending that embassy, had not been actuated by concern either for the interests of Greece, or for the expenses of the Roman people, but merely by their wishes to serve Perseus. For, if their concern had been such as they pretended, the time for sending ambassadors would have been, when that monarch, leading an army into Thessaly, had continued, for two years, to besiege some of the cities of Greece, and to terrify others with denunciations of vengeance. All this time not the least mention of peace was made by the Rhodians; but when they heard that the Romans had passed the defiles, and penetrated into Macedonia, and that Perseus was held inclosed by them; then they sent an embassy, from no other motive whatever, but a wish to rescue Perseus from the impending danger.” With this answer the ambassadors were dismissed.
IV. About the same time Marcus Marcellus, coming home from Spain, where he had taken Marcolica, a city of note, brought into the treasury ten pounds weight of gold, and a quantity of silver, amounting to a million of sesterces.* While the consul Paullus Æmilius lay encamped at Siræ, in Odomantice, as mentioned above, a letter from King Perseus was brought to him by three ambassadors of mean appearance, the sight of whom, as we are told, excited in his mind such reflections on the instability of human affairs, as caused him to shed tears; that a prince, who, a short time before, not content with the kingdom of Macedonia, had invaded Dardania and Illyria, and had called out to his aid the whole Bastarnian nation, should now, after having lost his army, be expelled his kingdom, and forced to take refuge in a little island, where, as a suppliant, he was protected by the sanctity of the place, not by any strength of his own, occasioned him something like pain: but when he read the address, “King Perseus to the consul Paullus, greeting,” the seeming insensibility of his condition did away all compassion; so that, notwithstanding the letter consisted of entreaties couched in terms ill suited to royalty, yet the embassy was dismissed without any answer. Perseus, perceiving that it was expected he should, in his vanquished state, forget his pompous titles, sent another letter, inscribed simply with his name, in which he made a request, which was readily complied with, that some persons should be sent to him, with whom he might confer on the present condition of his affairs. Three ambassadors were accordingly dispatched, Publius Lentulus, Aulus Postumius Albinus, and Aulus Antonius; but their embassy effected nothing. For Perseus struggled with all his might to retain the regal title, while Paullus insisted on an absolute submission of himself, and every thing belonging to him, to the honour and clemency of the Roman people.
V. In the mean time, Cneius Octavius, with his fleet, put in at Samothrace; and presenting immediate danger to Perseus’s view, he endeavoured, at one time by menaces, at another by hopes, to prevail on him to surrender. In this design, he was greatly assisted by an occurrence, which it is uncertain whether it were accidental or designed. Lucius Atilius, a young man of good character, observing that the people of Samothrace were met in a general assembly, asked permission of the magistrate to address a few words to them; which being granted, he said — “People of Samothrace, our good hosts; is the account which we have heard true or false, that this island is sacred, and the country holy and inviolable?” They all agreed in asserting the supposed sanctity of the place; whereupon he proceeded thus: “Why, then, has a murderer, stained with the blood of King Eumenes, presumed to profane it? And though, previous to every sacrifice, a proclamation forbids all who have not pure hands to assist at the sacred rites, will you, nevertheless, suffer your holy places to be polluted by the approach of an assassin?” The story of King Eumenes having been nearly murdered by Evander at Delphi, was now well known through all the cities of Greece. The Samothracians, therefore, besides the consideration of their being themselves, as well as the temple and the whole island, in the power of the Romans, were convinced, that the censure thrown on them was not understood; they, therefore, sent Theondas, their chief magistrate, whom they style King, to Perseus, to acquaint him, that “Evander the Cretan was accused of murder; that they had a mode of trial established among them, by the practice of their ancestors, concerning such as were charged with bringing impure hands into the consecrated precincts of the temple. If Evander was confident, that he was innocent of the capital charge made against him, let him come forth, and stand a trial; but, if he would not venture to undergo an inquiry, let him free the temple from profanation, and take care of himself, as well as he could.” Perseus, calling out Evander, told him, that he would by no means advise him to stand a trial, because he was no match for his accusers, either in the merits of the cause, or in influence. He had secret apprehensions, that Evander, on being condemned, would expose him, as the instigator of that abominable act. What then remained, he said, but to die bravely? Evander made, openly, no objection; but, telling the King that he chose to die by poison rather than by the sword, took measures in secret for effecting his escape. When this was told to the King, he was alarmed, lest the anger of the Samothracians should be turned against himself, as accessary to the escape of a guilty person, and he ordered Evander to be put to death. No sooner was this rash murder perpetrated, than his mind was immediately stung with remorse. He considered that “he had now drawn on himself the whole of the guilt, which before had affected Evander only; that the latter had wounded Eumenes at Delphi, and he had slain Evander in Samothrace; and thus the two most venerable sanctuaries in the world had, through his means alone, been defiled with human blood.” He contrived, however, to avoid the imputation of this deed, by bribing Theondas, to tell the people, that Evander had laid violent hands on himself.
VI. But such an atrocious act, committed on his only remaining friend, on one whose fidelity he had experienced on so many trying occasions, and who, in return for not proving a traitor, was himself betrayed, disgusted every one. A general defection and going over to the Romans ensued, so that he was left almost alone, and obliged, in that condition, to meditate the means of escaping. He applied to a Cretan, called Oroandes, who was acquainted with the coast of Thrace, having carried on traffic in that country, to take him on board his vessel and convey him to Cotys. At one of the promontories of Samothrace is a harbour called Demetrium; there the vessel lay. About sunset, every thing necessary for the voyage was carried thither, together with as much money as could be transported with secrecy; and at midnight the King himself, with three persons, who were privy to his flight, going out through a back door into a garden near his chamber, and having with much difficulty climbed over the wall, went down to the shore. Oroandes had set sail, at the first dusk, as soon as the money arrived, and was now steering for Crete. Perseus, not finding the ship in the harbour, wandered about for a long time on the coast; but, at last, fearing the approach of day, and not daring to return to his lodging, he hid himself in a dark corner at one side of the temple. Among the Macedonians, there was a band of boys of the highest birth, chosen out to wait on the King, and called the royal pages: this band had accompanied Perseus in his flight, and did not even now desert him, until Cneius Octavius ordered a herald to proclaim, that, “if the royal pages and other Macedonians, then in Samothrace, would come over to the Romans, they should have impunity, liberty, and all their property, both what they had in the island, and what they had left in Macedonia.” On this notice they came over, and made a formal surrender before Caius Postumius, a military tribune. The King’s younger children also were delivered up to Cneius Octavius, by Io of Thessalonica; nor was any one, now, left with Perseus, except Philip his eldest son. Then, after uttering many execrations against fortune, and the gods to whom the temple belonged, for not affording aid to a suppliant, he surrendered himself, and his son, to Octavius. He was put on board the prætor’s ship, and, with him, all his remaining money; and the fleet immediately returned to Amphipolis. From thence Octavius sent the King into the camp to the consul, having previously informed him by letter, that he was a prisoner, and on the road thither.
VII. Paullus, justly considering this as a second victory, offered sacrifices on the occasion; then, calling a council, and reading to them the prætor’s letter, he sent Quintus Ælius Tubero, to meet and escort the King; the rest he desired to remain assembled in the prætorium. Never, on any other occasion, did so great a multitude gather about a spectacle. In the time of their fathers, King Syphax had been made prisoner, and brought into the Roman camp; but, besides that he could not be compared with Perseus, either in respect of his own reputation, or that of his country, he was at the time a subordinate party in the Carthaginian war, as Gentius was in the Macedonian. Whereas Perseus was the principal in this war: and was not only highly conspicuous through his own personal renown, and that of his father, grandfather, and other relations in blood and extraction, but of these, two shone with unparalleled lustre; — Philip, and Alexander the Great; who acquired to the Macedonians sovereign dominion over the whole world. Perseus came into the camp, dressed in mourning, unattended by any of his countrymen, except his own son, whose being a sharer in the calamity added to the wretchedness of his situation. The crowd, which had collected to get a sight of him, prevented his advancing, until the consul sent his lictors, who cleared the way and opened a passage to the prætorium. At his coming, the consul arose, but ordered the rest to keep their seats, and, advancing a little, held out his right hand to the King at the entrance; when Perseus offered to fall at his feet, he held him up, nor would he suffer him to embrace his knees, but led him into the tent, and desired him to sit on the side opposite to the officers, assembled in council.
VIII. He began by asking, “what injuries had obliged him to enter into a war against the Roman people with such violent animosity, and to bring himself and his kingdom to the extremity of danger.” While all expected his answer, he kept his eyes fixed on the ground, and wept a long time in silence. The consul, again addressing him, said, “if you had acceded to the government in early youth, I should have less wondered at your not being sensible of the great importance of the friendship or enmity of the Roman people. But that was not the case, as you bore a part in the war which your father waged with us, and, afterwards, must have remembered the peace which we maintained towards him with the strictest sincerity. What motive, then, could induce you to prefer war to peace, with those, whose power in war, and whose good faith in peace, you had so fully experienced?” Neither questions nor reproaches could draw an answer from him: on which, the consul added, “Whatever cause may have produced these events, whether mistakes incident to humanity, or accident or necessity, suffer not your spirits to be dejected. The clemency of the Roman people, displayed in numerous instances towards kings and nations in distress, affords you not only hope, but almost perfect confidence of safety.” This he said in the Greek language to Perseus; and then, turning to his own people, he said, in the Latine tongue; “Do you not observe this striking instance of the instability of human affairs? To you, young men, principally, I address the observation. In the hour of prosperity, therefore, we ought to harbour neither sentiments of arrogance nor of rancour; nor to confide implicitly in present advantages; since we know not what the evening may produce. He alone will deserve the character of a man, who suffers not his spirit to be elated by the favourable gales of fortune, nor to be broken by its adverse blasts.” He then dismissed the council, and gave the charge of guarding the King to Quintus Ælius. Perseus was invited to dine that day with the consul, and received every mark of respect, which his present circumstances would admit.
IX. The troops were immediately sent off to their winter cantonments; the greater part were quartered in Amphipolis, and the rest in the towns in that neighbourhood. Thus ended the war between the Romans and Perseus, which had lasted, without intermission, four years; and thus ended a kingdom, long renowned through a great part of Europe, and throughout all Asia. From Caranus, their first king, they reckoned Perseus the fortieth. Perseus came to the crown, in the consulate of Quintus Fulvius and Lucius Manlius; received the title of king from the senate in that of Marcus Junius and Aulus Manlius, and reigned eleven years. The fame of the Macedonians was but obscure, until the reign of Philip, son of Amyntas; and though, in his time, and by his means, it began to increase, yet it was still confined within the limits of Europe, extending only to all Greece, with a part of Thrace, and Illyria. Afterwards, the force of Macedon poured down like a deluge on Asia; and it was in the course of the thirteen years of the reign of Alexander, that they reduced under their dominion that almost immense tract which had constituted the empire of the Persians, and then overspread the Arabias, and India, as far as where the Red Sea forms the utmost boundary of the earth. At that time, their empire was the greatest in the world; but on the death of Alexander, it was torn asunder into a number of kingdoms, each of his successors struggling to grasp power to himself, and thereby dismembering the whole. From the time of its highest elevation to this its final downfall, it stood one hundred and fifty years.
X. When the news of the victory, obtained by the Romans, was carried into Asia, Antenor, who lay with a fleet of small vessels, at Phanæ, sailed over to Cassandrea. Caius Popillius, who staid at Delos to protect the ships bound to Macedonia, learning that the war there was at an end, and that the enemy’s fleet had left its station, sent home the Athenian squadron, and proceeded on his voyage for Egypt, to finish the business of the embassy, with which he was charged; for he wished to meet Antiochus before he should approach the walls of Alexandria. When the ambassadors, sailing along the coast of Asia, arrived at Loryma, a port somewhat more than twenty miles from Rhodes, and just opposite to that city, they were met by some of the principal Rhodians — (for the news of the victory had by this time reached them too,) who besought them to sail over to their city; for that it was of the utmost consequence to the character and well-being of the Roman state that they should, in person, inform themselves of what had been done, and what was then passing at Rhodes; so as to carry home intelligence, founded on their own knowledge, and not on vague reports.” After refusing for a long time, they were at length prevailed on to submit to a short delay of their voyage, for the sake of the safety of an allied city. When they came to Rhodes, the same persons, by urgent entreaties, persuaded them to be present at a general assembly. The arrival of the ambassadors rather heightened, than allayed, the fears of the public. For Popillius enumerated all the hostile expressions and actions, both of the community, and of individuals, during the war; and, being naturally of an austere temper, he magnified the atrociousness of the matters which he mentioned, by the sternness of his countenance, and the harshness of his tone of voice; so that, as he had no cause of personal quarrel with their state, people judged, from the austerity of one Roman senator, what was the disposition of the whole senate towards them. Caius Decimius spoke with more moderation; and, respecting most of the particulars mentioned by Popillius, he asserted that “the blame lay, not on the nation, but on a few incendiary ringleaders of the populace, who, employing their tongues for hire, procured the passing of several decrees, full of flattery towards the King; and had sent several embassies, which always excited, in the minds of the Rhodians, both shame and sorrow, all which proceedings, however, if the people were disposed to act properly, would fall on the heads of the guilty.” His discourse gave great satisfaction; not only, because it extenuated the offences of the community, but because it threw the whole blame on the authors of their misconduct. When, therefore, their own magistrates spoke in answer to the Romans, the people were not so well pleased with those who endeavoured to exculpate them, in some measure, from the charges advanced by Popillius, as with those who advised to concur with the opinion of Decimius, and expiate their fault by the punishment of the chief offenders. A decree was therefore immediately passed, that all who should be convicted of having, in any instance, spoken or acted in favour of Perseus, against the Romans, should be condemned to die. Several of those concerned, had left the city on the arrival of the Romans; others put an end to their own lives. The ambassadors staid only five days at Rhodes, and then proceeded to Alexandria; but the trials instituted, pursuant to the decree passed in their presence, were still carried on at Rhodes, with the same activity; and this perseverance of the Rhodians, in the execution of that business, was entirely owing to the mild behaviour of Decimius.
XI. In the mean time, Antiochus, after a fruitless attempt against the walls of Alexandria, had retired; and being now master of all the rest of Egypt, he left, at Memphis, the elder Ptolemy, whose settlement on the throne was the pretended object of his armament, though, in reality, he meant to attack him, as soon as he should have vanquished his competitors; and, then, he led back his army into Syria. Ptolemy, who was not unapprised of this his intention, conceived hopes, that, while he held his younger brother under terror, and in dread of a siege, he might be able to manage matters so as to procure admittance into Alexandria, provided his sister favoured the design, and his brother’s friends did not oppose it. Accordingly, he never ceased sending proposals to all these, until he effected an accommodation with them. His suspicions of Antiochus were corroborated by this circumstance, that, when he gave him possession of the rest of Egypt, he left a strong garrison in Pelusium: a plain proof that he kept that key of Egypt in his hands, in order that he might be able whenever he pleased, to introduce an army, again, into the country; and he foresaw, that the final issue of a civil war with his brother, must be, that the conqueror, thoroughly weakened by the contest, would be utterly unable to contend with Antiochus. In these prudent observations of the elder brother, the younger, and those about him, concurred; while their sister greatly promoted the negotiation, both by her advice and entreaties. A friendly intercourse, therefore, took place, to the satisfaction of all the parties, and the elder Ptolemy was received in Alexandria. Nor was this unpleasing, even to the populace; who, during the war, had been severely distressed by a general scarcity, not only in consequence of the siege, but, after the enemy had retired, by all communication with every part of Egypt, being shut up. Although it was reasonable to suppose, that Antiochus would be rejoiced at these events, if he had really marched his army into Egypt, for the purpose of reinstating Ptolemy on the throne — (the plausible pretext which he had professed to all the states of Asia and Greece, in his answers to their embassies, and in the letters that he wrote;) yet he was so highly offended, that he prepared to make war on the two brothers, with much greater acrimony and fury of resentment, than he had shown against the one. He instantly sent his fleet to Cyprus; and, as soon as the spring appeared, putting himself at the head of his army, he directed his route towards Egypt, and advanced into Cœlesyria. Near Rhinocolura, he was met by ambassadors from Ptolemy, who gave him thanks for the assistance, by means of which he had recovered the throne of his ancestors; and he requested him to secure to him the enjoyment of the benefit, which he had himself conferred; and rather to signify what he wished to be done, than from an ally to become an enemy, and proceed by force of arms. To this he answered, that “he would neither recall his fleet, nor stop the march of his army, on any other conditions, than that all Cyprus and the city of Pelusium, together with the lands adjoining the Pelusian mouth of the Nile, should be ceded to him;” and he even named a particular day, on or before which he expected to receive an answer, that these terms were complied with.
XII. When the time fixed for the suspension of hostilities, was elapsed, Antiochus ordered the commanders of his fleet to sail up the mouth of the Nile to Pelusium, while he himself entered Egypt, through the deserts of Arabia. He was amicably received by the people about Memphis, as he was, afterwards, by the rest of the Egyptians; some being led by inclination, others by fear; and he proceeded thus, by short marches, down to Alexandria. He had just crossed the river at Eleusine, four miles from that city, when he was met by the Roman ambassadors. At their coming, he saluted them, and held out his right hand to Popillius; but Popillius putting into his hand a written tablet, desired him first to peruse that. On reading it, he said, that he would call his friends together, and consult what was to be done; on which Popillius, with that roughness which generally marked his character, drew a line round the King, with a wand which he held in his hand, and said, “Before you go out of that circle, give such an answer as I may report to the senate.” Astonished at such a peremptory injunction, the King hesitated for some time; but, at last, replied, “I will do as the senate directs.” Popillius then thought proper to stretch out his right hand to him; as to a friend and ally. Antiochus having retired out of Egypt, on a day prefixed, the ambassadors employed their influence in establishing concord among the royal family, on a more firm basis than it had yet acquired; and then sailed to Cyprus, from whence they sent home the ships of Antiochus, and which had fought and defeated an Egyptian fleet. This embassy attracted a great share of respect from all nations; having manifestly rescued Egypt out of the hands of the Syrian, when he had it within his grasp, and restored to the race of Ptolemy, the kingdom of their forefathers. While one of the consuls of this year distinguished his administration, by a glorious victory, the other acquired no new lustre to his reputation, no object presenting itself to call forth his abilities. When, in the beginning of his administration, he had appointed his troops to assemble, he entered the consecrated place, without due auspices; and the augurs, on the matter being laid before them, pronounced the appointment improper. Going into Gaul, he lay encamped near the long plains, at the foot of the mountains Sicimina and Papirus, passing the winter in the same country with the troops of the Latine allies. The Roman legions staid all the while in the city, because their assembling had been irregularly ordered. The prætors went to their several provinces, except Caius Papirius Carbo, to whose lot Sardinia had fallen; the senate having commanded him to administer justice, at Rome, between natives and foreigners; a duty to which he had been already named.
XIII. When Popillius, with his colleagues in the embassy to Antiochus, returned to Rome, he gave information, that all disputes between the Kings were done away, and that the army had marched out of Egypt, into Syria. Soon after, arrived ambassadors, from the Kings themselves. Those of Antiochus represented, that “their King had considered a peace, which was agreeable to the senate, as preferable to a victory, how complete soever, and had, accordingly, obeyed the order of the Roman ambassadors, as implicitly, as if it had been a mandate of the gods.” They then offered his congratulations on their victory, “to which,” they said, “the King would have contributed with his utmost power, if he had received any orders to act.” The ambassadors of Ptolemy, in the joint names of that prince and Cleopatra, presented their thanks, acknowledging that “they were more indebted to the senate and people of Rome, then to their own parents, more than to the immortal gods; since, through their intervention, they had been relieved from a most distressing siege, and had recovered the kingdom of their fathers, when it was almost entirely lost.” The senate observed of Antiochus “that he had acted rightly and properly, in complying with the demand of their ambassadors; and that his conduct was pleasing to the senate and people of Rome.” To Ptolemy and Cleopatra, King and Queen of Egypt, they answered, that “the senate rejoiced very much, at having been, in any degree, instrumental to their benefit and advantage; and would take care, that they should always have reason to account the good faith of the Roman people the strongest support of their kingdom.” Caius Papirius, the prætor, was commissioned to send the usual presents to the ambassadors. A letter now arrived from Macedonia, which greatly added to the public joy, as it brought information, that “King Perseus was in the hands of the consul.” After the ambassadors were dismissed, the senate gave hearing to a controversy, between deputies from Pisa, and others from Luna; the former complaining that they were dispossessed of their lands, by the Roman colonists; while the latter insisted, that the lands in question had been marked out to them, by the triumvirs. The senate sent five commissioners to examine and fix the boundaries, Quintus Fabius Buteo, Publius Cornelius Blasio, Tiberius Sempronius Musca, Lucius Nævius Balbus, and Caius Appuleius Saturninus. A joint embassy from the three brothers, Eumenes, Attalus, and Athenæus, came with congratulations on the victory; and Masgaba, son of King Masinissa, having landed at Puteoli, Lucius Manlius, the questor, was immediately despatched to meet and conduct him to Rome at the public expense. As soon as he arrived, the senate was assembled to give him audience. This young prince enhanced the value of services, in themselves meritorious, by the engaging manner in which he mentioned them. He recounted what numbers of foot and horse, how many elephants, and what quantities of corn, his father had sent into Macedonia in aid of the Romans, during the last four years. “But there were two things,” he said, “that made him blush; one, the senate having sent, by their ambassadors, a request, instead of an order, to furnish necessaries for their army: the other, their having sent money, in payment for the corn. Masinissa well remembered, that the kingdom, which he held, had been acquired, and very greatly augmented, by the Roman people; and, contenting himself with the management of it, acknowledged the right and sovereignty to be vested in those who granted it to him. It became them, therefore, to take whatever grew in the country, and not to ask from him, nor to purchase, any of the produce of lands made over by themselves. Whatever remained, after supplying the Roman people, Masinissa thought fully sufficient for himself. These were the declarations,” he said, “of his father, at parting; but he was, afterwards, overtaken by some horsemen, who brought him an account of Macedonia being conquered, with directions to congratulate the senate on that event. He had, also, orders to acquaint them, that Masinissa was so overjoyed at it, that he wished to come to Rome, and, in the Capitol, to offer thanks to Jupiter, supremely good and great. He requested, therefore, that, if it were not disagreeable, the senate would give him permission so to do.”
XIV. Masgaba was answered, that “the conduct of his father, Masinissa, was such as became a prince of a benevolent and grateful disposition; while his manner of acknowledging the kindness of his friends, added value and dignity to it. The Roman people had been faithfully and bravely assisted by him in the Carthaginian war; by the favour of the Roman people, he had obtained his kingdom; and he had, afterwards, in the successive wars with the three kings, discharged, with his usual spirit, every duty. That it was no matter of surprise to them, that their successes should give joy to a king, who had so intimately blended his own interests, and those of his kingdom, with the interests of the Romans. That they wished him to return thanks for the same, in the temples of his own country, and which his son might do in his stead at Rome; as he had already said enough, in the way of congratulation, both in his own name, and in his father’s. But that the senate were of opinion, that by leaving his own kingdom, and going out of Africa, it might, besides being inconvenient to himself, prove detrimental to the Roman people.” On Masgaba making a request, that Hanno, son of Hamilcar, might be brought to Rome as a hostage, in the place of some other, the senate replied, that they could not reasonably require hostages from the Carthaginians, at the choice of any other person. The quæstor was ordered, by a vote of the senate, to purchase presents for the young prince, to the value of one hundred pounds weight of silver, to accompany him to Puteoli, to defray all his expenses while he staid in Italy, and to hire two ships to carry him and his retinue to Africa; every one of his attendants, both freemen and slaves, receiving gifts of clothes. Soon after this a letter was brought, concerning Masinissa’s other son, Misagenes, stating that, after the conquest of Perseus, he was directed, by Lucius Paulus, to go home, with his horsemen, to Africa; and that, while he was on his voyage in the Adriatic Sea, his fleet was dispersed, and himself in a bad state of health, driven into Brundusium with only three ships. Lucius Stertinius, the quæstor, was sent to him, to Brundusium, with presents of the same kind with those given to his brother at Rome, and he was ordered to provide lodgings for the prince and his retinue, and every thing necessary for his health and convenience. [. . . .]
XV. [. . . .] The sons of freedmen had been enrolled in the four city tribes, excepting such as had a son more than five years old; all these the censors, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, ordered to be surveyed in the tribe wherein they hadd been surveyed the year before; and such as had a farm, or farms, in the country, exceeding in value thirty thousand sesterces,* were allowed the privilege of being included in the country tribes. Though this reservation was made in their favour, yet Claudius still insisted, that “a censor could not, without an order of the people, take away from any man, and much less from a whole class of men, the right of suffrage. For though he can remove a man from his tribe, which is nothing more than ordering him to change it, yet he cannot, therefore, remove him out of all the thirty-five tribes; which would be to strip him of the rights of a citizen, and of liberty; not to fix where he should be surveyed, but to exclude him from the survey.” These points were discussed by the censors, who at last came to this compromise: that out of the four city tribes, they should, openly in the court of the temple of liberty, select one by lot, in which they should include all those who had ever been in servitude. The lot fell on the Æsquiline tribe; on which Tiberius Gracchus published an order, that all sons of freedmen should be surveyed in that tribe. This proceeding gained the censors great honour with the senate, who gave thanks to Sempronius for his perseverance in so good a design, and also to Claudius for not obstructing it. These censors expelled from the senate, and ordered to sell their horses, greater numbers than their predecessors. They both concurred, in removing from their tribes, and disfranchising the same persons, in every instance; nor did one of them remove any mark of disgrace inflicted by the other. They petitioned that, according to custom, the year and half’s time, allowed for enforcing the repairs of buildings, and for approving the execution of works contracted for, should be prolonged; but Cneius Tremellius, a tribune, provoked at not having been chosen into the senate, protested against it. This year Caius Cicerius dedicated a temple on the Alban mount, five years after he had vowed it; and Lucius Postumius Albinus was inaugurated flamen of Mars.
Y. R.585.
167.XVI. The consuls, Quintus Ælius and Marcus Junius, having proposed the business of distributing
the provinces, the senate decreed that Spain, which, during the Macedonian war, had been but one province, should be
again formed into two; and that the present governors, Lucius Paullus and Lucius Anicius, should continue in the
government of Macedonia and Illyria, until, with the concurrence of commissioners, they should adjust the affairs of
those countries disordered by the war, and form a new constitution for both kingdoms. The provinces assigned to the
consuls were Pisæ and Gaul, with two legions to each, containing five thousand two hundred foot, and three hundred
horse. The lots of the prætors were of Quintus Cassius, the city jurisdiction; of Manius Juventius Thalna, the foreign;
of Tiberius Claudius Nero, Sicily; of Cneius Fulvius, Hither Spain, and of Caius Licinius Nerva, Farther Spain.
Sardinia had fallen to Aulus Manlius Torquatus, but he could not procced thither, being detained by a decree of the
senate, to preside at trials of capital offences. The senate was then consulted concerning prodigies which were
reported: the temple of the tutelar deities, on the Velian hill, had been struck by lightning; and two gates, and a
large part of the wall in the town of Minervium. At Anagnia, a shower of earth had fallen; and, at Lanuvium, a blazing
torch was seen in the sky. Marcus Valerius, a Roman citizen, reported, that at Calatia, on the lands of the public,
blood had flowed from his hearth, during three days and two nights. On account chiefly of this last, the decemvirs were
directed to consult the books; on which they ordered a general supplication for one day, and sacrificed in the Forum
fifty goats. On account of the other prodigies, there was another supplication, of one day’s continuance, with
sacrifices of the larger victims, and the city was purified. Then, mindful of the gratitude due to the immortal gods,
the senate decreed, that, “forasmuch as their enemies were subdued, and Macedonia and Illyria, with their kings Perseus
and Gentius, were in the power of the Roman people, therefore, whatever offerings were made in all the temples by
Appius Claudius and Marcus Sempronius, consuls, on occasion of the conquest of King Antiochus, offerings of the same
value should then be made, under the superintendence of Quintus Cassius and Manius Juventius, prætors.”
XVII. They then constituted commissioners, with whose advice the generals, Lucius Paullus and Lucius Anicius were to regulate the affairs of their provinces; ten for Macedonia, and five for Illyria. Those nominated for Macedonia were, Aulus Postumius Luscus, Caius Claudius, both of whom had been censors, Caius Licinius Crassus, who had been colleague to Paullus in the consulship, and then held the province of Gaul, having been continued in command. To these, who were of consular rank, were added, Cneius Domitius Ænobarbus, Servius Cornelius Sulla, Lucius Junius, Caius Antistius Labeo, Titus Numisius Tarquiniensis, and Aulus Terentius Varro. The following were nominated for Illyria: Publius Ælius Ligus, a man of consular rank, Caius Cicereius, Cneius Bæbius Tamphilus, who had been prætor the last year, as had Cicereius, many years before, Publius Terentius Tusciveicanus, and Publius Manilius. The senate then recommended to the consuls that, as one of them must go into Gaul, in the room of Caius Licinius, appointed a commissioner, they should either settle their provinces between themselves, or cast lots, as might be agreeable to them. They chose to cast lots; when Pisæ fell to Marcus Junius, who was ordered to introduce to the senate the embassies that came to Rome, from all quarters, with congratulations, before he went to his province; and Gaul to Quintus Ælius.
XVIII. Although the commissioners were men of such characters as afforded confident hopes that, guided by their counsel, the generals would determine on nothing derogatory either to the clemency or dignity of the Roman people, yet the heads of a plan of settlement were considered in the senate, that the said commissioners might carry out to them a general idea of the whole. First, it was determined, that “the Macedonians and Illyrians should be enfranchised: in order to demonstrate to all the world, that the arms of the Roman people were employed not in rivetting chains, but in breaking them; and to convince those who already enjoyed freedom, that it would enure to them safe and permanent, under the protection of the Roman people; and farther to make known to such as now were subject to despotic rule, that their princes, under awe of the Roman people, would be, at the present, more just and mild; and that, should war break out at any time between their kings and the Roman people, the issue would bring victory to the latter, and liberty to themselves. It was also provided, that the farming both of the Macedonian mines, which produced a very large profit, and crown lands, should be abolished; as business of that kind could not be managed without the intervention of revenue farmers; and wherever people of that description were employed, either the rights of the public were invaded, or the freedom of the allies destroyed. Nor could the Macedonians themselves conduct such affairs; for while they afforded the managers opportunities of acquiring prey to themselves, there would never be an end of disputes and seditions. It was farther determined, that there should be no general council of the nation; lest the perverseness of the populace might, some time or other, convert into pestilent licentiousness the wholesome liberty granted by the senate; but, that Macedonia should be divided into four districts, each of which should have a council of its own; and that they should pay to the Roman people half the tribute which they used, formerly, to pay to their kings.” Similar instructions were given respecting Illyria. Other particulars were left to the generals and commissioners; who, by investigating matters on the spot, would be enabled to form more accurate plans.
XIX. Among the many embassies from kings, nations, and states, Attalus, brother to Eumenes, attracted the general attention in a very particular manner; for he was received, by those who had served along with him in the late war, with even greater demonstration of kindness, than could have been shown to the monarch himself. He had two reasons for coming, both, apparently, highly honourable; one to offer congratulations, which was quite proper, in the case of a victory to which himself had contributed; the other, to complain of disturbances raised by the Gauls, so as to endanger his brother’s kingdom. But he had, also, a private view; he entertained secret hopes of honours and rewards from the senate, which yet, he could scarcely receive as being more properly the claims of the King. There were some among the Romans who had given him ill counsel; and the prospects, which they opened to him, set his ambition at work. They told him, that “the general opinion concerning Attalus and Eumenes was, that one was a steady friend to the Romans, and that the other was not a faithful ally either to them or to Perseus. That it was not easy to say, with regard to any requests that he might make, whether the senate would have more pleasure in serving him, or in hurting his brother; so entirely were all disposed to gratify the one, and to grant nothing to the other.” As the event proved, Attalus was one of those who covet all that hope can promise to itself; and he would have been deluded by these suggestions, had not the prudent admonitions of one friend put a curb on those passions, which were growing wanton through prosperity. He had, in his retinue, a physician called Stratius, whom Eumenes, not perfectly assured of his brother’s fidelity, had sent to Rome, for the purpose of watching over his conduct, and for giving him faithful advice, if he should perceive his honour wavering. This man, although he had to address ears already prepossessed, and a mind labouring under a strong bias, yet, by arguments judiciously timed, he restored every thing to its proper state, even after the case had become almost desperate. He urged that “different kingdoms grew into power by different means. As to that of Eumenes, being lately formed, and unsupported by any long established strength, it was upheld, solely, by the concord of the brothers; for, while one bore the title, and the ornament which distinguishes the head of a sovereign, each of them was considered as a king. As to Attalus, in particular, being the next in years, was there any man who did not hold him as such? and that, not only because his present power was great; but because he must, unquestionably, ascend the throne, in a very short time, in consequence of the age and infirmity of Eumenes, who had no legitimate issue;” for he had not, at this time, acknowledged the son who afterwards reigned: “To what purpose, then, employ violence, to attain what of course must soon be his? Besides, a new storm had fallen on the kingdom, from the insurrection of the Gauls, which the most perfect harmony and union of the brothers would scarce enable them to withstand. But if to a foreign war dissensions were added, nothing but ruin could ensue; nor would his scheme produce any other effects, than that of hindering his brother from ending his life on the throne, and himself from ascending it. If both modes of acting were honourable — either to preserve the kingdom for his relative, or to take it from him — yet the honour that would derive to him from the first mentioned proceeding, as it arose in brotherly love, would be the greater. The latter, indeed, would be detestable, and bordering nearly on parricide; what room, then, could there be for deliberation? For, whether did he mean to demand a share of the kingdom, or to seize the whole? If a share were his object, it must follow, that both, by the separation of their strength, would be rendered feeble, and exposed to injuries of every kind; if the whole, would he then require his elder brother — reduced to a private station, at his time of life, and under such infirmity of body — either to live in exile, or to end his life? Not to speak of the tragical catastrophes, represented on the stage, the fate of Perseus was remarkably striking; who, having, by the murder of his brother, opened himself a way to the seizure of the crown, was obliged, on his knees, to lay it down, at the feet of a victorious enemy, in the temple of Samothrace; as if the gods, present on the spot, had demanded vengeance for his crimes. Those very men,” he continued, “who, from no motive of friendship for him, but of enmity to Eumenes, had instigated him to the adoption of such measures, would ultimately bestow praises on him, if he maintained his fidelity to his brother.”
XX. These arguments determined Attalus. On being introduced to the senate, after congratulating them on their success, he made mention of his own services during the war, and those of his brother; of the defection of the Gauls, which had lately happened, and which had caused violent commotions; and he entreated that ambassadors might be sent to those people, whose authority would oblige them to desist from hostilities. After delivering these messages, respecting the general interest of the state, he requested a grant of Ænus and Maronea to himself. Having thus disappointed the hopes of those who expected him to arraign his brother’s conduct, and solicit a partition of the kingdom, he retired from the senate-house. There have been few instances of any discourse, whether delivered by a private person or a king, being received with such a degree of favour and approbation by all who heard it; and presents and honours of every kind were conferred upon him, during his stay, and at his departure. Of the many embassies which came from Greece and Asia, that of the Rhodians engaged the greatest share of the public attention. At first they appeared in white, that colour being the best adapted to persons charged with a message of a joyful nature; for had they worn mourning, it might seem to be put on for the misfortunes of Perseus. Afterwards, on the question being put to the senate, by the consul Marcus Junius, (the ambassadors standing in the Comitium,) whether lodging and entertainment should be allowed them, it was voted, that no duty of hospitality was due to them. When the consul came out of the senate-house, the Rhodians told him, that they were come to congratulate the Romans on their late success, and to clear their state of the charges made against it. They then requested an audience of the senate, to which he returned this answer: that “it was the custom of the Romans both to grant audience in their senate, and to perform other acts of kindness and hospitality to their friends and allies; but that the conduct of the Rhodians, in the late war, had not entitled them to be ranked in the number of friends or allies.” On hearing this, they all prostrated themselves on the ground, beseeching the consul, and all present, not to suffer new and false imputations to operate more powerfully to their prejudice, than their long course of services, known to all present, in their favour. They immediately assumed a mourning dress, and, going round to the houses of the principal men, supplicated, with prayers and tears, that their cause might be heard before they were condemned.
XXI. Marcus Juvencius Thalna, the prætor who had the jurisdiction between natives and foreigners, stimulated the public resentment against the Rhodians, proposing an order, that “war should be declared against the Rhodians, and that the people should choose one of the magistrates of the present year, who should be sent with a fleet to carry on that war:” he hoped that himself should be the person chosen. This proceeding was opposed by two of the plebeian tribunes, Marcus Antonius and Marcus Pomponius. But the prætor, on his part, commenced the business in a manner highly unprecedented, and of very pernicious tendency; for, without first consulting the senate, and without acquainting the consuls, of his own sole judgment he proposed to the people the question, “Was it their will and order that war should be declared against the Rhodians?” whereas, it had ever, until then, been the practice, first to take the judgment of the senate on such a matter, and then to lay the business before the people. On the other side, the plebeian tribunes opposed this proceeding; although it was a received rule, that no tribune should protest against a proposal until opportunity was given to private citizens to argue for and against it; in consequence of which it had often happened that some, who had no intention of protesting, discovered improprieties in the question from the discourses of those who opposed it, and therefore did protest; and some, who came avowedly to protest, abstained from it, being convinced by the arguments adduced in its favour. On this occasion, the prætor and tribunes vied with each other in doing every thing out of time. While the tribunes blamed the hasty proceeding of the prætor, they imitated the example by a premature protest. The only pretence they alleged for it was, the necessity of adjourning the business of the Rhodians until the general, and the ten commissioners, should return from Macedonia.
XXII. [. . . .]† . “Whether we have transgressed, or not, is yet doubtful; meanwhile, we suffer punishments and disgraces of all sorts. In former times, when we visited Rome, after the conquest of Carthage, after the defeat of Philip, and after that of Antiochus, we were escorted from a lodging, furnished us by the public, into the senate-house, to present our congratulations to you, Conscript Fathers; and, from the senate-house to the Capitol, carrying offerings to your gods. But now, from a vile and filthy inn, where scarcely could we get a reception for our money, treated as enemies, and forbid to lodge within the city, we come, in this squalid dress, to the Roman senate-house: we, Rhodians, on whom, a short time ago, you bestowed the provinces of Lycia and Caria; on whom you conferred the most ample rewards and honours. Even the Macedonians and Illyrians, you order, as we hear, to be free; though they were in servitude before they waged war with you. Not that we envy the good fortune of any; on the contrary, we acknowledge therein the usual clemency of the Roman people. But will you convert, from allies into enemies, the Rhodians, who, during the war, have maintained the strictest neutrality? You are the same Romans, who boast that your wars are successful, because they are just; who glory not so much in the issue of them (being, as you are, victorious,) as in the commencement of them, because undertaken not without cause. Your war with the Carthaginians was occasioned by their having attacked Messana, in Sicily. The rupture with Philip arose from his attempt to reduce Greece to slavery, and in giving assistance of men and money to Hannibal. Antiochus, on the invitation of the Ætolians, your enemies, came over in person, with a fleet from Asia to Greece; and, by seizing Demetrias, Chalcis, and the streight of Thermopylæ, endeavoured to dispossess you of a part of your empire. The motives to your war with Perseus were his attacks on your allies, and his putting to death the princes and leading members of certain states. But, if we are doomed to ruin, to what will our misfortune be ascribed? I do not yet separate the cause of the state from that of our countrymen, Polyaratus and Dino, with others, whom we have brought hither, in order to deliver them into your hands. But supposing every one of us were equally guilty, I ask what was our crime with respect to the late war? We favoured, it is said, the interest of Perseus. But have we supported that prince against you in like manner as, in the wars of Antiochus and Philip, we supported you against those kings? Now, in what manner we are accustomed to assist our allies, and with what vigour to conduct wars, ask Caius Livius and Lucius Æmilius Regillus, who commanded your fleets on the coasts of Asia. Your ships never fought a battle in which we did not co-operate. We, with our own fleet, fought one engagement at Samos, and a second on the coast of Pamphylia, against no less a commander than Hannibal. The victory which we gained in the latter, was the more glorious to us, as the loss of a great part of our navy, with a considerable number of the principal young men, in the unfortunate fight at Samos, did not deter us from venturing again to give battle to the King’s fleet on its return from Syria. These matters I have mentioned not out of ostentation, (that would ill become our present situation,) but to remind you in what way the Rhodians assist their allies.
XXIII. “When Philip and Antiochus were subdued, we received from you very ample rewards. If the same fortune, which the favour of the gods, and your own courage, have procured to you, had fallen to the lot of Perseus, and we were to go into Macedonia, to the victorious King, to demand rewards from him, what merit should we have to plead? Could we say, that we had assisted him with money, or with corn; with land or sea forces? Had we defended his garrison; or fought either under his generals, or by ourselves? If he should enquire among the land and sea forces, which we sent to act in concert with his, what answer could we give? Perhaps we might be brought to a trial before him, if successful, as we are now, before you. All that we have gained by sending ambassadors, to both, to mediate a peace, is, that we received no thanks from either party, and incurred from one of them accusations and danger. Perseus, indeed, might justly object to us, what cannot be objected by you, Conscript Fathers, that, at the commencement of the war, we sent ambassadors to Rome, promising supplies of all sorts requisite for the war, and engaging to be ready, as in former wars, with our ships, our arms, and our men. That we did not perform this, you were, yourselves, the cause; you, who, whatever was the reason, rejected our assistance on that occasion. We have, therefore, neither acted in any instance as enemies, nor been deficient in the duty of well-affected allies; which duty, had not you prevented us, we should have performed. What then shall we say? Rhodians, has there been nothing said, or done, in your country, which you disapprove of, and which might give just cause of offence to the Romans? Henceforward, I do not mean to defend what has been done, I am not so weak, but to distinguish the cause of the public from the guilt of private men. For there is no nation whatever that has not, generally, some ill-disposed members, and always an ignorant populace. I have heard, that, even among the Romans, there have been men who worked themselves into power by courting the multitude; that the plebeians sometimes seceded from you, and that you lost the power of directing the affairs of government. If it were possible for this to happen in a state where the rules of conduct are so well established, who can wonder at their being some among us, who, out of a wish to gain the King’s friendship, seduced our meaner people by bad advice? Yet their intrigues produced no farther effect than our remaining inactive, without infringing our duty. I shall not pass by that, which has been made the heaviest charge against our state during the war. We sent ambassadors at the same time to you, and to Perseus, to mediate a peace; and that unfortunate undertaking was, by a furious orator, as we afterwards heard, rendered foolish to the last degree; for it appears, that he spoke in such a manner as Caius Popillius, the Roman ambassador, would have spoken, when you sent him to the two kings, Antiochus and Ptolemy, to induce them to cease from hostilities. But still, whether this conduct is to be called arrogance or folly, it was the same towards Perseus as towards you. States, as well as individuals, have their different characters; some are violent, others daring, others timid; some addicted to wine, others more particularly to women. The Athenian nation has the character of being quick and bold, beyond its strength, in beginning an enterprise; and the Lacedæmonian, of being dilatory and backward, in entering upon business, even when confident of success. I cannot deny that Asia, throughout its whole extent, produces men too much inclined to vanity, and that the speech of even the Rhodians is too much tinctured with vain-glory, which arises from our being supposed to hold some pre-eminence above the neighbouring states. That, however, is owing not so much to our particular strength, as to the marks of honour and esteem conferred on us by you. Our first embassy received a sufficient rebuke from you. But, if the disgrace which we then underwent was too trifling, surely the present mournful and suppliant embassy would be a sufficient expiation for the offence. Arrogance, it is true, creates disgust in some, and ridicule in others; more especially, if it be shown by an inferior towards a superior; but no one has ever yet thought it deserving of capital punishment. It was to be feared that the Rhodians should contemn the Romans! Some men have spoken, even of the gods, in terms too presumptuous; yet we have never heard of any one being struck with thunder on that account.
XXIV. “What charge, then, remains, of which we are to acquit ourselves, since there has been no hostile act on our part? Must the too haughty expressions of an ambassador, though they deserve the displeasure of the hearers, be punished by the ruin of the state? Conscript Fathers, I heard you debating on the penalty which we ought to pay for our secret wishes. Some assert that we favoured the King, and, therefore, that we should be punished with war; others, that we did indeed wish him success, but ought not, on that account, to be held criminal, since neither the practice nor the laws of any state admit, that simply desiring the destruction of a foe, should subject any one to the penalty of death. We are absolved from the punishment, but not from the crime; and for this it may be thought we should be thankful; but we lay down this law for ourselves: if we all entertained the wishes imputed to us, we will then make no distinction between the will and the deed; let us all be punished. If some of our people in power favoured you, and others the King, I do not demand, that, for the sake of us, who were on your side, the favourers of the King may be saved; but I pray you that we may not be ruined through them. You are not more inveterate against them, than is our state itself; and knowing this, most of them fled, or put themselves to death, the others have been condemned by us, and will soon be in your power, Conscript Fathers. The rest of us Rhodians, as we have merited no thanks during the war, so neither have we deserved punishment. Let our former services be set against our late inactivity. You have recently waged war with three kings: let not the domerit of our inaction, during one of these wars, outweigh the merit of having fought on your side in the other two. Consider Philip, Antiochus, and Perseus, as you would three votes; two of them acquit us, one is doubtful, but rather inclines to our side than otherwise. If they were to sit in judgment, they would give sentence against us. Conscript Fathers, you are to decide, whether Rhodes is to continue to exist or to be utterly destroyed. The issue of your deliberations will not be war; because, Conscript Fathers, though it is in your power to declare war, it is not in your power to wage it, as not a single Rhodian will take up arms against you. If you persist in your anger, we will beg time from you, until we carry home an account of this unhappy embassy. We will then, every free person of the Rhodians, both men and women, with all our wealth, embark in ships, and leaving the seats of our tutelar deities, both public and private, repair to Rome; where, heaping together in the Comitium, at the door of your senate-house, all our gold and silver, all the public and private property that we possess, we will submit our persons, and those of our wives and children, to your disposal; that, whatever we are to suffer, we may suffer here, and be far removed from the sight of the sacking and burning of our city. The Romans may pass a judgment, that the Rhodians are enemies; but we have also a right, in some degree, to judge ourselves; and we never will judge ourselves your enemies, nor do one hostile act, should we even suffer the last extremities.”
XXV. Such was their speech; after which they all prostrated themselves again, and, as supplicants, held out olive branches; but, at length, they were raised, and withdrew from the senate-house. The opinions of the senators were then demanded. The most inveterate against the Rhodians were those, who, as consuls, prætors, or lieutenant-generals, had acted in Macedonia, during the war; and the person who was most useful to their cause was Marcus Porcius Cato, who, though naturally austere, acted his part as a senator, on this occasion, with much mildness. It is not necessary, here, to give a specimen of his copious eloquence, by inserting his speech, as he has published it himself, in the fifth book of his Antiquities. The answer given to the Rhodians was, that “they should neither be declared enemies; nor, any longer, be considered as allies.” At the head of this embassy were Philocrates and Astimedes. Half their number, with Philocrates, were ordered to carry home to Rhodes an account of their proceedings; and the other half, with Astimedes, to remain at Rome, that they might be acquainted with what passed, and inform their countrymen. For the present, they were commanded to remove their governors out of Lycia and Caria, before a certain day. This news was, in itself, sufficiently afflicting; nevertheless, as it relieved the Rhodians from the dread of a greater evil, for they had feared a war, it occasioned even a degree of joy. They, therefore, immediately voted a present, amounting in value to twenty thousand pieces of gold, and deputed Theodotus, the commander of their fleet, to be the bearer of it. They wished to procure an alliance with the Romans; but, in such a manner, as that no order of the people should pass concerning it, nor any thing be committed to writing; so that, if they should fail of success, the disgrace of a refusal might appear the less. Theodotus was empowered, singly, to negociate that business, with the above proviso; for, during a considerable length of time, they had maintained a friendship with the Romans, without being bound by any treaty; their reason for which was, that they might neither preclude the kings from all hope of their assistance, if any of them should need it, nor themselves from a participation of the advantages which might accrue from the good fortune and liberality of the said kings. At this time, however, an alliance seemed particularly desirable, not so much for the sake of security against others, (for, excepting the Romans, they feared none,) as to render them less liable to jealousies, on the part of the Romans. About this time, the Caunians revolted from them, and the Mylassians seized on the towns of the Euromensians. The spirit of their community was not so totally broken, as to hinder their perceiving, that, if Lycia and Caria were taken from them by the Romans, their other provinces would either assert their own freedom, by a revolt, or be seized on by their neighbours; and that themselves would then be shut up in a small island; within the shores of a barren country, inadequate to the maintenance of the numerous people in so large a city. They therefore sent out, with all speed, a body of troops, and reduced the Caunians to obedience, though they had received succours from Cybara; and afterwards defeated in a battle at Orthosia the Mylassians and Alabandians, who, having seized the province of Euroma, had united their forces, and came to meet them.
XXVI. Such were the occurrences in Rhodes, in Macedonia, and in Rome. Meanwhile, in Illyria, Lucius Anicius, having reduced King Gentius under his power, as before mentioned, placed a garrison in Scodra, which had been the capital of the kingdom, and gave the command to Gabinius. He also garrisoned Rhizo, and Olcinium, towns very conveniently situated, and appointed Caius Licinius commander. Committing the government of Illyria to these two, he marched, with the rest of his forces, into Epirus. Here, Phanota was the first place which submitted to him; the whole multitude, with fillets on their heads, coming out to meet him. Placing a garrison there, he went over into Molossis, all the towns of which province, except Passora, Tecmo, Phylace, and Horreum, having surrendered, he marched first against Passora. The two men, of the greatest authority in that city, were Antinous and Theodotus, who were remarkable for their warm attachment to Perseus, and hatred to the Romans; into a revolt from whom, the whole nation had been hurried by their instigations. These men, conscious of their own delinquency, and despairing of pardon, shut the gates, that they might be buried under the general ruin of their country, and exhorting the multitude to prefer death to slavery. No man dared to open his lips against men of such transcendent power. At last, one Theodotus, a young man of distinction, (his greater dread of the Romans overpowering the lesser fear of his own leaders,) exclaimed, “What madness has seized you, to make the public accessary to the crimes of individuals, and only two in number? I have often heard mention made of men who offered themselves to death for the sake of their country; but never, before these, were any found, who required that their country should perish for theirs. Why not open our gates, and submit to that power, to which the whole world has submitted?” As he spoke thus, he was followed by the multitude; on which, Antinous and Theodotus, rushing out on the first advanced guards of the enemy, and freely exposing themselves to their weapons, were slain, and the city was surrendered to the Romans. Through a similar obstinacy in Cephalus, a man in power, the gates of Tecmo were shut; but he was soon put to death, and then the town capitulated. Neither Phylace nor Horreum stood a siege. Having thus reduced Epirus, Anicius distributed his troops in winter quarters, through the most convenient towns; and, returning into Illyria, held a general convention at Scodra, where the five commissioners had arrived from Rome, and to which place he had summoned the principal men, from all parts of the province. There, with advice of the council, he proclaimed from his tribunal, that “the senate and people of Rome granted freedom to the Illyrians; and that he would withdraw his garrisons from all their towns, citadels, and castles. That the Issans and Taulantians, with the Pirustans, the Rizonites, and the Olcinians, should not only enjoy liberty, but likewise an immunity from taxes; because, when Gentius was in his full strength, they had quitted him, and sided with the Romans. That the same exemption was granted to the Daorseans; because they forsook Caravantius, and came over with their arms, to the Romans; and that the Scodrans, Dassarensians, Selepitans, and the rest of the Illyrians, should pay half the taxes which they had formerly paid to their king.” He then divided Illyria into three districts; the first was composed of the people above mentioned, the second comprehended all the Labeatians, and the third the Agranonites, Rizonites, and Olcinians, with the contiguous states. Having thus regulated affairs in Illyria, he returned into Epirus, to his winter quarters, at Passaro.
XXVII. While these matters passed in Illyria, Paullus, before the arrival of the ten commissioners, sent his son Quintus Maximus, who was by this time returned from Rome, to sack Agassæ and Æginium; the former, because the inhabitants, after surrendering their city to the consul, and voluntarily soliciting an alliance with Rome, had revolted again to Perseus: the crime of the people of Æginium was of a late date; not giving credit to the report of the Romans being victorious, they had treated, with hostile cruelty, some soldiers who came into the city. He also detached Lucius Postumius to pillage the city of Ænia; because the inhabitants had continued in arms with more obstinacy than the neighbouring nations. Autumn now approached, when he resolved to make a tour through Greece, in order to take a view of those celebrated curiosities, the knowledge of which is, by the major part of a people, generally taken from the reports of others. With this intention, he gave the command of his quarters to Caius Sulpicius Gallus, and, with a moderate retinue, began his journey, in which he was accompanied by his son Scipio, and Athenæus, King Eumenes’s brother. He directed his route, through Thessaly, to Delphi, so famous for its oracle, where he offered sacrifices to Apollo; and observing in the porch some unfinished pillars, on which it had been intended to place statues of King Perseus, he determined, that statues of himself should be erected on them, to commemorate his successes. He also visited the temple of Jupiter Trophonius at Lebadia; where, after viewing the mouth of the cave, through which people applying to the oracle descend, in order to obtain information from the gods, he sacrificed to Jupiter and Hercynna, who have a temple there; and then went down to Chalcis, to see the curiosities of the Euripus, and of the island of Eubœa, which is there united to the continent by a bridge. From Chalcis, he passed over to Aulis, a port three miles distant, and famous for having been formerly the station of Agamemnon’s fleet of one thousand ships; he then visited the temple of Diana, in which the Argive chief purchased a passage to Troy, by offering his daughter Iphigenia as a victim at the altar. Thence he came to Oropus, in Attica; where the prophet Amphilochus is worshipped as a god, and has an ancient temple, surrounded by delightful springs and streams. He then went to Athens, which, though filled with only the decayed relics of ancient grandeur, still contained many things worthy of observation; the citadel, the port, the walls connecting Piræus with the city; the dock-yards, the monuments of illustrious generals, the statues of gods and men, exceedingly curious both in respect of the materials, of various kinds, and the skill of the several artists.
XXVIII. After sacrificing to Minerva, the guardian of the citadel, he continued his journey, and on the second day arrived at Corinth. At this time, that city flourished in extraordinary splendour; the citadel too, and the isthmus, afforded admirable views; the former, towering up to an immense height, yet abounding with springs; and the latter, separating by a narrow neck two seas, which almost meet from the east and west. He next visited the celebrated cities of Sicyon, and Argos; then Epidaurus, which, though not comparable to them in opulence, was yet remarkable for a famous temple of Esculapius, standing at five miles’ distance, and, at that time, rich in offerings dedicated to that semideity by the sick, in acknowledgment of the recovery of their health; but now showing only the traces of them, whence they have been torn away. Thence he proceeded to Lacedæmon, renowned, not for magnificent works of art, but for its laws and discipline; and then, passing through Magalopolis, he went up to Olympia. Here having taken a view of all things worthy of notice, and beholding Jupiter in a manner present before him, he was struck with the deepest reverence; so much so, that he ordered preparations to be made for a sacrifice, with more than usual magnificence, and as if he were going to make offerings in the Capitol. Thus he finished his circuit through Greece; during which, he never once inquired how any one, either in their public or private capacity, had stood affected towards Perseus, during the war; being unwilling to disturb the minds of the allies with any kind of apprehensions. On his way back to Demetrias, he was met by a crowd of Ætolians, in mourning apparel. Expressing surprise, and asking the reason of this proceeding, he was told, that five hundred and fifty of the chief of their countrymen had been put to death by Lyciscus and Tisippus, who surrounded their senate with Roman soldiers, sent by their commander Bæbius; that others had been driven into exile; and that the goods of the killed and exiled were in the hands of their accusers. They were ordered to attend him at Amphipolis; and then, having met Cneius Octavius at Demetrias, who informed him that the ten commissioners were landed, he laid aside all other business, and went to Apollonia to meet them. Perseus, being too negligently guarded, had come hither to meet him from Amphipolis, the distance of a day’s journey. To him Æmilius spoke with great courtesy; but, when at the quarters of the troops, he gave a severe reprimand to Caius Sulpicius; first, for allowing Perseus thus to ramble through the province, and, next for indulging the soldiers so far as to suffer them to strip the buildings on the city walls of the tiles, in order to cover their own winter huts. These tiles he ordered to be carried back, the buildings to be repaired, and put in their former condition. Perseus, with his elder son Philip, he gave in charge to Aulus Postumius, and sent them into a place of confinement; his daughter and younger son he ordered to be brought from Samothrace to Amphipolis, and treated them with all possible kindness.
XXIX. When the day arrived, on which he had ordered ten chiefs from each of the states to attend at Amphipolis, and all the writings wherever deposited, and the money belonging to the King, to be brought thither, he seated himself, with the ten commissioners, on his tribunal, where he was surrounded by the whole multitude of the Macedonians. Though they were inured to the government of a king, yet a tribunal, of a different kind from what they were acquainted with, impressed them with terror; the lictor clearing the way, the herald, the sergeant, were all objects strange to their eyes and ears, and capable of inspiring awe in allies, much more in conquered enemies. Silence being proclaimed by the herald, Paullus promulgated, in the Latine tongue, the regulations adopted by the senate, and by himself with the advice of the council; and the prætor, Cneius Octavius, repeated the same in Greek. First of all, he ordered, that “the Macedonians should live free; possessing the same cities, and lands, as before; governed by their own laws, and creating annual magistrates; and that they should pay to the Roman people, one half of the taxes which they had paid to their kings. Next, that Macedonia should be divided into four districts. That one, which should be deemed the first, should comprehend the lands between the rivers Strymon and Nessus, with the addition of that tract, beyond the Nessus, towards the east, wherein Perseus had possessed villages, castles, or towns, excepting Ænus, Maronæa, and Abdera; and of the tract beyond the Strymon, towards the west, comprising all Bisaltica, with Heraclea, which they call Sintice. That the second district should be the country inclosed by the river Strymon, on the east, where were excepted Sintice-Heraclea and Bisaltica, and by the river Axius, on the west; to which should be added the Pæonians, living on the eastern bank of the Axius. That the third district should have for its bounds, the river Axius on the east, the Peneus on the west, and Mount Bora, on the north. That to this division should be joined that tract of Pæonia, which stretches along the western side of the Axius; Edessa also, and Beræa, should be united to it. The fourth district was to consist of the country on the north of Mount Bora, touching Illyria, on one side, and Epirus, on the other. He then appointed the capitals of the districts, in which the councils should be held; of the first district, Amphipolis; of the second, Thessalonica; of the third, Pella; and of the fourth, Pelagonia. In these, he ordered, that the councils of the several districts should be assembled, the public money deposited, and the magistrates elected.” He then gave notice, that it was determined, that intermarriages should not be allowed; that no one should be at liberty to purchase lands or houses, out of the limits of his own district; that the mines of gold and silver must not be worked; but those of iron and copper might; the persons working them paying one half of the tax which they had paid to the King. He likewise forbade the importation of salt. To the Dardanians, who reclaimed Pæonia, because it had formerly been theirs, and was contiguous to their territory, he declared, that he gave liberty to all who had been under subjection to Perseus. Pæonia he refused; but to compensate for this refusal, he granted them liberty to purchase salt, and ordered that the third district should bring it down to Stobi; and he fixed the price to be paid for it. He prohibited them from cutting ship timber themselves, or suffering others to cut it. To those districts which bordered on the barbarians, (and excepting the third, this was the case of them all,) he gave permission to keep armed forces on their frontiers.
XXX. These terms, announced on the first day of the convention, affected the minds of those who were present with very different emotions. Liberty being granted them, beyond their expectation, and the annual tribute being lightened, gave them high satisfaction; but then, by the prohibition of a commercial intercourse between the districts, they thought the territory dismembered, like an animal torn asunder into separate limbs, which stood in need of mutual aid from each other; so little did the Macedonians themselves know how great was the extent of their country, how aptly it was formed for a division, and how competent each part was to subsist by itself. The first division contains the Bisaltians, men of the greatest courage, residing beyond the river Nessus, and on both sides of the Strymon; it is peculiarly productive of the fruits of the earth, has mines also, and the city of Amphipolis, most advantageously situated; for, standing just in the way, it shuts up every passage into Macedonia from the east. The second division has two very remarkable cities, Thessalonica and Cassandria, and the country of Pallene, abundantly productive of grain and fruits; it is also well calculated for maritime business, by means of its harbours, at Toro, and at Mount Athos, (called Ænea,) besides others, some of which are conveniently situated upon the Eubœa, and some opposite the Hellespont. The third district has the celebrated cities of Edessa, Beræa, and Pella; and is partly inhabited by the Vettians, a warlike people, also by great numbers of Gauls and Illyrians, who are industrious husbandmen. The fourth district is occupied by the Eordæans, Lyncestans, and Pelagonians, to whom are joined Atintania, Stymphalis, and Elemiotis. All this tract is cold, and the soil rough, and unfavourable to tillage; to which the tempers of the inhabitants bear a strong resemblance. They are rendered the more ferocious by their vicinity to the barbarians, who, by frequent attacks, inure them to a life of arms, and, during peace, introduce their customs among them. Having, by this division of Macedonia, separated the interests of the several districts, he informed them, that the regulations which were to be binding on the Macedonians in general, should be made known to them, when the time came which he intended to appoint, for giving them a body of laws.
XXXI. The Ætolians were then summoned to appear; but in the trial of their cause, the inquiry was directed to discover, rather, which party had favoured the Romans, and which the King, than which had done, and which suffered injury; for the murderers were absolved of guilt, the exilements confirmed, and the death of the citizens overlooked. Aulus Bæbius, alone, was condemned for having lent Roman soldiers on the occasion. The consequence of this decision through the states and nations of Greece, was, that it puffed up the party which favoured the Romans to an intolerable degree of arrogance; and subjected to be trodden under their feet, all those who were, in the least, suspected of being in the King’s interest. Of the leading men in the states, there were three parties: two of which, paying servile court either to the Romans, or the kings, sought to aggrandize themselves by enslaving their countries; while the third, taking a different course from either, and struggling against both, stood up in support of their laws and liberty. These last had the greatest share of the affection of their countrymen, but the least interest among foreigners. The great successes of the Romans had raised their partizans to such importance, that they alone held the offices of magistracy; they alone were employed on embassies. Great numbers of these, coming from the diets of Peloponnesus, Bœotia, and other parts of Greece, filled the ears of the ten commissioners with insinuations, that “those who, through folly, had openly boasted of being friends and intimates of Perseus, were not the only persons who had favoured his cause; much greater numbers had done so in secret. That there was another party, who, under pretence of supporting liberty, had, in the diets, advanced every measure prejudicial to the Roman interest; and that those nations would not continue faithful, unless the spirits of these parties were subdued, and the influence of those, who had no other object than the advancement of the Roman power, were augmented and strengthened.” These men gave a list of the persons alluded to, whom the general called by letter out of Ætolia, Acarnania, Epirus, and Bœotia, to follow him to Rome, and account for their conduct. Two of the ten commissioners, Caius Claudius and Cneius Domitius, were sent to Achaia, that they might, on the spot, summon by proclamation the persons concerned there. For this procedure, there were two reasons; one, that it was believed that the Achæans would be apt to show more courage than the rest, and refuse obedience, and, perhaps, even endanger Callicrates, and other authors of the charges. The other reason for summoning them, on the spot, was, that the commissioners had in their possession, letters from the chief men of the other nations, which had been found among the King’s papers; but with regard to the Achæans the charges were not clear, because no letters of theirs had been discovered. When the Ætolians were dismissed, the Acarnanian nation was called in. No alteration was made in their situation, only Leucas was disunited from their council. Then, taking a wider range for their inquiries, respecting those who had, publicly or privately, favoured the King, they extended their jurisdiction even into Asia, and sent Labeo to demolish Antissa, in the island of Lesbos, and to remove the inhabitants to Methymna; because, when Antenor, the commander of the King’s fleet, was cruising with his squadron on the coast of Lesbos, they admitted him into their harbour, and supplied him with provisions. Two distinguished men were beheaded, Andronicus, son of Andronicus, an Ætolian, because, accompanying his father, he had borne arms against the Roman people; and Neo, a Theban, by whose advice, his countrymen were led to form an alliance with Perseus.
XXXII. After the interruption caused by the consideration of these foreign matters, Æmilius reassembled the council of Macedonia, and informed them, that “with regard to the future form of government they must elect senators called by themselves Synedroi, to whom the administration of public affairs should be entrusted.” Then was read a list of Macedonians of distinction, who, with their children above fifteen years of age, were ordered to go before him into Italy. This injunction, at first view cruel, appeared, afterwards, to the Macedonian populace, to have been intended in favour of their freedom. For the persons named were Perseus’s friends and courtiers, the generals of his armies, and the commanders of his ships, or garrisons; men accustomed to pay servile obedience to the King, and to domineer haughtily over others; some immoderately rich, others vieing in expense with those to whom they were inferior, in point of fortune; in a word, none possessed of a disposition suited to a member of a commonwealth, and all of them incapable of paying due obedience to the laws, and of enjoying an equal participation of liberty. All, therefore, who had held any employment under the King, even those who had been upon the most trivial embassies, were ordered to leave Macedonia and go into Italy; and the penalty of death was denounced against any who disobeyed the mandate. He framed laws for Macedonia with such care, that they seemed intended not for vanquished foes, but for faithful and deserving allies; laws so wise, that even long experience, the infallible test of excellence, has not been able to discover in them any thing liable to exception. Serious business being now despatched, he turned his thoughts to the celebration of games, for which he had long been making preparations, having sent people to the states and kings in Asia, to give notice of the intended diversions. In his late tour through Greece, he had himself mentioned his design to the principal people: and he now exhibited them at Amphipolis with very great splendour. There came thither from every quarter, multitudes of artists of every sort, skilled in such exhibitions, wrestlers, and remarkably fine horses; deputations also came with victims and every other mark of respect, usually shown to gods or men, on occasion of the great games of Greece. Hence it came to pass, that people’s admiration was excited, not only by the magnificence, but likewise by the skill displayed in the entertainments; in which kind of business the Romans were, at that time, quite inexperienced. Feasts were also provided for the ambassadors with the same degree of care and elegance. An expression of his was generally remarked, that, to furnish out a feast, and to conduct games, required talents equal to those of a consummate general.
XXXIII. When the games of every kind were finished, he put the brazen shields on board the ships; the rest of the arms, being all collected together in a huge pile, the general himself, after praying to Mars, Minerva, mother Lua, and the other deities, to whom it is right and proper to dedicate the spoils of enemies, set fire to them with a torch, and then the military tribunes, who stood round, all threw fire on the same. It was remarkable, that, at such a general congress of Europe and Asia, where such multitudes were assembled, some to congratulate the victors, some to see the shows; and where such numerous bodies of land and naval forces were quartered, so great was the plenty of every thing, and so moderate the price of provisions, that the general made presents of divers articles to private persons, and states, and nations; not only for their present use, but even to carry home with them. The crowd were not more highly gratified by the sight of the stage entertainments, the gymnastics and the horse races, than by that of the Macedonian booty, which was all exposed to view. In the palace was such a number of statues, pictures, tapestry, and vases, most elaborately formed of gold, silver, brass, and ivory, that they seemed intended, not merely for present show, like the furniture of that of Alexandria, but even for the use of after times. These were embarked in the fleet, and given in charge to Cneius Octavius, to be carried to Rome. Paullus then dismissed the ambassadors with every demonstration of good will; and, crossing the Strymon, encamped for the night at the distance of a mile from Amphipolis; then resuming his march, he arrived, on the fifth day, at Pella. Halting for two days, at a place called Spelæum, he detached his son Quintus Maximus and Publius Nasica, with half of the troops, to lay waste the country of the Illyrians, who had assisted Perseus in the war, ordering them to meet him at Oricum; then, taking the road to Epirus, on the evening of the fifteenth day, he reached the city of Passaro.
XXXIV. Not far from hence was the camp of Anicius, to whom he sent a letter, desiring him not to be alarmed at any thing that should happen, for the senate had granted to his soldiers, the plunder of those cities in Epirus, which had revolted to Perseus. He despatched centurions, who were to give out, that they came to bring away the garrisons, in order that the Epirotes might be free, as well as the Macedonians; and summoning before him ten of the principal men of each city, he gave them strict injunctions that all their gold and silver should be brought into the public street. He then sent cohorts to the several states, ordering those who had the greater distance to go, to set out sooner than the others, that they might all arrive at the places of their destination, on the same day. The tribunes and centurions were instructed how to act. Early in the morning, all the treasure was collected; at the fourth hour the signal was given to the soldiers to plunder, and so ample was the booty acquired, that the shares distributed were four hundred denariuses* to a horseman, and two hundred to a footman. One hundred and fifty thousand persons were led away captive. Then the walls of the plundered cities, in number about seventy, were razed; the effects sold, and the soldiers’ shares paid out of the price. Paullus then marched down to the sea to Oricum; he found, that, contrary to his opinion, he had by no means satisfied the wishes of his men, who were enraged, at being excluded from sharing in the spoil of the King, as if they had not waged any war in Macedonia. Finding, at Oricum, the troops sent with his son Maximus and Scipio Nasica, he embarked the army, and sailed over to Italy. Anicius, a short time after, having held a convention of the rest of the Epirotes, and Acarnanians, and having ordered those of their chiefs, whose cases he had reserved for consideration, to follow him, waited only for the return of the ships that had carried the Macedonian army, and then passed over to Italy. During these transactions in Macedonia and Epirus, the ambassadors, sent with Attalus, to put a stop to hostilities between the Gauls and King Eumenes, arrived in Asia. Having agreed to a suspension of arms, for the winter, the Gauls were gone home, and the King had retired to Pergamus into winter quarters, where he was seized with a heavy fit of sickness. The first appearance of spring drew out both parties; the Gauls had advanced as far as Synada, while Eumenes had collected all his forces at Sardis. The Romans went to confer with Solovettius, general of the Gauls, and Attalus accompanied them; but it was not thought proper that he should enter the camp, lest the passions of either party might be heated by debate. Publius Licinius held a conference with the aforesaid chieftain; and the account he gave was, that mild remonstrances rendered him more presumptuous. It might, therefore, seem matter of wonder, that the mediation of Roman ambassadors should have had so great influence on Antiochus and Ptolemy, two powerful kings, as to make them instantly conclude a peace; and yet, that it should have had no kind of efficacy with the Gauls.
XXXV. The captive kings, Perseus and Gentius, with their children, were the first brought to Rome, and put in custody, and next the other prisoners; then came the Macedonians, who had been laid under injunctions to attend the senate, with the principal Greeks, in the same circumstances; for of these, not only such as were at home were summoned, but even those, who were said to be at the courts of the kings. In a few days after, Paullus was carried up the Tiber to the city, in a royal galley of vast size, which was moved by sixteen tiers of oars, and decorated with Macedonian spoils, consisting not only of beautiful armour, but of tapestry, and such kind of works, which had been the property of the King; while the banks of the river were covered with the multitudes that poured out to do him honour. After a few days, arrived Anicius, and Cneius Octavius with his fleet. The senate voted a triumph to each, and charged the prætor, Quintus Cassius, to apply to the plebeian tribunes, who should propose to the commons the passing of an order, investing them with plenary authority, during the day on which they should ride through the city in triumph. Secondary objects are generally secure from popular displeasure, which usually aims at the highest. With regard to the triumphs of Anicius and Octavius, no hesitation was made; yet Paullus, with whom these men could not, without blushing, set themselves in comparison, felt the attacks of invidious detraction. He had kept his soldiers under the ancient rules of discipline, and his donations, out of the spoil, were smaller than they hoped to have received, when the treasures of the King were so large; for if he had indulged their avarice, there would have been nothing left to be carried to the treasury. The whole Macedonian army were disposed to neglect attending, in support of their commander’s pretensions, at the assembly held for the passing of the order. But Servius Sulpicius Galba, (who had been military tribune in Macedonia, and who harboured a personal enmity against the general,) partly, by his own importunities, partly, by soliciting them, through the soldiers of his own legion — had spirited them up to attend in full numbers, to give their votes, and to “take revenge on a haughty and morose commander, by rejecting the order proposed for his triumph. The commons of the city would follow the judgment of the soldiery. Was it right, that he should have power to withhold the money, and the army not have power to withhold the honours? Let him not hope to reap the fruits of gratitude, which he had not merited.”
XXXVI. By such expressions did he stimulate their resentment; and when, in the Capitol, Tiberius Sempronius, tribune of the commons, proposed the order, and it came to the turn of private citizens to speak on the subject, the passing of it was thought so clear of all doubt, that not one stood forth to argue in favour of it. Whereupon, Servius Galba suddenly came forward, and demanded of the tribune, that, “as it was then the eighth hour, and as there would not be time enough to produce all the reasons, for not ordering a triumph to Lucius Æmilius, they should adjourn to the next day, and take up the business early in the morning: for not less than an entire day would be sufficient to say what was requisite in the cause.” The tribune desired, that, whatever he chose to object, he would say it then; and he spoke so long, as to protract the affair until night. He represented, and reminded the soldiers, that “the duties of the service had been enforced with unusual severity; that greater toil and greater danger had been imposed on them than the occasion required; while, on the other hand, in respect of rewards and honours, every thing was conducted on the narrowest scale; and if such commanders succeeded in their views, military employment would become more irksome and more laborious, while it would produce to conquering troops, neither riches nor honours. That the Macedonians were in a better condition than the Roman soldiers. He then told them, that, if they would attend, next day, in full numbers, to reject the order, men in power would learn, that every thing was not in the disposal of the commander, but that there was something in that of the soldiery.” The soldiers, instigated by such arguments, filled the Capitol, next day, with such a crowd, that no one else could find room to come in and vote. The tribes, first called in, gave a negative to the question; on which the principal men in the state ran together to the Capitol, crying out, that “it was a shameful thing, that Lucius Paullus, after his success in such an important war, should be robbed of a triumph; that commanders should be given up, in a state of subjection, to the licentiousness and avarice of their men. A desire of popularity, of itself, too often led generals astray; but what must be the consequence, if the soldiers were raised into the place of masters over their generals?” All heaped violent reproaches on Galba. At last, when the uproar was calmed, Marcus Servilius, who had been consul, and master of the horse, requested that the tribunes would begin the proceedings anew, and give him an opportunity of speaking to the people. These, after withdrawing to deliberate, being overcome by the arguments of some of the first rank, complied with the intreaty of Servilius, that they would call back the tribes, as soon as himself and other private persons should have delivered their sentiments.
XXXVII. Servilius then said: “Roman citizens, if there were no other proof of the eminent abilities of Lucius Æmilius, as a commander, this one would be sufficient: that, notwithstanding he had in his camp soldiers so inconstant and mutinously inclined with an enemy so active, so zealous, and so eloquent, to stir up the passions of the multitude, yet was there never any tumult in his army. That strictness of discipline, at which they have now conceived so much displeasure, kept them then in order. Subjected to the ancient rules, they then remained quiet. As to Servius Galba, if he were disposed to set himself up for an orator, and to give a specimen of his eloquence, in accusing Lucius Paullus, he ought not now to obstruct his triumph; if for no other reason than this, that the senate has pronounced that, in their judgment, he has deserved it. But the proper way would have been, on the day after the triumph, when he should see Æmilius in a private station, to prefer a charge, and prosecute him according to the laws; or else, when he himself should be invested with magistracy. Let Galba cite him to a trial; let him accuse his enemy before the people. In that method, Lucius Paullus would both receive the reward of his proper conduct, a triumph for extraordinary success in war, and also meet punishment, if he had committed any thing unworthy of his former or present reputation. Instead of which, he has undertaken to depreciate the character of a man, to whom he cannot impute a single act either criminal or dishonourable. Yesterday he demanded a whole day, for making his charges on Lucius Paullus, and four hours which remained of that day, he spent in delivering a speech to that purpose. What accused man was ever so transcendently wicked, that his offences could not be set forth in that number of hours? And yet, in all that time, what did he object to him, that Lucius Paullus, if actually on his trial, would have wished to be denied? Let me, for a moment, suppose two assemblies: one composed of the soldiers who served in Macedonia; the other, of sounder judgment, unbiassed either by favour or dislike; where the whole body of the Roman people is the judge. Let the business be discussed, first, before the citizens, peaceably assembled in their gowns. Servius Galba, what have you to say before the Roman citizens; for such a discourse, as you made before, is totally precluded. You were obliged to stand on your guards with too much strictness and attention; the watches were visited with too much exactness and severity; you had more fatigue than formerly, because the general himself went the rounds, and enforced the duties. On the same day you performed a march, and, without repose, were led forth to battle. Even when you had gained a victory, he did not allow you rest: he led you immediately in pursuit of the enemy. When he has it in his power to make you rich, by dividing the spoil, he intends to carry the King’s treasure in his triumph, and deposit it in the treasury. Though these arguments may have some degree of weight, and are well calculated to stimulate the passions of soldiers, who imagine that too little deference has been shown to their licentious temper, and too little indulgence to their avarice; yet they would have no kind of influence on the judgment of the Roman people; who, though they should not recollect old accounts, and what they heard from their parents, of the numerous defeats suffered in consequence of improper indulgence given by commanders, or of victories gained in consequence of strict inforcement of discipline; yet must they surely remember, so late as in the last Punic war, what a difference there was between Marcus Minucius, the master of the horse, and Quintus Fabius Maximus, the dictator. The accuser, therefore, would soon know, that any defence, on the part of Paullus, would be needless and superfluous.
XXXVIII. “Let us now pass to the other assembly; and here I am not to address you as citizens, but as soldiers, if, indeed, you can hear yourselves so called without blushing, and feeling the deepest shame for your illiberal treatment of your general. And, to say the truth, I feel my own mind affected in a very different manner, when I suppose myself speaking to an army, than it was, just now, when I addressed myself to the commons of the city. For what say you, soldiers, is there any man in Rome, except Perseus, that wishes there should be no conquest over Macedonia; and are not you tearing him in pieces, with the same hands with which you subdued the Macedonians? That man, who would hinder you from entering the city in triumph, would, if it had been in his power, have hindered you from conquering. Soldiers, you are mistaken, if you imagine that a triumph is an honour to the general only, and not to the soldiers also, as well as to the whole Roman people. Not Paullus alone is interested in the present case. Many who failed of obtaining from the senate the grant of public entry, have triumphed on the Alban mount. No man can ravish from Lucius Paullus the honour of having brought the Macedonian war to a conclusion, any more than he can from Caius Lutatius, that of putting an end to the first Punic war, or from Publius Cornelius, that of finishing the second; or from those who have triumphed either before those generals, or since. Neither will a triumph add to, or diminish, the honour of Lucius Paullus, as a commander: the character of the soldiers, and of the whole Roman people, is more immediately concerned therein, lest they should incur the imputation of envy and ingratitude, towards one of their most illustrious citizens, and appear to imitate, in this respect, the Athenians, who have repeatedly persecuted such by exciting the hatred of the populace. Your ancestors were sufficiently culpable in the case of Camillus. They treated him injuriously, before the city was recovered from the Gauls, through his means; and the same was done by you in the case of Publius Africanus. How must we blush, when we reflect, that the habitation of the conqueror of Africa, was at Liternum; his tomb at Liternum? And shall Lucius Paullus, equal to any of these men in renown, receive from you an equal share of ill treatment? Let that, then, be blotted out, which dishonours us among foreigners, and injures us at home; for who will, henceforward, wish to resemble either Africanus, or Paullus, in a state where merit meets only with ingratitude and enmity? If there were no disgrace in the case, and the question merely concerned glory, what triumph does not imply the general glory of the Roman race? Are all the numerous triumphs over the Gauls, the Spaniards, and the Carthaginians, called the triumphs of the generals only, or are they not, in fact, the triumphs of the Roman people? As the triumphs were celebrated, not merely over Pyrrhus, or Hannibal, but over the Epirotes and Carthaginians; so, it was not the individual Manius Curius, or Publius Cornelius, but the Romans, that triumphed. The soldiers, indeed, are peculiarly interested in this case; for it is their part to appear with crowns of laurel, and decorated with the honorary presents which each has received, to utter the acclamations of victory, and march in procession through the city, singing their own and their commander’s praises. If, at any time, soldiers are not brought home from a province to such honours, they murmur; and yet, even in that case, they consider themselves distinguished, though absent, because by their hands the victory was obtained. Soldiers, if it should be asked, for what purpose you were brought home to Italy, and not disbanded, immediately, when the business of the province was finished; why ye came to Rome, in a body, round your standards; why you loiter here, rather than repair to your several homes; what other answer can you give, than that you wished to be seen in festival? And, certainly, you have a right to show yourselves as conquerors.
XXXIX. “Triumphs have been lately celebrated over Philip, father of the present prince, and over Antiochus: both of whom were in possession of their thrones, when these were performed; and shall there be no triumph over Perseus, who has been taken prisoner, and, with his children, brought away to this city? But if, (while the other generals mounted the Capitol in their chariots, clad in gold and purple,) Lucius Paullus, alone, reduced to a private rank, should, amid the crowd of gowned citizens, call out from the lower ground, and ask them, ‘Lucius Anicius, and Cneius Octavius, whether do you esteem yourselves, or me, more deserving of a triumph?’ I am confident they would yield him the chariot, and, through shame, present to him, with their own hands, their ensigns of honour. Do ye choose, citizens, that Gentius should be led in procession, rather than Perseus; do you wish to triumph over an accessary, rather than over the principal in the war? Shall the legions from Illyria, and the crews of the fleet, enter the city with laurel crowns; and shall the Macedonian legions, being refused one for themselves, be only spectators of other men’s glories? What then will become of such a rich booty, the spoils of a victory so lucrative? Where shall be buried so many thousand suits of armour, stripped from the bodies of the enemy? or shall they be sent back to Macedonia? Where shall be lodged the statues of gold, of marble, and of ivory; the pictures, the ingenious productions of the loom; such a quantity of wrought silver and gold, and such a mass of money as the King’s? Shall they be conveyed to the treasury, by night, as if they were stolen? What will become of the greatest of all shows; where will that very celebrated and powerful King, Perseus, be exhibited to the eyes of a victorious people? What a concourse the captured King Syphax, an auxiliary only in the Punic war, caused, most of us remember; and shall the captured King Perseus, with his sons, Philip and Alexander, names so illustrious, be kept from the view of the public? All men are eagerly anxious to behold Lucius Paullus himself, twice consul, the conqueror of Greece, entering the city in his triumphal chariot. We made him consul, for this very purpose, that he should finish a war which had been protracted for four years, to our great shame. When he obtained that province by lot, and when he was setting out for it, with presaging minds, we destined to him victory; and shall we now, when he is victorious, refuse him a triumph; shall we defraud, not only men, but the gods also of the honours due to them? A triumph is due to the gods, as well as to men: your ancestors commenced every business of importance with worshipping them, and ended all in the same manner. The consul, or prætor, (when going to his province, and to a war, dressed in his military robe, and attended by his lictors,) offers vows in the Capitol; and, when he returns victorious, carries, in triumph, to the Capitol, to the deities to whom he made the vows, the due offering of the Roman people. The victims that precede him are not the most immaterial part of the procession — to demonstrate that the commander comes home with thanksgivings to the gods for the success granted to the business of the state. All those victims, which he has provided to be led in his triumph, you may slay at sacrifices, performed by different persons. Do you intend to interrupt those banquets of the senate, which are not allowed to be served up, either in any private or even public place, if unconsecrated, but only in the Capitol, whether they are meant for the gratification of men, or in honour both of gods and men — because such is the will of Servius Galba? Shall the gates be shut against Lucius Paullus’s triumph? Shall Perseus, King of Macedonia, with his children, the multitude of other captives, and the spoils of the Macedonians, be left behind, on this side of the river? Shall Lucius Paullus, in a private character, go straight from the gate to his house, as if returning home from his country-seat? And you, centurion, you, soldiers, listen to the votes of the senate respecting your general Paullus, rather than to the babbling of Servius Galba; listen to me, rather than to him. He has learned nothing, but to speak; and even that with rancour and malice. I have three-and-twenty times fought the enemy, on challenges, and from every one I brought off spoils. I have my body plentifully marked with honourable scars, all received in front.” It is said, that he then stripped himself, and mentioned in what war each of his wounds was received; and that, while he was showing these, he happened to uncover what ought to be hid, and that a swelling in his groins raised a laugh among those near him, on which he said, “This too, which excites your laughter, I got by continuing days and nights on horseback; nor do I feel either shame or sorrow for it, any more than for these scars, since it never obstructs me in doing good service to the public, either in peace or war. An aged soldier, I have shown to youthful soldiers this body of mine, often wounded by the weapons of the enemy. Let Galba expose his, which is sleek and unhurt. Tribunes, be pleased to call back the tribes to vote. Soldiers, I [. . . .] .”*
XL. Valerius Antias tells us, that the total of the captured gold and silver, carried in the procession, was one hundred and twenty millions of sesterces†; but from the number of Philippics, and the weights of the gold and silver, specifically set down by himself, the amount is unquestionably made much greater. An equal sum, it is said, had been either expended on the late war, or dissipated during the King’s flight, on his way to Samothrace. It is wonderful, that so large a quantity of money should have been amassed within the space of thirty years, since Philip’s war with the Romans, out of the produce of the mines, and the other branches of revenue Philip began war against the Romans with his treasury very poorly supplied; Perseus, on the contrary, with his immensely rich. Last came Paullus, in his chariot, making a very majestic appearance, both from the dignity of his person, and of his age. He was accompanied, among other illustrious personages, by his two sons, Quintus Maximus, and Publius Scipio; then followed the cavalry, troop by troop, and the cohorts of infantry, each in its order. The donative distributed among them was one hundred denariuses* to each footman, double to a centurion, and triple to a horseman; and it is believed, that he would have given double to each, had they not objected to his attaining the present honour, or had answered with thankful acclamations when that sum was announced as their reward. Perseus, led through the city, in chains, before the chariot of the general, his conqueror, was not the only instance, at the time, of the misfortunes incident to mankind; another appeared even in the victorious Paullus, though glittering in gold and purple. For, of two sons, (who, as he had given away two others on adoption, were the only remaining heirs of his name,) the younger, about twelve years old, died five days before the triumph, and the elder, fourteen years of age, three days after it; children, who might have been expected, a short time before, to be carried in the chariot with their father, dressed in the prætexta, and anticipating, in their hopes, the like kind of honours for themselves. A few days after, Marcus Antonius, tribune of the commons, summoned a general assembly, at the general’s request. Emilius, after descanting on his own proper services, as usually done by other commanders, proceeded in a very remarkable manner, and well becoming a man of the first consequence in Rome.
XLI. “Although, Romans, I cannot suppose you uninformed, either of the success which has attended my endeavours in the service of the commonwealth, or of the two dreadful strokes which have lately crushed my house; since, within a short space of time, my triumph and the funerals of my two sons have been exhibited to your view; yet, I beg leave to represent to you, in few words, and with that temper which becomes me, a comparative view of my own private situation, and the happy state of the public. Departing from Italy, I sailed from Brundusium, at sunrise; at the ninth hour, with my whole squadron, I reached Corcyra. On the fifth day after, I offered sacrifice to Apollo, at Delphi, in behalf of myself, of your armies and fleets. From Delphi, I arrived, on the fifth day, in the camp; where, having received the command of the army, and put in order several matters, which greatly impeded success, I advanced into the country; the enemy’s post being impregnable, and there being no possibility of forcing Perseus to fight. In spite of the guards which he had stationed, I made my way through the pass at Petra, and, at length, compelling the King to come to an engagement, gained a complete victory. I reduced Macedonia under the power of the Romans; and, in fifteen days, finished a war, which three consuls before me, had, for three years, conducted in such a manner, that each left it to his successor more formidable than he had found it. Other prosperous events followed in consequence of this: all the cities of Macedonia submitted; the royal treasure came into my hands; the King himself, with his children, was taken in the temple of Samothrace, delivered up, in a manner by the gods themselves. I now thought my good fortune excessive, and became apprehensive of a change; I began to dread the dangers of the sea in carrying away the King’s vast treasure, and transporting the victorious army. When all arrived in Italy, after a prosperous voyage, and I had nothing farther to wish, I prayed, that, (as fortune generally from the highest elevation rolls backwards,) my own house, rather than the commonwealth, might feel the change. I trust, therefore, that the public is free from danger, by my having undergone such an extraordinary calamity, as to have my triumph come in between the funerals of my two sons: such is the delusive imperfection of human happiness! And though Perseus and myself, are, at present, exhibited as the most striking examples of the vicissitudes to which mankind are liable, yet he — who, himself in captivity, saw his children led captive — has them still in safety; while I, who triumphed over him, went up in my chariot to the Capitol from the funeral of one son, and came down from the Capitol to the bed of the other, just expiring; nor out of so large a stock of children is there one remaining to bear the name of Lucius Æmilius Paullus. For, having a numerous progeny, I gave away two, on adoption, to the Cornelian and Fabian families. In the house of Paullus not one is there remaining but himself! However, for this disaster of my own family, I find consolation in your happiness, and in the prosperous state of the commonwealth.” These words, expressive of such magnanimity, moved the minds of the audience with deeper commiseration than if he had bewailed the loss of his children in the most plaintive terms.
XLII. Cneius Octavius celebrated a naval triumph over King Perseus, on the calends of December, in which appeared neither prisoners nor spoils. He distributed to each seaman seventy-five denariuses;* to the pilots, who were on board, twice that sum; and to the masters of ships, four times. A meeting of the senate was then held, and they ordered, that Quintus Cassius should conduct King Perseus and his son Alexander to Alba, to be there kept in custody; but that he should retain his attendants, money, silver, and furniture. Bitis, son to the King of Thrace, with the hostages he had given to Macedon, were sent to Carseoli; the rest, who had been led in triumph, were ordered to be shut up in prison. A few days after this passed, ambassadors came from Cotys, King of Thrace, bringing money to ransom his son and the said hostages. Being introduced to an audience of the senate, they alleged, in excuse of Cotys, that he had not voluntarily assisted Perseus in the war, but had been compelled to it; and they requested the senate to allow the hostages to be ransomed, at any rate that should be judged proper. They were answered, that “the Roman people remembered the friendship which had subsisted between them and Cotys, as well as with his predecessors, and the Thracian nation; that the giving of hostages was the very fault laid to his charge, and not an apology for it; for Perseus, even when at rest from others, could not be formidable to the Thracian nation, much less when he was embroiled in a war with Rome. But that, notwithstanding Cotys had preferred the favour of Perseus to the friendship of the Roman people, yet the senate would consider rather what suited their own dignity, than what treatment he had merited; and would send home his son and the hostages; that the kindnesses of the Roman people were always gratuitous; and that they chose to leave the value of them in the memory of the receivers, rather than to demand it in present.” Titus Quintius Flamininus, Caius Licinius Nerva, and Marcus Caninius Rebilus, were nominated ambassadors to conduct Bitis, with the hostages, to Thrace; and a present of two thousand asses* was made to each of the ambassadors. Some of Perseus’s ships, of a size never seen before, were hauled ashore in the field of Mars.
XLIII. While people yet retained, not only fresh in memory, but almost before their eyes, the celebration of the Macedonian conquest, Lucius Anicius triumphed over King Gentius, and the Illyrians, on the day of the festival of Quirinus. These exhibitions were considered rather as similar, than equal. The commander himself was inferior; Anicius was not to be compared in renown with Æmilius; a prætor in dignity of office with a consul; neither could Gentius be set on a level with Perseus, nor the Illyrians with the Macedonians; nor the spoils, nor the money, nor the presents obtained in one country, with those obtained in the other. But though the late triumph outshone the present, yet the latter, when considered by itself, appeared very far from contemptible. For Anicius had, in the space of a few days, entirely subdued the Illyrian nation, remarkable for their courage both on land and sea, and confident in the strength of their posts; he had also taken their king, and the whole royal family. He carried, in his triumph, many military standards, and much spoil of other sorts, with all the royal furniture; and also twenty-seven pounds weight of gold, and nineteen of silver, besides three thousand denariuses,† and, in Illyrian money, the amount of one hundred and twenty thousand.‡ Before his chariot were led Gentius, with his queen, and children; Carovantius, the King’s brother, and several Illyrian nobles. Out of the booty, he gave forty-five denariuses§ to each footman, double to a centurion, triple to a horseman; to the Latine allies the like sums as to natives, and to the seamen the same as to the soldiers. The troops showed more joy in their attendance on this triumph than in that of Æmilius, and the general was celebrated in abundance of songs. Valerius Antias says, that this victory produced to the public twenty thousand sesterces,* besides the gold and silver carried to the treasury; but, as no sources appeared from which such a sum could be raised, I have set down my author, instead of asserting the fact. King Gentius, with his queen, children, and brother, was, pursuant to an order of the senate, taken to Spoletium, to be kept there in custody; the rest of the prisoners were thrown into prison at Rome; but the people of Spoletium refusing the charge, the royal family were removed to Iguvium. There remained, of the Illyrian spoil, two hundred and twenty barks, which Quintus Cassius, by order of the senate, distributed among the Corcyreans, Apollonians, and Dyrrachians.
XLIV. The consuls of this year after merely ravaging the lands of the Ligurians, as the enemy never
brought an army into the field, returned to Rome, to elect new magistrates, without having performed any matter of
importance. The first day on which the assembly could meet, were chosen consuls, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, and Caius
Sulpicius Gallus.Y. R.586.
166. Next day were elected prætors, Lucius Livius, Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, Aulus Licinius Nerva, Publius
Rutilius Calvus, Publius Quintilius Varus, and Marcus Fonteius. To these prætors were decreed the two city provinces,
the two Spains, Sicily, and Sardinia. There was an intercalation made in the calendar this year, which took place on
the day after the feast of Terminus. One of the augurs, Caius Claudius, died this year, and in his place was chosen, by
the college, Titus Quintius Flamininus. The flamen quirinalis, Quintus Fabius Pictor, died also. This year King Prusias
arrived at Rome, with his son Nicomedes. Coming into the city, with a large retinue, he went directly from the gate to
the Forum, to the tribunal of the prætor, Quintus Cassius; and a crowd immediately collecting, he said, that “he came
to pay his respects to the deities inhabiting the city of Rome, and to the Roman senate and people, to congratulate
them on their conquest of the two Kings, Perseus and Gentius, and the augmentation of their empire by the reduction of
Macedonia and Illyria under their dominion.” The prætor told him, that, if he chose it, he would procure him audience
of the senate on the same day, but he desired two days’ time, in which he might go round and visit the temples of the
gods; see the city, and his acquaintances and friends. Lucius Cornelius Scipio, then quæstor, who had been sent to
Capua to meet him, was appointed his conductor in Rome. A house was likewise provided, capable of lodging him and his
retinue with convenience. On the third day after, he attended at a meeting of the senate. He congratulated them on
their success, recounted his own deserts towards them during the war, and then requested that “he might be allowed to
fulfil a vow of sacrificing ten large victims in the Capitol, and one to Fortune at Præneste; a vow which had been made
for the success of the Roman people. He farther desired, that the alliance with him might be renewed; and that the
territory taken from King Antiochus, and not granted to any other, but now in possession of the Gauls, might be given
to him.” Lastly, he recommended to the senate his son Nicomedes. His interest was espoused by all those who had
commanded armies in Macedonia: his requests, therefore, were granted, except that, with regard to the territory, he
received this answer: that “they would send ambassadors to examine the matter on the spot. If the territory in question
had become the property of the Roman people, and if no grant had been made of it, they would deem no other so deserving
of a present of the kind as Prusias. But, if it had not belonged to Antiochus, it evidently, in consequence, did not
become the property of the Roman people; or if it had been already granted to the Gauls, Prusias must excuse them if
they did not choose to confer a favour on him at the expense of others’ rights. A present cannot be acceptable to the
receiver, which he knows the donor may take away whenever he thinks proper. That they cheerfully accepted his
recommendation of Nicomedes; and Ptolemy, King of Egypt, was an instance of the great care of the Roman people in
supporting the children of their friends.” With this answer Prusias was dismissed. Presents were ordered to be given
him, to the value of [. . . .] sesterces, beside vases of silver, weighing
fifty pounds; with others to his son, Nicomedes, of the same value with those given to Masgaba, the son of King
Masinissa; and that victims, and other matters pertaining to sacrifices, should be furnished to the King at the public
expense, the same as to the Roman magistrates, whenever he chose to make the offering, either at Rome or at Præneste;
and that twenty ships of war should be assigned to him, and which were then lying at Brundusium, of which he should
have the use until he arrived at the fleet which was freely given to him. That Lucius Cornelius Scipio should
constantly attend him, and defray all his expenses, and those of his retinue, until they went on board the ships. We
are told that Prusias was wonderfully rejoiced at the kind treatment which he received from the Roman people; that he
refused all that had been offered to himself, but ordered his son to receive the present of the Roman people. Such are
the accounts given of Prusias by our own writers. Polybius, however, represents the behaviour of that King as highly
unbecoming a person of his rank — saying, that he used to meet the ambassadors, wearing a cap, and having his head
shaved; calling himself a freed slave of the Roman people, and, accordingly, bearing the badges of that class: that,
likewise, when coming into the senate-house, he stooped down and kissed the threshold; called the senate his tutelar
deities, with other expressions not so honourable to the hearers as disgraceful to himself. He staid in the city and
its vicinity not more than thirty days, and then returned to his kingdom.
* 8,072l. 18s. 4d.
* 242l. 4s. 3d.
† The beginning of this speech of Astymedes, chief of the Rhodian embassy, is lost.
* 12l. 18s. 4d
* The conclusion of this speech is lost. The effect of it was, that the order for the triumph of Lucius Paullus passed unanimously. The beginning of the account of the procession is also lost
† 968,750l.
* 8l. 4s. 7d
* 2l. 8s. 5d.
* 6l. 9s. 2d.
† 96l. 17s. 6d.
‡ 3874l.
§ 1l. 9s. 1d.
* 161,458l. 6s. 8d
HERE ends all that has reached us of this history. Of ninety-five books more, which it originally consisted of, the contents only have been preserved; they are as follow:—
Y. R. 586. 166. — Eumenes comes to Rome. He had stood neuter in the Macedonian war; in order, however, that he might not be deemed an enemy, if excluded, or considered as absolved of all guilt, if admitted, a general law was made, that no king be received into the city. The consul, Claudius Marcellus, subdues the Alpine Gauls; and Caius Sulpicius Gallus the Ligurians. Y.R. 587. 165. — The ambassadors of King Prusias complain of Eumenes, for ravaging their borders; they accuse him of entering into a conspiracy, with Antiochus, against the Romans. A treaty of friendship made with the Rhodians, upon their solicitation. Y.R. 588. 164. — A census held; the number of the citizens found to be three hundred and twenty-seven thousand and twenty-two. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus chosen chief of the senate. Ptolemy, King of Egypt, dethroned by his younger brother, is restored by ambassadors sent from Rome. Y.R. 589. 163. — Ariarathes, King of Cappadocia, dies, and is succeeded by his son Ariarathes, who enters anew into a treaty of friendship with the Romans. Y.R. 590. 162. — Expeditions against the Ligurians, Corsicans, and Lusitanians, attended with various success. Commotions in Syria, on occasion of the death of Antiochus, who left a son, an infant; who, together with his guardian, Lesias, is murdered by Demetrius, who usurps the kingdom. Y.R. 591. 161. — Lucius Æmilius Paullus, the conqueror of Perseus: Such was the moderation and incorruptibility of this great commander, that notwithstanding the immense treasures he had brought from Spain and Macedonia, yet, upon the sale of his effects, there could scarcely be raised a sum sufficient to repay his wife’s fortune Y.R. 592. 160. — The Pomptine marshes drained, and converted into dry land, by the consul Cornelius Cethegus.
Y. R. 593. 159. — Cneius Tremellius, a plebeian tribune, fined, for contending, in an unjust cause, with Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, chief priest; which greatly enhanced the authority of the priesthood. A law made respecting the canvassing for offices. Y.R. 594. 158. — A census held; the number of Roman citizens found to be three hundred and twenty-eight thousand three hundred and fourteen. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus again chosen chief of the senate. A treaty concluded between the Ptolemys, brothers, that one should be king of Egypt, the other of Cyrenæ. Y.R. 595. 157. — Ariarathes, King of Cappadocia, deprived of his kingdom, by the intrigues and power of Demetrius, King of Syria; restored by the senate. Ambassadors sent by the senate to determine a territorial dispute between Masinissa and the Carthaginians Y.R. 596. 156. — Caius Marcius, consul, fights the Dalmatians, at first, unfortunately; but, afterwards, successfully. The cause of this war was, that they had made inroads upon the Illyrians, who were in alliance with the people of Rome. Y.R. 597. 155. — The Dalmatians completely subdued, by the consul, Cornelius Nasica. The consul, Quintus Opimius, defeats the Transalpine Ligurians, who had plundered Antipolis and Nicæa, two towns belonging to the Massileans. Y.R. 598. 154. — Various ill successes, under different commanders, in Spain. In the five hundred and ninety-eighth year from the foundation of the city, the consuls enter upon office, immediately after the conclusion of their election; which alteration was made, on account of a rebellion in Spain. Y.R. 599. 153. — The ambassadors, sent by the senate, to determine a dispute between Masinissa and the Carthaginians, return, and report that the Carthaginians had collected a vast quantity of materials for ship-building. Several prætors, accused of extortion, by different provinces, condemned and punished.
Y. R. 600. 152. — A census held; the number of citizens amounts to three hundred and twenty-four thousand. A third Punic war; causes of it. Marcus Porcius Cato urges a declaration of war against the Carthaginians, on account of their employing a vast body of Numidian troops under the command of Arcobarzanes, destined, they allege, to act against Masinissa, but he asserts, against the Romans. Publius Scipio Nasica being of a contrary opinion, it is resolved to send ambassadors to Carthage, to inquire into the truth of the affair. The Carthaginian senate being reproved for levying forces, and preparing materials for ship-building, contrary to treaty, declare themselves ready to make peace with Masinissa, upon condition of his giving up the lands in dispute. But Gisgo, son of Hamilcar, a man of a seditious disposition, at that time chief magistrate, notwithstanding the determination of the senate to abide by the decision of the ambassadors, urges the Carthaginians to war against the Romans, in such strong terms, that the ambassadors are obliged to save themselves by flight, from personal violence. On this being told at Rome, the senate becomes more highly incensed against them. Cato, being poor, celebrates the funeral of his son, who died in the office of prætor, at a very small expense. Andriscus, an impostor, pretending to be the son of Perseus, King of Macedonia, sent to Rome. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, who had been six times declared chief of the senate, on his death-bed, gives strict orders to his sons that he shall be carried out to burial, on a couch, without the usual ornaments of purple and fine linen, and that there shall not be expended on his funeral more than ten pieces of brass: alleging that the funerals of the most distinguished men, used, formerly, to be decorated by trains of images, and not by sumptuous expense. An inquiry instituted concerning poisoning. Publicia and Licinia, women of high rank, accused of the murder of their husbands, tried before the prætor and executed. Y.R. 601. 151. — Gulussa, son of Masinissa, gives information that troops were levying, and a fleet fitting out at Carthage, and that there could be no doubt of their intending war. Cato urging a declaration of war, and Nasica dissuading it, entreating the senate to do nothing rashly; it is resolved to send ten ambassadors to inquire into the affair. The consuls, Lucius, Licinius Lucullus and Aulus Postumius Albinus, carrying on the levying of soldiers with inflexible severity, committed to prison by the tribunes of the people, for not, at their entreaty, sparing some of their friends. The ill success of the war in Spain, having so discouraged the citizens of Rome, that none could be found to undertake any military command, or office, Publius Cornelius Æmilianus comes forward, and offers to undertake any office whatever, which it should be thought proper to call him to: roused by his example, the whole body of the people make the like offer. It was thought that the consul, Claudius Marcellus, had reduced all the states of Celtiberia to a state of tranquillity; nevertheless, his successor, Lucius Lucullus, is engaged in war with the Vaccæans, Cantabrians, and other nations of Spaniards, hitherto unknown; all of which he subdues. In this war, Publius Cornelius Africanus Scipio Æmilianus, the son of Lucius Paullus, and nephew by adoption, of Africanus, a military tribune, slays a barbarian who had challenged him, and distinguishes himself highly at the siege of Intercatia, being the first who scaled the wall. The prætor, Servius Sulpicius Galba, fights the Lusitanians unsuccessfully. The ambassadors, returning from Africa, together with some Carthaginian deputies, and Galussa, report that they found an army and a fleet ready for service at Carthage. The matter taken into consideration by the senate. Cato, and other principal senators, urge, that an army should be immediately sent over into Africa; but Cornelius Nasica declaring that he, yet, saw no just cause for war, it was resolved that the same should not be declared, provided the Carthaginians would burn their fleet, and disband their troops; but if not, that then the next succeeding consuls should propose the question of war. A theatre which the censors had contracted for, being built, Cornelius Nasica moves, and carries the question, that it be pulled down, as being not only useless, but injurious to the morals of the people: the people, therefore, continue to behold the public shows standing. Masinissa, now ninety-two years old, vanquishes the Carthaginians, who had made war against him unjustly, and contrary to treaty. By this infraction of the treaty, they also involve themselves in a war with Rome.
Y. R. 602. 150. — The third Punic war; which was ended within five years after it began. Marcus Porcius Cato, deemed the wisest man in the state, and Scipio Nasica, adjudged by the senate to be the best, differ in opinion, and contend sharply: Cato urging the demolition of Carthage; Nasica arguing against it. It was, however, resolved, that war should be declared against the Carthaginians, for having fitted out a fleet contrary to treaty, and led forth an army beyond the boundaries of their state; for having committed hostilities against Masinissa, the friend and ally of the Romans; and refusing to admit Galussa, who accompanied the ambassadors into their city. Y.R. 603. 149. — Before any forces were embarked, ambassadors came from Utica, and surrendered their state and property to the Romans: a circumstance highly pleasing to the Roman senate, and at the same time, a grievous mortification to the Carthaginians, Games exhibited at Tarentum, in honour of Pluto, according to directions found in the Sibylline books. The Carthaginians send thirty ambassadors to Rome, to make a tender of submission; but the opinion of Cato, that the consuls should be ordered to proceed immediately to the war, prevails. These, passing over into Africa, receive three hundred hostages, and take possession of all the arms and warlike stores to be found in Carthage; they then, by authority of the senate, command them to build themselves a new city, at least ten miles from the sea. Roused by this indignant treatment, the Carthaginians resolve to have recourse to arms. Lucius Marcius and Marcus Manlius, consuls, lay siege to Carthage. During this siege, two military tribunes force their way in, with their troops, in a place which they observed to be negligently guarded, they are set upon and beaten by the townsmen, but rescued afterwards by Scipio Africanus, who also, with a few horsemen, relieves a Roman fort, attacked by the enemy, in the night. He also repulsed the Carthaginians, who sallied forth, in great force, to attack the camp. When, afterwards, one of the consuls (the other being gone to Rome, to hold the elections) observing, that the siege of Carthage was not going on prosperously, proposed to attack Hasdrubal, who had drawn up his forces in a narrow pass, he (Scipio) first advised him not to venture upon an engagement on ground so very disadvantageous: and then, his advice being over-ruled by those who were envious, both of his prudence and valour, he, himself, rushes into the pass; and when, as he foresaw the Romans were routed and put to flight, he returns with a very small body of horse, rescues his friends, and brings them off in safety. Which valiant action, Cato, although much more inclined to censure than to praise, extols in the senate in very magnificent terms: saying, that all the others, who were fighting in Africa, were but mere shadows; Scipio was life itself: and such was the favour he gained among his fellow citizens, that at the ensuing election, the greater number of the tribes voted for electing him consul, although he was under the legal age. Lucius Scribonius, tribune of the people, proposes a law, that the Lusitanians, who, notwithstanding they had surrendered upon the faith of the Roman people, had been sold in Gaul, by Servius Galba, should be restored to liberty; which Marcus Cato supports with great zeal, as may be seen by his oration, which is still extant, being published in his annals. Quintus Fulvius Nobilior, although Cato had before handled him with great severity, yet takes up the cause of Galba. Galba himself too, apprehensive of being condemned, taking up in his arms his own two infant children, and the son of Sulpicius Gallus, speaks in his own behalf, in such a piteous strain of supplication, that the question is carried in his favour. One Andriscus, a man of the meanest extraction, having given himself out to be the son of Perseus, and changed his name to Philip, flies from Rome, whither Demetrius had sent him, on account of this audacious forgery; many people believing his fabulous account of himself to be true, gather round him, and enable him to raise an army; at the head of which, partly by force, and partly by the willing submission of the people, he acquires the possession of all Macedonia. The story which he propagated was this: that he was the son of Perseus by a harlot; that he had been delivered to a certain Cretan woman, to be taken care of, and brought up; in order that whatever might be the event of the war, in which the king was, at that time, engaged with the Romans, some one, at least, of the royal progeny might remain. That, upon the death of Perseus, he was educated at Adramittium, until he was twelve years old; ignorant, all along, of his real parentage, and always supposing himself to be the son of the person who brought him up. That, at length, this person being ill, and like to die, discovered to him the secret of his birth; informing him, at the same time, of a certain writing, sealed with the royal signet of Perseus, which had been entrusted to his supposed mother, to keep and give to him, when he should attain to manhood: but with the strictest injunctions that the affair should be kept a profound secret, until the arrival of that period. That, when the time came, the writing was delivered to him; in which was indicated a very considerable treasure, left him by his father. That the woman, after informing him fully of the circumstance of his birth, earnestly besought him to quit that part of the country, before the affair should come to the knowledge of Eumenes, who, being the determined enemy of his father Perseus, would, most assuredly, procure him to be murdered. That, fearful of being assassinated, and in hopes also of receiving some assistance from Demetrius, he had gone into Syria; and had there first ventured openly to declare who he was.
Y. R. 604. 148. — The aforesaid impostor, assuming the name of Philip, about to invade, and forcibly possess himself of Thessaly, is prevented by the Roman ambassadors, with the aid of the Achæans. Prusias, King of Bithinia, a man abandoned to the practice of every vice, murdered by his son Nicomedes, assisted by Attalus, King of Pergamus. He had another son, who in the place of teeth in his upper jaw, had one entire bone. The Romans send an embassy to negotiate peace between Nicomedes and Prusias; it happening that one of the ambassadors had his head deformed by scars, from many wounds; another was lame from gout, and the third was of weak understanding: Cato said, it was an embassy without head, feet, or heart. The King of Syria was of the royal race of Perseus; but being, like Prusias, addicted to every vicious pursuit, and passing his whole time in tippling-houses, brothels, and such like places of infamous resort, Ammonius rules in his stead; and puts to death all the King’s friends, together with his Queen Laodice, and Antigonus, the son of Demetrius. Masinissa, King of Numidia, a man of a character truly illustrious, dies, aged upwards of ninety years; he retained the vigour of youth even to his last years; and begot a son at the age of eighty-six. Publius Scipio Æmilianus, being authorised by his will so to do, divides his kingdom into three parts, and allots their respective portions of it, to his three sons, Micipsa, Gulussa and Manastabales. Scipio persuades Phamias, general of the Carthaginian cavalry, under Himilco, a man highly looked up to and relied upon by the Carthaginians, to revolt to the Romans, with the troops under his command. Claudius Marcellus, one of the three ambassadors sent to Masinissa, lost in a storm. Hasdrubal, nephew of Masinissa, put to death by the Carthaginians, who suspected him of treasonable views, on account of his affinity to Gulussa, now the friend of the Romans. Scipio Æmilianus, when a candidate for the ædileship, is, by the people, elected consul, though under age: a violent contest arises upon this, the people supporting, the nobles opposing, his election; which, at length, terminates in his favour. Marcus Manlius takes several citizens in the neighbourhood of Carthage. The impostor Philip, having slain the prætor Publius Juventius, and vanquished his army, is, himself, afterwards subdued and taken prisoner by Quintus Cæcilius, who recovers Macedonia.
Y. R. 605. 147. — Carthage comprehended in a circuit of twenty-three miles, besieged with immense exertion, and gradually taken; first, by Mancinus, acting as lieutenant-general; and afterwards by Scipio, consul, to whom Africa was voted as his province, without casting lots. The Carthaginians having constructed a new mole, (the old one being destroyed by Scipio,) and equipped, secretly, in an extraordinary short space of time, a considerable fleet, engage, unsuccessfully, in a sea fight. Hasdrubal, with his army, notwithstanding he had taken post in a place of extremely difficult approach, cut off by Scipio: who, at length, masters the city, in the seven hundredth year after its foundation. Y.R. 606. 146. — The greater part of the spoil returned to the Sicilians, from whom it had been taken. During the destruction of the city, when Hasdrubal had given himself up into Scipio’s hands, his wife, who, a few days before, had not been able to prevail upon him to surrender to the conqueror, casts herself, with her two children, from a tower, into the flames of the burning city. Scipio, following the example of his father, Æmilius Paullus, the conqueror of Macedonia, celebrates solemn games; during which, he exposes the deserters and fugitives to wild beasts. War declared against the Achæans, who had forcibly driven away the Roman ambassadors, sent to Corinth to separate the cities, under the dominion of Philip, from the Achæan council.
Quintus Cæcilius Metellus engages and conquers the Achæans, together with the Bœotians and Chalcidians. Critolaus, their unsuccessful general, poisons himself; in whose room, the Achæans choose Diæus, the chief promoter of the insurrection, general; he, also, is conquered, in an engagement near Isthmos, and all Achaia reduced; Corinth demolished, by order of the senate, because violence had been done there to the ambassadors. Thebes, also, and Chalcis, for having furnished aid to the Achæans, destroyed. Extraordinary moderation of Mummius, who, having all the vast wealth, and splendid ornaments, of the opulent city of Corinth, in his power, took none of it. Quintus Cæcilius Metellus triumphs, on account of his victory over Andriscus; likewise, Publius Cornelius Scipio, for the conquest of Carthage and Hasdrubal. Y.R. 607. 145. — Viriathus, in Spain, from a shepherd becomes a hunter, then leader of a band of robbers; afterwards, general of a powerful army, with which, he possesses himself of all Lusitania, having vanquished the prætor, Petillius, and put his army to flight. Caius Plautius, prætor, sent against him; is equally unsuccessful. So successful was his career, that, at length, it was deemed necessary to send a consul, at the head of a consular army, against him. Commotions in Syria, and wars between the kings in those parts. Alexander, a man utterly unknown, and of an unknown race, murders Demetrius, and usurps the crown in Syria: he is afterwards slain by Demetrius, (son of the before-mentioned Demetrius,) aided by Ptolemy, King of Egypt, whose daughter he had married. Ptolemy grievously wounded in the head; dies of the operations intended for the cure of his wounds; is succeeded by his younger brother, Ptolemy, King of Cyrene. Demetrius, by his cruelty towards his subjects, provokes an insurrection: vanquished by Diodotus, and flies to Seleucia. Diodotus claims the crown for Alexander, a child scarcely two years old. Splendid triumph of Lucius Mummius over the Achæans.
Y. R. 608. 144. — Appius Claudius, consul, subdues the Salacians, a nation of the Alps. Another impostor, assuming the name of Philip, makes his appearance in Macedonia; vanquished by the quæstor, Lucius Tremellius. Y.R. 609. 143. — Quintus Cæcilius Metellus, proconsul, defeats the Celtiberians. Y.R. 610. 142. — Quintus Fabius, proconsul, takes many cities of Lusitania, and recovers the greatest part of that country. Caius Julius, a senator, writes the Roman history, in the Greek language.
Y. R. 611. 141. — Quintus Pompeius, consul, subdues the Termestines, in Spain; makes peace with them, and also with the Numantians, The census held; the number of citizens amounts to three hundred and twenty-eight thousand three hundred and forty-two. Ambassadors from Macedonia complain that Decius Junius Silanus, the prætor, had extorted money from that province; the senate, at his desire, refer the inquiry into the matter to Titus Manlius Torquatus, father of Silanus; having finished the inquiry, in his own house, he pronounces his son guilty, and disclaims him; and would not, afterwards, attend his funeral, when he put an end to his life, by hanging himself; but continued to sit at home, and give audience to those who consulted him, as if nothing, which concerned him, had happened. Y.R. 612. 140. — Quintus Fabius, proconsul, having successfully terminated the war, stains the honour of his victories, by making peace with Viriathus, upon terms of equality. Y.R. 613. 139. — Servilius Cæpio procures the death of Viriathus, by traitors; he is much bewailed, and interred with distinguished funeral honours by his army. He was in truth, a great man, and a valiant general; and in the fourteen years during which he carried on war with the Romans, had very frequently vanquished their armies.
Y. R. 614. 138. — While Publius Cornelius Nasica (who was nicknamed Serapio, by the plebeian tribune Curiatius, a man of humour) and Decius Junius Brutus, the consuls were holding the levies, an act of public justice was done, in the sight of the whole body of the young men, then assembled, which afforded a very useful example: Caius Matienus was accused, before the tribunes, of deserting from the army in Spain: being found guilty, he was scourged under the gallows, and sold as a slave, for a very small piece of money.* The tribunes of the people claimed the privilege of exempting from service any ten soldiers, whom they thought proper; which being refused by the consuls, they commit them to prison. Junius Brutus, consul in Spain, allots lands, and a town, called Valentia, to the soldiers who had served under Viriathus. Marcus Popillius, having made peace with the Numantines, which the senate refused to ratify, is routed, and his whole army put to flight. Y.R. 615. 137. — While Caius Hostilius Mancinus, the consul, was sacrificing, the holy chickens escape from their coop, and fly away; afterwards, as he was getting on board his ship, to sail for Spain, a voice is heard, crying out, “Go not, Mancinus, go not.” The event afterwards proves these omens to have been inauspicious: for, being vanquished by the Numantines, and driven out of his camp, having no prospect of preserving his army, he made a disgraceful peace, which the senate likewise refused to ratify. Upon this occasion, thirty thousand Romans were beaten by only four thousand Numantines. Decius Junius Brutus subdues all Lusitania, as far as the western sea; his soldiers refusing to pass the river Oblivion, he snatches the standard and carries it over; whereupon, they follow him. The son of Alexander, King of Syria, traitorously murdered by his guardian Diodotus, surnamed Tryphon: his physicians were bribed to give out that he had a stone in his bladder; in pretending to cut him for which, they killed him
* Worth less than 4d.
Y. R. 616. 136. — Decius Junius Brutus fights the Gallæcians, with success, in the Farther Spain: Marcus Æmilius Lepidus engages the Vaccæans, unsuccessfully, and is as unfortunate as Mancinus was against the Numantines. The Romans, to absolve themselves of the guilt of breach of treaty, order Mancinus, who made the peace with the Numantines, to be delivered up to that people; but they refuse to receive him. Y.R. 617 135. — The lustrum closed by the censors: the number of citizens, three hundred and twenty-three thousand. Fulvius Flaccus, consul, subdues the Vardeans in Illyria. Marcus Cosconius, prætor, fights the Scordiscians, in Thrace, and conquers them. The war in Numantia, owing to the ill conduct of the generals, still continuing, the senate and people voluntarily confer the consulship upon Scipio Africanus: on which occasion the law, which prohibits any man from being elected consul a second time, is dispensed with. Y.R. 618. 134. — An insurrection of the slaves in Sicily; which, the prætor not being able to quell it, is committed to the care of the consul Caius Fulvius. Eunus, a slave, a Syrian by birth, was the author of this war; by gathering a large body of the rustic slaves, and breaking open the prisons, he raised a considerable army: Cleon, also, another slave, having assembled seventy thousand slaves, joins him; and they, several times, engage the Roman forces in those parts.
Y. R. 619. 133. — Scipio Africanus lays siege to Numantia. Reduces to strict discipline the army, now exceedingly licentious, being corrupted by luxurious indulgence: this he effects by cutting off every kind of pleasurable gratification; driving away the prostitutes who followed the camp, to the number of two thousand; keeping the soldiers to hard labour, and compelling every man to bear on his shoulders provisions for thirty days, besides seven stakes, for their fortifications; whenever he observed any of them sinking under the burden, he used to cry out, “When you are able to defend yourself with your sword, then shall you be eased from your load of timber.” He made them carry shields of immense size and weight; and not unfrequently ridiculed them, for being more expert in managing their shields, for the defence of their own bodies, than their swords for the annoyance of those of the enemy. When he found any man absent from his post, he ordered him to be flogged, with vine twigs, if a Roman; if a foreigner, with rods. He sold all the beasts of burden, that the soldiers might be forced to carry their own baggage. He engaged in frequent skirmishes with the enemy, with good success. The Vaccæans, being reduced to extremity, first, put their wives and children to death, and then slew themselves. Antiochus, King of Syria, having sent him some very magnificent presents, Scipio, contrary to the practice of other commanders, who used to conceal these royal gifts, received them openly, and ordered the quæstor to place the whole to the public account; and promised, out of them, to reward those who should most distinguish themselves by their valour. When Numantia was closely invested on all sides, he gave orders, that those who came out, in search of victuals, should not be killed: saying, that the more numerous the inhabitants were, the sooner would their provisions be consumed.
Titus Sempronius Gracchus, plebeian tribune, having proposed an Agrarian law, (contrary to the sense of the senate, and the equestrian order,) that no person should hold more than five hundred acres of the public lands, wrought himself up to such a degree of passion, that he deprived his colleague, Marcus Octavius, of his authority, and appointed himself, together with his brother Caius, and his father in-law, Appius Claudius, commissioners for dividing the lands. He also proposed another Agrarian law; that the same commissioners should be authorised to determine, which was public, and which private, land; and to settle the extent of each. When, afterwards, it appeared that there was not land sufficient, to be divided, according to his scheme, and that he had excited the hopes of the people, by the expectations held out to them, he declared that he would propose a law, that all those, who, by the law of Sempronius, were entitled to such grant, should be paid in money, out of the bequest of Attalus, King of Pergamus. The senate was roused to indignation, at such repeated ill-treatment; and chiefly, Publius Mucius the consul, who, having delivered a severe invective against Gracchus, in the senate, was seized by him, dragged before the people, and accused; nevertheless, he continued to inveigh against him from the rostrum. Gracchus endeavouring to procure his re-election, as tribune, slain, in the Capitol, by the chief nobles, by the advice of Publius Cornelius Nasica: is thrown, without the rites of scpulture, into the river, together with some others, who fell in the tumult. Various engagements, with various success, against the slaves in Sicily.
The Numantines, reduced to the extremity of distress, by famine, put themselves to death. Scipio, having taken the city, destroys it, and triumphs, in the fourteenth year after the destruction of Carthage. Y.R. 620. 132. — The consul, Publius Rupilius, puts an end to the war with the slaves in Sicily, Aristonicus, the son of King Eumenes, invades and seizes Asia; which having been bequeathed to the Roman people, by Attalus, ought to be free. The consul, Publius Licinius Crassus, who was also chief priest, marches against him, out of Italy, (which never before was done,) engages him in battle, is beaten and slain. Marcus Peperna, consul, subdues Aristonicus. Quintus Metellus and Quintus Pomponius, the first plebeians, who were ever, both at one time, elected censors, close the lustrum: the number of citizens amount to three hundred and thirteen thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, besides orphans and widows. Y.R. 621. 131. — Quintus Metellus gives his opinion, that every man should be compelled to marry, in order to increase the population of the state. His speech, upon the occasion, is still extant, and so exactly does it apply to the present times, that Augustus Cæsar read it, in the senate, upon occasion of his proposing to remove from marriage all restraints, on account of difference of rank. Caius Atinius Labeo, tribune of the people, orders the censor Quintus Metellus, to be thrown from the Tarpeian rock, for striking him out of the list of the senate; but the other tribunes interfere and protect him. Y.R. 622. 130. — Quintus Carbo, plebeian tribune, proposes a law, that the people might have the power of re-electing the same tribune as often as they please: Publius Africanus, argues against the proposition, in a speech of great energy, in which he asserts that Tiberius Gracchus was justly put to death. Caius Gracchus supports the proposed law: but Scipio prevails. War between Antiochus King of Syria, and Phraates King of Parthia. Commotions in Egypt. Ptolemy, surnamed Evergetes, detested by his subjects for his cruelty, they set his palace on fire: he escapes to Cyprus. The people confer the kingdom upon his sister Cleopatra, who had been his wife, but he had divorced her, having first ravished, and then married her daughter. Incensed at his dethronement, he murders the son he had by her, and sends to her his head and limbs. Y.R. 623. 129. — Seditions excited by Fulvius Flaccus, Caius Gracchus, and Caius Carbo, commissioners for carrying into execution the Agrarian law: these are opposed by Publius Scipio Africanus, who going home at night, in perfect health, is found dead in his chamber the next morning. His wife Sempronia, sister of the Gracchuses, with whom Scipio was at enmity, is strongly suspected of having given him poison: no inquiry, however, is made into the matter. Upon his death, the popular seditions blaze out with great fury. Caius Sempronius, the consul, fights the Iapidæ, at first, unsuccessfully; but soon repairs all his losses, by a signal victory, gained, chiefly by Junius Brutus, the conqueror of Lusitania.
Y. R. 624. 128. — A rebellion in Sardinia; quelled by the consul, Lucius Aurelius. Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, who, first, subdued the Transalpine Ligurians, sent to assist the Massilians, against the Salvian Gauls, who were ravaging their country. Lucius Opimius, prætor, subdues the revolted Fregellans, and destroys their town, Fregellæ. Y.R. 625. 127. — An extraordinary multitude of locusts, in Africa, killed and lying dead on the ground, produce a pestilence. Y.R. 626. 126. — The censors close the lustrum: the number of the citizens, three hundred and ninety thousand seven hundred and thirty-six. Y.R. 627. 125. — Caius Gracchus, plebeian tribune, the brother of Tiberius, yet professing more eloquence than him, carries some very dangerous laws; among others, one, respecting corn, that the people shall be supplied with the article in the market, at the rate of half and a third of an as: also an Agrarian law, the same as his brothers: and a third, intended to corrupt the equestrian order, who, at that time, were subservient, in all their opinions, to the senate: it was, that six hundred of them should be admitted of their house. At that time the senate consisted of only three hundred members: the operation of the law was to throw all the power into the hands of this order, by making them double in number to the ancient senators. His office being continued to him another year, he causes several colonies to be led out into various parts of Italy; and one, which he conducted himself, to be established on the soil where Carthage, now demolished, formerly stood. Y.R. 628. 124. — Successful expedition of the consul Quintus Metellus, against the Balearians, called by the Greeks, Gymnesians, because they go naked all the summer. They are called Balearians, from their skill in throwing weapons: or, as some will have it, from Baleus, the companion of Hercules, who left him there behind him, when he sailed to Geryon. Y.R. 629. 123. — Commotions in Syria, in which Cleopatra murders her husband Demetrius; and also his son Seleucus, for assuming the crown, without her consent, upon his father’s death.
Y. R. 630. 122. — Caius Sextius, proconsul, having subdued the nation of the Salyans, founds a colony, which he names Aquæ Sextiæ, after his own name, and on account of the plenty of water, which he found there, flowing both from hot and cold springs. Y.R. 631. 121. — Cneius Domitius, proconsul, fights the Allobrogians, with success, at the town of Vindalium. The cause of this war was, their receiving, and furnishing with all the aid in their power, Teutomalius, the King of the Salyans, who had fled to them; and ravaging the lands of the Æduans, who were in alliance with the people of Rome. Y.R. 632. 120. — Caius Gracchus, upon the expiration of his seditious tribunate, seizes upon the Aventine mount, with a considerable number of armed followers; Lucius Opimius, by a decree of the senate, arms the people, drives him from thence, and puts him to death; together with Fulvius Flaccus, a man of consular rank, associated with him. Quintus Fabius Maximus, the consul, nephew of Paullus, gains a battle against the Allobrogians, and Bituitus King of the Arvernians; in which one thousand one hundred and twenty of the army of Bituitus, are slain. Y.R. 633. 119. — The king comes to Rome to make satisfaction to the senate, and is sent prisoner to Alba, there to be kept in custody, it not being deemed safe to send him back to Gaul. A decree, also, passes, that his son Congentiatus should be taken, and sent to Rome. Submission of the Allobrogians. Lucius Opimius brought to trial, before the people, for committing to prison some citizens who had not been condemned; acquitted.
Y. R. 634. 118. — The consul Quintus Marcius subdues the Stonians, an Alpine nation. Micipsa, King of Numidia, dying, bequeaths his kingdom to his three sons, Atherbal, Hiempsal, and Jugurtha, his nephew, whom he had adopted. Y.R. 635. 117. — Metellus subdues the Dalmatians. Jugurtha goes to war with his brother Hiempsal; vanquishes and puts him to death: drives Atherbal from his kingdom; who is restored by the senate. Y.R. 636. 116. — Lucius Cæcilius Metellus, and Cneius Domitius Ahenobarbus, censors, expel thirty-two senators. Y.R. 637. 115. — Disturbances in Syria.
Y. R. 638. 114. — Caius Porcius, the consul, combats the Scordiscians, in Thrace, unsuccessfully. The lustrum closed by the censors: the number of the citizens amounts to three hundred and ninety-four thousand three hundred and thirty-six. Æmilia, Licinia, and Marcio, vestals, found guilty of incest. Y.R. 639. 113. — The Cimbrians, a wandering people, come into Illyria, where they fight with, and defeat, the army of the consul Papirius Carbo. Y.R. 640. 112. — The consul Livius Drusus, makes war upon the Scordiscians, a people descended from the Gauls: vanquishes them, and gains great honour.
Jugurtha attacks Atherbal, besieges him in Cirtha, and puts him to death, contrary to the express commands of the senate. Y.R. 641. 111. — War is declared against him, which being committed to the conduct of the consul, Calpurnius Bestia, he makes peace with Jugurtha, without authority from the senate and people. Y.R. 642. 110. — Jugurtha, called upon to declare who were his advisers, comes to Rome upon the faith of a safe-conduct; he is supposed to have bribed many of the principal senators. He murders Massiva, who sought, through the hatred which he saw the Romans bore to Jugurtha, to procure his kingdom for himself. Being ordered to stand his trial, he escapes; and is reported to have said, on going away, “O venal city! doomed to quick perdition, could but a purchaser be found!” Aulus Postumius, having unsuccessfully fought Jugurtha, adds to his disgrace, by making an ignominious peace with him; which the senate refuses to ratify.
Y. R. 643. 109. — Quintus Cæcilius Metellus, consul, defeats Jugurtha, in two battles, and ravages all Numidia. Marcus Junius Silanus, consul, combats the Cimbrians, unsuccessfully. The Cimbrian ambassadors petition the senate for a settlement and lands; are refused. Y.R. 644. 108. — Marcus Minucius, consul, vanquishes the Thracians. Cassius, the consul, with his army, cut off by the Tigurine Gauls, in the country of the Helvetians. The soldiers, who survived that unfortunate action, condition for their lives, by giving hostages, and agreeing to deliver up half their property.
Y. R. 645. 107. — Jugurtha, driven out of Numidia by Caius Marius, receives aid from Bocchus, King of the Moors. Y.R. 646. 106. — Bocchus, having lost a battle, and being unwilling to carry on the war any longer, delivers up Jugurtha, in chains, to Marius. In this action, Lucius Cornelius Sylla, quæstor under Marius, most highly distinguishes himself.
Y. R. 647. 105. — Marcus Aurelius Scaurus, lieutenant-general under the consul, taken prisoner by the Cimbrians, his army being routed: slain by Boiorix, for saying, in their council, when they talked of invading Italy, that the Romans were not to be conquered. Cneius Mallius, consul, and Quintus Servilius Cæpio, proconsul, taken prisoners, by the same enemy who defeated their armies and drove them from both their camps, with the loss of eighty thousand men, and forty thousand sutlers, and other followers of the camp. The goods of Cæpio, whose rashness was the cause of this misfortune, sold by auction, by order of the people; being the first person whose effects were confiscated, since the dethroning of King Tarquin. Y.R. 648. 104. — Jugurtha, and his two sons, led in triumph, before the chariot of Caius Marius; put to death in prison. Marius enters the senate, in his triumphal habit; the first person that ever did so: on account of the apprehensions entertained of a Cimbrian war, he is continued in the consulship for several years, being elected a second, and a third time, in his absence: dissembling his views, he attains the consulship a fourth time. The Cimbrians, having ravaged all the country between the Rhine and the Pyrenees, pass into Spain; where having committed the like depredations, they are at length put to flight by the Celtiberians: returning into Gaul, they join the Teutons, a warlike people.
Y. R. 649. 103. — Marcus Antonius, prætor, attacks the pirates, and chaces them into Cilicia. The consul Caius Marius, attacked by the Teutons and Ambrogians, with their utmost force, defends himself; and afterwards in two battles, in the neighbourhood of Aquæ Sextia, utterly defeats them, with the loss, it is said, of two hundred thousand killed, and ninety thousand taken prisoners. Marius elected consul, in his absence, a fifth time. A triumph offered to him which he defers, until he shall have subdued the Cimbrians also. Y.R. 650. 102. — The Cimbrians drive Quintus Catulus, the proconsul, from the Alps, where he had possessed himself of the narrow passes, and erected a castle to command the river Athesis, which he abandons. They pass into Italy. Catulus and Marius, having effected a junction of their forces, fight and vanquish them: in this battle, we are told, that there fell, one hundred and forty thousand of the enemy, and that sixty thousand were taken. Marius, on his return to Rome, is received with the highest honours, by the whole body of the citizens; two triumphs offered him, but he contents himself with one. The principal men in the state, who were, for some time, extremely envious that such distinctions should be conferred upon a new man, now acknowledge him to have saved the commonwealth. Y.R. 651. 101. — Publicius Malleolus executed for the murder of his mother; being the first that ever was sown up in a sack and cast into the sea. The sacred shields are said to have shaken, with considerable noise, previous to the conclusion of the Cimbrian war. Wars between the kings of Syria.
Lucius Apuleius Saturninus, aided by Marius — the soldiers having killed his competitor, Aulus Nonius — forcibly elected prætor; exercises his office, with a violence equal to that by which he obtained it. Having procured an Agrarian law, he summons Metellus Numidicus to stand his trial before the people, for refusing to swear to the observance of it. Metellus, notwithstanding he enjoyed the protection of all the best men in the state, yet, being unwilling to furnish matter of dispute, retires into voluntary exile, to Rhodes: there he passed his time, entirely in study, and in receiving the visits of men of eminent character. Y.R. 652. 100. — On his departure, Caius Marius, who was, in fact, the chief promoter of the sedition, and who had now purchased a fourth consulship, by openly distributing money among the tribes, pronounced sentence of banishment upon him. The same Saturninus murders Caius Memmius, who was a candidate for the consulship, fearing lest he might have, in him, a strenuous opposer of his evil actions. The senate were at length roused by such repeated acts of enormity, and Marius (a man of a very versatile character, and always desirous of being on the strong side, if he could any way discover it) joined them. In consequence of this, Saturninus, together with Glaucias, the prætor, and some others of his mad associates, is attacked by force of arms, and slain by one Rabirius. Y.R. 653. 99. — Quintus Cæcilius Metellus, honourably recalled from banishment. Marcus Aquilius, proconsul, puts an end to the war of the slaves in Sylly.
Y. R. 654. 98. — Marcus Aquillius, accused of extortion, refuses to implore the favour of the judges appointed to try him; whereupon Marcus Antonius, his advocate, cuts open his vest, and show the scars of his honourable wounds, received in front; upon sight of which he is immediately acquitted. This fact is related upon the authority of Cicero, only. Y.R. 655. 97. — Successful expedition of Didius, the proconsul, against the Celtiberians. Y.R. 656. 96. — Ptolemy, King of Cyrene, dies; bequeaths his kingdom to the Roman people: the senate decrees that the cities shall be free. Y.R. 657. 95. — Ariobarzanes restored to his kingdom of Cappadocia, by Lucius Sylla. Ambassadors from Arsaces, King of Parthia, come to Sylla, to solicit the friendship of the Roman people. Y.R. 658. 94. — Publius Rutilius, a man of the strictest integrity, having exerted himself, when lieutenant-general under Quintus Mucius, proconsul, to protect the people of Asia from the oppression of the revenue farmers, becomes odious, on that account, to the equestrian order, who had the cognisance of affairs of that nature; is brought to trial, and condemned to exile. Y.R. 659. 93. — Caius Geminius, prætor, unfortunate in an expedition against the Thracians. Y.R. 660. 92. — The senate, disgusted by the many abuses committed by the equestrian order in the exercise of their jurisdiction, endeavour to bring that jurisdiction into their own hands; they are supported by Marcus Livius Drusus, plebeian tribune; who, in order to gain the people, holds out to them the pernicious hope of a pecuniary gratification. Commotions in Syria.
Y. R. 661. 91. — Marcus Livius Drusus, plebeian tribune, in order the more effectually to support the senate in their pretensions, engages the concurrence of the allies, and the Italian states, by promising them the freedom of the city. Aided by them, besides the Agrarian and corn laws, he carries that, also, relative to criminal jurisdiction; — that in capital prosecutions the senate should have equal authority with the equestrian order. It is afterwards found that the freedom which he had promised, cannot be conferred upon them; which incenses and incites them to revolt. An account of their assembling; their combinations and speeches made at their meetings, by the chief men among them. Drusus becomes obnoxious to the senate, on account of his conduct in this affair; is considered as the cause of the social war; is slain in his own house by an unknown hand.
The Italian states, the Picentians, Vestinians, Marcians, Pelignians, Marrucinians, Samnites, and Lucanians, revolt. The war begins with the Picentians. Quintus Servilius, proconsul, murdered, in the town of Asculum, and all the Roman citizens in the place. The whole body of the Roman people assume the military dress. Servius Galba, taken by the Lucanians, escapes, by the assistance of a woman with whom he lodged. Y.R. 662. 90. —Æsernia and Alba, besieged by the Italians. Aid sent to the Romans, by the Latines, and other foreign nations. Military operations, expeditions, and sieges, on both sides.
The consul, Lucius Julius Cæsar, engages the Samnites unsuccessfully. The colony of Nola falls into the hands of the Samnites, together with Lucius Postumius, the prætor, whom they kill. Many different states go over to the enemy. Publius Rutilius slain in an engagement with the Marcians; Caius Marius, his lieutenant-general, fights them with better success. Servius Sulpicius defeats the Pelignians, in a pitched battle. Quintus Cæpio, Rutilius’s lieutenant-general, makes a successful sally against the enemy besieging him: on account of which success, he is made equal in command to Marius; becomes adventurous and rash; is surprised in an ambuscade, his army routed, and himself slain. Successes of the consul Lucius Cæsar against the Samnites; on account of his conquests, the inhabitants of Rome lay aside the military habit. The war carried on with various success. Æsernia, with Marcellus, falls into the hands of the Samnites; Caius Marius vanquishes the Marcians, and kills Herius Asinius, the prætor of the Marrucinians. Caius Cæcilius subdues the rebellious Salvians in Transalpine Gaul.
Cneius Pompeius defeats the Picentians, and lays siege to their town; on account of this victory, the inhabitants of Rome resume their purple robes, other usual ornaments of dress, and distinguishing marks of magistracy. Caius Marius fights an undecided battle with the Marcians. Freedmen’s sons now, for the first time, received into the army. Y.R. 663. 89. — Aulus Plotius subdues the Umbrians, and Lucius Porcius the Marcians, both of whom had revolted. Nicomedes restored to the kingdom of Bithynia, and Ariobarzanes, to that of Cappadocia. Cneius Pompeius, consul, overthrows the Marcians in a pitched battle. The citizens being deeply involved in debt, Aulus Sempronius Asellio, prætor, is murdered in the Forum, by the usurers, in consequence of some judgments given by him in favour of debtors. Incursion of the Thracians, and devastations committed by them against the Macedonians.
Aulus Postumius Albinus, commander of a fleet, upon a suspicion of treachery, murdered by the forces under his command. Lucius Cornelius Sylla, lieutenant-general, defeats the Samnites, and takes two of their camps. The Vestinians surrender to Cneius Pompeius. Lucius Porcius, consul, having been successful in frequent engagements with the Marcians, slain in an attack upon their camp, which circumstance decides the victory in favour of the enemy. Cosconius and Lucius overthrow the Samnites in a battle, slay Marius Egnatius, the most distinguished of their generals, and receive the surrender of many of their towns. Lucius Sylla subdues the Hirpinians, defeats the Samnites in many battles, and receives the submission of several states; in consequence of having performed so many distinguished services, he repairs to Rome to solicit the consulship.
Aulus Gabinius defeats the Lucanians, and takes several of their towns, is slain in an attack on their camp. Sulpicius, a heutenant-general, commits military execution on the Marrucinians, and reduces their whole country. Cneius Pompeius, proconsul, forces the Vestinians and Pelignians to submission. Also the Marcians, defeated in several battles, by Lucius Murena and Cæcilius Pius, sue for peace. Y.R. 664. 88. — Asculum taken by Cneius Pompeius, and the Italians, there, put to death by Mamercus Æmilius. Silo Pompædius, the author of the revolt, killed in an action. Ariobarzanes, King of Cappadocia, and Nicomedes, King of Bithynia, driven out of their kingdoms by Mithridates, King of Pontus. Predatory incursions of the Thracians into Macedonia.
Publius Sulpicius, tribune of the people, (having, with the aid of Caius Marius, carried certain laws: that those who had been banished, should be recalled; that the newly-created citizens, and the sons of freedmen, should be distributed among the tribes, and that Caius Marius should be appointed general against Mithridates,) commits violence against Quintus Pompeius and Lucius Sylla, the consuls, who had opposed these proceedings; kills Quintus, the son of Pompeius, who was married to Sylla’s daughter. Lucius Sylla comes into the town with an army, and fights the faction of Sulpicius and Marius, in the city; he gets the better of them, and drives them out. Twelve of them, among whom are Caius Marius the father, and his son, condemned by the senate. Publius Sulpicius, having concealed himself in a farm house, in the neighbourhood, is discovered by one of his slaves, apprehended, and put to death. The slave being entitled to the reward promised to the discoverer, is made free; and is then thrown from the Tarpeian rock, for having traitorously betrayed his master. Caius Marius, the son, passes over into Africa. Caius Marius, the father, having concealed himself in the marshes of Minturna, is seized by the towns-people: a Gallic slave, sent to despatch him, terrified at his majestic appearance, retires, unable to accomplish the deed; he is sent off to Africa. Lucius Sylla makes a considerable reform in the state; sends forth several colonies. Cneius Pompeius, proconsul, procures the murder of Quintus Pompeius, the consul, who was to have succeeded him in the command of the army. Mithridates, King of Pontus, seizes Bithynia and Cappadocia, having driven thence the Roman general, Aquillius; at the head of a great army enters Phrygia, a province belonging to the Roman people.
Mithridates possesses himself of Asia; throwsinto chains Quintus Oppius, the proconsul, and Aquillius, the general; orders all the Romans in Asia, to be massacred on the same day; attacks the city of Rhodes, the only one which had retained its fidelity to the Roman state. Being overcome in several actions at sea, he retreats. Y.R. 665. 87. — Archelaus, one of the King’s governors, invades Greece; takes Athens. Commotions in several states and islands, some endeavouring to draw over their people to the side of the Romans, others to that of Mithridates.
Lucius Cornelius Sylla, having by force of arms, procured the enacting of several injurious laws, is driven out of the city by his colleague, Cneius Octavius, together with six plebeian tribunes. Thus deposed from his authority, he procures the command of the army under Appius Claudius, by bribery, and makes war upon the city, having called to his assistance, Caius Marius, and other exiles, from Africa. In this war, two brothers, (one of Pompeius’s army, the other of Cinna’s,) encounter each other, without knowing it; the conqueror, upon stripping the other, whom he had slain, discovers who he is, whereupon, in the agony of grief, he kills himself. Having erected a funeral-pile for his brother, is, himself, consumed in the same flames. This war might easily have been suppressed, in the beginning, but is kept up by the artifices of Pompeius, who underhand encouraged both parties, and kept himself aloof, till much of the best blood in the state was spilt: the consul, also, was singularly languid and negligent. Cinna and Marius, with four armies, two of which were commanded by Sertorius and Carbo, lay siege to the city. Marius takes Ostia, which he plunders in the most cruel manner.
The freedom of the city of Rome granted to the Italian states. The Samnites, the only people who continue in arms, join Cinna and Marius, and overthrow Plautius’s army, killing the general. Cinna and Marius seize the Janiculum; repelled by the consul Octavius. Marius plunders Antium, Aricia, and Lanuvium. The principal men in the state, having now no hope of resisting, on account of the cowardice and treachery of their troops and of the commanders, (most of whom had been gained by bribes,) receive Cinna and Marius into the city. As if it were a captured place, they murder great numbers of the inhabitants, and plunder others in the most cruel manner. They put to death the consul Cneius Octavius, and all the chiefs of the opposite party; among others, Marcus Antonius, a man highly distinguished for his eloquence, with Lucius and Caius Cæsar, whose heads they stick up on the rostrum. The younger Crassus slain by a party of horsemen at Fimbria; his father, to escape suffering indignity, kills himself. Cinna and Marius, without even the formality of an election, declare themselves consuls. The first day of their entering upon office, Marius, after having committed very many atrocious acts, dies, on the ides of January; a man, whom, if we compare his vices with his virtues, it will be difficult to pronounce whether he were greater in war, or more wicked in peace. Having preserved his country by his valour, he ruined it afterwards, by every species of artifice and fraud; and finally, destroyed it by open force.
Y. R. 666. 86. — Lucius Sylla besieges Athens, held by Archelaus, under Mithridates, and takes it, after an obstinate resistance: the city, and such of the inhabitants as remained alive, restored to liberty. Magnesia, the only city in Asia, which continued faithful, defended against Mithridates, with great valour. The Thracians invade Macedonia.
Sylla defeats Mithridates in Thessaly, killing one hundred thousand men, and taking their camp. The war being renewed, he entirely routs and destroys the King’s army. Archelaus, with the royal fleet, surrenders to Sylla. Lucius Valerius Flaccus, Cinna’s colleague in the consulship, appointed to succeed Sylla, in the command of his army, becomes so odious to his men, on account of his avarice, that he is slain by Caius Fimbria, his lieutenant-general, a man of consummate audacity, who, thereupon, assumes the command. Several cities in Asia taken by Mithridates, who treats them with extreme cruelty. Invasion of Macedonia by the Thracians.
Y. R. 667. 85. — Caius Fimbrias having defeated several of Mithridates’s generals in Asia, takes the city of Pergamus, and is very near making the King captive. He takes and destroys the city of Ilion, which adhered to Sylla, and recovers a great part of Asia. Sylla overcomes the Thracians in several battles. Lucius Cinna and Cneius Papirius Carbo, having declared themselves consuls, make preparations for war against Sylla; Lucius Valerius Flaceus moves the senate, and, assisted by those who were desirous of peace, prevails, that a deputation should be sent to Sylla, to treat of terms. Cinna, attempting to force his men to embark and go against Sylla, is slain by them. Y.R. 668. 84. — Carbo sole consul. Sylla makes peace, in Asia, with Mithridates, upon condition that the King shall evacuate Asia, Bithynia, and Cappadocia. Fimbria, deserted by his army, which went over to Sylla, puts himself to death.
Sylla answers the deputies, that he would yield to the authority of the senate, upon condition that those who, being banished by Cinna, had fled to him, should be restored: which proposition appears reasonable to the senate, but is opposed and rejected by Carbo, and his faction, who conceive that they may derive more advantage from a continuance of the war. Carbo, requiring hostages from all the towns and colonies of Italy, to bind them more firmly in union against Sylla, is over-ruled by the senate. The right of voting given to the new citizens, by a decree of the senate. Quintus Metellus Pius, who had taken part with the chief men of the state, prepares for war in Africa; is crushed by Caius Fabius, the prætor. Y.R. 669. 83. — Carbo’s faction and the Marian party procure a decree of the senate, that the armies shall every where be disbanded. The sons of freedmen distributed among the thirty-five tribes. Preparations for war against Sylla.
Sylla enters Italy, at the head of an army; his ambassadors ill treated by Norbanus, the consul, whom he afterwards defeats in battle. Having, ineffectually, tried every means with Lucius Scipio, the other consul, to bring about a peace, he prepares to attack his camp, when the consul’s whole army, seduced by some of his soldiers, who had insinuated themselves among them, desert to him in a body. Having Scipio in his power, he sets him free, when he might have killed him. Cneius Pompeius, the son of Pompeius who took Asculum, raises an army of volunteers, and goes over to Sylla, with three legions: also, the whole body of the nobility quit the city, and join his camp. Sundry actions in different parts of Italy.
Y. R. 670. 82. — Caius Marius, son of Caius Marius, made consul, by force, before he was twenty years old. Caius Fabius burned alive in his tent, in Africa, for his avarice and extortion. Lucius Philippus, Sylla’s lieutenant-general, having overthrown and killed the prætor Quintus Antonius, takes Sardinia. Sylla, in order to conciliate the different Italian states, makes a league with them, contracting, not to deprive them of the city, and the right of voting lately conferred upon them. So confident is he of the victory, that he publishes an order, that all suitors, bound by sureties, should make their appearance at Rome, although the city was yet in the possession of the opposite party. Lucius Damasippus, the prætor, having called together the senate, at the desire of Marius, murders what remains of the nobility in the city; among them, Quintus Mucius Scævola, the high priest, endeavouring to make his escape, is killed in the vestibule of the temple of Vesta. The war in Asia, against Mithridates, renewed by Lucius Muræna.
Sylla, having subdued and destroyed Caius Marius’s army, at Sacriportus, lays siege to Præneste, where Marius had taken refuge; recovers Rome, out of the hands of his enemies. Marius attempting to break forth from Præneste, is repelled. Successes of the different commanders under him, every where.
Sylla, having routed and cut off the army of Carbo, at Clusium, Faventia, and Fidentia, drives him entirely out of Italy; fights and overthrows the Samnites, the only nation in Italy which still continued in arms. Having restored the affairs of the commonwealth, he stains his glorious victory with the most atrocious cruelties ever committed; he murders eight thousand men, in the Villa Publica, who had submitted and laid down their arms, and publishes a list of persons proscribed: he fills with blood the city of Rome, and all Italy. All the Prænestines, without exception, although they had laid down their arms, he orders to be murdered: he kills Marius, a senator, by breaking his legs and arms, cutting off his ears, and scooping out his eyes. Caius Marius, besieged at Præneste, by Lucretius Asella, and other partisans of Sylla, endeavours to escape through a mine; failing in which attempt he kills himself.
Lucius Brutus sent, in a fishing-boat, from Cossura, by Cneius Papirius Carbo, to Lilybæum, to discover if Pompeius were there, is surrounded by some of Pompeius’s vessels, whereupon he destroys himself. Cneius Pompeius, sent by the senate to Sicily, with full powers, takes Carbo prisoner, and puts him to death, who dies weeping with womanly weakness. Sylla made dictator; assumes a state never before seen, walking, preceded by twenty-four lictors. He establishes many new regulations in the state; abridges the authority of the plebeian tribunes; takes from them entirely the power of proposing laws; increases the college of priests and augurs to fifteen; fills up the senate from the equestrian order; takes from the descendants of the proscribed persons all power of reclaiming the property of their ancestors, and sells such of their effects as had not been already confiscated, to the amount of one hundred and fifty millions of sesterces. He orders Lucretius Ofella to be put to death in the Forum, for having declared himself a candidate for the consulship, without having previously obtained his permission; at which the people of Rome being offended, he calls a meeting, and tells them, that Ofella was slain by his orders. Y.R. 671. 81. — Cneius Pompeius vanquishes and kills Cneius Domitius, one of the proscribed persons, in Africa; also Hiarbas, King of Numidia, who was making preparations for war. He triumphs over Africa, although not more than twenty-four years of age, and only of equestrian rank, which never happened to any man before. Caius Norbonus, of consular rank, being proscribed, seeks safety at Rhodes, where, being discovered, he kills himself. Mutilus, one of the proscribed, coming privately and in disguise, to the back door of his wife Bastia’s house, she refuses to admit him, telling him that he was a forbidden man, whereupon he stabs himself, and sprinkles the door of his wife’s house with his blood. Sylla takes Nola, a city of the Samnites. Y.R. 672. 80. — He leads forth forty-seven legions, into the conquered lands, and divides them among them. Y.R. 673. 79. — He besieges and takes the town of Volaterra; he demolishes likewise Mitylene, the only town in Asia which continued to adhere to Mithridates.
Y. R. 674. 78. — Death of Sylla; he is buried in the Campus Martius, by a decree of the senate. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, by attempting to rescind the acts of Sylla, raises new commotions; is driven out of Italy, by his colleague, Quintus Catulus; endeavouring to excite a war in Sardinia, he loses his life. Y.R. 675. 77. — Marcus Brutus, who held possession of Cisalpine Gaul, slain by Cneius Pompeius. Quintus Sertorius, one of the proscribed, raises a formidable war in the Farther Spain. Lucius Manilius, proconsul, and Marcus Domitius, overthrown in a battle by the quæstor Herculeius. Expedition of the proconsul, Publius Servilius, against the Cilicians.
Cneius Pompeius, while yet only of equestrian rank, sent against Sertorius with consular authority. Sertorius takes several cities, and reduces many others to submission. The proconsul, Appius Claudius, conquers the Thracians in several battles. Y.R. 676. 76. — Quintus Metellus, proconsul, cuts off Herculeius, with his whole army.
Cneius Pompeius fights an undecided battle with Sertorius, the wings on each side being reciprocally beaten. Quintus Metellus conquers Sertorius and Peperna, with both their armies; Pompeius, desirous of having a share in this victory, engages in the action, but without success. Sertorius, besieged in Clunia, makes frequent sallies, to the great loss of the besiegers. Y.R. 677. 75. — Successful expedition of Curio, the proconsul, against the Dardanians. Cruelties of Sertorius, against his own partisans, many of whom he puts to death, upon pretended suspicion of treachery.
Publius Servilius, proconsul in Cilicia, subdues the Isaurians, and takes several cities belonging to the pirates. Nicomedes King of Bithynia, dying, bequeaths his dominions to the Roman people, who reduce them into the form of a province. Y.R. 678. 74. — Mithridates establishes a league with Sertorius, and declares war against Rome; makes vast preparations, both of land and sea forces, and seizes Bithynia. Marcus Aurelius Cotta overcome in an action by the King at Chalcedon. Pompeius and Metellus conduct the war against Sertorius, who proves fully equal to them in the military arts. Sertorius raises the siege of Calgurius, and compels them to retreat into different countries. Metellus into the Farther Spain, Pompeius into Gaul.
Lucius Licinius Lucullus, consul, defeats Mithridates, in an action between their cavalry, and makes several successful expeditions; a mutiny among his soldiers, arising from an eager desire of fighting, repressed. Deiotarus, tetrarch of Gallogræcia, kills certain officers of Mithridates, who were stirring up war in Phrygia. Successes of Pompeius, against Sertorius. in Spain.
Y. R. 679. 73. — Caius Curio, proconsul, subdues the Dardanians, in Thrace. Seventy-four gladiators, belonging to Lentulus, make their escape from Capua; having collected a great number of slaves and hired servants, and putting themselves under the command of Crixus and Spartacus, they attack and defeat Claudius Pulcher, a lieutenant-general, and Publius Varenus, prætor. Lucius Lucullus, proconsul, destroys the army of Mithridates, by the sword and famine, at Cyzicus; that King, driven from Bithynia, having suffered much, in several engagements and shipwrecks, is, at length, obliged to fly to Pontus.
Y. R. 680. 72. — Quintus Arrius, the prætor, defeats and kills Crixus, the commander of the fugitive gladiators. Cneius Lentulus, the consul, engages Spartacus unsuccessfully, who also defeats Lucius Gellius, the consul, and Quintus Arrius, the prætor. Sertorius slain, at a feast, in the eighth year of his command, by Manius Antonius, Marcus Peperna, and other conspirators: he was a great general, and being opposed to two commanders, Pompeius and Metellus, was often equal, and sometimes even superior, to both of them; at last, being deserted and betrayed, the command of his force devolved upon Peperna, whom Pompeius took prisoner and slew, and recovered Spain, towards the close of the tenth year of that war. Spartacus gains another victory over Caius Cassius, the proconsul, and Cneius Manlius, the prætor; the charge of that war committed to the prætor, Marcus Crassus.
Y. R. 681. 71. — Marcus Crassus, the prætor, engages with and defeats an army of the fugitives, consisting of Gauls and Germans, killing thirty-five thousand of them, together with their general, Granicus; afterwards, he fights Spartacus, whom he conquers, killing him and forty thousand men. The war against the Cretans, unfortunately undertaken, finishes with the death of the prætor, Marcus Antonius. Marcus Lucullus, proconsul, subdues the Thracians. Lucius Lucullus gives battle to Mithridates, in Pontus; overcomes him, killing sixty thousand men. Y.R. 682. 70. — Marcus Crassus and Cneius Pompeius, elected consuls; the latter being only of the equestrian order, not having yet served the office of quæstor; they restore the tribunitian power. The right of trial transferred to the Roman knights, by the prætor, Lucius Aurelius Cotta. The affairs of Mithridates being reduced to a state of desperation, he flies for refuge to Tigranes, King of Armenia.
A treaty of friendship made by Machares, son of Mithridates, King of Bosphorus, with Lucius Lucullus. Cneius Lentulus and Caius Galius, censors, exercise their office with extreme rigour; they expel sixty-four senators. The lustrum closed: the number of citizens amounts to four hundred and fifty thousand. Y.R. 683. 69. — Lucius Metellus, prætor, is successful against the pirates in Sicily. The temple of Jupiter in the Capitol, having been consumed by fire, rebuilt, and dedicated by Quintus Catulus. Y.R. 684. 68. — Lucius Lucullus defeats Mithridates and Tigranes, with their vast armies, in Armenia, in several battles. The war against the Cretans being committed to the charge of the proconsul, Quintus Metellus, he lays siege to the city of Cydonia. Y.R. 685. 67. — Lucius Triarius, a lieutenant-general of Lucullus, defeated in a battle against Mithridates. Lucullus prevented, by a sedition in his army, from pursuing Mithridates and Tigranes, and completing his victory; the principal authors of the sedition were the Valerian legions, who refused to follow Lucullus, alleging that they had served out their time.
The proconsul, Quintus Metellus, takes Gnossus, Lyctum, Cydonia, and many other cities. Lucius Roscius, plebeian tribune, carries a law, that the fourteen lower seats in the theatre shall be allotted to the Roman knights. Cneius Pompeius, being ordered by a law, which had the sanction of the people, to proceed against the pirates, who had interrupted the commerce of corn, in forty days drives them wholly from the sea; and having finished the war against them in Cilicia, reduces them to submission, and assigns them lands and towns. Successes of Metellus against the Cretans. Letters between Metellus and Pompeius. Metellus complains, that Pompeius had treated him injuriously, in sending a deputy of his own to receive the submission of the Cretans: Pompeius alleges, that he had a right to do so.
Y. R. 686. 66. — Caius Manilius, tribune of the people, to the great dissatisfaction of the nobility, proposes, that the Mithridatic war should be committed to the conduct of Pompeius. His excellent speech upon that occasion. Quintus Metellus, having subdued Crete, imposes laws upon that hitherto free island. Cneius Pompeius, setting out for the war against Mithridates, renews the treaty of friendship with Phraates, King of Parthia; overcomes Mithridates in an engagement between their cavalry. War between Phraates, King of Parthia, and Tigranes, King of Armenia; afterwards, between the father and son Tigranes.
Cneius Pompeius vanquishes Mithridates, in a battle fought in the night, and compels him to fly to Bosphorus; reduces Tigranes to submission, taking from him, Syria, Phœnicia, and Cilicia; restores to him his own kingdom of Armenia. A conspiracy to murder the consuls suppressed; the authors of it were certain persons, who had been convicted of unlawful practices, when candidates for the consulship. Y.R. 687. 65. — Pompeius pursues Mithridates into remote, and even unknown, regions; he fights and conquers the Iberians and Albanians, who had refused him a passage through their territories. Mithridates flies to the Colchians and Heniochians; his transactions at Bosphorus.
Pompeius reduces Pontus to the form of a Roman province. Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, makes war upon his father. Mithridates, besieged in his palace, takes poison, which not producing the desired effect, he procures himself to be slain by a Gaul, named Bituitus. Pompeius conquers the Jews, and takes their temple, hitherto unviolated. Y.R. 688. 64. — Catiline, having twice failed in his pursuit of the consulship, forms a conspiracy, with Lentulus, Cethegus, and others, to destroy the consuls and the senate, to burn the city, and seize the commonwealth; he raises an army in Etruria: Y.R. 689. 63. — the conspiracy is discovered and frustrated by the exertions of Marcus Tullius Cicero the consul. Catiline is driven out of Rome; the other conspirators punished with death.
Y. R. 690. 62. — Catiline’s army vanquished, and himself slain, by the proconsul, Caius Antonius. Publius Clodius accused of having entered a chapel, disguised in woman’s apparel, which it was not lawful for a man to enter; and of having defiled the wife of the high-priest; acquitted. Caius Pontinius, prætor, subdues the Allobrogians, who had rebelled. Publius Clodius joins the party of the people. Y.R. 691. 61. — Caius Cæsar subdues the Lusitanians: being a candidate for the consulship, and determined to seize the power of the commonwealth into his own hands, he forms a party with two of the principal men of the state, Marcus Antonius and Marcus Crassus. Y.R. 692. 60. — Cæsar, now consul, procures the passing of some Agrarian laws, contrary to the will of the senate, and notwithstanding the opposition of his colleague, Marcus Bibulus. Y.R. 693. 59. — Caius Antonius, proconsul, defeated in Thrace. Y.R. 694. 58. — Marcus Cicero banished, in consequence of a law procured by Publius Clodius, for having put to death Roman citizens uncondemned. Cæsar goes into the province of Gaul, where he subdues the Helvetians, a wandering tribe, who, seeking a place of settlement, attempted to pass through Narbo, a part of his province. Description and situation of Gaul. Pompeius triumphs over the children of Mithridates and Tigranes, the father and son; the surname of the Great conferred upon him by a full assembly of the people.
Situation of Germany; description of that country, and of the people. Caius Cæsar, at the request of the Æduans and Sequanians, leads his army against the Germans, who had invaded Gaul, under the command of Ariovistus; he rouses the courage of his soldiers, who were alarmed at the unusual appearance of these new enemies; he then defeats the Germans in an engagement, and drives them out of Gaul. Y.R. 695. BC. 57. — Marcus Tullius Cicero, to the great joy of the senate, and of all Italy, recalled from banishment, chiefly by the persuasion of Pompeius, aided by Titus Annius Milo, plebeian tribune, who also argued in his favour. The charge of providing corn for the city committed to Cneius Pompeius, for five years. Cæsar overcomes in battle the Ambians, Suessians, Veromanduans, and Atrebatians, a people of the Belgians, whose numbers were immense, and reduces them all to subjection. He afterwards, at great risk, engages the Nervians, a people belonging to one of the above states, and entirely cuts them off: this war they continued, with such obstinacy, that their army was reduced from sixty thousand men to three hundred, and, of four hundred senators, only three remained alive. A law made to reduce Cyprus to the form of a province, and to confiscate the royal treasure; the management of that business committed to Marcus Cato. Y.R. 696. 56. — Ptolemy, ill-treated by his subjects, and dethroned, comes to Rome. Caius Cæsar defeats the Venetians, a people living on the borders of the sea, in a sea-fight. Successful expeditions of his lieutenants-general.
Caius Cato, tribune of the people, persists in preventing the holding of the elections; on which the senate goes into mourning. Y.R. 697. 55. — Marcus Cato, a candidate for the prætorship, loses the election, Vatinius carrying it against him. The same Cato committed to prison, by the tribune, Trebonius, for resisting the law allotting the provinces, for five years: to Cæsar, Gaul and Germany; to Pompeius, Spain; and to Crassus, Syria, and the Parthian war. Aulus Gabinius, proconsul, restores Ptolemy to his kingdom of Egypt, dethroning Archelaus, whom the people had elected king. Y.R. 698. 54. — Cæsar, having vanquished the Germans, who had invaded Gaul, passes the Rhine, and subdues them also in those parts: he then crosses the sea, and, having suffered much from tempests, invades Britain; where, having killed a considerable number of the inhabitants, he reduces a part of the island to subjection.
Julia, Cæsar’s daughter, and wife of Pompeius, dies; by a vote of the people, she is honoured with burial in the Campus Martius. Certain tribes of the Gauls revolt, and put themselves under the command of Ambiorix; they ensnare, and cut off, Cotta and Titurius, lieutenants-general under Cæsar, with the armies under their command: having attacked other legions, who with difficulty defended their camps, and, among the rest, Quintus Cicero, they are at length defeated by Cæsar himself. Y.R. 699. 53. — Marcus Crassus crosses the Euphrates, to make war upon the Parthians, and is overthrown in a battle, in which his son is killed; having collected the remains of his army upon a rising ground, a conference, to treat of peace, is proposed; at which he is seized by a party under the command of Surenas; to avoid suffering any indignity, he makes such resistance as obliges them to put him to death.
Caius Cæsar, having subdued the Trevirian Gauls, passes over a second time into Germany; finding no enemy there, he returns to Gaul, and reduces to obedience the Eburones, and other cities, which had revolted. Titus Annius Milo, a candidate for the consulship, kills Publius Clodius, on the Appian road, near Bovilla, whose body the people burn in the curia. Y.R. 700. 52. — The candidates for the consulship, Hypsæus, Scipio, and Milo, carry on their contention with so much rancour, as to come to open violence, which excites a seditious tumult. To repress these enormities, Cneius Pompeius is, a third time, elected consul, in his absence, and without a colleague — a circumstance which never occurred before. Milo tried for the murder of Clodius, and condemned to banishment. A law made, notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of Marcus Cato, to empower Cæsar to stand for the consulship, though absent. Cæsar’s operations against the Gauls, who had, almost all, revolted, and put themselves under the command of Vercingetorix; he takes many towns; amongst others, Avaricum, Biturium, and Gergovia.
Cæsar overthrows the Gauls at Alesia, and reduces all the revolted cities to subjection. Caius Cassius, Marcus Crassus’s quæstor, defeats the Parthians who had passed over into Syria. Y.R. 701. 51. — M. Cato fails in his pursuit of the consulship; the successful candidates being Servius Sulpicius and Marcus Marcellus. Cæsar subdues the Bellovacians, and other Gallic tribes. Disputes between the consuls, concerning the sending out a person to succeed Cæsar; Marcellus contends that Cæsar should come home to sue for the consulship, being, by a law made expressly for that purpose, enabled to hold his province until that period. Exploits of Marcus Bibulus in Syria.
Y. R. 702. 50. — Causes and beginning of the civil war: disputes about sending a successor to Cæsar, who refuses to disband his army, unless Pompeius shall also do the same. Y.R. 703. 49. — Caius Curio, plebeian tribune, takes an active part; first, against Cæsar, afterwards, in his favour. A decree of the senate being passed, that a successor to Cæsar should be appointed, Marcus Antonius and Quintus Cassius are driven out of the city, for protesting against that measure. Orders sent by the senate to the consuls, and to Cneius Pompeius, to take care that the commonwealth should sustain no injury. Cæsar, determined to make war upon his enemies, arrives in Italy with his army: he takes Corsinium, and in it Lucius Domitius and Lucius Lentulus, whom he discharges: drives Cneius Pompeius, and his adherents, out of Italy.
Cæsar besieges Massilia, the gates of which had been shut against him; leaving his lieutenants-general, Caius Trebonius and Decius Brutus, to carry on the siege, he sets out for Spain, where Lucius Afranius and Caius Petreius, Pompeius’s lieutenants-general, with seven legions, surrender to him at Ilerda: he dismisses them all in safety. He also reduces to submission Varro, another lieutenant-general of Pompeius, with the army under his command. He grants the privileges of Roman citizens to the Gaditanians. The Massilians defeated in two engagements at sea; after having sustained a long siege, they yield to Cæsar. Caius Antonius, a lieutenant-general of Cæsar, makes an unsuccessful attack upon Pompeius’s forces in Illyria, and is taken prisoner. In the course of this war, the inhabitants of Opitergium, a district beyond the Po, in alliance with Cæsar, seeing their bridge blocked up by the enemy’s ships, rather than fall into their hands, kill one another. Caius Curio, one of Cæsar’s lieutenants-general in Africa, after a successful engagement of Varus, a general of the Pompeian party, attacked and cut off, together with his army, by Juba, King of Mauritania. Caius Cæsar passes over into Greece.
Y. R. 704. 48. — Marcus Cælius Rufus, prætor, having excited a sedition in the city, by holding out hopes to the people, that their debts should be annulled, turned out of his office, and driven from the city; he joins Milo, who, being in exile, was raising an army of fugitives: they are both slain. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, dethroned by her brother Ptolemy. The Cordubians, in Spain harassed by the extortion and oppression of the prætor Quintus Cassius, desert Cæsar’s party, together with two legions. Cneius Pompeius besieged by Cæsar at Dyrrachium; beating him out of his lines, the siege is raised. The seat of war removed to Thessaly: Cæsar overcomes Pompeius in a battle at Pharsalia. Cicero remains in the camp — a man without any kind of talent for war. Cæsar grants a free pardon to all who submit themselves to his power.
Consternation and flight of the vanquished party, in all parts of the world. Pompeius, endeavouring to escape into Ægypt, is slain, before he could get on shore, by order of Ptolemy, the King, a minor, upon the persuasion of Theodotus, his governor. Cornelia, his wife, and Sextus, his son, fly to Cyprus. Cæsar follows him, three days after his victory; upon being presented with the ring of Pompey by Theodotus, he is highly offended with him for putting him to death, and laments his fate with tears. Y.R. 705. 47. — Cæsar enters Alexandria in safety, notwithstanding that city was in a state of tumult. Cæsar created dictator; restores Cleopatra to her throne; and defeats Ptolemy with great slaughter, who had made war upon him by the advice of those who had caused him to put Pompeius to death. Ptolemy, in his flight, driven on shore, in his vessel, in the Nile. Laborious march of Marcus Cato, with his legions, through vast tracts of desart country. Unsuccessful war of Domitius against Pharnaces.
The Pompeian party having collected their forces in Africa, the command in chief is given to Publius Scipio — Marcus Cato, who had been joined with him in the command, giving up. When it was deliberated, in council, whether the city of Utica should not be demolished, on account of its attachment to Cæsar, Cato opposes that measure, which was strongly recommended by Juba. Cato’s opinion prevailing, he is appointed governor of the city. Cneius Pompeius, the son of Pompeius the Great, having collected some forces in Spain, which neither Afranius nor Petreius would take the command of, puts himself at the head of them, and renews the war there. Pharnaces, King of Pontus, son of Mithridates, after supporting the war but a very short time, is subdued. A sedition excited in Rome by Publius Dolabella, a plebeian tribune, who moved for a law to extinguish the debts of the people. Marcus Antonius, master of the horse, brings troops into the town, and kills eight hundred of the people. Cæsar discharges the veteran soldiers, who were grown mutinous: crosses over into Africa, and engages the forces of King Juba, in a very hazardous combat.
Y. R. 706. 406. — Cæcilius Bassus, a Roman knight of the Pompeian party, stirs up war in Syria: the legion left there, under the command of Sextus Cæsar, having slain their commander, and revolted to Bassus. Cæsar defeats the prætor Scipio, Afranius, and Juba, at Thapsus, and takes their camps. Cato, hearing of this disaster, stabs himself at Utica; his son coming in, forces him to consent to have his wound dressed; but he, afterwards, tears away the dressing, and expires, in the forty-ninth year of his age. Petreius also puts Juba and himself to death. Publius Scipio also, his ship being overpowered, slays himself, having said to those who inquired after the General, “The General is well.” Faustus and Afranius slain. Cato’s son is pardoned. Brutus, Cæsar’s lieutenant-general, gives battle to the rebellious Bellovacians, and overcomes them.
Cæsar triumphs four times: over Gaul, Egypt, Pontus, and Africa. He gives a feast, and exhibits shows of every description. To Marcus Marcellus, a man of consular rank, he grants leave to return; but he is murdered at Athens, by Magius Cilo, one of his dependants. Cæsar holds a census: the number of citizens amounts to one hundred and fifty thousand. Y.R. 707. 45. — Cæsar goes to Spain against Cneius Pompey; where, after many attacks on both sides, he at length gains a signal victory, after a most desperate engagement, at Munda. Pompeius flies.
Cæsar triumphs, a fifth time, over Spain. Very many and high honours decreed him by the senate; among others, that he should be styled Father of his Country, and Sacred, and also that he should be perpetual dictator. Y.R. 708. 44. — He gives much ground of offence by his haughtiness and pride: for when the senate, waiting upon him to signify the honours they had decreed him, find him sitting before the temple of Venus Genetrix, he rises not to receive them: when also Marcus Antonius, his colleague in the consulship, running among the Lupercalians, came up to him, and placed a diadem upon his head, he took it off, and laid it by him upon a chair: he turned out of their office, Epidius Marullus, and Cæsetius Flavus, plebeian tribunes, for asserting that he had assumed the office of King. Having, by these measures, incurred the public hatred, a conspiracy was at length formed against him; the chiefs of which were, Marcus Brutus and Caius Cassius; with two of his own partisans, Decius Brutus and Caius Trebonius. These kill him in the court of Pompeius, giving him three-and-twenty wounds; they then seize the Capitol. The senate passes a decree of oblivion; then the conspirators, having first received the children of Antonius and Lepidus as hostages, come down from the Capitol. Octavius, Cæsar’s nephew, is, by his will, made heir of half his acquisitions. Cæsar’s body burnt by the people, in the Campus Martius, opposite the rostrum. The office of dictator abolished for ever. Caius Amatius, one of the lowest of the people, giving himself out for the son of Caius Marius, excites some seditious movements among the credulous vulgar; slain.
Caius Octavius comes to Rome from Epirus, whither Cæsar had sent him to conduct the war in Macedonia: is received with the most auspicious omens: assumes the name of Cæsar. In the confusion and bustle of affairs. Lepidus contrives to procure his election to the office of chief priest. Marcus Antonius, consul, governs with much haughtiness, and forcibly causes a law to be passed respecting the change of provinces. Cæsar, requesting him to join in punishing the murderers of his uncle, is harshly treated by him. Cæsar, to strengthen himself, and the commonwealth against Antonius, applies to the veteran soldiers, who had been settled in the colonies. The fourth legion also, and the Martian, declare for Cæsar against Antonius. Antonius having put many to death, on mere suspicion, causes the revolt of very considerable numbers to Cæsar. Decius Brutus, in order to stop Antonius on his way into Cisalpine Gaul, seizes Mutina with his army. Attempts of both parties to get possession of the provinces: preparations for war.
Marcus Brutus, in Greece, under the pretext of supporting the commonwealth, and the war against Antonius, manages to get the command of Vatinius’s army and province. Y.R. 709. 43. — To Cæsar, who first took arms in the defence of the commonwealth, is given the command, in quality of proprætor, with the consular ornaments; he is also made a senator. Marcus Antonius besieges Brutus at Mutina; he sends deputies to Rome, to treat of peace, but without effect. The people of Rome assume the military habit. Marcus Brutus reduces Antonius and his army to submission, in Epirus.
Publius Dolabella circumvents Caius Trebonius in Asia, and kills him; for which crime, the senate votes Dolabella to be a public enemy. Pansa, the consul, being engaged in an action with Antonius, and in danger of being worsted, Aulus Hirtius, his colleague, arrives, routs Antonius’s forces, and restores the fortune of the day. Antonius, conquered by Hirtius and Cæsar, joins Lepidus; is declared a public enemy, by the senate, together with all his associates. Aulus Hirtius, who, after his victory, was slain in the enemy’s camp, and Lucius Pansa, who died of a wound received in the action, are buried in the Campus Martius. To Cæsar, the only surviving general of the three, the senate showed but little gratitude; for a tuiumph was voted to Decius Brutus, who was relieved from the siege of Mutina, by Cæsar, while they made but slight mention of Cæsar and his army: on which account he becomes reconciled to Antonius, by the intervention of Lepidus, and arrives in Rome at the head of his army; whereupon those, who before treated him with indifference, struck with fear, now elect him consul, although only in his twentieth year.
Cæsar, consul, procures a law to be passed for an inquiry into his father’s death; in consequence of which Marcus Brutus, Caius Cassius, and Decius Brutus, are condemned, though absent. Asinius Pollio and Munatius Plancus, having joined their forces to those of Antonius, Decius Brutus, to whom the senate had given orders to pursue Antonius, being deserted by the legions under his command, flies; is killed by Capenus Sequanus, by order of Antonius, into whose hands he fell. Cæsar becomes reconciled to Antonius and Lepidus, and, in conjunction with them, assumes the entire direction of the public affairs for five years: it is agreed among them, that each shall have the power of proscribing their own particular enemies. In this proscription are included very many of the equestrian order, and one hundred and thirty senators; among whom were Lucius Paulus, the brother of Lepidus, Lucius Cæsar, Antonius’s uncle, and Marcus Tullius Cicero. This last slain by Popilius, a legionary soldier, and his head and right hand stuck up on the rostrum, in the sixty-third year of his age Transactions of Brutus in Greece.
Caius Cassius, having received orders from the senate to pursue Dolabella, pronounced a public enemy, by virtue of this authority takes the command in Syria, and putting himself at the head of the three armies, which were in that province, besieges Dolabella, in Laodicea, and puts him to death. Caius Antonius taken and slain, by order of Marcus Brutus.
Marcus Brutus unsuccessful in an engagement with the Thracians. Afterwards, all the provinces beyond sea, together with the armies in them, are brought into obedience to him and Cassius; they meet at Smyrna to hold a council relative to the conduct of the war they are about to engage in. Y.R. 710. 42. — They subdue Publicola, the brother of Marcus Messala, and agree in granting a pardon.
Sextus, son of Pompey the Great, having assembled a considerable number of the proscribed Romans, and other fugitives, in Epirus, wanders about, for a long time, subsisting chiefly by piracy; at length, they seize, first, Messana in Sicily, and, afterwards, the whole province. Then, having killed Aulus Pompeius Bithynicus, the prætor, they defeat Quintus Salvidienus, a general of Cæsar’s, in a sea-fight. Cæsar and Antonius, with their armies, pass over into Greece, to make war against Brutus and Cassius. Quintus Cornificius overcomes Titus Sestius, in a battle in Africa.
Cæsar and Antonius fight an indicisive battle with Brutus, at Philippi; in which the right wing of each army is victorious; and, on both sides, the camps are taken: the death of Cassius at length decides the victory; for, being at the head of that wing which is beaten, he supposes his whole army routed, and kills himself. Afterwards, in another battle, Brutus, being overcome, puts an end to his life.
Y. R. 711. 41. — Cæsar, leaving Antonius to take care of the provinces beyond sea, returns to Italy, and makes a distribution of lands among the veterans. He represses, with great risk, a mutiny among his soldiers, who, being bribed by Fulvia, the wife of Marcus Antonius, conspire against their general. Lucius Antonius, consul, influenced by Fulvia, makes war upon Cæsar, having taken to his assistance those whose lands Cæsar had distributed among his veteran soldiers: having overthrown Lepidus, who, with an army, had charge of the defence of the city, he enters it in a hostile manner.
Y. R. 712. 40. — Cæsar, now twenty-three years of age, besieges Antonius in Perusia; who, after several attempts to escape, is at length forced by famine to surrender. Cæsar grants a pardon to him, and all his followers. And having reduced all the various armies, in different parts, puts an end to the war without effusion of blood.
The Parthians, who had joined the Pompeian party, under the command of Labienus, invade Syria, and having beaten Decidius Saxa, a lieutenant-general under Antonius, seize that whole province. Marcus Antonius, being urged by his wife Fulvia to make war against Cæsar, repudiates her, and to strengthen his alliance with him, marries his sister Octavia. He discovers the guilt of Quintus Salvidienus, who was endeavouring to promote a conspiracy against Cæsar: Quintus being condemned, puts himself to death. Y.R. 713. 39. — Publius Ventidius overcomes the Parthians in a battle, in which their general Labienus is killed, and drives them out of Syria. Sextus Pompeius, keeping possession of Sicily, greatly obstructs the importation of corn; he demands peace, which is granted, and he is made governor of that island. Commotions and war in Africa.
Y. R. 714. 38. — Sextus Pompeius breaks the treaty which he had solicited, and infests the seas by his piracies; Cæsar, obliged to make war upon him, fights him in two indecisive sea-engagements. Y.R. 715. 37. — Publius Ventidius overthrows the Syrians in battle, and kills their King. Y.R. 716. 36. — Antonius’s generals vanquish the Jews. Preparations for the war in Sicily.
Several battles at sea, with Sextus Pompeius, with various success; of Cæsar’s two fleets, one under the command of Agrippa gains a victory: the other, led by Cæsar himself, was cut off; and his soldiers, being sent on shore, are exposed to great dangers. Pompeius is afterwards defeated, and flies into Sicily. Marcus Lepidus comes from Africa, under the pretext of joining Cæsar in the war against Sextus Pompeius, but, in reality, to fight against Cæsar; is deserted by his army, and deprived of the honour of the triumvirate, but his life is granted him. Cæsar confers a naval crown upon Agrippa, an honour never before bestowed on any commander.
Marcus Antonius, having spent much time in luxurious indulgence with Cleopatra, arrives late in Media; with eighteen legions and sixteen thousand horse, he makes war upon the Parthians. Having lost two of his legions, and nothing prospering with him, he retreats to Armenia; being pursued by the Parthians, he flies three hundred miles in twenty-one days About eight thousand men lost by tempests; he was himself the cause of all these misfortunes, as well of the losses by the tempests, as in the unfortunate Parthian war; for he would not winter in Armenia, being in haste to revisit Cleopatra.
Y. R. 717. 35. — Sextus Pompeius, notwithstanding his engagements to Marcus Antonius, endeavours to raise a war against him in Asia; slain by one of Antonius’s generals. Y.R. 718. 34. — Cæsar represses a mutiny of the veterans, which threatened much mischief; he subdues the Japidæ, the Dalmatians, and Pannonians. Y.R. 719. 33. — Antonius, having, by promises of safety and protection, induced Artavardes, King of Armenia, to come to him, commands him to be thrown into chains, and gives the kingdom of Armenia to his own son, whom he had by Cleopatra, and whom he now treats as his wife, having been long enamoured of her.
Y. R. 720. 32. — Cæsar conquers the Dalmatians in Illyria; Y.R. 721. 31. — he passes over to Epirus, at the head of an army, against Antonius, who, fascinated by the love of Cleopatra, by whom he had two sons, Alexander and Philadelphus, would neither come to Rome, nor, the time of his triumvirate being expired, would he resign that office; but meditated war, and was preparing a great force, both for sea and land. He had also divorced Octavia, Cæsar’s sister. Sea-fights, and battles on land between the cavalry, in which Cæsar is victorious.
Antonius’s fleet vanquished by Cæsar at Actium. Antonius flies to Alexandria, where, his affairs being reduced to extremity, and being agitated by a false report of Cleopatra’s death, he kills himself. Cæsar having reduced Alexandria, Cleopatra, to avoid falling into his hands, puts herself to death. Y.R. 722. 30. — Cæsar, on his return to Rome, triumphs three times; first, over Illyria; secondly, on account of the victory at Actium; and thirdly, over Cleopatra. Thus ends the civil war, after it had lasted one-and-twenty years. Y.R. 723. 29. — Marcus Lepidus, the son of Lepidus who was of the triumvirate, forms a conspiracy against Cæsar; taken and killed.
Y. R. 724. 28. — Cæsar, having settled the affairs of the state, and reduced all the provinces to exact order, receives the surname of Augustus; the month Sextilis is named, in honour of him, August. Y.R. 725. 27. — Cæsar calls a meeting of the states at Narbo, and holds an inquiry into the state of the three Gauls, which were conquered by his father. War against the Bastarnians, Mœsians, and other nations, under the conduct of Marcus Crassus.
War carried on by Marcus Crassus against the Thracians; and by Cæsar against the Spaniards. Y.R. 729. 23. — The Salassians, a people of the Alps, subdued.
Rhætia subdued by Tiberius Nero, and Drusus. Agrippa, Cæsar’s son-in-law, dies. The census held by Drusus.
Drusus besieges and takes several cities in Germany, on both sides of the Rhine. Insurrections in Gaul, on account of the taxes levied upon that nation, suppressed. Y.R. 740. 12. — An altar erected to the Deified Cæsar, at the confluence of the Arar and the Rhone; dedicated by Caius Julius Vercundaridubius, an Æduan, appointed priest for that purpose.
Y. R. 741. 11. — The Thracians subdued by Lucius Piso; also the Cheruscans, Tenchtherans, Cattians, and other nations beyond the Rhine, by Drusus. Octavia, Augustus’s sister, dies; having before lost her son Marcellus; a theatre and portico, as his monument, dedicated in his name.
Y. R. 742. 10. — War, against the nations beyond the Rhine, conducted by Drusus: the chief opponents in this war were Senectius and Anectius, tribunes of the Nervians. Peace made with Parthia: the standards taken from their king, under Crassus, and afterwards under Anthonius being restored to them.
Y. R. 743. 9. — War, against the German nations beyond the Rhine, conducted by Drusus, who breaks his leg, by a fall from his horse, and dies, on the thirteenth day after the accident. His brother Nero, on receiving an account of his illness, hastens to him; carries his body to Rome, where it is buried in the tomb of Caius Julius. Augustus Cæsar, his uncle, pronounces his funeral oration, and the highest honours are paid him.
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