3.10
Lucretius returned with
an immense amount of booty, and with a still more
brilliant reputation. This prestige he enhanced on
his arrival by laying out all the booty in the
Campus Martius for three days, that each person
might recognise and take away his own property. The
rest, for which no owners appeared, was sold. By
universal consent a triumph was due to the consul,
but the matter was delayed through the action of the
tribune, who was pressing his measure. The consul
regarded this as the more important question. For
some days the subject was discussed both in the
senate and the popular assembly. At last the tribune
yielded to the supreme authority of the consul and
dropped his measure. Then the consul and his army
received the honour they deserved; at the head of
his victorious legions he celebrated his triumph
over the Volscians and Aequi. The other consul was
allowed to enter the City without his troops and
enjoy an ovation. The following year the new
consuls, P. Volumnius and Ser. Sulpicius, were
confronted by the proposed law of Terentilius, which
was now brought forward by the whole college of
tribunes. During the year, the sky seemed to be on
fire; there was a great earthquake; an ox was
believed to have spoken -the year before this
rumour found no credence. Amongst other portents it
rained flesh, and an enormous number of birds are
said to have seized it while they were flying about;
what fell to the ground lay about for several days
without giving out any bad smell. The Sibylline
Books were consulted by the "duumviri," and a
prediction was found of dangers which would result
from a gathering of aliens, attempts on the highest
points of the City and consequent bloodshed. Amongst
other notices, there was a solemn warning to abstain
from all seditious agitations. The tribunes alleged
that this was done to obstruct the passing of the
Law, and a desperate conflict seemed imminent.
As though to show how events revolve in the
same cycle year by year, the Hernici reported that
the Volscians and Aequi, in spite of their
exhaustion, were equipping fresh armies. Antium was
the centre of the movement; the colonists of Antium
were holding public meetings in Ecetra, the capital,
and the main strength of the war. On this
information being laid before the senate, orders
were given for a levy. The consuls were instructed
to divide the operations between them; the Volscians
were to be the province of the one, the Aequi of the
other. The tribunes, even in face of the consuls,
filled the Forum with their shouts declaring that
the story of a Volscian war was a prearranged
comedy, the Hernici had been prepared beforehand for
the part they were to play; the liberties of the
Roman were not being repressed by straightforward
opposition, but were being cunningly fooled away. It
was impossible to persuade them that the Volscians
and Aequi, after being almost exterminated, could
themselves commence hostilities; a new enemy,
therefore, was being sought for; a colony which had
been a loyal neighbour was being covered with
infamy. It was against the unoffending people of
Antium that war was declared; it was against the
Roman plebs that war was really being waged. After
loading them with arms they would drive them in hot
haste out of the City, and wreak their vengeance on
the tribunes by sentencing their fellow-citizens to
banishment. By this means -they might be quite
certain -the Law would be defeated; unless, while
the question was still undecided, and they were
still at home, still unenrolled, they took steps to
prevent their being ousted from their occupation of
the City, and forced under the yoke of servitude. If
they showed courage, help would not be wanting, the
tribunes were unanimous. There was no cause for
alarm, no danger from abroad. The gods had taken
care, the previous year, that their liberties should
be safely protected.