7.4
This did
not, however, prevent his impeachment the following year, when Q. Servilius
Ahala and L. Genucius were consuls, the prosecutor being M. Pomponius,
one of the tribunes of the plebs. He had incurred universal hatred through the
unfeeling severity with which he had carried out the enlistment; the citizens
had not only been fined, but subjected to personal ill-treatment, some
scourged and others imprisoned because they had not answered to their
names. But what men most loathed was his brutal temperament, and the
epithet "Imperiosus " (masterful) which had been fastened on him from his
unblushing cruelty, an epithet utterly repugnant to a free State. The effects of
his cruelty were felt quite as much by his nearest kindred, by his own blood,
as by strangers. Amongst other charges which the tribune brought against
him was his treatment of his young son. It was alleged that although guilty of
no offence he had banished him from the City, from his home and household
gods, had forbidden him to appear in public in the Forum or to associate
with those of his own age, and had consigned him to servile work, almost to
the imprisonment of a workshop. Here the youth, of high birth, the son of a
Dictator, was to learn by daily suffering how rightly his father was called
"Imperiosus." And for what offence? Simply because he was lacking in
eloquence, in readiness of speech! Ought not this natural defect to have been
helped and remedied by the father, if there were a spark of humanity in him,
instead of being punished and branded by persecution? Not even do brute
beasts show less care and protection to their offspring if they happen to be
sickly or deformed. But L. Manlius actually aggravated his son's misfortune
by fresh misfortunes, and increased his natural dullness and quenched any
faint glimmerings of ability which he might have shown by the clodhopper's
life to which he was condemned and the boorish bringing up amongst cattle
to which he had to submit.
The youth himself was the last to be exasperated by these
accusations brought against his father. On the contrary, he was so indignant
at finding himself made the ground of the charges against his father and the
deep resentment they created that he was determined to let gods and men
see that he preferred standing by his father to helping his enemies. He formed
a project which, though natural to an ignorant rustic and no precedent for an
ordinary citizen to follow, still afforded a laudable example of filial affection.
Arming himself with a knife, he went off early in the morning, without any
one's knowledge, to the City, and once inside the gates proceeded straight to
the house of M. Pomponius. He informed the porter that it was necessary for
him to see his master at once, and announced himself as T. Manlius, the son
of Lucius. Pomponius imagined that he was either bringing some matter for a
fresh charge, to revenge himself on his father, or was going to offer some
advice as to the management of the prosecution. After mutual salutations, he
informed Pomponius that he wished the business in hand to be transacted in
the absence of witnesses. After all present had been ordered to withdraw, he
grasped his knife and standing over the tribune's bed and pointing the
weapon towards him, threatened to plunge it into him at once unless he took
the oath which he was going to dictate to him, "That he would never hold an
Assembly of the plebs for the prosecution of his father." The tribune was
terrified, for he saw the steel glittering before his eyes, while he was alone
and defenceless, in the presence of a youth of exceptional strength, and what
was worse, prepared to use that strength with savage ferocity. He took the
required oath and publicly announced that, yielding to violence, he had
abandoned his original purpose. The plebs would certainly have been glad of
the opportunity of passing sentence on such an insolent and cruel offender,
but they were not displeased at the son's daring deed in defence of his parent,
which was all the more meritorious because it showed that his father's
brutality had not in any way weakened his natural affection and sense of
duty. Not only was the prosecution of the father dropped, but the incident
proved the means of distinction for the son. That year, for the first time, the
military tribunes were elected by the popular vote; previously they had been
nominated by the commander-in-chief, as is the case now with those who are
called Rufuli. This youth obtained the second out of six places, though he
had done nothing at home or in the field to make him popular, having passed
his youth in the country far from city life.