Livy's History of Rome: Book 5:
The Veii and the Destruction of Rome by the Gauls
5.1
Whilst
peace prevailed elsewhere, Rome and Veii were
confronting each other in arms, animated by such
fury and hatred that utter ruin clearly awaited the
vanquished. Each elected their magistrates, but on
totally different principles. The Romans increased
the number of their consular tribunes to eight -a
larger number than had ever been elected before.
They were Manius Aemilius Mamercus -for the second
time -L. Valerius Potitus -for the third time -Appius Claudius Crassus, M. Quinctilius Varus, L.
Julius Julus, M. Postumius, M. Furius Camillus, and
M. Postumius Albinus. The Veientines, on the other
hand, tired of the annual canvassing for office,
elected a king. This gave great offence to the
Etruscan cantons, owing to their hatred of monarchy
and their personal aversion to the one who was
elected. He was already obnoxious to the nation
through his pride of wealth and overbearing temper,
for he had put a violent stop to the festival of the
Games, the interruption of which is an act of
impiety. His candidature for the priesthood had been
unsuccessful, another being preferred by the vote of
the twelve cantons, and in revenge he suddenly
withdrew the performers, most of whom were his own
slaves, in the middle of the Games. The Etruscans as
a nation were distinguished above all others by
their devotion to religious observances, because
they excelled in the knowledge and conduct of them,
and they decided, in consequence, that no assistance
should be given to the Veientines as long as they
were under a king. The report of this decision was
suppressed at Veii through fear of the king; he
treated those who mentioned anything of the kind,
not as authors of an idle tale, but as ringleaders
of sedition. Although the Romans had received
intelligence that there was no movement on the part
of the Etruscans, still, as it was reported that the
matter was being discussed in all their councils,
they so constructed their lines as to present a
double face, the one fronting Veii to prevent
sorties from the city, the other looking towards
Etruria to intercept any succour from that side.
5.2
As the Roman generals
placed more reliance on a blockade than on an
assault, they began to build huts for winter
quarters, a novelty to the Roman soldier. Their plan
was to keep up the war through the winter. The
tribunes of the plebs had for a long time been
unable to find any pretext for creating a revolt.
When, however, news of this was brought to Rome,
they dashed off to the Assembly and produced great
excitement by declaring that this was the reason why
it had been settled to pay the troops. They, the
tribunes, had not been blind to the fact that this
gift from their adversaries would prove to be
tainted with poison. The liberties of the plebs had
been bartered away, their able-bodied men had been
permanently sent away, banished from the City and
the State, without any regard to winter or indeed to
any season of the year, or to the possibility of
their visiting their homes or looking after their
property. What did they think was the reason for
this continuous campaigning? They would most
assuredly find it to be nothing else but the fear
that if a large body of these men, who formed the
whole strength of the plebs, were present, it would
be possible to discuss reforms in favour of the
plebeians. Besides, they were suffering much more
hardship and oppression than the Veientines, for
these passed the winter under their own roofs in a
city protected by its magnificent walls and the
natural strength of its position, whilst the Romans,
amidst labour and toil, buried in frost and snow,
were roughing it patiently under their skin-covered
tents, and could not lay aside their arms even in
the season of winter, when there is a respite from
all wars, whether by land or sea. This form of
slavery, making military service perpetual, was
never imposed either by the kings, or by the consuls
who were so domineering before the institution of
the tribuneship, or during the stern rule of the
Dictator, or by the unscrupulous decemvirs -it was
the consular tribunes who were exercising this regal
despotism over the Roman plebs. What would these men
have done had they been consuls or Dictators, seeing
that they have made their proconsular authority,
which is only a shadow of the other, so outrageously
cruel? But the commons had got what they had
deserved. Amongst all the eight consular tribunes
not a single plebeian had found a place. Hitherto,
with their utmost efforts, the patricians had
usually filled only three places at a time; now a
team of eight were bent on maintaining their power.
Even in such a crowd not a single plebeian could get
a footing, to warn his colleagues, if he could do
nothing else, that those who were serving as
soldiers were free men, their own fellow-citizens,
and not slaves, and that they ought to be brought
back, at all events in the winter, to their houses
and their homes, and during some part of the year
visit their parents and wives and children, and
exercise their rights as free citizens in electing
the magistrates.
5.3
Whilst indulging in
declamations of this sort, they found an opponent
who was quite a match for them in Appius Claudius.
He had from early manhood taken his part in the
contests with the plebs, and as stated above, had
some years previously recommended the senate to
break down the power of the tribunes by securing the
intervention of their colleagues. He was not only a
man of ready and versatile mind, but by this time an
experienced debater. He delivered the following
speech on this occasion: -"If, Quirites, there has
ever been any doubt as to whether it was in your
interest or their own that the tribunes have always
been the advocates of sedition, I feel quite certain
that this year all doubt has ceased to exist. Whilst
I rejoice that an end has at last been put to a
long-standing delusion, I congratulate you, and on
your behalf the whole State, that its removal has
been effected just at the time when your
circumstances are most prosperous. Is there any one
who doubts that whatever wrongs you may have at any
time suffered, they never annoyed and provoked the
tribunes so much as the generous treatment of the
plebs by the senate, in establishing the system of
pay for the soldiers? What else do you suppose it
was that they were afraid of at that time, and would
today gladly upset, except the harmony of the two
orders, which they look upon as most of all
calculated to destroy their power? They are, really,
like so many quack doctors looking for work, always
anxious to find some diseased spot in the republic
that there may be something which you can call them
in to cure." Then, turning to the tribunes, "Are you
defending or attacking the plebs? Are you trying to
injure the men on service or are you pleading their
cause? Or perhaps this is what you are saying,
'Whatever the senate does, whether in the interest
of the plebs or against them, we object to.' Just as
masters forbid strangers to hold any communication
with their slaves, and think it right that they
should abstain from showing them either kindness or
unkindness, so you interdict the patricians from all
dealings with the plebs, lest we should appeal to
their feelings by our graciousness and generosity
and secure their loyalty and obedience. How much
more dutiful it would have been in you, if you had
had a spark -I will not say of patriotism, but -of
common humanity, to have viewed with favour, and as
far as in you lay, to have fostered the kindly
feelings of the patricians and the grateful goodwill
of the plebeians! And if this harmony should prove
to be lasting, who would not be bold enough to
guarantee that this empire will in a short time be
the greatest among the neighbouring States?
5.4
"I shall subsequently show
not only the expediency but even the necessity of
the policy which my colleagues have adopted of
refusing to withdraw the army from Veii until their
object was effected. For the present I prefer to
speak of the actual conditions under which it is
serving, and if I were speaking not before you only
but in the camp as well, I think that what I say
would appear just and fair in the judgment of the
soldiers themselves. Even if no arguments presented
themselves to my mind, I should find those of my
opponents quite sufficient for my purpose. They were
saying lately that pay ought not to be given to the
soldiers because it never had been given. How then
can they now profess indignation at those who have
gained additional benefits being required to undergo
additional exertion in proportion? Nowhere do we
find labour without its reward, nor, as a rule,
reward without some expenditure of labour. Toil and
pleasure, utterly dissimilar by nature, have been
brought by nature into a kind of partnership with
each other. Formerly, the soldier felt it a
grievance that he gave his services to the State at
his own cost, he had the satisfaction, however, of
cultivating his land for a part of the year, and
acquiring the means of supporting himself and his
family whether he were at home or on service. Now he
has the pleasure of knowing that the State is a
source of income to him, and he is glad to receive
his pay. Let him therefore take it patiently that he
is a little longer absent from his home and his
property, on which no heavy expense now falls. If
the State were to call him to an exact reckoning,
would it not be justified in saying, 'You receive a
year's pay, put in a year's work. Do you think it
fair to receive a whole twelve-month's pay for six
months' service?' It is with reluctance, Quirites,
that I dwell on this topic, for it is those who
employ mercenaries who ought to deal thus with them,
but we want to deal with you as with
fellow-citizens, and we think it only fair that you
should deal with us as with your fatherland.
"Either the war ought not to have been
undertaken, or it ought to be conducted as befits
the dignity of Rome and brought to a close as soon
as possible. It will certainly be brought to a close
if we press on the siege, but not if we retire
before we have fulfilled our hopes by the capture of
Veii. Why, good heavens! if there were no other
reason, the very discredit of the thing ought to
inspire us with perseverance. A city was once
besieged by the whole of Greece for ten years, for
the sake of one woman, and at what a distance from
home, how many lands and seas lay between! Are we
growing tired of keeping up a siege for one year,
not twenty miles off, almost within sight of the
City? I suppose you think the reason for the war is
a trivial one, and we do not feel enough just
resentment to urge us to persevere. Seven times have
they recommenced war against us; they have never
loyally kept to the terms of peace; they have
ravaged our fields a thousand times; they forced the
Fidenates to revolt; they slew the colonists whom we
settled there; they instigated the impious murder of
our ambassadors in violation of the law of nations;
they wanted to raise the whole of Etruria against
us, and they are trying to do so today; when we sent
ambassadors to demand satisfaction, they very nearly
outraged them.
5.5
"Are these the men with
whom war ought to be carried on in a half-hearted
and dilatory fashion? If such just reasons for
resentment have no force with us, do not the
following considerations, I pray you, possess any
weight? The city is hemmed in by immense siege-works
which confine the enemy within his walls. He has not
tilled his land, and what was tilled before has been
devastated by war. If we bring our army back again,
has anybody the slightest doubt that they will
invade our territory not only from a thirst for
revenge, but also through the sheer necessity they
are under of plundering other people's property
since they have lost their own? If we adopt your
policy we do not postpone the war, we simply carry
it within our own frontiers. Well, now, what about
the soldiers in whom these worthy tribunes have
suddenly become interested after vainly endeavouring
to rob them of their pay; what about them? They have
carried a rampart and a fosse -each requiring
enormous labour -over all that extent of ground;
they have built forts, few at first, but after the
army was increased, very numerous; they have raised
defences not only against the city, but also as a
barrier against Etruria in case any succours came
from there. What need to describe the towers, the
vineae, the testudines, and the other engines used
in storming cities? Now that so much labour has been
spent and the work of investment at last completed,
do you think that they ought to be abandoned in
order that by next summer we may be again exhausted
by the toil of constructing them all afresh ? How
much less trouble to defend the works already
constructed, to press on and persevere, and so bring
our cares and labours to an end! For assuredly the
undertaking is not a lengthy one, if it is carried
through by one continuous effort, if we do not by
our own interruptions and stoppages delay the
fulfilment of our hopes.
"I have been speaking of the work and the
loss of time. Now there are frequent meetings of the
national council of Etruria to discuss the question
of sending succours to Veii. Do these allow us to
forget the danger we incur by prolonging the war? As
matters now stand, they are angry, resentful, and
say that they will not send any -Veii may be
captured, as far as they are concerned. But who will
guarantee that if the war is prolonged they will
continue in the same mind? For if you give the
Veientines a respite they will send a more numerous
and influential embassy, and what now gives such
displeasure to the Etruscans, namely, the election
of a king, may after a time be annulled either by
the unanimous act of the citizens in order to win
the sympathies of Etruria, or by voluntary
abdication on the part of the king himself, through
his unwillingness to allow his crown to endanger the
safety of his people. "See how many disastrous
consequences follow from the policy you recommend -the sacrifice of works constructed with so much
trouble; the threatening devastation of our borders;
a war with the whole of Etruria instead of one with
Veii alone. This, tribunes, is what your proposals
amount to; very much, upon my word, as if any one
were to tempt a sick person, who by submitting to
strict treatment could speedily recover, to indulge
in eating and drinking, and so lengthen his illness
and perhaps make it incurable.
5.6
"Though it might not affect
this present war, it would, you may depend upon it,
be of the utmost importance to our military training
that our soldiers should be habituated not only to
enjoy a victory when they have won one, but also,
when a campaign progresses slowly, to put up with
its tediousness and await the fulfilment of their
hopes though deferred. If a war has not been
finished in the summer they must learn to go through
the winter, and not, like birds of passage, look out
for roofs to shelter them the moment autumn comes.
The passion and delight of hunting carries men
through frost and snow to the forests and the
mountains. Pray tell me, shall we not bring to the
exigencies of war the same powers of endurance which
are generally called out by sport or pleasure? Are
we to suppose that the bodies of our soldiers are so
effeminate and their spirits so enfeebled that they
cannot hold out in camp or stay away from their
homes for a single winter? Are we to believe that
like those engaged in naval warfare, who have to
watch the seasons and catch the favourable weather,
so these men cannot endure times of heat and cold?
They would indeed blush if any one laid this to
their charge, and would stoutly maintain that both
in mind and body they were capable of manly
endurance, and could go through a campaign in winter
as well as in summer. They would tell you that they
had not commissioned their tribunes to act as
protectors of the effeminate and the indolent, nor
was it in cool shade or under sheltering roofs that
their ancestors had instituted this very tribunitian
power. The valour of your soldiers, the dignity of
Rome, demand that we should not limit our view to
Veii and this present war, but seek for reputation
in time to come in respect of other wars and amongst
all other nations.
"Do you imagine that the opinion men form of
us in this crisis is a matter of slight importance?
Is it a matter of indifference whether our
neighbours regard Rome in such a light that when any
city has sustained her first momentary attack it has
nothing more to fear from her, or whether on the
other hand, the terror of our name is such that no
weariness of a protracted siege, no severity of
winter, can dislodge a Roman army from any city
which it has once invested, that it knows no close
to a war but victory, and that it conducts its
campaigns by perseverance as much as by dash?
Perseverance is necessary in every kind of military
operation, but especially in the conduct of sieges,
for the majority of cities are impregnable, owing to
the strength of their fortifications and their
position, and time itself conquers them with hunger
and thirst, and captures them as it will capture
Veii unless the tribunes of the plebs extend their
protection to the enemy and the Veientines find in
Rome the support which they are vainly seeking in
Etruria. Can anything happen to the Veientines more
in accordance with their wishes than that the City
of Rome should be filled with sedition and the
contagion of it spread to the camp? But amongst the
enemy there is actually so much respect for law and
order that they have not been goaded into revolution
either by weariness of the siege or even aversion to
absolute monarchy, nor have they shown exasperation
at the refusal of succours by Etruria. The man who
advocates sedition will be put to death on the spot,
and no one will be allowed to say the things which
are uttered amongst you with impunity. With us the
man who deserts his standard or abandons his post is
liable to be cudgelled to death, but those who urge
the men to abandon the standards and desert from the
camp are listened to, not by one or two only; they
have the whole army for an audience. To such an
extent have you habituated yourselves to listen
calmly to whatever a tribune of the plebs may say,
even if it means the betrayal of your country and
the destruction of the republic. Captivated by the
attraction which that office has for you, you allow
all sorts of mischief to lurk under its shadow. The
one thing left for them is to bring forward in the
camp, before the soldiers, the same arguments which
they have so loudly urged here, and so corrupt the
army that they will not allow it to obey its
commanders. For evidently liberty in Rome simply
means that the soldiers cease to feel any reverence
for either the senate, or the magistrates, or the
laws, or the traditions of their ancestors, or the
institutions of their fathers, or military
discipline."
5.7
Appius was already quite a
match for the tribunes even on the platform, and now
his victory over them was assured by the sudden
intelligence of a most unexpected disaster, the
effect of which was to unite all classes in an
ardent resolve to prosecute the siege of Veii more
vigorously. A raised way had been carried up to the
city, and the vineae had almost been placed in
contact with the walls, but more attention had been
devoted to their construction by day than to their
protection by night. Suddenly the gates were flung
open and an enormous multitude, armed mostly with
torches, flung the flaming missiles on to the works,
and in one short hour the flames consumed both the
raised way and the vineae, the work of so many days.
Many poor fellows who vainly tried to render
assistance perished either in the flames or by the
sword. When the news of this reached Rome there was
universal mourning, and the senate were filled with
apprehension lest disturbances should break out in
the City and the camp beyond their power to repress,
and the tribunes of the plebs exult over the
vanquished republic. Suddenly, however, a number of
men who, though assessed as knights, had not been
provided with horses, after concerting a common plan
of action, went to the Senate-house, and on
permission being given to address the senate, they
engaged to serve as cavalry on their own horses. The
senate thanked them in the most complimentary terms.
When the news of this incident had circulated
through the Forum and the City, the plebeians
hastily assembled at the Senate-house and declared
that they were now part of the infantry force, and
though it was not their turn to serve, they promised
to give their services to the republic to march to
Veii or wherever else they were led. If, they said,
they were led to Veii they would not return till the
city was taken.
On hearing this it was with difficulty that
the senate restrained their delight. They did not,
as in the case of the knights, pass a resolution of
thanks to be conveyed through the presiding
magistrates, nor were any summoned into the House to
receive their reply, nor did they themselves remain
within the precincts of their House. They came out
on the raised space in front and each independently
signified by voice and gesture to the people
standing in the comitium the joy they all felt, and
expressed their confidence that this unanimity of
feeling would make Rome a blessed City, invincible
and eternal. They applauded the knights, they
applauded the commons, they showered encomiums on
the very day itself, and frankly admitted that the
senate had been outdone in courtesy and kindness.
Senators and plebeians alike shed tears of joy. At
last the sitting was resumed, and a resolution was
carried that the consular tribunes should convene a
public meeting and return thanks to the infantry and
the knights, and say that the senate would never
forget this proof of their affection for their
country. They further decided that pay should be
reckoned from that day for those who, though not
called out, had volunteered to serve. A fixed sum
was assigned to each knight; this was the first
occasion on which the knights received military pay.
The army of volunteers marched to Veii, and not only
reconstructed the works that had been lost, but
constructed new ones. More care was taken in
bringing up supplies from the City, that nothing
might be wanting for the use of an army that had
behaved so well.
5.8
The consular tribunes for
the following year were C. Servilius Ahala -for the
third time -Q. Servilius, Lucius Verginius, Q.
Sulpicius, Aulus Manlius -for the second time -and
Manius Sergius -also for the second time. During
their term of office, whilst every one was
preoccupied with the Veientine war, Anxur was lost.
The garrison had become weakened through the absence
of men on furlough, and Volscian traders were
admitted indiscriminately, with the result that the
guard before the gates were surprised and the
fortified post taken. The loss in men was slight, as
with the exception of the sick, they were all
scattered about the fields and neighbouring towns,
driving bargains like so many camp-followers. At
Veii, the chief point of interest, things went no
better. Not only were the Roman commanders opposing
one another more vigorously than they opposed the
enemy, but the war was rendered more serious by the
sudden arrival of the Capenates and the Faliscans.
As these two States were nearest in point of
distance, they believed that if Veii fell they would
be the next on whom Rome would make war. The
Faliscans had their own reasons for fearing
hostilities, since they were mixed up in the
previous war against Fidenae. So both States, after
mutually despatching commissioners for the purpose,
swore alliance with each other, and their two armies
arrived unexpectedly at Veii. It so happened that
they attacked the entrenchments on the side where
Manius Sergius was in command, and they created
great alarm, for the Romans were convinced that all
Etruria had risen and was present in great force.
The same conviction roused the Veientines in the
city to action, so the Roman lines of investment
were attacked from within and from without. Rushing
from side to side to meet first the one attack, then
the other, they were unable to confine the
Veientines sufficiently within their fortifications
or repel the assault from their own works and defend
themselves from the enemy outside. Their only hope
was if help came from the main camp so that the
legions might fight back to back, some against the
Capenates and Faliscans, and others against the
sortie from the town. But Verginius was in command
of that camp, and he and Sergius mutually detested
each other. When it was reported to him that most of
the forts had been attacked and the connecting lines
surmounted, and that the enemy were forcing their
way in from both sides, he kept his men halted under
arms, and repeatedly declared that if his colleague
needed assistance he would send to him. This
selfishness on his part was matched by the other's
obstinacy, for Sergius, to avoid the appearance of
having sought help from a personal foe, preferred
defeat at the hands of the enemy rather than owe
success to a fellow-countryman. For some time the
soldiers were being slaughtered between the two
attacking forces; at last a very small number
abandoned their lines and reached the main camp;
Sergius himself, with the greatest part of his
force, made his way to Rome. Here he threw all the
blame on his colleague, and it was decided that
Verginius should be summoned from the camp and his
lieutenants put in command during his absence. The
case was then discussed in the senate; few studied
the interests of the republic, most of the senators
supported one or other of the disputants as their
party feeling or private sympathy prompted them.
5.9
The leaders of the senate
gave it as their opinion that whether it was through
the fault or the misfortune of the commanders that
such a disgraceful defeat had been incurred, they
ought not to wait until the regular time for the
elections, but proceed at once to appoint new
consular tribunes, to enter office on October 1. On
their proceeding to vote on this proposal, the other
consular tribunes offered no opposition, but strange
to say, Sergius and Verginius -the very men on
whose account obviously the senate were dissatisfied
with the magistrates for that year -after
protesting against such humiliation, vetoed the
resolution. They declared that they would not resign
office before December 13, the usual day for new
magistrates to take office. On hearing this, the
tribunes of the plebs, who had maintained a
reluctant silence while the State was enjoying
concord and prosperity, now made a sudden attack
upon the consular tribunes, and threatened, if they
did not bow to the authority of the senate, to order
them to be imprisoned. There upon C. Servilius
Ahala, the consular tribune, replied: "As for you
and your menaces, tribunes of the plebs, I should
very much like to put it to the proof how your
threats possess as little legality as you possess
courage to carry them out, but it is wrong to storm
against the authority of the senate. Cease,
therefore, to look for a chance of making mischief
by meddling in our disputes; either my colleagues
will act upon the senate's resolution, or if they
persist in their obstinacy, I shall at once nominate
a Dictator that he may compel them to resign." This
speech was received with universal approval, and the
senate were glad to find that without bringing in
the bugbear of the plebeian tribunes' power, another
and a more effectual method existed for bringing
pressure to bear on the magistrates. In deference to
the universal feeling, the two recalcitrant tribunes
held an election for consular tribunes who entered
office on October 1, they themselves having
previously resigned office.
5.10
The newly elected
tribunes were L. Valerius Potitus -for the fourth
time -M. Furius Camillus -for the second time -Manius Aemilius Mamercus -for the third time -Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus -for the second time -Kaeso Fabius Ambustus, and L. Julius Julus. Their
year of office was marked by many incidents at home
and abroad. There was a multiplicity of wars going
on at once -at Veii, at Capena, at Falerii, and
against the Volscians for the recovery of Anxur. In
Rome the simultaneous demands of the levy and the
war-tax created distress; there was a dispute about
the co-opting of tribunes of the plebs, and the
trial of two men who had recently held consular
power caused great excitement. The consular tribunes
made it their first business to raise a levy. Not
only were the "juniors" enrolled, but the "seniors"
were also compelled to give in their names that they
might act as City guards. But the increase in the
number of soldiers necessitated a corresponding
increase in the amount required for their pay, and
those who remained at home were unwilling to
contribute their share because, in addition, they
were to be harassed by military duties in defence of
the City, as servants of the State. This was in
itself a serious grievance, but it was made to
appear more so by the seditious harangues of the
tribunes of the plebs, who asserted that the reason
why military pay had been established was that one
half of the plebs might be crushed by the war-tax,
and the other by military service. One single war
was now dragging along into its third year, and it
was being badly managed deliberately in order that
they might have it the longer to manage. Then,
again, armies had been enrolled for four separate
wars in one levy, and even boys and old men had been
torn from their homes. There was no difference made
now between summer and winter, in order that the
wretched plebeians might never have any respite. And
now, to crown all, they even had to pay a war-tax,
so that when they returned, worn out by toil and
wounds, and last of all by age, and found all their
land untilled through want of the owner's care, they
had to meet this demand out of their wasted property
and return to the State their pay as soldiers many
times over, as though they had borrowed it on usury.
What with the levy and the war-tax and the
preoccupation of men's minds with still graver
anxieties, it was found impossible to get the full
number of plebeian tribunes elected. Then a struggle
began to secure the co-optation of patricians into
the vacant places. This proved to be impossible, but
in order to weaken the authority of the Trebonian
Law, it was arranged, doubtless through the
influence of the patricians, that C. Lucerius and M.
Acutius should be co-opted as tribunes of the plebs.
5.11
As chance would have it,
Cnaeus Trebonius was tribune of the plebs that year,
and he came forward as a champion of the Trebonian
Law, as a duty apparently to his family and the name
he bore. He declared in excited tones that the
position which the senate had assailed, though they
had been repulsed in their first attack, had been at
last carried by the consular tribunes. The Trebonian
Law had been set aside and the tribunes of the plebs
had not been elected by the vote of the people, but
co-opted at the command of the patricians, matters
had now come to this pass, that they must have
either patricians or the hangers-on to patricians as
tribunes of the plebs. The Sacred Laws were being
wrested from them, the power and authority of their
tribunes was being torn away. This, he contended,
was done through the craft and cunning of the
patricians and the treacherous villainy of his
colleagues. The flame of popular indignation was now
beginning to scorch not only the senate, but even
the tribunes of the plebs, co-opted and co-opters
alike, when three members of the tribunitian college
-P. Curatius, M. Metilius, and M. Minucius -trembling for their own safety, instituted
proceedings against Sergius and Verginius, the
consular tribunes of the preceding year. By fixing a
day for their trial, they diverted from themselves
on to these men the rage and resentment of the
plebs. They reminded the people that those who had
felt the burden of the levy, the war-tax, and the
long duration of the war, those who were distressed
at the defeat sustained at Veii, those whose homes
were in mourning for the loss of children, brothers,
and relations, had every one of them the right and
the power to visit upon two guilty heads their own
personal grief and that of the whole State. The
responsibility for all their misfortunes rested on
Sergius and Verginius; this was not more clearly
proved by the prosecutor than admitted by the
defendants, for whilst both were guilty, each threw
the blame on the other, Verginius denouncing the
flight of Sergius, and Sergius the treachery of
Verginius. They had behaved with such incredible
madness that it was in all probability a concerted
plan earned out with the general connivance of the
patricians. These men had previously given the
Veientines an opening for firing the siege works,
now they had betrayed the army and delivered a Roman
camp up to the Faliscans. Everything was being done
to compel their young men to grow old at Veii, and
to make it impossible for their tribunes to secure
the support of a full Assembly in the City either in
their resistance to the concerted action of the
senate, or for their proposals regarding the
distribution of land and other measures in the
interest of the plebs. Judgment had already been
passed upon the accused by the senate, the Roman
people, and their own colleagues, for it was a vote
of the senate which removed them from office, it was
their own colleagues who upon their refusal to
resign, compelled them to do so by the threat of a
Dictator, whilst it was the people who had elected
consular tribunes to enter upon office, not on the
usual day, December 13, but immediately after their
election, on October 1, for the republic could no
longer be safe if these men remained in office. And
yet, shattered as they were by so many adverse
verdicts, and condemned beforehand, they were
presenting themselves for trial, and fancying that
they had purged their offence and suffered an
adequate punishment because they had been relegated
to private life two months before the time. They did
not understand that this was not the infliction of a
penalty, but simply the depriving them of power to
do further mischief, since their colleagues also had
to resign, and they, at all events, had committed no
offence. The tribunes continued. "Recall the
feelings, Quirites, with which you heard of the
disaster which we sustained and watched the army
staggering through the gates, panic-stricken
fugitives, covered with wounds, accusing not Fortune
or any of the gods, but these generals of theirs. We
are confident that there is not a man in this
Assembly who did not on that day call down curses on
the persons and homes and fortunes of L. Verginius
and Manius Sergius. It would be utterly inconsistent
for you not to use your power, when it is your right
and duty to do so, against the men on whom each of
you has called down the wrath of heaven. The gods
never lay hands themselves on the guilty it is
enough when they arm the injured with the
opportunity for vengeance.
5.12
The passions of the plebs
were roused by these speeches, and they sentenced
the accused to a fine of 10,000 "ases" each, in
spite of Sergius' attempt to throw the blame on
Fortune and the chances of war, and Verginius'
appeal that he might not be more unfortunate at home
than he had been in the field. The turning of the
popular indignation in this direction threw into the
shade the memories of the co-optation of tribunes
and the evasion of the Trebonian Law. As a reward to
the plebeians for the sentence they had passed, the
victorious tribunes at once gave notice of an
agrarian measure. They also prevented contributions
being paid in for the war-tax, though pay was
required for all those armies, and such successes as
had been gained only served to prevent any of the
wars from being brought to a close. The camp at Veii
which had been lost was recaptured and strengthened
with forts and men to hold them. The consular
tribunes, Manius Aemilius and Kaeso Fabius, were in
command. M. Furius in the Faliscan territory and
Cnaeus Cornelius in that of Capenae found no enemy
outside his walls; booty was carried off and the
territories were ravaged, the farms and crops being
burnt. The towns were attacked, but not invested;
Anxur, however, in the Volscian territory, and
situated on high ground, defied all assaults, and
after direct attack had proved fruitless, a regular
investment by rampart and fosse was commenced. The
conduct of the Volscian campaign had fallen to
Valerius Potitus.
Whilst military affairs were in this
position, internal troubles were more difficult to
manage than the foreign wars. Owing to the tribunes,
the war-tax could not be collected, nor the
necessary funds remitted to the commanders; the
soldiers clamoured for their pay, and it seemed as
though the camp would be polluted by the contagion
of the seditious spirit which prevailed in the City.
Taking advantage of the exasperation of the plebs
against the senate, the tribunes told them that the
long wished for time had come for securing their
liberties and transferring the highest office in the
State from people like Sergius and Verginius to
strong and energetic plebeians. They did not,
however, get further in the exercise of their rights
than to secure the election of one member of the
plebs as consular tribune, viz., P. Licinius Calvus
-the rest were patricians -P. Manlius, L. Titinus,
P. Maelius, L. Furius Medullinus, and L. Popilius
Volscus. The plebeians were no less surprised at
such a success than the tribune-elect himself; he
had not previously filled any high office of State,
and was only a senator of long standing, and now
advanced in years. Our authorities are not agreed as
to the reason why he was selected first and foremost
to taste the sweets of this new dignity. Some
believe that he was thrust forward to so high a
position through the popularity of his brother,
Cnaeus Cornelius, who had been consular tribune the
previous year, and had given triple pay to the
"knights." Others attribute it to a well-timed
speech he delivered on the agreement of the two
orders, which was welcomed by both patricians and
plebeians. In their exultation over this electoral
victory, the tribunes of the plebs gave way over the
war-tax, and so removed the greatest political
difficulty. It was paid in without a murmur and
remitted to the army.
5.13
The Volscian Anxur was
recaptured owing to the laxity of the guard during a
festival. The year was remarkable for such a cold
and snowy winter that the roads were blocked and the
Tiber rendered unnavigable. There was no change in
the price of corn, owing to a previous accumulation
of supplies. P. Licinius had won his position
without exciting any disturbance, more to the
delight of the people than to the annoyance of the
senate, and he discharged his office in such a way
that there was a general desire to choose the
consular tribunes out of the plebeians at the next
election. The only patrician candidate who secured a
place was M. Veturius. The rest, who were plebeians,
received the support of nearly all the centuries.
Their names were M. Pomponius, Cnaeus Duilius,
Volero Publilius, and Cnaeus Genucius. In
consequence either of the unhealthy weather
occasioned by the sudden change from cold to heat,
or from some other cause, the severe winter was
followed by a pestilential summer, which proved
fatal to man and beast. As neither a cause nor a
cure could be found for its fatal ravages, the
senate ordered the Sibylline Books to be consulted.
The priests who had charge of them appointed for the
first time in Rome a lectisternium. Apollo and
Latona, Diana and Hercules, Mercury and Neptune were
for eight days propitiated on three couches decked
with the most magnificent coverlets that could be
obtained. Solemnities were conducted also in private
houses. It is stated that throughout the City the
front gates of the houses were thrown open and all
sorts of things placed for general use in the open
courts, all comers, whether acquaintances or
strangers, being brought in to share the
hospitality. Men who had been enemies held friendly
and sociable conversations with each other and
abstained from all litigation, the manacles even
were removed from prisoners during this period, and
afterwards it seemed an act of impiety that men to
whom the gods had brought such relief should be put
in chains again. In the meanwhile, at Veii there was
increased alarm, created by the three wars being
combined in one. For the men of Capenae and Falerii
had suddenly arrived to relieve the city, and as on
the former occasion, the Romans had to fight a back
to back battle round the entrenchments against three
armies. What helped them most of all was the
recollection of the condemnation of Sergius and
Verginius. From the main camp, where on the former
occasion there had been inaction, forces were
rapidly brought round and attacked the Capenates in
the rear while their attention was concentrated on
the Roman lines. The fighting which ensued created
panic in the Faliscan ranks also, and whilst they
were wavering, a well-timed charge from the camp
routed them, and the victors, following them up,
caused immense losses amongst them. Not long
afterwards the troops who were devastating the
territory of Capenae came upon them whilst
straggling in disorder as though safe from attack,
and those whom the battle had spared were
annihilated. Of the Veientines also, many who were
fleeing to the city were killed in front of the
gates, which were closed to prevent the Romans from
breaking in, and so the hindmost of the fugitives
were shut out.
5.14
These were the
occurrences of the year. And now the time for the
election of consular tribunes was approaching. The
senate was almost more anxious about this than about
the war, for they recognised that they were not
simply sharing the supreme power with the plebs, but
had almost completely lost it. An understanding was
come to by which their most distinguished members
were to come forward as candidates; they believed
that for very shame they would not be passed over.
Besides this, they resorted to every expedient, just
as if they were every one of them candidates, and
called to their aid not men alone, but even the
gods. They made a religious question of the last two
elections. In the former year, they said, an
intolerably severe winter had occurred which seemed
to be a divine warning; in the last year they had
not warnings only but the judgments themselves. The
pestilence which had visited the country districts
and the City was undoubtedly a mark of the divine
displeasure, for it had been found in the Books of
Fate that to avert that scourge the gods must be
appeased. The auspices were taken before an
election, and the gods deemed it an insult that the
highest offices should be made common and the
distinction of classes thrown into confusion. Men
were awestruck not only by the dignity and rank of
the candidates, but by the religious aspect of the
question, and they elected all the consular tribunes
from the patricians, the great majority being all
men of high distinction. Those elected were L.
Valerius Potitus -for the fifth time -M. Valerius
Maximus, M. Furius Camillus -for the second time -L. Furius Medullinus -for the third time -Q.
Servilius Fidenates -for the second time -and Q.
Sulpicius Camerinus -for the second time. During
their year of office nothing of any importance was
done at Veii; their whole activity was confined to
raids. Two of the commanders-in-chief carried off an
enormous quantity of plunder -Potitus from Falerii
and Camillus from Capenae. They left nothing behind
which fire or sword could destroy.
5.15
During this period many
portents were announced, but as they rested on the
testimony of single individuals, and there were no
soothsayers to consult as to how to expiate them,
owing to the hostile attitude of the Etruscans,
these reports were generally disbelieved and
disregarded. One incident, however, caused universal
anxiety. The Alban Lake rose to an unusual height,
without any rainfall or other cause which could
prevent the phenomenon from appearing supernatural.
Envoys were sent to the oracle of Delphi to
ascertain why the gods sent the portent. But an
explanation was afforded nearer at hand. An aged
Veientine was impelled by destiny to announce,
amidst the jeers of the Roman and Etruscan outposts,
in prophetic strain, that the Romans would never get
possession of Veii until the water had been drawn
off from the Alban Lake. This was at first treated
as a wild utterance, but afterwards it began to be
talked about. Owing to the length of the war, there
were frequent conversations between the troops on
both sides, and a Roman on outpost duty asked one of
the townsmen who was nearest to him who the man was
who was throwing out such dark hints about the Alban
Lake. When he heard that he was a soothsayer, being
himself a man not devoid of religious fears, he
invited the prophet to an interview on the pretext
of wishing to consult him, if he had time, about a
portent which demanded his own personal expiation.
When the two had gone some distance from their
respective lines, unarmed, apprehending no danger,
the Roman, a young man of immense strength, seized
the feeble old man in the sight of all, and in spite
of the outcry of the Etruscans, carried him off to
his own side. He was brought before the
commander-in-chief and then sent to the senate in
Rome. In reply to inquiries as to what he wanted
people to understand by his remark about the Alban
Lake, he said that the gods must certainly have been
wroth with the people of Veii on the day when they
inspired him with the resolve to disclose the ruin
which the Fates had prepared for his native city.
What he had then predicted under divine inspiration
he could not now recall or unsay, and perhaps he
would incur as much guilt by keeping silence about
things which it was the will of heaven should be
revealed as by uttering what ought to be concealed.
It stood recorded in the Books of Fate, and had been
handed down by the occult science of the Etruscans,
that whenever the water of the Alban Lake overflowed
and the Romans drew it off in the appointed way, the
victory over the Veientines would be granted them;
until that happened the gods would not desert the
walls of Veii. Then he explained the prescribed mode
of drawing off the water. The senate, however, did
not regard their informant as sufficiently
trustworthy in a matter of such importance, and
determined to wait for the return of their embassy
with the oracular reply of the Pythian god.
5.16
Previous to their return,
and before any way of dealing with the Alban portent
was discovered, the new consular tribunes entered
upon office. They were L. Julius Julus, L. Furius
Medullinus -for the fourth time -L. Sergius
Fidenas, A. Postumius Regillensis, P. Cornelius
Maluginensis, and A. Manlius. This year a new enemy
arose. The people of Tarquinii saw that the Romans
were engaged in numerous campaigns -against the
Volscians at Anxur, where the garrison was
blockaded; against the Aequi at Labici, who were
attacking the Roman colonists, and, in addition to
these, at Veii, Falerii, and Capenae, whilst, owing
to the contentions between the plebs and the senate,
things were no quieter within the walls of the City.
Regarding this as a favourable opportunity for
mischief, they despatched some light-armed cohorts
to harry the Roman territory, in the belief that the
Romans would either let the outrage pass unpunished
to avoid having another war on their shoulders, or
would resent it with a small and weak force. The
Romans felt more indignation than anxiety at the
raid, and without making any great effort, took
prompt steps to avenge it. A. Postumius and L.
Julius raised a force, not by a regular levy -for
they were obstructed by the tribunes of the plebs -but consisting mostly of volunteers whom they had
induced by strong appeals to come forward. With this
they advanced by cross marches through the territory
of Caere and surprised the Tarquinians as they were
returning heavily laden with booty. They slew great
numbers, stripped the whole force of their baggage,
and returned with the recovered possessions from
their farms to Rome. Two days were allowed for the
owners to identify their property; what was
unclaimed on the third day, most of it belonging to
the enemy, was sold "under the spear," and the
proceeds distributed amongst the soldiers. The
issues of the other wars, especially of that against
Veii, were still undecided, and the Romans were
already despairing of success through their own
efforts, and were looking to the Fates and the gods,
when the embassy returned from Delphi with the
sentence of the oracle. It was in accord with the
answer given by the Veientine soothsayer, and ran as
follows: -
"See to it, Roman, that the rising flood
At Alba flow not o'er its banks and shape
Its channel seawards. Harmless through thy
fields
Shalt thou disperse it, scattered into rills.
Then fiercely press upon thy foeman's walls,
For now the Fates have given thee victory.
That city which long years thou hast besieged
Shall now be thine. And when the war hath end,
Do thou, the victor, bear an ample gift
Into my temple, and the ancestral rites
Now in disuse, see that thou celebrate
Anew with all their wonted pomp."
5.17
From that time the
captive prophet began to be held in very high
esteem, and the consular tribunes, Cornelius and
Postumius, began to make use of him for the
expiation of the Alban portent and the proper method
of appeasing the gods. At length it was discovered
why the gods were visiting men for neglected
ceremonies and religious duties unperformed. It was
in fact due to nothing else but the fact that there
was a flaw in the election of the magistrates, and
consequently they had not proclaimed the Festival of
the Latin League and the sacrifice on the Alban
Mount with the due formalities. There was only one
possible mode of expiation, and that was that the
consular tribunes should resign office, the auspices
to be taken entirely afresh, and an interrex
appointed. All these measures were earned out by a
decree of the senate. There were three interreges in
succession -L. Valerius, Q. Servilius Fidenas, and
M. Furius Camillus. During all this time there were
incessant disturbances owing to the tribunes of the
plebs hindering the elections until an understanding
was come to that the majority of the consular
tribunes should be elected from the plebeians.
Whilst this was going on the national council of
Etruria met at the Fane of Voltumna. The Capenates
and the Faliscans demanded that all the cantons of
Etruria should unite in common action to raise the
siege of Veii; they were told in reply that
assistance had been previously refused to the
Veientines because they had no right to seek help
from those whose advice they had not sought in a
matter of such importance. Now, however, it was
their unfortunate circumstances and not their will
that compelled them to refuse. The Gauls, a strange
and unknown race, had recently overrun the greatest
part of Etruria, and they were not on terms of
either assured peace or open war with them. They
would, however, do this much for those of their
blood and name, considering the imminent danger of
their kinsmen -if any of their younger men
volunteered for the war they would not prevent their
going. The report spread in Rome that a large number
had reached Veii, and in the general alarm the
internal dissensions, as usual, began to calm down.
5.18
The prerogative centuries
elected P. Licinius Calvus consular tribune, though
he was not a candidate. His appointment was not at
all distasteful to the senate, for when in office
before he had shown himself a man of moderate views.
He was, however, advanced in years. As the voting
proceeded it became clear that all who had been
formerly his colleagues in office were being
reappointed one after another. They were L.
Titinius, P. Maenius, Q. Manlius, Cnaeus Genucius,
and L. Atilius. After the tribes had been duly
summoned to hear the declaration of the poll, but
before it was actually published, P. Licinius
Calvus, by permission of the interrex, spoke as
follows: "I see, Quirites, that from what you
remember of our former tenure of office, you are
seeking in these elections an omen of concord for
the coming year, a thing most of all helpful in the
present state of affairs. But, whilst you are
re-electing my old comrades, who have become wiser
and stronger by experience, you see in me not the
man I was, but only a mere shadow and name of P.
Licinius. My bodily powers are worn out, my sight
and hearing are impaired, my memory is failing, my
mental vigour is dulled. Here," he said, holding his
son by the hand, "is a young man, the image and
counterpart of him whom in days gone by you elected
as the first consular tribune taken from the ranks
of the plebs. This young man whom I have trained and
moulded I now hand over and dedicate to the republic
to take my place, and I beg you, Quirites, to confer
this honour which you have bestowed unsought on me,
on him who is seeking it, and whose candidature I
would fain support and further by my prayers." His
request was granted, and his son P. Licinius was
formally announced as consular tribune with those
above mentioned. Titinius and Genucius marched
against the Faliscans and Capenates, but they
proceeded with more courage than caution and fell
into an ambuscade. Genucius atoned for his rashness
by an honourable death, and fell fighting amongst
the foremost. Titinius rallied his men from the
disorder into which they had fallen and gained some
rising ground where he reformed his line, but would
not come down to continue the fight on level terms.
More disgrace was incurred than loss, but it
almost resulted in a terrible disaster, so great was
the alarm it created not only in Rome, where very
exaggerated accounts were received, but also in the
camp before Veii. Here a rumour had gained ground
that after the destruction of the generals and their
army, the victorious Capenates and Faliscans and the
whole military strength of Etruria had proceeded to
Veii and were at no great distance; in consequence
of this the soldiers were with difficulty restrained
from taking to flight. Still more disquieting
rumours were current in Rome; at one moment they
imagined that the camp before Veii had been stormed,
at another that a part of the enemies' forces was in
full march to the City. They hurried to the walls;
the matrons, whom the general alarm had drawn from
their homes, made prayers and supplications in the
temples; solemn petitions were offered up to the
gods that they would ward off destruction from the
houses and temples of the City and from the walls of
Rome, and divert the fears and alarms to Veii if the
sacred rites had been duly restored and the portents
expiated.
5.19
By this time the Games
and the Latin Festival had been celebrated afresh,
and the water drawn off from the Alban Lake on the
fields, and now the fated doom was closing over
Veii. Accordingly the commander destined by the
Fates for the destruction of that city and the
salvation of his country -M. Furius Camillus -was
nominated Dictator. He appointed as his Master of
the Horse P. Cornelius Scipio. With the change in
the command everything else suddenly changed; men's
hopes were different, their spirits were different,
even the fortunes of the City wore a different
aspect. His first measure was to execute military
justice upon those who had fled during the panic
from the camp, and he made the soldiers realise that
it was not the enemy who was most to be feared. He
then appointed a day for the enrolment of troops,
and in the interim went to Veii to encourage the
soldiers, after which he returned to Rome to raise a
fresh army. Not a man tried to escape enlistment.
Even foreign troops -Latins and Hernicans -came to
offer assistance for the war. The Dictator formally
thanked them in the senate, and as all the
preparations for war were now sufficiently advanced,
he vowed, in pursuance of a senatorial decree, that
on the capture of Veii he would celebrate the Great
Games and restore and dedicate the temple of Matuta
the Mother, which had been originally dedicated by
Servius Tullius. He left the City with his army amid
a general feeling of anxious expectation rather than
of hopeful confidence on the part of the citizens,
and his first engagement was with the Faliscans and
Capenates in the territory of Nepete. As usual where
everything was managed with consummate skill and
prudence, success followed. He not only defeated the
enemy in the field, but he stripped them of their
camp and secured immense booty. The greater part was
sold and the proceeds paid over to the quaestor, the
smaller share was given to the soldiers. From there
the army was led to Veii. The forts were constructed
more closely together. Frequent skirmishes had
occurred at random in the space between the city
wall and the Roman lines, and an edict was issued
that none should fight without orders, thereby
keeping the soldiers to the construction of the
siege works. By far the greatest and most difficult
of these was a mine which was commenced, and
designed to lead into the enemies' citadel. That the
work might not be interrupted, or the troops
exhausted by the same men being continuously
employed in underground labour, he formed the army
into six divisions. Each division was told off in
rotation to work for six hours at a time; the work
went on without any intermission until they had made
a way into the citadel.
5.20
When the Dictator saw
that victory was now within his grasp, that a very
wealthy city was on the point of capture, and that
there would be more booty than had been amassed in
all the previous wars taken together, he was anxious
to avoid incurring the anger of the soldiers through
too niggardly a distribution of it on the one hand,
and the jealousy of the senate through too lavish a
grant of it on the other. He sent a despatch to the
senate in which he stated that through the gracious
favour of heaven, his own generalship, and the
persevering efforts of his soldiers, Veii would in a
very few hours be in the power of Rome, and he asked
for their decision as to the disposal of the booty.
The senate were divided. It is reported that the
aged P. Licinius, who was the first to be asked his
opinion by his son, urged that the people should
receive public notice that whoever wanted to share
in the spoils should go to the camp at Veii. Appius
Claudius took the opposite line. He stigmatised the
proposed largesse as unprecedented, wasteful,
unfair, reckless. If, he said, they once thought it
sinful for money taken from the enemy to lie in the
treasury, drained as it had been by the wars, he
would advise that the pay of the soldiers be
supplied from that source, so that the plebs might
have so much less tax to pay. "The homes of all
would feel alike the benefit of a common boon, the
rewards won by brave warriors would not be filched
by the hands of city loafers, ever greedy for
plunder, for it so constantly happens that those who
usually seek the foremost place in toil and danger
are the least active in appropriating the spoils."
Licinius on the other hand said that "this money
would always be regarded with suspicion and
aversion, and would supply material for indictments
before the plebs, and consequently bring about
disturbances and revolutionary measures. It was
better, therefore, that the plebs should be
conciliated by this gift, that those who had been
crushed and exhausted by so many years of taxation
should be relieved and get some enjoyment from the
spoils of a war in which they had almost become old
men. When any one brings home something he has taken
from the enemy with his own hand, it affords him
more pleasure and gratification than if he were to
receive many times its value at the bidding of
another. The Dictator had referred the question to
the senate because he wanted to avoid the odium and
misrepresentations which it might occasion; the
senate, in its turn, ought to entrust it to the
plebs and allow each to keep what the fortune of war
has given him." This was felt to be the safer
course, as it would make the senate popular. Notice
accordingly was given that those who thought fit
should go to the Dictator in camp to share in the
plunder of Veii.
5.21
An enormous crowd went
and filled the camp. After the Dictator had taken
the auspices and issued orders for the soldiers to
arm for battle, he uttered this prayer: "Pythian
Apollo, guided and inspired by thy will I go forth
to destroy the city of Veii, and a tenth part of its
spoils I devote to thee. Thee too, Queen Juno, who
now dwellest in Veii, I beseech, that thou wouldst
follow us, after our victory, to the City which is
ours and which will soon be shine, where a temple
worthy of thy majesty will receive thee." After this
prayer, finding himself superior in numbers, he
attacked the city on all sides, to distract the
enemies' attention from the impending danger of the
mine. The Veientines, all unconscious that their
doom had already been sealed by their own prophets
and by oracles in foreign lands, that some of the
gods had already been invited to their share in the
spoils, whilst others, called upon in prayer to
leave their city, were looking to new abodes in the
temples of their foes; all unconscious that they
were spending their last day, without the slightest
suspicion that their walls had been undermined and
their citadel already filled with the enemy, hurried
with their weapons to the walls, each as best he
could, wondering what had happened to make the
Romans, after never stirring from their lines for so
many days, now run recklessly up to the walls as
though struck with sudden frenzy.
At this point a tale is introduced to the
effect that whilst the king of the Veientines was
offering sacrifice, the soothsayer announced that
victory would be granted to him who had cut out the
sacrificial parts of the victim, His words were
heard by the soldiers in the mine, they burst
through, seized the parts and carried them to the
Dictator. But in questions of such remote antiquity
I should count it sufficient if what bears the stamp
of probability be taken as true. Statements like
this, which are more fitted to adorn a stage which
delights in the marvellous than to inspire belief,
it is not worth while either to affirm or deny. The
mine, which was now full of picked soldiers,
suddenly discharged its armed force in the temple of
Juno, which was inside the citadel of Veii. Some
attacked the enemy on the walls from behind, others
forced back the bars of the gates, others again set
fire to the houses from which stones and tiles were
being hurled by women and slaves. Everything
resounded with the confused noise of terrifying
threats and shrieks of despairing anguish blended
with the wailing of women and children. In a very
short time the defenders were driven from the walls
and the city gates flung open. Some rushed in in
close order, others scaled the deserted walls; the
city was filled with Romans; fighting went on
everywhere. At length, after great carnage, the
fighting slackened, and the Dictator ordered the
heralds to proclaim that the unarmed were to be
spared. That put a stop to the bloodshed, those who
were unarmed began to surrender, and the soldiers
dispersed with the Dictator's permission in quest of
booty. This far surpassed all expectation both in
its amount and its value, and when the Dictator saw
it before him he is reported to have raised his
hands to heaven and prayed that if any of the gods
deemed the good fortune which had befallen him and
the Romans to be too great, the jealousy which it
caused might be allayed by such a calamity as would
be least injurious to him and to Rome. The tradition
runs that whilst he was turning round during this
devotion he stumbled and fell. To those who judged
after the event it appeared as if that omen pointed
to Camillus' own condemnation and the subsequent
capture of Rome which occurred a few years later.
That day was spent in the massacre of the enemy and
the sack of the city with its enormous wealth.
5.22
The following day the
Dictator sold all freemen who had been spared, as
slaves. The money so realised was the only amount
paid into the public treasury, but even that
proceeding roused the ire of the plebs. As for the
spoil they brought home with them, they did not
acknowledge themselves under any obligation for it
either to their general, who, they thought, had
referred a matter within his own competence to the
senate in the hope of getting their authority for
his niggardliness, nor did they feel any gratitude
to the senate. It was the Licinian family to whom
they gave the credit, for it was the father who had
advocated the popular measure and the son who had
taken the opinion of the senate upon it. When all
that belonged to man had been carried away from
Veii, they began to remove from the temples the
votive gifts that had been made to the gods, and
then the gods themselves; but this they did as
worshippers rather than as plunderers. The
deportation of Queen Juno to Rome was entrusted to a
body of men selected from the whole army, who after
performing their ablutions and arraying themselves
in white vestments, reverently entered the temple
and in a spirit of holy dread placed their hands on
the statue, for it was as a rule only the priest of
one particular house who, by Etruscan usage, touched
it. Then one of them, either under a sudden
inspiration, or in a spirit of youthful mirth, said,
"Art thou willing, Juno, to go to Rome?" The rest
exclaimed that the goddess nodded assent. An
addition to the story was made to the effect that
she was heard to say, "I am willing." At all events
we have it that she was moved from her place by
appliances of little power, and proved light and
easy of transport, as though she were following of
her own accord. She was brought without mishap to
the Aventine, her everlasting seat, whither the
prayers of the Roman Dictator had called her, and
where this same Camillus afterwards dedicated the
temple which he had vowed. Such was the fall of
Veii, the most wealthy city of the Etruscan league,
showing its greatness even in its final overthrow,
since after being besieged for ten summers and
winters and inflicting more loss than it sustained,
it succumbed at last to destiny, being after all
carried by a mine and not by direct assault.
5.23
Although the portents had
been averted by due expiation and the answers given
by the soothsayer and the oracle were matters of
common knowledge, and all that man could do had been
done by the selection of M. Furius, the greatest of
all commanders -notwithstanding all this, when the
capture of Veii was announced in Rome, after so many
years of undecided warfare and numerous defeats, the
rejoicing was as great as if there had been no hope
of success. Anticipating the order of the senate,
all the temples were filled with Roman mothers
offering thanksgivings to the gods. The senate
ordered that the public thanksgivings should be
continued for four days, a longer period than for
any previous war. The arrival of the Dictator, too,
whom all classes poured out to meet, was welcomed by
a greater concourse than that of any general before.
His triumph went far beyond the usual mode of
celebrating the day; himself the most conspicuous
object of all, he was drawn into the City by a team
of white horses, which men thought unbecoming even
for a mortal man, let alone a Roman citizen. They
saw with superstitious alarm the Dictator putting
himself on a level in his equipage with Jupiter and
Sol, and this one circumstance made his triumph more
brilliant than popular. After this he signed a
contract for building the temple of Queen Juno on
the Aventine and dedicated one to Matuta the Mother.
After having thus discharged his duties to gods and
men he resigned his Dictatorship. Subsequently a
difficulty arose about the offering to Apollo.
Camillus stated that he had vowed a tenth of the
spoils to the deity, and the college of pontiffs
decided that the people must fulfil their religious
obligation. But it was not easy to find a way of
ordering the people to restore their share of booty
so that the due proportion might be set apart for
sacred purposes. At length recourse was had to what
seemed the smoothest plan, namely, that any one who
wished to discharge the obligation for himself and
his household should make a valuation of his share
and contribute the value of a tenth of it to the
public treasury, in order that out of the proceeds a
golden crown might be made, worthy of the grandeur
of the temple and the august divinity of the god,
and such as the honour of the Roman people demanded.
This contribution still further estranged the
feelings of the plebeians from Camillus. During
these occurrences envoys from the Volscians and
Aequi came to sue for peace. They succeeded in
obtaining it, not so much because they deserved it
as that the commonwealth, wearied with such a long
war, might enjoy repose.
5.24
The year following the
capture of Veii had for the six consular tribunes
two of the Publii Cornelii, namely, Cossus and
Scipio, M. Valerius Maximus -for the second time -Caeso Fabius Ambustus -for the third time -L.
Furius Medullinus -for the fifth time -and Q.
Servilius -for the third time. The war against the
Faliscans was allotted to the Cornelii, that against
Capenae to Valerius and Servilius. They did not make
any attempt to take cities either by assault or
investment, but confined themselves to ravaging the
country and carrying off the property of the
agriculturists; not a single fruit tree, no produce
whatever, was left on the land. These losses broke
the resistance of the Capenates, they sued for peace
and it was granted them. Amongst the Faliscans the
war went on. In Rome, meanwhile, disturbances arose
on various matters. In order to quiet them it had
been decided to plant a colony on the Volscian
frontier, and the names of 3000 Roman citizens were
entered for it. Triumvirs appointed for the purpose
had divided the land into lots of 3 7/12 jugera per
man. This grant began to be looked upon with
contempt, they regarded it as a sop offered to them
to divert them from hoping for something better.
"Why," they asked, "were plebeians to be sent into
banishment amongst the Volscians when the splendid
city of Veii and the territory of the Veientines was
within view, more fertile and more ample than the
territory of Rome?" Whether in respect of its
situation or of the magnificence of its public and
private buildings and its open spaces, they gave
that city the preference over Rome. They even
brought forward a proposal, which met with still
more support after the capture of Rome by the Gauls,
for migrating to Veii. They intended, however, that
Veii should be inhabited by a portion of the plebs
and a part of the senate; they thought it a feasible
project that two separate cities should be inhabited
by the Roman people and form one State. In
opposition to these proposals, the nobility went so
far as to declare that they would sooner die before
the eyes of the Roman people than that any of those
schemes should be put to the vote. If, they argued,
there was so much dissension in one city, what would
there be in two? Could any one possibly prefer a
conquered to a conquering city, and allow Veii to
enjoy a greater good fortune after its capture than
while it stood safe? It was possible that in the end
they might be left behind in their native City by
their fellow-citizens, but no power on earth would
compel them to abandon their native City and their
fellow-citizens in order to follow T. Sicinius -the
proposer of this measure -to Veii as its new
founder, and so abandon Romulus, a god and the son
of a god, the father and creator of the City of
Rome.
5.25
This discussion was
attended by disgraceful quarrels, for the senate had
drawn over a section of the tribunes of the plebs to
their view, and the only thing that restrained the
plebeians from offering personal violence was the
use which the patricians made of their personal
influence. Whenever shouts were raised to get up a
brawl, the leaders of the senate were the first to
go into the crowd and tell them to vent their rage
on them, to beat and kill them. The mob shrank from
offering violence to men of their age and rank and
distinction, and this feeling prevented them from
attacking the other patricians. Camillus went about
delivering harangues everywhere, and saying that it
was no wonder that the citizens had gone mad, for
though bound by a vow, they showed more anxiety
about everything than about discharging their
religious obligations. He would say nothing about
the contribution, which was really a sacred offering
rather than a tithe, and since each individual bound
himself to a tenth, the State, as such, was free
from the obligation. But his conscience would not
allow him to keep silence about the assertion that
the tenth only applied to movables, and that no
mention was made of the city and its territory,
which were also really included in the vow. As the
senate considered the question a difficult one to
decide, they referred it to the pontiffs, and
Camillus was invited to discuss it with them. They
decided that of all that had belonged to the
Veientines before the vow was uttered and had
subsequently passed into the power of Rome, a tenth
part was sacred to Apollo. Thus the city and
territory came into the estimate. The money was
drawn from the treasury, and the consular tribunes
were commissioned to purchase gold with it. As there
was not a sufficient supply, the matrons, after
meeting to talk the matter over, made themselves by
common consent responsible to the tribunes for the
gold, and sent all their trinkets to the treasury.
The senate were in the highest degree grateful for
this, and the tradition goes that in return for this
munificence the matrons had conferred upon them the
honour of driving to sacred festivals and games in a
carriage, and on holy days and work days in a
two-wheeled car. The gold received from each was
appraised in order that the proper amount of money
might be paid for it, and it was decided that a
golden bowl should be made and carried to Delphi as
a gift to Apollo. When the religious question no
longer claimed their attention, the tribunes of the
plebs renewed their agitation; the passions of the
populace were aroused against all the leading men,
most of all against Camillus. They said that by
devoting the spoils of Veii to the State and to the
gods he had reduced them to nothing. They attacked
the senators furiously in their absence; when they
were present and confronted their rage, shame kept
them silent. As soon as the plebeians saw that the
matter would be carried over into the following
year, they reappointed the supporters of the
proposal as their tribunes; the patricians devoted
themselves to securing the same support for those
who had vetoed the proposal. Consequently, nearly
all the same tribunes of the plebs were re-elected.
5.26
In the election of
consular tribunes the patricians succeeded by the
utmost exertions in securing the return of M. Furius
Camillus. They pretended that in view of the wars
they were providing themselves with a general; their
real object was to get a man who would oppose the
corrupt policy of the plebeian tribunes. His
comrades in the tribuneship were L. Furius
Medullinus -for the sixth time -C. Aemilius, L.
Valerius Publicola, S. Postumius, and P. Cornelius -for the second time. At the beginning of the year
the tribunes of the plebs made no move until
Camillus left for operations against the Faliscans,
the theatre of war assigned to him. This delay took
the heart out of their agitation, whilst Camillus,
the adversary whom they most dreaded, was gaining
fresh glory amongst the Faliscans. At first the
enemy kept within their walls, thinking this the
safest course, but by devastating their fields and
burning their farms he compelled them to come
outside their city. They were afraid to go very far,
and fixed their camp about a mile away; the only
thing which gave them any sense of security was the
difficulty of approaching it, as all the country
round was rough and broken, and the roads narrow in
some parts, in others steep. Camillus, however, had
gained information from a prisoner captured in the
neighbourhood, and made him act as guide. After
breaking up his camp in the dead of night, he showed
himself at daybreak in a position considerably
higher than the enemy. The Romans of the third line
began to entrench, the rest of the army stood ready
for battle. When the enemy attempted to hinder the
work of entrenchment, he defeated them and put them
to flight, and such a panic seized the Faliscans
that in their disorderly flight they were carried
past their own camp, which was nearer to them, and
made for their city. Many were killed and wounded
before they could get inside their gates. The camp
was taken, the booty sold, and the proceeds paid
over to the quaestors, to the intense indignation of
the soldiers, but they were overawed by the
sternness of their general's discipline, and though
they hated his firmness, at the same time they
admired it. The city was now invested and regular
siege-works were constructed. For some time the
townsmen used to attack the Roman outposts whenever
they saw an opportunity, and frequent skirmishes
took place. Time went on and hope inclined to
neither side; corn and other supplies had been
previously collected, and the besieged were better
provisioned than the besiegers. The task seemed
likely to be as long as it had been at Veii, had not
fortune given the Roman commander an opportunity of
displaying that greatness of mind which had already
been proved in deeds of war, and so secured him an
early victory.
5.27
It was the custom of the
Faliscans to employ the same person as the master
and also as the attendant of their children, and
several boys used to be entrusted to one man's care;
a custom which prevails in Greece at the present
time. Naturally, the man who had the highest
reputation for learning was appointed to instruct
the children of the principal men. This man had
started the practice, in the time of peace, of
taking the boys outside the gates for games and
exercise, and he kept up the practice after the war
had begun, taking them sometimes a shorter,
sometimes a longer distance from the city gate.
Seizing a favourable opportunity, he kept up the
games and the conversations longer than usual, and
went on till he was in the midst of the Roman
outposts. He then took them into the camp and up to
Camillus in the headquarters tent. There he
aggravated his villainous act by a still more
villainous utterance. He had, he said, given Falerii
into the hands of the Romans, since those boys,
whose fathers were at the head of affairs in the
city, were now placed in their power. On hearing
this Camillus replied, "You, villain, have not come
with your villainous offer to a nation or a
commander like yourself. Between us and the
Faliscans there is no fellowship based on a formal
compact as between man and man, but the fellowship
which is based on natural instincts exists between
us, and will continue to do so. There are rights of
war as there are rights of peace, and we have learnt
to wage our wars with justice no less than with
courage. We do not use our weapons against those of
an age which is spared even in the capture of
cities, but against those who are armed as we are,
and who without any injury or provocation from us
attacked the Roman camp at Veii. These men you, as
far as you could, have vanquished by an
unprecedented act of villainy; I shall vanquish them
as I vanquished Veii, by Roman arts, by courage and
strategy and force of arms." He then ordered him to
be stripped and his hands tied behind his back, and
delivered him up to the boys to be taken back to
Falerii, and gave them rods with which to scourge
the traitor into the city. The people came in crowds
to see the sight, the magistrates thereupon convened
the senate to discuss the extraordinary incident,
and in the end such a revulsion of feeling took
place that the very people who in the madness of
their rage and hatred would almost sooner have
shared the fate of Veii than obtained the peace
which Capena enjoyed, now found themselves in
company with the whole city asking for peace. The
Roman sense of honour, the commander's love of
justice, were in all men's mouths in the forum and
in the senate, and in accordance with the universal
wish, ambassadors were despatched to Camillus in the
camp, and with his sanction to the senate in Rome,
to make the surrender of Falerii.
On being introduced to the senate, they are
reported to have made the following speech:
"Senators! vanquished by you and your general
through a victory which none, whether god or man,
can censure, we surrender ourselves to you, for we
think it better to live under your sway than under
our own laws, and this is the greatest glory that a
conqueror can attain. Through the issue of this war
two salutary precedents have been set for mankind.
You have preferred the honour of a soldier to a
victory which was in your hands; we, challenged by
your good faith, have voluntarily given you that
victory. We are at your disposal; send men to
receive our arms, to receive the hostages, to
receive the city whose gates stand open to you.
Never shall you have cause to complain of our
loyalty, nor we of your rule." Thanks were accorded
to Camillus both by the enemy and by his own
countrymen. The Faliscans were ordered to supply the
pay of the troops for that year, in order that the
Roman people might be free from the war-tax. After
the peace was granted, the army was marched back to
Rome.
5.28
After thus subduing the
enemy by his justice and good faith, Camillus
returned to the City invested with a much nobler
glory than when white horses drew him through it in
his triumph. The senate could not withstand the
delicate reproof of his silence, but at once
proceeded to free him from his vow. L. Valerius, L.
Sergius, and A. Manlius were appointed as a
deputation to carry the golden bowl, made as a gift
to Apollo, to Delphi, but the solitary warship in
which they were sailing was captured by Liparean
pirates not far from the Straits of Sicily, and
taken to the islands of Liparae. Piracy was regarded
as a kind of State institution, and it was the
custom for the government to distribute the plunder
thus acquired. That year the supreme magistracy was
held by Timasitheus, a man more akin to the Romans
in character than to his own countrymen. As he
himself reverenced the name and office of the
ambassadors, the gift they had in charge and the god
to whom it was being sent, so he inspired the
multitude, who generally share the views of their
ruler, with a proper religious sense of their duty.
The deputation were conducted to the State
guest-house, and from there sent on their way to
Delphi with a protecting escort of ships, he then
brought them back safe to Rome. Friendly relations
were established with him on the part of the State,
and presents bestowed upon him.
During this year there was war with the Aequi
of so undecided a character that it was a matter of
uncertainty, both in the armies themselves and in
Rome, whether they were victorious or vanquished.
The two consular tribunes, C. Aemilius and Spurius
Postumius, were in command of the Roman army. At
first they carried on joint operations; after the
enemy had been routed in the field, they arranged
that Aemilius should hold Verrugo whilst Postumius
devastated their. territory. Whilst he was marching
somewhat carelessly after his success, with his men
out of order, he was attacked by the Aequi, and such
a panic ensued that his troops were driven to the
nearest hills, and the alarm spread even to the
other army at Verrugo. After they had retreated to a
safe position, Postumius summoned his men to
assembly and severely rebuked them for their panic
and flight, and for having been routed by such a
cowardly and easily defeated foe. With one voice the
army exclaimed that his reproaches were deserved;
they had, they confessed behaved disgracefully, but
they would themselves repair their fault, the enemy
would not long have cause for rejoicing. They asked
him to lead them at once against the enemy's camp -it was in full view down in the plain -and no
punishment would be too severe if they failed to
take it before nightfall. He commended their
eagerness, and ordered them to refresh themselves
and to be ready by the fourth watch. The enemy,
expecting the Romans to attempt a nocturnal flight
from their hill, were posted to cut them off from
the road leading to Verrugo. The action commenced
before dawn, but as there was a moon all night, the
battle was as clearly visible as if it had been
fought by day. The shouting reached Verrugo, and
they believed that the Roman camp was being
attacked. This created such a panic that in spite of
all the appeals of Aemilius in his efforts to
restrain them, the garrison broke away and fled in
scattered groups to Tusculum. Thence the rumour was
carried to Rome that Postumius and his army were
slain. As soon as the rising dawn had removed all
apprehensions of a surprise in case the pursuit was
carried too far, Postumius rode down the ranks
demanding the fulfilment of their promise. The
enthusiasm of the troops was so roused that the
Aequi no longer withstood the attack. Then followed
a slaughter of the fugitives, such as might be
expected where men are actuated by rage even more
than by courage; the army was destroyed. The doleful
report from Tusculum and the groundless fears of the
City were followed by a laurelled despatch from
Postumius announcing the victory of Rome and the
annihilation of the Aequian army.
5.29
As the agitation of the
tribunes of the plebs had so far been without
result, the plebeians exerted themselves to secure
the continuance in office of the proposers of the
land measure, whilst the patricians strove for the
re-election of those who had vetoed it. The
plebeians, however, carried the election, and the
senate in revenge for this mortification passed a
resolution for the appointment of consuls, the
magistracy which the plebs detested. After fifteen
years, consuls were once more elected in the persons
of L. Lucretius Flavus and Servius Sulpicius
Camerinus. At the beginning of the year, as none of
their college was disposed to interpose his veto,
the tribunes were combined in a determined effort to
carry their measure, while the consuls, for the same
reason, offered a no less strenuous resistance.
Whilst all the citizens were preoccupied with this
struggle, the Aequi successfully attacked the Roman
colony at Vitellia, which was situated in their
territory. Most of the colonists were uninjured, for
the fact of its treacherous capture taking place in
the night gave them the chance of escaping in the
opposite direction from the enemy and reaching Rome.
That field of operations fell to L. Lucretius. He
advanced against the enemy and defeated them in a
regular engagement, and then came back victorious to
Rome, where a still more serious contest awaited
him.
A day had been fixed for the prosecution of
A. Verginius and Q. Pomponius, who had been tribunes
of the plebs two years previously. The senate
unanimously agreed that their honour was concerned
in defending them, for no one brought any charge
against them touching their private life or their
public action; the only ground of indictment was
that it was to please the senate that they had
exercised their veto. The influence of the senate,
however, was overborne by the angry temper of the
plebeians, and a most vicious precedent was set by
the condemnation of those innocent men to a fine of
10,000 "ases" each. The senate were extremely
distressed. Camillus openly accused the plebeians of
treason in turning against their own magistrates
because they did not see that through this
iniquitous judgment they had taken from their
tribunes the power of veto, and in depriving them of
that had overthrown their power. They were deceived
if they expected the senate to put up with the
absence of any restraint upon the licence of that
magistracy. If the violence of tribunes could not be
met by the veto of tribunes, the senate would find
another weapon. He poured blame on the consuls also
for having silently allowed the honour of the State
to be compromised in the case of tribunes who had
followed the instructions of the senate. By openly
repeating these charges he embittered the feeling of
the populace more every day.
5.30
The senate, on the other
hand, he was perpetually inciting to oppose the
measure. They must not, he said, go down to the
Forum, when the day came for voting on it, in any
other temper than that of men who realised that they
would have to fight for their hearths and altars,
for the temples of the gods, and even for the soil
on which they had been born. As for himself, if he
dared to think of his own reputation when his
country's existence was at stake, it would be indeed
an honour to him that the city which he had taken
should become a popular resort, that that memorial
of his glory should give him daily delight, that he
should have before his eyes the city which had been
carried in his triumphal procession, and that all
should tread in the track of his renown. But he
considered it an offence against heaven for a city
to be repeopled after it had been deserted and
abandoned by the gods, or for the Roman people to
dwell on a soil enslaved and change the conquering
country for a conquered one. Roused by these appeals
of their leader, the senators, old and young, came
down in a body to the Forum when the proposal was
being put to the vote. They dispersed among the
tribes, and each taking his fellow-tribesmen by the
hand, implored them with tears not to desert the
fatherland, for which they and their fathers had
fought so bravely and so successfully. They pointed
to the Capitol, the temple of Vesta, and the other
divine temples round them, and besought them not to
drive the Roman people, as homeless exiles, from
their ancestral soil and their household gods into
the city of their foes. They even went so far as to
say that it were better that Veii had never been
taken than that Rome should be deserted. As they
were having recourse not to violence but to
entreaties, and were interspersing their entreaties
with frequent mention of the gods, it became for the
majority of voters a religious question and the
measure was defeated by a majority of one tribe. The
senate were so delighted at their victory that on
the following day a resolution was passed, at the
instance of the consuls, that seven jugera of the
Veientine territory should be allotted to each
plebeian, and not to the heads of families only,
account was taken of all the children in the house,
that men might be willing to bring up children in
the hope that they would receive their share.
5.31
This bounty soothed the
feelings of the plebs, and no opposition was offered
to the election of consuls. The two elected were L.
Valerius Potitus and M. Manlius, who afterwards
received the title of Capitolinus. They celebrated
the "Great Games" which M. Furius had vowed when
Dictator in the Veientine war. In the same year the
temple of Queen Juno, which he had also vowed at the
same time, was dedicated, and the tradition runs
that this dedication excited great interest amongst
the matrons, who were present in large numbers. An
unimportant campaign was conducted against the Aequi
on Algidus; the enemy were routed almost before they
came to close quarters. Valerius had shown greater
energy in following up the fugitives; he was
accordingly decreed a triumph; Manlius an ovation.
In the same year a new enemy appeared in the
Volsinians. Owing to famine and pestilence in the
district round Rome, in consequence of excessive
heat and drought, it was impossible for an army to
march. This emboldened the Volsinians in conjunction
with the Salpinates to make inroads upon Roman
territory. Thereupon war was declared against the
two States. C. Julius, the censor, died, and M.
Cornelius was appointed in his place. This
proceeding was afterwards regarded as an offence
against religion because it was during that lustrum
that Rome was taken, and no one has ever since been
appointed as censor in the room of one deceased. The
consuls were attacked by the epidemic, so it was
decided that the auspices should be taken afresh by
an interrex. The consuls accordingly resigned office
in compliance with a resolution of the senate, and
M. Furius Camillus was appointed interrex. He
appointed P. Cornelius Scipio as his successor, and
Scipio appointed L. Valerius Potitus. The last named
appointed six consular tribunes, so that if any of
them became incapacitated through illness there
might still be a sufficiency of magistrates to
administer the republic.
5.32
These were L. Lucretius,
Servius Sulpicius, M. Aemilius, L. Furius Medullinus
-for the seventh time -Agrippa Furius, and C.
Aemilius -for the second time. They entered upon
office on the 1st of July. L. Lucretius and C.
Aemilius were charged with the campaign against the
Volsinians; Agrippa Furius and Servius Sulpicius
with the one against the Salpinates. The first
action took place with the Volsinians; an immense
number of the enemy were engaged, but the fighting
was by no means severe. Their line was scattered at
the first shock; 8000 who were surrounded by the
cavalry laid down their arms and surrendered. On
hearing of this battle the Salpinates would not
trust themselves to a regular engagement in the
field, but sought the protection of their walls. The
Romans carried off plunder in all directions from
both the Salpinate and Volsinian territories without
meeting any resistance. At last the Volsinians,
tired of the war, obtained a truce for twenty years
on condition that they paid an indemnity for their
previous raid and supplied the year's pay for the
army. It was in this year that Marcus Caedicius, a
member of the plebs, reported to the tribunes that
whilst he was in the Via Nova where the chapel now
stands, above the temple of Vesta, he heard in the
silence of the night a voice more powerful than any
human voice bidding the magistrates be told that the
Gauls were approaching. No notice was taken of this,
partly owing to the humble rank of the informant,
and partly because the Gauls were a distant and
therefore an unknown nation. It was not the
monitions of the gods only that were set at nought
in face of the coming doom. The one human aid which
they had against it, M. Furius Camillus, was removed
from the City. He was impeached by the plebeian
tribune L. Apuleius for his action with reference to
the spoils of Veii, and at the time had just been
bereaved of his son. He invited the members of his
tribe and his clients, who formed a considerable
part of the plebs, to his house and sounded their
feelings towards him. They told him that they would
pay whatever fine was imposed, but it was impossible
for them to acquit him. Thereupon he went into
exile, after offering up a prayer to the immortal
gods that if he were suffering wrongfully as an
innocent man, they would make his ungrateful
citizens very soon feel the need of him. He was
condemned in his absence to pay a fine of 15,000
"ases."
5.33
After the expulsion of
that citizen whose presence, if there is anything
certain in human affairs, would have made the
capture of Rome impossible, the doom of the fated
City swiftly approached. Ambassadors came from
Clusium begging for assistance against the Gauls.
The tradition is that this nation, attracted by the
report of the delicious fruits and especially of the
wine -a novel pleasure to them -crossed the Alps
and occupied the lands formerly cultivated by the
Etruscans, and that Arruns of Clusium imported wine
into Gaul in order to allure them into Italy. His
wife had been seduced by a Lucumo, to whom he was
guardian, and from whom, being a young man of
considerable influence, it was impossible to get
redress without getting help from abroad. In
revenge, Arruns led the Gauls across the Alps and
prompted them to attack Clusium. I would not deny
that the Gauls were conducted to Clusium by Arruns
or some one else living there, but it is quite clear
that those who attacked that city were not the first
who crossed the Alps. As a matter of fact, Gauls
crossed into Italy two centuries before they
attacked Clusium and took Rome. Nor were the
Clusines the first Etruscans with whom the Gaulish
armies came into conflict; long before that they had
fought many battles with the Etruscans who dwelt
between the Apennines and the Alps. Before the Roman
supremacy, the power of the Tuscans was widely
extended both by sea and land. How far it extended
over the two seas by which Italy is surrounded like
an island is proved by the names, for the nations of
Italy call the one the "Tuscan Sea," from the
general designation of the people, and the other the
"Atriatic," from Atria, a Tuscan colony. The Greeks
also call them the "Tyrrhene" and the "Adriatic."
The districts stretching towards either sea were
inhabited by them. They first settled on this side
the Apennines by the western sea in twelve cities,
afterwards they founded twelve colonies beyond the
Apennines, corresponding to the number of the mother
cities. These colonies held the whole of the country
beyond the Po as far as the Alps, with the exception
of the corner inhabited by the Veneti, who dwelt
round an arm of the sea. The Alpine tribes are
undoubtedly of the same stock, especially the
Raetii, who had through the nature of their country
become so uncivilised that they retained no trace of
their original condition except their language, and
even this was not free from corruption.
5.34
About the passage of the
Gauls into Italy we have received the following
account. Whilst Tarquinius Priscus was king of Rome,
the supreme power amongst the Celts, who formed a
third part of the whole of Gaul, was in the hands of
the Bituriges; they used to furnish the king for the
whole Celtic race. Ambigatus was king at that time,
a man eminent for his own personal courage and
prosperity as much as for those of his dominions.
During his sway the harvests were so abundant and
the population increased so rapidly in Gaul that the
government of such vast numbers seemed almost
impossible. He was now an old man, and anxious to
relieve his realm from the burden of
over-population. With this view he signified his
intention of sending his sister's sons Bellovesus
and Segovesus, both enterprising young men, to
settle in whatever locality the gods should by
augury assign to them. They were to invite as many
as wished to accompany them, sufficient to prevent
any nation from repelling their approach. When the
auspices were taken, the Hercynian forest was
assigned to Segovesus; to Bellovesus the gods gave
the far pleasanter way into Italy. He invited the
surplus population of six tribes -the Bituriges,
the Averni, the Senones, the Aedui, the Ambarri, the
Carnutes, and the Aulerci. Starting with an enormous
force of horse and foot, he came to the Tricastini.
Beyond stretched the barrier of the Alps, and I am
not at all surprised that they appeared
insurmountable, for they had never yet been
surmounted by any route, as far at least as unbroken
memory reaches, unless you choose to believe the
fables about Hercules. Whilst the mountain heights
kept the Gauls fenced in as it were there, and they
were looking everywhere to see by what path they
could cross the peaks which reached to heaven and so
enter a new world, they were also prevented from
advancing by a sense of religious obligation, for
news came that some strangers in quest of territory
were being attacked by the Salyi. These were
Massilians who had sailed from Phocaea. The Gauls,
looking upon this as an omen of their own fortunes,
went to their assistance and enabled them to fortify
the spot where they had first landed, without any
interference from the Salyi. After crossing the Alps
by the passes of the Taurini and the valley of the
Douro, they defeated the Tuscans in battle not far
from the Ticinus, and when they learnt that the
country in which they had settled belonged to the
Insubres, a name also borne by a canton of the
Haedui, they accepted the omen of the place and
built a city which they called Mediolanum.
5.35
Subsequently another
body, consisting of the Cenomani, under the
leadership of Elitovius, followed the track of the
former and crossed the Alps by the same pass, with
the goodwill of Bellovesus. They had their
settlements where the cities of Brixia and Verona
now stand. The Libui came next and the Saluvii; they
settled near the ancient tribe of the Ligurian
Laevi, who lived about the Ticinus. Then the Boii
and Lingones crossed the Pennine Alps, and as all
the country between the Po and the Alps was
occupied, they crossed the Po on rafts and expelled
not only the Etruscans but the Umbrians as well.
They remained, however, north of the Apennines. Then
the Senones, the last to come, occupied the country
from the Utis to the Aesis. It was this last tribe,
I find, that came to Clusium, and from there to
Rome; but it is uncertain whether they came alone or
helped by contingents from all the Cisalpine
peoples. The people of Clusium were appalled by this
strange war, when they saw the numbers, the
extraordinary appearance of the men, and the kind of
weapons they used, and heard that the legions of
Etruria had been often routed by them on both sides
of the Po. Although they had no claim on Rome,
either on the ground of alliance or friendly
relations, unless it was that they had not defended
their kinsmen at Veii against the Romans, they
nevertheless sent ambassadors to ask the senate for
assistance. Active assistance they did not obtain.
The three sons of M. Fabius Ambustus were sent as
ambassadors to negotiate with the Gauls and warn
them not to attack those from whom they had suffered
no injury, who were allies and friends of Rome, and
who, if circumstances compelled them, must be
defended by the armed force of Rome. They preferred
that actual war should be avoided, and that they
should make acquaintance with the Gauls, who were
strangers to them, in peace rather than in arms.
5.36
A peaceable enough
mission, had it not contained envoys of a violent
temper, more like Gauls than Romans. After they had
delivered their instructions in the council of the
Gauls, the following reply was given: "Although we
are hearing the name of Romans for the first time,
we believe nevertheless that you are brave men,
since the Clusines are imploring your assistance in
their time of danger. Since you prefer to protect
your allies against us by negotiation rather than by
armed force, we on our side do not reject the peace
you offer, on condition that the Clusines cede to us
Gauls, who are in need of land, a portion of that
territory which they possess to a greater extent
than they can cultivate. On any other conditions
peace cannot be granted. We wish to receive their
reply in your presence, and if territory is refused
us we shall fight, whilst you are still here, that
you may report to those at home how far the Gauls
surpass all other men in courage." The Romans asked
them what right they had to demand, under threat of
war, territory from those who were its owners, and
what business the Gauls had in Etruria. The haughty
answer was returned that they carried their right in
their weapons, and that everything belonged to the
brave. Passions were kindled on both sides; they
flew to arms and joined battle. Thereupon, contrary
to the law of nations, the envoys seized their
weapons, for the Fates were already urging Rome to
its ruin. The fact of three of the noblest and
bravest Romans fighting in the front line of the
Etruscan army could not be concealed, so conspicuous
was the valour of the strangers. And what was more,
Q. Fabius rode forward at a Gaulish chieftain, who
was impetuously charging right at the Etruscan
standards, ran his spear through his side and slew
him. Whilst he was in the act of despoiling the body
the Gauls recognised him, and the word was passed
through the whole army that it was a Roman
ambassador. Forgetting their rage against the
Clusines, and breathing threats against the Romans,
they sounded the retreat.
Some were for an instant advance on Rome. The
older men thought that ambassadors should first be
sent to Rome to make a formal complaint and demand
the surrender of the Fabii as satisfaction for the
violation of the law of nations. After the
ambassadors had stated their case, the senate,
whilst disapproving of the conduct of the Fabii, and
recognising the justice of the demand which the
barbarians made, were prevented by political
interests from placing their convictions on record
in the form of a decree in the case of men of such
high rank. In order, therefore, that the blame for
any defeat which might be incurred in a war with the
Gauls might not rest on them alone, they referred
the consideration of the Gauls' demands to the
people. Here personal popularity and influence had
so much more weight that the very men whose
punishment was under discussion were elected
consular tribunes for the next year. The Gauls
regarded this procedure as it deserved to be
regarded, namely, as an act of hostility, and after
openly threatening war, returned to their people.
The other consular tribunes elected with the Fabii
were Q. Sulpicius Longus, Q. Servilius -for the
fourth time -and P. Cornelius Maluginensis.
5.37
To such an extent does
Fortune blind men's eyes when she will not have her
threatened blows parried, that though such a weight
of disaster was hanging over the State, no special
steps were taken to avert it. In the wars against
Fidenae and Veii and other neighbouring States, a
Dictator had on many occasions been nominated as a
last resource. But now when an enemy, never seen or
even heard of before, was rousing up war from ocean
and the furthest corners of the world, no recourse
was had to a Dictator, no extraordinary efforts were
made. Those men through whose recklessness the war
had been brought about were in supreme commands as
tribunes, and the levy they raised was not larger
than had been usual in ordinary campaigns, they even
made light of the resorts as to the seriousness of
the war. Meantime the Gauls learnt that their
embassy had been treated with contempt, and that
honours had actually been conferred upon men who had
violated the law of nations. Burning with rage -as
a nation they cannot control their passions -they
seized their standards and hurriedly set out on
their march. At the sound of their tumult as they
swept by, the affrighted cities flew to arms and the
country folk took to flight. Horses and men, spread
far and wide, covered an immense tract of country;
wherever they went they made it understood by loud
shouts that they were going to Rome. But though they
were preceded by rumours and by messages from
Clusium, and then from one town after another, it
was the swiftness of their approach that created
most alarm in Rome. An army hastily raised by a levy
en masse marched out to meet them. The two forces
met hardly eleven miles from Rome, at a spot where
the Alia, flowing in a very deep channel from the
Crustuminian mountains, joins the river Tiber a
little below the road to Crustumerium. The whole
country in front and around was now swarming with
the enemy, who, being as a nation given to wild
outbreaks, had by their hideous howls and discordant
clamour filled everything with dreadful noise.
5.38
The consular tribunes had
secured no position for their camp, had constructed
no entrenchments behind which to retire, and had
shown as much disregard of the gods as of the enemy,
for they formed their order of battle without having
obtained favourable auspices. They extended their
line on either wing to prevent their being
outflanked, but even so they could not make their
front equal to the enemy's, whilst by thus thinning
their line they weakened the centre so that it could
hardly keep in touch. On their right was a small
eminence which they decided to hold with reserves,
and this disposition, though it was the beginning of
the panic and flight, proved to be the only means of
safety to the fugitives. For Bennus, the Gaulish
chieftain, fearing some ruse in the scanty numbers
of the enemy, and thinking that the rising ground
was occupied in order that the reserves might attack
the flank and rear of the Gauls while their front
was engaged with the legions, directed his attack
upon the reserves, feeling quite certain that if he
drove them from their position, his overwhelming
numbers would give him an easy victory on the level
ground. So not only Fortune but tactics also were on
the side of the barbarians. In the other army there
was nothing to remind one of Romans either amongst
the generals or the private soldiers. They were
terrified, and all they thought about was flight,
and so utterly had they lost their heads that a far
greater number fled to Veii, a hostile city, though
the Tiber lay in their way, than by the direct road
to Rome, to their wives and children. For a short
time the reserves were protected by their position.
In the rest of the army, no sooner was the
battle-shout heard on their flank by those nearest
to the reserves, and then by those at the other end
of the line heard in their rear, than they fled,
whole and unhurt, almost before they had seen their
untried foe, without any attempt to fight or even to
give back the battle-shout. None were slain while
actually fighting; they were cut down from behind
whilst hindering one another's flight in a confused,
struggling mass. Along the bank of the Tiber,
whither the whole of the left wing had fled, after
throwing away their arms, there was great slaughter.
Many who were unable to swim or were hampered by the
weight of their cuirasses and other armour were
sucked down by the current. The greater number,
however, reached Veii in safety, yet not only were
no troops sent from there to defend the City, but
not even was a messenger despatched to report the
defeat to Rome. All the men on the right wing, which
had been stationed some distance from the river, and
nearer to the foot of the hill, made for Rome and
took refuge in the Citadel without even closing the
City gates.
5.39
The Gauls for their part
were almost dumb with astonishment at so sudden and
extraordinary a victory. At first they did not dare
to move from the spot, as though puzzled by what had
happened, then they began to fear a surprise, at
last they began to despoil the dead, and, as their
custom is, to pile up the arms in heaps. Finally, as
no hostile movement was anywhere visible, they
commenced their march and reached Rome shortly
before sunset. The cavalry, who had ridden on in
front, reported that the gates were not shut, there
were no pickets on guard in front of them, no troops
on the walls. This second surprise, as extraordinary
as the previous one, held them back, and fearing a
nocturnal conflict in the streets of an unknown
City, they halted and bivouacked between Rome and
the Anio. Reconnoitring parties were sent out to
examine the circuit of the walls and the other
gates, and to ascertain what plans their enemies
were forming in their desperate plight. As for the
Romans, since the greater number had fled from the
field in the direction of Veii instead of Rome, it
was universally believed that the only survivors
were those who had found refuge in Rome, and the
mourning for all who were lost, whether living or
dead, filled the whole City with the cries of
lamentation. But the sounds of private grief were
stifled by the general terror when it was announced
that the enemy were at hand. Presently the yells and
wild war-whoops of the squadrons were heard as they
rode round the walls. All the time until the next
day's dawn the citizens were in such a state of
suspense that they expected from moment to moment an
attack on the City. They expected it first when the
enemy approached the walls, for they would have
remained at the Alia had not this been their object;
then just before sunset they thought the enemy would
attack because there was not much daylight left; and
then when night was fallen they imagined that the
attack was delayed till then to create all the
greater terror. Finally, the approach of the next
day deprived them of their senses; the entrance of
the enemy's standards within the gates was the
dreadful climax to fears that had known no respite.
But all through that night and the following
day the citizens afforded an utter contrast to those
who had fled in such terror at the Alia. Realising
the hopelessness of attempting any defence of the
City with the small numbers that were left, they
decided that the men of military age and the
able-bodied amongst the senators should, with their
wives and children, withdraw into the Citadel and
the Capitol, and after getting in stores of arms and
provisions, should from that fortified position
defend their gods, themselves, and the great name of
Rome. The Flamen and priestesses of Vesta were to
carry the sacred things of the State far away from
the bloodshed and the fire, and their sacred cult
should not be abandoned as long as a single person
survived to observe it. If only the Citadel and the
Capitol, the abode of gods; if only the senate, the
guiding mind of the national policy; if only the men
of military age survived the impending ruin of the
City, then the loss of the crowd of old men left
behind in the City could be easily borne; in any
case, they were certain to perish. To reconcile the
aged plebeians to their fate, the men who had been
consuls and enjoyed triumphs gave out that they
would meet their fate side by side with them, and
not burden the scanty force of fighting men with
bodies too weak to carry arms or defend their
country.
5.40
Thus they sought to
comfort one another -these aged men doomed to
death. Then they turned with words of encouragement
to the younger men on their way to the Citadel and
Capitol, and solemnly commended to their strength
and courage all that was left of the fortunes of a
City which for 360 years had been victorious in all
its wars. As those who were carrying with them all
hope and succour finally separated from those who
had resolved not to survive the fall of the City the
misery of the scene was heightened by the distress
of the women. Their tears, their distracted running
about as they followed first their husbands then
their sons, their imploring appeals to them not to
leave them to their fate, made up a picture in which
no element of human misery was wanting. A great many
of them actually followed their sons into the
Capitol, none forbidding or inviting them, for
though to diminish the number of non-combatants
would have helped the besieged, it was too inhuman a
step to take. Another crowd, mainly of plebeians,
for whom there was not room on so small a hill or
food enough in the scanty store of corn, poured out
of the City in one continuous line and made for the
Janiculum. From there they dispersed, some over the
country, others towards the neighbouring cities,
without any leader or concerted action, each
following his own aims, his own ideas. and all
despairing of the public safety. While all this was
going on, the Flamen of Quirinus and the Vestal
virgins, without giving a thought to their own
property, were deliberating as to which of the
sacred things they ought to take with them, and
which to leave behind, since they had not strength
enough to carry all, and also what place would be
the safest for their custody. They thought best to
conceal what they could not take in earthen jars and
bury them under the chapel next to the Flamen's
house, where spitting is now forbidden. The rest
they divided amongst them and carried off, taking
the road which leads by the Pons Sublicius to the
Janiculum. Whilst ascending that hill they were seen
by L. Albinius, a Roman plebeian who with the rest
of the crowd who were unfit for war was leaving the
City. Even in that critical hour the distinction
between sacred and profane was not forgotten. He had
his wife and children with him in a wagon, and it
seemed to him an act of impiety for him and his
family to be seen in a vehicle whilst the national
priests should be trudging along on foot, bearing
the sacred vessels of Rome. He ordered his wife and
children to get down, put the virgins and their
sacred burden in the wagon, and drove them to Caere,
their destination.
5.41
After all the
arrangements that circumstances permitted had been
made for the defence of the Capitol, the old men
returned to their respective homes and, fully
prepared to die, awaited the coming of the enemy.
Those who had filled curule offices resolved to meet
their fate wearing the insignia of their former rank
and honour and distinctions. They put on the
splendid dress which they wore when conducting the
chariots of the gods or riding in triumph through
the City, and thus arrayed, they seated themselves
in their ivory chairs in front of their houses. Some
writers record that, led by M. Fabius, the Pontifex
Maximus, they recited the solemn formula in which
they devoted themselves to death for their country
and the Quirites. As the Gauls were refreshed by a
night's rest after a battle which had at no point
been seriously contested, and as they were not now
taking the City by assault or storm, their entrance
the next day was not marked by any signs of
excitement or anger. Passing the Colline gate, which
was standing open, they came to the Forum and gazed
round at the temples and at the Citadel, which alone
wore any appearance of war. They left there a small
body to guard against any attack from the Citadel or
Capitol whilst they were scattered, and then they
dispersed in quest of plunder through streets in
which they did not meet a soul. Some poured in a
body into all the houses near, others made for the
most distant ones, expecting to find them untouched
and full of spoils. Appalled by the very desolation
of the place and dreading lest some stratagem should
surprise the stragglers, they returned to the
neighbourhood of the Forum in close order. The
houses of the plebeians were barricaded, the halls
of the patricians stood open, but they felt greater
hesitation about entering the open houses than those
which were closed. They gazed with feelings of real
veneration upon the men who were seated in the
porticoes of their mansions, not only because of the
superhuman magnificence of their apparel and their
whole bearing and demeanour, but also because of the
majestic expression of their countenances, wearing
the very aspect of gods. So they stood, gazing at
them as if they were statues, till, as it is
asserted, one of the patricians, M. Papirius, roused
the passion of a Gaul, who began to stroke his beard
-which in those days was universally worn long -by
smiting him on the head with his ivory staff. He was
the first to be killed, the others were butchered in
their chairs. After this slaughter of the magnates,
no living being was thenceforth spared; the houses
were rifled, and then set on fire.
5.42
Now -whether it was that
the Gauls were not all animated by a passion for the
destruction of the City, or whether their chiefs had
decided on the one hand to present the spectacle of
a few fires as a means of intimidating the besieged
into surrender from a desire to save their homes,
and on the other, by abstaining from a universal
conflagration, hold what remained of the City as a
pledge by which to weaken their enemies'
determination -certain it is that the fires were
far from being so indiscriminate or so extensive as
might be expected on the first day of a captured
city. As the Romans beheld from the Citadel the City
filled with the enemy who were running about in all
the streets, while some new disaster was constantly
occurring, first in one quarter then in another,
they could no longer control their eyes and ears,
let alone their thoughts and feelings. In whatever
direction their attention was drawn by the shouts of
the enemy, the shrieks of the women and boys, the
roar of the flames, and the crash of houses falling
in, thither they turned their eyes and minds as
though set by Fortune to be spectators of their
country's fall, powerless to protect anything left
of all they possessed beyond their lives. Above all
others who have ever stood a siege were they to be
pitied, cut off as they were from the land of their
birth and seeing all that had been theirs in the
possession of the enemy. The day which had been
spent in such misery was succeeded by a night not
one whit more restful, this again by a day of
anguish, there was not a single hour free from the
sight of some ever fresh calamity. And yet, though,
weighed down and overwhelmed with so many
misfortunes, they had watched everything laid low in
flame and ruin, they did not for a moment relax
their determination to defend by their courage the
one spot still left to freedom, the hill which they
held, however small and poor it might be. At length,
as this state of things went on day by day, they
became as it were hardened to misery, and turned
their thoughts from the circumstances round them to
their arms and the sword in their right hand, which
they gazed upon as the only things left to give them
hope.
5.43
For some days the Gauls
had been making useless war merely upon the houses
of the City. Now that they saw nothing surviving
amidst the ashes and ruin of the captured City
except an armed foe whom all these disasters had
failed to appal, and who would entertain no thought
of surrender unless force were employed, they
determined as a last resort to make an assault on
the Citadel. At daybreak the signal was given and
the whole of their number formed up in the Forum.
Raising their battle-shout and locking their shields
together over their heads, they advanced. The Romans
awaited the attack without excitement or fear, the
detachments were strengthened to guard all the
approaches, and in whatever direction they saw the
enemy advancing, there they posted a picked body of
men and allowed the enemy to climb up, for the
steeper the ground they got on to, the easier they
thought it would be to fling them down the slope.
About midway up the hill the Gauls halted; then from
the higher ground, which of itself almost hurled
them against the enemy, the Romans charged, and
routed the Gauls with such loss and overthrow that
they never again attempted that mode of fighting
either with detachments or in full strength. All
hope, therefore, of forcing a passage by direct
assault being laid aside, they made preparations for
a blockade. Up to that time they had never thought
of one; all the corn in the City had been destroyed
in the conflagrations, whilst that in the fields
around had been hastily carried off to Veii since
the occupation of the City. So the Gauls decided to
divide their forces; one division was to invest the
Citadel, the other to forage amongst the
neighbouring States so that they could supply corn
to those who were keeping up the investment. It was
Fortune herself who led the Gauls after they left
the City to Ardea, that they might have some
experience of Roman courage. Camillus was living
there as an exile, grieving more over his country's
fortunes than his own, eating his heart out in
reproaches to gods and men, asking in indignant
wonder where the men were with whom he had taken
Veii and Falerii; men whose valour in all their wars
was greater even than their success. Suddenly he
heard that the Gaulish army was approaching, and
that the Ardeates were engaged in anxious
deliberation about it. He had generally avoided the
council meetings, but now, seized with an
inspiration nothing short of divine, he hastened to
the assembled councillors and addressed them as
follows:
5.44
"Men of Ardea! friends of
old, and now my fellow-citizens -for this your
kindness has granted, this my fortunes have
compelled -let none of you imagine that I have come
here in forgetfulness of my position. The force of
circumstances and the common danger constrain every
man to contribute what help he can to meet the
crisis. When shall I ever be able to show my
gratitude for all the obligations you have conferred
if I fail in my duty now? When shall I ever be of
any use to you if not in war? It was by that that I
held my position in my native City as having never
known defeat; in times of peace my ungrateful
countrymen banished me. Now the chance is offered to
you, men of Ardea, of proving your gratitude for all
the kindness that Rome has shown you -you have not
forgotten how great it is, nor need I bring it up
against those who so well remember it -the chance
of winning for your city a vast reputation for war
at the expense of our common foe. Those who are
coming here in loose and disorderly fashion are a
race to whom nature has given bodies and minds
distinguished by bulk rather than by resolution and
endurance. It is for this reason that they bring
into every battle a terrifying appearance rather
than real force. Take the disaster of Rome as a
proof. They captured the City because it lay open to
them; a small force repelled them from the Citadel
and Capitol. Already the irksomeness of an
investment has proved too much for them, they are
giving it up and wandering through the fields in
straggling parties. When they are gorged with food
and the wine they drink so greedily, they throw
themselves down like wild beasts, on the approach of
night, in all directions by the streams, without
entrenching themselves, or setting any outposts or
pickets on guard. And now after their success they
are more careless than ever. If it is your intention
to defend your walls and not to allow all this
country to become a second Gaul, seize your arms and
muster in force by the first watch and follow me to
what will be a massacre, not a battle. If I do not
deliver them, whilst enchained by sleep, into your
hands to be slaughtered like cattle, I am ready to
accept the same fate in Ardea which I met with in
Rome."
5.45
Friends and foes were
alike persuaded that nowhere else was there at that
time so great a master of war. After the council
broke up they refreshed themselves and waited
eagerly for the signal to be given. When it was
given in the silence of the night they were at the
gates ready for Camillus. After marching no great
distance from the city they came upon the camp of
the Gauls, unprotected, as he had said, and
carelessly open on every side. They raised a
tremendous shout and rushed in; there was no battle,
it was everywhere sheer massacre; the Gauls,
defenceless and dissolved in sleep, were butchered
as they lay. Those in the furthest part of the camp,
however, startled from their lairs, and not knowing
whence or what the attack was, fled in terror, and
some actually rushed, unawares, amongst their
assailants. A considerable number were carried into
the neighbourhood of Antium, where they were
surrounded by the townsmen. A similar slaughter of
Etruscans took place in the district of Veii. So far
were these people from feeling sympathy with a City
which for almost four centuries had been their
neighbour, and was now crushed by an enemy never
seen or heard of before, that they chose that time
for making forays into Roman territory, and after
loading themselves with plunder, intended to attack
Veii, the bulwark and only surviving hope of the
Roman name. The Roman soldiers at Veii had seen them
dispersed through the fields, and afterwards, with
their forces collected, driving their booty in front
of them. Their first feelings were those of despair,
then indignation and rage took possession of them.
"Are even the Etruscans," they exclaimed, "from whom
we have diverted the arms of Gaul on to ourselves,
to find amusement in our disasters?" With difficulty
they restrained themselves from attacking them.
Caedicius, a centurion whom they had placed in
command, induced them to defer operations till
nightfall. The only thing lacking was a commander
like Camillus, in all other respects the ordering of
the attack and the success achieved were the same as
if he had been present. Not content with this, they
made some prisoners who had survived the night's
massacre act as guides, and, led by them, surprised
another body of Tuscans at the salt works and
inflicted a still greater loss upon them. Exultant
at this double victory they returned to Veii.
5.46
During these days there
was little going on in Rome; the investment was
maintained for the most part with great slackness;
both sides were keeping quiet, the Gauls being
mainly intent on preventing any of the enemy from
slipping through their lines. Suddenly a Roman
warrior drew upon himself the admiration of foes and
friends alike. The Fabian house had an annual
sacrifice on the Quirinal, and C. Fabius Dorsuo,
wearing his toga in the "Gabine cincture," and
bearing in his hands the sacred vessels, came down
from the Capitol, passed through the middle of the
hostile pickets, unmoved by either challenge or
threat, and reached the Quirinal. There he duly
performed all the solemn rites and returned with the
same composed expression and gait, feeling sure of
the divine blessing, since not even the fear of
death had made him neglect the worship of the gods;
finally he re-entered the Capitol and rejoined his
comrades. Either the Gauls were stupefied at his
extraordinary boldness, or else they were restrained
by religious feelings, for as a nation they are by
no means inattentive to the claims of religion. At
Veii there was a steady accession of strength as
well as courage. Not only were the Romans who had
been dispersed by the defeat and the capture of the
City gathering there, but volunteers from Latium
also flocked to the place that they might be in for
a share of the booty. The time now seemed ripe for
the recovery of their native City out of the hands
of the enemy. But though the body was strong it
lacked a head. The very place reminded men of
Camillus, the majority of the soldiers had fought
successfully under his auspices and leadership, and
Caedicius declared that he would give neither gods
nor men any pretext for terminating his command; he
would rather himself, remembering his subordinate
rank, ask for a commander-in-chief. It was decided
by general consent that Camillus should be invited
from Ardea, but the senate was to be consulted
first; to such an extent was everything regulated by
reverence for law; the proper distinctions of things
were observed, even though the things themselves
were almost lost.
Frightful risk would have to be incurred in
passing through the enemies' outposts. Pontius
Cominius, a fine soldier, offered himself for the
task. Supporting himself on a cork float, he was
carried down the Tiber to the City. Selecting the
nearest way from the bank of the river, he scaled a
precipitous rock which, owing to its steepness, the
enemy had left unguarded, and found his way into the
Capitol. On being brought before the supreme
magistrates he delivered his instructions from the
army. After receiving the decree of the senate,
which was to the effect that after being recalled
from exile by the comitia curiata, Camillus should
be forthwith nominated Dictator by order of the
people, and the soldiers should have the commander
they wanted, the messenger returned by the same
route and made the best of his way to Veii. A
deputation was sent to Ardea to conduct Camillus to
Veii. The law was passed in the comitia curiata
annulling his banishment and nominating him
Dictator, and it is, I think, more likely that he
did not start from Ardea until he learnt that this
law had been passed, because he could not change his
domicile without the sanction of the people, nor
could he take the auspices in the name of the army
until he had been duly nominated Dictator.
5.47
While these proceedings
were taking place at Veii, the Citadel and Capitol
of Rome were in imminent danger. The Gauls had
either noticed the footprints left by the messenger
from Veii, or had themselves discovered a
comparatively easy ascent up the cliff to the temple
of Carmentis. Choosing a night when there was a
faint glimmer of light, they sent an unarmed man in
advance to try the road; then handing one another
their arms where the path was difficult, and
supporting each other or dragging each other up as
the ground required, they finally reached the
summit. So silent had their movements been that not
only were they unnoticed by the sentinels, but they
did not even wake the dogs, an animal peculiarly
sensitive to nocturnal sounds. But they did not
escape the notice of the geese, which were sacred to
Juno and had been left untouched in spite of the
extremely scanty supply of food. This proved the
safety of the garrison, for their clamour and the
noise of their wings aroused M. Manlius, the
distinguished soldier, who had been consul three
years before. He snatched up his weapons and ran to
call the rest to arms, and while the rest hung back
he struck with the boss of his shield a Gaul who had
got a foothold on the summit and knocked him down.
He fell on those behind and upset them, and Manlius
slew others who had laid aside their weapons and
were clinging to the rocks with their hands. By this
time others had joined him, and they began to
dislodge the enemy with volleys of stones and
javelins till the whole body fell helplessly down to
the bottom. When the uproar had died away, the
remainder of the night was given to sleep, as far as
was possible under such disturbing circumstances,
whilst their peril, though past, still made them
anxious.
At daybreak the soldiers were summoned by
sound of trumpet to a council in the presence of the
tribunes, when the due rewards for good conduct and
for bad would be awarded. First, Manlius was
commended for his bravery, and rewarded not by the
tribunes alone but by the soldiers as a body, for
every man brought to him at his quarters, which were
in the Citadel, half a pound of meal and a quarter
of a pint of wine. This does not sound much, but the
scarcity made it an overwhelming proof of the
affection felt for him, since each stinted himself
of food and contributed in honour of that one man
what had to be taken from his necessaries of life.
Next, the sentinels who had been on duty at the spot
where the enemy had climbed up without their
noticing it were called forward. Q. Sulpicius, the
consular tribune, declared that he should punish
them all by martial law. He was, however, deterred
from this course by the shouts of the soldiers, who
all agreed in throwing the blame upon one man. As
there was no doubt of his guilt, he was amidst
general approval flung from the top of the cliff. A
stricter watch was now kept on both sides; by the
Gauls because it had become known that messengers
were passing between Rome and Veii; by the Romans,
who had not forgotten the danger they were in that
night.
5.48
But the greatest of all
the evils arising from the siege and the war was the
famine which began to afflict both armies, whilst
the Gauls were also visited with pestilence. They
had their camp on low-lying ground between the
hills, which had been scorched by the fires and was
full of malaria, and the least breath of wind raised
not dust only but ashes. Accustomed as a nation to
wet and cold, they could not stand this at all, and
tortured as they were by heat and suffocation,
disease became rife among them, and they died off
like sheep. They soon grew weary of burying their
dead singly, so they piled the bodies into heaps and
burned them indiscriminately, and made the locality
notorious; it was afterwards known as the Busta
Gallica. Subsequently a truce was made with the
Romans, and with the sanction of the commanders, the
soldiers held conversations with each other. The
Gauls were continually bringing up the famine and
calling upon them to yield to necessity and
surrender. To remove this impression it is said that
bread was thrown in many places from the Capitol
into the enemies' pickets. But soon the famine could
neither be concealed nor endured any longer. So, at
the very time that the Dictator was raising his own
levy at Ardea, and ordering his Master of the Horse,
L. Valerius, to withdraw his army from Veii, and
making preparations for a sufficient force with
which to attack the enemy on equal terms, the army
of the Capitol, worn out with incessant duty, but
still superior to all human ills, had nature not
made famine alone insuperable by them, were day by
day eagerly watching for signs of any help from the
Dictator. At last not only food but hope failed
them. Whenever the sentinels went on duty, their
feeble frames almost crushed by the weight of their
armour, the army insisted that they should either
surrender or purchase their ransom on the best terms
they could, for the Gauls were throwing out
unmistakable hints that they could be induced to
abandon the siege for a moderate consideration. A
meeting of the senate was now held, and the consular
tribunes were empowered to make terms. A conference
took place between Q. Sulpicius, the consular
tribune, and Brennus, the Gaulish chieftain, and an
agreement was arrived at by which 1000 lbs. of gold
was fixed as the ransom of a people destined ere
long to rule the world. This humiliation was great
enough as it was, but it was aggravated by the
despicable meanness of the Gauls, who produced
unjust weights, and when the tribune protested, the
insolent Gaul threw his sword into the scale, with
an exclamation intolerable to Roman ears, "Woe to
the vanquished!"
5.49
But gods and men alike
prevented the Romans from living as a ransomed
people. By a dispensation of Fortune it came about
that before the infamous ransom was completed and
all the gold weighed out, whilst the dispute was
still going on, the Dictator appeared on the scene
and ordered the gold to be carried away and the
Gauls to move off. As they declined to do so, and
protested that a definite compact had been made, he
informed them that when he was once appointed
Dictator no compact was valid which was made by an
inferior magistrate without his sanction. He then
warned the Gauls to prepare for battle, and ordered
his men to pile their baggage into a heap, get their
weapons ready, and win their country back by steel,
not by gold. They must keep before their eyes the
temples of the gods, their wives and children, and
their country's soil, disfigured by the ravages of
war -everything, in a word, which it was their duty
to defend, to recover or to avenge. He then drew up
his men in the best formation that the nature of the
ground, naturally uneven and now half burnt,
admitted, and made every provision that his military
skill suggested for securing the advantage of
position and movement for his men. The Gauls,
alarmed at the turn things had taken, seized their
weapons and rushed upon the Romans with more rage
than method. Fortune had now turned, divine aid and
human skill were on the side of Rome. At the very
first encounter the Gauls were routed as easily as
they had conquered at the Alia. In a second and more
sustained battle at the eighth milestone on the road
to Gabii, where they had rallied from their flight,
they were again defeated under the generalship and
auspices of Camillus. Here the carnage was complete;
the camp was taken, and not a single man was left to
carry tidings of the disaster. After thus recovering
his country from the enemy, the Dictator returned in
triumph to the City, and amongst the homely jests
which soldiers are wont to bandy, he was called in
no idle words of praise, "A Romulus," "The Father of
his country," "The Second Founder of the City." He
had saved his country in war, and now that peace was
restored, he proved, beyond all doubt, to be its
saviour again, when he prevented the migration to
Veii. The tribunes of the plebs were urging this
course more strongly than ever now that the City was
burnt, and the plebs were themselves more in favour
of it. This movement and the pressing appeal which
the senate made to him not to abandon the republic
while the position of affairs was so doubtful,
determined him not to lay down his dictatorship
after his triumph.
5.50
As he was most scrupulous
in discharging religious obligations, the very first
measures he introduced into the senate were those
relating to the immortal gods. He got the senate to
pass a resolution containing the following
provisions: All the temples, so far as they had been
in possession of the enemy, were to be restored and
purified, and their boundaries marked out afresh;
the ceremonies of purification were to be
ascertained from the sacred books by the duumvirs.
Friendly relations as between State and State were
to be established with the people of Caere, because
they had sheltered the sacred treasures of Rome and
her priests, and by this kindly act had prevented
any interruption to the divine worship. Capitoline
Games were to be instituted, because Jupiter Optimus
Maximus had protected his dwelling-place and the
Citadel of Rome in the time of danger, and the
Dictator was to form a college of priests for that
object from amongst those who were living on the
Capitol and in the Citadel. Mention was also made of
offering propitiation for the neglect of the
nocturnal Voice which was heard announcing disaster
before the war began, and orders were given for a
temple to be built in the Nova Via to AIUS LOCUTIUS.
The gold which had been rescued from the Gauls and
that which during the confusion had been brought
from the other temples, had been collected in the
temple of Jupiter. As no one remembered what
proportion ought to be returned to the other
temples, the whole was declared sacred, and ordered
to be deposited under the throne of Jupiter. The
religious feeling of the citizens had already been
shown in the fact that when there was not sufficient
gold in the treasury to make up the sum agreed upon
with the Gauls, they accepted the contribution of
the matrons, to avoid touching that which was
sacred. The matrons received public thanks, and the
distinction was conferred upon them of having
funeral orations pronounced over them as in the case
of men. It was not till after those matters were
disposed of which concerned the gods, and which
therefore were within the province of the senate,
that Camillus' attention was drawn to the tribunes,
who were making incessant harangues to persuade the
plebs to leave the ruins and migrate to Veii, which
was ready for them. At last he went up to the
Assembly, followed by the whole of the senate, and
delivered the following speech: -
5.51
"So painful to me,
Quirites, are controversies with the tribunes of the
plebs, that all the time I lived at Ardea my one
consolation in my bitter exile was that I was far
removed from these conflicts. As far as they are
concerned I would never have returned even if you
recalled me by a thousand senatorial decrees and
popular votes. And now that I am returned, it was
not change of mind on my part but change of fortune
on yours that compelled me. The question at stake
was whether my country was to remain unshaken in her
seat, not whether I was to be in my country at any
cost. Even now I would gladly remain quiet and hold
my peace, if I were not fighting another battle for
my country. To be wanting to her, as long as life
shall last, would be for other men a disgrace, for
Camillus a downright sin. Why did we win her back,
why did we, when she was beset by foes, deliver her
from their hands, if, now that she is recovered, we
desert her? Whilst the Gauls were victorious and the
whole of the City in their power, the gods and men
of Rome still held, still dwelt in, the Capitol and
the Citadel. And now that the Romans are victorious
and the City recovered, are the Citadel and Capitol
to be abandoned? Shall our good fortune inflict
greater desolation on this City than our evil
fortune wrought? Even had there been no religious
institutions established when the City was founded
and passed down from hand to hand, still, so clearly
has Providence been working in the affairs of Rome
at this time, that I for one would suppose that all
neglect of divine worship has been banished from
human life. Look at the alternations of prosperity
and adversity during these late years; you will find
that all went well with us when we followed the
divine guidance, and all was disastrous when we
neglected it. Take first of all the war with Veii.
For what a number of years and with what immense
exertions it was carried on! It did not come to an
end before the water was drawn off from the Alban
Lake at the bidding of the gods. What, again, of
this unparalleled disaster to our City? Did it burst
upon us before the Voice sent from heaven announcing
the approach of the Gauls was treated with contempt,
before the law of nations had been outraged by our
ambassadors, before we had, in the same irreligious
spirit, condoned that outrage when we ought to have
punished it? And so it was that, defeated, captured,
ransomed, we received such punishment at the hands
of gods and men that we were a lesson to the whole
world. Then, in our adversity, we bethought us of
our religious duties. We fled to the gods in the
Capitol, to the seat of Jupiter Optimus Maximus;
amidst the ruin of all that we possessed we
concealed some of the sacred treasures in the earth,
the rest we carried out of the enemies' sight to
neighbouring cities; abandoned as we were by gods
and men, we still did not intermit the divine
worship. It is because we acted thus that they have
restored to us our native City, and victory and the
renown in war which we had lost; but against the
enemy, who, blinded by avarice, broke treaty and
troth in the weighing of the gold, they have
launched terror and rout and death.
5.52
"When you see such
momentous consequences for human affairs flowing
from the worship or the neglect of the gods, do you
not realise, Quirites, how great a sin we are
meditating whilst hardly yet emerging from the
shipwreck caused by our former guilt and fall? We
possess a City which was founded with the divine
approval as revealed in auguries and auspices; in it
there is not a spot which is not full of religious
associations and the presence of a god; the regular
sacrifices have their appointed places no less than
they have their appointed days. Are you, Quirites,
going to desert all these gods -those whom the
State honours, those whom you worship, each at your
own altars? How far does your action come up to that
of the glorious youth C. Fabius, during the siege,
which was watched by the enemy with no less
admiration than by you, when he went down from the
Citadel through the missiles of the Gauls and
celebrated the appointed sacrifice of his house on
the Quirinal? Whilst the sacred rites of the
patrician houses are not interrupted even in time of
war, are you content to see the State offices of
religion and the gods of Rome abandoned in a time of
peace? Are the Pontiffs and Flamens to be more
neglectful of their public functions than a private
individual is of the religious obligations of his
house?
"Some one may possibly reply that we can
either discharge these duties at Veii or send
priests to discharge them here. But neither of these
things can be done if the rites are to be duly
performed. Not to mention all the ceremonies or all
the deities individually, where else, I would ask,
but in the Capitol can the couch of Jupiter be
prepared on the day of his festal banquet? What need
is there for me to speak about the perpetual fire of
Vesta, and the Image -the pledge of our dominion -which is in the safe keeping of her temple? And you,
Mars Gradivus, and you, Father Quirinus, what need
to speak of your sacred shields? Is it your wish
that all these holy things, coeval with the City,
some of even greater antiquity, should be abandoned
and left on unhallowed soil? See, too, how great the
difference between us and our ancestors. They left
to us certain rites and ceremonies which we can only
duly perform on the Alban Mount or at Lavinium. If
it was a matter of religion that these rites should
not be transferred from cities which belonged to an
enemy to us at Rome, shall we transfer them from
here to the enemies' city, Veii, without offending
heaven? Call to mind, I pray you, how often
ceremonies are repeated, because through negligence
or accident some detail of the ancestral ritual has
been omitted. What remedy was there for the
republic, when crippled by the war with Veii after
the portent of the Alban Lake, except the revival of
sacred rites and the taking of fresh auspices? And
more than that, as though after all we reverenced
the ancient faiths, we have transferred foreign
deities to Rome, and have established new ones.
Queen Juno was lately carried from Veii and
dedicated on the Aventine, and how splendidly that
day was celebrated through the grand enthusiasm of
our matrons! We ordered a temple to be built to Aius
Locutius because of the divine Voice which was heard
in the Via Nova. We have added to our annual
festivals the Capitoline Games, and on the authority
of the senate we have founded a college of priests
to superintend them. What necessity was there for
all these undertakings if we intended to leave the
City of Rome at the same time as the Gauls, if it
was not of our own free will that we remained in the
Capitol through all those months, but the fear of
the enemy which shut us up there?
"We are speaking about the temples and the
sacred rites and ceremonies. But what, pray, about
the priests? Do you not realise what a heinous sin
will be committed? For the Vestals surely there is
only that one abode, from which nothing has ever
removed them but the capture of the City. The Flamen
of Jupiter is forbidden by divine law to stay a
single night outside the City. Are you going to make
these functionaries priests of Veii instead of
priests of Rome? Will thy Vestals desert thee, Vesta
? Is the Flamen to bring fresh guilt upon himself
and the State for every night he sojourns abroad?
Think of the other proceedings which, after the
auspices have been duly taken, we conduct almost
entirely within the City boundaries -to what
oblivion, to what neglect are we consigning them!
The Assembly of the Curies, which confers the
supreme command, the Assembly of the Centuries, in
which you elect the consuls and consular tribunes -where can they be held and the auspices taken except
where they are wont to be held? Shall we transfer
these to Veii, or are the people, when an Assembly
is to be held, to meet at vast inconvenience in this
City after it has been deserted by gods and men?
5.53
"But, you may say, it is
obvious that the whole City is polluted, and no
expiatory sacrifices can purify it; circumstances
themselves compel us to quit a City devastated by
fire, and all in ruins, and migrate to Veii where
everything is untouched. We must not distress the
poverty-stricken plebs by building here. I fancy,
however, Quirites, that it is evident to you,
without my telling you, that this suggestion is a
plausible excuse rather than a true reason. You
remember how this same question of migrating to Veii
was mooted before the Gauls came, whilst public and
private buildings were still safe and the City stood
secure. And mark you, tribunes, how widely my view
differs from yours. Even supposing it ought not to
have been done then, you think that at any rate it
ought to be done now, whereas -do not express
surprise at what I say before you have grasped its
purport -I am of opinion that even had it been
right to migrate then when the City was wholly
unhurt, we ought not to abandon these ruins now. For
at that time the reason for our migrating to a
captured city would have been a victory glorious for
us and for our posterity, but now this migration
would be glorious for the Gauls, but for us shame
and bitterness. For we shall be thought not to have
left our native City as victors, but to have lost it
because we were vanquished; it will look as though
it was the flight at the Alia, the capture of the
City, the beleaguering of the Capitol, which had
laid upon us the necessity of deserting our
household gods and dooming ourselves to banishment
from a place which we were powerless to defend. Was
it possible for Gauls to overthrow Rome and shall it
be deemed impossible for Romans to restore it?
"What more remains except for them to come
again with fresh forces -we all know that their
numbers surpass belief -and elect to live in this
City which they captured, and you abandoned, and for
you to allow them to do so? Why, if it were not
Gauls who were doing this, but your old enemies, the
Aequi and Volscians, who migrated to Rome, would you
wish them to be Romans and you Veientines? Or would
you rather that this were a desert of your own than
the city of your foes? I do not see what could be
more infamous. Are you prepared to allow this crime
and endure this disgrace because of the trouble of
building? If no better or more spacious dwelling
could be put up in the whole City of Rome than that
hut of our Founder, would it not be better to live
in huts after the manner of herdsmen and peasants,
surrounded by our temples and our gods, than to go
forth as a nation of exiles? Our ancestors,
shepherds and refugees, built a new City in a few
years, when there was nothing in these parts but
forests and swamps; are we shirking the labour of
rebuilding what has been burnt, though the Citadel
and Capitol are intact, and the temples of the gods
still stand? What we would each have done in our own
case, had our houses caught fire, are we as a
community refusing to do now that the City has been
burnt?
5.54
"Well now, suppose that
either through crime or accident a fire broke out in
Veii, and the flames, as is quite possible, fanned
by the wind, consumed a great part of the city, are
we going to look out for Fidenae or Gabii, or any
other city you please, as a place to which to
migrate? Has our native soil, this land we call our
motherland, so slight a hold upon us? Does our love
for our country cling only to its buildings?
Unpleasant as it is to recall my sufferings, still
more your injustice, I will nevertheless confess to
you that whenever I thought of my native City all
these things came into my mind -the hills, the
plains, the Tiber, this landscape so familiar to me,
this sky beneath which I was born and bred -and I
pray that they may now move you by the affection
they inspire to remain in your City, rather than
that, after you have abandoned it, they should make
you pine with home-sickness. Not without good reason
did gods and men choose this spot as the site of a
City, with its bracing hills, its commodious river,
by means of which the produce of inland countries
may be brought down and over-sea supplies obtained;
a sea near enough for all useful purposes, but not
so near as to be exposed to danger from foreign
fleets; a district in the very centre of Italy -in
a word, a position singularly adapted by nature for
the expansion of a city. The mere size of so young a
City is a proof of this. This is the 365th year of
the City, Quirites, yet in all the wars you have for
so long been carrying on amongst all those ancient
nations -not to mention the separate cities -the
Volscians in conjunction with the Aequi and all
their strongly fortified towns, the whole of
Etruria, so powerful by land and sea, and stretching
across Italy from sea to sea -none have proved a
match for you in war. This has hitherto been your
Fortune; what sense can there be -perish the
thought! -in making trial of another Fortune? Even
granting that your valour can pass over to another
spot, certainly the good Fortune of this place
cannot be transferred. Here is the Capitol where in
the old days a human head was found, and this was
declared to be an omen, for in that place would be
fixed the head and supreme sovereign power of the
world. Here it was that whilst the Capitol was being
cleared with augural rites, Juventas and Terminus,
to the great delight of your fathers, would not
allow themselves to be moved. Here is the Fire of
Vesta; here are the Shields sent down from heaven;
here are all the gods, who, if you remain, will be
gracious to you."
5.55
It is stated that this
speech of Camillus made a profound impression,
particularly that part of it which appealed to the
religious feelings. But whilst the issue was still
uncertain, a sentence, opportunely uttered, decided
the matter. The senate, shortly afterwards, were
discussing the question in the Curia Hostilia, and
some cohorts returning from guard happened to be
marching through the Forum. They had just entered
the Comitium, when the centurion shouted, "Halt,
standard-bearer! Plant the standard; it will be best
for us to stop here." On hearing these words, the
senators rushed out of the Senate-house, exclaiming
that they welcomed the omen, and the people crowding
round them gave an emphatic approval. The proposed
measure for migration was dropped, and they began to
rebuild the City in a haphazard way. Tiling was
provided at the public expense; every one was given
the right to cut stone and timber where he pleased,
after giving security that the building should be
completed within the year. In their haste, they took
no trouble to plan out straight streets; as all
distinctions of ownership in the soil were lost,
they built on any ground that happened to be vacant.
That is the reason why the old sewers, which
originally were carried under public ground, now run
everywhere under private houses, and why the
conformation of the City resembles one casually
built upon by settlers rather than one regularly
planned out.
End of Book 5