7.32
When the
result of this mission was reported in Rome, all other matters were at once
laid aside and the fetials were sent to demand redress. This was refused and
the senate decreed that a formal declaration of war should be submitted for
the approval of the people as soon as possible. The people ratified the action
of the senate and ordered the two consuls to start, each with his army;
Valerius for Campania, where he fixed his camp at Mount Glaurus, whilst
Cornelius advanced into Samnium and encamped at Saticula. Valerius was
the first to come into touch with the Samnite legions. They had marched into
Campania because they thought that this would be the main theatre of war,
and they were burning to wreak their rage on the Campanians who had been
so ready first to help others against them and then to summon help for
themselves. As soon as they saw the Roman camp, they one and all
clamoured for the signal for battle to be given by their leaders; they declared
that the Romans would have the same luck in helping the Campanians that
the Campanians had had in helping the Sidicines. For a few days Valerius
confined himself to skirmishes, with the object of testing the enemy's
strength. At length he put out the signal for battle and spoke a few words of
encouragement to his men. He told them not to let themselves be daunted by
a new war or a new enemy, for the further they carried their arms from the
City the more unwarlike were the nations whom they approached. They
were not to measure the courage of the Samnites by the defeats they had
inflicted on the Sidicines and the Campanians; whenever two nations fought
together, whatever the qualities they possessed, one side must necessarily be
vanquished. There was no doubt that as far as the Campanians were
concerned they owed their defeats more to their want of hardihood and the
weakening effects of excessive luxury than to the strength of their enemies.
What could two successful wars on the part of the Samnites through all
those centuries weigh against the many brilliant achievements of the Roman
people, who reckoned up almost more triumphs than years since the
foundation of their City, who had subdued by the might of their arms all the
surrounding nations -Sabines, Etruscans, Latins, Hernici, Aequi, Volscians,
and Auruncans -who had slain the Gauls in so many battles and driven them
at last to their ships? His men must not only go into action in full reliance
upon their own courage and warlike reputation, but they must also
remember under whose auspices and generalship they were going to fight,
whether under a man who is only to be listened to provided he is a big talker,
courageous only in words, ignorant of a soldier's work, or under one who
himself knows how to handle weapons, who can show himself in the front,
and do his duty in the melee of battle. "I want you, soldiers," he continued,
"to follow my deeds not my words, and to look to me not only for the word
of command but also for example. It was not by party struggles nor by the
intrigues so common amongst the nobles but by my own right hand that I
won three consulships and attained the highest reputation. There was a time
when it might have been said to me, 'Yes, for you were a patrician descended
from the liberators of our country, and your family held the consulship in the
very year when this City first possessed consuls.' Now, however, the
consulship is open to you, plebeians, as much as to us who are patricians; it
is not the reward of high birth as it once was, but of personal merit. Look
forward then, soldiers, to securing all the highest honours! If with the
sanction of the gods you men have given me this new name of Corvinus, I
have not forgotten the old cognomen of our family; I have not forgotten that
I am a Publicola. I always study and always have studied the interests of the
Roman plebs, both at home and in the field, whether as a private citizen or
holding public office, whether as military tribune or as consul. I have been
consistent to this aim in all my successive consulships. And now for what is
immediately before us: go on with the help of heaven, and win with me for
the first time a triumph over your new foes -the Samnites."