Roman History, Books I III - Titus Livius
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After this laws were proposed by the consul, such as not only freed
him from all suspicion of aiming at regal power, but had so contrary
a tendency, that they even made him popular. At this time he was
surnamed Publicola. Above all, the laws regarding an appeal to the
people against the magistrates, and declaring accursed the life and
property of any one who should have formed the design of seizing regal
authority,[8] were welcome to the people. Having passed these laws
while sole consul, so that the merit of them might be exclusively his
own, he then held an assembly for the election of a new colleague.
Spurius Lucretius was elected consul, who, owing to his great age, and
his strength being inadequate to discharge the consular duties, died
within a few days. Marcus Horatius Pulvillus was chosen in the room of
Lucretius. In some ancient authorities I find no mention of Lucretius
as consul; they place Horatius immediately after Brutus. My own belief
is that, because no important event signalized his consulate, all
record of it has been lost. The Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol had
not yet been dedicated; the conuls Valerius and Horatius cast lots
which should dedicate it. The duty fell by lot to Horatius. Publicola
departed to conduct the war against the Veientines. The friends of
Valerius were more annoyed than the circumstances demanded that the
dedication of so celebrated a temple was given to Horatius. Having
endeavoured by every means to prevent it, when all other attempts had
been tried and failed, at the moment when the consul was holding the
door-post during his offering of prayer to the gods, they suddenly
announced to him the startling intelligence that his son was dead, and
that, while his family was polluted by death, he could not dedicate
the temple. Whether he did not believe that it was true, or whether
he possessed such great strength of mind, is neither handed down for
certain, nor is it easy to decide. On receiving the news, holding the
door-post, without turning off his attention in any other way from the
business he was engaged completed the form of prayer, and dedicated
the temple. Such were the transactions at home and abroad during
the first year after the expulsion of the kings. After this Publius
Valerius, for the second time, and Titus Lucretius were elected
consuls.
By this time the Tarquins had fled to Lars Porsina, King of Clusium.
There, mingling advice with entreaties, they now besought him not to
suffer them, who were descended from the Etruscans, and of the same
stock and name, to live in exile and poverty; now advised him also not
to let the rising practice of expelling kings pass unpunished. Liberty
in itself had charms enough; and, unless kings defended their thrones
with as much vigour as the people strove for liberty, the highest was
put on a level with the lowest; there would be nothing exalted in
states, nothing to be distinguished above the rest; that the end of
regal government, the most beautiful institution both among gods and
men, was close at hand. Porsina, thinking it a great honour to the
Tuscans both that there should be a king at Rome, and that one
belonging to the Etruscan nation, marched toward Rome with a hostile
army. Never before on any other occasion did such terror seize the
senate; so powerful was the state of Clusium[9] at that time, and so
great the renown of Porsina. Nor did they dread their enemies only,
but even their own citizens, lest the common people of Rome, smitten
with fear, should, by receiving the Tarquins into the city, accept
peace even at the price of slavery. Many concessions were therefore
granted to the people by the senate during that period by way of
conciliating them. Their attention, in the first place, was directed
to the markets, and persons were sent, some to the country of the
Volscians, others to Cumae, to buy up corn. The privilege of selling
salt also was withdrawn from private individuals because it was sold
at an exorbitant price, while all the expense fell upon the state:[10]
and the people were freed from duties and taxes, inasmuch as the rich,
since they were in a position to bear the burden, should contribute
them; the poor, they said, paid taxes enough if they brought up their
children. This indulgence on the part of the fathers accordingly kept
the state so united during their subsequent adversity in time of siege
and famine, that the lowest as much as the highest abhorred the name
of king; nor did any single individual afterward gain such popularity
by intriguing practices, as the whole body of the senate at that time
by their excellent government.
On the approach of the enemy, they all withdrew for protection from
the country into the city, and protected the city itself with military
garrisons. Some parts seemed secured by the walls, others by the Tiber
between. The Sublician [11] bridge well-nigh afforded a passage to
the enemy, had it not been for one man, Horatius Cocles: in him the
protecting spirit of Rome on that day found a defence. He happened to
be posted on guard at the bridge: and, when he saw the Janiculum taken
by a sudden assault, and the enemy pouring down from thence at full
speed, and his own party, in confusion, abandoning their arms and
ranks, seizing hold of them one by one, standing in their way, and
appealing to the faith of gods and men, he declared, that their flight
would avail them nothing if they deserted their post; if they crossed
the bridge and left it behind them, there would soon be greater
numbers of the enemy in the Palatium and Capitol than in the
Janiculum; therefore he advised and charged them to break down the
bridge, by sword, by fire, or by any violent means whatsoever; that
he himself would receive the attack of the enemy as far as resistance
could be offered by the person of one man. He then strode to the front
entrance of the bridge, and being easily distinguished among those
whose backs were seen as they gave way before the battle, he struck
the enemy with amazement by his surprising boldness as he faced round
in arms to engage the foe hand to hand. Two, however, a sense of shame
kept back with him, Spurius Larcius and Titus Herminius, both men of
high birth, and renowned for their gallant exploits. With them he for
a short time stood the first storm of danger, and the severest brunt
of the battle. Afterward, as those who were cutting down the bridge
called upon them to retire, and only a small portion of it was left,
he obliged them also to withdraw to a place of safety. Then, casting
his stern eyes threateningly upon all the nobles of the Etruscans, he
now challenged them singly, now reproached them all as the slaves of
haughty tyrants, who, unmindful of their own freedom, came to attack
that of others. For a considerable time they hesitated, looking round
one upon another, waiting to begin the fight. A feeling of shame then
stirred the army, and raising a shout, they hurled their weapons from
all sides on their single adversary; and when they had all stuck in
the shield he held before him, and he with no less obstinacy kept
possession of the bridge with firm step, they now began to strive to
thrust him down from it by their united attack, when the crash of the
falling bridge, and at the same time the shout raised by the Romans
for joy at having completed their task, checked their assault with
sudden consternation. Then Cocles said, "Father Tiberinus, holy one, I
pray thee, receive these arms, and this thy soldier, in thy favouring
stream." So, in full armour, just as he was, he leapedinto the Tiber,
and, amid showers of darts that fell upon him, swam across unharmed to
his comrades, having dared a deed which is likely to obtain more fame
than belief with posterity.[12] The state showed itself grateful
toward such distinguished valour; a statue of him was erected in the
comitium, and as much land was given to him as he could draw a furrow
round in one day with a plough. The zeal of private individuals also
was conspicuous in the midst of public honours. For, notwithstanding
the great scarcity, each person contributed something to him in
proportion to his private means, depriving himself of his own means of
support.
Porsina, repulsed in his first attempt, having changed his plans to a
siege of the city, and a blockade, and pitched his camp in the plain
and on the bank of the Tiber, placed a garrison in the Janiculum.
Then, sending for boats from all parts, both to guard the river, so as
to prevent any provisions being conveyed up stream to Rome, and also
that his soldiers might get across to plunder in different places as
opportunity offered, in a short time he so harassed all the country
round Rome, that not only was everything else conveyed out of the
country, but even the cattle were driven into the city, and nobody
ventured to drive them without the gates. This liberty of action was
granted to the Etruscans, not more from fear than from design: for the
consul Valerius, eager for an opportunity of falling unawares upon a
number of them together in loose order, careless of taking vengeance
in trifling matters, reserved himself as a serious avenger for more
important occasions. Accordingly, in order to draw out the pillagers,
he ordered a large body of his men to drive out their cattle the next
day by the Esquiline gate, which was farthest from the enemy, thinking
that they would get intelligence of it, because during the blockade
and scarcity of provisions some of the slaves would turn traitors and
desert. And in fact they did learn by the information of a deserter,
and parties far more numerous than usual crossed the river in the hope
of seizing all the booty at once. Then Publius Valerius commanded
Titus Herminius, with a small force, to lie in ambush at the second
milestone on the road to Gabii, and Spurius Larcius, with a party of
light-armed youths, to post himself at the Colline gate while the
enemy was passing by, and then to throw himself in their way to cut
off their return to the river. The other consul, Titus Lucretius,
marched out of the Naevian gate with some companies of soldiers, while
Valerius himself led some chosen cohorts down from the Colan Mount.
These were the first who were seen by the enemy. Herminius, when he
perceived the alarm, rushed from his ambush and fell upon the rear of
the Etruscans, who had turned against Valerius. The shout was returned
on the right and left, from the Colline gate on the one side and
the Naevian on the other. Thus the plunderers were put to the sword
between both, being neither their match in strength for fighting, and
all the ways being blocked up to prevent escape: this put an end to
the disorderly raids of the Etruscans.
The blockade, however, was carried on none the less, and corn was both
scarce and very dear. Porsina still entertained the hope that, by
continuing the blockade, he would be able to reduce the city, when
Gaius Mucius, a young noble, who considered it a disgrace that the
Roman people, who, even when in a state of slavery, while under the
kings, had never been confined within their walls during any war, or
blockaded by any enemy, should now, when a free people, be blockaded
by these very Etruscans whose armies they had often routed--and
thinking that such disgrace ought to be avenged by some great and
daring deed, at first designed on his own responsibility to make his
way into the enemy's camp. Then, being afraid that, if he went without
the permission of the consuls, and unknown to all, he might perhaps be
seized by the Roman guards and brought back as a deserter, since the
circumstances of the city at the time rendered such a charge credible,
he approached the senate. "Fathers," said he, "I desire to cross
the Tiber, and enter the enemy's camp, if I may be able, not as
a plunderer, nor as an avenger to exact retribution for their
devastations: a greater deed is in my mind, if the gods assist." The
senate approved. He set out with a dagger concealed under his garment.
When he reached the camp, he stationed himself where the crowd was
thickest, near the king's tribunal. There, as the soldiers happened
to be receiving their pay, and the king's secretary, sitting by him,
similarly attired, was busily engaged, and generally addressed by
the soldiers, he killed the secretary, against whom chance blindly
directed the blow, instead of the king, being afraid to ask which of
the two was Porsina, lest, by displaying his ignorance of the king,
he should disclose who he himself was. As he was moving off in the
direction where with his bloody dagger he had made a way for himself
through the dismayed multitude, the crowd ran up on hearing the noise,
and he was immediately seized and brought back by the king's guards:
being set before the king's tribunal, even then, amid the perilous
fortune that threatened him, more capable of inspiring dread than
of feeling it, "I am," said he, "a Roman citizen; men call me Gaius
Mucius; an enemy, I wished to slay an enemy, nor have I less courage
to suffer death than I had to inflict it. Both to do and to suffer
bravely is a Roman's part. Nor have I alone harboured such feelings
toward you; there follows after me a long succession of aspirants to
the same honour. Therefore, if you choose, prepare yourself for this
peril, to be in danger of your life from hour to hour: to find the
sword and the enemy at the very entrance of your tent: such is the war
we, the youth of Rome, declare against you; dread not an army in the
field, nor a battle; you will have to contend alone and with each of
us one by one." When the king, furious with rage, and at the same time
terrified at the danger, threateningly commanded fires to be kindled
about him, if he did not speedily disclose the plots, at which in his
threats he had darkly hinted, Mucius said, "See here, that you may
understand of how little account the body is to those who have great
glory in view"; and immediately thrust his right hand into the fire
that was lighted for sacrifice. When he allowed it to burn as if
his spirit were quite insensible to any feeling of pain, the king,
well-nigh astounded at this surprising sight, leaped from his seat and
commanded the young man to be removed from the altar. "Depart," said
he, "thou who hast acted more like an enemy toward thyself than toward
me. I would bid thee go on and prosper in thy valour, if that valour
were on the side of my country. I now dismiss thee unharmed and
unhurt, exempt from the right of war." Then Mucius, as if in return
for the kindness, said: "Since bravery is held in honour with you,
that you may obtain from me by your kindness that which you could not
obtain by threats, know that we are three hundred, the chief of the
Roman youth, who have conspired to attack you in this manner. The
lot fell upon me first. The rest will be with you each in his turn,
according to the fortune that shall befall me who drew the first lot,
until fortune on some favourable opportunity shall have delivered you
into their hands."
Mucius, to whom the surname of Scaevola[13] was afterward given from
the loss of his right hand, was let go and ambassadors from Porsina
followed him to Rome. The danger of the first attempt, in which
nothing had protected him but the mistake of his secret assailant,
and the thought of the risk of life he would have to run so often in
proportion to the number of surviving conspirators that remained, made
so strong an impression upon him that of his own accord he offered
terms of peace to the Romans. In these terms the restoration of the
Tarquins to the throne was proposed and discussed without success,
rather because he felt he could not refuse that to the Tarquins, than
from ignorance that it would be refused him by the Romans. In regard
to the restoration of territory to the Veientines his request was
granted, and the obligation of giving hostages, if they wished the
garrison to be withdrawn from the Janiculum, was extorted from the
Romans. Peace being concluded on these terms, Porsina led his troops
down from the Janiculum, and withdrew from Roman territory. The
fathers bestowed upon Gaius Mucius, in reward for his valour, some
land on the other side of the Tiber, which was afterward called the
Mucian meadows. By this honour paid to valour women also were roused
to deeds that brought glory to the state. Among others, a young woman
named Claelia, one of the hostages, escaped her keepers, and, as the
camp of the Etruscans had been pitched not far from the bank of the
Tiber, swam over the river, amid the darts of the enemy, at the head
of a band of maidens, and brought them all back in safety to their
relations at Rome. When news of this was brought to the king, at
first, furious with rage, he sent deputies to Rome to demand the
hostage Claelia, saying that he did not set great store by the rest:
afterward, his feelings being changed to admiration, he said that
this deed surpassed those of men like Cocles and Mucius, and further
declared that, as he would consider the treaty broken if the hostage
were not delivered up, so, if she were given up, he would send her
back unharmed and unhurt to her friends. Both sides kept faith: the
Romans restored their pledge of peace according to treaty: and with
the Etruscan king valour found not only security, but also honour;
and, after praising the maiden, he promised to give her, as a present,
half the hostages, allowing her to choose whom she pleased. When they
had all been led forth, she is said to have picked out those below the
age of puberty, a choice which both reflected honour upon her maiden
delicacy, and was one likely to be approved of by consent of the
hostages themselves--that those who were of such an age as was most
exposed to injury should above all others be delivered from the enemy.
Peace being renewed, the Romans rewarded this instance of bravery
uncommon in a woman with an uncommon kind of honour: an equestrian
statue, which, representing a maiden sitting on horseback, was erected
at the top of the Via Sacra.[14]
The custom handed down from the ancients, and which has continued down
to our times among other usages at public sales, that of selling
the goods of King Porsina, is inconsistent with this account of so
peaceful a departure of the Etruscan king from the city. The origin
of this custom must either have arisen during the war, and not been
abandoned in time of peace, or it must have grown from a milder
beginning than the form of expression seems, on the face of it, to
indicate, of selling the goods as if taken from an enemy. Of the
accounts handed down, the most probable is, that Porsina, when
retiring from the Janiculum, made a present to the Romans of his camp
rich with stores of provisions conveyed from the neighbouring fertile
fields of Etruria, as the city was then exhausted owing to the long
siege: that then, to prevent its contents being plundered as if it
belonged to an enemy when the people were admitted, they were sold,
and called the goods of Porsina, the expression rather conveying the
idea of a thankworthy gift than an auction of the king's property,
seeing that this never even came into the power of the Roman people.
Porsina, having abandoned the war against the Romans, that his army
might not seem to have been led into those parts to no purpose,
sent his son Arruns with part of his forces to besiege Aricia. The
unexpected occurrence at first terrified the Aricians: afterward aid,
which had been sent for, both from the people of Latium and from
Cumae,[15] inspired such hope that they ventured to try the issue of a
pitched battle. At the beginning of the battle the Etruscans attacked
so furiously that they routed the Aricians at the first onset. But the
Cuman cohorts, employing stratagem against force, moved off a little
to one side, and when the enemy were carried beyond them in loose
array, they wheeled round and attacked them in the rear. By this means
the Etruscans, when on the point of victory, were hemmed in and cut to
pieces. A very small number of them, having lost their general, and
having no nearer refuge, came to Rome without their arms, in the
plight and guise of suppliants. There they were kindly received and
distributed in different lodgings. When their wounds had been attended
to, some with. Affection for their hosts and for the city caused many
others to remain at Rome: a quarter was assigned them to dwell in,
which has ever since been called the Tuscan Street.[16]
Spurius Lucretius and Publius Valerius Publicola were next elected
consuls. In that year ambassadors came from Porsina for the last time,
to discuss the restoration of Tarquin to the throne. And when answer
had been given them, that the senate would send deputies to the king,
the most distinguished of that order were forthwith despatched to
explain that it was not because the answer could not have been given
in a few words--that the royal family would not be received--that
select members of the senate had been deputed to him, rather than an
answer given to his ambassadors at Rome, but in order that all mention
of the matter might be put an end to forever, and that their minds
might not be disturbed amid so many mutual acts of kindness on both
sides, by his asking what was adverse to the liberty of the Roman
people, and by their refusing him (unless they were willing to promote
their own destruction) whom they would willingly refuse nothing. That
the Roman people were not now under a kingly government, but in the
enjoyment of freedom, and were accordingly resolved to open their
gates to enemies sooner than to kings. That it was the wish of all,
that the end of their city's freedom might also be the end of the city
itself. Wherefore, if he wished Rome to be safe, they entreated him
to suffer it to be free. The king, overcome by feelings of respect,
replied: "Since that is your firm and fixed resolve, I will neither
annoy you by importunities, by urging the same request too often to no
purpose, nor will I disappoint the Tarquins by holding out hopes of
aid, which it is not in my power to give them; whether they have need
of peace, or of war, let them go hence and seek another place of
exile, that nothing may hinder the peace between us." To kindly words
he added deeds still more friendly: he delivered up the remainder of
the hostages, and restored to them the land of the Veientines, which
had been taken from them by the treaty concluded at the Janiculum.
Tarquin, now that all hope of return was cut off, went into exile to
Tusculum [17] to his son-in-law Octavius Mamilius. Thus a lasting
peace was concluded between Porsina and the Romans.
The next consuls were Marcus Valerius and Publius Postumius. During
that year war was carried on successfully against the Sabines; the
consuls received the honour of a triumph. Upon this the Sabines made
preparations for war on a larger scale. To make head against them, and
to prevent any sudden danger arising from Tusculum, from which quarter
war, though not openly declared, was suspected, Publius Valerius was
created consul a fourth time, and Titus Lucretius a second time. A
disturbance that arose among the Sabines between the advocates of
war and of peace transferred considerable strength from them to the
Romans. For Attius Clausus, who was afterward called Appius Claudius
at Rome, being himself an advocate of peace, when hard pressed by
the agitators for war, and being no match for the party, fled from
Regillum to Rome, accompanied by a great number of dependents. The
rights of citizenship and land on the other side of the Anio were
bestowed on them. This settlement was called the old Claudian tribe,
and was subsequently increased by the addition of new tribesmen who
kept arriving from that district. Appius, being chosen into the
senate, was soon after advanced to the rank of the highest in that
order. The consuls entered the territories of the Sabines with a
hostile army, and when, both by laying waste their country, and
afterward by defeating them in battle, they had so weakened the power
of the enemy that for a long time there was no reason to dread the
renewal of the war in that quarter, they returned to Rome in triumph.
The following year, Agrippa Menenius and Publius Postumius being
consuls, Publius Valerius, by universal consent the ablest man in
Rome, in the arts both of peace and war, died covered with glory, but
in such straitened private circumstances that there was not enough
to defray the expenses of a public funeral: one was given him at
the public charge. The matrons mourned for him as they had done for
Brutus. The same year two Latin colonies, Pometia and Cora,[18]
revolted to the Auruncans.[19] War was commenced against the
Auruncans, and after a large army, which boldly met the consuls
as they were entering their frontiers, had been defeated, all the
operations of the Auruncan war were concentrated at Pometia. Nor,
after the battle was over, did they refrain from slaughter any more
than when it was going on: the number of the slain was considerably
greater than that of the prisoners, and the latter they put to death
indiscriminately. Nor did the wrath of war spare even the hostages,
three hundred in number, whom they had received. This year also the
consuls celebrated a triumph at Rome.