Roman History, Books I III - Titus Livius
Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25
It happened that preparations were being made at Rome for a renewal of
the great games.[44] The cause of this renewal was as follows: On the
day of the games, in the morning when the show had not yet begun, a
certain head of a family had driven a slave of his through the middle
of the circus while he was being flogged, tied to the fork:[45] after
this the games had been begun, as if the matter had nothing to do with
any religious difficulty. Soon afterward Titus Latinius, a plebeian,
had a dream, in which Jupiter appeared to him and said that the person
who danced before the games had displeased him; unless those games
were renewed on a splendid scale, danger would threaten the city:
let him go and announce this to the consuls. Though his mind was not
altogether free from religious awe, his reverence for the dignity of
the magistrates, lest he might become a subject for ridicule in the
mouths of all, overcame his religious fear. This delay cost him dear,
for he lost his son within a few days; and, that there might be no
doubt about the cause of this sudden calamity, the same vision,
presenting itself to him in the midst of his sorrow of heart, seemed
to ask him, whether he had been sufficiently requited for his contempt
of the deity; that a still heavier penalty threatened him, unless he
went immediately and delivered the message to the consuls. The matter
was now still more urgent. While, however, he still delayed and kept
putting it off, he was attacked by a severe stroke of disease, a
sudden paralysis. Then indeed the anger of the gods frightened him.
Wearied out therefore by his past sufferings and by those that
threatened him, he convened a meeting of his friends and relatives,
and, after he had detailed to them all he had seen and heard, and the
fact of Jupiter having so often presented himself to him in his sleep,
and the threats and anger of Heaven speedily fulfilled in his own
calamities, he was, with the unhesitating assent of all who were
present, conveyed in a litter into the forum to the presence of the
consuls. From the forum, by order of the consuls, he was carried into
the senate-house, and, after he had recounted the same story to the
senators, to the great surprise of all, behold another miracle: he who
had been carried into the senate-house deprived of the use of all his
limbs, is reported to have returned home on his own feet, after he had
discharged his duty.
The senate decreed that the games should be celebrated on as
magnificent a scale as possible. To those games a great number of
Volscians came at the suggestion of Attius Tullius. Before the games
had commenced, Tullius, as had been arranged privately with Marcius,
approached the consuls, and said that there were certain matters
concerning the common-wealth about which he wished to treat with them
in private. When all witnesses had been ordered to retire, he said:
"I am reluctant to say anything of my countrymen that may seem
disparaging. I do not, however, come to accuse them of any crime
actually committed by them, but to see to it that they do not commit
one. The minds of our people are far more fickle than I could wish.
We have learned that by many disasters; seeing that we are still
preserved, not through our own merits, but thanks to your forbearance.
There is now here a great multitude of Volscians; the games are going
on: the city will be intent on the exhibition. I remember what was
done in this city on a similar occasion by the youth of the Sabines.
My mind shudders at the thought that anything should be done
inconsiderately and rashly. I have deemed it right that these matters
should be mentioned beforehand to you, consuls, both for your sakes
and ours. With regard to myself, it is my determination to depart
hence home immediately, that I may not be tainted with the suspicion
of any word or deed if I remain." Having said this, he departed. When
the consuls had laid the matter before the senate, a matter that was
doubtful, though vouched for by a thoroughly reliable authority, the
authority, more than the matter itself, as usually happens, urged them
to adopt even needless precautions; and a decree of the senate having
been passed that the Volscians should quit the city, criers were sent
in different directions to order them all to depart before night.
They were at first smitten with great panic, as they ran in different
directions to their lodgings to carry away their effects. Afterward,
when setting out, indignation arose in their breasts, to think that
they, as if polluted with crime and contaminated, had been driven away
from the games on festival days, a meeting, so to speak, both of gods
and men.
As they went along in an almost unbroken line, Tullius, who had
preceded them to the fountain of Ferentina, [46]received the chief
men, as each arrived, and, complaining and giving vent to expressions
of indignation, led both those, who eagerly listened to language that
favoured their resentment, and through them the rest of the multitude,
into a plain adjoining the road. There, having begun an address after
the manner of a public harangue, he said: "Though you were to forget
the former wrongs inflicted upon you by the Roman people, the
calamities of the nation of the Volscians, and all other such matters,
with what feelings, pray, do you regard this outrage offered you
to-day, whereby they have opened the games by insulting us? Did you
not feel that a triumph has been gained over you this day? That you,
when leaving, were the observed of all, citizens, foreigners, and so
many neighbouring states? That your wives, your children were led in
mockery before the eyes of men? What do you suppose were the feelings
of those who heard the voice of the crier? what of those who saw us
departing? What of those who met this ignominious cavalcade? What,
except that it is assuredly a matter of some offence against the gods:
and that, because, if we were present at the show, we should profane
the games, and be guilty of an act that would need expiation, for this
reason we are driven away from the dwellings of these pious people,
from their meeting and assembly? What then? Does it not occur to you
that we still live, because we have hastened our departure?--if indeed
this is a departure and not rather a flight. And do you not consider
this to be the city of enemies, in which, if you had delayed a single
day, you must all have died? War has been declared against you, to the
great injury of those who declared it, if you be men." Thus, being
both on their own account filled with resentment, and further incited
by this harangue, they severally departed to their homes, and by
stirring up each his own state, succeeded in bringing about the revolt
of the entire Volscian nation.
The generals selected to take command in that war by theunanimous
choice of all the states were Attius Tullius and Gnaeus Marcius, an
exile from Rome, in the latter of whom far greater hopes were reposed.
These hopes he by no means disappointed, so that it was clearly seen
that the Roman commonwealth was powerful by reason of its generals
rather than its military force. Having marched to Circeii, he first
expelled from thence the Roman colonists, and handed over that city in
a state of freedom to the Volscians. From thence passing across the
country through by-roads into the Latin way, he deprived the Romans
of the following recently acquired towns, Satricum, Longula, Polusca,
Corioli. He next himself master of Lavinium, and then took in
succession Corbio, Vitellia, Trebia, Labici, and Pedum.[47]
Lastly he marched from Pedum toward Rome, and having pitched his camp
at the Cluilian trenches five miles from the city, he openly ravaged
the Roman territory, guards being sent among the devastators to
preserve the lands of the patricians uninjured, whether it was that he
was chiefly incensed against the plebeians, or whether his object was
that dissension might arise between the senators and the people. And
it certainly would have arisen--so powerfully did the tribunes, by
inveighing against the leading men of the state, incite the plebeians,
already exasperated in themselves--had not apprehension of danger
from abroad, the strongest bond of union, united their minds, though
distrustful and mutually hostile. The only matter in which they were
not agreed was this: that, while the senate and consuls rested their
hopes on nothing else but arms, the plebeians preferred anything to
war. Spurius Nautius and Sextus Furius were now consuls. While they
were reviewing the legions, posting guards along the walls and other
places where they had determined that there should be outposts and
watches, a vast multitude of persons demanding peace terrified them
first by their seditious clamouring, and then compelled them to
convene the senate, to consider the question of sending ambassadors to
Gnaeus Marcius. The senate approved the proposal, when it was evident
that the spirits of the plebeians were giving way, ambassadors, sent
to Marcius to treat concerning peace, brought back the haughty answer:
If their lands were restored to the Volscians, the question of peace
might then be considered; if they were minded to enjoy the plunder of
war at their ease, he, remembering both the injurious treatment of his
countrymen, as well as the kindness of strangers, would do his utmost
to make it appear that his spirit was irritated by exile, not crushed.
The same envoys, being sent a second time, were not admitted into the
camp. It is recorded that the priests also, arrayed in the vestments
of their office, went as suppliants to the enemy's camp, but that they
did not influence his mind any more than the ambassadors.
Then the matrons assembled in a body around Veturia, the mother of
Coriolanus, and his wife, Volumnia: whether that was the result of
public counsel, or of women's fear, I can not clearly ascertain.
Anyhow, they succeeded in inducing Veturia, a woman advanced in years,
and Volumnia with her two sons by Marcius, to go into the camp of the
enemy, and in prevailing upon women to defend the city by entreaties
and tears, since men were unable to defend it by arms. When they
reached the camp, and it was announced to Coriolanus that a great
crowd of women was approaching, he, as one who had been affected
neither by the public majesty of the state, as represented by its
ambassadors, nor by the sanctity of religion so strikingly spread
before his eyes and understanding in the person of its priests, was
at first much more obdurate against women's tears. Then one of his
acquaintances, who had recognised Veturia, distinguished beyond
all the rest by her sorrowful mien, standing in the midst with her
daughter-in-law and grandchildren, said, "Unless my eyes deceive
me, your mother, and wife and children, are at hand." Coriolanus,
bewildered, almost like one who had lost his reason, rushed from his
seat, and offered to embrace his mother as she met him; but she,
turning from entreaties to wrath, said: "Before I permit your embrace,
let me know whether I have come to an enemy or to a son, whether I am
in your camp a captive or a mother? Has length of life and a hapless
old age reserved me for this--to behold you first an exile, then an
enemy? Have you had the heart to lay waste this land, which gave
you birth and nurtured you? Though you had come in an incensed and
vengeful spirit, did not your resentment abate when you entered its
borders? When Rome came within view, did not the thought enter your
mind--within those walls are my house and household gods, my mother,
wife, and children? So then, had I not been a mother, Rome would not
now be besieged: had I not a son, I might have died free in a free
country. But I can now suffer nothing that will not bring more
disgrace on you than misery on me; nor, most wretched as I am, shall
I be so for long. Look to these, whom, if you persist, either an
untimely death or lengthened slavery awaits." Then his wife and
children embraced him: and the lamentation proceeding from the entire
crowd of women and their bemoaning their own lot and their country's,
at length overcame the man. Then, having embraced his family, he sent
them away; he himself withdrew his camp from the city. After he had
drawn off his troops from Roman territory, they say that he died
overwhelmed by the hatred excited against him on account of this act;
different writers give different accounts of his death: I find in
Fabius,[48] far the most ancient authority, that he lived to an
advanced age: at any rate, this writer states, that in his old age he
often made use of the expression, "that exile was far more miserable
to the aged." The men of Rome were not grudging in the award of their
due praise to the women, so truly did they live without disparaging
the merit of others: a temple was built, and dedicated to female
Fortune, to serve also as a record of the event.
The Volscians afterward returned, having been joined by the Aequans,
into Roman territory: the latter, however, would no longer have Attius
Tullius as their leader; hence from a dispute, whether the Volscians
or the Aequans should give the general to the allied army, a quarrel,
and afterward a furious battle, broke out. Therein the good fortune of
the Roman people destroyed the two armies of the enemy, by a contest
no less ruinous than obstinate. Titus Sicinius and Gaius Aquilius were
made consuls. The Volscians fell to Sicinius as his province; the
Hernicans--for they, too, were in arms--to Aquilius. That year the
Hernicans were completely defeated; they met and parted with the
Volscians without any advantage being gained on either side.
Spurius Cassius and Proculus Verginius were next made consuls; a
treaty was concluded with the Hernicans; two thirds of their land were
taken from them: of this the consul Cassius proposed to distribute
one half among the Latins, the other half among the commons. To this
donation he desired to add a considerable portion of land, which,
though public property, [49] he alleged was possessed by private
individuals. This proceeding alarmed several of the senators, the
actual possessors, at the danger that threatened their property; the
senators moreover felt anxiety on public grounds, fearing that the
consul by his donation was establishing an influence dangerous to
liberty. Then, for the first time, an agrarian law was proposed, which
from that time down to the memory of our own days has never been
discussed without the greatest civil disturbances. The other consul
opposed the donation, supported by the senators, nor, indeed, were all
the commons opposed to him: they had at first begun to feel disgust
that this gift had been extended from the citizens to the allies, and
thus rendered common: in the next place they frequently heard the
consul Verginius in the assemblies as it were prophesying, that the
gift of his colleague was pestilential: that those lands were sure to
bring slavery to those who received them: that the way was being paved
to a throne. Else why were it that the allies were thus included, and
the Latin nation? What was the object of a third of the land that had
been taken being restored to the Hernicans, so lately their enemies,
except that those nations might have Cassius for their leader instead
of Coriolanus? The dissuader and opposer of the agrarian law now began
to be popular. Both consuls then vied with each other in humouring the
commons. Verginius said that he would suffer the lands to be assigned,
provided they were assigned to no one but a Roman citizen. Cassius,
because in the agrarian donation he sought popularity among the
allies, and was therefore lowered in the estimation of his countrymen,
commanded, in order that by another gift he might win the affections
of the citizens, that the money received for the Sicilian corn should
be refunded to the people. That, however, the people spurned as
nothing else than a ready money bribe for regal authority: so
uncompromisingly were his gifts rejected, as if there was abundance of
everything, in consequence of their inveterate suspicion that he was
aiming at sovereign power. As soon as he went out of office, it is
certain that he was condemned and put to death. There are some
who represent that his father was the person who carried out the
punishment: that he, having tried the case at home, scourged him and
put him to death, and consecrated his son's private property to Ceres;
that out of this a statue was set up and inscribed, "Presented out of
the property of the Cassian family." In some authors I find it stated,
which is more probable, that a day was assigned him to stand his
trial for high treason, by the quaestors,[50] Caeso Fabius and Lucius
Valerius, and that he was condemned by the decision of the people;
that his house was demolished by a public decree: this is the spot
where there is now an open space before the Temple of Tellus.[51]
However, whether the trial was held in private or public, he was
condemned in the consulship of Servius Cornelius and Quintus Fabius.
The resentment of the people against Cassius was not lasting. The
charm of the agrarian law, now that its proposer was removed, of
itself entered their minds: and their desire of it was further kindled
by the meanness of the senators, who, after the Volscians and AEquans
had been completely defeated in that year, defrauded the soldiers of
their share of the booty; whatever was taken from the enemy, was sold
by the consul Fabius, and the proceeds lodged in the public treasury.
All who bore the name of Fabius became odious to the commons on
account of the last consul: the patricians, however, succeeded in
getting Caeso Fabius elected consul with Lucius AEmilius. The commons,
still further aggravated at this, provoked war abroad by exciting
disturbance at home;[52] in consequence of the war civil dissensions
were then discontinued. Patricians and commons uniting, under the
command of AEmilius, overcame the Volscians and AEquans, who renewed
hostilities, in a successful engagement. The retreat, however,
destroyed more of the enemy than the battle; so perseveringly did the
cavalry pursue them when routed. During the same year, on the ides of
July,[53]the Temple of Castor was dedicated: it had been vowed during
the Latin war in the dictatorship of Postumius: his son, who was
elected duumvir for that special purpose, dedicated it.
In that year, also, the minds of the people were excited by the
allurements of the agrarian law. The tribunes of the people
endeavoured to enhance their authority, in itself agreeable to the
people, by promoting a popular law. The patricians, considering that
there was enough and more than enough frenzy in the multitude without
any additional incitement, viewed with horror largesses and all
inducements to ill-considered action: the patricians found in the
consuls most energetic abettors in resistance. That portion of the
commonwealth therefore prevailed; and not for the moment only, but for
the coming year also they succeeded in securing the election of Marcus
Fabius, Caeso's brother, as consul, and one still more detested by the
commons for his persecution of Cassius--namely, Lucius Valerius.
In that year also was a contest with the tribunes. The law came to
nothing, and the supporters of the law proved to be mere boasters, by
their frequent promises of a gift that was never granted. The Fabian
name was thenceforward held in high repute, after three successive
consulates, and all as it were uniformly tested in contending with the
tribunes; accordingly, the honour remained for a considerable time
in that family, as being right well placed. A war with Veii was then
begun: the Volscians also renewed hostilities; but, while their
strength was almost more than sufficient for foreign wars, they
only abused it by contending among themselves. In addition to the
distracted state of the public mind prodigies from heaven increased
the general alarm, exhibiting almost daily threats in the city and in
the country, and the soothsayers, being consulted by the state and by
private individuals, declared, at one time by means of entrails, at
another by birds, that there was no other cause for the deity having
been roused to anger, save that the ceremonies of religion were not
duly performed. These terrors, however, terminated in this, that
Oppia, a vestal virgin, being found guilty of a breach of chastity,
suffered punishment. [54] Quintus Fabius and Gaius Julius were next
elected consuls. During this year the dissension at home was not
abated, while the war abroad was more desperate. The AEquans took up
arms: the Veientines also invaded and plundered the Roman territory:
as the anxiety about these wars increased, Caeso Fabius and Spurius
Furius were appointed consuls. The AEquans were laying siege to Ortona,
a Latin city. The Veientines, now sated with plunder, threatened to
besiege Rome itself. These terrors, which ought to have assuaged the
feelings of the commons, increased them still further: and the people
resumed the practice of declining military service, not of their own
accord, as before, but Spurius Licinius, a tribune of the people,
thinking that the time had come for forcing the agrarian law on
the patricians by extreme necessity, had undertaken the task of
obstructing the military preparations. However, all the odium against
the tribunician power was directed against the author of this
proceeding: and even his own colleagues rose up against him as
vigorously as the consuls; and by their assistance the consuls held
the levy. An army was raised for the two wars simultaneously; one was
intrusted to Fabius to be led against the Veientines, the other to
Furius to operate against the AEquans. In regard to the latter, indeed,
nothing took place worthy of mention. Fabius had considerably more
trouble with his countrymen than with the enemy: that one man alone,
as consul, sustained the commonwealth, which the army was doing its
best to betray, as far as in it lay, from hatred of the consul. For
when the consul, in addition to his other military talents, of which
he had exhibited abundant instances in his preparations for and in his
conduct of war, had so drawn up his line that he routed the enemy's
army solely by a charge of his cavalry, the infantry refused to pursue
them when routed; nor, although the exhortation of their general, whom
they hated, had no effect upon them, could even their own infamy, and
the immediate public disgrace and subsequent danger likely to arise,
if the enemy recovered their courage, induce them to quicken their
pace, or even, if nothing else, to stand in order of battle. Without
orders they faced about, and with a sorrowful air (one would have
thought them defeated) they returned to camp, execrating at one time
their general, at another the vigour displayed by the cavalry. Nor
did the general know where to look for any remedies for so harmful a
precedent: so true is it that the most distinguished talents will be
more likely found deficient in the art of managing a countryman, than
in that of conquering an enemy. The consul returned to Rome, not
having so much increased his military glory as irritated and
exasperated the hatred of his soldiers toward him. The patricians,
however, succeeded in keeping the consulship in the Fabian family.
They elected Marcus Fabius consul; Gnaeus Manlius was assigned as a
colleague to Fabius.
This year also found a tribune to support an agrarian law. This was
Tiberius Pontificius, who, pursuing the same tactics, as if it had
succeeded in the case of Spurius Licinius, obstructed the levy for a
little time. The patricians being once more perplexed, Appius Claudius
declared that the tribunician power had been put down the year
before, for the moment by the fact, for the future by the precedent
established, since it was found that it could be rendered ineffective
by its own strength; for that there never would be wanting a tribune
who would both be willing to obtain a victory for himself over his
colleague, and the good-will of the better party to on advancement of
the public weal: that more tribunes than one, if there were need of
more than one, would be ready to assist the consuls: and that in fact
one would be sufficient even against all.[55] Only let the consuls and
leading members of the senate take care to win over, if not all, at
least some of the tribunes, to the side of the commonwealth and the
senate. The senators, instructed by the counsels of Appius, both
collectively addressed the tribunes with kindness and courtesy, and
the men of consular rank, according as each possessed private personal
influence over them individually, and, partly by conciliation, partly
by authority, prevailed so far as to make them consent that the powers
of the tribunician office should be beneficial to the state; and by
the aid of four tribunes against one obstructor of the public good,
the consuls carried out the levy. They then set out to the war against
Veii, to which auxiliaries had assembled from all parts of Etruria,
not so much influenced by feelings of regard for the Veientines,
as because they had formed a hope that the power of Rome could be
destroyed by internal discord. And in the general councils of all the
states of Etruria the leading men murmured that the power of Rome
would last forever, unless they were distracted by disturbances among
themselves: that this was the only poison, this the bane discovered
for powerful states, to render mighty empires mortal: that this evil,
a long time checked, partly by the wise measures of the patricians,
partly by the forbearance of the commons, had now proceeded to
extremities: that two states were now formed out of one: that each
party had its own magistrates, its own laws: that, although at first
they were accustomed to be turbulent during the levies, still these
same individuals had notwithstanding ever been obedient to their
commanders during war: that as long as military discipline was
retained, no matter what might be the state of the city, the evil
might have been withstood: but that now the custom of not obeying
their officers followed the Roman soldier even to the camp: that in
the last war, even in a regular engagement and in the very heat of
battle, by consent of the army the victory had been voluntarily
surrendered to the vanquished Aequans: that the standards had been
deserted, the general abandoned on the field, and that the army had
returned to camp without orders: without doubt, if they persevered,
Rome might be conquered by means of her own soldiery: nothing else was
necessary save a declaration and show of war: the fates and the
gods would of themselves manage the rest. These hopes had armed the
Etruscans, who by many changes of fortune had been vanquished and
victors in turn.