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
The next consuls were Aulus Postumius Albus and Spurius Furius Fusus.
Furii is by some writers written Fusii; this I mention, to prevent any
one thinking that the change, which is only in the names, is in the
persons themselves. There was no doubt that one of the consuls was
about tobegin hostilities against the AEquans. The latter accordingly
sought help from the Volscians of Ecetra; this was readily granted
(so keenly did these states contend in inveterate hatred against the
Romans), and preparations for war were made with the utmost vigour.
The Hernicans came to hear of it, and warned the Romans that the
Ecetrans had revolted to the AEquans: the colony of Antium also was
suspected, because, after the town had been taken a great number of
the inhabitants had fled thence for refuge to the AEquans: and these
soldiers behaved with the very greatest bravery during the course of
the war. After the AEquans had been driven into the towns, when this
rabble returned to Antium, it alienated from the Romans the colonists
who were already of their own accord disposed to treachery. The matter
not yet being ripe, when it had been announced to the senate that a
revolt was intended, the consuls were charged to inquire what was
going on, the leading men of the colony being summoned to Rome. When
they had attended without reluctance, they were conducted before the
senate by the consuls, and gave such answers to the questions that
were put to them that they were dismissed more suspected than they had
come.
After this, war was regarded as inevitable. Spurius Furius, one of
the consuls to whom that sphere of action had fallen, having marched
against the Aequans, found the enemy committing depredations in the
country of the Hernicans; and being ignorant of their numbers, because
they had nowhere been seen all together, he rashly hazarded an
engagement with an army which was no match for their forces. Being
driven from his position at the first onset, he retreated to his camp;
nor was that the end of his danger; for both on the next night and the
following day, his camp was beset and assaulted with such vigour that
not even a messenger could be despatched thence to Rome. The Hernicans
brought news both that an unsuccessful battle had been fought, and
that the consul and army were besieged; and inspired the senate with
such terror, that the other consul Postumius was charged to see to it
that the commonwealth took no harm,[5] a form of decree which has ever
been deemed to be one of extreme urgency. It seemed most advisable
that the consul himself should remain at Rome to enlist all such
as were able to bear arms: that Titus Quinctius should be sent as
proconsul[6] to the relief of the camp with the army of the allies: to
complete this army the Latins and Hernicans, and the colony of Antium
were ordered to supply Quinctius with troops hurriedly raised-such was
the name (subitarii) that they gave to auxiliaries raised for sudden
emergencies.
During those days many manoeuvres and many attacks were carried out
on both sides, because the enemy, having the advantage in numbers,
attempted to harass the Roman forces by attacking them on many sides,
as not likely to prove sufficient to meet all attacks. While the camp
was being besieged, at the same time part of the army was sent to
devastate Roman territory, and to make an attempt upon the city
itself, should fortune favour. Lucius Valerius was left to guard the
city: the consul Postumius was sent to prevent the plundering of the
frontiers. There was no abatement in any quarter either of vigilance
or activity; watches were stationed in the city, outposts before the
gates, and guards along the walls: and a cessation of business
was observed for several days, as was necessary amid such general
confusion. In the meantime the consul Furius, after he had at first
passively endured the siege in his camp, sallied forth through the
main gate[7] against the enemy when off their guard; and though he
might have pursued them, he stopped through apprehension, that an
attack might be made on the camp from the other side. The lieutenant
Furius (he was also the consul's brother) was carried away too far
in pursuit: nor did he, in his eagerness to follow them up, observe
eitherhis own party returning, or the attack of the enemy on his rear:
being thus shut out, having repeatedly made many unavailing efforts to
force his way to the camp, he fell, fighting bravely. In like manner
the consul, turning about to renew the fight, on being informed that
his brother was surrounded, rushing into the thick of the fight rashly
rather than with sufficient caution, was wounded, and with difficulty
rescued by those around him. This both damped the courage of his own
men, and increased the boldness of the enemy; who, being encouraged
by the death of the lieutenant, and by the consul's wound, could not
afterward have been withstood by any force, as the Romans, having been
driven into their camp, were again being besieged, being a match for
them neither in hopes nor in strength, and the very existence of the
state would have been imperilled, had not Titus Quinctius come to
their relief with foreign troops, the Latin and Hernican army. He
attacked the Aequans on their rear while their attention was fixed on
the Roman camp, and while they were insultingly displaying the head of
the lieutenant: and, a sally being made at the same time from the camp
at a signal given by himself from a distance, he surrounded a large
force of the enemy. Of the Aequans in Roman territory the slaughter
was less, their flight more disorderly. As they straggled in different
directions, driving their plunder before them, Postumius attacked
them in several places, where he had posted bodies of troops in
advantageous positions. They, while straying about and pursuing their
flight in great disorder, fell in with the victorious Quinctius as he
was returning with the wounded consul. Then the consular army by its
distinguished bravery amply avenged the consul's wound, and the death
of the lieutenant and the slaughter of the cohorts; heavy losses were
both inflicted and received on both sides during those days. In a
matter of such antiquity it is difficult to state, so as to inspire
conviction, the exact number of those who fought or fell: Antias
Valerius, however, ventures to give an estimate of the numbers: that
in the Hernican territory there fell five thousand eight hundred
Romans; that of the predatory parties of the Aequans, who strayed
through the Roman frontiers for the purpose of plundering, two
thousand four hundred were slain by the consul Aulus Postumius; that
the rest of the body which fell in with Quinctius while driving its
booty before them, by no means got off with a loss equally small: of
these he asserts that four thousand, and by way of stating the number
exactly, two hundred and thirty were slain. After their return to
Rome, the cessation of business was abandoned. The sky seemed to be
all ablaze with fire; and other prodigies either actually presented
themselves before men's eyes, or exhibited imaginary appearances to
their affrighted minds. To avert these terrors, a solemn festival for
three days was proclaimed, during which all the shrines were filled
with a crowd of men and women, earnestly imploring the favour of the
gods. After this the Latin and Hernican cohorts were sent back to
their respective homes, after they had been thanked by the senate for
their spirited conduct in war. The thousand soldiers from Antium were
dismissed almost with disgrace, because they had come after the battle
too late to render assistance.
The elections were then held: Lucius Aebutius and Publius Servilius
were elected consuls, and entered on their office on the calends of
August[8] according to the practice of beginning the year on that
date. It was an unhealthy season, and it so happened that the year [9]
was pestilential to the city and country, and not more to men than to
cattle; and they themselves increased the severity of the disease by
admitting the cattle and the peasants into the city in consequence of
their dread of devastation. This collection of animals of every kind
mingled together both distressed the inhabitants of the city by the
unusual stench, and also the peasants, crowded together into their
confined dwellings, by heat and want of sleep while their attendance
on each other, and actual contact helped to spread disease. While they
were hardly able to endure the calamities that pressed upon them,
ambassadors from the Hernicans suddenly brought word that the Aequans
and Volscians had united their forces, and pitched their camp in their
territory: that from thence they were devastating their frontiers with
an immense army. In addition to the fact that the small attendance of
the senate was a proof to the allies that the state was prostrated by
the pestilence, they further received this melancholy answer: That the
Hernicans, as well as the Latins, must now defend their possessions by
their own unaided exertions. That the city of Rome, through the sudden
anger of the gods, was ravaged by disease. If any relief from that
calamity should arise, that they would afford aid to their allies,
as they had done the year before, and always on other occasions. The
allies departed, carrying home, instead of the melancholy news they
had brought, news still more melancholy, seeing that they were now
obliged to sustain by their own resources a war, which they would have
with difficulty sustained even if backed by the power of Rome. The
enemy no longer confined themselves to the Hernican territory. They
proceeded thence with determined hostility into the Roman territories,
which were already devastated without the injuries of war. There,
without any one meeting them, not even an unarmed person, they
passed through entire tracts destitute not only of troops, but
even uncultivated, and reached the third milestone on the Gabinian
road.[10] Aebutius, the Roman consul, was dead: his colleague,
Servilius, was dragging out his life with slender hope of recovery;
most of the leading men, the chief part of the patricians, nearly all
those of military age, were stricken down with disease, so that they
not only had not sufficient strength for the expeditions, which amid
such an alarm the state of affairs required, but scarcely even for
quietly mounting guard. Those senators, whose age and health permitted
them, personally discharged the duty of sentinels. The patrol and
general supervision was assigned to the plebeian aediles: on them
devolved the chief conduct of affairs and the majesty of the consular
authority.
The commonwealth thus desolate, since it was without a head, and
without strength, was saved by the guardian gods and good fortune of
the city, which inspired the Volscians and AEquans with the disposition
of freebooters rather than of enemies; for so far were their minds
from entertaining any hope not only of taking but even of approaching
the walls of Rome, and so thoroughly did the sight of the houses in
the distance, and the adjacent hills, divert their thoughts, that, on
a murmur arising throughout the entire camp--why should they waste
time in indolence without booty in a wild and desert land, amid the
pestilence engendered by cattle and human beings, when they could
repair to places as yet unattacked--the Tusculan territory abounding
in wealth? They suddenly pulled up their standards,[11] and, by
cross-country marches, passed through the Lavican territory to the
Tusculan hills: to that quarter the whole violence and storm of the
war was directed. In the meantime the Hernicans and Latins, influenced
not only by compassion but by a feeling of shame, if they neither
opposed the common enemy who were making for the city of Rome with
a hostile army, nor afforded any aid to their allies when besieged,
marched to Rome with united forces. Not finding the enemy there, they
followed their tracks in the direction they were reported to have
taken, and met them as they were coming down from Tusculan territory
into the Alban valley: there a battle was fought under circumstances
by no means equal; and their fidelity proved by no means favourable to
the allies for the time being. The havoc caused by pestilence at Rome
was not less than that caused by the sword among the allies: the only
surviving consul died, as well as other distinguished men, Marcus
Valerius, Titus Verginius Rutilus, augurs: Servius Sulpicius, chief
priest of the curies:[12] while among undistinguished persons the
virulence of the disease spread extensively: and the senate, destitute
of human aid, directed the people's attention to the gods and to vows:
they were ordered to go and offer supplications with their wives and
children, and to entreat the favour of Heaven. Besides the fact that
their own sufferings obliged each to do so, when summoned by public
authority, they filled all the shrines; the prostrate matrons in every
quarter sweeping the temples with their hair, begged for a remission
of the divine displeasure, and a termination to the pestilence.
From this time, whether it was that the favour of the gods was
obtained, or that the more unhealthful season of the year was now
over, the bodily condition of the people, now rid of disease,
gradually began to be more healthy, and their attention being
now directed to public concerns, after the expiration of several
interregna, Publius Valerius Publicola, on the third day after he had
entered on his office of interrex,[13] procured the election of Lucius
Lucretius Tricipitinus, and Titus Veturius (or Vetusius) Geminus, to
the consulship. They entered on their consulship on the third day
before the ides of August,[14] the state being now strong enough
not only to repel a a hostile attack, but even to act itself on the
offensive. Therefore when the Hernicans announced that the enemy had
crossed over into their boundaries, assistance was readily promised:
two consular armies were enrolled. Veturius was sent against the
Volscians to carry on an offensive war. Tricipitinus, being posted to
protect the territory of the allies from devastation, proceeded no
further than into the countryof the Hernicans. Veturius routed and put
the enemy to flight in the first engagement. A party of plunderers,
led over the Praenestine Mountains, and from thence sent down into the
plains, was unobserved by Lucretius, while he lay encamped among the
Hernicans. These laid waste all the countryaround Praeneste and Gabii:
from the Gabinian territory they turned their course toward the
heights of Tusculum; great alarm was excited in the city of Rome also,
more from the suddenness of the affair than because there was not
sufficient strength to repel the attack. Quintus Fabius was in command
of the city; he, having armed the young men and posted guards, made
things secure and tranquil. The enemy, therefore, not venturing to
approach the city, when they were returning by a circuitous route,
carrying off plunder from the adjacent places, their caution being now
more relaxed, in proportion as they removed to a greater distance from
the enemy's city, fell in with the consul Lucretius, who had already
reconnoitred his lines of march, and whose army was drawn up in battle
array and resolved upon an engagement. Accordingly, having attacked
them with predetermined resolution, though with considerably inferior
forces, they routed and put to flight their numerous army, while
smitten with sudden panic, and having driven them into the deep
valleys, where means of egress were not easy, they surrounded them.
There the power of the Volscians was almost entirely annihilated. In
some annals, I find that thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy
fell in battle and in flight that one thousand seven hundred and fifty
were taken alive, that twenty-seven military standards were captured:
and although in accounts there may have been some exaggeration in
regard to numbers, undoubtedly great slaughter took place. The
victorious consul, having obtained immense booty, returned to his
former standing camp. Then the consuls joined camps. The Volscians and
AEquans also united their shattered strength. This was the third battle
in that year; the same good fortune gave them victory; the enemy was
routed, and their camp taken.
Thus the affairs of Rome returned to their former condition; and
successes abroad immediately excited commotions in the city. Gaius
Terentilius Harsa was tribune of the people in that year: he,
considering that an opportunity was afforded for tribunician intrigues
during the absence of the consuls began, after railing against the
arrogance of the patricians for several days before the people, to
inveigh chiefly against the consular authority, as being excessive
and intolerable for a free state: for that in name only was it less
hateful, in reality it was almost more cruel than the authority of the
kings: that forsooth in place of one, two masters had been accepted,
with unbounded and unlimited power, who, themselves unrestrained and
unbridled, directed all the terrors of the law, and all kinds of
punishments against the commons. Now, in order that their unbounded
license might not last forever, he would bring forward a law that five
persons be appointed to draw up laws regarding the consular power, by
which the consul should use that right which the people should have
given him over them, not considering their own caprice and license
as law. Notice having been given of this law, as the patricians were
afraid, lest, in the absence of the consuls, they should be subjected
to the yoke; the senate was convened by Quintus Fabius, prefect of the
city, who inveighed so vehemently against the bill and its proposer
that no kind of threats or intimidation was omitted by him, which both
the consuls could supply, even though they surrounded the tribune in
all their exasperation: That he had lain in wait, and, having seized a
favourable opportunity, had made an attack on the commonwealth. If
the gods in their anger had given them any tribune like him in the
preceding year, during the pestilence and war, it could not have
been endured: that, when both the consuls were dead, and the state
prostrate and enfeebled, in the midst of the general confusion he
would have proposed laws to abolish the consular government altogether
from the state; that he would have headed the Volscians and AEquans in
an attack on the city. What, if the consuls behaved in a tyrannical or
cruel manner against any of the citizens, was it not open to him to
appoint a day of trial for them, to arraign them before those very
judges against any one of whom severity might have been exercised?
That he by his conduct was rendering, not the consular authority, but
the tribunician power hateful and insupportable; which, after having
been in a state of peace, and on good terms with the patricians, was
now being brought back anew to its former mischievous practices; nor
did he beg of him not to proceed as he had begun. "Of you, the other
tribunes," said Fabius, "we beg that you will first of all consider
that that power was appointed for the aid of individuals, not for the
ruin of the community; that you were created tribunes of the commons,
not enemies of the patricians. To us it is distressing, to you
a source of odium, that the republic, now bereft of its chief
magistrates, should be attacked; you will diminish not your rights,
but the odium against you. Confer with your colleague that he may
postpone this business till the arrival of the consuls, to be then
discussed afresh; even the AEquans and the Volscians, when our consuls
were carried off by pestilence last year, did not harass us with a
cruel and tyrannical war." The tribunes conferred with Terentilius,
and the bill being to all appearance deferred, but in reality
abandoned, the consuls were immediately sent for.
Lucretius returned with immense spoil, and much greater glory; and
this glory he increased on his arrival, by exposing all the booty in
the Campus Martius, so that each person might, for the space of three
days, recognise what belonged to him and carry it away; the remainder,
for which no owners were forthcoming, was sold. A triumph was by
universal consent due to the consul; but the matter was deferred, as
the tribune again urged his law; this to the consul seemed of greater
importance. The business was discussed for several days, both in the
senate and before the people: at last the tribune yielded to the
majesty of the consul, and desisted; then their due honour was paid to
the general and his army. He triumphed over the Volscians and AEquans;
his troops followed him in his triumph. The other consul was allowed
to enter the city in ovation[15]unaccompanied by his soldiers.
In the following year the Terentilian law, being brought forward
again by the entire college, engaged the serious attention of the new
consuls, who were Publius Volumnius and Servius Sulpicius. In that
year the sky seemed to be on fire, and a violent earthquake took
place: it was believed that an ox spoke, a phenomenon which had not
been credited in the previous year: among other prodigies there was a
shower of flesh, which a large flock of birds is said to have carried
off by pecking at the falling pieces: that which fell to the ground
is said to have lain scattered about just as it was for several days,
without becoming tainted. The books were consulted[16] by the duumviri
for sacred rites: dangers of attacks to be made on the highest
parts of the city, and of consequent bloodshed, were predicted as
threatening from an assemblage of strangers; among other things,
admonition was given that all intestine disturbances should be
abandoned.[17] The tribunes alleged that that was done to obstruct the
law, and a desperate contest was at hand.
On a sudden, however, that the same order of events might be renewed
each year, the Hernicans announced that the Volscians and the AEquans,
in spite of their strength being much impaired, were recruiting their
armies: that the centre of events was situated at Antium; that the
colonists of Antium openly held councils at Ecetra: that there was the
head--there was the strength--of the war. As soon as this announcement
was made in the senate, a levy was proclaimed: the consuls were
commanded to divide the management of the war between them; that the
Volscians should be the sphere of action of the one, the AEquans of the
other. The tribunes loudly declared openly in the forum that the story
of the Volscian war was nothing but a got-up farce: that the Hernicans
had been trained to act their parts: that the liberty of the Roman
people was now not even crushed by manly efforts, but was baffled by
cunning; because it was now no longer believed that the Volscians and
the AEquans who were almost utterly annihilated, could of themselves
begin hostilities, new enemies were sought for: that a loyal colony,
and one in their very vicinity, was being rendered infamous: that war
was proclaimed against the unoffending people of Antium, in reality
waged with the commons of Rome, whom, loaded with arms, they were
determined to drive out of the city with precipitous haste, wreaking
their vengeance on the tribunes by the exile and expulsion of their
fellow-citizens. That by these means--and let them not think that
there was any other object contemplated--the law was defeated, unless,
while the matter was still in abeyance, while they were still at home
and in the grab of citizens, they took precautions, so as to avoid
being driven out of possession of the city, or being subjected to the
yoke. If they only had spirit, support would not be wanting: that
all the tribunes were unanimous: that there was no apprehension from
abroad, no danger. That the gods had taken care, in the preceding
year that their liberty could be defended with safety. Thus spoke the
tribunes.
But on the other side, the consuls, having placed their chairs[18]
within view of them, were holding the levy; thither the tribunes
hastened down, and carried the assembly along with them; a few [19]
were summoned, as it were, by way of making an experiment, and
instantly violence ensued. Whomsoever the lictor laid hold of by order
of the consul, him the tribune ordered to be released; nor did his own
proper jurisdiction set a limit to each, but they rested their hopes
on force, and whatever they set their mind upon, was to be gained by
violence. Just as the tribunes had behaved in impeding the levy, in
the same manner did the consuls conduct themselves in obstructing the
law which was brought forward on each assembly day. The beginning of
the riot was that the patricians refused to allow themselves to be
moved away, when the tribunes ordered the people to proceed to give
their vote. Scarcely any of the older citizens mixed themselves up
in the affair, inasmuch as it was one that would not be directed by
prudence, but was entirely abandoned to temerity and daring. The
consuls also frequently kept out of the way, lest in the general
confusion they might expose their dignity to insult. There was one
Caeso Quinctius, a youth who prided himself both on the nobility of
his descent, and his bodily stature and strength; to these endowments
bestowed on him by the gods, he himself had added many brave deeds
in war, and eloquence in the forum; so that no one in the state was
considered readier either in speech or action. When he had taken his
place in the midst of a body of the patricians, pre-eminent above
the rest, carrying as it were in his eloquence and bodily strength
dictatorships and consulships combined, he alone withstood the storms
of the tribunes and the populace. Under his guidance the tribunes were
frequently driven from the forum, the commons routed and dispersed;
such as came in his way, came off ill-treated and stripped: so that it
became quite clear that, if he were allowed to proceed in this way,
the law was as good as defeated Then, when the other tribunes were
now almost thrown into despair, Aulus Verginius, one of the colleges,
appointed a day for Caeso to take his trial on a capital charge. By
this proceeding he rather irritated than intimidated his violent
temper: so much the more vigorously did he oppose the law, harass
the commons, and persecute the tribunes, as if in a regular war. The
accuser suffered the accused to rush headlong to his ruin, and to fan
the flame of odium and supply material for the charges he intended to
bring against him: in the meantime he proceeded with the law, not
so much in the hope of carrying it through, as with the object
of provoking rash action on the part of Caeso. After that many
inconsiderate expressions and actions of the younger patricians were
put down to the temper of Caeso alone, owing to the suspicion with
which he was regarded: still the law was resisted. Also Aulus
Verginius frequently remarked to the people: "Are you now sensible,
Quirites that you can not at the same time have Caeso as a
fellow-citizen, and the law which you desire? Though why do I speak
of the law? He is a hindrance to your liberty; he surpasses all the
Tarquins in arrogance. Wait till that man is made consul or dictator,
whom, though but a private citizen, you now see exercising kingly
power by his strength and audacity." Many agreed, complaining that
they had been beaten by him: and, moreover, urged the tribune to go
through with the prosecution.