Roman History, Books I III - Titus Livius
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The day of trial was now at hand, and it was evident that people in
general considered that their liberty depended on the condemnation of
Caeso: then, at length being forced to do so, he solicited the commons
individually, though with a strong feeling of indignation; his
relatives and the principal men of the state attended him. Titus
Quinctius Capitolinus, who had been thrice consul, recounting many
splendid achievements of his own, and of his family, declared that
neither in the Quinctian family, nor in the Roman state, had there
ever appeared such a promising genius displaying such early valour.
That he himself was the first under whom he had served, that he had
often in his sight fought against the enemy. Spurius Furius declared
that Caeso, having been sent to him by Quinctius Capitolinus, had come
to his aid when in the midst of danger; that there was no single
individual by whose exertions he considered the common weal had been
more effectually re-established. Lucius Lucretius, the consul of the
preceding year, in the full splendour of recent glory, shared his own
meritorious services with Caeso; he recounted his battles detailed his
distinguished exploits, both in expeditions and in pitched battle;
he recommended and advised them to choose rather that a youth so
distinguished, endowed with all the advantages of nature and fortune,
and one who should prove the greatest support of whatsoever state he
should visit, should continue to be a fellow-citizen of their own,
rather than become the citizen of a foreign state: that with respect
to those qualities which gave offence in him, hot-headedness and
overboldness, they were such as increasing years removed more and more
every day: that what was lacking, prudence, increased day by day: that
as his faults declined, and his virtues ripened, they should allow so
distinguished a man to grow old in the state. Among these his father,
Lucius Quinctius, who bore the surname of Cincinnatus, without
dwelling too often on his services, so as not to heighten public
hatred, but soliciting pardon for his youthful errors, implored them
to forgive his son for his sake, who had not given offence to any
either by word or deed. But while some, through respect or fear,
turned away from his entreaties, others, by the harshness of their
answer, complaining that they and their friends had been ill-treated,
made no secret of what their decision would be.
Independently of the general odium, one charge in particular bore
heavily on the accused; that Marcus Volscius Fictor, who some years
before had been tribune of the people, had come forward to bear
testimony: that not long after the pestilence had raged in the city,
he had fallen in with a party of young men rioting in the Subura;[20]
that a scuffle had taken place: and that his elder brother, not yet
perfectly recovered from his illness, had been knocked down by Caeso
with a blow of his fist: that he had been carried home half dead in
the arms of some bystanders, and that he was ready to declare that
he had died from the blow: and that he had not been permitted by
the consuls of former years to obtain redress for such an atrocious
affair. In consequence of Volscius vociferating these charges, the
people became so excited that Caeso was near being killed through the
violence of the crowd. Verginius ordered him to be seized and dragged
off to prison. The patricians opposed force to force. Titus Quinctius
exclaimed that a person for whom a day of trial for a capital offence
had been appointed, and whose trial was now close at hand, ought not
to be outraged before he was condemned, and without a hearing. The
tribune replied that he would not inflict punishment on him before he
was condemned: that he would, however, keep him in prison until the
day of trial, that the Roman people might have an opportunity of
inflicting punishment on one who had killed a man.[21] The tribunes
being appealed to, got themselves out of the difficulty in regard to
their prerogative of rendering aid, by a resolution that adopted a
middle course: they forbade his being thrown into confinement, and
declared it to be their wish that the accused should be brought to
trial, and that a sum of money should be promised to the people,
in case he should not appear. How large a sum of money ought to be
promised was a matter of doubt: the decision was accordingly referred
to the senate. The accused was detained in public custody until the
patricians should be consulted: it was decided that bail should be
given: they bound each surety in the sum of three thousand asses; how
many sureties should be given was left to the tribunes; they fixed the
number at ten: on this number of sureties the prosecutor admitted the
accused to bail.[22] He was the first who gave public sureties. Being
discharged from the forum, he went the following night into exile
among the Tuscans. When on the day of trial it was pleaded that he
had withdrawn into voluntary exile, nevertheless, at a meeting of
the comitia under the presidency of Verginius, his colleagues, when
appealed to, dismissed the assembly: [23] the fine was rigorously
exacted from his father, so that, having sold all his effects, he
lived for a considerable time in an out-of-the-way cottage on the
other side of the Tiber, as if in exile.
This trial and the proposal of the law gave full employment to the
state: in regard to foreign wars there was peace. When the tribunes,
as if victorious, imagined that the law was all but passed owing to
the dismay of the patricians at the banishment of Caeso, and in
fact, as far as regarded the seniors of the patricians, they had
relinquished all share in the administration of the commonwealth, the
juniors, more especially those who were the intimate friends of Caeso,
redoubled their resentful feelings against the commons, and did not
allow their spirits to fail; but the greatest improvement was made
in this particular, that they tempered their animosity by a certain
degree of moderation. The first time when, after Cseso's banishment,
the law began to be brought forward, these, arrayed and well prepared,
with a numerous body of clients, so attacked the tribunes, as soon as
they afforded a pretext for it by attempting to remove them, that no
one individual carried home from thence a greater share than another,
either of glory or ill-will, but the people complained that in place
of one Caeso a thousand had arisen. During the days that intervened,
when the tribunes took no proceedings regarding the law, nothing could
be more mild or peaceable than those same persons; they saluted the
plebeians courteously, entered into conversation with them, and
invited them home: they attended them in the forum,[24] and suffered
the tribunes themselves to hold the rest of their meetings without
interruption: they were never discourteous to any one either in public
or in private, except on occasions when the matter of the law began
to be agitated. In other respects the young men were popular. And
not only did the tribunes transact all their other affairs without
disturbance, but they were even re-elected or the following year.
Without even an offensive expression, much less any violence being
employed, but by soothing and carefully managing the commons the young
patricians gradually rendered them tractable. By these artifices the
law was evaded through the entire year.
The consuls Gaius Claudius, the son of Appius, and Publius Valerius
Publicola, took over the government from their predecessors in a more
tranquil condition. The next year had brought with it nothing new:
thoughts about carrying the law, or submitting to it, engrossed the
attention of the state. The more the younger patricians strove
to insinuate themselves into favour with the plebeians, the more
strenuously did the tribunes strive on the other hand to render them
suspicious in the eyes of the commons by alleging that a conspiracy
had been formed; that Caeso was in Rome; that plans had been concerted
for assassinating the tribunes, for butchering the commons. That the
commission assigned by the elder members of the patricians was, that
the young men should abolish the tribunician power from the state, and
the form of government should be the same as it had been before the
occupation of the Sacred Mount. At the same time a war from the
Volscians and AEquans, which had now become a fixed and almost regular
occurrence every year, was apprehended, and another evil nearer home
started up unexpectedly. Exiles and slaves, to the number of two
thousand five hundred, seized the Capitol and citadel during the
night, under the command of Appius Herdonius, a Sabine. Those who
refused to join the conspiracy and take up arms with them were
immediately massacred in the citadel: others, during the disturbance,
fled in headlong panic down to the forum: the cries, "To arms!" and
"The enemy are in the city!" were heard alternately. The consuls
neither dared to arm the commons, nor to suffer them to remain
unarmed; uncertain what sudden calamity had assailed the city, whether
from without or within, whether arising from the hatred of the commons
or the treachery of the slaves: they tried to quiet the disturbances,
and while trying to do so they sometimes aroused them; for the
populace, panic-stricken and terrified, could not be directed by
authority. They gave out arms, however, but not indiscriminately; only
so that, as it was yet uncertain who the enemy were, there might be
a protection sufficiently reliable to meet all emergencies. The
remainder of the night they passed in posting guards in suitable
places throughout the city, anxious and uncertain who the enemy were,
and how great their number. Daylight subsequently disclosed the war
and its leader. Appius Herdonius summoned the slaves to liberty from
the Capitol, saying, that he had espoused the cause of all the most
unfortunate, in order to bring back to their country those who had
been exiled and driven out by wrong, and to remove the grievous yoke
from the slaves: that he had rather that were done under the authority
of the Roman people. If there were no hope in that quarter, he would
rouse the Volscians and Aequans, and would try even the most desperate
remedies.
The whole affair now began to be clearer to the patricians and
consuls; besides the news, however, which was officially announced,
they dreaded lest this might be a scheme of the Veientines or Sabines;
and, further, as there were so many of the enemy in the city, lest
the Sabine and Etruscan troops might presently come up according to
a concerted plan, and their inveterate enemies, the Volscians and
Aequans should come, not to ravage their territories, as before, but
even to the gates of the city, as being already in part taken. Many
and various were their fears, the most prominent among which was their
dread of the slaves, lest each should harbour an enemy in his own
house, one whom it was neither sufficiently safe to trust, nor, by
distrusting, to pronounce unworthy of confidence, lest he might prove
a more deadly foe. And it scarcely seemed that the evil could be
resisted by harmony: no one had any fear of tribunes or commons, while
other troubles so predominated and threatened to swamp the state: that
fear seemed an evil of a mild nature, and one that always arose during
the cessation of other ills, and then appeared to be lulled to rest
by external alarm. Yet at the present time that, almost more than
anything else, weighed heavily on their sinking fortunes: for such
madness took possession of the tribunes, that contended that not war,
but an empty appearance of war, had taken possession of the Capitol,
to divert the people's minds from attending to the law: that these
friends and clients of the patricians would depart in deeper silence
than they had come, if they once perceived that, by the law being
passed, they had raised these tumults in vain. They then held a
meeting for passing the law, having called away the people from arms.
In the meantime, the consuls convened the senate, another dread
presenting itself by the action of the tribunes, greater than that
which the nightly foe had occasioned.
When it was announced that the men were laying aside their arms, and
quitting their posts, Publius Valerius, while his colleague still
detained the senate, hastened from the senate-house, and went thence
into the meeting-place to the tribunes. "What is all this," said he,
"O tribunes? Are you determined to overthrow the commonwealth under
the guidance and auspices of Appius Herdonius? Has he been so
successful in corrupting you, he who, by his authority, has not even
influenced your slaves? When the enemy is over our heads, is it your
pleasure that we should give up our arms, and laws be proposed?" Then,
directing his words to the populace: "If, Quirites, no concern for
your city, or for yourselves, moves you, at least revere the gods
of your country, now made captive by the enemy. Jupiter, best
and greatest, Queen Juno, and Minerva, and the other gods and
goddesses,[25] are being besieged; a camp of slaves now holds
possession of the tutelary gods of the state. Does this seem to you
the behavior of a state in its senses? Such a crowd of enemies is not
only within the walls, but in the citadel, commanding the forum an
senate-house: in the meanwhile meetings are being held in the forum,
the senate is in the senate-house: just as when tranquility prevails,
the senator gives his opinion, the other Romans their votes. Does it
not behoove all patricians and plebeians, consuls, tribunes, gods, and
men of all classes, to bring aid with arms in their hands, to hurry
into the Capitol, to liberate and restore to peace that most august
residence of Jupiter, best and greatest? O Father Romulus! Do thou
inspire thy progeny with that determination of thine, by which thou
didst formerly recover from these same Sabines this citadel, when
captured by gold. Order them to pursue this same path, which thou, as
leader, and thy army, pursued. Lo! I as consul will be the first to
follow thee and thy footsteps, as far as I, a mortal, can follow a
god." Then, in concluding his speech, he said that he was ready to
take up arms, that he summoned every citizen of Rome to arms; if any
one should oppose, that he, heedless of the consular authority, the
tribunician power, and the devoting laws, would consider him as an
enemy, whoever and wheresoever he might be, in the Capitol, or in the
forum. Let the tribunes order arms to be taken up against Publius
Valerius the consul, since they forbade it against Appius Herdonius;
that he would dare to act in the case of the tribunes, as the founder
of his family [26] had dared to act in the case of the kings. It was
now clear that matters would come to violent extremities, and that a
quarrel among Romans would be exhibited to the enemy. The law however
could neither be carried, nor could the consul proceed to the Capitol.
Night put an end to the struggle that had been begun; the tribunes
yielded to the night, dreading the arms of the consuls.[27] When the
ringleaders of the disturbances had been removed, the patricians went
about among the commons, and, mingling in their meetings, spread
statements suited to the occasion: they advised them to take heed into
what danger they were bringing the commonwealth: that the contest
was not one between patricians and commons, but that patricians and
commons together, the fortress of the city, the temples of the gods,
the guardian gods of the state and of private families, were being
delivered up to the enemy. While these measures were being taken in
the forum for the purpose of appeasing the disturbances, the consuls
in the meantime had retired to visit the gates and the walls, fearing
that the Sabines or the Veientine enemy might bestir themselves.
During the same night, messengers reached Tusculum with news of the
capture of the citadel, the seizure of the Capitol, and also of the
generally disturbed condition of the city. Lucius Mamilius was at that
time dictator at Tusculum; he, having immediately convoked the senate
and introduced the messengers, earnestly advised, that they should not
wait until ambassadors came from Rome, suing for assistance; that the
danger itself and importance of the crisis, the gods of allies, and
the good faith of treaties, demanded it; that the gods would never
afford them a like opportunity of obliging so powerful a state and so
near a neighbour. It was resolved that assistance should be sent the
young men were enrolled, and arms given them. On their way to Rome at
break of day, at a distance they exhibited the appearance of enemies.
The AEquans or Volscians were thought to be coming. Then, after the
groundless alarm was removed, they were admitted into the city and
descended in a body into the forum. There Publius Valerius, having
left his colleague with the guards of the gates, was now drawing up
his forces in order of battle. The great influence of the man produced
an effect on the people, when he declared that, when the Capitol was
recovered, and the city restored to peace, if they allowed themselves
to be convinced what hidden guile was contained in the law proposed by
the tribunes, he, mindful of his ancestors, mindful of his surname,
and remembering that the duty of protecting the people had been handed
down to him as hereditary by his ancestors, would offer no obstruction
to the meeting of the people. Following him, as their leader, in spite
of the fruitless opposition of the tribunes, they marched up the
ascent of the Capitoline Hill. The Tusculan troops also joined them.
Allies and citizens vied with each other as to which of them should
appropriate to themselves the honour of recovering the citadel. Each
leader encouraged his own men. Then the enemy began to be alarmed, and
placed no dependence on anything but their position. While they were
in this state of alarm, the Romans and allies advanced to attack them.
They had already burst into the porch of the temple, when Publius
Valerius was slain while cheering on the fight at the head of his men.
Publius Volumnius, a man of consular rank, saw him falling. Having
directed his men to cover the body, he himself rushed forward to
take the place and duty of the consul. Owing to their excitement and
impetuosity, this great misfortune passed unnoticed by the soldiers,
they conquered before they perceived that they were fighting without a
leader. Many of the exiles defiled the temple with their blood; many
were taken prisoners: Herdonius was slain. Thus the Capitol was
recovered. With respect to the prisoners, punishment was inflicted on
each according to his station, as he was a freeman or a slave. The
Tusculans received the thanks of the Romans: the Capitol was cleansed
and purified. The commons are stated to have thrown every man a
farthing into the consul's house, that he might be buried with more
splendid obsequies.
Order being thus established, the tribunes then urged the patricians
to fulfill the Promise given by Publius Valerius; they pressed on
Claudius to free the shade of his colleague from breach of faith, and
to allow the matter of the law to proceed. The consul asserted that he
would not suffer the discussion of the law to proceed, until he had
appointed a colleague to assist him. These disputes lasted until the
time of the elections for the substitution of a consul. In the month
of December, by the most strenuous exertions of the patricians, Lucius
Quinctius Cincinnatus, Caeso's father, was elected consul, to enter
upon office without delay. The commons were dismayed at being about to
have for consul a man incensed against them, powerful by the support
of the patricians, by his own merit, and by reason of his three sons,
not one of whom was inferior to Caeso in greatness of spirit, while
they were his superiors in the exercise of prudence and moderation,
whenever occasion required. When he entered upon office, in his
frequent harangues from the tribunal, he was not more vehement in
restraining the commons than in reproving the senate, owing to the
listlessness of which body the tribunes of the commons, now become a
standing institution, exercised regal authority, by means of their
readiness of speech and prosecutions, not as if in a republic of the
Roman people, but as if in an ill-regulated household. That with his
son Caeso, valour, constancy, all the splendid qualifications of youth
in war and in peace, had been driven and exiled from the city of Rome:
that talkative and turbulent men, sowers of discord, twice and even
thrice re-elected tribunes by the vilest intrigues, lived in the
enjoyment of regal irresponsibility. "Does that Aulus Verginius," said
he, "deserve less punishment than Appius Herdonius, because he was not
in the Capitol? Considerably more, by Hercules, if any one will look
at the matter fairly. Herdonius, if nothing else, by avowing himself
an enemy, thereby as good as gave you notice to take up arms: this
man, by denying the existence of war, took arms out of your hands, and
exposed you defenceless to the attack of slaves and exiles. And did
you--I will speak with all due respect for Gaius Claudius and
Publius Valerius, now no more--did you decide to advance against the
Capitoline Hill before you expelled those enemies from the forum? I
feel ashamed in the sight of gods and men. When the enemy were in the
citadel, in the Capitol, when the leader of the exiles and slaves,
after profaning everything, took up his residence in the shrine of
Jupiter, best and greatest, arms were taken up at Tusculum sooner
than at Rome. It was a matter of doubt whether Lucius Mamilius, the
Tusculan leader, or Publius Valerius and Gaius Claudius, the consuls,
recovered the Roman citadel, and we, who formerly did not suffer the
Latins to touch arms, not even in their own defence, when they had the
enemy on their very frontiers, should have been taken and destroyed
now, had not the Latins taken up arms of their own accord. Tribunes,
is this bringing aid to the commons, to expose them in a defenceless
state to be butchered by the enemy? I suppose, if any one, even the
humblest individual of your commons--which portion you have as it were
broken off from the rest of the state, and created a country and a
commonwealth of your own--if any one of these were to bring you word
that his house was beset by an armed band of slaves, you would think
that assistance should be afforded him: was then Jupiter, best
and greatest, when hemmed in by the arms of exiles and of slaves,
deserving of no human aid? And do these persons claim to be considered
sacred and inviolable, to whom the gods themselves are neither sacred
nor inviolable? Well but, loaded as you are with crimes against both
gods and men, you proclaim that you will pass your law this year.
Verily then, on the day I was created consul, it was a disastrous act
of the state, much more so even than the day when Publius Valerius
the consul fell, if you shall pass it. Now, first of all," said he,
"Quirites, it is the intention of myself and of my colleague to march
the legions against the Volscians and the Aequans. I know not by what
fatality we find the gods more propitious when we are at war than in
peace. How great the danger from those states would have been, had
they known that the Capitol was besieged by exiles, it is better to
conjecture from what is past, than to learn by actual experience."
The consul's harangue had a great effect on the commons: the
patricians, recovering their spirits, believed the state
re-established. The other consul, a more ardent partner than promoter
of a measure, readily allowing his colleague to take the lead in
measures of such importance, claimed to himself his share of the
consular duty in carrying these measures into execution. Then the
tribunes, mocking these declarations as empty, went on to ask how the
consuls were going to lead out an army, seeing that no one would allow
them to hold a levy? "But," replied Quinctius, "we have no need of a
levy, since, at the time Publius Valerius gave arms to the commons to
recover the Capitol, they all took an oath to him, that they would
assemble at the command of the consul, and would not depart without
his permission. We therefore publish an order that all of you, who
have sworn, attend to-morrow under arms at the Lake Regillus." The
tribunes then began to quibble, and wanted to absolve the people from
their obligation, asserting that Quinctius was a private person at the
time when they were bound by the oath. But that disregard of the gods,
which possesses the present generation, had not yet gained ground:
nor did every one accommodate oaths and laws to his own purposes, by
interpreting them as it suited him, but rather adapted his own conduct
to them. Wherefore the tribunes, as there was no hope of obstructing
the matter, attempted to delay the departure of the army the more
earnestly on this account, because a report had gone out, both that
the augurs had been ordered to attend at the Lake Regillius and that a
place was to be consecrated, where business might be transacted with
the people by auspices: and whatever had been passed at Rome by
tribunician violence, might be repealed there in the assembly.[28]
That all would order what the consuls desired: for that there was no
appeal at a greater distance than a mile [29] from the city: and that
the tribunes, if they should come there, would, like the rest of the
Quirites, be subjected to the consular authority. This alarmed them:
but the greatest anxiety which affected their minds was because
Quinctius frequently declared that he would not hold an election of
consuls. That the malady of the state was not of an ordinary nature,
so that it could be stopped by the ordinary remedies. That the
commonwealth required a dictator, so that whoever attempted to disturb
the condition of the state, might feel that from the dictatorship
there was no appeal.