Roman History, Books I III - Titus Livius
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[Footnote 25: Literally, "Horatian javelins."--D.O.]
[Footnote: Evidently so established after the destruction of the
inhabitants in the storming (see p. 17, above).--D. O.]
[Footnote 27: Tiber and Anio.--D. O.]
[Footnote 28: Scourging and beheading, scourging to death, burying
alive, and crucifixion (for slaves) may make us question the justice
of this boast. Foreign generals captured in war were only strangled.
Altogether, the Roman indifference to suffering was very marked as
compared with the humanity of the Greeks.--D. O.]
[Footnote 29: The Lares were of human origin, being only the deified
ancestors of the family: the Penates of divine origin, the tutelary
gods of the family.]
[Footnote 30: "Curia Hostilia." It was at the northwest corner of the
forum, northeast of the comitium.--D. O.]
[Footnote 31: Identified with Juno.--D. O.]
[Footnote 32: This story makes us suspect that it was the case of
another warlike king who had incurred the enmity of the senate.
The patricians alone controlled or were taught in religious
matters.--D.O.]
[Footnote 33: Supposed to be an Etruscan goddess, afterward identified
with Jana, the female form of Janus, as was customary with the
Romans.--D.O.] The Janiculum [Footnote: The heights across the
Tiber.--D.O.]
[Footnote 34: Called Mamertinus; though apparently not until the
Middle Ages.]
[Footnote 35: Lucumo seems to have been, originally at least, an
Etruscan title rather than name.--D.O.]
[Footnote 36: No one was noble who could not show images of his
ancestors: and no one was allowed to have an image who had not filled
the highest offices of state: this was called jus imaginum.]
[Footnote 37: This part of the Via Nova probably corresponded pretty
closely with the present Via S. Teodoro, and Tarquin's house
is supposed to have stood not far from the church of Sta.
Anastasia.--D.O.]
[Footnote 38: A white toga with horizontal purple stripes. This was
originally the royal robe. Later it became the ceremonial dress of
the equestrian order. The Salii, priests of Mars Gradivus, also wore
it--D.O.]
[Footnote 39: This was a quinquennial registering of every man's age,
family, profession, property, and residence, by which the amount of
his taxes was regulated. Formerly each full citizen contributed an
equal amount. Servius introduced a regulation of the taxes according
to property qualifications, and clients and plebeians alike had to
pay their contribution, if they possessed the requisite amount of
property.]
[Footnote 40: Or, "pounds weight of bronze," originally reckoned by
the possession of a certain number of jugera (20 jugera being equal to
5,000 asses).]
[Footnote 41: Between the ages of forty-six and sixty.--D.O.]
[Footnote 42: Between the ages of seventeen and forty-six--D.O.].
[Footnote 43: A ceremony of purification, from sus, ovis, and taurus:
the three victims were led three times round the army and sacrificed
to Mars. The ceremony took place every fifth year]
[Footnote 44: These were the walls of Rome down to about 271-276 A.D.,
when the Emperor Aurelian began the walls that now inclose the
city. Remains of the Servian wall are numerous and of considerable
extent.--D.O.]
[Footnote 45: On the summit of the Aventine.--D. O.]
[Footnote 46: Those introduced by Tarquinius Priscus, as related
above.--D.O.]
[Footnote 47: At the foot of the Alban Hill. The general councils of
the Latins were held here up to the time of their final subjugation.]
[Footnote 48: A few ruins on the Via Praenestina, about nine miles
from the Porta Maggiore, mark the site of Gabii. They are on the bank
of the drained Lago Castiglione, whence Macaulay's "Gabii of the
Pool".--D.O.]
[Footnote 49: This message without words is the same as that which,
according to Herodotus, was sent by Thrasybulus of Miletus to
Periander of Corinth. The trick by which Sextus gained the confidence
of the people of Gabii is also related by him of Zophyrus and Darius.]
[Footnote 50: The name "Tarpeian," as given from the Tarpeia, whose
story is told above, was generally confined to the rock or precipice
from which traitors were thrown. Its exact location on the Capitoline
Hill does not seem positively determined; in fact, most of the sites
on this hill have been subjects of considerable dispute.--D.O.]
[Footnote 51: The god of boundaries. His action seems quite in keeping
with his office.--D.O.]
[Footnote 52: The Cloaca Maxima, upon which Rome still relies for
much of her drainage, is more generally attributed to Tarquinius
Priscus.--D.O.]
[Footnote 53: The modern Segni, upward of thirty miles from Rome, on
the Rome-Naples line.--D.O.]
[Footnote 54: On the coast, near Terracina. The Promontoria Circeo is
the traditional site of the palace and grave of Circe, whose story is
told in the Odyssey.--D.O.]
[Footnote 55: Dullard.--D.O.]
[Footnote 56: In the Pomptine marshes, about twenty miles south of
Rome and five from the coast.--D.O.]
[Footnote 57: Its site, about nine miles from Rome, on the road to
Tivoli, is now known as Lunghezza.--D.O.]
[Footnote 58: The royal body-guard. See the story of Romulus
above.--D.O.]
[Footnote 59: Spurius Lucretius.--D.O.]
BOOK II
THE FIRST COMMONWEALTH
The acts, civil and military, of the Roman people, henceforth free,
their annual magistrates, and the sovereignty of the laws, more
powerful than that of men, I will now proceed to recount. The haughty
insolence of the last king had caused this liberty to be the more
welcome: for the former kings reigned in such a manner that they all
in succession may be deservedly reckoned founders of those parts
at least of the city, which they independently added as new
dwelling-places for the population, which had been increased by
themselves. Nor is there any doubt that that same Brutus, who gained
such renown from the expulsion of King Superbus, would have acted to
the greatest injury of the public weal, if, through the desire of
liberty before the people were fit for it, he had wrested the kingdom
from any of the preceding kings. For what would have been the
consequence, if that rabble of shepherds and strangers, runaways from
their own peoples, had found, under the protection of an inviolable
sanctuary, either freedom, or at least impunity for former offences,
and, freed from all dread of regal authority, had begun to be
distracted by tribunician storms, and to engage in contests with the
fathers in a strange city, before the pledges of wives and children,
and affection for the soil itself, to which people become habituated
only by length of time, had united their affections? Their condition,
not yet matured, would have been destroyed by discord; but the
tranquillizing moderation of the government so fostered this
condition, and by proper nourishment brought it to such perfection,
that, when their strength was now developed, they were able to bring
forth the wholesome fruits of liberty. The first beginnings of
liberty, however, one may date from this period, rather because
the consular authority was made annual, than because of the royal
prerogative was in any way curtailed. The first consuls kept all the
privileges and outward signs of authority, care only being taken to
prevent the terror appearing doubled, should both have the fasces at
the same time. Brutus, with the consent of his colleague, was first
attended by the fasces, he who proved himself afterward as keen in
protecting liberty as he had previously shown himself in asserting it.
First of all he bound over the people, jealous of their newly-acquired
liberty, by an oath that they would suffer no one to be king in Rome,
for fear that later they might be influenced by the importunities
or bribes of the royal house. Next, that a full house might give
additional strength to the senate, he filled up the number of
senators, which had been diminished by the assassinations of
Tarquinius, to the full number of three hundred, by electing the
principal men of equestrian rank to fill their places: from this is
said to have been derived the custom of summoning into the senate both
the patres and those who were conscripti. They called those who
were elected, conscripti, enrolled, that is, as a new senate. It is
surprising how much that contributed to the harmony of the state, and
toward uniting the patricians and commons in friendship.
Attention was then paid to religious matters, and, as certain public
functions had been regularly performed by the kings in person, to
prevent their loss being felt in any particular, they appointed a
king of the sacrifices.[1] This office they made subordinate to the
pontifex maximus, that the holder might not, if high office were added
to the title, prove detrimental to liberty, which was then their
principal care. And I do not know but that, by fencing it in on every
side to excess, even in the most trivial matters, they exceeded
bounds. For, though there was nothing else that gave offence, the name
of one of the consuls was an object of dislike to the state.
They declared that the Tarquins had been too much habituated to
sovereignty; that it had originated with Priscus: that Servius Tullius
had reigned next; that Tarquinius Superbus had not even, in spite of
the interval that had elapsed, given up all thoughts of the kingdom
as being the property of another, which it really was, but thought to
regain it by crime and violence, as if it were the heirloom of his
family; that after the expulsion of Superbus, the government was inthe
hands of Collatinus: that the Tarquins knew not how to live in a
private station; that the name pleased them not; that it was dangerous
to liberty. Such language, used at first by persons quietly sounding
the dispositions of the people, was circulated through the whole
state; and the people, now excited by suspicion, were summoned by
Brutus to a meeting. There first of all he read aloud the people's
oath: that they would neither suffer any one to be king, nor allow
any one to live at Rome from whom danger to liberty might arise. He
declared that this ought to be maintained with all their might, and
that nothing, that had any reference to it, ought to be treated with
indifference: that he said this with reluctance, for the sake of the
individual; and that he would not have said it, did not his affection
for the commonwealth predominate; that the people of Rome did not
believe that complete liberty had been recovered; that the regal
family, the regal name, was not only in the state but also in power;
that that was a stumbling-block, was a hindrance to liberty. "Do you,
Lucius Tarquinius," said he, "of your own free will, remove this
apprehension? We remember, we own it, you expelled the royal family;
complete your services: take hence the royal name; your property your
fellow-citizens shall not only hand over to you, by my advice, but, if
it is insufficient, they will liberally supply the want. Depart in a
spirit of friendship. Relieve the state from a dread which may be only
groundless. So firmly are men's minds persuaded that only with the
Tarquinian race will kingly power depart hence." Amazement at so
extraordinary and sudden an occurrence at first impeded the consul's
utterance; then, as he was commencing to speak, the chief men of the
state stood around him, and with pressing entreaties urged the same
request. The rest of them indeed had less weight with him, but
after Spurius Lucretius, superior to all the others in age and high
character, who was besides his own father-in-law, began to try various
methods, alternately entreating and advising, in order to induce him
to allow himself to be prevailed on by the general feeling of the
state, the consul, apprehensive that hereafter the same lot might
befall him, when his term of office had expired, as well as loss of
property and other additional disgrace, resigned his consulship, and
removing all his effects to Lavinium, withdrew from the city. Brutus,
according to a decree of the senate, proposed to the people, that all
who belonged to the family of the Tarquins should be banished from
Rome: in the assembly of centuries he elected Publius Valerius, with
whose assistance he had expelled the kings, as his colleague.
Though nobody doubted that a war was impending from the Tarquins, yet
it broke out later than was generally expected; however, liberty was
well-nigh lost by fraud and treachery, a thing they never apprehended.
There were among the Roman youth several young men--and these of no
no rank--who, while the regal government lasted, had enjoyed greater
license in their pleasures, being the equals in age, boon companions
of the young Tarquins, and accustomed to live after the fashion of
princes. Missing that freedom, now that the privileges of all were
equalized,[2] they complained among themselves that the liberty of
others had turned out slavery for them: that a king was a human being,
from whom one could obtain what one wanted, whether the deed might be
an act of justice or of wrong; that there was room for favour and
good offices; that he could be angry, and forgive; that he knew the
difference between a friend and an enemy; that the laws were a deaf,
inexorable thing, more beneficial and advantageous for the poor than
for the rich; that they allowed no relaxation or indulgence, if one
transgressed due bounds; that it was perilous, amid so many human
errors, to have no security for life but innocence. While their minds
were already of their own accord thus discontented, ambassadors from
the royal family arrived unexpectedly, merely demanding restitution of
their personal property, without any mention of their return. After
their application had been heard in the senate, the deliberation about
it lasted for several days, as they feared that the non-restitution of
the property might be made a pretext for war, its restitution a fund
and assistance for the same. In the meantime the ambassadors were
planning a different scheme: while openly demanding the restoration of
property, they secretly concerted measures for recovering the throne,
and soliciting them, as if to promote that which appeared to be the
object in view, they sounded the minds of the young nobles; to those
by whom their proposals were favourably received they gave letters
from the Tarquins, and conferred with them about admitting the royal
family into the city secretly by night.
The matter was first intrusted to the brothers Vitellii and Aquilii. A
sister of the Vitellii was married to Brutus the consul, and the issue
of that marriage was the grown-up sons, Titus and Tiberius; they also
were admitted by their uncles to share the plot; several young nobles
also were taken into their confidence, recollection of whose names has
been lost from lapse of time. In the meantime, as that opinion had
prevailed in the Senate, which was in favour of the property being
restored, the ambassadors made use of this as a pretext for lingering
in the city, and the time which they had obtained from the consuls
to procure conveyances, in which to remove the effects of the royal
family, they spent entirely in consultations with the conspirators,
and by persistent entreaties succeeded in getting letters given to
them for the Tarquins. Otherwise how could they feel sure that the
representations made by the ambassadors on matters of such importance
were not false? The letters, given as an intended pledge of their
sincerity, caused the plot to be discovered: for when, the day before
the ambassadors set out to the Tarquins, they had supped by chance at
the house of the Vitellii, and the conspirators had there discoursed
much together in private, as was natural, concerning their
revolutionary design, one of the slaves, who had already observed what
was on foot, overheard their conversation; he waited, however, for the
opportunity when the letters should be given to the ambassadors, the
detection of which would put the matter beyond a doubt. When he found
that they had been given, he laid the whole affair before the consuls.
The consuls left their home to seize the ambassadors and conspirators,
and quashed the whole affair without any disturbance, particular care
being taken of the letters, to prevent their being lost or stolen.
The traitors were immediately thrown into prison: some doubt was
entertained concerning the treatment of the ambassadors, and though
their conduct seemed to justify their being considered as enemies, the
law of nations nevertheless prevailed.
The consideration of the restoration of the king's effects, for which
the senate had formerly voted, was laid anew before them. The fathers,
overcome by indignation, expressly forbade either their restoration or
confiscation. They were given to the people to be rifled, that, having
been polluted as it were by participation in the royal plunder, they
might lose forever all hopes of reconciliation with the Tarquins. A
field belonging to the latter, which lay between the city and the
Tiber, having been consecrated to Mars, was afterward called the
Campus Martius. It is said that there was by chance, at that time, a
crop of corn upon it ripe for harvest; this produce of the field, as
they thought it unlawful to use it, after it had been reaped, a large
number of men, sent into the field together, carried in baskets corn
and straw together, and threw it into the Tiber, which then was
flowing with shallow water, as is usual in the heat of summer; thus
the heaps of corn as they stuck in the shallows settled down, covered
over with mud; by means of these and other substances carried down to
the same spot, which the river brings along hap-hazard, an island[3]
was gradually formed. Afterward I believe that substructures were
added, and that aid was given by human handicraft, that the surface
might be well raised, as it is now and strong enough besides to bear
the weight even of temples and colonnades. After the tyrant's effects
had been plundered, the traitors were condemned and punishment
inflicted. This punishment was the more noticeable, because the
consulship imposed on the father the office of punishing his own
children, and to him, who should have been removed even as a
spectator, was assigned by fortune the duty of carrying out the
punishment. Young men of the highest rank stood bound to the stake;
but the consul's sons diverted the eyes of all the spectators from the
rest of the criminals, as from persons unknown; and the people felt
pity, not so much on account of their punishment, as of the crime by
which they had deserved it. That they, in that year above all others,
should have brought themselves to betray into the hands of one, who,
formerly a haughty tyrant, was now an exasperated exile, their country
recently delivered, their father its deliverer, the consulate which
took its rise from the Junian family, the fathers, the people, and
all the gods and citizens of Rome. The consuls advanced to take their
seats, and the lictors were despatched to inflict punishment. The
young men were stripped naked, beaten with rods, and their heads
struck off with the axe, while all the time the looks and countenance
of the father presented a touching spectacle, as his natural feelings
displayed themselves during the discharge of his duty in inflicting
public punishment. After the punishment of the guilty, that the
example might be a striking one in both aspects for the prevention of
crime, a sum of money was granted out of the treasury as a reward
to the informer: liberty also and the rights of citizenship were
conferred upon him. He is said to have been the first person made free
by the vindicta; some think that even the term vindicta is derived
from him, and that his name was Vindicius. [4] After him it was
observed as a rule, that all who were set free in this manner were
considered to be admitted to the rights of Roman citizens.
On receiving the announcement of these events as they had occurred,
Tarquin, inflamed not only with grief at the annihilation of such
great hopes, but also with hatred and resentment, when he saw that the
way was blocked against stratagem, considering that war ought to
be openly resorted to, went round as a suppliant to the cities of
Etruria, imploring above all the Veientines and Tarquinians, not to
suffer him, a man sprung from themselves, of the same stock, to perish
before their eyes, an exile and in want, together with his grown-up
sons, after they had possessed a kingdom recently so flourishing. That
others had been invited to Rome from foreign lands to succeed to the
throne; that he, a king, while engaged in extending the Roman Empire
by arms, had been driven out by his nearest relatives by a villainous
conspiracy, that they had seized and divided his kingdom in portions
among themselves, because no one individual among them was deemed
sufficiently deserving of it: and had given up his effects to the
people to pillage, that no one might be without a share in the guilt.
That he was desirous of recovering his country and his kingdom, and
punishing his ungrateful subjects. Let them bring succour and aid him;
let them also avenge the wrongs done to them of old, the frequent
slaughter of their legions, the robbery of their land. These arguments
prevailed on the people of Veii, and with menaces they loudly
declared, each in their own name, that now at least, under the conduct
of a Roman general, their former disgrace would be wiped out, and what
they had lost in war would be recovered. His name and relationship
influenced the people of Tarquinii, for it seemed a high honour that
their countrymen should reign at Rome. Accordingly, the armies of
these two states followed Tarquin to aid in the recovery of his
kingdom, and to take vengeance upon the Romans in war. When they
entered Roman territory, the consuls marched to meet the enemy.
Valerius led the infantry in a square battalion: Brutus marched in
front with the cavalry to reconnoitre. In like manner the enemy's
horse formed the van of the army: Arruns Tarquinius, the king's son,
was in command: the king himself followed with the legions. Arruns,
when he knew at a distance by the lictors that it was a consul, and on
drawing nearer more surely discovered that it was Brutus by his face,
inflamed with rage, cried out: "Yonder is the man who has driven us
into exile from our native country! See how he rides in state adorned
with the insignia of our rank! Now assist me, ye gods, the avengers of
kings." He put spurs to his horse and charged furiously against the
consul. Brutus perceived that he was being attacked, and, as it was
honourable in those days for the generals to personally engage in
battle, he accordingly eagerly offered himself for combat. They
charged with such furious animosity, neither of them heedful of
protecting his own person, provided he could wound his opponent, that
each, pierced through the buckler by his adversary's blow, fell from
his horse in the throes of death, still transfixed by the two spears.
The engagement between the rest of the horse began at the same time,
and soon after the foot came up. There they fought with varying
success, and as it were with equal advantage. The right wings of both
armies were victorious, the left worsted. The Veientines, accustomed
to defeat at the hands of the Roman soldiers, were routed and put to
flight. The Tarquinians, who were a new foe, not only stood their
ground, but on their side even forced the Romans to give way.
After the engagement had thus been fought, so great a terror seized
Tarquinius and the Etruscans, that both armies, the Veientine and
Tarquinian, abandoning the attempt as a fruitless one, departed by
night to their respective homes. Strange incidents are also reported
in the account of this battle--that in the stillness of the next night
a loud voice was heard from the Arsian wood;[5] that it was believed
to be the voice of Silvanus. That the following words were uttered:
that more of the Tuscans by one man had fallen in the fight: that the
Romans were victorious in the war. Under these circumstances, the
Romans departed thence as conquerors, the Etruscans as practically
conquered. For as soon as it was light, and not one of the enemy was
to be seen anywhere, Publius Valerius, the consul, collected the
spoils, and returned thence in triumph to Rome. He celebrated the
funeral of his colleague with all the magnificence possible at the
time. But a far greater honour to his death was the public sorrow,
especially remarkable in this particular, that the matrons mourned him
for a year as a parent, because he had shown himself so vigorous an
avenger of violated chastity. Afterward, the consul who survived--so
changeable are the minds of the people--after enjoying great
popularity, encountered not only jealousy, but suspicion, that
originated with a monstrous charge. Report represented that he was
aspiring to kingly power, because he had not substituted a colleague
in the room of Brutus, and was building on the top of Mount Velia:[6]
that an impregnable stronghold was being erected there in an elevated
and well-fortified position. These reports, widely circulated and
believed, disquieted the consul's mind at the unworthiness of the
charge; and, having summoned the people to an assembly, he mounted the
platform, after lowering the fasces. It was a pleasing sight to the
multitude that the insignia of authority were lowered before them, and
that acknowledgment was made, that the dignity and power of the people
were greater than that of the consul. Then, after they had been
bidden to listen, the consul highly extolled the good fortune of his
colleague, in that, after having delivered his country, he had died
while still invested with the highest rank, fighting in defence of the
commonwealth, when his glory was at its height, and had not yet turned
to jealousy. He himself (said he) had outlived his glory, and only
survived to incur accusation and odium: that, from being the liberator
of his country, he had fallen back to the level of the Aquilii and
Vitellii. "Will no merit then," said he, "ever be so approved in your
eyes as to be exempt from the attacks of suspicion? Was I to apprehend
that I, that bitterest enemy of kings, should myself have to submit
to the charge of desiring kingly power? Was I to believe that, even
though I should dwell in the citadel and the Capitol itself, I should
be dreaded by my fellow-citizens? Does my character among you depend
on so mere a trifle? Does your confidence in me rest on such slight
foundations, that it matters more where I am than what I am? The
house of Publius Valerius shall not stand in the way of your liberty,
Quirites; the Velian Mount shall be secure to you. I will not only
bring down my house into the plain, but will build it beneath the
hill, that you may dwell above me, the suspected citizen. Let those
build on the Velian Mount, to whom liberty can be more safely
intrusted than to Publius Valerius." Immediately all the materials
were brought down to the foot of the Velian Mount, and the house was
built at the foot of the hill, where the Temple of Vica Pota[7] now
stands.