The History of Rome; Books Nine to Twenty Six - Titus Livius
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25. To Philip intelligence of the defection of the Aetolians was
brought while in winter quarters at Pella. As he was about to march an
army into Greece at the beginning of the spring, he undertook a sudden
expedition into the territories of Oricum and Apollonia, in order that
Macedonia might not be molested by the Illyrians, and the cities
bordering upon them, in consequence of the terror he would thus strike
them with in turn. The Apollonians came out to oppose him, but he
drove them, terrified and dismayed, within their walls. After
devastating the adjacent parts of Illyricum he turned his course into
Pelagonia, with the same expedition. He then took Sintia, a town of
the Dardanians, which would have afforded them a passage into
Macedonia. Having with the greatest despatch performed these
achievements, not forgetting the war made upon him by the Aetolians
and Romans in conjunction, he marched down into Thessaly through
Pelagonia, Lyncus, and Bottiaea. He trusted that people might be
induced to take part with him in the war against the Aetolians, and,
therefore, leaving Perseus with four thousand armed men at the gorge,
which formed the entrance into Thessaly, to prevent the Aetolians from
passing it, before he should be occupied with more important business,
he marched his army into Macedonia, and thence into Thrace and
Maedica. This nation had been accustomed to make incursions into
Macedonia when they perceived the king engaged in a foreign war, and
the kingdom left unprotected. Accordingly, he began to devastate the
lands in the neighbourhood of Phragandae, and to lay siege to the city
Jamphorina, the capital and chief fortress of Maedica. Scopas, on
hearing that the king had gone into Thrace, and was engaged in a war
there, armed all the Aetolian youths, and prepared to invade
Acarnania. The Acarnanian nation, unequal to their enemy in point of
strength, and seeing that they had lost Aeniadae and Nasus, and
moreover that the Roman arms were threatening them, prepare the war
rather with rage than prudence. Having sent their wives, children, and
those who were above sixty years old into the neighbouring parts of
Epirus, all who were between the ages of fifteen and sixty, bound each
other by an oath not to return unless victorious. That no one might
receive into his city or house, or admit to his table or hearth, such
as should retire from the field vanquished, they drew up a form of
direful execration against their countrymen who should do so; and the
most solemn entreaty they could devise, to friendly states. At the
same time they entreated the Epirotes to bury in one tomb such of
their men as should fall in the encounter, adding this inscription
over their remains: HERE LIE THE ACARNANIANS, WHO DIED WHILE FIGHTING
IN DEFENCE OF THEIR COUNTRY, AGAINST THE VIOLENCE AND INJUSTICE OF THE
AETOLIANS. Having worked up their courage to the highest pitch by
these means, they fixed their camp at the extreme borders of their
country in the way of the enemy; and sending messengers to Philip to
inform him of the critical situation in which they stood, they obliged
him to suspend the war in which he was engaged, though he had gained
possession of Jamphorina by surrender, and had succeeded in other
respects. The ardour of the Aetolians was damped, in the first
instance, by the news of the combination formed by the Acarnanians;
but afterwards the intelligence of Philip's approach compelled them
even to retreat into the interior of the country. Nor did Philip
proceed farther than Dium, though he had marched with great expedition
to prevent the Acarnanians being overpowered; and when he had received
information that the Aetolians had returned out of Acarnania, he also
returned to Pella.
26. Laevinus set sail from Corcyra in the beginning of the spring, and
doubling the promontory Leucate, arrived at Naupactus; when he gave
notice that he should go thence to Anticyra, in order that Scopas and
the Aetolians might be ready there to join him. Anticyra is situated
in Locris, on the left hand as you enter the Corinthian Gulf. The
distance between Naupactus and this place is short both by sea and
land. In about three days after, the attack upon this place commenced
on both elements. The attack from the sea produced the greatest
effect, because there were on board the ships engines and machines of
every description, and because the Romans besieged from that quarter.
In a few days, therefore, the town surrendered, and was delivered over
to the Aetolians, the booty, according to compact, was given up to the
Romans. Laevinus then received a letter informing him, that he had
been elected consul in his absence, and that Publius Sulpicius was
coming as his successor. He arrived at Rome later than he was
generally expected, being detained by a lingering illness. Marcus
Marcellus, having entered upon the consulship on the ides of March,
assembled the senate on that day merely for form's sake He declared,
that "in the absence of his colleague he would not enter into any
question relative to the state or the provinces." He said, "he well
knew there were crowds of Sicilians in the neighbourhood of the city
at the country-houses of those who maligned him, whom he was so far
from wishing to prevent from openly publishing, at Rome, the charges
which had been circulated and got up against him by his enemies, that
did they not pretend that they entertained some fear of speaking of a
consul in the absence of his colleague, he would forthwith have given
them a hearing of the senate. That when his colleague had arrived, he
would not allow any business to be transacted before the Sicilians
were brought before the senate. That Marcus Cornelius had in a manner
held a levy throughout all Sicily, in order that as many as possible
might come to Rome to prefer complaints against him, that the same
person had filled the city with letters containing false
representations that there was still war in Sicily, in order to
detract from his merit." The consul, having acquired on that day the
reputation of having a well-regulated mind, dismissed the senate, and
it appeared that there would be almost a total suspension of every
kind of business till the other consul returned to the city. The want
of employment, as usual, produced expressions of discontent among the
people. They complained of the length of the war, that the lands
around the city were devastated wherever Hannibal had marched his
hostile troops; that Italy was exhausted by levies, and that almost
every year their armies were cut to pieces, that the consuls elected
were both of them fond of war, men over-enterprising and impetuous,
who would probably stir up war in a time of profound peace, and
therefore were the less likely to allow the state to breathe in time
of war.
27. A fire which broke out in several places at once in the
neighbourhood of the forum, on the night before the festival of
Minerva, interrupted these discourses. Seven shops, where five were
afterwards erected, and the banks, which are now called the new banks,
were all on fire at once. Afterwards the private dwellings caught, for
there were no public halls there then, the prisons called the Quarry,
the fish-market, and the royal palace. The temple of Vesta was with
difficulty saved, principally by the exertions of thirteen slaves, who
were redeemed at the public expense and manumitted. The fire continued
for a day and a night. It was evident to every body that it was caused
by human contrivance, because the flames burst forth in several places
at once, and those at a distance from each other. The consul,
therefore, on the recommendation of the senate, publicly notified,
that whoever should make known by whose act the conflagration was
kindled, should rewarded, if a free-man, with money, if a slave, with
liberty. Induced by this reward, a slave of the Campanian family, the
Calavii, named Mannus, gave information that "his masters, with five
noble Campanian youths, whose parents had been executed by Fulvius,
were the authors of the fire, and that they would commit various other
acts of the same kind if they were not seized." Upon this they were
seized, as well as their slaves. At first, the informer and his
evidence were disparaged, for that "he had run away from his masters
the day before in consequence of a whipping, and that from an event
which had happened by mere chance, he had fabricated this charge, from
resentment and wantonness." But when they were charged by their
accusers face to face, and the ministers of their villanies begin to
be examined in the middle of the forum, they all confessed, and
punishment was inflicted upon the masters and their accessory slaves.
The informer received his liberty and twenty thousand _asses_.
The consul Laevinus, while passing by Capua, was surrounded by a
multitude of Campanians, who besought him, with tears, that they might
be permitted to go to Rome to the senate, so that if they could at
length be in any degree moved by compassion, they might not carry
their resentment so far as to destroy them utterly, nor suffer the
very name of the Campanian nation to be obliterated by Quintus
Flaccus. Flaccus declared, that "he had individually no quarrel with
the Campanians, but that he did entertain an enmity towards them on
public grounds and because they were foes, and should continue to do
so as long as he felt assured that they had the same feelings towards
the Roman people; for that there was no nation or people on earth more
inveterate against the Roman name. That his reason for keeping them
shut up within their walls was, that if any of these got out any where
they roamed through the country like wild beasts, tearing and
massacring whatever fell in their way. That some of them had deserted
to Hannibal, others had gone and set fire to Rome; that the consul
would find the traces of the villany of the Campanians in the
half-burnt forum. That the temple of Vesta, the eternal fire, and the
fatal pledge for the continuance of the Roman empire deposited in the
shrine, had been the objects of their attack. That in his opinion it
was extremely unsafe for any Campanians to be allowed to enter the
walls of Rome." Laevinus ordered the Campanians to follow him to Rome,
after Flaccus had bound them by an oath to return to Capua on the
fifth day after receiving an answer from the senate. Surrounded by
this crowd, and followed also by the Sicilians and Aeolians, who came
out to meet him, he went to Rome; taking with him into the city as
accusers of two men who had acquired the greatest celebrity by the
overthrow of two most renowned cities, those whom they had vanquished
in war. Both the consuls, however, first proposed to the senate the
consideration of the state of the commonwealth, and the arrangements
respecting the provinces.
28. On this occasion Laevinus reported the state of Macedonia and
Greece, of the Aetolians, Acarnanians, and Locrians, and the services
he had himself performed there on sea and land. That "Philip, who was
bringing an army against the Aetolians, had been driven back by him
into Macedonia, and compelled to retire into the heart of his kingdom.
That the legion might therefore be withdrawn from that quarter, and
that the fleet was sufficient to keep the king out of Italy." Thus
much he said respecting himself and the province where he had
commanded. The consuls jointly proposed the consideration of the
provinces, when the senate decreed, that, "Italy and the war with
Hannibal should form the province of one of the consuls; that the
other should have the command of the fleet which Titus Otacilius had
commanded, and the province of Sicily, in conjunction with Lucius
Cincius, the praetor." The two armies decreed to them were those in
Etruria and Gaul, consisting of four legions. That the two city
legions of the former year should be sent into Etruria and the two
which Sulpicius, the consul, had commanded, into Gaul; that he should
have the command of Gaul, and the legions there whom the consul, who
had the province of Italy, should appoint. Caius Calpurnius, having
his command continued to him for a year after the expiration of his
praetorship, was sent into Etruria. To Quintus Fulvius also the
province of Capua was decreed, with his command continued for a year.
The army of citizens and allies was ordered to be reduced, so that,
out of two, one legion should be formed consisting of five thousand
foot and three hundred horse, those being discharged who had served
the greatest number of campaigns. That of the allies there should be
left seven thousand infantry and three hundred horse, the same rule
being observed with regard to the periods of their service in
discharging the old soldiers. With Cneius Fulvius, the consul of the
former year, no change was made touching his province of Apulia nor
his army; only he was continued in command for a year. Publius
Sulpicius, his colleague, was ordered to discharge the whole of his
army excepting the marines. It was ordered also, that the army which
Marcus Cornelius had commanded, should be sent out of Sicily as soon
as the consul arrived in his province. The soldiers which had fought
at Cannae, amounting to two legions, were assigned to Lucius Cincius,
the praetor, for the occupation of Sicily. As many legions were
assigned to Publius Manlius Vulso, the praetor, for Sardinia, being
those which Lucius Cornelius had commanded in that province the former
year. The consuls were directed so to raise legions for the service of
the city, as not to enlist any one who had served in the armies of
Marcus Claudius, Marcus Valerius, or Quintus Fulvius, so that the
Roman legions might not exceed twenty-one that year.
29. After the senate had passed these decrees, the consuls drew lots
for their provinces. Sicily and the fleet fell to the lot of
Marcellus; Italy, with the war against Hannibal, to Laevinus. This
result so terrified the Sicilians, who were standing in sight of the
consuls waiting the determination of the lots, that their bitter
lamentations and mournful cries both drew upon them the eyes of all at
the time, and afterwards furnished matter for conversation. For they
went round to the several senators in mourning garments, affirming,
that "they would not only abandon, each of them, his native country,
but all Sicily, if Marcellus should again go thither with command.
That he had formerly been implacable toward them for no demerit of
theirs, what would he do now, when exasperated that they had come to
Rome to complain of him? That it would be better for that island to be
overwhelmed with the fires of Aetna, or sunk in the sea, than to be
delivered up, as it were, for execution to an enemy." These complaints
of the Sicilians, having been carried round to the houses of the
nobility, and frequently canvassed in conversations, which were
prompted partly by compassion for the Sicilians and partly by dislike
for Marcellus, at length reached the senate also. The consuls were
requested to take the sense of the senate on an exchange of provinces.
Marcellus said, that "if the Sicilians had already had an audience of
the senate, his opinion perhaps might have been different, but as the
case now stood, lest any one should be able to say that they were
prevented by fear from freely venting their complaints respecting him,
to whose power they were presently about to be subject, he was
willing, if it made no difference to his colleague, to exchange
provinces with him. That he deprecated a premature decision on the
part of the senate, for since it would be unjust that his colleague
should have the power of selecting his province without drawing lots,
how much greater injustice would it be, nay, rather indignity, for his
lot to be transferred to him." Accordingly the senate, having rather
shown than decreed what they wished, adjourned. An exchange of
provinces was made by the consuls of themselves, fate hurrying on
Marcellus to encounter Hannibal, that he might be the last of the
Roman generals, who, by his fall, when the affairs of the war were
most prosperous, might add to the glory of that man, from whom he
derived the reputation of having been the first Roman general who
defeated him.
30. After the provinces had been exchanged, the Sicilians, on being
introduced into the senate, discoursed largely on the constant
fidelity of king Hiero to the Roman people, converting it into a
public merit. They said, "that the tyrants, Hieronymus, and, after
him, Hippocrates and Epicydes, had been objects of detestation to
them, both on other accounts and especially on account of then
deserting the Romans to take part with Hannibal. For this cause
Hieronymus was put to death by the principal young men among them,
almost with the public concurrence, and a conspiracy was formed to
murder Epicydes and Hippocrates, by seventy of the most distinguished
of their youth; but being left without support in consequence of the
delay of Marcellus, who neglected to bring up his troops to Syracuse
at the time agreed upon, they were all, on an indictment that was
made, put to death by the tyrants. That Marcellus, by the cruelty
exercised in the sacking of Leontini, had given occasion to the
tyranny of Hippocrates and Epicydes. From that time the leading men
among the Syracusans never ceased going over to Marcellus, and
promising him that they would deliver the city to him whenever he
pleased; but that he, in the first instance, was disposed rather to
take it by force, and afterwards, finding it impossible to effect his
object by sea or land, after trying every means, he preferred having
Syracuse delivered to him by Sosis, a brazier, and Mericus, a
Spaniard, to receiving it from the principal men of Syracuse, who had
so often offered it to him voluntarily to no purpose; doubtless in
order that he might with a fairer pretext butcher and plunder the most
ancient allies of the Roman people. If it had not been Hieronymus who
revolted to Hannibal, but the people and senate of Syracuse; if the
body of the Syracusan people, and not their tyrants, Hippocrates and
Epicydes, who held them in thraldom, had closed the gates against
Marcellus; if they had carried on war with the Roman people with the
animosity of Carthaginians, what more could Marcellus have done in
hostility than he did, without levelling Syracuse with the ground?
Nothing indeed was left at Syracuse except the walls and gutted houses
of her city, the temples of her gods broken open and plundered; her
very gods and their ornaments having been carried away. From many
their possessions also were taken away, so that they were unable to
support themselves and their families, even from the naked soil, the
only remains of their plundered property. They entreated the conscript
fathers, that they would order, if not all, at least such of their
property as could be found and identified, to be restored to the
owners." After they had made these complaints, Laevinus ordered them
to withdraw from the senate-house, that the senate might deliberate on
their requests, when Marcellus exclaimed, "Nay, rather let them stay
here, that I may reply to their charges in their presence, since we
conduct your wars for you, conscript fathers, on the condition of
having as our accusers those whom we have conquered with our arms. Of
the two cities which have been captured this year, let Capua arraign
Fulvius, and Syracuse Marcellus."
31. The deputies having been brought back into the senate-house, the
consul said: "I am not so unmindful of the dignity of the Roman people
and of the office I fill as consul, conscript fathers, as to make a
defence against charges brought by Greeks, had the inquiry related
only to my own delinquency. But it is not so much what I have done, as
what they deserved to suffer, which comes into dispute. For if they
were not our enemies, there was no difference between sacking Syracuse
then, and when Hiero was alive. But if, on the other hand, they have
renounced their connexion with us, attacked our ambassadors sword in
hand, shut us out of their city and walls, and defended themselves
against us with an army of Carthaginians, who can feel indignant that
they should suffer the hostilities they have offered? I turned away
from the leading men of the Syracusans, when they were desirous of
delivering up the city to me, and esteemed Sosis and Mericus as more
proper persons for so important an affair. Now you are not the meanest
of the Syracusans, who reproach others with the meanness of their
condition. But who is there among you, who has promised that he would
open the gates to me, and receive my armed troops within the city? You
hate and execrate those who did so; and not even here can you abstain
from speaking with insult of them; so far is it from being the case
that you would yourselves have done any thing of the kind. The very
meanness of the condition of those persons, conscript fathers, with
which these men reproach them, forms the strongest proof that I did
not turn away from any man who was willing to render a service to our
state. Before I began the siege of Syracuse I attempted a peace, at
one time by sending ambassadors, at another time by going to confer
with them; and after that they refrained not from laying violent hands
on my ambassadors, nor would give me an answer when I held an
interview with their chief men at their gates, then, at length, after
suffering many hardships by sea and land, I took Syracuse by force of
arms. Of what befell them after their city was captured they would
complain with more justice to Hannibal, the Carthaginians, and those
who were vanquished with them, than to the senate of the victorious
people. If, conscript fathers, I had intended to conceal the fact that
I had despoiled Syracuse, I should never have decorated the city of
Rome with her spoils. As to what things I either took from individuals
or bestowed upon them, as conqueror, I feel assured that I have acted
agreeably to the laws of war, and the deserts of each. That you should
confirm what I have done, conscript fathers, certainly concerns the
commonwealth more than myself, since I have discharged my duty
faithfully; but it is the duty of the state to take care, lest, by
rescinding my acts, they should render other commanders for the time
to come less zealous. And since, conscript fathers, you have heard
both what the Sicilians and I had to say, in the presence of each
other, we will go out of the senate-house together, in order that in
my absence the senate may deliberate more freely." Accordingly, the
Sicilians having been dismissed, he himself also went away to the
Capitol to levy soldiers.
32. The other consul then proposed to the fathers the consideration of
the requests of the Sicilians, when a long debate took place. A great
part of the senate acquiesced in an opinion which originated with
Titus Manlius Torquatus, "that the war ought to have been carried on
against the tyrants, the enemies both of the Syracusans and the Roman
people; that the city ought to have been recovered, not captured; and,
when recovered, should have been firmly established under its ancient
laws and liberty, and not distressed by war, when worn out with a
wretched state of bondage. That in the contest between the tyrants and
the Roman general, that most beautiful and celebrated city, formerly
the granary and treasury of the Roman people, which was held up as the
reward of the victor, had been destroyed; a city by whose munificence
and bounty the commonwealth had been assisted and adorned on many
occasions, and lastly, during this very Punic war. Should king Hiero,
that most faithful friend of the Roman empire, rise from the shades,
with what face could either Syracuse or Rome be shown to him, when,
after beholding his half-demolished and plundered native city, he
should see, on entering Rome, the spoils of his country in the
vestibule, as it were, of the city, and almost in the very gates?"
Although these and other similar things were said, to throw odium upon
the consul and excite compassion for the Sicilians, yet the fathers,
out of regard for Marcellus, passed a milder decree, to the effect,
"that what Marcellus had done while prosecuting the war, and when
victorious, should be confirmed. That for the time to come, the senate
would look to the affairs of Syracuse, and would give it in charge to
the consul Laevinus, to consult the interest of that state, so far as
it could be done without detriment to the commonwealth." Two senators
having been sent to the Capitol to request the consul to return to the
senate-house, and the Sicilians having been called in, the decree of
the senate was read. The deputies were addressed in terms of kindness,
and dismissed, when they threw themselves at the knees of the consul,
Marcellus, beseeching him to pardon them for what they had said for
the purpose of exciting compassion, and procuring relief from their
calamities, and to receive themselves and the city of Syracuse under
his protection and patronage; after which, the consul addressed them
kindly and dismissed them.