The History of Rome; Books Nine to Twenty Six - Titus Livius
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42. Fabius, successful in a war allotted to another, led back his army
into his own province. And as, in the preceding year, the people had,
in consideration of his services so successfully performed, re-elected
him to the consulship, so now the senate, from the same motive,
notwithstanding a warm opposition made by Appius, prolonged his
command for the year following, in which Appius Claudius and Lucius
Volumnius were consuls. In some annals I find, that Appius, still
holding the office of censor, declared himself a candidate for the
consulship, and that his election was stopped by a protest of Lucius
Furius, plebeian tribune, until he resigned the censorship. After his
election to the consulship, the new war with the Sallentine enemies
being decreed to his colleague, he remained at Rome, with design to
increase his interest by city intrigues, since the means of procuring
honour in war were placed in the hands of others. Volumnius had no
reason to be dissatisfied with his province: he fought many battles
with good success, and took several cities by assault. He was liberal
in his donations of the spoil; and this munificence, engaging in
itself, he enhanced by his courteous demeanour, by which conduct he
inspired his soldiers with ardour to meet both toil and danger.
Quintus Fabius, proconsul, fought a pitched battle with the armies of
the Samnites, near the city of Allifae. The victory was complete. The
enemy were driven from the field, and pursued to their camp; nor would
they have kept possession of that, had not the day been almost spent.
It was invested, however, before night, and guarded until day, lest
any should slip away. Next morning, while it was scarcely clear day,
they proposed to capitulate, and it was agreed, that such as were
natives of Samnium should be dismissed with single garments. All these
were sent under the yoke. No precaution was taken in favour of the
allies of the Samnites: they were sold by auction, to the number of
seven thousand. Those who declared themselves subjects of the
Hernicians, were kept by themselves under a guard. All these Fabius
sent to Rome to the senate; and, after being examined, whether it was
in consequence of a public order, or as volunteers, that they had
carried arms on the side of the Samnites against the Romans, they were
distributed among the states of the Latins to be held in custody; and
it was ordered, that the new consuls, Publius Cornelius Arvina and
Quintus Marcius Tremulus, who by this time had been elected, should
lay that affair entire before the senate: this gave such offence to
the Hernicians, that, at a meeting of all the states, assembled by the
Anagnians, in the circus called the Maritime, the whole nation of the
Hernicians, excepting the Alatrians, Ferentines, and Verulans,
declared war against the Roman people.
43. In Samnium also, in consequence of the departure of Fabius, new
commotions arose. Calatia and Sora, and the Roman garrisons stationed
there, were taken, and extreme cruelty was exercised towards the
captive soldiers: Publius Cornelius was therefore sent thither with an
army. The command against the new enemy (for by this time an order had
passed for declaring war against the Anagnians, and the rest of the
Hernicians) was decreed to Marcius. These, in the beginning, secured
all the passes between the camps of the consuls, in such a manner,
that no messenger, however expert, could make his way from one to the
other; and each consul spent several days in absolute uncertainty
regarding every matter and in anxious suspense concerning the state of
the other. Apprehensions for their safety spread even to Rome; so that
all the younger citizens were compelled to enlist and two regular
armies were raised, to answer sudden emergencies. The conduct of the
Hernicians during the progress of the war afterwards, showed nothing
suitable to the present alarm, or to the ancient renown of that
nation. Without ever venturing any effort worth mentioning, being
stripped of three different camps within a few days, they stipulated
for a truce of thirty days, during which they might send to Rome, to
the senate, on the terms of furnishing two months' pay, and corn, and
a tunic to every soldier. They were referred back to Marcius by the
senate, whom by a decree they empowered to determine regarding the
Hernicians, and he accepted their submission. Meanwhile, in Samnium,
the other consul, though superior in strength, was very much
embarrassed by the nature of his situation; the enemy had blocked up
all the roads, and seized on the passable defiles, so that no
provisions could be conveyed; nor could the consul, though he daily
drew out his troops and offered battle, allure them to an engagement.
It was evident, that neither could the Samnites support an immediate
contest, nor the Romans a delay of action. The approach of Marcius,
who, after he had subdued the Hernicians, hastened to the succour of
his colleague, put it out of the enemy's power any longer to avoid
fighting: for they, who had not deemed themselves a match in the
field, even for one of the armies, could not surely suppose that if
they should allow the two consular armies to unite, they could have
any hope remaining: they made an attack therefore on Marcius, as he
was approaching in the irregular order of march. The baggage was
hastily thrown together in the centre, and the line formed as well as
the time permitted. First the shout which reached the standing camp of
Cornelius, then the dust observed at a distance, excited a bustle in
the camp of the other consul. Ordering his men instantly to take arms,
and leading them out to the field with the utmost haste, he charged
the flank of the enemy's line, which had enough to do in the other
dispute, at the same time exclaiming, that "it would be the height of
infamy if they suffered Marcius's army to monopolize the honour of
both victories, and did not assert their claim to the glory of their
own war." He bore down all before him, and pushed forward, through the
midst of the enemy's line, to their camp, which, being left without a
guard, he took and set on fire; which when the soldiers of Marcius saw
in flames, and the enemy observed it on looking about, a general
flight immediately took place among the Samnites. But they could not
effect an escape in any direction; in every quarter they met death.
After a slaughter of thirty thousand men, the consuls had now given
the signal for retreat; and were collecting, into one body, their
several forces, who were employed in mutual congratulations, when some
new cohorts of the enemy, which had been levied for a reinforcement,
being seen at a distance, occasioned a renewal of the carnage. On
these the conquerors rushed, without any order of the consuls, or
signal received, crying out, that they would make these Samnites pay
dearly for their introduction to service. The consuls indulged the
ardour of the legions, well knowing that the raw troops of the enemy,
mixed with veterans dispirited by defeat, would be incapable even of
attempting a contest. Nor were they wrong in their judgment: all the
forces of the Samnites, old and new, fled to the nearest mountains.
These the Roman army also ascended, so that no situation afforded
safety to the vanquished; they were beaten off, even from the summits
which they had seized. And now they all, with on voice, supplicated
for a suspension of arms. On which, being ordered to furnish corn for
three months, pay for a year, and a tunic to each of the soldiers,
they sent deputies to the senate to sue for peace. Cornelius was left
in Samnium. Marcius returned into the city, in triumph over the
Hernicians; and a decree was passed for erecting to him, in the forum,
an equestrian statue, which was placed before the temple of Castor. To
three states of the Hernicians, (the Alatrians, Verulans, and
Ferentines,) their own laws were restored, because they preferred
these to the being made citizens of Rome; and they were permitted to
intermarry with each other, a privilege which they alone of the
Hernicians, for a long time after, enjoyed. To the Anagnians, and the
others, who had made war on the Romans, was granted the freedom of the
state, without the right of voting; public assemblies, and
intermarriages, were not allowed them, and their magistrates were
prohibited from acting except in the ministration of public worship.
During this year, Caius Junius Bubulcus, censor, contracted for the
building of a temple to Health, which he had vowed during his
consulate in the war with the Samnites. By the same person, and his
colleague, Marcus Valerius Maximus, roads were made through the fields
at the public expense. During the same year the treaty with the
Carthaginians was renewed a third time, and ample presents made to
their ambassadors who came on that business.
44. This year had a dictator in office, Publius Cornelius Scipio, with
Publius Decius Mus, master of the horse. By these the election of
consuls was held, being the purpose for which they had been created,
because neither of the consuls could be absent from the armies. The
consuls elected were Lucius Postumius and Titus Minucius; whom Piso
places next after Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius, omitting the two
years in which I have set down Claudius with Volumnius, and Cornelius
with Marcius, as consuls. Whether this happened through a lapse of
memory in digesting his annals, or whether he purposely passed over
those two consulates as deeming the accounts of them false, cannot be
ascertained. During this year the Samnites made incursions into the
district of Stellae in the Campanian territory. Both the consuls were
therefore sent into Samnium, and proceeded to different regions,
Postumius to Tifernum, Minucius to Bovianum. The first engagement
happened at Tifernum, under the command of Postumius. Some say, that
the Samnites were completely defeated, and twenty thousand of them
made prisoners. Others, that the army separated without victory on
either side; and that Postumius, counterfeiting fear, withdrew his
forces privately by night, and marched away to the mountains; whither
the enemy also followed, and took possession of a stronghold two miles
distant. The consul, having created a belief that he had come thither
for the sake of a safe post, and a fruitful spot, (and such it really
was,) secured his camp with strong works. Furnishing it with magazines
of every thing useful, he left a strong guard to defend it; and at the
third watch, led away the legions lightly accoutred, by the shortest
road which he could take, to join his colleague, who lay opposite to
his foe. There, by advice of Postumius, Minucius came to an engagement
with the enemy; and when the fight had continued doubtful through a
great part of the day, Postumius, with his fresh legions, made an
unexpected attack on the enemy's line, spent by this time with
fatigue: thus, weariness and wounds having rendered them incapable
even of flying, they were cut off to a man, and twenty-one standards
taken. The Romans then proceeded to Postumius's station, where the two
victorious armies falling upon the enemy, already dismayed by the news
of what had passed, routed and dispersed them: twenty-six military
standards were taken here, and the Samnite general, Statius Gellius,
with a great number of other prisoners, and both the camps were taken.
Next day Bovianum was besieged, and soon after taken. Both the consuls
were honoured with a triumph, with high applause of their excellent
conduct. Some writers say, that the consul Minucius was brought back
to the camp grievously wounded, and that he died there; that Marcus
Fulvius was substituted consul in his place, and that it was he who,
being sent to command Minucius's army, took Bovianum. During the same
year, Sora, Arpinum, and Censennia were recovered from the Samnites.
The great statue of Hercules was erected in the Capitol, and
dedicated.
45. In the succeeding consulate of Publius Sulpicius Saverrio and
Publius Sempronius Sophus, the Samnites, desirous either of a
termination or a suspension of hostilities, sent ambassadors to Rome
to treat of peace; to whose submissive solicitations this answer was
returned, that, "had not the Samnites frequently solicited peace, at
times when they were actually preparing for war, their present
application might, perhaps, in the course of negotiating, have
produced the desired effect. But now, since words had hitherto proved
vain, people's conduct must be guided by facts: that Publius
Sempronius the consul would shortly be in Samnium with an army: that
he could not be deceived in judging whether their dispositions
inclined to peace or war. He would bring the senate certain
information respecting every particular, and their ambassadors might
follow the consul on his return from Samnium." When the Roman army
accordingly marched through all parts of Samnium, which was in a state
of peace, provisions being liberally supplied, a renewal of the old
treaty was, this year, granted to the Samnites. The Roman arms were
then turned against the Aequans, their old enemies, but who had, for
many years past, remained quiet, under the guise of a treacherous
peace, because, while the Hernicians were in a state of prosperity,
these had, in conjunction with them, frequently sent aid to the
Samnites; and after the Hernicians were subdued, almost the whole
nation, without dissembling that they acted by public authority, had
revolted to the enemy; and when, after the conclusion of the treaty
with the Samnites at Rome, ambassadors were sent to demand
satisfaction, they said, that "this was only a trial made of them, on
the expectation that they would through fear suffer themselves to be
made Roman citizens. But how much that condition was to be wished for,
they had been taught by the Hernicians; who, when they had the option,
preferred their own laws to the freedom of the Roman state. To people
who wished for liberty to choose what they judged preferable, the
necessity of becoming Roman citizens would have the nature of a
punishment." In resentment of these declarations, uttered publicly in
their assemblies, the Roman people ordered war to be made on the
Aequans; and, in prosecution of this new undertaking, both the consuls
marched from the city, and sat down at the distance of four miles from
the camp of the enemy. The troops of the Aequans, like tumultuary
recruits, in consequence of their having passed such a number of years
without waging war on their own account, were all in disorder and
confusion, without established officers and without command. Some
advised to give battle, others to defend the camp; the greater part
were influenced by concern for the devastation of their lands, likely
to take place, and the consequent destruction of their cities, left
with weak garrisons. Among a variety of propositions, one, however,
was heard which, abandoning all concern for the public interest,
tended to transfer every man's attention to the care of his private
concerns. It recommended that, at the first watch, they should depart
from the camp by different roads, so as to carry all their effects
into the cities, and to secure them by the strength of the
fortifications; this they all approved with universal assent. When the
enemy were now dispersed through the country, the Romans, at the first
dawn, marched out to the field, and drew up in order of battle; but no
one coming to oppose them, they advanced in a brisk pace to the
enemy's camp. But when they perceived neither guards before the gates,
nor soldiers on the ramparts, nor the usual bustle of a
camp,--surprised at the extraordinary silence, they halted in
apprehension of some stratagem. At length, passing over the rampart,
and finding the whole deserted, they proceeded to search out the
tracks of the enemy. But these, as they scattered themselves to every
quarter, occasioned perplexity at first. Afterwards discovering their
design by means of scouts, they attacked their cities, one after
another, and within the space of fifty days took, entirely by force,
forty-one towns, most of which were razed and burnt, and the race of
the Aequans almost extirpated. A triumph was granted over the Aequans.
The Marrucinians, Marsians, Pelignians, and Ferentans, warned by the
example of their disasters, sent deputies to Rome to solicit peace and
friendship; and these states, on their submissive applications, were
admitted into alliance.
46. In the same year, Cneius Flavius, son of Cneius, grandson of a
freed man, a notary, in low circumstances originally, but artful and
eloquent, was appointed curule aedile. I find in some annals, that,
being in attendance on the aediles, and seeing that he was voted
aedile by the prerogative tribe, but that his name would not be
received, because he acted as a notary, he threw down his tablet, and
took an oath, that he would not, for the future, follow that business.
But Licinius Macer contends, that he had dropped the employment of
notary a considerable time before, having already been a tribune, and
twice a triumvir, once for regulating the nightly watch, and another
time for conducting a colony. However, of this there is no dispute,
that against the nobles, who threw contempt on the meanness of his
condition, he contended with much firmness. He made public the rules
of proceeding in judicial causes, hitherto shut up in the closets of
the pontiffs; and hung up to public view, round the forum, the
calendar on white tablets, that all might know when business could be
transacted in the courts. To the great displeasure of the nobles, he
performed the dedication of the temple of Concord, in the area of
Vulcan's temple; and the chief pontiff, Cornelius Barbatus, was
compelled by the united instances of the people, to dictate to him the
form of words, although he affirmed, that, consistently with the
practice of antiquity, no other than a consul, or commander-in-chief,
could dedicate a temple. This occasioned a law to be proposed to the
people, by direction of the senate, that no person should dedicate a
temple, or an altar, without an order from the senate, or from a
majority of the plebeian tribunes. The incident which I am about to
mention would be trivial in itself, were it not an instance of the
freedom assumed by plebeians in opposition to the pride of the nobles.
When Flavius had come to make a visit to his colleague, who was sick,
and when, by an arrangement between some young nobles who were sitting
there, they did not rise on his entrance, he ordered his curule chair
to be brought thither, and from his honourable seat of office enjoyed
the sight of his enemies tortured with envy. However, a low faction,
which had gathered strength during the censorship of Appius Claudius,
had made Flavius an aedile; for he was the first who degraded the
senate, by electing into it the immediate descendants of freed men;
and when no one allowed that election as valid, and when he had not
acquired in the senate-house that influence in the city which he had
been aiming at, by distributing men of the meanest order among all the
several tribes, he thus corrupted the assemblies both of the forum and
of the field of Mars; and so much indignation did the election of
Flavius excite, that most of the nobles laid aside their gold rings
and bracelets in consequence of it. From that time the state was split
into two parties. The uncorrupted part of the people, who favoured and
supported the good, held one side; the faction of the rabble, the
other; until Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius were made censors; and
Fabius, both for the sake of concord, and at the same time to prevent
the elections remaining in the hands of the lowest of the people,
purged the rest of the tribes of all the rabble of the forum, and
threw it into four, and called them city tribes. And this procedure,
we are told, gave such universal satisfaction, that, by this
regulation in the orders of the state, he obtained the surname of
Maximus, which he had not obtained by his many victories. The annual
review of the knights, on the ides of July, is also said to have been
instituted by him.
BOOK X.
_Submission of the Marcians accepted. The college of Augurs
augmented from four to nine. The law of appeal to the people carried
by Valerius the consul. Two more tribes added. War declared against
the Samnites. Several successful actions. In an engagement against the
combined forces of the Etruscans, Umbrians, Samnites, and Gauls,
Publius Decius, after the example of his father, devotes himself for
the army. Dies, and, by his death, procures the victory to the Romans.
Defeat of the Samnites by Papirius Cursor. The census held. The
lustrum closed. The number of the citizens two hundred and sixty-two
thousand three hundred and twenty-two._
* * * * *
1. During the consulate of Lucius Genucius and Servius Cornelius, the
state enjoyed almost uninterrupted rest from foreign wars. Colonies
were led out to Sora and Alba. For the latter, situated in the country
of the Aequans, six thousand colonists were enrolled. Sora had
formerly belonged to the Volscian territory, but had fallen into the
possession of the Samnites: thither were sent four thousand settlers.
This year the freedom of the state was granted to the Arpinians and
Trebulans. The Frusinonians were fined a third part of their lands,
because it was discovered that the Hernicians had been tampered with
by them; and the heads of that conspiracy, after a trial before the
consuls, held in pursuance of a decree of the senate, were beaten with
rods and beheaded. However, that the Romans might not pass the year
entirely exempt from war, a little expedition was made into Umbria;
intelligence being received from thence, that excursions of men, in
arms, had been made, from a certain cave, into the adjacent country.
Into this cave the troops penetrated with their standards, and, the
place being dark, they received many wounds, chiefly from stones
thrown. At length the other mouth of the cave being found, for it was
pervious, both the openings were filled up with wood, which being set
on fire, there perished by means of the smoke and heat, no less than
two thousand men; many of whom, at the last, in attempting to make
their way out, rushed into the very flames. The two Marci, Livius
Denter and Aemilius, succeeding to the consulship, war was renewed
with the Aequans; who, being highly displeased at the colony
established within their territory, as if it were a fortress, having
made an attempt, with their whole force, to seize it, were repulsed by
the colonists themselves. They caused, however, such an alarm at Rome,
that, to quell this insurrection, Caius Junius Bubulcus was nominated
dictator: for it was scarcely credible that the Aequans, after being
reduced to such a degree of weakness, should by themselves alone have
ventured to engage in a war. The dictator, taking the field, with
Marcus Titinius, master of the horse, in the first engagement reduced
the Aequans to submission; and returning into the city in triumph, on
the eighth day, dedicated, in the character of dictator, the temple of
Health, which he had vowed when consul, and contracted for when
censor.
2. During this year a fleet of Grecians, under the command of
Cleonymus, a Lacedaemonian, arrived on the coast of Italy, and took
Thuriae, a city in the territory of the Sallentines. Against this
enemy the consul Aemilius was sent, who, in one battle, completely
defeated them, and drove them on board their ships. Thuriae was then
restored to its old inhabitants, and peace re-established in the
country of the Sallentines. In some annals, I find that Junius
Bubulcus was sent dictator into that country, and that Cleonymus,
without hazarding an engagement with the Romans, retired out of Italy.
He then sailed round the promontory of Brundusium, and, steering down
the middle of the Adriatic gulf, because he dreaded, on the left hand,
the coasts of Italy destitute of harbours, and, on the right, the
Illyrians, Liburnians, and Istrians, nations of savages, and noted in
general for piracy, he passed on to the coasts of the Venetians. Here,
having landed a small party to explore the country, and being informed
that a narrow beach stretched along the shore, beyond which were
marshes, overflowed by the tides; that dry land was seen at no great
distance, level in the nearest part, and rising behind into hills,
beyond which was the mouth of a very deep river, into which they had
seen ships brought round and moored in safety, (this was the river
Meduacus,) he ordered his fleet to sail into it and go up against the
stream. As the channel would not admit the heavy ships, the troops,
removing into the lighter vessels, arrived at a part of the country
occupied by three maritime cantons of the Patavians, settled on that
coast. Here they made a descent, leaving a small guard with the ships,
made themselves masters of these cantons, set fire to the houses,
drove off a considerable booty of men and cattle, and, allured by the
sweets of plunder, proceeded still further from the shore. When news
of this was brought to Patavium, where the contiguity of the Gauls
kept the inhabitants constantly in arms, they divided their young men
into two bands, one of which was led towards the quarter where the
marauders were said to be busy; the other by a different route, to
avoid meeting any of the pirates, towards the station of the ships,
fifteen miles distant from the town. An attack was made on the small
craft, and the guards being killed, the affrighted mariners were
obliged to remove their ships to the other bank of the river. By land,
also, the attack on the dispersed plunderers was equally successful;
and the Grecians, flying back towards their ships, were opposed in
their way by the Venetians. Thus they were enclosed on both sides, and
cut to pieces; and some, who were made prisoners, gave information
that the fleet, with their king, Cleonymus, was but three miles
distant. Sending the captives into the nearest canton, to be kept
under a guard, some soldiers got on board the flat-bottomed vessels,
so constructed for the purpose of passing the shoals with ease; others
embarked in those which had been lately taken from the enemy, and
proceeding down the river, surrounded their unwieldy ships, which
dreaded the unknown sands and flats more than they did the Romans, and
which showed a greater eagerness to escape into the deep than to make
resistance. The soldiers pursued them as far as the mouth of the
river; and having taken and burned a part of the fleet, which in the
hurry and confusion had been stranded, returned victorious. Cleonymus,
having met success in no part of the Adriatic sea, departed with
scarce a fifth part of his navy remaining. Many, now alive, have seen
the beaks of his ships, and the spoils of the Lacedaemonians, hanging
in the old temple of Juno. In commemoration of this event, there is
exhibited at Patavium, every year, on its anniversary day, a naval
combat on the river in the middle of the town.